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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Friday, February 24, 2006 Duh Consider how depressing a week this has been . . . I mean, do you really want to believe that the man who calls himself the President, the leader of the free world, the commander-in-chief of the mightiest army on the face of the earth, DIDN'T KNOW his administration was about to turn over operation of our major ports (and it turns out that Dubai Ports World will be assuming management of terminals at 21 ports, not just six) to a company owned by a country that is, to quote Cliff at AmericaBlog:run by one of three countries to officially recognize the Taliban, whose banks laundered Al Qaeda money, whose capital is still considered an Al Qaeda hub where 11 of the 19 September 11th hijackers flew through to get to the United States and who sent some of its EMIRS TO VISIT BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN before 9/11. But in Bush’s defense, his family does have financial ties to the ruling elite. Or do you want to believe he's lying?I don't know which is worse. So I just have to get away from it again for a while. I don't know how Josh Marshall and the guys at Americablog and some of the other full time political wonks and writers can wade through this stuff day after day after day without wanting to go kill someone. I find myself screaming, "You fucking lying BASTARDS!" at the tv. I find myself crying when I read something that I thought couldn't possibly get any worse, but somehow has managed to. I am so angry at the theft of our country that it's more than I can deal with at times. So forgive me, I just have to get away from it for a while.So what do I do? Read the Organic Consumers email, enough to make you white with rage all by itself. For example, this little tidbit: ALERT: GOVERNMENT COVER-UP... TEFLON BYPRODUCT POLLUTING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVERA government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The toxins, specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), are a byproduct of the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon and Scotchgard. In late 2005, Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the Mississippi River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in Minnesota. 3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river serves as the main drinking water source for Minneapolis and St. Paul. PFCs have caused birth defects and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest ever discovered in the world. Following her discovery, she was unable to get the state to issue a public health advisory, as would normally be required by law. After she filed a federal whistleblower's lawsuit against the agency, Fardin was forced to resign by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Commissioner, a former Executive of 3M. Her research, which has now been halted, would have helped assess how far downstream the chemical contamination had traveled in the Mississippi River, one of the nation's largest waterways and municipal water sources. Please send a letter to the EPA, MPCA, and Minnesota Governor Pawlenty demanding the 3M Corporation be fined for chemical cleanup costs.But there was also this item, which I suppose is a fairly pathetic indicator of the state of our culture:Less than a third of Americans are cooking their evening dinners from scratch, according to a new survey by the Institute of Food Technologists. The data shows a seven percent percent reduction over the past two years. Although 75% of Americans are eating their dinners at home, nearly half those meals are fast food, delivery, or takeout from restaurants or grocery delis. In fact, Americans spent more on fast food last year than on education. The "Slow Food" movement and the OCA are working to reverse these changes and bring families back to the dinner table, with the benefits of agricultural sustainability, better health, better relationships with friends and family, and darn good flavor.Americans spent more on fast food last year than on education. No wonder we're so fat and so stupid (and yes, my overweight problem stems largely from eating fast food on the road while I'm working, a situation I've got to do something about).I had heard of the Slow Food movement a while back, but only just visited their website today. Slow Food grew out of a 1986 protest against the opening of a McDonald's in Rome's historic Piazza di Spagna, and now has some 83,000 members around the world. Make that 83,001. I just joined it, and joined the Greensboro, North Carolina, "convivium." Isn't that a lovely name for a local chapter? If anyone need prodding to join something like this, you have only to read their membership intro page:I am an enormous admirer of the Slow Food Movement and of the remarkable work it has done to encourage sustainable agriculture, to increase appreciation of good food and to celebrate and share the knowledge – often developed over millennia - of the traditions involved with quality food production.HRH Charles, the Prince of WalesGood enough for me, at any rate. So now I have to go finish fixing my own slow food of the day: spaghetti made with homemade noodles, home canned tomato sauce and dried herbs from last summer's garden, and homemade "vinegar cheese" standing in for meat. Clarence thinks the spaghetti has hamburger in it, but this cheese doesn't melt, and it takes on whatever flavors are in the other ingredients, so it's a perfect substitute for meat. And if you subtract the time it took to prepare the ingredients (time that was spread out over months, not hours of slaving over a hot stove today), the preparation took so little time that it hardly merits being called slow food. Oh, and I made a salad too: a whole five minutes spent breaking up some leaves of leaf lettuce, cutting up a tomato and a cucumber and whisking together some lemon juice and vinegar. I defy anyone to tell me that fast food is faster than that. posted by Liz @ 7:20 PM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
Consider how depressing a week this has been . . . I mean, do you really want to believe that the man who calls himself the President, the leader of the free world, the commander-in-chief of the mightiest army on the face of the earth, DIDN'T KNOW his administration was about to turn over operation of our major ports (and it turns out that Dubai Ports World will be assuming management of terminals at 21 ports, not just six) to a company owned by a country that is, to quote Cliff at AmericaBlog:run by one of three countries to officially recognize the Taliban, whose banks laundered Al Qaeda money, whose capital is still considered an Al Qaeda hub where 11 of the 19 September 11th hijackers flew through to get to the United States and who sent some of its EMIRS TO VISIT BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN before 9/11. But in Bush’s defense, his family does have financial ties to the ruling elite. Or do you want to believe he's lying?I don't know which is worse. So I just have to get away from it again for a while. I don't know how Josh Marshall and the guys at Americablog and some of the other full time political wonks and writers can wade through this stuff day after day after day without wanting to go kill someone. I find myself screaming, "You fucking lying BASTARDS!" at the tv. I find myself crying when I read something that I thought couldn't possibly get any worse, but somehow has managed to. I am so angry at the theft of our country that it's more than I can deal with at times. So forgive me, I just have to get away from it for a while.So what do I do? Read the Organic Consumers email, enough to make you white with rage all by itself. For example, this little tidbit: ALERT: GOVERNMENT COVER-UP... TEFLON BYPRODUCT POLLUTING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVERA government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The toxins, specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), are a byproduct of the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon and Scotchgard. In late 2005, Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the Mississippi River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in Minnesota. 3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river serves as the main drinking water source for Minneapolis and St. Paul. PFCs have caused birth defects and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest ever discovered in the world. Following her discovery, she was unable to get the state to issue a public health advisory, as would normally be required by law. After she filed a federal whistleblower's lawsuit against the agency, Fardin was forced to resign by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Commissioner, a former Executive of 3M. Her research, which has now been halted, would have helped assess how far downstream the chemical contamination had traveled in the Mississippi River, one of the nation's largest waterways and municipal water sources. Please send a letter to the EPA, MPCA, and Minnesota Governor Pawlenty demanding the 3M Corporation be fined for chemical cleanup costs.But there was also this item, which I suppose is a fairly pathetic indicator of the state of our culture:Less than a third of Americans are cooking their evening dinners from scratch, according to a new survey by the Institute of Food Technologists. The data shows a seven percent percent reduction over the past two years. Although 75% of Americans are eating their dinners at home, nearly half those meals are fast food, delivery, or takeout from restaurants or grocery delis. In fact, Americans spent more on fast food last year than on education. The "Slow Food" movement and the OCA are working to reverse these changes and bring families back to the dinner table, with the benefits of agricultural sustainability, better health, better relationships with friends and family, and darn good flavor.Americans spent more on fast food last year than on education. No wonder we're so fat and so stupid (and yes, my overweight problem stems largely from eating fast food on the road while I'm working, a situation I've got to do something about).I had heard of the Slow Food movement a while back, but only just visited their website today. Slow Food grew out of a 1986 protest against the opening of a McDonald's in Rome's historic Piazza di Spagna, and now has some 83,000 members around the world. Make that 83,001. I just joined it, and joined the Greensboro, North Carolina, "convivium." Isn't that a lovely name for a local chapter? If anyone need prodding to join something like this, you have only to read their membership intro page:I am an enormous admirer of the Slow Food Movement and of the remarkable work it has done to encourage sustainable agriculture, to increase appreciation of good food and to celebrate and share the knowledge – often developed over millennia - of the traditions involved with quality food production.HRH Charles, the Prince of WalesGood enough for me, at any rate. So now I have to go finish fixing my own slow food of the day: spaghetti made with homemade noodles, home canned tomato sauce and dried herbs from last summer's garden, and homemade "vinegar cheese" standing in for meat. Clarence thinks the spaghetti has hamburger in it, but this cheese doesn't melt, and it takes on whatever flavors are in the other ingredients, so it's a perfect substitute for meat. And if you subtract the time it took to prepare the ingredients (time that was spread out over months, not hours of slaving over a hot stove today), the preparation took so little time that it hardly merits being called slow food. Oh, and I made a salad too: a whole five minutes spent breaking up some leaves of leaf lettuce, cutting up a tomato and a cucumber and whisking together some lemon juice and vinegar. I defy anyone to tell me that fast food is faster than that.
run by one of three countries to officially recognize the Taliban, whose banks laundered Al Qaeda money, whose capital is still considered an Al Qaeda hub where 11 of the 19 September 11th hijackers flew through to get to the United States and who sent some of its EMIRS TO VISIT BIN LADEN IN AFGHANISTAN before 9/11. But in Bush’s defense, his family does have financial ties to the ruling elite.
ALERT: GOVERNMENT COVER-UP... TEFLON BYPRODUCT POLLUTING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVERA government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The toxins, specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), are a byproduct of the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon and Scotchgard. In late 2005, Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the Mississippi River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in Minnesota. 3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river serves as the main drinking water source for Minneapolis and St. Paul. PFCs have caused birth defects and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest ever discovered in the world. Following her discovery, she was unable to get the state to issue a public health advisory, as would normally be required by law. After she filed a federal whistleblower's lawsuit against the agency, Fardin was forced to resign by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Commissioner, a former Executive of 3M. Her research, which has now been halted, would have helped assess how far downstream the chemical contamination had traveled in the Mississippi River, one of the nation's largest waterways and municipal water sources. Please send a letter to the EPA, MPCA, and Minnesota Governor Pawlenty demanding the 3M Corporation be fined for chemical cleanup costs.
Less than a third of Americans are cooking their evening dinners from scratch, according to a new survey by the Institute of Food Technologists. The data shows a seven percent percent reduction over the past two years. Although 75% of Americans are eating their dinners at home, nearly half those meals are fast food, delivery, or takeout from restaurants or grocery delis. In fact, Americans spent more on fast food last year than on education. The "Slow Food" movement and the OCA are working to reverse these changes and bring families back to the dinner table, with the benefits of agricultural sustainability, better health, better relationships with friends and family, and darn good flavor.
I am an enormous admirer of the Slow Food Movement and of the remarkable work it has done to encourage sustainable agriculture, to increase appreciation of good food and to celebrate and share the knowledge – often developed over millennia - of the traditions involved with quality food production.HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
RSS Feed
PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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