Obligatory periodic post about blogging

Yeh, yeh, everybody does this from time to time...

I finally decided about an hour ago to look into this “RSS Feed” thingy. heh Yeh, yeh, I have a ton of feeds I subscribe to. After all, Opera makes it almost painless—just click on the lil RSS/Atom/XML tag in the address bar and I’m subscribed. But I’ve never pinged any of the places that (sorta) track RSS feeds or done anything to maintain or promote my feed, so…

…Read a coupla articles, pinged a couple servers, whatever. So, what happens next is in the hands of the server widgets (they’re kinda like brownies, only ya don’t have to put milk out for ’em).

Now, if only I could figure what’s making blogger change my fonts as I upload a post… I see the changes in the html made AFTER I upload, just can’t figure what’s doing it. The file stays the same on my computer, just changes somewhere between there and blogger… stranger and stranger…Still haven’t caught the culprit. Let’s see if editing the html directly using the blogger “crappy interface” works…

How can you detect an islamofascist terrorist?

A Precision Guided Humor Assignment from The Alliance of Free Blogs: How can you tell if someone is a terrorist?

Now, admittedly, I’ve modified this a bit to exclude waning IRA terrorists and others by narrowing the assignment further to islamofascist murdering savage SOBs, but I think I may be forgiven for that. If not, what’s the Alliance going to do? Send a splodydope to America’s Third World Countyâ„¢? We’d welcome one or twelve. There are always stumps to clear from fields, you know, and some fish just won’t bite and need to be persuaded to “come to papa”—heh. The idea that an islamofascist murdering savage SOB terrorist could slip by the Third World Countyâ„¢ detection system is laughable.

The Third World Countyâ„¢ Profiler’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Detecting an Islamofascist Murdering Savage SOB Terrorist.

See a suspect? Maneuver to get the wind on ’em. (Scent’s your first clue apart from the fact that the guy looks like an Ay-rab.)

Step 1.) Does the goober smell worse than… well, Goober? If so, he’s either a Loony Left Moonbat or a islamofascist murdering savage SOB. Bag ‘im either way.

Step 2.) When you perform a “cranial echo test” (whack ‘im on the head with an axe handle) does a “thunk” or no sound at all procede from his pie hole? If a “thunk” then it’s a Loony Left Moonbat and good for catfish feed or for bait for wild boar. If no sound at all issues, then there’s nothing inside (sound doesn’t travel in a vaccuum, you know) and you have a splodydope. Remove any useful explosives and see uses for Loony Left Moonbat, above. If the critter attempts to bite the axe handle, it’s an osama and should be doused with gasoline and burned (after removing any useful explosives for later use fishing or blowing stumps).

Do bury any remains of an osama in pig manure and turn the compost frequently. Use this compost to kill kudzu.

Hodgepodge

Short shrift day

John Stossel notes the “open mindedness” *cough* of so-called “liberals” over at Townhall.com (and even hangs a John Stuart Mill quote around their necks. Heh).

Also at Townhall.com, Victor David Hanson pegs the liberals as reactionaries as only Victor David Hanson can.

And Ann Coulter, as vitriolic a polemicist as ever, nevertheless makes some clear legal arguments in layman’s language about the Rove/Plame kerfuffle.

Meanwhile, a contributor to Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor Current Mail page notes some interesting mortality rates… followed by an observation from Dr. Pournelle about National Guard mortality rates.

Discovery a No-Go. NASA: job security for government bureaucrats. Space exploration? Nu-uh! (We need more than Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites space efforts, folks, but NASA ain’t the answer… )

London bombers noted noted here and here and here, among many places.

And oh, wahhh! Poor baby! (Anyone find the world’s smallest violin? If so, break it into splinters before playing a sympathy tune for this loser.)

Pope Benedict XVI pulls a rabid rabbit outa his mitre with his complaint against Harry Potter. Will someone give the guy a wedgie? Cancel that. His knickers are already in a twist over nothing at all. Lighten up Bennie.

Joe Wilson, serial liar (see Ann Coulter article above for a few of Wilson’s lies), calls on Bush to fire Rove. *YAWN* And this just in: Sun rose in the east today and somewhere dog bites man.

And, in answer to Joe Wilson and his ilk, I’d like to point you to an essay by George J. Esseff, Sr that Alan Woody has posted at Woody’s News and Views. (Sorry this didn’t go in this post earlier, and thanks, Woody, for showcasing this essay! Prime cut.)

It’s a wild, wild, wild, wild world out there folks. Y’all be careful now, y’hear?

Always low prices…

Apparently, the explosives used in the London bombing came, just as so much of the low quality junk you get at WalMart, from… China.

(h.t. Cao’s Blog where you can find much more on the London bombings)

The story, out of the German paper, Bild am Sontag leads with:

German newspaper: Explosive material used by British terrorist who blew himself up on Tel Aviv beachfront in 2003 very likely the same as that used by terrorists who staged London attacks last week, Mossad tells Brits.

Then it goes on to explain that

The Mossad was also able to determine the substance was developed and produced at the Chinese ZDF arms factory, located about 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) from Beijing

Hmmm… Made by slave labor in China for the convenience of Islamofascist savages. Always low prices.

Stop the Amerikan Communist License Union (ACLU)

A comment by Thomas Sowell to start the day:
Will even the bloody terrorist attacks in London put a stop to the media’s hand-wringing because they don’t think we have been nice enough to some of the cut-throats who are locked up in Guantanamo? The media have never shown any such interest in how prisoners are treated anywhere else on the island of Cuba, such as in Castro’s prisons.
OK, you got me on that one. Sowell refers to “the media” in the comment above, not the ACLU. But consider this: the ACLU trumpets “reports” from America-hating media (such as the New York Slimes and al-Jizeera) as support for their stance attacking the military for “torturing” the Islamic savages detained at Guantanamo. The ACLU’s press releases find ready audiences in the useful idiots and fellow travelers in the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army. (But, of course I am placing members of the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army who slander our military in the best possible light here. In truth, some are simply traitors and seditionists, like the ACLU as a whole.)
In addition to the outright slander of the American military at Guantanamo, as regards the detainees there, the ACLU is attempting, with great success in the public relations front, at least, to frame the public debate in terms that suit their goals but do not reflect reality. (This should be no surprise, as it is their tactic in every single attack they make upon the Constitution: change the terms, obscure the truth, trick Speech-Imapired Piscines—”Dumb Basses”—opposing them into fighting on the ACLU’s chosen ground.)
The ACLU is attempting to assert that these *cough* poor abused *cough* detainees are somehow admitted to the civil judicial process once they are captured as unlawful enemy combatants. Consider: they cannot claim Geneva Convention rights, because they have voided their claim to such by their strict adherence to everything ANTI-Geneva Convention! UNuniformed, NOT soldiers of a signatory country (or ANY country!), targeting primarily civilian non-combatants, etc. ALL war crimes in and of themselves and ALL (each and every, separately) voiding any claim to treatment under Geneva. Due process? Does NOT apply to unlawful enemy combatants captured on foreign soil.
And yet, the U.S. has treated each and every one of these detainees with better than Geneva Convention treatment.
The ACLU’s attacks upon the military must not stand. The ACLU’s attacks upon this administration’s efforts in the war against Islamofascist savages must not stand.
Stop the ACLU!

Sites Already on Board:

Stop The ACLU

21st Century Paladin
A Lady’s Ruminations
A Tic In The Mind’s Eye
American Dinosaur
American Warmonger
An American Housewife
And Rightly So
Angry Republican Mom
Birth of a Neo-Con
Blog Talker
California Conservatives 4 Truth
Cao’s Blog
Christmas Ghost
**Common Sense Runs Wild
Conservative Angst
Conservative Dialysis
Conservative Rant
Craig’s Reflections
Crosses aCross America
Daily Inklings
Def Conservative
Euphoric Reality
**Evil Conservative Blog
Freedom Of Thought
Freedom-Of
Fundamentally Right
Gribbit’s Word
**Is It Just Me?
Is This Life?
It Is What It Is
JackLewis.net
**Jo’s Cafe
Kender’s Musings
KiddSafe Blog
Kill Righty
Lady Madonna- Headlines
Life Trek
Mad tech
Making Tomorrow’s Military Today
**Mean Ol’ Meany
Meeyotch’s so called “life”
Merri Musings
Miss Patriot
More Sense Than Money
Mr Minority
Musing Minds
My Political Soapbox
**MyView
NIF
**Obiter Dictum Blog
Ogre’s View
Parrot Check
Patriots For Bush
PBS Watch
PC Free World
**Pirate’s Cove
RAGE
Rancher Blog
Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek
Red State Rant
Regular Ron
Respublica
Right On! A Conservative Opinion
**Smithereen’s Files
Steve’s Blog
Stop The ACLU
Stop The ACLU Illinois
Stop The ACLU Kansas
Stop The ACLU Nevada
Stop The ACLU Ohio
Stop The ACLU Oklahoma
Stuff You Should Know
Sweet Spirits of Ammonia
The American Patriots
**The Conservative UAW Guy
The Kevin Show
The Lesser of Two Evils
The Life And Times
The Nose On Your Face
The View From Firehouse
The Wide Awakes
third world county
**This Space For Rent
Thoughts from the Right
Time Hath Found Us
TMH’s Bacon Bits
Undiscovered Country
Vista On Current Events
What Attitude Problem?
White Lightning Axiom: Redux
Xtreme Right Wing

Chicken and Dumplings, Oh! how nice!

I had my head all tied up in the London bombings last week and neglected to post this. It’s great comfort food any time, though.

A fav memory from Me-Ma’s kitchen or from Momma’s. Being a kid and “getting” to clean the chicken off the bones or drop the dumplings in the stock is one of those priceless memories that warm my kitchen today from time to time. And then, of course, there was the eatin’.

Vary the ingredients, amounts, etc. in the chicken part freely. The dumplings are essentially drop biscuits. Fee free to substitute your fav recipe for drop buscuits there, too. Essentially, Chicken and Dumplings is just a decent chicken stock, chicken and drop biscuits. But if you want the guideline I mostly follow, here it is:

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken:

  • 1 or 2 whole chickens (depends on size of bird, how much chicken meat you want, etc.)

  • 1 cup carrots, sliced

  • 2 bay leaves

  • 2 celery ribs, stripped and chopped

  • 1 teaspoon tarragon chopped

  • 1 teaspoon thyme

  • 1/2 cup flour

  • 12 whole peppercorns

  • 1 teaspoon red pepper sauce

  • 8 or more “grinds” of freshly ground pepper

  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed

  • 1 yellow onion, diced

  • 1 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt

Note: in a pinch (also known as, “Ain’t got ’em and can’t get ’em right now” :-), the tarragon and thyme can be dropped, but at least add fresh chopped parsley or some other compatible herb(s) to the mix if you do. Freely substitute (or even eliminate for super tender palates or if you don’t have any handy) for the red pepper sauce (or for robust palates use red jalapeño sauce as I intend to next time I make this), but DO NOT cut the black pepper. Also note below that for the just plain good eats recipe, you may not even need the ½ cuppa flour noted above.

Lotsa water. Figure and eight-quart or better stock pot, water, chicken, veggies, etc. You’ll end up with a gallon or so of stock.

Wash the chickens (inside and out: you can also “brine” them ahead of time with coarse Kosher salt, then wash them again. If you do, eliminate all the other salt from the recipe) and put them in a stock pot with bay leaves, tarragon, thyme, peppercorns, and garlic, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes or until chicken is just short of done. Wash and prepare vegetables, putting trimmings into stock pot. Carefully remove the chickens from pot, leaving stock at a simmer. Note: a couple of large spoons works much better than trying to use tongs. Better: a collander. Simply pour the chickens out (passing the stock to another stock pot). Let the chickens cool slightly and remove the meat from the birds. Check the meat again carefully for bones. Again. heh (I always get the bones I miss in my plate, anyway. It’s tradition. 🙂

Dumplings:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

  • 1 cup buttermilk (can make pseudo-buttermilk by adding a couple of tablespoons vinegar to the cup before measuring the milk)

Mix all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients & mix. Decision tree: prissy, obsessive-compulsive method or just plain good eats method?

Prissy, obsessive-compulsive method:

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 3 /8-inch to 1/2 inch thick. Cut it into 1 /2-inch squares and set it aside. Strain the stock and save the fat from the top. Use the 1/2 cup of flour I warned you about earlier and enough fat to make a light roux. In a large pot, put the vegetables and 1 gallon of stock. Bring to a boil,add dumplings and 6 tablespoons of roux. Reduce to a simmer, stirring to keep dumplings from sticking. Add chicken meat, red pepper sauce, freshly ground black pepper, and salt. Cook until dumplings are done, about 20 minutes.

Just plain good eats method:

Don’t mess with all that. You have your stuff already. (Bring stock, chicken, etc. back to boil while assembling the dumpling batter.) Drop pinches–large or small, your choice: the large will take a lil linger to cook—into the boiling stock until it’s all in. Back off to just barely above a simmer, cover lightly, not tightly, and cook for about 20 minutes or until the dumplings are done. The neat thing about this method (besides the fact that it’s just plain easier and tastes just as good) is that there’s really no need at all to make a roux to get the semi-gravy texture for the stock, cos the loose balls of dumpling will do that, anyway, and stirring is optional. If you drop your dumpling balls in while the stocks at a nice rolling boil, then back it off to simmer, all the dumplings will cook at the top and form a dumpling layer to dip through when serving. Sticking? Not hardly!

Both methods give the cook the fun of testing the dumplings at around 20 minutes. Just choose a representative sample and have at it. Watch it, though: it’s not only plenty hot, but you also might decide not to share.

heh

Carnival of the Recipes “seekers after good eats” folks, welcome! Sample the recipe(s), mock my grammar, spelling and syntax in other posts, and in general feel free to make a mess of the place in comments.

Y’all come back now, y’hear?

Wilful Missing (Level with us, John-boy)

A combo “Free John Kerry’s 180” and “Kipling Tuesday” post


Image: LindaSog.com

As Jean Fraud sKerry “report[ed] for duty” (or was that “doody”?) a year ago, he forgot to bring his record with him. To John-boy: don’t you think it’s time you finally came clean? In “honor” of your slander of those who served alongside of you before the Seante foreign relations committee in 1971, your (treasonous?) meetings with the enemy in 1972 (and your early bugout for a few suspicious scratches)…

Wilful Missing
Rudyard Kipling

(Deserters)
There is a world outside the one you know,
To which for curiousness ‘Ell can’t compare–
It is the place where “wilful-missings” go,
As we can testify, for we are there.

You may ‘ave read a bullet laid us low,
That we was gathered in “with reverent care”
And buried proper. But it was not so,
As we can testify –for we are there!

They can’t be certain–faces alter so
After the old aasvogel ‘ad ‘is share.
The uniform’s the mark by which they go–
And–ain’t it odd?–the one we best can spare.

We might ‘ave seen our chance to cut the show–
Name, number, record, an ‘begin elsewhere–
Leaven” some not too late-lamented foe
One funeral-private-British-for ‘is share.

We may ‘ave took it yonder in the Low
Bush-veldt that sends men stragglin’ ‘unaware
Among the Kaffirs, till their columns go,
An ‘they are left past call or count or care.

We might ‘ave been your lovers long ago,
‘Usbands or children–comfort or despair.
Our death (an’ burial) settles all we owe,
An’ why we done it is our own affair.

Marry again, and we will not say no,
Nor come to barstardise the kids you bear.
Wait on in ‘ope–you’ve all your life below
Before you’ll ever ‘ear us on the stair.

There is no need to give our reasons, though
Gawd knows we all ‘ad reasons which were fair;
But other people might not judge ’em so–
And now it doesn’t matter what they were.

What man can weigh or size another’s woe:
There are some things too bitter ‘ard to bear.
Suffice it we ‘ave finished–Domino!
As we can testify, for we are there,
In the side-world where “wilful-missings ” go.


Also, see Cao’s Blog for more specifics on how Jean Fraud sKerry is still gaming the system to avoid doing his duty (keeping his word).
And see these others for more, as well:
Aaron’s cc
And Rightly So!
Atlas Shrugs
Balance Sheet
Cao’s Blog
Cathouse Chat
Christmas Ghost
Civil Issues
Conservative Friends
doubleplusgood infotainment
Doughnut Holes
Euphoric Reality
Flight Pundit
Fundamentally Right
Furry Press
GM’s Corner
Gribbit’s Word
House Of Wheels
i-imagery.com
Infinite Universe
International House of Conservatism
Jackson’s Junction
Jay Howard Smith
Kender’s Musings
Lifetrek
Moonbattery.com
My Vast Rightwing Conspiracy
NIF
PBSWatcher
Pirate’s Cove
Pooklekufr: The Kafir Constitutionalist
Power and Control
Private Radio
Progressive Conservatism
Ravings Of A Mad Tech
Republican Vet
Rottweiler Puppy
Shades of Gray
Something…and Half of Something
Stop the ACLU
Tall Glass of Milk
The Babaganoosh
The Creative Conservative
The Dark Citadel
The Paragraph Farmer
The Pulpit Pounder
The Sunnyeside Of Life
Think About It
Third World County
TMH’s Bacon Bits
Uncle Jack
Villainous Company
Web-Nuts
What Attitude Problem?
Where’s Your Brain?
Word Park Blog

Justice, Mercy, Humility

I’ll try to be brief, but this subject is really larger than any blogpost. Nevertheless, here’s a look into what is right with civilized behavior and wrong with Islamofascist apologists… just bend your ear a bit.

Justice is essential for a civilized society to survive. Absent a demonstable committment to valuing and protecting the rights of its citizens, a society cannot be considered civilization as Western Civilization has come to understand the term. Of course, “justice” has nothing to do with protection of life and liberty or even with fairness in the minds and deeds of multi-cultural relativists. And “justice” that recognizes the basic human rights of others has no place in conservative Islamic thought, let alone the “thought” of Islamic jihadist savages.

In order to protect the basic human rights of others, Judeo-Christian philosophy of civil government cedes “the sword” to civil authority that those who would seek to steal and kill and destroy might fear dreadful punishment.

Islam, recognizing no basic human rights for half of their own (women), recognizes only the right of infidels to either convert or die, if they serve no other purpose (slavery, objects of deceit in business, politics, diplomacy, etc.).

Multi-cultural relativists assert that the Islamic way is as good as (or better than) the Judeo-Christian tradition that asserts basic human rights for all and civil government’s primary responsibility to protect the life, limb and property of its citizens.
Multi-cultural relativists are disingenuous traitors to their own societies, useful tools for the destruction of Justice.
So, my multiple assertions that every Islamic person, for example, who does not act to do everything within their power to stop those they claim are hijacking Islam is guilty of aiding and abetting in the monstrous acts committed by the Islamofascist monsters that are their sons and brothers and cousins and friends is simply a matter of pointing out that absent a cultural support for their evil, the Islamofascist monsters would find it much more difficult, if not impossible, to commit their monstrous acts.
In Britain, the Muslims are disingenuously crying “Wolf, wolf” about a possible backlash against the Muslim “community,” all the while failing to clean out the hate speech regularly spewed forth in their mosques, exhorting the “faithful” to join jihad, kill Westerners, etc.
Justice (and the protective function of civil government) would demand that if they fail to clean such filth out of their own midst, then they, too, should be treated as an integral part of the problem. Hence my slightly over-the-top call for Europe (and the U.S.) to expel all Muslims and let thenm fight out any differences they may have someplace safely away from our shores…
But the sticking point for some is that justice demands, demands death for the savages who commit such acts as the London bombings. And not just the ones who set the bombs. The ones who in any way aided, funded, kept silent, turned a blind eye to the planning and execution of those acts.
Death for them as an affirmation of the value of the lives taken by them.
Death for them—brutal, public and sure—as a demonstration to those with similar ideas (and as a reminder to a civilized society of how horrible the death penalty is, and how it MUST be reserved for monsters such as these, as a reminder to exercise the death penalty humbly, remembering that these monsters are almost human).
Death for them to cleanse the world of what filth we can.
Death for each and every person directly involved and who can be demonstrated to have aided them in any way as a demonstration of society’s resolve to simply not allow this sort of behavior.
But.
Mercy.
As I noted in a comment to a post below, mercy is undeserved forgiveness. And we ought all to make every effort to forgive those who have wronged us. But.
“…in order for mercy to be recieved, genuine remorse and a willingness to make recompense must be expressed by the offending party. Otherwise, mercy is just wasting compassion on a subject who has _no desire_ to deserve it, or to return compassion toward those he has victimized.
Mercy when justice is observed can only be extended to those who recognize their wrong, feel and express genuine remorse and are willing to accept just punishment for their wrong.
Absent any one of those elements, mercy is not merciful at all, simply wasted ‘feelgoodyness’…”#
To repeat: Forgiveness is possible for anything, but justice demands that mercy not be extended to those who have no remorse for their acts. As I said elsewhere, if or when an Islamofascist savage sees the light, realizes how monstrous his actions have been and feels (and seeks to demonstrate) genuine remorse, I’d have little difficulty forgiving them. Of course, once such a person realized just how monstrous they had been, it might just be the greatest of mercies to pull the switch on them. What moral person would want to live, having wrongfully killed and maimed and destroyed…
Humility? Our hands, individually and as a society are not clean. No, I’m not asserting that the U.S. or Britain or the West as a whole is responsible for inciting Islamofascist atrocities. That’s simply bushwah. No, who among us has not wronged others? Who among us have not rationalized petty (or major) theft, hatred or undue acts of anger? And how often has our society had to right wrongs we as a society, a nation, a culture have committed?
Of course, one difference between us and the Islamofascist monsters of 9/11 and 7/7 (and hundreds of other acts of brutal muder in between) is that we do ask such questions; we do generally seek to be better people in our relations with others and as a society. All Islam can see—according to their “holy writ”—is “the faithful” and the “infidel.” And that is enough to have me press to seek protection and preservation of our society as better than theirs via steadfast exercise of justice, tempered by mercy for those who demonstrate* genuine remorse and seek to make what amends thay can, while looking honestly at our own failures; not with the jaundiced eye of multi-culturalist realtivism which sees only fault (when often there is none) or the rosy-colored glasses of the rabid chauvinist who refuses to see any wrong in himself or his country whatsoever.
Illustrative of this huge difference between the West and Islam as a whole is what our military was already doing to prosecute the tame abuse at Abu Ghraib—long before the Mass Media Podpeople began their jihad against the U.S. military’s behavior there—and the yawning acceptance (or even celebration!) of the “Arab street” every time some non-combatant Westerner has his head sawn off by an Islamofascist butcher.
We are better than they are. (But true humility—seeing ourselves as we truly are—would compel any of us to admit that being “better” than they are is damning with faint praise.) Still, unless we show unremitting resolve to prosecute the war they have pressed on us; unless we seek to mete out justice with an iron fist (careful to allow for mercy; humbly examining both our motives and methods) then we will reap what wusses always reap when backing down from bullies: ever more and more abuse.

*demonstrate genuine remorse? A good starting point would be public admissions of guilt and remorse; public apologies and private sharing of ALL information possible in order to bring down fellow Islamofascist savages. That would be a start. Enough to demonstrate genuine remorse? Maybe. But probably not…

Let me ask you: what would be enough to convince you that an Islamofascist butcher were genuinely, truly convinced of their guilt, truly remorseful and repentant?
It’d be kinda difficult to demonstrate convincingly, would it not?

Retooling the brain

I have some thoughts on Justice and Mercy that I’m kicking around. Informed by the latest demonstration from the “religion of peace,” these thoughts are taking a while to jell, so today…
I am not here; this is not me
No matter what you think you see.
I am not here; this is not me…