Mercury Seven minus 1

RIP Wally Shirra

SAN DIEGO — Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., who as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts combined the Right Stuff _ textbook-perfect flying ability and steely nerves _ with a pronounced rebellious streak, died Thursday at 84.

He was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA's original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Although he never walked on the moon, Schirra laid some of the groundwork that made the lunar landings possible and won the space race for the United States.

[snip]

In one of his last interviews, last month with The Associated Press, Schirra said he was struck by the fragility of Earth and the lack of borders.

"I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth," he said.

We're not doing so hot on your request Wally but we will really try and do better. -FM

Hillary Steps Up the Pressure?

This is interesting. Hillary says she and Byrd of West Virgina are going to introduce legislation to force Bush's hand. With Byrd on her side this makes it real and not a political or campaign stunt. I will be the first say hooray if she follows through and actually does

Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush — and her Democratic rivals — over the Iraq war.

Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.

"If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him," Clinton said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Business 101 Revisited

It was only the end of March when Circuit City announced this brilliant decision and I weighed in on what a bad idea it was. Didn't take long to start hitting the old bottom line.

Circuit City's Job Cuts Backfiring, Analysts Say

Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, saying it needed to hire cheaper workers to shore up its bottom line. Now, the Richmond electronics retailer says it expects to post a first-quarter loss next month, and analysts are blaming the job cuts.

The company, which on Monday also revised its outlook for the first half of its fiscal year ending Feb. 29, 2008, cited poor sales of large flat-panel and projection televisions. Analysts said Circuit City had cast off some of its most experienced and successful people and was losing business to competitors who have better-trained employees.

"I think even though sales were soft in March, this is clearly why April sales were worse. They were replaced with less knowledgeable associates," said Tim Allen, an analyst with Jefferies & Co.

In particular, the televisions showing disappointing results are "intensive sales" requiring more informed employees, Allen said. "It's a big-ticket purchase for somebody. And if they feel like they're not getting the right advice or are being misled by someone who doesn't know, it would be definitely frustrating. They will take their business elsewhere."

I wonder if the the geniuses who decided that customers didn't want someone knowledgeable and experienced to explain big ticket electronic items to them before they pay big bucks still has a job? Any idiot off the street can sell electronics, isn't that right? Payback was pretty decisive and quick on this smart move wasn't it.

Hang Tough Dems

Do you think Russ Feingold reads this blog? Just joking, but it sure looks we are thinking alike in what to do now that Bush as shown America what he thinks of us.

The ink on the President's veto is barely dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders - including some Democrats -- are saying Congress should just give in to the President. Never mind how hard people have pushed to bring Congress to this point, when we are finally standing up to the President's disastrous Iraq policy -- they want to give up on the binding language in the bill requiring the President to begin redeploying troops from Iraq. But that's just letting the President have his way all over again. That's the kind of thinking that got us into this war in the first place, and it's not going to cut it anymore.

We can't keep giving in to this Administration on Iraq. Every time the Administration gets its way, it means that our troops will remain stuck in the middle of Iraq's civil war, and our national security will continue to be undermined. With so many Americans demanding that our involvement in this war come to an end, backing down is not the answer. No one else should die in Iraq to give political comfort to dealmakers in Washington....

The next step to ending the war isn't to give in, but to step up the pressure on the President. I'm pleased to be working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a bill to end our open-ended military commitment in Iraq. Now that the President has rejected the will of the American people with this veto, our bill, or some other proposal to end funding for a failed policy, should be the next step to end the war.

Russ Feingold is absolutely correct in this. Democrats need to hang tough, particularly to the deadline set in Feingold-Reid--the deadline recommended by the Iraq Study Group--for a withdrawal of troops by March 31, 2008. Bush is holding all of us hostage to his failure in Iraq most especially the troops on the ground in Iraq. Congress must not let him have his way. It would make the disaster of Iraq even more tragic.

Good Bee News?

Some possible good news on the bees. The cause of Colony Collapse Disorder still isn't clear but this represents some progress. This is a serious problem that is getting way too little coverage in the MSM.

A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, UC San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.

Researchers have been struggling for months to explain the disorder, and the new findings provide the first solid evidence pointing to a potential cause.

But the results are “highly preliminary” and are from only a few hives from Le Grand in Merced County, UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi said. “We don’t want to give anybody the impression that this thing has been solved.”

Keep your fingers crossed.

Compromise What?

Updated below:

Last night, an AP story reported that President Bush is now willing to sit down with Democrats to discuss a “compromise” on the next Iraq supplemental appropriations bill. The bill the Congress will presumably send him after he vetoes the one they just passed that fully funds the troops. He's not saying how he’d compromise, and since he has ruled out a timetable for withdrawal we can only speculate as to what Bush would give up.

Things seem to be changing in Washington but not nearly fast enough for my taste. Republican’s are threatening to turn against the war by September. If we use the April death toll as our benchmark of 104 soldiers losing their lives then by September 400 plus more will have sacrificed themselves for nothing. How do the Republicans, who continue to back their failed, incompetent President and his despicable Vice President, rationalize these casualty forecasts; what do they think could happen by September that could possibly justify these hundreds of lives before they they finally ask Bush for accountability?

To restate a previous post. I think the time has come to pull the plug on this disaster once and for all. If Bush vetoes the current supplemental spending bill then don't compromise on anything just pull the plug.

Update: Thanks to Jim DeRosa at DeRosaWorld I see that the Iraq Parliament is going to take a couple of months of vacation. This just adds to the absurdity of staying in Iraq any longer than it takes to get everybody the hell out. By getting everybody out I mean our troops in uniform. The contractors that have been profiting so handsomely from this adventure can figure out how to use some of their blood money to get their own asses out.

Vegetarian Anyone?

Every day now it becomes more and more imperative that I reconsider returning to a vegetarian diet. The problem is that I like meat. I don't really eat that much meat but when I think of giving up glorious crisp bacon for breakfast or a succulent BBQ'd pork rib on a lazy Sunday afternoon I get weak. I am a very good vegetarian cook and I regularly have meatless meatless meals. I don't have to have meat with every meal or even everyday but there are sometimes when it is the only thing that will satisfy. I hate being forced into doing something more than anything.

I am already resigned to the fact that pork should be out of the diet for a while and now it appears the chicken supply is compromised as well by melamine-tainted feed. Jeebus!

The U.S. government said on Monday 38 poultry farms in Indiana were given contaminated feed containing melamine in early February, with some of the animals likely to have entered the food supply.

The Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration said in a joint statement that officials learned of the link between the chicken feed and tainted pet food as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain the industrial chemical melamine and related compounds.

The affected poultry farms and breeder poultry farms fed the contaminated feed to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received tainted feed, they added.

All the broilers believed to have been fed contaminated products have been processed, while the breeders are under voluntary hold by flock owners, the agencies said.

Birds that were given the contaminated feed will not be allowed to enter the U.S. food supply. Farmers will be compensated if they destroy the birds that consume the feed.

The agencies also said there was a “low-risk” to humans and no food recalls were expected at this time. They are uncertain how many chickens were involved, how many entered the food supply or where they went.

Let's review that one more time just to make sure we understand. Melamine isn't allowed in animal feed in the U.S. and it is causing kidney failure in mammals, but the FDA is saying that while there have been no studies on melamine's effects in humans you are not supposed to be concerned and just go about your business...nothing to see here.

At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from these animals is being issued. Testing and the joint investigation continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken.

I'll helpfully translate the above into plain English.

We have absolutely no idea of the effect of melamine in food but we are willing to allow the big industrial meat processors to continue supply it in your food since their profits come first. If we see too many of you getting sick and dying from things like kidney failure then we will consider recalling some meat or something. Work for you?

h/t to Brillaint at Breakfast for the links

Another Milestone

May 1st, 2003

It was four years ago today that the Idiot in Chief stood on the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln and declared that "major military operations have ended in Iraq".

The reality is that April 2007 was the deadliest month for Americans so far this year.

Bring them home now.

Acting Locally

Barbara Kingsolver has an article in this month's Mother Jones magazine (sorry the article is not available online). She is a terrific writer and I have enjoyed everything of hers that I have read. The article talks about her experiences in growing tomatoes and vegetables in Southwest Virginia and also links into her experiences with the Appalachian Sustainable Development non-profit that works to help organic farmers in a 10 county area in Virginia and Tennessee market their produce under the brand name "Appalachian Harvest". It really is quite a success story for the possibility of "acting locally". Last year they sold over 370,000 dollars worth of locally produced and organic produce to markets in the region. She does cover the dark side of the business as well. In 2005 when the co-op had a record crop of tomatoes ready for market truckloads of organic tomatoes produced in California by big industrial growers also hit the market at a couple of dollars cheaper than those of the Appalachian farmers. The net result is the local farmers had to "dump their product for free to local charities and the like and took a big loss. You wonder how the California produce could possibly be cheaper, considering the cost of shipping all the way across country, when Barbara reveals that under current laws the transportation costs are tax deductible for the big industrial farmers. The net effect is that the American taxpayers wound up footing the bill. With the advantages of scale and cheap farm labor the California guys win the game and all the rest of us lose. If you happen to see the magazine somewhere it is worth the price for this article alone plus, as always, MoJo is always a good read.

Barbara Kingsolver has a new book coming out tomorrow Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life being released tomorrow. I ordered mine today. It is a collaboration with her husband and daughter and the pre-release reviews are good.

Salon:

Barbara Kingsolver published her first work of advocacy journalism at age 9, when her Op-Ed, "Why We Need a New Elementary School," helped pass a local school bond. She put writing aside to get a master's degree in evolutionary biology, which led to a job as a science writer, which led to a career as a freelance journalist. Journalism led to fiction; the rest is history.

"The Bean Trees," Kingsolver's first novel, was published in 1988 to great acclaim. With 2 million copies sold, it remains in print. Eleven others followed; all told, Kingsolver's titles have sold 7 million copies. Few American writers have managed to so seamlessly merge their radical politics and commercial success. "If we can't, as artists, improve on real life," Kingsolver says, "we should put down our pencils and go bake bread." Indeed, in her new book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life," she does both.

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, part cookbook, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is co-authored by Kingsolver's environmental scientist husband, Steven Hopp, and their then-19-year-old daughter, Camille. Together they tell the story of the year the family spent eating only food produced on or near their southwest Virginia farm. The central narrative rings with Kingsolver's characteristic biting humor; Hopp's sidebars focus on the industry and science of food production. Camille's passionate essays, informed by youthful idealism and by her sharp intelligence, also include meal plans and recipes.

I know I am going to like it.

More Truth about Melamine in Our Food Supply

Well, well, well The New York Times has picked up this story finally! It seems that only because of the the recent highlighting of the pet deaths here in the U.S. that anyone at the FDA even cared about melamine in protein supplements coming from China. Even more serious is that, evidently, this has been going on for years!

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly
supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive
that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any
nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural
workers here.
“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as
fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui
Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on
it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing
it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there
won’t be any regulation.”
Melamine is at the center of a recall of 60 million
packages of pet food, after the chemical was found in wheat gluten linked this
month to the deaths of at least 16 pets and the illness of possibly thousands of
pets in the United States.

So this has been going on for years and we now know that not only do the dogs and cats get this stuff but that pet food "salvage" routinely goes to hogs and chickens in this country. What does that tell you? You guessed it...there is probably a good chance that any pork and chicken you may have been consuming in the past who knows how many years was potentially contaminated as well.
And now we learn that the FDA is going to take a hands off and wait and see if anyone dies from this pork before we do anything. This is the same team that told everyone that melamine was no problem for animals, now saying that there is no need for a pork recall after tainted pork entered the food supply in the U.S.

"At this time, we have no evidence of harm to humans associated with the
processed pork product, and therefore no recall of meat products processed from
these animals is being issued," the Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture
Department said in a joint statement."Testing and the joint investigation
continue. If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the
appropriate action will be taken,"

I guess the logic here is that they know we all have been eating this crap for years and nobody was the wiser so why make such a big deal out of it? Sounds good to me.

Update: McJoan at DKos has more as does Goldy at HorsesAss

Old Fashioned Cukes and Onions

Hope everyone else has had a nice and relaxing weekend. I succumbed today to the devil in the back of my head that has been telling me since my bad experience with BBQ ribs at the Rendezvous in Memphis a couple of weeks ago to have some real ribs.
Yesterday I bought a couple of slabs of ribs and gave them a good rub with my dry rub. They rested quietly overnight and today I cooked them slowly over a nice little hardwood fire for 6 hours. I don't need to tell you how much better they were than the Rendezvous'.

