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Does anyone else take pride in the items they store in their desk at work for their potential use in a post-zombie apocalypse? Ever since the resident evil movie showed up on tv, I've looked over my cube every time I brought in a snack and pictured the usefulness of the items for survival. How long would the nuts keep? Bottled water - yay! The wrapped candy is gold. The Shaun of the Dead poster, irony. I have no framed pictures of loved ones, but there are other items which might be used to crush a skull.

Today's duh global thought is why don't we intersperse agriculture into every area instead of growing everything in the west and middle america? I know how the systems developed, and I'm even a fan of economies of scale, but the more we learn about everything from water flow, soil composure, and even the human psyche, the more I think we should all exist more as communities which have multiple facets of mannish production rather than isolated communities of skilled urbanites and isolated machine run huge farms. Think of the environmental benefits to a local farm when fossil fuel consumption falls and nature is organized in a fashion it evolved near on its own. I suppose we'd be more responsible with what we spray on fields if we knew that when the wind blew that it would bring the smell into our offices. I wouldn't such having grass parks nearby. Is it waste? Some people would have to commute more. I don't think we should can all the lawyers and make them till the fields Mao - but it seems like a good idea off the top of my groggy head.

Speaking of sad side effects: USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service deals with meat and animal slaughter. There are regs in place both for humane treatment (it's relative) and avoiding putting diseased food product into the food supply. One major focus is mad-cow (BSE), for which the rules forbid processing cows that die or can't stand based on their higher risk of having BSE. The side effect of this is an incentive for plants to get sick cows to stand and appear healthy for the inspectors. Some side effects of that policy appear in this AP news article and video. One thing I got from my conservative economics based law school was a strong belief in analyzing incentive patterns created by regulations.

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1 year ago today the nation stood still, terrified, of cartoons. For the love of god, give up more civil rights and pray to xtian god that the lord will save us through the strong actions of W.

In other news, my favorite holiday is this Sunday:
National go grocery shopping without bumping car doors and carts with anyone day. What time is the game so I can plan my trip? Nothing makes me happy like shopping without harassment.