Free Republic

The artificial sweetener aspartame might soon be declared a “possible carcinogen,” or cancer-causing agent, according to a leaked report from the World Health Organization. Aspartame is used in Diet Coke, Coke Zero, chewing gum, diet Snapple, breakfast cereals, ice cream and many other common food and drinks. It’s also sold as NutraSweet, Equal and Sugar Twin. The news about the possible move by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, first reported on Reuters, met with quick resistance from the food industry. “… [T]his leaked opinion contradicts decades of high-quality scientific evidence,” International Council of Beverages Associations executive director...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - A federal appeals court has ruled against backers of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which would have become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had it been ratified before a Congressionally-mandated deadline ran out in the 1970s. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall hailed Tuesday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as “a significant victory for the rule of law” after Alabama and four other states sued to prevent the U.S. Archivist from certifying the ERA as a constitutional amendment. Tuesday’s ruling is decades in the making. Congress submitted the proposed...

Haven’t gotten a chance to post this one, but it needs to be posted. From the Star Ledger: How every town in N.J. rates on income inequality Despite what Montclair wants you to believe, outside of the typical wealth enclaves like Saddle River, Far Hills, Deal and the like, Montclair ranks as pretty much the most unequal large town in New Jersey. There are few towns in NJ that show such a blatantly obvious amount of geographic segregation as Montclair, less than 1 mile separates some of the wealthiest residents of NJ from some of it’s poorest.

Is All Taxation Equal Under the Law Does the US Tax Code treats healthcare insurance premiums differently between employer paid premiums and individual paid premiums? Manufactures began offering free healthcare insurance as a way to attract employees and avoid violating World War Two Wage and Price Controls. Free always guarantees a demand. Later, perhaps 1948, the courts declared that employer paid healthcare insurance premiums were not taxable income.

In the eyes of some, the great hope for mankind has always been a sort of communal society. The thought behind this idea is that everyone could work towards a common end and share the fruits of their labor. As a matter of fact, Liberalism and social progressives teach this today. So, “in order to form a more perfect Union”, at all costs they foist their communal ideals upon society. In a perfect world, this type of social order would be heavenly. Unfortunately, we don’t live in paradise. That being the case, there are two things that war against this...

As all the world surely knows by now, “equality” is the ideological key to President Obama’s domestic policies. That all people are created equal, the president says, is the “most evident of truths.” Whether that’s so or not, it is unquestionably the case that you express any reservations whatsoever about equality these days at no little personal risk.Be that as it may, nonetheless, the meaning of equality is hopelessly unclear in the absence of specifics. Clarification requires asking and answering a prior question: equal in regard to what? Weight? Height? Intelligence? Misery? This plainly can’t be what the president has...

... There are numerous other factors that affect pay. Most fundamentally, men and women tend to gravitate toward different industries. Feminists may charge that women are socialized into lower-paying sectors of the economy. But women considering the decisions they’ve made likely have a different view. Women tend to seek jobs with regular hours, more comfortable conditions, little travel, and greater personal fulfillment. Often times, women are willing to trade higher pay for jobs with other characteristics that they find attractive. Men, in contrast, often take jobs with less desirable characteristics in pursuit of higher pay. They work long hours and...

In short, what the Congressional Budget Office presents as increased inequality from 2003 to 2007 was actually evidence that the top 1% of earners report more taxable income when tax rates are reduced on dividends, capital gains and businesses filing under the individual tax code. If Congress raises top individual tax rates much above the corporate rate, many billions in business income would rapidly vanish from the individual tax returns the CBO uses to measure the income of the top 1%. Small businesses and professionals would revert to reporting most income on corporate tax returns as they did in 1979.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday pushed backed against those who accuse the Justice Department of enforcing civil rights laws based on race, saying people need to just "look at the facts." "The notion that we are enforcing any civil rights laws -- voting or others -- on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender is simply false," Holder said. For more than a year, Republicans and others have been questioning why the Obama administration reversed course on a federal lawsuit against two members of the New Black Panther Party, who were videotaped outside a

I'm curious to what Freepers think of Aspartame. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in diet products like diet coke. Many websites, albeit possibly kooky websites, say Aspartame produces side effects like anxiety, blurred vision, depression, etc. The medical establishment and Feds say its heavily tested and safe. Anyone with an opinion or experience?

