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Here is a snapshot of a series of truly ridiculous things that happened in a small New England town this week, followed by an extended examination of how it represents a deep societal pathology. In Winooski, Vermont, a small town northeast of Burlington, a restaurant was awarded a sign placement for its participation in a beautification project. Proud of its bacon (among other things, I’m sure), Sneakers Bistro chose a sign that said “Yield for Sneakers Bacon.” A Muslim woman, fond of neither pork nor free speech, complained online, garnering a sufficient contingent of busybodies to pressure the restaurant...

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...

The list of things that offend Muslims is long. Muslims are incensed, ready too often to murder offenders of their religion. The offenses range from substantive criticism: the Danish cartoons, The Satanic Verses, Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s film “Submission”; to the trivial: the Three Little Pigs banned from British schools, a teddy bear named Mohammed. A blog called the Amboy Times has compiled several hundred more.Add to this list a sign in Winooski, Vermont, a suburb of Burlington, that said, “Yield for Sneakers Bacon.” (Not “Yield Sneakers Bacon” as reported in numerous outlets.) Sneakers is a local...

For some reason, the vast majority of Americans can’t get enough of bacon. So Sneakers Bistro in Vermont put up a big sign proudly advertising bacon on it. There’s just one snag: a local Muslim resident wasn’t happy about it and got the bistro to take it down... One Muslim woman complained on a public forum that she took offense at the sign. The owners of the bistro ended up reaching out to her. They apologized and took the sign down, saying they didn’t mean to offend anyone with their bacon celebration. The bistro tweeted out a link to an...

The sign said “Yield Sneakers Bacon”: i.e., yield to the allure of the delicious bacon at Sneakers Bistro. But in the end it was the operators of Sneakers who yielded. For them, “diversity” means making the world a bit less diverse, by yielding to the Islamic supremacist demand that Infidels must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. Remember the ironclad and ever-reinforced principle: in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must change their behavior to avoid offending Muslims. And in non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must change their behavior to avoid offending Muslims.“Advertisement removed after resident expresses offense,” by Hannah McDonald, WPTZ.com, August 23, 2014...

WINOOSKI, Vt. —A sign on a lamp post at the bottom of the Winooski Circle displayed the words "Yield [for] Sneakers Bacon" until Friday morning. The bistro owners took it down. It got there as part of "Operation Bloom." A city program put it in place to keep its flower beds beautiful. If businesses do some gardening they can post an advertisement where they do it, but the word "bacon" on the Sneakers Bistro sign started a discussion about diversity on the Winooski Front Porch Forum. It started with a post from one woman who wrote that the sign was...

The former U.S. senator from Vermont who in 2001 tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent has died. James Jeffords was 80. Jeffords had announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term, citing his and his wife's health problems. His wife, Liz, died in 2007. Jeffords served more than 30 years in Washington. He won election to the House in 1974 as a Republican. He was the only Republican in the House to vote against President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts in 1981. A decade late, upset with President George...

Former Vermont U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, who in 2001 tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent, died Monday. He was 80.

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Former Vermont U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, who in 2001 tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent, died Monday. He was 80. Jeffords died in Washington, said Diane Derby, a former aide to Jeffords. He had been in declining health, she said. Jeffords had announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term, citing his and his wife's health problems.

Advocates of single-payer health care promise high-quality low-cost health care for all.But physicians in Vermont say the state’s move towards a single-payer health care system is driving independent doctors out of business and eliminating patient choice.Dr. Paul Reiss, a family practice physician in Williston, said only 20 percent of the doctors now in Vermont are independents, compared to 50 percent to 60 percent in the rest of the country.“The health systems have caused it to be nearly impossible from a financial standpoint to stay in private practice. That’s not so in the rest of the country,” he said.“If I was...

- The Daily Caller - http://dailycaller.com - Member Of Dem. Campaign Sent Vulgar And Sacrilegious Tweets Posted By Lauren Eissler On 3:48 PM 07/23/2014 [Ben Gagnon with Governors Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Peter Shulmin of Vermont and Congressman Michael Michaud of Maine at fundraising luncheon on the day before Gagnon was suspended for tweeting vulgar statements.] A team member of the Democrat’s nominee for governor of Maine tweeted a lot of sacrilegious and vulgar statements and was suspended for it. Maine Rep. Michael Michaud’s team member Ben Gagnon was suspended after tweeting sexist, expletive-laden statements. The tweets were taken down...

