Food Safety Is An Issue?

It's 5:42 AM as I begin writing this post. I'm watching last night's Daily Show. Jon Stewart just went over the criticism over a new food safety bill that just passed the Senate. I cannot help but literally shake my head. I just do not understand why there is so much objection to us having safe food to eat.

In September Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) objected to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that said Americans were not eating enough fruits and vegetables. He said

Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said people in America are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. They want all the power of the federal government to force you to eat more fruits and vegetables. This is what the federal, CDC, they going to be calling people and finding out how many fruits and vegetables you eat (sic) today. This is socialism of the highest order! (source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvpCIjFuwXE)

I guess the Congressman does not understand the need for a healthy diet and how it directly correlates to disease control. The saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is not for mere amusement. The CDC's role is to find the sources of viruses and prevent them (look at the name!).

Last week, Sarah Palin attacked First Lady Michelle Obama for her anti-obesity campaign on Laura Ingraham's radio show:

I think she has got a different worldview and she is not hesitant at all to share what her worldview is. And I will take heat again for saying it on your show Laura but she encapsulated what her view of America is, I believe, unless she has evolved and things have changed in the last two years, but she said it on the campaign trail twice that it was the first time that she had been proud of her country when finally people were paying attention to Barack Obama. I think that's appalling. We can think of this infinite number of reasons to be proud of American exceptionalism and it baffles me that anybody would have that view and then allow that view to bleed over into policy.

Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat. And I know I'm going to be again criticized for bringing this up, but instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.

Now there is this food safety bill. All it is saying is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has more power to inspect our food and force recalls when necessary.

I realize that Rep. Gohmert and Gov. Palin are talking about telling us what foods we can and cannot eat. My question is how do they feel about the banning of Four Loko in many states? Actually, let's take it up a notch. Do they still want mercury to be present in our medicine? We have the FDA and the CDC in order to make sure that we stay healthy and the treatments for any illness (whether it be an aspirin or chicken broth) is safe to ingest.

I understand the belief that inspecting our food is big government. However, how many parents are going to actually trace the entire history of every piece the food they eat? Unless that food is home grown or made in-house, I will guess not many parents will.

First Lady Obama's campaign regarding anti-obesity is related to other pieces of health. Obese people are more susceptible to heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure to name a few. It is not her saying that the average American is dumb. It is her trying to prevent a health crisis!

If Gov. Palin and Rep. Gohmert are so strung up on this anti-big-government-that-is-taking-over-our-food-supply mantra, why did they not protest New York City's ban on trans fats in foods? Actually, I will go one further: why have they not called for the dissimulation of the Food and Drug Administration? It makes one wonder.

I realize this post has been all over the place. But it all ties in together. If you eat healthy and exercise, you will be in better shape and be more able to ward off a plethora of diseases.

Remember kids: eat your fruits and vegetables! I leave you with Mr. Jon Stewart's take on this:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Food, the Bad and the Ugly
www.thedailyshow.com

Juan Williams Firing Helped Maintain NPR Image

The controversy of the week this time is the firing of Juan Williams from NPR after he said on the O'Reilly Factor:

Political correctness can lead to some kind of paralysis where you don't address reality. I mean, look Bill [O'Reilly], I'm not a bigot, you know the kind of books I've written on the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous. Now, I remember also that when the Times Square bomber was at court, I think this was just last week. He said the war with Muslims, America's war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don't think there's any way to get away from these facts. But I think there are people who want to somehow remind us all as President Bush did after 9/11, it's not a war against Islam.

Sarah Palin and her crew are saying that it is proof of how the 'liberal media' is trying to stay politically correct. House Minority Leader John Boehner has called on Congress to stop funding the National Public Radio. I do understand their argument, but the opponents of the firing seem to forget one thing: NPR is a brand first and foremost.

NPR is a company with an image to maintain, if one of their commentators says something that can endanger the image they worked to build, I agree that they have the right (and need) to fire the employee in order to maintain the image. Just because NPR is publicly funded does not mean that it is not indifferent from any other company. Just like most employers, NPR expects its employees to say things that would not reflect poorly on NPR. Yes, Williams' words were his own opinion, but as the saying goes "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." NPR, I assume, wants to keep a pro-Islam image; if an employee says something publicly like what Williams did, it endangers that image.

In social media, there is an adage: "it takes hundreds of posts to build a reputation, but just one to ruin it."

Ground Zero Mosque Part II

Two nights ago, I posted a story arguing why people from outside the Ground Zero area (let alone Alaska, Washington, Albany, or even Westchester County) should not involve themselves in the debate regarding the "Ground Zero Mosque." Now, I will discuss the politics around the issue.

