Free Republic

These two headlines adjacent today on Drudge. What else is there to say about the Obamanation? White House Super Bowl menu: 'Bratwurst, Kielbasa, Cheeseburgers, Deep Dish Pizza, Buffalo Wings, Potato Salad, Twice Baked Potatoes, Potato Chips, Pretzels, Chips and Dips, Salad, Ice Cream'... RESTAURANT NUTRITION DRAWS FOCUS OF FIRST LADY...

Michelle Obama's Barbecue Hypocrisy By Andrew Cline February 4, 2011 The first rule of political pandering: Know what you're talking about.The classic example: In 2004, Sen. John Kerry, trying to bolster his regular guy image, spoke of Green Bay's hallowed ";Lambert Field." It's Lambeau Field. Ten dork points for Kerry. This week, Michelle Obama walked into a culinary version of the Lambert gaffe. In an e-mail congratulating Charlotte, N.C., on being named host city for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Obama mentioned that Charlotte has "great barbecue." As someone who grew up an hour from Charlotte, I can tell you...

He snorted with derision at "libertarians" who fail to recognize that "we don't have a health-care crisis in this country, but a health crisis." He spoke with passion and knowledge on the need for preventative care to bring down exorbitant costs. And then, without the least amount of prompting, he mustered a vigorous defense of Mrs. Obama's "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity. This was the "art of governing," he argued, rather than the cheap "science of campaigning."

Conservatives and libertarians are constantly railing against government intervention in the lives of citizens. As such, they are often accused by the left of hating all forms of government and seeking to deregulate everything to the point where corporations can take over the country and rob and enslave the citizenry. Nothing could be farther than the truth. Conservatives understand a successful nation requires a functioning government with a strong rule of law. Without a well functioning government a society devolves into chaos and anarchy. Anarchy in turn usually leads to the rise of a strongman or powerful groups who take...

In Ipswich, England, the once World's Fattest Man, a former postal employee, is suing the National Health Service for allowing him to become so obese. The 50 year old man asked for help at 30 stone(a stone equals 14 pounds), but feels he received poor advice from a medic in 1996 who advised him to ride his bike more often. He is also complaining that at 64 stone, he asked to see an eating disorders specialist, he feels he was wronged by being sent to a dietician; Consequently, he blames the NHS and these two issues for his weight getting...

Popular New Year's Resolutions Check out some New Year's resolutions that are popular year after year. Drink Less Alcohol Get a Better Education Get a Better Job Get Fit Lose Weight Manage Debt Manage Stress Quit Smoking Now Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Save Money Take a Trip Volunteer to Help Others

"San Francisco has become the first major U.S. city to pass a law that cracks down on the popular practice of giving away free toys with unhealthy restaurant meals for children." I saw the attached article on Drudge and had been hearing it on the TV and radio reports and it just got me thinking. All these bations of liberalism want to do things like ban trans fats, tax sugary drinks, ban the Happy Meal because they believe in the Nanny State and they know what is best for you...HOWEVER, these same people want to legalize marijuana and want to...

A mother feeding the ducks with her two children was stunned when she was told off by a council warden - for giving the birds 'unhealthy' white bread. Lisa Taplin, 34, was told by the park ranger to bring granary or wholemeal bread next time as it was better for the ducks.

Bavarian beer purveyors concerned about a smelly Oktoberfest are hoping bacteria can make the experience more enjoyable. They plan to pour a solution of live bacteria on the floors of Munich's beer tents, in an effort to knock out the inevitable festival smells usually covered up by a fog of cigarette smoke. Voters in Bavaria passed a statewide smoking ban in July, and it took effect last month. Oktoberfest gets an exception through 2011, but organizers want to conduct a test run during the festival’s 200th anniversary, which starts next week. Its ill effects aside, cigarette smoke is a pretty...

**** Those who prudently saved against the contingencies of this world, have subtly numbered themselves among "the rich." And, "tax the rich" is the received solution. For generations now, "progressive" politicians, imposing "progressive" tax systems, have been making an example of the prudent. The cultivation and manipulation of envy is at the heart of all political schemes for income redistribution, and parties of the Left have been building their client base upon it. Hence the gradual division of every electorate between the Party of Entitlement, and the Party of Tax Cuts: the one to increase spending, the other to limit...

