... You have a Mac. You like chess. So do I. And I've tried all the chess programs for Mac. Obviously it's more fun to play against another human but when you live in the middle of nowhere like I do, you do the best you can. Anyway, the finest chess program for the Apple Mac that I've found is Sigma Chess, by Ole K. Christensen. It is a superb, strong program and here's the best part: You can download it for free. You get the "lite" version but it has plenty of moxie and plays a great game and has no shareware time-out. But if you are like me, you like to pay-your-way and so I urge you to register it (and it's only $15.00 for God's sake, about as reasonable as you can get!) and enjoy the extra features.

I've blathered a lot about my love of Blizzard's StarCraft but my other real passion is chess. It's not that I'm all that good; I'm not. I just enjoy the mental challenge and I really think it helps my tired-old-brain stay fresh and ward-off a decline.

Anyway. Anyway! This is a great program that is so far above all the other Mac chess programs, and the support is wonderful as well. Ole has my admiration and thanks for many enjoyable hours. Incidentally, since no one around Fairlee seems to play chess (or they don't want to play with me) if any of you would like to have an email game --really-- let me know. Make that first move!

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I've posted a lot of stuff yesterday and early this morning. It's weird; I can post something off-the-cuff and get a bunch of links, and yet when I post a bunch of what I consider good stuff like I did yesterday and this morning, nobody notices. Like I said, weird... I'm now going to spend the rest of the day --yes, playing Sigma Chess, and other things. And as usual, I take Saturdays off. So I'll see you all Sunday sometime. In the mean time, visit my friends listed on the side-bar.

And just a reminder, if you list Alphecca on your blogroll, please let me know so I can reciprocate. I appreciate all links. And I try to be one of the good-guys on the web. I wish all of you, my visitors and fellow bloggers, wellness and happiness. May God bless and keep all of you. Thanks very much for stopping by.

Let me start by quoting myself from a month ago:

North Korea is a country that should be feared greatly. And watched closely. I am more worried about them then Iraq when it comes to enabling or starting an incident that could quickly escalate to a very large conflict involving far greater losses then anything a mid-Eastern country could inflict. Yes, India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons but they always seem to stop short of actually launching them, perhaps realizing they will both simply annihilate themselves.

Radical Islamics want to annililate Israel and the U.S. They don't have the capability yet. North Korea could give them that capability.

Please go back and read all of what I said back then.

Our conflict with Iraq seems like pretty small beer right now. It's almost comical. We're saying, "If the U.N. weapons inspectors don't find anything, it means there's really something there and we're going to war with you." From the AP, here's the story so far:

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. weapons inspectors said Thursday there's no "smoking gun" to prove Iraq has nuclear, chemical or biological weapons but they demanded that Baghdad provide private access to scientists and fresh evidence to back claims that it destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration warned that Saddam Hussein is hiding evidence and will face serious consequences if he doesn't disarm.

"We know for a fact that there are weapons there," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington.

Then for God's sake, prove it. Show the evidence. Because unless and until you do, any war launched by the U.S. will seem like a pre-ordained mission by a bully who was simply itching for a fight. Now look, I don't place a whole lot of stock in the U.N. to begin with, and Iraq is a country deserving of a beating. But we, America, cannot engage in pre-emptive wars. We just can't. And for the same reasons that I gave for police in this country not being able to arrest people for things they think someone might do. Scroll down a ways to see my post about that nonsense. We can stomp Iraq into powder anytime we want. But the rest of the civilized world wants us to show just-cause. Not some sort of catch-22 bullshit of "heads we win, tails you lose" type justification.

And as I said four weeks ago, North Korea is the real problem. They freely admit to possessing the capability to start producing nuclear weapons. Maybe they'll use them themselves. Or maybe they'll sell them to loose-cannon states. North Korea is the country we should be worried about. And right now, they are kicking sand in our face. From AP writer Christopher Torchia, here's the story:

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Friday that it was withdrawing from the global nuclear arms control treaty and denounced what it called U.S. aggression, but said it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.

Do you believe that? Of course they are developing nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.

The withdrawal from the NPT could signal that North Korea plans to push ahead with its nuclear weapons programs, or that it is trying to pressure the United States into concessions with a tactic known as brinkmanship.

They are doing to us what we are doing to Iraq. Call it sabre-rattling, call it intimidation, call it what you will. They've already thrown out all the U.N. inspectors and shuttered the monitor cameras. They are trying to destroy our already rocky relationship with South Korea. They are a big-time threat and we had better pay much closer attention to them and start building up our forces in that area. Even Japan, for fifty years without a military, is nervous enough to start thinking about developing defenses against North Korea.

Is it possible that North Korea just wants concessions? I suppose. Since when does the U.S. give in to black-mail? Once you start making payments, the demands simply increase. Any detective from a dime-store novel was telling you that a hundred years ago.

We are in a tough chess match with several countries right now. I really hope Bush and his team is taking this more seriously then they seem to be letting on. The stakes are way too high with North Korea. We'd better be awfully sure of our hand and not fold.

So I've had a couple days off... as you can tell by all the postings I've been flinging up on this here blog. Anyway, I've talked about the economy before, most recently on New Year's Eve, and while I remain optimistic for the future, things look bleak right now. This is confirmed by this story from Yahoo. Here's a depressing quote:

The nation's retailers released weaker-than-expected December sales figures Thursday, and even usually strong merchants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kohl's Corp. and Target Corp. suffered amid economic uncertainty, a shorter season and a lack of must-have items.

Department stores and many mall-based apparel stores, particularly Talbots Inc. and AnnTaylor Stores Corp., also languished.

Here's the problem: People didn't spend as much this holiday season. Well, duh! What I mean is they didn't spend as much on each gift. And while consumer spending isn't really that awful, it shows none of the optimism of a few years ago when everyone was flush with the phony hopes that tech-stocks offered. Further more, over the past year and a half, durable goods (things that folks only have to buy once every blue-moon) are way down. Durable goods are things such as furniture. I know; I sell furniture. The entire industry is suffering mightily.

Look; the average person is scared. They don't know if we are about to engage in war, if we are about to be attacked by terrorists, they don't know if they will have a job tomorrow. And most have seen their 401-K's and other investments "tank."

Let's face it, if you need a new car or refrigerator because your old one is broken, you have to buy one right away (and zero financing doesn't hurt.) but if you want a new table or bed, well, that can always wait until the future outlook for the economy (and therefore your own financial outlook) seems brighter.

I don't know what the answer is but I don't think it involves giving the wealthiest people in the country tax-breaks. I really, really would like to see Bush and his advisors concentrate any tax relief on the poor and middle-class this time around. And to me, middle-class isn't a family earning $70,000 a year, it's a family earning $30,000 a year.

I'd also like to see serious relief from medical expenses for our senior citizens on Medicare and Medicaid. Especially in reducing co-pays for hospital expenses and on prescription drugs. President Bush and the Republicans are not addressing this at all. That is wrong and sinful. After a life-time of work, the last thing anyone should have to worry about how they can afford medications that will keep them alive.

I know, many of you who consider me a hard-core conservative are aghast! I told you all long ago, when I started this blog, not to pigeon-hole me. I'm conservative about a lot of things, but it all depends on the specific issue at hand. My knee doesn't jerk.

Furthermore, I have and will continue to say that the mark of a society worthy of being called civilized is in how it cares for and treats it's elderly. To my way of thinking, right now America gets an "D." We can and should be doing much better.

And I wish him well. Of course I do since I live here. And I'm not going to pounce on him too quickly. I give everyone time to hang prove themselves.

After giving parting governor Howard Dean a luke-warm send-off --and Dean deserved better-- he also promised to balance the budget and said:

We must not bend to the temptation of dipping even further into (families') pocketbooks to do it.

I hope he means it. Scroll down a bit for my thoughts on this. Anyway, good luck Jim. We'll be watching. And I'll be commenting.

I've been holding off putting stuff on eBay for awhile because it's getting just too commercial on there. But I'm trying out a couple items right now (see my link on sidebar) including a collectable 1976 Casio Biolator, and a very fine condition Ray Bradbury 1st edition paperback of The Machineries of Joy. So if you don't want to donate to feed my kitties (and apparently almost nobody does) you could always bid on these items to help me out. Thanks!

