Bacon, Egg, and Cheese of the Gods

For the strength to defeat your enemies, begin with bacon.

Specifically, fry up two slices of thick-cut bacon in a big cast-iron frying pan[FN1]. When they’re done, put them aside and turn down the heat as low as it’ll go.

While the bacon is cooking, in a smaller non-stick pan, fry an egg to your liking in olive oil. When the egg is done, cut the heat and put the egg aside with the bacon. Then pour the eggy olive oil into the cast-iron pan. Don’t worry, it won’t spatter; hot oil + hot oil is safe, unlike hot oil + water, which will really f*ck up your day.

Alternatively, you can also fry the egg in the bacon grease if you’d prefer not to have to clean two pans.

Anyway, now you’ve got a fried egg, two cooked strips of bacon, and a whole lotta grease. What shall be done with the latter? That’s the clever part. Take two slices of bread and place them into the frying pan. Turn up the heat to medium-high. Move the bread around so it soaks up the melted oil. Then place slices of cheese on one of the pieces of bread. When the cheese starts to melt, put the egg and bacon on top of it, followed by another slice of cheese, followed by the other piece of bread. If you’re particularly skilled with a spatula, you can flip the sandwich to evenly melt the cheese and seal in the bacony, eggy goodness. (I am not this skilled.)

Enjoy, but slowly; when such immense power is concentrated in such a small space, our human digestive systems will have trouble handling it.

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[FN1] A well-seasoned cast-iron frying pan is an indispensable part of any kitchen. You can cook practically anything in it, and as it builds up seasoning, it will never rust. They’re practically indestructible, and won’t give you Alzheimer’s like aluminum cookware will.

Homework: Assignment #1

Reading:

“Hollow States and a Crisis of Capitalism” by John Robb

“The Studen Loan Debt Abolition Movement in the United States” by George Caffentzis

“The Glass Bead Game” by John Michael Greer

Extra Credit:

Listen to “The Fall of the American Empire” by Dmitry Orlov

Demands – Rob

In talking about the spreading Occupy protests yesterday, we at 26W wondered aloud about what our top five demands would be, were we the ones with the Occupy Wall Street bullhorn. I think it would be interesting if all of us here would articulate five demands that we have of the current system (the socio-politico-econo-cultural system that the protests are aimed at). To kick things off, here are mine in no particular order:

• Forgive all student debt
• End subsidies for unsustainable agriculture
• Cease all military actions overseas
• Institute a tax on all carbon emissions for every industry
• Close tax loopholes for corporations and their officers

A Modest Proposal

All of this talk, both by Occupy Wall Street and by people mad about SUNY, of being betrayed by the system and institutions we have been conditioned to vest with our complete trust has got me thinking about what I think would actually be a good model for a public college. Here are some thoughts:

20 Years of Tuition Hikes

In the 1991-92 school year, in-state undergrad tuition at UB was $1,350, now it’s $5,270. That’s an average 7.95% hike a year for twenty years.

Grad school in-state tuition was $2,150, now it’s $8,870, for an average 8.2% hike every year for twenty years.

The med school at UB cost $5,550 in 1991. Now it costs $27,090.

UB Law in 1991-92 cost $3,150 a year. This year it costs $19,020, more than 6 times as much, with an average 9.75% tuition increase every year for twenty years.

How’s that for a “rational tuition plan”?

If you’re a UB student, chances are that you are the 99% as well. Walk out today at noon to let them know that you’re sick of being ripped off for the elite’s benefit.

Update (10/6/11):

People in my generation have had it hammered into our heads from as far back as we can remember that we MUST go to college in order to succeed. Every institution from the our parents and churches to Sesame Street to the White House to giant corporations have convinced people that, to have a fulfilling life, one must go to college by any means necessary. Take out loans, run up credit card debt, beg, borrow, or steal.

The result has been a watering down of the value of a college degree, skyrocketing tuition, and crushing debt, all while college administrators and the banksters lending the money get filthy rich.

Since I was accepted to UB Law School in 2009, tuition there has gone up 44%. There is no way that the class of 2012 has gotten a 44% better education than the class of 2009 (though in actuality, the number should be higher because the class of 2009 was subjected to tuition hikes during their time at the school as well). I wouldn’t mind paying more money for school if I realized some benefit from it. Instead the tuition hikes have amounted to nothing more or less than a tax on my generation for graft on the part of SUNY and UB administrators and for the malfeasance of the New York State government.

On Counter-Revolutionaries

There has been a lot of criticism levied at the young people participating in the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest. This is all well and good; there is definitely a use for discourse when it comes to any group or movement, however loosely defined, that is making a big fuss somewhere. Much of the criticism, however, is directed at the fact that there is no centralized leadership to this group of indignados or that their demands are somehow not serious or, because they’re spoken in broad terms and have not come up with concrete demands and the means to achieve them within our current system, are unfocused. When viewed through the lens of the type of political movement and type of protest to which America and Americans are accustomed, this seems like a valid criticism. The images coming from the mainstream media portray Occupy Wall Street as a bunch of pissed-about-no-one-particular-issue trustafarians who are protesting for the sake of protesting. It’s possible, if not probable, that some of the folks there are exactly this. To write off this movement as such, though, is dangerous. It writes off the value of what these people in New York are doing as being counter to “real” issues that need to be addressed as well as perpetuating this system whose fundamentals are more broken than most people want to admit. It is exactly what the powers that be want everyone to do. It’s a mistake and it’s the same kind of thinking that leads to popular support for all kinds of bad things, such as bank bailouts, UB2020, and voting Republican.