Thread: A National Health Crisis in the Making!!!

I don't know who wrote the below article but it worth reading and warns of a coming crisis.

In the 60s, Popeye the Sailor Man guzzled spinach from a can in order to battle the bad guys. He became an icon of good health for those who ate vegetables and exercised.
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As of the last several months across America, you don't want to eat spinach nor any vegetables grown and picked by America's newest slave class. Restaurants called for a ban on serving spinach salads. I'll bet most Americans shy away from lettuce,
cabbage and other leafy vegetables in the coming weeks. They're all grown and harvested under the same conditions and same people.
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Why? As of Wednesday, 146 citizens in 23 states suffered E-Coli infection and one died. How do you think this disease outbreak occurred? To bring it into sobering focus, please understand that 20 million illegal aliens crossed into America in the past 20
years without any kind of health screening. They work picking our food, washing our dishes in restaurants and, as is the norm in Third World countries, rarely if ever wash their hands after using the toilet. Additionally, most of them suffer functional illiteracy. They
do not practice personal hygiene or health habits most Americans assume as a normal aspect of living.
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While on my 21st Century Paul Revere Ride this summer through 48 states, I saw thousands of illegal aliens working in fields the length of California. I rode through Salinas Valley where illegals cultivated crops. I noticed porta-potties sometimes and none at other times. I never saw hand washing facilities.
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Pause for a moment, and consider cleanliness
habits of Third World people with a fifth grade education. Why does disease affect millions in the Third World? What happens when millions migrate illegally to our country? Might dozens or more do their morning constitutional amongst the crops for lack of a porta-potty? Might the contamination be spread across the fields by the common practice of flood irrigation? Would flooding spread the
contamination further? You never hear the major TV networks address or experts talk about this aspect of the contamination of our foods. It's a cover-up, plain and simple. They only report it when it breaks out beyond their ability to squelch it. Remember Chi Chi's
Restaurants in Pennsylvania that killed several customers because the work staff suffered hepatitis infections? Remember the Center for
Disease Control stating they thought the source originated in Mexican fields irrigated with sewage water?
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Have you heard about the latest multi drug
resistant tuberculosis outbreaks inPhiladelphia, Atlanta near Cleveland and now Florence Alabama? We've imported at least 16,000
cases of TB in the past five years according to latest reports, CDC. Before that, TB was virtually extinct in America.
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Tuberculosis kills 2,000,000 people world wide
annually. Where? In the Third World! Why? Illiteracy, contaminated water, limited food and lack of hospital care! We've imported 7,000 cases of leprosy in the past three years. It's endemic to the northeast of the United States for the first time ever. Have you heard about it by the major networks? Not a chance!
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In an April 25, 2004 front page story of the Santa Barbara News Press, Anatomy of an Outbreak, one illegal alien infected 56 others with tuberculosis. After he avoided police for
months, they finally captured him and placed him in quarantine. In September, 2005, a school child in Fort Morgan, Colorado contracted tuberculosis while attending school. How? An illegal alien student suffered from the disease, but was not screened before attending school. Our national media silences these outbreaks.
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Do you see a pattern here? It's called Third World Momentum. All the consequences affecting the Third World now manifest
in our country. As millions of illegals import themselves into the United States, they bring diseases. They rarely change their sanitation habits or lack thereof. They work in our meat and chicken processing plants at $6.00 an hour. Do you think they bring any responsibility and pride to their work? As more corrupt CEOs bribe health inspectors and OSHA officials, our food sources suffer degraded standards.
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Illegal aliens by the millions work in our
restaurants. Last spring, a reader of this column from New York City reported,'Our manager last night ran cursing out the back door of the restaurant with a hand towel box in his hand. Illegals had been using the toilet and threw their used toilet paper into the box because that's what they do in Mexico because sewage systems can't take tissue paper. The illegals had been throwing their used toilet paper into the hand towel box! I traveled through Mexico and saw it myself.
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This story represents the tip of an ugly disease epidemic growing in America.' As a nation, what we're facing is like a 50 car pile up on a foggy morning on an expressway in Pennsylvania. Everyone speeding into the blinding fog bank begins slowing down too late.
Someone brakes hard when another car slows down abruptly. The cars behind can't stop; the chain reaction pile-up begins.
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Doesn't anyone see what's happening to America? Apparently not! Sixty-two of our 100 senators voted for S. B. 2611. That bill assures our growth by 100 million in the next 34 years. However, that's 100 million people mostly from Third World countries.
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>>>>That ensures pockets of poverty and disease already ravaging millions in those countries to be transplanted into America.
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For all Americans, this E-Coli outbreak stands as a harbinger of things to come. When you degrade health standards, hire illegal aliens carrying multiple of diseases or disease provoking habits, you've got a national crisis in the making.
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Ironically, even our U. S. Senators stand at risk as well as their families. Even if they live in gated communities, at some point in time, with these illegal aliens invading every nook and cranny of our society everyone becomes vulnerable to disease, terror, death and fraud wrought by this invasion.
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With this E-Coli outbreak, even Popeye may find himself headed for the emergency room. However, he'll be forced to wait in line behind countless illegal aliens given free access ahead of him. Not only that, he'll be paying for their doctor visits with his hard earned tax dollars. This time, at the end of the cartoon, he won't be chortling with Olive Oil.

