by the skin of our teeth

whew. what a morning it has been. today we went from short term
temporary housing to longer term temporary housing. we made it her
with exactly one dollar left (thank you soo much to all of you who
made it so that we didn't spend december living in a tent) as you can
see, i am back to interneting on my phone. don't know when that can be
fixed but forgive the typing please. it's still a long, hard, scary
road ahead, but we are safe and there is a thin possibility of
something better to come. happy belated new year, i think that might
actually be true this year.

--
The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time.
Willem de Kooning

He was a gatekeeper

(FTR, the blog tittle should be sung to the Beattles' Daytripper)

New Left has an interesting little blurb up about gatekeeping in regards to college educations. Go read, I'll wait.

Gatekeeping serves a major purpose in entrenching the dominant paradigm and reinforcing cultural hegemony. If you can only get a a decent job through a college education, and you can only get a college education by subscribing to capitalism and free marketeering, then the only people who get good jobs are those who will support the current system. But that's just a small gate, there are much bigger gates to be guarded. Another small gate, say you are a lefty poly sci student. You can be as progressive as you want, but if you want to get a paying job doing what you spent years in school studying, you have to shelve those alternative ideas. Maybe occasionally someone (Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader) gets to be king of the ideal left, but you should note that they are usually white dudes who get to betray their elite status with radical ideas. If you have any kind of oppression points at all, that won't be possible.

Our election system is one grand example of gatekeeping. We only get 2 versions of what's possible, and strangely both those versions are business friendly. They may bicker over talking points, but at the end of the day real change and reform just isn't going to happen when both parties rely on massive corporate funding and the elimination of third parties. You can start out as Mr. Smith (or Mr. Alan Greyson) goes to Washington as you like, the reality is that you either work to keep the system intact or you get sent home.

But gatekeeping doesn't just happen in politics. This is where I may get into some trouble, so forgive me in advance. Take a look at Oprah Winfrey, undisputed media queen of the world. Oh yes, she is a dark skinned black woman. She is one hell of a business woman and talented too. All of that is true. Yet she wouldn't ever have gotten where she is today if she didn't repeat the false American dream ideas over and over and over. Your failures are individual failures. She pulled herself up by the bootstraps and look where she is. Anyone can do it if she did. All it takes is education and drive and hard work. Except that's not all it takes. It also takes a certain degree of luck and the willingness to ignore cognitive dissonance. Oprah works really hard everyday, but does she really work harder than a minimum wage hotel maid? If Oprah didn't repeat that hard work equals success narrative, if she started questioning the economic system that has made her so much money, would she still make so much money? Would she have been allowed to have a television show on networks whose job it is to sell ad space to companies that want to sell us on the American dream? No. (See also the new OWN network, if Oprah suddenly got all progressive her network would fail because major corporations wouldn't advertise with it).

That same thing works in small ways too. If the only employer in town is Walmart, you shut up about how Walmart closed down all the little stores and the factories that went overseas to make the products that Walmart sells. You shut up and hope that you can get a Walmart job. You spew the company line, because if you don't subscribe to it, you don't eat. You become the gatekeeper for mass consumerism.

But some of us can point out the gatekeeping. We can explain that freedom doesn't mean the choice between donkey flavored coke and elephant flavored pepsi. we can remind them that progressive economics are water for those dying of economic thirst.

Incentives, incentives

So health insurance parasites companies are cranky. See, they've been tiering their prescription drug coverage so that patients have less incentive to take more expensive drugs because of the higher co-pays that the insurance parasite company charges compared to other, sometimes generic drugs.

But pharmaceutical companies (also often parasites, but at least they produce an actual product) have been countering by giving patients coupons to cut their copays. They are providing their own incentives. But the insurance parasites have to eat the larger drug costs because the coupons only pay for out-of-pocket (OOP in health and welfare speak) costs. Suck it, parasites.

And the insurance parasites are pouting. Hands on hips, bottom lip stuck out, pouting. "But but but it's not fair" goes the parasites' whambulance.

You know, if they don't like it they could always get out of the game. But somehow I don't think we'll be that lucky. I would like to see big pharma and big parasite arm wrestle for legislative supremacy on this one. Usually they are all sunshine and rainbows for each other when it comes to lobbying the pols. Who will the pols side with? Who has deeper pockets come election time?

And this would all be unnecessary if we had single payer. Coupons for drug co-pays are already illegal for medicare users.

