Vacationing From Meat At Taco Bell

Things have been a little heady here at TSD lately so let’s lighten them with a little fast food fun. I suppose, if fast food were a staple of your diet, this might bring the wrong kind of yuck but, c’mon, if you’ve bothered to tune in here for very long these places can’t still be on the menu, right?

As we should all know by now, the names of fast food items are merely marketing titles. They have nothing to do with what’s actually in the food. These restaurants flavor their food to taste like anything they want so words like “beef”, “chicken”, and “ice cream” are merely suggestions they are making for what could be pretty much anything, from corn and soy by products to sand.

Still, last week’s headlines news that Taco Bell’s “beef” didn’t meet the USDA’s minimum requirement of 40% beef in its ingredients seems to shock some people. Never mind the question as to why the USDA’s requirement for beef is only 40%, today’s topic is—as was the popular McRib post a couple of months ago—is what the hell is in fast food?

For our answer, we turn to Stephen Colbert, who gives us one of the more inspired comedic sketches in memory. My hope is that you’re all in position to laugh instead of being worried about your diet.

The embed codes won't load so click here to see the video. Genius.

Q and A about Fast Food Nation

For those of you not on my mailing list, here's my link to my Fast Food Nation mailbag:

Fast Food Nation: Your Questions and Comments

Here's an excerpt:

I just read the article and interview of the upcoming movie Fast Food
Nation, but one thing is not clear to me. Is there a purpose? What are we
suppose to do with this information? Protest fast food stores, protest
meat packing plants, protest illegal immigrants? Or is it just to say what
a shame and continue as we always have. I will probably not see the movie
because I don't like seeing something like that and walk away feeling
powerless which is what I felt just reading the article.

Renita Howard

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It’s a shame that you feel this way but I totally understand how you do. Our system can make one very insignificant. All I can tell you is that you’re not. You can matter. You can make a difference. Actually, just the act of writing in this question matters. It may not feel like much but if everyone does it—and it’s not impossible for this type of thing to occur—than “the machine” or whatever you want to call that which makes you feel helpless, will react. It has to, no matter what system of government is set up for the populace to live by. In our system, it’s even easier. If you amass enough voices the powers-the-be will listen because, if they don’t, they can and will be replaced.

We tend to think that one person can’t make a difference but, when you look at history, it’s always one person that makes a difference. Not alone, of course, but one person always starts the proverbial ball rolling, if you will. When you look at people like Gandhi, or Rosa Parks, or Karen Silkwood, you don’t have people who were trying to change the world. They were simply standing up for themselves, their rights, and/or their close circle of friends which just happened to steamroll into something bigger than they imagined.

Stand up and make yourself heard. You matter.

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Fast Food Nation Reviews

I really like Richard Linklater, the director of Fast Food Nation, because no matter what pop culture, market research, or his distributors tell him he continues to make movies where people talk. I don't mean talk as in "Hasta la vista, baby," or some other cliche-ridden "isn't that clever" marketing jargon, but TALK, as in conversations; the kind that were common place before TV, the Internet, and X-Boxes.

In Fast Food Nation, the film's message is mainly delivered through words. Sure, there's sex, and violence, and even a special effect, but for Linklater's film to be truly affecting it requires the audience to listen. And if they do, they will be rewarded. It's a gamble that I hope will pay off because it's a story that we need to hear. And within his story is an underlying hope--or perhaps just blind faith--that an audience will watch a film about real people dealing with real issues.

There are no true good guys or bad guys in the film. In an interview with my friend, Denis (link below) he says,

"It's like, hey, everyone's doing their best in this world, you know?"

His characters, like all of us, are all flawed. The good aren't all good, nor the bad all bad, which is something mainstream movie goers, particularly in the USA, seem to have a problem with. Maybe it's because we don't watch movies to watch people in conflict because we get enough of that in our own life.

But to me, at least, this is a great statement of optimism and belief in our society; that we will, when given the choice, choose to listen, think, and make our own decisions. Even in a film that shows life to be pretty bleak, it's a very optimistic view of the world.

Here is Denis' interview with Richard Linklater and writer Eric Schlosser.

Here is his review.