Free Republic

“You break it, you bought it.” That’s a sign displayed in some stores that feature fragile merchandise. “You reap what you sow,” meanwhile, is an old proverb that means “you eventually have to face up to the consequences of your actions.” You take your blue-collar beer brand and do an advertising tie-in with a flamboyant transgender star, and your sales fall through the floor. That’s not a saying -- that’s what happened to Bud Light.Harvard University is finding out the hard way that actions (and inactions) have consequences as early admissions applications plummeted 17 percent this autumn in the wake...

This is not a good time for American higher education, but as bad as this may seem, matters are even worse. The students themselves are part of the problem when they seek admission to top schools with tactics that are at best questionable and at worst dishonest. Dishonesty is rampant. Students will even misrepresent their race or ethnicity. This is hardly a surprise in today’s academic world that prizes diversity, and admissions officers willingly lower standards to achieve it. According to one study, some 34% of white students admitted lying about their ethnic identify for purposes of admission or financial...

Being witness to the approach my spouse’s doctor will use to address a gastrointestinal issue and thus stop months of bleeding and pain, I have realized that the same method may prove successful in the treatment and thus cure of cancerous conditions involving tumorous growths within and without the body: banding or cinching off the offending tissue. Surgically cutting cancerous lesions or growths leads to an immediate defensive response by the malignant body—which is to eject cancerous cells into the bloodstream and thus cause spread in many other parts of the body. Simply cinching off or banding off the tissue...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country will file an expedited application to join NATO after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex parts of eastern Ukraine. In a statement, Zelensky called Ukraine and NATO “de facto” allies and said his country would seek formal membership in the alliance. “De facto, we have already proven interoperability with the Alliance’s standards, they are real for Ukraine — real on the battlefield and in all aspects of our interaction,” Zelensky said. “Today, Ukraine is applying to make it de jure. Under a procedure consistent with our significance for the protection of...

NEW DELHI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) said on Friday it had withdrawn an application for emergency-use authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine in India, after failing to meet the drug regulator's demand for a local safety and immunogenicity study.The decision means the vaccine will not be available for sale in the world's two most populous countries, India and China, in the near future. Both countries are running their immunisation campaigns using other products.Unlike other companies conducting small studies in India for foreign-developed vaccines, Pfizer had sought an exception citing approvals it had received elsewhere based on trials done...

Thirty-four percent of white college student applicants have lied about their race to admissions officials to better their chances of getting accepted into their desired university or receive better financial aid, according to a survey from Intelligent.The survey of 1,250 white college applicants ages 16 and older found that the most popular racial claim was Native American. Out of the 34 percent of white college applicants who lied about their race, 77 percent were accepted.“It’s the easiest lie to tell because you can’t get caught in it,” said Vijay Jojo Chokal-Ingam, an admissions consultant at SOSAdmissions.com and author of “Almost...

At the request of a number of committees of Congress, and for reasons of transparency, the President has directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice (including the FBI) to provide for the immediate declassification of the following materials: (1) pages 10-12 and 17-34 of the June 2017 application to the FISA court in the matter of Carter W. Page; (2) all FBI reports of interviews with Bruce G. Ohr prepared in connection with the Russia investigation; and (3) all FBI reports of interviews prepared in connection with all Carter Page FISA applications. In...

DOJ has released 412 pages of top-secret documents related to surveillance conducted against former Trump campaign chairman Carter Page.Documents include an Oct2016 application and three renewal applications for FISA warrants against Page.The NYT and other news outlets obtained the applications through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.“The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,” reads the FISA application.“the FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government,” reads the initial FISA application, dated Oct. 21, 2016. The DOJ and FBI obtained 3 additional FISAs in Jan,Apr,Jun 2017.The application also...

You could live rent-free in Austin -- and get on TV -- if you're picked for a new show. Lime Pictures is looking for people to sign up to live in the "greatest apartment building in Austin." The company isn't being picky about who can apply either. They're accepting applications from families, single people, and roommates.

