Free Republic

The heist began with a thief backing a large, white box truck up behind a Virginia mall around 3:30 a.m. one day in early April, according to a search warrant. The man wasn’t looking for cash or electronics, but something stranger: used cooking grease. He siphoned about 150 gallons of the stinking, viscous liquid from a dumpster behind a Burger King, before a police officer patrolling Annandale Shopping Center busted him, according to the search warrant, filed in Fairfax County. The crime is not new, but law enforcement officials say thieves are targeting the stuff used to make french fries...

Sen. Mike Lee didn’t quite bring a snowball onto the Senate floor. But the Utah Republican’s prop-filled speech Tuesday mocking the proposed Green New Deal resolution on addressing climate change elicited similar incredulous reactions from Democrats. Lee’s speech — in which the conservative Mormon argued, seemingly genuinely, that the “real solution to climate change” was to have more children — included a dramatic portrait of former President Ronald Reagan firing a machine gun while on the back of a velociraptor, photos of Star Wars characters and Aquaman, and frames from the sci-fi disaster movie “Sharknado.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. got into a sparring match on Twitter on Tuesday over a comment he made about the congresswoman at CPAC last weekend. The heated exchange first erupted after the freshman lawmaker tweeted a video of Falwell speaking about concealed carry permits...(snip) But Falwell fired back at the congresswoman, labeling her “dumb” and “a liar.” “She claims this was @CPAC last week when it was actually in 2015 the day after the deadly CA attacks by radical Muslims (‘those’ Muslims I referenced) She also deleted the last part of my quote...

Judge Jeanine Pirro used her Saturday night Fox News show to launch a mockery-loaded rant against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y) Green New Deal, fixating primarily on cow farts. Reviewing the economic and environmental plan in her opening monologue, Pirro noted that it aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. The reason for the use of the term “net” rather than just “zero,” she insisted, was that the plan’s advocated are “not sure they’ll be able to get rid of bovine flatulence, a.k.a. cows farting.” The talking point was accompanied by a dramatic graphic involving Earth being busted into pieces...

"Holy Cow!" Gene Hanson, the North Dakota farmer whom President Trump called a "great American," has created messages in his field before. But this time instead of using his plow, he used his neighbor's cows -- approximately 150 of his young black Angus cattle -- who live across the road from his farm in Edgeley. "It's the Christmas season," Hanson told Fox News, "and I thought that would be really nice if he put the feed down in a sign of the cross and he did." The retired great-grandfather wanted to form the cross to remind people of "the birth...

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - Cows helped Sanford officers corral a suspect who was on the 'moove' after crashing a stolen car, officials said. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office’s helicopter captured the incident on video Sunday night as police were following the vehicle. And that’s when the cows came home. The video then shows one of the suspects running through a cow pasture as the animals chased and surrounded one of the suspects, who was eventually captured by police.

After seeing their God-given and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights being trampled on by the over-reaching Federal alphabet agencies, people across the nation rallied to defend the rights our country was founded on. Videos on network news stations and around the internet depicted an elderly woman being thrown to the ground by law enforcement, a man being tazed repeatedly, and a “first amendment zone” set up miles away for protesters to stay out of the way of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These citizens rightfully feared another Waco or Ruby Ridge encounter, and believed that citizens showing up in force, with cameras...

From the same people who declared that milk was a symbol of white supremacy comes this blisteringly-hot take: cheese is the most sexist food there is, cows are regularly raped on farms, and the act of eating cheese is failing to combat sexism. "Contrary to popular belief," explains PETA, cows only produce milk when they're pregnant or have just given birth. In order to keep producing milk, PETA describes how cows are "raped" to become pregnant again and again and how their calves are treated immediately after birth.

(WCMH) – According to a recent survey, seven percent of Americans believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows. The survey was conducted by the Innovation Center of US Dairy.

Global warming could be solved by genetically engineering or breeding cows to fart less Bill "The Science Guy" Nye said in an interview Tuesday. [Snip] Nye was responding to a question from a vegan on how eating meat could reduce the world's greenhouse gas emissions. [Snip] Environmentalists are very interested in reducing methane from cow farts, with some groups like Friends of the Earth pressuring public schools to switch their lunch menus away from beef to reduce emissions. The Obama administration released a methane plan in 2014 that called for reducing emissions from the dairy industry 25 percent. That meant...

