Maine Red Meat Recall

Some days I’m really glad the doctors told me not to eat red meat.

The Maine Department of Agriculture says a Greene company is voluntarily recalling nearly a ton of beef. Bubier Farms says nearly 2,000 pounds of beef may be contaminated with fecal matter, a common source of E-Coli bacteria.

State officials say 1,936 pounds of beef may be contaminated with fecal material, as well as other contaminants. The problem was discovered by a federal inspector earlier this week. Officials say the inspector found fecal matter and hair on slabs of beef inside a cooler at Bubier Meats.

Bubier meats is a
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Tags: beef, red meat, food contamination e. coli, Bubier Farms, Maine Department of Agriculture, Maine

1 comments See also in In the News, Soap Box, The World

Quote of the Day: On Health

“It’s no longer a question of staying healthy. It’s a question of finding a sickness you like.”
–Jackie Mason

Tags: none

Do You Know What You’re Putting In Your Mouth?

I know that there are some people who would call me a little hippy-dippy when the subject of food comes up. I mean, I’m a psuedo-vegetarian, who’s doctors have officially made it official, I shop organic and support local farming, I like yogurt and soy, I’ve spent quite a bit of time ranting about Mad Cow Disease and how little testing the U.S.A. actually does on it’s food supply, and last Summer I spent spent a lot of effort worrying about what gets put into my pets’ food.

I’m glad I worry about nutrition and health and not just my health but my loved ones’ health too.

I know, I know, some of you less compassionate people who don’t see pets as family members, are saying, but those 16 confirmed cat and dog deaths were just animal deaths and those thousands of sick cats and dogs? They weren’t people. It’s not like the screw-up affected people.

‘Cuz that wouldn’t happen.

Except remember the tainted peanut butter and then there was that spinach that was making everyone sick?

Are you ready for this?
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Tags: none

Project 365 (Day 12): Clean Lines

Inspired by this photo.

Tags: project365, photoaday, oneaday, photo blogging, Tiffany lamp

Project 365 (Day 11): Happy Feet

Someone once commented that I dress like a “conservative Bostoner/New Yorker.” I’m not sure what that means since I’m from New Orleans. Normally I wear fall colors and a lot of brown and black mixed with a lot of orange and the occasional lime green.

But I have a secret, one that the accupuncturist and my physical therapist both pointed out this week — I almost always wear brightly colored socks!

Almost no one ever looks at your feet, so it’s my secret surprise, my happy feet, my wild, kinky, outgoing,
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Tags: project365, photoaday, oneaday, socks, clothing

History Repeats Itself — Pope George W. Bush?

See if you recognize recent events in the U.S. in this passage talking about the history of the Catholic Church…

The Church turned to its own canon law to authenticate an agency which could enforce adherence to Church authority. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX established the Inquisition as a separate tribunal, independent of bishops and prelates. Its administrators, the inquisitors, were to be answerable only to the Pope. Its inquisitional law replaced the common law tradition of “innocent until proven guilty”with “guilty until proven innocent.” Despite an ostensible trial, inquisitional procedure left no possibility for the suspected
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Tags: The Dark Side of Christian History, history repeats, George W. Bush, America

comments See also in My Life, The World, Featured, Conspiracy Theories

Re-Inventing The Wheel Kinda Creepy

When I was a vegetarian in the early to mid-1990’s, it was never about animal rights or some ideal cause. In fact, I had great fun on mailing lists and newsgroups, stirring up the vegan and vegetarians who were all about “not eating anything with a face” or “animals are our friends, we don’t eat our friends!” Basically, I was a vegetarian because I was just plain tired of eating meat — even the smell of it made me feel a bit ill.

This is not to say that I don’t respect people who do actually become vegetarians because
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Tags: vegetarianism, vegetarian, pescetarian, cloned animals, Peter Clement, FDA

What You Should Be Reading — 12/20/06

• Detained In Iraq by Brendan Skwire @ All Spin Zone; another American abused for doing “the right thing” by a system that has become dangerous for Americans and nonAmericans alike. I bet he thinks twice before he acts so heroically in the future.
  

  Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.

  “Even Saddam Hussein had more legal counsel than I ever had,” said Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that his constitutional rights had been violated. “While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to instill in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to the Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves.”

