Clearly, this is a politician discriminating against atheists


Oklahoma senator Ralph Shortey has introduced a bill targeted directly at the heart of the modern atheist lifestyle.

A Republican state senator from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food, despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.

Freshman Sen. Ralph Shortey said his own Internet research led him to believe such a ban is necessary and prompted him to offer the bill aimed at raising "public awareness" and giving an "ultimatum to companies" that might consider such a policy.

Oh, sure, he can’t find anyone who actually eats unborn babies…but there’s his prejudice showing once again, in his denial that we atheists even exist. I am outraged.

And Mr Shortey has such a marvelous track record of great legislation!

He sponsored a measure last year to crack down on illegal immigrants by authorizing law enforcement to seize their homes and vehicles, and to deny Oklahoma citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants. He also offered an amendment to a bill that would have allowed legislators to carry firearms anywhere in the state, including the floor of the House and Senate.

None of those passed, by the way.

Maybe Mr Shortey would have a better track record if he stopped being an idiot. But then he probably couldn’t get elected. The eternal dilemma of Republicans everywhere!

Comments

  1. says

    Well, this bill doesn’t say that we can’t eat them once they’re outside the womb. In the belly they’re a precious little person. However, once they go through the dirty sinful vagina, they might as well be bacon.

    Evil unicorns

  2. Sir Shplane, Grand Mixmaster, Knight of the Turntable says

    Well damn, here I thought I’d have to look through a few posts before I found something to write about for PoliSci.

    Thanks, PZ!

    (Also, this guy is an idiot I mean GOD. DAMN.)

  3. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Shortey’s bill would prohibit the manufacture or sale of any food in which aborted fetuses were used to develop any of the ingredients.

    That’s ok then. I like my fetuses to go straight from womb to the grill anyway. I don’t like that artificial factory taste.

  4. says

    He sponsored a measure last year to crack down on illegal immigrants by authorizing law enforcement to seize their homes and vehicles

    Regardless of who owns them?
    I’m sure he’s all in favor of property rights and small, unobtrusive government as well.
    As for putting baby bits in food…I don’t know. Maybe he’s thinking of girl scout cookies. Really, I’m at a loss here.
    Killed By Fish

  5. Zinc Avenger says

    FDA maximum allowed for peanut butter:

    Insect filth: Max allowed average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams

    Rodent filth: Max allowed average of 1 rodent hairs per 100 grams

    Grit: Max allowed water insoluble inorganic residue is 25 mg per 100 grams

    And now, I guess, Human Fetus: Zero grams allowed.

    That’ll make it sooooo much better!

  6. davidct says

    What Sen. Asshat actually has in mind is causing problems for products like Pepsi. Apparently the company uses cell cultures derived from an embryo from 40 years ago to test the bio-compatibility of some of its ingredients. One does not have to use embryos in the product – just anything related to stem cells for any kind of testing is enough to get a product banned. And I thought these folks were in favor of deregulating everything.

  7. duphrane says

    He sponsored a bill “to deny Oklahoma citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.”

    How exactly does that square? The 14th Amendment reads in part:

    “1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;”

    I thought this was the party that respected the Constitution.

  8. Don Quijote says

    Perhaps he’s seen those little tins and jars in the supermarket labeled “Baby Food”.

  9. duphrane says

    @ davidct:

    I hadn’t seen that mentioned before, but would like to read more about how this bill might actually have an impact. I thought it was all just show.

    Also, as I recall, the bill only ever mentions fetuses. I’m not a lawyer (nor a biologist), and I don’t know if the legal definition of “fetus” matches the biological definition, but embryonic stem cells aren’t derived from fetuses, so I’m not sure that I understand how this could even potentially have an impact.

  10. Dave, the Kwisatz Haderach says

    As for putting baby bits in food…I don’t know.

    Some days, I just don’t feel up to preparing an entire baby. Good eatin’, but its a lot of work. That’s when I reach into the cupboard and grab a can of baby bits. Use them in your favourite recipe in place of bacon bits, for that delicious baby taste.

  11. says

    despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.

    So I assume he opposes the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which criminalizes such investigations. And what’s with a Republican calling for Big Government regulation of the food industry, anyway? It’s a free country – you’ll eat what they sell you, Shortey.

