Archives for October 2012

Anarchy Begins at Home: The Blog Series Part 4 – Having One’s Cake and Eating It Too

October 31, 2012 52 Comments

This is a blog post rendition of my 1-hr presentation at The 21 Convention in Austin, TX in August, right after I gave a 20-minute abbreviated version of same at the Ancestral Health Symposium 2012, in Boston, at Harvard University School of Law.

The previous three parts here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Both the wolf is full, and the lamb is whole. – Bulgarian saying

Perhaps I should not have spent so much time in the last three posts on what I spent time on. Because, there’s this.

Valid Authority Sighting

Yep, plain old reality is the ultimate authority; you can never escape it. You’re wholly captive to it, feel-good fantasies and delusions notwithstanding. In a presentation format, we’d have got to this point in about 10 minutes or so. In this format, however, I really needed the epistemological basis (quality knowledge vs. fantasy and delusion) to reference and pound home in forgoing posts and comment replies again and again, and again. It’s of utmost importance to highlight the general idiocy that prevails unchecked—for the amusement of the few who already know and the exposure of the most who don’t—and who don’t care to confront it. So let’s work on that, this time. Most will turn their heads away to their ancient Teddy Bears.

People aren’t really much interested in having their comfort zones challenged. They want their cake, and they want to eat it too—the wolf full and the lamb whole. They don’t care to engage in debate over the intellectual equivalent of their Teddy Bears. It makes them uncomfortable. Why bother? Why not just leave everyone to their delusions? Well for one, there’s a certain joy of sport in ridiculing the ridiculous. But mostly, society still runs on force and domination and fantasies—and delusions are generally the basis of that force and domination. It’s gonna be a long road, but one hopes we someday evolve beyond it…someday.

Shorter version: QUALITY KNOWLEDGE

If one would go back and review the previous posts, with my insistent emphasis on quality of knowledge, then, then, they just might begin to understand what I’m getting at. But, there’s those Teddy Bears. Such a comfort. …14th Century, dirt-scrathching Teddy Bears.

What passes for “quality”

The latter balderdash in image not only offers absolutely nothing of value to the the former image in quotidian usage, but has myriad cheerleaders who’ve actually fought against it and killed millions throughout history and most—fucking MOST—people simply cannot find it in their indoctrinated selves to take a very simple accounting and conclude: fuck that ancient 3-14th century, dirt-scratching, superstitious bullshit!

Moronic.

“Thank God” for the other 10%? Otherwise, you’d be riding on donkeys, milking goats, living in adobe huts that collapse in the smallest of earthquakes—killing you and your children—and going to the town square to cheer for the latest crucifixion, hanging, or beheading…to what? …assuage the failures of life? …directly or indirectly as a result of the ignorance that’s nurtured and celebrated above all?

…What’s weird to me is how damn proved efficient modern society is with its scientists, inventors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and the list goes on. Literally, the men and women of the mind are so damn right, so often, so effective that it literally breeds a comfortable, moron, parasite class—who go to church to bow and give credit to a fantasy being, or into a voting booth to sanction a brute like the State, all the while giving false credit for what is in reality the accomplishments and achievements of other regular men and women.

Simple Pimple

Basically, this is what all quality knowledge must ultimately reduce to. There’s other ways to express it: A is A; 1>0>-1, etc. It all essentially means the same thing. The lesson here is that reality is simply what is. It’s not complicated, though it may be elusive to know. But owing to our big brains, I suppose, humans seem to have this obsession over having an “explanation,” when no explanation is possible in the context of existing knowledge of reality. The valuable and heroic few, for whom uncertainty or plain ignorance represents an insatiable mystery or challenge vs. the uncomfortable and fearful who are incapable of accepting the unknown.

So, instead of work and wait for the time when perhaps elusive bits of knowledge become quality, reducible to the simple, the axiomatic, the tautological, people just make shit up. And then what do they do? They defer to various forms of bogus authority in order to prop up the illusion—the “explanation” that explains nothing.

Separation?

You Bet: Bedfellows through and through

As already discussed in reference to bogus authorities, the church & state form the bulwark of the whole delusion. Notice that churches and States don’t build cars, trains, planes, or anything else. They don’t really create anything. They just pretend, lie, manipulate…in order to prop up the illusion that such things could not be possible without the “grace” of a mythical being, or the “benevolence” of terrestrial thugs called “government.”

The Domain

This is their domain, as contrasted from hard science, original research, discovery, entrepreneurship, wholly voluntary trade, live & let live, charity and goodwill to men, and all the other things that are the true root of human survival, advancement, prosperity, safety and security.

Some may balk at history being on that list, but there’s history you learn from true historical scholars—which ought always be viewed through a gimlet eye—and the sort the church-state complex would prefer you believe. As just a quick example, the history of Abraham Lincoln*, 16th President of the United States, so-called emancipator of black slaves in America. Children in America are taught that Lincoln engaged in national war (they like to call it “civil”)—a war that killed 620,000 Americans—as a just endeavor to “free the slaves.” How “noble.” Our hero. Hey, let’s have a holiday!

How many children are instructed as to his 1862 letter to Horace Greeley, then editor of the influential New York Tribune?

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.

Shorter Lincoln: Slavery? Meh. A Completely United Union of Authority with Me in Charge? Priceless. Two Thumbs Up! Way Up!

Others will say “it’s complicated.” …Industrial north, agrarian south, economics, labor costs, etc. etc. I say that the church-state complex regards human beings, their lives, loves, families…merely as expendable fodder in pursuit of their “greater” designs.

Fuck all of them.

[* From what I’ve seen in Teevee trailers for the Spielberg film Lincoln soon to be released, he’s taking the conventional wisdom route.]

Power

Of course, power and authority are at the root of all this. But what is the underlying method, how do they tend to hold it, only shuffling shit around with conclaves and elections now and then?

Fear & Trepidation

The big blank out—even if it were true that a human life is so very perilous—is that because life is to be so feared, enemies are always at the gates, and you’re just escaping either eternal damnation or domination through conquest (…or your prescription drug benefit is going away, or any of the myriad other “entitlements” once established, people lose sleep over, for fear they could go away) by the bare skin of your teeth.

