Line Starts Here: Now Cranberry Growers Want Ban Exemption... Foie Gras Next? Cheap Drone Spies; Raw Juice; FTCLDF Party
Sometimes I wonder if our expanding inclination to ban foods says something about our do-gooder nature, or our bullying nature. Last month, I wrote about how Massachusetts PTAs were so upset about sugary-food bans they got the state legislature to exempt bake sales from such bans. And, of course, there's the pending ban of large sodas in New York City.
Now, the Bay State's cranberry growers have corralled the state's two senators--John Kerry and Scott Brown--to lobby the U.S. Department of Agriculture to exempt cranberry cocktail drinks from bans in schools under new rules being drawn up. Lobbyists are getting involved. It seems that because cranberries are so tart, the producers of fruity drinks feel they need to sweeten cranberry juice with sugar of some sort. Of course, apple juice is a potential sweetener. But there I go, trying to dictate what should be in someone else's food. How about simply removing vending machines from the schools? Do it the old fashioned way, and just have water fountains. Or if parents and teachers agree vending machines are needed, let each school make its own decisions about vending machines?
Also on the food-ban agenda--foie gras, the duck and goose liver pate. California has a ban due to take effect July 1. Apparently, Chicago tried a ban of foie gras four years ago, and gave up on it after two years. Apparently in became an international embarrassment to the city. I know, the force feeding of ducks and geese to enlarge their livers is considered cruel by animal rights advocates. They definitely have a point. I just wonder if the practice is any more cruel than the way we raise our factory chickens, cooped up in cages barely able to breathe.
You know these bans are simply going to expand. I'm not sure what's next, but who knows, they may be a good way to create jobs. You need more bureaucrats to write up all these rules, then you need lobbyists to fight or change them, then you need agents to enforce them, and of course, you need lawyers to interpret what finally results. Maybe that's one answer to our nation's job-creation problems.
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We think of drones as weapons against terrorists. But they are being introduced into the U.S. via police departments and universities. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's coming next. Now, Wired reports that very cheap drones--in the hundreds and few thousands of dollars--are on the way. Just let your imagination go, and it's not just visions of people spying on their sexy neighbors. It's the ag police monitoring farms. Then there would be no more need for animal registration, since the drones can keep tabs on every farm's animal comings and goings. I would imagine we'll eventually need special defense drones to shoot down the spy drones the government will unleash on us....except it will probably be declared against the law to possess the defense drones.
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So I'm at Whole Foods, and there's a guy with a table displaying 16-ounce bottles of vegetable and fruit juices. Turns out they are unpasteurized fresh juice--first brand I've seen on a store shelf anywhere in a long time. According to the CDC, 98 per cent of juices are pasteurized, and to sell bottled unpasteurized juice, you need to include a warning label. The maker of this new brand, BluePrint, says this on one of its little promotional pamphlets: "Juice should never be cooked. Heat, pasteurization, common in most conventional juices, kills vitamins, minerals, and even live enzymes. Even 'flash' or 'gently' pasteurized means cooked." Sound familiar? Sure hope they make it in retail.
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The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund is celebrating its fifth anniversary July 7, with a celebration at the Maryland farm of Sally Fallon, head of the Weston A. Price Foundation. The celebration includes lunch, a tour of the farm, and a sampling of the farm's cheeses. I understand there are still a few places available. I'll be there. Hard to believe it's been five years since the FTCLDF launched.
This site's mission is to provide news and analysis about food rights and raw milk. Increasingly, our access to privately available food is under attack by government and industry forces that seek to impose their choices on us. The Complete Patient seeks to provide up-to-date information and encourage the development of community to maintain traditional food acquisition options.
David,
What you are talking about here is the internal contradictions of capital accumulation. The more powerful capital as an institution becomes, the more repressive the state must become (i.e. rules and regulations, predator drones, etc...) in order to restrain the socially destructive forces of unrestrained capitalism (i.e. junk food, animal cruelty, etc...)
Ultimately, the only force that can peacefully and democratically restrain the anti-social nature of capitalism is the working class. It is an unfortunate fact that our working-class grassroots movements today are in a pathetic state of organization. The consequences of this is an ever-increasing repressive state apparatus, in order to keep capitalism tennable.
