IKEA and The Jungle Revisited

No – not Ikea too with tainted beef; Maybe not An epidemic of horsemeat contamination is plaguing Europe, beginning in Ireland two months ago. The meat from European slaughterhouses is adulterated with horse meat. One England study found an average adulterated level between 1.5-10% of the samples taken. The contaminated “beef” has been shipped to hospitals, restaurants, schools, and supermarkets. Horsemeat is not unhealthy. Most carnivores do not discriminate between buffalo, cats, deer, dogs, gazelles, goats, impalas, mice, pigs, rats, sheep, voles, water buffalo or horses. Red meat is red meat. Horsemeat was sold as dog food in pet stores when I was young. The human palate though does not relish horsemeat. It is not on the menu in American restaurants. We do not savor eating Champion, Comanche, Dan Patch, Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Traveler, Trigger, or Man o’ War. Indeed, the United States currently lacks a slaughterhouse for horses. But not Europe. Apparently quite a few European slaughterhouses have routinely slipped horse meat into their ground beef. South Africa also discovered goat, donkey, and water buffalo in its meat supply. It’s time to reread Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Major European companies, processing or selling adulterated beef, include Tesco, England’s largest supermarket, Asda (Walmart’s division in England), and Nestles, which only makes the very best. Burger King England may or may not have had horsemeat in their flame broiled, have it your way, burgers. They claimed they found it in a warehouse supply, but kept it out of the restaurants. On the other hand Taco bell found horse DNA in its ground beef. The contamination epidemic spread. It reached even the iconic IKEA, which gets 5% of its sales from food products. Lost among all its inexpensive, not too difficult to assemble, particleboard furniture, are the 160 million Swedish Meatballs it annually sells. Czech inspectors then claimed to find horse DNA in IKEA’s wiener sausages, proving the American adage that we do not need to know what goes into the making of sausage. IKEA recalled the sausage from 21 European countries, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic. The past two months have illustrated the risks of our extended supply chains for food and other products. The adulteration, this time, has not posed a major health risk, but it is extremely costly for the companies involved. The United States experienced several problems with merchandise and toys imported from China. Lead paint was often the culprit. Some dairies in China contaminated their milk. Perrier had a major problem with its mineral waters two decades ago when it failed to filter the benzene out of the natural waters. Food safety has been a national priority for over a century with an amazing record, despite the occasional salmonella and E coli contaminations. The Swedish producer of the suspect IKEA sausage claims it has tested the sausage 320 times since the Czechs reported the trace contamination. It claims to have found no horse DNA in the sausage. It did not disclose what it found in the sausage.

Mayor Bloomberg, the Nanny Mayor of New York City

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in his 12th and final year as mayor. The once liberal Democrat, then conservative Republican and now independent declared his governing philosophy in an June 2012 interview with CBS: [I]f government’s purpose isn’t to improve the health and longevity of its citizens, I don’t know what its purpose is.” Government’s purpose is not to decide for us. God gave us Free Will and Determinism. Our Founding fathers rebelled from England and wrote the Constitution to protect us from government. The purpose of government is to defend us against external threats, protect us from criminal activity within the society, and provide us needed services. Government’s purpose is not to act as Big Brother. Part of the curse of elitists is that they know what it best for us, and demand that we act accordingly, even if, as with Vice President Al Gore, they hold themselves to a double standard. Forget the March 1 sequester. The true day of reckoning for New York City is March 12, the day when Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on 32oz sodas goes into effect. He also banned certain types of mixers. The pizza man can deliver a pizza with two 16oz Cokes or Pepsis, but not one 32oz sugared soda. As with such bans, arbitrary and capricious (that’s often the legal term for shockingly stupid) distinctions may be made. Thus, supermarkets can continue to sell 32oz sugared sodas, as can grocery stores and supermarkets. So could Walmart, except that it is still blocked from The City. The Mayor has yet to impose a limit on extra cheese or pepperoni on pizzas, or even pizzas, which can be loaded with fat and artery chocking cholesterol. He now wants to expand the soda ban statewide. It is also legal to drink beer with pizza. He is about to propose a ban on Styrofoam containers The Mayor led a national charge against trans fats in his first term. He followed up by requiring fast food restaurants to post the calorie contents of their food on large menu boards. City hospitals on September 3, 2012 had to hide baby formula into locked cabinets as the Mayor insisted that mothers breast feed their babies. His program was termed “Latch on NYC.” Mothers could still ask for formula, but are subject to browbeating from a nurse. Whether a mother breast or bottle feeds her baby is her personal decision. Government should not harass her for exercising such a fundamental decision. 27 of the New York City hospitals agreed to stop giving the new moms the formula manufacturer swag bags with goodies for the mom and new born. He earlier banned food donations to homeless shelters because there could be no guarantee of the sodium content of the donated food. You now have to ask for salt at a restaurant if you want it. The Mayor analogizes the ban on large sugared sodas to the ban on lead paint. Lead paint is a poison to our children, often in older tenements. Sugared soda is not an inherent poison. There are times when "Coke is the real Thing." The Mayor has a large, armed security detail protecting him. Such protection for the President, Governor, Mayor and other public officials is sadly necessary in today’s world. He is one of the leading national Crusaders for gun control. He would love to ban guns in New York City and hold the manufacturers liable for the violence inflicted by criminals using guns. The courts and the Second Amendment are blocking him. The Mayor in January announced that the ER’s in the 11 public hospitals in the City will be limited to prescribing no more than a three day supply of painkillers, such as Oxycotin and Vicotin. His first term started with a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, followed by high cigarette taxes such that a pack can cost up to $14.50 in the City. Some political attacks on personal choice fail. For example, Maine had to rescind its ban on juice paks after three years, and attempts by some states to ban disposable diapers have failed. A bootlegging cigarette industry has sprung up. That reminds us of the Mafia which made a fortune during Prohibition. Corruption and organized crime often accompany the denial of individual freedom. Have we forgotten the lessons of Prohibition or the more recent failure of the War on Drugs. Governments and politicians, like Mayor Bloomberg, never seem to learn the lessons from history. Attempts by Big Brother to regulate our personal lives are doomed to failure, a failure with tragic consequences for the individual and society. A bureaucracy must be created to enforce the new restrictions on liberty. We have left the era of the Puritans behind us, or have we?

Reflections on the Oscars

2012 was a great year for Hollywood movies. All of the nominated movies, actors, directors, and producers are deserving this year. Seth MacFarlane is exceedingly talented – much more talented than his material. Even Captain Kirk could not save the introductory set. Seth surpassed the bar set two years ago by Anne Hathaway and James Franco, the latter of whom phoned it in. Anne lived the Princess Diaries and even received redemption from the Academy. Tasteless jokes are tasteless jokes, even at the Oscars. The great Johnny Carson and Bob Hope never had to resort to bathroom or sophomoric humor. The Ted skit was especially inane. The Oscars would have finished on time and not 35 minutes late had Seth skipped the lame jokes. If JC Penney is a major sponsor of the Academy Awards, then why didn’t any of the celebrities announce they’re wearing James Cash Penney? Helen Hunt, to her credit, wore H & M. James Bond actually won two Oscars, including the first time for a song. Shirley Bassett reminded us that the right song adds to the movie. Wouldn’t it have been great to celebrate the 50 years of James Bond by having all living Bonds, including George Lazenby, on stage? If only David Niven could have appeared! Rhythm & Hues won the special effects Oscar for Life of Pi after entering bankruptcy and laying off hundreds. Pi remains 3.1416 to infinity, but R & H sits in Chapter 11. Why were the envelopes so difficult to open? Is Quentin Tarantino’s vocabulary limited to “I,” “Me,” and “My”? He should film the new Arrested Development. The CIA is the big winner between ARGO and Zero Dark Thirty. What were the odds that Hollywood would say anything nice about the Agency? What happened to Lincoln? Imagine if Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein worked together on a project? William Goldenberg won an Oscar for Film Editing on Argo. He defeated William Goldenberg who film edited Zero Dark Thirty. Kristin Stewart proved she is incapable of showing emotion, even pain, during the Oscars. She could blame it on a leg injury, giving rise to the actor’s line “Break a leg.” Even the losers took home about $45,000 in swag. Hollywood crossed a political line at the Academy Awards. We actually saw many of the nominated movies this year, but what happened to Salmon Fishing in Yemen and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel? The closing number was the highlight.

Andrew Luster's New Defense: The Lawyers Made Me Do It

Andrew Luster blames his sordid tale on the lawyers. He is the son of privilege. The great grandson, an heir to the Max Factor fortune, grew up in Malibu. He received a substantial cash income from a family trust. Andrew Luster is also a neer d’well, playboy, libertine, rake, wastrel, and most significantly a serial rapist and felon. Based on wealth, fancy cars, looks, and personality, he could easily “score” with many women. Hoever, he relied on gamma hydroxy butyrate, GHB, a date rape drug, also known as “Liquid Ecstacy” or “Liquid X.” He then taped the sexual assaults on the unconscious women. Jurors watched the tapes, which showed him as a sociopath. Two of the victims had no memory of the sexual assaults. One woman was snoring during the sexual assault. Another was only 17 at the time. He claimed his victims consented. The law is clear though. An underaged, intoxicated, drugged, or unconscious woman is legally incapable of giving consent. The illegal acts occurred between October 1996 and July 2000. Luster was arrested and released on $1 million bail. He jumped bail four days into the 2002 trial, which proceeded in absentia. He was convicted on 86 counts of assault, rape, drug induced rapes, rapes of unconscious women, and poisoning, sentenced to 124 years in prison, and fined $1 million. Luster was hiding in plain view in Mexico. Duane “Dog” Chapman, the famed bounty hunter, apprehended him eating a burrito at a taco stand in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on June 20, 2003. Luster was brought back to face justice in California. A 2003 made for TV movie, A Date With Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster, was produced during his unsuccessful refuge in Mexico. The victims of sexual assaults normally do not bring civil law suits seeking compensation. However, when a defendant, such as Luster, possesses assets then the suit is sometimes brought. Two of his victims won $40 million in judgments. How much they will collect remains to be seen as Luster entered personal bankruptcy. The judge in one civil suit called the facts “so perverse, so unconscionable and so despicable.” One of the classic criminal law defenses is the “SODDI” Defense- “Some Other Dud Done It.” For example, the Bell 6 defendants, the city officials who looted Bell, blamed their acts on Robert Rizzo, the indicted city manager who will be tried separately. Murder defendants often blame the victim, who is clearly unable to testify. We know from Hollywood movies and TV shows that lawyers are often the villain. Andrew Luster’s new defense is to blame the lawyers, in fact one dead lawyer. He is seeking a new trial and a reduced sentence on grounds of poor representation in the trial he fled. His new lawyers claim in a February 9 filing that he was the victim, yes he was the victim, of a half dozen incompetent, unethical, and crooked lawyers. Money usually procures the services of highly competent criminal defense attorneys, not 6 incompetent attorneys. He claims his lawyer advised him to leave the country, “to head for the border.” He claims to have acted on advice of counsel, Richard G. Sherman, who conveniently died in April 2011. Sherman had a history of ethical problems, but denied the Luster claims before his death. His new lawyers are now blaming his old lawyers, especially a deceased lawyer, for the client’s actions. Counsel did not drug the young women. Nor did counsel sexually assault the unconscious women. Counsel did not commit statutory rape. Counsel did not advise Luster to tape his depravities. Counsel did not flee to Mexico. Counsel had to defend an empty chair during the trial he fled. Luster was not there to speak for himself, but his tapes spoke for him in absentia. Luster was of free will and determinism. He also claimed at one point to be earning $60-70,000 annually from day trading. He’s smart enough to know what he’s doing. And stupid enough to have done it.

Sequestration is Not

Sequestration may be many things, but here's what sequestration is not; This list is of what the sequester will not do: 1) It will not affect the President’s travel and golf budget. President Obama can thereby continue to play golf with Tiger Woods at taxpayer expense while federal workers are laid off or furloughed. 2) It will not affect the President’s vacation plans. 3) It will not force the President to actually govern as opposed to vacationing, golfing, and campaigning. 4) It will not affect presdient Obama's 100 city campaign swing for tax increases. 6) It will not affect the salaries of the members of Congress or their staffs. 5) It will not cause the Senate Democrats to pass their first budget in 4 years, or act on the two House bills that would end the sequester. 7) It will not shut the government down. 8) It will not cut the deficit or reduce government spending; it simply reduces the growth in spending. 9) It will not result in an economic collapse, contrary to the apocalyptic, Chicken Little the Sky is Falling pronouncements of the President, and the Parade of Horrors, Doomsday pronunciations of a complaint media. 10) It will not reduce the projected $3.5 trillion budget by more than $85 billion – petty cash in the federal budget. 11) It will not result in a real crisis, but a politically manufactured crisis. 12) It will not result in internecine fighting within the Republican Party or in Democratic control of the House in 2014. 13) It will not result in Republicans agreeing to raise taxes again, which would result in the destruction of the GOP. The elected Republicans remember the fate of President George H. W. Bush and state Republican office holders who voted to raise taxes. 14) It is insufficient to ward off the coming rise in interest rates and inflation. 15) It will not prevent at a future date the inevitable reassessment of the major entitlement programs, including social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare. 16) It is just one more excuse for the President to demagogue Republicans and continue his perpetual campaigning. 17) It will not be as devastating to the economy as President Obama’s 2% payroll tax increase and the rest of the January 1, 2013 income, capital gains and dividend tax increases. 18) It will not slow down the rise in gas prices, which will have a devastating effect on the economy. 19) It is not the end of the Republic. Sequestration is, of course, a stupid idea. It is President Obama’s idea.

More Random Killings in Orange County Today

We haven't yet recovered from Christopher Dorner's February 2 murders in Irvine when the overhead police helicopters woke us up early this morning in Tustin - never a good wake up call. Tustin is a sleepy suburb in Orange County, a county of suburbs and exurbs, and that's how we like it. 20 year old Ali Syed killed a still unidentified young woman in his parent's Ladera Ranch condo at 4:45AM, and then drove off in their GMC Yukon Denali onto the I 5. They phoned 911. The car sprang a flat and he pulled off on Red Hill into a Denny's close to Tustin High School, walking distance from our house. He shot the driver of a car in an unsuccessful carjacking. He then went next door and took the car keys from a motorist filing up at the Mobil Station. He let this driver live, telling him "I killed somebody. Today is my last day." He drove off in his Dakota pickup. Today was that driver's lucky day. The stolen Dakota was short on gas. Back on and off the freeways. He exited the 55 in Santa Ana. He found 69 year old Melvin Lee Edwards sitting in his BMW on his way to work. He ordered Edwards out of his car, executed him, and drove off in the BMW. Back on and off the 55 at Edinger. He killed 26 year old Jeremy Lewis, a plumber working a construction site, and wounded a co-worker, He stole a pickup truck. Back on the 55 he shot at cars on the road. He pulled off the 5 at Katella and proceeded to blow his head off at Katella and North Wanda. 25 miles and 75 minutes of a random shooting spree with a shotgun, Vice President Biden's recommended weapon for self defense. 4 dead and 3 wounded for no known reason. We now know that crazed Dorner's Irvine killings were planned and not random. He was also stalking other LAPD officers and their families. No such explanation has surfaced for for Ali. We could speculate, but that's all it would be - random speculation. Ali was unemployed and taking three units at Saddleback Community College. He found no meaning in life, certainly not in his death and those of his randomly chosen victims. Four Dead in the OC. This is not The OC of the TV series, Arrested Development, Laguna Beach, or the Really Desperate Housewives of Orange County. This is The Oc that should not be. Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth, is 4 miles west on Katella.

The Unabomber, The DC Sniper, and Christopher Dorner

Americans over the past quarter century have been paralyzed in fear by four men: Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, The D.C. Sniper, and Charles Dorner. All were perpetrators of seemingly unconnected, random acts of violence. Kaczynski and Dorner issued rambling manifestos, which helped identify them. Muhammad and Malvo spoke with sniper bullets. Ted Kaczynski instilled fear nationally, whereas the D.C. Sniper and Dorner were limited to specific regions of America, but their crime waves were followed nationally. Americans were increasingly scared of flying before the Unabomber was arrested. Americans were scared of traveling to the D.C. Metropolitan area because the D.C. Sniper was loose. Dorner was running wild in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties amidst roughly 20 million residents. The odds of any one individual being killed by the 4 are negligible, but the fear was palpable. Ted Kaczynski is a genius, a crazed genius with a troubled past. He was very young when a disease caused him to be isolated for months. He was unresponsive upon his return. He skipped the sixth grade in school because of his intelligence, which was common decades ago. Only later was it recognized that the practice of early promotion often had a bad effect on social development. He entered Harvard at 16, and graduated at 19. He earned a Ph.D. in math at Michigan and then started teaching at Berkeley in 1967. He resigned two years later, moved back home for a few years, and then built his cabin and bombs in Montana. We now know that he was one of a couple dozen students in a Harvard class, which was billed as a multiple-year personality study, but which subjected the students to emotional brutalization and humiliation. (See Alston Chase, Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber). He was not a fit subject for that study. His growing radicalism would have been nurtured by his years at Michigan and Berkeley. Then he started sending bombs through the mail to professors, students, executives, computer store owners, and the cargo of an airline. Three died and 23 were injured in 13 known bomb attacks from 1978 to 1995. Fear grew as no one knew when or where the next bomb would arrive. The only link between the victims was in the Unabomber’s mind. The D.C. Snipers went on a shooting spree between October 2 and October 22, 2002 in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. They killed 10 and wounded three in October as well as prior killings in Alabama and Louisiana. No commonality seemed to exist between the victims. They were simply targets of opportunity at the wrong place at the wrong time. People were scared of traveling to D.C. The Washington area was terrorized. The two were apprehended in Maryland, but tried first in Virginia, mainly because Virginia believed in capital punishment. Muhammad was executed on November 10, 2009. Malvo is serving six life sentences since he was a minor at the time of the shootings. Dorner’s homicidal rampage ended in a burning cabin in Big Bear, California. It began on Super Bowl Sunday ten days earlier when a young couple was found murdered in an Irvine, California parking garage. The crime was inexplicable until the Irvine Police announced a few days later that Dorner was the suspect. His manifesto reflected decades of built up rage against anyone who might have offended him. Among those identified was the father of the slain woman. He was targeting not only the “wrongdoers” - mostly police, but also their families. That is hate, psychotic hate. Then he proceeded to shoot two LAPD officers in Corona on protection duty for one of the his named targets, followed by killing a Riverside police officer and seriously wounding a second. The police were frightened, which resulted in some understandable itchy trigger fingers on their part in the dark night. We know that Dorner on his final day killed a San Bernardino Deputy Sheriff and wounded a second one. He was not going to be taken alive. Nor should he have been. We are used to violence on TV, the movies, and video games. We probably all know someone who died in an auto accident. We see on the news the tales of gang shootings in cities like LA and Chicago. We realize that terrorists can strike the United States again. These mass killers are different. They come from us, but have struck out against civilization, our civilization, on multiple occasions. By randomly targeting ordinary Americans across all ethnic, social, economic, and demographic barriers in urban and suburban areas, they have struck fear in all of us. They will continue to strike fear with future attacks until stopped. They have called into question the Rule of Law until caught. They have broken our trust in an orderly, civilized society. They have scratched away the thin veneer of civilization. We are powerless against their madness. Fear and panic build. We can see our families and friends among the victims. Even the police seem powerless against their madness. We are not safe, not in our homes, not in our offices. Dorner was a police officer and Navy reservist. He took oaths to protect us. Not only did he break that trust, but he also singled out fellow officers and their families. We have all asked ourselves “Whom can we trust?” Yet, we have to trust! That is our dilemma.