text:
We did it before and we can do it again
Our infrastructure is getting old and needs to be renewed. It is not news that much of what we use today was built fifty, a hundred or more years ago. America was a much poorer & less advanced back then. A question that we should ask is how did a country so much poorer than we are today, with less developed technology and significantly smaller government spending do what we cannot? How can we shovel such piles of money out the door and have so little to show for it?
The "Economist" has an article about our decaying maritime infrastructure that gives some hints. It talks about a lock that connects the Mississippi River to the Inland Waterway. This is worth billions of dollars in commerce yet it was built in, "1921, and is 600 usable feet long, or half the length of a modern lock. Its replacement was authorised in 1956. Construction on the replacement was authorised in 1998, and then stalled by lawsuits." reference.
We used to be a nation of doers, engineers & visionaries and now we are a nation of wimps, weenies & lawyers. We used to design stuff and then just do it. There usually was lots of gnashing of teeth, but things got done. We finished the Hoover Dam in less time than it takes to get an environmental impact statement through the process. I read an interesting book about Hoover Dam called Colossus, on the building of the Hoover Dam. Almost each time I turned the page, I said to myself, "We could never do this today." With the lawyers, NGOs and NIMBY folks arrayed around, they would not have been able to toss the first shovel full of dirt. I don't doubt that we wiped out at least one subspecies of beetle or snail, but who knew then and who cares now?
We really need to get better at this. We don't have to learn new lessons; we simply have to relearn what we used to do. Remember, we build most of the stuff we have to renew when we were poorer & less advanced and government budgets were much lower. We did it before and should be able to do it again.
On the plus sides, shale gas is creating an industrial renaissance in the Great Lakes region. Gas has been a real game changer and barge and ship traffic is is expected to improve more than any time in the last thirty years. I know this is a little off topic, but I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and anything having to do with the Great Lakes fascinates me.
Good post C/J. Born in 1940 I lived through much of the nation's achievements you write about. You ask…what has changed? Our attitude toward government and each other is the change that counts.
I recall the enlistment posters of yesteryear. The best one simply said…"Uncle Sam Needs You."
Today it seems, the attitude is…You Need Uncle Sam.
Yesteryear we formed groups to help each other with our own resources. Today, we form groups to help ourselves with government resources.
Yesteryear we went to church with our parents and learned from where morality comes. Today, we sleep in on Sunday morning and believe morality is whatever we believe it to be and are comfortable with.
Yesteryear shame was a major factor influencing us to not indulge in behavior that was shunned by the community standards.
Today, community standards are challenged by minority groups in courts.Posted by: Royal Flush at February 2, 2013 7:02 PM
You know, If you said, "let's modernize our infrastructure!" You'd hardly get an argument from anybody.
Too bad you're too insistent on austerity to get it.Posted by: Stephen Daugherty at February 2, 2013 8:03 PM
The problem is not the money. We did it on a lot less in the past. The problem is the procedure, lawyers and bureaucracy.
Consider the recent case of the Keystone pipeline. They filed the papers in 2008, five years ago and there is still no decision. It took five years to build the Hoover Dam.Posted by: C&J at February 2, 2013 8:06 PM
I hope the thing never gets past Oklahoma. The truth is, we're basically harvesting the crude that was either too expensive or too difficult to bring up before.
Things are simply more expensive now than they used to be, and it costs money to do things in a decent, reliable manner. If we don't want some idiot cutting corners on safety on a bridget or something, we need to set our expectations reasonably.
We got all kinds of problems because for the last couple generations, we've labored under the notion that our infrastructure would basically last forever. But nothing does. The past slips through our fingers, finer than dust, and leaves us ultimately empty handed.Posted by: Stephen Daugherty at February 3, 2013 12:36 PM
Over a hundred people die during the construction of Hoover Dam. Nowadays, we have regulations that greatly reduce the frequency of workplace accidents, but it costs us time and money.Posted by: Warren Porter at February 3, 2013 12:58 PM
I think we should do all we can to make work safe, but not lose sight of the mission.
IMO - we look at this from the wrong direction. I know you understand statistics, so lets look at it two ways.
If we have a fair lottery, it is 100% certain that somebody will win. YOUR chances when buying a ticket are maybe one in several million. Each of these things is true, but they must be distinguished. When we get a winner, he often thanks some system, fate or a deity, since he invalidly looks at HIS chances of winning and calls it a miracle.
The same goes for risk. If we take a workplace accident, plane crash or anything else, we can project that X number of people will die. The next line is usually something like, "If we can save even one life…" But this is wrong. We have converted risk to certainty at the aggregate level and then brought it back to the individual level.
I have volunteered for risky duty and sometimes just did it for convenience or fun. Each time we get into a car, we are vastly increasing our small risk of violent death. If none of us drove, we would save tens of thousands of lives every year. But our individual odds small, however, and those are what we figure.
So my long response to the short question is this. We should do all we can to limit accidents in the aggregate, but recognize that perfection is impossible. In some dangerous professions, we should make the risk clear and let people play the odds as they wish. An average Americans has a much greater chance of dying is a car accident than he does at work. In fact, work is one of the safest places to be.
We need to treat accidents of all kinds as risk. That means that they are not usually the result of villains or bad planning. Simply speaking, shit happens. Each time it does, learn but don't go after the bad guys unless there really are bad guys.
All jobs can be made safer but some are inherently more dangerous than others. I do forestry, which is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S. I am in more danger in the woods than I was in Iraq, but I don't feel in danger all the time and I willingly accept the risk. We should just let people do that. Hoover Dam was worth the 100 lives, IMO.Posted by: C&J at February 3, 2013 1:59 PM
Between you and me, I'm sure we could tolerate more risk with these projects. However, the public at large does not have the stomach for such things. Maybe we have grown a little to soft over the decades, but the average American is very prone to hyperbolic descriptions of workplace fatalities.
Most people will put a great deal of effort into avoiding a spectacular death while ignoring the much greater threat of a mundane death. Look at our reaction to 9/11 for instance; even in the worst case scenario, Al Qaeda could never do enough physical damage to actually disrupt our way of life. Their only weapon was to prey on our psychological weaknesses and fears.Posted by: Warren Porter at February 3, 2013 3:13 PM
We have a significant problem in the U.S. with innumeracy and especially a misunderstanding of statistics. I will not say a poor understanding. It is worse than that. Average Americans actually have a false idea of how these things work.
It is also the fault of lawyers and the media. Lawyers search for clusters so that they can sue. Media makes this worse by focusing on the single victim. You get headlines like, "Sure, a million people were saved, but it wasn't enough for Mr. Smith…"
I don't know how to counter this, but I think we need to counter it.Posted by: C&J at February 3, 2013 3:45 PM
Average Americans actually have a false idea of how these things work.
This isn't the fault of the media. These misunderstandings are often rooted in what is called "common sense", which is mostly a folklore derived from when we lived on the African Savannah. If you must blame something, blame Darwinian natural selection.
In previous generations, we anointed elites to make these sorts of decisions. Justifications were created to alleviate the consciences of these elites, but most of these justifications were rooted in defunct ideas of racial superiority or other forms of prejudice/discrimination. This is what enabled yesterdays leaders to put their ideas through without concerning themselves with the risks involved. We have relegated those ideas into the dustbin of history, and now we have to deal with the consequences.Posted by: Warren Porter at February 3, 2013 4:44 PM
You are familiar with prospect theory & the work of Kahneman and Tversky?
Re the elites pushing things through - I believe in elites, but they should be elites of merit and duty. People like us are indeed smarter than average. We should not pretend otherwise. This gives us more ability and more responsibility. The problem with today's so-called elites is that they often demand the material rewards and respect while avoiding responsibility, ironically using the excuse that there are no elites.
Re risk - I think we should be willing to accept reasonable risks. For example, I would be willing to risk the millions to one additional risk if I could leave my shoes on going through the airport. I would also be willing to assume the risk of infrastructure repairs.
As you know, I volunteered to go to Iraq because I thought it was my duty and worth doing. I used to go out among the people. I assumed the risk and told Chrissy that if something happened she should not blame anybody but me (and the bad guys). I didn't want any of that crap about being called a victim. I was where I chose to be. Of course, I figured my odds were good, but some of my colleagues were indeed hurt and killed.
I think this is a rational assumption of risk. There was 100% chance that someone would get killed. All of us shared the risk considering our own odds were decent.
I think all risk should be assessed like this. We need to manage, not avoid risk. I fear we have become a nation of wimps and weenies. One guy gets killed and we give up the endeavor. I don't mean to sound flippant about life and death and I take these things very seriously, so seriously that I think we cannot simply give in to fear.Posted by: C&J at February 3, 2013 7:26 PM
The problem with deaths at construction sites is the safety of the non-participants C&J. It is those that sit in the officers that demand that which makes these sites unsafe. The push for cost savings and production leads to rash high risk decisions with the lives of others. It's a job not a death sentence yet those that sit in the office and assume no liability nor risk expect others to do just that.Posted by: j2t2 at February 3, 2013 8:28 PM
You are familiar with prospect theory & the work of Kahneman and Tversky
Not formally, but as you probably already know I am quite well-read in a large variety of fields.
I believe in elites, but they should be elites of merit and duty
In order for this to work, we have to abandon our Jeffersonian dogma that "All Men are Created Equal". Without proper restrictions, opening this can of worms can lead to very terrible outcomes.
Earlier generations did not obey the Jeffersonian dogma as well as we do. WASPs generally considered themselves "more equal" than African Americans or recent immigrants from Catholic Europe. Consider the case of the transcontinental railroad, which was also constructed with the blood of many of its workers. The elites of the day discounted those fatalities because they didn't believe an Irish-American or Chinese-American life was equal to their own lives.
Basically, this won't work unless we can develop a moral framework where every fatality is simply one's just deserts. It would be extremely difficult to implement such a mode of justice without risking its exploitation by a few tyrants.
I think we should be willing to accept reasonable risks. For example, I would be willing to risk the millions to one additional risk if I could leave my shoes on going through the airport. I would also be willing to assume the risk of infrastructure repairs.
The problem is not whether you or I can accept the risks. You allege that, "People like us are indeed smarter than average", which is likely true. However, we operate at this country at the behest of people much closer to the mean (or even below it). Imagine how the least intelligent quintile of Americans would react. They are numerous enough to cause great uproar if their psychological needs for safety and security are not met. It is well documented that the human mind has a propensity for assigning too much importance to terrorist attacks and not enough to automobile collisions. These "stupid people" will not be able to comprehend the probabilities and risks. It is impossible to ever achieve "informed consent" with these people.
I think all risk should be assessed like this. We need to manage, not avoid risk. I fear we have become a nation of wimps and weenies.Most of us have been "wimps and weenies" since the dawn of time. It has only been with the advent of democracy that the feeble minded have grown their influence.
The problem with deaths at construction sites is the safety of the non-participants C&J. It is those that sit in the officers that demand that which makes these sites unsafe. The push for cost savings and production leads to rash high risk decisions with the lives of others. It's a job not a death sentence yet those that sit in the office and assume no liability nor risk expect others to do just that.
Good point, this is the paradox we are in. Only elites know how to properly manage the risks, but because so few people are elite, it makes sense to risk the lives of plebeians and protect the lives of the patricians. However, the paradox is that now that the patricians no longer have any skin in the game, it changes the ways they assess risk. Our impossible task is to assign different numerical values to different human lives and to do so in a manner that avoids letting anyone exploit anyone else. Posted by: Warren Porter at February 4, 2013 10:28 AM
If the US is to be competitive again we need to cut through the liberal red tape and start rebuilding our infrastructure.
And yes Warren, we can do it with austerity. There's a whole heap of waste in the budget, when we have one that is, that can be cut. We can then use this money on the infrastructure.
I wouldn't be opposed to paying a little more in taxes if there was a guarantee that the money would go rebuilding our infrastructure. And not get wasted on some liberal program that only makes folks more dependent on the government. But I have a hard time believing anything Congress and/or the President promises.
Jefferson believed in elite. His elite, which I support, was one of intellect and responsibility. You are worried about a different sort of elite, one based on race, group identity or hereditary privilege. These we cannot but abhor. We don't have to make that choice. The choice is not between elites of the bad sort you mention and the problem of mob rule. A good first step would be to restore or in some cases help create a better link between responsibility and consequence. In a free society, you can make choices but you must live with what you do. We have made it too easy to be stupid and mistaken that for "democracy."
Beyond that, not everything and not most things should be subject to democracy. How you live your life is none of my business except to the extent that you ask me to pay for it. This is a good. The problem comes with expanded government. If you want to live off Twinkies and smoke three packs a day, it is not my business. But it becomes my business if I have to pay for your folly with higher taxes or health care premiums, it becomes my problem too.
That is why freedom depends on fewer government mandates. If I take your money to pay for habits you dislike, you have a right to complain.Posted by: C&J at February 4, 2013 5:22 PM
"The problem with deaths at construction sites is the safety of the non-participants C&J. It is those that sit in the officers that demand that which makes these sites unsafe. The push for cost savings and production leads to rash high risk decisions with the lives of others. It's a job not a death sentence yet those that sit in the office and assume no liability nor risk expect others to do just that."
While I don't necessarily disagree with your overall point, I am currently working at a job site that is the exact opposite from what you write.
Safety at this site is driven by the client, not by the contractors, and the contractors know that if there are too many reportable incidents that they not only will be dismissed, they won't be invited to work on any of this company's projects in the future.
This is a $5 billion project. The previous projects had over a million man hours without a lost day due to an accident. Safety is a culture here, and if you can't comply you are walked off of the site.
Now, some of the rules are a little over the top. I can't use a soldering iron (of any type and butane is forbidden), or a shrink gun without a "hot work" permit.
Other rules such as being tied off over 6 feet on a ladder (this is grounds for immediate dismissal) I can mostly understand.
RockyPosted by: Rocky Marks at February 4, 2013 7:41 PM
Jefferson believed in elite. His elite, which I support, was one of intellect and responsibility.Jefferson did not believe in the dogma that he had written. Jefferson's elite was one of wealth white male Virginia Planters. Neither his African slaves nor his non-landowning neighbors would ever be considered to be capable of being elite. He remains virtuous because he penned that "All men are created equal…", but we should not follow his example in implementation of this dogma.
You are worried about a different sort of elite, one based on race, group identity or hereditary privilege. These we cannot but abhor.
Humankind has never created a truly meritocratic elite. In order to craft such a class of decision-makers we would have to abandon our creed that "all men are created equal". Otherwise, such a framework would be completely unsustainable.
A perfectly meritocratic elite working alongside a liberal democracy that protected each and every citizen's personal liberty is simply a fantastical utopia that lives alongside the utopias of Communism and Fascism.Posted by: Warren Porter at February 4, 2013 9:38 PM
Rocky I wonder if it is the lawyers, insurance companies and OSHA that you can thank for the newer mindset when it comes to safety in the workplace. The death or serious injury of a worker at a site costs the client money. It cost the GC money so safety has become more important to them over the years. This is the "liberal red tape" (as Ron mistakenly puts it) that according to C&J prevents us from doing the infrastructure projects in this country. I was describing an older mindset in my previous comment. While this old mindset still exits the safety culture mindset is becoming the new norm.
The conservatives want OSHA and worker safety to return to the days of the Hoover dam to save paperwork and red tape. It was cheaper back then but only for some, The workers family paid in the short and mid term if not the long term. We all paid in the long term with the different societal ills that result from dead dads and such. Many companies have changed to become more safety oriented over the years
I currently work in the same culture you speak of and it to is client driven. Yes it can be carried to far but that is better than being carried to far the other way.Posted by: j2t2 at February 4, 2013 10:37 PM
Warren I think the paradox is as complex as you say. You have made several good points but as we talk about risks lets remember who was recently bailed out when they took excessive risks with other peoples money. It was the elites. Yet it is the rest of us that are, according to C&J, wimps and weenies.
The point C&J seems to be making is the time frame before the shovel hits the ground that is the problem. The protests by environmental groups or Indian tribes that were not a problem when these people could be bullied into submission is the problem according to C&J.
I believe the real issue here is the unwillingness of the elites to free up the Federal money to make the infrastructure projects a reality. C&J are not alone amongst the conservatives who tell us the government is small, we can no longer do these big projects. Ron's response to you is indicative of the conservatives "small government" attitude.
The elites or the self proclaimed elites are the ones telling us we cannot do these types of projects. Our elites are small minded these days, that is the paradox we face in this country. The Ron's telling us "If the US is to be competitive again we need to cut through the liberal red tape…." and "But I have a hard time believing anything Congress and/or the President promises". The C&J's telling us "We used to be a nation of doers, engineers & visionaries and now we are a nation of wimps, weenies & lawyers." Our opposition leaders, and the propaganda machine of the conservatives telling us the debt we ran up rebuilding Iraq keeps us from rebuilding our own country.
The paradox we face is the elites are not up to the task of rebuilding the infrastructure of this country. Nor do they want to. The elites are to busy tearing down the government for their own economic and political power to believe in the ability of this country to build/rebuild our infrastructure. Our elites are not able to manage the "risks" because they cannot manage themselves, IMHO. The greed and avarice of the elites has taken it's toll on them.Posted by: j2t2 at February 4, 2013 11:28 PM
I was very unhappy that the Obama folks bailed out all those fat cats. Obama has now nominated one of the fattest cats from Citibank as his Treasury Secretary. I guess that kind of thing is okay because he has a D in front of his name.
Re workplace safety - if we manage risk, we limit injuries. It works well that way. If we pretend or believe as you do that each failure is the result of some sort of plot, we are back in the middle ages.
You are evidently among those people for whom statistics is a strange and unknowable type of black magic.
Re small government - Can you answer the question how we build great things when budgets were lower and technology more primitive? Is there anyway we can rebuild our current infrastructure, let alone build all we need, with the current situation?
Re - "The elites are to busy tearing down the government for their own economic and political power to believe in the ability of this country to build/rebuild our infrastructure. Our elites are not able to manage the "risks" because they cannot manage themselves, IMHO. The greed and avarice of the elites has taken it's toll on them."
These are mostly Democrats these days.
I find it amazing - I even admire - the liberal ability to both be the controlling elite and avoid responsibility for anything that happens. During years when we spend more than any time in human history, liberal can complain that spending is too small. When the biggest spending binge in human history ended up building very little infrastructure, liberals can complain that they are the victims of … I am not sure what.
There are indeed too many wimps and weenies around today. I do indeed look with nostalgia to the days when doers could kick them to the side, when people like me build dams, bridges and roads and didn't have to put up with so much whining from people like you.Posted by: C&J at February 5, 2013 4:26 PM
Let's not forget the educational system we have developed as of late. I find it reprehensible that we don't teach our children about general safety. Things like looking for wet surfaces instead of expecting someone else to place a sign on a wet surface "to protect us". I look for ice on any sidewalk when it is cold. I think I do so because my brother broke his leg slipping on ice on his way to school one day. I learned the easy way, by watching someone else suffer. It doesn't have to be so.
Let's not forget also, as C&J mentioned, the lawyer. It is because of the lawyer that people must place signs in every danger zone "to protect us". The only real protection being afforded is to the owner of the sign from the lawyer. We now have signs on ladders, signs on products, signs on foodstuffs, signs on electrical wiring, signs ad nauseam. Just ask yourself; "Why do we need laws to force people to wear seat belts?", "Why do we need labels to tell people cigarettes are hazardous to their health?", "Why is a label required to inform the user it unsafe to place a ladder on an uneven surface?". It's because a lawyer will find fault with the manufacturer of the product instead of finding fault with the irresponsible actions of the user.
C&J also makes a good and valid point when referring to the building of the Hoover Dam. He mentioned the many bugs and animals that were displaced and destroyed in the process of building that dam. He makes the point that it didn't really matter that these bugs and animals were lost. Nothing drastically changed that had catastrophic consequences.
I really don't know why the spotted owl or the little lizard couldn't be put in a zoo for posterity and let the rest of the world progress. Perhaps because it has nothing at all to do with the spotted owl or the little lizard.Posted by: Weary Willie at February 6, 2013 4:56 AM
I was very unhappy that the Obama folks bailed out all those fat cats.
I didn't get to read any farther than this comment C&J. why bother when you start off with known
misinformation, half truths, outright lies.
"The Act was proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson during the global financial crisis of 2008.
On October 1, 2008, the Senate debated and voted on an amendment to H.R. 1424, which substituted a newly revised version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the language of H.R. 1424.[6][7] The Senate accepted the amendment and passed the entire amended bill, voting 74–25.[8] Additional unrelated provisions added an estimated $150 billion to the cost of the package and increased the length of the bill to 451 pages.[9][10] (See Public Law 110-343 for details on the added provisions.) The amended version of H.R. 1424 was sent to the House for consideration, and on October 3, the House voted 263–171 to enact the bill into law.[6][11][12] President George W. Bush signed the bill into law within hours of its congressional enactment, creating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to purchase failing bank assets."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008Posted by: j2t2 at February 6, 2013 8:20 AM
The Democratic Party, which won a majority of seats in the 2006 election, expanded its control in 2008.
At the start of the 111th Congress, the Democrats held 56 seats in the Senate, with the two independents continuing to caucus with the Democrats for a total of 58.
I think those are Obama folks.Posted by: Weary Willie at February 6, 2013 2:06 PM
Did the fat cats get bailed out after January 2009? Was there any real restructuring that put them out of work after January 2009? Is not Obama's pick for Treasury one of the fat cat leaders of Citibank? Was not his previous Secretary of Treasury one of the most important architects of the bailout? Didn't Democrats control both houses of Congress in 2008?
I know you want to blame Republicans but the facts do not support this.Posted by: C&J at February 6, 2013 5:05 PM
Yeah, seems odd, doesn't it? The Republicans who tried to stop TARP because it bailed out the fatcats were called by Obama and other Democrats as 'trying to destroy the country', TARP had to be passed. So over their objections it was.
And then, j2t2 uses TARP to show how Republicans bailed out the fatcats?Posted by: Rhinehold at February 6, 2013 6:23 PM
Paulson proposed it. Not Geithner
GWB signed it into law. Not Obama.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/110-2008/s213Posted by: j2t2 at February 6, 2013 9:09 PM
Did the fat cats get bailed out after January 2009?
No the law that bailed the fat cats out was signed in October 2008. The Obama administration administered the law as required.
Is not Obama's pick for Treasury one of the fat cat leaders of Citibank?
And this proves what? Are you suggesting that any and all globalist are guilty of something here?
Was not his previous Secretary of Treasury one of the most important architects of the bailout?
No the bill was given to the HOR by Paulson not Geithner. It was already law when Geithner took the position of Secretary. Geithner administrated the program, quite well I might add.
Didn't Democrats control both houses of Congress in 2008?
Yes and it seems they voted down the Paulson "let them take the treasury with'em" bill he proposed. Remember the dems didnt have a super majority during this time frame.
This is the results of the Obama influence into the TARP-
"The TARP program originally authorized expenditures of $700 billion. The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act reduced the amount authorized to $475 billion. By October 11, 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated that total disbursements would be $431 billion and estimated the total cost, including grants for mortgage programs that have not yet been made, would be $24 billion.[1] This is significantly less than the taxpayers' cost of the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s but does not include the cost of other "bailout" programs (such as the Federal Reserve's Maiden Lane Transactions and the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). The cost of the former crisis amounted to 3.2 percent of GDP during the Reagan/Bush era, while the GDP percentage of the latter crisis' cost is estimated at less than 1 percent."
Great job of administering a law that started with a giveaway to the fat cats.Posted by: j2t2 at February 6, 2013 11:18 PM
Geitner was a leading member of the Fed who helped design the program. Everybody who knows the subject knows that. I thought you did. Sorry If I overestimated you. I thought TARP necessary, but a majority of Republicans voted against it. It was bipartisan at least.
Democrats were as much involved in this bailout as Republicans. Actually, I think they should be proud of this, since the money in TARP was paid back with interest, but you don't like it so I am playing your line.
The bailouts of 2009 of the auto industry still have not been paid back and probably never will.
Re Lew – If you don't like the fat cats, how can you embrace one of the fattest.
Here's a question I asked Stephen. Is there any time in the last 50 years when you think Democrats called the shots and so are responsible for the outcomes of a five year period?
C&J Paulson brought it to Congress on a scrap of paper. Give'em the treasury he said, no rules no regulations. GWB agreed' The dems in the HOR didn't nor did the Dems Senators. Geithner came in and made the mess work.
Democrats were as much involved in this bailout as Republicans.
I agree C&J. But trying to create the conservative myth of Obama folks is wrong. That is my point.
The bailouts of 2009 of the auto industry still have not been paid back and probably never will.
"In December 2008, G.M. received $9 billion in federal aid by order of President George W. Bush."
Are we trying to create a revisionist conservative myth once again C&J?Posted by: j2t2 at February 8, 2013 11:47 PM
What I am trying to point out is that the big bailouts happened with the enthusiastic support of Democrats. I have long said that the first stimulus (in 2008) was useful and necessary. The second one in 2009 was largely mis-targeted.
But the only reason we are on this track at all is that you implied that Republicans were the ones who bailed out the fat cats and Democrats were just victims of this. If indeed you meant to say that Republicans had some part of the bailout of the banks and that Democrats were also among its primary architects, we are good.
I know that both parties were involved in the crash and the bailouts of the banks. I also understand that the financial crash was multifaceted and not caused by any specific policies. If you agree with me on this, you are wiser and more reasonable than I thought, but you may learn to express yourself better.Posted by: C&J at February 9, 2013 9:33 AM
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Charleston Music Hall Announces Holiday Film Series Lineup
Charleston Music Hall has announced the schedule for their upcoming Holiday Film Series, which will be returning on December 10th for four nights with some of your favorite holiday classics.
The series will bring National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, It's A Wonderful Life, Die Hard, and Elf to the big screen just in time for Christmas.
Each night will feature Christmas caroling before each movie begins starting at 6:30pm.
You can purchase tickets to these movies now at CharlestonMusicHall.com

subset: commoncrawl


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This week, fro the very first time, we have a guest "Twinklette"! Instead of Miss Madelynn drawing our sketch for us, the very talented Miss Piper did. Piper is Heather Schlatter's daughter – and man can this girl draw a sketch!! Whew! I never should have left it for the last minute! I already had this Alice Anya digi image from The Greeting Farm colored, and have been dying to use her. SO thi seemed like a good opportunity! I'll be honest – all of the specialized corners were more than my poor brain could take late on a Monday night, so I did some creative adapting – hope that is ok Piper!
My card base is Bordering Blue. My next panel is Confetti Cream, which I also used for Alice, and the cross panels. I dug out some Prima's I had that matched the DCWV Once Upon a Time paper perfectly and added those to the corners once I had run all my small panels through the Cuttlebug. I felt like my card was busy enough, so for the added embellies I just put simple little silver dew drops, to echo the brads that center the flowers. This was lots of fun Piper – thanks so much for really challenging me this week! I love being part of the Twinkling Tuesdays group – it is so much fun! Thanks again to Jess and Madelyn – the masterminds behind the whole thing! Don't forget to visit the Twinkling Tuesday blog to see this week's featured stamper, and click on the links in my right sidebar to see the other Twinklettes fabulous cards!
Filed under: Cards, Challenges, Copics, Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays, The Greeting Farm | Tagged: Anyas, digistamps, Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays, Sketches, The Greeting Farm |


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We help investors like you build a financial fortress through apartment investing. The Apartment Consultant consults and works hands-on with getting new investors their first apartment investment property. We also consult hands-on with current property owners in taking their investing business to the next level. And we consult hands-on with property owners who have problems such negative cash flow, no equity, management problems, loan issues, or facing foreclosure.
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FV-2010NT FV-2010PL is an image clarifying unit for analog signals that enhances the visibility of objects by clarifying low contrast moving images by our original technology "ForteVision".
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Corresponding to 19inch EIA rack.
Connection example
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|2.4 kg (excluding AC adapter)
|External dimensions
|483mm(W) x 200mm(D) x 44mm(H)
|*Product specifications are subject to change without notice.


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HEUCY attended Randi Zinn's #beyondmommixer last night, and we were so impressed by the planning that went into it. In particular, Randi's intention behind who she wanted to include, and how best to "connect" people who may have common goals, career paths, etc. Thanks, Randi, for including us in such a worthwhile and fun event! We also just read a great article in the New York Times about IRL social clubs and Dinner with Bevy, and other "dinner party" networking events where people actually talk and eat together. Physically. In person. Sometimes they even dance!
This week's theme has become (somewhat unintentionally) about people actually interacting and connecting in "real life" — not just through Instagram, or Twitter, or any other type of social media. Disclaimer: HEUCY loves Instagram, and all of those other things…but as the weekend approaches, let's think about putting down our phones and enjoying some literal "face time" with friends and loved ones.
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An early stock market rally appeared to lose steam by midday Friday largely due to dollar strength.
Specifically, the greenback rose against a basket of currencies after the Commerce Department said retail sales rose 1.3 percent in November, more than double the increase analysts had expected.
Although the results initially lifted the stock market, enthusiasm began to wane as more investors speculated the results could mean the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner rather than later.
How should you be positioned?
The market seems to be having trouble again, says Joe Terranova. Lately it seems the market is more receptive to going lower on negative news than higher on positive. I think consolidation is coming into the market.
I'm seeing a lot of buyers of January puts in the S&P 500, says Brian Stutland of Stutland Equities. But that may be a protective play - not necessarily a bet the market goes lower from here.
For months we talked about the market consolidation around 1100 and we're there now, reminds Bill Strazzulo of Bell Curve. This is a good place to take profits. I think we're at the upper end of the range. If you're a trader and we hold 1100 you can bet on the next 10-20 points to the upside -- but big picture I'm a seller of this market.


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I've not had much time to be too crafty this last week or so as we have made a start on Bubs nursery and I've been busy with visitors and work, but I did take some time out on Sunday, to enjoy some of my biggest obsession…TV.
As a massive Arrested Development fan I was incredibly excited for Sunday to finally come around so we got 15 new episodes on Netflix. My brother was visiting and our best friend came over to join in on what was planned as a 7.5 hour marathon to devour the new series in one go. So I decided to make a few show based snacks to enjoy throughout the episodes.
First up were Bluth bananas, 10c gets you nuts!:
Next I made this awesome Cornball recipe, that I found on The Food In My Beard; a great blog with lots of AD themed recipes, they were really yummy and we dipped them in ketchup and sour cream & chive dip, we learnt that the old saying "every damn time!" really does apply when deep frying these, even without the Cornballer!
And we followed them up with Ice Cream Sandwiches….or the closest thing we could find to Ice Cream Sandwiches in the UK.
I wish that more of our friends loved Arrested Development so we could have made a bigger deal out of it and thrown in some Juice Boxes, Jellybeans, Mayoneggs and Hot Ham Water but unfortunately it was just the four of us. Some of the pictures on Instagram tagged #BluthParty really are amazing and some people went all out whilst welcoming our favourite family The Bluths back with open arms!
We started late due to getting bit in the nursery done and only managed 10 episodes in one go (what more do you want from me I'm 29 weeks pregnant!) but I wasn't the only one flagging and after deciding that the episodes deserved our full attention, we awoke fresh and ready Monday morning and finished off the last 5, we all loved it and I can't wait to watch it all over again!
Did you have a Bluth Party? Share your themed snacks and costumes!


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Green Beret and NFL long snapper Nate Boyer supports Colin Kaepernick, questions Nike slogan
Former University of Texas long snapper Nate Boyer, a U.S. Army Green Beret whose attempt to make the NFL resulted in a single 2015 preseason game with the Seattle Seahawks at the age of 34, played a significant role in bringing former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest to light.
After Kaepernick sat on the bench before a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers in 2016, Boyer met with the QB at his next game in San Diego, and the two found common ground. Boyer convinced Kaepernick that kneeling during the national anthem was a way to honor those who gave their lives for the country while communicating his protest of racial inequality and social injustice.
Boyer has done well to communicate his mixed feelings on the subject, urging people on either side of the issue to better understand where the other is coming from — most notably, that athletes are "not protesting the anthem itself, they are demonstrating during the anthem." He doesn't necessarily agree with Kaepernick's form of protest, but he supports (and fought for) his freedom to express it.
It is with all this in mind that Boyer finds Nike's advertising campaign built around Kaepernick "a little bit off-putting," specifically the slogan, "Believe in something, even it means sacrificing everything."
"It's dangerous territory to suggest something like that, just because for me, when I hear 'sacrifice everything,' the last thing I think about is money," Boyer told Seattle's KIRO Radio. "We've been taught since we were children that money isn't everything, and if it's a matter of sacrificing money or your brand, that's far different than sacrificing your life. So, when I see that word everything, that's what strikes me to be a little bit off-putting for a lot of people not only in the veteran community, but people in general."
"Nike is a business. They're trying to sell sneakers. I don't think in our history we've really seen a revolutionary who has a brand sponsor, as far as I know. Colin is more of a pop-culture icon, I'd say. He's a very big one, and he's obviously a a huge advocate and a voice to many voiceless. But at the same time, this is a very different situation, and I don't think Nike would do this if they didn't think it was profitable. … I'm not saying he's not deserving at all, that's not what I'm saying — what I'm saying is all of those brands and nonprofits are absolutely capitalizing on his fame."
'They are not protesting the anthem'
Like most everyone who supports Kaepernick's cause, Boyer does not want Nike's slogan to distract from the former NFL quarterback's quest for social justice. He too would like to see an end to police brutality and other forms of racism in America, and he doesn't want the ad campaign to serve as another wedge to further divide those who already consider Kaepernick's protest an unpatriotic one.
"The men who have followed in Kaepernick's footsteps say they are not protesting the anthem itself, they are demonstrating during the anthem," Boyer, who made the media rounds on Friday, wrote in an NBC News op-ed piece. "It's an important distinction to understand. Personally, I do not endorse Kaepernick's method of protest but I absolutely support his right to do so. That is an unpopular place to stand these days, in the radical middle, defending someone you somewhat disagree with.
"It's hard for me to grasp why this is so difficult for people (from both ends of the political spectrum) to understand. It's OK to be different, it's what makes us the same — embrace it and remember that nobody's a perfect patriot, especially not me."
'This is the most divided I've felt'
It is that divide that bothers Boyer most. How can something that should be so unifying — eradicating restrictions on our freedoms — be so divisive? Miscommunication is the root cause, suggested Boyer, who experienced this firsthand when fellow soldiers criticized him for his support for Kaepernick.
"Since I was born, this is the most divided I've felt," Boyer told The Athletic's Jay Glazer on Friday. "I'm more stressed on a daily basis over the last two years about this (expletive) than I ever was with bullets getting shot at me. I feel this horrible tension all the time, and part of that is I don't want people to hate. I don't want to feel that vitriol toward me, toward my country, toward people that I care about and it's hard to stop paying attention to that stuff. I want to ignore it. I want to just rise above it and move on but at the same time I feel a responsibility to my fellow countrymen, to my veteran community, to not quit on this, especially since I've been involved in it for a couple of years. But with that, there comes a lot of stress. Am I letting my brothers down? I wonder that every day, and it bothers me."
Former Green Beret and long snapper Nate Boyer convinced Colin Kaepernick to take a knee during the national anthem. He explains why.
Posted by The Players' Tribune on Friday, September 7, 2018
"Any of these players that you're pissed off about for protesting, just Google them," Boyer added in a video interview with The Players' Tribune. "It was like this whole thing with LeBron James. It was this 'shut up and dribble' thing, and then just a few months later, he's opening this $50 million school or whatever it is for these underprivileged kids with free tuition, with an opportunity to go to college. Any player who's demonstrating, that I've met at least, is doing something off the field involving making the situation better."
'I really want to call out the American citizens'
That includes Kaepernick, who has donated more than $1 million to charities supporting his cause. (We should also point out that Nike is donating to Kaepernick's "Know Your Rights" campaign as part of his endorsement deal.) Let this be the unifying ground we find in this conversation, rather than allowing certain "people in power" to politicize the issue and contort it into something contentious.
"People in power almost manipulate us or pull us into these silly arguments when so many of us know that the issue is not about protesting the national anthem," Boyer told The Players' Tribune. "I really want to call out the American citizens more than anybody in office or in high places or whatever, because I just believe we can be bigger than that and we're smarter than that."
You would think.
– – – – – – –
Ben Rohrbach is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at email@example.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
More from Yahoo Sports:
• Dan Wetzel: Eagles borrowed play from Patriots' playbook in triumphant return
• Nike's Colin Kaepernick ad a hit, according to commercial analyst
• Top 5 college games to watch this weekend
• Chris Mannix: Ultimate underdog Steve Nash gets HOF spotlight


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It is boring and hard to go to work, and there is an extreme congestion~
Let's overcome with music!
Jump to the beat and earn coins!
* Listen to various music and enjoy the beat
– Enjoy various genres from jazz to rock!
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* Collect dozens of characters with coins collected
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* When you activate Fever mode, a lot of coins come out~
Notice) When you delete the app, the game progress information will be deleted together.


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Pear and Frangipane Tart (i.e. Karen's Pear and Almond Tart)
Fall is in the air. Everywhere you look around. Lips are starting to chap at a faster rate, and convniently you cannot find your good chapstick. However, conveniently, your co-worker brought in pears and you were day dreaming about your aunt's pear tart nearly moments earlier.
So here we are. Pears, pumpkins, it-shall-not-be-named-spice-lattes, chilly winds, chapped lips.
Never a better moment for a tart-because really, I think pies and gallettes and quick breads get all the love in the early moments of fall. Tarts are, for me, a little more fuss-but that is exactly why I love this recipe: minimal fuss, but high reward. Yes, it even looks a little ordinary, but if you want an attractive spiral of pear slices showing after baking, fill it a little less with the frangipane. (if you need to know what frangipane is, see here!)
Rest assured, the pastry for this tart is a press-in style, and if you get down to it, you don't really need to chill the pastry after it has been nudged into the pan (but it does help keep shape, if you're keeeping track).
Pears, since they can go a little mushy when ripe, can be firm. They will soften as the tart bakes, and not turn to complete mush. And, a firmer pear is easier to peel (but you can skip peeling, if you just can't muster it-I know!). I'd venture to guess that apples would work as well here. Replace almonds with walnuts....heck, even pistachios or hazelnuts. Used skinned or fully clothed (i.e. with skin on) nuts, or peeled, the latter resulting in a deeper beige-brown tart. Play with the spices: my aunt's signature is a perfectly balanced hit of cardamom. I usually have a heavy hand with the nutmeg, and throw in ground dried ginger.The little tweaks are endless; my aunt was telling me a few weeks back of her newest rendition of the crust: adding some almond meal! My next idea: a few tablespoons of cormean, paired with apples and perhaps a few fresh cranberries for celebrating autumn.Whatever you do, do make this tart and make it yours...and enjoy it, cozied up on a cool fall morning with a hot cup of tea or coffee, or even after a warming evening meal...make it a more decadent treat with a swoosh of unsweetend whipped cream, or a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream. You can't go wrong!
Karen's Pear and Almond Tart (Pear and Frangipane Tart) // makes 1, 9" to 10" tart //
- 1 1/3 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp (a pinch!) fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 large egg yolks (reserve the whites)
- 3-4 semi-firm pears
- 3/4 cup almonds, toasted and ground medium fine (or, almond flour; really any nut flour or ground nut would work)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon*
- 1/2 tsp cardamom*
- 1/4 tsp ground dried ginger*
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperatures
- 1 egg plus 2 egg whites from above
- 3 tsp vanila extract and/or 1 TB bourbon or other liquer of choice (I use bourbon steeped with vanilla beans)
- optional: 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 TB flour
*any spices you'd like!
1. Make the crust & blind bake: preheat oven to 300. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, butter and salt; with a fork or a pastry blender, blend in the butter with the flour until cornmeal-like consistency, with a few larger chunks the size of peas. Press into a 9-10" tart pan in an even layer. Bake, using pie weights, beans or sugar (my favorite weight!) in parchment or aluminum foil, for 20 minutes until lightly golden brown. Bake for another 10-15 minutes with the pie weights taken out, to brown and firm the bottom. Once done, allow to cool slightly. After you take the tart shell out of the oven, increase the temperature to 350F.
2. While the crust bakes, peel, core (I like to use a teaspoon), and slice the pears into 1/4" to 1/8" slices. Set in a bowl of lemon water to keep from browning.
3. Make the filling by combining butter, sugar, spices and extracts, beating until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add in the eggs and combine, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Finally, mix in the flour.
4. Assemble the tart: arrange the pear slices in a decorative layer in the tart shell, or go for the more rustic route if you wish. Pour the frangipane of the arranged fruit, filling a little less if you want your design to show, and a little more if you don't mind flooding the fruit.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the frangipane is golden and aromatic. Cool completely before taking the tart from the ring, using a paring knife to help loosen any stubborn areas where the tart shell sticks to the ring. Worst case: cut slices from the tart ring! Serve alone, or with lightly whipped unsweetned cream, or your favorite vanilla ice cream. Tart keeps for 1 week in the fridge.


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Non of those experience at all, but i was a college host in china.
I am a sunshine and outgoing big boy from china. 173cm in height, 60kg in weight. I am doing workout from last year, and I have kept doing gym workout for 11 monthes. I am a international student who is doing tourism at that period of time, and seeking for a paty time job that I really interested in. Although I have no modeling experience but I am a quick learner and pactinate on what i like, I hope I can become one of your group and contribute for your organization.


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Quick Note: Second Son is SO good. For any one who enjoys exploring open worlds with lots of stuff to do and play around with all sorts of abilities given to you, this is the game for you. Though the story falls off towards the end of the game, it still hits home pretty well and playing with all the powers is so much fun. If you own a PS4 you need to buy this game.
inFamous has always been a big franchise for me. The idea of an every man gaining crazy super powers and tearing around giant cities appeals to the little boy in me, but the choices of being good or bad brings out the hero (or villain) in me. So when Second Son was announced for PS4, I was ecstatic. Sucker Punch should be proud of this game because it is a fine accomplishment and a perfect representation of what inFamous and inFamous 2 have been building up to.
Second Son takes place 7 years after the end of inFamous 2. Going off of player trophy information, the developers decided to go with the most popular ending to the game, which turned out to be the good ending. (This is your only spoiler alert for inFamous 2. You have been warned.) Cole's death has scared the world into tracking down conduits, in fear of another Empire City or New Marais event. The Department of Unified Protection (DUP for short) has been founded and has walled up Seattle, Washington in the hopes of finding conduits hiding in plain site. After a small series of events, Delsin Rowe, the new protagonist, unlocks his powers and embarks on his adventure to take down the DUP.
As a character, Delsin is very different than Cole. Younger and more rebellious than Cole, Delsin is a good pick to restart the universe on the newest platform. He is constantly mouthing off to the DUP and every side mission reflects his desire to bring down this organization. With this new character we get new powers, specifically, the power to absorb other conduits powers. This is by far the strongest point of Second Son. Though you start out with Smoke, Delsin slowly acquires three more powers, each with enough variety to feel different and create different play styles, but enough similarity that it doesn't change the control schemes behind the game.
Smoke is a great starting point. It is the most similar to Cole's electrical powers and is a great way to break players into the game's play style. With smoke comes more versatility and movement as well. Where as Cole was constantly scaling buildings to gain height, very rarely will you have Delsin climb from bottom to top of any building. And that is the goal with all the powers. As you gain each new power a new layer of movement is added to the game. Neon provides a speed dash (similar to the Flash) that makes travel even faster than Smoke, and so on. Each power iterates on the last to make travel around Seattle amazingly efficient. Plus, add in the fact that each power has it's own specialties, and you'll be dying to get to the next power and level it up as fast as possible.
To gain these powers, Delsin works with his brother Reggie to track down runaway conduits. Most of the story revolves around Delsin finding these conduits, fighting them, gaining the new power, and then mentoring said conduit. Though seemingly shallow on the surface, the interactions are pretty interesting, with Reggie and Delsin constantly clashing on what to do with each conduit they come across. It especially gets interesting when you play the Evil missions, because Reggie, being a cop, does not agree with the Evil choices what so ever.
All of these powers are displayed beautifully in the game. The graphics are drop dead
gorgeous, portraying Seattle in all of it's eccentric glory. There were plenty of times where I would just stop and look at
how beautiful the rain falling from the sky looked or how amazing the
neon lights reflected in the puddles on the ground. There is no way this
game could have been made with last generation technology, and just
looking at it proves this. Aside from the amazing environments, the
facial animations and voice acting of the actors are also spot on.
Watching cut scenes where Delsin's skin actually wrinkles around his
mouth when he talks is amazing, though the teeth and eyes looked oddly
out of place from time to time. Over all, this is the most gorgeous game
on PS4 right now, hands down.
The karma missions, coupled with the overarching story missions, are very interesting and less comic book like than the previous games, which is what makes it so good and also brings it down to earth. However, the last third of the story is really slow and by the time you beat the final boss, the resolution is over so quickly you kind of wish there were more. It felt like all of this build to have this really good boss fight and then...nothing.
That being said, the main antagonist is amazing and much better developed than the main villains of the last two games. 15 minutes into starting the game I knew I wanted to take her down in the most violent way possible, and that's a much stronger emotional response than my reaction to Kessler or the Beast.
The karma system is back with little deviation. Powers are unlocked through a skill tree, but certain paths are only unlocked depending on how good or evil you are. These unique skills change each power set to feel different, so playing through twice (one for good, one for bad) feels rather different from each other, which is great. Many people have complained about this black and white system in the past, and it hasn't changed much from that. Personally, I like it. In an open world game like this I don't particularly want all the shades of grey when it comes to character decisions, especially when the karma effects powers you gain. That being said, if you weren't a fan of the system before hand, don't expect anything different here. There are also less of these missions than previous, making the impact less intense as it should feel. Where as inFamous 1 and 2 had roughly 10 or more Evil/Good missions you
had to choose from, Second Son only has 5, and one of those is the
final mission. So a majority of your heroic or villainous decisions are
made outside of the story, making the impact feel smaller than it had in
the past games and making you wish there was more.
Aside from the story missions and the Heroic and Evil tasks, there are plenty of side quests to hamper the DUP. My favorite thing thing about these missions is how organically they are interwoven to Delsin's mission and how they don't feel tagged on. Even collecting blast shards has a more logical progression and meaning to why there are blast shards in the city, rather than a giant explosion expelling them across the area. This continuity makes the game come together better as a whole, making each mission feel like a step closer to your ultimate goal rather than being an extra thing on the side.
Sucker Punch has also announced and released free DLC for the game. Since launch, the team has released a set of missions each week (and will do so for 3 more weeks) titled the Paper Trail missions. Each mission requires Delsin to follow a conduit with paper powers to crime scenes and investigate the killer by sending evidence to an anonymous helper: you. By logging into this website, you can link your PS4 and create an account to solve the puzzles to open up more missions on your PS4. These missions not only add to the story and universe that Delsin is apart of, but are also so much fun to solve. Sucker Punch could have easily just done a quick cash in, but the detail put into these missions is amazing and totally worth playing through I highly recommend that everyone who plays the game play through these missions to get more out of the game.
Aside from a few story hiccups, Second Son is amazing. The feeling of the new powers, the ability to move across Seattle like never before possible in the past games, and the succinctness of the world just brings everything together in such a nice package that is hard to put down once you pick it up. Hopefully Sucker Punch takes this amazing engine and brings Delsin around one more time for a conclusion to his story so they can patch up the narrative stuff, but don't touch the gameplay, because it is perfect. I highly recommend this game to any PS4 owner, especially if you never played the other inFamous games because this game is that good.
9.5 out of 10
Here are a Few Links:
IGN Review
Game Site
Papertrails Site
Metacritic Page


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The warm spices of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves combine with molasses and a bit of brown sugar to make these Gingerbread Scones an irresistible partner to your morning cup of coffee or tea!
*This recipe was originally posted on 12/03/12. Images and text updated 12/07/16.
It happens every year. I seem to latch on to one holiday flavor and bake everything possible with that flavor. Last year was peppermint, and the year before that it was eggnog.
It's not going to take long for you to figure out this year's flavor. Gingerbread! I just can't stop.
First the gingerbread french toast bake, now gingerbread scones, and at least two more gingerbread recipes coming soon!
Gingerbread has Christmas written all over it for me. Maybe it's because of gingerbread houses, gingerbread muffins, gingerbread lattes, gingerbread men, etc.
There is a lot of gingerbread that appears around the holidays, and these scones are one more way in which you can enjoy the flavor.
Even though these scones are 100% whole wheat, they still have a light, tender texture. Though I do have to say that I wouldn't use plain whole wheat flour. Stick with the white whole wheat flour, especially if you have picky eaters.
The regular whole wheat flour has a noticeable change in texture. So just know that in case you want to substitute whole wheat for white whole wheat flour!
The warm spices of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves combine with molasses and a bit of brown sugar to give these scones the classic gingerbread flavor, and a simple confectioner's sugar glaze finishes them off to add a bit of sweetness.
These scones are a perfect addition to a holiday brunch or a sweet pairing to your morning cup of coffee!
- 2 C white whole wheat flour
- ⅓ C brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1½ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp cloves
- ½ C unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
- ⅓ C molasses
- ⅓ C milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp water
- coarse sugar
- ½ C confectioner's sugar
- 2 tsp milk
- Preheat oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
- Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in molasses, milk, egg, and vanilla extract just until combined.
- Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Gently knead 5-6 times until dough comes together. Shape dough into an 8-inch circle. Stir together egg and water. Brush egg wash over dough. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Cut into 8 pieces and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges just start to turn golden brown.
- Remove to a wire rack to cool.
- Stir together confectioner's sugar and milk until smooth. Drizzle over cooled scones. Allow glaze to harden and serve.