Free Republic

Donald Trump is no conservative. Now, That's not a crime, it's just a reason to vote against him. Many fine people are not conservatives. But the reason Trump's candidacy should worry conservatives runs much deeper than that: He poses a direct challenge to conservatism, because he embodies the empty promise of managerial leadership outside of politics. Trump's diagnoses of our key problems -- first and foremost, that America's elites are weak and unwilling to put the interests of Americans first -- have gained him a hearing from many on the right. But when he gestures toward prescriptions, Trump reveals that...

The Obama administration is a case study in mismanagement. Republican presidential candidates should remind voters that management matters. And it isn’t just about government process. People have lost faith in our politics and government. The next president needs to work tirelessly to restore voters’ faith in our government’s ability to function. What part of the federal government is working better than it did six years ago? The Democratic Party’s fundamental doctrine that “government is the solution” is in tatters. The failure to produce “shovel-ready” projects, the IRS targeting malfeasance, the calamity of the Obamacare roll-out, the bungling of the Fast...

California just entered its fourth year in drought. Experts say it's the worst the state has seen in 1,200 years. Dwindling reservoirs, shrinking lakes, and dried-up farm fields are everywhere — and the drought shows no sign of stopping. The state's snowpack, which typically provides about a third of the water for its farms and residents, remains at its lowest level in history.

The blistering drought that has Californians timing their showers, driving dirty cars and staring at brown lawns and empty swimming pools is a “man-made disaster,” according to critics, who say the Golden State’s misguided environmental policies allow much-needed freshwater to flow straight into the Pacific. In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state’s population exploded to nearly 40 million people. ~snip~ “This...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three former employees, against a Syosset, New York company claiming that workers were forced to participate in religious activities at work and fired if they refused. As reported by Reuters, United Health Programs of America and its parent company, Cost Containment Group, made employees pray, thank God for their jobs, and tell managers and colleagues, “I love you.” The practice followed a belief system called “Onionhead,” which was a doctrine created by the aunt of the company’s owner. The EEOC press release says other activities “…included...

A brain professor is taking the concept of flexible work hours to an absolutely new level. Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research at University College London, has said that employees should be permitted to take short naps at work in order to boost their productivity, reports Daily Mail. Sleeping is vital for memory and learning, adds Professor Hugh Piggins, of Manchester University’s circadian neurobiology lab. The sleep experts revealed in their study that it is only after the Industrial Revolution that people have been obsessed with squeezing all their sleep requirement into one slot. However, they claim that afternoon...

Everyone is doing thoughtful year-end pieces on President Obama. Writers and reporters agree he’s had his worst year ever. I infer from most of their essays an unstated but broadly held sense of foreboding: There’s no particular reason to believe next year will be better, and in fact signs and indications point to continued trouble. I would add that in recent weeks I have begun to worry about the basic competency of the administration, its ability to perform the most fundamental duties of executive management. One reason I worry is that I frequently speak with people who interact with the...

Liberals incessantly claim fealty to “science,” while falsely caricaturing libertarians and conservatives as the ones stubbornly ideological and averse to real-world facts. Scientific method, however, involves objective observation and testing beliefs against results. In that vein, it is liberals who prove habitually impervious to facts and the disastrous real-world results of their philosophies. Take gun control as one recurring example. Liberals persist in their anti-Second Amendment crusade despite irrefutable data that America’s murder rate has been cut in half over the past three decades even while gun possession has reached record highs and firearms restrictions have drastically receded across America....

John Schoch has no regrets about dumping the five-day workweek in exchange for three 12-hour shifts, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and getting the equivalent of 40 hours of pay. Schoch, an employee of Milwaukee-based Oldenburg Group, spent 40 years on rotating shifts — days, afternoons, nights — at a paper mill before he found his sweet spot of working 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. That gives him four days off a week to go fishing, ride his motorcycle or tinker in the 20-by-58-foot garage he made from an old church building. "I can't find any downside to it,...

Federal wildlife agents shot and killed 14 wolves from helicopters in Idaho’s remote Lolo Zone earlier this month. The three-day operation, aimed at reducing the number of wolves roaming the backcountry area where elk herds are struggling, was carried out in a partnership between the federal Wildlife Services agency and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Wildlife managers hope a sustained reduction in wolf numbers will allow the Lolo elk herd, which has been severely depressed since the mid 1990s, to rebound. “We’d like to see one of Idaho’s premier elk populations recover as much as possible,” said Jim...

A jury has awarded three veteran Los Angeles police detectives $2.5 million in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against their supervisors. The verdict, delivered Friday after only a few hours of deliberation, is the latest in a long string of costly lawsuits brought by LAPD officers against fellow cops and supervisors for retaliation, harassment and other workplace abuses.

Solar panel installer SolarCity said on Friday it was the second company in as many days that will not get finalization of U.S. government loan aid by a September 30 deadline. The Department of Energy informed SolarCity of its inability to close the loan 48 hours ago, blaming increased paperwork resulting from a Congressional investigation into the Department of Energy's $535 million loan guarantee awarded to bankrupt solar company Solyndra, SolarCity said in a letter to the Republican lawmakers heading the probe.The DOE loan guarantee program, which is under fire for missing signs its first recipient of loan aid, Solyndra,...

There has been a good deal of hand-wringing over the state of our nation's schools -- whether at the elementary, the secondary, or the University level. And instead of a circular firing squad so beloved of the Republican Party, those closest to the situation are involved in an almost unfathomable degree of both psychological projection and transferrence, coupled with a goodly measure of 1984-style groupthink, in which they chant in unison, "You can't blame us!" In a limited sense, this is true: in the cloud-cuckoo land of government largesse and union employment, punching the clock, obeying the party line, and...

Labor Day is a celebration of the American worker, who helps turn management’s vision into reality. In that spirit, I wish everyone a happy Labor Day. Well, almost everyone. Let me explain. For as long as I can remember, my father owned a small manufacturing company in southwest Michigan. He didn’t pay the highest wages in the area, but he treated each employee with respect, and these workers in turn gave Dad an honest day’s work. That mutual respect, combined with a unique bonus program that all his employees participated in, made for a steady workforce.

How whole industries disappear Take the story of Dell Computer [DELL] and its Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. The story is told in the brilliant book by Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang, The Innovator’s Prescription : ASUSTeK started out making the simple circuit boards within a Dell computer. Then ASUSTeK came to Dell with an interesting value proposition: “We’ve been doing a good job making these little boards. Why don’t you let us make the motherboard for you? Circuit manufacturing isn’t your core competence anyway and we could do it for 20% less.” Dell accepted the proposal because from a...

Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors, is the most famous also-ran in the auto business. In the course of his 47-year rampage through the industry, he's been within swiping range of the brass ring at Ford, BMW, Chrysler and, most recently, GM, but he's never landed the top gig. It's because he "made the cars too well," he says. It might also have something to do with the fact that Maximum Bob, who could double as a character on Mad Men, is less an éminence grise than a pithy self-promoter who has a tendency to go off...

The employees – including binmen and street cleaners – are being asked to move pebbles around a table to indicate who they do and don’t get on with at work. They are also asked to rate their colleagues at West Oxfordshire District Council by writing words on large placards, such as “professional” and “supportive”. Last November, the prime minister defended plans to measure the nation’s happiness as part of an Office for National Statistics’ survey later this year. The council course is compulsory for all 316 staff and they must attend the one hour sessions each month and keep a...

My daughter's 11 month old Red Standard Poodle has been diagnosed with "mega esophagous" which means that his esophagous is nearly twice as large as it ought to be, and the food has a hard time making into the stomach and just sits in the esophagous. He regurgitates much of his dinner daily. This is a worrisome, messy, smelly condition, but not fatal. Her vet says she should learn to manage it by keeping him calm & upright for a half hour after he eats and offering smaller meals. Obviously he's getting some nutrition because he's 49 lbs, although he's...

Boise, Idaho -- We are no longer managing your wolves. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter told the Federal Government that Idaho will no longer be a designated agent in wolf management under the Endangered Species Act. It's a decision that's being met with approval and disappointment. "This has been after months and months and months of frustration," said Otter. Frustration over a federal court's decision to put the gray wolf back on the Endangered Species List. It was de-listed in May 2008 and then put back on it this past August. Otter says that hinders the state's sovereign right to manage...

The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department has released its proposal for this year's gray wolf hunting season. It includes numerous changes, including an increased quota, a longer open season and a possible archery-hunting season.FWP wildlife managers are seeking to increase the statewide quota to either 186 or 216 wolves, up from the 2009 quota of 75 animals. They would also like to create 14 wolf hunting units in three zones, and allow subquotas in some areas during the early season backcountry hunt, including the area directly north of Yellowstone National Park."In a word, it’s all about balance," said Ken...