A Man We Must Do Business With

I recommend Bartle Breese Bull’s op-ed from last Sunday, in which he discusses the ways in which Muqtada al-Sadr has actually been contributing to Iraqi stability, while also maintaining his steadfast opposition to the U.S. presence.

The Sadrist movement has always been about Iraq for the Iraqis. They might accept help from Iran — and I saw Iranian supplies in their compounds in Najaf in 2004 — but the movement is not for sale. Mr. Sadr gets his strength from the street. And the Arabs of the Iraqi street have no time for Persian bosses.

Nor do they seem to want to foment an all-out civil war. For all the time I have spent with Sadrist death-squad leaders who focus on killing former Baathists and Al Qaeda’s supporters (Sunnis all), I have spent just as much time with Mahdi men who have been sent by their leaders to protect Sunni mosques after Sunni provocations, lest Shiites retaliate too broadly.

It was no coincidence that in February, a few weeks after the Baghdad security plan started, a Sunni mosque was reopened in Sadr City. Nor is it a coincidence that the current plan, while it has largely failed to stop car bombs, which are primarily a Sunni phenomenon, has for the moment more or less ended the type of violence in which the Mahdi Army participated most: roving death squads.

Why would Mr. Sadr cooperate with the Americans and Mr. Maliki’s government? While he runs the biggest popular movement in the country, his followers are far from a majority. He is doing exactly what any other rational actor would do: He keeps up the angry rhetoric, and he plays ball with the democratic project.
...

The real story about Moktada al-Sadr is not his exciting sermons but his broad underwriting, both passive and active, of the official project in Iraq. Since he stood down his forces in August 2004, he has provided the same narrative time and again. It is what we should expect from the canniest politician in Iraq: the rhetoric of the dispossessed, and the actions of an heir to power.

Sadr's fierce Iraqi nationalism is always what made accusations of fealty to Iran transparently ridiculous.

This is also worth noting:

It is no accident that he preaches from the Kufa mosque rather than the more prestigious one at Najaf. As the site of the tomb of Imam Ali, the great martyr of Shiism, Najaf is the center of the Shiite clerical hierarchy, a Vatican of sorts for the faith. It is a rich city.

But Moktada al-Sadr leads a movement of the poor, inherited from his father, who inherited it from an uncle. His singsong exhortation in Kufa last week was a direct reference to the most famous cry from his father’s epic, and ultimately suicidal, sermons under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s: “Yes, yes, to electricity. Yes, yes, to water.” Young Mr. Sadr speaks not for the elites but for the biggest and most deprived group of people in Iraq: the Shiite lower orders.

Kufa also has special significance Shi'i history. Kufa is where Imam Hussein, grandson of Muhammad, was travelling when his party was intercepted near Karbala by the forces of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid. Hussein had been traveling to Kufa at the request of the town's inhabitants, intending to lead a revolt against what they saw as the illegitimate Umayyad Caliphate. Yazid found out about this, sent his forces to crush the revolt in Kufa, and then to lay in wait for Hussein. Nearly all of Hussein's group were martyred, and Hussein's head was brought to Yazid as a trophy in Damascus. When Shi'is mourn the death of Imam Hussein during the Muharram observances, one of the rituals and themes is the lamentation and acceptance of the guilt of the Kufans for not coming to Hussein's aid in his hour of need.

Being based in Kufa, in addition to representing those who bore the brunt of Ba'athist tyranny, poor Shi'is, Muqtada is also able to place himself squarely within the Shi'i martyrdom narrative, and present himself and his movement as instruments of long-awaited Shi'i redemption and justice.

Libby Sentenced...Cheney Sad

Scooter Libby has now officially been sentenced: thirty months in jail and a $250,000 fine. How much of this will he serve? Essentially none of it, I would presume, before Bush pardons him. This is completely expected of our administration, who are clearly hard-pressed to see the harm in what he did. Cheney has come out to express his deep "sadness" in the sentencing of this "man of the highest intellect, judgement, and personal integrity." My question is, when Cheney is sad, does he cry dust, vinegar, or the souls of those he's destroyed around him? He certainly does not cry human tears.

