Some news today

Dear Readers,

I check the Drudge Report almost everyday. I don’t know if that’s an unhealthy obsession, or if I’m being a good citizen and staying informed. Here are a few cool articles I found today:

First article:

http://lifenews.com/nat6531.html

Remember how there was a big fight about whether or not abortion was covered by tax dollars in Obamacare? Well, in case some of us are unclear about the issue, this article shows that yes, abortion is part of Obamacare. Obamacare needs to be repealed, and it needs to be replaced with a health care system that’s more in line with free-market principles. Here’s a video explaining why:



Second article:

Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal about how the financial regulation bill working its way through Congress could hurt the farming industry.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704258604575361182317501188.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

I didn’t really understand the article. (Did I ever tell you that I wished I had taken some business or economics classes in college? Maybe it’s wrong that I spent most of my higher education playing drama improvisation games and learning about gender inequality.)

But the point of the article is that the new laws, if enacted, will probably hurt the farming industry, and the price of food will go up. If nothing else, farmers will have to hire a bunch of accountants and lawyers to make sure that they are complying with all the new rules. By the way, I just read a wonderful book called The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America by Phillip K. Howard. That book blew me away. I highly recommend it.

That article reminded me of another article I read about some local news here in the Queen Creek/San Tan Valley area.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/07/11/20100711queen-creek-home-builders.html

An old farmer is selling a bunch of his land to real estate developers. He says a big reason he and his family are getting out of the farming business is all the hassling government regulations. Here’s a few paragraphs copied and pasted from that article:

Julie Murphree of the Arizona Farm Bureau said other challenges facing farming families are the sometimes overwhelming regulations from federal agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

She said the paperwork alone can be burdensome.

Newell said the regulations have made the work more difficult.

"It kind of takes the fun out of farming when you have so many regulations and so many things that you have to report on and so many involvements," he said.

The same thing is happening down in the Sahuarita/Green Valley area, where I grew up. A family who has owned the world’s largest pecan orchard for generations is selling most of it to make way for more housing subdivisions. I don’t blame them for selling. They can make a lot more money with less hassle by selling the land than they could by harvesting pecans.

Selling farms seems sad to me somehow. But I suppose it's not sad, in the grand scheme of things. I believe that the Earth will one day burn when Jesus Christ returns, and one day "the Earth will be renewed and recieve its paradisiacal glory." And my wife and I are the benefactors of some farmer who sold his land to housing developers. A neighbor told me that the little plot of land on which my home stands used to be a field of alfalfa.

And to end on a happy note, here’s my favorite story from the Drudge Report today:

http://www.usmagazine.com/healthylifestyle/news/exclusive-bristol-palin-levi-johnston-are-engaged-2010147

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are back together! And they’re going to get married! Really soon!
Bristol wants Levi to wear a camouflage vest to the wedding. Isn’t that funny? I like Bristol Palin. Heck, I like the whole Palin family! Todd Palin is a championship snowmobile racer and Sarah Palin is a moose-hunting beauty queen!!!

If America had a royal family, I would vote on the Palins being our royal family, because they're so much fun!

Hooray! I wish Bristol and Levi well. I hope they have a long and happy life together, and I think they will. They’ve had a rocky start, but let’s all forgive them and send them positive mind-beams.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa