EPD Activity Report June 14, 2012

These nationally syndicated cartoons are sponsored by Guthries Pharmacies

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Some people are too smart for your own good.
Food geneticists, for example. These technicians have the smarts to tinker with the inner workings of Momma Nature’s own good foods — but not the smarts to leave well enough alone.
In fairness, much of their scientific tinkering has been beneficial. But during the past half-century, too much of their work devolved from tinkering into outright tampering with our food. This is mostly the result of money flowing to both private and public research centers from big agribusiness corporations that want nature’s design altered in ways that fatten their bottom lines. Never mind that the alterations created by these smart people are frequently not good for you and me.
Take the tomato, truly a natural wonder. Agribusiness profiteers, however, wanted it to do unnatural things, so — voila! — the genetic tamperers in the 1960s and ’70s dutifully produced the Amazing Industrial Tomato. It’s a techno-marvel made to endure long-distance shipping, be harvested while green and then artificially ripened to appear tomato-y red and last an ungodly amount of time without rotting.
But taste? Forget it. There’s more flavor in the carton. This led to the “Upchuck Rebellion” — a grassroots movement of consumers, small farmers and local food artisans. In the last couple of decades, they’ve spurred phenomenal growth in farmers markets and stores that offer nature’s own locally produced and heirloom varieties untouched by the smart ones.
But, look out, the tomato tamperers are back in the lab! They’ve discovered that a mutated gene they had bred into the corporate tomato switches off other genes that would cause the fruit to develop flavor. The answer, they say, is not less technology, but more. By artificially re-engineering the DNA structure of the plant, they can bypass that naughty mutated gene and switch on some of the flavor genes. But do we really want to eat genetically engineered tomatoes?
Still, you can expect them to push the latest alteration of nature’s marvel. I can just see the agribusiness ad: “Buy our industrial tomatoes — Now genetically flavored!” Better yet, buy the local tomatoes, which don’t need a smart geneticist or an ad to deliver real flavor.
Unfortunately, it’s not just tomatoes they’re tampering with. For instance, if you are parent you may be worried about the plethora of highly questionable bio-engineered organisms that the profiteers have quietly been slipping into everything from snack foods to school lunches.
Well, perhaps your own children can put your mind at ease, for science teachers around the country have been assigning a book called “Look Closer at Biotechnology” to the kiddos in their classes. It’s filled with colorful images, friendly cartoon faces, puzzles and more!
The very first page makes clear that the scientific wonder of genetically engineered foods pose no worries at all. “Hi, kids,” it begins. “This is an activity book for young people like you about … a really neat topic.” Why is it so neat? Because, say the authors, “as you work through the puzzles in this book, you will learn more about biotechnology and all the wonderful ways it can help people live better lives in a healthier world. Have fun!”
Fun? With genetically engineered food? That’s not fun, it’s serious business — and look who’s behind this book of fairy tales: the Council for Biotechnology Information.
Exactly what and who is CBI? It’s a PR and political front for the biotech industry, financed by such multibillion-dollar giants as Monsanto, Bayer, DuPont and Dow. It’s also now funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into the industry’s deceitful political campaign to kill a California “Right to Know” ballot initiative that finally would require food giants to label all products containing genetically engineered organisms.
This raises an obvious question for those of us who prefer food from nature, not from engineering labs: What are we to do about corporate powers that are so avaricious and arrogant that they’re willing to tamper with our food supply, our kids’ minds and our basic consumer rights? Defeat them, that’s what!
Here are three good sources for information and action: JustLabelIt.org, NonGMOShoppingGuide.com and OrganicConsumers.org.
To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

This article, written by nationally syndicated conservative columnist L. Brent Bozell, is sponsored by OXFORD MORTGAGE, EVANSVILLE, IN. SCOTT KLUEH, PRESIDENT. CALL (812) 476-9740.