And yet Bush does nothing to secure our Border. He should put armed troops on the border with orders to defend america at all costs. For some reason the idea of using US army troops to actually defend american soil is offensive to Bush. All he is really willing to do is put a few thousand national guard troops on the border with orders to run if it gets dangerous. Bush must think we are idiots. Either that or he really doesn't care about what americans think of him knowingly allowing this great country to be out right invaded.

Bush can't get his head out of foreigners business long enough to know what is going on here.

His head is in Iraq, Mexico and making more trade deals.

I've changed the way I write him now....I always ask him to get his head out of foreigners countries for a change and look at what is going on here.

Monday, September 18, 2006

POPEYE DEAD,
SAILOR MAN SUCCUMBS TO E COLI AFTER CONSUMING BAGGED SPINACH



KING SYNDICATE TOWN - Popeye The Sailor Man, beloved animated mariner, died of massive kidney failure yesterday after consuming a bag of raw spinach. It is believed the triple-washed, cello-packed spinach was infected with the E Coli bacteria. Authorities have traced the bag to Natural Selection Foods, a company based in San Juan Bautista, California. Natural Selection Foods is owned by Bluto, a man known for his violent altercations with Popeye over the affections of the anorexic, oval-eyed Olive Oyl. Mr. Bluto issued a statement this morning disavowing any knowledge that the spinach he presented Popeye in the middle of yesterday’s brawl between them was filled with anything but "green-leafed goodness." He added that his thoughts and prayers were with Popeye and his family, and that he looked forward to ravaging Ms. Oyl now that his former romantic rival was enduring the eternal flames of perdition. He concluded his statement with a deep, dark, drawn-out laugh.

According to Ms. Oyl, Popeye staggered into his house and up the stairs early Sunday after a night of brawling. He collapsed as he entered his bedroom, falling into her arms. "It looks like I’m finished, I ate tainted spinach, tell Bluto I hate his guts," he said. "And then he gave two mournful blows of his corncob pipe, and died," said Ms. Oyl.

Lawyers for Ms. Oyl were simultaneously seeking a restraining order and preparing a wrongful death suit against Mr. Bluto. Criminal charges may still be filed. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

http://carbolicsmokeblog.blogspot.com/2 ... -to-e.html

Popeye Murdered!
by Rusty White



(A&P): San Diego CA: Award-winning Toon and retired Merchant Marine Popeye D. Sailorman died early Wednesday of E-Coli poisoning at the Old Sailor’s Retirement Home in La Jolla. Popeye was 96 years old. San Diego homicide detective Eddie Valiant told the press that Paul L. Smith, an orderly at the retirement home was being questioned in relation to Popeye’s death.
Popeye’s only living relative Swee Pea found his uncle writhing in pain late Tuesday night. An ambulance arrived and rushed Popeye to San Diego’s Mercy Hospital. Popeye was pronounced dead shortly after midnight. Suspicions were raised when Swee Pea noticed that his uncle's supply of canned Popeye Brand spinach had been replaced with bagged fresh spinach. Detective Valient was called in on the case. Preliminary tests on the bagged spinach, and scraps from Popeye’s Tuesday evening meal confirmed traces of the E-Coli bacteria. The San Diego Coroner’s office also confirmed the presence of E-Coli in Popeye’s digestive track.

Popeye’s nephew Swee Pea reported that he had delivered his uncle’s weekly supply of canned spinach the previous day. The duty nurse at the retirement home confirmed the delivery. Police initially interviewed Popeye acquaintance J. Wellington Wimpy as to his whereabouts on Tuesday. Chancery Court records show that Popeye’s legal guardian Swee Pea has a yet unresolved court case against Mr. Wimpy for a longstanding debt owed to Popeye. Mr. Wimpy was cleared as he could prove that he had never in his life been in the presence of Popeye on a Tuesday. Swee Pea vowed to continue the lawsuit on behalf of Popeye’s estate.

Suspicion fell on Paul L. Smith, an orderly at the Old Sailor’s Retirement home. Det. Valiant’s investigation revealed the tragic final years of Popeye. The beloved Toon had retired from the public eye over two decades ago. Popeye had suffered from dementia. According to his nephew, Popeye’s mental health began to decline following the death of his on and off screen leading lady Olive Oyl in 1985. Over the years, Popeye spent his days chasing young nurses around the retirement home believing them to be his late love. The detective also revealed that the suspect Paul Smith claimed that Popeye would attack him on a regular basis and had delusions that Smith was actually Popeye’s former co-star and on-screen rival Bluto. Valiant states that Smith’s motive for the murder was a recent attack in which Popeye beaned Mr. Smith in the back of the head with a can of spinach. Mr. Smith’s injury required 17 stitches. Det. Valiant claimed that Mr. Smith then broke into Popeye’s pantry and replaced his store of canned spinach with tainted bags of spinach. Popeye’s death is the highest profile death resulting from the recent E-Coli scare.

Popeye was an 18-year-old Merchant Marine when his real-life exploits became the subject of a King Features comic strip in 1929. The public’s love of the scrawny sailor with a heart of gold drew Popeye to Hollywood, where he played himself in hundreds of cartoons over the next six decades. In addition to his lengthy career, Popeye was also the subject of a non-Toon feature film directed by Robert Altman. Popeye dismissed the movie as an affront to Toons. Popeye was a long time advocate for Toon rights and was twice president of the Toon Actor’s Guild (TAG). He believed the attempt by non-Toon filmmakers to move into Toon territory would put thousands of Toons out of work. Popeye’s fears were unfounded as the public rejected the Altman film, preferring the real thing.

A public memorial will be held at Charger Stadium on Sept. 29th. Popeye’s wish was to be cremated and have his ashes scattered at sea. President Bush has authorized the USS Enterprise to transport Popeye’s ashes to the South Pacific for interment in the deep. The President stated that “Popeye has done more than anyone else in Hollywood, except maybe John Wayne, to promote the image of United States sailors.” The president also praised Popeye for promoting healthy eating habits.

Rusty White

Popeye’s Secret Weapon

Spinach may have provided Popeye with superhuman strength, but its real life potential is far less lofty. In fact, its nutritional reputation is somewhat inflated. Spinach contains oxalic acid which inhibits the absorption of its calcium and iron. Moreover, it contains other nutrients that are not fully absorbed when it is consumed raw. This is not to say that spinach is not good for you. But, like many health and nutritional claims, the surface hype usually obscures the underlying scientific reality.

Spinach originated in Persia, (modern day Iran). The earliest records of its cultivation go back 2,000 years. It was introduced to China in the 600’s and to Spain around 1100. By the 16th century it was well established in Europe. The Spaniards brought it to America. Spinach was the first vegetable frozen and sold commercially. That honor goes to Clarence Birdseye in Springfield Massachusetts in 1930. Fresh spinach is available year round. California and Texas are the major growers.

There are four main types of spinach. Savoy sports crinkled, dark green leaves, Flat or Smooth-Leaf is self-descriptive, Semi-Savoy’s leaves are in-between Savoy and Flat, and Baby spinach is a smaller Flat-Leaf variety. The latter are very tender and desirable for salads. Choose spinach with crisp and vibrantly green leaves. Avoid specimens that are limp or discolored. Store it in the fridge in a bag for up to three days. Spinach can be very gritty and must be rinsed thoroughly, even the so-called “pre-washed” type sold in packages.

Despite the aforementioned encumbrance to utilizing its calcium and iron, spinach has other nutritional benefits. It contains vitamins A, C, folic acid, magnesium and potassium. Spinach is high in carotenoids, a group of substances espoused to fight cancer and perform other miracles. However, like carrots, the spinach must be cooked to optimize the absorption of the carotenoids.

My favorite way of enjoying spinach is simply to sauté it with garlic and olive oil. It’s great for salads, soups, pasta sauces, dips, or flavoring a risotto. For the latter, blanch the spinach in boiling water, wiz it in the blender and stir it into your risotto at or near the end of cooking. Spinach is very high in water. One pound of spinach will reduce to one cup cooked.

CREAMY SPINACH SOUP
2 and a half ounces of Israeli couscous, (or the pasta of your choice)
1 small to medium onion, chopped
1 hot pepper, chopped, (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil as needed
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 pint chicken broth
1 pound baby spinach
4 oz. heavy cream

Boil the pasta separately from the soup. While the pasta is cooking sweat the onion and hot pepper with salt and pepper in the olive oil. Do not brown the vegetables; merely soften them. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the spinach in bunches until it all wilts. Add the cream, simmer for a few minutes and add additional salt and pepper if need be. Add the pasta and serve.

SPINACH ENCHILADAS WITH HOT PEPPER SAUCE
1 medium onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
4 oz. mushrooms, finely chopped
Vegetable oil as needed
1 lb spinach
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Half teaspoon cumin
Half teaspoon coriander
Half teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste
8 corn tortillas
Hot pepper sauce, (see recipe below)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté onion, jalapenos, and mushrooms in vegetable oil until soft. Add spinach in batches until it is all wilted adding more oil if needed. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, chili powder, salt and pepper, and cook one minute more. Set filling aside. In a separate skillet heat some vegetable oil and then dip each tortilla, one at a time, in the oil for a few seconds until it is limp. Drain it on paper towels, place some filling in it, roll it up, and then place in an oiled baking dish. When all the enchiladas are filled, cover them with sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and then bake them until the cheese is melted, about ten minutes.

HOT PEPPER SAUCE
1 cup water
1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
1-3 hot peppers, depending on heat level desired.
1 large red bell pepper
Half a small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt

Chop the peppers, onion and garlic. Bring all the ingredients to a boil and simmer for eight minutes. Allow it to cool somewhat and then puree in a blender. Eliminate the hot peppers if you want a mild sauce. Use jalapenos for hot or habaneros for very hot.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT - February 16, 2005

Mark R. Vogel -
Epicure1@optonline.net - Archive of other articles by Mark Vogel

Sickened by the system

western news
By JOHN KRIST
Friday, January 05, 2007

For California spinach growers, 2006 was a pretty bad year. It wasn't too good for farmers raising green onions, either, particularly for those named Boskovich who grow crops in Ventura County.

Two outbreaks of dangerous food-borne illness over the past four months demonstrated that public perception is at least as formidable an adversary for growers as frost, drought and insects. The incidents also raised tough questions about the safety of the American food supply, a recurrent concern that will likely lead in coming months to proposals for legislation and regulation that are unlikely to accomplish much.

In the wake of the September outbreak of illness associated with bagged spinach, which killed three people and sickened at least 199, even growers whose products tested clean were forced to plow under millions of dollars' worth of leafy greens for which they could find no buyers.

Boskovich Farms took a similar hit when early reports erroneously linked its onions to an outbreak of illness in November and December among East Coast patrons of Taco Bell.

In both outbreaks, consumers shunned entire families of products rather than run the risk of ingesting the Escherichia coli 0157 bacterium along with salad and salsa.

In terms of the number of people sickened or killed, however, there was nothing particularly unusual about the back-to-back E. coli incidents except the amount of media attention they drew.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate there are 76 million cases of food-borne disease each year in the United States, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. If that's accurate, it means that during the month the spinach-related outbreak was unfolding, 26,700 Americans were hospitalized and 420 died because of something they ate _ something other than bagged California spinach _ without attracting any headlines.

During the two-week Taco Bell episode, nearly 200 Americans died and 12,460 were hospitalized because of food-related illness from other sources, while news coverage focused on 71 sickened restaurant patrons.

In general, the American food supply is probably safer than it was 100 years ago, when preservation and hygiene techniques were less sophisticated.

What's changed, however, is that the very notion of an "American food supply" would have made no sense a century ago, whereas today it both describes the food system and explains why outbreaks of illness have become more difficult to control.

People did get sick from the food they ate a century ago, but outbreaks remained localized. Family members might get sick from a meal made in their kitchen with ingredients produced on their farm or on a neighboring farm.

Large outbreaks were typically of the church-supper variety: Someone would bring a contaminated dish to a group potluck, and by next morning the 50 or 60 people who shared it would be suffering intestinal discomfort. In short, there was no truly national food supply. There were local or regional food supplies.

Now, however, food moves from producer to consumer through a vastly different chain, one that has increased the economic efficiency of the market but has had a host of negative effects as well _ including making it possible for a single incident of contamination to blossom overnight into a nationwide health problem.

The American food system is increasingly dominated by a small number of large distributors, which aggregate products from a huge area, process them in central locations, and then ship them to multiple markets. In such a system, a single contaminated batch of meat or produce _ whether that contamination occurs in the field, slaughterhouse or packaging plant _ can be mixed with products from multiple farms and dispersed on a global scale.

The product involved in the spinach incident illustrates this centralization of production and globalization of distribution: The spinach was processed by Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, but was sold under 29 labels in 26 states as well as Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Iceland.

Plants grow outdoors in dirt. Bacteria are ubiquitous in water, soil, and the guts of wild and domesticated animals; with our help, these pathogens are constantly evolving new ways to torment us and resist our medical weapons. No system of inspection and testing can keep them entirely out of our food, and as long as the system remains so highly centralized, the potential for widespread outbreaks will persist.

Ultimately, the consumer's best protective strategy might be from an earlier century: Know the people who grow and prepare your food.

John Krist is a senior reporter and Opinion page columnist for The Ventura County Star. His e-mail address is jkrist(at)VenturaCountyStar.com.

Taco Bell to Adopt Mourning Uniforms for Counter Help

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky. Yum! Brands, franchisor of the Taco Bell brand restaurant, will introduce a new line of somber-themed "mourning" uniforms for counter help at its Mexican fast food outlets in anticipation of E coli-related deaths.

"There's no way we can control every little thing that goes into a Chicken Enchilada Grilled Stuft Burrito," said Wendell Miron, Vice President of Quality Assurance for the company, which is the world's largest restaurant operator. "Our customers deserve to die in dignity after eating the Big Bell Value Menu meal of their choice which just happens to contain some damn microbe that's invisible to the naked eye."

Outbreaks of gastrointestinal illnesses have been traced to Taco Bell restaurants in several states along the eastern seaboard. Over seventy people have fallen ill, some with complications serious enough to require hospitaliation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has traced the illnesses to lettuce and onions served at those restaurants, drawing a heated response from representatives of the chain.

"This just shows how little the FDA knows about the fast-food business," said Miron. "Nobody comes to Taco Bell for the vegetables."

The organism blamed for the illnesses, E. coli O157:H7, is one of hundreds of strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli. Among other known sources of infection are consumption of sprouts, spinach, salami, unpasteurized milk and juice, and by swimming in or drinking sewage-contaminated water, a fact which gives Taco Bell officials some hope that they will escape liability. "Even though we have a 'no shoes, no shirt, no service' rule, a lot of the people who come into our restaurants look like they swim in sewage," Miron notes, "so we got that going for us."

The new uniforms for Taco Bell counter help consist of black collared shirts and black slacks, both of which feature purple piping. "Black and purple are the traditional colors of vestments worn for a requiem Mass, so we thought that would be a nice touch," Miron says. And will there be any changes to the standard menu when a customer dies, a reporter asks.

"We got product development working on that," he says. "We're trying out a Escherichia Chicken 'n Cheese Chalupa in a few test markets this month."

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm? ... e=s5i13206