Foie Gras

photo credit

This American Life story about how foie gras is created.

Foie gras is the fattened liver of a duck or goose.  The controversy comes from how the liver is fattened. The bird is force fed a mash of corn and fat for for 21 days (I believe) until the liver is fattened and then the bird is slaughtered.  

Why?  Because a fattened duck or goose liver tastes 'better' than a regular duck or goose liver.  It's a delicacy.

The story on This American Life is about a man in Spain who has developed a natural way to fatten the liver. He takes advantage of the genetic impulse of migratory birds to store a lot of fat in their bodies before their long flight south.

The birds fatten themselves!

...and then they're slaughtered.

Foie gras isn't even a necessity - humans don't NEED foie gras.  There is no justification for torturing animals for the sake of satisfying a selfish palette.

It's easier to see how wrong this is when you don't eat foie gras.

Along those same lines, it's easier to see how wrong it is to eat animals when you've stopped eating animals.

WalMart

It's the holiday season at WalMart.

This is a link to videos of some WalMart shoppers on Black Friday.  
I think the people here think this is fun - many of them are smiling and laughing.

Notice in the video called "WalMart Black Friday fight for TV 2013" the police are trying to bust things up. The girl continues to fight the police as if they're still battling for the television.  
Also, notice the person to the right who will not budge an inch while the police are trying to subdue the television girl.

I imagine this must be what it's like after the apocalypse when we're all fighting for food.
I can see I'll lose.

I hate WalMart for helping to create these conditions.  WalMart exploits people coming and going (workers and vendors and consumers).  It makes me mad that the Walton family profits from it while remaining largely invisible.

Here's the link to another story about WalMart - they're supporting a food drive for their own employees.

I can't see how anyone doesn't see that WalMart is the beginning of the end for us - not just the poor shopping behavior, but the way they do business in general.
Anyone who shops at WalMart is agreeing that this is how we should go.
I know that's a strong indictment against a small act (shopping at WalMart) - but it's the way I see things.

It's a new day...

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
                                                                                                         Anne Frank

All the Doctors

Still thinking about Doctor Who...marathon of fan favorite episodes today.
Here's that picture I was looking for yesterday...

Youthful Activism

Madison Kimrey - poised, intelligent, active.  Excellent.
I wish I knew how to multiply and encourage this in other young people...and adults...and myself

She spoke at a rally in North Carolina about voter suppression laws in NC.

Update: Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

I can't seem to get a picture of all the Doctors at the end of the episode.  I'll have to use this one...

The episode was confusing in its regular way (how did they get there?  why are they doing that?) but very satisfying in its heart and soul.  I was worried about how they'd use Billie Piper and David Tennant as Rose and the Tenth Doctor.  But, I loved it.  'Rose' was the conscience of the machine that destroyed Gallifrey and Billie Piper did a fantastic job.  The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors were a fun team, while John Hurt as the War Doctor was a wonderful balance.  I always enjoy Matt Smith.

Definitely glad I watched the two prequels, and I also watched a special that was funny..
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

I also forgot to mention earlier that the Google Doodle today was about Doctor Who

Yay, Doctor Who! :)

Doctor Who, JFK, Bob Dylan, Gettysburg Address, tornadoes, healthcare, filibusters and a sunny day

Bob Dylan's new "Like a Rolling Stone" video is an interactive channel surf.  Use the up and down arrow keys to move through each channel where people are lip synching to the song.  Is this revolutionary?  It seems like a reasonable next step technology-wise, and I wonder why more people don't do it?  Does it make the file too big, or does it cost too much to create?  Anyway - it's interesting.  I was most impressed with all the people lip-synching because they stayed true to the theme of their channel.  They must have loved being part of the video.

