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As many of you know, so-called “fat pride” activists have launched an all-out attack on anybody who advocates fitness, erects billboards promoting health and fitness, or merely asks why there is an obesity epidemic by labeling any dissenting viewpoints on obesity as “hate speech” and even reporting obesity skeptics to police for “hate crimes.” Now I have learned that there is a possibility that ethical vegans – vegans who convert to veganism not for health reasons, but for animal rights reasons – will take a cue from the fat pride activists and have any dissenting viewpoints on ethical veganism and...

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-20-why-is-the-fda-about-to-rubber-stamp-ge-salmon Gregory Jaffe: Last and perhaps most concerning, the committee’s supposed consumer advocate is a lawyer (not a scientist) representing the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an organization that favors the use of agricultural biotechnology. Like Van Eeenennaam, he has served on AC21, from 2004 to 2008. His views can be seen in a paper he wrote called “Creating the Proper Environment for Acceptance of Agricultural Biotechnology.” In it he states CSPI’s unequivocal support for agricultural biology and his belief that genetically engineered crops have increased productivity and farmer income while reducing pesticide use, and that GE crops...

While CSPI is busy suing McDonald's for Happy Meal toys and Coca-Cola for "deceptive" claims about its VitaminWater products, they are allowing the American Diatetic Association - a group partly-funded by McDonald's and Coca-Cola - to act as a steering committee member on its National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) nutritional advocacy coalition. Can you say, "Hypocrisy?" http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/define-irony-member-of-cspis-nana-nutritional-advocacy-coalition-also-fronts-for-coca-cola/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/define-irony-member-of-cspis-nana-coalition-is-a-mcdonalds-front-group/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/center-for-media-and-democracys-jill-richardson-guilty-of-covering-up-crimes-against-humanity-by-leftwing-food-industry-apologists/ http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/define-irony-when-an-anti-obesity-crusader-is-a-member-of-a-nutritional-advocacy-coalition-headed-by-food-industry-front-groups/

A ban on the sale of cigarettes to anyone who does not pay for a government smoking permit has been proposed by Health England, a ministerial advisory board. The idea is the brainchild of the board's chairman, Julian Le Grand, who is a professor at the London School of Economics and was Tony Blair's senior health adviser. In a paper being studied by Lord Darzi, the health minister appointed to oversee NHS reform, he says many smokers would be helped to break the habit if they had to make a decision whether to "opt in".

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously Tuesday to require all city chain restaurants to post calorie data on their menus. Chain restaurants already must make the calorie counts of their menu items publicly available, but beginning March 31 they will have to put the numbers on menu boards and menus. The change will affect restaurants with 15 or more outlets -- roughly 10 percent of all city restaurants, according to a news release from the city's health department.

Following the lead of New York City and Brookline, health regulators in Boston last night took the first step toward banning artery-clogging trans fat from French fries, doughnuts, and other food sold in restaurants and corner stores. more stories like this The Boston Public Health Commission voted unanimously, after little discussion, to give preliminary approval to a ban that would take effect late this year if it receives another thumbs-up in the spring. Commission members were spurred to action by scientific evidence linking artificial trans fat to heart disease in humans and to diabetes and obesity in animal studies. Brookline...

Another outrage in San Francisco and this one is very hard to believe. As you may know, San Francisco is run by far left secular-progressives who despise the military, traditional values and religion. Not everybody in San Francisco feels that way, but certainly the power structure does. Time and again, we have brought you stories of outrageous behavior on the part of militant people living in that city. Now, things have reached critical mass, no pun intended. Last Sunday, at the Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Archbishop George Niederauer was celebrating mass. As part of that ritual, holy...

Oh Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the most revisionist of us all? Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) provides the classic example of chutzpah, like when the child who murders his parents pleads for mercy in court because he is an orphan! In this case, the crime is the complete ruination of the food supply with the replacement of healthy traditional saturated fats with partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and the victim is the unsuspecting public, suffering from ever-increasing rates of cancer, heart disease, infertility, impotence, asthma, allergies, learning disabilities, bone problems, digestive disorders, diabetes and obesity. On...

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation Thursday asking the Federal Communications Commission to oversee the development of a super V-chip that could screen content on everything from cell phones to the Internet. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., the sponsor of the Child Safe Viewing Act, claims that the new law is necessary because content is no longer confined to the TV or radio, and he contends the same technology that allows content to increasingly migrate from device to device also can be used to empower parents. "It's an uphill battle for parents trying to protect their kids...

Kevin Rose founded Digg in late 2004. It was the beginning of something phenomenal... to be precise, the Digg phenomenon. Digg was all about the tight-knit community of techies who wanted to get in there, share relevant tech news, vote for it, and talk about it. And what a fabulous idea it was. So fabulous, in fact, that according to an article about Digg, Kevin and co literally had potential investors beating down the doors, offering fantastic quantities of money to them because of their potential. They accepted a couple of million in late 2005 and the rest, as they...

