Is "Tamil Eelam" a Christian agenda?

B R Haran29 Apr 2009 The White Christian Church has the unique characteristic of gaining entry into non-White, non-Semitic civilizations, by slow infiltration of important establishments to influence them and create unrest by dividing the local populace along communal or linguistic lines, with the sole objective of Christianising those countries.Several instances in history confirm this. The Church has been partially successful in India, as evidenced by the Christianisation of north-eastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc., and a few pockets in other States. While interior states have been able to withstand the Christian onslaught, the southern coastal states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been vulnerable to the evil designs of the Church. This was made possible only because of the help provided by self-serving political leaders in the guise of secularism. Influencing politics in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka The Dravidian Movement of Tamil Nadu comprised only such leaders, who even went to the extent of requesting the British to continue their hegemony over Tamil Nadu. Since then, the unholy ‘Christian-Dravidian’ nexus has worked consistently for the cause of ‘Tamil Nation,’ extending it to the north-east of Sri Lanka as well.Just as it divided the Tamil people through the bogus ‘Aryan (Brahmin) – Dravidian (Non-Brahmin) Theory,’ to alienate non-Brahmins from the ‘Hindu’ fold along linguistic lines (Aryan Sanskrit – Dravidian Tamil), the Church similarly divided the Sri Lankan people along linguistic (Sinhala-Tamil) lines. On the one hand, it backed the LTTE fully against the government, and on the other, it successfully infiltrated the Sri Lankan establishment and influenced the government through Sinhala Christian leadership. When Sri Lankan Prime Minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike introduced the “Sinhala only Act” in 1956, the Island’s first anti-Tamil riots took place. Prior to Solomon Bandaranaike, the Sri Lankan government was headed by leaders like Don Stephen Senanayake and John Kotelawala, and his successors were Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake, Junius Richard Jayewardene, Premadasa, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge (married a Christian), Percy Mahinda Rajapakse, who were all either Christians, or Buddhist converts, or married to Christian spouses. The first Sri Lankan Tamil leader who started the demand for separatism was a Christian - Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam; he also called for a “Greater Dravida Nadu” on both sides of the Palk Straits.It can be said that LTTE just followed his footsteps, backed by the Church and missionaries. Ever since ethnic riots took place in 1983, Anton Balasingham, a Roman Catholic, assumed the mantle of LTTE’s political leadership and was second only to Prabhakaran, also a Christian.Ironically, the 85% Hindu majority of Sri Lankan Tamils came totally under the control of a Christian minority leadership, thanks to the Machiavellian machinations of the Church and missionaries. It is difficult to swallow this bitter truth, especially when recalling the glorious past of Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus under the leadership of great Shaivite scholars like Arumuga Navalar, great men like Ponnambalam Ramanathan and Ponnambalam Arunachalam, and intellectuals like the Coomaraswamys. All were widely respected by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Ponnambalam Ramanathan was the one who pushed for “Wesak” or “Buddha Purnima” to be a public holiday in colonial Sri Lanka. As for Tamil Nadu, though the Church suffered a slight setback when M.G. Ramachandran left DMK and founded the AIADMK, deviating from “Atheism” to “Theism” (moving closer to Hindu religion), and his successor Jayalalithaa followed his footsteps (at least for a while), it seemed to have cleverly moved its coins to influence AIADMK too. Now we have a host of Dravidian parties changing alliances at the drop of a hat and even at each others’ throats, but remaining perennially close to the Church.So, whichever party is in power, the Church is able to have its say and continue with its agenda of de-Hinduising the state. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, the Church has been able to influence the leadership of both LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, while causing the death of thousands of Hindus and Buddhists in the decades-long conflict. The Church has also been indulging in blatant conversion activities in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Influencing Jayalalithaa for the greatest assault on Hinduism At one point, the Church found it difficult in Tamil Nadu, due to the enormous influence of Melmaravathur Adiparasakthi Movement and Sabarimala Pilgrimage on Scheduled Caste Hindus, and the various activities undertaken by Kanchi Mutt to reach out to them, besides the enactment of the anti-conversion law by the Jayalalithaa regime.But the Church finally succeeded in influencing Jayalalithaa after her party’s rout in the 2004 parliament elections, resulting in two telling actions. First, she repealed the anti-conversion law, enacted by her own government, to appease the Christian community; secondly, she went to the extent of denigrating and destroying the sanctity of a 2500-year-old institution established by Adi Sankara and flawlessly maintained by his order of disciples as ‘Jagath Gurus’ for millions of Hindus.Not surprisingly, in October 2004, she received the ‘Golden Star for Dignity and Honour’ (Thanga Tharakai) award from a Ukraine-based Christian organisation named International Human Rights Defence Committee, controlled by America and funded by ‘US Agency for International Development’ (USAID).The Indian representative for IHRDC was Mallavarappu Prakash, Bishop of Vijayawada and later Chairman of Tamil Nadu Minorities Welfare Commission! In February 2005, the ‘India International Society’, USA, proposed a tribute for her together with 'Barath Jyothi' award, after which evangelist K.A. Paul came to Tamil Nadu in a private jet to give thousands of crores of rupees for Tsunami relief. Jaya pursuing Christian agenda Since then, Jayalalithaa has clearly sided with the Christian clergy. Last year, while terming the spontaneous ‘retaliatory’ attacks on Christians in Kandhamal, Orissa, as a “disgrace” to the nation, she conveniently ignored the dastardly murder of Swami Laxmanananda and his disciples, and the distribution of blasphemous literature and pamphlets denigrating Hindu Gods and Goddesses, by his opponents. When the Rama Sethu Protection Movement was at its peak, she spoke against the Sethusamudram Project, not with true faith in Sri Rama, but with an eye on the votebank. And while protesting against the Sethu Project, she exhibited her 'secular' credentials by pointing out that ‘Adams Bridge’ (Ramar Sethu) was significant to Muslims and Christians as well, a myth which no Christian or Muslim scholar has so far endorsed!Even the present election manifesto of her party makes only a passing mention of Rama Sethu! Yet it gives exclusive commitments for Christians, such as Reservation for Dalit Christians (unconstitutional), subsidy for Jerusalem pilgrimage, ‘All Souls Day’ to be made a holiday, hostels with all facilities at nominal charges in towns of minority religious significance, and addressing the ‘security’ concerns of minorities. But she gave no commitments regarding repeal of the DMK government’s ordinance on Tamil New Year or returning the Chidambaram Temple administration to the Dikshidars, or any issue concerning Hindus. As if to confirm allegiance to the Christian agenda, she deviated from her original stand on the Sri Lankan ethnic issue and sat on a day-long fast on 9 March 2009, condemning the Indian government’s alleged inaction on the issue and addressed the LTTE as “fighters” instead of her usual remark of “terrorists”. Now she has openly supported the Christian agenda of creation of a separate Tamil Eelam, which amounts to supporting the LTTE and nothing else. After all, the Church-backed LTTE leadership is also fighting for the same cause! Sabotaging the legislation on conversion in Sri Lanka In 2003, Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hindu leaders joined hands to draft a legislation, at the request of Hindu Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran, to legally stop conversion activities by the Church. Despite the pressure applied by this joint committee which worked for six months to draft the new act for parliament, the Church-influenced Sri Lankan government has been reluctant to enact the law.As the Church foresaw that Buddhist-Hindu unity - unity between majority (Buddhists) and the largest minority (Tamil Hindus) - could lead to permanent peace in the war-struck Island, it sabotaged the process of legislation by favouring the creation of an inter-religious council to hammer out a solution. This so-called inter-religious council is a typical Christian strategy (much like the Church-backed inter-faith dialogues in non-Christian countries) to thwart all attempts to ban conversions by an act of parliament; the same has been adopted by the Vatican to stop such legislations in India as well. Though organizations such as ‘All Ceylon Hindu Congress’ (though pro-LTTE), ‘Hindu Council of Sri Lanka’ and ‘National Council of Buddhist Clergy’ are dead against conversion activities, the Church has been able to influence the political leadership across the spectrum to sabotage the legislation of the anti-conversion law (http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20884 ). In this context, it must be noted that the former Hindu Affairs Minister in Ranil Wickramasinge’s cabinet T. Maheswaran escaped an assassination attempt in 2004, but was finally assassinated on 1 January 2008 while worshipping in a Shiva Temple. Till date, the government has not completed investigations in to the murder, though it has been blamed for allegedly reducing his security level and for continuing minister Douglas Devananda, widely alleged to be involved in the assassination. The government put the blame squarely on LTTE and Douglas Devananda also denied the allegation of involvement. The BBC Sinhala.com reported, “The DNA samples taken from the murder suspect of a Tamil legislator matched with the blood samples taken from the gun used for the killing, Sri Lankan judiciary said. The legislator’s security guard managed to shoot the suspect, identified as Johnson Collin Wasanthan Valentine(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Maheswaran andhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/02/080201_maheswaran_dna.shtml ). Importance of Hindu-Buddhist relationship As early as June 1998, ‘Tamilnet’ reported that an International conference on Hinduism condemned attacks on Hindus and the destruction of Hindu places of worship by Sri Lankan security forces, and urged Colombo to halt such attacks. The report said that, the ‘First International Conference on Hindu Solidarity’ was held in Paris on 27-28 June at the UNESCO auditorium and attended by delegates from several countries, including functionaries from BJP and VHP (http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=1691).Though this seems like a conflict between Buddhist and Hindu communities, it must be understood that the security forces are controlled by a political leadership owing allegiance to the Church. The centuries-old cultural relationship and largely peaceful existence of both the Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus can be ascertained from two facts.First, their coming together to draft a legislation against conversion activities of the Church and missionaries, and second, the statement from the Hindu Council of Sri Lanka that the long-standing cordial relationship between the two religious communities in the Island Nation would go a long way in solving the present crisis and creating peace and harmony.It is pertinent to note that Buddhists worship Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hindus worship Buddha as an Avatar of Maha Vishnu, and both communities follow the same calendar and celebrate the same day as New Year. While condemning the politicisation of the ethnic conflict by self-serving politicians of Tamil Nadu, the Hindu Council felt that areas of common interests must be identified and along with religious commonality and cordiality, local capacities built for peace. It opined that furthering political interests and fanning Tamil chauvinism must be discouraged as it would complicate the situation and inhibit the capacity of the Indian government to help find a lasting solution by bringing both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamils to the negotiating table. BJP-led NDA government’s proactive role in the peace process Journalist M.R. Narayan Swamy (IANS) reported that the Vajpayee government played a secret but vital proactive role in the peace process between Sri Lanka and LTTE, brokered by Norway: “Overseen by New Delhi, a truce document began to be drafted. Norway was deeply involved in the exercise, roping in some of its veteran diplomats. Eventually, this translated into CFA. India also told Norwegian diplomats to let the LTTE know about the Indian involvement in the entire effort. On Feb 21, 2002, LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran signed the CFA. Wickramasinghe put his signature a day later.”By sheer coincidence, both Ranil Wickramasinghe and A.B. Vajpayee lost power almost at the same time (April-May 2004) and J.N. Dixit, appointed NSA by Sonia-led UPA regime, passed away within a few months of his appointment, with all the details about India’s role in bringing the CFA, which he learnt from Ranil Wickramasinghe, when the later visited India after demitting office. It is natural for a Hindu nationalist party to be deeply concerned about the well-being of a country who’s Buddhist and Hindu people are both tied to Hindu India by an umbilical cord; hence it is no surprise that it tried to bring peace in the interests of both countries. Why did the CFA fail and whether the Sonia-led government pursued the policy of the Vajpayee government with regard to Sri Lanka remain unknown?(http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=24710 ). The present scenario At present, all Dravidian parties are wreaking havoc in the run-up to the general elections, using the inflammatory Eelam issue as an election talking point. Each party is trying to whip up emotions in Tamil Nadu to bring about a ceasefire in Lanka and thereby save Prabhakaran and the LTTE.When the Father Jagat Gasper Raj-Kanimozhi combine floated the “Chennai Sangamam” cultural extravaganza in 2007, Jaya TV went to town with investigative reports on the LTTE connections of Gasper Raj; Jayalalithaa wasted no time condemning the government’s association with the project. But last year, both Jayalalithaa and her TV channel kept a conspicuous silence during the Chennai Sangamam festival.During the last week alone, Father Gasper Raj has been promoted by mainstream electronic media as a representative of Sri Lankan Tamils! Participating in debates on electronic news channels, he blatantly supports LTTE in the guise of voicing human rights concerns, criticizes the Indian government, and in one debate on Times Now Channel had the audacity to call Dr. Subramanian Swamy a “paid agent of Rajapakse”! Yet it is unclear if he is a Sri Lankan refugee or an Indian citizen. His antecedents and present activities in India/Tamil Nadu need thorough investigation. AIADMK leader Jayalaithaa, who condemned Karunanidhi for saying Prabhakaran was not a terrorist, has not reacted to her ally PMK leader Ramadoss’ identical statement! Why does Jayalalithaa, who questioned Sonia’s silence on Karuna’s statement, remain silent on Ramadoss’ statement? And what has the Italian-Christian-led UPA done for Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus in the last five years? Why didn’t the Sonia-led regime follow the NDA policy with regard to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue? Why was her government silent when the Geneva round of talks failed despite the presence of a live CFA? Sad irony, and civilisational opportunity Actually, the West and the Church want to Christianise Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and form a larger Tamil Christian State. Hence a Sinhala-Tamil divide has been created with the help of the Tamil-Christian leadership of the LTTE and the Sinhala-Christian leadership of Sri Lanka.Caught in between are the Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil Hindu civil populace. To keep the issue alive without any solution, the Christian leadership of India and the Dravidian, irreligious leadership of Tamil Nadu have been used, just as this diabolic group is using Dravidian politicians and Christian NGOs who have been harvesting souls in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. It is a sad irony that the interests of hapless Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka, who have been persecuted for long by both the Christian leadership of LTTE and the Christian leadership of Sri Lankan government, have been represented by the unholy Christian-Dravidian nexus in Tamil Nadu. As things stand in Sri Lanka, it looks as though the West might be able to save the LTTE leadership. It will try to send missionaries and NGOs to help the rehabilitation process, so it can clandestinely achieve its evangelical agenda also.It is said that President Rajapakse instructed setting up of a chapel in the ‘welfare villages’ to look into the spiritual needs of the internally displaced persons and refugees, who number up to 200,000. Sensing the danger of evangelization, the Hindu Council, the Hindu Women’s Society (Saiva Mangaiyar Kazhagam), the Sai Samithi, along with other organizations, swung into action to provide medicines, clothes, soaps, detergents and sanitary napkins and other articles of basic necessity, to augment the shelter, food and water provided by the government. The Hindu Council has also organized singing of Tamil devotional hymns (Thevaram and Thiruvasagam); the Sai Samithi has organized bhajans. These organizations are likely to take care of orphaned children by sending them to orphanages run by the Sri Ramakrishna Mission.The present situation must be seen as an opportunity to revive Hindu-Buddhist unity and Hindu religious heads from India, especially from Tamil Nadu, would do well to establish contact and communication channels with Buddhist leaders of Sri Lanka. This will go a long way in bringing peace and harmony to the Island Nation. For this to happen, we need a strong “Hindu” political leadership in India. Let us hope it gets ‘elected’ now.The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai

wales, finally!

save the planet go vegan" carved into a gate somewhere in PembrokeshireI'm finally getting around to blogging about our journey to Wales! I'd never been there before, but always knew that I wanted to, in addition to the country's beauty and all the good things I've heard about it, it also happens to be the place where my parents went on their honeymoon. As you can see from the above photo, Wales is an incredibly veg-friendly country, as we found out in towns, in peoples' homes, and in restaurants and pubs. Would you expect any less from a country whose official vegetable is the leek?Our first night, we stayed in Cardiff. The couple we were staying with took us to dinner at Pearl of the Orient, a Chinese restaurant in Cardiff Bay with plenty of veg options. Seriously- it took up over a page on their menu! I finally decided to go with spicy Szeschuan tofu- blocks of luxuriously silky marinated tofu in a spicy chili mixture of veggies. It had such a fresh and unique flavor. Daiku, who ordered a meat dish and also tried all of our companions' omni dishes, declared that my tofu was the star of the evening! We also shared an order of veggie fried rice (hold the egg) which complemented the tofu nicely. This restaurant seriously knows how to season its dishes- I'm still craving that tofu now, a week later!The next day we traveled farther west, eventually ending up in Pembrokeshire, in the town of Newport. The family we were staying with were very vegan-friendly! The mom was vegan, and the dad cooked us a very delicious vegan version of a traditional Welsh meal. There was a hearty cawl, normally a lamb stew made with tvp chunks, and some mashed potatoes (made with soy milk instead of dairy) to go with it. After a long day of driving and exploring in cold rain, this meal was so welcome!After dinner, it was time for pudding. We got a delicious warm fruit crumble, complete with homemade vegan custard for the topping! The fruit crumble was good, and the fruit mixture included bananas- I'd never thought to put bananas in such a dish before, but now it makes perfect sense. I'll be sure to repeat that tasty experiment in the future. Amid all the cold and sleet, lo and behold, more blackberries! I feel so spoiled that even now in October, the plentiful blackberry bushes all around the U.K. still have sweet fruit to pick as you're walking along!The best thing about a cold and rainy hike? The hot cup of coffee......or tea (with some soy milk that I snuck into the tea house!) to warm back up.Look what we came across in the woods- a dragon in a tree!I have to highlight all the non-food coolness in Wales- such as these ruins of a medieval castle that we got to walk around.This megalith (a giant stone structure like Stonehenge) served as a burial ground thousands years ago.Here's a moody coast in the fog.And my favorite- animals everywhere, and I mean EVERYwhere. You can't drive for more than a few minutes in the Welsh countryside without seeing some cows.Enough that they warrant their own road signs!And sheep! There are happily grazing sheep dotting the landscape everywhere you go.Finally, weekend car rental, £45. Getting to say you drove on the "wrong" side of the car and the road? Priceless.For more of our Wales photos, have a look at my set on flickr.

Counterfeiting 24/365

The Meaning of Quantitative Easing by Michael S. Rozeff I begin by describing quantitative easing in technical terms. I go on to describe what it means when a central bank and its government engage in quantitative easing. What is quantitative easing? It is a central bank’s purchase of government securities (bills, notes, bonds) directly from the government. The term purchase does not capture the essence of the actual transaction. The government issues a Treasury bill, say. This is a liability of the government. The central bank takes this bill and holds it as its asset. It provides the government with its own official and legal State money or notes (or a checking account for such). The central bank accounts for this note issue as its liability. It is an IOU transferred to the government (or State). In the usual setup, these notes cannot be redeemed for anything. That is, if the government brought these notes to the central bank, it would get nothing in return for them. Hence, the money issue is not really a liability of the central bank. The government accounts for the receipt of these central bank notes as an asset. The net result of the transaction is that the government succeeds in transforming a liability (its issue of Treasury bills) into a new asset (its holding of central bank notes). If a person issues a debt and receives an asset from someone else in return, there is no new asset involved. If a baker issues an IOU and gets an oven in return, the oven is not an increment to the stock of ovens in the world. But when the government issues its IOU (the Treasury bill), it gets an entirely new asset, the central bank money. In the U.S., the government pays interest to the FED that holds the bill, but the FED returns this interest to the Treasury. Hence, the Treasury bill held by the FED is really no liability to the government. The net result of the transaction is that the government has a new asset that it can spend, namely, the FED’s Federal Reserve notes. There will be further effects on the banking system and the economy when the government circulates the notes. These occur through the fractional-reserve banking system, but it is not my aim here to discuss these as plenty of other sources have done this already. The main technical point is that the government has a new asset that is made an asset by coercion, since the money has, by the power of law, been made legal tender. If we had t-accounts for the government and FED and the government issued $1,000 in t-bills, we’d see the following: The government debits its asset: $1,000, Federal Reserve notes. The government credits its liability: $1,000, Treasury bill outstanding. The central bank debits its asset: $1,000, Treasury bill. The central bank credits its liability: $1,000, Federal Reserve notes. When we consolidate the accounts, we end up with the Treasury bill disappearing. The combined entity has Federal Reserve notes (money) as an asset and as a liability. Since it is a phantom liability that can be exchanged for nothing, the government has a new asset with no real liability connected to it. This completes the technical description of quantitative easing. The term quantitative easing has propaganda value. The implied proposition is that something is being eased that is currently tight or restricted. This makes it sound as if something positive and good is being accomplished. What is actually going on, however, is a form of seizure or taxation. It is also called inflation, when the focus is on the additional means of spending that has been created. The Congress lifts the debt limit of the government. Suppose the government then gets money via quantitative easing. All currency in the U.S. and other states is typically forced currency that is made to pass as means of payment by law. Since this currency is imposed by force on the society, the government spending that uses these notes is tantamount to using force to extract goods and services from society. Hence, quantitative easing is seizure and taxation. It is not direct seizure from citizens using soldiers and weapons, nor is it direct taxation by means of tax rates and payments made by citizens. Instead the government takes what it wants by spending its new asset – the newly-manufactured money. This reduces what is available for everyone else to spend on. The reduction in available goods in the private sector is the tax. One result is that society finds that the prices it pays for everything else rise (albeit unevenly). The government’s absorption of goods and services measures the seizure. Whoever participates in the consumption or receipt of those goods and services is the beneficiary of the seizure. If the government gives money to some farmers, they benefit. If it gives the money to Blackwater, it benefits. If it pays off Afghan warlords or Sunni soldiers, they benefit. The government rationales for its seizure and taxation by quantitative easing are all false. They vary according to the situation and what appeal sounds most appealing to a population that does not understand what is actually going on. There are usually some simple slogans that have a marked appeal, because of their simplicity and superficiality. Disposing of them takes more argument than the public is ordinarily used to or wants to hear. For example, the rationale may be that government spending is needed to get the economy moving. This is a total deception, since all that is happening is that goods and services are being shifted from one set of hands to another. When there is excess capacity, such as in the automobile industry at present, the government can buy new autos and stimulate auto demand for a time. But since the private society has already shown that it does not want these autos, a collective purchase by the government adds less to social welfare than it subtracts by the seizure of the goods and services that is necessary to build the autos. Discussing all this in depth is also beyond my limited purpose here. The main point to be made is that when a government resorts to quantitative easing, it shows that it has run out of other means to finance its endeavors. It has reached the end of the line. A government finances itself by taxes. Borrowing is a hidden form of taxation; it defers the taxes to the future. Taxes are more or less visible to the population. They are voted on by Congress or a similar body. They are coercive, but they have at least the partially redeeming feature of being somewhat in the open and somewhat controllable by the citizens who vote for their representatives. Inflationary seizure or coercion via quantitative easing means that the government wants to spend more than it can raise by taxation and borrowing. Its ambition exceeds its grasp. Ordinary coercive means of finance no longer suffice. The government resorts to the printing press. Quantitative easing is a resort to the money printing press. It means seizure and coercion of goods and services from the inhabitants of a country. But it also means either a government that is spending beyond its means, or one whose economy is not strong enough to generate financing by the usual means, or both. Suppose that a company could no longer issue debt to finance its purchases of assets. The capital market (investors) would be vetoing any further corporate expansion. This happens when a company is badly run or has problems that must be addressed or has run out of good investment projects. The governments that resort to quantitative easing are analogous to such companies, except that they can force the society to finance their spending. The term quantitative easing is a relatively new term. It is one of those modern euphemisms that disguises the use of brute force. Even the term inflation, which is what quantitative easing is, fails to capture the human impact of such government acts that invade life, liberty, and property. All such money manipulations, which, of course, are accepted widely by economists as the norm, are the antithesis of a free market. The results cannot be good if society sets up a body with power to inject purchasing power if, when, and as it pleases and to whom it pleases. This is too much power without control over the consequences. This power simply augments government, giving it an uncontrollable option to seize the society’s goods and services. This cannot be a good idea. The supposed benefits of central banking are all illusory and impossible. Standing beside those imagined good effects are the inevitable bad consequences for many, many people, such as the now millions of unemployed whose trades and occupations are now found to be not in demand and who will now be years making the adjustments to find new work and incomes. May 11, 2009 LewRockwell.com

Productivity Killed by its Own Worshippers

The perversion of productivity, intuition, and 27 thoughts on blogging for the artist, don't miss this one. None of this is brain-surgery. In fact, nothing is brain-surgery except -- brain-surgery. Are you lifehacking too much? Productivity is dead! Long live living! The other side of productivity: Coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity. Intuition. The problem with infinitely optimized and worshipped productivity is that it's all too easy to cover up coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity out of fear of becoming less than serious. In the same spirit of bringing things back in perspective, consider these 27 thoughts on blogging for the artist -- If you're the real thing, you'll be around in 30 years, still working. Most of these services and sites you now admire will not. You do not need a signed letter from The American Academy of Arts and Letters to begin. Blogging is easy. Art is not. Exactly. Each and every one of them. Read them all. Now, go out and please don't let things happen to you but instead, make sure that you happen to things. Related Items Integrate Life, The Renaissance Way Free ebook Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty.

Olden train

Experts Warn Against Long-Term Use of Common Pain Pills

From NYTimes.com: Aspirin and ibuprofen are staples in just about every medicine chest and first aid kit. They’re sold over the counter, and they’re not expensive. Most people don’t think twice about taking them. But they should — especially if they’re elderly. Last week, an expert panel of American Geriatrics Society pretty much bumped all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, off the list of medicines recommended for adults ages 75 and older with chronic, persistent pain. Long-term use of drugs like ibuprofen, naproxen and high-dose aspirin is so dangerous, the panelists said, that elderly people who can’t get relief from alternatives like acetaminophen may be better off taking opiates, like codeine or even morphine. All this despite the fact that NSAIDs are known to be effective for chronic pain conditions that often plague older adults — and despite the fact that opiates can be addictive. “We’ve come out a little strong at this point in time about the risks of NSAIDs in older people,” said Dr. Bruce Ferrell, chair of the panel that made the recommendations and a professor of geriatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We hate to throw the baby out with the bathwater — they do work for some people — but it is fairly high risk when these drugs are given in moderate to high doses, especially if given over time.” “It looks like patients would be safer on these opioids than on high doses of NSAIDs for long periods of time,” he said, adding that for most elderly, the risk of addiction appears to be low. “You don’t see people in this age group stealing a car to get their next dose.” The risks from chronic use of NSAIDs are myriad. They can cause life-threatening ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding, a side effect that occurs more frequently and with greater severity as people age. Some NSAIDs may increase the risk for heart attacks or strokes, and they don’t interact well with drugs used to treat heart failure. They can make high blood pressure worse, even uncontrollable, and impair kidney function. And the list of potentially hazardous interactions with other drugs is a long one, experts say. “Physiological changes in the elderly affect the way drugs are absorbed and secreted and how the body responds to them,” said Dr. Keela Herr, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing in Iowa City who researches pain management in the elderly and was involved in drafting the new guidelines. “Younger people can use this class of medicine with limited risks. In older persons, it’s a different story. Physical changes make them more sensitive.” The geriatrics society’s new guidelines say NSAIDs should be considered “rarely” in the population of frail elderly people, and used “with extreme caution” and then only in “highly selected individuals.” For those patients with moderate to severe pain that diminishes the quality of life, opiates may be considered, the guidelines suggest, after both the patient and caregiver are screened for prior substance abuse. It is the third revision of the guidelines, originally created in 1998 and updated in 2002. In this latest version, acetaminophen remains the top choice for chronic pain. But acetaminophen is a fairly weak analgesic, experts say. “Opioids are, everyone agrees, probably the strongest pain medication you have,” said Dr. Roger Chou, a pain expert who was not involved in writing the new guidelines and believes decisions about opioid therapy must be made on a case-by-case basis. “The down side is the potential for abuse, and we’re seeing huge increases nationwide of reports about the misuse and diversion of prescription drugs and related deaths. . . .The concerns about opioids are very real.” He argued that opioids must be prescribed very carefully, no matter what the age of the patient. Patients with chronic persistent pain will be on the drugs for a long time, because the pain usually does not go away, and they will also be at risk of developing other problems related to the medication, such as constipation, nausea and fatigue. The guidelines are not meant to discourage the treatment of pain. On the contrary, chronic pain is rampant among the elderly, affecting an estimated 25 to 50 percent of elderly people living in the community and up to 85 percent of nursing home residents. Often caused by degenerative spine conditions, arthritis and cancer or cancer treatment, chronic pain takes a powerful toll on quality of life. Untreated, chronic pain can disrupt sleep and affect mood, restrict mobility and lead to depression, anxiety and isolation, experts say. It can also contribute to falls, which lead to further complications and often death. Although non-drug treatments like physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and other educational interventions are often helpful, adding drugs to the mix usually enhances treatment, experts say. “There really continues to be a significant amount of unrecognized and untreated pain in older people, and it’s a huge problem,” Dr. Herr said. “A lot of people think that just because they’re getting older they’re going to have pain and just have to learn to live with it. That’s not the case.” Pain cannot always be entirely eliminated, she added. “You can get to the point where it’s in the mild category — where it’s annoying but not causing such impairment that you can’t function and interact and do the things that are important.”

The Clarence Thomas - Leah Ward Sears Friendship

I have previously noted that Leah Ward Sears is a serious contender for Justice Souter's Supreme Court seat. According to the Washington Post, Justice Sears may need to worry that her friendship with Justice Thomas could undermine her bid to join the Supreme Court. According to the story, Thomas reached out to Sears during the early 1990's when she was facing political attacks in Georgia. Sears, who terms herself a moderate with a progressive streak, was apparently touched buy Thomas' interest - and became friends with Thomas. According to the WaPo: It affected her that he would take the time to comfort her in that situation," said Bernard Taylor, an Atlanta lawyer and longtime friend of Sears, now chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and a potential nominee to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. "They're still friends." I wonder how the two might interact on the Court. We know that they have very different views on some hot-button topics. I assume that liberals worry that Thomas could sway Sears, moving his junior colleague to the right. But it seems equally conceivable that the opposite could happen - Thomas might open his mind to certain perspectives when argued by a person who he respects. And the highest odds of all are that the two of them will retain their personal views, and maintain a friendship. Scalia and Ginsburg don't seem to have had a problem with this.

satisfying veggie eats in Stockholm

as you walk through Stockholm, there are a lot of food stands, many selling grilled items like hot dogs, burgers, and falafel. many also have veggie dogs and veggie burgers- woo! just make sure to ask them to leave the creamy sauce off the veggie burger, and the yogurt sauce off the felafel, and you have a quick and tasty vegan snack as you're walking around.my uncle had scouted this wonderful veggie restaurant for us, the Légumes Vegetariskt Matcafé on Hornsgatan, in his neighborhood of Södermalm. This casual restaurant allows you to pick from among a lot of options, to assemble a plate to your taste. Out of about 20 different dishes, only 2 were vegetarian, all the rest were vegan. On my plate above, you see brown rice, a stew made with potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes, and peppers, some soy beef in a spicy sauce, a couple of stuffed grape leaves, and some salad. This was so satisfying! Unfortunately, I was stuffed after the first plate- I say unfortunately, because you can go back and get refills if you want. Daiku and my uncle both took advantage of that option!More Swedish foods to come!

i have much farther to go

I need a favor.My blog is moving. Officially. I can't magically import all my old posts into iWeb, and I want to have a "top 10" posts archive. Any of you have a post of mine that is especially memorable?I am committing to the move. Officially. Comments are disabled for now - but it's like that on the server in general since the switch to MobileMe. I know it sucks for now, but I love the way it looks, and I know it will get better. And it's not done yet. I haven't moved my daily reads yet and some other things need done - but my dad will have the upgrade for me next week, so I'm kinda waiting for that before I do anything crazy - like themes and backgrounds and stuff. Yay pretties!So I am here now.The one thing I ask is for you those of you that have me in your blog roll to change the address tohttp://web.mac.com/questionsfordessertI am keeping this blogger blog up because I don't feel like cutting and pasting all my old entries (no easy way to do so) and I also like the idea of starting over at a new blog.I may randomly post here to direct people to my iMac blog, and feel free to keep commenting here. I get them by email, so I will see them.Oh, and Kim, I'm still working on your cd! I've got too many songs to fit on 1 but not enough to fit on 2, so I'm struggling a little. It is in progress though.What? You want a prize too? Change my link in your blogroll (or put me there!) and post a comment (on this blog, obviously). First 5 will receive mix cds!And visit me!

Otto Spengler (18?? – 19??) Benjamin’s first transgendered patient.

Otto was born and raised in Germany. His father died when he was four, and from then he slept with his mother in her bed. He was girlish in appearance and his dressmaker sister used him as a dress model. Although little attracted to women, he did marry at age 26 and they had three children. He wore female clothing at all opportunities and wore female underwear under his male clothing at other times. He corresponded for many years with Dr Mary Walker and attempted to secure her collection of pictures and letters. He was known to Magnus Hirschfeld when the latter was writing Die Transvestiten. Later , after emigrating to New York, his biography was the first of a transvestite to be presented in the US, and presented to the New York Society of Medical Jurisprudence in December 1913, and published the next year in the New York Medical Journal. Spengler himself quoted this article in a letter to the New York Evening Post in 1933. He became a regular medical patient of Harry Benjamin in the 1920s, and only in 1938, while treating him for arthritis, did Benjamin realize that he was a transvestite. At Spengler’s request he prescribes estrogenic hormone and x-ray sterilization of the testicles. This was Benjamin’s first transgendered case. Spengler is given the pseudonym Rudolph von H. in George Henry’s book. *Not the German political philosopher. Bernard Simon Talmey. "Transvestism. A contribution to the study of the psychology of sex", New York Medical Journal, 21 Feb 1914, pp.362-368. Otto Spengler. Letter to the Editor. New York Evening Post, February 15 1933. George W. Henry. Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. New York: P.B. Hoeber 1948: 495. Leah Cahan Schaefer & Connie Christine Wheeler. “Harry Benjamin's first ten cases (1938-1953): a clinical historical note”. Archives of Sexual Behavior 24:1 Feb 1995: 3. Online at www.helen-hill.com/pdf/hbfirst10cases.pdf. Joanne Meyerowitz. How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, Ma, London: Harvard University Press. 363 pp 2002: 46, 298n105.

Shoes

What a bailout

The ONE is beating up hedge fund managers, bondholders and widows as greedy capitalist pigs.
Shame on them! They won’t part with their secured holdings at pittances between $0.15 and 0.29 on the dollar. Obama wants to give this booty to the unions as a reward for campaign donations.
In return, Mussolini Motors er Fiat will build cars that Obama says you WILL buy!
Government Motors, after it restructures, by grabbing every widow’s mite will build their cars everywhere but in the US.
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.
The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.
As a result, the long-simmering argument over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas — normally arising between unions and private companies — is about to engage the Obama administration.
Essentially in control of the company, the president’s autos task force faces an awkward choice: It can either require General Motors to keep more jobs at home, potentially raising labor costs at a company already beset with financial woes, or it can risk political fury by allowing the automaker to expand operations at lower-cost manufacturing locations.
“It’s an almost impossible dilemma,” said former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. “GM is a global company — so for that matter is AIG and the biggest Wall Street banks. That means that bailing them out doesn’t necessarily redound to the benefit of the U.S. or American workers.
“More significantly, it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?” [snip]
Force them into bankruptcy court, where Obama cannot play around. The courts will deal fairly, correctly according to established law and cut Obama’s bully tactics out of the equation, the unions too.
The more Obama loses, the more America wins.

From Bugs to Rockets [Photo Synthesis]

As the sun sets on a wonderful set of insect photos from the Wild... I thought I should start with a transition photo, on a photosynthetic bug bed, to a new photo theme - rockets: Many insects have served as brave cosmonauts - flying as a somewhat unwilling payload in Estes rockets. The National Association of Rocketry has rules against living payloads, but they make an exception for invertebrates. (I think the intent of the rule was to prevent kids from flying their sister's pet, but to allow for some curious exploration.) The Quark is the smallest rocket I have built, with rear-swept fins to avoid nose weight and light enough to tumble back without parachute. It takes half-A-size motors. If you have participated in some of the 500 million Estes rocket launches that have taken place over the years, you may recall that each letter grade of a motor is a rough doubling of total impulse (B is 2xA, C is 2xB and so on). So, on the other end of the spectrum, the home brew Q-motor in Wedge's Nike is about 2^17 larger than the Quark ½-A motor. That's over 100,000 Quarks going at once. 4x the impulse of a cruise missile booster. It's a powerful subwoofer roar to witness... as 437 lbs roars off the pad going supersonic: So blog topics can include extreme rocket launches, on-board video, night launches, tips on photographing supersonic shreds overhead, how to get started, and the joy of rocket science. What would interest you? Read the comments on this post...

Have you ever made a 'mark' on somebody elses life?? How? Why??

I was lying down when I thought of the idea does everybody have that innate thing on themselves to have 'marked' somebody elses life with something they have done out of helping or you just wanted to give away things or encourage somebody on something. I have seen my parents help out friends not because they need to but they want to. And so I grew up with a heart of helping friends out whether it was financial concerns or not. I do not want anything return but to see them better, happy and enjoying the life that they should be. How about you..What did you do that made you 'mark' something on somebody elses life and why did you do it. Is it out of the goodness of your heart or you were forced to do it.

Julie Bowen Welcomes Twin Sons!

Julie Bowen of Boston Legal and her husband, Scott Phillips, welcomed twin boys this past Friday morning her rep confirmed with PEOPLE! The little ones are named, Gus and John. The couple are already parents to Oliver who is now 2 years old. Scott is a real estate investor and the couple was married in 2004. Recently Julie has played attorney Denise Bauer on Boston Legal and has also made appearances on Weeds and Lost.Congratulations to Julie and Scott!Source

Julie Bowen Welcomes Twin Sons!

Julie Bowen of Boston Legal and her husband, Scott Phillips, welcomed twin boys this past Friday morning her rep confirmed with PEOPLE! The little ones are named, Gus and John. The couple are already parents to Oliver who is now 2 years old. Scott is a real estate investor and the couple was married in 2004. Recently Julie has played attorney Denise Bauer on Boston Legal and has also made appearances on Weeds and Lost.Congratulations to Julie and Scott!Source

SharePoint Conference 2008 Recap and Session PPTX Downloads

We've been preparing for this conference since since the fall and oh, was it worth it. I had a blast! Not only with the sessions, parties, but simply hanging out with 3900+ incredibly cool people (with 500 on the waiting list) and taking about our passion.... SharePoint! The Keynotes by Bill Gates, Jeff Teper, and Kurt Delbene included some Awesome stats... (Numbers added to simplify for non U.S. math and term confusion.) 1 Billion (yeah with a B! $1,000,000,000 USD) in revenue 100 Million CALs (100,000,000) by end of fical year June 30 (this is estimated to be 10% of all PCs, not just business PCs) 500 Million Licensed Office PCs (1/5th of that total licensed for SharePoint, but that number includes consumer PCs... makes you wonder if it's more like 40-50% of business PCs.) 3/4 of the Fortune 100 that's 75% of Fortune 100 companies Fastest growing server product in Microsoft History (maybe in any company ever?) 2250+ SharePoint ISVs (integrated solutions vendor) (Photo courtesy Chandima SharePoint MVP) The Solution Accelerators demo'ed very well. Tom did an excellent job, even if he did over sell them :) just kidding. He did a great job. If you have followed my previous posts you'd see I've worked closely on all of them. I'll provide more info on the extranet or external collab one in a future post. I'm trying to get them to decouple the workflow provisioning and approval site collection piece from the user management and ADAM with FBA piece. SharePoint Capacity Planning ToolPerformance models for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 that use the analysis and simulation features of Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2007 to help you plan your SharePoint topology. SharePoint Monitoring ToolkitHelps you monitor and manage Microsoft SharePoint environments by providing a set of management packs for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (including SP1). These management packs are supported by both System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials. SharePoint Cross-site ConfiguratorThis tool contains sample code that you can use to automate the deployment of configuration changes across SharePoint site collections as broadly as entire web applications or even entire farms. External Collaboration ToolkitIt consists of software and guidance that will help you to deploy a customizable solution built on Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that teams can use to collaborate securely with partners outside the firewall. The toolkit’s familiar SharePoint interface makes the solution easy for project team members to understand and use. The SharePoint Online beta (register now) announcement was well received. I think heard a few customers wheels spinning on that one. The best way to understand this amongst the other SharePoint hosted offerings is to look at the various offerings. Office Live (this one is released)- Small Business Site Collection Hosting (Consider this the site collection hosting) SharePoint Online Standard beta - SharePoint (in the Cloud) hosting (I'd consider this the multi tenant hosting solution) (up to 5000 users) SharePoint Online Dedicated Hosting beta - Dedicated SharePoint Farms in MS data centers with 99.9% SLAs and integration with AD resource forest, Exchange and OCS. (This internally use to be called MMS (Microsoft Managed Services) now the team is BOSG (Business Online Services Group)) (5000 users and up). I worked with Mike Watson and Kimberly Malone amongst others to design the SharePoint hosting for the pilot with Energizer. Good times :).. A couple of my sessions were top rated. Let me thank those of you who went to my Upgrade session and my Governance session. I really appreciate all the 9's and nice comments. I do read them and really appreciate them. Thanks to Shane and Brian who co-spoke with me on those. Bob Fox's presentation with me... well ok. It was fun to present. The comment I got from the users that they thought we were both drunk wasn't very nice, and wasn't accurate. I was drinking lemonade the night before, so it couldn't have been me. Bob did a great job for his first time and I'm sure he gained some new fans as a result. He has a lot of knowledge and he had a lot of pressure leading up to this. Under the circumstances he did well. I'll leave it to your comment to set the story straight. I enjoyed the session even if it wasn't one of the top rated. I got feedback from more than a couple people in the crowd who thoroughly enjoyed it. My Session Downloads (may require SPC login): Governance: From Chaos to Success in 10 Steps - Joel Oleson and Brian Cook What's New in Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008 for SharePoint Admins - Joel Oleson and Bob Fox Upgrading from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007 - Joel Oleson and Shane Young Advanced Administrative Architecture, Deployment and Operations - Joel Oleson and Shane Young Commentary: "Proactive Planning Crucial to Avoiding SharePoint Chaos" - By Margie Semilof, Senior News Director, 05 Mar 2008 SearchWinIT.com One other thing to add to your favorites and dig into is the new adoption, planning content, engineering, release and adopt to GEAR UP! Also, be sure to check out Microsoft Search Server Express 2008 general availability announced during the keynote! Developers and more will want to look at the SharePoint Silverlight Blueprint which definitely promises to make the UI much more exciting and rich. Relevant Partner Announcements you shouldn't miss as an IT Pro: AvePoint Announces the Release of a Revolutionary Product for Global Control and Administration of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (.doc file, 863 KB) Barracuda, LLC, Announces DeliverPoint: PERMISSIONS for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (.doc file, 28 KB) echoTechnology Announces echo for SharePoint 2007 (.doc file, 32 KB) Nintex Announces Nintex Reporting 2008 for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (.doc file, 35 KB) NSE Announces Release of eSENSE Bridge V3 to Manage, Monitor and Protect Entire Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Environments (.doc file, 38 KB) Syntergy Announces Replicator Add-On, Presentation Publisher, for Further Enhancing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (.doc file, 34 KB) (Full list @ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/sharepointconference/partners.mspx) Miss a party? Go behind the scenes and see the social side of the SharePoint

' The High Cost of Racial Hype '

As we find ourselves in the final days of the political season, one in which a particular candidate has been fixed on Black this and Black that - seeing American life mostly in terms of race or class as did Karl Marx and Saul Alinsky, here's a couple of excerpts by the great Thomas Sowell on the wasted energy expended for navel-gazing over things like "identity": [...] on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, was a picture of a black teenager whose mother was fixing his bow tie as he was getting dressed in a tuxedo, in preparation for a cotillion. I never had the problem of wearing a tuxedo to a cotillion, so it was hard for me to empathize with their angst. When I was that kid's age, I had real problems that taught me real lessons to remember when times got better, not navel-gazing problems that can distract you from reality for a lifetime. Apparently there are middle-class blacks who spend a lot of time and energy worrying about losing their roots and losing touch with their black brothers back in the 'hood. In one sense, it is good that there are people who think about others less fortunate than themselves. That's fine but, like most good things, it can be carried to the point where it is both ridiculous and counterproductive for all concerned. In a world where an absolute majority of black children are born and raised in fatherless homes, where most black kids never finish high school and where the murder rate among blacks is several times the national average, surely there must be more urgent priorities than preserving a lifestyle and an identity. [...] Blind tribalism means letting the lowest common denominator determine the norms and the fate of the whole group. There was a time when most blacks, like most of the Irish or the Jews, understood this common sense. But that was before the romanticizing of identity took over ... [...] The unanswered question is why an approach with a proven track record, not only in American society but in various other countries around the world, has been superseded by a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance. Part of the problem is the "multicultural" ideology that says all cultures are equally valid. It is hard even to know what that means, much less take it seriously as a guide to living in the real world. Will time and energy spent on rap music and wearing low-riding baggy pants like guys in prison -- as badges of identity -- provide as good a future for young people as learning math, computer skills, and the English language? Romantic self-indulgence and self-deception are things that some people can afford when they reach the point where they can afford identity angst. But millions of other people will remain mired in poverty if they believe such notions.Do take the time to read all of Sowell's "The High Cost of Racial Hype." For me, Sowell's take home message is his unanswered question, "Why an approach with a proven track record, not only in American society but in various other countries around the world, has been superseded by a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance?". A commenter at Townhall.com offered that it's the same attitude that insists that Capitalism is inferior to Socialism and Communism in spite of the self evident reality. In the frame of today's political world, it seems that today's Democratic Party remains in existence by feeding a philosophy of tribal identity over-riding issues of behavior and performance insisting that Capitalism is inferior to Socialism and Communism in spite of the self evident reality to the contrary.

Pork Scratchings, A Version Of

What do you do with leftover pig skin? I recently decided to make my own lardo, salt-cured fatback, using a large piece of pig that my friend Bonnie got for me. Misremembering the details of lardo, I asked for a piece of fat with the skin on. Bad idea. You want only the fat for lardo, and so I spent hours cutting the creamy white fat away from the pink, leathery skin: I understand now why they used to make footballs from this stuff. With the fat tucked away under weights in the refrigerator, I turned my attention to the square foot or so of skin I had left. By chance, I had been flipping through Fergus Henderson’s Beyond Nose to Tail. (Also by chance, shuna had been, too.) If you have not yet discovered Henderson, run to the nearest independent bookstore to fix this gap. It’s not just that he writes recipes for offal, the “off cuts” of an animal: He writes those recipes in a warm, humorous, thoughtful voice that is as charming as it is knowledgeable. Of the snails you need for a nettle and snail soup, he writes, “24 fresh English snails, picked by your fair hands (you will need to put them in a bucket and let them poo all their poo out for a few days before cooking …); or there is Tony the Snail Man, who breeds snails.” One of the first recipes in Beyond Nose to Tail is “Pork Scratchings, A Version Of,” which Henderson describes as “A most steadying nibble.” I describe it as pig skin confit. Pluck stray hairs from the skin; salt it; let it sit for five days; soak overnight in cold water; cook, covered, in duck fat for 2½ hours; and store in duck fat until you need it. No one considers me shy about serving odd food to guests, but even I might hesitate before serving pig skin confit on toast to most diners. Fortunately, David Lebovitz was in town, and a few food bloggers gathered in San Francisco to pay homage to the master of chocolate and ice cream. Most food bloggers will put anything edible into their mouths. And sure enough, the guests reached out without hesitation for my crostini, which held reheated, crisped, and chopped pig skin — a gummy, gluey texture — along with an apple-onion marmalade. I watched tentatively as the bloggers’ teeth sank in: I was prepared for disaster. Instead, I heard mmmms and saw eyes rolling back. The pig skin confit was a hit. I still had some left a week later when I decided to make a variant of the classic French salad of frisée, lardons, and poached egg. Instead of lardons, I reheated the pig skin and chopped it into bits. Instead of frisée, I used Little Gems lettuce tossed in a bacon grease/red wine vinegar vinaigrette. The pig skin bits ranged in texture from teeth-shattering crunchy to teeth-gluing chewy. But they were still delicious. My one regret was that the chunks, even when chopped, glommed together: I wanted them to spread through the salad more.

The Social Side of Social Media

Recognize a few of the maniacs in this picture? At one table, within an outdated old steak house in Metrowest Boston, you’ve got (clockwise from top-right):
Steve Garfield (@stevegarfield)
John Wall (@themshow)
David Meerman Scott (@dmscott)
Todd Defren (@TDefren)
Scott Monty (@ScottMonty)
C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)
Christopher S. Penn (@cspenn)
Photo taken by Dmitri Gunn.
That’s a whole lotta Social Media brainpower at one table, right? Wanna know what we talked about? I’ll give you one hint: we barely talked shop at all. Sure, Social Media-related topics crept into the conversations: we’re all passionate marketers; it happens. But we mostly cracked jokes, talked about our kids, vacations, cars, the economy, etc.
It was FUN. Don’t forget about fun. Fun is important.

Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 5.4.2009 - 5.10.2009

[Dinner With Cannibals] Monday, May 4 Orange Tulip Conspiracy @ Hi-Dive Sevendust @ Gothic Theatre We Shot The Moon @ Marquis Theater Tuesday, May 5 The Faint @ Ogden Theater Kreator @ Bluebird Theater Paper Route @ Marquis Theater Ponytail @ Hi-Dive Skeletonbreath @ Larimer Lounge Wednesday, May 6 Babona @ Larimer Lounge Black Label Society @ Ogden Theater Seventh Void @ Marquis Theater Soulive @ Fox Theatre Thao Nguyen And The Get Down Stay Down @ Hi-Dive Thursday, May 7 BoomSnake @ Hi-Dive The Dead @ Pepsi Center Delby L @ Larimer Lounge Filthy Children @ Bluebird Theater The Motet: A Tribute To Herbie Hancock @ Fox Theatre The Skyline Surrender @ Marquis Theater Friday, May 8 Bob Log III @ Bluebird Theater Cr0oKkid @ Gothic Theatre Dance Gavin Dance @ Marquis Theater Dinner With Cannibals @ Larimer Lounge Elvis Perkins In Dearland @ Hi-Dive Grouch & Eligh @ Fox Theatre The Pilot Light @ Walnut Room Pretty Lights @ Ogden Theater Saturday, May 9 Gene Ween @ Walnut Room Grouch & Eligh @ Bluebird Theater Jackopierce @ Soiled Dove Napalm Death @ Marquis Theater Opeth @ Fox Theatre Red Stinger @ Gothic Theatre Spring Creek @ Boulder Theater The Whore Moans @ Larimer Lounge Youth Group @ Hi-Dive Sunday, May 10 Ben Lee @ Marquis Theater Cowboy Mouth @ Bluebird Theater Fleetwood Mac @ Pepsi Center Living With Lions @ Larimer Lounge Margot & The Nuclear So And Sos @ Hi-Dive Schedule appears courtesy of Mystik Spiral.

Make Room For Spongebob

The latest Small Bites survey asked visitors if they supported the use of popular cartoon characters to advertise fruit and vegetable products like "baby carrots" and frozen spinach to children.Sixty-three percent of respondents supported that form of advertising, eight percent did not, and the remaining twenty-seven percent did not have a strong opinion either way.I strongly favor that sort of advertising.Many nutrition advocates do not, claiming it confuses children to see Spongebob on baby carrots as well as a box of sugary fruit snacks.My main concern with that argument is that it attempts to view the world through the eyes of a child who has the marketing awareness of an adult.Six-year-olds are not aware of nutrition. They don't understand the difference in nutrients between a fruit snack and a real fruit. Seeing their favorite cartoon character on different products doesn't confuse them -- it simply draws their eyes and attention to them!In my opinion, too many nutrition advocates make the crucial mistake of forgetting that they, too, can implement the same tactics used by food companies. Getting children interested in eating healthier food by simply branding it with cartoon characters is certainly far from utopian, but it's a significant step forward we need to pursue.

@ light

Hit it!