Consumer News

Marketplace Powers, Activate!

Tampering
So it seems that Greenpeace has taken to tampering with Kleenex in order to get their message out.

The battle over the environment has found a new front: the inside of a Kleenex box.

"Wiping away ancient forests," warned a note found inside a box bought recently at a drug store in New York by a stuffy-nosed reporter. "Here's a little secret that Kimberly-Clark, the largest tissue maker in the world and parent company of Kleenex, does not want you to know."

I'm sorry, but this is too far. Tampering with consumer goods is low-grade terrorism. What's next, slipping white powders into Kleenex boxes?

Yeesh.

Source: The Washington Post

Gunz
So it turns out the same gun dealer sold equipment to both of the recent campus whacko shootings.

The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University.



Eric Thompson said his Web site, http://www.topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide.

...

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

...

Thompson said he checked his sales records after the name of the shooter was made public Friday. The records show $105.62 in items were shipped to an apartment in Champaign and signed for by someone other than Kazmierczak.

Ok, now, I won't jump on the blame bandwagon for the Virginia Tech shooting, because that was VIRGINIA's fault. Their law said that you could pass a background check despite having been recently committed against your will as a threat to other people.

This guy had no way to know that the V-Tech shooter was a whacko. He's not to blame there.

Here though, I kinda wonder.. I mean, you're shipping high-capacity magazines on short notice, directly to private addresses?

You don't, you know, wonder what they might be used for?

Source: Raw Story

Commercial Real Estate
So it seems that in a rush to keep their abnormal rate of construction going, the industry shifted from residential to commercial properties as the banking fraud scandal started to gear up.

One problem: building far more commercial space than people need will not, in fact, induce them to fill it.

So now huge amounts of square footage goes vacant, and the construction industry is starting to falter on commercial real estate as well. Charming.

Source: Sacramento Real Estate Statistics

Largest Beef Recall In U.S. History
So one of those charming huge volume meatpackers/processors has issued a recall for the largest amount of beef in U.S. history. The reason? They were grinding up cows so sick and diseased they could no longer stand. Which is a no-no after the Mad Cow disease thing.

The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States.

The largest U.S. meat recall before Sunday came in 1999, when about 35 million pounds of product possibly contaminated with listeria were ordered off shelves. USDA officials said that was Class I recall, involving a known risk to human health.

Sunday's action was a Class II recall, under which authorities say there is little risk of illness.

Raymond said cattle that had lost the ability to walk since passing pre-processing inspections were slaughtered without an inspector having examined them for chronic illness -- a practice he said violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years.

Federal regulations are aimed at preventing the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE -- the scientific name for "mad cow" disease.

It's important to keep downed cattle out of the food supply because they also may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli or salmonella because the animals tend to wallow in feces and have weaker immune systems, according to AP.

One big problem: the USDA waited so long, or fell asleep at the switch so long, that most of the bad beef has already been eaten or sold.

About 37 million pounds of the meat went to school lunch programs and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, said Ron Vogel, of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

The recall dates back to February 1, 2006, and Raymond said "the great majority" of the meat has probably been eaten already. USDA officials have begun tracing the products covered by the recall, he said.

"A lot of this is fresh, raw product and with ground beef, etcetera, that has a very short shelf life and refrigerator life," he said.

Joy! Thank you, incompetent regulators!

So who do we have to thank for uncovering this despicable fraud and criminal activity on behalf of Big Agribusiness? PETA?

Wrong.

In January, the Humane Society of the United States accused Hallmark/Westland of abusing "downed" cattle, releasing video that showed workers kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses in an effort to force them to their feet for slaughter.

Federal inspectors halted operations at the plant earlier this month after finding "clear violations" of USDA regulations.

California prosecutors on Friday announced animal cruelty charges against two former employees of the plant.

I was just talking to a friend last week about how we needed a better animal-health/"rights" lobby, and that the Humane Society would be my organizational pick to head it.

Nice to see they were way ahead of me on that one.

Source: CNN.com

Buzz Off
In case you haven't heard (no pun intended), there's an age-discriminate sonic weapon that's being sold in the UK to drive kids away from the front of stores with a painful/annoying sound that older people are deaf to, due to aging in the inner ear.

The UK government looks to be stepping up to ban the device, on the grounds that, surprise, blasting loud, painful sounds at random crowds of people legally congregating on public streets might be illegal! Even if you don't like them hanging around in front of your house/store!

The creators of a pioneering device that uses high-frequency sound to stop teenagers congregating outside shops, schools and railway stations reacted angrily today to news that the government-appointed Children's Commissioner wants to see it banned.

The £500 Mosquito device has been installed at some 3,500 locations across the country since it first went on sale in January 2006. It emits an irritating, high-pitched sound that can only be heard by children and young people up into their early twenties, forcing them to move on.

But Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner for England appointed to represent the views of the country’s 11 million children, has set up a campaign – called Buzz Off – that is calling for the Mosquito to be banned on grounds that it infringes the rights of young people.

“These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,” Sir Al told the BBC. “The use of measures such as these are simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old.”

He added: "This device is a quick fix. It's not tackling the root of the problem and it's indiscriminate."

The campaign has won the support of human rights groups including Liberty, whose director, Shami Chakrabarti, described it as a "sonic weapon directed against children and young people".

What is this world coming to, when you can't fire weapons randomly into crowds of innocent people?

Source: Times Online