Saturday, December 27, 2003

The U.S. government is downplaying the debut of mad cow disease in the United States. Mad cow disease, which when trasmitted to people is called Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, killed almost 150 people in Britain in an outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s. The degenerative, debilitating brain disease can take as long as 10 to 20 years to manifest, so government officials' assurances that U.S. beef is completely safe are bullshit.   mad about beef I guess I have to weigh in on the mad cow disease scare here in the United States. Some thoughts: - Mad cow disease, which technically is called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or BSE) and when transmitted to humans is called Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, is not pretty. Years ago, in 1998, I watched a "NOVA" documentary on PBS called "The Brain Eater," which examined Britain's epidemic of mad cow disease and its spread to people in the 1980s and 1990s. Almost 150 Britons died in the epidemic. The images of a young British man dying from Creutzfeld-Jacob disease as his brain continued to deteriorate, progressively debilitating him, stick with me to this day. (If memory serves, the documentary informed us that he had died not long after he was filmed.) I find it unlikely that just one cow in the United States has been infected with BSE, and as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease takes as long as 10 to 20 years to manifest, you wouldn't know for years if the burger that you eat today infects you. (And guess what? Thorough cooking doesn't kill the causative agent of mad cow disease and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, which is not a bacteria or a virus, but is a prion, a self-replicating protein that over years makes Swiss cheese of the brain. Mad cow disease and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease are incurable, and they're not sure whether Creutzfeld-Jacob disease is trasmitted through blood transfusions.) These are salient details of mad cow disease that I'm not seeing much in the corporately controlled U.S. mainstream media, perhaps because McDonald's and other fast-food restaurant chains are such big advertisers. - While my guess is that U.S. beef probably is safe, this early into the investigation of the appearance of mad cow disease in the United States there is no reason for our government officials, such as Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, to assure us that U.S. beef is "absolutely safe to eat." One steak or burger infected with the prion that causes mad cow disease is all that it takes to contract Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. I take Ted Rall's view, which is that the Bush regime is far more interested in the health of the beef industry than it is in the health of the average American: - We're supposed to find it comforting that "President" Bush reportedly is still eating beef. Reports The Associated Press: "He has continued to eat beef, he has eaten beef in the last couple of days," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan when asked how the president had responded to the announcement of the first U.S. case of the disease in a cow on Tuesday. Like we would be able to tell the difference between the "president's" behavior whether he did or did not have mad cow disease. What wild and crazy things might he do under the influence of mad cow disease? Utter new and interesting words, such as "subliminable" and "misunderestimate"? Steal a presidential election? Launch an unprovoked, illegal, imperialistic military attack on a much weaker but oil-rich nation? Veneman also reported that she would serve beef for Christmas dinner. (She didn't say whether she would have any of it herself.) - When I read the Reuters story today that "The U.S. Agriculture Department said [today] it believes the dairy cow infected with mad cow disease was imported to the United States from Canada in 2001," I couldn't help but think of the "South Park" song "Blame Canada" -- even if mad cow disease did indeed come to the United States from Canada.   - I ate a burger from Jack in the Box the other day, and it hit me, right after I had eaten it, that I probably shouldn't be eating beef. It also has occurred to me that perhaps we should be vegetarians anyway. Slaughtering animals and eating their flesh -- when plenty of other sources of food are available -- seems pretty wrong, when you really think about it. 3:58:40 PM    Comments []

"Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau again features California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- "Herr Gropenfuhrer" -- in his current 'toons. This time Trudeau lambasts Ahhhnuld for his broken campaign promise to have allegations against him of sexual harassment and sexual assault properly investigated.  The second biggest lie of the year Salon recently ran a recent article on the epidemic of lying in the United States -- and our acceptance of (or resignation to) it -- titled "The Year of the Liar." (Unfortunately, last year also was The Year of the Liar and next year will be, too...) The author of the piece, Heather Havrilesky, names the Bush regime's false claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as "the biggest lie of the year" and I wholeheartedly agree with her. Of 2003's biggest lie she remarks that ...months after his State of the Union statement that the administration's evidence left "no doubt" that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, President Bush still hasn't been forced to explain himself, nor has he apologized for duping the American people by allowing them to believe that the imminent threat of WMD in Iraq justified an immediate invasion.... Bush pulled this off not only by refusing to admit guilt, but by sidestepping the entire question, continuing to distort the facts by discussing 9/11 and the need to "battle terrorism" in the same breath with Iraq. Sadly, the American public has the patience of a hyperactive squirrel, and the tough questions only come for so long. Eventually, the country seems to resign itself to never really knowing the truth, or never getting a reasonable response to a serious allegation. Just as our problems in Iraq seemed to be registering with the public, we capture Saddam -- and Bush's poll ratings soar. The second he seems to be winning, all previous trespasses are forgiven or forgotten. But in her piece she left out another lie and the lying liar who told it: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised, before the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election, that he would cooperate with an investigation into the allegations against him of sexual harassment and sexual assualt -- after the recall election, of course. Sure, that was a joke, depriving California's voters of the information they needed to make an informed choice at the voting booth, but then, after the election, Ahhhnuld pronounced that he would coordinate the investigation into himself, using private investigators. What actually happened, unsurprisingly, is that, on Dec. 9, Ahhhnuld called off even his own investigation into himself, calling the allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault "old news." Apparently, if the Gropenfuhrer so dictates, then an issue just evaporates. Reuters quoted the Gropinator as saying of his decision to call of his self-investigation: "I've been here for 35 years in this country and I have never had any complaints filed against me nor any complaints made to me. It was rather odd, I would say, that just a few days before the election that all of a sudden there was 16 (women) that had, you know, complaints." (I am so fucking proud of my Republican "president's" and my Republican governor's statesmanlike use of the English language.) It's rather odd, I would say, that all 16 women would be liars, and, unlike Ahhhnuld claims that he can't understand, I can perfectly understand how a relatively powerless individual would be frightened to report sexual harassment and/or a sexual assault by a famous multi-millionaire body-builder movie star who abuses his power. (For an eye-opening look into Ahhhnuld's narcissistic, sadistic personality, see the 1977 documentary film "Pumping Iron" on DVD. "Pumping Iron" portrays Ahhhnuld as the conceited thug that he is: In the film he brags about trying to psychologically sabotage his body-building opponents' performances -- even his good friend's -- such as by giving them, as he puts it, "the wrong advices"; in one scene two bimbos ride on him like he's a pony; and, in another scene, he self-absorbedly smokes a joint while he wears a T-shirt that humbly reads "Arnold is Number One." In "Pumping Iron," Ahhhnuld compares body building to having orgasms. He says: "It's as satisfying to me as coming is, you know, as having sex with a woman and coming.... I am, like, getting the feeling of coming in the gym. I'm getting the feeling of coming at home. I'm getting the feeling of coming backstage when I pump up, when I pose out in front of 5,000 people, I get the same feeling. I'm coming day and night." In the film Ahhhnuld also remarks, "I was always dreaming about very powerful people, dictators and things like that. I was just always impressed by people who could be remembered for hundreds of years, or, you know, even like Jesus, being for thousands of years remembered, you know." Clearly, Ahhhnuld has issues with sex and power, and especially after having watched "Pumping Iron," I can easily see all of the allegations against the Gropenfuhrer being true. Ahhhnuld argues that his behavior captured in "Pumping Iron" was a long time ago, but in "Pumping Iron" Ahhhnuld's age is given as 28. He was no teenager [although he acted like one], and one's personality is formed by one's 20s, so I don't buy Ahhhnuld's claim that he has changed much since the '70s. He's still an asshole, just a richer asshole who is now governor of California.) I have to wonder why we progressives allow Bush and Schwarzenegger can get away with their lies -- admittedly, Bush's lies are much worse than Ahhhnuld's; when Bush lies, people die -- when the Republicans persecuted Bill Clinton for the horrendous crime against humanity of -- gasp! -- having lied about having had consensual sex. The answer, I think, is that progressives are much more forgiving than are right-wingers. While right-wingers foam at the mouth to send those whom they label "sinners" to the gallows (in order to feel cleansed of their own sins), progressives are much more reluctant to be so punitive, realizing, unlike the self-righteous, hypocritical right-wingers -- who frequently deny that they are even capable of sin -- that we are all sinners. Still, people in high positions of power, such as the presidency of the United States and the governorship of the most populous state in the union, shouldn't be let off the hook when they lie through their teeth about important matters, such as the reasons for going to war and promising to have allegations against them of criminal behavior properly investigated. Bush should be impeached for his obvious war crimes, but of course with the Republican-dominated Congress and the spineless Congressional Democrats -- who are far more concerned about re-election than they are about doing what is right and what is courageous -- he very most likely will get off scot-free. Minimally, Ahhhnuld doesn't deserve re-election when his first usurped term as California governor ends in 2006. And while recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was never accused of having committed any crime whatsoever -- Davis was accused only of having been a generically bad governor and he was falsely accused of being responsible for the second Bush economic downturn, which has affected California just as it has affected the entire nation -- Ahhhnuld has been accused of criminal conduct, criminal conduct which he absolutely refuses to allow to be properly investigated. (The only thing that is saving Ahhhnuld's ass right now, as far as I know, is that the statute of limitations has run out on all or most of the crimes he is accused of having committed). There is more grounds for the recall of California's sitting governor now than there was on Oct. 7. But, as "President" Bush most likely will get away with 2003's No. 1 lie of the year, Gov. Ahhhnuld most likely will get away with the second biggest lie of the year. Because we will let them. 12:33:51 PM    Comments []