Month: March 2005

in the case of the (attempted?) murder of Terri Schiavo…

Although Dale Franks at QandO Blog doesn’t frame his comments as regarding (attempted) murder of Terri Schiavo (that’s my frame of reference), Dale’s comments are nevertheless piercing:

“Unfortunately, Ms. Schiavo didn’t butcher a carload of tourists with a hatchet, so we can apparently just let her die, and make her whole case moot. I mean, irrespective of whether or not you believe Congress exercised its authority inappropriately in this case by ordering the de novo review, the clear intent of Congress was to spare Ms. Schiavo’s life through mandating another round of review. Too bad they couldn’t find a way to make that explicit in the text of the act. Apparently, the judiciary is coming over all originalist now, and deciding that, if it’s not in the text of the act, it isn’t required. “

Of course. Typical of an increasingly activist, imperial and capricious judiciary. Anything that honored the intent of Congress in this matter would decrease the power of the imperial court system. And those who support the imperial courts are generally also those who protest the death penalty and are only opposed to the death penalty for monsters. They approve the death penalty for helpless, but inconvenient, humans who’ve committed no crime.

This is all too convoluted and inbred for me. I’m almost ready to start shouting “Power to the people! Shackle (or hang?) the judges!”

Yes, Congress was wrong to butcher federal principles yet again on the block of expediancy. But the legislature and administration of Florida (are you listening, Jeb?) were also wrong in the way they have allowed judges to become little emperors in their State in the last few years. Florida law allows for the prosecution of those who torture people who are in their care. Jeb ought to order the arrest of the judge in the Schiavo case and vacate his order by the simple expedient of taking her into protective custody. Force a (state) constitutional crisis in Florida. he’d likely win against an imperial judiciary if the legislature had the balls to take down a few judges who’ve gotten too big for their britches.

Then, GW could follow that tack in D.C… maybe. If he had the balls for it. There are at least five Supreme Idiots who ought to be impeached and removed, right now, for failure to uphold the Constitution.

Dinah ain’t here, man…

Another mess of Whatever Stew is in the crock pot for tonight and tomorrow, but I’m already wondering whether to make pizza this weekend or…

Mac n Cheese

Here’s a recipe I’ve had sitting around for a while. I have, as always, modified it to suit me. (My mom and siblings stopped asking if I recall how to make old family favs—”comfort food”—cos all of them are different in my kitchen… and different nearly every time I make them. *heh*. They eat ’em and ask for the “recipe” but never ask for the originals) In fact, I don’t think I ever made it according to the recipe I was handed originally. Close but no cigar. And, yeh, lots of times I have made mac n cheese that’s not… up to this standard, just because I was pressed for time. but this is what I prefer.

This is a general guideline. PLEASE change any element to suit your taste as you go along.

Between 1/2 and a whole package of bacon (1/2 to 1 pound?) uncooked OR 6 oz (or more!) cooked, dry bacon bits (2/3 to one cup)
1/4 cup butter, margarine or even olive oil. But ONLY olive oil, extra virgin. The tasty stuff.
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs–Make ’em or buy ’em. Whatever is easiest.*
1 lb uncooked elbow macaroni (Hey, the packagges are conveniently labeled, so “pound” is easy to measure, here.)
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1 1/2 lb of your fav easily-melted cheese. Swiss cheese, jack cheese, cheddar. Hey! That’s a nice mixture! Just no mozarella. Not for macaroni n cheese, please. I like a tad of Parmesan or Romano tossed in as an extra kicker.

If you’re not using bacon bits that you’ve either pre-made or bought, save yourself some draining time and broil the bacon. Cook it until it’s fairly crisp. Most of the grease will roll right off into the broiling pan. Save the grease (covered jar in fridge) for use in other recipes. Drain and dry with paper towels Trim ALL the fat off (the dogs will thank you for the treat), then crumble the bacon. Best “crumble”? If it’s not too crisp, chop it with your chef’s knife. Otherwise, pace it between paper towels and use your rolling pin to crumble it.

If you’re using butter, melt in in a small pan over low heat. When melted, add the bread crumbs and sauté until the bread crumbs are browned. No, don’t just let them sit there in a hot pan. You DO know how to sauté, don’t you? If you use oilve oil, heat the pan first, then add the oil, then the bread cruumbs, of course.

Boil the macaroni in salted water for, oh, 7-10 minutes. A little olive oil added to the pot will help prevent the macaroni from sticking together. Sometimes, I’ll add a crushed clove of garlic or some fresh parsley or some other herb, depending on what I have on hand and whether I feel like adding a lil kick. Most of such addenda will pour off, but a bit of flavor will linger. And the added aromas while it’s cooking are nice in the kitchen. 🙂

While the macaroni is cooking, grate the cheese and chop the onions. (Time-savers: buy pre-grated cheese. Always chop whole onions at once and save the leftovers in a plastic bag for use THE NEXT DAY. If left in the bag in the fridge for just a day, the chopped onions will “sweeten” and in just a day won’t spoil.) When the macaroni is done, drain and rinse it (lightly!) in a colander. Layer the ingredients into a glass baking dish of whatever size and shape you have to hold ’em. Macaroni/cheese/bacon bits/onion. Does an herb pop into your mind at this point? Sprinkle a little in and see how it goes. Top with the bread crumbs and bake at about 350-375 F (oven temps vary) for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Now, this part’s the hard part, cos folks just want to dig in and have at it NOW. Remove it from the oven and let it sit a couple of minutes before serving. Serve with (and this is important! *s*) fresh or frozen (cooked, of course) peas. I’ll not be having any of your green beans with this dish, thank you very much. And nothing weird for veggies, either. Just fresh or frozen green peas, juuuust cooked–just steamed, even. That POP of bright green against the cheesy/bacon-y macaroni looks good on a plate, and they’re the perfect flavor complement.

What? You need something else to complete this meal? Go away, cos you’re not gonna get it at my house. OK, OK, if you insist, add some tomato succotash**. Another splash of color and taste.

But try it with just grean peas first.

You can feed an average family with this. Leftovers are even better than freshly made, believe it or not. Pack some for lunch and nuke it. Your co-workers will envy you.

* From Ochef (http://www.ochef.com/1015.htm ) here’s an easy way to make your own bread crumbs:

“To make unseasoned bread crumbs, take very stale bread and grind it into crumbs in a food processor or crush it in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. If your bread is not completely dry, slice it and put it in the oven at 250°F (120°C) until dry. You can also grate dried bread on a grater, which produces flaky crumbs.”

**Tomato succotash: a simple dish of corn, peas, Lima beans and stewed tomatoes. In any darned ratio you like.

Caprice

I’ve noted before the observation by Jerry Pournelle and many others that we no longer live in a nation governed by the rule of law but a nation of selective inforcement of law, governed by the carpricious whim of bureaucrats and vindictive or fief-building carrerists in law enforcement; and that instead of a republic, we now are ruled by political elites and a (no longer truly) federal bureaucracy that creates “a multitude of New Offices” and sends “swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out [our] substance.” (ref: Declaration of Independence).

All this is a large part of why citizens seem to have little respect for laws (citizens? say rather, subjects… *sigh*). There are many more reasons, of course. Felony inflation—fill in a pothole (that some enviro wacko claims is a “wetlands) and commit a felony. *sheesh!* Land-grabbing by municipalities for business interests—take from the “poor” and give to the rich: the motto of modern “liberal” government. Rule by judicial fiat.

But I’d like to deal with criminal justice from a differnt angle, very briefly.

Punishment of crime. Dan, over at Riehl World View (and in the article from there published in the Blogger News Network) spurred some thought about this issue. PLEASE NOTE: Dan didn’t say anything like what I say below. What I propose below is simply a kinda riff on a very minor sub-point of a peripheral comment. his article is serious in a way this is not (although I am serious, just differently so).

If a crime is truly a crime, lets make some distinctions and use some common sense in applying justice, shall we? People who commit violent crimes—aggravated assault/battery, robbery, rape, murder, for example—get put in prison and what? They are essentially in grad school for criminals, because they’ll “serve” some time while getting advanced coursework in mayhem and then be released to commit more murder and mayhem–“better” murder and mayhem!.

Not smart. And not fair to their victims past and future. Isn’t the primary purpose of government to protect good citizens from such as these?

What could be better? Gee, I don’t know… I’d opt for “an eye for an eye” in cases of violent crime. Beat someone up, get beaten… until you learn that you’re going to get beaten worse than you dish out. Kill someone? Obvious. Be killed.

Robbery might be a lil iffy. Two crimes in one, as it were. Threaten with bodily harm and take a piece of someone’s life (that’s what your property is, you know: you paid in time and effort off the time alloted you to live for what someone steals from you), get caused bodily harm and be required to pay back more–say seven times as much, as in biblical times?–than you forcefully stole.

Drunk drivers? An easy one. Catch ’em drunk? Hand ’em a bottle of their fav poison. Disable their brakes. Clear all traffic from a very steep and dangerous mountain road. Send ’em home via that route. The liklihood of them driving while drunk and needlessly endangering others’ lives again will be moot in short order. Buh-bye! (Yeh, I have no compassion for drunk drivers. None. At. All.)

Theft by non-violent means could be more justly punished by forcing the thief to repay double what they stole. Plus interest, at 7 points above prime. At least.

Bring harm to another—physical or monetary—be required to “pay back” more than the harm you caused. That’s not just punishment but justice.

(My position on how to deal with monsters such as child abusers and many activist judges stands: state-sanctioned very public deaths by very monstrous means would seem best. This is too wimpy by far for child molesters/murderers, but at least Iran is on the right track.)

That would cover the bulk of crime. It could also provide some serious relief from having to house, clothe, feed and guard so many in prisons.

Indeed, we could just limit the number in prisons to anyone who wants to be a congresscritter and be much better off, more than likely…

*heh*

I dunno… maybe it was the use of “conundrum” in the previous post that spurred this, although I suspect it’s the other way around, since I’ve quoted from this particular bit of Kipling more than once, recently. Give a listen and then pause for a moment’s thought…

*********************************************************

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE WORKSHOPS

When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden’s green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, “It’s pretty, but is it Art?”

Wherefore he called to his wife, and fled to fashion his work anew —
The first of his race who cared a fig for the first, most dread review;
And he left his lore to the use of his sons — and that was a glorious gain
When the Devil chuckled “Is it Art?” in the ear of the branded Cain.

They fought and they talked in the North and the South,
they talked and they fought in the West,
Till the waters rose on the pitiful land, and the poor Red Clay had rest —
Had rest till that dank blank-canvas dawn when the dove was preened to start,
And the Devil bubbled below the keel: “It’s human, but is it Art?”

They builded a tower to shiver the sky and wrench the stars apart,
Till the Devil grunted behind the bricks: “It’s striking, but is it Art?”
The stone was dropped at the quarry-side and the idle derrick swung,
While each man talked of the aims of Art, and each in an alien tongue.

The tale is as old as the Eden Tree — and new as the new-cut tooth —
For each man knows ere his lip-thatch grows he is master of Art and Truth;
And each man hears as the twilight nears, to the beat of his dying heart,
The Devil drum on the darkened pane: “You did it, but was it Art?”

We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the shape of a surplice-peg,
We have learned to bottle our parents twain in the yelk of an addled egg,
We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart;
But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: “It’s clever, but is it Art?”

When the flicker of London sun falls faint on the Club-room’s green and gold,
The sons of Adam sit them down and scratch with their pens in the mould —
They scratch with their pens in the mould of their graves,
and the ink and the anguish start,
For the Devil mutters behind the leaves: “It’s pretty, but is it Art?”

Now, if we could win to the Eden Tree where the Four Great Rivers flow,
And the Wreath of Eve is red on the turf as she left it long ago,
And if we could come when the sentry slept and softly scurry through,
By the favour of God we might know as much — as our father Adam knew!

*********************************************************

Oh, what the heck… just go here once a day and read a bit of Kipling.

Thomas Sowell weighs in on the illegitimacy of so-called “Liberal” agitation in the Terri Schiavo case

Thomas Sowell rightly pegs the disconnect between recent so-called “Liberals'” arguments for the murder of terri Schiavo:

The fervor of those who want to save Terri Schiavo’s life is understandable and should be respected, even by those who disagree. What is harder to understand is the fervor and even venom of those liberals who have gone ballistic — ostensibly over state’s rights, over the Constitutional separation of powers, and even over the sanctity of family decisions.

These are not things that liberals have any track record of caring about. Is what really bothers them the idea of the sanctity of life and what that implies for their abortion issue? Or do they hate any challenge to the supremacy of judges — on which the whole liberal agenda depends — a supremacy that the Constitution never gave the judiciary?

I suspect the reasons Sowell pegs are but two of (too) many. The disconnect of so-called “Liberals” (who apparently have not once ounce of liberal blood in their cold dead hearts) who agitate on the one hand to spare the lives of cold-blooded killers yet rail that a man who has deserted his wife must be allowed to torture her to death simply because she is profoundly disabled is simply beyond reason.

If ever there was a clearly definable characteristic of children of Satan is must be this: the blood thirst for innocent life and the protection of monsters who cold-bloodedly take innocent (to the degree that anyone is innocent *heh*) life.

“Liberals”? Children of Moloch, rather.

