Free Republic

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said that the threat of $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending will force Republicans to drop their opposition to including tax hikes to finance deficit reduction. Levin said Thursday that a deficit deal to undo the defense cuts, which are set to take effect in January 2013, must include higher taxes, and the cuts will force “Republicans who have taken an ideologically rigid step against any new revenues to relent.”

Could it be the bacon, egg and glazed donut burgers, y’all? When butter-loving country cook Paula Deen announced this week that she has type 2 diabetes, foodies everywhere started buzzing. What can you expect when you concoct a Lady’s Brunch Burger out of bacon, eggs and a beef patty with glazed donuts for buns? Could all that piggy pudding and Uncle Bubba’s seafood pot pie be to blame? Sort of, local nutrition experts say. But not entirely. Diabetes educators say no certain type of food leads to diabetes, but the calorie-laden goodies Deen whips up can lead to weight gain...

An acute butter shortage in Norway, one of the world's richest countries, has left people worrying how to bake their Christmas goodies with store shelves emptied and prices through the roof. The shortfall, expected to last into January, amounts to between 500 and 1,000 tonnes, said Tine, Norway's main dairy company, while online sellers have offered 500-gramme packs for up to 350 euros ($465)... Last Friday, customs officers stopped a Russian at the Norwegian-Swedish border and seized 90 kilos (198 pounds) of butter stashed in his car.

Scandinavia's butter crisis is spreading. First Sweden ran into supply problems, in part blamed on a television chef urging everyone to use butter. Now Norwegians are facing a similar squeeze, as butter stocks have mysteriously melted away, sending prices soaring and shoppers frantically buying up slabs of the stuff wherever they see it. Imports and distribution have become sporadic at best, and as soon as word gets out about a delivery, butter disappears from the shelves within minutes. With the sense of national crisis deepening, the national daily Aftenposten ran a two-page spread with instructions on how to make your...

While Norway is reeling from a severe butter shortage, causing some to try to smuggle the stuff in across the border and others make a killing on the black market, Swedes can relax in the knowledge that their Christmas baking is safe. Many Norwegians who live close to Sweden do their grocery shopping across the border where prices are lower, but to import butter has proven more difficult. "They (Norway) have, as we see it, very restrictive trading politics, borderline protectionist," Jonas Carlberg at the Swedish Dairy Association (Svensk Mjölk) told daily Dagens Nyheter, adding that the high custom duty...

My grandmother used to prefer margarine to butter. Whether that was because she thought it was healthier or because she preferred the flavor, we’ll never know. Clearly, though, she hadn’t been paying attention to the federal government. After all, it had been working hard, even decades before she emigrated to the United States, to “protect” her. As early as 1886, Washington took a hand in what Americans could, and supposedly should, eat. That year lawmakers passed the “Oleomaragerine Act” as a sop to the butter industry. Oleo was subject to a two-cent per pound tax, and anyone who aimed to...

It's great news for cheese and butter fans - scientists have found that eating dairy food doesn't increase your risk of a heart attack. Nutritionists surveyed thousands of middle-aged people and found that even those who ate more than half a kilo of cheese did not seem to suffer from increased risk. Contrary to earlier beliefs that saturated fat might lead to a heart attack, researchers found that nutrients in dairy products actually counteract the harmful effects.

Peat cutter said the ancient food still smells of dairy Over 100 pounds of "bog butter" have been discovered in Tullamore, County Offaly. This ancient food substance, thought to been buried as a form of refrigeration, is thought to be 5,000 years old, dating from the Iron Age. Brian Clancy and his uncle Joe were cutting turf in Ballard Bog when they made the discovery. Joe explained "We were cutting turf and I found what looked like a huge piece of timber...We took it out with a spade and it turned out to be bog butter." Speaking to the Irish...

ROME (AFP) – A Sicilian couple thought they had the perfect weapon to get rid of her ex-husband -- a slab of butter which would melt after they asphyxiated him, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Saturday. But a post-mortem found remains of the butter in the airways of Calogero Lo Cocco and the pair were unmasked, the paper said.

