News Roundup

The American Bar Association has pulled out of sponsoring a surfing competition for lawyers during their convention in Honolulu because they are afraid of being sued. The organizers have liability insurance, but apparently the ABA knows that's not good enough to stop lawyers! Oh well. At least they're self-aware.

. . . . .

In Tasmania, a bar with beer-drinking pigs has become the target of "animal-rights" activists. Patrons can pay to give the pigs a drink. The bar waters down the beer so the pigs never get drunk (a shame!), and evidently the pigs really like it. On slow days, the bar owners have to give the pigs a drink, or else they'd mope around or something.

The activists say that it's animal cruelty (the RSPCA disagrees) because pigs don't drink beer naturally. But do humans drink alcohol "naturally"? No, we had to work at it and use our great brainpower to create a beverage that ... diminishes our brainpower.

Since we're always being told that pigs are quite smart and similar to humans, why shouldn't our porcine friends benefit from our alcoholic creation?

But I suppose the real question is this: Do beer-fed pigs taste any different?