Ask your state representative why he or she voted to make it illegal to photograph or videotape animals at a factory farm. According to Bill Berkowitz, writing for the July 18 Working for Change (www.workingforchange.com), in April the Illinois House of Representatives passed House Bill 5793 by a vote of 118-0. According to the Peoria Journal Star, the bill would “prohibit state inspectors [of factory farms] from taking pictures to document their investigations,” but Berkowitz figures it’s also aimed at thwarting the many grassroots activists monitoring the gigantic, foul-smelling hog and dairy operations. An overflight and videotape of one such downstate facility a year ago by Families Against Rural Messes helped produce a $50,000 fine.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Facts antismoking activists don’t want you to know. Smoker and libertarian Joseph Bast writes in the “Heartlander” (July): “Low-tar cigarettes are about 20 percent safer than regular cigarettes in terms of the lung cancer risk….If just 10 percent of smokers switched to smokeless tobacco, for example, an astonishing 26.8 million life-years would be saved.”
Things we never thought we’d see the Washington editor of the Nation admit. David Corn (TomPaine.com, May 17) writes: “Castro deserves no breaks. Not for having once toppled a corrupt, mob-linked regime, not for having brought better health care and education to Cubans. The left should agree with the right: his time is up, or ought to be.”
