Big Brass Blog http://www.bigbrassblog.com/ Lair of the Poisonous Scribblers en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 ©2010, Dark Wraith Publishing Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.bigbrassblog.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif Big Brass Blog http://www.bigbrassblog.com/ Battle of the Bulge http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3763 Lisa Ranger

Hudson Valley Grade A Duck Foie Gras
(fr. dartagnon.com)
$109.99 per 1.8 lbs.
__________________


[Addendum to From Twinkies to Fuel]:

Lipofuel is actually a serious proposition, and quite reasonable, once we get over ourselves.

One of its major attractions is that it's fully renewable, especially if it were possible to re-mine living sources. In the distant future when we have depleted other extant sources of fuel we will see that re-purposing our own "waste" matter will be a logical decision, and will be divested of any prurient scatological associations.

Much as with electric cars, the people whose fat is farmed might submit to periodic suctionings. Obviously, they would incur no cost for the liposurgery, and as a donor they would enjoy the very lucrative benefit of grazing copiously and being able to shed themselves of their avoirdupois as it became burdensome. Each may divine the line of sloth for himself, and decide whether the transgression can actually be transmogrified into a good.

Lipo would no longer be relegated to the back rooms of shady plastic surgeons but could become a perfected art, the domain of top surgeons and not just inferior pimple doctors. There would be no more jokes about "did she or didn't she"; yes -- she did give to her country, much as a blood or plasma donor does today. Instead of a little blood drop stick pin, a little golden fat globule to wear proudly, like the "I Voted" sticker.

Perhaps not to you, but to some people, that freedom to graze would be felt as a great blessing. For those amongst us who are weight-challenged, the battle of the bulge can become a debilitating daily fixation. The types of diets are legion, and sadly, science is telling us that once grown the fat cell never returns to a slimmer state. For the person who has shed weight, her newly lean cells are simply fat ones in hiding --imposter thin cells -- ready to chow down on any calories thrown their way. Ingest all the Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) or Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HGC) you may, a fat cell is a "fat" cell. It will always have space to grow.

Rather than occupying space as inert lumpen who may only use their minds or physical exertion to produce meaningful results, why not farm the last readily-accessible frontier -- the human body -- and allow people to produce? Why can we only accept organ donation upon death? Why these odd lines? If organ harvesting is for a good purpose, then so tissue farming (blood is a "tissue").

Unfortunately, humans are wont to ideate and fall into the slippery-slope fallacy that if fat were farmed from corpses -- and perhaps willing live donors -- than it is just a hop away to breeding humans who would sit inertly in a lab and be force-fed like like geese to produce fois gras, except they would be sucked of their fat.

Here is a perhaps vulgar thought question, but what is so different from the human who goes from cubicle to home office, sitting before a screen all day and ingesting chips and soda which the body converts to fat, and the immobile goose force fed to produce its succulent fois gras?

We think nothing of re-producing offspring -- expulsing genetic material into the world. Why not put some of our inert matter to good use? Instead of having it sit in front of Facebook 24/7, give a little back to the world.

If we think nothing of mining the liquified remains of long-dead animals processed naturally, then why not our own?

(cross-posted @ RangerAgainstWar, with links)]]> Environment http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3763 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:36:37 -0500 From Twinkies to Fuel http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3762 Lisa Ranger

It's people.
Soylent Green is made out of people
--Soylent Green (1973)

Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries,
'Hold, enough!'
--Macbeth, Shakespeare

Some folk built like this, some folk built like that
But the way I'm built, you shouldn't call me fat
Because I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed
But I got everything all the good girls need
--Built for Comfort, Willie James Dixon

I've seen every blue-eyed floozy on the way
But their beauty and their style
Went kind of smooth after a while
Take me to them lardy ladies every time
--Fat-Bottomed Girls, Queen
_________________


And speaking of sows . . .

In the spirit of renewable resources, we proposes a new green initiative based on his observations of people and their ever-present need for fuel: Render their fat upon their expiration.

Human fat -- adipose tissue -- could be sourced from both the living and the dead to manufacture any number of products, much as whale tallow keeps entire societies alive. Perhaps the thought of rubbing it on your skin as an emollient is unpleasant, though many pay dearly to do just that with human placenta.

The urge for the fountain of youth is a powerful motivator. Geraldo Rivera had his buttock fat injected into his face for a more comely appearance (the jury is still out). The poet William Butler Yeats had monkey testes implanted in his scrotal sac in his quest for potency in his twilight years (though some argue they were goat testes.) Sometimes, one just needs a little push to mount the hill of resistance, and vanity is one of those.

But forget vanity as the lead motivator. Fuel to power our motoring needs could be the primary use. America is slap filled with fat people: The Centers for Disease Control says about one-third of us are obese, which the CDC defines as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher; another third of us are overweight, making for a gravy train of adipose. If their fat were to be rendered, we would have an excellent source for bio fuel.

IN fact, Beverly Hills liposuction doctor C. Alan Bittner, M.D. did just that [Forbes reported on it in 2008]. Dr. Bittner removed the unwanted fat from his patients, processed it, and used the resulting biodiesel "to fuel his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator." That's a lot of fuel consumption, and he introduced his success to the world at his now-defunct website, lipodiesel.com.

Unfortunately, California had a legal proscription against using "medical waste" for fuel purposes, and the good doctor is reported to have fled the country. (Maybe not such a good doctor, as he also tended to "over-render his patients," making for a lumpy result). Can't get greedy.

The time for creating truly sustainable energy resources is now. How can anyone get excited about the thought that fracking might provide 100 years of fuel? OK -- what then? "Oh, I'll be dead, then", y'say? Well, part of life is aspiring not to leave it much more effed up than when you entered it.

Fuel is but one possibility: cosmetics, soaps (the Nazis innovated that), enviro-friendly candles -- every petroleum-based product could be tweaked to use this seemingly limitless resource (well, not in Somalia, maybe.) Reports of a Peruvian black market for human fat erupted in 2009, and then disappeared from the news. Were the Peruvians doing something beyond selling the fat to fancy European cosmetic manufacturers?

Rendering people's corpulence would make of them national assets, rather than the butt of jokes, and give them much-needed self-esteem before they enter our gas tanks. The Hurley's of the world would give far out of proportion to their person and as such would be saluted, rather than maligned. Wanna stop bullying? Render the hefties! From Twinkies and margarine back into fuel source -- this is the miracle we have been waiting for.

The benefits would spread everywhere: As they would be corporally leaner at death, the donator's caskets or vaults could be made smaller, for instance. This would be an apres-death reduction of their carbon footprint. Although one of the 12-Step programs could be eliminated, that would still leave many other 12-step programs at which the predatory may hook up with the stability-challenged of the world. (And there are always yoga classes and the Self Help section of the bookstore, if any of those survive the Kindle.)

It's time we get over being squeamish over our bodily emanations. Landfills, barges, tugboats and mountains have hid our waste for some time, but as we and our waste products multiply, the day of not seeing is nigh upon us.

Devastatingly large and toxic "garbage islands" exists in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Eastern Pacific Garbage patch is twice the size of Texas. C'mon, people, time to face the music and pay the piper!

A recent update on Swift's Modest Proposal from WaPo's humorist Alexandra Petri suggested eating old people (Eat the elderly! Except Warren Buffett. He knows where they hid the money. Sure, they’re old. They’re wrinkly and taste sort of gamy, with a hint of talcum powder), but we think food production is not as threatened as fuel sources.

Perhaps we are not ready for pure cannibalism, but we have been cannibalizing (sourcing) parts of the human body for a while now. This is simply an extension of being an organ donor; tissue harvesting already occurs.

This is no time to stand on fallow ethics or haughty revulsion. This is a win-win for all.

--cross-posted at RangerAgainstWar, with links

· ·
]]> Energy http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3762 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:50:24 -0500 Cautionary Note on Trying to Change the World: http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3761 Peter of Lone Tree General http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3761 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:39:18 -0500 Minding Your Mitochondria: Dr. Terry Wahls Cured Her Worsening Multiple Sclerosis with Diet http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3760 Peter of Lone Tree "This is one of the most astonishing videos that I have ever seen. Please consider sharing this through your networks.
"Dr. Terry Wahls learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair."

