I noted the pistachio problem back at the end of March, but [via Cookie Jill in comments] UPI notes FDA issues another pistachio warning.

You want to avoid California Prime Produce- or Orange County Orchards-brand pistachios distributed to retail locations in airports and hotels nationwide in clear 6-ounce flexible plastic Ziploc bags, with “Sell By Dates” of “7/30/09” and “8/30/09.”

What has happened is that, knowingly or unknowingly, a distributor has repackaged some of the pistachios that were recalled and sold them.

Based on his choice for Chief Technology Officer, I didn’t put much hope in Obama’s plan to create a Cyber Security Tsar.

If Digby is right, and the CyberCrat is going to be Representative Tom Davis [R-VA], I will have been proven correct.

Digby had just featured Davis in her post, Let Them Eat Fancy Feast¹, with his aristocratic attitude towards the problems of working people who need health care. Apparently he is unaware that we are in the GOPression with double-digit unemployment, because his response was for a woman to find a job that offered health insurance.

I guess putting qualified technology professionals in technology jobs isn’t enough of a change.

1. For non-cat people: Fancy Feast is overpriced wet cat food in tiny cans that is labeled “gourmet”.

In the latest BBC Iran summary you will find this gem:

On Tuesday, the country’s legislative body, the Guardian Council, said there had been no major polling irregularities and the result would stand.

Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhoda’i said there had been “no major fraud or breach in the election”.

Let’s see, 3 million more votes than voters from 50 cities by their own admission and there was no “major fraud”. No doubt the spokesman has a fatwa to excuse his lies.

The BBC also noted that the UK expels two Iranian diplomats in response to Iran’s expulsion of two UK diplomats. Obviously the British officials were doing something undiplomatic, like noticing that there were protests in the streets and people were being attacked and occasionally killed by government security forces.

The Culture Ghost has been undergoing cancer treatment for a while, and today he got the news that his latest scans are clear.

MSNBC has an AP story, Insurance industry lays down health marker, about a letter that the health insurance industry has sent to Congress that actually contains some truth.

The industry claims that a government health insurance program would increase their costs. That’s true, because with competition they would actually have to start paying for the health care of their policy holders to keep them. They would no longer be able to take premiums and give nothing in return because their customers would have the option of going to the public plan.

They claim that a public plan would dismantle current employer coverage, which is also true, if the insurance companies don’t change their ways and become competitive.

The health insurance companies brought this on themselves by being greedy. When they decided to use denial management and rescission to inflate their profits, they sealed their own fates. They have managed to organize regional monopolies by consolidation, and have been acting in the arrogant and greedy fashion of all monopolies.

If you can’t compete as a business, you should fail – it’s called capitalism and big business doesn’t like it.

There has been a decrease in the number of people involved in the latest protests, but the protesters may be shifting tactics, and some will certainly be mourning those who have died.

The BBC continues its coverage which has the government of Iran declaring that the UK is the “Greater Satan”. The BBC Persian service is finding ways around the official blocking of information.

The CBC discussed the case of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman in the bloody video that stunned people, with Amir Hassanpour, an associate professor with the University of Toronto who teaches about the modern Middle East.

He makes a telling point:

Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, told BBC the family had planned to hold a memorial service at a mosque, as is customary, but authorities forbade the public service for fear it would further fan the flames of discontent.

“This Islamic government, why if it’s so Islamic does it prevent an Islamic tradition, a very important tradition?” said Hassanpour.

This is the main issue that caused many of the Grand Ayatollahs in Qom to oppose the current form of the Iranian government. The tradition has always been, believe it or not, separation of “church and state” in Iran. Denying a memorial service in a mosque is “not Islamic”. In this case, the government has chosen politics over religion.