Free Republic

For the average American the thought of borrowing money for a bailout is simply not an option, either because they understand the dangers of debt being used to cover debt or they don’t qualify for the loans in today’s economic climate. For our federal government, as ridiculous as the concept sounds, it is the only option. If you operated this way, you’d be broke, hungry and living on the street:

At the stroke of midnight, a growing number of Americans are lining up at Walmart not to cash in on a holiday sale, but because they’re hungry. The increasing number of Americans relying on food stamps to survive the sluggish economic recovery has changed the way the largest retailer in the United States does business. Carol Johnston, Walmart’s senior vice president of store development, said that store managers have seen an “enormous spike” in the number of consumers shopping at midnight on the first of the month. That’s typically when those receiving federal food assistance have their accounts refilled each

I like to brush up on vocab and also feel like a do-gooder.

Last year, more than 116,750 pounds of venison donated to Ohioans in need With the opening day of Ohio's deer-gun season on November 29, hunters are reminded that donating a deer is free at meat processors participating in the Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH) venison donation program. Although venison donations are accepted any day during the deer hunting season, September 25 – February 6, 2011; Saturday, December 4 has been designated as FHFH Day. Participating meat processors can be found by visiting the FHFH Web site at www.fhfh.org. Last year, hunters showed they cared by donating nearly 116,750...

Given the increased importance of biofuels and the new linkages between agricultural and energy markets, increased cereal yields, if achieved, may not necessarily continue to lead to lower cereal prices. Because the world energy market is so much larger than the world grain market, grain prices may be determined by oil prices in the energy market as opposed to being determined by grain supply.Thus, higher priced energy means more hungry people. Yes, it really is that simple. But not so simple, unfortunately, that people like celebrity lion-impersonator Jeremy Irons can understand it. Up above, you’ll see a video he made...

Food Crisis Doomsday Scenario As Prices To Shoot Through The Roof Politics / Food Crisis Aug 31, 2010 - 08:52 AM By: Pravda The worst weather on record coupled with the practice of speculation in the commodities markets are set to send food prices skyrocketing, bringing misery and starvation to large swathes of the world’s population. Are we set to see food riots this winter? In the USA, Walmart has already announced a price hike of 5.8% on average for a 31-item basic basket for this Autumn. The long-term rise, however, is far more frightening, with the UNO predicting an...

By NBC News Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 4:47pm An Illinois community is mourning the death of 7-year-old Jason Walter after the boy was viciously attacked by four dogs Wednesday. Walter, his brother and mother were visiting Eric Shanklin at his rural home in Marshall County where the incident took place. According to Marshall County Sheriff Rob Russell the 7-year-old was mauled by three pit-bulls and a mixed-breed in Shanklin's driveway early Wednesday morning. Family members called 911.

Whether you are a republican or a democrat, black, red or white, you need a job. How many people in Congress took the last pay raise they voted for? Did your representatives? Are they worrying about you and your neighbor having a job? No.

Residents of Kawuku-Gaba sharing the meat of the hippo that was killed on Sunday THE hippo, which has been terrorising residents in the Lake Victoria belt at Munyonyo, has been killed by rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). UWA’s head ranger Paul Naluma, who camped with a colleague at Bunga village, killed the hippo at 6:30am on Sunday. “It was a response to public outcry and advice from the Inspector General of Police,” Naluma said. The hippo is blamed for the death of two brothers who were fishing on the lake on Friday night. On the same night,...

It’s simple really: feed the hungry, the homeless, and the forgotten. Matthew 25:35 says, “For I was hungry, and you fed me.” It has always broken my heart to see the people on the street corner holding their “Will work for food” cardboard signs. More times than not, I have given them money. Then I began to think, I could do something more for them. I could do something more practical. I could help feed them. I could be part of the “Give us this day our daily bread” thing. I know many people who say these people may be...

Report: More Americans going hungryBy Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 16, 2009; 3:14 PM The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a federal report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children. In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children -- more than one in five across the United States -- were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than...

NAIROBI, Kenya – Parents in some of Africa's poorest countries are cutting back on school, clothes and basic medical care just to give their children a meal once a day, experts say. Still, it is not enough. A record 1 billion people worldwide are hungry and a new report says the number will increase if governments do not spend more on agriculture. According to the U.N. food agency, which issued the report, 30 countries now require emergency aid, including 20 in Africa. The trend continues despite a goal set by world leaders nine years ago to cut the number of...

