From LewRockwell.com, by Thomas SchmidtDear FDA,
Do you know how delicious Reblochon cheese is? I don’t mean young, firm, white-rinded Reblochon. I mean after it has had time to ripen, and the rind has turned reddish-orange, and when cut the cheese starts to flow out from between the rinds, and the smell – well, the smell gets you your own seat on the train. Lovingly trace your knife through, and spread an unctuous layer on your crust of bread: there may be no better cheese in the world.
Do you know that I might never have found this pleasure if not for you? In the late 1990s, you proposed to ban the sale of raw milk cheese, of which Reblochon is only one outstanding example (you’re still at it, by the way). With the defiant attitude of the native New Yorker, I marched down Third Avenue to Lamazou cheeses, where Nancy and Aziz were extremely helpful in giving me a tour of what might soon be a world closed to me: Morbier, with the trace of smoke in the middle; Appenzeller and Tete de Moine, hard, like the Swiss mountains from which they come; Tomme de Savoie and a whole host of others, all with flavors like those I had never known.
If Reblochon was good, I wondered what it tasted like in its pre-cheese form; yes, raw milk is what I now sought. I recalled seeing certified raw milk in my youth in Greenwich Village health food stores, but could not find any in the late 90s. Seems when I was not paying attention, you took care of that little matter by banning interstate sales of raw milk in 1984. Colleagues from the former Soviet Union extolled the delicious nature of milk fresh from the cow, dismayed that they could not find such in the land of the free.
All this spurred me to locate a source. The Union Square Greenmarket revealed a few suppliers selling their own raw milk cheeses; perhaps they had a pint or two of the real stuff? No, but one supplier, Hawthorne Valley Farm, did sell raw milk at their farmstead, as permitted under New York State law. And so I found myself driving 120 miles north of the city, where unhomogenized raw milk was for sale at the farm; I bought a half-gallon, and took it home to try. Warmed to "cow temperature," it was delightfully sweet and creamy. Why should it be banned?
And here you taught me my first lesson in what used to be called Moral Philosophy, economics. You see, the liquid produce of the cow is generally free of bacteria (one reason for this use among the Masai). However, pasteurized milk was originally developed because bacteria in the milk led to tuberculosis, among other illnesses; nowadays, E. coli might as easily get into the source. How did these bacteria come to be in the milk? From sloppy proprietors who did not take care to exercise precautions like properly cleaning their cows and equipment. Thus all milk had to be pasteurized for safety, driving the careful proprietor into an economically disadvantageous situation relative to the slob, and turning milk into a commodity: Gresham’s law applied, and bad practices drove out good husbandry. The same applies in other areas of cattle ranching.
Do you know how delicious grass-fed beef is? In the early part of this decade, you proposed to ban imports of Argentine beef. My local supermarket sold the stuff, and I figured to buy some before I lacked the chance. What depth of flavor! What exquisite texture! The meat is not marbled with the fat that encumbers and tenderizes American feedlot beef, so it is tougher and juicier, and the fat is healthier, as the cattle have fattened almost entirely on grass. You helped me become a better cook by learning how to tenderize through marinades, a skill that comes in handy now that more expensive cuts of beef are less in reach for us all.
You did eventually ban the importing, but I was able to find American suppliers, including local ones in New York, and a few national suppliers. Happily, these suppliers seem to have grown in number, as their entrepreneurial owners seek to discriminate market segments in the general mass of buyers. Bill Niman proposed to do the same for pigs as the grass-feeders were doing for cattle, and heirloom free-range pork likewise entered my food vocabulary, with a major assist from Joe Sobran.
Sobran’s description of the life of a commodity-pork pig is depressing in its inhumanity. What happens in the slaughterhouse is worse: "’Squealing hogs funnel into an area where they are electrocuted, stabbed in the jugular, then tied, lifted, and carried on a winding journey through the plant. They are dunked in scalding water, their hair is removed, they are run through a fiery furnace (to burn off residual hair), then disemboweled and sliced by an army of young, often immigrant laborers’ who ‘wear earplugs to muffle the screaming.’ Most find the work demoralizing." This is the picture of the modern, post-Upton-Sinclair slaughterhouse you have wrought, the very reason you were brought into being.
I’m reminded of this as I ask you, do you know how delicious Jamon Iberico de Bellota is? The pata negra pigs of southern Spain roam freely through fields and oak forests. When their time is near, they may be served a diet exclusively composed of acorns. The resultant effect is magnificent: the meat has a sweet, sometimes gamy flavor, and the fat, well, "the curing process converts the fat of the ham into a beneficial good-cholesterol fat, much like extra virgin olive oil."
But no slaughterhouse in Spain met your exacting standards, so this fine ham was not sold in the USA. It was in Parma, no slouch in the ham department, that I first tasted this delicacy, and I must thank you: it is the king of hams, and I would never have found it without you. Now, of course, an abattoir that meets your standards has opened in Spain, and Jamon Iberico de Bellota is for sale in the USA, at prices exceeding $100 a pound, and now your friends at the USDA have gone and made it even more expensive. You remind me that the FDA, like all government bureaucracies, is set up to favor the large over the small, the commodity producer over the artisan.
It is not the exquisite foodstuffs that your nannyism has led me to for which I have most to thank you; rather, it is your excellence in teaching moral philosophy. For years I filled my belly with the commodity products that you have brought about through your politically-connected centralization of control over the American food industry. But my mother used to tell me "you are what you eat." And so in eating the undifferentiated food that you foist upon us, I lost more sense of my essential nature and became more of a commodity; your friends in the rest of the government would like that, an enumerated, undifferentiated mass particle for them to push around, wouldn’t they? You have helped me to a visceral understanding of unaccountable hypertrophic government, and this is the most important lesson you took the time to teach me.
You see, the ability to discriminate is the heart of liberty. Charles de Gaulle once asked, "How do you govern a nation that has 246 kinds of cheese?" Since that time, the number has grown to over 500; the microbrew and artisanal cheese industries in the USA, for two examples, have exploded the number of brands and varieties of all kinds of liquid and solid refreshments. A population that can discern differences at a high level (discriminate, that is) cannot be ruled, only led, and this is only one small part of the promise of increased freedom as your centralized control breaks down.
Best,
Tom
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Mazda is famous for two things: fun cars and Wankel Rotary Engines. The company has two cars in its lineup right now it’s testing as hydrogen models: the Premacy and the RX-8. The Premacy is a mini-van and the RX-8 is a sport coupe and both use rotary engines.
Hot diggity, I need a new boat too. I have a kick boat right now, but need something that I can get two people plus a couple/three dogs into. This one might fit the bill. Sweet!
This is frikkin' awesome. It runs for about an hour and a half at full speed on a full charge and takes about 8 hours to recharge. Which is about how long you can float around on the lake in the daylight before running out of beer, in my experience.
A spokesman for Al Gore has issued a questionable response to the news that in October 2007 the High Court in London had identified nine “errors” in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The judge had stated that, if the UK Government had not agreed to send to every secondary school in England a corrected guidance note making clear the mainstream scientific position on these nine “errors”, he would have made a finding that the Government’s distribution of the film and the first draft of the guidance note earlier in 2007 to all English secondary schools had been an unlawful contravention of an Act of Parliament prohibiting the political indoctrination of children.
Ms. Kreider then says, “The judge stated clearly that he was not attempting to perform an analysis of the scientific questions in his ruling.” He did not need to. Each of the nine “errors” which he identified had been admitted by the UK Government to be inconsistent with the mainstream of scientific opinion.
We're used to going to the store and having everything there, all the time, no matter what season it is. One of the wonders of our world-wide food economy is that everything is in season somewhere, at some time.
Ethanol in the United States means corn. For whatever stupid reason (it has a lot to do with big agra, lobbying, and general greed and stupidity), most of America's ethanol is made from corn.
Corn-based ethanol, all by itself, is expected to raise food prices another 5.1% in 2009. That's besides inflation, higher costs, and more Obama-induced inflation. That 5.1% is the same rise we saw in 2007-08. Hmm...
For all of the welfare assistance programs related to food in the nation, this total will be... $5.3 BILLION. Yep, $5.3 billion more in food-related welfare just because of ethanol.
The Sunseeker II has successfully crossed the Alps under it's own power, 99 years after Geo Chavez did it in an airplane for the first time. The Sunseeker II is solar powered, so it's the first non-engine-powered plane to cross the Alps.
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OK, maybe not “like a frat boy,” exactly, but he did prove a point. Wang Chuan-Fu is the CEO of BYD and he made a point about the new generation of batteries–specifically liithium-ion ones: they’re non-toxic. He did this by drinking some of the electrolyte fluids from one of BYD’s cells.
Not that popular opinion changes the minds of do-gooder politicians and power-grabbing bureaucrats (or is that power-grabbing politicians and do-gooder bureaucrats?), but a new survey says that only 34% of Americans believe that global warming is caused by human activity.
Looking at it from policial party, 51% of Democrats are sold on Al Gore's theory while 48% of the "political class" (whatever that is) also side with Big Al. 66% of Republicans and 47% of non-affiliated adults disagree.
The rest of us see it as another survey of a whopping 1,000 people that comprises 0.0000003% of our population (give or take a zero). Were it to have found the opposite conclusions, the morons on either side would be trading places and making the same statements. 
Straightforward or transparent legislation was not looking promising. The U.S. Senate voted down Obama’s climate plan. Climate czar Carol Browner has been so rebuffed by the Senate moderates that no one was wagering that cap and trade climate legislation was going to get passed. Did Browner put her old EPA hat back on to help rattle this saber? How embarrassing for greens to hold so many political Democratic Party cards and still be so impotent.
Some states have not waited for any EPA to tell them they can’t breathe out. They’ve gotten a jump on rationing energy. One victim is protesting. An electric utility sues New York over CO2 regulation. The utility valiantly fights the state on claims broadly ranging from "impermissible taxation" to Constitutional violations. I wish the utility well, but our government has never met a tax that was "impermissible" and doesn’t appear to give a flip about the Constitution.
Floy Lilley is an adjunct faculty member at the Mises Institute. She was formerly with the University of Texas at Austin's Chair of Free Enterprise, and an attorney-at-law in Texas and Florida.
This is very cool news for the algae fuel industry. The process of converting algae to gasoline, diesel, and other fuels just got better: now the algae itself can be preserved and continue growth, allowing for much more efficient fuel oil processes.
Pacific Gas & Electric, undaunted by California's drooping economy, deficit-ridden government, and whopping 9% sales tax, is going ahead with a project to produce 200 megawatts of solar energy by utilizing satellites in space. 
Anyway, the basic idea is this: use satellite arrays to gather sunlight through PV technology. Then take the generated electricity and use it to make a beam of radio that's send down to receiving stations on earth. Those convert the radio back into electricity and VIOLA! You've got power.
The oil itself is derived from animal fats (specifically saturated fats) which are often thrown away during butchery. The fats, whose single-bond carbon chains are similar to petroleum oils, leave no harsh effects on the environment when used as a lubricant. 
Do you know how delicious Reblochon cheese is? I don’t mean young, firm, white-rinded Reblochon. I mean after it has had time to ripen, and the rind has turned reddish-orange, and when cut the cheese starts to flow out from between the rinds, and the smell – well, the smell gets you your own seat on the train. Lovingly trace your knife through, and spread an unctuous layer on your crust of bread: there may be no better cheese in the world.
Sobran’s description of the life of a commodity-pork pig is depressing in its inhumanity. What happens in the slaughterhouse is worse: "’Squealing hogs funnel into an area where they are electrocuted, stabbed in the jugular, then tied, lifted, and carried on a winding journey through the plant. They are dunked in scalding water, their hair is removed, they are run through a fiery furnace (to burn off residual hair), then disemboweled and sliced by an army of young, often immigrant laborers’ who ‘wear earplugs to muffle the screaming.’ Most find the work demoralizing." This is the picture of the modern, post-Upton-Sinclair slaughterhouse you have wrought, the very reason you were brought into being.
The Car Wash will see a full return on its investment in less than five years and, if energy prices continue to rise, perhaps as early as 3 years. 
It's no secret to those in the agriculture business that corn's value skyrocketed over a few short years' time when government-assisted ethanol production kicked into high gear. The false paradigm of "green" fuel through corn-based ethanol made Washington, Big Agriculture Conglomerates, and Big Oil all look good as they got together to pimp corn-based ethanol as the environmental savior of America.
Ethanol is green? Another lie, at least in the way they're pushing it. Ethanol itself can be a great alternative fuel that's renewable, generally neutral, and definitely better for the environment than petroleum. However, corn-based ethanol (which they're pimping) is only renewable and has none of the other benefits. It actually COSTS about as much fuel to produce corn-based ethanol as it yields. 
Now, of course, the Senators on the Big Agra payroll are looking to secure even more money for their benefactors by pushing for an ethanol pipeline in the name of "green." 
A recent article in Mother Earth News about grass-fed beef made me realize how little is generally known by the public regarding where their meats come from and how they are processed from birth to meat counter. There's a huge disconnect today between Joe 6-Pack and his food sources.
While most cattle are fairly free to roam (short distances) at "pasture," the majority of their diet is alfalfa, grain, and hormones. Not always in that order. These animals get relatively little exercise, lots of protein-producing input foods, and plenty of chemicals to keep them "healthy."
The cries of "disease" and other tripe from the FDA are found to be crap as experts show that ranged beef have markedly lower instances of disease than those kept penned together. Ditto with pigs, poultry, and all the rest. Humans too, if you want to know.
Well, someone finally did it. The flying car we all dreamed about and that 1950s scientists said would be in everyone's garage by 1985 is finally here. A few years late, maybe, but Terrafugia managed to pull it off.
The Department of Transportation (DoT) released the new combined fuel efficiency standard for 2011, raising it to 27.3 from the 2010 numbers that were 2 gallons lower.
All of this sounds great to reasonable environmentalists, but the hard-core "bicycle or die" types are screaming that it's "not enough." In my mind, this is already too much. Why is it the federal government's job to set these standards again? Can't the market do this on its own? If people truly demand this kind of change towards efficiency, they'd push the market in that direction without government intervention.
This is pretty cool. It's a sustainable shelter built in the Swiss Alps called the Monte Rosa Hut. Developed by the Swiss Alpine Club, this domicile won the Holcim Awards Bronze 2008 Europe. It sits 2,883 meters above sea level.
The entire "hut" is five stories high with plenty of sleeping, dining, socializing, etc. space. The spiral-shaped glass band around the building conducts passive solar energy using the staircase behind it. It gives awesome panoramic views as well.
