Uh, now that's just plain stupid

People who know me, know that I try to be diplomatic and non-judgemental about perspectives and points of view that differ from my own. I also have an aversion to snarky bloggers who heap loads of hate on people by saying things they'd never say to someone's face.

But I'm 42 now and I've come to a few conclusions that some things are just plain stupid and I'm not afraid to tell people who disagree with me that these things are stupid:

First, the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment, which too many people believe is God's justification to stockpile every gun ever made, was written at a time when the Government was still unstable and vulnerable, kind of like a baby turtle whose shell is still soft. It's stupid in the same way the book of Leviticus - and much of the Bible is stupid. For Christ's sake, we don't stone children to death who talk back to their parents and we don't need muskets at the ready to join up with the local militia and defend ourselves against a tyrannical local or foreign government. These ideas are out of date and now they're dangerous because paranoid idiots have adopted them as God's truth.

Church

Church is stupid. If you believe in the big 'g' God and feel like you have to be somewhere, at a specific time and perform a specific set of instructions (rituals), I think what you're doing is just plain stupid. And if your god requires you to do these things in order to get some reward at the end of your life, then your god is just plain stupid too.

Here's a list of some other really, really, stupid things I can think of off the top of my head: diet soda, fat free cheese, greeting cards for Halloween, situational comedies, ideological bumper stickers, buying and wearing expensive sports jerseys, equating President Obama with Hitler, equating the far left with the far right (the right is much worse, cuz they're armed to the teeth), denying man-made climate change, raw food-ism, etc.

No racists here.

OK, Mr. tea party protester, you say you're not a racist. And since I can't read what's really in your heart, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe your angry opposition to the president's health care plan is based on your fiscal conservatism.

So you must have seethed with rage when the Bush Administration and the majority Republican Congress passed the Medicare part D drug program and essentially wrote a blank check to fund the war in Iraq? One of your fellow fiscal conservatives, Judd Gregg (R-NH), said this about the Medicare part D drug program, "Things like the [Medicare] Part D drug program were truly a big mistake from the standpoint of fiscal policies. The Part D drug program alone added an $8 trillion unfunded liability to the federal books. If we were going to put that program on the books, we should have paid for it." And about that war in Iraq? Economist Joseph Stiglitz called the Iraq war a, "$3 trillion war."

That was probably when you first printed up that "Congress is enslaving our children with debt" sign. Yes?

Or maybe you're a civil liberties conservative who is concerned that Obama's Recovery Act and health care reforms border on totalitarianism -- that they endanger the freedoms guaranteed us under the Constitution? So, as a staunch advocate of personal liberty, you must have become positively apoplectic with anger when the Bush Administration/Republicans crafted and Congress passed the Patriot Act. You had to be 'mad as hell/not going to take it anymore' when the Bush Adminstration admitted to illegal wire taps and when the NSA admitted to monitoring private phone calls of American citizens. I have to imagine you were angry enough to punch a nun when you found out the U.S. detained and tortured terrorism suspects (including Jose Padilla - an American citizen) for years without being charged. And holy buckets, your ears had to be shooting steam when you discovered that Bush Administration officials instructed interrogators to use torture tactics that totalitarian regimes like the Soviets and the Nazis once used to elicit false confessions from prisoners.

Nope, you're not a racist. You're a true patriot.

I need to say this. But I don't know if it helps.

(Note: if you want to read this, but are confused, follow the link in the first sentence before reading further)

I went to the office the morning after it became apparent we were losing our potential baby. I didn’t know what else to do. I told my boss what had had happened, and she sent me home. She told me that it was necessary for me to be at home for my wife.

But when I got home my wife told me there was nothing I could do and that I might as well go back to work.

She was right.

I was not the one who was undergoing a miscarriage. I was not physically losing a part of my body down the toilet. What in the glorious fuck was I going to say or do to make her feel better?

So I did what any decent husband would do. I hung around the house, waiting to be needed, for anything – to be cried upon; to take her to the hospital; or run errands for her. I was utterly heartbroken for many reasons but mostly because I had to watch the woman I love suffer physically and emotionally, and be helpless to do a goddamned thing to help.

It turns out she did need me to run to the store for her. And I was happy to do so. I also installed a temporary screen in the front window and shoveled a bunch of wood chips onto a path next to the garage. I was trying to do anything to be useful. I needed to feel like I was good for something.

But I felt like that was not the time to share that particular sentiment with her. She didn’t need to hear about my biological/sociological male needs to feel useful. That was not going to take away her pain, her cramps, her blood and tears. Times like these make me think that a man can never really get any sympathy from a woman. And we don't deserve it.

That’s certainly the protocol for expectant fathers. I was preparing myself to undergo the ups and downs of pregnancy; to be the understanding partner who might feel the occasional verbal swipe from a hormonal wife. I was preparing myself for late night runs to the store for the foods she would crave. I was prepared to go perhaps months without sex or intimacy of any kind. And I was preparing not to complain about it – after all my inconveniences would be nothing compared to carrying and giving birth to a baby.

And I was more than willing to endure it. For one magical week, I was an expectant father. I felt like a king-stud and I walked with an extra swagger. Like my wife, I felt like we were going to have a boy. And that made me glow. I looked at my friends’ Facebook pics and videos of their sons with an entirely new outlook. I was going to be a fuckin’ daddy. I was going to have the opportunity to raise a boy and teach him stuff I knew about like girls, guitars, grilling steaks and a whole lot more.

We are experiencing a tragedy together, but honestly I don’t know if telling my wife about my disappointment and heartbreak right now will help her work it out. That’s why I decided to write this down. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m just trying to figure out what’s best for her, but I’m in unchartered waters. I don’t know any other men who’ve been where I am. Someone close to me and his wife had a miscarriage some years back, but they already had two kids at the time. And frankly I don’t know how much good it would do if I did know someone in a similar situation.

Heavy Metal Kittens

I did the guitars and sampled/cut/paste the drums.

scary!

Equating Bill Maher with Glenn Beck? Really?

Bill Maher says America is a stupid country. Glenn Beck calls President Obama a racist. A CNN segment calls them both 'Wingnuts of the Week.'

Really?

Maher's statement is blunt and broad. And because he doesn't say certain people in America are stupid, one could accuse him of being hyperbolic or too general. But is that equal to someone like Beck saying stupid shit like "Obama has a deep-seated hatred for white people?"

Nope.

The only fair comparison you can make between the two is that both Beck and Maher are entertainers who say things in a certain way in order to get a response.

But I see this little CNN segment as part of a larger problem with my colleagues in the media today. They seem to bend over backward to draw parallels to the current antics of right-wingers to those of the left. And they do so at the expense of the 'truth.'

The truth is there's a history of angry white mob violence in this country that is fueled by fear of non-white people taking over. And that is what is spurring the 'Tea-baggers,' and the 'birthers' and the yokels at these town hall meetings to wrap themselves in an American flag and scream, "I want my country back!"

Unfortunately, when my colleagues in the national press see people holding signs comparing Obama to Hitler or Stalin or Mao, they say, 'well people have some strong feelings about healthcare. There are people with strong feelings on the other side too."

That's bullshit and we as journalists should know better. I suspect there are some of us who do suspect there's a strong racist element to these protests, but are afraid to be labeled as taking a partisan stand in the issue.

But sometimes, you gotta call a spade a spade. Or a racist fuckhead who holds up her birth certificate at a rally and calls the president a Kenyan citizen - a racist fuckhead.

Which brings me back to Maher, who, while he's not a journalist, is not afraid to confront ugly truths. And one of them is - as these right-wing, rally troglodytes are showing us - there are a lot of stupid people in this country.

the omnivore's orgy

Last week, I feasted on a variety of critters from land and sea, raw and cooked, in one evening - all in small tasting portions, of course:

grilled octopus (pictured)
The following were eaten raw: scallop, oyster (on the half shell) and yellow or bluefin tuna.

Also had fried clams, beef short ribs, lamb sausage, lamb bacon, deep-fried lamb brain, lamb and other meat meatballs. By the time the duck confit wrapped in filo dough came about I was too full to try it.

Of course there were other veggie side dishes: beans, hummus, grilled 'squeaky' cheese with watermelon. I'm probably forgetting several things. Maybe that's because everything was washed down with several glasses of sparkling wine, a mojito and a bottle of beer. Perhaps the most unusual part of the story, is, the next day, I felt great.

The sea food came courtesy of the grand opening shin dig for a restaurant called Sea Change - in the Guthrie. After that we ventured down to Saffron, where chef Sameh treated us to some of his favorite food. And it was all good.

Such is the life of the husband of a food writer. Before I met her, I probably would never had tried half the stuff I ate that night. Life tastes so much better with you, baby. Thanks.

"Never been there before" lunch week continues...

The top photo is a "german sausage" from the German Hot Dog Company. It's located right next door to Falafel King in the TCF skyway area. Due to my predilection for the crispy, deep-fried balls of joy, I'd never ventured over to the little hot dog joint. The first thing you notice about the German Hot Dog Company, is that it's run by two Asian women. Such is the nature of the great ethnic salad bowl which we call America. The sausage was very, very tasty. Unfortunately, in my haste to get back to work, I forgot to secure some ketchup and mustard. But the onions were juicy and sweet and were almost good enough to make up for the lack of liquid condiments.

On Wednesday I ventured down to Cosi in the IDS Center. They apparently focus on the Triple S lunch formula: soup, sandwich, salad. And from my limited exposure, it looks like they do a decent job. I grabbed one of my favorite sandwiches, the caprese. Although at Cosi they call it the BMT (basil, mozzarella and tomato). The flatbread was crispy on the outside and flavorful. The tomatoes were actually decent, as were the B and the M. I'll go back there.