Vegetarian Nightmare

The New York Times discovers that a "lost" tradition in New York City is alive and well - and living in New Jersey. The "beefsteak" is doing a booming business in northern New Jersey, despite untimely reports of its demise in The Big Apple.

IT was Friday evening at V.F.W. Post 4591 in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., and the scene was a vegetarian’s nightmare.

About 350 men, seated shoulder to shoulder at long tables, were devouring slices of beef tenderloin and washing them down with pitchers of beer. As waiters brought trays of meat, the guests reached over and harvested the pink slices with their bare hands, popping them down the hatch.

Each slice was perched on a round of Italian bread, but most of the men ate only the meat and stacked the bread slices in front of them, tallying their gluttony like poker players amassing chips. Laughter and uproarious conversation were in abundance; subtlety was not.

As anyone in northern New Jersey could tell you, this was a beefsteak. The term refers not to a cut of meat but to a raucous all-you-can-eat-and-drink banquet with a rich history in Bergen and Passaic Counties.

The events, which typically attract crowds of 150 or more, with a ticket price of about $40, are popular as political meet-and-greets, annual dinners for businesses and civic groups, and charity fundraisers. Caterers said they put on about 1,000 of them in the region last year.

“Once you start going to beefsteaks, it’s an addiction,” said Al Baker, a Hasbrouck Heights policeman who had organized the evening’s festivities to benefit the Special Olympics. “You’ve got the tender beef, butter, salt, French fries, beer — all your major food groups. But it’s very unique to North Jersey. I go to other places and nobody’s heard of it.”

What is funny here, as the article's author, Paul Lukas, notes, is that the beefsteak was pronounced to be dying in New York City in 1939. An article in the New Yorker magazine written by Joseph Mitchell bemoaned the passing of the ritual and blamed it on women getting the vote - or something. The food fests had been popular in the city for nearly a century. The torch was passed to New Jersey and nobody noticed. Head over and read the rest, it is entertaining and will give PETA a raging case of the vapors. Consider it a twofer. And pass the tenderloin.

The Silence Of The Bubba

This is interesting and may indicate a real problem. The Swamp reports that Bill Clinton is suddenly, completely and uncharacteristically silent about one subject on the campaign trail.

He is not mentioning Barack Obama. As in, at all.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.—In promoting his wife’s candidacy for more than an hour at a university campus today, former President Bill Clinton touched on a dozen ideas but didn’t mention one subject—the rival candidacy of Barack Obama.

Clinton was in the Metro East area of Illinois acting once again as the surrogate in chief for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign on a visit aimed at drawing support not only for Illinois’ Feb. 5 primary but also for one just across the river in neighboring Missouri on the same “Super Tuesday” date, all the while trying to get free publicity in the St. Louis media market.

Speaking in a crowded auditorium at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, packed largely with college students who awaited entry in the morning cold, the former president didn’t bring up Obama, the first-term Illinois Democrat and favorite son contender, or address the departure of former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina from the Democratic presidential race.

Clinton has come under fire in recent weeks for his sharp oratory in taking on Obama—something that has prompted concern among some leading Democrats and was reportedly a factor in the decision of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to back Obama over his wife, a New York senator and former first lady who also happens to be a Chicago native who grew up in suburban Park Ridge.

Clinton thanked Southern Illinois voters for the support they “gave me way back in 1992 in the Democratic primary, when about 70 percent of the people in this part of your state gave me a chance to go on and serve.” Clinton won 65 percent of the vote outside the Chicago area that year in a contest that included former Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts and former Gov. Jerry Brown of California.

“I’m also very grateful that so many people from Illinois have supported Hillary and stayed with her and recognized her extraordinary service,” the former president said.

Now it may just be that it was an appearance in Illinois - and state voters tend to take a real dim view of outsiders trashing one of their own. But it may be something more than that. The Clintons could well have realized that the building wave of revulsion at their antics is beginning to hurt Hillary - rather badly. With Edwards out of the race, camp Clinton stands to come under heavy fire from the left and the right at the same time. People are not - at all - happy with Clintons in the Democratic party itself at the moment. I wonder what their polling is showing.

My guess is, it is not good news. With Gallup now showing essentially a statistical dead heat, with Clinton still barely ahead, but Obama within the margin of error for the poll, there is a real problem for Clinton.

Life Imitates April Fools Hoax

Last April, I got snagged by what turned out to be an April Fools Day hoax. I linked it on April 5th, the byline stated April 3rd, but it had been originally published - as a joke - on the 1st. Only now, less than a year later, it is no longer a joke. The hoax was that outdoor barbecues had been banned - or rather taxed heavily - out of concern for global warming. But it isn't funny any longer, folks. The EU is debating banning outdoor propane heaters right now.

Patio heaters could be banned by the European Union over fears that they are contributing to global warming. 

Euro-MPs will today vote on energy efficiency proposals to phase out the sale of the popular gas-burning appliances which are increasingly found outside bars, cafés and restaurants since the indoor smoking ban.

Fiona Hall, a Liberal Democrat MEP, has led the calls for the ban, which is expected to be endorsed by the parliament in Brussels.

"Patio heaters are scandalous because they are burning fossil fuels in the open sky, so producing vast quantities of CO2 with very little heat benefit," she said.

But the proposal has been attacked by publicans, who say bars and pubs need the heaters for customers driven outside by smoking bans.

The trade has invested £86.5 million in heaters over the past 12 months and a ban could cost pubs, cafés and restaurants an estimated £250 million a year in lost business.

Oddly enough, one of the members of the UN Convention on Climate Change is saying that Fiona Hall is completely wrong in her quest:

"The overall impact of outdoor heaters on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions is very minimal," said Dr Eric Johnson, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Who's laughing now? While the joke worked because it was believable, now that reality has caught up, what will they do next April?

Jerusalem On Ice

As much as eight inches of snow has blanketed Jerusalem - yes you read that right - and snow has fallen over a wide area in the Middle East. But wait! There's more! Temperatures are expected to drop and more snow is expected.

JERUSALEM - A rare snowstorm swept the Middle East on Wednesday, blanketing parts of the Holy Land in white, shutting schools and sending excited children into the streets for snowball fights.
 
The weather in Jerusalem topped local newscasts, eclipsing a government report on Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon.

Men in long Arab robes pelted each other with snowballs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, came to a standstill.

"I'm originally from Gaza where snow never falls," said Bothaina Smairi, 28, who was out in Ramallah taking photographs. "The white snow is covering the old world and I feel like I am in a new world where everything is white, clean, and beautiful."

Jerusalem's Old City was coated in white. A few ultra-Orthodox Jews, wearing plastic bags over their hats to keep them dry, prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.

Snow falls in Jerusalem once or twice each winter, but temperatures rarely drop low enough for it to stick. The Israeli weather service said up to 8 inches of snow fell in the city.

By late morning, the snow changed to rain, turning the city into a slushy mess. But forecasters said temperatures were expected to drop, and the snow would continue through Thursday morning.

Heavy snow also was reported in the Golan Heights and the northern Israeli town of Safed, and throughout the West Bank.

Many roads are closed in Lebanon and power disruptions are widespread there. Here's the global snow cover from Rutgers. There is a lot of ground covered in white this year. China is particularly hard hit, of course. 

Irreconcilable Differences

The Wall Street Journal reports that Arnold Schwarzenegger's California "Universal Health Care" initiative has died. They are not grieving over the corpse.

So much for that. The California legislature is probably the most liberal this side of Vermont, and even Democrats refused to become shock troops for this latest liberal experiment. Mr. Schwarzenegger and Democrats in the State Assembly did agree on a compromise plan in December. But on Monday, only a single member of the Senate Health Committee voted to report the bill to the full chamber — and thus it joined a graveyard full of state "universal" health-care failures.

Like collapses in Illinois, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, this one crumpled because of the costs, which are always much higher than anticipated. The truth teller was state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who thought to ask about the price tag of a major new entitlement amid what's already a $14.5 billion budget shortfall.

An independent analysis confirmed the plan would be far more expensive than proponents admitted. Even under the most favorable assumptions, spending would outpace revenue by $354 million after two years, and likely $3.9 billion or more. "A situation that I thought was bad," Mr. Perata noted, "in fact was worse."

This reveals that liberal health-care politics is increasingly the art of the impossible: You can't make coverage "universal" while at the same time keeping costs in check — at least without prohibitive tax increases. Lowering cost and increasing access, in other words, are separate and irreconcilable issues.

That is the fact, of course. These schemes have always turned out to be vastly more expensive than originally planned. In the end, when the taxes cannot be raised any further, the inevitable result is rationing of the health care. That is precisely what is happening in Canada and Britain - and I'm quite sure in every other socialized medicine nation. The money has to come from somewhere or the services have to be limited.

The problem is that under socialized medicine, you don't get to choose. Someone else chooses for you.

Oprah Bronzed

Fans of Oprah Winfrey will be somewhat less than pleased with the latest artistic endeavor of sculptor Daniel Edwards. He bronzed Oprah.

She has famously battled with her weight - but according to this tribute to the queen of daytime television, it appears to be a battle lost.

Controversial American sculptor Daniel Edwards latest work 'The Oprah Sarcophagus', is a very full-figured sculpture of Oprah Winfrey - and that's where the likeness begins and ends.

The work casts Miss Winfrey in bronze, as a nude, full-breasted woman with generous child-bearing hips.