Rock icon Bob Dylan will sing the old yuletide standards "Winter Wonderland" and "Little Drummer Boy" on his first ever Christmas album, with royalties going to charity, his record label said on Wednesday. Dylan's "Christmas in the Heart" album is due out on October 13, nearly six months after the release of his last studio album, "Together Through Life," which topped the charts. Speculation about the Christmas album began surfacing a few months ago, but were initially met with disbelief by some Dylan aficionados, as the singer was not known to record Christmas songs, and his latest albums have featured...

A CHINESE man who beheaded and hacked a Canadian bus passenger to pieces has been found not guilty of murder on mental grounds. Vince Weiguang Li, 40, who had been charged with murdering 22-year-old Tim McLean on a Canadian Greyhound bus on July 30, 2008, has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Li had repeatedly stabbed Mr McLean, who had been asleep on the seat next to him, sawn off his head, removed his internal organs, pocketed his nose, tongue and an ear, and taunted police and bystanders with the severed head. Police said in court documents Li "appeared to smell,...

For anyone who is hungry or eating poorly, I have a secret to share. Here is some advice for those who are hungry: My partner and I don't have enough money to eat well and neither do our friends. But we have a little secret I'd like to share with you--on one condition--you have to share the food you find with others and also use good judgment. This works best if you live in a suburb or a small city. (Those in NYC and LA might want to ignore this advice.) I live in a city of about a million...

PLATTEVILLE, Colo. -- A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest -- 40,000 people showed up. Joe and Chris Miller's fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning -- the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields -- was canceled Sunday. " '

A NATO base to support the airlift operations of 12 nations will be established in Hungary early next year, and about 40 U.S. military members will be calling the station 100 miles west of Budapest home, according to an alliance agreement. The Strategic Airlift Capability Partnership — which involves the joint acquisition of three C-17 Globemasters — will increase NATO’s ability to transport large numbers of troops and supplies to far-flung places, such as Afghanistan. The town of Papa will host the base to be commanded by U.S. Air Force Col. John Zazworsky. "It (airlift capability) has been a longstanding...

I made a fun little video of a screaming anti-war protester yesterday. This woman originally says she's there to stop the war. But then continually says she's running out of food. Then she starts screaming.. and her blabbering rivals anything Ted Kennedy's ever said. "We are going hungry!!!!"

A 62-year-old man from northern Sweden faces a date in court after trying to eat his accounts when his home was raided by police, Västerbottens Kuriren reports. Having forced the man to stop chewing his books, police conducted a search of the house and found large quantities of gold as well as almost 800,000 kronor ($120,000) in cash. In 2005 and 2006, the suspect placed a number of ads in local newspapers offering goods for sale at attractive prices. But despite an obvious entrepreneurial streak, he had failed to declare an income for several years. As tax authorities became increasingly...

Study Shows More Iowans Go Hungry A new study shows more Iowans are going hungry. The study by Drake University found that more than one of every ten households are reporting limited or recurrent lack of access to nutritional and safe food. It also connects a lack of healthy food options to obesity in low-income households. The 2007 Hunger in Iowa Report indicates that more Iowans are skipping meals or eating cheaper and less healthy food because of their inability to get nutritional food in a social acceptable way. Other reports were released in 2001 and 2003. The reports are...

Embattled Zimbabwe hungry and broke, says central bank head The Associated PressPublished: February 28, 2007 HARARE, Zimbabwe: Dozens of people were arrested Wednesday as pro-democracy activists defied a police ban on demonstrations and took to the streets to protest growing economic hardship and repression in Zimbabwe. The National Constitutional Assembly said many of those arrested were assaulted. It vowed to continue with the demonstrations. "We believe that demonstrating for a new constitution is a genuine cause that cannot be blocked by a corrupt police force whose mandate is merely that of protecting a failed regime," the movement said in a...

