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A cat in Tasburgh, England, has become relatively famous for his peculiar cuisine choices; he refuses to eat meat. Since his owner Becky Page rescued the starved kitten from an alley two years ago, she has only been able to get him to eat fruits and vegetables. Cat experts are befuddled by this vegetarian feline, but kitty Dante may not be so strange after all. Perhaps Dante is simply a genetic throwback to the days before the Flood and a precursor to what carnivores will be like in the Millennium.

After Becky Page, 21, brought home little Dante two years ago, she proceeded to try to fatten him on chicken and fish and tuna. Dante just turned up his nose at the stuff. Instead, he chowed down on a dish of leftover vegetables he found near her kitchen garbage. Now Dante only eats fruits and vegetables, which Page raises herself. He won't touch canned cat food.

Dante's tastes go beyond mere finicky feline syndrome; he simply should not exist. Cats do not usually have the choice to go vegan because they are obligate carnivores.  That is, they must eat meat to survive. Felines have a high protein requirement, and they need certain nutrients like taurine and cobalamin (Vitamin B12) which come from meat. Cats are the only mammals incapable of synthesizing the organic acid taurine and must obtain it from animal flesh or supplements. Without sufficient taurine, cats can eventually lose hair and teeth, develop heart disease, and go blind. While meat is its best source, Vitamin B12 can also be found in eggs and milk, and is necessary for the healthy functioning of the brain and nervous system.  A cat simply cannot thrive on a vegan diet.

Dante is therefore an aberration in the Cat Family. "I admit he has a very, very unique appetite," Page acknowledged, "but he's certainly healthy."

Sarah Medway, who runs a web site dedicated to cat behavior, said "I have never heard of a purely vegetarian cat. Nutritionally cats need to eat meat to survive.”

Yet, Dante is not absolutely alone. Many years ago, Georges and Margaret Westbeau of western Washington adopted a newborn lioness they named Little Tyke. When it was time to wean her, the Westbeaus were surprised that the growing cub refused to eat meat. She'd reject milk if it had even a drop of blood in it

At first, the Westbeaus were deeply concerned because Little Tyke absolutely would not touch meat. For four years they tried every which way to get protein down her in the form of flesh, and she would not accept it. Then one day somebody said to them, "Don't you read your Bible? Read Genesis 1:30, and you will get your answer."

"And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." -Gen 1:30

That verse helped the Westbeaus to stop worrying. They fed Little Tyke various grains, milk and eggs – a diet she thrived on. The milk and eggs would have provided Little Tyke with some of the B12 she needed, but not the taurine. Yet, Little Tyke lived strong and healthy for years. She would go out into the field and chew on grass stalks every day to condition her stomach. She also had no predatory nature, and lived in peace with the chickens and sheep and peafowl and kittens on the Westbeaus' ranch. A famous picture was taken one day when a lamb, Becky, curled up between Little Tyke's front paws, bringing to mind the picture from Isaiah 11:6-7:

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." - Isaiah 11:6-7

Dante and Little Tyke are not freaks of nature; they are reminders of how nature was meant to be.  The world at the Creation looked quite a bit different than it does today. Thousands of years of genetic deterioration have left all creatures with bodies prone to illness and disease and early death. It isn't the same world in which Adam died a young man at 930 years. The Flood apparently changed a lot of things. Lifespans split in half after the Flood, and after the Flood God gave man permission to eat meat (Genesis 9:2-3). We don't know all that changed and weakened during that time, between animal bodies and the nutrients found in plant life.

Cats may not have originally needed meat to survive. Certainly saber-toothed tigers used their massive teeth to rip through the flesh of their prey, yet God's original purpose for those sabers might have been something far more peaceful, like splitting open melons. (If your cat adores cantaloupe, you know what I mean.)

The picture Isaiah 11 paints of the Millennium is of a world that has returned to Eden. Jesus will be ruling, and things will be as they should. The wolves and lions will dwell peacefully with lambs. No wild animals will do damage. Humans will once again live to be great ages (Isaiah 65:20-25).

We are not there, yet, but kitties like Little Tyke and Dante give us the tiniest breath of that fresh air, a whiff of the loveliness that will once again fill the earth once the Son of David takes the throne.   Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Pro-choice activists are pleased with new studies that have come out – not on abortion, but on school vouchers. In the world of education, "choice" means giving children the opportunity to escape their failing public schools and instead attend the school of their choosing. While school choice has been railed against by those who favor pumping more money into poorly performing state schools, studies of voucher programs in two different cities have demonstrated marked improvements in students' educations and have given a boost to the "pro-choice" crowd.

Milwaukee:
Milwaukee is home to the nation's first urban school voucher program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), which was started in 1990 as an effort to give students a way out of the city's dismal public school system. As of the 2007-2008 school year, the program had an enrollment of 19,069 students in 124 private schools. Fifty-eight charter schools operate in Milwaukee, with an enrollment of 17,549 students last year, and those students who remain in the public schools have plenty of choice about which public schools they attend. In March 2009, The School Choice Demonstration Project(SCDP) released their newest reports on the effectiveness of Milwaukee's school choice efforts, as part of a five-year study that started in 2006. So far, the SCDP has concluded that school choice is benefiting the students who attend private schools, the students who remain in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), and even the taxpayers.

The SCDP studies cover a number of areas. They not only measure the improvements in student test scores, but look at things like the fiscal impact of the voucher program, parent and student satisfaction, and even how school choice has affected housing prices in Milwaukee. Some conclusions from the 2009 report include:

-The MCPC saves the state money because MCPC students cost less to educate than MPS students. In 2009, Wisconsin is expected to save more than $37 million because paying for vouchers to send a student to a private school is less expensive than educating that same child in a public school. There is still a funding flaw in the system however. Property tax payers outside of Milwaukee have saved $52 million because of the MCPC program, but Milwaukee residents pay $45 million more.

-On average, MCPC students in the 8th grade score higher than their MPS peers in 2 out of 3 subjects, which is interesting because they score lower than their MPS peers in the 4th grade. This would make sense if the children are pulled out of public schools at a young age because they are doing poorly and then improve during the next few years. The performance of MCPC 10th graders is also higher than the performance of students in 4th and 8th grades when compared to national averages. It is also important to note that MCPC students at a few specific private schools score significantly higher than the average school in the city.

-School choice has been shown to improve boys' reading skills. The growth for MCPC boys was 6.4 scale score points higher than the MPS boys. However, girls' reading grew 5.2 points higher in the MPS.

-Comparing MCPC students to their peers in the public schools does not tell the entire story, because school choice has also improved public school test scores as well. Public school achievement has improved by 6.7 Normal Curve Equivalent(NCE) points during the past 20 years during the period of school choice. Increased competition may be one reason. Another reason might be the lighter burden on the public schools. The choice program has proved "a rising tide that has lifted all boats."   It's a small tide, but significant for an inner city.

Washington DC:
Meanwhile, the US Department of Education recently released a report on the relatively new DC Opportunity Scholarship program, the first federally funded voucher program in the US. The report found that students who had taken advantage of the voucher program were an average of 3 months ahead of their public school peers in reading, but the two groups performed about equally in math. Prior years' analysis showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups. This means that as time has gone on, the voucher children are certainly not doing worse, and many are doing much better.

Republican Congressman have called for reauthorization of the voucher program, which was killed recently, declaring the recent studies evidence that school choice helps struggling children achieve. "The U.S. Department of Education has confirmed what we've been saying all along—when parents are given a choice, and children are able to attend safer, higher-performing schools, achievement and satisfaction will rise," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, in a statement.

The DC voucher program is only a few years old at this time. During the 2008-2009 school year, just over 1,715 students are attending 49 non-public schools through the program. These students come from the low income families who make an average of $22,736 per year. In Washington DC especially, that's poverty. Yet, school choice has been making a difference. If the program is not reauthorized, 1700 kids will be sent back to public schools where they were floundering.

There are many things involved in kids' success beyond simply the school they attend. Home lives, peer-pressure, stability and, ultimately, an appreciation for their value in the eyes of God are all factors to take into consideration. Yet, while the average child is doing better with school choice, these scholarship programs have made all the difference in the world to other kids. As one mother, Victoria Owens, wrote to The Washington Post:

"My sons Anthony and Antone have attended Ambassador Baptist Church Christian School for the past four years. When they started, they had problems in math, speech and focusing -- but now they are doing wonderfully. Their grades have improved, and Anthony even helps the younger students with their math. I am able to be much more involved in their education, and I love volunteering at the school. "

Offering kids and their parents another option than union-run public schools can only be helpful to them. We wait to see how future studies turn out.

The Ides of April approach, and procrastinating tax payers scramble to gather their financial documents at the behest of Uncle Sam. In the meanwhile, groups gather across the nation to throw "tea parties" in the spirit of the one at Boston in 1773. This time, the protest is not over taxation without representation; it's about planned massive amounts of government spending and the enslavement of future generations. It's about the government's using US tax dollars to bail out foolish investors and big corporations where the very people who messed up walk away with millions of dollars.

For Americans, a "tea party" is a cheerful idea. It brings to mind the great glory of a bunch of grown men dressing up like Indians to toss the East India Company's tea into Boston Harbor. It's the fleshing out of a great "Huzzah!" to standing up against mad taxation and unfair political decisions. It bellows out a love for freedom and for self-government. On April 15th, tea parties will be all the rage.

The current tea party enthusiasm started back in February, when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, made his now-famous speech from the floor of Chicago's CME Group, the world's largest futures exchange. During his rant against the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, Santelli accused the government of rewarding bad behavior. "How many of you want to pay your neighbors mortgage…?" he asked.

"…I'm thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July," Santelli said, "All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm gonna start organizing."

"What are you dumping in this time?" asked Rebecca Quick.

"I think we're going to be dumping in some derivative securities."

The people at their jobs on the CME Group floor were not the only ones to cheer in agreement with Santelli's sentiments. The tea party idea has resonated with millions of Americans. The upcoming tea party events are grassroots movements of normal Americans who don't like the direction America is going, and don't want their children and grandchildren suffering under America's rapidly mounting national debt.

Is it unfair to protest? Do government officials have much choice in the decisions they're making? Don't they have to make these hard calls to keep the economy from plunging? Don't they have to honor contracts to pay bonuses to these big corporation execs?

The tea partiers don't think so.

The men at Boston didn't care that the Tea Act didn't actually add a new tax on tea; it just gave a tax break to the East India Company, and actually allowed the price of tea to drop. But, the Tea Act remained an effort by Britain to keep control of the colonies, to maintain their strict authority and tyrannical rule over the Americans. It was the principle of the thing.

What Wednesday's tea parties will actually accomplish is uncertain. Protestors can't really dump derivatives into any body of water. They can't undo the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan or at least get the government to give foreclosed homes to people who, as Rick Santelli put it, "might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water."

Or. Maybe they can. Maybe America's problem all along has been an apathy, a sense that "nothing I do matters." The tea parties show that Americans do care, that there are millions willing to try to change things and turn the country for the best. They demonstrate that hope still resides in America's heart.

The biggest issue, of course, is not tea, and it's not even government bailouts and corporate bonuses and massive spending bills. The biggest issue is the heart of Americans, and what we truly rely on. We hope that, while they are at these tea parties, those Americans who love Jesus take the time to get on their knees for the nation. If our hearts are in good condition, it won't matter so much what our stock portfolios look like.  And if it's truly In God We Trust, we need to put Him first. The mighty dollar obviously will not save us; it's value is sinking just like the sand under a incoming tide. Christ is the only solid rock on which we can stand.

Dressing up like Indians and drowning tea, though.... that's still a lot of fun.  Huzzah America!