Free Republic

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a government quango in case it offends Muslims. The digital remake of the children's classic was criticised by Becta, the education technology agency, because "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".

The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday. After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals. But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar. "Sending New Year...

Allow me a small amount of vanity bandwidth to explain why Phil will never win another Major Championship. Obesity. When he turned pro out of college he was slim, trim and flexible. His talent was amazing. Yes he has won twenty-odd tournaments, and yes he did win two Masters, but to see him striding the fairways of Medinah is to painfully watch a middle-aged couch-potato waddle slowly down the fairway as his ponderous breasts sag through his sweat-soaked shirt. He needs a Cosmo Kramer Bro! His face is bloated almost beyond recognition to his rookie year. His middle is a...

Actress Angelina Jolie will star in a movie as the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, trade paper Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition. "A Mighty Heart," adapted from Mariane Pearl's memoir of the same name, will begin shooting within the next five weeks, the paper said. The book details Pearl's search for her husband, who was abducted and beheaded by militants in Pakistan in early 2002. "I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book," Daily Variety quoted Pearl as saying. "I deeply admire her work and...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got an anonymous text message suggesting he didn't wash enough, he did not take it lying down. He fired the president of the phone company, had four people arrested, took other legal action and accused those involved of conspiring with the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, according to the Iranian opposition website Rooz Online. The website says Ahmadinejad, known throughout the world as a hard-liner who has threatened Israel with destruction and questioned the Holocaust, is the target of many barbs among the populace in his country.

MINNEAPOLIS Oct 21, 2005 — Gordon Lee, the chubby child actor who played Spanky McFarland's little brother Porky in the "Little Rascals" comedies, has died. He was 71. Lee died Sunday in a Minneapolis nursing home after battling lung and brain cancer, said Janice McClain, his partner of 13 years. Lee played one of the younger members in the "Our Gang" shorts in the 1930s, appearing in more than 40 of them from 1935 to 1939. The comedies, produced by Hal Roach, became known as "The Little Rascals" when shown on TV in the 1950s. Among the films Lee appeared...

Muslims throughout the Islamic world are now being advised not to consume Pepsi Cola because it contains the parts of pigs used it it's production ~ Begin my translation ~ Al-Irsyad – the Islamic Agency for Research in Egypt has now recommended that Muslims are not to consume Pepsi Cola because it is being suspected of containing material that has been made from the intestines of pigs. Dr. Mustofa Asyak'ah an agency member has asked for the other members of the agency to gather to discuss this problem, so that the Muslim community can receive clarity as to whether the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice illiterate and suggested in a speech last week that she had sexual dreams about him, prompting outrage among Venezuelan women's groups, which denounced his "obscene and lewd" remarks. In his Jan. 23 speech, Mr. Chavez said Miss Rice "keeps demonstrating complete illiteracy." "It seems that she dreams about me. I can invite her on a date with me to see what happens to her with me. She said that she was sad and depressed because of Chavez. Oh, daddy! She should forget me. What bad luck this lady has. I...

The question in this title may seem strange, but there is actually a very strong coincidence. A coworker of mine went last week to Chile to participate in the Pucon half Ironman triathlon, which took place on the same day as Chavez’ sexist remarks about Condoleezza Rice. Since Sunday, I have been trying to find news in the international press about both events, with very limited success. In the case of the triathlon I was trying to find out how well she did in her category (over 40, ladies) which was never reported by the official website. But so far,...

While the heavily scrutinized touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios matched the Kerry/Bush vote, and so did the optically-scanned paper ballots in the larger counties, in Florida's smaller counties the results from the optically scanned paper ballots - fed into a central tabulator PC and thus vulnerable to hacking - seem to have been reversed. In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in...

Rosie Sheds Tears As 'Taboo' Goes DarkShow Closes After Dismal Ticket Sales, Reviews POSTED: 1:24 PM EST February 9, 2004 UPDATED: 2:08 PM EST February 9, 2004 Rosie O'Donnell wiped tears away from her face minutes after the final performance of the Broadway musical "Taboo" over the weekend. The $10 million production was funded entirely by O'Donnell. It told the story of gender-bending pop star Boy George, but folded after three months of mediocre ticket sales and negative reviews. Fans shouted "Thank you, Rosie!" and held playbills and posters for her to sign. The former talk show host vowed that...

MIDI - LOVE IS IN THE AIR - scroll to the bottom, 1st version I gulped for air...when he said what he did I had gulped for air...and I flipped my lid I could not believe what I was hearing He said she had dropped down to her knees On unsecure lines they had phone sex Miss Porky used her thong to tease I had gulped for air...and I nearly cracked I had gulped for air...maybe she should be whacked My whole world was crashing around me I could almost not handle the stress No, it wasn't so bad...

NEW YORK (AP) - In his first major speech since the midterm elections, former President Clinton (news - web sites) said the Democratic Party needs to communicate clear, fresh ideas on the economy and national security if it wants to recover from election losses. Clinton's remarks came during a speech Tuesday to the Democratic Leadership Council, a national network that Clinton helped found in the 1980s to steer the party toward a more centrist image. He reflected on the mood of the party back then to look ahead to the party's next step. "We had a strategy rooted in new...