LINK]]> Food http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3760 Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:30:17 -0500 Big Boys Don't Cry http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3759 Lisa Ranger

Thou shall not kill
Thou shall not steal
Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain
Thou shall not cause thy children pain
--The Eleventh Commandment,
Collin Raye

Little child, looking so pretty
Come out and play, I'll be your daddy
Innocent child, looking so sweet
I'll rape your mind and on your flesh I'll eat
-- Daddy, Korn

The sexual abuse and exploitation of children
is one of the most vicious crimes conceivable,
a violation of mankind's most basic duty
to protect the innocent
--David Walsh

Children are the world's most valuable resource
and it's best hope for the future
--John F. Kennedy
_____________________


I know four men who were sexually assaulted when they were young.

Four, and I do not that many people intimately. I am not a counselor, nor have I ever solicited such information; how could one? Yet it is true: four men have confided in me of their abuse at the hands of relatives, headmasters or other trusted adults. Their response varies from melancholy and confusion to fury. Some have married, some never will. For each, it is a heavy burden.

It is unforgivable to break the innocence and trust of a young person -- to my mind, it is one of the highest moral offenses (ignoring the criminal aspect.) We all get to feel the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune soon enough, but sexual exploitation corrodes straight through to the core of a young person's identity. It can never be set aright, though one can hope -- if the victim is fortunate enough and resilient enough -- that the accretion of a lifetime of compassion may help eventuate some measure of healing.

In my limited experience with these four, they are the more sensitive and thoughtful among us; probably, they were the more trusting. All the more pity their abuse.

Poseurs like "Bishop" Eddie Long, back in the news last week after taking a sabbatical from his post at the mega church Atlanta New Birth Missionary Baptist after his wife filed for divorce, cannot earn a seat hot enough in hell, IMHO. Long, married father of four, settled in a non-disclosure agreement in May with five young men who accused him of sexual coercion, and though "[d]etails of the settlement were to be kept secret, people with knowledge of the case have put it at several million dollars paid over a period of years".

Equally vile is the unfolding case of Ex-Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky and the now dozens of sexual abuse charges he faces. Many of the young men were predated upon via his Charity, the Second Mile. Complicit in the tragedy are police, university administration, probably Sandusky's wife, and many others.

How can this happen? Surely some of all of these people subscribe to a religion and presumably believe in the protection of the flock, no? Some say in the case Sandusky, it is a cabal of secrecy which surrounds profitable athletic programs. For those in the employ of the church, they have a ready-made cover.

But really, the issue is power. Children have no voice, and especially children of need. Layered upon that is guilt, and a sense of shame and culpability, and you have victims who nicely feed into the cabal. Shame may be one of bedrock human emotions, one not easily extinguished.

Oh that the perpetrators were able to access their own sense of shame, and minister to it accordingly, as only an adult is able to do. Until they do, the repercussions of violence and assault eddy outward. And we continue to feign naive shock when we hear of the latest shipwreck.

Unless one is dealing with a true psychopath, it is usually not hard to find the genesis of aberrant behavior. The Sandusky's and Long's of the world are probably not ex nihilo.

--More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.2
--It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates. 3
--More than 90% of juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way. 4
--Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
--About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse. 5
--Almost 500,000 episodes of child sexual molestation are reported annually in the U.S.
--14% of all men in prison in the USA were abused as children. 7
--36% of all women in prison were abused as children. 7

(U.S. Statistics from ChildHelp.org)

[links @ RangerAgainstWar]

]]> Human Rights http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3759 Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:02:06 -0500 Mourning For America http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3757 Debra


I love how baggers and dittoheads babble on about how government workers are lazy, overpaid, couldn't get a real job if they had to and every one of them that becomes unemployed is better for the taxpayers, yet complain about how long it takes when they have to do anything at a government office.  Or that people are abusing food stamps and don't really need them.  Then within the last few days reports of rural suicides increasing amid Medicaid cuts and a story like this comes along and they still can't make the f****ing connection between penalizing people (An 18 page application? One would think Texas purposely makes it difficult for anyone to collect aid.) by reducing or eliminating services for those who don't have the political clout to defend themselves and the despair that causes people to kill themselves and their families.  These are not isolated incidents and there will be more of them as more people feel they have no way out.



The powers behind the throne have successfully conned gullible Americans into demanding that the poor, the disabled and the elderly should pay the price so the rich won't have to contribute while they rob this country blind.  All the while never realizing that the problems didn't exist until the powers that be needed a distraction as they turn America into a third world country.



Like a majority of the world's population my financial situation deteriorates every day.  If you receive SSI (as I am stuck doing until my appeal goes through) you are not allowed to have more than $674 a month under any circumstances.  Otherwise two months after you made the extra few dollars they reduce your benefits until the overpayment is taken care of.  Funnily enough it does not work the other way around. If they underpay you they are not obligated to make up the difference.



After I was declared disabled I continued collecting unemployment while I looked for work that wouldn't aggravate my disability.  Unemployment was deducted from the $674 to make sure I didn't get ahead.  In August I started suffering from trigeminal neuralgia in addition to my disability and stopped collecting unemployment as I was no longer able to look for work while electrical shocks were stabbing me in the face every few minutes.  Since SSI runs two months behind I didn't start collecting the full $674 from them until November.  This means I was underpaid by $157 in August, $236 in September and $312 in October.



My rent is $475.  Other bills include utilities, car insurance and the student loan that was turned over to a debt recovery company.  Those nice people added $50k in fees and interest for a grand total of $148k and continually want to know when and how much I will pay them each month.  Anyone with basic math skills can tell that my income is less than my outgo.  Fortunately for me my landlady is of the saint variety and deferred October's rent until after the first of the year when hopefully I can start making payments to bring me current.  She isn't even charging interest.



This arrangement was based on the assumption that SSI would be making up the difference as the months passed and they could tell that I had been making less than $674.  Well, you know what they say about assuming. I went to the Social Security office to find out when they would credit me the underpayments since they were so good at penalizing me for overpayments that occurred when the calendar month and unemployment weeks didn't match.  After half an hour of trying to explain that I hadn't made $674 for the last few months I finally realized they weren't going to fix the underpayments.  Panic started to set in, my voice started to rise and polite behavior proceeded to go the way of the Dodo bird.   I barely made it to my car before saying things that would get me arrested.



Obviously I don't have enough money for food so Nevada graciously gives me $188 in food stamps and I can eat relatively healthily given the limited variety of fresh vegetables in Reno and an ability to cook from scratch.  To help make ends meet we found a third roommate and got rid of cable and the internet.  Tabletop antennas pick up local channels and I discovered that I don't watch enough television to justify paying for cable or satellite ever again.   I was without the internet for a few months and going a little stir crazy until E took pity on me and installed the cheapest DSL for internet access. 



With these changes I am almost able to meet my obligations and with "free play" from the casinos I occasionally have some money to put gas in the car and keep it just above the line that says E. I can walk to the store two miles away but I can't carry many groceries while using a cane and from bitter experience I know that the following two days I'm unable to do more than lurch around the house, oofing and woofing with every step.



If you've made it this far through my sad tale, there is a small spot of hope on the horizon.  I was talking to another vet at the VA and a social worker overheard my story.  It seems that since Social Security declared me disabled and I served more than 90 days during a time of war (government inefficiency at work, Congress was really slow to declare the end of the Vietnam debacle), I qualify for a non service connected disability pension.  $985 a month. I can't believe how excited I am about an extra $300 that still leaves me in the poverty zone.  The paperwork has been filed and the local AMVet office is trying to expedite it but it will probably take a year before that help arrives.  Meanwhile the social worker at the VA will get my doctor to sign the disability papers from the debt recovery company so they don't garnish my Social Security and I might be able to keep my head above water until the pension kicks in.  Yippee!



Not everyone is so lucky and it pains me to see that for a so called Christian nation people seem to have forgotten "there but for the grace of God go I".



Debsweb]]> Casualties of War http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3757 Thu, 8 Dec 2011 03:45:27 -0500 From Labrys' Blog: http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3756 Peter of Lone Tree "Weep, And Tear Your Hair"
Dec. 6th, 2011 03:59 pm

"When a mother shoots her children and herself because she is desperate over being denied food stamps?

"It is December. This woman had been trying to get food stamps since July. You would think SOME fucking BODY at that goddamned office could have tracked down the issue and corrected it. But nobody did, and a desperate woman lost all hope. I almost hope her two wounded children die, rather than wake to live with the knowledge that their own mother shot them before dying by her own hand in desperation and despair.

"You know that the long dark night of America has begun."]]> General http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3756 Wed, 7 Dec 2011 09:00:42 -0500 "You Cannot Build a Financial System on Rumors and Lies" http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3755 Peter of Lone Tree Is this what the markets have devolved to? The equivalent of gossip that borders on “he said, she said” nonsense? Also, why is it no one even checks with the reporters who publish the initial rumor-based news? Can reporters simply publish total lies these days and no one cares (that’s a rhetorical question, we already know the answer).

The whole thing just reminds us of the core issue pertaining to this Crisis: values.

This is not a monetary Crisis; it is a Crisis of values and morals. It is a Crisis caused by the notion that you can lie about virtually everything pertaining to a business deal (the quality of the assets, who owns them, whether they’re even legitimate, etc) and get away with it.

To review how we go into this mess, Wall Street and other industries lobbied Congress to loosen regulations.

Check out the rest at ZERO HEDGE.]]> Finance http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3755 Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:32:11 -0500 "Thrive: The Story is Wrong but the Spirit is Right" http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3754 Peter of Lone Tree "What is keeping us from thriving?" asks the new movie, Thrive. The answer it gives is "the global elite," the people who control the financial system that in turn controls everything else. Operating through the power institutions of our society, this elite pursues a conscious agenda of total world dominance, purposely suppressing anything that would disrupt their power: from clean energy to alternative cancer cures.

This answer might serve to give expression to feelings of rage, hate, grief, and indignation that otherwise, in a world where the wrongness is so ubiquitous as to seem woven into the fabric of reality itself, would turn inward. Ultimately, though, this answer feeds the mentality of control that is a much deeper culprit in humanity's failure to thrive.
LINK to Reality Sandwich where there's lots of good stuff.
]]> General http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3754 Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:43:02 -0500 The Bells http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3753 Lisa Ranger

--Bluebells, Challock Wood,
Squirrell

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies
--Moina Michael

Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron Bells!
What a world of solemn thought
Their monody compels!
--The Bells, Edgar Allen Poe

And now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three; but the greatest
of these is charity
--1 Corinthians 13:13 (KJV)
______________________


This a minor observation, but needing to return to a store twice today reminded me of how oblivious or robotic people can be.

The Salvation Army bell-ringers are out with their little red metal pots seeking change outside of grocers. It's not much to place your spare change in the pot, and it is for a good cause. But I witnessed at least 40 people walk past and give nothing. Some made eye contact with the bell-ringer, many had children with them, some were sure to look the other way.

On my second exit from the store almost everyone in my cohort smiled at her as they walked passed, but not one offered anything. As she forced a smile back, it seemed she was thinking the same thing as I. These were often well-dressed business people, so money cannot have been an issue.

When I was child, my mother made it clear what the money was going to and always gave me change for the bucket and taught me that it was bad form not to give something. She said it was a rather thankless job, so the least we could do was smile and give something. It was a lesson in inclusivity, no matter how small.

But nobody was taking this moment today to teach her kids. It reminded me of the many small humanities from my childhood which I do not see today, like little red poppies for the lapel on Memorial Day. It was just understood -- it seemed like everyone bought and wore one on that day, and it was another teaching point for me, the idea that some things were to be remembered and consecrated.

Unholy consumer pilgrimages like "Black Friday" were shunned. Like every kid, I was greedy for the latest greatest toy, but was taught that I'd become bored with it within an hour, and to stick with amusements that would go the distance like art and books. It really wasn't so bad, and I don't recall the profusion of gaudy and meaningless stuff that surrounds most kids today.

So back to the people blithely passing the bell-ringers: Do they think the people with the Santa caps are just part of the mise-en-scene, and their life is a big festivity devoted to their own distraction? Do they resent the intrusion into their lives? Do they think anything?

This is the Deep South, and southerners do tend to have a scarcity mentality. But some of the people exiting that store were surely parishioners of some church, and isn't charity part of the lesson?

I understand the new watered-down biblical versions which they probably follow in the Baptist church have replaced "charity" with "love", but surely they are not thinking solely of love incarnate, like Edward in Twilight . . . or, are they?]]> American Culture http://www.bigbrassblog.com/index.php?itemid=3753 Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:25:11 -0500