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One theory for why Barack Obama pushed the contraception mandate right now is that it helps Rick Santorum. Others theorize it’s because Obama is an anti-religious bigot with a left-wing agenda. Reasonable minds can disagree on this.

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But it may end up helping Mitt Romney by reminding people that the “individual mandate” is the least of the problems with ObamaCare. (The “individual mandate” is simply the legal argument for why ObamaCare is unconstitutional in a country that has accepted Social Security and Medicare as constitutional.)

This isn’t a Catholic issue or even a religious issue. Conservatives are falling into the Democrats’ trap by denouncing it as such. It’s a freedom issue. (Or, as Democrats call it, “the F-word.”)

If liberals like it, it’s subsidized; if they don’t, it’s prohibited. And now they can impose their left-wing authoritarianism on the entire country by calling their mandates and prohibitions “insurance.”

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The salmon is engineered to produce growth hormones year-round that cause the fish to grow at twice the normal rate. The government already requires labels to tell us if fish is wild-caught or farm-raised—don’t we also have a right to know if our salmon is genetically engineered? Without labels, we’ll never know.

More than forty countries, including Russia and China, already require labels on genetically engineered foods. As Americans, we firmly believe that we deserve the same right to know what we are eating.

That’s why I created a petition to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on SignOn.org, which says:

Commissioner Hamburg, we urge the FDA to require the mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods. We have a right to know about the food we eat and what we feed our families, but under current FDA regulations, we don’t have that ability when it comes to genetically engineered foods.

Polls show that more than 90% of Americans support mandatory labeling. Such near-unanimity in public opinion is rare. Please listen to the American public and mandate labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Thanks!

–Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg

The text above was written by Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirshberg, not by MoveOn staff, and MoveOn is not responsible for the content. This email was sent through MoveOn’s secure system, and your information has been kept private.

This judgment would appear to be definitive, based on DNA evidence. Genetic testing by a parasitologist at the American Museum of Natural History has confirmed that the recent discovery of small worms in canned sardines does not render them treyf, or unkosher.

It may render them unappetizing, but that judgment is up to the consumer (more on that later).

The museum got involved last March when rabbis from the Orthodox Union, which certifies as kosher hundreds of thousands of products across the world, sought scientific help in resolving a question that arose when they began finding the worms, or nematodes, in cans of sardines.

Talmudic debates can turn on fine distinctions, but this was relatively straightforward. The presence of worms could have been a sign that, during the preparation of the canned sardines, muscle from the fish had been improperly handled and allowed to mix with intestinal contents of the sardines, rendering them unkosher.

The issue was important because it “could have led to sardines losing certification as kosher,” said Dr. Mark Siddall, a curator and professor in the invertebrate department of the museum, who conducted the testing.

Many consumers, including non-Jews, look for the certification label as a sign of quality assurance in food preparation.

The rabbis brought their samples of sardina pilchardus — the Mediterranean sardine — to the museum, where Dr. Siddall conducted so-called “DNA bar-coding” to analyze the species of the worms.

Their DNA was isolated and two variants of the cytochrome oxidase gene — which is different for every animal species, as unique as a fingerprint, Dr. Siddall said — revealed that the type of worms in the samples reside only in the flesh of sardines.

“This meant that there was no evidence that the intestines and the flesh had been commingled,” Dr. Siddall said.

The Orthodox Union also discovered evidence of worms in cans of orange capelin roe, and Dr. Siddall’s testing confirmed that the worms, as well, were not intestine-dwellers.

The analysis of Dr. Siddall and his colleagues has been published in The Journal of Parasitology, and the union has formally ruled that both the sardines, and the capelin roe, are kosher. (The entire paper can be read below.)

In 2004, a similar Talmudic tempest involved a tiny crustacean known as a copepod, which was discovered swimming in New York City’s tap water, spurring debate among the observant about whether it rendered city water unkosher.

Many contended that the crustacean was a distant relative of shrimp and lobster, shellfish that cannot be consumed because they lack fins and scales.

The Orthodox Union recommended that city water be filtered before using it for drinking and cooking. That prompted restaurants to install filters, some costing more than $1,000, to remove the interlopers.

As for worms in sardines or in any fish, Article 81 of the New York City Department of Health Code has long required that “aquatic animals, fish or molluscan shellfish” be cooked, rendering such parasites harmless

— unless customers assume some risk by asking for raw fish, as in sushi. The best sushi masters constantly examine the fish for evidence of parasites.

“The notion that there are worms in fish flesh is not new,” Dr. Siddall said. “As long as they’re cooked, or frozen first, they’re perfectly safe.”

Yes, but if the sardines are both safe and kosher, are the worms themselves — which are barely visible and look like thin whitish threads — disgusting?

“It is up to the individual’s aesthetic as to whether that is ‘yucky,’ ” Dr. Siddall said. “I’ve eaten worse. Curdled goose blood. Rhino beetle larvae. Both yummy. But that’s another story.”

Why white women catholic or not would support that man is so incredibly stupid. They are voting away the benefits other women got for them through sweat and anguish and any chance of gaining parity from men.

Who is the american female?

Cailin