Very good points and a great public service message.

Do you have Trader Joes out there? We shop at Trader Joes because the food is mostly organic and it's cheaper than most supermarkets. Now that summer is coming, we'll be eating pesticide free vegetables and starches and I'll be preserving those for the winter. I buy organic, hormone free meat from organic farms. yeah it costs more, but fuck, I don't wanna die from lunch. We are also eating less meat and more bread... well except for me since I gave up simple carbs. I grow my own salad. Do they have safe tofu? I hope so.

Off topic.
Do you think if European automakers begin to manufacture cars in the US for US consumption, that it's a bad thing? I think for American workers, it's a good thing, even if the Europeans are exploiting our weak dollar, because it creates rather high paying jobs for our citizens since Europeans are not fascist pigs like US corporations. They can afford to pay good wages in US dollars which will afford the laborers to buy more stuff in our country. Anthropologically speaking, working people who are rewarded for their work fairly tend not to grasp bibles, guns and flags so much as they feel less oppressed and gain more self worth.

Also I feel that European companies who set up manufacturing in America will give US companies a run for their money.

I'm curious if my opinion makes sense economically speaking, since I am not an economist whatsoever and did poorly in it in college, but of course if I had you as a teacher, I would have done better. ;)

good morning dw...

too bad salmonella sounds like some upscale fish dish. we here at chez bums shop much the same as blondsense, minus the meat. we have inquired about the organicness of tofu but have so far not received a clear answer. we also grow a lot of our own food. it is an expensive (the shopping) and labor intensive (the growing) endeavor to stay healthy and not poisoned and clearly not appropriate for most people.

anent your sidebar quoth, j' accord, and right on.

Dark Wraith!

You tell me this now, after breakfast? kidding..

But thank you for your graphic and your psa on this horrendous bs.

Liz, they already do, so do the Japanese and Korean manufacturers. And it is a good thing for us. Surprising how they can manufacture autos here and post not only a profit but increasing market share but the "big three" can't.

I was in the barber shop a few months ago getting a haircut, and being that the barber is also the Mayor there is always a regular crew hanging out there discussing all sorts of stuff. One of the crew started farting something about "them dern foreign made autos". I pointed to my Nissan truck out front and told him that it was assembled in Tennessee.

We also seem to be back in the 19th century when it comes to food, regardless of the modern marvels of 20th and 21st century technology. Back to the basics, keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold, and fer gawds sake try to keep the kitchen clean, wash your hands every once in a while and please, please don't sneeze into the potato salad. Or anything else for that matter. Cook meats a bit further than rare, unless you know where they came from. Avoid deviled eggs made by anyone from outside your immediate family unless you have a contract of sorts that addresses damages, and never, ever eat KFC that has been set out for several hours.

You have been warned.

Damn, I should also add Liz that I also pointed out to said farter that my Nissan gets at least twice the mpg of his pos Chevy.

"Off Road" Bullshit, unless you want to find the center of the earth. When amurikan manufacturers begin to manufacture something that I like and have a proven record of reliability I will consider it.

Remember a fellow named Demming?

Dark One, you might want to consider directing your considerable ability to this, if you have the time! To me the auto industry is illustrative of some of the more fundamental problems with our economy.

Now I'll shut up for a bit, got to mow some damned weeds and grass this afternoon. Sneeze! But I ain't making no potato salad right now.

Damn, I'm overwhelmed as I'm sure the Trog is too from that sidebar link. I may never shower again.

>>we have inquired about the organicness of tofu but have so far not received a clear answer<<

Yes, tofu is indeed organic, for all it has the taste and consistancy of hydrocarbon waste. If you throw it in the compost heap, it will decay-the true test of organicness. (Is that a word???)

I pesonally prefer all my food to be organic-the inorganics tend to be non-digestable and hard on the teeth. Of course, let us all keep in mind that these lovely bacterium that invade us in food-bourne illness are themselves organic. In fact, the use of "natural" fertilizers is one of the common ways for some of them to spread.

I've been eating salad grown in my backyard. I'm pretty sure that I know where it's been.

Yeah, Gm says they can't compete with other manufacturers unless they sell over-sized gas guzzlers that nobody wants. And the CEO of GM says it is our fault that GM is in trouble, as we didn't take advantage of the tax break for businesses and buy a hummer.

Yes folks, the American citizen is to blame for GM making bad choices in what they manufacture.

When a Republican makes a bad choice, it is always everyone else's fault. Republicans are blameless for their actions.

I signed up for the FDA mailing list, and what you realize is, we are at the behest of the manufacturers for speedy release of the PSA's about their tainted products.

The FDA is pathetically underfunded and understaffed, as is the USDA. Take no comfort in imagining that a representative number of facilities are tested each year. I think I read <1% of cattleyards are visited even once each year.

BSE is still a mystery as are prions. Are they denatured via cooking? Who knows. We can't autoclave our meat.

Best choices: Scrub and peel fruits and veggies, get your grains in bulk from an organic food store, don't eat beef, unless it's grass-fed and then monstrously expensive. No fresh tofu from bins, even at Trader Joes. Yogurt's good--it's already full of bacteria. I stopped eating anything from China.

GM makes a bigger profit on their SUVs/trucks. That is why they have stuck with the product for so long. The company just about breaks even on their cars sales. (I'm speaking of domestic sales only.) Poor management over the past thirty years and legacy costs have created the situation they are currently in. We'll see in the next year or two if the new UAW contract wherein health care benefits are put into a VEBA account will help them out. It will place them nearly on the same playing field as the foreign automakers, and they will have no excuses when it comes to competitiveness. IMO