M. (hristine

Oh hell yes.

I used gang rape because of this story which was reported on NPR a couple weeks ago. The specific choice of group behavior had no connotation other than it's been on my mind since the story aired. To put it in the context of my (consistent) argument; In gang rape, SEX is not the problem.

I listened to that story this week. Sinead was brave, so many years ago.

Uh no. I did not equate going to church with rape. My point was that behavior of a group is bound by certain laws. That as a member of ANY identified group, one is prone to conform with the norms of that group, regardless how an outside observer might judge such behavior. Working to objectively investigate and dismantle certain GROUPS might be a good thing. My problem with people saying they have 'hatred' of organized religion is that RELIGION is not the problem. To hate with a broad stroke is prejudicial ignorance. It is from that very mind set which so much human strife arises. I think I

Huh?

I would again point out that group psychology follows certain behaviors, regardless whether the group is gang raping a 15 year old girl or going to church on Sunday. Psych 101.

I have a couple options in my house. First, I use an audio distribution amp from Radio Shack for parties, or when I want music in all the rooms of my house. I am wired to amplified speakers. For one room sound I plug my iPod into the individual speakers. As to the speakers, I have several different kinds. I have the Sony $99 amplified, Bose $99 amplified, Logitec with bass box for about $129. My favs by far are the two pair of Bose Lifestyle powered speakers I bought several years ago. They are no longer made by Bose. I look for them periodically on Craigslist. The sound is stellar. Look

The glass has been crushed!

Huh. Can't say I have ever seen a novel elicit such ambivalence.

Sending much love to you and your families, Chris. Mazel tov!

Well? I have been having an ongoing conversation with some people whose opinions I trust, about whether I should read this book/see the film. The jury is still out. I'm afraid of being 'haunted for weeks' and having 'nightmares' from the most 'bleak, grim novel ever written'. Anyone see this yet? Am I too much of a wimp to deal with it?

Today.

My musical taste doesn't have a genre. Top played on iTunes in no order: Kate Bush Patsy Kline Cathy Jordan ~ Dervish Antje Duvekot Astrud Giberto Gillian Welch Chrissie Hynde Iris Dement Patti Smith Neko Case Lhasa de Sela Rickie Lee Jones Karen Carpenter Emmy Lou Harris Peggy Lee Aimee Mann

Sorry Poonie. You had to know it would come to that.

That's a goddam lie! It's just a couple of green whiskers is all.

Oh yes, excellent book. Seems last winter was the season for learning where it comes from and where it all ends up.

I can quote and link with the best of 'em!

Exactly. There are world wide implications as well. One last quote from Pollan to pique your curiousity, o gentle readers: This perverse state of affairs is not, as you might think, the inevitable result of the free market. Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies, to take one iconic processed foodlike substance as an example, is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these

Yeah, this was an eye opening book:

From the Farm Policy blog : "After additional analysis, the opinion piece stated that, “The most zealous of the spend-more crowd, however, are the food intellectuals who salivated, as it were, at a steep rise in the cost of groceries earlier this year, including such basics as milk and eggs. Some people might worry about the effect on recession-hit families of a 17% increase in the price of milk, but not Alice Waters, the food-activist owner of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse restaurant, who shudders at the thought of sampling so much as a strawberry that hasn’t been nourished by organic compost and

One can also volunteer to work at some CSAs, so not only are you a consumer but also become intimate with how food arrives on your plate. It's an odd part of our culture to be so removed from all of that. Ignorance makes us vulnerable.

I know a girl with a sailor's grin... Spare production by Don Was. Pieta's luminous voice and acoustic guitar are the main instruments. Clear blue green spring of Bo Ramsey on electric slide and Don Was on bass.

I get thirsty for, and drink, a Dr. Pepper a couple times a year. I don't want anyone to feel guilt. The change in food production has been insidious but not irreversible. I know I'm a zealot, but I just want folks like the op to feel empowered rather than bereft, even if it's baby steps. And for everyone to read Omnivore's Dilemma.

When I was a young mother in the 70s, my husband, daughter and I lived on a multi generational organic farm. We raised our vegetables, chicken (eggs), beef and goats. We fished and wild foraged. Bought raw milk from our neighbor and made our own butter. My life was irrevocably altered from the experience. I have never lost that intimate relationship with where my food comes from. In the years since I read Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma, the section on William Salatin and Polyface Farm has lingered in my memory. I was grateful for this film so that I could see the beauty of Sala