The Konformist Blog

Turning America into Pottersville

2012-01-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

Exclusive: The Republican presidential race has taken a detour into the “class warfare” that the party supposedly despises, with Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry tagging Mitt Romney as an elitist who got rich by laying off workers. But this spat misses the larger point of what the Right is doing to America, writes Robert Parry.
Robert Parry
January 14, 2012
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/14/turning-america-into-pottersville/

For many years, it appeared that the Right wanted to take the United States back to the 1950s – when blacks “knew their place,” women were “in the kitchen” and gays stayed “in the closet” – but it turns out that the intended back-in-time-travel was to the 1920s, to an era of a few haves and many have-nots, not only before the Civil Rights Movement but before the Great American Middle-Class.

The Right’s goal has been less to recreate the world of “Father Knows Best” than to establish a national “Pottersville,” like in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where the existence of the average man and woman was brutish and unfulfilling, while the 1 percent of that age lived in gilded comfort and held sweeping power.

Actor Jimmy Stewart finding himself in Pottersville in "It's a Wonderful Life"
That is the message ironically coming from the expensive ad wars of the Republican presidential battle, where frontrunner Mitt Romney has emerged as the personification of the 1 percent and has been attacked by rivals who – while supporting similar policies favoring the ultra-rich – have savaged his career as a venture capitalist, or as Texas Gov. Rick Perry puts it, a “vulture capitalist.”

Romney’s response has been telling. The former chief executive of the corporate takeover firm Bain Capital went beyond the Right’s usual lament about “class warfare,” terming the criticism of high-flying financiers who use layoffs to fatten their bottom lines “the bitter politics of envy.”

And, if there remained any doubt about Romney’s status as the nation’s “elitist-in-chief,” he added that it was wrong to have a noisy and open debate about the dangers of growing income inequality. He told Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” that “I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms, and discussions about tax policy and the like.”

In other words, keep the rabble from protesting their lot; leave these matters to the well-bred and the well-off, in their think tanks and their board rooms.

For decades, the Right has largely concealed this elitist agenda behind appeals to social conservatism and flag-waving patriotism. Many working- and middle-class Americans, especially white males, have sided with the economic free-marketers because the hated “lib-rhuls” supported civil rights for blacks, women and gays – and also questioned America’s military might.

Plus, many Americans have forgotten a basic truth: that the Great American Middle-Class was largely a creation of the federal government and its policies dating back to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. For many Americans in the middle-class, it was more satisfying to think that they or their parents had climbed the social ladder on their own. They didn’t need “guv-mint” help.

But the truth is that it was government policies arising out of the Great Depression and carried forward through the post-World War II years by both Republican and Democratic presidents that created the opportunities for tens of millions of Americans to achieve relative comfort and security.

Those policies ranged from Social Security and labor rights in the 1930s to the GI Bill after World War II to government investments in infrastructure and technological research in the decades that followed. Even in recent years, despite right-wing efforts to choke off this flow of progress, government programs – such as the Internet – brought greater efficiency to markets and wealth to many entrepreneurs.

So, not only is Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren right when she notes that “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own,” it’s also true that government policies enabled large numbers of Americans to climb out of poverty and into the middle-class.

The Dick Cheney Example

Oddly, one of the best examples of this reality is the life of right-wing icon Dick Cheney, as he revealed in his recent memoir, In My Time. In the book, Cheney recognizes that his personal success was made possible by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the fact that Cheney’s father managed to land a steady job with the federal government.

“I’ve often reflected on how different was the utterly stable environment he provided for his family and wondered if because of that I have been able to take risks, to change directions, and to leave one career path for another with hardly a second thought,” Cheney wrote.

By contrast, in sketching his family’s history, Cheney depicted the hard-scrabble life of farmers and small businessmen scratching out a living in the American Midwest and suffering financial reversals whenever the titans of Wall Street stumbled into a financial crisis and the bankers cut off credit.

After his forebears would make some modest headway from their hard work, they would find themselves back at square one, again and again, because of some “market” crisis or a negative weather pattern. Whether a financial panic or a sudden drought, everything was lost.

“In 1883, as the country struggled through a long economic depression, the sash and door factory that [Civil War veteran Samuel Fletcher Cheney] co-owned [in Defiance, Ohio] had to be sold to pay its debts,” Cheney wrote. “At the age of fifty-four, Samuel Cheney had to start over,” moving to Nebraska.

There, Samuel Cheney built a sod house and began a farm, enjoying some success until a drought hit, again forcing him to the edge. Despite a solid credit record, he noted that “the banks will not loan to anyone at present” and, in 1896, he had to watch all his possessions auctioned off at the Kearney County Courthouse. Samuel Cheney started another homestead in 1904 and kept working until he died in 1911 at the age of 82.

His third son, Thomas, who was nicknamed Bert (and who would become Dick Cheney’s grandfather), tried to build a different life as a cashier and part owner of a Sumner, Kansas, bank, named Farmers and Merchants Bank. But he still suffered when the economy crashed.

“Despite all his plans and success, Bert Cheney found that, like his father, he couldn’t escape the terrible power of nature,” Dick Cheney wrote. “When drought struck in the early 1930s, farmers couldn’t pay their debts, storekeepers had to close their doors, and Farmers and Merchants Bank went under. … My grandparents lost everything except for the house in which they lived.”

Finding Security

Bert Cheney’s son, Richard, ventured off in a different direction, working his way through Kearney State Teachers College and taking the civil service exam. He landed a job as a typist with the Veterans Administration in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“After scraping by for so long, he found the prospect of a $120 monthly salary and the security of a government job too good to turn down,” his son, Dick Cheney, wrote. “Before long he was offered a job with another federal agency, the Soil Conservation Service.

“The SCS taught farmers about crop rotation, terraced planting, contour plowing, and using ‘shelter belts’ of trees as windbreaks – techniques that would prevent the soil from blowing away, as it had in the dust storms of the Great Depression. My dad stayed with the SCS for more than thirty years, doing work of which he was immensely proud.

“He was also proud of the pension that came with federal employment – a pride that I didn’t understand until as an adult I learned about the economic catastrophes that his parents and grandparents had experienced and that had shadowed his own youth.”

Like many Americans, the Cheney family was pulled from the depths of the Great Depression by the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, cementing the family’s support for the Democratic president and his party. The family celebrated when little Dick was born on FDR’s birthday.

“When I was born [on Jan. 30, 1941] my granddad wanted to send a telegram to the president,” Cheney wrote in his memoir. “Both sides of my family were staunch New Deal Democrats, and Granddad was sure that FDR would want to know about the ‘little stranger’ with whom he now had a birthday in common.”

However, Dick Cheney took a different path. Freed from the insecurity that had afflicted his father and earlier Cheneys – caused by the cruel vicissitudes of laissez-faire capitalism – Dick Cheney enjoyed the relative comfort of middle-class life in post-World War II America. He took advantage of the many opportunities that presented themselves.

Most notably, Cheney attached himself to an ambitious Republican congressman from Illinois named Donald Rumsfeld. When Rumsfeld left Congress for posts in the Nixon administration, he brought Cheney along. Eventually Rumsfeld became White House chief of staff to President Gerald Ford and – when Rumsfeld was tapped to become Defense Secretary in 1975 – he recommended his young aide, Dick Cheney, to succeed him.

Cheney’s career path through the ranks of Republican national politics, with occasional trips through the revolving door into lucrative private-sector jobs, was set. He became a major player within the GOP Establishment, building a reputation as an ardent conservative, a foreign policy hawk – and a fierce opponent of the New Deal.

Demonizing Guv-mint

The Right’s ongoing campaign to dismantle the New Deal also has hinged on the demonization of “guv-mint,” a darkening of attitudes that became more possible when many middle-class Americans lost their memory of how their families had moved into the middle-class.

In the 1960s and 1970s, middle-class white men in particular came to view the government as a force for helping the poor, women and minorities, while putting pressure on white males to change long-established attitudes. Plus, they were told that the government was taking their hard-earned dollars to give to the undeserving.

When these messages – along with a mix of patriotic hoopla and coded appeals to bigotry – were delivered by the personable Ronald Reagan in 1980, middle- and working-class whites rallied to the Right’s banner. It was time, they felt, to dismantle many government programs for the poor and to get tough on foreign adversaries.

But Reagan’s most important policy was slashing taxes, especially those on the rich. Under Reagan’s “supply-side economics,” the top marginal tax rate – that is what the richest Americans pay on their highest tranche of income – was more than halved, from 70 percent to 28 percent.

Yet, since the promised surge in “supply-side” growth didn’t materialize, one result was a dramatic rise in the national debt. Another less obvious change was the incentivizing of greed. Under presidents from Dwight Eisenhower (when the top marginal tax rate was 90 percent) through Jimmy Carter (with a 70 percent top rate), taxes had been a disincentive against greed.

After all, if 70 to 90 percent of your highest tranche of income went to the government to help pay for building the nation, you had little personal incentive to press for that extra $1 million or $2 million. So corporate CEOs – while well-compensated – were happy earning about 25 times as much as their average worker in the 1960s. A few decades later, that ratio on CEO pay was about 200 times what the average worker was making.

As the Washington Post’s Peter Whoriskey framed this historic development in a June 19, 2011, article, U.S. business underwent a cultural transformation from the 1970s when chief executives believed more in sharing the wealth than they do today.

Whoriskey described the findings of researchers with access to economic data from the Internal Revenue Service. The numbers revealed that the big bucks were not flowing primarily to athletes or actors or even stock market speculators; America’s new super-rich were mostly corporate chieftains.

The article cited a U.S. dairy company CEO from the 1970s, Kenneth J. Douglas, who earned the equivalent of about $1 million a year. He lived comfortably but not ostentatiously. Douglas had an office on the second floor of a milk distribution center, and he turned down raises because he felt it would hurt morale at the plant, Whoriskey reported.

However, just a few decades later, Gregg L. Engles, the CEO of the same company, Dean Foods, averaged about 10 times what Douglas made; worked in a glittering high-rise office building in Dallas; owned a vacation estate in Vail, Colorado; belonged to four golf clubs; and traveled in a $10 million corporate jet. He apparently had little concern about what his workers thought.

“The evolution of executive grandeur – from very comfortable to jet-setting – reflects one of the primary reasons that the gap between those with the highest incomes and everyone else is widening,” Whoriskey reported.

“For years, statistics have depicted growing income disparity in the United States, and it has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression. In 2008, the last year for which data are available, for example, the top 0.1 percent of earners took in more than 10 percent of the personal income in the United States, including capital gains, and the top 1 percent took in more than 20 percent.”

The old New-Deal-to-post-World-War-II notion had been that a healthy middle-class contributed to profitable businesses because average people could afford to buy consumer goods, own their own homes and take an annual vacation with the kids. That “middle-class system,” however, had required intervention by the government as the representative of the everyman.

The consequences of several decades of Reaganism and its related ideas (such as shipping many middle-class jobs overseas) are now apparent. Wealth has been concentrated at the top with billionaires living extravagant lives while the middle-class shrinks and struggles. One everyman after another gets shoved down the social ladder into the lower classes and into poverty.

Those real-life consequences are painful. Millions of Americans forego needed medical care because they can’t afford health insurance; young people, burdened by college loans, crowd back in with their parents; trained workers settle for low-paying jobs or are unemployed; families skip vacations and other simple pleasures of life.

Beyond the unfairness, there is the macro-economic problem which comes from massive income disparity. A strong economy is one in which the vast majority people can buy products, which can then be manufactured more cheaply, creating a positive cycle of profits and prosperity.

Instead, Mitt Romney — and even his Republican rivals who criticize his personal business methods — are intent to press ahead down the dark road of Reaganism toward some nightmarish Pottersville. Instead of a vibrant debate about whether this is the right way to go, Romney instructs the masses to keep their mouths shut with the only permitted conversations about the nation’s future restricted to “quiet rooms.”

For more on related topics, see Robert Parry’s Lost History, Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep, now available in a three-book set for the discount price of only $29. For details, click here.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there.

Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus on Obama's Dumbest Critics?

2012-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

A major defense of the president exaggerates Obama's accomplishments and misses the point: his scandalous transgressions against rule of law.
Conor Friedersdorf
Jan 17 2012
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/dear-andrew-sullivan-why-focus-on-obamas-dumbest-critics/251528

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

(1) Codify indefinite detention into law; (2) draw up a secret kill list of people, including American citizens, to assassinate without due process; (3) proceed with warrantless spying on American citizens; (4) prosecute Bush-era whistleblowers for violating state secrets; (5) reinterpret the War Powers Resolution such that entering a war of choice without a Congressional declaration is permissible; (6) enter and prosecute such a war; (7) institutionalize naked scanners and intrusive full body pat-downs in major American airports; (8) oversee a planned expansion of TSA so that its agents are already beginning to patrol American highways, train stations, and bus depots; (9) wage an undeclared drone war on numerous Muslim countries that delegates to the CIA the final call about some strikes that put civilians in jeopardy; (10) invoke the state-secrets privilege to dismiss lawsuits brought by civil-liberties organizations on dubious technicalities rather than litigating them on the merits; (11) preside over federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries; (12) attempt to negotiate an extension of American troops in Iraq beyond 2011 (an effort that thankfully failed); (14) reauthorize the Patriot Act; (13) and select an economic team mostly made up of former and future financial executives from Wall Street firms that played major roles in the financial crisis.

I submit that had Palin or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rice or Jeb Bush or John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney proposed doing even half of those things in 2008, you'd have declared them unfit for the presidency and expressed alarm at the prospect of America doubling down on the excesses of the post-September 11 era. You'd have championed an alternative candidate who avowed that America doesn't have to choose between our values and our safety.

Yet President Obama has done all of the aforementioned things.

Pretend that you knew, circa 2008, that President Cheney or Palin or Rice or Rumsfeld or Giuliani would do all those things -- but that, on the bright side, they'd refrain from torturing anyone else, end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, sign a bank bailout, and pass a health-care bill that you regard as improving on the status quo starting in 2014. Would you vote for them on that basis?

I submit that you would not. And if they were elected, and four years later were running for re-election, would you focus on the stupidity of the least persuasive attacks on their tenure? Or would you laud their most incisive critics? I believe that you'd be among their most incisive critics.

Back to the present.

The Newsweek cover headline for Sullivan's piece is "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" It's entirely defensible to point out that many critiques of Obama are laughably disconnected from reality -- I've done that myself on many occasions -- so it's arguably a fair headline.

But the one I've chosen is fair too: "Why Focus on Obama's Dumbest Critics?"

No, Obama isn't a radical Kenyan anti-colonialist. But he is a lawbreaker and an advocate of radical executive power. What precedent could be more radical than insisting that the executive is empowered to draw up a kill list of American citizens in secret, without telling anyone what names are on it, or the legal justification for it, or even that it exists? What if Newt Gingrich inherits that power?

He may yet.

Over the years, Sullivan has confronted, as few others have, American transgressions abroad, including torture, detainee abuse, and various imperial ambitions. He's long drawn attention to civil-liberties violations at home too, as a solo blogger and as lead editor and writer of a blogazine. When I worked for Sullivan, he not only published but actively encouraged items I found that highlighted civil-liberties abuses by the Obama Administration, and since I parted ways with The Daily Dish, he and the Dish team have continued to air critiques of Obama on these questions.

But his Newsweek essay fits the pattern I've lamented of Obama apologists who tell a narrative of his administration that ignores some of these issues and minimizes the importance of others, as if they're a relatively unimportant matter to be set aside in a sentence or three before proceeding to the more important business of whether the president is being critiqued fairly by obtuse partisans.

Sullivan should reconsider this approach.

During President Bush's first term, Sullivan will recall the most unhinged attacks on him -- the comparisons to Hitler, the puppets burned in effigy, the comparisons to a chimp. There wasn't anything wrong with lamenting those attacks, just as there's nothing wrong with pointing out exaggerated and baseless attacks on Obama, which have spread through most of the Republican Party. But the priority put on rebutting the least persuasive left-wing critiques of Bush, and pre-election 2004 worrying about the flaws of the Democratic field, are part of what postponed the backlash against Bush's ruinous policies. The backlash should've been the priority all along.

The same is now true of Obama. Like President Bush, he is breaking the law, transgressing against civil liberties, and championing a radical view of executive power -- and he is invoking the War on Terror to get away with it. As much as it was in 2003 or 2007, it is vital in 2012 that there be a backlash against these post-9/11 excesses, that liberty-loving citizens push back so that these are anomalies that are reined in, rather than permanent features of a bipartisan consensus that can only end in a catastrophically abusive executive operating in an office stripped by successive presidents and their minions of both constitutional and prudential checks.

Beyond strenuously objecting to the focus of his piece and what it doesn't mention, and agreeing with some of Sullivan's points, I have important disagreements with others. "Where Bush talked tough and acted counter-productively, Obama has simply, quietly, relentlessly decimated our real enemies, while winning the broader propaganda war," Sullivan writes. "Since he took office, al Qaeda's popularity in the Muslim world has plummeted." But it's surely relevant that, according to surveys like this one from James Zogby in 2011, "After improving with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, U.S. favorable ratings across the Arab world have plummeted. In most countries they are lower than at the end of the Bush Administration, and lower than Iran's favorable ratings (except in Saudi Arabia)." And in the areas where Obama's drone strikes are killing innocent civilians, he is trading short-term terrorist deaths for the possibility that our policies will create more terrorists in the long run. It's a tradeoff some people consider prudent; but that's different from saying he is "winning the propaganda war." In fact, the predictable effect of some of his policies is to increase hatred of the U.S.

Says Sullivan, "Obama's foreign policy, like Dwight Eisenhower's or George H.W. Bush's, eschews short-term political hits for long-term strategic advantage." But there are cases when the opposite is true. When the CIA sponsored a fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan as a ruse to get bin Laden's DNA, the Dish cited commentators who argued that it was egregiously shortsighted, and quoted an infectious-disease specialist's fears "that disclosure of the CIA's vaccine ruse actually will turn out to kill more people than bin Laden ever did." The bin Laden raid itself, combined with the steady drone campaign in Pakistan, has done so much to destabilize Pakistan that its generals, fearful of American interference, are more frequently moving its nuclear weapons around the country in lightly guarded trucks, as reported by Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder. Surely Sullivan should acknowledge that it is possible that the raid and drone strikes will ultimately turn out to be a case of sacrificing long-term strategic advantages for a short-term hit. (That might not be the case -- the point is that it's premature to give Obama credit. We're still operating in the short run.)

Says Sullivan, "From the start, liberals projected onto Obama absurd notions of what a president can actually do in a polarized country, where anything requires 60 Senate votes even to stand a chance of making it into law. They have described him as a hapless tool of Wall Street, a continuation of Bush in civil liberties, a cloistered elitist unable to grasp the populist moment that is his historic opportunity." Without getting into all the issues contained in that passage, it is in fact true that Obama represents a continuation of Bush policies on civil liberties! And in some respects he has gone even farther than Bush.

"Under Obama, support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization has crested to record levels," Sullivan writes. Yes, but no thanks to Obama, who opposes both marriage equality and marijuana legalization! This is the height of illegitimate Obama apologia: attributing to his credit policies he hasn't advanced because a change in public opinion happens to have coincided with his tenure. By this logic Bush also deserves credit for the increasing support for gay marriage during the aughts.

To Sullivan, this is the big picture story of the Obama Administration: "the president begins by extending a hand to his opponents; when they respond by raising a fist, he demonstrates that they are the source of the problem; then, finally, he moves to his preferred position of moderate liberalism and fights for it without being effectively tarred as an ideologue or a divider." Like the whole of his essay, it takes as its lodestar the two-party system and defines Obama as a centrist within it, as if the most coherent way to judge him is by comparison with other establishment politicians.

But centrism inside a consensus that is steadily eroding civil liberties, doing away with checks and balances, and increasing executive power is nothing to support, never mind something to celebrate. "Yes, Obama has waged a war based on a reading of executive power that many civil libertarians, including myself, oppose. And he has signed into law the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial (even as he pledged never to invoke this tyrannical power himself)," Sullivan states. "But he has done the most important thing of all: excising the cancer of torture from military detention and military justice. If he is not re-elected, that cancer may well return."

That sums it up, doesn't it?

Obama has transgressed against what is arguably Congress' most essential check on executive power -- its status as the decider of when America goes to war -- and he has codified indefinite detention into law, something that hasn't been done since Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. But at least he doesn't torture people! How low we've set the bar.

It isn't that I object to Sullivan backing Obama's reelection if his GOP opponent runs on bringing back torture. Is he the lesser of two evils? Maybe so. But lauding him as a president who has governed "with grace and calm" and "who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name"? If indefinite detention, secret kill lists, warrantless spying, a war on whistleblowers, violating the War Powers Resolution, and abuse of the state secrets privilege don't fit one's definition of "scandal," what does? If they're peripheral flaws rather than central, unacceptable transgressions, America is doomed to these radical, illiberal policies for the foreseeable future.

Stoner Cooking 1-30-12

2012-01-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Darth Vader Burger

From BuzzFeed.com:

“Choose your side of The Force.” To promote the re-release of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” in 3D, the France- and Benelux-based fast food chain Quick is launching the Darth Vader Burger on a Sithy black bun. A less frightening looking (read: boring) Yoda Burger will also hit select locations through March 1.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathieus/france-is-going-to-make-a-black-darth-vador-burger-8q4

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Stoner Cooking Special: Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce

From Unjury.com:

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Pour Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce on potatoes, chips, toast or English muffin, or cooked vegetables. Or use as dip for chips, fresh vegetables, or popcorn. You can even spoon it straight. It's that good!

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So many kids don't like meat. So they don't get enough protein to grow. Some kids would benefit from a little weight loss, and Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce can subtly add protein – which can help with weight loss...

http://www.unjury.com/store/protein/high-protein/mac-n-cheese/proteind-cheese-sauce

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Where to eat the heat
Thai, Korean, Chinese and Indian delicacies in L.A., Northridge, San Gabriel, Canoga Park and Inglewood.
January 12, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-critics-choice-20120112,0,5663762.story

If you're a fiend for the spicy, then you may have attempted to down an entire bowl of the Special 2 ramen at Orochon in Little Tokyo, which earns you a photo on "the wall of bravery." Or you've sought the experience of Jitlada's southern Thai specialties, including Chef Tui's Dynamite Special Challenge, covered in a chile sludge that packs so much heat your ears start to ring. (Thais say southern food is the ultimate of phet, or spiciness.) Where to find more of the burn? Here, from recent Find columns, are several ways to satisfy the capsaicin cravings.

— Linda Burum, Miles Clements, Betty Hallock and C. Thi Nguyen

Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal

Alongside the jokbal — braised pork shank — at this Koreatown restaurant, a fiery, salty, shrimp-based dipping sauce gives every piece added zing. You eat slices with sauce or wrapped in the accompanying lettuce with a chunk of raw garlic clove and a jalapeño slice. An even spicier celebration of porkiness, mae-un jokbal bokkeum, listed on the English dinner menu as pan-fried spicy pork hock, involves a trencherman's portion of jokbal. The slices are tossed with thick glossy garlic chunks, jalapeño and red-tinged perilla leaves, whose slight bitterness accents the meat the way Angostura bitters enhance a Manhattan cocktail.

425 S. Western Ave., Suite E, Los Angeles, (213) 386-3535.

Red Chili Restaurant

Put nehari down on your 500-things-to-eat-before-you-die list. This stewed beef, the color of red earth with sauce powered by a staggering quantity of ground chile and seasonings, is as popular for breakfast in Pakistan as Cheerios are here. Its garnish of chopped fresh ginger adds a brilliant punch of fresh sweet heat. It is with this dish and the house specialty, the saucy tomato-based chicken karahi, that you realize this cooking is more about the sauces. They're luscious and beg to be soaked up with rice or spongy nan.

18108 Parthenia St. (in Parthenia Center), Northridge, (818) 775-0733.

Taste of Chong Qing

You'll get your tongue seared with the strange electricity of ma la. But you'll also experience the delicacy of subtle fish dishes and fresh vegetables. And you'll get the burn and the elegance all at once, an experience so paradoxical to the senses that you might stagger out of the restaurant a little food-drunk. One of the best dishes here is the Sichuan-style fish with peppers: fillets of white fish floating in aromatic broth and covered with a bright, gorgeously green layer of chopped ... something. The something turns out to be a sort of culinary joke: a mixture of almost indistinguishable cooling green scallions, perky pickled peppers and searingly hot green chiles. Tip: The hot stuff is the heaviest, and if you cautiously turn a piece of fish on its side and give it a gentle tap, most of the serious burn will fall off.

172 E. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, (626) 288-1357.

Valley India Cafe

The menu favors the spice-laden specialties of the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu regions of southeastern India: Coconut milk, fresh, pungent curry leaves and a healthy helping of chiles distinguish many curries. The crisp golden dosas here rival the best in Little India. The smaller, thicker set dosa are the size of a dinner plate with a soft, porous texture that makes a great sponge for sopping up voluptuous sauces, especially vegetable kurma, a creamy curry with green chile, cashew and coconut. Subdue the heat with the mild kothu parota, a street food of chopped, flaky griddle bread scrambled with egg and shredded chicken.

