What are they eating instead? Increasingly, folks in the
know are eating meat, fish, eggs, fruits, nuts and certain
healthy vegetables (like potatoes, especially with the skins
intact). In fact, prices of these items - but especially
beef - have gone up considerably in just the last year or
so, as you may well be aware. But apparently, beef has
become so valuable that lawmen in some sections of the
American west are once again facing down something they
haven't seen much of for a century or more...
Cattle rustling.
In just the last 9 months or so, there have been more than
150 cases of bovine theft in California's cattle-rich San
Joaquin Valley. According to sources in the Merced County
Sheriff's office, a new generation of high-tech rustlers is
swiping dairy calves and heifers to sell on the black
market. Why only immature milking cows? Because they're
easier to handle and harder to track (dairy cattle are
unbranded), detectives maintain.
Of course, the Associated Press attributes this resurgence
in a formerly obsolete crime to the Atkins diet (anything to
demonize meat-eaters). Whether that's true or not is
irrelevant.
Crimes - theft, murder, embezzlement, fraud, whatever - are
only committed when people AREN'T AFRAID OF THE PENALTIES.
The cure for all crime is the same: Make the punishment
severe enough, and you'll deter the crime. That's why cattle
rustling all but disappeared from the American landscape -
the risk (being hung from the nearest tree) was just too
great for the calf or two to be gained. Today, I'm sure the
sentence for swiping steers would be more like a slap on the
wrist than a quick-and-dirty hanging. But I digress...
The bottom line is this: I'm all for going "back in time" to
an era where we ate nothing but meat, eggs, and potatoes and
were glad (and healthier) for it. But I hope we don't
regress to the point where we're literally "rustling" up our
grub - or buying black market meat. No matter how high the
price of beef soars, it'll always be a bargain at twice the
price.
The REAL crime would be to not eat it at all.
************************
Facing up to the mating game
Ever since I started writing the Daily Dose, I've tried to
keep you updated about odd, unusual or interesting studies
about the way in which men and women relate. I don't know
why I'm so fascinated by stories like this - maybe it has to
do with the whole nature-versus-nurture argument
sociologists and psychologists spend careers batting about...
But I think it has to do my appreciation of the undeniable
influence of biology in the man/woman equation - despite
what the PC pointy-heads say. Case in point: A group of
European researchers have concluded that the average woman's
face is measurably more attractive (as judged by both men
AND women) at the 4-day peak of her fertility than at any
other time during the month.
Using identical methods in two different European cities
(Newcastle and Prague), the study found that full-face
photographs of women of all different types were judged as
noticeably more attractive at the height of their cycle than
similar photos taken 14 days prior...
By as many as 59% of respondents!
Interestingly, women proved slightly SHARPER at picking out
the fertile females than did men. Why would this be?
Probably because from a strictly competitive standpoint
women would need to be able to accurately assess their
rivals' fertility when vying for mates, according to the
study's authors. In my opinion, that's pseudo-scientific
bunkum - but what do I know?
Also of note is the fact that other research shows women at
the height of their fertility were more likely to prefer men
with more masculine traits - while at other times of the
month, they preferred men with softer characteristics
associated with more social or nurturing tendencies. Tricky,
huh?
So, fellas, if you're in the market for a fertile mate, go
for the macho look - and keep your eyes peeled for the woman
that other women are trying to show up.
Facing the facts of life,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD
