text:
A blog about both stuff and things
I work in social services and live in the Midwest with my lovely wife and 3 wonderful cats.
Not opposed to living long enough to see the last priest strangled with the entrails of the last politician.
Only trickster gods exist
A very important list
The people in the U.S. Border Patrol are scum
Deadspin is dead. Long live Deadspin
Escorting and other things
I, satanist
The death throes of Leviathan
Evangelical haunted houses
Good Guy With a Gun fails to stop Bad Guy With a Gun because "whites don't shoot whites"
robertbaden on The people in the U.S. Border Patrol are scum
ColeYote on Deadspin is dead. Long live Deadspin
I Have Forgiven Jesus on Deadspin is dead. Long live Deadspin
lochaber on Deadspin is dead. Long live Deadspin
I Have Forgiven Jesus on Escorting and other things
Brony, Social Justice Cenobite on Escorting and other things
Jazzlet on Escorting and other things
Pierce R. Butler on Escorting and other things
Much Like ICE, the people in the U.S. Border Patrol are scum. From the child jailers, to logistics-preoccupied administrators, fuck you:
Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant, was seriously ill when immigration agents put him in a small South Texas holding cell with another sick boy on the afternoon of May 19.
A few hours earlier, a nurse practitioner at the Border Patrol's dangerously overcrowded processing center in McAllen had diagnosed him with the flu and measured his fever at 103 degrees. She said that he should be checked again in two hours and taken to the emergency room if his condition worsened.
None of that happened. Worried that Carlos might infect other migrants in the teeming McAllen facility, officials moved him to a cell for quarantine at a Border Patrol station in nearby Weslaco.
By the next morning, he was dead.
Carlos was the sixth migrant child to die after being detained while entering the U.S. in less than a year. Some died of preexisting illnesses, but at least two others died of the flu diagnosed while in Border Patrol custody. Carlos was the only one to die at a Border Patrol station; the others were taken to medical facilities after falling ill. In the previous decade, not a single migrant child had died in custody.
Unlike ICE, a recent creation, the Border Patrol has a much longer, bloodier, and irredeemably racist history. The most important book I read this year was Greg Grandin's The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (a summary by Jedediah Britton-Purdy can be found here). It is crucial for an understanding of the current crisis along the US's southern borders, as well as serving to demolish the ignorant, self-aggrandizing narratives Americans tell themselves. It really should be required reading.
Among many other topics, Grandin elucidates how various strains of racist cowboys, the KKK, and violent goons coalesced into what became the U.S. Border Patrol. From its creation, it attracted the worst fucking people. In Grandin's words, "fearing they were losing the larger struggle in defense of Anglo-Saxonism, white supremacists took control of the newly established U.S. Border Patrol and turned it into a vanguard of race vigilantism."
I like to think I'm pretty well-informed about the historical violence perpetuated by the US, so much that I sometimes feel desensitized. But the wanton bloodshed and cruelty Grandon describes was astonishing and painful to read (though not surprising). Grandin references the Refusing to Forget project which documents racial violence along the US-Mexico border from 1910-1920:
The dead included women and men, the aged and the young, long-time residents and recent arrivals. They were killed by strangers, by neighbors, by vigilantes and at the hands of local law enforcement officers and the Texas Rangers. Some were summarily executed after being taken captive, or shot under the flimsy pretext of trying to escape. Some were left in the open to rot, others desecrated by being burnt, decapitated, or tortured by means such as having beer bottles rammed into their mouths. Extralegal executions became so common that a San Antonio reporter observed that "finding of dead bodies of Mexicans, suspected for various reasons of being connected with the troubles, has reached a point where it creates little or no interest. It is only when a raid is reported or an American is killed that the ire of the people is aroused."
Far from being surreptitious, the violence was welcomed, celebrated, and even instigated at the highest levels of society and government. As thousands fled to Mexico and decapitated bodies floated down the Rio Grande, one Texas paper spoke of "a serious surplus population that needs eliminating." Prominent politicians proposed putting all those of Mexican descent into "concentration camps" – and killing any who refused. For a decade, people would come across skeletons in the south Texas brush, marked with execution-style bullet holes in the backs of their skulls.
There's a fucking baseball team named after the Texas Rangers! I had no idea that that was what the name referred to. Suitably, they were created to fight Native Americans, and later officially incorporated into law enforcement in 1902. They literally carried out mass executions, the numbers of which will never be known. And still, they're mindlessly romanticized and celebrated, though it's hard to expect anything less from such an historically illiterate populace.
Their legacy continues in the modern-day Border Patrol, in that the latter still attracts the worst people. I titled this blog post to remind myself that there are actual humans that choose to do this. Maybe they're nice people outside of work. They're fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins. And they are all complicit to varying degrees in the death of Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez. From the ProPublica report, Carlos was
captain of the soccer team and excelled in playing instruments the school had bought by selling raffle tickets. "He played percussion and the bombo and the lyre and the trumpet," said Jose Morales Pereira, who was Carlos' teacher. "He always said, 'Professor, let's teach everyone else.' He was my leader."
I, too, am guilty. Not because I'm a functioning part of the entities that presided over Carlos's death, but because I'm a beneficiary of neoliberal capitalism and its military caretakers. I'm one of millions who disproportionately consume the world's resources. I play a role in human misery and ecological destruction, though this is mostly abstracted, obscured and exported to places like Guatemala. It was from there that Carlos left and ultimately returned. At his funeral,
[t]housands of mourners poured in from around the country to follow behind his casket, which was borne by soccer teammates down a long dirt road to the cemetery.
Pallbearers taped his royal blue No. 9 soccer jersey to the top of his casket as they laid it to rest. "Maybe in all of his life, the 16 years that he was in this life, maybe he didn't do many things, but he did move us," said a speaker at his funeral. "He touched hearts."
I hope his death wasn't in vain. But I'm too skeptical not to think otherwise.
bad people, bigotry, law, state violence
How are you? I hope you're good. I've been kinda okay. I say kinda because almost a year ago I had a panic attack. I didn't know what was happening to me. It took a few days to settle down, but then the stomach aches started. To this day they haven't really stopped. It is generally believed I have IBS. I've seen specialists; therapists; had various tests, including an ultrasound; changed diets; taken various over the counter meds, two different prescriptions, countless supplements and teas; meditated consistently and so far, nothing has led to, well, getting back to normal.
The last-ditch effort, which is still ongoing, is Zoloft, which I was terrified to start taking. I can't tell if it's helping or not. At first it seemed like it wasn't. Then it got a little better. The last 2 weeks have been worse. Per my doctor, I'm continuing with it for 6 months to a year. Though if, by the 6-month mark, it hasn't demonstrably helped, I'll likely stop. And then it's just sucking it up and dealing with it, which isn't too different then what I've dealt with the past year.
