Sunday, July 5, 2009
The wonder of it all
I just don't think I'm going to say anything at all about ex-Governor Palin. What could I add? I already have such a great schadenfreude buzz going that I just feel like letting it ride.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
A request from Food Gatherers ...
... to harass your elected officials. The following is from an email I got from FGs, the Ann Arbor food bank / food rescue place where we both (and some of you, too, I believe) have volunteered from time to time. If you're inclined to do so, the link in the content below is to an automated send-em'-a-message site.
On Thursday, June 11, the Michigan Senate voted to cut funding for the Food Bank Council of Michigan's Michigan Agricultural Surplus System (MASS). MASS is a partnership between Michigan food banks, the agricultural community and the Michigan Department of Agriculture that provides a means for collection and distribution of surplus Michigan-grown agricultural produce. Annually, nearly six million pounds of food are distributed to local pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that would otherwise go to waste or end up in a landfill.
A House version of the appropriations bill will be voted on in the upcoming weeks. We're asking you to please contact your State Representative and ask them to restore funding for MASS. We're making it easy for you to contact them via email. Just select the link below and follow the instructions to send a message to your Representative and the Governor. After you've sent your message, you'll have the opportunity to tell others to send a message too. We appreciate your help in spreading the word.
We need you to take action by Tuesday, June 30. Here's the link:
https://secure2.convio.net/fbcm/site/Advocacy?id=115&pagename=homepage
Thanks for your help in urging decision makers to keep funding to feed Michigan's hungry.
On Thursday, June 11, the Michigan Senate voted to cut funding for the Food Bank Council of Michigan's Michigan Agricultural Surplus System (MASS). MASS is a partnership between Michigan food banks, the agricultural community and the Michigan Department of Agriculture that provides a means for collection and distribution of surplus Michigan-grown agricultural produce. Annually, nearly six million pounds of food are distributed to local pantries, soup kitchens and shelters that would otherwise go to waste or end up in a landfill.
A House version of the appropriations bill will be voted on in the upcoming weeks. We're asking you to please contact your State Representative and ask them to restore funding for MASS. We're making it easy for you to contact them via email. Just select the link below and follow the instructions to send a message to your Representative and the Governor. After you've sent your message, you'll have the opportunity to tell others to send a message too. We appreciate your help in spreading the word.
We need you to take action by Tuesday, June 30. Here's the link:
https://secure2.convio.net/fbcm/site/Advocacy?id=115&pagename=homepage
Thanks for your help in urging decision makers to keep funding to feed Michigan's hungry.
Let's pretend ...
... that I'm a political pundit.
"So, Jon, I have to say, isn't this just like the Republicans? I mean, here's a so-called conservative, Mark Sanford, supposedly a friend of the working guy, a populist, or so he'd like us to believe, and he does something like this!. Elliot Spitzer, a flaming liberal if there ever was one, he at least did his dirty business with good old fashioned American small business! But Sanford, he outsources it to the third world! He's taking food out of the mouths of the American sex worker! Shades of Ross Perot -- I hear a giant sucking sound! And as if that weren't bad enough, where does he choose to do his horsing around? The very country that once staged a vicious attack on our most staunch ally in the war against, um, things! What would Reagan say? Margaret Thatcher is spinning in her grave! Although, yes, I know she's not dead yet, but I mean come on! What next? Larry Craig vacationing in Venezuela? Gingrich galavanting in Guatemala? How much will the American people stand?"
And so on and so on. It's soft targets like this that make me envy Letterman.
"So, Jon, I have to say, isn't this just like the Republicans? I mean, here's a so-called conservative, Mark Sanford, supposedly a friend of the working guy, a populist, or so he'd like us to believe, and he does something like this!. Elliot Spitzer, a flaming liberal if there ever was one, he at least did his dirty business with good old fashioned American small business! But Sanford, he outsources it to the third world! He's taking food out of the mouths of the American sex worker! Shades of Ross Perot -- I hear a giant sucking sound! And as if that weren't bad enough, where does he choose to do his horsing around? The very country that once staged a vicious attack on our most staunch ally in the war against, um, things! What would Reagan say? Margaret Thatcher is spinning in her grave! Although, yes, I know she's not dead yet, but I mean come on! What next? Larry Craig vacationing in Venezuela? Gingrich galavanting in Guatemala? How much will the American people stand?"
And so on and so on. It's soft targets like this that make me envy Letterman.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ai, yi yi
On a news web site, my eyes were, however unwillingly, drawn to an ad -- one of those bogus survey things. "Is Obama a good president? Yes/No. Win a free dinner at Olive Garden!"
I'm starting to question my life-long support for the first amendment.
I'm starting to question my life-long support for the first amendment.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Try to restrain your angst
This is going to anger some readers -- it's not possible that among our acquaintances there are no fans of alternate medicine. But as you probably recall, I am not a fan, especially of the wilder ones like homeopathy and Traditional Medicine. It's not that I admire the American Medical Association, I just doubt (see post below) anything that claims it will make me feel better by sticking needles in my body or dosing me with the internal secretions of other, already endangered mammals. I have, perhaps, an unusually low threshold of tolerance for preposterousness. Maybe it's a character flaw, who knows? But I did want to pass along to y'all an interesting AP story, about a US Government agency you probably didn't know existed: The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
The AP story is linked below; the summary: NCCAM has spent two and a half billion dollars of your money funding studies into alternate medicine. The score so far:
Things that were funded and, amazingly, didn't work out:
I could go on a bit more about it all myself, but instead, I'll quote from a paper presented in 2001 to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H.. You can see all of it here, but the following paragraphs say a lot about why this sort of nonsense gets national attention and money:
Much has been written about the "medical establishment" and its institutions and systems of delivering medical care. I think it is fair to note the existence of the "'alternative' medical establishment" which includes promoters, practitioners, organizations, foundations, retail businesses, wholesale businesses, politicians, the NCCAM, the WHCCAMP, and other institutions. The "alternative" medical establishment has even extended its reach into medical schools, other professional schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and insurance plans. In so doing, alternativists have increased their power and, in effect, invalidated the NCCAM definition of complementary and alternative medicine.
"Alternative" medicine is alternative in the sense of espousing or reflecting different values. The science-based medical establishment insists that health products and services be proved safe and effective—with proponents bearing the burden of proof—before promoting them. Alternativists often value hunches, clinical impressions, subjectivity, anecdotes, reports of best cases, legends, and so-called "other ways of knowing," as sufficient "proof" to justify their promotional efforts. They tend not to value efforts to identify sources of clinical illusions and to reduce the problems of systematic and nonsystematic errors leading to faulty conclusions.
Alternativists also value different credentials and standards of practice than most consumers expect. Many "alternative" credentials and standards of practice do not require professional accountability.
Anyway, read the AP article here, if you like. It talks about the idiocy that resulted in this agency's existence in the first place (legislators who thought some imbecilic practice helped them and demanded funding to study it, among other reasons), and the fox-in-the-hen-house policy of using alternative practitioners to lead studies into their own dogma. Makes for good reading, unless of course you believe passionately in Black Cohosh, whatever the hell that is. But for even better reading, have a look at one of my favorite sites, QuackWatch, and see what the good doctor Stephen Barrett has to say about things like TCM and chiropractic. And try to stay healthy.
The AP story is linked below; the summary: NCCAM has spent two and a half billion dollars of your money funding studies into alternate medicine. The score so far:
- Taking ginger may ease nausea after chemotherapy
- Yoga and massage may make you feel a bit better than you did
Things that were funded and, amazingly, didn't work out:
- Ginkgo biloba for memory
- Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis
- Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes
- Saw palmetto for prostate problems
- Shark cartilage for cancer (I wrote about this last piece of rubbish way back in the 90's)
- And -- for two million dollars -- whether acupressure on your face can help with weight loss (it doesn't)
I could go on a bit more about it all myself, but instead, I'll quote from a paper presented in 2001 to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H.. You can see all of it here, but the following paragraphs say a lot about why this sort of nonsense gets national attention and money:
Much has been written about the "medical establishment" and its institutions and systems of delivering medical care. I think it is fair to note the existence of the "'alternative' medical establishment" which includes promoters, practitioners, organizations, foundations, retail businesses, wholesale businesses, politicians, the NCCAM, the WHCCAMP, and other institutions. The "alternative" medical establishment has even extended its reach into medical schools, other professional schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and insurance plans. In so doing, alternativists have increased their power and, in effect, invalidated the NCCAM definition of complementary and alternative medicine.
"Alternative" medicine is alternative in the sense of espousing or reflecting different values. The science-based medical establishment insists that health products and services be proved safe and effective—with proponents bearing the burden of proof—before promoting them. Alternativists often value hunches, clinical impressions, subjectivity, anecdotes, reports of best cases, legends, and so-called "other ways of knowing," as sufficient "proof" to justify their promotional efforts. They tend not to value efforts to identify sources of clinical illusions and to reduce the problems of systematic and nonsystematic errors leading to faulty conclusions.
Alternativists also value different credentials and standards of practice than most consumers expect. Many "alternative" credentials and standards of practice do not require professional accountability.
Anyway, read the AP article here, if you like. It talks about the idiocy that resulted in this agency's existence in the first place (legislators who thought some imbecilic practice helped them and demanded funding to study it, among other reasons), and the fox-in-the-hen-house policy of using alternative practitioners to lead studies into their own dogma. Makes for good reading, unless of course you believe passionately in Black Cohosh, whatever the hell that is. But for even better reading, have a look at one of my favorite sites, QuackWatch, and see what the good doctor Stephen Barrett has to say about things like TCM and chiropractic. And try to stay healthy.
Don't shoot that carnivore
In our on-going quest to question things ("I doubt the really big doubts." Socrates, according to Larry Gonick), we were interested to see a study that questions the typical game-management strategy of restricting hunting to males of the species in question. Turns out that in critters that are infanticidal, removing males results in greater offspring losses to other males. Lions and cougars are examples.
Of course, it begs the question of whether trophy hunting should be allowed at all, but I'm not going to touch that thorn (or pet that tiger, as an exec of my acquaintance would say) in the current political environment. Anyway, read the study if you're interested.
Of course, it begs the question of whether trophy hunting should be allowed at all, but I'm not going to touch that thorn (or pet that tiger, as an exec of my acquaintance would say) in the current political environment. Anyway, read the study if you're interested.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Spring, finally
The "garden" (one 3x3 raised bed) is yielding fresh basil, the markets have reasonable tomatoes and asparagus -- maybe it's really going to be spring, eventually, before summer gets here.
Caprese with local mozzarella, filleto di manzo, asparagus with smoked paprika mayonnaise, and sauteed summer squash.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Coping with the economy
On Territorial Road, right off M-23, there was a pickup truck pulled off onto the side. He had a homemade sign out: "For sale: Bansai."
The misspelling aside, it seemed more like a Subaru cottage industry than a Dodge Ram one, but everybody's gotta play to their strengths, I guess.
The misspelling aside, it seemed more like a Subaru cottage industry than a Dodge Ram one, but everybody's gotta play to their strengths, I guess.
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