The always excellent Aubrey Turner tells the gruesome story of cops shooting a motorist's dog during a traffic-stop:

But what really pisses me off is that the driver repeatedly warned the officer that he had a dog in the car and he didn't want him to get loose. From what I could see, the driver even took pains to shut his door to keep the dog in, despite the fact that he was being yelled at by the officer. If the officers had simply listened to the driver, the incident could have been avoided.

Aubrey has a lot of smart things to say about this incident and you should immediately go there now and read it all. I'll sit here and seethe until you return...

Okay, now I have long felt that many cops (mostly in big cities but now even in rural areas) are becoming way too abusive and overbearing. This is one reason why I mentioned in an earlier post today that I really don't want more Staties hired here in Vermont. We already know that in places like L.A., N.Y.C., and Cincinnati just being a black man is reason enough for them to shoot you. Cops (and the courts) have lost sight of what their job really is and who they are supposed to be serving. They are turning the Bill of Rights into a joke.

Think these are exceptions? In today's Washington Times, Georgia Rep. Bob Barr has a superb editorial entitled, "Crimes Before the Fact." It details how undercover cops are now going into bars in Virginia and arresting patrons for being drunk. Here's a quote:

The department's explanation that it is against the law to be intoxicated in a public place (including a bar), is nonsense, even if, in a hyper-technical sense, correct. Someone perhaps ought to remind Fairfax County that bars actually exist as places in which people drink alcohol; it's not only legal, it's encouraged.

This actually is a frightening scenario that one hopes is nipped in the bud. Not only is this sort of Gestapolike behavior chilling in the extreme, but if condoned or encouraged, will find its way into other areas of detaining or arresting people for potential criminal behavior.

I urge all of you to read the whole thing because Barr makes several good points and ties it all in with "Total Information Awareness." There is much to love about America but I will tell you this, from the standpoint of law enforcement there are some scary things going on and we had all better take notice and fight it off. If we don't, America will start looking more and more like England. Or worse, like some piss-in-pot Arab country.

And here's the thing: Both political parties are to blame. The Republicans for supporting overzealous law enforcement and the Democrats for passing all those laws in the first place. I hate to sound like a broken record (okay, CD) but damn-it I wish the Libertarians would get it together and stop nominating kooks. Give us a well-spoken, thoughtful statesman and you'll get the votes! It might take many election cycles to actually win but at least the Republicans and Democrats will start to take notice and adjust their thinking accordingly. Our freedom and liberty depend on it.

Blog-brother Tim Wilson reports that Nashville may finally add gays and lesbians to their anti-discrimination laws:

The Tennessean (formerly, the Nashville Tennessean) is reporting (here) that the (Nashville/Davidson) Metro Council (consolidated city/county government there) is considering a law to protect gay and lesbian citizens from discrimination in housing, employment, etc. Like Orlando recently passed.

Followers of the Orlando debate will recognize similar roles being played by different actors in the Nashville debate. The law's already passed two of three required readings. I'd expect the usual unnecessary and prejudiced loudness by the opposition followed by third passage.

"...get used to it!" And scroll up for his early handicapping of the Democratic presidential primary candidates.

My buddy Leigh Hanlon feeds his dog Snausages by the crate... He understands that the bond between dogs (and cats of course,) and humans is every bit as strong as between humans:

Lured by a treat (Snausages are a favorite) or a dog biscuit (Safeway's house brand with beef flavor tops her list), Abby will happily curl up against my feet all night long. And even though she can't see or hear well, during the night Abby will somehow sense movement outside -- cars, pedestrians, other animals -- and alert me with reassuring little "Did you hear that? Well, I did and it's OK" kinds of micro-woofs.

There is something comfortingly symbiotic about drifting to sleep with Abby curled against my feet. She's elderly, but devoted, and if anybody tried to harm her family, tried to harm her pack, she would, like most other dogs, fight to the death.

This relationship has existed ever since humans and wolves first exchanged glances and formed a bond millions of nights ago.

My cats also have complete run of the house and I even have "handicap" ramps to my bed and the kitchen counter for my eldest who can no longer jump up anywhere. My eldest (Rainbow) also is the only one who enjoys "people" food. And yes, we share a spoon for ice-cream...

A couple years ago some effluent posing as a book, The Hidden Hitler was discharged into stores and TV talk shows. The author, Lothar Machtan, alleges that Adolph Hitler was actually gay. And that somehow, much of the holocaust could be blamed on this. Now, HBO is going to release a movie based on this sewage.

