WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT RODENT?

I'm not a big meat eater, preferring to get my protein from other sources, fish, beans, tofu, cheese, eggs.   But the article below fascinated me because of the possibilities it presented.  It describes a relatively cheap source of protein that is low in fat and that doesn't take acres of feed lots to grow.  I'm not sure I'd be able to sit down to a dinner of brussel sprouts and guinea pig with a side of cranberry sauce, but I'd be willing to give it a try.  Once.


We Americans tend to have food prejudices but never question our fondness for eating lambkins, little Porky Pigs, baby cows, adult hormone-injected steers, the ubiquitous (and tasteless) chicken, the almost chicken--egg, the Dolly Parton turkeys that are bred for Thanksgiving, and even the Easter Bunny?  Lobsters and crabs aren't cute (what insect relative is?), so it's possible to eat a guiltless meal of homard l'Amérique and not shed tears.  Same goes for clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops.  I don't have to look them in the eye (as I sadly do with lobsters) before I eat them.

Will the cute and cuddly guinea pig that little Josh and Emily named and kept as pets catch on as a backyard staple for a family barbecue, along with cole slaw and potato salad?  Who knows.  But if I were a big-time meat eater, I'd go for a nicely grilled cavia porcellus before a hunk of antibiotic and hormone soaked chunk of marbleized beef.





"Guinea Pigs, an Adorable—and Tasty—Dinner Companion A delicacy in the Andes is making its way to the United States in ever-growing numbers.

April 8, 2013 • By Michael Todd, Pacific Standard

Feeling a little peckish but don’t want a lot? How about some animal protein already packaged in (American) snack size? According to NPR, more people are eating guinea pigs, previously best known on these shores for being, well, guinea pigs in the nation’s laboratories (and for not being hamsters). And unlike the Western world’s unwitting horse eaters, at least the guinea pigs are instantly recognizable as such since they’re usually served whole, from two-tooth death rictus to meaty rump.

Having been sensitized by the writing of Jack Shafer over the years, I wondered how real this trend toward eating something most people bring home from the pet store, and not the butcher, might be. NPR’s Alastair Bland didn’t exactly answer that question, but did show his work in trying—and failing—to get a quantitative answer to back up the premise. His anecdotal information–one importer brings in a thousand of the animals a year compared to 600 a while ago—does indicate growth fueled by South American expats and adventurous gastronauts but no fear of a Guinea McNuggets future.

 Dining on guinea pigs isn’t a recent backlash against Cute Overload. In the Andes Mountains, where the miniature livestock are known as cuy, guinea pig is a delicacy, medical device, and even hard (if cuddly) currency. Visit an animal market in some mountain town—I particularly recall the well-known Otovalo market in Ecuador—and among the various large animals and chickens will be baskets and pens of live guinea pigs. Purchasers usually aren’t bringing a few home for tonight’s dinner, but to stock up a kitchen larder where the critters are often allowed to run free (and perhaps create a new generation of meals). And yes, to my eyes they were just as adorable as any guinea pigs raised for play instead of the plate."




Okay.  All you meat eaters out there.  Would you order a cute little roasted rodent for dinner?  If so, why; if not, why not?

h/t Andrew Sullivan's blog

GUN LOBBY TELLS POLS: NO VOTE!

90% of the American people want universal background checks.


From the national Quinnipiac poll:

"More than 9 in 10 Americans (91 percent) support the idea of universal background checks for purchasing firearms, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

But nearly half of those polled also said they thought the establishment of such checks would result in the government confiscating guns that had been purchased through legal channels.

Just 38 percent of those polled said criminal background checks wouldn’t lead to such confiscations, compared to 48 percent who said they would."


And where do Americans get this idea of gun confiscation?  From Crazy Lying LaPierre and his venal N.R.A. masters.


"SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre says he thinks the federal government wants universal background checks on gun owners to make it easier for federal officials to seize firearms. LaPierre told a crowd of more than 1,000 people in Salt Lake City on Saturday that President Barack Obama’s call for universal background checks fails to address the problem of the nation’s gun violence. “This so-called background check is aimed at one thing — registering your guns,” he said. “When another tragic opportunity presents itself, that registry will be used to confiscate your guns …" 


"The gun lobby is spreading the pernicious falsehood that a background check will lead to a gun registry, and a registry will lead to a knock on the front door by a government SWAT team intent on confiscating the nation’s weapons. [Senator Rand] Paul and the other signatories who share this belief have promised to filibuster that bill." --NYTimes  

LaPierre is clearly lying to the American people, who apparently are unaware of this law:A national gun registry is illegal. 

It has been ever since the 1986 passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act:  

"No such rule or regulation prescribed after the date of the enactment of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or dispositions be established. Nothing in this section expands or restricts the Secretary’s authority to inquire into the disposition of any firearm in the course of a criminal investigation. "


I disagree with the law--which was, in all probability, written by N.R.A. lobbyists, and foisted on our cowardly law makers in Washington D.C. through threats and bribes.  There's absolutely nothing in the 2nd Amendment that says anything about not abridging anyone's right to bear arms through registration. 

REPUBLICANS John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have said they will obstruct the proposal and the will of the American people for a sensible law that aims at prohibiting mentally ill people, criminals, and terrorists from easily obtaining firearms.


"McConnell is the fifteenth Republican to join the filibuster effort being led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The GOP leader could have opted to stay out of it, letting the votes happen on the gun package and putting the pressure on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to decide the bill's fate, if it even made it out of the Senate. Instead, McConnell is making a calculated decision to be part of the filibuster effort that could derail the entire push for gun control legislation. News of McConnell's plan came at the exact moment that Obama was giving a speech in Hartford, Conn. -- to a crowd that included families of victims from the Newtown shootings..."

Editorials from around the country:
"The problem with the debate in Washington is that the gun lobby has been successful in shifting the debate away from any substantive argument to one that amounts to political posturing." --BattleCreekInquirer.com


Editorial, 3/30: Thumbs-up on background checks --JournalStar.com, Nebraska

Editorial: Ignore the gun lobby and start substantive debate on background checks --Detroit Free Press


Americans favor stricter control over gun rights

Gallup on Guns

Are we Americans going to allow the lackeys of the N.R.A. to thwart the will of the people on this sensible proposed piece of legislation?

This is Just Fun!

From Carrie Russell's blog we learn that Somerville, Mass., is the hippest city in the U.S.!

(I've loved Somerville since before the day Steve Herrell opened his ice cream parlor.)


New Study Names Hippest City in America 
 March 15, 2013 

The hippest city in America? 

 It’s Somerville, Massachusetts. 

Sorry San Franciscans. You’ve gone yuppy gourmet and your coolest residents have moved to Oakland.  New Yorkers? Your city is way too expensive for true hipness to flourish.  Weirdos in Austin? Somerville’s got you beat on volume of both thrift shop and indie music purchases.  Washington D.C.? You’re kidding, right? No one thinks Washington D.C. is hip. 

 Residents of Somerville spend more time in independent coffee shops than residents of any other city. 
Surprised, Seattle?* Residents of Somerville own more bespoke bicycles (and unicycles) than even the good people of Denver.   And, sorry L.A. They know more about film, too. 

 Residents of Somerville are most likely to accurately predict Oscar winners for every category from Best Picture to Sound Mixing. What city has the highest ratio of adult sports league participation** to childhood sports league participation? Somerville!** 

 And what city has the highest incidence of ironic Superbowl parties? The ‘Ville again.*** 

I don’t live in Somerville but I keep seeing Facebook posts from friends there who have just come from a potluck dinner with the mayor or attended a Marshmallow Fluff Fest. Supporters of public transportation, rescue kittens and the arts dominate this fiercely vibrant city in Massachusetts. 

Yep. Somerville has out-Portlandia’d Portland. Oh, yeah, and much of my book Drowning Cactus, due to be released this summer, is set there. It’s also set in Santa Fe and Tucson, but more about those places later.

 Rock on Somervillians!  

*The facts in this post may or may not be strictly statistically accurate but instead are based on standards methods of casual observation. Statistics are for nerds. Hipsters rely on bold inference.  

**Think foursquare, hopscotch and competitive sidewalk chalking. 

***OK. I’ve never actually heard of a party like this, but if were to ever happen, I’m pretty sure someone in Somerville would host it."

