As some of you may know, I’m a pretty big nut fan, but today, I just threw away a big jar of Planters dry-roasted peanuts.  Why you ask?  Well it probably has something to do with monosodium glutamate, torula yeast, and corn syrup solids.

These things, for some reason, made their way into my dry-roasted peanuts thanks to Planters.  Why is this necessary?

Now I know there have been tons of studies on monosodium glutamate (otherwise known as MSG) saying that it’s harmless and all those people claiming sensitivities are full of shit, and everything, but why do peanuts need a flavor enhancer?  I don’t think I’ve ever been eating peanuts and said, “Hey you know what these peanuts need?  Flavor enhancer.  Lots of it.”

The worst part is, I didn’t even check the ingredients list in the store.  This is something I usually do when buying anything in the middle section of the grocery store, but for these I pretty much just assumed I was buying peanuts, not flavor-enhanced peanuts.

Now I know this seems like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here, but, to me, this is a symbol of how far food science and processed food has crept into our diet.  When I have to start checking the ingredient list on peanuts, you know things have gotten out of control.

In the meantime, I’ll just stick to See’s nuts.  No flavor enhancers in that can, just salted, roasted nuts.  And they’re delicious.

And up-end tables all day in anger, semi-virtually:

Jon Stewart holds an excellent interview with former president of these United States of America, William Jefferson Clinton. The whole thing is great, but part 3 touches on health care and is really quite special. Other topics include the Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton’s recent lunch with President Obama, and how to rescue journalists from a hostile nation.

Its been awhile since I have posted on Juice due to my transistion from the north down to the durty south. Today I return to JTB to lower the standard of media once again.

This is a serious gem, if you haven’t seen the original material follow this link

Veira, bring me the asprin.

Ezra Klein has a great post up on the finally-ready bill out of Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee. Punchline?Good framework with some bad elements.

The key thing to learn about the Baucus bill, though, is that it’s an example of what happens when you try to negotiate with Mike Enzi and Chuck Grassley.

Ezra:

At this time, Baucus has no Republican votes for his legislation. Olympia Snowe is a maybe, and Enzi and Grassley are pretty certain to vote against it. Conceding so much in return for so little isn’t just bad politics — it’s bad precedent. Why should Republicans sign onto Baucus’s proposals in the future if they can simply adjust the bill to their liking and then withhold their support at the end?

If Baucus’s Republican colleagues want to support this bill and give him some cover, their presence should be welcomed. But if not, Baucus should loudly and publicly allow the Democrats on his committee to strengthen the bill, as it will be a Democratic majority that passes the bill. A bipartisan group should shape a bipartisan bill. But a bipartisan group should not get to shape a partisan bill, particularly if that bill becomes partisan because they have abandoned it.

In 2001, Baucus helped shape the president’s tax cuts, and he voted for them. In 2003, he helped shape the Medicare Modernization Act, and he voted for it. He has upheld his end of the bargain of bipartisanship. Now is his moment to demand the same of his Republican colleagues.

Republicans have no interest in voting for any serious healthcare reform bill. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise, and pass the bill that Democrats can pass themselves.

Jonathan Chait has a really great take down of Ayn Rand over at The New Republic.  You all should go read it.

Sample:

For conservatives, the causal connection between virtue and success is not merely ideological, it is also deeply personal. It forms the basis of their admiration of themselves. If you ask a rich person whether he ascribes his success to good fortune or his own merit, the answer will probably tell you whether that person inhabits the economic left or the economic right. Rand held up her own meteoric rise from penniless immigrant to wealthy author as a case study of the individualist ethos. “No one helped me,” she wrote, “nor did I think at any time that it was anyone’s duty to help me.”

But this was false. Rand spent her first months in this country subsisting on loans from relatives in Chicago, which she promised to repay lavishly when she struck it rich. (She reneged, never speaking to her Chicago family again.) She also enjoyed the great fortune of breaking into Hollywood at the moment it was exploding in size, and of bumping into DeMille. Many writers equal to her in their talents never got the chance to develop their abilities. That was not because they were bad or delinquent people. They were merely the victims of the commonplace phenomenon that Bernard Williams described as “moral luck.”

Not surprisingly, the argument that getting rich often entails a great deal of luck tends to drive conservatives to apoplexy. This spring the Cornell economist Robert Frank, writing in The New York Times, made the seemingly banal point that luck, in addition to talent and hard work, usually plays a role in an individual’s success. Frank’s blasphemy earned him an invitation on Fox News, where he would play the role of the loony liberal spitting in the face of middle-class values. The interview offers a remarkable testament to the belligerence with which conservatives cling to the mythology of heroic capitalist individualism. As the Fox host, Stuart Varney, restated Frank’s outrageous claims, a voice in the studio can actually be heard laughing off-camera. Varney treated Frank’s argument with total incredulity, offering up ripostes such as “That’s outrageous! That is outrageous!” and “That’s nonsense! That is nonsense!” Turning the topic to his own inspiring rags-to-riches tale, Varney asked: “Do you know what risk is involved in trying to work for a major American network with a British accent?”

For me, the rampant Randism that permeates the Republican Party is the most aggravating aspect.  I can dismiss the tenthers, birthers, and wingnut evangelicals as just people who just don’t get it.  The problem with Randism is that it seduces the rich and powerful by stroking their egos, which can cause much, much bigger problems.

It’s one thing to have 30,000 people show up to wave crazy signs at a tea party protest.  It’s quite another to have nearly every powerful business manager devoted to an ideology that does nothing to advance the causes of the middle class, and does everything to further entrench runaway income inequality.  This is a philosophy that creates a morally triumphant rationale for stepping on the masses, for smacking away the outstretched hand of the less fortunate.  A philosophy that glorifies the massive compilation of wealth as the only way to prove yourself to society.

The thing is, as much as I find most of this morally repugnant, that’s not the reason it’s so dangerous.  It’s so dangerous because it doesn’t work. It doesn’t create more economic growth.  It doesn’t create a more stable society.  It doesn’t lead to more personal freedom.  It leads to booms and busts.  It leads to inequality and crime.  It leads to riots and crackdowns.

These are the reasons that this ideology must be stopped.  Because a better America does not spring from the Blackberry of the CEO, it is born from hard work and prosperity of the middle class.

Well, we’ve done it. We managed to keep it going strong for 365.25 days. Huge thanks to each and every contributing member for your time and dedication to the community. If it wasn’t for you, we’d have nothing. Big thanks also go out to our readers, both registered and anonymous. We notice you every day, it’s great to see so many daily visitors. You should think about commenting more often, engaging conversations are the lifeblood of every online community!

Since Juice can’t eat cake, but definitely deserves some, I’m posting a slideshow of birthday cake pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Source here

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.

Here I’ve posted a short video made with the photo, the music and the score (composed by the birds).

h/t Anthony (via Facebook)

[via Palmetto Scoop]

Choof’s Left Hand from Colin Doody on Vimeo.

RIP

I didn’t actually make this game as the title may have suggested. I purchased the Indie title “I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1N IT!!!1″ on the XBox Live Arcade, and boy was it a great move. It’s a ton of fun, and I strongly suggest purchasing this for some intense zombie killing action. The gameplay is addicting, and it has a great soundtrack to boot. How much is it again? Listen to the song!

I thought this was particularly awe inspiring.

via boston.com

This reminds me a whole bunch of Fantastic Planet.