The birthplace of California's drive-through craze has had its fill of fast food restaurants. Amid complaints of obesity and lines of idled cars stretching into neighborhood streets, this blue-collar town is banning new drive-throughs in hopes of shedding its reputation as a haven for convenient, fatty foods. It's an ironic development for a community that proudly claims to have opened California's first drive-through restaurant more than 60 years ago — a little joint named, appropriately enough, In-N-Out.

When it comes to tobacco control, it often seems that the policy is decided first and the science is produced as an afterthought. Since the lion's shares of the anti-smoking policies we see today were planned as far back as the 1970s, it is a remarkable coincidence that scientific evidence for each of them appeared at regular and timely intervals in the intervening years. This is something that The Economist gently hinted at in a recent review of a book called Merchants of Doubt: ~snip~ Secondhand smoke is old news in California these days, of course. These days, if you're...

BENTON HARBOR - Howard Weyers believes that the bottom line for health care costs depends on what's happening with the waist lines of employees. Or the lungs, or any other organ that could fail due to misuse or neglect and cost an employer money. And he believes those employers should be encouraging workers to live healthier lifestyles and aggressively monitoring what they do inside - and outside - of the workplace. "If we do nothing about personal health, we will do nothing with cost," Weyers, a health benefit consultant based near Lansing, told about 40 people Friday at his seminar...

Personal responsibility just got thrown out the window — again — thanks to a nanny state congressman with hopes of saving ourselves and others from — you guessed it — us! Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) on Thursday, June 10, successfully attached an amendment to the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 that would “authorize $8 million in annual funding for five years for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) program.” The DADSS technology proposed in the ROADS SAFE amendment will likely lead to alcohol-sensing devices becoming mandatory factory-installed equipment on all automobiles within the next five-to-ten years, reports...

Michael Nuzzo and his two older brothers learned from their father, Fred, the intracacies -- and hard work -- involved in making Italian pies at the New Haven pizzeria he started in 1955. All three eventually started their own restaurants. Today, a third generation of Nuzzos, Michael's three children -- ages 13, 11 and 8 -- for years have spent Friday nights and Saturdays learning the business at their father's Grand Apizza restaurant in Clinton. That is until two weeks ago, when a Connecticut Labor Department investigator -- apparently acting on an anonymous tip -- showed up May 12 at...

Rep. Kind of Wisconsin has introduced legislation that he proudly proclaims will track the body mass index (BMI) of your child from age 2-18 . . . .

There is a smoking story making the rounds here in New York. Seems the New York State Legislature has cut funding thirty-percent to its anti-smoking program. These cuts were over a three-year period. Many other programs and agencies also saw their funding reduced: the State has a large budget deficit. Among other consequences, the tighter anti-smoking budget forced a scaling back of the free nicotine-patch program. That’s not my “free”, incidentally. It arose from the fruitful imagination of one Russ Sciandra, who bills himself director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York, a mysterious not-for-profit. We must not...

Forget secondhand smoke — smokers are officially second- class citizens. If you’re a smoker and looking for work, don’t bother sending a resume to Chattanooga’s Memorial Hospital — you’re not wanted there. The hospital says it won’t hire smokers, no matter where they might smoke or how often (or how little) they do it. Goodbye, freedom and privacy — we hardly knew you. Even nicotine gum chewers won’t be eligible to work at the hospital under this cockamamie new policy. The hospital says it will test prospective employees for nicotine along with illegal drugs…lumping smokers and crackheads together. Fail the...

img src="http://rightbias.com/News/Images/nanny-state%20250.JPG" alt="" align="right" />Since I've been otherwise occupied making a living, it's reassuring to know that my government is looking out for me. In just the last month, our tireless public servants have proposed numerous measures that will make my life better and more worry free. No longer will I have to worry about drug addicts being able to rig a urine test. The Senate is set to vote on a measure that would make it illegal to sell fake urine for the purpose of falsifying a drug test. Whew. While they're at it, Congress is also working on...

Midway through D.C.'s February Snowpocalypse, with dystopian visions dancing in my head, I rented the 1982 sci-fi classic "Blade Runner." The movie's noir-ish picture of Los Angeles in 2019-dimly-lit and rainy, with flying cars, sexy replicants, and gruff, chain-smoking detectives-seems less prescient (and less foreboding) the closer we get to the year it depicts. As the DVD played, one thought kept distracting me: "It's so cute that they used to think you'd be allowed to smoke in the future." From a 2010 vantage point, the 21st century seems to promise an entirely different flavor of nightmare-one in which every individual...