Way ahead of you, Ted.

From a recent Books Bygone essay:

The lesson of the Ideals section is this: “All through our history this right of self-government has been insisted upon. This is where our liberty lies: not in freedom from law, but in the freedom to make and therefore obey our own laws. That is the American ideal.”

[My emphases citing Citizenship Plays: A Dramatic Reader for Upper Grades. Eleanore Hubbard. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co., Chicago. 1929. Available free to read or download at openlibrary.org and for purchase at online booksellers. First published in the Webster Progress Times January 16, 2014.]

What Ted said today in the Wall Street Journal:

Rule of law doesn't simply mean that society has laws; dictatorships are often characterized by an abundance of laws. Rather, rule of law means that we are a nation ruled by laws, not men. That no one—and especially not the president—is above the law. For that reason, the U.S. Constitution imposes on every president the express duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."

And no. I did not watch the SOTU address. Instead, I tidied up the kitchen. I set the dishwasher to come on +6hrs. (that would be about 3am, when it's forecast to be about 10 degrees F), did some hand dish-washing, put away the leftovers, let Rocky and Missy out being careful to not forget about short-haired Rocky out there in the cold, filled up the humidifiers,  set the faucets to "drip," turned the thermostats down to 60 degrees F, and retired to the den where Mr. Big Food and the dogs had fallen asleep. (Rocky is all snuggled up under the covers. Vicious Pit bull.)

And then I caught up on the SOTU by reading Vodka Pundit's live blog. (I do not want to hear any comments about the reliability of a guy who's famous for "drunk blogging." Seriously. It's the SOTU address to Congress. Cheers!)

And along the way happened upon Ted's comments. 

And now I'm thinking of U. Grant and a funny story about him, post-Presidency.

Finally! Something On Which We Can All Agree

from Mr. Big Food's Dad, a Texan.

WHISKEY

In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr., a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey.  What follows is his exact answer
(taken from the Political Archives of Texas):

"If you mean whiskey, the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the  mouths of little children;  if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend, I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.

"However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes;  if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning;  if you mean that drink that enables man to magnify his joy, and to forget life's great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow;  if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.

"This is my position, and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principle."

 

$750,000: Say What?

via Y'all Politics:

Universities land federal grant to pursue energy efficiency

Thanks to a grant from the United States Department of Energy, three public universities in Mississippi will be sharing funding to support energy efficient facility improvements in order to cut energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020.

An announcement came Wednesday at three succeeding press conferences in Oxford, Starkville and Columbus.

In addition to grant funding, the Tennessee Valley Authority will commit $150,000 to each of the three universities - Mississippi State University, Mississippi University for Women and the University of Mississippi - over three years.

Part of the Department of Energy's $7.9 million investment to reduce energy costs across 13 states, Mississippi's $725,000 State Energy Program grant was the largest amount awarded to any state in the Advancing Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings category according to Karen Bishop, director of the Mississippi Development Authority's Energy and Natural Resources Division.

Commercial Dispatch
7/26/12

From the full Commercial Dispatch article:

"This award will create a path ... to implement energy management strategies in the state in a creation of a retrofit strategy for all state universities," [Karen Bishop, director of the Mississippi Development Authority's Energy and Natural Resources Division] said.

Say what?

Eggsactly

From American Thinker

One day soon, America could wake up to a dozen eggs costing $8 or more.  And unless you are involved in some aspect of farming or agriculture, you would never know that egg prices are about to skyrocket or the reason why.  With food prices already increasing due to high grain and fuel costs, extraneous so-called animal welfare regulations are being imposed on U.S. food producers, large and small, by the animal rights powerhouse known as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

With HSUS' vegan animal rights platform as the motivations behind crafting a controversial egg bill, S. 3239 was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Friday, May 25, 2012, inching U.S. egg producers closer to a mandate which would require them to phase out conventional cages for egg-laying hens and transition to a system called "enriched colony cages" by 2029, at a cost to U.S. egg producers ranging between $4 billion to $10 billion.

And while most Americans shrug their shoulders and live their lives, they are completely unaware of how this regulation will affect the cost of food and its availability in the future.  The current egg shortage in the U.K. should be a jolting wake-up call for Americans, illustrating that the onerous animal welfare regulations which have phased out conventional cages there have caused egg prices to quadruple, while diminishing egg supply to a "crisis" level.  This is a glimpse of what's coming to America if HSUS' egg bill becomes law.

Read the rest here. As you can see, the article (by Mindy Patterson) focuses on the Humane Society's "support" of Senate Bill 3229. Other groups support this bill, and its House corollary, H.R. 3798.

As I said here, this proposed legislation has nothing to do with chickens' or humans' health. It has nothing to do with interstate commerce. From my CS post (think "BS"):

I call "CS"! UPDATED

UPDATE. It also has nothing to do with interstate commerce.  

Via The Hill, "Feinstein, other senators propose federal standards for egg-laying hens"

"The egg industry brought this legislation to Congress and has asked us to help them implement the uniform regulations needed to survive and grow," she said. "The egg industry and the Humane Society are lock-step in their support for this bill. They are joined in endorsing the bill by the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Consumer Federation of America."

CS is similar to BS; the animal changes but the S still stinks. Federal standards for egg-laying hens asked for by the egg industry.

Here are a few things to consider: [It's go to town day today so I don't have much time to research this thoroughly right now.]

The "egg-industry" is United Egg Producers:

United Egg Producers (UEP) is a Capper-Volstead cooperative of egg farmers from all across the United States and representing the ownership of approximately 95% of all the nation's egg-laying hens. Of the total farm members, 34 serve on the Board of Directors and they along with several others serve on various committees. We, therefore, think of UEP as an organization of "Leadership By Egg Farmers - For Egg Farmers".

Bi-partisan Senate bill 3239's agrarian co-sponsors (in addition to Feinstein, D-Calif.):

• Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. 
• Scott Brown, R-Mass. 
• Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. 
• Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. 
• Ron Wyden, D-Ore. 
• David Vitter, R-La.

The top 10 states for egg production (with number of "layers"; last updated 3/2011):

1- Iowa                      51,988       

2 - Ohio                     27,486       

3 - Pennsylvania        24,123       

4 - Indiana                 22,001       

5 - California             19,452       

6 - Texas                    14,195

7 - Minnesota            10,023

8 - Michigan                9,623

9 - Nebraska                9,168

10 - Florida                  8,931

We all know what this is about. If your chickens don't have the proper federally mandated "environmental enrichments" They will come for your chickens. You laugh? From UEP's web site (updated 3/11):

Made in Mississippi

SuperTalk Mississippi is a state-wide network of commercial talk-radio stations. There are very few nationally syndicated shows (Dave Ramsey being the notable exception). Some of the shows, for example SuperSwap, and the Friday evening broadcasts of high school football, have no political agenda. Those that do are right-leaning-- it is Mississippi-- but for the most part are open-minded and try to be fair.

This morning while listening to the Gallo Show, I learned that SuperTalk has a new sponsor, Liberalism101 Shirts located in Brookhaven, Mississippi. 

Support Mississippi. Buy this shirt. Or buy a different one. They are only $20.

Liberalism101 Shirts is just some folks who dreamed up a business while sitting around the kitchen table.