Buff vs. Ripped

There’s little as disheartening for one’s faith in government than spending a day working from home with C-SPAN 2 on the the background. After watching over four hours of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on Dietary Supplement Ephedra, I saw a vice president of a company be lambasted for not knowing what part of the cow their herbal supplement’s “bovine extract” came from, including a self-righteous speech from a congressperson about how disgraceful that people are producing and selling these things without even knowing what goes in them. And I heard another corporate representative say: “Scientists do not like to express things in percentages…. or in any other terms”, as justification for why an expert witness did not feel comfortable with one of the company’s claims. That doesn’t even count the side discussion of the difference between “buff” and “ripped” in the context of examine product advertisements. I’m just sitting here cracking up at this point. I guess it’s just the typical problem of getting things done with too many people in the room.