What My Home Made Bagels Look Like

My Bagels

Man is NOT a Rational Critter: A Screed

Many believe that what separates modern humans from their prehistoric ancestors is our rationality. BUT IT AIN'T TRUE! Humans are not rational creatures--they are ruled by intuitive beliefs, if not outright superstitions, tribal ideologies, and emotions. In other words, we're not so evolved from our caveman days. Some American examples:

The US ranks last in healthcare outcomes, life expectancy, infant mortality, and chronic disease care versus every other first world economy. Cost of care is the only thing that U.S. is ranked #1-- and by a long shot.  Here's proof and more proof. What every other country surveyed has in common is a universal national healthcare system. 

Now a rational person would think that maybe a national healthcare plan might not be a bad idea in this country, since other nations have shown that it would cover everybody, reduce costs, and improve outcomes. But when Obamacare came along and took some baby steps to create a more inclusive healthcare system, many raised a hue and cry based on pure ideology and unfounded emotion that this new system would somehow compromise our freedom. 

In other words, Americans were saying that they would miss the freedom of being denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions, their age, or their occupation. They would miss the freedom of losing all their assets as a result of a serious illness or injury and they would miss the freedom of paying higher premiums under the old system because their insurance companies were being forced to pay the emergency room expenses of people who couldn't afford their care because they took advantage of their freedom not to buy health insurance.

Sure, Obamacare has its flaws,namely the unnecessary added expense of the role played by insurance companies as the middle man, but that's part of the politics. But a rational person would probably say that a plan that results in more people getting more coverage a step in the right direction. 

Then there's climate change. The science is proven and a rational person may think that maybe we should try to move away from fossil fuels if we care to sustain the human race beyond the next few generations. But we are not rational. Otherwise, why do so many people profess a belief that climate change is a myth and that burning coal and oil is just fine. Even the government continues to subsidize the oil industry at almost three times the rate as green energy.

But I would call that a belief of convenience. Why believe in something that would force us to alter our lifestyle--a tax on carbon, more fuel-efficient cars, a larger commitment to mass transit, larger subsidies to renewable resources. Paraphrasing Upton Sinclair, people will believe anything if their paycheck and lifestyle depend on it. 

Of course, people in Europe are no more rational than the U.S., though they have better healthcare and climate policies. Their economies remain in the dumper because they continue to follow policies that have proven time and again to cause or worsen recessions--and they follow policies based on emotion, superstitions, and ideology. 

A rational policy based on past history of strategies that have worked would call for fiscal stimulus that would spike demand and help lift these economies off the canvas. Even a limited stimulus in the U.S. had a positive effect in the U.S. in 2009, and a great effect in the early 1930s and 1940s. But again, people do not make decisions based on rational thought.

After all, why do so many people still go to church and pay tribute to some invisible phantom in the sky every week? Is that the behavior of a rational creature or is it more like an expression of the fear-fed superstitions characteristic of our prehistoric ancestors?  

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I get that a lot. People who know that I write tend to be curious about what I read. Then they’re usually appalled when I recommend something that is exactly not their taste.

I read all kinds of stuff—a wide variety of fiction, mostly literary, and I particularly like authors who experiment stylistically. I also like humor and writers who are masters of mainstream storytelling and character development.

I’ve also taken an interest in biographies and histories, especially when it comes to areas like economics. I’ve read several books that have tried to explain what went wrong in 2008 that caused world economies to crash until finally I think I have a good handle on that. Here’s a short list of books that I’ve read recently that I recommend:

• ·       The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. Sweeping biography with great insights into the rise of the Kennedy mystique.
• ·       The Art of Fielding. A story about a brilliant college shortstop who gets the throwing yips, but a whole lot more—engaging on every level: character, themes, emotions.
• ·       How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. Falls more in the experimental fiction category—an absorbing tale about a young man’s rise and fall and final reconciliation written in a form an instruction manual. Brilliant!
• ·       Angle of Repose. An epic tale about the civilizing of the West, by Wallace Stegner, among the great American writers.
• ·       After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead. The most coherent explanation of the financial crisis out there that even I could understand. Written by a famous economist and former assistant chairman of the Federal Reserve.

For a more exhaustive list of recommended reads, check out my Goodreads page.

Too Much Information

The internet hasn’t made finding a good restaurant, a good hotel, a good book, a good lawn mower any easier, in my opinion. Sure you can find reams of comments, suggestions and ratings for almost any consumer product or service on various websites, which should be a huge improvement over the pre-internet days when word of mouth, a family friend or relative, and a few consumer magazines were all you have to go on.

But the pendulum has swung the other way. Now we have too much information. Taking a trip to Miami? Should be easy to find a good hotel, just check out Hotels.com and read the reviews. Problem is, reviews are all over the place. For every great review a hotel receives, you have customers reporting horrible experiences.

Same thing with restaurants and books. My latest novel has been rated five stars to one-star on Goodreads.com, so you don’t gain much from that. And be especially suspicious of highly-rated products and services with just a few reviews—chances are they’re planted by the purveyors (not mine, of course!).

In the end, we’re still on our own. Too much information via the internet horde is just as bad as not enough information. Consumer Reports is still the gold standard of ratings vehicles, but unfortunately you have to pay for it. Otherwise, we’re back to trusting the opinions of friends and family and the local theatre, film, and restaurant critics.

Will the U.S. Become the Next China?

It’s more than a little disturbing to me when assessing the potential outcome of a radical right wing takeover of the U.S. government, especially if a Republican wins the next presidential election.

We could suddenly be thrust into a situation in which an emasculated EPA and the reversal of environmental laws would remove any restrictions to carbon pollution, resulting in the increased fouling of our air, water, and land. We’d be living in a country in which the oil and gas industries could operate at will with little federal oversight, thus increasing the risk of catastrophic spills, the destruction of vital underground aquifers, and unrestricted emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Since the Senate majority leader represents a large coal-producing state, one can envision the lifting of all coal plant pollution restrictions, thus hastening the climate change processes that could soon plunge Miami, New Orleans, New York City and other coastal areas underwater and destroy essential croplands in the West and Mid-West.

From a financial standpoint, a radical right-wing takeover will probably result in the scaling-back of most banking and Wall Street regulatory controls, allowing these institutions to again run roughshod over the U.S. economy, which is their natural tendency as they insatiably pursue profit. Naturally this will lead to an eventual financial collapse, an inevitable bailout by American taxpayers, and perhaps another Depression.

The radical right will also get rid of Obamacare, resulting in the millions of Americans currently insured through the exchanges or through the expanded Medicaid program either to lose their coverage and face potential bankruptcy as a result of illness or injury or face radically higher premiums. And, ironically, the cost of healthcare will actually go up if the ACA is abolished.

Finally, a radical right government with the ability to further politicize the U.S. Supreme Court, will appoint ultra-conservative ideologues when certain superannuated justices retire, which could result in outlawing of abortion for any reason, remove all campaign finance restrictions, and rescind any employee protections opposed by corporate interests, including the right to form unions.

Long story short, we would become China. In its single-minded quest for economic growth to placate a restive populace, China has become the most polluted country on earth. People in Beijing, which is ringed by coal-fired power plants, and Shanghai, walk the streets with surgical masks over their faces.

Some days the air is so foul they can’t even leave their homes. Clean and safe drinking water is nonexistent in most places due to a lack of regulatory controls and rampant government pay-offs from polluters. But to its credit—and driven by circumstances—China is also making the world’s biggest investment in green energy.

Since Chinese citizens do not have a national health care plan, they save much of their income to pay for catastrophic illness and injury, but they would be quickly bankrupted if medical care cost a fraction of what it does in the U.S.

And, the oligarchs do well in China. Government officials and their well-connected friends reap most of the rewards of a rapidly growing state, with precious little trickle down to ordinary citizens. Sound familiar?

Conditions in China have much in common to circumstances that are turning the U.S. into one of the least egalitarian countries in the developed world. Sad to say, these trends will likely accelerate under a radical conservative regime that now dominates both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court.

The difference between China and the U.S. is that the conditions under which the Chinese people live are promulgated by a totalitarian regime. We in the U.S. don’t have that excuse—we have freely elected the buggers who are hell-bent on destroying our quality of life!

  

Thoughts on Guacamole: The Definitive Recipe

I love guacamole. I love guacamole with my Friday martini. And like my homemade bagels, I like my homemade guacamole much more than restaurant and store-bought executions. Flavor has something to do with it, but so many people overlook the importance of texture in foods.

I like lumpy. Lumps in food like mashed potatoes and guacamole are like little bonus packets of amplified flavor. They titillate the tongue and are a relief from the tedium of smooth. Even when the flavor’s not bad, I’ve never warmed to the spackle-like texture of most restaurant and supermarket guacamoles.

So here’s how I do it.

• ·       Scoop out two very ripe avocados (a little brown in the flesh is okay).
• ·       Gently mash in a bowl until lumpy-smooth.
• ·       Add some chopped cilantro leaves (I like a lot of cilantro); half a medium tomato coarsely chopped (the less ripe, the more finely it needs to be chopped); a long squirt of lime juice (bottled is fine); two minced garlic cloves, a squirt of sriracha (as much as you can stand), salt and pepper to taste
• ·  Stir it all up—the different colors and lumpy consistency are quite beautiful.

Serve with tortilla chips and well-chilled super-dry Beefeaters martinis. Or for you non-drinkers, a nice lager will do.

That’s it. I’ll post a photo the next time I make guacamole—it’ll spark excessive salivation.

What the Mid-Term Election Means to You

Let’s try to put a practical spin on yesterday’s Republican take-over of Congress. First, it’s safe to say that the result was more an anti-Obama vote than one based on specific policy positions taken by the candidates. After all, since Obama’s election in 2008, the Republican Party has not taken positions or offered legislation any more substantial than voting “No” on everything the Democrats, including Obama, proposed.

When you have a polarized Congress like we do today—and a Congress that can’t agree on anything other than raining bombs down on hapless Muslim territories—what is a citizen to do? It’s safe to say that it will be at least two more years of gridlock until the next election, which pretty much takes the federal government out of the picture from a governance standpoint.

So here’s what you do. Make sure you live in a state and a community that supports your values. For example, if you have children, stay out of states like Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin that are making major cutbacks to education as well as other services important to childhood development.

For those who care about your children’s education, you may want to consider states like New York, California, and New Jersey (although that state has its own set of problems and there are large variations among communities).

If you care about clean drinking water, then stay out of states with loose fracking laws, like Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma and parts of Pennsylvania.

If you’re not comfortable being around a lot of guns, then stay clear of Virginia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, among several others.

Most states with Republican governors and legislatures will be looking to cut already inadequate budgets, which will mean poorer schools, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate medical care for the poor, and, in the case of Kansas, the very real threat of bankruptcy.

In a nutshell, expect nothing from the new Congress and the current president, because that’s exactly what you’ll get over the next two years. All politics is local now, so pick a place to live that coincides with your lifestyle, morality, social philosophy and personal needs.

I do wonder how long a nation can flourish without a functioning federal government. A pretty long time given that we’re still here and the legislative paralysis in Washington goes on and on.