"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- On Condition of Anonymity

Well, no surprise here. Those in the know are telling me that the 10-month Pentagon study on gays in the military argues that gay troops could serve openly without compromise to troop readiness. The report has yet to be made pubic, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen are expected to discuss the findings with Congressional leaders and reporters later today. Both leaders are on record saying they support repealing the law.

In short, 115,000 troops and 44,200 military spouses responded to more than a half million questionnaires made available last summer. A clear majority of those responding don’t care if gays serve openly, with 70% predicting lifting the ban will have positive, mixed or no results.

And then there’s Sen. John McCain:

"This was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States," McCain told CNN's "State of the Union" last weekend.

"The military is at its highest point in recruitment and retention and professionalism and capability, so to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false," McCain said.

I admit to having been uncomfortable with the idea of this survey in the first place, except to the extent to which it can give military leaders ideas on how to implement lifting of the ban, not whether it should be outlawed in the first place. Civil rights should not be held to the will of the voter, or the test of public opinion – discrimination is wrong, and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is discriminatory. But today I am heartened by what I read. It speaks volumes, and will make overturning the ban and implementing change much easier. No more excuses.

But what will John McCain do, except be very, very angry?

Wild Turkey

No, not the bourbon.  The animal.

A lovely article about a visitor that came by our house right before Thanksgiving.

According to Dr. Richard Buchholz, a wild turkey expert in the biology department at the University of Mississippi in Oxford:

“She is definitely not a true wild turkey. Wild turkeys have longer, thinner legs, a sleeker body shape, and females in particular have very little head ornamentation,” he said, referring to the small red caruncles on the bird’s neck. He said the bird looks like a bronze breed of domestic turkey because of its coloring and thick, short legs. 

“Since she is flying up on roofs, it is possible for her to also be a game farm turkey or domestic-game farm mix,” Buchholz said. She could have been someone’s pet or a farm bird that somehow escaped. Or she might have been roosting with the wild turkeys sometimes spotted in the Richmond hills.

Sorry I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough, but maybe we will meet again.  Looks like this bird is calling our neighborhood “home.”

NYC Schools Chancellor-In-Chief

Oops.  No need for advertising back room deals.

It looks like Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to take the backseat to the state education commissioner in reaching a deal to appoint his choice for the next chancellor of the NYC schools.  The New York Times coverage of the story over the last few weeks has been exhaustive.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reached a deal Friday to save the tottering candidacy of Cathleen P. Black to be the next chancellor of New York City schools, agreeing to appoint a career educator who started as a classroom teacher to serve as her second in command.    

As a result, the state education commissioner, David M. Steiner, has agreed to grant Ms. Black, a media executive, the exemption from the normal credentials required by state law for the position, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

So, the next overseer – or better said, CEO – of the nation’s largest school system will be the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines.  Ironically, the man she replaces, Joel Klein is to become an executive vice president of the News Corporation.  If they can ever get his job description down in writing, she will be ably assisted by a second-in-command who might actually know something about education, but could have little if any power.

Nice message Mayor Mike is sending to the American worker bee.  Work hard all your life, and you, too can be supervised by someone who knows nothing about what you do 9 to 5.  But, you can still aspire to be number two in charge, at risk of no one taking you seriously.  Sound familiar? 

In my opinion, the issue of Ms. Black’s exemption for the credential required by New York State law is serious, but not necessarily because she lacks mandated administrative experience in an educational setting, or applicable coursework.  She has never been to graduate school.  And yes, Virginia, you do learn something about education by going to graduate school.  Any graduate school.  In any field.  Learning to think is a good thing.  There is a reason why the teachers who will be under Ms. Black’s supervision need to obtain a Master’s degree during their first five years in the classroom. 

Despite my “big picture” cynicism about this appointment, I am very, very sympathetic to the idea of needing to “think outside the box” to solve problems as complex as those represented in the inadequacy of the NYC school system – especially when remaining inside the box has proven inadequate.  And of course, no one knows what kind of Chancellor Ms. Black will be.  For the sake of the children and families of New York City, I hope she succeeds.  If she does, we will be able to analyze the positive qualities she brought to the job, and attempt to replicate them in future educational leadership.  And if the opposite is the case, we will need to engage in a dialogue far more critical than the one will are spouting now, and move on towards finding the right box to think inside of.

Puppeteering

Could it be time to install a new puppet regime in Afghanistan?

Per Ahmed Rashid, in the New York Review of Books:

Karzai’s new outlook is the most dramatic political shift he has undergone in the twenty-six years that I have known him. Although it is partly fueled by conspiracy theories, it is also based on nine years of ever growing frustration with the West.

He no longer supports the war on terrorism as defined by Washington and says that the current military surge in the south by the United States and its NATO allies is unhelpful because it relies on body counts of dead Taliban as a measure of progress against the insurgency, which to many would be a throwback to Vietnam and a contradiction of Petraeus’s new counterinsurgency theory to win over the people. In particular he wants an immediate end to the night raids conducted by US Special Operations forces—a demand that has put him in direct conflict with US commander General David Petraeus. According to Karzai, these raids—which in the last three months have killed or captured 368 mid-level Taliban leaders and killed 968 foot soldiers—are counterproductive because they antagonize the civilian population. Indeed, no one knows how many civilians are included in the casualty figures, which are provided by the US military.

At the NATO summit, President Obama dismissed Karzai’s concerns about night raids, according to press accounts. “If we’re ponying up billions of dollars to ensure that President Karzai can continue to build and develop his country,” Obama said, “then he’s got to also pay attention to our concerns as well.”

How long until the next NATO summit meeting?

Green Bean Casseroles

A nice Thanksgiving food-related post from Matt Yglesias, a fellow Cuban-American.

In my family (and I think in NYC more broadly) people casseroles aren’t really traditional food, unless you count Italian-American dishes like baked ziti or lasagna or whatever. So for a while now I’ve been grimly fascinated with old-school midwestern casseroles and last weekend for “Friends Thanksgiving” I undertook to try to cook a non-disgusting version of green bean casserole that wouldn’t rely on canned goods.

Fortunately, Alton Brown turned out to have a good recipe. I found it kind of challenging to make the fried onions come out evenly, but they’re pretty tasty. And the cream of mushroom soup from scratch is delicious. At the end of the day, I think I would have preferred to just eat the soup and maybe sautée some green beans with onions. But the combination is pretty good, and apparently considered de rigeur at some holiday gatherings. 

I have yet to become fascinated with old-school midwestern casseroles, but I do remember the first time I tasted a green bean casserole that did rely completely on canned goods.  Wasn't until I was in my twenties.  I have yet to try to make one, homemade or not, but I am an Alton Brown fan....  Maybe for Christmas.

Flan de Calabaza, The Sequel

In a cross-culturally appropriate, melting-pot-sort of-way, the flan de calabaza assimilated into pumpkin bread pudding on Thanksgiving Day.  Somewhere between pudín de calabaza, and pudín de pan.  After all, flan is nothing more than custard, and the base of a bread pudding is bread and eggs.  Right?

The leche condensada, or sweetened condensed milk gave way to non-fat.  And eggbeaters replaced the egg yolks.  Cubans (well, at least this one) suffer from high cholesterol, and live in a perpetual “pre-diabetic” state. 

I think the hyphenated identity I shall impose on my new creation will be pudín-de-pan-de-calabaza.  Oh, and I skipped the home made whipped cream.

Hammered!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Could Tom DeLay's conviction have come down on a slower news day?

From the New York Times:

As the verdict was read, Mr. DeLay, 63, sat stone-faced at the defense table. Then he rose, turned, smiled and hugged his wife and then his weeping daughter in the first row of spectators. He faces between 5 and 99 years in prison, though the judge may choose probation.  

5 to 99 years?  Probation?  I guess judges in Texas have BIG judiciary discretion.  Big.Like.Texas.

Flan de Calabaza

Anyone who knows me in the slightest knows I love Thanksgiving. I suppose I naively stick to the belief that it is the “best” (or perhaps better said, “most neutral”) American holiday because it glorifies neither war nor religion. And of course, nothing combines the love of cooking and the obsession with good-old-Americana like the perfect Thanksgiving menu.

In my 20’s and 30’s I routinely hosted 25-30 of my closest friends in a tiny apartment. The menu grew every year, even when the guest list only fluctuated by a few. I was insistent that every, single traditional “American” culinary element appear, often represented in various manifestations. Sometimes it meant corn bread, and corn soup and corn pudding in the same meal. I actually kept a handwritten list of the menu, taking it out once a year and adding dishes. I even had a cooking schedule, taking in to account the dishes needed a day or two for flavors to mingle. I am sure that yellowed, piece of ledger paper is somewhere in my house, probably tucked away in one of my many cookbooks.

Then like for many of us, things changed. A large group, cramped and eating on the floor gave way to dinner with my husband’s family and actually sitting around a table. It took me a few years to give up on controlling the menu, and I slowly got used to another great American tradition -- a twist on the potluck. I had to decide on which culinary elements I would provide, a very, very painful endeavor. Usually it was the bread dressing for my husband, the sweet and sour red cabbage at my father-in-law’s request, and minced meat pie (minus the meat, of course) for my mother-in-law.

Today, I am wondering when in my youth the elements on my family’s Thanksgiving table went from Cuban, to American. When did the soup course go from some sort of pureed bean thing, to gingered carrot and corn chowder? And when did we start making bread stuffing, instead of filling the bird with congri? (That would be a Cuban version of dirty rice, mixed with beans, for those of you not in the know…) Was it when my cooking obsession began in junior high school? Or maybe it was my cookbook phase, which shortly followed. Or was it in high school, when my very-happy-Cuban-self decided it was about time to search out the things I loved about this country – and there were certainly many – and forge more of a hyphenated identity? Or was it when I moved to New England, and became fascinated with little things, like the history of johnnycakes?

Due to unforeseen, last minute circumstances, Thanksgiving will be at my house this year, and I will be doing all the cooking. We will not be a large group, but rather, will all fit around a rather smallish, dining room table. The menu too, will be modest, more in line with the small number we will be on this coming Thursday. And believe it or not, I have not given much thought to the menu, except that I suspect it will probably be more along the carrot soup and bread pudding lines, than frijoles con arroz blanco. But, I am thinking about taking my mother’s FABULOUS flan recipe and seeing about adding some pumpkin. Pumpkin flan. Flan de calabaza. Something to make the Cubans, Pilgrims, Native Americans and other assorted New Englanders happy!

Oh, and by the way, Cubans never, ever do potlucks. Nunca.