It almost seems as if the panic attack led to something breaking inside of me that hasn't been and may never be fixed. It's just such a weird thing to have a stomach ache all day every day for a week straight. It sucks but it's not the worst. It has made my life less good, but it's not the worst that could happen to me. So many deal with so much worse.
As I am wont to do, I started this post weeks ago and left it unfinished – one of dozens of blogs in various states of disrepair. Over the past few months, I've primarily been scratching the itch to write on social media: pithy, caustic, poignant and hilarious posts that likely induce eye-rolling by friends and family. Behold:
Antifa: Fascism is bad and needs to be confronted, lest its genocidal philosophies again take root.
Pudding-brained conservative politicians: ANTIFA ARE LITERAL TERRORISTS!
Right wing extremists: [responsible for an overwhelming amount of domestic extremist-related murder, including the Gilroy Garlic Festival mass shooting]
Pudding-brained conservative politicians: Something something thoughts and prayers and mental health and senseless tragedy and [trails off; resumes racist dog whistling, demonizes immigrants/refugees/Muslims, likely renews calls for labeling Antifa a terrorist organization]
(This was posted after the Garlic Fest shooting and before the El Paso shooting)
Anyways, the desire to write again in this blog occurred while listening to an episode of Science Friday, which made me want to put my fist through a wall. The relevant section was about deforestation in the Amazon. Very often I've noticed the host, Ira Flatow, seamlessly segueing from horrifying environmental news into something tech-related. And this is probably just me, but I always get annoyed with his tone, which alters between vaguely sad & subdued, and cloyingly optimistic. During the Amazon segment I noticed something that I hadn't ever heard before: genuine dread in his voice as if he had actually confronted – conceivably for the first time – the ongoing horror of the destruction of the Amazon. Of course, perhaps I'm just projecting.
But that wasn't what made me so irate. During an interview with Brazilian scientist Carlos Nobre, Flatow asked if he had hope. And this brilliant, intelligent, shrewd man of science said yes. Why? Because "the people" don't want the Amazon cut down. The "people" need to and will get out and vote because Brazil remains a democracy (never mind the fact that "the people" voted for a borderline fascist).
Readers of my blog, given my past output, may justifiably regard me as something of a nihilist, but I can't help but perceive this as absurdly hopeful in a way that is not at all warranted. My rage has lessened, but hasn't entirely subsided weeks later
This was the point I stopped writing. I just didn't and still don't have the will to deconstruct why I feel his optimism is both unjustified and dangerous. I'm tired. Sad. I feel hopeless – for the indigenous peoples, nonhuman animals, trees, rivers.
Switching gears – I'm going to talk a little further about what's going on with me. For a few years I volunteered at a restorative justice program for youth that was recently discontinued. My city apparently decided that actually things are fine for our delinquent youth and the status quo is sufficient.
I felt I should be doing something else and decided on abortion clinic escorting. If you aren't already aware, escorts guide patients into clinics and act as a shield against pro-life protesters. The clinic I'm at provides half of the state's abortion services and has only one doctor on staff. Of course I was cognizant of the existence of the protesters, though it was mostly in the abstract sense, because I don't see them in my day-to-day life. But when one escorts they're just there, with their signs, loudspeakers, and punchable faces. And it's their constitutional right to do so, apparently!
One of the horrifying things I learned was that kitty corner from the clinic is another clinic, which is basically a front for a Christian group that tries to dissuade women from abortions. So when women come to their appointments, the pro-lifers converge and, amongst other horseshit they yell, try to convince them to go to the other "free clinic" across the street. Devious fucks.
Another somewhat interesting thing I learned, that should have been intuitive had I considered it, was the segregation of the various Christian groups: evangelicals out in front, in-your-face and holding gory placards; quieter Catholics somewhat respectfully across the street; Children of the Corn-like Quiverfull adolescents; and unaffiliated damaged people with nothing better to do with their lives. And scattered throughout are the children, forced by their parents to waste their youth on religious zealotry.
The protesters especially scorn male escorts such as myself, who are emasculated degenerates who gleefully aid in fetus genocide. I experienced this firsthand upon leaving one day. I had taken off my rainbow-colored vest (a thus far fool-proof way to dissuade infiltration) and began walking to my car. I was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt and, aside from comments about the shirt, I was called a "Mary." To my back, of course. I'm still smarting from it.
Overall, I theorized I would be good for this because I couldn't care less what people for whom I have no respect said to me. And that's proven to be the case so far. I've literally never said a word to any of them. Sure, I've laughed and smirked and talked about them as they stood feet away. But I have no desire to engage in discussion. We are instructed not to do so, but most of the escorts at one time or another will, whether out of anger, amusement or exasperation, talk to them.
A lot of the regulars are damaged, and have experienced trauma: a man who was supposedly able to pray the gay away thanks to conversion therapy; someone who was abused as a child, did every "drug there is" and was a "whoremonger;" the Quiverfull kids indoctrinated into their grossly misogynist cult since birth. So I am able to maintain a tiny amount of empathy (or sympathy? I can't decide which), though it evaporates the second they start screaming at women about how they're murdering their child and don't have to do it.
In the past, escorts at this location have experienced doxing, being followed to their cars, having car tire lug nuts loosened, and protesters showing up at their houses. They've had to get restraining orders. They've witnessed cars wedged into the clinic entryway. I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing any of this, although I'm apparently on a protester's livestream somewhere on the internet. Originally conceived as a 6 month program, escorting still exists at this location 25 years later because it needs to – these people are tenacious and need to be confronted.
Finally, I want to mention LINGUA IGNOTA putting out the album of the year. The first time I heard it I was reading and decided to put on some background music. But this is not background music. For the next 10 minutes I sat with my mouth agape. So so fucking good, raw and brutal. If just one of you listens to this I will be satisfied.
Not sure if this will lead to more blogs. Maybe, maybe not.
bad people, bigotry, culture, environment, personal, religion, social services
The pope should shut the fuck up about indigenous resistance
[Note: I wrote almost all of this blog before learning of Caine's passing. I only interacted with her a few times, but I was repeatedly struck by how fierce she was in her writings. She will be missed.
Some months back, she had written that she'd like to see her fellow bloggers write about indigenous issues and we had a little back and forth about it. A coincidence, then, that it is the topic of this post. Condolences to those who knew and loved her best, and anyone else who's enjoyed her work on FtB.]
Via The Onion:
In a historic admission of the Catholic church's complicated and often shameful history, Pope Francis admitted in an informal public statement Thursday that "like, 97 percent" of Catholic leadership are "probably burning in hell right now." "Believe me, contemporary Catholics are quite familiar with our legacy of murder, rape, cultural exploitation, and thievery on every scale from splitting up South America for silver rights down to just stealing stuff—make no mistake, most of those holy men were simply terrible people who deserve to fry in their own considerable fat for eternity," said His Holiness, who took time during an informal lunch meeting with interfaith leaders to deliver a capsule history of manifold crimes committed by Vatican higher-ups, complete with a running commentary on the church's long tradition of manipulating and mistreating its devotees. "Keep in mind this was just the stuff they did to other Catholics—at least, they were Catholic when those vicious scoundrels were done with them. Well, they're paying for it in searing pain and screams now. Oh, and if someone wouldn't convert, or couldn't be converted by force? That's when we get into Crusades, the Inquisitions, Spanish and others, the name of Christ invoked in the slaughter of native peoples, which is why their eyes will forever boil from out of their roasting skulls.
This is one of the many times I lament the fact that The Onion is #fakenews. What a welcome sentiment this would be in light of the Cool Pope's somewhat recent shitty comments on the Mapuche conflict in Chile (this is something I meant to write about way back in January). First, though, who are the Mapuche and what made Francis think he had the right to tell them what to do? Stop me if you've heard this one before:
[T]he arrival of the Spanish in the 16th Century seems to have triggered the amalgamation of several indigenous groups and the forging of closer social and cultural ties, all of which is part of what we know today as the history of the Mapuche identity. The Mapuche people rebelled against Spanish subjugation and burned the cities built by the European colonizers south of the Bío Bío River. This rebellion marked the beginning of the Arauco War, in which Spain was forced to maintain a professional army to guard its territorial borders and to recognize Mapuche autonomy within indigenous lands. The Mapuche people did not submit to outside rule until 1882, when the Army of the Republic of Chile began its campaign for the "Pacification of the Araucanía Region." The campaign came in response to the urgent need to conquer usable land and was driven by an ideology that sought to eliminate indigenous groups by "civilizing" them. After the Chilean military victory, the process of colonization by European and local mestizo settlers was facilitated by restricting local indigenous inhabitants to small plots of communally held land. The direct consequences of this process for Mapuche society included a drastic decrease in their territory through reiterated, large scale usurpation, dependence on the Government as an external agent, and the breakdown of Mapuche society due to the loss of authority of the lonkos or chiefs.
The struggle has continued in fits and starts to the present day, with different groups pursuing different ends with different means – some are peaceful and some engage in property destruction (what the state and media refer to as terrorism) [1].
Their current adversaries are the usual suspects: a panoply of different entities including the state and military, non-indigenous landowners, the Catholic Church, and, of course, foreign & domestic capitalists:
Today, the Mapuche people are fighting to recover their territorial rights in the Araucanía Region. In these efforts, they confront forestry companies as well as the military. The consequences of the conflict are dramatic. Levels of poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, and illiteracy in this region are the highest in the country.
Moreover, the mass media labels Mapuche protests as "terrorist," misleading the general public and encouraging the spread of violence. The economic consortiums that control the forestry industry in the region also own the national mass media. This relationship fuels the conflict, protects specific economic interests, and validates military intervention against the Mapuche.
As for Cool Pope, he became upset because churches were burned in Mapuche territory. But, why would such things be done?
Between 1818 and 1950 during the first stage of Chilean colonization, the Chilean State used methods of evangelization [that] were used to submit and dominate the Mapuche People.
This meant the internal plunder of the self or person (what the Chilean government and the bishopric class calls the desecration of faith). Our Machi [Medicine Healers] were demonized, and their rewe [medicines] plundered and destroyed. Our sacred spaces (tren tren, trayenco, mawizantu) destroyed and eliminated, and among the ruins they planted pine and eucalyptus, houses and churches were built, and we were confined to spiritual and emotional imbalance.
In the definitive occupation of our territory, the Catholic Church played an outstanding, even military, role, acting as the vanguard in the displacement and occupation of Wallmapu [Mapuche Territory]. They were not only the transmitters of dominant norms and values, but also controlled and punished indigenous transgressors, prohibiting the continued belief in their traditional ways, imposing determined values of resignation, obedience and respect to so-called superiors.
Currently, it is not surprising that the Catholic Church owns all educational facilities in the Araucanía Region, and that every school serves as its economic bastion.
So into the fray he descends, bestowing these words of wisdom:
You cannot assert yourself by destroying others, because this only leads to more violence and division [actually, one can definitely do that – Christians were able to assert themselves all over the fucking world by destroying others and their culture. Also, burning churches isn't the same as destroying others]. Violence begets violence; destruction increases fragmentation and separation. Violence eventually makes a most just cause into a lie."[By that logic, wouldn't violence perpetrated by Christians in the name of Christianity turn Christianity into a lie? Nah – how silly of me to apply his own words to his religion] [2]
Anyways, the pope is an asshole. That he's apologized for Catholic complicity in the horrors of colonialism (which, next to absolutely nothing, is the bare minimum the Catholic church should have done a long time ago) certainly doesn't grant him moral high ground – especially when the legacies of those horrors are ongoing and still perpetuated by members of his flock.
You don't get to tell people who have been oppressed for generations by adherents of your religion how to resist their oppressors. Although, far be it from me to tell the infallible messenger of God what to do – but the Mapuche are eminently justified in telling him to fuck off.
[1] There was an incident in 2013 where white landowners, Werner Luchsinger and Vivian Mackay, were burned alive in their home by Mapuche protesters. I was only going to briefly mention this, but I ended up going down a rabbit-hole. The details are sketchy, but this occurred on the five year anniversary of a Mapuche activist shot by police on Luchsinger's property. Both situations, the shooting and arson, were preceded by conflicts/arguments that lead to death.
There was one conviction for the arson. Most recently, 11 other defendants were acquitted, with the ruling stating there was "not enough proof to support the prosecution's allegation that it was a terrorist attack or a premeditated plan to stir fear and pressure farmers into leaving their land."
To give more context, the Luchsinger family
arrived in Mapuche territory from Switzerland in the late 1800s and benefited from the government's colonisation policies for decades thereafter, becoming one of the largest landowners in Chile's Patagonia region. Their forestry and ranching companies now occupy vast stretches of southern Chile, and impoverished Mapuches live on the margins of their properties.
The nephew of the deceased couple stated that "with this attack it seems that my prophecy was being fulfilled that the region is suffering attacks to empty farmers and entrepreneurs." So long as the farmers and entrepreneurs remain, his prophecy may continue to be fulfilled on a somewhat regular basis.
[2] I don't really consider burning churches as violence. One can't commit violence against a non-sentient object. I used to think this without qualification, until I considered domestic abusers and their victims – an abuser using property destruction as an intimidation tactic certainly qualifies as violence, not to mention it being unjustified and reprehensible.
