Free Republic

Mitch McConnell for Pres. 2016 and General of Counter-Terrorism for VP. I thought you would be interested in this story I found on news.msn.com: US ambassador summoned by Germany over NSA spying ( http://news.msn.com/world/us-ambassador-summoned-by-germany-over-nsa-spying#tscptme, ) Wait a second? Didn’t Snowden first go to China? Where China and their reverse-technology, was granted the rights to reproduce the Grundig SW radio? I hear people in American jails, know how to increase the band-with of small transistor radio’s. What could China do with a Grundig or cell phone, like the Samsung knock-off. Now didn’t Germany discredit our secrets, as found in the German...

Inclusive growth is what the Philippines needs. Most of the poor who are left behind in economic growth are in the countryside. They are the coconut farmers, small fishers, upland dwellers and landless farm workers. This article discusses the Malaysian experience in rural poverty reduction from the 1960s to the 1990s. Specifically, it focuses on two development models: the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda); and the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra). Philippine experts confuse Felda and Felcra, and the two with the nucleus estate model of Indonesia. Let’s clarify the main difference: Felda develops government forest lands for...

Former Australian cattle station manager Michael Sheehy has some singular advice for the Indonesian government if it wants to achieve self-sufficiency in beef: Follow the model of the booming palm oil industry and put cattle raising in corporate hands. As with most of Indonesia's agriculture, the livestock industry is largely confined to low- technology operations - backyard feedlots that mean a higher cost of production and higher prices for consumers as a result. The Indonesian government has used tariffs and quotas to protect local farmers from international competition. This is a short-term measure which, judging by the current beef price...

So I am thinking of simply leaving the job I work at now and heading to a Southern state, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Northern Florida, Tennessee, etc since I figure that, since I am one of those who does not have a reliable source of family aid of any kind, that this could be my only option. I am considering finding a church that has a sort of communal living situation, a farm, ranch, factory or other such source that could use additional workers and join one of them. I am thinking of it in light of a situation...

Katelyn Fossett / Foreign PolicyYou may not have heard of Gennady Onishchenko, but if his own accounts are to be believed, he’s the Russian government official who single-handedly averts major public health crises posed by foreign countries’ dangerously lax and unsophisticated food safety standards (including those in a certain country where the federal government has ground to a halt). To others, Onishchenko, Russia’s chief sanitary inspector, is also Russia’s chief manufacturer of elaborate food safety scares to wage geopolitically motivated trade wars with other countries, particularly former Soviet republics. On Wednesday, Onishchenko, the director of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer-protection agency, announced...

The Yomiuri ShimbunThe government and ruling parties have started to consider scrapping tariffs on imported wine, an idea that would, in turn, call on other negotiators in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks to eliminate tariffs on sake, government sources said. The move suggests that the government and ruling parties believe the mutual removal of tariffs would greatly benefit domestic consumers while also increasing sake exports from Japan, according to the sources. The idea to eliminate tariffs on wine was a Japanese response to a request made by Australia and New Zealand, the sources said. The government and the...

Authorities in Moscow are on high alert in the city's downtown core, following mass demonstrations there on Sunday. Over 200 people have been arrested after rioting broke out south of the Kremlin complex. Earlier in the day on Sunday, angry demonstrators stormed a vegetable market in the area, searching for the person they believe is responsible for a murder. When police showed up to try to restore order, demonstrators eventually turned on police. Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev is vowing to restore order. "Literally tomorrow, activate the work in relation to all of the vegetable warehouses, which are a constant...

(Reuters) - First it was sex, then casinos. Now, a Singapore diplomat has been charged with inflating the number of pineapple tarts and bottles of wine carried on official visits in the latest corruption case to hit the squeaky clean city-state. Lim Cheng Hoe, former chief of protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, allegedly overbilled authorities by around S$89,000 ($71,100) by overstating the amount of gifts bought for official purposes between 2008 and 2012. Lim faces 60 charges and could be jailed for up to three years on each charge if found guilty. Singapore, a wealthy Asian finance and...

The country's transport minister is expected to formally agree the barter deal with Chinese premier Li Keqiang on Friday, according to the Nation. The project to link Bangkok with Nong Khai, close to the Laos border, is part of a proposed 2m baht ($30bn, £19bn) infrastructure investment programme to part-financed with agricultural products. The railway is one day envisaged to link Thailand with the Southern Chinese province of Kunming, via the Laos capital Vientiane. However, fine details remain to be thrashed out between the countries. The Bangkok Post says even the transport minister isn't optimistic of the scheme's success. It...

