For our American readers

Here's a story that's being followed in Canada but which I haven't yet been able to find in the U.S. press. A former USDA scientist has testified in Canada that the USDA has been covering up cases of mad cow disease since 1995. This story has even been on the Japanese evening news. You'd think it would break quickly into the U.S. media. The above link also tells of a recent case in Texas where a cow was stumbling at the slaughter house. The USDA refused permission to test the animal and sent it for rendering regardless. So far the four cases of mad cow in the States have only been recognized in Canadian born animals. How convenient. Polls taken of the Japanese public simply were not convinced. Neither am I and I have to say that I very much believe this former USDA scientist. While it is no longer politically correct for US officials to blame all terrorist acts on "Muslims," it continues to be perfectly okay to attribute the rest of the non-terrorist snafus (and even some of the terrorist ones) to Canada. "The 9-11 terrorists came from Canada!" "Canada caused the power outage with their third world technology!" "Canadian farmers have the mad cow disease!" It annoys me no end that Canadian cattle raisers are still being shut out of the US market when there is clearly no justiafiable reason to do so other than greed.