June, 2013 archive
“Me, Me, Me” 0
Persons who post pictures of themselves doing everything all over the innertubes have acquired a nickname: Selfies.
Not everyone considers them narcissistic trifling self-absorbed self-aggrandizing twits with nothing better to do.
She sees some key differences between selfies and self-portraits of yore. Unlike painted portraiture, selfies are easily deletable. And “bad or funny is good in a way that wasn’t the case when people had to pay for film to be developed,” or for a professional painter, she said.
“Albrecht Durer’s self-portraiture is these incredible self-reflections and explorations of technique, and then when Rihanna snaps her picture it’s just self-aggrandizement, or it’s promotion, so you have a fairly interesting double standard based upon who’s taking the self-portrait,” said Rutledge, in Boston.
Indeed.
Gut Out the Vote 1
I can’t decide whether, in its ruling on the Voting Rights Act, the majority in the Supreme Court was being delusional or craven. Or both.
Anyone who pays attention knows that attempts to suppress votes are no farther away than your local legislature’s last attempt to restrict the franchise and that they are more common in the South.
And the white South has not changed, not that much, and not that fundamentally. The number of Stars and Bars decals on cars and trucks attests to that.
This was a vile ruling, a boon to bigots, a compounding of corruption, a polluting of the polity.
See Dick Polman for more and even more.
George Smith expects the worst. According to TPM, he’s not far off the mark.
Forecasts of Snowden 0
Excerpt:
News is not a game show!
On a more serious note, Juan Cole is also unhappy with the coverage of Snowden.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite at home.
It doesn’t end, does it?
State Rape 4
More stuff you can’t make up.
Football uber Alles 2
Bob Molinaro yearns for a half-time.
Snowden Jobs 0
Are other countries resisting attempts to extradite Snowden because they are finally fed up with U. S. arrogance international conduct?
Worth a thought.
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Thursday 0
Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.
When: Thursday, june 27th, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
“Feed My Sheep” 0
Not if you are a Republican. E. J. Dionne comments on the recently-defeated Farm Bill:
Read the rest.
Frank’s Scalloped Potatoes 0
Nothing could beat my mother’s scalloped potatoes, nor her macaroni and cheese (to call it “mac and cheese” would dishonor it). Neither dish suffered the crime that such dishes usually suffer–to swim in milk, slowly sogging to mush.
I don’t have her recipes for either and I wish I did.
I made these yesterday. They weren’t as good as my mother’s, but they passed the girlfriend test.
It’s an original recipe, but it’s hardly revolutionary.
Ingredients:
6 medium white or red russet potatoes (or 3 large Idahos).
Salt, pepper, and paprika (the real thing, Hungarian paprika from Hungary, not the sad Spanish stuff that passes for paprika in your average American spice rack*).
3 tbs. approx. chopped parsley, fresh, if possible.
Enough thin slices of sharp cheddar cheese to cover.
For the sauce:
2 tbs. butter.
2 tbs. flour.
1/2 cp. milk.
1/2 cp. approx. grated sharp cheddar cheese.
Procedure:
1. Boil the potatoes. Let cool.
2. Grease an 8″x8″ casserole.
3. Slice the potatoes and layer them in the casserole. Lightly sprinkle salt, pepper, paprika on each layer. Add the parsley.
4. Prepare the sauce (a basic white sauce with cheese).
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a. Melt the butter in a sauce pan.
b. Brown the flour in the butter, stirring with a whisk.
c. At the same time, bring the milk to a boil over high heat in another sauce pan (this is the tricky part**).
d. As the milk comes to a boil, pour it all at once into the flour/butter mixture.
e. Stir rapidly with the whisk until the mixture thickens.
f. Add the grated cheese and stir until the mixture is smooth.
5. Pour the sauce over the potatoes. Cover with the cheese slices.
6. Bake in a medium oven (350 Fahrenheits) until the cheese is nicely browned.
This is not a dish that must be served as soon as it’s ready. If it’s ready too early, reduce heat to 175 Fahrenheits until ready to serve. If necessary, you can prepare it in advance and reheat it for serving.
Serves four.
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*Yes, there is a difference. When the kids were young, ex and I would fix them celery stalks stuffed with cream cheese and covered with your average run-of-the-mill Spanish paprika. We called the paprika “red sprinkles.” Hungarian paprika has flavor–it would never allow itself to be called “red sprinkles”–it would demand to be recognized.
**Making a white sauce can be tricky. You must catch the boiling milk at just the right point, while avoiding burning the flour. This means browning the flour and boiling the milk simultaneously, one eye on each pan. It is best to place them on adjacent burners to avoid eye strain.
When milk reaches the boiling point, it will rise up in the sauce pan all at once as if it is going to erupt like a volcano. The moment it starts the rise up, pour it into the roux and the sauce will thicken properly. Too soon or too late, and the thickening genie goes right back into the bottle.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Notice how these “good guys with guns” never seem to know when their damn guns are loaded?
It’s No Secret 0
In Der Spiegel, Christian Stöcker comments on the surveillance state. It’s a subject that Germany and Germans are particularly sensitive to, because Germany and Germans have lived it.
A nugget–follow the link for the rest (caveat: they fell into the trap that others have of confusing SFTP with “direct access,” but, from a policy standpoint, that’s pretty much irrelevant):
That was precisely the goal, according to the head of the NSA, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander. “Why can’t we collect all the signals all the time?” he asked in an internal document acquired by the Guardian. “Sounds like a good summer project for Menwith,” he continued, referring to a GCHQ facility at Menwith Hill in northern England.
I have a thought: Substitute “Russian” and “Chinese” for “American” and “British” wherever those words appear in the article and imagine the uproar that would be coming from Washington over this.
Cooch and the Cuckoos, Plantation Theology Dept. 0
More stuff you can’t make up.
