You might wonder what an article about twin pandas has to do with politics? It’s here because there are two of them just like there are two parties in our political system – the Republicans and the Democrats. I think it’s a great analogy that is more than a little inspiring given how low the odds were for their mutual survival.
Meet Mei Lun and Mei Huan! The names of these twin male giant panda cubs were announced Wednesday at Zoo Atlanta. Lun Lun, a 15-year-old giant panda, gave birth to the cubs on July 15, 2013. Zoo officials followed Chinese custom and named the brothers after waiting 100 days. Until now, they were simply known as “Cub A” and “Cub B.”
Mei Lun and Mei Huan are the first twin panda cubs to survive in the United States. “We’re delighted to finally be able to place names with two youngsters who have not only made a mark on the history of Zoo Atlanta, but who have also made history in the U.S.,” Raymond B. King, the zoo’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Name that Cub!
VINO WONG—JOURNAL CONSTITUTION/AP
Zookeepers have Lun Lun care for one cub at a time to ensure that each cub gets proper attention from mom.Zoo Atlanta teamed up withGood Morning America this month to put the pandas’ names to a public vote. China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding provided the choices of names. In just 13 days, 51,000 votes poured in to the show’s website.
Zoo Atlanta teamed up with Good Morning Americathis month to put the pandas’ names to a public vote. China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding provided the choices of names. In just 13 days, 51,000 votes poured in to the show’s website.
The winning names, pronounced may loon and may hwaan, come from the ancient Chinese saying “Mei Lun Mei Huan.” The phrase was used to describe buildings that are tall and magnificent. It has come to mean “something indescribably beautiful and magnificent.”
A Playful Pair
Under a deal between China and the U.S., giant pandas originally from China are only loaned to foreign zoos for scientific study for several years. Zookeepers at Zoo Atlanta are giving updates of the twins’ progress in an online blog. They say each of the cubs weighs about 8 pounds and that both are becoming more active every day. The brothers are described as “squeaky” and “squirmy” as they scoot around their nursery. They are playful with each other and have bonded with their mother, Lun Lun. Mei Lun and Mei Huan are the fourth and fifth offspring of Lun Lun and a male giant panda named Yang Yang.
The pandas are expected to make their debut in a U.S. exhibit later this fall. For the past three months, the online world has watched the twins grow strong and healthy. “We share this joy with our colleagues in China and with the cubs’ fans around the world,” King said.
DEADiquette 101: The Boos and Don’ts of Halloween Costumes
Posted: Thursday, October 17, 2013 12:00 pm | Updated: 12:33 pm, Thu Oct 17, 2013.
By Debbie Baldwin
Every year at about this time, I am plagued by the same dilemma: the perfect Halloween costume. It’s not that I’m going to a party or even dressing up. I just want to think of it–that perfect outfit that makes everyone say,That. Is. Awesome. I nailed it in 2009 when I got Whiny and his friends to go as the Chilean miners; but since then, I haven’t really, you know, hit it out of the park. I will say this, though: I may not always know what costume to wear on Halloween, but I can definitely tell you what not to wear.
Someone You Know
Do not dress as your boss, friend, coworker or an ex. First of all, if you aren’t trying to hurt anyone’s feelings, and just think that Kathy “just has a funny habit of always wearing plaid skirts and chewing grape gum,” your plan will backfire. Most people assume the worst. So even if you’re trying to pay Joe a compliment “because his pocket square is always a festive color,” don’t do it. Now, on the other hand, if you’re trying to stick it to someone, say that lockjaw blonde who got your would-be boyfriend to ask her out instead of you, don’t go in that direction, either. Sure, you’ll get some high fives in a big set of fake boobs, spandex tube dress, acrylic tips, glitter lip gloss and teased wig, but in the end, you just come off as petty.
Exception: a sibling or spouse who gets it or can suitably berate you without repercussions.
Someone Hotter than You
When you go as someone extremely attractive, people assume you think you are that good looking, so they feel comfortable insulting you. Years ago, a friend of mine went as Brad Pitt in Fight Club. It was actually a clever and very easy costume. Plus, when people asked him who he was he said, I can’t talk about it. Then, he’d say he was Brad Pitt. People would rake him with a glance, and then give a condescending Oh-ho-kay. I went as Heidi Klum from Project Runway one year, and I woke up the next day feeling really bad about myself.
Exception: a person of the opposite sex.
Something with a Required Pose
Five margaritas into the night and the only path the Statue of Liberty is lighting is the floor at her sandals.
Exception: a yoga instructor—the poses can draw a crowd, and possibly a potential date.
A Costume that Impairs Mobility
Yes, going as the shark attack victim—with the shark still attached—is funny, but try getting through a crowd and maneuvering in the bathroom.
Exception: My best guy friend in law school went to a Halloween party as Jabba the Hut. I told him over and over it was a mistake, but when he parked in a corner and had his date (dressed as Princess Lea in the gold bikini), bring him beers all night, he was a god.
Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke at the VMAs
Just don’t. I’d like to forget that.
Exception: no exceptions.
Happy Halloween. If I can just figure out a way to capture Sharknado in costume form, I will be set.
This is a critical juncture for Republicans. But, it’s also a key turning point for Moderates, Independents or just everyday reasonable people. They’re watching the continued dysfunction in Washington and wondering where the solutions lie? Cooler heads are calling for compromise. But, many Americans are wondering if compromise is possible given the current political climate. There have been calls for a third party. That has been tried before and if it does happen, it will be years before the idea or movement gains real traction. And it doesn’t resolve the fact that the patient is in need of triage right now.
I wonder if it is time for the Republicans to trot out a series of television commercials that show real people who are reasonable Republicans? Everyday Americans who love this country and are sickened by the divisiveness. Not the actual candidates who are sadly so vulnerable to being defined by forces beyond their control. Or who will likely drown in that giant whirlpool that reasonable candidates are drowning in – the primary system. Maybe it’s time to turn to the every day people who vote for Republicans and aren’t afraid to stand up and say it? Even when it might surprise you because it seems inconsistent based on your assumptions. This isn’t a crass political strategy. It’s letting the truth out.
The reason business has become the bogeyman in American politics is because most Americans don’t see these people up close. I guess I did because I worked in news, an occupation that put me in touch with people from all walks of life, and forced me to confront stereotypes. What I discovered is that most people are good and reasonable when they don’t feel cornered, afraid or manipulated. Whether that is in the inner city, affluent communities, government offices or boardrooms.
I say, it’s time for these real people who aren’t running for office to introduce themselves to the American public. Why are these people hiding? “I’m a Republican who loves to talk with my friends on the other side who say the environment is their biggest concern. I fish, I hike and I care about preserving our country’s natural resources. Here is what I’m doing…”
On the flip side, why not have an artist, a writer or a designer come on and say, “I create. That is my gift. But, I trust these guys to manage our fiscal health long term.”
A wise and experienced leader referred to the days when a two party system was a healthy thing that allowed each side to battle for the middle ground. As I’ve said on this blog many times, I believe most Americans are more moderate than the partisan media or our representatives in Congress would have you believe. It wasn’t that long ago that President Barack Obama and Candidate John McCain represented that duel. Then McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate and inadvertently hit a tipping point that drove a lot of reasonable Republican women out of the tent. It allowed the Democrats to portray themselves as the party that stood for women. As for the other team, President Barack Obama left many conservative Democrats in his own party wondering whether the candidate they voted for had been hijacked once he got to Washington.
The reason Americans aren’t celebrating the Democrats’ apparent victory on Obamcare is that they’re tired of the one upmanship. And what it will cost is sinking in. But the Republicans need to recognize that, according to polls, 33% of Americans are against an outright repeal. There is something there that they like and need. It’s access and compassion when it comes to insuring the uninsured.
Obama got elected because people believed he was the better person. He got re-elected for the same reason. But, the question is whether it was the Republican messaging that got hijacked. By the Tea Party? By partisan media? By insiders who benefit financially from the fight?
My guess is that going forward, a growing number of Americans will decide whether they vote for candidates based on 1) the person 2) the party or 3) the policies. I have voted for both parties, have put differences in policy over stem cell research, reproductive rights and who can marry who aside because I knew the people personally and knew them to be principled and reasonable. And because I believed our collective interests over the economy were paramount but, mostly because I believed the wheel was turning on social issues. And it is. Just look at New Jersey where Gov. Chris Christie just backed off of the fight over gay marriage.
So, where do we go from here?
1) I wonder if there is a reasonable Democrat in the land who will stand up and say thank you to the Tea Party for the things they did right? “I disagree with your tactics, particularly around this latest battle attaching Obamacare to funding the budget. I feel you have gone too far. But a very sincere thank you for rightly pointing out that fiscal reform is needed. You led that charge and on that point, “good job.” Now, for the good of this country, can we talk?
2) Are there reasonable Republicans who will address the fact that Obamacare is now the law because Americans believe in access to affordable healthcare and insuring the uninsured or those with pre-existing conditions. If Americans weren’t practicing wellness before, there is now a fiscal imperative to do so. How do Republicans get comfortable with saying the key is to lower costs so that we can broaden the pool and take care of our neediest and sickest citizens?
3) Who is brave enough to say this really isn’t about me? It’s about our collective interests. It isn’t a sign of weakness to compromise; it is a sign of strength.
Photo courtsey Julio Cortez/AP – Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality, spoke at a Sept. 27 news conference in Montclair, N.J., after a state judge made same-sex marriages legal. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is appealing the decision.
Few elected Republicans support giving gays the right to marry. The party’s influential social-conservative wing sees “traditional marriage” as a defining issue. And while most major Democrats are rushing to embrace same-sex marriage, none of the most prominent potential Republican presidential candidates have taken that step.
But a powerful group of Republican donors, who see the GOP’s staunch opposition to gay rights as a major problem, is trying to push the party toward a more welcoming middle ground — where candidates who oppose marriage rights can do so without seeming hateful.
Same-sex marriage became legal in New Jersey on Monday, following a court decision.The behind-the-scenes effort is being led largely by GOP mega-donor Paul Singer, a hedge fund executive whose son is gay, and former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who revealed his homosexuality in 2010, long after he had left the GOP leadership.
Singer’s advocacy group, the American Unity Fund, has been quietly prodding Republican lawmakers to take a first step toward backing gay rights by voting for theEmployment Non-Discrimination Act. The measure, which is expected to come to the full Senate for a vote as early as this month, would ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Singer’s group recently hired as lobbyists two former GOP lawmakers, Tom Reynolds(N.Y.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.), who say they oppose same-sex marriage but support workplace protections for gays.
Armed with new polling data and talking points, organizers are coaching lawmakers and potential candidates on politically smart ways to talk about gay rights to reassure general-election voters while not alienating core conservatives.
A softer GOP approach, they argue, would boost the party’s chances with young voters, women and centrist independents, all of whom tend to be supportive of gay rights and have drifted away from the party.
One poll-tested sound bite being suggested to candidates references the Golden Rule — to “treat others as we’d like to be treated, including gay, lesbian and transgender Americans.” The line, according to a memo from a GOP polling firm hired to guide the campaign, wins support from 89 percent of Republican voters.
“The Republican image, unfortunately, is one in which we have an empathy gap,” Coleman said. “That impacts us across the board. An issue like this, which is about being against discrimination, feeds into the long-term future of the party. It addresses one of the negatives that we are facing today.”
Some pro-gay-rights Republicans point hopefully to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a case study of a GOP politician who seems to be looking for a politically viable approach. The governor, expected to easily win reelection next month, is close to Singer, though aides to both men declined to discuss their private conversations about the issue.
Christie won praise from social conservatives last year for vetoing a same-sex-marriage bill. But he also routinely voices sympathy for gays; in a debate last week, for instance, he said that if one of his children came out, he would “grab them and hug them and tell them I love them.”
Americans care less and less about politics. They’re tired of all of it. Unless, you were heading to a National Monument, you might not have even noticed the Shutdown.
Today, the headlines are all about the end of the Debt Drama. About the fact that the debt ceiling just inched a little higher.
If the Debt Drama were a play, unfortunately, we would barely be at intermission.
Just as Tea Partyer Ted Cruz (or Ted bin Laden as the press is calling him) was crucified, a chorus of women came on stage and prevailed upon the mostly male warriors to put aside their differences for the sake of moving forward.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is enjoying a resurrection that his political enemies handed him. His baby, Obamacare, whose sacrifice they were demanding, is intact. In fact, emboldened.
The shadow of Republican attempts to attach Obamacare to government funding has been moving across the stage throughout this play and captivated the audience’s attention as it appears to have eclipsed some Republicans’ prospects in 2014.
Emerging from rear stage is the long suffering Treasury Secretary, who has been performing tricks in the shadows to pay the country’s bills, which are now twice what we bring in.
If this were actual theater, as opposed to the political theatre it has become, the writers would be furiously working overtime on their rewrites. Fiscal liberals demanding that words like “spending” be replaced with terms like the one I saw in today’s Washington Post, “domestic investments.”
The soothsayer is carrying a placard across the boards and lobbying for a bigger role. And despite her gloomy presence is actually being considered for a larger part. She’s carrying what looks like a ledger that says the following … 1) Federal Debt Limit – 16 trillion dollars 2) Interest on Debt due Nov. 15 – 29 billion dollars 3) Obamacare – 6 trillion dollars.
It seems an appropriate time to ask whether this fool has been brought in to shame the wise? Because once again, what looks like a solution, “another day that got saved in the nation’s capitol” is merely a chimera, a glittery illusion made up of disjointed parts that in reality is actually a fire breathing dragon.
If Congress wants to hang onto its’ audience, they should probably work on the scene called, “The Budget,” which is coming up next, in January. This budget saga just leads to too many plot twists and side stories, like sequester hearings and debt ceiling crises. Why not write a scene in its’ place that brings closure, like our elected leaders failed to balance their budget and got sent home. Close curtain.
Again, listing a recipe from a certain site because 1) I like the name of the site! and 2) the food sounds like a great bet for a Fall evening.
