At the Maple Leaf plant behind the listeria outbreak, a single federal inspector was relegated to auditing company paperwork and had to deal with several other plants, the manager and the union official said, contradicting the impression that officials had left last week that full-time watchdogs were on-site.

Under the new system, federal inspectors do random product tests only three or four times a year at any given plant. And meat packers are required to test each type of product only once a month.

Under the old system, inspectors had a more hands-on role on the plant floor, did more of the tests themselves and had more freedom to investigate, said former CFIA inspector Bob Kingston, who is national president of the Agriculture Union, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Not that the Liberals are completely innocent, since the Americans have been using more effective techniques for a decade now. But at least the Liberals can argue negligence, unlike the Conservatives, who actively sabotaged the system.

Some scientists said yesterday that Canada has also not required companies to adopt new processing methods that would make their products safer.

Canada simply failed to react in the same way as the United States did to the 1998 deaths of 15 people who ate infected hot dogs, the scientists say.

Many U.S. companies now pasteurize sliced turkey, ham and other ready-to-eat meat products after they have been packaged to kill any microbes.

It only took four months for people to die from the Conservative plan to eliminate independent food testing. And while all this is going on, Health minister Tony “Two-tier” Clement is in Denver trying to sell the tar sands to oil and gas companies. Does it get worse than this?

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They met on the local hot rod scene. They saw one another at tattoo conventions around the area, comparing bikes. They looked like heavies, a band of Hells Angels, with nicknames equally tough: Mike Tattoo, Big Ant, Johnny O, Batso, Sal, Angel, Des.

They meant no harm. Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls and dragons, with images of bloodied barbed wire looped about their necks, they shared something else — a peculiar tenderness for animals, and the intensity needed to act on the animals’ behalf when people abuse them.

“I’m a vegetarian,” said Mike Tattoo (real name Mike Ostrosky), a former bodybuilding champion with a shaved head, great arms covered in art and a probing clarity in his blue eyes. “And Big Ant has in his backyard three guinea pigs, a couple of rabbits, birds, cats — and fish everywhere. But just because a person has tattoos, they wouldn’t come running with us.”

The only thing I love as much as I love animals and big men is a big man who loves animals.

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This time around, expectations are, if anything, loftier than usual. The youthful and charismatic Sen. Barack Obama casts himself as the standard-bearer of those keenest to fix Washington, redeem America and save the world. “Yes, we can,” Obama’s anthem proclaims, inviting supporters to complete the thought by inserting their own fondest desire. Yes, we can: bring peace to the Middle East; reverse global warming; win the global war on terrorism.

Yet Sen. John McCain’s campaign has been hardly shy about fostering grandiose expectations. Speaking earlier this month, while most Americans were fretting about the cost of oil, McCain uncorked one of his patented straight-talking promises: “I’m going to lead our nation to energy independence.” As far as McCain would have us believe, you can take that to the bank.

Will the next president actually bring about Big Change? Don’t get your hopes up.

[...]

In matters of substance, Big Change will remain elusive. The next president will leave his own imprint on U.S. policy. It just won’t be nearly as distinctive or dramatic as the most enthusiastic Obama and McCain supporters have talked themselves into expecting.

Why does Bacevich hate America?

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The very first articulate, bright, clean black presidential candidate is just more of the same.

That prompted responses from people shocked that I would make such a bigoted statement and who rightly called me what they thought were my words. In fact, I chose those words specifically to emphasize how Obama is just more of the same. What do I mean? Someone very interesting said those words originally. Who was it who said this?

His remarks about Obama, the only African-American serving in the Senate, drew the most scrutiny. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Joe Biden, Obama’s candidate for Vice President. That’s how much of a disappointment Obama will be, folks. Storybook indeed.

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Then, of course, the disappointment slowly set in. He was constrained by the limited powers of his position and by the necessity of compromise and by the fact that, even though he had political experience, being at the top is almost never an opportunity for meaningful change. Now? He’s all right. He’s not inspiring any more. He’s just another sell-out politician.

Same story with Obama, whom I predict is going to be the biggest disappointment imaginable. The only thing that might prevent people from being disappointed on January 20 is the fact that he hasn’t bothered to wait for the election to be over to turn into a sell-out. Yeah, he’ll probably stop torturing prisoners in Guantanamo, but given who he’ll be replacing how could he not be better? The very first articulate, bright, clean black presidential candidate is just more of the same. He’s not meaningfully different from any other right wing politician, at least if you define right wing sensibly and not by the standards of the Republican party. Prepare for disappointment.

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Mark
Originally uploaded by thickslab

On the Civic Holiday weekend, our friend Christopher was kind enough to invite us to sail with him around the Islands. I took a few pictures.

This is Mark holding onto the edge of the boat which we anchored off Hanlan’s point. We swam ashore and discreetly ogled the hot naked bears.

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A case in point is Mark’s bad habit of leaving the soap sitting in a puddle of water in the soap dish. Instead of bitching at him, which is what I might have done with the previous boyfriend, I went to the dollar store and bought a small rubbery plastic porcupine-type thing to put in the soap dish. With the rubber porcupine, when he puts the soap back into the dish, it stays out of the water. I didn’t even mention it to him, because I figured there was no point. Instead I solved the problem without getting upset or upsetting him.

He has another habit that always annoyed me, but this one wasn’t easy to solve. Whenever he washes his hands, he leaves water splashed all over the countertop. But instead of complaining or mentioning it to him, I’d simply wipe up after him. It’s easier to deal with his little quirks than to try to change them.

So the other day, I happened to be right next to Mark as he was washing his hands in the bathroom, and as usual, he splashed water all over the countertop. He asked me if there was a rag he could use to wipe it up, and I told him to use the face cloth I always leave hanging on the shower curtain rod. “I always annoyed me that you would never wipe up the water from the countertop,” I admitted to him. “I never knew where to get a rag to clean it up,” he told me.

Now the countertop is always dry. I’m happy that it’s dry, but I’m more happy because of why it’s dry.

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He looked angry.

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And his teammate Justin Anlezark, who is a bit more scrawny than Martin at 125 kg?

Also hot: my new sperm donor, German shot putter Peter Sack. He’s only 135 kg, but he’ll do:

I call dibs on his fat, uncut German sausage. He’s mine, bitches, and I’ll fucking cut your eyes out if you get near him.

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Yes, please. Some of that.

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Two Nebraska wrestlers, including one who won an NCAA championship in 2007, have been dismissed from the team after posing naked for videos and photographs on an Internet pornography site.

Don’t bother looking for the pictures. I found them, and they’re not hot.

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