Yesterday (November 22) was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy. Commemorating the day has been the catalyst for a lot of television/radio/newspaper/magazine/internet talk about JFK, Jackie, the Kennedy's, the 60's, the baby boomers, the politics, and the what ifs.  My thoughts go out to Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.  I can't imagine how she's managed to be herself when the world wants her to represent everything about her family.  I suppose she doesn't know anything different.  Given that, I'm curious to know how she learned to be so normal at the same time.  I'd be too self-conscious to know how to walk like myself - or know who myself is.
Slate's Political Gabfest had a conversation about JFK that was interesting without over sentimentalizing.
NPR Weekend Saturday/Scott Simon had a couple interesting stories; JFK had the wit to lampoon himself and After Kennedy's Death, Wife Jacqueline Embodied Grace

November 18 was the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  It was 272 words spoken during the commemoration of the battlefield at Gettysburg Pennsylvania.  Lincoln's short speech followed the 2 hour keynote speech.  Folks in the old days were much sturdier than I - I can't imagine standing around that long (though come to think of it, in November 2007 I stood around for a couple hours waiting to hear Obama speak at the Oregon Convention Center).
The last line of the Gettysburg Address:  "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Two points:
First, in our current days some people believe that if we don't continue fighting, then their soldier relative who died will have died in vain.  I read somewhere that that idea was born from this speech - or at least reinforced.  But the truth is two dead people doesn't make the first person less dead.
Second, it's a rallying cry for the union, which is powerful...'shall not perish from the earth'.  Shivers.
Watch politicians (4 Presidents) and celebrities (Stephen Colbert!) read the Gettysburg Address on Ken Burns' website.

Another anniversary - 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.  Special episode simulcast live all over the world today.  In my time zone, it's shown on BBCA at 11:50 am.  Although David Tennant's Doctor and Rose Tyler are in the episode, there will be no Christopher Eccleston, which breaks my heart. Even still - a new episode that has a ton of hype around it.  I didn't enjoy the last season's episodes after Amy and Rory left.  I like Matt Smith as the Doctor, and I like Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald, but the stories didn't hold together for me.  Oh well - they can't all be winners.  Anyway - to prepare for the viewing in less than a couple hours:
Mini-episode prequel, The Night of the Doctor
Mini-episode prequel, The Last Day
A primer from The Daily Beast   


Last Sunday, tornadoes flew threw the Midwest.  This video by Mark Wells has given me more understanding of the terror and grief people experience as the result of tornadoes than anything I've ever seen. It brought tears to my eyes for the raw emotion we hear.  So, thank you to Mark Wells for helping me understand.
I don't think I could go on living there, but I get that people don't want to leave the area they feel attached to. I wouldn't leave the Pacific Northwest.

I'm tired of broadcast media (even my beloved CBSNews This Morning) distorting this story.  They've lost perspective and they're not being informative.  
The New Yorker podcast called The Political Scene told the story I think makes sense.  Yes, I have lots of questions and would appreciate if things had gone better and that the plan was closer to single payer, but the website problems are not a reason to throw out the whole plan.

Finally!  The Senate has changed the filibuster rules!  YAY!  To be clear, I realize this may be a problem when the Republicans have a majority of Senate seats.  But, for all these years of Obama's presidency he's had to claw and fight to get his nominations through because the Republicans have 'filibustered' everything.  And it's not even a REAL filibuster like Mr Smith Goes to Washington - it's the threat of one where they don't even have to keep talking.  Anyway - how can a president be expected to run a government when he can't even put his people in place?  It's ridiculous.  One of the privileges of winning the election is that you get to put people in your government that you want.  The Republicans haven't let Obama have that, and then they rail and scream because he doesn't do anything.  Aargh.
Anyway - here's a series of articles from the Washington Post Wonkblog that talk about the filibuster
The DC Court is the court at the Center of the Filibuster fight.  Here's why it matters
One huge effect of filibuster reform:  Obama can actually fire people
The world's leading filibuster expert on what happened today and what to expect next
Everything you need to know about Thursday's filibuster change
Harry Reid's bid to save the Senate
The filibuster move is great news for Obama's financial reform agenda
Nine reasons the filibuster change is a huge deal
White House, allies weigh nomination strategy under new Senate rules

And finally, we've been very lucky to have crisp, sunny, fall days.  This is a picture of Lake Washington from Medina Beach looking toward Mercer Island and Mt Rainier toward the left.  I took it on Friday 11/22/13.


And that's what's been on my mind this week.  If I had better focus and discipline I might have made these individual posts throughout the week.  Writing this up has taken long enough that it's now time for the Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor".  Enjoy Saturday!

9:10 on 11/12/13

Anything Goes at the 5th Avenue

I enjoyed the Cole Porter musical "Anything Goes" at the 5th Avenue Theater today.

The two numbers I enjoyed the most (and received the most applause) were the last song of the first act, "Anything Goes" and the second act song "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".  Those were the two songs that had the most dancing.  Both can be found on YouTube.

