obviously_you'renotagolfer

--or anyone else who would support the ban on caged laying hens...

How do you respond to these facts:

1. Prop 2 will destroy the CA egg industry through competitive disadvantage. (Cage free production is at least 25% more expensive.)

2. Prop 2 will not result in any decrease in the overall number of caged laying hens since the lost production in CA will simply be taken up with increased production in NV and Mexico where standards are already lower and less regulated than CA's have ever been.

3. The economic loss from the closure of a $300 million industry will most greatly effect rural communities already impacted by high unemployment, low incomes, and minority populations.

4. Several veterinarian groups, including the AVMA, oppose prop 2 in part because of the research that indicates cage free production results in HIGHER disease and mortality rates among the hens.

5. Food safety will decrease as a result of imported eggs from less regulated sources and because a greater risk of contamination exists in cage free systems where eggs are in greater contact with manure. (No case of salmonella has ever been linked to CA grown, cage-laid eggs.)

**This question is here because of so many v/v choosing the lifestyle for ethical reasons.

I have a WF5F line from Orvis that is pretty old. After an hour or so of fishing, the tip begins to sink. I was wondering if I can trim off the end of the line that seems to have lost its bouyancy without effecting the casting properties of the line or do I need to replace the entire line. Will a simple line dressing solve this problem? 3-5 feet of the line begins to sink during fishing, that's all I would probably trim.

Follow up: recommendations for a good replacement that isn't too expensive?

Can someone please share with me their limoncello recipe? Specifically, how you make your simple syrup (ratios) and how much syrup you use per 750mL bottle of vodka.

I am on my 3rd of 4th batch since I got into it, but I never seem to get the sweetness balanced with the alcohol. My current batch is the zest from 5 lbs of lemons and a 1.75 L of vodka. Soaking for 3 weeks or so, then adding the syrup. Any other tips?

Please no cut/paste. I can do that. Looking for actual experience. Thanks.

Anyone know how many courses in the Palm Springs/Desert area there actually are? What percentage are private vs. public?

I'm doing filet mignon steaks for a dinner party of 12. I'd like to start the steaks on the grill for an outer sear and markings, and then I'd like to transfer them to the oven to finish cooking. Can anyone tell me at what temp and for how long I should roast the steaks after grilling to get them to a nice med-rare? I'm expecting a grill time over high coals of 2-3 min per side for searing. Also, haven't bought the meat yet, but I expect the filets to be about 1.5" thick. Thanks.

Since the vegan ideaology extends at least as far as insects (as evidenced by the disapproval of eating honey) how does a vegan rectify the killing of billions apon billions of other bugs and worms during the production of any type of grain or vegetable? Why is killing those bugs acceptable to produce grains and vegetables, but it is unacceptable to eat honey collected from a working (and unharmed) hive of bees?

Organic, you say? Think again. You aren't really naive enough to think the organic producer lets the bugs and worms run rampant across the farm and he only collects what is left, are you? Organic produce has insect control a plenty (and actually uses far more pesticides than conventional, but that's another discussion) but the materials used are simply organic-approved.

So how do you remedy this? Seems impossible to me.

I can understand (although disagree with) the vegan argument that dairy/poultry/beef production is inhumane, but I do not understand the aspect that being vegetarian is somehow better for the earth. What about all the agrichemicals, diesel fuel, and vast amounts of water used to produce any ag product? People who also buy only organics (the minority) can argue the first item somewhat, but it still requires a lot of water and energy to produce your soy, wheat germ, and vegetables. Not to mention, organic vegetable production is far from being overwhemingly successful (if it were, it would be the norm). So, without being combative, what say you?

A cow, NEVER!

An innocent baby, ah, whatever.

Seriously; Yahoo has this dedicated Veg/Vegan section but the rest (like 98%) of us are relagated to the regular "Cooking and Recipes" section.

Why doesn't Yahoo have the "Kill 'em and Grill 'em" forum or the "All Steaks, All the Time" section?

Oh wait....... BS Liberal PC bias.

I am going to buy a laptop for some general home computing (internet, simply photo storage/editing, word processing, etc.) Is there really a significant reason to need a dual core processor over a simple Celeron or Pentium M? Should I be spending my money on the processor or more RAM (512 vs. 1G)?

I see I can buy an ultra basic model for under $400 with 512 RAM and a Celeron or spend about $499 and get an AMD Athlon 64 X2 and 1G RAM. Will I see a difference for these basic tasks?

Also, AMD vs. Intel? Opinions? Differences?

Thanks.

