Some commenters here have started discussing the Ariel Castro sentencing — and the remarkable, delusional, self-pitying, victim-blaming statement he made before being sentenced — in the Minter Meltdown thread. Because so much of what he said — and so many of the issues raised — are potentially triggering, I thought it would be good to open up a separate thread for this.
Here’s a piece at the Daily Beast with some of the most astounding quotes from Castro’s statement today.
Consider this whole thread to have a TRIGGER WARNING on it for discussions of Castro’s rape apologias and victim blaming.
To paraphrase the Fabulous Furry Freek Brothers, six hundred pounds of weed will get you through times of no tigers better than a six hundred pound tiger will get you through times of no weed. That said, the ability of otherwise human beings to do monstrous things and still believe themselves to not be monsters has been well documented. But the willingness of at least one human being to defend Mr. Castro has dismayed me.
I use Hermesetas in my drinks. It has a distinct flavour, not like sugar, but I like it. I don’t know if it can be used in cooking. One point in its favour is that it doesn’t have the slightly chemical taste of some of the artificial sweeteners.
Ah, but I’m sure a 600-pound tiger could get you some weed.
But I don’t do weed, so that’s no help! I want tigers, dammit!
Stevia: I’ve tried using it. I’ve found that the flavor varies depending on the brand. Also, it’s really, REALLY sweet, so you want to use only a tiny bit. Otherwise there’s this funky medicinal aftertaste.
I decided I didn’t like it. I’d rather stick with regular sugar and just eat less of it.
A
60011 pound tiger doingweedshoes.http://youtu.be/UkUYjXp3AYU
I’ve found it’s ultimately easier to just re-train my taste-buds. I’ve learned to like plain water, and desserts that consist mostly of fruit. I wouldn’t eat a mass-market chocolate bar unless you paid me, like, a LOT, because I now find them to be sickeningly sweet and otherwise flavourless.
I read somewhere, once, that any sweetener, even stevia, that has that bitter aftertaste is still going to have some kind of insulin reaction.
I was cooking with Splenda for awhile, but it had a funny aftertaste, too. And one time, I mixed it with vanilla (part of the recipe) and it foamed up and tasted salty.
So yeah. No sugar, no zero-cal fake sugars. Just learn to like new flavours.
Stevia – my older son loves loves LOVES the sweet, especially in his breakfast cereal. We get him 365 brand* Stevia extract. So he’s learning to take the bitter (aftertaste) with the sweet.
*Yes, Whole Foods house brand. We are what we are.
You can get somewhat less bitterness by growing the stevia yourself and either drying it and using the powdered leaves or by making simple syrup (well sweet water, it won’t get syrupy) from one cup of water to about a quarter cup of chopped leaves. It’s potent stuff, though.
…and I’m on the ‘retrain the taste buds’ bandwagon as well. It’s been easier to ramp down the sweet than to find an acceptable sugar substitute, and now I just have the sugar itself when I want sweet (like for baking) because I’m down to so very little of it.
This thread has become like a really bizarre game of Settlers of Catan.
I have tigers! Anyone wanna trade tigers for weed?
I can turn enough weed into a police force.
I was at work today and didn’t get to see it. Does anyone have a full transcript of his statement?
USian food is pretty highly sweetened generally, isn’t it?
Meh, the idea that almost all foods need sugar/salt to enhance the flavor is, IMO, not generally true. Some recipes need them; many don’t and you can get a more interesting flavor by just making better use of other ingredients. I always try to cut out or reduce salt and sugar if I’m not making a specifically salty or sugary dish.
katz, I agree. I rarely put salt or sugar on my food these days. My sweeteners are just for tea, coffee and cocoa.
Speaking of which, I just had a chicken and avocado sandwich with pepper in it. WHY? What does adding a burn to a sandwich do to improve the flavour? /grumble
OT, but has anyone here tried reading terrible fanfic out loud and then recording it through Vocaroo? After finally getting Vocaroo to work on my browser, I’ve been doing it non-stop. In particular, I’ve been reading the infamous Peter Chimaera’s old work (found here: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/181593/Peter-Chimaera) Anyone else want to have a go at them?
Most processed foods have some sugar even if they’re not meant to be sweet, but in terms of stuff you make yourself, no, most non-dessert foods do not need sugar in them. In my entire collection of frequently used recipes there’s only one that calls for sugar (nikujaga), and even in that case I ended up taking the sugar out and liking the stew better that way.
Oh, and here’s Vocaroo.
While I’m at it, here’s one I did: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0jZ4YPLU9kY (text is here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5413251/1/Digimon-3-Predator-Vs-Digimon)
I put about a tablespoon in when I am making a pot of French onion soup (for about four cups of sliced onions, to help them caramelize as they brown), but other than for cookies and the like, I don’t use sugar at all. I never liked sweet hot coffee (unless I am in the mood for Turkish coffee, which for me has to be sweet) and I’ve weaned myself off sweetened iced coffee as well.
@ Ally
That dude is a Poe, right? I mean…
He probably is a Poe, but he’s probably one of the best Poes out there.
Hats off to him, it must take a lot of effort to consistently write like that.
The comment of his that I hate the most, I think, is when he claims that he didn’t rape them, because THEY WEREN’T VIRGINS. So what if they did have sexual partners before him? That doesn’t make his actions any less rapey. He forced them, whether by violence, threats, simply chaining them up and taking them while they were helpless, or by brainwashing. It’s ALL rape. And, yes, it absolutely is possible to rape a non-virgin. In fact, it’s possible to rape a prostitute! Get it through your heads, people! If a person does not say yes, then it is not consensual, and that is RAPE!
Arrrrgh!
That’s … not a whole lot worse than stuff I used to see on FanStory.