non-ecumenical ramblings

Thought this was a clever idea to gin up some business, so decided to check it out today.

Good touches:

• stroller area roped off in the corridor so mommies (and a couple of dads) could leave bring their stollers to the multiplex, but not have to bring it into the theatre itself.
• diaper changing table off to the side of the theatre
• no previews or commercials for KCRW or Coke

Two items to improve on:

• no trash can by the diaper change table
• sound too loud - one of the stroller or mommy matinees turns down the sound
• why have the movie start 15 minutes late? If it's just because folks assume that they'll have 15 minutes leeway with teasers, tough. The movie's already 2 hours & 11 minutes long.

Other observations:

• 2 single men were also in the theatre. seemed a bit odd - I would never go to a theatre with ~20 sometime crying babies to see a film.
• Flags of Our Fathers was not a good choice by us or the theatre for infants. Too many explosions that were frankly too loud even without infants. At 22 days old, Theo is too young to see the movie, but some of the kids there were 1-2 years old & a film with tons of explosions and amble dismembered bodies really isn't a wise choice by the theatres.
• Did over hear a conversation contrasting Huggies vs. Pampers.
• Once the film started, the mothers were good at keeping babies quiet - some moms would rock their kids in their arms by the entrance to keep them quiet.
• Bottom line - would try Mommy Matinee again, but would chose a film without bullets into necks or dismembered arms or gaping wounds in guts.

War & Film thoughts

• In my 30's I had wondered why the US had taken Iwo Jima as opposed to island hopping past it. A year ago Max Boot wrote an editorial pointing out that taking Iwo Jima was "a battle of choice waged on the basis of faulty intelligence and inadequate plans" - the benefits of the island "a useful base for long-range fighter escorts" were not worth the cost of 6,821 dead & 26,000 casualties. During war, these miscalculations are understandable and still sad.
• It dawned on me while watching that the top ranked films of all times do not include any WWII movies (by that I mean a film involving the war itself & not movies dealing with the aftermath or movies that take place during the war but never show the war itself). It then hit me that none of the "best" films are war films from any war. Given the inherent dramatic nature of war, it seems strange that the best films set during WWII are Angry Harvest and Wannseekonferenz (Wannsee Conference) - the first about a middle-aged German farmer hiding a jewess in his basement, and the second being a dramatization of the planning of the final solution. Angry Harvest was a wonderful character study of the moral consequences of decisions made during war, and the Wannsee Conference shows the banality of evil better than any film i've ever seen.

Placenta Recipes (Mothering Magazine, September 1983, Vol. 28, pg 76)

Editor's note: I have not heard of anyone who routinely makes a habit of eating placenta... it would be an 'after-the-birth-only' type activity. Many animals, including herbivores routinely eat their placentas, as it replaces vitamins and minerals lost during the labor process. Many women who have tried it swear they feel better faster, and they do not suffer from postpartum depression because of the nutrients the placenta has given them. It has been called a 'harmless' meat, as no creature is killed to procure it. Placentas should only be eaten fresh, if this is something that appeals to you.

Each placenta weighs approximately 1/6 of the baby's weight. Cut the meat away from the membranes with a sharp knife. Discard the membranes.

Placenta Cocktail: 1/4 cup raw placenta8oz V-8 juice2 ice cubes1/2 cup carrot. Blend at high speed for 10 seconds

Placenta Lasagne: Use your favorite Lasagne recipe and substitute this mixture for one layer of cheese. In 2 tbl. olive oil, quickly saute meat of 3/4 placenta, ground or minced; plus 2 sliced cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 diced onion & 2 tbl. tomato paste, or 1 whole tomato.
Placenta Spaghetti: Cut meat of 3/4 placenta into bite size pieces, then brown quickly in 1 tbl. butter plus 1 tbl. oil. Then add 1 large can tomato puree, 2 cans crushed pear tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbl. molasses, 1 bay leaf, 1 tbl. rosemary, 1 tsp. ea. of salt, honey, oregano, basil, and fennel. Simmer 1 1/2 hours.

Placenta Stew: Meat of 3/4 placenta in bite size chunks, 1 potato (cubed), 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2 carrots, 3 ribs celery, 1 zucchini, 1 large tomato, 1 small onion. Dredge meat in 1 tbl. flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. paprika, pinch of cloves, pinch of pepper, 6-8 crushed coriander seeds. Saute meat in 2 tbl. oil, then add vegetables (cut up) and 4-5 cups of water. Bring to full boil, then simmer for 1 hour.

Placenta Pizza: Grind placenta. Saute in 2 tbl. olive oil with 4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1/4 cup of wine. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, then use with your favorite home made pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping.
found at: http://rainforest.parentsplace.com/dialog/get/newf4homebirth1/49/3.html

Placenta Roast:
All "food" should be properly cleaned prior to cooking, and all "food" should be properly cooked prior to eating.
This is a good recipe for placenta, which should NOT go to waste:

INGREDIENTS:
1 to 3 lb. placenta no more than 3 days old1 large onion1 large green or red pepper (green will add color to the presentation)1 cup tomato sauce1 sleeve of saltine crackers1 tsp crab or shrimp seasoning1 tsp black pepper1 tsp white pepper1 clove garlic (roasted and minced)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop onion and green or red pepper in small cubes. Place in large bowl. Crush saltines into crumbs and add to onion and pepper cubes.

COMBINE IN LARGE BOWL:
Placenta, seafood seasoning, pepper, garlic, and tomato sauce. Place into aluminum loaf pan. Cover and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours, occasionally pouring off excess liquid. Retain liquid for gravy base if desired.

The Ginger Haired Yank is timing her nursing, so tonight is the true return of Friday Night Wine Blogging. Sutter Home Merlot 2005.

The upcoming mid-term elections and increased US death toll in Iraq have dominated the news recently. It's still hard to believe that the Dems will actually control the house come next January, but with each passing day & lack of some GOP good news, it's becoming harder not to be less cautiously optimistic.

Updating metrics:

• Deficit - looking back, i had stated cutting the deficit in half $220B. In hindsight, I should have used % of GDP, which would have meant cutting the deficit from 3.6% of GDP to 1.8% of GDP. I should also have stated whether the deficit had to be cut for any fiscal year, or for the final fiscal year of Bush's administration. It does appear that FY 2006, the deficit will be very close to 1.8% of GDP, but then will increase for FY 2007-2009. Still of the metrics given, it looks like Bush will come very close to accomplishing this goal.
• Trade - Doha's dead, so not much more to say. Will skip this metric for future monthly postings unless some noteworthy item comes to light.
• Iraq - there's little that I can add to Riverbend's latest posting "We literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first or second-degree relative these last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car-bombs, suicide bombers, American military strikes, Iraqi military raids, death squads, extremists, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons – with so many different ways to die, is the number so far fetched?" I can hope that the Dems will push for a referendum in Iraq for the US to set a timeline for withdrawal. The vast majority of Iraqis want our occupation to end, so it's time to choose the best of the bad options available and go - set a timeline for withdrawal once the referendum passes. Give the government a $100B line of credit. If the Kurds are o.k. with a small US base as listening post, leave one.

Wagers:

This portion of my post was just blown away by blogspot as i tried to save it to make sure that blogspot would not blow it away. Dang.

• Have obviously lost any chance of winning my Mark Warner wager since he dropped out on the 12th. Can only hope that some anti-Hillary keeps me from losing my first wager to jj.
• US troop levels in Iraq, despite Baker's Iraq Study Group, I just can't see Bush withdrawing US troops below 50,000 by the end of his term.
• No draft,
• no Osama,
• no Israel attack on Iran by 2013,
• no Kurdistan recognized by UN by 2011 - all appear to be safe wagers.

Ginger Haired Yank was serving broiled tofu with rum-molasses-citrus sauce, so wine would simply not do. Fortunately MGD & Coors Non-alcoholic beers fit the bill!

I had never thought it was possible for the Dems to win the House much less both branches of Congress, but am cautiously hopeful. Had the common reasons for not believing it was possible - gerrymandering, GOP $$$, recent Dem defeats, lack of a compelling Democratic narrative. Even this fall I, like many others, just kept waiting & waiting for the fabled GOP October surprise which never materialized. Perhaps a serious GOP run would never have happened anyway, but what has hurt the GOP the worst from the Foley scandal is their destroyed momentum. Bush et al had ginned up the GOP noise machine and they had started to make some progress with the usual canards Dems soft on commu..., er Islamic terrorists - Be afraid. Be very afraid.

But once Foley scandal erupted, it sucked all the political oxygen from the fall campaign. Not only was the GOP in general, and Hasert and Reynolds personally, on the defensive, but most other campaign issues were reduced to background noise. Even if the Foley & enablers storyline has run its course, there are only 3½ weeks left until the election, so any chance of the GOP fear storyline gaining prominence in the national psyche now is gone.

Noticed one other GOP problem is that they've depended on their $$$ and get-out-the-vote effort so much that it's become their crutch. They've begun to believe that as long as they have more money and can get the yellow-dog GOP voters to the stall on time everything will be all-right. But even in this gerrymandered era, they did forget two things - their candidates & the voters.

Usually look at two left wing polling summary sites - electoral-vote and electionprediction - daily and a right wing site - blogging caesar - weekly, and they are all giving very similar predictions. The Dems will win 20+ seats to take the House and will win 4 Senate seats to make up for their Senate losses in the last election. Looks like my prediction was (sadly) wrong about Lieberman, so expect 2 independents who "will caucus with the Democrats" as they say.


It is a bit amazing the disaster scenarios some of the right believe, but I can remember how dispirited we on the left were after the last election. jj responded that we should chill out: abortion will not be made illegal tomorrow - the GOP moderate triumvirate (Collins, Snowe & Chafee) would help block major items of the GOP legislative agenda - a theocracy will not be imposed. Mostly true (although the GOP trio had a very minor role), so in response to the fears on the right, I'll make the following prognostications if the Dems do indeed win the House.

1. The House will not pass articles of impeachment.
2. Waxman will initiate investigations into Iraq & Katrina contractor corruption.
3. Marriage penalty tax will not expire (far too popular with the middle class). Most of the rest of the Bush tax cuts will not be extended/made permanent while Bush is in office.
4. Our troops will still be in Iraq for years to come, and serious withdrawals will not start until after the next president takes office.
5. If another Supreme Court vacancy does arise, then anyone comparable to Roberts or Alito (in both resume and judicial temperament) would be approved.
6. Illegal immigration will continue to be a hot button, but a 700-mile fence will not be built regardless of this election's outcome.

Think that covers the biggies.

Happy to be drinking Black Swan Shiraz. The Ginger Haired Yank is still sticking with non-alcoholic beer.