Jay

People wonder they can't get good imported German beer in the US. It's because the German government won't let them skimp on the quality in order to greatly increase the quality according to Diamond... who seems to think that's a bad thing.

Coincidentally I've been practicing this one also. I'm not very good at it.

I haven't heard the commercial but BK's commercials seem to be like tongue-in-cheek making fun of themselves. Like those old beer commercials where a "real man" eats donuts with car grease on them from his dirty hands. Obviously just silly. BK also has some 4 dollar video games out for the new X-box. Seems like they are trying to be funny..... Haven't heard the commercial you are talking about though Rob. Of course their food sucks extremely bad. Even if someone ignores the ethical aspects it's still pretty horrifying the crap they are selling as food.

I actually read a thing that was criticizing the German beer industry (by Jared Diamond I think in Guns, Germs and Steel, very popular book in the US) as being inefficient compared to the American system. Apparently the German industry has all kinds of pesky government rules and regulations that stop the German beer industry from increasing it's efficiency to that of the US. What a shame. Of course US beer takes like piss compared to German beer not that that was important enough to mention. I drink really crappy coffee straight black probably about 3 cups a day. Maybe it helps a workout a little but it's much more helpful for getting up to work at 4:30am.

Woohoo! Other good ones.

Youtube is really getting to be a neat site. Here's an old song by Skinny Puppy. Assimilate or Annihilate http://youtube.com/watch?v=YzBY79YLAwI Pretty decent version of it. Although I could use a little more barking.

Cool. I was thinking about doing something like that. Pinto beans are my least favorite bean but I'll give something like that a try. One thing that holds me back is too many ingredients and I get too lazy to bother so I might simplify that a bit.

Yes, you've got that one really good kind up there. They had it here for a while but quit carrying it. I had a syrian friend at work who found the simple recipe too bland and I suppose if you are eating the hummus with just chips or something it might be good to spice it up but that simple bland version works just fine with vegetables, spaghetti, etc.

Ahh, if only I had known 20 years ago.... One can chickpeas 3 tablespoons lemon juice Couple spoons of tahini Blend it up with a little water Can alternate an avocado for the tahini but it's not as good. Also can alternate cashews. Add it to: whole wheat spaghetti (with or without tomato sauce) dipped in whole wheat bread Amy's lentil soup or vegetable soup corn chips or other chips Any kind of vegetables (curried potatoes and cauliflower, green beans, peas, eggplant, broccoli, etc, etc) Brown rice, collard greens fried with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (well no one else likes that one that has tried it) Pita bread Falafel Taboli (sp) Etc. everything. It makes just about everything taste better. French fries, whatever. It's better with hummus. Also you can just throw extra stuff in the blender with the hummus. Like: one can chickpeas, 6 tablespoons lemon juice, can of spinach (well drained) half a cucumber then cashews. Can throw in eggplant (Baba ganoush) jalapenos, olives, etc, etc, etc. All vegetables are a treat to look forward to if hummus is added to them. Also it's filling (from the fat in the tahini I guess) where just vegetables alone really aren't.

I was worried about that poor chicken running around the subway car and how much air it was getting to breath in the suitcase. Hopefully the bear head in the refrigderator didn't help support an actual bear being killed.

Yahr, I don't think that's anti-animal rights, because Borat's character is meant to be stupid, so anything which he says is being displayed as a stupid opinion, so for Borat to say that animal rights is stupid, is to say it's a stupid opinion to think that animal rights are stupid. He attacks jews, and the actor / writer is jewish himself, he displays behaviour which he thinks is ridiculous. As far as I know anyway. Yes. There's nothing in it that pokes fun at veganism. Borat pretty much pokes fun at racists, religionists, sexists, nationalists, etc. IOW conservative types. He never said anything negative about liberals or vegans or those types.

ronnie kray, I liked that Come to Daddy song with that thing and the old lady screaming at each other. That was just about powerful enough for me. Most music is so wimpy.

They virtually never sink in. And no one wants to spend their life frustrated. So what does one do? a. Lie to yourself. Pretend any day now they'll get it. b. Face that you're just better while 'trying' to hide it. I don't see me ever really getting past a. I'll just keep pretending.

I'm meaning to see Death of a President. Haven't yet though. Anyone see Time of the Gypsies? late 80's movie not on DVD. Borat? (Borat kind of reminded me of Time of the Gypsies.)

There are 9 personality types according to this test: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ I think some have far less problem with being wrong than others. I'm an Investigator and I really don't think that I mind being wrong at all. Most of my posting on discussion boards has been putting my view out there and seeing if someone could give a convincing case that I'm wrong. It's really depressing to me that so few could do so. As seriously I'm always investigating, trying to learn shit. I hate it that so much of my time just ends up being wasted instead by people throwing strawmen around and stuff. (Accused of being a racist, a Stalinist, etc. ) Obviously though most people are not investigator types. I think many people's beliefs are mostly designed to just help them cope with reality. I think being a republican is a good example of that. Certainly if I thought the status quo was just fine and dandy, in some ways I'd be much happier. Supporting the status quo on eating certainly will also apply to such people. Recognizing that this world has got some serious problems is going to make it much harder to be as happy as you'd otherwise be.

I know. It's tough at times. Really facing it, it's hard to not just get a feeling that you must be superior and the thing is, you want and need to be honest about where you fit in to this society; what you are relative to what others are. And it's hard to find ways to really make excuses for everyone else at times. Yet, who wants to be a narcissist? Or to just come across as some kind of intellectual snob. My work situation is such that I must try to find excuses for a lot people. Lots of women nurses. A group that one would think would be much more likely to be vegan. Yet, there isn't a one of them that is. I think I pretty much have been dishonest with myself. I've pretended people are so much better than they are. I've pretended it was just ignorance when it's clearly lack of compassion. Even most vegans seem to lack very much compassion in my experience, relatively speaking.

If you've seen Time of the Gypsies (old movie not on DVD) there's this song that plays in it repeatedly that I really like. I was just reminded of it from Borat's film. Here's the song, but it's not quite the same as seeing it along with that old movie. There's also lots of clips of the old movie at youtube.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h95/ricola1/hugemanatee.jpg

Hey my friend, JW, no, he actually has pretty thin forearms although he's 6'6". You know I have a solution to this http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/Raven_PZ/Food%20Album/RAW/Store_Frsh_Greens_Kale3.jpg Place greens in a glass, jar, etc. with a bit of water (not too much so that the green leafs are not too much under water or they'll rot faster). Cover with plastic bag (I use those green-fresh preserver bags, but used regular produce bags for years just fine). Rubber-band it loosely to hold in place. This preserves your greens *and* herbs for a loooooooong time. I've had herbs two weeks and not lost any potency (nor did they even wilt) that was detectable. Obviously you don't want to keep greens any longer than you have to; but this would be great for you, Jay; works for me too, since I consume a lot of greens . I keep mine on the side door of the fridge. It's like a little "greenhouse" for your greens . OK, I"ll do that. Should have guessed you had answer to it. Can't you switch to frozen? Better than canned. Well, yeah. OK. That would be awesome! I watched that little bit and am interested. I read a study recently BTW on leafy greens showing a big difference in the decline of mental function and have been trying to think of ways to get more greens in my diet. I have been eating lots of broccoli no problem. There's this chinese place nearby where the broccoli tastes better than candy to me. From that video I was surprised to see cauliflower so high and potatoes twice as high as whole wheat bread.

I'll listen tonight. I'm still not doing good enough on leafy greens. The problem is that I don't like to go to the store often and fresh leafy greens go bad quick. I'd rather just work with canned spinach. I did fry some kale last night with lemon juice and onions and a tiny bit of olive oil. Then added this in to brown rice and curried cauliflower, carrots, potatoes and peas. Which in turn was mixed up with a bunch of homemade hummus (one can chickpeas, 3 TBL spoons lemon juice and couple spoons of tahini). Was pretty good. Hummus makes everything taste so much better. I know a guy that's 60 years old who loves spinach. He'll just sit back with a can of spinach and eats it plain from the can while watching TV. He looks very, very young. From a distance he could pass for in his 30's.

I've had trouble with shoulder pain for quite a while now. (Not normal shoulder pain though, just this strange burning sensation when I sit without slouching.) It's finally just about gone and i did some OAC stuff. If i start one third up I can still pull myself to halfway with one arm. Weaker at top and bottom. I've just been doing some low volume stuff lately. 10 minutes a couple times a week at work. I'm about the same really strengthwise.... I'm thinking I'll try to get back into OAC stuff for a while now. Maybe some low volume OAC eccentric stuff. And work on the lockout maybe.

Well, it's been depressing me too much lately. (The torture stuff. I've read articles about people who've been subject to "rendition".) I guess these elections are a pretty positive thing. They still can't really do anything as they don't have a veto proof majority.

No. I don't think so.

I just don't know.... we've got all those nukes. Something really bad might happen.

It's sad but that's human history in a nutshell. One group starts farming before another and is able to build an army so they then go kill every group around them that didn't start farming yet. Guns, Germs and Steel talks about this. We've probably killed off so many wonderful creatures including strains of humanity also that we're a lot worse for losing. Basically just a few wild plants here and there have been really good for domesticating (and large animals) and if you didn't happen to live where there were any, your people were eventually going to be slaughtered by someone else who had wheat/rice/horses/cows/etc. LOL, that's cute. There was this one tree that's a couple hundred years old in a forest a few hours from here that I felt like it had a "presence". Except for being furry the sequoias in Cali didn't do much for me though. Oh well.... sometimes the mind just doesn't work right. I used to like to kid myself I must have latent special powers. I don't do so anymore. I work with people on the neurology floor (well I clean their rooms mostly). It's always strange to me that when people are hallicinating they can't figure out that they're hallicinating. They say, "There's a head coming out of that wall!" I go over and wave my hand around and show them there isn't but they think I'm lying. Etc. I guess sometimes they know they are hallicinating. That's cool, thanks. I haven't had any dreams lately that I remember.