I had my anchor hang up yesterday while on the lake and had to cut it loose. I'm wondering what is the best replacement type. My boat is a 22' bowrider, approx weight is 4500 lbs. and generally I am anchoring in 6-20' of water with either a mud/rock or sand bottom. The lake we frequent with the sand bottom has waves to 3' and winds to 15kt occasionally (Tahoe). The lake with the mud bottom is much calmer but anchor points are usually deeper.

I've been looking at a self releasing Chene anchor. Am I way off?

Now I am hearing about "climate change" or "climate change/global warming." Is the term "warming" being blurred so that the Chicken Littles of the world can complain about any climate study results, regardless of what they conclude: hotter or colder?

Incidentally, April '07 was globally cooler than April '06 but the findings were deemed catastrophic anyway, I am sure.

I have been desperately searching for multicolored dice where the actual dice are white, but the spots are black, blue, and red. Specifically the one and six are black, the three and four are blue, and the two and five are red. Does anyone know where to find these???? My local coffee shop full of farmers has been deciding who buys coffee with these for 20 or so years and now some of us want to get our own set. NO ONE has been able to find them. Any help??? Anyone seen these sets?? They must be able to withstand the repeated pounding of rolling dice from leather cups onto a hard counter top. Web pages, catalogs, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

The ACLU sponsored Michael Newdow, the "under God" protestor guy from N. CA to speak at the local college. After his talk, there was a question and answer session where a lot of the students strongly disagreed with Newdow and his crusade to make all of us agree with him (sorry for the editorial). The Q&A became heated so the host of the gathering (the head of the local ACLU chapter) began to limit what could be asked!

Look at the hypocrisy:

"The ACLU is concerned with the protection of civil rights and civil liberties, and (Newdow has) done a lot for that," said Phyllis Gerstenfeld, interim co-chairwoman of the Stanislaus County ACLU.

After Newdow's speech, organizers asked for civilized discourse during questions, but limited what the audience could say.

Members of the crowd were upset, arguing that was a hypocritical control of their freedom of speech. Organizers said people came to hear Newdow speak, not audience members."

Once again, freedom of speech as long as we like it.

Ok, all of you that continually claim we should be out of Iraq, draw back to our own borders, and stop bothering people in the Mid East in order to improve out own safety: Do you honestly think that is going to work?

Just what do you plan to offer the al Qaeda's and Irans of the world? What is you bargaining chip?

I ask this because I don't see how you negotiate with a group that has openly proclaimed their goal is the end of Western Civilization and complete destruction of the United States, specifically.

We (the US) did not provoke this opinion/goal. The Islamic facists don't even claim we did. They claim it is the order to "kill the infadels" and spread Islam at all costs to all corners of the world. Their recent statements regarding the pope indicate as much.

So what will you offer them to leave you alone?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_la_am...

She is quoted today saying that Christianity is as dangerous as radical Islam. Now come on!! Even all you paranoid liberals out there that think the Right is run from the pulpit have to admit this is pure stupidity. And then the lemming audience applauds her when she says it.

How many Christian churches are hijacking planes and threatening to put an end to Western civilization as we know it?

A sad, sad statement on the current status of thinking in America, in my opinion.

Ye of short term memories, remember just a few short months ago when so many politicians were out ranting and raving that Bush (the Fed Gov) should be doing something about gas prices? How Bush just doesn't care about hard working people and how he should release the strategic oil reserve to ease prices? All those people look pretty dumb now, don't they, now that crude and gasoline supplies are higher than expected for this time of year and prices of both are off 10%+ from their July highs? Doesn't this just show that supply and demand do work and the artificial manipulation of of the system is a bad idea? Those people calling for Bush to do something then were so obviously just looking to get some quick points on their approval ratings.

ps I'm not saying gas at $2.70 is great, but I'm just pointing out the system works.

Or if you hail from there, what are some of the prettiest areas to see? I'm going to vacation in the Southeast in a couple months and would like to know what areas are a must to see. I'm not actually a big bourbon fan (but after the trip, who knows?) but I know the area is beautiful and I would like to know what towns to pass through, what roads to drive, what distilleries to see (outside of the obvious).

Yes, I know I could have posted this in travel. More fun here, I guess

Arnold just agreed to go to $8/hr in the next 18 months from the current $6.75.

Fantastic. Now if you work a full time job with two weeks off you make $15,360/yr. Just enough to afford to live in a cardboard box somewhere in California. Have we really helped anything, of just further buried ourselves? This will make no difference in the affordibility of houses (it may make it worse) but it will make a tremendous difference to all the businesses (service, agriculture, food/lodging) already operating on slim margins.

Congratulations, a Big Mac just went up another $.50, thousands more illegals will be wanting to jump the border since they just got a pay raise, and still no one without a bachelors degree can buy a house in CA.

Good work, Arnold.