Legislation signed this month by Gov. Jerry Brown requires California’s dairy industry to answer for its contribution to global warming by making a 40 percent cut in methane emissions in coming years. The gas, which heats the atmosphere 20 times faster than carbon dioxide, comes from the butts and burps of bovines. One U.N. report blames livestock, which has largely escaped climate regulation, for 14.5 percent of the planet’s heat-trapping gases, as much as planes, trains and automobiles combined.

California legislators have approved a bill targeting cow flatulence and manure, which lawmakers blame for releasing greenhouse gases. The legislation aims to reduce methane emissions related to manure to 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2030. Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) authored the bill, which passed shortly before the end of the legislative session. Lara agreed to a compromise that will give dairy farms more time to comply with the new regulations. Critics have expressed concerns the new regulations will result in an increase in the price of milk from California cows. Proponents of the bill say methane emissions have...

California’s attempt to curb emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is facing vocal opposition from a dairy industry that fears government meddling in the flatulence of its cows. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has set a goal of slashing methane emissions by 40% by 2030, from 2013 levels, and has targeted the belching and farting – known as “enteric fermentation” – of California’s 5.5 million beef and dairy cows, as well as the manure they create. A strategy document produced by the regulator states that improved manure management practices, new diets for cattle and “gut microbial interventions”...

Let no one say that India isn't doing its bit to fight global climate change: Government scientists are working hard to reduce carbon emissions by making cows less gassy. Consider the numbers: India is home to more than 280 million cows, and 200 million more ruminant animals like sheep, goats, yaks and buffalo. Scientists at the Cow Research Institute in Mathura, around 100 miles south of New Delhi, are tinkering with cattle feed, seeking a formula that will create less gas for the cows to belch out. But a team of researchers in the southern state of Kerala is working...

East Setauket [Long Island, NY] farmer, Bob Benner and his family have learned to live off their 15 acres of land since 1977. "We learned, made, and had our own heat. We made our own food. We made our own clothing. We raised a garden," he said. With six mouths to feed on a tight budget, Benner began raising certain farm animals as a source of food. Over the years, Benner's farm has evolved into a popular attraction for strawberry picking, birthday parties, and class trips for kids. Which is how Kimberly Sherriton, a mother from Commack, got involved with...

Last week, the FDA announced it would investigate the use of manure and other biological matter. Manure is animal poop. Rich in nutrients, it's been used by farmers as fertilizer for thousands of years. But the agency is skeptical of the safety of the practice. "The FDA is planning to conduct a risk assessment to determine how much consumer health is put at risk by the use of raw manure as fertilizer in growing crops covered by the final [Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)] Produce Safety rule, and what can be done to help prevent people from getting sick," the...

This year, a Chinese company plans to open a massive factory to clone 100,000 cows. Just how far will this mass reproductive technology go? Two decades after the birth of Dolly the sheep—the world’s first successfully cloned mammal—the year 2016 will likely see the rise of mass-produced animal clones, thanks to an enterprising and madcap scientist in China. Sometime in the next year, a company called Boyalife Genomics will open a massive factory in the coastal Chinese city of Tianjin, where it plans to clone 100,000 cattle per year—a way to address the Middle Kingdom’s rising appetite for beef. Eventually,...

The roar of Super Dave Mathieson's aerobatic aircraft has been grounded over noise complaints. The full-time air show pilot, who made Chilliwack his home base a few years ago, received notification from Transport Canada earlier this month that he could no longer perform the aerobatics under 2000 feet at Chilliwack Airport, citing proximity to "noise sensitive or livestock" areas.

Scientists in the Netherlands are one step closer to producing a viable lab-grown alternative to the conventional beef burger patty. Last year, Professor Mark Post and his team of scientists at the Maastricht University in the Netherlands produced the first prototype of a lab-grown burger. Benefits of this new burger production method include a decrease in animal slaughter, savings in land, water, and energy use required for livestock, and a reduction in greenhouse gases. The project has faced several hurdles, though, not the least of which was the enormous price tag of 250,000 Euros, or $273,000. That was roughly how...

Despite environmentalists’ worries, cattle don’t guzzle water or cause hunger—and can help fight climate change People who advocate eating less beef often argue that producing it hurts the environment. Cattle, we are told, have an outsize ecological footprint: They guzzle water, trample plants and soils, and consume precious grains that should be nourishing hungry humans. Lately, critics have blamed bovine burps, flatulence and even breath for climate change. As a longtime vegetarian and environmental lawyer, I once bought into these claims. But now, after more than a decade of living and working in the business—my husband, Bill, founded Niman Ranch...