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http://stcloud.injuryboard.com/fda-and-prescription-drugs/usda-revokes-beef-products-inc-beef-testing-exemption-.aspx?googleid=276340 In 2007, the FDA began exempting Beef Products Inc. from routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public . The exemption was credit for the companies development of a procedure of preventing E. coli bacteria by injecting the meat with ammonia. They had for eight years been working to sell beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The New York Times reported last week government and industry records show that in testing for the school lunch program, "E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat

Allowing employers (starting with church organizations) to tamper with the Affordable Healhcare Act's aim to provide equal access to quality healthcare services has 'wedge issue' written all over it; the point of the legislation was to stop healthcare investor combines from dominating atomized, 'minority' individuals (a minority of one). The courts will want to be very careful about granting organizations moral dispensation to apply the law as they see fit. The churches ought also to be very careful about permitting parties with hidden agendas from using them to carry out reactionary purposes. A 'moral exception' is a Pandora's box, of course. Religions who do not believe in doctoring of any sort, to the point where parents allow a child with a treatable medical problem to die due to lack of care, will be in a position to deny employees of healthcare of any sort. Religions who don't recognize the right to divorce, on the same grounds, ought to be able to discriminate against divorcees, gay people in states that don't allow same-sex marriage, or single people who show no clear sign of heading for marriage and mission-procreation. Evolution of the law separating the church and state was aimed at keeping group interests from deciding who the 'good people' are, and keeping them out of the bedroom, or other privileged domains reserved to individual choice. No court of law has even pretended that corporate persons are endowed with a a moral sense entailing rights such as those protected by the Bill of Rights. Organizations, as such, are morally obligated to obey the laws governing organizations wherever they happen to be in the US, and Federal laws touching on discrimination apply everywhere. Persons who work as directors of an organization have moral agency and authority, but their moral authority does not extend beyond their individuality to the organization per se. As moral agents, it's vital to keep moral authority individual, such that employer and employee are considered as having equal moral power. Knowing the minefield the church and state separation issue is, it would be flagrant constitutional adventurism if the court allowed itself to be dragged in to arbitrate which religion had the right moral mix to decide when it would act according to the law and best practices of the represented community regarding the moral place of organizations vis a vis persons. And, yes, if you hear the sound of hammering, the wedge people fuel themselves on bile, so they do not require sleep, or any civic sense for that matter. I sympathize with the obsessed and anyone lacking enough sleep, even if I’m not in a position to absolve or bless. Even a wedge on its side covered with whipped-cream is still just a wedge, so bite down carefully and push it away politely if the look on the person handing out the desserts comes disguised with a powdered wig, a painted on permanent smile, and knows nothing in French except “Let them eat cake.”