Evening Reads: Albóndiga… Polpetta… Meatballs, Coochies and Hoodies

Good Evening

Tonight I have a special treat for you…a meatball recipe, my very own, but first let’s get to the evening news round-up.

First a couple of items on the Hoodie controversy going on lately. Today, in the House of Representatives, a bit of a protest got one member kicked out. Bobby Rush and the Hoodie of Doom – Esquire

Rep. Bobby Rush, still the only man to beat Barack Obama in an election, apparently offended against the dignity of the House Of Representatives this morning by wearing a hoodie onto the House floor in tribute to Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot to death by a trigger-happy police officer wannabe for the crime of carrying snack food in the wrong neighborhood:

A long prohibition has barred House members from wearing hats on the floor and Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), presiding over the floor as Rush delivered his remarks wearing the hood on this head, ruled his clothing out of order and gaveled his speech to a close. Rush was then escorted from the House floor.

Why do I believe that, in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the Cubs ever won a World Series, Rush could’ve worn his Cubs cap while introducing a resolution congratulating the team and Congressman Harper would’ve let that one slide?

The political cartoonists have been busy as well:

Cagle Post » Mt Hoodie

Cagle Post » The Hoodie

Cagle Post » Trayvon Shooting Hoods

Cagle Post » Trayvon Martin hoodie

Which brings me to this scene from the movie Hot Fuzz…it seems hoodies have had a bum rap years before the Zimmerman killing of Trayvon Martin. Watch this clip from the movie Hot Fuzz (2007): The Neighborhood Watch – Video

The clip The Neighborhood Watch from Hot Fuzz (2007) with Edward Woodward, Jim Broadbent.

Well, well, well, I see we have visitors.

Nicholas, this is Tom Weaver.

Civilian liaison with the Neighborhood Watch Alliance.
You’ll find that we run a very tight ship here.
From this command center I can see what the whole village is up to.
I must say I was rather admiring your handiwork last night.
It’s a pity you didn’t do the same to those bloody hoodies.
Hanging around. Loitering. Sitting.

Actually, I did notice some minor graffiti on the fountain.

Graffiti? They’ve gotta be dealt with, Frank.

They’re nippers, Tom. They’ll come round.

Which reminds me,
our friend, The Living Statue, was here on Saturday.
11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00.
If we don’t come down hard on these clowns,
we are gonna be up to our balls in jugglers.

We’ll get right onto it, Tom.
We like to let them think they run the place.

It looks like the movies aren’t the only place where neighborhood watch folks “run the place.”

BAR has published some articles on the Trayvon Martin murder, and I have to say I was waiting for their comment on this.

I will link to the articles, and I encourage you to go read them…or at least bookmark them for later.

From NYPD Spying to Trayvon Martin | Black Agenda Report

Police and their prey are locked in a dance – with the cops leading the morbid shuffle. In New Orleans, where the author hails from, a white officer who just this month shot a young Black man to death was found to have recorded a racist rant against Trayvon Martin, calling for the Florida teenager to “go to hell.” Meanwhile, New York cops travel to New Orleans to record the author’s speech at a film festival.

White Picket Fences, White Innocence | Black Agenda Report

George Zimmerman, the watchdog of a gated community, “was upholding the time-honored tradition of white homeowners’ associations that protected white communities from dark interlopers.” His “lesser white status” as a person of partial Latino ancestry, “is part of what legitimized Zimmerman’s self-defense claim.”

Oh, and by the way, don’t miss this one either: Angela Davis Has Lost Her Mind Over Obama | Black Agenda Report

Let’s move on to some other news items, presented to you in a link dump of sorts.

First a series of articles on vaginas, birth control and the war on women:

Global Roundup: Catholic Church Opposes Women’s Health Care in the Philippines; Have Anti-Choice Extremists Invaded Britain? Yup they sure have, as Boston Boomer pointed out last week, Britain has their own problem with PLUBs. But they are not the only one…this article gives you the low down on what the global war on women looks like.

Vagina enters stage left — or is it right? –From CNN International, guess we have to go to the non US site to get some news about protest here in the US…

The Pill Makes Women Richer – Really? I bet it does…this MoJo article talks about the positive effects of birth control on the “gender wage gap.”

When birth control isn’t for birth control – I love this one…

In 1957, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first birth-control pills, it wasn’t for birth control. The contraceptives won approval as a treatment for severe menstrual disorders; temporary infertility was a side effect. Funny, women across the country suddenly started complaining in droves about severe menstrual disorders.

As religiously-affiliated organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, continue to complain about federal policies that would require that health insurance cover family planning (President Obama worked out a compromise deal under which the insurance companies would absorb the cost, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops still sees this as undue interference), one issue hasn’t come up much: What about when birth control isn’t for birth control?

[…]

It appears to be protective against endometrial and ovarian cancer, and the longer women take it, the greater the benefit in this regard.

They are used to treat ovarian cysts, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, breakthrough bleeding and painful menstrual periods.

Why shouldn’t women who suffer from these very real ailments have access to appropriate medication? Not to mention women for whom pregnancy itself is medically dangerous?

The op/ed states that women will be forced into finding sympathetic doctors to prescribe their birth control…

… this takes us back to the early history of the pill in this country. Women who want to make their own choices about their reproductive futures will start claiming one of the related conditions.

You know, it is pretty sad state of affairs when the solution to the birth control mandate, getting a doctor to write the script for severe menstrual disorders,  is something women had to do over 50 years ago to get birth control in the first place.

