Speaking of food. Has anyone been following this mad cow business ? Its coming up on a year now since I have been doing the vegetarian thing and everything I have read so far in this latest crisis convinces me that I am on the right track. I mean, now we are learning that of the 35 million head of cattle slaughtered each year in the US, only 5000 are tested for mad cow as opposed to thousands every day in Europe. Ground up brains and spinal cords are fed to cows and poultry. Then ground up poultry is also fed back to cows. Even though this cannibalism is known to be the manner in which the disease is spread. Meanwhile the muscle tissue sold as steak, hamburger, hot dog and even topping on pizza gets contaminated by brain and spinal tissue spraying over the carcass during the slaughtering process. Cows that are too sick to stand up (so called downer" cows) are still being processed for sale and meat from diseased animals are entering the food supply. Then there is antibiotics in chicken, hormones in pigs (and beef) and mercury in fish.

We should all make a New Year's Resolution to replace meat in our diet with vegetables, fruits and grains.