WHERES THE BEEF?

What’s all this hysteria about horse meat?

Is it because we regard horses as pets? If that’s the case, why don't we have a pet cow? They both have four legs, a head, and a tail. Why is it okay to eat cow meat but not horse meat? Why is it a scandal?

I can understand that if you buy a package of beef you expect to get cow meat. If you buy a can of chile you assume that if the label says “contains beef “that those chunks of meat inside the can came from cows.

There are plenty of other countries that slaughter horses for consumption. A large majority of the 65,000 horses slaughtered in the United States are shipped to other countries. Japanese people eat horse meat as do many Europeans. Diners living in Quebec consider horse meat to be just the same as cow meat only sweeter with an excellent texture.

On the average, over 5 million horses are slaughtered worldwide for food.

One of the reasons Americans don't eat horse meat is that we've bonded with the horse. We consider horses more as companions and pets than we do other farm animals. We've made movies about horses and the people who love them. Was there ever a film about a pet cow? Do they even make saddles for cows? Ever see anyone ride a cow into battle or race them?

The Catholic Church prohibited believers from eating horse meat in the 8th century. If you're a Catholic, don't go near horse meat. Eating a horse is still prohibited by the Vatican.

I don't eat meat so I've got no horse in this race. People who do eat horse meat consider it just as good as or even better than beef.

The scandal, if it is one, is that many canned goods misled consumers. It was the British who discovered the horse meat in frozen lasagna. DNA testing revealed that instead of beef, many products imported from Romania contained horse meat.  British consumers were angered and disgusted that they had unknowingly eaten horse meat.

In the end, it's a scandal about truth in labeling more than it is a dietary issue. Although there were many Brits who were repulsed by the idea of eating horse meat, other people in Europe do it all the time. So the next time you order a steak in a European restaurant you just might be eating a horse instead of a cow.

Bon Appetite'.

m for Sophia When She's Fifteen

They'll get the debt ceiling raised, of that I'm sure, But through all this nonsense, politicians have lost their allure As statesmen or wise men, these clowns will never be. They're jerks and gangsters Through them we can see The avarice, the greed and the need to be On the stage and all the rage while the country heads for default They lie and whine while they empty the vault.

No one but me spoke out when the war was billions a day Nobody wanted to hear me say, This is not war this this is payback you see For Bush and his buddies paid for by you and me.

Then Obama ate up more

By sending more troops into the endless war In Afghanistan and Pakistan and the entire Indian area While back here at home it's economic hysteria.

We're out of money and if we can't borrow more, We'll have to pull the shades on every mom and pop store On every business and government fund It's our money after all but the looting's just begun Soon we won't have money and in a way it's sad Politicians could have saved the day.

Instead they had to have their say

How they were indebted to pay to play

That they would do nothing without a word From Grover Nordquist is most absurd But after all, before the masses, politicians are slime,  lower than asses.