Fire and Knowledge

A more correct definition of “terrorism” would be this: violence perpetrated unexpectedly without the authorization of a national government. Violence perpetrated unexpectedly with such authorization is not “terrorism” but “war.”

–Wendell Berry, “A Citizen’s Response” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 3

The distinctions that we conventionally use to divide the species into races—skin color, hair, and the shape of faces—are controlled only by a few genes. The vast majority of variable genes do not respect so-called racial boundaries. There is far more variation within any given population of humans than between populations. If all the humans on earth were wiped out except a single tribe in a remote New Guinea valley, the survivors would still preserve 85 percent of the genetic variability of our entire species.

–Carl Zimmer, Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, pp. 81-82

A book caught my eye while I was browsing the cooking section at the library: The Best Bread Ever by Charles Van Over. Normally I don’t look at books with such claims, but bread happens to be a weakness of mine. I scanned the book and, of all things, the author was advocating the use of a food processor instead of hand kneading. If this was the best bread ever, why isn’t everyone using it? And who is this guy, anyway?

He’s a genius. I know because I tried his bread. I can confidently say that the basic recipe and techniques in this book helped me create the best bread I’ve ever tasted at home – in the first try. I baked a few baguettes. The crust was golden brown and crisp. The inside was moist and soft. It tasted delicious. I ate too much.

Surely, you say, there must be lots of sugar or oil or butter. That’s what I figured too. The truth is, this is the simplest bread recipe I’ve ever seen. It contains flour, yeast, sea salt, and water. That’s it. No sugar, corn syrup, oil, eggs, butter, or shortening.

What’s the secret? He does everything so different that it is probably a combination. Mixing in the food processor is different, but since I didn’t do that, it can’t be the key. (It sure makes things easier, though.) He lets the dough rise at room temperature instead of in a warm place. There is no kneading. The bread is folded in a very specific way. But the main difference, I think, is a hot oven.

I usually preheat the oven for 5 minutes or so — until the “pre-heated” light comes on. The problem is, when the door opens to put the food in, the oven cools about 75 degrees. So Van Over says to preheat the oven at 475 degrees… for an hour. I did it for about 45 minutes which seemed long enough. I also cooked it on a baking stone that was in there during the pre-heat. And a pan of water creates steam to make the crackling crust.

A hot oven combined with high quality organic ingredients and a little technique gave me the best bread I’ve ever baked. If you like bread, be sure to take a look at this book!

(The basic recipe I used is also available online.)

To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn. Since the 1990s virtually all the sodas and most of the fruit drinks sold … have been sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—after water, corn sweetener is their principal ingredient. Grab a beer for your beverage instead and you’d still be drinking corn, in the form of alcohol fermented from glucose refined from corn. Read the ingredients on the label of any processed food and, provided you know the chemical names it travels under, corn is what you will find. For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, for lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and xanthan gum, read: corn.

–Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), p. 18-19

If you are a white person who would like to treat black people as equals in every way – who would like to have a set of associations with blacks that are as positive as those that you have with whites – it requires more than a simple commitment to equality. It requires you to change your life so that you are exposed to minorities on a regular basis and become comfortable with them and familiar with the best of their culture, so that when you want to meet, hire, date, or talk with a member of a minority, you aren’t betrayed by your hesitation and discomfort.

–Malcolm Gladwell, Blink (2005), p. 97

I rediscovered the public library last weekend. I used to go quite a bit as a kid, but as I got older I always preferred to purchase books instead. But I’m slowly realizing the futility and expense of that, so my new plan is to only purchase books I know I will re-read or use often for reference. The rest I will check out from the library.

(In my battle for simplicity, I went through my personal library and weeded out over 150 books and donated them to a thrift store. Two months ago I would have rather donated my fingers.)

Though there were quite a few people at the library, few were there for the books. Most were there for the computers, which they had everywhere. Naturally being a busybody, I walked around to see what was so interesting.

The first thing I saw was a half-naked man and teenage girls chuckling. Then there were small kids browsing rap artist websites. After that was another kid playing an online game. The rest were browsing either myspace or facebook, with the obligatory half-naked photo of their online buddy and tiled backgrounds that make you want to tear your eyes out. (Or is it just me?)

That doesn’t seem like what library internet access is for. Isn’t library internet for research and email? Why isn’t there a filter on it that blocks myspace and facebook and games? Kids can browse those websites at home. The library is for reading and research, not online social networking and electronic games.

Or maybe I’m just old-fashioned and think libraries have something to do with public education.

September 11 shattered the American sense of invulnerability. But instead of accepting the vulnerability that most of the rest of the world already lives with, and even learning from it, we seem to want something nobody can give us—to erase our vulnerability. We want it to just go away. If the government says more wars can do that, many people will say fine. If they say suspending civil liberties can do that, many will say fine. If they claim spending more and more of our tax dollars on the military and homeland security will do it—at the expense of everything else—many will say fine. But we simply can’t erase our vulnerability, not in this world and not with the human condition being as it is. To be prudent and vigilant in the face of danger is good. But when a government offers to take away our vulnerability, it borders on idolatry.

–Jim Wallis, God’s Politics (2005), pp. 88-89

To the extent that a government is secret, it cannot be democratic or its people free.

–Wendell Berry, “A Citizen’s Response” in Citizenship Papers (2003), p. 2