I Weighed Today's Food Purchase

I was so overwhelmed by what I bought, I weighed it. (Geek.)

Item	By Weight	By Quantity	Total Price
Cucumbers	2 lbs. 6 oz.	4	$1.67
Tomatoes	4 lbs. 4 oz.	9	$1.67
Onions (red, large)	1 lb. 8.2 oz.	2	$1
Potatoes (white, large)	6 lbs. 5 oz.	13	$3.33
Carrots	2 lbs. 10 oz.	17	$1.67
Beets (red, roots only)	5 lbs. 14 oz.	10	$1.67
Squash (winter; type=mystery)	? (>5 lbs.)	1	$1
Shallots (bunching)	12.8 oz.		$1
Parsley (flat)	9.3 oz.		$1
Sage	6.9 oz.		$1
Methi	7.9 oz.		$1
Rice (basmati)	4 lbs.		$6
Oil (sesame)	5.5 oz.		$3

Food Purchase Thoughts

Two thoughts:

1. Oh ****.
   
   (I brought home a lot of high-processing-needs vegetables. And the kitchen and hosue aren't even clean. And I want to have brownies and soup done by what time??!!)


2. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the farmers who were still at the marketplace at 3 in the afternoon. I can't believe how much I bought. (And bonus, thanks for helping me shop by figuring out what I was trying to make and offering me things you'd already loaded into the truck that would help.) I mean, wow. I'm sorry I've forgotten your names to thank you by name, but thank you all the same. I can't believe I did this at 3PM. And I couldn't have done it without you.

Elbow Macaroni Dish

The meal on the front of the box of Creamette brand elbow macaroni looks terribly unappetizing.

And at the same time, it looks like a freaking delicacy in my culture.

I'm sure Mom would've made it a lot like that--especially if she'd had time to shred things up that finely.

Blog Posts Reacting To Pres. Obama's Health Care Speech

My two favorite takes on President Obama's health care speech the other night:

1. Obama’s Health Care Reform Pitch : Why Reform isn’t the Same as Change by La Mamita Mala
and
2. Healthy Profits: Corporate Money Moves Tell the True Tale of Obama's "Reforms" by Chris Floyd

Both are outstandingly good blog posts.

Germany Bombed 70 People Trying To Get Gas In Afghanistan

"There are no words to describe these monsters. To blow innocent poor to bits, merely for the crime of taking gas to stay alive, is a crime against all humanity, and nobody cares. Nobody is screaming in the streets to put an end to this pointless barbarism and savagery."

From the comments over at Chris-Floyd.com

Off The Deep End (On Food)

I have gone off the deep end with respect to food.

I just bought fresh grape leaves, that I talked the provider into bringing this week, even though ready-to-roll prepackaged ones are available w/o any inconvenience.

And then I took out a pocket knife and stole the tops of some amaranth from a street-landscaping garden. I'm thinking I'll throw it in a bag, take it w/ me to the thing I have to go to for work today, and separate seeds from chaff while I sit around on standby the way some people knit.



*sigh* It's not exactly like people on the provision side of the food world haven't noticed that I'm freaking weird! Perhaps this guy was prescient?

:-)

-Katie


P.S. Glad I found this while looking for pictures. Maybe, if I want to do it efficiently, amaranth seeding will have to wait till I get back home.

Jenny wrote:
Chaff flew everywhere and I realized that (a) people had been getting grains out of dead plant since the dawn of agriculture and (b) I really ought to be outside.

WIC & Produce

What?! $6?
I was going to send "Needy mothers, kids get a new menu from WIC: They'll find healthier options added to federal food program" to Ethicurean.com after I saw the headline.

But reading the article:

A new "produce voucher" covers up to $6 in produce per month per person, or $8 for pregnant women.

What?! Is that all of one's WIC money a person can use on produce?*

It better not be...I really hoped they made it so all the money can be used on produce if you so choose. Produce is so freaking important, and so freaking expensive.

I mean, I've been getting stellar deals on produce this summer...but I can't imagine that it costs me any less than $10 a week to buy what I'm coming to consider healthy quanitites of it.

And they're giving pregnant women only $8 a month??? And that money's only good where the produce is even more expensive than it is where I buy it?!
(Only good at brick-and-mortar stores.)

WTF.

*(If anyone can tell whether the 7 "packages" now all include produce, in addition to there being that "produce voucher," please let me know.)

More Cookies

Then again, hey, at least I'm not crazy--I really am working from a background of indecent behavior towards a future of decent behavior.

I'll still try to stop wanting that "cookie" for common decency, but...yeah.

Racism At Home

Holy crap, can home be a cesspit of racist statements.

I have GOT to remember boundary-setting at the BEGINNING of when ANY sociopolitical comments are made AT ALL, not when I'm stewing after an argument.

(Thanks, folks. It's so helpful for you to set my political-solution-opinions straight by stating for me that the people your preferred political solutions punish are evil. I hadn't thought of that--*headsmack*--yes, make 'em all leave any territory ever occupied by a majority white population! Geez Louise.)


(Quote of the night--I kid you not, is, "I think Saudi Arabia has problems because it has Muslims living in it.")
(Context: I'd said that my family member running into lots of brown women in hijab in London 1) didn't mean there were no white people left in England--immigrants are an urban thing, and you'd see white people in the British countryside same as you'd see Muslim Arabs in the Saudi Arabian countryside but Filipinos in Riyadh, and 2) "Tell me, is Saudi Arabia going to become a horrible place to live because of a high number of Filipinos? If not, how on earth is England going to become a horrible place to live because of a high number of Muslims?")

"Whatchu Want, A Cookie?!"

A weakness I struggle to be better about, as a person:

Sometimes, I get really disappointed thinking that I won't "get a cookie" for stuff I'm supposedta do (to paraphrase Chris Rock).

Like when I thought, after reading this VivirLatino post, "I'm going to make sure I remember what people's lives are like when they're in my life--make sure I remember how much people could use time for their own chores, etc." And then I thought, "Hmm. Maybe I can live so people will really feel respected." But...ummmm...no. I'd probably just, in an employment context for example, be someone who's "fine."

And that's all.

Because, well, honestly, you're SUPPOSEDTA respect other people. Yeah, it should make people "feel" respected--but...ummm....that's SUPPOSEDTA be normal. Not wowie-zowie.

And then I thought, "Crap."

Sometimes, I really want a cookie for things you're just supposedta do. Maybe I can get over that, too, at the same time as or after I'm working on doing more respectful acts.

Asylum Grants and Sex Worker Murder Investigations: Both Take Lots Of Violence To Trigger

It seems like it sure does take a lot of "not-often-cared-about" people suffering for institutions with an official monopoly on violence to do anything to help even some of those suffering people.

I am angry that no one took him seriously when he said he was afraid for his safety if he returned to El Salvador. ... When someone professes a fear of returning home, claims they are afraid of the gangs and their penchant for random murders, I hope that you will listen.

aighmeigh's story got me thinking about asylum in the U.S.

I learned a few weeks ago that aighmeigh's husband wasn't the only Salvadoran trying to get asylum in the U.S. on account of gang members back in El Salvador. These folks are, too.

I thought, "What is it that makes this different? Oh. Right--the gang members aren't technically doing thugwork on behalf of a government."

BUT

Then I thought, "Wait a second. We've got how many Somali refugees around here? And there's no government in Somalia, so whoever they claimed was being violent towards them wasn't a government."

I don't know squat about their refuge/asylum claims, but I'm guessing...maybe they involved violence at the hands of people trying to be "the government."

"Okay," I thought, "the Salvadoran gangs are obviously trying to get a monopoly on violence wherever they operate. Does that make them people 'trying to be the government?' Why are these asylum cases not being considered violence by 'rebel militias?'"

I continued, "I guess they're only trying to have a monopoly on the right to use force to do certain things. They're not exactly running the schools and the postal service once they have that right in a certain area, are they? Not that I've heard."

So I dunno. Maybe you have to be shooting for being real governance, even if that's not your main concern (how many regional/national governments' main concern is real governance, compared to controlling money and such?), to be a violent group that the U.S. government will consider giving asylum to the victims of.




But then I thought about Honduras, and I thought about certain African countries w/ ruling-party political violence against ordinary folks who support opposition parties.

There are probably a couple of dozen people in Honduras who're at the exact same point, personally, as some of the people whose stories I heard out of African countries. Something like this:

1. Member of a political party all through college (during which the beatings and arrests and such were always going on)
2. Always participating in marches for one's political beliefs and/or party
3. Arrested at a march and beaten the hell out of, taken down to the station, not let out for ages for no reason, etc.
4. Still participated in marches
5. Arrested at a march and beaten the hell out of, taken down to the station, not let out for ages for no reason, etc.
6. Felt "done" enough w/ that routine to flee the country w/ intent to seek asylum in the U.S.

No "torture" at the station like some of the other stories I've heard. Just enough "protest, get beaten and harmed for it, repeat" to wear down a person who can't hold their beliefs in and make them want out of the country.

I know from experience that many people from those countries in Africa can get an asylum grant based on that experience. But I seriously doubt someone from Honduras with the exact same experience could right now.

The only difference I can think of between this happening in Honduras and this happening in some of the African countries I've worked with is how many people have had to endure it (due to the amount of time it's been happening).



And then, all of a sudden, I connected that with my comment on VivirLatino:

It really does make me feel like the police aren’t doing things well enough when a non-police person (Johnson) figured out that there was someone trying to kill sex workers after ONE person but the police don’t start looking to stop the deaths of sex workers until NINE. :-(

A potential Honduran asylee would have figured out that the government is going to have people keep on beating them up for demonstrating after A FEW DOZEN people but the U.S. government doesn't start looking to grant asylum until A FEW THOUSAND. :-(



Again: it seems like it sure does take a lot of "not-often-cared-about" people suffering for institutions with an official monopoly on violence to do anything to help even some of those suffering people.

It's just not at all the what happened that makes a murder investigation of sex workers happen or an asylum grant happen, is it? Even though that would make sense!! It's...the "how many." :-(

Immigrants Should Be Equally Eligible For Permanent Residency

I don't give a hoot if an immigrant's working in a kitchen or working as a programmer--if they're working X hours a week here, and especially if I'm benefitting from what they're doing, they should be EQUALLY eligible for permanent residency. EQUALLY.
No "points."

Please Pray For Donna (And Donate If You Can)

Donna, one of my favorite blog authors, has asked for prayers.
This is why.
I'd recommend sending money, too, if you can. She's said that money sent to Paypal link on the left side of her blog, in the sidebar, under her blogroll, is only accessible by her.

A message to those who have plenty of money to spare:
501(c)3 deductible? Hell, no. Neither prayers nor money. The right thing? Hell, yes.

Thanks.

More From BFP

I would like to learn to do this.

I'm glad you already do, bfp.

Quote From BFP

Where’s the news in women being raped? Unless it’s in an african country that has lots of resources?

And more from the same post...

I think this also has a lot to do with “what are the legal ramifications for the nation/state, for private corporations, for individuals, if rape of WOMEN is declared a way to torture?” I mean, I think you’d be hard pressed to find many who would say that rape and sexual violence against men is not torture (because *REAL* men don’t raped, right–it’s the worst of the worst of the WORST thing to do to a man)–but against women–it’s just normal–I mean, I’ve asked myself over and over again, what would have happened if those pictures released in Abu Ghraib were of women–and I know the answer because there WERE pictures released that were of women being raped. They *never* made front page news, and half the people who saw them declared them fakes–the other half didn’t have much of anything to say.

and

The thing *I* want to know: Why do we recognize that Jose Padilla’s detention drove him mad (and yes, I specifically use the gendered terminology of mental illness there), but a woman who lived through many, if not all and more, of the same situations that Jose Padilla did is considered "faking it?"

:(

Nothing to add...just trying to amplify.

Quick note

I love the phrase "slightly more enlightened in gut wrenching privilege and ignorance by Sydette. I will try not to be that. What a memorably worded reminder...thanks, Sydette.

Oliphant v. Suquamish + news out of Alaska

Geez, heaven forbid Alaska, either, let tribal police do to everybody what Alaskan police get to do to everybody.

The Visitor

Just watched "The Visitor." Wanted to blog at the beginning, "What an unempathetic a*****e."

Towards the end, changed my mind to him being one of those people who seems to only be able to love (have empathy for) a few people total. (A description I learned from the book version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables describing the innkeeper's wife who genuinely loved her daughter but treated the girl she was taking care of, and many other people, like sh**.)

And now, at the end...WHAT. THE. F***!

They did a "things don't always end up okay" "deep" movie by giving Tariq a sad immigration outcome. Tariq, the guy who didn't DO anything against the law to get arrested. All he did was jump his way out of a turnstile that'd gotten him stuck, but that he'd paid for.

I'm just sure that Tariq's pause and dodging the question when Walter asked him why he didn't try playing in the subway was supposed to show him knowing that he could get arrested (and then sent to a deportation center) for doing so, because it was against the rules w/o a permit.

And yet then they f***ing END THE MOVIE by having Walter--the guy we're supposed to see as now more empathetic than he was at the beginning of the film--twiddle around and break the subway system's regulations? This asinine abuse of white-skinned born-citizen rich privilege is supposed to somehow be tied in with having LEARNED to be MORE empathetic?

Is that SERIOUSLY supposed to make us LIKE Walter more?

Well f***--not me. He's still an unempathetic (except-towards-a-few) a*****e, for everything and for that.

Ho. Lee. Sh**. 350 a year in ONE country.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

From Liquidate Empire by Chalmers Johnson:

in October 1953, the Japanese and American governments signed a secret "understanding" as part of their SOFA in which Japan agreed to waive its jurisdiction if the crime was not of "national importance to Japan." The U.S. argued strenuously for this codicil because it feared that otherwise it would face the likelihood of some 350 servicemen per year being sent to Japanese jails for sex crimes.

350. A. Year. (Or, as the Economist said, citing Shoji Niihara:)

Why did America fight so hard in 1953 to maintain control of criminal cases involving its boys? The documents do not say, but provide a clue: in numerous settings, American officials express unease that American servicemen commit roughly 30 serious crimes each month.

(Third source.)


AGGH. Crap.

(By the way, although I don't know what they were like in 1953 compared to ours, in 1984, this is what it was like to be in a Japanese prison. Fair. Unlike the "who the hell cares about letting Japanese people convict & punish American rapists?" Status of Forces Agreement.)

Community Conflict Deescalation On The Public Bus

On the public bus about a week ago, a man seemed quite drunk (trouble speaking and moving coherently--though more likely to fall asleep than to barge around harmfully), had an open water bottle full of brown (like whiskey) liquid, and had a huge splint on his foot.

The bus driver wasn't okay with the drunkenness and bottle of what seemed to be alcohol. When I boarded, they'd obviously been arguing for a while, and the man said he'd get off the bus. But he didn't.

As time went on, I felt like it became obvious he wasn't getting off the bus because he couldn't walk. I'm not sure if that was obvious to the bus driver in the heat of the moment (who felt under pressure to follow agency rules).

Bus riders were shouting out that the bus driver should leave him alone--and when the bus driver finally closed the door and picked up a phone after the man kept not getting off the bus or handing over his bottle and he'd heard lots of shouts to get moving so people wouldn't be late to work, the riders shouted things like, "Oh now he gonna call the cops." "Why you have to call the cops on that poor old man? Let him off! He said he was gonna get off!"

I realized the bus driver felt kind of powerless to facilitate the man being off his bus on his own and was turning to his support network from the agency. I didn't want to see someone arrested for having a shitty, painful day and getting drunk, so I got out of my seat, went to the front, and asked the man if he'd like help getting off the bus. He said, "Yes pleashe," and I extended an arm like a gentleman does to a lady on some sort of date from the 1900's.

While he struggled to stand up, I asked the bus driver to open the door so I could help him leave like he'd offered to, and the bus driver thought for a moment, then did. Only thing is...the man I'd offered to help wasn't even managing to stand up (partly because he didn't seem much in control of his body, and partly because his pants were falling down and he didn't seem much in control enough to take care of that). I was NOT offering enough support for him to lean on--especially w/ my opposite shoulder full of my belongings.

Thank GOODNESS someone the same size as the drunk man, if not larger, asked, "You need a hand?" from behind me (to the other man), to which he said, "Yes," and HE was strong enough (and experienced enough holding people up) to REALLY give him full support--support standing and everything.

After he was off the bus, on a bench, and we'd given him his bottle and taken our seats and our bus was on its way, I was feeling pretty darned good. As a community of "people on the bus right here and right now," we'd given the bus driver the support he needed to implement our ideas about what he could to, rather than pushing him to rely on the agency's support!

Woohoo!

And then...

"You happy now?!" I heard from behind me. "You gonna check MY bottle? Oooooh, you never know what's in it!" The heckles rained on the bus driver.

Those heckles, after he'd switched and sided with our plan for getting the man who was offering to leave off the bus (rather than having authorities take him off the bus) and people had already pretty much offered the same ones before he did.

*sigh* I don't know if he'll ever let the rider community be his support network for executing their suggestions rather than the authorities be his support network for executing their suggestions again. I talked a bit w/ everyone (nods & smiles to the people saying, "let him stay!" / "let him go like he said to--don't call the cops!"; a thank you to the strong man; a thank you to the bus driver for processing so many thoughts so quickly and doing what I thought was the right thing), but I just don't think that'll really help.

Oh well. Crud. :-(

I got real "I tried" experience to keep w/ me for the rest of my life, and I realized that I really need to work out and practice things like holding limp people (I would like to be able to let a 190-pound person lean on me and do a serious assist in walking. 190 isn't beyond reason).