Guys, guys, guys! The forum needs some life.

[Denninmi]

Seems to be on life support. I think we need an effort to have more threads, more discussion. It can be really helpful and interesting but needs traffic.

Aside from the ongoing debate about feminism, I think it woud be nice to discuss general topics if interest, such as hobbies, activities, household repair, etc. I know there are other forums on DU for those, but would be nice to up the conversations in this one.

Thoughts?

[rrneck]

1. Hang on, I'll be right back. nt

[sigmasix]

2. I am teaching my daughters to cook

In our household it is my duty to cook most of our family meals. I take it as a point of pride that my family only eats non-proccessed meats and loads of fresh vegetables and fruit. I have been concentrating on meals that include homemade stock and soup base lately. Cooking is a skill that is important for anyone, male or female- yet it seems that less and less people know how to really cook because it is viewed as a skill for homemakers- and home makers receive little to no respect for their skills and sacrifices. Some refuse to learn how to cook as they think it may lead to a lack of professional esteem that disempowers them as individuals (man or woman) and implies an inability to do all the "important stuff" that requires other skills.
I have no respect for those that attempt to claim there are women's jobs and men's jobs. Yesterday I taught my youngest daughter how to bake blueberry muffins and to prepare home-made beef and noodles. Having the cooking skill set is not a sexist conspiracy to deny dignity to homemakers, rather it is an ability that enables the homemaker to be active in the care of the health and well-being of the family.
More fathers should be aware of the impression they make on their daughters and make sure that their actions and training will lead to self-actualization of our daughters and unconscious relationship cues that will enable our daughters to make healthy relationship decisions for themselves in the future.

Teach your daughters the skills they need for this world, not an idealist version of they way we wish the world works.

[rrneck]

3. Here you go.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11149662

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Okay, I've got one; Carrageenan.

No, seriously.

I've spent many years eating on and off a quasi 'granola' type diet (granola meaning hippie, not the breakfast cereal) even to the point of being more or less vegan for a year or two, then only doing fish but still no dairy for a year or so after that.

I still don't do a lot of dairy, but I've always consumed decent amounts of things like soy milk or these bolthouse farm deals (shame, because they're pretty good)... and I've always had sort of a cast-iron constitution; meaning very little upsets my digestive equilibrium and whatnot.

But lately, like to the past few months, I've been feeling sort of fucked up and particularly digestively not-quite-right. Not to the point of jeezus get me to the doctor, but I take good care of myself and I consider myself fairly in tune with my body so I can really tell when something is hitting a discordant note. So I'm screwing around looking up recipes or something and I come across some stuff about carrageenan, which is in all these hippie-dippie-vegan things I like to mix in my coffee and whatnot. And I remembered someone saying something about it to me years ago, to which my response at the time was probably "I gave up bourbon, I think I can keep a little seaweed in my diet" or whatever.

But lo and behold, there seems to be a variety of information (like with so many things) and some assertions (some more heavily woo-sounding than others, to be sure) that this stuff is pretty well known as, at the very least, a GI irritant.

So I'm like "Fuck! This is in EVERYTHING I drink, just about". But like I said, something has seemed a bit off, so I'm all "why not, I'll cut it out and see what happens". Because I was drinking this stuff in one form or another- a lot of it- every day.

This was a few days ago. I'll be damned if I don't feel a helluva lot better.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. This forum is like The Avengers

It'll be here because we'll need it to be.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. +1 n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

7. With great power comes great responsibility.