Saturday, March 28, 2009

Keeping Track of Self-Sufficient Homesteaders?

In the April issue of Mother Earth News, a brief article brought the National Animal Identity System (NAIS) to my attention. The measure, which has since passed several state legislatures, calls for mandatory microchipping of all small and large livestock, down to hobby farm chickens. However, factory farm flocks and herds are exempt from the measure, despite the fact that the measure is--ostensibly--intended to help control food-borne illness.

Those small, self-sufficient farmers who do not chip or tag their animals for tracking will be on the wrong side of the law, making the measure unfairly punitive to those who wish not to be part of the industrial food system. Ultimately, the measure will, in effect, allow the government to track those small farmers and homesteaders, who prefer to be self-sufficient.

More information on the Anti-NAIS movement can be found here:
http://nonais.org/

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Happy-Homesteader/Speak-Out-Against-NAIS.aspx

Big Brother Wants to Live at Your Farm:
http://www.eggcartons.com/CustomPages/NoNaisArticle.htm

Missouri Police linked Libertarians with Domestic Terrorists

"The Missouri Highway Patrol this week retracted a controversial report on militia activity and will change how such reports are reviewed before being distributed to law enforcement agencies." -- Jason Noble for The Star’s Jefferson City

Read the whole story here:
http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1109096.html

"The Highway Patrol’s announcement followed a news conference in which Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, suggested putting the director of public safety on administrative leave and investigating how the report was produced."

So what inspired the report, we wonder?

Friday, March 20, 2009

With a nod to the chemically-induced contentment of Huxley’s Brave New World, the title story “American Soma” explains how a friction-filled democratic system is lubricated by a collusion of partisan politicians and commercial interests. “Evolution”, written during the Dover Area School District ’s Intelligent Design Trials, describes the adaptations caused by mankind’s heavy reliance on synthetic hormones and toxic polymers. Twenty other fables and letters explore alternate histories, the colonial nature of late capitalism, pained yet comic souls, the obsessions of lucid maniacs, and an imagined advance towards the Apocalypse. Concerned and politically aware, Guz examines the lurking evils of contemporary society and the darker corners of human nature.