The book was rightly flayed by most critics and I don't purpose to continue that here but let me just say that even if it's true --that Hitler was secretly gay-- what does that have to do with the price of potatos? That is, irregardless of his sexuality, he was one of the most truly evil men of all history. What he did wasn't a result of anything other then having mutant DNA, mutant ideas, and frankly, mutant followers.

You know, I'm reminded of all the newspaper stories I read where suspects (of crime) are described by their race. For instance, "John Doe, 37 and black, was accused today of..." Folks, the race has nothing to do with the crime. (Okay, if it's a hate-crime then I suppose it does but otherwise...) and you notice that they never say, "John Doe, 37 and white..." Granted that if they are describing a suspect "on the loose" then describing the race has some relevance but otherwise? No. And neither does sexuality. A thug is a thug and a punk is a punk.

I can think of no better way to show how silly this is then to quote an article (sorry, no link) from The Onion published in 1996:

Area Homosexual Saves Four From Fire

FALMOUTH, MA -- Near-tragedy turned to joy and relief Monday, as area residents Phillip and Karen Widman and their two children were pulled from their burning home on Locust Street by Kevin Lassally, a homosexual man.

The fire is believed to have started... ...Lassally, returning home after visiting with other homosexuals, smelled smoke and saw flames through the Widmans' living-room window.

"I heard children crying, and knew I had to do something," the 34-year-old gay computer programmer told reporters...

There are untold millions of gays and lesbians in this world and they aren't all murdering millions of Jews and trying to take over the world. Hitler had a defective brain. It caused misery and death for so many folks that to try to blame it on anything other then simply being a mutant is just plain stupid. And in my opinion worse; because somehow, someway, there are still plenty of people around who hate gays and will seize on this as bizarre proof that their hatred is justified. Surely there are better ways for HBO to fill their schedule.

So here in bucolic Vermont, presidential hopeful Howard Dean has turned the reigns of governorship over to Jim Douglas.

I have mixed emotions about Dean but I'll dwell on his positives today. He was fiscally conservative. The Democrats would keep coming up with all sorts of new liberal schemes to spend Vermonters' tax dollars and Dean would often fight them and cut feel-good spending programs. The fact is, all the liberals and progressives would have liked to turn Vermont into another welfare state such as California. And to some degree they succeeded, but it would have been far worse if Gov. Dean had not stuck with his principles and fought them tooth-and-nail.

He was also a good friend to gun-owners and to sportsmen in general.

While I supported Jim Douglas -- mostly because his opponent Racine was way to liberal -- I am cognizant that he is not especially conservative (in Vermont, precious few Republicans are) and has announced he wants to increase spending in several areas including hiring over a hundred more Staties (State Police.) I don't think that is needed. We have enough police to do what really needs to be done and it helps keep them off the backs of the average citizens. The last thing we need is a "storm-trooper" mentality in this state and that's what you get when you have too many cops about. I will be watching Douglas carefully and reporting my thoughts here.

With the (surprisingly easy) re-election of Rep. Walter Freed, R-Dorset, as House Speaker and the election of Sen. Peter Welch, D-Windsor, as Senate president pro tem, we can all breath a sigh of relief that with a closely divided House and Senate, no one ideology will prevail too easily.

I always feel that legislators become more thoughtful -and careful- about what they advocate and vote for when they know there will be serious debate from both sides of the aisle. This means you have to make your argument better. That results in better legislation. Status-quo is a good thing!

Regular readers know, of course, that Alphecca employs a huge staff of researchers gathering all sorts of information. Every Wednesday we check the bias of the Yahoo Gun Control Debate Page. Is it really a debate with input from both sides of the issue? Well, nooooo...

