Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 30, 2010

That seems fair.

Love that last line!

My attorney had a wonderful “law suite” that I had helped pay for.

That makes ‘em taste sooo much better…

OK, I’m just lurking here under my leaf far from the golf,a fly should be along shortly.

Really I like crab just fine, especially the “Deadliest Catch” kind.

Hope the birds and other critters come though this well.

\\//_

Cooked in oil.

How come I can never find and opportunity and a good shyster? I did get stomach flu or something after eating at Outback and carraba’s grill once each.

EWWW! I rather not to eat the seafoods with the oil spills. No thanks!

If you think about it, adding a dose of disinfecting oil to large underwater insects like lobsters and crabs is probably an improvement when it comes time to eat them. Those delicate critters down south are already routinely absorbing sewage from the mainland runnoff, which is what people who get sick from eating seafood are really getting ill from.

Now if BP stops dumping oil dispersant and instead switches to spraying thousands gallons of an artificial butter sauce, this year’s crab crop may be the best ever,

GT’s target is the gullible public, willing to be duped by self-interested marketers like BP (represented by Duke’s ads) and the food corporations (whose spokesman is Zonker).

The market recognizes only profit and loss, not right or wrong. For example, Zonker’s restaurant calculates that their liability for making a customer sick is not much more than the price of the meal. If the customer dies, somebody else (the supplier? the hospital?) will be held responsible, not the restaurant, which can point to all those who ate the seafood without dying (they merely vomited).

The wrong consists in profiting from “normal risk” (anyone who eats seafood is taking a chance) while at the same time being relieved of responsibility for risks that exceed what’s normal (e.g., drilling a mile beneath the ocean).

palin drome, I agree, except that I’d rephrase it as “markets recognize supply and demand”, and from demand they attempt to leverage profits. As long as people want to eat oil-drenched insects, the market will be happy to supply them. As you state, other will be responsible for the aftermath, but considering McFriendly’s usual stratospheric calorie counts, that’s always been the case.

I’m an attorney, and I was once hopitalized w/ food poisoning from Steak and Ale for three days. Never sued anyone. The proof of causation is too difficult. I was feeing sick before the meal ended, which is considered a little fast. Could have been what I had for lunch. Also, the Dr. would never say for certain it was FP.

About the gulf, I used to avoid seafood imported from third world countries. Now I’ll probably seek it out. I loved the capitalistic irony that the frozen shrimp from the Great American Seafood company was Thai. Classic.

@ seed drill

Does that heavy burden of proof mean that indemnity claims will succeed only when the plaintiff is a collective, and when the defendant has deep pockets? I recall that the Chinese exporters who put chalk in their powdered milk were fined, but only when our govt. complained to China’s.

International markets must be regulated by “international law,” which is to say the law of retaliation.

Chikuku, given the latest recalls of lettuce and other produce, the cause of my illness could just have easily been from the house salad, rather than the shrimp. In fact, given the tempratures involved in frying shrimp, I’d say it was MORE likely.

Plus, I already have a vegetarian wife, which is a great enough annoyance, I don’t need any more vegetarianfriends.

McFriendly’s menus getting upscale. Crawdaddy n chips, scollop nugets, tuna sliders?

I think a better punch line would have been “But if you throw up, it’ll be on us!”

After all – that’s really all that matters – that you didn’t pay for something that wasn’t worth the money. We don’t care if you live or die, just don’t sue us.

palin drome:

The fact that none of the others I attended the Christmas party with came down with anything certainly lessened my ability to link my illness to my dinner. If two people who ate the same thing become sick, it’s much easier. Or, if something is recognizably wrong and a complaint registered at that time, again, it become easier.