Free Republic

Federal employes will be given at least six weeks of paid leave to care for new children under plans unveiled by the White House to kick-start legislative efforts to close the gap in family benefits offered by the US and other wealthy countries. Democrats have been pushing for better maternity and sick leave rights for over a decade in Congress with little success, but plans by Barack Obama to back the passage of a Healthy Families Act with the executive action for government workers and $2.2bn of new funding for state efforts would be the first time the president has...

Oxford University Press Bans Use Of Pig, Sausage Or Pork-Related Words To Avoid Offending Muslims 14 Jan 2015 The Oxford University Press has warned its writers not to mention pigs, sausages or pork-related words in children's books, in an apparent bid to avoid offending Jews and Muslims. The existence of the publisher's guidelines emerged after a radio discussion on free speech in the wake of the Paris attacks. Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, presenter Jim Naughtie said: "I've got a letter here that was sent out by OUP to an author doing something for young people. "Among the things...

It’s that time of year again: feeder pig time! If there’s anything I love as much as raising pigs, it’s getting others hooked on raising pigs. I’m like a drug dealer who deals exclusively in swine. And it works because the pigs themselves are like potato chips, you can’t have just one. No, literally, you can’t (shouldn’t) have just one. Pigs are incredibly social animals, which is why we sell them in groups of two or more. Not only does having another pig around increase their mental and emotional health, they thrive physically when there is another animal of their...

The Senate voted to pass its annual National Defense Authorization Act on Friday , sending Montana’s first wilderness additions in 33 years to President Barack Obama’s desk. The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $585 billion in Pentagon discretionary spending and $63.7 billion in overseas contingency operations.It also includes a package of 70 public land management bills; the biggest collection since the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. They create about 250,000 acres of new wilderness designations and protection of other lands from energy development. Other measures open thousands of acres to logging in Alaska and swaps federal lands for...

Tucked inside the massive defense policy bill now pending on Capitol Hill is a rewrite of terrorist watch lists, a host of new national park sites and a land deal that American Indians say threatens to destroy ancient burial grounds. Meanwhile, several tax break bills speeding through Congress renew a controversial credit for wind turbines and end Medicare’s program to pay for penis pumps for senior citizens suffering erectile dysfunction.

Congress has returned from the mid-term elections and members are hammering out the details of the National Defense Authorization Act. NDAA, which has passed for more than 50 years consecutively, provides policy guidance for the U.S. defense budget. The importance of the NDAA to the defense budgeting process and its traditional status as a “must-pass” piece of legislation makes it an inviting target for pet projects and wasteful spending. Unfortunately, as this year’s lame duck session winds down, some lawmakers are trying to end-run the normal legislative process in a rushed, closed-door approach. This presents an opportunity not only to...

Four men were jailed for throwing a severed pig’s head into a mosque in Lancashire last May. Shocked women and children watched as the four friends dumped a carrier bag containing the severed head in the parking lot of Blackpool Central Mosque. Preston Crown Court was told the four men had organized the crime—which came only two days after the murder of solider Lee Rigby in May 2013—as a prank, knowing it would be seen as an insult in a Muslim place of worship. The four men—Thomas Ashton, 21; Andrew Warner, 31; Travis Crabtree, 25; and Steven White, 28—are all...

Likened to 'packing foam' and 'gray IKEA furniture' the McDonald's McRib patty came under scrutiny last year after one was photographed on the production line minus sauce and pickles. But now the fast food giant is hoping to get people 'lovin" its seasonal treat again by showing exactly how the boneless, preformed morsel is made. A new behind-the-scenes video takes viewers inside the Lopez Foods production facility in Oklahoma City where giant chunks of pork are ground down - no packing foam in sight.

FELLSMERE, Fla. (CBS12) -- A 61-year-old man was arrested after he stabbed his nephew during a fight over pork chops, Fellsmere police say. Billy Wall and his nephew Charles Williams were arguing over the number of pork chops each one got to eat for dinner. -snip Both men began to fight again after Williams said his nephew grabbed a machete and threatened him.

A virus that killed millions of baby pigs in the last year and led to higher pork prices has waned thanks to warmer weather and farmers’ efforts to sterilize their operations. And as pigs’ numbers increase, sticker shock on things like bacon should ease. Already, hog supplies are on the rise, with 5.46 million baby pigs born between June and August in Iowa, the nation’s leading producer—the highest quarterly total in 20 years and a record 10.7 surviving pigs per litter, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. It’s a significant turnaround from a year ago when the porcine...

Food shelves can be a life line for people dealing with poverty and hunger. But many in the Somali-American community say finding a food shelf that caters to their religious dietary restrictions is almost impossible. “Some food shelves are trying to meet the need, but some of them already got canned beans that have already been mixed with pork — and there is a literacy issue here,” said community activist Fartun Weli. A group of first-generation Somali Americans says they need help in developing a food shelf that specializes in healthy foods that do not contain pork or pork byproducts....

A Vermont diner decided to take down a sign advertising bacon after a Muslim declared that she had a beef with bacon. Sneakers Bistro had placed a sign on a lamp post that read, “Yield Sneakers Bacon.” The diner was allowed to erect the sign because of their participation in a beautification program in the town of Winooski. A woman who described herself as a “vegan and a member of a Muslim household” called the sign offensive, the Burlington Free Press reported. “Given the large number of Muslim families in Winooski, as well as many others who do not eat...

Bacon lovers are getting socked in the piggy bank. City butchers and restaurateurs are beginning to squeal for mercy after the price of bacon rose to the highest it’s been in nearly 30 years — thanks to high demand and a shortage of healthy pigs. “We’ve had to raise the prices in small increments in the last month,” said Vincent Santiago, an employee at Staubitz meat market in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The pork surge began last year when a virus swept through US farms in about 30 states and killed millions of pigs. Bacon prices have shot up around 10...

Waiting for someone in the radical Muslim world to ask why their chief defender Barack Hussein Obama made such a big public display about chowing down on a a half-slab of PORK spare ribs in a Kansas City restaurant yesterday. Does the the deafening silence mean that just as the Marxists do, radical Islam follows the steadfast rule about the end always justifying the means?

Vive Le Vibrancy! In France Muslims Will Assault You For Eating A Ham Sandwich NB - Google Translate - The case seems absurd, but it is being treated with the utmost seriousness by the police from Reims (Marne). A 23 year old man filed a complaint on June 8, after being attacked, around 21:30 on a tram in the city by two strangers. They hit the victim repeatedly in the face because he was eating a ham sandwich. The two attackers, who claimed to be Muslims, said they were offended by the consumption of pork in their presence and so...

To the list of bygone New York City pleasures, add one more slice of life — the sausage pizza.

Cadbury chocolates sold in Malaysia have been cleared of containing pork, the country's top Islamic body said Monday in a statement that should lessen calls for a boycott of the British confectionary company after earlier tests suggested two types of chocolate bar contained pig DNA. The now apparently discredited findings last month by the Ministry of Health sparked outrage among some Islamist groups in Malaysia, who called for a boycott of all Cadbury's products. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is also testing Cadbury chocolates, although the two products at issue in Malaysia are not sold there. Under Islamic...

Tom Polansek, ReutersMay 28, 2014, 7:22 AM An Indiana farm has become the first to confirm publicly it suffered a second outbreak of a deadly pig virus, fueling concerns that a disease that has wiped out 10 percent of the U.S. hog population will be harder to contain than producers and veterinarians expected. The farm, through its veterinarian, publicly acknowledged on Tuesday a repeat incident of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), which has killed up to 7 million pigs and pushed pork prices to record highs since it was first identified in the United States a year ago. Matt Ackerman,...

Cadbury Malaysia recalled two of its chocolate products Monday after they tested positive for pork DNA, according to Reuters.

Muslim groups are calling for a boycott of Cadbury after two if its products sold in predominately Islamic Malaysia were found to contain traces of pork. The discovery was made during a periodic check for non-halal ingredients in food products by the country's Ministry of Health, which confirmed porcine DNA traces in its bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond.