Cow Madness

So a US federal judge has stopped the import of Canadian beef because of the concern of Mad Cow disease. I'm not a rancher, so I don't care all that much. But two things stick out to me in the reporting.

First off, the judge's rationale seems to be that no expert could prove that there was "no risk". This is ridiculous. There's a lot more risk in driving a car than there is in eating beef, but we don't stop cars from Detroit crossing the border. I think we can say pretty clearly this judge is going to be overruled later on, but for now he's doing serious harm to Canadian ranchers.

Secondly, can we please stop people who want to use the WTO or NAFTA to force open the American market? Can we think of a worse image than using international agreements to force poisonous beef on poor defenseless Americans? (That's how it'll play on Fox News. We know this.) On the other hand, if it further delegitimizes "globalization" in American eyes, maybe that's a good thing after all.

In other beef-related news, the CBC had a story last night about some biology teacher who tried to disprove the Supersize Me diet. He ate nothing but McDonalds for a month, and lost weight! Gee, that Morgan Spurlock guy was full of shit, wasn't he?

Um... no. Mr. Biology Teacher ate nothing but small-sized meals, and exercised six days a week for an hour each day. So, the lesson was.... eat reasonably, and exercise regularly, and you can lose weight. Holy shit! Call the press!

Morgan Spurlock's point was that American laziness, combined with an extreme form of the American diet, can seriously damage you. Of course no one eats McDonalds everyday all day. But no one exercises six times a week, either. Spurlock's experiment was to show dramatically how unhealthy the American diet is. Mr. B. T.'s point was... what, exactly? That if you try to keep a healthy lifestyle, your physical condition will improve? Thank God he was here to open our eyes! Hallelujah!