Saturday morning roundup

North Korea, even more so than before, is becoming one, big prison.

Racial dynamics and disastrous land reform aside, does anybody think the world needs more tobacco?

If you thought you'd heard the wackiest of the conspiracy theories, check these out.

UBS is very good at breaking and dodging the law.

Another story about the price of glorifying the military.

With regard to milk as part of school lunches, it is true that milk is a food like any other: it has nutrients, it has calories, etc. Other foods also have those nutrients, but milk has been argued to be the most efficient vehicle for them. It has also been argued that it has too many unhealthy properties to be the vehicle of choice. Also fair. But even the reality that the article acknowledges--that it's a food like any other--is a step forward from promoting milk above other foods. If it's a food like any other, why require it?

Buses in DC are horrendously unreliable; they consistently screw those who can least afford other alternatives.

Friday morning roundup

Even without manipulation, the Libor is sketchy.

Non-functioning 911 after the derecho had fatal consequences.

David Brooks gives the President props for his foreign policy.

Japanese rice has lost its cachet.

Political ads featuring news reports are compromising journalism.

Thursday evening roundup

Meacham on Douthat on Christian morality.

Respect for the military doesn't mean blind glorification.

A Fox News anchor has a sick sense of humor.

Get your neoMcCarthyism coverage here, here, and here. Also, here's another, local case of cross-partisan decency.

This letter to Carolyn makes me so sad. I just want to say to this woman, own your look and you'll be fine. Nobody will be thinking, "who's that one bridesmaid that's heavier than the others?" Unless they're jerks. Play it right, and people will look up and say, "who's that beautiful, glowing woman who holds her own with a different style than the others?"

The Post's Master of the Obvious strikes again. Remember when she said that when you get unannounced vegan guests, you can serve them vegetables? Now she has advice for gardening on a hot day: work earlier in the day and keep something chilled to drink in the fridge. Man, do you think I could get paid to give freelance advice along the lines of, "when there are dark clouds in the sky, why not grab your umbrella?" Did the Post gut its investigative journalism division so it could pay for this stuff? Oh, wait, it gets worse: someone's getting paid to tell us that fresh food is better than processed food. Only it's worse, because she makes it about fresh vs. frozen, which is not the issue (frozen fruit and vegetables are quite good for you). So it's simultaneously obvious and misguided. That's no small feat.

Speaking of obvious misguided, y'all know how I feel about the lie that healthy food--or healthy living, for that matter--is more expensive. I'm glad someone else is pointing out the absurdity of dollar-per-calorie as a measure, but if you need someone to tell you to eat in and comparison shop, you probably need someone to tell you to take an umbrella when you see dark clouds. Also, there are so many things wrong with this sentence:

However, it’s one thing to understand that grains and legumes are a cheaper source of protein than free-range chicken; it’s quite another to try to get my meat-loving husband to have rice and beans for dinner every night.

Between this and the Post entries discussed above, I wonder if we've crowdsourced journalism to the point of making it meaningless. When did this article become about people's habits, rather than the comparative costs of eating healthily? And I know she's just throwing an example out there, but rice and beans? Every night? For the record, I, a vegan, have rice and beans (as a meal) about never.

Since we're trading in the obvious: there's even more research to support the fact that exercise is really good for you.

Thursday morning roundup

Activism in Pakistan's tribal areas can be deadly.

North Dakota reels from the oil boom even as it profits.


Whoa, did Gail Collins (and her editor) misuse "whom"? Just because she's referring to someone who will be picked, by the time that person will be, he or she is a subject, not an object, and thus a "who," not a "whom."

This Opinionator piece on weddings is a waste of space until the last paragraph:

There are snapping turtles at every wedding, under the tables and on the dance floor, snapping warnings about the uncertainties of the future, the impermanence of our bodies, the fickleness of love. But the best things, the eating and drinking and dancing and kissing, happen only when we ignore them.

Wednesday evening roundup

Are the Salafis a force to be contended with in Lebanon?

Venezuela is even less free than it was a few years ago.

Sen. McCain honorably takes on those who would dishonor his office.

Fact Checker breaks down the crony-capitalism accusations.

Who'd have thought: ads should be persuasive as well as funny. Here are some really funny ads.

Brooks and Collins make some interesting points and counterpoints.

This cracked me up because I suspect F. liked Gracie more than he liked me. They were soulmates, those two.

Read the last sentence of this and contribute your classy joke in the comments. Then do the same for this.

Wednesday morning roundup

Mali is going to hell in a handbasket.

More signs of overwhelming discontent with political leadership in China.

More signs of civil society in Russia.

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Tuesday evening roundup, Part II

I got so caught up in my rant that I forgot to check HuffPo before I posted. This will make up for it:

WTF?? Seriously, who comes up with this conspiratorial crap?

From another Post: Petri on veep selection. Gems:

Andy Borowitz has been having a field day with this on Twitter. “McCain: "Romney had all his money hidden in Switzerland. Sarah Palin was better, because she had never heard of Switzerland.”

and 

Sarah... lives in a more remote area of the world? She has never strapped an animal to the roof of her car that was not already deceased?  

McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt implied that it wasn’t that Mitt had any dark secrets but rather that he and McCain, combined, simply had too many houses.

I never in a million years thought I'd link to the Pirelli calendar, but there's something intriguing about the pictures on slides 8 and 20. That something: sloths. I mean, there's also the nudity factor, but that's all over the internet--you don't need the calendar for that.

Tuesday evening roundup and rant

In case anyone is still wondering why women, especially, don't find rape funny.

Wow, CNN: that's a sensationalist headline. Thing is, as it stands, when dirty coal loses, everyone else wins. I'm sorry that some families depend on it, but perhaps they can seek out safer and even more lucrative employment with less damaging consequences for surrounding communities and the air in general.

Carolyn recommends that parents don't let their kids associate screaming with appeasement.

I couldn't agree more about the damage that teen magazines can do to girls (and that Cosmo and such can do to women). But, there's a but. Actually, there's a whole rant. Let me step back. First, let me direct your attention to this incredibly offensive advice to daughters about boys, which a well-meaning friend (WMF) sent me, with the message that it was "all true." Here's an excerpt:

Your attractiveness to men begins and ends with your physical appearance. I am sorry, daughter, but this is the way it is. You must do all you can to improve your physical appearance.

1. Keep your weight down. It is not fair that women are judged more harshly than men for weight issues, but they are. Excess weight is the most challenging attractiveness issue women face. Many women could improve their physical appearance greatly if they would simply lose weight, or keep their weight at a reasonable level. To put it bluntly, don’t get fat.
2. Learn to wear tastefully applied makeup that works for your skin tone and facial structure.
3. Get a good hairstyle that works for your facial structure and body type. Long hair is more appealing to men than short hair.
4. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink to excess. Don’t use illegal drugs. All that partying ages a woman.
5. Learn to dress well for your body type. Wear clothes that flatter your body type.

Get help from a fashion consultant or cosmetologist if you need it.
AGE:
You will be more attractive in your teens and 20s than at any other time in your life.

Okay, I buy numbers 4 and 5. Take care of yourself and dress well for your body type. If you're going to wear makeup, apply it tastefully and match it to your skin tone. But if you ask me, makeup is for people who have shitty skin because they eat crap and don't exercise.

As for not getting fat... well, two-thirds of the people in this country are overweight, and a lot of those people still manage to find love. If you don't want to get fat, don't get fat, but let that decision come from within, from what you want; it's not about being attractive to anyone else. More on this below, but first, here's the part that's even more offensive to me (as much as my mother would agree with it):

PERSONALITY, BEARING AND DEMEANOR:
To keep a man, you must offer more than looks, age and chastity. You must cultivate a pleasant personality. Optimism, cheerfulness and an upbeat outlook are key here. Men don’t want a pessimist, or a woman who complains and nags. Be kind, pleasant, optimistic and non-demanding. This is not to say that your needs are not important. They are. Just recognize that his needs are important too. Your wants and needs do not always come first.

