John Sturman wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Has anyone heard about the guy who was fined by the Texas Dept. of
> Agriculture for recommending Mite Solution over the Internet?  At a
 
John -
 
I have this article from a few months back that makes mention of it.
You
might try contacting the writer for more info.  It's Copyrighted so I
have
to include the tag.  So long George!
 
 
----------------------------------------------
 
Subject:
               Imaginary Gardens - October 22, 1997
     Date:
               Wed, 22 Oct 1997 11:54:09
     From:
               Richard Thieme <[log in to unmask]>
         To:
               [log in to unmask]
 
 
Free at Last? Not!
by Richard Thieme
 
 
Declan McCullagh, a writer for the Netly News, wrote recently of
a beekeeper who advised others on Prodigy to get rid of parasites
in the hive by mixing Mavrik with water and spraying the bottom
of the hive. The Texas Department of Agriculture promptly charged
him with violating a state law banning unapproved discussions of
bee medicines and fined him $600.
 
That, says McCullagh, violates his right to free speech.
 
It also shows how quickly we can clamp down on the kind of
environment that fosters creativity, needing to stamp out freedom
and spontaneity in order to feel safe.
 
We have all been in conversations in which the narrowest thinker
in the room -- the one with the least ability to be flexible, the
one terrified of life outside a rigid construction of reality --
succeeds in defining the parameters of the conversation. The
person threatened most, hollers first. Others, at various places
along the spectrum of flexibility, try to negotiate, but the
Rigid One can't. The only job the fixed foot of the compass knows
is how to stay stuck.
 
Those who use the Myers Briggs Temperament Indicator -- a kind of
thinking person's astrology chart -- will recognize the ends of
the spectrum as "P" (who hates to foreclose options) and "J" (who
writhes in pain if they don't have closure.)
 
Obviously I'm a "P." But there's more evidence for openness than
that.
 
Experiments in artificial life indicate that the flow of
information inside a system is maximized just on the edge of
chaos, where we lean into our freedom like sailors hiking in a
strong breeze.
 
And chaos theory indicates that the most functional systems are
open, evolving, and free.
 
My intention for today? To vote for open and free, trusting the
process to clarify what works -- in relationships, on the
Internet, in the world.
 
 
 
 
********************************************************************
 
Imaginary Gardens is a daily reflection on techno/spirituality --
the interaction between ourselves, computer technology, and the
ultimate concerns of our lives.
 
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Imaginary Gardens and the weekly column, Islands in the
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Copyright 1997 Richard Thieme. All rights reserved.
 
*********************************************************************
--
Barry Birkey
West Chicago, Illinois  USA
[log in to unmask]
http://www.birkey.com