stars and stripes and douchebaggery

^ One of the critical tenets of President Obama's fix for our nation is less
emphasis on reckless consumerism and more focus on education.

No More Hummer Nation | Maureen Dowd, New York Times Opinion

I heard a French scientist on a radio show once explain that Americans would always insist on supersizing things because our “reptilian brain” likes things big. We’re still big, as Norma Desmond said. It’s everything around us that’s collapsing and shrinking.

The Wall Street Journal had an article last week reporting that, now that gas prices have gone back down, almost half a million fuel-frugal small cars are piling up unsold at dealers around the country.

“I don’t think Americans really like small cars,” Beau Boeckmann, a Ford dealer in California, told The Journal. “They drive them when they think they have to, when gas prices are high. But we’re big people, and we like big cars.”

That’s the big nettle we’re grasping. How big do we need to be to still feel American? How big can our national debt grow? How big can our cars be? And how big is our clout abroad these days? Will Michelle’s style in Europe make as big a splash as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s?

The cowboy push by W. and Dick Cheney to be a hyperpower and an empire left America a weakened and tapped-out power, straining to defend its runaway capitalism even as it uneasily adapts to its desperation socialism.

How do we come to terms with the gluttony that exploded our economy and still retain our reptilian American desire for living large? How do we make the pursuit of the American dream a satisfying quest rather than a selfish one?

What Maureen Dowd hints at here is the serious need to re-define what it means to be American. But first thing's first - where the hell did we get the idea that to be American means to own big things? I mean, physically big, literally big, expensively big? Unnecessarily big?

And I also have to ask, how much emphasis do we put on individualism before it spills over into selfish bragging rights and materialistic whoring devoid of larger social considerations and responsibilities? Sure, we as Americans can easily max out our credit cards on the latest gadgetry, fashion, and huge cars, and yet we can't even take care of our unemployed homeless fellow citizens, much less pay our mortgages on time. We even have the gall to brag about keeping our priorities.

I used to think that to be American is to be the best you can be - hardworking, educated, self made, socially responsible, generous, strong, and fierce. But evidently that wasn't enough. Or worse, we hide our shortcomings in those departments by relying on such things as Hummers, large screen HDTVs, and houses whose mortgages far exceed our annual salaries.

It's a classic situation: dazzle them - and ourselves - with the goods as a way to distract from our decided lack of accomplishments in the areas that truly matter. After all, isn't it easier to impress someone with an expensive SUV than having to go to graduate school and earning a masters or a PhD? Wouldn't it be more convenient to wow our friends with the latest iPod or Louis Vuitton bag instead of making them inspired and proud of us for having volunteered at a homeless shelter for the past year?

The pendulum has swung the other way, and swung hard. And yet many of us are still too stupid to come around - being smart, responsible, and thrifty is NOT the latest fashion trend. Instead it is now a necessary way of life, one that was birthed by our recklessness and lack of values in the right places.

Do you know why many items at 7-Eleven cost so much? Convenience. You pay extra for the convenience of being able to do a jaunt to that store at 3 in the morning for a carton of milk, a handful of Slim Jim's, or a Slurpee to satisfy a desire. And that is how we have been behaving. Patience has never been a part of American values, at least in the past century. And because of that we've created the pathetic mess we're now in. Yeah, we're that stupid.

Given our choice to create the current dismal economic situation, we have also now created an opportunity, one that offers possibilities to choose wisely this time - and for all time. A new choice has now emerged, though which one we pick depends on whether we have finally learned our lesson:

Do we choose to be big, or do we choose to be better?

the $cience of hope

^ NOVA: Personal Genome Project explores the lifesaving possibilities of genetics, the research of which may one day prevent deadly diseases like diabetes and heart attacks.

Scientists Hope Stimulus Will Give Jolt To Research | NPR

Bad Economy Could Affect Future Of Science

The impact could fall hard on individuals like [Anirvan Ghosh's postdoctoral candidate, Stefanie Otto, who attends the University of California San Diego]. But they also can affect the future of science in the United States. Ghosh thinks of both as he looks to the stimulus package to provide his lab — and many others like it — some relief.

"Being able to provide some support right now has an immediate effect in stabilizing the positions of postdocs and graduate students and research scientists now so they don't leave the system," he says. "But in the long run, as we look forward with our regular budgets, one has to think of ways in which this can be sustained."

That's actually the bigger challenge. Sure, labs are eager to get a two-year infusion of cash under the terms of the stimulus package. But if the money disappears just as quickly, labs will be back in trouble again. The NIH's Kington says they're trying to be careful to avoid that hangover.

"The greater the flexibility we're given in the legislation, the more options we have to plan so that we don't have a problem two years down the road," Kington says.

What many textbook Republicans, and especially those figureheads in the Bush administration, failed to realize is that the very institutions that they shat on with apathy in lack of funding in the past decade could have made great strides in such fields as stem cell research, environmental research, and biotechnology. It also helps foster education and a culture of learning and inquiry and who knows how many kids whose inner fire it may ignite that one day they may be authors in curing diseases their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, or friends once suffered or died from.

Let's just hope money will finally arrive.....and continue to arrive.

I posted my own thoughts in the readers' comment section of the above NPR story:

This is disheartening to hear, the possibility of scientific research not getting enough funding by us.

I mean, part of why progress has been made to combat HIV/AIDS is credited to government spending - OUR money being spent on it. This is far, far closer to home for me than you think. Some of my friends have HIV and of course, many of us also suffer from cancer, Parkinson's disease, and other potentially lethal ailments.

Any funding towards scientific research is a chance at lifesaving treatment, or possibly even a cure one day.

thank you! finally!

"Senator Barack Obama on Monday expanded his economic platform, including proposals to spur new jobs, to give Americans penalty-free access to retirement savings to help them through the downturn, to urge a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and to lend money to strapped local and state governments."

- Obama Expands Economic Plan | The New York Times

I want our jobs back. I want thrilling possibilities for fledgling little companies to innovate today so they may lead tomorrow. For now let countries like China and India find other ways to employ their people, we need jobs here. We as Americans are desperate for work today, we're starved and need to stand proud once more. Let us prove how hard we work, how devoted we are to our families and communities, and how strong we can be to strengthen America to where we can again be humbly proud of ourselves, and of America as the nation it so passionately set out to be over 200 years ago.

recession conscious dining

Tonight's dinner for this alien, just finished eating (yes, this is a picture I took of it before chowing down, lol!). If you are a poor starving student (or just poor and starving anyhow) in these depressing economic times but you're reasonably creative and resourceful, this would be something you'd come up with - instant Vietnamese style pho noodle soup bought for 25 cents a pack (at most oriental food stores or if you're lucky, from a selection at your local big chain grocers), then reinterpreted by you with custom add-ons and served piping hot.

To start I boiled about 2 cups of water (or whatever the directions say). At the bottom of the bowl I threw in sliced onions and tomatoes, crumbled dried mushrooms, small slices of roast beef (or any kind of sandwich meat if not actual thinly sliced raw beef, as authentic pho soup usually features raw beef that's then cooked to rare by the boiling water poured in, which makes a delicious stock), a couple tablespons lime juice, a dash of soy sauce, a teaspoon of hot sauce, and the small packets of powdered flavourings that come with the noodles; then I placed the (as of yet) dry noodles into the bowl. Once the water is boiling I pour it into the whole thing and cover it with a plate for at least 3 minutes, and finally top it all with more sliced tomatoes and onions, sliced hard boiled egg, and mint leaves.

A creative and resourceful starving student knows to invest in a few key spices and ingredients - oregano, sugar, dried or crushed chili peppers, bag of dried mushrooms, soy sauce, dried parsley flakes, beef and chicken bouillon cubes, olive oil, cooking sherry, etc. It's good to keep at least 3 kinds of vegetables in the fridge all the time (onions, potatoes, etc.), and to always have some kind of sandwich meat as well as eggs, milk, and bread (basically all the staples). When you're on a very limited budget combining these ingredients in different ways creates some really good home cooked meals that are as healthful as the budget allows. And you'll usually make enough to have leftovers to last the next day or two (or the rest of the week!), which saves money over always relying on junky fast foods or processed crap.

Caramelized French Onion Soup, perfect eats for today's recession conscious dining and so easy to make even a poor dumb alien like me can do it.





For example, combining the onions, sugar, beef bouillon, olive oil, sherry, and water will make you a hot steaming pot of hearty French Onion Soup (what the poor and struggling farmers in France created out of humble stocks). You can toast some bread to be extra crispy and crumble it over the soup as croutons, and if you happen to have some cheap chedder or mozarella cheese, melt it on top of everything for a more French version (though the authentic version uses expensive Gruyère cheese if you can spend a couple or more extra dollars). Google up for exact recipes. Bon apetit!

Related stuff

How to Survive in New York on 99 Cents
Mark Bittman: The Minimalist
What to Do With Leftovers