Settled: Family of teen killed by dump truck settles with company for an undisclosed amount.
Settled?: Smithfield says its factory farm had nothing to do with swine flu outbreak; Tom Philpott’s not so sure.
Confirmed!: Sebelius is health and human services secretary.
Suspended: Cuba halts flights to and from Mexico.
Worried: Half of Washington residents concerned about losing jobs.
Good Luck With That: Pakistan moves to flush out Taliban.
That’s One Way to Spin It: Republican chair Steele says Specter leaving party is all part of GOP “strategy.”
Was That “Strategic,” Too?: Steele (again!) says GOP does not regret taking pandemic preparedness money out of stimulus; “We didn’t know there was going to be a flu pandemic!”
$57 Million a Day: That’s how much the Mexico City economy is losing due to swine flu.
Thanks for Your Shitty Economy, Pro-Lifers: Downturn leads to more abortions, requests for birth control.
Asshole: Facebook founder says it’d be better if women couldn’t vote.
Asshole: Ryanair founder says only “slumdwellers” have to worry about swine flu.
Recipe of the Day: Kumquat Lamb Tagine (Recipe and photo via No Recipes)
for spice rub
2 whole cinnamon sticks
1 1/2 tsp whole coriander seed
1/2 tsp whole cumin seed
1/4 tsp whole fennel seed
1/4 tsp all spice
8 whole cloves
3 green cardamom pods
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 C kosher salt (use less if using regular table salt)
3 lbs lamb breast
for braising
water
1/2 large onion roughly chopped
1 large carrot roughly chopped
1 large celery stalk roughly chopped
1 cinnamon stick
2″ piece of ginger sliced
for tagine
1 large onion sliced thin
1/2 lbs kumquat cut in half, seeds removed
1 1/2 cups of braising liquid
braised lamb breasts
1/2 C honey
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Put the cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel, all spice, cloves and cardamom in a small pan and toast until fragrant, moving constantly with a swirling motion to prevent them from burning. Put the toasted spices in a blender with the salt and pepper and grind. Pour the mixture over the lamb breasts and rub to coat thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 48 hours.
When the lamb is done curing, rinse off all the extra spices and salt, then add them to a heavy bottomed pot along with the onion, carrot, celery, cinnamon stick and ginger. Cover with water then bring to a boil. Skim off any brown foam and fat that accumulates. Cover and turn down the heat to low. Cook until the ribs are almost tender (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours), skimming off any fat periodically.
Remove the ribs from the liquid and strain the broth into a bowl, discarding the solids. Wash out the pot and return to medium heat with a splash of oil. Saute the onions and kumquats until the onions are tender and just starting to brown. Add the rest of the ingredients for the tagine and simmer uncovered until the liquid is mostly gone.
Garnish with mint or cilantro and serve with couscous or rice.
I retract comments saying the Speecter shift is great. On reflection, they should have let him die in his primary so that a real Democrat like Sestak would take that seat against a right winger like Toomey. this deal was arranged by Biden and Specter in a typical Senator-Senator, insider fashion. The grass roots building for a real Democrat is cut out. The shift of Specter isn’t really going to change his vote on anything — he said that! So why should Obama endorse Specter in a primary against someone like Sestak? Taking him at his word that his shift won’t change his vote on anything, this is not a good deal. And it’s certainly not “change” for Joe Biden and Specter to work out who the next senator from Penn. is going to be.
The Facebook headline is incorrect. It wasn’t the founder, it was an outside investor in the company. Different guy, still an asshole.
I’ve never seen “Lamb breast” in the stores…too many ingredients for the unemployed masses, anyhow.
There are only five women I can think of who deserve the right to vote. They’d understand it if they couldn’t.
I’m not sure if it’s accurate to call Peter Thiel a founder of Facebook. Isn’t Mark Zuckerburg the founder? I think Thiel was more of an investor than a founder…
Anyways, his initial statement isn’t that offensive:
He basically seems to be saying that since women aren’t in favor of libertarianism, libertarianism, along with the idea of a capitalist democracy, suffered (and the idea of a social democracy took hold). Not much controversial there. Except for the clear contempt he has for people who don’t agree with the libertarian view. A few lines later he refers to the “unthinking demos that guides so-called ‘social democracy’.” Presumably referring back to those women and “welfare beneficiaries”.
So typical of the Ayn Rand libertarians — to think that they’re so smart, and anyone who was as smart as them would obviously agree with them, so clearly all people who are not libertarians are stupid.
@2 & @5 beat me to it.
Erica,
Shouldn’t the Bryce Lewis’ family sued the company that made Bryce Lewis’ fixed gear bike?
Your assertation was that it was the bike that caused the accident. Still stand by that?
LOL–for a second I read that as Pakistan is going to flush out the “Toiletban”!
He’s also saying that poor or unemployed people (welfare beneficiarys) shouldn’t vote, but nobody seems to have a problem with that.
“I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good.” So says Thiel right at the start of that essay. What’s so authentic about not allowing women to vote Peter?
See…this is partly what cured me of my own libertarian delusion back during the Reagan years. So many of them turned out to be your usual hard right nutcases, appropriating libertarian rhetoric about individual freedom so they wouldn’t look like the bunch of John Birch Society lunatics they actually were.
Asshole: Erica C. Barnett stole wine from a Cap. Hill business
Worse A..hole, the guys who keep posting like @11 does.
“We didn’t know there would be a flu pandemic” says it all about the GOP. Always a day late and a dollar short doesn’t cut it anymore, Mr. Steele.
Just a point — he’s not saying that women or the poor shouldn’t be able to vote, just that the country went to shit after they were allowed to (or rather, his view of what the country should be like…).
@12 jajajaj. Will can’t say ass.
If women didn’t vote, McCain would be president and there would be a Republican national majority. If men weren’t allowed to vote, there would be a national majority in favor of gay marriage, marijuana decriminalization, and universal health care. Al Gore and John Kerry would have been elected president and George W. Bush would just be a former governor from Texas.
I would be the first in line to vote to take away suffrage from men.
Quick, go throw all of your accumulated wealth away, quit your job, throw away your shoes, and go live on a farm. That’s what living before the 1920s was like for most people. I like the commenter who said “libertarians: fascists who smoke pot”.
It’s interesting how these guys always miss the part in American history where the government gave away, or sold at very low cost, huge swathes of land. That giveaway did result in tangible benefits (people could cultivate the land and build wealth), compared to the social safety net which more frequently just keeps people from falling into more desperate poverty.
But I guess giving away free shit is perfectly fine as long as it’s done by driving other people off their land (and killing them) rather than by increasing the marginal tax rate by 3 percent.
Assholes like this are never more than half as smart as they think they are.
That plate of Kumquat Lamb Tagine looks pretty, but it also looks really annoying to eat.
18 but half as smart as we think we are is still way smarter than you, sister
“Just a point — he’s not saying that women or the poor shouldn’t be able to vote, just that the country went to shit after they were allowed to…”
I’m not sure that’s saying something different. On the other hand, if he’s saying there that he’s concluded that libertarian ideals don’t produce the result that libertarians have been saying they would for decades now, I’d agree with him on that.
@20,
Yes, and your incomprehensibility is such impressive evidence of that.
Get a life, idiot.
@Keshmeshi: I think the amount of interesting trolls on here has gone way down. It’s like they aren’t even trying anymore. Or maybe the clever trolls left and now the void is filled with morons? What is your take, cause it seems they are just really getting lazy and/or more stupid.
@23 i still liked it better when a bellevue ave post was considered trolling…
Lamb is so gross. It’s like eating someone’s poodle.