Cop Car's Beat

Repeat Posting from 9 April 2008

By request, a post is repeated--along with comments elicited. CC

Thoughts on the Effects of Human Reproduction on World Affairs

Sounds like a thesis project, doesn't it?  This morning, I have been exposed to at least a half-dozen stories via radio, newspaper, and blogs that caused a long-delayed posting to exit my skull.  Please skip this posting if you find the subject offensive.

Among the stories that caught my attention this morning were 1) stories broadcast on NPR (NPR's website contains write-ups of their articles) concerning the polygamous community that had migrated to Texas, the plight of El Salvadoran people who had been deported from the US, the testimony held in Congress on the situation in Iraq, the blocking of certain searches in one of the largest reproductive health databases, 2) those stories written up in the morning newspaper on the polygamous community and the Congressional testimony, and the brouhaha in my own state of residence over the privacy of women's medical records, and 3) the blog posting, Ronni Bennett's The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler.  In my opinion, each of these stories (and, goodness knows many others over the last umpteen years) is deeply affected by the issue of human reproduction. This posting allows me to set down a few of my thoughts on the subject.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"ELDORADO, TexasApril 9, 2008, 08:12 am ET · The scared girl, already a mother at 16, whispered into a cell phone: she wanted out. She'd been forced to spiritually marry a man more than three times her age, becoming his seventh wife.

"Her husband sexually assaulted her, and when he was angry, he would beat her while other women held her infant, she told a family violence shelter in a series of secret calls that triggered an investigation of the polygamist sect here."

The above paragraphs lead the story that I heard on NPR, as posted on their website.  I cannot imagine anyone's defending the practices that the polygamous cult seems to have taken for granted.  The girl quoted had been impregnated by her "husband" when she was age 14.  Deplorable.  I choke on bile in contemplating what she and hundreds (thousands?  millions? who knows?) of girls have gone through.  Where are their protectors?  What kind of twisted logic tells the girls' protectors that this treatment of the girls is "right"?   Unfortunately, this practice is all too common in communities within our own nation and other nations, on our own continent and others.  It is difficult not to hold some religious groups responsible.  Villainous! Villainous!

_____________________________________________________________________________

"El Salvador Struggles to Re-Absorb U.S. Deportees

"by Steve Inskeepand Jennifer Ludden"

"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · This week, NPR's Jennifer Ludden looked at what happens when a country — in particular, El Salvador — has to take back a large number of its own nationals deported by the United States."

The above is the leader for a three-part report that is being broadcast, this week, by NPR.  Unfortunately, this morning's segment has not yet been posted.  Two things caught my attention: The segment stressed the plight of the poor in El Salvador, and the tearing of family ties when a person was deported from the US back to El Salvador.  While I am not immune to the pathos of the plight of the poor, I harp back to my contention that effective birth control would solve many of the citizenry's problems. It is difficult not to hold some religious groups responsible for their teachings.  Villainous! Villainous! Of course, religions don't get all of the blame on this one, but it cannot be discounted.

As to the breaking of family ties when one is exported from the US back to El Salvador, Where is the cry against the breaking of family ties that took place when that person left El Salvador in the first place?  Surely, more families are being broken by illegals who come to the US than by the illegals who are deported.  Duh!

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Petraeus, Crocker Warn Iraq Progress Is Reversible

"by Scott Neuman

"April 8, 2008 · Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a Senate panel on Tuesday....

"Speaking to the Senate Armed Service Committee, the Iraq war commander told lawmakers that there had been "significant but uneven security progress" in Iraq since the so-called surge strategy put 30,000 more soldiers on the ground in Iraq.

"He cited a marked decrease in the number of U.S. and Iraqi deaths since the surge, but warned that an upsurge of sectarian violence in recent weeks showed that the progress made was 'fragile and reversible.' "

So what connection do I see between this excerpt and human reproduction?  Plenty!  Ignoring the plight of the women in Iraq, which I see as having deteriorated under the new Iraqi government, let's look at the cheapness assigned to life in the Middle East.  They breed sons and breed sons which then kill one another and their sisters, mothers, aunts--many in the name of some religion.  If human reproduction were more controlled in that region, perhaps life would be more valued.

Oh, by the way, part of the reduction in deaths is directly attributable to the US's paying protection money to some of the men who were among the local combatants.  As long as we pay them (and they, increasing, ask for more money each month), they will forego their terrorist tactics.  Sweet deal.  Why don't they pay you and me?  We're not threatening anyone, so we should be paid! 