The real purpose of this post is to share a recipe I remembered from my youth wihich is made for for BBQ.

4 cucumbers peeled and sliced into 1/3 of an inch slices. ( I use two of the European ones.)
1 vidalia onion cut in half and sliced very thin
1 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of salt
few grinds of black pepper
Mix it all together and chill for a few hours before serving

This is a very traditional Southern side dish and it especially nice in the spring when the vidalia onions are in season. Just dissovle the sugar in the vinegar and add the rest of the stuff. This is simple and really nice with BBQ or southern fried chicken. Don't skip the few hours of rest in the fridge though it make all the difference.

The Answer

We will have to wait and see if the idiot and chief follows through on his veto threat of the supplemental spending bill but I would like to go on record with what I think the Democratic response should be.

Fine Mr. President, if you don't like our conditions on the funding we'll just pull all funding for this disaster right now and you can use what's left of the war money we have already approved to bring our boys and girls home right now. It's over...you are cut off.

Simplest solution is usually the best solution.

Firefox Issues

Having some Firefox problems today. Yesterday Firefox started freezing or hanging. Trying to type a comment or a post and you wouldn't see anything on the screen then all of a sudden a whole string of letters would appear. Same thing with the wheel mouse...nothing would happen then all of a sudden it would jump. I noted that even when firefox was the active program it would flash in and out of the toolbar when it doing this hanging thing. I have removed and reinstalled but nothing changed. Very strange. Using IE until further notice which is irritating since it doesn't seem to support the blogger spell checker which I need badly.

Anybody else seen this with Firefox?

One More Time. Surprised?

Shades of Ted Haggard and William Bennett! George Bush's AIDS Czar Randall Tobias, you know the guy in charge of telling us that abstinence was the only way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and that condoms were a waste of time, has resigned.

Today, ABC News reported that the married Mr. Tobias resigned from his post as Deputy Secretary of State after admitting he was a customer of a DC escort service
Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias, 65, Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the Ambassador for the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

Here is the completely believable excuse: Tobias said he only got "massages."

Thanks for the good news Americablog

Brits Tackle Wasteful Packaging

Something Green to start the day. Our friends the British always seem to be one step ahead of us Yanks when it comes to taking a proactive stance on the environment. They are doing it with taxing cars based on fuel consumption and emissions and with package labeling to let you know the environmental impact of producing and delivering the product to market. Now they have turned their sights on wasteful packaging and the movement is gaining momentum.

The Independent started an awareness campaign earlier this year and the British public has rallied around the cause. Over 100 British MPs (Members of Parliament) have signed on to a motion to move this along under the law. It is very impressive to see what consumer demand can accomplish as it is doing in the UK. Consumers are the ones that started demanding retailers to get smart about wasteful packaging and it is working as the retailers are turning to manufacturers and producers and forcing action voluntarily. How well do you think this would work in the U.S.? A lot of American companies seem adverse to this kind of change and fight environmental change and smear environmentalists.

We can learn a lot from the Brits and their ability to be level headed and build a consensus for the benefit of society both in the UK and the world.

h/t to Americablog

Letters Carriers are Looking for Help

Last year Letter carriers collected 70.5 million pounds of food donations along their mail routes in the nation’s largest one-day effort to combat hunger. This year the drive will be May 12th, that's a Saturday.

If you can leave non-perishable donations—such as canned meat, fish and soup, and cereals, pasta and rice—in a bag near your mailbox on Saturday, May 12 before your letter carrier arrives that would be great. It will be taken to the local post office and then delivered to a local food bank, pantry or shelter.

Co-sponsors of the drive are the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, Cox Target Media-Valpak, local United Ways, the AFL-CIO, and America’s Second Harvest food bank network.

Click here for a list of Food Drive coordinators by branch (UPDATED APRIL 1).

In 2006 the final results showed 70,493,150 pounds of food were collected along postal routes in the postal union’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive conducted annually on the second Saturday in May in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions. The food was delivered to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families.Buffalo/Western New York NALC Branch 3, which collected 1,902,962 pounds of donations, was the top NALC local branch in the drive for the fourth consecutive year.

You can learn more about it here.

P.S. If you have a blog in wouldn't hurt to help spread the word.

