* OK, I admit it; I’ve been kinda wrapped up in the Sabres the last few months. And yes, I’m disappointed they didn’t win, this afternoon. and I’m not going to lay the blame for the loss on the officiating. The team dug their own hole. the Sabres didn’t end up behind three games to none in this series because they were outclassed. They got that far behind by not playing up to their ability.
But, you know, when even the NBC announcing crew… who is traditionally less than unbiased about Buffalo teams… be they Football or Hockey…. starts questioning the quality of the officiating, you need to wonder if if the referees weren’t part of the ‘bury ’em’ crew. I counted at least a half a dozen penalties, that should have been called. One in particular, was clearly interference on the part of Ray Emery. another was a boarding call that got missed. More than once I heard somebody question whether not the referees were part of The Sens penalty killing team.
That said; the Buffalo Sabres for these last two games, actually played fairly close to their ability. If any team I’m associated with, even in the simple act of being a fan, is going to go out at the end of the season, that’s the way I like to see them go out. Not like they did in game one through three.
* Jesse Macbeth stands as a prime example of the left latching onto any liar willing to tell them what they want to hear.
* But you see, Billy, that’s when it’s the most fun… when you’re able to rise to the challenge, like that, and you still manage by sheer talent to turn in a good show. Any moron can do a good show… or at least a passible one… when the people and equipment you’re working with are all top notch. With all those bucks, you’re expected to. But I have to tell ya… Some of the most fun I ever had in the business was when one thing or another or sometimes… MANY things fell apart. If you still manage somehow to get the crowd into it, it’s the best feeling in the world. They’re into it not because your equipment is good, but because YOU are.
Oh, and …. Welcome home.
* First Pet food… and now poisoned toothpaste coming from China What the beep is going on over there? Look at some of this report:
Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government inadvertently mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. Records show that in that episode the poison, falsely labeled as glycerin, a harmless syrup, also originated in China.
…
Two weeks ago, The New York Times reported that a Chinese factory not certified to make pharmaceutical ingredients had sold 46 barrels of syrup containing diethylene glycol that had been falsely labeled as 99.5 percent pure glycerin. That syrup passed through several trading companies before ending up in Panama, where it was mixed into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine.
At least 100 people died as a direct result, according to Dimas Guevara, a Panamanian prosecutor who is leading the investigation into the deaths.
Over the years, counterfeiters have found it financially advantageous to substitute diethylene glycol, a sweet-tasting syrup, for its chemical cousin glycerin, which is usually much more expensive.
I’ve seen in passing, within the last week, information that the melamine found in the pet food coming from China, was placed there intentionally to raise the measured protein value of the food.
Melamine is an industrial chemical that animal feed producers here say has been intentionally mixed into feed to cheat farmers into thinking they are buying higher protein meal, even though the chemical has no nutritional value. A similar practice took place in the United States and in China involving a related compound called urea, but that compound is now more widely tested for and banned from certain feeds in the United States.
High protein value, in dog food for example, is a big deal. Don’t believe me? Take a stroll down the pet food aisle. Read the labels. It’s not just pets, either; livestock, too, is affected by this nonsense.
All of this is monstrous, certainly. But here’s the thing; None of this was supposed to be happening under such a strict governmental controls. This is supposed to be the socialist paradise.
And, by the way, look at the first paragraph in the section of quotes above. Notice that the Panamanian government is involved in the deaths of about 100 people, killed by cold medicine, issued by the Panamanian government.
Dave Schuler notes this whole thing and asks at OTB:
As you must surely know by now for the last two months I’ve been producing daily updates over at my place on the pet food recall which, far from winding down, appears to be about in midstroke. In today’s update, I commented on an LA Times editorial which got me to thinking. The Food and Drug Administration is more than a century old, established to cope with the food and drug safety issues of a century ago. What would a 21st century FDA look like? What problems should it be dealing with? How would it function?
IMO our government, generally, is firmly moored to a 1950’s organizational and performance model. Should this be changed? Can it be changed?
My answer, strictly speaking, is no… there’/s no way to change it.
I will take the answer further; there is no way that government of any design can deal with the problems being forced upon it. The issue is not the design of government, it is not the design of the hierarchy within the different governmental fiefdoms , it is not how efficient or inefficient each one of these is , the problem is that government simply cannot handle these tasks. Particularly, government cannot handle these tasks alone. Which is the position that it finds itself in, after generations of usurping all authority in the field.
And in any event, government cannot guard against these events, strictly from a governmental authority perspective. Our founders, most certainly knew about this problem, and addressed that early on… John Adams, for example:
We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.
What we’re dealing with here, in the end, is an over- reliance on government. Government, supposedly the salvation , the protection against such events, is instead the proximate cause of these things. Not because they were not doing their job; they’re simply doing what governments do.
So how is it that so little of that happens here in the west? Culture, mostly. Here in the west, because of cultural influence more than anything else, we have people actually give a crap. But don’t worry, our government is slowly taking care of that problem, too.
* I haven’t said much all day on this misbegotten immigration sell-out., having said most of it yesterday. by will, however point you at , Neal, who does a fair job with it. make no mistake about this, my friends; we have been sold out.
And I want you to consider something very seriously with me, here; would this monstrosity even been under discussion if the democrats hadn’t come to power? Yes, this too, is yet another example of the benefits of “mixed government”. no question that there are a number of republicans acting stupidly on this, President Bush among them. But this entire deals smacks to me of go long to get along. Something that would clearly not be necessary, were the republicans in power. And I mean seriously in power, not just by one or two votes. Am I getting through, yet?
By the way, I should mention winning (For reasons I don’t understand) the most recent Caption Contest at OTB.
Tags: BitsBlog, Nightly Ramble