Yahoo Gun Control Debate Page Articles
Sample Date	For More Gun Control Or Is Anti-Gun	Not More Gun Control Or Is Pro 2nd Amendment	Neutral Articles	Concurrent Events Notes
01/08/03	16	3	2	England ban on air guns
01/01/03	15	4	1
12/25/02	15	4	1
12/18/02	13	4	3
12/11/02	13	6	4	Canadian registry fiasco
12/04/02	15	2	3
11/26/02	17	2	1
11/20/02	18	2	2
11/13/02	14	2	3
11/07/02	17	4	-	Sniper caught
10/26/02	21	4	-	DC Sniper

As you can see, I've expanded the table with a column of notes on current events that influenced the articles that week. I hope this adds some perspective to the table. This week there were several stories or op-eds about England's latest attempt to eliminate anything that even looks like a gun. Incidentally, New York is trying the same thing. *sigh*

From Canada, another couple of articles about the Canadian gun registry boon-doggle. One, by Ontario Public Safety and Security Officer Bob Runciman was an excellent op-ed in the National Post. After lambasting the registry fiasco, he concludes:

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Ottawa needs to learn the real lesson of this fiasco and ensure that future public safety legislation targets those who commit crimes, not those who already obey the law.

Exactly right. The other story, from the CBC discusses the fact that several of Canada's provinces are beginning to openly revolt against this whole gun registry scheme. Here's a quote:

ST. JOHN'S - The governments of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador have joined a rising chorus of voices calling on Ottawa to suspend the gun registry until the costs can be better managed.

Newfoundland Justice Minister Kelvin Parsons said the federal government should be more cautious in getting firearms registered.

"It's time to put a halt to this thing until we know where we've come from, why we've had this exorbitant cost, what remains to be done and what's the most cost-efficient manner to get there," he said.

And concludes with this interesting note:

In Alberta, three people, including a member of the legislature, have openly defied the registry, but no arrests have been made.

On Saturday, Ken Palmer, a member of the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association (LUFA), went to police in Calgary to confess his ownership of unregistered guns. Calgary police said enforcing the registry is out of their jurisdiction, and they would pass on Palmer's confession to the federal Justice Department.

LUFA wants to arrange an arrest so it can get into court and challenge the registry under the Charter.

I mention all of these examples from Canada because I think it's instructive of what would happen on a much larger scale here in the United States if such a universal gun licensing or registration plan were implemented by the Federal Government. You might want to check out what I said a few weeks ago about all of this. And scroll UP from there for more.

Anyway, I'll probably be tackling some of these articles seperately in the coming days (don't I always!) and I'm glad that one friend wrote to say he considers me one of the important clearing-houses on covering ("and correcting") all of the gun-stories out in the press. For more on the England nonsense just scroll on down; I've covered that already this week.

My blog-brother Mike Silverman is quoted in yesterday's Best of the Web. That should send his numbers soaring!

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And my blog-sister Diane at Everything Must Go is trying out a template that changes colors while you're reading. All this high-tech code I still need to learn...

As many of you know, large news disemination organizations such as Alphecca receive a veritable flood, a flood I tell you, of mail each day. One of the cuter mail clerks just delivered this letter to me:

Dear Mr. Soyer,

I know you have made numerous jokes about me and what you think is my limited intelligence. Hey, I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next air-head. Even if the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro is melting. And while I might think your sense of humor is rather juvenile, I just want you to know that there are no hard feelings on my part. And so I am enclosing this lovely publicity photo of myself for your pleasure.

Sincerely, Barbra Streisand

Thanks Babe ...er Babs.

Arthur Silber says he''s starving his cats more than I am. Oh really? I haven't fed my cats in at least an hour. I'll show you...

In their never ending quest to make sure that no "Brit" has any possible means to defend themselves from the mutant criminals running rampant in the streets, Tony Blair and his cronies want to outlaw air-guns and replica guns because they could be modified to shoot "real" bullets. From The Telegraph, here's the story:

The ban will include realistic replica guns and collectors' guns which can be reactivated to fire live bullets. A senior minister said: "We want to stamp out gun crime. The Prime Minister will announce a ban on airguns that can be rebored to fire bullets."

Tomorrow David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will announce that changes will be made to the Criminal Justice Bill to lay down a minimum sentence of five years' imprisonment for carrying an illegal weapon. He hopes this will stamp out the carrying of pistols as a "fashion accessory"...

The article seems to be blaming black gang-members but I think that is gratuitous. ANY mutant criminal of any race is going to find a way to fashion a weapon to do their evil deeds. The federal building in Oklahoma City was brought down with fertilizer. Anyway, here's the clincher:

"We are going to close all the doors we can to gun crime," said a high-ranking Home Office official.

