Right Wing Nation

Here is Heart, performing their three hits from Dreamboat Annie, in 1976:

First published 4/4/07. Repeated because, well, it can’t be stated enough.

Jeff Goldstein reports:

West Virginia taxpayers may soon be paying for portly citizens to attend Weight Watchers meetings. The state claims it’s spending $100 million a year on obesity-related health care. Now, in an effort to reduce those costs, the state’s largest Medicaid provider—UniCare, a subsidiary of Wellpoint—will pony up for 16 weeks of subsidized Weight Watchers services. Wellpoint intends to establish similar payouts in 14 other states.

Unfortunately, the change in unlikely to help the bottom line. Tennessee tried a similar plan last year and boasted that the 1,400 subsidized participants lost 8000 pounds collectively. That may sound good, but it averages out to a little less than six pounds per person—not enough to make a difference in health care costs or the lives of the obese people the plan is supposed to help.

This isn’t the first time West Virginia has dipped into the state coffers to encourage dieting. In 2003 it erected billboards proclaiming “Biggie Fries = Biggie Thighs.” No statewide reductions in thigh circumference have been reported.

And Radley Balko quite correctly says:

Where, exactly, is the problem, here? Seems to me that people are making their own decisions about diet and health, and paying for the consequences of those decisions.

He doesn’t get it. Obesity is a PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS! (at least on the days when the health-related Chicken Littlism isn’t POOR PEOPLE STARVING AND EATING OUT OF GARBAGE CANS! It’s liberalism. It’s all about having an elite tell us what we may and may not do. That’s all liberalism is about, and all it has ever been about. Not civil rights. Not freedom. Just control.

But the point, of course, is that again, we have millions and millions of dollars pumped into a government program that produces no results–and as Jeffrey Quick points out, we have another here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The early onset of Daylight Savings Time in the United States this year may have been for naught.

The move to turn the clocks forward by an hour on March 11 rather than the usual early April date was mandated by the U.S. government as an energy-saving effort.

But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage.

“We haven’t seen any measurable impact,” said Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co., one of the nation’s largest power companies, echoing comments from several large utilities.

You don’t say. But no doubt it made the legislators and bureaucrats who supported the DST pushback feel good about themselves.

Idiots.

In the comments, NYC Math Educator pointed out this similar idiocy plan by Kaiser Bloomberg in New York, where parents are being paid to do things like, oh, take their kids to the doctor, and feed them, you know, things parents won’t do unless they get a monthly check. But this caught my eye:

Adults in the program would also get cash rewards for working full time

It’s called a paycheck. Wait. They mean in addition to a paycheck. So how do I sign up? Do I have to live in NYC to get that check? If so, where’s the cheapest place to live where you can live in a house, and not in a little apartment with a bunch of other people, like rabbits in a warren?

Morons.

So the company was delayed a day, and we had July 4 dinner on July 5. I already had the menu lined up: Smoked pork roast, scalloped potatoes, corn, and that coconut cake. But I was at the store on the morning of the 4th, and as I passed the large variety of bizarre mushrooms (what, you didn’t know mushrooms were the number one crop here? neither did I), I thought, “We don’t have a soup, and why not capitalize on all these weird mushrooms and make soup?” So I picked up a few mushrooms of various bizarre types, and then went shopping for other ingredients to put in the soup. I had stock (always) and french-cut green beans. I thought about spinach, but I didn’t like the look of the spinach in the bin, so I passed it by. I saw some tomatoes that didn’t look (or feel) too awful for supermarket tomatoes, so I grabbed six or seven of those, a head of garlic, and spinach-romano tortellinis. Oh, and fresh basil.

When I got home, I quartered the tomatoes and tossed them into a roasting pan with the garlic and the basil (I had bought more to use as garnish, but it disappeared). I sprinkled them with salt and drizzled olive oil all over and roasted them at 500 for about 20-30 minutes, till the tomato skins were beginning to char. I let it all cool, dumped it into the food mill, and ran it through into a pot of stock. When it came time to eat, I tossed the green beans, mushrooms, some country ham cut into matchsticks, and tortellini in and let it simmer 15 minutes or so.

Here’s part of it. Click the pics to get the larger version (or as Jimmyb would say, to biggify the picture):

Here’s the roast:

Here’s the taters. Notice the country ham:

I also decided to make spoonbread, but I didn’t get a picture.

There were lots of leftovers — especially that pork roast, which was way too big (but the smallest edible looking shoulder roast I could find). I had about 10 oz. of those Chinese noodles left, and we were going to the store so I bought a couple of those Ancient Mystery peppers that have appeared in stores lately (the red bell peppers did not look nice). I also had shredded carrots. So I sliced most of the leftover pork thinly, then turned the slices on their sides and sliced the pork into matchsticks. I seeded one of the peppers (I’m going to use the other tonight) and sliced it into matchsticks, and got out the carrots.

I boiled the noodles for 2 minutes, then drained them. I put the wok on the power burner and when it was starting to smoke, added enough oil to coat the inside. I tossed the noodles in, and let them start to get crunchy on the bottom, then stir-fried them until they were golden, and removed them. I tossed some ginger and garlic in the remaining oil, then added the the pork, and flipped it around for a couple of minutes , until it darkened, then removed it. I stir-fried the peppers and carrots for a couple of minutes, moved them up the sides of the wok, and added a couple of tablespoons of hoisin, and a tablespoon each of dark soy and black vinegar, then pushed the veggies back down, added the pork and noodles, and mixed it all together. Finally, I added a few dribbles of sesame oil, and bang, dinner.

Leftovers, in the wok and plated (click on the pic to get the larger):

Then, about that pie. You always run into problems when you decide to make a new recipe when you’re at the store. I got grapes (I had no idea how many I needed, and it turns out we have lots left to munch on), but without the recipe in front of me, I didn’t know I needed Port or grape juice.

I make nothing that requires Port. I never have it. Sherry (dry sack or amontillado), always. Madeira, sometimes. Marsala, sometimes. But in the last twenty years, I may have used Port twice. Anyway, I did have a bottle of Shiraz, so I used that.

It looked good:

And it is. It’s a bit runny, though, so next time, I think I’ll increase the flour from 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Excellent stuff, though. It looks a bit like a cherry pie made with Queen Annes.

I have chicken and that other pepper, so tonight, I’ll be making Gong Bao Ji Ding.

I’ll be making this.

Hat tip to Bitch Girls for this. Some people have no friends — I mean friends, not acquaintances, people who will be honest with you when you need it, and tell you things you really need to hear, even if they may be painful.

This guy has no friends. Make sure you look at the mugshot.