going home, 2.6.10

saturday night

because sometimes slivered...

... just isn't enough.

in which emma becomes a troll

I lay the blame at the feet of Pam's House Blend, purveyor of leftist/feminist/queer politics and one of my favorite blogs, and a recent post there that linked back to the black hole, the moral void, the horrifying vacuum that is the blog of the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage (which, contrary to its title, exists solely to fight till its last dying day to prevent people from marrying).

I've been trolling*. I can't deny it. I've been trolling, though I like to think not (exclusively) in the antagonistic, argumentative, pointless way that is the common understanding of trolldom. I've been reading NOM's blog, and the comments therein, and feel like I'm stuck in quicksand, entrenched in a quagmire in foreign, in alien, territory. I've been trying to defend my truths, and question theirs, without being wholly difficult, but rather with calm and reasoned statements.

What I really want to shout (type) is, of course, "You're all going to die some day! And younger people are more and more tolerant, more and more supportive, of equal rights! And your grandchildren will discuss you and your homo-talk in the same hushed and embarrassed tones my generation uses to discuss how some of our grandparents used the N-word!"

It's like a scab.

It's like a scab, an inescapable itch, a cut on the inside of my cheek that I can't stop poking at and prodding at and cringing with a certain satisfaction at every moment of jagged sharp pain.

It's a group of people, a world view, that I just don't understand, and I feel like I'm venturing behind enemy lines, even safely ensconced in my office behind closed doors on my lunch break, even hunched at my desk at home when it's late enough that I should be in bed.

There's a whole other world out there, a world I sometimes forget, or only understand and think about in the abstract, and now that the curtain's been lifted I just can't seem to stop staring at what's underneath.

*Trolling: the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet, generally on message boards. When done in a moderated internet community, this can result in banning. When done to uptight people such as fundies, this can result in hilarity. (As taken from Urban Dictionary)

catch 22

Admiral Mike Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, might just be my new hero. While testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he had this to say:

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

Of course on the other side we've got dear John McCain, "deeply disappointed" in Admiral Mullen & Secretary Gates for their support of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell despite claiming a few years back that if military leaders said it was time to reassess the policy, he would certainly listen to them.

And I know this is a hugely obvious observation, but how do people justify or rationalize or otherwise claim that DADT is just, or even functional? At its core, it is a paradox. Gay men and lesbians can serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation a secret. But if anyone finds out, they're booted. So gay men and lesbians cannot serve in the military.

This illogic dismays me, and in this day and age to fall back on this as a rationalization for preventing able-bodied men and women from serving in a military already stretched thin seems not only disgustingly homophobic but also detrimental to national security.

Of further reading interest:
Bill Kristol's cold-blooded take on DADT (best, by which I mean most callous, line ever: "As an intellectual matter, gays in the military is a not uninteresting question.")

The Economist's lovely take-down of Bill Kristol

Paul Waldman's piece at the American Prospect

gloaming time

new blocking mats

quote of the day, or, this is the best they've got??

Boies: Is it your judgment that prior to the last 100 years in China and India there were many polygamous marriages?

Witness: Yes, but I need to answer with another statement.

Boies: Keep it short.

Witness: In those societies, men would still marry one woman at a time. A rich man would then marry other women, but each woman is a separate marriage, so it’s still one man and one woman.

(Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, Good Guy Lawyer Bois cross-examining "expert witness on marriage" Blakenhorn, supporter of Proposition 8)

Just out of curiosity, if two of the main arguments against gay marriage are 1) marriage is between one man and one woman and 2) same-sex marriage will lead to polygamy but if (as their own expert witness says) polygamy is just a series of one-man-one-woman marriages, what exactly is the problem? I'm not saying that I think polygamy is a great idea, mind you, but by their own logic it's an empty argument.

natural disasters

Professor L. sent me a slightly frantic email yesterday afternoon apologizing for submitting her syllabus so late (classes started a week ago). The reason she was late, as it turns out, is that she and several of her students were in Port-au-Prince on January 12th, in meetings that morning at the United Nations headquarters.

She stopped by my office a couple hours later and with a haunted look started telling me about their trip, and how they stepped out the door into the street and felt the ground begin to shake, and how they turned around to watch this multi-story building collapse down into itself, almost everyone inside, including the people they had just met with, crushed to death.

It took her and her students almost week to get a flight out of Haiti to the Dominican Republic, and eventually from there back to New York. She thinks recovery will be a long time coming, if ever coming at all.

Erica and I were walking up Broadway one day last week, talking about this and that, and she turned to me suddenly and asked, "Have you ever been in a natural disaster?"

I have not, and I am grateful to not be carrying that particular kind of haunting around with me.

quote of the day, or, starving the beast

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

(South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, discussing subsidized school lunches for poor children)

dinner party for 11, japanese-style

Andy, our dear Andy, returned to NYC yesterday from Pittsburgh, at least for the next few months. We decided to throw him a welcome-home dinner, cooked with guest Dan's veganism in mind. Andy, the poor boy, arrived a couple hours later than expected but that was okay, most of the guests arrived late too (and those who made the mistake of arriving on time were promptly put to work in the broiling kitchen).

