Finding a balance

I'm trying.

I find myself getting a little too caught up in the constant daily flow of political and other news information emanating from various news sources, both on TV and online. I enjoy being informed, and I think it's important that all of us try to do so. I think that is part of being a good citizen. I'm still stunned when I hear someone say, "Oh, I don't pay attention to all that stuff. It's boring/stupid/unimportant/too upsetting." The only one I'll agree with on occasion is the latter. I find myself getting so angry and agitated about things lately that it's coloring my entire world. I maintain a little more balance over on Facebook, because I find amusing and fun things to intersperse with the political and religious, and my friends keep me laughing with a lot of fun posts and comments. I've been more heavy-handed here, and that's part of the reason I haven't been posting as much lately. I can only handle so much.

Amazingly enough, it's not so much the politicians themselves, although I do get disgusted with some of the antics I see (and we're seeing plenty these days). What I'm more frustrated with is a lot of my fellow citizens who seem to embrace the endless contradictions of their anti-Obama movement. Their mantra is "defend the Constitution!" But they're the first to cheer the scuttling of it by the Arizona legislature, who decided it's perfectly okay to stop someone and check their papers merely because of the way they look. They champion the stripping of the rights of an American citizen who has been accused of a crime but not yet convicted, all the while defending every American citizen's right to buy a gun, regardless of possible history of mental illness, and sometimes with no background check at all. (Something is wrong when people can buy guns at garage sales.)

They accept blatant lies and conspiracy theories spilling from the mouths of those on a certain "fair and balanced" network and on the radio, without bothering to check the facts themselves. They forward me emails about Obama being a secret Muslim, about Michelle racking up a huge bill at a New York City hotel by ordering lobster and caviar, about how a birth certificate isn't the same as a certificate of live birth...and when I debunk all these claims using Snopes or PolitiFact or FactCheck and send that back to them, they send me another forwarded email about how the people who run Snopes are mysterious liberals who don't really check things at all, so I send them an email back containing the link to the PolitiFact or FactCheck article that debunks that. It's mind-boggling.

Then there are the charges that the Obama administration is either socialist, communist, or fascist. (Maybe one day they'll pick one.) The "regime" is compared to that of Hitler, which I think means that the accusers have no concept of history or scale. The administration is soft on terror—and remember, no terrorist attacks occurred on American soil during President Bush's administration...Rudy Giuliani said so!—they deliberately caused the massive BP oil spill in order to stop offshore drilling (despite having authorized it just a few weeks before), they want to force women to have abortions, Obama wants to create a dictatorship (never mind the fact that he was democratically elected), the administration wants to stop people from being Christians, and they want to kill Grandma by forcing her to appear before a death panel and make her case for why she should be allowed to live.

I'm so fucking sick of it. It's all bullshit, and anyone who buys all of this hook, line, and sinker is a fucking retard. Are there problems that need to be addressed? Of course. Do I agree with everything the President has done? No, I do not. However, he is our duly and democratically elected Commander in Chief, and if you don't like it, by all means cast your vote against him in the next election, and voice your disagreements with his policies. I will even defend your right to pray for his death if that's the way you get your jollies, and if your god is so psychotic that you think he just might kill the President of the United States for you because of your prayer, then you two have a ball together. But if all you've got is lies, contradictions, and bullshit, I'm really sick of hearing it.

So yeah, I'm not in a good place right now, and although I'll keep writing about a lot of this stuff—it’s my bag, baby—I think I'll just leave the loonies to their fun. Enjoy your constant hand-wringing and mental anguish about your country being taken over by godless liberals and people who don't look exactly like you. The rest of us will just go methodically and efficiently about our business.

Sabotage!

In the latest round of right wingnuttery so astounding that I'm left shaking my head as I attempt to plunge two freshly sharpened Number 2 pencils into my eardrums, a couple of people address the massive oil spew going on in the Gulf.

First is former Bush press secretary Dana Perino, who said on "Fox and Friends" that she was "not trying to introduce a conspiracy theory," then went on to ask "But was this deliberate?" She finished, "...if there was sabotage involved."

Then there is Limbocontin:

Now, lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, the carbon tax bill, cap and trade that was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day. I remember that. And then it was postponed for a couple of days later after Earth Day, and then of course immigration has now moved in front of it. But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they're sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they're sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I'm just noting the timing here.