The singing was fantastic - everyone had a wonderful voice.

I love live theater.  I appreciate the effort the cast and crew put into creating a nice experience for me.  

I was sitting in the back.  Sadly for the 5th Avenue it was not sold out.  But, for me it was wonderful to spread out.  No one was sitting around me.

I have a hard time sitting still for plays.  99% of other people are still and quiet during the play.  Me?  I fidget and shift around, I cross and uncross my leg, I sit up on the chair, I sit back.  I feel a lot of pressure if someone is behind me.  Today - no one was behind me so I could change my position all I wanted to.

My HP Deskjet 5650

I can count on my printer.  I've had it for nearly 10 years and it still works beautifully.
Isn't it nice when you can rely on something?

I have an HP laptop I bought in 2009 that's still going strong as well. 

Thank you HP. 

Oops

I feel terrible for this Metro bus driver.  He entered the express lanes going southbound soon after it had been closed to southbound traffic and one minute after it was open to northbound traffic.  

Good article from KOMO News, with WSDOT twitter commentary, and a photo gallery.  

I want this

Link directly to article with the video

3D images of you, you and your dog, you and your spouse, you and your baby.

Hot.  I like it.

Here's a link to another video about 3D images of ourselves.  I'm sad to say the store featured on this link is owned by another major retail store that I don't like and will never visit.

Government Shutdown - Rachel Maddow

The Shutdown:  A Summary by Rachel Maddow

Participating in the Battle of Ideas

I don't have an image for today's post so this is a scanned picture of my Grandmother while on a trip to Asia (South Korea and China?) in the 1970's.

CBS This Morning  - This is a story about how police in London are approaching the problem of young people becoming radicalized.

I was particularly struck by Charlie Rose's ending comment that we need to be participants in the Battle of Ideas.

***

To change the world, we must be participants in the Battle of Ideas.

Silence leaves room for negative energy.

Active participation is exhausting, but necessary.

Closer to resolution

John Boehner put out a statement at 3:30 ET today.

“The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country's debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare. That fight will continue. But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.  In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts. With our nation's economy still struggling under years of the president's policies, raising taxes is not a viable option. Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president's health care law will continue.  We will rely on aggressive oversight that highlights the law's massive flaws and smart, targeted strikes that split the legislative coalition the president has relied upon to force his health care law on the American people.”

I have some quibbles with Boehner's view on things:
1. Obamacare was already debated and voted on by the congress.  During the course of developing the plan, Obama did engage in bipartisan negotiations.  If it had been Obama's choice, we would have a single payer health system.  The fact that Obamacare isn't perfect is a testament to his efforts to bring Republicans into the process.
2. Our nation is still struggling under the years of conservative policies of President George Bush and company - not Obama.  Obama's been digging us out of this mess as best he can with a Congress who doesn't care about anything except getting re-elected and destroying the federal government.    
3. Nobody even knows if Obamacare is a train wreck yet.  According to the Tea Party types implementation of Obamacare is worse for our country than defaulting on our debt.  I just don't see that.  And most economists would disagree with the Tea Partiers.  Yes, the website hasn't been perfect - but that's not a condemnation of the policy.  

And, based on his last sentence we can look forward to more of the same from them in the future - ugh.
Next step - the votes. 

Congress

I am so angry at John Boehner and the 'Tea Party' Republicans in Congress.
If John Boehner had allowed the House to vote (to open the government and increase the debt limit), this would be worked out already.  There are enough Democrats and Republicans who would vote yes to move the bill to the Senate who would have voted for it, and the President would have signed it.  The story would be that the Tea Party Republicans tried a strategy to defund Obamacare and it didn't work.

Instead, John Boehner is catering to the Tea Party Republicans by putting changes to Obamacare into the bill so they will be happy.  Which will never be acceptable to the Senate or the President.

On Monday, the Senate Majority and Minority leader had almost reached an agreement.  John Boehner decided he needed to get an acceptable House bill to the Senate before he lost control and the Senate came up with a plan.  The Senate stopped their negotiations (I don't know why - out of respect?  Crazy.)  Boehner created a bill that had at least one small change to Obamacare.  He couldn't get the Tea Party Republicans behind it because it didn't go far enough to defund Obamacare!  He had to drop it.

Now, it's the final day and the Senate is back to creating their deal.  A wasted day brought to you by John Boehner.

