Oh, the irony

The Delta Farm Press reported last week on the occasion of the "Champion of Arkansas Agriculture" being given to Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AS) at a dinner benefitting the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. In her speech, Senator Lincoln said, “I was particularly proud of the tremendous investment the bill makes to reduce food insecurity among our children and our elderly, and others in need,” Lincoln said. “It represents the largest amount of funding for nutrition programs in our nation’s history.”

Yes folks, this is the same Blanche Lincoln who threatened her own party leadership that she would filibuster the Dorgan-Grassley payment limits amendment to the 2008 Farm Bill, (thereby forcing the Dem leadership to create a new 60 vote minumum rule --on themselves--for the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, in order to even prevent the possibility of a filibuster). As we know, the amendment, therefore, did not pass, despite the fact that it had 56 votes.

She threatened to filibuster the entire food assistance-laden farm bill, because this amendment posed such a threat to her cotton and rice farmers, who are now applauding "the work of Sen. Lincoln and the Arkansas rice industry for their generous efforts and contributions toward helping eradicate hunger in America,” (said by USA Rice President and CEO Betsy Ward).

So, when Senator Lincoln said, at the dinner, that many of the opponents of the farm bill failed to recognize the benefits of the bill--“Instead, I received a considerable amount of criticism for some of the work I did to ensure that our family farmers and producers can remain competitive in today’s global marketplace," she meant her "work" in torturing the democratic process to continue bringing home the bacon to the 26 farms in her state who received $250,000 or more in 2005. And implying that they couldn't have actually understood what was really in the bill, if they dared to stand up and utilize the democratic process to prevent a few wealthy farmers from continuing to use the American taxpayers as sugar daddies.

I've realized something important - I want to be a global citizen, but I don't know the best way for me to do that. I have realized that many of the traits, activities and values I admire in others, though often vastly different, often relate in some way to their "global citizenship," and this is something I wish I had sought out earlier. It fosters a lot of regrets in mind, but I need to think more about the best way to operationalize this in my life moving forward. There are so many different, and possibly contrasting routes. Any suggestions?

Globe Op-Ed reads my mind

This fabulous op-ed in Tuesday's Boston Globe demands that the incoming Obaministration reject the American obsession with "individual lifestyle" and the "biomedical miracle" and commit to creating health-promoting social policies, encompassing all areas of policy including taxation, housing, transportation, food, etc.

The crux of the argument is the need to change the true causes of disparities in health, or what the "scientists" and "experts" often gloss over as inevitable, in their race to find the latest breakthrough, as stated eloquently in an important recent WHO report on social determinants of health:

"The unequal distribution of health-damaging experiences is not in any sense a 'natural' phenomenon but the result of a toxic combination of poor social policies and programs, unfair economic arrangements, and bad politics."

And finally, the author makes APHA Executive Director Dr. Georges Benjamin my new hero, by quoting his speech from last month's annual conference in San Diego (which I missed):

"I would love Barack Obama to declare that he wants America to be the healthiest nation in the world - in a generation. Americans need to rally around the idea of grappling not only with healthcare, but with health."

Yes! We can! Not only can we...we must! This is the argument that I've been trying to make to anyone who would listen for the past several years-- and is at the heart of my frustration with the field of "health policy," which simultaneously admits that there are social determinants which have far greater strength at predicting heath outcomes than does access to (or quality of, for that matter) health care, but yet continues to focus 95% of its attention on "healthCARE policy" to the exclusion of policies about HEALTH.

But of course that would "upset the apple-cart," as my professor likes to say, especially right here in Boston, the medical capital of the USA. The question on every good progressive's mind is:
Is He [godly emphasis mine] willing to do that?

What to Eat � Food allergies: OK to eat peanuts if pregnant?

A comment on Marion Nestle's recent post about food allergies
brings up a point I've been wondering about for several years-- the very food--peanuts-- that babies and toddlers in the US avoid, is part of Bamba, an Israeli peanut-buttery snack that has traditionally been marketed and fed to infants. Do they not have peanut allergies in Israel? Hmmm...

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!

Everyone should listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on NPR this weekend, because it is a great show with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) as the guest-- I was in the audience, thanks to the kindness of a stranger at Tufts who gave me two free tickets to the show about an hour before it started last night.

I haven't previously been a fan of the show, but it was really hysterical in person, especially because this week's show is all about the election fabulousness. And you get to hear Barney Frank talk about his boyfriend, President (for a while) Bush and Bill O'Reilly.

Sallie Mae: Eating Out to Save Money?

Although Sallie Mae has been spared the brunt of the negative media attention reserved for her siblings Fannie and Freddie, based solely on rhetoric, she may not be any better.

I recently received an email titled: "Eating out can help reduce your student loan balance," encouraging me to eat out in order to pay off my student loans (which are still accumulating). While it is obvious that the email is referring to a system like credit card points, wherein purchases at certain vendors lead to points that can reduce one's loan balance. But still, to suggest that eating out can save money in any capacity seems rather misleading- almost as misleading as some of the tactics used by the demonized mortgage lenders.

Thoughts?

Heaven on Earth (or at least in New Hampshire)

Wow. This just made my day, my week, and maybe even my year.

If only the O'biden campaign could actually say any of this and get a West Wing-esque reaction instead of a real-world O'Reilly-spun reaction, that would be amazing. Alas, the so-called "liberal" media does not actually control the message, at least in cases when it actually matters.

Now that we have a new script, who will take the opportunity to film an unofficial version of this splendid meeting between the two Jesuses? There must be a couple Martin Sheen impersonators out there. Or maybe Martin himself would donate his skills to the campaign, or at least to SNL (also, I note, an NBC production), if he's done with his stint as a co-ed in Ireland.

Yasher Koach for Dark Meat

Among the myriad Agriprocessors news and blog stories of the week, including 57 child labor violations, is Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld's op-ed in the NYTimes linking the upcoming holiday of Tisha B'av and the horrors of Agriprocessors. Herzfeld, the Rabbi of the Orthodox congregation at the National Synagogue, includes specific recommendations for what the Orthodox Union needs to do in order to begin improving the situation. Yasher Koach to Rabbi Herzfeld. Jewschool and The Jew and the Carrot report.

summer life: a catalogue

currently I listen to: The Unforgettable Fire by U2

So I've been a terrible blogger, but I want to attempt to blog more regularly again, and actually make something of this blog, because I want to really try to highlight and focus on my writing skills in the next few months or year. I need to set goals for myself, and I have realized that I'm probably not cut out to be an organizer, but writing comes so much more naturally to me, so I need to get over the silly obstacles to writing better, more frequently, more visibly.


Today was:

a long walk in the heat with Sarah to Trader Joe's where I bought nothing, because their decaf fair trade coffee was not actually cheaper than Whole Foods'. But we discovered a flaw in TJ's-- they don't have cold bottled juices/teas/etc that people can buy to drink right away. major impulse buy opportunity they are missing out on!

Lunch at a sushi place really near my house with Abby. great to chat with her. And a brief stop into Petsy Pies which is also near my house, but I have surprisingly never been to. And it turns out they have free wifi.

Listening to my sister coach my niece through crapping on the potty while I was on the phone.

Hanging out with Sarah and Lexi in our semi-sweltering yet fan-laden living room.

Finding out that a friend's relative is safe and sound after a very scary ordeal.

Accidentally picking and eating the first tomato from my first ever tomato plant! I love sungolds!

Transplanting a bunch of herbs and tomatoes that I had started from seed indoors. I know it's kind of late to be doing that. A bunch of sweat bees kept hanging out in the soil in a container I was trying to plant into-- the whole thing took me much longer, because I kept being afraid the bees would attack me and waiting for them to leave. They never did and I eventually grew some balls and just put the plant and more soil in while they continued buzzing around it. The world did not end.

Walking in a soaking thunderstorm to someone's house nearby - it was utterly refreshing even though I had just taken a shower.

Indoor picnic of Sarah's yummy pasta salad.

Hearing that two wonderful friends might live together next year.

Stirfry and baking cookies in the sweltering heat.

Learning that an old, dear friend has temporarily encountered a stumbling block and her quest to [temporarily] eat a vegetarian diet.

Finding Sarah's AMAZING post about my recommendation for kale chips!!
Apparently she won a Weblog Award for the post- lovely :)

Apparently Ted Kennedy flew to DC today to vote on the Medicare bill, which passed. I have not been reading much news of late, so I will have to investigate what exactly was in the Medicare bill.

Here's to it all and a good day at work tomorrow.

Why Adults Need to See Live Puppet Shows

From The Puppet Showplace:

Why do adults need to see live puppet shows?

Because the Internet can't heckle you back.

Because it's fun to see the soul of an old lady in a tomato.

Because if you watch talking furniture onstage it's less likely you will start talking to your own furniture.

Because the revolution is never over. Because it's fun to watch adults in a state of arrested development.

Because it's healthy to arrest your development for short periods of time.

Because nothing out of Hollywood can actually reach out and touch you.

Because old memories need to be kept young and new memories need to be made.

Because where else can you see 4,083 uses for felt & the common coat hanger.

Because even though you can't see the puppeteer's hands, you know what they are doing with them.

Because the world has too many televisions and not enough storytellers.

Because it's nice to know your trash is being put to good use.

Because instead of dumbing down, puppets smarten up their audience.

Because if you can't join 'em, beat 'em with a stick (says Mr. Punch).

Because the news doesn't run enough happy stories.

Because most puppets are actually smarter than most politicians.

Because the worries of the world never stop, but you can put them on hold till the end of the show.

Because why should kids have all the fun.

There's a job at this place that I really want to apply to.

Didi and the Kids

Wow. I just had my order taken at Haley House Cafe in Roxbury by Didi Emmons herself, as she struggled to keep up the pace for the long line of customers, clean the tables and restock the coffee and silverware supplies, on this packed Sat afternoon at the cafe. She is the head chef here, but it's pretty crazy to see a famous chef like her putting in the time to do the grunt work that is usually done by low-wage college students and starving artists.

Then I was distracted from job cover letters by watching her tie the aprons on to two 10 year old girls, as they came in for their nutrition/cooking class, assuring them that although she was off to a meeting, this week's "guest chef" would be as nice as she is. I had read that Emmons was offering these classes, but it was pretty awesome to see the co-owner of Veggie Planet interacting with kids who clearly felt comfortable with her.

Despite all of the crap going on in the world (like the Supreme Court's brilliant decision to enable the deaths of countless DC residents), it's hopeful that there are such talented, creative and righteous people right here in my own [adopted] city of Boston.

[As I write this, a young African-American boy with a mohawk in an apron just wandered into the cafe to use the restroom. so cute.]

Justice Dep't Gives Corporate Fraud a Pass

This report of legalized bribes to the Justice Department was a pretty disconcerting piece of news to wake up to this morning. Why are we allowing corporate fraud to be accepted with a slap on the wrist, which admit it-- $65 million to American Express is, but drug offenders and other individual misdemeanors are sent to jail in record numbers.

Of course the article's first example- in which Monsanto bribed the Indonesian government to accept its GMO cotton seeds into the country, part of the increasing corporatization and privatization of global agriculture--was particularly disturbing to me. But the overall ubiquity of these financial non-criminal "solutions" to fraud and corruption is astounding.

Perhaps as news of increasing financial bailouts and fraudulent mortgage lenders continues, these issues will begin to surface and produce reactions. The solution? Even the "outside monitor" for the Monsanto case agrees- the Justice Department needs to actually do its job and "'insist on a guilty plea' rather than offering a deal."

Commemorating 40 yrs since MLK

Forty-years ago today, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, on Erev Pesach, which this year falls on April 19th.

• In "Portraits of History," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has collected stories of several people who knew MLK about that time.
• Jspot, the community blog of Jewish Funds for Justice, has put together a site honoring MLK's memory with several reflections on his life and death.
  
• And finally, here is Rabbi Arthur Waskow's personal account of his experiences that day.
  

One year to the date before his death, 41 years ago, the Rev. gave this speech at Riverside Church in NY. Forty years later, there is still so much of his dream left to be fulfilled.

"Chickenization" of Beef Industry?

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a friend about a lecture she went to with a representative of a major beef company, in which she tried to challenge his assumption that the solution to improving the fatty-acid profile of beef is to genetically modify the cattle (as opposed to just feeding them more grass instead of grain, which is how it was done...forever). Anyway, in framing the conversation we were agreeing about our impression that the beef industry is much less concentrated and integrated than the poultry and hog industries....

Well, apparently we were wrong:

• In 2005, Phil Howard of Michigan State's "Connect Four" Information Graphic showed the percent of the beef-packing industry controlled by the top 4 companies, also known as the industry's "CR4"- it was already much higher than other industries.

• Marion Nestle reported this week on the "chickenization" of the beef industry, which is rapidly consolidating to resemble the monopolies and monopsonies (few buyers/packers for the number of producers) of the poultry industry. According to Nestle, three companies now control 70% of the market: JBS 31%, Tyson 21%, and Cargill 21%.

• And now JBS, a Brazilian meatpacking firm has proposed buying National Beef Packing and Smithfield, the fourth and fifth largest US beef-packers. With help from Mary Hendrickson and William Heffernan's latest report, Tom Philpott at Grist crunches the numbers, showing that if JBS acquires National Beef Packing, the CR4 would become 83.5% and if they also acquire Smithfield, the CR3 would be above 90%. (Without knowing the current sixth-largest packer, we can't calculate the CR4).
  

Until tomorrow (3.24), the Nat'l Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition are collecting organizations for a sign-on letter to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of Anti-Trust Division requesting him to conduct a thorough anti-trust review of the acquisitions. It's clear that the power imbalance resulting from this sort of integration has had a big role in the food safety issues plaguing our nation's beef supply- not to mention other food security, environmental and rural development issues.

Defending the Rights of Paper

Do you feel comforted by the steady stream of junk mail coming into your home? After all, what else would do in the bathroom if there was no junk mail?

Well, never fear: In the battle against evil state governments that wish to allow individuals to stem the tide of junk mail, the International Paper Company is fighting back with this memo sent, presumably, to clients which use their paper services. They want to make sure that in the 4 states they deem "actionable," no law passes allowing you, the lowly, uninformed consumer to reject all junk mail that might come your way.

Kudos to the International Paper Company. Fighting the good fight for....dead trees?

Obama and Tikkun Olam

There is this interesting piece over at Daily Kos about Obama's use of the ideas of "tikkun olam" and "repair of the world," which is pretty interesting. Not sure exactly how much I buy it--- yet.
The author ties in the famous Rabbi Hillel quote at the end, all of which yield some humorous comments.

Also, I have recently discovered that the blogspeak acronym of MSM for "mainstream media" is confusing to me because my first thought whenever I see MSM is "men who have sex with men," which it's also used for, often in public health contexts. Someone needs to clear this up....it's very confusing.

Update: Kate Clinton mentions this very same "MSM" confusion on her recent video blog.

Food Justice Roundup

• Even Senators have joined the bandwagon to press Burger King to agree to the penny-per-pound rate agreement between YUM! brands (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a tomato-pickers' collective in Florida.

• Research is showing that poultry workers infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an occupational hazard, have begun bringing these bugs into their communities.
  

Kushner Meet Shilts

Tonight I saw the first live production of the play from which this blog's title comes- Angels in America, by Tony Kushner- specifically, Part I: Millenium Approaches (Part II: Perestroika will be next week.) Today I finished an amazing book I started reading almost two years ago, And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts. Although the latter is a work of non-fiction by a journalist, and the former is somewhat fantastical play incorporating elements of reality, history and politics, the two are perfect complements, in their depictions of the 1980 AIDS epidemic and its effects on the gay community and the nation.

Both works are intensely thought-provoking and show a glimpse of an America very different from that by which we are currently surrounded. I have written previously about the personal connection to many of the themes Angels as the source of inspiration for this blog's title.

Although I stopped reading Shilts' book for many months while I was taking courses, the book is a bit of a page-turner, with events unfolding chronologically as they actually happened. I found myself riveted and impressed with Shilts' ability to continuously investigate what everyone else was ignoring and to compile it all in so much detail and so consistently. My first instinct was that I wished I could ask him how he was able to either convince the San Francisco Chronicle to cover AIDS in such detail when nobody else was or how the Chronicle gave him the freedom to report on what he wished. Alas, I then discovered that the epidemic which he chronicled in such detail took his life in 1994- the year after his book was made into a film and that Part II of Angels received a Tony award-- he had waited until he finished the book to get tested for HIV in March 1987, potentially sacrificing years of life so that others would have the most objective account of what had happened. For me as a student of public health, would be practitioner of journalism, and aficionado of politics, the book creates such a vivid, nuanced picture, providing a model for many other issues.

'I Get a Little Wonky'

'I Get a Little Wonky' - http://www.brijit.com

Meacham's Q&A with Hillary Clinton rehashes many of the issues that the Clinton campaign has dealt with in recent days -- her new "emotional side," her comments about Martin Luther King, and her husband's comments about the Obama "fairytale." But Meacham explores some fresh territory, delving into the personal faith and convictions behind Clinton's personal side. He prompts Clinton to admit that she has only recently realized that she needs to show people the human behind the wonk, whereas she had assumed voters already had enough of a glimpse from her time as first lady and senator.
in Newsweek by Jon Meacham, 21 January 2008
This abstract was edited by Brijit.
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