link Carlos the Jackal tells court in Paris: Im a professional revolutionary – Telegraph.
I wonder how he decided on that as a career vocation. What mixture of family and educational experiences led Carlos, nee Ramirez Sanchez, to pursue his chosen career of professional revolutionary? We get that he may have had some bad schoolyard experiences, perhaps some bullying and maybe a few tough girlfriends. But at what point did he decide that bombing buildings and killing people was his life’s calling?
Apart from the fact that this activity may be construed as anti-social and crazily so, isn’t it illegal? The first time he was apprehended, wouldn’t it have been prudent to keep this avowed revolutionary behind bars for his activities? From his proud recent proclamations, he is a professional revolutionary, which sounds exactly like professional criminal. I’m more curious as to how he ever made any money to suppport himself. Did he bomb buildings for money? Someone must have supported this guy over the years. Did he work at a Wendy’s part time to gather enough money to pay the rent as well as buy sacks of nitrogen fertilizer?
Likely he was able to mooch off of other misguided young idealists who were smitten with the romantic notion of the underclass rebel. While certainly there may have been elements of oppression in his native Venezuela, it’s hard to see that same kind of oppression in his adopted France. Perhaps the famously haughty waiters set him off. In any case, he’s in jail and still unrepentant for the mayhem and deaths he caused during his career. And yet, there are those who probably worship this guy as they also worship and romanticize the exploits of Che Guevara or Fidel Castro.
While Carlos may be misguided, at least he came to his worldview honestly. It’s hard to understand the views pushed forth by some of the other equally questionable personalities often featured in the news. In the political space for example, it’s a stretch that working people would identify with a Nancy Pelosi, the epitome of a privileged limosine liberal, speaking about poverty and oppression. Or for a Michael Moore whose fortune was made from laughable depictions of the capitalist system he so derides. Or Al Gore whose carbon footprint is so big, you’d need surveyors to map it. Carlos at least lived his convictions. The others are the true mercenaries.
link Caveman’s Night Out: Restaurant Offers Paleolithic Cuisine | Fox News.
There’s getting back to your roots and then there’s really getting back to the roots …right to the beginning of upright walking and loincloths! It’s obvious that new and fresh food themes are harder and harder to find since numerous variations of fusion this or authentic that have been offered as the flavours du jour over the past years. I’m not even sure why food has to be trendy. If food is good, its charm will transcend time and the fussy dictates of the self appointed effete food snobs pretending to set food trends as if they were the fashion editors of Vogue.
For the very small group of people for whom experiencing ‘unique gastronomic masterpieces’ is more important than a good meal, there will always be that quest for something unique and challenging. With everyone’s attention spans getting shorter and shorter and the quest for uniqueness more demanding because of marketing exposure and television, truly bizarre foods have hit the mainstream consciousness as being acceptably exotic. I’m not totally convinced that all edgy foods are in fact gastronomic sensations, although I do enjoy a hearty plate of chicken’s feet as much as the next guy.
For example, Adam Zimmern, a very sick man, hosts a food and travel show aptly entitled, Bizarre Foods. Zimmern travels the world looking to consume delicacies peculiar to a particular geographic region. And I do mean peculiar. Naturally, most regions he visits are a bit off the beaten path and away from amenities and ingredients available to the West. Therefore, many of the food items he discovers are those that have been traditionally prepared and passed on from previous generations without benefit of preservatives, artful presentation or even edibleness. Apart from such delicacies discovered such as brain tacos, stir fried heart or uterus sausages, much amusement is derived solely from watching his contorted expressions as he attempts to consume the yummy treasures.
In the case of Paleolithic Cuisine, whatever they pretend that to be, it’s unlikely this would have any real audience beyond the real hardcore food nutballs. Let’s face it, food preparation has evolved mightily since the Paleolithic area. The invention of fire for instance was pretty much the death knell for raw, hairy meat and wriggling grubs. At least in the civilized world. When someone discovered that putting a bit of salt and pepper on the gruel helped to make it edible, another great leap forward in cuisine happened. It’s somewhat hard to believe that our Paleolithic ancestors sat around a candlelit rock slab eating smoked salmon, gluten free bread and dipping into olive tapenade as the article suggests. In any event, in today’s world, they may serve stone age food, but I bet they charge space age prices. Did they tip 15% in those days too? The closest I want to get to Paleolithic food is medium rare beef. The rest of the past is better left there.