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Rising temperatures will leave millions more people hungry by 2080 and cause critical water shortages in China and Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the United States, according to a new global climate report. By the end of the century, climate change will bring water scarcity to between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people as temperatures rise by 2 to 3 Celsius (3.6 to 4.8 Fahrenheit), a leaked draft of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report said. The report, due for release in April but detailed in The Age newspaper, said an additional 200...

MEXICO CITY (AP)--Mexican legislators, producers, and consumers are battling with the government over how best to control the rising price of corn tortillas, a centuries-old staple of the Mexican diet. Some lawmakers are calling on renewing price controls used in the past, while incoming economy secretary Eduardo Sojo says a better move would be to help farmers increase production. Rising demand is a major factor pushing up corn prices, Sojo told a news conference Monday - in particular the fact that more U.S. corn is being diverted for the production of ethanol, instead of heading to Mexico’s consumer market. Farmers...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A massive fire at one of Central Florida's oldest attractions, Gatorland, engulfed the park's gift shop and damaged other surrounding offices and structures, including the well-known alligator mouth entrance Monday, according to Local 6 News. "A fire of this magnitude would be dangerous to fight in any situation but now you have to throw in the fact that there are dangerous animals inside -- alligators that are more than likely spooked by the commotion," Local 6's Jessica Sanchez said. Park official, Heather Goodwin, said firefighters were able to keep the fire contained to the gift shop area...

I was reading Reminisce Magazine yesterday. For some reason that magazine always makes me hungry. So, what were the best foods you remember as a kid?

Nature, it should be pointed out, always bats last. This is true even in Florida, where, as novelist Carl Hiaasen makes clear, life is more than a little surreal, and where three people were recently attacked and killed by alligators in less than a week. Previously, 17 people had died from alligator attacks in Florida since 1948. There is no record in the United States of three fatal alligator attacks in one year, much less in one week in one state. So something clearly is going on in Florida. Yesterday, as if to emphasize Hiaasen's point, an alligator walked through...

Energy tsars hungry for a new market (Filed: 26/03/2006) The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, has lobbied Vladimir Putin hard for the planned £6.5 billion East Siberian Pacific Pipeline, on which work is due to begin this year, to include a spur to the Chinese border. If opened as planned in 2008, the main pipeline will pump up to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day to the Pacific port of Nakhodka. Last week, China's National Petroleum Corporation offered to pay Transneft, the company building the pipeline, £228 million to cover the costs of a branch. China is a leading buyer...

Do you crave your valentine as much as you crave food and drink? Brain researchers may have discovered why. This ScienCentral News video has more. Love on the Brain Falling in love can make us behave quite differently. We'll give up all our worldly possessions, travel half way around the globe and completely change our lives to be with the people we love. A British king, Edward VIII, even gave up his throne for love. "You will do quite irrational things, or inventive things. You might even get up, and jump up and down on a couch," says neuroscientist Lucy...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- A pride of lions has killed and devoured 20 villagers, wounded 10 others and eaten at least 70 cattle in southern Ethiopia in the past week, police said Tuesday. The attacks have forced at least 1,000 people to flee their homes in Hadia Zone, in the Southern Nation and Nationalities People State, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, according to a police statement.

It's been suggested, so let's do it. I am forming a Freeper food list (pictures optional). Since we are in the middle of summer, this week's theme is obviously summer. Have recipes? Have some food memories of summer? Just have fun with this. I will be posting a new theme every Friday or Saturday. Once these recipes are tested, perhaps a little feedback on what others thought. Freepmail me if you would like to be put on the Freeper Kitchen ping list

SEOUL — A North Korean propaganda film about the repatriation of a spy — Lee In-Mo — who had languished for years in a South Korean prison may have a short shelf life, according to defectors now living in the South. "What we could not believe in the movie was that Lee and others were conducting hunger strikes in the prison," said one defector about the movie. "Refusing to eat was a form of resistance in the South? Boy, South Korea must be a paradise. That's what we said among ourselves" One of the first things South Korean President Kim...

The election by Hungary's parliament of an opposition candidate, Laszlo Solyom, as state president is a blow to the Socialist-led government, mainly because it was caused by and exacerbates a split within the ruling coalition. This makes any significant new action to reverse Hungary’s unsteady economic course all but impossible. Hungary’s governing coalition, consisting of the larger Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), suffered another blow on June 7th with the election of Mr Solyom, a former constitutional court judge put forward by the conservative parliamentary opposition, as Hungary’s new president. The president is...

More babies, young kids going hungry in US Sat Jun 11, 11:00 PM ET An American butcher. Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese(AFP/File/Stan Honda) BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) - Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese. In 2003, 11.2 percent of families in...

TEHRAN – It was once the spiritual core of Iran's Islamic revolution, where popular anger and financial support welled for the movement that swept away the Shah in 1979 and propelled the mullahs to power. But today, Tehran's grand bazaar - a sprawling indoor retail mall selling everything from Persian rugs to women's bikinis - is host to very different sentiments. Instead of loyally supporting the Islamic regime, this bastion of political and religious conservatism is reflecting the seething resentments and discontents now finding expression across Iranian society. The sum manifestation of the bazaar's dissatisfaction is a widespread intent not...

Chinese Man Digs Up, Eats Corpse May 23, 2005, 11:00 PM China has reportedly sentenced a man to two-and-a-half years in prison, for digging up a woman's corpse and eating parts of her body. The official Xinhua News Agency says the man dug up the woman's remains the same day she had been buried. The news agency says a court ruled the man should be imprisoned instead of hospitalized for mental illness, because he was capable of controlling his actions.

EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Honk if you're glad the geese are gone. Humboldt Bay ranchers are overjoyed that hungry hordes of the messy fowl are finally on their way north to nest. Ravenous Aleutian cackling geese have been eating up their pasture. The Aleutian geese, once an endangered species, now number at least 60,000 and many like to feast on the sweet spring grasses of the Humboldt Bay bottomlands. They'll nest in the wind-chilled Aleutian Islands - then eventually head back to the land of the worried ranchers to fortify themselves again. A survey last month found 10,000 of the...

Oil-hungry China takes Sudan under its wing By David Blair in Khartoum (Filed: 23/04/2005) A metallic maze of chimneys, pipes and vents glitters on the horizon in the desert outside Khartoum, dominating the landscape for miles around. This new oil refinery is the jewel in the crown of Sudan's military regime. It forms the vital artery of a thriving oil industry that poured £1 billion into government coffers last year. Without this windfall gain - likely to be far larger this year - President Omar al-Bashir could not maintain his military machine, let alone wage war against rebels in the...

Hungry, Homeless Figures Increase in U.S. Tue Dec 14, 6:05 PM ET U.S. National - AP By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Requests for emergency food and shelter increased in many large U.S. cities this year, but not by as much as in recent years, according to a survey released Tuesday. AFP Photo Requests for food rose by 14 percent, while appeals for shelter increased by 6 percent, said the annual report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, based on surveys of 27 large cities. The numbers have risen every year since the conference began the survey 20...

It's A Restless Hungry Feeling ...11/19/2004 04:22:15 pmThe dreadful fallout from the re-election of George W. Bush continues apace. We'll be lucky if any of us are left alive at the end of the next four years to vote for Hillary. (That must be his plan!) The following article left me stunned and all but in tears: More New Yorkers At Risk For Hunger, Survey Finds. More New Yorkers are having trouble putting food on the table, according to a survey by the Food Bank for New York City. The study found 31 percent of city residents are “at risk...

Please forgive me if I seem to ramble on! I don't have any documented proof, but when you finish reading this, join me and finding the proof to back up my claims and in assumptions. They are out there, I've read, heard, and known this for years! Q:What is Democracy?According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy Pronunciation: di-'mä-kr&-sE Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural -cies Etymology: Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dEmokratia, from dEmos + -kratia -cracy 1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which...

February 26, 2004 - Volume XII, Issue 9 The Greeks of Hungary By Esther Vécsey HUNGARIAN-BORN Greek Eleni Korani just celebrated her 30th birthday in the company of her extended family which included her two-year-old daughter Akilina, her parents Lefki Karageorgiou and Laokratis Koranis, cousins, friends and her Austrian-born husband in what was a truly multicultural celebration. According to Theodoros Skevis, President of the Greek Minority Self-Government of Hungary there are some 4,500 Greeks in Hungary today. "Compared to the 5 million Greeks living in the United States this seems a small number, but we are quite united and seek...

