Month: February 2006

Had several things I’d thought of posting for Carnival of the Recipes, but I’m outa time. let this stand in:

Recently, I’ve been using a rather full-bodied dark roast coffee. Rich flavor. But it needed… something.

Hand grater.

Nutmeg.

Atop coffee grounds before brewing: a few scrapes of freshly-grated nutmeg. (Addendum: DO NOT use pre-ground sawdust packaged as “ground nutmeg”. *spit* You really might as well just use sawdust. Old sawdust.)

Very nice. Adds a distinct high note that is a nice addition to the dark roast coffee.

S’all, folks. Have to stagger off to “St. Mattress Cathedral” now to dream of The Holy Brew.

…I don’t care. It’d be the truth. Why, the other day, before I’d had even one cuppa The Holy Brew and hence was operating at a serious caffeine-deficient level, I wanted the square root of 232, but my wheels stopped spinning at 15 (common square 15X15=225. Knew cos I had to memorize squares of whole #s up to the square of 25 in gradeschool). So, caffeine-deprived and lazy, I did what anyone with two brain cells to rub together would do:

I typed “square root 232” (w/o the quotes, of course) in my browser’s Google search box. To seven decimal places: 15.2315462.

So, call me lazy. I rounded it up (for my purposes) to 15.25.

Confessed (“Sign ze papers, old man.” “But I cannot sign the papers!…”) at Bloggin’ Outloud, where the Best So Far 2006 awards show will close ballots tonight.

Provocative enough post title for ya? 🙂

Several things have converged to create this post: Reading (piecemeal) The Founders Constitution and steeping myself in the ground from which this country sprang. Antics in the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade, the Mass Media Podpeoples’ Army, among Mixed Academia Nuts, the ACLU and all their ilk to sabotage what remains of the democratic republic the Founders and Framers bequeathed us. The fact that the next seven days will determine just how much of my money the Feds will have stolen from me over the last year (yeh, doing my taxes before Feb 10-“feds have stolen” refers to all the monies levied and spent by the feds for things NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY GENUINE CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT. Monies given to folks who ought instead to get it by earning it legitimately.)

Well, I guess I’ll just focus on one aspect of The War on Democracy. Democracy, as Jerry Pournelle often reminds his readers, is rightly “rule by the middle class”-those citizens whose productive lives add value to the republic and who have a stake in its health.

Democracy, when it works, is rule by the middle class, the middle class being those who possess the goods of fortune in moderation: those who have enough that they don’t want to risk it trying to take more from the wealthier. Democracies can tolerate a spread of wealth so long as there are not too many very rich and very poor people in the society.

[N.B. Click the link and read Dr. Pournelle’s review of the SOTU address.]

The federal tax structure in this country (as well as how those monies are spent) is one of the most potent weapons the enemies of a democratic republic could ever have devised to effect its downfall. By robbing its productive members of the fruits of their labors for use for anything not specifically designed to protect those citizens from “enemies foreign or domestic” or mediating disputes among the states or other legitimate responsibilities of federal government, the feds grow stronger at the expense of the republic as a whole.

Briefly scan a history of the federal income tax, from Lincoln to the present day, and tell me it isn’t unjust, unfair and antithetical to the Founders’ democratic republic.

There is a better way, and The FairTax is a start down that path. I urge you to get and read this book:

Then call AND write your congresscritters, join a local FairTax group (or just go to a meetup) and do something to get this ever more in the public eye.

Your children and grandchildren will bless you.

Since tbs seem to be working well there today *s*, here’s another at TMH’s Bacon Bits, eh? 🙂

[NB. This is an 0pen Post. See the info below.]

Hollyweird has been influenced too much by mixed academia nuts and isolated from the real world by its own preoccupation with celebrity. Witness the behavior noted by Where Have You Gone Ronald Reaganwherein the Hollyweird “academy” nominated Brokeback Mountain for four times as many Oscars as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Seems Hollyweird missed the point of Holly Lisles’ “Thirteen Sacred Commandments of Suckitudinous Fiction” and took those “commandments” as their bible for “art”.

… the quest for good fiction is not the only way. There is … another path. A dark path. And it is a path rich in tradition and esteemed by many. It is the Path of Suckitude.

Not all bad fiction is Suckitudinous. Some of it is simply bad — written by people who are completely tone-deaf to the language, blind to character and motivation, and incompetent with conflict.

Unlike bad fiction, Suckitudinous Fiction takes a dedication to the fine art of sucking that, if pursued with sufficiently rabid fanaticism, can win Pulitzers. (Yes, I think an inordinate number of recent Pulitzer-prize-winning novels suck. Hugely.)

It’s as though Hollyweird and its suckophants (no, I did not mean to write “sycophants”) among the “critics” read Holly Lisles’ rant and thought, “Hey! These are really good ideas! Let’s follow these commandments as much as we can, at least a little at a time, until no one will even know when the Emperor is walking around in his birthday suit… “

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Auditioning for the part of Critias “with Prometheus setting up a democracy and arming the peasants against their masters” at TMH’s Bacon Bits.

This week’s Stop the ACLU post is from Gribbit.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/24023prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/discrim/24032prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/24037prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/24040prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/24029prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/24028prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/24009prs20060201.html
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/24036prs20060201.html

Also crossposted to the other third world county..

[Note: MMPA=”Mass Media Podpeoples’ Army”]

In yesterday’s best of the Web, James Tarranto cites this lil graph that lends itself to some morbid amusement:

“In the original version of this report, Newsweek misquoted Falwell as referring to ‘assault ministry.’ In fact, Falwell was referring to ‘a salt ministry’–a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says ‘Ye are the salt of the earth.’ We regret the error.”–Newsweek online, Feb. 6 issue

Yep. Newsweak. Assigning culturally illiterate (let alone biblically illiterate) reporters with no grounding in the memes* of Western Civilization or the Bible to write about comments of someone who is steeped in the single greatest influence on the English language: the Bible. But never fear, as Rolling Stone’s Jeff Sharlet is equal to the task of matching Newsweak’s cultural illiteracy by accusing Senator Sam Brownback of homosexual-bashing with a reference to Matthew 7:20.

(7:19) Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.(7:20) Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (KJV)

BTW, ABCNews online doesn’t fare much better in reporting the incident. Apparently no one at ABCNews could find a Bible to check the reference, so they said Brownback’s comment, “”You’ll know them by their fruits,” was a reference to Matthew 7:19, instead of correctly noting it was a close paraphrase of verse 20. If this were an exam, I’d have to mark ABCNews’ article wrong on the facts. Close, but no cigar.

Ahh, it’s just a sign** of the ever-growing cultural illiteracy of American society. Perhaps even of functional illiteracy as well-at least among the members of the MMPA. Who can check the facts when reading is so haaaaarrrrrrd?

h.t. to John at Powerline, who note also that Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University debate team took the Harvard debate team to the cleaners a month ago… *heh*

[*Heck, everyone’s heard of the meme “salt of the earth” haven’t they? Here’s its origin, in context. Makes a difference, doesn’t it?

**Sign, not symptom. A symptom is something a patient can describe to a physician. These folks are so clueless it takes an outside observer to see the signs of their subliteracy in their grunts and squeals.]

A shot across the bow gone awry at Diane’s Stuff and TMH’s Bacon Bits and Basil’s Blog

About that State of the Union address last night… I didn’t watch this one, just as I have not watched the SOTU for several years, now. Instead, I read the transcribed address at the Whitehouse.gov site. I find the “sizzle” factor to be a distraction. How someone delivers a speech has some significance, but I just want the meat. On average, I’d probably give the speech a solid “B.” An “A” tending toward “A-” for the foreign policy section. A Solid “C” for the domestic section, IMO. Read it for yourself and judge the contents.

Good things: Explaining the need to take the fight to the terrorists (for those who simply haven’t been listening since 9/11-apparently just about half the pols in the room. *sigh*). Hitting the old Gray Whore and her pimps with a bitch-slap on the so-called ‘domestic surveillance lies, as in,

…to prevent another attack — based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute — I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous Presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have, and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed. The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.

Exactly.

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