Bluebird

When in doubt, she cooks...

I hope the blogger and the NY Times I stole these images and recipes from forgive me, but with the recent Boston Massacre I needed to deal with it all somehow...so I cooked and baked my way towards processing the senselessness of it all.

Too affected to document what I made, I am reduced to sharing the original poster's images. My bad, lo siento, big time. But it was so so good...a super moist blood orange pound cake we capped with fresh strawberries and twirls of whipped cream, preceded by the most delicate cheese ravioli along with asparagus tips and sugar snap peas all in a succulent parmesan broth....that I have to share the yum. This is the comfort food that sustained us here tonight. Here are the links and fotos to our most bittersweet and blessed meal...

Blood Orange Vanilla Loaf Cakes from Dorie Greenspan

 

Dorie Greenspan, Baking from My Home to Yours

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 16

Seasonal sweet-and-tart blood oranges bring brightness to a buttery, vanilla loaf cake.

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 blood oranges, zested and juiced
• 2 Tablespoons blood orange juice (I squeezed the juice and then reduced it on the stove, resulting in 2 Tablespoons of syrupy, concentrated juice.)
• 1/8 teaspoon orange oil
• 1/2 plump, moist vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved or 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs at room temperature
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 stick plus 7 Tablespoons (15 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I browned mine a bit, but it isn’t necessary)
• Syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup blood orange juice (I used 1 1/2 oranges for the syrup as the size of the oranges I had varied a bit.)

Instructions

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-x2 1/2-inch loaf pans (I used one regular loaf pan and two mini-loaf pans), dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. (Even if the pans are nonstick, it’s a good idea to butter and flour them.) Place the pans on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked one on top of the other.
2. Melt the butter, or brown it if you choose. Set it aside to cool.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. Put the sugar, the zest of the two oranges and the pulp from the vanilla beans, if using them, in a large bowl, and working with your fingers, rub them together until the sugar is moist and thoroughly imbued with the fragrance of blood orange and vanilla. (If you are using vanilla extract, add it later, after you’ve added the eggs.)
5. Squeeze the juice of the blood oranges that has been zested; you’re aiming for about 1/4 cup. Either use 2 Tablespoons of the juice for the cake (and reserve the remaining juice for the syrup, or heat the roughly 1/4 cup of juice on the stove, bring to a boil to reduce until you have 2 Tablespoons. Set it aside to cool.
6. Whisk the eggs into the sugar, beating until they are thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the extract, if you’re using it. Add the blood orange juice and the orange oil, and then whisk in the cream.
7. Continuing with the whisk or switching to a large rubber spatula, gently stir in the dry ingredients in 3-4 additions; the batter will be smooth and thick. Finish by folding in the melted butter in 2-3 additions. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, smoothing the tops with a rubber spatula.
8. Bake for 55-60 minutes (if you make mini-loaves, they’ll bake in 30-40 minutes), or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. (As soon as the cakes go in the oven, make the syrup). After about 30 minutes in the oven, check for the cakes for color — if they are browning too quickly, cover them lightly with foil tents.
9. Meanwhile, make the syrup: Stir the water, sugar and blood orange juice together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts, then bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl to cool.
10. When the cakes test done, transfer them to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pans and turning them right side up on the rack. Place the rack over a baking sheet lined with wax paper and, using a thin skewer, cake tester or thin-bladed knife, poke holes all over the cakes. Brush the cakes all over with the syrup, working slowly so that the cakes sop it up. Leave the cakes on the rack to cool to room temperature.

Spring vegetables in Parmesan broth with goat cheese ravioli

This was our main accompanied by a baguette..

2 hours. Serves 6

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 1/2 to 2 ounces rinds from Parmigiano-Reggiano

Herb trimmings

Salt

2 dozen asparagus tips

1/2 pound sugar snap peas

Goat cheese ravioli or fresh pasta squares

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 ounce freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. In a soup pot, simmer the chicken broth, water, garlic, Parmesan rinds and herb trimmings until aromatic and flavorful, about 90 minutes. Strain and return to the soup pot.

2. In a wide pot, blanch the asparagus tips in plenty of rapidly boiling, generously salted water until just tender, about 3 minutes. Use a wire skimmer or slotted spoon to transfer them to an ice water bath to stop the cooking, then transfer to a bowl and set aside.

3. Cut the sugar snaps in half on a bias, then blanch them in the same way, stopping the cooking with the ice water bath and holding in a separate bowl. (The recipe can be prepared to this point up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.)

4. When ready to serve, warm 6 shallow pasta bowls. Bring the Parmesan broth to a simmer, taste and correct seasoning with salt to taste.

5. Bring a large, wide pot of water to a boil. Cook the goat cheese ravioli or fresh pasta squares until the pasta is tender, 3 or 4 minutes. Divide the ravioli among the serving bowls. Warm the asparagus tips in the same pot of water and divide them among the pasta bowls. Warm the sugar snaps in the same pot of water and divide them among the pasta bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with chives and then ladle over roughly one-third cup of hot Parmesan broth. Sprinkle with a little grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and pass the remainder at the table.

the hub dislikes Bob Costas

...who always seemed to me suspicious. A cypher, not unlike George Will except for his distressing political affiliation. Which is all the more disturbing considering that sharing an equal lack of height does nothing for disclosure, since Wikipedia does not list GW's height, or lack thereof. Doubly suspicious, now I think of it. He just looks like a short fellow, don't you think? Nothing wrong with that, of course, as I've numerous relations with similar shortcomings, but still...

He just looks so small, hmmmm.............

Campbell's to stop using BPA in soup cans

By Jennifer Kho

Published March 06, 2012

Email | Print | Single Page View

Tags: Chemicals, Consumer Products, More...

You won't find it on the list of ingredients, but many cans of Campbell's soup come with a bit of bisphenol-A, which helps keep can linings from leaking. The widespread use of chemical, also known as BPA, has raised concerns from parentgroups, cancer groups and the Food and Drug Administration. This week, the Campbell Soup Co. said it will stop using BPA in its cans.

BPA-free advocates hailed the news as a big step for the canned-foods industry. The world's largestsoup maker had been a holdout on this issue:Brands such as Eden Foods, Muir Glen, Trader Joe's, Heinz and ConAgra already have committed to phasing out the chemical.

But it could take some time to dispense with BPA  for good. While BPA-free liners are available, they cost more and don't work well for some foods, like tomatoes, that have higher acidity levels. Campbell's didn't say when it plans to stop using BPA. "We have already started using packaging lined with a BPA alternative in some of our soups, and we are working to phase out the use of BPA in can linings in the rest of our canned products," the company says in its updated corporate sustainability report.

While the food and chemical industries – and, until 2010, the FDA – maintain that BPA is safe for humans, some studies have linked it to a variety of health ailments, such as cancer, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, in animals. The chemical mimics the hormone estrogen.

The FDA is expected to make a decision about whether to ban or regulate the chemical at the end of this month. Meanwhile, France in February upheld a ban on BPA in packaged foods, and California last year banned the use of BPA (above 0.1 part per billion) in baby bottles and infant cups.

The move comes less than a week after the Campbell Soup Co. won one of the Environmental Protection Agency's inaugural Climate Leadership Awards.

You can read more about Campbell's moves toward sustainability in these GreenBiz interviews:

• Campbell's former CEO, Doug Conant, and current CEO, Denise Morrison, share their thoughts on sustainability with GreenBiz columnist Heather King.  
• Dave Stangis, the company's vice president of corporate social responsibility, discusses "the evolution of sustainability" with "Nature of Business" radio host Crissy Coughlin.
• Stangis talks about tips for making sustainability everyone's job at the State of Green Business Forum.

Aside from criticism over BPA, Campbell's also has taken fire for using genetically modified ingredients.

Photo courtesy of profzucker via a Flickr Creative Commons license.

 

How to stop fishermen fishing

Of all the sea’s many problems, overfishing should be the most fixable. Here’s how

Feb 25th 2012 | from the Economist print edition

 

ACIDIFICATION, warming, the destruction of coral reefs: the biggest problems facing the sea are as vast, deep and seemingly intractable as the oceans themselves. So long as the world fails to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases, cause of the global warming behind these troubles, they will grow. By comparison, overfishing, another great curse, should be easier to put right, especially in the coastal waters where most fishing occurs. And yet it goes on, year after year.

Fishermen have every reason to do something. Many fisheries are hurtling towards collapse; stocks of large fish have been reduced by up to 90%. When stocks are overfished, they yield a smaller catch. The cost of mismanagement, in lost economic output, is huge: some $50 billion a year, according to the World Bank.

One reason why the pillage continues is that knowledge of fish stocks is poor, especially in developing countries. A new statistical attempt at estimating the remaining shoals (seearticle), from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is therefore welcome—even if that is not true of its findings, that stocks are even more ravaged than previously thought. The study found that better-understood fisheries are likelier to be healthy. Another reason for overfishing is new technology (developed, aptly enough, for battlefields), which makes shoals easier to detect. As large boats and refrigeration have spread, fishing fleets have covered greater distances and hoovered up larger catches. Because technology lets fishermen fish with less effort, it disguises just how fast the stocks are depleting.

Fishermen generally understand the risks of overfishing. Yet still they flout quotas, where they exist. That is often because they take a short-term view of the asset—they would rather cash in now and invest the money in something else. And it is invariably compounded by a commons-despoiling feeling that if they don’t plunder, others will.

In most fisheries, the fishermen would make more money by husbanding their resource, and it should be possible to incentivise them to do so. The best way is to give them a defined, long-term right to a share of the fish. In regulated industrial fisheries, as in Iceland, New Zealand and America, this has taken the form of a tradable, individual share of a fishing quota. Developing countries, where law enforcement is weak, seem to do better when a group right over an expanse of water is given to a co-operative or village fleet. The principle is the same: fishermen who feel like owners are more likely to behave as responsible stewards. The new statistical study confirms that rights-based fisheries are generally healthier.

The rights stuff

Yet only a few hundred of the oceans’ thousands of fisheries are run this way, mainly because such schemes are hard to get right. Limiting access to a common resource creates losers, and therefore discord. Cultural differences affect success rates; not everyone is as law-abiding as Icelanders. Almost everywhere it takes time to convince fishermen, the last hunter-gatherers, to change their habits. But, barnacled by caveats though it may be, the rights-based approach is the best available.

In rich countries, satellite imagery will increasingly help, by making monitoring cheaper and better. In many poor ones, devolution is making it easier to form local organisations. Another promising idea is to incorporate rights-based fisheries with no-catch zones. These safeguard breeding-stocks and are easier to monitor than individual catches. Where stocks are recovering, as a result of these reforms, fishermen are likelier to see scientifically determined quotas as in their self-interest. In the end, that may be the only hope.

 

Africa’s oceans

A sea of riches

Coastal waters could feed many more Africans, but need better protection

Feb 18th 2012 | BERBERA, FREETOWN AND MOMBASA

 

Commuters

 

MELITA SAMOILYS is a leading marine biologist. Since 2010 she has visited 72 coral reefs in east Africa. On only one did she see a shark. That is because so many black-tipped, white-tipped and grey sharks have been served up as shark fin soup, a delicacy in China.

Two-thirds of African countries have access to the sea. Some are making good use of it through fishing and tourism. But the productivity of African waters is plummeting. Kenyan fishermen now catch an average of 3kg of lobster on each trip, compared with 28kg in the 1980s. Grouper fish appear to have become extinct in the Comoros in the 1970s. South Africa’s fishy haul is lower today than in the 1950s.

The main reason is bad governance. African Union calls to fight overfishing with joint navy patrols and co-operation between fisheries have been ignored. Nigeria, among Africa’s richest countries, lacks a serviceable navy. Some governments even collude in overfishing. Angolan fisheries officers rarely report the illegal catches of boats owned by politicians.

At the same time African states are failing to invest in much-needed marine research. They say it is a “donor activity”, meaning they want foreigners to pay for it. The continent has only one large oceanography department, at the University of Cape Town, and that is underfunded.

Coastal wetlands have little protection and fishing grounds are especially vulnerable. In many countries lot of foreign boats operate in areas close to the shore supposedly reserved for locals in dugouts. Some vessels use banned methods like light-luring (attracting fish with floodlights) and pair-trawling (where nets strung between boats are dragged on the sea floor).

Industrial fishing has been encouraged by rising global demand. The European Union has a series of agreements for its boats to fish in African waters. China has moved in too. The Russian fishing fleet is resurgent. In many cases, says André Standing, a researcher into fisheries agreements in Africa, it is not clear how much money is being paid for licences, or to whom. Critics say Africa’s failure to protect its ocean is political, the definition of a continent too weak to exert full control over its resources. A recent deal between Mauritania and China makes it hard to reduce the catch even if it is unsustainable.

Meanwhile the human footprint along Africa’s vast coastline is growing. The UN says African seaside cities are spreading by more than 4% a year. By 2050, a corridor along the Gulf of Guinea from Côte d’Ivoire to Cameroon is likely to be one of the world’s most densely populated areas. It may also be one of its most unstable. Many of the cities are vulnerable to rising sea levels predicted by climatologists.

Making the sea safer and more productive may be the best way to keep landlubbers peaceful. Experts have plenty of suggestions. Community initiatives could help get rid of dynamite-fishing and its ruinous effects. Conservation no-catch schemes such as one run by Blue Ventures, a Madagascan outfit, have proven their value. But there is too little money to scale them up. The best way to find the cash would be to point out the security costs of unhappy fishing communities to rich governments. Somalia’s piracy problem began in part as an armed response to illegal fishing in Somali waters. Some banditry in Nigerian waters started as a protest against the threat to fishing from the oil industry.

Scientists would like to see more sanctuaries, starting with a big area in northern Mozambique. Mr Standing suggests that one radical idea might be to ban industrial fishing in the worst performing African countries for ten years, which would favour labour-intensive fishing from dhows (traditional sailing boats). But given the local and global hunger for protein, such schemes could only work if fish farms were expanded.

The tributaries of Africa’s oceans are mostly clean and its mangroves in good condition, especially compared with those of Asia. But abuse is growing. With the sharks almost gone, Chinese diners are demanding manta rays and mobulid rays as ingredients for their expensive banquet stews. Frank Pope, an Africa-based writer on oceans, says that the slow-breeding rays could be gone even sooner than the sharks they used to swim alongside on the glittering reefs.

From the Economist:

politix without women

With all the political debate about planned parenthood, birth control and religion, all hot-button  issues lately, it's interesting how female-centric they all are. A friend pointed out the fact that none of those men running seem as concerned about broader issues like the economy, oil, or taxes.

That makes me wonder why there is no party that speaks for/represents just women? Why do we let parties speak for us, affecting our bodies, our rights, our very selves? Personally, I resent powerful, ambitous, successful men authoring and dictating what affects me, my insurance, my right to decide for myself. It's a throwback to the fifties, which was a decade all about restraining women.

I think it's high time for a party along the lines of the Tea party or the Komen Foundation that speaks solely for women--because I want and need to be represented. Where are my likeminded brethrettes?

 

Life writ large in the vastness

January 24, 2012, 6:11 PM

In Winter Weather, Flying to Find Wolves

By JOHN VUCETICH

John VucetichApproaching Isle Royale in winter snow and fog.

John Vucetich, a wildlife ecologist from Michigan Technological University, leads the wolf-moose Winter Study at Isle Royale National Park.

Friday, Jan. 20

“Dispatch, Beaver 1, departing Shagawa Lake, eastbound for Washington Harbor, Isle Royale, two aboard, four hours fuel,” said Pat Lowe, a United States Forest Service pilot. We were supposed to fly to Isle Royale on Jan. 17, but for three days, low clouds, snow and then high winds kept us waiting impatiently on the shore in Ely, Minn. It was clear, calm and cold (minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit) this morning as Pat and I lifted off from Shagawa. Rolf Peterson, a co-researcher, and Don Glazer, our Winter Study pilot, were 30 minutes ahead in the Flagship, our tiny research plane. In an hour we landed on Lake Superior ice.

The island was loosely veiled by low gray clouds — a collaboration of the west wind and moist lake air. Waves lapped on ice-covered rocks that separate Lake Superior from the forest. That forest has insights to share, if we pay attention.

 

JOHN VUCETICH

Posts From Isle Royale

• Preparing to Live With Wolves

The Forest Service plane dropped our gear on the ice and took off. It’s been six months since I was last here, and it is good to be back. It is comfortable and familiar — the feeling of being alive that only minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit can bring, the feeling of openness that comes from standing on several square miles of frozen ice, and the feeling of content from being among so many spruce and cedar trees. Wilderness is not just part of the world in which we live — it is a part of us.

There is a great deal to do. Knock holes in the ice for water. Secure the Flagship to the ice. Bring a snowmobile and several generators to life. Fire up the communications systems. Make sure the refueling system is working. Start a fire in the cabin. Haul gear from the harbor up to the cabin. The chores will keep us busy all night and into the morning. We can’t begin to make observations until we’ve prepared at least some of the essential gear.

John VucetichUnloading supplies on the ice of Washington Harbor at Isle Royale.

Saturday, Jan. 21

We worked diligently because the weather was deteriorating, and we wanted to get a flight in before the snow clouds we could see building began to unload their contents. By noon we were ready to fly.

Where do you begin when you don’t know what you may find, when you know you won’t have much time and when you need to keep an eye on the weather? We began with the south shore, where wolves spend a great deal of time looking for moose. In the flat light filtering through thick clouds, we strained to spot wolf tracks. Finally we saw the tracks of a lone wolf at Long Point. Several miles to the northeast, they hooked up with tracks of what seemed to be three wolves that had spent the night on a rocky crag near Atwood beach. They didn’t look particularly fresh, so we left seeking better prospects. At Senter point we found more tracks, most likely from the same group of wolves.

We flew northeast, listening through headsets for telemetry signals from the radio-collared wolves and staring out the cockpit window for wolf tracks that might cut across any creek, drainage or inland lake. An hour passed without another clue. Plenty of time to wonder: Are three wolves all that remain here in what had been Middle Pack (MP) territory? If they are MP wolves, none of them is collared. It could take days to find them.

Then comes a beep, and another and another. Within a few minutes we were circling over the alpha male of Chippewa Harbor Pack (CHP). He is traveling southwest through a swamp near Lane Cove with four other wolves.

John VucetichWolves of Chippewa Harbor Pack following their alpha male.

Last year CHP had nine wolves. One of them, Romeo, was not among them today. He’d tried to disperse from his natal pack during the winter of 2010, but returned home without success and spend the winter of 2011 with CHP. Had he now taken control of territory that once belonged to Middle Pack? Or was he just temporarily away from CHP? Even though Romeo wears a radio collar, we were unable to find him before having to land as falling snow began to blanket the forests.

Sunday, Jan. 23

Big, wet, heavy snowflakes let us sleep in. We won’t be able to fly again until the snow clears.

 

What a surprise: Fox News is for dummies

Fox News viewers less informed about current events, poll shows

Sean Hannity talks to the audience during the taping of his Fox News show recently. (John Amis / Associated Press)

By Michael A. Memoli

November 21, 2011, 4:08 p.m.

A new survey of New Jersey voters comes to a provocative conclusion: Fox News viewers tend to be less informed about current events than those who don't watch any news at all.

Fairleigh Dickinson University recently questioned 612 adults in New Jersey about how they get their news, offering as options traditional outlets like newspapers and local and national television news, or blogs, websites and even Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."

They then asked a series of factual questions about the major events of the last year, from the "Arab Spring" to the Republican race for president.

For example, respondents were first asked whether, to the best of their knowledge, opposition groups in Egypt had been successful in bringing down the Mubarak regime.

Among NPR listeners, 68% correctly said they had been; only 49% of Fox News viewers answered correctly. In fact, the survey found, Fox viewers were 18 percentage points less likely to answer correctly than those who watched no news at all.

"The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don't watch any news at all," said Dan Cassino, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson.

Those who watched Sunday public affairs shows tended to be the best informed on current events, the survey found. Readers of national newspapers also were more likely to respond correctly.

And it seems Jon Stewart may be more reliable than cable news anchors. On Occupy Wall Street, the survey found viewers of "The Daily Show" were 12 percentage points more likely to say protesters were predominantly Democratic. MSNBC viewers were the most likely to say the protesters were mainly Republicans.

"Jon Stewart has not spent a lot of time on some of these issues. But the results show that when he does talk about something, his viewers pick up a lot more information than they would from other sources," Cassino said.

The overall survey, conducted from Oct. 17 to 23, had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Because of the smaller sample size among those who selected a specific news source, the margin of error would be much higher.

Pro-Choice Prez against birth control?

Democrats Urge Obama to Protect Contraceptive Coverage in Health Plans

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: November 19, 2011

WASHINGTON — A dispute has erupted between President Obama and Democrats in Congress over a proposal to broaden the exemption from new rules that require health insurance plans to cover contraceptives for women free of charge.

The National Academy of Sciences recommended that the government adopt such a requirement. And Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, announced in August that she had done so.

But after protests by Roman Catholic bishops, charities, schools and universities, the White House is considering a change that would grant a broad exemption to health plans sponsored by employers who object to such coverage for moral and religious reasons.

Churches may already qualify for an exemption. The proposal being weighed by the White House would expand the exemption to many universities, hospitals, clinics and other entities associated with religious organizations.

The prospect of such a change has infuriated many Democrats in Congress, who fought hard to secure coverage of birth control under the new health care law. Senators voiced their objections on Thursday in a telephone conference call with Pete Rouse, counselor to the president. House members registered their objections on Friday in a call with Valerie Jarrett, another member of the president’s inner circle.

House members have sent a letter to Mr. Obama urging him not to widen the exemption. Such a change, they said, would keep contraception out of reach for millions of women.

Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, said the broad exemption was “an outrageous idea.”

“Millions of women work for colleges, hospitals and health care systems that are nominally religious, but these folks use birth control and need coverage,” said Ms. DeGette, a leader of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.

The 2010 health care law says insurers must cover “preventive health services” and cannot charge for them. On Aug. 1, Ms. Sebelius issued rules that require health plans to cover contraceptive drugs and devices and sterilization procedures, among other services.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said: “There is not a scintilla of legislative direction in the statute that requires the broadened exemption the administration is contemplating. This change would be a reversal of the progress made in favor of reproductive rights when President Obama took office.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said: “It just doesn’t make sense to take this benefit away from millions of women. Americans of all religious faiths overwhelmingly support broad access to birth control.”

The rules already include an exemption for certain “religious employers,” but the exemption is so narrow that some church groups say it is almost meaningless. A religious employer cannot qualify for the exemption if it employs or serves large numbers of people of a different faith, as many Catholic hospitals, universities and social service agencies do.

When the administration announced the requirement for contraceptive coverage, it said the decision was “based on science.” The resulting uproar has forced Mr. Obama to weigh competing claims of Catholic leaders and advocates for women’s rights, including some of his strongest supporters.

The insurance mandate came up when Mr. Obama met this month at the White House with Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Dolan said Mr. Obama was “very open to the sensitivities of the Catholic community.”

A Senate Democrat who participated in the phone call with the White House said: “This is a pro-choice president. It’s a surprise that we are even having this debate with the administration.”

Several lawmakers said administration officials had left them with the impression that the president was leaning toward a broader exemption.

But the White House said Mr. Obama had not made a final decision and would listen to all points of view at a meeting of administration officials soon after he returns on Sunday from his trip to Asia. In the past month, leaders of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other family planning advocates have met with Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, William M. Daley, and other White House officials to oppose any broader exemption.

The issue resonates at the local level, as Catholic priests around the country have urged parishioners to tell federal officials why they object to the new mandate.

In a letter to the administration, the bishops’ conference said the requirement for coverage of contraceptives and sterilization was “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty.”

Under the government’s narrow criteria, the bishops said, “even the ministry of Jesus and the early Christian Church would not qualify as ‘religious,’ because they did not confine their ministry to their co-religionists.” Moreover, the bishops said, “the exemption is directly at odds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, in which Jesus teaches concern and assistance for those in need, regardless of faith differences.”

In comments filed with the Obama administration, some Catholic groups said the exemption for religious employers should be broadened to include any nonprofit tax-exempt organization that is controlled by or associated with a church or religious order.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said the exemption, as now written, “falls far short of securing the religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

Dark and Light Side of the Pepper Spray

Pepper-Spray Incident Spawns Remixes

By JENNA WORTHAM and NICK BILTON

| November 21, 2011, 7:16 pm

dangerousminds.net

Not long after a video of police officers dousing seated Occupy Wall Street protesters in the face with pepper spray surfaced online, it incited anger and disbelief.

Then, almost as quickly, a cutout of Lt. John Pike of the University of California, Davis, wielding a pepper spray canister caught fire across the Web, transforming almost instantly into an Internet meme and appearing on popular social networking sites like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Handy Photoshoppers grafted the image of the officer, dressed in riot gear, onto images of tiny kittens, characters from Star Wars, video game posters, famous pieces of art — even the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”

A handful of Tumblr blogs dedicated to the meme have surfaced, and sites including BuzzFeed, Wired, Gawker and BoingBoing have created galleries of the most memorable mashups.

The Web site Know Your Meme, which chronicles memes as they spread across the Web, labeled Lieutenant Pike the “Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop.” The Web site described the meme as follows: “The affable officer was viewed through various forms of media whimsically applying a judicious, and well allocated portion of pepper spray among the line of protesters.”

The goofy images are more than likely to generate a laugh — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they trivialize or diminish the gravity of the original incident on Friday. In fact, it might actually raise awareness among an online audience that didn’t know about the event, said Matt Stopera, an editor at BuzzFeed, in an NPR interview.

“The fact that it’s spreading on Tumblr means that it’s getting to a whole other, younger audience,” he said in the interview. “When you see this image, you wonder, why is the guy pepper-spraying? You go to Google and search it and see the video. The video is so powerful I think it can only get more eyes on it.”

Lieutenant Pike is not the only one who is receiving the royal meme treatment online. The spray can that was used to douse students is getting its own special treatment.

On Amazon, for example, the page of a pepper spray can that is similar to the one used by Lieutenant Pike now has “product images” of the spray being used on students. There are also several product reviews that poke fun at the police department.