FEB 17, 2004 Bird flu-scared Cambodians turn to eating rats PHNOM PENH (Cambodia) - Fear of catching bird flu from eating chicken has prompted some people in north-west Cambodia to resort to eating rats, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Rats have been fetching good prices in Battambang province during the last two weeks, according to newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea, or the Light of Cambodia. The newspaper said villagers catch the rodents in nearby rice fields and sell them for up to 1,400 riel (35 US cents) each to market vendors, who resell the meat for about 1,800 riel per kilogram....

An X-ray showing a fork lodged sideways in the stomach of a 32-year-old woman who accidently swallowed it while using it to scoop a cockroach out of her throat, in the northern Israeli town of Tiberias on July 10.

Just days after French President Jacques Chirac called for a a global tax on individual firearms purchases, the United Nations has announced it is gearing up to sponsor a global gun-control forum next month in New York City. The July 7-11 meeting builds on a similar forum held in 2001, in which participating nations signed a "Program of Action" to "Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects." The Program of Action, or PoA, "sets the first global norms of good behavior to reduce small-arms proliferation," says a statement by the...

Hungry dogs find 2,500-year-old mummy Two dogs digging for a buried bone in their owner's backyard in Chile found a 2,500-year-old mummy. Ivan Paredes, who lives in Arica, could not believe his eyes when his dogs dug up the ancient body. He told La Cuarta online: "The dogs were trying to find bones buried in the backyard as usual, but they started to bark very loud and I came to check what was going on and found the mummy of child." Archaeologists believe it is the remains of a boy buried by his parents who would probably have been farmers....

World - AP Europe Hungary: U.S. Military Violated Airspace Sat, Mar 01, 2003 BUDAPEST, Hungary - U.S. military aircraft violated Hungarian sovereignty last month by using the country's airspace for unauthorized purposes, the defense minister said Saturday. The incident occurred Feb. 20 when six helicopters and a tanker aircraft belonging to the U.S. armed forces flew over Hungary on their way to a military base in Romania, Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz said at a meeting of parliament's defense committee. Hungary had only permitted the United States to use its airspace in connection with the Enduring Freedom operation in Afghanistan. But...

I apologize for the vanity post, but I need your help. A techie friend of mine was layed off has been unemployed for some time. He is low on both finances and food. I found out today that he's been eating only mustard for dinner. Though he doesn't want to accept welfare, he hasn't been able to find a job yet, and so we've been thinking of holding a food drive contest, challenging the people we know to send in the most bizzare, non-perishable foods they can find - to be judged by him. In order to pull this off,...

Hungry millions denied food by Mugabe's ban By Peta Thornycroft in Murambinda (Filed: 04/01/2003) Robert Mugabe is refusing to let Zimbabweans import food, a decision which is condemning millions of people to shortages, United Nations officials said yesterday. More than 5,000 people gathered at Viriri School, Murambinda, 140 miles south of Harare, to collect hand-outs of corn, beans and oil from the World Food Programme. Patience Mukondomi, 31, was not given any. As a teacher she has a job and therefore does not qualify for aid. "There is nothing in the shops. We have money, but there is no food...

Mugabe's men drown cattle as thousands go hungry By Peta Thornycroft in Harare (Filed: 17/12/2002) Zimbabwe's commercial farmers have fallen victim to a renewed campaign of mindless violence with the killing of hundreds of cattle by workers egged on by supporters of President Robert Mugabe. On one farm several hundred head of cattle were recently driven into a dam to drown while others were penned into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve to death. Cattle were sent to their excruciating end by a group of about hysterical 20 farm workers, encouraged by government supporters, at Forrester Estates, in the Mvurwi...

No more Grand Slams for FReeper Registered After 22 years, restaurant closes its doorsDenny's Restaurant, a virtual institution among late-night diners, abruptly closed its doors for good Monday afternoon, citing lagging business.The Norton shores restaurant, which opened in 1980, closed at 3 pm Monday. The restaurant was hurt financially by safety and security concerns that forced the corporation to stop making it a 24-hour eatery-a "trademark" of Denny's restaurants, a corporate spokeswoman said.Customers (Like Me) and workers were not given advance warning the restaurant would be closing, said Melanie Mathews of Muskegon, a (darn good) server at the restaurant. Employees,...