No amount of neo-liberal "libertarian" theorizing (and their pathetic petit-bourgeois social movements) can solve this problem. Only the working class has the ability to transform society from the bottom-up, to eliminate the root causes of capitalism's predatory and anti-social tendancies.
a good anti-dote for Mister Anderson's rote rant is seen atop Dr Makow's website, today = about the people of Paraguay putting the boots to the social-istas < www.henrymakow.com >
an excerpt goes to why the collectivist mentality hates REAL MILK
"The hatred of efficient and productive farms has always been a sign of communist regimes. Stalin destroyed Ukraine's agriculture in the 1930's and consequently killed 7 million people. Mao killed from 20 to 43 million people during the 1958 to 1961 period, mainly because of forced collectivization of small farms. Food is the ultimate weapon."
What, Watson, aren't you familiar with Pinochet's 1973 Fascist coup? Thousands of social activists were buried in mass graves on the alter of the free-market, all backed by the Pentagon and Pepsi corporation.
Last time I checked, it was Western capitalists nations that led the way on the industrialization of agriculture. Russia and China were both latecomers in that game.
Get your facts straight, and stop citing misogynist neo-Nazis as if they were legitimate intellectuals, Watson. Merely because one opposes the "New World Order" does not automatically make one forward thinking or an advocate of human freedom. Many of the worst dictators in history made their careers on railing against the establishment. Hitler, for example. And the Jews were not his first victims. Communists and trade unionists were.
"communists and trade unionists were" ... so at the very least, he got that part right
Our do-gooder, bullying nature work hand in hand and stimulate each other. What David in essence is referring to is the human obsession with control.
The answer rests not with the implementation of these tit for tat pride driven ideologies for the sake of ascendency.
Ken
Ken, could this be an example of the human obsession with control?
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pearl-312608-train-obedient.html
Yes
Milk, not politics, said Sherlock... Watson, can you hear me? Bill? Don't bullying, try cowlying instead. There's only 2 reasons why people commit crimes: sex and money. If you don't have enough of either, sooner or later you will be a criminal. Food for thought.
Cranberries are tart, and should be. Next thing you know, there will be a GMO knockoff of cranberries that are NOT tart, and marketed as NATURAL. Beware.
The idea of being monitored by drones is truly scary. But if everyone (especially Bills esteemed working class)would get off their apathetic pitty pot and out of their supremely intellectual heads and actually hold themselves, politicians, corporations, and beurocrats accountable real solutions may emerge. Society was not forced into the materialistic consumerism...they were led by the nose perhaps, but sure didn't fight much. Yes, the human condition seeks to control, it's an instinctual hangover from when survival toped the list of human needs. Today, at least in America, survival, as it were, is pretty much guaranteed and the masses would rather live in some contrived virtual world and let someone else handle things; enter the opportunity for those who seek control. Kind of ironic...control being an instinct yet people give it away so freely. Maybe all those do gooders trying to make things " safe" have actually encouraged people to forget how to think for them selves.
Teaching the truth and what creates health...that is the true basis of sustained future health.
If people want to be healthy then teach about what that takes. The examples will be clear to those that do not embrace good nutrition. They will be fat, asthmatic, IBS, Crohns, ADHD, Austic, immune depressed, diabetic, infected, bone weak, dental deficient...and mostly unable to reproduce.
Stupid is as Stupid eats.
Sounds pretty Darwin Self-Limiting to me.
Drink up your raw milk and eat local fresh whole foods and thrive. You are the sustainable example for the future. Teaching and mentoring by example is the future.
Mark, I think you meant Stupid is as Stupid drinks. Go hops, ferment!
Darwin lager sounds like a winning brew
A great analysis from alternet.org, on the inverse relationship between progressive social policy and religion.
Since we are talking about social control, its pretty apparent to me that the greatest form of social control is religion. As societies become more free, and the average working-class person more secure in their economic wellbeing, their adherence to religious ideology and superstition diminishes.
Therefore, if our goal is to minimize institutions of social control, our means must be to promote a more egalitarian society with greater economic equality.
Sorry, here is the link:
http://www.alternet.org/belief/156007/do_people_get_less_religious_when_...
The Cops Really Suck.
On the way to our market this week, one of our large transport trucks was stopped at a weigh station and the driver was harrassed. One of the childish things that the CHP officer did was to call our driver gay...."told him that he had just come out of the closet".
This driver is not gay...he is the husband of my daughter Kaleigh and the father to my grandson James. even if he was...it would be no business of the CHP officer. This officer is emblematic of the police bias, beligerance and abuse....etc. When another officer attempted to ask what was going on...the Ass Hole Cop resisted the interferance and went on unabated with his tirade. The blue line stood together.
The good was weaker than the bad.
Why is it that police are jerks and it is tolerated? Why is it that society tolerates this total and complete excess of power provided to criminal brutality loving gun toting badge abusing jerks?
A letter is going to the officers supervisor.
Wow, unbelievable. Well maybe not... even though the vast majority of police are really great people that actually try to help others, and often risk their lives doing it there's always a few that need that selfish ego power boost to overcome their mental deficiencies.
I do hope your SIL got the badge number and follows through with a complaint. California frowns upon that. I'd take it to Old Moonbeam....
Regarding Mark's latest urge to teach:
Stupid diets demonstrate the power of paradigms, which provide all one’s answers, right or wrong, and much more important, provide one’s questions as well. Makes you wonder if modern Americans, fully trained now to look always outside themselves for direction (generally to bureaucrats, “experts”, and other central-control freaks---Ken’s well-described bullies and do-gooders) are even teachable anymore.
You would think, for example, that Mark’s list of modern epidemics would at very least create suspicion of the status quo, but apparently no… I guess it’s just too hard to let go of what you’re used to.
I heard an NPR (National Paradigmatic Radio) report the other day about a research study suggesting that not all calories are the same. “Scientists” we are told, have always believed that “a calorie is a calorie” until (maybe) now they are discovering that refined carbs may be more fat-producing on a per calorie basis than proteins or fats.
Well, the “calorie is a calorie” notion has been understood by MANY for a very long time to be wrong, wrong, wrong. But the insightful folks who said so were unchained from the current paradigm (read “loony”) so, with all the smug self-righteousness that NPR and doctors and establishment science and all the others could muster, they were marginalized and ridiculed. Now on this small issue, establishment science (and their worshippers in media) just may be catching up some little bit with reality. Undoubtedly we will hear no apology for their past faults, let alone an embarrassed recusal.
Last evening our local news reported on a police involved shooting that left a local retired marine dead with Police Department bullets all through him.
The story goes like this. The marine was depressed and had called #911 explaining that he wanted to kill himself but not hurt anyone else.
The police responded and shot him to death....no gun or weapon was found on him or near him...he was unarmed. The police all knew that he was depressed and wanted to die...
Does this not make this a true crime. A premeditated murder by cop.
If the cops knew that this guy wanted to die and they responded with the idea that they would shoot him dead if he did anything strange....I argue that none of the actions of the police were preventative and that they knew well before that they would kill him. Their training is a premeditated murder protocol.
"Action and reaction" go the arguments from the Police departments. They have no choice but to use deadly force. No choice...the guy was unarmed. He had explained his depression to the #911 operator. the cops were not even needed at the scene. There mere presence became the crisis. Why not less lethal use of force...???
This is a farce and a murderous excuse for excessive and abusive force. It would put any of us in jail for life.
As juries excuse murder by cop, this reinforces murder by cop and our cultural tolerance changes over time.
Again....We the people suck... we are the wimps. We are a society of weak, niave and stupid people. If we started putting cops in prison...this madness would stop.
Some of my best friends are cops. They all stand together at the blue line and support the worst of the worst cops. This is a failed system.
"Suicide by Cop"...is an excuse for premeditated murder by protocol and excused murder.
I hope those cops roast in hell. I am not one of those jurors that would let this pass. Cops that shoot only to find out that the victim is unarmed are wimps and worse. As a paramedic I feared the cops on scene far more than any person with a weapon or in this case a person with out a weapon.
Where is the humanity and service to society...when I call *911... I want help not the executioner ???
