Jack & Jill Politics

Happy 2010, ya'll!

Wow, ya'll remember 2000? Everybody thought computers were going to crash. Folks played Prince – party like it's 1999 – incessantly.

I hope this next decade is better than the first one of the new millennium. As far as big events go, aside from President Obama being elected, this has been a pretty jacked up decade, in my opinion. I sincerely hope his election is a harbinger of better things to come.

The Japanese bombed a naval port and look at the outcome. Two cities vaporized.

Just like that? Nothing happened in between? Come on.

We killed more Japanese bombing Tokyo for months.

We used them because we had them. Neither Germany nor the USSR would have hesitated. Nor Japan, for that matter.

wtf?

When I was in the Army 30 years ago, my roommate was from Jellico TN. I was an NCO and I had a telephone in my room. My roommates mother would call from time to time. She would always insist that I come to their home and visit with him. I mentioned the invitation to my roommate. It was then that I found out that my roommates great-grandfather was one the founding members of the KKK. I was speechless. He asked me if this revelation would change things between us? I told him that as long as he doesnt make any off-color remarks, I could deal with it. He assured me that he was not like his father, grandfather.We remained roommates until I ETS. But it was quite an experience. I learned alot about what it takes to have tolerance.

Sullivan found it on Balloon Juice

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=12466

I was at the chowhall with a good friend from Alabama. And we had grown close over the years. We sat down and started eating like we always did. Well, we started talking about race. In an instant he put his fork down and look dead in my eyes and said,”Guns3000(Fill in my government name), my father would kill me if he saw me eating with you.” I laughed it off. He was raised in an extremely racist household but he never accepted his dad's beliefs because he listened to rap music. Never judge a book by its cover.

Well, I'm not going to take up a whole thread of the island hopping campaign of the US Military in the Pacific during WW2 but that's eventually what happened.

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned
By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: December 30, 2009

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

In July, school lunch officials temporarily banned their hamburger makers from using meat from a Beef Products facility in Kansas because of salmonella — the third suspension in three years, records show. Yet the facility remained approved by the U.S.D.A. for other customers.

Presented by The Times with the school lunch test results, top department officials said they were not aware of what their colleagues in the lunch program had been finding for years.

In response, the agriculture department said it was revoking Beef Products’ exemption from routine testing and conducting a review of the company’s operations and research. The department said it was also reversing its policy for handling Beef Products during pathogen outbreaks. Since it was seen as pathogen-free, the processed beef was excluded from recalls, even when it was an ingredient in hamburgers found to be contaminated.

The Beef Products case reveals a schism between the main Department of Agriculture and its division that oversees the school lunch program, a divide that underscores the government’s faltering effort to make hamburger safe. The U.S.D.A. banned the sale of meat found to be contaminated with the O157:H7 strain of E. coli 15 years ago, after a deadly outbreak was traced to Jack in the Box restaurants. Meat tainted with salmonella is also a hazard. But while the school lunch program will not buy meat contaminated with salmonella, the agriculture department does not ban its sale to the general public.

Even so, E. coli outbreaks nationwide have increased in recent years. And this summer, two outbreaks of particularly virulent strains of salmonella in hamburger prompted large recalls of ground beef across several states.

Although no outbreak has been tied to Beef Products, officials said they would thoroughly scrutinize any future industry innovations for fighting contamination “to ensure that they are scientifically sound and protect public health,” and that they were examining the government’s overall meat safety policies.

The founder and owner of Beef Products, Eldon N. Roth, declined requests for interviews or access to the company’s production facilities. Responding to written questions, Beef Products said it had a deep commitment to hamburger safety and was continually refining its operation to provide the safest product possible. “B.P.I.’s track record demonstrates the progress B.P.I. has made compared to the industry norm,” the company said. “Like any responsible member of the meat industry, we are not perfect.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html

For all the apologists for Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/01/arenas…

This is one of many threads at huffington post where bashing black men is the goal. Where racist comments are not deleted.

Isn't it time for the black blogosphere to start calling these so-called progressive sites out?

cute pictures of Zahara Jolie-Pitt

http://www.blackcelebkids.com/2009/12/30/all-bu…

Robin Givhan was not “hating” on Michelle Obama, she was just trying to tell her it is DISRESPECTFUL to wear shorts to the Grand Canyon. A First Lady must ALWAYS wear Oscar de la Renta to the Grand Canyon, along with her pearls and Louboutins. The fact that Michelle Obama didn't proves she's just an ignorant ghetto girl who must be told how to fit in with the finer people in life.

The black blogosphere would be better off calling out Arenas and Crittenton.

I think it's disrespectful and unbefitting a First Lady to wear a bathing suit to the beach. She should have shown some respect and not her legs and worn Oscar de la Renta.

You have to pay up and use a known source store like Whole Foods(Coleman-beef). If you want ground beef have them grind it fresh from the cut you like.

ROTFLMBAO

The financial numbers for the year.

after the State Dinner, Robin's not even TRYING to hide her hateration of the First Lady anymore. she was BARELY doing it in the first place.

rikyrah

I just found this. It should be way to much fun:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/visuwords-…

that was sorta cool, RobM.

LOLOLOL

thanks rikyrah,happy new year to you~~~