Blogroll – Page 2 – third world county

November 22, 2007November 22, 2007

In Every Thing Give Thanks: T-13; 1.48

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I’m just a natural curmudgeon. Oh, many folks around here think of me as a jolly old elf (or whatever–my belly doesn’t shake like a bowl full of jelly, but I do–now–have a white beard and despite my curmudgeonly nature, I laugh a lot and manage to bring chuckles or even outright guffaws to no few folks), but I am a curmudgeon.

I see a glass with water and I don’t think of it as half full OR half empty. I just wonder which politician stole part of it and spit in the rest.

Trust but verify? Notachance. Look askance and test for validity (not so much a cynical outlook as a suspicious and skeptical one). Trust must be earned.

So, Thanksgiving is a two-edged sword for me. While I have much for which I am thankful, I look every gift horse in the mouth (What? Accept a gift horse and then be responsible for its care if it turns out to be unhealthy?); I look for the hidden strings, the catches, the gotchas in everything.

But, “In every thing give thanks…” ?

*sigh*

I admire folks with a simple faith(fulness). Those who can honestly look at each and every situation in life and be thankful–to God–for where they are, who they are, what is going on in their lives. Such people embody the concept the Apostle Paul spoke of elsewhere:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

and,

“For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Romans 8:24)

Hope? Gee, that’s a tough one, sometimes.

Brown Bannister answered the problem of being thankful in difficult situations this way, about thirty years ago,

When you’re up against a struggle
That shatters all your dreams
And your hope has been cruelly crushed
By Satan’s manifesting scheme
And you feel the urge within you
To submit to earthly fears
Don’t let the faith you’re standing in, seem to disappear

Praise the Lord
He can work with those who praise Him ,
Praise the Lord
For our God inhabits praise,
Praise the Lord
For the chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you
When you praise him

Others –many others–through the years have offered their answer to the problem of being thankful even in difficult times.

Babbie Mason,

All things work for our good though sometimes we don’t see how they could.
Struggles that break our hearts in two sometimes blind us to the truth.
Our Father knows what best for us; His ways are not our own. So when your pathway grows dim and you just don’t see him remember you’re never alone.

God is too wise to be mistaken;
God is to good to be unkind.
So when you don’t understand,
When you don’t his plan,
When you can’t trace his hand,
Trust his heart.

Empty platitudes? From folks whose difficult times have been circumscribed by the cocooned, cushy lives of modern Western society?

Yeh, maybeso.

But how about this guy?

During the years of 1618-1648, Europe and especially Germany where plunged into a 30 year religious war. It was during these years that Martin Rinkart was pastor of a Lutheran church in Eilenburg, Germany. Famine and deadly diseases raged throughout the land. In 1637 Rinkart buried 4480 persons who had died of an epidemic sweeping through his city. One of the persons was his dear wife. When he writes, Ã¢â‚¬Å“guide us when perplexed,Ã¢â‚¬Å“ he is not talking about minor inconveniences. The population of Germany was reduced from 16 million to 6 million during these years. Yet, Rinkart was a faithful and caring pastor, tending to the sick and hungry. Through the grief and bloodshed he looked to his Savior, and was able to thank God for the many blessings he still had.

And what expression of Rinkert’s heart, what response to those years of affliction do we still have as witness of his thankfulness in difficult times? This:

Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices,
Who, from our mother’s arms, Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God thro’ all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God, whom earth and heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

And others could offer the same sort of witness.

Kind of sets my petty gripes and such into perspective doesn’t it?

So, with “so great a cloud of witnesses” set before me, I offer my poor list of gratitude, beginning with things I might usually overlook being thankful for:

Taxes. Being taxed unfairly, irresponsibly, illegitimately by nearly all levels of government means I have the wherewithall to be taxed.

Politicians. There but for the grace of God… *heh* And they do serve as very good bad examples for folks to learn how NOT to live their lives, eh?

Academia Nut Fruitcakes. Almost a perfect example of the nearly overwhelming physical abundance of our society. A society that can afford to support such useless creatures is rich indeed!

Mass Media Podpeople. Ditto both comments above.

Slander, lies, attacks against the truth at every opportunity. All proof that there are some decent people, else why would their attackers need to resort to lies to attack them, and there is truth, else why would evil people fear it so much?

Illegal aliens: finally a simple litmus test for whether or not our political leaders are decent, honest, even remotely ethical or possessed of the ability to see truth or the stones to act on truth.

Islam. Yep. What better way to drive folks to the Church than to let them know more and more about this cult of hate and to seriously and honestly compare and contrast the truth about Islam and its hatemongering “prophet” as opposed to the Person and work of the Christ?

Too much in the way of material possessions. Yes, too much. It’s an exercise of will (a will that needs exercise to avoid flabbiness) to throw out, give away, just flat get rid of stuff we have too much of, don’t need, etc. What a blessing to need that exercise of will!

Music: not the manufactured crap the RIAA seems determined to use in an attempt to destroy our society (although I often manage to manufacture my own good from even the worst drek “music”). No, there is still great music that uplifts, harmonizes man and nature and more. Unfortunately, most of it was written (and/or performed) by people long passed away, but we have it as their legacy.

A world of wonder: almost unlimited knowledge at my fingertips; healthful foods; a plethora of clothing to choose from; a house that puts any I grew up in to shame; the beauty of the Ozarks right outside my door–all these and more.

Parents: still living, in their eighties, health failing; ties that bind.

Children: better people than I am.

My Wonder Woman. One of the greatest miracles of my life is that I approach this Thanksgiving season nearing the celebration of 29 years of her longsuffering love.

Repeating myself once again from last Thanksgiving,

Look deeply at the things you are thankful for. SOMEONE other than yourself alone is due thanks for the blessings of possessions and health, family and friends–and it ain’t you, cos no matter what lies our society tells you, neither you nor anyone else (and certainly not I) deserve all the blessings y’all have. Oh, maybe you “deserve” some, but never all.

So WHO do you say “Thank you” to?

Let me take a leap here: to the God who makes all these things blessings–the easily seen as good and the obvious trials–Thank You.

¹ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands!
² Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
³ Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;[a]
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
⁵ For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.–Psalm 100

Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub and Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Stuck On Stupid, The Pink Flamingo, Big Dog’s Weblog, Chuck Adkins, Wolf Pangloss, Dumb Ox Daily News, Adeline and Hazel, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

November 20, 2007November 21, 2007

Make your own micro-mini-brewery and a batch of George Washington’s “small beer”

Well, sorta George Washinton’s molasses small beer. Adapted from Making Homemade Wine and Beer’s recipe.

Make a mini-microbrewery and brew George Washington’s Molasses “Small Beer”

I have a Mr Beer mini-brewery keg that I like. It works pretty well with or without the ingredient kits. If not using a kit sized for it, simple arithmetic allows conversion of recipes for larger batch mini-brew setups (typically sized for 5 gallon carboys or plastic buckets).

But, when I had a brew started in my commercially made rig and wanted to try making a molasses “small beer” recipe (mostly based on one George Washington used), I just didn’t want to wait another week to get it started, so…

I made another “keg” of about the same size using:

1 plastic “kitty litter” bucket. (three cats; you do the math on how many of these things I have laying around…)
1 plastic water spigot–the kind you would avoid putting in outside for your water hoses/sprinklers, whatever (because it’s cheezy and easily broken) but which is better than brass for a brew setup.
1-male/female threaded coupler to fit the spigot–and a rubber “hose washer”
1-male/female threaded 1/2″ PVC coupler
1-male threaded/female Unthreaded 1/2″ PVC pipe coupler
2-1.5″ sections of 1/2″ PVC pipe
1-1/2″ PVC “trap”

(The last four pieces are used in constructing the airlock for the keg/bucket fernemnter.)

I cleaned the kitty litter bucket very, very well with dish soap and water, then rinsed it and filled it with clean water with 1/2 cup chlorine bleach (yes, I soaked the lid in the bleach water for a few minutes before putting it on the bucket). I let that soak over night.

Traced the size of the water spigot end and the male/female threaded couplers in their respective places—the spigot about 1″ above the bottom edge of the bucket and the male end of the coupler (to the airlock) traced in the center of the snap-on lid to the
bucket.

Placed all the plumbing parts in the bleach water to soak.

When the bucket and parts had soaked overnight, I discarded most of the bleach water (reserving about a gallon for cleanup after finishing construction), rinsed them and laid everything out on clean paper towels.

Next, using a razor knife, I cut the holed on the inside of the traced lines and threaded the male threaded/female UNthreaded 1/2″ PVC pipe coupler coupler for the airlock into the hole on the lid and secured it with the male/female threaded 1/2″ PVC coupler on the inside of the lid.

Then, I threaded the hose washer onto the water spigot and the water spigot into the hole 1″ above the bottom of the bucket. I then secured that with the pipe coupler that fit its threaded piece.

Next, I rinsed the rest of the plumbing pieces yet again in bleach water, then clean water and assembled the airlock as per the graphic.

I then filled the bucket with the remaining bleach water, topped it off, shook the water around and then drained all that would drain through the spigot, dumping the rest from the top. Followed that with a thorough rinsing with plain water. Placed the top back on.

Here’s a pic of the final product:

It’s easier to just show it than to describe the process. *heh*

(Since the pic above–and a batch of the brew below–I have made the airlock more airtight by the addition of some white Gorilla GlueÃ¢â€žÂ¢ between the top on top) and the exterior fitting, as well as a rubber washer inside.)

Now, George Washington’s Molasses “Small Beer” as adapted for this setup:

Makes about 3 gallons

– 20 ounces of molasses (that’s 2.5 cups)
– two ounces of mild hops (or make it like George did, without the hops!)
– one ounce cream of tartar
– zest from one lemon
– 1/2 teaspoon ale yeast (you can make a “starter” from some yeast saved from the dregs of some bottle carbonated beers, or saved from the trub of a previous brew OR even use bakers’ yeast in a pinch. Won’t taste quite right, but it will work… sorta. I’m told. :-))
– 1/2 teaspoon ginger (presumably ground)
– 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

SANITIZE all utensils and equipment using a dilute bleach solution. Rinse well with clean water (bleach kills yeast, so do rinse well!).

Bring about a 1-1.5 gallons of water to a boil, add the molasses, hops and lemon peel and boil the mix for an hour.

Add the cream of tartar, ginger and ground cloves for the last 15 minutes of the boil.

Meanwhile, start your yeast in a cup or so of warm (NOT HOT!! UP TO 100F) water and maybe a teaspoon of molasses or cane sugar. Just about body temperature or a little less will be a good temp.

Strain the boiled mix (the wort) into the brew bucket (fermenter). Well, actually, those are copied from the recipe I adapted this from. I let all the fixin’s go into the fermenter. We’ll see how that goes. Strained it when bottling, but just the last little bit to avoid too much trub entering the bottles.

Add clean water (good, not too heavily chlorinated tap water or bottled “spring water”–NOT distilled!) to cool the wort to about 70 F and bring the water level up to about 3 gallons. Then check your yeast starter for signs of life and then GENTLY stir in the yeast, using a sanitized plastic spoon.

Place just enough clean water in the airlock to form… an airlock, of course. 🙂

Let the brew “cook” away in a location that stays about 70 F for at least a week or until the airlock doesn’t bubble at all. (You probably should check the airlock for water level daily. Mine stopped showing signs of fermentation after THREE DAYS!)

When bottling, prime by saving some of the wort (about a quart) and re-mixing with the fermented brew when it is bottled OR add about a teaspoon of cane sugar for each 16 ounce bottle (about 3/4 teaspoonful for a 12-ounce bottle). Add the sugar to the bottle, then gently pour the fermented brew into the bottle–down the blttles’ necks to avoid any unecessary aeration–to about an inch below the top of the bottle andcap it. Gently swirl the sugar/brew mix until the sugar’s dissolved. DO NOT SHAKE VIGOROUSLY. You do not want to aerate the beer at this point. Trust me.

Bottle condition the beer for at least one week in a dark place with a constant temperature of about 70F. (Well, after writing this, I

For a more traditional “beer” flavor, you can try varying this recipe a bit. Here’s one variation that doesn’t even require a trip to a brew shop for most folks–just a trip to your pantry.

1C Malt-o-Meal cereal (I separated the cup into four batches and placed the 1/4C portions in coffee filters tied off with zip ties)
1C pearled barley

Boil the Malt-o-Meal and pearled barley in the 1.5 gallons of water for an hour and then strain them out (you can combine the stuff and eat it for a hot ceral right away, if you want *heh*), then add the other ingredients and boil for another hour. Sure, it adds an hour to the
prep and Malt-o-Meal and pearled barley aren’t the same as malted barley/wheat you can mash for “real” beer, but it does add back in some of the flavor/texture of those traditional beer ingredients. Or at least I think so. 🙂

[Update: gave the molasses beer in the Grolsch swingtop bottles more time to bottle condition. Much better head and flavor; the additional carbonation and time for flavor conditioning was a Very Good Thing. Taste much improved. Note to self: drink more Grolsch (for the bottles, of course *heh*). Definitely will give a bit more bottle conditioning to the next batch. ]

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November 16, 2007November 16, 2007

Wrong-headed “charity”

It’s not just American politicians *spit*, Academia Nut Fruitcakes, Sub-moral Religionist “Leaders” and their ilk who are destroying the concept of charity with handouts. I confess to participating in the less-than-charitable “feed to poor/end world hunger” scam, myself.

Go ahead. While I stopped at “donating” 700 grains of rice “through the United Nations to end world hunger” via the freerice.com page (because the method was so dreadfully boring as much as any other reason), I know that in good conscience I ought to have stopped sooner.

1. “United Nations”–that alone should assure that any donated rice is diverted to line the pockets of bureaucrats and petty dictators and politicians, oh my!
2. Feed a man for a day, starve a society for a lifetime.

Think that second is too harsh? Well, perhaps. But feeding people consistently (consistently subsistence food, that is) and insuring that they are dependant upon the providers of that food (primarily, it seems, to insure the continuance of the “charity”) while specifically NOT providing them with the means as well as motivation to provide for themselves can be the cruelest tyranny of all.

For a contrarian commentary on Western “charity” read Kim du Toit’s Let Africa Sink. Read it again. And again.

End world hunger? By donating food through the U.N.?!?!? Not going to happen.

Little sidebar: I once proposed a mentoring program for a homeless shelter/food bank to mentor steady “customers” of that “charity business” that provided food and shelter to perpetual indigents and folks already on welfare and food stamps, etc, and employment primarily to people who… were steady customers of the homeless shelter/food bank and to some libtards who had no other marketable skills. Not a welcome proposal. What?!? Actually give the few who really wanted genuine help a leg up on finding and keeping jobs that would remove them as “customers” of the “charity” and–potentially–deprive the “charity” of its reason for existing?!?!? A completely mad idea!

But, if you want to play a vocabulary game for a while and finess yourself into believing–for a short while at least–that you actually are helping to “end world hunger” then go ahead and play the “Guess this word, donate 10 grains of rice” game. I played long enough to feed a third world family for a day or so. Provided they actually got the rice. And had the means to cook it. And clean water to cook it in. And…

But they’ll still not have the (physical or more importantly cultural means to grow their own. And that is the point of the whole “end world hunger by giving a man a fish for a day” scam.

Trackposted to Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Populist, Adeline and Hazel, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

November 16, 2007November 16, 2007

Talk about talk

Here’s a slightly redacted re-run from a third world county post from August ’05 that I was reminded of as the result of a recent email exchange. From simply remarking on my then non-existant comment policy, I rabbit trailed off into the ether… or did I?

[When commenting] …try to either make sense or be completely (and humorously) nonsensical when you do. I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have a formal comment policy. [Well, I do now–see the left sidebar.] I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t care one single solitary bit what Ã¢â‚¬Å“kindÃ¢â‚¬Â of language you use. But anything that presents itself as a serious comment but is riddled with fallacies (_1_, _2_, _3_) will be subject to mocking deconstruction (if I have time and feel like expending the effort), deleted as too assinine for public exposure or left as the commenterÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s own self-parodyÃ¢â‚¬â€the deciding factor: my personal whim.

Many people exercise common sense when formulating their comments. I can appreciate that. Some exercise their sense of humor, and I can appreciate that, usually no matter how weird their sense of humor* may be. Others, and they are few indeed, actually learned in school or elsewhere how to make clear, reasoned arguments. Rare, and greatly appreciated. People I stand to learn much from.

But some just have no business even having an opinion, because they are both too ill-informed and are idiots (usually, as I have said elsewhere, self-made idiots), unable to recognize the value (or even the existence) of arguments from facts or reason, taking their preconceptual biases as fact and building a Ã¢â‚¬Å“reality-basedÃ¢â‚¬Â fantasyland of idiotarian unreason on that shaky foundation.

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a scary thought: Exposure to such could almost move one to accept Margaret SangerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s arguments for eugenics. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, Ã¢â‚¬Å“Three generations of imbeciles is enough.Ã¢â‚¬Â In light of the current trend among liberalists [and most so-called “conservative” presidential candidates *sigh*], HolmesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ comment begins to have a certain appealÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

But, no. Better to remove much of the shielding preventing a Darwinist microevolution of the raceÃ¢â‚¬Â¦ Get the Ã¢â‚¬Å“gummintÃ¢â‚¬Â outa the cradle-to-grave protection racket. Starve the academicians. Feed the (NON-POLITICAL) scientists. Make artistsÃ¢â‚¬â€all of Ã¢â‚¬ËœemÃ¢â‚¬â€either live or die in the marketplace (no more NEA subsidies). Castrate lawyers making their living off liability suits. No, really: castrate. A lower testosterone level will help. Let folks take responsibility for their own stupidities. Remove the heads of politicians who come up with Ã¢â‚¬Å“great societyÃ¢â‚¬Â ideas that ruin families, destroy communities and enhance their own political power. Yes, their heads. TheyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve not been using them for any good anyway.

ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a big job, but these small steps toward re-introducing the idea of personal responsibility [would be a good start]. And that would put paid to the Frank Roaches, Dan Blathers, Nancy Pelosis, Teddy Kennedys, Jean Fraud sKerrys and all their ilk.

That it would eliminate many on the quasi-faux-conservative side of the coin as well would be a nice lil side benefit.

*Do note: humor is not always funny. Some of the most humorous of pieces can be dark, broody, macabre.

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November 15, 2007November 15, 2007

As random as it gets… Eight plus Five

Killing two birds and alla that…

Nancy, who blogs at Soliloquy, tagged me in this meme. And in accordance with The Rules, here are…The Rules:

When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you.
Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself.
At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.

Oh, and it’s not in the rules but I think dropping by the tagees’ sites to leave a drive-by comment letting ’em know they’ve been tagged (as Nancy did here) would be more than halfway smart, eh?

So, recognizing that truly random thoughts or circumstances are beyond my power to generate, I’ll play along anyway.

Rule#1: done. (I ought to link to Nancy more often anyway. She does good blog. ;-))

Here’s #2:

1.) Hot n cold, cold n hot: when will Fall make up its mind, eh? I have plants going crazy outside, and I’m not far from the mark myself some days… (OK, some of y’all probably thought, “Not far from the mark?!? He’s already jumped the gun!” *heh*)

2.) Is there something special about digital cameras and rechargeable batteies or is it just me? Freshly recharged batteries are juuuust fine, until that “Can’t miss this one!” shot comes around…

3.) I never thought I’d burn more CDs/DVDs than the boxes and boxes (and boxes and boxes… ) of floppies (and vidtapes) I have laying around. That ship sailed a loooong time ago, though. Now I need a dedicated system just to keep track of the things, I think.

4.) Why is it that the bolt placement of that ONE troublesome hidden fastener isn’t covered in any of the manuals on the ONE car that needs service the most, any more than the “proper tool” (as in “remove [obscure widget] with the proper tool”) is identified in those same manuals?

5.) There are days when The World’s Largest Cup of Coffee just isn’t big enough…

6.) There is no day that cannot be made measureably better by either coffee or beer. Or ice cream. Or maybe coffee beer ice cream. (I really need to make me some-a that stuff!)

7.) I have now officially started too many “spare time projects”. Something has to give. I think I’ll just take a nap.

8.) After my nap, maybe I could just relax and build another computer, ya think?

[See below my list of taggees for five bonus pseudo-random things]

#3: Tagees:

1. Kat, of Cathouse Chat
2. Angel of Woman Honor Thyself
3. Perri Nelson of, urm, Perri Nelson’s Website
4. The Random Yak
5. Diane at The Trouble With Angels (provided the chiropracty goes well–pulling for you Diane!)
6. Richard at Random Rambling (assuming your schedule will allow you more time for blogging, bub. :-))
7. Rosemary, of the eponymous Rosemary’s Thoughts
8. Layla of The Hill Chronicles

With a group like this, the “random” responses could be all over the map–everything from political views to punny posts to MUD*-slinging and things even further out.

Surprise me.

*No, not that. “Multi-User-Domain gunslinging gaming”

And now to add five more semi-pseudo-random things to the eight for Thursday Thirteen (because I already have eight things and I’m too lazy to round up thirteen computers or thirteen different beers or whatever and take a picture or make another entirely different list for a post that’ll come out the same day :-)):

9.) I love to drive. It’s just the idiots on the highways that I don’t much care for.
10.) Have I mentioned my batch of “kitty litter beer” I have brewing? Well, that’s cos I’m the only one I’ll allow to call it that, and I don’t want to encourage y’all to start in on it. Oops. Guess the kitty’s outa the bag, now, though.
11.) If it’s not one thing it’s another. I’ve had the starting system on my Wonder Woman’s car torn down, tested and now reassembled. Wasn’t until I moved a whole buncha junk in reassembling (rationalizing the layout a bit) that I finally found a (semi-sorta-mostly) hidden fusable link that I’ll replace tomorrow. Isn’t that the way it goes? Not only was it not in ANY of the places the manuals (yes, plural) said it was, but it definitely doesn’t even look OEM… but it’s definitely keeping the car from starting. Cars. Gotta ~~love~~ have ’em.
12.) I need to move my network closet so I can put a mini beer fridge right next to my office. It’s definitely do-able.
13.) I keep reaching for the phone, but it’s just my ears ringing. Tells me it’s past time I headed for bed.

TB-posted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub