Food. Bread, to be specific

Focaccia in this case. Few years back went to an Italian place with some friends and the "Look at the menu and decide what you want" introduction was some fresh focaccia, olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. I've been hooked on it since.

Happily, the bread is easy; lots of recipes out there. I just tried this one a few days ago, and it came out great. Twice.
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella

Directions
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper. Mix in the vegetable oil and water.
When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20-40 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle, let rise 20-30 minutes. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm

The spices are all optional, use these or something else. And instead of Parmesan or mozzarella I tried grating some Asiago over the second batch. Goood stuff, Maynard. I didn't go by time on the rising, first time waited till it doubled, second till it looked about right. And it does only take 15 minutes to bake.

The oil is my own mix. Few years back tried some 'dipping oil' in a Williams-Sonoma store and it was good; then I looked at the price: Yeek! For about a cup-cup and a quarter of olive oil and some spices, in a fancy bottle, fifteen bucks. So I chopped up some garlic and toasted it under the broiler, same for some parmesan, then drop them in a bottle. Add in some rosemary, thyme and a little pepper, then fill with oil, shake it up and let it sit a few days. I use the stuff for cooking as well.

I should note that a friend gave me two bottles of hard cider a friend brewed. I just finished one of them; I'ave had to re-type a number of words. But it does seem blogging while somewhat inebriated has its good points...

I just found a button daughter gave me years ago

Do I or do I not know how to raise kids?

This is the 'official' celebration night for St. Paddy's Day,

and I've stayed as far away from bars as possible; even when younger I didn't care much for being packed into a crowd of people either drunk or working hard at it.

Yes, the above places make it somewhat easy to get laid; even back when a dumb teenager, the idea of getting a girl drunk to make her say 'yes' didn't strike me as real attractive. Even less so now.

A gadget that might come in handy

Was reminded of this today when I realized A: I didn't have one and B: I needed one. This thingis for the occasions when you have to shorten a small screw that's already short, or just so small- like the 4-40 in the picture below- that it's hard to hold onto

It's just two pieces of thin, springy steel clamped together at one end- pop-rivet in this case- so it stays together, but not so tight that you can't pivot it open. Drill a hole or two, several if you need for different sizes. You open it up, put the screw in a hole so the head will be between the pieces when they're closed
with the shaft sticking out. Now you can grind or file or whatever without the language practice required when a dinky little screw jumps out of your fingers or pliers. Or burns you when it gets hot.

That steel strap they use to hold bundles of brick & such together works well. You can make the holes just big enough for the shaft to slip in, or in the deluxe version drill undersize and then run a tap in so you can actually screw the screw in for a tighter grip.

So, not only is Sean Penn a friggin' moron who idolizes tyrants,

he surrounds himself with like-minded asshats.
Jordan ended the interview, and publicly scolded the reporter outside of the media room. Jordan told the reporter that to keep her job, she needed to write a letter of apology to the Haitian ambassador. The publicity coordinator then threatened to have the reporter escorted out of the building by the police.

"You desecrated this sacred place," Jordan said.

The congregation's Rabbi Bruce Lustig attempted to take the reporter's recording device and delete the material. The reporter was approached by police and threatened to be escorted out, even though she responded calmly and exited quickly.

Ah, spring: the smell of real fascism in the air and celebutards and their buttmonkeys abusing people. No wonder Penn idolizes the bastard Chavez: he wants to be a commie tyrant too.

So now I find out that Tom Hanks is another leftist idiot

who really doesn't think much of this country, or the troops who serve.

Uh, Hanks, have you considered- aw, fuckit, never mind. Screw you Hanks, and the poxed donkey you rode in on.

Not only is New York full of nanny-state control-freak politicians,

they're too stupid- or uncaring- to actually find out what the hell they're talking about before they decide to push a law:
Ortiz admits that prior to introducing the bill he did not research salt’s role in food chemistry, its effect on flavor or his bill’s ramifications for the restaurant industry. He tells me he was prompted to introduce the bill because his father used salt excessively for many years, developed high blood pressure and had a heart attack.

“I think salt should be banned in restaurants. I ask if a dish has salt in it, and if I does, I get something else that doesn’t have salt,” Ortiz tells me, before going on to say that he has eaten, and expects he will continue to eat, among other things, ham, cheese and bread in restaurants, all of which contain salt.

...Regardless of the intent, and accepting its sponsor’s claim that it is part of his campaign to improve the public’s health, the bill exhibits profound ignorance not only of matters of taste — literally — but also of the chemistry of cooking.
Know what? Screw the chemistry of cooking: Assemblyman Ortiz, GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY LIFE AND MY FOOD, YOU LITTLE FASCIST WANNABE.
The bill doesn’t address significant matters, such as: Would salt be banned in processed foods or cured meats? Could a restaurant chef get around the ban on using added salt in a soup by, say, throwing in a sodium-laden ham hock? Ortiz didn’t have an answer for those question, saying repeatedly, “This all needs to be debated.”
The only thing that needs debate, you little bastard, is how far out of town you should be run on that rail. And how much tar & feathers to apply first.

