Froth Slosh B'Gosh

No Meat? No Problem!

We've been doing the Meatless Monday thing for a few years now, and today, with it being cold and drizzly, I thought a nice lentil soup would hit the spot!

Super easy, all I did was saute a diced onion with some sliced carrots and celery until the onion was translucent, poured in 8 cups of vegetable stock, then followed with two cups of dry brown lentils, a drained and rinsed can of great northern beans, some tyme, salt and pepper, along with some reconstituted dried porcini mushrooms along with their strained soaking liquid, added a bay leaf, and simmered for 40 minutes until the lentils were cooked through.  Added a splash of lemon juice at the end, and we enjoyed it with bread and cheese!

Power From The Rivers

 

We have a lot of locks and dams in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  The one pictured above is on the Allegheny River, not far from where I used to live in Fox Chapel.  These dams are for navigation and flood control.  I always wondered why no one ever thought to take advantage of the water spilling over the top to generate electricity?  Well, it now seems that might happen!   From the P-G: 

This summer, Illinois-based Hydro Green Energy received a 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a new 5.25 megawatt hydroelectric project at the Braddock Locks and Dam on the Monongahela River.

FFP New Hydro has a more sweeping vision — FERC has granted the Boston-based developer preliminary licenses to build hydropower plants on eight dams on the three rivers. The company, which is majority owned by renewable energy investment firm U.S. Renewables Group, is also in the early stages of exploring putting plants at four more of the rivers’ dams.

If each dam has a power plant generating 5.25 MW, and all 13 projects are completed, that would mean over 68 MW of clean power from already existing impoundments.  I've seen seat of the pants calculations that equate 1 megawatt with powering 1,000 homes, which seems a good enough figure for an amateur like myself, so that's roughly 68,000 homes that could be powered by hydro on our three rivers.  That's certainly not enough power for the entire region, but its clean, and will help ease the burden on fossil fuel plants and help with a transition to more solar, wind, and nuclear power.  Also, while the sun may not always shine or the wind always blow, in my over 40 years of living here, the water always flows over those dams, even in the winter.

I say "Do it!"

Happy Holidays!

Whatever your faith tradition, have a safe and happy holiday season!  We're having smoked goose for Christmas eve, and yesetrday's Festivus dinner was spaghetti and meat sauce, in the Pastafarian tradition.

With kids tearing into presents tomorrow, we're just gooing to make do with leftovers, and maybe some bratwurst.  Best to take it easy after the hurley-burley of the runup.

 

This Is Not The Way To Solicit A Donation

So I got a big envelope in the mail today from the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.  This is not unusual, since I donate what I can towards battlefield preservation, and have donated a considerable amount of funds to the SVBF.  However, the envelope on the reverse was constructed of a transparent glassine material, and staring at me from the mailbox was an 8x10 suitable for framing of visage of the muderous traitor, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

Pro tip:  That's not the way to get money from a Yankee.  Maybe you should consider replacing the photo of a traitor with one of say, Phil Sheridan?  (Not that he doesn't have his warts either, ask a Native American).

 

Three Years

I can't type anything better than what Tbogg typed, so go read it.

Many of those kids were the same age the Frothling is now.

I Read Ruth Ann Dailey So You Don't Have To!

In today's P-G,  Ruth Ann blames "The Left" for Trump's popularity in the Republican party, and further complains about some people pointing out that all elected Republicans are offering as solitions are religious platitudes, rather than actual legislation, calling it "religious bigotry."  Meanwhile,  Marco Rubio decided that people who are to dangerous to fly on airplanes aren't so dangerous that they cannot amass arsenals.  And for bonus points she invokes BENGHAZI!

She offers no solutions, but just shuts down any criticism by declaring any opinion other than her own "merits no further comment."

Another Mass Shooting

Starting to become a nearly daily occurance.

At least three people were killed and multiple others were hospitalized Wednesday in an "active shooter" situation involving up to three suspects at a social services facility in San Bernardino, California.

No word on motives at this time, but sheesh...how often is this going to happen?

Our Post-Racial Society

So glad we exist in it!  Oh...wait.

 

The Slow Creep

What is happening :

It is by small steps of incremental meanness and viciousness that we lose our humanity. The Nazis, in the end, embodied the ascension of utter demonic inhumanity, but they didn't get that way overnight. They got that way through, day after day, attacking and demonizing and urging the elimination of those they deemed their enemies.

And this is what has been happening to America – in particular, to the conservative movement and the Republican Party – for a very long time. Donald Trump represents the apotheosis of this, the culmination of a very long-growing trend that really began in the 1990s.

That was when we first saw the popular rise of eliminationist hate talk, wielded with thoughtless glee and great regularity by an increasingly rabid set of right-wing pundits led by Rush Limbaugh, and then deeply codified by the talking heads who have subsequently marched across the sound stages at Fox News. It rose to the surface with the vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin in 2008, followed immediately, in reaction to the election of Barack Obama, by the birth of the Tea Party, which is perhaps the single most significant manifestation of right-wing populism in the nation’s history.

Its a long read, but well worth your time.

 

The Slow Creep

What is happening :

It is by small steps of incremental meanness and viciousness that we lose our humanity. The Nazis, in the end, embodied the ascension of utter demonic inhumanity, but they didn't get that way overnight. They got that way through, day after day, attacking and demonizing and urging the elimination of those they deemed their enemies.

And this is what has been happening to America – in particular, to the conservative movement and the Republican Party – for a very long time. Donald Trump represents the apotheosis of this, the culmination of a very long-growing trend that really began in the 1990s.

That was when we first saw the popular rise of eliminationist hate talk, wielded with thoughtless glee and great regularity by an increasingly rabid set of right-wing pundits led by Rush Limbaugh, and then deeply codified by the talking heads who have subsequently marched across the sound stages at Fox News. It rose to the surface with the vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin in 2008, followed immediately, in reaction to the election of Barack Obama, by the birth of the Tea Party, which is perhaps the single most significant manifestation of right-wing populism in the nation’s history.

Its a long read, but well worth your time.