7257 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, (818) 340-7500, http://www.valleyindiacafe.com/

Front Page Jamaican Grille

In every dish here, such as jerk chicken, goat curry and oxtails, the amped-up seasoning embraces the meat but doesn't trounce the flavor. But if all that flavor isn't enough for you, ask for the house-made hot sauce, a gorgeously blistering concoction of habaneros and herbs, blended and cooked into fiery perfection. To finish, try one of the drinks. The simplicity of the sorrel drink will soothe your tongue after all that heat, and pineapple ginger beer will give you a pleasant kick of fresh ginger behind some pineapple fizz. But if you like being taken to the edge of the precipice of gustatory possibility, order some of the restaurant's mega-hot reggae wings, and then top them off with the unadulterated ginger beer. That combination will knock you to the ground and then punch you in the face again. In a good way.

1117 W. Manchester Blvd., No. C, Inglewood, (310) 216-9521, http://www.frontpagejamaicangrille.com/.

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Cup O' Pizza
http://cupopizza.blogspot.com/

Welcome Pizza Enthusiasts!

If you've been searching for that perfect cup of pizza recipe, well then, look no further. What began as a dream inspired by "The Jerk," is now a reality! Subscribe and stay up-to-date on all the tasty developments. Stay cheesy, Pizza Fiends!

Love, Steve & Dave.

Cup O' Pizza Walkthrough

OK Gang, it's time we got around to showing how it's done.

We've spent many hours in our laboratory perfecting the hottest, tastiest, cup of pizza.

This Cup O' Pizza recipe is the quick and easy version, using store-bought ingredients.

Here's what you'll need (makes 4 cups o' pizza):

4 oven friendly coffee mugs

1 tube of pre-made pizza crust (we've been using the 13.8 oz Pillsbury Classic)
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 package of deli-style pepperoni
1 bag of mozzarella or pizza cheese
Olive oil and basting brush
Oregano

STEP 1: Pop open the delicious tube ofctriple-bleached goo, to which we owe our robust physiques!

STEP 2: Cut the dough roll into 4 equal sections. 1 section for each cup. Then cut each section down even further intoc3 sections, which will become the basis for our patented Flavor Layer Technology (TM).

STEP 3: Get that cat outta here!!

STEP 4: Coat your cups (or dough slices) with olive oil

STEP 5: Begin building your first Flavor Layer by dropping a section of dough into the bottom of the cup. Very good!

STEP 6: Add a large spoonful of sauce, a slice of pepperoni, some cheese, and a sprinkle of oregano and you've got your first layer. (This tutorial is the kid version, so experimenting with other classic ingredients is certainly encouraged.)

STEP 7: Repeat process on remaining dough layers. 3 layers per cup.

Mmm, now you're ready to load 'em into the oven.

STEP 8: Depending on your oven, you may need to tweak the following settings. Keep a close eye on your mugs the first time out, so you can make temperature adjustments accordingly. Here's what has worked for us.

Set your oven timer for 30 minutes and your oven at 425 degrees. In order to minimize the possibility of the mugs cracking due to a sudden change in temperature, we put the Cups O' Pizza in the oven during the preheat process, so they gradually warm up.

STEP 9: Seriously dude, get that cat out of here.

STEP 10: After 30 minutes, take a look at your cups...

PIZZALERT!

Because you've created what amounts to 4 big chunks of energy efficient pizza insulation, please allow them to cool down for at least 10 minutes before handing them off to a child or really hungry child-like friend.

BON APETIT!

*

Menudo
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/menudo-recipe/index.html

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

3 to 4 pound tripe (be sure to include 1 piece of honeycomb)
6 garlic cloves, bruised but not peeled
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 28ounce can white hominy
1 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
12 tomatillos, diced

Directions

Rinse tripe under cold running water and cut large pieces into 1inch squares.

Place the garlic, peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaves into a square of cheesecloth. Tie into a bundle. This is your bouquet garni.

Place the tripe in a large stock pot with 4 quarts of hot water, the bouquet garni, and salt. Bring to a boil and skim foam if necessary. Reduce the heat and cook at a simmer for 2 to 3 hours or until tripe is tender.

Add the canned hominy, liquid and all. Cook 15 minutes longer. About 10 minutes before serving, add the cilantro, green onions, and tomatillos. Remove the bouquet garni.

Garnishes may include mild red chile sauce, ground chile powder, oregano leaves, chopped onions, or lime wedges, or sliced radishes.

*

Junk Food Makeover: Tater Tots
Bon Appétit
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/junk-food-makeover-tater-tots-214900318.html

In our column, Junk Food Makeover, we challenge culinary nutritionist Tricia Williams to recreate iconic snacks with more wholesome, better-for-you recipes.

The Challenge

Tater tots: the ultimate kid food. We'll take 'em straight out of the freezer bag, heat them up, and pair them with anything from gooey grilled cheese to creamy tomato soup. Or, we'll just dip them in ketchup and call it a day. But Thanksgiving and holiday parties have wreaked havoc on our waistlines, so we called up nutritionist Tricia Williams to transform Napoleon Dynamite's favorite snack into a wholesome side dish.

"I wanted to focus on two different textures to get the tater tot right: crunchy exterior, soft interior," Tricia said. "Crunchy was definitely the bigger challenge. Lately, quinoa flakes have become a staple for crispy texture in our kitchen--we use them like a traditional kitchen would use panko. We add golden flax meal to give it extra nutrition. All these healthy ingredients make these tots an anti-inflammatory (read: less aches and pains) mock-fried food. To ensure this snack would go over well, we kid-tested them on a bunch of 6-year-olds. What a hit!" Let's see what happens when we Bon Appetit-test them.

The Result

Although Tricia didn't nail the exact tater tot shape (more of a cylindrical, golden fritter), our tasters were mostly satisfied with the healthier version of the (usually) greasy snack. The texture was great--as Tricia said, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Sure, it was lacking the flavor hit from fat and salt, but we didn't miss it too much, thanks to a healthy dose of smoked paprika. All in all, while these little potato balls weren't quite the real thing, their bite-sized popability and yummy flavor made them work well as a substitute. With some ketchup and a pinch more salt, we'd be happy with these as a snack. (Or, let's face it, accompanying that kids' menu item that still holds a place in our hearts, chicken tenders, it could be dinner.)

Makes about 50

INGREDIENTS
1 cup quinoa flakes (you can find them at bobsredmill.com)
1/4 cup golden flax meal (you can find them at bobsredmill.com)
Nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup finely chopped small onion (from 1/2 small onion)
4 sweet potatoes or russet potatoes, peeled
1 Tbsp. kosher or sea salt, plus more
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine quinoa flakes and flax meal in a bowl; set aside. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray generously with nonstick spray. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Transfer onion to a bowl; set aside. Wipe out and reserve skillet.

Using the small holes of a box grater, finely grate potatoes to make 4 cups. Transfer to a colander and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. salt. Massage salt into potatoes and squeeze out the excess liquid. Transfer potatoes to a medium bowl; add egg and mix well. Add reserved onion, cayenne, paprika, and garlic powder; season lightly with salt and pepper. The mixture should resemble a potato pancake mix but be on the dry side. Using your hands, form potato mixture into 1" balls.

Roll potato balls in quinoa flake mixture. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray lightly with nonstick spray. Working in batches, cook balls, turning occasionally, until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer tots to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

*

Lamb tagine with layered onions
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-food-of-morocco-20111208,0,854342.story

Total time: About 3 hours, plus cooling times

Servings: 6

Note: Adapted from "The Food of Morocco" by Paula Wolfert. She writes, "This is the Fes version of a famous layered onion tagine called qamamma. I love the way the onions are cooked down to a melting unctuous sauce then combined with tomatoes or raisins and/or honey. With my recipe you do most of the work 1 or 2 days in advance. Then on the day you serve it, you assemble and bake the dish, then switch the oven to broil, dribble over some olive oil, and cook until the onions turn crusty and lightly charred." Cubeb pepper is available online; additional white and/or black pepper can be substituted.

"The Foods of Morocco" by Paula Wolfert, Ecco Press, $45

La Kama spice mixture

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cubeb pepper (optional)

A good pinch of grated nutmeg

Mix the ground spices. Sift through a fine sieve and store in a closed jar in a cool, dark place. This makes a generous tablespoon of the spice mixture.

Saffron water

1/2 teaspoon crumbled saffron strands

1 cup hot water

In a warm (not hot) skillet, dry the saffron strands. Crush again, then soak in the hot water and store in a small jar in the refrigerator. This will keep for up to a week.

For longer storage (my favorite method), quadruple the recipe quantities above: pour the saffron water into a plastic ice cube tray and freeze into cubes. Once they are frozen, shake out the cubes and store in a freezer bag. Each cube will be equivalent to 2 tablespoons saffron water or a good pinch of dried saffron threads.

Tagine and assembly

3 pounds thick lamb shoulder arm chops, bone-in, cut into 9 or 10 pieces

Coarse salt

1 tablespoon La Kama Spice Mixture

2 tablespoons Saffron Water

1 tablespoon liquid honey, preferably a floral honey such as orange blossom, lavender or acacia

1 medium red onion, coarsely grated (1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 cups water

2 tablespoons clarified butter, divided

3 pounds onions, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick

Freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup golden raisins, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes and drained

2 tablespoons turbinado or other raw sugar

1 teaspoon ground Ceylon cinnamon

3 pita or Indian naan breads

1 tablespoon chopped parsley for garnish

1. One or 2 days before you plan to serve, trim the lamb of excess fat. Place the meat in a medium flameproof casserole and add 1 teaspoon salt, the spice mixture, saffron water, honey, grated onion and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Stir over low heat until the aroma of the spices is released, about 5 minutes: Do not brown the meat. Add the water, bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone.

2. Separate the cooking juices and the meat. When the meat is cool enough to handle, pull out and discard the bones and trim off any fat or gristle. Cut the meat into 1-inch chunks and transfer to a storage bowl; you should have about 4 cups of meat. Degrease the cooking juices. Return the cooking juices to the casserole and boil down to a glaze. Add one-half teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon of the butter, the sliced onions and cinnamon stick; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden, about 45 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the onions to a storage dish. Discard the cinnamon stick. Boil down the liquid in the casserole to about three-fourths cup. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat, then add the liquid to the meat. Up to this point the recipe can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Cool, cover and refrigerate the meat and onions.

3. About an hour before serving, set an oven rack on the middle shelf of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Grease an ovenproof tagine or shallow baking serving dish with remaining butter. Spread the meat on the bottom and cover with the cooked onions and raisins. Scatter the sugar and ground cinnamon on top. Place in the oven and bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Switch the oven heat to broil, dribble over the remaining tablespoon of oil, and cook until crusty and lightly charred, about 5 minutes.

5. Reheat the bread in the oven for a few minutes. Split in half, then tear each half into 2 or 3 pieces. Spread about one third over a large serving platter. Spoon about half of the contents of the tagine on top. Repeat with another third of the bread and the remaining contents of the tagine. Top with the last pieces of the bread and a sprinkling of parsley and serve at once.

Each serving: 705 calories; 40 grams protein; 60 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams fiber; 34 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 138 mg cholesterol; 27 grams sugar; 860 mg sodium.

*

Two recipes from SimplyRecipes.com forwarded to me from Uncle Pers & Aunt Shlee:

Pinto Beans with Bacon and Jalapeños

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil, grapeseed oil, or canola oil
2 to 3 whole jalapeño chile peppers
2 to 3 thick-cut slices of bacon
2 cups of chopped onion
2 medium clove of garlic, minced
4 cups of cooked pinto beans (2 15-ounce cans, rinsed and drained)
Salt
1/2 cup, loosely packed, chopped fresh cilantro

Method

1 Heat oil in a medium skillet on high heat. Put the jalapeños in the pan and stir to coat with the oil. Let cook, turning occasionally, on all sides, until all sides are nicely browned (about 10-15 minutes, depending on how hot your burner is). Remove from pan. Cut away and discard the stem, core, seeds, and veins. Coarsely chop the remaining jalapeño flesh.

2 While the jalapeños are cooking, cook the bacon slices on medium low heat in a large skillet, until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour off (do not discard down the drain!) all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat.

3 Add the chopped onion to the pan with the bacon fat. Increase the heat to medium high and cook until translucent and lightly browned. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more. While the onion is cooking, chop the cooked bacon.

4 Add the cooked beans, chopped bacon, and the chopped jalapeños to the pan and stir to mix. Sprinkle with salt.
Serve with chopped fresh cilantro, and steak and salsa.
Yield: Serves 4-6.

Asparagus Frittata Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound asparagus, tough ends snapped off, spears cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Method

1 Heat olive oil into a 10-inch oven-proof frying pan over medium high heat. Add onions and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 3 minutes. Add asparagus, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, until the asparagus are barely tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Pour in eggs and cook until almost set, but still runny on top, about 2 minutes. While cooking, pre-heat oven broiler.

2 Sprinkle cheese over eggs and put in oven to broil until cheese is melted and browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven with oven mitts and slide frittata onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges.

Yield: Serves 4.

*

Chicken Scaloppine over Broccoli Rabe
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-scaloppine-over-broccoli-rabe-10000000686181

Calories: 318
Calories from fat: 21%
Fat: 7.4g
Saturated fat: 1.7g
Monounsaturated fat: 3.3g
Polyunsaturated fat: 1g
Protein: 44.3g
Carbohydrate: 14g
Fiber: 3.9g
Cholesterol: 101mg
Iron: 2.9mg
Sodium: 577mg
Calcium: 102mg

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets
1/2 cup dry white wine 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter
1 pound broccoli rabe (rapini), cut into 3-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
4 lemon slices (optional)

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Combine breadcrumbs and pepper in a shallow dish; dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add wine, broth, juice, and butter to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in broccoli rabe; cover and cook 3 minutes or until broccoli rabe is tender. Stir in parsley and capers. Serve chicken over broccoli rabe mixture.
Garnish with lemon slices, if desired.

Alison Lewis, Cooking Light
AUGUST 2004

Significa 1-30-12

2012-01-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

Blogpost of the Month: Richard Sauder

Wisened In The Upper Amazon
Sunday, January 22, 2012
http://eventhorizonchronicle.blogspot.com/2012/01/wisened-in-upper-amazon.html

I have drunk ayahuasca 12 times now, and every time it seends me reeling. Every time it slams me hard, at a physical level, and every time it raises new questions about reality, and our perception and experience of it, expanding my inner horizons.

A couple of days ago I journeyed into the edge of the forest in the Upper Amazon in the company of a Kichwa shaman. We built a sturdy lean to for shelter against the rain, and collected fallen wood for a fire. He then took me walk about through the forest in search of copal trees. We found a couple of towering, massive specimens from one of which he proceeded to collect small clumps of dried resin or sap. He did this by grabbing hold of a lone, thin vine that was growing straight up 150 feet into the crown of the tree, and yanking on it and slapping it against the side of the tree to knock off the clumps of dried resin. He then used the resin to light the fire as a hard rain began to fall, and thunder pealed.

Just after nightfall I drank a strong dose of ayahuasca and invoked the spirit of amasanga. I specifically asked to be shown what is going to happen in the near future, so that I could communicate what I was shown to a wider public.

Here is what ayahusca showed me:

I saw a large, rectangular compound, set in an open space that had been cleared in a forested area. The site was surrounded by a tall security fence with guard towers or gun towers in the corners. There were military trucks parked near to and also inside the fence, It was a concentration camp. It had a dark, brooding air about it, a low vibration.

Shimmering in the air above the military concentration camp was a sort of electronic mesh or grid or net. I understood that this electronic "shield", if you will, was a sort of frequency barrier to control the concentration camp and to prevent any higher energy or frequency from entering. The interesting thing about the electronic grid was that it encompassed only the area above the concentration camp. It conformed to the rectangular extent of the camp and no farther. I saw no signs or symbols, but had the understanding that this was an American concentration camp.

I wasn`t sure that this was the answer I was seeking, so I asked ayahuasca a second time to show what was going to happen in the near future (understood to be the next one to twelve months). Once again I was shown precisely the same grim scene.

Inwardly I thought, "O.K., that`s it then, that`s the answer. Military dictatorship, police state, internment camps, human holding pens, that`s what`s being planned, that`s what`s coming up in the future months."

I believe that this scenario clearly applies to individual countries, such as the USA, but can also be extended to the whole Earth, considering the whole planet as a concentration camp. The global police state is rapidly spreading its tentacles everywhere. Twice in the last three weeks, buses that I was traveling on were stopped by the army and the national police, respectively, and all the male passengers were ordered off the bus to have their personal identity documents examined. This type of thing is happening routinely in many countries now, including in the USA. Before I left the USA, in late 2010, federal agents entered a bus I was traveling on in New York state and walked the aisle, requesting passengers to produce personal identification. The same thing happened to me while taveling in Peru. Failure to comply can result in arrest and physical detention (jail) or deportation.

The TSA in the USA is now actively expanding its search operations beyond airport screening areas. Recent legislation in the USA such as the notorious NDAA lays the (il)legal groundwork for fascist arrest, detention and even summary execution of anyone, anywhere that the USA government deems a threat to its fascist, imperial agenda. And then there is the recent bid solicitation by FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for contractors to build fenced "camps" within 72 hours, in every region of the continental USA.

For more information, see here and here, and also explore the links here.

What I saw closely corresponds to the camps described in this FEMA bid solicitation.

The electronic grid that controls and subjugates humanity is also real enough -- television, radio, cell telephones and cell telephone towers,, HAARP, the GWEN antennas, ELF antennas, satellite microwave systems, the commercial electrical grid that spans large areas of the planet and feeds electricity into homes and buildings all over the world, and even more we do not know about.

I accept that this huge, global electromagnetic "shield" is a control mechanism that is used to artificially suppress human consciousness.

So that is what ayahuasca showed me initially. But I presisted in inquiring, "What is going to happen in the near future?" What happened next was not quite what I was expecting. I thought maybe it would show me scenes of financial collapse and social unrest, or of war, or natural disasters.

But it did not show me those things, perhaps because all of those are self-evident. Global financial collapse is already underway, social unrest is occurring in many countries and war is an ever-present threat rearing its ugly head.

So, no, ayahuasdca showed me none of those things.

What happened instead is that again and again, at intervals of several minutes I saw extraordinarily brilliant bursts of intensely white, pure light with slight traces of rose, lavender, violet and other hues and colors. I sensed tremendous significance and intent and order in the light, without, however, being able to consciously perceive any discrete image or message.

So I just accepted that ayahuasca wanted me to know that after the concentration camp(s) phase, after the police state repression, after the fascist human prison pens, the Great White Light breaks in and washes all of that away, like a great purifying tidal wave.

I have to say that the force of the Pure White Light is absolutely dazzling. It is unknown multiple orders of magnitude stronger than the shadowy gloom of the concentration camp scene. You might say that the fascist prison camps can`t hold a candle to the Great White Light.

So it looks like near future events will be exceedingly negative at first, but that the subsequent prospect of events to follow is far brighter!

The forces of gloom, doom and darkness will hold sway for yet another while, but after that their shadowy plans will melt away into insipid nothingness.

Nothing from nothing yields nothing. The Vipers Brood will be returning to the bottomless pit from which they sprang, fleeing in abject horror, fear and dread, as the Great White Light that they so loathe comes flooding in.

Coming soon to a planet near you. Details may vary somewhat from person to person, country to country, region to region. But that is the overall picture, as shown to me by ayahuasca.

*

Men's Rules

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down
Finally , the guys' side of the story.
( I must admit, it's pretty good.)

We always hear "the rules"
From the female side....
Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!
Please note... these are all numbered "1"
ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.
(FIRST & FOREMOST RULE)

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports, It's like the full moon
or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle..

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as Football or Hockey.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.

Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can -
to give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can -
to give them a bigger laugh.

*

YouTube Clip of the Week: Mischievous Mitchell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB_57mSDu0w

Dennis the Menace as a Jew-baiting racist. Boys will be boys!

*

Konformist Book Club: A Memoir of Injustice
By the Younger Brother of James Earl Ray, Alleged Assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr
Jerry Ray, Tamara Carter

List Price: $19.95
Price: $15.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
You Save: $4.39 (22%)

Kindle Edition: $8.79

Publication Date: February 19, 2011

Including previously undisclosed information on one of the most significant and mysterious events in modern American history, this account debunks the myth that James Earl Ray was a racist and documents his actual location on one of the critical days leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The memoir also reveals photographs of James Earl Ray when he was ill in prison and gives the key to a code used by the brothers in planning a prison break. Presenting a mesmerizing perspective on the manipulation of the media in reporting on race relations, the working middle class, and the U.S. criminal justice system, this account broadcasts an urgent call to action to correct some of the many injustices that surround these events, such as the U.S. government's refusal to rigorously test the alleged murder weapon, and encourages support for new federal legislation.

About the Author

Jerry Ray is an activist and unintentional witness to the events surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the Phil Donahue Show, the Tavis Smiley Show, WBZ-TV, and KNSD. He lives in McMinnville, Tennessee. Tamara Carter is an activist, a teacher, and an independent researcher of the Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK assassinations. She is also a charter member and organizer of the Coalition on Political Assassinations. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Trine Day (February 19, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1936296055
ISBN-13: 978-1936296057

Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Injustice-Younger-Brother-Assassin/dp/1936296055/thekonformist

Kindle Edition:
http://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Injustice-Younger-Assassin-ebook/dp/B0050K8C00/thekonformist

*

Awesome Quotes

“To declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk. Yeah, there are some radicals. But they don’t come here to kill us because we’re free and prosperous. Do they go to Switzerland and Sweden? I mean, that’s absurd... The CIA has explained it to us. They said they come here and want to do us harm because we’re bombing them.”
Ron Paul

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”
Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

*

Kool Websites

Draw a Stickman
http://www.drawastickman.com/

BioAge
http://www.bioage.com/

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The Concealed Carry Report
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/

If you’ve decided to carry concealed for personal protection (or even if you’re just thinking about it), I applaud your decision. Most people are not willing to do what is necessary to protect themselves, their family members, and even complete strangers from the ruthless attack or a violent felon...

It is critical that you realize that the MOMENT you’re forced to draw your firearm in self-defense there will be 100+ decisions that you’ll need to make in a split second. The MOMENT you decide to draw your firearm, YOUR LIFE WILL CHANGE.

If you need to take the time to THINK about these decisions, there’s a good chance you’ll make a choice that will put you in jail...or worse.

You need to have these decisions programmed into your brain BEFORE you leave your house Carrying Concealed!

Reading the Concealed Carry Report and being in the USCCA is all about helping people make informed decisions. We empower our members so they know EXACTLY what to do in a life or death situation.

The Concealed Carry Report is a free, weekly newsletter. Inside, you’re going to uncover the answers to the toughest questions a citizen can (and MUST) face before being able to responsibly carry concealed and defend himself...

Botanic Choice
http://www.botanicchoice.com/

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Montgomery Ward
http://www.wards.com/

Improving American Homes Since 1872

If our brand name sounds familiar, it should! For over 140 years, "Montgomery Ward" has been a well-known and trusted catalog brand. In 1872, Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first mail-order business with an innovative single-sheet catalog offering 163 items. Montgomery Ward's superior service and impressive assortment of goods led to rapid growth, and by 1904 the original Montgomery Ward company was mailing catalogs to three million customers. In 2008 Montgomery Ward was acquired by Colony Brands, Inc., a family owned direct mail business, who strives to continue the heritage, traditions and values of the brand that was inspired by the founder, Aaron Montgomery Ward.*

At Wards.com, we continue to provide customers around the country with quality products and great values. While we are continually looking for ways to enhance and expand our product offering, the philosophy has remained the same. We offer one-stop shopping for quality items at affordable prices, and we deliver them right to your door. Ordering online at Wards.com is safe and easy. Browse and search for products—24 hours a day—7 days a week—and then checkout using our fast and secure online shopping cart. If you have questions, please send an email to our friendly customer service department, or call us at (888)557-3848. Ordering online at Wards.com is safe and easy. Browse and search for products—24 hours a day—7 days a week, and checkout using our fast and secure online shopping cart. We look forward to continuing our long-standing tradition, providing you with great, friendly customer service!

Einstein Noah Restaurant Group
http://www.einsteinnoah.com/

Brave New World

As the nation’s largest operator of bagel bakeries and the leader in the quick casual segment of the restaurant industry, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group is moving with the cultural shift toward food that is fast, but never tastes that way. Think fresh-baked goods, made-to-order sandwiches, crisp salads and gourmet coffee.

We currently own three independent brands including Einstein Bros.®, Noah’s New York Bagels, and Manhattan Bagel. Each sporting their own identity, the brands work independently in niches nationwide, but are growing stronger each year under the powerful umbrella of Einstein Noah Restaurant Group.

Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. is a leading company in the quick casual restaurant industry that operates locations primarily under the Einstein Bros. and Noah's New York Bagels® brands and primarily franchises locations under the Manhattan Bagel® brand. The company's retail system consists of approximately 730 restaurants in 39 states and the District of Columbia. It also operates a dough production facility. The company's stock is traded under the symbol BAGL.

KettleWorx
http://www.kettleworx.com/

KettleWorx Ultra starts with the "Six-Week Body Transformation," an easy, 6-week, step-by-step personal kettlebell training program of 6 DVDs: Intro, Cardio, Core, Resistance, Fast Abs, and Fast Fat Burn.

Your Order Also Includes:

•A FREE 5-pound Kettlebell—KettleWorx Premium Kettlebell
•The Ultimate Body Sculpting Collection—a set of 4 kettlebell workout DVDs to sculpt your legs and thighs, butt and hips, arms and shoulders, chest and back
•Fat Free in 42 Days—a 6-week healthy eating guide (e-Book)

*

RIP: Etta James, Joe Paterno, Robert Hegyes (Epstein on Wecome Back, Kotter), the TV series Chuck and Peyton Manning's NFL career, at least according to Rob Lowe's Twitter account on the last one...

Real Estate Porn

2012-01-30T09:55:00.000-08:00

Castle Rogue's Manor
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/an-american-castle-in-the-ozarks.html

If you're in the mood for an opulent and unique home, but a $12 million private island isn't your style, then Castle Rogue's Manor might be right up your medieval alley. Located overlooking White River in Eureka Springs, Ark., this 15,000 square-foot castle sports 12 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 17 acres of land, and a $1.8 million price-tag. It is also a castle, just like the name implies.

The property was once a mere house sitting on 20 acres of land, but according to the original builder, the site overlooking White River "just screamed for a castle." Now Castle Rogue's Manor, anchored at the top of a 100' limestone bluff, enjoys a 360-degree view over the surrounding Ozark scenery as well as the nearby river, lake, and town of Beaver.

If that $1.8 million price-tag sounds huge, just remember Castle Rogue's Manor contains 15,000 square feet. That's just $120 per square foot — a pretty reasonable price for a property like this one — even without considering the 17 acres of land and unmistakeable medieval flare. This just happens to be a really, really big home that is also a castle.

The fantasy fortress is mindblowingly beautiful with its Gatekeeper's Cottage, Paisley Hall, two guard towers, and other structures all built in medieval style. Nearly all of the castle's details have been hand-crafted, but the work on Castle Rogue's Manor was so daunting that four out of the nine roofers hired to apply the cottage's original shingles left as soon as they laid eyes on the place. The entire castle is a piece of art, ready to house any kind of resort, museum, or getaway.

The interior paneling is made from black walnut and cedar logs which were created from trees on the property itself. The castle's basement was used as a woodshop for seasoning and crafting the local wood. The Gatekeeper's Cottage was built first as a prototype for the great hall, and the fireplace in the great hall is 9' wide and 5' high, put together with over three tons of rock. Two other fireplaces (and tubing in the foundation of Paisley Hall) in the home help keep the chill away during the Ozark winters.

The cottage and great hall shows off post-and-beam construction, steel beams, and various ornamental ironwork. Since the castle was built with local lumber, the overall design is meant to convey a reverence for wood. Despite the medieval flair, Castle Rogue's Manor is wired for modern conveniences, including a computer network and even a central vacuum system. Of course, like any luxury home, the castle boasts a complete kitchen, air conditioning, clothes washer and dryer, and other staples of modern living.

If you have the $1.8 million — and a desire to buy a home in Arkansas — it would be hard to go wrong with the amazing Castle Rogue's Manor. It's a handcrafted piece of a beauty with some colorful history already under its soaring architecture. That much square footage and acreage have plenty of uses and you wont find any home more unique than this visionary palace. Since the Gatekeeper's Cottage is a separate building, you could even consider it an in-law suite, and keep the main castle to yourself!

*

Inside A $1.5 Million Cave House
Full Article:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/inside-a-15-million-cave-house.html

Locals refer to it as the Cave House and the nickname is apt. Sitting on 37 acres just outside of Bisbee, AZ, a mining town-turned-Baby Boomer retirement haven about 80 miles from Tucson, the Chulo Canyon Cave House is carved into an outcropping of granite boulder, extending more than 2,000-square feet into a desert grotto.

The strange and unusual dwelling is up for grabs and could be yours for $1.5 million. It occupies 2,890-square feet of living space and comes with a 890-square foot guest house, a subterranean game room underneath the guest house, a library building, a stand-alone workshop space, a separate home office, and a carport. The main house features rough petrous walls, rock and cement ceilings, and potable wall water seep that is collected from a natural spring. There’s a glass-walled sunroom, a commercial-grade kitchen with stained glass cabinets and mosaic tiling, an-eight person dining room, a sunken living room, two full bathrooms, a sleep loft with walk-in closet tucked below underneath the loft stairs, and a back room that is currently used as an exercise and yoga room.

The desert abode was built by the current owner, specifically the current owner’s late husband who recently passed away. “It’s technically a man made cave that was actually blasted out of the rock existing there,” explains Jean Noreen, a Realtor with Bisbee Realty and the listing agent for the Cave House. ”But it has all of the good qualities of a cave for living like it stays the same temperature all year round.” Maintaining a so-called ‘rock temperature,’ the house never slides below 66 degrees Fahrenheit or above 72 degrees.

Creating this man-made cavern home meant recruiting a mining engineer who, using the Swedish straight wall mining technique, injected the ceilings with roof bolts and excavated blasted rock with ammonium nitrate.

But as attention-grabbing as the stone-forged main lair is, the property’s zaniness doesn’t end there. Starting with the pools, which are not your typical chlorinated in-grounds. Rather, the home’s natural pools are a short hike away, up the side of a nearby mountain and fed by a freshwater creek for six to eight months out of the year. The higher up the mountain you climb the more pools you have to choose from. The owners also installed a carefully camouflaged hot tub...

A little bit of Dodge City in Junior's back yard
David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
January 22, 2012
Full Article:
http://www.nascar.com/news/120122/dearnhardtjr-western-town

There's a barbershop that advertises haircuts for a quarter, a jail with real locking cells, and a church with a steeple. There's a post office, a bank, and a hotel with bunk beds in the rooms upstairs. There's the Blazin Saddles Tack Shop and the Silverado Saloon, the latter of which features a pool table and genuine bottles of booze behind the long, polished bar.

Welcome to Whisky River, a Western town that seems so authentic, you almost expect to see Matt Dillon, Seth Bullock or Josey Wales tromping down the muddy thoroughfare that runs through the middle. On this day, it's playing host to the filming of a shoot-'em-up commercial for this year's Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But this is no movie set -- this is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s private fantasyland, a little piece of Dodge City or Deadwood built on his 200 acres of property north of Charlotte.

"Dale Jr.'s a real low-key guy, and likes to have fun with his friends, and this is definitely the place for that," said Paul Menard, one of four active drivers involved in the commercial shoot, and a former teammate of Earnhardt's at Dale Earnhardt Inc. "It's got a little history. It's a cool place."

The idea stemmed from practicality. The bar in the basement of Earnhardt's former house near DEI -- the once-famous Club E, which was featured on MTV's Cribs program -- began to be more trouble than it was worth. "I was thinking, man, I want to have something I can have parties at, and not worry that I'm tearing my house apart," Earnhardt said. Online, he found someone who would build 1,000-square-foot tree houses, and toyed with that idea until his sister, Kelley, warned him that he'd probably fall out.

Then one day Earnhardt was watching a rerun of 60 Minutes which featured a segment on country-singer Willie Nelson, who had bought property in Texas that contained an Old West movie set. The set had originally been only building fronts, but Nelson finished the structures and made them usable. Earnhardt loved the idea and set about building his own Western village from scratch, hiring out-of-work carpenters to do the construction, and -- befitting a driver with a flair for a nostalgic -- using wood from Kannapolis' old Cannon Mills, which once stood near where the statue of Earnhardt's father is today.

"We drew it on a sheet of paper and built it on cinder blocks," Earnhardt said at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, where he took part in the Preview '12 fan event held Saturday. "It got bigger and bigger."

For a first-time visitor, the reality is somewhat staggering. There are saddles and wagon wheels and rocking chairs, hitching posts and barrels and upstairs balconies, stagecoaches and lanterns and animal skulls. Climb on up to the second floor of a hotel called the Hilton, where there are three rooms with bunk beds inside. Head on over to the livery, where there are tools for leatherworking and changing horseshoes. Watch out for the jail, where there are two cells that can be padlocked shut, and a gallows outside for more unfortunate criminals. Belly up to the Silverado Saloon, where there's a piano and a full bar and all manner of animal heads, hides and skulls on the walls.

For Charlotte Motor Speedway, it was the perfect place to film an All-Star Race commercial featuring Menard, Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart and Mark Martin as double-crossing poker players, who end the ensuing argument with six-shooters drawn. Earnhardt has also used Whisky River for projects filmed by his own production company, Hammerhead, as well as for things like birthday parties and Halloween hayrides for family members and friends. For a driver with a definite appreciation for history who has always liked Clint Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns, it seems a natural extension of himself.

"More than anything, I think it helps people see the personality in me," said Earnhardt, who built Whisky River about six years ago. "Because that's important for me, that people know me, get to know me, and understand me. ... That's kind of like looking through someone's record collection. It kind of shows you a little bit about them."

Occupy the Neighborhood

2012-01-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

How Counties Can Use Land Banks and Eminent Domain Ellen Brown, Truthout
Saturday 14 January 2012
http://truth-out.org/occupy-neighborhood/1326472096

An electronic database called MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) has created defects in the chain of title to over half the homes in America. Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. Straightening out the records and restoring the homes to occupancy is clearly in the public interest, and the burden is on local government to do it. But how? New legal developments are presenting some innovative alternatives.

John O'Brien is register of deeds for Southern Essex County, Massachusetts. He is mad as hell and he isn't going to take it anymore. He calls his land registry a "crime scene." A formal forensic audit of the properties for which he is responsible found that:

•Only 16 percent of the mortgage assignments were valid.

•Twenty-seven percent of the invalid assignments were fraudulent, 35 percent were "robo-signed" and 10 percent violated the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.

•The identity of financial institutions that are current owners of the mortgages could be determined for only 287 out of 473 (60 percent).

•There were 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages, representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000 mortgages whose current ownership could be traced.

At the root of the problem is that title has been recorded in the name of a private entity called MERS as a mere placeholder for the true owners. The owners are a faceless, changing pool of investors owning indeterminate portions of sliced and diced securitized properties. Their identities have been so well hidden that their claims to title are now in doubt. According to the auditor:

What this means is that ... the institutions - including many pension funds - that purchased these mortgages don't actually own them....

The March of the Attorneys General

John O'Brien was thrilled when Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley went to court in December against MERS and five major banks - Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and GMAC. Coakley says banks have "undermined our public land record system through the use of MERS."

Other attorneys general are also bringing lawsuits. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden is going after MERS in a suit seeking $10,000 per violation. "Since at least the 1600s," he says, "real property rights have been a cornerstone of our society. MERS has raised serious questions about who owns what in America."

Biden's lawsuit alleges that MERS violated Delaware's Deceptive Trade Practices Act by:

•Hiding the true mortgage owner and removing that information from the public land records.

•Creating a systemically important, yet inherently unreliable, mortgage database that created confusion and inappropriate assignments and foreclosures of mortgages.

•Operating MERS through its members' employees, whom MERS confusingly appoints as its corporate officers so that they may act on MERS' behalf.

•Failing to ensure the proper transfer of mortgage loan documentation to the securitization trusts, which may have resulted in the failure of securitizations to own the loans upon which they claimed to foreclose.
This last allegation - that there are fatal defects in the loan documentation - may be even more conclusive than the MERS defect in establishing a break in the chain of title to securitized properties. Mortgage-backed securities are sold to investors in packages representing interests in trusts called REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits). REMICs are designed as tax shelters; but to qualify for that status, they must be "static." Mortgages can't be transferred in and out once the closing date has occurred. The REMIC Pooling and Servicing Agreement typically states that any transfer after the closing date is invalid. Yet few, if any, properties in foreclosure seem to have been assigned to these REMICs before the closing date, in blatant disregard of legal requirements. The whole business is quite complicated, but the bottom line is that title has been clouded not only by MERS, but because the trusts purporting to foreclose do not own the properties by the terms of their own documents.

Courts Are Taking Notice

The title issues are so complicated that judges themselves have been slow to catch on, but they are increasingly waking up and taking notice. In some cases, the judge is not even waiting for the borrowers to raise lack of standing as a defense. In two cases decided in New York in December, the banks lost although their motions were either unopposed or the homeowner did not show up, and in one, there was actually a default. No matter, said the court; the bank simply did not have standing to foreclose.

In Citigroup v. Smith, 2011 NY Slip Op 52236 (U) (December 13, 2011), the mortgage document acknowledged that MERS was not the lender, but was "a separate corporation that is acting solely as a nominee for Lender and Lender's successors and assigns." The court held that since MERS was not a party to the underlying note, when it assigned the mortgage to plaintiff Citigroup there was no assignment of the note; and "a transfer of [a] mortgage without the debt is a nullity and no interest is acquired by it."

Failure to comply with the terms of the loan documents can make an even stronger case for dismissal. In Horace v. LaSalle, Circuit Court of Russell County, Alabama, 57-CV-2008-000362.00 (March 30, 2011), the court permanently enjoined the bank (now part of Bank of America) from foreclosing on the plaintiff's home, stating:

[T]he court is surprised to the point of astonishment that the defendant trust (LaSalle Bank National Association) did not comply with New York Law in attempting to obtain assignment of plaintiff Horace's note and mortgage....

[P]laintiff's motion for summary judgment is granted to the extent that defendant trust ... is permanently enjoined from foreclosing on the property....

Relief for Counties: Land Banks and Eminent Domain

The legal tide is turning against MERS and the banks, giving rise to some interesting possibilities for relief at the county level. Local governments have the power of eminent domain: they can seize real or personal property if (a) they can show that doing so is in the public interest, and (b) the owner is compensated at fair market value.

The public interest part is easy to show. In a 20-page booklet titled "Revitalizing Foreclosed Properties with Land Banks," the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) observes:

The volume of foreclosures has become a significant problem, not only to local economies, but also to the aesthetics of neighborhoods and property values therein. At the same time, middle- to low-income families continue to be priced out of the housing market while suitable housing units remain vacant.

The booklet goes on to describe an alternative being pursued by some communities:

To ameliorate the negative effects of foreclosures, some communities are creating public entities - known as land banks - to return these properties to productive reuse while simultaneously addressing the need for affordable housing.

States named as adopting land bank legislation include Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and Maryland. HUD notes that the federal government encourages and supports these efforts. But states can still face obstacles to acquiring and restoring the properties, including a lack of funds and difficulties clearing title.

Both of these obstacles might be overcome by focusing on abandoned and foreclosed properties for which the chain of title has been broken, either by MERS or by failure to transfer the promissory note according to the terms of the trust indenture. These homes could be acquired by eminent domain both free of cost and free of adverse claims to title. The county would simply need to give notice in the local newspaper of an intent to exercise its right of eminent domain. The burden of proof would then transfer to the bank or trust claiming title. If the claimant could not prove title, the county would take the property, clear title and either work out a fair settlement with the occupants or restore the home for rent or sale.

Even if the properties were acquired without charge, counties might lack the funds to restore them. Additional funds could be had by establishing a public bank that serves more functions than just those of a land bank. In a series titled "A Solution to the Foreclosure Crisis," Michael Sauvante of the National Commonwealth Group suggests that properties obtained by eminent domain can be used as part of the capital base for a chartered, publicly owned bank, on the model of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. The county could deposit its revenues into this bank and use its capital and deposits to generate credit, as all chartered banks are empowered to do. This credit could then be used not just to finance property redevelopment, but for other county needs, again on the model of the Bank of North Dakota. For a fuller discussion of publicly owned banks, see http://PublicBankingInstitute.org.

Sauvante adds that the use of eminent domain is often viewed negatively by homeowners. To overcome this prejudice, the county could exercise eminent domain on the mortgage contract rather than on title to the property. (The power of eminent domain applies both to real and to personal property rights.) Title would then remain with the homeowner. The county would just have a secured interest in the property, putting it in the shoes of the bank. It could renegotiate reasonable terms with the homeowner, something banks have been either unwilling or unable to do, since they have to get all the investor-owners to agree, a difficult task; and they have little incentive to negotiate when they can make more money on fees and credit-default-swaps on contracts that go into default.

Settling With the Investors

What about the rights of the investors who bought the securities allegedly backed by the foreclosed homes? The banks selling these collateralized debt obligations represented that they were protected with credit-default-swaps. The investors' remedy is against the counterparties to those bets - or against the banks that sold them a bill of goods.

Foreclosure defense attorney Neil Garfield says the investors are unlikely to recover on abandoned and foreclosed properties in any case. Banks and servicers can earn more when the homes are bulldozed - something that is happening in some counties - than from a sale or workout at a loss. Not only is more earned on credit-default-swaps and fees, but bulldozed homes tell no tales. Garfield maintains that fully a third of the investors' money has gone into middleman profits rather than into real estate purchases and "with a complete loss no one asks for an accounting."

Not only homes and neighborhoods, but 400 years of property law are being destroyed by banker and investor greed. As Barry Ritholtz observes, the ability of a property owner to confidently convey his property is a bedrock of our society. Bailing out reckless financiers and refusing to hold them accountable has led to a fundamental breakdown in the role of government and the court system. This can be righted only by holding the 1 percent to the same set of laws as are applied to the 99 percent. Those laws include that a contract for the sale of real estate must be in writing signed by seller and buyer, that an assignment must bear the signatures required by local law and that forging signatures gives rise to an actionable claim for fraud.

The neoliberal model that says banks can govern themselves has failed. It is up to county government to restore the rule of law and repair the economic distress wrought behind the smokescreen of MERS. New tools at the county's disposal - including eminent domain, land banks and publicly owned banks - can facilitate this local rebirth.

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Ellen is an attorney and the author of eleven books, including Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free. Her websites are webofdebt.com and ellenbrown.com. She is also chairman of the Public Banking Institute.

Me and Lee: How I came to know, love and lose Lee Harvey Oswald

2012-01-30T09:44:00.000-08:00

(2010 Trine Day, LLC) by Judyth Vary Baker
http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2011/12/19/me-and-lee-harvey-oswald

Book Review
Stuart Bramhall
Dec 19th, 2011

Part I

This review is divided into two parts. Part I discusses Baker and her background. Part II delves into the personality of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Me and Lee is a memoir by the only surviving member of a top secret New Orleans research team (described by Ed Haslam in Dr Mary’s Monkey – see http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2011/12/15/the-hidden-manmade-history-of-the-cancer-epidemic/ ) which attempted, in 1963, to create a biologic warfare agent to assassinate Castro. It has a forward by Haslam and an afterward by longtime assassination researcher Jim Marrs. It’s also extensively footnoted and cross referenced with photos, newspaper clippings and other documents from Baker’s personal records, Warren Commission testimony, and other records from the JFK archives.

A science prodigy, Judyth Vary Baker was only 19 when she joined this project. The major strength of Lee and Me is the author’s ability to capture the naive idealism behind Baker’s determination to “conquer” cancer. As much a character study as an expose, the book portrays to perfection the blind, headstrong idealism typical of many young people manipulated into joining off-the-books intelligence-security activities.

Baker’s High School Cancer Research

It was obvious from an early age that Baker had a brilliant mind. Thanks to her extreme precociousness and heavy government emphasis on science education (to “catch up” with the Soviet space program), her high school provided her special premises to convert a science fair project into a long term study of techniques to accelerate cancer growth in mice. Thanks to Florida Senator George Smathers, she came to the attention of national cancer researchers. This led to her recruitment, after one year of college, by the prominent anti-Castro anticommunist Dr Alton Ochsner of Tulane University. Baker’s role was to assist cancer researcher Dr Mary Sherman in a project that was sold to Baker as a an effort to develop a vaccine against SV-40. The latter was a monkey virus which contaminated the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines given to children between 1955 and 1963.

Baker arrives in New Orleans in the summer of 1963 and discovers she will be conducting research in CIA pilot David Ferrie’s apartment, rather Dr Sherman’s lab. Moreover her assignment isn’t to work on a vaccine, but to help create a virus capable of causing “galloping” cancer. Her job consists of harvesting fifty or more mice every week that have been injected with SV-40 viruses mutated by exposure to radiation. She then grinds up the most aggressive tumors, suspends them in calf serum medium and centrifuges them to extract the viruses. She then transports them to Dr Sherman’s lab to be re-exposed to high intensity radiation.

Baker’s Relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald

Baker is introduced to Lee Harvey Oswald during this period because he serves as her escort, riding the bus with her to and from work. In addition to her lab research, Ochsner asks her to take a cover job at the Reily Coffee Company, where her immediate boss is a former FBI agent who is also heavily involved with the anti-Castro movement. Oswald also seems to be instrumental in persuading Baker to overcome her scruples about her biological warfare research, by revealing there is a right-wing/Mob/CIA/anti-Castro Cuban plot to kill JFK that might be derailed if they succeed in removing Castro from power. The line Oswald, Ferrie and Sherman give her that if Castro is assassinated, the different factions will start jockeying for power over Cuba and this will split the coalition.

Baker’s cover at Reily Coffee Company is that of secretary, though her main role is to ensure that Oswald, who also has a cover job at Reilly’s, gets his time card clocked in and out when he’s in the field. Both spend most of their time at their top secret jobs. Baker, who is mainly at Ferrie’s apartment dissecting mice, is never totally clear what Oswald’s assignment is. She describes him as getting regular payments from the FBI and CIA, as well as unemployment checks from a former job in Texas. He seems to be a kind of errand boy, both for the CIA and the Mafia. Oswald has relatives with the Mob and introduces Baker to New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. The Mafia has lost lucrative Cuban casinos in the revolution and is an eager participant in various conspiracies to get rid of Castro. Oswald also introduces her to Jacob “Sparky” Rubenstein (also known as Jack Ruby), who Oswald has known from childhood.

Part II

I have been reading JFK assassination literature since 1990. Of all the books I have read, Lee and Me provides the most insight into Oswald’s personality and his knowledge of the assassination conspiracy. As Baker portrays him, he comes across as an immature, bookish geek who liked to check out James Bond spy thrillers and quote from obscure literary works. He admitted to Baker that he was ashamed of hitting his wife Marina (for insulting his manhood) but seemed unable to stop. He also had strong personal views about civil rights and routinely sat in the rear colored section of buses. In 1963, the South was still militantly segregated. I can see how this might have been extremely irritating to his right wing, racist superiors.

Oswald’s CIA Role in New Orleans

According to Baker, he was very much aware that his CIA handlers didn’t trust him following his return from the Soviet Union. He told Baker that fake defectors were never fully trusted, owing to the possibility they might have became double agents. Oswald was never given the name of the CIA officer running the anti-Castro project he was working for. Oswald only knew him as Mr. B and that he was CIA station chief in Mexico. According to Oswald, this pattern of being assigned a number of minor, unrelated tasks without being clear who he was working for was typical for agents suspected of being “dangles” (double agents). Baker states he only learned his superior’s real name a few days before the assassination. In their last phone conversation, Oswald revealed the man’s name was David Atlee Phillips. In 1963 Phillips was CIA Chief of Cuban Operations. In 1954 he played a major role in the CIA coup against Arbenz in Guatemala.

Baker mentions that Oswald helped to organize a shipment of weapons smuggled into New Orleans for the anti-Castro Cubans the CIA was training as paramilitaries. She also talks about an assignment in which Oswald posed as a pro-Castro member of Fair Trade for Cuba to collect names of Castro sympathizers to turn over to the FBI. He was also identified as the agent who would smuggle the fatal viruses into Cuba. This meant that Baker had to train him to change the culture medium necessary to keep them alive.

Baker is Fired from the Project

Eventually Sherman, Ferrie and Baker succeed in isolating a tumor virus capable of producing “galloping” cancer (killing them in weeks, rather than months) in mice. They then inject it into marmoset, rhesus and African green monkeys, where it proves to be equally virulent. In August 1963, Clay Shaw (the CIA contractor district attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted in 1967 for his involvement in the JFK assassination), Oswald and Ferrie transport the virus to the East Louisiana State Mental Hospital, to inject it into a “volunteer” from the Angola Penitentiary. Baker is initially told the patient already suffers from terminal cancer. She subsequently learns that he’s perfectly healthy. It also becomes clear from the blood samples she’s asked to analyze for cancer cells that numerous volunteers have been injected with the lethal virus.

Baker writes an angry memo informing Ochsner that this type of experimentation on human subjects is unethical. He immediately terminates her from the project and threatens her life if she has any further contact with Oswald. By this point the two of them have become lovers. Although Baker returns to Florida with her husband, she and Oswald make plans to leave their respective spouses and elope to Mexico after Oswald smuggles the fatal virus into Cuba.

Oswald Realizes He is Being Set Up

Oswald, meanwhile learns that his assignment is changed, that he is only to transport the virus to Mexico City and hand it off to a second courier. When his contact fails to show in Mexico City, he makes a desperate attempt to get a Cuban visa to deliver the virus himself, which is denied. He is now genuinely concerned about his own safety. The information he possesses makes him a clear liability to the people he works for unless they have a specific use for him. He becomes convinced, at this point, that they are trying to set him up to look like a pro-Castro agent in the plot against JFK.

Despite the promise he has been given to be transferred to Mexico City, his superiors order him to return to Dallas to spy on “right wing nuts” interested in killing Kennedy. He and Baker continue to maintain phone contact, using pay phones and a complex phone wheel they use to synchronize call scheduling. On October 19th, Oswald is invited to join the assassination conspiracy – planned for three alternative locations – Miami (a right-wing informant blows the whistle on the Miami plot and Kennedy forgoes a motorcade to be transported by helicopter), Chicago and Dallas. Oswald plays along, believing he can pass details of the conspiracy to trusted FBI agents who can foil the assassination attempts.