The Soul of Iraq is Giving Up

This has been addressed on other blogs but I just felt the need to step in with my 2 cents. We should be very ashamed of what we have done to Iraq. Riverbend and her family are finally leaving Iraq. While her and her family's trials are a sorrow to hear, there is something larger and more sinister and tragic in this. Riverbend and her family are surely some of the brightest and most promising people in Iraq. The fact that this young woman has managed to maintain her connection to the world through blogging with all that has happened in Iraq over the last four years is clear evidence that her family are part of the best and brightest that Iraq has to offer the world. This departure is evidence that we have managed to drive a great percentage of the people who could, with our support turn Iraq back into a real and contributing part of the family of nations. The best minds, the best people, the best hope for a future are leaving Iraq in the hundreds of thousands, many to languish in Jordan or Syria for who knows how many years. These are the people that will be required to rebuild Iraq after the depredations of Bush, in the name of American power, are over. As more and more of the best of Iraq give up hope and leave we are guaranteeing a failed state for generations. We are shamed.

On a personal note, we’ve finally decided to leave. I guess I’ve known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?

Since last summer, we had been discussing it more and more. It was only a matter of time before what began as a suggestion- a last case scenario- soon took on solidity and developed into a plan. For the last couple of months, it has only been a matter of logistics. Plane or car? Jordan or Syria? Will we all leave together as a family? Or will it be only my brother and I at first?

After Jordan or Syria- where then? Obviously, either of those countries is going to be a transit to something else. They are both overflowing with Iraqi refugees, and every single Iraqi living in either country is complaining of the fact that work is difficult to come by, and getting a residency is even more difficult. There is also the little problem of being turned back at the border. Thousands of Iraqis aren’t being let into Syria or Jordan- and there are no definite criteria for entry, the decision is based on the whim of the border patrol guard checking your passport.

An airplane isn’t necessarily safer, as the trip to Baghdad International Airport is in itself risky and travelers are just as likely to be refused permission to enter the country (Syria and Jordan) if they arrive by airplane. And if you’re wondering why Syria or Jordan, because they are the only two countries that will let Iraqis in without a visa. Following up visa issues with the few functioning embassies or consulates in Baghdad is next to impossible.

So we’ve been busy. Busy trying to decide what part of our lives to leave behind. Which memories are dispensable? We, like many Iraqis, are not the classic refugees- the ones with only the clothes on their backs and no choice. We are choosing to leave because the other option is simply a continuation of what has been one long nightmare- stay and wait and try to survive.

On the one hand, I know that leaving the country and starting a new life somewhere else- as yet unknown- is such a huge thing that it should dwarf every trivial concern. The funny thing is that it’s the trivial that seems to occupy our lives. We discuss whether to take photo albums or leave them behind. Can I bring along a stuffed animal I’ve had since the age of four? Is there room for E.’s guitar? What clothes do we take? Summer clothes? The winter clothes too? What about my books? What about the CDs, the baby pictures?

The problem is that we don’t even know if we’ll ever see this stuff again. We don’t know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?

It’s difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.

Richard Clarke on Iraq

Richard Clarke puts it out there pretty clearly in a Daily News op-ed on Iraq. He tackles the "fly paper" meme and pretty much eviscerates it. He very clearly shows how the Bush administration claims are both illogical and politically motivated. You need to read it as I can't summarize it so as to improve on anything he has to say in his deconstruction of the absurdity of it all. Here are a few excerpts:

Does the President think terrorists are puppy dogs? He keeps saying that terrorists will "follow us home" like lost dogs. This will only happen, however, he says, if we "lose" in Iraq.

The puppy dog theory is the corollary to earlier sloganeering that proved the President had never studied logic: "We are fighting terrorists in Iraq so that we will not have to face them and fight them in the streets of our own cities." . . .

How is this odd terrorist puppy dog behavior supposed to work? The President must believe that terrorists are playing by some odd rules of chivalry. Would this be the "only one slaughter ground at a time" rule of terrorism?

Of course, nothing about our being "over there" in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite, the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-American terrorists.

While we are manufacturing terrorists in Iraq by the carload we are ignoring the needed resources at home to actually do something about improving our security.

In the real world, by choosing unnecessarily to go into Iraq, Bush not only diverted efforts from delivering a death blow to Al Qaeda, he gave that movement both a second chance and the best recruiting tool possible.

