Dioxin Contaminated Irish Pork: An Al-Qaeda Attack?

No terrorist organization had claimed responsibility yet, but pork products seem like a very inviting “soft” target for a terrorist attack. Will there be a “Happy Christmas” for this year?


By: Vanessa Uy


If – hypothetically speaking – I was an al-Qaeda operative, attacking one of the most “holy” symbols of Christendom and Christmas, like pork and pork products, could probably produce the most “psychologically paralyzing” damage to the West. Though the current dioxin-contaminated Irish pork is yet to be linked to an attack by an established terrorist group, the incident is by no means still “relegateable” to every major newspaper’s “page 23” spot. Especially when / if the “alleged” attack happens this time of year.

Back in the days when “Ike” was still the President of the United States, Santa Claus was often portrayed unabashedly feasting on a piece of ham intended for a dozen people by himself. Often with strips of bacon on the side, a symbol often hijacked by meat / pork producers portraying Santa’s “corpulence” as being healthy, often to usher in the Christmas / Holiday Season. So, other than the Nativity Scene, Santa Claus, and the Christmas Tree, ham and other pork products are not only post WWII symbols of the Christmas Season, but also – if you will – of post 9 / 11 Christendom.

Dioxin is a carcinogenic and a teratogenic (can affect developing human fetuses) chemical that can be created in our contemporary urban lifestyle via burning unsorted garbage, especially if those garbage / municipal waste is a heterogeneous mix of paper and an organic halide-based plastic like polyvinyl chloride. This method of “making” dioxin is the number one reason of how groundwater tables near major metropolitan areas are contaminated by dioxin via mismanaged municipal waste landfills.

The other one where dioxin can be “accidentally” produced is by faulty and hasty industrial processing of crude oil sourced products. Like the Agent Orange defoliants used in Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War. Or in today’s Irish pork scare, the dioxin-contaminated lubricant used in the machinery that grinds up swine feed. Even some pork samples produced in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland test positive for PCB s.

The dioxin levels found on suspect Irish pork products contain on average 80 to 200 times above the minimum safe limit established by the US Environmental Protection Agency and its EU counterparts. Given that when it comes to the risk assessment of absolute minimum levels of dioxin in food products deemed fit for human consumption can readily become a “political” issue since there are still no binding limits set on “absolutely” save dioxin levels. But everyone of us alredy knows by now that threat assessment / risk assessment studies have already become a political issue in our post 9 / 11 world.

Given that the coming Holiday Season is very dependent on pork and pork products. The worldwide supermarket recall of Irish pork products manufactured during the month of September this year and onwards spells disaster. Not only for pork aficionados, but also for Irish pig farmers as well. Vegetarianism or being vegan might be good for one’s body and for planet Earth’s environment. But an overwhelmingly large number of us won’t be having a joyous Christmas Season without pork.

USS Barack Obama

Though many believed that he’s destined for greatness by winning the US Presidency through his promise of hope. Would a US Navy aircraft carrier someday be named after President Barack Obama?


By: Vanessa Uy


Even though it is still quite presumptive given that the 20th of January 2009 inauguration day is still a couple of months away. The thought did came across our minds after receiving free brochures about how to reserve for guided tours on board one of the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carriers, the Nimitz-class USS Ronald Reagan super-carrier. After all, if the former President Reagan’s doctrine of “Peace Through Strength” brought to us the glorification of the Military-Industrial complex by Hollywood. Remember the naval aviation movie Top Gun, it heavily draws inspiration from then President Reagan’s “Cowboy Diplomacy” and managed to make Hollywood action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger gain an air of “sensibility”, then the Obama presidency could be comparable in greatness; Right?

It was just recently announced that a new Nimitz-class super-carrier named after the former president George H.W. Bush – outgoing President George W. Bush’s dad - or “President Bush, Senior” as he is more affectionately called has just been completed and ready for sea trials. Plus a new series of Ford-class aircraft carriers / supercarriers named after former US president Gerald R. Ford are already on the planning and pre-production stage. The “Howls of Protest” can now be heard of some Americans old enough to have lived through and remembered the Ford Administration. Given that President Ford was never elected and worst of all he pardoned then President Nixon over the Watergate debacle raised questions whether to name a series of the US Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers after President Ford.

