Perfectly Healthy Meat and Slimy Behavior

It may have come to your attention that mechanically separated meat has become an issue.  The process is simple: Run the bones that have meat difficult to remove from the from the bones through a mechanical process to gather the remaining meat.  Treat like you treat other meat; add dye and flavorings and add to extend the meat product that normally doesn't need a specific shape (like a steak or a drumstick).  It works with a variety of meats.

While some people are making up rumors about the process (they use the whole animal! - lie) (they soak it in ammonia! partial lie - they use a gas while running it through tubes) most of us are just a little put off by the idea and the fact that no one told us.

Legislation has been passed in the past about it, particularly during the mad-cow disease scare.  It's not new, it's not a surprise - it's just that we didn't know.  That bothers an individual.

Not me.  I will happily go buy it at Walmart and save the money that is going to be spent by the rest of you because in the days following this discovery (watch me try my hand at the psychic business) the price of meat is going to go way up (you have to take baby steps in the psychic racket).

That doesn't bother me.  It's a relief on my budget.  There is one thing that bothers me.

The public school has been doing this all along in the food service they accept from the Federal government, that same service that is frequently threatened with being ended if the public schools don't do what the Federal government wants, and they and the Federal government were silent while McDonalds took an incredible backlash for using what has come, erroneously, to be called, "pink slime".  Their silence speaks volumes to me.  What does it say to me?

Not for me to say here.  It has to do with ethics, with a willingness to let a private chain take a beating but remain silent about what they themselves feed our kids.  It's in the open now, but then the Federal government took it to a new level.

They have offered that the school systems will have a choice of using the pink...errr...the processed meat or not.

If you were the administrator of a school, and had the choice, what would you pick?  If the choice was between having to buy your own meat and accept the Federal governments slime, what would you pick?  We'll see how it plays out.

This will likely go away in a short time.  A number of stores and restaurants are dumping the use of the product.  The price of meat will go up, and those that keep this perfectly healthy, if somewhat disturbing, product will grow.  There is justice in the world, except when it comes to education.

"Buy your own meat or eat our slime."  A paraphrase, one I hope is utterly wrong.  You get to decide.

See the Snopes article on the process:
http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

Are You Ambivalent?

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/many-americans-ambivalent-over-laws-aimed-at-healthy-living

Can we afford to be "ambivalent"?
The number of us actually against helping our children is infinitesimal.  We all want our children well.
However, we are raising adults, not children.  Do we want a world where we are forced to eat healthy?

We were told that margarine would be healthier - turned out wrong, just different.
We were told that 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day was healthy - research showed that no research had been done on it and it was just a rumor, not true, and many suffered from over-hydration.

We have filled ourselves with vitamins, the newest herbal remedies, exercise after exercise only to discover that they don't work, they are the wrong type, they have terribly side-effects, etc.

Why should we oppose legislation protecting ourselves from ourselves?
1) We lose control of our own choices.  We may think we are protecting children; we are stealing their rights as well.  That is the trade-off; is it worth it?
2) We give increasing power to the Federal government; is that bad?  Is it good?  How about if it is in the hands of the opposite party?  Would you still want that?  What are you handing your child as a future in that society?
3) Where do we draw the line? (An old but true argument.)
4) What happens if our forced health laws turn out to be wrong?
5) Are we prepared to pay millions in lawsuits as people prove that a law caused them harm?  We pay for that, in taxes, in addition to the huge costs of administering such a law, enforcing the law, and monitoring abuses of the law.

It starts with your child.  What are the rules in the school?  Can they bring cupcakes for a birthday?  Can they bring their own lunch to school?  Can a teacher share a treat with your kids?  What can your teacher eat or drink at school?  At what point is it no longer freedom?  At what point is it worth it to give up that freedom?

Protecting our kids is so important.
But what do we protect them from?  Health mistakes?  Or losing their freedoms?

You get to choose.  But are you ambivalent?

I'm not.  I can see that, even if you have a different goal than I do, that you do not, either.

That's a wonderful thing.

This is S.M.A.R.T.'s first blog.
 It is about and for the children.
Let's start with the first point:

1) Too much is "for the children" and they are used as a pawn to get you to do whatever the person using them wants you to do.

Done; did you get the idea?  Are you guarded against the next things I am going to say?  Good; you should be.

Our children do need to come first, but as long as we continue to think with political and ideological catch-phrases, we will never be able to help them effectively.

Like parents faced with a thousand-dollar credit card bill by our teenager for music and other toys they bought on a binge, we are trapped between, "He's our child!" and the far more important phrase of "How do we help him become an adult."

Because that is the point: We are not raising children; we are raising adults.

It may be one step at a time, but we forget the goal.  At one time, children worked for the family; they went to factories, and before that, they went to the fields to work.

Do you want to return to that time?  I don't.  Nor do most of us.
But the change lost us something; the goal is raising adults.

In future posts I will point out some of these, and suggest reformation projects to change them.  Our goal at S.M.A.R.T. is to reform education for the 21st Century (another catch phrase, be on your guard - that will serve you well).

Let's set a new standard, shall we?