To me, when the power disparity is such that those with far less power commit property destruction against individuals or entities with far greater power, I'm not inclined to view it as violence (whether or not I agree with the cause will ultimately influence if I see it as warranted or not). The burning of Catholic churches in indigenous territory may cause psychological harm to Catholics who work there, but I don't really give a shit – the enormity of the historical and contemporary crimes & injustices perpetrated against the Mapuche by the entity they freely chose to join utterly dwarfs destroyed property. But that's just me.
bad people, bigotry, Catholicism, Christianity, hypocrisy, imperialism, politics, racism, religion, social justice, state violence
A palate cleanser for that terrible NYT piece about the "Intellectual Dark Web"
A recent episode of Revolutionary Left Radio (which I've previously fawned over) takes a deep dive into the commonalities and differences between three of the Status Quo Warrior's described in the NYT: Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and Steven Pinker (whom only makes a brief appearance in the article).
To me, it's refreshing to listen to them being discussed in this format, because they all cater to different types of reactionary audiences coagulating around the center of the political spectrum that is ever shifting to the right: Peterson for the sad and lost, Harris for the arrogant, and Pinker for the starry-eyed optimist.
But! Know that by listening to Rev Left's critiques you are contributing to the tragic misunderstanding and ultimate silencing of these precious, delicate snowflakes. If you don't mind having that on your conscience, perhaps give it a listen.
atheism, bad ideas, bad people, bigotry, culture, politics, social justice
Don't worry, the murder of Hussain Alnahdi was not race-related
Hussain Alnahdi was beaten to death on 10/31 by Cullen Osburn in Menomonie, WI. The police interviewed Osburn's friends and family on 11/2 . Osburn even called the investigator that same day. From that point until his arrest on 1/12, he remained free while the investigators took their sweet time to locate and arrest him.
His Facebook profile is still available. He didn't post anything from 10/8-12/25. After 12/25, he began again as if the unfortunate storm had passed – on 1/6 he even checked in at his son's basketball game. This would have been around 6 days before his arrest. I'm very interested why the police waited so long. Or if they were actively seeking him, which isn't clear if that's the case (detailed below), how he was able to evade the police for so long.
Given that Alnahdi was a Saudi Arabian living in white ass western Wisconsin, many thought there could be a racial component to the murder. [1] But fortunately, White America can rest assured that one of our own apparently pummeled someone to death without the scourge of bigotry in his heart. For the second time in two weeks, I feel the need to highlight the words of a university chancellor, this time at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where Alnahdi was attending:
I also think it is worth mentioning that the criminal complaint issued in this case said the suspect was adamant that the altercation was not a result of anybody's race.
Nope, it is NOT worth mentioning. The criminal complaint only notes the different witness accounts of an unintelligible argument that began after Alnahdi was approached by Osburn. The details of that argument are now only known to Osburn, and whomever he told (which I don't know how it could be regarded as reliable and/or unbiased). Certainly he and his attorney will come up with some reason to justify his attack, and that reason will not be related to any protected characteristics under hate crime laws. Moreover, he's had two and a half months to generate a plausible story that will paint him in the best possible light. We'll likely never know the truth. But sure, let's take at face value the statement he made to the police before disappearing as well as anything alleged by his obviously biased friends and family.
Osburn has a long history of violence including making terroristic threats, domestic abuse [2], and violating no contact orders with victims. Given this, I can concede that he seems violent enough to not need any race-based motivation to beat the hell out of someone. But it seems weird that Osburn would, out of all the other individuals at the scene of the crime, confront someone with a Middle-Eastern look just standing around.
The recent spate of news stories regarding the situation haven't brought up something that bothers me. In mid-November the authorities announced they had zeroed in on a suspect, but were unsure whether or not to charge him. Given the fact that he beat someone to death (regardless of motivation), and the aforementioned criminal history, he wasn't placed in custody because the
police do not believe he is a threat to the public. Police say they have no evidence indicating the assault was racially motivated and are withholding the suspect's name pending charges. (emphasis added)
This has, to my knowledge, not been commented on since the arrest. I may be a delicate flower, but given the facts that are, and were known all along by the police, he seems kind of threatening. This would seem to contradict the idea that the police were actively pursuing him.
The only unknown all along has been intent – within a few days of the murder the police knew the suspect's name, his family, and, unless they were comically inept, his extensive criminal history in Minnesota. [3] And yet they apparently waited over two months to do anything about it. Perhaps there's a good reason. But I can't help but wonder how fast he would've been in custody had the victim been, say, an off duty police officer. Or someone who came from a family with a sufficient amount of social capital to warrant a quicker decision.
[1] The Daily Caller has a post about the story, crowing about how Osburn is not a Trump supporter. I find it hard to believe that many thought the perpetrator was a Trump supporter rather than a bigot (though it's understandably hard not to conflate the two, they are not mutually exclusive). Nevertheless, Osburn does not seem to be a Trump supporter, but the obvious point of this garbage article is to revel in a possible hate crime not being one – though a motive has not been released and appears to be unverifiable. Because the uptick in violence against Muslims is a liberal fantasy, you see.
[2] Shouldn't more domestic abuse cases be hate crimes? There has to be an element of a general hatred towards women in many of these cases. At any rate, Osburn's Facebook page indicates he's misogynistic as fuck.
[3] Not to mention his social media presence. In one Facebook post from July he posts "Anger management i hate this shit …"
My shitty alma mater
"Journalist" and terrible human Milo Yiannopoulos recently spoke at UW-Milwaukee, one of my alma maters, because it's essential that higher education institutions allow a platform for every possible viewpoint in the name of free speech. It went about as one would expect, with the possible exception that he outed a trans student in the audience and alleged that she was a sexual predator (I am blessedly ignorant of what typically happens at his talks).
In an attempt at saving face, Chancellor Mark Mone, who was certainly apprised of the possible negative affects of the talk, released an exceptionally pathetic statement saying, among other public relations type nothing-speak, that
I also will not stand silently by when a member of our campus community is personally and wrongly attacked. I am disappointed that this speaker chose to attack a transgender student.
So brave, so courageous to take such a stand of sending out an email to all of UWM's students and exhorting them to
respond to tonight's event with positive messages, not anger. Join me on social media in using #UWMstandstogether to tell our city, state and nation about the wonderful things happening on our campus and the valuable contributions of our students, faculty and staff.
Yup, that should do it. A bigotry free utopia should be forthcoming any day now. My eyes are rolling into the back of my head.
All of this is horrible, but the point of this post is to highlight the student's response which, in lieu of highlighting especially poignant sections, I'm posting in full. It's well-written, emotionally raw, and enraging that anyone has to experience what she went through.
Chancellor Mark Mone
GO FUCK YOURSELF.
I am the trans student that was attacked and your email is nothing short of insulting. I wasn't going to write this email at first, even after Milo attacked me, but then I saw your email and I'm SO FUCKING SICK of your goddamn lip service. Seriously go fuck yourself.
Your email? I don't even know where to begin. Also, I don't care if you feel "offended" or "harassed". Welcome to my life. Sue me. I'd be more than happy to defend my free speech in court (since this is what you call it apparently) to lambast your ass for being an ungodly, fucking pathetic "ally." And quite frankly I don't care who the fuck reads this email (as you can tell by the CC) or what people think of me. I'm aware of where this email can end up. So be it. My "give a fuck card" was thrown out the window a long time ago. I'm going to write about you and YOUR fucked-up bullshit.