In a relatively interesting piece on the subject, Joseph H. Cooper, who teaches inmates at the Webster Correctional Facility in Cheshire, CT asked his students to review the facts and write their opinions on the subject of Libby's sentence. Of the answers, the most interesting is one who wrote "The gang called the Administration is gonna take care of its own, and who wouldn't ... Finally, when all the smoke is cleared, it will go down in history as -- Scooter took one for the team. They'll take care of him. It's only right."

The likening of our administration to a street gang is just about as apt as anything I can imagine.

An NBA Finals First

There are a lot of great things about the Cavs being in the finals (it's their first time in team history, which is always special; they came together well before anyone expected, as not one "expert" put them in the NBA finals; Lebron finally taking that big-time leap to super-stardom, both in playing and in leadership; the emergence of Daniel Gibson; the Cleveland-San Antonio matchup gets us away from this crappy "need" for it to be "big market" teams in order for the finals to be interesting; the opportunity to see how the best player in the world [Lebron] will do against what may be the best team in the world; etc.).

Brazil is loving the Cavs' arrival, too. Why? Because Anderson Varejão of the Cavs is the first Brazilian player to ever appear in the NBA finals. The globalization of basketball has been nothing but good for the sport, and Varejão's appearance marks another positive in the NBA's efforts to expand globally.

GO CAVS!!

Call Me Crazy, But...

Dennis Ross’s op-ed in this morning's Washington Post is, to my mind, sadly typical of the U.S. media's treatment of the Israel/Palestine issue. Read it: Nowhere in his discussion of the conflict between Hamas and Fatah does he make a single mention of the Israeli occupation. I tend to think that if someone were writing about the violence between Sunni and Shi'i factions in Iraq, it might be considered important to mention the fact that the U.S. invaded Iraq, toppled the government, and has occupied the country for the last four years. If it were also the case that the U.S. Army were bulldozing Iraqi neighborhoods, constructing huge American settlements, and diverting vast amounts of Iraqi water to service those settlements, one might consider that relevant as well. One might even be inclined toward the idea that this were contributing to Iraqi unrest.

Notes on Argentina (IV): Commemmorating the Malvinas War

I've already commented recenly on the 25th anniversary of the Malvinas War, so it was interesting (although purely accidental) when I stumbled upon the Malvinas memorial in Buenos Aires, providing me the chance to see the way in which the Argentine military and/or state commemmorated the war.

The memorial itself was simple and patriotic, solely emphasizing the dead in the war. The memorial is literally a wall, about 25-30 feet wide, with the names of the 649 Argentine men who died fighting in the war. Also, near the wall, is the symbol of every state in Argentina, as well as a bronze image of the two islands and an eternal torch towering over it all. It seemed to be taking a sort of "Vietnam Wall" approach, not drawing too much attention to itself and trying to let the names speak for themselves. Of course, keeping politics out of the memorial was rather important - I don't know if it was a military or a political initiative, but given that the war marked the final death rattle of Argentina's military dictatorship, a government that killed as many as 30,000 of its own citizens, it's not surprising that the memorial does not commemmorate the Malvinas War's place in the broader national narrative in the way that, say, the World War II Memorial in Brazil does. Additionally, such an approach allowed those who supported the war to be able to commemmorate it without also commemmorating the military dictatorship. Overall, it was interesting to see how Argentina tried to commemmorate what was one of its higher "patriotic" moments in its last 50 years of history without trying to also memorialize the murderous military state that launched the same war.

A Free Man Again

After nine years in prison, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was released from prison today, looking only slightly more skeletal than he ever did, though in much worse health. Since his 2nd degree murder conviction, there have been no inroads made on the assisted suicide front and I hope that his release will, once again, ignite the debate. To date, only Oregon has accepted an individual's right to decide his or her own fate and, over and over again, other states' motions fail miserably. That the government believes that they no better than I do what I should do with my own body smacks of the theocracy that we claim we don't live under. While it's true that the Christian faith condemns suicide (though more in Dante than anywhere else), the Bible and the church also abhors a woman's menstrual cycle, but our government can't pretend to regulate this, nor do they have the right to regulate the other. Honestly, it's amazing to me that Oregon's law hasn't been stricken, but I'm glad it hasn't. At 79 and rife with sickness, Kevorkian likely has precious little time left on this planet, but I hope that he is able to spend more time advocating, if not practicing, assisted suicide. This is not a question of taking joy in an individual's pain, it is about relieving it, as well as easing the burden people feel when they are so dependant on everybody but themselves and their broken bodies.

Lyrad's Random 10

While considerably lighter blues than I prefer, the Siegel-Schwall Band was innovative in their ways. Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall got together in 1964 in Chicago, right when the white community was catching onto the beauty of the blues. Students first and musicians second, their intent seemed to be more to take blues into the chamber house than really expressing hardship and sorrow. The result was fairly clinical, but also fairly skilled. There may not be a lot of soul in the music, but it's very listenable if not particularly engrossing. Their most important moment (and what could have potentially been the end of blues had it caught on) was the release of "Three Pieces for Blues Band and Orchestra," by Vanguard Records in 1968. Performing with the San Francisco SO, they merged classical rigor with blues style to create an extremely interesting and unique sound that really wasn't touched again until Metallica's S&M in 1999 (coincidentally enough, also with the SF SO) which, as an old-school Metallica fan, made me more angry than anything. Siegel-Schwall may not be quite the quality of Paul Butterfield or Charlie Musselwhite (as far as that trend of white blues went), but they have a niche that neither of them could touch.

1. Siegel-Schwall Band--I've Got to Go Now
2. Bruce Springsteen--Open All Night
3. Bill Frisell--Sundust
4. Sister Lottie Peavy--Nobody's Fault But Mine
5. Jean Sibelius--Suite mignonne for Orchestra, Op.98a; 2. Polka (English SO; William Boughton, cond.)
6. Kaada--Birds of Prey
7. Townes Van Zandt--Buckskin Stallion Blues
8. Buddy Tabor--Hunting the Buffalo
9. Dillinger Escape Plan--Caffeine
10. Wayne Hancock--A-Town Blues

Mister Trend's Random 10

He may not be the greatest, or the most influential, or the most cited, even. But to me, Son House is one of the greatest bluesmen of all time, bar none. He may not have been one of the most famous or unique voices of the blues (not like Charley Patton or Howlin’ Wolf or Junior Kimbrough), nor one of the most legendary pickers (like contemporary Robert Johnson or B.B. King or Muddy Waters), but it's just hard to be Son House, and far more people should know his music.

1. “You Fucked Yourself” – Quasi
2. “Last Living Souls” – Gorillaz
3. “Moonlight” – Bob Dylan
4. “Song of Our Country” – Miles Davis
5. “The Good, the Bad, & the Queen” – The Good, the Bad, & the Queen
6. Valses Nobles et Sentimentales: Presque lent – Maurice Ravel
7. “Empire State Express” – Son House
8. “I’ll Be on the Water” – Akron/Family
9. “Early Morning Blues” (version 1) – Blind Blake
10. “Elektrobank” – The Chemical Brothers

"If you're from Cleveland...."

As I've said before, we Cleveland sports fans don't really understand this "title" thing. It's something that seems like paradise, but since no Cleveland sports team has won a title in anything since the Browns won it in 1964 (pre-Super Bowl), the sheer ecstacy of winning a title is something I always wonder about when other teams win. I'll watch the celebration, the fans, and think, "I wonder what that must feel like". Not only do Cleveland teams not win titles; they periodically lose them spectacularly (Jose Mesa's masterful choke job in 1997; "The Shot" from Jordan; and, (enjoy, Lyrad) "The Drive" and "The Fumble").

Yet last night, for once, everything went RIGHT. A Cleveland team wasn't the victim of one of those legendary nights; it was the legend (in every good sense of the word). Will the Cavs win the title? Probably not. They may lose the conference finals (I would normally say, "of course they'll lose the conference finals," because I'm a Cleveland fan and I know how things work, but now, it seems, things are genuinely different). But that doesn't matter today - what matters is that, for once, everything went historically right, and people will talk about this game for decades to come.

Which is why the following quotation about Lebron James's unbelievable night last night makes total sense, explaining perfectly how bizarre it is to be a Cleveland sports fan and actually have
something go historically, LEGENDARILY, RIGHT for your team.

"If you're from Cleveland, you know what that meant and how it felt and what it was. Actually, if you're from Cleveland, you probably don't know what that meant or what it was."

Friday Guitar Blogging

Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

"State socialism in defense of Mad Cow"

Via dailyKos, this is just one of the stupidest things I've ever heard (and that's saying a lot, what with the past 7 years).

