Slaughterhouse-Five

Friar Barnadine: Thou hast committed--
Barabas: Fornication-- but that was in another country;
And besides, the wench is dead
--The Jew of Malta, Marlowe

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution,
and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it:
Only nutcases want to be president
--Kurt Vonnegut

Feelin' alright?
I'm not feelin' too good myself
--Feelin' Alright, Traffic
___________

Your tax dollars at work, a day late and a dollar short:

USDA officials reported "the largest meat recall in its history -- 143 million pounds of beef" yesterday. California's Westland Meat's entire production for the past two years was recalled "because the company did not prevent ailing animals from entering the U.S. food supply (USDA Orders Largest Meat Recall in U.S. History.)"

But not to worry -- "most of it was eaten long ago" according to the officials.

"About 37 million pounds of the meat -- cuts, ground beef and prepared products such as meatballs and burrito filling -- went to school lunch and other public nutrition programs, and 'almost all of this product is likely to have been consumed,' said Ron Vogel, a USDA administrator."

Slaughterhouse workers had secretly taped scenes of collapsed cattle which had received "electric shocks and high-intensity water sprays. . . and the use of forklifts to roll such animals." Government regulations prohibit slaughtering for food cattle that cannot stand or walk on their own."

"An inspecting veterinarian had said the cattle in question were healthy enough to be used for food, but they subsequently collapsed." A case of the vapors, no doubt. Where are the smelling salts when you need them?

"One worry when an animal collapses is that it may have bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the infection known as mad cow disease. A small number of people who have eaten meat from such animals have developed a fatal brain infection, but cattle with BSE have very rarely turned up in government inspections."

That low number of incidents could be due to a proportional representation of BSE in the population, or a low number of inspections relative to facilities. Either way, cold comfort if you happen to bite into the one in a million burger.

The first incident of mad cow disease originating in the U.S. was reported 12/23/03 in central Washington state. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman emphasized, "the incident is not related to terrorism."

You don't need terrorists to kill you in the U.S. Disregard by your own government will leave you just as dead.