American Madness

We have a new writer today who we are testing out,. We’ve got his first piece here for all to see, don’t be afraid to write in and tell us what you think, but just know these were the terms we set out for new writers:

We let them write a few posts and if we like them we let them continue writing. If we don’t like them we kill them.

We like to let them know right off the bat that the stakes are high, so you might want not want to be too critical of him on his first start out the gate. With out further ado, Scott McCue’s first try for AM:

In Orange County Florida, it seems that reality has slipped into a wormhole and is now lost to the ages.

This billboard has been put up by a Florida-area conservative group. Let me give you a moment to fully internalize the stupid that is this blatant display of wrongness. Read the rest of this entry »

It never seems to end in China. Just a few days ago the government arrested another blogger who stood for human rights.

As Jake Hooker reported in the NYTimes:

A human rights activist who was an advocate for parents whose children were killed in collapsed schools, Huang Qi, was formally arrested on charges of illegally possessing state secrets, his lawyer said. Mr. Huang previously spent five years in prison for posting articles on politically delicate subjects on his Web site, 64tianwang.com. After the May 12 earthquake hit, Mr. Huang met with mourning parents and, on his site, posted articles about structural problems with the schools that had collapsed. Police officers detained him in Chengdu on June 10.

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Since I stated in the last post that you can’t find too many drinks with tarragon I figured I would get this up before any nay-sayers beat me to the punch. These tarragon recipes come by way of the Seattle Times:

French Peach Fizz

1 ½ ounces peach vodka
½ ounce simple syrup
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 large sprig fresh tarragon
2 ounces Champagne
Garnish: tiny sprig fresh tarragon or peach slice

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add peach vodka, simple syrup and lemon juice. Tear and drop in the tarragon. Shake until very cold, at least 10 times. Strain the drink into a large martini glass and top with Champagne. Garnish with tarragon or peach.

First sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, I was feeling lousy and just didn’t have it in me. To make up for it, we’ll have 3 Herbal Remedies today. How’s that for you?

Second, it seems that so many of my recipes for herbal drinks call for basil. I thought there was more diversity in the herb selection, but apparently finding drinks that have tarragon in them is harder then you’d think.

So for today’s Basil cocktails we are taking a cue from ApartmentTherapy: The Kitchn, earlier this summer they reported that on a trip they took to Sonoma they kept noticing basil sneaking into cocktail menus. They felt it was a nice change from the mint we’ve all been drowning in as we slurp down mojitos.

They posted 3 different Basil Recipes… Read the rest of this entry »

Today Starbucks has officially issued a list of the 600 stores it will close in the coming months. Nationally, the state with the most Starbucks to close is California with 88, followed by Florida with 59, Texas with 57 and New York with 39.

A quick look at the list of stores reveals that only 5 New York City locations will be shuttered. In fact, I’m seeing new Starbucks being built in the vicinity of my work at 27th and 7th Avenue. In this area there is literally 1 Starbucks every 2 blocks. New York Baristas and those concerned about their morning coffee fix have little to fear. What the rest of the US will do is anybody’s guess.

Here is a breakdown of closures by state (after the jump).
Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last few days the Barack Obama Campaign website deleted text that stressed Obama’s opposition to the 2007 troop surge and his statement that more troops would make no difference in a civil war have somehow disappeared.

How did this revelation come to light? The New York Daily News seems to have been the first to pick up on the change. However, the more interesting back story is that the McCain campaign has started tracking changes on the Obama site with a version tracking tool called Versionista and then reporting findings such as the revelation about the changes to the Obama campaign’s War in Iraq page.

Let’s face it, Obama was wrong about the effect of the troop surge and he is wrong about the speed with which we can withdraw troops and still maintain stability in a country, which is the third largest producer of oil in the world.

If you think oil prices are high now, just wait until Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Al Qaeda, the Madi Army, etc. begin fighting to fill the power vacuum left by a hasty US exit.

Whatever you think about the Iraq war, it is simply a fight we can not afford to lose, and 16 months from the beginning of the next presidency is not enough time to get out of Dodge. We have an unimaginably huge national interest in keeping the oil in Iraq under the control of a stable, democratic, and at least semi pro-western government.

Not ours, we are pretty happy with AmericanMadness.

No you get a chance to name Russ & Daughters‘ New Blog, that’s right, Russ & Daughters is starting up a blog and they are looking to the internet to get some names for it. You have until July 31st to email them with your suggestion and if it is picked you will win a $100 gift certificate to the store (I will refrain from the “that’s a lot of…” lines)

For more information I’ve posted the announcement below. Besides a name they are also looking for your stories about Russ & Daughters. If you win (especially after reading this post) I hope you pick something up for me, I hear the Super Heeb is quite good.

Read the rest of this entry »