How Far We've Come, and How Far We Have Yet to Go

Yesterday from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. was worldwide "Earth Hour." Participants - individuals, cities - were to turn off their lights in order to "celebrate" their love of the earth and to acknowledge what they consider man's part in the ruining of it. Mainly by our very existence.

The return to the dark ages is upon us. We are living in an age of inquisition and witch hunts - Galileo would find himself at home in our century. We are sinking fast into a morass of muddy thinking, stolen concepts (how would it be possible to celebrate the earth if we were not in fact upon it?) and outright hatred of humankind (again, a stolen concept - who other than humans can hate?) and all, and I mean all, of the history of human achievement.

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) wrote quite poignantly, in The Laws of God, The Laws of Man, of being

"a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made."

The lines are not, as some have usurped them, an existential cry about the benign neglect of the universe. Housman was a homosexual, and the first few lines of the poem announce his anguish:

"The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs."

Housman was also a classicist. One aspect of good poetry is its classical, that is, enduring, nature. We can easily transport Housman's words to our time. What do they have to do with yesterday's Earth Hour? Housman continues:

"Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire."

A cry for a laissez-faire attitude regarding Housman's sexual orientation could just as easily apply to today's public outcry against anything that could be even remotely responsible for the supposed wretched state of the earth, and the outcriers' demands to "wrest their neighbor(s) to their will." Cap-and-trade, anyone?



In terms of the supposed wretched state of the world economy, one only needs to witness the planned protests against the rich at next weeks' G20 summit (photo above), the employees (thugs) at 3M France who took their boss hostage as a protest against layoffs, the attack on the home of the CEO of the Bank of Scotland, and the death threats (garroting by piano wire was one) against anyone who works, or worked to fulfill the terms of his contract, at AIG. When CEO Liddy pleaded with Barney Frank at last week's hearings regarding bailout bonuses for assurances that the names of people who were given retention bonuses would not be made public, Frank could offer no such thing.

But I digress. Earth Hour. Time for another stolen concept. Have you guessed it yet? I'll help.

Earth Hour.

Hmmmm...I guess manatees invented the CLOCK.

The appeal to turn off your lights is a blatant slap at human achievement. A human invented the light bulb. It took other humans out of the dark. What happened then? The massive "exploitation" of the entire world population (except for maybe North Korea). Because of light, factories could be lit, and people could work (produce) at night. Factories could make more lamps to illuminate the darkest reaches. Because of light, people were no longer chained to the natural tempo of the rising and setting of the sun.

A new world resulted. People could live in a world that human achievement made. It is a world that proponents of Earth Hour are "stranger(s) and afraid" of.

Needless to say, I did not participate in Earth Hour. I'm a fan of human achievement! I embrace and celebrate it. And so, yesterday during Earth Hour, I did not sit in the dark. I did not weep for the rain forest or the polar ice caps.

I participated instead in "Human Achievement Hour." Organized by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, it promoted the celebration of humanity. All it asked was that participants keep their lights on. I did. And I watched television; a DVD recording of a show that is part of the family of one of the best TV series ever, Star Trek. I watched an episode of Voyager, the series with a woman as captain of an exploratory spaceship. I drank a glass of wine. I ate a delicious dinner - that I cooked on a gas stove. I dreamed of a world in which people understand that, according to Franklin Roosevelt, "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement, and the thrill of creative effort."

Imagine that.

I think I will.

But I'm afraid that day is long in coming. We are living in a "gimme" society. Producers will produce at their own risk. Money makers will bury their wealth in their back yards, or offshore. Achievers will achieve in the closet. But not if I can help it. I will do the opposite of what Housman resigns himself to in the closing lines of the poem:

"They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man."

I will not keep those foreign laws. I will make my world one of joy, one of freedom, one of achievement. I am proud to be Human.

The Blizzard of Oh-Nine

We heered it was a-comin'. We feered it was going to be big. It was.

Twern't nothin' to see for miles around but the snow.

Blowin' up the roads, off the rooftops, and under the eaves.



Winds so fierce they made a body fear the devil hisself was rattlin' their very bones.

Snow formin' drifts outside the winders...



Makin' it nigh-on impossible to see through.



Only a fool and his baby brother would go outdoors in this hell-ation.



It don't show no signs of quittin'

I reckon I best be gittin' back indoors.

The Sunday Chef - Coffee Cake

Who doesn't love coffee cake? The one I made is full of butter, sour cream, pecans, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon.



You know you want the recipe.

The Sunday Chef - March 2, 2009

Today's dish is a Viennese one - beefsteak with a vegetable and sour cream sauce. The ingredients are simple: bacon, carrots, celeriac (I used celery), carrots, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and a tender cut of beef. We had some of that tenderloin on hand, so I used that.

This is what the vegetables looked like in the pan:

bacon, peppers, onions, celery, onions, tomatoes, thyme

The vegetables are placed on top of the bacon strips, then the pan is covered so that everything can cook together for about 10 minutes. Once they are tender, broth is added so that they can steam a little bit more. The original recipe calls for the meat to be placed on top of this melange, but I browned it in a separate pan, put everything back together in the above pan, then made the sour cream gravy.

Here is how it looked before the gravy:

beef and vegetables

I made the gravy in the same pan in which I had browned the beef. Here is how everything looked on the plate:

The Finished Plate

I had also made blueberry scones for breakfast that morning. Here they are, on the baking sheet, ready to go into the oven.

Unbaked scones

And here they are, fresh out of the oven.

Blueberry Scones

That's it for this week. Let me know if you would like the recipes. Until next time, on The Sunday Chef!