Apparently, the Bush administration is going to keep meatpacking companies from voluntarily testing all their animals for mad cow disease, because some up-and-coming, small meatpacking company in Kansas wants to test all its animals. Of course, the larger companies don't like this, fearing they'll have to test all their larger herds, too, and that will cut into profit! So the USDA is quashing the small company from voluntarily testing its herds. And free-market competition? Sorry, can't allow that - that will piss off some of the corporate sponsors who pay for us to get elected! So the public won't know if it's meat is free of mad-cow, because the bigger meatpacking companies fear the threat to their profits from a small company that wants to act freely in a "free" market. Awesome.

Man, I Hate Alex Rodriguez

I guess this is the kind of classy ballplaying we should expect from a guy who tried to slap the ball out of a first-baseman's glove in 2004, and then claimed it was all part of his "natural running motion".

Improving Access to Birth Control in Brazil

In the wake of the Pope's visit to Brazil (though the timing is unintentional), Brazil began to subsidize birth control pills to all of its citizens this week. Scott at LG&M has touched often upon how efforts to undo abortion rights in the U.S. are a direct assault based as much on class-based notions of gender as anything else. Now, certainly, while the issues of abortion in the U.S. and birth control in Brazil are very differnt, one issue that still has similarities is the access, and lack thereof, to reproductive rights among the poor. Just as abolishing Roe in the U.S. would only make abortion illegal to the poor who couldn't afford safe, secret abortions, so in Brazil birth control pills have been available mostly to the minority number of middle- and upper-class women right now. As the article correctly points out, the enactment of this government program is huge - it will make birth control accessible to all, regardless of income. This in itself is vital towards any effort to leveling the social field in Brazil.

Certainly, the program does not do much in the way of making abortion a legal option for women in Brazil (and, as would be the case if Roe were stricken down in the US, abortion is only illegal in Brazil to those who can't afford to have a safe, private procedure. Despite it's illegality in Brazil, thousands of women still die every year in clandestine abortions, reminding us once again that the illegality of abortion does not lead to its disappearance). Still, by making birth control affordable on the state-subsidized program, Brazil has taken a huge step in improving reproductive rights for women and for the poor.

Carrying the Torch for Constantine XI

Mark Krikorian, living in a small, rough lean-to and feeding on roots, berries, and moss out beyond the farthest frontiers of Wingnutistan:

We shouldn't let May 29 pass without noting the anniversary of one of the great tragedies of history, the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Sure, the Byzantine Empire was already finished at that point, but its final snuffing out by the Turks was an important milestone in the jihad we continue to face.

Wow. Does this mean that we should celebrate our allies', the Mongols', sacking of Baghdad in 1258 as a victory in the war on terror? Or lament the Quraishi defeat at the Battle of Badr in 624 as the moment when 9/11 really became inevitable? Here we have incontrovertible proof that education and knowledge do not necessarily make one smarter; in many cases they just provide a grander framework for one's preexisting resentments and prejudices, a larger stage upon which to rehearse one's stupidity.

Also, I think Krikorian is letting those damn back-stabbing Paulicians off too easy. If only they hadn't weakened Byzantine resolve in the 9th century, we wouldn't all be speaking Turkish now.

How I hate the Paulicians.

Aww...

Mark Steyn objects to the president's suggestion that those against the immigration bill "don't want to do what's right for America":

I respect the President and I appreciate that his sincerity on this issue has been obvious for his entire political career. But I don't think he should impugn the good faith of those who, equally sincerely, disagree - not on "narrow slices" but on the central proposition: that drive-thru legalization for millions of people subject to desultory background checks by an agency without the resources to conduct them is not "what's right for America".

Uh huh. I'm pretty sure Steyn still considers it okay, though, to impugn the good faith, and patriotism, of those who sincerely disagree (and who have been largely vindicated in their disagreement) on the central proposition: that invading and occupying Iraq will not inspire democratic reforms throughout the region, and will serve as a recruiting poster, boot camp, and proving ground for violent, radical jihadism.

No Room for Police Support of the Dictatorship in Brazil

In another nice step in the human rights crusade in Brazil, an officer was fired supporting Brazil's military dictatorship in a speech he offered to his troops in April. Tenente-Coronel Antõnio Borges Germano declared before his subordinates on April 17th that torture was a totally acceptable practice and he basically missed the good old days of Brazil's dictatorship (1964-1985), all in an effort to "motivate the troops" (his own words).

