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Our family supports local farmers as much as we can. We're members of a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, and we buy all our meat and milk from local farmers who graze them on grass and don't use routine antibiotics and hormones. It's healthy, and the food is really just plain better. My charming wife bought the reserve champion lamb at the 4-H auction at the county fair last year, and we were astonished at the comparison between the meat from that lamb and the meat we'd been getting from a local sheep farmer who pastures on grass.

But here's another reason to avoid "factory farmed" meat: they're serious polluters.

According to a 1998 report from the Department of Agriculture and U.S. EPA, CAFO [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation - basically, feedlots] muck has fouled roughly 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states. More recent data show that 29 states have reported water contamination from these feedlots. [Emphasis mine]

 

...or 2.0. Crucifix NG is a printed electronic circuit board in the shape of a crucifix. This handheld, wall-mountable device houses a battery-operated transmitter that broadcasts an ASCII, non-denominational version of the Lord's Prayer at 916 megahertz. So if you want your body to be imbued with an anointed electromagnetism, this is for you.

George Steinbrenner is 76 today. The Cleveland Indians celebrated by beating the Yankees 19-1.

Say, where do you keep the books on dominoes?

It's been a quiet day here. Staked our tomatoes, which we should have done a couple of weeks ago. Did some weeding. Stayed home so the dogs wouldn't freak out at the fireworks. Appreciated living in a free country. Reflected on Ben Franklin, responding to the question of what kind of government we would have, saying "A republic, if you can keep it."

Happy Independence Day. Hope you are all safe and sound, and that our citizens in uniform are as safe as they can be, and that they all return home safely.

If you have ever lived in the Northeast, you certainly remember "Crazy Eddie", the NYC retailer with the tagline "His prices are INNSAAAAANE! (if you don't, a number of his ads are available online at crazyeddie.com). Well, he's been trying to sell the domain name and trademark on eBay. Unfortunately, he didn't get very close to the "Buy it now" price of $800K or to the (unknown) reserve price, only garnering a top bid of about $30K.

But hey, keep an eye out. Maybe he'll relist!

So the Supreme Court ruled against the administration in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Looks like those of us who said that they couldn't just toss out the Geneva Conventions when they found them inconvenient were right. Just like we were about the WMD. And the yellowcake. And the "mobile biological labs". And Saddam not being involved in 9/11.

But man, it seems like the entire right wing has just gone completely, utterly, totally around the bend today. To wit:

The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (no link, he doesn't deserve the traffic) seems to have been the first to call for the assassination of the USSC.

Five activist tyrants in black robes have just decided that terrorists are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions in spite of said Conventions specifically saying that they aren't.
In other words: It doesn't matter what laws and conventions actually say, all that matters is what unelected fascists in black robes want them to say.
The Supreme Whores are in dire need of Intervention by Lynch Mob™.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the American Caliphate Litigating Unit call the Supreme Whores' surrender to al-Qaeda a victory for the Rule of Law. Shariah law, maybe. The ACLU, proudly embracing everything that might aid terrorists in bringing about another 9/11. Hang them.

How nice. What is it with these fuckwits and their incessant harping on "unelected" judges? Don't they realize that (a) they have to be confirmed by elected representatives, and (b) they are a key part of the system set forth by the framers of the Constitution? To hear them talk, you'd think that an independent judiciary was invented by FDR or something.

I've been hearing people say that applying the Geneva Conventions to the detainees will result in the military adopting a "take no prisoners" approach on the battlefield. Well, that's not only barbaric beyond anything we've seen so far, but it's also a violation of the Geneva Conventions (and, coincidentally, a violation of the War Crimes Act).

Trent Lott joined the idiot brigades on Neil Cavuto's show, announcing that the decision was ridiculous and outrageous before admitting that, well, he hadn't actually read the whole thing yet. At least he didn't suggest killing anybody.

Also on Cavuto: Ann Coulter (and really, isn't just having her on your show at this point evidence that you've gone completely batshit crazy?) said that[Y]ou just expect Democrats to side with al Qaeda before admitting that, like Trent Lott, she hasn't read the decision yet. I mean, why bother? It's not like their comments are actually based on the content of the decision, anyway, so it's good that they're dropping the pretense.

Putting in a strong effort on the "just plain fascist" front is the whole Fox "News" crew:

On the June 29 broadcast of Fox News Radio's Brian & The Judge, co-host Brian Kilmeade, who also co-hosts Fox News' Fox & Friends, suggested that the U.S. government should "put up the Office of Censorship," in the wake of reports in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal detailing a Treasury Department program designed to monitor international financial transactions for terrorist activity. Similarly, during the June 29 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host E.D. Hill wondered if it would be appropriate for the U.S. government to create an "Office of Censorship."

But I think that today's winner on American Idiot has to be Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in his dissent of Justice Stevens' unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare. John Paul Stevens served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1945, and was awarded a Bronze Star. Clarence Thomas has no military record.

I couldn't put it any better than Duncan Black did:In a just world, Thomas would resign in shame and spend the rest of his life tending to the needs of disabled Vets.
We don't live in a just world.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.

Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when customs officials found a Viagra prescription that did not bear his name. Instead, the bottle of pills had the names of two doctors on it according to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.

So says CBS4 News from West Palm Beach.

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, and we'll hear it as soon as he's thought it up.

So Washington state has now passed a law banning doctors from writing prescriptions in cursive. Guys, it's 2006. Why are they writing the blooming things by hand at all? I want my prescription emailed (securely) from the doctor's office to the pharmacy and waiting there for me to pick up.

I'm sure the Benevolent Bush Administration knew exactly what it was doing when they insisted that the government not be able to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers as part of the Medicare Part D boondoggle. Right? I mean, we do have "The CEO President", right? Harvard MBA? Must know what he's doing, eh?

Prices of the most widely used prescription drugs rose sharply in this year's first quarter, just as the new Medicare drug coverage program was going into effect, according to separate studies issued yesterday by two large consumer advocacy groups.

AARP, which represents older Americans, said prices charged by drug makers for brand-name pharmaceuticals jumped 3.9 percent, four times the general inflation rate during the first three months of this year and the largest quarterly price increase in six years.

Price increases for some of the most popular brand-name drugs were much steeper; the sleeping pill Ambien was up 13.3 percent, and the best-selling cholesterol drug, Lipitor, was up 4.7 to 6.5 percent, depending on dosage.

Over all, AARP said, higher prices mean that the cost of providing brand-name drugs to the typical older American, who takes four prescription medicines daily, rose by nearly $240 on average over the 12-month period that ended on March 31.

Bush delenda est.

Just the thing for drying your hair before putting on your tin foil hat! Korean manufacturer UNIX Electronics (and I'd love to know the story behind that name) now has a line of "low-EMF" hair dryers. I love the warning at the bottom of the page:

Effect of Electromagnetic Wave on the Human Body?
It causes Leukemia, Lymph Cancer, Brain Cancer, Central Nerve Cancer, Breat Cancer, Dementia, Abortion, Delivery a deformed baby. All the countries define the Electromagnetic Wave as environmental pollutionand report the damage occasions.

And yes, that's exactly as it appears in the original. And remember, You can be a professional with Unix!