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Magazine Led to Database's 'Abortion' Search Block

"by Brenda Wilson

"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · An inquiry into why the world's largest database on reproductive health blocked searches using the term "abortion" has found the restriction was put in place because of articles from an abortion advocacy magazine available on the site.

....

The block was an "overreaction," says Michael Klag, the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which maintains the POPLINE database. When Klag learned that the search function for abortion had been removed, he ordered it restored. The block was taken down Friday afternoon.

Klag says the seven articles that triggered the restriction in late February were from an issue of A, the Abortion Magazine, which is published by Ipas, an international reproductive rights organization.

Ipas' executive director, Anu Kumar, says she knew about the block but didn't know it had anything to do with Ipas.

"We are disappointed," Kumar says. "We know that 40 million abortions take place every year and nearly 20 million of them are unsafe. Women are literally dying while we're dithering about these words.

"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.

"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."

As the article further stated, USAID had not requested that the search term be restricted, someone at the POPLINE database had made the decision because of the USAID objections.  As Klag stated, it was an overreaction on someone's part.

The above excerpt does not, itself, address the current administration's ridiculous stand on distribution of information on human reproduction; however, USAID's objections to the cited materials are part and parcel of the administration's policies.  The last I knew, at least, any Federally funded program could not only not mention abortion, but could not address effective birth control.  In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Tiller attorney claims grand-jury harassment"

"BY DAVID KLEPPER

"Eagle Topeka Bureau

Comments

"In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control."

It is truely a travesty! During humanitarian missions, we see family sizes of 10-14 people in a household! Much of the development aid from the USA is restricted to basic planning (on top of Catholic Churches position on birth control and abortion). The result: millions of people living on less than 2 dollars a day, starvation, and high crime rates in many communities.

Hopefully, policies will change within the coming year/s

Posted by: Jono Anzalone | April 09, 2008 at 06:29 PM

Jono--Thank you for dropping in and adding directly observed information to the posting. You and I had never discussed this issue so your comment is particularly enlightening to me.

All--I shall post a slight correction to the original posting. Although set off by font color, two paragraphs failed to be set off by quotation marks. The two paragraphs are below.

"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.

"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."

Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 08:20 AM

Recently in my community there has been a major dust-up over the opening of a Planned Parenthood facility. On lawns across town there are gold signs with with bold black lettering announcing that Planned Parenthood is BAD! What bothers me so about this is that we are supposed to live in a nation where church and state are separate. Why then, do we argue the issue of abortion? Surely abortion is an ethical choice, rather than a legal matter.

What galls me the most is that religious lobbies who fight against Planned Parenthood because of the abortion issue, also close down all the education on prevention of conception that is so desperately needed by the lower income citizens. I think I heard the argument earlier this month that prevention of conception was as much murder as is abortion. That's a religious belief, yet it was one of the issues on which the argument about awarding a building permit to Planned Parenthood centered.

Ultimately, it's time that each woman be allowed to determine for herself the future of her own body. Until we have that freedom, we are second class citizens.

Posted by: buffy| April 10, 2008 at 03:39 PM

Well said, Buffy. Thanks!

Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 04:32 PM

"TOPEKA - Do repeat investigations of abortion provider George Tiller amount to harassment? And if not, should a grand jury investigating the Wichita physician get access to patient medical records?

"In a rare special session, the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments from all sides Tuesday as it considered Tiller's request to block a grand jury's request for medical records.

"Tiller's attorney told the justices that the grand jury investigation -- the second to focus on Tiller -- constitutes harassment. And an attorney representing former patients of Tiller said the need to protect patient privacy trumps any need to see the redacted records."

The above excerpt is from the website of The Wichita Eagle.  This sort of thing is nothing new to Kansas. There has been a group picketing Dr Tiller's clinic, for years.  As I recall, Dr Tiller's name, address, photos, and family particulars have been posted, online, by fanatical anti-choice groups.  I don't understand how people can be so against a woman's having the right to choose what to do with her body.  Oh, please, don't tell me about the sanctity of unborn life when we don't take any better care of juvenile or adult life than we do.  We send people marching off to die in wars.  We batter and kill our youth and allow them access to loaded guns (oh, yeah, the gun was locked up or hidden, or....).  We kill and maim people on our highways--to a greater extent because we refuse to recognize the deadliness of vehicle speeds and weights (Energy is still equal to mass times the square of velocity.  If I am driving a 3-ton SUV at 70 mph, I am pointing a deadly weapon at my fellow travelers.) 

In my own family, every child that has been born (for the seven generations to which I've been exposed) was a wanted and much-loved child; but, there have also been illegal, unsafe abortions performed in my family when the child was not wanted by both parents or when financial conditions did not allow for proper care of additional children.  Now, women may choose to have a safe, legal abortion; but, they are harassed and their physicians are threatened.  This is sickening, to me.  I am a consistent supporter of those who make family planning available.  I also support the work of the physicians who provide a valuable service.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler

"RB: One of your most radical proposals is for family planning along with population reduction and stabilization to meet the challenges of aging societies. Many people will recoil. How can you convince them otherwise?
RNB: It was not long ago that people were concerned about the “population crisis”. There has been considerable success, particularly in Europe and Japan. Indeed, more than desirable.

"I do not favor the situation in Japan and Europe where birth rates are below the replacement level. I do favor stabilization of population. It gives us greater control over the financing of health and pension benefits and provides for better quality of life rather than overburdening facilities with huge population growth. Furthermore, we know that population size is not directly related to economic prosperity. Think of prosperous, small countries like Switzerland, Singapore and Norway."

The above excerpt from Ronni Bennett's blog is pretty self explanatory.  I can only fervently agree with Dr Butler.  A stable population mass, as opposed to the swells and valleys, would prevent the problem that up-coming generations now face in America.  Population planning has gotten a bad rap.  In my opinion, the solution to the energy "crisis" is not just the invention of new sources of energy.  It is learning to live with the renewable sources that are available.  My solution lies in population and family planning.  In other words, human reproduction is the 8,000-pound gorilla that few seem willing to address.  Our current administration denies the issue.  OMG!!

Posted at 07:12 AM in Human Nature/Human Foibles | Permalink

Sounds like a thesis project, doesn't it?  This morning, I have been exposed to at least a half-dozen stories via radio, newspaper, and blogs that caused a long-delayed posting to exit my skull.  Please skip this posting if you find the subject offensive.

Among the stories that caught my attention this morning were 1) stories broadcast on NPR (NPR's website contains write-ups of their articles) concerning the polygamous community that had migrated to Texas, the plight of El Salvadoran people who had been deported from the US, the testimony held in Congress on the situation in Iraq, the blocking of certain searches in one of the largest reproductive health databases, 2) those stories written up in the morning newspaper on the polygamous community and the Congressional testimony, and the brouhaha in my own state of residence over the privacy of women's medical records, and 3) the blog posting, Ronni Bennett's The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler.  In my opinion, each of these stories (and, goodness knows many others over the last umpteen years) is deeply affected by the issue of human reproduction. This posting allows me to set down a few of my thoughts on the subject.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"ELDORADO, TexasApril 9, 2008, 08:12 am ET · The scared girl, already a mother at 16, whispered into a cell phone: she wanted out. She'd been forced to spiritually marry a man more than three times her age, becoming his seventh wife.

"Her husband sexually assaulted her, and when he was angry, he would beat her while other women held her infant, she told a family violence shelter in a series of secret calls that triggered an investigation of the polygamist sect here."

The above paragraphs lead the story that I heard on NPR, as posted on their website.  I cannot imagine anyone's defending the practices that the polygamous cult seems to have taken for granted.  The girl quoted had been impregnated by her "husband" when she was age 14.  Deplorable.  I choke on bile in contemplating what she and hundreds (thousands?  millions? who knows?) of girls have gone through.  Where are their protectors?  What kind of twisted logic tells the girls' protectors that this treatment of the girls is "right"?   Unfortunately, this practice is all too common in communities within our own nation and other nations, on our own continent and others.  It is difficult not to hold some religious groups responsible.  Villainous! Villainous!

_____________________________________________________________________________

"El Salvador Struggles to Re-Absorb U.S. Deportees

"by Steve Inskeepand Jennifer Ludden"

"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · This week, NPR's Jennifer Ludden looked at what happens when a country — in particular, El Salvador — has to take back a large number of its own nationals deported by the United States."

The above is the leader for a three-part report that is being broadcast, this week, by NPR.  Unfortunately, this morning's segment has not yet been posted.  Two things caught my attention: The segment stressed the plight of the poor in El Salvador, and the tearing of family ties when a person was deported from the US back to El Salvador.  While I am not immune to the pathos of the plight of the poor, I harp back to my contention that effective birth control would solve many of the citizenry's problems. It is difficult not to hold some religious groups responsible for their teachings.  Villainous! Villainous! Of course, religions don't get all of the blame on this one, but it cannot be discounted.

As to the breaking of family ties when one is exported from the US back to El Salvador, Where is the cry against the breaking of family ties that took place when that person left El Salvador in the first place?  Surely, more families are being broken by illegals who come to the US than by the illegals who are deported.  Duh!

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Petraeus, Crocker Warn Iraq Progress Is Reversible

"by Scott Neuman

"April 8, 2008 · Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a Senate panel on Tuesday....

"Speaking to the Senate Armed Service Committee, the Iraq war commander told lawmakers that there had been "significant but uneven security progress" in Iraq since the so-called surge strategy put 30,000 more soldiers on the ground in Iraq.

"He cited a marked decrease in the number of U.S. and Iraqi deaths since the surge, but warned that an upsurge of sectarian violence in recent weeks showed that the progress made was 'fragile and reversible.' "

So what connection do I see between this excerpt and human reproduction?  Plenty!  Ignoring the plight of the women in Iraq, which I see as having deteriorated under the new Iraqi government, let's look at the cheapness assigned to life in the Middle East.  They breed sons and breed sons which then kill one another and their sisters, mothers, aunts--many in the name of some religion.  If human reproduction were more controlled in that region, perhaps life would be more valued.

Oh, by the way, part of the reduction in deaths is directly attributable to the US's paying protection money to some of the men who were among the local combatants.  As long as we pay them (and they, increasing, ask for more money each month), they will forego their terrorist tactics.  Sweet deal.  Why don't they pay you and me?  We're not threatening anyone, so we should be paid! 

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Magazine Led to Database's 'Abortion' Search Block

"by Brenda Wilson

"Morning Edition,April 9, 2008 · An inquiry into why the world's largest database on reproductive health blocked searches using the term "abortion" has found the restriction was put in place because of articles from an abortion advocacy magazine available on the site.

....

The block was an "overreaction," says Michael Klag, the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which maintains the POPLINE database. When Klag learned that the search function for abortion had been removed, he ordered it restored. The block was taken down Friday afternoon.

Klag says the seven articles that triggered the restriction in late February were from an issue of A, the Abortion Magazine, which is published by Ipas, an international reproductive rights organization.

Ipas' executive director, Anu Kumar, says she knew about the block but didn't know it had anything to do with Ipas.

"We are disappointed," Kumar says. "We know that 40 million abortions take place every year and nearly 20 million of them are unsafe. Women are literally dying while we're dithering about these words.

"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.

"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."

As the article further stated, USAID had not requested that the search term be restricted, someone at the POPLINE database had made the decision because of the USAID objections.  As Klag stated, it was an overreaction on someone's part.

The above excerpt does not, itself, address the current administration's ridiculous stand on distribution of information on human reproduction; however, USAID's objections to the cited materials are part and parcel of the administration's policies.  The last I knew, at least, any Federally funded program could not only not mention abortion, but could not address effective birth control.  In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Tiller attorney claims grand-jury harassment"

"BY DAVID KLEPPER

"Eagle Topeka Bureau

Comments

"In my mind, this is a travesty given that most of the problems in developing countries directly result from lack of effective birth control."

It is truely a travesty! During humanitarian missions, we see family sizes of 10-14 people in a household! Much of the development aid from the USA is restricted to basic planning (on top of Catholic Churches position on birth control and abortion). The result: millions of people living on less than 2 dollars a day, starvation, and high crime rates in many communities.

Hopefully, policies will change within the coming year/s

Posted by: Jono Anzalone | April 09, 2008 at 06:29 PM

Jono--Thank you for dropping in and adding directly observed information to the posting. You and I had never discussed this issue so your comment is particularly enlightening to me.

All--I shall post a slight correction to the original posting. Although set off by font color, two paragraphs failed to be set off by quotation marks. The two paragraphs are below.

"The issue in question focused on abortion as a human rights issue and profiled abortion rights advocates around the world.

"The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site."

Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 08:20 AM

Recently in my community there has been a major dust-up over the opening of a Planned Parenthood facility. On lawns across town there are gold signs with with bold black lettering announcing that Planned Parenthood is BAD! What bothers me so about this is that we are supposed to live in a nation where church and state are separate. Why then, do we argue the issue of abortion? Surely abortion is an ethical choice, rather than a legal matter.

What galls me the most is that religious lobbies who fight against Planned Parenthood because of the abortion issue, also close down all the education on prevention of conception that is so desperately needed by the lower income citizens. I think I heard the argument earlier this month that prevention of conception was as much murder as is abortion. That's a religious belief, yet it was one of the issues on which the argument about awarding a building permit to Planned Parenthood centered.

Ultimately, it's time that each woman be allowed to determine for herself the future of her own body. Until we have that freedom, we are second class citizens.

Posted by: buffy| April 10, 2008 at 03:39 PM

Well said, Buffy. Thanks!

Posted by: Cop Car | April 10, 2008 at 04:32 PM

"TOPEKA - Do repeat investigations of abortion provider George Tiller amount to harassment? And if not, should a grand jury investigating the Wichita physician get access to patient medical records?

"In a rare special session, the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments from all sides Tuesday as it considered Tiller's request to block a grand jury's request for medical records.

"Tiller's attorney told the justices that the grand jury investigation -- the second to focus on Tiller -- constitutes harassment. And an attorney representing former patients of Tiller said the need to protect patient privacy trumps any need to see the redacted records."

The above excerpt is from the website of The Wichita Eagle.  This sort of thing is nothing new to Kansas. There has been a group picketing Dr Tiller's clinic, for years.  As I recall, Dr Tiller's name, address, photos, and family particulars have been posted, online, by fanatical anti-choice groups.  I don't understand how people can be so against a woman's having the right to choose what to do with her body.  Oh, please, don't tell me about the sanctity of unborn life when we don't take any better care of juvenile or adult life than we do.  We send people marching off to die in wars.  We batter and kill our youth and allow them access to loaded guns (oh, yeah, the gun was locked up or hidden, or....).  We kill and maim people on our highways--to a greater extent because we refuse to recognize the deadliness of vehicle speeds and weights (Energy is still equal to mass times the square of velocity.  If I am driving a 3-ton SUV at 70 mph, I am pointing a deadly weapon at my fellow travelers.) 

In my own family, every child that has been born (for the seven generations to which I've been exposed) was a wanted and much-loved child; but, there have also been illegal, unsafe abortions performed in my family when the child was not wanted by both parents or when financial conditions did not allow for proper care of additional children.  Now, women may choose to have a safe, legal abortion; but, they are harassed and their physicians are threatened.  This is sickening, to me.  I am a consistent supporter of those who make family planning available.  I also support the work of the physicians who provide a valuable service.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"The TGB Interview: Dr. Robert N. Butler

"RB: One of your most radical proposals is for family planning along with population reduction and stabilization to meet the challenges of aging societies. Many people will recoil. How can you convince them otherwise?
RNB: It was not long ago that people were concerned about the “population crisis”. There has been considerable success, particularly in Europe and Japan. Indeed, more than desirable.

"I do not favor the situation in Japan and Europe where birth rates are below the replacement level. I do favor stabilization of population. It gives us greater control over the financing of health and pension benefits and provides for better quality of life rather than overburdening facilities with huge population growth. Furthermore, we know that population size is not directly related to economic prosperity. Think of prosperous, small countries like Switzerland, Singapore and Norway."

The above excerpt from Ronni Bennett's blog is pretty self explanatory.  I can only fervently agree with Dr Butler.  A stable population mass, as opposed to the swells and valleys, would prevent the problem that up-coming generations now face in America.  Population planning has gotten a bad rap.  In my opinion, the solution to the energy "crisis" is not just the invention of new sources of energy.  It is learning to live with the renewable sources that are available.  My solution lies in population and family planning.  In other words, human reproduction is the 8,000-pound gorilla that few seem willing to address.  Our current administration denies the issue.  OMG!!

A Meme from Kenju

Kenju had posted this meme as What Foods Have YOU Eaten? Kenju had found it at Kay's, posted as You Are What You Eat?

Cop Car’s List (red = eaten, black = never eaten) The things I'd probably not eat, given the choice, are lined through. Caveat: As with other people, I don't know what some of the foods are, so may not realize that I have consumed them.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding ??
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush ??
11. Calamari
12. Pho ??
13. PB&J sandwich - with Miracle Whip & sweet pickle relish or hot peppers

14. Aloo gobi ??
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses ??
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns ??
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes - grew up on these!
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans - a staple in our house

25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava - my late MOL made the BEST!
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - I'll take mine in a regular cup or bowl (why make the bread soggy?!)
33. Salted lassi ??
34. Sauerkraut - Dad loved sauerkraut!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo - one of the few soups/stews that I actually make
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects

43. Phaal ??
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whiskey from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu ??
47. Chicken tikka masala ??
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut - but, I don't care for them
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer ??
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzlee
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine ??
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads- yum!

