The "smells test" smells.

What has happened to common sense? I know it's been a hot summer. Heat wave after heat wave. Maybe brains are swelling from the heat? Huh? We have been having some bad weather. Storms knocking out power, causing floods, tearing down old trees, shaking and up-rooting things. By george, we had an earthquake last month in Washington! The heat and the shaking -- maybe, brains got scrambled from all the shake and bake? But that is no excuse for the introduction of the smell test!

Item from the Associated Press --"Even the people who make their living off the seafood-rich waters of Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish have a hard time swallowing the government's assurances that fish harvested in the shallow, muddy waters just offshore must be safe to eat because they don't smell too bad. Fresh splotches of chocolate-colored crude, probably globules broken apart by toxic chemical dispersants sprayed by BP with government approval, still wash up almost daily on protective boom and in marshes in reopened fishing grounds east of the Mississippi River."

If it doesn't stink, it's good to eat?! What kind of science is that?! That doesn't even pass the nose test! The idea smells bad.

On Friday, the Louisiana wildlife regulators reopened state-controlled waters east of the Mississippi "to harvesting of shrimp and "fin fish" such as redfish, mullet and trout." The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said, " Smell tests on dozens of specimens from the area revealed barely traceable amounts of toxins,."

The smell test?! The AP reports that the tests were done not by chemical analysis, but by scientists trained to detect the smell of oil and dispersant. Scientists with scientific noses?

Meghan Scott spokesperson for the, FDA; reports the AP said, "Chemical tests on fish for oil-related compounds are routine, but no such test exists for detecting levels of dispersant, Federal scientists are developing one. It wasn't clear when one would be ready, though."

Has somebody here bumped their heads? Have they really bumped their heads?! America eat that fish at your own peril.

What does the the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention have to say about this? The AP reports that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, addressed the problem with the dispersants.

BP used dispersants as if BP was one of the gods of old, raining vengeance down upon the sea.

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, "The dispersants can kill incubating sea life, experts say, though its long-term effects are unknown. In humans, long-term exposure can cause central nervous system problems or damage blood, kidneys or livers."

What in the world is going on in Louisiana? Are state officials so in love with the oil industry, that they are rushing to put the matter of the biggest ecological disaster in recent American history behind themselves? Are they trying to send a picture and message that everything is now just peaches and cream, and back to business as usual? What's wrong with the folks at the USDA? Don't they know that by rushing suspect Gulf sea food back to the marketplace, they are doing harm to all sea foods in the marketplace. To avoid the suspect sea food, the prudent shopper would just stop buying all sea food!

My good lord, what is America coming to with officials like these?