What the hell

Given my political position, I don't have to explain that I fully support health care reform. I don't think it's nearly enough, as I believe, without any doubt or hesitation, that being healthy and accessing affordable and quality health care is not something one should have to earn. It should be a right of every man, woman, and child that is a citizen of what I believe is still the greatest country in the world. Wow a liberal progressive that's patriotic (and also totally cute)? Unheard of!? Not at all - millions of us voted in Obama. Anyway, why do only select groups of our citizens benefit from universal health care (elderly via Medicare or select veterans)? No one is more deserving than anyone else in this country when it comes to their basic health. To suggest one has to earn health care is inhumane.

I recently read an argument that suggested that the government has no right to use your earnings to cover other's health care expenses. First, in terms of health care reform, this is false, but, as people only believe what they want to believe, I have 2 major challenges to this skewed viewpoint:

1. Your earnings would not be possible without 'big government.' Our entire economy operates in part on federally funded systems, infrastructure, as well as laws of commerce, taxes, and so on and so on - not to mention a public education system that provides free education to become productive citizens. An organized system in which we run business - big and small. Claiming that we owe nothing to the system that supports the framework in which you operate and earn our livings is pretty much naive. To be that 'free' you'd need to support yourself on a deserted island. We all pay. We just need to pay smarter, and private health insurance is really, really stupid, expensive, and inefficient. Sidebar: It is interesting to me that when it comes to money, conservatives tend to get all "hands off!" but when it comes to life and death matters, like abortion and capital punishment, 'big government' is demanded by some of the very same people. Isn't passing laws about life and death pretty much the ultimate in big goverment? In case you were wondering where I stand, I'm generally pro-choice and undecided about capital punishment.

2. If you don't believe the government has the right to subsidize health care with your earnings, then why do you let health insurance companies do so, and so obscenely? Under our current system, the cost of treating those un-insured who, in desperation show up at the ER with a condition that could have been prevented with basic care, and those un-insured who are getting life-saving treatments for their illnesses is passed on to all of us that carry health insurance. And our premiums go up, and up. And up. And coverage decreases because, after all, insurance companies are for-profit entities! The government is not for profit. Duh! Our current system is so stupid, so complex, so inefficient, and so UNFAIR, that it's on the verge of being quite insane. Ooop, there it went. It's now insane.

But back to health care reform. What the hell is all this crying about? It's such a ridiculous dog and pony show for votes - and I'm not even going to get into the Teabagging Walmart Hippies situation. It is my goal to get through most of the bill. Yep. Hey, I also bothered to look up the definition of Socialism back in 2008. Yeahno. Obama is not a socialist. Not so much. Do your homework.

Until I get through,however, I have something to point out. The five major changes in health reform are really quite neutral. With the exception of the employer mandate, which comes with tax incentives (and let's face it - if you have 50 full time employees, you're doing alright, A-hole)I don't understand why conservatives are challenging this, except just for show and to make sure the ignorant masses vote them back in. Saying that insurance companies,whom you pay a handsome premium to, can't cap your benefits, can't drop you for a pre-existing condition, and have to cover your dependents all sounds pretty darn fair to me. It sounds bipartisan. It actually sounds customer-friendly. We all know big business tends to not behave so nicely without occasional intervention. Ahem.

Requiring individuals who can afford health care to purchase it or pay a fine is interesting and I can see why people might disagree...until I get through the bill, I'm not sure myself, and dammit, the insurance companies are totally going to profit from that nugget, aren't they! Isn't that interesting? Theoretically, it would reduce the number un-insured and pass these savings on, but we'll see. Hey, it's far from perfect, as I said. Again, the only fair way is universal health care. I hope we see it, if not in our lifetime, in our children's.

But the point I'm trying to make is that this bill's major provisions are fairly benign. Obstructionists really ought to shut the fuck up and be proud of their country for such a big, important reform that challenges the status quo. Have we come full circle?

Experiment over - for now

The standard recipe I'd been using to make pizza dough was good, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the crust. I wanted something lighter, with a crisper and more golden bottom.

In search of the best method, I changed something in that recipe nearly every time(I make pizza once every 10 days or so). I didn't change the ingredients - I just kept varying amounts, kneading and resting times (I was even using a no-rise version for a while, but it mysteriously started coming out gummy, so that was the end of that), as well as oven temps. I also alternated the aerated pan and pizza stone, sometimes using the pan on top of the stone.

Without going into detail on all the variations and their outcomes, I will just tell you that the problem was my water to flour ratio. Too much of both, especially for a 12 inch pie.

Last night, I hit the mark. Here's what I did:

Put your pizza stone in the oven, set to 500 degrees. I use a 12 inch round stone.

Dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and 1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast in .75 cup of 110 degree water. Let sit 5+ minutes. It should be foamy.

Combine 1.75 cups unbleached all purpose white flour (King Arthur is excellent)with 1 teaspoon salt in the mixing bowl of stand mixer.

Using dough hook on low setting, pour yeast mixture into flour. Let it go until the dough forms a ball and clears the sides. If it seems too sticky, dust with additional flour. If it seems too dry, add a little olive oil, a few drops at a time.

Take out the ball, and knead on a floured surface for another minute or two. Place the ball into an oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest 20 minutes.

In the meantime, assemble toppings of choice. In my opinion, about 8oz of shredded cheese is plenty. Easy on the sauce.

After 20 minutes, slowly stretch and press the ball onto a big cutting board into a 12 inch diameter circle. Use plenty of flour to prevent sticking - unless you have a 'pizza peel' you'll be using the cutting board to side your pizza onto the stone.

Lightly dust your stone with cornmeal, and slide pie onto stone. Try to be quick about this, because the cornmeal will toast pretty fast. Pre-bake untopped in the 500 over for 2 minutes. Dough will bubble, but it's ok.

Carefully remove entire stone and pie and top as desired - leave the pie on the stone while you do this, of course. Put back in the oven and bake until cheese starts to brown. Remove promptly and allow to rest for a minute.

The crust will continue to cook on the hot stone, so consider sliding right back on to your cutting board.

Awful words

A partial list of words that I hate. I either don't like seeing them, saying them, hearing them, or a combination thereof:

Tunic

Misanthrope

Queue

Bungle

Affidavit

Juicy

Maggot

Sporadic

Dungarees and slacks

Banal

Beefy

Fluid ounce. On their own, they're both ok. It's the combination.

Wistful

Mongrel

Jiffy


I can probably think of more, but this is a good start. What words do you hate?

Marker tip

Look at the awesome markers Uncle Alex gave Sammy!

It's nice to see something beyond one creepy standard 'flesh tone'.

Colors of My Friends - Nice!