Day: May 3, 2005

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Government by Kakistocracy

We are ruled by an elite, but elite what?
 
It’s no surprise to anyone who’s watched politics, the media and academia for a few years. We are no longer the republic forged by the Founders and Framers. We are ruled by kakistocrats—a government peopled, by and large, by the most venal and corrupt among us.
 
I’ve known a few politicians.  On the local level, their venality wreaks no great harm and is generally limited by a short feedback loop: we know where they live, and they know we do. heh  I’ve even known one who aspired to and reached high national office.  As a member of the state legislature, he seemed firm in his principles.  As a governor, he was clean and competent.  But after just a short time as a senator, every public statement I heard from him was mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy and self-serving.
 
And he was the best of a bad lot.
 
Sure, there are probably a few honest people in government. And there are even a few competent people in government.  But the number who are honorable and competent seems vanishingly small.
 
Note: yes, I know that all generalizations (including this one) are false, but still… It seems as though the folks on the left are nothing but liars, though sometimes competent liars.  And the folks on the right are sometimes honorable… as far as their (tiny degree of) competence and lack of courage takes them (wimps and dunces for the most part).
 
Rule by the worst: kakistocracy.  Yep.  Fits politics.
 
How about the Mass Media Podpeople?  Yes, that was a rhetorical question. One in one thousand are not useless or harmful to society.  Maybe.
 
And what about academia? I can honestly say that I have met some brilliant and honorable people in academia.  None in the fields of social work, education or political science, of course.  And most of the rest who do have sense enough to pound sand in a rat hole are so cowardly, fearful of violating the politically correct mores, that they are virtually useless in promoting… virtue, the common good. 
 
YMMV.
 
The “elite” are the best of the worst.
 

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Early Carnival Entry—Javascript Cookies™!

[Special notice: Be sure to get in on spreading the Blogmothers Dayâ„¢ meme! And if you don’t have a Blogmother, consider “adopting” one, eh?]
 
Thanks, Dave; thanks, Kris: y’all were the inspiration for this stuff
 
Back story: I don’t particularly like baking, but… A longtime buddy (how long, you ask? College roomie long, long ago: we now trade stories about memory loss… ) mentioned an idea a bit ago about computer snacks—computer chips, web cookies, javascript—and today Kris mentioned in comments to this post that coffee just wasn’t on her “Breakfast of Champions” menu.  Hmmm… sad missing coffee at breakfast, thought I, when—wham!—Dave’s idea hit me.
 
So, this evening, I modified a chocolate/chocolate chip cookie recipe into
 
Javascript Cookiesâ„¢
 
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup finely ground coffee powder*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened**
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chop your own from your fav semi-sweet chocolate)
1/2 cup hazelnuts or sliced almonds, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar for coating
 
Whisk together flour, coffee powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until combined.
 
Beat together butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer or 4 minutes with a handheld. Add egg and vanilla, beating until combined. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until combined well. Add chocolate and nuts and mix until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough until firm, about 30 minutes.
 
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 325°F.
 
Roll 1 tablespoon of dough into a 1-inch ball, then flatten slightly with palm of your hand to form a 1/3-inch-thick disk and coat with confectioners sugar. Make more cookies in same manner, arranging them 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
 
OK, that was the original recipe directions.  this is easier, and the cookies taste just as good. Put 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar in a bowl (I used a soupbowl/LARGE mug with a handle).  Drop the appropriate amount of dough in the bowl and swirl the bowl to roll it around.  Pick the doughballs up and flatten them onto the ungreased baking sheets. No (or less) messy hands, quicker and easier.
 
Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until they puff up and tops crack slightly, 8 to 10 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Recoat cookies with confectioners sugar, if you want (they’re sweet enough for me without the extra, but I have one tester who likes ’em that way). Oven times may vary.  Add time if you make your cookies larger, of course.
 
Too much dough?  As chocolate/chocolate chip it refrigerates well for a short time.  I’ll keep some of this dough around for a couple of days, then bake some cookies and see how it lasts. 
 
*coffee powder: either from your fav ground coffee or fav whole beans (preferred); grind in a blade or burr coffee grinder until a fine, powdery consistency.  If using a blade grinder, grind in bursts, as the coffee may overheat, especially if you’re grinding from whole beans, before becoming powdery. 
 
So far, the caffeine–head testers in my family love these things, and I’ve even made a decaf version (but please, don’t tell anyone about the decaf! LOL)
 
Dunk in a nice warm cuppa joe and eat, pausing every now and then for a verse of “O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree.”
 
**Note: as a sop to my wife’s cardiologist, I used some extremely low trans fat margarine and a little olive oil subbed for the butter.  Butter will taste—and bake—a lil better, though.
 
N.B. Being careful about nutrition and sensible exercise does pay off: it looks like Wonder Woman may have her pacemaker/defibrilator removed this month…
 
UPDATE:  If I don’t have my sidebar fixed by now, locate it at the bottom of the page.  And if you want to show me where I’ve fragged my template, fee free . —Fixed! 🙂
 
Hey! If you’ve gotten this far, don’t stop now! Christine at Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea has posted some great coffee recipesshe’s gathered from around the web. Visit Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea and glom onto one or more to go with your Javascript Cookiesâ„¢.

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Readability quotients

This link at Boudicca’s Voice leads to a site that calculates readability quotients for just about any html document… including your blog, if you want
 
Here are two sites compared.  Well, one’s a site and the other’s a representative sample of an author’s work. Now, which is Shakespeare’s and which is mine?
 
(Jeopardy music plays in background—ok, imagine it is.) 
 
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If you thought the “more difficult read” was Shakespeare, go to the back of the class.  The Shakespearean sonnet I selected (semi-random, just clicked on first one my mouse rode over) was this one:
 
SONNET 6 
Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface 
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill’d: 
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place 
With beauty’s treasure, ere it be self-kill’d. 
That use is not forbidden usury, 
Which happies those that pay the willing loan; 
That’s for thyself to breed another thee, 
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one; 
Ten times thyself were happier than thou art, 
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee: 
Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart, 
Leaving thee living in posterity? 
Be not self-will’d, for thou art much too fair 
To be death’s conquest and make worms thine heir.
 
It’s almost a rule: great writing is easy to read. Suckitudinous writing is most often the opposite.
 
NOTE: I am not asserting that because my blog features generally short sentences and easy vocabulary that it’s great writing. Accessibility is just the entry level for writing that’s worth reading.
 
UPDATE: If I don’t have my sidebar fixed by now, locate it at the bottom of the page.  And if you want to show me where I’ve fragged my template, fee free.  🙂

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LLMB vs the real military

Woody’s News and Views cites an article pointing out the scotoma afflicting the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade and their ilk
 
You’d think the LLMB might have two brain cells to rub together somewhere among its membership, but sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least the LLMB seems not to have two brain cells to spare when examining its own preconceptual biases.  See the citation and link at Woody’s News and Views . 

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The Anti-Sylph

So ya wanna be a sylph?
 
Well, Bou says Sissy’s assigning a word a week to use in blogs, kinda a bloggish Word Power thingy.  This week’s is “sylph” and anyone who knows me knows it’s not a word I’d characteristically use, so here, with profound, but insincere, apologies to Joyce Kilmer for semi-stealing his beat (though not so much his rhyme scheme):
 
The Anti-Sylph
 
I think that I shall never be
The slender, sylphid nymph you see
Bending e’er so gracefully
‘Gainst the gentle breeze.

For I am rough and hard, though fat,
An’ graceful just ain’t where I’m at,
Cos no durn wind’ll even blow my hat
With it’s pernicious wheeze.

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Aww.. Grow Up: Kipling Tuesday

 A portion of what is missing from the generations of perpetual adolescents we are producing via “public education” and pop culture: the desire to take a responsible place in adult society:

The Children’s Song

Puck of Pook’s Hills

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be;
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.

Father in Heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.

Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,
With steadfastness and careful truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.

Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.

Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man’s strength to comfort man’s distress.

Teach us Delight in simple things,
And Mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men ‘neath the sun!

Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,
For whose dear sake our fathers died;
Oh, Motherland, we pledge to thee
Head, heart and hand through the years to be!