People, people, people...anyone who thinks either of these two scenarios are reasonable or possible is just as retarded as Limbaugh, and apparently as Perino...although she always seemed somewhat reasonable and not at all as idiotic as she sounded in these latest statements.

This is insane. I continue to be amazed at the lunacy of such remarks. Anyone who thinks that either the Obama administration or environmentalists are responsible for this oil well going kablooey is...hm, let me think on how to word this delicately...fucking stupid. And let me make my apologies to regular stupid people—I’m not disrespecting you, because this is a special kind of stupid beyond what you could ever achieve.

If you're so desperate in your hatred of Obama that you think he would order the destruction of an oil well in order to...well, what exactly do you think that would accomplish? I don't get the logic there. Same goes for environmentalists. If you think any environmentalist would deliberately destroy an entire coastline, ecosystem, and fishing industry in order to make some sort of a point about off-shore drilling, then you are an IDIOT.

I'm so dismayed by the current tenor of debate that I am in tears right now. Even those of us who pretty much agree on issues are contentious and ready to brawl, and I include myself in that. I've always tried to debate using reason, facts, and persuasion, but I'm finding that that is out the fucking window these days. How do you deal with someone who, when presented with hard facts, numbers, and logic simply says, "I don't believe you" or "You're wrong"? How do you deal with someone who thinks it's amusing to join a group that prays for the death of our President, apparently forgetting what our country went through in the 60s when our President got his head blown off, and then a peaceful man trying to effect change and gain equal rights for all Americans got his head blown off, and then another guy who was trying to prosecute bad guys (and who also happened to be the brother of the first guy) got HIS head blown off?

I've lost my sense of humor about this. I don't find this funny, and I don't find an atmosphere of hateful rhetoric funny. I see it as the possibility that some mentally unbalanced loon will decide that it is his duty to put a stop to it all by blowing another head off. At the very least, it has all of us bickering rather than finding solutions, and that is really a crying shame.

I am going to pick myself up, dust myself off…and listen to some Beasties. They’re good for what ails ya.

When will they come for you?

I join many of my friends in roundly condemning Arizona's recently passed law that will allow the police to stop anyone they think might be an illegal alien.

I don't think I can begin to adequately express my disgust about this, but I'm going to try.

Do we have an immigration problem? Absolutely. Do we need to address it? Of course. But this draconian law is not the way to go about it. I am appalled that any of my fellow citizens would think that this is in any way acceptable in a civilized society. Giving the right to the police to stop anyone for anything, merely because they think they fit the profile of an illegal alien, is completely unconstitutional and is shortsighted, ignorant, and intolerant. This is yet another instance of white, religious conservatives feeling threatened by someone "other" than them. Feeling that "their" country is being taken away from them. Beginning to feel that their dominance is coming to an end, as more and more people around them don't speak English as a first language, as they see more brown faces than white in their stores and neighborhoods.

They're probably feeling a little like the Native Americans felt when their country was taken away from them by the whites who came here, claimed it as their own, and systematically eliminated all Native American claims to the land. Good. Just simmer in that for a while, why don't you?

I don't have an easy answer. I don't necessarily believe that complete amnesty is the way to go. Our President (and like it or not, he is YOUR President, too) has proposed that we secure our borders, that any illegals will be held accountable for back taxes, need to learn English, and will be penalized by having to wait in line for citizenship behind those who are here legally. That makes sense to me; I want these folks to become law-abiding citizens who pay taxes, but if they have come here illegally, there need to be some consequences to that.

Stopping anyone who looks a little more brown than others is not the way to go about this. I cannot even believe that this is happening, and as someone who has studied quite a bit about Nazi Germany, I can tell you that this smacks of the Geheime Staatspolizei a lot more than I'm comfortable with. I hate to Godwin myself, but since the teabaggers have been bleating for a while now about how Obama is a Nazi, I feel perfectly justified in comparing them to the Nazis. As others have stated, it's way too reminiscent of those black and white post-WWII movies in which a coal-helmeted soldier angrily and coldly demands to "see your papers."

What is next? Are you going to applaud if a Hispanic person is stopped, runs from the police, and is gunned down like a dog in the street? Would that make you happy? Would you applaud our fine police officers for upholding the law?

