Free Republic

Race is always a hot button topic in the U.S., but rising and rampant economic inequality will likely be the issue that propels people to the voting booth. Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and along the U.S.-Mexico border may seem to suggest that race has returned as the signature issue in American politics. We can see this already in the pages of mainstream media, with increased calls for reparations for African-Americans, and expanded amnesties for the undocumented. Increasingly, any opposition to Obama’s policies is blamed on deep-seated white racism. Yet in reality, race will not define the 2014 election, or...

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A 22-year-old B.C. woman is suing her ex-boyfriend to pay tuition for a class she says she failed due to distress over the breakup. Roopam Plawn, a marketing student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, says in her notice of claim that she is seeking $500 for the class, $600 for anxiety, depression, insomnia and loss of working time and performance and $250 for "severe distress." She also wants Jasmeet Ahluwalia to pay court costs. Plawn says in the court document that she met the international student in September 2013, they broke up in early 2014, got...

Ryan Baker, a director of operations for Palm Beach Tan, ushers me through the narrow, pastel hallways of one of the chain's salons in Washington, D.C. It's a tiny place, squeezed into a strip mall between a Chipotle and a beauty parlor. But in a pinch, some see it as a mini-vacation—a dose of artificial sunshine when life’s too busy, or the outside world too cloudy, for the real thing. ....................................................... And that's the next big challenge for health agencies. Despite how rapidly the warnings and taxes and regulations have beat back the sunbed industry, there’s still something a little...

An Ohio State University (OSU) class has apparently determined another fundamental difference between Christians and atheists: their IQ points. An online quiz from the school’s Psychology 1100 class, provided to Campus Reform via tip, asked students to pick which scenario they found most likely given that “Theo has an IQ of 100 and Aine has an IQ of 125.” The correct answer? “Aine is an atheist, while Theo is a Christian.” According to a student in the class who wished to remain anonymous, the question was a part of an online homework quiz. Students were required to complete a certain...

Unforeseen by most of us a decade ago, but predicted by many of us six years ago, the invasion of government into our lives is almost complete.  The use of the IRS to not only invade your financial affairs, but to also trespass on the process of your very personal health care, appears to have become an acceptable undertaking by 40% of the population, given the continuing level of support for this Administration.  This tyrannical and despotic stance is only one symptom of the disease eating at the fabric of the Republic. From the top down, the current Administration's ideological mindsets is being dispersed to affect...

Clearly immigration was why we lost in 2012. It had nothing to do with a milquetoast Republican candidate who had been on both sides of so many issues that a good portion of Republican voters just stayed home. No, forget the moderate candidate. It was the Hispanic vote that killed us! Also, I’ve got some unicorns in my back yard I’ll be glad to sell you on the cheap.

What defines low socioeconomic status? Objectively, it means fewer economic resources and educational opportunities, less access to elite schools and clubs, more subordinate positions in the workplace, and increased levels of stress. For the upper-class, it’s just the inverse: more resources, more leisure, less stress. ......................................................... From the realities facing each group, you might assume that members of the lower-class would be more focused on meeting their own survival needs and, thereby, prioritize their needs over those of others. As a result, you might also expect them to be less trustworthy as compared to members of the upper-class who, given...

Just looking at the headlines about Thomas Picketty shows that something is up. The Wall Street Journal says he "Revives Marx." The New York Times calls him a "Rock Star." ...What Piketty has done, according to the official book description on Amazon, is look at the growing economic inequality and concentration of wealth. He examines data from the 1700s and forward and finds social and economic patterns that he says show what is at fault....

For most of Canada's existence, it has been regarded as the weak neighbor to the north by most Americans. Well, that has changed dramatically over the past decade or so. Back in the year 2000, middle class Canadians were earning much less than middle class Americans, but since then there has been a dramatic shift. At this point, middle class Canadians are actually earning more than middle class Americans are. The Canadian economy has been booming thanks to a rapidly growing oil industry, and meanwhile the U.S. middle class has been steadily shrinking. If current trends continue, a whole bunch...

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog, The death of the middle class in America has become so painfully obvious that now even the New York Times is doing stories about it. Millions of middle class jobs have disappeared, incomes are steadily decreasing, the rate of homeownership has declined for eight years in a row and U.S. consumers have accumulated record-setting levels of debt. Being independent is at the heart of what it means to be "middle class", and unfortunately the percentage of Americans that are able to take care of themselves without government assistance continues to decline....

HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – A former professor at the center of an academic scandal involving athletes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been charged with a felony, accused of receiving $12,000 in payment for a lecture course in which he held no classes. **SNIP** Nyang'Oro, who retired in 2012, could face up to 10 months in prison if convicted. The university said it recouped the $12,000 from his final paycheck.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I sometimes wonder, and I'm sure you do, too, if the Republican Party really knows what they're up against. Let me tell you a little story here that happens to be true. I don't think the Republicans have the slightest idea. I think they are so far behind the times, in terms of where the culture is. They certainly do not know, I'm convinced, enough about their political opponents to effectively deal with 'em. Try this. This is a short little story, not a big deal. It's from CBS Eyeball News in Annapolis, Maryland. Just recently last...

Michigan State University (MSU) officials will investigate anti-Republican comments award-winning professor William Penn was secretly recorded making to his literature class on Thursday, a school spokesman told Campus Reform Tuesday evening. “At MSU it is important the classroom environment is conducive to a free exchange of ideas and is respectful of the opinions of others,” Kent Cassella,an MSU spokesman wrote. “MSU is thankful we’ve been made aware of the situation,” he said, referring the secret video recording which was viewed by hundreds of individuals on Tuesday. “We will be looking into it,” he added.

One smart-as-a-whip sci-fi thriller does not a summer make, but "Elysium" is good enough to suggest that the cyborgs of Hollywood have not, in fact, risen up and taken over. Starring Matt Damon in extra muscles and a shaven skull, it contains enough hardware for all the Home Depots of the future, and an atmosphere of grimy oppression one can almost taste.... The year is 2154. A dusty, rusted, wasted Earth has become the despoiled home of the have-nots; the haves are in residence aboard a wagon-wheel-shaped space station named for the Elysian Fields of the ancients Greeks, the inside...

Despite his ongoing campaign to promote his economic agenda, President Obama is having trouble persuading the country that his policies are helping the middle class. The latest Monmouth University poll finds that a plurality of Americans think Wall Street and other elites have been served better than the middle class by the president. Only 12 percent of Americans said middle class families have greatly benefited from Obama's policies, while 46 percent said they haven't benefited at all and an additional 39 percent say they have benefited only a "little." [READ: GOP Strategist: Obama in a 'World of Hurt'] There is...

First, the middle class organizer-in-chief was channeling the TOTUS from Knox College in Illinois. He sounded very persuasive and his speech had all the right accents and dramatic pauses.  Then, the TOTUS used its now traditional presidential vessel to deliver even more remarks in Jacksonville, Florida.  The speech was full of climaxes and denouements, protagonists and antagonists, and applause and laughter breaks interspersed with virtuoso precision. Today, the wealth redistributor par excellence came to us live from an Amazon warehouse in Chattanooga, TN where with dramatically rolled-up sleeves, Obama praised a vision of a full-time middle class to a fulfillment center...

<p>Helen Mirren has granted a boy’s dying wish to meet the Queen — by dressing as Her Majesty and inviting him round for tea.</p> <p>Oliver Burton, ten, may have just weeks to live after being hit by cancer for a third time.</p>

BALTIMORE — President Obama insisted Friday that he is focused on improving the lives of middle-class Americans, despite being buffeted in Washington by a trio of controversies that have threatened to distract him from his second-term agenda. Capping one of the most difficult weeks of his tenure, Obama left the Beltway for this city 40 miles north to try to change the subject from the problems of his administration and refocus attention on his efforts to create middle-class jobs. He toured an elementary school, manufacturing plant

DALLAS — Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a fellow reporter who’d covered President George W. Bush all eight years told me she’d had enough of the travel and stress and strain of the White House beat, that she was moving on. We reminisced about all the places we’d been, all the crazy days and wild nights, all the history we’d seen — first hand. Just before we said our goodbyes, I asked her if she’d miss covering President Obama. “Not at all. He’s an inch deep. Bush is a bottomless chasm, a deep, mysterious, emotional, profound man....

Former PLU head football coach Forrest "Frosty" Westering has died. He was 85. For more than four decades Frosty was a college football coach. From 1972 to 2003 he led Pacific Lutheran University to four national titles. Frosty's 305 career wins rank him 9th among all college football coaches, but the wins didn’t make the man. For Frosty, excellence on the field was only a by-product of his overall life philosophy. "I’m not going to use fear, I’m going to use caring, I’m going to use love, actually," he said. "It shows you can do it the right way and...