Tom Toles for January 05, 2011

The “Night of the Long Knives” begins?

“Guess how it ends?” My bet is that the American Consumer goes down with Food Safety.

Jack 2587,,,,, Does that take care of mad cow disease and anthrax? What about E-Coli on your tomatoes and spinach? There is more to food safety than in your kitchen. USDA inspected used to mean something. President Reagan: “The food industry can regulate itself.”

And Dick Cheney: “Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”

We elected them. So now we pay.

@jack75287

Great, thanks! Doesn’t do anything about contaminants in the milk or cleanliness standards at canning plants, but yeah, thanks for the tip.

jack75287 … You also forgot how to tell us what temp we are to cook our lettuce and spinach.

I too have full confidence that industry and business can police itself on all issues regarding health, safety and the environment … NOT!

Safe food just doesn’t help anybody. It’s just the nanny state kepping us from being killed by big business. Stay Out Of It, Too Big Government!

No, mDavis, it’s not because kids chugged Four Locos. It’s because they died.

The government previously couldn’t ask companies to recall peanut butter that was known to be killing Americans. Now they can. Republicans HATE that. I think it’s about time.

If I die of food poisoning, at least someone after me can sue. Does ME no good, but hey, nanny government in our food is bad. It’s supposed to just be in our wombs and bedrooms.

“The military is all three.”

Yeah, we should disband our military and prepare to serve our foreign invader masters.

I wonder which language they’ll speak…

So that’s government waste. Can’t wait till they start going after the fire and police departments.

Meat inspection was the prime employer of veterinarians for a long time- a friend was a military vet tech, and that’s all he did. What bears do in the woods, workers do in the fields, washing vegetables was always a good idea, now they put them all in bags- “pre-washed” they say- and if they say it, it “should” be safe, but … washing and actually cooking (140 degrees is enough for steak, but ground “beef” is, well, a good guess anymore! How many folks HAVE been poisoned by steak or roasts, as opposed to ground beef btw?).

If it is a matter of killing to save money- the F-35 IS finally on the chopping block, but the Republicans will object, and that is only $700 BILLION over 10 years! Now if it actually WORKED, that would be another miracle from the military-industrial complex! (Can you say- B-1(1/2 scrapped-the others should be) B-2 (falls apart in the rain) or F-22(finally cancelled))

Yes, I think we can find some “entitlement” and “regulation enforcement” monies as a better way to really “defend” us.

Food and Drug is absolutely owned by big corporations which all the Lefties can’t stand anyway, so why don’t the Lefties agree to get rid of it?

Google what happened between Monsanto and Oakhurst milk company regarding the labelling of artificial growth hormone. Or look up federal agents actually pulling guns on people for selling “raw milk” (that is, unpasteurized and unhomogenized, straight from the cow). Or read Fast Food Nation, or read about the travails of Polyface Farm…etc…etc…etc….I see no reason why Lefties would support FDA. I’m against it myself.

“Oh wait, military cuts are off the table, only the things that contribute to health, education or welfare for the people are up for cuts.”

You disgust me, you socialist hippy … bleeding-heart liberal communist Marxist! Only nanny-government losers like you worry about things like this. *

There is fraud, waste and abuse in everything government and private sector.

jack, are you kidding me? Do you cook your peanut butter? Bad batch of samonella-inflected eggs used in peanut butter sickened tens of thousands of people, and the friggin company that owned the plant KNEW about it.

Waste, fraud and abuse in Government? It’s called the GOP