I must have missed it on T.V. Sometime, during the last week, almost everyone in America it seems had simultaneously lost their collective minds. Something to be terribly afraid of, without warning crept out from underneath what ever hideous rock, and became the latest paralyzing event for America. Move over, “War of the Worlds,” Vampires, Hydraulic Fracturing, and what ever other phony baloney scares our news media have cooked up in order to distract us from real issues or problems that we are facing today. Pink slime it seems is what we should all truly be very afraid of, even though we have been eating it and surviving its menace for literally, over half a decade. Never mind that the alternative is something far worse, and is actually deadly. The movement to ban it has already reached the mob mentality fevered proportions born of an easily distracted sound byte society. The only good news for the instantly misinformed ipod generation, we will probably be onto the next outrage sometime next week. Hopefully, this will occur before people start dying of their own destruction due to salmonella, e coli, or campy. All of this of course would have been our own dumb fault anyhow.
When I first heard of Pink Slime, while nominally paying attention to a television turned on in another room, it never dawned on me, that they were actually referring to hamburger itself. I thought at first that it was some nefariousness unwanted contagion hidden within the meat. So, in order to set the record straight, please click the link in order to learn some real facts about the supposed menace of Pink Slime, formerly known as hamburger.
Myth 5:
Dangerous chemicals are added to boneless lean beef trimmings.
Fact:
This is a reference to ammonium hydroxide, essentially ammonia and water, both naturally occurring compounds that have been used to make foods safe since 1974, when the Food and Drug Administration declared it GRAS or Generally Recognized as Safe, the highest safety attribution the agency assigns to compounds. Boneless lean beef trimmings receive a puff of ammonia to eliminate bacteria safely and effectively. When combined with moisture naturally in beef, ammonium hydroxide is formed, which is a naturally occurring compound found in many foods, in our own bodies and the environment. Food safety experts and scientists agree it is an effective way to ensure safer ground beef.
This one part of the conjured up terror is especially amazing to me, particularly when the alternative is considered. The alternative of course is purposefully inflicting our children and ourselves with food born pathogens. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to inflict myself with food poisoning. That we as Americans would fall prey to some chicanery such as this is nothing new. We watched it happen about a month ago with hydraulic fracturing, a process of oil production which has been in use since the 1960′s, and only declared a terrible menace late last year, it surprised the hell out of me to learn that there are about 1 Million such wells in operation which have been around for about 50 years. What is becoming new is the speed with which we can be so easily turned into an angry mob and mobilized into some idiotic action, such as purposefully poisoning ourselves. the last straw for me occurred this morning. A Facebook friend sent me an invitation to join a, “cause,” (another topic entirely,) which sought as its goal, the elimination of bacteria free hamburger meat being served in our society. It wasn’t phrased that way, it wanted the end of, “Pink Slime.” I won’t be joining this cause of course, as it is beyond stupid. It is dangerous.
I realize that it is sexy to have the appearance of someone who actually cares, and who is fighting to save the planet from what ever terror lies in wait for the unsuspecting unwashed masses. Just please, to all of you junior James and Jennifer Bonds out there, please take the time to use two or three brain cells in those big brains of yours to make sure that you are actually saving the world for the rest of us. I have been hospitalized once in my life due to food poisoning, and it was as a result of my own stupidity. I learned from my mistake, and I have ceased the practice which led to this. I do not want to have a repeat performance because somebody else was saving me from a terror that was not real, or fixing something that wasn’t broken to begin with. There is nothing sexy about being one of Milgram’s 37, mindlessly participating in any bit of idiocy your overlords tell you is the crusade dujour.
Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Nanny State
re: the video-
- Bob in Breckenridge
oh, and make by burger medium-well with cheddar cheese.
10 Reasons why Fisker Automotive may be worse than Solyndra.
The Fisker Karma is the Chebby Bolt on steroids.
Pink Slime…wasn’t that a cheezy Italian sci-fi movie from the 1960′s about an alien fungus that takes over a
space station? Oh, that was Green Slime.
Never mind.
Any institutional bar coded food is going to be less effective for good health than food from a garden. I’ve traveled a lot and the food in other countries even 3rd world crap holes is vastly superior in taste and quality than what comes off of the supermarket shelves.
The us has better hygiene and food safety practices but also destroys a lot of the value of the food in the process.
LOL!
now, rather then force-feed the kids Al Gore propaganda in schools -- the Penn & Teller bit should be shown (or at least given equal time)
@ darkwords:
I have to agree with you on part of this. I went to the Domincan Republic and had a steak at the resort. It tasted different than what I get back in the states. It was very tasty and tender. Guy next to us didn’t like it. Probably was used to tasting growth hormones.
Now for a good burger, get some ground lamb. Now thats a burger. Get some from a local farm.
@ darkwords:
Care to cite any sources to back that up?
From ‘The Atlantic’, some liberal tripe that we should just re-engineer humans to adapt to climate change:
So, some scholars are asking, what if we could engineer human beings to be more energy efficient? A new paper to be published in Ethics, Policy & Environment proposes a series of biomedical modifications that could help humans, themselves, consume less.
Some of the proposed modifications are simple and noninvasive. For instance, many people wish to give up meat for ecological reasons, but lack the willpower to do so on their own. The paper suggests that such individuals could take a pill that would trigger mild nausea upon the ingestion of meat, which would then lead to a lasting aversion to meat-eating. Other techniques are bound to be more controversial. For instance, the paper suggests that parents could make use of genetic engineering or hormone therapy in order to birth smaller, less resource-intensive children.
The lead author of the paper, S. Matthew Liao, is a professor of philosophy and bioethics at New York University. Liao is keen to point out that the paper is not meant to advocate for any particular human modifications, or even human engineering generally; rather, it is only meant to introduce human engineering as one possible, partial solution to climate change. He also emphasized the voluntary nature of the proposed modifications. Neither Liao or his co-authors, Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache of Oxford, approve of any coercive human engineering; they favor modifications borne of individual choices, not technocratic mandates. What follows is my conversation with Liao about why he thinks human engineering could be the most ethical and effective solution to global climate change.
@ spinmore:
That one AND the one on recycling.
Obama intends to have his head carved into Mt Rushmore
m wrote:
where’s that one at??
darkwords wrote:
And if you believe this, fine no skin off of my nose. There are a bazillion and one of those organic hippy foods markets around for you to purchase your groceries from. Hands off of my market and its endless supply of cheap affordable groceries. That after all is what the free markets are about. This entire piece of nonsense is all about the hippies trying to make their over priced stores more competitive, not by pointing out the value of why their product is, “superior,” nor by improving on their operation, but by destroying the other guy in the market place through making his product illegal.
waldensianspirit wrote:
. . . only problem, he doesn’t want to be added, he wants a ‘carve-over’ (in place of)
@ yenta-fada:
Right after saying:
Most people pray for big and healthy babies, their goal is smaller, less resource-intensive babies.
m’k.
spinmore wrote:
He couldn’t possibly be a muzlim now could he?
@ spinmore:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzLebC0mjCQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wS1dv3iat8&feature=related
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvz-z7CvsYA&feature=related
@ Flyovercountry:
And I roll my eyes to all this crap. Really? Pink slime? The vegans of the world are getting on my nerves. If that is the way they want to roll fine. Just don’t try and cram this down other peoples throats.
They are so pompus with their high and mighty way better eaters of food than you. Good night in Georgia how did any human survive back in the day with the diets they ate???? What was a real killer wasn’t what kind of food you ate but the lack of food ever hear of the word ‘famine’?
Now they would perfer food poisioning. People have gone nutty.
@ yenta-fada:
{Yenta} this is down right insanity. They really want to play God don’t they? Far be it from me to say it will not end well.
/has common sense just flown the coop?
@ m:
I didn’t post a linky to the inky. *eyeroll*
Study: Young people not so ‘green’ after all
After the current older proggies die off most young people still want to have a country and a modern life
Lily wrote:
{Lily} We can always ask crazy Uncle Ron.
Pink Slime: is it much different than what is inside Hot Dogs or Underwood Deviled Ham?
On the pink slime thing, proggies don’t understand chemistry, thermodynamics and phase equilibria and chemical speciation
@ Lily:
I need to get a T-shirt made that reads, “Vegan, the other white meat.”
@ rgranger:
People pay the big bucks for liver pate. But I guess it’s “beige slime”. Actually the so-called “pink slime”, the mechanically-deboned chicken, looks more like a paste than a slime to me. “Slime” should be a glossy and viscous fluid, not a matte solid. Egg whites are a perfect example.
@ m:
good stuff (and funny too!)
More crapatastic crap:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/racial_discrepancy_madness_spreads.html
@ waldensianspirit:
The comments in the article are clearly anti-Yon for some reason.
I agree with Yon I am not surprised this happened. Our soldiers are risk when their CiC is siding with the enemy.
Er, I hate to be a downer, but the “Pink Slime” reports (at least the recent original ones, and the real original ones back in 2002) were not about ammonium hydroxide, but about a non-meat additive blended with real ground beef.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/08/pink-slime-combo-connective-tissue-scraps-hidden-in-your-kids-lunch/
@ Mike C.:
ligands, gristles and tendons?
@ Mike C.:
Of course, the larger issue is the extent to which the masses are being lied to and manipulated on everything from food to war to inflation, energy, education, and the intentional destruction of the West.
@ waldensianspirit:
Yup.
@ yenta-fada:
Sorry -- I was sticking to the topic.
UPDATE -- http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/15/schools-can-opt-out-pink-slime-beef/?test=latestnews
@ Mike C.:
By the West, I mean the erosion of modern functioning societies.
http://tundratabloids.com/2012/03/oslo-mayor-says-he-couldnt-care-less-of-oslo-is-emptied-of-ethnic-norwegians.html
@ Mike C.:
That sticking to the topic thing can get out of hand.
Danger, danger.
An interesting, but not verifiable Ulsterman report on unionizing an international military.
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/03/12/wall-street-insider-task-group-120/
Talking to myself. later.
@ yenta-fada:
I read that. After the Marine commerical were there is no U.S. Flag on anything but Aid boxes makes you think.
@ Mike C.:
I saw nothing in the report that would lead me to believe that anyone should be alarmed in the slightest. It is not dangerous, and in fact is actually safer for consumption than anything the hippies are proposing that we switch to. I tried to reread the reports by the way, and my access was denied, so I do not know what happened beyond Fox pulling these reports down.
As for Fast food restaurants using different tissues in their versions of meat, what else is new? This is also something which has been happening for decades, as well as what’s in hot dogs. if you thought you were getting Allen Brothers Quality at Burger King, sorry. You are getting the lowest quality of meat that Burger King could legally qualify as beef.
@ Flyovercountry:
Char-broiled! mm mmm good ~:)
When I was a cub scout we went to the packing plant for a field trip. We watvhed them cut up the meat and then we watched them make bologna and hot dogs. Very interesting seeing that huge frothing vat of pink goo. As we were leaving, the plant manager gave each us a nice, fresh hot dog to eat. Eight little cub scouts climbed intot he cars for the trip home holding their hot dogs. Within five minutes eight hot dogs were tossed out the window. It took me a few months to eat a hot dog after that.
If you like sausage, don’t visit the sausage factory.
and stuff from hooves? Oh my, the end of civilization
@ waldensianspirit:
Jello!
@ father_of_10:
Your post 21:
DaNang, Monkey Mountian sighting and observation group had stuff up top and down on the DaNang bay near the peir.
14 year old laundry girl was inside the hooch area daily taking in laundry, delivering laundry and cleaning hooches for extra $.
Only thing, she VC, measured every inch as she walked about, learned the guard times, when and who was there, how all of it work. Gave it to big VC boss man local, he hands it to NVA, they train Sapper Team. Middle of the night they centapie/arm/in/arm walk to the area,
bang, bang,
Every day, every eye, every hump of dirt, every tree line, every native truck, car, mopehead, motorycylce, evey kid on a water buff, out to kill you,,
Then comes the “you can not go there” off limits,, Buddist Shrine, (but you know that is where the VC big boss meets the NVA guys, or, the ROE’s say you have to interview them after they fire on you to be sure they ment it, or “boming pause” or you take the intel-guys out in the field and show them the truck lights comon the “trails” 2 clicks over the border that you know are full of guns and ammo as well as replacement troops… No you can not do a thing until it is off loaded and over the border. In other words once the bullet in in your ass you can fire back.
Our leaders are responsible for this. The no good coward Generals who allow the shit wipe people in D.C. to order this shit are responsible.
There will be judgment for these crimes, in fact it is near now.@ waldensianspirit:
@ Flyovercountry:
I don’t know about the hippies, but apparently a lot of people think the meat should be, well, meat. If not, oatmeal might be a better additive.
And yes, I know food additives have a long history. Centuries, not decades…
A food thread and I’m hungry!
@ m:
Borger King: WE DO IT OUR WAY, YOUR WAY IS IRRELEVANT!!
@ taxfreekiller:
Without experience I get close to visualizing what you write tfk. And I appreciate it
@ 31 Mike C.: 40 years ago it was just called mystery meat. 40 years later the same thing is called pink slime, but it probably healthier for you. put a brussel sprout up there or a healthy green bean and the kids will devout the pink slime.
We called the costal sand dune area just south of DaNang down Hwy 1, “apache country” for a reason.@ waldensianspirit:
Urban Infidel wrote:
I ate some black olives to it.
@ 21 waldensianspirit: The pressures in the military can be immense on a young soldier. It’s war. We kill the enemy. When the general and politicians try and micromanage and work PR angles for that process the pressure on the young soldier increases.
Note the marines had to leave their rifles outside when Panetta talked? What type of leader is that? He’s afraid of his own troops? The Military brass is afraid?
More so these troops should be afraid of the likes of Panetta and the paper machie generals.
@ darkwords:
Anti-brussel sproutism? What’s wrong with brussel sprouts?
@ Macker:
Does it make me a nerd that I get this?
And we are fighting this war on muslim terms, which is self defeating
@ taxfreekiller:
@ darkwords:
I hope more can come back like you and Lt Col West to make a difference in DC and politics
Pink slime. It could be re-cycled solyent green.
@ taxfreekiller:
<>
Heh. Been there. Got a picture of me and my buddy Crow overlooking the harbor. 1969. You must have been 1st MP’s??
Appreciate the guys beyond the perimeter keeping the incoming rockets down to a reasonable level -- every other nite, instead of every night
down at the airstrip (VMCJ-1, 1st MAW)
Over and out on the dead thread!
Lily wrote:
I had to run and cook dinner! I was starved.
I’m gonna eat like a good ol’ boy
Live forever like Elvis and Roy.
/
waldensianspirit wrote:
I know any number of people who would be happy to oblige. If he’s willing to come over, they’ll go to work on him.
They’re even willing to give him anaesthetic while they carve.
Mike C. wrote:
My problem with the “pink slime” issue is not that they use it, but that they don’t disclose it. It’s an issue of truth in labeling.
The “pink slime” includes scraps that are not actual muscle meat and do not have the same nutritional content. In addition, the use of ammonia in sufficient quantity to kill the germs does have a bad effect on the taste.
If I buy ground beef, or a hamburger somewhere, I expect it to be actual ground beef with a certain percentage of fat (according to label), and nothing else. Otherwise, it should not be labeled as ground beef or even as a hamburger, without further disclosure.