Hurling The Beetroot posted by Max

I write from Baton Rouge, which, though only about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans, is right now like a different world from southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (this disaster area is roughly equal in size to Britain). Life here in Baton Rouge is fairly normal, though the city is becoming somewhat crowded with the influx of refugees. The main difficulty in reporting on what’s happening is that the situation has been changing almost hourly—and, at least until Friday (2nd September), when some significant amount of aid finally arrived, entirely for the worse. The hurricane itself on Monday (August 29th) was certainly bad enough for New Orleans; but, the day after, when the rain stopped, two of the levees holding back the water of Lake Pontchartrain were breached, and 80% of the city was flooded. After that, the people stranded in New Orleans—overwhelmingly poor and mostly black—became increasingly desperate for food, water, sanitation facilities, medical attention, and the necessities of life generally. An index of the desperation is that motor vehicles in New Orleans—mainly ambulances and police cars—became targets for armed attack, presumably from those hoping to seize the vehicles in order to get out of town. The death toll can only be guessed at now, but it will certainly reach the thousands and possibly the tens of thousands. This is the worst disaster on American soil in at least 100 years.

The politics of the thing are complex, but one thing that seems clear is the criminal incompetence of the governmental authorities. New Orleans and state officials deserve a considerable share of the blame, mainly for the tardiness with which New Orleans was evacuated (while Mayor Kip Holden of Baton Rouge should be mentioned as an exception; for decades he has been perhaps the most progressive black Democrat in Louisiana politics, whose black political elites are in general nearly as venal and corrupt as its white political elites). But the feds—who alone have the resources really to deal with such a catastrophe—are by far the most culpable. Much of the neglect goes back years, as the Bush Administration downgraded preparations for natural disasters in order to concentrate on military adventures. But even last weekend, when every meteorologist was clearly explaining that a disaster for New Orleans was certain, the Bushies did nothing; indeed, even after the disaster struck, the White House response has been casual and slow.

One nice irony, by the way, is that nearly everyone who has had a close and wide look at the disaster area (something that for several days could be done only by helicopter) has reached for one version or another of the same metaphor: “It looks like a war zone.” But no mainstream commentator that I have heard or read about has yet connected this to the actual war zone that the Bushies have created in Iraq. Indeed, some of the parallels are almost eerie: the heat, the destroyed buildings, the lack of electricity, the squalor, the looting, the sniper fire, and so forth. Perhaps the Iraqis should consider themselves fortunate that it’s geologically impossible (or so I suppose) for their country to flood.


But the main connections to be made here relate to US domestic politics. All summer Bush’s popularity with American voters has been plunging toward near-Nixonian levels (as the mainstream media very quietly report but don’t seem to truly believe), mainly because of Iraq, and now he’s tumbling down further. One CNN correspondent asked viewers to send e-mails giving their opinions as to whether the Administration was doing a good job in the post-Katrina crisis; out of hundreds of responses, not one was positive. The Manchester Union-Leader of New Hampshire—generally considered the most right-wing Republican newspaper in the country with a major circulation—published a blistering editorial attacking Bush for a total failure of leadership. Pundits are now talking about the president’s political “vulnerability.” Bush may well feel that he has himself made some of the worst sacrifices, for instance being forced to give up almost a week of his five-week summer vacation.

test posted by Max

Of course, it is all framed within the purview of European social democracy: the Venezuelans are only fighting for what we Europeans take for granted. Still, as Lenin said "one must always try to be as radical as reality itself … Reality itself, it would seem, has been biting Johann hard in the ass while he has been visiting downtown Caracas.

A Passionate Plea For Murder posted by Max

You will need to "mise en place" all your ingredients. If your recipe calls for some ingredients to be roasted, do so. You can use your toaster oven or just dry roast in a pan. You should, however, roast the shrimp paste regardless of what the recipe says. Wrap it loosely in foil and roast in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes at 450F.

Dried chilies are a main staple for all curry paste. Soak them in warm water for at least 15 minutes or until soft. Seed and chop them finely. While waiting for the chilies to soften, turn your attention to the other ingredients. Chop them as finely as you can. You can use your old workhorse Cuisinart for this, but don't chop all the ingredients together, do each separately.

When the ingredients are prepared and ready, start your pounding. The first ingredients into your Krok are chilies and salt. Pound them until very fine, then add the harder stuff such as kaffir lime zest, cilantro roots, galangal, lemongrass, turmeric, or others. Pound them until fine, it will help if you do one at a time. Then add your garlic, again pound finely. The next ingredient is the shallots. After you're done pounding the shallot to a fine paste, the mixture in your Krok will be quite moist. This is the time to add powdered spices were they called for in the recipe. The last to go in should be the shrimp paste, since it is, as the name implies, already in paste form.

The Problem With Literacy posted by Max

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