On July 9, Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi composed a puff piece to honor Stephen Colbert, “fake news” commentator and satirical fake conservative. It turns out Colbert is becoming an “obsession in academia,” with a new collegiate submersion in “Truthinessology.”
Let us agree that he can be very funny. Let’s also agree that his satire being taken seriously by academia says something about the state of academia.
It also says something about those in the press who agree. Farhi winked in his story that this obsession is a problem, but then unfurled a long list of academic tributes. Parents are now paying tens of thousands of dollars each year for their children to skateboard around boring old Aristotle and Locke and instead immerse themselves in the study of smirking liberal TV wise-crackers.
Colbert, we are told, is a television icon already, like CBS legend Edward R. Murrow. This would be more upsetting if Murrow weren’t in reality one partisan hack in a long line of truth-mangling CBS News partisan hacks.
Professor Geoffrey Baym proclaimed, “I’m sure there are still a lot more books out there on CBS News and Edward R. Murrow, but you could argue that the emergence of satire news at this level is an important phenomenon that I don’t think we still completely understand.” Baym wrote a book titled “From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News.”
Maybe we don’t understand because it’s nonsensical. I get it that liberals believe in evolution, but do they really think journalism is growing more profound by transforming from long-form documentaries on migrant workers to Colbert’s self-promotional, punchline-packed congressional testimony on migrant workers?
Apparently, they do.
This is Baym’s dustcover Colbert-smooching: “‘From Cronkite to Colbert’ makes the case that rather than fake news, those shows should be understood as a new kind of journalism, one that has the potential to save the news and reinvigorate the conversation of democracy in today’s society.”
Translation: We had to destroy the news in order to save it.
Baym noted that there are “still a lot more books” on Murrow and CBS, but Amazon will quickly assemble for its consumers a wagonload of fake-news flattery oozing out of supposedly sober academe:
— “The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News” (with Jon Stewart and Colbert on the cover);
— “And Nothing but the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert” (Colbert on the cover);
— “The Daily Show and Rhetoric: Arguments, Issues, and Strategies” (Stewart on the cover)
— “Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era” (Colbert on the cover);
— “Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement” (Stewart and Barack Obama on the cover).
This is a partial list (one mostly different from a Post list of treatises). Farhi reported, “The college crowd says Colbert is worthy of study because his single-character political satire is unique in the annals of television. His character, an egomaniacal right-wing gasbag, connects him to a long Western satirical tradition going all the way back to the Roman poet Horace and the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles.”
Obviously, these educators wouldn’t insult the ancient Romans and Greeks to make comparisons to a conservative topical comedian like Dennis Miller. Professor Don Waisanen analyzed Miller after his turn to the right and lamented that he was “disoriented” and his humor was destined to “neuter socio-political action.”
Professors, being professorial, add gravitas to the unbearable lightness of their comedic heroes by applying jargon, explaining that Colbert and Stewart ably employ “parodic polyglossia,” “satirical specificity” and “contextual clash” to evoke both laughter and social change.
Farhi even found one super-fan: Penn State Professor Sophia McClennen. McClennen compares Colbert to Ben Franklin and Mark Twain as one of the greatest satirists in our nation’s entire 236-year history and argues that “our democracy is in a tough spot now, when corporations are exercising increasing power over government, and that Colbert captures this moment as they did.”
I bet even Colbert laughed at that.
As much as liberals claim to treasure irony, McClennen didn’t grasp that Colbert is “exercising increasing power over government” through a large media corporation called Viacom. This corporation’s greedy devotion to the bottom line led them to spit on those obsessed academics who watch Colbert and Stewart via satellite on DirecTV. Viacom not only cut off 20 million subscribers to DirecTV after a failed attempt to wring an estimated $1 billion in additional carriage fees, but they removed online streaming of full episodes on the Comedy Central website.
After all, applying “parodic polyglossia” to promote progressive politics is only worthwhile if a corporation is maximizing their profits. That is certainly a “contextual clash” the academics were not expecting.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. To find out more about Brent Bozell III, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

By: Robert Farago

I just got off the blower with Brent R. Weil of Kightlinger and Gray, LLP. The Evansville, Indiana lawyer represents the [as yet unnamed] gun store that sold firearms to ATF-enabled straw purchasers. “The ATF told my client to let the sales go through,” Mr. Weil told TTAG. “He later told me that the guns went to Chicago gangs.” In one case, a straw purchaser failed to pass the FBI’s NICS [National Instant Check System] background check . . .

The dealer called an ATF agent in the parking lot; the agent told the dealer to let the sale go through. The ATF arrested the so-called straw purchaser after he walked out the door. In every other instance, however, the ATF did not apprehend the buyers immediately after purchase.

In one case, a buyer and his associate left the store and smashed their vehicle into a police car on their way out. (Seriously.) The driver was charged with the traffic incident, and the weapons were taken by the local police pending proof of ownership. The guns were never reclaimed.

Mr. Weil also threw some cold water on the theory that Mexican cartel members in Indiana purchased the guns with the ATF’s blessing as part of an anti-Los Zetas quid pro quo. “The buyers were black and caucasian,” Weil said. Also, the gun store in question initiated the contact with the ATF.

The new information doesn’t rule out the possibility that the Indiana gun store “sting” involved criminals affiliated with the Sinaloa or La Familia cartels (whom the ATF armed during Operation Fast and Furious). But that possibility seems a whole lot less likely.

Nonetheless, the Indiana intel reveals that the ATF was allowing known criminals to purchase firearms. The
crucial question: did they lose track of the guns accidentally on purpose, as they did during Operation Fast and Furious?

And if the guns purchased in Evansville ended up in The Windy City, the ATF’s heir apparent—Chi-town Bureau Chief Andrew Traver—must have known about the policy. What did Andy know and when did he know it?
As Ralph points out below, we’re still left wondering about the scope, scale and final destination of all ATF-enabled firearms. How many vicious thugs bought firearms with the ATF’s help? How many of those were recovered and/or recovered from crime scenes?

Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that the Carson City killer used an ATF-enabled AK-47 during his murderous rampage. The attacker, Eduardo Sencion, was Mexican-born (with an American passport) with no criminal record.

There’s no firm evidence establishing linking Sencion with the ATF. The fact that anyone would even think of that possibility reveals the corrosive effect of the ATF on the public’s respect for the federal government and the primacy of the rule of law. It’s yet another reason to deep-six the ATF—after we find out what they’ve been doing with our tax money.

Source: TheTruthAboutGuns.com

The City County Observer has confirmed that Earthcare Energy has made another interest only payment of roughly $380 to remain current according to the terms of the $200,000 loan that was made by the City of Evansville to Earthcare at the beginning of March.

This loan was not brought before the Evansville City Council for approval and was made from federally sourced loan funds managed through the Department of Metropolitan Development. It was approved in a sparsely attended meeting of a politically appointed board that included GAGE president Debbie Dewey who was also in charge of vetting the project.

The Winnecke Administration after considering all information that was made available after this loan was funded and an additional $4.8 Million loan was approved in a contentious 5 – 4 vote by the City Council, decided to abort the deal on the grounds that a DOE loan guarantee had not been secured and that an exclusive license had not been secured to the Langson Energy intellectual property that was to be commercialized by Earthcare in the old Whirlpool building. Private vetting efforts revealed that no patent had been issued for this device.