RQ Cooks- The Other White Meat

So it's winter, which means it's cheap pork season. Kid and I found thick cut pork chops for 99 cents per pound (2 chops equals a pound) and we'll be eating pork chops a few times this week. For some reason (religion, fear of undercooked pork from parents, I don't know what) most of my friends are afraid of cooking pork and unfamiliar with what to do with it. If you find a cheap pork roast- throw that shit in the crock pot and eat up. But chops are as easy to work with as boneless, skinless chicken breasts. The thinner cut chops are more tender, but thick cut chops can be yummy too.

When I have the cash I like to bread the chops and make pork chops limonata. It's just your basic breading- flour, dip in egg wash, dip in seasoned breadcrumbs. I add lots of extra seasoning to the bread crumbs. Garlic salt (Lowrys California style with parsley- I swear by that shit. I don't know why it's different and better, but it is) lemon pepper, regular pepper, oregano or basil, paprika, and as much finely grated lemon zest as you can get your hands on. In a heavy skillet, heat up a generous amount of oil (if you have leftover bacon fat in the fridge, throw some of that in with vegetable or olive oil, but not bacon fat all by itself because it will burn to fast). Fry the chops. If they are thin, this will only take a few minutes on each side. Squeeze a lemon wedge or two over each finished chop for extra tangy goodness.

When I don't have the cash, or the space, or the patience, to bread I just saute. This is the exact same thing I do to boring chicken breasts, and I NEVER have dry or bland meat. I have a meat nose in the same way that bakers have a bread nose. I can tell the doneness of a steak by sniffing it.

So how to saute cheap white meats...

In a heavy skillet, heat olive oil on high. Throw your well-weasoned meat in. Sear it on each side till it gets a little orangey-golden and then flip. Don't play fidgety Phil with your meat. Extra flipping doesn't help. If you're using a cast iron or stainless steel pan, the meat will stick at first. Ignore it. Once it gets hot enough to start releasing liquid, it will unstick itself.

When it's nice and golden on each side, you steam it. You don't add any extra liquid. Just turn the pan down to medium low and stick a lid on it. If I am making rice to go with dinner, I usually judge timing like this- the time it takes for the water to boil is the time it takes to sear. The time it takes for the rice to cook (20 to 25 minutes) is the time it takes for the meat to steam. Halfway through the 20 minutes of steaming, I flip and check. (If you are using thin cut pork chops- this time is cut way the fuck down).

Once the meat (or chicken) is cooked through, I turn the pan back up to high to crisp up the outside or re-sear. Takes just a few minutes. If you want, while the meat is resting off the stove, you can then turn all the yummy drippings into a pan sauce. Add a little stock or wine or water, a little butter, a little flour and whisk over low heat, making sure to get all the crunchy pan numminess mixed in.

So for under 5 bucks, Kid and I had a delicious dinner of sauteed pork chops, rice pilaf and brussel sprouts. (I cheated, the rice is a Near East mix that was on sale for a buck. But pilaf is easy, use stock instead of water to cook your rice in and mix in some sauteed onions and garlic and whatever).

Now if someone can teach me how to buy fish (that isn't tilapia or salmon) and cook it for cheap, I will heart them forever.

RQ watches movies so you don't have to

Or, a review of 48 minutes of the Road. I couldn't watch any more than that. I like dark, bleak movies, I do. But this, no. There is no tiny sliver of light to hold onto in this film, and the theme of end of the world starvation is just too close to possible. So when Sylvie called me half way through, I was relieved to have an excuse to look away.

Me: I'm watching The Road

Sylvie: Oh my god! I read the book. It's bleak. Turn it off!

Me: The people, the people in the cellar are going to the smokehouse!!!! You know that the cannibals are probably libertarians. They are sooooo the type to eat smoked people.

Sylvie: I read book. It doesn't get better. Turn it off. Put on something happy and mindless. Watch Glee or something.

Me: I hate Glee. Actually I hate all musicals. I always feel super embarrassed for the people singing.

Sylvie: You liked Rent

Me: That's because if you're going to do a musical you have to sing about mortal death. Well all death is mortal, but you know what I mean.

This is where I changed the channel to something more upbeat. I think it was some flavor of Law and Order. And then made tuna melts, cause nothing removes the bad taste left by evil cannibals and certain horrible doom than delicious, buttery tuna and cheese.

