Free Republic

'Three Little Pigs CD' banned from Government-backed awards for offending Muslims and builders By SARAH HARRIS A story based on The Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a Government-backed awards event because it might offend Muslims... and builders. The digital book, retelling the classic children's tale, was criticised by judges who said "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". They also claimed the award-winning CD-rom, entitled The Three Little Cowboy Builders, might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)". The "virtual" book is designed for use on computers and interactive whiteboards and aimed at primary school children. Its publishers,...

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from a government agency's annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims. The digital book, re-telling the classic fairy tale, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues". Becta, the government's educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual schools award. The judges also attacked Three Little Cowboy Builders for offending builders. The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said that the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap in the...

Federal health officials are investigating if there's a link between illnesses reported by several workers at a pig slaughterhouse in Indiana and those seen recently in workers at a Minnesota pork plant. All the employees work in areas where pigs' heads have been processed using a technique in which compressed air is shot into their skulls until their brains spill out, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman Lola Russell said.

A 58-year-old Canadian pig farmer is facing life in prison after being convicted of murdering six women - a fraction of the total number he is thought to have killed. Robert "Willie" Pickton was given an automatic life sentence when a jury in British Columbia found him guilty of murder. He still faces murder charges for the deaths of 20 more women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood. If convicted on all those charges, he would become Canada's most prolific serial killer. Police are still investigating the cases of almost 40 other missing women....

ROME — Former Italian deputy Education Minister and far-right Northern League Party (LN) member Mariella Mazzetto has ignited a fireball of criticism after parading a pig on the site of a planned mosque in the northern city of Padua. "This sort of behavior is not worthy of Padua and I believe that many people here are ashamed," Padua Mayor Flavio Zanonato said in statements carried by local newspapers, cited Sunday, November 11, by Agence France-Presse (AFP). He said the parade was threatening the peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims in Padua. "At least 7,000 people from Muslim countries live here...

Die Meistersinger is, by Wagner’s standards, quite a cheerful opera. The action turns on comedy’s staple, the marriage plot: get the hero and the heroine safely and truly wed with at least a presumption of happiness ever after. There are cross-currents and undercurrents that make Meistersinger’s libretto subtle in ways that the librettos of operas usually aren’t. But for once Nietzsche is nowhere in sight and nobody dies; the territory is closer to The Barber of Seville than to The Ring. Yet, in the first scene of Act 3, the avuncular Hans Sachs, whose benevolent interventions smooth the lovers’ course,...

SUN CITY, Fla. -- Hillsborough County officials are looking for the people responsible for stabbing and stealing pigs from the Sun City Stables. The sheriff's office reports that a 400-pound pig was stabbed dozens of times sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. Another pig at the petting zoo was also attacked and two others are missing. Authorities have dusted for fingerprints around the pig pen but they are still looking for suspects. Meanwhile, the pigs are being treated for their wounds.

For a squealin' good time at the fair, make sure to stop by the Hambone Express pig races. You can bet yer bacon they'll be sizzlin' around the track all 11 days of the fair - no tires needed. The squealers of Hambone Express are known to delight fairgoers as they go "whole hog" around the track, even putting it into "four-squeal drive" to come in first and receive an edible prize. The show consists of four races with four pigs in each race. The swinemaster assigns cheering sections, with one special cheerleader to lead each section. Then he introduces...

Ted Nugent Blames Hippies for Divorce, Abortion, Drugs and Crime 7/3/07, 2:22 pm EST It was only a matter of time before Ted Nugent decided to rain on the Summer of Love’s anniversary parade. In an article from today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The * Summer of Drugs,” the notoriously opinionated guitar god took some time off his busy hunting schedule to blame “stoned, dirty, stinky hippies” for “rising rates of divorce, high school drop-outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes.” * Highlights (including some choice words for Jimi...

OK! Here's my question to liberals appeasers, so far I didn't get ANY answer on this (besides a lib/lip/sipn). Why did Islamic Al Qaeda plan to attack UK on 2001? Before the Iraq war... excuse http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1713557.stm Al-Qaeda note suggests 'attack on London' Sunday, 16 December, 2001 I saw yesterday Alan Colmes telling (on H&C) Oliver North that it's not radical Islam it's not "Islam¨". Hey, I like you as a person but not your opinions. Alan, 1) Do you know any better then the Muslims themselves, as to what Islam is & what it is not? 2) They do it...

A busy section of highway was closed for seven hours Sunday after a truck tipped over and spilled pig ears, pig feet and grease. The greasy pig parts created slippery conditions and forced the closure of northbound lanes of the Edens Expressway. The lanes were reopened Sunday afternoon. A sudden shift in the truck's load caused it to tip onto its side near an entrance ramp in Skokie, according to Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey. The Edens Expressway connects downtown Chicago to its northern suburbs. No injuries were reported.

A PART-TIME Hong Kong butcher has become the third victim of the pig-borne disease Streptococcus suis in the territory in less than a month, the South China Morning Post has reported. The article said the 54-year-old man developed fever, headache and neck pain nearly two weeks ago, but was admitted to hospital only on Tuesday and was stable yesterday.

BEIJING (AFP) - A disease that has killed 18,000 pigs and helped send pork prices soaring in China is likely to get worse, the government said Tuesday, as it called for a vaccination drive to stem the epidemic. Over 45,000 pigs have been hit by the highly pathogenic "blue-ear disease" between January and May, even before the peak season of the summer and fall has started, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its websit

It’s no secret that Rep. Jack Murtha loves his pork-barrel projects. The burly Pennsylvania Democrat has for years played the role of broker for his own party and the GOP to get deals done in exchange for lucrative earmarks. But with Democrats now in control of Congress and Murtha gaining celebrity status among anti-war liberals in his party, the spotlight shines a bit brighter on the 33-year House veteran. So when Murtha faced Republican opposition for a $23-million earmark to fund the National Drug Intelligence Center, an operation in his hometown of Johnstown, Pa., he blew a gasket -- “unleashing...

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong — was criticized in 2003 for concealing information...

May 8, 2007 China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say By KEITH BRADSHER HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said Monday that the Chinese government was providing little information about it or the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused death and illness in pets in the United States. The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potentially global implications. The Chinese government — and particularly the...

Hogs that ate tainted pet food to be destroyed By Mary Ann Fergus Tribune staff reporter Published April 26, 2007, 8:38 PM CDT Federal officials alerted authorities in seven states Thursday that swine fed tainted pet food will not be approved to enter the human food supply. Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration expect that approximately 6,000 hogs, now under quarantine, will be euthanized even as they announced that the likelihood of illness after eating pork from the animals is very low. The affected hogs are in California, North Carolina, South Carolina, New...

Federal officials confirmed Thursday they are investigating whether pork products intended for humans are contaminated with the same industrial chemical that prompted a massive pet food recall and sickened cats and dogs nationwide. Researchers also have identified three other contaminants in the urine and kidneys of animals sickened or killed after eating the recalled foods, including cyanuric acid, a chemical commonly used in pool chlorination, three researchers told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Cyanuric acid is what most likely sickened pets, one researcher said.

Norwegian anti-immigration politicians in Bergen have promised to chase off Muslims with pigs feet and squealing noises if Bergen's central square is used for prayers. The leader of the Demokratene, an extreme populist party formed by outcasts of the populist Progress Party, Vidar Kleppe, said Wednesday that he backed the remarks of city council representative Kenneth Rasmussen. Rasmussen reacted with threats of porcine tactics after Labour Party politician Jerad Abdelmajid said that the city's Muslims could take their Friday prayers in Torgallmenningen, Bergen's central square, when they will be without a mosque from March 31. Building of a new mosque...

In Qatar there is only one decent bookshop (that happens to be a Saudi chain) that has a few shelves of English books. Shopping there is hit or miss - you don't go there to look for a title. You go there in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting. The kids selection is not bad though. The other night we saw Disney's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends". We grabbed it and thought it was exactly what we needed for our daughter - not only does she love Winnie the Pooh but she's also started...

A BRITISH Muslim school is teaching children that Jews are “repugnant apes” and Christians “pigs”, a former teacher claims. Colin Cook, 57, says when he raised his concerns to chiefs at the Saudi government-funded King Fahad Academy in West London he was told: “This is not England. It is Saudi Arabia.” Some of the 1,250 pupils at the faith school are alleged to have been heard idolising Osama bin Laden, praising 9/11 and saying they want to “kill Americans”. Mr Cook — himself a Muslim — warned yesterday: “The school could produce a dangerous harvest. “It is clearly racist and...

ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed. A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved. The Chinese Government has decreed that the Year of the Pig will be celebrated with the least possible offence to the country's 21 million Muslims, for whom the porker is a dirty, offensive animal whose flesh must not be eaten. So this year, China...

ON February 18, the Chinese world will usher in the new year of an animal, but its identity will be suppressed. A billion people will view China's - and the world's - most-watched annual television show, the Chinese New Year's Eve variety spectacular, but the viewers will be no wiser as to which animal is involved. Left out ... pigs won't be mentioned in China's Year of the Pig celebrations to avoid offending the country's Muslim population / File

LEWISTON - No federal charges will be lodged against the city man who rolled a pig's head into a local mosque last year. "We're not going forward with our prosecution," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Halsey Frank said Friday. Brent Matthews, 33, said the frozen head slipped from his hands one night last summer and rolled through the open door of the Lisbon Street storefront that serves as a mosque for members of the Somali community. He was later arrested and charged with the misdemeanor of defacement and desecration of a place of worship. The Maine Attorney General's Office was successful...

The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday. After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals. But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar. "Sending New Year...

It's just one more skirmish in the ongoing Mommy Wars. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was testifying before a Senate panel, doing what she does best: keeping to the official line. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was trying to get a rise out of the frighteningly unflappable Rice, so, in a rhetorical flourish, she asked, "Who pays the price [for the administration's deadly policy blunders in Iraq]?" Boxer continued, alluding to the fact that very few of the soldiers in harm's way happen to have senators or White House officials in their families, and said, "I'm not going to pay a...

SYDNEY'S most influential radical Muslim cleric has been caught on film calling Jews pigs and urging children to die for Allah. Sheikh Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, delivers the hateful rants on a collection of DVDs called the Death Series, sold in Australia and overseas, News Limited newspapers report. An Australian citizen born in Sydney, he has spent the past year living in Lebanon. Sheikh Feiz was exposed this week in the British documentary, Undercover Mosque. “Today many parents, they prevent their children from attending lessons,” he says in the video. “Why? They fear...

Islamic Forces Abandon Somali Stronghold Islamic Fighters Abandon Somali Stronghold; Last Seen Heading South Toward the Kenyan Border (AP Photo/Guy Calaf) Crew of the Ethiopian air force prepare their helicopter to transport Somali transitional government President Abdullahi Yusuf, to a meeting with other high ranking government officials, journalists and the local community in a suburb of southern Mogadishu, Somalia on Saturday Dec. 30 2006. Only a few days after the fall of the United Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Ethiopian and Transitional Federal Government troops are patrolling the city and securing strategic locations. (AP Photo/Guy Calaf)By NASTEEX DAHIR FARAH KISMAYO, Somalia...

Baker and Fotouh both say their first meeting was initially cordial. Baker readily agreed to remove his cattle from the association's land. He also offered to donate granite fill for the group's new driveway. But Baker says that as their meeting wound up, Fotouh suggested that he move, in order to keep the place of worship separate from the business. Fotouh denies making such a request. "We would not go to a land owner and say 'We're moving in, you move out.' It does not make sense," he said. Baker insists that Fotouh asked him to leave, and has offered...

There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. K.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't going over real well. "As a house of worship, they shouldn't be disturbing the peace and tranquility of 15 homes," said resident John Wetmore. Neighbors tell us they're concerned about traffic and drainage and a little fear of the unknown. Some of the...

KATY — All snout and tail, the pink and brown pigs contentedly rooting in the wire pen behind Craig Baker's stone shop seem piggishly comic. They're racing pigs, after all, and that's got to be funny. But few in the sprawling subdivisions along Baker Road are laughing. These pigs are subtle weapons, here to show the new neighbors — the Katy Islamic Association — they aren't entirely welcome. Tension has been growing in this west Harris County community since September when the Muslim group announced it had purchased 11 acres south of Interstate 10 to build a mosque, school, community...

Residents use pig races to deter building of mosque Residents don't want group in their area  By Ted Oberg (11/29/06 - KTRK/KATY, TX) - There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. Also on ABC13.com: Send news tips | RSS | ABC13 E-lert | Info mentioned on air | Search abc13.comK.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't...

(11/29/06 - KTRK/KATY, TX) - There's an awful lot of exciting news when you round the corner on Baker Road. One of two big yellow signs announces a new neighbor is coming soon. K.I.A., that's the Katy Islamic Association, plan to build a mosque here. "It's not an appropriate place to have a mosque or church," said resident Barbara Simpson. It isn't going over real well. "As a house of worship, they shouldn't be disturbing the peace and tranquility of 15 homes," said resident John Wetmore. Neighbors tell us they're concerned about traffic and drainage and a little fear of...

Three Democratic congressmen who are about to take important leadership posts said on Sunday they plan to pass popular legislation blocked by Republicans but would refrain from pushing some of the most controversial elements on the liberal agenda. The three, appearing on Fox News Sunday, are among the most liberal Democrats who will take over key committee chairmanships when Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in January. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who will take over the U.S. House of Representatives committee that covers banking and other financial institutions, mentioned raising the minimum wage, providing cheaper drug coverage...

The southbound truck route on the Golden State (5) Freeway was reopened after frozen pig carcasses were spilled across lanes Monday night. A big rig collided with a box truck in the truck route from the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway just north of the Foothill (210) Freeway Monday night, scattering frozen pigs over 80 feet of the freeway, authorities said. The collision, in which one truck clipped another, occurred at 7:36 p.m., said California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter. The collision was at the end of the truck route, and Caltrans brought in a dump truck and loader to...

To be a "good" Muslim! Part I http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1726241/posts Part II http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1727912/posts Part III http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1728361/posts Dehumaize victims of Islamic terror, especially Israeli men, women & children as "tanks". Never apologize for the continuing exposed (Like Muhammad Aldura, Reuters "images", Jenin "numbers" & added bodies) long tradition of lying, faking, inventing hoaxes, faking images, etc. but rather be already busy with preparing the next one. Islamic violence and bloodshed is always ahead of West's "reprisal", in other words, Bin Laden, Muhammad Atta, etc. have massacred Americans on 9/11/2001 was because the US will eventually go into Afghanistan afterwards, Islamists almost succeeded with...

FLASH!!! Dixie Chicks Natalie Manes just now blamed the Free Republic for their downfall on "Hardball." She claims the FR had an organized effort to bring them down.

A nurse has spoken of her terror after she was attacked by a giant pig which charged the horse she was riding and then savaged her after she was thrown to the ground. Suffering from broken ribs from the fall, Carolyn Robinson feared for her life as the enraged pig hurtled at her. The ferocious beast, which she describes as "huge", mauled the 51 year old and snapped at her legs as she tried desperately to fight it off while lying prone in a quiet country lane. --snip-- Animal experts say the attack could have been deadly as pigs have...

They were sound asleep. Danny and Cindi Henshaw were awakened by a banging on the door at 5 a.m. on Sept. 12. It was the game warden. Danny was arrested for "operating a mammalian hunting enclosure without a permit" and hauled off to be booked. For 16 years, Danny and Cindi have operated the 152-acre Willis River Hunting Preserve near Gladstone, Va. It is a private, completely fenced, wild-boar hunting club. Danny has been among the nation's top 10 archers. He has been featured as a hunter on the "Wild and True" television program. His hunting preserve has hosted hunters...

Transplants of insulin-producing cells from pigs could provide a diabetes cure within a decade, scientists say. A US team has reversed the condition in monkeys by transplanting cell clusters, known as islets, from pig pancreases, a study in Nature Medicine reports. UK teams have cured type 1 diabetes by transplanting human pancreas cells - but donated organs are in short supply, hence the interest in the pig solution. The University of Minnesota hopes to start trials in humans by 2009. The university's researchers argue that animal-to-human transplants may be necessary to make islet transplantation a viable solution for the tens...

Okay, I just finished reading an article in Jewish World Review about a University of Illinois professor named Yuanhui Zhang who has found a way to extract crude oil from pig manure. No folks, I'm not kidding. Let's think through the ramifications of this, shall we?

ELEANOR HALL: Is it a quirky tourist attraction or a case of animal cruelty? That's the question being asked about a pub in Tasmania which has a pair of pigs swilling beer at the bar. Animal liberationists say the pigs are being forced into a cruel and unnatural existence. But the pub's owners say it's just good fun, and that the pigs are also enjoying themselves. In Hobart, Tim Jeanes reports. TIM JEANES: The big attraction at the Pub in the Paddock in Tasmania's north-east is its beer drinking pigs. Even Tasmania's tourist authority encourages visitors to call in and...