Last week, the National Republican Trust PAC produced an ad that denounced the mosque's construction. CBS and NBC refused to air it.

Later in the week, Sarah Palin endorsed New York Assistant Attorney General Ann Marie Buerkle who is running against freshman Democratic Congressman Dan Maffei for Congress in NY's 25th Congressional District which consists of the Syracuse area. Buerkle is a Tea Party favorite already. It has been hinted that Palin, then to up the ante of her endorsement, then decided to discuss what she felt to be a local issue. On Sunday, she tweeted "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate." However, as many people pointed out, "refuidate" is not a word in the English language. Palin later deleted that post and replaced it with "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in the interest of healing." I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't find anything provoking about the Islamic center (nor can I figure out whom it is provoking since "provoke" means to provide a stimulus for a response typically of a confrontational manner). As for healing, I, for one was never hurt. Maybe it is the New York spirit in me, but what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Was 9/11 a tragedy? Yes. But terrorism aims to invoke terror, if we need time to heal, the terrorists have won.

Later, the former governor humorously tweeted "'Refudiate', 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.'" English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"

To go off on a small tangent, to be honest, Sarah Palin is no William Shakespeare. Though, I am not an expert in English linguistics, I doubt that there are a dozen writers alive today that match his skill. The brilliance of Shakespeare are the number of ententes he could make in a single sentence, how prop-use and stage direction could be determined from the text, and how his texts were written in such a way that (with a few obvious exceptions like Julius Caesar) the story lines could be used in any time period. The words that Shakespeare invented were used for these causes. It should also be noted that the words were being coined during the early development stages of the Modern English Language; so, of course, the ability to add words would be much simpler. An interesting factoid that I leaned from my English teacher in my senior year in high school is that there are roughly 100,000 words in the English language; the average college graduate knows 10,000; William Shakespeare coined 1,000 words. 1% of the English language versus the "word" "refudiate," and Sarah Palin thinks she has earned the right to compare herself to Shakespeare? Whatever.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed the proposed Islamic Center, which, I did not learn until this morning is more of a YMCA (complete with community rooms, meeting rooms, a gym, ad a pool). The center's only "mosque" element is a Muslim prayer room.

Following the tweets by Sarah Palin, Bloomberg staffer Andrea Batista Schlesigner took to Twitter herself saying "@SarahPalinUSA whose hearts? Racist hearts?" And, later "@SarahPalinUSA mind your own business." The tweets were later deleted. However, Schlesinger explained herself "Deleted post bc I regretted curt response. But the fact is, I believe this city belongs to everyone - and no one more than another."

Her next tweet said "Unlike @SarahPalinUSA, I was born here and grew up here. Was showing off to a visitor today - look how beautiful and diverse my city is." That tweet personally speaks to how I feel about New York City as well. Once, I had to take an out-of-towner around the city. On an A train, there was a cross-gendered man, I thought nothing of it. My guest, however asked me "Is that a tranny?" I matter-of-factly replied in the affirmative. My guest, however, remained uneasy for the rest of the train ride.

Schlesinger's final response to the former governor read "I felt the pain of 9/11, the trauma. I got through it by believing in my city. Not through fear and hate." That is the New York spirit. I see crazy people on the subway singing randomly "Adam at a party, Adam at a party, Adam at a party, Adam at a cel-e-brat-ion" (as was the case with my commute yesterday morning) and I think to myself "I love New York." We realize that there are much bigger things with which to concern ourselves than petty disagreements, divisions, and judgments.

Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser told Politico's Maggie Haberman, in response to Schlesinger's tweets "Andrea was only speaking for herself, she has the right to her own opinions." Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said "In terms of her [Schlesinger] comments about Sarah Palin, I don't agree at all. I don't think Sarah Palin is remotely racist." Then, the mayor came to Schlesinger's defense saying that as to Palin's comments about the Islamic Center, he "couldn't disagree more."

