Monday, May 12, 2008

Mother's Day leftovers

Editor Sam waiting on the brats!

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Ours was one of the nicest in recent memory. Probably because I decided to include our new patio furniture in it and the weather cooperated in what turned out to be a truly immaculate conception.

It was a small gathering of but four - myself, Mrs. Dada, editor Sam and the one remaining mother between the three of us, my mother-in-law. Brats simmered in beer then browned on the grill were served on buns so freshly out of the oven the bakery refused to package them in a bag of plastic. They had to box them instead.

I think my choice of bratwursts may have been a genetic thing over which I had no control. Being one generation removed from family roots in Wisconsin, I suspect selection of that state's national food was a way to capture a little of the spirit of my mother who's been suspiciously absent from Mother's Day gatherings for the past 20 years now.

Sadly, while the pleasantness out on the back patio was going on, it was a very bad day for some Mexican mothers just over our border. That's because they were losing their sons. Five more bit the dust in the small town of Palomas, just across from Columbus, NM. Apparently in retaliation for two killed there Friday.

The drug cartels are adjusting nicely to the beefed up "security" of the Mexican army and federal police sent to the border to squelch the violence. After a brief decline in the drug war killings immediately after their arrival, the ongoing slaughters appear to be resuming their more "normal" levels .

You may recall, Palomas, Mexico is where the entire (small) police force resigned a couple months ago and its police chief crossed into Columbus, NM to ask for asylum.

Later in the evening, I discovered the following items that evidence some people are taking the impending oil crisis seriously. Here was one curious example:

"Trigger" always wanted to go for a ride. She finally got her wish but didn't know she'd have to be the one horse behind its one horsepower energy source that drives Dubai inventor Abdolhadi Mirhejazi’s "Naturmobil". She walks the treadmill just behind the driver.

Abdolhadi claims the Naturmobil can obtain speeds up to 80 kph, but normally cruises around 20 kph. A four horsepower version is in the works. It will ferry tourists around, stopping occasionally to "gas up" in greener pastures, I suppose.

When Mirhejazi's friends first heard of this most unusual idea, they were convinced he was off his rocker (horse), but he proved he wasn't "bucking around" with his "cart before the horse" invention. The Naturmobil is touring and lucky folks in Sacramento, CA are scheduled for a stop there sometime in June.

Stepping up the horse power a bit, say to 20hp, and a bit more practical I suspect, I caught a link (thanks AZ Goddess) to this sporty looking little number, this German built Loremo which, I don't know, may mean "tree hugger" in Italian. Able to attain 60 mph in 10 seconds and a top speed of 100 mph, it's a sporty looking little four seater that weighs just 1000 lbs using nothing but diesel, i.e., no plug-in recharging or hybrid fuel cells and gets 157 mpg!


157 mpg German built gas guzzler, Loremo

The Loremo will begin selling in Europe in 2009. Price tag estimates are $13,000. Eco-conscious Americans should contain themselves because by the time it reaches U.S. shores, the Bush devalued, gutted dollar will probably price it out at around $137,000! Things aren't cheap anymore, but such is the price Americans must pay for the bombs to support their global domination of a dying, shriveling empire in the last stages of putrefaction.

Finally, one of the more discouraging things to close out a great Mother's Day was late night radio where I learned all the baby boomers who took their medicine in the 50's and early 60's in the form of the Sabin or Salk polio vaccines, did so from serum produced with monkey kidneys that were all contaminated with a cancer causing virus. Somewhere between 100-200 million doses were delivered to unsuspecting Americans, according to E. Haslam, talk show's Coast to Coast AM guest last night. According to Haslam, we are now in the middle of the cancer epidemic we now enjoy as a result of those vaccinations. (But at least polio's been eradicated, right?)

Oh wait, I just remembered -- I actually heard that in the first segment of the show just after midnight. So it wasn't a bad ending to a great Mother's Day after all. It was a bad beginning to a whole new week.

8 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

The polio vaccine info is scary. At first, I didn't believe that BOTH the Sabin and Salk's could be contaminated w/the same cancer-related virus, because Salk used dead virus, while Sabin used live virus. (you know, living in San Diego for so many yrs, we were treated to many versions of the unfair controversy/outright hatred/lack of respect that Sabin had for Salk, who is a SD icon)

But I read some online articles just now & it appears Haslam may be onto something. The live vs dead polio virus has nothing to do w/the method of culture which is where the cancer-related virus is.

In any case, I remember the first polio vaccine was liquid in a little paper cup that you had to drink down in one gulp. We all lined up for that. Then yrs later, we all trooped back for another polio vaccine, but I can't recall if that was liquid or skin prick & don't remember why we were told we needed to have another dose. Either way, I guess I'm f*cked, because it's obvious I got BOTH kinds of polio vaccine, thus doubling my chances w/monkey cancer.

The online articles keep citing a Denmark study where the monkey cancer was confirmed, but no link has been found to human cancer, and no excessive human cancers have appeared over the ensuing yrs, thus providing me one more reason to move to denmark!?!

ps, was this Sam's pre-brat or post-brat photo? Our dogs get that same tongue thing going in anticipation of as well as the aftertaste savoring. sounds like a perfect mother's day!

Anonymous said...

love Sam's expression. When I first saw the horse thing I thought it was a "Popemobile" for a horse. I am gonna need to see one of these up close and in living color before I believe it works.

¡yo soy Horsedooty!

Dada said...

H.D. - Yeh, the Naturmobil sounds like a hard swallow. Yet, if it works, it is novelty, not solution for awaits us.

D.K. I think the photo of Sam (which I took) was during or immediately after the brats. (It was a big day for him - he loved it. Poor guy, he's discovered a kitty over the back wall that finds him obsessing and neglecting his editing duties of late. But he enjoyed having us on that patio all afternoon so as to be able to keep an eye out for kitty friend sans having to out and in and out that doggie door all the time.)

Re the polio vaccines and monkey virus: Whew! I only listened to the first hour of last night's Coast to Coast. Taped the second hour (I've listened to 1/2 of that so far), but this is far more involved than I can even scratch the surface of here.

Edward Haslam has a website to links delineating some of the aspects of his book.

D.K. Raed said...

Do I sense a cat to be added to the Dada family soon? Our dogs & cats were always best friends ... except for the last cat who was nobody's friend.

Or maybe Sam's interest is more of a, ummm, carnivorous nature? Once the cat learns whether or not Sam can reach to the top of the fence, you can expect some friendly taunting.

We've got a couple dogfearless cats in the neighborhood that come out to greet our dogs when we walk by. One in particular, a long-hair siamese, sashays right up to them. But so far, no dice, our dogs don't think these cats are OUR cats, and therefore, they need to be barked away. I miss having a cat.

Billie Greenwood said...

I took polio vaccine on a sugar cube as well as injection and cup of cancer...so I think my ship is sunk. Guess I should be grateful for almost 60 cancer and polio free years. Shoot.

Hey, Dada, I'm checking in from Wisconsin--home of the brat. The Packer stadium is about a mile from here. Do you feel the good vibrations over the internet? Sounds like real bad news from Palomas. Thanks for passing it on. It didn't make the G.B. Gazette, so I didn't know.

Dada said...

D.K. - I'm not sure if Sam's seeing these creatures as potential playmates or dinner, or just sport kill. In the Sixties I brought home a feral kitten for my dog. I'd intended it for her dinner, but she ended up mothering that kitten, "nursing" her. They became joined at the hip but, hey, it was the Summer of Love so what could I expect.

We used to all three go for walks. Then Cory grew up and had a litter of kittens. Just two, Che and Fidel. Our dog, Grettel became a grandmother and Cory became spayed.

But I don't think there's a kitten in Sam's future. After babysitting two greyhounds for five nights, I think (Shhhh! lest Sam learn of this) I may have allergies to dogs.

(I was just kidding about bringing the kitten home for Grettel's dinner.)

Dada said...

B.E.! Hi. What a surprise because I knew you had entered your 5 day tour on the Dark Side of the Moon (reference to being out of 'radio' contact circa the Apollo moon orbits).

I was trying to sneak in a little border news for you in this blog. Interestingly, "Peter" the fellow who lives in Juarez and commutes daily to his teaching job at the local community college was remarking after I'd asked him Monday night about the increased presence of the army and fed'l police and he was explaining their allegiances, their corruptions and I found it amusing that sometimes the army, the feds, local police and/or the drug gangs get into it with 'em all exchanging bullets. (BTW, the Juarez killings continue also. One of the police chiefs on January's hit list got his hit this past weekend.)

Peter left yesterday to live in a cabin in the woods of Illinois for the summer, sans running water or electricity. Thoreau indeed! (He's the fellow I blogged about a couple months ago who was introduced to us as "the Unabomber [without the violence], remember?)

Thanks for the good vibrations, B.E. - the brats were truly wonderful. Ate them as I imagined Bret Favre will come out of retirement in June. ~g

D.K. Raed said...

nooooo, surely not dog allergies! I think it's just a bad allergy year. Mine are back & I haven't been bothered for 25-yrs. I blogged about it (Dancing around the flatline). I blame the wind, which has been bad this year, kicking up all the pollen. At least I hope it's pollen & not some old radioactive dust. I'm sure dog fur doesn't help, so we are bathing & brushing them more often.