Discussion Board

Kate, Loved the link.

Afreespirit, Good quote.

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Good afternoon friends. I thought I’d share some photos and a recipe I made yesterday. It was my first time to try jicama. It was OK. Nothing to write home about.

Jicama Salad

5 baby cucumbers, peeled and chopped.
1 jicama, peeled and chopped
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup maple syrup
Juice of one small lime
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon chili powder.

Mix it up and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour for the flavors to blend.








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As you might expect, as a lesbian and antitheist, I’m very pleased to see Prop 8 overturned. Here is my favorite paragraph from Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling.

“Moral disapproval is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples. Because Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification, Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Now if we can just do something about the recent supreme court ruling that invalidates a part of 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform law that sought to limit corporate influence. If you thought your elected representatives were too influenced by big business before, then hang on cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
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Props to the Louisville Coalition of Reason for spending $4100.00 on this billboard which will be up until August 28th.




From Chapter 5 ‘The Decent of Man’ by Charles Darwin
"The evidence that all civilised nations are the descendants of barbarians, consists, on the one side, of clear traces of their former low condition in still-existing customs, beliefs, language, &c.; and on the other side, of proofs that savages are independently able to raise themselves a few steps in the scale of civilisation, and have actually thus risen. The evidence on the first head is extremely curious, but cannot be here given: I refer to such cases as that of the art of enumeration, which, as Mr. Tylor clearly shews by reference to the words still used in some places, originated in counting the fingers, first of one hand and then of the other, and lastly of the toes. We have traces of this in our own decimal system, and in the Roman numerals, where, after the V, which is supposed to be an abbreviated picture of a human hand, we pass on to VI, &c., when the other hand no doubt was used. So again, "When we speak of three-score and ten, we are counting by the vigesimal system, each score thus ideally made, standing for 20- for 'one man' as a Mexican or Carib would put it."* According to a large and increasing school of philologists, every language bears the marks of its slow and gradual evolution. So it is with the art of writing, for letters are rudiments of pictorial representations. It is hardly possible to read Mr. M'Lennan's work*(2) and not admit that almost all civilised nations still retain traces of such rude habits as the forcible capture of wives. What ancient nation, as the same author asks, can be named that was originally monogamous? The primitive idea of justice, as shewn by the law of battle and other customs of which vestiges still remain, was likewise most rude. Many existing superstitions are the remnants of former false religious beliefs. The highest form of religion- the grand idea of God hating sin and loving righteousness- was unknown during primeval times."

[quote="LethaA tolerance for diversity sets up an interesting paradigm. Those that seek a tolerance for diversity tend to have a high tolerance for those who are intolerant. However, the reverse is not true.

Being right won’t help you if you lose the war.
Letha[/quote]

That is very true, but right now my oldest son who works for an evangelist and I are barely on speaking terms (his choice) and they don't want to see us. Other family members have ostracized us too. I really hate that but it will remain that way because of their intolerance. The funny thing is that aside from not going to church anymore and changing our political affiliations, my husband and I are the same as we've always been.
We still abide by the law and don't even drink. We just decided to stay home on Sundays.

“

Yay! A step in the right direction!

Well while I was a Christian I noticed that the church I belonged to just kept getting narrower and narrower in their views. It was never a part of the ecumenical movement of the first part of the 20th century. In fact they didn't think most other groups were "real" Christians. They excluded Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Lutherans and of course all churches they thought were cults like Mormons, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness and Christian Science. Then they started to preach and teach that any type of liberalism was Satanic and several people even said that a person could not be a Christian if they voted for a Democrat. That's when my husband and I walked out of church never to return. We still have a lot of family members who would love to argue about all that, but we've learned that because of their dogmatism (even stuff that isn't really in the Bible) that they don't want to really have an exchange of ideas. They simply want to re-convert us (not just back to being believers, but to their political views as well) and they are not willing to listen to anything we have to say. So I decided at least with family members to just not discuss my views because it just leads to more arguing and friction.