  12. says

    “to deny Oklahoma citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.”

    Whoa, it’s a good thing there’s no such thing as ‘Oklahoma citizenship’. I can’t imagine what ICE would with a passport from Oklahoma.

  13. Ichthyic says

    Grit: Max allowed water insoluble inorganic residue is 25 mg per 100 grams

    I actually broke a tooth last year on a small rock that was in a jar of peanut butter.

    no kidding.

    you know how expensive dental is here in NZ?

    It costs the same amount for decent crown here as it does for a reasonable used car!

  14. Ichthyic says

    I hadn’t seen that mentioned before, but would like to read more about how this bill might actually have an impact. I thought it was all just show.

    OK, here goes:

    I researched this a few days back, when I first saw it break.

    The idea is based on the fact that certain stem cell lines are indeed the result of extracts from aborted fetuses. This is not an issue, it was a common practice long before the idiots got up in arms about it.

    What is not commonly known is that stem cell research HAS been involved in the artificial meat production industry, and in the food flavoring industry. Again, you can easily look the papers up on google. Nothing remarkable about it, really. Though the idea of lab-grown hamburgers becoming a commercial product soon might startle a few.

    What this idiot has done, though, is conflate ALL stem cell research with food product research.

    It simply is NOT even REMOTELY the case that it can be said that there are any food products being developed that are based on human fetuses.

    so, yeah, the guy is a complete idiot, is doing this just to get attention, but there IS at least a trail to follow behind it.

    smarter, and more evil, people will likely try to take his legislation, rewrite it, and use it to further hinder stem cell research itself.

  15. Ichthyic says

    What this idiot has done, though, is conflate ALL stem cell research with food product research.

    that was supposed to say:

    “What this idiot has done, though, is conflate ALL stem cell research with aborted fetuses and food product research.”

    it’s clear he’s ignorant enough to have linked all the relevant papers in his mind, and mashed it all together into a stew of misinformation which he can then utilize to gain attention for himself.

    It’s one of those cases where I wish I could reach through the intertubes and give him a good slap.

  16. Ichthyic says

    this is the kind of thing that likely got him started scouring the literature online:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8733705/How-to-create-an-artificial-hamburger.html

    if you look deeper, you do in fact find that at some point in the research into developing artificial meat, studies of human stem cells were used to understand what needed to be done with animal stem cells to get them to differentiate correctly.

    that’s it.

    no human stem cells are actually being utilized in any of the actual products involved, period.

  17. Ichthyic says

    Whoa, it’s a good thing there’s no such thing as ‘Oklahoma citizenship’. I can’t imagine what ICE would with a passport from Oklahoma.

    uh, while states don’t hand out passports, they DO have residency status.

    it’s why, for example, out of state tuition costs are so high.

    It’s why you have to obtain residency in most states for quite a lot of state benefits, or even a state driver’s license.

    so, actually, denying resident status to someone who lives in your state is a serious threat.

  18. What a Maroon says

    A Republican state senator from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food, despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.

    I guess he’s never tried Soylent Baby Green.

  19. duphrane says

    Thanks ichthyic. That’s some handy information to have. I hope you’re wrong that this will get rewritten to slow the progress of useful science, but I think you’re probably right.

  20. says

    May I posit the hypothesis that senator Ralph Shortey’s proposed law to ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food is merely a personal attack on members of his own family?

  21. anubisprime says

    In fact the good senator’s brain farts are not so very different to the sentiments expressed in PZ’s mail box at times….just a little more paranoid and schizophrenic by degree…but then again mild for a rethuglian clone!

  22. Ichthyic says

    For the record, I love the idea of stem-cell grown meat.

    I imagine something like a giant hydroponics dome, filled with trays of happily growing sheets of muscle cells, stimulated by pulsating charges generated by the solar panels covering the roof of the dome.

    AFAIK, the only thing that is currently limiting commercial distribution of stem cell meats is the problems with gaining the right flavors.

    Evidently, understanding how something gains a specific taste is extremely complicated; and requires far MORE research than actually growing the meat has!

  23. says

    Though the idea of lab-grown hamburgers becoming a commercial product soon might startle a few.

    Gosh, I remember reading about headless chickens in The End of Nature years and years ago.

  24. duphrane says

    Ichthyic:

    I think that the bigger problem with stem cell meats is probably still the expense of the meat relative to just growing the animal whole. That was at least true a couple years ago when I last took a good look at it. (It was a couple orders of magnitude more expensive than ranching, iirc). But I do think that it’s promising, especially for rare meats, that we could get there soon. I’d pay a premium to get to taste rare species that I would never want anyone to actually shoot on my behalf. It would be fun to know what panda tastes like, for instance.

  25. truthspeaker says

    Ichthyic says:
    26 January 2012 at 5:17 pm

    AFAIK, the only thing that is currently limiting commercial distribution of stem cell meats is the problems with gaining the right flavors.

    Evidently, understanding how something gains a specific taste is extremely complicated; and requires far MORE research than actually growing the meat has!

    I think the flavor of meat has a lot to do with what an animal eats while it’s alive. It’s why, for example, a lamb that eats wild plants tastes different than a lamb that eats animal feed, and free range chickens taste different than factory farmed chickens.

  26. piranhaintheguppytank says

    A Republican state senator from Oklahoma City introduced a bill Tuesday that would ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food, despite conceding that he’s unaware of any company using such a practice.

    Evidently the senator has never eaten at Arby’s.

  27. Chris Booth says

    Clearly, Shortey’s trying to deny Hormel and Armour their main source of raw material, but he has a reason; in the desperate outcry at the immanent SPAM and TREET shortage, which will leave his voter base only able to feed themselves and their children on generic macaroni and cheese and Budweiser, he’ll be able to step forward with a non-human solution that will please everyone: illegal aliens and foreigners.

    After you seize their property and their vehicles, a profit-making venture to be sure (after all, that is how Oklahoma got its first major influx of immigrants in recent times), what to do with the aliens? To imprison them costs money and drains resources, to ship them out-of-country costs money. We scoff, but he will be a hero.

    By the way, isn’t the word for human-baby pancreas eaten by humans Shorteybreads? Well, it is now…. ;-)

  28. truthspeaker says

    Following on from my last comment, that’s why farm-raised salmon is often died pink. In wild salmon, the pink color comes from their diet.

  29. truthspeaker says

    Chris Booth says:
    26 January 2012 at 5:55 pm

    …To imprison them costs money and drains resources, to ship them out-of-country costs money.

    That’s why for-profit prisons were invented. Sure, it costs taxpayers money to imprison people, but it makes money for someone else. Someone who has a lot of money to donate to the Political Action Committee which is in no way connected to your re-election campaign. Not even a little.

  30. Chris Booth says

    Just so there’s no confusion….He’s no relation to the famous Shorty of Shorty’s Bar and Grill, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

    They have nothing substantial in common. Nothing.

    ;-)

  31. Chris Booth says

    piplagenta @ #24:

    May I posit the hypothesis that senator Ralph Shortey’s proposed law to ban the use of aborted human fetuses in food is merely a personal attack on members of his own family?

    He’s already run out of family. He’d never have suggested this Draconian law if he still had people at hand. And some Kraft BBQ sauce and briquettes.

  32. Chris Booth says

    Eeeew. Didn’t anyone tell him that thing he is doing should be done with calf’s liver?!?

    Shortey, put that baby down!

  33. jeffleahul says

    @26 Ichthyic

    I’m reminded of “ChickieNobs” from Margaret Atwoods “Oryx and Crake”:

    Stolen from http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1559

    “This is the latest,” said Crake.

    What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin. Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.

    “What the hell is it?” said Jimmy.

    “Those are chickens,” said Crake. “Chicken parts. Just the breasts, on this one. They’ve got ones that specialize in drumsticks too, twelve to a growth unit.

    “But there aren’t any heads…”

    “That’s the head in the middle,” said the woman. “There’s a mouth opening at the top, they dump nutrients in there. No eyes or beak or anything, they don’t need those.”
    From Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood.
    Published by Nan A. Talese in 2003″

  34. Ichthyic says

    It’s why, for example, a lamb that eats wild plants tastes different than a lamb that eats animal feed, and free range chickens taste different than factory farmed chickens.

    ah, but the problem arises then in what is it, exactly, that creates the different flavor?

    and then, knowing that, how does one go about duplicating that for use with farmed meat?

    the papers I read on this were actually quite engrossing.

    well, at least the first couple.

    then I have to say it started becoming too much organic chemistry for my tastes.

    It’s serious stuff, and serious business, really!

  35. Ichthyic says

    I’d pay a premium to get to taste rare species that I would never want anyone to actually shoot on my behalf. It would be fun to know what panda tastes like, for instance.

    unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

    muscle tissue is muscle tissue. the vast majority of the flavor evidently doesn’t actually come from the muscle fibers themselves, but from fats, blood, and other cellular components also contained in your average hunk o mammal flesh.

    you’d have to figure out how to produce “artificial panda flavor” first.

  36. Chris Booth says

    My father’s first job out of grad school was at Oklahoma State University. Both my parents were legal immigrants (Shortey would need to have a translator to communicate with them, they came from countries that speak a language he doesn’t: English). I was adopted, genetic parentage unknown to me.

    Every time I hear of the rank stupidity and hypocrisy that comes out of Oklahoma–i.e., Inhofe, creationists, the anti-Dawkins hoo-fraw, and now this imbecile–I am transfixed by the fear that these folks might be too-close relatives.

    Ooof.

  37. Chris Booth says

    The Sailor @ #20:

    This puts a whole new twist on my image of the “Poe-boy sandwich”….

  38. Chris Booth says

    Icthyc @ #44:

    you’d have to figure out how to produce “artificial panda flavor” first.

    Shortey thinks he’s got this covered. That would be y’all’s Chinese illegal aliens. Then y’all’ve got y’all’s Mexicans, y’all’s Moslems, y’all’s Canadians (not as gamey)….

  39. littlejohn says

    But they’re so tender when they’re pre-born! Not to mention the baby oil (and leftover baby powder) obtained by squeezing them. I know the appearance puts some people off, but have you ever really tasted fetus? Yum.

  40. littlejohn says

    Also, of course, there’s the matter of feeding the poor people of Ireland. (I hope there are some English majors out there.)

  41. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    When I was a young whippersnapper, we’ve only have 1 fetus a week and we’d use half of it for baby oil to light our lamps.

    You new Atheists have it sooooooooo easy.

  42. jonmoles says

    Luckily, I have found a leaked memo with all of Mr. Shorty’s ideas for future legislation. Here is an excerpt:

    – A bill to outlaw the use of anal probes by aliens who forcibly abduct Oklahomans. He doesn’t seem to be against alien abduction per se, just the anal probes. I guess it’s too close to that anal sex thing those icky gay guys do.

    – A tax break for the finders of leprechaun gold. Mr. Shorty feels that anyone who has the good fortune to stumble upon a pot of gold shouldn’t be forced to subsidize big government through excessive taxes.

    – A bill to declare Feb. 29 – 31 yeti season in Oklahoma. Clearly, the left-wing liberal elites have pushed their agenda in the form of the Endangered Species Act to the point where the yeti is now over-populated in the central United States.

    – And finally, a proclamation recognizing the contributions of Ethereal-Americans in the area of afterlife relations. Without the continued assistance of angels, ghosts, spirits and apparitions the good people of Oklahoma would continually be frustrated by lost car keys, a lack of “experiences”, and a general feeling of rationality and common sense.

  43. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    I hope there are some English majors out there.

    It’s not just English majors who are familiar with Jonathan Swift.

  44. Chris Booth says

    ‘Tis Himself @ #65:

    English majors Swiftly eat Irish minors.

    Mmmm. “Corned beef.”

  45. Chris Booth says

    frankb @ #60:

    That’s why they call him “Shortey”. Its not only his legislation that is a modest proposal.

  46. Louis says

    Icthyic, #43,

    …then I have to say it started becoming too much organic chemistry for my tastes.

    You go to hell. You go to hell and you die! There is no such thing as too much organic chemistry!

    {Runs off crying}

    Mummy, mummy! The naughty man said a bad thing! Make him stop!

    Louis

    P.S. Personally I want lab grown albatross, so I can ask what flavour it is…

  47. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Personally I want lab grown albatross, so I can ask what flavour it is…

    I suspect, *looks around nervously for signs of the Pullet Patrol™* it tastes like chicken *throws out a pile of grog soaked corn and runs*.

  48. What a Maroon says

    then I have to say it started becoming too much organic chemistry for my tastes.

    Your taste is pretty much all organic chemistry (says the son of an organic chemist).

  49. beavis says

    I read this today:

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126,0,740306.story

    “New drone has no pilot anywhere, so who’s accountable?”

    Then I thought, man, the sooner, the better.

    Frankly, I’d be more than willing to be gunned down by robots at some point in the future, as long as PZ and everyone else here join me in death.

    Who knows, it could be the start of a new order of life on this Earth: smarter, tougher, perhaps shinier, and if we’re using PZ as our measuring stick, thinner. Best of all, no one would ever think themselves terribly clever swiping at the low-hanging fruit of some stupid Republican senator, having the superior artificial brains to know better.

    Good thing people like you have no real influence outside of Internet celebrity and academic sinecures teaching useless non-knowledge about things like “privilege”; otherwise, the X-47B program wouldn’t exist at all…

  50. piranhaintheguppytank says

    This legislation could change everything. Imagine a waiter going to someone’s table and the patron asks, “Do you have a Pro-Life menu?”

  51. beavis says

    [Me]
    “and if we’re using PZ as our measuring stick, thinner”
    [My Friend]
    22:50
    T-888 HAS NO NEED FOR EXCESS ADIPOSE TISSUE
    T-888 HAS SUPERIOR METHODS OF INSULATION

    It’s a beautiful world we live in. :)

  52. Stardrake says

    H. Beam Piper was writing about “carniculture” in the early 60’s. In his Terro-Human Future History universe, carniculture is used to grow meat on hyperships and on colonies where Terran-compatible meat animals won’t grow. In his story “Four-Day Planet”, the lead character mentions that you can get all the pâté de foie gras you want on his planet–they have a huge goose liver growing in their carniculture vats.

  53. Russell says

    While Oklahoma representatives have sought to replace aborted chicken embryos with fetal Republicans in school lunch omelette recipes ever since Alfie Packer ate five of the seven Democrats in Hinsdale County Colorado, only benighted Communitarians insist on lowering the voting age to minus eight months to facilitate that end.

  54. Ichthyic says

    Your taste is pretty much all organic chemistry (says the son of an organic chemist).

    ah! you got the obscure irony.

    thanks.

  55. hesaurus says

    Don’t those crackpots eat Baby Jesus wafers ever Sunday? And Drink his blood? I think the ‘Holy’ see might be behind this one not getting passed.

  56. RFW says

    Prediction: some brain-dead fundie will miss the sarcasm in P-zed’s posting and run off screaming about baby-eating atheists.

  57. says

    AmazingAtheist, TJ, was asked a question about the eating of aborted foetus flesh on Formspring.

    Sadly, I can’t recall his actual arguments precisely but he seemed indifferent to the idea if people wished to consume it.

  58. Russell says

    Sen. Shortey might cause great perplexity were he to fall into their hands of those committed carnivores, the cannibal Democrats of Colorado,

    As only a legislative vegetable could have written the bill PZ describes, the Denver state house cafe menu might list Sen. Shortey as a separate food group, like ketchup.

  59. tmruwart says

    My daughter completed 11&12th grades at the Perpich Center for Arts Education (http://www.mcae.k12.mn.us/) in Golden Valley, MN, and is part of the public school. It is a fantastic school and I know from personal experience with many of the teachers and students at PCAE (at least 6 years ago)that regardless of these official “rules” that the right is trying to legislate, they are pretty much ignored at PCAE. I wish all schools were more like PCAE – it is an amazing learning/growing environment, particularly for students that would otherwise be victimized in the more traditional school system (and many of them were victimized before they got to PCAE).
    That’s my 2 sense.

  60. aarongrow says

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but, I never eat fetuses. I prefer my food to be ripe. Fully formed babies all the way.

  61. says

    Somewhat surprisingly, when I adopted a dog from the local animal shelter, I had to sign a contract that forbade me from eating the animal. Perhaps parents should sign such a pledge for their (even yet unborn) offspring? Wicked funny…

  62. says

    AmazingAtheist, TJ, was asked a question about the eating of aborted foetus flesh on Formspring.

    Sadly, I can’t recall his actual arguments precisely but he seemed indifferent to the idea if people wished to consume it.

    Not exactly one of our generations finest minds.

    What did the guy who runs drive through at Jack In the Box say on the issue?

  63. compassman says

    I feel that the legislation doesn’t go far enough. The same companies could be considering using cadavers or corpses (is there a difference?). And what about human tissue, dead skin cells and nail trimmings that goes into landfills and sewer systems? These can get into the food supply! Aren’t these cells which contain the sacred DNA which God has endowed with a soul? Come on, people! You don’t want to be part of passive canniblism, do you?

  64. compassman says

    My apologies to cannibals for misspelling cannibalism in the prior posting. This was not a slam at your beliefs.

  65. chriskg says

    Really? Who doesn’t like “Feta-Bits(tm)”? They are chewy on the outside and crunchy in the middle. Why would anyone ban them?

  66. Chris Booth says

    Shortey is clearly shilling for liberal green vegetarian tree-hugging hippies. Flesh is meat. Amerikuns eat meat. MEAT, not black beans and Spanish rice. And we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus. And Shorty wants to stop that. This is a backdoor to stopping us from eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a man–of The Man. The bread or cracker–the Host–IS the flesh of a man; the wine IS the blood of a man. All branches of Christianity take that as a fundamental tenet of Christianity. True Americans eat the flesh of Jesus the man–and Shortey is against that. He wants to stop it by the passing of liberal vegetarian antiChristian laws like this one.

    This is a slippery slope.

    For what about Baby Jesus? Will he stop us from eating Baby Jesus? What about Fetus Jesus? Where will it end? And Gametes Jesus? Will he reserve the swallowing of Gametes Jesus only for himself, Santorum, and Mr. Michele Bachmann, the Inner Santorae of the Homophagoi?

    Transubstantiation makes sanctified bread–or any other foodstuff–illegal, by Shortey’s Liberal defintion. What Christian is going to claim that the bread is NOT the flesh of Christ? Only a Liberal atheist would make that claim. Bread is human tissue once prayed over, Christians have made this clear again and again. This is even more fundamental to Christianity than Genesis, and is an even more fundamental point of Biblical inerrancy, it is the root of Christ’s sacrifice. This law will force believers to go underground. Remember Prohibition? We will see speakeasy (in Latin that would be “benedict”, the Church saw this coming) transubstantiation parlors going underground, with closeted transubstantiationists changing wine into blood and bread into flesh, breadboxes will be known as fleshpots, wine will flow like blood. The faithful will join together as Wine-Elders, the Sommeliers de Dieu, Brother against brother, Father eating Son, their motto “Wine is thicker than blood.”

    Oh, my.

  67. chriskg says

    @Chris Booth,

    Good point. How do we know if the transubstantiation is adult Jesus or fetus-Jesus? They would have to ban all Catholic Church services and confiscate all crackers as a precaution! Oh, the humanity!

  68. DLC says

    Clearly someone should inform Sen. Shortey of the imminent danger to our Manly Essence posed by fluoridated water. Maybe it’s not to late to scramble the bombers, before we’re too weak to do it!

  69. piranhaintheguppytank says

    Speaking of aborted human fetuses in food, on RT’s The Alonya Show comedian Seaton Smith brought up some pertinent questions about this topic during the “Happy Hour” segment:

    * What food company is saving money selling baby fetuses?

    * Are they mass-producing baby fetuses?

    * If so, are they locally grown or imported from China?

    * Are they free-range baby fetuses?

  70. says

    Compassman:

    The same companies could be considering using cadavers or corpses (is there a difference?). And what about human tissue, dead skin cells and nail trimmings that goes into landfills and sewer systems? These can get into the food supply!

    We call that “hotdogs.”

  71. RobertL says

    I suggest that we use human stem cells to breed more intelligence into our meat, so that it can tell us that it wants to be eaten. And kill itself humanely.

  72. jentokulano says

    you know how expensive dental is here in NZ?
    It costs the same amount for decent crown here as it does for a reasonable used car!

    I wish it were that cheap in the US!
    I recently sold a vehicle to help cover the costs of a crown.