Shouldn't that be our principle?

"If an adult in this country, with his or her own money, wants to engage in an activity that harms no one, how dare we prohibit it because it doesn't add to the GDP or it has no macroeconomic benefit. Are we all to take home calculators and, until we have satisfied the gentleman from Iowa that we are being socially useful, we abstain from recreational activities that we choose?... People have said, What is the value of gambling ? Here is the value. Some human beings enjoy doing it. Shouldn't that be our principle? If individuals like doing something and they harm no one, we will allow them to do it, even if other people disapprove of what they do."

 

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) talking back to Rep. Jim Leach, one of the main forces behind the prohibtionist anti-gambling legislation that passed last week.

[Thx: Hit and Run]

Creature from the Miso Lagoon

Sarah found a creature in her soup:

The miso soup, on the other hand, started off very promisingly. The flavor was hearty and they didn't stint on the seaweed. And I loved the tofu chunks--they had been deep-fried and thus had a little bite to them instead of being tasteless and crumbling. But then I encountered a little creature with big round black eyes on the side of his head.

My first thought was that she was taking this way too calmly. I never, ever want to be eating a dish and find that SOMETHING WITH A FACE has bobbed to the surface. Unless I ordered something with a face, then I'll be disappointed if it's eyes aren't dewey and plaintive.

Then I read Judy's comment, and was somewhat mollified. I guess it was supposed to be there. Although, Sarah's description of this little creature sounds alarmingly like some sort of parasitic worm that would try to burrow into my ear and make me want to climb ladders all the time.

Here is what would have happened had this been my miso:
creature: [blurb]
ringloss: Gah!
creature: [stares]
ringloss: (to proprietor) Excuse me sir, why does my miso HAVE A FACE!?!?!?!?!?!
proprietor: Sir, that is a _____ [translates as "tasty squid creature"]. It is very good for you, lots of vitamin A.
ringloss: [bashful silence] [contemplates saying "Vitamin A? More like Vitamin I!", but is too cowed by smothering sense of own cross-cultural ignorance] [stares blankly thinking about that one X-Files episode with the giant flukeworm/human hybrid] [hides creature in wadded napkin]