First question: what is a fruit?
Answer: the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a flowering plant, enclosing the seed or seeds.
Second question: what is a vegetable?
Answer: Here it gets a tad more complicated. Vegetables are usually classified on the basis of the part of the plant that is used for food. The root vegetables include beets, carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes, and turnips. Stem vegetables include asparagus and kohlrabi. Among the edible tubers, or underground stems, are potatoes. The leaf and leafstalk vegetables include brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery, lettuce, rhubarb, and spinach. Among the bulb vegetables are garlic, leeks, and onions. The head, or flower, vegetables include artichokes, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Third question: What is a fish?
Answer: a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal with gills and fins and living wholly in water:
Fourth question: What is a honeybee?
Answer: a stinging winged insect that collects nectar and pollen, produces wax and honey, and lives in large communities. It was domesticated for its honey around the end of the Neolithic period and is usually kept in hives.
Final question: what is catsup? (sp?)
Answer: a smooth sauce made chiefly from tomatoes and vinegar, used as a condiment.
What do these things have to do with one another?
[Jonathan H. Adler] A Bee May Be A Fish (At Least in California) [Updated]
California Court Rules That Bees Are Fish
A BUMBLEBEE NEEDS FINS LIKE A FISH NEEDS A…: “It takes 35 pages of tortured logic in an opinion that reads like a parody, but the court concludes that bumblebees indeed are fish within the meaning of California’s environmental laws. I take it that all other insects, by the court’s logic, are also fish. I cite this decision as a warning to those who repose faith in our courts to check the excesses of the political branches. See also: Michael Sussman.”
The left enjoys launching into paroxysms of laughter claiming that Reagan claimed ketchup was a vegetable. (Announcers voice: “He didn’t.”) It goes back to 1893. It started with congressional action and ended up in Nix vs Hedden. The Court’s unanimous opinion held that the Tariff Act of 1883 used the ordinary meaning of the words “fruit” and “vegetable,” instead of the technical botanical meaning. Fast forward to the 1980’s and the Depts of Agriculture and Education decided that since tomatoes were botanically a fruit but ordinarily considered a vegetable then products made predominately FROM them could also be considered vegetables, those “solving” some school lunch problems.” Probably not a great idea but typical of governmental pretzel-tying to solve a problem.
Enter California which has now defined insects as fish for environmental protection.
<face palm>
Checking the Fridge for Leftovers 