here's to the walls of the world

May they all fall by our hands.

lurch!

The undead will take over the streets of Durham again tomorrow.

You were warned.

biblical literalism pisses off fundamentalists

At least it does when R. Crumb does it. His new illustrated version of the book of Genesis has some Christian groups upset over his graphic depictions of the rampant sex and violence (including incest and genocide) that made Genesis by far the most entertaining book in Sunday School.

Though, it should be said, not everyone of faith feels that way about it:

Other leading religious figures have been more supportive of the work. "I didn't think it was satire," said the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines.

"He set out to say; 'this is important, fundamental myth' and it seems to me he's done a good job."

You can buy a copy for your kids this holiday season here.

(insert your blogger here)

This blog will be Seattle-based in 2010.

Details when I have them sorted out.

the idea of obama

I generally find Tom Tomorrow preachy, pedantic, and (most egregiously) painfully unfunny. But man, he's nailed it with this one.

in other news, i've been awarded the nobel for attempted chemistry

As has been covered at length in this corner of the internet, I voted for Mr. Obama last year almost exclusively because I saw in him a hope to improve the trajectory of US foreign policy, and by extension, to promote the cause of peace in the world. (I know--I feel terribly corny having just written such a sentence.)

But it should be said that there was--to put it mildly--vast room for improvement on the front of "improving international cooperation". The bar was pretty damn low.

I know the Nobel Peace Prize has often been absurdly political for its entire history; this is nothing new. So I'll just leave it at this: I sincerely hope Mr. Obama actually accomplishes something in the next 3-7 years to deserve the prize he was awarded today.

---

OK, one more thought on this. How often is it that a course of action is both politically savvy and the Right Thing to do? Declining the prize would be exactly that.

question

Do we need to hold a bake sale or something to buy the City of Durham a paper shredder? Just askin'...

the limits of my francophilia

Roman Polanski, who in his life has made some damn fine films (irrelevant), was arrested in Switzerland this weekend and is awaiting extradition to California on account of charges he pled guilty to over 30 years ago before fleeing the country to avoid sentencing.

The crime in question involved drugging and raping a 13-year old girl. But really, the girl's age is really rather beside the point, isn't it? The point is that he raped her. It would be no less infuriating if she had been 23 or 33 at the time.

And yet...the reactions on the other side of the pond I keep hearing fall along the lines of "it's a shame they've arrested such a great artist," and "really, this isn't that big of a deal."

Look, I love Chinatown as much as the next guy. And I also thing that America's collective hangups about the sexuality of teenagers are fair game for criticism, if not outright ridicule. But if the belief that fucking someone (anyone!) in the ass (or anywhere else!) without their permission ought to be a crime for which one is vigorously prosecuted makes me a bourgeois puritan, then I guess I'm a bourgeois puritan, after all.

quick review: dos perros

M and I finally made it over to Dos Perros the other night. The space looks great, and is a welcome addition to downtown Durham's small--but scrappy and growing--restaurant scene. We sat at the bar, and (being a Monday and fairly late) had our server more or less to ourselves.

The requisite chips and salsa were good: chips cooked on premises, and the salsa (I think a roasted yellow pepper concoction of some sort) was pleasantly tangy, though M's super-sensitive taste buds quickly discerned that it needed salt. Once some salt was added, the salsa was great.

We shared an order of ceviche, which was very fresh and pleasantly subtle in flavor. Also, it was nicely layered (rather than mixed to homogeneity) with large chunks of seafood on a tostada and a more salsa fresca-like component on top.

For entrees, we had the chicken in mole poblano and a baked corn pudding topped with asadero cheese and garlic sauce. The poblano was competent, but not terribly interesting. Far too timid for my tastes, really, and the chicken was actually a little bit dry. The rice and beans that came with it, however, were both cooked to perfection and packed with flavor--I'd say about as good as rice and beans can be expected to be. (I realize this may sound like damning with faint praise, but I really don't mean it that way...attention to detail on "sides" that people tend to take for granted is the mark of a great cook, in my book.)

The corn pudding, however, was sublime. The melding of flavors and textures was really superb, and well complemented by the vegetables served with it. It isn't often that my eyes are drawn to the "vegetarian" section of a menu, but I am very glad that they were in this case. This dish will be hard to pass up in favor of trying something different on the next visit.

Also, I was very happy to be able to have a Dale's Pale Ale on draught with my meal. Hoppy pale ales and IPAs are the perfect complement to spicy food, and it's great to see restaurants catching on to this.

the paranoid center

Jesse Walker's piece in this month's reason is truly stellar. Too many good quotes to pick one, but I will anyway:

"If the Oklahoma City bombing stands out, that is because it is unique in American history. Eliminationist rhetoric may flower in some of the fringes, but the violence that sometimes follows is usually petty stuff. The most formidable eliminationists have always been in the American center, not on the margins. They aim to preserve or extend the existing social order, not to subvert it. And they have the most guns...

It's comforting to imagine that violence and paranoia belong only to the far left and right, and that we can protect ourselves from their effects by quarantining the extremists and vigilantly expelling anyone who seems to be bringing their ideas into the mainstream. But the center has its own varieties of violence and paranoia. And it's far more dangerous than anyone on the fringe, even the armed fringe, will ever be."