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It appears that Oleg Volk is having problems with The High Road. If you have not seen Oleg's site, you ought. The photography is great - except for the pictures of Ris. For some reason, Ris is just disturbing on too many levels. That might be by design.Here is the link to his LiveJournal mentioning his trouble the THR:http://olegvolk.livejournal.com/474369.html
Let us pretend for a moment that you are a Meat Lover and that your significant other is a vegetarian. (That may well be the case but I am building a hypothetical situation here so work with me, please.)
For a quarter of a century, you and yours have only been to vegetarian restaurants. After everyone from your friends to your doctors tells you that you are malnourished and need to have meat, your significant other relents and you “compromise” on a restaurant that serves meat. The only problem with the restaurant is that the only meat they serve is mere scraps unfit to serve dogs. It is also incredibly expensive.
There is a Brazilian steak house next door that serves excellent food and costs much less.
However, your significant other calls the Crappy Scrap Restaurant a “compromise” because she is has yielded to patronizing a restaurant with meat. She calls it a “compromise” though you still have not received anything you want. (I say “she” for the “significant other” because in any heterovoracious relationship, it is the woman who is the vegetarian – or at least is a man pretending to be a woman.) (I think I just made up the word “heterovoracious” too.)
This scenario has just unfolded in the United States House of Representatives. For a more than a quarter of a century, off-shore drilling has been outlawed in United States coastal waters. There is a notable exception though… China is now drilling off of the coast of Cuba and is rumored to be planning slant drilling into what would be reserves in the United States.
Now, delivered to the floor for a vote with little debate and passed by a vote on near-party lines, comes the COAST Anti-Drilling Act. I am sorry, that was the bill introduced by Democrats last year. I meant to say the DRILL NOW Act of 2008.
In this piece of “legislation” Democrats “give” the states the authority to decide if they will allow drilling between fifty and one-hundred miles of their shores. Since the ban on drilling was something that they wanted, they are calling this a compromise. In exchange, it permanently bans drilling within the zero to fifty miles from the coast. (It is as permanent as any law is – i.e. it can be overturned by another law.)
Additionally, it levies further taxes on the companies drilling the oil. This law effectively makes drilling in the fifty to one-hundred mile marker so expensive that only the largest of oil companies can afford to explore and drill. No start up companies or small companies can afford to take the risk of even exploring.
“Yes”, it is a risk because there are a lot of expenses in exploring. Wildcatters once took the risks because they did not know where oil was. With the improvements in technology, the risks in finding oil were lessened and then became continent as to how long it would take an oil well to replenish. This law makes exploration a risk again.
The problem with this “compromise” is that that is offers what nobody wants.
Republican law makers want to allow drilling in known bodies of crude oil. This effectively allows for drilling now. Unlike the euphemistic name of the law, it does not allow for drilling now. It is not even euphemistic… It is double talk.
A real compromise would not be based on artificial boundaries such as the mile markers. A real compromise would have allowed drilling in some areas of known oil deposits. A real compromise would have us drilling now.
I keep a journal of my family, travel, and anything else that may interest me. I do not write regularly in it but only when something occurs "worth writing home about." This blog is a part of my writings. It was originally my goal that this be political in scope with some peripheral topics, much like Kim du Toit's original site, kimdutoit.com. (His site - along with my wife - prompted me to start this one.)Recently I was going through some old journal entries and happened upon an old entry that would also qualify as "a darndest thing."From May 10th, 2005 (with names removed - O is my oldest and P was my youngest / is my middlest - because I prefer not use my friends' or familys' names when blogging)...My Oldest and Her Sibling(s)
A week or so back:
My wife and I are considering having another child. We tried to think of it from our eldest's and youngest's points of view as well. We are sure that toddler P is not ready (or at least does not want) to be a middle child. O, having gone through the first two years of P, we had figured would be more amenable to having another sibling. But we asked her anyway…
Us: “O, what do you think about having another sibling?”
O: “Well… I kinda like the one I already have.”
When I was but a wee child, I went to a Mexicanish restaurant of dubious standards. While there I had a “meat” taco made from a chopped off-brand hotdog. The meat was higher quality than the cheese or the lettuce or pretty much everything else that Tippy Taco served.
The Tippy Taco of yore is not to be confused with today’s Tippy’s Taco House. I can tell you from the pictures alone, Tippy’s Taco House cannot compete with the glorious memories that I have of Tippy Taco of Texas.
Is it possible for Mexican food to be vulgar?
Some would argue that there is no such thing as “good” Mexican food but I disagree. I worked in Mexico City regularly (as a travelling telecommunications consultant) and can verify that there is such a thing. There is just no such thing as good Mexican beer. (Much like Taco Bell though, I will still have Mexican beer on occasion.)
There is Mexican food and there is Tex-Mex food. I prefer the latter but often enjoy the former.
There is also the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Tippy Taco won top honors in the last two categories.
Tippy Taco was neither Mexican nor Tex-Mex cuisine. It was Tex-Mex as prepared by someone who heard from someone who heard from a Martian how to prepare Mexican dog food.
I did not eat at Tippy Taco today. Instead, I brought my lunch to work expecting to eat it. Instead of that last instead, I was treated to lunch by one of my colleague’s boss who took us to El Fenix.
The Fenix has not risen. The Tippy hatchling is still buried in her ash.
I thought to myself, “This must be the Mexican food equivalent of National Health Care.”
I shall hereafter refer to El Fenix as Barfy’s Recycled Mexican Food and Discount Fertilizer.
When the Democrat election primaries came to either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton, I was critical of both. My primary complaint about Senator Obama was that he had absolutely no substance. My primary complaint(s) about Senator Clinton is her substance was similar to that left on the fields by a large bovine.
I asked the Democrats to provide some substance for their nominee. Now Senator Barack has been filling in the blanks. He still has the substance of warm Jello – excrement flavored Jello that is ten times as “flavorful” as Senator Clinton’s to be exact and we are all expected to eat it.
I am now in a similar situation with my own party though. Senator McCain’s campaign website, http://www.johnmccain.com, allows for quick access to the issues and the campaign platform. What it does not articulate well are the goals of the administration. There are some exceptions, such as a balanced budget by 2013, but for the most part does not, especially in comparison to Barack Obama’s website.
I do not ask that the campaign go into the detail that the Obama site does; I do not believe that the position of President is that of a “super Senator” who drafts legislation as well as executes it. (If Senators Obama and Biden win the election, I can foresee a massive problem with separations of powers where aides to Obama are drafting legislation and giving it to congress to “pass”.)
I do ask that a better explanation of what spending will be cut – and I really, audaciously hope that it will.
Perhaps it is best not to go into too great of detail about their plans. I know from their platform that I will vote for them. Others who likely would vote for them may not if they discover that their favorite “pork project” is going to be “axed”.
I just ask for some meat and to please leave the Jello back in Congress.