• Detainee Abuse by Tim F. @ Balloon Juice; more on Donald Vance
  

  American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

  The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

• Our path to ‘victory’ ends in defeat by Mark Morford @ SFGate.com
  

  It’s not like we were overpowered. We weren’t outmanned or outgunned or outstrategized, hence we weren’t defeated in any “traditional,” kick-ass, take-names, sign-the-peace-accord way.

  It wasn’t because our can’t-lose military didn’t have the latest and greatest killing tools of all time, the biggest budget, the most heroic of baffled and misled young soldiers sort of but not really willing to go off and fight and die for a cause no one could adequately explain or justify to them.

  We still have the coolest, fastest planes. We still have the meanest billion-dollar technology. We still have the most imposing tanks and the most incredible weaponry and the badass night-vision goggles with the laser sights and the thermal heat-seeking readouts and the ability to track targets from 2 miles away in a dust storm. It doesn’t matter.

  What we don’t have is any idea what we’re doing, not anymore, not on the global stage. We lost this “war” and we lost it before we even began because we went in for all the wrong reasons and with all the wrong planning and with all the wrong leadership who had all the wrong motives based on all the wrong greedy self-serving insular faux cowboy BS that your kids and your grandkids will be paying for until about the year 2056.

  Maybe you don’t agree. Maybe you say, “Wait, wait, wait, it’s not over at all, and we haven’t lost yet. Isn’t the fighting still raging? Can’t we still ‘win’ even though we’re still losing soldiers by the truckload and thousands of innocent Iraqis are being brutally slaughtered every month and isn’t Dubya still standing there, brow scrunched and confounded as a monkey clinging onto a shiny razor blade, refusing to let go and free us from the deadly trap, ignoring the Iraq Study Group and trying to figure out a way to stay the course and never give in and “mission accomplished” even as every single human around him, from the top generals to crusty old James Baker to the new and shockingly honest secretary of defense, says we are royally screwed and Iraq is now a vicious and chaotic civil war and it’s officially one of the worst disasters in American history?” Oh wait, you just answered your own question.

  Yes, technically, the war is still on. The fighting is not over. And, yes, you can even say we (brutally, tactlessly) installed ourselves with sufficient ego to give us a modicum of violent, volatile control over the gulf region’s remaining petroleum reserves — which was, of course, much of the point in the first place.

  But the nasty us-versus-them, good-versus-evil ideology is over. Ditto the numb sense of Bush’s brutally simpleminded American “justice.” Any lingering hint of anything resembling a truly valid and lucid and deeply patriotic reason for wasting a trillion dollars and thousands of lives and roughly an entire generation’s worth of international respect? Gone.

  What’s left is one lingering, looming question: How do we accept defeat? How do we deal with the awkward, identity-mauling, ego-stomping idea that, once again, America didn’t “win” a war it really had no right to launch in the first place? After all, isn’t this the American slogan: “We may not always be right, but we are never wrong”?

  It’s still our most favorite idea, the thing our own childlike president loves to talk most about, burned into our national consciousness like a bad tattoo: We always win. We’re the good guys. We’re the chosen ones. We’re the goddamn cavalry, flying the flag of truth, wrapped in strip malls and Ford pickups and McDonald’s franchises. Right?

  Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: detainees, Donald Vance, Iraq, terrorism, violence, soldiers of fortune, private military, torture

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, The Middle East

Remember The Egg McMuffin?

Yesterday I saw a banner at the local McDonald’s: “2 for $3 Sausage McMuffin with Egg”.  Remember when you got an Egg McMuffin and could pick whether you wanted ham or sausage?  When did this change?

Tags: McDonald's, McMuffin

Exercise Your Mind - 11/08/06

Election 2006

• You have your marching orders…. — Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars reminds us of the Republican’s “Contract with America” when they took control of Congress in 1994.
  

  This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

  Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
  

  Let’s hope that the Democrats learn from the Republicans’ mistakes.

• A Remedy for Negative Political Ads — Paul Silver @ Donklephant has a remedy for all of those negative, deceitful ads since there’s not likely to be any law regulating truth in political advertising anytime soon.
  

  Perhaps the solution lies in changing the geometry of the question. Instead of trying to regulate the content of ads, we use public funds (or funds from the Parties) to run a frequent public service message that corrects the inaccuracies of any recent ads - perhaps produced by the Factcheck.org folks. Since a candidate would not want to have the airwaves filled with objective criticism they would be inclined to stay as reasonable and civil as possible.