No wonder Nanny Bloomberg want to be mayor of NYEffin' City forever: seems like up there he's surrounded by other control freaks like himself.

Let's start with AG Holder managing to forget a very interesting thing:

The Justice Department has admitted that Eric Holder failed to tell Congress during his confirmation process that he had contributed to a legal brief which argued that the President lacks authority to hold Jose Padilla, a U.S citizen declared an "enemy combatant," indefinitely without charge. The Justice Department has also acknowledged what is obvious -- that "the brief should have been disclosed as part of the confirmation process."
Damn, you think MAYBE?!? He also have any tax problems he forgot to mention, by any chance?


So the ATF agent in charge of seizing toy guns and lying about them has a somewhat checkered past; anybody surprised?


Speaking of Holder & ACORN and tampering with investigations...


I knew this was coming sooner or later: Gerstein posts a televised interview of Obama and John Walsh of America’s Most Wanted. The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.

Hell with it, I'm going out for those machine screws.

Insty points to an article about some fedearal employees not paying taxes

Not just Obama bigshots but general employees. Which reminded me, second wife worked for a large federal agency in the area(don't know if she still does) and about a month or so after she started told me with amazement that they'd actually posted signs around the offices reminding people that 'Just because you work for the Federal Government doesn't mean you can skip filing taxes'. Apparently enough of a problem in a bunch of agencies that an effort was being made to clean it up.

Said one of the older guys she worked with laughed at it; he hadn't filed in three years. I'd wondered if they'd managed to clean this up; seems not.

The joys of spring: the birds are chirping,

the grass and weeds are growing, and the bike battery crapped out.

Actually, the battery's not a formal sign, it just seemed to fall into line this time. I'd had a problem last week while out and thought I had some bad gas, then it would just crank over enough to start. Time.

As to the grass, few days ago found a grass catcher that'd fit my mower, and hit the spots that needed it in the back yard; it works, and I decided I needed a bigger compost heap; amazing how much stuff raking wasn't getting. Looking around the other day found some 'hardware cloth' made of heavy plastic, different widths and hole sizes; got a 48"x25' roll for nine bucks. Cut a suitable length, wove a piece of steel rod through the overlapped ends to lock it closed and three more at other points to hold it open & upright: new heap. Two, actually, one replacing the old chicken-wire one and a new. I think this stuff'll work out pretty well.

This region is now at that 'iffy' stage of starting the garden: seeds, ok; stuff that sticks up, only if you'll have a way to cover it. There's always a last freeze end of March-first half of April, so have to be able to put a tarp over the stuff above ground till that window passes.
...
The driveway is now cleared, the bike reassembled, and other things to do.

Oh, bleep! And why HAVEN'T we heard about this guy?

The South Jersey man who Yemini officials are calling a terrorist with links to al-Qaeda previously worked at three local nuclear power plants.

Sharif Mobley, 26, is being held in a jail in Yemen after he allegedly killed a police guard and seriously injured another during a shootout at a hospital on Monday.

The Buena, N.J. native has also been accused of taking part in several acts of terrorism, Yemini officials say. He also purportedly has ties to the same branch of al-Qaeda who are suspected of attempting to blow up a U.S. airliner on its way to Detroit on Christmas.
Damn. Maybe this has something to do with it:
So today we discover a a former New Jersey resident turned al Qaeda operative in Yemen named Sharif Mobley is responsible for murdering a hospital security guard in Yemen and just so happened to once act as a campaign operative for Jon Corzine and what is the reaction of those so quick to point fingers after the Stack and Bedell incidents?

Silence.
Gee, I wonder why?

Back to starting things off with the latest Climaquiddick news

Like the fact that those 'other climate datasets' Jones said were independent and could be used to rebuild the data he destroyed, well, aren't.
Email messages obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that the climate dataset of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was considered — by the top climate scientists within NASA itself — to be inferior to the data maintained by the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit (CRU).

The NASA scientists also felt that NASA GISS data was inferior to the National Climate Data Center Global Historical Climate Network (NCDC GHCN) database.

These emails, obtained by Christopher Horner, also show that the NASA GISS dataset was not independent of CRU data.
...
But the emails reveal that at least three of the four datasets were not independent, that NASA GISS was not considered to be accurate, and that these quality issues were known to both top climate scientists and to the mainstream press.

In a response to reporter Doyle Rice of USA Today, Dr. Reto Ruedy — a senior scientist at NASA — recommended the following:

Continue using NCDC’s data for the U.S. means and Phil Jones’ [HADCRU3] data for the global means. …

We are basically a modeling group and were forced into rudimentary analysis of global observed data in the 70s and early 80s. …

Now we happily combine NCDC’s and Hadley Center data to … evaluate our model results.

This response was extended later the same day by Dr. James Hansen — the head of NASA GISS:
Now here's a very important thing:

[For] example, we extrapolate station measurements as much as 1200 km. This allows us to include results for the full Arctic. In 2005 this turned out to be important, as the Arctic had a large positive temperature anomaly. We thus found 2005 to be the warmest year in the record, while the British did not and initially NOAA also did not. …

It should be noted that the different groups have cooperated in a very friendly way to try to understand different conclusions when they arise.

Extrapolate as much as 1200 km. Almost 750 miles. That's friggin' amazing, isn't it? No wonder it turns out these records are crap, especially as we've learned just how A: where some stations were set up and B: they reduced the number of stations, especially reducing those away from cities and heat island effects.

And so far as trusting our major media to give us the facts,
Further, all of this information regarding the accuracy and independence of NASA GISS data was directly communicated to a reporter from USA Today in August 2007.

The reporter never published it.

And over at Watts Up, some more on the Medieval Warm Period, and how/when the IPCC started playing with that record.


And the Evil Party holds true: got a dirtbag politician you want to protect, accuse anyone against him of being a racist. Yeah, that's a winner. You see, guys, there's this here innernet thingy, and it lets people spread word far and wide without your ass-kissing media or yourselves being able to stop it...


And one of the only saving graces of a bunch of the crooked bastards in the House & Senate is this:

The Senate language would prohibit illegal immigrants’ buying healthcare coverage from the proposed health exchanges. The House-passed bill isn’t as restrictive, but it does — like the Senate bill — bar illegal immigrants from receiving federal subsidies to buy health insurance.

Hispanic Democrats say they haven’t moved from their stance that they will not vote for a healthcare bill containing the Senate’s prohibitions.

"You have to give my illegal alien brothers and sisters free health care! Or we won't vote for your bill!" Wonderful, isn't it?


My first thought would be "Reagan's laughing his ass off", but for things like this he's probably right: he's chuckling. And possibly thinking "Joe, you're such an asshole."

Dammit, I need to clean this place. Again. More later, assuming I don't disappear.

Read about this idiot idea out of Detroit the other day

but just got around to posting on it. Short version: "We've effed up this city so bad, we ought to just turn a lot of it back into farmland."
"Things that were unthinkable are now becoming thinkable," said James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, who is among the urban experts watching the experiment with interest. "There is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don't accept that, but that is the reality."

Well, y'know, if you cleaned out the corrupt politicians, fired all the incompetent teachers and actually tried to, you could probably rebuild the city; but that would require actually doing something yourselves AND paying for it yourselves; much easier to beg the feds to rob other people to pay for this idiot idea.

Two things: first, from this guy,
My question is where are they going to put all the bricks, or the concrete from foundations and sidewalks? I've buried a lot of no longer used farm buildings and it's not an easy effort and that was way before today's environmental rules that won't allow you to just dig a hole, push the stuff in and then cover it up with a bulldozer, willy-nilly. Then once they get this junk cleared, what is going to be the remaining soil's organic matter content, or its profile? Will it even support a vegetable garden, let alone a field of something?
Second, the soil doesn't really matter: these clowns could, to borrow a saying, screw up a wet dream; even if the soil was good for growing they'd muck it up. And use that as an excuse to beg for more of other peoples' money to fix things. Again.

Part II of "ATF Seizes Toys;

Won't Say Real Reason Why" is up.

Well, hell, since I'm in a bad mood I might as well cover both items

Item the First: I had one of the early model CRKT M16 knives. 'Had' being the operative word, and it seems to have disappeared, and it's one of the best pocketknives I've had. So I've been digging around and it seems that, while they have a whole range of M16 models now, there's a problem:
mine had a 'Lawks' mechanism; when you opened it, the liner lock locked, but if you wanted to be super-certain it was locked you could rock a lever on the back of the grip forward, which locked the lock. Well, now all the damn things seem to have an 'Auto-Lawks', which goes on when you open the knife. So now, if you want to be able to close it one-handed- that and one-handed opening being very handy things- you have to pull the Auto back and hold it(spring loaded) while then pushing the liner lock off AND then close the blade. And I really don't like that kind of juggling.


Item the Second: is on the Continuing Saga of the 15-22. As in it's back at the factory. Because, after posting on it being back from the THIRD trip, I looked it all over, put one of their empty-chamber indicators in place, dropped the bolt and CLICK-click-click. "What the f-?" F- being that the extractor had extracted itself from the bolt. Again.

Phone call was made, which began with "I need a return ticket, and I want to speak with a supervisor." You can be proud of me: I didn't lapse into profanity or excessive verbiage either one, while still getting the point across that a bleeping .22 rifle should not require FOUR TRIPS BACK TO THE FACTORY.

Ahem. I do believe they got the proper idea that I am a Dissatisfied Customer Who Is Tired Of This. This time the shipping label arrived by e-mail within an hour or so of ending the call. They're replacing the rifle with a new one. Which I am going to shoot the crap out of and see if this one will actually continue to work the way they're supposed to.

Dammit.

Ok, so why IS the Department of Education buying shotguns?

Combat shotguns?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.

Interesting. Also the 'existing inventory, etc.'

If they actually try this, hell with tar & feathers:

we go straight to ropes.
House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBOscores on the corrections bill. "Once the CBO gives us the score we'll spring right on it," she said.
So the miserable little cowards not only don't want us to actually see everything in this abortion of a law, they don't want to have to actually put their name up as voting for it.

No, HELL no. You bastards have to actually put your name to a vote yes or no; this crap will not be allowed. Period.

I started to ask if anyone has a concession on good hemp rope, but in the interests of cost control- and the amount we may need- I'll settle for nylon or other synthetic. As long as it's strong enough.

It can never be pointed out enough: Sen. Schumer

(Camera-Chasing Socialist-NY) really is a socialist slimeball:
Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.
"Because we need a better way to keep track of you peasants far more than we want to actually do anything about illegal aliens."

Once in place, watch for this national ID to regulate access to financial services, housing, medical care and prescriptions—and, of course, serve as an internal passport.
Because it's really about control. Control of YOU, and everything you own, say and do.

So being 'proactive' means "Let's arrest him even though

he hasn't done anything."
Negotiators and a SWAT team from Medford police safely took a man — whose name wasn't released — into protective custody Monday morning in the 500 block of Effie Street, Medford police said in a news release.

He was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center for a mental-health evaluation.
So somebody apparently said "I don't trust him" and the police decided to put that messy Constitution and stuff out of the way and arrest him. And steal his property. And force him into a 'mental-health evaluation."

These people should have those badges taken away from them. Forever.

Looks like another nice day out there,

so I'll get the nasties out of the way:
So the Obama Administration and the animal rights weenies want to stop fishing. Pretty much ALL fishing, including you casting a line with the kids or grandkids or scout troop or whatever.
“Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored.


Yeah, they REALLY believe Afghanistan needs to be won, don't they? Actually, for them, just another chance to make us lose, and another chance to stab the troops in the back.


Ok, which is it: Milwaukee PD just didn't care about vote fraud, or the fix was in?
Milwaukee police officers sat on their hands for months last year instead of investigating possible voter fraud cases from the 2008 general election.

It’s an incredible claim, but it’s coming from a credible source:

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, the Milwaukee County prosecutor responsible for overseeing campaign and election issues.

“Honestly, the Milwaukee Police Department largely ignored your double voter (and other) referrals received in January 2009 for the first six months of 2009,” Landgraf wrote in an e-mail to a city elections official on Jan. 26.

Speaking with unguarded candor, the veteran prosecutor said in his note that MPD’s tardy response had a major impact. The cases involve voters who may have cast more than one ballot, felons who may have voted illegally and other cases of possible election fraud.


So Obama lied about keeping lobbyists out? Really.
Why aren't you surprised?


Hell with it. I want to get outside for a while; the sludge from Sodom on the Potomac can wait a while.

"Hmm. I think I ought to do something with this."

Rifleman James McKie from Recce Platoon, 3rd Battalion The Rifles was under fire from three directions on a roof when the grenade hit his platoon commander and landed at his feet.

"My first thought was I hope this doesn't hurt too much," the New Zealander said. "That, and I've really only got one chance to do this.

"If it fails, either way, doing nothing, I'm going to get the same amount of hurt. So I picked it up and threw it off the roof."

It exploded in mid-air just seconds later, sending shrapnel flying.
Rifleman McKie says he doesn't feel like a hero; I hope he feels like a soldier, 'cause from the sound of this he's a damn good one.

Pointed to by Sondra

By the way, those airsoft guns the BATFE seized because they were 'machine guns'?

'Easily convertible', etc? If you didn't know it was bullshit before, you'd know it now.
The thing that's immediately noticeable is ATF has gone into full weasel-word mode.

These people, amidst great media fanfare, have seized thousands of dollars worth of private property from a family-owned business under the guise of law enforcement. And now they're avoiding direct questions.

Why?

The anonymous spokesperson refused to answer the "point blank" question "Does the ATF believe these toys can be converted into deadly weapons...?"

Why?

What does deferring to the legal definition of a "machinegun" have to do with this unless ATF's position is that these are machine guns?

What are we to make of ATF's assertion that "this is more of a public awareness issue and that the real danger is how realistic these toys look"? Since when is raising public awareness cause for seizing property? What does that have to do with the legal definition of a machine gun?

And Pajamas has gotten onto it, and has some notes on the bullshit:
We have seen an AWSS rifle break at the junction between the upper receiver and the barrel, an area subjected to some of the greatest stresses in a real AR-15 as that is where the chamber would be located. The machining required to create a gas-operated rifle from one of these rifles would be extensive and expensive, requiring the replacement or fabrication of several key components — barrel, gas block, gas tube, receiver, bolt carrier, bolt, firing pin, associated springs, etc. Anything less would pose as real a danger to the shooter as to any potential victims. There is also the long-running argument that if someone with criminal intentions has the skills to actually convert an Airsoft gun, they probably have the ability to fabricate a basic firearm from scratch.
Which pretty much covers it. It would actually be easier to make a basic submachinegun than it would to do all this.

So it comes to either someone really screwed up and they don't want to admit it and make it right, or somebody KNEW this was BS, did it anyway, and now realizes just how badly they screwed the pooch. And is making it worse by stalling and playing games.

When it hits an actual 60 degrees

and you do some raking and almost feel hot, it's been cold for far too long.

Actual sunny day, bit windy but SUNNY! and DRY!

By the way, few days ago I mentioned tornado season is coming? Some of the buggers made a jump on it yesterday. Which means make sure I have my emergency stuff, Spring Storm Season Version, put together.

Apparently crime is so under control in Philadelphia

that the cops have time for bullcrap like this.
More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at an undisclosed location.

The alleged offense: Although the bar owners had bought the beer legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors and had paid all the necessary taxes, the police claimed that nobody had registered the precise names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board - a process that requires the brewers or their importers to pay a $75 registration fee for each product they want to sell in Pennsylvania.
Besides the general bullshit, the word 'raid' strikes me; I wonder if they got to wear their ninja suits for this, or just plain uniforms? Why a raid at all? Why not a guy showing up at opening time and saying "Sir, we've had a complaint on this, and I need to check it out."? Was that just too simple, or not enough publicity?

For instance, the cops grabbed Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Red Ale.

The beer has been sold throughout the state at dozens of restaurants and distributors for the last seven years. The brand appears on the state's online list as "Monk's Café Ale." It's on tap seven days a week at the Center City bar after which it was named: Monk's Cafe, at 16th and Spruce streets.

But that wasn't enough to keep the State Police from confiscating 20 bottles and three kegs of the supposedly illegal ale at the three bars run by Maida and Hartranft - Resurrection Ale House, at 2425 Grays Ferry Ave.; Local 44, at 44th and Spruce streets, in West Philadelphia; and Memphis Taproom, 2331 E. Cumberland St., Port Richmond.

Maida said that the State Police also confiscated bottles of Duvel, a popular ale imported from Belgium that is widely advertised and available in at least 200 bars throughout the city and suburbs. The beer appears on the PLCB list as "Duvel Beer," while its label reads "Duvel Belgian Golden Ale."

"No actual investigating was done," Maida said in an e-mail to the Daily News. "The police sent a shoddily typed list to the PLCB, some drone fed it into the machine verbatim and returned what came back, without . . . even trying to offer us the benefit of the doubt by double-checking on some of the so-called unregistered beers."

While acknowledging that it appears that some of the confiscated brands had not been properly registered, Maida said that about half appeared on the state's registration list in some form.
Possible lack of actual investigation, possible shoddy work by the state, private property confiscated... There is one good thing: at least no dogs were shot.

Yes, I got the 'the census is coming' letter;

I like this idea:
Fully one-quarter of the space on this year's form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government's business (despite the New York Times' assurances to the contrary on today's editorial page). So until we succeed in building the needed wall of separation between race and state, I have a proposal. ...

[W]e should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — "Some other race" — and writing in "American." It's a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, "American" was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

I hadn't been following the Toyota recalls very closely,

then Insty pointed to this at Popular Mechanics. It appears that professor of automotive technology Dave Gilbert, of Southern Illinois University's auto technology department, went ahead and modified a new Avalon to go to full throttle with the flip of a switch, by altering the same circuits I wrote about. Gilbert appeared on ABC news and testified before Congress that his manipulations demonstrate how easy it is for Toyotas to accelerate out of control. And there's more: He suggested that his analysis shows how all electronic throttles are inherently dangerous, because Toyota's throttle-pedal electronic architecture is similar to that used by almost every car manufacturer.
Which sounds pretty bad. Except:
Here's what Gilbert had to do to make his Avalon go rogue: He had to cut open three of the six wires that travel from the pedal assembly to the engine computer. Two of the wires send the accelerator-position signals—one for each Hall-effect sensor—and one is a 5-volt power supply. Next he had to insert a specific 200-ohm resistor between the two signal wires. Finally, he had to generate a direct short between the 5-volt supply lines and the signal leads. The new wiring essentially mimicked a size-12 mashing of the pedal to the carpet and the engine went to WOT. Also, the order of the modification is important. Apply the 5-volt power lead to the wires before inserting the resistor and the computer would instead throw a fault code and go into limp mode.
So you're talking about some fairly interesting surgery to get this to happen, not exactly a "Your cell phone/radio/overhead power lines/water leak can cause this" thing. And a very good question follows:
One pertinent factoid: Not a single case of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) has been attributed to bad wiring. None. Toyota has been harvesting parts from vehicles with documented SUA issues as part of the recall, and they're checking them all. None of them have shown any sign of corrosion or shorted wiring. Toyota also illustrated that Gilbert's modification works on cars from many different manufacturers. During a webcast explaining the modifications, Toyota had a half-dozen cars built by a half-dozen companies that were rewired in the same manner. All of them produced the same result as that Avalon. The question is: What would make an engineering professor stick his neck out so far?

This is just so damn cool to watch

Thanks to RNS

God, they must have had to mop up brains all over the place

when she said this:
And I'd like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world and may they come home safe.

So Massa is being 'forced out by the leadership' because

he won't vote 'yes' on Obamacare. Would it surprise me? Considering Pelosi and Emanuel & Co., no. Doesn't change that Massa isn't exactly someone I'd call a friend.

And, as Ace points out, Oh: Reporters are now referring vaguely to two "incidents" which happened during Massa's Naval career.

Several points:Democrats obviously knew of this stuff long before, but must have forgotten to mention it to us.

The media would never peddle the thin stuff about whatever happened in the Navy if this were a Democrat in good standing. They've got the go-code from their masters, and so they're treating Massa... like a Republican.
and, noting Barney Frank's past,
Massa's almost certainly lying about that. But he's probably right that Democrats are driving him out of office-- if you vote with the caucus, after all, you can have your live-in boyfriend run a male prostitution ring, or grow pot, in your House.

Friend sent a "Oho, so Sarah Palin used Canadian single-payer health care!"

thing, so I did some checking. Not exactly:
“My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse (180km away. see map). Believe it or not – this was in the ‘60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."
and from her father,
Palin's father said his family probably boarded the train for the Whitehorse hospital only twice — once when a daughter had rheumatic fever, and once when his son, also named Chuck, severely burned his leg and an infection set in.

"We much preferred to use our facilities because my insurance didn't cover anything in Whitehorse. And even though they have socialized medicine, I still had to pay the bill, being an American citizen," Heath said.

Heath worked part-time for the White Pass & Yukon Railroad and had a pass allowing him and his family to ride for free.

The train in the 1960s often was the only option for getting to a doctor, Skagway Mayor Tom Cochran said.
So, when she and her brother were kids, once for a bad burn and once for illness their parents took them to the closest doctor. And? This is a big deal?

Only to the squirrels trying to crap on her at every opportunity.

I find myself curiously at a loss to properly write of this

An injured woman lay for six hours at the foot of a disused mine shaft because safety rules banned firefighters from rescuing her, an inquiry heard yesterday. As Alison Hume was brought to the surface by mountain rescuers she died of a heart attack.

A senior fire officer at the scene admitted that crews could only listen to her cries for help, after she fell down the 60ft shaft, because regulations said their lifting equipment could not be used on the public. A memo had been circulated in Strathclyde Fire and Rescue stations months previously stating that it was for use by firefighters only.
It's kind of amazing: I'm sitting here not(yet at least) saying the things I ought to. I guess because I can't think of a truly fitting way to describe the people involved in this. And the ending of the article makes it even better:
A firefighter, Alexander Dunn, was lowered with oxygen and first-aid equipment. He was with Ms Hume for four hours until the mountain team arrived. He told the inquiry that the time taken to rescue her was “excessive”. Mr Dunn, 51, who is retired, was critical of the subsequent fire service debriefing, saying it failed to address key points.
So one of the bastards was actually down there with her, but they couldn't manage to find enough of what's left of their testicles to pull her out... Because deity forbid they should disobey the fucking memo...

Usually I don't say things like this, but I thank God some of my ancestors got the hell out of Britain long ago, while more of the people there still had their testicles and ovaries.

Don't know about you, but this seems like a really REALLY crappy idea

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.
...
But a section buried in a recent Home Office neighbourhood policing strategy document read: "The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS) is a powerful way for the police to work with partners and to make the most out of other people whose job is to keep their neighbourhoods safe by giving them a limited range of powers to tackle ASB (anti-social behaviour).

"The Government and ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officer) will review CSAS to see how it can be expanded to more forces and organisations."
Now, this has been bad enough in the past; but where it's going now?
A leaked document last month suggested one in five police officers could lose their job under cost-cutting measures.

Up to 28,000 officers would be replaced by civilian workers — saving hundreds of millions of pounds — under suggestions put to a Workforce Council meeting chaired by Acpo and involving the National Policing Improvement Agency, the Home Office-funded body responsible for finding efficiencies within the service.

The Daily Telegraph also disclosed that forces are losing thousands of officers by freezing recruitment and replacing them with volunteer special constables.
So, if you defend yourself from an attacker, even in your own home, that's not tolerable and you'll likely go to jail; but they're going to do this?

Snork. "How the media sees

the AR15"
stolenborrowed from this guy; go take a look at his other stuff.

