Bush hints at spending more on children's health bill - CNN.com

Bush hints at spending more on children's health bill - CNN.com

Once again the Bush administration is grossly distorting the truth for political gain. According to CNN -

Bush used his radio address to once again make the case that he believes the spending increase sought primarily by Democrats is a step "toward their goal of government-run health care for every American."

"Government-run health care would deprive Americans of the choice and competition that comes from the private market," he said. "It would cause huge increases in government spending."

Not one of the Democratic frontrunners has proposed a plan that would create anything like "government-run health care." All of the leading candidates have proposed plans that leave health care to private practice, but offer a government administered insurance pool for those who choose to use it or cannot obtain or afford private coverage.

You will be free to keep the private coverage you have now. The quality of care we receive will not change, and can be delivered at less cost because private insurers will not be milking the system for their personal profit.

(They will still be free to milk those who choose to stay with for-profit insurers.)

What is really going on here is the sheer panic in the Republican ranks that the tide is turning, that people in the US are sick and tired (literally) of being forced to patronize for profit insurers. That insurance industry is a huge cash cow for Republicans, donating literally billions to them to maintain the seriously broken status quo.

Apple Issues Warning on Hacked iPhones - Newser

Apple Issues Warning on Hacked iPhones - Newser

Apple announced today that the $600, er $400, IPhones which users have hacked to work on cell networks other than AT&T will be destroyed by an upcoming software update. The update will also flag the phones as being ineligible for warranty service.

Let me just say one thing about cellphones - It's time Americans started demanding the ability to change networks as easily as popping in a new chip. The stranglehold of multi-year contracts that cellular carriers have us all locked into is just plain wrong. Instead of punishing their best customers, Apple should be taken to task for their part in perpetuating this madness. People have a right to choose the device and carrier we want, and to change their minds. (See Stephen Levy's article on this in Newsweek - published two weeks after this post.)

One of my friends (a Mac junkie from way back) recently described Macs as the choice of "a young hip generation." I nearly choked laughing. Those are same unique and free hipsters who all rushed out to cover themselves with tribal tattoos and pierce their tounges in the 90's - "I want to be a unique individual just like everybody else." Don't get me wrong, Macs are incredibly well designed computers, and the IPhone is a very cool gadget. But the idea that you are somehow "free" or more creative because you let Apple package, and therefore control every aspect of your life is ridiculous.

Apple's marketing is undeniably brilliant, but totally at odds with their practices in the marketplace. While Microsoft is controlling in the market, Apple is hugely controlling on its users systems. ITunes won't let you play ITunes downloads anywhere except in their software and on their devices. While they are busy strangling their users, Steve Jobs announces "He's opposed to Digital Right Management." This is classic Orwellian double speak, crafted to bolster their carefully constructed image of freedom and creativity.

I've been in the midst of a month long effort to undo the file system carnage that ITunes has done to my carefully constructed music library. I plan to move to an open source system. Though the Ipod is a really cool gadget, my next media player will not be an Apple one. The software roadblocks Apple puts up to keep you locked into slavery to them are amazing.

When will these Apple crazed robots stop drinking the cool aid?

IPhone, no thanks!

MahJong Causes Epilepsy!

This is weird and wonderful - it appears that playing mahjong can cause epilepsy.

(I'd guess it really triggers a preexisting condition, meaning it's not covered under your policy...)

"Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong." - BBC News.

Hairspray!

Go see this movie.

Right now!

Stop reading this and go see Hairspray!

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 20 years since the original John Waters movie came out.

This one features Alison Janney as Prudence Pingleton, and John Waters has a great cameo as the "flasher who lives next door" in the opening number.

I've had a real soft spot in my heart for Nikki Blonsky (who plays Tracy Turnblad) since I met here last year when she was one of the the grand marshals for LA Gay pride.

She leaned in and whispered to me - totally without guile or ego "doing this makes me feel like I am taking a first step toward my career goal of becoming a gay icon."
Completely startled I responded - "First step honey? it means you've arrived!" She grinned and looked like she was going to burst into tears.

I've loved her madly ever since... Plus - she sings her heart out in this movie!

Guliani offers health care plan - New York Times

Giuliani Offers Health Care Plan - New York Times

"Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday offered a consumer-oriented solution to the nation's health care woes that relies on giving individuals tax credits to purchase private insurance. Critical to Giuliani's plan is a $15,000 tax deduction for families to buy private health insurance, instead of getting insurance through employers...

...The former New York mayor said as more people buy plans, insurers will drop their prices, making insurance affordable to those who lack it now."

I'm curious, on what planet will private insurers drop their prices because they are selling more?

This is the critical flaw of so many of the "health care" plans that are in the offing - they don't address providing health care, but instead want to provide health care "coverage" through private insurers. When was the last time your "coverage" actually covered something without attempting to exclude, co-pay, or otherwise transfer the expense to you, the customer? (Assuming you are "lucky" enough to have coverage at all.)

The insurance industry is full of crooks and thieves*, and the government has virtually abandoned attempts to regulate it on behalf of consumers.

How did we get to the state in this country where people's suffering is a virtually unregulated fountain of profit for big corporations? We got there in large part due to Ronald Reagan, who set about dismantling government oversight in nearly every aspect of American life under the disingenuous rubric of "big government is bad."
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*Crooks and thieves can be loosely translated in this context as folks with MBA's. Business schools have virtually destroyed every industry in which their graduates work due to an essentially flawed model. See the excellent article on business sustainability, efficiency and redundancy in this months Mother Jones.

How sweet is this?

While visiting Provincetown I bicycled past this house each day. Doesn't it look like an Edward Hopper painting?

I totally fell in love with this house, which was built in 1870. It is right on the Cape Cod Bay waterfront in the East End of town.

Pity it's on the market for nearly 3 million dollars though...

Yikes!

Center Theatre Group Brings Kids to Live Theatre

White House threatens to veto hate-crimes bill - CNN.com

White House threatens to veto hate-crimes bill - CNN.com

The house recently passed a bill adding sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to federal hate crimes laws. The bill clearly specifies that it applies only to violent crimes, yet right wing Christians are flooding the talk radio airwaves with a drumbeat of distortion claiming it will muzzle their "free speech." Under this bill the hate mongering speech of "Christian" pastors remains just as protected as that of the KKK or the American Nazi party.

This is the type of bizzare emotional manipulation being put out against this bill:

""If your grandmother is mugged, it won't be a big deal [unless she is a lesbian]," Knight said. "And the law-enforcement authorities may have to put more of their revenues toward the mugging, say, of a homosexual guy walking down the street."

Veto this bill or the cops won't care when your sweet Grandma is mugged? Huh?

In a cheesy sop to his evangelical Christian base, Bush has threatened to veto this bill if it passes the Senate. Once again the Bush regime is capitalizing on homophobia to manipulate the political process for thier own gain.

This is almost unbelievable. How could any thinking person oppose this legislation?

View the HRCF hate crimes bill public service announcement.

(If you have a soul, it'll make ya cry.)

down the primrose path...

Or the daylily path actually. This is the path that leads to the guest house I am staying at in Provincetown. Is this adorable or what?

As I spend more time on the Cape I am aware how much my sensibilities have been shaped by the time I spent on Cape Cod in my childhood.

When I was looking for my house in Lost Angeles there were all sorts of very "un-LA" criteria that seemed random to me at the time. (Clapboards or shingles, mature deciduous trees, working fireplace, front porch, etc.) I realized after coming back to the Cape that they were all characteristics of houses here. I'd move back in a heartbeat if it wasn't so freakin' cold in the winter...

Red Sox ballcaps for my Sister...

My sister asked me to pickup a "not MLB, but more girly" Red Sox cap for her while I was in Massachusetts. This picture is so she can virtually window shop...

Pilgrim Monument at Sunset.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Pilgrim Monument. This morning I toured the local Masonic lodge and learned that the Monument's cornerstone was laid by Teddy Roosevelt using a masonic trowel forged by Master Mason Paul Revere.

How cool is that!

The Fourth of July

I'm sitting on the dock of the bay. (Literally!) It's the Fourth of July. The twilight is deepening, spreading over the bay as the fireworks start down in Harwich.

I've been thinking about freedom, and what this holiday means in our post 9/11 world.

Thinking about the President's mantra that “They hate us for our freedom.” I don't think it's freedom they hate, but rather the results of freedom. One thing Don Rumsfeld was right about – freedom is untidy.

