My dad died of CJD two years ago. No one asked my mother for any background, a health survey, a history of his surgeries (because infected surgical instruments have to be specially disinfected) ... nada. nichts. nothin'. The government isn't tracking how *people* get the disease, let alone how cows are getting it. That "spontaneous" crap they are peddling is the same kind of bullshit *no pun intended* that they used to say about the plague ... it comes from somewhere, and it is probably food. How safe is the food supply? Look who is taking care of it--how well have they handled anything else?

Record keeping is another loss in the move from family farms to factory farms.

The Swiss in my family hedge [it's too complicated to be a tree] are/were dairy farmers and they knew everything that could be known about their herds. They knew more about theirs cows, than about their kids, because kids happened, but cows were bred.

As breeding affected the price of a cow and her calves and the milk output, you wrote it down.

You knew where the feed came from, local fields if you didn't grow it yourself. No chemicals or hormones were used and artificial insemination was a rarity as they wanted to see the bull.

When cows are merely expendable production units, no one bothers.

There's a collateral story that Britain (and possibly the rest of the civilized, enlightened industrial world - i.e. not the US) banned these enhanced feeds after the causative link between animal protiens and this disease was suspected. The feeds were dumped el cheapo in the Third World.

When it finally comes out that Agribusiness snapped up a lot of this tainted feed and imported it into the US for lower-priced feedlot costs and enhanced profits, there's gonna be a wave or three to weather.

Maybe the 1600 crew might even have to "discover" Osama early? That would be interesting.

The US is now saying the cow came from Canada, but the Canadians are saying the cow that came from Canada was two years older than the cow the US said had the disease.

The US claim is based on an ear-tag number, that may have been changed at first sale in the US. Two years is a large error in the age of cows. If the cow was two years older than originally reported, someone changed some paperwork.

Gee....I wonder who would have changed an ear tag on a cow, to show it as being two years younger, and therefore more valuable as a production item?

Now, lemme think for a moment. Who stands to profit from selling a younger cow?

As I understand the claim, a two-year-older cow might have been exposed to feed now banned. Of course as things stand now (on shaky legs with a rotted brain) we have about a 1-in-1-million chance of catching this, and no chance of catching it before the diseased meat makes it into OUR foodchain.

This is carrying the Rethuglican desire for a stupid electorate a bit far, not to mention which they're eating the stuff themselves.

I guess eating beef is like buying lottery tickets, as far as the odds are concerned. But the consequences differ significantly if you "hit" the jackpot. But some people have problens with pretzels.

Shag from Brookline

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3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams