Monday, February 25, 2008

How to Cut a Mango | Simply Recipes

How to Cut a Mango | Simply Recipes

So that's how you do it!

Love these guys, had no idea there were so many varieties.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Quote of the week

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.”

Hugh Downs

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Rossi Pasta


Rossi Pasta, originally uploaded by eesley.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Purely Undemocratic

Minnesota Monitor:: Who are the superdelegates?


Who are the superdelegates?
by: Andy Birkey
Tue Jan 15, 2008 at 11:29:05 AM

Presidential candidates from each party are vying for delegates at caucuses and primaries throughout the country this winter and spring, but some delegates cannot be wooed by courting caucus-goers and primary voters. In the Democratic Party they are called superdelegates, and in the Republican Party they are unpledged delegates. Unlike pledged delegates, many are not selected by the voters in each party.

In the nomination process, the presidential candidates spend considerable time attempting to garner the support of the superdelegates and unpledged delegates as well as the popular vote.

The best explanation I've seen for superdelegates came from The Tahlequah Daily Press in Oklahoma last week. "The essential purpose of superdelegates is to maintain some control of the nominating process by establishment party elites," said Northeastern State University political science professor Dr. Ron Becker. "It is purely undemocratic, but the reasoning makes sense because primary elections and caucuses are dominated by party activists, as the typical voter does not turn out to vote.

"[I]f the Democrats nominate a candidate too far to the left, or the Republicans nominate a candidate too far to the right, this candidate will lose the general election to the more mainstream candidate," he said. "So the idea here is to have the establishment party leaders maintain some control over nominations."

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Two Income Trap

Tonight I started reading The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, which is an interesting book by a Harvard Law Professor and her daughter. The book debunks the myth that Americans are going bankrupt in ever increasing numbers due to over-consumption. Instead the authors propose that the problem is largely a bidding war over houses in neighborhoods with good schools along with ever increasing demand and tuition costs for college.

Here's a great quote from the book:

"The concept of public schools is deeply American. It is perhaps the most tangible symbol of opportunity for social and economic mobility for all children, embodying the notion that merit rather than money determines a child's future. But who are we kidding? As parents increasingly believe that the differences among schools will translate into differences in lifetime chances, they are doing everything they can to buy their way into the best public schools. Schools in middleclass neighborhoods may be labeled "public", but parents have paid for tuition by purchasing a $175,000 home within a carefully selected school district."

They propose a well-designed voucher program as one way to decouple the relationship between where one lives and where the kids go to school as a way to "eliminate the need for parents to pay an inflated price for a home just because it happens to lie within the boundaries of a desirable school district."

NC


IMG_0067, originally uploaded by eesley.

Took this photo of the moon, big and low in the sky, while I was in Durham, NC the other week. Kim spotted this beautiful moon one evening.