Ethic Soup

More Chocolate Price-Fixing Probes Target Mars, Hershey, Nestle, Cadbury, Kraft Foods.

CHOCOLATE-MAKERS are in trouble again.

Now, both Canada and Germany are out to stop companies like Mars, Nestle, Kraft Foods, Cadbury and Hershey from antitrust activities.

Competition watchdog authorities are investigating these chocolate candy manufacturers and suggest that they have formed cartels, conspiring to keep prices artificially high for years.

Ethic Soup first wrote about chocolate price-fixing in a post 10 months ago. At that time, Mars, Hershey, Nestle and Cadbury controlled 75 percent of the U.S. chocolate market and had 87 different antitrust suits against them. They were accused of holding secret meetings where they conspired to raise chocolate prices.

PRICEFIXING SPREAD TO RETAILERS 

Now other countries are joining the charge because the same thing seems to be happening in their countries -- only it's spread even further, involving retailers too. 

Last week,The Globe and Mail (Toronto) reported that:

"Pretty much anyone who bought a chocolate bar between 2001 and 2008 is part of a class action lawsuit alleging that Canada's biggest producers of confectionery products conspired to keep prices artificially high for most of the previous decade."

In addition to alleging the companies conspired to fix the prices of chocolate products, the class action further alleges representatives of the companies held secret meetings to discuss prices and penalized stores that undercut the recommended retail prices by limiting the supply of chocolates available to them.

We Need to Register Animal Abusers

Soup de Jour: "Bigazzi in umido" -

 Copyright Sharon McEachern

 

CATS ARE WITNESSES to Bigazzi's stewing, above, just as the loved ones of murder victims are invited to attend executions.

Ethic Soup continues its follow-up on Italy's TV chef 'Beppe' Bigazzi who was suspended from his 10-year job on Italy's public TV, after he outraged Italian viewers with his favorite dish -- cat stew, or casserole-of-cat.

You can read Ethic Soup's previous posts on Bigazzi here and here.

 

 

 

 

ANIMAL ABUSER REGISTRIES

We need animal abuser registries, just like California has for sex offenders and arsonists -- an online registry. In fact, a proposal to create just such an online registry of animal abusers, complete with home addresses and places of work, was introduced last week in the California Senate by Dean Florez, the State Senate's majority leader.

Italy's New Soup du Jour: Head of Bigazzi

 
 
Head of Bigazzi Soup -- Copyright by Sharon McEachern 

The Italian chef with a fondness for feline flesh, 'Beppe' Bigazzi is losing some fans. After appearing on Italy's public TV network almost every day for a decade, he was suspended last week for extolling the delights of stewed cat, as related in an Ethic Soup post two days ago. 

A CHEF'S ARROGANCE

Bigazzi's arrogance and refusal to apologize to the Italian viewing public, prompted us to do some follow-ups. After one blogger suggested a recipe for cooking Bigazzi himself, garnished with celery and tartar sauce, we decided that graphic follow-ups could be visually suggestive of an experience which a great many cat-lovers would like to give 'Beppe.' That's pronounced BEP-pay.

Some of the headlines for this story around the world included:

"Cat Stew: are You Fur Real?" The Sun (UK)

"Fur Flies Over Chef's Cat Recipe"  The Calgary Herald (Canada)

"Chef's Cat 'Joke' in Paw Taste" The Sun (UK)

However, the most informative article was "Cat, dormouse and other Italian recipes," by John Hooper in The Guardian (UK). In it Hooper describes how "horse, larks and even maggots can feature on menus in Italy."

HORSE MEAT FOR BABY FOOD

 First, there is horse meat -- widely consumed in Italy, a favorite being  pezzetti di cavallo al sugo, or horse meat chunks in tomato sauce. Apparently horse meat is frequently recommended to young mothers and their infants. Baby food, picture right, shows picture of horse on package. 

 

"Hisssss" -- Italians Outraged, TV Network Fires Chef 'Beppe' Bigazzi Over Cat Meat Stew

Admitting a fondness for feline flesh, Italian chef Giuseppe 'Beppe' Bigazzi claimed, live on television, that stewed cat was "one of the great dishes of the Valdarno" (a valley in Tuscany). Holy Cat!

OLD GASTRONOME OF CAT MEAT

The TV gastronome Bigazzi, 77, is popular with millions of viewers of the publicly-owned RAI network in Italy, where he's been a presenter for 10 years. But, as he expounded on kitty stew (aka casserole-of-cat), saying it is "a delicacy," and "a succulent dish," which "many a time I've eaten its white meat," the network's switchboard jammed with calls from appalled viewers.

Ignoring signals from his co-presenter and TV producers to stop with the kitty talk, Bigazzi (pictured right) kept on talking. The secret, he said, is leaving the cat in a fast-running stream for three days. Cat in a thick sauce is "better than chicken, rabbit or pigeon," he said, reports the The Times (UK).

REFUSED TO APOLOGIZE

He should have shut-up and apologized. But he refused. The switchboard continued being inundated with complaints from viewers, animal rights groups and even government officials.

Oops! Wisdom and ethics don't always come with white hair and 77 years. As a consumer affairs journalist and author of Cooking with Common Sense, Bigazzi should known better. Actually, he should have had a hint of what was to come since he previously caused an uproar by boiling lobsters alive during the TV show. But, the arrogance of old cooks isn't new.

Airport Security Forces Disabled Boy, 4, To Remove Leg Braces or Else No Disney World.

LITTLE RYAN Thomas just turned four-years-old and hadn't been walking on his own all that long. Ryan is developmentally disabled and just got a pair of corrective braces. He was born 16 weeks premature, his ankles are malformed and his legs have very little muscle tone -- He cannot walk without the braces.

For his birthday, his mom and dad, a Camden, N.J. police officer, were taking Ryan on his first airplane flight, to visit Disney World in Orlando, Florida. How exciting!

HE COULD BE A TERRORIST!

That is until TSA screeners at Philadelphia International Airport decided 4-year-old Ryan could be a terrorist.

"Now we know how the 'Crotch Bomber' got through security -- TSA screeners are busy terrorizing disabled toddlers," says CBS News.

As Mom Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector (pictured right), the alarm went off.

TAKE OFF THE BRACES!

The screener told them to take off Ryan's braces.

Dad Bob Thomas told them the boy can't walk on his own without the braces.

Answer: "He'll have to take them off."

Then Mom said she would walk Ryan through the detector after they removed the custom-made braces, composed of metal and plastic.

HE MUST WALK ON HIS OWN

The screener said no. The boy would have to walk on his own.

By this time, Dad, a 53-year-old cop in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, was steaming. But he and his wife complied with the TSA screener's demands. Mom went first, then Ryan, backed up by Dad. That way Ryan wouldn't get hurt if he fell. But Ryan made it through the detector.

Why in the world didn't the TSA have a policy that would have let the parents help their child to a private screening area, where Ryan could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials? asked columnist Daniel Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer.

Long after the fact, the TSA apologized and said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) often operates with little common sense. We might as well have robots performing the services of TSA screeners.

SPEAKING OF ROBOTS:

TO READ "DEAR SANTA: I WANT A ROBOT THAT LOOKS LIKE ME"CLICK HERE.

 by Sharon McEachern

Ethically-Challenged Sarah Palin Criticizes Obama, Does Same Herself

OOPS! THE HYPOCRITE IS CAUGHT.

Sarah Palin both frightens and angers me, so much so that I really don't trust myself to write about her. Sooner or later, I might cross my own boundaries for acceptable behavior -- even though I believe she is dangerous for our country and some say that danger-factor allows one to cross such boundaries.

Still, for today, I'll let others do most of the talking, in response to Palin's recent comments, particularly at the Tea Party Convention this week.

QUICK PAYBACK KARMA

Sometimes when you act unethically, as Palin did, you get immediate feedback/payback and you don't have to wait for a karma return. Actually, learning is much faster that way. Just saying, if you have to wait until you reincarnate in your next life, you're not going to remember. Hey, just flying through that tunnel towards the light will be enough to wipe out my memory cells. 

Sadly, I haven't seen much evidence that Palin learns from her mistakes. Problem is, I believe, we just repeat the same mistakes over and over again, until we finally learn the lesson. For some it takes more than one lifetime.

Yesterday was Sarah Palin's birthday, you betcha. She turned 46.

She still looks pretty good which I gotta say is one big reason for her popularity. She's a good looking woman who flirts alot. She bats her eyes, winks a lot and is willing to show some leg -- that's a lot of fantasy fodder. Now, I understand, old white men really like this type of woman. Yes, it does sound like members of the Republican Party, including former running mate McCain.

HYPOCRISY AT TEA PARTY CONVENTION

Palin was the keynote speaker this week at the big Tea Party Convention, when some folks noticed there was some writing on her hand, crib notes. During her speech, she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter. Here's the hypocrisy -- close inspection of photos of Palin during her speech reveals notes written on her left hand.Clearly visible were the words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits." Additionally the words "Budget cuts" appear, but the word "Budget" was crossed out.

Pet Owners Willing to Give Mouth-to-Mouth: More Women Give Pets CPR

WE KNOW that animals, particularly our pets, do not wait and think about it before rushing in to save humans from their dangerous conundrums. Dogs will jump into freezing water, crawl out on a lake's thin ice, run through smoke and fire and, of course, bark and bark to draw attention to a human's plight.

It's not just dogs, you know. I've read of cats who leap claws-out and dig into the backs of home-intruders. Recently, I watched video of a little 9-pound Colorado cat scare off a 800-pound bear. And, there's that bunny who kept scratching at its owners' bedroom door to wake them as their house burned around them.

MORALLY SUPERIOR

It's unconditional love. Even when they don't know us, they'll help strangers in trouble.  I think animals may be morally superior to we who are human beings.

There's a poll about this which found that most pet owners say they would leap into action for an injured pet. Some 58 percent of pet owners -- 63 percent of dog owners and 53 percent of cat owners -- would be at least somewhat likely to perform CPR on their pet in the event of a medical emergency, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll. Although I'm not sure I'd trust those who profess that they'd be "somewhat likely." What does that mean? Yeah, okay, unless your beer is getting warm?

N.Y. Girl, 12, Handcuffed and Arrested for Doodling on Desk

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS seemingly have lost all sense. The latest example involves a 12-year-old girl in Queens, who was carted out of school in handcuffs for doodling her name on a desk with a lime-green erasable marker.

Alexa Gonzalez,(pictured right) a student at Junior High School 190 in Forest Hills, was taken to the police precinct,where she was detained for several hours and then her principal suspended her from school.

IT WAS A MISTAKE?

What was her principal, Marilyn Grant thinking?  A spokesperson for the City Department of Education told the N.Y. Daily News "The principal made a mistake and has lifted the suspension."

City officials say Alexa's arrest shouldn't have happened.

A police spokesman told USA Today: "Even when we're asked to make an arrest, common sense should prevail, and discretion used in deciding whether an arrest or handcuffs are really necessary." Whose discretion? Do the police use their own common sense, or are they still obeying school principals?

'Bully' School Principal Threatens Suspension of Boy: Over 2-Inch LEGO Toy Gun

A NO-TOLERANCE POLICY is what I've got for school administrators who have no common sense and are bullies towards the children with whom they are entrusted to protect.

If there was a song for this melodrama, the melody would be from "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," with the following lyrics about Principal Evelyn Mastroianni of Staten Island Public School 52:

 

She was afraid to come out of the grade school

She was nervous as she could be

She was afraid to come out of the grade school

She was afraid that somebody would see

Two, three, four, tell the people what's in her hand

 

It was an itsy, bitsy, teenie, weenie, two-inch plastic Lego toy

OH NO -- A GUN !

Words 'Oral Sex' Cause Dictionary to be Banned in California Schoool District

Operator

Give me information

Information

Give me long distance

Long distance

Give me heaven...

 

Operator

Information

Give me Webster on the line

 

I CAN HEAR the Manhattan Transfer singers in my head, calling for Webster. Noah that is, the dictionary guy, the lexicographer. However, he may be busy -- turning over. 

It made headlines all over the world. Just about one week ago in California, the unthinkable happened. The Menifee Union School District decided that the   Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary was unfit for young eyes and it yanked all copies from the shelves of its elementary schools.

Some said a phrase in the dictionary found by an inquisitive student was nasty, racy. The school district called it "age-inappropriate."

LOOK IT UP 

The words were: "oral sex." The definition: "oral stimulation of the genitals."