mindstalk | links: Salami, Lovecraft, Obama-swear, crazy Catholics and Republicans, autism fraud, etc.

Food
* Chicken tempura is floating around Bloomington. I had it at Asuka; eh. Deep fried white meat isn't my thing. Later I had shrimp tempura with noodle at Z&C; also eh. Greasy noodles, and I'm not sure about the shrimp quality.
* The Italian salami of San Francisco. Sahara Mart carries both Columbus and Molinari, I think; I've been eating a couple of Columbus varieties. Seems good, and I never thought I like salami much.

SF, books, and culture
Read a bunch of books. The old D&D Immortals set -- it's really weird, lots of quasi-scientific stuff about dimensions. Bujold's fourth Sharing Knife book, good. Reynolds' Pushing Ice... I already complained about the two main characters, and some neat spoilery alien stuff. Re-read Pratchett's Making Money, still good and a nice take on money, though the Lavish villains are pretty cartoonish and a weak point.
* Brad Hicks alternate universe where the Cthulhu Mythos is real. First post, followed by official intro
* John Snead thinks about robots in SF
* Obama swearing on tape
* Manhattan: the roots of real America. Also this.

Politics and gays
* Target: Michelle Obama
* Scottish Catholics: Gays shouldn't adopt because they die early
* Army recuitment officer: gays want to serve so they can have sex.
* Gay couples happier than straight ones?
* Old: The Onion on Palin
* Ex-masturbator T-shirts
* Pro-lifer says abortion isn't genocide
* House GOP: "we should be an insurgency, like the Taliban"
* Obama writes an editorial. Great tagline.

Economics and health care
* Andrew Wakefield faked the autism-vaccine data. More links in comments here.
* CEO of Netflix: Raise our taxes, we can pay half.
* In decline: Malls, and Billable hours
* American Express: Patronize the wrong businesses and they'll reduce your credit limit
* Integrated systems in health care. Sounds like an HMO to me, but IIRC they never use the phrase.
* The complications of paying nanny tax. Gee, America is so friendly to small businesses.
* Krugman on the coming health care disaster as people lose jobs, insurance, or money to spend on care -- and states cut back due to tax falls. Also, Bungling the Bailout. And he's got a blog, more frequent and sometimes technical than his column.
* Feminist influence on the stimulus.
* Argument for protectionism in a depression. Krugman 1 and 2
* Electric cars need lithium. Bolivia has half the world's lithium. Will we trade OPEC for Bolivia?
* Democrats won the election, but Republicans dominate the cable TV stimulus debate.