(“Moloch [the sun god of the Caananites] was represented as a huge bronze statue with the head of a bull. The statue was hollow, and inside there burned a fire which colored the Moloch a glowing red. Children were placed on the hands of the statue. Through an ingenious system the hands were raised to the mouth (as if Moloch were eating) and the children fell into the fire where they were consumed by the flames. The people gathered before the Moloch were dancing on the sounds of flutes and tambourines to drown out the screams of the victims.” * The victims were typically children. That’s right: the helpless, the powerless, those dependant upon the protection of their parents were sacrificed… by their parents. Burned alive. At least it was faster than starvation and dehydration. Sounds kinda like a “husband” and judge now in the news… )

Prosecute the torturers

Andrew McCarthy’s article in The National Review yesterday details an answer to the Terri Schiavo case that does NOT involve federal intrusion and does seem to answer the pressing need. He cites a Florida law that forbids (and prescribes punushment for) abuse of disabled persons, including torture of those who, like Terri evidences in contemporaneous videos, are NOT vegetative but simply profoundly incapacitated. He then goes on to ask,

Where does it say, under Florida law, that a judge has the power to authorize the commission of felony violations of the law? A judge manifestly had no power to tell Michael Schiavo and the hospice that they could feel free to shoot or hang or over-medicate Terri to death. Why in the world do we think he had the cognate power to permit a torture?

OK. So lynching is out. *sigh* But jailing the judge who ordered Terri Schiavo to be tortured tio death ought to happen. Now. Where are the handcuffs. No bread and water. And why not remove the judge’s “feeding tube”? An “eye for an eye” seems fair. No food or water foras long as Terri’s been (or is) without—for the judge and every single person who weighed in on the side of killing Terri Schiavo by torture.

What would be wrong with that?

Free Fiona Apple!

Disclaimer: I do not find Fiona Apple’s voice or vocal style at all appealing. That said, I do still very much like her music, especially what I’ve listened to so far of “Extraordinary Machine,” the album Sony has shelved—refused to relase—because it’s “not commercial” enough, but which neverhteless has found a huge audience among radio listeners and internet downloaders.

Huh? Yep. Seems a DJ got hold of a copy of the songs and has been playing them regularly and a whole movement to “Free Fiona Apple” has sprung up, attempting to get Sony to press the album and allow folks to buy it. Here’s a site where you can download very high quality mp3s of all the songs on the album, if you wish (I did). And here’s

Other observations? Glad you asked. (You did ask, didn’t you? 🙂 OK, in one sense Sony is right. The music on “Extraordinary Machine” is definitely not the sort of manufactured commercial crap Sony has been majoring in recently. It’s rather complex and involving music, instead. Not the sort of thing that Sony’s market is aimed at—tone-deaf, subliterate, “prison for kids”-manufactured doofs. OK, I can see where Sony would say, “We don’t know anyone who would buy this stuff,” because Sony execs apparently are tone-deaf, subliterate doofs ,themselves.

This stuff is good, in spite of all apple does to ruin it with her annoying voice. Just plain good stuff!

Now, I’m conflicted. If Sony succombs to pressure to release it, against all their “over-manufactured commercial crap for idiots sells” instincts and Fiona fans buy the albu in large numbers, who benefits?

Sony.

*sigh*

Would this encourage Sony execs to look more carefully at the quality of the music they publish (and who would care, since they obviously can’t tell good music from bad, anyway)? Or would it just reward their three-year shelving of this album? Wouldn’t a better solution be to download the songs anywhere one can get them for free and send Fiona Apple a buck or so a song (far more than the buck or so an album she’d get from Sony–if she’s lucky)?

I’d much rather send her some money directly than give Sony a dime.

But that’s me. I’ll always prefer that the artist (and in this case, again in spite of her annoying voice, Fiona is that rare thing: and artist) get the lion’s share, rather than some philistine in a suit.

Thx to Glenn Reynolds for tipping me off to the fact that the songs were available—somewhere *heh*—on the web.)

Update:

Epic (a subsidiary of Sony) now says ” …Fiona has not yet delivered her next album to Epic, but we join music lovers everywhere in eagerly anticipating her next release.”

So, what is it? Apple fans have supposedly been besieging Sony for more than a year asking for the album’s release, and now Epic says she hasn’t delivered? I suspect the truth is that she has but Epic demanded changes to make it more “marketable”—changes Apple is probably right to resist, given the other offerings coming from the Sony Borg.

Addendum:

Janis Ian has some trenchant observations about artistic expression, music, the music industry, and the internet at her web site. Good reading. (Oh, and she has some of her music for download there. Remember “At Seventeen”?)

