From Google

Wiccan Cooking & Eating

I've got to find a widget that collects for me all the books I come across and am interested in. At the original article there are eight more books of recipes. We'll be having spinach every day next week I think. :) more cookbooks

The Magical World of Wiccan Cookery: 9 Recipe Collections

According to Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen, pretzels offer protection, basil is for lovers, and spinach will make you wealthy—season it with sesame seeds or nutmeg "for added power." These are all useful tips if you happen to be preparing a Sabbat feast to celebrate Samhain (that's Halloween for those of use who aren't modern-day witches and warlocks), but even if you aren't familiar with Wiccan cooking, a visit to the wonderful and wacky Wiccan cookbook shelf is in order.

Why? In part because Halloween is near—but more importantly, because pagan cookbooks (and yes, there are a lot of them) are at once enlightened and silly, fascinating and full of bizarre-sounding recipes and alliterative chapter titles. ("Mystical Meats"?) Underlying it all, though, are some powerful ideas about food's importance—sacredness, even—that aren't so different from those held by fans of farmers' markets and Slow Food. "Cook with purpose and care," Cunningham says; "Cook with love." And don't forget to serve some Amuletic Appetizers.

So, without further delay, here's a brief introduction to Wiccan recipe collections:

WICCAN COOKING

CUNNINGHAM'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WICCA IN THE KITCHEN

"You'll find the magic of wine, sugar, and hotcross buns here, along with that of seaweed, carrots, and tofu," writes the author of this "practical food magic manual." "This book has something for everyone." And it really does seem to be practical. The author, Scott Cunningham, adds, "I don't recommend trying to cook in a cauldron unless you have an open hearth and plenty of time."

Notable recipe:
Apricot Brandy Quick Amatory Drink

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Life-Like Robot

People are not going to believe this. It's creepy enough for Halloween!


With too-humanoid-for-comfort facial expressions, and her assigned role as inpatient caretaker (presumably to provide comfort and security), Actroid-F is proof positive of our impending demise.




"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

When Did You Choose To Be Straight?

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Halloween Light Show 2010 HD - Thriller ( Michael Jackson )

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

OMG! Horrors! But even as I am horrified at the thought, I guiltily want an iPad. And I do feel guilt. This is a very good take on the (slim) likelihood that books will become obsolete any time soon. But...they probably will be, eventually, won't they? Rufus is but one of many very sharp and interesting thinkers who write at a place called The League Of Ordinary Gentlemen. One of my faves. 
http://www.ordinary-gentlemen.com/

Bookless Libraries

by Rufus F. on April 6, 2010
Allow me to disagree with those who agree that the disagreement between Jason and me, which was more an agreement, was not useful or instructive. Ahem! (Note: I can’t promise this will be interesting…)


Okay, I see that we were both coming to the same point: that there are some scales of value that market economics cannot “read” and remain legitimately scientific. An economist can’t tell you if the Bible or The Skinny Bitch’s Diet will have a deeper cultural relevance because it’s not what they’re measuring. They can’t tell you if it would be more valuable to your intellectual life to take a course in Socratic philosophy or in pole dancing. This is not their job. Nor should it be. Note to economics: I ‘aint mad at ya’!

Liberty Is A Value?

 Is liberty really a value? And if it is, is it a conservative value?  
Yesterday I referenced and recommended a podcast by Jonathon Haidt. He is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. He, along with some colleagues has been studying the differences between liberals and conservatives. He came up with 5 values that he says we all have to one degree or another. 

Haidt’s Five Moral Values

1. Harm/Care – agreed on by both liberal and conservative
2. Fairness/reciprocity – agreed on by both liberal and conservative
3. Ingroup loyalty 
   1. liberals are more independent
   2. only among humans do you find large groups
4. Authority/respect
   1. liberals reject authority, conservatives embrace it
5. Purity/sanctity
   1. political right moralizes sex
   2. left moralizes food as examples

 They have continued to think about the subject and do further studies and he is now ready to include a sixth one. Liberty. Part of the reason for this is that so many conservatives asked him where was liberty in his list?
 When I heard his lecture explaining the 5, I was surprised at how right it seemed. But I am not as sure about this liberty as a value thing. One problem I see with it is that when I hear a conservative talking about liberty, what he really means is "no taxes", or else he can't/ won't explain to me what he does mean by that word. No taxes is not the same thing as liberty of course, except in conservaspeak.
 When they say liberty they don't mean freedom from government intrusion either, no matter what they say. They're all for every single law on the books and would prefer a bunch more. They want the government making laws banning marriage for some, laws against drugs the people want, and a woman's right to do what she chooses with her own body, laws about what content movies, magazines, books etc. can have, they try for laws against lyrics in music, on and on. 
 Then there's the fact that not just a few conservatives have been, and ARE de facto tyrants.The Taliban are an example. I think of some countries too, Japan, India, Iran that I would consider conservative and I hardly think they are shining beacons of liberty. I cite Japan because people are expected to behave in the traditional way and do. They are not free to do as they please. Conservatives (at least the religious/ Taliban kind) do not seem to hold liberty as a value, even for their own elite.
Another thing I have trouble reconciling here is the fact that among the other values they hold, is what Haidt calls authority/ respect which in actual day-to-day life translates into a desire for what I've always thought of as a 'Daddy State'. Daddy make rules, sets curfews, initiates the draft and enforces the rules. That's not liberty either. His term 'respect' in actuality means unthinking allegiance (think GW's unwavering support from them, no matter what he did) which they required us all to do or be called unpatriotic, Muslin-loving (though they probably meant Islamic-extremist-loving) commies or some such. When someone is trying to force me to behave a certain way, I consider them to be trying to limit my liberty. Then there's the fact they overwhelmingly support very long and draconian prison terms for miscreants and the death penalty for even the mentally retarded.. They won't hear criticism of police officers or rogue soldiers, no matter what they've done. They are all for banning videos of arrests, all for the use of tasers, even though they've killed upwards of 516 people here and been misused, notably against a 12 year old girl, and a 6 year old boy here. Amazingly, they find a way to defend such actions. We are more and more a police state and Arizona's new law and the embrace of it by conservatives is par for the course. News yesterday pointed to the connections between the man who wrote the bill, the politicians who fought for it, she who signed it and the private prisons who expect to and are gleeful at the thought of making a new fortune. They even stated how many women and children they expect to 'get'. more here Yes, this is just another example of the amount  of bald-faced greed in our society but I have not seen or heard any misgivings coming from conservatives about this downside or the other unpleasant consequences of this bill, such as the certainty that Americans will be hauled into jail while someone else brings some kind of documentation in order to rescue that American who doesn't have much liberty after all. It doesn't sound like they have some great respect for liberty nor do they hold it dear as a principle.
 I think it more likely they throw the term around as one more bumper sticker talking point that's become a fetish/ tic. If you think about it, the 'patriots' (that term another fetish of theirs) were as liberal as anyone had ever been until that point. What could be more liberal than to say: you won't control me, this is not fair and we won't stand for it, you will not give a big company tax breaks at our expense? What could be more conservative than to instinctively defend the status quo and the existing institutions even to the point of war? The Civil War was another example of this same thing. Again, to me, liberty does not seem to be some inate moral value conservatives hold. Perhaps it is of liberals though.


"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Hint Fiction

Whole Worlds In Less Than 25 Words

by JJ SUTHERLAND

You remember those six word memoirs that were all the rage a while back? They were modeled on a story Hemingway allegedly wrote on a dare:

For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Grant Dougall

.

Well now there's a new book "Hint Fiction," a collection of slightly longer efforts, 25 words or less, edited by Robert Smartwood. From the New Yorker:

“Hint Fiction” gives writers a little more room to roam. A hinting story, Swartwood explains, should do in twenty-five words what it could do in twenty-five hundred, that is, it “should be complete by standing by itself as its own little world.” And, like all good fiction, it should tell a story while gesturing toward all the unknowable spaces outside the text.

You can preview a bunch of them here. My favorite is “Houston, We Have a Problem,” by J. Matthew Zoss.

I’m sorry, but there’s not enough air in here for everyone. I’ll tell them you were a hero.

Though, "Through Tiny Windows," by Barry Napier, has a nice Borgesian feel to it.

When they opened the cadaver, they found a house. A couple argued inside. There was a rhythm to their words, like the beating of a heart.

Not only can you read more at the link above but if you read the comment section here you will find many more, by NPR readers. This is so neat. I'm adding it to my list to look for at the library.

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

"

The First Important Black Poet

             Paul Laurance Dunbar


 Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872, Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts of African-Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised both by the prominent literary critics of his time and his literary contemporaries.


I mention him because he wrote this, a favorite of mine (not that I know that many poems, but still, it is) and appropriate for Halloween, I think. I found it years ago when I used to go to libraries on a regular basis and it must have been around Hallowe'en time then too.

