Free Republic

Gov paying over a half million dollars a pound for sliced ham? Thomas Lifson According to Recovery.gov, the new Obama website showing us how much the country is being stimulated by government spending, the taxpayers are buying sliced frozen ham at $550,000 per pound. I wonder what they would pay for fresh ham? And here I thought prosciutto was expensive. Is this going to be served to guests at one of the many parties the Obamas like to throw? Half million dollar a pound ham won't really uimpress the Saudis, if Obama offers it to them, no matter how low...

Is a Hippo a Pig or a Whale? March 24, 2009 — Two teams of evolutionists are having a spat over whale evolution. Thewissen and team (Northeastern Ohio U) say the hippo is close to the pig, but Jessica Theodor (U of Calgary) and Jonathan Geisler (Georgia Southern U) say it’s in the whale family tree. Their arguments and counter-arguments were published in Nature last week...

Giant rabbits to return to Spanish menus Spaniards will soon be enjoying a diet of giant rabbit under plans to reintroduce the rare breed for human consumption. By Fiona Govan in Madrid The Valencia Agricultural Research Institute has launched a breeding programme of the rare Valenciano rabbit and predicts that it could be on supermarket shelves within three years. It is hoped that the animals, which can grow as big as a lamb and produce 7kgs (15lbs) of meat, will prove popular as a healthy and cheap alternative to red meat. The Valenciano breed was established in 1912 when farmers...

Cannibalism May Have Wiped Out Neanderthals Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Unhealthy Diets? Feb. 27, 2008 -- A Neanderthal-eat-Neanderthal world may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations of the large Eurasian human, thereby contributing to its extinction, according to a new theory based on cannibalism that took place in more recent history. Aside from illustrating that consumption of one's own species isn't exactly a healthy way to eat, the new theoretical model could resolve the longstanding mystery as to what caused Neanderthals, which emerged around 250,000 years ago, to disappear off the face of the Earth...

It's in a subscribers only link at the Wall Street Journal. The Congressman wants $8,000,000.00 to pay for marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to fund research into shrimp-fishing. These are but two of the Congressman's 65 earmarks sought thus far this year to the tune of $400,000,000.00. HIs chief spokesman pulled a Tom DeLay and said "Reducing earmarks does not reduce government spending, and it does not prohibit spending upon those things that are earmarked," the spokesman said. "What people who push earmark reform are doing is they are particularly misleading the public -- and I have...

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...

LAKELAND -- Deputy Billy Osborne heard the man's cries for help but couldn't see him through the thick brush and pre-dawn darkness. " 'I have two broken arms, and an alligator's got me pinned. I can't move. Please help me,' " the Polk County deputy sheriff recalled the man saying at a news conference Wednesday. As Osborne listened, he followed the pleading voice through more than 20 yards of weeds in Lake Parker's murky, chest-deep water about 4 a.m. Then he saw them: a naked man slumped over, caught in the jaws of a huge alligator amid thick cattails in...

A Muslim lawmaker on Monday night raged at a catering crewmember of a Chinese restaurant for serving her food with pork. Rep. Faysah Dumarpa of Lanao del Sur reportedly slapped the crewmember, Virginia Fernando Altamirano, and held a bread knife at her. Altamirano, 36, has filed a complaint against Dumarpa with the Quezon City police. “It is forbidden in Islam for a believer to eat pork or its derivatives. To do so is a grievous sin. An intentional consumption of such meat would hinder me from gaining entrance to paradise. Beyond dietary concerns, this is a matter of faith,” Dumarpa...

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...

The "Case of the Double Labels" is still under investigation, but a spokesperson for the company that makes the product called "Hill Country Fare Bacon Grill Lucheon Meat" -- an HEB(grocery store) house brand -- did confirm from the canned meats markings are that of pork. The can and labels were produced by food giant Tyson Foods. What can't be explained is how an Arabic label for "Al Haloub Cow" brand was underneath the Hill Country label. (See previous story below.) Archie Schaffer III is Senior VP of External Relations at Tyson Foods' headquarters in Arkansas. He confirmed that an...

Hubba Hubba: It's Friday!!!