Fortunately, the military police (which are more like militarized police than like the MPs of the U.S.) and Rio's governor, Sérgio Cabral, have no such use for authority figures who yearn for the dictatorship for any reason and who support torture, lamenting the fact they have to work "within the law", so after this story broke yesterday, Germano finds himself unemployed today.

Certainly, there are other officers in the police who may share his opinions, and torture of the poor (who have little recourse to legal protection or civil rights) continues in Brazil, but it's good to see the local government taking a stand and saying, "We will not tolerate such attitudes."

Rot in Hell, Michael Vick

I am as much a dog-person as anybody can be. I absolutely love dogs - I have lived a full 4 months of my entire 27+ years of life without dogs.

And all these reports involving Michael Vick's ties to dogfighting leaves me worse than sick and more than furious. I've refrained thus far on this, simply because I figured maybe his cousin was running this under his nose and he really didn't know. But with people now saying he bets a LOT on dogfights, and the ties to his property and dogfighting, and the fact that some of these witnesses have brought down other dog-fighters, makes Vick too close to avoid condemnation. It doesn't even matter now if he's never personally gone to a fight, trained a dog to fight, whatever. It won't matter if they decide there isn't enough charges to bring against Vick himself, just his family members and friends. The fact that he is so closely tied to dogfighting in so many aspects should be more than enough to end his career forever. Those who abuse domestic animals for profits are some of the most vile pieces of shit on this planet. Michale Vick is apparently one of those pieces of absolute, worse-than-human, filth who will probably never see the type of pain he's inflicted on harmless animals, all for his own personal adrenaline rush. Burn in hell, Vick.

Notes on Argentina (III): Random bits

-Meat. Much is made of Argentine meat. They themselves claim their meat is the best in the world. I must say, the meat is that good, as is the wine and alfajors (two thin cake-like cookies held together with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate). However, beyond that, Argentina’s food is not just not good, it’s straight up bad. Almost no vegetable selection, even compared to the U.S. (which, doesn’t have the greatest selection in the world), an extreme reliance on eggs and ham (neither of which taste very good for whatever reason), and generally just items that would almost be tasteless, were it not for the absurd amount of lard you can taste in them. I can't remember a time when I ate things that I generally like (ham, eggs, etc.) and felt like vomiting just from the taste, but that happened in Argentina. So for those who travel there - get the beef.

-Ambience. As great as the 19th-century architecture and the wide avenues in Buenos Aires are, in some ways it’s just not as scenic to me as Rio is. This may be bias, but I absolutely love Rio’s environment – you go from beaches to 3000+foot mountains in no time, giving the city a great natural landscape, even if the buildings are ugly. Buenos Aires has that great Belle Epoque architecture, but it’s all flat, so there’s nothing to see besides buildings after buildings after buildings. Even with all the pollution you find in economically marginal (and even not-so-marginal) areas of the city, I’ll take Rio over Buenos Aires in this regard any day of the week.

-While the dollar has died since I arrived in Brazil (last week, it went to 1.92 reais to the dollar, the first time it had been below 2:1 since 2001), it was great to be in Argentina, where everything is so cheap. They have recovered VERY well from the 2001 fiasco, and things are far more resonably priced there than in Brazil. Thus, I was able to go out to a REALLY nice dinner with my wife (steak, bottle of wine, etc.) for about 40 dollars total, and we picked up 9 tango CDs for about 42 dollars (nothing like less than 5 dollars a CD).

-Sinister hair. Argentina takes awful hair to a new level. If you’ve watched the World Cup, you notice an abundance of mullets on the Argentine team; however, the bad hair in Buenos Aires went WELL beyond mullets; faux-hawks on 30-something businessmen in suits, and all kinds of bizarre formations forged from a heavy use of gel were the norm, and it was, quite simply, awful. And this isn’t any “anti-hipness” on my part – it was clearly a contest within the male machismo to do extremely absurd things in a giant “hey everybody, look at me!” contest. And the women also were fans of bad hair (I have NEVER seen so many she-mullets, not even in rural Ohio). I used to think Santa Fe was the sinister-hair capital of the world, but it’s Buenos Aires, by light years.