The Haunted Oak

BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

Pray why are you so bare, so bare,

   Oh, bough of the old oak-tree;

And why, when I go through the shade you throw,

   Runs a shudder over me?

My leaves were green as the best, I trow,

   And sap ran free in my veins,

But I say in the moonlight dim and weird

   A guiltless victim's pains.

They'd charged him with the old, old crime,

   And set him fast in jail:

Oh, why does the dog howl all night long,

   And why does the night wind wail?

He prayed his prayer and he swore his oath,

   And he raised his hand to the sky;

But the beat of hoofs smote on his ear,

   And the steady tread drew nigh.

Who is it rides by night, by night,

   Over the moonlit road?

And what is the spur that keeps the pace,

   What is the galling goad?

And now they beat at the prison door,

   "Ho, keeper, do not stay!

We are friends of him whom you hold within,

   And we fain would take him away

"From those who ride fast on our heels

   With mind to do him wrong;

They have no care for his innocence,

   And the rope they bear is long."

They have fooled the jailer with lying words,

   They have fooled the man with lies;

The bolts unbar, the locks are drawn,

   And the great door open flies.

Now they have taken him from the jail,

   And hard and fast they ride,

And the leader laughs low down in his throat,

   As they halt my trunk beside.

Oh, the judge, he wore a mask of black,

   And the doctor one of white,

And the minister, with his oldest son,

   Was curiously bedight.

Oh, foolish man, why weep you now?

   'Tis but a little space,

And the time will come when these shall dread

   The mem'ry of your face.

I feel the rope against my bark,

   And the weight of him in my grain,

I feel in the throe of his final woe

   The touch of my own last pain.

And never more shall leaves come forth

   On the bough that bears the ban;

I am burned with dread, I am dried and dead,

   From the curse of a guiltless man.

And ever the judge rides by, rides by,

   And goes to hunt the deer,

And ever another rides his soul

   In the guise of a mortal fear.

And ever the man he rides me hard,

   And never a night stays he;

For I feel his curse as a haunted bough,

   On the trunk of a haunted tree.

There is a website dedicated to Mr. Dunbar called dunbarsite. org funnily enough. http://www.dunbarsite.org/biopld.asp with all things Dunbar. There are even recordings of someone reading his works! A lot of them! When I have a chance I'll check them out, I only know The Haunted Oak.


I found the poem at a website called poetryfoundation. org, also funnily enough,
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173459 where they have many spooky poems featured.


"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Recommendations Part I

I always appreciate when a product or service does just what you would want them to do. Elsewhere on this blog I mention the Roomba (made by iRobot) as something we are happy with having purchased and that it does what it claimed it does. I don't think I always appreciated good service but then the 80's happened and the idea of providing good service or a good product became thought of as silly idea in the minds of the producers and was excepted by us weak-kneed consumers.


One idea of Deepak Chopra and the Wellness people is that appreciation - somewhere described as a Savoring, a unit of mindful appreciation, a moment of conscious enjoyment, and thankfulness, lead directly to wellness/ happiness. So I try to be appreciative as often as I can remember to be. I hope other people will add their recommendations to this post in the comments so we can appreciate those things too.


Another thing I appreciate is a product called Voltaren Emugeltm. It works really well for aches and pains and has no offensive odor. I was telling a friend how well it works and she informed me there is an analgesic in it. Oh! no wonder it works so well. But this means people already taking blood-thinners or for other medical reasons, should not use it,  so I recommend it with that caveat. For ages 16 and over.


I have enjoyed very much some of the podcasts at iTunes called iTunes U about history and in regular podcasts a series of lectures to his students (and us) by Kevin de Laplante called The Critical Thinker. It comes in five parts. I have found it very interesting. As he talked I would imagine all the arguments made by the opposite side of myself politically using these, such as fallacy. Kevin tells a good story about how, thanks to a glitch, his podcast was featured on a list and his logo was featured prominently (taking up 1/3 of the page). In two months, he gained more than 8,000 subscribers, no doubt that mistake helped? He says that his podcasts, both video and audio, have reached more people than he has in his 14 years of university teaching. Other podcasts I would recommend is The Greater Good series, especially the one featuring Jonathon Haidt and the podcast featuring Margaret Atwood in the Big Ideas category. I am thankful that people have made all this available to the rest of us. It's all free and I think you can listen at iTunes without an iPod, you'd have to download iTunes but that is free too. 


So the list so far:
Roomba
Voltaren
Podcasts

please contribute more!


"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

The Drug War Is Racially Biased

No words necessary.


There are a lot more charts and analysis here. http://blog.norml.org/2009/04/10/who-are-you-us-government-statistics-on-adult-marijuana-users/

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

A New Conspiracy!

I was going to the market but had to share this. I love it! Now I'll do the shopping.

Time-traveling alien? Mystery woman in Chaplin movie clip

After a year of painstaking frame-by-frame analysis of a 1928 movie clip, filmmaker George Clarke has only one explanation for the woman gripping a black object to her ear and talking.

She’s a time traveller. And not a human one, either.

Clarke’s video explanation, put on YouTube just days ago, is climbing steadily toward 1 million views. But he has no answers to the mystery that’s bedevilled him and 100 people he’s shown the clip to.

The clip is from the six-minute sequence of the opening of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. A stocky woman in a hat and coat walks into the frame, talking into what looks like a cellphone.

Clarke has already heard the obvious questions: Who’s she talking to, in 1928? Where are the cellphone towers?

“This is the thing,” he tells the Star on Wednesday from Belfast. “I’d love to have the answer to that. It seems to have opened a whole can of worms. I’m hearing a lot of ex-government officials, men 70-odd years of age, who tell me about secret government operations.”

Go here to read the rest and perhaps get a better look at the woman and her 'cell phone'. It makes you say hmmm.

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Restaurant Recipes

Karl Ratzsch's has been a famous German restaurant in Milwaukee all my life. Their food is terrific (but too pricey for such as my family, usually). While reading the local paper (The Milwaukee Journal- Sentinel) I came across a regular column where people write in and request restaurant recipes and the restaurant provides it. Since every cream of mushroom soup I've had from a German/ Austrian restaurant or home is good, I know this will be terrific. 

Karl Ratzsch's Cream of Mushroom Soup

Benny Sieu

Karl Ratzsch's Cream of Mushroom Soup
Makes 8 to 10 servings

1 ½ pounds sliced button mushrooms

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) salted butter

¾ cup flour

6 cups chicken stock

1/3 teaspoon white pepper

1 quart heavy whipping cream

1 cup dry white wine

Pinch of ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 drop hot pepper sauce

¼ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon granulated garlic

Garlic Parmesan croutons (see note)

Freshly minced parsley for garnish

Shameful, Thank You FOX

I wonder what types of 'some Muslim religion' there are? I thought there was one and it's called Islam. I feel bad for that family but also for all the people scheduled to fly on that plane who were at the least inconvenienced and quite likely scared senseless when they saw bomb-sniffing dogs and didn't know why.

Attack Of The Muslim Garb.

Someone at a Memphis airport thought Juan Williams was really up to something with his remarks about being fearful of people wearing "Muslim garb," and got an entire family kicked off a flight:

"My understanding is they were dressed in attire that would indicate some Muslim-type religion," said airport vice-president Scott Brockman.

What provoked the incident? Muslim-type people in Muslim garb using the bathroom:

"On taxi, the crew became concerned when a passenger exited the lavatory after an extended period of time and damage was found in the lavatory," said a Comair spokesperson in a written statement.
Action News 5 learned that damage was to a toilet which was found slightly askew after the man of the family used it.

The plane was delayed for two hours while bomb-sniffing dogs were brought on board to make sure it was safe, and the family was interviewed by the FBI. If everyone was as heroic as Danielle Crittenden, this is what daily air travel would be like all over the world. Maybe we should just get separate bathrooms.

Posted by Adam Serwer on October 27, 2010 1:30 PM 

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=10&year=2010&base_name=attack_of_the_muslim_garb#122190

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Vitamin Interactions

Last night I posted about a new vitamin website I'd come across that I was impressed with. Today I got around to using the interactive pill advisor. I input the medication I'm taking (quit smoking) and the supplements I take (calcium and vitamin D) and I got back a small report telling me that food will help in absorption of both the medicine and vitamin D which I did not know. Or maybe I did at one time but forgot? Anyway, it's a useful tool.


http://www.nutritionworkshop.com/medicationsandsupplementsinteractions


"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Roomba

A while ago we bought a Roomba. Do you know what a Roomba is? It's one of those robot vacuums that runs about the house, vacuuming. When we first got it, most people thought it was a silly thing to buy but then they saw it and the opinions seemed to shift. It actually does what the advertising says it does. It is harmless if it rolls over feet, it reverses when it meets an obstacle, it knows not to fall down stairways or steps, it returns to it's 'base' when it feels it's done (due to not finding anything to collect). I should point out it doesn't actually vacuum, it seems to sweep the stuff up on hard surfaces and there is a roller and a brush for carpets. There is tons (nevermind) of very fine dust in the viewable chamber when it's time to clean it.


We, and everyone who sees it, from 70 year old in-laws to 15 year old friends of Max's, started out fascinated by 'him'. Yes we call him him. We also ask each other "where is Roomba" or "does Roomba need cleaning" almost like you would with another home-dweller. Everyone watches him to see if he has a pattern (yes he does but don't ask me to explain it) and to see if he will fall down or mess up somehow. Mixed up in there is the surprise (!) that the thing does what it said it would.


About the cleaning, I know that some would find it a pain and leave it to sit there dirty, resulting in no vacuuming happening, but we honestly don't mind. I say we because husband and son have both been known to ask after him and then do the duty. You empty the removable chamber and clear the hair out of the brush and at the ends of the brush and the roller. It's just dry dirt, nothing remotely gross (or my guys would definitely not be touching it). I sometimes run it twice in one day, between charges, on the first floor and once upstairs. Usually not so often but like today, I haven't run it for a few days so depending on how dirty he is after the first run I might decide to run him again. Some may laugh at us but we are quite pleased with him. Oh, one complaint, he's pretty loud if he's right in the room while you are watching tv. He comes with two 'walls', contraptions you set to tell him not to go there; because he thinks it's a wall it works. I would recommend him.




"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Obama's Accomplishments

I've seen this list before but I just can't remember where. It might be the White House's site? This is from a commenter (ARMSTP) at Frum Forum.

http://www.frumforum.com/can-obama-supporters-name-one-achievement#comments

ETHICS

• Ordered the White House and all federal agencies to respect the Freedom of Information Act and overturned Bush-era limits on accessibility of federal documents (2009)

• Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible (2009)

• Placed limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House (2009)

• Placed limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration (2009)

• Signed a measure strengthening registration and reporting requirements for lobbyists (2009)

• Ordered that lobbyists must be removed from and are no longer permitted to serve on federal and White House advisory panels and boards (2009) * Note: After saying he would not hire lobbyists, a few have been hired in the Administration

• Companies and individuals who are delinquent on their taxes or owe back taxes are no longer allowed to bid for federal contracts (2009)

• Initiated the “e-Rulemaking Initiative” (in cooperation with Cornell University) to allow for online public “notice and comment” of federal laws and initiatives (2010)

• Issued the “Open Gov Directive” ordering all Cabinet departments to promote transparency and citizen participation in their policies (2010)

• Signed extensions on banning lobbyists from serving on agency boards (2010)

• Developed the “Don Not Pay List” with data on contractors and recipients of federal funds who are deemed to be ineligible because of fraud and abuse (2010)

I Found A Great Vitamin Site!

This place looks great! He gives you advice about mixing vitamins with medications and it's visually very easy to look at. He talks about hormones and herbs and pharma. 


http://pilladvised.com/

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

This Is So Inappropriate

You know your attraction to women’s underwear is a little out of control when you do things like this: Sarah Palin Gets Gift of Pink Underwear from Sheriff Arpaio.


"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” - Plato

Raw Granola

This is from a blog (habariganikate.blogspot.com) I've been following. You should go there, give her a few clicks and get her almond milk recipe to put on the Grawnola. 

Grawnola and Cinnamon-Banana Almond Milk (and O photos)

Today I’m posting one of my favorite raw recipes: “grawnola.” I never eat granola because it usually has gluten in it. And, I’ve been drinking smoothies for breakfast for so long I hadn’t really thought about actually eating breakfast. But, I’m trying to get better about that too. Although my recent weight gain tells me maybe I should stick to smoothies. Anyway…this recipe is from Sarma Melngailis’ Raw Food Real World, and it is AMAZING. The orange zest and vanilla really add a flavor that’s better than any granola I’ve ever had. This recipe makes about 10 cups.

Cranberry Maple Granola

1 apple, cored and chopped

1 ½ cups date paste (I didn’t have this, so I blended real dates and a little bit of water, which I think is the same thing, and added some agave nectar to make up the difference)

½ cup maple syrup

2 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs orange zest

1 Tbs vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp sea salt

½ cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours or more

2 cups raw almonds, soaked 4 hours or more

3 cups raw pecans, soaked 2 hours or more

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, soaked 2 hours or more

1 cup dried cranberries