26 May 2010
18 April 2010
15 April 2010
Taking Off Our Clothes
TAKING OFF OUR CLOTHES
—Scott Cairns
Let's pretend for now that there is
no such thing as metaphor; you know,
waking up will just be waking up,
darkness will no longer have to be
anything but dark; this could all
be happening in Kansas. We could lie back
in a simple bed that is a mattress
on the corner of a floor. We'd have nice
blue sheets and a wool blanket for later.
I could be the man and you could be the woman.
We'd talk about real things; casually and
easily taking off our clothers. We would be
naked and would hold onto each other
a long time, talking, saying
things that would make us
grin. We'd laugh off and on,
all the time unconcerned with things
like breath, or salty skin, or the way
our gums show when we really smile big.
After a little while,
I'd get you a glass of water.
—Scott Cairns
Let's pretend for now that there is
no such thing as metaphor; you know,
waking up will just be waking up,
darkness will no longer have to be
anything but dark; this could all
be happening in Kansas. We could lie back
in a simple bed that is a mattress
on the corner of a floor. We'd have nice
blue sheets and a wool blanket for later.
I could be the man and you could be the woman.
We'd talk about real things; casually and
easily taking off our clothers. We would be
naked and would hold onto each other
a long time, talking, saying
things that would make us
grin. We'd laugh off and on,
all the time unconcerned with things
like breath, or salty skin, or the way
our gums show when we really smile big.
After a little while,
I'd get you a glass of water.
09 April 2010
24 March 2010
| Beyond the Diagnosis: Cornerstone & Gilead Sciences |  |  |
| Cornerstone Theater Company is partnering with Gilead Sciences to produce a collection of original short plays exploring how urban communities are living and dealing with HIV/AIDS. The plays: Page Leong's In a Word , Sigrid Gilmer's Head Trip and The Brothers , and Peter Howard's Long Term are presented as staged readings in cities across the country in an evening of performance and conversation titled: BEYOND THE DIAGNOSIS: Real stories of those who are living and thriving in the most serious epidemic of our time  Beyond the Diagnosis has been presented in major cities across the country including Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Baltimore, Ft. Lauderdale, Jackson, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and New York. With each location Cornerstone and Gilead bring this program to, the short plays are created in collaboration with that city's HIV-positive residents. This collection of plays reflect the passions and challenges faced every day by the people living with HIV/AIDS in that particular city and the health professionals who treat them. These plays share real stories of patients, family members, healthcare providers, case managers and social workers dealing with HIV treatment in cities all across the country. Each performance features a combination of professional actors as well as community participants from those who are directly affected by HIV/AIDS in their city. For more information on Beyond the Diagnosis, contact news@cornerstonetheater.org . HOW WAS THIS PROGRAM BORN? In early 2007, Deborah Wafer of Gilead Sciences approached Cornerstone with the germ of an idea, a potential partnership between the two companies with a focus on HIV treatment. Specifically, she inquired about using Cornerstone’s methodology to help further their goals of improving communication between HIV/AIDS patients and their healthcare providers. Some initital questions: How might a large corporation and a smallish non-profit collaborate effectively in a way that goes beyond traditional notions of sponsorship or philanthropy? How can we create a program in which corporate and non-profit missions are being met simultaneously? We came up with a proposal to develop three short play scripts based on story circles in Los Angeles with members of the HIV/AIDS treatment community. We approached our story circles with a number of questions including open and honest communication between patients and their healthcare providers. What factors support that kind of relationship? What obstacles come up that prevent patients for advocating themselves for better care? In addition to the performances of these short plays, there are facilitated conversations with the audience about some of the questions and ideas that the plays bring up. Cornerstone has heard stories of growth, triumph, and health in the face of HIV/AIDS in conversations all over the country and we look forward to continuing our onging relationship with Gilead and bringing open and honest conversations about HIV treatment to the forefront of the discourse. |
Harris Interactive I Newsroom I Harris Polls
Harris Interactive I Newsroom I Harris Polls
| Mar 24, 2010 |
| "Wingnuts" and President Obama |
A socialist? A Muslim? Anti-American? The Anti-Christ? Large minorities of Americans hold some remarkable opinions A new book, Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America by John Avlon describes the large numbers of Americans who hold extreme views of President Obama. This Harris Poll seeks to measure how many people are involved. It finds that 40% of adults believe he is a socialist. More than 30% think he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns and that he is a Muslim. More than 25% believe he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a world government, has done many things that are unconstitutional, that he resents America's heritage, and that he does what Wall Street tells him to do. More than 20% believe he was not born in the United States, that he is "the domestic enemy the U.S. Constitution speaks of," that he is racist and anti-American, and that he "wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers." Fully 20% think he is "doing many of the things that Hitler did," while 14% believe "he may be the anti-Christ" and 13% think "he wants the terrorists to win." These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,320 adults surveyed online between March 1 and 8, 2010 by Harris Interactive. The actual percentages of adults who believe these things are true are as follows:
What Republicans, Democrats and Independents think There are – no surprise here – huge differences between what Republicans and Democrats believe. Majorities of Republicans believe that President Obama:
Also large numbers of Republicans also believe that President Obama:
Even more remarkable perhaps, fully 24% of Republicans believe that "he may be the Anti-Christ" and 22% believe "he wants the terrorists to win." While few Democrats believe any of these things, the proportions of Independents who do so are close to the national averages. One big surprise is that many more Republicans (40%) than Democrats (15%) believe the president does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do. Differences by education These replies are also strongly correlated with education. The less education people have had the more likely they are to believe all of these statements. Consider these differences between those with no college education and those with post-graduate education:
After reviewing these findings, John Avlon comments, "These new numbers are shocking but not surprising – they detail the extent to which Wingnuts are hijacking our politics. This poll should be a wake-up call to all Americans about the real costs of using fear and hate to pump up hyper-partisanship. We are playing with dynamite by demonizing our president and dividing our country in the process. Americans need to remember the perspective that Wingnuts always forget – patriotism is more important than partisanship." So what? So what indeed! These responses recall a favorite saying of our founder Lou Harris that "when you don't want to publish a poll finding you dislike, you should get out of the business." The very large numbers of people who believe all these things of President Obama help to explain the size and strength of the Tea Party Movement, a topic that will be addressed in another Harris Poll in a few days time. |
20 March 2010
"Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you..."
"Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you...":
“Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you might be getting something more in the bargain than I am likely to be getting. Justice, then, is a standard of potential enemies, an even division of booty in which both sides are apt to view each other dimly and even with underlying hostility. Friendship, on the other hand, includes the willingness to get less than one deserves for the sake of another for whom one cares. The ultimate friendship –fittingly worth noting at the beginning of Lent – is that friendship of God to Man, and of Jesus to his fellow humans, who surely got less than he deserved and gave more than any godhead has ever been expected to offer to an inferior creature. As we pray every Sunday before receiving the body of Christ, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.’ We pray not for justice from God – for surely we would all burn eternally in Hell if justice was the measure – but for mercy, for love.”
- What I Saw in America: Friendship and Politics"
“Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you might be getting something more in the bargain than I am likely to be getting. Justice, then, is a standard of potential enemies, an even division of booty in which both sides are apt to view each other dimly and even with underlying hostility. Friendship, on the other hand, includes the willingness to get less than one deserves for the sake of another for whom one cares. The ultimate friendship –fittingly worth noting at the beginning of Lent – is that friendship of God to Man, and of Jesus to his fellow humans, who surely got less than he deserved and gave more than any godhead has ever been expected to offer to an inferior creature. As we pray every Sunday before receiving the body of Christ, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.’ We pray not for justice from God – for surely we would all burn eternally in Hell if justice was the measure – but for mercy, for love.”
- What I Saw in America: Friendship and Politics"
"If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For..."
"If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For...":
“If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For we may then understand that the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. … And yet the ‘old’ life, that of sin and pettiness, is not easily overcome and changed. The Gospel expects and requires from man an effort of which, in his present state, he is virtually incapable. … This is where Great Lent comes in. This is the help extended to us by the Church, the school of repentance which alone will make it possible to receive Easter not as mere permission to eat, to drink, and to relax, but indeed as the end of the ‘old’ in us, as our entrance into the ‘new.’ … For each year Lent and Easter are, once again, the rediscovery and the recovery by us of what we were made through our own baptismal death and resurrection.”
- Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent"
“If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For we may then understand that the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. … And yet the ‘old’ life, that of sin and pettiness, is not easily overcome and changed. The Gospel expects and requires from man an effort of which, in his present state, he is virtually incapable. … This is where Great Lent comes in. This is the help extended to us by the Church, the school of repentance which alone will make it possible to receive Easter not as mere permission to eat, to drink, and to relax, but indeed as the end of the ‘old’ in us, as our entrance into the ‘new.’ … For each year Lent and Easter are, once again, the rediscovery and the recovery by us of what we were made through our own baptismal death and resurrection.”
- Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent"
chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream
chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream: "
I’m clearly some sort of grinch, because when I think of flourless chocolate cakes I imagine giant discs of truffle so dense and overly rich that even a sliver of somehow feels excessive, the kind of throwaway dessert restaurants bust out when they’ve got no better ideas. “Add a couple out-of-season, eerily red raspberries and a tuft of whipped cream from a can and it will, without fail, sell,” I imagine sinister managers instructing kitchen staff. Like I said, I’m a total pill.
I’m clearly some sort of grinch, because when I think of flourless chocolate cakes I imagine giant discs of truffle so dense and overly rich that even a sliver of somehow feels excessive, the kind of throwaway dessert restaurants bust out when they’ve got no better ideas. “Add a couple out-of-season, eerily red raspberries and a tuft of whipped cream from a can and it will, without fail, sell,” I imagine sinister managers instructing kitchen staff. Like I said, I’m a total pill.
However, when the same flourless chocolate cake is treated like a soufflé — eggs separated, yolks beaten until ribbony and whites whipped until weightless, then gently folded in — and then placed anywhere in my proximity, all bets are off. Because what it does is magical; what was once weighted is lifted off the plate. The top puffs and shatters a little, like a meringue, a meringue with butter. It manages to be both the lightest, barely-there wisp of cake and the most unabashedly rich chocolate fix. Yes, at once.
... Read the rest of chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream on smittenkitchen.com
© smitten kitchen 2006-2009. |
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Crockpot Soapmaking
Crockpot Soapmaking:
by Lynn at Viggies Veggies
I'd been planning on waiting to learn to make soap for a while yet, because I'd heard it made to sound so expensive and complicated. But my net.friend Dilli recently tested out a crockpot soap recipe she found that demystified the process for me. It's pretty well fool proof. And while talking to her about it, I realized I didn't need any special supplies or equipment."
by Lynn at Viggies Veggies
I'd been planning on waiting to learn to make soap for a while yet, because I'd heard it made to sound so expensive and complicated. But my net.friend Dilli recently tested out a crockpot soap recipe she found that demystified the process for me. It's pretty well fool proof. And while talking to her about it, I realized I didn't need any special supplies or equipment."
"Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends..."
"Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends...": "“Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice….”
- Barack Obama (via azspot)"
- Barack Obama (via azspot)"
"Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize,..."
"Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize,..."
"Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion. To tell the truth, we are tired. We work. We would just like some peace and quiet. When wrong, we think about it awhile, then apologize. We stand under awnings during urban thunderstorms, moved to thoughtfulness by the troubled, umbrella-tinged faces rushing by. In moments of crisis, we pat one another awkwardly on the back, mumbling shy truisms. Rushing to an appointment, remembering a friend who has passed away, our eyes well with tears and we think: Well, my God, he could be a pain, but still I’m lucky to have known him.”
- Manifesto: People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction, George Saunders"
via Luke's Commonplace Book
"Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion. To tell the truth, we are tired. We work. We would just like some peace and quiet. When wrong, we think about it awhile, then apologize. We stand under awnings during urban thunderstorms, moved to thoughtfulness by the troubled, umbrella-tinged faces rushing by. In moments of crisis, we pat one another awkwardly on the back, mumbling shy truisms. Rushing to an appointment, remembering a friend who has passed away, our eyes well with tears and we think: Well, my God, he could be a pain, but still I’m lucky to have known him.”
