But as a practical matter, retailers are interested in applying the standards nationally.

For lead in children's jewelry and products in general, there is no binding federal law to prohibit it.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has an advisory (on maximum lead content), and they can get a recall from the manufacturer. But it's an after-the-fact policy.

People think the earth is going to die and they have to save it. That's ridiculous. If you rid the earth of flowering plants, people would die, period. But the earth was without flowering plants for almost all of its history.

Politicians need a better understanding of global ecology. We need to be freed from our species-specific arrogance. No evidence exists that we are 'chosen', the unique species for which all the others were made. Nor are we the most important one because we are so numerous, powerful and dangerous.

Everybody knows what a caterpillar is, and it doesn't look anything like a butterfly.