The Coalition of the Swilling

As an aside to the aside, that is a good explanation for something I recently experienced. I went to the local Giant (grocery store) and some contact-rewetting drops wouldn't be accepted by the system. The manager came over, looked at the situation, and explained that the drops had been recalled and weren't for sale anymore. I wondered why they were still on the shelf. But if this type of thing can be controlled from higher-ups offsite, then it make more sense.

The local news radio station had the nerve to admonish pet owners to "be careful about what they feed their pets." Excuse me? Now making the sure the label says "pet food" and the expiration date hasn't passed isn't enough--now we have to run the package through an electron microscope or something? Maybe they meant check the country of origin, but who's got it all figured out when it's constantly changing? I just don't appreciate the "careful or you might kill your pet and you'd better start worrying" tone.

Petsmart implemented the same bar code alert system, too--saw that in action a few months ago.

My provincial mind still can't cleanly grapple with the fact that it makes economic sense to import Chinese wheat gluten, melamine-enhanced or otherwise, for use in pet foods made here with all the wheat we produce ourselves.

Remember the good ol' days when the worst ingredient in Chinese food was MSG? Also, taking a toy away from a child used to be a punishment, now it's saving your child's life.

Why does China still have most-favored nation trade status? (besides the corrupt politicians in Washington.)

Hmmmm.

What's even stranger is that the Chinese wheat gluten is probably made from American, Canadian or Australian wheat. While the Chinese do grow quite a bit of wheat themselves they import massive amounts of wheat.