Good morning friends. Hope this August Friday finds you happy and healthy. I made roasted beets yesterday so I thought I’d share the directions and some snaps. So, basically what I do is take the beets and give them a scrub, like you’d do for baked potatoes. Wrap them in foil and bake them for an hour at 350°. Let them cool to room temperature and then peel and slice. I find you can mostly rub the skins off but of course this stains your hands red with beet juice. I like to let them sit in the fridge in a 50/50 dressing of rice vinegar and maple syrup for about 24 hours, stirring a couple of times. For these six beets I used ½ cup each of vinegar and maple syrup. If you’ve never made cooked beets before, I’d just warn you that these little buggers will stain everything they touch a lovely scarlet red.
Letha











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So, I’ve been invited to a big Prop 8 victory potluck and I have to decide what to bring. There should 6 lesbian couples plus a couple of stray lesbians, a couple of gay guys, and a couple of straight folks there. Lots of vegetarians among the lesbians although I believe two of the couples are actually trying to do raw but having a hard time sticking to it. Or more like in both cases, one of the women is more into the whole raw thing then the other. There is another couple who eats some meat and dairy but it has to be local & organic as is all the food they eat. They have a huge garden and also eat local seafood which is real big where I live. The other lesbians I think fall somewhere between vegan and vegetarian but none of them are oil free. I’m not sure what the gay guys or the straight folks normally eat and I don’t know if the lesbian couples are bringing their kids. Well, one of the lesbian couples has a baby that is still breast feeding so that’s not an issue. One of the lesbian couples has teen age boys but I don’t know if they’ll come. Their moms are always complaining that they can’t get their noses out of their online computer games. If you ask me that’s a lot better than being a pot head like I was at that age. But then I’m putting gamers in the category of nerds instead of rebel pot smokers. Things might have changed since I was a kid. Do the nerds smoke pot these days? Anyway, I’m thinking of either bringing my BBQ Potato Salad or my Four Bean Salad or both. If you show up to a potluck as a couple should you bring two separate dishes since you are two people instead of one?
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From Chapter 6 ‘The Decent of Man’ by Charles Darwin
“It is well known that the hair on our arms tends to converge from above and below to a point at the elbow. This curious arrangement, so unlike that in most of the lower mammals, is common to the gorilla, chimpanzee, orang, some species of Hylobates, and even to some few American monkeys. But in Hylobates agilis the hair on the forearm is directed downwards or towards the wrist in the ordinary manner; and in H. lar it is nearly erect, with only a very slight forward inclination; so that in this latter species it is in a transitional state. It can hardly be doubted that with most mammals the thickness of the hair on the back and its direction, is adapted to throw off the rain; even the transverse hairs on the fore-legs of a dog may serve for this end when he is coiled up asleep. Mr. Wallace, who has carefully studied the habits of the orang, remarks that the convergence of the hair towards the elbow on the arms of the orang may be explained as serving to throw off the rain, for this animal during rainy weather sits with its arms bent, and with the hands clasped round a branch or over its head. According to Livingstone, the gorilla also "sits in pelting rain with his hands over his head."* If the above explanation is correct, as seems probable, the direction of the hair on our own arms offers a curious record of our former state; for no one supposes that it is now of any use in throwing off the rain; nor, in our present erect condition, is it properly directed for this purpose.”

Those beets look delicious and you always take such good pictures, Letha! I am glad we have the right to eat the McDougall way--I support rights for all living things, including some plants (like old-growth forests), but not including corporations as ppl. Hope you enjoy the potluck--sounds like fun!

Wow those veggie benedicts look marvelous. I will have to try making them. Thanks for the photos.

I want to send a big shout out to all my lovely McDougall friends who have sent me private messages of encouragement, thanks, & humor this past week. It is my sincere hope that one day soon you will all feel comfortable sharing your non-belief with the world.

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So today I thought I’d share my latest discovery. GoGo Rice. Now I love my Zojirushi rice cooker. Measure out rice and water and turn it on and it makes the rice and keeps it hot all day long. It’s so cool to start it up and then go out and run errands only to come home and find a hot pot of organic brown jasmine rice. Yum! But for those times when even that’s too much trouble, we now have GoGo rice. Keeps on the shelf and nukes in 90 seconds. I like to serve it topped with some cooked frozen veggies, maybe some pineapple chunks, and my 332 sauce (3parts soy, 3 parts maple syrup, 2 parts vinegar). I couldn’t make it 333 sauce because that would be half of 666 sauce and well, that would just be wrong.