Some of those who disagree with what I'm saying may think that I don't know what I'm talking about because I don't have to deal with immigrants. Not to the extent that border states do, no. But for at least a couple of decades now, there has been a large influx in my area because of good manufacturing jobs, and in Michigan because of jobs associated with fruit crops. There are the usual problems when those from another country try to assimilate, but it hasn't been anything horrible. The vast majority are hardworking people who just want to have a better life than they did in their home country. The extreme violence in border states needs to be dealt with, and I hope that our federal government starts working on this problem soon, so that other states don't fuck it up royally like Arizona did.

Honestly, people...this is America. We are a nation of immigrants. Each and every one of us, unless you're full-blooded Native American. Have we all forgotten that? Anyone who thinks this is a capital idea needs to think about how their ancestors felt when they came over from Ireland or Germany or Italy or Eastern Europe and were looked down upon as poor white trash by the ruling class at the time...who in turn had immigrated here several decades before.

Well, I can take some consolation in that the Department of Justice is going to look into the constitutionality of Arizona's law. From everything I've read, the law will not stand. Something about that search and seizure thing...something about the Fourth Amendment...something about that pesky Constitution. Again, for all the teabaggers' clamoring about how the Constitution is being perverted, I'd say that this law pretty much bends the Constitution over and fucks it right up the ass. If I sound pissed off, believe me...I AM.

What is wrong with people? I am astounded that anyone would think this is a good idea. Astounded and appalled. If you're in apoplectic joy about this, if you're grinning like a happy asshole, I think you'd best stop and think about what it is about YOU that might be the next target. Your ethnicity? Your heritage? Your religion? Your political affiliation? Your hair or eye color? Speaking of happy assholes, Glenn Beck seems to get off on talking about the concentration camps that President Obama is secretly building. You have the nerve to believe that and bitch about that and then support this bill that allows the police to stop anyone who looks a certain way, without provocation, and demand their papers?! Do you not see the lunacy of that, the complete disconnect from reality?

Gaaaahhhhh! This is insanity! Canada is looking better all the time, but I can assure you that I will keep my American citizenship so that I can continue to VOTE.

This would be an appropriate time for Martin Niemöller's quote, as translated from the original German. Hard to believe that it is pertinent to the United States of America in 2010, but it sure as hell is.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Throwing down the gauntlet

A few Facebook friends posted a Newsweek story today, and I followed suit, because I thought it raised some excellent points and some pointed questions: "Are Tea Partiers Racist?"

Before you flip out, no, I'm not calling all teabaggers racists, and neither did the article. I know of people who shared some of the same concerns (albeit inchoate concerns) who I would swear in a court of law are not racists. But I will say this: I think the majority of them are.

For every person who is legitimately concerned about our government spending, and not-so-legitimately concerned (in my opinion) about the size and scope of our government programs, you'll find four like Tom Fitzhugh of Tampa (reminds me of Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington), who was quoted in the article:

"It really makes me mad. They [the media] have tried to portray us as a bunch of radical extremists." He considers Obama an abomination—possibly "the most radical-voting senator that ever was" and someone likely to "take us down the path of destruction." He believes the administration is intent on taking away his guns, trampling on states' rights, and opening the borders with Canada and Mexico. He has serious doubts that Obama was born in the U.S. and suspects that the president is a closet Muslim. (There's no evidence to support any of these accusations.) But his anger has nothing to do with race, he says. The real issue is that Obama is "taking down the Constitution and the way it's governed us for [hundreds of] years."

Mr. Fitzhugh can deny charges of racism and radical extremism all he wants. The fact is that his concerns are completely unwarranted. The least of is them is probably that Obama was the "most radical-voting Senator that ever was." That is simply not true; Obama is one of the more moderate Democrats you'll find. Mr. Fitzhugh parrots news he gets from ClusterFox and GOP talking points about "taking down the Constitution." Bullshit. For all their braying about how we have to adhere to the Constitution, I sure as hell wish they'd pay attention to the First Amendment. You know, that one about our government not establishing a religion? They seem to keep forgetting that part.

My point is that Mr. Fitzhugh and others of his ilk seem angry about things that have been established to be completely false. The continued belief that Obama wasn't born in the U.S., or that he's a Muslim, or that he wants to take away our guns. When I think about why someone like him would continue to use these lame excuses and outright lies as reasons why they don't like our President, it leads me to only one conclusion: it is because they feel he is "different." He is a different color, he has a different heritage, with a Kenyan father and an atheist mother, he is a black man with a Harvard education, he doesn't talk or act like the black people Mr. Fitzhugh knows.

He can continue to claim that he is not a racist, but I know people like Mr. Fitzhugh, and yes, sir, you are a racist. When it was shown that John McCain was born in Panama, where was your hue and cry about how he wasn't qualified to be President? Those of us on the opposite side didn't worry about that, because we found out quickly that since he was born on a U.S. military base, he was indeed a U.S. citizen. Why are you unable to accept that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen and was born in Hawaii, despite the release of his birth certificate, the certification by Hawaiian officials, the birth notices in Hawaiian papers, and the assertion by Hawaii's Republican governor that Obama is, indeed, a U.S. citizen? The only logical conclusion I can draw is that you do not like his color or his background. You see him as a threat to your way of life. Thus the constant assertions from teabaggers that they want their country back. Their country? It belongs to all of us, Mr. Fitzhugh, not just white, Christian, Republican males like you. Your era of dominance is past. We are not going back to days when blacks and women knew their places, when no one challenged your supreme authority, and no woman and no fag and certainly no nigger would ever beat you out of a job because they were smarter than your cracker ass.

One more thing. The teabaggers’ mantra is that the Obama administration is spending us into record debts and expanding the government at an unacceptable rate. I've got a question for all you good little teabaggers out there. Where was your little "movement" when George W. Bush was squandering a budget surplus by getting us into two wars and cutting taxes on the richest among us? Where were the marches on Washington asking why the Bush administration was usurping our personal freedoms with wiretaps on average citizens, or allowing the holding of prisoners without charging them of any crime, or ignoring the Geneva Convention treaty and authorizing torture? Why weren't you angry then, why weren't you mobilized, why weren't you calling for his impeachment? If you tell me that you were writing letters and marching on Washington and pissed off about Bush's activities, I'll accept your continued anger at President Obama, and the addition to our national debt (although I believe that was necessary to begin to mop up after Bush left our country looking like a frat house on a Sunday morning).

If you weren't this angry during the Bush years, if your righteous indignation didn't begin until Barack HUSSEIN Obama took office...well, I know what you are, then. We all know what you are.

Thumping

I stay up late, as most of you know, and after "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," I switch it over to CNN. I usually catch the repeat of "The Larry King Show." I'm not really a fan of Larry (his sycophantic interviews are usually the opposite of "hardball," and Larry, please stop trying to sing...please), but have it on for the background noise. The other night, though, I was very interested when I tuned in.

Larry was interviewing a Christian singer by the name of Jennifer Knapp. This may come as a surprise to you all, but I'm not a fan of Christian rock. If you're wondering why, watch this.

[Sidebar: "Christian Rock" is an oxymoron to me. Part of what is fun about rock and roll is that it's all about sex, rebellion, and sometimes some booze and drugs thrown in the mix. Hell, even the phrase "rock and roll" is a euphemism for sex. Take that out of the music, along with the bad boy and bad girl imagery, and you've lost the edge and are left with just ho-hum noise. Just my opinion, of course.]

What was interesting about this show was that Knapp recently came out as a lesbian, angering many of her Christian fans and prompting them to condemn her "choice." One of those people, Pastor Bob Botsford of San Diego, was also on the show, and I found it...enlightening, although it was nothing new to me. (This entry is a little heavy on the videos, and I’ll apologize now.)

I'll hand it to Larry on this one. He quizzed the guy pretty good, pressed him on condemning Ms. Knapp, tried to get him to admit to the inconsistency of him saying that he chose heterosexuality while she chose a "sinful lifestyle."

I don't think that it's wise for any of us to base our decisions on feelings. I wanna base decisions on facts. And for me, the fact has become the truth of God's word. God creates this wonderful gift of marriage...he didn't make Adam and Steve, and he didn't make Eve and Ellen.

Whew, that's rich. Love IS a feeling, you numbnuts...it's an emotion. Decisions concerning finances, science, history, et al, are based on facts; emotions are a result of feelings, not facts. The truth of God's word? That is your truth, not all people's truth. Many other faiths recognize marriage, you can get married without having any sort of religion involved, and God didn't "create" marriage, no matter what you want to believe. Pastor Bob speaks of making a conscious choice to choose heterosexuality rather than a "sinful lifestyle," but somehow cannot grasp the concept that there are people who make a conscious choice (based on fact rather than feelings, by the way) to not believe that the Bible is God's word, who do not accept Pastor Bob’s or others’ notions of divine condemnation.

And yes, he trotted out that hoary old nugget about Adam and Steve.

[Sidebar #2: Does anyone know a gay couple named Adam and Steve? There have to be several out there. That would be awesome, and if I were them, I would totally use that in a debate. "Yeah, we're Adam and Steve. Are you saying that God didn't make us? Are you saying that you don't believe God is omnipotent, that he didn't make everything? If he made us and we're gay, doesn't that mean that he screwed something up, at least according to your thinking?"]

When Larry asks him about the verse in the Old Testament that says that eating shellfish is an abomination, ol' Pastor Bob says, "God changed his mind on shellfish." Really, Bob? You want us to believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, except for those parts where God "changed his mind?" Ohhhh, I get it...God is a woman, since it's our prerogative to change our minds!

In an odd segue, Pastor Bob says that one Bible verse mandates "a curse on anyone who would take away from what the Bible has to say." First of all...a curse? It's the 21st century, and you still want us to believe in curses? And if God changed his mind about shellfish, that would mean he took away from what he originally said, which would mean he...cursed himself...? I'm just sayin'. Then there is the matter of how things were added centuries after the alleged occurrences…but that’s a topic for another day.

Through all of it, Pastor Bob keeps up a litany of scripture-quoting and Bible-thumping. This was like a bad flashback for me, because I recall many a time that I got into discussions with someone in my life who could not speak without quoting scripture. It didn't matter if the subject was religion or not, it all came back to scripture, scripture, and for a little variety, scripture. I recall asking him once, "Can you please talk about something and not quote scripture at me?" I don't recall the exact response, but I'm pretty sure he quoted scripture at me.

In contrast to Pastor Bob's passive-aggressive behavior and words (he won't look at Ms. Knapp directly, he tells her he's there because he loves her, but then tells her she cannot call herself a Christian while "choosing" to be a lesbian), listen to what she has to say in response.

Her words are measured, rational, and non-confrontational, other than saying that he has no right to speak to her like that on national TV, and that she has a spiritual guide in her life and it is not him.

I thought it was quite a fascinating hour of television, and I found it rather amusing to hear the same old arguments from Pastor Bob that I've been hearing for years. It's the same tired non-logic. "The Bible is the inerrant word of God." "Why do you believe that?" "I just do. It just is."

Not good enough, at least not for me. What people like Pastor Bob don't seem to understand is that such arguments hold no water with someone like me. They can quote scripture to me until they're blue in the face, but it means nothing to me as far as laws or morals go. There is some nice prose in there, and there are some universal truths, but nothing they can say will convince me that it is the word of God, and no amount of scripture tossed my way will ever convince me that homosexuality is a sin or a "choice." Another of my favorites is "love the sinner, hate the sin." Bullshit. If you hate what you call a sin (Feel free to tell me that no, the Bible says it's a sin, and the Bible is the word of God...see my remarks at the beginning of this paragraph.), you are being judge and jury in condemning that person to the Fiery Pits of Hell™. YOU are making that judgment, not God. I'm not sure how you think that is in any way "loving the sinner."

"I love you. Burn in hell." Whatever.

[Sidebar #3: Another guest on the program was none other than Ted Haggard. Remember him? The pastor who had gay sex with a male prostitute and smoked some meth while he was at it? In for a penny, in for a pound, right? I'm not going to condemn the guy for what he did, especially since he didn't kill the ho and bury him in his garden, because that's above my pay grade...however, I do condemn him for his self-righteous preaching in which he condemned others to the aforementioned Fiery Pits of Hell™, all the while pretending to be on on a fast track to the pearly gates. Anyway, he was a surprising voice of reason here. I don't recall all of what he said, but he was far from judgmental like Pastor Bob, and I got the impression that he sympathized—if not empathized—with her quite a bit. It was surprisingly refreshing.]

I applaud Larry King for playing a little bit of hardball for once and behaving as a journalist rather than doing another lame "Entertainment Tonight" sort of interview. But mostly I applaud Jennifer Knapp for having the courage to come out and be who she is and completely unapologetic for who she loves, and for handling her attacker with grace, wit, and intelligence.

For some thumping of a different (and more fun) kind, how about some Chumbawamba?

But how will we make change?

I think most people have seen that a woman named Sue Lowden, who is running to challenge Harry Reid's Senate seat from Nevada, has suggested that it would be perfectly reasonable to pay for medical care using the barter system and that people used to give doctors chickens for services rendered.

That’s right.

Chickens.

According to this clip I’m posting (see below) from "The Ed Show," someone else is jumping on the barter bandwagon, a Tennessee state representative, who thinks it would be great if people would pay with vegetables. (Yes, I said PAY, not 'play.') The guy seems to think that we'd all be better off if we lived like Mennonites, who he says are very healthy people. I live in an area where there are a lot of Mennonites, and I respectfully decline to live like a Mennonite. I don't look good in a bonnet. Or those below-the-knee dresses. And Peter Pan collars are just gross. I also disagree about their overall health to some extent, and more about that in a moment.

This is laughable in so many ways. First of all, Lowden talks about the "olden days" when people took a chicken to the doctor. Yeah, she's right on that. I know that my grandparents did what they had to do in order to provide for their family, and sometimes that included doing jobs for services. My Dad's parents had a farm, and my Grandpa also worked as a blacksmith, barn builder, and any other job he needed to do in order to get by. But the "olden days" that Lowden talks so lovingly about? That would be the fucking DEPRESSION, people, and my Dad's family probably had it better than most folks because they DID live on a farm. I know it wasn't easy for them, but they could grow a lot of their own things, they raised hogs so they always had meat, and even if their meals sometimes consisted of nothing more than beans, they got by and Dad said they never went hungry. Well, not too hungry.

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However, there also wasn't a whole lot of health care going on at that time. Kids died all the time from infectious diseases that we've learned to inoculate against, and part of being a farmer involves the possibility of serious accidents. One of my great-uncles died of diphtheria; another one got his arm lopped off in a farming accident. Your yearning and nostalgia for the "olden days" is just so much bullshit, Ms. Lowden.

As for the Mennonites, they and the Amish do pretty much make their own way in life, and don't rely much upon government programs. However, they often don't vaccinate their kids against preventable infections, and I've seen several outbreaks among such populations. Just speaking from my own perspective, I can tell you that such outbreaks result in strains on laboratories like the one where I worked and on county and state health departments. Such outbreaks need to be investigated and tracked, and although I understand that there needs to be a respect for religious beliefs, I also know that those kids probably don't have a choice in whether or not they get a vaccine, and that, to me, is religious indoctrination.

But I digress.

My point here is that people like Lowden and that Tennessee legislator seem to think that it's a really nifty idea to go back to how we lived a century ago. Not only have we managed to progress just a skosh since then, they seem to conveniently forget that not everyone lives in a place where they can raise chickens, for Chrissakes! I don't know the demographics for sure, but I'm guessing that a lot of the uninsured are those living in urban areas, and you don't just erect a chicken coop on the roof of the building where you live in the inner city. Same goes for raising a vegetable garden. People are getting creative about community and rooftop gardens, and I think that's wonderful, but not everyone lives where they can do that, and not everyone has the skill to do carpentry or handyman work.

I'm also guessing that not every doctor would be thrilled about getting a bushel of zucchini in payment for that Pap smear he or she gave you last week. Have you ever grown zucchini? Do you know how prolific they are? Everyone I know who grows it ends up giving some of it away to friends or family, because no matter how many recipes you have for zucchini bread, zucchini crisp, zucchini chocolate cake, stuffed zucchini, and on and on and on...you sometimes cannot use up all that damned zucchini. If I were a doctor and some patient gave me a bushel of zucchini in payment for service, I'd be like, "What in the holy hell do you expect me to do with all this goddamn zucchini?! Seriously!"

Not to mention, when I can get zucchini on sale for three for a dollar, how many damn zucchini am I going to have to haul to the doctor to pay for the mammogram I've got coming up in May? Thanks to the Lowden Plan Chicken Calculator, I did find that my mammogram will cost me 18 chickens. I've got some work to do between now and May 6.

If the barter system is the best that they can come up with for how to pay for health care, these people are fucking idiots. It's time to tell it like it is.

I also think there is a deeper, more insidious, and more troubling aspect to this. There is an incredible disconnect between these people and those who are uninsured. They can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that not only is health care much more expensive than it used to be in the "olden days," it is much more sophisticated. It is no longer a matter of a doctor checking out your throat, thinking it looks red and inflamed and seeing plaques on your tonsils and being reasonably certain that you have Strep throat, so gargle with salt water and get some rest (oh, and hope you don't get rheumatic fever because I can't treat you with antibiotics since they aren't available yet). Beyond that, there seems to be a certain condescension there, a matter of "Oh, you'll be okay if you just use common sense, live a healthy lifestyle, and pay that doc with a chicken." Well, no. There are tests for such things now, and those result in costs for the doctor's office, the lab, and the pharmacy. Those costs are a hell of a lot more than a chicken, I assure you.

I see it as yet another instance of "I've got mine, screw all of the rest of you." I don’t know at this point if it’s the legislators imparting this attitude onto the teabaggers or vice versa. Whatever way it’s happening, I see it as shortsighted and showing a serious lack of compassion for those who cannot obtain even the most basic health care.

When the cat’s away…

The eggplant comes out to play.

That's right, I'm on my own for a few days, so that is my cue to make something with eggplant in it. I love eggplant, and I don't know why it gets such a bad rap.

Most people that say they don't like it tell me that it is because of the texture. I don't really get that, because it often has a crispy coating on it. But then I also love squash of all kinds, so if there is a texture phobia, I don't have it.

Usually I make Eggplant Parmigiana, but I came across a new recipe on one of my recipes sites a while back, and thought I'd give it a try. First the recipe, then my comments and review.

~~~~~

Eggplant Lasagna

1 package lasagna noodles (cooked and drained, or use no-boil noodles--I used no-boil)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced

1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), peeled and chopped

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used more)

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp salt (I omitted this)

1/8 tsp pepper (also omitted)

2-3 cups spaghetti sauce

1/2 pound Muenster or Port Salut cheese, shredded (I used Muenster; also see NOTE below)

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp Italian seasonings: Basil, Thyme, Oregano (I used more basil, then just some Italian seasoning blend)

Some extra Muenster/Port Salut cheese for the top, or some shredded mozzarella

Sauté garlic in oil until brown. Add eggplant and onion, cook about 5 minutes, stirring. Add water, cover, and cook 10 more minutes until tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

In medium bowl, combine ricotta, Muenster, eggs, bread crumbs, and seasonings. Stir in eggplant and onion mixture straight from pan. Don't drain the oil. (The eggplant absorbs most of it, anyway.)

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Pour enough sauce in the bottom of the pan to cover bottom. Place a layer of lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. Spread a layer of eggplant-cheese mixture on noodles. NOTE: I love fresh mozzarella, so in the eggplant cheese mixture, I used a little less Muenster. Here I included a layer of sliced, fresh mozzarella, 8 ounces of it. You can't go wrong with fresh mozzarella in my book! Cover with sauce, being careful not to drown it with too much. Another layer of noodles, then eggplant-cheese mixture, then sauce. End with a layer of noodles, sauce, and sprinkle the extra Muenster cheese on top. Cover with foil (be sure to spray the underside with non-stick spray) and bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes more. NOTE: If using no-boil noodles, like I did, cook according to the recipe on the package. Mine called for 50-60 minutes, so that's how long I left it in the oven before uncovering it.

Alternative use: you can stuff manicotti shells with the eggplant-cheese mixture. Pour half of the sauce on the bottom of the dish, place shells and rest of sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese. I think that would be really good, too!At the risk of tooting my own horn, I can tell you that this totally kicked ass. Oh man, it was so freaking good! The eggplant wasn't overpowering at all, and there was plenty of cheesy goodness with the fresh mozzarella I added. If you wanted to be more authentic than I am, you could make your own sauce (or gravy, as I'm told is the correct terminology), but I think Prego is mighty tasty. What can I say? I'm German, not Italian. One thing I wish I'd done differently is using a larger pan. I have one that is a couple of inches bigger, and that would have accommodated all of this much better than the 9x13 one. Some of the sauce gooshed out before I even put it in the oven, so I made sure I put it on a foil-covered cookie sheet when I baked it, just so I didn't have an oogy mess afterwards.

I can hardly wait to eat more of it tonight, which is a good thing, because I barely put a dent in it! I'm guessing I ate maybe a sixth of it.

I would definitely make this again; it is a fine addition to my eggplant repertoire. It's not vegan, because of the cheese and eggs (vegans don't eat cheese, right?), but I would think it could be easily adapted.

All you eggplant haters just keep on hatin'. I adore these beautiful purple ovals of vegetable goodness.