Your words: "I also will not stand silently by when a member of our campus community is personally and wrongly attacked." That is probably the biggest piece of goddamn fucking bullshit I've ever read. What exactly do you plan to do? OH YEAH, NOTHING, BECAUSE YOU'RE A COWARDLY PIECE OF SHIT. Your "not standing silently" apparently consists of a single email mass-sent to the university. That's it. You don't get a fucking cookie for that. What else were you going to go? NOTHING. You were planning on doing jack shit.
Did you even attempt to reach out to me? NOPE. Not even an email, nothing. Instead it was supposed to suffice to just send a nice little bit of polished hogwash to the general campus. Is that right? Were you trying to head off student protests calling for you to be sacked or something? You'd like nothing better than for this to just blow over. Seriously what the hell ARE you even doing right now? You say you're not standing by silently? BULL-FUCKING-SHIT YOU POMPOUS ASSHOLE. YES YOU ARE.
Don't act like you didn't know this would happen. You knew goddamn well it would. I lost track of how many people pointed this out to you. And what the hell did you do when students tried to organize and deliver a petition to cancel Milo's event? YOU FUCKING CALLED THE COPS ON THEM. LIKE WHAT IN THE LIVING FUCK. Your asshole level is off the charts, especially because you feign concern about this with one hand while backhanding all of us with the other. Because there's nothing like the threat of state violence to keep people in line.
Seriously, you FUCKING CALLED THE GODDAMN POLICE on students at your office who were raising extremely valid concerns about Milo, you forcibly threw students out, and then you want to turn around and act like you didn't see this coming? How fucking naïve do you think we are?
This also isn't just a case of a speaker going off an a tangent like that, like some random occurrence. It was not a case where you had no way of knowing he would do this. Quite the contrary: Milo has a supremely extensive, highly-documented track record of doing precisely this. As I've already said, YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN. WE TOLD YOU IT WOULD. AND WE TOLD YOU AGAIN. AND AGAIN. But you brushed this off under "muh free speech" bullshit.
Do tell me, if someone invited a fucking modern Hitler to campus, would you allow that? Because that's what your bullshit argument says. How about David Duke of the KKK, can we invite him? Or how about Andrew Anglin, the self-proclaimed Nazi who runs the Daily Stormer website? (Yes, he is an actual Nazi. That is not hyperbole.) Can we invite him? Genuine question. You've already allowed a fascist on campus, so can we invite a full-fledged Nazi? Are there no bounds? Maybe we should invite a radical who advocates burning down Chapman Hall, because speakers like that can be found (and no, me typing that sentence is not a threat to destroy property. "Words don't hurt anyone" as the fascist you defended last night would say.)
Free speech does not cover harassment, and that's exactly what Milo did to me. But hey, do email about hashtagging #UWMstandstogether as if that fucking accomplishes anything. Damn, you fucking liberals really drive me up the wall. Now you can spend all of 10 seconds making some half-assed tweet, give it a cute hashtag, and go about your day feeling like you did something. NO. YOU DON'T GET CREDIT FOR THAT. YOU ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING. You're as embarrassing as the people who wear a safety pin and think that counts as being an ally—patting yourself on the back for a job well done—all while you stand silent as fascists attack your students. Some ally. Or making a hashtag that virtually nobody in the city will see, and which will do abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Good grief…UWM "stands together"…as you fucking call the police on students who tried to petition you…as you divide and attack marginalized students while saying you want unity…as you allow a fascist to use "free speech" as an pretense to harass and attack. The amount of doublethink here is just incredible.
And we're supposed to respond with positive messages, not anger? WHAT FUCKING WORLD DO YOU LIVE IN. Do you have any idea how much fucking privilege you have to even BEGIN saying something like that? WHAT. THE. FUCK. You do NOT get to dictate how we feel. You do NOT get to tell us what our emotions should be. Oh but okay, here's a positive message: Nobody died! WOO-FUCKING-HOO! Positivity! Go Panthers!
Fuck no. I am done getting repeatedly abused and shit on, and expected to just take it and not be angry. But don't worry, I'm not angry. I'm way, way beyond that. I am SO FUCKING DONE having to justify my humanity to shitheads like you all the fucking time. Angry bitches get shit done. You say to not respond with "anger"…goddamn you haven't the slightest fucking clue what pervasive marginalization is like.
Do you even know what Milo said about me? Do you, asshole? Here, I'll type a bit out for you, because I highly doubt you actually know what that fascist said about me from his podium in front of hundreds of people (and live-streamed on Breitbart in front of thousands):
>>> Context: Milo just finished mocking feminists who critique the very harmful phrase 'man up' <<<
Milo: "I'll tell you one UW-Milwaukee student that does not need to man up, and that is (Student's name)."
>>> Milo puts an image of me, taken from last spring when I was earlier in my transition and appeared significantly more masculine, on the main screen<<<
Milo: "Do you know about (Student's Name)? Have any of you come into contact with this person? This quote unquote nonbinary trans—you're not laughing now, are you, you know him—this quote unquote nonbinary trans woman forced his way into the women's locker rooms this year. Who knows about this story, any of you?"
>>>Milo looks around, people laugh<<<
"I see you don't even read your own student media. He got into the women's room the way liberals always operate, using the government and the courts to weasel their way where they don't belong. In this case he made a Title IX complaint. Title IX is a set of rules to protect women on campus effectively. It's couched in the language of equality, but it's really about women, which under normal circumstances would be fine except for how it's implemented. Now it is used to put men in to women's bathrooms. I have known some passing trannies in my life. Trannies—you're not allowed to say that. I've known some passing trannies, which is to say transgender people who pass as the gender they would like to be considered."
>>> Milo directs the audience's attention to the image of me.<<<
"Well, no."
>>>Audience laughs. <<<
Milo: "The way that you know he's failing is I'd almost still bang him."
>>> Audience begins laughing a lot, keeps laughing <<<
Milo: "It's just…it's just a man in a dress, isn't it? I should reapply my lipstick…"
And all you can say is you're "disappointed" he attacked me? Disappointed? Are you fucking kidding me? How about ENRAGED or INFURIATED. What the fuck is this use of disappointed? Tranny is the equivalent of faggot, and you're disappointed? Really? REALLY? YOU FUCKING THINK???? Goddamn. Oh but you condemn it. Okay, that forgives everything. Not.
You: "I would not deprive students or our community of opportunities to hear diverse viewpoints."
Translation: I would never deprive students of the ability to collectively harass and verbally assault another student, because it's "free speech."