Here are a few of snaps – the one bowl also has some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.











From Chapter 8 ‘The Decent of Man’ by Charles Darwin
“Polygamy.- The practice of polygamy leads to the same results as would follow from an actual inequality in the number of the sexes; for if each male secures two or more females, many males cannot pair; and the latter assuredly will be the weaker or less attractive individuals. Many mammals and some few birds are polygamous, but with animals belonging to the lower classes I have found no evidence of this habit. The intellectual powers of such animals are, perhaps, not sufficient to lead them to collect and guard a harem of females. That some relation exists between polygamy and the development of secondary sexual characters, appears nearly certain; and this supports the view that a numerical preponderance of males would be eminently favourable to the action of sexual selection. Nevertheless many animals, which are strictly monogamous, especially birds, display strongly-marked secondary sexual characters; whilst some few animals, which are polygamous, do not have such characters.

We will first briefly run through the mammals, and then turn to birds. The gorilla seems to be polygamous, and the male differs considerably from the female; so it is with some baboons, which live in herds containing twice as many adult females as males. In South America the Mycetes caraya present well-marked sexual differences, in colour, beard, and vocal organs; and the male generally lives with two or three wives: the male of the Cebus capucinus differs somewhat from the female, and appears to be polygamous.* Little is known on this head with respect to most other monkeys, but some species are strictly monogamous. The ruminants are eminently polygamous, and they present sexual differences more frequently than almost any other group of mammals; this holds good, especially in their weapons, but also in other characters. Most deer, cattle, and sheep are polygamous; as are most antelopes, though some are monogamous. Sir Andrew Smith, in speaking of the antelopes of South Africa, says that in herds of about a dozen there was rarely more than one mature male. The Asiatic Antilope saiga appears to be the most inordinate polygamist in the world; for Pallas*(2) states that the male drives away all rivals, and collects a herd of about a hundred females and kids together; the female is hornless and has softer hair, but does not otherwise differ much from the male. The wild horse of the Falkland Islands and of the western states of N. America is polygamous, but, except in his greater size and in the proportions of his body, differs but little from the mare. The wild boar presents well-marked sexual characters, in his great tusks and some other points. In Europe and in India he leads a solitary life, except during the breeding-season; but as is believed by Sir W. Elliot, who has had many opportunities in India of observing this animal, he consorts at this season with several females. Whether this holds good in Europe is doubtful, but it is supported by some evidence. The adult male Indian elephant, like the boar, passes much of his time in solitude; but as Dr. Campbell states, when with others, "It is rare to find more than one male with a whole herd of females"; the larger males expelling or killing the smaller and weaker ones. The male differs from the female in his immense tusks, greater size, strength, and endurance; so great is the difference in these respects that the males when caught are valued at one-fifth more than the females.*(3) The sexes of other pachydermatous animals differ very little or not at all, and, as far as known, they are not polygamists. Nor have I heard of any species in the Orders of Cheiroptera, Edentata, Insectivora and rodents being polygamous, excepting that amongst the rodents, the common rat, according to some rat-catchers, lives with several females. Nevertheless the two sexes of some sloths (Edentata) differ in the character and colour of certain patches of hair on their shoulders.*(4) And many kinds of bats (Cheiroptera) present well-marked sexual differences, chiefly in the males possessing odoriferous glands and pouches, and by their being of a lighter colour.*(5) In the great order of rodents, as far as I can learn, the sexes rarely differ, and when they do so, it is but slightly in the tint of the fur. ”

"This above all: to thine own self be true"--Wm. Shakespeare

Sorry I missed whatever went on this weeek Letha. I was very busy. But "hugz" anyway.

I don't know why I never saw this thread! Letha, your photos have been making my mouth water!
Well another non-believer here. Haven't looked at the Flying spaghetti monster for years. They crack me up. When I went to the site today, they had pics posted of some FSM cupcakes, hilarious!

That is funny.