Free Republic

It's time once again to take a look at happenings down under. Restaurants are closing en masse rather than pay double time and a half to stay open on holidays. Please consider Penalties blamed for taking high-end dining off menu. The annual survey of the 7500- member Restaurant and Catering Australia reveals a 33 per cent jump since 2011 in the numbers of restaurateurs saying they cannot afford to open on public holidays. Public holiday penalty rates require employers to pay double time and a half, equating to pay rates of at least $40 an hour. Robert Marchetti, executive chef...

Leftist, liberal, and progressive men are ushering in the greatest pansi-fication and weakening of our nation in the modern era. Awkwardly refusing leadership in times of real crisis, the men of the left, are allowing women and children to literally be the mouthpiece and driving force behind the cause. They do so dishonestly, disingenuously, and they do so without discernment. In recent days the president hid behind the letters of four children that he claimed, "were really smart" to help shape his approach to reforms he claimed constitutional authority over, to implement in response to recent shootings. (Not ever having...

– A former South Florida Catholic priest who pled no contest earlier this month to multiple underage sex abuse charges has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. During Neil Doherty’s sentencing hearing Monday morning, the judge ordered that time he’s already spent in jail be credited to his sentence. With that time taken into account, Doherty will spend a little more than 12 years in prison.

Farrakhan: Right To Bear Arms An Outdated Concept January 28, 2013 10:37 AM Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan released a sermon ridiculing The Second Amendment in modern society, and Americans’ distaste for their government. WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – In the third installment of his 52-week sermon series, Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan, ridiculed the “volatile” American right to own weapons. On Sunday, Farrakhan continued “The Time and What Must Be Done” sermon series by stating that Americans are increasingly angry at the government, and are simultaneously preparing themselves for war. Farrakhan went on to say that the...

Army National Guard Maj. Shawn Fulker is thousands of miles away serving in Afghanistan, and when his wife's birthday came around, he decided he wanted to do something very special. Josephine Fulker loves Mellow Mushroom pizza,so her husband emailed Mellow Mushroom's corporate website on Thursday to ask whether one of the company's Jacksonville stores could deliver a pizza and a $50 gift card to his wife at their Jacksonville, Fla., home.If they could, he said, he would call the store and pay for it with his credit card. Mellow Mushroom did one better. Unbeknownst to Shawn Fulker,a local Mellow Mushroom...

Two Houston police officers are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole after allegations they accepted $2,000 in bribes to protect a stash of cocaine being smuggled through the city

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - The most awaited piece of data for today surprised investors negatively, as Consumer Confidence in the US fell from 65.1 to 58.6 in January. Actual data came in much lower than the 64.0 expected.

It’s no secret that San Francisco hasn’t invested much money in bicycling improvements — almost nothing until the past couple of years. But even those relatively small investments have led to a surge in the number of commuters riding their bikes in San Francisco. Over the past decade the number of trips being taken by bicycle have increased by 71 percent. Now, bike advocates — and the Municipal Transportation Agency — would like to see what happens if they put some real money — perhaps as much as half a billion over the next five years — behind biking.

There are periodicals that can help you navigate the stock market. Some are traditional like the Wall Street Journal, and some are anecdotal like Car & Driver. But these days an even wider breadth of names can either help you with the market or at least buy into the notion the stock market rally is legitimate. Take for instance Travel & Leisure magazine. In the current issue there's an article on great hotels in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Baku is yet another city in the world that few Americans (including myself) have ever heard of, yet it's an amazing...

The ghastly murders in Newtown, Conn., reflect the horrify prevalence of suicide here and across the globe. Before we turn up the volume on the Second Amendment. Before we trot out data proving that more guns lead to more violence — or don't. Before we re-live every senseless mass murder and make children afraid to step into a movie theater, school or mall. Before all of this and worse — experts would be wise to examine a phenomena that has been the impetus behind so many recent attacks on innocent civilians: Long before the perpetrators reached for a weapon, they...

Gary Shilling Expects Great Disconnect to Cause Stock Market Crash 2013 Stock-Markets / Financial CrashJanuary 28, 2013 - 06:20 PM By: DailyWealth Steve Sjuggerud writes: Gary Shilling might have the best track record of any investor over the last 30 years... If you had invested $100,000 in Shilling's "big idea" 30 years ago, it would be worth over $6 million today. While most investors didn't pay attention to his big idea, Shilling was right. And he never gave up on his big idea. Here in 2013, Shilling has some new big ideas... and some bold predictions... particularly about what he...

On skeet shooting, put up or shut up, Barry That's the challenge from Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn who offered to go to Camp David and have a shoot off with the president. "If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn't he referenced this at any point in time?" Blackburn said Monday on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "I tell you what I do think," she later added. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I'll beat...

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the only Republican still left in President Barack Obama's first-term Cabinet, says he plans to leave the Obama administration. The former congressman from Illinois says in an interview with The Associated Press that he intends to remain at the department until his successor is confirmed.

Researchers say they may have the final clues needed to solve the mystery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which never resurfaced after it became the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship, taking its eight-man crew to a watery grave.

Prime Minister Medvedev says Syrian president's chances of keeping power are getting "smaller and smaller" as war rages Russia's prime minister has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had made a "grave," and possibly "fatal" mistake by delaying political reforms and not speaking to members of the country's oppositon sooner. "[Assad] should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side," Dmitry Medvedev said according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by his office on Sunday. "This was his grave mistake, and possibly...

When the Journal News published a map showing the location of all households in their corner of New York, gun-rights activists vehemently criticized the decision as irresponsible, one that put the entire community in danger. As it turns out, they underestimated just how irresponsible the Journal News decision was. The map wildly overstated the number of active gun permits, and it turns out the newspaper didn’t bother to verify any of their information (via Instapundit): "The newspaper map of one New York county’s pistol permits was riddled with problems, thanks to inaccurate data in official records, acknowledges the paper that...

Much to the horror of various interest groups, it appears that there will be a “sequester” on March 1. This means an automatic reduction in spending authority for selected programs (interest payments are exempt, as are most entitlement outlays).Just about everybody in Washington is frantic about the sequester, which supposedly will mean “savage” and “draconian” budget cuts.If only. That would be like porn for libertarians.In reality, the sequester merely means a reduction in the growth of federal spending. Even if we have the sequester, the burden of government spending will still be about $2 trillion higher in 10 years.The other...

In the approaching twilight of the US war in Afghanistan, China is stepping up its involvement, attracted by the country’s trillion dollar worth of minerals. China, who has long been a bystander to the conflict in Afghanistan, could prove to be the ultimate winner in Afghanistan and that without a single shed of blood. They have already hit the jackpot by winning the billion dollar investment project in Logar’s copper mine. Afghanistan’s lithium, the key raw material for batteries to nuclear components, is the next potential target. But, do they seem to be going forward? Security remains a challenge to...

Military Pact With Niger Brings American Forces Closer to Conflict in Mali. The U.S. signed an agreement Monday with the West African country of Niger that clears the way for a stepped-up American military presence on the edges of the conflict in neighboring Mali. The U.S. and France are moving to create an intelligence hub in Niger that could include a base, near Mali's border, for American drones that could monitor al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali's vast desert north, U.S. officials said. The moves show the extent to which the U.S. and France are girding for what could be an...

It's about time for some bipartisan...skeet shooting? Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama's recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting, a sport where participants fire shotguns to break airborne clay disks. "If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn't he referenced this at any point in time?" Blackburn said Monday on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront." "I tell you what I do think," she later added. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet...