Month: March 2005

“Sign zee papers, old man!”**

Glenn Reynolds notes, in his latest Tech Central column, that

“… if you haven’t been convicted of some felony or other, it’s probably because no prosecutor has tried to put you away, not because you haven’t committed one, whether you realized it at the time or not.”

Indeed. We have reached the point where the only thing standing [between] a citizen (like maybe a pushy, perhaps even obnoxious, broad, say, Martha Stewart?) with rights and a convicted felon whose rights have been stripped, modified or severely curtailed is the time, personal taste and/or whim of a prosecutor.

That means that, in essence, what we think of as rights are really only priviledges temporarily granted by a government that can strip us of those rights any time it truly wishes to do so.

And nearly as bad as “felony inflation” as laws seem to grow like vicious and rabid tribbles, is the actions of judges who issue new law (usually, it seems, after reading tea leaves and goat entrails) by fiat, as Thomas Sowell notes in the first of three recent articles dealing with trouble on the bench:

“While people in various countries in the Middle East are beginning to stir as they see democracy start to take root in Iraq, our own political system is moving steadily in the opposite direction, toward rule by unelected judicial ayatollahs, acting like the ayatollahs in Iran.”

Welcome to the Imperium.

**(My thx to Cheech n Chong for the perfect image of the new order: “Sign zee papers old man!”… “But I cannot sign the papers”…much intervening dialog… “Why not?” “Because you have cut off all my fingers!”)

I’ve reached that awkward age…

…where I can no longer read a book, watch TV, listen to the stereo and carry on a conversation simultaneously. And I don’t have anyone to play chess with at the same time, now, either.

Ah, well. I suppose it has something to do with leaving adolescence behind me, now that I’m in my 50s.

Completely Stupid Idea

One of the many reasons I strongly dislike CSI and its cousin TV shows can be found, illustrated and explained in moderate depth for a layman’s understanding, here .

“Chris Enzler from Cognitech says, ‘you won’t get a perfect picture, that’s Hollywood. You will get a good picture, but you can only reconstruct so much. You almost never get a nice tape – some videotapes have been recorded over 100 times. Banks and other stores try to be cheap, and too many people expect stuff from the movies or CSI.’

Chris gave several examples of Hollywood magic that doesn’t work in real life. One example is from a recent CSI episode, where the video investigator rotated a car in 3D to read the license plate, from a 2D video. In other shows you see the investigators enhance a single pixel to a full screen, with perfect clarity, which is obviously impossible.”

Of course, all the other reasons I avoided the show(s) after the first couple of episodes I watched in order to give it a fair viewing are moot since Rathergate. Since Rathergate, I’ve sworn off ALL CBS programming, including local programming from our CBS affiliate.

Haven’t missed a thing.

Of course, CSI is now in syndication on other channels, but that just makes narrowing down my viewing options (which sometimes narrow down to nothing, which is itself no loss) easier.

Now, if only someone could get through to NBC that cloning ever dumber versions of Law & Order is a waste of otherwise valuable programming time… “SVU” was bad enough, but “Criminal Intent” with weird boy Onofrio gave me a rash. I dread discovering what the new version-that-should-not-be-named might turn out to be like…

Nah. No dread. More TLC and History Channel. That’ll do the trick.

As long as I keep wearing the noose…

Every now and then I restate my intention to more fully articulate my views on the War for Civilization. It includes, of course, the war against Islamic jihadism; the carefully considered rape of Western Civilization by ill-intentioned pseudo-intellectuals, mass media podpeople and loony left moonbats; the collapse of education and the disappearance of a literate society, etc.

But not yet.

In the meantime, here’s some material for the nearly literate (as I hope one day to be) to grab hold of and fly with: MIT’s listing of “Opencourseware”–free course material from MIT. Yep. Free. Here.

(Thanks to George Laiacona III for sending the link to Jerry Pournelle and to Dr. Pournelle for posting it. I can see my blogging tapering off a little just from time spent browsing the courses… Wow. Neat stuff!)

Now, admittedly, the offerings are really “just” highly detailed course outlines, detailing, for example, subjects covered in each class session and assignments, etc. But surely that’s enough to allow a reasonably intelligent person to glean one heck of a lot of knowledge in a subject. I just scanned ” Developing Musical Structures” and it looks like something I could get my teeth into. Foundations of Western Culture I: Homer to Dante; Foundations of Western Culture II; and Foundations of Western Culture II: Renaissance to Modernity, look like well-structured reviews of western civ, with perhaps a little more depth tha n expected, given that they are intro lit courses. (As an aside, it was a trip for me to visit—via phone—with my 13/14(?)-year-old nephew a couple of weeks ago about his venture into reading Greek tragedy. Between his daily readings and the family round-table readings in the evening, it looked like Oedipus would get a pretty in-depth examination… Something many college grads will not have done either in high school or college.)

But the stuff that’s available! Wow! Great site.

More, please.

Oh, and don’t miss the CD/DVD images of 600 (CD) or 9,400!(DVD) books available at http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject/

When will he sign? My bet? The Twelfth of Never

Notice the entry directly above the topmost post on my blog. It ought to read, “XX days ago, John Kerry promised, on national TV, to sign form SF-180 and release his military records. He has yet to do so,” with “XX” being the number of days since he told Tim Russert, on air, that he would do so.

Polipundit puts it this way:

“This should be a bipartisan effort. If you’re a Democrat who supports Kerry, his signing form SF-180 would help prove that he’s a genuine war hero, not the fraud that the Swift Vets claim he is. If you’re a Democrat or Republican who opposes Kerry, the contents of his military records would shine a bright light on his murky Vietnam War record. Either way, it’s in everyone’s best interest to get the senator to sign SF-180 and release his records.”

Polipundit offers the code to enter that lil script on your own blog, here. Just enter it in your blog template at a place you deem appropriate.

ht to Mickey Kaus via Instapundit.

(During the campaign last year, I sent a simple email to the Kerry campaign a couple of times a week that simply said, “Sign Form 180” about 100 times per email… I also got on their mailing list and returned every campaign email with that same form e-. I knew it would be ignored, but it was my small contribution to the kerry campaign.)

In the grand scheme of things… this ain’t.

Please excuse the light blogging. I just checked my “Zen” Freecell scores and it appears I’m closing in on a milestone, of whatever importance that may be. So, realizing the relative importance of attaining 5,000 Freecell wins (notice the loss entry *heh*) as compared to world peace (or even the Mets in the Series), I must take some time out to contemplate the approach of this significant event in the history of the world.

Now, I have heard there are people who take Freecell seriously. I have even heard that there are Freecell games that are not possible to win.

I play “Idiot” or “Zen” Freecell, so I wouldn’t know about that. Zen Freecell is like regular Freecell (it’s the same lil exe in Windows) with one difference: I play it as simple “white noise” while I’m waiting for my coffee to kick in or as I am zoning out before bedtime, about to nod off, kinda in a pre-dream state. Often, I play a game or two or three while on the phone, ALT-TABbing over to another app to take notes.

It’s mindless doodling for me. (I used to do the same kind of zoning out/relaxing during classes, “drawing” yet another set of doodles for my *Non Compos Mentis Coloring Book*)

And you know, in some ways it is more important, at least for my mental health (such as it is amid this world of woe), than keeping on top of the news or articulating a mini-aspect of my philosphy of life or whatever.

So, off to the Freecell Zone for a couple of minutes, when i could be supplying both of my regular readers *s* with another off-the-wall post.

Maybe add some sauerkraut?

I was thinking along a couple of very different lines at once and they converged in wondering about recipes for crow. (Don’t ask what led to this. It ain’t purty.) So in the end, I adapted a recipe for crow casserole I found on the web, in an attempt to make it actually edible. Looking for volunteers to try it out and let me know.

Crow Casserole
6 Crow breasts, skillet-browned
Horseradish to make one quart, grated
1 cup chopped onions
5 cloves garlic
6 habanero peppers, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup hot mustard

Mix all ingredients except for the crow breasts
Place half the horseradish mixture in the bottom of a baking dish
Cover with crow breasts
Cover crow breasts with remaining mixture
Bake in 350 degree oven for 1.5-2 hours

Discard and take family out to eat.

OR

Call bubba (or your congresscritter) and see if he’ll eat it. (Note: for some weird reason, it seems crows are a federally protected species. Maybe it’s cos congresscritters don’t want “gifts” of crow casserole sent them on a daily basis… )

Or, maybe not so coincidental

Several times recently, I have comented in conversations with various and sudry folk about the recent Supreme Idiots’ decision essentially banning execution of criminals “aged between 15 and 17 years at the time they commit a capital crime”* and here I sit down after lunch and read John Hinderaker’s piece, “A Government of Men” in The Daily Standard echoing many of the sentiments I’ve voiced (although in a much more well-developed and literate voice).

Most of my conversational invective has been leveled at the court’s reading (and citing) of international (read “old Europe”) goat entrails in order to backstop their extra-Constitutional excess. When Hinderaker comments,

“With all due respect to the Court’s majority, there is simply no coherent rationale for counting the “enlightened” opinion of foreign governments as a factor in Constitutional jurisprudence.”

He hits the nail pretty squarely. I’d like to refer also to this lil quibble the Founders had against boy Geoerge:

“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.” (Declaration of Independence)

Hmmm… seems the Supreme Idiots are taking another page from boy geoege’s book, eh? (Of course, “constitution” in that context refers to “nature, character” and perhaps being ruled by fiat is no longer foreign to the American spirit… )

April 15 approaches

For years, excepting only last year—in a private show of support for proper use of tax monies in legitimate Constitutional efforts to promote national security—I have grown a beard and shaved it on April 15, as a mark of my own self-proclaimed “National Day of Mourning.” The reason is obvious: there is so much wrong about the intent, structure, function and purpose[s] of Federal income taxes and the IRS, that April 15 has become a symbol, in my mind at least, of most of what is wrong about our once-federal (but now almost imperial) system of government.

And so I mourn for a Constitution—and system of government—that was designed by our Founders to protect liberty but which is now mostly honored in name only.

Of course—and here I wander into what the current state of revisionist history and polular memes would consider historical heresy—April 15 also ironically marks the death of the first American president to frog-march a federal income tax through Congress. Abraham Lincoln so severely trampled the letter and spirit of the Constitution during his reign that he really ought to be “honored” as the first American emperor…

*sigh*

Kill the Constitution to save the republic… A “republic” become less, as a result of his actions, in the model the Founders and framers envisioned than like it. What a concept.

*profound sigh*

And yet, that’s not the worst of it. The arcane tax laws and extra-legal regulations administered by the IRS are so convoluted and confusing (even to so-called tax professionals) that they make criminals of us all, regardless of our desire to be law-abiding and completely up-front with the IRS. I know I wrack my brains every year to make sure I answer each and every “interview” question in my tax software as accurately and completely as possible, and yet, I always have a nagging doubt that I got it right.

And that’s exactly the dividing line between the citizens of the Republic that once was and the empire America is becoming: No longer can we as soi dissant citizens understand or comply with the plethora of laws (not just tax laws, mind you) spewing from that cesspool in D.C.

Does that sound a bit harsh? How about this sentence from The Declaration of Independence referring to one of George’s abuses:

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

Sounds like our congresscritters and their minions in the civil service have been going to school on boy George’s methods of governamce, doesn’t it? (And maybe even done George one or two “better” with such as the Thousands Standing Around bunch of morons.)

Just take a moment and read the Declaration, would you? Don’t linger too long over the stirring and poetic intro, read and re-read the “long train of abuses” and see just how many are eerily similar to the behavior of the feds today.

OK. I’ve finished doing my taxes again this year. I hope (almost against hope) that I dotted all the “i”s and crossed all the “t”s and that I understood the different payments and deductions correctly and noted them in the correct places on the forms.

But the point is, even if I were audited, and even if I were to have a tax “professional” along with me, how could I know I had done right? I can’t. And protestations of tax professionals and auditors notwithstanding, they don’t know, either, because the tax code is too huge, too arcane and too absolutely and inexcusably obscurantist for anyone to know.

Read this. last August, Neal Boortz summed up a tax plan then being floated by Dennis Hastert (among others) that would, in my estimation, solve most of the woes, inequities and downright illegitimacies of the current federal tax code: a national sales tax instead of a national income tax.

Read the article. If it makes sense to you, contact Hastert, your own congresscritters (representative and senators) and the White House. If it makes sense to you, blog it. “Email log” it, too. Write letters. Phone congresscritters, White House, old media.

Someone, somewhere, sometime needs to put a stake in the heart of the Irredeemably Raunchy Scum and hang the corpse at the crossroads of America to warn off other such monsters.

I’d like to sleep well at night KNOWING I’d paid my fair share of taxes for proper federal (and state and local) governance, but the current system leaves me with that neverending, nagging question: Did i get it all right?

(Oh, and Intuit certainly messed with my mind this year, something I’ll hold them accountable for… )

Another “not-quite-a-recipe” for the lazy cook’s repertoire.

