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Food to bereave by
Written by Natalie Ladd
Recent events have me thinking about a meal I ate some three years ago in Massachusetts, and it wasn't under the happiest of circumstances. Deeply moved and teary-eyed from a memorial service filled with Howie Day songs and many poignant tributes, I filed in with the rest of the flock for a bereavement luncheon at a place I had never heard of. The place is called Leo's Risortante, and is a beloved, well-known, 75-year-old dining landmark smack dab in the middle of the large, blue-collar city of Worcester.
Leo's Ristorante looks and somehow feels (remember that column about restaurant karma?) warm, comforting and exactly like what the concept of a "ristorante" invokes. The space is big with tables packed in and boasts dated, old-world Italian checkered table cloth charm. It's dimly lit, even during the day, and has lots of rooms with halls and stairways that lead to other halls and more rooms. Of course, there is a lounge and a few strategically placed service bars. The whole thing screams of multi-generational family functions and is designed to accommodate large parties, rehearsal dinners, weddings, anniversary celebrations and, of course, bereavement gatherings. Like most bereavement gatherings, the one I attended had been thrown together at the last minute out of duty-tinged necessity.
The buffet lunch at Leo's was hosted by my then-boss, and still very good friend, who was grief personified over the sudden death of his wife, Mary. Lovers and best friends since college, Mary was killed in a car accident on a snowy night driving back from the Worcester area to their condo in the Old Port. Thinking the weather man might have a clue for a change, friends and family encouraged her to stay over and leave in the morning, but with a maiden name like O'Leary, she was stubborn, focused and eager to get back to my friend. Barely 60, Mary lived a charmed life and infectiously rubbed off on me with her graciousness. To say she became a role model is completely true as she possessed an enviable combination of strong boundaries and unlimited generosity of spirit that never seemed to conflict.
As is often the case with these things, the service had gone on a tad too long and we were famished by the time we got to Leo's. There was eggplant parmesan, huge meatballs in "gravy" and other Italian staples comforting to my friend's side of the family, which got me thinking about the cultural nuances around death and dining.
I know what a great Irish wake is all about and I know what my tribe does, which is called "sitting shiva" and takes place for seven days, immediately following the conclusion of the funeral service and burial. My Bubbie told me during shiva, the house is filled with the spirit of the person who has passed away and memories will come easily to everyone who is there. People take turns telling stories and sharing memories. As in most cultures, sitting shiva is an emotionally and spiritually healing time and making a "shiva call," or visit is considered a great act of kindness (a mitzvah). On the first day of sitting shiva, the first meal, or "meal of condolence," is made by neighbors and friends because after the trauma of burying someone eating signifies, "You must go on. You must affirm life and live." Other customs go with it, like covering mirrors to avoid vanity, and it's the only time I can think of (besides fasting on Yom Kippur — The Day of Atonement) that it isn't all about food for a family of Jews.
After Mary's death, I became so intrigued with what goes on in other cultures I bought a book called, "Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs from Around the World," by Lisa Rogak. At the same time, I couldn't resist the title, "Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting the Perfect Funeral." Both books have recipes to die for (sorry, I couldn't help it). More cerebrally, I started following a blog called "Bones Don't Lie," by Katy Meyers, who is an anthropology Ph.D. student specializing in mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology at Michigan State University. She's also a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain who has taken to jaunting all over the world, talking about who eats what and why.
This Thursday, a memorial service and celebration of life ceremony will be held for another special Mary, who also became a role model and dear friend. The difference is her family will be serving catered finger foods, and as much as I would like to be there with all my heart, I won't.
The whole thing is a far cry from the big buffet at Leo's Ristorante, and an even further one from familiar smells in my kitchen when Bubbie died. What isn't different is the way I'll feel after the dishes are washed and everyone has gone their separate ways, back into their everyday lives. No matter if I'm drinking coffee with the first Mary's husband, having matzo ball soup with my siblings, or weekly sushi with the second Mary's granddaughter, my own life has been forever changed by the love of my Bubbie, and two very special women named Mary.
The Down Low: Next week it's back to the down and dirty part of the Down Low. I'm already anxious to spill the story Jeff MacDonald told me about the poor behavior of certain soccer moms and entitled "suburbanites" at a fund raiser just last week. It's almost enough to make you lose your appetite, even at Parker's.
