It Will Take a Miracle

It should come as no surprise to those of you who read this page that I am a supporter of the little guy. I champion the cause of those who are perpetually victims of the powerful and the privileged.

Such is this case.

Meet Tom Szaky. He is 25 and CEO of a company that had 1.5 million dollars in sales last year. Aha! You may think - who did this rascal, this Ivy League entrepreneur take advantage of? Well, I’ll tell you …. He’s the victim.

Tom dropped out of Princeton in 2003 and started TerraCycle, an eco-friendly maker of organic fertilizer. So environmentally friendly is his company, that all of its products come in recycled soda bottles. He takes garbage - waste and feeds it to worms, the worms poop, he takes the poop, puts it in used soda bottles and sells it. The entire operation is taking waste, that would otherwise end up in a landfill and reusing it in an environmentally friendly way. Heck, the fertilizer it makes is even better for the environment than chemical fertilizer. Who could have a problem with that?

Oh.

TerraCycle is being sued by the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, a 7 billion dollar juggernaut that racks up an impressive 59 percent share of the global fertilizer market. Their claim? Read on -

in its complaint, Scotts claims TerraCycle willfully infringed on Miracle-Gro's "distinctive and famous" look, mimicking its yellow and green packaging and including a picture of flowers and vegetables on its label. Miracle-Gro claims that the packaging similarities could lead to consumer confusion between the two companies' products.
"TerraCycle has passed off its goods as those of Scotts," the suit alleges.
The plant-food giant also accuses TerraCycle of making false and misleading advertising claims on its Web site and at point-of-purchase displays.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Let’s take a look.

Here is Scott’s product –


Here is TerraCycle –


Gee real confusing huh?

This is a classic case of the monopoly bully on the block trying to money whip the competition out of business. It disgusts me.

I must confess, I have used Scott’s product for years. I do some organic gardening, and I try very hard to avoid most pesticides, I prefer Garden’sAlive products to Scott's, but the Scott’s is cheaper and much more available, but no more. . I don’t know yet if TerraCycle is available in my area, but I am going to look for it this weekend.
Here is a company selling a viable, needed product in a very environmentally friendly way, and they are being money whipped out of business by these ass-holes at Scott’s.

I plan on running out and buying TerraCycle product immediately. Please do the same. Even if you don’t garden, it is made out of worm poop, it won't hurt anything, buy a bottle and pour it on a shrub on your way to work.

TerraCycle has set up a web page explaining the suit with excellent David vs. Goliath pictures and numbers. Please, go read it. They also have a defense fund set up. This is a company that has yet to turn a profit. Please go to their defense site and read it to the bottom.
You will be glad you did, I promise.

Let the people at Scott’s know how you feel. Don’t buy their product. And -

If you don't think Scotts should be suing TerraCycle, please write to the Scotts Board of Directors and tell them why. Separate letters should be sent to each director. The envelope should be marked "INTERESTED PARTY/SHAREHOLDER - DIRECTOR COMMUNICATION - PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL" and should be sent to each director c/o Corporate Secretary,The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, 14111 Scottslawn Road, Marysville, Ohio 43041. The Scotts directors are: Mark R. Baker, Gordon F. Brunner, Arnold W. Donald, Joseph P. Flannery, James Hagedorn, Thomas N. Kelly, Jr., Katherine Hagedorn Littlefield, Karen G. Mills, Patrick J. Norton, Stephanie M. Shern, and John J. Shiely. Please send a copy to your local newspaper and to TerraCycle at 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08638.

My letter(s) will be going out in the morning mail. I needed to use up my stamps anyway right?

Fucking Assholes.

Tomato - Better Boy

I got a really late start on my garden this year, but it is doing its best to catch up.

I took this picture last Friday (April 27).

So far I have tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet corn, radishes, basil (three kinds), mint (two kinds), marjoram, sage, thyme and rosemary.

I'll for sure add okra, and most likely bush beans.

What do you grow?

Security or Engagement?

I found this little nugget over at Candide's Notebooks. It is one of the most reasonable, compelling discussions of the school violence problem I have ever read.

Thousands of tragedies take place on a weekly basis in American schools—suicides, rapes, students cutting themselves or starving themselves, and countless other acts of intense bullying and harassment—that are all more or less preventable. Fortress mentalities don’t build security. Knowing and engaging students before they become a threat to themselves and others does.

Read the article, share the link, get people talking about it.

Grampa, Why Did You Ruin Our Country?

In two weeks, I will be 45 years old.

My oldest child just turned 16.

If his life follows the usual route I will be between 55 and 58 by the time I have a grandchild, and by the time that child will be able to rationally discuss economics I will most likely be in or close to my 70’s. I seriously doubt I will live long enough to meet my great grandchildren, much less discuss economics. I suppose I should be thankful for small blessings.

I don’t know what I would be able to tell them. What would I say when asked how my generation could leave them so saddled with debt. How can I explain the collapse of the way of life we as Americans know today? It is surely coming, and we as Americans are allowing it to happen.

As I have asked over, and over, and over, where is the outrage?

Pierre Tristam, over at Smirking Chimp, has posted an unbelievably disturbing article outlining the Bush majority’s raping of the budget. From surpluses under the Clinton administration to deficits that would make Reagan blush, he asserts that even at this point, balancing the budget isn’t enough. The problem is the mounting national debt.

[….debt depends on people willing to finance it. As of today, $5 trillion of the debt is held by the public -- individual Americans, banks and, increasingly, governments like China, Saudi Arabia, the European Union. At any point those governments could choose to invest elsewhere. If that happens, Americans, already the biggest debtors on the planet, have to make up the difference. Simply put, when Bush spends $2 billion a week on his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he's borrowing that money not only from China or Saudi Arabia, but from future Social Security and Medicare recipients, too. The Social Security trust fund, which is generating a surplus, literally lends the money to the Treasury. Government-to-government loans like that have added up to $3.8 trillion.


Balancing the budget will fix none of that any more than a household can stave off bankruptcy just by paying the interest on a mass of debt: Sooner or later a small interest rate rise or a mild economic shock collapses the arrangement. Only vast surpluses in the $200 to $300 billion range over several decades can pay down the national debt and stave off a flight of investors that would collapse the domestic economy. That's why the Clinton administration never proposed massive tax cuts when it reversed previous Republican administrations' Decade of Debt and started running surpluses in the late 1990s. Clinton knew that if the country was to meet its obligations to coming retirees and stay fiscally sound enough for investors to keep their money here, modest surpluses alone wouldn't do. Debts had to be paid. That means big budget surpluses year after year. …]

I know that with all of the other outrages the regressives have given us, the budget deficit and National debt may seem small potatoes. I know that talk of surplus and deficit isn’t as sexy as, well, sex scandals or Attorney-gate, or the pillaging of the constitution, or the war, etc….but I urge you to go read the article.

It may give you time to come up with an answer when your grandchildren or great grandchildren ask you how you could let this happen.

Random Flickr Blogging IMG_3847

Random Flickr Blogging Explained.

Even at a young age, Jim Jones displayed a certain "charisma."

Sigh

I saw her awhile ago. I was on my way home from the grocery store and stopped at a light. She passed by and pulled into the convenience store right near my house.

She never saw me. She got out and went into the store.

Where her legs really that impossibly long? Was her hair always that blond and shiny?

le sigh

I did the right thing. My children must have their father. Why can't she see that?

I Love This Lady!

Today is the 74th birthday of one of my favorite comedienne/actresses, Carol Burnett.

I loved her show as a kid. We watched it every week, and then again for years in syndication. Do you have a favorite Carol Burnett Show memory? I loved her take off on Sunset Boulevard and Gone With the Wind, but Mrs. Wiggins may have been my favorite. That show had such a cast!







She is also an accomplished stage actress. She was the original Winifred in Once upon a Mattress way back in 1959. I love that show. I played King Sextimus back in college. If you don't know the show it is a take off on the Princess and the Pea story.



She was also the original Charlotte Hayes in Ken Ludwig’s Moon over Buffalo. I directed this show back in 1998, and it is still one of my all time favorites. If you've never seen it - SHAME ON YOU! You owe it to yourself to find a production and go see it! I will warn you, it is a bit racy, so don't bother with a high school production because the Drama Police will make them cut out all the good parts. I promise, you will laugh hard and often.

She is talented, tough and classy.

Happy birthday Carol!!!

Err, What?

This is an actual letter. Sad thing is, she probably votes. To laugh or to cry? This is the republican base my friends. She and her ilk will never be won over with logic, or reason, or economic concerns.

Quickly, The Smelling Salts, I Feel a Swoon Coming On

In an announcement that should surprise exactly nobody, researchers on Monday said that abortions and miscarriages do not raise the risk of breast cancer.

Hmm, you .... gasp, choke, ....mean all those brochures, .... the ones printed with my tax dollars, .. gasp, are wrong!!!!!!?????

By the end of the day Dobson, Robertson, et all will be denouncing the scientific methods used in this research.

You know, the research done by actual scientist.

Look for an increase in the Jihad against science in our country after this announcement. This blows one of their favorite talking points.

Random Flickr blogging IMG_3318

IMG_3318
Originally uploaded by mikemunevar.

Kara recently started rethinking her decision to date only headless boys.

Happy Birthday (maybe) Bill!

Today is (maybe, we think) The 443 aniversary of the birth of the greatest English playwright ever. Ok, I will say the greatest playwright ever period, but that's just me.

That Shakespeare can continue to be relevant 391 years after his death speaks volumes as to his genius.

In his honor I offer the following sonnet. I can't really say it is my favorite, because that would be like choosing one of my children over the others, but this is the one that speaks to my current frame of mind.

Sonnet 29

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

The 50's are like OVER!!!!

I don’t usually write about race issues. It isn’t that I don’t think they’re important, or that I think racism doesn’t exist, I am acutely aware of it. It is that I don’t feel that I have anything insightful or compelling to say about the subject.

Until now.

For the first time ever, the Turner County High School prom will be integrated.

I don’t know if I should be happy for these kids or appalled by what this means. It is 2007. I mean are you freaking kidding me? 60 years after Baseball is integrated, this Georgia town finally has a school dance that allows people of different pigments to co-mingle?

I choose to be appalled.

First of all, why were these kids allowed, year after year to have their own private segregated prom? Who was financing it? These parents are disgusting. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree you know. Is it any wonder that racism can thrive still in the South, when this kind of practice is allowed to thrive? Where was the school board, hell, where was the Governor?

I was going to say fuck these backward ass Rednecks, but that would make me as intolerant as them.

So instead I will say, fuck the people in a position to stop this who let it go on year after year after year.

And to this year’s prom attendee’s I say welcome to PostBellum America Hicks.

Avenue Q meets Fiddler on the Roof

Ok, this may well be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. If not the funniest, the damn cleverest! This is why I love Theatre people so much. If you are not a “Theatre Person”, or can’t figure out why I can’t spell T-H-E-A-T-E-R right, this may not be for you.

But trust me, this rocks!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dprUZL-QvQ


It's back up!!!!!

Yes, Exactly!

Wow, this is a must read.

It is long, and it does start just a little slow, but damn! I can't even really think of anything to add. It is a complete and utter demolition of "Compassionate Conservatism"

a few choice tidbits -

Matthew Dowd not only sold us a lying president and his prevarications about war just three years ago, but he built an entire campaign around an even more egregious lie - that his candidate was a war hero, and that the other candidate, an actual war hero, was a weak imposter. Now, as his own misdeeds loom up with the potential to bite him back hard, like some figure out of Shakespeare or a Greek tragedy, he finds doubt and regret. Doubt? Regret? I tell you what, man, you go drink down one percent of the blood you've spilled, first. You go apologize on your hands and knees to one percent of the families you've decimated. You go pay back one percent of the treasure you've wasted - money needed for healthcare and education. Then come tell us your self-serving tales of doubt and regret. Because, funny, somehow we never got that vibe from you in 2004.

And -

If it seems like conservatives are congenitally incapable of compassion until they've had to struggle with something themselves, that's because it's true. If you think the whole business of wealthy Americans demanding additional tax cuts for themselves to pay for their third yacht while others go to bed hungry is part of the same mentality, that's because it is. If you're horrified that people are capable of such rampant hypocrisy, you ought to be. This is truly a scary bunch, with the full intellectual firepower of adults, but with social ethics that could make the dynamics of a kindergarten sandbox seem positively Gandhian by comparison.

And, even better -

Right now, regressives are peddling a lovely mix of war, debt, environmental destruction, torture, division at home, hatred abroad, a tattered constitution, a shaky economy and a healthcare system in free-fall, as well as lies and corruption that could make Imelda herself blush. How is it these guys even exist? How is it they are even allowed within a hundred yards of government buildings? Is there a shortage of ankle bracelets? Even if they were Iraqi suicide bombers blowing up government they couldn't begin to equal the damage they've already done in government

This is good, good stuff. Please go read it all.

Seriously!!! WTF!!!!!!!

Have you seen this? Apparently the Federal Government has a database listing everyone who has ever been prescribed anti-depressants?

I love this observation the author makes:

We don't even have a list of gun owners, and we have a list of everyone who has been prescribed anti-depressants?

Jeebuz, does anyone know anything about this? Has it always been this way, or is it a recent aka "war on Terrorism" development?

That must be a pretty damn big list.

Another Teenager!!!!

Happy Birthday!

Today is the 13th Birthday of my third and youngest son.

I know he occasionally looks at this blog, so happy birthday son!

On this day in History –

1775 – The American Revolution started.

1824 – Lord Byron died.

1897 – The first Boston Marathon was run.

1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto uprising began.

1993 – The Branch Davidian compound goes up in flames.

1994 – You were born!!! (And a Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to beaten motorist Rodney King.)

2001 - "The Producers" opened on Broadway.

People who share your birthday –

Maria Sharapova (20)

Tim Curry (61) – can he really be that old!!!!???

Kate Hudson (28)

Hayden Christensen(26)

Troy Polamalu(26)

When You're Living in America .........

“He was a loner.”

How many times do we hear this after a tragedy such as happened this week in Blacksburg Virginia? Didn’t you just know that was coming?

So you know what I wonder? Was he (or any of the loners who commit these heinous acts), driven to become a killer because of the inherent loneliness of his life, or was he a loner because he was already messed up and capable of such an act? In other words which came first?

It strikes me as ironic that in such a populous society, people can be so lonely. I understand loneliness very well. It is a daily part of my life as well. That is not to say I don’t have friends, I do and I see them often, yet in my day to day work/kids/housework/repeat cycle I go days at a time with no true meaningful adult conversation. I’m sure that is one of the reasons I stayed in an unhealthy relationship for so long. A less than perfect relationship is better than the loneliness of no relationship.

Do you know your neighbors? I speak at least weekly to the neighbors on either side of me. If you go more than a couple of houses in any direction, I don’t know them or speak to them. I live in a small town, and I have lived in this house for over ten years. I’m sure it must be worse in large cities. Is my situation typical? I suspect so.

Jonathan Larson hit on this concept so well in RENT.

Disparate individuals creating their own community. –

What Was It About That Night?

Connection-In An Isolating Age

For Once-The Shadows Gave Way To
Light

For Once I Didn't Disengage

Why is it so easy to isolate ourselves? Do we just have so many comforts and entertainments in our homes that we don’t need to seek out our neighbors?

Does the internet and comment threads help or hurt?

I don’t know.

I know one thing, Hillary was right when she said, “It takes a village.” Would a support group of close friends have stayed Cho Seung-Hui’s hand? Maybe not, but I strongly suspect that had he felt that he “fit in” and had a group of friends to vent to, he may never have gotten to this awful breaking point.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

As today is tax day, and no doubt the evening news reports will be awash in video of long lines at the post office hoping to beat the deadline, I thought it might be appropriate to take a look at what we are paying for.

The war in Iraq seems to have taken a backseat in the news lately. Things vastly more important have been filling the airwaves. Things like the DNA test of Anna Nicole’s baby, the Imus brouhaha, Angelina’s attempt to overtake Mia Farrow in adoptions, you know, important stuff.

Of course there is the other news also, the impending testimony of A.G. Weasel Gonzales, and sadly, yesterday’s chilling rampage at Virginia Tech. But in the midst of this real news, and fluff, let’s not forget that what Americans witnessed in Blacksburg Virginia yesterday is a daily occurrence in Baghdad.

In an outstanding article printed in the Niagara Falls Reporter, Bill Gallagher recounts the consequences of our involvement in Iraq.

This is heartbreaking stuff people.

When confronted with politicians in the media selling the progress being made, the Red Cross workers took a poll of their own. They asked several Iraqi women what was "their most pressing need". One woman's answer may well stick with me for the rest of my life.

"The most important thing that anyone could do is to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning. No one dares to touch them, but for us it is unbearable to have to expose our children to such images every day as we try to bring them to school."

Stop for a moment and imagine that. I am a single Dad. I worry about my kids eating right, I worry if they brush their teeth enough, I worry that are hanging out with the right crowd, but I don’t worry about them dodging corpses on the way to school. Let that sink in. She didn’t ask for electricity, or clean water, or security, she wants the corpses picked up a daily basis. This is a world I cannot fathom. This makes the worlds of Beckett and Pirandello seem safe and predictable. Yet that is what these people face every single day; Courtesy of the American Tax Payer.

Wait a minute you say, I don’t support the war, I didn’t even vote for the criminals running our country. Perhaps not, but it is our Government, our tax dollars committing these atrocities. Where are the protests? Where are the masses marching through the streets demanding an end to these crimes being done in our name?

They are at home wondering if tonight is the night Sanjaya finally gets voted off.

Wake up America, perception is reality, and the world perceives that Americans are responsible for the lives of untold thousands of civilians.

This article goes on and very adeptly summarizes the failures of our policy. Please go read it. I had meant to summarize the whole thing, but I find myself too disgusted to write rationally.

Random Flickr blogging IMG_4374

IMG_4374
Originally uploaded by stuart nolan.

The Glover family looks forward each year, to "set the baby on the snow penis day"

Sacrifice Isn't A Four Letter Word.

Via Shakes -

Do you have time to send a letter to your Senator/Representative?

Below is the letter written by Michael Dunford, whose wife is an Army Officer.

I will be sending one to my Senators and Rep. Please do the Same.

I am the husband of a currently deployed Army officer stationed in Hawaii, and with a home of record in New York. I'm writing today for two reasons: to thank you for your support of emergency war funding legislation that included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq and to ask you to take an additional step and require that any additional funding for the current conflict be paid for immediately, through a tax increase.

When my wife was deployed in Afghanistan two years ago, I found the deployment easier to deal with than her current Iraq tour, even though she was probably in more physical danger in Afghanistan. At that time, I at least had the comfort of believing in the cause that she was fighting for. Right now, I'm not sure I even know just why she - or the rest of our troops - are there. I'm a bit of a cynic by nature, and did not expect my view of the cause to make a difference in how easy it would be to face the separation. To my surprise, I've discovered that it's much easier to make sacrifices when you know why you are being asked to make them.

This brings me to one of the reasons that I am asking that you attach a tax increase to any further war spending - sacrifice. Last night, when my wife called from the FOB she's stationed at, I mentioned that I had learned about the decision to extend Army tours through the media instead of through Army channels, but that it was nowhere near the top story of the night. A radio DJ getting fired for making insensitive and racist comments, the (criminal) innocence of college athletes, and the implications of the Anna Nicole paternity test were all apparently much more newsworthy events. My wife was surprised that this surprised me. Her response was, "Of course it isn't. Why would most people care about this."

She's right. The vast majority of the American public has little at stake in this conflict. The sacrifices are being made by the military and by military families. As retired Major General John Batiste put it last year, "Most Americans only confront this issue by deciding what color of magnet [to put] on the back end of their SUV." I think that if more Americans were being asked to make sacrifices to support this war effort, more Americans would pay closer attention to what has been (and is) going on.

Sacrifice isn't the only reason to make sure that this war is funded through taxes now. We also have a responsibility to our descendants. Right now, our two children are already being asked to sacrifice a great deal for this war effort - their mother has been away during 18 of the last 33 months. It is unfair, unreasonable, and irresponsible to ask them, when they grow up, to also pay the financial costs of the war. The current policies, unfortunately, do just that.

Please consider taking these actions, both to support the troops who are deployed now and to support those who are being asked to pay for the war later.

In addition to emailing this letter to you, I am also posting it on my blog (http://scienceblogs.com/authority). I would encourage anyone who reads it there to send a similar letter to their Representatives and Congressmen.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Michael Dunford

If every American had to bear the sacrifice equally, we would be out of Iraq by tomorrow evening. His point about asking our children to pay for the war is an especially poignant one. Not only are we killing (both directly and indirectly) civilians, women and children, we are passing the buck to the next generation to pay for it.

Wake up America!

Free our Children's Minds (From Censorship)

Well the book banners are alive and well in Burlingame, California.

Burlingame schools Superintendent Sonny Da Marto has banned Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy, which was being read and studied by four eighth grade classes. The book is an award winning depiction of Mathabane’s childhood in apartheid South Africa.

The book had been vetted by the district's "core literature committee" which consists of parents, teachers, a librarian, a student and a school board member and was successfully taught the year before.

The objectionable content involved young boys engaging in a sex for food swap with older men. The book is number 31 on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently banned or challenged books. The Author, Mark Mathabane addressed the frequent banning in an essay published by the Washington Post in 1999.


In the essay, he calls "Kaffir Boy" disturbing, but not pornographic. He explains the prostitution paragraphs:

"My father, the only breadwinner in a family of nine, had been arrested for the crime of being unemployed. There was no food in our shack ... Desperate for food, one afternoon I linked up with a group of 5-, 6- and 7-year-old boys on the way to the nearby men's hostel. Their pimp, a 13-year-old boy named Mphandlani, promised that at the hostel we would get money and 'all the food we could eat' in exchange for playing 'a little game' with the migrant workers who lived there."
Mathabane writes that he was shunned by the boys for running away. He concludes that "resisting peer pressure is one of the toughest things for young people to do.
"That is the lesson of the prostitution scene. It's a lesson that seems to be lost on the people who want to censor my book."

God forbid we let our kids read anything that might actually teach them a lesson about character and dealing with adversity. I guess all class assignments should now come out of The Book of Virtues. Maybe we can get Bill Bennet to lay off the gambling and dominatrices long enough to write a sequel.

Seriously, there is very little that burns me up as much as censoring and banning books. The parents were apparently given the option to have their child read a different book, but that wasn’t good enough for these people.

I strongly urge you to go to the essay site and read the whole thing. It is a powerful explanation of the reason it is wrong to censor a book. While we are at it, go and look at the list of most frequently challenged books. Number three is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Are you kidding me? Also in the list are such classics as (5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, (6) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, (13) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and so on ....


I was an avid reader as a child and young adult. I grew up in a very small, ignorant, redneck town, but I was blessed with parents who gave me the freedom to read anything I wanted to. Because of that, I was able to form opinions different from those I was exposed to. I broadened my understanding of the world and what was out there. I burned with a desire and curiosity to see the world and to experience the culture of those very different from me. I would never take that chance away from a child. We see the results of an incurious, narrow mind in our Whitehouse.

Are You Fucking Kidding Me????

Why aren't these guys in Jail yet?

5,000,000 missing emails.

That is not a typo, those are 6 freaking zeros. These are not the emails from the RNC servers. These are on the official Whitehouse email system.

We are witnessing a complete and thorough collapse of the rule of law.

Nixon had less chutzpah than these pricks.

God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut!

1922-2007

Farewell to Kurt Vonnegut.

Do you have a favorite Vonnegut novel?

I will always be partial to God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.

May you find the peace that seemed to allude you in life.

Attack of the Heartless Ipod Vol. II

Then you love a little wild one
And she brings you only sorrow
All the time you know she's smilin'
You'll be on your knees tomorrow

Free Tickets!!!!!

Any of you who may be in the Houston Area this Saturday and would like to see Augustana, here is your chance.

I have two tickets to their show at the Meridian for this Saturday night. It is a small venue, and is an excellent chance to see them in a club atmosphere before they start doing arenas only.

I'm not sure how I can get them to you, but they are free to the first taker.

Do you get a squeeze of lime with that?

In a headline that Konagod can Love, agave may be good for your colon!

It doesn't involve drinking it however.

The Struggle Continues

Sorry for no posts this weekend. I am struggling pretty hard. A couple of very significant “anniversary” dates await me this week.

I also have tickets to a concert we were to attend, that I can’t even seem to give away.

I hope to be back soon.

You Take the Good With the Bad ...

Boy- today was the shit.

When I say the shit, I mean it feels like I was wading through it up to my temples all day long.

Today was one of those days where everything I saw, heard, tasted, or smelled reminded me of her. I was sorely, sorely, sorely tempted to call her this evening. Instead, I worked on clearing out my herb garden.

A word about the herb garden; Last year, spring came very, very early. By mid march, my herb garden was spectacular. That is about the time things became very, very intense with her. She became more important than the herb garden. It suffered. (As I would later.)

I began pulling weeds, clearing up dead stalk, etc… and I noticed a couple of things. A once thriving herb garden had succumbed to a year of Rene’. What can I say? She was demanding of my time and I was more than glad to give it to her. She was much nicer to embrace than a rosemary bush. I also noticed that with the exception of a small golden thyme bush and a scraggly pepper plant, my mint was taking over the entire garden.

Well dear reader, when faced with the choice of going inside and calling her, or facing the reality of my botanical dilemma – I took the high ground!!

Spring mint and Maker’s Mark combine for an excellent mint julep.

What The Poop?!!!!!

From the "I thought I'd seen everything department" -

Introducing: The P-Mate.

Is there a market for something like this? There must be, I guess.

Circuit City Screws Loyal Employees

This pisses me off in a huge way.

In a nutshell – to cut cost, Circuit City will be laying off experienced, higher paid employees, and immediately replacing them with lower paid new hires.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Anyone who says unions are unnecessary or obsolete should be paying attention.

And YES, I lay this right at the feet of the Republican Party. Since the Reagan administration, they have been at work to erode workers rights, to bust unions, and to set up a corporate rule society.

Please vote with your pocketbook! I realize it may be inconvenient for some with limited choices, but please boycott Circuit City.

Soul Food - Italian Style

If I had an Italian Grandmother, I’ll bet she would make this. It doesn’t really have a name, but I call it Italian Pot Roast. It is incredibly good, and pretty much the only way I make pot roast anymore. It is not fancy, it is peasant food. Very rich and very hearty. The treatment I give the leftovers is so good, I more often than not, don’t make it as roast anymore and go straight to the pasta sauce. I don’t remember how I came up with this, but I recall an old cooking show with an Old Italian woman making a roast with caramelized onions and wine. I came up with the pasta sauce myself. I wish I could remember her name or the show. I would like to see her recipe to see what is different. This was years ago, long before the food network.

I shred the pot roast into the sauce and serve it over fettuccine or tagliatelle. Sorry Konagod, this is a carnivore’s delight. If you want to serve it as roast, skip the shredding step and serve the gravy over garlic mashed potatoes.

You may click the picture for a close up.

Italian Pot Roast

One large chuck roast (two small is fine, it will be shredded anyway.)
2 large, or 3 medium sweet onions
One carrot, peeled and diced
About a half rib of celery, finely chopped
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
About a half bottle of decent red wine.
14 oz. quality crushed tomatoes. (fresh is wonderful, if they are ripe and excellent)
Beef broth
Herbs and spices*

*I don’t really follow a recipe, it depends on what I have on hand, and what mood I’m in. I will explain how I usually do it in the recipe.


In a heavy oven-proof dutch oven, sear the roast on all sides. (Make sure the roast is dry or it won’t brown properly.) I usually salt and pepper it first. It needs the salt for sure, but pepper can burn, so be careful. When the roast is brown all over, remove it to a platter and add the onions, sliced. This next step is important. Caramelize the onions. Don’t skimp on this step, it is vital for the success of the sauce. Salt and pepper the onions about half way through this step. When the onions are caramelized, (and only then) add the carrots, garlic, and celery. Now is the time to add the herbs. This dish cooks for so long, dried herbs are really the way to go here, but by all means, use fresh if you want. I use fresh rosemary because I always have it. Fresh basil loses it’s punch, but it can be added later. I use a bit of oregano, rosemary, a couple of bay leaves and marjoram. Again, add herbs and spices to your own taste. It should not taste like spaghetti sauce. It is a much deeper and richer flavor. I have even made this at a friend's house with packaged “Italian Seasoning” with great success. When the vegetables are soft, pull them out and place with the roast. Deglaze the pan with the wine. When the wine has come to a complete boil, and all of the fond has dissolved, put the roast back in the pot. Pile the vegetables on top of the roast and add beef broth until the roast is just covered. Place the tight-fitting lid on the dutch-oven and place in a 275º oven for three hours. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Discard the bay leaves, and if used, rosemary sprigs.

Refrigerate over night. You can eat this right away, but it is way better if you wait a day.

The next day, warm it up on the stove until just barely warm. Pull out the roast and place on a platter. When the roast is cool enough to handle, place the vegetables and sauce in the blender. Blend them until smooth. Pour the sauce back into the pot and bring to a simmer.

Shred the roast into tiny pieces. Discard any fat or tough bits.

Taste the sauce. Again, taste the sauce. Adjust the seasoning at this time. How do you like it? Needs more salt? Black pepper? I usually add some red pepper as well. If you have fresh basil, this is the time to add it. If it is too thick add water (or broth – no wine this late in the game.) If it is too thin (more likely) reduce a bit. When it is the right consistency add the meat back in along with any accumulated juices. Heat through and serve on pasta with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Repeat as necessary.

Jenny, Jenny Who Can I Turn To?

Either I’ve become incredibly soft-hearted in my old age, or senility has started setting in and I’ve parted ways with all my good sense, but either way…we have a new family member. Her name, after three days of debate is Jenny. (I wanted Buffy)

First of all, I have never been a “dog person”. I love cats, and while I don’t hate dogs, I am somewhat ambivalent to their charms.

Cats don’t pee on the carpet.

Cats don’t keep you up all night barking.

Cats don’t require daily attention when I go out of town.

Cats (mostly) clean themselves.

The kids are ecstatic of course. Whether they are still excited after a couple of months of house breaking remains to be seen.

I must confess to a bit of selfish motive. I having been fighting the burning desire to call her up and reconcile. She hates dogs, and this is sort of insurance against my own weakness, a line in the sand, if you will.

Anyway, welcome to the family Jenny.

Happy Birthday Tennessee

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest, (some might say the greatest) America Playwrights of the 20th century. Thomas Lanier (Tennessee) Williams was born on this day, (March 26) 1911 in Columbus Mississippi.

Do you have favorite Tennessee Williams play? I’ve always had a soft spot for The Glass Menagerie. It is not as raw or as visceral as say A Streetcar Named Desire, (which I love), but it has a sentimentality and even a sweetness about it. I’m sure it has to do with the fact that I’ve played Tom on stage. It probably wasn’t my greatest role ever, but I was pretty damn good, and paired with a woman I have played opposite about 15 times. It was an excellent run, and I can’t imagine ever doing it again, because the memories of that one are so wonderful.

You know, the play is about memories – Tom’s to be precise.

I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves
that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have
stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares,
taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of
music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass – Perhaps I am
walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I found
companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is
sold. The window is filled with pieces of colored glass, tiny transparent
bottles in delicate colors, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at
once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes …
Oh Laura, Laura I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I
intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into
the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger – anything
that can blow your candles out!

For nowadays the world is lit by
lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura – and so goodbye …..

Tennessee Williams - March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983

So Many Books...So Little Time

A couple of months ago, a friend and I were discussing the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Many of them I have read, and of course, many I have not. As I have mentioned before, I am a “glass half empty” type person, so of course I immediately started thinking to myself - “there are definitely more than 1000 books I want to read before I die. I am 44 years old…… I started to do the math……

I am a single parent. I work 40+ hours a week. Between homework, housework, lawn work, cooking, etc…. I don’t have nearly enough time to read as I would prefer. I read pretty fast, but WHERE TO FIND THE TIME?!!!!!!!! If I could read 2 books a month that’s only 24 a year. A pretty paltry sum! If I live another 40 years that’s only 960 books left in my life!!!!!!

Panic set in.

Ok, if I make myself set aside time and really, really try – maybe I can squeeze in 36-40 a year. But, there are at least 1000 books I want to read right now!! What about all the new ones that will surely be published? Not to mention, I am a re-reader. Can I really go the rest of my life without reading Les Miserables again? Of course not! When I read a series, I usually go back and re-read the last one or two when a new one comes out, to whet my appetite for the new one. It really isn’t fair.

So – now that I am single again, I am going to redouble my efforts. That being said, I refuse to only read classics, or to not read The Sun Also Rises at least once every other year.

So – I’ll share with you from time to time what I am reading, and what I think of it. So far, this year I have read: (Yes, I’m behind schedule – I’ve been reeling from the break-up, I’ll do better)

Eragon by Christopher Paolini ( I often read what my Sons are reading so we can talk about it)
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
Lost by Gregory Maguire
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

As for reviews – a longer post will be needed. And it will come, bear with me. I have reading to do.

The Man From Utopia

Thanks Litbrit, for inspiring me to do a Frank Zappa You tube search.

I was hoping to find a performance of The Dangerous Kitchen, but I found something much, much better. Frank on Crossfire in 1986.

Frank:

The biggest threat to America today is not communism; it's moving America towards a fascist theocracy and everything that has happened during the Reagan administration. Is steering us right down that pipe

This is from 1986 mind you! Are you kidding me? Poor old Frank must be rolling in his grave at the Wing-Nut we have in the White House. Frank was obviously a brilliant thinker, as well as a virtuoso guitar player.

I miss him.

Rest In Peace - Larry "Bud" Melman

I was saddened to see that Calvert DeForest passed away. He was better known as Larry "Bud" Melman on the David Letterman Show.

I was a huge Letterman Fan back in the early 80's. I spent many a drunken party in college doing my Larry "Bud" Melman impersonation, which basically consisted of throwing back my head in that offhand fey way, and laughing like Truman Capote. Always a hit with the ladies for some bizarre reason.

Rest In Peace.

Holy Shit - This Is FUNNY!!

Ok - this is funnier if you already know the song, or ever watched Pee Wee.

Either way - this is way too funny not to share.

My Life in a Song

I find it amazing (and, at the moment, dismaying) how many songs are either about love or about love that is lost. When one really listens to a song lyric, it seems to always be about how great it was, but now it’s gone. If it was so fucking great, why is it over? That my friends, that is the crux of the issue.

During yesterday’s walk, my Ipod was surely conspiring against me, as song after song after song reminded me of what I’m trying to forget. . On and on, one after another, they kept coming. Even songs that, at first glance, don’t seem to be about love - usually are, if you listen to the words. Ever listen to the words to “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell? (I have the Diane Krall cover)

I met a woman

She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
go to (her), stay with (her) if you can
Oh but be prepared to bleed

No shit, be prepared to bleed.

Not only, songs about love mind you, but songs that speak to my exact condition. This one in particular:

"Goodbye To You"

Of all the things I've believed in
I just want to get it over with
Tears form behind my eyes
But I do not cry
Counting the days that pass me by

I've been searching deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old
It feels like I'm starting all over again
The last three years were just pretend

And I said,

[Chorus:]
Goodbye to you
Goodbye to everything I thought I knew
You were the one I loved
The one thing that I tried to hold on to
The one thing that I tried to hold on to

I still get lost in your eyes
And it seems that I can't live a day without you
Closing my eyes and you chase my thoughts away
To a place where I am blinded by the light
But it's not right

[Chorus]

And it hurts to want everything and nothing at the same time
I want what's yours and I want what's mine
I want you
But I'm not giving in this time

I mean WTF? Those two back to back! Up next:

“Without You Here” by the Goo Goo Dolls, which of course was our song.

Then, the song that pretty much sums up where I am in my life at this moment, a little nugget by Don Henely –

"You're Not Drinking Enough"

I can see that you haven't recovered from
The girl who let you down
And you'd sell what is left of your soul for
Another go-round
You keep telling yourself she means nothing
And maybe you should call her bluff
But you don't really believe it
You must not be drinking enough

Well, the perfume she wore you can buy
Down at the five & dime
But on some other woman
It don't smell the same in your mind
You keep telling yourself you can take it-
Telling yourself that you're tough
But you still wanna hold here
You must not be drinkin' enough

You're not drinking enough
To wash away old memories
And there ain't enough whiskey in texas to
Keep you from beggin' ,"please, please, please."

She passed on your passion
And stepped on your pride
Turns out you ain't quite so tough
'cause you still wanna hold her
You must not be drinkin' enough

Ay-yi-yi-yi
Ask yourself why
You still wanna hold her
You must no be drinkin' enough

I turned the damn thing off and walked home with my memories as the sound track.

Do you have to believe in God to become a Monk?

oui oui!

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

Who's Your Inner European?

Because Carlyle is so easy to read....

I found this post over at Mimi Smartypants to be quite humorous (bolds mine) -

Check out #2. What did I say? What did I say, oh odd little British Lit professor of my junior year, whose face haunted my dreams from the day I realized that it would look exactly the same upside down? I believe the poem under discussion was "The Kraken," and I believe I freaked out mid-lecture and started Holding Forth (an unfortunate habit at the time), and I believe the phrase I used was "a C+ poem at best." And you looked at me with your upside-down (or right-side-up???!!???) face and we never really trusted each other after that.

Also, my all-consuming Tennyson hatred that semester inspired my boyfriend to regularly climb out onto the roof of his apartment and declaim Alfred's tepid verses to me as I took the "walk of fame" back to my place. That should have been my first clue, but did I listen? No. Reader, I married him.

This is your Governor, Texas

I am so proud to live in a State were the Governor's inaugeration ball is played by a wingnut in a confederate flag shirt.

Using machine guns as props, Nugent appeared onstage as the final act of the
evening wearing a cut-off T-shirt emblazoned with the Confederate flag.

And of course by proud I mean mortified.

Unbeleivable. Afterwards, as the guest, (to their credit) were picking their jaws up off the floor, a Perry Spokesman didn't try to distance the Governor from the controversy.

Perry spokesman Robert Black downplayed the incident, calling Nugent "a
good friend of the governor's.

Where are the Dixie Chicks When you need them?

"Okay, we'll call it a draw"

I love it when Gonzales gets hammered. What a lying little weasel.

Keep your eyes on the purge of U.S. Attorneys . This might be a huge deal very soon. If you haven’t been following this, the administration has been forcing out USA’s that are investigating too close to home.

Josh over at talking points memo is keeping track of this developing scandal.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare 1.2 Trillion?

What is your pet project?

If Nancy Pelosi called you up and guaranteed funding for whatever you would like the government to do, what would you request?

Universal health care, rebuild New Orleans, fund research on alternative fuels, really address poverty? Whoaaaa we can’t have all that, its way too expensive you say, right? According to this New York Times article, (in the business section, no less), we’ve already spent it on Iraq. Click on the above graphic to bring it into perspective.

This little tidbit should whet your appitite for the whole article:

In the days before the war almost five years ago, the Pentagon estimated that it would cost about $50 billion. Democratic staff members in Congress largely agreed. Lawrence Lindsey, a White House economic adviser, was a bit more realistic, predicting that the cost could go as high as $200 billion, but President Bush fired him in part for saying so. These estimates probably would have turned out to be too optimistic even if the war had gone well. Throughout history, people have typically underestimated the cost of war, as William Nordhaus, a Yale economist, has pointed out. But the deteriorating situation in Iraq has caused the initial predictions to be off the mark by a scale that is difficult to fathom. The operation itself — the helicopters,the
tanks, the fuel needed to run them, the combat pay for enlisted troops, the salaries of reservists and contractors, the rebuilding of Iraq — is costing more than $300 million a day, estimates Scott Wallsten, an economist in Washington.

At this point the estimate begins to differ on the long term cost of the war. If you read the side bar, these estimates have risen since they were published. Even the most conservative put it over a trillion dollars. I strongly urge you to read the entire article and its accompanying reports.

We often focus on the human cost of the war, (and rightfully so), but this is a cold slap in the face when you consider who is financing this war; the poor, the sick, the uneducated children. This, my friends is the true face of the Republican Party. We will never be able to afford universal health care, or true educational reforms, or to feed our hungry, but we can give tax cuts to the richest Americans, and all the while throw stomach wrenching amounts of money into the desert sand to appease the narcissistic, masturbatory urges of our dick-wad mass murderer in chief.

When will America wake up?

Marriage Jumps The Shark

According to a report in the New York Times, there are more women in America living without a husband than with one. This should not be surprising considering the varied reasons the report gives for this phenomenon.

What is never mentioned in the article is the specter of gay marriage. How many of those women without husbands are lesbians and would marry their partners if it were legal? I am sure in a few days the fundies will be all over this report, citing it as evidence of America's spiral into wantonness, idolatry, and gun control. I seriously doubt they will worry about the inability of a significant number of Americans to marry the person of their choice.

As for me, I am a firm believer in marriage (for all who desire it). I am single by circumstance, not by choice. I think marriage adds an added level of commitment into a relationship that living together will never cover.

I found the comments section particularly interesting. Mark Klien, MD seems to consider marriage an avenue for housework and sex. He never mentions love, commitment, companionship.

Couldn’t imagine being married again. It’s heaven on earth for older been there, done that single guys who can cook, have the resources to hire cleaning/laundry help and have lots of interests. Sex nowadays is a drug on the market.

I guess it’s a good thing for some woman that he’s not married.

Being A Grown-up Sucks

I spent the weekend with some friends out at their bay house. No TV, and 20 minutes away from town.. We finally shot our New Year’s fireworks, drank beer and ate gumbo. We also played our new game, with hilarious results.

I had hoped that I would come back today focused, and ready to move on. That was not to be the case. I need to find a way to move on, but I am having little luck. I thought the fact that I was the one who ended the relationship would make it easier to accept. Boy was I wrong, wrong, wrong.

Breaking off the relationship was probably the single most grown-up thing I have ever done in my life. It was the right thing to do for the right reasons. Yet, I am miserable. I want to call her. I want to at least leave her a message to re-assure her that I do love her, and I don’t want anyone else. It has taken a supreme act of will to not call.

I haven't gone away

Sorry for no new post in a few days - I'm having issues. (See post #1)

There is quite a disconnect between accepting something intellectually and emotionally.

I did the right thing, but it hurts so bad I can't really function very well.

I'll be back. Soon, I hope.

Truth In Advertising

TPM has a wonderful little story about Rep. Virgil Goode's (R-VA) office being vandalized. The word "Bigot" was neatly stenciled on the glass. The picture is priceless.

Every Little Thing They Did Was Magic

Oh my God!!!!!!!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be true!!!!!!!

Anyone else hear anything about this?

Best. Pop Group. EVER.

I still remember the visceral thrill I experienced the first time I heard Roxanne. I was 14 years old, and a very naive virgin, but I just knew the agony and emotions inherent in being in love with a prostitute from listening to Sting's mournful cry..

Rooooooxane!

Excuse me, I need a cigarette and to go clean my armor.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

update - found this on Rolling Stone:

Police reunion rumors

They ask an interesting question. What would you pay to see the police at Madison Square Garden or the Hollywood Bowl?

As much as it takes.

History Repeats Itself .....

I don't have as much time to discuss this as I'd like, but I found this to be an insightful analysis of the Iraq/Vietnam comparison.

A good read indeed.

2006 Leftovers

I spent my New Years Eve alone with a lovely bottle of French wine and possibly the best pizza I have ever created. A perfect balance, (don’t believe the commercials, perfect pizza isn’t about the quantity of the toppings, it’s about the balance) of maple smoked bacon, Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, kalamata olives, red and green peppers, jalapenos and 5 different cheeses. I bring this up, because I fell asleep without wrapping up the half that was leftover. No big deal, just toss the leftovers. It’s time for the post-holiday diet anyway, right? I did, of course throw it out.

I didn’t take the time or effort to calculate the calorie content I threw into the waste bin, but it was significant. Healthy, protein packed, and if a little heavy on saturated fat, still full of vegetables, meats and nutrients. Enough food to sustain a person for a day at least, thrown away because I was too lazy to wrap it up. I’m not saying my half a pizza could have saved a hungry child; even had it been wrapped up, it would have probably made its way to the trash a day or two later. The point is, what an abundance we of even modest means enjoy in this country.

This post was going to be about my New Years resolutions, but truthfully, I don’t really make them and of course, never keep the ones I do make. I decided to make a wish list of resolutions for America in 2007. It isn’t hard to come up with such a list, universal health care, peace, a real energy policy, Christians who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, etc… I could go on and on. Then I saw the pizza, and thought of how truly obscene it is that in the richest country in the world, parents, many of them with two incomes, have to choose between rent and food, or medicine and food. I don’t care if the parents are shiftless, lazy, drug-addicted, or pick whatever wing nut catchphrase is supposed to justify their poverty; this is America, the richest country in the world. No child should ever be hungry in such a wealthy country. A child cannot pick their parents, a child cannot choose to be born into wealth or power, and a child can’t help whatever situation causes the hunger.

So, instead of a list of resolutions, I have a plea. Make 2007 a year to feed a child. I’m sure many of you do already. To you I say, thank you and let’s do more. Find your local food bank and pay them a visit. Hunger is an every day event, it is not relegated to the week the Boy Scouts have a food drive, or major holidays. Talk to the workers at your food bank. Ask them what the needs are, what time of the month the demand is highest. Even a modest commitment can make a difference. Talk to your friends; encourage them to make a commitment. We can’t bring peace to Iraq by ourselves, but we can each feed a child. So as you throw out the remains of last night’s cheese balls, or spinach dip, or whatever party fare you had, take time to think of those who began 2007 with empty bellies.