-Evita. Even without Madonna (pardon the gaggins sound), the Evita cult in Buenos Aires is that big (though slightly smaller than the "Mardona is actually Jesus" cult). I got an awesome magnet, and even saw her grave, which was (of course) a tourist park. But you couldn't escape here. There really is a holy trinity of Argentine figures that dominate t-shirts, posters, books, magnets, cheap street paintings, etc.: Evita, Ché, and Maradona.

Film Review--Chain Camera (2001)

In 2000, filmmaker Kirby Dick had wanted to produce a documentary about teenagers. His approach was to hand out ten video cameras to students at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and asked them to document their lives for one week, without fear of censorship. Then, after their week was up, they were to give these cameras to ten different students, who would do the same for the entire school year. The final product, 2001’s Chain Camera, is the raw footage of sixteen of these kids, filtered through the editing room. This footage, while a mixed bag most of the time, does however bring up some interesting questions.

Ideally, Chain Camera is a documentary without a subjective voice. This is, however, an impossibly ridiculous notion. The thousands of hours recorded by hundreds of students is shrunk down to approximately eight minutes screen time for sixteen stories, and this forces the issue of subjectivity, if only do get the ninety most interesting minutes. But, given how interminably boring some of the segments are, they couldn’t have been filtered for human interest. The students are fairly diverse in class, race, and gender, but there appears to be an overriding message, that is to say that everything with kids today is a-ok. It seems like there should have been some alternative world views presented and, while there is a lesbian couple, a politically-charged artist from a broken home, and a girl who’s dream is to be a stripper, they all seem to come to the same conclusion: that, with hard work and determination, they’ll be able to make something of themselves. That’s dandy, but I have a hard time believing that this is the viewpoint of most of these hundreds of people, and it appears to have been placed together to give a falsely naïve viewpoint. Are these kids this single-minded? I have a hard time believing it. Are these kids, like most kids, so self-absorbed that they can’t see beyond the walls of their school? This I can buy but, if this is the case, Kirby Dick could have, in the editing room, given viewers a sense of this. There would have been, literally, thousands of hours of footage to compile here; there really could have been some meaty material here. Instead, the most “shocking” thing shown in the film was a high school senior smoking pot. Wow…a true revelation.

Chain Camera is a great idea and a solid theory. Unfortunately, its success ends here. There are some entertaining segments, there are some boring ones. Most importantly, though, there are no connections made between any of them and it feels like each student, behind the camera, is living in a bubble. It would have been interesting, as a special feature on the DVD, to revisit some of these kids a few years later to see if and how their views have changed once they left school, a la the 7 Up series, but it seems they were content to leave these stories in their respective bubbles. Personally, I’ll go back to Paul Almond and Michael Apted for this kind of insight into children and young adults. Even if these productions are solidly dated, they are superior and, if Chain Camera taught me anything, it’s that the mindset of kids doesn’t change that much generation to generation, at least when one asks them about themselves.

Jay Stevens on Brucellosis

Over at Left in the West, Jay Stevens has a thought-provoking post on brucellosis. This is a disease that cattle gave to bison and now bison can give it back to cattle. It has been quite contentious over the past couple of decades near Yellowstone National Park. Jay writes that "brucellosis is the perfect collision between environment, industry, immigration, and history." Absolutely true. Europeans brought it over and infected wildlife. Now we have an industry in the West that is economically struggling and declining. Brucellosis infections can wipe out a ranch.

From a strictly economically or environmentally rational point of view, one might argue that we should force out this marginal industry from the West. But is that so simple? First, and I will go into this in more detail when I write about my grasslands trip, if you simply take the cattle off the land, this leaves ranchers with one reasonable economic option: sell their land for housing developments. Do any of us with an environmental consciousness want this? I don't think so. The damage that housing causes wildlife is far more than ranching. Second, the traditions and way of life of these people have legitimacy. We need to find ways for ranchers to stay on the land and keep their ranches together, with or without cattle. It's better for people and the land to do so. This could happen through tourism, though there is a limited market for that I suppose. Perhaps some organic cattle raising could work too, which would keep the cows healthier and give ranchers a higher price for their beef.

There is no clear answer and we need a more open discussion about these issues.