The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by ADM:

You know, I'm still just boggling over the way the two main points of that first post have been ignored. Very little on whether or not the state has a right to exclude religious clothing (and by the way, is the UK guilty of encouraging the oppression of Sikh and Jewish men because it allows them to wear their traditional headcoverings and/or required facial hair?). Very little on whether or not it's cool that women who choose (or don't, for that matter) are now afforded the option of going out to public bathing venues.

Oh noes! it's all about the burqa.

The tradition of "nice" women veiling is far older than the Abrahamic religions. Me, I think it's lame, but you know, if it makes someone happy and more comfortable to veil or define 'modest' clothing as clothing that covers arms and legs (and this is true for many Muslim and Jewish men, too), that's ok by me.

I don't at all disagree that these things, especially as applied to women, can, and sometimes are, part and parcel of oppression. But the initial conversation began in the context of a secular western country, and I think we have to at least admit the possibility that women are choosing to veil. I'd also like to point out that the veil does not seem to keep women in some Islamic countries from entering into business, politics, etc.

I'm not a fan. I don't like any theocracy. I'm not religious. BUT, when I travel to other countries, I try to respect the customs, and would certainly cover my head voluntarily if that was local custom, just as I wear longer skirts or trousers and cover my arms when entering churches for academic or other purposes.

I'm not saying anyone else has to, but my comfort level when abroad (or even in the US) relies on observing local rules of decorum and trying to abide by them, unless they require me to treat other people badly or laugh at racist, sexist, or homosexist (is that a word?) jokes.

Well, whatever they do, I hope they make it so that it works reasonably well. At the moment, my gyn doesn't take Medicare patients because she says she can't break even if she does. She's already given up the obstetrics part of her practice because of the costs of malpractice insurance. I am entirely in favor of national coverage, but am also wondering what the system would be like if health insurance companies were non-profits ...

Hmmmm ... not sure it's really all that much of an appeal. It's still pretty clear that they are talking about those of 'native' British descent. For values of 'native'.

Thanks.

And yet ... I'm just no longer surprised. In fact, here's a thought that I find really depressing: This kind of behaviour is far less surprising to me after the past 10 or so years than is the feeling I have every time I see President Obama on the tv screen, and think, "Wow, that's the president!?" That I still have trouble believing, in the same way I expect I'd have trouble believing I saw a unicorn.

Earl Cooley @22 -- for a dish like this, you don't want the expensive cuts. This is a slow simmer dish, and the leaner, more expensive cuts tend to have less flavor and can be rather chewy.

Expensive =/= good. With meat, you have to pick the right meat for the right prep.

A nice beef tenderloin makes lovely steaks, for example, but it makes a crap pot roast.

I am so making this!

I make a puerco con chile verde that is similar, but more suited to eating with tortillas or in burritos...

about 1-1 1/2 pounds of pork, cut into cubes
put in a pan with about 1/3 c water on medium till the pork starts to sizzle in its own fat

Add a chopped medium onion and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic

when the onions are close to translucent, add a small can of diced tomatoes (the ones with green chilies are good), the Herdez salsa verda (or TJs), several chopped tomatillos, about a cup of chopped nopalitos (they come in strips in a jar, and need to be rinsed), and a can of diced green chilies

Also, about a half teaspoon of ground cumin and a teaspoon of ground coriander -- or just throw in a handful of fresh chopped cilantro.

Salt, pepper, simmer till you can't stand to not eat it.

I'm thinking you could actually just dump this all in a slow-cooker and let it go on low all day, and it would also be fine.

Apparently, my CA anti-virus software thinks the constitution.org site is a hate site. Great.

I might be wrong here, but I thought the government had already promised immunity to the CIA agents who performed the torture. Immunity from prosecution, at least. Not from firing. But I'm all for prosecutions of the administration and its lawyers.

Does it strike anybody else as being a little weird that USians, who are generally accorded super-strength and moral courage in the national political rhetoric, are supposedly too weak to deal with this? Because we've got no problems asking the citizens of other countries to do this. Funny how moral superiority is fungible.

just ...

I'm now feeling less silly about going to the ER when I found myself lying on the kitchen floor one night, no idea how I got there.

Yeah ... I saw that at an LJ friend's and OMG ... it is mind-boggling. It manages to combine the most bizarro of metaphors and similes with the kind of language that is the antithesis of erotic - or at least it is for me.

I have say that Victor @ 6's thought crossed my mind, too!

Congratulations! This is an anniversary for me, too -- or would have been. A good day, clearly :-)

I like the idea. Of course, I like the idea of unions, even though I hate much about two of the three unions to which I've belonged (AFT and NEA).

Of course I like the idea of national health care ...

Ooh! 89 on the walkability index (although some of it is off).

Oh, and Charlie Stross --

I'd go for the macBook, if the rumours about their greenness are true.

Wow.

Mary Dell's on FB?

And from my very youth ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69HODLlDMo

Dave @#57

Mouser?

JoeNotCharles @#22 --

what Dave @ #46 et al. have said.

In the US, tipping is generally 15% on the total bill as a minimum in some areas (coasts and big cities), or the standard in smaller towns. I live in a very small town, and the standard is 20%, but I think that's true of college towns.

In some states (fewer than 10, I think), servers make minimum wage or more plus tips. i live in a 'right to work' state, which means that the servers make about $2.50 an hour plus tips, and minimum wage only kicks in if a server hasn't averaged minimum wage for the week in hourly plus tips. One weekend night shift will usually put you over the minimum wage average, but most restaurants don't have servers working more than 30 hours a week, because it's hard physical work and because many of the staff are working other jobs or are students.

The federal government assumes servers are walking out the door with a minimum of 8% in tips, and servers have to prove that they don't make at least that much.

I used to wait tables at a steakhouse in the PacNW. I was a reasonably good server. So on a Saturday night, I might sell $1500. So the government is taxing me on $120 off the bat. Say I made only 15%, or $225. There are two expediters on the line, and each gets a minimum of $1 per hour per server for their 6 hour shift -- and servers round up, if they want their food to go out quickly and right -- so $15 to the expos. Bussers get 10-15% of the tips -- again, you want to encourage a good busser, because they can make all the difference in the world, so $35 there. $400 of the total was in bar drinks, so the bartender and bar-back get their 5-10%, so say $25-30. So that's about $80 off the top, and I'm down to $145. Most servers actually do declare more than the 8% that the government assumes, because no one wants to get audited. And if the tips are all on credit cards? The server just paid taxes on $225, not $145, because that's documented tips.

I don't even want to get into the evil that is pooled tipping.

So yeah, as someone who tips 20% minimum, unless the service is shite? s someone who has spent time as a server? Yeah, Rachael Ray and her 15% pre-tax (10% in the last two places I've lived) tips offend me.And a

I'm not sure it's just the American Cargo Cult. I know people in the UK who behave this way.

I can only say that I wish people were judged more on their actions, and that more people were willing to accept that it's always more complicated.

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