How many of the increasingly fewer Bush supporters need to read and understand this before they get the picture?

h/t AmericaBlog

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

How long ago do suppose the FDA knew about this? The GOP has gutted them fiscally but it hasn't silenced them and we deserve to know when they are going to start protecting the American food supply and keeping us informed of potential problems before it is too late. The American food supply is increasingly affected by foreign companies that can either maliciously or accidentally contaminate our food supply. While most of these companies are probably well run and take their product quality and safety seriously the fact is that they are not responsible for the safety of the U.S. food supply . That it is the responsibility of the FDA who are seriously shirking this duty.

Thousands of hogs in at least five states and poultry at a Missouri farm ate salvage pet food that had been laced with an industrial chemical, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday , opening potential avenues for the contaminant to enter the human food supply.

Urine from hogs in California , North Carolina, and South Carolina tested positive for melamine , a chemical contained in rice protein concentrate imported from China . Hogs in New York , Utah, and, possibly, Ohio also ate tainted pet food, but their urine has not yet been tested.

I was just reading in the AJC yesterday a reader contributed column on food safety. The author was a food industry consultant and his warnings were pretty stark. Did you know that nearly 100% of the world supply of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) which is used in thousands and thousands of products here in the U.S. is produced by a handful of companies in China? There is only one company in the Europe that still manufactures it and none in the U.S. Because of the low labor costs in China this trend is increasing and more and more western producers of food supplements and additives are closing down plants because they cannot compete with China. This pet food saga is only the tip of the iceberg.

Just as we have become completely dependent on foreign clothing manufacturers, we are becoming more and more at the mercy of foreign food suppliers. We already import more than 95% of our clothing(inluding shoes) from other countries and the same situation is rapidly happening to out food industry if not directly then through additives or in the example above through feeds for animals. What about the feed for dairy cattle(milk, cheese, etc.) and chickens(meat and eggs) or even farm raised fish. If you happen to have a package of tuna on the shelf at home you might note that it too is coming from Thailand or somewhere similar. I shop for food primarily at Whole Foods where they typically identify the source and it is not my imagination that more and more it is coming from South America or Asia. You want to talk about a target for terrorism just visit your local grocery.

Just to get back on track with this contaminated pork thing. Just because the hogs that are reported to have been contaminated are isolated in five states doesn't mean that meat from those animals won't, hasn't or can't reach your dinner table. The companies that distribute foods nationally can get their meat from anywhere in the world and sell it at your local grocery and you will never know where that meat came from unless there is a problem identified after the fact.

This is ugly and will get uglier trust me on that. We are at high risk and there is no one doing anything about it.

Pleasant Evening

Bachelor tonight as Madam is out. Decided to eat my leftover dinner on the deck and was rewarded for doing so. Not only were the slow cooked beef short ribs especially succulent after resting for a couple of days in their rich sauce of wine and tomatoes but I had multiple visitors while I sat quietly enjoying my meal.
First came three white tail deer, a young male and a doe with youngster. They were busy sampling the new young shoots on the buffet around the yard and didn't seem to care that I was watching. I introduced myself, even sharing my real name, but such a gracious welcome was not returned in kind. Sometimes, in the right atmosphere, sharing your real name with another species will allow them to trust you enough to respond in kind. Regardless, my offer of mutual trust was not accepted by these three. It is understandable however. Here they are trying to scratch out a living in the middle of a metropolitan area of millions of people and worse...cars. Jumping fences and dodging traffic day in and day out. Gotta make you a little cranky. It does me.
While the deer moved off into the woods beyond, who should wander in but Mr. Raccoon. He too was interested only in what might have been left by the birds, squirrels and chipmunks and none to ready for a pleasant chat. He was much less sanguine about my presence and kept giving me the eye. He cased the joint and had a hearty drink from the bird bath before continuing on his nightly rounds. I was pretty sure that the look he gave me as he crossed the fence was for not replenishing the suet in the feeder. I will do it in the morning since he has been known to remove the feeder from its hanging and consume an entire cake of Peanut Delight in a single evening. Shouldn't encourage such gluttony.
An interesting evening and a reward for my attention in maintaining an attractive natural habitat for the wildlife. I must admit that the frequent trips to the bird seed store for another bag of sun flower seeds, dried corn, peanuts and suet make me hesitate at times but it is then that I remember the short episodes like this evening when I get a chance to connect.