The Food Safety Modernization Act

Lawyers and such swear up and down that S.501 ("The Food Safety Modernization Act") won't affect anyone's small farm or backyard garden. Psh, how's this?

It all starts with a farmer named Roscoe Filburn, a modest farmer who grew wheat in his own back yard in order to feed his chickens.

One day, a U.S. government official showed up at his farm. Noting that Filburn was growing a lot of wheat, this government official determined that Filburn was growing too much wheat and ordered Filburn to destroy his wheat crops and pay a large fine to the federal government.

The year was 1940, you see. And through a highly protectionist policy, the federal government had decided to artificially drive up the prices of wheat by limiting the amount of wheat that could be grown on any given acre. This is all part of Big Government's "infinite wisdom" of trying to somehow improve prosperity by destroying food and impairing economic productivity. (Be wary any time the government says it's going to "solve problems" for you.)

The federal government, of course, claims authority over all commerce (even when such claims are blatantly in violation of the limitations placed upon government by the Constitution). But Roscoe Filburn wasn't selling his wheat to anyone. Thus, he was not engaged in interstate commerce. He wasn't growing wheat as something to use for commerce at all, in fact. He was simply growing wheat in his back yard and feeding it to his chickens. That's not commerce. That's just growing your own food.

Read more...

If you can control the food supply, you can control the people. It's like NAIS, only with plants.

What is this Orange Border?

A. The trench due for construction to make eight continents, cuz we're tired of just seven.
B. Cheese. My five year old decided to take spray cheese and outline our country.
C. The Constitution-Free zone. Places where an unconstitutional effort to curb immigration is in effect.
D. Cities we are going to blow up with bombs in an effort to clean up our borders and beaches.

On one of the blogs I frequent, I found some disturbing news. (The answer is 'C' by the way. 'C' for 'correct.') Here's an excerpt from her post:

That's the map of the 100 mile US Border Patrol zone that people are calling the Constitution-Free Zone. Not many people have heard about this, and I had heard rumors, but I didn't realize they had put it into effect. This was brought to my attention because of a pastor that got his head split open at one of the checkpoints within the 100 mile along the Mexico side of this zone. Evidently, there are now a series of checkpoints along major highways...

Read the entire post...

I found it very disturbing, but I don't know what should be done. I know that others should be alerted to this, so spread the word. What else do you think we should do?

President-elect Barack Obama

I posted a comment on this blog: Patterico's Pontifications. The comment says:

I was glad to find someone trying to find some good in Obama. There wasn't a lot there, and it needed to be backed up with actions, but it was still nice.

Also, I find the whole discussion in the comment section absolutely fascinating. There are so many diverse opinions. It's enlightening.

For myself, I will give Obama a chance to set this country on its feet again. From what he says he wants to do, it isn't likely...but if he were to ever try it, his corrupt politician skills would guarantee it would happen. :) He could promise everyone whatever they wanted. He could make them believe they will actually get it while he did some good. Sadly, he doesn't seem to be using his "talents" for good.

And I still haven't decided whether Obama is actually a decent, misguided fellow or a evil man...or something else entirely. Still we shall see....