Way to go Ike!!

Wow, my buddy Ike works for The New Republic, and a while back wrote this really interesting article on why TNT's Halftime Show with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith and moderated by Ernie Johnson (token white guy) is the best sports show on television. I would tell you to go read that article but you have to be a TNR subscriber. Lame.

So go read this new one instead. It is a free-ranging interview with Charles Barkley on politics, race, class, and much much more. It is FASCINATING, at least to me. He is such a different dude than the one you see on TV hawking T-Mobile with D-Wade, or anchoring that show on TNT. Seeing this new perspective, I have a whole new respect for Barkley. Way to go Ike for getting the interview and getting him to talk about all this! Here's hoping he does run for Gov of AL someday. And as an independent too. (You'll see what he says about that in Ik'es interview with him... nice forshadowing, eh?)

Here are some excerpts. On the 2008 presidential election:

This is going to be a very interesting election because we are going to find out who is sexist and who is racist. Because I don't think a woman can win, because I think America is sexist. I am not sure Barack can win, because I do think we have a racial divide in this country.

On gay marriage:

In terms of more cultural issues, gay marriage you are totally OK with?
Yeah, I am. I am not going to judge other people. Only God can do that.

On class:

America is divided by economics strictly. You know, people always talk about race, and we have racial problems in this country. Of course we do. But the real issue is the rich against the poor. We've got to get poor white people and poor black people and Mexicans to realize they are all in the same boat.

And there is a lot more. He comments on Imus, the Duke case, rap music, and more. Really great read, so great in fact it is receiving this week's Domestique Suggested Reading honor. Like I said, way to go Ike!

Nat'l Arboretum & Azaleas

Above: Columns that once adorned the eastern part of the capital building (or something).
Below: Some pics of the azalea gardens at the National Arboretum in a beautiful part of NE DC.

2007 Farm Bill

The Farm Bill is up for reauthorization this year, and there is much buzz in the food community. My main man Michale Pollan recently hosted a teach-in at Berkeley on the matter. (Yes, I am still perfectly happy going to u-dub and have no regrets that I did not get into Berkeley... at least that is what I will keep telling myself.)

You can watch the whole thing here, and I plan to after work. I'll report on anything interesting. (That's just the kind of dedicated nerd I am. If there were an equivalent D&D scale for to gauge my own level of nerdiness, I'd probably be somewhere between Grand Master Wizard Dragon Slayer Dude and Lieutenant Wizard Dragon Slayer.)

ANYWAYS, Over at The Ethicurean, they've begun a discussion of Pollan's teach-in, which included a discussion with George Lakoff, issue-framer extrordinaire. I disagree with their assertion that he is merely the Left's version of Frank Luntz, but it is a debatable point I suppose.

In related news, I also saw there was another outbreak of E. Coli, this time associated with ground beef sold in Byerly's and Lund's stores in the western metro area of the Twin Cities. To my friends out there who may shop at one of those stores, please throw away all meat you may have in your fridge from them. It is possible it is confined to ground beef, but I wouldn't chance it.

Tying the Farm Bill (or food policy anyways) back to food borne disease, we see that today in the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee (chaired by MN re Collin Peterson) will take up the issue of whether all food inspection should be handed over to the FDA. As it stands now, the FDA inspects everything not coming from an animal, while USDA takes the meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs side of our menus. The fractured structure of oversight, and the lame and incompetent Bush Administration, has lead to an environment where its basically a crapshoot whether or not that 7-layer burrito is going to maybe kill you or that lakeside BBQ will lead to trip to the emergency room. The odds are still on our, the consumer's side, but the scales are tipping.

My delusional hope is that the next Farm Bill will address food borne disease by placing requirements on food production, namely on large factory farms. As with the peanut butter in GA, the spinach in CA, the meat in MN, the lettuce in Taco Bell, (fill in your favorite food related illness outbreak here... mad cow anyone?), it is the nature of and specific processes involved in factory farming ("industrial agriculture") that leads to the persistance of these cases. Sure, more oversight would help. But not nearly as much as cutting funding from the Farm Bill to CAFOs with dangerous practices (CAFOs are feedlots, or, big beef "farms" where cattle stand shoulder to shoulder and knee deep in pens of their own manure, see more from the good folks at Free Range Graphics in their short peice called The Meatrix). Or including funding for hazardous waste (read manure) cleanup so that runoff doesnt affect downstream crops (as was the case in CA). The real problem is not the lack of oversight, its the way that the current Farm Bill pays for these shitty practices that are leading to a slew of health problems for us all.

Someone's got a case of the mondays...

...And it's me. I had a great but tiring weekend with the 'rents, and today I feel like I had no weekend at all.

It was fun, we made a nice pan of stuff shells from this awesome Italian deli Vace in Cleveland Park. Saturday we had lunch at Logan Tavern, then went to the Navy Memorial (LAME) and then to the 68th annual FlowerMart. We capped it off with dinner at Clyde's in Gallery Place and then a brief tour of the monuments at night. Sunday we went to the Dupont Farmers Market, then to the National Arboretum, and finally a BBQ and picnic down at Hains Point. No, actually, there was more. THEN we went home for a round of G&Ts (the parents L-O-V-E Saphire & Tonic, and who can blame 'em) and then we went for dessert (milkshakes) at American City Diner. Non-stop fun! And like I said, I am tired today.

Good sports weekend though. Clemens unretires. AGAIN. (My theory is he needs to wait for his scientists to develop ways he can cheat the 'roids test every year, which is why he has this habit of playing half-seasons lately and which also explains how a 44 year old can still pitch in the 90s). Mayweather beats De La Hoya in a split decision. UNITED WITHS THE PREMIERSHIP! A horse named Street Sense won the KY Derby. And much much more.

I leave you with the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby, enjoy.