Given that someone like President Ford whose somewhat “marginal” – even controversial - influence of the history of the US Presidency gets an aircraft carrier – even a series of them - named after him, then surely the “expected” greatness of President Obama deserve some speculative prognostication. But since there won’t be an aircraft carrier named after President-elect Obama anytime soon, then it’s safe to assume that the vessel will be radically more advanced than existing ones.

Probably it’s safe to assume that the plane-launching system on the USS Barack Obama might use superconducting electromagnet or rail-gun technology as opposed to existing systems that uses a system of steam-driven piston and pulleys to accelerate high-performance jets to take-off speeds. The ship’s propulsion system might work using nuclear fusion, thus ending the problem of long-lasting radioactive wastes. Or it might employ a yet undiscovered technology that works on the principle of entropy-manipulation through a cyclical time-loop. This could give the term “ Groundhog Day” a whole new meaning if an unforeseen accident ever happens. Or what about a really exotic but might be feasible top-secret propulsion technology based on the workings of Sam Cohen’s “enhanced radiation weapons system”. Like the ballotechnic “red mercury” superfluid that mimics that of the “primordial superfluid” that originally permeates throughout the early Universe a few moments after the Big Bang. A newfangled “steam ship” if you will, only this time the working “steam” might be our exotic “ballotechnic superfluid” with a working temperature of trillions of degrees centigrade.

Also, if the now President-elect Obama’s kids choose to have naval careers, they might gain a command posting on a ship with their father’s namesake sometime in the future. Given that our hypothetical super-carrier USS Barack Obama won’t be underway any time soon. But still, given the proposed technology, this vessel might be a proof of concept that might be used as a basis for large volume space travel in the foreseeable future.

Republican Party Failures: Lack of African-American Appeal?

As an American political party that grew out of the slavery question, is the Republican Party ignoring its African-American constituency at its own peril?


By: Vanessa Uy


Often referred to as the political party spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln that lead to the emancipation of the slaves who are of Black African descent and thought them the value of free enterprise. Though conceptually it viewed slavery and polygamy as morally reprehensible barbarism, the Republican Party has since then – and still is - played a major part in shaping the United States into the most powerful country in the world. Even though Honest Abe would find that in its current incarnation, the Republican Party is a wholly different animal from the one he founded over a hundred years ago.

The Republican Party does have African-Americans that had done their part in preparing the United States for the 21st Century. It would we inconceivable to imagine America’s victory in the first Gulf War without Colin Powell, or Condoleeza Rice keeping Bush Administration’s Neo-Conservative’s and their “excesses” in check. But the question now is, what the Republican Party must do to in order to distance itself from the women-as-God-fearing-male-subordinate ideologue of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin during her ill-conceived vice presidential candidacy?

Well, not much if you think that the party is already very much corrupted – and co-opted - by extreme right-wing Christianity during the Reagan years. But I do believe that there’s still plenty of life left in the Republican Party. If only they’ll take the steps in reexamining the ideals exemplified by Abraham Lincoln. Which is kind of hard given that the news footage being aired of the recent McCain-Palin rallies consists mainly of the “older White demographic” who might be old enough to remember the days when gasoline was still being sold at 10 or 25 US cents per gallon.

Believe it or not, some political pundits even think that Barack Obama being elected into the US Presidency could be a good thing for the Republican Party. Is it maybe that because Abraham Lincoln’s vision of equality of all men is now one step closer, only at the cost of the victory of a rival party candidate? But hey, as it was noted throughout history, reforms aren’t always painless as their authors and planners might suggest.

Risqué Kid’s Halloween Costumes: Demagoguery over Reality?

The issue is probably as old as the Bush Administration’s Neo-Conservatives’ tenure in power, but is this the issue of risqué Halloween kid’s costumes grounded in reality?