French Onion Soup
French Onion Soup is something that I always thoroughly enjoy when given the opportunity to order it at a restaurant. A stunningly white crock full of aromatic, brothy onion soup topped with a chunk of baguette and smothered in bubbly, browned Gruyere cheese that is dripping over the top and down the sides. I love to savor that cheesy baguette, and take only a little bit off with each spoonful. I can never make it last for the entire bowl of soup, but pulling a soup spoon out of a crock of French onion soup with cheese stretching itself thin is just about the most wonderful site in the culinary world.
I have been aching to make French Onion Soup at home for some time now, as it was on my original Top 100 list, and I am so thankful that I finally got around to doing it. I’m pretty sure I still smell like onions, but wow, this recipe rivals some of the best French onion soup I have had at great restaurants. It’s that good. Perhaps even better.
Now, I would never throw you to the wolves without full disclosure. This recipe is time-consuming. By my estimation it took over 4 hours (maybe 5?) from start to finish, however most of that is inactive time while the onions are doing their thing in the oven. This recipe calls for braising the onions in the oven for three hours instead of laboring over caramelizing them on the stove, noting that the low and slow braise imparts a much deeper flavor. Since I have never made it before I have no basis for comparison, but I can tell you that this soup is absolutely bursting with flavor. Your mouth will do a happy dance.
Notes on the recipe:
♦ Do not use sweet onions such as Vidalia or Walla Walla, just use straight up yellow onions or the soup will be too sweet.
♦ Once you get the pot on the stove, patience is key. All of the stirring and deglazing takes about 45 minutes to an hour, but it’s a big key in developing the flavor.
♦ I cheated and did not use a baguette. There was some Italian bread in the pantry, so I cut a couple of slices in half to make “baguettes”.
♦ I cheated again and did not use Gruyere. I had the perfect amount of leftover Swiss from my Quiche Lorraine Scones, so I used that.
♦ I cheated AGAIN (third time’s a charm?). I don’t have broiler-safe crocks, so I toasted the bread and then put it on a baking sheet and sprinkled with the cheese, then slipped it under the broiler to bubble and brown. Then I just put those on top of the soup.
Now, don’t be afraid. Go buy some onions and get ready to have one of the most wonderful soups you’ll ever make in your kitchen.
Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY8:43 p.m. EDT October 10, 2013
The nation’s coffee kingpin will become the weekend headquarters for folks who want to sign petitions that encourage lawmakers to reopen the government and reach a budget deal.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is urging consumers to invest in something more than designer coffee at his stores this weekend: citizen action.
Frustrated with the inability of the federal government to resolve its ongoing budget stalemate, the nation’s largest coffee chain will become a de facto headquarters in the next several days for a megapetition that Starbucks vows it will share with Washington officials.
Newspaper ads promoting the three-day petition signing will appear Friday in USA TODAY, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Starbucks is encouraging customers to tear out the ads, sign them and bring them into Starbucks stores this weekend.
Starbucks has increasingly found itself at the center of cultural issues. Last month, the chain advised gun owners that their guns were no longer welcome inside Starbucks stores.
Earlier this week, to foster a spirit of helping each other, it began offering a free tall brewed coffee — through Friday — to any customer who buys another person a drink at Starbucks. Now, Starbucks is trying to act as a corporate peacemaker of sorts between the federal government and its citizens.
“We are witnessing a level of disfunction and polarization in Washington, the likes of which we have not seen before,” says Schultz, in a phone interview. “So we asked ourselves: ‘What can Starbucks do, and how can we use our scale for good?’ “
Answer: Become a temporary hub for folks to sign “Come Together” petitions that express their outrage at the government.
The petition asks officials to:
• Reopen the government. • Pay our national debts on time. • Pass a long-term budget deal by the end of 2013.
Consumers also will be able to sign digitally beginning Friday at ComeTogetherPetition.com or “like” the petition’s Facebook post, which will count as a signature to the petition.
Schultz declined to estimate how many signatures he hopes to gather. “I don’t have a goal,” he says. “But I assure you, we’ll have a lot of signatures.”
Based on the company’s typical weekly business, roughly 20 million customers are expected to visit Starbucks’ 11,000-plus U.S. stores in the next three days.
The petition also will be shared with business leaders, Schultz says. In the past two days, Schultz says, he’s spoken with more than half the CEOs of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average, and there is 100% consensus “about concern and need for the American people to be heard.”
Schultz says his goal is not to make Starbucks a national hub to take on cultural issues. “This is not what we want to become,” he says. “But we don’t want to ignore what we believe are our responsibilities in the communities we serve.”
Even then, Schultz says, as he has said before, he has no plans to run for public office. “My responsibility is to the people of Starbucks.”
