Stuart Buck notes that the 130 hospitalizations that resulted from the 943 reported cases of salmonella poisoning caused $100 million in losses to the U.S. tomato industry (and untold damage to the industry in Mexico). He calculates this at $770,000 per hospitalization and asks, simply, “Worth it?”

Before you answer, you might want to factor in another variable: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has come out and stated that tomatoes are likely not the source of the salmonella outbreak.”

Photo: Nancee Lewis, San Diego Union-Tribune

OTB projects, with 0% of the precincts reporting, that Robert Mugabe will be re-elected as president of Zimbabwe by a wide margin. Exit polls reveal that the prime factors in motivating voters are a fear of being murdered and the lack of opposition candidates on the ballot.

Security was also a prime concern: “I’ve got no option but to go and vote so that I can be safe,” explained a young woman selling tomatoes.

Angus Shaw of the AP reports unusually heavy turnout.

Weekend Caption Jam Linkfest. . .

• Rodney can’t decide between the red or blue pill.
• Wizbang has stumped the stumper.
• Wyatt Earp wants fries widdat.
• Public Pondering has a visit from Barbarella.
• Cowboy Blob has and idea with a Twist.
• Willisms has the last prisoners from Gitmo
• Right Pundits is ready for another take.
• Blonde Sagacity just doesn’t measure up.
• The Gone Rick Motel found the rotten tomato.
• bRight and Early is still reflecting on his victory.
• Brainfuel has a wiener everytime.

Other Humor:
Political Demotivation is not particularly motivated.
Icanhascheezburger welcomes you to the kitteh cult.
V the K always has the best pictures at Caption This!

To join in, start a Caption Contest at your blog, edit it to add a link to this post, and then send a TrackBack. If your blog doesn’t automatically generate one, use the Send TrackBack feature below. For more information, see this post.

The marijuana sold in the United States is nearly two and a half times stronger than it was in 1988.

The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday. Analysis of seized samples of marijuana and hashish showed that more of the cannabis on the market is of the strongest grade, the White House and National Institute for Drug Abuse said. They cited data from the University of Mississippi’s Marijuana Potency Project showing the average levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in the products rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 8.5 percent in 2006. The level had risen steadily from 3.5 percent in 1988.

National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow fears the problem is not being taken seriously because many adults remember the marijuana of their youth as harmless. “It’s really not the same type of marijuana,” Volkow said in a telephone interview.

“This could explain why there has been an increase in the number of medical emergencies involving marijuana.”

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Adminstration, marijuana was involved in 242,200 visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2005. This means that the patient mentioned using marijuana and does not mean the drug directly caused the accident or condition being treated, SAMHSA says. The number is up from 215,000 visits in 2004.

What’s interesting is that this is the result of simple economics:

Volkow said demand has driven growers to cultivate the stronger stuff. “It is the market,” she said. “Like in the market you favor the best tomatoes. When people buy marijuana, they don’t want a weak cigarette.”

I haven’t found reliable data for the evolution in marijuana prices over that period but I gather that they’re actually lower now in real terms. If so, it’s a remarkably fast evolution in what is still basically an agricultural product.

Sean Hackbarth has announced that his blog has been bought ought by the folks who own rottentomatoes.com to inject MySpace with some “gravitas” and that he would be moving to Des Moines, Iowa to cover the primaries. No word on whether his site will feature a garish color scheme, poorly coded HTML, and annoying music blaring at readers.

I expect further details to be revealed tomorrow, April 2nd.

Sabrina Tavernise reports that the violence following Tuesday’s mosque attacks has stunned Iraqis and radically changed the public mood there.

After a day of violence so raw and so personal, Iraqis woke on Thursday morning to a tense new world in which, it seemed, anything was possible. The violence on Wednesday was the closest Iraq had come to civil war, and Iraqis were stunned. In Al Amin, a neighborhood in southeast Baghdad, a Shiite man said he had watched gunmen set a house on fire. It was identified as the residence of Sunni Arab militants, said the man, Abu Abbas, though no one seemed to know for sure who they were.

“We all were shocked,” said Abu Abbas, a vegetable seller, standing near crates of oranges and tomatoes. “We saw it burning. We called the fire department. We didn’t know how to behave. Chaos was everywhere.” Of the seven men inside, at least three were brought out dead, said Abu Abbas, 32, who said it would be dangerous to give more than his Iraqi nickname.

Everything felt different on Thursday morning. A Shiite newspaper, Al Bayyna al Jadidah, used unusually angry language in a front-page editorial: “It’s time to declare war against anyone who tries to conspire against us, who slaughters us every day. It is time to go to the streets and fight those outlaws.”

Many Iraqis, including Abu Abbas, blamed the militia loyal to the Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, for the attacks. The fighters are known as the Mahdi Army but they are little more than large groups of poor Shiites with guns. Indeed, the neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad on the edges of the vast Shiite slum, Sadr City, where most of those fighters live, seem to have been hit the hardest.

One good sign, albeit anecdotal:

Still, the neighborhood itself did not divide along sectarian lines: Shiite residents also condemned Wednesday’s assaults. Neighborhoods all over Baghdad reported similar camaraderie. “As a Shiite, I do not accept this,” said Saadiya Salim, a 50-year-old homemaker. “These acts will lead to violence, because the Sunnis will attack” Shiite mosques.

The U.S. and Iraqi governments are putting their best face on the situation while trying to quell the violence:

Iraqi leaders attempted Thursday to stop sectarian violence that has escalated since a revered Shiite shrine was bombed in Samarra, prompting widespread reprisals against Sunnis. The United States joined Iraqi leaders in urging calm, and despite Sunni Arabs boycotting talks on a new unity government, an American envoy said he is confident the tensions will pass.

A curfew was imposed Thursday evening in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces. Under the curfew, which began at 6 p.m., no one is allowed in the streets. The curfew, which bars people from entering the streets, could stir even more controversy because it will remain in effect through Friday’s noon Muslim prayers — the most sacred prayers of the week for followers.

Cori Dauber says that, “The situation in Iraq is just flat bad, and there’s no point trying to sugar coat any of it.” Still, she compares Tavernise’s “hyper-descriptive” piece above to a calmer piece by WaPo’s Bradley Graham.

The U.S. military, which has lowered force levels in Iraq by more than 20,000 troops since December’s elections to about 133,000 now, reported no moves toward a possible new buildup. Instead, several U.S. military officers said, the plan is to rely on Iraq’s fledgling security forces to take the lead in attempting to contain the strife.

Washington officials found some encouragement in what they said appeared to be a drop in attacks yesterday from the day before, when the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra sparked a wave of retaliatory attacks that left dozens of Sunni mosques in ruins and scores of people dead.

Still, more than 100 new deaths were reported as a result of clashes between rival Muslim sects, and U.S. officials here acknowledged that the situation remains volatile in the next few days, particularly with large demonstrations scheduled. “This isn’t a bump in the road, it’s a pothole,” said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a senior policy and planning officer with U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the region. “And we’ll find out if the shock absorbers in the Iraqi society will hold or whether this will crack the frame.”

Although worried by the prospect that the latest fighting could mark a major turning point toward all-out civil war, administration officials sought to convey concern without appearing to panic. “On the one hand, we don’t want to give the impression that we’re not focused on this,” a senior State Department official said. “On the other hand, we don’t want to play up the ‘we’re on the brink of civil war argument.’ We think we should take a deep breath, do all the things we’re doing, and see how this thing shakes out in the next few days.”

Dauber concludes, correctly I think, “this marks the distance the country has come since 2004. There would have been absolutely no way, during that earlier crisis, for the American military to step back and let Iraqi forces take the lead in restoring order.” Of course, it’s far from certain that they will in fact restore order.

Robert Mayer believes the party who “stands to benefit” from the attack and the resulting violence is “Zarqawi, who is using the attack as a last ditch effort to prevent the forming of a new government. He is looking to divide the country after to has come so close to being united.”

NRO’s James Robbins agrees.

The attack was most probably perpetrated by al Qaeda, which has been trying to foment civil strife in Iraq for some time, and declared open war on the Shiites last year. They have mounted numerous provocative attacks on Shia and Kurdish targets, to no noticeable effect. This strike was much more audacious; the (previously) golden-domed shrine is an ancient and revered structure, and the tombs within are holy both to Shiites and Sunnis, though more so to the former. The initial retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques must have pleased Zarqawi; if taking down this site did not start the civil war, nothing would.

So the foreign fighters must have been stunned when Shiite and Sunni leaders rushed out statements saying they knew that the takfiri (i.e., those who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, a code word in this context for the foreign extremists) were behind the attack, and they would not let this act of brutality divide Iraq. [...] Sunni groups followed suit. The Association of Muslim Scholars posted a statement condemning this “suspicious criminal act that seeks to stir sedition and unrest” and the “perpetrators and masterminds of this act, who wish to harm Iraq and divide its people for the sake of their personal agendas and the interests and schemes of foreign powers in this ravaged country.” Likewise the National Dialogue Council denounced the attempt to “divide Iraq and light the flame of civil war between its sons,” and the Iraqi Islamic Party called for self restraint, even as its offices were attacked, saying that in a civil war there would be no winner.

[...]

Despite panicky headlines to the contrary, it is not in any group’s interest to wage full scale civil war in Iraq. The Shiites have power without it; the Sunnis could not win it; and the Kurds will sit it out either way and keep patiently building their homeland. So this senseless act of violence against the final resting place of two of the most respected figures of the Muslim religion only proves to the Islamic world that al Qaeda and its allies are true heretics who care nothing for the faith and are out for power by any means at their disposal. Cartoons about Mohammed pale in comparison to this atrocity. I look forward to the mass demonstrations against al Qaeda throughout the Muslim world — though somehow I doubt we’ll see many.

Charlie Munn adds,

Civil war in Iraq would be disastrous for the Sunnis, and I think they know it. The Shiite community is going to be the majority in the new Iraqi democracy, and the Sunni population lives in a landlocked, resource poor area of Iraq. A Sunnistan is not a viable option for them. This shows that Al Qaeda is not about religion, it is about control and power.

Indeed. While I agree that civil war benefits no one but the terrorists, that does not preclude it happening. Violence has a way of feeding itself and getting out of hand. The next couple of days are critical. If Iraqi security forces, in cooperation with religious and other leaders, don’t restore order very soon, it may be impossible to do it without full scale war.

Bill Roggio, who offers a detailed and interesting list of “lead indicators a full scale civil war,” agrees, noting,

Iraq has yet to encounter any of the problems stated above. The Sunni led Iraqi Accordance Front has suspended talks to form a government, but have not withdrawn from the political process. The Iraqi Security Forces have taken appropriate measures and suspended all leaves, but there are no indications they are cooperating with militias or abetting the violence in any way. There have been both encouraging statements by the Shiite and Sunni leaders. There also have been some irresponsible statements from the politicians on all sides, but this can be understood as tensions are running high. The Shiites are devastated by the destruction of the Golden Mosque and the Sunnis are horrified at the retaliation attacks. What is critical is what is said and done by these politicians in the next few days and weeks.

Richard Hernandez contends that, “while the situation threatens to slide into civil war it’s not there yet.”

If Bill Roggio was right in thinking that the al-Qaeda are behind this attack in order to provoke civil war (see previous post), they have really started on this new tactic a year and half too late. They wasted their time trying to defeat the US Armed Forces and that didn’t work so well. Unfortunately the time they wasted has also provided the time for the Coalition Forces to train up hundreds of Iraqi battalions, establish a shaky but nevertheless functional national leadership core (as events are proving) and weakened Sadr. In war as in other things, timing is important.

Healing Iraq’s Zeyad, however, is depressed.

What kind of nation are we? What kind of nation kills its intellectuals and academics, its doctors and healers, its women and children, its clerics and preachers? What kind of nation blows up churches and mosques, hotels and schools, funerals and weddings? We have left nothing sacred. Yet we have the insolence to accuse others of offending us, of vilifying us. I announce today that we have proved ourselves worthy of that vilification. Ten years ago, I denounced religion and disavowed Islam. I do not want to be forced to disavow my country and nation today, but with every new day, I’m afraid I am getting closer to it.

That’s just one man’s view, of course, and in the midst of a sorry situation. Still, it points to a major underlying issue: the sense of Iraqi nationhood. One of the things that we have going for us in this ambitious endeavor to convert Iraq from a despotic state to a democratic one is that, even though there is a history of tribal and sectarian enmity and unlike many places whose borders were drawn by Western colonialists, there is a strong sense of identity as “Iraqis.” Mass murder sprees can undermine that, quickly.

Nigerian Muslims have murdered at least fifteen Christians in protests over cartoons published in a Danish newspaper five months ago.

Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.

It was the first major protest to erupt over the issue in Africa’s most populous nation. An Associated Press reporter saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city center with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tire around a man, poured gas on him and set him ablaze.

In Libya, the parliament suspended the interior minister after at least 11 people died when his security forces attacked rioters who torched the Italian consulate in Benghazi. Right-wing Italian Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned under pressure, accused of fueling the fury in Benghazi by wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with one of the offending cartoons, first published in September in a Danish newspaper.

Danish church officials met with a top Muslim cleric in Cairo, meanwhile, but made no significant headway in defusing the conflict.

And in what has become a daily event, tens of thousands of Muslims protested — this time in Britain, Pakistan and Austria — to denounce the perceived insult. On Sunday, some 400 protesters pelted the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia with rocks, tomatoes and eggs. They burned U.S. flags and smashed the windows of a guard post before dispersing.

But it was in Nigeria, where mutual suspicions between Christians and Muslims have led to thousands of deaths in recent years, that tensions boiled over into sectarian violence. Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order, Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Iwendi said security forces arrested dozens of people in the city about 1,000 miles northeast of the capital, Lagos.

Chima Ezeoke, a Christian Maiduguri resident, said protesters attacked and looted shops owned by minority Christians, most of them with origins in the country’s south. “Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters,” Ezeoke said. Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.

There have been dozens of people killed in rioting over these cartoons. Most of the others, at least, were rioters killed by police forces or private security forces trying to protect lives and property. These are the first mass murders of innocent bystanders.

Interestingly, the New York Times apparently thinks this worth only a casual mention. Relegated to the International section is their story, “Italian Quits Over Cartoons; 15 Die in Nigeria.” So, the murder of fifteen innocents rates second mention to the resignation of some minor Italian official?

Update: Nearly four hours later, I’m still waiting for photos of the incident to hit the wires. YahooNews has a slideshow entitled “Muslims Offended by Danish Cartoons” — gotta love, by the way, the emphasis being of the Muslims’ feelings rather than the murders they’re committing — but if any feature the Nigerian riots they are buried deep.

Update 2: Michelle Malkin has compiled a chronological list of Islamist murders of Christians in Nigeria over the years. The post is quite long.

________

See the twelve cartoons that sparked the protests at my Danish Muslim Cartoons page.

Related entries below the fold.

Cleric Offers Million Dollar Bounty for Murder of Cartoonist
Bama Riots Over Bear Bryant Cartoons
The Islamists’ War on the Internet
Pakistan Rioters Burn KFC, Pizza Hut, and McDonald’s
Cartoons as Emotional Torture and Intellectual Terrorism (Leopold Stotch)
Moderate Muslims Speak Out (Leopold Stotch)
Danish Muslim Cartoons: Blogger Hypocrisy?
Egypt Published Danish Cartoons During Ramadan
Danish Cartoons & Abu Ghraib Photos (Leopold Stotch)
Hypocrites? (Steve Verdon)
Danish Muslim Cartoons: What Would Mohammad Do?
Iranian Paper Launches Holocaust Cartoon Competition
Danish Muslim Cartoon Protests Kill Six
Dutch Muslim Cartoon: Anne Frank and Hitler in Bed
Danish Muslim Cartoon Controversy in Context
Danish Embassy in Syria Torched over Muslim Cartoons
Danish Muslim Cartoons ‘Offensive,’ Says U.S. Government
Muslim Day of Anger to Respond to Cartoons
French Editor Fired Over Muhammad Drawings
French and German Papers Republish Danish Cartoons
Danish Newspaper Apologizes for Muslim Cartoons

Turns out there is a way to make money farming, after all;

According to Gretchen Shappert, U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina, “the Warren Farms investigation is literally the mother of all crop fraud investigations. It was a result of a perfect storm of individuals who were involved in fraud.”

Robert and Vicki Warren are among eight people who pleaded guilty to swindling the government and insurance companies out of more than $9 million in bogus insurance claims from 1997 to 2003. The Warrens were among the largest tomato growers east of the Mississippi; at one point they owned 26 farms in three states, including one run by Bobby Chambers.

“We grow different kinds of produce, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, just a little of everything,” says Chambers, a beefy, baby-faced, 42-year-old lifelong farmer who runs a spread that borders the Nolichucky River in Cocke County, Tennessee.

According to trial records, he helped the Warrens stage a hailstorm to make it look like their tomatoes had been destroyed, so they could collect the insurance money.

Chambers says he bought a bag of cocktail ice and a disposable camera, and, on his boss’s order, created a foul-weather tableau. “The way we did it, we was down taking pictures, out this row, and then we just stood behind it and throwed the ice over the top. To me, it looked like a hailstorm,” says Chambers.

To complete the scene of devastation, they then picked up wooden tomato stakes and attacked the unsuspecting vegetables. “They had one Mexican who did all the beating, he beat every 16,000 of them. He’d just go through there and knock the leaves off of them,” says Chambers, as he illustrates the activity with a long stick. “It made it look like where the hail had beat it up.”

It gets better. Not only does the US Treasury back insurers in the risky business, the USDA subsidizes premiums.

The government is so generous with crop insurance that it subsidizes farmers’ premiums. Edwards says the USDA paid the Warrens more than $2 million to help them insure their tomatoes. He compares it to the following hypothetical situation: “Every year a bank gets robbed and they notice the bank robber is using an old getaway car and they ask, ‘Would you like a car loan to have a nicer getaway car next year when you come to rob us?’ Because the government is subsidizing the farmer’s ability to defraud us for the coming season.”

Good ol’ farm ingenuity!