July 25, 2006
More Quick Hits

1. Here's a how-to for having an Al Gore approved birthday. (HT: Wilson Mixon)

2. Sex in outer space apparently comes with lots of complications--almost enough to kill the mood.

3. Debra Saunders examines allegations of Chinese killing Falun Gong practicioners to sell their organs for transplant. If true, this sort of underground organ market is much more morally repugnant than any sort of incentives for donation being proposed for the U.S.

4. US News has a nifty article on UPS's use of technology. (I owe someone a HT on this one, but I don't recall where I saw it. My apologies.)

5. The Washington Post has been running a superb series on the follies of the farm subsidy program. Here's an excerpt from one article:

Then, on Feb. 1, 2003, the shuttle exploded. To ensure recovery of the debris and pay for emergency costs, President Bush issued a federal disaster declaration. As an unintended result, most of East Texas was then eligible for livestock funds. Denton County's livestock owners collected $433,000, records show.

"Speaking personally, I didn't think it was necessary at that point in time," said Calvin Peterson, an 81-year-old rancher who heads the local farm committee. "It might have been more political than anything."

In Henderson County, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas, Nico de Boer felt the same way. When he arrived from the Netherlands 17 years ago, de Boer had 90 acres, a house, one barn and fewer than 200 cows. Today, he has 1,000 acres, multiple cow barns and sheds, 650 cows that produce 3 million pounds of milk monthly, a BMW in the driveway, a swimming pool, and two more farms in neighboring counties.

The rolling hills surrounding his sprawling farm receive a generous average of 40 inches of rain annually. When the shuttle exploded, pastures were full and there hadn't been a drought or any other type of weather disaster in years, records show. But after the presidential disaster declaration, John Reeves of the local USDA office informed livestock owners in Henderson County they were eligible. They eventually collected $751,083 despite no shuttle damage.

(HT: Wilson Mixon)

Posted by E. Frank Stephenson at 10:36 AM in Misc.

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. -Adam Smith

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