• A Remedy for Election Tampering– Paul Silver @ Donklephant also thinks there should be a reward for information leading to a conviction in crimes related to election tampering.

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Tags: 2006 election, Republicans, Contract with America, Contress, ethics, scandal, Democrats, negative political ads, election tampering, politics, factcheck.org, DHS, TSA, passports, Hasan Elahi, FBI, mental illness, anxiety, depression

Report Voting Problems

The Hotline 1-888-DEM-VOTE (1-888-336-8683)
By calling 1-888-DEM-VOTE, voters can learn more about their rights, find their polling location, and report problems and get answers on Election Day.

This is your democracy. Know your rights.

Know Your Voting Rights

1. If You have problems, you are still entitled to cast a provisional ballot.
2. If you are in line before the poll’s closing time, you are entitled to vote.
3. You are entitled to view a sample ballot at the polling place before voting.

Source: The Democratic Party Voting Rights Institute

Update:

Election Protection’s 1-866-OUR-VOTE has live operators who can address some problems over the phone and dispatch lawyers
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Tags: vote, voting irregularities

comments See also in Politics & Causes, The World, Featured

Vote

I exercised my American right to vote. Have you?

If you do nothing else today, make it your priority to stop at your polling place and vote, whether it’s Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green Party. It’s important to voice your opinion by pulling that lever, filling in those dots, checking that box, punching those chads, touching those screens, whatever the voting mechanism…and of course, double checking to make sure that your vote is recorded correctly.

Show off your pride at having shown up and participated in one of the greatest freedoms and powers you’ll ever experience — the right to
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Tags: vote

Talking Politics

I’ll admit that I’ve been avoiding talking politics lately.  I’ve noticed that the closer it gets to an actual election, the less I like actually talking about politics and the issues with anyone, even the people I generally agree with.  Everyone’s so super-charged emotional and a little bit scary.  It’s best just to keep quiet and wait it out, in my not-so-humble opinion — besides, my mother always told me that you learn more when your mouth is shut and your ears are open.

It just so happens that one of my pre-move projects is to sort through my unread magazine
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Tags: politics

Thirteen Reasons (Or Not) You Should Vote For Me If I Ran For Office

This Thursday Thirteen from Carmen’s Gone to Plaid blog just begs to be reposted and forwarded via email all across the Internet to everyone everyone knows before Election Day next Tuesday. There are some excellent reminders in there no matter who you’re voting for (and you should be voting for someone).

(note: my own Thursday Thirteen is a few posts down.)

Thirteen Reasons (or Not) You Should Vote for Me if I Ran for OfficeTuesday is Election Day (GO VOTE!).
[…snip…]
PS: You have the right to disagree with me (isn’t America great?), but not to be mean in my comments.

1. Being a Democracy isn’t easy. Take free speech. You may not like what I say, and you have the right to disagree. But I still have the right to say it. That includes questioning our leaders without being called “unpatriotic.” Questioning our leaders and speaking your mind is the most patriotic thing you can do. However, these freedoms require responsibility.

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Tags: vote, Election Day, Democracy, free speech, Patriot

3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Work Your Brain — 11/1/06

Tales of the Detainee Kind

• The Case Of Bilal Hussein — Justin Gardner @ Donklephant reports on Bilal Hussein, an AP war photographer, accused by the U.S. military of helping some insurgents kidnap a couple journalists. Only those journalists have been rescued and they say Hussein is a hero. The AP wants to know why he’s been detained since April with no charges having been filed against him while right-wing bloggers call for his head.
  

  Six months is more than enough time to get some facts together and make a case against Hussein. The military hasn’t done that, and they should…or else they should release Hussein without charge.

  As Gardner points out, Hussein isn’t the first journalist to be treated as such.

  Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: detainees, Bilal Hussein, Abdul Rahim Al Ginco, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, al-Qaeda, Insurrection Act, FEMA, Lynne Cheney, Bill O'Reilly, liberals, rightwingers, patriotism, pragmatism, American soldiers, Republicans, Democrats, GOP, Georgia, Genital Cutting, abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, TSA, airport security, bomb-making materials, Christopher Soghoian, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University, fake boarding passes, Ed Markey, FBI, Police State

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights, The Middle East

Work Your Brain — 10/31/06

Travel In America

• Homeland Absurdity – Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that the difference between life and death is a ziploc bag apparently…
  

  There you have it: Tiny containers of hand sanitizer in zip-lock bags are harmless and approved. Those not in zip-lock bags are dangerous contraband. Meanwhile, the TSA still cannot justify its methods of confiscation: If certain liquids and gels are taken from a passenger, the assumption has to be that those materials are potentially hazardous. If so, why are they tossed unceremoniously into the trash? At every checkpoint you’ll see a bin or barrel brimming with illegal containers. They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are thrown away. In effect, the agency readily admits that it knows these things are harmless. But it’s going to steal them anyway, and either you like it or you don’t fly.