French actress Maria Schneider, who starred as Marlon Brando's lover in director Bernardo Bertolucci's sensational 1972 Last Tango In Paris, has died in that city, PEOPLE has confirmed. She was 58 and had suffered with cancer. The daughter of French actor Daniel Gelin and a Parisien bookshop owner, Schneider was l9 when she was cast in only her second screen role opposite Brando, who was then 48. Three years later, she appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in the existential drama The Passenger.

TORONTO,- The owner of a concession stand at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto said deep-fried butter will be making its debut at this year's event. Vicky Skinkle, who runs the Sweet Treats concession stand at the exhibition, said deep-fried butter will go on sale for the first time in the history of the event Friday, The (Toronto) Star reported Thursday. Skinkle said the bite-sized balls, which are topped with raspberry, chocolate, caramel or vanilla, cost $5 for four. "Honestly, I like them -- but that's me, right?" Skinkle said. "I had my whole neighborhood in Brantford come and try...

WATERVILLE — A culinary argument between a brother and sister about whether to use butter or margarine turned violent, resulting in an attack with a knife-edged barbecue spatula, police say. A 21-year-old man called East Wenatchee police on June 6 to say his 17-year-old sister had just attacked him and tried to cut his neck with the serrated edge of the spatula, wrote Officer Carrie Knouf in a police report filed in Douglas County Superior Court. The sister told Knouf she was making macaroni and cheese when her brother asked if she was using butter. “They began to argue over...

Ban Butter To Save Thousands Of Lives, Says Heart Surgeon By SEAN POULTER 18th January 2010 Shyam Kolvekar is a leading heart surgeon [Pic in URL] Butter should be banned to protect the nation's health, according to a leading heart surgeon. Shyam Kolvekar says only radical action can save growing numbers of young adults from heart attacks and clogged arteries. Warning of the dangers of other foods high in saturated fat, he advises people to eat less red meat, take low-fat milk and switch to olive and sunflower oil. Saturated fat is blamed for a third of the 200,000 premature...

WELLINGTON (AFP) – Two blocks of butter have been found intact after nearly a century in an Antarctic hut used by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his doomed 1910-12 expedition, a report said. Television New Zealand reported that conservators found the two blocks of New Zealand butter in bags in stables attached to the expedition Hut at Cape Evans in Antarctica. The extreme cold of the polar region has preserved the hut and expedition equipment inside, but recent signs of deterioration had prompted the Antarctic Heritage Trust to launch a preservation project. The trust's Lizzie Meek said the butter...

So many people have the ideas of the breed of dogs called "pittbulls". This bread had a very bad rap and who gives it to them is the people who poorly raise them and poeple who judge. I have been an american terrier owner all my life and they are the best dogs. They scored higher then little yap dogs and german sheapards are temparment test 82%. People need to stop being ignorate and just let them be. They get used for fighting and are torchered beyond belief. Look on Bad Rap web site and read the stories of this...

DALLAS — It’s practically fattening just thinking about it. Deep fried butter is among eight creative food items by vendors at this year’s State Fair of Texas in Dallas. Fair officials say a Labor Day cookoff will determine the winner of the Big Tex Choice Awards. The State Fair of Texas runs Sept. 25 through Oct. 18. The eight creative food items by vendors at this year’s State Fair of Texas in Dallas: * Deep fried butter * Green goblins * Twisted yam on a stick * Deep fried peaches and cream * Fried pecan pie * Country fried pork...

China 'covers suicide bridge in butter' Government officials in south-east China have ordered workers to cover a 1,000 ft long steel bridge in butter to prevent citizens from using it to attempt suicide. All the climbable surfaces on the structure in Guangzhou have been covered in greasy fat to put an end to the spate of people threatening to jump from it, The Sun reports. Government spokesman Shiu Liang said: "We tried employing guards at both ends but that didn't work - and we put up special fences and notices asking people not to commit suicide here. "None of it...

A butter sculpture of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is part of this year's 2009 Illinois State Fair Butter Cow display, a sculptor says. Sculptor Sharon BuMann said in addition to adding the beloved 16th U.S. president to the fair's annual sculptures made of butter, her work of edible art includes a butterfly, kitten and a hidden mouse, The Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register said Friday. "I suspect he's supposed to be milking the cow and splitting the wood, but has decided to read instead," BuMann said of Lincoln's appearance in the butter sculpture. "The inspiration came from the early years....

