- In ’08, <a
href=”http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/13347621.htm”>I
want this guy. Raise-the-stakes, speak-from-the-heart,
tell-the-truth Al Gore. The guy who gave one of the greatest speeches
I’ve ever heard in accepting the nomination in ’00, not the plastic
dude who followed that up with a lame campaign.Look, let’s face it: We all got complacent in the ’90s. The DLC is
still back there (although I remain an Ed Kilgore fan). We need some
passion, baby. These are desperate times. - Hey kids, did you hear <a
href=”http://kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=34231″>high-deductible
health care sucks? People hate it and nobody’s its friend?
Surprised? Boy, people sure are going to be grateful when Mitt sticks
it to ’em next year! Ha ha… good times, good times. UPDATE: <a
href=”http://leftcenterleft.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/policy_that_spi.html”>Chris
has more on Health Savings Accounts. - What … is up … with the lightning?
- You know… I was all ready to praise Our Guv for getting
Massachusetts into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative… but didn’t
you just know he was going to scotch the whole thing? What
garbage. So, he flip-flopped on the Emergency Contraception issue, but
the cultural right in MA isn’t really where the power is these days.
That’s the theme for Mitt from now all the way to ’08: Show. Me. The
Money. He can buck the theocons up to a point, but not the Almighty
Dollar. - Thoughts on listening to ‘GBH this afternoon… I think my least
favorite musical genre is the kind of violin concerto with the
unplayable stratospheric cadenza, invariably out of tune, which ends up
sounding like a circular saw cutting through stone… Maybe I’ll have a
Paganini Demolition Night sometime… (though in this case it was
Locatelli). - Another thing on Dunkin’ Donuts: The fabulous Cook’s Magazine
(HQ’d in Brookline) did a comparison recently on store-bought whole
bean coffees. I did not know this: apparently the quality of coffee is
compromised by the presence of under-roasted, discolored beans known as
“quakers”; the higher the quaker content, the lousier the cup of joe.
Of the brands they compared, DD’s had the highest quaker content. Sorry
Dunkies… the quaker is not your friend.
Please share widely!
First, I am sorry but Al Gore is done. If we look historically at the Dems we have renominated (after losing the first time of course) we have not fared well. When there are so many great potential first time candidates why do we want to try again with Al Gore?
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Second, on the point of coffee I would like to fully mark my outsider status and say that all of you in New England have been drinking the kool-aid except it is coffee, particularly Dunkies coffee. They ruin the product of coffee with their damn “regulah” nonsense. Only in New England does Dunkies really thrive on coffee. Having worked for the dreaded Starbucks I have to say they have the superior product because they genuinely care about coffee bean quality and yes, Starbucks coffee is stronger because it roasts its beans longer. The longer the roast the better the quality, this is proven in the coffee industry. And, to Starbucks defense, their prices are higher because they pay the farmer more. If you do a little research you will see that Starbucks pays more per pound to the farmer than do groups like Fair Trade.
“The longer the roast the better the quality”? Not in the slightest. Most of Starbucks’ coffees are badly burnt, and the taste suffers for it. Not that I’m defending Dunkie’s — their coffee was passable before Starbucks was known in this part of the world, but it just doesn’t cut it anymore. And I certainly applaud Starbucks for their push toward better farming and trade practices, but as something of an amateur of coffee, and a sometime home roaster, I assure you, few places over-roast their beans as consistently as Starbucks does; and at any rate not all beans — depending on the variety, region, growing conditions, among other factors — profit by dark roasts. Some are much better at light or medium roasts, and lose their subtle fruit tones if roasted too long.
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Most of which is frightfully off-topic, I’m afraid, but I’ll bring it back closer to the realm of the political by noting that although Fair Trade is better than nothing, and (as you correctly point out) some companies, like Starbucks (and probably, though I haven’t checked on this, Whole Foods, who at least near me also do a fantastic job with their roasts), do better than Fair Trade, buying from a supplier of green beans like Sweet Maria’s and roasting them yourself gets you not only an incomparable cup of coffee at half to two-thirds the price of supermarket bulk beans, but provides an even better deal for the farmers.
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Right, then, off my soapbox.
Gore is toast. So is Kerry. You get one shot to be your party’s nominee, and if you blow it – and both of them blew it big time – you’re done. I’m liking what I’m hearing about Mark Warner. Wes Clark says interesting things. I’m sure there are other good candidates out there.
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As for Starbucks … they overcook their brewed coffee, IMHO (the espresso drinks are fine but outrageously overpriced). Peet’s is so much better.
First, its great to have a real honest to goodness New England snow storm again. After two years of days off and 3 hr delays in DC for an inch of snow or a bit of freezing rain, I’m glad to be back in a state where people have no problem driving up hill in whiteout conditions.
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RE: Gore. My heart says yes, but my head says no. If we want to be the party of a new direction, why put up someone from the past? That being said, the man deserves a place in the next democratic administration.
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As for coffee, it might be parochial of me, but I love Dunks. I know they’re horrible when it comes to health care, and 10 million other things, but having been stuck in the land of starbucks and other boutique places for the past two years, I love being able to watch in, get a black french vanilla and a bagel with cream cheese and walk out.
Well, since we’re on the subject, I’ll shill: A friend of mine works at New Harvest, and I’ve been ordering from there for a couple of years now. It’s cheaper than the über-premium Starbucks stuff, even including shipping, and it’s all organic, fair-trade, totally PC. Oh, and it’s really excellent coffee.
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Hrm… maybe I should ask them to buy a BlogAd…