Free Republic

Norwegian cuisine is generally sneered at by the country's Scandinavian neighbours. This is unfair, as some of it is very tasty. But here's a list The Local has put together of 15 dishes foreigners find particularly challenging.The list, available here, mixes outlandish dishes made from things like sheeps' heads or fermented fish, with the boring but unpalatable, drawing on a group of Oslo expats for their opinions. Feel free to comment on any glaring omissions or complain about unfairly maligned favourites.

<p>Miley Cyrus was many, many things on Sunday night. Let’s take a look.</p>

**SNIP** According to court documents filed in Savannah, Ga., all claims against the TV chef have been dismissed in the suit brought by former restaurant manager Lisa Jackson, with no award of costs or fees to any party. Jackson had sued on the grounds that the work environment at Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, owned by Deen and her brother, subjected employees to sexual harassment and racial discrimination. The news comes two weeks after a federal judge threw out the lawsuit's race discrimination claims, stating that though others may have faced that discrimination in the restaurant, Jackson could not...

The video above is visual proof to the importance of the Second Amendment and the right to protect yourself with a firearm. On March 11, a nursing school in Thailand was attacked in the early morning hours by 12 masked men wielding machetes. The nursing school is an all female institution for local 15- and 16-year-old girls in the Buriram Province. It is believed the motivation behind the attack was to lower moral and intimidate the all female institution. As you can see in the video above, the group of 12 men approach the school in the bed of a...

Republican candidate Gabriel E. Gomez ignited controversy on Thursday by calling his Democratic opponent for US Senate, a sitting congressman, “pond scum,” in an interview with a National Public Radio reporter on Thursday. Asked whether his candidate regretted his remarks, spokesman Will Ritter recounted that Gomez not only didn’t regret it, but went further in a television interview Thursday evening: “I was surprised at the controversy,” Ritter recounted Gomez saying. “Pond scum currently has a higher approval rating than Congress.”

"In two weeks the naysayers will find out just how wrong they have been" - Mike Zullo

Senior Director of Institutional Giving for NPR Betsy Liley said it is still a question of whether or not Barack Obama was born in the United States. She clearly is heard talking about a coverup, keeping the birther issue out of the news because it was “political” and even indicating that there was monkey business going on in Hawaii concerning Obama’s birth certificate. Listen to the brief audio below and see for yourself. Birthers are not just on the right. There are clearly birthers on the left, they just want to cover up the truth.

Barack Obama's hopes of a smooth start to his first presidential trip to Israel suffered a hitch on Wednesday when his armoured limousine broke down after a driver reportedly filled it with diesel instead of petrol. The hulking vehicle, nicknamed "the Beast" for its supposed robustness in the face of potential attacks, juddered to a halt on the motorway between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem after its engine apparently proved incapable of absorbing the alien fuel intake. Israeli media outlets, including the flagship Channel 2 television station, reported that the car had been filled with diesel. The sleek...

International Surveys Show Environmental Issues Rank Low Among Most People’s ConcernsFrom the University of Chiago, Chicago, IL–A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world.The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment. Additionally, when asked about climate change, people identified the issue as more of a national problem than a personal concern.Coordinated surveys, conducted by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 33 countries from 1993...

Anderson Cooper's 10pm show is set to be slashed by CNN chief Jeff Zucker to make room for a big new hire, network sources have revealed. The TV favourite, 45, hosts Anderson Cooper 360° at 8pm every weekday and the show is repeated at 10pm, with Brit Piers Morgan sandwiched in between. However, as part of a huge raft of changes at the network, Zucker plans to axe the 10pm segment, paving the way for a news star to anchor another show.

President Barack Obama's campaign operation appeared to be getting off to a shakey start Friday, sending out an ill-timed email calling on millions of supporters to flood the Capitol Hill switchboard with calls supporting gun control. Call in campaigns can be a powerful tool in lobbying Congress: when done right, lawmakers' offices are inundated with thousands of constituents demanding to speak with the senator or congresswoman about a particular issue. Well-orchestrated campaigns can even result in the congressional switchboard going down for hours at a time, disrupting everyday life in the Capitol and giving everyone in the building a sense...

"I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpGd74DrBM&feature=youtu.be

In San Francisco the average is $4.69 a gallon. The lack of buyers at station charging $5.09 shows drivers have their limits. California pollution rules require a gasoline blend that isn't readily available from refineries outside the state..

Al Gore 'Mostly at Peace These Days with Losing the Presidency in 2000' Some weeks Mr. Gore heads to San Francisco, where he has a luxury apartment at the St. Regis tower, to work on venture capital projects or visit his new girlfriend. And some nights he checks into the Regency in New York,

An image that could easily be mistaken for coming out of St. Petersburg, Russia has emerged from Dallas, Texas, where a couple was arrested for attempting to obtain a marriage license. Details follow. Mark "Major" Jiminez and Beau Chandler were lead out of the Dallas County Clerk's Office on Thursday in handcuffs. The couple applied for a marriage license and refused to leave the office after being denied based on their sexual orientation. The Dallas Voice reports: Once in the license bureau on Thursday afternoon, Chandler and Jiminez filled out the paperwork. Chandler crossed out the word “bride” and wrote...

Tulsa police say a reported abduction attempt turned out to be a case of two men catching a man who tried to steal a car, then tying him to a fence while they waited for officers to arrive. It happened Monday shortly after noon in the 1000 block of N. Garnett Road. Police say the victim and his friend were bailing hay in a field when they saw a man get into the vehicle and drive away. The owner had left his keys in the car, police say. They followed the would be thief until he got stopped in traffic...

A big splash occurred on Monday morning at the House Press Gallery in the U.S. Capitol. No, this wasn’t one of those unexpected guest appearances for celebrities to talk to reporters about some favorite cause. This splash came from an exploding urinal. More specifically, something suddenly broke in the piping of the third-floor urinal, and water began spewing from beneath the men’s room door. As the water flowed, it first surrounded the Associated Press’s working area, then spread toward both ends of the gallery, which was occupied by fewer than usual reporters and staffers, because the House is out of...

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas could, indeed, make good on his idea of building affordable housing right next door to the high-income NIMBYs who blocked his plans for a production studio near his Lucas Valley ranch complex. His Marin County neighbors and conservationists have dismissed Lucas' musings as sour grapes, and say low-income housing could never be built in such a remote and environmentally sensitive location.But those in the know disagree.There's a feeling on the Board of Supervisors, which has final say over the project, that it fits into the county's desire for more low-income housing - and by the...

Photos taken by a French satellite show glaciers in a mountain range west of the Himalayas have grown during the last decade. The growing glaciers were found in the Karakoram range, which spans the borders between Pakistan, India and China and is home to the world's second highest peak, K2. The startling find has baffled scientists ... French scientists from the National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Grenoble, were forced to rely on satellite images, to study the region - because much of the Karakoram range is inaccessible. They compared observations made in 1999 and 2008 and...

I'll start: How is a marriage like a deck of cards? You start out with two hearts and a diamond, but after awhile you're looking for a club and a spade. (rimshot!)