28 Jan 2006
NAIS Featured on Radio Show

From Sugar Mountain Farm comes this news about a radio show today from MetroFarm covering NAIS. See the links for all the details.

Coincidentally (or not) I was talking about this very topic yesterday with Miller's Meats out in Waynetown, Indiana, when I picked up some beef for delivery. And he asked the same question that Walter asks: Cui bono? And came up the pretty much the same answer: the taxing authorities, who are bound and determined to clamp down on unreported meat sales. He knew it had nothing whatsoever to do with food safety or animal health issues. And I must say it was reasonably encouraging to find another local farmer who actually gets it.

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Pharmacists Sue Over Birth Control Policy

Let me see if I understand this as a generic principle of law. Suppose that I hire a new employee for a farm store, and that employee happens to have deep moral and religious convictions against homosexuality. And when an obviously gay couple (say, two guys, holding hands) come into the store and and try to purchase eggs, this employee refuses to serve them, citing his religious convictions against keeping perverts alive.

And I can't fire him?

What about a liberal department store employee who refuses to sell guns? Is every silly peccadillo of every American to be suffered and tolerated in the name of "conscience"?

If these pharmacists are allowed to get away with this, will it not lead to outright discrimination against Catholic pharmacists? If I were the manager of a Walgreens hiring more help under this scenario, which potential employee would I be more likely to choose: one with an "I'm Pro-Life and I Vote" bumper sticker or one with a sign that says "Tree-Hugging Dirt Worshipper"?

Laws requiring stores to sell certain products are just as onerous - should all news stands be required to carry Hustler? Should any farm dealing with livestock be forced to sell guns?

Next time I hear some conservative commentator rant about how liberals are destroying American small business I think I'm gonna gag. For while many liberals do indeed seem to be hell-bent on choking the life out of us little guys, they've got plenty of help from the right. Government, of any stripe, is the problem, not the solution. And government is coming at us from left and right. The rallying cry of small businesses should be, as it has classically been, "Laissez-faire!" - Leave Us Alone!

AP - Four pharmacists who refused to sign a pledge promising to dispense the morning-after birth-control pill sued Walgreen drug stores Friday, alleging they were illegally fired.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Bush to Propose Trimming Army Reserve

Is our President nuts? Has he not read the reports of understaffing in the Armed Forces? Or is this just a ploy, since it reduces authorized levels to current levels, to make it look like we're meeting recruiting goals?

We've got Iran and North Korea rattling nuclear sabers - now it not the time to cut back on troop strength or weapons research!

AP - President Bush will use his new budget to propose cutting the size of the Army Reserve to its lowest level in three decades and stripping up to $4 billion from two fighter aircraft programs.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link