A lot of updating...

Holy hell! Was my last post really on September 30th? WOW. Well, my only excuse is that I've been madly cooking and blogging over at Scraping the Skillet. I do have a lot of things to update y'all on, though. Really, there should have been a bunch of posts between September and now...here's a brief recap of what's been going on:

NINI AND ADAM GOT MARRIED! Yes, my little sister is married! I have a bunch of photos posted on Flickr, but here's one to get you started...

I was back in Chicago for a glorious 10 days around her wedding. It was great to spend time with family and friends - we don't get to see them enough! Highlights? Bocce ball in Merrimack Park. Glorious fall leaves. TO DIE FOR Italian food (by an Irish chef, no less). Oh yeah, and the wedding. That was pretty awesome too ;)

2. I took a new job. Actually, I did this before the wedding by a few months. It just didn't seem top of the list. It's not an exciting or challenging job, but it is flexible and the people are nice. Now you know why I've been flakier than usual about returning e-mails, etc. Job + Food Blog = crazy busy.

3. Dylan and I have made a new resolution to go hiking more often. I mean, we live 5 minutes from a National Park but we haven't hit the trail in over a year? Crazy. The first hike was The Bellota trail up on Mt. Lemmon. Gorgeous scenery and a relatively easy hike. Amazing views after just a short hike to the ridge. Here we are:


This weekend we hiked up and around Sabino Canyon. It was also beautiful and we got to see lots of cool stuff, like a desert box turtle and a desert kitty cave. Check Flickr for pictures soon (D took the camera with him to Miami).

4. Speaking of Miami, the Canyon Ranch Miami project that D has been working on since we moved here is opening! He's there now for the soft soft opening. I was starting to wonder if this would ever happen!

5. Caleb has been battling some peeing issues. He's gotten all blocked up twice and had to spend the night at the Vet (he relapsed after the first drain). To help him manage better in the future we have officially put him on the Weekly World News Juice Diet. Mrow.

That's all the news that's fit to print.

I'll leave you with this thought:

Voting

Just a reminder:

If you're not yet registered to vote, here's a good link: https://www.voteforchange.com/

There's less than two weeks for you to get registered, especially if you have moved since the last time you voted. I think it's worth double checking your registration, just to be sure...

Politics 2008

I have one burning desire when it comes to politics. I want everyone to have access to the same truthful information. Big wish, I know. Especially with all the media spin in present times. If I was an undecided voter, I'm not sure what I would make of all the TV ads and pundit analysis.

I would like to believe that I wouldn't be swayed by the half-truths and straight-out lies that are all over the TV screen and the internet. But, if I didn't have access to the truth, how would I know? How could I ever make an informed, not emotional, choice in the voting booth?

Rather than preaching my personal beliefs on this election process I'm going to share one website with you. One site that is useful to ALL Americans, whether they are decided or not, conservative or liberal, red, blue, purple or green.

The website is FactCheck.org.

Please, for the love of this country, visit this site weekly (or subscribe via RSS!). These folks are doing a valiant job of exposing truth in these political times. Thank goodness.

Do we have any idea what we are doing?

How big this is? How much waste we produce? How much it impacts the world? How big the world is?

I don't know about you, but when I feel I'm in for some mind-boggling I sit down and start thinking about how many people there are in NYC...and then in other cities like Beijing or Munich or Paris...and then I start thinking about how impossibly many people there are on Earth. Yes, I know the figures. I could just think about the number...but it's not really the same humbling feeling.

Chris Jordan is a photographic artist who has created a number of masterful pieces of artwork that help us visualize numbers that are really beyond the comprehension level of "whoa that's a lot." He is brilliant and if you haven't spent some time exploring his website, you should do it today.
www.chrisjordan.com

p.s. More foodie pictures coming soon...my computer had to be wiped and reinstalled, so I'm just now getting that stuff back together.

Two excellent articles

Well, well...here we are again...me posting a pile of articles that I've sent to Facebook recently. I'll reatrain myself and only post two here today. But really, these are worth reading.

The first is about our good friend, the global food economy. If you are simplifying the cause of your rising food prices down to biofuel production and rising gas prices, you may want to check this out.
This article talks specifically about how policy has affected developing countries, but we get more and more of our food from "out there somewhere," at a seemingly great cost to us and a much greater cost to the pesant farmers who produce it. Next time you buy a can of black beans, check out where they came from...China? Can you even tell?

Long but worth it.

The second article is about the history of consumerism. Yes, we are all consumers. How did we come to live in this, well, consumptive manner? Hmmm...
The article is extremely interesting and backs up some of the general feelings and tendencies I have with actual historical info. Specifally, the Kellogg corp., at one time, had all employees only working 6 hours. When new management came in and tried to change things, no one wanted to give that up...not even for more money.

Also long and also worth it.

Happy reading!

vaccinations

Today I was forwarded a story from CNN.com about children who develop autism after receiving their MMR immunization shots.
Many of you know that my youngest cousin had a extreme developmental after being vaccinated (not autisim, but his development was severly impaired). Sadly, I have met other people in this world who have had similar reactions to vaccinations as babies.
I asked a nurse friend of mine what he thought of this and his reply was that children are given too many vaccinations at once, mostly for public health reasons. Since they know that you'll be brining them in a number of times as babies, they schedule all the vaccinations then. Perhaps if you pay the extra $$ to have your child receive vaccinations for each disease separately there is less risk. I've also heard that if you wait until after your kids have reaced 2 years of age, their bodies are better equipped to handle the vaccinations.
Personally, I don't expect that I'll be vaccinating my kids. I'll not so keen on the mingling of politics and medicine.

Nader

By now you've certainly read/heard that Ralph Nader is again running for President, right?

I'm disappointed that he has chosen to do this. In fact, this action seems to underscore that Ralph Nader is all about Ralph Nader, and not necessarily about the advancement of a 3 (or more) party system. It's sad, really, since he has such a strong legacy in the consumer advocacy arena.

First of all, he's running as an independent, not as a member of the Green Party. Why? Well, perhaps it is the Green Party already has a candidate that is running for president (of course, most people wouldn't be aware of this because of the lack of acknowledgment by major news outlets, but I digress...). No, Nader is running as an Independent.

Now, I certainly agree that our country would do well to move beyond a 2 party system but I also feel that there are a quite a few flawed arguments in the current approach that I can not support.

I believe and support US citizens' right to vote for whomever they choose. This is a major point that Nader-ites often make...that encouraging voters to overlook him on the basis of practicality is an effort to influence their voting decisions. Hmmm. I guess that technically they are right, however, the idea that we each have an equal vote is based on the idea that we all have access to the same accurate information about candidates. Unfortunately, this is not currently the case. In fact, We The People who actually make the effort to educate ourselves about political issues and candidates are largely in the minority. Education is not equally distributed in this country.

We all already know what happens in a hotly contested presidential race (where the Republican option is repulsive) when a minority votes with their hearts and their heads, and everyone else votes based on information provided by the media (or based on no real information at all). So, the question becomes, how do we move toward the change that Nader (and others) embody?

I would argue that dropping someone like Nader into the presidential race as either a Green or Independent candidate is not ever going to accomplish the job of moving our country more progressively forward. For one, said candidate will continue to get pummeled, though they likely will throw the balance off in favor of the less savory candidate.

Certainly, if our primary process was more democratic, lesser known candidates would have a chance of at least making it to the general election. This year's primary has underscored the lack of equity, what with candidates being excluded from debates, etc. So, there's something we can do to improve the 2 party situation: democratize the primary system.

Secondly, I think there is a much greater opportunity to influence national politics by starting small and working up. If there is a strong base of politicians around the country, holding a wide variety of seats, there is a much greater chance that, come some future Presidential election there will be 3 (or more) viable parties running. Already there are a number of very liberal democrats either taking or hotly contesting seats (both local and national) through out the middle of the country. We need to stick with these people and support them NOW so they have a constant awareness of who the people are and what they want from their government. We have to change the dynamic so that the question is not Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore, but rather, which Mr. Smith do we want? In other words, We The People need to start showing up for more than the presidential races. Heck, it probably wouldn't hurt if we knew what was going on politically in our home states. Incidentally, this requires a serious commitment on the part of the People.

Finally, and for me this is the real trump card, we have GOT to work on the education issue. I think a big first step is teaching kids how to pick apart advertising campaigns. Just having the knowledge that nothing in that TV/Print/Internet ad is an accident is very empowering for consumers. Ultimately, this ties to the skill of being able to ask questions and make up one's own mind. I mean, that's what we are really talking about here, right? We need to give people the tools they need to cut through the hype and spin of political campaigns and decide for themselves who they want to run the country.

overwhelm-ment

I'm in the process of compiling a list of bands I want to see when we travel out to Austin for SXSW next month. Whoa is there a lot to sift through. I'm not sure the number of bands that are officially slated to play, but I haven't successfully gotten through the list yet. If you want to see just how long it is, click here.

This feeling of being overwhelmed reminds me of the feeling I often get when I try to take in excessive amounts of information about world events and politics. My brain just can't hold it all.

Maybe my brain extra small? OR maybe this explains all the apathy in our country...we can't focus on anything else because too much of our attention is absorbed in marketing and spin.

Also (and randomly): It was snowing in Tucson today. I ate flourless chocolate cake, that Dylan made me for V day, as a snack. Today is the last day of my 30 day yoga challenge.

Pastures of Plenty

A Federal Judge toured a migrant housing encampment outside of LA. The Judge is holding a hearing in January to determine if all of these workers will get the boot from the unsafe conditions.
I wonder if he realizes the double-edged sword he's dealing with? Specifically, if these workers were provided with adequate (and, by the nature of it, more expensive) housing opportunities, their wages would need to rise to accomodate the increase in their housing costs (or at least the would in a fair world). Our friend the Judge might just find himself paying a bit more for his pestcide soaked strawberries...

Read an article here.

Sad news from Pakistan...

This article covers the murder via bullets and suicide bomb of Bhutto, one of the top contenders in the upcoming election. Apparently, they had requested increased security for her but the government (Musharraf ignored the request).

I'm sure everyone will hear about this on the news. It is especially sad because the US Government is condemming the violent attack, etc. - even though they took their time commenting/taking action when Musharraf first declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. Even now, the US government's only "reason" to be concerned is that our al-Qaida friends might be hiding in northern Pakistan. At least, it's a good opportunity for the Bush administration to remind us that they are still out there and we are still in danger.

sigh.

No effing way!

Man, I love the EPA. I especially love the way they make decisions, especially if the decision doesn't actually take into account the recommendations of their own legal and technical teams.

At least we know California won't take this lying down.

Read about it here.

I'm not sure that, as the site claims, our reps *have* to listen if 10,000 or more signatures are gathered, but it is still very important that we all take a moment and take action on this one. Consider how much of a difference all the contact from constituants made on Monday with regard to FISA. This is important folks.

It will only take a moment, do it while your cookie dough is chilling :)

Here's the link:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter/

getting out of the way

Though the comment by the Paupa New Guinea rep at the Bali conference was quoted as lead or get out of the way (on providing technological help to poorer countries), I think what we are doing is a little more along the lines of following.

On Saturday, World Leaders finally agreed on a broad plan for developing a new global climate treaty by 2009. Of course, we, the US, have only committed to deep cuts in our emissions...not anything specific.

And, as we would expect, the White House has already expressed "serious concerns" about the final deal. HA!

Ya-hoo!!

California has the right to regulate emissions!
Now we just need to get the EPA on board...ugh...

Read the full story here.

You're gonna love this...

I mean, I love it. How could you not love this?

A woman is gang-raped by her employer while working overseas in (you guessed it) Iraq. She is then tossed in a container and guarded so she can not leave - in an effort to discourage her from reporting the rape? Disgusting.

Full story here.

One of my favorite things...er companies...

"Monsanto, aka agriculture’s Voldemort, has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange and plans to reduce its direct carbon emissions by 6% below its 2000 levels by 2010 or buy offsets. Gee, a whole 6%? Exactly how many sulfurous-smelling greenhouse gases does the company generate from its nefarious life-patenting activities?"

Oh, Ethicurian, how I love your sad-news-delivering ways!

Read more about Voldemort's moves here.

Real journalism knocked down one more time.

John Conroy, the journalist who uncovered and followed the Chicago Police torture story, is laid off from the Chicago Reader. This change comes just after the announcement that The City of Chicago is preparing to pay nearly $20 million to four men who were once sent to death row after interrogations that they say amounted to torture by the Chicago Police.

Rread more here.

Fishes in the sea

Just an interesting commentary. Of course, there are lots of other examples of tragedy of the commons, but I like the comparison Tierney uses at the end :)

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/a-win-win-for-fish-and-fishermen/index.html

another belated...

I know it's just an excuse, but I'm going to fall back on that push button functionality thing again. Here are posts from the last month on Facebook...

• Only in California...the land of milk and honey (People's Grocery makes using food stamps easier)
• More reasons to think twice about eating that beef...and using ethanol as an energy source (Cows fed ethanol byproduct have higher rates of E. coli)
• Time magazine covering up bad, no, horrific journalism (Mr. Klein)
• Poor Americans, blindly trusting the FDA (Under-funded and looking to really screw things up)
• Fake Steve Jobs (A Book!)
• Say it with me: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! (Take Back My TV!)
• Water in the desert (Those Phoenixians sure are crazy...)
• Just Say NO (To an overstressed holiday season)
• Once upon a time...the Democrats actually did something (Congress Delays War Money)
• Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! (Monkeys all over the darn place in New Delhi)
• Concentrated Solar Power (read all about it)
• Ethanol Plants (the farmers don't love them)
• Craziness (PA Bans use of Hormone Free label on milk)
• Green Building in Chicago (Expo)
• Pollan's update on the Farm Bill (he votes for no subsidies, I vote for encouraging diversification of farms)
• Lime wedges (and recycling of beer bottles)
• No (Steven can't run in South Carolina)
• Dr. Bronner (A true wacko - the movie)

I suppose that does it...I'll try to be better about posting this stuff here in the first place, though I'm honestly not sure anyone actually reads this blog anymore :)

It's not the money, it's the lifestyle...

Here in Tucson, we have a ballot measure that is up for approval this election. It would increase the Mayor's pay by $12,000 per year. In researching the measure I learned that the Mayor of the City of Tucson, part of a metro area with over 1 million residents, makes only $42,000/year. If this ballot measure is passed, the Mayor will be paid a whopping $54,000/year.


Anyone want to run for Mayor?!?