Man Has Been Dying Because Of Germs For Centuries-- But Now We Have Ways To Prevent Death And Sickness

Low wage workers at the Poland Springs Bottling Plant in Maine, which is owned by Nestlé, are so angry with the way the company treats them that they're doing pretty disgusting things to pollute the water-- not that Nestlé gives a damn. Nestlé settled a law suit accusing it of using water under a former trash and refuse dump, and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years. Nestlé paid $10 million in the settlement but continues to sell the same Maine water under the Poland Spring name.

I started traveling in the Third World when I was still a teenager. And I'm leaving for India again-- I can't even remember how many times I've been there-- in a few weeks. One of the things I love about traveling abroad, whether to Paris, Bangkok, Rome, Delhi, Tokyo, Marrakech or a tiny village know one ever heard of in Cappadocia, is trying the local food. These days, we're careful where we eat, of course, but I do recall seeing some young Indian boys refilling some bottled water bottles from a hose behind an upscale Mumbai restaurant one time.

I'll never forget watching a beautiful, smiling young Thai waitress bringing our table a big tray of food one time, when she suddenly sneezed all over everything. She didn't miss a beat, just kept smiling and served us the food. Germ theory isn't something they teach in some countries apparently. Yesterday Digby had a very interesting post on her site about why it's important for all of us that people who work in restaurants have health insurance. She explained the anti-social, reactionary and dangerous policies of Papa John's Pizza, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Hurricane Grill and Wings, Applebee's and then concludes with a plea:

There are a lot of chain restaurants in this country. If I'm going to eat in one I'd like for the employees to have access to health care. I'd prefer not to have germ-laden, typhoid Mary's handling my food, thank you very much. And it is common sense to ask, if they are cutting corners on this, what other health regulations are they skirting? I think I'll be eating elsewhere.

And here's something to remember about Olive Garden and Red Lobster-- not in Bangkok or some Third World hellhole but right here in U.S. cities: "The CEO of this company is a real ball buster, and he is NOT going to make YOU pay ten cents more for a plate of noodles, no way Jose. That is a solution for pussies. This CEO is just going to cut back on employees’ hours so that they work 29 hours per week instead of 30, exempting them from health care coverage mandate. So the next time you go to Olive Garden or the Red Lobster, rest assured that your server is not going to have health care coverage." There's the Republican solution to a problem, one that harkens back to Alan Grayson explaining the GOP plan for health care a few years ago on the floor of Congress.