Thanks to #1 Sis for turning me on to Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, a study of Mormon Fundamentalism and, by extension, the fundamental religious psyche in the United States. From the Prologue:

"The zealot may be outwardly motivated by the anticipation of a great reward at the other end – wealth, fame, eternal salvation –but the real recompense is probably the obsession itself. [snip]. As a result of his (or her) infatuation, existence overflows with purpose. Ambiguity vanishes from the fanatic’s worldview; a narcissistic sense of self-assurance displaces all doubt. A delicious rage quickens his pulse, fueled by the sins and shortcomings of lesser mortals, who are soiling the world wherever he looks. His perspective narrows until the last remnants of proportion are shed from his life. Through immoderation, he experiences something akin to rapture."


Remind you of someone??

(Subtle Hint)

De Obitz

Ashes of Pringles can designer buried in his work

CINCINNATI — The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been buried in one of the iconic cans.
Fredric J. Baur, of Cincinnati, died May 4 at Vitas Hospice in Cincinnati, his family said. He was 89.

Michelle Malkin Fingers Rachel Ray

I'll have a black coffee, two jelly donuts and one death to America....

From boston.com:

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad

May 27, 2008
Does Dunkin’ Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.
more stories like this
Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.
‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.
‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’
The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.
Said the suits in a statement: ‘‘In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial.’’
(In case you’re wondering, the stylist who selected the offending scarf was not Gretta Enterprises boss Gretchen Monahan, who appears on Ray’s TV show as a style consultant.)
For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin’s response: ‘‘It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists.’’
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Prediction update

5/23/08:

--U.S. will conduct pinpoint strikes against Iran June 3, July 3, August 1st or 30th.

--If a Obama/Clinton ticket is elected, Obama will not survive a full term. As I typed this – or shortly thereafter – Hillary Clinton cited the murder of RFK in a June preceding the convention as a reason why she should stay in the race. Pretty creepy.

5/27/08:
Asia Times: Bush to attack Iran by August. 5/27/08
Asia Times is reporting that “a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community” are alleging that the Bush administration “plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months” :
The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

IMHO, targeting the actual guard headquarters is worse, even, than targeting alleged nuclear sites, in terms of Iranian response. This would be a strike against actual people – not against facilities with human casualties being considered “collateral” (which is bad enough).

Predictions and Oysters

Shortly before leaving for lunch* at noon today, I started a document entitled "Predictions."

Predictions

5/23/08:

U.S. will conduct pinpoint strikes against Iran June 3, July 3, August 1st or 30th.

If a Obama/Clinton ticket is elected, Obama will not survive a full term. As I typed this – or shortly thereafter – Hillary Clinton cited the murder of RFK in a June preceding the convention as a reason why she should stay in the race. Pretty creepy.

*Coast Cafe. I had Oysters Scampi, C had Fish Tacos with marinated Yellowfish. Both dishes were really really good -- fair to say we were two happy customers. Pam was the waitress and brought us a creme brulee on the house which was also excellent.

Read These

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18rich.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=frank+rich&st=nyt&oref=slogin

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/14446/

There will be a surprise 3 a.m. quiz.

Great Guacamole!

The video you all have been waiting for:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=nbK-rTSRntw

Sometimes the Review is Better than the Book...

From Leon Wieselter's review of Martin Amis' "The Second Plane", NYT Book Review 4/27/08

-He [Amis] writes as if he, with his wrinkled copies of Bernard Lewis and Philip Larkin, is what stands between us and the restoration of the caliphate. He is not only outraged by Sept. 11, he is also excited by it. "If Sept. 11 had to happen, then I am not at all sorry that it happened in my lifetime." Don't you see? It no longer matters that we missed the Spanish Civil War.

-In Amis's account, the Islamist terrorists are guilty not only of slaughtering people. They are guilty also of proliferating "cliches" and "inherited and unexamined formulations" -- and in this respect they are "like all religions," which were exposed as "fossilizations of dead prose and dead thought," were they not, by "one of the greatest novels ever written, 'Ulysses.'" Why can't they just read "Ulysses"?

-Pity the writer who wants to be Bellow but is only Mailer

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/review/Wieseltier-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the+catastrophist&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Today's good stuff stolen from dailykos.com because I never have any original material so I have to steal everything...

Looking for "Tough, fair, relevant, and appropriate" questions
by BarbinMD
Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 04:18:56 PM PDT
Appearing Sunday on This Week With George Stephanopoulos is Senator Straight Talk McCain, and now that Stephanopoulos has set the bar for what constitutes tough and relevant questions for a candidate for the presidency:

If you look at the fall campaign, there are some clear signals from Senator Obama's opponents that all of these issues are going to be put together in a general argument.
...we can of course assume that McCain will be held to that same journalistic standard. After all, according to Stephanopoulas, we're not looking for "who will be the best president, but who has the best chance of winning." And in that spirit, here are a just a few questions that might help the American people judge McCain's "credibility and honesty."

Senator McCain, some have suggested that you take on Mike Huckabee as your running mate to offset the mistrust many Christian voters have of you given your support of stem cell research, which as you know, they consider to be murder. So my question to you is, will you ask Mr. Huckabee to join your ticket and can you explain why destroying unborn children isn't murder? After all, this viewpoint can be found on the internet.

It has been widely reported that you told Senator John Cornyn to "fuck off." Given your famous and self-admitted temper, should the American people be concerned that you may use the same sort of language to world leaders?

Let's move on to religion. You have "proudly" accepted the endorsements of Reverend John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Do believe and accept their belief that the Catholic Church conspired with Hitler to exterminate Jews, that Hurricane Katrina was a righteous punishment from God for the sins of New Orleans, and that a part of our American destiny is to destroy the false religion of Islam? If not, why haven't you publicly disassociated yourself from these remarks?
Keeping on religion for another moment; 20 years ago you began attending a Baptist Church, yet you refused to be baptized into that church. Why?

Do you believe that commiting adultery should disqualify someone to be the President of the United States? Why or why not?

It's been noted that you don't wear an American flag on your lapel. Do you believe that wearing one proves ones patriotism and conversely, does not wearing one mean that you don't love your country? In other words, is this an issue that the American people should be concerned about?

Now of course these questions may seen petty and trivial, and there are many real issues that McCain could be asked about, but hey, Stephanopoulos will only have about 44 minutes to uncover who will be the best candidate in November so there won't be time for pesky issues like health care, the economy, gasoline prices, and so on. But if he can squeeze in 30 seconds to talk about Iraq, maybe George can ask exactly how long McCain is willing to let Americans be attacked and killed in Iraq. Right now we only know that it's less than 100 years. Inquiring minds want to know.

Leave your suggestions for other "tough, fair, relevant, and appropriate" questions for George to ask McCain in the comments.

Update on THAT Restaurant

I'm occasionally asked what is going on with the Stinson Beach Grill. My knowledge of same is restricted to hearsay and rumours (good stuff!), but what I really have enjoyed are the online reviews:

Tony S.
Chicago, IL
3 star rating
04/07/2008
This place was OK for Lunch but I don't know why we had two courses, I must speak to my other half about this. I mean its lunch one course is sufficient and our starter was awful.I had a calamari but it was one of those calamaris that aren’t really fully battered. There were bits of batter or covering on most of the calamari and it was very greasy, tepid and bland. I am not quyite sure why I ate it.I completely forget what I had for an entree.It was nice to sit outside but the outside is pretty ropey. They need to spend some money putting in a decent deck and clean the chairs please. They had loads of these white plastic chairs which is fine but most of them had ground in dirt from many years I think. Someone really needs to smarten the outside up as it really is in need of some TLC.It looks nice enough on the outside, and the inside looked nice enough too. Service was OK although my partner’s bacon and avocado salad arrived with no avocado. We eventually got the servers attention she said oh then vanished never to be seen again until the end of the meal. She took $2 off for no avocado.underwhelming, I wouldn't go back but I have been to far worse places.

Michael W.
Pleasant Hill, CA
1 star rating
04/13/2008
If I could give negative stars, I would...We went there last Saturday, one of the first amazingly wonderful summer / spring days at Stinson beach left us very happy, mellow and to some degree hungry, looking for some food. Stinson Beach Grill seemed like a good choice since it was right there, they had heat lamps on the patio, and a small live jazz trio that was truly wonderful. Unfortunately the staff was not up to the task. It started with us being in line for being seated for 20 minutes - not because there were no open tables, but just because they did not make it a priority. Once we were seated got a waiters attention to order, we thought everything was on track. We were enjoying the music, and after a while noticed that the family next to us had bread+butter. We asked how they got it and they said they had to go and beg for it at the kitchen door. So my wife did the same and after a while came back with bread and butter. It was getting colder and no food was coming. We tried to get a waiters attention to maybe turn on the heatlamps but at that point the waiters where avoiding people’s eyes. Some guests got up and tried to put on the heatlamps themselves. My wife was joking that this must be a do-it-yourself-kind-of-place. It got worse from there. Some more outspoken (to put it nice) people at the next table where starting to demand their food, having waited more than half an hour, using strong language, and the waiter told them to get the f*** out of his restaurant but pay up for what they got so far first. So they started yelling and cussing at each other, pulling whatever stereotype they could, calling the waiter a nazi simply because of his bald top head - never mind the beard that gave him more of a cowboy/harley look, but I guess it gave them a simpler aim to look at him that way. The family next to us decided to leave because the kitchen apparently forgot about the food for the children and had only prepared the adults food, and seemed to get increasingly uncomfortable with the tension. We finally also told them that we are going to leave (waiting almost two hours by then) and the waiter seriously wanted to charge us the $2.11 for the milk he brought in the beginning. My wife had already gotten the go ahead from the manager to leave without paying and so we did. When we left a fireman showed up and asked about the shouting, and we told them it was the waiters yelling at rightfully unhappy customers - which he did not seem to be too surprised about.I agree with Angie R.'s review of the staff, I have the very same impression. What a miserable place.

Angie R.
San Francisco, CA
2 star rating
03/03/2008
I think that the Stinson Beach Grill pulled their floor staff out of a halfway house. Either that or life in Stinson Beach is incredibly rough on the locals. I haven't seen such a collection of sunken cheekbones, broken blood vessels and abnormally slow reaction time in one place since I worked down at 6th and Mission. I suppose you can surmise by now that the service we received was not good. We must have waited 15 minutes to get water, and probably close to 30 before we actually placed our order. There were several servers, busboys and assorted staff shuffling around the patio where we were sitting, and there were only a few other tables, yet we sat there, invisible. At one point a server looked at us and said "You haven't placed your order yet, have you?" then proceeded to ignore us and an entirely different server took our order a good 10 minutes later. I guess I should have suspected something when we were put on a wait list at 2:30 p.m. when there were about 10 empty tables on the patio. Honestly though, the floor staff looked so rough that I really believe this was the best they could do. I ordered the veggie sandwich which was not memorable at all, even after a strenuous 5 mile hike, when hunger generally would have made anything taste good. The fries were excellent, though, and they have Lagunitas IPA on tap. The atmosphere is great- you can't really go wrong with an outdoor patio in the sun on a gorgeous spring afternoon, surrounded by the Marin Headlands and breathing the fresh ocean air. If you can be Zen about the zombies who are serving you, it's a decent place to grab a beer and a bite after a hike or an afternoon at the beach. Stinson really doesn't have a lot to choose from in the way of eateries. Normally I would ask myself where the locals go, but in this case I think I am scared to know.
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Iraq's "Hidden" Conflict
Raed Jarrar March 18, 2008
Editor: Erik Leaver


From: Foreign Policy In Focus

"While the majority of Iraqis know that the current Sunni-Shiites tension did not exist before 2003, no one can deny that after five years of U.S. occupation, sectarian tension is now a reality. Sectarianism is another disaster that was brought to Iraq by the war and occupation of Iraq. "

If you only have time for one source of information on the Middle East, this should be it:

http://www.juancole.com/

Spring is here

Spring has sprung with a beach full of sand dollars and a park full of mating chickadees I kid you not. About a dozen baby house finches there too, little miniatures and busy busy busy.
Since I won’t be having any spring sex, spring cleaning will have to do. Followed by an attempt at tomatillo pork.

Kristen

$1500 an hour? Does she bring animals or something? I don't get it....

Josie

Allow me to introduce Josie Stolp Kennedy, my mother Jean’s mother. Josie was born 9/2/1891 in Cowley County, Kansas, the daughter of Ellen May Stolp and, well – don’t ask. Later Ellen married Oliver Crum (which is why she is referred to as Grandma Crum, though she is actually our great grandmother), a farmer, who was willing to install both and her b*** daughter as virtual slaves on his farm. Making this story even more pitiful - little Josie contracted an eye infection and became quite blind.
Eventually, Ellen took her daughter and left Kansas and the evil Mr. Crum, settling in Seattle, Washington, where Josie was trained as a seamstress (a popular profession among the blind).
Eventually Josie regained her eyesight and in July of 1918 married Richard Edward Kennedy, a musician and all around swell guy, though his eyesight wasn’t too good.

Happy VD To All My Sweet Babboos

Last Tango in New York

HEATH LEDGER - LEDGER APARTMENT BACK UP FOR RENT

The apartment HEATH LEDGER died in has been put back on New York's rental market. Three weeks after the actor was found dead in his bed after accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs, the Broome Street, Soho pad he had rented since September (07) is being offered to New Yorkers with deep pockets. The vast apartment is 10 times the size of many Manhattan homes, with 4,400 square feet of floor space; three bedrooms; two and a half bathrooms; an office; laundry room; kitchen and balcony. Ledger was paying a reported $24,000 (GBP12,000) a month in rent - so prospective new renters will need to be high earners. But real estate agents are confident it will be snapped up soon. One broker tells the New York Post, "You don't wait around in a hot rental market like this. As ghoulish as it sounds, people will rent that place in a heartbeat, especially when the vacancy rate is below one per cent."
07/02/2008 16:22 -- Contactmusic.com

Which raises the following questions: Couldn't they wait until he was in his grave? How much is a one-bedroom apartment in New York? Do the leftover drugs come with it????

Notes on Herd Thinning

Bye Bye to Mittens, who has dropped out of the race in order to keep the terrorists from killing us. Actually, since Edwards dropped out of the race Mittens no longer takes any joy in having his hair done, and going to the mirror for donations evokes a sadness past bearing. His children also wished to spare him the pain of spending more of their inheritance.
This leaves McCain assuming the position and preparing to brownnose Dobson, DeLay, Coulter et al. Having spent 8 years bending over for Cheney and Bush, he is well schooled in the task. Nevertheless, he can count on a certain amount of swiftboating from his own. The big issue is – who will he choose to be his VP (and the next President when he drops dead)?
The search for a reason to vote at all without becoming physically sick continues. My current rationalization goes like this: I would rather vote for a Republican pretending to be a Democrat than vote for a whack job posing as a Republican.

But take heart! There’s always Goldwater/Miller!

Super Tuesday, or so they say...

So there I was – ready to fill in my absentee ballot. My first love, Kucinich, had dropped out of the race, but I always thought Richardson was pretty hot, so that wasn’t a problem. Then Richardson dropped out so he could spend more time growing a beard, and I had to settle for Edwards, which was fine; I could do this and still look at myself in the mirror in the morning. Then Edwards took a powder, leaving me to fall back on sheer principle and vote for the person I actually really agreed with on the issues. And that is how I ended up dancing with the ugly guy, Mike Gravel. But I don’t know that I want to look at him in the mirror in the morning…

Thanks to #1 Sis for suggesting Isabelle Allende’s Ines of My Soul and My Invented Country. Then I had to go back and re-read House of Spirits which lead to Daughter of Fortune. It’s a good thing the California EDD is paying me to stay home and read, which was always my major career goal.

At my age one cannot waste too much time nurturing a broken heart, so after Richardson left me I looked for and immediately found my transition crush –Javier Bardem. Ok, that sounds kind of depraved (No Country for Old Men). For a less sicko (but arguably still a trifle disturbed) character, see him in The Sea Within. However, reviews of Love in the Time of Cholera are not encouraging.

Happy New Years -- 2008

What a beautiful New Years Morning. Woke up to the sound of a solo-playing Auld Lang Syne on a midnight otherwise soundless, still and -- dark! The power had gone out, seemingly simultaneously, which made the music omnipresent and pure. Pretty cool.

This AM the sun was not only shining -- it was actually putting out the heat. The park had bluebirds and the vultures were sitting in the tree tops, wings out to capture the solar energy. I picked out about 10 perfect sanddollars, stuck a feather in my hat and felt like Crazy Jane. No one offered me food or money, but no one confiscated the perfect size firewood I collected on the beach.