Isn't that SPECIAL???

So I've been watching in horror as this MenuFoods tainted pet food has been playing out, and the latest news just put me over the edge...

It's not bad enough that:
1) One company supplies what appears to be the entire pet food segment, across all price points and assumed quality segments
2) There is no animal equivalent of the Center for Disease Control to monitor disease outbreaks
3) There are no feed-content quality standards for pet food similar to human food
4) MenuFoods was sourcing its wheat gluten from China, a country that has super lax purity and regulatory standards, but offered what I'm sure was a REALLY GREAT DEAL on some REALLY INEXPENSIVE wheat gluten!!! (Never mind that the crap was filled with the same melamine plastic covering that they make BOOKCASES out of...) I'm also pretty sure that the MenuFoods executive team must have been slapping themselves on the back and chortling around their boardroom conference table about how the raw materials costs out of China was increasing their margins....never mind that they were KILLING THEIR CUSTOMERS!!! (Asswipes....note to the executive team at MenuFoods from the leading American business schools - KILLING YOUR CUSTOMERS IS BAD FOR BUSINESS IN THE LONG RUN...short-term cost savings notwithstanding....I hope you made your quarterly estimates so you got your incentive bonuses....)

Now for #5, the one that just put me over the edge....I'm SURE it's JUST A COINCIDENCE that the MenuFoods CFO DUMPED a whole boatload of shares a scant three weeks BEFORE the contamination news broke to the public...when asked about it, it was reported on the local NBC affiliate tonight as "a horrible coincidence"....

YA THINK???

It gets even deeper in here...the article goes on to state: "...company spokesman Sam Bornstein said on Tuesday "there was no link whatsoever" over the timing of the trades and the pet food recall. (Did anyone else's BS meters just peg, or was it just me???)

"This is a guy who conducts himself to the highest ethical and moral standards and he wouldn't do anything to imperil the high governance standards that he demands of himself and the company," said Bornstein. "In fact, to do so would compromise his ability to make a living."

Yeah, sure thing Sammy-baby...the same "high governance standards" that went into your vendor screening process, and your company's production quality standards that found the melamine and rat poison in your company's products??? Yeah, we believe ya...SURE!!!

If you greedy bastards were more concerned about the ability of your product to make your customers KEEP living, rather than compromising (your) ability to MAKE a living, thousands of pets would still be alive today...more information here...and some GREAT (but sickening) information here...

This just keeps getting worse people...read the initial release from MenuFoods here...sooooo...if you're NOT covering up boys, then why, when the problem is in the United States, do you plainly state "NOT FOR RELEASE OVER US NEWSWIRE SERVICES" on the third line of the press release...are you THAT brazen??? Do you have NO SOUL whatsoever???

I know this is going to sound a bit harsh, but I hope all of you ROT...friggin' UN-BE-LIEVEABLE...{shaking head in amazement}

I'll tell you one thing...I spent the last THREE HOURS surfing sites reading about the absolute CRAP that goes into dry dog food, including the "Premium" brands, so starting ASAP, our two little angels are gonna get Steve's Real Food...our ex-neighbors across the street started feeding it to their Cockers when one of them got sick, and they commented about the improvement to their general demeanor and well-being...it's a bit more expensive, but I think it's worth it...

Jose Maria WHO???

I was listening to the PGA Tour on XM Satellite Radio channel 146, and I noticed something...

Has anyone ever HEARD Jose-Maria Olazabal say his full name in person, or on television?

Reason I'm asking is because I wonder if all of the announcers pronounce his surname with a pronounced "lithp" (Oh-la-THAW-ball), instead of with a "fricative z" like I learned back in Spanish class....

Could Jose have a bit of a lisp, and the announcers are attempting to pronounce his name the way he does phonetically???

They sound really, um, GOOFY (kinda PATRONIZING, actually) when they say it like that....

Saturday Pebble Beach Television coverage

C'mon CBS...22 minutes into the television window???

On CELEBRITY SATURDAY at Pebble Beach, the United States' cathedral of golf???

In favor of some no-name college basketball game??? And here in Los Angeles, TWO college basketball games???

Almost makes you wistful for the GOLF CHANNEL'S coverage, doesn't it???

Seriously, once the festivities got going, the coverage was great, but let's give the event the full coverage that it's entitled to - it only happens once a year, and those NCAA guys will get their attention NEXT month during March Madness...

Oh, and uh, Danny Gans - I think you meant to say "...it's just nice to look out at that water, and boy, it's hard NOT to believe in God when you see all this beauty, isn't it???" instead of ..."it's hard to believe in God when you see all of this beauty...", but that's OK...you were probably nervous to be on TV...but hey, you're a talent with all of those impersonations, and you hit some great looking shots and took some good looking swings out there...

Snickers Super Bowl Commercial = BallMark

The "What are you THINKING???" award goes to Mars/Snickers: Your feeble attempt at humor in your "Brokeback Snickers" ad was LAME - I doubt you did ANYTHING to generate interest in your product with THAT effort, and probably turned off entire SEGMENTS of your current and potential consumers...

It took an AWFUL lotta candy bars to pay for THAT....

Trump National back on LPGA rotation???

From this post, it appears that the LPGA might be considering including Trump National Los Angeles on a potential new "West Coast Swing" for the 2008 LPGA Tour....

I'm quite surprised that they'd seriously consider TNLA, given the logistical hassles posed by its double crossover near the clubhouse to get to holes 10&11 during the '05 Office Depot Championship, and the player reactions to the Pete Dye-inspired/Donald Trump design...but, there's probably more to that story than we're privy to...

Yeah, but what about the STOCK PRICE???

Saw this post that Element 21 Golf has been awarded for innovative marketing by receiving the prestigious ING (International Network of Writer's) Industry Honors Award for the Best PR/Campaign Event in 2006 in recognition of the e21 sponsored Golf Shot Around The World.

Element 21 Golf Shot Around The World: On the eve of Thanksgiving, November 22nd, 2006 at approximately 7:57 pm EST, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin successfully hit a golf ball off of the orbiting International Space Station, 220 miles above the earth, using an e21 gold-plated 5 iron. This historic ball flight can be tracked on the Element 21 website http://www.e21.ca/golf_ball_tracking/, and will become the smallest orbiting purpose-built satellite to be tracked live from Earth.

Yeah, but the stock is still stuck in neutral at eighteen cents per share...and HAS been for a long time...

Another reason why I'm glad we have dogs...continued

According to this report from AP, according to a recent survey taken by The Pew Research Center, "80 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds in this country see getting rich as a top life goal for their generation."

And they say that MTV doesn't encourage a creeping sense of materialism and entitlement...mark my words, you heard it here first....someday, archaeologists will trace the decline of Western civilization back to 8-1-81, the day that MTV was let loose on American culture...

SACOD 1-23-07

Today's totally self-absorbed COD award goes to a Thousand Oaks resident quoted in this article from the Los Angeles Times.

This one's SO classic that it just has to be copied for posterity in case the Times decides to take it down. And I quote ass copied from the Times (Typo? YOU make the call...):

"Authorities never urged residents to evacuate, but fire-wary homeowners took precautions as flames approached their neighborhoods, which include many homes worth $2 million or more.

Among the concerned residents were Gary and Wendy Asarch of Tamarack Street. They hosed down their backyard and roof and loaded a van with valuables, preparing to leave.

The fire came within about 100 yards of their property, but firefighters helped turn it back, and the Asarches stayed.

Once the danger had cleared, however, Wendy Asarch, a nurse-practitioner, looked at her flooded backyard and fretted: "Of all weeks for this to happen. I've got 130 people coming this weekend for my son's bar mitzvah!"

Congratulations on your COD award...you had your stuff (probably packed in your Escalade Blingmobile) ready to flee for your lives while several hundred firefighters risked life and limb to safeguard your precious property and a wall of 30 foot high flames burned to within a football field length of your home; meanwhile, two helicopters were flying dozens of targeted water-dropping missions to save your and your neighbors homes, and the first comment attributed to you is dismay at some water in your backyard that might impose on your precious party next weekend. (!)

{Medic, this woman needs some PERSPECTIVE, STAT!} (Anyone know if they make perspective suppositories???) (I wouldn't worry yourself too much, the winds that drove the flames up the hill towards your house should be back in the morning to dry out your damp patio furniture....)

Just imagine how bummed out your guests would have been had your house burned to the ground....

Another reason why I'm glad we have dogs...

Besides getting in the way of a golf game whenever our schedules will allow it, this opinion article in the New York Times chronicling the sludge of popular culture that is washing up on the shores of suburban middle schools also makes me glad we have dogs...

Who would want to raise kids in the environment described in the article??? Even if you encourage certain behaviors, you have to let them go swim in the cesspool described in the article...yuck!

If the parents have really abdicated responsibility for the actions and behaviors of their kids, AND resist the school's discouragement of said actions, we are SCREWED! But sadly, it appears to me that many parents are more concerned about being "their kids friend" or being "a cool parent" than making the sometimes difficult choices to shape, encourage and reinforce behaviors and attitudes that aren't "Hollywood".

Who SAYS Britney Spears isn't a role model? (Heaven help us...)

Is it REALLY like this out there?

I THINK it's safe to come out....

I think DirecTV got the message, and 86'd the aural torture that was the Jessica Simpson commercial - they seem to be featuring the Star Trek crew these days....

Whew - now I can put my knitting needles away....maybe she can take one of those memory classes while she's working on her accent training, too...