(Natalie Ladd is a columnist for the Portland Daily Sun. She has over 30 continuous years of corporate and fine-dining experience in all front-of-the-house management, hourly and under-the-table positions. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .)
Leo's Ristorante looks and somehow feels (remember that column about restaurant karma?) warm, comforting and exactly like what the concept of a "ristorante" invokes. The space is big with tables packed in and boasts dated, old-world Italian checkered table cloth charm. It's dimly lit, even during the day, and has lots of rooms with halls and stairways that lead to other halls and more rooms. Of course, there is a lounge and a few strategically placed service bars. The whole thing screams of multi-generational family functions and is designed to accommodate large parties, rehearsal dinners, weddings, anniversary celebrations and, of course, bereavement gatherings. Like most bereavement gatherings, the one I attended had been thrown together at the last minute out of duty-tinged necessity.
The buffet lunch at Leo's was hosted by my then-boss, and still very good friend, who was grief personified over the sudden death of his wife, Mary. Lovers and best friends since college, Mary was killed in a car accident on a snowy night driving back from the Worcester area to their condo in the Old Port. Thinking the weather man might have a clue for a change, friends and family encouraged her to stay over and leave in the morning, but with a maiden name like O'Leary, she was stubborn, focused and eager to get back to my friend. Barely 60, Mary lived a charmed life and infectiously rubbed off on me with her graciousness. To say she became a role model is completely true as she possessed an enviable combination of strong boundaries and unlimited generosity of spirit that never seemed to conflict.
As is often the case with these things, the service had gone on a tad too long and we were famished by the time we got to Leo's. There was eggplant parmesan, huge meatballs in "gravy" and other Italian staples comforting to my friend's side of the family, which got me thinking about the cultural nuances around death and dining.
I know what a great Irish wake is all about and I know what my tribe does, which is called "sitting shiva" and takes place for seven days, immediately following the conclusion of the funeral service and burial. My Bubbie told me during shiva, the house is filled with the spirit of the person who has passed away and memories will come easily to everyone who is there. People take turns telling stories and sharing memories. As in most cultures, sitting shiva is an emotionally and spiritually healing time and making a "shiva call," or visit is considered a great act of kindness (a mitzvah). On the first day of sitting shiva, the first meal, or "meal of condolence," is made by neighbors and friends because after the trauma of burying someone eating signifies, "You must go on. You must affirm life and live." Other customs go with it, like covering mirrors to avoid vanity, and it's the only time I can think of (besides fasting on Yom Kippur — The Day of Atonement) that it isn't all about food for a family of Jews.
After Mary's death, I became so intrigued with what goes on in other cultures I bought a book called, "Death Warmed Over: Funeral Food, Rituals, and Customs from Around the World," by Lisa Rogak. At the same time, I couldn't resist the title, "Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting the Perfect Funeral." Both books have recipes to die for (sorry, I couldn't help it). More cerebrally, I started following a blog called "Bones Don't Lie," by Katy Meyers, who is an anthropology Ph.D. student specializing in mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology at Michigan State University. She's also a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain who has taken to jaunting all over the world, talking about who eats what and why.
This Thursday, a memorial service and celebration of life ceremony will be held for another special Mary, who also became a role model and dear friend. The difference is her family will be serving catered finger foods, and as much as I would like to be there with all my heart, I won't.
The whole thing is a far cry from the big buffet at Leo's Ristorante, and an even further one from familiar smells in my kitchen when Bubbie died. What isn't different is the way I'll feel after the dishes are washed and everyone has gone their separate ways, back into their everyday lives. No matter if I'm drinking coffee with the first Mary's husband, having matzo ball soup with my siblings, or weekly sushi with the second Mary's granddaughter, my own life has been forever changed by the love of my Bubbie, and two very special women named Mary.
The Down Low: Next week it's back to the down and dirty part of the Down Low. I'm already anxious to spill the story Jeff MacDonald told me about the poor behavior of certain soccer moms and entitled "suburbanites" at a fund raiser just last week. It's almost enough to make you lose your appetite, even at Parker's.
(Natalie Ladd is a columnist for the Portland Daily Sun. She has over 30 continuous years of corporate and fine-dining experience in all front-of-the-house management, hourly and under-the-table positions. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .)
Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 01:20
Hits: 200
Politics dwarfed by climate crisis
Written by Robert Libby
While the pundit chorus foams about the handling of Benghazi and gears up to pontificate on the IRS profiling of Tea Party groups for tax evasion, the atmospheric index passed four hundred parts per million carbon dioxide, long expected and called the "grim milestone" by environmentalists. The moment marks the highest concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the entirety of human history; at current rates of growth NOAA predicts eight hundred parts per million will be the norm by the year 2100. We are on a climate change path that will make a mockery of political name calling about protection of exotic embassies and render issues of IRS abuse meaningless. Yet not a single major news outlet has offered one minute of analysis of the economic crisis of climate change in the hours of nonstop coverage of political fallout in the presidential race of 2016.
Atmospheric scientists predict that avoiding further degradation of the environment will require a complete end to using coal for energy by 2030 and other modifications to human habits of consuming fossil fuels. Meanwhile coal burning power plants are being constructed in China, India, and in the United States; these new plants must be projected to be operational for more than fifty years to make them profitable.
A legislative bill in the United States Senate named the Environmental Protection Act of 2013 (S 309) was immediately tabled by the senate leadership and not a single word was spoken on this inaction in the reporting media. Regardless of wide support by liberal and conservative economists, no congressional representative has called for consideration of a meaningful Carbon Tax provision. Many citizens were shocked by the lobbying power of the NRA and the Gun Owners of America to stop legislative process, multiply that many times over by the clout that big oil, gas and coal producers wield over Congress and the executive branch of government.
Most observers agree that the reporting media were derelict as the Bush administration marched our nation into a ruinous war in Iraq, that those media outlets are equally at fault for failing to report the government's avoidance of seriously confronting the issues of climate change and extreme weather conditions is becoming apparent. The specter of licensing more oil drilling in the ecologically fragile arctic ocean while the polar ice caps diminish at increasing speed would be laughable, if it weren't so tragic.
Some predict our heritage and freedom is under attack from a government that would enslave the individual and dictate every aspect of daily life. They imagine a dictatorial executive that favors heretics, extremists, gays, and foreigners over our traditional values. These fears are illusions stoked by forces that benefit from government's inability to confront the real and darkening threats to continued prosperity for humans on Earth. There is no satisfaction in being able to claim "I told you so."
There is a real danger looming over all civilization as stewards of the environment; immediate and strong action is required to avoid disaster. I predict that real steps must be taken to reverse a century of environmental exploitation before the next election cycle. My current observations challenge my natural optimism. I fear the new dark ages are upon us.
In the Medieval Dark Ages a Renaissance of creativity and reason rescued civilization from its downward spiral. I can imagine innovation and creativity rescuing us again, but if we fail to support that alternative process, we are likely doomed.
(One Man's Island columnist Robert Libby of Chebeague Island is a teacher, writer, organic gardener, executive director of the Maine Center for Civic Education.)
Atmospheric scientists predict that avoiding further degradation of the environment will require a complete end to using coal for energy by 2030 and other modifications to human habits of consuming fossil fuels. Meanwhile coal burning power plants are being constructed in China, India, and in the United States; these new plants must be projected to be operational for more than fifty years to make them profitable.
A legislative bill in the United States Senate named the Environmental Protection Act of 2013 (S 309) was immediately tabled by the senate leadership and not a single word was spoken on this inaction in the reporting media. Regardless of wide support by liberal and conservative economists, no congressional representative has called for consideration of a meaningful Carbon Tax provision. Many citizens were shocked by the lobbying power of the NRA and the Gun Owners of America to stop legislative process, multiply that many times over by the clout that big oil, gas and coal producers wield over Congress and the executive branch of government.
Most observers agree that the reporting media were derelict as the Bush administration marched our nation into a ruinous war in Iraq, that those media outlets are equally at fault for failing to report the government's avoidance of seriously confronting the issues of climate change and extreme weather conditions is becoming apparent. The specter of licensing more oil drilling in the ecologically fragile arctic ocean while the polar ice caps diminish at increasing speed would be laughable, if it weren't so tragic.
Some predict our heritage and freedom is under attack from a government that would enslave the individual and dictate every aspect of daily life. They imagine a dictatorial executive that favors heretics, extremists, gays, and foreigners over our traditional values. These fears are illusions stoked by forces that benefit from government's inability to confront the real and darkening threats to continued prosperity for humans on Earth. There is no satisfaction in being able to claim "I told you so."
There is a real danger looming over all civilization as stewards of the environment; immediate and strong action is required to avoid disaster. I predict that real steps must be taken to reverse a century of environmental exploitation before the next election cycle. My current observations challenge my natural optimism. I fear the new dark ages are upon us.
In the Medieval Dark Ages a Renaissance of creativity and reason rescued civilization from its downward spiral. I can imagine innovation and creativity rescuing us again, but if we fail to support that alternative process, we are likely doomed.
(One Man's Island columnist Robert Libby of Chebeague Island is a teacher, writer, organic gardener, executive director of the Maine Center for Civic Education.)
Last Updated on Monday, 13 May 2013 20:56
Hits: 225
Planned Parenthood wins, parents lose with 'morning after pill'
Written by Erick Bennett
The Maine Equal Rights Center provided the opposing viewpoint to Planned Parenthood on WGME News 13 regarding a federal judges decision to allow 15 year old girls to purchase the "morning after pill" also called Plan B without parental consent or knowledge.
My counterpart at Planned Parenthood went on record saying "this is great" but there are several things we must consider.
For starters, a 15 year old must show identification to buy the drug but what form of picture identification does a 15 year old have? They can't get a drivers license until they are 16 which means issuing identification just for birth control.
Next, under Maine Criminal Code 17-A , Part 2, Chapter 11 subsection 254 (1)(A) a person is guilty of sexual abuse if they engage in an act with someone that is 15 and are five years older than the child.
Then, under 17-A subsection 253 (1)(B) anyone who has sex with a girl 14 or younger is guilty of gross sexual assault.
Planned Parenthood calls this a "woman's right to choose" but under Maine state law these underage girls are considered children, not women.
How many times are kids intoxicated at a party and older guys know they are too young but have sex with them?
How many predators prey on the children from broken homes?
How many girls fall for flattering words from older men who exploit their innocence because she is vulnerable?
A lot.
This protects sex offenders because parents won't know their daughter has been victimized and children younger than 15 will use this drug because their friends buy it for them.
What does Planned Parenthood think is so great about that?
Parents protect their children better than politicians and it's not smart for a government that has a 13 percent approval rating to take away people's parental rights, leaving their children defenseless.
Planned Parenthood's spokeswoman also said this was great since so many underage children have unprotected sex it will decrease abortions.
Let's look at that closer, according to the Center For Disease Control:
• 76.7 percent of high school students had unprotected sex and did not use birth control in 2011.
• 15.4 percent of high school students had multiple partners.
• Over 10 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS infections occurred in the 15-24 age group.
According to the National Center for Education and Statistics there were over twenty million students between grades 9-12 last year.
Last year Planned Parenthood received a record $542 million from taxpayers and performed a record 334 thousand abortions. They also make some money from services like testing for sexually transmitted diseases, screening for cervical cancer which is caused by the herpes virus but based on the numbers will make hundreds of millions of dollars selling the morning after pill, Plan B.
Planned Parenthood will make billions of dollars from this. That's why they think "this is great."
Aside from what kind of identification would children need or protecting sex offenders, the government is creating massive problems by stripping parents of their ability to protect their children for no other reason than making obscene amounts of money.
The Maine Equal Rights Center referendum campaign, An Act Regarding Parental Consent for Abortions will be on the November 2014 ballot.
This campaign will let Mainer's decide if parental consent and knowledge must be required when it comes to their children to prevent these tragedies from happening, or, if politicians should make those decisions for us.
Our goal is to restore parental rights because people can take much better care of their children than the government.
Planned Parenthood says they want to help parents plan families yet support laws that remove parents from the picture, so, if parents aren't planning their families that means government is, through Planned Parenthood, and that takes away people's choices and freedom.
Erick Bennett of Portland owns FNX Enterprises which offers public relations and full service multi media marketing and advertising. He founded the Maine Equal Rights Center which raises awareness about the loss of Constitutional rights through social issues. For more information, visit www.maineequalrightscenter.com
My counterpart at Planned Parenthood went on record saying "this is great" but there are several things we must consider.
For starters, a 15 year old must show identification to buy the drug but what form of picture identification does a 15 year old have? They can't get a drivers license until they are 16 which means issuing identification just for birth control.
Next, under Maine Criminal Code 17-A , Part 2, Chapter 11 subsection 254 (1)(A) a person is guilty of sexual abuse if they engage in an act with someone that is 15 and are five years older than the child.
Then, under 17-A subsection 253 (1)(B) anyone who has sex with a girl 14 or younger is guilty of gross sexual assault.
Planned Parenthood calls this a "woman's right to choose" but under Maine state law these underage girls are considered children, not women.
How many times are kids intoxicated at a party and older guys know they are too young but have sex with them?
How many predators prey on the children from broken homes?
How many girls fall for flattering words from older men who exploit their innocence because she is vulnerable?
A lot.
This protects sex offenders because parents won't know their daughter has been victimized and children younger than 15 will use this drug because their friends buy it for them.
What does Planned Parenthood think is so great about that?
Parents protect their children better than politicians and it's not smart for a government that has a 13 percent approval rating to take away people's parental rights, leaving their children defenseless.
Planned Parenthood's spokeswoman also said this was great since so many underage children have unprotected sex it will decrease abortions.
Let's look at that closer, according to the Center For Disease Control:
• 76.7 percent of high school students had unprotected sex and did not use birth control in 2011.
• 15.4 percent of high school students had multiple partners.
• Over 10 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV and AIDS infections occurred in the 15-24 age group.
According to the National Center for Education and Statistics there were over twenty million students between grades 9-12 last year.
Last year Planned Parenthood received a record $542 million from taxpayers and performed a record 334 thousand abortions. They also make some money from services like testing for sexually transmitted diseases, screening for cervical cancer which is caused by the herpes virus but based on the numbers will make hundreds of millions of dollars selling the morning after pill, Plan B.
Planned Parenthood will make billions of dollars from this. That's why they think "this is great."
Aside from what kind of identification would children need or protecting sex offenders, the government is creating massive problems by stripping parents of their ability to protect their children for no other reason than making obscene amounts of money.
The Maine Equal Rights Center referendum campaign, An Act Regarding Parental Consent for Abortions will be on the November 2014 ballot.
This campaign will let Mainer's decide if parental consent and knowledge must be required when it comes to their children to prevent these tragedies from happening, or, if politicians should make those decisions for us.
Our goal is to restore parental rights because people can take much better care of their children than the government.
Planned Parenthood says they want to help parents plan families yet support laws that remove parents from the picture, so, if parents aren't planning their families that means government is, through Planned Parenthood, and that takes away people's choices and freedom.
Erick Bennett of Portland owns FNX Enterprises which offers public relations and full service multi media marketing and advertising. He founded the Maine Equal Rights Center which raises awareness about the loss of Constitutional rights through social issues. For more information, visit www.maineequalrightscenter.com
Last Updated on Monday, 13 May 2013 21:07
Hits: 354
What no one wants to hear about Benghazi
Written by Ron Paul
Congressional hearings, White House damage control, endless op-eds, accusations, and defensive denials. Controversy over the events in Benghazi last September took center stage in Washington and elsewhere this month. However, the whole discussion is again more of a sideshow. Each side seeks to score political points instead of asking the real questions about the attack on the U.S. facility, which resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.
Are we are supposed to be shocked by such behavior? Are we supposed to forget that this kind of whitewashing of facts is standard operating procedure when it comes to the U.S. government?
Democrats in Congress have offered the even less convincing explanation for Benghazi, that somehow the attack occurred due to Republican sponsored cuts in the security budget at facilities overseas. With a $1 trillion military budget, it is hard to take this seriously.
It appears that the Administration scrubbed initial intelligence reports of references to extremist Islamist involvement in the attacks, preferring to craft a lie that the demonstrations were a spontaneous response to an anti-Islamic video that developed into a full-out attack on the U.S. outpost.
Who can blame the administration for wanting to shift the focus? The Islamic radicals who attacked Benghazi were the same people let loose by the U.S.-led attack on Libya. They were the rebels on whose behalf the U.S. overthrew the Libyan government. Ambassador Stevens was slain by the same Islamic radicals he personally assisted just over one year earlier.
But the Republicans in Congress also want to shift the blame. They supported the Obama Administration’s policy of bombing Libya and overthrowing its government. They also repeated the same manufactured claims that Gaddafi was “killing his own people” and was about to commit mass genocide if he were not stopped. Republicans want to draw attention to the President’s editing talking points in hopes no one will notice that if the attack on Libya they supported had not taken place, Ambassador Stevens would be alive today.
Neither side wants to talk about the real lesson of Benghazi: interventionism always carries with it unintended consequences. The U.S. attack on Libya led to the unleashing of Islamist radicals in Libya. These radicals have destroyed the country, murdered thousands, and killed the U.S. ambassador. Some of these then turned their attention to Mali which required another intervention by the U.S. and France.
Previously secure weapons in Libya flooded the region after the U.S. attack, with many of them going to Islamist radicals who make up the majority of those fighting to overthrow the government in Syria. The U.S. government has intervened in the Syrian conflict on behalf of the same rebels it assisted in the Libya conflict, likely helping with the weapons transfers. With word out that these rebels are mostly affiliated with al Qaeda, the U.S. is now intervening to persuade some factions of the Syrian rebels to kill other factions before completing the task of ousting the Syrian government. It is the dizzying cycle of interventionism.
The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it. But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.
(Dr. Ron Paul was a Republican member of Congress from Texas.)
Republicans smell a political opportunity over evidence that the Administration heavily edited initial intelligence community talking points about the attack to remove or soften anything that might reflect badly on the president or the State Department.
Are we are supposed to be shocked by such behavior? Are we supposed to forget that this kind of whitewashing of facts is standard operating procedure when it comes to the U.S. government?
Democrats in Congress have offered the even less convincing explanation for Benghazi, that somehow the attack occurred due to Republican sponsored cuts in the security budget at facilities overseas. With a $1 trillion military budget, it is hard to take this seriously.
It appears that the Administration scrubbed initial intelligence reports of references to extremist Islamist involvement in the attacks, preferring to craft a lie that the demonstrations were a spontaneous response to an anti-Islamic video that developed into a full-out attack on the U.S. outpost.
Who can blame the administration for wanting to shift the focus? The Islamic radicals who attacked Benghazi were the same people let loose by the U.S.-led attack on Libya. They were the rebels on whose behalf the U.S. overthrew the Libyan government. Ambassador Stevens was slain by the same Islamic radicals he personally assisted just over one year earlier.
But the Republicans in Congress also want to shift the blame. They supported the Obama Administration’s policy of bombing Libya and overthrowing its government. They also repeated the same manufactured claims that Gaddafi was “killing his own people” and was about to commit mass genocide if he were not stopped. Republicans want to draw attention to the President’s editing talking points in hopes no one will notice that if the attack on Libya they supported had not taken place, Ambassador Stevens would be alive today.
Neither side wants to talk about the real lesson of Benghazi: interventionism always carries with it unintended consequences. The U.S. attack on Libya led to the unleashing of Islamist radicals in Libya. These radicals have destroyed the country, murdered thousands, and killed the U.S. ambassador. Some of these then turned their attention to Mali which required another intervention by the U.S. and France.
Previously secure weapons in Libya flooded the region after the U.S. attack, with many of them going to Islamist radicals who make up the majority of those fighting to overthrow the government in Syria. The U.S. government has intervened in the Syrian conflict on behalf of the same rebels it assisted in the Libya conflict, likely helping with the weapons transfers. With word out that these rebels are mostly affiliated with al Qaeda, the U.S. is now intervening to persuade some factions of the Syrian rebels to kill other factions before completing the task of ousting the Syrian government. It is the dizzying cycle of interventionism.
The real lesson of Benghazi will not be learned because neither Republicans nor Democrats want to hear it. But it is our interventionist foreign policy and its unintended consequences that have created these problems, including the attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens. The disputed talking points and White House whitewashing are just a sideshow.
(Dr. Ron Paul was a Republican member of Congress from Texas.)
Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 May 2013 23:26
Hits: 46
No mo' PoMo?
Written by James Howard Kunstler
Whenever the Federal Reserve wants to tweak the dials of the economy — or pretend that it can — it turns first to its sock puppet at The Wall Street Journal, John Hilsenrath, and "leaks" a rumor of policy change. They like to do this late on Fridays when financial markets are about to close, so that market players will have a whole weekend to ponder the Fed's actions like medieval viziers reading goat entrails.
Last Friday's puddle of steaming guts was a supposed preview of the Fed's "exit strategy" from its reckless policy of "quantitative easing" or "money" creation (or "liquidity," if you like). In other words, they supposedly intend to stop juicing the financial markets with fake wealth, i.e. capital not accumulated from real productive activity, but just fictively created on computer hard drives. For the past year they have been doing this to the tune of $85 billion a month, "buying" U.S. Treasury bonds and bills and an assortment of miscellaneous securities (mostly trash that can't be pawned off on anyone else) through their so-called "primary dealer" bank cohorts, the too-big-to-fail usual suspects, who "earn" hefty transaction fees in the process of conveying all these pixels from Point A to Point B.
These interventions are called Permanent Open Market Operations, or PoMo.
These interventions are called Permanent Open Market Operations, or PoMo.
The theory all along has been that this $85 a month would seep down to Main Street to provoke spending (increasing the "velocity of money) and therefore "jump start" the economy. The theory has proven itself to be complete horses--t, of course. All it has done is suppress interest rates on bonds, depriving old people of income off their savings by so doing. It also artificially jacked up reckless lending on loans for houses, cars, and college degrees, juiced the share price of stocks, and boosted food prices. Meanwhile, an increasingly former middle class languishes in a purgatory of foreclosure, penury and desperation. The Fed can't really do anything to help them. It can only burden them with more easy-credit debt, especially their college-age children. But ours is a financialized economy and finance is too abstruse for most ordinary people to understand, so they just muddle along in a fog of dashed hopes and repossession.
Lately, though, the financial markets at the heart of the financialized economy — that is, an economy based on buying and selling increasingly dubious "paper" assets rather than on capital formation through producing things of value — are sending distress signals. The aforesaid efforts at economic dial-tweaking have only produced distortions and perversions in the basic functioning of the markets they're designed to tweak. They pervert the "price discovery" mechanism by dumping "free money" into equity markets. They distort "risk premiums" by steering money out of savings, where it earns less than nothing, into riskier investments subject to the vagaries of everything from weather (commodity markets) to control fraud (bank stocks) to geopolitics (Toyota stock). They debauch market expectations in general by implying permanent artificial life-support. They promote market gaming such as front-running equity prices via high frequency trading on computers, naked shorting (pretending to borrow shares that, in fact, do not exist) and the abuse of futures markets — lately illustrated in the ongoing smash of paper gold and silver contracts, with the side effect of driving yet more money into stock markets. Finally, they undermine the meaning and value of money itself, which is the most dangerous game of all because when people lose confidence in their national currency, nations dissolve in political chaos.
Despite the aura of control, Fed officials (and casual observers) may sense things spinning out of control. Of course, hyper-fragility is exactly the effect that all the Fed's own actions would predictably lead to. When you divorce truth from reality, strange things are bound to happen. The Fed ventriloquists who speak through Hilsenrath at The Wall Street Journal suggest they would accomplish their exit from the current $85 billion-a-month QE policy in a set of "halting steps" by irregularly dialing down QE issuance month-by-month to fine-tune the results on-the-fly, as markets may require. This is also complete horses--t because they could only accomplish controlled tweakings by somehow signaling their intentions beforehand through some lackey like Hilsenrath. Otherwise, they could not pretend to control the results of their actions. They might as well just throw spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. Unfortunately, the "halting steps" idea would only provide even more opportunities for selective, complex front-running, shorting, and gaming — which is to say setting up more dangerous behavior with more uncertain and possibly destructive outcomes.
Anyway, there's no evidence at this moment that anyone believes what was leaked to Hilsenrath. It could easily be more smoke and mirrors aimed at concealing the fact that the Federal Reserve has no idea what it has been doing and fears the consequences. There is one thing that we know for sure in this strange period when bankers have tried to manage reality in the absence of truth: that advanced industrial-technological economies designed to run on $20-a-barrel oil can't run on $100-a-barrel oil, and that is why the US economy was subject to financialization in the first place — to offset declining productive activity by an attempt to get something for nothing. Notice that this macro-trend coincided exactly with the rise of legalized gambling all over America. That is how the idea that you could get something for nothing got to be normal. The world is about to find out that you really can't get something for nothing. It will be a harsh lesson.
(James Howard Kunstler is the author of several books, including "The Long Emergency," "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Witch of Hebron." Contact him by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .)
(James Howard Kunstler is the author of several books, including "The Long Emergency," "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Witch of Hebron." Contact him by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .)
Last Updated on Monday, 13 May 2013 21:04
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