In Part 5 I’ll discuss some of the real hobgoblins of real life, and how they get deal with by quality knowledge and valid authority.

~~~

Part 1: The Quality of Paleolithic Knowledge
Part 2: The Quality of Neolithic Knowledge
Part 3: The Problem With Authority
Part 4: Having One’s Cake and Eating It Too
Part 5: The Real Hobgoblins
Part 6: Democide
Part 7: The Quality of Paleolithic Social Power
Part 8: The Quality of Neolithic Social Power
Part 9: Conclusion; How to Fix Everything

Forgetting to Die

October 30, 2012 47 Comments

I’ve had this NYT article open in a browser tab for days and just couldn’t close it.

The Island Where People Forget to Die

97 yr-old Stamatis Moraitis tending his vineyard and olive grove on Ikaria, Greece

It’s by Dan Buettner, the The Blue Zones guy. In spite of his clear bias for plant based and vegetarian-esqe diets, I think the importance of his work is in finding those populations or zones for whom longevity is clearly multi-factoral.

Nope, it’s probably not all about a paleo diet and Crossfit WODs.

I think I’ll leave it at that, for once. You really ought to just read the article and see how many likely factors for a nice long life you can uncover…other than a pretty reasonable diet of whole food, and in spite of the fact that it includes some “evil” things.

I’ve been to Greece a number of times, hit the countryside and have spent time on a small island. This all makes perfect sense to me.

I’m Deleting More and More Comments on a Whim. Why? Success, That’s Why.

October 29, 2012 37 Comments

I don’t give a fuck about a lot of commenters on this blog. Those I care a lot about? Lots. Why? They understand their place, as I understand mine. They know who they are. …And Sean called me butthurt, once, so my love is still begrudged.

I don’t have it nearly as bad as so many who are not much more than troll bait, because everyone knows I’m happy to tell you to go fuck yourself in comments; here; just as anywhere else. Face-to-face, too…as I recently relayed in a comment. You want to meet face to face over a dispute? Ask. I’ll be there: Los Gatos / San Jose. I recently gave out my home address and cell number to a bunch of morons on r/paleo on Reddit (ask them). I put up. Proven. …I actually got a call within minutes and it ended very cool. I mean no one real harm, at all, or ever—quite the contrary—and it’s uproariously funny how that plays out in an actual face-face or phone call. I’m just not a little man pussy, like so many clamor to be.

…All the anonymous sock puppets, showing up here and there in increasing frequency? I just adore clicking “Delete.” Not banning them. In fact, I hope they post again, because then I get to sit there in my liesure and click (or, really, just touch on the iPad) “Delete.”

Laf.

I mine minds. Yes. I’m a sometimes paleo blogger, food blogger, health blogger, social commentarial and everything I ever want to be doing in any moment, without fear or trepidation about what some fucking moron—or their collective of morons—is going to think about it. As I say: been at this for a long time. “Suck on it” (1st time I think I said that; overrated).

There are only a few million, maybe a few tens of millions of truly smart people in the entire world of billions. There are only a few thousand who have done the basic science and engineering—and overcome the billions of morons working against them—to give all the morons lots of shiny toys to be placated with, and to shut the fuck up so the smart people can go onto the next thing. Moron is the norm, perpetually relatively.

It’s what I’m all about. It’s all—and only—what I’m all about.

Then, there’s this: Someone willing to show his stuff, and who has never even been in comments, here.

Hi Richard,
Ive been lurking on your site since the beginning of the year (2012) after finding it linked from Martin Berkhan‘s site after I found his Lean Gains site. I switched to real food and cut out all the processed crap and figured out the gas, bloating and explosive movements Ive had my entire life ceased. Then I had some of those damn rolls at a steak house and before we left I made a visit and spackled their porcelain for them. I guess at that point we had it figured out pretty well that I have a wheat allergy. Anyway I wound up on your site due to cholesterol research since my parents are both on drugs for high cholesterol. I finally went to a doctor at my mother in-law‘s urging to get checked out a few months after changing my eating habits and all my numbers and my wife’s numbers came back great. The stories on your site have helped me feel better, and implementing eating real food has given a side effect of losing ~78 lbs over 10 months.
My wife and I escape to New Hampshire over the hot Florida summers, and it’s the best place I have ever been to eat natural whole food in my life. Every intersection of the state seems to have a farm stand, and there is local made sausage, vegetables and raw dairy within 20 minutes of our camp. We found the raw dairy just a couple of weeks ago, and holy shit if its not the best fucking milk I’ve ever had. We drive by the cow barn on the way to the house to pick the milk and yogurt up, and the only thing we have seen going in is hay. The rest of the farm is grass. They milk their 22 cows twice a day. Now I have to try and find this stuff down in florida, where raw milk will kill you and is for pet consumption only.
Attached is a shot of me in New Hampshire last year, and another shot from the same place a couple days ago. I was ~285 last year in that shot, 220 in the shot from this year.
Thanks for the site and getting information out there for me to find. Without your site, Dr. Davis’ site and Berkhan’s site I’d probably still be 310 lbs like at the end of last year, feeling like shit and getting yelled at for noxious fumes emitted from my rear by my wife.

One lesser year later

But this is impossible. I don’t have abs. Who in the world could possibly identify with my way of doing things?

Fresh Oyster Soup the Alton Brown Way

October 28, 2012 10 Comments

Well, it’s time to get that massive burger & small bun off the top of the blog, before any more Shiite Paleos get the vapors over it.

Generally, here’s how I’ve always preferred my shellfish in terms of prepared dishes (not just broiled lobster or boiled / steamed crab):

Lobster or clam bisque
Raw oysters on the half shell with red wine vinegar and chopped shallot
Mussels, either in a white wine / chicken broth with shallot / garlic, or any of the Italian versions using tomatoes
Clams in a butter / garlicy deal, or in a chowder

But yesterday I went to a market a few minutes from home and obtained fresh oysters from the beds up at Pt. Reyes, local.

Oysters in their own “liquor”

Every now and then we do a family camping trip up in Olema, just a mile away from Pt. Reyes Station, and here’s how that goes in pictures, once we hit the oyster beds. I’ve had oyster stew a number of times but I wanted to do a soup, analogous to a lobster or crab bisque.

I found Alton Brown’s rendition. From much experience, you can’t go wrong with Alton, even if it’s just to get a few pointers for your own creation. He’s sciency, too.

Ingredients

4 cups heavy cream
1 pint oysters and liquor, separated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves, chervil, or chives
Salt and pepper

Obviously, I have more than a pint, so I winged it in about 1 1/2 recipe proportion.

Directions

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream and oyster liquor from the oysters to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the celery and a pinch of the salt and sweat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the onion and continue cooking until translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add celery seed, hot pepper sauce, and oysters and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the edges of the oysters start to curl.
Transfer the oysters to the carafe of a blender and add enough of the cream just to cover.
Puree until the mixture is smooth. Return the remaining cream to medium heat, add the pureed mixture, and cook until heated through.
Just before serving, add the lemon juice, chopped herbs, and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Pretty damn simple, but creates one hellava gawd awful mess in the kitchen.

This is the point at which you’re heating up the heavy cream and liquor from the oysters (seriously, I have no idea why their juice is call liquor), and sautéing the onions and celery (along with the 4 chopped porcini mushrooms I added in my own style).

Then come the oysters, and then that whole thing goes into the processor or blender to be pureed, and yes, along with all the grit in the oysters (and in the oyster juice as well). Personally, I like my oysters on the half shell to not be drained. I like the grit—in clam chowder as well—which signals to me that is has not been processed to the lowest common idiot denominator.

Once that’s done, it goes in with the cream and juice, and a shot while later, is served.

Another variation beyond the mushrooms is that I sliced up a small stock of leek and added that into the cooking portion. Then, for garnish, it was fresh leek, fresh celery and fresh parsley.

As always, all images can be clicker for higher-res versions.

In the end, I think I’ll primarily stick with fresh raw oysters on the half shell. It was good, but very, very heavy. Perhaps using half-&-half would have been a bit better, or, it’s just a small cup as an app prior to dinner. It just felt way too heavy and substantial to me, in the end, though very tasty.

I have a bottle of clam juice, so I intend to cut the leftovers with that when I have some this afternoon.

…Alright, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go clean up ce bordel that used to be my kitchen. World Series got in the way. But wow. Giants have prevailed in six straight games, giving up only 4 runs in 54 innings. The last time there was a back-to-back shutout in the the WS was 1966, Baltimore against LA.

Sin Boldly: An Amazing Burger from The Counter

October 27, 2012 70 Comments

I’ve become very “stay home and cook,” lately—with quite a few foods posts lately to show for it. …And tonight will either be a clam chowder or oyster stew, depending upon what I can source fresh when I head out in a bit.

I think it’s been over 2 weeks since I darkened the door of a restaurant, and I’d recently been hearing a lot about The Counter, a gourmet burger joint where you fill out what you want on a clipboard and they come deliver it to you (locations). While you can get your burger in a bowl with greens, I can do that at home any time. So, this is a bit of a grain indulgence. Good thing is, when it’s as infrequent as this, it really doesn’t cause any adverse feeling.

You can get these burgers with a 1/3, 2/3, or full 1 pound patty. I opted for the 2/3, cooked to medium, which to me means pink on the inside.

While I was waiting for the burger, the server asked if I wanted anything like fries or rings. I asked how they do their rings, i.e., the proper way or with some sort of batter or breading (the improper way). I was in luck. All images can be clicked for the larger, hi-res versions (all photos via iPhone 5).

Thin sliced, lightly dusted in seasoned flour, and quickly fried

The difference between a modest portion size like that with a mere dusting of flour and one of those monstrosities they serve in some restaurants with slimy, greasy worms inside of a huge layer of batter or breading is huge. You feel just fine after these—least I did.

While I like produce on a burger too, I opted this time to go the pure route. 2/3 pound burger (after cooking), gruyère cheese, dill pickles and red onion. That’s it. No mayo, mustard, ketchup.

Wait until you see inside

One option is to get a sauce with it, which they serve on the side (ketchup and mustard don’t count as sauces). I opted for the “au jus,” (which literally means “with juice,” which is a funny way to ask for a consommé, demi-glace, or beef stock based sauce).

At any rate, I tuned it into a burger / french dip sort of deal.

Told ya

That’s cooked perfectly in my book. Very impressed, especially with the uniformity. That was pure sinful delight, eating that. If I end up sining once per week, I just may be boldly going to that same place over and over.

Anarchy Begins at Home: The Blog Series Part 3 – The Problem With Authority

October 26, 2012 30 Comments

I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. – Albert Einstein

I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don’t have as many people who believe it. – George Carlin

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis. – Dalai Lama

Just as I contrasted valid, quality knowledge of reality in the Paleolithic with superstition-based “knowledge” for so many in the Neolithic in parts 1 and 2, it’s time to do essentially the same thing concerning authority: the power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine (reference). Alright: power, determination, adjudication, jurisdiction, control, command. All valid, descriptive constructs covering the sorts of things that must take place in an overall context of human action and volition, in order to see to proper or better actions with respect to one’s knowledge of reality (hopefully, knowledge of high quality). The purpose of getting it right—or better than plain wrong—is, of course, to advance one’s prospects for survival, happiness, and prosperity in life.

Let’s tackle the makeup of what passes for authority for so many, now.

When you come right down to it, human beings live their entire lives subject to authority in one form or another. This is wholly natural. Unless we ourselves have worked out every single constraint to living a human life, we have to default to some form of authority, often—probably daily.

This is the given. This is part and parcel of why we’re social animals and not the sort that lives a singular existence with all knowledge for survival in a specific niche environment, inbred. We’re generalists, both in terms of food and in terms of environment and climate: equator to arctic, sea level to 16,000 feet. Moreover, unlike any other animal I’m aware of, we have the capacity via concepts (perceptual tags) and the way we symbolize them (writing), to pass on knowledge far beyond our physical years. This is a form of authority, particularly when the knowledge represented is of proven worth and high quality (i.e., it has a certain correspondence with reality that has stood the test of time).

…But just as there are qualitative differences in terms of knowledge and “knowledge,” as outlined in parts 1 and 2, there are qualitative differences in various forms of authority.

Mostly, as adults, we are our own authority in any accounting of every action taken every day (when to wake, eat, shower, shave, what route to take to work, in what order to and priority perform various tasks, etc.). The question is, in which cases ought individuals defer to authorities outside of themselves, external authorities?

We learn to defer to external authority as children when in general, the authority of our parents, grandparents, older siblings, guardians, and teachers supersedes our own on a practical level, and that’s because the quality of the underlying knowledge and experience possessed by those external authorities is greater than our own.

So in principle, not only is there nothing wrong with deferring to external authority, but doing so in many, many ways is part & parcel to our very existence, to our success as social animals. We rely upon one-another and often, the sum of such reliance is greater than the worth of the constituent parts.

It’s really not about “nobody tells me what to do…or, you’re not my mom,” but rather: valid authority vs. false authority.

Valid external authority can come from anywhere—even a stranger on the street: “LOOK OUT!” …as a fast moving bus or slow moving, flesh eating zombie approaches you from behind. False authority can come from anywhere as well: “SINNER REPENT, OR FACE ETERNAL DAMNATION!” Or, “we all need to sacrifice more.” Or, “this is the most important election of our time!” (aren’t they always?). How about: lower your cholesterol, avoid saturated fat, hearthealthywholegrains, take this drug, bore yourself to tears in cardio, I’m the doctor…and the list goes on.

What’s weird is that so many take these forms of authority for gospel, and most usually, without a thought given to the underlying quality of knowledge being represented.

In retrospect, I ought to have added non-sequitur to that list. Perhaps even at the top, because one of the cleverest ways to command authority is to first be authoritative in some matter that’s pretty obvious, so as to establish an aura of authority; then come in with edicts that don’t follow.

“We have deep economic problems. The debt is out of control, jobs are being lost, industries are in decline. We need an “economic stimulus package” and you need to be taxed more. Vote for me.”

“Life is a mystery. From where did we come? What gives rise to a human sense of conscience? …A superman in the sky, and I’m in contact.”

If you can get another human being to feel guilt in matters for which he has no culpability or blame, you have established authority over him.

In case you missed it the last time, here, The Story of Your Enslavement. Just understand: you can only be enslaved in this manner by your own volition, and that always begins by deferring to an external authority. Problems begin when that authority has no quality basis in reality from which to assert any authority whatsoever. For some additional thoughts and ideas on how we became so susceptible to the diktats of false authorities, see this post from nearly a year ago: Of The Beast and The Bi-Cameral Mind.

In Part 4 I’ll go more into what constitutes valid external authority and why they always play second fiddle to all the false authorities, i.e., the ones “in charge.”

~~~

Part 1: The Quality of Paleolithic Knowledge
Part 2: The Quality of Neolithic Knowledge
Part 3: The Problem With Authority
Part 4: Having One’s Cake and Eating It Too
Part 5: The Real Hobgoblins
Part 6: Democide
Part 7: The Quality of Paleolithic Social Power
Part 8: The Quality of Neolithic Social Power
Part 9: Conclusion; How to Fix Everything

Massaman Wild Elk Curry; Slow Crock Pot Version

October 25, 2012 9 Comments

Here’s the kill.

Elk Kill

Not quite a year ago (that’s my brother Dave, who spent the night here Tuesday, on business), and I still have some in the freezer. This is the very last of the steaks—it’s ground meat and sausage from here out. I’ve done sous vide and a few other ways, but I’m using the last of the steaks for Massaman Curry. He’s headed to Montana next week, and so hopefully I’ll be replenished.

First, you need massaman curry paste. I get mine from local Asian markets, like 99 Ranch. But what the hell, Matt Stone makes his own and that’s a value you can tap into no matter what. Or, you can get it online, and that product is basically the same as I get at the market.

I’ve blogged about numerous massaman dishes over the years—it being about my favorite taste in the world—but this is the first time I’ve done it in a crock pot. I have, in the past, added a dollop of massaman paste to something like a pot roast just to get un certain je’ ne sais quoi sort of deal, but this is full blown. After you have secured the curry paste, you need meat. While this is wild elk, you can also use beef, lamb, probably even goat.

Wild Elk, Henckels Cut

You’re best off browning it and my preferred method of browning is with ghee, lard / bacon drippings, or coconut oil in a wok, which facilitates tossing, so you don’t have to turn.

Browning wild elk in coconut oil, in a wok

Works great; no mess, done in a couple of minutes.

OK, so never having done it this way, I was looking primarily for meat that’s spoon tender. Beatrice and I go to Thai restaurants now and then and massaman beef is almost always one of the dishes we have. We are very, very particular about the tenderness of the meat and if we get a tough batch—no matter how tasty the sauce—we won’t be back.

So to make sure the meat is going to be very tender, the crock pot is ideal. The browned meat went in, along with about 1-2 cups of beef stock, 2 cans of coconut milk, and 2 whopping, heaping tablespoons of curry paste. Oh, and yea, 2 small handfulls of “blister” peanuts from Trader Joe‘s. Massaman is simply not complete without the peanuts, but TJ’s has this brand made in the old fashioned way: soaked for a long time before roasting, the better way to ancestrally prepare legumes.

That spent an hour on high, and then from about 1pm until dinner at 7, on low.

The other things you need: onion sliced into wedges, white sweet potato, and carrots. You can add a bit of Thai fish sauce too, but I never bother. However, these things don’t need to be added until the final hour of cooking. That way, they will still be firm, but tender.

Click for Hi-Res

Oh, yea, I had a smidgen of red bell pepper from the liver recipe the other day, so I chopped finely and put that in for some added color.

Artsy-Fartsy version-iPhone 5

The rice is jasmine, i.e., Thai rice. For the 2 cups of dry rice, I used 2 cups of beef stock and 2 cups of water in the rice cooker.

…Well, it’s just about time for lunch leftovers, as the rice cooker is still keeping the rice warm & ready and hot massaman curry is only a nuking away. So, if you’ll excuse me…

Another post on Anarchy “at home and in your spare time” is coming up later this afternoon, and I’m having a very fun time putting these together. …Incidentally, no State was involved in the making of this dish.

Dr. Doug McGuff on Fitness, Health and Liberty

October 25, 2012 49 Comments

Back in August I had the great opportunity to present at The 21 Convention alongside longtime friends Keith Norris, Skyler Tanner, Greg Swann and…Dr. Doug McGuff. After Doug’s presentation, we headed over to Skyler’s house for a meal just hours before I was to fly out.

R-L: Skyler, Keith, Michelle, Sarah, Doug

A few days later I blogged about Doug’s presentation in detail: Dr. Doug McGuff’s The 21 Convention Presentation in 2 Words: You’re Fucked. Lot’s of good comments on that post expounding upon the problem.

So just today, the video of his full presentation has been released on YouTube. His previous 21 Convention presentation a few years back stands at nearly 190,000 views, so that’s an indication of the quality, depth and insight Doug always brings. Of course, those who have read his co-authored book, Body by Science, already know the kind of knowledge and experience Doug brings to the table.

So here you go. Make yourself some available time and watch this, and then spread it around, especially in a time when everyone’s going on and on about who’s gonna pay for there health care besides themselves. Here’s a true look, from the inside and in the trenches.

If I’ve ever met a nicer guy than Doug, I just don’t remember it. Here’s a guy who has practiced as an ER doc for 23 years—a place where seconds count and there’s never a second chance. He cares deeply for people, yet is no willy-nilly bleeding heart. He knows what it really takes to provide real medical care competently.

Unfortunately, guys like him will never have a seat at the healthcare policy table, when in reality, guys like him are the only ones who ought to have such a seat.

Anarchy Begins at Home: The Blog Series Part 2 – The Quality of Neolithic Knowledge

October 24, 2012 42 Comments

This is a blog post rendition of my 1-hr presentation at The 21 Convention in Austin, TX in August, right after I gave a 20-minute abbreviated version of same at the Ancestral Health Symposium, 2012, in Boston, at Harvard University School of Law.

Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear. – Marquis de Sade

Part 1 of the series: Anarchy Begins at Home: The Blog Series Part 1 – The Quality of Paleo Knowledge.

In part 1, I covered the introductory topics of epistemology, sociology and social epistemology, focussing first on the quality of knowledge in a Palolithic context. Inasmuch as knowledge is knowledge of reality, it stands up to reason that the more one is integrated with their sense perceptions of what’s really real, the higher quality will be their knowledge. To demonstrate that, I showed images of various things Paleoman would have likely encountered in his environment, and my argument is that this is why he ultimately survived to flourish and migrate to all corners of the globe. While simple and basic—”primitive,” even—the raw quality of his knowledge was unassailable. Were it was not—probably through no real fault of his own—he perished. We survived to be here because of actions based generally upon quality knowledge of reality.

Now let’s contrast that with what passes for “knowledge” for most people in the Neolithic. This is not an all inclusive list, but it does cover the biggies.

Church & State Institutions

Church & State or, fantastical delusions and agent of force bedfellows. At root, there’s really little to no difference between them and even though direct main force via the Church is an aspect of life only in many Muslim countries today, it was certainly like that in the West centuries ago. Now, the Church works through the State, and vice versa. They need each other to promote various delusions, fantasies, baseless fears, foist unearned guilt, etc., all for the purpose of propping up their “authority.”

Mass Delusion

I can accept that prayer holds some value for some people in the realm of their own personal issues. But so does plain old meditation. So does plain old thinking. The point is, paying conscious attention to your own problems or challenges in any way whatsoever is very likely better than doing nothing—though prayer often comes with that stupid “Jesus Take the Wheel” balderdash, a vicious circle. But who meditates or thinks over the problems of others or society, unless it is for the purpose of working out how to actually do something real to help or cause some effect?

So beyond the personal meditative aspect of it, payer is really just a cheap con, a cop out too. Oh, you’re praying for the poor and starving? How about write a check, or go out and feed them? Praying your team wins the football game? Get over yourself. Praying that God will cure a loved one of an awful disease? If he existed and could, what kind of evil monster wouldn’t do it anyway, without your prayers?

In essence, prayer is a lazy ass way to pretend you’re doing something by doing absolutely nothing. …I heard they had a “Prayer Room” at the recent Republican National Convention. I think people ought to have been up in arms that there wasn’t also a “Rain Dance Room.”

To the extent that prayer is the equivalent of well wishes, I can Grok, but it’s simply nothing more than that.

Primitive Screeds

I looked for an image that included the Quran, Holy Bible and The Collected Works of Mother Goose, but couldn’t find any. There is this, though.

Other than the outright evil the Bible is chock full of (and I’m sure the Quran as well), I don’t care much that people hold and cherish their fairy tale books. But for the purpose of this exercise, go back and review the sorts of things Paleoman relied upon for knowledge of reality. Next, realize that not a single one of our way-back ancestors would have had the slightest use for a holy book in any respect whatsoever, except to perhaps help start a fire. They would have scoffed at the idea that it contained any knowledge whatsoever. This is because they knew they had quality knowledge and it was tested in survival under the brutish elements every day of their lives. Finally, realize that today, this very day, there are hundreds of millions, probably billions, in the world who actually regard their holy books as the epitome of quality of knowledge!

That’s how fucking bad it is, folks. That is the state of mass delusion. …And it’s not just that their holy-book-based “knowledge” is of poor or poorer quality than that of our paleo ancestors: it’s that it’s not knowledge of reality at all!

The Nomenclatura

How much of your “knowledge” is based upon the preachings, admonishments, warnings, promises, lies and plain old stinking dogshit spewed by all of the above?

And these are the folks who carry their water day in, day out. Liberal media? Of course. It’s what works best to keep the general antagonism propped up. They are the best at creating the general smoke screen where one never looks to the element I’ve been talking about—quality of knowledge—but only to fighting over out-of-context points about this or that minutiae. In other words: which is the better lie, the better delusion?

….Which false narrative best reflects all the regurgitate I’ve subsisted upon all of my life?

These Too

It never ceases to amaze me that people generally think these media institutions are mostly about a free press, and not about profits for shareholders trading their public stock. It’s the latter—free press being a ruse mostly, of marginal value generally, given the Internet. And the way they keep you tuning in so they can sell 30-second spots to the food and drug conglomerates for millions of dollars is by means of keeping you constantly worked up, in fear, in doubt, angry, stressed out over things you can’t control…and the list goes on.

They are not your friends. They aren’t looking out for you. They’re not here to help.

The Ivory Tower Menace

How could this be complete without including the most sacred of institutions, those that “educate” the parasites who seek to suck the life from you day in, day out, masked by an aura of authority?

Did I just write “authority?” Yep, I did, and as it turns out, that’s the focus of Part 3, tomorrow. (Those wondering about the Neolithic outliers, the ones with valid knowledge of reality, that’s Part 4, so be patient.)

~~~

Part 1: The Quality of Paleolithic Knowledge
Part 2: The Quality of Neolithic Knowledge
Part 3: The Problem With Authority
Part 4: Having One’s Cake and Eating It Too
Part 5: The Real Hobgoblins
Part 6: Democide
Part 7: The Quality of Paleolithic Social Power
Part 8: The Quality of Neolithic Social Power
Part 9: Conclusion; How to Fix Everything

Pork Carnitas with Persimmons, Butter and Cinnamon

October 24, 2012 12 Comments

It’s great to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes. Beatrice got a bag full of ripe, freshly picked persimmons from someone so I decided to do a dish I fist did almost 4 years ago: Carnitas & Persimmon with Cinnamon. I’ve since done a couple of other dishes using pork and fruit (Carnitas with Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Apples / Pork & Fruit: Good Together). One great thing about doing food blogging is it’s like my own personal recipe book. I can just look things up and do them again.

This is where laughing at myself comes in. Every now and then I look something up and I’m like, “I did what!?” Same here. I made that way more complicated than it needed to be by doing the persimmons separately, boiling it in stock.

So here’s how it’s done today.

Ingredients

Carnitas (Trader Joe’s in this case), persimmons, butter, cinnamon

If you can’t get ready made carnitas, you could do it yourself or, roast pork will do (crock pot with nothing but the pork—no liquids, no herbs or spices—works great).

Instructions

Chop up the pork (1 lb) and the two persimmons, 8 skinny pats of butter, and I sprinkled the cinnamon through a wire mesh in order to distribute evenly.

400F oven, 20 minutes, turning at the halfway point (and I added a bit more cinnamon, too).

All done: Too easy

It’s so damn easy, so damn good. Beatrice and I ate the whole thing save for just a tiny bit I’ll finish off at lunch.

With an extra pat of butter

Enjoy. All the images can be clicked for the larger and higher resolution versions. Pass it around if you like it.

Anarchy Begins at Home: The Blog Series Part 1 – The Quality of Paleo Knowledge

October 23, 2012 63 Comments

This is a blog post rendition of my 1-hr presentation at The 21 Convention in Austin, TX in August, right after I gave a 20-minute abbreviated version of same at the Ancestral Health Symposium, 2012, in Boston, at Harvard University School of Law.

Shorter Jeffrey Tucker: Anarchy Begins at Home

Introduction

Earlier this month I wrote this post: The Clamoring Over a Ruler of the Devolved. It stands at 162 comments so far, but here’s one by me (edited a bit).

“But my question is how does it work? I see a few fundamental problems with having NO government.”
Work for whom? You see fundamental problems—for unspecified whoms—at not having an agent of force commanding dominance and such. I don’t. You seem to come from this weird perspective that anarchy is just another system imposed upon people, just as some call atheism a religion.
It’s no system at all. It’s the absence of a central system. What happens in anarchy? EVERYTHING happens. So the smart people, as social beings, gravitate to social interaction that works best for them in a give & take, trade, mutual protection scenario.
Planet Earth is itself an anarchy. Point me to the one, central, world government.

This was after a number of exchanges with my interlocutor, and here’s what he said about that comment.

This is thoughtful. I still think it has limitations and holes. but to me it’s the most poignant thing you’ve said.

It got me to thinking. I’m always about one mind at a time, by which I mean: expanded thinking—i.e., no guru, no authority. Think. Really think. But I’m also about birds & stones (a Basque uncle and I once killed somewhere between 50-100 quail in one fell swoop—but not with stones—that he cooked up later). I decided to do a series. …The series is a blog post rendition of my 1-hr presentation at The 21 Convention in Austin, TX in August, right after I gave a 20-minute abbreviated version of same at AHS12 in Boston, at Harvard University School of Law.

paleo Epistemology and Sociology

Fancy, eh? That was the title. Let’s deal with the fundamentals, first. You can click on any of the slides for a larger version.

You see what’s bolded, right? Knowledge exists on a spectrum just like a lot or most things. I’m interested in quality of knowledge.

No, it’s not really all about “rugged individualism.” Rugged individualism really only exists as a sort of “ideal,” because a democratic society is so good at breeding leeches and other parasites—who goes into the cannibal pot, who gets to feast—and so it’s a push back of sorts. We are social animals. We can potentially survive on our own with our big brains, even in extreme environments, with sufficient knowledge. But who wants to do that except the outlier unsociable? …No wine bars. So the problem or issue is: how to enjoy and prosper from the best social humanity has to offer, while convincing people that such bounty is the province of individuals pursuing their own values and trading them, and not the parasitic State?

…How about if we consider epistemology (knowledge, and quality thereof) in a social context?

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Let me help. I had to look up “doxastic,” too: of or relating to belief. So, humans believe a whole lot of different things, a lot of it shit. It’s on a spectrum, a distribution. I’d say most of what they actually believe and more importantly, really act upon, must be valid with respect to the natural reality (in spite of protestations to the contrary); otherwise, you’d be confronted with a valid objection: why are we here? Other animals don’t get away with many fuck-ups.

Humans are unique in their ability to believe and proclaim one thing, whist acting in a way that belies such belief (if “heaven” is so great and you really believe you’re going there, then blow your brains out!). Then again, there’s always the cannibal pot. Some must take it as a nice Jacuzzi.

This whole presentation really began with me thinking about quality of knowledge, juxtaposing a paleo basis vs. a Neolithic basis in such. Let’s look at my take on the paleo quality of knowledge.

1,000 Words

This is the self-sufficient realm. In spite of it, humans persevered and for whatever reasons, crowded out Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal. If I had to bet, in spite of not really knowing for sure, I’d bet it’s because we developed more social interaction or, in a word or few, developed a far higher capacity to love, adore, protect, and guard our particular values. Just a speculation, but those other creatures had more time on Earth than us, and they never got beyond stone tools—while we’ve gone to the moon and back. Love and passion are non specific, while they can be wholly specific. I think that accounts for a lot. I think it’s a sort of social animal coming full circle, wringing everything possible out of that synergy…from the grandmother you adore to the wife you caress, to the children you nurture. It’s beautiful from top to bottom and wall to wall and for most, seems pretty natural. Question: dysfunctional government housing projects where the State was grandma, grandpa, mom & dad, all in one? It’s not just a failure. It was and is, to the the extent it remains, a holocaustic abomination as to the very idea—much less ideal—of humanity.

If you have to live in a small social group, how important—to you—might it be what the sun rise looks like from day to day, and what it might portend for your chances of getting more food for you and the social structure that supports you and that you support in kind?

Where are those animal tracks going? From where did they come, and why? Fire, flood, predators? You see, this is about the highest quality of of knowledge and integration possible in the Paleolithic, and why we owe them a solemn nod. They never—could not ever—deal in bullshit. Survival depended upon noticing really real things and figuring out what it meant for them in terms of potential food or potential danger in the context of survival…without universal health care, pensions, unions, affirmative action, laws, statutes or regulations. They survived, populated the globe in various mass migrations over eons—from equator to pole, sea level to high altitude—and managed it all without a “president.”

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” In eight years in the Navy—roughly half spent at sea—this is probably the most bankable rule of thumb I ever learned…and in the form of a slogan, no less.

Friend, foe, trading partner…or perhaps a mate for my daughter or son?

Aliens!?

Storm clouds. Just imagine that for millions of years our ancestors never had contractor-built shelter. Yet, they survived. They never voted—at least amongst 300,000,000 other people. Most probably, in tight nit groups, everyone could tell what needed to be done to survive. They hadn’t yet conceived of the notion of “prosperity” at the expense of other people—via a 3rd party hired thief for a vote—they’d never have to face in person.

Best for last in this part.

How much can you know in Quality?

I dunno. Millions of people tuned into the presidential debates, one and two…and three just last night (I watched the SF Giants kick ass). I’d venture to say that nothing those millions heard in all three debates even comes close in terms of quality of knowledge to what can actually be known with a close, experienced analysis of those paw prints in the snow (that’s contextual and analogous, for all the morons—just to head off stupid comments…assuming you can get what this parenthetical remark means).

I’ll leave you with that. Google about tracking animals and you’ll see what you can really know in terms of quality. At AHS11, Frank Forencich did his presentation and put up animal tracks and called it the dawn of epistemology or something like that. I never forgot it.

My point in this was to give you a small sample and example of what true quality of knowledge is reality all about. We know it was pretty damn good, simply because we’re here!

In the next part, I’m going to contrast that in a similar graphic exposition—with rude commentary—about the absolutely horrific basis of most neolithic knowledge and how it is just not quality, for the most part.

…We owe our lives to outliers who pursue quality knowledge nonetheless.

~~~

Part 1: The Quality of Paleolithic Knowledge
Part 2: The Quality of Neolithic Knowledge
Part 3: The Problem With Authority
Part 4: Having One’s Cake and Eating It Too
Part 5: The Real Hobgoblins
Part 6: Democide
Part 7: The Quality of Paleolithic Social Power
Part 8: The Quality of Neolithic Social Power
Part 9: Conclusion; How to Fix Everything

Yet Another Beef Liver Recipe: The Greek Way

October 22, 2012 74 Comments

I’m not going to hesitate to say it: this is the best liver recipe yet, and it’s courtesy of reader and very frequent commenter, Marie. She says she only calls it Greek because of the garlic and vinegar, but it’s not actually a Greek recipe. Tasted very Mediterranean to me, though. Let’s get right to it. Here’s her recipe.

Ingredients:

6-8 oz liver
1 large sweet yellow onion
1 sweet red pepper
Kerrygold butter (Kerrygold garlic butter best)
Worcesteshire sauce or Balsamic vinegar
Marinated mushrooms
Roasted garlic cloves

Instructions:

Cut 6-8 oz of liver into finger-wide strips, cut 1/2 of the sweet onion and 1/2 of the red pepper into strips.
Heat skillet at about 3/4 max setting on range – or Whatever is the highest setting on your range that will let you cook for 15′ without the butter smoking.
Melt Kerrygold butter, 3-4 tablespoons (yes, that’s a shallow lake). Herbs and Garlic butter is best, but just salted will do fine.
Toss in liver, onions and pepper strips. Stir frequently, flipping strips over.
About 10 minutes into cooking, drizzle ~2 tablespoons of Worcesteshire sauce (not much more or you’ll get soup) over sizzling strips. Balsamic vinegar works too, if you add your own spices to taste. I like just garlic and oregano for liver.
Let go for another 5 minutes, flip / stir once or twice.
Done at ~15′ total, or when liver looks red-browned, not black (don’t want shoe-leather).
Garnish (this is important) with marinated mushrooms and roasted garlic cloves. They’re both sweet and tangy too, like the sweet onions and peppers. You can also use some fresh or dried oregano.

Here’s how hers looks.

Foie de Boeuf à la Grec

I had 13.5 oz of grassfed liver—a gift from Sophia of Grassfed Jerky Chews—so I increased the other ingredients roughly proportionally. While I was able to find marinated mushrooms easily enough, the two high end markets I went to had no roasted garlic, so I used this procedure from theKitchen on a bunch of peeled cloves (I got a tub of those at Lunardi’s for $1.50, worth every penny if you’ve ever peeled about 18 cloves of garlic). Wow. I’m roasting garlic more often, and telling Bea never to buy potpourri again. 🙂

I also decided to mod it up a bit by going with half marinated mushrooms and half marinated artichoke hearts. The other thing I did a bit different is that some slices of the liver were pretty thin, So I put the onions and red pepper in for the first 5 minutes, then added the liver for the last 10 minutes (with the Worch being added at the 10m point). Came out perfect. Realize that with all the veggies, this isn’t like frying liver by itself with full contact with the skillet. Takes a bit longer.

When done, I removed it with a slotted spoon into a bowl and tossed it with the shrooms, art hears, and the garlic—including the drizzle of olive oil it was roasted in.

My version

Next time I’m doubling up on the roasted garlic. Liver is something I like but it’s not like it’s a favorite food or anything. But given it’s high nutrition and this recipe, it’s getting real close.

Give it a try.

Got Milk? Part 2: The Dietary and Exercise Experiment

October 20, 2012 114 Comments

The other day I posted this: Got Milk? What’s so bad about milk? Count me surprised. At 80 comments so far, the vast majority are supportive, most drinking some milk themselves. And many also report the exact sort of benefits I’ve been seeing over the last weeks. More on that later.

The very few detractors mainly focussed on the acid-alkaline balance (i.e., first it grows bones and teeth but then apparently leeches them away <huh?>), the paleo argument that other adult mammals don’t drink milk (just like they don’t cook their food or concoct complex recipes combining many foods at once), and insulin growth factors, i.e., it’s insulinogenic (and of course you don’t want any insulin </sarcasm>). Of course, lactose intolerance, allergies, and other digestion problems are well known and totally valid.

My main argument is this: what if you tolerate it, it makes you feel good (mental focus, energy, well being, ambition), begins to radically alter your body composition in a matter of days, and it’s highly nutritious and bioavailable? Secondarily—and something I don’t recall being objected to in that previous post—the real purpose of weaning.

How about stop and consider the evolutionary purpose of weaning. Was it because milk is overnight a bad thing for you; or, rather, is it because the mother needs to get on and get ready to bear another offspring? Seems obvious to me.

And commenter “Dr. Curmudgeon Gee” added something else I had not considered.

I consider milk more “paleo” than broccoli or coconut.
There’re only 2 things in nature that are designed to be consumed—milk & fruits.

Hmm. Most of us are familiar with why fruits are evolutionarily designed to be consumed by some animal—either to disperse seeds by eating the flesh and discarding the seed, or to pass through the digestive tract to be dispersed that way.

Other plants pretty much all have one form of defense or other from being eaten: chemical defenses from mild toxins, to outright poisons. And animals as well have defenses: claws, teeth, fast running legs, stealth, camouflage, climbing ability, burrowing ability, etc. There’s really no such thing as a sacrificial animal (…except human beings, of course <grin>). But milk? 100% designed for the consumption of another animal. No, not human beings, but it’s certainly a lot closer than everything else if you’re talking about sourcing animal foods.

In short, I have come to find the whole paleo debate over milk to be somewhat religious or “just so” and without much evolutionary logic behind it—and particularly when most Paleos eat other forms of dairy. It’s a real, whole, nutritious and bioavailable food.

Alright, so it’s been about two weeks now that I first introduced this regularly, just to see what would happen. So what happened? Exclusively good things. Not a single negative. The first week it was just a couple of glasses per day. All last week I upped it to more like 1-2 quarts per day (700-1,400 calories of whole milk).

The Saint Benoit comes out like this per 8 oz serving:

170 calories
10g fat (8g saturated) = 53%
12g carb = 28%
8g protein = 19%

I have also added Organic Pastures raw milk and combine the two, just in case there’s something to the idea of raw being better, which I don’t honestly know (S Benoit is pasteurized at 145F, the lowest allowed). Per 8 oz serving:

150 calories
8g fat (5g saturated) = 48%
12g carb = 32%
8g protein = 21%

Seems to me that’s a pretty decent 50/30/20 macronutrient ratio of fat, carb, protein. At 30% of calories, even a 2,500 calorie per day diet is under 200g of carbohydrate—and that’s assuming the diet was 100% whole milk.

So after the first week with no problems, I conceived of an experiment. The idea: could the use of milk and its high nutrition at about 50% of total daily calories, along with other highly nutritious foods like eggs, organ meats, shellfish and such make it easy to:

Reduce total caloric intake substantially without constant hunger (like in VLC when fat, but your own body fat is making up the difference) but while carbs are at about 30% of calories?
Retain or even gain lean mass while losing fat (significant caloric reduction = weight loss) owing to the growth factors inherent in milk?

But this time I really wanted to establish a caloric baseline by eating ad libitum this past week, but with at least one, up to two quarts of the milk. I didn’t want to fool or prejudice myself, so I only logged the foods and amount of milk without doing caloric tracking as I went along. Then today I put it into FitDay and guess what? Comes out to an average of about 2,400 calories per day, just what I come out to if I use an online calculator (2,445 to be exact).

Something else happened concurrently. I think I finally got to the bottom of my continuinig problem with the herniated cervical disc. This December will be 2 years since that happened (I blogged quite a lot about it back then). Long story short, it put me down, with chronic 24/7 pain and severe weakness in my right arm for months. I finally got control of it, but each time I’ve gone back to the gym it flares up again—usually for 2-3 weeks. Needless to say, I’ve been very gun-shy about the gym.

The last time this happened was my workout with Skyler Tanner and Dr. Doug McGuff in Austin. All was fine for about 5 days or so, and then bam! Three weeks of misery ensued, but I was just plain tired of whining about it on the blog yet again. I don’t know why, but something just told me it was the overhead press.

I’ve decided that because of my age and because of this condition, I’m just going to get sensible and just to the plain old Body by Science routine, with two modifications: I’m adding in deadlifts because I love them, and the overhead press is going to be just “light vaginal conditioning.” So that’s what I did a week ago. Even after so long, DLs at 135×5 to warm up and then 205x5x3 were not difficult. Leg press cable machine at 360x5x3 was fine too (I’ll eventually get to the BBS routine of heavier and using time under load, but I want to recondition first in a manner to which I’m accustomed). Everything else went fine including the light overhead press. A full week, and not so much as a tinge of pain from the injury; and I know I hit all the spots just right because I was marvelously sore for days.

So starting tomorrow, my workout day:

~ 2,000 calories per day, 1,000-1,400 coming from whole milk (I’ll tweak that as I go along, upping or lowering the milk ratio to achieve the best feelings of satiation in the face of a 450 calorie deficit initially)
One BBS style workout per week
One 24-30 hour fast per week, sometimes in advance of the workout in order to work out deeply fasted—but not always
One quart of milk consumed within the 2-hr window following the workout
Recalculate daily caloric consumption with each 5 pounds lost (I vary between 185-188.5 right now, depending on water retention, i.e., daily)

In terms of nutrition beyond the milk: liver, oysters, clams, mussels, eggs, sushi, cottage cheese, lots of soups & stews made with stock & veggies & meats, light amounts of meat (mostly in the soups and stews). I will not be adding unnecessary fat to stuff (I’ve never been too much into that anyway beyond butter on a steak). I’ll probably have a scoop or two of real ice cream now and then.

It’s been quite some time now that I’ve had a very poor attitude in just about every respect. I know nobody’s noticed that, but it’s true! There have been many times where I’ve considered just fading away on this whole diet and nutrition thing altogether. Not even the emails and comments I get was enough, anymore. I just felt run down, crappy—I never use that stupid word “depressed.”

Anyway, I feel transformed in the space of two weeks and though my weight remained stable in spite of all that milk, my body composition and just plain old “look” is changing almost daily to the point where I’m excited about hopefully making this work right and taking another step in the Progress Picture direction.

It’s amazing what a can-do mental attitude and motivation can do.

Fuck. Milk? Who’da thought?

An Essential Difference Between Human Animals and All The Rest

October 19, 2012 61 Comments

If I asked you to begin listing differences between humans and all other animals, I’d likely get a good long list.

Conscience
Morality
Tool creator and perfector
Producer beyond environmental constraints
Capacity for highly reasoned intelligence

…And so on, and all true. Some of these are quantitative differences and some, qualitative.

In most ways, the balance sheet appears to stack up for humans. Hell, unless an animal has the capacity to burrow into the ground or bore into a tree, they’re pretty much left to the elements, without much shelter. On the other hand, watching a lot of nature shows—and especially those at environmental extremes—I’m often awestruck at their resilience and ability to survive, without a single bit of outside help from anyone.

…But there is one thing that solidly tends to balance the whole balance sheet for me:

Take any metropolitan or city zoo and instantly remove all the cages, bars, barriers and quit feeding them. What would happen? To the extent they could, all who could would scurry off to the wild and to their natural freedom as fast as they could. Most would evade recapture to their utmost ability. And many wouldn’t be able to survive because the surrounding natural environment wouldn’t be suitable, but that won’t stop them either.

Humans, on the other hand, live in a zoo with “bars,” “cages,” and “barriers” of their own mental and imaginary making. Not only that, but they kinda love it. They’ll argue with you, telling you there is no freedom to be had, that it doesn’t exist…it’s an illusion…that this is the natural order of things. Then they’ll tell you all about the cherished delusions they live under and how it’s necessary for everyone to remain in the zoo because another might have “needs.” Others will admonish you as to how well they have been able to get along in the zoo “system,” and you can too yay! And besides, the feedings are regular, like clockwork.

…And every few years they line up with much fanfare, excitement and antagonism: to decide what new color to paint the bars.

What’s the real and most essential difference between human animals and all the rest? They know what real freedom is, and humans don’t, anymore.

FEAR as a Double Edged Sword: Survival and The Story of Your Enslavement

October 18, 2012 59 Comments

Fear is the most logical, most fundamental, most basic and pervasive instinct you find amongst the entire animal kingdom.

…Well, except for Honey Badger. Honey Badger Don’t Care. Honey Badger Don’t Give a Shit. The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger.

Honey Badger is total Badass. But for the rest of all of us, if you had to pin survival on one single thing, I doubt it would be intelligence. It would be fear. Yea, fear is a rudimentary form of intelligence but not so much, really, because it’s simply flight in the face of too much or many unknowns. Prosperity above the evolutionarily given—which applies only to humans, dogs, cats, some birds, little furry animals and aquarium fish—is completely intelligence. Or, is it reasonable to describe intelligence in one respect as fear management?

The ability to quickly perceive great peril that’s too perilous is perhaps where human intelligence falls into the evolutionary scheme. There’s no doubt to me that our instinctive fear is both a blessing and curse. Without it, we’d be lost. With it, we’re now wallowing in it. We’re slaves to it.

For example, some of the norms that define fear now:

Cholesterol
Saturated fat
Meat
Letting children out of your sight for a second
Who’s going to rule you next
Cuts in government entitlements
Hell and eternal torture at the pleasure of one who “loves you”
Gays & guns (two sides of the same coin: unfamiliarity)
Evil corporations
Profits made by others
The needy not being helped by others
That someone, somewhere is happy, content, fulfilled and above all, feeling guiltless

I could go on and on. All of the foregoing constitute irrational fears. But notice the common thread in all of those. Somewhere, someone has been set up as an authority: from priests to politicians to the intelligentsia to various credentialed “experts”…to the major institutionalized media that serves as the grease and ultimate anointer of all such authority.

It used to be that nature was the only authority and in that context, fear is perfectly healthy:

Heights where a fall could kill you
Confined spaces where you can be trapped and die
Water conditions that can drown you
Snakes & spiders that can bite and poisson you
Food that can make you sick or kill you
Animals that can eat you (including other humans: our chief predator)
Cold that can freeze you
Fire that can suffocate and burn you
Weather that can overexpose you

See the vast, vast difference? So with that, I give you The Story of Your Enslavement.

Fee free to add to the lists of rational and irrational fears in comments.

Got Milk? What’s so bad about milk?

October 17, 2012 86 Comments

I grew up drinking milk, we all tolerated it—loved it. Even had raw cow and goat milk for a long while. Made butter & cottage cheese now & then. For about three decades, now, I drink it almost never. A few times per year and I’ve gone years without drinking any.

I just got out of the habit, most likely from my five years in Japan where it was either not to be had or was some incomprehensible, sweetened & flavored abomination. No culture I can recall drinks milk as a beverage with a meal as Americans so commonly do, even into adulthood. But I dunno. I love ice cold, whole milk. I just don’t drink it often. When I do, it’s almost never with a meal, just as a beverage or, a “meal” in itself.

So after many months of none, I’m on a kick this week. Which is nice. There’s something about whole milk that just improves every marker for me in terms of feel good, well being, energy, satiation, and so on. Yea, milk isn’t Paleo—supposedly—but I wonder about something, too. It’s a complete food. It’s the exclusive nutrition not for just a mammal, but a growing mammal in its most critical stage of life—those first years. And: Exclusively! And so I wonder. Do you? Did you just hear “milk isn’t paleo” and said, “well, that’s that; the priests have spoken?” But is it “not paleo,” necessarily, because it’s unhealthy to drink if you tolerate the lactose, or something else in the evolutionary scheme?

I could go out and look up a complete comparative nutrition profile on cow, goat, or sheep milk…compared to human milk. What do you suspect I’ll find? Differences, but not a fuck of a lot. Probably similar macro ratios, give or take. Probably similar vitamins, minerals, and specific aminos that promote growth.

But here’s something you might not have thought of: milk is in liquid form and as such, is highly bioavailable. Everything is bioavailable. If you can handle the lactose, chances are it’s the most easily digestible food there is. It’s designed to be. Hell, it’s even designed to drink, and go right back to sleep.

As all familiar with the whole milk deal—by which I mean the whole deal and not whole milk—know, lactose intolerance is the norm; a natural mechanism to wean, and tolerance is a mutation about 8,000 years old that has quickly spread across the globe and marches on (because, milk is fucking nutritious and an excellent use of cattle).

So here’s my quandary. How is milk bad for you if you can tolerate the lactose? It was supposed to be your exclusive nutrition for your very first few years and now, it’s bad, awful, unhealthy? ….And we’re not even talking about exclusivity. 200-400 or more calories of milk per day is going to be bad for you!?

How about stop and consider the evolutionary purpose of weaning. Was it because milk is overnight a bad thing for you; or, rather, is it because the mother needs to get on and get ready to bear another offspring? Seems obvious to me.

Here in the Bay Area I’ve tried the raw milk from both Clarvale and Organic Pastures. I prefer the taste of the latter. Then I recently found this.

Saint Benoit

It is simply the best milk I have ever tasted. It’s 100% Jersey and as such, has 2 more grams of milkfat per 8 oz than the holstein milk from those other dairies. Here’s the website. It’s pasteurized, but at the minimum 145 degrees. Not homogenized. You have to shake it and the cream mixes easily, just like the raw milks and unlike Strauss cream top.

It seems to me that if dairy is at all part of your nutrition, why deny yourself the tastiest part of it—if you like that sort of thing? Nope, not talking about exclusivity like when you were a little thing and not even necessarily as a regular thing. But now and then? A quart per day over a few days, then leave it alone? Something like that? For me, it’s hard to mistake the enhanced feelings of well being and energy with a few glasses of that per day.

Food for thought.

Update: from the label per 8 oz serving (4.2 servings per liter glass bottle).

170 calories
10g fat (8g saturated) = 53%
12g carb = 28%
8g protein = 19%

Is Melissa McEwen About the Most Despicable Miscreant Ever?

October 17, 2012

The previous content of this post and its comments have been deleted for the sake of a far more important long-term project:

Lemons to Lemonade Documentary

Kickass Hang Glider Aerobatics and Spins in Citabrias

October 16, 2012 14 Comments

It’s my blog, so I’m going to indulge myself. Thank you, and you’re welcome…whichever.

I saw this little 4-minute vid pop up this morning and having watched hang gliders do aerobatics on video and in person for at least 15 years or more, I just can’t get enough of the righteous purity of this one.

…Let me set it up for you. First of all, note that the launch is near sundown. Why? You want very smooth air, no thermal activity, as thermals—especially in places like Utah in summer—can wreak havoc on a plan like this. If you hit a 2,000 ft per minute up blast whilst in the dives he’s doing, it could take you to over 10 G. The glider will be A-OK, but he’s not wearing a fighter jock pressure suit.

Next, pay attention to how the energy accumulated from the first dive is miserly guarded throughout (what I love the most). There was the first big dive and throughout the rest of the routine he just goes back to the till for some change here and there. Meaning: he never loses all his built up energy, but goes back in to keep it near the initial level. This is very important for aerobatics under glide, no power. He’s exchanging attitude.

Next, he uses that stored energy at the end of a loop, and not go into another loop (as so very many do), but to do a roll. Realize: the straps he’s hanging from are not rigid. Therefore, he must maintain positive G of 1+ throughout; otherwise he would immediately fall into the glider and that is hit & miss. These gliders are structurally designed to take negative G, but only for their own weight and structure—not a 170 lb guy falling into the sail at a point. Falling into the sail almost always results in a cute deployment (and a broken $6,000 glider).

OK, watch the video and then one more thing about it. …About 4 minutes.

Willard with Smokes from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.

Perhaps my favorite thing beyond the R.A “Bob” Hoover-esq thing of keeping 1+ G in a roll, so as to not spill any liquids in the cockpit, was his spin at around the 2-minute mark of the video.

Hang gliders won’t spin on their own. You have to put them in one and hold it (notice how he is fully pushed out). I’ve done these, but not while family is watching because it looks like a spiral dive. As soon as you relax, the glider recovers on its own. Do check that out, about 2m into the video.

As a final note, powered aircraft are fun and I did all my training in a tail dragger, a Citabria. I loved that, because even totally stock, they are moderately aerobatic and so from lesson 1 and way before my solo flights, I was doing spins. Here’s what it looks like.

That’s 28 spins and I’ve done 8 or 10 max (It’s an altitude thing). But the thing is, once you reduce power to idle, bring up the nose to a stall and at the point of stall, kick the rudder right or left depending on which way you want to go, the aircraft just loves the spin and will stay in it so long as you hold the stick back full. Relax that full back stick, kick in a bit of opposite rudder, and recovery is a cinch. Then add power. Fly home.

Alright, so there’s my built up flying indulgence…logged.

Sunday Brunch Frittata and a Slow Cooking Cookbook Recommendation

October 15, 2012 6 Comments

Just quick and simple. Saturday I did omelets for the wife unit and I but Sunday, I just wanted the ease of fire & forget (at least for 20 minutes). With omelets, you have to make them one at a time but for a frittata, you can make it pretty much as big as you like, even if in two pans if you like for even more people.

The range of ingredients is whatever you like. in this case, it’s ham, onion, and Swiss cheese. I first melted some butter in the pan, turned off the heat, preheated the oven to 350F, introduced six eggs and then piled on ham (jambon blanc, thinly sliced, available at fine deli counters), thinly sliced onion and the cheese. Pop it in the center rack for 20 minutes. I like to finish off with a couple of minutes under the broiler. The pics can be clicker for higher res versions.

Let it rest for a few minutes

Fruit is always a good choice

A look inside

Very easy, simple quick, little mess and you can serve right from the pan. So there you go.

Paleo Slow Cooking: Gluten Free Recipes Made Simple

I said in a previous entry that I wasn’t going to be reviewing any of the many new paleo books coming out anymore out of lack of time and well, just the fact that there’s a new paleo book about every week, now, many of them cookbooks. I’m going to make an exception because I think this one dispenses with any notion of “look how fancy this all is” and makes it so very simple and sane.

Actually, when it came in the mail from the publisher I just set it on the stack of the other books from the same and other publishers I don’t have time to read and adequately review. Then Beatrice saw it. It piqued her interest and so she went through it dog-earing recipes she wanted me to prepare for her. She’s never shown this kind of interest before, as she usually just likes the things I always prepare. But as I was to see, there’s a real simple purity and down-home realness to this book Chrissy Gower has put together.

So yesterday right after that brunch above, I sat down and went through the thing page by page and guess what the first few recipes are? Yep, Frittatas, all done in the crock pot or slow cooker (about 2 hours on low). Just as easy, just as little mess, etc. So I immediately knew I’d have to include it in this post and I’m happy to.

Of course, it contains all the classics you already know of slow cooking. The recipes are simple, all very easy to modify in your own unique ways. But I also can’t think of a better book for a paleo beginner. In slow cooking, cooking times are often just minimums. Leaving something in longer usually doesn’t hurt. For many of the meat dishes, cooking times are about 8 hours or so. Flip the thing on when you go to work. Alternatively, get a timer switch to turn it on at a specific time.

And in addition to all the classics, there is an array of other things I never thought about making in a crock pot, including desserts or treats and on that score, the section is very modest, simple, sensible. Most focus on berries and other fruits.

Heartily recommended for one & all: Paleo Slow Cooking: Gluten Free Recipes Made Simple.

A Single Image to Explain the Entire Obesity Epidemic

October 13, 2012 38 Comments

No comment necessary. Click the image to open the 1,000px version.

What you’re up against.

If you’d like the full 2,400px version to download or examine more closely, click here or here.

Dr. Peter Attia and NuSI (Nutritions Science Initiative)

October 12, 2012 24 Comments

Since I put up my first post about NuSi (Nutrition Science Initiative), I’ve had various correspondence with co-founder Peter Attia, MD (co-founder with Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat) by phone and email.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to head up to Menlo Park to meet him for dinner at Left Bank. I assure you that the 3-hour conversation that ensued was far more interesting in every way than anything I heard on the drive up on the radio, between the two guys vying for the position of second-in-command to rule your life.

While I outline some of my reservations and hopes in that last post, I did want to emphasize that I’m enthusiastic and supportive. Really, how could you fault more science being done? Even when science is done badly, there still remains something of knowledge—and if nothing else, an example of how not to do science, or better spend money doing research. I think they are committed to doing gold standard science and research. I’m sure of it.

But yea, it all comes down to money. Research is expensive. Peter presented a pretty clear picture along these lines. It’s like a reverse triangle.

Incidence vs. Money Spent on Research

In essence, take adverse health incidence on the left, bottom up from lowest to highest, and while not perfect, what you find is somewhat of an inverse relationship with money spent on research (to the right), where some of the lowest occurring problems (breast cancer, HIV, for example) get the most funds (by incidence and I believe, in absolute terms in some cases).

The rate of obesity is about 30% in the US. By far and away the largest single health problem facing America. Spending, as I recall Peter telling me, is on the order of $4 per person; whereas, other conditions with far fewer afflicted are researched on the order of $40-50 per (again, not sure if this was by individual afflicted, or per American). This was a conversation over the course of dinner and that figure above was sketched out on the white paper table covering. My purpose is not to lay out concrete numbers and make a huge distinction, but simply to illustrate that obesity research could use more bucks, they wish to do it privately, and if lots of people pitch in at small amounts some things could really get looked at that haven’t before.

Alas, I have it as a side project to begin looking into specific numbers for disease and obesity vs. research funding. I’d also like to break that down into public vs. private funding. Seems to me that private funding for breast cancer research might be a model to look at. I’ve heard for years, for example, that prostrate cancer in men is nearly as prevalent but receives a pittance of funding comparatively. I’ve never looked into those numbers myself. I think I’m going to spend some time on all of that.

Another thing. As much as I hate to see all the football players wearing pink on an entire Sunday, I must admit that private funding is better than coerced public funding via tax dollars where the majority is almost certainly squandered. Private funding engenders accountability and I’m sure that a lot of private donors are satisfied with something on the order of 80% going to the actual research (10% administrative, 10% rolled back in for fund raising). I’m just guessing at those numbers, having just begun to think about everything required to raise funds privately (i.e., citizens: not industry; not government)

…I got an intro into the research path, which is complex—research feeding more research. As I recall, about three studies should be up and running in months.

Over the course of this conversation Peter said that one of the things that makes obesity research hard to fund is the general notion that they are seen as gluttonous and slothful (…no, that’s only the small minority who go get themselves scooters to ride around on when they don’t need to, exacerbating their condition).

OK, but my immediate objection was: then what about HIV research that gets tons of money? By and large, those afflicted engage in well known risk behavior, two kinds of which—IV drug use with used needles and unprotected anal sex—people find disagreeable by various degree. The simple answer is that fat people aren’t organizing and agitating for funds. What else could it be?

For me? The best way to get sympathy and get pockets opening for dollars to do research is to focus on childhood obesity, diabetes and NAFLD. No one can argue that they are wholly innocent—and who know now much of the eventual sypathy for HIV wasn’t over children being born with it!

So what’s really the point of doing the research? I can’t speak for NuSI of course, but I have an idea. They’re not looking for new drug therapies. Research isn’t going to be funded by FD[A] companies (get it?).

In perhaps the most right-before-your-eyes realization during our conversation, Peter asked me to consider the HIV infection rates in places like Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho. About 25%. 1 in 4! How about the US? About one-half of one percent. 1 in 200. What accounts for the difference? Is HIV genetically different over there? Does it act on them differently? (Answer: no)

Now, consider that the obesity rate in the US is 34%. But then take a look at a list of countries under 5%.

Less than 5% Obesity

I ask you again: does food metabolize differently over there? Are they genetically different to such an extent that their genes change when they immigrate to America and many get fat?

So I think that the purpose of NuSI is to conduct the research that can finally, authoritatively give solid insight into the causes of obesity so that people can generally follow it. And a potential bright side too, is that boxed, bagged and canned food companies will want to make a buck off that; and while their wares will never be even the better choice, it will be better than the cheap grain and sugar, engineered stuff they’re selling now.

…HIV infection is low in America because people have no doubt that it’s transmitted by blood-to-blood contact and they know how to avoid it. This is not the case in Africa with all their tribal myths and the “great work” of the Catholic Church to dissuade condom use—and whatever else the hell is going on there. Conversely, Americans are fat because they eat too much, and they eat too much because they eat the kinds of engineered foods that tend to be both psychologically addictive and dysregulating of appetite and fat storage and mobilization hormones (i.e., both Taubes and Guyenet are right).

NuSI has been initially funded but it’s going to take more. I’m going to be thinking about how to help them in raising funds going forward, but here’s the donate page. I stepped up to the plate today. Won’t you? I’ve asked that they consider adding a monthly subscription option so that you can just set up for your once per month equivalent of a Venti, sugar-free, non-fat, vanilla soy, double shot, decaf, no foam, extra hot, Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with light whip and extra syrup…and be done with it.

Archives for October 2012

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 25 at 8 08 58 AM" height="356" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-25-at-8.08.58-AM.png" width="500" /> Valid Authority Sighting

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 00 22 PM" height="401" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.00.22-PM.png" width="500" /> Shorter version: QUALITY KNOWLEDGE

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 08 00 AM" height="345" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.08.00-AM.png" width="500" /> What passes for “quality”

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 00 40 PM" height="364" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.00.40-PM.png" width="500" /> Simple Pimple

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 00 55 PM" height="321" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.00.55-PM.png" width="500" /> Separation?

<img class="lazyload" alt="You Bet" height="352" src="/images/2012/10/You-Bet.jpg" width="476" /> You Bet: Bedfellows through and through

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 01 06 PM" height="384" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.01.06-PM.png" width="500" /> The Domain

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 01 17 PM" height="331" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.01.17-PM.png" width="500" /> Power

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 28 at 1 01 28 PM" height="315" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.01.28-PM.png" width="500" /> Fear & Trepidation

<img class="lazyload" alt="28Ikaria3 articleLarge v2" height="658" src="/images/2012/10/500/28Ikaria3-articleLarge-v2.jpg" width="500" /> 97 yr-old Stamatis Moraitis tending his vineyard and olive grove on Ikaria, Greece

<img class="lazyload" alt="yearLater" height="385" src="/images/2012/10/500/yearLater.jpg" width="500" /> One lesser year later

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1282" height="377" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1282.jpg" width="500" /> Oysters in their own “liquor”

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1278" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1278.jpg" width="500" /> Thin sliced, lightly dusted in seasoned flour, and quickly fried

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1279" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1279.jpg" width="500" /> Wait until you see inside

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1280" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1280.jpg" width="500" /> Told ya

<img class="lazyload" alt="Kill" height="375" src="/images/2011/11/500/Kill.jpg" width="500" /> Elk Kill

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1271" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1271.jpg" width="500" /> Wild Elk, Henckels Cut

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1272" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1272.jpg" width="500" /> Browning wild elk in coconut oil, in a wok

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1275" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1275.jpg" width="500" /> Click for Hi-Res

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1276" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1276.jpg" width="500" /> Artsy-Fartsy version-iPhone 5

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1114" height="373" src="/images/2012/08/500/IMG-1114.jpg" width="500" /> R-L: Skyler, Keith, Michelle, Sarah, Doug

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 07 13 AM" height="389" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.07.13-AM.png" width="499" /> Church & State Institutions

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 07 49 AM" height="285" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.07.49-AM.png" width="500" /> Mass Delusion

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 08 00 AM" height="345" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.08.00-AM.png" width="500" /> Primitive Screeds

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 08 23 AM" height="361" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.08.23-AM.png" width="500" /> The Nomenclatura

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 08 57 AM" height="302" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.08.57-AM.png" width="500" /> These Too

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 24 at 10 09 09 AM" height="400" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-24-at-10.09.09-AM.png" width="499" /> The Ivory Tower Menace

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1264" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1264.jpg" width="500" /> Carnitas (Trader Joe’s in this case), persimmons, butter, cinnamon

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1266" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1266.jpg" width="500" /> All done: Too easy

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1269" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1269.jpg" width="500" /> With an extra pat of butter

<img class="lazyload" alt="tumblr m8qcxifilU1rrtk1bo1 500 1" height="250" src="/images/2012/10/tumblr-m8qcxifilU1rrtk1bo1-500-1.jpg" width="500" /> Shorter Jeffrey Tucker: Anarchy Begins at Home

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 23 at 12 15 47 PM" height="370" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-23-at-12.15.47-PM.png" width="500" /> 1,000 Words

<img class="lazyload" alt="Screen Shot 2012 10 23 at 12 17 30 PM" height="372" src="/images/2012/10/500/Screen-Shot-2012-10-23-at-12.17.30-PM.png" width="500" /> How much can you know in Quality?

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMAG0731" height="296" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMAG0731.jpeg" width="500" /> Foie de Boeuf à la Grec

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1260" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1260.jpg" width="500" /> My version

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1238" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1238.jpg" width="500" /> Saint Benoit

Willard with Smokes from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1244" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1244.jpg" width="500" /> Let it rest for a few minutes

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1247" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1247.jpg" width="500" /> Fruit is always a good choice

<img class="lazyload" alt="IMG 1249" height="375" src="/images/2012/10/500/IMG-1249.jpg" width="500" /> A look inside

<img class="lazyload" alt="187757626" height="388" src="/images/2012/10/187757626.JPG" width="300" />

<img class="lazyload" alt="k0pv0b" height="313" src="/images/2012/10/500/k0pv0b.jpg" width="500" /> What you’re up against.

<img class="lazyload" alt="Incidence vs Cost" height="367" src="/images/2012/10/Incidence-vs-Cost.jpg" width="317" /> Incidence vs. Money Spent on Research

<img class="lazyload" alt="Less than 5 Obesity" height="221" src="/images/2012/10/500/Less-than-5-Obesity.jpg" width="500" /> Less than 5% Obesity

Valid Authority Sighting

Shorter version: QUALITY KNOWLEDGE

What passes for “quality”

Simple Pimple

Separation?

You Bet: Bedfellows through and through

The Domain

Power

Fear & Trepidation

97 yr-old Stamatis Moraitis tending his vineyard and olive grove on Ikaria, Greece

One lesser year later

Oysters in their own “liquor”

Thin sliced, lightly dusted in seasoned flour, and quickly fried

Wait until you see inside

Told ya

Elk Kill

Wild Elk, Henckels Cut

Browning wild elk in coconut oil, in a wok

Click for Hi-Res

Artsy-Fartsy version-iPhone 5

R-L: Skyler, Keith, Michelle, Sarah, Doug

Church & State Institutions

Mass Delusion

Primitive Screeds

The Nomenclatura

These Too

The Ivory Tower Menace

Carnitas (Trader Joe’s in this case), persimmons, butter, cinnamon

All done: Too easy

With an extra pat of butter

Shorter Jeffrey Tucker: Anarchy Begins at Home

1,000 Words

How much can you know in Quality?

Foie de Boeuf à la Grec

My version

Saint Benoit

Let it rest for a few minutes

Fruit is always a good choice

A look inside

What you’re up against.

Incidence vs. Money Spent on Research

Less than 5% Obesity