Annual Thanksgiving Possum Recipe

It is a custom hallowed by time at this blog to feature a possum recipe each Thanksgiving for the dining pleasure of our Gentle Readers. In fact, said readers are welcome to El Cabrero's lifetime share of possum as my culinary tastes run in other directions.

This year, in recognition of the ever-hastening pace of modern life, I have decided instead to offer a simpler approach that may save a bit of time in the kitchen. Just open and warm up, unless you are one of those hardy souls that likes their possum cold.

Enjoy! And Happy Thanksgiving!

One thing I'm thankful for this year...

...is Pope Francis I! Here's a good look at his latest statement on the "new tyranny" of unfettered capitalism.

Sample quotes:

"Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills."

and

 "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?"

and

 "I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security."

and

 "As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems."

TWO FOR THE ROAD ON THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT. Here's Dean Baker stating the obvious, an important thing to do in these times! And here's a reminder that some states show it can work.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Support for a path

Not that the majority in the US House of Representatives cares or anything, but a recent poll shows that a sizable majority of Americans favors a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

THESE GUYS WON'T LIKE THAT. Here's a disturbing look at white rage in rural America.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, but the roll out of the Affordable Care Act is really going well in some states.

URGENT ANCIENT BUDDHIST ARCHAEOLOGY UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Poverty: it's not as much fun as some think

El Cabrero spent a few years in (involuntary) poverty and one thing about that I'd like the world to know is that it's not nearly as much fun as people who have never been there seem to think. Back in the 1990s the writer Earl Shorris described it well in his book New American Blues. 

To use Shorris' term, living in poverty is like living in a "surround of force." It means always being on the defensive and feeling like a hunted animal. One damn thing after another, nearly all of which are bad. Today a friend emailed a post by someone living through that now and it rings true to my experience. You can find it here.

WHO'S WINNING? Here's an interesting look at two midwestern states that have taken different political paths and what the early results seem to be.

PRISON OVERCROWDING is an issue I've been concerned about in WV for the last few years. Here's a summary of where things are with that now.

UTERUS POLICE TAKE NOTE. According to a recent poll, West Virginian's have little enthusiasm for an abortion inquisition such as that advocated by the state's attorney general (and friend to drug companies, but that's another story).

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED