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 Sunday, July 14, 2002

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 Fowl play - Guardian UK. Denatured and deracinated, the chicken nugget is a symbol of the way we eat now. It is the epitome of our 21st-century system of globalised, industrial food production. Like much of our diet today, the nugget is processed so highly that its taste and texture depend as much on engineering and additives as on any raw ingredients. It depends on the industrialisation of livestock, on an endless supply of uniform factory birds to fit standardised factory machines. It depends, too, on the mass migration of workers, both legal and illegal, since adding the value to it requires an equally endless supply of low-value labour.

(Now Super-Size™ that muhf*$ka, please! (b/w Reb's Pocket, and btw, props to Blood on her just published Weblog Handbook))
« 5:52:24 PM »  « comments () »

 Baseball Strike Looms. The MLB Player's Association and the owners of the teams seem to be moving farther apart in their latest round of talks. No matter what you do, in a capitalistic society, there'll always be tension between the workers and management. But in this case, it's hard to swallow the players' claim that they're getting a "raw deal." For example, below are the salaries of the top fifteen highest-paid players in the majors. If you keep in mind that the minimum annual salary is $200,000, and the average annual salary is more-than-comfortable $1,894,216, it's hard to see any rawness at all, especially considering what average, working Americans are supposed to get by on.

1. Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers - $25,200,000/year
2. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox - $20,000,000/year
3. Derek Jeter, N.Y. Yankees - $18,900,000/year
4. Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs - $18,000,000/year
5. Barry Bonds, SF Giants - $18,000,000/year
6. Jason Giambi, NY Yankees - $17,142,857/year
7. Jeff Bagwell, Houston Astros - $17,000,000/year
8. Carlos Delgado, Toronto Blue Jays - $17,000,000/year
9. Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies - $15,722,222/year
10. Roger Clemens, NY Yankees - $15,450,000/year
11. Mike Hampton, Colorado Rockies - $15,125,000/year
12. Kevin Brown, LA Dodgers - $15,000,000/year
13. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves - $15,000,000/year
14. Mike Mussina, NY Yankees - $14,750,000 per year
15. Shawn Green, LA Dodgers - $14,000,000/year

All this for doing something that, in the great scheme of life, is pretty unimportant. I say, go on strike, you morons!
« 3:39:55 PM »  « comments () »

 The Treadmill - Playahata.com. Many people hope for an end to so many of the world's injustices. However for the injustices based on economics they often refuse to look at the true culprit or don't understand the most fundamental aspect of Capitalism. And that fundamental aspect is: (write it down if you have to) Capitalism needs and creates massive inequality as a matter of it "functioning."

(Playahata.com's Eyecalone hits da nail on its muhf*&kin' head with this piece. Good, thought-provoking verbiage. Reading this reminded me of mystery writer Walter Mosley's non-fiction diatribe: Working on the Chain Gang where he wrote, "Democracy and capitalism make strange bedfellows." Sure-nuff! Sooner or later people are going to have to wake up ... or die. (b/w Trayc.com))
« 3:22:23 PM »  « comments () »