Meat is murder – I understand that – but what if it weren’t murder? Would it be alright to eat it, then? The reason I was thinking of this was that I almost hit a couple of wild turkeys while driving to work today and it occurred to me that if I had hit them it wouldn’t be murder at all and their meat would be free of the stigma of cruelty that taints most meat. And I should be able to eat themwith a clear conscience. (In Wisconsin if you hit wild animals you are allowed to keep the meat for yourself, so it also would have been total legal. I suppose you can’t try to hit them and you have to stay on the road, but other than that it’s okay).

That example was hypothetical, but I’ve got a real-life one that makes my point better. A co-worker of mine – a vegetarian – hit five deer at one time on the road, then donated the venison to a food shelf. Here you have a non-meat-eater providing un-murdered meat for charity.
It seems to me that in this case, eating those deer is almost virtuous.

This is fine so far, because basically I’m still talking about road-kill, tasty road-kill, but road-kill nonetheless. And most meat just isn’t obtained in this way. But what if all the meat that was consumed in America came from animals that died from natural causes? Would anybody have any problems with that?

Here’s how I think it would work for, say, beef. Instead of cattle farms you would have cattle communities. These ‘cattle communities’ would be set up so that they provided everything a cow would need to live a long fulfilling cow life. It would be a resort almost for them. They would receive the finest care available till they gently close their eyes at the end of their happy lives.

Then we eat them.

About the Author

Steve Sommers is the author of Breakfast with the Antichrist

Many credit card holders sign up for a credit account with an 8.9% interest rate and then later realize that their interest rate has been bumped to 27.4%. Why?

You know that your credit score affects the credit card rates that you qualify for. But, did you know that a little clause in the fine print of the credit card terms and agreements, called the “Universal Default Penalty Clause” may mean that you’re already paying a higher interest than when you signed up for the credit card? What does this fine print mean to you?

If your credit score goes down or one of your other credit conditions change, then your interest rate increases significantly. This doesn’t mean any new charges you make to this particular credit card account: the higher rate affects the entire balance. Yes, even items you purchased with the understanding that your interest rate would remain the original rate.

Your credit grantors periodically review your credit report. Almost half of all credit card companies take advantage of you when you are perceived as a delinquent or high-risk borrower. The small print in your account information may include the universal default penalty, which allows the credit card company to increase your interest rate if it uncovers any of these six changes in your credit report:

1. You have a late payment on any credit account. The company doesn’t care if you’ve never made a late payment to them.

2. You go over your available credit line on any credit account. Even if you unknowingly charge a small amount over the credit limit, which many credit card issuers let you do; your interest rate can be raised.

3. Your credit score declines. Just one late payment can hurt your credit score. Experian reports that people with no late or missed payments in the last year had an average credit score of 759; consumers with one or more late payments in the past year had an average score of 598.

4. You charge up too much on one account or many credit cards. If you charge up your credit card near the limit, or even charge up some of your credit cards over the preferred proportional amounts owed, you could pay extra for the privilege. The amount owed on a credit line compared to the available credit is termed the proportional amount owed. With a credit card limit of $5,000, the score will be higher if less than $2,500 is owed. Even better is to owe less than one-third of the available credit or less than $1501. Owing less than ten percent of the available balance gives you the best possible rating. On the other hand, owing over $4,500 on an account with a limit of $5,000 lowers your score considerably, especially if you have too many credit cards and other loans with high balances compared to available balances.

5. Your charge activities indicate a high debt-to-income ratio. If your credit card issuer sees that you’ve made many new charges and believes that you’re getting in over your head, they may raise your interest rate. Even if this is a temporary situation, like many new home owners who make many purchases in a single month, the companies take advantage of the unsuspecting credit card holder.

6. You open new accounts. Opening new credit lines, especially consumer finance accounts, lowers your credit score and adds notations like “Too many consumer accounts” to your credit report. Once again, your credit card company may take advantage of this to raise your interest rate.

Credit cards that start with a low interest rate can jump to interest rates as high as 29.99%, if they find any of these new conditions listed on your credit report.

Check your credit card statements closely; look to see if your credit card grantor raised your interest rates. If you find that you’re paying more than you thought, call your credit card company and ask the reason. Once you determine the cause, you can work on your credit issue. After you’ve fixed the problem, call back and ask for a reduction in your interest rate.

Copyright (c) 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher All Rights Reserved.

Jeanette Fisher teaches real estate investing and interior design college courses. She became a credit expert to help her students buy their dream home and multiple investment properties. Jeanette is the author of “Credit Help! Get the Credit You Need to Buy Real Estate” and other books. For more information on building and maintaining a strong credit score, explore the Real Estate Credit Help Center www.recredithelp.com

Credit questions? Ask Jeanette: recredithelp.blogspot.com

Christmas time is a fun moment for UK children; they have heard the sensational tales of Mr and Mrs Claus and Rudolph and the special day of the 25th of December. From the build up, British kids are on toy sites and in catalogues searching high and low for the very latest action figure for them to have at the top of their shopping list. At school and nursery the very hottest discussion is what toy they will be asking Santa and if he might give them loads more board games than their friends.

Each Xmas the toy market researchers and toy websites start making their forecasts about what game will be the number one largest seller for that Xmas. In past times the United Kingdom have noticed the Playstation 2 and the Furbies coming in at the top.

One of the predicted highest selling toys is from the brilliant Ben 10 toy range. Ben 10 is a cartoon from the US and is about a boy called Ben who sees a fantastically strange alien watch like device that snaps itself onto his wrist and provides him with phenomenal extra ordinary powers. With his special powers, Ben helps others as well as get into some fun mischief with Ben’s little cousin Gwen. With the super success of the cartoon, a superb range of wonderful kids toys have been created, these include Ben 10 action figures and lunch boxes.

Another famous seller this Xmas time will be kids board games, one of the most likeable being Monopoly. Loosely based on the economic concept of a company owning everything in their market, Monopoly is a fantastic adult and children’s board game that is so popular that over 750 million individuals have played it. In its fantastic 100 year lifespan, Monopoly has seen it move into an online format, video game and even an Apple iPhone application.

While best selling predictions are vital to the market the real unit sales will tell us what toy was the biggest seller this Xmas period. Find the latest board games to keep the kids happy.

The world of notebooks is evolving more or less daily, therefore making it very tricky to stay up-to-date on the latest developments even for the savvy shopper. Notebooks fundamentally have replaced desktop PCs as the favourite choice for home PC purchase. Whilst Apple laptops are awfully well-liked in the news and do not have virus problems, generally other Windows-based notebooks provide a significantly more economical option, on the condition that a reputable virus protection security programme is loaded onto the machine.

The most critical factor to determine before shopping for laptop computers is their overall usage. Having the understanding how a notebook is going to be used will help you to figure out what extra software programmes are required. This is important when finding out how good the laptop must be. If the user is planning on only crawling the Net & doing a small bit of word processing they will absolutely not demand as quick a notebook computer as someone who is recording music or playing the latest three dimensional computer video games.

There are two main factors that influence the power of a notebook more than all other components; these are the CPU and the entire amount of Random Access Memory installed. A speedier CPU permits the laptop computer to execute tasks significantly more faster, while extra RAM also lets for faster speeds since the CPU can utilise the RAM to provisionally increase the overall amount of memory accessible for its own internal calculations. If all that sounds some what bewildering, just simply remember: that the more RAM the computer has, the quicker it will work.

The internal storage device is where all computer software and personal data including photos and videos are put. Clearly, the bigger the storage device the more that can be stored on it. More or less all machines come with DVD-R drives integrated. BluRay drives may well also be available as a more costly option.

Once you have an idea for the needed power of the laptop, the next option you have involves picking a manufacturer. Apple laptops are popular, well-made, and uncomplicated to operate, however they traditionally tend to cost twice as much as an equally specified Microsoft notebook computer. Find a vast selection of technology products such as; laptops, digital photo frames and digital cameras from leading brands online.

Sony laptops are stylish machines to consider if you are doing a lot of multimedia tasks. Most of their products come with FireWire slots as standard which allow for trouble-free connectivity to a number of digital video devices, like that of digital camcorders or digital video recorders.

Toshiba notebooks are renowned for their performance & suitability for running company programmes. They are also dependable, well-built computers.

Finally, Acer laptop computers at present are without a doubt the most cost-effective choice. They are relatively easy on the wallet, yet still offer enough reliability and power to be deemed an excellent acquisition.