Passing on a Disgusting Practice…

Here it goes again…  My cousin turned me on to this piece:

Seven Million Pounds of “Pink Slime” Beef Destined for National School Lunch Program

By Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger | Healthy Living – 6 hours ago

“Pink slime” burger? McDonald’s and Taco Bell have banned it, but now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is buying 7 million pounds of beef containing ammonium hydroxide-treated ground connective tissue and meat scraps and serving it up to America’s school kids. If you thought cafeteria food was gross before….

Related: What You Need to Know About the New Meat and Poultry Labels

According to TheDaily.com, the term “pink slime” was coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, formerly of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. He first saw it being mixed into burger meat when he was touring a Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility in 2002 after an outbreak of salmonella. “Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval,” Zirnstein told The Daily.

“Pink slime,” which is officially called “Lean Beef Trimmings,” is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food. Celebrity chef and safe food advocate Jamie Oliver featured the substance and called for its ban on the April 12, 2011 episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which may have influenced McDonald’s to stop using beef patties containing the filler.

Reportedly, Zirnstein and his colleague Carl Custer studied the substance and classified it as a “high risk product.” Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection service for 35 years, says, “We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat.”

Another issue is the ammonium hydroxide, a chemical that is used to kill pathogens such as E. coli. The FDA considers it safe for human consumption but a 2009 expose by the New York Times questioned its safety and efficacy. Some food advocates are asking for meat containing “pink slime” to be labeled. It’s used in about 70% of ground beef in the US. “We don’t know which districts are receiving what meat, and this meat isn’t labeled to show pink slime. They don’t have to under federal law,” Bettina Siegal, a writer and mother of two who created TheLunchTray.com told NBC. Siegel has started a petition to demand the USDA stop using the product in the National School Lunch Program.

Virginia Governor signs Ultrasound law…

This from the L. A. Times:

Maybe this will get him the VP nomination.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed into law a controversial bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before undergoing an abortion.

The bill sparked a national furor among abortion rights activists who argued that the intent was to make it more costly and more difficult for women to receive abortions.

So here we have a medically unnecessary procedure being forced on women (and their doctors) in a not-so-secret effort to discourage women’s choice. There’s another problem here with serious legal complications:

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said the law might place an undue burden on women, making it vulnerable to legal challenge. Enforcement could also be problematic, he said, because it could violate doctor-patient confidentiality.

“How is the state going to verify that there’s been compliance by a doctor unless they see records?” Tobias said in an interview last week. “I don’t know how you can prevent the state from seeing the names” of patients, he said.

As I have said before, free women should stay out of Virginia.

BTW – Happy International Women’s Day.

Related articles

• Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell Signs Virginia Ultrasound Bill (kayceeweezy.wordpress.com)
• Va governor signs pre-abortion ultrasound bill (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Planned Parenthood Condemns Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell Signing Mandatory Ultrasound Law (yubanet.com)
• Va Governor Signs Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Into Law (abcnews.go.com)
• Gov. Bob McDonnell Signs Abortion Ultrasound Bill Into Law (washington.cbslocal.com)
• Va governor signs pre-abortion ultrasound bill (sfgate.com)
• Va. Governor Signs Ultrasound Bill (myfoxphoenix.com)
• Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signs Virginia ultrasound bill – CBS News (cbsnews.com)
• Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signs controversial abortion bill (calgaryherald.com)
• Va. gov. signs bill requiring ultrasounds for abortion (foxnews.com)
• You: Va. Gov. Signs Ultrasound Law (thedailybeast.com)
• McDonnell Signs Ultrasound Abortion Mandate (lezgetreal.com)
• Why Virginia’s New Mandatory Ultrasound Law Still Sucks (alternet.org)
• If I were a woman, I wouldn’t live in Virginia… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)

Conservative politics takes another downward step…

I am constantly amazed by the incredibly unsettling nature of tea-party politics. I would hope that politicians running for office (or even non-politicians for that matter) would have some kind of informed knowledge about national needs and issues.

Then something like this happens (according to the AP):

Samuel Wurzelbacher gained the nickname “Joe the Plumber” for expressing working-class concerns about taxes to then-candidate Barack Obama during a stop to the region.

The Toledo-area plumber defeated Steve Kraus, a Sandusky real estate agent, early Wednesday to grab the GOP nomination in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.

I remember his discussion with Obama on the 2008 campaign trail and I am not impressed with the man. Actually, I think he is somewhat of a joke (and great fodder for both the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert.)

I’m beginning to think the national elections this year are going to be the most entertaining and amusing in years. Hopefully, we will survive as a nation.

Related articles

• Good News For Joe The Plumber (huffingtonpost.com)
• Joe The Plumber Wins GOP Congressional Nod In Ohio As Dennis Kucinich Crashes And Burns (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• Ohio’s ‘Joe the Plumber’ Gets GOP Nod for Congress – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
• Joe the Plumber Is Back (theroot.com)
• ‘Joe the Plumber’ explains qualification for run (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• OHIO NEWLY FORMED 9TH DISTRICT – DON’T VOTE FOR ‘JOE THE PLUMBER” OR HIS ALTER-EGO Samuel Wurzelbacher (bonjupatten.com)
• Joe the Plumber Wins Congressional Nomination In Ohio (inquisitr.com)

World’s Best Graffiti VI – As you can see, I’m being lazy…

… while I’m in the process of moving houses, I’m not doing my usual political ramble (of course, I’ve had no television to pick up the political stuff, but, wonder of wonders, Comcast showed up this morning.)

Anyway, here are a few more wall art masterpieces;

I love the tiger!

To answer a question received by e-mail…

…yes, I change the background pattern on the blog every day (or two) and try my hardest never to repeat a pattern.

Paisley

I spend a lot of time searching for new patters that will make the blog stand out. Following users comments I stopped using moving images a while ago since they

detract from the posts. I do, however look for color that makes the pages stand out and patterns that make me relatively happy (like the “Paisley” I have up today.)

If you have a pattern you haven’t seen here that you’d like me to use, click on the mailbox and attach it to the e-mail.

Thanks, Bill.

Related articles

• Five Effective Marketing Ideas to Increase Repeat and Referral Sales (printrunner.com)
• Q&A: MacFixIt Answers (reviews.cnet.com)
• Use open-ended questions to get the right answer set (blogs.constantcontact.com)