Go here to follow the missing nukes story. This article adds some more information about the mysterious deaths.
Archive for November, 2007
Update on Barksdale
Nov 26
Christ the King
Nov 25
Today is Christ the King, the last Sunday in the liturgical year. In culminating the year, Christians celebrate Christ’s kingship. Next week we start back at the beginning, Advent, a season of penitential rites and preparation before Christ is born.
As I was thinking about the last post, the story of the illegal immigrant who saved the boy, I also had a lot of other thoughts swirling around in my head. I read some commentary from a blog that purports to “expose and combat liberal media bias”. No link from me, but you can Google Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada and find it yourself easily enough. The blogger’s main complaint seems to be that this “somewhat heartwarming tale” is being used to argue that illegal immigrants aren’t criminals, and that the AP has twisted the Sheriff’s words to create this impression. While he begrudgingly admits that the person in question, Jesus Manuel Cordova, age 26, obviously had “that pang of conscience enough” to stay with the child and do the right thing, he cannot overlook that the man broke the law. He states that illegals are criminals, good deeds notwithstanding. The law is paramount. (There’s quite a bit more…shall we say ‘color’ to this post, but I think it’s fair to say those are the main points.)
Please stay with me…
Jesus frequently spoke in parables, which caused a bit of confusion. His disciples were left scratching their heads from time to time, and he had to explain the parables to them. For example, in Matthew 12, he gave this parable:
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
Isn’t that something? The Pharisees obsessed over the law, but Jesus broke the “law” anyway. He would soon give his disciples a new commandment: love one another. Jesus tried to explain reality to the Pharisees, but they couldn’t hear him.
In John 10, Jesus gave us the parable of the Good Shepherd. He explains that the sheep follow the shepherd because they know his voice. They can hear him, and they understand.
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
Why did Jesus speak in parables? I think it’s because to understand parables, you have to follow the emotional content of the story. That’s the most important part. If a person cannot grasp the emotional content, the parable will not make much sense. But when we “get” a parable, the sensation is like a gear clicking into place.
Some parables are simple, like the Good Samaritan. Others require our contemplation in order to solve the mystery.
So, perhaps the people who hear Jesus’ voice are those who can speak his language, the language of love. We can understand the parables. The deeper lessons can be penetrated with some effort on our part and a sincere desire to understand.
Unfortunately, some people will never be able to speak this language. They are the people spoken about here.
Psychopaths respond to all emotional words as if they were neutral. It is as if they are permanently condemned to operate with a Juvenile Dictionary. Hare writes:
Earlier I discussed the role of “inner speech” in the development and operation of conscience. It is the emotionally charged thoughts, images, and internal dialogue that give the “bite” to conscience, account for its powerful control over behavior, and generate guilt and remorse for transgressions. This is something that psychopaths cannot understand. For them, conscience is little more than an intellectual awareness of rules others make up - empty words. The feelings needed to give clout to these rules are missing.
What is more, just as the color blind individual may never know he is color blind unless he is given a test to determine it, the psychopath is unable to even be aware of his own emotional poverty. They assume that their own perceptions are the same as everyone else’s. They assume that their own lack of feeling is the same for everyone else. And make no mistake about it: you can NOT hurt their feelings because they don’t have any! They will pretend to have feelings if it suits their purposes or gets them what they want. They will verbalize remorse, but their actions will contradict their words. They know that “remorse” is important, and “apologies” are useful, and they will give them freely, though generally in words that amount to blaming the victim for needing to be apologized to.
We can look at the story of Jesus Manuel Cordova and draw different conclusions based on our own ability to speak the language of love. Some will simply see a lawbreaker. Others may recall the Good Samaritan. This is the parable that came to my mind:
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Mark 12:41-43
Faint Praise
Nov 25
You may have heard the story about the illegal immigrant who saved a 9 year old boy.
PHOENIX - A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.
[snip]
Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help.
The woman died a short time later.
[snip]
“For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead,” Estrada said. “Fortunately for the kid, (Cordova) was there. That was his angel.”
Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.
The boy and his mother were in the area camping, Estrada said. The woman’s husband, the boy’s father, had died only two months ago. The names of the woman and her son were not being released until relatives were notified.
I would say this gentleman did the right thing at considerable personal cost to himself. The article has a few more details about how he tried to free the mother, gave the boy his coat, built a fire, comforted the boy and stayed with him until help arrived. Here’s how the article concludes:
Cordova likely saved the boy, Estrada said, and his actions should remind people not to quickly characterize illegal immigrants as criminals.
“They do get demonized for a lot of reasons, and they do a lot of good. Obviously this is one example of what an individual can do,” he said.
Obviously.
I bet if some white American guy saved a Mexican boy, that guy would be an actual “hero”.
Go Shopping…Meet Europeans
Nov 24
Front and center on today’s Boston Globe we have this story: With Dollar Low, US is One Big Outlet: Europeans Arriving in Droves for Bargains.
The US, Building 19 for Europeans.
I just have two things to say. 1) It’s pretty humiliating to have our currency so cheap that people can afford to fly across the ocean just to shop here, and 2) It’s pretty sad that Europeans are just as infected with consumerism that they will fly over here just to shop.
Kinsella is one of a record 1,000 international tourists who scheduled organized shopping trips yesterday to Wrentham Village Premium Outlets - more than double the number last year. Hundreds more were expected to come on their own, according to Beth Winbourne, the outlet’s general manager.
[snip]
“I never expected the euro to be so strong,” she said. “This may not happen again. So I’m spending like crazy and worrying about it later.”
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stirring the Pot
Nov 23
Pakistani officials told US diplomats that Musharraf would impose martial law several days in advance. US diplomats were duly horrified but had nothing much to say.
The Bush Administration knew that Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf planned to institute emergency rule but did not act or speak out about the plan, according to officials with knowledge of the discussion who spoke anonymously in Friday’s Wall Street Journal.
“In the days before the Nov. 3 announcement, the general’s aides and advisers forewarned U.S. diplomats in a series of meetings in Islamabad, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials,” the paper said.
Because the US response was “muted,” Pakistan interpreted American silence as a green light to instituting martial law, quickly deposing an intransigent Supreme Court, which had ruled against the general in the past.
[snip]
“The Bush administration didn’t raise a fuss, signaling to the military leader that Washington wasn’t going to push him for democracy, a former CIA official said. “An ambitious U.S. aid program to reform Pakistan’s political and education systems largely served to strengthen Islamabad’s military and counterterrorism operations, say current and former U.S. officials.”
Also Friday, Saudi Arabia signaled it might abet an opposition candidate’s attempt to return to power.
The return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from Saudi Arabia could bolster opponents of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ahead of Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
Sharif’s plan was announced Thursday hours after the Supreme Court, packed with pliant judges, swept away the last legal obstacles to Musharraf’s new five-year term as president.
It’s as if our President didn’t really care about democracy. More information on Pakistan’s Supreme Court decision here.
The court, composed of 10 judges who agreed to serve under emergency rule and the suspended constitution, performed as expected by dismissing five legal challenges to Musharraf’s election early this week, and then dismissing a sixth more minor challenge Thursday. Previous high court members who refused to sign a new oath have been suspended, and the senior lawyers who brought the major petitions against Musharraf’s right to serve as president are now behind bars.
[snip]
Another respected opposition leader, former cricket star Imran Khan, was released from jail Wednesday to a tumultuous public welcome and promptly urged all parties to boycott the elections, which he called “the biggest fraud in the history of Pakistan.”
A third key player, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, remains exiled in Saudi Arabia. Sharif said Wednesday he hoped to return and register his candidacy, but Musharraf traveled there earlier this week and reportedly asked the Saudis not to allow him to leave.
Even if the planned elections are flawed, however, they could be sufficient to earn Musharraf a reprieve from mounting international criticism of his rule. Musharraf is a longtime U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, and the Bush administration, while urging him to lift emergency rule, has continued to support him and to suggest it will be satisfied if he fulfills his pledge to step down as army chief and hold elections.
Earlier this week, President Bush said Musharraf had not yet “crossed the line” and that he believed the Pakistani leader was a believer in democracy and “a man of his word.” On Thursday, protesters here carried posters saying, “Where is the line, Mr. Bush?” and showing cartoons of Musharraf and Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, a former Pakistani dictator, as “Bush’s favorite democrats.”
Meanwhile, while all this kabuki is going on, the US may be preparing a surgical military intervention.
According to the New York Times Monday, plans have been drawn up by the US military’s Special Operations Command for deploying Special Forces troops in Pakistan’s frontier regions for the purpose of training indigenous militias to combat forces aligned with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
[snip]
According to press reports, over 1,000 civilians, members of the security forces and Islamist fighters have been killed in fighting in the region over the past five months.
[snip]
While the Pentagon admits to only about 50 US troops currently stationed in Pakistan as “advisors†to the Pakistani armed forces, that number would swell substantially under the proposed escalation. The Times cites a briefing prepared by the Special Operations Command that claims the beefed-up US forces would not be engaged in “conventional combat†in Pakistan. It quotes unnamed military officials as acknowledging, however, that they “might be involved in strikes against senior militant leaders, under specific conditions.â€
In other words, American Special Forces units would be used to carry out targeted assassinations and attacks on strongholds of Islamist forces.
In addition to the plan to recruit and train new paramilitary militias in the frontier region, Washington has developed a $350 million program to train and equip the existing 85,000-member Frontier Corps, a uniformed force recruited from among tribes in the Pakistan border region.
There is also considerable skepticism about the prospects for this program. “The training of the Frontier Corps remains a concern for some,†the Times reports: “NATO and American soldiers in Afghanistan have often blamed the Frontier Corps for aiding and abetting Taliban insurgents mounting cross-border attacks. ‘It’s going to take years to turn them into a professional force,’ said one Western military official. ‘Is it worth it now?’â€
[snip]
A clear indication of the depths of concern in Washington over the unraveling of its client regime in Pakistan came Sunday in the form of an op-ed piece published by the New York Times under the bylines of Fred Kagan and Michael O’Hanlon. Kagan, a member of the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, is a longstanding supporter of the US war in Iraq and was a signatory of the Project for a New American Century letter in 2001 demanding that the Bush administration invade the country in response to 9/11. He drafted a document that served as a blueprint for the recent “surge†that sent 35,000 more US troops into Iraq.
O’Hanlon, a member of the supposedly more liberal and Democratic-oriented Brookings Institute, has also emerged as a prominent supporter of the “surge†in Iraq and last April co-authored a paper with Kagan setting out a “grand strategy†for US imperialism. This envisioned a war against Iran as well as interventions in North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. The document urged “finding the resources to field a large-enough standing Army and Marine Corps to handle personnel-intensive missions.â€
The Times piece, entitled “Pakistan’s Collapse, Our Problem,†advocates the immediate consideration of “feasible military options in Pakistan.â€
We do nothing but cause trouble, setting up pretexts to use the US military. Step 1: Funnel money and weapons into the Middle East to exacerbate tensions. Check. Step 2: Ignore mounting problems. Check. Step 3: Suck at diplomacy or don’t even bother to try. Check. Step 4: Send in the US military. Check. It’s all a big game to people in power. The fact that innocent civilians suffer and die as a result of all these activities is also predictable. The fact that this game has bankrupted our country — also predictable. Notice how that doesn’t seem to matter one bit. You see, these war games makes some people rich and powerful. Peace is for losers.
Liars, liars
Nov 21
Scott McLellan must have received a call from somebody, because he sure did backpedal like crazy to protect Bush and throw other “individuals” under the bus. Presumably he was referring to the other four: Rove, Libby, Cheney and Card.
“I just got off the phone with the publisher of McClellan’s new book, and he tells me that McClellan does not charge in the book that the president himself was involved in any kind of conspiracy to mislead the public,” reported CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin. “But of course, in the publisher’s words, ‘Scott did go out to take bullets without the proper flak jacket on.’”
Oh please spare me. Now the story is that both he and the president were misled. I see. That’s very different.
By the way, Scott McLellan got up day after day and lied his a$$ off when he was press secretary. Now he wants to relieve his guilt by writing a book, but he doesn’t want George Bush to be mad at him either, so he makes this ridiculous statement. Evidently we are to believe that, just through their honest cream-filled goodness and merit, people like Scott McLellan and George Bush ascended to the White House, where they were subsequently manipulated, mercilessly I might add, by sneaky liars like Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and Scooter Libby. HA! That’s a good one.
These people lie like other people breathe.
Scott McLellan’s (remember him? WH press secretary after Ari Fleischer and before and Tony Snow?) new “tell-all” book is out.
“The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” writes McClellan. “So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.”
But his press performances weren’t based on the facts, McClellan continues.
“There was one problem. It was not true,” he writes. “I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.”
Poor Scott McClellan, so naive and innocent. How could he ever have imagined the treachery? Karl Rove had always conducted himself with the “highest standards of conduct”.
One word comes to mind: Inconceivable!
The new book also touches on other key Bush events and policy decisions, including the war in Iraq and the handling of Hurricane Katrina. “With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush’s closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course,” states a publicity blurb. “He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.”
Well, to be honest, millions of us could figure Bush out from 1,000 miles away in 1999, so I’ll skip the lessons. Maybe Scott McClellan is the one who needs lessons, such as “How to spot someone you definitely do not want to work for or help out in any way.” Or, “How to tell the truth and have courage when it really counts, and not just when there’s a book deal on the line.”
On Psychopaths
Nov 20
I’ve used the term psychopath several times in describing various people, and I’ve also written about evil. In case anyone thinks I’m being flip about this, let me explain.
You probably think of crazy killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer when you read the word psychopath. Therefore, you would conclude that, while truly horrible, psychopaths are rare and hopefully locked up. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The US population is around 300 million. Here are some statistics about our adult population:
- Obesity: 34%
- Smokers: 15%
- Depression: 9.5%
- Asthma: 5.6%
- Bipolar: 1.2%
Guess how many people have anti-social personality disorders? Estimates range from 2-4%, or about nine million people. Or about one in every 35 people, which means you probably know one. The presence of these people in our world, and our inability to address it rationally, has caused untold harm. In fact, most psychopaths do not go around committing serial murders. They operate within society, often in powerful positions and with considerable charm, and they develop strategies for hiding their main difference from the rest of us: their utter lack of conscience.
Also, read Cleckley’s speculations on what was “really wrong” with these people. He comes very close to suggesting that they are human in every respect - but that they lack a soul. This lack of “soul quality” makes them very efficient “machines.” They can be brilliant, write scholarly works, imitate the words of emotion, but over time, it becomes clear that their words do not match their actions. They are the type of person who can claim that they are devastated by grief who then attend a party “to forget.” The problem is: they really DO forget.
Being very efficient machines, like a computer, they are able to execute very complex routines designed to elicit from others support for what they want. In this way, many psychopaths are able to reach very high positions in life. It is only over time that their associates become aware of the fact that their climb up the ladder of success is predicated on violating the rights of others.“Even when they are indifferent to the rights of their associates, they are often able to inspire feelings of trust and confidence.”
The psychopath recognizes no flaw in his psyche, no need for change.
Perhaps the bitter divide between liberals and conservatives really started as a disagreement over what to do with psychopaths, even though that’s not the language actually used. But it’s true that much of the scorn conservatives have long heaped on liberals stems from the liberals’ operating assumption that all people are basically good. Conservatives keep telling liberals that you don’t understand. They say liberals are bleeding hearts, and there are psychopaths out there, and liberals will get us all killed. And you know what? There really are psychopaths out there, a fact I think many liberals have ultimately accepted, thanks to conservatives. And you know what else? It’s still also true that most people (96%) are basically good, just as liberals have always claimed. But this fact conservatives continue to resist. The real problem is figuring out who are the psychopaths and what should we be doing about them.
The way forward begins by understanding that psychopaths live and work among us, learning how to identify them, and having some ways of protecting ourselves from them. I highly recommend reading up on this a bit and just emotionally coming to grips with the idea, because it’s upsetting. But like peak oil, it’s reality; and the deal with reality or reality will deal with you rule applies. I will post more about it another time.
Update on Sibel Edmonds
Nov 20
Via Brad Blog, who spoke with Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg exposed over 7,000 pages of classified DOD information in the 70s, pages which detailed executive branch lying and manipulation regarding the Vietnam war.
Ellsberg seemed hardly surprised that today’s American mainstream broadcast media has so far failed to take Edmonds up on her offer, despite the blockbuster nature of her allegations.
As Edmonds has also noted, Ellsberg pointed to the New York Times, who “sat on the NSA spying story for over a year” when they “could have put it out before the 2004 election, which might have changed the outcome.”
“There will be phone calls going out to the media saying ‘don’t even think of touching it, you will be prosecuted for violating national security,’” he told us.
As an aside, we just learned that the NYT sat on important information re: Pakistan for three years. Apparently this is business as usual.
Anyway, Sibel Edmonds has been contacted by many news organizations abroad, but not one major American news organization has the nerve to take her up on her offer. Not even Keith Olbermann. (WWERM: What would Edward R. Murrow do?)
The mainstream media are “shameless,” Ellsberg says; so is Congress, so is Bush.
“He’s setting records for shamelessness. He should probably be in the Guinness Book of Records. He doesn’t care what he says. And the media is shameless as well, as they’ll run anything he says. And Congress is pretty shameless as well. You can’t really shame these people.”
Without mainstream corporate media attention, Ellsberg contends, Edmonds’s story will stay off the radar, and her damaging contentions will do no harm to the powers that be.
“She’s not going to shame the media, unless the public are aware that there is a conflict going on. And only the blog-reading public is aware of that. It’s a fairly large audience, but it’s a small segment of the populace at large.”
Unless her claims reach the mainstream, he says, “they don’t suffer any risk of being shamed. As long as they hold a united front on this, they don’t run the risk of being shamed.”
Indeed, and what kind of people can’t be shamed? Psychopaths, about 4% of the population. More on that another time.
Furthermore, some of these media outlets already know the story because other FBI agents gave it to them over a year ago.
“I will name the name of major publications who know the story, and have been sitting on it — almost a year and a half.”
“How do you know they have the story?” we asked.
“I know they have it because people from the FBI have come in and given it to them. They’ve given them the documents and specific case-numbers on my case.”
“These are agents that have said to me, ‘if you can get Congress to subpoena me I’ll come in and tell it under oath.’”
Yet, despite promises she says she had received from staffers in Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) office to hold hearings once he became chairman of the House Oversight Committee, they no longer respond to her. “The only reason they couldn’t hold hearings [previously],” they’d told her, “was because the Republicans were blocking it.”
They’re not blocking it anymore. Ever since the Democrats have taken control of the House. Nonetheless, there are still no plans for hearings. Even with more than 30,000 people having signed her petition, calling on Waxman to do so.
[snip]
Ellsberg says there’s a reason that the Government, and both political parties, would rather not deal with something as explosive as Sibel’s charges. Much like his own case, when the Republican Nixon administration fought against publication of the Pentagon Papers even though they were bound to embarrass the Democratic Johnson administration far more than Nixon’s.
“It involves our allies in various places in the Middle East. It involves our allies in Turkey and in Afghanistan and involves people in our Congress and our State Department,” he says.
Yes, Israel, and the extremely powerful AIPAC lobby which supports both parties, is said to be involved as well.
“There’s no way that the President and Vice-President can escape culpability in this case,” Ellsberg charges. “If they claim they don’t know about it, then they are culpable in not knowing about it, and that’s impeachable right there.”
Food, A Simple Thing
Nov 20
Food pantries across the country report very high demand for their help, forcing them to stretch their supplies by cutting portions. Many working people seek assistance because they simply don’t make a living wage.
Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
[snip]
“We’ve lost factory jobs and many service jobs don’t pay a livable wage,” said Dick Stevens, director of the organization’s food and nutrition division. “We see a lot of desperation in families who are trying to figure out how to pay higher fuel and utility costs and still put food on the table.”
Most food banks and pantries aren’t optimistic about the coming winter.
I have a cookbook called The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook by Tom Bernardin. (Wimmer, 1991) It’s full of letters and stories from people who came to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and what they ate and how they lived. Many recipes are very simple, and each culture seems to have some version of things to cook with milk, eggs, flour, oil, salt and/or sugar. Since our country seems to be going back in time to the robber baron days, let me share a little story (circa 1910) from this book (p.131).
The recipes that I am giving are really what we were able to afford. I remember very lean years, for a long time to come, so we named them Poor Man’s recipes.
Poor Man’s Pizza
Everyone made their own bread. There were no bakeries in small towns, so my mother would take some bread dough and flatten it out on a cookie sheet or pizza pan and let it rise for half an hour. Again, then with her fingers, she would make indentations pressing her fingers down into the dough. She would brush it with olive oil and make sure it would go into the grooves, then sprinkle chopped garlic and oregano and bake for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees.
Poor Man’s Lunch (Panne Cotto)
Enough stale bread, as needed, broken up small. Put aside in a dish.
One large onion sauteed in 1/4 cup olive oil. When limp, add as much water as needed for the bread to soak. When the water and onion and oil have come to a good boil, break the eggs and poach them into the juice.
When your eggs are nicely coated and cooked to your taste, remove and pour over the stale bread till the bread is soaked and soft. Salt and pepper, to taste.
Of course, in the years since people have made millions of dollars taking recipes like these and marketing them into restaurants, cooking shows, books, etc. We’ve been summarily removed from our immigrant history, when the people who came to this country survived by their wits and skills. I mean, look at this recipe for “Rustic Flatbread” from Bon Appetit!, October 1997. Is it really very different from Poor Man’s Pizza? No, it just takes them three times as long to describe how to make it, turning it into some kind of marketing experience. “Oh, yes! Last night we made Rustic Flatbread in our new kitchen, and we had it with a Roumier burgundy, and it was just divine for an appetizer!”
You know what I mean? Someone should do a show on how to feed a family of four on $20 a week or something. Show people every kind of pancake they can make with eggs, flour, milk, salt and oil. I’d like to see them market that.
