End of the Line

A national seafood restaurant, whose familiar logo sports a giant red bug, is currently offering a 4-course meal for a frugal $15. Among the entrees availble for this price are three shrimp dishes, one chicken-and-shrimp dish, one chicken dish, one shrimp-and-scallops dish, and one dish featuring wood-grilled tilapia.

Go read about tilapia.

Still hungry?

Just in case you didn't do the math that's exactly one fish dish, such as it is, among the seven. The rest are bugs and molluscs. If you want real fish at this restaurant expect to pay way in excess of $20 just for an entree.

The blue-fin tuna is still around but you'll likely never see more than a token amount plated as it's currently worth its weight in silver. They're mostly consumed by affluent Japanese who are literally eating the species into extinction. Ironically, the blue fin tuna used to be considered a trash fish, used mostly for pet food. One man's trash...

Then there's surimi. It's an ages-old Japanese technique of grinding tasteless pollock into a paste and mixing it with sugar, starch, egg whites and artificial flavorings. You might know it as artificial crab or lobster. I call it Soylent Pink. (You can see a video of the manufacturing process here.)

I'm not the first to suggest that we're fishing the oceans dry, but it's happening. Check this horrifying graphic which clearly shows the shrinking of the ocean's biomass over the past one-hundred years. What used to be massive shoals of fish in the open water are now slender populations hugging the coastlines.

If you're a Netflix user there's a terrific documentary on the subject of calamitous overfishing called The End of the Line featuring, among others, the nice lady (Greta Scacchi) grappling the with cod in the image above. It's also available on DVD at Amazon.

=Lefty=

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"We're going to have a relentless focus on creating jobs." - John Boehner, February 10, 2011.

The following is a list of accomplishments of the GOP, in chronological order as of 2-10-2011. So far none have resulted in one new job being created in America.

(1) Attempted curtailing of abortion rights.
(2) Attempted defunding of Planned Parenthood.
(3) Attempted defunding of NPR.
(4) Investigating Muslims.
(5) Declaring English as America's Official Language.
(6) Reaffirming "In God We Trust". Yawn.
(7) Challenging AARP's tax-exempt status.
(8) Approved defunct funding for failed religious schools.
(9) Attempt to destroy Medicaid.
(10) Attempt to destroy Planned Parenthood
(11) Shutting down the government
(12) Attempt to destroy the EPA.
(13) Attempting to eliminate financial counseling.
(14) Passed a House budget that gives $4 trillion in tax cuts to the rich.
(15) Spend $500,000 to discriminate against gays.
(16) Continued toadying for the rich.
(17) Pretending the deficit is to blame for slow job growth.
(18) De-funded SETI. (ARGH!!!!!!!)
(19) Tried to kill Chrysler two years ago... which is now going to pay back all its government loans.
(20) The Judicial Branch of the GOP, the Supreme Court, votes 5-4 to deny consumer class-action suits.
(21) Redefining rape. Yes, redefining rape.
(22) Pushing for spending caps tied to GDP. Bad idea.
(23) Claimed credit for dropping oil prices because they passed a bill.
(24) Refuse to reduce oil subsidies.
(25) Stood helplessly and watched as Senator John Ensign made Bill Clinton look like a Carmelite nun.
(26) Attempt to retool Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare-killing bill.
(27) Prevented the raising of the federal debt limit. Let the catastrophic job loss begin.
(28) Watches Rome burn with their Wall Street pals.
(29) Filibustered bill to repeal oil subsidies.
(30) Rejected Goodwin Liu for judge simply because Mr. Obama nominated him.
(31) Abortion. Abortion. Abortion. As in "restrictions".
(32) Spent five hours debating NPR, five minutes debating Afghanistan.
(33) GOP releases their jobs plan. Hilarity ensues.
(34) Continue to hold the debt limit hostage in order to make more money for billionaires.
(35) Brought to the House floor a bill specifically blaming President Obama's 2012 budget for raising the statutory debt limit by $2.4 trillion dollars, a budget the Republican-led Congress earlier passed.
(36) Pulled from the floor a Democratic resolution to remove soldiers from Libya, because it just might have passed.

Nope. No job creation here. Seriously. Not a fucking employment sausage. Move along. Move along.

I'll keep adding to this list until the Republican House does something to create jobs. I unhappily predict this is gonna be one lonnnnng list. After all, you don't get rid of a sitting president by helping the economy.

BTw, this list is getting damned lengthy, so much so that I'm going to give it its own page, if not its own web site, quite soon. Stay tuned.

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And what manner of lie is Fox News spewing today? Continues to fearmonger misinformation about health care.

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