Rebel_Ace is bored again, and that can only mean that it's time for some more Photoshop fun! Last time it was Hillary's van. Today, we focus on the Apple Watch, the subject of quite a few FR threads of late. Killer Applications for the Apple Watch Here is a BLANK TEMPLATE for you creative types to download, manipulate and post back here for everyone's amusement (but mostly for my amusement, as I am the one that is bored)

In an obscure corner of the federal bureaucracy, there is an office that is 990,399 cases behind. That is Washington’s backlog of backlogs — a queue of waiting Americans larger than the populations of six different states. It is bigger even than the infamous backups at Veterans Affairs, where 526,000 people are waiting in line, and the patent office, where 606,000 applications are pending. All of these people are waiting on a single office at the Social Security Administration. Social Security is best-known for sending benefits to seniors. But it also pays out disability benefits to people who can’t work...

The federal Obamacare marketplace was unable to verify nearly 3 million irregularities in the applications for enrollment, according to a new audit by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The audit, released Tuesday, found that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) resolved less than one percent of so-called “inconsistencies” related to the citizenship and residency status of Obamacare sign ups. “The Federal marketplace was not able to resolve inconsistencies related to: citizenship, status as a national, lawful presence, residency, family size, annual household income, and whether the applicant was eligible for minimum...

ATLANTA | Federal investigators are probing a whistleblower's allegations that applications for veterans seeking health care benefits may have been improperly purged from the VA's Health Eligibility Center in suburban Atlanta. Eligibility Center program specialist Scott Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that health benefit applications for more than 10,000 veterans may have been improperly purged from the Health Eligibility Center's national data system in DeKalb County. The center doesn't process all applications, but helps manage the national enrollment computer system and offers enrollment guidance for VA hospitals across the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A huge new paperwork headache for the government could also be jeopardizing coverage for some of the millions of people who just got health insurance under President Barack Obama's law. A government document provided to The Associated Press indicates that at least 2 million people enrolled for taxpayer-subsidized private health insurance have data discrepancies in their applications that, if unresolved, could affect what they pay for coverage, or even their legal right to benefits. The final number affected could well be higher. According to the administration the 2 million figure reflects only consumers who signed up through...

As you come to this program, you reside within a certain frame of mind. Your outlook, experience, and analysis of life has, along with what has influenced you over the course of your lifetime, shaped your frame of mind. But what if you are confronted with the concept of God? How do you respond? What constitutes each response, and if you accept him, what can come in applying His word to your life? Find out this and much more as you listen to this edition of “Making Sense with Rob Case.”

Southern California gun parts and accessory dealer Ares Armor continues to inform customers and supporters as to the status of its operations following yesterday’s raid by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Ares Chief Operations Officer Jeremy Tuma posted an update Saturday evening to his Instagram account where he first posted the news yesterday afternoon that “ATF is currently executing search warrants on all of our locations.” “We will be burning the midnight oil to assure we are fully operational by morning and that business goes on as uninterrupted as possible,” Tuma stated in last night’s message. Per...

Dear Job Applicant, It was wholly a pleasure to be asked to look over your writing samples and offer my appraisal of your prospects as a writer of opinion. I am much complimented. And hasten to send you a few notes for future reference: --Offer the reader original, even provocative, thought. Don't settle for the conventional clichés employed by your side of the political spectrum, whatever it may be. Be ideologically unreliable. It's more interesting. For both you and the reader. Think your subject through, don't just react the way you're expected to. Or appeal to the lowest common...

The Department of Labor estimates that some three million Americans with Bachelor degrees work in jobs that don’t require an education at all–janitors, barristas, bartenders and retail clerks.There are a lot of obvious reasons why junior is now living in your basement at age 25.

When my son R.J. came home for a visit last month, priority one was completing a passport application. His chamber choir is touring Italy next spring, and he wanted to be sure he had everything in order. We printed out the passport application and looked it over carefully, making sure he had everything needed. To be safe, we turned in his old birth certificate at the Register of Deeds office and got a new “raised seal” certificate. Rather than taking a chance with a digital photo taken at home, we went to the Wal-Mart Photo Center to have passport photos...

I'm not sure if it's truly appropriate to post this here, but I've been trying to get the word out everywhere. The blog I helped co-found is looking for more writers, so if you know any youngsters willing and able to write well, give them this link please: http://thebandofpatriots.com/apply/ Thanks