Shirley Manson wants the pigs to go free

Here's a headline you don't expect to see:

Shirley Manson Urges Wisconsin Church to Cancel Pig Wrestling Event

St. Patrick’s Parish in Stephensville is planning to have a pig "wrestling" competition.

They say it's wrestling. I think when we were kids, we all used the "hey, let's wrestle" line when we were interested in the grappling more than the sport, but the church do seem firm that they're interested in fighting, and not merely trying to find cover to allow themselves to get close contact with pigs in a socially acceptable way.

Joking aside, it's premium asshole behaviour:

“I am so disturbed to learn from my friends at The Humane Society of the United States that St. Patrick’s Parish is planning a contest in which pigs are punched in the face, kicked, body-slammed, jumped on, and thrown into a bucket. Pigs are exceptionally intelligent animals who deserve to be treated with love and care.

“Wisconsin has a special place in my heart since my band Garbage got its start there. We are better than this unnecessary and abusive activity. Please cancel the Roundup Pig Rassle immediately and permanently.”

And what does the church make of this request that perhaps they don't want to punch pigs in the face?

They've gone with the "it's not against the law and we've done it for years" defence:

St. Patrick Parish, located in Stephensville, Wis., will be hosting its 44th Annual Roundup Days this coming weekend. Event activities include Mass, dinner, parade, raffles and a live band. As part of these activities is an event called the Pig Rassle.

Pig wrestling, also known as a rassle or wrasslin', is an event that is held in various places throughout the United States. Individuals or teams are given the task to place a pig at a designated location. The challenge is typically set within a fenced area containing water and mud. The Pig Rassle is not unique to St. Patrick Parish and has taken place for many years at county fairs and other community events.

The Roundup Days have taken place for more than 40 years, and the Pig Rassle has been part of this event for several of those years. Consideration is taken to ensure that the pigs are safe and free from any abuse. After consultation with local authorities, it has been determined that there is no illegality associated with this event. St. Patrick Parish does not condone animal abuse.

Thanks to all who are helping the parish to address this situation. Greatly appreciated.

Yes, that's a Catholic Church who are shrugging and saying 'we're not going to worry about whether something is moral, so long as it's traditional and we won't go to prison.

I can't pretend to understand religion, but your statement on the pig punching party you're throwing does suggest all that's wrong with it.

Not a thought about what's ethical, not a thought about what's kind, not a thought about the right thing to do. Just a ass-covering justification.

And this abandonment of a chance of moral leadership is so they can be cruel to pigs. Hard to believe Catholicism is in decline, isn't it?

There is power in a union

In the face of the attempts to return to slavery disguised as budget balancing in Wisconsin, Steve Earle is dedicating his Sirius show as a show of support this weekend:

"I got this soapbox on Saturday nights, and I'm going to climb up on it and holler," Earle tells Spinner. "This is important. Collective bargaining for working people is a fundamental component of democracy, and we can't afford to let it slip away."

At a rather more sharp edge of things, Tom Morello is in the state made of cheese:

A nice lady at the airport looked at my guitar and politely asked, "Why are you going to Madison, young man?" I replied, "Because they're making history in Madison, ma'am. And I don't want to miss it."

So I flew to Chicago with Wayne Kramer (of the legendary MC5) only to find that all the flights to Madison had been cancelled due to a big winter storm. But neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor dark of night can keep The Nightwatchman from his appointed task. My good friend and fellow musician from Libertyville, Illinois, Ike Reilly, picked us up at the airport and together with our small crew of rabble-rousers we began the precarious journey up I-90 through the storm.

There doesn't seem to be much else in the way of musical rallying-round, though - or perhaps it's just not getting reported that deeply?

Polka News Network: User-friendly polka fest

Oh, Grammy organisers, claiming the world has turned its back on polka, how do you explain the need for the Central Wisconsin Polka Club's 36th annual festival to take larger space?

About 500 to 700 people on average come from all over the state and the Midwest to attend the festival, which starts at 6 p.m. Friday and runs through Sunday at Merrill's Smith Center.

The club moved its festival from the fairgrounds to the large room inside the Smith Center to make the event more "user-friendly," said Tim Baumann, the club's president.

In previous years, dancers would have to move from one building to another, which was especially burdensome when it rained, Baumann said.

Polka: impervious to the slings and arrows of Grammy organisers. And now also to rain.

Selling second hand CDs? What are you, some kind of terrorist?

The record industry has been grumbling about the second hand CD market for years now - all those discs, being sold legitimately, and they're not seeing a red cent from them. Trouble is, people have always had the right to sell their own property, should they wish, so flogging your old records has always been legal.

That's starting to change, reports Scientific American. New laws in Florida and Wisconsin, and planned for other states, is making the current system of selling your discs (queue up, bloke goes through your offered records into three mysterious piles, picks up the smallest of the three and says he'll give you a heartbreakingly small sum of money) a little more complex:

In Florida, the new legislation requires all stores buying second-hand merchandise for resale to apply for a permit and file security in the form of a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In addition, stores would be required to thumb-print customers selling used CDs, and acquire a copy of state-issued identity documents such as a driver's license. Furthermore, stores could issue only store credit -- not cash -- in exchange for traded CDs, and would be required to hold discs for 30 days before reselling them.

Yep, in Florida, you can't offload that double copy of B*Witched's Relax and Breathe without having your dabs taken. Clearly, this is a lot more effort than its worth - both for the store, forced to hold the records for a month before they can sell them (what is that, quarantine? To check they've not got cooties?) - and for the seller, who can no longer turn his unwanted discs into vodka, cigarettes or rent.

Second hand stores are already having trouble competing with plummeting CD prices and eBay; the inability to buy stock for cold hard cash could make it harder for them to attract stuff people might want to buy. The second hand CD industry is one of the shining, successful lights of recycling - so why would anyone seek to kill it?