The above may be just one woman's opinion, but when you visit Boston, you have to jump on the "T" (red line) and visit Somerville, especially Davis Square.

And don't miss Sacco's Bowl Haven.  The pizza's great!

HOMOSEXUALITY & THE BIBLE

BREAKING NEWS! 

 The Supreme Leader of North Korea came out in favor of same-sex marriage!

 





AN ODE TO GAY MARRIAGE 
 by Sarah Firisen 

So who has the right be wed? 
Who deserves a marital bed? 
Should just Jack and Jill 
Marry at will? 
We’ll wait for the ruling with dread 

But what really here is at stake? 
Will the value of wedded bliss break? 
Is it really the case 
That gay weddings debase 
The vows that the rest of us take? 

Are we hetros doing so well? 
Is straight marriage doing just swell? 
Why does their right to join 
Kick my vows in the groin? 
Why’s this the right's end of days hell? 

Can’t we just all relax and agree 
That gays and lesbians have as much right to be 
Miserably wed 
Stuck together till dead 
Bickering, depressed and sex free 

Maybe unlike us they’ll find a way 
Actually together to stay 
Maybe theirs is the course 
That won’t lead to divorce 
Despite what the right-wingers say

Sunday Night Poetry

Not Wanting to Leave This Place



Frail in the cups, his seedlings are placed
Under the cold frame next to the house's 

Foundation where April's sun hatched them 
In moisture and peat, their plumules reaching 

Green. My father misses nothing bending 
To their radicle needs. Tomatoes, peppers 

And beans he weeds, hand picking the imperfect 
From the perfect, plumped for the worms 

He'll spray; these are his prizes.  Following 
behind him I am told to pull up lamb's quarters

And chickweed that are wild around each
Root. With trowel and claw I kneel to the dirt, 

Pebbles imprinting my knees.  Wanting to
Stop but not wanting to leave this place, his

Plot, where he raises my food up through the soil.
Each day, I watch him lean onto the spade turning

Over the clumped loam where there'll be a second
Planting; he will love the white and yellow blossoms. 

If he looked up he would see me watching. Carefully 
He moves among the rows, not to bruise the new fruit.

                                                              --S.K.
                                                            

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE MUMBLES

Boston's longest serving mayor, Thomas Menino, announced recently that he would not seek a sixth term in office.

Elected in 1993 as Boston's first non-Irish mayor, Mayor Menino defeated state legislator, James Brett, 64% to 36%.  After running unopposed for a second term in 1997, Menino defeated Boston City Councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen in 2001 for a third term with 76% of the vote and in 2005 garnered 67% of the vote in beating Maura Hennigan, another councilor. On July 13, 2009, Menino became the longest-serving mayor in Boston history. On November 3, 2009 Menino garnered 57% of the vote, defeating Boston City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty and securing an unprecedented fifth term.

Since I was a resident of Florida for a number of years while Mr. Menino was mayor, I missed the middle chunk of years he served the citizens of Boston.  Returning to Boston in 2004, I was witness to the good, the bad, and the mumbling of Boston's longest serving [and beloved by many]  mayor, Thomas Menino.

Below are the highlights and lowlights of Mayor Menino's remarkable career.

The Good:

Mayors Against Illegal Guns

On April 25, 2006, Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hosted a summit at Gracie Mansion in New York City, during which the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition was formed. The coalition, of which Menino remains co-chair, stated its goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The initial group consisted of 15 mayors; the 15 drafted and signed a statement of principles[6] and set a goal to expand their membership to 50 mayors by the end of 2006. That goal was met six months ahead of schedule, and led to its current membership of 210 mayors, with members from both major political parties and 40 states.

DNC 2004

Menino brought the Democratic National Convention to Boston in 2004. Though controversial in the beginning for fundraising difficulties, security concerns, protests by unions, and inconvenience to residents, Menino estimates the convention generated $150 million in business for the city; meanwhile, other estimates suggest the convention generated $14.8 million for the city.

Beantown to Greentown

In 2008, the City of Boston was ranked as the third greenest city in the US by Popular Science Magazine. In the last decade, there have been new initiatives around planting more trees in the city, single-stream recycling, increasing the solar power capacity of the city, investing in alternative energy, and biking. One of the most innovative ideas has been green building zoning, which requires large-scale private construction to be “green” by LEED standards. Boston is the first city to revise its building code to ensure green construction. The documentary The Greening of Southie by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis tells the story of the first green residential building in Boston. The city has partnered with other government agencies and local businesses to accomplish its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, and to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

The Bad:

Chick-fil-A opposition 

On July 19, 2012, Mayor Menino stated that he would work to prevent Chick-fil-A from opening restaurants within Boston, especially near the Freedom Trail, citing their opposition to same-sex marriage and what he called Boston's status as "a leader when it comes to social justice and opportunities for all."  The next day, Menino sent a letter to Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy. Menino urged the company to "back out of your plans to locate in Boston" because of his stance on gay marriage. Gay rights supporters applauded the mayors support of gay marriage rights, while first amendment advocates decried the potential for abuse of office to infringe on free speech rights.


Pledge to serve only two terms

In 1993 when running for mayor, Menino pledged to serve "only two terms, and that's it for me." In 2001, when Menino ran for a third term, he clarified "I promised I'd serve two terms - in every century."

Cronyism

In 2001, Menino personally intervened to help stop a chain drugstore from opening a few blocks from a pharmacy owned by a close friend and political supporter. The case raised the question of favoritism and cronyism in the city's zoning and licensing practices. 

Occupy Boston

In 2011, controversy arose surrounding Menino's decision to evict members of the Occupy Boston protest on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Menino later commented that "I simplify [sic] with their issues, some of those issues we really have to look at in America, but when it comes to civil disobedience I will not tolerate civil disobedience in the city of Boston." 

The Mumbles:

Mayor Menino has been good-naturedly [and not so good-naturedly at times] referred to as Mayor "Mumbles" Menino, because of his thick Boston accent and his penchant for malapropisms, as in the above paragraph where he said "simplify with their issues," rather than "sympathize with their issues."

Mayor "Mumbles" malapropisms have led to some hilarious pronouncements:


A typical example involves a reference to Boston's parking shortage as "an Alcatraz around my neck" (meaning, instead, an albatross around his neck). 

 He referred to former mayor John F. Collins as "a man of great statue" rather than stature. 

On a public service announcement about prostate cancer, Menino said, "Together, we can defeat prostrate (sic) cancer." 

Much like a cookie, I predict the Yankee dynasty will crumble and the results will be delicious for Red Sox fans. 

 During the 2004 presidential race, Menino was asked if he would run for John Kerry's Senate seat should the Senator win, and responded "I will not be candidation nor I'll seek, but I'll accept a draft.  

During a ceremony honoring Boston Bruins hockey legend Bobby Orr, Menino mentioned a number of "ionic" Boston sports figures, including "Varitek splitting the uprights." Jason Varitek was a member of baseball's Red Sox; Menino probably had Varitek confused with Adam Vinatieri, the New England Patriots football kicker known for game winning kicks in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII. 

Menino congratulated the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, an ice hockey team, as "great ball players on the ice and great ball players off the ice.






Mayor Menino's legacy of personal contact and meeting more Bostonians than any other mayor in recent history is a standard to which all future mayors will be held and judged by Boston's residents. 

 Boston has changed much over the last 20 years for the better, and this will be Mayor Menino’s legacy.  

May he enjoy a long and active life.

h/t Wikipedia; Beacon Hill News

CRAZY TENTHERS AT IT AGAIN

UPDATE BELOW



The tenthers are at it again.

It was only a matter of time before this happened in one of those states where they believe President Obama is "taking away their freedoms," and where they think the gummint is shoving all those librul, commie, soshalist, America-hating and Satan-inspired laws  down their throats.

But brothers and sisters, here we have proof of what some brilliant observer of The Land of the Free and Home of the Confused once said:

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken

And here we have the state of North Carolina and its very own "we-know-what's-best-for-you" legislature wanting to save its little chunk of humanity through declaring a state religion, the Christian religion.


"Establishing their brand of Christianity would give Republicans the opportunity to force their religious views on every citizen of North Carolina, including anti-abortion views, anti-gay views, and any other views they have. These views could in turn be passed as laws to bring the state in line with the new state religion. So even if you aren’t a Christian, you’ll be forced to live the way Republicans want you to live. 

 Republicans have attempted to use the 10th Amendment a lot in recent months in an effort to nullify federal gun laws, federal health care laws, and just about any other laws they hate or disagree with. This latest abuse of the 10th Amendment would strangle religious freedom in North Carolina so that the GOP could sponsor their twisted views of Christianity, placing it on an unfair pedestal above all other religions. This dangerous effort should make every American wary of Republican governance and should make us all question the virtues of leaving the 10th Amendment in place. Perhaps the time has come to lead an effort to repeal the 10th Amendment before Republicans use it to nullify the federal government, the Constitution, freedom, and America itself." --Addicting Info




RALEIGH, N.C. — A bill filed by Republican lawmakers would allow North Carolina to declare an official religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and seeks to nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide. 

 The legislation grew out of a dispute between the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. In a federal lawsuit filed last month, the ACLU says the board has opened 97 percent of its meetings since 2007 with explicitly Christian prayers.

 Overtly Christian prayers at government meetings are not rare in North Carolina. Since the Republican takeover in 2011, the state Senate chaplain has offered an explicitly Christian invocation virtually every day of session, despite the fact that some senators are not Christian.

 In a 2011 ruling on a similar lawsuit against the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not ban prayer at government meetings outright, but said prayers favoring one religion over another are unconstitutional. "To plant sectarian prayers at the heart of local government is a prescription for religious discord," the court said. "Where prayer in public fora is concerned, the deep beliefs of the speaker afford only more reason to respect the profound convictions of the listener. Free religious exercise posits broad religious tolerance."

 House Bill 494, a resolution filed by Republican Rowan County Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford, would refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer in North Carolina – or indeed on any Constitutional topic: "The Constitution of the United States does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional; therefore, by virtue of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the power to determine constitutionality and the proper interpretation and proper application of the Constitution is reserved to the states and to the people," the bill states."






What are we to make of yet another attempt by conservatives to do another end-run around the Constitution? To nullify anything a conservative state legislature doesn't like about the Constitution; to pick and choose which US law these conservative legislators believe suits them and which law doesn't?   

[Just imagine if a liberal state like, say, Massachusetts were to nullify the 2nd Amendment.  Can you imagine the head explosions we'd see in Conservaland?]

It's a thing to behold.  The very people who blubber and wail like banshees about freedom and liberty and freedom are busily at work picking and choosing which freedoms they think are best for you:


We've seen states where Republicans control the governorship and legislature make a legal medical procedure so difficult and cumbersome, that many clinics that offer them in those red states have packed up and left, leaving girls and women, who may need abortions, without safe, medical care.  

We've seen governors require the poor to pee in cups in order to obtain bare subsistence from welfare. 

We've recently read that a Tennessee state legislator has proposed withholding welfare from families whose students are not doing well in school.  [Little Johnny is failing geography?  No supper for you, Johnny, or your family until you get an A!  And that goes for those lousy calculus grades, too!] 


We've seen states try to impose difficult requirements for voter ID requirements that specifically target the poor and minorities.

None of the pols who live in those states believe they're taking any sort of freedom away from anyone.  It is only when liberals propose personally invasive or harassing laws is it considered freedom snatching.

But back to the great state of North Carolina and its efforts to impose a state religion on its citizens.  Let's hear what the Father of our Constitution had to say.

James Madison:



"Because Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents. The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves."


Mr. Madison continues:


"Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entagled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?"

MORE HERE:
North Carolina GOP Attempts to Violate the Constitution by Proposing an Official State Religion


Let's hope the legislators of North Carolina come to their senses and act like Americans instead of like potentates in certain Middle Eastern countries act, where their rulers enforce every aspect of state religion.


Here's another conservative pol and panty-sniffer looking out for your "freedoms":

Virginia’s Attorney General Thinks Oral and Anal Sex Should Be Illegal

"Virginia Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli wants to legislate what goes on between your sheets, as evidenced by a petition he filed with a federal appeals court to keep the state’s anti-sodomy laws on the books. Using the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision as its basis, a three-judge panel ruled last month that the portion of Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” statute outlawing oral and anal sex between consenting adults is unconstitutional."