We appreciate the input of hundreds of people who have voiced their opinions, both positive and negative, on the issue of including Michael Jackson in the 2009 butter sculpture. The ongoing discussion has created a lot of, well, ‘churn.’ Since everyone has an opinion about the sculpture, we’ve decided to put it to a vote and let Fairgoers decide. The concept of the sculpture will be a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk on July 20, 1969. In honor of Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” this year’s sculpture will include an astronaut, an American flag and a...

Thanksgiving Day, 2008-- I recently returned from a combat tour in Iraq, and I got a note from a soldier still there with an infantry outfit from the Ohio Army National Guard. In the best traditions of the Ohio State & County Fairs, they made decorations out of butter, to include a 4 foot butter cow, a 3 foot butter White House, and this 120-lb, 3-foot tall butter Obama. The talent, ingenuity and spirit of our troops is great! --Sgt. E

Whalers and activists have clashed several times Enlarge Image Japan's whaling fleet in the waters off Antarctica has been attacked again by protesters, Tokyo officials have said.Activists from the Sea Shepherd group threw containers filled with a mild form of acid made from rotten butter at a Japanese ship. The group described it as "non-violent chemical warfare", but Tokyo condemned the actions as illegal and said several people were slightly injured. Activists and whalers have clashed several times since last November. The acid thrown at the whaling ship stings if it gets in people's eyes. Officials said two crew...

Some facts about Chuck Norris (humor). http://ytmndswim4.ytmnd.com/

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! Welcome Troops, Veterans, Military Families, Allies and FRiends! Today is Wednesday, July 13 2005. The chef checked three times. I'm also happy to report that the White House officially pardoned the chef for getting the date wrong last week and missing President Bush's birthday. However, the chef's name is now off of the short list for Supreme Court nominations. Could be worse -- like spending a day with the White...

Bubba, the 23-pound-lobster that got front-page treatment today after a seafood store spared its life, died at about 3 p.m. today at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. The cause of death is not yet known, but the lobster did not eat since his transfer yesterday from Wholey's in the Strip District to the aquarium in Highland Park, the zoo announced.

Bob Pitts knows doughnuts. He fried his first one in 1961 at the original Dunkin' Donuts shop in Quincy, Mass. Just by looking at the lumps and cracks on a misshapen doughnut, he can tell if the frying oil is too cool or the batter too warm. But Mr. Pitts, the company's doughnut specialist, cannot find a way to make one that tastes good without using partially hydrogenated oil, now considered the worst fat in the American diet. An artificial fat once embraced as a cheap and seemingly healthy alternative to saturated fats like butter or tropical oils, partially hydrogenated...

NEW ULM, Minn. — Tons of butter melted by a factory fire spread through the streets of New Ulm late Wednesday and early Thursday until it was overtaken by the chill of Minnesota's icebox weather. On Thursday afternoon, amid the fatigue from hours of fighting the massive blaze, the slippery surfaces and the wreckage of the plant, even Fire Chief Curt Curry recognized some humor in the incongruous scene. "We were looking for 40,000 loaves of bread at 2 o'clock this morning," he said, trying to wind down with a smile after working the intense fire all night. Work crews...

NEW ULM, Minn. -- Too bad firefighters didn't have a pile of popcorn handy -- or better yet, loads of lobster tails. An intense fire consumed half of the roof of the Associated Milk Producers Inc. butter packaging plant, sending melted butter flowing out of the facility. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but officials worried that the melted butter would interfere with the railroad tracks bordering the plant's east end. The plant was holding an estimated 3 million pounds of butter at the time of the fire Wednesday. A plant employee discovered the fire in a utility area,...

Huge moves recently. It was 5/6 Bush or .88/1,now its 4/6 and .69/1 Blue and pink shading show recent movements (Probably the past day).

Friends believe outburst triggered by chronic disease Linda Ronstadt suffers from a chronic, debilitating disease -- and friends believe it triggered her bizarre headline-making meltdown in Las Vegas. Irate fans stormed out of her July 17 performance at the Aladdin hotel when she lashed out at President Bush during her concert -- but they didn't know she suffers from Hashimoto's disease, which medical experts say can lead to extreme behavior. The singer -- whose hits include "You're No Good," "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" -- was diagnosed with the chronic thyroid disorder in 1997. SYMPTOMS Symptoms can range from...

AFP , IECAVA, LATVIA Sunday, Apr 25, 2004,Page 12 Garlic butter. Peanut butter. Or just butter. All may be household names. Now farmers in the Baltic state of Latvia want to introduce a hitherto unknown butter, cannabis butter, to the world. "I love it, especially like my grandma used to make," Latvian farmer Dainis Lagzdins said as he invited AFP to taste the dark green butter, a local specialty made of cannabis seed, which he calls a "miracle of taste and flavor." "Mmm, the taste is heavenly," he said. Latvian farmers use centuries-old recipes to make the butter or spread...

Mysteries of bog butter uncoveredWax found in Celtic bogs is the remains of ancient meat and milk. 17 March 2004 PHILIP BALL Peat cutters often stumble on chunks of butter in the bogs. © Stockbyte Chemical detectives have traced deposits of fat in Scottish peat bogs to foodstuffs buried by people hundreds of years ago. The 'bog butter' is the remains of both dairy products and meat encased in the peat, say Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol and colleagues. Those who live in the countryside of Ireland and Scotland and dig up chunks of peat for fuel have...

<p>I was trying to recall the exact moment I lost interest in the 2004 presidential race. It was March 7, the day The New York Times published Maureen Dowd's gushing paean to John Kerry.</p> <p>Dowd gloried in the "vast palette of cultural preferences" that paint the Kerry persona. Why, he not only reads Keats and Shelley and T.S. Eliot, he writes his own verse on the "barren desolation of the desert."</p>

A Swedish couple hunting on a remote mountain in Sweden’s far northern province of Jaemtland have found 70 pairs of shoes, all filled with butter.There were 140 shoes of all kinds - trainers, high heels, boots and tap shoes - each stuffed with half a kilo of butter and spread out in the landscape.The find is similar to one done by artist Yu Xiuzhen’s in 1996.His exhibit “Shoes With Butter,” was laid out in the Tibetan mountains surrounding Lhasa, China.“If we knew who had done this we could make them clean this mess up,” Alf Kjaellstroem, a province spokesman said.“It’s...

<p>Although his past races earned Gov. Gray Davis a reputation as an aggressive campaigner, his advisers said he'll fight the Oct. 7 recall election with a strategy based on trying to fly above the circus swirling below him.</p> <p>If he is to survive the first recall election in California history, his advisers said, he must also show voters the Republican-led recall will not solve California's problems but merely aggravate them by costing $66 million dollars and possibly leaving a small, fringe group in control of nation's most populous state and the world's fifth-largest economy.</p>

A woman from Iowa is making a model of a Harley-Davidson motorbike out of butter. Norma "Duffy" Lyon from Des Moines is creating a full-scale butter V-Rod to celebrate Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary. The butter she is using is five years old, which is about the maximum age she likes to work with because the consistency changes. She began the Harley sculpture last week after finishing a life-sized butter model of a dairy cow. She's carved a life-sized dairy cow out of butter for the Iowa state fair for more than 40 years. Norma, 74, said: "I decided four years ago...

My friend and comrade in arms,Mr.B.goes.to Washington, the host of ATF Night, has asked me to make a special announcement concerning the upcoming regular ATF Night meeting. ATF night this month will feature a very special speaker - Shawn Steel, the immediate past chairman of the California Republican party. Come hear Mr. Steel discuss the current exciting political developments involving the governance of the state of California. "ATF Night" (A Pro-Gun Social Event) Thursday, July 17, 2003 6:30 PM No Host Cocktail Hour / 7:30 PM Program Begins The San Gennaro Cafe (Banquet Room) 9543 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA...

What the heck. It's Friday. It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!! Make sure your speakers are on.