I was at Milo's event. You have NO FUCKING IDEA what that was like. NO. FUCKING. IDEA. I knew this event would bring out all the worst people on campus, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Standing in line was bad enough. Luckily at this point in my life, I look substantially more feminine than I did last spring (when almost everybody perceived me as a "boy in girls' clothes"), and I'm correctly gendered as a woman probably 90%+ of the time now. Anyway I'm in line waiting, and in front of me two dudes are making hateful comments about trans folk. Yet 10 minutes after that, one of them was looking at my chest and checking me out. In my mind the only thing I'm thinking is, "If this person knew he was sexually attracted to a trans girl…holy shit…" because asshole boys like him tend to get extremely aggressive if they realize a girl they found attractive has a penis.
But that was still bearable and I was prepared in case they realized I'm trans (thankfully they didn't). I also knew Milo was going to regurgitate a profound amount of racist and transphobic hate. What I did not anticipate was being specifically targeted and called out in the way he did. I hadn't said anything or made even the slightest disruption: He had his harassment of me planned out well in advance. I'm sitting there and I hear him say "(my name" and I just froze up. I have never, ever, ever been more terrified in my life of being outed. Ever. He put my picture up, which as already stated, was taken from a prior period when my masculine features were significantly more sharp and extremely noticeable. And I am sitting there frozen in total terror that somebody around me would recognize me, point me out, and incite the mob of the room against me. Nobody did point me out, thank god. But do you have ANY idea how much power Milo had and how it feels to pray that your ability to "pass" doesn't fail you now? That's what it was like. Fuck, you can't even appreciate what I'm writing. You say you do but you really don't. You do NOT have this perspective. I was looking at the stage, consciously aware of trying to not look "suspicious" and reveal I was the person he was talking about (even as I could feel the color draining from my face), but also not looking at Milo directly 'lest he recognize me and instantly set off dozens of people screaming at me.
I was trapped in fear and went numb. Completely numb. I felt nothing. I was having a severe, emotional, traumatic response to being fucking called out and directly targeted by this transphobic asshole in front of thousands of people, and my body's main coping mechanism for severe stress is to shut down all emotions. I couldn't even cry, and that's probably a good thing because it would've outed me. Even after the event, I still felt nothing and was "fine." It wasn't until hours later, as my body began to process it, that I broke down sobbing uncontrollably. I can handle transphobia (you're basically forced to as a trans girl) but Milo went way the fuck beyond that in what he did to me.
Do you have any fucking idea how hurtful this is? Do you know what it's like to be in a room full of people who are laughing at you as if you're some sort of perverted freak, and how many of them would have hollered at me (or worse) if I was outed? Do you know what this kind of terror is? No, you don't, because as a cis person you do not understand. Sorry-not-sorry, but you don't and you can't. You don't understand how misgendering is violence. Yes, VIOLENCE. And did you miss the part where Milo was talking about having sex with me? Aka shoving his dick up my ass, and joking about applying lipstick to seduce me. How the fuck is this acceptable? This is both gender and sexual harassment. What court upholds this as free speech? Answer: NOBODY. THIS WAS SPECIFICALLY TARGETED AT ME. WHAT FUCKING COURT HAS EVER UPHELD THIS SORT OF HARASSMENT DIRECTED SPECIFICALLY AGAINST A STUDENT AS "FREE SPEECH"? Just wait, now an apologist for fascists will find one lonely example, amidst a plethora that protect students from harassment.
If you actually cared about students, you would have blocked this student org from bringing Milo here, and had they fought it in court you would have battled back and prevailed. The difference here is Milo harasses specific people and incites violence against them. That is not protected, and other universities have successfully blocked him because of that. But you're too busy kissing the ass of trans-hating republicans running the state and letting fascists attack whomever they want.
But whatever, let Milo joke about fucking me (up the ass). Who gives a fuck about sexual violence. It's not like I've been raped or anything before (actually, I have). Universities regularly push that under the rug in order to protect their sorry-ass reputations. I sure as hell wouldn't put that past UWM either. And Milo is the Dangerous Faggot after all. Let him repeatedly commit violence against me by erasing my identity and painting me as some sort of male sex predator preying on women in the bathroom. Because who cares if a student is slandered? WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT THOSE GODDAMN CODDLED STUDENTS? Who cares if they get harassed?
Perhaps this might be an explanation you can somewhat, partially understand on what it's like to be misgendered and how this is violence, Mark Mone: Pretend you go to a restaurant to order a meal, and when you arrive, you're given a gendered greeting of, "Hello woman, how may I take your order?" After placing your order, "Thank you ma'am, that will be such and such." Then when you receive your order, "Oh hey, did you know you're STILL not a man? Because you're not. Oh and here's your food, thank you!" And whenever anybody interacts with you, you're called she all day, every fucking day. Imagine a similar scene again an hour later at the gas station. Now imagine it CONSTANTLY happening, on a DAILY basis, every week of the year, EVERY GODDAMN YEAR OF YOUR LIFE. You get to a point where it really, really severely fucks with you. The endless invalidation and relentless attack.
Oh who the fuck am I kidding. Why am I bothering even trying to explain what it's like? It completely escapes your mind the very real violence Milo intentionally committed against me by calling me a man over and over in the name of "free speech" and slandering me as a sex predator.
You will also never know what it's like wanting to die every day, you don't know what it's like attempting suicide multiple times, you don't know what it's like looking down 20 stories to a concrete ground and being an inch away from plummeting to death, you don't know what it's like putting your neck on a railroad track, only to chicken out right before the train got there and cursing yourself for not going through with it, (to your fucking bullshit police, no I am not suicidal right now but you fucks will try and twist past-tense into present. you pretentious assholes), you don't know what it's like to look in the mirror every goddamn morning and see a face you don't recognize, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE GOING THROUGH PUBERTY FOR THE WRONG FUCKING GENDER. THIS IS A HELL YOU CANNOT, AND WILL NOT, AND ARE UTTERLY FUCKING INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING. And then being denied medical access for years and years and years. Do NOT have the audacity and gall to say you "understand" our concerns. NO YOU DO NOT. You don't know what it's like being in poverty and unable to pay for physical transitions, and locked in the wrong body. You have NO FUCKING CLUE what it's like to be in our shoes and having to pretend everything is fine and dandy. And then to have the university defend a speaker that targets you by name and puts up a masculine-looking picture of you to laugh at…regardless if I had been there in person (sitting in terror) or hiding in my home, HOLY FUCKING SHIT. FUCK YOU. JUST FUCK YOU.
Honest to god, if any student said or did that to me, it would be a complete and total violation of university policy on harassment. NO student could say those things and get away with it. NOBODY. BECAUSE FOR THE 100TH FUCKING TIME, HARASSMENT AND VERBALLY ASSAULTING PEOPLE IS NOT FREE SPEECH. But if they bring in an outside speaker who does THE SAME EXACT FUCKING THING, then apparently it's okay because "free speech." Seriously, do you not comprehend how contradictory and fucked-up your logic is?
Can I bring in a speaker who goes on a tirade and personally insults, attacks, and makes crude sexual jokes about a student in the Turning Point USA org? And then do it again for the next student, until every student in that organization is thoroughly trashed? Is that free speech?
NO YOU ASSHOLE, IT IS NOT. HARASSMENT IS NOT FREE SPEECH. AND YOU FUCKING KNEW MILO WOULD DO THIS. WE TOLD YOU. YOU REFUSED TO LISTEN.
But you know what, I'm not done ranting against your transphobic ass yet. I'd like to tell anybody who is still reading this email the other bullshit going on in this hellhole. You have rung me around ever since last January with your locker room bullshit. You do realize there are trans and intersex people on campus who 100% avoid the locker room and Klotsche Center because YOU still insist on policing their body parts? And yes, I say YOU personally because YOU approve of the unpublished "interim policy" that does just this and still forbids any nonconforming body part from being exposed for so much as a second. This is where you're truly a transphobic ass. You are no ally. If a transgender man changes clothing in the men's locker room, and someone sees his breast, YOU would seek to punish the trans man for the so-called "crime" of changing his clothes. Nevermind how totally fucking inverted this reasoning is.
And you won't commit to putting a locker room policy on paper either, so instead you have something that's transphobic as fuck yet only verbal, making it harder to track and challenge. You're taking ZERO leadership on this and are instead stalling for time, waiting for the issue to be forced and decided in the courts. Yet you're "proud" of the work the LGBT resource center does? Goddamn if that's the case (it's not; you're a transphobic asshole), then either be an actual trans-inclusive leader or get the fuck out of the way.
I knew when I went public last spring with all the transphobic bullshit YOU were putting me through that trolls would pick up on it. I was ready for that. But what I'm NOT going to gloss over is your contemptible pandering to trans and intersex folk, and your fucking self-righteous email and related bullshit you put forth claiming to stand with marginalized people like me. NO YOU DO NOT.
Your administration never wanted to allow me and other trans and intersex folk locker room access in the first place. You fucks originally tried to force me into the men's locker room (which ironically, I couldn't change clothing in there right now either because I have breasts…or are you so incredibly transphobic you don't recognize that my breast development is indeed female breasts? I can't change clothing anywhere under your goddamn policy unless I run off and lock myself in a stall), or to force me into a completely segregated, single-user space that lacked a sauna and pool access. It was only—and I repeat, only—because your attorneys advised you that you had to allow access that you ever let me back in to the locker room after originally banning me. And even then, you insisted I follow special restrictions (which by the way, I long, long, long ago disregarded. You're in another fucking world if you think I'd submit to that bullshit.) And you continue to marginalize other trans and intersex individuals in locker rooms to this very day. If someone who appears trans wants to use the facility, you'll have them yanked aside and given a body-shaming lecture where they are told they must always cover up in a locker room…a fucking locker room where undressing is expected…fuck you really are backwards. It's apparent our bodies will never be acceptable to you.
Besides deliberately and purposely preventing a trans-inclusive locker room policy, your list of shit also includes throwing ALL of your trans and intersex employees under the bus by refusing to fight for their right to have medical procedures and treatment covered by insurance. You are PERFECTLY content with the status quo of denying medical service, as much as you may pretend otherwise. In fact, you recently had a prospective hire walk away from a job offer because they were transgender and you refused to provide medical benefits. But do continue blaming your bullshit on third party "outside of your control" crap and doing meaningless shit to change that.
I can keep listing more things but you know what, just go fuck yourself and in all honestly, drop your T from LGBT. Quit pretending. You do not stand for or represent trans folk and you ignore our needs. Asshole. You are LGB at best and a complete transphobic jerk. I'm done with you. Coming to this university was one of the single-most, worst mistakes I have ever made in my life. At the time you were supposedly ranked 5 stars for LGBTQ+ friendliness and sold me a colossal amount of bullshit to that effect. HA! WHAT A FUCKING JOKE. I really do genuinely regret ever coming here. It was a mistake.
Believe me when I say no matter how much you might dislike (or resent) this email, any pain you feel from what I wrote is but a tiny fraction of the pain I felt, and still feel in my chest and throughout my body, when Milo attacked me, and the pain trans folk feel just for existing in this society. You are so, so incredibly blinded by your privilege and place in society. Fuck you.
(Student's Name)
Former student at this godforsaken university
P.S. To Mark Mone and your cronies: I'm not going to respond to any phone calls, emails, or attempts to have me speak with anyone. I am never returning to your goddamn campus again. Ever. GOODBYE BITCHES. And very specifically to you Mark Mone and other spineless liberal assholes that fully support bringing a fascist speaker to campus who is EXTRAORDINARILY well-known to harass and target specific students: From the bottom of my heart, truly, FUCK YOU.
DAPL activists kept in dog kennels
Not sure if someone else posted about this already. From the LA Times:
Protesters said that those arrested in the confrontation had numbers written on their arms and were housed in what appeared to be dog kennels, without bedding or furniture. Others said advancing officers sprayed mace and pelted them with rubber bullets.
"It goes back to concentration camp days," said Mekasi Camp-Horinek, a protest coordinator who said authorities wrote a number on his arm when he was housed in one of the mesh enclosures with his mother, Casey."
Meanwhile, the State is very proud of their magnanimity:
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kerchmeier said he was coordinating with Standing Rock officials to assist protesters in recovering teepees and other belongings, calling it a "a great example of communication, collaboration and cooperation." He added: "I am very proud of our officers" who "responded with patience and professionalism and showed continuous restraint throughout the entire event."
This happened in 2016 in America.
bigotry, DAPL, police violence, racism, social justice


text:
Turkey Table of Contents
This edition of Turkey: A Country Study replaces the previous edition published in 1988. Like its predecessor, the present book attempts to treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant historical, social, economic, political, and national security aspects of contemporary Turkey. Sources of information included scholarly books, journals, and monographs; official reports and documents of governments and international organizations; and foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals. Relatively up-to-date economic data were available from several sources, but the sources were not always in agreement.
Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book; brief comments on some of the more valuable sources for further reading appear at the conclusion of each chapter. Measurements are given in the metric system; a conversion table is provided to assist those who are unfamiliar with the metric system (see table 1, Appendix A). Appendix B is a list of selected political parties and labor organizations, with their acronyms. The Glossary provides brief definitions of terms that may be unfamiliar to the general reader.
The authors have attempted to follow standard Turkish spelling of Turkish words, phrases, and place-names. The principal guide used was The Concise Oxford Turkish Dictionary (1971 edition). The place-names used are those established by the United States Board on Geographic Names as of September 1984. A few exceptions were made for well-known geographical features. For example, the study uses Bosporus and Dardanelles instead of Istanbul Bogazi and �anakkale Bogazi. In addition, although Mustafa Kemal did not become Kemal Atat�rk until the Law of Surnames was enacted in 1934, he is referred to throughout as Atat�rk. However, the Turkish names appearing in the text of this volume are missing most of the diacritics used by the language. In this case, it is a matter of lagging technology: the typesetting software being used simply cannot produce all of the necessary diacritics in the text (although they appear on the maps). For this the authors apologize and hope that by the time this country study is updated, missing diacritics will no longer be the norm.
The body of the text reflects information available as of January 1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred since the completion of research, and the Country Profile and Appendix B include updated information as available.
Data as of January 1995

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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The Popularity of Indian Rummy Card Games Online
Top 5 Causes of a Faulty Air Conditioner


I have a love hate relationship with Master chef. On one hand it fascinates me and on the other it has become one big weeping slobbering quest for perfection. Few people own up to watching yet it's back into production for its 7th season. That must mean that it has a lot of viewers. I count myself in there because I would watch a fly cooking. cooking is cooking to me and I have the sickest of obsessions.
One of the most fascinating and talked about parts of Master chef, besides the way George uses a knife and fork is Matt Preston. He manages to polarize people's feelings, I don't really mind him as long as I don't have to watch him chewing. I was swayed a little by meeting him back at about Master chef 4. I went to a lunch English v's French at Felix Bistro with Marco Pierre White as the tyrant in charge of the kitchen that day. In between the cooking George, Gary and Matt were hanging around the bar, and so I might add, was I. The fun banter confirmed he is both irreverent and quite sarcastic. I didn't mind, it felt like I was in a restaurant kitchen with a smart arse waiter or chef and that made me feel at home. It was a brush with fame in an odd way because after watching Matt act like himself for 4 seasons I felt like I already knew him, which of course I don't. One of my favourite parts of the week on MC is the Master class, where Gary and George demonstrate their prowess in the kitchen in order to remind us that they themselves are Master chefs and are quite able to judge the efforts of others. This now includes a small section hosted by Matt Preston, who himself has quite an impressive cooking and food industry history much much too long to list, but just be assured he has earned his place behind the stoves as well as in front of them.
And why am I talking about him?. Well that would be because my niece loves him and I have just ordered her his new book – wait for it…"Cook Book" for her birthday on November 5th. I wanted to buy from a company in Australia so I ordered it from Bookworld thinking it may take a while, but it arrived in 2 days without shipping costs.
Ok so, I thought I might just cook something from it, just because it's here. Is that bad? I chose a very simple slow cooked Lamb dish so I could do something else while it cooked. It's a book full of very diverse recipes and sage advice for cooking for friends and family.
It's not about the money you spend, it's about the care you take.
And that my friends is something I firmly believe too. So I will risk my niece seeing this post and tell you what else is in the book. It's a trip around the world in a way, in fact in the intro Matt talks about eating and friends and simple home cooked dishes on his many trips around the world. There are pages of advice rules on cooking for friends, appropriate behaviour in restaurants and menu choices when having people over. I am sure my niece will love this helpful section delivered with his customary dry, sarcastic wit. There are sliders- ok I forgive him, and there is sticky ribs, even my son Skater likes them, so this must be good. In amongst the kale chips and the breakfast smoothie are some great tips on simple doughs, for pastry, flat bread, pizza and quick breadmaking. There are multitudes of ways to make quick chicken mince dishes, lots of simple salads, pastas and vegetable dishes in fact 187 recipes that you will probably already have most of the ingredients for. Desserts won't freak you out either they're mostly everyday things you might want to make without having to go and look for a recipe like banana bread and Lemon Meringue Pie. It mightn't challenge some, but it will definately not intimidate others.
Let me emphasize everyday ingredients. There are as many fresh as tinned ingredients but overall you could whip up something from the book in no time at all. That's what my niece needs to do because she gets home from work late each night.
The funny thing is I have chosen a recipe that takes hours. I know that isn't proving the speedy cooking point at all, but I pretty much put it in the oven and then went back a few hours later. One teensy little problem I hope she doesn't notice when she gets this book, is the recipe I made called Slow Roast Lamb with Risoni and Anchovies had no anchovies in the actual recipe …oops. I made it with the alternative suggestion on the top of the page and added feta, gremalata and a squeeze of lemon juice.
I might buy myself a new book from Bookworld . Have a look at the cookbook section and tell me what you think I should buy…?
Take off the cover and bake for a further 40 min to brown the meat.
Love a one pot dish! MasterChef doesn't have the same grip on me as it used to. They do seem determined to turn it into a manufactured sob-fest rather than a cooking show!
Don't you say anything about Matt Preston! 🙂 I used to think he was a dweeb until I saw him in action two years in a row at the Noosa Food and Wine festival. He has a tent in the celebrity cook-off each year where he comes up with a recipe and the festival kitchens prepare the food and he and his volunteer minions sell it. The celebrity with the most sales wins the day.
I volunteered at another celebrity tent and watched him in action. It didn't matter how busy he was or what he was doing, if a fan wanted a photo, he stopped in his tracks and did it. People would ask about recipes and no question was too complicated, nor was he too busy to answer.
I was gobsmacked. At his level of popularity, you might think he was too good for all that. I met Matt Moran once and he didn't have time for anyone — and we were all food and restaurant bloggers.
Now, about this recipe – when can I come for dinner, I LOVE one-pot-wonders and this looks amazing.
Oh, I still watch Masterchef if I can find the time: it does somewhat depend whether that year's contestants 'appeal' 🙂 ! Have learned a lot especially from the Friday Masterclasses and changed many a method of mine !! Have had a number of mails from European blogfriends who happily wait a couple of years to be able to watch ours as they do not appreciate the show produced in their own countries [especially The Netherlands and Germany 🙂 !] Matt Preston . . . an interesting persona growing 'bigger' in the 'personality stakes' year by year it seems . . . unfortunately I am one who does not care for his cooking . . . tho' this recipe is soulfood for certain . . .
This is when I wish I ate lamb! It surely a heaven for the lamb lovers.
How exciting Pam. Wish you had got on. You have to have nerves of steel. Great experience though for sure!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella recently posted..NQN's Spine Tingling, Blood Curdling Halloween Party!
I can't watch them eat either, makes me feel ill! Having said that I do watch and I too would probably watch a fly cook. I have been known to take notes in the masterclass session.
Me too Bec , me too!
I couldn't agree more with your love-hate relationship! Masterchef, I honestly can't watch it anymore because every single season it is the same, but I do enjoy the recipes so much! And the first two seasons were wonderful but after that, just dropped!
Your roasted lamb looks brilliant, my brother is always asking my mum to make it at home!
My husband and I both love lamb and this sounds like a great fall dish. Thanks for sharing the recipe, I know your niece will be excited with the gift.
What an aazing one pot recipe!


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