April 17, 2007
When In Doubt, Blame China
Sometime around midnight today the "Asian male in his mid twenties" that went on a killilng spree at Virginia Tech university and ended up shooting his own face off became a Chinese national recently in the United States on a student visa issued in Shanghai. Michael Sneed, a gossip columnist for Chicago's other newspaper, reported that a "source" said investigators were focusing on a Chinese man just arrived in San Francisco as the crazed gunman a continent away in Virginia.
The completely unsubstantiated smear was immediately picked up by Matt Drudge's Drudge Report website around 12:30 a.m. without credit as though it was one of Drudge's "developing" scoops. Only later this morning when it was revealed that the shooter was actually a South Korean born American resident was the smear story dropped.
Fact is Cho Seung Hui came to America when he was eight years old, grew up in lily-white Fairfax County Virginia and graduated from public high school there.
Why is the location of his birth of any consequence? And if his identity had never been traced (extremely unlikely given the sophistication of forensic analysis today) what purpose would it serve to blame a Chinese immigrant for the crime?
America's doors were closed to China from 1888 until after the second World War in one of the most shameful displays of xenophobia in United States history. Are we so afraid of competition from China that certain "sources" want the door closed again?
The completely unsubstantiated smear was immediately picked up by Matt Drudge's Drudge Report website around 12:30 a.m. without credit as though it was one of Drudge's "developing" scoops. Only later this morning when it was revealed that the shooter was actually a South Korean born American resident was the smear story dropped.
Fact is Cho Seung Hui came to America when he was eight years old, grew up in lily-white Fairfax County Virginia and graduated from public high school there.
Why is the location of his birth of any consequence? And if his identity had never been traced (extremely unlikely given the sophistication of forensic analysis today) what purpose would it serve to blame a Chinese immigrant for the crime?
America's doors were closed to China from 1888 until after the second World War in one of the most shameful displays of xenophobia in United States history. Are we so afraid of competition from China that certain "sources" want the door closed again?
Labels: ch seung hui, china, drudge, smear, sneed, virginia tech
March 23, 2007
China Cat and Mouse
Is China to blame for the pet-food horror unfolding across America with numerous cats and dogs dead from tainted pet food sold by the Menu Foods company of Canada?
So claims ABC in a much touted "EXCLUSIVE" news item picked up by Breitbart.com (the "Report" mentioned in that piece is actually the ABC "report" not a goverment or lab report) and his former boss Matt Drudge and bandied about by numerous other news services.
ABC quotes an unnamed source "close to the investigation" that said the USA Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was focusing on wheat gluten allegedly imported by Menu Foods from China and used in two of its factories. Simultaneously, New York state and Cornell University veterinary school labs announced their discovery of aminopterin in the recalled pet food believing it was the culprit in the pet deaths.
The blame China storyline is a leap of faith based on these two events. There remains no substantiation that the wheat gluten imported from China was in fact contaminated with aminopterin and the investigators have not said whether there were any other potential toxins in the pet food or if aminopterin was solely to blame.
Aminopterin (or methotrexate) is widely present and used throughout China in the treatment of various cancers, ectopic pregnancies, and as a pesticide. In China aminopterin/methotrexate is used as a pesticide, that is on small insects. The extent of its use in China as a 'rodenticide' is unknown. Most rodent (rat/mouse) poisons are anticoagulent chemicals different from aminopterin/methotrexate. It is used in the USA for a variety of research purposes and was used in the 1950s to induce abortions. The substance is not registered as either a 'pesticide' or 'rodenticide' by the Federal government.
Fact is, the substance can be easily purchased and is used for a whole host of purposes. You can buy some direct from China here and here, for example.
Will ABC and Bush administration sources be successful in turning the public's outrage toward big bad rival China rather than the ineptitude of the Food and Drug Administration and their string of incredible failures on food (including pet food) safety?
Labels: pet food china rat poison fda failure
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