Food seller prosecuted for not using metric system

If you want to know what looms if Bush succeeds in surrendering America's sovereignty to his proposed North American Union, look no further than this story from Britain.

In a working-class London neighborhood, a 63-year-old woman who scrapes together a modest living by running a tiny produce stall is now being prosecuted because (horrors!) she sells food by the pound instead of using the metric system. That's because in jolly old England people use pounds and ounces. Where folks use pounds, it's mighty wise to sell stuff by the pound. But the woman faces a litany of criminal charges for daring to use her own country's measurement system.

Why? Because the European Union - a practitioner of rule by decree - has barked down an order that merchants in all its member nations must go metric. That's why police came to her produce stand and confiscated the scales she used to weigh food.

The veggie stand owner may now be fined $10,000 for each count. "It would ruin me," she said. (Yeah, I know: The magic word!) It's already forced her to cancel a trip to New York, because selling food by the pound gave her a criminal record that's made foreign travel harder (although she hasn't been convicted yet).

This isn't even the first time something like this has happened. In a win for metric imperialism several years ago, 4 other food stall owners (including the woman's brother) were busted for failing to use the metric system. They got a conditional discharge, which meant no more action is taken against them as long as they buckled under.

I guess this is to be expected under the EU, for it was the EU that extradited an author to Greece because he wrote a humor book that allegedly violated Greek blasphemy laws. But back in the U.S. and A., forced metrication has been a goal of Big Business for decades - though it would hurt small merchants and the average worker. Anyone involved in international trade has the tools to convert between measurement systems - so there's no point in forcing the general public to give up its measurements.

The greater issue though is that metric imperialism enforced through zealous prosecutions is likely what's going to happen if the U.S. is drawn into an EU-like organization. It was the elder Bush that made the biggest step towards imposing the metric system on an unwilling American public. Although this move was halted by Bill Clinton, it may not matter once the U.S. gives up its self-rule to some larger body that exists to serve Big Business.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120097109796805629.html)