Author: David

NOTE CHANGE: Beginning next Monday, [ed–first performance broadcast Monday, downloads begin to be available Tuesday] the BBC will be offering all 9 of Beethoven’s symphonies for download…

Info at the site:

Download all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies here the day after they are broadcast. All the symphonies are performed by BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

Symphonies 1 & 3 will be broadcast on Monday 6th June, and available to download from Tuesday 7th June to Monday 13th June.
Symphonies 2, 4 & 5 will be broadcast on Tuesday 7th June, and available to download from Wednesday 8th June to Tuesday 14th June.
Symphony 6 will be broadcast on Monday 27th June, and available to download from Tuesday 28th June to Monday 4th July.
Symphony 7 will be broadcast on Tuesday 28th June, and available to download from Wednesday 29th June to Tuesday 5th July.
Symphony 8 will be broadcast on Wednesday 29th June, and available to download from Thursday 30th June to Wednesday 6th July.
Symphony 9 will be broadcast on Thursday 30th June, and available to download from Friday 1st July to Thursday 7th July

Always a good idea to hear other interpretations of these works. I have my favs, but I can be surprised by a fresh performance, just like anyone else.

The BBC is still stuck in the 20th Century and requires Real Player for (a rather limited) live listening, rather than adopting a better, more cross-platform streaming solution, so downloading the mp3s after they are made available may be the best option for you. OTOH, here’s a Real Player alternative that works. Transparent and (completely unlike Real Player) non-intrusive, non-invasive, Real Alternative is a decent software solution to Real Player’s stinkiness.

Carnival of the Recipes #42 is up at Conservative Friends

Oh man! I already had Christine’s Pancake Soufflé on the schedule for this weekend, and now I’m working through about a month’s worth of new recipes in this Carnival alone!

Go check out the foods of the blogoshere, drool, wipe your face (and change your clothes) and then get out your grocery list, cos it’s gonna be a great ride with the grocery cart after this one!

Of course, don’t neglect my quick n easy quiche recipe. And browse around while you’re at it. There’s bound to be something here that’ll annoy the devil outa you.

🙂

You tell me. As more and more information about Watergate was leaking to the press (notably Bernwood and Steinword), this conversation occurred in the Oval office, according to a taped conversation on Oct. 19, 1972:

Nixon: Well, if they’ve got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can’t Gray tell us what the hell is left? You know what I mean? …

Haldeman: We know what’s left, and we know who leaked it.

Nixon: Somebody in the FBI?

Haldeman: Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can’t say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there’s a real concern. Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because —

Nixon: Do anything? Never.

So, Nixon knew Felt—the putative “Deep Throat”—had leaked at least some of the information that brought his presidency down when, after Mark Felt retired (1973) and then later was indicted for ordering warrantless searches on the Weather Underground, Nixon testified in his behalf.

Now, you tell me: who’s the real mensch in this story?

I’d give someone a hat tip on this, but the basic facts are long well-known (that Nixon knew Felt was leaking and his testimony in Felt’s behalf).

UPDATE: Romeocat loves this “meme-ory” tag. I can see why. Her list reminds me of many other childhood memories of my own.
UPDATE #2: Spurs chimes in with… another list I can resonate strongly with. Oh, and Spurs just HAD to add another meme-ory—and it’s one that’ll crack you up… Spurs really got ahead on his blogroll entry rent. 🙂
UPDATE #3: Christine outdoes herself! She posted a collection not only at Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea, but a different collection at By the Way.
UPDATE #4:

BTW, if you’re not a regular reader of any of the blogs above, browse around their blogs for some good reads. I blogrolled each of these because I read them daily.

Detestable Dan does it again,
(I don’t know what’s up with this guy)
He tags me once more, detestable man,
Just winds one up and lets fly!

Dan Riehl, of Riehl World View, decided the way to end the week was by misspelling the name of my blog (he obviously has no idea how hard it is to get my fingers to type “Riehl”), insulting me and then asking me to participate in what he calls “this Detestable Meme.”

“…Third World Country [SIC] – I know, I didn’t take up some of the memes you sent me. One was even the music meme mentioned in VC’s double whammy post. For saddling me with such tremendous guilt, what better pay back than to return the favor. No need to thank me. Bwahahaha!”

Ever one to fold in the face of such saccharine sweetness and smarmy blandishments (no thanks to Dan, indeed 🙂 I hereby take up the torch he passes on! Anyone singed by the flame can take responsibility for their own burns. That’ll teach you a lesson.

The rules (quoting Dan, with minor edits):

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog’s name in the #5 spot. You need to… actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme-age to kick in.

Next, select four unsuspecting victims, list and link to them.

Fine

1. Boudicca’s Voice – With boys like yours, Bou, you just HAVE to do this… for perspective, if nothing else. 🙂
2. Cathouse Chat‘s Romeocat – What with the move and all, you have all that extra time on your hands for this, right?
3. Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea – Christine has to have some interesting answers for this.
4. Pull My Finger – to paraphrase Dan Riehl, rent’s due on the blogroll, Spurs. 🙂

   Now – the subject of “this Detestable Meme” is Five Things I Miss From My Childhood:
   

1. The Green Rocking Chair: Sitting in that chair in a day when being five didn’t mean being bundled off to Prison For Kids, Heidi (our Dachsund) in my lap hanging her head over the side to catch some warmth from the floor heater, watching black and white TV. In the evening, the five of us kids would swarm Mother’s lap as she sat in that chair and read us Bible stories.

2. Granddaddy’s Whistling: the guy was a credible bass singer, a competent all-around handyman (was a farmer with foresight: missed the Depression and the Dustbowl by that much by getting abd keeping a job in the post office shortly before both whomped the small OK town he lived in), great company—stories, poetry, fishing, teaching a boy how to hold a paintbrush, use a saw, make a magnet, swing a hammer and much, much more. And boy, could he whistle a tune. Add in Grandmother’s cooking and what more could a boy want in the summer? Oh, yeh. Climbing the redbud tree in his back yard with a matching cousin.

3. My Schwinn: Easily modified from Dan’s listing of a much newer ten-speed bike (Dan must still be in his first childhood for him to remember one of those new-fangled ten-speeds as a fav childhood memory -CORRECTION: Dan’s first was an older model :-). Second hand. Heavy clunker with those old fat tires. Red. One speed, stomp-on-’em brakes. Coasting down the looooong hills to the public library (and slogging that one-speed back up ’em on the way home) riding over squashed frogs there and back in the spring and enjoying the bite of the air and sting of snow in the winter. Hit twice from behind by cars when the drivers just weren’t looking, the second time retired that old bike forever.

4. Dad-Dad’s preaching: Add Granddaddy’s ability to quote page upon page of Sir Walter Scott to Dad-Dad’s sermons and it’s little wonder I grew up with an ear tuned to detect subliterate speech. heh. For a guy from a hardscrabble tobacco farm in the Ozarks whose high school and college education came late, after some years in the Oklahoma boomtown oilfields, Dad-Dad was one of the two most literate men I have ever met (due in large part to one of the most literate women I have ever met: his wife, Me-Ma, who was also his teacher). I still re-read his sermons from time to time when I want to hear clear, honest, good speaking.

5. The Little Red Wagon: Yep. That Little Red Wagon. It wasn’t so much mine as it belonged to all of us—me and my four sibs. We’d load the thing up and off we’d go down the street—wherever. It was a great dump truck for hauling dirt around the back yard when building yet another fort. A handy piece of equipment for my first business venture: gathering (with my older and very grown up and responsible seven-year-old sister to watch our for me) discarded pop bottles from alleys and empty lots in the vicinity of our neighborhood, taking them down to the corner grocery and redeeming them for warm, fuzzy cash. Of course, my sister—and later other sibs—had their share of the loot. And, truth be told, the venture was her idea, anyway, as I recall.

There, now. That wasn’t as hard as I had supposed it might be. Of course, if may have something to do with the way my memories age as I get older. From a distance, they all seem to be surrounded by a slight golden haze… eh? What’s that you say sonny? I cain’t hear ya boy! Speak up… (aehhhh kids these days…)

NOTE: the “five things” above are in no particular order and draw from a deep well. I could easily have listed any of many other five things. Dan even points to one of them in another post on his blog when he mentions Michelle Malkin’s recent spelling bee post. but that’s another tale all its own and belongs in one of my public school rants.

For those rare readers of Whistling in the Light (well, I only post there rarely, so that’s fair), I’ve posted it there, as well.

I’ve never played D&D, never even been remotely interested…

…but these silly “What are you?” tests are amusing, so I stabbed at this one with an iron fist…

Monk You scored 72 Holy, 61 Tactful, 63 Natural, and 45 Arcane!

Awkward at low levels, an unstoppable juggernaught at high levels, you are the monk. I think an honest attempt was made to make the kind of monks you always see in those awesome movies from China, but really, they came up with something pretty weird here. You are so in tune with the natural harmonies of this world that you can destroy *anything*… sure, you can hit for subdural damage, but where’s the fun in that? At the end of the battle the fighter wipes his sword clean of blood and resheaths it feeling pretty hard-core… until he looks over at you and sees you standing in a pile of maimed and unconscious bodies, completely unarmed, and entriely placid-faced… Fighter: “Well fought, Brother Learned Fist! Ha ha!” *said ill-at-ease* Monk: “There, in the trees… a baby morning dove just took it’s first flight while I was disembowleing this ogre with my quivering-toenail… so beautiful… or did you not notice?” Your main function in the party is to keep things a little awkward for everyone else.