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish engineers have poured pig manure into a contaminated pond next to an old mine, saying the bacteria in the slurry will clean up metals in the water. Mining company Outokumpu dumped 450 cubic meters of pig slurry into the waste water near the closed Kangasjarvi mine, which once produced zinc, copper and sulfur. "Pig slurry contains bacteria that bind metals that are in the mine water and they will sink to the bottom. We have used this system to clean mine waters at various mines," Eero Soininen, Outokumpu's mine reclamation manager, told Reuters. "Around 15 years...

Elephant trunks and smoked gorilla limbs hang from Emile Ndong's stall, "ripening" in the tropical heat. "A good ceremony, a marriage or an initiation is worthless unless you serve game at the table," said Ndong, a hawker at the bustling Oloumi market in Gabon's capital of Libreville. Ndong is one of many profiting from Africa's booming trade in bushmeat -- a blood-soaked business that has serious consequences for the continent's wildlife. Finding ways to curtail this industry will be discussed at an international conference in Madagascar from June 20 - 24, which will seek ways to harness Africa's ecological treasures...

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group Friday named Alaska Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski "Porker of the Month" for supporting construction of the infamous "Bridges to Nowhere" and for a proposed taxpayer-funded PR campaign "to repair the damage that the bridges helped inflict on" the state's "national reputation." According to Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), Congress set aside $452 million in the transportation bill for two bridges - $229 million for the Gravine Island Bridge, which connects the island with a population of 50 people to the town of Ketchikan, and $223 million for the Knik Arm Bridge. "For favoring wasteful...

There's no physical evidence that the family who gave the Donner Party its name had anything to do with the cannibalism the ill-fated pioneers have been associated with for a century and a half, two scientists said Thursday. Cannibalism has been documented at the Sierra Nevada site where most of the Donner Party's 81 members were trapped during the brutal winter of 1846-47, but 21 people, including all the members of the George and Jacob Donner families, were stuck six miles away because a broken axle had delayed them. No cooked human bones were found among the thousands of fragments...

French Christmas soup not for Jews or Muslims Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:13 PM GMT By Pierre Thebault NICE, France (Reuters) - An extreme-right French group has found a way to distribute Christmas cheer only to a chosen few by offering homeless people free hot soup containing pork, which observant Jews and Muslims do not eat. The soup kitchen, set up at the harbour of this Riviera town, draws about as many protesters as poor people. Police stand guard between it and a Catholic charity group distributing vegetable soup outside their church. Dominique Lescure, head of the small ultra-nationalist group...

(paraphrased - I don't know of Reuters can be posted) A French extreme-right (/ultra-nationalist) group's soup-kitchen in Nice is distributing vegetable soup to the poor/homeless locals during this winter The kicker is that they're adding pork to it and the Muzzies are screaming "discrimination!".

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- A pride of lions has killed and devoured 20 villagers, wounded 10 others and eaten at least 70 cattle in southern Ethiopia in the past week, police said Tuesday. The attacks have forced at least 1,000 people to flee their homes in Hadia Zone, in the Southern Nation and Nationalities People State, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, according to a police statement.

Hello! Just wanted to pass this information along to everyone, thought you might enjoying watching it. Attention!! We would like every llama owner and lover to be aware of an exciting 1/2 hour llama program that is being aired on RFD-TV. The showings will be at the following times: July 4th at 6:30pm. July 5th at 2:30am and again at 10:30am July 9th at 5:00pm. It will be shown on channels: Dish Network channel #9409 Direct T.V. channel #379 Cable T.V. (check your local listings) This was filmed on a llama ranch and features Cart Pulling, Fiber, Youth, A Breeding...

WAUSAU, Wis. - Wild cats prowl around the bird feeder outside Mark Smith's home, waiting to pounce on a wren or maybe a robin. About all Smith can do right now is watch. But if the La Crosse firefighter has his way, there will soon come a day when he can open his door, take aim and fire - and not worry about being prosecuted. Smith, 48, wants Wisconsin to declare free-roaming wild cats an unprotected species, just like skunks or gophers. Anyone with a small-game license could shoot the cats at will, legally. His proposal gets tested April 11...