Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas, has accepted President Barack Obama's nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services, White House sources are reporting this evening.
Obama plans to announce the selection on Monday, according to the Associated Press, citing a source. The Washington Post reports the same word.
Sebelius has long been seen as a likely prospect for the Cabinet post, since former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration after paying more than $100,000 in back taxes and penalties for limousine services. (Link)
Sebelius to HHS
The Virtual Pub Is Open
Enter at your own risk! [Cue ominous music.]
Thanks to everyone's who inquired after me. I'm feeling a wee bit more energetic, now that I've got an appetite back, but I still feel like I've been hit by a truck; my sides and back are so sore—and I kind of look like I've been hit by a truck, too, since, thanks to my immune system drones busily battling the Plague, no one's manning the acne battle station. I fear being carted away to a leper colony by the end of the weekend after a mistaken diagnosis based on my current complexion.
A leper colony, or possibly a middle school. On yearbook picture day.
TFIF, Shakers. Belly up to the bar and name your poison…
Skillz
So for my birthday today I was planning on having cheesecake. I loves me some cheesecake and make a pretty darn good one. Typically I don't have to make my own cake but I insisted because I really like making cheesecake. Whilst in the middle of making it this morning, the phone rang. After the brief conversation, I went back to mixing then got it in the crust and put it in the oven. While my youngest and I were enjoying the remains of the batter I thought we probably shouldn't have too much because of the raw eggs. EGGS! *@&%$&!!@^*#$*! I forgot the damned eggs! And it was already baking in the oven! So, we bought a cheesecake from a local bakery this afternoon (because we were out and didn't have time to remake one). Normally I can put together a cake just fine, it's the decorating where my Real Skillz™ come into play. So here's a brief look at my complete inability to be crafty and a bit of humor for this Friday afternoon.
First up is one of my favorites. From my third kiddo's fourth birthday last year:
Our youngest kiddo's third b-day last year:
From our daughter's recent birthday last weekend:
Another favorite memory is my attempt at a "bunny cake" for Easter '04, which ended up resembling a slaughtered rabbit on a platter for a period of time:
You can read the full story about that bunny cake. Sadly I cannot find any pictures of the final result. It was somethin', let me tell you. LOL!
I'm sure Charm City Cakes will be calling any day now.
Friday OMG Shoez Blogging
[Inspired by Crowfoot.]
I figured I'd feature a pair of my flat favies this week, for those whose knees go wobbly at the mere sight of heels like these or these. Below are the Merrell Paris, in black—which can be seen in more detail (and purchased) here (though, as usual, I got mine from a reseller at a much lower price; they can definitely be found on eBay, if you're patient).
A post-apocalyptic Mary Jane fit for a Mad Max extra, they have lots of cute detailing, like this seam across the toe and the button closure, and they're extremely comfortable, although they tend to run big. (The 9s hang on my feet okay, but if I'd bought them in-store, I definitely would have gone down half a size.) They are also Sophie-approved.
Lying Liars
Jindal's spokesperson admits, finally, that his Katrina story is the puddle of curdled codswallop we all knew it to be.
Liars, bigots, thugs, and perverts.
Quite the party of Moral Values you've got there, GOP.
I Also Write Letters
Dear Joe Wurzelbacher:
While John Bolton is busy fucking himself, I cordially invite you to do the same.
No Love,
Paul the Spud
Okay, snark aside, wtf is with this:On Wednesday, Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher said that if he were in Congress, he would "probably be in jail" because he'd be charged with "slapping some member." He added, "And that's not [bull] either." ThinkProgress asked Joe at CPAC yesterday which members he would most like to slap. "Pretty much anybody that's stood there and said anything bad about our troops, pretty much anybody who sat there and talked treasonous talk about America," Joe said. He then implied that some members of Congress should be shot:
1. I challenge Wurzelbacher to name one member of Congress "saying anything bad about our troops," or saying anything treasonous, with examples. And be able to prove that this is actually anti-troop, or treasonous talk, not "sounds treasonous to me!" bullshit filtered through wingnut spin. Basically, prove you're not talking out of your ass, "Joe."Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot 'em. And there'd be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don't talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.
2. When, exactly, is "back in the day?" When exactly could you shoot someone for "talking about our military in a poor way," without repercussions? Give me one example where this has actually happened. Basically, prove you're not just conjuring up some masturbatory, cowboy/vigilante fantasy for chickenshit, gun-fetishist wingnuts. This has never happened and you know it, you dumb fuck.
3. How exactly do you, Joe, "support the troops," that isn't simply saying "support the troops?" Have you given donations to soldiers in combat? Sent anything overseas? Donated any money or time to a local Veterans hospital? Basically, show me actual "support" that isn't simply "feeling good about our troops." This wingnut "troops" fetish is fucking disturbing.
I'll just wait until the end of time.
If anyone actually has difficulty understanding why the GOP is a complete irrelevant dinosaur of a failure, they need look no further than Joe Wurzelbacher. I've never seen someone talk so much out of his ass and be taken so seriously. This is the longest five minutes I've ever experienced. "I'd be in jail for slapping someone, and that's no bull, either." OOoooooOOoooooOOoo. How butch.
Christ.
Racist Mayor To Resign...
...Still denies being a racist.
According to this article "[Los Alamitos Mayor Dean] Grose said he didn't mean to hurt or offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons."
"Grose apologized by e-mail [and] said he did not send the joke to hurt or offend anyone."
The only thing I'm wondering is what, if he was "unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons," he thought the "joke" was exactly. Oh, yeah, there is no joke. Unless you're a racist.
Grose will step down Monday. See ya, Dino.
Looks Like Meat Family Planning is Back on the Menu, Girls!
As you'll no doubt recall, funding for family planning was one of the first items jettisoned from the stimulus bill as a sop to the great and powerful sky-god Bipartisanship. Well, now it's back—in the proposed 2010 federal budget:
To congressional Republicans, one of the most objectionable parts of an early version of the House's economic recovery package was funding for family planning services. Conservatives cried that spending "hundreds of millions on contraceptives" wouldn't stimulate the economy. (Even though it would.) President Obama agreed to drop the provision from the recovery package. However, he has reinserted it into his FY 2010 budget. On p. 127, there is a provision to "[e]xpand availability of family planning services under Medicaid," which is estimated to save the government $190 million over 10 years. Here are statements from Planned Parenthood and NFPRHA.I'm cautiously optimistic. Call it the Hesitancy of Hope, in which I hope that it's not being inserted merely as a bargaining chip to be traded away in another public trimming of "chaff."
ETA: 1,000 points to the first person who gets the title reference.
Friday Blogaround: Rare Disease Day Edition
February 28th is Rare Disease Day. The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is the U.S. coordinator, working together with EURORDIS in Europe and other organizations around the world to raise public awareness of rare disorders.
Not every disorder listed by NORD is rare in the strictest sense. The National Institutes of Health explains at their Office of Rare Disease Research page:
A rare (or orphan) disease is generally considered to have a prevalence of fewer than 200,000 affected individuals in the United States. Certain diseases with 200,000 or more affected individuals may be included in this list if certain subpopulations of people who have the disease are equal to the prevalence standard for rare diseases.I have Sjøgren's Syndrome (SS), a systemic autoimmune disease first described by Swedish ophthalmologist Henrik Sjøgren. A Swedish-born acupuncturist once spent a painfully long time teaching me to pronounce "Sjøgren" correctly—[ˈxøgɾɛn] using the IPA. Most Americans pronounce it "Show-grin".
Sjøgren's syndrome is in the NORD database as rare, even though up to 4 million Americans have the disease according to the Sjøgren's Syndrome Foundation. However, 50% of those people also have other autoimmune diseases, so their SS is classified as secondary (the other half of us have Primary SS). The hallmark signs of SS include autoimmune destruction of salivary and lacrimal glands, joint pain, and fatigue. But the disease is always systemic and about 30% of all SS patients have more extensive symptoms and signs which may involve the nervous, vascular, and/or digestive systems; the skin, the kidneys, and more. I belong to this delightful 30%. The Sjøgren's Syndrome Foundation website does a pretty good job of listing the various systems that may be affected* (pdf here). Also, 5-10% of SS patients develop lymphoma, so I think the NORD is recognizing these subsets of people in their classification.
Rare or not, SS is under-recognized and tricky to diagnose; the mean time to obtain a diagnosis is over six years (it was seven and a half for me). More awareness in both the medical community and in the general public could speed diagnosis and improve quality of life for patients.
Public awareness of autoimmune diseases in general is quite low even though such diseases are common, affecting 1 in 12 Americans. Rosalind Joffe of Working With Chronic Illness points out in her Rare Diseases Day post that statistical rarity is hardly the only reason for lack of awareness or research funds. So I want to broaden the discussion to include disorders that may not be statistically rare but are nonetheless chronically misunderstood. Also, I am only taking autoimmune diseases as an example from personal experience; there are obviously many other types of disorder that need attention.
Let's get to it, Shakers: what rare or misunderstood diseases/disorders/conditions would you like us to know more about? You don’t have to be a patient yourself to get involved, nor do you need to explain or “come out” if you have a chronic illness. Your health is your business. Please leave us links to pertinent info and blog posts!
To get us started:
rarediseaseday.org: Rare Disease Day 2009 Focus: Patient Care: A Public Affair! .The site includes photo and video stories from patients.
Rosalind Joffe: Does rare mean you don't need to know about it?
SNiPS, the Children's Rare Disease Network Blog: Rare Disease Facts and Figures: 1 in 10 Americans is living with a rare disease
Mary Kugler, R.N.: Rare Disease Day Video: Little Miss Hannah, about a little girl with Gaucher Disease.
Laurie Edwards: In Preparation: Rare Disease Day
Diana E. Lee: Announcing March Headache and Migraine Blog Carnival
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* Please note that they forget the thyroid gland, which is affected in about half of cases according to my rheumatologist. Kind of a glaring omission. Remember: be good to your thyroid, folks, even if it hasn't been good to you!
Read These Now or "Get Off My Lawn" You Limozeen Libruls
Citigroup. "The Treasury Department reached a deal late Thursday to take a stake of 30 to 40 percent in Citigroup as part of a third bailout of the embattled bank, according to several people close to the deal."Economy Shrinks at Faster-Than-Expected 6.2% Pace. (WP)Think the U.S. deficit is bad? Check out the interest payments. (Reuters)Same-sex marriage will create a generation of violent criminals. (RightWingWatch)Republican Rep. Thaddeus McCotter looks to Clint Eastwood's fictional characters to save Detroit. (The Hill)Terminated: Why the Women of Wall Street Are Disappearing. (Forbes)The Future of Food (Portfolio)Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone. (Wired)Women of Science at the Marine Biological Laboratory from 1888-1910.War, Women and Survival.The NAACP Top 100 Films of the Century.Battlestar Galactica: Self-Repairing Materials. (Discover Blogs)Time to acknowledge science's debt to Islam? (New Scientist)Review of John Adams' opera Doctor Atomic. (Telegraph)
(Cross-posted at Petulant Rumblings)
I Write Letters
Dear John Bolton:
How 'bout you go fuck yourself?
Love,
Liss
P.S. You, too, the rest o'ya CPAC wankstains.
Coming soon: The Road to Carnival sambas to a conclusion
Oh, the stories I have to tell about the culmination of our Road to Carnival. For now, however, this teaser will have to do:
--WKW
Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles
Happy Birthday, Misty!
Friday photo, number whatever
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker Betsy: What band or artist do you love that is (or just seems) totally out of character for your general musical taste? Betsy wants to hear from the hip-hop fan who loves Garth Brooks and the opera lover who adores the Village People!
I have pretty eclectic taste, but the ones that always seem to surprise people are Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. I don't know there's a single other country artist I like, but I just love their voices. And my finding them both to be inimitably cool people probably has a little something to do with it, too.
That's Entertainment!
Last night during our typical Wednesday night Lost-Top Chef-a-thon, Kenny Blogginz (courageously braving the plague), Iain, and I saw a teaser trailer for the upcoming film, Miss March, a charming tale about a pro-abstinence teenage boy who succumbs to pressure to lose his virginity to his pro-sex teenage girlfriend after his best friend gets him drunk on liquid courage, but, before he can do the deed, falls down some stairs and goes into a coma—from which he awakens four years later only to discover his then-girlfriend is a Playboy centerfold. Zoinks! Naturally, he and his drunk-making BFF embark on a road trip so he can "win her back," i.e. get her to jump on his still-virginal willy.
The extended trailer provides even more snippets of hilarity you can expect from the film, including a black woman bouncing out the window of a moving vehicle while seducing one of the young white male protagonists, to his uproarious apathy!
I'd like it to be noted that this film not only has a character named Horsedick.MPEG, but also a character known only as "Horsedick's Homeboy."
All of which I share with you just to pass on this exchange at Shakes Manor when we saw the trailer:
Liss: WTF?
KBlogz: They're two of The Whitest Kids U' Know, who usually make fun of movies like that. Me and my friend were watching an episode of the show when we first saw that trailer. We thought it was a sketch.
He then gave me a very sad look.
It's probably about the same look I had when I read about John Cusack starring in Hot Tub Time Machine.
In Small Mercies
I may have the plague and feel like I've been hit by a truck, but at least I'm not an execrable fucking idiot who cheers like a wind-up cymbal monkey at risible poppycock.
Pardon Me, Mr. Governor, But I Do Believe Your Pants Are on Fire*
Tuesday night, during his deservedly much-maligned (even at Fox!) rebuttal to President Obama's address, Louisiana Governor Bobby "Kenneth from 30 Rock" Jindal told a doggone adorable tale about a grizzled sheriff, a plucky politician, and their crusade against a terrible monster named Bureaucracy:
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office, I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: "Well, I'm the sheriff—and if you don't like it, you can come and arrest me!"Awwwww. I just love stories that make me proud to be an American by showing how the American SpiritTM of Real AmericansTM can triumph over evil like the American government and all its rules and regulations designed to ensure that people drown!
I asked him: "Sheriff, what's got you so mad?" He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go, when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration.
I told him, "Sheriff, that's ridiculous!" And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: "Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him, too!" Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.
Too bad it looks to be a big stinking pile of horseshit.
-----------------------------
* And I'd totally help you put them out, if only my Republican governor hadn't done his patriotic duty of defunding emergency services like volcano monitoring and fire prevention, leaving me without a fire extinguisher. So I guess you're on your own. Luckily, because of Republican health and safety deregulation, your proverbial bootstraps are probably made of asbestos!
Poor Joe
Joe the Multi-Faceted Hat-Wearer puts on his "Writin' Hat" to
sign autographs last night at a Borders in DC, where "about 11 people
wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement" who
he addressed "from behind a lectern and with a microphone … that
seemed unnecessarily formal."
Never have I longed to be in DC so much as reading about this splendid event:
The only heat generated by Joe's appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the "hegemony" of the white man in America is "doomed" now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.Wow.
Joe replied that he believes "our American heritage is being torn apart" by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American ("We're all Americans," he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, "America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country."
The event was scheduled to last three hours, but ended after 55 minutes, with Joe having sold a total of five books.
Take My Wife, Please
This sounds just delightful:
Jerry Seinfeld is returning to network series television after an 11-year hiatus as creator and exec producer of an NBC reality series that seeks to mine laughs out of marriage problems.Seinfeld explains that, despite the fact that the show depends on marital problems for its existence, it's "not a therapy show; it's a comedy show," the concept for which he developed after nine years of marriage wherein he "discovered that the comedic potential of this subject is quite rich." It's an opinion with which the author of News from Shakes Manor would hardly disagree—although it's never occurred to me to make money off mocking other people's marital problems on national television.
The comedian and his Columbus 81 Prods. are teaming with longtime "Oprah Winfrey Show" exec producer Ellen Rakieten to create "The Marriage Ref," a nonfiction series that will feature opinionated celebrities, comedians and sports stars offering commentary and advice to real-life couples enduring "classic marital disputes."
…"Jerry called us up and told us he had an idea," [NBC Entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman] said. "He flew in to sit down with us, and he and Ellen pitched the show. We were laughing the whole time as they went through the concept. As Jerry noted, some of the greatest comedies in history have been about marriage."
I am a huge fan of stand-up comedy—and there's almost nothing I like to watch better than a great stand-up comedian who can eviscerate a topic from a new angle, whether that topic is Hot Pockets or womanhood and the rape culture or religion or shitty stand-up comics (Dawn French rulezzz, lol).
Because I love it so, I watch a lot of stand-up comedy—but most of it is garbage. And the reason most of it is garbage is because most of it is tired, hackneyed, rehashed rubbish (which wasn't even funny the first time) about "relationships." Men are horny dogs! Ha ha ha! Women are shopaholic chatterboxes! Ha ha ha! Mars and Venus, baby. Mars. And. Venus.
Oh, my aching sides.
The most unremarkable, uninspired, unchallenging, and unrevolutionary subject in all of stand-up comedy is relationships. Across the comedy spectrum, that well has been mined totally, utterly dry by hundreds upon hundreds of men and women who obligingly insert into their routines some barely indistinguishable variation on the same old unoriginal (and heterocentrist and sexist) battle-of-the-sexes shtick—observations regurgitated ad infinitum in insipid sitcoms, interchangeable romcoms, and adverts hawking everything from burgers to deodorant.
It the rare comic indeed who offers subversive material like (avowed feminist) Wanda Sykes' above-linked "Detachable Vagina" bit—and I seriously cannot begin to imagine (unfortunately) that "The Marriage Ref" is going be featuring comedy which deconstructs a, say, sexual problem through the lens of the rape culture and/or treating women's bodies like public property (no matter how relevant such a position might nonetheless be).
And even if there weren't a dearth of comics doing this sort of innovative and defiant work, the producer of the show promoted his last film with rape jokes and homophobic and transphobic promo spots.
I've little hope that the combination of a scarcity of groundbreaking and norms-shattering material and Seinfeld's sad retrofuckery are going to yield anything but a patriarchy-propagating monster.
Which will probably be an enormous success.
Sigh.
Exactly
Eric Boehlert and I have been thinking the same thing, but he write more good.
The insane Right has been unbelievably vicious in their attacks on Obama, a month into office, and whine "But liberals were mean to Bush!" as a "that makes everything we say acceptable" dodge. It's been a month.Meanwhile, last week widely read right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin was seen smiling while getting her picture taken with an Obama hater who proudly brandished a swastika placard at an anti-Obama rally in Denver. And the following day, Rupert Murdoch's far-right New York Post published a grotesque cartoon that seemed to associate Obama with a bullet-ridden monkey who'd been shot by two white cops on a city sidewalk.
If we just pause and take one or two steps back from the daily/hourly barrage of hate, it's obvious that faced with the new Obama presidency, the Republican Noise Machine has already lost all perspective -- has gone totally loco -- and it's only February, a mere month into Obama's first four years in office. Who dares to even imagine where the right-wing "conversation" goes from here?
Read the whole thing.
Quote of the Day (That Will Make You Want to Hit Things)
I wasn't aware of this, but apparently Rush Limbaugh is completely mystified as to why women might hate his guts. I know, I'll wait for you to stop laughing.
So, okay, Rush decided to convene a "Female Summit," whateverthefuck that is, to get to the bottom of this problem. Of course, he could stop saying shit like:
I own the men, and what must I do now to own women? And who better to ask than women? Including some of those who may agree that that I’m unfavorable. So stand by for that.
Because, you know, women might not like being thought of as possessions of Rush Limbaugh, but I digress.
So, Rush decides to open the phone lines to women, and women only, for an entire hour at the end of his show, so they can tell him why he's a buttfor. Gee, how generous. Frankly, I don't think three times that amount of time would be enough for me to rattle off all of the reasons I loathe Limbaugh, but I think it can be encapsulated in this quote:
One thing about the Female Summit: sorry, no transsexuals. We’re not going to have anybody who’s had an addadictomy, and we’re not going to have anybody who’s had a chopadickoffamy. We’re going to have women from birth.
Fuck you, Limbaugh.
(You might want to read some of the comments given to Limbaugh, and check out his reaction to them. Of course, everything the women say is completely ridiculous and is immediately dismissed. Gee, I can't figure out why women fucking hate you, Rush.)
Read These Now and Damn the Plague!
Shocking new study: consume fewer calories, lose weight. (USAToday)Gov. Bobby Jindal's volcano remark has some fuming. (CNN)Norm Coleman still fightin'. (The Hill)Another year, another episode of CPAC. If only I weren't sick. I'll be kicking myself for missing the Presidential Banquet with Master of Ceremonies Rep. Michele Bachmann. THE HUMANITY! The Youth for Western Civilization Inaugural Reception sounds delightful.AP Interview: Reid pushing for climate change bill.China rejects US rights report as interference.Britain aided Iraq terror renditions, government admits. (Guardian)G.M. Loses $9.6 Billion as Its Struggles Continue. (NY)'Christian Boot Camp' Accused of Abusing Kids. (CNS)'There will be blood:' Harvard economic historian Niall Ferguson predicts prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the 'Great Recession' ends.Global seed vault marks 1-year anniversary with 4-ton shipment of critical food crops. (Eurekalert)Fossilized Pregnant Fish One Of First Animals To Have Sex. (Science Daily)Star Trek's J.J. Abrams: 'This film's not for Trekkies." (SciFiWire)
UGH! I have to go back to bed. Damn the PLAGUE!
(Cross-posted)
Lost Open Thread
Last night's episode will be discussed in infinitesimal detail, so if you haven't seen it, and don't want any spoilers, move along...
Shock of the Day
I am shocked, shocked to discover "Obama, on the other hand, routinely ascribes to others views they don't espouse and says opposition to his policies is grounded in views no one really advocates." Thank you, Karl Rove.
I am shocked, shocked to discover "The truism that the war is, in effect, a battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan population is valid enough in concept." Thank you, Henry Kissinger.
I am shocked, shocked to discover some people say things with no irony. I am shocked I am shocked anymore.
The Heretik
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
For Phil, who mentioned another favorite cereal of mine, Quisp!
I can just hear the marketing meeting. "You know who's voice we should use for Quisp? Jerry Lewis! Kids love Jerry Lewis!"
Top Chef Open Thread
Chef Tom Colicchio will drink. your. milkshake!!!
He will also, if you are very, very good, share with you his nana's special secret recipe for Pathetic Anger Bread.
Now, here's a little Dancing Carla to get your blood pumping before the final showdown (sorry I suck at gif-making, but I'm posting it with love, Carla-style!):
HOOTY-HOO!!!
Go get 'em, grrl.
Question of the Day
What "One Hit Wonder" band do you love, owning most, if not all, of their recordings? ("One Hit Wonder" can also include bands you consider criminally unappreciated, if they never had a "hit.")
