This is via The Corner; I think it’s one of the most astonishing things I’ve learned in a long time: two grandsons of President John Tyler are still alive. Yes, that John Tyler, of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” fame. John Tyler was born in 1790. That’s what you call good genes, I guess. Amazing.
While we’re paying tribute to The Corner, here’s one more: Europe is proposing to tax cow flatulence. Seriously. Only Mark Steyn could make that story funnier:
To comply with emissions targets, European countries are considering a tax on bovine flatulence (or, as Steve Forbes would say, a flat. tax):
A cow tax of €13 per animal has been mooted in Ireland, while Denmark is discussing a levy as high as €80 per cow to offset the potential penalties each country faces from European Union legislation aimed at combating global warming… The Danish Tax Commission estimates that a cow will emit four tonnes of methane a year in burps and flatulence, compared with 2.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide for an average car…
Even allowing for the regulatory yoke Europe’s cowed citizenry labor under, the logic here is hard to follow. Why is some Bulgar’s Holstein allowed to increase his flatulence while the poor Jutlander’s has to put a stopper in it? Is there’s a dearth of flatulence in the Balkans but a Code Red alert over the North Sea? Couldn’t the EU introduce flatulence offsets?
I asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs if the Obama administration was also considering taxing cows, but he said only those earning over $250,000 a year. The Cow Jones fell 700 points on the news.
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