Following the records release under the 1992 JFK Act, it was learned that a tip-off regarding an assassination threat caused the secret service to cancel JFK’s November 2nd visit to Chicago. Oswald told Baker back in 1963 that he was responsible for this tip off. On November 16, he told her that he also passed information regarding the Dallas assassination plot to an FBI contact. Oswald’s wife Marina later confirmed this in a letter to the Chairman of the JFK Assassination Records Review Board. According to an FBI clerk Garrison interviewed during his investigation, the FBI contact telexed the information to the Dallas FBI field office, where it mysteriously vanished.

*To protect her five children, Baker kept silent about her involvement with Oswald until her last child left home in 1998, she broke her silence. Her revelations on the Internet provoked a firestorm of controversy, both from pro-conspiracy researchers and Warren Commission diehards, who accuse her of fabricating her story from the wealth of detail on the JFK assassination circulating on the Internet.

Edward Haslam, author of Dr Mary’s Monkey (see link), has exhaustively investigated her story and defends her for the following reasons:

He has confirmed her identity and her claims about doing cancer research in high school through the microfilm file at the Bradenton Herald, while employed there managing their market research.

He has sighted the W2 slip she provides for her period of employment at the Reily Coffee Company and confirms that it’s genuine.

He has personally interviewed Anna Lewis, wife of CIA agent David Lewis, who worked with Oswald, Jack Martin and Guy Bannister in New Orleans’ anti-Castro movement. She confirms that Baker and Oswald were romantically involved in 1963.
Baker blogs, with long time assassination researcher Jim Fetzer, at:

http://judythbaker.blogspot.com/

Gayest Cities in America, 2012

2012-01-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

Source:
http://news.advocate.com/post/15571734525/gayest-cities-in-america-2012

15. Denver
Denver is simultaneously outdoorsy and a rapidly growing metropolis, and its attitude is exceptionally laid-back and gay-friendly. (Screw the antigay zealots in nearby Colorado Springs.) A day spent skiing, fishing, hunting, or camping with the fit locals can lead to an evening dining, clubbing, or camping of another sort. Much of the sporting and social scene is devoted to the ladies of Denver; witness the Capitol Hill neighborhood, girl-watching at There Urban Whiskey Bar (ThereDenver.com), a nosh at Racine’s (RacinesRestaurant.com), and dancing at Charlie’s (CharliesDenver.com).

14. Long Beach, Calif.
How gay is Long Beach? Its pride celebration is one of the country’s biggest, and the Long Beach Pride float seems to make its way to every other Pride event within 500 miles! There are a ton of gay and lesbian bars, restaurants, a big boat suitably named the Queen Mary (QueenMary.com; it’s also haunted, and a hotel). The sunny, welcoming city provides a more relaxed alternative to nearby Los Angeles.

13. Austin
No amount of backwoodsiness from previous and current statehouse residents George W. Bush or Rick Perry can taint the cosmopolitan, countercultural, and friendly nature of this capital city. Bands, barhopping, and barbecue feature prominently here, for queers and others. The lesbian-owned Hotel San José (SanJoseHotel.com) is a minimalist oasis; no fewer than 16 bars offer libations for LGBTs; and Splash Days (au naturel sunbathing and parties over Labor Day), the Austin City Limits Music Festival (late September), and March’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film and music festival keep Austin suitably weird — and gay.

12. Portland, Ore.
Bisexual Sleater-Kinney alum Carrie Brownstein has fun on Portlandia (“Put a bird on it!”) playing with the rep of the city’s hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate, boycott-ready, feminist, fleece-clad denizens. But there’s other fun to be had here too. Visit the arty Pearl and Alberta districts; stay at the Ace Hotel; read at the country’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s; drink at the Silverado (SilveradoPDX.com) and Red Cap Garage/Boxxes (Boxxes.com); tune in to Out Loud (KBOO.fm/OutLoud), and party at Crush (CrushBar.com), popular with men and women. Oh, then there’s all that nature stuff!

11. Little Rock, Ark.
The River Market District is the main gay area, and many businesses that don’t advertise as specifically LGBT are friendly and open. The compact city has Backstreet (1021 Jessie Rd.) and U.B.U. (TheAquarium.bizland.com) for the over-18 crowd, and those of legal drinking age can check out SixTen Center Street Bar, TraX, Miss Kitty’s/Saloon (all three at TraxNLR.com). But not all LGBT life happens in a bar: According to GayChurch.org, nine of the city’s churches advertise as LGBT-friendly. Amen!

10. Grand Rapids, Mich.
The heart of western Michigan LGBT life is in Grand Rapids, with dancing, drinking, and bingo at the Apartment (ApartmentLounge.net), which has been in operation for over three decades; karaoke at Diversions video bar (DiversionsNightclub.com), and drag shows and go-go boys at Rumors (RumorsNightclub.net). The city boasts one of the Midwest’s best LGBT country line-dancing scenes, with the Grand River Renegades (GrandRiverRenegades.com) offering anyone a dance card on Sundays at Rumors.

9. Atlanta
We won’t fault you for trying to forget Real Housewife Kim Zolciak’s dip into the lesbian pool — but don’t blame Atlanta if everyone there wants to sample the fun LGBTs have all over town. Lesbian businesses thrive in East Atlanta, and gay clubs go off in Mechanicsville. People coming to Atlanta like to party, and the GayTL delivers with Black Gay Pride in September and Atlanta Pride in October, and the black gay clubs’ second-busiest weekend of the year surrounds the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January. Holla!

8. Knoxville, Tenn.
The state’s legislature has been an unmitigated disaster for our rights, making a law to prevent cities from adopting LGBT-inclusive antidiscrimination ordinances (although, happily, the ridiculous “don’t say ‘gay’” bill is dead for now). Nevertheless, Knoxville has defiantly produced a robust gay scene, including the University of Tennessee’s Commission for LGBT People; a welcoming spot for queer, trans, and other marginalized teens at Spectrum Café (SpectrumCafe.org); gay-affirming churches; and thriving nightlife.

7. St. Paul and Minneapolis
It’s technically two cities, but oh, what fun there is to be had here. The region is a draw for upper Midwestern LGBTs, and Minneapolis topped this list in 2011 for so many reasons. These two cities can’t get enough of each other: There’s the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC.org), Twin Cities Pride (the 40th annual is June 23-24), and even Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBT and Allied Business Community. Sheesh, just get domestic-partnered already!

6. Ann Arbor, Mich.
You don’t have to be big to have it going on, as this sixth largest city in Michigan does. The area has one of the few clubs in Michigan catering to dykes: Stiletto’s (technically in nearby Inkster) draws in every lesbian in Detroit. But talk about a taste for drama! Just ask U. of M.’s first out student body prez, Chris Armstrong, the target of a smear campaign by nutso assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell. We raised a glass at Aut Bar (AutBar.com) when the kook got the boot.

5. Seattle
When Forbes named Seattle the most miserable sports city in the nation, many of us felt a twinge of empathy. No matter; there’s heaps of other stuff to keep us busy, including tons of locavore and cosmopolitan cuisine, funky bars in a robust LGBT scene, Dan Savage, and hookups — or at least the search for them. TheStir.com noted that Seattle ranks among the top cities for residents who list “casual sex” as the type of relationship they’re seeking.

4. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Booting spring breakers from its shores may have not boosted Jagermeister sales, but it sure has classed up the joint. Add to that a mass exodus from Miami, where a real estate boom priced out many gay clubs (then the boom busted), and you have the recipe for a rising homo mecca in South Florida. The area is teeming with gay bars and restaurants, and a ton of guesthouses and spas that run the gamut from mild to spicy. Lesbians are finally starting to move to Fort Lauderdale too, though most girl bars, like New Moon (NewMoonBar.com), are in nearby Wilton Manors.

3. Cambridge, Mass.
The home of Harvard University likes a smarty-pants, including the nation’s first African-American lesbian mayor, E. Denise Simmons. Though her reign ended in 2009, she is currently in her sixth term on the City Council, which enacted antidiscrimination protections for transgender people in 1997. The town’s Paradise bar (ParadiseCambridge.com) is billed as New England’s only gay club with hot male dancers six nights a week — hey, everyone needs a night off — and the town is right next to a little hamlet named Boston, where allegedly LGBT stuff sometimes happens too.

2. Orlando, Fla.
Besides hosting Gay Days at Disney World, where 50,000 LGBT folks and their kids dressed in red T-shirts invade the theme park the first Saturday in June (and spend $100 million in town), Orlando has more gay softball teams than you can shake a Louisville Slugger at. And residents just got domestic-partnership protections. For non-Mickeyphiles, there’s oodles of homo content each year at the annual Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival (OrlandoFringe.org).

1. Salt Lake City
While those unfamiliar with the Beehive State are likely to conjure images of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, far-less-oppressive-than-it-used-to-be Salt Lake City has earned its queer cred. There are more than a half-dozen hot spots for men and women, including the eco-friendly nightclub Jam (JamSLC.com), though the sustainable bamboo flooring is perhaps less of a draw than the packed dance floor. The Coffee Garden (878 South 900 East) is a gathering spot for those looking for a caffeine fix, the Sundance Film Festival brings LGBT film buffs to screenings downtown, and lesbian-owned Meditrina (MeditrinaSLC.com) is a true wine bar — yes, you can get a drink in this town.

Top 10 Threats of 2012

2012-01-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

Arnaud De Borchgrave
Friday, 06 Jan 2012
Full Article:
http://www.newsmax.com/deBorchgrave/Iran-al-Qaida-Pakistan-threats/2012/01/06/id/423323

These are the top 10 that directly threaten the U.S. homeland and are likely to trigger U.S. military involvement:

A mass casualty attack on the U.S. homeland or on a treaty ally.

A severe North Korean crisis (e.g., armed provocations, internal political instability, advances in nuclear weaponry).

A major military incident with China involving U.S. or allied forces.

An Iranian nuclear crisis (e.g., surprise advances in nuclear weapons/delivery capability, Israeli response).

A highly disruptive cyber-attack on U.S. critical infrastructure (e.g., telecommunications, electrical power, pipeline output, transportation and emergency services.

A significant increase in drug trafficking violence in Mexico that spills over into the United States.

Severe internal instability in Pakistan triggered by a civil-military crisis or terror attacks.

Political instability in Saudi Arabia that endangers global oil supplies.

A U.S.-Pakistan military confrontation, triggered by a terror attack or U.S. counter-terror.

Intensification of the European sovereign debt crisis that leads to the collapse of the euro, triggering a double-edged transatlantic crisis.

Happy New Year!

New Audio of Hannity's Homophobic History

2012-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

01/03/2012 by Steve Rendall
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/01/03/new-audio-of-hannitys-homophobic-history

Sean Hannity got his start in radio on UC Santa Barbara's KCSB in the late 1980s, where he got in trouble for promoting homophobia and disinformation about HIV and AIDS. I wrote about this in a 2003 Extra! profile of the then-Fox News show Hannity & Colmes:

After airing for less than a year, Hannity's weekly show was canceled in 1989, when KCSB management charged him with "discriminating against gays and lesbians" after airing two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts About AIDS (Independent, 6/22/89). Written by homophobic Christian-right activist Gene Antonio, the book crankily argued that AIDS could be spread by casual contact, including coughs, sneezes and mosquito bites. Antonio charged that the government, medical establishment and media covered up these truths in the service of "the homosexual movement."

When Antonio appeared by phone on one of the shows, Hannity and his guest repeatedly slurred gay men. At one point, according to the UCSB campus newspaper the Daily Nexus (5/25/89), Hannity declared: "Anyone listening to this show that believes homosexuality is a normal lifestyle has been brainwashed. It's very dangerous if we start accepting lower and lower forms of behavior as the normal." According to the campus paper, Antonio responded by calling gay men "a subculture of people engaged in deviant, twisted acts."

When a fellow KCSB broadcaster called the show to challenge the host and his guest, Hannity pointed out that the caller, a lesbian, had a child through artificial insemination, and Antonio dubbed the child a "turkey-baster baby." When the caller took issue with that "disgusting" remark, Hannity followed up with "I feel sorry for your child" (Independent, 6/22/89; KCSB, 4/4/89).

This information as indicated was gleaned from local Santa Barbara and UCSB print media. At the time, I was unable to get audio of Hannity's KCSB shows, a situation now remedied by KCSB programmers Elizabeth Robinson and Richard Flacks, who have packaged two of the original Hannity shows in a station archival retrospective, "50 Years of People-Powered Radio."

What Hannity said on the air more than 20 years ago would perhaps not be overly relevant today but for the fact that he has always denied being homophobic...and his homophobia continues: For instance, reacting to the 2009 Academy Awards broadcast featuring a montage of romantic film kisses (not exactly a new feature of cinema), Hannity paraphrased his wife in protesting the inclusion of same-sex kisses in the montage (Hannity, 2/23/09): "They keep showing the scenes of men kissing. And I'm thinking, do we have to expose our children to more and more sex, more and more violence, you know, more and more controversy?"

"How the Most Lopsided Trade in NBA History Explains the World"

2012-01-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

In struggle and sports Dave Zirin
http://bit.ly/ywp4Ch
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165610/how-most-lopsided-trade-nba-history-explains-world

When you study the rosters of all 30 National Basketball Association teams or even casually watch a game, you find yourself facing two stubborn facts: 1 - Every team possesses an international mosaic of talent. 2 – The last All-Star produced by the high schools of New York City is 32 years old and just changed his name to Metta World Peace.

Calling hoops “the city game”, as Pete Axthelm did 40 years ago, only makes sense if the city is Barcelona. Two decades of globalization alongside the crumbling of our urban infrastructure has dramatically altered who we see on the court. If there was one moment that represents both the birth and brutal pathos of this process, it was draft day 1998 when two teams took part in what must be seen as the most lopsided trade in NBA history. That was when a Michigan Wolverine superstar born and raised in inner-city Detroit, Robert “Tractor” Traylor, was sent from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Dallas Mavericks for a skinny teenager from a place called Wurzburg, Germany named Dirk Nowitzki, and role player Pat Garrity. Now Dirk is considered the best player on earth and Robert Traylor is dead, passing away earlier this year from a heart attack at the tender age of 34.

It’s unbelievable that these two folks were traded for one another. But equally unbelievable is that this was seen as a steal for the Milwaukee Bucks. Then CNN/SI scribe Dan Shanoff wrote at the time, “After trading away No. 4 draft-pick Stephon Marbury last year, the Bucks get it right in ’98 by stealing the marketable and talented Robert Traylor from the Mavs for an overhyped foreign prospect.”

I asked Dan Shanoff about this ill-fated prediction this week, and he said, "Looking back, I am mostly appalled at my simple-minded analysis and implicit xenophobia. Projecting (and developing) draft picks into Hall of Famers demands imagination that Don Nelson and Mark Cuban clearly had and I lacked. I also didn't account for the maniacal dedication that Dirk would put in to honing his craft. It is perhaps the ultimate irony that as my 5-year-old son became aware of basketball this past spring, he announced that Dirk was his favorite player. Nowitzki's talents are that obvious. I only wish I could have understood that back then."

We can laugh, scoff, or shake our heads at Dan Shanoff, but his analysis wasn’t a wild statement by any stretch. They represented my thoughts at the time along with most observers. But in hindsight it’s now clear that this deal was more than the most lopsided trade in hoops history. It was a "canary in the coal mine" for the way the game and the world has changed over the last 15 years.

The Dirk story is now well known. From Wurzburg, Germany, the 19 year old blew up in pre-draft workouts and, despite having the muscle tone of a baby deer, became the object of numerous team’s affections, including the Celtics (who had to “settle” that year for Paul Pierce.) But in the shadow of Dream Team I and II and the utter domination of “our guys” at the Olympics, the conventional wisdom was that Euro players were too weak, too fragile, and basically too lame to make it on the big stage. A soft seven-foot jump shooter? Not in this man's league.

The Traylor story is less known. He averaged 16 points and 10 boards as a junior at Michigan, and was the Big Ten Tournament MVP. His freshman year, “the Tractor “ tore down a rim and made it look easy. With the sweet charisma of a gentle giant, Traylor was in a national sneaker ad before his first pro game. He was “Big Man”, “Barkley, Jr.,” and any nickname that speaks to those rare players whose baby fat makes them magically aerodynamic. Traylor, as Shanoff wrote, was seen as a “can’t miss”: the Big 10 Superstar with the big league body.

But Traylor’s body didn’t go from baby fat to Baby Shaq. Instead he battled obesity throughout his career. He also battled income tax evasion charges that ended in a conviction for hiding the money of his cousin, a convicted drug dealer, But Traylor's greatest obstacle wasn’t weight, taxes, or scandal. It was his production on the court. In 438 NBA games, Traylor averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds. He then bounced across the globe, playing for professional teams from Turkey to Puerto Rico. It was in Puerto Rico when Traylor was talking on the phone with his wife when, she thought, the line disconnected. Unable to reach him again, she called team officials who found him dead of a heart attack.

It was remarked by those who knew Traylor that this cause of death was painfully ironic, given his generous heart. ESPN’s Jemele Hill, who is from Detroit, wrote, “He was generous to a fault. Traylor, like a lot of promising, black athletes from troubled backgrounds, never learned to say, ‘no.’ He received three years probation after he admitted he prepared a false tax return that hid the assets of his cousin, Quasand Lewis, a convicted drug dealer. He squandered a lot of his NBA millions, admitting in a 2009 Detroit Free Press story that he once took care of as many as 20 friends and family.”

Traylor was the guy from the projects who’s bigger, stronger, and faster than everyone else and is pegged for the NBA from the time he walked onto a court. Everyone told him that he would be a star, that the money would always be there, and that he had to take care of his friends at all costs. He also, even in Detroit, had the inner-city infrastructure, from youth leagues to avid boosters, that gave him a path to the League. Dirk was a skinny kid who had no justification to believe that a beanpole from Germany could ever be hailed as the best in the game. For several years other GM’s watched Dallas, and dipped one toe in the water, thinking the game’s globalization might just be a mirage.

Now the league is filled with badass players from across the earth. It’s also filled with Dirk imitators, born both inside and outside the states: seven footers who rain jumpers for days. It says a great deal that arguably the league’s best player, Kevin Durant, plays like Dirk and is from the Maryland suburbs. Rough, rugged, and raw rebounders like Traylor, with a little meat on their middle are in very short supply. As for Detroit, the attacks on the city's union and non-union workers has never missed a beat, and it's spent 15 years as victim of every neoliberal "shock therapy" on the populace. Last year, it was named the United States’s “most stressful city” by virtue of being in the top 10 for murders, robberies, poverty, and, yes, heart attacks. Brutal cuts to city programs has also meant that extracurricular activities, exercise, and for some, opportunity, have become casualties of “the new normal.” As we spend this shortened season celebrating Dirk, let’s also remember Robert Traylor and the way this one trade marked a fork in the road toward a very different NBA: a different NBA that reflects they way our world has changed and left many behind.

Dave Zirin is the author of “The John Carlos Story” (Haymarket) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Dawn of the Jedi

2012-01-30T09:21:00.000-08:00

To see more photos and read the full article:
http://io9.com/5877147/an-exclusive-sneak-peek-of-dawn-of-the-jedi-the-mysterious-new-star-wars-comic

Think you know everything about the Jedi? Next month, a brand new series will explore some of the earliest eras in Star Wars history.

Courtesy of Dark Horse, here's an exclusive preview of Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi:

On the planet Tython, in the center of the galaxy, an order of warrior monks strives to maintain peace and to balance the mysterious power known as the Force. But a stranger is coming—one who will destroy both peace and balance, and open the galaxy to exploration and conquest. This is where it all begins!

Dawn of the Jedi #1 hits stores Wednesday, February 15

Black Biscuit

2012-01-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

Trailer: http://fabriziofederico.moonfruit.com/#/film/4556057968

From Fabrizo Federico:

The film was shot on mobile phones and childrens cameras. I decided to go about creating a different type of film with no script, and a cast of non-actors (homeless people, sex workers, handicapped folk, ex-pimps and an ex-child ping pong champion).

It was made under the PINK8 manifesto: http://blackbiscuit101.moonfruit.com/#/pink8-manifesto/4556009845

My aim is to inspire upcoming filmmakers to explore a more non-linear form of cinema, and to stop relying on outside funds in order to make feature films.

This way movies will be more crazed and real, call it punk LSD Cinema.

Kind regards and keep up the genius.

Fabrizio Federico
http://fabriziofederico.moonfruit.com/

Kool Photos

2012-01-30T09:12:00.000-08:00

Robalini with Blueboy...

Robalini, Greg Bishop of The Excluded Middle & Kenn Thomas of SteamshovelPress.com...

Separated at Birth: I found this photo on the Wikipedia entry for Milkman. He's from India, but perhaps his dad was a milkman too, and worked in the DC suburbs in the late 60s...

Google.com logo on 1-18-2012...

Newt Family Values...

The Royal Wedding & Walt Disney movies...

14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout

2012-01-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 -- Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count.
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks...

Full Article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/medical-journal-article-14000-us-deaths-tied-to-fukushima-reactor-disaster-fallout-2011-12-19

Occupy Las Vegas protesters target foreclosed homes in valley

2012-01-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

Kristi Jourdan
Jan. 7, 2012
http://www.lvrj.com/news/occupy-las-vegas-protesters-target-foreclosed-homes-in-valley-136885893.html

They are the faces of the foreclosure crisis, and Occupy Las Vegas wants to set up camp in their yards.

About 20 protesters spread out across the valley and spent Saturday knocking on the doors of homes facing foreclosure in hopes of contacting homeowners and their neighbors. The majority of the properties are single-family homes in Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas going to auction in the next week or so.

Some of the dozens of properties were caked in cobwebs and decorated with dirty lawn chairs, evidence the owners were long gone. An old welcome mat sat on the porch of one property, but a look through the blinds showed the home was empty.

Others were cleaner, a sign that real estate agents and banks were caring for them or, as some neighbors reported, the owners don't live there anymore but occasionally return to the property to keep it neat.

Some properties were in gated communities where protesters were unable to make contact with homeowners or neighbors. The occupiers left cards and fliers in screen doors and windows whenever they could.

The group of protesters set up a small camp in front of an empty three-bedroom home in the Autumn Chase neighborhood, which has made headlines for internal squabbling among neighbors and homeowners association leadership.

The 1,200-square-foot home in the 5000 block of Golden Fields Street is scheduled to go to auction Tuesday.

Protesters said they want to collectively bargain with banks through public protests and letter-writing campaigns. They said they want to call attention to predatory lending practices.

They are promoting principal reduction rather than simple modifications as a way to break the cycle that created the foreclosure crisis in the Las Vegas Valley, which is commonly called "ground zero" of the foreclosure crisis.

"We're going to put (banks) in a position where they don't gain anything by negotiating with the homeowner, but they'll lose something if they don't," said Sebring Frehner, event organizer.

Occupy Las Vegas is the local chapter of the Occupy Wall Street movement against corporate greed and influence in politics. Local protesters have a permit through late February to camp on county-owned property on Paradise Road near Swenson Street and Tropicana Avenue.

With a crew of five in tow, protester Angie Sullivan scoured a North Las Vegas neighborhood, contacting nearby neighbors of an abandoned property in hopes of tracking down its owner.

Sullivan said she was concerned that the area was too transient, because neighbors didn't know each other and houses appeared to be empty.

"I don't know about organizing a neighborhood where there is no one left," Sullivan said.

Neighbors Jamie and Gina Basham live across from the property in the 2100 block of Mountain Sunset Avenue which is scheduled to be auctioned off Monday. The couple has lived in the neighborhood for almost three years and said they didn't mind occupiers camping on the property across the street to draw attention to the foreclosure issue.

"I don't have a problem with it if it helps everybody else," Jamie Basham said.

Banks "have taken advantage of people, and there are strength in numbers."

Contact reporter Kristi Jourdan at kjourdan@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.

Obama: To The Right of Reagan

2012-01-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama has not just dribbled away the progressive mandate of 2008, he has emerged over the past three years as a politician “to the right of President Ronald Reagan, the Tea Party hero” on at least some issues. The U.S. continues its steady decline in all the indices that count for the average person. “Only three developed countries – Albania, Russian and Moldova – had a worse maternal mortality rate.” African Americans are in free fall under the First Black President.
BAR editor and columnist Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, PhD
Wed, 01/04/2012
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/obama-right-reagan

“Of 891 promises made, Obama has kept 233, broken 116 and failed to address 61 percent.”

Barack Obama recently told a radio interviewer of his response to criticisms of his administration, “I tell them what Joe Biden says, judge me not as the Almighty, consider the alternative.”

Obama’s comment was astonishing. The man who came in on a wave of public optimism and support, whose rallying cry was, “Yes, we can” was brushing off his four years of “no, we can’ts.” Here are some examples:

– Obama has increased drone strikes eight times over what the Bush administration did across two terms according to John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies

– He prevailed upon the Environmental Protection Agency to pull back anti-smog legislation as part of the Clean Air Act. The U.S. with China and India is the worst carbon emitter in the world.

– He has failed to close Guatanamo Bay – an election promise.

– He promised immigration reform - a key promise given that 26 percent of the electorate is Latino. In 2010, his administration arrested more migrants – 393,000 - than any administration before (81,000 more than in President George W. Bush’s last year in office).

Obama’s failure to keep promises has been mapped by a user of Idea Palooza, a U.S. website, it is sobering reading. The creator, who appears to be conservative, compiled all 891 election promises Obama made (perhaps the first warning was a candidate who made so many promises, but Americans and the world, exhausted after eight war-mongering years of George W. Bush failed to pay attention). So far, according to this measure, which is used by major U.S. news media, Obama has kept 233 promises, broken 116 and failed to address 61 percent.

“In some states schools are on four-day weeks because there is no funding and thousands of teachers have been retrenched.”

He is to the right of President Ronald Reagan, the Tea Party hero, according to the Institute for Policy Studies on some financial issues. They point out that after more than 250 economists wrote to him earlier this year calling for more imagination in the handling of the $15-trillion debt, their call was spurned by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (Obama remained silent). The IPS said, “That rigid position places the Obama administration to the right not only of Reagan, but also both Bush presidencies and the International Monetary Fund.” Geithner served as head of New York’s Federal Reserve under Bush, and is one of a number of key Bush appointees Obama has kept close; they also include national Federal Reserve chief, Ben Bernanke and former Defense secretary, Robert Gates, among others.

When Obama was elected into office in November, 2008, he had the strongest majorities in both houses of Congress since 1993. Democrats held 258 of the 435 seats in the House and at least 54 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Two years later he lost the House to the Republicans.

And since then a bitterly divided Congress has slumped to a nine percent approval rating – its worst ever – for its failure to legislate and continual threats to shut down government. These threatened shutdowns have seen government departments freeze – they are too nervous to implement projects or to hire staff because there is no assuredness that they will receive an ongoing flow of funding.

“Nearly two-thirds of city employees across the country facing layoffs are African American.”

And so America’s infrastructure has begun crumbling: 12% or 69,000 bridges are “structurally deficient,” as just one example. In some states schools are on four-day weeks because there is no funding and thousands of teachers have been retrenched.

In August the White House reported that unemployment among young African Americans was 32%; by December it had leapt to 41.3%. The union group, AFL-CIO, reported last week that, “The loss of public-sector jobs has disproportionately impacted African Americans – nearly two-thirds of city employees across the country facing layoffs are African American.”

While Africa greeted his election with joy, Obama has shown little interest in the continent. In September, he signed into law a $23.2 million cut for Pepfar – the HIV and AIDS program introduced by President George W. Bush and an important funder of treatment and care programs in developing nations. But global family planning and reproductive health services took the biggest hit with a reduction of $85 million.

The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate of any industrialized nation according to the CIA Factbook. The Save the Children Fund notes that “an American woman is more than seven times as likely as one in Ireland to die from pregnancy-related causes and her maternal death risk is 15 times that in Greece. Only three developed countries – Albania, Russian and Moldova – had a worse maternal mortality rate.”

The Census Bureau reports the number of Americans in poverty jumped to 15.1 percent in 2010, a 17-year high. About 46.2 million people, or nearly one in six, were in poverty. And 49.9 million were without health insurance.

“The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate of any industrialized nation.”

In October, the Congressional Budget Committee revealed that since 1979, the richest one percent had seen incomes rise 275%, while the middle class was 40% more comfortable and the lowest fifth of the nation had seen incomes rise only 18% – essentially, they got poorer. Yet in November, when the so-called super-committee nominated by Obama to find ways out of the debt crisis failed to reach accord, one of the biggest stumbling blocks was a refusal by Republicans to increase taxes on the rich, many of whom pay far lower taxes than the lowest earning members of society. Billionaire Warren Buffet famously pointed out recently that his personal assistant pays more tax than he does.

Many of these issues Obama inherited, but with the mandate the electorate gave him he had the greatest capacity of any president in decades to make a real difference.

When he was elected Obama said: “Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states, we have been and always will be the United States of America.”

Under Obama the United has fallen off the States of America. History still has to reveal whether Barack Obama is a victim of racists in the Republican Party who will do anything to stymie the first black president for the United States or whether he simply was not the right man for an important job.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is the author of No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA is available through amazon.com and the National Whistleblower Center. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit lead to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 ( No FEAR.)

A Sourcebook on Media Censorship in America

2012-01-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

Book Review of Project Censored's Censored 2012
Dr. Paul W. Rea
Global Research, January 20, 2012
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28769

Huff, Mickey and Project Censored, Eds. Censored 2012: Sourcebook for the Media Revolution. New York: Seven Stories Press, October 2011. $19.95.

For ordering details: ProjectCensored.org

Even more than its predecessors, Censored 2012 makes for highly engaging and informative reading. This collection is a well mixed bag containing much that we need to know but typically don’t.

In part, this deficit occurs because many Americans are, in Neil Postman’s memorable phrase, “amusing ourselves to death” and also because many exhibit an aversion to discussing issues. But above all this deficit results from increased media malpractice and censorship. When a study shows that regular viewers of Fox News are less informed—and likely more misinformed—than those who don’t follow the news, something is seriously amiss.

According to the project director Mickey Huff, the corporate media are serving up a diet of “junk-food news to avoid telling the public what is really going on at home and abroad” (p. 12). If this strikes many readers as obvious, fewer seem fully aware of just how pervasive this censorship has become—how very little coverage many significant issues receive.

As a result, even Americans who consider themselves informed don’t understand how their government attempts to minimize or even eliminate public awareness. On the climactic final day of the Durban Conference on Climate Change, NPR’s “Science Friday” featured a long segment on bedbugs (12/9/11). Censored 2012 reveals that even less coverage—none at all, in fact—is afforded to ongoing federal preparations to use a (real or contrived) state of emergency as a pretext to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and herd “dissidents” into mass holding camps (p. 85).

Both the book and the process that produces it are highly educational: as former director Peter Phillips observes, the democratized and educational nature of Project Censored invites faculty and students “to speak the truth to power with news and stories of the abuses of empire and the successes of our resistance” (p. 30). Under the guidance of present director Mickey Huff, this year’s volume delivers exceptional contributions, especially from students and faculty at San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University, and Diablo Valley College in California. In all, close to twenty universities participated this year, with over 100 professors and several hundred students.

As in previous volumes, this one includes the twenty-five Top Censored Stories of the year. Topping this year’s list is “More US Soldiers Committed Suicide than Died in Combat;” the shocking significance, however, hardly declines at the other end: the massive disposal of toxic waste in Afghanistan and the use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly Libya (pp. 52-53). Since the early 1990s, the US press has paid some attention to Gulf War Syndrome among American veterans exposed to the “toxic soup” but much less attention to the medical fallout within Iraq, where the population lives amid carcinogenic radioactivity.

This year’s volume is organized around “clusters,” key areas of related issues. These include “Health and the Environment,” “Media Distortion of Nonviolent Struggles,” and Peter Phillips and Craig Cekala’s “Human Cost of War and Violence”; all present readable, concise treatments of topics that are, of course, the subjects of many current books.

As its title suggests, Censored 2012 features two essential topics: the mechanisms of media censorship and the key issues they’ve censored. Censorship, defined as one type of propaganda, itself takes many forms: skewed “framing, slight of content, and appealing to emotion over logic, among other tactics of media manipulation . . . .” These methods involve de facto “conspiracies to manipulate or withhold information” (p. 37). Canadian scholar Randal Marlin presents an excellent overview of traditional propaganda techniques, including the more recent (and most useful) concept of State Crimes Against Democracy, or SCADs.

Equally insightful is Jacob Van Vleet’s reprise of French sociologist Jacques Ellul (The Technological Society, 1964). In it, Prof. Van Vleet notes that “propagandists often use a combination of true and false statements in their appeals,” thereby creating “the illusion of objectivity when in fact only one side of the issue at hand is being presented.”

In addition, Van Vleet indicates that much propaganda is “social,” aiming to influence a society’s lifestyle. Such propaganda, often in the form of advertising, not only promotes consumption and an uncritical belief in technology; it also encourages “individuals to believe that their society . . . holds the best way of life.” This leads to what Marx described as “false consciousness.” Van Vleet also rightly points to “Conditioned Reflex and Myth,” paying particular attention to the societal rituals such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. These, according to Ellul, reinforce conditioned reflexes that impart excessive and exclusive “pride, patriotism, and even awe” (pp. 316-19).

Representing the category of censored issues, Ann Garrison’s “US in Africa: Velvet Glove on a Military Fist” is especially revealing. Garrison makes points that will surprise many readers: that US foreign aid to Africa, like that to Israel and Pakistan, is based on power projection: that conventional media claims not withstanding, it often involves “covering a military fist with a velvet glove of humanitarian and development aid” (p. 388).

Citing well-known interventions, Garrison shows how UN peacekeepers paid by the Security Council are often combatants dispatched at the behest of the US. In Somalia, under the guise of fighting terrorism, these African “peacekeepers” actually expanded areas of armed conflict. In addition to having Africans do the dying, these “peacekeepers” have commonly consumed funds previously been used for humanitarian aid, aggravating problems with agricultural production, famine, and refugees. Garrison also reveals how, especially in Congo, the UN enabled the World Bank to facilitate massive plunder of natural resources by neighboring Uganda and Rwanda (pp. 389-403).

But the real clincher is her disclosure about pilotless drones, which are fast becoming the dominant means of delivering explosives from the air. It’s well known that since 2000 the CIA has made extensive use of Predator drones over Pakistan. In 2008, however, General Atomic unveiled its new Reaper drones, which can carry far more missiles than its Predators. Since the company makes both planes, it needed new markets for the Predator. Its marketing campaign, abetted by WIRED magazine, proposed using the older drones to “stop the genocide” in “the next Darfur.” Following this script, Obama’s “humanitarian hawk” Samantha Power persuaded the president that Predators could be deployed to fire Hellfire missiles at Libyans (pp. 397-399).

Other outstanding chapters include Mickey Huff, Abby Martin, and Adam Bessie’s feisty “Framing the Messengers: Junk Food News and News Abuse for Dummies” and Kenn Burrows and Tom Altee’s meditative “Collaboration and the Common Good.”

Despite this diversity, the book does present unifying themes. Much as Occupiers unite around the idea that “the capital of government has succumbed to government by capital,” Censored 2012 shows us that, to an increasingly shocking degree, freedom of information has succumbed to the corporatocracy.

Fortunately, this book goes a long way toward telling us what we need to know.

Paul W. Rea, PhD, is the author of Mounting Evidence: Why We Need a New Investigation into 9/11 (2011).

Not-So-Kool Photo of the Week

2012-01-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

U.S. Marines urinating on dead Afghans...

TSA Directly Violated US Constitution By Detaining Senator Rand Paul

2012-01-30T08:54:00.000-08:00

Steve Watson
January 23, 2012
http://www.infowars.com/tsa-directly-violated-us-constitution-by-detaining-senator-rand-paul/

In preventing Kentucky Senator Rand Paul from flying to Washington this morning, the TSA directly violated the law as written in the US Constitution.

The Constitution specifically protects federal lawmakers from being detained while en route to Washington DC.

Article I, Section 6 states:

“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same….”

Rand Paul was travelling from his home in Louisville to attend a session in the Senate today.

This is the reason that TSA officials have since put out the talking point in the media that Rand Paul was never officially detained, despite the fact that the Senator himself confirmed that he was told to sit in a cubicle and wait without any indication of when he would be allowed to leave.

The Senate is back in session at 2 p.m., and votes are scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Senator Paul was allowed to board a second flight after a separate screening by TSA agents, however, it remains to be seen whether he will make it to the capital in time.

Obama Signs Global Internet Treaty Worse Than SOPA

2012-01-30T08:50:00.000-08:00

White House bypasses Senate to ink agreement that could allow Chinese companies to demand ISPs remove web content in US with no legal oversight
Paul Joseph Watson
Thursday, January 26, 2012
http://www.infowars.com/obama-signs-global-internet-treaty-worse-than-sopa

Months before the debate about Internet censorship raged as SOPA and PIPA dominated the concerns of web users, President Obama signed an international treaty that would allow companies in China or any other country in the world to demand ISPs remove web content in the US with no legal oversight whatsoever.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was signed by Obama on October 1 2011, yet is currently the subject of a White House petition demanding Senators be forced to ratify the treaty. The White House has circumvented the necessity to have the treaty confirmed by lawmakers by presenting it an as “executive agreement,” although legal scholars have highlighted the dubious nature of this characterization.

The hacktivist group Anonymous attacked and took offline the Federal Trade Commission’s website yesterday in protest against the treaty, which was also the subject of demonstrations across major cities in Poland, a country set to sign the agreement today.

Under the provisions of ACTA, copyright holders will be granted sweeping direct powers to demand ISPs remove material from the Internet on a whim. Whereas ISPs normally are only forced to remove content after a court order, all legal oversight will be abolished, a precedent that will apply globally, rendering the treaty worse in its potential scope for abuse than SOPA or PIPA.

A country known for its enforcement of harsh Internet censorship policies like China could demand under the treaty that an ISP in the United States remove content or terminate a website on its server altogether. As we have seen from the enforcement of similar copyright policies in the US, websites are sometimes targeted for no justifiable reason.

The groups pushing the treaty also want to empower copyright holders with the ability to demand that users who violate intellectual property rights (with no legal process) have their Internet connections terminated, a punishment that could only ever be properly enforced by the creation of an individual Internet ID card for every web user, a system that is already in the works.

“The same industry rightsholder groups that support the creation of ACTA have also called for mandatory network-level filtering by Internet Service Providers and for Internet Service Providers to terminate citizens’ Internet connection on repeat allegation of copyright infringement (the “Three Strikes” /Graduated Response) so there is reason to believe that ACTA will seek to increase intermediary liability and require these things of Internet Service Providers,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The treaty will also mandate that ISPs disclose personal user information to the copyright holder, while providing authorities across the globe with broader powers to search laptops and Internet-capable devices at border checkpoints.

In presenting ACTA as an “international agreement” rather than a treaty, the Obama administration managed to circumvent the legislative process and avoid having to get Senate approval, a method questioned by Senator Wyden.

“That said, even if Obama has declared ACTA an executive agreement (while those in Europe insist that it’s a binding treaty), there is a very real Constitutional question here: can it actually be an executive agreement?” asks TechDirt. “The law is clear that the only things that can be covered by executive agreements are things that involve items that are solely under the President’s mandate. That is, you can’t sign an executive agreement that impacts the things Congress has control over. But here’s the thing: intellectual property, in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, is an issue given to Congress, not the President. Thus, there’s a pretty strong argument that the president legally cannot sign any intellectual property agreements as an executive agreement and, instead, must submit them to the Senate.”.

26 European Union member states along with the EU itself are set to sign the treaty at a ceremony today in Tokyo. Other countries wishing to sign the agreement have until May 2013 to do so.

Critics are urging those concerned about Obama’s decision to sign the document with no legislative oversight to demand the Senate be forced to ratify the treaty.

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited

2012-01-30T08:49:00.000-08:00

Declan McCullagh
January 26, 2012
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57366443-281/hawaii-may-keep-track-of-all-web-sites-visited

Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.

Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill requiring the creation of virtual dossiers on state residents. The measure, H.B. 2288, says "Internet destination history information" and "subscriber's information" such as name and address must be saved for two years.

H.B. 2288, which was introduced Friday, says the dossiers must include a list of Internet Protocol addresses and domain names visited. Democratic Rep. John Mizuno of Oahu is the lead sponsor; Mizuno also introduced H.B. 2287, a computer crime bill, at the same time last week.

Last summer, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) managed to persuade a divided committee in the U.S. House of Representatives to approve his data retention proposal, which doesn't go nearly as far as Hawaii's. (Smith, currently Hollywood's favorite Republican, has become better known as the author of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA.)

Democrat Jill Tokuda, the Hawaii Senate's majority whip, who introduced a companion bill, S.B. 2530, in the Senate, told CNET that her legislation was intended to address concerns raised by Rep. Kymberly Pine, the first Republican elected to her Oahu district since statehood and the House minority floor leader.

"I was asked to introduce the Senate companions on these Internet security related bills by Representative Kymberly Marcos Pine after her own personal experience in this area," Tokuda said. "I would defer to her on the origins of these bills as she has done the research and outreach, and been the main champion of this effort."

Pine, who did not immediately respond to queries, has been targeted by a disgruntled Web designer, Eric Ryan, who launched KymPineIsACrook.com and claims she owes him money, according to an article last summer in the Hawaii Reporter. Her e-mail account was also reportedly hacked around the same time. The article said Pine would advocate for "tougher cyber laws at the Hawaii State Capitol" as a result.

"We must do everything we can to protect the people of Hawaii from these attacks and give prosecutors the tools to ensure justice is served for victims," Pine said at the time.

Whatever its sponsors' motivations, the bill isn't exactly being welcomed by Hawaiian Internet companies.

"This bill represents a radical violation of privacy and opens the door to rampant Fourth Amendment violations," says Daniel Leuck, chief executive of Honolulu-based software design boutique Ikayzo, who submitted testimony opposing the bill. He adds: "Even forcing telephone companies to record everyone's conversations, which is unthinkable, would be less of an intrusion."

Mizuno's proposal currently specifies no privacy protections, such as placing restrictions on what Internet providers can do with this information (like selling user profiles to advertisers) or requiring that police obtain a court order before perusing the virtual dossiers of Hawaiian citizens. Also absent are security requirements such as mandating the use of encryption.

Because the wording is so broad and applies to any company that "provides access to the Internet," Mizuno's legislation could sweep in far more than AT&T, Verizon, and Hawaii's local Internet providers. It could also impose sweeping new requirements on coffee shops, bookstores, and hotels frequented by the over 6 million tourists who visit the islands each year.

"H.B. 2288 raises all of the traditional concerns associated with data retention, and then some," Kate Dean, head of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association in Washington, D.C., which counts Verizon and AT&T as members, told CNET. "And this may be the broadest mandate we've seen."

Even the Justice Department has only lobbied the U.S. Congress to record Internet Protocol addresses assigned to individuals--users' origin IP address, in other words. It hasn't publicly demanded that companies record the destination IP addresses as well.

In Washington, D.C., the fight over data retention requirements has been simmering since the Justice Department pushed the topic in 2005, a development that was first reported by CNET. Proposals publicly surfaced in the U.S. Congress the following year, and President Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said it's an issue that "must be addressed." So, eventually, did FBI director Robert Mueller.

Petition demands probe into comments by MPAA chief Chris Dodd

2012-01-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

Richard Verrier January 22, 2012
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/sopa-saga-continues-with-online-protest-over-dodds-remarks.html

As if former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd needed another headache. Last week the Internet lobby defeated anti-piracy bills in Congress heavily backed by the entertainment industry. Now, the Motion Picture Assn. of America's chairman is under fire for remarks he made on a news program.

On Sunday, an online petition claiming more than 10,000 signatures demanded that the White House investigate comments made by the Dodd last week in an interview on Fox News. During the interview, Dodd suggested that lawmakers who don't support tougher anti-piracy laws could lose financial contributions from Hollywood.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," said Dodd. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

Those comments, the petition stated, represent "an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the 'above the law' status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy."

MPAA spokesman Howard Gantman responded: "Senator Dodd was merely making the obvious point that people support politicians whose views coincide with their own. When politicians take positions that people disagree with, those people tend not to support those politicians."

Moulitsas: Democrats ‘incredibly stupid’ for still backing SOPA

2012-01-30T08:39:00.000-08:00

Eric W. Dolan Wednesday, January 18, 2012
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/18/moulitsas-democrats-incredibly-stupid-for-still-backing-sopa

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas on Wednesday blasted the Democrats who continue to support the House’s Stop Online Piracy and the Senate’s Protect IP Act.

Although a number of Republican lawmakers dropped their support of the anti-piracy bills after the largest online protest in history on Wednesday, some prominent Democrats like DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Chuck Schumer still support the bills.

“You had a bipartisan group of people who supported it,” Moulitsas said on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. “Today, Republican after Republican has backed out and abandoned support for SOPA and PIPA — Democrats haven’t. They cling to this fiction that this can be fixed, and not only is this incredibly stupid, its incredible tone deaf.”

“You’re basically seeing a generation of web savvy, web-immersed people who are obsessed with protecting what they see as their very birthright. They’re watching Republicans come out and see the light on this issue while Democrats continue to cling to the Hollywood studios.”

Senator Leahy Hands Republicans A Gift

2012-01-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

Senator Leahy Hands Republicans A Gift By Giving Them Credit For Delaying Vote On PIPA/SOPA

Mike Masnick
Tue, Jan 24th 2012
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120124/04252717523/senator-leahy-hands-republicans-gift-giving-them-credit-delaying-vote-pipasopa.shtml

from the do-these-people-have-no-clue? dept

We've noted how intellectual property issues are historically non-partisan. Sometimes, that's good, because it means that debates on the issues don't fall into typical brain dead partisan arguments. Sometimes, it's bad, in that it basically means both Republicans and Democrats are generally really bad on IP issues... happy to give industries greater and greater monopoly rights for no good reason. However, we noted an interesting thing happening on the way to the collapse of PIPA and SOPA: the Republicans were first to come together as a party and decide to speak out against these bills, recognizing the groundswell of public interest. That resulted in Republican leadership coming out against the bills, and Republican Presidential candidates all rejecting the approach in the bill. The Democrats, who have traditionally been considered more "internet friendly," simply couldn't bring themselves to go against Hollywood and unions -- two regular allies.

However, as many more net savvy Democrats have explained, this appears to be a major miscalculation on the part of Democratic party leadership -- potentially losing an entire younger generation of voters to the Republicans. Already, mutliple strategists have been suggesting that the Republican Party use this as a chance to cozy up with Silicon Valley, despite its typically "blue" leanings (though, generally with a strong libertarian bent). It certainly appears that the Republicans are ready to do just that. House majority leader, Eric Cantor recently tweeted about meeting with Sergey Brin.

The Democratic leadership, however, still doesn't seem to recognize the importance of the tech community and the wider internet. Rather than learning anything from what happened last week, PIPA sponsor Senator Leahy is actually trying to blame the Republicans for killing PIPA. It's (yet again) an amazingly tone deaf response. It's as if he's pushing the internet and the tech community right into the Republicans' arms. Perhaps he's making a bet that those constituencies don't matter as much as Hollywood... but that seems like a pretty risky bet to make.

What Is SOPA? Here Are 5 Things You Need to Know

2012-01-30T08:15:00.001-08:00

Jorge Rivas, Jamilah King
Wednesday, January 18 2012
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/01/what_the_hell_is_sopa_and_how_it_would_affect_you.html

Looking to take action to help stop SOPA? It’s easy. Go here to learn more, contact your Senator, sign a petition, or censure your own website in protest of the bill.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has got the entire Internet up in arms today. Media justice advocates say the bill is anathema to basic functioning of the Internet; for a system that’s based on relative freedom and connectivity, SOPA would work as the online world’s stingy gatekeeper, giving government the power to shutdown websites altogether.

Today, hundreds of websites are joining in a day of action to SOPA’s threat to freedom of expression on the Internet. Several civil rights and racial justice organizations are joining in what’s been called an “Internet strike,” by closing their websites from 8 am to 8 pm eastern time. Colorlines.com’s Jamilah King, who covers media policy, explains why:

The Internet’s been an important space for communities of color to tell their own stories and advocate for issues they don’t often see in film or on television. SOPA puts that independence in jeopardy. It’ll add yet another barrier to how and what we can communicate.

So, here are the basics on what you need to know.

Who’s behind SOPA? Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas politician who’s been known mostly for his anti-immigrant stances in recent years. Smith’s got big industry backers, namely: The Recording Industry Association of American, the Motion Picture Association of America (now led by former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd), and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

What’s the justification for SOPA? Supporters of the bill claim that it’ll help copyright holders (think big record labels) protect their content. Rep. Smith has criticized the bill’s opponents and explained that SOPA would only target foreign websites that put American businesses at risk.

But opponents argue that the definition of “foreign infringing sites” is too vague. As it’s written now, they argue, the bill will fundamentally alter the relative freedom with which the Internet currently operates. What’s certain is that it’ll add a level of supervision to the Internet that’s never existed before.

Who’s opposed to SOPA? Basically, every website that you visit regularly. Most notably, Wikipedia, Craigslist, and Reddit, along with thousands of other websites, have chosen to go dark in opposition to the bill and to help educate users about its potential impact. But the list doesn’t stop there: Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and Twitter have also publicly opposed the bill. The White House has also announced that should the bill reach President Obama’s desk, he will veto it.

How would SOPA work? It allows the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore website that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It’s kind of an Internet death penalty.

More specifically, section 102 of SOPA says that, after being served with a removal order:

A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order…Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within five days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.

How would it impact me? If you create or consume content on the Internet, under SOPA the government would have the power to pull the plug on your website. If you’re a casual consumer, your favorite websites could be penalized and shut down if they seem to be illegally supporting copyrighted material.

This is especially important for human rights groups and advocates in communities of color, who could faced increased censorship if the bill is passed. The language of the bill makes it easy for the US Attorney General to go after websites it simply sees as a threat.