Don’t be crass, rude, vulgar, profane, sarcastic or caustic. Don’t complain about his hobbies or interests. Men absolutely hate it when their women complain, grouse, or bother them about things. Men absolutely hate being around a pessimistic woman who can’t find anything good about her life, her circumstance, the people around her, or herself. Men do not like gossiping, sniping or sarcasm from women. Most of all, men absolutely do not want to be with women who act like, talk like or look like men.

Sure, there's some truth to that: everyone's needs are important. No one's needs always come first. And yes, nagging is a drag on every relationship, and so is pessimism. Here's the thing (see the start of my rant): none of these issues apply solely to women. Everyone should cultivate a pleasant personality. I don't take offense with the idea that it would behoove women to cultivate a pleasant personality; I take offense with the idea that that wisdom applies solely to women. Men hate being around a women who can't find anything good about her life? Well, then, we're even: I hate being around men (and women) like that, too. As for chastity, see this. I'll leave the last sentence untouched.


Look, I can be crass, profane, sarcastic, and caustic. Oh, you know what else about me men apparently find scary? I'm a vegan. And you know what else? All of these things are a part of who I am, and I'll either be with a man who accepts me for who I am, or I'll be single. But I'm sure as hell not going to become another person, and I don't see why anyone--male or female--would want to date someone who doesn't value herself enough to be herself.

As for weight: Sure, I prefer to look the way I do now, at about 20 percent body fat, than I did a year and a half ago at about 30 percent body fat. I loved my body then, as I do now; I never thought I was a better or worse person based on my fluctuations in weight, and I frowned upon the Date Lab douchebags (and others) who outwardly expressed their preference for thinner women (good for you). I don’t think everyone should feel the way I do; I hope everyone is, whatever her percent body fat, within (health-based) reason, comfortable in her own skin. Nobody should be hounded, the way I was by my mother (which was also counterproductive), over her weight or shape. But, conversely, nobody should be made to feel bad or weak or less of a feminist, for preferring a different shape. The one redeeming sentence in that horrendous Skinny Gossip post was about how it’s apparently socially acceptable to be thin only if you don’t work at it. Crystal Renn got slammed for losing weight. That's not any more obnoxious than slamming her for gaining weight. Fat can certainly be a feminist issue, but it doesn’t have to be a feminist issue. Accept the way you look, and accept the way you want to look, too.

As discussed above, and generally on this blog, I've never been one for double standards: many of the same things often advised to women, apply to men. I'll go further: as far as I’m concerned, facial hair looks as bad on most men as it does on most women, and lingerie as ridiculous on women as on men. It does not behoove men to speak effusively of their cats on a first date anymore than it does women. It wouldn't be funny to suggest that it might be funny if Daniel Tosh were raped.

Of course, others may ascribe to double standards. My ex-bf, whose facial hair I could never bring myself to care for, recoiled when he saw a picture of me, on a friend’s phone, with an eyeliner-drawn mustache (remember my Che Guevara Halloween costume?). “Yes, it’s a double standard," he said. "But it’s still creepy.” Shrug. IMHO, so was his facial hair, so, no, it's not a double standard.

So I’m the first to say that the way women look shouldn’t define them—see the NOW manifesto. But I won't deny that both men and women—and women to a greater extent, and no, it's not fair—are judged by their appearance. We all make judgments about people based on what they look like, dress like, etc., whether we want to or not (and sometimes even I want to). I’ve been lectured in diversity classes about how I’m less likely to take seriously a job applicant who’s covered in tattoos, and while that's not actually true, what is true is that there's a universal, inherent preference for attractive people in this world. It’s not just a social construct. So to even things out, let's start applying the same standards to men: if you look like $hit, I'm not going to take you seriously.

There are other ostensibly gender-based issues that are best seen in a gender-neutral light.  For example: relationships. Have you ever understood why a woman's interest in relationships might detract from feminism, why a human preference for companionship can be perceived or spun into a sign of weakness? That spin, unfortunately, makes it difficult for some women to acknowledge that they’d be happy in a relationship. Why? Does anyone ever accuse men who want a relationship of being weak or insufficiently independent? It’s true for both genders that the happier and more complete you are as an individual, the happier and healthier you’ll be in a relationship, which will in turn make you happier and healthier as an individual. Being open to love is not a character flaw. It's anti-woman is suggesting that a woman has to choose between feminism and love and dating.

So next time someone says something about how it would behoove women to be one way or another, let's apply the same standard, universally, to both genders.

Tuesday morning roundup: guess the theme

Can Cuba's lack of oil serve as the opposite of the resource curse?

Professor Mesa-Lago said one impetus for reform may be Cuba’s dimming hopes of tapping offshore oil deposits. Repsol, the Spanish oil giant, decided in May to leave Cuba after its second well came up dry. Other companies are exploring different sites, but the dry well dented Cuba’s prospects of reducing its dependence on Venezuela, which provides billions of dollars’ worth of oil each year in exchange for a range of Cuban services.

Russia has no such advantage, but even outside the major cities, there's potential for change in spite of reprisals:

Antontsev, who has a radio show, said his listeners don’t respond when he has programs about laws cracking down on protest, but the phones light up when he talks about bad roads.

“They don’t see the direct link between elections and the condition of the roads,” he said. “People will become dangerous when they see the reason for their misfortune.”
Alexander Kruglikov, a longtime Communist, said the authorities are making a big mistake in suppressing dissent. “I have to say that the Soviet Union fell apart because there was no real opposition in the country,” he said with a wry smile. “No one was listening to individual voices.”

This column on Belarus's distinguished political prisoners comes a few days after friends and I were talking about the Soviet-era nostalgia sweeping Eastern Europe. I think I've had this conversation with more than one set of friends, one of whom said that people were buying old, crappy products because they reminded them of the old days. I heard about this a bit in Hungary--not so much "at least the trains ran on time;" more, "at least our pensions were guaranteed." Financial security is nothing to sneeze at, but it (obviously) needn't come at the expense of personal and political freedom, no matter what the Asian Tiger theorists will tell you. Anyway, in one of these conversations, I said, "if people want to go back to living under that system, they still have Belarus." We can only hope that won't be the case for long.

Monday evening roundup

Excellent ToshGate analysis:

The problem isn't a failure of men to see rape as horrific. It's that many of them do not perceive that rape itself lies on the far end of a broad spectrum of ways in which the idea of rape, the invocation of rape or the threat of rape is used to intimidate women or to regulate their behavior...

A comedian who shoots down an audience member who objects to his rape jokes by joking about her being gang-raped on the spot isn't being funny. He's using rape to shut up a woman who crossed a boundary by speaking out of turn. That is unacceptable. Tosh was free to say what he said, of course. But that doesn't mean it wasn't morally repugnant.

I just learned about Caitlin Moran, but I think she's awesome:

“When I talk to girls, they go, ‘I’m not a feminist,’ ” she said. “And I say: ‘What? You don’t want to vote? Do you want to be owned by your husband? Do you want your money from your job to go into his bank account? If you were raped, do you still want that to be a crime? Congratulations: you are a feminist.’ ”

As usual with Room for Debate, lots of talking past each other without necessarily disagreeing (in this case, about parenting styles). Here are the two best.

Point and counterpoint.

Monday morning roundup and ramble

Reading tea leaves in North Korea's hemlines.

It's wonderful that the heat wave means less runoff to the Chesapeake, but it's sad that we're not doing more for the Bay, like reducing the farm waste and other pollution that could flow in in the first place. Oh, yeah, certain "interest groups" oppose that. You can partly go around them by avoiding animal products.

Meet the man who sings while making Metro pocket guides. In other Metro news, it sucked to be you if you tried to use the system this weekend.

Some generic language tips for tourists.

***
Forgive me for starting this ramble by (re)stating the obvious, but I have a context to set: there are a lot of misconceptions out there about veganism, ranging from the extreme but not uncommon belief that it's a cult, to the incorrect but not uncommon view that it's unhealthy. Many people who ascribe to the latter misconception focus on protein (lack thereof, inefficient sources, etc.), and I've addressed that in the past. Another--albeit one that concerns people less--is that a vegan diet is low-fat. But it needn't, and in my view, shouldn't be; fats are satiating and nutrient-rich. I consume more fat now than I did when I ate dairy products.

The third misconception is about micronutrients. At a gathering last night, someone said that she'd read that some vegans were found to have certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies. To which I responded, there are certain omnivores that have vitamin and mineral deficiencies. There are probably more such omnivores, proportionately. Absolutely you can follow an unhealthy vegan diet. You can also follow an unhealthy non-vegan diet.

By the way, if you think I'm going around inviting these conversations, you've fallen prey to another misconception: that vegans go around aggressively lecturing people about the evils of animal products and benefits of a plant-based diet. Come to a party with me sometime. I don't even tell people I'm vegan, until they ask me why I'm not eating a certain thing (often, the host or someone else will say it). And then, people ask questions, and the topic will keep returning; I do not seek it out. People who aren't necessarily interested in trying it for themselves are still curious about how it might be done. People tell me I look great, point out that I've lost a ton of weight, tell me my skin looks great (even my mother!)--tough life, I know--and ask what my secret might be. Who am I to hold back?

Another thing that came up last night--and at Whole Foods the other day--was the imagined nexus between vegan and gluten free. There were lots of samples at WF and one woman was serving samples of GF muffins. They were labeled as such, and every time someone came up to her table, she said they were gluten-free. She'd already said that once to me before I asked if they happened to be vegan. No, she said, but they are gluten free. Well, that's nice, if you have Celiac's or another gluten sensitivity, but it's irrelevant if you're vegan. It neither makes your food healthier, nor vegan. Similarly, last night people were saying, oh, how do you make a cake without flour. I pointed out, not once, that flour was vegan. The issue was eggs (and sometimes butter). This question kept popping up in variations.

The other misconception was that I was somehow depriving myself by not partaking in the pizza and cake. I'm sure they were very good, as everyone said. But no, you're not making me hungry. There was plenty for me to eat, with the guacamole and hummus and fruit. No, I'm not craving the other food. It's no effort or restraint to not have any; they're just there. They're not calling to me.

And even as my hostess apologetically suggested that they were making me hungry or envious by having this apparently delicious cake in front of me, she talked about how when she doesn't eat dairy, she experiences less swelling, inflammation, and pain in her legs. But she finds dairy addictive, finds that she has to have it. Yes--see Mark Bittman's article, which I posted earlier--dairy is addictive, but you can break free (if you want; if you find that it makes you feel better). One key is to get enough fat (this friend mentioned that she craved dairy less when she ate avocado). Here are some other sources:

Soy (beans, milk, tempeh, tofu)
Nuts, peanuts, and seeds (including nut/seed butters and pastes, like tahini)
Grains (brown rice, wheat, quinoa)
Oils (olive, canola, rice bran) –controversial, some say you should stay away from expressed oil. If you have a heart condition or other condition, perhaps, but if you’re healthy, it’s all about moderation
Cacao (powder, dark chocolate)
Fruit/vegetables (coconut, avocado) 

If you're cutting back on dairy, add some avocado and tahini to your food. I'll be surprised if you go back.

Sunday morning roundup

Biodiversity is a public health issue.

People do have a thing against cyclists. A former neighbor who's a judge told me as much when he talked about a case where the driver was clearly at fault, but "juries hate cyclists." I also noticed something was up when many people, hearing that I was hit by a car a few years ago, first asked whether I was on my bike (implying, perhaps unintentionally, that I was at fault pretty much for being in the way).