The final day before what, you ask?  The United States will not have enough money to fund the current programs and the debts..  The Treasury Department will have to choose what doesn't get paid.  Of course, the debt has to be paid first, so programs will get cut.

We don't know what will happen next.  The financial people are using words like armageddon, and global economic meltdown.  The stock market hasn't tanked yet because the people in charge of Wall Street believe cooler heads will prevail in the end.

I'm not so sure.  I mean, it seems unthinkable, but so did so much of the other stuff that has happened.  Personally, I'm afraid my company will shrink and my job is on the line.  I worry about my savings and what will become of me.

The Tea Party Republicans want this to happen.  They want a smaller government.  They want the government to stop spending so much.  They win no matter what.
And they were voted into office by people - Americans who don't care about anyone else; they want us all to live and believe just like they do.  They're a minority and they're holding the rest of us hostage.

Do I wish Obama had taken control of them a long time ago?  Yes.  But, I don't fault him for believing the Congress should do their job and act like adults.

Whatever happens in the next few hours or days, or weeks, I wonder what will happen in the next election.  Will Tea Party people get more power?  Will conservative Republicans get more power?  Will people remember this?  What will people value when they go to the polls?

Okay - I'm done.  Sorry this isn't written well - I'm very frustrated by the subject matter.

Slate

Slate redesigned their website in the last couple weeks.
David Plotz explains how, why, and what.

Four reasons I'm disappointed with the update:
1. I'd love to give them feedback, but I can't because you have to register to make a comment.  I didn't register with them before and I don't want to encourage their changes by registering now; they might think it's because I love the changes.
2. Did they fire the proofreader?  Lots of mistakes - missing words, bad punctuation, typos.  I thought a serious news site would care about how words and sentences work together to communicate ideas.  I guess not.
3. It's hard to tell which home page 'tile' is from Slate, a content partner, or an advertisement.
4. No search field.

I don't dislike the Slate content, but I don't enjoy the content presentation.

Here are some articles about the redesign:
Digitopoly
Washington Post
Mashable - this article makes clear to me why I don't like the homepage...the new version has 13 'boxes' of information while the old version had only 7.  I don't understand why they think it's a cleaner design.

It's a testament to my disappointment that I'm compelled to write about the redesign two weeks later.  It still bothers me.
I guess I'll get used to it.
Will I also get used to the lousy proofreading?  (Will I get used to lower standards?)

The Tea Party gets what they want

The Tea Party wants a smaller federal government.
They're getting it.

There's no sense in what they're doing because the thing they really want is already happening.

The Tea Party Republicans won't approve a continuing resolution to fund the government unless the Affordable Care Act is delayed for a year (originally they wanted ACA to be completely dismantled).  The ACA is funded separately and doesn't rely on the continuing resolution to continue.  In fact, the ACA website opened yesterday.  Taking an idealogical stand at this time doesn't make sense.

I think they're shaking shiny keys in front of our face while behind our back they're pleased with themselves for 'shrinking' the federal government.

The sequestor was a shrinking of the government and we're getting along.  They're hoping that after a while we'll all get used to the current federal shutdown and realize how unnecessary a large federal government is.

We're in a no win situation. unless someone comes up with a creative way to get out of this.
(By 'we' I mean people who appreciate a federal government)
This tactic is similar to what perpetrators of domestic violence do.
(I know that's a provocative statement.  It's not intended to minimize the horror of domestic violence or equate the brutality of domestic abuse to the  government shutdown.  It's a comment about the tactic.)

Two other factors that are contributing to the current stand-off
1.  The debt ceiling needs to be raised by October 17th and the Tea Party people don't like that either.  Economists think this will have the greatest impact on our economy.
2.  The Tea Party Republicans come from districts that have been gerry-mandered so much that the representatives don't worry about getting re-elected (usually, the only leverage people have to send a message to their representative).  They're representing districts that support this ridiculous plan.

Grrrrr...this makes me angry!

It's InSANity!

Today's (10/01/2013) Google Doodle honors the 123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park on the very day the federal government has shutdown because Republican House members are trying to repeal the lawful (voted into law by congress in 2009), and constitutional (per the US Supreme Court) Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

Celebrate Hump Day with Caleb the Camel

I'm not the only who loves Caleb the Camel

CBS This Morning celebrates Hump Day and Caleb the Camel

My previous post about Hump Day