27 Dec 2005
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not

A great editorial from Robert Steinback, writing in the Miami Herald. Read the whole thing.

Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?"

(link) [Miami Hearld]

via MyAppleMenu

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Montana Beef Council promotes new cookbook

Note how this is funded: via a "check-off". That's bureaucratese for "hidden tax". Beef producers pay a $1 per head check off tax, and this is one of the projects it funds. Note that the cookbook isn't particularly "grass fed friendly" - it follows the governments guidelines for percentage of fat in cuts of beef, and therefore makes my meat appear much fattier than it actually is, putting my grass fed product on par with factory farmed feedlot beef. Lovely. If anyone out there is still suffering from the illusion that there's anything resembling a free market in US agriculture, stories like this should ally those apprehensions.

HELENA, Mont. - Just in time for your New Year's resolutions to eat healthier, balanced diets - great taste and nutrition come together in a new check-off-funded cookbook.

(link) [Ag News/updates from www.theprairiestar.com]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Letter From Rome: Vatican Considers Consigning Limbo to Oblivion

The mind numbing, convoluted turnings of a theology that once consigned stillborn babes to Hell, because Adam took a bite of an apple... and then turned around and claimed that we Heathens were unenlightened barbarians and religious savages, destined to Hell because of that same fruit.

Whatever.

This month, 30 top theologians from around the world met at the Vatican to discuss what happens to babies who die without baptism.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

00:00 /Asatru | 1 comment | permanent link