gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

so i read...bunches of stuff...cookbooks, novels, travel, photo, music and literature mags by the metric ton...i read about our world...all of it not just the city...the state...the region ...the nation i live in...i read stuff i don't agree with...i read stuff that's flat out untrue...but i read...i force myself through stuff that's absolute crap so i understand what is motivating people to think the way they do...i am not the sharpest pencil in the pack...more likely a very sharp spoon ...but...i wonder daily why so many of us are so willing to form an opinion from someone Else's mouth...or television appearance...if you read you can also read between the lines...you understand that when G.W. said that he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction...he meant but there were more important reasons to destabilize and control another country...oil...i also know that this group that is blindly slashing the size of government and programs that effect the least of us... ...

we cannot avoid mother natures little hiccups...earthquakes and the subsequent tsunamis are as unavoidable as they are horrific...but the man made fallout is what is truly frightening...if you are old enough to remember three mile island and Chernobyl...you know that we run the risk of irreparably changing our planet forever with an unchecked nuclear reactor...japan is admittedly years ahead of the U.S. in preparation for the worst case scenario...and we got to see first hand how a certain set of circumstances can create the perfect storm for radiation destruction of a large area...and then to listen to the talking heads say that we are too close to this horrible event to really look at our precautions and preparations...is to say the least ridiculous...years ago when i was a wee lad we fought hard against nuclear reactors...they built one in my backyard...there was no n.i.m.b.y. then ...not in my backyard...but we were fighting against a source of energy that brings with it an unacce...

so i don't write that much about the whole chef thing...and by now i hope you get the "mis en place" thing is a veiled reference to the important bits and pieces of our lives...but i still love my profession... that being said i just finished a great article about sustainable seafood...it made me realize that most people don't have any idea what that means to you as a diner in a restaurant...personally i stopped serving "wild seafood" gradually over the past fifteen years...here in florida what became increasingly clear was that the wild fish that people eat were becoming scarcer and more expensive as our appetite for fish grew...coming from philly to florida...the whole fresh fish thing was screwed up anyway...fish came iced in boxes...most was harvested( meaning filleted or steaked and mostly boned)...it came with dock dates which honestly meant very little to me... as long as the fish didn't smell like fish... i took it in and served it...then i got ...

Its hard to cheer for America these days...i mean i want to, really i do...but the idiots are in charge again...fixated on solving that darn deficit...they gotta cut spending...PBS... see ya...infrastructure maintenance and up keep...vios con dios...that's roads and bridges to you tea potters...i can't put enough pictures up to keep you interested...but what i can cheer for...what is really exciting is that the ignorant and willing... are about to train wreck our nation...scott and rubio in florida turn down a multibillion dollar fast track bullet train...guartenteed to not cost ther tax payers a nickel and provide jobs for the next ten years...but like scott...the racist christian conservatives middle Americans...garbed in the costume of crusading fiscal realists are headed straight into a train wreck with the not so conservative...but we need "our" earmark republicans...they courted these miscreants to take over the house...and now realize they are fucking uninform...

here in st. pete we just lost another policeman...he wasn't lost he was shot and killed...by a sixteen year old kid...a black sixteen year old...we live in a racially charged city...less than a month ago two policeman were killed by another African American...the usual racist crap is on the airwaves...but...this is not a black white thing ...this is a gun thing...no one but the police need handguns...i do not give one shit about your personal liberty...if you need a gun then the gun available to the American public should be a shot gun...a big ...hard to conceal...shotgun...you can defend your home...your family with a shotgun...what not cool enough...not sleek and shiny and able to hold a forty two bullet clip...tough shit...the argument that only criminals will have guns...is frankly bullshit...the nra...a gun lobby...dispels this garbage and every single American is less safe for it...the right to bear arms was brought about because of the English laws that forbade it prior to o...

sorry its been a couple of weeks...and now that i don't spend 6 days a week in the kitchen...meaning reading the paper everyday...i have to admit to being a little disconnected from the stupidity that surrounds me here in the sunshine state...but a quick glance at a recent paper brought home the screaming reality that i live in a state that should be returned to to the large reptilian ancestors that forged her...the new governor... a white collar criminal...special interest puppet has started his term with the blanket dismissal of the nations first new high speed line that would connect Tampa with Orlando...now to those of you that don't live in this developers nightmare...insufficient highways make travel between these two hubs taxing at best...both cities are gateway cities to our tourism industry...one for the mouse the other for the beaches...what made this such a collassal fuckup is that the decision was not made for any other reason than to make the tea party idiots happy...

so rumsfeld is getting the " defender of the constitution award" at the cpac convention....you know the conservative punks acting cunty...rumsfeld ...that bastion of american patriotic fervor responsible for engineering the war for oil and haliburton...harbinger of death for a generation of young americans, iraqis and lest we forget the legion of the willing...a bush crony smart enough to reach the ring of trust with g-dub...smart enough still to get out before the war crimes charges were filed in the Hague...anyone else catching the vibe that the "new" conservatives are gonna use public works to erect lynching trees with automated footstools for people of color and Hispanics...this group just keeps grasping at the most reprehensible precepts in modern philosophical dogma...embracing them and putting them on the back of a t-shirt...hang a Muslim...okay with them...52 bullet automatic clip pistols for five year old autistic Hitler neophytes...why sure...lets all hold...