What the Fuck Are They Thinking?

• UK retailer to little girls:”Let’s have a lap dance over here, luv!” — Twisty @ I Blame The Patriarchy has a commentary on Tesco’s plans to market a striptease toy to five-year-olds for Christmas this year. Kid you not. How sick is that. I thought thongs for four-year-olds was bad enough, but you’ll be able to buy a toy sexy chrome pole, a CD with sexy music, and ”Peekaboo Dance Dollars” to stuff in a toy “sexy dance garter” to “Unleash the sex kitten inside” (quoth the Tesco website). Read the rest of this entry »

  Tags: WAL-Mart, Ziploc, TSA, Tesco, airport security, U.K. striptease, Voting Irregularities, Texas, Florida, Virginia, James Webb, Democrats, Republicans, Missouri, Arkansas, censorship, bloggers, Iran, Tunisia, China, Vietnam, Amnesty International, human rights

  3 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Fight Child Porn: Light A Million Candles

The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.

But you can.

With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade.

We do not need your money.

We need you to light a candle of support http://www.lightamillioncandles.com

We’re aiming to light at least One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.

This petition will be used to encourage governments, politicians,
financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.

They have the power to work together. You have the power to get them to take action.

Please light your candle at
http://www.lightamillioncandles.com
or send an email of support to light@lightamillioncandles.com

Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.

Kindly forward this to your friends, relatives and work colleagues
so that they can light a candle too.

Source: Lotus In The Mud

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Tags: child abuse, internet porn, child predators, light a million candles

Work Your Brain — 10/25/06

• Why do the evil usually triumph? — Omni @ Every Topic in the Universe(s?) has some interesting insights into the whole good vs. evil thing. Of course, she starts off correctly pointing out that there are very few good people in the world. For the most part, people are generally neutral. To be good, you have to be willing to actually take action against evil and few people are willing to do so.
  

  10) Evil is persistent: They’ll gleefully do an infinite # of evil deeds, and will literally NEVER grow tired of it, because they LOVE what they’re doing; if there’s a goal other than just causing trouble forever, they’ve got what it takes to see it through. On the other hand, if you can get good or neutral people to make ONE decisive move, they act as if they’ve just climbed Everest and are all done in… and just plain DONE, because, no matter how obvious it is that the evil have NOT been stopped yet, their attitude will be that they did their best and that’s it. Even if they’re being personally attacked, even if they stand to lose a great deal if the attack “destroys” them, they’ll rarely put forth more than a token effort before giving it up as hopeless.

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Tags: good vs. evil, voting, no-fly list, Terrorists, GAO

comments See also in Politics & Causes, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism

Plugging In Could Hurt You

Since several of us on the blogosphere were just discussing the use of iPods/MP3 players in public and their effect on society, I found this article to timely…considering it’s another more permenant effect and all.

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Listening to loud music with earphones on a digital music player for more than 90 minutes a day can damage your hearing, according to a new study.

The study of 100 doctoral students concluded that people who listened to music at 80 percent of volume capacity, at which point the sound is considered loud, should keep it to under 90 minutes a day.

“If a person exceeds that on one particular day and happens not to use their headphones for the rest of the week, they’re at no higher risk,” study author Brian Fligor told Reuters. “I’m talking about someone who’s exceeding 80 percent for 90 minutes day after day, month after month, for years.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: iPod, MP3, hearing loss, music, earphones

comments See also in In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World

Ideas About Getting More Commenters

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the people who come here to comment more often on posts — you know, have more open dialogs, etc. So, when I come across this sort of post on one of my regular reads, I’m intrigued. However, for me, she was preaching to the choir, but I thought I’d like to pass along her tips edited with my own opinions. I’m hoping you fellow readers and passerby will add your own suggestions and thoughts to the comment section. (ah-ha!) Mind you, I’m basically going by
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Tags: bloghopping, blogs, commenting, blog traffic, trolls, spam