Debt Ceiling Part Deux

I got more responses to that last post than any four other posts combined. It taught me two things. One, for the last 30 years you have found me to be an amusing eccentric. Two, that somehow that last post tipped me over into conspiracy nut status. One I can live with; amusing eccentric does not play well with the ladies, the HR department, or most social organizations, but it has it's perks and I'm comfortable skipping the Friday night Hoo Ha to watch the Perceid meteor shower alone.

It happens every August, how many times have you seen it?

  I resent number two though. While I understand that conspiracies happen I find that most of the mayhem in this world is done right in front of our eyes without so much as a Jedi mind trick to explain why we missed it. If you have a massive debt, which we do, and you don't have the money to pay that debt, which is bad, you have to extend your credit limit or you default. Defaulting is only an option if you don't ever want to borrow money again, or you want to borrow money at a much higher interest rate, or you want the WTO and the World bank to mess with your internal affairs, or you want to tell large nuclear armed China to screw. Nobody with a brain wants to tell China to screw.

The republican party just played a game of chicken with our economy. They did it in full view of everyone. They did it knowing full well what would happen if no-one blinked. They did it on purpose. They did it for a free market ideology that has never existed in the real world. They did it to destroy the president and the democratic party.  Their ultimate goal is to unleash and deregulate business while ending the New Deal. Their ultimate goal is to create... I was going to say a subservient, work or die, labor force but that is not true. Capital knows no geographical boundaries while labor is yoked to family, friends, debt, children, culture... lots of things. Even if you could go to where the jobs are, to where the subservient, work or die, jobs are, you'll just be competing with the folks that are already there. So I guess we'll just stick with that deregulate , destroy the New Deal thing as their ultimate goal.

Damn it Fat Boy! More conspiracy nonsense. Not true. There are literally hundreds, nay thousands, of white papers written by the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, The Project for a New American Century ( the folks that decided invading Iraqi was a good idea), The American Enterprise Institute, The Center for Security Policy and dozens of others that make no bones about how horrible the New Deal was, about how Medicare and Social Security are evil, about how the welfare state is destroying America. (Welfare, you could pay out all of it with the money the pentagon misplaces) Again, these groups are very open about what they believe if you just take the time to follow them.

You work more hours for less money than your parents did yet the meme even among the main stream media is that Americans are lazy and don't want to work. Your productivity is 20 times that of a similar Chinese or Indian worker yet they have your job and it's not coming back. You have a 401K instead of a pension. You know, you Know! that you're going to get less Social Security than you were promised. Verizion workers just went on strike because a company that just made excellent profits wants to cut their wages and benefits. The government has bailed out the free market airlines, the free market banks, the free market auto industry, the free market SNL's, the free market railroads, free market Lockheed, but not you. Welfare cheating is only bad if you try to scam an extra winter coat for your kids.

I may be an amusing eccentric but I do my homework and I'm not a conspiracy nut. If tweaking your perception of the world is a bad thing then I was born to be bad, sorry. The forces aligned against American workers are very real, very active, and very well funded. Patient, I forgot to mention patient, and relentless, I forgot to mention relentless. That's what evil does, it gets to work exactly 10 minutes after Happily Ever After and it stays on point until it wins. If we are going to stand a chance we have to take a step up on our own and get real information, not just what the media spoon-feeds us, which we will use to make real change, not Obama movie of the week change.



I miss my Sunday morning gospel hour. So here you go

Finally The Debt Ceiling.

So, I know everyone has been waiting with baited breath for me to comment on the debt ceiling clown show. You are all probably wondering why it took me this long to chime in. It was simple, summer is awesome, wading into a big pool of open sewage is not. The hysterics over the impending doom caused by the political wrangling over the debt ceiling exist mostly on the airwaves. Most of you have a vague feeling of unease resulting from said on air hysterics, but in general things are too abstract in theory and too hypothetical in practice for anyone to get really motivated. Oh no! our credit rating is down graded! Oh no the stock market is up, down, up, down (flip a coin)! Oh no millions are out of a job ( oh wait that's so 2008, 2001, 1988, 1980, 1974, 1969, 1960, 1949)! On no my 401K is shredded (oh wait that's so 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1992, 1989, 1987, 1980 wait a minute there were no 401s in 1980. Crap! my pension was shredded too!)! Oh no social security is broken beyond repair (oh wait that's so 2005, 1988, 1982)! Oh no manufacturing is going over seas (oh wait that's so 1995,1994, 1984, 1976, 1964)! Oh no the price of fuel is way too high (oh wait that's so 1990,1979, 1973, 1967)! Dumb-assess!

I'm not going to get mad at Obama. Mister middle of the road is about exactly what you would expect for some one in the middle of the road...

Was that a republican bus Mr President? Hands across the aisle feels good right?

I'm not going to get mad at the teabaggers...

You let the Monkey drive, what did you expect?

You can't get mad at elected officials for doing exactly what they said they were going to do. I think the tea party is over run with stupid, fearful pawns of corporate America, but that is only my opinion. After giving president road kill almost a full 2 years to fix the economy of coarse you, I said you, had to elect a pack of morons that think oversight of bankers and corporate boards is a sin against freedom. That raising taxes to raise revenue is a sin against freedom. That think free markets cure all ills. That think it would have been swell to live in the utopian year 1910.

Lucy!...who's wrecking the economy!

I'm not even going to get mad at hard working white people that do all the paying for spend thrift seniors, lazy welfare cheats ( are they black people? quick close your eyes... what do you see? Your minds eye must be right, right?), illegal aliens ( are they  hispanic people? quick close your eyes... what do you see? Your minds eye must be right, right?) Free abortions ( are they white trash, hispanic, black girls that live on welfare with their blood sucking grandma? quick close your eyes... what do you see? Your minds eye must be right, right? (the entire previous paragraph was sarcasm. I do not believe any of those things and I think you are a despicable moron if you do.)

The enemy of the economy is...

People that expect the social security they were promised.

Lazy workers that aren't as industrious as the Chinese+Indians

Pushy seniors that don't want to die in pain.

Shut up, Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! ...and thats the main stream media and the liberal talk shows throwing those groups under the bus. Giving rise to the complete misconception that the manufactured problems with those groups and the debt ceiling are so totally and permanently entwined that raising one without slashing the other would be irresponsible at best and likely criminal in the end.

For two weeks now we have heard endless drivel about the debt ceiling. Why is it bad? Because we have already spent the money. If we don't borrow we default. Screw you world we're not paying! Of coarse that's bad. Duh! Well we raised the ceiling and got down graded anyway. Of coarse we did. We just played chicken with the entire worlds economy. Screw you teabaggers, maybe your intentions are pure, but you have no right to force people to walk through the fire with you as an experiment. The stock market is fluctuating madly Oh my God! Oh my God! Stocks are for long term investors that have the money and time to wait out crisis. That is not you or your puny 401K dumb-ass! If you know how to count cards you can turn the odds at a black jack table in your favor, but you better have 30 or 40 thousand dollars to carry you until the inevitable odds advantage works for you. There are no such odds working in the stock market. Finally I would like to point out that Standard and Poor, the rating agency that just downgraded us, is the same agency that rated the credit default swaps that crashed the real estate markets a Triple A investment. Why do we listen to these people? Why do they run our lives?

Oh yeah, they have the guns.

Not Yet

I am itching to comment on our current fiscal debacle but I want to see a little more of how it plays out. When I start ripping on some folks I want to make sure I get everybody that is taking the bus over the cliff. Until then I will merely point out that it is still summer, the living is still easy, and local tomatoes are finally here in abundance. Mmmm tomatoes!. A week ago I lived the life of Riley at the Lowell Music Fest, but this weekend was devoted to tomatoes. Alone in my man cave, seduced by the siren call of fresh produce, in an epic bacchanal of consumption, I wallowed in BLTs for the entire weekend. Mmmm BLTs! There is no more perfect threesome in the kitchen.

First you must obtain tomatoes. Go to a farm stand because the tomatoes in the supermarket still come here from Mexico. Really? really America? There is an entire generation coming along that has never experienced the pleasure of a just picked tomato. Huge fruit bursting with juice that will give you a slice that will envelope an entire slice of toast. Buy them just as the redness of their flesh reaches eye popping brilliance and they are just a wee, I said just a wee, bit soft.

Juicy, juicy goodness. A gift from the sun.

Oversized beefsteaks are the only tomatoes to buy, but the other players... when your getting down with bad intentions the more variation, the larger number of partners, allows you to satisfy all your hidden desires. Come on, it's once a year, you've been sooooo... good. It's time to let your freak flag fly. Bacon, Mmmm bacon! isn't as straight forward as you might think.

The old stand by

You want to start slow. Good old American bacon. Salt cured, maybe smoked. For the intimidated you can fry it in a cast iron skillet, or if you want to get freaky you can bake it in a 450 degree oven. The baked stuff won't shrivel nearly as much as the fry pan bacon, Mmmm bacon! You can also add more flavor to the party using the oven method. Brush the bacon with teriyaki sauce, or honey, or maple syrup, or brown sugar. Sweet will add contrast. Once you've had a few sandwiches the old standard way  like the missionaries used to eat them you're  going to want to change things up. Deep inside everyone wants to change things up.

Yeah, it's still bacon.

The Irish, and the Canadians, like their bacon a little more ham like.

Still bacon

Of coarse the Italians have two kinds of bacon, pancetta which is standard pork belly that is salt cured and then rolled, sometimes with spices, sometimes not...

... or you could try guanciale. It's cured jowl meat. It's expensive as far as bacon goes, and it is so worth it. I am not usually a big fan of trendy expensive ingredients. I'll make an exception for guanciale. Mmmm guanciale! Cut it yourself. Thicker than bacon but not too thick. Then broil it. Careful, crispy is good, burnt is not.

Hidden Gems

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'll get to the debt ceiling agreement, summer tomatoes, and my own self pitying rage at my previous employers and co-workers. Later. Right now I want to flap about the best thing you never did. Every July for the past twenty years they close off the streets of Lowell Massachusetts for the Lowell Folk Festival. Bad name that...  implies some sort of crunchy-granola love in for the birckenstocks crowd. What it is turns out to be a rolling street party that celebrates every kind of music you can not hear on the radio. How about this.

Pretty cool huh? Bet you never heard that one during morning drive time, or on satellite radio for that matter. Maybe you don't like it? So go for something more traditional.

Trampy woman with a smokey voice doing a song that you can dance to. It's Lady GaGa's Aunt from the Smithsonian. It was a beautiful Sunday last week so this old agnostic skipped the roadhouse for the lords house. I'm a sucker for a little harmony.

Praise whoever! Does it really matter when the sun is out, the air is clean and dry, the day is just rolling along outside of time and space and you have an ice cold beer in your hand? Hell no! Other stuff too. Every organization in Lowell shows up to make food.

Bolinhos: a fritter made from dried fish. Mmmm dried fish!

Cheese and Cabbage ravioli covered in bacon. Mmmm bacon! Poland Rocks!

Phyllo noodles baked then drenched in honey and rose water. Mmmm rose water!

How good is that on a hot day?

Enough, I was stuffed and it wasn't even 3 PM yet. Time to turn up the heat and do a little dancing. The dance tent and old ladies are an awesome combination. Start swaying a little bit do a little move to the music and suddenly you're dancing. Can I get an Amen for the old ladies! They never make that face at me, you know the one, like they just threw up in their mouth, or the other one where  they don't know whether to be amused of appalled by me. Psst... I prefer the throw up face. They just want to dance.

Dancing in the heat really drains you and those old ladies weren't backing off once they found a partner. I begged for them to stop, but they had years of thwarted dance moves in their systems, they were relentless. I had to divert them.

Once diverted by mellowness they went as slack as the strings on Ledward's guitar. It gave me a chance to sneak off  and eat more stuff.

Tons of smoky goodness.

If you're having Thai chicken you might as well have thai noodles.

As a society we spend most of our waking hours chasing money, spending money, worrying about money,working for money... but as a resident of this planet none of that compares to feeling the sun on your skin, the rhythm taking you away, or the moment of happy surprise when you bite into something wonderful that you have never tasted before. Nor does the sun or the music, or the food know your wallet, your status, or your wallet. They're the same for everyone. Lowell Folk Festival... no, Lowell Music Festival is definitely a hidden gem. Hope I see you next year.

Twilight is perfect. It's after, it's before. It's outside of time.

How To Choose.

Hot fun in the summer time. Pubs and Crats are having a steel cage death match over the debt ceiling. Why can't they argue about something important like beach pizza? I know it's boring, but there's a few choices on the table. One, we have some new taxes, then some new cuts to programs, social security and medicare need a good whacking, and everyone gets screwed a little bit. Yea democrats! Making mediocrity a trademark for over a hundred years. Two, we cut programs period, like social security and medicare. Yea republicans! Making war on the working class since 1982. Three, we default on our debt there by taking the economy over a cliff( the opinion of almost ever rich person out there). Yea Teabaggers! Bringing on the crazy since someone forgot to lock your Mom's cellar door. How's the sunlight treating you? Four, tax the bastards that have been robbing us forever, paying out huge bonuses with bailout money, sending our jobs over seas, crashing the economy for fun and profit, exploiting third world children so they can have all blue M+Ms in their lear jet, and just being the evil overlords they always aspired to. That last ones mine but I am a fat little blogger with 30 regular readers so I'm guessing not.

Ah hell, it's summer, it's hot, and there are more important things to argue about. For example, let's say you are at the beach and you want something more substantial than a piece of pizza but you also want to take part in the tribalism and endless one-upmanship that is the human condition. What do you do? Maybe go up 1A, bang a left at 286, and then get you some Brown's, or Markey's.

Mmmm! Brown's

Mmmm! Markey's

Forget that debt ceiling and all that political nonsense. Here we have clear and obvious differences to talk about. Markey's serves boiled and fried seafood, backs up to a marsh, and is BYOB. Mmmm BYOB! Browns on the other hand is BYOB, Mmmm BYOB! backs up to a marsh, and serves fried and boiled seafood.  Browns is on the north side of 286. Markey's is on the south side of 286. Markey's smells like bilge. Browns smells like bilge. Browns has breath taking views of the Seabrook nuke plant. Markey's has... We have a winner! No Nukes! No Nukes!

So while the pols mud wrestle to see who can keep the middle class on life support the longest reach down into your cooler, grab a frosty PBR,( you heard me Case, you young whippersnapper) and wait patiently for your steamers. Just because clams are god's way of packaging sewage doesn't mean they aren't delicious. Oh, and have a lobster, just because. Hey, live for today!

Important Stuff

I guess I could blog about the debt ceiling, about how an artificial number with an artificial deadline could cause the economy to tank. I guess I could blog about how three members of the New Hampshire Executive council shut down planned parenthood while making pithy asides about how all politics are local. I guess I could blog about how a candidate, a serious republican candidate for president, signed a pledge that included wording the suggested that many black children were better off under slavery. I guess I could blog about those things, or maybe I could blog about something important.

Beach Pizza, Yeah!

Mmmm! beach pizza!

The summer is here, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, but there is always beach pizza. A delicious creation that can only be found along the sandy stretch of ocean front between the Merrimac River and Rye Beach, NH. Plus Lawrence. At first glance it looks like a sicilian slice that someone forgot to put cheese on. Then you pick it up and you realize that it's thin like New York style pizza. Then you bite it for the first time and you say, "Meh, big deal". Then you keep eating and suddenly you realize you will be a slave to beach pizza for the rest of your life. The future will find you on an icy February Tuesday cruising the boulevard for a fix.  Oh beach pizza, you are truly a treat for the down-trodden. Your sparse cheese, always add the slice of provolone, crispy crust, and simplicity make you both unique and universal. A food of the people.

It's a recent Sunday, ok last Sunday. You are having a cold adult beverage, ok I was, at the Upper Deck with some friends. It's Salisbury beach so you, yeah I did I'm not proud of it, start counting the tramp stamps on the boulevard.

Gratuitous girl picture to jazz up the blog.

The Salisbury beach house band is in full swing.

Jabba the Hut is nowhere to be seen.

It's hot, the PBR's in the 16 ounce cans are going down smooth, you feel an urge to buy a trailer home or watch NASCAR, because even though everything is perfect you need something more, then you glance across the street and low and behold...

Right next to each other! There is a God!

Now as hard as it is to disengage from the icy cold PBR's, as much as you want to share a meaningful experience with the 40 year old waitress that's dressed in biker boots and a leather bikini (wow, you could make a suitcase out of that skin. Excessive tanning sure makes a woman look good), as much as you want to wait for your selection of "Afternoon Delight" to play on the juke box, you know you need a slice.