Julia Field covered her auburn curls with a blazing pink cowboy hat and listened to her stomach growl. A year ago, the stay-at-home mom from Oak Park would never have imagined herself fasting to protest war. Until then, she had volunteered at her son's elementary school and belonged to the local PTA. Now, armed with a bright pink lawn chair and a motivating dose of outrage, Field has joined a national fast that began July 4 in Washington and has become--from 4 to 8 p.m. for two weeks--a one-woman anti-war crusade. "It might be a little lonely today," Field said...

KZLA Wrestles With Chicks" Star Power The Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines “made nice” with an L.A. radio station last week, but it wasn’t the station that’s played new Chicks music almost 225 times. Instead, Maines talked to the Jamie, Jack & Stench morning show at Clear Channel Hot AC KYSR (Star 98.7), which has played new tunes from the Chicks only 38 times. As you might imagine, this didn’t exactly thrill the folks at Emmis’ crosstown Country outlet, KZLA. What upset KZLA OM/PD R.J. Curtis is that his station has been very supportive of the Chicks. “The really frustrating part...

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey's public television TRT, controlled by the Islamist-rooted government, has barred the popular Walt Disney cartoon "Winnie the Pooh" from air because it has a piglet as one of its main heroes, the Turkish press reported. Several other cartoons featuring pigs also failed to win the green light from TRT management, according to the left-wing Cumhuriyet daily. The station initially considered scissoring the scenes showing Piglet, but abandoned the idea because the small pink-skinned character, one of Winnie the Pooh's closest friends, appeared too often, Cumhuriyet and the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper said. TRT officials were not immediately...

TURKEY'S public television TRT, controlled by the Islamist-rooted government, has barred the popular Walt Disney cartoon Winnie the Pooh from air because it has a piglet as one of its main heroes, the Turkish press reported today. Several other cartoons featuring pigs also failed to win the green light from TRT management, according to the left-wing Cumhuriyet daily. The station initially considered scissoring the scenes showing Piglet, but abandoned the idea because the small pink-skinned character, one of Winnie the Pooh's closest friends, appeared too often, Cumhuriyet and the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper said. TRT officials were not immediately available for...

House Democrats from Long Island and New York City on Friday joined the chorus of critics slamming Ann Coulter. The lawmakers signed a letter drafted by Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) demanding that the conservative commentator apologize for saying in her new book that widows of some 9/11 victims are "enjoying" their husbands' deaths. The book refers to the four New Jersey women as "the witches of East Brunswick." "Their personal loss should never be minimized, especially in such a cold and callous way as you attack these victims in your book," Israel wrote.

NORMANGEE — The owner of two show pigs is accused of shooting and killing his neighbor after the man apparently slaughtered the pigs, believing they were wild hogs on the loose, Leon County authorities said. Joseph Clampitte III, 50, of Normangee, was found shot to death in his back yard Saturday. Preliminary autopsy results showed he was hit five times, including a fatal wound to the back of the head. Daniel Tolopka II, 34, of Normangee, was arrested on a murder charge. He was released Monday on $250,000 bond. Sheriff Mike Price said Clampitte shot the hogs, which had been...

Behold this article from last August by a reporter for the UK’s Guardian (of all places): Under US noses, brutal insurgents rule Sunni citadel Guardian gains rare access to Iraqi town and finds it fully in control of ‘mujahideen’ Omer Mahdi in Haditha and Rory Carroll in Baghdad Monday August 22, 2005 The executions are carried out at dawn on Haqlania bridge, the entrance to Haditha. A small crowd usually turns up to watch even though the killings are filmed and made available on DVD in the market the same afternoon. One of last week’s victims was a young man...

Hillary and Bill Clinton took a break from the South Beach Diet on Wednesday to do lunch Buffalo-style: spaghetti Parmesan and chicken cacciatore at Chef's on Seneca Street. "I figure once a year, it's OK," said former president and quadruple by-pass survivor Bill Clinton, as he chomped down on a cannoli while simultaneously shaking hands with adoring fans. The Clintons were at Chef's with about 40 convention organizers and volunteers to wrap up their appearances in Buffalo for the state Democratic convention. "That was amazing!" gushed hostess Kim Ehnes, 19, of East Aurora, moments after the powerhouse political duo was...