In the past few days, a whole list of things have made me want to hold my nose. Just for starters:

Toilet texting on the rise

Neal Augenstein, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — With today’s smartphones, more people are taking their work and personal lives wherever they go — even to the toilet.

A new study of mobile phone habits shows 75 percent of people have texted, emailed, used apps or surfed the web while nature calls.

More than 90 percent of people between 28 and 35 will return a call or text while sitting on the toilet.

One in five men joined a conference call while sitting on the toilet, despite the possibility of people on the other end hearing noises or accidentally hitting the FaceTime video conferencing button…

How about leaving your cell phone in your pocket or, better yet, at your desk?
If you use your cell phone on the toilet, you will most likely contaminate the phone. (All the more so if you DROP the phone.) Suppose you wash your hands, then pick up that phone again. You’ve just gotten the germs back on your hands.

McDonald’s drops use of ‘pink slime’ ammonium hydroxide in hamburger meat

Kristin Annable  Jan 26, 2012 – 9:24 PM ET | Last Updated: Jan 27, 2012 11:13 AM ET

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver can claim one more victory in his food revolution after McDonald’s stopped using what he called “pink slime” in its burgers.

On Thursday, McDonald’s USA announced it was discontinuing the use of ammonium hydroxide in its beef.

The Naked Chef had publicly denounced the use of the additive on his show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. He questioned how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could allow the compound to be used in foods.

Ammonium hydroxide is made of water and ammonia and is used to kill bacteria. Typically it is used in household cleaning products.

On one episode of his show, Mr. Oliver said that beef producers take beef “trimmings” that would normally go to dog food and wash it with the compound until it is fit for human consumption.

“Imagine how happy an accountant is, you just turned dog food into what can potentially be your kids’ food,” he said on the episode…

Yep, ammonium hydroxide is household ammonia – the stuff you use to clean windows, and janitors use to clean floors. It isn’t McDonald’s decision to stop using the ammonia “meat makeover” treatment that bothers me, but rather, the fact that they sold adulterated food to begin with. All of that nanny-state “nutritional labeling” has proven to be useless, when we aren’t even told the truth about what the ingredients are. How many people would buy a burger if the label disclosed that it contained meat scraps treated with ammonia?

More details from Yahoo News.

Breitbart: Hate Radio Host Berates And Belittles Black Republican

Memphis talk radio host Thaddeus Matthews insulted and humiliated Republican congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann during a recent interview. He ended the interview by saying, “get your stupid, ignorant ass up out of my studio.” As Bergmann was leaving the studio she extended her hand to the host and Matthews refused to shake hands because he didn’t want the “whiteness” to “rub off” on him.

Note: The video of the incident was clearly made by someone who doesn’t favor Republicans or members of the Tea Party.

Commenter claspur links to Thaddeus Matthews’ rap sheet.

Further details at The Blaze. See comments for contact information. (h/t: Sara Dipindy)

Jesus said, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” (Matthew 15:11 KJV) Indeed, Thaddeus Matthews defiled not only himself and his talk show guest, but also the entire citizenry of Memphis. I question the judgment and common sense of anybody who would advertise on Matthews’ show or even listen to it more than once.

Dear Friends,

PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW. POST ON FACEBOOK. DISTRIBUTE TO ALL OF YOUR MAILING LISTS:

Earlier this year, we came together as a community United in Faith, Love and Action – working against the clock to find a matching bone marrow donor for Jelena Stojakovic.

I regret to inform you that despite your generous willingness to help, and our combined efforts to save her life, Jelena fell asleep in the Lord at a Seattle cancer treatment center on Tuesday, November 15. She was 32 years old. She was devoted to the Lord in faith and to improving the condition of her fellow man as shown through her years of service at International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC).

During her last days among us, Jelena’s family, friends and her mother — who were at her side as she took her last breath — found comfort in your outpouring of love and the knowledge that you were willing to donate your own bone marrow to extend her life. And while we did not succeed in finding a donor, there is still a chance to show your love and respect for this noble soul by making a donation to help defray the costs of transporting her body so that she may be buried in Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina, her home.

Please consider — now — making a donation whatever amount you feel comfortable via PayPal to Djurdjevich@gmail.com.

For those who wish to donate by writing a check, please make out the check to Sveta Gora Funeral Home, and write Jelena Stojakovic in the memo line. Please mail checks through the US Post Office to her Kuma Natalija Djurickovic or Anna Pavichevich, who is making the funeral arrangements and transport of Jelena’s body via Sveta Gora Funeral Home in Chicago, IL.

Addresses:

Natalija Djurickovic
2102 Hutchinson Grove Court
Falls Church, VA 22043

Anna Pavichevich
6007 N. Sheridan Road
Unit 8B
Chicago, IL 60660

$15,000 is needed to transport Jelena and her mother back to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initial costs have been paid by Sveta Gora Funeral Home, until sufficient funds can be raised. Sveta Gora estimates the cost to be approximately $10,000; however, we would like to pay for Jelena’s mother’s ticket home and for the cost of a companion to accompany her during her time of excruciating grief. If there are funds remaining, they will be used to purchase a tombstone and register Serbs in the Bone Marrow Registry in Belgrade, Serbia, at €250 (Euros), or about USD $337.50 per person. If we can register and save a future life, Jelena’s legacy and spirit will live on.

To all who registered as bone marrow donors, to those who volunteered, and to those who prayed — thank you. May your willingness to help, and the earnestness with which you had hoped to be the match, be recognized and rewarded richly by our Lord who sees the best in everyone.

God Bless,

Anna Pavichevich
Natalija Djurickovic Stamenkovic
Mara Milanovic
Tomislav Djurdjevich

http://djurdjevich.blog.com/2011/11/15/jelena-stojakovic-memorial-fund/

“It should go without saying that lots of people sleeping outside in a park as we head toward winter is not an ideal situation for anyone’s health.” Ya think?

We told you so.

The “Obamavilles” of the #Occupy movement are a health and safety hazard to all of us. Just for starters, they are breeding grounds for deadly diseases that can quickly spread outside the camps.

Protesters Coming Down With the “Zuccotti Lung”

With wintry weather poised to swoop into the cramped outdoor quarters of Occupy Wall Street protesters, it may not be long before more campers catch what’s being called “Zuccotti lung.”

That’s what demonstrators have dubbed the sickness that seems to be spreading among them at an unpleasantly high rate these days: “It’s a real thing,” Willie Carey, 28, told the New York Times.

With little sleep in cold conditions, cigarettes and drinks being passed from mouth to mouth, and few opportunities to wash hands, Zuccotti Park may now just be the best place to catch respiratory viruses, norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting virus) and tuberculosis, according to one doctor.

The damp clothing and cardboard signs wet with rain are also breeding grounds for mold. Some protesters are urinating in bottles and leaving food trash discarded throughout the campground, providing further opportunities for nastiness.

“Pretty much everything here is a good way to get sick,” Salvatore Cipolla, 23, from Long Island, told the Times. “It’ll definitely thin the herd.”

Some protesters have refused free flu shots, citing a “government conspiracy,” the Times said.

There is also the increased risk among the encampment of sexually transmitted diseases, said the doctor, Dr. Philip M. Tierno, Jr. of the NYU Langone Medical Center. And the site’s pounding circles could lead to hearing damage.

Tierno compared conditions at the park to the pilgrimage to Mecca, in which entire groups of people have come down with respiratory infections in short period of time, and the communal compounds of the 1960s where sanitation problems and STDs cropped up.

The health department has visited the site and is monitoring.

“It should go without saying that lots of people sleeping outside in a park as we head toward winter is not an ideal situation for anyone’s health,” the department said in a statement.

Photo and comments here.

It is also unsafe for protesters to be sleeping night after night in close quarters with homeless people whose health status is unknown. Homeless people are likely to carry active tuberculosis, often drug-resistant strains. Tuberculosis can be spread in various ways, such as by sharing air space with infected individuals for a prolonged period of time. Although an Occupy Atlanta organizer insists that tests show no tuberculosis infection among his group thus far, the abysmal sanitation practices that are rife among Occupiers make contagion all too likely.

‘Occupy Atlanta’ Shelter Tests Positive for Tuberculosis

A homeless shelter that has been housing more than 100 “Occupy Atlanta” protesters has tested positive for tuberculosis (TB), WGCL-TV reported Thursday.

At least two people at the Atlanta shelter have contracted the air-borne disease, a highly contagious bacterial infection that affects the lungs and other organs.

“One of these persons was confirmed to have a strain of TB that is resistant to a single, standard medication,”

Fulton County Services Director Matthew McKenna said in a written statement to WGCL-TV.

He said both infected people have begun treatment and are being monitored. It is unclear if the two cases were among the homeless population or the anti-Wall Street protesters.

The shelter has become one of the city’s largest bases for “Occupy” protesters since police shut down an encampment at a municipal park last month.

The Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless indicated that two cases have been made public knowledge to the protesters.

Click here to read more.

Liberal Confronts Herman Cain!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by secularstupidest on Mar 9, 2011

Herman Cain dealt with a group of liberals who came to confront him during one of his live events. The police were available to make sure nothing got out of hand.

I was always taught that medical records must be kept sacrosanct. Now that the federal grabbermint is taking over this sector of our economy, patient confidentiality is a thing of the past.

Washington Examiner: Obamacare HHS rule would give government everybody’s health records

By: Rep. Tim Huelskamp | 09/23/11 3:29 PM
OpEd Contributor

It’s been said a thousand times: Congress had to pass President Obama’s health care law in order to find out what’s in it. But, despite the repetitiveness, the level of shock from each new discovery never seems to recede.

This time, America is learning about the federal government’s plan to collect and aggregate confidential patient records for every one of us.

In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.

(See Proposed Rule: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Standards Related to Reinsurance, Risk Corridors and Risk Adjustment, Volume 76, page 41930. Proposed rule docket ID is HHS-OS-2011-0022 http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-15/pdf/2011-17609.pdf)

The HHS has proposed the federal government pursue one of three paths to obtain this sensitive information: A “centralized approach” wherein insurers’ data go directly to Washington; an “intermediate state-level approach” in which insurers give the information to the 50 states; or a “distributed approach” in which health insurance companies crunch the numbers according to federal bureaucrat edict.

It’s par for the course with the federal government, but abstract terms are used to distract from the real objectives of this idea: no matter which “option” is chosen, government bureaucrats would have access to the health records of every American – including you.

There are major problems with any one of these three “options.” First is the obvious breach of patient confidentiality. The federal government does not exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to managing private information about its citizens.

Why should we trust that the federal government would somehow keep all patient records confidential? In one case, a government employee’s laptop containing information about 26.5 million veterans and their spouses was stolen from the employee’s home.

There’s also the HHS contractor who lost a laptop containing medical information about nearly 50,000 Medicare beneficiaries. And, we cannot forget when the USDA’s computer system was compromised and information and photos of 26,000 employees, contractors, and retirees potentially accessed.

The second concern is the government compulsion to seize details about private business practices. Certainly many health insurance companies defended and advocated for the president’s health care law, but they likely did not know this was part of the bargain.

They are being asked to provide proprietary information to governments for purposes that will undermine their competitiveness. Obama and Sebelius made such a big deal about Americans being able to keep the coverage they have under ObamaCare; with these provisions, such private insurance may cease to exist if insurers are required to divulge their business models.

Certainly businesses have lost confidential data like the federal government has, but the power of the market can punish the private sector. A victim can fire a health insurance company; he cannot fire a bureaucrat.

What happens to the federal government if it loses a laptop full of patient data or business information? What recourse do individual citizens have against an inept bureaucrat who leaves the computer unlocked? Imagine a Wikileaks-sized disclosure of every Americans’ health histories. The results could be devastating – embarrassing – even Orwellian.

With its extensive rule-making decrees, ObamaCare has been an exercise in creating authority out of thin air at the expense of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and liberties.

The ability of the federal government to spy on, review, and approve individuals’ private patient-doctor interactions is an excessive power-grab.

Like other discoveries that have occurred since the law’s passage, this one leaves us scratching our heads as to the necessity not just of this provision, but the entire law.

The HHS attempts to justify its proposal on the grounds that it has to be able to compare performance. No matter what the explanation is, however, this type of data collection is an egregious violation of patient-doctor confidentiality and business privacy. It is like J. Edgar Hoover in a lab coat.

And, no matter what assurances Obama, Sebelius and their unelected and unaccountable HHS bureaucrats make about protections and safeguards of data, too many people already know what can result when their confidential information gets into the wrong hands, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Republican Tim Huelskamp represents the first congressional district of Kansas.

I recently blogged about why non-Muslims should avoid halal food. Acceptance of halal food leads to pressure for more Muslim immigration and for the gradual expulsion of non-Muslims from the food industry.

Those are not the only reasons to shun halal food. I noticed this unappetizing story on the RSS feed from Winds of Jihad:

Halal, the Dirtiest Grub in New York City

NY POST: Worst of the wurst: NYC’s dirtiest ‘alfresco’ food cart vendors

(hat tip Pamela Hall via Pamela Geller)

That’s wheely gross. Mobile food vendors racked up a stomach-turning 2,517 violations this year — ranging from poor personal hygiene, to serving up mystery meat, to live rodents — but the city Health Department doesn’t grade them or let the public know just how filthy they are. [emphasis added]

Sheik yer’mami has classified information that in Germany the tax-authorities, who are after small business like blood-hounds, have strict guidelines not to investigate Mohammedan businesses who are known tax-cheats……

In just four months, sidewalk slinger Bulent Isci earned 16 violations, making him the city’s vilest vendor, according to records obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information Law request.

Isci manhandled food on the southeast corner of West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, instead of using a utensil, and failed to wash his hands “after visiting the toilet, coughing, sneezing, smoking [or] preparing raw foods,” records show. After his first inspection in January, he failed to clean up and was cited during three more inspections in March and April.

Mubarak Ahmed broke the health code 14 times in a two-month span at his stand on West 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, according to records. His offenses included inadequate personal cleanliness and the absence of a required sink for hand-washing.

When a Post reporter stopped by Ahmed’s stand Friday, he was scarfing down lunch — a rice-and-meat dish from a neighboring vendor — and tore an orange open with dirt-caked fingernails before serving a customer…

What’s the real problem here?

Food trucks, halal or not, “enjoy” a dubious reputation for sanitation, partly on account of the lack of hand-washing facilities. It is possible (though not necessarily cheap) to equip a food truck with a lavatory. This involves a potable-water tank, a small water heater, a water pump, the lavatory itself, and a holding tank, plus paper towels and a soap dispenser. At least in South Carolina, it’s is required by law.

I mentioned the issue of dirty halal food to Bunk Strutts, who reminded me, “Unsanitary conditions aren’t limited to halal joints. It’s not an ethnic food thing either.”

Bunk is certainly right about that! Here’s the video he sent me, featuring hilarious re-enactments of real restaurant inspection reports. A Persian pizza place is pilloried at 3:28, but, as Bunk indicates, eateries of every variety are among the guilty.

Amazing Restaurant Inspections

Click here to view the embedded video.

Uploaded by chadlnc on October 4, 2006

TRUE health inspection violations from inspectors around the country. From mice in the marinade to lettuce fished out of the garbage.

Any prepared food nowadays – not just ethnic food – is likely to have been handled by people – some from Third World countries, but by no means all – who may carry communicable diseases, who have not been trained in proper sanitation, or who disregard such training after having received it because that wasn’t the way they were raised. It takes good supervision and management to ensure compliance, which is unlikely to happen if the owners of the establishment are of the same unwholesome mindset – or if they don’t expect the laws to be enforced.

After looking at all of this evidence very carefully, I have concluded that food trucks, cafeterias, and restaurants that serve halal food might not be significantly dirtier than those that serve non-halal food. Instead, halal food is exposed to contamination before it gets to these establishments.

As Sheik pointed out above, there seems to be a double standard of enforcement, in which governmental authorities are slow or reluctant to enforce the laws and regulations, or to notify the public, when the culprits are Muslim. And that’s the real problem here.

Okaaaaay. The following incident took place in 2008, and we don’t hear about it until 2011? Even the UK Muslims themselves were well aware of issues with unsanitary halal food, as long ago as 2004.

Northampton Chronicle: Dirty fridges, out of date milk and packaging gnawed by rodents at Halal butchers shop

Published on Thursday 5 May 2011 02:10

INSPECTORS found a catalogue of hygiene breaches at a Northampton shop, including dirty fridges, out-of-date milk on sale, and mouse droppings in bags of food, a court heard.

An inspection at Kenya Halal Butchers, in Wellingborough Road, in January 2008, found packaging that had been gnawed by rodents, mouse droppings inside bags of maize, dirty kitchen utensils, cultured milk on sale that was more than six weeks out of date, and dirty floors, fridges, storage cabinets and food preparation surfaces.

Co-owner Mohammed Ayub, aged 66, of Berkeley Avenue, in Greater London, appeared before magistrates in Wellingborough yesterday and pleaded guilty to six charges of breaching food safety and environmental health regulations, including failing to comply with a hygiene improvement notice served by Northampton Borough Council in September 2007. He was fined £1,320.

His son, fellow owner Mohammed Shazan, was fined £2,500 in August 2008 for similar offences…

Sometimes it involves deliberate fraud. This happened in Australia last year:

Sydney Morning Herald: Caught red-handed in a meat makeover scandal

HEATH ASTON, NSW POLITICAL EDITOR
April 25, 2010
EXCLUSIVE

BUTCHERS are using the illegal preservative sulphur dioxide to make old and greying meat look fresh. A butcher in Yagoona has become the latest to be caught using the toxic additive – a major ingredient of battery acid – on beef mince.

Toufic Elarab, the owner of Yagoona Halal Meats, was also found by NSW Food Authority inspectors to be storing meat in an unsanitised shopping trolley while beef hung on rusty hooks was allowed to rest against filthy, blood-splattered walls in a storage area.

The butcher is the latest to fall foul of health restrictions against the use of sulphur dioxide to disguise old or inferior raw meat.
[…]
The NSW Food Authority warned that sulphur dioxide carried the risk of serious allergic reaction…It is banned from all raw meats, including mince, sausages, rissoles and hamburger patties.

NSW Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan said: “While the vast majority of licensed operators do the right thing, it takes just one dodgy operator to put the community at risk from food-borne illness, which can have a devastating effect.

This is a clear message to those few rogue operators who continue to do the wrong thing: we will get you.”

Yagoona Halal Meats was fined $4800 and and ordered to pay $2000 in costs by the Chief Industrial Magistrate’s Court, which had previously found against the company over six other offences. The Food Authority gave evidence that the storage area had “rusty hanging hooks and a rusty handsaw contaminated by old, dry meat”. The walls were “unclean and found to have debris and dried blood on them”.

Having failed a string of inspections over the past few years, the Yagoona butcher is one offence away from being shut down, according to sources at the Food Authority…

Will anyone go on record to tell us exactly what it takes to get an egregiously filthy halal butcher shop shut down? Did the authorities recall any of the tainted meat that had been sold by Yagoona Halal Meats? If not, why not?

Another halal food warehouse is being sued by the State of Texas, following a pattern of violations dating back to 2001:

Food Safety News: Texas Sues Halal Group Over Food Safety

by Helena Bottemiller | Dec 02, 2009

The state of Texas is suing a Halal food establishment and its business partners for several food safety violations, including holding food in an extremely unsanitary warehouse, Courthouse News Service reported yesterday.

Halal Import Food Market’s warehouse was inspected after a Texas state trooper found 148 dead goat carcasses stacked inside an unrefrigerated van. Health inspectors not only found filthy conditions at the warehouse, but discovered that 102 dead goats and boxes of organs had disappeared in transit.

According to Courthouse News Service, the complaint describes the warehouse as having, “dead birds and bird droppings on food products…live bird flying around the warehouse and resting on food products,” and points to “trash piled 6 feet deep in some places.”

The complaint also adds that inspectors found “numerous dead rodents, numerous rodent droppings along with gnawed materials and debris,” and meat rotting in a grinder.

“Cigarette butts, rotting fruit, peels, partially eaten chicken and other food,” were also scattered about the warehouse, according to the complaint.

Texas is suing Halal Import Food Market, Zamzam Supermarket, World Food Market (the two stores the state believes received the missing goat meat), Adel, Sam, Nihaya, Jamal and Shoukry Mohammed Qaddura and Riyad Ibrahim.

Halal Import Market has been cited for food safety violations since as early as 2001.

The state is seeking fines of up to $25,000 per day from each defendant for each violation of safety regulations and wants all the contaminated food destroyed.

E. coli O157:H7 – It’s what’s for dinner!

Fecal coliform bacteria are an indication of fecal contamination and of poor sanitation in general. Certain strains of E. coli are dangerous, while others are not. Among the pathogenic E. coli strains are O104:H4 (the culprit in the deadly 2011 European outbreak) and O157:H7.

According to Wikipedia:

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli and a cause of foodborne illness. Infection often leads to hemorrhagic diarrhea, and occasionally to kidney failure, especially in young children and elderly persons. Transmission is via the fecal-oral route, and most illness has been associated with eating undercooked, contaminated ground beef, swimming in or drinking contaminated water, and eating contaminated vegetables.

Burnaby Now puts it in somewhat plainer terms:

Food contaminated with E. coli might not look or smell spoiled.

Consumption of food contaminated with the bacteria can cause serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Some people may have seizures or strokes and some may need blood transfusions and kidney dialysis. Others may live with permanent kidney damage. In severe cases of illness, people may die.

Notice how one Canadian halal meat purveyor managed to evade further accountability for tainted meat:

Food Safety News: BC Meat Processor Drops Federal Inspection

by News Desk | Jan 25, 2011

A meat processor that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency suspected had an E. coli contamination problem last November is opting out of federal inspection entirely and will be regulated only by the Province of British Columbia.

Provincially regulated plants are not required to test for the E. coli bacteria. Federally licensed meat processing plants in Canada, however, are required to test for E. coli O157:H7, and report positive results to CFIA.

Pitt Meadows Meats, Ltd, one of BC’s largest meat processing plants, has been under scrutiny for not immediately reporting lab results when they turned up positive for E. coli O157:H7 last fall. The company is known for its “halal” beef and lamb products, made in accordance with Islamic law and sold in many Middle Eastern food markets in the greater Vancouver area.

After the test result Sept. 9, Pitt Meadows destroyed 61 cases of product, but did not notify CFIA. Then an employee whistleblower turned Pitt Meadows into CBC News. The company told the CBC it had questioned the validity of the test results, and suspected an employee might be trying to sabotage its operation.

After it became aware of the possible contamination, CFIA issued a public health warning Nov. 9, advising the Vancouver Islamic community not to eat meat from the plant.

Later tests were all negative for E. coli. Pitt Meadows was closed down for a month, but re-opened Dec. 6.

There were no reports of illnesses associated with Pitt Meadows meats last fall, but CFIA officials say the only way to know now if there is E. coli contamination at Pitt Meadows will be after someone gets sick. [emphasis added]

Or after a LOT of people get sick.

Readers of public health journals learned over a decade ago that pathogen-tainted halal food is a widespread problem, and not a matter of isolated instances. But somehow this information never made it into the mainstream media or reached the general public. Wonder why not!

Microbiological investigation of halal butchery products and butchers’ premises

(Communicable Disease and Public Health, Vol. 2 No. 2, June 1999, full text available at the above link)

Summary: Halal butchers’ premises were investigated as they had not been represented in a recent study of butchery products and butchers’ premises conducted by the Local Authorities Coordinating Body on Food and Trading Standards and the PHLS. This study examined 183 raw prepared meats and 212 environmental samples from 105 halal butcher premises. Only raw meats were prepared on 97 of the premises visited; and the types of meat prepared on the remaining eight premises was not specified. Four halal butchers sold cooked meats prepared elsewhere. Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. were detected in 12 (7%) and 52 (28%) of the 183 raw meat products, respectively. Five raw prepared meats (3%) contained both salmonella and campylobacter. Vero cytotoxin producing Escherichia coli O157 was isolated from a raw meat product that also contained campylobacter. No cooked meat products were available for collection. The physical separation of raw and unwrapped cooked meat products in premises that prepared raw and sold cooked meats was not recorded. Apron cloths were the most heavily contaminated environmental samples examined; hygiene indicator microorganisms indicated an increased risk of cross contamination. Managers in 85 premises had received no food hygiene training and 88 premises had no hazard analysis system in place. Improvements are needed to reduce the risk of cross contamination…

Improvements are needed… Gee, ya think?

Oh, and by the way, you won’t automatically know when you’re getting halal meat. Just sayin’.

Daily Mail (UK): Chicken McHalal: An MoS investigation reveals that halal meat IS used in one of McDonald’s most popular meals

Fast-food giant McDonald’s has admitted selling halal chicken without telling its customers. The poultry was used in popular menu items such as Chicken McNuggets and the McChicken Sandwich in its 1,200 British outlets.

The admission comes three weeks after the company categorically denied to this newspaper that it used any halal meat. Now McDonald’s has revealed that the firm that supplies its poultry, Cargill, produces halal chicken at one of its abattoirs.

In a statement to The Mail on Sunday, McDonald’s said: ‘As a result of your enquiries, our investigation has confirmed that some halal chicken has entered our supply chain without our knowledge, and we apologise to our customers for this.

Food chain: Halal poultry has been used in popular menu items such as Chicken McNuggets and the McChicken Sandwich in its 1,200 British outlets

‘While is it not a quality issue, halal chicken is outside of our specification. We have received assurances from Cargill that halal meat production from this abattoir has now stopped.’

McDonald’s says all the chicken in its restaurants comes from poultry which has been stunned before slaughter. Meanwhile, Asda, Britain’s second-largest supermarket chain, has admitted that much of its lamb and chicken is slaughtered according to Islamic ritual…

Also see:

• Bare Naked Islam: UK: Parents outraged over HALAL-ONLY food being forced on their children in schools fight back
  (Warning: Graphic slaughterhouse images/videos)
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services
• Food Establishment Inspection Scores (USA)
  (h/t: Bunk Strutts)

Bon appétit!

From the 1389 Blog Mailbox:

Guest Article by Scott P.:

The Federal budget has been the subject of debate all over the country for the past few weeks and months. With a proposal finally pushed through last week, there remains some controversy in the republican realm over the EPA’s budget after the resolution. The choice to only cut about 16 percent of the EPA’s budget, as well as reduce only a few programs has continued to ruffle the feathers of outspoken republicans who see many EPA regulations as costly and unneeded, primarily those that allow the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. GOP reps and business leaders have connected the regulations with reduced revenue and no employment growth.

With the resolution providing less than stellar results for the republicans, it will remain to be seen if they will continue their assault on the EPA throughout 2011. If one had to bet, look for them to continue. The republicans have built up too much time and effort to stop simply because the budget proposal didn’t come to their own liking. It would be one thing if the proposal included cuts to any of the EPA programs that have constricted business owners and industry recently, instead the resolution simply cuts down on some of the EPA’s local projects and water infrastructure plans. Conspicuously left off the cuts was any reference to the greenhouse gas regulation, the Clean Air Act, or the cap and trade taxes that are hindering industry revenue and employment growth.

Given the misfire by President Obama, it’s likely that the GOP will have to adjust its plan of attack on the EPA. They have already introduced the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, which is guided to take power away from the Clean Air Act and to eliminate the cap and trade agenda, which levies costly taxes against businesses. It’s likely that more acts such as this one will continue to be levied by GOP reps in what little effort they can put forth to reduce the EPA’s power, primarily because they’ve been continually rejected. One plan of attack that may work well against the EPA is to point out their inability to promote, invest, and defend the proper initiatives, such as ones that are served to cut down directly on environmentally related health risks, instead of defending rather useless initiatives. Every year the EPA does work with little resources on programs such as asbestos removal which cuts down on mesothelioma cases, as well as limiting water contamination levels, public water problems and its associated health risks.

A better use of the EPA’s current resources should be the GOP’s reference point. The EPA’s work in water contamination allows the agency to regulate and monitor public water sources and local water rules in an effort to cut back on the associated health problems. Their work in asbestos abatement does wonders all over the country every year ridding schools and older buildings of potentially hazardous materials. In some cases, their work in removing asbestos can even be considered a direct life saving initiative, seeing as mesothelioma life expectancy is on average, lasts only a year after diagnosis. Considering the direct impact that some of the EPA’s initiatives can have, it should be pointed out and exploited that there has been a recent failure in promoting and diverting resources to the right programs.

Given the fact that the EPA has spent the bulk of the year defending the Clean Air Act and the cap and trade agenda, two controversial issues, they could stand do divert some of their attention to more important programs. Hopefully republicans and business owners will continue to point out the ineffectiveness in some areas of the EPA’s structure, in a way that can get back revenue and employment growth, while still looking to serve the environment in the proper way.

+ Jelena Stojakovic: Memory Eternal

From the 1389 Blog Mailbox:

From: Tom Djurdjevich
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:21 PM
Subject: Bone Marrow Drives for Jelena Stojakovic in Boston, Cleveland, and Las Vegas

Please share these Bone Marrow Drives for Jelena Stojakovic who is gravely ill from Leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant with your lists, especially friends in Boston, Cleveland, and Las Vegas.

(1) Las Vegas: Maria Jerinic-Pravica and Jelena Boskovic are the local organizers.
Sunday, April 17, 12:30 pm to 3 pm
St. Simeon’s Serbian Orthodox Church
3950 South Jones Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV

(2) Boston: Mira Bishop is the local organizer.
Sunday, April 17, 12:30 pm to 3 pm
St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Boston
41 Alewife Brook Parkway
Cambridge, MA

(3) Cleveland (Parma), Ohio: Mira Damljanovic is the local organizer.
Sunday, April 17, 11:30 am to 2 pm
St Sava Cathedral
6306 Broadview Road
Parma, OH

(4) Cleveland (Broadview Heights), Ohio: Mira Damljanovic is the local organizer.
Sunday, April 17, 11:30 am to 2 pm
St Sava Church
2151 West Wallings Road
Broadview Heights, OH

———–

Jelena Stojakovic is gravely ill with leukemia. The single best chance she has to find a cure lies in finding a suitable bone marrow donor. She is a 32 year old Serbian woman who is pursuing graduate studies at the University of North Carolina. This case hits particularly close to home as Jelena is a friend of mine. Jelena is also the Godmother to Teodora Stamenkovic who is the daugther of my friend Natalija (Djurickovic) Stamen…kovic in Washington, DC.

St. Simeon’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Las Vegas has joined a nationwide effort among to help Jelena. I am working with the Be The Match Registry, which is the new name for the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP) Registry. I donated a sample to the NMDP in 2009 by swabbing the inside of my cheeks in four places with a Q-Tip. It was painless, fast, and free. Needles are NOT used.

If you are found to be a match, 75 to 80 percent of donations are taken through regular blood transfusions where the blood platelets are then extracted. This procedure has been in affect since 1996 with no side effects. 20 to 25 percent of donations are taken through the tradition bone marrow extraction where local anthesia is used.

If you have medical questions, please contact Dr. Ivan Aksentijevich at Aksentijevich@verizon.net.

You can opt out at any time.

How you can help?

(1) Attend in person on Sunday, April 17, at 12:30 pm following Divine Liturgy at St. Simeon’s Serbian Orthodox Church on 3950 South Jones Boulevard in Las Vegas, Nevada. The drive runs until 3 pm.

These are the guidelines for potential donors between the ages of 18 to 60.

http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html

(2) There is no cost to give a sample. However, a collection will be taken to defray the costs of the registration kits. Checks can be made out to Be The Match Foundation and please write St. Simeon – Jelena Stojakovic in the memo.

You can also donate online at

http://www.bethematchfoundation.org/goto/ZA_JELENU

Please RSVP ASAP so I can order the correct numbers of registration kits. Please spread the word to help save Jelena’s and others lives.

Thank you! / Hvala!
Tomislav S. “Tom” Djurdjevich

Why ethnic Serbs are needed for this effort

From a previous announcement:

After Divine Liturgy…we are continuing Bone Marrow Registry Drive at our church organized by Friends of Jelena Stojakovic. Jelena Stojakovic urgently needs a bone marrow transplant in order to survive her bout with leukemia. For a successful transplant, a patient needs a matching donor. Special testing determines whether a patient and a bone marrow donor or umbilical cord blood are a good match. The closer the match, the better for the patient.

Thus far, we, Friends of Jelena Stojakovic, have collected approximately 170 swabs to be analyzed for a match for Jelena. OUR GOAL IS TO COLLECT 1,000 SWABS! WILL YOU HELP US ACHIEVE THAT GOAL WITHIN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS?

In these days of Great Lent when we remember the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ for our sake and for all of humanity, we have the unique opportunity to put our faith in action by saving the life of a young Serbian woman.

Serbian-Americans…will gather at their churches during the next few weeks to register for the National Bone Marrow Registry in order to find a match for 31-year old Jelena Stojakovic (from Trebinje, Hercegovina), a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, who has been diagnosed with leukemia. A bone marrow transplant is Jelena’s only chance for survival and a matching donor is needed NOW!

…Doctors have said that the best possible chance for finding a matching bone marrow donor are within one’s own ethnic group, yet of 10,000,000 registered donors in the National Bone Marrow Registry no match has yet been found for Jelena and very few registrants are Serbian. This is why URGENT ACTION is needed NOW on the part of our community in order to save Jelena’s life.

If you decide to register, a sample of your DNA will be taken by a simple and painless swab of your cheek cells that will take a few seconds. Should you be a possible match, further testing will be done to determine the compatibility of your marrow to Jelena’s. If you should be selected as a bone marrow donor, the procedure is simple, harmless, and causes only minor discomfort. Your participation DOES NOT require health insurance, nor will you have any expenses for being a bone marrow donor, and you can potentially SAVE A LIFE.

…For more information OR TO SPONSOR A DRIVE AT YOUR CHURCH, please contact: Anna Pavichevich @ apavichevich@yahoo.com.

Welcome to our Caturday category!

Even though I’m not in the health care field myself, I happened upon a thread on the allnurses.com forum about unusual and funny doctors’ orders posted in patients’ charts. This entry is heartwarming:

Funniest real orders you have seen in a chart?

No. 385
From anticoagulationurse
Mar 10, 2007, 12:55 PM

An elderly patient needed a note from the doc to give to her apartment superintendent to allow her to have a pet.

A prescription was written: “One cat, use as directed daily and PRN”.

I photocopied it and blacked out the patient ID info and added it to my “funny pile” which I read on the bad days at work.

The unusual appearance of this Sphynx therapy cat has helped children to deal with chemotherapy:

Bald Sphynx cats help bring patients warm fuzzy feeling

Nurses at the J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., say giving patients a calm, velvety, hairless cat to pet can bring them peace and happiness. RN Sharron True and her family practitioner husband, Terry, breed the rare cats, including Jak, the first registered therapy Sphynx cat in the U.S.

Strange-looking cats? Maybe.

Pam Moore concedes that if someone is accustomed to long-haired cats, a Sphynx can be off-putting at first. But after a Sphynx curls up in the lap of one of her patients, Moore, a registered nurse at J.W. Sommer Rehabilitation Unit in Muscle Shoals, Ala., says the animal brings about a transformation in the human. “They bring so much peace and happiness to the patients,” she says.

Serene-looking humans? Absolutely.

Sphynx cats love to cuddle with people and are as soft as velvet. “They’ll just curl right up on a patient’s lap and stay there,” Moore says. “That’s not the training. That’s just the way they are.”

The cats are rare – only several thousand exist in the USA. Jak, the first registered therapy Sphynx in the country, belongs to Terry and Sharron True of Muscle Shoals. The Trues breed and show Sphynxes.

Terry True says holding Jak is like holding “a suede hot-water bottle.” When the Trues first started doing therapy with cats, they visited oncology units in a children’s hospital where patients were undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. “I wanted the children to know you can still be hairless and be beautiful,” Moore says. “The kids’ eyes would just light up when they’d see Jak.”

Visit the original thread and read the comments here.

To locate other pet-therapy-related threads on allnurses.com, click on http://tinyurl.com/allnurses-pets.

Would you and your pet make a good therapy team?

If you have a friendly, outgoing, and calm cat, dog, or other domestic pet, and you are interested in working together with your pet to become an animal-assisted therapy team, please visit the Delta Society website for more information.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Delta Society in any way, nor is my cat. He is too old and too afraid of new situations to be suitable for this type of work.

Delta Society: Moment By Moment

Click here for more Caturday stories!

Many cats are endlessly fascinated with the common flush toilet (variously known as the commode, the water closet or “WC”, the loo, and so forth). Perhaps this is because cats like the sight and sound of running water, or prefer to drink cold water. Some cats also like drinking from, or playing with, water faucets, fountains, or even shower heads.

This cat likes to watch the toilet flush

Some cats have figured out, or been taught, how to flush a toilet with their paws. While marathon toilet-flushing can be immensely entertaining for the cat, this activity can also lead to an unexpectedly high water bill for the cat’s human companions – especially where water is expensive or in short supply.

Gizmo Flushes

Cat flushing toilet

When human beings see cats (or other animals) drinking from the toilet, the humans’ first thought is usually “Ewwwww!” It is no wonder that the term toilet water (which actually means a mildly diluted fragrance solution) is seen less and often in American advertising.

But then, those same humans are happy to drink water, soft drinks, or iced tea from fast food restaurants without a second thought. It turns out that the cats may be smarter than we thought…

Girl’s Science Project Finds Toilet Water Cleaner Than Ice In Restaurants

(h/t: Guggi)

Student finds toilet water cleaner than ice at fast food restaurants

New Tampa, Florida – 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts is a seventh-grade student at Benito Middle School in New Tampa.

When it came time for her to choose a science project, she wondered about the ice in fast food restaurants.

Jasmine Roberts, 7th-grade student:
“My hypothesis was that the fast food restaurants’ ice would contain more bacteria that the fast food restaurants’ toilet water.”

So Roberts set out to test her hypothesis, selecting five fast food restaurants, within a ten-mile radius of the University of South Florida.

Roberts says at each restaurant she flushed the toilet once, the used sterile gloves to gather samples.

Jasmine Roberts:
“Using the sterile beaker I scooped up some water and closed the lid.”

Roberts also collected ice from soda fountains inside the five fast food restaurants. She also asked for cups of ice at the same restaurant’s drive thru windows.

She tested the samples at a lab at the Moffitt Cancer Center where she volunteers with a USF professor. Roberts says the results did not surprise her.

Jasmine Roberts:
“I found that 70-percent of the time, the ice from the fast food restaurant’s contain more bacteria than the fast food restaurant’s toilet water.”

Roberts’ graph shows the toilet water, shown in red, had less bacteria in most cases than the ice inside shown in blue, and the ice from drive-through windows shown in green. Roberts’ teacher says he wasn’t surprised either.

Mark Danish, Honors Science Teacher:
“It does concern me and I think with any restaurant you have to think twice about what you may get there.”

Read the rest.

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat: Audition Outtakes

(h/t: snowcrash)

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Eats a Tiny Ice-Cream Cone

Actually, the adorable tabby kitten, Scout Jr., eats just the ice cream itself, not the cone. Unlike dogs and human beings, cats are “obligate carnivores”; that means they need plenty of animal protein just to stay alive. Kittens require an even higher percentage of animal protein in their diets than do mature cats.

These YouTube clips are actually from advertisements for Lake Street Creamery, a mobile ice cream vendor. As a disclaimer, I have yet to sample their wares. Though I admit to liking butter pecan ice cream, I very rarely indulge in ice cream or, indeed, in any form of sweets. I can’t abide artifical sweeteners, and due to a hereditary condition known as impaired glucose tolerance, sugar in any form disagrees with my innards. Like Scout Jr., I feel much healthier when I have plenty of protein. But because I’m not a cat, for a limited period of time I can get by with various tree nuts, as well as the humble but delectable peanut.

Kitten Wearing a Tiny Hat Gets Another HORRIBLE SURPRISE

Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

The President’s Nun: Obamacare Scranton Scandal Explodes

(h/t: rain of lead)

By Jeffrey Lord on 10.11.10 @ 6:09AM

Can you say “October Surprise”?

A mushrooming political battle over ObamaCare involving the White House, two incumbent Pennsylvania congressmen, three Catholic hospitals and a nun has just exploded in, of all places, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Charges from the Scranton medical community of intimidation by the Obama White House and its allies are filling the air.

All of this just as Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Scranton today to raise money for one of the participants.

There are two issues at the core of the controversy.

1. ObamaCare and the sale of three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals.
2. The re-election prospects of the two House members, Democrats Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney, both of whom cast key votes to pass ObamaCare.

Here’s the list of players — major and minor — so far.

• The President of the United States.
• The Vice President of the United States.
• Three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals suddenly for sale.
• The CEO of the three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals for sale.
• ObamaCare, otherwise known as “health care reform” or the “Affordable Care Act.”
• A Catholic nun.
• Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak.
• A pen.
• Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
• Time magazine.
• The Scranton Times.
• The two Scranton-area House members Kanjorski and Carney, both losing in the polls.
• U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr., a native and resident of Scranton.
• Congressman Joe Sestak, the Democrats’ nominee for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat.

Where to start? That would be….

The article recaps the ruthless efforts of the White House to suppress all indications from the corporate world, the health care industry, or anywhere else, regarding the negative effects of ZeroCare. The latest example of such strong-arming has cropped up in “the unlikely location of Scranton, Pennsylvania”:

IN THE MIDDLE OF THESE two hotly contested re-election races for a pair of Pennsylvania Democratic congressmen, the controversy first erupted over the suddenly announced sale of three Catholic Hospitals spread out between Paul Kanjorski’s and Chris Carney’s two adjoining congressional districts.

The initial announcement was made by Mercy Health Partners CEO Kevin Cook.

Cook is based in Scranton, while Mercy Partners and the three hospitals up for sale are in fact a subsidiary of the larger Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP) based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The three Catholic hospitals involved are: Mercy Hospital in Scranton; Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke, both in Kanjorski’s 11th District. And the Mercy Tyler Hospital in Tunkhannock, located in Carney’s adjacent 10th District.

The Cook announcement was big news in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Sisters of Mercy had opened Mercy Hospital in Scranton, a major facility for the city, in 1917 — 93 years earlier. Inevitably it drew media attention. Which is where the plot thickens.

WNEP TV (Channel 16) reporter Jon Meyer filed a story about the sale at 4:40 pm. that afternoon. WNEP TV anchor Paula Giangiacomo led the story on the air by saying that “one big” reason for the sale “is the health care reform bill signed into law this year.” Mercy Health Partners CEO Cook was interviewed on camera along with Sister Marie Parker. When Meyer asked Cook if ObamaCare had anything at all to do with the sale, the CEO replied:

Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No, but was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely.

Notice the use — twice — of the word “absolutely” by Cook, leaving no doubt with viewers that while ObamaCare wasn’t the “precipitating factor” it was “absolutely playing a role…Absolutely” in the decision by Mercy Health Care Partners to put the three hospitals up for sale.

But just 48 hours later, came the effort to flush the truth down the memory hole. Mr. Cook twice issued statements denying his earlier statement about ZeroCare being a major reason for selling the hospitals. A certain Catholic nun, Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), weighed in furiously, calling the original story about the reason for the sale of the hospitals “false, misleading, and politically motivated.”

Why hide the reason for the sale of these three hospitals?

And who is Sister Carol Keehan?

One doctor in Scranton — who was deeply disturbed by the announcement — is certain he knows the answer. That answer? Mr. Cook was absolutely right the very first time he spoke to WNEP on camera. Hospitals, said this doctor — frequently run a debt. “What’s different? Why now?” he said in terms of the rationale for selling the Mercy hospitals. The reason is exactly as CEO Cook originally said it was. ObamaCare cuts in Medicare reimbursement have changed the rules so drastically for hospitals “you [Mercy Health Partners] are in an untenable situation,” said this physician. Most hospitals have accumulating debt because of capital investments, says the doctor. But they can’t deal with that debt if in fact their ability to earn money is cut off or drastically reduced over time.

If the doctor is right, and he is not alone in saying this, the proposed sale of the three Mercy hospitals becomes a harbinger of what will happen nationally as a result of ObamaCare slowly tightening its government tentacles over the private health care system. Which means the sale of the three Mercy hospitals has added Scranton to what the Wall Street Journal has already called ObamaCare’s “trail of destruction.”

Ahhhh. But who is Sister Carol Keehan? What’s the big deal here with her? Why would a statement from simple Catholic nun appear to cause so much consternation with Mercy Health Partner CEO Kevin Cook in Scranton, Pennsylvania?

LET’S GO BACK to that presidential signing of the health care reform law. There were 21 very powerful people in that little group who received signing pens from the President. As mentioned that included the Vice President, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy’s widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy. And someone else.

That would be Sister Carol Keehan.

Impressive, no? The Catholic News Agency thought so, and prominently noted the story here. It also noted that Sister Carol was receiving her presidential pen from the President himself because she had been “supporting health care despite bishops’ objections.” The story even pictured the pen itself alongside the presidential seal on the box in which it came, with “Barack Obama” clearly visible scrawled along the side. Meaning, Sister Carol had enough clout to take on the Catholic Bishops on the President’s behalf — and win.

Does the name Bart Stupak ring a bell? The much ballyhooed pro-life Democrat Congressman from Michigan? The Catholic Congressman Bart Stupak who was said to be such a sturdy obstacle to passage of ObamaCare because it would allow abortions? In the aftermath of the ObamaCare passage, Slate came forward to note that a letter signed by “representatives” of Catholic nuns finally swayed Stupak to break his staunch anti-abortion pledge and sign on for ObamaCare with a simple promise of an executive order on abortion, executive orders being overturned by successor presidents with the rapidity of rabbits doing the breeding thing. Wait! Stupak was persuaded by Catholic nuns? Isn’t Sister Carol a …nun? How about that? What a coincidence? Yes indeed, the letter in question was signed — solo — by Sister Carol.

Read the rest here.

Originally posted on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

Islam may be harmful to your health…

Back in February, 2008, I blogged about Islam and Brain Damage. I offered evidence that the Islamic custom of proving one’s piety by slamming one’s head into the floor is dangerous to one’s mental and physical health. That blog post continues to draw occasional comments and considerable traffic.

The unwisdom of this activity should be so obvious as to need no explanation, but apparently those who have already spent their lives bashing their heads into the floor may be impervious to further attempts at reason.

…and to the health of your offspring

In a nutshell, the problem is that both the cultural traditions in Islamic lands, and Islam itself, encourage inbreeding.

Suffice it to say that there are excellent reasons why the descendents of the royal families of Europe no longer intermarry as they once did, and why some States in the USA ban first-cousin marriage. The Orthodox Christian Church takes it further, prohibiting marriage between first or second cousins. Yet cousin marriage remains customary, not only within Muslim countries, but also among expatriate Muslim populations elsewhere.

Charles II of Spain, mentioned in the article below, suffered throughout his short life from severe mental and physical disabilities.

Discover: The individual & social risks of cousin marriage

…What’s the negative? Pedigree collapse. I’ve been talking about marriages between first cousins throughout this post, but that’s really a small issue next to this. Even first cousin marriages produce individuals with a fair amount of inbreeding. I ran a test for runs of homozygosity in my 23andMe genetic profile and I got 3 hits, while a friend whose parents are first cousins got ~70 (the parameters for the test aren’t important, just giving a relative sense). For inbred clans it gets much worse because people are related in many different ways, and genetically are far closer than first cousins. That is what happened to the Spanish Hapsburgs. As you can see from the pedigree of Charles II his parents were closer than typical first cousins. The Samaritans of Israel are a religious sect which seems to be going through pedigree collapse. Some of them are proactively marrying outsiders to prevent their extinction through high infant mortality rates. Others, “traditionalists,” oppose exogamy because intermarriage within the group is the custom, and diseases are God’s will.

The Samaritans are an extreme case. But we may be seeing a thousand Samaritan flowers blooming across the Middle East. From what I know cousin marriage in the Middle East is not limited to Muslims, Christians and Jews practice it as well. But among many Muslims it has some cachet because of particular hadiths which point to this practice as preferred. Setting religion aside, there are also social reasons why this practice is common. As I noted above sex segregation means that you may not know women outside of your family well, and in some societies where veiling is practiced it may be that you do not see many women you are not related to (even if veiling occurs at puberty, you may have seen your cousin at a younger age). Marriages are bonds which may tie a family into one operational social unit, and so produce a powerful inbred clan. This illustrates the cross-purposes of a cultural unit of selection vs. the individual unit of selection. In a society where clan vs. clan competitions are critical sorting mechanisms consanguineous marriages may serve as beneficial cross-linkages. Balanced against this of course are marriages across clans. On an individual level a first cousin marriage reduces the reproductive fitness, but higher potential reproductive fitness of two individuals who have no social support because of ostracism may be a moot point.

Read the rest.

A scandalous documentary

The greatest taboo: One woman lifts the lid on the tragic genetic consequences of when first cousins marry

By Tazeen Ahmad
Last updated at 11:11 AM on 23rd August 2010

Sitting in the family living room, I watched tensely as my mother and her older brother signed furiously at each other. Although almost completely without sound, their row was high-octane, even vicious.

Three of my uncles were born deaf but they knew how to make themselves heard. Eventually, my uncle caved in and fondly put his arm around his sister.

My mum has always had a special place in her family because she was the first girl to live beyond childhood. Five of her sisters died as babies or toddlers. It was not until many years later that anyone worked out why so many children died and three boys were born deaf.

Today there is no doubt among us that this tragedy occurred because my grandparents were first cousins.

My grandmother’s heart was broken from losing so many daughters at such a young age. As a parent, I can’t imagine what she went through.

My family is not unique. In the UK more than 50 per cent of British Pakistanis marry their cousins – in Bradford that figure is 75 per cent – and across the country the practice is on the rise and also common among East African, Middle-Eastern and Bangladeshi communities.

Back when my grandparents were having children, the med­ical facts were not established. But today in Britain alone there are more than 70 scientific studies on the subject.

We know the children of first cousins are ten times more likely to be born with recessive genetic disorders which can include infant mortality, deafness and blindness.

We know British Pakistanis constitute 1.5 per cent of the population, yet a third of all children born in this country with rare recessive genetic diseases come from this community.

Despite overwhelming evidence, in the time I spent filming Dispatches: When Cousins Marry, I felt as if I was breaking a taboo rather than addressing a reality. Pakistanis have been marrying cousins for generations.

Read the rest.

Here is the documentary; it runs for approximately one hour:

Click this link if the embedded video does not work in your browser.

h/t: Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna

Widespread effects of inbreeding

The effects of inbreeding are not limited to the incidence of obvious birth defects. Even those offspring who do not have overt congenital defects will, on the average, have lower intelligence and less ability to deal with life in the modern world.

Muslim Inbreeding: Impacts on intelligence, sanity, health and society

EuropeNews 9 August 2010
By Nicolai Sennels

Massive inbreeding within the Muslim culture during the last 1.400 years may have done catastrophic damage to their gene pool. The consequences of intermarriage between first cousins often have serious impact on the offspring’s intelligence, sanity, health and on their surroundings

The most famous example of inbreeding is in ancient Egypt, where several Pharaonic dynasties collapsed after a couple of hundred years. In order to keep wealth and power within the family, the Pharaohs often married their own sister or half-sister and after a handful of generations the offspring were mentally and physically unfit to rule. Another historical example is the royal houses of Europe where royal families often married among each other because tradition did not allow them to marry people of non-royal class.

The high amount of mentally retarded and handicapped royalties throughout European history shows the unhealthy consequences of this practice. Luckily, the royal families have now allowed themselves to marry for love and not just for status.

The Muslim culture still practices inbreeding and has been doing so for longer than any Egyptian dynasty. This practice also predates the world’s oldest monarchy (the Danish) by 300 years.

A rough estimate shows that close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred: In Pakistan, 70 percent of all marriages are between first cousins (so-called “consanguinity”) and in Turkey the amount is between 25-30 percent (Jyllands-Posten, 27/2 2009 More stillbirths among immigrants”

Statistical research on Arabic countries shows that up to 34 percent of all marriages in Algiers are consanguine (blood related), 46 percent in Bahrain, 33 percent in Egypt, 80 percent in Nubia (southern area in Egypt), 60 percent in Iraq, 64 percent in Jordan, 64 percent in Kuwait, 42 percent in Lebanon, 48 percent in Libya, 47 percent in Mauritania, 54 percent in Qatar, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 63 percent in Sudan, 40 percent in Syria, 39 percent in Tunisia, 54 percent in the United Arabic Emirates and 45 percent in Yemen (Reproductive Health Journal, 2009 Consanguinity and reproductive health among Arabs.).

A large part of inbred Muslims are born from parents who are themselves inbred – which increase the risks of negative mental and physical consequenses greatly.
…
Low intelligence

Several studies show that children of consanguineous marriages have lower intelligence than children of non-related parents. Research shows that the IQ is 10-16 points lower in children born from related parents and that abilities related to social behavior develops slower in inbred babies:

“Effects of parental consanguinity on the cognitive and social behavior of children have been studied among the Ansari Muslims of Bhalgapur, Bihar.

IQ in inbred children (8-12 years old) is found to be lower (69 in rural and 79 in suburban populations) than that of the outbred ones (79 and 95 respectively). The onset of various social profiles like visual fixation, social smile, sound seizures, oral expression and hand-grasping are significantly delayed among the new-born inbred babies.” (Indian National Science Academy, 1983 Consanguinity Effects on Intelligence Quotient and Neonatal Behaviours of nsari Muslim Children“).

The article “Effects of inbreeding on Raven Matrices” concludes that “Indian Muslim school boys, ages 13 to 15 years, whose parents are first cousins, were compared with classmates whose parents are genetically unrelated on the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, a nonverbal test of intelligence. The inbred group scored significantly lower and had significantly greater variance than the non-inbred group, both on raw scores and on scores statistically adjusted to control for age and socioeconomic status.” (Behaviour Genetics, 1984).

Another study shows that the risk of having an IQ lower than 70 goes up 400 percent from 1.2 percent in children from normal parents to 6.2 percent in inbred children: “The data indicate that the risk for mental retardation in matings of normal parents increases from 0.012 with random matings to 0.062 for first-cousin parentage.” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 1978 Effect of inbreeding on IQ and mental retardation“). The study A study of possible deleterious effects of consanguinity concludes, that “The occurrence of malignancies, congenital abnormalities, mental retardation and physical handicap was significantly higher in offspring of consanguineous than non-consanguineous marriages.”

Read it all.

Also see:

The Mountain of Names (Geneology)

Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

‘Obamacare’ is full of nasty surprises…

…as I pointed out in my previous article, Another hidden zinger in Obamacare. But the inevitability of ‘death panels’ and ‘administrative euthanasia’ to ration government-controlled health care funds should have surprised nobody. It always happens with socialized medicine. It has already happened in the UK; just for starters, see This is your future under Obamacare.

With Obamacare, the government saves money every time it declares a drug ineffective…

…Does anybody see a conflict of interest here?

US breast cancer drug decision ‘marks start of death panels’

h/t: huckfunn

Nick Allen in Los Angeles and Andrew Hough
Published: 10:07PM BST 16 Aug 2010

A decision to rescind endorsement of the drug would reignite the highly charged debate over US health care reform and how much the state should spend on new and expensive treatments.

Avastin, the world’s best selling cancer drug, is primarily used to treat colon cancer and was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2008 for use on women with breast cancer that has spread.

It costs $8,000 (£5,000) a month and is given to about 17,500 women in the US a year. The drug was initially approved after a study found that, by preventing blood flow to tumours, it extended the amount of time until the disease worsened by more than five months. However, two new studies have shown that the drug may not even extend life by an extra month.

The FDA advisory panel has now voted 12-1 to drop the endorsement for breast cancer treatment. The panel unusually cited “effectiveness” grounds for the decision. But it has been claimed that “cost effectiveness” was the real reason ahead of reforms in which the government will extend health insurance to the poorest.

If the approval of the drug is revoked then US insurers would be likely to stop paying for Avastin.

Read the rest.

The Deadly Pact: How Obamacare will ‘Save’ Money

By John Griffing

Andy Griffith, the former TV Sheriff of Mayberry and guardian of small town America, is now the national spokesman for ObamaCare. More specifically, this venerable gentleman is the spokesman for the new Medicare. Apparently Griffith is under the naïve belief that ObamaCare is a genuinely good thing for seniors. As much as it pains me to say this, Griffith is dead wrong. ObamaCare is a fatal bargain for seniors, and all Americans.

Although media reports covering ObamaCare have centered mainly on the health insurance mandate and hidden tax increases, the real danger of ObamaCare lies in the official sanction of “mercy death” for America’s seniors as a means of reducing federal medical outlays. No, ObamaCare doesn’t say this outright. It simply limits hospital readmissions for those using Medicare, thereafter automatically committing said Medicare recipients to hospice facilities, called “community-based care.”

Read the rest.

Obamacare opponents need to protest as vociferously as possible!

Why? Because, at least some of the time, it works.

Obama wasn’t the first corrupt Chicago politician to pay a price for tampering with America’s health care. Obama failed to learn from the example of Dan Rostenkowski. By their efforts to force Americans into socialized medicine, both have revealed their arrogant and self-serving natures, and both have permanently alienated many supporters that neither could afford to lose.

Is Obamacare Having a Rostenkowski Moment?

Politico reports:

Angry protesters shouted down Democrats at public events from Texas to Pennsylvania over the weekend, leaving the party only one real hope for getting its message out over recess: a backlash. In Austin, Texas, Rep.Lloyd Doggettwas drowned out by a group of noisy, sign-waving demonstrators who shouted, “Just say no” as he tried to talk abouthealth care reform. … In Morrisville, Pa., Rep. Patrick Murphy was forced to scrap plans for a one-on-one meet-the-congressman session when people in the crowd started shouting. Murphy switched to a town hall format mid-event and even then had to ask the audience at times to “be respectful.” And at a healthcare event in Philadelphia, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were repeatedly interrupted by booing and heckling. “We can shout at one another, or we can leave the stage,” Sebelius said at one point. “It’s up to you.”

I’m old enough to remember not just Hillarycare, but also the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988:

The 1988 Catastrophic Act focused on providing protection against catastrophic medical expenses under Medicare. Specifically, the Act expanded the Medicare program to provide protection against catastrophic medical expenses and for the first time, provided coverage under the Medicare program for prescription drugs. To pay for these benefit expansions, a new supplemental premium tax on all persons eligible for Medicare was enacted.

Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means Dan Rostenkowski lead the charge for the 1988 Act and paid a price. The Chicago Tribune from August 19, 1989 tells the story:

Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, one of the most powerful politicians in the United States, was booed and chased down a Chicago street Thursday morning by a group of senior citizens after he refused to talk with them about federal health insurance. Shouting “Coward,” “Recall” and “Impeach,” about 50 people followed the chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee up Milwaukee Avenue after he left a meeting in the auditorium of the Copernicus Center, 3106 N. Milwaukee Ave., in the heart of his 8th Congressional District on the city’s Northwest Side.

Eventually, the 6-foot-4-inch Rostenkowski cut through a gas station, broke into a sprint and escaped into his car, which minutes earlier had one of the elderly protesters, Leona Kozien, draped over the hood. Kozien, one of more than 100 senior citizens who attended the gathering, said she had hoped to talk to Rostenkowski, her congressman, at the meeting.

But Rostenkowski clearly did not want to talk with her, or any of the others who had come to tell their complaints about the high cost of federal catastrophic health insurance. “These people don’t understand what the government is trying to do for them,” the 61-year-old congressman complained as he tried to outpace his pursuers. [PB: I think they understood all too well.]

…
The law was repealed…

Read the rest.

Epilogue

Rostenkowski eventually was indicted and sent to prison for corruption. Following his indictment, he lost his congressional seat to Republican Michael Flanagan. Unfortunately, Flanagan was, in turn, defeated by the politically well-connected Rod Blagojevic, who later became governor of Illinois. As of this writing Blago is on trial for, among other things, selling Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Dan Rostenkowski died on August 11, 2010.

Also see:

American Thinker: Two Cheers for Old-Fashioned Political Scoundrels

Originally published on 2.0: The Blogmocracy

In Fundamentally Transforming the United States, Phyllis Schlafly explains how the Democrat party voter base is founded upon those who get (or hope to get) their livelihood from the federal government. It goes much further than Chicago-machine patronage politics writ large; the federal government is deliberately destroying the family structure so as to make people more dependent on the federal government and the Democrat party. Unmarried mothers are a key part of Obama’s voter base. Thus, it is in his interests to discourage men and women from getting and staying married.

How do the Democrats go about attacking the family structure? The attacks go much further than promoting gay marriage and abortion on demand, or free condoms and salacious “sex education” in the public schools. Detrimental as those things are, at least they are visible. It’s the progressives’ stealth jihad against the family that I’m talking about here.

Check out this hidden zinger in Obamacare:

Marriage Penalty in Health Care

A huge marriage penalty is hidden in Obama’s Health Control Law. This law is another federal program providing financial incentives to subsidize marriage avoidance and illegitimate offspring.

Even though all evidence shows that marriage is the best remedy for poverty, lack of health care, domestic violence, child abuse, and school dropouts, federal welfare programs continue to discriminate against marriage and instead give taxpayer handouts to those who reject marriage. This isn’t any accident; it is a central part of the Democrats’ political strategy that produced 70% of unmarried women voting for Obama for President in 2008.

Here is the approximate cost in the Health Control Law for an unmarried couple who each earn $25,000 a year (total: $50,000). When they both buy health insurance (which will be mandatory), the combined premiums they pay will be capped at $3,076 a year. But if the couple gets married and has the same combined income of $50,000, they will pay annual premiums up to a cap of $5,160 a year. That means they have to fork over a marriage penalty of $2,084.

The marriage penalty is the result of the fact that government subsidies for buying health insurance are pegged to the federal poverty guidelines. Couples that remain unmarried are rewarded with a separate health care subsidy for each income.

When the Wall Street Journal reporter quizzed the Democratic authors of the health care bill, they made it clear that this differential was deliberate. The staffer justified the discriminatory treatment because “you have to decide what your goals are.” Indeed, the Democrats have decided what their goals are. They know that 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama in 2008, and the Democrats plan to reward this group with health insurance subsidies.

The House staffer told the Wall Street Journal reporter that the Democrats can’t make the subsidies neutral towards marriage because that would give a traditional one-breadwinner married couple a more generous subsidy than a single parent at the same income level. Horrors! The Democrats certainly are not going to allow traditional marriage to be preferred over couples who just shack up!

Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously and accurately explained the disastrous results of welfare back in 1965. The welfare system created a matriarchy with millions of children lacking their father in the home. It’s no wonder illegitimate birthrates are soaring and unmarried mothers now give birth to 4 out of every 10 babies born in the United States.

Means-tested welfare programs already cost taxpayers close to $1 trillion a year (even more than national defense!), and Obamacare is projected to add another $2.5 trillion after all its provisions take effect. There’s no end in sight to the increasing costs of these entitlements. In one year, the Obama Administration will spend more taxpayers’ money on spreading the wealth to non-taxpayers than George W. Bush spent on the entire Iraq war.

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a liberal firm that consults for clients such as Bill Clinton and John Kerry, admitted: “Unmarried women represent one of the most reliable Democratic cohorts in the electorate . . . leading the charge for fundamental change in health care.”

It used to be that a husband was responsible for the financial support of his wife and children, but the feminists’ agenda calls for replacing husbands with Big Brother Government. The feminists call their movement “women’s liberation,” and Obamacare is one more way to help them achieve their goal.

Feminists keep tightening their control over the social policies of the Democratic Party, and Obamacare will be his third payoff to the feminists. The first bill Obama signed as President, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, enables women to sue employers years many years after any alleged workplace discrimination (when no one is still alive to defend against allegations), and the second payoff was getting Obama to give the majority of taxpayer-paid Stimulus jobs to women even though men have suffered the big majority of job losses.

Read it all.

The scavenger hunt is on

I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant nor a “policy wonk” (whatever that is supposed to be). Sorting through the huge pile of paperwork that makes up the Obamacare bill, or for that matter, the recent financial regulatory bill, and piecing together the hidden “zingers” that are poised to harm each sector of our economy and society, is beyond my capabilities. This is not a one-person job. I would like to urge everyone who is able to do so, to help complete this task by researching how those bills will affect their community and their sector of the economy, and submit that information to 2.0: The Blogmocracy.

The scavenger hunt is on, and the only prize is preserving your freedom.