GOP state rep.: "I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables"

By GottaLaff

Chicken Sue of Barter, Inc.,has a soul mate! Lucky her. Now maybe she won't feel so alone. Wackiness loves company, after all.

Rep. Mike Bell (R-TN) and Democratic state Rep. Joe Towns were discussing a possible state law-- what else?-- nullifying the mandate included in the newly passed health care law.

The law that passed. Legally. The law of the land. That law.

Bell was going on about how some people do just fine without insurance, and have no problem paying with cash, even when hospitalized.

That would be some big hunk-o'-cash:

Towns: You're saying they pay cash? For organ transplants and cancer and heart cases, they pay cash?

Bell: I said they pay cash or work out other arrangements. I know for a fact. I know someone in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables from the Mennonite community.

Towns responded as we would have, that it's a little unrealistic to expect people to schlep bags of carrots and broccoli down to, say, the electric company in return for "juice" (Bad pun; bygones).

I, for one, brought a tomato to Macy's when they had a sale on socks. They insisted on turnips.

Oh, but I kid the mall.

But for the sake of argument...

Have either of these barter-happy nutballs figured out where places of business would store all the livestock (and the livestock's waste) and perishable edibles?

And why anyone would need, or want, 70 pounds of brussel sprouts instead of money?

And how would the doctors then pay their own bills, not to mention the additional costs of upkeep?

Those are some sharp political minds, speaking of vegetables....

Palin: Tomato-less in Salt Lake City

By GottaLaff

If I didn't already know the back story, I'd swear this was a parody post:

The Salt Lake City Costco removed all tomatoes from the store before a Sarah Palin book signing, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

"It turns out that Palin had been pelted with a tomato at an earlier stop on her book tour and the management at the Costco was determined it wouldn't happen here."

No tomatoes for you!



Think about it: Do you remember another public figure who had to ban tomatoes prior to a book signing?

Me neither.

One might accuse Barbie McLipSchmutz of tomato bigotry.

Iowa man seeks appointment to 'White House farmer'

I think it's a brilliant idea.

Ed Fallon submitted his letter of application Thursday to President-elect Barack Obama to become the "White House farmer."

Such a position currently does not exist.

"I'm dead serious," said Fallon, a former state representative from Des Moines. "I hope he does something along these lines. Maybe I'm not the person he would like to lead that effort, but I think somebody should."

Fallon got the idea from New York Times writer Michael Pollan, who wrote that the job could be used to "tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden."

Pollan noted that Eleanor Roosevelt planted a garden on the White House lawn in 1943, helping to ignite the Victory Garden movement.