By: Vanessa Uy


This particular issue might move to the proverbial backseat this time due to the hotly contested 2008 US Presidential Election – especially with the sale of presidential candidate Halloween masks predicting the winners with bizarre accuracy. But together with the stories of folks who are now fast approaching 60 telling stories about how the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 27, 1962 had them making their own family's ad hoc fallout shelter back in the day. The issue of Halloween costumes that are too sexy seems to manage to stay forever relevant.

Probably it was the FOX News broadcast from last year that shone a light on this thorny subject. Especially that guest who looks like Eddie Munster who testified on how the Genie played by Barbara Eden on the 1967 TV series I Dream of Genie had made him “sexually traumatized”. Given that this particular costume derived from Scheherazade – i.e. the wife of the sultan of India and narrator of the tales in the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments - is one of the most aspirational Halloween costumes for girls aged 10 or below. Probably up there with Wonder Woman or the leotards worn by Degas’ “Tiny Dancer” sculpture. That guy would probably be appearing next on Chris Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator” on Dateline NBC.

Recently, the “arbiters of taste” on CBS Early Edition on their October 22, 2008 broadcast has presented new sets of girl’s Halloween costumes which they deemed “too risqué”. The black suede leather “streetwalker” costume definitely passes muster – to me at least – as too risqué for young girls. But when they brought out a bumblebee ballerina costume similar to that worn by that little girl in a Blind Melon music video titled No Rain back in 1994 as too risqué, I said to myself oh boy here we go again… But seriously though, are these people who point out age-inappropriate Halloween Costumes doing their part in halting the global scourge of child pornography, or are they just desperate for attention? Maybe Penn and Teller can do an exposé on this on their show.

The problem with labeling Halloween Costumes, as too risqué is that 100% of the cases presented on the media only applied to girl’s costumes. What about boy’s costumes? Should we be – together with the Federal Government - start banning little boys from wearing Robin Costumes (Batman’s young sidekick)? Especially in Boston because of the inappropriate effects it might incur on their local parish priests?

Maybe this is just a ploy by TV networks to prop-up their sagging fall season ratings. But the risqué Halloween costumes issue will probably be here to stay. Especially if that Larry Flynt “movie” about Gov. Sarah Palin’s “Drill Here, Drill Now” energy independence program becomes famous and every girl in America aged 10 and below starts to dress like Gov. Sarah Palin – the way Hustler Magazine CEO Larry “Barely Legal” Flynt sees her.

Popular Music Goes to Washington

A concept that used to be inconceivable back in the good old days of “Reaganism”, does the increasing use of copyrighted popular music in US Presidential campaigns mere kitsch, or does it expose the ugliness of American politics?


By: Vanessa Uy


The trend probably first gained widespread media notice during the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign ticket using Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop (you know the lines: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow…”). But the 2008 US Presidential Race has made the issue of using copyrighted popular music in campaign ads an especially contentious one, especially the Republican McCain-Palin campaign ticket’s practice of “drafting” songs like Van Halen’s Right Now and Heart’s Barracuda instead of nicely seeking permission from the artists themselves. Instead, the GOP ticket drafted these songs like the way they use young Americans in their prime as cannon fodder for Halliburton and KBR. If this isn’t bad enough, Senator John “The Manchurian Candidate” McCain even used Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty on an anti-Obama political campaign ad highlighting Senator Barack Obama’s lack of experience. McCain did this without asking permission from Jackson Browne which is a sure sign of GOP-style hypocrisy given McCain and his ilk's propensity of admonishing musicians inspired by Woody Guthrie’s “socialist” views. A move that’s even worse than McCarthyism.

Maybe the Democratic Party always has a penchant for doing things like this right. Like Senator Barack Obama’s choice of using Stevie Wonder’s 1973 R&B classic Signed, Sealed and Delivered. A song brimming with an eternally optimistic view on life, which surprisingly doesn’t sound corny in comparison to the song’s hackneyed brethren.

