Tuesday, 23 January, 2001
Presidential Pardons?
What a weird way to run a government. The outgoing President issues a bunch of Executive Orders at the last minute, and then the incoming President blocks those actions by preventing them from being printed in the Federal Register. It's become somewhat of a tradition, according to this news story.
What struck me about that story wasn't that Presidents are playing tug-of-war with pet projects, but this paragraph:
One relatively uncontroversial rule sought by cheesemakers from the Agriculture Department got caught in the fray. It would have allowed smaller holes to keep Grade-A Swiss cheese from getting tangled in high-speed slicing machines.
The size of holes in Grade-A Swiss cheese is regulated by the Agriculture Department? What the heck for?