Kentucky has been hit with the old triple whammy. First, although the Mighty Quinn spared me during the course of his rampage across the Bluegrass, a good portion of Kentucky got slammed by an ice storm, followed by rain and snow, that resulted in downed power lines and loss of power to wide areas of the state. As a result of this, Kentucky, as well as Arkansas, is now officially a disaster area, and so qualifies for federal aid.
Whammy number two came in the form of the food aid which, it turns out, includes peanut butter-and/or products that include peanut butter-which seems to have originated from the same plant that has been accused of shipping products even after inspections turned up traces of salmonella, which went on to kill a number of people across the country. It is worth noting that the same Peanut Corporation of America has had it's federal contract canceled to supply food products for government aid programs, although this did not prevent previous contributions from being sent to Kentucky and Arkansas.
Now, in the midst of a federal investigation in which some members of Congress have expressed the opinion that somebody needs jail time over this fiasco, FEMA has issued warnings that people who receive food aid should avoid eating the peanut butter products included in the federal food-aid to Kentucky, due to an understandable
risk of salmonella infection.
Today, I got a glimpse of whammy number three, but this was collectively self-induced by the voters of Kentucky in the person of Governor Steve Beshear, who, during a local news broadcast today, urged calm because, as he put it, there has been not one single report of a salmonella case in Kentucky related to the food aid given the state.
Not content to leave well enough alone, he went on to further assert that he had eaten some of the peanut butter, and felt fine.
Does that tell you something about how bad off we are in Kentucky? Things are so rotten here, our governor is forced to eat federal food aid for his sustenance.
Actually, what it should tell you more than anything is that when a politician underestimates the intelligence of the general public, he usually ends up sounding like as big an idiot as he assumes they are.
