Free Republic

More than half the members of the City Council have fired off a letter to Walmart demanding that it stop making millions in charitable contributions to local groups here. Twenty-six of the 51 members of the Council charged in the letter that the world’s biggest retailer’s support of local causes is a cynical ploy to enter the market here. “We know how desperate you are to find a foothold in New York City to buy influence and support here,” says the letter, obtained by The Post and addressed to Walmart and the Walton Family Foundation. “Stop spending your dangerous dollars...

Two national chain restaurants have asked that customers refrain from bringing firearms into their establishments, saying the weapons can create an uncomfortable atmosphere for other diners. Sonic Drive-In and Chili's Grill & Bar both issued statements Friday requesting that customers keep their guns out of their restaurants even if they have an open carry permit. The request, which stops short of an outright ban, came after members of the gun-rights group Open Carry Texas walked into Texas outlets of Sonic and Chili's carrying assault rifles. Dallas-based Brinker International, which owns the Chili's chain, said in a statement it was dedicated...

Same-sex marriage is still illegal in Colorado but the state's civil rights commission ruled Friday that Jack Phillips has to bake a cake for a same-sex marriage ceremony. The Daily Caller reports:In 2012, Jack Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakes in Lakewood, refused to sell cakes to Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, a same-sex couple. Mullin and Craig were to be married in Massachusetts but wanted a cake for a reception at their home in a Denver suburb. As he had done with other same-sex couples in the past Phillips refused to sell the goods, saying that he is a devout...

Michelle Obama’s intrusion into school lunches has come under fire from students, Republicans and even her husband’s executive branch. Mrs. Obama essentially wants government to dictate what people eat. Via her school lunch program, the government is insisting that schools feed kids food they won’t or don’t eat. The cost for schools is higher, student participation is lower. As is typical with government, the program is one size fits all. Calorie counts are based on elementary, middle and high school and don’t count for age differences. In other words, the program is a mess. Republicans want to cut into it,...

Today, the National Potato Council praised the House for considering a bill to include the potato in its WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) food nutrition ("food stamp") program. The Council also debunked First Lady Michelle Obama's claims that including the potato would "override science" and that Americans are already eating enough of them.The Potato Council notes that the First Lady's science is based on old data - not the latest government reports:"Opponents of adding fresh potatoes to the WIC package are picking and choosing the science. Instead of relying on a 2005 report that looks at data from the mid-1990s,...

There’s a hashtag filled with colorful commentary and color pictures of the devastation Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative has wrought on the plastic platters of America’s school children. There’s a GAO report showing participation in the school lunch program down more than 1 million students— the first such decline in years— while costs are up and the actual nutritional value of these allegedly improved meals remains in question. But none of this requires reevaluation. The real problem with Michelle Obama’s crusade and a top-down, inflexible federal mandate for students of varying sizes and tastes is that Republicans are pointing...

It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have now printed, not picked, fresh fruit. Researchers working at a company in Cambridge, England, have used a new process to enable the 3D printing of a variety of fresh products. They recently unveiled the process and results at the TechFoodHack conference held in Cambridge, an experimental dining event that also included the unveiling of a new flavour of gelato. 3D printing was first demonstrated back in 1984, but use of the technique was not widespread until 2010 when the cost of the Additive Manufacturing machines dropped significantly in...

News broke today that Sprinkles Cupcakes will install New York City's first 24-hour cupcake ATM at its Upper East Side location next week. The unit has a 760 cupcake capacity and can dispense up to four sweet treats at a time. That's pretty cool—but not as cool as a vending machine that makes fresh pizza in under three minutes. Behold Let's Pizza:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Invented by entrepreneur Claudio Torghele, Let's Pizza machines were initially designed and manufactured in Northern Italy. Customers choose between up to four kinds of pies, and watch through windows as the machine adds water to flour, kneads the dough,...

Just a day after House Republicans introduced legislation to roll back some Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations on school meal programs, the USDA announced some flexibility would be granted to some schools for the coming school year when implementing the new policies:

The Subway sandwich chain is the target of many international boycotts for a variety of good reasons. In 2011 in the USA the company gave the Subway Sportsman of the Year Award to the American footballer Michael Vick, a convicted felon who was incarcerated for 18 months (and could have been longer) for spending years torturing and killing animals. When police raided his house, they found 65 dogs, a dog-fighting pit, blood-stained carpets, and various equipment commonly used in dog fighting, including a ‘rape stand’ in which female dogs are strapped into and restrained, to allow male dogs to...