So far, the Democrats had managed to avoid the pettiness of their GOP rivals by officially releasing ads criticizing their rival candidates that utilized copyrighted popular music. To me, it would be very interesting if the Democrats ever attempt to pull-off such an undertaking. Especially the Lunachicks’ song Spoilt is ripe for the taking as an almost biographical critique of the 8 years worth of George W. Bush’s miserable failure - which the GOP’s Vice Presidential candidate and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin affectionately termed as the Bush Doctrine. Or what about Lunachicks’ Fallopian Rhapsody as a critique for Governor Sarah Palin’s anti-feminist Heinrich Himmler inspired Lebensborn pro-life stance. Given the choices, how long can the Democrats resist to be drawn into such political pettiness, or maybe the Democrats are a better bunch of people than I am? Maybe the message is Washington D.C. will never be like your private listening den or I-pod.

Bridging the “Two Americas”: An Overlooked Foreign Policy Issue?

Ever since the 2004 US vice presidential hopeful John Edwards shed light on the issue of (mostly economic) disparity of the “Two Americas”, no follow-through has been done to alleviate the “alienation”. Does Foreign Policy experience start here?


By: Vanessa Uy


Its been four years since John Edwards first brought the issue of “disparity” between the “Two Americas” into the media spotlight. Of those four years that has passed, almost –if at all – has been done to address this issue. Despite the fact that the disadvantaged part of the “Two Americas”, were largely made up of African-Americans and other cultural minorities in the US.

Ever since the Civil Rights movement began in the turbulent decade of the 1960’s, the divisive politics that engendered a schism of the perfect American Union was finally addressed. From the Native Americans who were virtually made “foreigners” in their own country to the African-American community who never got a fair share of the American Dream ever since Abraham Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation. When it comes to healing the rift between the European Anglo-Saxon majority (hegemony?) and those on the other disadvantaged America – the cultural minorities alienated to the point that they feel as if they are foreigners in their own country. There’s progress for sure – albeit a painfully slow one.

One issue that became de rigeur in the 2008 US Presidential Race is Foreign Policy. No one in his or her right mind wishing for that much-coveted position in the White House will ever make a speech about “Foreign Policy Begins at Home”. It could be tantamount to political suicide. And yet, the ill-conceived policies of the past US Administrations had virtually created an another America. An America that’s not only disadvantaged financially, but also left out of their rights to reap the benefits of all the good things that America’s Founding Fathers had fought for. The divisive politics that lead to this was exemplified by that January 28, 2008 Newsweek cover story about how President George W. Bush and his neo-conservatives destroyed America.

The present Bush Administration not only widened the rift further between the African-American community and White America, but also made all of America’s ethnic minorities – especially Americans of Arab descent – virtually foreigners in their own country. Since the Republican Party / GOP ‘s selection of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as their Vice Presidential candidate. The GOP used the Foreign Policy experience issue to criticize their Democratic rivals. Yet they are oblivious of the Bush Administration’s folly of government mismanagement of creating a “Foreign Policy” crisis right on American home soil – i.e. the schism of the “Two Americas”.

Strangely, the Alaskan governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin has been “discretely quiet” about the Native Americans / First Nations people in Alaska protesting against the wholesale crude oil exploration on their ancestral lands which could lead into widespread environmental degradation. Governor Sarah Palin has been also “discretely quiet” about the “good” things she has done to the Native American / First Nation community in Alaska during her tenure as governor of that state. Alaska may be close to Russia but I wonder if Governor Sarah Palin had ever been close enough to a Russian TU-95 Bear to make her ears ring for three straight days. Where is the Foreign Policy experience there? Yet Sarah Palin tried to single-handedly wipe out the progress made by the Women’s Liberation movement during the past 30 or so years with her overtly misguided NAZI / Ku Klux Klan-leaning “Pro-life” stance.

While the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had worked with inner city youths in his home base of Chicago, Illinois. Especially Chicago’s South Side famed for it’s disadvantaged African-American communities left out of the American dream. Barack Obama had been very busy working on schemes to make these disadvantaged communities a contributing and prosperous part of America. To me, this is Foreign Policy in action on American home soil aimed at alleviating the damage made by the divisive and obstructionist politics of Bush Administration Neo-Conservatives. And yet the real issue is conveniently spin-doctored to fit into the lipstick on a pig / lipstick on a pit bull-soccer mom rhetoric and demagoguery. Wlth this make the 2008 US Presidential Elections even more interesting?

2008 Beijing Olympics: The Big Picture

Praised by the current International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge as truly exceptional. But as the Beijing Summer Games closes, will the injustices and Human Rights violations being done to make it possible also end?


By: Vanessa Uy


When China won the much-coveted International Olympic Committee or IOC bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games back in 2001, a small but significant number of people view this as a “Faustian Pact” between the heavy-handed Beijing Government and the IOC. This was unfortunately proven as the years past into the run-up of the Beijing Games. Amnesty International had received findings that China has used the Beijing Olympics not only as a pretext for cracking down on political dissidents, but also of corrupt Government Functionaries unlawfully evicting legally titled residents from their land and homes just to built the Birds Nest Stadium and other Olympic-related facilities. In their desperation to make the air around Beijing pass World Health Organization safety standards. The party officials has even ordered factories around Beijing to suspend their operations and removing 90% of cars from running two weeks before the Games just to pass the WHO clean air standards. Note that the level of pollutants on the air around Beijing is usually five times above the safe limit mandated in the WHO standards, and these are just the normal gripes that we know about.

There’s a long list of issues on why the numerolologically-very-auspicious-by-Feng-Shui-standards 2008 Beijing Olympics got it’s unflattering moniker of “The Genocide Olympics”. The issue of The People’s Republic of China’s unlawful annexation of Tibet back in 1951. The June 4, 1989 incident at Tiananmen Square, and the Beijing Government’s active complicity of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur due to the party officials’ dealings with the present Sudanese government has unfortunately allowed the Beijing Olympics’ Torch Relay to be compared, even to Adolph Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics. The 1936 Berlin Olympics is when the first Torch Relay of the Modern Olympics originated by the way. The dark side of the 2008 Beijing seems to make the Milarepa Fund / Free Tibet movement forever in vogue, and even made Joey Cheek’s Team Darfur probably as famous as the bravado displayed by American swimming star Michael Phelps winning scores of gold medals that are up for grabs.

On the lighter side, the Beijing Government has even ordered gourmet restaurants around Beijing not to serve dog meat dishes as a means of appeasing “Western Sensibilities”. Which is relatively easy to enforce given that the party officials can easily evict long-time residents just to set-up the Olympic facilities.

Given that the modern Olympic Games thrive best in a climate of artificiality, witness the lovely voice of Yang Peiyi singing “Ode to the Motherland” being lip-synced into the perfect “Borg Girl” and Chinese version of a 7-year-old Courtney Cox Lin Miaoke. This issue alone is a 250-page doctoral thesis subject-in-itself, the ultimate of political constructs that those in the know call it as “Dadaism”. Dadaism is all about “If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog”-type political spin doctoring. About why you’ll only see Sub-Saharan Black African children being used in existing ant-child soldier / anti-child combatant campaign posters, instead of a pubescent Armenian girl who looks like Dakota Fanning carrying a Soviet-made big bore anti-materiel rifle. I just hope that when Yang Peiyi grows up into a Chinese version of “Sarah Plain and Tall”, the Beijing party officials will generously reward her contribution to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As the 2008 Beijing Olympics draws to a close, the next Olympic venue - namely London – will be hard pressed to match the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games. Which by far is seen by many as the best in all the history of the Modern Olympiad. But the London Olympic Games 0f 2012 is still four years away, maybe it's too soon to tell. Given also that IOC assessments conclude that the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the most watched so far of all the Summer Olympics that came before it, the injustices wrought by China’s Foreign Policy adventurism – sadly – will remain unseen by the worlds major news providers. Even Roberta Cohen of the “Little Green Men Chasing” Brookings Institution having indisputable proof of the Beijing Government’s complicity of the on-going systemic ethnic cleansing in the Darfur Region of Sudan is of hardly any consequence when the International Community is reluctant to tackle these issues. If the Bush administration run US Government continues supporting a very wasteful energy policy of borrowing billions from Beijing just to buy crude oil from people who hate America to the core. Then the injustices in Darfur and Tibet will surely go on. A compromised superpower surely can’t save the world.