But really, 48 minutes of cannibalism and watching a man repeatedly contemplate killing his son (for his son's own good) was more than I could stand. Sylvie confirms that there is no happy ending, it stays bleak. All my little pipe dreams of the man and boy reaching a colony of kindly people at the coast who stuff them full of readily available fish are for nothing.

Of course if you're suicidal, and looking for a movie to reaffirm your absolute hopelessness for the state of human kind before you swallow every pill in the house, this is probably a good choice. And Viggo Mortensen is never not interesting to watch.

You Will Never Be Good Enough

I reblogged this in Tumblr, but I thought it deserved to be pulled out into the light a bit.

A patriarchal bargain is a decision to accept gender rules that disadvantage women in exchange for whatever power one can wrest from the system. It is an individual strategy designed to manipulate the system to one’s best advantage, but one that leaves the system itself intact.

This was posted in response to a question about why Kim Kardashian is famous. We (serious feminists and/or intelligent ladies) will point and laugh and disdain those women who make these bargains, pretending all the while like we haven't made a few ourselves. Do you shave your legs, wear lipstick, shave or wax your bits, wear high heels, skirts, makeup of any kind, bras? You've made the bargain. Even if you convince yourself a thousand ways till Sunday that you do those things because you like them or because you need to.

For example, I shave my legs and pits. I would love to be able to skip those activities, but I am patriarchy deficient in enough other ways that the scorn from appearing in public with my above-patriarchy approved sized body in a tank top and skirt with hairy legs and pits is more than I can handle. A darling friend, who has a patriarchy approved sized body, can get away with her hairy legs and pits most of the time, but has to wear pants and sleeved shirts in the summer to avoid friction at work. I get away with not wearing makeup because I am traditionally attractive in spite of my size, and I still have a patriarchy approved hourglass shape.

But here's the thing that is rarely said- it's okay to make those bargains. It's better if you can acknowledge that they are actual bargains while you make them, but if someone can't or doesn't acknowledge that they made these bargains shouldn't make them an object of scorn.

That's how we make ourselves never good enough. If you buy into all the patriarchy's beauty standards, then you are ridiculous, fluffy and dumb. If you shun them, you are a fat, hairy legged, man hating, slutty, frigid lesbian (not that there is anything wrong with any of that). But the truth is that we are all trying to get by under a system that sucks. Do what you have to do, while fighting where you can afford to fight. Stop wasting your time policing the bargains others have made (even if those others are Katy Perry, ugh). Picking on the individual bargain makers doesn't solve the problem of having to make the bargain to begin with. It only reinforces the bargain. Take breastfeeding vs. formula, for instance.

Before women (white, middle class and better women) entered the work force in mass (poor women have always worked) formula was the best thing new moms could do for their babies (or so says the patriarchy). Never mind the expense. Never mind the extra effort that you have to put into mixing the formula, heating the formula, sterilizing the bottles and nipples, cleaning the bottles and nipples, and the fact that formula isn't actually as good for babies as breast milk. If you wanted to be a good mom in the 50s, 60s and 70s, you bottle fed. If you didn't bottle feed, you were some kind of low class savage like the naked brown ladies in National Geographic.

Then women start going into the work force and suddenly the benefits of breastfeeding are touted as the only sensible choice for good mothers. Never mind that there is no paid maternity leave. Never mind if you have a condition that requires medication that might get into breastmilk and hurt your baby. Never mind that you work a minimum wage job and will be fired for taking breaks to pump milk on the toilet. If you don't breastfeed your child you are some kind of declasse Jerry Springer mom who also feeds their kids koolaid and poptarts. (Never mind that food stamps and Wic will pay for formula, but not for a breast pump or to stay home with a newborn). Picking on women because they can't or don't breastfeed doesn't actually make it easier for women to breastfeed (unless they take the patriarchy approved route of marrying a dude who makes enough money for her to stay home).

We need to take the fight where it belongs, to the structures that prop up the patriarchy****, and not to the individuals who are just as stuck in the system as we are.

*****You can replace patriarchy with kyriarchy and for every flavor of oppression there are bargains to be made. Lipstick lesbians are hot! Articulate brown people are cool!Disabled folks are fine as long as they are plucky lesson teachers or adorable telethon kids, etc, etc, etc. I'm not in the mood to do a "what about the menz" spiel, but they make bargains too.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

The Kid and I are at the darling Sylvia's to make a gazzilion Christmas cookies. Thank you, to everyone who reads this blog and chipped in over the last year. You all make me feel like George Bailey with a laundry basket of cash.