Prince and Radiohead...

Apparently, Prince covered Radiohead's Creep at a concert and now Prince's label has blocked the video on YouTube. This has disgruntled the super awesome Radiohead front man Thom Yorke.

Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

This is a battle of epic proportions, as we see the one of the greatest rock bands of the last twenty years battle ________ (I'm not sure, but I think he is Prince again.) Go Radiohead! Protect the rights of the people, especially since Radiohead doesn't normally do Creep anymore.

Bell's, the real king of beers...

So, I thought I would enlighten any of you that may be beer drinkers and are unaware of the best beer in the world -- Bell's Two Hearted Ale. Take a peak at that link and review some of their other wonderful brews straight out of Comstock, Michigan. Bell's brings the Comstock lode (pun intended) to brewing good beer.

Two hearted ale is a wonderful balance of drinkability and hop presence. Bell's often uses Hemingway-esque to describe this brew, and despite my not quite being able to find a clear definition in my mind of what that means, it seems about as good as I could come up with as a critic. Tap. Please. Thank you.

Today's sign that the apocalpyse is upon us...

So, I stole one of my favorite themes of the old Sports Illustrated (or maybe they still have it, I wouldn't know as I stopped reading it in 8th grade). But, really what else could be a better title for the fact that Dunkin Donuts has pulled ads featuring Rachel Ray because right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin wrote that it looked like a kaffiyeh. Which, in Malkin's words is

''The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,''

I really don't know if I am more confounded by Malkin's ability to significantly overreact to an artical of clothing, or if the fact that Dunkin' Donuts responded. I guess this could be used to extrapolate the political leanings of the DD crowd? Who knows, I'm just glad I didn't buy that white and black scarf this past winter...

100 metro areas carbon foot print...

per capita. Brookings has issued a report ranking 100 metro areas on their carbon footprints. I found it interesting that the bottom five were all either in or close to the good old Hoosier homeland. Of course, I shouldn't get too high and mighty as I sit here in Madison, where we are apparently 81st. Oops, so much for being a green city.

I haven't read the entire report, but I would be interested to see how certain elements were handled. The article in the NYT mentions the effects of centralized transportation hubs (e.g. ports and railway centers), but I would also question the validity in comparing some of the smaller Metros to the very large ones. For example, it seems quite likely to me that there is a fixed cost (in carbon footprint) of creating, transporting and providing the infrastructure, goods and services to the population of any area. It would seem, however, that with exceptionally high density (e.g. New York or LA) that the incremental cost for additional residents should be significantly lower than for a smaller metro. I think this is just another example of the Brookings Institute's West Coast Bias, which is promulgated by employees who are trying to get even at the college sports media for always dissing the PAC-10.

Op-ed page offers two goodies...

I know, you can't believe one of them isn't Billy boy, can you? Today's NYT Op-ed page features Tommy Friedman on energy policy and Amartya Sen on food prices.

Friedman aims to send a message to the consumer and automobile manufacturer both via a permanent floor of $4 per gallon of gasoline (1/2 the Euro zone going rate, he adds pertinently)...

But the message going forward to every car buyer and carmaker would be this: The price of gasoline is never going back down. Therefore, if you buy a big gas guzzler today, you are locking yourself into perpetually high gasoline bills. You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home. At the same time, if you, a manufacturer, continue building fleets of nonhybrid gas guzzlers, you are condemning yourself, your employees and shareholders to oblivion.

What a cruel thing for a candidate to say? I disagree. Every decade we look back and say: “If only we had done the right thing then, we would be in a different position today.”

Sen also develops an interesting argument related to the food price increases and how they are related to the increase in consumption (demand) of the fast growing economy's winners, at the expense of those winners fellow citizens who are not winning in the global economy.

It is a tale of two peoples. In one version of the story, a country with a lot of poor people suddenly experiences fast economic expansion, but only half of the people share in the new prosperity. The favored ones spend a lot of their new income on food, and unless supply expands very quickly, prices shoot up. The rest of the poor now face higher food prices but no greater income, and begin to starve. Tragedies like this happen repeatedly in the world.

Of particular note, is the fact that energy policy collides with food policy in the fields of Iowa, where we continually use countless bushels of corn to fuel our gas guzzling hybrid SUV's while empty stomachs ache for some of that fuel...

In 2005, the United States Congress began to require widespread use of ethanol in motor fuels. This law combined with a subsidy for this use has created a flourishing corn market in the United States, but has also diverted agricultural resources from food to fuel. This makes it even harder for the hungry stomachs to compete.

Ducks on the pond...

or just around the corner, as it is. The Madison Mallards season opens on Thursday, and even if I don't make the opener, I'm going to try and make at least a half a duck's dozen games this summer. There really is something to the slogan, baseball like it oughta be...

I think the Cards used to use that slogan... Or maybe that was Busch beer.

Gas consumption is down...

A whopping 0.6 percent from last year. Which, given the 70 cents a gallon (22%) increase over last year, would seem to indicate that if gas rises to $11 a gallon we might cut 10% of our consumption. I recognize, of course, that there is a cliff at which consumption will drastically be ratcheted back, but am admittedly intrigued by the fact that after all of the news about the effects of the increase in fuel costs we have cut consumption by a whopping 0.6%. This just confounds me. I wonder if anyone in Congress is questioning their complete ineptitude with regard to CAFE standards over the past 23 years? I doubt it, but they should recognize that their own capitulation to the auto industry is a significant contributory factor in the current situation, whereby even with large increases in price we are struggling to even hold the line on consumption. I guess you should also blame urban (or suburban) planners, auto manufacturers, and consumers, but it seems to me that a truly strong energy security policy needs to be set from DC.*

* Though I'm beginning to like the small approach favored by sustainable agriculture folks who were left out to dry by the feds for years and are developing their own alternative system of food production. Unfortunately, this may be a little harder to emulate with regards to alternative and sustainable energy.

Better late than never...

Or is it? The ruling military authoritarian junat in Myanmar is finally going to allow international assistance into the country. This comes nearly three weeks after the cyclone, which to me is a perfect example of dictatorial rule run amok. Of course, if we had an international body with an interest in promoting human rights and welfare maybe they could speak out on this issue... Or maybe they could offer political cover witha quote like this from Ban Ki-moon:

"He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter," Ban said.

Even with the countless "it's so good of them to allow this help" quotes, we did get a glimpse of candor from the UN World Food Programme:

Despite restrictions imposed by the junta, the organization says it's been able to distribute food to half a million people. Still, more could have been done had the WFP been given greater access to those in need.

"It's virtually impossible to quantify," Prior [UN spokesman] said of damage done by the lost time. "We've done very significant work during that time."

I would offer this as another example of how without transparency and freedom for the citizens a government (junta, political party, autocrat) in power not only can, but invariably will fail to act in the best interests of the citizens. This is of course a take on the old adage about absolute power, but is one that should not go unnoted.

Rove making and reporting the news...

So Karl* has gotten the ole subpoena from Congress, which I'm sure following the Bush administration's model will mean absolutely nothing. We can, however, have some hope that Congress will continue to push on the Executive Branch to answer some questions about the attorney firings.

Additionally of note is the fact that I quickly dropped in to the fox news website and noticed that this story had not, as of this afternoon at 4, been picked up for coverage. Hmmm... We Report (some things), you decide (with slightly altered information).... I know that this isn't groundbreaking news, but I couldn't find any mention over at FoxNews. Not too suprising, since they wouldn't want one of their big news analyst's to be making the news of the day... that might look biased.

* Why is it that I always smirk when I meet a right winger named Karl? I guess I would do the same if I met one named Vladimir too.... oh wait who is the President, uh I mean prime minister of Russia?

I feel really bad for Harper Lee and George Orwell...

If you look at the reader's choice list of the top 100 Best novels, you will too. (I should also feel a little bad for Tolkien, but you know he probably has a lot of crossover appeal with the Objectivists... though Orwell might too, which is unfortunate for them since he was definatively not of their ilk.)

The Triple Threat...

Perusing the NYT today, I found a very interesting snippet in Friedman's column.

“Call it the triple deficit,” said Mr. Rothkopf. “A fiscal deficit that will soon have us choosing between rationed health care, sufficient education, adequate infrastructure and traditional levels of defense spending, a trade deficit that has us borrowing from our rivals to the point of real vulnerability, and a geopolitical deficit that is a legacy of Iraq, which may result in hesitancy to take strong stands where we must.”

Rothkopf is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment, and author of the new book Superclass, which I may have to read despite it's conspiracy theory sounding blurbs...

Each one of them is one in a million. They number six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international ?nance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world’s most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time.

Under any circumstance the "triple threat" mentioned hits on a lot of my concern with the current American situation. How do we work through these three deficits? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know we aren't doing much to address any of the three at this time.

CNN's gadgets...

I can't seem to locate the specific guy I'm thinking of's name, but has anyone else noted that CNN can't cover an election night story without relying on their super high tech touch screen gadget things? Don't get me wrong, I think they look awesome and have a lot of interesting utility, but it gets old to watch Anderson Cooper ask this guy --- "so, what does it look like?" -- with the answer being -- "here let's look at each county by county's results and I can zoom in and all kinds of cool ass stuff."

I could probably find ten things that are more important about the media's coverage of the 2008 primary election, but that wouldn't be me. I want to complain about the thing that bugs me.

Edmonds is a Cubbie...

I guess this shows that I'm not on the up and up as much as I think I am with regard to MLB. I never thought I would see the sad day when Edmonds would be wearing the Cubs uni... Oh well, maybe he can have a good year even with the team failing.

Here's to the Cards pulling out of the sixth inning jam.

Rove on Fox...

Is anyone surprised by the fact that Fox isn't disclosing the relationship between Rove and McCain when he appears on as a political commentator? Fair and balanced. Always.

Pass the Mustard....

Taylor Clark offers us omnivores a little insight into the vegetarian's mind, with an essay at Slate. I found the essay to be insightful in some respects, but a little sad in that it seems to promote the odd moral imperative that we should not kill animals and consume them (and craving a hot dog with mustard)...

Believe me, if obtaining bacon didn't require slaughtering a pig, I'd have a BLT in each hand right now with a bacon layer cake waiting in the fridge for dessert. But, that said, I can also tell you that with some time away from the butcher's section, many meat products start to seem gross. Ground beef in particular now strikes me as absolutely revolting; I have a vague memory that hamburgers taste good, but the idea of taking a cow's leg, mulching it into a fatty pulp, and forming it into a pancake makes me gag. And hot dogs … I mean, hot dogs? You do know what that is, right?

I understand that we don't have to kill and eat animals, but I do have some curiosity as to what we should do with all those cows if we don't. I really feel that sometimes this don't kill idea is dragging us away from a key part of our humanity -- as big time predator of an important food chain. It doesn't seem sustainable to me that we could cease eating meat en masse. I do recognize that Mr. Clark doesn't necessarily advocate for such a large transition, but the whole moral/ethical argument is, in my opinion, weak soup. Of course, we should strive to raise and kill these animals in the least offensive and harmful way, but -- call me a biological conservative -- I think that our traditional role as a predator in our food system is important.

Clark concludes:

Finally, grant me one more cordial request: Please don't try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you're concerned for my health, that's very nice, though you can rest assured that I'm in shipshape. If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that's great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you're only going to persuade me that you're a dickhead. When someone says he's Catholic, you probably don't start the stump speech about how God is a lie created to enslave the ignorant masses, and it's equally offensive to berate an herbivore. I know you think we're crazy.

Who says we shouldn't say those things to Catholics??? OK, I guess not, and I'll try to be good... My cordial request back to the vegetarians is that they not inform me what is in a hot dog while I'm preparing my homage to the "guts and stuff encased meat products on a bun gods" at the game. I know what's in those dogs (I've made them), and no I don't find it gross. Oh, and please pass the relish too.

Bill, you've been a bad boy...

No, not that Bad Bill, I'm talking about Bill Belichick. It looks like he is attacking Matt Walsh, maybe in an effort to show once again that the best defense is a good offense (or at least a solid offensive attack of credibility of any former employees by belittling their role and importance).

“There’s not a lot of credibility,” Belichick said in an interview broadcast on “CBS Evening News.”

Of course, he might be getting all shitty because everybody seems to finally be getting a little more worked up about this (including Senator Specter, however this may be his Eagle fan talking).

That rationale has already been rejected by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who fined the coach $500,000 and docked the Patriots $250,000 and its first-round draft pick.

“I didn’t accept Bill Belichick’s explanation for what happened,” Goodell said Tuesday, “and I still don’t to this day.”

In an interview with HBO for “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” Walsh dismissed Belichick’s attempts to minimize the impact of the taping. Walsh told HBO he was coached on how to evade NFL rules, and that team officials instructed him on ways to avoid detection.

“When I was doing it, I understood what we were doing to be wrong,” Walsh said. “Coach Belichick’s explanation for having misinterpreted the rules, to me, that really didn’t sound like taking responsibility for what we had done, especially considering the great lengths that we had gone through to hide what we were doing.”

Belichick denied telling Walsh to hide what he was doing.

OK, so this donkey almost started to respect Belichick for his accomplishments, even though he comes across like an ass (of course, I'm one.. so). This cheating, however, really puts a taint on all their work... I think what still gets my goat is the fact that they were not punished with a forfeit for the first week of last season against the Jets. But, alas, we didn't have to give them credit for a complete perfect season since my G-men showed them where to stick it. Sorry for the negativity, but BB is an annoying overconfident jackass.

Age ain't nothing but a number...

Ken, over at Mel-Anon, offers up a solid question regarding why the mainstream media isn't covering the voting trends of the different age brackets in the Democratic primaries/caucuses. Ken points to significant differentials in the polling data that exemplify this trend. To quote at length...

Exit poll data shows that Obama does consistently better among the youth vote regardless of race, class, or gender. In Indiana, which Clinton won by a scant two points, Obama won among voters aged 17-29 by a 22-point margin. Clinton won among white voters as a whole by 18 points, but lost under-30 white voters 54-46. The MSNBC poll does not break down age by gender, and there are frequently not enough black and Latino voters to register representative samples. In Texas, Obama nearly broke even with Latino voters under-30 while losing the overall Latino vote handily, though in California his results were similar through all age brackets.

Likewise, Clinton has been sweeping up the over-65 vote by large margins in virtually every state. In Indiana, she won this group by 40 points, and it rarely breaks less. In North Carolina, she lost the overall vote by 15, but still carried the loyal elderly 57-41.

This data may indeed seem academic to some, but in the world of cross tabulation exercises, these splits pretty much assure that there is something significant happening here. I believe the media is treating this issue tenderly because they know that it's impossible to get it "right" from the marketing/advertising perspective. If you are a newscaster/host you know that the tried and true 65 and over demographic is a core base of you paycheck, but yet that ever alluring 18-29 crowd is calling your name... Is it possible to draw them into the "system" whereby they can tune in every Sunday morning (if they can get their lazy asses up) to watch some talking heads (some are bigger than others) blabber on about the talking points? Who do you alienate? The obvious business choice is neither, by ignoring the issue.

Generational change and conflict is at the crux of the American (and probably all) civilization. The young rebel against the old, seeking to simultaneously react and revolt against the wrongs perpetuated by their elders. The significant thing about the current revolt is that the young folks seem to be more directly engaged in the process than in the past, and are willing to exert their power through the more traditional means of organizing and voting. This is both inspiring and depressing at the same time, as one sees hope in the engaged young population and yet we are left to decry the days gone by of less conventional means of change (i.e. real protests). Of course, the extreme adversarialism promoted by the Boomers against their parents didn't exactly work out well. The one thing that I am confident in is that the Obama campaign has mobilized the young folks in a way that most political scientists would have not thought possible. So, to those in the Boomer cohort, I suggest you prepare to give up some of that influence...

Whether or not one sees Obama as an agent of genuine change, he is nonetheless an avatar for the battle between aging Boomers clinging to one more banzai run at saving their legacy and post Gen-Xers staking their own claims to a vision of which direction the country should go.

Well said, my friend, well said.

McCain's Rose Colored Glasses...

Apparently, McCain doesn't think we will have to fight the war in Iraq for 100 years anymore, but maybe we can win by 2013.

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom,” Mr. McCain said at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. “The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced.”

I am a little concerned that the "best" scenario McCain could come up with is "winning" in another four and half years -- and this "win" would still entail a troop present and "spasmodic" violence... I don't know that I can accept the idea that a functioning democracy can tolerate "spasmodic" political/ethnic violence. And what is so miraculous about 2013? What is going to happen in the next four and a half years that hasn't in the last five? Well, the one sure answer under McCain's watch is that more American troops and Iraqi civilians will die in a war zone.

Irrelevant Endorsement?

Does endorsing at this late stage seem a little silly? John Edwards apparently doesn't think so... I sincerely hope that this is indeed a deep committment to the poverty and inequality issues consistently raised by Edwards, but it may turn out to be a political cherry picker role, whereby endorsing before the end good ole Johnny might win some scrappie poos at the Cabinet table?

And the survey says...

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll from late April (partially available at pollingreport.com), 60% of respondents stated that the increase in gas prices have caused some financial hardship in their lives. Of particular note here, is the fact that this is down 12% from the 72% who responded in the affirmative to this question in March. This doesn't make much sense to me, unless if the coverage in March focused on the issue more, and therefore informed consumers to be worried little folks during that time... Of course, this is entails taking a rather negative view of the ability of the populace to fully weigh the realities of higher priced oil to their own lives. Or, maybe folks were comforted knowing the $1,200 was in the mail.

Of more interest to me is the fact that 78% of respondents think it is likely that they will pay $5 a gallon for gas at some point this year. Even more astonishing is that 44% think it is very likely to occur. I have to admit that this view is even more pessimistic than I am on energy prices, as I would peg it to top around $4.40 a gallon in mid to late summer. Additionally, five out of six respondents think oil companies are making too much profit, while 13% feel it is a reasonable profit. This poll also shows us that 3% of the respondents have some vested interest in oil, or so I would venture, given that this is the percentage that claimed oil companies were not making enough of a profit!!! For real?

Call me a millenarian...

But doesn't it seem like there have been a lot of weather related catastrophes recently? The Chinese earthquake, the Myanmar cyclone, the tornadoes (spelling?) in the midwest/south... Maybe I'm just normally oblivious to these things, but it seems like a tough couple of weeks for the human race with regards to our relationship to good ole momma nature.

Mushroom and Asparagus Linguine...

With the arrival of asparagus at the >Dane County Farmer's Market this past weekend, I can confidently pronounce that spring has sprung. I was able to pick up nearly all of the fresh ingredients to make the following mushroom and asparagus pasta dish last evening...

Ingredients:
9 oz. Fresh Mushroom Linguine from RP's Pasta
1 smallish Red Onion Garlic
3 cloves of garlic
2/3 lb. blend of shitakes and oyster mushrooms
1 bunch (15 stalks) of asparagus
White Wine (Praire Fume from Wollersheim in this case, though slightly drier is probably better)
1/4 stick Butter
handful of fresh arugula
Fresh green onions (3 stems)
Romano / Parmesan (optional)

Directions:
Remove stems from mushrooms (leave some of the oyster core), slice into 1/4 inch strips. Dice onion and garlic. Wash asparagus and cut away any overly firm portions at the base of the stalk. Cut each stalk into 3-5 pieces using a bias cut method. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in large pot (lots of room for the pasta to move), also bring 1 quart of water to boil in a double steamer (boiling is ok, but make sure to use plenty of salt in the water to keep those nutrients and color in the asparagus) for the asparagus. Heat a large skillet on high and when hot add a bit of olive (pomace) oil to the pan with the garlic and onions (red not green). Saute over medium high heat until the onions start to turn translucent then add the mushroom blend. Add the asparagus to the steamer and the pasta to the boiling water, each should cook for between 3-4.5 minutes.

After the mushrooms become tender to the touch, raise the heat to high and add wine to deglaze the pan. As the wine boils, lower the heat slightly and begin adding small amounts of butter to make the sauce. Work the butter into the wine, and allow to thicken over the heat. Drain the asparagus and the pasta, adding both to the saucepan. Toss in the green onions, some salt and pepper. Plate in pasta bowls and grate some cheese (optional) and chiffonade of arugala. Enjoy.

This recipe is neccesarily vague, as I've never been a tactician in the kitchen. I do, however, think that this style of fresh pasta and veggies with a white wine and butter (I hesitate to refer to this as a beurre blanc) sauce is something to be expreienced. Especially right now, as the asparagus is so much better (less bitter, crisper, and meatier) than what is available most of the year.