Month: January 2005

Simply the best browsing experience…

http://my.opera.com/mnmus/journal

Yeh, I do use Firefox to post here, but that’s darned near the only thing I use Firefox for.

Opera is really that much better for most web browsing. Firefox is still too clunky and uncustomizable for me. (Now, if customizing Firefox disn’t DEMAND a new plugin for every damned [BTW, not “profane” just a comment upon the curséd lameness of Mozilla software developers –heh] itty bitty thing I wanted to change/add and if I could move the curséd tabs to the bottom of my screen and if I could open a new tab as easily as in Opera, and… etc. )

But even Opera needs help, sometimes. And that’s another thing I like about it. Microsoft is useless in supporting Internet Exploder. Mozilla “support” is a mess. The Opera support site is rich with discussion groups, techies, external links, etc. Nice place.

And then they offered me another (free) place to bloviate.

What great folks!

🙂

Speaking of which, what’s taking them so long to organize the State Funeral for WJC? Can’t locate enough blue dresses for the pallbearers?

For some reason I was reminded today of the fiasco surrounding Rene Descartes’ funeral.

First, there was the manner of his death. He should have known better. Sitting in a Parisian coffee house. The waiter came by and asked him if Descartes wanted a fresh cup. Descartes replied, “I think not” and immediately… was not.

But the funeral procession for this famous mathematician/philosopher… Oh. My. Heavens. What a fiasco. As the horse-drawn hearse proceeded down the narrow streets of Paris, some juvenile merrymakers thought it fun to spook the horse by throwing stones at it. The horse took off, running wildly, the hearse careening through the narrow streets until finally, on a sharp turn, it jacknifed and the horse went down in front of the hearse, the coffin went flying off, skidding and bumping on down the cobblestone streets… and Descartes’ body came tumbling out to roll, finally to a stop some yards beyond the knackered horse, the broken hearse and the smashed coffin.

Yes, the worst case of getting Descartes before the hearse known to this day.

Easy

Disclaimer: I never make chili the same way twice. I never measure ingredients or use exactly the same ingredients, either. The following is a general guideline to the chili my family eats on a regular basis. Keep ion mind also that I’m a lazy cook, willing to take all kindsa shortcuts, as long as the end product tastes good, is filling and nutritious, in pretty much that order. Presentation counts in tenths of a point on a hundred point scale. It’s all about the substance with just a tad of “sizzle.”

Ingredients:

Beef. Best: leftover roast or any easily “shreddable” beef, already cooked. Second best: a “chili-grind” of beef.

Beans. Yeh, I know some so-called “purists” insist chili ought not have any beans, but they’re just blowing smoke. Pinto beans preferreed. Best: leftovers from a night of conrbread and beans, that is, pinto beans and hamhock. Second best: soak and cook some beans for this chili. Make do: open a can (or two or three, depending on your taste and amount of chili you’re making) of pinto beans. Black beans are good, too, but I’d never make black beans up for beans and cornbread, so…

Onion, garlic. In amounts you find work for you.

Some kind of tomato—not canned paste. Whatever tomato you have on hand. Fresh & chopped, canned salsa, Rotel tomatoes and green peppers, and even leftover spaghetti sauce all work. To taste, naturally. 🙂

Spices:

Chili sauce: Best chili sauce “base” is the enchilada sauce found here. Use it in an amount that works for you (this might oughta be called “experimental chili.” Ask your subjects how it works. 🙂 Next best: however many handsful of packaged chili powder work for you.

Whatever you use for a chili sauce base, you need to add cumin. Best: take cumin seed and powder a bunch up in your coffee grinder. Next best: a few handsful of pre-ground cumin powder.

Assemble your chili and let it cook a while (how long? As long as it takes to taste right to you. Leftover chili is best, so make lots.)

Olive oil at medium heat in cast iron skillet or pot. (Heat the skillet first, then add the oil.) Dump in the chopped onion (yeh, I didn’t say to chop it, but do I really need to hold your hand?) and just clarify the onion before adding the minced garlic—as much as you like. Feel free. Imagine it’s “Italian chili” if you want.

Add the beef (pre-brown any that’s not already cooked before starting this, but remember: leftovers make the best chili). Add the chili sauce ingredients. Finally, add whatever tomatoes and beans you have.

I sometimes add just a dash of “chinese five-spice” or whatever else strikes my fancy, but I don’t tell folks until after they’ve stuffed their faces with chili for a while.

Serve it any way you want. Here are a couple of options:

• In a bowl, plain. (Nah.)

• Weird: in a bowl with a splash of vinegar (your choice, but I like Balsamic when I go this weird) and soda crackers.

• On corn chips, add freshly chopped onion, tomatoes and lettuce, top with some kinda cheese and sour cream, sliced olives, and maybe even the kitchen sink. (BTW, make your own corn chips. They just taste better. See below.) If you like to add peppers, feel free. Jalapeños are the classic choice, but feel free to try seranos, habañeros or whatever suits you. I like ’em all. (Well, maybe not all at one time. Then again, mabeso… )

• Leftover chili wrapped in a soft taco, add some cheese & Whatever® makes a decent Quick Eats. Zap it, of course. (Liberally add habañero sauce? Of course!)

The possibilities are virtually endless (although I doubt chili ice cream will fly with my family).

Just off the top of my head, that’s about it. Again, you need ingredient amounts, fugettaboutit.

Oh, corn chips. Take some regular soft corn tortillas. Tear ’em in half. Broil/bak ’em til crisp. I use a lil convection oven on broil for about 20 minutes to make a small batch. They taste much more like corn and much less like oil. Perfectly fine for most dips. Better-tasting than the greasy junk in sky-high-priced bags.

Talk about stupid…

Nepal, January 15, 2005 (via Jerry Pournelle’s “Current Mail” )

“Maoists kidnapped 14 Gurkha soldiers, who were home on leave from their service in the Indian army.”

Ohhh, bad move. Nepal has about 100,000 retired Gurkha soldiers. Soldiers that slite forces worldwide hold in either the highest respect or downright fear (depending upon whose side they are on). The exploits of the professionals produced by the Gurkhas over the past couple of centuries for (mostly) British conflicts are the stuff of legend. I would not want to get on their bad side…

Indeed, it ocurred to me some time ago that the U.S. ought to hire Gurkha troops for Afganistan and Iraq… It wouldn’t take many confrontations to

a.) send one huge buncha terrorist goatlovers to their afterlife reward
b.) convince a whole bunch more that shutting up and moving on would be a very good thing.

And here the Maoists thought it was a good idea to kidnap some Gurkha soldiers on leave from the Indian army. Oh, very smart move, idiots.

Result?

January 16, 2005

“The Maoists said they would free the Gurkha soldiers they kidnapped yesterday, as they mistakenly thought the men belonged to the Nepalese army… ”

[heh] Smoothe move, Exlax…

(Hey, I wonder if we could get the DNC to kidnap a coupla Gurkhas? It seems to me that all it’d take would be some “survey” that told ’em it was a good idea. 🙂

On my second cup now and
cruisin’ toward number three…

A little something for those who love the Holy Bean

Same gif with a midi file here.

This post is also available with "licensing guidelines" at "O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree"

What the heck is “freedom of expression” anyway?

Bill of Rights
Amendment I

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.

Can someone tell me whence some loony judge derived “freedom of expression” from freedom of speech, press and assembly? Grunts, squeals, dropping one’s pants and excreting waste can all be means of expression. Is this what the Framers had in mind? They specified speech and press, as well as assembly and petition of the government. (Well, also freedom of establishing a religion and exercising religious faith, but that’s mostly outside this issue. Mostly.) The Framers were familiar with other forms of “expression” apart from speech and press. Recall a certain “Tea Party” or other more forceful expressions with well-aimed riflery? (See Second Amendment: freedom from government oppression via a well-armed populace.)

Yeh, the Framers could well have guaranteed “freedom of expression” other than just speech and press. But they did not. And likely for a very good reason: the written and spoken word at least have some liklihood of being able to sensibly convey political speech. Public crapping in the name of “free expression” is simply bad hygiene.

Burning the flag a “free speech” issue? Only if accompanied by speech, bubba. Otherwise it’s likely a case of just being a jerk. (Well, burning with the political speech is still being a jerk.)

And what’s this stupid idea that “free speech” (or worse, “expression”) is everyone’s right anywhere, anytime? Hey, dummies! The amendment refers to political speech. (Yeh, again: references to freedom to practice one’s religion–more on that another time.) Freedom of peaceful assembly and speech—oral and written. Moreover, the amendment only prohibits Congress from passing any federal statute that abridges these freedoms. You have multitudes of local and state laws that regulate speech, and rightly so. In addition, your employer can tell you what you can and cannot say on his dime.

But what about “free expression” on campuses and in classrooms? Yeh, well, kick the slats out from under any “free expression” goon you meet and demand they speak up clearly and make some sense. If they start waving a burning flag dipped in excrement in your face, pound ’em real good, OK? That’s assault they’ve committed and you have a right to defend yourself.

But as to free speech on campuses, well, that’s another story. First, is it a school that is supported by federal dollars (another issue–another one we’ll leave for later)? If so, and anyone tries to tell you what you can and cannot say as pertains to your political views, well, they can do as Dick Cheney told Patrick Lehey to do. (BTW, that was, in that context, free “political” speech, and IMO appropriate speech, at that.) If it’s an employee of a federal funds supported school and they try to shut you up or censure you, sue ’em. Really. (It’s too much to hope for to try and have them arrested… yet. But one can hope for the best.)

But if you’re just bloviating about something non-political and anyone objects or seeks to have persons in authority shut you up, who flipping cares? You have a perfect right to make an ass of yourself, but you really ought to be smarter and more responsible than that.

Political speech? I’d back you to the hilt. A theological or aesthetics or philosophical or sports argument? You’re on your own, bubba/bubbita. The First Amendment simply wasn’t talking about those things (unless the theological argument regards your personal beliefs and active practice of your faith) and I, for one, don’t care what you bring down on your own head.

Yeh, I know some wacko, idiotic, lame-brain judges have disagreed with me. That’s all right by me. Even wacko, idiotic, lame-brain judges have a right to make perfect asses of themselves by demonstrating they

a.) cannot read or understand plain English
b.) are simply too stupid to beat their way out of a wet paper bag with a gavel.

Damn, but democracy is stupid. And that’s one of the reasons the Framers specifically designed our federal system as NON-democratic. So stupid, venal and corrupt people would have less chance of corrupting the government. Loosely paraphrasing Ben Franklin, we had a republic, but we didn’t keep it, and stupid thinking and behavior stemming from stupid readings of the First Amendment have had a hand in that.

Sturm und Drang is Out: “Whadda you say, sonny?” is in…

I’ve reached the place in life where I can’t find my glasses unless I’m wearing them (doh—can’t see ’em without ’em). But that’s not the hard part. Not only can’t I find my glasses unless I’m wearing them, I can’t remember where I’ve set my cuppa coffee unless I’ve drunk it… (Each cup adds 3 IQ points in the morning.)

Slow off the starting block

This is a late, late post linking to this week’s Carnival of the Recipes. Some mouth-watering recipes posted. “Macho Sauce,” “Kate’s Garlicky Chicken with Spinach,” “Enchiladas Suisse” and a few more are going to make it into my repertoire of quick and easy recipes (probably with my typical lazyman’s adaptations :-).

Go. Gain some weight just reading through the recipes.

You didn’t think these were going away, did you?

[First posted in the middle of December. Back again… ]

Classic Red Enchiladas–with a twist

Ok, so not-so-classic. The ingredients are authentic, but the preparation is strictly “fast food” utilitarian. The biggest change? No rolled enchiladas in this puppy. Here’s how it goes…

Red Enchilada Sauce
(Makes 16 oz.–give or take)
8-10 dried Anaheim peppers (actually, I tend to use more). Clean the seeds out for merely “sorta-hot”. Leave the seeds in for a little spiciness. Tear the peppers up into pieces and then either

a.) Use an electric coffee grinder to powder the chiles to a fine powder and add boiling water to make 2 cups liquid. Blend in blender. Set aside and let it come together for a little bit. (My preferred “quick sauce” method)

OR

b.) Place the pepper pieces in a sauce pan and cover with boiling water. Place a saucer (or whatever works) on top of the peppers to hold them submerged under the water and then leave them all day soaking. Remove the peppers from the water, place them in a blender with enough water to make 2 cups and blend.

If you absolutely NEED a thicker and/or milder sauce, use a little corn flour in the blending stage to thicken/whimp out the sauce. Keep the corn flour down to less than 1/4 C for each 2 C water, otherwise it’ll really begin to taste “corny”. (Only have corn meal? Put a little in your coffee grinder and make corn flour out of it. Don’t have a coffee grinder? Get one! :-)) You can cut the heat and really thicken the sauce with just a couple of tablespoons.

OK, that is all there is to real Red Enchilada Sauce. It’s really just chiles and water. Here’s the rest of the dish:

Preparation
In a 9×12 baking dish, LAYER (in the following order: sauce, tortillas, sauce, cheese, onions, tortillas… etc.)
24-30 corn tortillas
Red Enchilada Sauce (Yeh, make your own. The stuff in cans stinks.)
4 C shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Jack/Cheddar mix.
One YELLOW onion, chopped. (Need even milder onion? Chop it the day before and store it in a plastic bag in the fridge to “sweeten”.)

The top layer should be covered in sauce and cheese only, no onion.

Bake at 325 F for about 45 minutes. Check it at 30 minutes. Different timing/oven temps result in different textures. Play with that a lil to suit yourself.

I generally use 6 tortillas per layer in an overlapping 2X2X2 pattern and fill in the edges with torn tortillas so that I end up with 4 layers. Play with it. Find a layer/sauce/cheese mix that suits you.

I like to serve squares cut from the result topped with sour cream and shredded lettuce. Add a few sliced black olives for flavor and color or some salsa for a little more pep. A side of “Spanish” rice and one of refried beans make for a pretty well-rounded meal. If you want meat, hash something together, but DON’T put meat in these enchiladas!

Easy “Spanish” rice:

Easiest? Just substitute your favorite salsa for part of the water when making a pan of rice. (Another time, I’ll post my fav fast salsa recipes.)

Easy–and fast–Refried beans:

OK, use canned refried beans if you must. Go ahead. But at least add some, no, not some: a lot! of cumin to them while they are warming up. 🙂 Better? Here’s where you can add some meat to the menu: add some chorizo to the beans. Great cumin flavor and a lil meat all at once.

Better: set aside leftovers from beans n cornbread night and use those, mashed and “refried” with something slightly less than a ton of cumin, some bacon fat, etc.

“The Little Moonvies Take the Sacking”—MQ from Pruden

Wes Pruden’s article about the whitewash of the CBS/Dan Blather Rathergate story pegs the newly released report to the wall. An excerpt:

Mary Mapes, his producer who tipped the Kerry campaign in advance of the scandalous program and tried to get the candidate’s men fired up about it, inevitably becomes the head scapegoat. To believe that she is guilty and Dan isn’t requires us to believe that Dan Rather, of all people, is the virgin in the bordello.

Well, at least now we know where to find Dan and Les and all of Les’ lil Moonvies.

Note to news: Take a number and wait to be “serviced”…