So what is going on this Sunday, not much, and that’s not always bad. I picked a fews reads for you, I hope you all slept in
President Obama will be in Israel next week. The so-called peace process, was there ever a real effort (?), is not only stalled, it is at it’s lowest point since I remember. The Economist picks up the topic:
IN 1942, as the Holocaust in Europe was entering its most horrific phase, a pacifist American rabbi called Judah Magnes helped found a political party in Palestine called Ihud. Hebrew for unity, Ihud argued for a single binational state in the Holy Land to be shared by Jews and Arabs. Its efforts—and those of like-minded idealists—came to naught. Bitterly opposed to the partition of Palestine, Magnes died in 1948 just as the state of Israel—the naqba, or catastrophe, to Palestinians—was being born. Decades of strife were to follow.(read more)
Cyprus needs a bailout. That’s not really news, but the account holders will get a haircut, oops:
Cypriots reacted with shock that turned to panic on Saturday after a 10% one-off levy on savings was forced on them as part of an extraordinary 10bn euro (£8.7bn) bailout agreed in Brussels.(read more)
Formula 1 is on, finally, The Lotus Effect:
Kimi Raikkonen proved he and Lotus have what it takes this year to become Formula One world champions after storming to victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.(read more)
And, kids, you look the other way now:
Close your eyes and ears,” warns an off-screen voice, “because here comes a sex comedy that’s all about bonking and banging.” Then Bavarian character Sepp appears on screen. As he assumes a wide-legged stance in an Alpine pasture, a cow gazes awe-struck at the fly of his lederhosen. Thunderbolts shoot out of his tight leather shorts, bulging with excessive man-power.( read more)
Again, there’s not much going on really, I could have brought you ‘She Who Must Not Be Named’ and her CPAC speech, but I am not cruel.
Get yourself a shoulder of Pork, some veggies, a glass of beer, more beer for yourself and don’t hurry it up, it wants it’s time.
1 l of Chicken Stock
1.5 kgs Pork Shoulder with skin.
(The more fat the better, unfortunately the pigs they breed over here for meat are almost as lean as athletes. You don’t ge a really porky pig anymore and while people think it’s good for your health in my humble opinion it sucks from a yumminess point of view)
3 large white onions
1 small carrot
150 g of celeriac
1 tbsp oil
400 g small potatoes
1 tsp icing sugar
1 tbsp tomato purree concentrated
150 ml red wine
Salt
1 laurel leave
1/2 tsp cumin and coriander each
1 clove of garlic sliced
2 slices ginger
pepper freshly gound
1/2-1 tsp lemon skin grated
1-2 tbsp Fleur de Sel
Now you can get going and the process leaves you quite a bit of time between the stages to either prepare side dishes or go on a run to burn off the calories about to hit you
Put the roast into a pan skin side down add the chicken broth and roast in oven at 130°C for 90 minutes.
Dice the veggies (sans the potatoes) and gently roast them in a pan, add icing sugar gently caramelise, add tomato purree and red wine bring to the boil and take to the side.
After 90 minutes take the roast out of the oven, cut the skin (I do squares) add the broth to the veggies and then all the veggies, the potatoes and the sauce go back into the oven pan. Set the roast on top of it and roast for another 90 to 120 minutes at 160°C.
The Finale: Set the oven to 220°C put the roast on the lowest rung of the oven for 20 minutes.
Mix the cumin and coriander, strain sauce in a pot, set veggies aside. Bring gravy to the boil add cumin and coriander reduce for 20 minutes.
Mix fleur de sel and lemon rind. Sprinkle roast with same. Enjoy!
It’s called Sunday Roast isn’t it? So I made you one.
On this day in history, December 23, 1954, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was released.
I loved this movie when I was a kid, but I enjoyed Jules Verne’s book even more. During the giant squid attack scene, I remember thinking that on the interior shots, it looked like the squid was waving. Well, I was only about ten when I read the book and then saw the movie. :D
I was also crazy for that old show in the 60s, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
This is our daily open thread — What was your favorite childhood movie?
I don’t know about you guys, but I just want to think about the beauty of this planet today. The ugliness will still be there waiting for us tomorrow — it’s one of the few things we can count on.
This is our daily open thread — Discuss among yourselves.
Republicans, what part of this do you fail to understand? No, we’re not asking you if you like it or think it’s good (by your standards) — that’s been decided. Whether or not you like, accept, or understand it, Barack Obama is still our President.
“We” includes you, Republicans, so lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way, because we’re still trying to clean up your messes.
This is our daily open thread — Who else is beyond done with the WHINING?
By resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).
On 20 December 1993 the General Assembly, by resolution 48/104, adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
In the United States, we had the Violence Against Women Act — also passed in 1993 — written by the current Vice President, Joe Biden. The Act currently up for re-authorization, which would seem like a no-brainer, but it’s hung up in the Republican controlled House, which favors a reduction of such services to undocumented and LGBT women.
Because undocumented and LGBT women aren’t quite women? Violence up to a certain level should be acceptable? Maybe if these women get beaten and raped enough, they’ll mend their evil ways. That could be it.
This is our daily open thread — posted by the late, late, very late Zooey. LATE AGAIN. Sorry!!
For the first time in five years, I’m not spending Thanksgiving week at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. Right now, I’m supposed to be sitting in the parlor on the third floor in front of a crackling fire, reading my book, and waiting for the hot spiced wine to arrive.
But because a job remains elusive, it was not to be this year. I’m listening to the wind howl outside my window, trying to pretend it’s a storm at the beach.
So instead, I’m planning a low budget Thanksgiving dinner with Zoo Jr — he’s bringing the turkey — and am truly thankful that my son and I will have the whole weekend to hang out together.
This is our daily open thread — What are your plans for Thanksgiving?
Veterans Day is a United States holiday which honors ALL military veterans, living and dead. Remembrance Day is commemorated on the same day in Britain, Canada, and several other countries, to remember those who died serving their countries, and marking the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice by the Germans at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, which ended World War I.
Please join TheZoo in honoring all who serve their countries in the military, and remembering those who never came home.
I took this photo on my recent trip to Glacier National Park, having taken a detour down to the National Bison Range. Over 13,000 years ago, this lush farmland was the site of a huge glacial lake; today we refer to it as Lake Missoula.
The lake was the result of an ice dam on the Clark Fork caused by the southern encroachment of a finger of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet into the Idaho Panhandle (at the present day location of Clark Fork, Idaho at the east end of Lake Pend Oreille). The height of the ice dam typically approached 610 metres (2,000 ft), flooding the valleys of western Montana approximately 320 kilometres (200 mi) eastward. It was the largest ice-dammed lake known to have occurred.
Approximately forty times over a 2000 year period, the glacial ice dam ruptured, and the contents of Lake Missoula went screaming across the Idaho Panhandle, Eastern Washington (creating the Scablands), and the Columbia River Gorge. You can see that the flood even reached my little corner of the world on the Snake River.
The cumulative effect of the floods was to excavate 210 cubic kilometres (50 cu mi) of loess, sediment and basalt from the channeled scablands of eastern Washington and to transport it downstream. These floods are noteworthy for producing canyons and other large geologic features through cataclysms rather than through more typical gradual processes.
If you drive across Eastern Washington, you’ll see that even today it looks like a virtual wasteland. Being in the rain shadow of the Cascades has something to do with it, but the main culprit was flood after flood after flood scouring off the land. It’s really quite fascinating to imagine the raw and determined power of WATER.
This is our daily open thread — Hey, you learned something new today!
A car drives through the so-called Chandelier Tree in California’s Underwood Park in the 1930s. An iconic giant, this 315-foot-tall redwood was tunneled out as a novelty during the early days of gas-powered cars.
I remember driving through this tree with my family when I was 12 or 13. We had a great big Dodge van at the time, and the door handles barely missed the sides of the tree tunnel. It was so cool, but I remember thinking that it was too bad that whoever hollowed out that tree had no respect for such a lovely Redwood giant. Thank goodness the tree managed to stay alive.
Check out the other ten sacred and iconic trees, such as the baobab, the dance tree, and the Bohdi tree, at National Geographic.
There was a suicide bombing in Afghanistan the other day. So far away…the other side of the world. It means so little in our daily lives. What does it have to do with us anyway…?
At 8 years old, with freckles and a penchant for frilly dresses and soccer cleats, Parwana was just as I was at that age: equal parts tomboy and little princess. In the last few weeks, she had begun to wear a head scarf, but she clearly was not willing to grow up completely just yet. She was the undisputed ringleader of the little girls, and enough of a spitfire to give the bigger boys as good as she got.
She could belong to any one of us, really. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t belong to anyone now…except maybe our consciences. We hear of another suicide bombing on the other side of the world, and think “Not again,” for about 10 seconds, and then it’s gone.
But this time, we see a face. We can’t un-see her. Because sometimes in this world, heroes come in the form of an eight year old child and her friends, who, beside skateboarding, loved nothing more than standing up to a big “bad boy.”
Her name was Parwana, which means “Butterfly” in Dari. She gave all she had to give, and it has everything to do with us.
Fear. What does it mean to you? What does it mean in your life? Is your life influenced by fear? Even just a little bit?
Fear:
1. a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
2. a specific instance of our propensity for such a feeling: an abnormal fear of heights.
3. concern or anxiety; solicitude: a fear for someone’s safety.
4. reverential awe, especially toward God: the fear of God. Synonyms: awe, respect, reverence, veneration.
5. something that causes feelings of dread or apprehension; something a person is afraid of: Cancer is a common fear.
My biggest fear is speaking in public. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell myself to picture the audience naked, or that I don’t know these people and I’ll never see them again in my life. My brain gets it, but my body does not. No matter how confident I feel walking into the room, as soon as I begin speaking, my knees will begin to shake, my face goes beet red, and I start talking a mile a minute so I can get the fuck out of there.
Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat that causes animals to move quickly away from the location of the perceived threat, and sometimes hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response) but in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) a freeze or paralysis response is possible.
Yep, that’s me moving out of a public room in which I have spoken. I know what causes it: I have a fear of being perceived as stupid. It doesn’t matter if it’s reasonable or not, that’s why it’s a fear, all y’all!
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. ~H.P. Lovecraft
What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope. ~Publilius Syrus
Courage is not the lack of fear, but the ability to face it. ~Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)
That’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it? Fear keeps you alive; we create what we fear; and fear cannot rule over us if we face it.
Like an old friend once asked me, “What’s the worst that can happen?”
This is our daily open thread — What are you afraid of?
Jerry Nelson died on Friday. Who the heck is Jerry Nelson, you might ask. He was the voice of Count von Count on Sesame Street for over 40 years!
I think Jerry Nelson must have had a great sense of humor, in order to do puppetry for most of his life, so I posted this un-necessarily censored video of the County singing about how much he loves to…er, count. :)
Rest in Peace, Mr Nelson. The Count was one of my favorite characters!
If there is a road map for a Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan win in November, that’s it. Distasteful all.
Thank goodness Romney/Ryan (R/R) has all that money backing them up, huh? Otherwise the voter suppression and murky details might cause them a problem. Oh wait, R/R are counting on the listed items to get them elected in November. It’s all good.
Charles M. Blow, beside being a gorgeous man, is absolutely brilliant. In his article, he talks about the various lies, equivocations, flip flops, secrecy, and abject hypocrisy of the Romney/ Ryan ticket.
America, this is the Republican ticket. Although most smart political observers currently have Romney losing the Electoral College, Romney, following this repulsive road map, is virtually tied with Obama in national polls of likely voters.
“Virtually tied” with President Obama in the polls. Un-friggin-believable. Why is R/R in a virtual tie with Obama/Biden?
Apathy.
Yep, you read that correctly. Voter apathy is a HUGE problem in this country — even now, with so much as stake.
As USA Today reported, the 90 million people who are unlikely to vote in November prefer Obama over Romney by 2 to 1, and “they could turn a too-close-to-call race into a landslide for President Obama — but by definition they probably won’t.”
I want to know who these people are. I want to know what — exactly — is going on in their pathetically tiny pea brains. I want an explanation as to WHY they just can’t be arsed to get themselves into a voting booth. I want them to tell me, and then I want to put a big red “D” for DODDERING DUNDERHEADED DUMBASS in the middle of their foreheads, as a sign to the rest of us that these people are dangerous to the well-being of this country and her people. I want to know all of these things, and then I want them to shut the fuck up, because not being involved enough with the country that made it possible to have such fascinating lives that they can’t exercise their civic duty by getting into a voting booth is something that pisses me off.
It pisses me off so much that I’m going to call them what they are: FREE-LOADERS. They live in this country, enjoy our freedoms, our clean air and water, and take advantage of the commons we all contribute to via our time, effort, and tax dollars, but they just don’t care enough to bother finding out about the people they’re voting for, or about how it all happens until they wake up and realize something has, or is about to, affect them and families in some manner. This is how teabaggers are born.
If this underhanded dirty dealing by the Republican ticket doesn’t jolt some of these unlikely voters into likely ones, I don’t know what will.
I think Ann Coulter is one of the most vile people on the planet. She exists only to magnify the hate and discontent of hateful malcontents. Every time she speaks, she hurts this country with her poisonous words that drip acid onto the fabric of our nation. Naturally, she finds a platform from which to spew her bile on Fox “News,” where they treat her like a well-respected conservative, rather than a batshit insane harpy.
Henry Rollins takes her down a notch or two, and I really like that in a man.
Dear Ann:
You used to be fun; at least funny. At least gently and amusingly insane, but girlfriend, you’ve changed! The thousand-yard stare you’ve acquired in the last couple of years says lonely nights, too much wine and insecurity about the future of your career. Where to now, my sweet fascist? Another one of your silly books? More hilarious appearances on Hannity & Colmes? Bill Maher has to be tired of you by now.
You’re anything but stupid and by now , you must see the writing on the wall. You’ll never have a real place with the Beltway in crowd, as they see you as a northeastern, hickoid, pro wrestler, Nascar type with a degree from Cornell. I mean, really, Ann; where can it go from here? Ann, I think I have the answer, in fact, I know I do.
I want to hire you, Ann. I want you to come and work for me. I want you to be my “Ann Friday,” my housekeeper, beekeeper, floor, chimney and minesweeper, my window-washing, grocery-buying, dinner-cooking, obsequious, submissive concubine-domestic.
Go here to read the rest of Rollins’ Dear Ann letter.
When I read this letter, I laughed and laughed. Yeah, it’s filthy, sexist, and rude, but surely Ann can take a fraction of her own medicine, eh?
One of the biggest problems this country has is the American Taliban, and Kirk Cameron aka bad actor turned the only thing anyone would buy, is one of their most stupid leaders. This is the guy who thinks the banana — one of the most tampered with, most engineered fruits on the friggin’ planet — is proof that “god” exists.
I hope Randy and Kirk will be very happy together. We all know Randy’s mother approves, and frankly, who cares what Kirk’s mom thinks? She raised a hateful assholierthanthou bigot.
Scraped into the Earth by the massive power of gigantic glaciers and the insidious power of erosion, Lake McDonald is the largest lake in Glacier National Park. It’s ten miles long, and its surface covers over 6000 acres.
This is one of the last pictures I took in the park, having walked down a small embankment to the water’s edge. The shadows cast due to the lowering Sun made me understand the meaning of “purple mountains majesty.” The quiet was interrupted only by the occasional car on the Going to the Sun Road, and the chatter of a raven in the tree tops, which seemed to be my constant companion on this trip. The water was cold, clear, and almost still. Beneath my feet was not the sand I expected, but small pebbles of grey, blue, pink, cream, and white, that were flat with rounded edges.
Imagine the constant, unrelenting force that turned mountains into pebbles.
Last picture of the trip. Time to hit the road, Honeybump.
This is our daily open thread — What’s up in your world?
My fellow travelers swore they could see the Mountain Goats on the rocks with the naked eye. Yeah…right.
They are cute, aren’t they!? This little guy and a friend were in the road, right in front of me, so I stopped to let them get over to the delicious grasses. Thanks for coming close enough for me to see you, Mountain Goats!!
This is our daily open thread — Talk amongst yourselves.
I imagine The Newsroom could be (will be) one of those annoyingly self-righteous, self-satisfied shows, somewhat like the last few years of M*A*S*H*, but I think the point being made in the above video is valid and worth a bit of discussion.
As awful as things were for some people in this country when I was a kid — specifically, minorities and women — and still are awful in many ways, I think that, in some ways, we were better people back then.
We could work together as Americans back then, whether it was the Mom network on the block, or Democrats and Republicans voting together to pass things like the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Can you even begin to imagine those pieces of legislation being passed today? Can you imagine any mother dragging home someone else’s kid, exclaiming to his mother, “You would not believe what I caught him doing!,” and not being sued into oblivion?
Right or wrong has little or nothing to do with what happens in Congress these days; it’s all down to the bottom line — the almighty dollar. Even the Mom network has been destroyed by various levels of indifference, in addition to the almighty dollar. We have become truly shitty people.
Our physical and moral infrastructures quite literally are crumbling before our eyes, but some of the 98% are worried sick about the “gays” getting married or the widdle unwanted babies being aborted, before they can get an opportunity to keep the little tykes out of daycare or off food stamps; some of us are worried about who got eliminated from Survivor or Dancing With the Stars — completely unfairly! — and the rest of us either literally do not give a shit (it doesn’t affect me or my family), or are pretty much at the point where we don’t know what the fuck to do.
For a while there, we flirted with “peace, love, and caring for one another,” but that stuff is really hard. It takes time and money, and what the hell, it’s easier to feel hate and resentment anyway.
We’re a country chock full o’ “self made men,” who never wanted, needed, or asked for help from anyone — self-sufficient from the time they left the womb! They made money all by themselves, and they damn well are going to keep it — Jesus said they could. Somewhere or other. They are easy fodder for the Ayn Rand philosophy of “I got mine, so fuck you, assholes.”
We’re a nation of stupid, ideologically-driven fucks, who haven’t the common sense or good grace to realize that we’re viewed as a nation of morons and clowns. But hey, at least we’re number one at it, right?
I want that old American attitude back. I want us to know our neighbors’ names; I want some variation of the Mom network back — they were some crazy mean bitches sometimes, but we felt safe, didn’t we?; I want us to be able to send our kids to school, knowing that they’re going to learn how to think, not just take CYA tests, and will learn things that are based in history and fact; and I want us to care about and for each other again.
Sure, there have always been bad apples, and there always will be, but the bad apples have risen to the top, and they have way too much power over the rest of us. In this country, money has become the symbol of goodness, authority, and intelligence — even if it’s completely wrong — and they’ve managed to drain off almost all of the money in the last 30+ years, so we tend to feel powerless.
When you feel powerless, it’s easy to hate. It’s easy to become an army of unredeemed Renfields for the 2% — I’m looking at you, teabaggers. It’s easy to see what’s on the teevee tonight. It’s really really hard to love; it’s hard to understand and care for each other, but that’s exactly what we need right now — peace, love, and caring for one another.
I have no idea of how to get to that point, really I don’t, but I do know this: We cannot fix the ills of this country individually; we cannot be “self made martyrs” to the cause — it doesn’t work!!
We have to do this together. It’s essential that we do so, for the good of this country and all her people — whether they like it or not. If we can’t find a way to work together, we will have to go around the Renfields and the nay-sayers, and over the top of the 2% — there are more of us than there are of them. We can do this thing! Even though we have stumbled badly, and we’ve broken nearly every bone we have, this country absolutely can rise to the top again, I believe that.
We can do it. But will we do it? What are we made of these days? What’s on teevee…?
This video is from earlier this year, when Allen West made his stunningly idiotic remark, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.”
Aside from the hair-raising bad grammar, having publicly made such a statement is rather incredible — and just goes to show how out of hand our public discourse has become. The new normal? West’s remarks were generally reported in the media as just another crazy remark made by a crazy guy — if they were reported at all, outside the liberal blogosphere.
While Allen West’s grotesque remarks reminded Bill Moyers of the horrible Joe McCarthy, when his ghost “slithered into the room,” this video made me think of the more recent, and equally contemptible, behavior of Darrell Issa and his completely bogus witch hunt against Attorney General Eric Holder.
Who is today’s Joseph N. Welch? Is there anyone on Capital Hill with the courage and integrity to say words to the effect of…
You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?
I know we’ve been screaming it all along, but we’re just bloggers, you know. The media doesn’t like to admit or acknowledge that bloggers now do their jobs, while they rake in the big bucks to say, “We’ll just have to leave it there.”
Bill Moyers ends his comments with this:
So beware, Congressman West, beware: In the flammable pool of toxic paranoia that passes these days as patriotism in America, a single careless match can light an inferno. You would serve your country well to withdraw your remarks and apologize for them. But if not, perhaps there are members of your own party, as possessed of conscience and as courageous as that handful of Republicans who took on Joseph McCarthy, who will now abandon fear and throw cold water on your incendiary remarks.
No, I don’t think there are any members of the Republican party who will stop the likes of Allen West, Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, etc. As terrible as those times were in the McCarthy era, I believe they are worse now. The Republicans have shown time after time that they are perfectly happy with the birtherism, tentherism, and racism of its more vocal extremists. They will not shut the extremists down, nor will they ever disavow them in any convincing manner. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell can barely conceal their glee and their “wink and a nod” toward the teabagger crowd.
After watching this film, I better understood what happened to cause our economy — and economies all over the world — to collapse.
We know what happened. We know how it happened. We know why it happened. No consequences have been issued, except for the fallout that rained down on regular people like you and me. All of the banksters involved are still in place, in one form or another, and they still have enormous power over us and our economy.