- Manifesto: People Reluctant to Kill for an Abstraction, George Saunders"
via Luke's Commonplace Book
Hospitality with a Purpose
Hospitality with a Purpose: "
via Conor Friedersdorf
This is a lovely passage:
We wanted our children to grow up in a kind of extended family, or at least with an abundance of “significant others.” A house full of people; a crowded table ranging across the generations; four-hand music at the piano; nonstop conversation and cooking; baseball games and swimming in the afternoon; long walks after dinner; a poker game or Diplomacy or charades in the evening, all these activities mixing adults and children–that was our idea of a well-ordered household and more specifically of a well-ordered education. We had no great confidence in the schools; we knew that if our children were to acquire any of the things we set store by–joy in learning, eagerness for experience, the capacity for love and friendship–they would have to learn the better part of it at home. For that very reason, however, home was not to be thought of simply as the “nuclear family.” Its hospitality would have to extend far and wide, stretching its emotional resources to the limit.Hat Tip Front Porch Republic.
via Conor Friedersdorf
On Sourdough Starters
On Sourdough Starters: by KateLiving The Frugal Life
I got interested in bread baking as part of a frugality kick about two and half years ago. It wasn't really that much of a departure for me, as I trained professionally as a chef and am pretty comfortable knocking around a home kitchen. But I never expected to get to the point where all the bread we eat is made at home, by me.I save a considerable amount of money by"
I got interested in bread baking as part of a frugality kick about two and half years ago. It wasn't really that much of a departure for me, as I trained professionally as a chef and am pretty comfortable knocking around a home kitchen. But I never expected to get to the point where all the bread we eat is made at home, by me.I save a considerable amount of money by"
The Socialism Implicit in the Social Cost of Carbon
The Socialism Implicit in the Social Cost of Carbon:
Burning fossil fuels creates so-called “external costs” because it contributes to ongoing climate change. This is a fancy way of saying that when I burn such fuels, other people become worse off than they would be otherwise, because I have increased the odds that they will suffer damages from anthropogenic global warming (AGW). This both seems unfair, and means that we will burn more fossil fuels than would seem to be socially optimal. It seems obvious to many people that we should therefore tax fossil fuels in order to prevent this. This is termed a Pigovian tax, and is sometimes referred to as “internalizing the externality”, or taxing fossil fuels to reflect the “social cost of carbon”.
It’s not so obvious to me that this is good idea. To implement it would be little more than a re-labeling of the kind of comprehensive planning that Hayek attacked sixty years ago.
Over at the Daily Dish I try to explain why.
Jim Manzi
Burning fossil fuels creates so-called “external costs” because it contributes to ongoing climate change. This is a fancy way of saying that when I burn such fuels, other people become worse off than they would be otherwise, because I have increased the odds that they will suffer damages from anthropogenic global warming (AGW). This both seems unfair, and means that we will burn more fossil fuels than would seem to be socially optimal. It seems obvious to many people that we should therefore tax fossil fuels in order to prevent this. This is termed a Pigovian tax, and is sometimes referred to as “internalizing the externality”, or taxing fossil fuels to reflect the “social cost of carbon”.
It’s not so obvious to me that this is good idea. To implement it would be little more than a re-labeling of the kind of comprehensive planning that Hayek attacked sixty years ago.
Over at the Daily Dish I try to explain why.
Jim Manzi
a DFW quote, via Kottke
a DFW quote, via Kottke:
"a DFW quote, via Kottke:
"a DFW quote, via Kottke:
“The really important kind of freedom,’ said Wallace, ‘involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom… The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.’”
via Luke's Commonplace Book
My Cloth Revolution
My Cloth Revolution:
Over the past year and a half, I have been a Cloth Revolutionary at my house. Little by little, disposable paper items are disappearing from our landscape, only to be replaced by colourful, reusable Cloth replacements.The first step in our Cloth Revolution was the switch to cloth diapers. We did this when our daughter was 11 months old, after visiting with"
Over the past year and a half, I have been a Cloth Revolutionary at my house. Little by little, disposable paper items are disappearing from our landscape, only to be replaced by colourful, reusable Cloth replacements.The first step in our Cloth Revolution was the switch to cloth diapers. We did this when our daughter was 11 months old, after visiting with"
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