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Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar has thrown his political weight behind indexing welfare payments to inflation. Speaking at MacGill Summer School in Donegal, the Dublin TD struck a socially aware tone throughout his speech — referring to the period of economic downturn as “Ireland’s lost decade” and bemoaning a stalling in living standards. “Were it not for social welfare payments over half of the country would be at risk of poverty,” he said, before he emphasized the need to “protect the value of these payments now and into the future”. “I believe this can best be done by indexing...

Divorced people are much more likely to be admitted to hospital for psychiatric illness than their single, married or widowed counterparts, according to new figures from the Health Research Board. The Activities of Irish Psychiatric Units and Hospitals 2015 report shows that 17,860 people were admitted to hospital for psychiatric care last year, a small increase from 17,797 in 2014. Overall, the numbers of new cases continues to rise, both year-on-year and over a 10-year period. […] … (A)lthough divorced people accounted for only 4% of all admissions, they had the highest rate of all admissions — at 759.9 per...

On July 22, 2011, 77 people were killed in two bloody attacks in Norway. The terrorist Anders Behring Breivik first set off a car bomb in the government quarter of central Oslo. The bomb killed eight people and did substantial material damage. Breivik then drove out of Oslo with another car. Later that afternoon he arrived via ferry at the island of Utøya, situated some distance outside the municipality of Oslo. Members of the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), the youth organization of the Norwegian Labour Party, used the island for their annual summer camp. In a grotesque shooting spree, Breivik...

At almost all other Trump events masked thugs attack Trump supporters and try to disrupt events. Leftist groups had threatened to block the streets and shut down the convention. There were demonstrations but almost no assaults. Do you think this is because demonstrators thought Trump supporters might be legally armed? Did the demonstrators not want to risk getting shot during one of their assaults?

Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna on Friday that air conditioners and refrigerators are as big of a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State. The Washington Examiner reported that Kerry was in Vienna to amend the 1987 Montreal Protocol that would phase out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, from basic household and commercial appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, and inhalers. “As we were working together on the challenge of [ISIS] and terrorism,” Kerry said. “It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what we–you–are doing here right now is of...

The Hillary camp keeps making these terrible mistakes that impales her but promotes Trump. In their attacks on Trump, they keep promoting him. The picture you see attached is promoting a "president Trump." This actually came from a Hillary tweet! You will never ever hear Trump promoting a president Hillary. This is a very bad mistake if you don't want people assuming a president Trump is inevitable.

Test how well you can read emotions of others just by looking at their eyes. The ability to read the emotions of others is linked to "social intelligence" which, in turn, is linked to performance on team-based problem solving tasks. The test typically takes 10 minutes to complete. Take the test.

Because of her strong support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic, will be presented with the 21st Annual International Role Model Award by the Equality Forum, next week in Philadelphia while the Democratic National Convention is underway. “We are thrilled to present Leader Pelosi with this prestigious award for her long-standing support and her leadership in advancing LGBT civil rights,” said Malcolm Lazin, the founder and executive director of the Equality Forum. …

Tick, tick, tick…the highly suspicious deal that gave Bill Clinton’s billionaire buddy Jeffrey Epstein a slap on the wrist for paying underage girls for sex may finally be subjected to pubic scrutiny and even overturned, bringing with it the possibility of bargaining against real punishment in exchange for testimony against a bigger fish. This development is thanks to a court filing on the last day of 2015 that received only limited local publicity. More on that in a moment. Shockingly, the deal that handed out token punishment to the statutory rapist has been hidden from the public and from the...

Hey Freepers, I was looking to compose a list of Democrat violence on Republicans, or rather a comparison that, as I had theorized, is very one-sided. The news media keeps claiming the Republicans are vile, racists, and hyper aggressive.... is it true? Well, help me out and identify anymore relevant events to this election cycle! Hopefully I have posted this correctly. Democrats: Democrats run after and assault, with bodily harm, people leaving the Trump rally in San Jose. - Democrat mayor of San Jose told police to allow these events. Police chief Eddie Garcia admits to allowing the assaults. Man...

CLEVELAND — Exactly 350 days after Donald Trump stood in Quicken Loans Arena at the first presidential debate and refused to endorse the eventual Republican nominee if it wasn't him, he accepted that same Republican Party’s nomination — and vowed to keep winning all the way to the White House. In the biggest address of his unlikely, divisive and meteoric political career, Trump on Thursday night sought to bring together a party that he helped fracture in an ugly primary that left divisions that were apparent all the way through a tumultuous four days in Cleveland. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/rnc-2016-donald-trump-speech-225982#ixzz4F8qAgKU6

On Fox News, LeftyMeggy Kelly is fawning all over homosexual Peter Thiel's speech announcing he is gay. What progress for Republicans! She celebrates along with her homosexual guest, pseudo-conservative Guy Benson. Unchallenged by Lefty Meggy, pseudo-conservative Benson denounces the Christian conservative platform's position on allowing "conversion therapy." Why shouldn't undecided gays who are hoping to go straight have the freedom to get therapy?

Navy veteran, 81, was held hostage in New York motel room for four years by drug addict who stole his pension checks - despite police station being right next door.

Two parents in South Carolina knew something wasn’t right when their normally mild mannered and playful dog started acting strange toward the babysitter they hired to watch their infant son. Their dog’s behavior eventually led to the babysitter being convicted of abusing that same child.

HIGHLANDS, N.Y. — A man held an 81-year-old Marine Corps veteran hostage in his squalid motel room for at least four years in order to steal his benefits checks, authorities said Thursday. Perry Coniglio was arrested Tuesday in his room adjoining the victim's at a motel in Highlands. The motel sits next door to the police station in the Hudson Valley town, about 50 miles north of New York City. Coniglio, 43, used brute force and intimidation to get the mentally diminished veteran to cooperate with him, police said. The elderly man has advanced dementia, according to police. Police Chief...

BERLIN (AP) — Mohammed Ali Zonoobi bends his head as the priest pours holy water over his black hair. "Will you break away from Satan and his evil deeds?" pastor Gottfried Martens asks the Iranian refugee. "Will you break away from Islam?" "Yes," Zonoobi fervently replies. Spreading his hands in blessing, Martens then baptizes the man "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." Mohammed is now Martin — no longer Muslim, but Christian. Zonoobi, a carpenter from the Iranian city of Shiraz, arrived in Germany with his wife and two children five months ago. He...

Even on Tuesday afternoon, during perhaps the largest protest so far, media and reporters easily outnumbered demonstrators. ... After the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Finals in June, the team beckoned some 1.3 million people to the city to celebrate.... While Cleveland and Akron have their share of Democratic voters, Ohio is still far from the elite coastal bastions of liberalism where politics plays like sports. ... There’s nowhere to stay Even people who are here in Cleveland on official business have had to book accommodations outside the city—some as far away as Akron—thanks to Cleveland’s relatively limited hotel capacity....

Just in case you were still on the fence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdMWpvvnk2Q all the references are at the original post.

Children and adolescents should receive age-appropriate and evidence-based education about sex and sexuality from pediatricians, schools, professionals and parents, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. In the U.S., according to the AAP, about one in three adolescents does not receive any information on sexuality from pediatricians. And when the subject does come up between doctors and kids, the average conversation lasts less than 40 seconds, the group says in a new report. "Which means two-thirds of the time it's not discussed at all, and when it is discussed it's such a brief time," said Dr. Cora Breuner ... The...