Weekend Wacky Link Dump

It's been a pretty full week, so I didn't have time to gather up too many links for your amusement  Be that as it may, here is my collection...
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First up is this that talks about something that is perhaps new in the Islamic world - Halal Easter Eggs and Cat Food. Easter eggs I can kinda understand. I mean really - everybody likes candy, and if you are strictly religious then you want to know the candy that you give your children is not been soaked in pig's blood. Am I right? I am a little baffled why it would be ok for your kids to eat it when they have to remove wrappers that talk about 'Happy Easter', a Christian celebration, but who am I to judge?

That does raise the question of just how much of the whole halal thing is a scam to funnel money back to some possibly questionable groups. The market does seem to be ripe for that sort of thing. A somewhat deeper issue is why it would matter that a cat eats halal food. I found a possible explanation here:

Firstly, there is of course no obligation in Islam on a cat to eat Halal food. The obligation is on Muslims themselves not to handle haram foodstuffs or feed it to either other humans or indeed animals. Muslims would also not willingly want to store haram food in their house.

So the idea is that just being around the 'haram' food is bad. Ok - it seems a little silly to me, but again - who am i to judge. That made me wonder, if the Muslims went this far with their food taboos, would that other religious group that also had strict food taboos likewise have such - er - entrepreneurial aspirations? While there were a few kosher cat food companies, this is the explanation that I found:

In general, the laws of kosher are for (Jewish) humans, not for animals.

There are, however, two sorts of non-kosher food that we are not only forbidden to eat, but we are also forbidden to derive any benefit from...

So the distinction here is not that contact is bad, but benefit from the food itself is bad, even if it is only a benefit of feeding the family pet.  Compare and contrast...


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http://thisistwitchy.files.wordpress.com/2013/03

I saw this about Obama making a speech in front of a Chinese made crane via Instapundit. So I got curious  I looked up the company and found them here. Impressive company. You know when I think about China, I think of billions of poor people eeking out an existence in rice paddies. That is just not a true representation of what China really is. Look at Shanghai where the above company is located, they have a bustling economy and even their own stock market - more closely related to what Japan used to be than austere Maoist society that I had imagined. It doesn't mean they are a free people, it just means they are perhaps more ruthlessly efficient and ambitious than I could have conceived. A thing to keep in mind considering how much of the US debt they hold.

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http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/30/chp-easter-bunny-motorcycle-helmet-freeway-la-mesa/

“He ended up with a verbal warning and an explanation of the safety factors for riding without a helmet.”

Seriously? The fact that the rabbit head had to be really restricting his vision didn't matter? They guy has a freaking side car, yet he could not take the head off and put it there? I smell a conspiracy here!

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So the parents of Trayvon cashed in and got a million dollar settlement from the homeowners association? How is the homeowners association complicit in his death? Or are they the only ones with insurance money to go after? This truly is insane..

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So the government is going to do away with Butt? Really? I be damned if I will change. I mean, I will still be saying - "Gotta check my butt", and "going down to the store to grab some butt", and "check out this butt!". Boston pork roast my a$$!