Wednesday, February 22, 2006
- We've made some major changes to sister site RadioActive! The Nuclear Blog, including a brand-spanking new (and less orange) template. Comments are not yet enabled, but those should be coming soon.
- UPDATE: A blog post on the Dubai Ports deal at feministe, and two articles on the issue worth reading are "Big Problem, Dubai Deal Or Not" (New York Times, reg. req.) and "Dubai's Point of No Return" (Village Voice). President Bush is threatening to veto any bill blocking the Dubai Ports deal that would give the UAE-based company management control over several key U.S. seaports. Opposition is strong across both sides of the political aisle, but still, Bush seems determined to force the issue. Something really stinks about this deal. Bush is quoted in CNN as saying
"I don't understand why it's OK for a British company to operate our ports but not a company from the Middle East when we've already determined security is not an issue," Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One after [Bill] Frist urged the administration to block the deal."
"We've determined security is not an issue"? Sez who? During the Cold War (or any war, for that matter) could you picture a president proposing, say, having a Soviet-bloc based company run our ports - and forcing the issue with a veto threat? Simply incredible sinister lame-duckiness. - Think that nice, blood-red beef on the grocery shelf is slaughterhouse-fresh? Maybe not. The AP reports meatpacking companies have recently started using carbon monoxide gas - the same gas that makes CO poisoning victims look healthy and pink by suppressing hemoglobin oxidation - to make old meat look fresh. Consumer organizations are lobbying the FDA to ban the practice. Treehugger has an especially unappetizing-looking photo of gassed and un-gassed beef of equivalent ripeness. From KATU-TV.com:
"Carbon monoxide masks the natural coloration of meat by reacting with myoglobin in the meat and producing a bright red color," the Consumer Federation of America and the group Safe Tables Our Priority wrote last month in asking the FDA to reverse its acceptance of the practice. The artificial color, they said, "has been found to last 'beyond the time of spoilage,' thus masking the true color and freshness of meat packaged with carbon monoxide."
farkleberries Links du Jour 136
