Dept. of Injustices

The Bush Administration is urging a federal court to toss a lawsuit brought by Amish farmers who are concerned that state mandated RFID tags on their cattle are the Mark of the Beast.

It's hard not to have a soft spot for the Amish. After all, who has not at some point or another dreamed of leaving the complexities of modern life behind for the wholesome simplicity of a, 17th century agrarian lifestyle? And yet, we mustn't lose sight of the fact that we are, in our imaginations, returning to a era in which old widows were routinely burned for witchcraft, and most ailments were treated with leeches applied by a man who played a double role as the town's physician and barber. Maybe we'd be better off imagining ourselves as peaceful hobbits, tilling soil in Middle Earth.