Makes you really wonder what kind of people or monsters are attracted to power, un bridled and unquestioned authority, a badge and gun.
Well down the road to nazi type facism indeed.
Mark
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=7710482
Apparently, the man did point a gun at the police. That doesn't excuse the excess use of gun power, etc. Fresno has a nasty reputation for high crime, not as bad as Stockton.... Death by cop is more common than the media lets on.
"Suicide by Cop"...is an excuse for premeditated murder by protocol and excused murder.
Mark, shame on you. As a "health professional" you should know better. You should be teaching facts, not personal feelings. Suicide by cop is NOT "an excuse for premeditated murder by protocol and excused murder".
If someone were to point a gun at me, I'd shoot first and ask questions later. Basic gun rules,--- treat every gun as if it is loaded. Never point a gun at anyone without the intent to use it.
http://www.suicidebycop.com/7922.html
http://www.forensiccriminology.com/pdf/Suicidebycop.pdf
This months Dairymans magazine had an article that advised the dairyman of things that they need to do to exit the dairy industy. Like advise the water quality and submit a payment and a report on how to clean up lagoons and scrape up pens etc...
With CA Grade A raw milk "sold to be pasteurized" at a Milk Pool base price of $13.65 per CWT for May and the break even above $20 per CWT....this is insane.
It is also an indictment of the sanity of the producers as a whole. Why can they not stand together and stop this madness.
Solution: dump all milk for four days and tell the processors what the price will be...done.
Solution excuted in less than one week. Instead, death a slow death upon the producers of CA.
Crazy....humans are crazy and really really stupid.
Sylvia...shame on you...you got the wrong shooting. I am referring to another shooting.
Do not shame me for defending the rights of people that are unarmed. I know that their are truly brave and great police officers. The problem with this brave and great police officers is that they have no courage to stand up against the bad and truly brutal and shameful officers.
I know this all to well.
As far as the shooting that your link connects too...why in the hell are 8 cops shooting at a house and hitting the neighbors house instead with 63 rounds. This is called Contageous Fire. It happens to cover the ass of the first shooter. So they can all stand together and no one knows who or why the first jerk off started to shoot. http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Aveni/Contagious.Fire.htm
I am not ashamed of my comments here. I know the truth because I have scene the trash that stays on the public police pay roll when they should be in jail. I am disgusted.
Then Mark, you should have been specific of what you were talking about, shame on you.
blame, shame, flame, game. We're all in the same boat. Pass me that oar please.
Shame, blame, blah, blah, blah...
My emotions run very high when it comes to public officials ending other peoples lives in my name.
End of fricken story. I do not endorse these policies and they are sick...and pagan!
Unarmed people killed by cops, when the person was reaching out for help is sick. Even more sick is the protection and defense of those policies and the lack of humanity in heart, morals and or ethics.
Kind of like saying....soldiers dying in foreign wars for our liberties and freedom. What an irrational, stupid concept.
Soldiers die because they are sent to protect oil and money....not our lives or our freedoms.
Insane concepts. Vietnam taught us this. We killed milions and 56,000 died all for what?....nothing but oil, rubber, and corporate profits. The same goes for our current wars. Ask a veteran what they died for....many will agree with these words.
Americans are idiots and follow our national policies over a cliff.
Mark, I hear you and mostly agree. However Americans alone should not be singled out, since most other nationalities are equally vulnerable to the onslaught of politically motivated propaganda that has exploded with the development of modern sensationalistic media tools, now including the internet. Unfortunately the rest of the world is becoming more like us than the other way around. People are too easily seduced by the fake glory of material ownership and wealth and believe more lies than ever before..
Think about it: "Home of the free" has more people in prison than any other country in the world. We've got roughly 2.03 million people behind bars... that's more than China, Iran, and Russia. For what reason? You can probably guess it: profit. It's one of the fastest growing industries in the US over the last few decades.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-for--280--the-return-of-debtors--pr...
We didn't have a TV growing up but I think I was better educated than 90% of today's kids, and had stronger ethics and sense of right and wrong. Keep it simple, and always teach, teach, teach. That much I definitely agree on, now back to milk talk please. Oh and for the record, I'm a practicing Pagan.