Kokesh’s latest irrelevant cause
I’d heard this was in the works, but Adam Kokesh’s latest cause is raw milk smuggling from Pennsylvania to maryland. These brave hippies by unprocessed milk and take it across state lines in a huge convoy of mini-vans. Since the police are watchingthem, i don’t see wherethey’re doing anythin gbrave, but this is the kind of misbehavior the government encourages by not enforcing the laws which they’ve heaped on the citizens. I’m sure this will result in more oppressive laws.
But, Kokesh is really hitting hard on th issues that affect veterans, isn’t he? First it was dancing at the Jefferson Memorial. now it’s raw milk smuggling.
Category: General Whackos, I hate hippies, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Oh joy! I’m sure the inevitable eventual outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting will REALLY improve the sewer smell coming from the Fleabaggers. There’s a reason Pasteur was so popular. But hey! Enjoy!
He actually makes a good point here. It’s none of the government’s damned business whether or not I like my milk raw or pasteurized.
Not exactly the most pressing in issue in America today,but it’s the principle of the thing. The limited government envisioned by the founding fathers has morphed into the milk police.
Actually, Ben, it is one of the legitimate functions of our government to ensure that the nation’s food supply is safe for consumption. That’s part of the social contract. If Elsie and her overaged cheerleaders want to change the law regarding interstate transport of non-homogenized milk, there’s a prescribed process for that. If you want to drink non-homogenized milk, go for it. This is about interstate conveyance. If you want to eat uncooked beef or unwashed vegetables and wash it down with a glass of warm milk, have at it. Just don’t distribute your risky edibles to others, please. And that’s what the milk and cookies gang did.
Having grown up next to a dairy farm, I say if you want raw milk, have a fuckin ball. Just don’t suck up public resources when you come down with any number of fun diseases as a result.
There’s another aspect of this thing that bothers me. There were young children in the cow convoy. There is probably nothing more despicable than dragging kids into these cute little protests. Did no mother stop and think, “Hey, if I am arrested and held, my child may be spending a day or two with DC social services.” It’s all so fun and cute–until little Suzie gets to see mommy hauled away in cuffs.
@3- I dunno, cav. If the feds can outlaw companies from selling health insurance across state lines, then later mandate people to buy health insurance under the guise of “interstate commerce”, it just seems to me like there should be a discussion about what the “interstate commerce” clause is, and why it has the power to regulate intrastate commerce as well. These milk people could serve as a vehicle for that discussion, if the story can get big enough.
The problem is that if Kokesh is pushing it, it won’t go anywhere because Kokesh is such a douche, he turns people off.
Teddy: First, let’s throw Adam Kotex out of the picture, despite the fact that if he’s involved there’s something inherently wrong. The interstate commerce clause monster is implicated in this milk matter only insofar as the authority of Congress to regulate milk in the stream of commerce traces to it. The 5-minute video spokewoman, Elsie, never mentions the ICC and for good reason: She doubtless supports employment of the clause for health-care mandates and a million other things. So, the vehicle-for-discussion angle doesn’t seem likely. Besides, the Obamacare matter is alive and necessarily will be decided by the Supremes. I can appreciate folks not wanting the Feds, states, or locals in their business all of the time but the matter of regulating the food supply strikes me as wholly legitimate and altogether distinguishable from Obamacare mandates.
The big freakout that Uncle Sugar is having is that these people are crossing state lines to get their ultra tasty arrest-defying super milk. That’s commerce clause all day, and if there is any example to be cited in a case for examining what powers the commerce clause should have, then I’m all for it getting any attention it can get.
I don’t really care about this issue either way- though I grew up in a poor family living in farm country, and much of the food my family ate was unregulated (aside from a state- purchased hunting stamp), I agree that perishable goods shouldn’t be distributed anywhere en masse without some QC from Uncle Sugar. That’s the whole reason the USDA exists. I also believe that any product absolutely should be subject to interstate commerce laws if it crosses state lines.
But the feds cannot have it both ways.
Adam vs. The (Milk)Man.
you think this might be because some states are big, and pasteurizing tends to get rid of bacteria. you don’t think this might actually be a health issue?
Doc: this is more of a personal choice issue. If a person consumes too much alcohol, few if any will stop that person. So too if a person takes their meds with a shot of whatever. How is raw milk any different?
Having milked a few cows, fans of raw milk can keep it.
I do have a problem with over-enforcement and regulation. We’re turning the Amish into black marketeers, jailing soccer moms, and not really doing anything of value that promotes the general welfare of the population.
This is an inexpensive win for Big Dairy, as the taxpayers foot all the costs.
“The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized…”
The paradox about this entire operation is that they could peacefully, and in an organized way, transport the milk across the state line – without shouting “raw milk, raw milk” (an expenditure of energy) and without posting it online (an expenditure of bytes) – and get away with the same thing.
Waste of energy. Bites the dust.
However, I do agree with DaveO a propos over-enforcement.