Reach out to a “recovering Star Wars addict” 🙂

Headlines from 2006 (a Precision Guided Humor Assignment from The Alliance of Free Blogs)

Jean Fraud sKerry Booted from Senate Boys’ Club
Senator caught “cheating at solitaire” on the Senate floor: “We’ve endured a lot, but this sort of public self-abuse is just too much even for me,” said newly-elected Senate Minority leader Jerry Springer…

Paris Hilton’s Brain Found!
Gardener discovers shrink-wrapped box in gardening shed: DNA tests reveals it to be the long lost brain of Paris Hilton…

Hillary Clintoon Implodes!
Thursday, the black hole that was her soul finally sucked the Wicked Witch of the East into the Wormhole to Hell…

Intelligent Life Discovered in Washington D.C.
Deep within the bowels of the sewers under Capitol Hill, scientists have discovered a life form alien to that most political of climes: intelligent life. For now, scientists must study the creatures in the sewers where they are currently living. They refuse to come out into the light of day until the toxic waste dump overhead is cleared. “I’d rather drink sewer water than breathe the stench that issues from congresscritters’ mouths,” quoth Thhbbbbbtttttt!!!, the apparent leader of the autochthons. The stalemate between Congress, which refuses to clear out of Washington, and the sewer dwellers, whose claim to the land predates that of Congress, seems destined to continue as Senate Democrats filibuster…

Giant Earthquake Shakes Mideast: Mecca becomes a sinkhole
Splodeydope Islamic terrorists claim it is a “Zionist–American attack” and announce a mass suicide bombing (Tuesday, next, the Prophet’s Mosque: Medina, Saudi Arabia. Limited space available. BYOB.) while scientists say “Thhbbbbbtttttt!!!”

Real men eat what they want—including quiche

Quiche-ing my way? Fine, then make it quick and easy. Done.

Get your stuff together:

• 3–4 eggs (depends on size of eggs; adjust to suit yourself)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 deep dish pre-made-in-a-cheap-aluminum-pan pie crust (I said “quick and easy”)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1Tbs oil (I prefer olive oil)
• 3/4 cup crumbled bacon

Make the thing:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• Mix the milk and eggs and set the mixture aside.
• Chop the onion and place it in a microwave-safe glass bowl with the olive oil stirred in.
• Microwave on high for a 1 to 1.5 minutes—check and modify up or down for your microwave. When the onions are clear, they’re done.
• Put the onions in the bottom of the deep-dish premade pie crust
• Add cheese and bacon alternatively until the pie pan’s full
• Pour the egg/milk mixture over the cheese
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let it sit for a few minutes, then serve.

You can vary this infinitely. Other meats (ham, sausages, etc.), add veggies (frozen peas, broccoli, spinach, etc.). But with the elimination of the messiest and most time-wasting part (the pie crust) from prep, this is a fast food recipe.

Oh, and while you’re here, kick off the loafers (no, your shoes, not the guys on the front porch), wander around, cop some snacks from the fridge or pantry and generally feel free to make a mess. You’re sure to find something here at third world county to annoy the socks off you. Have at it!

[Note: for a number of reasons not stated here, this has undergone numerous re-writes to excise most of the foaming-at-the-mouth anger the ACLU inspires in me. I’ll try to ennumerate more specific examples another time.]

Yes, the ACLU has done some good. But then, so did Stalin.

Let me get this out of the way first: Stalin did do some good for his country. Notably, he nearly doubled industrial production during a worldwide economic collapse. Of course, he also killed about 20,000,000 people during the some time, so, on balance, maybe Uncle Joe wasn’t do great after all…

Yes, the ACLU has done some good things. Name two? Oh. My. Let’s see, it’s been around for 85 years, now. So it’s actually done a couple more than two good things. Brown v Board of Education springs to mind. And believe it or not, I think the Skokie case where the ACLU defended a bunch of idiots who wanted to put on a Nazi demonstration was a good thing (on a number of levels), because even hated-filled idiots have a right to political or religious free speech. Various local or state chapters have also defended students who were being persecuted by the State for practicing their religious beliefs in school. It defended their right to pray silently and to freely assemble (if they didn’t cause a fuss, that is).

And that’s about it, folks.

What’s on the other side of the equation? Hitting only the high spots:

The ACLU’s stated agenda is (duh) to protect and defend the civil rights of individuals. To that end, it has (erroneously, IMO) focused and limted itself pretty much to defending against what it claims are violations of this amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Leaving aside the fact that the Framers saw the Second Amendment as the primary means of assuring the protection of the First Amendment, let’s just see how well the ACLU has done “protecting” the rights mentioned in the First Amendment:

The ACLU has persecuted nearly all religious expressions or displays in the public forum—if they are Christian or Jewish. What? Has the ACLU no understanding of the words, “free exercise”? Sure, it’ll defend the rights of students to pray silently while in school, but let ’em open their mouths… Katie bar the door! And this completely sidesteps the issue of whether adults in the schools have any religious freedoms supposedly guaranteed by the First Amendment (see the Orwellian “ACLU of VA Urges School Officials to Drop Plans For ‘Moment of Silence’…”, a bizarre school prayer case with convoluted ACLU-speak here, and this pdf of a letter threatening a school superintendant to knock off the non-sectarian prayers at school graduations).

Of course, as regards religious expression and practice, as well as free political speech, as specifically noted in the Amendment, the ACLU has deftly redefined the First Amendment to mean many things the words of the Amendment do not… But that’s another topic.

Nativities, religious symbols on public buildings, etc., all under attack by the ACLU… if they are Christian or Jewish.

Bleh.

How’s the ACLU doing on other fronts? Oh, you mean besides championing the injection of a “penumbra of privacy” that now protects a mother who wants to kill her baby? Hmmm… how about the obvious extension: a “penumbra of privacy” for splodeydope terrorists (“It’s their body! They can do what they want to with it!”) or satanist human sacrifice? (Hey! a hat trick: freedom of non-christian religious practice, “artistic” expression–especially if filmed, cos then it could be “press-related”… Abadon’s Cruel and Licentious ?bermensch?)

Ahhh… the list is too long and all too easily begging for reductio ad absurdum argument. Yeh, normally that’d be indulging in fallacious contructions, but the ACLU has by now slipped so far down the slippery slope of its own reduction to absurdity that every attack upon freedom from its quarter just begs for ridicule.

Worst recent examples of the Antiamerican Criminal License Union behavior? Try this pdf of an ACLU statement in support of Lynne Stewart—yeh, the lawyer convicted of aiding and abetting terrorists. Or this award presented by the ACLU to CAIR. “CAIR-OHIO To Recieve ACLU Liberty’s Flame Award.” What? For supporting and advancing wahabbist wacko splodeydope desires to go up in flames (as long as they can take civilian non-combatants with them)?

ACLU: an introduction to Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether seems appropriate.

ACLU? Just Say NO.

Crossposted at America’s Third World County at Protest the ACLU.

I understand that Tom Kratman’s book, A State of Disobedience, is his first novel. It’s sometimes rough around the edges, as novels early in a writer’s career can be, and it definitely has a didactic agenda, but still… pretty well-written, enough so that I’ll get his next book, Watch on the Rhine (written with John Ringo), either by pre-ordering through Baen Books or Amazon.com, or via Baen’s Webscription service. (eBooks have their place. 🙂

A State of Disobedience is a cautionary tale concerning just what could happen if the Fantasists (and their cynical masters in politics, the media and academia) actually did decide they had enough power to compel everyone to toe their Fantasist line. It’s not a pretty book, and the denouement is decidely noir, but still, what kind of optimist would it take to look at current knuckling under of a majority Congress to minority whining and, well, lying to expect our polity to become more civilized over the next few years?

A brief taste from the intro to the book will give you enough to rough out and idea of the basic conflicts involved.

Briefly, things seemed to be on the road to improvement. National political and philosophical differences seemed cast aside one terrible morning in 2001 amidst the shrieks of thousands of bombed, battered, burning victims of a vicious terrorist attack that threw all awry.

With the screams of the dying in their ears, the vision of the flames seared onto their eyes, no one, not Republican, not Democrat, not the man or woman on the streets resisted for a moment the most severe curtailing of civil liberties in the history of the Republic. Thus when, seven years later, the United States emerged victorious from what was known in some circles as “The Arab War,” in some as “The Moslem War,” in most as “The War against Terror,” not only were all the previous differences found to be still largely intact, the mechanisms of control had been much improved and enhanced.

Worse, as it had been in 1860, the balance was near perfect . . . and perfectly precarious. The slightest shift left or right could tumble the entire shaky edifice into ruin, even into civil war.

As polemic fiction, it does suffer from the excesses of the genre: demonizing the antagonist(s), hagiography of the protagonist(s), etc. But with that as a reminder, and the fact that it’s a very quick and entertaining—though at times shocking—read, I’d say it was well worth the purchase price and time spent reading it.