63. Kaolin - "all" kids eat this! ("A peck of dirt must be eaten before we die" and dirts frequently contain kaolin.)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjietost, or brunos
75. Roadkill - well, if it were a deer, and I hit it....
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong ??
80. Bellini ??
81. Tom yum ??
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky ??
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare - I raised rabbits, and our family caught wild hare--for food.
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate ??
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa ??
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta - Only we called it corn meal mush until I married my Yugoslavian husband.
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - can't stand the smell of coffee!
100. Snake

Here's what to do if you want to do this meme:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold (or make red) all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/linking to your results.

Pepper Plants

Bogie regaled us, this morning, with the tale, Near the Last Harvest. She is such an energetic gardener/canner that, her old mother couldn't compete with Bogie if she wanted to do so.  I did, in a comment to the posting, promise to post a photo of the most prolific pepper plant I've ever had.  The only plant (of the six pepper plants that I bought and planted, this year) to produce peppers, it has produced dozens of the spicy fruit.  On the other hand, the plant that produced the hugest plant, of the six, showed nary a sign of knowing that it was to produce peppers.  Here they are, figuratively, side-by-side.

Although most of them are hiding from the camera in the above photo, there are over 30 peppers now on the plant--counting only those that exceed one inch in length.  Last week I picked 17 peppers off of the plant, which I am in the process of drying.  Before that, I picked at least a dozen peppers, each week, since it first started bearing in late July.  Anyone have a good recipe for pickling peppers?

On the other hand is the showy plant that neither toils nor reaps, it just puts itself all out there on display!  The showy plant is about twice the height of the prolific plant.

Fie on Fearmongering!

Our President just finished a special address to the nation--a most unfortunate example of fearmongering if I ever heard one.  Does W think we've forgotten the rush to go to war in the Middle East?  Rush, rush, rush...must get this done...before the American people wake up and discover what's been done to them.  What a croc!  One of the hysterical parts was when he claimed that failure to act would eventually result in a recession.  In case he's not looking (or in case he actually believes the criteria that have been used to deny it), we have been in recession for some time, now.  What he failed to mention was the real result of the government's "acting" on the financial situation--the most important result will be inflation.  Do you need inflation?  I don't.  I've seen quite enought of that, thank you.  Don't print up any more money on my account.  *teeth grinding*

Smashing Success!

To help understand the excitement that we physicists (I claim a weak association, having earned an undergraduate degree in physics and having spent half of my graduate school years studying nuclear physics) are feeling right now, one might review my previous posting, Keeping Physicists Awake at Night.  In it, I wrote:

If antimatter and matter are exactly equal but opposite, then why is there so much more matter in the universe than antimatter?

Well... we don't know. It is a question that keeps physicists up at night.

This is but one of the miriad of questions that we may come a bit closer to answering using the results of the large hadron experiment that was kicked off last night.  If, unlike me, you were not following the news all night (via BBC, in my case), you may see/hear some of the news by going to the BBC web site.

'Big Bang' experiment starts well

Three decades after it was conceived, the world's most powerful physics experiment has sent the first beam around its 27km-long tunnel.

These are truly exciting times for physicists--and the world!  By the way, you may have to wait a bit at the BBC site due to the number of hits they are getting.  While you are waiting, I suggest that you click on the The Particle Adventure link (here or on the right hand side bar listing of "For Fun & Enlightenment" links).  It takes you to an interactive site maintained by The Particle Data Group of Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.  The Berkley site will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about particle physics--in an entertaining fashion!

The Ecologist posted a prospective piece on the experiment:

The black hole of unknowing
Jim Thomas 20/06/2008

As to global annihilation, I’m stumped. Most of us wouldn’t recognise a strangelet if it casually devoured us in the street

There’s a slim chance – about one in 50 million – that nobody will ever read this article. A physics experiment taking place under the French-Swiss border could theoretically destroy the world first. In late May 2008, the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest machine, is expected to begin accelerating single atoms along a 27km-long doughnut-shaped tunnel. Those atoms will then be smashed together at almost the speed of light. The aim is to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang – albeit under European countryside rather than in the empty nothingness of space.

Well, the big experiment has started...a bit later than planned...and we are still here to hear/read about it!  Of course, as it will continue for the foreseeable future...perhaps there is still a chance that the nihilists will win.