September, 2012 archive
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Section V of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania states
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court seems to have read that bit:
The 4-2 decision by the state Supreme Court sends the case back to a Commonwealth Court judge who initially said the divisive law could go forward. The high court asked the judge, Robert Simpson, for his opinion by Oct. 2.
If Simpson finds there will be no voter disenfranchisement and that IDs are easily obtained, then the 6-month-old law can stand, the Supreme Court said.
Of course, the purpose of the law was disenfranchisement, so we shall see whether Judge Simpson will try to spin his way out of this one.
Gardens by the Sea 0
Update: Picture fixed.
Sunday, we went to the Botanical Gardens, primarily to see the Butterfly House. Unfortunately, it was a cool, gray day and, as the volunteer explained to us, too cool for the butterflies to be active. Nevertheless, we still saw some neat stuff.
Hooray for Hollywood! 2
At Asia Times, Christof Lehmann wonders why cultural artifacts with little or no influence, such as the Mohammed cartoons of several years ago and the slanderous YouTube trailer of last week evoke such strong reactions from some corners of the Muslim community.
I think it likely that persons who wish to foment discontent wait for a pretext, then seize it when it come along. It happens in our own Wingnut World; why not in theirs?
But why are others so willing to join them?
Lehmann thinks that the best-known public face of the United States, its “entertainment” industry, has helped prepare the field. A snippet from the article:
(snip)
(Arab American scholar, D Jack Shaheen–ed.) Shaheen concluded that over 300 movies, more than 25% of all those he studied, vilified Arabs and Muslims in one way or the other, comparing it to World War II Nazi propaganda against the Jewish people. Shaheen argues that both have caused unspeakable human suffering due to the fact that it would be difficult to have a population accept the brutal treatment of an entire people without those people first being deprived of their humanity.
The article goes on to cite specific examples, including Disney’s Alladin (Disney’s Alladin!).
I think there’s something in his theory and will give my own example.
I’m a mystery buff–not suspense, not “action thrillers,” but mysteries: books, movies, television, OTR. I have long believed that what keeps long-running shows on the air is not the strength of the stories; it is difficult to produce quality scripts on a weekly schedule. (Contrast exceptionally well-written British mysteries, such as Morse and Inspector Lewis–they commonly produce four to eight shows a season, rather than 20 or more.) Rather, the success is in creating characters that the audience enjoys following.
I like the NCIS television show, primarily for the humorous interplay amongst the lead characters (anyone who actually behaved like the character, Tony DiNozzo, would have been disciplined for sexual harassment by the second episode and fired by the fourth). I came to the show in reruns on cable networks sometime during its third or fourth season. and found it enjoyable mental chewing gum.
I quickly learned how to recognize the earlier episodes: They tended to be ones in which the plot involved terrorism of some kind. As time passed and the folly of the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq became more apparent, the percentage of storylines involving “terrorists plots” declined drastically, as the show morphed more and more towards conventional murder mysteries (often straining the pretexts for having a military agency involved in the investigation).
And the “terrorists” were almost always portrayed as brown-skinned men with two-day-old beards and Middle Eastern accents. Common garden variety home-grown terrorists, the Timothy McVeighs of our world, the ones who “look like us” (at least, some of us), the ones who strike our society regularly, need not apply.
And NCIS is mild compared to many movies.
Hollywood, our largest export, has spent the better part of two decades telling us and the rest of the world that Muslims is teh scariest. Just as it can affect our attitudes, it can affect the attitudes of others.
Normal Psych? 0
At Psychology Today blogs, Steven Reiss tries to understand why Mitt Flips so many gaffes and missteps. He finds a possible answer in the obscure concept of “self-hugging,” the assumption that one’s own values are the best, not just for oneself, but for everyone else.
A nugget from the post:
Romney’s other value is himself. When he self-hugs what I call the need for acceptance, he projects overconfidence. Self-hugging a very weak need for acceptance makes people blind when others see them as overconfident. He tells us, “I’ll fix the economy ,” and is blind to his need to explain how.
Read the rest. It’s not pretty.
Neither is Dick Destiny’s analysis of Mitt the Flip’s appeal.
iNsane for iJunk 0
Fruit users, take note: The aRrogance of Apple aCcelerates aPace:
Follow the link to compare the logos. Then point and laugh.
Via LQ.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
This should work out well.
The oil field services company lost track of the device, which is used to assess potential sites for hydraulic fracturing, last Tuesday while trying to transport it from Pecos to a well site near Odessa 130 miles away. A special unit of the Texas National Guard has now stepped in to aid Halliburton in a search for the cylinder, according to Bloomberg.
Via Dick Destiny.
Dehulled Green Gram Lentil 0
This recipe comes from my LQ acquaintance Anisha Kaul and is posted with her permission. Follow the link for her original post.
I asked her to allow me to post it because it is, quite frankly, delicious. as well as authentically Indian, not modified for someone’s concept of the American palate. I shall post more of her recipes as I try them.
She explains that the Hindi name for the dish is Dhuli Moong dal.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds (Aka Zeera in Hindi)
- 3 medium green chillies (Aka Hari mirch in Hindi)
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder (Aka Haldi in Hindi)
- 1/2 tablespoon fennel powder (Aka Saunf in Hindi)
- 1/2 tablespoon ginger powder (Aka Adrak in Hindi)
- 1/2″ fresh ginger
- 1/4 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 medium onion
- 1 small tomato
- 1/2 tablespoon Salt
- 3/4 cup dehulled green gram lentil (Note: I could find only one type of lentils at my local American super market. I used it and the dish turned out quite nicely. All the other ingredients were readily available).
- Oil for frying onion and tomato. (I used olive oil.)
Directions:
Pressure cook the dehulled green gram lentil with salt and turmeric powder till it tenders. (I did not pressure cook the lentils, having given away my little pressure cooker, but boiling per the instructions on the bag worked quite nicely.)
Chop onion, tomato, green chillies as thinly possible and grate fresh ginger.
Fry cumin seeds till they turn a shade darker and add chopped ginger, onion, green chillies.
After the above ingredients turn golden brown, add chopped tomatoes and fry for few more minutes.
Add the above fried ingredients with the remaining powders in the utensil containing the dehulled green gram lentil. (No need to fry the remaining spices).
Let the mixture boil (without cover) for 3 minutes. Making this lentil thicker than usual will increase the taste.
Serve hot with boiled rice.
“A Uniter, Not a Divider” 1
Details at the link.
Escalation 0
In my day, we would t-p the place.
Two of the devices exploded.
1-800-MEOW-R-U 0
Fiction Imitates Truth 1
It would seem that the TV show Person of Interest, positing a giant surveillance computer tracking us all, is not all that far off the mark. The computer, though, is not called “Sibilance,” it’s called “Stellar Wind”:
From Raw Story:
The gigantic building is set to cost $2bn and be up and running by 2013.
It is being designed to store huge amounts of accessible web information – such as social media updates – but also information in the “deep web” behind passwords and other firewalls that keep it away from the public.
As an example of Stellar Wind’s power, Binney believes it is hoovering up virtually every email sent by every American and perhaps a good deal of the people of the rest of the world, too.
“I didn’t expect it from my government. I thought we were the good guys. We wear white hats, right?” he said.
Read the rest.
Sauce for the Goose 0
At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reg Henry considers Mitt the Flip’s foray into the birther nonsense. A nugget:
Last month, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, revived the giddy romance of the birthers’ obsession by making a little joke while visiting his home state of Michigan with his wife Ann. “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
That is true. However, it raises another thought: What the American people don’t know is not his birthplace but where some of Mr. Romney’s money was born and raised.