You may have heard about this next link: Ron Johnson Offers Women Contraception Advice: Google ‘What If I Can’t Afford Birth Control?’

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) weighed into the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama’s birth control mandate this weekend, dismissing the concerns of women who cannot afford contraception.

“My wife actually went online here in Wisconsin and typed in, ‘what if I can’t afford birth control,'” the freshman Tea Party senator told ThinkProgress. “Came up, bam. If you can’t afford it, you can get birth control in this country.”

Video at the link…

A couple more links for you tonight, before we get to the food…

Lawsuit: nurse severed infant’s finger

Veronica Olguin says she went to Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in October of last year because her 3-month-old daughter Selena had a high fever she couldn’t break.

Selena stayed there for two days.  Olguin says on the third day, as she was being released, a nurse was removing the tape that attached the IV.

“They were taking her IV off with scissors and she obviously wasn’t looking where she was cutting, so she cut off her finger,” Olguin recalled.

Veronica was holding her daughter and saw as the scissors cut into her, not realizing what she was seeing at first.

“I realized it because there was blood everywhere. It was all over her shirt, it was on my shirt. It was on my face. I held her face close to my chest. She was red, she was screaming,” Olguin continued.

About half of Selena’s pinky on her left hand was cut off.

Olguin is now suing Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center. Her attorney, Lou Pendas of Tampa, says the nurse and the hospital were negligent.

“The nurse threw the scissors used to sever the pinky in a panic. She rushed out of the room, screaming, and that’s when the doctors rushed back into the room,” Pendas said.

The finger was found on the floor and the infant was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital. But the nerves were too small, and the veins too little to reattach it.

And then we have this tidbit about Andrew Sullivan: Hillary Clinton Is Not A Real Feminist  Have you heard about this? I completely missed it…

There are a lot of things that apparently disqualify women from being feminists these days. Wearing heels, putting on lipstick, and compromising for your spouse’s career. Falling into the third category won’t fly by Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, who said on Bill Maher’s HBO program late last week that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is “not a feminist” for “[subordinating] herself to her husband’s career in politics.”

First discussing former Britain Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sullivan said the Iron Lady was “amazing” and a true feminist whereas former first lady Clinton used her significant other’s political status to advance her own career:

“Unlike Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher made her own political career, [and] didn’t latch on to her husband. That’s called real feminism…[W]hy did she subordinate herself to her husband’s career in politics? She made a choice to put a man ahead of her. That’s not a feminist.”

What? Huh?

When Brown University associate professor Wendy Schiller argued that Clinton “was maligned and abused since the minute she stepped into public life with her husband,” Sullivan asked the academic to pull out “the world’s tiniest violin.” Nevertheless, Sullivan said that Thatcher had thicker skin than Clinton because the English female never played the victim.

What an asshole Sullivan is…but that is my own non-feminist opinion…at least according to Sullivan’s definition of feminism.

I don’t know…the article cites a post from the Daily Caller, did anyone hear about this happening on Bill Maher?

This next link is amazing: Face transplant man Richard Norris has ‘life restored’

You have to see the pictures of the before and after…

A puppy, so small it may qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records, had to be revived by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions when she was born.
The Grace Foundation, which takes in unwanted animals, said animal control picked up the puppy’s pregnant mother, and she gave birth to a litter of five on March 8.
The foundation, which has called the Dachshund mix Beyonce, said she would soon be ready for adoption.
It has submitted an application to the Guinness Book of World Records to see if Beyonce is the world’s smallest puppy.

Now for a quick meatball recipe…I’ve got over 7 pounds of ground chuck in the fridge for tomorrow’s meatball marathon. So I figured I would share my way of making meatballs with you.

Here is what I mix together…most of it is to taste.

Four pounds ground chuck

2 nice size heads of garlic

good olive oil (to roast the garlic in)

one onion, chopped fine

dash of sugar

handful of fresh parsley, chopped fine

6 eggs, beaten

half a can of evaporated milk

2 good-sized squirts of catsup

1/3 cup merlot or burgundy wine

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Italian bread crumbs…enough to make the mixture stick together…but not too much that the meatballs are all bread like.

Salt and Pepper, of course to taste

Get separate bowl of plain bread crumbs…keep this aside for after the meatball is formed.

Get the heads of garlic whole, with skin on them and put them in a large piece of aluminum foil, I double the foil and make a little bowl shape. Then pour good olive oil on top and over the garlic, add salt and pepper. (sea salt and fresh ground pepper is the best.)

Put that in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 min…at least.

When this is done peel the garlic cloves…save the oil…that is one of the best things about the roasted garlic.

Get the oil from the roasted garlic and pour that into frying pan, add onion garlic parsley and a dash of sugar (not too much) and add salt and pepper…again not too much.

When this is cooked slowly on med low heat and becomes translucent move it to a big bowl. Then add the beef, and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well but not too much, if you do the meat balls will be tough…when it is mixed, form little flattish round ball and then toss this raw meatball in a bowl of plain bread crumbs.

Set aside.

Make the rest of the meatballs like that…when you give them a quick toss in the plain bread crumbs it makes them a crispy golden when you fry them in canola oil.

I  usually will fry till it turns a little golden brown in color on both sides, and then finish them in the oven so they do not get too overcooked on the outside. I will put them in a 200 degree oven while I finish the meatballs in batches. Usually I need to throw out the oil after it starts to get nasty…about every 1 in a half to 2 pounds of meatballs.

Well that is it…have a wonderful evening. I have a box of Krispy Kreme donuts downstairs with my name on them. Mmmmm….donut….