June, 2013 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
When you are waiting, pass the time politely:
The pair was waiting to meet the buyer of some merchandise they had been selling online, Crump said.
The man in the black vehicle got out, began talking to the couple and the conversation turned aggressive. The man then pulled out a firearm on the couple and one of the people in the white Toyota fired at him, authorities said.
We Need Single Payer 0
Alan Grayson once famously said that the Republican health care plan consisted of “Don’t get sick. If you do, die quickly.”
That seems a fitting lead in to this.
TSA Security Theatre, Miss Grundy Dept. 2
Mark Frauenfelder reports:
Frauenfelder says that he is pursuing this incident with TSA management.
There’s a picture at the link. I can be as much a dirty old man as the next guy, but I can’t see anything improper about the young lady’s outfit.
I have quoted my Freshman roommate before and it’s still true:
Give some people a flat hat and they think they rule the world.
Via AmericaBlog.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
No surprise here.
Steak and Kidney Pie 0
British cooking is not known for highness of its cuisine.
When I spent my junior year in England, lo! these many moons ago, I fell in love with Indian restaurants, which were as common there as Chinese restaurants were here. The one strictly English dish I really liked was steak and kidney pie.
Recently, I found a beef kidney at a local market, and I made a steak and kidney pie, using one of the recipes from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times International Coookbook.
Be forewarned: the result is very rich.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 lbs. beef, preferably top sirloin
- 4 veal kidneys (I had one beef kidney weighing about 2 1/2 lbs.)
- salt and pepper
- nutmeg
- 1/4 cp. butter
- 1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1/4 cp. chopped shallots (I used spring onions)
- 1 tbs. minced garlic
- 1 tbs. dried tarragon
- 1 cp. drained canned tomatoes, quartered (you could also use diced tomatoes)
- 1 cp. dried white wind (I used dry sherry)
- 1 1/2 cps. brown sauce or 1 10 3/4 oz. can beef gravy
- 1 tsp. chopped thyme
- 5 hard-boiled eggs
- Pastry for crust
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tbs. water
Procedure:
1. Cut beef into 1″ cubes. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
2. Cut kidneys similarly.
3. Saute beef in approx. 1/2 the butter. Remove when browned.
4. Saute kidney in the same skillet. Remove when browned.
5. Add remaining butter to the skillet, then add mushrooms. When the mushrooms are limp, add shallots, tarragon, tomatoes, garlic, and wine. Stir in brown sauce and thyme. Bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer for ten minutes or until the meat is tender.
6. Pour the mixture into a 2 1/2 qt. casserole and allow to cool to lukewarm. (I used two 1 1/2 qt. casseroles so I could freeze one.)
7. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Meanwhile, slice the eggs in quarters lengthwise and place them on top of the mixture. Cover with the pie crust, being sure to make a slash so the steam can escape. (My pie crust skills are sorely lacking–the crust broke in a couple of spots.) Brush with beaten egg and water.
8. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce heat to 350 degrees for half an hour or until the crust is nicely browned.
The Republican War against Women 0
Republicans getting skeevier and skeevier.
The Surveillance State 2
I have not been flipping out over the recent NSA stories because, as I mentioned, it’s old news. If you didn’t know this was going on, you haven’t been paying attention.
In this video, Alan Grayson falls into the trap of believing some of the more fantastic inferences in some of the news stories (as has most everybody else who doesn’t understand how networks work), particularly the one of confusing SFTP with a “backdoor into a server”; nevertheless, I think that his comments on the the entwining of domestic surveillance and the military establishment are worth a listen.
On Linux Outlaws this week, Fab, whose university training was in Political Science (and whose rants are legendary in the Linux podcasting world), went off on this topic. He had a good handle on the facts, international law, and the implications of this practice, if not on his language.
The relevant portion of the show starts at the 55 minute mark and lasts about half an hour (follow the link to listen; if you do, remember that the language is NSFW and that the standards for “acceptable” profanity in the UK, where Fab resides, differ significantly from those in the US–in particular, the list of the most forbidden words in the UK does not include the most forbidden swear word in the US).
Video via AmericaBlog.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
When confronted with the truth, slur the messenger.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
As through your life you wend your way,
Scatter politeness throughout the day.
“Dad,” the 9-year-old said. “There’s a gun.”
(snip)
There, perched atop a toilet paper dispenser inside a busy bathroom inside a busy movie theater, he discovered the loaded Glock 26, a small semiautomatic weapon.
Privacy, Schmivacy 2
Even as the public falls on the fainting couch over the NSA, Arthur Dobrin says, “Give it up already.”
A nugget:
(snip)
Last year an indignant father accused Target of maligning his daughter by sending her coupons for baby items. It turns out Target knew better than the father. The girl hadn’t yet told her father the news. Data-mining did the job.
Facebook Frolics 0
A local police dispatcher is in trouble with the public after a Facebook post related to a recent police action (emphasis added).
“She didn’t think anybody would see it,” he said. She said she believed “it was a private communication between her and Busby, or so she thought.”
Private.
Internet.
Facebook.
Yeah.
Right.
Enabler 2
I read the Michael Gerson column that the Booman refers to in this post.
As I did, I concluded that it was such a load of hooey that I would not waste my time blogging about it and that, if Gerson had any sincerity, he would admit that, in bitching about the right, he was repudiating his career, which he has devoted to putting lipstick on the wingnut pig.
But he doesn’t, and he didn’t.
QOTD 0
William Sloane Coffin:
To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.
Tempus Keeps Fugitting Along 0
Historiann has a blast from the past, complete with an echo from the now.