If anything, I find it easier to make friends in my 30s. But it's true, it takes several rounds to cement acquaintances with friends of friends, even amid the best intentions.

This article is about the bigger issue of the income gap between most couples and most single parents, but this part stuck out to me, as "why people stay in bad relationships" has been a frequent topic of conversation, all over the place:

Ms. Schairer has trouble explaining, even to herself, why she stayed so long with a man who she said earned little, berated her often and did no parenting. They lived with family (his and hers) and worked off and on while she hoped things would change. “I wanted him to love me,” she said.

In fact, I'm going to a gathering tonight where I'll surely hear a variation on, "I thought if we just..." Sigh.

Check out this DC-after-Dark photo slide show.

Saturday morning roundup

Are coral reefs beyond hope?

Liz Gorman spoke out and so did others, in response.

WTF, mom and dad?

At 8:16, my parents left me a message. I was out (Friday night, go figure). I checked the message just now, when I got home. I am 35 years old, which, for our our purposes, means I don't feel the need to excuse myself from social situations to take phone calls or check messages. Just because I have a cell phone, doesn't mean I have to answer it. That's why God invented voice mail. I will get back to you at my convenience, unless you indicate some urgency in your message. But this message indicated no urgency; it was, "hey, we're just checking in, how are you, how's the weather?" I figured, maybe I can just called tomorrow, because I'm kind of tired and I'd like to go to bed. And I know that when I'm tired, mom irritates me without even trying, and I'm already kind of irritable, so, yeah, best wait until tomorrow.

So why do I get an e-mail from my parents at 10:16 saying, "where are you?"

Really?

Friday evening roundup

Very smart analysis of Tosh-gate. 

From the same source, very smart analysis of the Skinny Gossip post:

As long as we live in a culture that tells women that being admired and desired for the way we look is merely the normal condition of womanhood, something fundamental to our sex, it will be considered acceptable to evaluate women for their decorative value. As long as it's considered acceptable to pass public judgment on women's bodies, often negatively — to snark on and condemn and make fun of things that are truly beyond an individual's control — in public, then it's open season on all of our bodies. As long as women are in competition with one another to have the "best" body, we all lose. As long as there persists a single, narrow beauty ideal we are all instructed to live up to, none of us will live up to it. This game is rigged. There will always be some critic who can tell us where we are found lacking.

Coddling your kids does them no favors.

David Brooks disses elites, but in an intelligent way.

Look, I'm not a huge drinker (okay, the last couple of months has been an anomaly, but I've still managed to hold onto my phone). I don't need a drunk phone, but I definitely want a less expensive phone to carry around to certain places where there's a not negligible probability of loss or damage.

This article is about overconfidence in the realm of finance, but we were just talking about this analogy for dating: "Overconfident lotharios who ask out every woman they see, and who aren’t fazed when they get turned down, are over time likely to do better than wallflowers who never ask anyone out."

Another topic that has permeated many conversations recently: where have all the men gone? How many times have I heard/said the plea, "man up"?

What women want, sartorially.

Thursday evening roundup

Anne Applebaum on the elite.

Cheating potential: are you part of the 98 percent?

Okay, carrageenan is officially sketchy.

Really? I know Metro's annoying, but it's better than driving.

The following statement is untrue: "Of course, no one would suggest replacing milk with wine in school cafeterias to build strong bones"? No one? Really? I would suggest that.

Have you dressed your geese today?

Tuesday morning roundup

Would anyone else love to see Disney Co. sue North Korea?

Are these signs of a nascent civil society in Russia?

Some lessons in consumer math.

I'm increasingly convinced that Lori Gottleib hates women. I started out agreeing with her, but she could have stopped after a paragraph--before descending into mean-spirited rant, full of its own double-standards. This, coming from someone who has a book chapter on how feminism destroyed her life. Take this analogy, which should offend men as much as women:

Would a man be taken seriously if he wrote a 15,000-word article stating that he's entitled to both marriage and the freedom to have sex with any woman he wants? Or would he be told to grow up and get real? In today's society, he can choose marriage and the compromises that come with it -- sexual commitment, financial commitment, emotional commitment, along with a bevy of childcare and Mr. Fix-It commitments -- or he can choose to remain single and maintain his freedom but give up the joy that marriage and raising kids might bring him. He might dearly desire both situations, but he can only have one.

 Is she really equating a woman's desire to have a thriving family as well as a thriving career with men's (alleged) desire to have a family and sleep with as many women as they'd like? Really? Even if she is, here's an article in the same publication about a man who did just that (but left other people to write about it).

I can agree with her--it's a common theme in many gender-based articles and responses to them--that some of these issues apply across genders. And I also agree that AMS's original article was annoying and entitled (I'd also call it rambling), but I acknowledge that in all that rambling, she makes valid points. LG's response says more about her than it does about the subject she so viciously maligns.

Monday morning roundup

The tradeoff between extracting and moving natural resources, and the environmental and human impact of doing so, flares in Appalachia, Burma, and Montana.

The emotions of indulgence.

Maybe the pacu is to blame for the manliness crisis sweeping the nation?

Food

I have a lot of CSA veggies this week, since my CSA-sharers are out of town. Nothing like a ton of food you didn't choose to get your culinary creativity going. Today, I combined two of the soup recipes that Martha Rose Shulman recently posted--I used fennel, garlic, and potato as well as pureed zucchini and curry. It turned out amazing. Instead of sauteeing the veggies, I roasted them first--I know it's a bit hot for roasting, but I had the oven going anyway because I had some sweet potatoes and marinated tofu I had to roast. I separately roasted the cubed zucchini, diced onion, sliced garlic, whole small potatoes, and layers of fennel. I ended up using 3 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, half a small onion, 2 cloves of garlic, just a few layers of fennel, and a quarter cup or so of cooked brown jasmine rice. Plus olive oil and water. Plus curry and paprika (and salt if it isn't already in your curry powder). Yum.

On Wednesday, the day the veggies came in, my fridge was bursting with Swiss chard. I cut up the leaves and stems and sauteed it with a little bit of onion, plumped raisins, and sunflower seeds (pine nuts will also do). Once it was soft, I added some umeboshi (plum vinegar). I usually cook chard with balsamic, but the umeboshi worked really well--it was softer and also added just enough salt.

I've also been making a ton of pesto. So much basil comes in that I make pesto once or twice a week (first world problem, I know). I used to make it without replacing the parmesan, but I've since come to love the umami that nutritional yeast adds. If we get scapes in the CSA bag, I just use those; otherwise, garlic. Oh, and I've been using pecans instead of pine nuts (toasted first)--works really well. The pesto is amazing with pasta (my favorite being Whole Foods brand organic, whole wheat linguine).

Speaking of basil, I tried some home-made (not by me) basil-infused vodka last night. It was really tasty, as was the sangria. It was a really fun night in every way.

I'm become somewhat habituated to people commenting on my apparently dramatic weight loss, and I have to admit that I love it. Especially when it's phrased tactfully ("you're even tinier!"). I also love responding by telling people about my high-carb diet and its daily portions of pasta, chocolate, and wine. Those are just the most sensational sources of carbs. There's also the oatmeal, fruit, sweet potatoes and other root vegetables, and legumes.

Big Sunday morning roundup

Did the New York Times eliminate its fact-checking budget? Take this article about the International Criminal Court. Yes, like almost every other international institution, it's reach is hampered by the P5. But sloppy claims like the following can only keep the Court from getting stronger:

The United States never agreed to be subject to the International Criminal Court because of constitutional issues and worries that its citizens, especially soldiers and spies, could be brought before the tribunal. This is no idle fear, given the human rights scandals that have exploded in Iraq and Afghanistan involving United States personnel.

The constitutional issues are imagined, and so are the worries. It is indeed an idle fear, because the Court can only investigate and try crimes against citizens whose countries are unable and unwilling to to try the cases themselves. In the case of the Iraq and Afghanistan human rights scandals, the US has tried those cases.

Hu Jia sees change in China as inevitable. Argentina is attracting drug traffickers. Malian refugees have plenty to be resentful and angry about.

Kathleen Parker notes a political and interpersonal truth: "Comments offered in jest or offhandedly nonetheless can be wounding."

Scientists with PhDs are facing a tough job market.

Is uncertainty actually good for the economy?

As when I saw "Be Careful or the Sharks Will Eat You," I am amazed at the determination and resourcefulness of refugees:

In August 1967, when Col. Rustan was 20 and a student at the University of Oriente-Santiago in Cuba, he looked up from his desk in the college library one evening to see his father standing before him.

“This night we’re leaving,” said his father, who had escaped from prison through a ruse.

Col. Rustan left his textbook open on the table and fled. With his father, two sisters and a brother-in-law, he climbed inside a railroad boxcar carrying sugar cane.
They jumped from the moving train as it approached the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo and waded waist-deep through a snake-infested swamp before reaching a tall security fence topped with barbed wire. Col. Rustan carried his younger sister on his back over the fence, then scaled a second fence inside the perimeter of the naval base. After they were picked up by U.S. forces, the Rustans asked for political asylum.

Col. Rustan went on to do this:

In the early 1980s, the Air Force adopted Col. Rustan’s ideas for protecting aircraft from lightning with the installation of special strips that deflected electrical current. Since then, not a single plane has crashed after a lightning strike. 

Barney Frank gets married. This is so sweet:

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they began to see changes in their usually cantankerous colleague. “I should’ve known you were here,” said one leading House Republican after bumping into Mr. Ready in a hallway. “Barney was nice to me today.”

The Post's 'derecho' coverage underwhelmed. For those without power, officials' and politicians' directing people to web sites for more information added insult to injury. Here's a graphic depiction of power outages (and restorations) over the last week. See also the pretty chart of how f*ing hot it is.


This article about organic creep addresses two very different issues: to what extent are certified organic foods (1) actually organic and./or (2) marketed by small businesses rather than Big Food. I appreciate both issues, but Big Food can still produce organic food. I am more concerned about the first--the easing of standards to accommodate producers: organic should mean organic; I'll leave scientists to fight it out over things like carrageenan, but synthetic herbicides have no place in organic food. The second issue is less salient for me and others who don't by a lot of processed food; I have little risk of regularly supporting Coca-Cola, Cargill, ConAgra, Kraft, or M&M Mars because I very rarely buy packaged products. Earthbound is sort-of in the middle: do I care that it's a big, corporate entity? As for Organic Valley, it goes to show that you just can't go right with milk. And here's an example of why I just gave up on eggs:

Ms. Fuldwider has also voted to let organic egg producers give their chickens just two square feet of living space, when Cropp requires its own farmers to provide five.

Speaking of milk, Mark Bittman cured his life-long heartburn by giving it up. He writes,

But the bucolic cow and family farm barely exist: “Given the Kafkaesque federal milk marketing order system, it’s impossible for anyone to make a living producing and selling milk,” says Anne Mendelson, author of “Milk.” “The exceptions are the very largest dairy farms, factory operations with anything from 10,000 to 30,000 cows, which can exploit the system, and the few small farmers who can opt out of it and sell directly to an assured market, and who can afford the luxury of treating the animals decently.”

Osteoporosis? You don’t need milk, or large amounts of calcium, for bone integrity. In fact, the rate of fractures is highest in milk-drinking countries, and it turns out that the keys to bone strength are lifelong exercise and vitamin D, which you can get from sunshine.

It took me a minute to see that these summer safety tips were a joke--largely because only half of them are.

I could give a shit about Kate Upton but this thinspiration bile is disgusting.

Is Takoma Park post-hippie?