This is my story on how you can cut down your grocery bill while improving your diet. It’s called intensive organic vegetable gardening and it’s like growing money in the backyard.My wife and I completed our organic certification course last year at the University of Richmond’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies. We decided to take this course so we could eat healthier and reduce our grocery bill. This has been a fun project and we look forward to growing our own vegetables, or as I like to call it: growing money in the backyard!

Don’t be fooled by the labels; these foods aren’t what you think. Here’s a secret in the food industry: Many healthy foods are no better than their alternatives. Some have little nutritional value, some actually contain harmful chemicals and some even pose as “healthy” when they’re downright bad for you. Go beyond the labels and scrutinize the ingredients. Breads labeled as “whole wheat” or “whole grain,” for example, can pack as much as 70 percent refined flour. But because it includes some whole grains, it can advertise itself as the real deal. And challenge the myths. You don’t need many...

Some people are saying that this time, PETA’s lost all credibility. They’ve crossed the line. I’d ask when PETA ever had any credibility? It is not possible to take them seriously. They have to pretend that they’re outraged by animal abuse so that they can raise lots of money from rich and flaky Hollywood liberals. Their latest attack is on the White House for using real eggs in their Easter egg hunt:

Although it’s been going on for years, it seems lately there is an all-out assault by the nanny government to crack down on our liberties. Nowadays, when the people say no, our rulers just do the old end around, or sleight-of-hand. They cause us to concentrate on one thing while they regulate behind our backs. Lately it seems that even this tactic has changed and the Nanny State has begun to attack us from all sides. Take this global warming nonsense. With every passing year, the people are coming to realize what a hoax it has been. Every poll conducted...

A new report from the Medical University of Graz in Austria presents evidence that the “vegan” lifestyle is actually dangerous. The study found that purely vegetarian diets lead to poorer general health and a diminished quality of life marred by both physical and mental problems. In spite of the vegan tendency to smoke less if at all; have higher socioeconomic achievement, eat less fat, get more exercise, eat more veggies and fruits and drink less alcohol they do not have a better life style by objective standards. Vegans suffer from higher rates of cancer; are twice as likely to be...

Agenda 21, the United Nation’s open plan for global sustainability, is widely understood to be voluntary. Critics of the scheme, however, insist the UN is engaging in double-speak, and that this so-called “volunteer” status is actually creating a world government through the interlinking of UN bureaucracies and international corporations. It is appears now they may be right, this time involving a place most households in the Western world cannot avoid, the grocery store. As it turns out, every item scanned at Wal-Mart, America’s top food reseller with an estimated 25% of market share, supports Agenda 21 through a little known...

About the 2014 Preppers Festival The Prepper's Festival will be held on Downtown Main Street in New Castle, VA on April 19th, 2014. This event will include a wide array of preparedness, homesteading and survivalist-related vendors, local artisans, skill-building workshops and even a Top Chef style Prepper's Cook-Off! Additionally, live music will be provided throughout the day and a large raffle will be held. This event is sure to be fun and very informative for all who attend!

Our post-partisan President reached a new low yesterday. Speaking at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan he declared Paul Ryan’s budget a “stinkburger” or “meanwich.” Obama is apparently promoting an increase in the minimum wage. He went to Zingerman’s because they allegedly offer a “fair” wage. The left doesn’t seem to understand that a “fair” wage is whatever an employee agrees to work for. In other words, it isn’t determined by government bureaucrats or academics. That’s beside the point of course, we know Obama believes everything in our lives must be decided in Washington. The problem of course is that Zingerman’s...

The word got around that cat didn’t taste that bad and in a matter of weeks you just couldn’t find any more stray cats when just a few months earlier they were all over the city. In the country, kids with slingshots and air rifles would go bird hunting so as to bring something home to throw in the pot.

A small sign of renewed American freedom has been noticed in Spokane, Washington.    Jitterz Java was robbed twice in February of this year.   On March 16th, an armed robber was run off by an armed employee.  As noted in the above image, at least one barista believes in the deterrent effect of open carry. The owner, Sara Chapel has taken steps to reduce her losses.  From spokesman.com: The recent string of violence has owner Sara Chapel fed up. “The way I’ve been scheduling the girls is that at least one girl who carries a gun is always on shift,”...