DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The first step in preparing for a dinner party is to arrange the necessary documentation: gather all the printed information needed to prepare for the event. Given our intended menu (pizza) and the particular group of friends we’ve invited, the following source texts are appropriate:

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (recipe: “Another Mushroom Pizza”)
• Artisan Baking (recipe: “Sullivan Street Potato Pizza”)
• Bon Appetit, September 1997 (recipe: “Manchu Spiced Garlic Chicken Pizzettas”)
• SF Chron food section, January 6, 1999 (pizza tips)
• DSM-IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

That last volume isn’t a cookbook, but I’m hoping the section on delusional behavior will explain why I think I’m going to be able to make five kinds of pizza, none of which I’ve ever tried before, using two dough recipes and a sauce recipe I’ve never tried, for six, without getting up from the table 300 times during the course of the meal.

I always tell myself that if I have all the pies topped before guests arrive, then I’ll actually be able to eat dinner with the group, but it somehow never works out that way. I’m invariably up to my elbows in flour when the doorbell rings.

But this time will be different, for I have a Plan…

[My delusions continue in part II.]

Digital photographers: check out Petteri Sulonen’s technique for great black-and-white images.

The downside to lying all the time is that chronic liars eventually get caught. Public and prolific liars could even get caught on national TV. That’s what happened to Donald Rumsfeld on Face the Nation.

In late 2002, Rumsfeld said:

No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Last week, Rumsfeld denied ever using the phrase “immediate threat:”

You and a few other critics are the only people I’ve heard use the phrase “immediate threat.” I didn’t. The president didn’t. And it’s become kind of folklore that that’s what’s happened.”

Folklore? Please. See the video. Judge for yourself: Rumsfeld caught lying on Face the Nation. Watch him backpedal as the video fades out, stuttering about “the best intelligence…” What a maroon.

Here’s a page full of Bush, Rumsfeld, and the whole band of neo-con lunatics spouting off about imminent and immediate terrorist threats.

Frightening results from a recent Pew Research Center poll on global opinion of the war on Iraq:

• Osama bin Laden is viewed favorably by large percentages in Pakistan (65%), Jordan (55%) and Morocco (45%).
• In those same countries, more people than not think suicide bombings against Americans are justified.
• Large majorities in almost every country surveyed think that American and British leaders lied when they claimed, prior to the Iraq war, that Saddam Hussein’s regime had weapons of mass destruction.
• Large majorities in every country, except for the U.S., hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush.
• Just 14% of Germans, 24% of French and 41% of British think that people who have moved to the U.S. from their countries have a better life.

To anyone who thinks America can succeed and survive in the long term without the support (if not admiration) of the rest of the world, I humbly suggest you cancel any international travel plans.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to what John Hulsman, from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, says about the recent bombings in Madrid and subsequent ejection of Spain’s Bush-friendly government:

Al Qaeda clearly determined the outcome of a Western election. That is terrifying, and it will only encourage them to continue. The lesson is going to be that if you side with America, there’s a price to be paid.

More from Hulsman, and more interpretation of the Pew results can be found here: U.S., allies face rising antiwar sentiment (mirror)

When I visited Greece last Fall, I was treated with courtesy and respect nearly everywhere I went. But outside of the towns I saw evidence that my appeal was less than universal. This is only a tiny data point, but I took it personally. I don’t want to be judged based on the actions of my government. Moreover, I don’t want to be punished for them.

My friend Darell, one of the few people on the planet who can claim to have owned two electric vehicles at once, demonstrates his new portable recharger for the Toyota Rav4EV.

Darell’s inspiration came from Toyota’s own misguided marketing campaign. Ads for the Prius, not a zero-emissions vehicle, poke fun at the company’s (regrettably discontinued) ZEV line by claiming “You never need to plug-in for recharging — which makes the Prius a solution with no cords attached.”

It’s a silly campaign. The Prius is neat, but ZEVs are neater: Renewable trumps non-renewable. “Zero emissions” trumps toxic internal-combustion exhaust. And even beyond that, nobody’s selling ZEVs any more, so Prius customers don’t actually have a “cord attached” choice.