CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN

How About the End of Farmers Markets? Say Hello to H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.

What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration.” Even growers who sell just fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production.

Some comments from Michael Silence’s blog.

Posted by bobby b:

Obama's idea of Hell is a society in which we don't brush up against some government official at least three times every day.

Government should be a constant daily presence in our lives, checking on us and approving us and correcting us as needed to keep us thinking correctly, regulating every aspect of interaction and commerce to make sure the wrong sorts don't take advantage of the right sorts, and reminding us that the right sorts have already determined what "correct thought" means, and no, sorry, that was a closed meeting.

Posted by Beth:

I thought I'd try my hand at growing veggies for the farmer's market and by selling my chicken's eggs. ... Are they even going to let me eat my own eggs and produce?

And I was going to start a garden this spring. Oh, well.

DUMB INVENTIONS

A kitty wig. Shadow is NOT happy ...

For other dumb inventions, go here.

My personal favorites are the pedal-powered wheelchair and the battery-operated battery charger.

IT'S 3 AM IN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE

Linked from a PowerLine post on White House teleprompter use. Read the rest of the post here.

INSULTING WEASELS?

Michelle Malkin likes to use the term "crapweasel" to describe politicians who arouse her ire.

A commenter responds: "No weasel in its right mind wants to be associated with these people."

I agree: the weasel is getting a bum rap.

IT’S MY FAULT?

Kathleen Parker thinks

“[T]he biggest challenge facing America's struggling newspaper industry may not be the high cost of newsprint or lost ad revenue, but ignorance stoked by drive-by punditry ... non-journalists who have been demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so and who blame the current news crisis on bias.” ... “And, yes, some newspapers are more liberal than their readership and do a lousy job of concealing it.”

Hmm. It’s my fault newspapers are declining because I’ve been accusing them of bias. But, yes, they’re biased. Okaaay ...

“But the greater truth is that newspaper reporters, editors and institutions are responsible for the boots-on-the-ground grub work that produces the news stories and performs the government watchdog role so crucial to a democratic republic.”

Half right. Produces news stories is correct. But “performs the government watchdog role” is flat wrong. That's my responsibility – and yours – as citizens and voters.

“How does the newspaper industry survive in a climate in which the public doesn't know what it doesn't know? Or what it needs?”

Again, half right. But it’s wrong, flatly, deadly wrong for journalism to claim that its their responsibility to decide for the public “what it needs.”

“[Journalists] are the champions of the industry, not the ... bloggers ... who rely on newspapers to provide their material.”

Journalists are essential, yes, but only to the extent that they report the facts and not their opinions.

[Alex S.] Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, says newspapers have to focus on their traditional core of fact-based, serious reporting.

Close, but no cigar. Replace the phrase “fact-based” with the single word “factual” and you’ve got it.

We might add to that formula the need for a serious populace informed about the fragile thread that connects a free press to a free future.

We’re already here. We’re called “bloggers.”

SWINE ODOR CONTROL

The swine odor research earmark was for Congress!

From a twitter on Michelle Malkin's blog: “My recommendation is that people look no further than the halls of Congress to find the stench of pork.”

OH, REALLY?

Headline from today’s Washington Post (print edition): “White House calls bonuses a late surprise”.

It’s pretty clear that the Obama administration took the training wheels off a bit early.

HE’S BAAACK ...

Seen in Washington DC.

BROKEN RECORD

Phil Kerpen, the Director of Policy at Americans for Prosperity lists Obama’s top five broken promises:

Promise #1: Sunlight Before Signing
Promise #2: Lobbyist Revolving Door
Promise #3: No Tax Hikes on the Poor (cigarettes, cap-and-trade, etc.)
Promise #4: Pork Barrel Earmark Reform
Promise #5: (I don’t believe in) Big Government

And now .... Promise #N: Taxing Health Care Premiums

At least he’s consistent - consistently breaking inconvenient promises.

Rather than count the promises he’s broken, it might be easier to count the one he’s kept.

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER DOWN

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer went out of business as a “news” paper yesterday – although apparently there will still be a web-based version. Good riddance.

Look, I like newspapers; I subscribe to two – the Washington Post and the Washington Times. But I’ll probably give up the Post soon, simply because I’m tired of finding opinion in a “news” story, and switch to a small local paper. And no, I don’t favor the Times because it conservative, I favor it because its news stories are more news than opinion.

When the newspapers return to reporting news factually (who, what, when, where,and how), then (I think) readership will return. I will.