Apple Pockets

I like a nice “turnover” but I’m fonder of those made with bread dough than with pie crust dough. Here’s my version of a bread dough apple turnover that’s… not turned over.

Egg Bread crust:

Dry ingredients:
4 cups of white or mixed wheat and white flour
half teaspoon salt
tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup warm water (115 degrees F ought to do)
couple of tablespoons oil

Mix dry ingredients in a non-metallic bowl. Add water/oil and mix. Add eggs. Mix well with hands. Knead lightly until it holds together well, cover and set aside in a warm place for about 30-40 minutes. Knead again until elastic & set aside, covered, in warm place while you mix the filling. See lazy cook’s note at bottom.

Filling:

Note: you can mix up a buncha this stuff, cos if you have too much, you can just refirgerate it and use it for other things–top hot cerals, on/in pancakes, etc.

Apples-some moderately sharp ones (well, I certainly don’t know how many you’ll want to use, just grab four or five medium apples, ok?) Core and slice them. Leave the peels if you want; I do. Avoid “delicious” varieties like the plague. Winesaps, Johnathons, even some Fujis would do.
Raisins
Nuts-(NOT peanuts, real nuts) I like walnuts, pecans or cashews.
Cinnamon. Do NOT use pre-ground cinnamon powder. Get some cinnamon sticks and make your own in your coffee grinder you’ve reserved for spices. (Don’t have one? Don’t whine to me. Get one.) To taste, of course. (You’ll be surprised how much richer freshly-ground cinnamon is. You’ll use less than you otherwise might. And it’s cheaper than old pre-ground stuff in the long run.)
Nutmeg–same as for cinnamon: get some nutmegs and grind your own fresh powder. About 1/8 as much nutmeg as cinnamon.
Ginger-I use crystalized ginger as perhaps the best compromise. A couple of small “rocks” for every four or five apples.
Cloves-four or five cloves per four or five apples. More to taste. 🙂 Whole cloves, ground freshly, of course.
Sugar-one-half to three-quarters cup for every four or five apples.
Butter or oil-maybe a quarter cup or less.

Prep? Easy. Pre-heat the oven to about 350 F now. Core and slice the apples as mentioned above; prepare the other ingredients as mentioned; put it all in a bowl and mix it up til all the apple slices are well-covered in the goodies. Pop it, covered loosely, in the microwave on high for about four minutes, then re-mix the “apple goody” stuff.

Knead the dough again for a bit, then roll out onto a floured surface. Now, divide the dough into four parts, if you want VERY LARGE pockets, more if you want smaller. [Forgot this next step earlier: don’t you forget it!] Spread butter or margarine on the rolled-out dough pieces. Put filling on rolled out dough, fold over and pinch shut. Place on well-oiled baking sheet. You can give the tops of the dough an egg wash at this time, if you want.

Pop ’em in the oven and give ’em about 25 minutes (oven temps vary, size of pockets makes a difference. Check back often after about 20 minutes).

Lazy cook’s note: When you’re feeling really, really, realy lazy, you can cut your prep involvement as I… um, have been known to do:

1.) Mix the bread dough in a bread maker on the “pizza dough” setting.
2.) Make one HUGE pocket and cut slices off that to serve. This does take a lil longer to bake, but who cares? Oven time isn’t work.

Oh, and do feel free to substitute. I can recall as though it were only yesterday (Oh! It WAS yesterday!) running out of sugar and substituting… cinnamon sugar I’d made up for use on some quick cinnamon toast. So there was a lil extra cinnamon in the mix. So? (Yum. Mom used to make cinnamon toast by buttering bread slices, sprinkling with cinnamon and sugar and placing the slices under the broiler. The untoasted side of her cinnamon bread was always an interesting contrast in texture. I just do something similar in our toaster oven.) No rasins? Try dates or… prunes! No nuts? Go buy some. Low on flour? I do NOT recommend substituting garbanzo bean flour. Don’t go there.

NOTE: I did say you could divide the dough and make more, smaller ones didn’t I? Some email indicates that wasn’t real clear. If you want to make “normal” sized apple pockets (like you may be used to seeing turnovers), you can make a good dozen out of these ingredients. But why? 🙂

BTW, as I ought to have noted when I originally posted this, you can use the egg bread dough very effectively with leftover Whatever Stew as filling, for a hearty main dish. Indeed, Apple Pockets originally grew out of finding an alternate use for some leftover dough after making some meat “pasties” out of… some very beefy leftover Whatever Stew.