February 8th, 2007 by Matt
On some level, I suppose this sucker had to be covered (courtesy of the folks over at Reuters):
First lady Laura Bush has selected William Yosses as White House Executive Pastry Chef and praised him on Monday for originality and a light touch with desserts.
Yosses, who joined the White House in November as a holiday pastry chef, replaced Thaddeus DuBois who left last year from the post in charge of designing dessert menus for state dinners and other official and social events at the White House.
In all seriousness,
somewhere out there there are pastry chefs who are crying themselves to sleep, yelling at themselves in the mirror, or wishing they hadn’t auditioned for the part by concocting chocolate mousse* torts drenched in a molten devil’s food fudge and topped with whip cream and caramel-covered macadamia nuts.
We thought we’d offer up some recipes for healthier desserts, so here’s a link to WebMD, who, somewhat surprisingly, has a bevy of options for those of us (yours truly include) still looking to shed some holiday pounds (damn that pumpkin pie!) without completely sacrificing the sweets.
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February 8th, 2007 by Eric
By now you know the evils of Wal-Mart, how they lie, cheat and steal in order to get you to believe that they're saving you money. You've read about how they put small businesses under, make employees work overtime off-the-clock, and fire anyone who even says the word “union.” But here's an angle you might not be aware of.
In North Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo with a population of just over 33,000 people, there is an attempt underway to put in a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In addition to the normal complaints and debate as to the impact the new building would have on small businesses in the area, Wal-Mart has lied about how much building the store would cost the taxpayers. They forget to include the cost of widening the street of the proposed site as well as the cost of fixing the sewer system so that it can accommodate the superstore.
Frank Budway, owner of Budway's Market, plans to bring up these issues in front of the Common Council. He knows how this store will effect his business, but his biggest beef is with the increased taxes that will come with making these changes as well as an increase in government services.
How can you help? If you know of any similar stories concerning the negative impact Wal-Mart has had on an area, write a letter to the editor of the Buffalo News. You can get tips on how to write an effective letter here. The more attention that is brought to the problem, the greater the chance that the proposal will be stopped. Oh, and there is already a Wal-Mart ten miles away. How many small businesses need to go under?
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February 8th, 2007 by Matt
Well, it turns out that several states have one of the most backwards laws on their books: a ban on opposite-sex cohabitation. Since we try to steer clear of sarcasm, you can trust us that this ain’t our kind of humor, because, well, because it’s really not all that funny. Even if you’re not a fan of this kind of living, it’s hard to believe most folks out there would think that it’s the government’s decision.
The states needing to meet the modern age? Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and everybody’s favorite Dakota, the northern one:
In North Dakota, a man and woman who live together without being married are committing a sex crime. It’s right there in the law, a state senator said, alongside the prohibitions against adultery, incest and indecent exposure.
As you might suspect, these inane laws are rarely enforced, but, of course, that doesn’t mean folks never try to stop guys and gals from shacking up together in the Mountain State:
In West Virginia, a former prison inmate is challenging the state’s anti-cohabitation law because it delayed his parole from prison on forgery convictions. Officials rejected William Stanley’s plan to move in with his fiancee after his release.
Or in the Old Dominion State:
In one case, a Norfolk, Va., day care operator faced losing her license because she was living with her boyfriend.
And in ND there are, of course, folks who think they know what’s best for you and me: “Tom Freier, a spokesman for the North Dakota Family Alliance, said repealing North Dakota’s anti-cohabitation law would signal that the state doesn’t value marriage and the societal benefits it brings.”
I guess we just value freedom over marriage. (Please note: at Progressive Wednesday, we’re pro-marriage for folks who want it, but it’s hard to completely argue for the societal benefits of marriage when every year approximately 2 million people are married and 1 million people get divorced.)
Thankfully, the ACLU exists. According to the article, the threat of facing an ACLU legal team all but forced the Virginia Department of Social Services to renew the day care operator’s license. The good news is that 43 states believe in freedom.
If you live in one of the seven aforementioned states, you might want to ink a letter to the editor or state reps blasting these backwards laws. When the populace learns about it, given the large number of folks living together, hopefully they’ll force the legisture’s hands. Why might this work? Well, because nearly 10 million individuals live together, according to the Census Bureau. To put that in perpective, that’s more than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Maine COMBINED!
Or, if writing isn’t your speed today, maybe just give the repressive folks at the North Dakota Family Alliance a jingle at 701-237-4218. (I guess we’ve got a little of the Devil in us.)
All this, to us, is proof positive that our country still has room to improve, or, to quote Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: “There’s a whole lot of walking to do.”
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