More mad cow!

In August, when half of North America got hit by a blackout, the US almost immediately started blaming Canada. Soon after, as we all know, it was discovered that the culprit was a company in Ohio known as First Energy, and that was pretty much the end of the blame game there.

Now, with the mad cow scare, it seems that the US is going to try and pull off the same stunt. I understand their motivation, if they can pass off the blame for the infected cow to Canada, they might spare their beef industry from the full brunt of the paranoia that is about to descend upon their heads.

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Of course, speaking of BSE, I have some interesting stats about variant CJD, the disease that is purportedly linked to mad cow disease. On the entire planet earth, a grand total of 153 people have been killed by vCJD. For some minor statistical comparisons, about 2000 people are killed every year by lightning, and, for a more relevant comparison, coronary heart disease kills about 500,000 people is the states alone every year.

Furthermore, all these statistics behind vCJD assume that there is actually a connection between eating meat contaminated with vCJD and the disease. The argument goes something like this:

1. BSE (mad cow) puts some holes in the brains of cows


2. vCJD does something similar


3. Therefore, eating meat with BSE gives you vCJD

My dog can put together a more logical argument.