Too many browser tabs open again. I haven’t had any time to sit and rant as much as I would like this week. So, a little link dump of news for your perusal.
First up … we have antibiotics, pigs, factory farming, and MSRA.
…MRSA, the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS — 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
And:
A European study found that 60 percent of pig farms that routinely used antibiotics had MRSA-positive pigs (compared with 5 percent of farms that did not feed pigs antibiotics).
Almost as bad in Canada, and thanks to NAFTA, pigs move freely to the US, which means “MRSA may be present on American pig farms; we just haven’t looked yet.” Though I doubt we needed to import any pigs to get it that way. American factory farmers use too many antibiotics too.
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani interrupted his campaign and checked into a Missouri hospital with flu-like symptoms, according to media reports on Thursday.
Wow, Giuliani must have a nice healthcare plan and a lot of money. I wonder if his free market, tax credit, privatized plan for America’s healthcare will allow me to check into a hospital when I have flu-like symptoms? Or will I do what I always do when I have flu-like symptoms: take over-the-counter flu meds, go to bed, and pray it doesn’t get too bad?
Morgan Stanley posted its first quarterly loss ever Wednesday after taking an additional $5.7 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages. The investment bank also said it would sell a $5 billion stake to China Investment Corp., a sovereign wealth fund, to shore up its capital.
China continues to buy America. Start learning Mandarin. It’s going to be the new English. Does no one is a position of power remember how, back in the day, America used to be the one shoring up other countries and pouring money into them and selling them everything under the sun, just like China is today, and how that gave the USA a sort of power over these other countries? I do. It works the other way too.
After delaying a domestic satellite-surveillance program for more than two months, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expects to finalize a new charter for it this week, a move that attempts to quell civil-liberties concerns and get the program back on track.
The satellite program, which would be run by a new department branch called the National Applications Office, would expand the domestic use of satellite imagery by federal and local authorities.
Oh goody! More spying they promise not to use without proper warrants, and a whole twig of government! I can’t wait!
A prankster, believed to be a former student of the Canton, Mass., school, reportedly posed as a member of the administration and phoned in instructions for shock therapy on Aug. 26, according to a report by the Department of Early Education and Care, the organization that licenses the residential program at the school and is conducting the investigation.
Unaware that the phone call was a prank, school officials reportedly woke the two students up and delivered 77 shocks to one student and 29 to another — informing both that it was punishment for misbehavior earlier in the day.
I’m fairly thoroughly disgusted by everything I read about the use of shock therapy at this special needs school, and the whole wretched “prank” is beyond vile. Read the rest of it, and be disgusted with me. We are living in the 21st century, aren’t we? I mean … WTF?!?!
I think those are the most important ones. I have a few more tabs open, but I may actually want to rant at length about them tomorrow, since I may have time.