Republican NY gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio lately has been attacking his Democratic New York opponent Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for not investigating the funding of the Islamic Center. Cuomo has claimed that he would not investigate based on mere here-say out of respect for freedom of religion. However, Cuomo spokesman Rich Bamberger said "Anyone who has evidence of wrongdoing [as per the funding sources] should send it to us [the Attorney General's Office] and we will review it." Still Lazio is calling the center Cuomo's "trophy mosque"

Interestingly, NY1 did an interview with the Islamic Center's developer, Sharif El-Gamal, and he said that the reason for building the center was, in fact, to spite the terrorists that attacked while highlighting New York's diversity and community. "What happened that day affected me personally, affected my city. I was one of the first people that was down there at 9/11 and for 48 hours I was there helping my heroes, helping the firefighters, the policemen and I was giving water to everyone. What happened that day was a personal attack on me as a New Yorker. Something that I will never forget, never forgive those terrorists for what they did. And those terrorists did not act in the name of Islam. [my emphasis added]" The reason for the Islamic Center, from what I can read from that quote, is to denounce radical Islam and how Islam is a mainstream religion that does not wish to do harm against others. What place better than New York City, two blocks from the World Trade Center, to give the middle-finger to the terrorists by personifying in a building what we believe in as a nation, a city, and a society?

I reiterate, if just because it will irk the terrorists to end because us Americans live in a pluralistic and diverse society and the Islamic Center will be proof-positive of that, I support the project.

Bachman Watch

If you have not heard of Congresswoman Michelle Bachman (R-MN), do yourself a favor and look her up. She is insane. The DCCC (a few days ago) launched a new page called "Bachman Watch," I suggest you look at it (read it after you see the Wikipedia page on her -don't lie, I know that it is your primary source for information on a topic).

Some of the things this woman has said and done and believes in include (I got these from a variety of sources that are just a Google search away):

• Tried to ban Disney's Aladdin from elementary schools because it promotes witchcraft and paganism
• The (conservative, "family values") Family Research Council is the "front lines of defense for the American people"
• Opposition to trade schools and on-the-job training for workplace skills
• Sarah Palin "easily has more qualifications than Senator Obama and Senator Biden put together if you look at Executive Experience [emphasis added] She has been in the Executive position for two years! . . . She is one sharp lady! . . . She has made tough decisions all across the scene. And, I think women all across America are going to love what they see in Sarah Palin; I was taken with her and I know a lot of American women will be. She's very strong, very tough, a committed, loving mother. But, she knows how to be a good executive and how to take on her own party and how to make thing happen. There is no reason why people won't understand this once they understand that people in Alaska -85% of people in Alaska [emphasis added] have a positive approval rating for Sarah Palin."
• [James Carville says to Larry King that he is astounded that this is the best pick that the Republican Party could come up with. Bachman finds it offensive to women.] "There are a lot of competent American women. Sarah Palin easily is a competent woman. She's proved herself in business; she's proved herself in politics. She has come up from nowhere to be somebody. And, she is someone we can all be very proud of. She is one competent, tough cookie. People are going to love her." [James Carville tells her that he supported a woman -Hillary Clinton- for President.] "And, with that, I think a lot of American women are going to be delighted with Sarah Palin because she exudes competence in everything she has ever done. She has a very good record and should be proud to run on that record. McCain really hit it out of the park with this pick."
• Insertion of Creationism to public school curriculum
• Wants to ban all gay rights. Also, LGBT people have "sexual dysfunction" or "sexual identity disorders."
• Opposes minimum wage increases
• Opposes online poker
• "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." (The last time was actually under Gerald Ford.)
• Believes that Congress should be investigated for those with anti-American leanings
• Said that once argued that she couldn't support the economic recovery act because America was 'running out of rich people'

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If you all think a commentary is needed, I'll do one, but I think much of this speaks for itself.

CPAC 2009 Discussion

For some reason, I decided to watch Ann Coulter's CPAC speech. I just do not understand why the rallying cry of the conservatives is to attack liberals. Meanwhile, liberals' rallying cry is the issues that they believe in. Can't the conservatives do the same or are they just so self-conscious that they need to look better than the liberals when they do many more criminal activities (Newt, Delay, Larry Craig, need I say more?)?

Some of the things said by Coulter were:

• Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman are lap dogs to Obama (and what was Fox News to Bush?)
• Jesus had more executive experience than Obama (what about Palin ruling over the Crystal Meth capitol of Alaska?)
• Obama is Muslim (still with that?)
• Democrats finally won an election in 2008 (what about 2006?)
• Germans liked Obama and they have a good track record on choosing leaders (wow, that is really racist)
• Obama has been compared to Lincoln and Reagan since there are no good democrats for him to be compared to (his policies have also been compared to FDR)
• Carter is an example of how not to be President (what about Grant or Coolidge?)
  
• Over history, Democrats' reputation goes down while Republicans' go up (trying to think of a rebound to that one, I have realized that history, depending on who does the storytelling, can be equal-opportunity in negative/positive views of people)