Menu: Stir-fried bok choy, baked teriyaki tofu, braised squash, miso soup, sticky rice

Stir-Fried Bok Choy:
(as modified from Mark Bitman)
3 tablespoons oil (we used olive oil)
3 tablespoons miced garlic
3 tablespoons peeled & minced ginger
1 cup chopped scallions
4 pounds bok choy, cut into 1-inch sections
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth, white wine, or water)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt & pepper to taste
minced chives for garnish
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Heat large saute pan over medium-high heat fro 3-4 minutes. Add the oil and, almost immediately, the garlic, ginger and scallions. Cook, stirring, for about a minute, then add the bok choy and turn heat up to high.

Cook, stirring almost constantly, for 3 minutes (this actually took closer to 5-10 minutes because we had so much bok choy), then add broth. Cook, stirring, until almost all broth evaporates and the bok choy is tender. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and turn off heat. Season with salt & pepper, garnish, and serve.

Teriyaki Baked Tofu:
(as modified from Delicious Living, thanks to Andrea!)
1 cup soy sauce
2 pounds extra-firm tofu
1 cup nutritional yeast

Teriyaki sauce:
4 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4-8 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover broiling rack or baking sheet with aluminum foil. Drain and blot dry tofu, then cut horizontally into 3rds, then lengthwise into 6ths, making 18 strips from each pound. Lay strips on aluminum foil, not touching each other, coat in soy sauce, sprinkle generously with nutritional yeast, and bake for about 45 minutes.

Mix teriyaki ingredients and spoon over cooked tofu strips. Broil strips for 5-10 minutes until well browned (check frequently). Serve warm.

Braised Squash:
3 lbs. pumpkin, butternut, kabocha, or other squash
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar, honey, maple syrup or other sweetener
2 tablespoons mirin, sake, or white wine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in large baking dish or casserole or dutch oven. Toss to coat, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, stir. If squash seems dry add more liquid, recover in foil, return to oven. If it seems watery, return to oven uncovered. Continue to bake until squash is tender, about 15-30 more minutes. Stir, serve warm.

Miso Soup:
2 4-6 inch strips dried dashi kombu seaweed
6 tablespoons miso paste
a couple scallions
1 package firm silken tofu
3 tablespoons dried wakame seaweed

Soak kombu in 2 liters water, room temperature, for 6-8 hours, then discard seaweed. (This broth is a form of dashi, and can be used for lots of different Japanese dishes.)

Dissolve 5 tablespoons miso paste in small amount of dashi, then add to soup pot. Heat over medium-low heat. Add chopped scallions (whites only), diced tofu, and dried wakame. Serve warm, garnished with chopped scallion greens.

Given Andy's late arrival, we ended up keeping everything but the soup warming in the oven until it was time to eat. Then served with sticky rice. I think everyone liked this meal, given that (to my dismay) we've got no leftovers.

remind me again why i'm a democrat

What’s The Non-Sexist Way To Say, “Grow Some Goddamn Balls And Fuckin’ Pass The Fuckin’ Goddamn Health-Care Bill, You Goddamn Pussies”?

(Pardon the language. It's in quotes though, Mom, so it's okay.)

quote(s) of the day

"...this Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption, or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence and access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy." (Citizens United V FEC, Syllabus, P5 Para 2)

"That the opinion actually discusses whether the electorate might 'lose faith' in our entire form of government because of this decision should, on its face, have been enough to stop this ruling in its tracks." (Pam's House Blend)

"The founders of this nation warned about the dangers of corporate influence. The Constitution they wrote mentions many things and assigns them rights and protections — the people, militias, the press, religions. But it does not mention corporations." (New York Times)

francie

Had dinner with M yesterday, who brought me a belated birthday gift -- a photograph of a Brooklyn brownstone, complete with front stoop and tree and shadowed windows. I had forgotten, a couple years back, that M was hellbent on coming up with a nickname for me (because the many I have did not, of course, meet her particular standards). Apparently what she settled on, apparently what I am to her, is a latter day Francie Nolan of sorts, and this made me smile.

"Late in the afternoon the sun slanted down into the mossy yard belonging to Francie Nolan's house, and warmed the worn wooden fence. Looking at the shafted sun, Francie had that same fine feeling that came when she recalled the poem they recited in school.

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring
pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green,
indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld."

While I love this poem, and wrote it in many a blank book when I was little, and memorized it and created vast imagined worlds around it, my favorite bit of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn involves Francie's favorite past-time. I have not read this book in twenty years but I still love the thought of Francie, armed with a bowl of mints and a library book (Francie very systematically worked her way through the local public library), curled up on the fire-escape outside her family's apartment, under the spreading branches of the tree growing up through the yard, her own personal Tree of Heaven.

Also I loved the bit about Francie and her brother being made to wear heads of garlic around their necks, as evidenced in my garlic soup ramble from a few years back. Clearly Francie has been a presence in my life for eons, even if not always entirely recognized by me. Now what to do with this framed photograph, given to me last night by a woman who has always, in her odd way, seen parts of me I never did.