“C” Is For Cookie (and Cannibalism)

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Incest, bestiality and cannibalism are three of the last taboos that hold any weight in the shock value department. Trying to research the history of any of those three subjects will raise a few eyebrows at the local library. While illegal in some parts of the United States (39 to be exact) other areas turn a blind eye to it unless it become a community concern. Cannibalism, well, that too is a tricky subject to judge because there are extenuating circumstances that cannibalism can be a necessity for the “greater good”. If you kill someone then eat them you committed several crimes, if you came across the body or someone else dispatched them for you chances are you'll get charged with abuse of a corpse. Now, if you are going to indulge in necrophilia then the charges for that are more severe. Before you get out that set of professional carving knives and start eyeing up that neighbor that insists on mowing his lawn at 7:00am every Saturday, there are some pretty serious things to consider. First off, it's not like stringing up a deer and gutting it; all the potentially contaminated organs have to be removed, blood needs to be isolated from the meat, organs can rupture from extreme stress and that's just the start of the list. When it comes to human cannibalism the biggest threat is spongiform encephalitis; the bovine version called for a massive slaughter of cow overseas and a temporary ban on imported meat. The human and bovine versions are non-reversible and to date there is no cure for it. While not a concern in the United States, an outbreak can happen several ways. In that amount of time it can spread to other hosts. When “zombie fever” was on everyone's mind, the subject of Kuru and TSE / BSE came up. In essence, people argued that Mad Cow Disease and the human version were going to push people to the edge of existence then allow them to wander around looking for brains to feed on. Ever wonder why zombies always seemed to go for the brains in movies? Even though some of this is said in humor and with a sarcastic tone, cannibalism does happen in the united States. When I was doing some planning for our Appalachian Trail hike a couple people jokingly said that I better watch out for the “mountain people”. Photo: www.scriptshadow.com