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| Salmonella |
I had a good friend and client, a loyal Republican, in the shop the other day and I made the mistake of mentioning the shutdown.
"I love it," he says. "Get rid of government. We don't need it."
"Get rid of the CDC and the EPA and the FDA?" I asked him incredulously. "What about e coli and the sanctity of your food supply? Or do we simply not buy Farmer Jones hamburgers anymore if somebody gets sick and dies? Let the market take care of things."
"Nobody is going to die," he tells me. "And screw the EPA."
"So you will be okay with oil drilling in our national parks?"
"Drop an oil derrick right next to Old Faithful for all I care."
*
We will leave the question of allowing people and business to ravage our planet for another day and deal with the other thing. Lo and behold, we had our first salmonella outbreak post shutdown this week, which sent over 40 people to the hospital. The outbreak has been traced to some bad Foster Farms chicken at three California facilities, two in Fresno and one in Livingston. The outbreak has sickened 278 people in 18 states, according to federal officials. Suspect packages of chicken would have USDA marks P6137, P6137A and P7632. The CDC has recalled a bunch of furloughed employees to deal with the crisis. Amazingly, Foster Farms refuses to recall the chicken. Because it is a whole and not ground product, they don't have to.
Perhaps this is how we will get government in the future. Hire them part time when a crisis hits. Of course, if Michelle Bachmann is right and Obama's talking to the Iranians is a sign of imminent end times and the saviors return, the issue will be moot.
That mean old government is really bad, that is until you need it.
*
We will leave the question of allowing people and business to ravage our planet for another day and deal with the other thing. Lo and behold, we had our first salmonella outbreak post shutdown this week, which sent over 40 people to the hospital. The outbreak has been traced to some bad Foster Farms chicken at three California facilities, two in Fresno and one in Livingston. The outbreak has sickened 278 people in 18 states, according to federal officials. Suspect packages of chicken would have USDA marks P6137, P6137A and P7632. The CDC has recalled a bunch of furloughed employees to deal with the crisis. Amazingly, Foster Farms refuses to recall the chicken. Because it is a whole and not ground product, they don't have to.
Perhaps this is how we will get government in the future. Hire them part time when a crisis hits. Of course, if Michelle Bachmann is right and Obama's talking to the Iranians is a sign of imminent end times and the saviors return, the issue will be moot.
That mean old government is really bad, that is until you need it.
1 comment:
I think the "process" is at a point at which both sides are posturing and playing games with each other (just like in most negotiation situations). I doubt we will be able to see what the player's real positions are until next week. Indeed, it looks like the far right is willing to take the situation into the "cash crunch" zone. Should that happen there will be one hell of a lot of noise and the real power players will reveal themselves and what they are really willing to do. I am confident in the left wing position but I think this is the time to watch and wait. The US has had many moments like this in history and it has often taken disaster or near disaster to discredit the fools in the situation. The Tea Party is treating this like the Alamo but they are charging into disaster in my opinion. Remember General Custer tea baggers.
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