And this whole idea of artists marketing directly to those who appreciate their work, bypassing much of the cumbersome and overly expensive vampires (well many of them are) has other thinking advocates. Jim Baen, a book publisher with a genuinely forward-looking viewpoint, has given server space and publicity to those authors who want to give away some of their books… and both baen Books and the individual authors have noticed significant gains in their bottom line as a result. I know that after Holly Lisle pointed me to the Baen Free Library I bought a number of her books… since the library offered me an opportunity to download and read one of her books and I discovered I liked her writing. (Our local lil library here in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢ does the best it can, but its fiction selection is scarcely larger than my pre-purge collection was. And much of that selection is… not worth reading, anyway—a matter of catering to the clientele, as much as anything else. *heh*) Other authors—Eric Flint (the prime mover behind the Baen Free Library ), John Ringo and several others’ books have been purchases I would probably not otherwise have made, had not the library introduced them to me.

And Baen Books also sells e-books of all their titles very inexpensively, with a larger share of the ebook price going to the author than does from print books (economy of production passed on to the artist–Baen’s a White Hat, I think.).

Federalsim? We don’t need no steenking federalsim. But we do need prayer in (and for) our courts…

First: the Terry Schiavo case reveals the moral bankruptcy of our society. That government is no longer FIRST tasked to prevent the taking of innocent (of crime) life but is instead simply determining when it’s permissbile to take the life of a person who has been conviceted of no crime is indicative of a deep, deep failure of our society. That the perpetrators of this abortion of justice have not been taken out and strung up by angry mobs of locals rebelling against immoral government/courts is an even sadder commentary on the moral fiber of what was once a republic.

That said, it’s none of the feds business to what depths of moral depravity Florida’s so-called judicial system falls in becoming a witting participant in the murder of a woman whose only “crime” is that she is severely disabled. It turns on its head completely the idea that we have a republic of States, as devised by the Founders (but then, that concept was already terminally poisoned by the Great Unitarian-Baptist Shootout**, when the Baptists lost to the ungodly Unitarians… *sigh*). Piggybacking on the illegitimate expansion of so-called federal power in other areas in order to do good in this one is just one more case of republicans (small “r”) surrendering to the mob tearing at the tatters of the Constitution.

But then, a large part of the problem is acceptance of government involvement in too much of our personal lives–involvement by all levels of government in all too many parts of our personal lives. That Schiavo’s putative “husband” (who now lives with another woman with whom he has fathered children) is allowed by a court to have any say whatever concerning the life of the woman whom he has deserted, to whom he has denied care settlement monies were earmarked for, is appalling–especially since there are people ready, willing and able to take care of her themselves.

No, the Florida judge says, kill her. But not only “kill her” but do so in a way that would have any one of us jailed for doing it to our dogs. (If you have the stomach for it and are morally depraved enough, try starving your dog to death, denying it water. The worst of dog-hating neighbors would report you and you’d be jailed. Would that some hater of the disabled would have the moral fiber to have the judge who condemned Terry Schiavo to a tortured death jailed… at least.)

That’s too much, and I can certainly understand the moral outrage that would lead congresscritters to intervene with an attempt to make a federal case out of it. But they, too, are wrong. (Whereas the proper response by our congresscritters ought probably to be… see above re: lynching.)

*sigh* There seems to be no right solution except… perhaps as I have heard suggested, praying that God would intervene and grant terry Schiavo the ability to swallow again.

So, pray.

(**”Great Unitarian-Baptist Shootout: also known by disingenuous historical propogandists as the American Civil War. Another example of good intentions—the abolition of chattel slavery—hitching a ride with bad—imperialists, robber baron industrialists and economic slaveholders.)

Social Security may not be in as much trouble as most think… oh, my…

Scientists Say Life Expectancy To Drop

Obesity could help keep Social Security solvent because people will die younger. “One of the consequences of our prediction is that Social Security does not appear to be in nearly as bad a shape as we think,” said study author S. Jay Olshansky.

Now, that’s certainly mixed news.

(h.t. Rod Schaffter, posting at Chaos Manor Mail)

Think happy thoughts… think happy thoughts… think… arrrggggghhhhh!

Quote of the week? Maybe quote of the decade, for all I know.

“As I have said repeatedly the purpose of government is to hire and pay government workers; and the purpose of TSA is to remind us all that we are subjects, not citizens.” –Jerry E. Pournelle (page down a ways)

Think happy thoughts, now. C’mon, I know you can do it…

(And from the same source as above, a related—and perhaps just as disturbing—thought: ” It is interesting that opponents of the death penalty want Terri [Schiavo] to die.” Yes. It is related… )