SEOUL/CHICAGO Oct 9 (Reuters) - South Korea has suspended some U.S. beef imports after detecting the cattle feed additive zilpaterol in meat supplied by a unit of JBS USA Holdings Inc , raising concerns that the controversial animal growth enhancer may still be in the supply chain weeks after Merck & Co halted sales of Zilmax, the top-selling zilpaterol-based drug. The South Korean claim of zilpaterol-tainted beef is the first to come to light since Merck suspended sales of Zilmax on Aug. 16 amidst concerns about its impact on the health of cattle. It also comes at a time when...

ost people think that Springtime is the time to start growing that vegetable or herb garden. But there are many types of plants that should mainly be grown during the cooler months. Fall is a great time to try your hand at growing leafy greens, and that makes this a great way to save some money on produce. If you end up with a good harvest, you'll have a bountiful source of vegetables while other people are paying higher prices for greens at the grocery store. Here are 6 cooler weather plants you may want to try your hand at...

Ningxia has also become a wine hub in China and, increasingly, wine experts are coming around to the idea of Chinese wine. In December 2011, a panel of 10 wine experts found, in a blind tasting, that of a total of 10 wines made in Ningxia and Bordeaux in France, four out of the top five were Ningxia reds. Ningxia is home to some of the country’s top wineries and they are really make an impact, including Helan Qing Xue and Silver Heights, while the Shanxi-based Grace Vineyard has wineries in Ningxia. “Grape planting is now our main income,” said...

Experts and researchers on Saturday introduced new plant technology at a conference held on Saturday in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to harness desertification of China. Juncao, a kind of herbaceous herb, can be cultivated as substrate for edible and medicinal fungi, which may make great strides in sand control and reduce desertification thanks to the efforts of Lin Zhanxi, professor at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, and his team. Lin started working with Juncao in 1986 and developed his system over more than two decades of research and innovation. In April, sand control trials using Juncao were approved...

Around one in 10 families in South Korea are unable to afford traditional gifts for the country's forthcoming Chuseok (harvest festival) holiday, it has been reported. A poll of more than 1,200 people found that 11.6% would not buy presents for the annual celebration, says one of the country's largest supermarkets. Choi Choon-seok of South Korean hypermarket Lotte Mart expects "a noticeable trend toward inexpensive and practical presents" as households grapple with the continuing recession, says The Chosun Ilbo newspaper. People buying presents are likely to spend an average of 196,000 won ($180; £115) on gifts of fruit and healthy...

CHACHOENGSAO - In one village homes are raided, property is pinched and locals are attacked by dastardly gangs operating beyond the law - but the perpetrators are monkeys, not men. "They creep into my house when they see me sleeping, they go into the kitchen and take cooking oil, sugar and even the medicines that I hide in a cabinet,'' said Chaluay Khamkajit, after years battling with pesky primates who are thought to have been drawn into Khlong Charoen Wai village by habitat loss. "They took my snacks, I can buy more, but the medicines are important to me,'' the...

(Reuters) - China is preparing the ground to scrap a controversial scheme to stockpile cotton in favor of subsidizing farmers, a move that could slash imports by the world's top buyer of the fiber and herald a broad shakeup of Beijing's sensitive farm policies. Abandoning stockpiling would mark the end of a system that has distorted the market to such a degree that it has been cheaper for Chinese mills to import cotton grown abroad than to buy domestic produce. China's top economic planning body has completed a draft plan to change to subsidies and is seeking opinion from experts...

With each passing day, it seems the United States of America, “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” is becoming more and more like the Communist Russia I learned about in elementary school where people weren’t allowed to grow their own food unless the State “allowed” it. In this latest crackdown on citizens simply trying to provide for themselves using the most basic of skills – gardening – the USDA’s Rural Development Agency is forbidding Rosie, an industrious 4-year old girl in South Dakota from using a small, unused area outside her subsidized housing unit to grow green...

Arkansas, Colorado, Texas—all states of the historic western frontier. Conjuring up images of sprawling ranches, longhorn cattle, and cowboys, the relationship between the American west and the farming industry has endured for almost 200 years. However, modern reality in the form of the race for shale gas, is quickly catching up. As perpetually dry western states close in on a third year of drought and record breaking heat waves, the hydraulic fracturing industry is quickly out-competing ranchers in the scramble for increasingly limited water resources. "We’re not going to be able to raise the food we need," said Ben Rainbolt,...

“Hamburger shops are a dime a dozen in Tokyo these days, but there are very few places doing barbecue,” said Lauren Shannon, owner of Bulldog Barbeque (www.bulldogbbq.jp). By barbecue, Shannon doesn’t mean any old thing thrown on a grill, but rather the tradition of the American South of slow-cooked, smoked meats. If you don’t know it, you’re missing out on some seriously good, authentically American food. If you do know it, you’ve probably lamented that it is so hard to come by in Tokyo. “It’s the exact opposite of fast food. It takes days of salt rubs, hours of smoking....

Marijuana is now legal in Washington, and the Seattle police have been remarkably mellow about the whole thing. In fact, the city's Police Department plans to be at Hempfest, what has become the largest pot rally in the world. And they're taking bags of Doritos in case anyone, you know, gets a little hungry.