More than ever, people are consuming large amounts of sugar as part of their daily diet according to the Mayo Clinic. But in excess, sugar can take its toll. Eating large amounts of sugar adds extra calories, which can cause weight gain. So many people opt for artificial sweeteners — also referred to as sugar substitutes or low-calorie sweeteners — as a way to enjoy their favorite foods without as many calories. According to eDocAmerica, Saccharin (Sweet 'N Low) was the first, and is perhaps the most controversial of the artificial sweeteners.

Uh oh, here is another example of screaming at the other side while Obama has his own skeletons in the closet. He keeps repeating the fact that Sarah Palin supported the bridge to nowhere before she was against it, which is a fact that no one denies, but he always supported it. He's hitting her for earmarks while he granted $3.4 million in earmarks to the clients of Joe Biden's son, who is a lobbyist. Now, as Obama criticizes Palin, saying she's not for equal pay for equal work, it appears Obama has a problem. His Senate Office only pays...

What do you call a man who sermonizes about the evils of paying women less than men but allows that very practice in his own office? While a certain unflattering noun would leap to the mind of most, we can now apply a proper one: Barack Obama. Although the Illinois senator has vowed to make pay equity between the sexes a priority in his administration, it has been revealed that he doesn't practice what he preaches. Writes CNSNEWS.com: On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator...

A U.S. consumer group called for an urgent Food and Drug Administration review of the safety of aspartame on Monday, but the FDA said there was no immediate need to do so despite a new study showing the sweetener may cause cancer.  Italian researchers published a new study last week that showed aspartame -- widely used in soft drinks -- might cause leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.   "This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Center for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said in a telephone...

PHILADELPHIA - The marketers of Splenda have made millions by confusing consumers into thinking the yellow packets contain a natural product and not an artificial sweetener, its chief rival told a jury Tuesday. Splenda has cornered the $1.5 billion market for sugar substitutes since its 2000 debut through false advertising that implies Splenda contains sugar, the manufacturer of Equal says. The Merisant Co., which makes Equal and NutraSweet, says Splenda is misleading customers with its tag line, "Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." Splenda contains no sugar and is instead sweetened with a synthetic compound through a complex...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The makers of Splenda and Equal on Friday settled a lawsuit over Splenda's disputed advertising slogan — "Made from sugar so it tastes like sugar." The settlement came after the jury announced that it had reached a verdict. Merisant Co., which makes Equal, accused Splenda of confusing consumers into thinking its product was healthier and more natural than other artificial sweeteners. Splenda's marketer, McNeil Nutritionals, countered that it simply has a better product backed by superior advertising. A McNeil spokeswoman in the courtroom said the amount of the settlement wouldn't be announced. The two sides planned to...

Why are politicians again championing the Equal Rights Amendment -- newly minted as the Women's Equality Amendment -- when the speaker of the House, secretary of state and the Democratic presidential front-runner are women, and when women are making gains in education and the workforce? One reason is that many claim women are systematically discriminated against at work, as the existence of the so-called wage gap proves. Talking about wage discrimination against women is a political mainstay. Last month, Sen. Hillary Clinton expressed consternation that women continue to make "just 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes" and...

HOLLY SPRINGS -- A Cherokee County city plans to honor a Good Samaritan who helped a 5-foot, 4-inch female officer subdue a drug suspect who stands nearly 7 feet tall. Officer Julie Ann Welch stopped a car on May 10 on Highway 5 because the driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt. She says the passenger, Mike Schmidt, of Canton, was acting suspiciously so she told him to get out of the car. "He just continually disobeyed my commands," Welch tells WSB-TV. "He kept putting his hands in his pocket. He was shaking horribly." Welch says she found cocaine and drug paraphernalia...

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 11, 2006 – The Afghan National Police recently took major strides toward recognizing the equal rights of men and women, as well as the important contributions made by its female officers. Gen. Aziza Nazeri (center), the Afghan National Police''s most senior female officer, presides over the Gender Awareness Day conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 8, as Gen. Ahmad Madadzai and Jerilyn Glick Holsapple look on. Madadzai is head of the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Interior, and Holsapple is a special agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Photo by Staff...

Don't tell the Scouts of the W.D. Boyce Council in Central Illinois that you can't build an entire house from aluminum cans. They know better because they've done it—and a displaced New Orleans family who lost everything in the ravages of Hurricane Katrina last August has a brand-new home as proof. Approximately 2,000 Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts collected more than 3.5 million aluminum beverage cans worth more than $50,000. The money was presented to local Habitat for Humanity organizations. In mid-November, volunteer workers from Habitat for Humanity Greater Peoria (Ill.) began building a local Scout-sponsored house for a New...