Microsoft should have admitted that Linux matters sooner. For years, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant seemed to be in denial as the open-source operating software made gains against its Windows franchise. But now a series of deals is finally allowing Microsoft to argue that it's ahead of the curve--with the entertaining upside of making some of the open-source community's truest believers even angrier. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) announced a pact with Linux software distributor Xandros Monday that will the offer tiny company's customers so-called "patent covenants," protecting them from the threat of litigation from Microsoft. So...

Junk food will head to the junk heap in Bay State schools if a bill to be pushed by top health experts on Beacon Hill today succeeds in banning fatty and sugary foods from school vending machines, bake sales and fund-raisers. Backers of the junk food bill say it sets statewide standards, forces students to eat better and cuts down on ads kids see each day. “These are habits that last a lifetime,” said Eric Weltman, spokesman for the Massachusetts Public Health Association, one of the backers of the bill, which would also ban corporate food and soda marketing inside...

(Columbus) – Microsoft has rejected a U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance request to abandon its partnership with the nation’s leading anti-hunting organization. Microsoft, the software giant, will make a $100,000 donation to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and is partnering with the group on a pilot program called the i’m Initiative. Through the new program, whenever a Windows Live Messenger user has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft will give a portion of the program’s advertising revenue to one of ten organizations selected by the user. The HSUS is one of the choices, and there is no limit to the...

House rejects microchip implants for violent criminals AP | May 29, 2007 Tim Talley Legislation that would authorize microchip implants in people convicted of violent crimes was sent back to a committee for more work Wednesday after state House members questioned whether the proposal would violate constitutional civil liberties. The measure, approved by the Senate, authorizes microchip implants for persons convicted of one or more of 19 violent offenses who have to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence, including murder, rape and some forms of robbery and burglary, while prohibiting government from requiring microchips implants in anyone else....

I remain flabbergasted over folks, and there appears to be no shortage of them, who believe there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans, who declare the Democrat party to be the anti-war party—or incipient anti-war party, provided the right degree of activism and populist wizardry turning the conscience of the Democrat leadership and thus Congress—no matter the Iraq occupation is still in motion even though the Democrats regained control of Congress more than six months ago. “Having won the leadership of both houses of Congress in the 2006 congressional elections thanks to a groundswell of antiwar sentiment, the Democratic...

Rosie O'Donnell was quit 'The View' this week after an on air brawl with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Now Charlie Sheen may bail on the 9/11 documentary "Loose Change" according to a new report. It was a double dose hit for the conspiracy theorists, at least among recognizable names that might have been able to get their message out on network television. Rosie had been ready to have William Rodriguez and the "Loose Change" crew on the ABC morning talk show. They were scheduled for a Thursday appearance which would have been a day after the huge fight Rosie had with...

GCN an ABC Affiliate by Victor Thorn & Lisa Guliani Did you know that GCN – the network which carries Alex Jones and Jeff Rense – is an ABC affiliate? Yes, ABC - as in the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Corporation – the epitome of mainstream corporate media and home of propagandists such as Peter Jennings. Now, we’re not sure how deeply ABC’s tentacles extend into the Genesis Communications Network, and we’re fairly certain that its President Ted Anderson and others will brush-off this “affiliation” and say it amounts to nothing; but here’s the way we see things. Any time there...

An Open Letter To Kelly Hu Date: Wednesday, October 15 @ 10:00:00 EDT Topic: Media By Julia Oh AAMovement.net September 2003 Dear Kelly Hu, I don't know you all too well, but I do know some things. I know that you were once crowned as Miss Teen USA. As a young Asian girl at the time, I was ecstatic. To see an Asian woman stand tall in front of a sea of blond hair and blue green eyes was both refreshing and empowering. I also know that you starred in "Growing Pains", "Sunset Beach", "Nash Bridges", and "Martial Law". I...

Apparently, lot of people are thrilled with the whole idea of Canonical and Linspire's technology partnership announced yesterday, citing source code consolidation, non-redundant development efforts, and just good karma about the whole deal. I, for one, am not one of those people. Initially, my big problem was worry for the Debian Project. Under the terms of the new partnership (which, for the purposes of this article I will deem "Linbutu" because I am getting lazy in my middle age), the Linspire and Freespire distributions will be based on Ubuntu, not Debian GNU/Linux. Ubuntu, in turn, gets supported access to Linspire's...

THE USA GOVERNMENT'S cryptologic organisation, the National Security Agency, has admitted that it is behind some of the security changes to Microsoft's operating system Vista. According to the Washington Post, the agency which was once so secret that it was jokingly referred to as 'No such Agency' has admitted making 'unspecified contributions' to Vista. Tony Sager, the NSA's chief of vulnerability analysis and operations group, told the Post that it was the agency's intention to help everyone these days. The NSA used a red and a blue team to pull apart the software. The red team posed as "the determined,...