Looking Out For Number Two

So let's see: e-coli spinach; salmonella peanut butter; poisoned pet food; the same toxic chemical from the pet food found in chicken feed; anti-freeze in cough syrup -- hey, shit happens, whaddaya gonna do, right?

But try to get medication at a halfway reasonable price, and suddenly they're looking out for ya, bunky. Wouldn't want you to run the risk of unsafe pharmaceuticals.

WASHINGTON — The Senate sidetracked a controversial amendment Monday that would have let Americans buy prescription medication from foreign suppliers, a move that cleared the way for action on an overhaul of the government's drug safety system.

The drug import amendment, which was tacked onto the Food and Drug Administration overhaul legislation, could save consumers billions of dollars, its sponsors said. But the pharmaceutical industry argued that the provision could flood the market with counterfeit medications, and the White House threatened to veto a bill that eased import restrictions.

That put Democrats, the Senate majority, in a bind: Though many support drug imports, they also consider the larger drug safety overhaul must-pass legislation.

So some Democrats straddled the import issue: They approved the amendment along with a requirement that imports win government certification that they are safe — which the Bush administration is unlikely to provide. Even Democratic administrations have been reluctant to make declarations about the safety of imported medications.

The 49-40 vote to approve the requirement, offered by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was seen as a victory for the pharmaceutical industry.

Can't say they don't have their priorities straight, at least as far as keeping donations coming in is concerned.

And hey, what's up with the honeybees?

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.

Since many Americans appear to be existing on a diet of Doritos and Red Bull anyway, this may not be such a cataclysmic shift for them. For the rest of us, yeah, it's a bit of a problem.

Scientists are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees, and early results of a key study this week point to some kind of disease or parasite.

Even before this disorder struck, America's honeybees were in trouble. Their numbers were steadily shrinking, because their genes do not equip them to fight poisons and disease very well, and because their gregarious nature exposes them to ailments that afflict thousands of their close cousins.

"Quite frankly, the question is whether the bees can weather this perfect storm," Hackett said. "Do they have the resilience to bounce back? We'll know probably by the end of the summer."

And then we can commence with the genetically-engineered honeybees and their accompaniment of parasite-killing nanobots.