That's what happens when you cut back the regulatory agencies or stack them full of "good Bushies"

did you hear about Bush's nominee for Surgeon General? He's a guy that tries to cure gays.

Did you hear about Bush's stance on Mad Cow Disease? He doesn't want to test beef for it...too expensive...would put the poor factory farms out of business.

Anyway, on another note Dark Wraith, I nominated you for a Thinking Blogger Award

I leave it up to you if you want to play along or not.

I never thought of myself as a thinking blogger, PoliShifter, but thank you for the nomination.

I always thought of myself as more of a... geezer blogger.

The Dark Wraith reaches for the Geritol.

Sure, the free market thrives on "let the buyer beware"....with a skull and crossbones label, doncha know? That's why we can't let that piddly little meat packer in Kansas actually check ALL beef cattle for mad cow disease! Cause without the imminent threat of possible death, where would the joy of life be?

Ok, I will go beat the saracastic inner child to death now....

Just give it a firm lecture and a time-out, Labrys.

Beat it to death, and it might come back from the grave as a Right-wing pundit on FOX News.

The Dark Wraith is trying to thwart the root causes of the toxins entering our political environment.

The Dark Wraith is trying to thwart the root causes of the toxins entering our political environment.

Good effin' luck on that one, Your Wraithitude!

As far as oral hygiene products... don't know 'bout your neck o' the woods, but around here one can purchase locally produced, organic products. Buy Local and Keep the ChiCommunocapitalists From Getting Your Hard Earned Lucre!

Also, my sincerest condolences regarding your cat. When you're up to procuring new feline company, remember that cats are happier in pairs (unless they fight all the bloody time, like mine, that is).

Good afternoon, Phydeaux Speaks.

After my mom and I turned dirt poor, all the knowledge from her life as a Kentucky girl living through the Great Depression started to come out. I learned from her, among many other things, that a fine toothpaste can be made from mixing salt and baking soda. It was highly abrasive on the tooth enamel, but it surely felt good as far as freshening the mouth was concerned.

It also felt good to know that I was learning how to make due: it was like gathering strength in a world of people becoming weaker with every convenience they bought.

I think, however, I would have been okay without learning how to make a fresh hole and move the outhouse on a hot August day. I didn't care for that kind of survival skill.

The Dark Wraith is very much at peace with the modernity of indoor plumbing.

DW,
A little humor to brighten your night...

When the driver of a huge trailer lost control of his rig, he plowed into an empty toll booth and smashed it to bits. Unhurt, he climbed down from the cab and looked around. In minutes, a repair truck pulled up and discharged a crew of workers. The men from the crew each picked up a broken piece of the former tollbooth and spread some kind of creamy white substance on it. Then they began fitting the pieces together. In less than a half hour, they had the entire tollbooth reconstructed and looking good as new.
"Amazing!" the truck driver said to the crew chief. "What was the white stuff you used to get all the pieces together?"
The crew chief said, "Oh, that was tollgate booth paste."

The Dark Wraith has now officially heard the groaner of the month--nay, perhaps the year.

Gooood morning, all.

I need some salt for my teeth; they hurt from that pun. Hold the baking soda; just lime and tekillya, thanks.

Two nights ago we had a visitor come into the house from the unlocked garage door. They looked around, saw my keys sitting on the kitchen counter, and made off with my car. I found out when I went outside to start my journey to town early the next morning. Since it was an appt. with the doctor, I took the wife's car while she called the police. 2/3rds of the way on the interstate when whoa ho, what's this pulled over on the shoulder...yep, my car, keys still in the ignition, out of gas.

According to the police, I lucked out by being robbed by a meth tweaker. Or tweakers. He said they probably freaked when it ran out of gas, which is why the hood was up and the passenger door was left open. They also dumped the ashtray out, presumably for any roaches. ( I hope all this dope lingo isn't over everyones head.)

All in all, I now know, in the complete sense, what it's like to ride an 'emotional roller coaster'.

Here's an Irish wish to all; May your luck be more like mine, and less like DW's cat! ( Truly sorry for your loss.)
s

You actually made it in to comment, trog?

Does this mean that weird DISALLOWED thing your computer was displaying for this site isn't going on anymore? That's a little disappointing because I was going to use your login problem as an excuse to tell you to get rid of that Google Toolbar you're using.

Well, shoot. You might want to get rid of it anyway, at least before Google collects enough information on you to map your entire genetic code.

The Dark Wraith is, of course, glad to see that you got logged in.

Yep. The free market is a free for all.

How much longer do we have to deal with a government that is dismantling itself before our eyes and de-regulating everything under the sun except for the citizen taxpayers?

Judging from the candidates running for President in 2008, quite a few more years, Liz.

Dark Wraith, I'm really sorry to learn about your cat. I've been covering the adulterated food issue for some time now, beginning with the melamine-spiked pet food, and I never knew you were personally affected. God, that's awful--I'm so sorry.

I first became passionate about the whole issue of What Is Actually In The Food Supply when I lost two of our beloved dogs to aflatoxin poisoning (yes, from a commercial "high end" dog chow that contained contaminated corn meal) in January of this year. Three of them became violently ill, and one, our big male Daxter, died immediately; the smaller female survived after several days of intensive care and IV fluids, and the other male, Vito, passed into a seizure-wracked coma and never awakened.

So when the first reports (of cats and dogs falling ill) started rolling in back in March, I thought it might be the same thing--moldy cornmeal used by the penny-pinching profiteers who make animal feed (God, you don't want to know what goes into animal feed, you just don't even want to know). As I learned more, and became rather horribly aware that our own human food supply was not only vulnerable to malicious action, but actually could be poisoned--and quite easily, too--and further, that our regulatory agency (the FDA, also called the Faith-based Dining Association) only looked at 1% of imported foodstuffs, well, I had myself a serious cause.

And I don't plan to let go of it any time soon. I want to see some meaningful change, and too few are even aware of this issue in the first place.

Really--if the purity and safety of our air, food, and water are not of paramount concern, what on Earth is?

Litbrit, so sorry to hear about your dogs, and all at once makes it...too much.

Our dog is healthy, thank Ja, but maybe we ought to switch dog foods anyway. I've been thinking of switching her to cat food...cat's are pretty cheap, I hear. :0

Now that our FDA is based on third world standards, why exactly are we #1? Oh yeah, cause we can blow you to smithereens. Sorry I asked.

Comments about the testing of food for purity reminds me of a saloon sign I saw many years ago, memorized, and now altered slightly to fit this blog subject:
There's lots of reasons for testing
And one just entered my head;
If you don't test for the living
How the hell can you test for the dead?

"How the Hell can you test for the dead?"

In my day, Peter, we checked for a pulse.

The Dark Wraith does, of course, recognize that this was before the era of the cardiac-challenged, sometimes known as "Neo-Cons."

I dunno DW. Just because you have a pulse doesn't mean you're alive.
I submit Cheeny as an example.

Does he fit the neocon description of "alive"?

Good morning, Father Tyme.

I submit Richard V. Cheney as Exhibit A of what I just described as the "cardiac challenged."

The Dak Wraith sort of likes that new-age, politically correct put-down of the heatless miscreants in the White House.

my deep condolences for the loss of your cat friend wraith. i like my critters far more than i like most people. the whole china mess is also hopelessly caught up in the powerlessness we have in applying meaningful pressure because the chinese hold so much of our paper. we are left with no course of action which would risk the danger of our notes being called.

again, my sincere sympathy to you.

Good Morning Dark Wraith,

So, so, sorry about your kitty. Words can't express...

we are left with no course of action which would risk the danger of our notes being called.

The only course we have is to boycott all food that MIGHT have chinese ingredients: let's see, that would be everything pre-prepared, everything with any kind of crust on it, with glycerin in it, with anything that has an unpronouncable name in it...

and no american beef, until and unless they start testing in a meaningful way, or you can find local trusted growers.

IT'S VICTORY GARDEN TIME.

They cannot MAKE us buy their nasty, polluted products.

(Wow, I LOVE IT that we can edit our comments when we misspell stuff...)

Ah, you noticed that little addition, SB Gypsy.

Pretty cool, huh?

The Dark Wraith provides.

...just don't hit the "ban" link unless you really, really believe you've done something awfully naughty.

aside to sb gypsy:

i'm jes' too damned country to go the whole victry garden route. 'sides i don' be all that trustin' whin peepuls talk 'bout what them defnishuns is regardin' what constitutes victry an' such.

i do have me a mighty good lookin' truck patch though.

Good afternoon, Minstrel Boy.

A "truck patch," you say.

When I was growing up, many of the folks around my neck of the woods had car patches. You know, the side of the yard where all the broken down cars were left to rust in peace.

I never did see one of them car patches bear any fruit, though. That would have been nice: every Autumn, a new crop of junkers drivable for a few hundred miles.

That would have been nice.

The Dark Wraith looks back fondly.

Dark Wraith, here in RedneckTopia, Florida, you's can git lots o' stuff to grow just by plantin' a few dead auto-mobeels in a pile. 'Course, it's all weeds and tall grass--nothin' yer young 'uns would want to eat. Sure makes fer intresstin' yard sculpture, tho'.

i'm not real shoor how the garden come be calld a "truck patch" i think it has ta do with taking the proceeds out to somewhere in a truck or some such. i am a slacker when it comes to broke trucks in the yard. only got 3 of 'em and i'm workin' steady on two of 'em. hopin' ta get one that runs, sorta. then i'll fix the biggun and haul off the carcass. that or jus' shoot it fulla holes with the .50 cal, that's kinda fun.

Ah, yes, Minstrel Boy: the .50 calibre would, indeed, reduce the ricochet issue that made such sport less than enjoyable when I engaged something similar years ago.

The Dark Wraith still can't figure out how that .357 round managed to come right back at him like that.

"Truck patches"? "Car patches"? "Yard sculpcher"?
Y'all need to visit "Carhenge" in western Nebraska, where an "artist" has recreated "Stonehenge", replicating the stones with old automobiles.
http://www.carhenge.com/
http://www.carhenge.com/history.htm
and a marvelous photo is available at
http://www.worldslargestthings.com/washington/carhenge.htm