January, 2009 archive
The Long Arm of the UAW 0
We hear from the right that it’s always the fault of the working person who has the temerity to want fair pay, health care, and a retirement.
Oh. Wait. There’s no UAW in Japan, is there?
Mystery 2
Why does Microsoft think that persons with half a head will sell Xboxes?
Is it because persons with half a head buy Microsoft?
Wingnuts Lie 0
Here’s the lie (don’t go there if you’ve just eaten a meal).
Here’s the truth.
Life must be so easy in their parallel universe.
H/T Karen for the wingnut.
Stray Question 10
Does sweet potato pie count as a vegetable in dietary planning?
Never a Good Sign 3
There’s a plumber parked in front of the house of one of my neighbors.
I’ve dealt with that company. It’s my first call when I need a plumber.
But life is a lot better when you don’t need a plumber.
Telling People Not To Do It Just Doesn’t Do It 0
“Abstinence education” is a fraud and a sham that promotes STDs and out-of-wedlock pregnancy and wastes public money:
Now a new study has found that pledgers were less likely to protect themselves from disease or pregnancy by using condoms or other birth control methods. Moreover, five years after taking the pledge, 82 percent of pledgers denied ever having done so.
The issue is not that abstinence until marriage is bad. It is, by and large, a good thing. It is also, by and large, unheard of in real life.
Relying only on counseling abstinence to kids, without also teaching them what to do if they find themselves intentionally or accidentally no longer abstinent, is foolish.
Never Fail Cornbread 3
In the Southern Living Our Best Recipes Cookbook (1980), this is billed as “Outer Banks Cornbread.”
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) butter
1 cp cornmeal (yellow preferred)
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cp milk
1 egg
Turn oven to 425 Fahrenheits. Place butter in 9 x 5 or equivalent Pyrex and shove in oven.
Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl. If you feel adventurous, add an extra egg (makes the cornbread lighter).
When butter has melted in the Pyrex, take baking pan out of oven and pour batter into pan making sure to center it in the melted butter.
Shove the whole thing back into the oven and bake until done (approx. 20 mins. or until knife comes out clean).
Variations:
Jalapeno Cornbread: Add one small can chopped jalapenos or equivalent chopped pickled jalapenos or sauted chopped fresh jalapenos. Or habaneros if you are lucky enough to have some on hand.
Cheese Cornbread: Grate up some cheese and throw it into the mix.
Oyster Cornbread: Don’t go there.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut a block and a half from Front St. there on the north side of Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.
The meters are cheaper on Front than they are on Chestnut.
Come get in touch with your inner sane person.
Leadership Vacuums 5
Bushies are going around comparing the Current Federal Administrator to a Truman an Electrolux.
(Aside: I love my Electrolux. It picks up everthing. Dust. Dog hair. Pebbles. Leaves. Small rocks. Boulders. Subcompact automobiles.)
He’s what you get when you cross a Harding with a Hoover.
An expensive ersatz DustBuster. You know, a leadership vacuum that sucks, and doesn’t even do that very well.
Except that even a DustBuster–the real one, not the ersatz one–is useful in emergencies.
“There They Go Again” (Updated) 0
As predictable as the arrest of a Wall Street banker:
Republicans, faced with their failed policies, blame everything except their own failed policies:
I’d end this just with just the word “buffoons,” except that they have done too much harm to too many persons for too many years to be dismissed so casually.
Addendum:
Stray Question, Cable Televison Dept. 0
Why do the guys in those Viagra ads always have wives who look at least 20 years younger than the guys do? (Yeah, I know, it’s the casting dept., but really . . .)
Fool. Money. Parted. Soon. 3
Regular readers know that I make no apologies for my faith. It just is.
Faith is the evidence of things unseen, not the denial of things seen.
And, in the full light of that, I have to say that this is gross beyond words. Totally took the edge off my M*A*S*H rerun.
Requiem on the Phony War on Christmas 0
Yeah, I know that Christmas was over a week ago, but this is just too well-said to pass up (emphasis added). Tom Noyes:
That’s about one-third of the post. The remaining two-thirds are just as good.