I'm a proud Tripoli guy. Sauce is a little sweeter than Christy's, which was why Mark likes it better. Ally broke the tie with...Yes Tripoli's! High five, the woman has good taste. In the end I go for 3 slices with extra (provolone remember?). It's hard to believe that anything could be more important, Damn you debt ceiling, and pruned up bikini woman is still serving PBR's right from an ice bucket. The traffic is going to be killer, the sun's going down, what could be more important.

A great Idea!

So before I was so rudely interrupted by three days of more work than I could handle ( sorry boss, I'll try to clean up the mess tomorrow), I was waxing poetic about my second favorite holiday. We have a seafood theme going he so I figured let's just go with it.

We already have the grill hot for the scallops from 2 posts ago so let's chug on ahead. It's the 4th, we're celebrating, so let's have a snack that is delicious and will help put a little lead in your pencil ( zinc is essential to proper pencil function ) .

1. Put a heavy pot on the grill.
2. Add a pound of butter. Mmmm, Butter!
3. While the butter melts chop some garlic fine, add it to the pot.
4. Shuck a bunch of oysters by putting a thick heavy blade into the opening by the back hinge and twisting. Or just throw them on the grill and close the lid, they'll open.
5. Lose the top shell, save the oyster and the nectar.
6. Sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.
7. Close the lid for a couple of minutes till the cheese starts to melt.
8. Add a teaspoon of the garlic butter, Mmmm butter! to each oyster.
9. Give it another minute.
10. Serve with Tabasco and a squeeze of lemon

Still hungry? Add another pound of butter, Mmmm butter! to the pan. Time for turbo charged lobster rolls.

Now a good idea is a traditional lobster roll, lobster, mayo, hotdog bun. Perfect really. Still, why settle for perfect?

1. You needed to start a day early with 3 or 4 good sized lobsters.
2. Steam, do not boil, them.
3. After the first 3 minutes of steaming take the lobsters out and pull off all the legs. Return the rest to the pot and steam for 20 minutes.
4. We grabbed the legs because they are loaded with meat which you will never get to once the buggers are completely cooked.
5. In their current state you can lay the legs on a cutting board and using a rolling pin ( start at the claw end) you can roll the meat out of the shell.
6. Saute the meat in butter with lots of finely chopped shallots.
7. Clean the rest of the lobster meat from the shells, give it a rough chop, and save for the rolls.
8. Back to today: take a package of New England style hot dog buns. Brush one side with the garlic butter, Mmmm butter! and lay them on the grill. Brush the other side with more butter,Mmmm butter!
9. Dump the lobster meat into the remaining butter, Mmmm butter! add some fresh tarragon, and mix. Then get it away from the heat, you don't want any more cooking going on.
10. Flip the rolls when they get brown. They go from brown to burned really fast so be careful.
11. Load up the rolls with lobster.
12. Give it a squeeze of lemon and a grind of black pepper,

So while we are talking about good ideas.

My right wing friends think America is a religion, my left wing friends all too often think America is a problem, me, I think it's a good, no great, idea. Try this on for size.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus, 1883

Great stuff Huh? Suddenly it wasn't all about Kings and Queens. Heredity wasn't destiny anymore. We the people...     hell yeah! There were bumps in the road, misery and all the follies that humans bring to the table, but it is still a great idea. (Not as good as grilled oysters, but close). Not a religion, sometimes a problem, but always a growing changing positive in a world where victories don't have to go to the powerful as long as the rest of us stick together.

Now as the last fireworks fizzle out and the kids are ready for bed, take a moment with the one who brang you. It's hot, steamy, summer weather today. I hear thunder off in the distance. Get her a cold one, reach way down in the barrel so it's really frosty. Turn on the stereo, an old scratchy turntable would really sell the mood,and drop on something steamy. How about...

There's sex music just as good, but nothing better. Dance her around slow so she doesn't spill her beer, take your time, always take your time, hold her firm but not too tight, and by that last sharp note you should be ready for a second round of fireworks. Unless the kids wake up. Hey this is America, it's about opportunity not guarantees. In the end you are always on your own.