Of course, if you die from tainted food, you are not around to sue.

In the afterlife, you may wish there had been regulation.

But then, humping those 40 virgins, or floating around in a state of nirvana, maybe you won't care anymore.

Regulations are worthless without enforcement. You offering to pay for a legion of new enforcers, asshole?

Here's a metric to look at: what's the marginal return on investment.

Hint - "If it saves just one life" is not an acceptable answer.

Brian, please be careful what you eat. You would not want to die like Liberace, from bad meat in the can.
I still miss Liberace.

I suspect there's an accusation of homosexuality in there.

-- Food Safety Mandate --

His Benevolence: I have decided to make all food safer.

Advisor: Of course Sire. Tell me more.

His Benevolence: All providers of food will now be regulated in detail, from the largest meat purveyer to the smallest church kitchen. Maybe bake sales.

Advisor: Your name will be legend. Who will watch the food rascals?

His Benevolence: We will add a department to our offices, staffed with the pesky sons, daughters, cousins, and friends of the nobles. They will be paid at full scale. They will watch over the merchants, visit their establishments, and require compliance in the large and small things. Many scribes will be employed by them to meet our oversight. This will add to jobs and prosperity.

Advisor: Your vision is grand. But Sire, will you be paying for this bounty?

His Benevolence: The merchants will pay.

Advisor: Yes Sire. They will have to collect more from the peasants to meet the requirements of your new department. The peasants may grumble at the rising cost of food. Many small producers, rascals that they are, will not be able to satisfy the overseers. Will you be lightening your taxes?

His Benevolence: Shall you feel the whip? The taxes shall even increase to meet new departmental costs.

Advisor: Of course Sire. The peasants will have to do their best in their gratitude for the safer food.

His Benevolence: Whatever. Let it be so. I now grow tired of this subject.

Advisor:   I will inform the scribes and the hiring vassals.

He denied it all his life, but was very-persistently rumored gay. Even his death was further confusing, with some dispute over whether he had AIDS (back then rare among heterosexuals).

Goodbye to Locally Processed Meats

05/27/10 - Cato@Liberty by Walter Olson

Joe Cloud is a small meat processor in Virginia [edited]:

Changes in national food regulation make it difficult for small plants to stay in business. In 2000, small USDA-inspected slaughter and processing plants were required to adopt the costly Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety plan. There are estimates that more than 20% of those plants went out of business.

Now, proposed changes to HACCP threaten to take down many of the ones that remain, making healthy, local meats a rare commodity.

Boy cookies. Masculine bake-age. A man with a spatula and the will to confect.

Hah!

P.S. All those .7 waist-to-hip ratios must make you dizzy!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Direct link to the Atlantic article by the owner of the small slaughterhouse here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/05/the-fight-to-save-small-scale-slaughterhouses/57114/

Hi, Amy!

The Times story says, "The law includes exemptions for small food processors and farmers, many of which feared it would be too costly and burdensome." However, the story also says that small producers were linked to some serious outbreaks of illness.

I wonder how small one has to be to be considered a small food processor. I wonder if these regulations will still wind up clobbering the small producers, while leaving the large producers, who can absorb a little more overhead, weakened but intact?

He denied it all his life, but was very-persistently rumored gay.

Those rumors were started by people suffering from pianist envy.

Liberace, gay? I figure if he wanted people to know, he would have told them. Ditto, whether or not he had AIDS. Since it means nothing to me whether he was or not, or had it or not, I'm going say something really shocking: It's none of my business and I couldn't care less.

I'm sure post-mortem busybody Ray Richmond would be happy to fill us in with all the details, even if it is none of our business.

Conan, by the way, "Pianist envy"? BOOOOO!

Still, better than some Liberace jokes I've heard...like you all know why he played the piano, right? Because he sucked on the organ.

It is with an ocean of sadness larger than several galaxies that I must report that the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, one of the focal points of the entire universe, is closing, and perhaps is already closed. I am too depressed to even check its website.

Some days it seems that darkness is pervasive and prevalent. The crude and uncouth promenade about, make furtive, creepy potty-mouthed jokes about dicks in butts and other ugly snipes about Liberace.

For me, his memory will sparkle forever, just like the sign at Caesar's Palace or the large diamond ring on my pinky finger.

I wonder what will happen to all the roadside sellers?

There are any number of places I drive by on any weekday in the summer that have their fruits and veggies just sitting out on a table with a sign, maybe a scale, and a "cigar" box to hold the money. It is all on the honor system. Or a retired granny/grandpa comes out when you come into the driveway that loops in front of the house. They're selling brown eggs that you know have been candled. Either way, I know they haven't been near a state inspector.

I can see the USDA/FDA/State inspectors come by -- see a stand, confiscate all the produce, and of course the money for selling unapproved produce. They drop a letter that says they have ten days to get licensed. Of course they use the same type of forfeiture type laws for drugs -- hold the case up until the produce rots. And the $25.68 in the money box isn't worth the lawyer to get back.

I have made many a salad from these items and have as yet to get sick.

BTW -- a really great summer salad that is just fantastic -- Thin sliced cucumber and onion. Thin sliced tomato. Vinegar and sugar to get a nice balance and then throw in sour cream. Just tastes incredible.