The public comment period on The 2007 Farm Bill (including funding for NAIS) ends on December 31st. If you object to NAIS biochipping of farm livestock and pets please be sure to register your comments.
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Economic commentator Mish Shedlock (co-editor of the free Whiskey and Gunpowder e-newsletter) offered the following on the value of U.S. five cent “nickel” pieces: “The Mint had to be crazy to announce that a nickel is worth 7 cents. I got to thinking about this a bit more, and a nickel is really 0.05 dollars plus a call option on the price of copper and nickel (the metals) in the nickel. If that option is ITM (in the money) enough, the mint cannot prevent people from hoarding them, which will in turn drive up the cost of producing them. In fact, the actual price does not even have to get high enough; the mere expectation that metal prices will get high enough could cause hoarding. Of course, the Mint tried to negate that call option by making it illegal to melt the coins, but that will not stop hoarding if the expected or actual price of copper and nickel gets high enough. All the Mint really accomplished was telling everyone that a nickel is backed up by something useful, even if a dollar is not. Eventually, this is likely to force the mint to debase the nickel by replacing the copper and nickel in the nickel with steel or aluminum.”
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Reader “Swampthing” notes that the The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has the goal of a total ban on all hunting and fishing. He suggests: “I think your readers should pay attention to every move they make, no matter how benign it seems.”