| Cuba reforms turn to state land |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|10:51 am] |
Cuba is to put more state-controlled farm land into private hands, in a move to increase the island's lagging food production.
Private farmers who do well will be able to increase their holdings by up to 99 acres (40 hectares) for a 10-year period that can be renewed.
Until now, private farmers have only been able to run small areas of land.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7514519.stm
[ lightly x-posted ] |
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| The breakfast of defeat and degradation! Yum! |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|12:13 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cynical | ] |
In a recent entry, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meepodeekin mentions a multi-grain cereal named "Ezekiel 4:9," after the verse in the Bible.
All I can say is "What the heck were the manufacturers of this cereal thinking?"
Let's take a look at the context of that verse.
The recipe that the prophet Ezekiel receives is actually just one part of an elaborate set of instructions for a whole series of symbolic actions intended to represent the upcoming siege of Jerusalem, and the hardships and degradation that its people will have to endure that involves. Ezekiel is instructed to take a clay brick or tile, draw a picture of the city of Jerusalem on it, set it on the ground, and symbolically besiege it. I envision him crouching down, scooping up earth and moulding it into a siege ramp beside his symbolic brick, tracing the outlines of enemy camps in the dust with his fingertip, and perhaps laying out pebbles or sticks to represent the siege engines. Ezekiel is then supposed to lie motionless (first on his left side, then his right) for a total 430 days, to represent the "years of iniquity" that preceded, and provoked, to siege.
The recipe in Ezekiel 4:9 is for the bread Ezekiel is supposed to eat during this prolonged period of symbolic motionlessness. The mixture of several different kinds of grain is undoubtedly intended to represent the desperation of besieged people, putting whatever they could scrape together into the pot. Note that the authors of the Bible generally regarded "mixing things" with horror (see Deuteronomy 22:9-11 and Leviticus 19:19). Ezekiel is instructed to restrict himself to a mere eight ounces of this bread per day, to be washed down with a mere sixth of a gallon of water ("multi-grain wheat bread" has just 70 calories/ounce, so Ezekiel would be getting less than 600 calories/day -- starvation rations). Ezekiel is, furthermore, instructed (see Ezekiel 4:12) to cook his bread over a fire fueled with human dung! (He balks at this and God permits him to use cow's dung instead -- see Ezekiel 4:14-15).
How is all of this supposed to make the cereal more attractive? I can only assume that its manufacturers assume that their potential buyers regard any odd Biblical snippet as good in isolation, regardless of its context. I'm reminded of a recent conversation prompted by one of digitalemur's recent posts regarding ill-informed attempts to condemn lesbianism on Biblical grounds.
(added slightly later on)
It seems that I am not alone in questioning the wisdom of this brand name. |
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| Post tDK |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|09:05 pm] |
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The Dark Knight was fantastic. I had no idea what I was in for. Now I'm going to collect myself. Wow |
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| Do the Math |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|05:32 pm] |
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| Frisco Depot |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|05:11 pm] |
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| Email to save a mentally ill man from being executed in MS! |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|06:57 pm] |
Dale Leo Bishop is set for execution next Wednesday, July 23, at 6 PM unless a court or the governor intervenes.
Under the cut is background information from Dale Leo Bishop's attorneys. It's a couple of days out of date on the legal steps taken (today's Clarion-Ledger and Sun Herald have more recent info) but explains the key factors of lifelong mental illness and complete failure of the legal system and previous attorneys.
A clemency petition has just been sent to Gov. Haley Barbour.
Please send an email to him at: governor@governor.state.ms.us
and ask that he commute Dale Leo Bishop's sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or grant a temporary reprieve to Dale Leo Bishop and ask the Parole Board to study the case and make a recommendation for or against a commutation to life imprisonment without parole.
( Background info from Bishop's lawyers ) |
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| this is extremely well made, look at the muppet mouths. |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|06:48 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  impressed | ] |
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| the split |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|01:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | hilton | ] |
| [ | music |
| | craig david - hot stuff (let'sdance) white nerd remix | ] |
have you ever felt the split?
the split is when you and your friends and the people around you your same age are growing up and you're doing things together and things are wonderful.
you're experiencing life and love and drama and how to deal with each. we're growing and changing and moving and shaking. but everyone's kind of doing the same thing.. growing up.
the split comes in the early twenties, sometimes late teens. where one group of people start one path and a second group go another. it's the split.
what i'm specifically referring to is that i just got through looking through wedding pictures of a girl and boy i've known for a while. the boy since he was young and now they're starting this new thing, marriage together. i'm not experiencing that. i can't relate.
not saying i'm completely cut off from the concept, but it's just. it's like when you start to tie down in marriage and start having children and doing family things you move away from your single working friends.
so now i'm finding my friends age range is increasing and we're all doing about the same thing. we're single or in a non married relationship and working. i just feel disconnected. i feel like i have no idea how to relate to being in that state.
i wonder what that state feels like.
but my point is that this is a change i'm seeing happening and i don't know if i like it or not. i don't know how green the grass is on the other side and frankly most of the time i like dry brown grass that i'm familiar with.
but just strannnggeee.. plus it didn't help that most of his grooms i grew up with and one year basically all of those boys minus two went to this formal with me. they took this goofy ass picture..
well 8 years later they're still striking that same gooffy pose.
you know work was not bugging when i started this but now work is pissing me the hell off..
arge!
i had somewhere i was going.
i've lost that now.
erin |
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| Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|11:26 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  quixotic | ] |
Do you realize how much better Smallville would be if Clark and Lex sang like this? |
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| Fear on the American Interstate |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|11:43 am] |
http://www.ridelust.com/fear-on-the-american-interstate-or-the-autobahn-is-my-homeland/
"You know it and I know it, everyone goes over 65, the police need only to wade out into the pool of innocents and pluck 2 or 3 out a week and shake them down for cash; it’s so ingrained into our national conciousness that we don’t seem to think that’s odd. But honestly, think about it; what value does a law have if no one obeys it? It just makes a mockery of the country where the law exists. I’d be laughing right now if it weren’t for the jackbooted marauders prowling the highways at this very moment looking for poor innocent working men to harass and extort." |
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| Seize the Children! |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|10:20 am] |
I'm sure someone here can correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is wrong:
Winnipeg 'white pride' mother regrets redrawing swastika on child's arm
Absent evidence of physical harm, or psychological harm (let's face it, a sizable fraction of all "beliefs" might be considered as arguably psychologically harmful) of the kind that inevitably results in sociopathy, I do not believe the State ought be seizing the childrens.
It's a cliche, yes, but at which point does one draw the line. Right? Some Christians probably believe homosexuals and even non-believers are at least as deplorable as POC, or that they themselves are least in a similar stead, as to superiority, as does White Pride Mom. Some Islamic people probably believe in the destruction of infidels and Jews and others. Etc, you get the drift.
Yah, sure, send the kid home from school with instruction not to return with her mom's heart on her sleeve, as it were, but seize the children?
( Read more... ) |
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| A Nudge in the Wrong Direction |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|12:00 am] |
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http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesDailyArticles/~3/338928280/3036 In Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein try to combine libertarianism and paternalism by arguing that a "nudge" from the state can benefit those nudged, while staying consistent with liberty because it does not force anyone to do anything. Nudge's argument is far from airtight. But even more devastating is its reliance on a false premise. The "market failure" examples it promises to improve are actually government failures. |
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| Wages, Unemployment, and Inflation |
[Jul. 19th, 2008|12:00 am] |
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http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesDailyArticles/~3/338936542/2989 There is only one way that leads to an improvement of the standard of living for the wage-earning masses, viz., the increase in the amount of capital invested. All other methods, however popular they may be, are not only futile, but are actually detrimental to the well-being of those they allegedly want to benefit. |
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