Another set of unrelated topics.

1. The Taco Bell tolls for thee...

The Taco Bell E. Coli outbreak continues to rage on, and this time, the feds believe a different veggie is to blame. Apparently, the E. Coli which has now infected 71 people across the country, is being carried by lettuce, which, if I recall correctly, is found on just about everything served at Taco Bell.

And just to make things interesting, Taco Bell's lesser known rival, Taco John's, has an E. Coli outbreak of it's own. At this point, I think it's advisable to avoid Americanized Mexican fast food altogether. Stick to good, wholesome, old fashioned, patriotic food like McDonald's. There's absolutely no health risk there, right? As the brilliant marketers over at the golden arches put it: I'm lovin' it! (TM).

2. Government enforces law. Uproar ensues.

Why is the fact that federal agents arrested 1200+ illegal immigrants in a series of massive meat-packing plant raids causing such a hubub? Our law enforcement agents have one job: to enforce the law. Illegal immigration is (as the name implies) against the law. People that are upset by the raid have only one rational course of action: to attempt to repeal our countries immigration laws. Complaining that our law enforcers are enforcing our laws is ridiculous. The following is an excerpt from the linked article that you didn't (and in all likelihood, won't) read:

Immigration officials last month informed Swift (the company that hired the illegal workers) that it would remove unauthorized workers on Dec. 4, but Swift asked a federal judge to prevent agents from conducting the raid, arguing it would cause "substantial and irreparable injury" to its business.

What a stupid company. It hires a bunch of illegals (although they claim that they had no knowledge of illegal workers in the company), is found out and warned of the upcoming raid, and then tries to convince the government not to arrest a bunch of criminals because it would hurt it's business. That's not how it works. When someone breaks a federal law, they get punished. It doesn't matter who they are, or who they work for. Justice is supposed to be blind.

Again, although it's very understandable that some might feel empathy for the illegals in our country who are just trying to make a better life for their families, any quarrel people have with these raids should rest with the laws themselves, not the enforcement.

3. Excellent Comments on Iraq

Here's a very insightful quote concerning one of the major mistakes the US made in our "war on terror" in Iraq:

"Imagine one day waking up and finding out that your nation's leaders had completely dismantled all police and military. As a result, there is not one policeman, or state, or federal law enforcement agent, or even one national guard or any soldier to protect you from criminal elements, or terrorists. It will be total chaos.

"Then imagine that instead of calling back the army and security forces, the authorities in this imaginary scenario decided to form a new army and police from racist militias, some mercenaries and organised crime gangs.

"With the new government-issued budget and government-issued vehicles, these armed groups begin arresting, torturing, murdering innocent people either because of their faith, or creed, or purely for profit.

"This is exactly what has happened in Iraq."

That quote comes from none other than the vice president of Iraq, Tareq Al-Hashemi. And he's right on. The United States was quite naive to think that a peaceful country would emerge gently out of the state of anarchy it created. The fact is that Iraq is made up of several groups of people who want to kill each other. For years, Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, for all it's faults, did one thing well: it stabilized the country. The various radical factions co-existing in Iraq needed, as Hobbes (the philosopher, not the tiger) would say, "a common power to keep them all in awe" . Saddam delivered this in spades. When America dismantled the Iraqi Government and all it's institutions, they created a vacuum of power that the opposing religious and ethnic groups are still violently attempting to fill. The US-supported Iraqi military and police force is helpless in the face of the escalating violence because most of the people perpetrating the violence are in their ranks. Whole regions are under the control of radical militias. The leader of the most powerful Shiite death squads and militias, Muqtada Al-Sadr is a powerful member of Iraq's democratic government. Essentially, everything that could have gone wrong is going wrong. With conservative estimates of Iraqi deaths currently standing at over 55,000, and high estimates going over 100,000, the death toll in this period of anarchy is already exceeding that of Saddam's reign.

Of course, "cut and run" still isn't an option. America seriously screwed up Iraq, and if we pull out before the job of stabilizing the country is done, the Iraqis will suffer even more. It just makes you wish we had leaders that could think twice before doing something so stupid. The worst part of it all is that even if the country is successfully stabilized, it'll just be another islamic nation, which is something we could certainly do without. In the long run, I don't think that Iraq's Islamic democracy will be any improvement over Saddam's secular government. I guess only time will tell.

Radiation, food poisening, and the fat ban.

(1). Radiation: it's not just for frozen burritos anymore.

The United States military recently placed its stamp of approval on a rather unique crowd control device: the Active Denial System (ADS). Despite having the most politically correct name of any weapon in recent memory, the ADS is quite a piece of work. Here's a summary of its awe-inspiring, pain-inducing power from the worlds most complete and accurate source of information pertaining to cutting edge military technology, the wikipedia:

"The ADS works by directing electromagnetic radiation at a frequency of 95 GHz toward the subjects. When the waves contact skin, the energy in the waves is turned into heat which in turn heats the water molecules in the skin to around 55 C (130 degrees Fahrenheit), causing an intensely painful burning sensation. The focused beam can be directed at targets at a range of approximately one kilometer.

A higher radio frequency is chosen because, as a property of electromagnetic waves, they are unable to penetrate the body as deeply as lower frequency waves, thereby affecting external organs only, such as skin. The United States military states the effect "penetrates the skin to a depth of less than 1/64 of an inch."[1] A spokesman for the Air Force Research Laboratory described his experience as a test subject for the system: "For the first millisecond, it just felt like the skin was warming up. Then it got warmer and warmer and you felt like it was on fire.... As soon as you're away from that beam your skin returns to normal and there is no pain."

The ADS is currently only a vehicle mounted weapon, however, U.S. Marines and police are both working on portable versions."

Essentially, the ADS is a device that sticks an out of control crowd in the microwave for a couple seconds on high power, creating what the military calls the "Goodbye effect". Technically, the waves of radiation emitted by the ADS have a shorter wavelength than the microwaves emitted by a microwave oven, so the comparison isn't perfect, but you get the point. The device is currently awaiting deployment in Iraq, and in the near future could be coming to a reckless crowd of flag-burning hippies near you. While Uncle Sam maintains that exposing large amounts of people to painful waves of radiation will have no unforeseen side effects, and presents no ethical problems, I'll probably remain skeptical. The concept of the government being able to disperse any crowd almost instantly, is just a little bit eerie. Not to mention the fact that any innocent bystanders among the targets will also be exposed to the device's considerable radioactive bite. This creepy increase of government power calls to mind George Orwell's "1984". While I've never actually read the book myself, I'm told by many reliable sources that it deals with a government run by the main character's older brother who does a lot of creepy stuff to the populace of England, and in all likelihood, other populaces (or populi as some are apt to say) as well. On further inspection, the similarities are startling. Is our president an older brother? Is the ADS creepy? Si to all of the above.

People, we are living in 1984.

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(2). Jamba Juice and Taco Bell will probably kill you.

There seems to be an epidemic of food related disease going around:

- Jamba juice has apparently served 1,800 pounds of strawberries possibly contaminated with listeria, a disease with a 20% mortality rate. Ouch. Luckily, the aforementioned strawberries were only located in Arizona, California, and Nevada Jamba Juice locations. I believe this is what they call "Lucky you live Hawaii". But just to be safe, it's probably best to order the secret, legendary, and strawberry-free "White Gummi Bear" for the time being.

- Taco Bell is now dealing with a rash of E. coli contamination amongst it's green onions, forcing it to recall the tainted produce from 5,800 taco bell locations. According to the AP, the Taco Bell E. coli has already infected 36 people across the country. Since I haven't eaten at Taco Bell for several months, I proclaim myself "relatively safe". But what Taco Bell dishes use green onions anyway? Is it just the nachos? Or are trace amounts embedded in most of their dishes? We'll probably never know... until it's too late.

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(3) New York City Bans Trans Fats

New York City is known for a lot of things, mainly: The mafia, gross corruption, and Hillary Clinton. Soon, however, the city will make history as the first city to ban the use of trans fats in its restaurants. For those who don't know what trans fats are, the worlds most complete and accurate source of all information pertaining to nutrition, the wikipedia, has you covered:

"Unlike other fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health.^[1] Eating trans fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease.^[2] For these reasons, health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are generally considered to be more of a health risk than those occurring naturally.^[3]

Trans fats are increasingly being linked to chronic health conditions (see below), are tightly regulated in a few countries, are mandatory on product labels in many others, and are the central issue in several ongoing lawsuits (particularly against fast food outlets). Many companies are voluntarily removing trans fats from their products, or establishing trans-free product lines."

So, trans fats (A) have no legitimate nutritional purpose, and (B) do a lot of really bad things to the human body. Some experts compare banning trans fats in restaurants to banning lead and arsenic in foodstuffs. But still, does the government have the right to tell private institutions what they can or can't put in their food? Heck yes. If a substance is essentially a poison, it shouldn't be served to the public via delicious, inexpensive fried foods, period. If banning is considered a bit extreme, every purveyor of food should at the very least be required to declare what menu items contain trans fats, as well as the health risks of consuming the said fats, similar to the warning labels placed on boxes of cigarettes. Hopefully, New York City's ban will give chain restaurants a little push towards business practices that are slightly less evil.

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And that's about it.