Body butter and homemade lip balm

Ok, now that we’ve got all these lovely oils and butters we can make our first *real* recipe! Or recipes, we’ve got 2 ½ of them (you’ll see what I mean by the half). But first, we have to get our first non-regulation item: beeswax. This is the first thing you’ll probably have to get online, but don’t worry, I have links over to the right there with a place to go to: From Nature With Love. They sell everything. In fact, they sell so many things your biggest danger will be that you’re going to spend hours and hours perusing the site and all their wonderful goodies – one of the great things about FNWL is that they provide detailed descriptions of all their items and what their good for and stuff like that. They also have a section of recipes and a blog so check them out!

Now that you have your beeswax here are your 2 ½ recipes:

Lip Balm

1 part oil
1 part butter
2 parts beeswax

Again, pick oils and butters with properties you like. Or, you can do what I do and use coconut oil and cocoa butter because it smells *so damn good*!!! Another oil I like using, especially when the weather’s cold, is olive oil for it’s moisturizing effects. For more specific measurements:

2 teaspoons beeswax
1 teaspoon cocoa butter
1 teaspoon coconut oil
3 drops essential oil (peppermint is nice, but I love vanilla for this)

Put everything in a double boiler (a.k.a. a pyrex measuring cup immersed in a pot of boiling water) and melt it all together. When it’s all melted pour it into a tin or other small container. You can get these at FNWL, too. Use whatever you like – they have little rectangular tins with sliding tops or even lip balm tubes.

Body Butter

1 part beeswax
1 part oil
2 parts butter

For measurements:
½ cup beeswax
½ cup coconut oil (I’m going to stick with my favorites, but choose whatever you like)
1 cup cocoa butter
20 drops of essential oil (optional – some possibilities are ylang, rose, sandalwood or, my favorite, vanilla. But with the coconut and cocoa butter you really don’t need any EO’s. Really.) Pour this into a container – a tupperware works fine, or you can get something fancy-shmancy from FNWL.

Lotion Bar:

This is just the above body bar recipe poured into a mold (soap molds work fine, or you can be like me and use your ice cube tray or random Tupperware containers.) To use just rub it around like you would a bar of soap. Just don’t wash them off. This is a unique way to use lotion - wrap them up with some nice paper and a ribbon for a classy, homeade gift.

There you go. Still super easy, fun and you can customize scents or oils to your hearts content. They make really nice gifts, too, which is perfect for the holidays!

"As You Desire" by Connie Brockway

A charming scoundrel with a dark and painful past

Desdemona "Dizzy" Carlisle, a language prodigy who can read (but not speak) 12 languages (including just about every dead language) lives in Cairo with her grandfather and an assorted, slightly off kilter antiquities-mad expatriate community in Cairo. Her best friend, and often worst enemy, is the brilliant, charming, unscrupulous Harry Braxton, antiquities dealer and all around scoundrel extraordinaire. What she doesn't realize is that he hides a heart that beats with true love for her, a love he hides because of a deep, dark secret and a painful past, one which has caught up with him and Dizzy. But in a funny way, because this is a Brockway comedy. Will he be able to screw up the nerve to onfess his love for her? And when is he going to do this, with the two of them constantly being kidnapped and his disgustingly romantic cousin visitng from the Old Country, seducing her with visions of constipated looking heroes and crumbling English manors?

I forgot just how good this book is - Brockway is one of the best writers out there and unusual in her ability to do both light comedy and dark, angsty romance with equal skill. "As You Desire" is the former, although it has an emotional depth that's rare in just about any genre. It also has one of my favorite heroes - Harry Braxton, who comes across at first as a brilliant and charming if unscrupulous scallawag. Then you get to know him and the deep, dark secret that scarred him and stands in the way of his love for Dizzy... but has also made him the man he is. Harry is tortured without being angsty, a real hero who's overcome a difficult and painful past and become a generous man who lives with joy. However, a large part of his joy comes from his love for Dizzy and the big question in the book is: Can he be brave enough to trust her with his secret? And will she reject him (of course not, dummy!) Nobody in the book succumbs to a sudden lowering of IQ when the dreaded "big misunderstanding" arrives on the scene - instead, there's a real problem with real people trying to overcome their insecurities in that most dangerous of times - when you're in love. This is one of the most satisfying books I've ever read of any genre: excellent writing and sparkling dialogue; laugh out loud humor; 3 dimensional, sympathetic characters (including some fabulous secondary characters, and a lovely little secondary romance). And, it does what the very best romances (and fiction) does: take us on a journey of heartfelt emotion and personal growth.

Conclusion: Recommended for anyone - honestly, who doesn't love a scallawag? I'd even recommend this to people who say they don't like romances. In fact, I'd recommend just about any Connie Brockway book.

"Firestarter" by Stephen King

A short, tight, and truly horrific tale told by a master

Andy McGee and little 8 year old Charlie are on the run from evil government agency, The Shop. While still in college, he and his wife were the subject of a secret government test in which he could have sworn several people died but they just disappeared, as if they'd never existed. Now, years later, the two of them have developed strange abilities but that's nothing compared to their little girl who starts fires when she gets upset. For all this time they've managed to hide their new abilities from the agents who are still watching them but when Charlie goes to a friends house to spend the night, the agents panic and, after torturing her, kill Charlie's mother, setting off a chain of events that leads to Andy and Charlie desperate and on the run. The net is closing in, but the government may not be the worst of their dangers, because Charlie's talent is growing exponentially, and it's hungry...

One of the things I love about King is, being a child of the 60's, he has the right attitude toward various things from race issues to the government. The only place he falls down is in his attitude towards fat people but the understanding that people aren't fat because they're lazy slobs who eat too much isn't exactly common even now, after all the new studies and the burgeoning size acceptance movement, so I can forgive him that especially since his attitude is so good in so many other areas. Various governments, the US being prominent among them, have perpetrated some truly notorious acts on the unsuspecting populace, like the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment or the CIA testing of LSD on clients of prostitutes. Of course, pyrokinesis is science fiction, like the aliens of X-Files, but the fact that the government is pretty effing shady is science fact.

Firestarter reads more like a short story than one of King's typical epics. This isn't a bad thing - King is great at the short, sweet (or bitter) nugget and this is a pitch perfect example. Like all his stories, his plotting is riveting; characters have depth, many of them you truly care for and wish you could meet; his writing is sharp, with the occasional stunningly poetic imagagery. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is, despite the story's perfection, I felt a distance from it. Maybe it was the unrelieved horror of Andy and Charlie's experience - from the very beginning all the way up until the ambiguous ending their story is one of unrelenting terror, pain, betrayal (both of self and by others) and sheer exhaustion. Because of the story, and because you truly like Andy and Charlie, you feel compelled to find out what happened but it felt like the exercise in endurance it was for them.

Conclusion: Highly recommended, but only for those not faint of heart.

I hate to say "I told you so" but

I told you so

From Jeremy Scahill This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House:

"What happened to all this talk about change?" a member of the Clinton foreign policy team recently asked the Washington Post. "This isn't lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all the time."

Amid the euphoria over Obama's election and the end of the Bush era, it is critical to recall what 1990s U.S. foreign policy actually looked like. Bill Clinton's boiled down to a one-two punch from the hidden hand of the free market, backed up by the iron fist of U.S. militarism. Clinton took office and almost immediately bombed Iraq ostensibly in retaliation for an alleged plot by Saddam Hussein to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush). He presided over a ruthless regime of economic sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and under the guise of the so-called No-Fly Zones in northern and southern Iraq, authorized the longest sustained U.S. bombing campaign since Vietnam.

Under Clinton, Yugoslavia was bombed and dismantled as part of what Noam Chomsky described as the "New Military Humanism." Sudan and Afghanistan were attacked, Haiti was destabilized and "free trade" deals like the North America Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade radically escalated the spread of corporate-dominated globalization that hurt U.S. workers and devastated developing countries. Clinton accelerated the militarization of the so-called War on Drugs in Central and Latin America and supported privatization of U.S. military operations, giving lucrative contracts to Halliburton and other war contractors. Meanwhile, U.S. weapons sales to countries like Turkey and Indonesia aided genocidal campaigns against the Kurds and the East Timorese.

The prospect of Obama's foreign policy being, at least in part, an extension of the Clinton Doctrine is real. Even more disturbing, several of the individuals at the center of Obama's transition and emerging foreign policy teams were top players in creating and implementing foreign policies that would pave the way for projects eventually carried out under the Bush/Cheney administration. With their assistance, Obama has already charted out several hawkish stances. Among them:

-- His plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan;

-- An Iraq plan that could turn into a downsized and rebranded occupation that keeps U.S. forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future;

-- His labeling of Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist organization;"

-- His pledge to use unilateral force inside of Pakistan to defend U.S. interests;

-- His position, presented before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that Jerusalem "must remain undivided" -- a remark that infuriated Palestinian officials and which he later attempted to reframe;

-- His plan to continue the War on Drugs, a backdoor U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in Central and Latin America;

-- His refusal to "rule out" using Blackwater and other armed private forces in U.S. war zones, despite previously introducing legislation to regulate these companies and bring them under U.S. law.

(http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/20-6)

Then he goes on to give backgrounds on people like Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel and the other hawks.

Told you so

"Dragonshadow" by Barbara Hambly

A great character driven fantasy continues

John Aversin, Thane of the beleaguered abandoned backwater Alyn Hold, and his lady, dragon wizard Jenny Waynest, returned from their adventures in "Dragonsbane" to live happily ever after, or so both readers and characters hoped. But life has no happy endings, especially in the harsh Winterlands. Aversin has spent his whole life protecting the people of this land. He risked his life for his king and brought back books and soldiers from the southern capital. Now the newly filled garrisons are under seige by a huge bandit army, an army with a mage. And if that wasn't enough another dragon has appeared - even if it doesn't kill his people, they'll starve to death if he doesn't stop it's predations on their flocks.

And things are going to get even worse. After a thousands years of (relative) peace, demons have found a way back to the land of men. They're coming after mages... starting with John and Jenny's young mageborn son!

See the review for "Dragonsbane" for the review - it's the same for the entire Winterlands series.

Be sure to start read the books in order:
1. Dragonsbane (ISBN: 9780345349392)
2. Dragonshadow (ISBN: 9780345421883)
3. Knight of the Demon Queen (ISBN: 9780345421906)
4. Dragonstar (ISBN: 9780345441713)

"Dragonsbane" by Barbara Hanmbly

The first book of one of the best character driven fantasy series ever written

Well, here it is: the book that started everything! Or at least one of the best fantasy series ever! This was the first Barbara Hambly book I ever read, waaay back when, that got me hooked on this fabulous writer. It's the tale of a pair of unconventional lovers in a sort of Dark Ages land: John Aversin - the only living Dragonsbane, and the quirky, bespectacled Thane of Alyn Hold - and his lover; Jenny Waynest, the cool, distant Witch of Frost Fell. When the king's son comes to the backwater Winterlands, begging decidedly un-heroic Aversin to slay the black dragon, John agrees. The last (and only) dragon he killed almost killed him, but he hopes that this will be a way to convince the king to send the troops his land so desperately needs. Unfortunately, between the patronizing, pettily obnoxious aristocrats of the king's court; a racist populace in uproar over the dragon displaced gnomes and an evil hidden mage, he and Jenny find that the dragon is the least of their worries!

Hambly, a historian, does an amazing job of illustrating what it's like to live in a land with no law, especially one so dangerous and unforgiving that merely surviving is difficult, and far too often impossible. What does it mean to live in an abandoned land? Years ago, the king of the southern capital withdrew his troops and never sent them back. Not only does this mean that protection from raiders and bandits is left to local chieftains like John, it means knowledge itself is lost. Lack of security and the hardscrabble struggle for simple survival means books get used for kindling, papering walls and toilet paper. People's lives become smaller and more circumscribed as trade and travel diminishes. The world shrinks and becomes cruder and more brutal. John, not only a leader and the representative of law but a scholar who mourns the disappearance of knowledge, is willing to risk his life in a desperate gamble to stop the slow dissolution of civilization.

[Note: This review is the same for all 4 books of the Winterlands series.]

Aahhh... This is what I mean by a good Hambly book! No! A great Hambly book! This is probably my favorite Hambly series, and one of my favorite series of all time. What makes Barbara Hambly books so wonderful is that not only are her stories nail biting-ly thrilling but you come to love the characters. I'd compare her to Stephen King - they both write exciting stories that have you snapping when they (dare!) try to interrupt, and they both write emotional, three dimensional characters, often outsiders, you truly come to care for. And like all great character driven stories, they change and grow and learn. When you close the last page, you feel like you've completed an epic journey, one where your inner journey is at least as important as the outer. Even the dragon grows!

Like all the great stories it's a hard, often heart-rending journey, but one told with some beautiful prose. I can't say much more without spoiling the story - you'll just have to read it yourself.

Be sure to start read the books in order:
1. Dragonsbane (ISBN: 9780345349392)
2. Dragonshadow (ISBN: 9780345421883)
3. Knight of the Demon Queen (ISBN: 9780345421906)
4. Dragonstar (ISBN: 9780345441713)

Further journeys into our local health food store

One of the things that’s so great about natural body care is the sheer volume of skin and health loving ingredients you can replace those nasty, chemical filled stews with… and many of them are waiting for you in your health food store! Today we’re going to the salad dressing aisle: EVOO is great but let’s see what else we’ve got here. Again, many of these are available from better supermarkets, drugstores, or places like GNC. Or for those of us lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's nearby, you can find most of these there, too.

Almond Oil: An emollient oil rich in vitamins and minerals, good for softening the skin and skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis and other dry, itchy, inflamed skin conditions. Useful for burns and thread veins. A lubricating oil, which makes it work well as a massage oil or as a baby oil for the diaper area, but it goes rancid very quickly so you need to use antioxidants, like vitamin E or mix it with stable oils.

Coconut oil: This is probably the first thing I’d recommend adding to your natural body care regime after ACV and Dr. Bronner’s. Unless it was jojoba oil, but we’ll talk about that later. Besides, coconut oil is cheaper than jojoba… and it smells great!

Coconut oil is good for dry, itchy, sensitive skin. It light and doesn’t clog pores – it absorbs quickly into skin, making it good for oily skin types. It resists rancidity and lasts almost forever which makes it a great addition to oils like almond oil which have health benefits (and, in the case of almond oil, are super cheap) but oxidize (i.e. go rancid) quickly. I often use it straight as I come out of the shower and leave the bathroom smelling like a Girl Scout Samoa cookie.

Flax Seed Oil: Flax seed oil is commonly used by the health conscious because it’s a great source of omega-3 oils. Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid – human’s can’t produce this fatty acid ourselves so it’s essential that we get it from an external source. The fact that we absorb what we put on our skin works to our advantage in this case, but you should be sure to take something like flax seed supplement, or fish oil, or eat walnuts (another good oil for skin care), too.

Flax seed oil is nourishing, anti-aging and helps with skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis and rosacea. It’s a very fragile oil and oxidizes rapidly – buy small amounts, keep it in the fridge and use anti-oxidants, otherwise you’ll be aging your skin by slathering free radicals all over it. Not what you want to do. I’d recommend using it in small amounts in a more stable oil, like coconut or jojoba. Besides, the stuff is to thick and smelly to put on your skin straight! But in small amounts it’s a good, nourishing addition.

Grapeseed Oil: Grapeseed oil is a light, astringent, penetrating oil that’s full of vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, linoleic acid and other essential fatty acids. It’s good for dry, damaged or aging skin but is light and non-greasy so it’s also good for problem skin that tends towards acne.

Hazelnut Oil: Another light, penetrating oil that’s slightly astringent (and hence good for oil/problem skin.) It’s high in essential fatty acids and soothing and healing for dry, irritated skin. It tones skin and encourages cell regeneration and circulation. It also protects against UV radiation.

Hemp Seed Oil: Hemp seed oil heals skin lesions, dry skin, inflammation and other skin damage. Use hemp seed in low concentration – like flax seed, this is a thick oil with a strong smell.

Jojoba Oil: Jojoba oil is a great, all around oil to use for almost all skin types. It’s a healing, nourishing oil that has antioxidant properties and is good for inflamed skin, psoriasis, eczema or any sort of dermatitis. It’s also good for oily, problem/acne skin since it helps control excess sebum.

Macadamia Nut Oil: A stable oil high in antioxidants. Good for all skin types but particularly good for dry/mature skin because of it’s high palmitoleic acid content – palmitoleic acid, like human sebum, protects the skin. Like squalane, palmitoleic acid is found in human sebum when you’re young but levels drops as you age. In France they use macadamia nut oil on sunburns. It penetrates and hydrates quickly, tones aged or dry skin, is softening and healing.

Pecan Oil: a light yet rich, nourishing oil. It’s a moisturizing oil for mature and/or dry skin.

Walnut Oil: Walnut oil is high in linoleic acid and helps to regenerate, tone and moisturize damaged or dry skin. It’s good for wrinkles and skin problems like eczema, and helps heal dry, damaged or sunburned skin. It should be used in 10 – 15% concentrations in anti-aging and skin toning lotions.

List of problems and oils:

Dry skin: almond, coconut, grapeseed, hazelnut, macadamia, pecan, walnut

Oily skin: coconut, grapeseed, hazelnut, macadamia

Sensitive skin: coconut

Damaged/mature skin: flax seed, grapeseed, hazelnut, hemp, macadamia, pecan, walnut

Irritated skin/eczema/psoriasis: almond, coconut, flax seed, hazelnut, hemp, jojoba, walnut

Acne: grapeseed, hazelnut, jojoba

Sun protection: coconut (resists rancidity), grapeseed (antioxidant), hazelnut (especially good - they've done studies), jojoba (resists rancidity), macadamia (antioxidant)

Many of these items will be with the salad oils but some of them are scattered around the store in other places – for example hemp and flax seed is usually in the supplement section. And not all stores have all everything I’ve listed here but that’s ok, you’ll find plenty to keep you occupied.

To use: mix a blend of the oils of your choice and use in place of lotion. Pick oils that are appropriate for you own skin – oils like macadamia nut or hazelnut for oil/problem skin, walnut, EVOO or almond oil for dry, damaged skin. After showering rub it into wet skin and pat dry, and keep a bottle with you – when your hands get dry rub a few drops into your skin. This is very concentrated so you don’t need much.

But most especially… Try some good, all natural, cold-pressed coconut oil for a quick trip to the tropics. Ahhhhh…

The doctor is in the house

Our basic repertoire of baking soda, ACV and EVOO is fine but personally, I think we should add a couple of items to our list. We don’t have to go far, just our local health food store! You can even find some of these items in your drugstore (if it’s a really good one, like my little Russian drugstore on the corner that stocks health food and herbs and such) or your supermarket, again if it’s really good, and there are really good places all over!

The main reason why I’d recommend making a trip to your local health food store is because as good as baking soda is as a shampoo (I use nothing else), let’s face it, there are parts of your body that don’t have enough oil to use it effectively. And they're our stinkiest bits, of course so the first item on the list is:

Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap: It’s all natural! It’s SLS free! It’s paraben free! It comes in many flavors! It’s easy to use! If you get the Baby Mild (i.e. unscented) version you can add your own EO (essential oil) blends for their health benefits or simply because you like the smell. But first, why is commercial soap bad? And what in tarnashun is SLS???

SLS
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is a cheap, harsh detergent used in garages to clean oil off the floor. Cosmetics companies love it because it’s cheap and it foams like the dickens, which makes consumers happy because we tend to equate foam with effectiveness. It’s very alkaline (which we don’t want our skin to be, remember?) It strips the skin of protective oils and is very harsh and drying. It’s irritating – it actually corrodes the skin (!) For this reason scientists to create an allergic reaction for their studies. Some effects of SLS:

Skin irritation / skin corrosion
Hormone Imbalance
Eye irritation / eye deformities in children
Protein Denaturing
Carcenogenicity (potential to cause cancer)

It’s protein denaturing. This means that the proteins of which your cells are largely made up are damaged. Besides aging the skin this can lead to skin cancer.

Parabens
What are parabens? Parabens are presevatives. They are also toxic and, like SLS, can speed up the aging process of the skin. Studies have shown that they react with UV rays in particular to speed up aging of the skin. They contribute to the formation of wrinkles, age spots and skin tone by killing off skin cells.

And besides SLS and parabens commercial soaps contain all those wonderful carcinogens and mutagens mentioned in the previous post. Bad soap! Lucky for us we have Dr. Bronner, who makes it easy for us to be sweet smelling without giving ourselves skin cancer or contact dermatitis or, worse, wrinkles (*gasp*)! And with scents ranging from almond to lavender to the ever popular peppermint who needs their stinkin’ SLS! So what if Dr. Bronner's doesn’t foam as much as commercial soaps! He beats ‘em hands down… and provides hours of hilarious bathroom reading to boot!

More deep thoughts

... of a non political nature.

So I'm rewatching the Resident Evil trilogy for the umpteenth time with my roomate who's watching it for the first time and we get to one of those expositionary bits where they explain what zombies are and the expositioner is going, like, "The T-Virus reanimates the dead bodies, but with only the most basic of needs." [dramatic pause] "The NEED TO FEED!" DUN, DUN, DUN , DUUUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!

...

Am I the only person who goes "WTF! Why does the need to feed automatically mean 'feed of living human flesh'?" Srsly! When I've alive and feel the need to feed I don't automatically feel the urge to chomp on the nearest homo sapiens. Why would I suddenly want to do so when I'm dead? If I ever became a zombie and was left with only the most basic of needs, to feed, I'd be going:

"Uhhhnnnnn! NAAA-choooooozzzzz!" And you probably would too.

Deep thoughts on Obama

Or maybe shallow ones, I don't know.

Obama's like chicken. Or maybe tofu. He takes on whatever flavor you marinate him in, especially for progressives. Last Tuesday it was like the return of Jesus Christ here in the Big Apple - people crying, hugging each other, being nice to complete strangers. And if you know New York, you know that's just freaky and bizarre.

So what's the deal? He's not a crazy, right wing religious wingnut like Bush (who thinks that voice in his head is god), but he's been painfully clear that he believes in traditional marriage. He's morally opposed to abortion. Yes, he's talked about pulling troops out of Iraq (in the most vague way possible, which is something even Bush did)... but that's so's he could send 'em all to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And maybe toss a few over to Iran too, along with some nukes. And as far as the oppression of black people goes, his response to the cold blooded murder of an innocent man by the cops is... "Oh well. That sucks... But we have to obey the law. Yep, even the ones the ones that justify the brutalization and unprovoked murder of innocent civilians by the police."

In short, on every issue important to progressives – from women’s reproductive rights and the rights of gay people to be treated like human beings, to the oppression of black people and ending the war for empire, Obama has outright said he’s going to do the complete opposite of what they hope he’ll do. They’re like women who stay with abusive husbands – Bush and the Neo-Cons have been so horrible, and the hopes of progressived so lowered, that just having a president who isn’t a right wing fascist nut job is cause for partying like it’s 1999. Oops, sorry, I’m mixing up another mixed race black man with Obama.

Last year, gay conservative (that phrase makes me want to spew almost as much as “black conservative”) Andrew Sullivan wrote an article in The Atlantic on the conservative take on why Obama’d make a good president. Not because he’d support gay rights, or any other progressive position for that matter... but because he’d hamstring resistance, both here and abroad, to the US’s imperialist program:

"At its best, the Obama candidacy is about ending a war—not so much the war in Iraq, which now has a momentum that will propel the occupation into the next decade—but the war within America that has prevailed since Vietnam and that shows dangerous signs of intensifying, a nonviolent civil war that has crippled America at the very time the world needs it most. It is a war about war—and about culture and about religion and about race. And in that war, Obama—and Obama alone—offers the possibility of a truce...

"What does he offer? First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effective potential re-branding of the United States since Reagan….

"Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama

And boy, howdy, has this worked. How many times have I heard – even from black writers! – that now no black kid has an excuse for “failing.” OMGWTFBBQ??!!!! Because a black man was elected to office (fucking finally!) racism and all it’s underlying causes disappear? Or is this supposed to be a sign that they’ve disappeared? This means that black kids aren’t getting inferior educations anymore, or resumes with black sounding names suddenly won’t be rejected over those with white sounding names and records of felonies, or that overwhelmingly black and latino people aren’t being gunned down and the racist cop perpetrators getting away with it? All this has suddenly stopped?

Or maybe it’s that the powers-that-be agree with Sullivan and have realized that this is a great way to have people pointing the fingers at themselves when shit happens to black people. And progressives get to make all sorts of excuses for the man when he doesn’t do what they expect him to do but he's never said he's going to do.

There are gay republicans. Yes there are. People like Andrew Sullivan who support the fuckers who want to see them all dead! Or at the very least treated like inhuman carriers of disease. Just like the Nazi’s did with Jewish people (and gay people, let's not forget). Those who abandoned morality and justice and betrayed their own people so they could could get a little more. There are gay republicans, black republicans, female republicans. People like Sarah Palin who oppose women’s reproductive rights while they hypocritically benefit from the advances paid for by feminists of the past so they can join with those who would drive us back into the kitchens, barefoot and pregnant.

There’s also Barack Obama. Who might turn out to be the worst thing that’s happened to progressives who will feel they have to support him as he carries out Bush’s Neo-Con program, but more successfully than Bush ever could have because of his fucking face.

Super basic all natural body care: The recipes.

This isn't even a gorilla, but it would be awesome if it was!

So, here you go. Actual recipes.

Shampoo and face/body wash: Mix 2 tablespoons of baking soda in 1 cup warm water for hair and body. Pour one half the mixture on your head, making sure to soak it all the way down to your scalp, and splash the second half on your body. Rinse it all off - first the baking soda wash will feel slippery, the way your fingers feel when you get bleach on them. The baking soda, a mild base (unlike the bleach which is a really strong base and not something you really want on your skin), reacts with oil already on your skin to create soap through the process of saponification. Make a paste with one more tablespoon and rub the paste into your stinky bits. Rinse that off and follow with:

Hair rinse/conditioner: ACV smooths and closes up the hair cuticle leaving hair soft and shiny. If you don’t strip your hair with harsh detergents and chemical processes you shouldn’t need anything more intensive than that. A solution of ¼ ACV, or whatever amount works for you, in water. If you have serious skin problems like eczema or (like me) seborrheic dermatitic go up to ½ ACV, if you don’t put in less. You can play with the amounts until you’re using the minimum amount of ACV necessary to keep your hair shiny (and your scalp healthy!) Keep in the fridge when not in use. You can rinse it out or leave it in as a sort of "leave in conditioner" - I leave it in. It stinks but the smell goes away when your hair dries and it's much more effective that way, especially if you have skin problems like drandruff.

Moisturizer: After washing apply a light application of olive oil to still wet skin and pat dry. Optional: You can precede that with a body splash of a tablespoon of ACV in a 2 cups water – it restores the acid mantle to the skin (remember the acid mantle?) It also helps your skin absorb any moisturizers.

Deodorant: A solution of ½ water ½ ACV works to keep the stink away for most of us modern sedentary folk. ACV has antibacterial properties but you might have to reapply it.

Tadaa! Now go thee and unstink yourself, whilst they skin absorbeth the hellaciously good benefits of EVOO and ACV! It'll thank you.

You can’t get more basic than this

Even Koko could do it.

Actually, Koko knows sign language, something which is beyond me, so don't use Koko as a measure of how easy or difficult this is. Especially coming from someone who's not only posted a picture of a gorilla that's not Koko, it's not even a girl gorilla! Hello Mr. Silverback! But he's got a great, grumpy expression so I'm going to use it anyway. Maybe that's Koko chillin' by the trees. She's relaxed because she's not worried about her skin care products any more.

So here you go: A super basic body care routine made up of stuff that’s either already in your home or you can get from your local supermarket. But you’ll probably already have everything.

Ready?

Here we go:

- Olive oil (cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil or EVOO)
- Apple cider vinegar (unpasterized – ACV for short)
- Baking soda

That’s it! No, really, this is all you’ll need to get far superior body care products that’ll not only not give you cancer or birth defects but is actually good for you! Here’s why:

EVOO: Olive oil is a healing oil that helps restore and keep skin health and beauty. It replaces the moisture and elasticity. It’s full of antioxidants. It’s great for dry skin and many skin conditions, like psoriasis and eczema and even plain old dandruff. It also contains squalane. Squalane is naturally present in the skin but your body’s production slows peaks at about 25 and drops of quickly from there. This can lead to rough, dry, aging skin. Squalane helps with all sorts of skin conditions, restores moisture and elasticity, especially to aging skin.

ACV: Apple cider vinegar’s a golden concentrate full of the healthy goodness of apples - it contains more than 30 important nutrients, 12 minerals, over 6 vitamins, essential acids and several enzymes. It helps to maintain healthy skin and hair by restoring a healthy pH level. It soothes sunburn, cleanses and disinfects wounds, helps to heal bruises, helps with itchy scalp, dandruff and hair loss and soothes aches and pains. Used in bath water or in a clay facial or body wrap it can help soothe itchy, irritated skin and even dissolve excess fatty deposits near the surface of the skin(!) The stuff is liquid gold. The only problem is... it STINKS! It’s very strong smelling but the smell goes away as it dries. Rly. Trust me, I wouldn’t steer you wrong. And when you see what it does for your skin and hair – especially your hair – you won’t care what it smells like.

Baking soda: Baking soda’s often used as a skin softener, which I’m not so fond of since what it also does is disrupt the PH of your skin. Your skin and hair is normally a little on the acidic side. This is called the “acid mantle”. It acts as a barrier to bacteria, virus and other potential contaminants that might penetrate the skin and do you damage. Most of these contaminants are alkaline so the skin’s mild acidity helps neutralize them. So you want to keep that mantle acid! This probably should have gone in the ACV section but I don’t care – it’s my blog, dammit!

Anyway, back to the baking soda. The reason you have to restore the acid mantle after bathing is because soap, even all natural soap, is alkaline. Soap is made from oil that has had a base (an alkaline material) added to it. This process is called “saponofication” and changes the oil chemically to something that bonds with water instead of repels it. That’s why you feel sqeaky clean after washing – the soap molecules have washed away with the water, taking oils and dirt with them. Go soap molecules! Now, baking soda is a very mild base. When you get it on your skin it feels slippery. This is because it’s reacting with the oil on your hands (or hair) to make soap. Because it’s a mild base, it doesn’t turn all of the oil into soap so you’re left with clean but not stripped skin. Unless you use too much. But don’t worry, I’ll be giving you proportions that’ll keep you from doing that.

See! With just three, common household products you can clean yourself in a healthy way that’s bursting with skin and body nourishing goodness! Go you!

Next post: Recipes! Don’t worry, they’re super easy.

Why not just go to Wal-Mart?

This is my first post on making your own healthy, nourishing and (usually) wonderfully smelling all natural body products. So, why bother when you can trundle down to your local Wal-Mart and get a gazillion gallon size tub of crap for, like, a buck?

First off because Wal-Mart is Teh Debil, and one should never feed teh debil. Srsly. And I don’t even believe in teh debil, bein' an atheist and all! But Wal-Mart aside, all that crap you buy in stores, including most of the crap that calls itself “natural”, is, like, rly, rly bad for you. Rly. There are thousands of funky-ass chemicals in there! Many of them are known carcinogens! Who really knows about the rest? The average person absorbs 5 pounds of toxins a year from the stuff!!! 74% of all commercial skin care products contain one or more of the following categories of toxins:

1) Carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals)
2) Teratogens (causing birth defects)
3) Reproductive toxins (male & female infertility)
4) Developmental toxins (unborn children)
5) Skin/sense organ toxicants (skin disease and rashes)
6) Allergenic toxicants (causing allergies)
7) Mutagens (pre-cursor to cancer)

(http://www.natural-skincare-authority.com/natural-skincare.html)

So, why put stuff on your body that’s going to give you cancer or mutate your children when there are hundreds of natural goodies that can do everything from nourish, heal, even regenerate tissue to wash your windows and do your tax returns?

Ok, maybe not the windows or your tax returns, but seriously, there’s no reason not to make your own, vastly superior skin care products. Next post, I’ll show you how easy it can be.

"Desire" by Nicole Jordan

A nice light, throw-away read

Flame haired Brynn's family is cursed - if the women of her family fall in love, that man will die. With one tragic exception in her youth, she's managed to avoid any entanglements by hiding out at home and taking care of her little brother until Lucien, the Earl of Wycliff (and notorious rake, of course) sees her and immediately falls in lust with her. He's decided to settle down and set up a nursery and decides that she's just the woman to help him do it and forces her to marry him. Brynn tries not to fall in love with him but it's getting harder and harder, and things are complicated by the fact that Lucien suspects her of treason when it becomes apparent that her brother's involved in some shady, possibly treasonous, smuggling. Can love conquer all, including a
powerful gypsy curse?!

Jordan writes an uneven if entertaining story - I love stories of rakes seducing unwilling heroines and Lucien is a rake of the first order, full of charm and hotness. The writing in general, including characterization, was a bit off but that's outweighed by the fact that you really want to find out what happens to them. My big problem plot wise was why, if you're family has been cursed down the generations so the women can never fall in love without their beloved dying... Why would you ever agree to have children???!! There's a 50% chance that you're going to have a daughter and continue the vicious cycle!!! Jordan explains it partly as Brynn hoping a child would help her feel less lonely but the selfishness of that reason just made me dislike her. It would have worked better if it was explored a bit more - even if Brynn did end up deciding to risk having a daughter it would have given her a more three dimensional character rather than simply assuming a priori, with absolutely no questioning or thought, that all women, even those with gypsy curses on their entire line, would have babies.

Conclusion: Despite some weak writing and iffy characterizations an entertaining read with some delicious sexual chemistry between the hero and heroine. Recommended for a light, throw-away read.

Publisher: Ivy Books (October 30, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0449004864

"Cupid's Mistake" by Karen Harbaugh

A charming regency with one of my favorite kinds of heroines

Paul Templeton, the Marquess of Blytheland, has been burnt once by love and has vowed to never again put himself through such pain. His first wife, a bluestocking follower of Mary Wollstonecraft's free love philosophy, died giving birth to another man's child and broke his heart. Unfortunately for him, Cupid's got other plans for him that include shockingly blunt, warm-hearted free spirit Cassandra Hathaway... Another bluestocking! While Blytheland tries, unsuccessfully, to fight his growing attraction for Cassandra, Cassandra tries, equally unsuccessfully, to keep everyone from getting the wrong idea about the two of them - why would a handsome, charming, wealthy Marquess marry *her* when he could aim so much higher? Can these two clueless lovers defeat their own worst enemies, themselves, and find love?

This is an adorable little regency with one of my favorite types of heroines; the clueless bluestocking idealist. Cassandra is so sweet and hilarious as she bumbles around insulting people left and right (usually people who really deserve it!)... all the while thinking she's complimenting them! In comparison Blytheland is a little boring, but he has some depth as a sensitive, passionate man hiding behind a cool facade. And she's just what he needs (even if he doesn't realize it!) It's a pleasure reading a romance where the conflict arises naturally from the characters of the hero and heroine themselves, without them acting childish or stupid - Blytheland really was hurt by his first marriage and Cassandra has every reason to keep from hoping he'll marry her, not only because their positions are so far apart but because he's so busy trying not to fall in love with her. My only problem was that I didn't really feel an emotional connection with the main characters for some reason, especially the hero, which is not good if emotional angst is the main source of conflict in a story. Still, overall it's a charmer with wonderful, three dimensional characters (including secondary characters) you really root for.

Conclusion: A fun charmer of a book with some real, character driven conflict and a hero and heroine you want to happily-ever-after, not slap for their stupidity.

Publisher: Signet (February 1, 1997)
ISBN-10: 0451192397

"Bride of the Rat God" by Barbara Hambly

Not one of Hambly's best, but a fascinating look at an unusual period

It's Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties, at the dawn of the age of cinema and an era of screen legends. Party girl Chrysande Flamande, a Clara Bow-like star at the height of her popularity, is living the fast life and loving it. But when mysterious accidents start dogging her and people around her start dying, her sister-in-law, companion and dog-sitter Norah and Norah's new friend cameraman Alec start suspecting something supernatural may be going on. Something to do with the Chrysande's ancient Chinese necklace, which legend says marks the wearer as the bride, and victim, of the demonic Rat God. Can Norah and Alec stop an ancient evil before it strikes again??!

I'm a huge fan of Barbara Hambly's. There are so many things to love about her books - Let me count the ways! 1) Taut, thrilling stories grab you by the throat and don't let go. 2) Wonderful, three-dimensional, flawed characters you care about so when things get hairy you're really invested in what happens to them. 3) Beautiful, descriptive writing. 4) Rare and wonderful words that have sent me to the dicitonary on several occasions. Etc. Etc. I first fell in love with Hambly in the early 80's when I read her "Dragonsbane" which is filled with the kind of quirky characters - people who suffer from real, often apparently insurmountable problems - that typify her writing. This, unfortunately, was the first book of hers I'd read that I was disappointed with.

Don't get me wrong - a "disappointing" Hambly book is still head and shoulders above 90% of the stuff out there. And it's hard for me to put my finger on exactly what was missing, but there just wasn't the same connection with the characters you usually feel when reading one of her books. Despite the life or death consequences I felt absolutely no compulsion to find out what happens to them. On the other hand, it was fun to get a glimpse into an era I've never read about - Hambly, a historian, does an excellent job of putting you in a fascinating time and place in American history. Oh, and Chrysdande's 3 adorable Pekignese make almost make the book worth reading all by their cute, furry little selves!

Conclusion: Moderate recommendation, but only if you want to read about an interesting period in American history. Otherwise, get one of her other books. There are so many really great ones!

Publisher: Del Rey (October 31, 1994)
ISBN-10: 0345381017

What a difference a day... I mean 2 years maaaakes!

Damn! I can't believe I've let this go for so long! Well, I'm starting up again. This time I'm adding some interests. Namely, natural body care (yep!) and book reviews! No more boring posts about politics, no sirree.

Just kidding! Yes, there will be politics, but also lots of other stuff. I'm going to start with a crazy amount of posts - lots of books reviews and things I've been thinking about have built up in 2 years. Hopefully, Christine Ricci cat will approve.