Two news stories that really caught my attention this week is the outlawing of my favorite holiday in Bobtown PA and the report about the ten most dangerous foods in America. Both instill fear and for most people seem quite reasonable and crank up that bunker mentality yet another notch. Too bad that both stories are really more the stuff of urban legends and simply bad statistics.
Everyone has heard the urban legends of kids on Halloween eating apples with razor blades, chocolates laced with strychnine or LSD... Fact is it has
NEVER happened anywhere in the USA... EVER! So the Bobtown politicos
outlawing Halloween to keep the kids safe is hardly a needful law but it most certainly deprives kids of something special. No doubt we will be seeing more of this stupidity in the near future....
As far as the
ten most dangerous foods story... It was all the rage this week. All of a sudden I could not read the news without being assaulted by stories telling me that potatoes were unsafe, Tuna was a near death experience and eating ice cream was suicidal but the fact of the matter is NOT SO! Take a moment and read
Casual Kitchen for the real story. Just as an aside, it's interesting this came out while the meat industry is getting nailed yet again with bad press over the sad story of
Stephanie Smith and its spin-offs... Just a coincidence?
We seem to be living in an age of fear and the powers that be like it just fine. If we are all in terror of everything we are easy to control.
Eat spinach...
Take your kids trick or treating...
Rant over!