Well, might I just make a simple suggestion here? Stop punishing the law-abiding citizens for defending themselves against these thugs! I've pointed this out before but did you know that a person who fights back against a criminal generally faces worse penalties then the thug himself? That's how sick and twisted England's laws have become.

And here's another suggestion: Give the law-abiding citizens back their ability to fend-off these attacks. Give them back their guns! One reason armed crime is so prevalent in England is that mutant criminals know their victim can't --doesn't have the means-- to fight back and defend themselves.

Is it just me? What is so hard to understand about the equation? In England, and now Australia, and here in America in N.Y., N.J., D.C., California, Maryland, etc., draconian gun control or outright bans have emboldened the criminals and resulted in HIGHER crime rates. Gun control doesn't stop crime. Criminal control does!

Thanks to Mama Bear for the heads-up. In today's column, Mark Steyn has it exactly right on what happens when a country (England) takes away its citizens' right to defend themselves. Here's a quote:

You would think if "gun control" was going to work anywhere it would be on a small island. Particularly a small island at whose ports of entry the zealots of HM Customs like nothing better than performing intimate cavity searches on the off-chance you've got an extra bottle of duty-free Beaujolais tucked away up there. Surely, if you also had a Walther PPK parked out of sight, these exhaustive inspectors would be the first to notice.

But apparently not. Since the Government's "total ban" five years ago, there are more and more guns being used by more and more criminals in more and more crimes. Now, in the wake of Birmingham's New Year bloodbath, there are calls for the total ban to be made even more total: if the gangs refuse to obey the existing laws, we'll just pass more laws for them not to obey. According to a UN survey from last month, England and Wales now have the highest crime rate of the world's 20 leading nations. One can query the methodology of the survey while still recognising the peculiar genius by which British crime policy has wound up with every indicator going haywire - draconian gun control plus vastly increased gun violence plus stratospheric property crime.

And:

The gangs on Birmingham's streets instinctively understand this. They know, even if the Government doesn't, that the Blairite "total" ban, which sounds so butch and macho when you do your soundbite on the telly, is a cop-out: it makes the general population the target, not the criminals. And once that happens it's always easier to hassle the cranky farmer with the unlicensed shotgun than the Yardies with the Uzis. When you disarm the citizenry, when you prosecute them for being so foolish as to believe they have a right to self-defence, when you issue warnings that they should "walk on by" if they happen to see a burglary or rape in progress, the main beneficiaries will obviously be the criminals. Aston is the logical reductio of British policing: rival bad guys with state-of-the-art hardware, a cowed populace, and a remote constabulary tucked up in bed with the answering machine on.

Isn't this what I've been ranting about here at Alphecca for the last three months? Do you mind if I make a slightly egotistical recommendation? If you're new to Alphecca, please take a moment to check out my thoughts on gun control at these archived posts: Here and here and here and here.

Or better yet, take some time to read through all of my archives, it won't take that long and I think most of you will nod-in-agreement with what I think on this issue. So many folks cruise by here just long enough to catch my sound-bites and never really explore Alphecca to see what it's all about. To know me is to love me...

I don't sugar but I certainly love my maple syrup. Never mind how much better it is on pancakes and waffles then the corn syrup sold in grocery stores, have you ever had a fresh danish with maple-glaze? Maple ice cream? Maple cotton-candy?

Now granted, almost everyone alive knows Vermont is famous for its maple syrup. Anyway, the state's sugarers are considering (and at least it is being left up to them) a tax on syrup and taps to fund a marketing program. from Susan Smallheer (this is the second story of hers I've quoted in two weeks) of the Times-Argus, here's the story:

PUTNEY ã Vermont's maple producers will be asked this summer whether to beef up promotion of their product and adopt a marketing tax on sugarmakers and retailers alike.

Jacques Couture, president of the Vermont Sugarmakers Association, outlined the plan to Windham County sugarmakers who gathered at the Putney School on Friday for their annual Vermont Maple School. Other schools are being held around the state.

Couture, a sugarmaker and dairy farmer from Westfield, said the plan under consideration would raise about $200,000, which would be used to hire marketing experts to promote Vermont maple.

I have no opinion on this, and probably shouldn't. But check out the whole article because there's some interesting discussion on this as well as other trivia about the industry. I will continue to do my part here at Alphecca headquarters to use and promote Vermont products.