Robalini's NFL Picks: Super Bowl Edition

2012-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

Here's my results for week 20
W-L-T record: 1-1
Playoff record: 6-4
Final regular season record: 73-60-7
Total record: 79-64-7

Well, the conference championships have been played, and now, after a 20-week season, the NFL is leading up to the biggest game of the year: the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

Okay, maybe it's not the biggest game, but this year it may be the best post-season bet. And so, as a bonus for Robalini's NFL picks SB XLVI edition, I will lend you my pick for the game...

Pro Bowl

I have a general feeling about betting on pre-season games: if the players playing don't really give a shit who wins, why should I? And that's a good general rule about the Pro Bowl as well, the one major league sport all-star game that just isn't taken seriously. The NFL, for all its marketing successes, has kryponite when it comes to this one, which in no way can match the MLB summer classic or the NBA all-star game. Even the NHL has a better track record.

Of course, that may be slowly changing, thanks to what is probably the best decision made yet by Roger Goodell during his reign over the NFL. It was a modest proposal: play the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl rather than the week after. There were many people (myself included) who thought it was a bad idea before it was tried two years ago: by playing it before the big game, all Super Bowl participants would be ineligible, and thus the talent level at the game would be diluted, leading to an inferior game. But after the game, when viewer ratings came out and were through the roof, Goodell was immediately vindicated. And in retrospect, the results shouldn't have been a surprise. Of course viewers don't want to watch the Pro Bowl the week after the Super Bowl. After the Super Bowl, any game is decidedly anti-climatic.

And so, the new apparent tradition of having the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl enters its third year. This year, the effect on the game is particularly noticeable. The Patriots have eight selections missing the game due to their participation in the Super Bowl. Eight players are nearly 20 percent of the roster. In contrast, the Giants only have two selections who are ineligible. Even worse is the biggest name from each team out of the game. The AFC loses Tom Brady, far and away the best QB in the AFC this year. The NFC loses Eli Manning, who, while proving all season once and for all what a clutch passer he is, isn't missed that much, especially since his replacement is Cam Newton.

It would be pretty tough in any case for the AFC, as the NFC has been stacked far greater with talent all year. But looking at the list of QBs on each team really says it all. For the NFC: Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees & Cam Newton. For the AFC: Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers & Andy Dalton. In a game notorious for defenses taking the day off, which group on gunslingers would you trust to really light it up? (And while Rodgers and Brees have been off-the-charts nearly the whole year, it may be Newton who comes up as the game's MVP, as his ludicrous athletic skills are just the kind of playing that dominates a game like this.) Considering all this, it's hard to believe the NFC is only favored by four points. I say give the points and bet on them...

NFC (-4) Over AFC

Super Bowl XLVI

Only a fool would bet against Tom Brady in a big game. So says I, who has voted against Brady and the Patriots in both their playoff games. The result haven't been too bad actually: I lost with Tebow and the Broncos, but 13 1/2 points still was a smart bet, and while the Ravens did lose, they lost by less than a touchdown, and thus I won the bet. But even with my .500 record, it still is a really bad idea to bet against him unless you have a good reason.

In this case, there is a great reason (and not just my obvious hatred of that pretty-boy wuss and his fellow New Englanders.) My feeling (and the feeling of many others) is the Giants have Brady's number. Push comes to shove, expect New York to win in the final two minutes on a Eli Manning TD pass. It's a pretty good bet, especially since Vegas is giving a field goal in the point spread.

The only problem with this: while the Giants are getting three points, they're also a -120 bet rather than the normal -110. To the beginner, that means to win $100, you have to bet $120 rather than $110. To put that in pure mathematical turns, that means the Giants would have to be on the winning side of the bet 6 out of 11 times, rather than 11 out of 21. That's 55 percent as compared to 52 percent, and while that difference seems small, it is a major difference, especially over the long haul.

Simply put, a -120 bet for Giants is a bad bet, period. You're risking too much with a bad opportunity for a return, based on the dynamics of the game. It would be far more worthwhile to give the three points, bet on the Pats and get the even return on your bet. On pure points, I'd side with Brady on this one.

But there's another way...

Rather than bet with points, you could use the Money Line, i.e. betting without a spread but by odds. It's not as popular in football games, but it is common enough. In the case of the SB XLVI, the Giants are +120, meaning that for every $100 you bet on New York, you get $120 in return. In pure math, that means the break even point for NY is winning five out of every eleven games, a winning percentage of 45%. I have more confidence the Giants will win this game 45 percent of the time than I do they'll be within a field goal 55 percent of the time. That's a 10-point percentage shift, a pretty large difference...

New York Giants (+120 ML) Over New England Patriots

All bets are placed at Station Casinos:

http://www.stationcasinos.com/

To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist

recommends VegasInsider.com:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/

Robalini's Week 20 NFL Picks

2012-01-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

Here's my results for week 19 W-L-T record: 2-2
Playoff record: 5-3
Final regular season record: 73-60-7
Total record: 78-63-7

So now it is time for the conference championships, arguably the best day of NFL football every year. (The Super Bowl, after all, is only one game, and historically hasn't lived up to the hype due to notorious blowouts.) When it is all over, I expect that for a season so noted for Playstation-esque passing statistics and scores resembling college basketball games before the shot clock, the final word is ball-control offense, intimidating defense and great coaching is still the best recipe to getting to the big game...

Baltimore Ravens (+7 1/2) Over New England Patriots

Getting 13 1/2 points against the Pats last week was a good bet, but it was still the wrong bet. Psycho Tom (by nickname for Mr. Brady when he is really pissed off and playing with intense anger) was clearly tired of all the talk over Tim Tebow, and the Broncos defense paid the price, giving up six touchdowns to the toughest guy on the planet ever to wear Ugg boots and a Bieber haircut. But the Broncos are not the Ravens. The last time the Ravens played the Pats in the playoffs, they crushed them, and though they lost to them in 2010, it was a very close game when New England was hotter and scarier than they are now. It's foolish to bet against Brady, but I will bet that even if he wins, it'll be by less than a TD...

San Francisco 49ers (-2 1/2) Over New York Giants

I've seen this 49ers teams improve as the season has continued with awe. What's most telling is that with each of their three losses they have learned invaluable lessons that have made them only better. I don't expect them to learns any more lessons from losses this year. The Giants have made an impressive run thanks to great defense and Eli Manning, but you can only win on andrenaline for so long. 2 1/2 points is about right: the 49ers will win at home and by at least a field goal. Look forward to a Super Bowl with two coaches named Harbaugh...

All bets are placed at Station Casinos:

http://www.stationcasinos.com/

To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/

Robalini's Week 19 NFL Picks

2012-01-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my results for week 18
W-L-T record: 3-1
Final regular season record: 73-60-7
Total record: 76-61-7

So here are my conference semifinal picks:

San Francisco 49ers (+3 1/2) Over New Orleans Saints

I'm a pure 49er fan, so is this a bet based on my heart? Maybe. Still, the Saints are an indoor turf team playing in Candlestick, arguably the most unfriendly football field for a team like NOLA. And while the Saints have a ridiculous offense, if anyone can stop them, it would be the San Francisco defense. The 49ers can win this game, and even if they don't, losing by a field goal or less is a pretty good bet...

Denver Broncos (+13 1/2) Over New England Patriots

I would place myself among the Tim Tebow supporters, and even I have underestimated him. I won't underestimate him again. I still think the Patriots will win this game, but to New England, a win is a win. The victory will be for less than two touchdowns...

Baltimore Ravens (-7 1/2) Over Houston Texans

This is a lot of points, but the Ravens are this good. They are in Super Bowl mode, so they won't slack off like they often have this season. The Texans have had an admirable year, but the season is over...

New York Giants (+7 1/2) Over Green Bay Packers

My third dog pick out of four games. The Giants smell like 2007, a team to underestimate at a risk greater than Tim Tebow. The Packers can still win this game, but expect it to be for less than a touchdown...

All bets are placed at Station Casinos:

http://www.stationcasinos.com/

To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/

Why we get wasted on New Year’s

2012-01-06T07:08:00.000-08:00

Our Dec. 31st hedonism is the last remaining relic of an ancient Roman carnival of debauchery
Felisa Rogers
Saturday, Dec 31, 2011
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/01/why_we_get_wasted_on_new_years

Soccer balls bulge beneath the men’s polyester skirts and blouses to create exaggerated breasts and derrieres. Their masked faces are resplendent with rouge and eye shadow, wild like plumage. Trumpet, trombone and tuba players garbed in maroon polyester suits play rousing banda, and the men shake their tousled pink and blond wigs. Their dance is a lewd, thrusting affair, accompanied by the glad-handed twirling of tuxedoed dance partners dressed as evil businessmen, who leer at the crowd with sinister rubber masks.

Incongruous on the stately town square of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, the baile is but one of many unexpected mini-fiestas we’ve encountered as we travel through Mexico during the winter holidays. The grotesque dance is a far cry from the yuletide tableaus we’ve come to expect in the U.S., but perhaps no less bizarre: adult men dressed as women with huge asses versus adult men dressed as “Christmas elves”? Who’s to say? Although I never found out exactly what the dance in Dolores Hidalgo signified, it is likely a holdover from the wild holiday traditions of ancient Europe and Mexico.

Across ancient Europe, the yuletide holidays were a free-for-all, made dicey by role reversals: The poor invaded the homes of the rich, men dressed as women, and the lord bowed to the peasant. The 12 days of Christmas, from Dec. 25 to Jan. 7, were set in the mold of the Roman holiday Saturnalia: The holidays were a period of truce, when old grudges should be forgotten (at least temporarily), and anger swallowed. But despite all this brotherly love, the Christmas season had a sinister playfulness, similar to the original concept of trick-or-treating. Echoing Saturnalia’s public ridicule of society’s laws and customs, rowdy bands of peasants invaded the manor, demanding food and drink. In exchange, the lord received his subjects’ blessings and goodwill for the coming year.

Sometimes revelers brought the booze with them: In the British Isles, wassailing was a popular and alarming part of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The word “wassail” comes from the Old English “was hal”: “be thou hale” or “be healthy.” The phrase was originally a greeting, but naturally the boozy Brits soon turned it into a toast : “was hale!” followed by the proper reply: “drink hale!” A poem written in 1066 describes a Saxon toast before the Battle of Hastings:

Rejoice and wassail
Pass the bottle and drink healthy
Drink backwards and drink to me
Drink half and drink empty.

By the 17th century wassailing was a holiday tradition. Girls gussied up in holiday finery would carry a dubious alcoholic punch (usually spiced beer with apples) from door to door. The wealthy were expected to drink a toast and offer the wassailers payment in return. Far from the beatific carolers of today, the mobs were known to get unruly: Wassailers would prank or menace householders who refused them booze or money.

British colonists brought wassailing and drunken “trick-or-treating” to the shores of America, where all walks of life adopted the New Year’s Eve traditions. A French visitor to the New York colony was alarmed when the house was accosted at 4 a.m. by a mob of children, servants and slaves who fired a musket and threw stones at the windows. The Frenchman was tired and attempted to ignore the racket, but finally the nature of the situation was explained to him: “Mr. Lynch got up and came into my chamber to tell me that these people certainly meant to do me honor, and get some money from me. I desired him to step down and give them two Louis; he found them already masters of the house and drinking my landlord’s rum. In a quarter of an hour, they went off to visit other streets, and continued their noise till daylight.”

No doubt the Frenchman’s next day was also eclipsed by rum. The Dutch had introduced a more civilized but equally drunken New Year’s Day tradition of open houses, in which city dwellers opened their doors to strangers and friends alike. New Year’s Day tables were laden with cherry bounce, coconut jumbles, rum-soaked doughnuts, honey cakes and fruit in white-wine jellies, and visitors could expect hot toddies, rum punches, eggnogs, peach cordials or sangria. Guests were expected to eat and drink at each stop, which led to great booziness.

At the time, these New Year’s traditions were just a small part of the rowdy American Christmas season, which retained its vaguely sinister European flavor. The two-week season had its abstemious detractors: Puritans railed against Christmastime as a pagan abomination and banned the holidays in their townships. Cotton Mather himself wrote disapprovingly: “”Feast of Christ’s Nativity is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking, and in all Licentious Liberty … by Mad Mirth, by long eating, by hard Drinking, by lewd Gaming, by rude Reveling… ”

Mather no doubt was equally horrified by New Year’s Eve, which always marked an apex of drunken revelry. This is true around the world and throughout time: Although the New Year is celebrated from June to January and from Tallahassee to Timbuktu, almost all cultures have used the passing of one year to the next as an excuse to really party. Take for instance the fine old Sumerian tradition wherein the king had public sex with the high priestess of Ishtar, symbolizing the conception of Ninkasi, the goddess of beer.

In ancient Mexico, the New Year was an exception to draconian Aztec laws. During the rest of the year, only specific sects were allowed to drink: You could hit the pulque (fermented agave pulp) if you were a nobleman, an extremely old person or a pregnant woman; for the young able-bodied commoner, drunkenness was punishable by death. An exception to this code was allowed every fourth New Year for Pilahuana, or “The Drunkenness of Children,” a festival in which godparents adorned young children with parrot down, pierced their ears, and accompanied them to watch their first human sacrifices. Afterward, everyone got wickedly drunk.

In Mexico today, people no longer go in for drunken kids and human sacrifice; a typical New Year’s Eve celebration consists of a late dinner with the family, followed by a midnight Champagne toast, amazing castillo fireworks and partying. Many families still practice the Spanish custom of eating a grape and making a wish for each chime of the countdown to the New Year. Other Mexican New Year’s superstitions include physically sweeping out the old year with a broom and wearing different-colored underwear to bring on various types of luck in the new year: white for good spiritual vibrations, red for luck in love.

The modern Mexican take on celebrating the passing of the old year and the coming of the new is representative of most countries’: a mix of superstitious ritual and heavy drinking. The Japanese say goodbye to the old year in December with “forget the year” drinking parties. The New Year’s holidays, or Oshogatsu, are more sedate family affairs that reflect the universal belief that actions during the first days of the New Year will influence the coming year: Debts are paid, disputes are settled, and houses are cleaned. Families gather to eat soba noodles for longevity and wealth and drink taruzake (sake aged in a cedar barrel) and toso, a medicinal sake that is supposed to ward of sickness in the new year. In accordance with an ancient imperial edict that the use of alcohol is prescribed by heaven, Chinese New Year traditions involve a similar mix of ceremonial drinking and eating. Food and alcohol are served to the spiritual guardians of the household, and parties toast with cognac.

In the United States, New Year’s Eve is the only night of the once bacchanalian winter season that still retains its hedonism, with the expected outcome of serious inebriation. When it comes to New Year’s Eve, Americans are short on superstitious traditions and long on drink. In modern America, New Year’s Eve is the drinking holiday (which is saying something when one considers the vast estuaries of beer consumed on the Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo). But New Year’s Eve is special because it offers a certain carte blanche for stupid behavior. New Year’s Eve is the Las Vegas of American holidays.

Americans were not immune to the worldwide rise of Champagne in the 18th century. During the belle époque, holiday advertisements touted Champagne as the drink for celebrations. By the 20th century, a New Year’s toast was hardly complete without Champagne. Washington socialite Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean took things to the next level with her 1937 New Year’s Eve party, where guests consumed 480 quarts of Champagne.

Champagne was queen, but in true American fashion, ethnic enclaves added their own flavor to the party. A guest celebrating New Year’s Eve 1939 with Cuban friends recorded: “We spend several hours in a small café, eating Cuban sandwiches and mixing Cuba Libres with Ronrico and Coca-Cola. There is a jook-organ which offers a selection of eight records of Cuban music, and two records of American music. There are couples present who dance the rhumba again and again. Estrella and Pedro dance the rhumba also. Apparently they are both enjoying themselves.” If the guest had wandered a few buildings down, he might have found Austrians eating marzipan pigs and toasting with Feuerzangenbowle (aka “flaming fire tongs punch”). Scottish immigrants brought Dundee cake, black buns and Hogmanay punch (apple cider and whisky) to the table. African-Americans prepared lucky New Year’s Day dishes such as black-eyed peas and collard greens, but eventually fell prey to the Champagne dream. A 1983 issue of Black Enterprise magazine recommends pairing Champagne with soul food, stating: “Only Champagne can reign like royalty over gala affairs and celebrations. Only Champagne can take ritual holidays and refashion them into moments of pure joy.”

Although it’s debatable that Champagne is a necessary ingredient for moments of pure joy, one thing is certain: New Year’s Eve offers a rare excuse to engage in the sort of carousing that we once viewed as a significant and inalienable yuletide right. Drink hale!

Felisa Rogers studied history and nonfiction writing at the Evergreen State College and went on to teach writing to kids for five years. She lives in Oregon’s coast range, where she works as a freelance writer and editor.

Why We Must Stop SOPA

2012-01-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

End of the American Dream
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/why-we-must-stop-sopa

Right now, there are two pieces of legislation in Congress that would change the Internet forever if they are enacted. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would give the federal government the ability to potentially shut down millions of websites. SOPA (the version being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives) is the more dangerous of the two. It would essentially be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the Internet. It would give government officials unlimited power to very rapidly shut down any website that is found to "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. That language is very broad and very vague. Many fear that it will be used to shut down any websites that even inadvertently link to "infringing material". Can you imagine a world where there is no more Facebook, Twitter or YouTube? Sites like those would be forced to hire thousands of Internet censors to make sure that no "infringing material" is posted, and many prominent websites may simply decide that allowing users to post content is no longer profitable and is just not worth the hassle. Are you starting to get the picture? That is why we must stop SOPA. If SOPA is enacted, it could be the death of the free Internet.

But this is exactly the kind of bill that the establishment media has been waiting for. It would give them back control. SOPA is being heavily promoted by big media corporations. If they are able to shut down free speech on the Internet, then suddenly everyone would be forced to rely on them for news and entertainment once again.

That is why SOPA and PIPA must be stopped. A recent editorial in the New York Times described how these new laws would work....

The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial. The House version goes further, allowing private companies to sue service providers for even briefly and unknowingly hosting content that infringes on copyright – a sharp change from current law, which protects the service providers from civil liability if they remove the problematic content immediately upon notification. The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar.

Everyone would be deathly scared of allowing anything to be posted on their websites in such an environment. Free speech on the Internet would be a thing of the past.

An article on lifehacker.com explained how easy it would be to bring a claim against a website under SOPA....

If it's possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. This can be something as minor as you posting a copyrighted image to your Facebook page, or piracy-friendly information in the comments of a post such as this one. The vague, sweeping language in this bill is what makes it so troubling.

Fortunately, some of the biggest names on the Internet are rallying to defeat SOPA. For example, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says that he believes that SOPA will actually "criminalize" links....

"By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet"

Another huge name, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is alarmed that SOPA would give the U.S. government the power to censor search results without even having to go through a court trial....

"Imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States. Two bills currently making their way through congress – SOPA and PIPA – give the U.S. government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial)"

In the United States, we used to believe that the government should not take our property away without a fair trial.

But now SOPA would allow the U.S. government to hit Internet websites with a "death penalty" without even having to go to court.

If SOPA becomes law, the Internet will change dramatically.

If there were no websites where people could post thoughts and ideas, what would the world look like?

Over recent months we have seen how sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook can literally change the face of the globe. The following comes from the same New York Times article referenced above....

YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have played an important role in political movements from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. At present, social networking services are protected by a “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which grants Web sites immunity from prosecution as long as they act in good faith to take down infringing content as soon as rights-holders point it out to them. The House bill would destroy that immunity, putting the onus on YouTube to vet videos in advance or risk legal action. It would put Twitter in a similar position to that of its Chinese cousin, Weibo, which reportedly employs around 1,000 people to monitor and censor user content and keep the company in good standing with authorities.

Do we really want Chinese-style Internet censorship in America?

Thankfully, the Internet community is fighting back against SOPA really hard.

Initially, GoDaddy.com was publicly supporting SOPA, but a boycott organized on Reddit has hit them really hard. In fact, GoDaddy lost more than 70,000 domains just last week.

All of this pressure forced GoDaddy to renounce its support for SOPA. However, they are not actively opposing the bill at this point.

Congress is in recess right now, so action on SOPA and PIPA is stalled for now. But the battle is far from over.

And the stakes are incredibly high. One blogger recently put it this way....

“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist”

Yes, the free Internet that we all love and enjoy today is under assault.

If we do not stand up now, we may lose it forever.

Every single day, control of the Internet gets tighter and tighter. For example, did you know that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now watching everything that is said on Facebook and Twitter?

The following comes from a recent Daily Mail article....

The Department of Homeland Security makes fake Twitter and Facebook profiles for the specific purpose of scanning the networks for 'sensitive' words - and tracking people who use them.

Simply using a word or phrase from the DHS's 'watch' list could mean that spies from the government read your posts, investigate your account, and attempt to identify you from it, acccording to an online privacy group.

But it is one thing for them to watch the Internet.

It is another thing for them to shut down free speech on the Internet entirely.

Please do what you can to save the open and free Internet.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping to organize users of the Internet to protest this draconian legislation. The following is from a statement that the EFF recently put out....

As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the reliability and universality of the DNS evaporates.

It gets worse: Under SOPA's provisions, service providers (including hosting services) would be under new pressure to monitor and police their users’ activities. While PROTECT-IP targeted sites “dedicated to infringing activities,” SOPA targets websites that simply don’t do enough to track and police infringement (and it is not at all clear what would be enough). And it creates new powers to shut down folks who provide tools to help users get access to the Internet the rest of the world sees (not just the “U.S. authorized version”).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a page that makes it very easy to send a letter about SOPA to your representatives in Congress. You can find it right here.

There is also a website called "Stop American Censorship" that has even more ways to let the federal government know that you do not want SOPA to pass. You can find that site right here.

We must stop SOPA. The Internet has made it possible for average people all over the world to communicate with one another on a grand scale, and this is a direct threat to the establishment and the big media corporations that they control. They are going to try again and again to take back control over the flow of information. We must not allow them to succeed.

Please share this article with as many people as you can, and please do what you can to help defeat SOPA...

Stoner Cooking 1-6-12

2012-01-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

Retropedia: Girl Scout Cookies
http://www.retroland.com/girl-scout-cookies

What sort of ogre could look a smiling little girl in the eye and refuse her a cookie sale? Luckily for the Girl Scouts of America, it would appear that these monsters are few and far between. For nearly a century, we have anxiously awaited their annual arrival, and gobbled up these tasty treats to the tune of 200 million boxes sold each year.

Girl Scout cookies arrived on the scene all the way back in 1917, when the Mistletoe Troop of Muskogee, Oklahoma decided to utilize these baked treats for their fundraising efforts. The idea caught on, and by 1936, the Girl Scouts organization was recruiting commercial bakers to help them keep up with the demand. When WWII arrived, customers were limited to two boxes, available in either vanilla or chocolate, as a result of wartime rationing. But once the hostilities ended, the young entrepreneurs were back in full force, ensuring that American families could buy cookies by the armful, in a variety of flavors.

While many types of cookies are offered annually, many are sold under different names, depending on the geographic region and which commercial bakery produces them. Never the less, everyone seems to have a favorite type and people commonly stock up on numerous boxes during the short-lived opportunity for purchase each year. Maybe you prefer the chocolate goodness of the overwhelmingly popular “Thin Mints”, which take on a texture that can only be described as heavenly when chilled in the fridge. Or, maybe you are partial to the peanut buttery goodness of “Do-Si-Do’s” and “Tagalongs”. Perhaps you like the simplicity of the “Shortbreads” or “Trefoils”, depending on where you live. Finally, there is the mother of all Girl Scout Cookies, the caramel, chocolate, and coconut delicacies known as “Samoas”. Regardless of your preference, there is a smiling little Girl Scout, eager to persuade you to open your wallet and trade some greenbacks for a few boxes of sublime indulgence.

In the past, one had to deal with the cruel wait time, as you placed your order, then waited a few long weeks for them to be delivered. Utter torture, that was. In recent years, the order system has given way to swarms of little girls standing outside of grocery stores, and tempting you with all of your cookie favorites; boxes stacked high and offering promise of instant gratification. It would almost seem as if the cookie boxes reach inside your subconscious and pull you magnetically towards them. This feeling can’t be all that different from what a heroin addict feels.

But these aren’t drug pushers, they are sweet innocent little waifs, looking at you with their puppy dog eyes and softly speaking the words that will make anyone on a diet cringe: ”Excuse me, would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?”. Why, of course we would, little girl. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Resistance is futile.

*

Ann Seranne's Rib Roast of Beef
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/ann-serannes-genius-rib-roast-beef-174900523.html

Makes about 2 servings per rib

From "Ann Seranne's Recipe for a Perfect Roast: Put it in the Oven and Relax", The New York Times, July 28, 1966

One 2- to 4-rib roast of beef, weighing 4 1/2 to 12 pounds
Flour
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1. Remove the roast from the refrigerator 2 1/2 to 4 hours before cooking.

2. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

3. Place the roast in an open, shallow roasting pan, fat side up. Sprinkle with a little flour, and rub the flour into the fat lightly. Season all over with salt and pepper.

4. Put the roast in the preheated oven and roast according to the roasting chart below, timing the minutes exactly. (This works out to be 15 minutes per rib, or approximately five minutes cooking time per pound of trimmed, ready-to-cook roast.) When cooking time is finished, turn off the oven. Do not open the door at any time.

5. Allow the roast to remain in the oven until oven is lukewarm, or about two hours. The roast will still have a crunchy brown outside and an internal heat suitable for serving as long as 4 hours after removing from the oven.

6. Note: Don't attempt this recipe if your oven isn't well-insulated (that is, if it's extremely hot to the touch when it's in use).

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Waffles of Insane Greatness
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/waffles-insane-greatness-162600175.html

Adapted slightly from Aretha Frankenstein's restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Serves 4, or 2 very hungry waffle eaters

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk (or a combination)
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter and pure maple syrup, for serving

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Add the milk, vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

2. Heat a waffle iron. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and pure maple syrup or hold in a 200 degree oven, directly on the rack (don't stack them or they'll get soggy). These also reheat very well in the toaster.

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Chicken Cordon Bleu Pizza
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/chicken-cordon-bleu-pizza

Italian dinner ready in 35 minutes! Enjoy chicken pizza made using Original Bisquick® mix – a cheesy treat.

PREP TIME 10 Min
TOTAL TIME 35 Min
SERVINGS 8

1 1/2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup hot water
1/2 cup Alfredo pasta sauce (from 16-oz jar)
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1/2 cup chopped cooked ham
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Swiss cheese (6 oz)
3 medium green onions, sliced (3 tablespoons)

1 Heat oven to 425°F. Spray 12-inch pizza pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.

2 In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, Parmesan cheese and hot water until soft dough forms. Press dough in pizza pan, using fingers dipped in Bisquick mix; pinch edge to form 1/2-inch rim. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until light golden brown.

3 Spread pasta sauce over partially baked crust. Top with chicken, ham, Swiss cheese and green onions.

4 Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Cordon bleu is a French dish combining chicken or veal with ham or prosciutto and Swiss or Gruyère cheese. In this recipe, those flavors are simplified to produce a fantastic-tasting pizza.

Be sure to use hot water to make the pizza crust. It helps keep the crust from rising too high during baking and also keeps it chewy and crisp.

*

Vada Pav
ROB MIFSUD
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204879004577111220920814462.html

“It mingles potent flavors with comforting textures: squooshy bread, creamy mashed potato and a hint of crunch.”

It's best to approach street-side dining in Mumbai—or anywhere in India, for that matter—with caution. But caution, if you love Indian food, is torture. While working in Mumbai, and studying the city's culinary specialties, I learned that you don't typically go to restaurants for great food, you go to the sidewalks. My daily commute took me past hawkers selling the food I craved: pav bhaji, a vegetarian sloppy joe made with tomato and potato stew; pani puri, hollow fried balls stuffed with spicy potatoes or chickpeas; and the dish I crave to this day, vada pav.

The temptation to sample it was almost overwhelming, but for what felt like forever, I didn't dare.

"Wait at least 30 days before trying vada pav," one of my hosts, a native Mumbaikar, had warned. According to my gastric guardian, I had nothing to fear from the vada (pronounced "wahda")—a mixture of chunky mashed potatoes, curry leaves, cilantro, mustard seeds and other spices, dipped in a turmeric- and chili-powder-laced chickpea flour batter, then deep fried. Pav (pronounced, enjoyably, "pow"), the small, square, hamburger-bun-like roll in which the fritter is sandwiched wouldn't pose any problems either.

The rub, my host told me, was the rub: the combination of chutneys slathered on the bun. Just as its Western cousin, the hamburger, remains incomplete without a squirt of ketchup or a dollop of relish, a vada pav lies naked without red or green chutney, or both. Red chutney scorches the mouth with garlic and chili powder (and maybe a touch of tamarind), while the green stuff tingles the lips with green chilis, cilantro and mint. The problem is that most chutneys require water, and the water in Mumbai...well, it's the water in Mumbai.

For two long months I looked but never touched, but then one night, after yet another long day at the office, I couldn't ignore my craving any longer. I hopped into a car and instructed the driver to take me to his favorite vada pav stand. I wanted authenticity, and I got it. This stall was a table covered by a corrugated tin roof at the front of an alley. The kitchen was out of sight, hidden around the corner, and customers poured water from an urn into a single, communal metal cup. Caveat emptor. Every few minutes, a fresh batch of vada would emerge, and I would scrum with the other customers for my share. I finally exchanged 12 rupees (approximately 27 cents) for two vada pav smothered in green chutney worrisomely darkened from oxidation. Never had I been all in for so little.

The exact details are unclear, but people who care about such things credit Mumbai street vendor Ashok Vaidya with inventing vada pav in the early 1970s. It quickly became the city's staple snack, and, after one bite, I understood why. Green chutney is not subtle; anything less than lip-tingling represents a "Western" level of chili-induced heat. The nutty, vaguely familiar taste of mustard seed and the earthy smell of curry leaves waft from the fritter, but vada pav approaches perfection because it mingles potent flavors with so many comforting textures: squooshy bread, creamy and slightly lumpy mashed potato and a hint of crunch from the batter.

Vada pav are easy to make at home. Both chutneys can be prepared while boiling potatoes, and the result is so extraordinary that committed carnivores never seem to notice that they're eating vegan. Better yet, there's no waiting period required.

Serves: 4-8
Hands-On Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1½ hours

For the green chutney:
2¼ cups cilantro leaves, tightly packed
1/2 cup mint leaves, tightly packed
2 serrano chilis
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a food processor with ¼ cup water. Process until a thin sauce forms. Add more water if necessary to achieve a slightly watery consistency.

For the red chutney:
1 cup dried unsweetened coconut
10 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons red chili powder
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
Pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Process until a sticky powder forms with the consistency of wet sand. Add more oil if necessary.

For the batter:
1 cup gram (chickpea) flour
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
Pinch of salt

Whisk together ingredients in a large bowl. Continue to whisk while adding ¾ cup water until a thick, smooth batter forms. Let rest at least 15 minutes.

For the potato mixture:
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (approximately 5)
1 quart plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1½ teaspoons black mustard seeds
6 curry leaves, torn
2 teaspoons puréed garlic (finely minced is acceptable)
1 teaspoon puréed ginger
1 serrano chili (or more to taste), seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
8 seedless hamburger buns

1. Peel and halve the potatoes. Cook in boiling water until fork tender, approximately 20 minutes. Drain. Mash using a potato masher until smooth with a few lumps.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves and cook until the seeds start to pop. Add garlic, ginger and chilis and cook briefly. Stir in potatoes and salt. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

3. Divide potato mixture into eight equal portions and roll into balls. (Both chutneys, the batter and the potato balls can be stored overnight, covered tightly with plastic wrap, at this point. The green chutney will oxidize slightly.)

4. Heat 1 quart oil over medium-high heat in a wok or Dutch oven until it reaches 325 degrees.

5. Roll the potato balls in the batter and add to the hot oil one by one. Cook, turning occasionally, until they are golden brown, 3 minutes.

6. Spread red chutney on one half of a hamburger bun, and green chutney on the other half. Place hot potato vada between bun. Press down to flatten slightly.

*

Lamb Meatballs with Pomegranate Sauce
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/recipes/lamb-meatballs-with-pomegranate-sauce-535864

1 egg or 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 lb. ground lamb
1 16-oz. bottle pomegranate juice
1 tsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1-1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh chives
1 clove garlic, minced
Fresh mint leaves (optional)
Toasted pita bread wedges (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In large bowl combine egg, bread crumbs, mint, 2 or 3 cloves garlic, salt, and pepper. Add ground lamb; mix well. Shape into 32 meatballs; set aside.

For sauce, in medium saucepan bring pomegranate juice to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes or until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Add sugar; stir to dissolve.

Meanwhile, in large skillet brown half the meatballs at a time in hot olive oil, turning to brown evenly. Transfer to a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees F. In medium bowl combine yogurt, 1 tablespoon of the chives, and 1 clove garlic. To serve, drizzle meatballs with pomegranate sauce; sprinkle with remaining chives and mint. Serve with seasoned yogurt and pita wedges. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

In Search Of: Switzerland's Best Fondue

2012-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Switzerland has 26 cantons and four languages, but one dish units everyone: fondue. Bread chunks dipped in a pot of hot cheese has been a national dish since the 1930s.
CHRISTINA PASSARIELLO
FOOD & DRINK
DECEMBER 31, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577116693697573180.html

Size is not Switzerland's main asset. If the country were a U.S. state, it would rank 42nd in size, right between West Virginia and Maryland. The drive between its two biggest cities, Zurich in the northeast and Geneva in the southwest corner, takes just three picturesque hours, past church steeples, rolling green hills and thousands of long-lashed cows. Homogeneity doesn't rank high, either. A melting pot of cultures, Switzerland has 26 cantons and four languages jammed into its territory.

But there are symbols that unite the Swiss—chocolate, watches, geopolitical neutrality and an astronomically priced currency. Chiefly, however, there is fondue. Bread chunks dipped in a pot of hot cheese, served in army barracks and at Sunday family dinners, has literally been a national dish since the 1930s.

It's a pretty appealing dish to rally around—already excellent cheese turned to gooey, molten goodness over a burner or open flame. There's a low-stakes challenge in spearing bits of crusty bread on sticks and swirling them into the mixture without losing the bounty. It's one of the world's great communal meals.

"It is said that eating from the same caquelon—or fondue pot—establishes friendships," says Verena Lüthi, who runs the hillside chalet restaurant Auberge de Mont-Cornu, near Switzerland's northern border with France, with her husband

And while the Swiss eat it year-round, winter is a truly ideal time for fondue, whether you're just off the ski slopes or dining out in the city.

Fondue means "melted" in French. Ever since people began preserving milk as cheese thousands of years ago, they have been melting it, says Isabelle Raboud-Schüle, curator at the Musée Gruérien, a regional culture museum in the fondue-heartland town of Bulle in the Fribourg region. The first written recipes for dishes resembling modern fondue date back to 18th-century French and Belgian cookbooks, but they called for imported Gruyère cheese, she adds, thereby making fondue Swiss. (Two variations—chocolate fondue and beef fondue—are attributed to a Swiss chef in New York in the 1950s.)

In the 1930s, Switzerland wanted to promote cheese consumption at home. Through the distribution of fondue recipes, the Swiss Cheese Union advocated that the dish be eaten as often as possible, says Ms. Raboud-Schüle. It also happened to be a handy way to use up leftover scraps of bread and cheese.

Forget about that neutrality thing, though. Each region in Switzerland claims to have the best fondue formula based on local varieties of the two essential ingredients, cheese and wine, as well as other elements that get thrown in the mix. Around Fribourg, an area in western Switzerland that rises between two big lakes, I ate a pure Vacherin fondue, instead of the mix of cheeses that is common. As if a half pound of gooey cheese per person weren't rich enough, near Neuchâtel it was served with a mountain of fresh cream on top. In the Valais region, an arc that runs along the French and Italian borders and home to the Matterhorn, the local fondue variety calls for a tomato coulis.

The Gruyères version has become dominant in recent decades. Often referred to as a moitié-moitié, or half-and-half, it mixes Gruyère and Vacherin cheeses (not necessarily in a 50-50 proportion) with white wine and garlic. Though it's most common in the Fribourg region around the medieval town of Gruyères, the dish bubbles up in Geneva and Zurich, where transplants from Fribourg have set up shop.

Still, many chefs are playing with the classic formula. Christophe Demierre, who runs a molecular-cuisine cooking school from his home kitchen in the Fribourg region, makes fondue as a mousse and a powder that are meant to be eaten individually. "There's still a sense of sharing because it becomes a conversation topic," he says from his kitchen.

Carlo Crisci, who runs two-star Michelin restaurant Le Cerf, north of Lausanne, cooked a cold fondue of small cheese balls in a hot potato soup for a special event. But he doesn't serve his modern fondue at the restaurant. "You can't really serve fondue in an elegant restaurant" because of the smell, he says. Meanwhile, Hervé This, a molecular-gastronomy academic, recommends adding a pinch of citric acid to emulsify the ingredients in fondue—a step that traditionalists balk at.

As with any dish that has such cultural significance, there are plenty of rules that come with eating fondue. The Swiss only condone drinking white wine or hot tea with their melted cheese—anything else is said to create an indigestible ball of cheese in the stomach. (The most egregious offense is drinking Coke or beer, but even water is frowned upon, Ms. Raboud-Schüle says.) Purists don't approve of ordering a salad for some greens with all that dairy. But cured meats are okay. And whoever loses their bread in the fondue pot buys a round of drinks for the table.

After a few days of eating fondue in five Swiss cantons, I was ready to break all the rules. I wanted red wine. I wanted vegetables. But the upside was, I became a master at spotting standout fondue. Start with the bread: It should be crusty and flavorful. The cheese shouldn't be runny, but should envelop the bread. There should be a hint of wine in the mix, but the alcohol should not leave an aftertaste. Neither should the garlic.

The Tourist Treasure | Le Chalet
Fondue restaurants line the main cobblestone street in the medieval town of Gruyères, between Berne and Lausanne. Look to the top of the hill for Le Chalet and its quintessential wooden dining room. (Opt for the cozier upper floor, under the dark beams, rather than the lighter ground floor.) The moitié-moitié is a classic, served with potatoes and thick slices of bread. (At 29.50 francs, or about $30, it is also one of the most expensive, but that's the price of being a tourist.) Rue du Bourg, Gruyères, chalet-gruyeres.ch

The Crowd-Pleaser | Café Tivoli
Smack in the heart of fondue's Fribourg heartland, Café Tivoli is a favorite of local chefs. But this isn't hoity dining. Big groups gather around steaming caquelons for hearty fondue made with perfectly aged cheese. There isn't a menu offered in the wood-paneled dining room—you just chose between a moitié-moitié and a pure Vacherin. The latter is served warm, not hot—because the cheese is so rich, the oil separates from cream at high temperatures—and comes with potatoes for a dish that resembles raclette. Cafe Tivoli is currently in the hands of the fourth generation of the Colliard family—meaning they've been serving fondue for at least 80 years, going back to when Switzerland was first promoting it as a national dish. Place d'Armes 18, Châtel-St-Denis, cafetivoli.ch

The Urban Transplant | Fribourger Fondue Stübli
Denise Ernst, whose parents moved the family from Fribourg to the big city, set up her own restaurant in a gourmet ghetto of Zurich 36 years ago. Nearby, there are reputable pizza joints, high-end Italian restaurants and a Japanese noodle bar. For classic Swiss cuisine, try Ms. Ernst's moitié-moitié. Five cheeses go into it: two kinds of Gruyère and three kinds of Vacherin, ranging from young to aged, to get the right mix of flavors. For a sweet treat, ask for pears and pineapple to dip into the melted cheese. Rotwandstrasse 38, Zurich, fondue-stuben.ch

The Refined Rendition | Auberge de Mont-Cornu
This charming chalet in the hills above La Chaux-de-Fonds in northwestern Switzerland is straight out of "Heidi." The house fondue is nuanced, using three kinds of Neuchâtel cheese (Jura, Vacherin and Chaux d'Abel) topped with savory whipped cream and cracked black pepper. The restaurant, in the Luthi family's 400-year-old house, also serves local meats and Swiss specialties such as rosti, a fried potato pancake. If it's warm, you can have your fondue in the garden overlooking cow and horse pastures. Closed until April, 2012. Mont-Cornu 116, La Chaux-de-Fonds

The Neighborhood Joint | Au Vieux Carouge
Located in a neighborhood of gingerbread-like houses and gourmet stores on the outskirts of Geneva, Au Vieux Carouge was founded by a husband-and-wife transplant from Valais 28 years ago. It is what a diner is to hamburgers—a down-home spot filled with locals who crowd around orange caquelons. The menu makes some concessions to modern versions of fondue: The Marseillaise is spiced with herbs and the Neu-Neu has pasta mixed in. The tomato version—the owner's favorite—is made with a homemade coulis. Rue Jacques-Dalphin 27, Carouge, 22-342-6498

The Quirky Canteen | Buvette des Bains
This lakeside Geneva eatery is housed in a converted public bathhouse that dates to the 1930s, with wood-burning stoves to keep diners warm. Don't expect white tablecloths—here you order your fondue outside and leave your name. A few minutes later, someone will bring you a bubbling pot to one of the long communal tables. They use local sparkling white wine instead of still wine, but it's actually a pinch of baking soda that keeps the dish so fluffy. The tools are more basic than at most places—regular forks stand in for long fondue utensils—but the crowds don't seem to care. 30 quai du Mont-Blanc, Geneva, buvettedesbains.ch

Write to Christina Passariello at christina.passariello@wsj.com

Melting Pots
Where to find exceptional fondue around the U.S.

Swiss Chalet | Vail, Colo.
Where better to indulge in a pot of molten cheese than beside the wintry slopes of a ski resort—in this case, Sonnenalp Resort of Vail? Located in the heart of Vail Village, Swiss Chalet's Alpine-style décor and an array of old-style fondues and raclettes transport you straight across the Atlantic.
20 Vail Rd., sonnenalp.com

Café Select | New York
In the winter months, the grotto-like back room of Serge Becker's sceney Swiss eatery is dedicated to a special fondue menu featuring four different cheese versions, plus raclette. For a fresh take, try the South of the Alps fondue with fresh and sun-dried tomatoes and olives.
212 Lafayette St., cafeselectnyc.com

Geja's Café | Chicago
This Lincoln Park stalwart has been in business since 1965, and is well known to locals for its extensive wine list, dimly lit romantic ambience and the city's purported best fondue. Geja's serves just one, classic Gruyère fondue, available as a main meal or as a prelude to a hot oil fondue course featuring lobster, beef and a variety of other meats of your choosing.
340 W. Armitage Ave., gejascafe.com

The Little Dipper | Wilmington, N.C.
Locals are in love with the convivial atmosphere—and signature cheddar ale fondue, prepared tableside—at this popular restaurant just steps from Cape Fear. For the cheese-averse, the menu features a large variety of non-fondue items as well.
138 S. Front St., littledipperfondue.com

Melt | San Francisco
The fondue at this quirky neighborhood café in North Beach garners praise for its beautifully thick, elastic consistency. Choose from Classic Neufchatel, Welsh Rarebit, Scrumpy Welsh Rarebit and Stout Rarebit versions prepared in two sizes. Most evenings, wall-projected films, open-mic nights or live music round out the experience.
700 Columbus Ave., melt-cafe.com

—Elizabeth Gunnison

Lady Gaga left 'blood' in hotel bath

2012-01-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

03 January 2012
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/lady-gaga-left-blood-in-hotel-bath-6284380.html

Lady Gaga allegedly left "large amounts of blood" in a hotel bath.

The eccentric singer reportedly shocked staff when she checked out of London's lavish Intercontinental Hotel last summer and they discovered a pool of red liquid in the tub of her suite.

One housekeeper claimed the pop superstar was "bathing in blood as part of a Satanic ritual".

She told website Truthquake: "Lady Gaga left large amounts of blood in the suite during a stay this summer. The incident was reported to the concierge, who was told to put it out of her mind."

Other sources believe Gaga could have been using the red liquid as part of a "weird" stage costume or prop.

An insider said: "All of the hotel's staff are convinced she was bathing in it or, at the very least, using it as part of one of her new costumes or weird stage routines."

While it is unclear whether the liquid actually was blood or what the singer had been using it for, it is not the first time Gaga has been accused of unusual behaviour in hotels.

It has previously been claimed that she is terrified of evil spirits and reportedly has every hotel and tour venue scanned by a team of paranormal investigators before she will agree to stay there.

The 'Edge of Glory' hitmaker - who has previously said she believes she is inspired by the spirit of her dead aunt - allegedly splashed out £30,000 on state of the art Electro Magnetic Field meters to detect spectres.

A source said: "She believes in paranormal activity and won't take any risks when she is on the road. It's important to her to be safe from spirits."

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide

2012-01-06T06:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a tasteful new product you can get from JusticeCoin.com:

September 11, 2001 - the terrible events of that day will live in infamy, but the United States would ensure that those responsible would pay the ultimate price. Finally, after 10 years our nation savored the taste of justice.

$19.95 plus $7.95 shipping

From Adbusters.org:

On one side it proclaims: “You can run but you cannot hide” etched above a golden image of Seal Team 6 – the kill squad who finally brought the elusive cat down. On the other side it reads: “Justice has been done” next to three iconic engravings of the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Flight 93.

Konformist Book Club: Hard Target

2012-01-06T06:36:00.001-08:00

From HowardGordon.com:

Gideon Davis has settled into the quiet life of an academic and is weeks away from being married when he discovers evidence of an impending terrorist attack on U.S. soil. He brings his suspicions to his ex-girlfriend, FBI Agent Nancy Clement, but her bosses are leery of Gideon's source: a meth-head informant affiliated with a white supremacist group. When their informant is murdered before they can get more details from him, Gideon enlists his brother, Tillman — newly sprung from prison through a presidential pardon — to infiltrate a group of white supremacists who may be involved.

Together, Gideon and Tillman expose the audacious plan to eliminate the entire top tier of the U.S. government during a high-value, mass-casualty attack. With only Nancy's support, Gideon and Tillman go rogue to stop the powerful titan behind the conspiracy before the entire government is toppled.

Touchstone, January 2012
ISBN-10: 1439175829
ISBN-13: 978-1439175828

Amazon URL:

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Target-ebook/dp/B004T4KRBU/thekonformist

YouTube Movie of the Week: F Is for Fake

2012-01-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2EZ9rFBRlI
Robalini's Note: Fans of the Banksy "documentary" Exit Through The Gift Shop will appreciate viewing this film by Orson Welles, another film that has its central appeal the authenticity of the supposed non-fiction telling of the story.

From YouTube:

F for Fake is the last major film completed by Orson Welles, who directed, co-wrote, and starred in the film. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a fast-paced, meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. Loosely a documentary, the film operates in several different genres and has been described as a kind of film essay.

Far from serving as a traditional documentary on Elmyr de Hory, the film also incorporates Welles's companion Oja Kodar, notorious "hoax-biographer" Clifford Irving, and Orson Welles himself, in an autobiographical role.

Kool Website: Mr. Brainwash

2012-01-06T06:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.mrbrainwash.com/

Mr. Brainwash is the moniker of Los Angeles-based filmmaker and Pop artist Thierry Guetta. He has spent the better part of the last decade attempting to make the ultimate street art documentary. Meanwhile, inspired by his subjects, he started hitting the streets, from Los Angeles to Paris, with spray painted stencils and posters of his pop art inspired images.

He rapidly emerged as a renowned figure on the international street art scene. In June 2008, Mr. Brainwash made his art show debut with one of Los Angeles's most memorable solo exhibitions; Life is Beautiful, held at the historic CBS Studios on Sunset Boulevard. In addition to his widely recognized images, Life is Beautiful featured larger than life installations which included a 20-foot robot made of old televisions, a life-size recreation of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and a pyramid made from 20,000 books. Originally scheduled to open for only two weeks, the exhibit was extended for three months, attracting more than 30,000 visitors.

Mr. Brainwash's work continued to garner recognition from art collectors and street-art enthusiasts alike. By 2009, Madonna approached him to design the cover of her greatest hits compilation entitled, Celebration. In addition to the CD album, Mr. Brainwash created 15 different covers for the accompanying vinyls, singles and DVD releases.

On February 14th 2010, Mr. Brainwash made his New York solo debut as he unveiled Icons, a 15,000 square-foot exhibition in the heart of Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The show featured paintings and silk screens of world icons, portraits of music legends constructed of broken records and large-scale sculptural installations such as a giant boom box and a NYC cab in a life-sized Matchbox packaging. The sold-out show was extended until early May 2010. Not only were major collectors acquiring Mr Brainwash's works but also prestigious auction houses including Christie's and Phillips.

Due to its overwhelming success, the show was extended until the end of September 2010 under the name ICONS REMIX. It featured the addition of 20 large-scale paintings using mixed media and sculptures made out of recycled tires, notably a life sized horse.

Considered as one of the most prolific and talked about artists of today, Mr. Brainwash is also the subject of Banksy's documentary "Exit Through The Gift Shop", which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010. Using Guetta's street art footage, Banksy eventually turned the camera on the only man who ever filmed him. The collaboration resulted in a remarkable documentary that is part personal journey and part an exposé of the art world with its mind-altering mix of hot air and hype.

Mr. Brainwash ended 2010 with a bang by taking Miami Art Basel, the most important art fair in the US, by storm. Within 10 days, without any announcement or promotion, he turned a 25,000-square foot empty retail space in the heart of South Beach into another art spectacle entitled "Under Construction". Surrounded by cut-out Storm Troopers, and featuring a monster made out of traffic cones, the art show created an energy and excitement at the art festival and soon became the obligatory stop for collectors and art lovers during Art Basel. The show mixed the ever-evolving urban environment with Mr. Brainwash's trademark positive message and playful spirit. Show highlights include a giant 40 ft x 12 ft mixed media mural on canvas and the AmeriCAN flag made out of 1400 empty spray cans. After 4 days and thousand of visitors, Mr. Brainwash packed up Under Construction and left Miami almost as quickly as he arrived, in what some might call a successful art hit-and-run.

Will the year 2012 be an apocalyptic game-changer?

2012-01-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

Amid a swirl of science, hucksterism and genuine spiritual belief, prognosticators say Dec. 21, 2012, will usher in a new era of nonviolence and sustainability or bring about TEOTWAWKI — survivalist shorthand for The End of the World As We Know It.
Some believe 2012 is the end of a major cycle in the Maya calendar, with possibly fateful consequences.
Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times
mitchell.landsberg@latimes.com
January 1, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-apocalypse-20120101,0,66615.story

There are years that are remembered for changing the course of human history: 1492. 1776. 1945.

Then there are years that were predicted to change the course of history. 1844, when Judgment Day didn't materialize. 1910, when Halley's Comet didn't wipe out humanity. And remember Y2K?

But rarely does a year arrive with such a mixture of anticipation and dread as 2012.

We speak not of the presidential campaign but of the Maya calendar, and the projection that it — or, more accurately, a cycle within it — will end on Dec. 21, 2012. That date has kicked up a swirl of anticipation, based on science, pseudoscience, hucksterism and spiritual belief. The idea is that 2012 will be a game-changer, the last year of civilization as we know it.

The predictions range from the benign — that this will be a year of spiritual breakthrough, the beginning of a new era of nonviolence and sustainability — to the worst sort of disaster movie cataclysm. And the Maya calendar is just the start. A hodgepodge of other theories has sprung up around the same date.

There are groups who claim that an uncharted, unseen planet called Nibiru will strike Earth or nearly hit it; that the Earth's polarity will reverse (so that north is south and south is north), wreaking widespread havoc; or that solar storms will destroy civilization by disrupting power grids. Most of the predictions are timed to coincide with the "end" of the Maya calendar on Dec. 21, the winter solstice.

Although scientists and many Maya scholars insist that there is nothing to most of the predictions, the idea of 2012 as a watershed year "has gotten great traction," said John Hall, a sociologist at UC Davis who specializes in apocalyptic movements. Hall said he expects the frenzy will only grow over the next 12 months.

Already, survivalist websites are full of accounts of people preparing for the coming TEOTWAWKI — survivalist shorthand for The End of the World As We Know It. Mexico, Guatemala and Belize are getting ready for an upsurge in tourism to Maya ruins.

"They're expecting to do some serious business," said Gerardo Aldana, an expert in Maya history and hieroglyphics at UC Santa Barbara.

It would be difficult to estimate how many websites are devoted to the topic, some branching into seemingly arcane aspects of the 2012 phenomenon. "Try googling 'Maya calendar' and 'crop circles,'" said Richard Landes, a historian at Boston University who specializes in millennial and messianic movements. "You'll have enough to read for the rest of your life."

For many people, the run-up began in 2009 with the movie "2012," in which things go badly for Earth. Both before and since then, dozens of books have been written with titles such as "Apocalypse 2012: The Ticking of the End Time Clock," "2012: The Awakening" and "The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities" (whose publisher, Sounds True Inc., might not inspire confidence).

There is debate about the origins of the 2012 phenomenon, but since the 1960s there have been references to 2012 as the end of a major cycle of the 5,100-year Maya "Long Count" calendar. Since at least the 1980s, the date has been fixed to Dec. 21, the winter solstice, which is said to coincide with an extremely rare "galactic alignment" of the sun and the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

There is dispute among Maya scholars about the date, however. While some believe it is accurate, Aldana contends the calculations used to align the Maya calendar with the Gregorian calendar (the one widely used today) were based on a misunderstanding and could be as much as 50 to 100 years off.

There appears to be widespread agreement among serious scholars, however, that the Mayas never intended for the end of the Long Count calendar (one of several Maya calendars) to signal the end of the world.

"It was like 2000," Aldana said. "It was the end of a millennium, but that didn't mean it was the end of the world."

And, to be fair, many proponents of the 2012 phenomenon predict not doom, but the dawn of a new and better era of human kinship with one another and the Earth.

In any event, scientists say the astronomical phenomena being predicted for 2012 are, for the most part, hooey.

"It's not astronomy, it's astrology," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, said during a recent speech at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. He was referring to the idea of a "galactic alignment."

According to NASA astronomers, the Earth and sun are aligned with the center of the Milky Way every December, with no discernible trouble. NASA has also been quick to dismiss the other 2012 disaster scenarios, saying the planet Nibiru doesn't exist, and therefore cannot strike the Earth; that the north and south poles do, in fact, switch polarity every 400,000 years or so, but that this poses no particular danger and isn't expected any time soon; and that warnings of the effects of a solar storm are vastly exaggerated.

However, NASA has said that such storms do occur on the sun approximately every 11 years, with the next cycle occurring around 2012-13. Though most are benign, 2012 doomsayers point to a National Academy of Sciences report issued in 2008 that warned of a severe solar storm blindsiding the Earth someday, causing a calamity through geomagnetic surges that could knock out power and communications across wide areas.

Meanwhile, scientists complain, the Earth faces a much more likely threat: climate change. And there are, of course, other slow-moving disasters looming.

"There are real crises in the world," said Hall of UC Davis. "There's the environmental crisis. There's the threat of terrorism. There's the economic crisis. There are political upheavals. And in a way, this [2012 phenomenon] is a great distraction for people. And how odd it is that real events that we might be able to do something about are having disastrous effects, and people focus their attention on an event that isn't going to happen."

Robalini Gladiators

2012-01-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

"Kicking Ass Ten Yards at a Time..."

In 2010, Konformist.com did its first venture in sports sponsorship by backing the Robalini Gladiators fantasy football team in the Cantina Football League. (The league has as its headquarters the Paradise Cantina of Las Vegas, across the street from The Hard Rock Hotel, hence the league's name.) In 2011 the investment paid off: thanks to the adept drafting of Robert Sterling (the Gladiators owner and Konformist chief editor) the team dominated the 16-team league, going 13-2 and winning the league's title at Margarita Bowl II.

Key acquisitions in the draft: Drew Brees as the league's fourth pick, both Wes Welker and Larry Fitzgerald as wideouts, Sebastian Janikowski as kicker, and both the SF 49ers and Baltimore Ravens defenses. But the most important pick came in the seventh round, when the Gladiators took a chance on rookie Cam Newton, who combined with Brees pretty much made this championship team.

(If none of what I said makes any sense, it's because you aren't a fantasy football junkie, which means you have a life.)

The team was so successful that Konformist.com may demand a team name change to the Konformist Gladiators to keep the corporate sponsorship. In any case, to read more about the Gladiators, check out the URL below, and check out the 20-man roster over the season that contributed to this powerhouse. Go Glads!!!

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/732195/11

Starters
QB Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
QB Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
WR Wes Welker, New England Patriots
WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona Cardinals
WR Brandon Marshall, Miami Dolphins
RB Cedric Benson, Cincinnati Bengals
RB Donald Brown, Indianapolis Colts
TE Tony Gonzalez, Atlanta Falcons
K Sebastian Janikowski, Oakland Raiders
DEF San Francisco 49ers

Backups
QB Vince Young, Philadelphia Eagles
WR Michael Crabtree, San Francisco 49ers
WR Randall Cobb, Green Bay Packers
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, New York Jets
RB Stevan Ridley, New England Patriots
RB Carnell Williams, St. Louis Rams
RB Deji Karim, Jacksonville Jaguars
TE Jeremy Shockey, Carolina Panthers
K Ryan Longwell, Minnesota Vikings
DEF Baltimore Ravens

Adam Gorightly comes to ConspiraZine!

2012-01-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

Ron Patton
Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Adam Gorightly, prolific writer for Paranoia Magazine and radio host of Untamed Dimensions, will speak at Cafe Libertalia, home of ConspiraZine, on Saturday, January 28, from 5-7pm. Adam's presentation will focus on his new book, “Happy Trails To High Weirdness: A Conspiracy Theorists’ Tour Guide.”

This book details his many strange wanderings across the fruited plain, documenting UFO encounters, mind control conspiracies and assorted doppelgangers that go bump in the night. Adam will also attempt to seduce the listening audience and stimulate their pleasure centers with his groovy, ambient tunes.

After the presentation, we'll head across the street and drain some brews in preparation for a podcast interview with the Church of Mabus, starting at 8pm at ConspiraZine.

Date: Saturday, January 28, 5-7pm and live podcast at 8pm

Location: Cafe Libertalia, 3834 5th Ave., San Diego, CA 92103

Cost: Buy a delicious beverage.....and consider purchasing AG's outstanding book :)

Occupy the P.U.-litzers!

2012-01-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

12/27/11
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4451

This year has given us simply too many worthy contenders for FAIR's annual P.U.-litzers--recognizing the stinkiest journalism of the year. A big part of the problem was that so many outlets were striving to distinguish themselves with especially awful coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. So to note those lowlights, we bring you a special installment of P.U.-litzers: The OWS edition.

--Early Warning System Award: CNN's Wolf Blitzer

On September 19: "Protests here in New York on Wall Street entering a third day. Should New Yorkers be worried at all about what's going on?"

--We Could Do It Better Award: New York Times' Ginia Bellafante

Under the headline "Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim" (9/23/11), Bellafante turned in the quintessential corporate media dismissal of progressive protests. The reporter discovered "a default ambassador in a half-naked woman...with a marked likeness to Joni Mitchell and a seemingly even stronger wish to burrow through the space-time continuum and hunker down in 1968."

The movement's cause "was virtually impossible to decipher," Bellafante complained, slamming [it] for "lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgeably." And who has more knowledge about grassroots progressive activism than the New York Times.

--What's News Award: NPR's Dick Meyer; Washington Post

Asked to explain NPR's non-coverage of OWS, executive editor Meyer said (NPR.org, 9/26/11): "The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective."

And the massive demonstrations around the world October 15th made it onto the front page of the next day's Washington Post--in the form of a lower right-hand corner blurb approximately one column inch long, directing people to page A20 to find news about protests in "more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia."

--Channeling Glenn Beck Award: Reuters

Under the headline (10/13/11) "Who's Behind the Wall Street Protests," the news agency provided an answer straight from one of Glenn Beck's conspiratorial chalk boards:

One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Who exactly is bringing up Soros' name? Reuters names one slightly less than credible source: right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh. But Reuters did its own digging, going on to suggest "indirect financial links" between Soros and the group Adbusters, which issued the original call for the Occupy protest. The links were mostly figments of the right-wing imagination, as even some Reuters reporters pointed out. Reuters eventually changed the headline to "Soros: Not a Funder of Wall Street Protests."

--The Suites to the Streets Award: New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Times star business writer (10/4/11) did little to dispel critics who say he's too close to his Wall Street sources by admitting that he checked out the protests--after a banker told him to:

I had gone down to Zuccotti Park to see the activist movement firsthand after getting a call from the chief executive of a major bank last week, before nearly 700 people were arrested over the weekend during a demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge.

"Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?" the CEO asked me. I didn't have an answer. "We're trying to figure out how much we should be worried about all of this," he continued, clearly concerned. "Is this going to turn into a personal safety problem?"

As I wandered around the park, it was clear to me that most bankers probably don't have to worry about being in imminent personal danger. This didn’t seem like a brutal group--at least not yet.

--Those Facts Are Biased Award: WNYC's Takeaway

Web producer Caitlin Curran was photographed at an OWS protest holding a sign that said this:

It's wrong to create a mortgage-backed security filled with loans you know are going to fail so that you can sell it to a client who isn't aware that you sabotaged it by intentionally picking the misleadingly rated loans most likely to be defaulted upon.

Curran was promptly fired by the New York public radio station for her flagrant violation of journalistic objectivity. Who could trust a journalist who took a far-out radical position like that?

--Timeless Cliches Award: Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer

"Starbucks-sipping, Levi's-clad, iPhone-clutching protesters denounce corporate America even as they weep for Steve Jobs," wrote Post columnist Krauthammer (10/14/11), maligning the protesters as "indigant indolents saddled with their $50,000 student loans and English degrees" whose policy proposal boils down to "eat the rich."

--We Smell a Rat Award: Washington Post

November 16: "Is this an occupation or an infestation?"

--Fact Check Failure Award: CNN's Erin Burnett

New CNN host Burnett decided on her debut program (10/3/11) to fact check the Occupy Wall Street protests. Declaring that that the protesters "did not know" why they were there, adding that "it seems like people want a messiah leader, just like they did when they anointed Barack Obama." Burnett quizzed one protester: "So do you know that taxpayers actually made money on the Wall Street bailout?" Burnett assured viewers this was true--"right now to the tune of $10 billion.... This was the big issue, so we solved it."

A few problems: The TARP bailout is not "the big issue" for OWS, and it's odd to think that people should feel good that big banks were about to turn low-interest government loans into profits. And the total cost of the various bank rescue policies run into the trillions of dollars (Bloomberg News, 8/22/11). But, yes, those protesters sure don't know what they're talking about.

--Tabloid-Style Dignity Award: New York Post

The front page of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post (11/4/11), urging a crackdown on Occupy Wall Street, proclaimed: "Enough! Mr. Mayor, It Is Time to Reclaim Zuccotti Park--and New York's Dignity." This on the same front page that recently declared (8/10/11), "Crazy Stox Like a Hooker’s Drawers--Up, Down, Up." Another cover (10/27/09) photoshopped a skirt onto a Phillies baseball player with a line about the "Frillies" coming to town. And who could forget the Iraq War classic (2/14/03), "UN Meets: Weasels to Hear New Iraq Evidence," with animal heads superimposed onto the representatives from France and Germany? That's the New York Post for you: Always dignified.

--Clueless and Repugnant Award: Washington Post's Richard Cohen

After the Post columnist visited the New York protests, he wrote a column (10/24/11) defending the group against bogus charges of anti-Semitism. But he had plenty of other things to say about OWS. To Cohen, "their slogans suggest a tired socialism that is as repugnant to me as the felonious capitalism that produced the mortgage bubble and the impoverishment of millions of Americans." Cohen was just getting warmed up. The protests are "a destination for the aimless...a tourist attraction with the usual vendors, the usual zaftig young women doing the usual arrhythmic dance, somehow missing the beat of many drums."

Occupy Wall Street is "an incoherent articulation of anger...above all, a conspiracy to have left-leaning writers make jackasses of themselves by imparting grave and grand meaning to what is little more than a vast sleepover." But no anti-Semitism.

Venezuela Wins Against Exxon Mobil Frivolous Lawsuit

2012-01-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

From LATimes.com:
Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil only $255 million of ruling
State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela says debts and court action reduce an award of nearly $908 million by the International Chamber of Commerce.
Associated Press
January 2, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-20120102,0,5269113.story

Venezuela said Monday that it has successfully defended itself in an international arbitration case brought by Exxon Mobil Corp. and will need to pay only $255 million of nearly $908 million awarded to the company.

State oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, said in a statement that debts and court action reduce what it owes under the ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce.

PDVSA said Exxon Mobil had previously used international courts to freeze about $300 million in Venezuela's U.S. accounts and that the company also has a debt of about $191 million related to the financing of an oil project in the country, as well as $160 million that the arbitration tribunal said was owed to PDVSA.

PDVSA called it a "successful defense" and said Exxon Mobil had initially demanded about $12 billion in compensation.

There was no immediate response from the Irving, Texas, oil company. It confirmed the international chamber's decision Sunday, saying the arbitration body found that PDVSA "does have a contractual liability to Exxon Mobil."

Exxon Mobil sought arbitration after President Hugo Chavez's government nationalized an oil project in the country in 2007.

PDVSA said that Exxon Mobil's compensation demands had been "completely exaggerated."

"After four years of arbitration, the real amount determined by the ICC tribunal indeed represents less than the exorbitant sum initially demanded," PDVSA said in the statement.

Exxon Mobil still has another arbitration case pending against Venezuela before the World Bank-affiliated International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

PDVSA said that Venezuela "will take all necessary steps to defend itself" in that case as well.

More than a dozen other arbitration cases involving Venezuela are pending as companies have sought billions of dollars in compensation in response to nationalizations by Chavez's leftist government.

75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy

2012-01-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Michael Moore December 30th, 2011
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/75-years-ago-today-first-occupy

On this day, December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them.

The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime -- it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb.

So on the day before New Year's Eve, emboldened by the recent re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, they sat down on the job and refused to leave.

They began their Occupation in the dead of winter. GM cut off the heat and water to the buildings. The police tried to raid the factories several times, to no avail. Even the National Guard was called in.

But the workers held their ground, and after 44 days, the corporation gave in and recognized the UAW as the representative of the workers. It was a monumental historical moment as no other major company had ever been brought to its knees by their employees. Workers were given a raise to a dollar an hour -- and successful strikes and occupations spread like wildfire across the country. Finally, the working class would be able to do things like own their own homes, send their children to college, have time off and see a doctor without having to worry about paying. In Flint, Michigan, on this day in 1936, the middle class was born.

But 75 years later, the owners and elites have regained all power and control. I can think of no better way for us to honor the original Occupiers than by all of us participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in whatever form that takes in each of our towns. We need direct action all winter long if we are to prevail. You can start your own Occupy group in your neighborhood or school or with just your friends. Speak out against economic injustice at every chance you get. Stop the bank from evicting the family down the block. Move your checking and credit card to a community bank or credit union. Place a sign in your yard -- and get your neighbors to do it also -- that says, "WE ARE THE 99%." (You can download signs here and here.)

Do something, anything, but don't remain silent. Not now. This is the moment. It won't come again.

75 years ago today, in Flint, Michigan, the people said they'd had enough and occupied the factories until they won. What is stopping us now? The rich have one plan: bleed everyone dry. Can anyone, in good conscience, be a bystander to this?

My uncle wasn't, and because of what he and others did, I got to grow up without having to worry about a roof over my head or medical bills or a decent life. And all that was provided by my dad who built spark plugs on a GM assembly line.

Let's each of us double our efforts to raise a ruckus, Occupy Everywhere, and get creative as we throw a major nonviolent wrench into this system of Greed. Let's make the politicians running for office in 2012 quake in their boots if they refuse to tax the rich, regulate Wall Street and do whatever we the people tell them to do.

Happy 75th!

Vote Obama – if you want a centrist Republican for US president

2012-01-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

Because Barack Obama has adopted so many core Republican beliefs, the US opposition race is a shambles
Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 December 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/27/vote-obama-centrist-republican

American presidential elections are increasingly indistinguishable from the reality TV competitions drowning the nation's airwaves. Both are vapid, personality-driven and painfully protracted affairs, with the winners crowned by virtue of their ability to appear slightly more tolerable than the cast of annoying rejects whom the public eliminates one by one. When, earlier this year, America's tawdriest (and one of its most-watched) reality TV show hosts, Donald Trump, inserted himself into the campaign circus as a threatened contestant, he fitted right in, immediately catapulting to the top of audience polls before announcing he would not join the show.

The Republican presidential primaries – shortly to determine who will be the finalist to face off, and likely lose, against Barack Obama next November – has been a particularly base spectacle. That the contest has devolved into an embarrassing clown show has many causes, beginning with the fact that GOP voters loathe Mitt Romney, their belief-free, anointed-by-Wall-Street frontrunner who clearly has the best chance of defeating the president.

In a desperate attempt to find someone less slithery and soulless (not to mention less Mormon), party members have lurched manically from one ludicrous candidate to the next, only to watch in horror as each wilted the moment they were subjected to scrutiny. Incessant pleas to the party's ostensibly more respectable conservatives to enter the race have been repeatedly rebuffed. Now, only Romney remains viable. Republican voters are thus slowly resigning themselves to marching behind a vacant, supremely malleable technocrat whom they plainly detest.

In fairness to the much-maligned GOP field, they face a formidable hurdle: how to credibly attack Obama when he has adopted so many of their party's defining beliefs. Depicting the other party's president as a radical menace is one of the chief requirements for a candidate seeking to convince his party to crown him as the chosen challenger. Because Obama has governed as a centrist Republican, these GOP candidates are able to attack him as a leftist radical only by moving so far to the right in their rhetoric and policy prescriptions that they fall over the cliff of mainstream acceptability, or even basic sanity.

In July, the nation's most influential progressive domestic policy pundit, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, declared that Obama is a "moderate conservative in practical terms". Last October, he wrote that "progressives who had their hearts set on Obama were engaged in a huge act of self-delusion", because the president – "once you get past the soaring rhetoric" – has "largely accepted the conservative storyline".

Krugman also pointed out that even the policy Democratic loyalists point to as proof of the president's progressive bona fides – his healthcare plan, which mandates the purchase of policies from the private health insurance industry – was designed by the Heritage Foundation, one of the nation's most rightwing thinktanks, and was advocated by conservative ideologues for many years (it also happens to be the same plan Romney implemented when he was governor of Massachusetts and which Newt Gingrich once promoted, underscoring the difficulty for the GOP in drawing real contrasts with Obama).

How do you scorn a president as a far-left socialist when he has stuffed his administration with Wall Street executives, had his last campaign funded by them, governed as a "centrist Republican", and presided over booming corporate profits even while the rest of the nation suffered economically?

But as slim as the pickings are for GOP candidates on the domestic policy front, at least there are some actual differences in that realm. The president's 2009 stimulus spending and Wall Street "reform" package – tepid and inadequate though they were – are genuinely at odds with rightwing dogma, as are Obama's progressive (albeit inconsistent) positions on social issues, such as equality for gay people and protecting a woman's right to choose. And the supreme court, perpetually plagued by a 5-4 partisan split, would be significantly affected by the outcome of the 2012 election.

It is in the realm of foreign policy, terrorism and civil liberties where Republicans encounter an insurmountable roadblock. A staple of GOP politics has long been to accuse Democratic presidents of coddling America's enemies (both real and imagined), being afraid to use violence, and subordinating US security to international bodies and leftwing conceptions of civil liberties.

But how can a GOP candidate invoke this time-tested caricature when Obama has embraced the vast bulk of George Bush's terrorism policies; waged a war against government whistleblowers as part of a campaign of obsessive secrecy; led efforts to overturn a global ban on cluster bombs; extinguished the lives not only of accused terrorists but of huge numbers of innocent civilians with cluster bombs and drones in Muslim countries; engineered a covert war against Iran; tried to extend the Iraq war; ignored Congress and the constitution to prosecute an unauthorised war in Libya; adopted the defining Bush/Cheney policy of indefinite detention without trial for accused terrorists; and even claimed and exercised the power to assassinate US citizens far from any battlefield and without due process?

Reflecting this difficulty for the GOP field is the fact that former Bush officials, including Dick Cheney, have taken to lavishing Obama with public praise for continuing his predecessor's once-controversial terrorism polices. In the last GOP foreign policy debate, the leading candidates found themselves issuing recommendations on the most contentious foreign policy question (Iran) that perfectly tracked what Obama is already doing, while issuing ringing endorsements of the president when asked about one of his most controversial civil liberties assaults (the due-process-free assassination of the American-Yemeni cleric Anwar Awlaki). Indeed, when it comes to the foreign policy and civil liberties values Democrats spent the Bush years claiming to defend, the only candidate in either party now touting them is the libertarian Ron Paul, who vehemently condemns Obama's policies of drone killings without oversight, covert wars, whistleblower persecutions, and civil liberties assaults in the name of terrorism.

In sum, how do you demonise Obama as a terrorist-loving secret Muslim intent on empowering US enemies when he has adopted, and in some cases extended, what was rightwing orthodoxy for the last decade? The core problem for GOP challengers is that they cannot be respectable Republicans because, as Krugman pointed out, Obama has that position occupied. They are forced to move so far to the right that they render themselves inherently absurd.

Robalini's Week 18 NFL Picks

2012-01-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

Here's my results for week 17 W-L-T record: 5-4-2
Final regular season record: 73-60-7

A final regular season winning percentage of 55%. Pretty good...

So here are my Wild Card Playoff round picks:

Houston Texans (-3) Over Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals are 9-3 against teams not named the Steelers or Ravens, so on that basis they would look to be a good bet. Except look at their resume: there isn't a victory against a single playoff team. And though I've been betting against the Texans, they've done good enough without Matt Schaub (thanks to good play by T.J. Yates, a great rushing attack lead by Arian Foster, and solid defensive play) for me to be confident they can win a playoff game at home...

New Orleans Saints (-10 1/2) Over Detroit Lions

I've been a fan of the Lions all year, and I will say right now (barring the unforseen) they are pick to win the Super Bowl in 2013. But this is 2012, and they just aren't there yet. Especially against a team as explosively hot as the Saints. Yes, the point spread is high, but Drew Brees is even more frightening to face right now than Aaron Rodgers...

New York Giants (-3) Over Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons look actually more solid than they did in 2010 when they were 13-3, and they've proven they are going to be in Super Bowl contention for awhile. But the Giants are hot: Eli Manning is playing better than I've ever seen, their defense is intimidating, and they are playing at home in New York. They probably won't repeat their 2007 Super Bowl success, but they should win this game and be a very serious threat next week against the Packers...

Pittsburgh Steelers (-8) Over Denver Broncos

I've been a Tim Tebow supporter all season, but with a three-game losing streak entering the playoffs (with Tebow playing horribly the last two weeks) it doesn't look good for the Broncos. The Steelers will shut Tebow down, period. The only question is how potent the Steeler offense will be on the road. Ben Roethlisberger has played great this year (only Tom Brady has been a better AFC QB this year) but he's been hurt the last four weeks and it shows. They've scored only 30 points in his last three starts, and two of those games were against the 4-12 Browns. (I almost think they should let the competently efficient backup Charlie Batch start.) Still, I'll stick with Pittsburgh crushing the Broncos on the road with Big Ben taking it up a notch...

All bets are placed at Station Casinos:

http://www.stationcasinos.com/

To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/