At 09:28 AM 9/21/96 -0700, Dale Thorn wrote:
Jonathan Corbet wrote: [Government Access to Meat stuff from Risks deleted]
Did you ever see one of those mattress tags which reads something like "removal of this tag is a violation of ..... and is punishable by ..."? They could tag the stuff, then make it a violation of law to cut the meat before final consumption. The IRS is very concerned about barter, and besides, how are you gonna go half way on legislating against untraceable barter (other than to prohibit dividing the beef)?
And meat tenderizers would be outlawed, because it would be viewed as an effort to obscure the markings. (You could be sent to jail for beating your meat!) Think of the legal liability for selling someone meat that is later involved with the drug trade! The way the laws are going, you could lose everything for selling a steak to a known drug user. Soon you would have meat market laws similar to the alcohol laws in Utah. You will have to eat the steak on the premises, in front of a government authorized and licensed vendor. (Until the cholesterol police make meat consumption a crime.) Soon we will have gangs fighting over the illegal meat trade. Meat will be murder! Instead of "drive-ins", we will have "drive-bys". Government will have an even bigger reason to put a steak through our civil rights. Our goose will be cooked! Then people will go to trading vegetables and grain. And all the "honest folks" will be left with nothing to eat but rocks. (Until, those too are banned because someone might throw one...) --- | "Remember: You can't have BSDM without BSD." - alan@ctrl-alt-del.com | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ | alano@teleport.com |