Mad Cows in America

I cant help but find this story symptomatic of the laziness and self delusion that plagues most Americans, [no offence intended], who are kept so cut off from world events. I had the pleasure of being in regular contact with Americans of all ages and sexes, all over that fair country, for about seven years. It became clear to me over that time that many were frighteningly ignorant of world events, [ ie outside USA borders], world geography or history, and held a strange belief that bad things that happened 'over there' were never capable of happening within their own country. The issue of 'mad cow disease' was a huge joke to them, without exception, and they behaved as if it was all 'our' fault, for not being American. [This, sadly, is not an exaggeration.] The actual fact of the matter is that American feeding practises for their farm animals is worse than it ever was in Britain over the eighties and nineties, and nothing has been done to improve it. And, though the British politicians did their fair share of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence to insist that our beef was safe in that time, it has been manifestly shown over the last few years to be a series of half truths and thinly veiled lies, told in the vain hope of keeping the British Beef industry alive. There continue to be cases of CJB, the human form of BSE, the most recent of which occurred due to contaminated blood transfusions. I myself stopped eating beef in 1986, and have yet to resume eating it, from any country.

The sad truth is that America could probably have prevented what is about to happen, if they had been a little less complacent about the state of their own animal feed legislation and habits. But they believed it would never happen to them, that was impossible. Well, just like the infamous 9/11 incident, they are about to find out that they are not immune to world events and catastrophes, and they will learn the lesson by losing billions of dollars, as well as many citizens. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM WHEN THEY SAY THEIR BEEF IS SAFE. IT IS NOT. DO NOT EAT IT. EAT SOMETHING ELSE.

PS: I really love Americans, they are the life blood of the world,[though that is frightening to contemplate sometimes]. I mean no harm.

Here's a pertinent piece of news:

No Risk From Mad Cow Meat, U.S. Says
57 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By EMILY GERSEMA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Investigators and retailers in eight states and a territory are scrambling to recover meat that may have come from a Holstein stricken with deadly mad cow disease.

Agriculture Department officials maintain, meanwhile, there is no health risk to consumers. Dr. Ron De Haven, chief veterinary officer at the USDA, reiterated that point Monday.

"We know from scientific research" that the agent that causes the disease "does not go into muscle tissue or the meat cuts but resides primarily in the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord," he said on NBC's "Today" show. DeHaven described the danger as "certainly minuscule risk, if any risk at all."

"We're, again, taking this action out of an abundance of precaution and not out of any real risk to the public safety," he told CBS's "The Early Show." .....more