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Thursday, November 25, 2010
Is there really a debate about dark meat over white on Thanksgiving?
It's quite obvious that dark meat tastes better. End of story. Well, that's how it needs to be presented at the table if you're worried about a quiet meal.
But, seriously, I mean no disrespect, especially in this holiday celebration of fellowship and thanksgiving. And, yes, I'm familiar with the phrase "de gustibus non est disputandum"—there's no arguing about taste. But in the case of white meat from a Thanksgiving turkey, well, I'd argue about that.Read the rest of this post...
White meat turkey has no taste. Its slabs of dry, fibrous material are more like cardboard conveyances, useful only for transporting flavorsome food like stuffing and gravy from plate to mouth. It's less a foodstuff than a turkey app, simulated meat, a hyperlink to real food.
But I am fascinated by how tastes get made and unmade, the intersection of culture, class and sensory responses. Not being a postmodernist I wouldn't call the overwhelming American preference for white-meat turkey a form of cultural hegemony. More like a mass hallucination. Why, for instance, hasn't white meat shared the same fate, the same cultural disenfranchisement, as packaged white bread?
Slate's guide to Thanksgiving dinner political discussions
So do most of you have debates at the table? My family over here generally leaves such discussions alone but in the US, we always talked politics at the table whether we were agreeing or arguing. Since we were a mixed family, you could always count on more disagreement than agreement but that's what made it fun. The Bush years made it pretty difficult for my Republican father to defend, since even he could no longer defend that level of insanity.
And for those who have overheated arguments (it has been known to happen when discussing politics) and who want to move the discussion back to a low simmer, it's easy enough to throw out the old "hmmm, you might be right...pass the gravy, please" and move on to something less volatile like who deserves to play in the BCS championship game or who will win the Iron Bowl on Friday. Read the rest of this post...
And for those who have overheated arguments (it has been known to happen when discussing politics) and who want to move the discussion back to a low simmer, it's easy enough to throw out the old "hmmm, you might be right...pass the gravy, please" and move on to something less volatile like who deserves to play in the BCS championship game or who will win the Iron Bowl on Friday. Read the rest of this post...
Matt Taibbi on President Obama
It's a good interview at The Daily Beast with the journalist who helped uncover and report on the disgraceful Wall Street behavior. He also discusses the desire for easy answers by the Tea Party as well as the Democrats contributions to the economic crisis.
I actually never thought that Barack Obama was anything but a typical Democratic party politician, which to me meant that he was probably in bed with Wall Street. I did think that he was a smart guy, and his heart was in the right place. I was disappointed at the extent to which he went overboard to be a pal of Wall Street after he got elected, but I wasn’t that terribly surprised. His number one campaign contributor was Goldman Sachs. When he got elected, he immediately brought in a whole army of people who had been close to Bob Rubin, Citigroup officials, Goldman Sachs guys. So it’s not surprising that we got the economic policies out of him that we got. I think a lot of people had expectations for him that were unreasonable.Read the rest of this post...
Alan Simpson slams 'greediest generation'
If he was talking about his own generation, that would be one thing, but it sure sounds like he's talking about people much younger than he is. The last time I checked, his crowd rolled in the era of hyper-greed during the Reagan years and it never looked back.
Somehow Simpson missed the fact that the middle class reached its peak earnings back in the early 1970s. He also missed the fact that the US has a greater concentration of wealth by the rich than during the infamous Robber Barron years. And surprise, surprise, Simpson can't imagine why people are upset with his plan to give more away to the ultra-rich and squeeze the middle class, again.
It's people like Alan Simpson who are destroying America.
Somehow Simpson missed the fact that the middle class reached its peak earnings back in the early 1970s. He also missed the fact that the US has a greater concentration of wealth by the rich than during the infamous Robber Barron years. And surprise, surprise, Simpson can't imagine why people are upset with his plan to give more away to the ultra-rich and squeeze the middle class, again.
It's people like Alan Simpson who are destroying America.
He told the paper that "while every interest group that testified before his committee agreed that the mounting federal debt is a national tragedy, they would then talk about why government funding to their area of interest shouldn't be touched."Read the rest of this post...
"We had the greatest generation," Simpson said. "I think this is the greediest generation."
The problem, Simpson explained, is the "polarized" country we live in, and the media that exemplifies it. He then to reeled off the media figures ruining America for deficit commissioners like him.
Thanksgiving morning open thread
Joe is on his way to NYC for Thanksgiving and I'm in Chicago with the 'rents and the wonderdogs. It's going to be a balmy 19 degrees F tomorrow morning, and Sasha may experience her first snow tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed. Thanksgiving will be relatively quiet for my family - my brothers' kids, the youngest of the nieces and nephews, are having Thanksgiving at their mom's, so that will tend to quiet things down a bit. Still, quiet is a relative thing, especially for a Greek family from Chicago.
Speaking of quiet, here is Sasha enjoying a moment of upside down peace yesterday. We had a hellish flight flying here from DC. Sasha used to fly great. Now that she's a whopping ten months old, not well at all. She was a disaster flying back from Chicago two months ago, and almost equally a disaster flying here the other day. Just shook and panted for an hour and a half. Take off is what set her off, and I think the changing air pressure just did her in. Just a basket case. The vet recommended benadryl, to take the edge off and make her a bit drowsy. Just tested half a dose of what the vet recommended today, and little miss sunshine wasn't any less active than any other day. So I plan on trying the full dose on Friday, just to see (we don't fly again until Tuesday).
And this, above, is a pic from back home in DC that I took last week. Sasha was in her toy bag looking for something, anything, and just had this great "you got me!" expression on her face.
We'll be posting lightly today. Hope you guys enjoy a nice holiday with your loved ones. Read the rest of this post...
Is Belgium in the queue?
Belgium hasn't been one of the most talked about problem countries, though some are suggesting the economic future is in trouble. The Guardian:
In the bars of Antwerp and the cafes of Bruges, the talk is less of Christmas markets and hot chocolate than of the rising cost of financing a national debt which has reached 100% of annual national income.Read the rest of this post...
Like Ireland, struggling to fend off criticism of its austerity package, there are signs that international bond investors are starting to view Belgium as living on borrowed money and borrowed time.
To make matters worse, it has a broken political system and is without a government since April. International money market traders today pushed the cost of insuring Belgium's debts to record levels. The interest payments still fall short of those charged for Spain's government the Portuguese, but analysts said the gap was narrowing quickly.
US corporate profits hit all time high
Interesting how there's no trickle down. Then again, we've known that trickle down is a joke ever since Reagan talked about it in the early 1980s. It's a lie and a damned big one. The consensus is that 2011 will see jobs growth, though it's likely to be painfully limited.
American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms.Read the rest of this post...
The government does not adjust the numbers for inflation, in part because these corporate profits can be affected by pricing changes from all over the world and because the government does not have a price index for individual companies. The next-highest annual corporate profits level on record was in the third quarter of 2006, when they were $1.655 trillion.
Corporate profits have been doing extremely well for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history. As a share of gross domestic product, corporate profits also have been increasing, and they now represent 11.2 percent of total output. That is the highest share since the fourth quarter of 2006, when they accounted for 11.7 percent of output.
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