Maine’s Republican governor wants all able-bodied recipients of the federal food stamp benefit to complete work or volunteer activities. Gov. Paul LePage announced Wednesday that Maine will no longer seek a federal waiver that allows some able-bodied adults to receive food stamps without working or volunteering. “We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work,” LePage said in a statement announcing the change. “We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.” According to the Maine...

n 1980, under the first administration of Governor Jerry Brown, California decided it wasn’t going to build any more power plants but would follow Amory Lovins’ “soft path,” opting instead for conservation and renewable energy. By 2000, with the new digital economy sucking up electricity, a drought in the Pacific Northwest cut hydropower output and the state found itself facing the Great California Electrical Shortage. You know what happened next. For weeks the Golden State struggled to find enough electricity to power its traffic lights. Brownouts and blackouts cascaded across the state while businesses fired up smoke-belching diesel generators to...

The number of Americans who see illegal immigration as the nation's most pressing problem has spiked from 3 per cent to 17 per cent since May, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. That percentage now tops government corruption, the U.S. economy, jobs, health care and every other hot-button issue, driven by a flood of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border. 'We are all connected. We can't just build a wall or a fence and say no more,' Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis tweeted on Tuesday. 'This is America. Our doors are open.' The...

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday cited the Holocaust as he argued against a Republican push to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border by amending a 2008 human trafficking law. “Think of all those Jews that went to the ovens because we forgot our principles,” Leahy said. “Let’s not turn our backs now.” Leahy said Congress can take action to deal with the surge of immigrants without "watering down our laws or turning our backs on our basic values as Americans.” “We can either make good on our laws ... or we can say ‘gee...

MONTPELIER — The Shumlin administration is entertaining an initial inquiry from the federal government about hosting some of the migrant children from Central America who have been arriving at the country’s southern border by the thousands in recent months. Susan Allen, a spokeswoman for Gov. Peter Shumlin, said the Obama administration has reached out to states about hosting the 60,000 or so children in U.S. custody. Many of the children have traveled as many as 1,000 miles to reach the United States from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“How would you fight the war on terror?” Watters asked. “Let’s be friends, let’s work together,” she replied. “You want to be friends with al Qaeda?” Watters said. “I want the entire world to know that we are all connected,” the woman added.

As Obamacare, beset with calamities, enters its fourth year, the cerulean-blue state of Vermont is well into its fourth year of preparing to astonish America by installing Canadian-style single-payer health care. To understand the political dynamics of this plan, it’s necessary to go back to the 2010 election for governor. After eight able years at the helm, much of it spent deflecting left-wing (known locally as “Sanderista,” after socialist senator Bernie Sanders) legislative initiatives, popular Republican governor Jim Douglas stepped down. Five Democrats leaped into the race to succeed him. To win a contested Democratic primary in Vermont, a candidate...

As members of Congress continue hammering out a bill to improve the Department of Veterans Affairs' beleaguered health care system, attention has focused on one man leading the charge: Bernie Sanders, Independent senator from Vermont and a self-described socialist. Sanders barely got 2 percent of the vote when he first tried breaking into Vermont politics in the 1970s, but now there's buzz that the man known simply as "Bernie" may be a presidential candidate in 2016."The cost of war is huge," the 72-year-old said recently during lunch at Henry's Diner in Burlington, Vt., where he rose to become an immensely...

RUTLAND, Vt. - He fended off a robber with a gun and lost his job because of it. Don Pitaniello said his employer said he violated company policy by having a gun on him at work. He says he is alive, because he did. Pitaniello carries a gun at all times and says he's fully in his legal right to do so. "I do, I always have," said Pitaniello, former Mac's employee. He had his Smith & Wesson .380 Bodyguard on him Sunday night, when he was working at a Mac's Convenience Store on 145 North Main Street in Rutland....