Surprise surprise, my answer! Is not! Devo! (I don't consider them a "one hit," or criminally unappreciated band. Don't question me.) I'm going with Men Without Hats. Yeah, yeah, everyone loves "Safety Dance." But I really love all of their stuff, and own every album. Maybe the song "Pop Goes the World" could be considered a hit; is there such thing as a "two hit wonder?" I'll have to give "In the 21st Century" a spin when I get home...
Anyway. Men Without Hats. Love 'em. Wish they were still putting out albums. And you?
What, No Suitable Fried Chicken Joke?!
Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, CA, sent out an e-mail with the subject, "No Easter Egg Hunt This Year." Said e-mail included a picture of what the alternative celebration would be:
A watermelon hunt!!
Keyanus Price, a local black businesswoman who received the e-mail, called Grose out on his racism and demanded an apology. I'll bet you can guess what he said, right?
He don't know nothin' bout no racism! From the article linked above:[Grose] said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.
As Renee said, maybe it was accidental that he chose watermelons instead of pumpkins or something.
His response was full of other tired lines, too. He waxed unpoetically about his lack of intent to offend. Then there was, "Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP.
Which translates, roughly, to either "She's too sensitive!" or "She was looking to be offended!" He also claimed "It wasn't sent to offend her personally—or anyone—from the standpoint of the African-American race."
That sounds a lot like, "I know the singular, monolithic standpoint of the African American race and this wasn't offensive. Why, pretty soon, I'll pull out my black friend who wasn't the least offended by it!"
Anything but a true apology and an acknowledgement of his racism.
H/T Renee
Crossposted at elle, phd
Quote of the Day
"I was horrified when I read that e-mail. What I'm concerned about is how can this person send an e-mail out like this and think it is OK?" — Keyanus Price, an African American, who received the image viewable in Elle's post in an e-mail from Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose.
Edited For Television
I've been sitting at my desk for a while now trying to think of something insightful to say about this story, but I'm drawing a blank. So, I'll just pass along the info sans any commentary.
Gay Asians voiced indignation Wednesday after television broadcasts of the Academy Awards in their region censored the words "gay" and "lesbian" in speeches that called for equal rights for homosexuals.The rest is here.
Shaker Gourmet: chicken chowder for the plague victims
Plague is one of those words when you write/type it out several times, it starts to look strange. Or maybe that's just me. LOL
Anyway, the recipe this week is a fairly recent find of mine that is quickly becoming a favorite here. It's also a nice, warm chicken chowder for those who are on the mend but still feeling bleh --or just a nice dinner (or lunch) for a cool day. It's originally Paula Deen's and here is the original recipe.
My changes from the original were mostly to approximately cut it in half--I didn't need 12 - 14 servings! LOL I also took out the celery (added celery seed), added corn, and roasted the pepper. I think this would taste good without the actual chicken meat in it as well and maybe add potato in its place. For those that aren't familiar with poblanos, they aren't especially hot but that have a very nice flavor.Poblano Chicken Chowder
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
* 1 large onion, minced
* 3 cloves minced garlic
* 1 large poblano pepper, roasted, seeded, and chopped
* 3/4 cup frozen sweet corn kernels
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* two to three grinds of black pepper
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin (or more to taste)
* 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (or more to taste
* 1/8 teaspoon celery seed
* 1.5 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
* 1 3/4 (7 cups) quarts chicken broth
* 1/4 bunch fresh cilantro leaves, minced
* 1 cup diced (large pieces) cooked chicken
* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or more to taste
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
-- Turn broiler on high and move rack up to the second highest position. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut the top off the poblano (try not to take much of the pepper, just get the stem), then cut pepper in half. Take out the seeds. Put each half skin side up on foil and roast until blackened in oven (about 10 minutes--but keep an eye on it). Take out of oven and put in airtight container, ziploc bag, or close up tightly in foil. Set aside to let cool. Once cool, you should be able to peel the blackened skin off easily. Chop the roasted, skinned halves into pieces. (This is just one way to roast a pepper that doesn't require turning and if you have a preferred way, go with that)
-- Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the carrots, onions, garlic, poblano peppers, salt, pepper, cumin, thyme, and celery seed. Saute for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to soften. Stir in the chicken bouillon. Add the chicken broth and cilantro, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Stir in the chicken and corn and cook, stirring frequently, until the chicken and corn are heated through. Let simmer on low for about 15 minutes.
-- Shortly before the chowder is done, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the flour and stir to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes to cook the flour. Do not allow the mixture to brown! Ladle a half cup of the hot liquid from the stockpot into the skillet, whisking constantly until well-combined. Ladle one more half cup and whisk. Pour the mixture in the skillet into the stockpot, whisking to blend. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes longer, or until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the hot sauce, then the cream, and serve.
If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com
Thanks, But No Thanks
I know Kanye West means well, but you know what's not cool? Wrapping your plea for tolerance in some really tired gay stereotypes. In fact, it's fairly counter-productive. Sure, he starts off kind of nice with:
Titles are very important. I like to embody titles, y'know, or words that have negative connotations, and explain why that's good. Take the word gay—like, in hip-hop, that's a negative thing, right? But in the past two, three years, all the gay people I've encountered have been, like, really, really, extremely dope.But you can probably already see where this is going. If not, the "Y'know, I haven't, like, gone to a gay bar, nor do I ever plan to" should be a good indication. (West likes the gays and all, but wouldn't actually go to a gay bar or anything, lest we get the wrong idea about him.)
Anyway, he continues:
But where I would talk to a gay person—the conversation would be mostly around, like, art or design—it'd be really dope. From a design standpoint, kids'll say, "Dude, those pants are gay." But if it's, like, good, good, good fashion-level, design-level stuff, where it's on a higher level than the average commercial design stuff, it's, like, gay people that do that. I think that should be said as a compliment. Like, "Dude, that's so good it's almost . . . gay."Yes, because us gays are good at fashion and design. We also like showtunes, know all the words to "I Will Survive," and worship Judy Garland.
Today in Banking News
TARP's inspector general, Neil Barofsky, is having all kinds of voice mail response issues:
[Barofsky] also said fewer than 5% of banks receiving government aid have responded to a request about what they have done with their bailout money.It could very well be that the banks he's trying to contact don't exactly want to be completely forthcoming about their usage of bailout funds:
Northern Trust flew hundreds of clients and employees to L.A. and put many of them up at some of the fanciest and priciest hotels in the city. We're told more than a hundred people were put up at the Beverly Wilshire in Bev Hills, and another hundred stayed at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Still more stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey and others at Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica.I don't really care if Northern Trust needed the bailout money or not. Taking the bailout funds provided them with a nice buffer to spend lavishly when it's not exactly prudent of them to do so, especially from a PR perspective.
While we've given shitloads of money to these bankers, the one thing we haven't given them is fear of consequence. I think it would be fairly easy to rectify that by something simple like unannounced FBI raids on each of the financial institutions who received TARP funds. If they're planning lavish parties or are unable to provide full documentation on fund usage, then the execs are off to prison and immediately replaced.
What ideas can you Shakers come up with to get these institutions in line?
[H/T to ThinkProgress]
OMG Historic Shoez!
Ferragamo platform shoe (1938) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute
It would appear that some of us around here are not feeling very well. Even our own intrepid Benjamin Grumbles, despite his strapping appearance and the brave face he puts on for the rest of us, has been suffering from tired blood of late.
For those who are too enervated to do much beyond puttering around on their visual teletype machines, I offer some images and the possibility of nearly unlimited procrastination from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their entire catalogue is now online and searchable. The Met online: raising the fine art of Time Suckage to a whole new level!
How about some Venetian chopines, circa 1600:
And an Alexander McQueen dress to go with?
Or perhaps you're in the market for something a tad more...robust?
It's all online at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the hall of Arms and Armor.
N.B. This isn't exactly new; the searchable Met database has been online since October, according to Threadtrend. But I thought this would be a good day to bust it out.
Get well soon, sicky Shakers!