UPDATE:


Resolution Is Dead’ – North Carolina House Speaker Rejects GOP Attempt To Declare State Religion

WTF IS WRONG WITH AMERICA?

Saw this over at Democratic Underground.  

It's a not-funny cartoon, but it speaks volumes about how dysfunctional a country we've become when we send our future generations into crushing debt just so they can attain an education to keep up with the rest of the world.



 

The Problem

Starting July 1st, student loan borrowers face the potential of adding more than $5,000 to their already onerous federal student loan debt. U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) introduced the Student Loan Fairness Act to help ease the burden on graduates.

 As you may know, total outstanding student loan debt in America has surpassed the $1 trillion mark. It has outpaced credit card debt, auto debt, and is second only to mortgage debt in America. In fact, a recent study shows that student loan debt is the only type of consumer debt in America that has actually increased during the "Great Recession" and the problem only continues to worsen.

 As a result of these debts, millions of Americans are not buying cars, purchasing homes, starting businesses, or otherwise realizing the American Dream.



The Solution

 We need a fair and simple federal student loan repayment system and which seeks to alleviate the financial burden of student loan debt on college graduates and support them as they begin their careers and lives. 

 By creating an equitable system to ease student loan debt we can lessen the financial impact on the next generation while jumpstarting the economy, creating jobs and promoting financial responsibility for higher education.

SOURCE


"...behind the GOP house committee on education statement there does seem to be a indication of agendas well beyond solving the interest rate problem. The statement of "moving toward a market-based interest rate for Stafford loans in a fiscally responsible manner" sounds very much like a policy intended to provide a entry back into the corporate sub loan model and also a disguised gift being sent out to the SLAB's sector. 

Student lending should never have been a market based system and it would seem that after the generational disaster caused by allowing market forces into the lending model to even imply market forces will be beneficial in resolving the problem is very much the "March of Folly" effect. 

Reality is if the GOP does get market based interests that will rise student loan payments beyond what many can sustain in the "Great Recession". Which will cause a definite increase in the already appalling default rates. 

Concerning about how to pay for it...perhaps the issue needs to be discussed in terms of how to end the current debt for education model and end the adverse costs it had levied on our nation, economy, and millions of individuals. GOP emphasis on 'market-based' solutions is little more than a back gate re-entry for a system which has cost trillions and does not benefit the nation."  

source

More HERE.




How the Student Loan Crisis Drags Down Home Prices

DID YOU KNOW...

"That at one time, folks used urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor" 

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low 

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. 


Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. 

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!" 

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." 

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. 

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." 

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold. 

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. 

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat. 

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous. 

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust. 

 Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. 

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer."

Sunday Night Poetry

These I, Singing in Spring
Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass, first published in 1860 edition)



These, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,
(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?
And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)
Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,
Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fearing not the wet,
Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, pick’d from the fields, have accumulated,
Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover them—
Beyond these I pass,
Far, far in the forest, before I think where I go,
Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,
Alone I had thought—yet soon a silent troop gathers around me,
Some walk by my side, and some behind, and some embrace my arms or neck,
They, the spirits of friends, dead or alive—thicker they come, a great crowd, and I in the middle,
Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wander with them,
Plucking something for tokens—tossing toward whoever is near me;
Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,
Here out of my pocket, some moss which I pull’d off a live-oak in Florida, as it hung trailing down,
Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,
And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pond-side,
(O here I last saw him that tenderly loves me—and returns again, never to separate from me,
And this, O this shall henceforth be the token of comrades—this Calamus-root shall,
Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)
And twigs of maple, and a bunch of wild orange, and chestnut,
And stems of currants, and plum-blows, and the aromatic cedar:
These, I, compass’d around by a thick cloud of spirits,
Wandering, point to, or touch as I pass, or throw them loosely from me,
Indicating to each one what he shall have—giving something to each;
But what I drew from the water by the pond-side, that I reserve,
I will give of it—but only to them that love, as I myself am capable of loving.

Doctor Carson's Brouhaha

The newest darling of the GOP, Dr. Benjamin Carson, has attracted controversy this week because of remarks he made while discussing marriage equality on FAUX NOOZ's Sean Hannity show.  Here is what Dr. Carson said:


 "Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are. They don't get to change the definition."


Dr. Carson had been invited to speak at commencement at Johns Hopkins Medical in May; but after the above statement, where he lumps gays in with NAMBLA and BESTIALITY, a group of students is circulating a petition, asking that his invitation be withdrawn.

Some on the right are now saying the left is "going after" Dr. Carson.  This is the usual response to hearing criticism when a right winger makes an outrageous remark, and it's hysterical falderol.

Dr. Carson has every right to say what he thinks about gays [that they're in a category with NAMBLA and BESTIALITY].  And those of us who take issue with that insult are perfectly within our right to criticize him for his denigrating remarks.  This is exercising our free speech rights.  No one's  "going after" Dr. Carson.  He entered the political arena, therefore, he is now subject to having his statements examined and criticized.

That's how it works.

Dr. Carson is wrong when he says this:

"What I was basically saying is that as far as marriage is concerned that has traditionally been between a man and a woman and nobody should be able to change that."



Marriage, even in the Bible, has also been between a man and several women; and in some cultures around the world, still is.  Even fundamentalist Mormons still practice polygamy.  So Dr. Carson apparently isn't aware that his understanding of what "traditional" marriage is, is wrong.

Other curiosities about Dr. Carson are his bizarre views on Evolution:

"Ultimately, if you accept the evolutionary theory, you dismiss ethics, you don't have to abide by a set of moral codes, you determine your own conscience based on your own desires."


“You have a theory in which you place your faith, and I have a theory in which I place my faith,” Carson said in a speech. “I say you can believe what you want but I simply don’t have enough faith to believe what you believe. I’m a person of faith so I have to believe in God. You know that always gets them.”

From the Washington Post writing on the above quotes:

"Dr. Carson argues that there is no evidence for evolution, that there are no transitional fossils that provide evidence for the evolution of humans from a common ancestor with other apes, that evolution is a wholly random process, and that life is too complex to have originated by the natural process of evolution. All of these claims are incorrect. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming: ape-human transitional fossils are discovered at an ever increasing rate, and the processes by which organisms evolve new and more complex body plans are now known to be caused by relatively simple alterations of the expression of small numbers of developmental genes. Our understanding of the evolutionary process has advanced our ability to develop animal models for disease, our ability to combat the spread of infectious disease and, in point of fact, the work of Dr. Carson himself is based on scientific advances fostered by an understanding of evolution."


Dr. Carson seems to be the perfect new shiny object for the GOJP:  We are told that he's a brilliant pediatric neurosurgeon who doesn't think there's any evidence for evolution, that he believes in traditional  marriage between one man and one woman, even if that combination has most definitely NOT been wholly traditional in human experience, and he categorizes gay citizens along with NAMBLA and BEASTIALITY.

A perfect combination for a GOJPers dream candidate.  After all, he's passed the test that calls for true acceptance as a true believer in today's GOJP:  Religious dogma over facts.

Rational Nation USA has a post up on this subject as well.  HERE.

The Grand Old Jurassic Party

UPDATE BELOW

Today we take a look at what's happening, or has happened, in GOJP land on economic and social issues:   


Walker Wrecks Wisconsin as State Plunges to 44th in Private Sector Job Growth 

"Remember when Scott Walker promised 250,000 additional private sector jobs if only the voters would elect him Governor of Wisconsin? 

Well, they did, but he hasn’t delivered. 

Wisconsin has fallen again, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics report. They are now at 44 out of 50 states for private sector job growth from September 2011 to September 2012."

[skip]

"...Forbes named Wisconsin one of the worst states for business, somehow claiming that because they weren’t a “right-to-work” state they are flailing, when in reality, Walker’s union busting policies have had plenty of time to attract business, per the Right wing claim. But they haven’t."


In 1995, Texas lawmakers insisted on imposing "abstinence only" as the only standard for sex education in schools across the state:    

"The results have been devastating. 

In 1992, Texas had the ninth-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. 

By 2008, it had jumped to third-highest. In other categories, the statistics are just as staggering today: 

Texas is ahead of the national average in teen births, repeat teen births and high schoolers who have had sex. 

The state lags behind the national average in high schoolers who have used a condom or birth control pills for their last sexual encounter. State taxpayers are left with a $1 billion annual bill for teen births. That’s just the beginning. 

Babies born to mothers ages 15 to 17 have poorer health, lower cognitive development, do worse in school and have higher incarceration rates. No wonder that, in a poll of bipartisan voters last month, 84 percent of Texans said they favored a comprehensive program that includes teaching abstinence but that also provides scientific-based information. 

That approach, abstinence-plus, has been previously endorsed by this newspaper. Rather than embracing the will of the public, state lawmakers, led by Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, are using sex education to push an anti-abortion agenda that would lead to state intervention in local decision-making."





Food Stamp Use is Highest in Red States: The Truth Republicans Do Not Want You to Know


"Economists say that providing food stamps might be the most stimulative action the government can take. Tax cuts for the wealthy ranks around 12th. I'm not against tax cuts for the wealthy out of any disdain for the wealthy. 

[skip]

So, the question is, do Republican approaches work? Who do they work for? Do they work long term? 

[skip]

Charts of food stamp usage show that while a few Democrat-led states have high food stamp usage; food stamp usage is highest consistently across Republican states. 

What does that say about the Republican approach...the top down, trickle down theory of economics fails the poor. Under conditions where the poor were helped, one would expect that there would be less reliance on food stamps. People would receive short-term support, a little assistance getting on their feet, maybe some job training, or some assistance paying for community college and would be on their way. 

If the poor are uplifted even just slightly then they become tax payers rather than living off food stamps. 

Republicans are angry about food stamp usage because they have failed to uplift the poor in their states. The top down, trickle down, economic approach has broken social mobility in Republican led states. Republicans are angry because their failed economic approach leaves them with fewer tax payers and more people on welfare." 



Here is an astute analysis:


The Grand Old Jurassic Party
STEVE ERICKSON FEBRUARY 14, 2013

With its focus on ideological purity, the Republican species is on the brink of extinction.



"The Republican Party is a presidential election away from extinction. If it can’t win the 2016 contest, and unless it has bolstered its congressional presence beyond the benefits of gerrymandered redistricting—which is to say not only retaking the Senate but polling more votes than the opposition nationally—the party will die. 

It will die not for reasons of “branding” or marketing or electoral cosmetics but because the party is at odds with the inevitable American trajectory in the direction of liberty, and with its own nature; paradoxically the party of Abraham Lincoln, which once saved the Union and which gives such passionate lip service to constitutionality, has come to embody the values of the Confederacy in its hostility to constitutional federalism and the civil bonds that the founding document codifies. 

The Republican Party will vanish not because of what its says but because of what it believes, not because of how it presents itself but because of who it is when it thinks no one is looking."


And lastly, here's another reason why minorities don't like them. (Remember how the GOJP has claimed it must attract Latinos and make them feel welcome in their party?)   Now read below how a member of the House of Representatives, without a hint of embarrassment, refers to farm workers.  After all, where he comes from, this is probably an acceptable term for Latinos:


"Rep. Don Young (R-AK) used an ethnic slur to describe Mexican farm workers in an interview with a local station KRBD on Thursday. "My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said while discussing economic trends of the last few decades. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.” Young's "wetback" remark comes as the GOP is engaged in a large scale effort to win over Latino voters, who have been alienated by party members' anti-immigration rhetoric and policies in recent years."

UPDATE:
Note to the GOJP:  If you want to be seen as a more inclusive party, it's best that you don't call gay people "filthy."  

Geeeez!

Latinos are "wetbacks," gay people are "filthy," women who wish to have their health insurance include contraception coverage are "sluts," and African-Americans stay with the Democratic Party because they're too stupid to know any better?

And this Michigan Republican says gays are responsible for half the murders in cities!  Where do they get these idiots?  I mean, does the GOJP send out flyers asking for the craziest, dumbest people to join them and become leaders?  It certainly seems so.

Whew!  And they wonder why minorities don't go near this party.

Dumb is too kind a word.