Dennis the Peasant

Time To Say Bye-Bye...

I'll be closing down Dennis the Peasant sometime between now and New Year's.

I've been doing DtP for six years, and the fact of the matter is simply that it is now time to move on. This due primarily to the growth of the two businesses I own (or partially own). They now require much more time and attention than they've been getting in the past. As this relates to cash accumulating in my pockets, I consider said development to be a Good Thing.

Beyond that, it's time for me to face up to the fact that the political blogosphere is a near complete bore.

There are two reasons for this boredom, as far as I am concerned. The first is as follows: Six years ago, the political blogosphere was not dominated by the money and resources of mainstream media and professional political advocacy groups. Now it is. The political blogosphere has now acquired all of the defects (and none of the virtues) of mainsteam and advocacy media. With money has come self-censorship and intellectual dishonesty.

The second reason is a function of the first: Simply put, the vast majority of the political blogosphere's heavy hitters aren't worth reading. Beyond being captives of those corporate and political interests who pay them, lots of those folks can't write, are remarkably uninformed, and quite a few are just plain stupid. They are paid to bring eyeballs. They are not paid to think. And you know what? It shows...

When it ain't fun anymore, it's time to move on.

I'm movin' on...

Some Amanduh...

For some reason, I write a post about people being stoned stupid and then next thing I know I'm over at Pandagon reading Amanduh posts. Go figure...

Amanduh The Foodie...

This is already long, but I learned one more interesting thing about cooking seasonally, which is that it really helps with the cooking simply thing.

It's good to know that the most interesting thing about the cooking seasonally thing is that it makes the cooking simply thing a more attainable thing.

Cooking simply works best when you stick to ingredients that are flavorful themselves.

Someone needs to dial 4-1-1 and let Alton Brown in on this...

In case it’s not obvious from the recipes I cook, I’m a mostly-vegetarian who occasionally eats fish.

Isn't "mostly-vegetarian who occasionally eats fish" a rather long-winded way of saying you're not a vegetarian at all?

I’m a vegetarian for ethical reasons beyond animal welfare, though I’m a big animal person who believes routine cruelty to animals warms us up to violence amongst ourselves.

Err... I did I miss something, or didn't she just say she ate fish? So she's a "mostly-vegetarian" for ethical reasons? Or what? In other news, evidently fish don't need no steenking animal welfare...

I am suspicious of rigidity, because when you’re rigid and you fail your own rules, you often just give up completely.

You ain't suspicious of rigidity when you're male and 53, let me tell you. If you're rigid at 53, you certainly haven't failed and you're sure as shit not about to give up. Honest.

Amanduh The Critic...

I’ve been holding off on talking about “The Walking Dead” until after the season finale, because it’s a somewhat slow-moving show and I think it needs to be assessed in a bigger chunk than one episode at a time.

News Flash: Zombie shows got "chunks".

In fact, before things degraded into an too on-the-nose wife-beating scene, there was an interesting rewrite of the sexism of the books, at least early in the books.

"An too"? Bonus: We have your "of the books" thing combined with your "in the books" thing. Which, all things considered, should help with the viewing simply thing.

I’m sorry, but the entire area around Atlanta is filled to the brim with rural and suburban areas that would be less zombie-clogged than the city and far more full of supplies that you could ransack until the end of time.

I've always suspected that large metropolitan areas were where zombies tended to congregate... I know Westerville is relatively zombie-free at the moment.

Confession time: I’ve spent most of the past couple of decades hating “Dirty Dancing”. 

I thought you said you liked horror movies if they're scary... 

My conclusion is that it’s still a shit movie, but only in parts.  In other parts, it’s actually a pretty good movie.

Ah... So, other than the shitty parts, it was pretty good. Or is it that other than the good parts, it was pretty shitty?

Amanduh The Party Animal...

Lindsay Beyerstein took many fabulous photos of the event, and they’re all my favorites, but I have to admit a special fondness for this one of me yelling god only knows what into the microphone (actually, this is probably me encouraging the packed dance floor to sing along to George Michael’s “Freedom” during my DJ set).

 

I have to admit, it is one of her best...

Proving You're A Loser...

Not that we needed proof, but Andrew Sullivan makes an air-tight case for his being just about as big a loser as you can be:

Longtime Dishheads will remember that rather extraordinary reader email thread that had to do with secret middle-class, mainstream marijuana use - for medical and non-medical reasons. The thread "The Cannabis Closet" began with one reader email in March 2009 and became one of the most talked-about cultural discussions on the question of marijuana legalization. Dishheads will also remember we promised, by popular demand, to compile them all into a book. We are massively over-stretched, but we have finally come through, thanks to Chris Bodenner's meticulous and back-breaking work...

The book is a compilation of first-person pot use testimonials, from top executives to responsible parents, from entrepreneurs to A-students, from unwinding suburbanites to the very sick. In more than 120 personal stories, it demolishes every hoary "stoner" stereotype of the regular pot-user. It doesn't glide over the downsides of pot-use, but it does explain more graphically and powerfully how marijuana-use has become as American as, er, brownies and milk. It shows how responsible pot-use is already compatible with middle-class life and its obligations.

No, actually it won't.

That's because there is no such thing as "responsible pot-use". Unlike alcohol, which can be taken without getting drunk, there is no such thing as smoking cannabis without getting stoned. There is no such thing as "in moderation" when it comes to pot...

If you're using it, you're stoned. Period.

Let me just note here and now that between the ages of 17 and 25 I was one very enthusiastic pot smoker (and drinker). So this isn't about being all sanctimonious and whatnot. This is about being an adult. What it's also about is the reality of cannabis... Smoking pot is the exact equivalent of drinking to get drunk. The exact equivalent. And you know what?

Only losers drink to get drunk. Period.

I once had a husband and wife team who owned a business here in town. Both of them were as dysfunctional as you could get. His dysfunction was substance abuse. In the three years they were my client he was in and out of rehab twice. One day, long after they'd fired me, I saw him in town and asked him how he was doing. He decided to half-brag about spending four nights a week partying in bars. For him, that was "the good life". It was an assertion to which I immediately blurted out the obvious truth of the matter. What I said was this:

If you're 44 and married and you're spending more than one night a week in a bar, you're a loser.

And you know what? I was completely correct in my assessment. He was 44, married, spending more than one night a week in a bar, and a complete and total loser. He admitted as much to me a few years later (after he'd been truly clean and sober for a year and a half).

The bottom line is simple: If you need or want pot to take the edge off life, you're a loser.

Healthy, well-adjusted adults don't need pot - or booze - to get them through life. Period. And while Andrew and his followers may wish to flatter themselves as being something apart from the average drunk, the reality is that they're no better (or different) from the slob who starts his evening with a bottle in hand and ends it by falling off a bar stool.

Reality can be harsh: One need only look over the string of shabby failures that make up Andrew Sullivan's life to understand why he'd want - and need - whatever relief that could come his way. However, if Andrew Sullivan was actually a well-adjusted and responsible adult, he'd understand that cannabis is the fool's way out of what he's feeling about himself.

Then again, if Andrew Sullivan wasn't a fool, he wouldn't be Andrew Sullivan.