However, it bears little likeness to the billionaire media mogul, save for the head of curly hair that fans out around her.

Instead, the artwork shares an uncanny likeness to the coffinette which held the body of Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun.

The Daily Mail has photos of some of Edwards other art projects. But not of his his last venture into bronze work: bronzed baby poop.

Taking A Plug Out Of Crime

Swedish police have announced the details of an attempted bank heist that occurred last August. An alert bank employee noticed that his computer had begun a large transaction - apparently all by itself. On further investigation, the employee discovered a device hidden under his desk and connected to his computer. So he took quick action and pulled the plug, stopping the transaction.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A gang of Swedish criminals was seconds away from completing a digital bank heist when an alert employee literally pulled the plug on their brazen scam, investigators said Wednesday.
 
The would be bank robbers had placed "advanced technical equipment" under the employee's desk that allowed them to take control of his computer remotely, prosecutor Thomas Balter Nordenman said in a statement.

The employee discovered the device shortly after he realized his computer had started an operation to transfer "millions" from the bank into another account, Nordenman said.

"By pulling out the cable to the device, the employee managed to stop the intended transfer at the last second," he said.

Authorities kept news of the attempted crime secret until they had the suspected thieves in custody. Seven people have been arrested. There is no word whether dwarfs were involved, however.

Edwards Drops Out

John Edwards is quitting the race for the Democratic nomination. The AP reports that he will not be endorsing either of the two remaining candidates - at least not right away.  

DENVER - Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.
 
The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two of his advisers. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.

I would expect that this could be trouble for Hillary Clinton. That's making the assumption that Edwards voters won't flock to the "establishment" candidate. Interesting that he is not endorsing anyone right away. One assumes he is angling for some position in government - so whoever offers him the best deal would presumably get his nod. But his supporters might not be willing to go over to Hillary Clinton. This could be interesting.

Here’s Another Hot Tune

A volunteer at a community radio station in Austin, Texas became angry when the playlist he had submitted was changed. So he took direct action:

He set fire to the radio station.

AUSTIN, Texas - A volunteer at a community radio station set fire to the station because he was upset that his song selections for an overnight Internet broadcast were changed, police said.

Paul Webster Feinstein, 24, has been charged with second-degree felony arson for the Jan. 5 fire that caused $300,000 damage to the studios of 91.7 FM KOOP. He faces from two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Feinstein told investigators that he was "very unhappy" about the changes to his playlist, said Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Nye. The songs were intended for an Internet broadcast that occurs when the station is off the air.

"He had a dream of a career in radio and was very disappointed about where it had led him," Nye said.

Probably the most ironic thing about this is that Feinstein's radio program was named "Mellow Down Easy." Well, he'll have a long spell to mellow down in the Texas penal system (I'd bet on him getting the higher end of the sentencing range, frankly).

The Waxwork Candidate

Michael Goodwin points out that things just are not going the way Hillary Clinton had planned. He says that the unraveling of the Clinton plan is at least partly do to with her style.

According to the plan, next week is when she was scheduled to secure the nomination.

Oops, it's not gonna happen. At least not yet.

One month of voting has shattered the plan. She got rid of the Gray Men, but Obama won landslides in two of four contests, Iowa and South Carolina. Nevada was a solid victory for her, but it came after New Hampshire, which she won because she teared up and women rushed to defend her.

South Carolina was the worst. The Clintons used up their entire supply of mud and most of it ended up back on them. Bubba is tarnished as a race-baiter and the bulk of black voters are lost, perhaps forever.

Part of her problem is generational. She's 60, about the same age as the last two Presidents, and iconic images are working against her. After the Iowa loss, the stage around her looked like a wax museum. Madeleine Albright and others from her husband's administration were yesterday's leaders, not tomorrow's.

Her personal style is old-school. Just as Obama was being swallowed by the exuberant crowd after the Kennedy coronation, Clinton was giving a speech to an audience that was kept far away from her by steel barriers. She might as well wear a sign that says, "Look, Don't Touch."

Even the crux of her case, that her experience means she is ready to be President while Obama is not, is under attack. Ted Kennedy went right at it Monday, saying of Obama, "I know he's ready to be President on Day One."

Those unexpected dynamics explain why the Clintons have resorted to tactical battles, such as leaking Kennedy's endorsement before Obama could. She has tried to bring Obama down from the pedestal by nitpicking at his words about Republicans and drawing distinctions about whose health care plan is more extensive. She's willing to be a dream-deflater by saying he's peddling "false hopes" about politics.

That sounds about right. Clinton has violated her pledges on Michigan and Florida because she absolutely will need those delegates to secure the nomination. Although she is polling ahead nationally at the moment, she has lost momentum. In the end, she is likely to prevail - but the cost is going to be very high.