An M&Ms commercial a couple years ago said, "You don't eat your own kind; it's not natural." And thus did Mad Cow disease come to pass. Alton Brown has a really good screed on this (no permalinks; it's dated Dec. 26). For some time now, I've been interested in ordering some beef from this place, and now I have extra incentive. If only I had a gigantic freezer to put it all in.
And let's throw questions about farm-raised salmon into the mix as well. Lovely. At least the USDA is starting to do something about it, but there's a long way to go. BTW, if you've never read Fast Food Nation, do.
Now we've got that darned liberal Washington Post taking the Democratic candidates to task for making Mad Cow a "partisan" issue. True, it's only one cow so far, but this is just one manifestation of a culture of deregulation, letting companies do the bare minimum or less, whatever doesn't negatively impact profits. If the Bush administration were actually serious about protecting public health, the ban on "downer" cows would have come long ago, and maybe even a ban on cannibalistic feed would be in place. But that would impact the bottom line for the meat packers, so we'll never see it from this (or possibly any) administration.
Couple of interesting items in Easterbrook's TMQ today. Under "Sour Play of the Week (Coaching Decision)," he criticizes both the Bengals and the Bears for running a play on third-and-goal at the end of the first half, saying they should have taken the field goal. Funny he didn't mention the 49ers, who faced a similar situation with seven seconds to go in the first half. I sat there shouting "Run a play!" (I needed them to win for a football pool), and instead they tried to kick a field goal. Emphasis on tried, as it clanked off the upright. I think this is a 20-20 hindsight criticism on Easterbrook's part; I think it's a good call for both coaches, and if the players couldn't execute, well, whose fault is that?
Further down, he makes "The Case for a Seeded Tournament," in which he proposes that the top six teams in each conference, regardless of division, make the playoffs and be awarded home games as appropriate. In this scenario, the Dolphins would be in rather than the Ravens, and thus no team from the AFC North would make it. Also, the Titans would host a home game, rather than being on the road in the first round.
Now, I could stand having home-field be determined by record rather than necessarily going to the division champ. But wouldn't stripping the division winner of an automatic berth cheapen division rivalries? Yes, every once in a while a team from a lousy division will get in at 9-7 or worse. But those division rivalry games are the bread and butter of the NFL, and they'd mean a lot less if the division title was meaningless.
And just to prove you can't please everybody--remember the 1993 NL West race, where both the Braves and Giants won 100+ games? These days, that's referred to as the last great pennant race, and nobody seems to think it's unfair that the Giants didn't make the playoffs. I wonder what Easterbrook would have to say about that one.
Oh, and that football pool--I went into the final week of a pool picking all games against the spread, tied for first place. I hit exactly THREE games this weekend, to fall to fourth, and out of the money. Talk about your epic collapses. But that I could send a note back in time to myself reading "Make your week 17 picks yet? Good. Now, reverse them all."
It's guest week at Achewood, and you really should go read today's strip right now.
Just so there's something here when I open up shop, here's a few Google searches that led people to something or other on bigfool.com this month. Remember, when searching for Asian midgets, it's important to rule out porn.
topless game show
fun pooping-farting clips
ho's blog post
nuclear Amtrak turnkpike settling
asian midget -porn
jello hair wax
Tuna Lips
what does a condom look like
why tamagochis ended
beer-filled condom
tyson chicken blog
poodle pubes