A Bad Case Of Fleas

How many hours, do you suppose, it takes Seaworld to process $75,000 in gate receipts? Three? Fifteen?

Seaworld, of course, will shrug off their $75,000 OSHA fine like a bad case of fleas, as it is really just that -- a minor cost of doing business.

I find it somewhat amazing that whale training even falls under the purview of occupational health. I presume employees of Dick's Skydiving do also, along with anyone else who maintains a dangerous recreational job. Fair enough -- no way for me to determine what's recreational/therapeutical/industrial, and no way for me to determine the risks associated with any given job. I only question the relevance of a $75,000 fine. This means nothing to OSHA who prolly spent three times that investigating this incident, means nothing to Seaworld with a few billion in revenues, means nothing to patrons who already enjoy low $79 ticket prices, and means nothing for the family of the trainer killed. OK. Fine 'em, and move on.

Then, rest assured, that any fine, any fine, levied against Mr. Austin DeCoster for this half billion egg recall will be treated in exactly the same way -- a minor cost of doing business. He's been sued a dozen times in as many years by a dozen plaintiffs and there's no reason to think that industrial egg production won't continue the exact same way going forward following any any! OSHA fine...except for possibly eggs costing another (horrors!) twenty cents a dozen.

I've mentioned several times here on my monologues how the independent grocer near where I work stocks Perricone juices, and how I can actually get unpasteurized orange juice in a market. Yes, this is 2010, dear reader -- there still are stores that sell real food. Yes, it's expensive, but I know what hasn't been done to it, and I'm willing to spend money on proper food and simply text message a few fewer times each month. Lately, we're getting reminded of how all this salmonella would have been a non-issue if we had just pasteurized our entire national egg supply.

Why not pre-cook all our fucking beef, too? Huh? Why are we even allowed to possess raw pork chops? Shouldn't that be a crime? And apples, why aren't they all rendered down into soup cans to save us, save us all from e-coli?

This is not going to be the proper solution to industrial food production...although we're going to do it anyway. Along with irradiation we'll throw any number of other technological solutions at this but in the end we'll end up with one thing: dead food. And with that comes a dead citizenry, primed for universal health care servicing. Yep, from an economic/GDP perspective, this makes perfect sense. We're gonna do it anyway...

Do you find it strange that you'll spend a good deal of time choosing a dentist yet you'll totally disregard who processed the eggs your teeth will grind?