Suppe og søvnløshet

Whoops, up at 3:30 am for the third time in a row this week. Apparently I can only sleep 6 hours straight, so going to be early isn't a good idea for me.

I went to Aftenposten's website and was excited to see a recipe for Tom Kah Gai soup, probably my all-time favorite soup. Excited that is until I read the recipe. It was nothing like the soup I love--no coconut milk, no mushrooms, no chili. Luckily, I wasn't the only outraged reader, and one of the commentors provided a link to this much more authentic recipe. Hmm. I wonder how much of this I can get in Oslo?

Over on the Simple Living Network discussion boards (where I have recently started participating again after a long hiatus) there is a discussion about why people in the US fear "socialism." It is so ridiculous it makes me want to spit. In the first place, there is a huge amount of confusion about what socialism actually is. Then there appears to be a willful disregard for any kind of nuance: no one will acknowledge that countries like Canada or Norway are actually social democracies, not totalitarian socialist states. No one will acknowledge that it its the totalitarianism, not the socialism per se that was the source of the atrocities committed in the name of socialism in the 20th century. The same old arguments that nothing innovative comes out of a socialist country were trotted out (that may be true, but innovations have certainly come from social democratic countries. Nokia any one?). When I brought up Norway as an example of a well-functioning social democracy there was radio silence except for one "yeah but Norway's oil-rich". Okay, fine, drop Norway and look at Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Canada, or why not the UK, France, or Germany for that matter. But no, the discussion turns back to the "promise" of capitalism--while completely erasing the socialist modifications of "pure" capitalism that even the US implemented. The "promise" of capitalism appears to be a gospel truth. No acknowledgment in the discussion of my point that capitalism is predicated on the impossible paradox of constant growth in a closed system (the earth and its resources). Gaaah. Why do I even try. Nope, socialism equals a gun pointed at your head forcing you to share your wealth with those who don't deserve it, according to a surprisingly large proportion of the self-proclaimed simple living folks. How sad.