Free people loot pension funds, and they wear risque clothing. They drink and smoke, and their kids shoot up schools. Some of them have gender reassignment surgery. They also lay down their lives to save people they've never met from fires, and give food to strangers who have none.

A lot of them gave their lives to defend this experiment we call America.

Notice I said "to defend" this experiment. There was time when wars were undertaken to defend freedom, either ours or someone else's, not to instill it where it never existed. It's a shame we've allowed our leaders to try to roll this idea out to the rest of the world in such an incompetent way.

One thing I am sure of – freedom gives me the right to be who I am, even if it annoys the $%@# out of you.

My third grade teacher used to say - my right to swing my arm ends where your nose begins. Before the right of freedom comes the responsibility of tolerance. This is why our experiment won't work in the middle east just yet. This is also why our homegrown fundamentalists who insist that we should all do as they believe are dead wrong.

Tolerance has to come first, the the untidiness of freedom can begin.

Pleasant Bay, Cape Cod Mass

Ahhhh, Pleasant Bay. This is what I just drove 3000 miles for.

Barlows Clam Bar, Rt 6, Bourne Mass.

My final stop before arriving on Cape Cod is Barlow's Clam Bar on Rt 6 in Bourne, overlooking the Cape Cod Canal. I just discovered this place a few years ago. They do a very good lobster roll, one avoiding all the more common pitfalls. They also have lobster "photo ops" where you can stick your head though and be photographed as a giant lobster - which is a big hit with the two to four year old set.

A few worlds on the lobster roll -

It MUST be on a New England style hot dog roll, ideally split and buttered, and toasted to a golden brown on the grill. A hamburger bun is NOT ok, nor is (gasp) a bulkie roll, a grotesque perversion of the New England classic common to expat New Yorkers. (The Bulkie is way too chewy, and overpowers the lobster meat with its floury-ness.)

All that goes into the lobster roll is lobster meat* and a leaf or two of lettuce, ideally Boston lettuce, but butter lettuce will do in a pinch. Romaine is icky in this context, and Mesclun way too gourmet, and thus liable to incite ridicule. A generous gob of Mayo is traditional (and yummy) but may be omitted by the phobic. It is usually served in a cardboard sleeve, and may be accompanied by fries, onion rings or chips.

If the lobster has been too salad-ized with the addition of celery or god forbid scallions the proprietor should be spanked early and often.

Barlow's meets all these criteria, has a great view of the canal. It is just about two minutes south of the Sagamore bridge on the West side of the canal. It's a good deal too, at $2-3 dollars less than most places over the bridge, and it includes fries. (I remember when Lobster rolls were $4.99 on the Cape. Sigh!)

* A good lobster roll won't be all claw meat, but a generous mix of the whole beast.

Barlows

Lake Erie

The view of Lake Erie from a bluff side park near the White Turkey.

White Turkey Drive In

Today I had lunch at the The White Turkey Drive In, in Conneaut, Ohio. This place was founded in 1952, and hasn't changed one bit since. It was by far the most charming and atmospheric of the joints I visited on this trip, and had shady picnic tables out back surrounded by a beautiful perennial garden.

I had the the turkey sandwich called the "Large Marge." (No, it's not named for the lesbian ghost trucker in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but for the restaurant's original proprietress.)

I can only describe the sandwich as a "pulled turkey" sandwich. It is startlingly like North Carolina BBQ, but made with white meat turkey instead of pork. It was topped with bacon and American cheese. It was delicious, and very vintage-y in character as you'd expect from the looks of this place. It was accompanied by a delicious real milkshake, freshly made and with globs of vanilla ice cream still slightly unblended. The onion rings were good, but of the crumb breading type, which is not my favorite. (My mother's onion rings were arguably the gold standard, closely followed by those at Liam's on Nauset Beach in Orleans Mass on Cape Cod.)

This place was so sweetly retro-Americana that I was nearly moved to tears while waiting for my sandwich. (I'm funny that way.)

I suddenly understood the much vaunted charm of the Midwest. I confess this has previously largely escaped me.



Plus the state flag of Ohio is a pennant, the only one in the US, which is way cool.

Gray Bros. Cafeteria, Mooresville IN

Keely aware of the irony, as my trusty sidekick at home nurses "the gout", I have continued my cross - country junk food fest here in Mooresville Indiana, with a plate of Hoosier Chicken.

Lunch at the Grey Bros Cafeteria is an experience in belt loosening midwestern goodness. I get in line after recovering from the oddly creepy sensation of entering a room filled with two hundred white people. (Remember, I live in Los Angeles, the most integrated city in America. We just don't have rooms full of white people.) It feels like an odd inversion of the scene in Animal House where they go to the black nightclub. It is odder still because I am the only one creeped out. (For those of you who may not know me personally, at this point I should confess to being Caucasian.)

Turning back from digression to digestion; Hoosier Chicken is fried chicken enrobed in a softball sized lump of chicken gravy. The gravy is so thick that calling it chicken pudding would really be more accurate. The crispy coating of the chicken sops up the gravy and becomes a deliciously soft chicken ambrosia. It has that unmistakable muted cafeteria taste, no sharp flavor's or unruly spices, but rich and delicious nonetheless. The slaw is mild and just slightly tart, flecked with a seed that manages to be simultaneously tasty and indiscernible. (Celery seed? Too small for Craway Seeds...)

The vegetables appear to come from the massive central cookery where all cafeteria veggies sold in the US are made. The only discernible difference to southern cafeteria / boarding house veggies is the absence of bacon fat.

I closed out the meal with a slab of butterscotch pie, and washed it down with endless glasses of unsweetened iced tea.

A totally delicious meal, and once again lunch keeps me full through breakfast the next day.

Arthur Bryant's BBQ, yet again...

It's a good eight hours after I had lunch at Arthur Bryant's, and I am STILL full.

I consider myself extremely fortunate among coastal dwellers, because this is the third (or fourth?) time I have been privileged to eat at Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City, MO. (Calvin Trillin calls this the best restaurant on the planet.)

The first time I went I was under-impressed. Gasp! Probably because I had the pulled pork, which is not really the thing here as Mr Bryant hailed from Texas originally. Not being a big brisket lover, and unable to eat ribs due to orthodontia; I opted for the burnt ends sandwich this time - and it was utterly spectacular. Smoky and sweet, with a crunchy richness and a lingering mildly hot finish.

Great people watching here - perhaps the most integrated place I've ever been in the Midwest. Everyone is slightly hushed, as befits a temple; united in awed reverence for the piles of smoky perfection slathered in the incredible sauce, which Jane Stern calls "nearly a soul food curry." It's not a bad description.

In line I stood in front of a six lucky culinary school students, on a field trip with their supervising chef. All of them asking her: "Chef, Chef" should I have the brisket, or the ribs?" etc. In a motherly style she coordinated their orders so between them they had combo plates which managed to include every single thing on the menu. I picked up on the culinary school vibe and said to the chef "Great field trip." and she positively beamed.

The only thing I regret is that it's a twenty hour drive from home...

Mom's Cafe, Salina Utah

Mom's Cafe - 10 E Main St, Salina Utah.

This is a spectacularly worthy detour off of I-70 in Utah, it's also the last good food (or any food except live rattlesnake) for the next 120 miles heading eastbound.

Salina looks like a Hollywood movie set of a cowboy town. Mom's sits square on the most prominent corner in town. Mom's has been dishing up breakfast and lunch to the ranchers in these parts for over seventy years.

This was my second visit to Mom's (My first was two years ago with my Dad.) This time I went whole hog - chicken fried steak slathered in cream gravy, a "scone" (which in Utah means a piece of fry bread.) , mashed taters, corn and sour cream blueberry pie for desert. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the taters which seemed to come out of a box, but I can forgive that, as the chicken fried steak was a revelation.

Urp! It's nearly ten hours later and I'm still full.

This pace is really, really good, and qualifies as what folks in my generation sometimes call a "Flo" restaurant. (A TV reference to the character Flo in the 70's tv show"Alice")

In a bit of nearly surreal synchronicity, just as I drove out of town I got a call from my roommate back in LA, who had just been diagnosed with gout. Gout?

Maybe it's good thing that I live seven hundred miles from Mom's.
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PS: This is my first ever mobile phone post.... Cool, huh?

Life's a Beach...