March 5, 2008
Morning Roundup: Sick Days & Goose Pate
Good morning, Washington. Well, it looks like we haven't escaped the interminable primary season just yet. Senator Clinton pulled out a decisive win in Ohio and a squeaker in Texas, thereby consigning us all to yet more tedious primary hell — almost two months' worth, judging by the date of the Pennsylvania primary, which many consider to be the next potentially-decisive contest. Things were a bit more decisive for the Republicans: Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race, handing the presumptive nomination to John McCain.
City Council Passes Sick Leave Legislation: The D.C. council has unanimously approved a bill mandating sick leave for the city's workers, the Post reports. Employees will gain between 3 and 7 days of paid sick leave, depending on the size of their employing business. There are caveats, though: waitstaff, healthcare workers and employees who have been on the job less than a year will not be eligible, thanks to amendments supported by the business community. Mayor Fenty still needs to sign the bill, and Congress will have ninety days to review it.
Convicted Ex-Cop Stashed Handcuff Key: Keith Washington, the former P.G. County police officer convicted last month of involuntary manslaughter charges stemming from the shooting of two delivery men in his Accokeek home, was carrying a handcuff skeleton key immediately after his conviction, according to The Examiner. Washington refused to surrender his shirt as officers strip-searched him during the period between conviction and sentencing. When the shirt was eventually wrested from him the key, which can open any set of handcuffs, was found in the shirt's pocket. Washington claimed he had picked up the key hours before.
Md. Avoids Foie Gras Ban: If you want to make a dish more delicious you can add butter, bacon or cruelty to it. With apologies to veal fans, there's no better example of the latter than foie gras, the fatty livers obtained by force-feeding geese prior to slaughter. As WTOP reports, a bill in the Maryland legislature would have led the state to join California and Chicago in banning the ingredient, but its sponsor now says that she's likely to withdraw the measure. You still might want to avoid the stuff, though: it's been implicated in the development of Alzheimer's and other disorders.
Briefly Noted: Magna Carta back at National Archives... Guns, dogs, dogfighting supplies found in Silver Spring... Body found in Northwest... Md. Text Message ban reconsidered... Fewer applications for D.C. private schools... Overnight fire in Fairfax claims one life...
This Day In DCist: One year ago we examined the Pulaski Monument and considered Chief Lanier's chances of being confirmed. Two years ago the MCI Center went gently into that good night.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user andertho.
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Gonzaga wins the city title!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suck it Roosevelt
Note that that Alzheimer's study is a stand-alone, and also that France doesn't have an elevated Alzheimer's rate (which would be expected if something they eat more than others caused the disease).
anyone liveblogging from target today?
(what, that's a stupid idea?)
ok, nevermind.
I'm not sure why some animals were directly injected in that study. You don't mainline foie gras. Also note that they only used mice which had a genetic predisposition to these types of disorders. Clearly more study is warranted, but I think it's a stretch to say it's implicated in Alzheimer's development in humans.
Is DCist's editorial position anti-foie, then?
If you've ever encountered geese in the wild, you'd realize that forcefeeding them until their livers explode is being WAAAAAYYYY to kind to them. They're the obnoxious drunken fratboys of the avian world. If they had arms, they'd be constantly holding plastic cups full of Bud Ice over their heads, yelling "Woooooo!"
Nastiest. Animals. EVAR.
Organ consumption combined with animal torture? Where do I sign up?
IMGoph,
I think it would go like this:
7:59 Can't wait for this to open
8:00 ITS OPEN!!!!!
8:02 Hey this Target looks like the one at Potomac Yard, the one back at school, the one back at home and that one in Florida.
8:07 Ohh that’s what “small appliances” is in Spanish
8:30 F*ck no self check out yet.
8:31 No I don't want a Target card.
Monkey, Apparently you haven't spent time with penguins. They're sort of like the frat boys of the avian world, at a fancy dress party. The LNSers if you will.
The European Starling is a punk-ass mofo as well.
Monkey, if geese are the annoying frat boy of the avian world, than swans are the nasty sorority girls. How many other birds actually hiss? I even once saw a swan take a sharpie and draw circles around a duck's fatty parts while calling her a whore-bitch-slut.
You still might want to avoid the stuff, though: it's been implicated in the development of Alzheimer's and other disorders.
Aw, jeebis. Not this crap again.
Histochemical analyses involving staining the liver tissue with amyloid protein-specific antibodies indicated that amyloid proteins were present in all the samples. And electron microscopy revealed that the fibrils which are characteristic of amyloidogenic diseases were indeed present in all the foie gras samples tested.
One has to wonder, did they even bother to do a control test for amyloid proteins in anything besides the liver? And yet these are the same "scientists" who refuse to accept the continuing threat of dihydrogen monoxide poisoning. Next they'll tell us that http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a971219.html">aluminum doesnt cause alzheimers.
Now, if you'll excuse me, my roasted bone marrow and parsley caper salad awaits.
7:59 Can't wait for this to open
8:00 ITS OPEN!!!!!
8:02 Hey this Target looks like the one at Potomac Yard, the one back at school, the one back at home and that one in Florida.
8:07 Ohh that’s what “small appliances” is in Spanish
8:30 F*ck no self check out yet.
8:31 No I don't want a Target card.
I LOL'd.
The Foie Gras editorializing in this post is inane. What next, the DCist post on how vaccines cause autism?!? Put on your tin foil hats folks, Tom's at the keyboard.
The LNSers if you will ...
Hm.
LNS = Laboratori Nazionali del Sud
LNS = L2TP Network Server
LNS = Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome
LNS = Lancaster Airport
LNS = Logarithmic Number System
Ah, well. That explains that.
The ancient Greeks believed that wind was caused by trees moving back and forth.
I'm just sayin.
Was Keith Washington doing his best Jack Bauer impression?
Yeah that foie gras diatribe was a little much. If you think it's wrong just don't eat, but I happen to think it tastes pretty good. Especially when fried in trans-fat!
Anyone know what was going on around the Convention Center this morning? Cop cars on every corner, looked more like a security detail, rather than presence after a shooting...
Mmmmmmmm, delicious foie gras.
And for the record, the eggs and bacon you enjoy for breakfast at your local diner most likely came from hens and pigs whose short lives were a thousand times more brutal and ugly than the life of the average foie gras goose or duck.
There's a reason the stuff is expensive, folks. It's impossible to produce on a "factory farming" level.
There's no mention of the big Hillary wins last night on DCist???
Anywho, didn't we just remove a recent dictator named Saddam Hussein from power? If so, why the heck do we want to vote another one in to public office...
dc4life: Are you an idiot, or... never mind.
Actually, purdue chicken (or any other mass production chicken farm) is far more cruel than the raising of 80% of nationally produced duck or geese foie gras. In properly raised foes gras farms (and 80% of foes gras in this country is free range), there is no cruelty. As creepy as it sounds, the birds like the feedings. Not on the youtube/ALF nonsense that is fueling all this anti-foie gras B.S., but those videos are the extreme worst case scenarios - much like those videos of the sick cows being butchered in California.
If we're going to ban foie gras, why aren't we banning chicken? Oh, that's right, chicken isn't sensationalistic enough.
Better yet, why don’t animal cruelty groups focus on closing mass production chicken/duck/goose farms, and push (*gasp!*) industry regulation. a) Because they would fail go gain popular support when chicken prices would go through the roof, and b) reasonable minds are not the ones in charge of this foie gras crap, it’s the vegans - and seriously, who gives a crap what vegans think about anything? They actually think their food tastes good. Obviously, they’re delusional.
I’m not surprised that California went for this nonsense, but Chicago? Shame on you.
If you've ever encountered geese in the wild, you'd realize that forcefeeding them until their livers explode is being WAAAAAYYYY to kind to them.
Ducks used for foie gras are not wild.
Please, NO MORE PRIMARIES!!
Ducks used for foie gras are not wild.
Tell that to the goose with the cornmeal bong who's rocking out to Night Ranger.
Foie gras doesn't necessary involve force feeding. There are other more humane methods used before we slaughter the winged-buggers and feast on their delicious, fatty livers.
If so, why the heck do we want to vote another one in to public office...
If you listen closely, you can hear, through the usual cacophony of the Morning Roundup, the faint but unmistakable sound of the Republican Crackpot, a rare sight in this part of the country. Other species, including some Democrats, have been known to mimic the Crackpot's endless repetition of shrill personal attacks; but these are opportunistic creatures, lacking both the volume and persistence of a true Crackpot.
FYI, the seared fois gras and andouille cassoulet at Restaurant Eve is SO EFFING GOOD you'll want to smack your momma. Locally raised, too. So there.
Mmmmmmm....Republocrackpot fois gras.
I'll get the fava beans. You bring a nice chianti.
I love the Tuna w/foie gras at Kaz Sushi Bistro, the smoked Monkfish liver is also amazing.
@Tom Lee - please tag your posts as op/ed if you're going to editorialize on hot-button topics like foie gras.
Perhaps it's indicative of a shortcoming of blogs in general, but I wish you'd at least give a nod in the direction of neutrality. Your post's obvious endorsement of a particular point of view begs the question: are you reporting, or are you deciding?
http://otherboygirl.blogspot.com/
I much prefer the soft, succulent flesh of the children of the poor, stuffed with Ho Hos.
I think I'll have to include foie gras in my lunch plans today.
Delicious!
Hillman, yuk! Ho hos are filled with trans fats. Poor children should only be cooked with butter and white wine.
thatgirl: the prez is down there for some reason. my mom's been working at the convention there the last few days, and they were told they HAD to be out last night, to prepare for his holiness' visit. now, what he's doing at the convention center, i don't know.
Hot button? Foie gras?
How about we jazz it up a bit?
We use foie gras stolen from a Nats stadium luxury box to butter up me and my partner's special parts as we have gay sex, on the way to demand our gay marriage rights, stopping only to take my sister to the abortion clinic for her fifth abortion, then on the way back we hang out self-consciously on a corner in a 'developing' neighborhood, to see if anyone notices that we're white.......
Tell that to the goose with the cornmeal bong who's rocking out to Night Ranger.
Seriously. They showed that on Anthony Bourdain's show a few weeks back. I'm pretty sure the goose put up some devil horns. Oh wait, right. Night Ranger. Not very metal. Okay. Maybe a lighter.
echobravo: While I disagree with the apparent editorial stance here, DCist is not a newspaper or other journalistic venture. It's a blog. As I've said in the past, the idea that they should be neutral is misguided.
Actually I thought the original post was pretty hilarious with the "apologies to veal fans."
@22: There is plenty of activism on the vegetarian/vegan/animal loving end of the spectrum against factory chicken farms. I'm not sure why you think there isn't -- have you ever seen any PETA literature?
I'll see your child stuffed with Ho Hos and raise you a 'ho stuffed with a child.
Where's a monkey gotta go in this town to get some decent sweetbreads?
ahark1pd: Must have been the Renewable Resources Convention....Thanks for the info!
If you want baby, I know a guy. He also can get tears of virgins if any is interested.
For real though ... DCist Foie Gras Festival? Anyone?
Cafe Atlantico had a sweetbread dish on the menu. Dunno if it's still there.