About these words Borepatch noted:

Al Gore is an even bigger bastard than I'd thought; which takes some doing to accomplish.
From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.
'Redemption'. That's a very damned interesting word for him to use, and also very damned scary; tells us he's not only a lying hypocrite, he wants even more control over you than I'd thought.

Think about that: he wants to use the power of law, the power of government, to force you to 'redeem' yourself. As he sees appropriate, of course.

Been a bunch of people over time who've said that every time someone decides they can use power to create heaven on earth, what they always wind up creating is a slice of hell.

Which is just where Al can hustle his fat control-freak ass off to.

It's the Obama Cat!

Borepatch has a post on the idiocy that is firearms law

in the People's Republic of MA.
In Massachusetts, anyone who does not have a valid Firearm ID (FID) card or License to Carry (LTC), and who possesses empty (expended) cartridge cases is in violation of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 269, Section 10(h)(1). This is a felony, punishable by nor more than 2 years in prison or a fine not to exceed $500.

Not for having live ammunition, which might almost make sense. For having ammunition components. It might even make sense if it were unexpended ammunition components: bullets, primers, propellant. But the "common sense" law on the books goes further, to include expended (and therefore harmless) bits like shell casings.

What came to mind while reading of this stupidity is that Mitt Romney, who was Governor of the PROM, last I heard was still defending the personal disarmament laws there as being 'practical' and 'good', and that his signing some of them into law was just dandy and nothing for us to bother our little heads about. And a lot of people in the Stupid Party would still like to see him as President.

No. HELL no. He's demonstrated in the past just how gun owners can be treated and it be considered a Good Thing by him, and I don't want the bastard in the Oval Office. And let's not forget he also signed the socialized medicine bill for PROM into law, and last I heard still defended doing that.

It should be noted: Sean Penn is a freakin' moron

Just in case you didn't already know it.
Sean Penn went on a rant in defense of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, suggesting prison time for American journalists: “every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”
Most of the media won't actually criticize Chavez, let alone call him the commie dirtbag he is, but it appears ANY less-than-kissass mention of him is just too much for Penn to tolerate; I mean, he's all for freedom of speech but that can't include saying anything unflattering about his favorite tyrant.

The Telegraph can't make up its mind: Fox News is the devil

but Mr Obama benefited in his campaign from an idiotic level of idolatry, in which most of the media participated with an astonishing suspension of cynicism. So most of the media gets called out for not doing their job(which a bunch of people were doing WHILE THEY WERE AVOIDING DOING THEIR JOB), but Fox is hate-filled, etc., for actually, well, reporting and such.

And I love this line: The root of the problem seems to be the management of expectations. No, the root of the problem is that Obama is a socialist who's not nearly as wonderful as he and his buttmonkeys think, and people who let themselves be blinded during the election have caught on.

Felony charges? For this bullcrap?

Flat-out idiocy.

If Yon's information is correct, Spain is formally invited

to kiss my ass.
2) Qal E Naw: The Spanish are not interested in helping in anyway, and are trying to make us decide to leave based on their unacceptable treatment of Americans. Our refuelers [soldiers who refuel helicopters] that are living there have to run out, unroll the hoses, pull security, and roll everything back up. They have asked for gravel along the FLS as it is currently calf deep mud, but the Spanish refuse to make any improvements. They asked for a T barrier (just one) to put at a 45 degree angle outside the fence where the FARP [Forward Arming and Refueling Point; where helicopters land for ammo and gas] has to be set up so they can run for cover in case there is small arms fire, the Spanish say no and refuse to make any improvements. They asked for a small gate where their billets are located so they can access the FARP directly rather than going a half mile loop to get out the gate, but the Spanish said no and refuse to make any improvements. They [sic] guys are living hard (we understand that) but have to do laundry by hand as all of their stuff is stolen if they turn it into the laundry, they discussed this with the Spanish, but they refuse to many any improvements.

Sink, you miserable Spanish bastards. Don't come begging for help from us. You screw our troops, you can go to hell. You caved to the terrorists before, and you're crapping on our troops now; Spanish troops who actually have balls and integrity must be shamed by your actions.

Oh, and your troops involved in this crapping on our guys? Bet they'll squeal like stuck pigs and cry for help when the bad guys hit them; but our guys won't leave them hanging, because people of integrity don't do that. And I'll bet you're counting on that.

I guess Sen. Reid(Backstabbing Bastard-NV) was right;

that election just means we lost the war. Or something.

Or it could simply be that Reid and Pelosi & Co. are backstabbing, lying politicians who'll do or say anything for power.

And I know which it is.

Let's see, in his ongoing efforts to 'reform' his reputation, Eliot Spitzer

has aides claiming they didn't understand a warning about Paterson:
They were referring to Paterson's extramarital dalliances, past drug use and penchant for late-night clubbing. But Spitzer's people didn't get the message.

"We didn't know what 'hard partying' even meant," a former top Spitzer aide confessed to The Post. "Our idea of fun is to go exercise. The thinking was, 'He enjoys partying -- that's nice!' "
My question is, how many people do they actually think are going to believe this crap? You jerk, your boss is buying thousand-dollar-per-hour hookers and such, and you don't know 'partying' doesn't refer to the gym? Please.


On the level of either idiocy or dementia, we have Mikey Moore:
...Each morning you and I will do 100 jumping jacks and you will repeat after me:

"THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECTED ME, NOT THE REPUBLICANS, TO RUN THE COUNTRY! I AM IN CHARGE! I WILL ORDER ALL OBSTRUCTIONISTS OUTTA MY WAY! IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T LIKE WHAT I'M DOING THEY CAN THROW MY ASS OUT IN 2012. IN THE MEANTIME, I CALL THE SHOTS ON THEIR BEHALF! NOW, CONGRESS, DROP AND GIVE ME 50!!"
Interesting, isn't it? In Moore's world(much like Obama) "I won" is supposed to mean "I can do and get whatever I want"; except when it's a President he doesn't like, in which case he's SUPPOSED to be opposed on everything...


I have a question on this story. Insty puts it BIGOTS: WaPo Female Condom Story Omits Gays. Related item here. Fighting AIDS and such is fine, sounds dandy; so that means tax money being used to give hookers various condoms? It means passing out female condoms at gay bars and such? Why the hell is it necessary to provide the stuff to people who're apparently too stupid, lazy, cheap or uncaring to buy or use their own?

For that matter, from the Legal Insurrection link, The move is an official acknowledgment of the futility of relying solely on the use of male condoms, which have been distributed citywide for nearly a decade, to stem the District's epidemic of HIV and AIDS. Officials said they are turning to female condoms to give women more power to protect themselves from HIV and sexually transmitted diseases when their partners refuse to use protection.
Uh, how about the women saying "You don't wear one, we don't do it"? Or is that somehow not an option?


Socialized medicine is Obama's Stalingrad as opposed to Waterloo. Interesting.


Saw this a couple of days ago, still strikes me the same way: Hey, Crawford, how does it feel to be on the receiving end of bullshit accusations of racism?



But it is not all about me. . . .Free speech is under attack. Let me give you a few other examples. As you perhaps know, one of my heroes, the Italian author Oriana Fallaci had to live in fear of extradition to Switzerland because of her anti-Islam book 'The Rage and the Pride'. The Dutch cartoonist Nekschot was arrested in his home in Amsterdam by 10 police men because of his anti-Islam drawings. Here in Britain, the American author Rachel Ehrenfeld was sued by a Saudi businessman for defamation. In the Netherlands Ayaan Hirsi Ali and in Australia two Christian pastors were sued. I could go on and on. Ladies and gentlemen, all throughout the West freedom loving people are facing this ongoing 'legal jihad'. This is Islamic 'lawfare'. And, ladies and gentlemen, not long ago the Danish cartoonist Westergaard was almost assassinated for his cartoons.

Ladies and gentlemen, we should defend the right to freedom of speech. . . .I believe it is our obligation to preserve the inheritance of the brave young soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy. That liberated Europe from tyranny. . . .As George Orwell said: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear".



Speaking to the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson outlined a "nightmare scenario" in which people holding U.S. passports receive terrorist training then return legally to the U.S. to commit violent acts.

"They can easily infiltrate back into the United States and, frankly, we don't know what to do about them," Patterson said. "We think there are more out there than we know about."

Hey, that's reassuring. Just soak that part up for a minute: We don't know what to do about them. The system is working!

Good to see all that "outreach" to Obama's Muslim buds is paying dividends.


Damn. Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. Don't see many movies, but I do believe she deserved it: The Blind Side was one of the best I have seen in a long time, and her performance was a very big part of it.


And some of the consequences of widespread abortion or killing of female babies.

Home again, home again

Few quick bits pointed out/ran across, then unpacking and such to do:
Troops like this are the ones the Brown- and, for that matter the Blair- government shorts on equipment and supplies; the bastards aren't fit to lick the troops jockstraps.


Of course, Brown & Co. are so busy figuring new ways to screw the subjects, so screwing the troops isn't anything big. To them.


Yglesias doesn't care for the Constitution; well, an awful lot of people don't care for him and his collectivist bullshit, either.


And, thanks to Rodger, what happened to the elephant. Y'know, Capstick wrote several times about how, after a hunter killed his beast and they took the best cuts for camp, the locals would just appear and butcher the remains(which was most of whatever); and they didn't have the starvation problem these people have.

About the wonders of the Brit National Health Service,

DAMNING reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients’ needs have been neglected.

They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.

The harsh verdict on the state of the NHS, after a spending splurge under Labour between 2000 and 2008, raises worrying questions about the future quality of the health service as budgets are squeezed.

One report, based on the advice of almost 200 top managers and doctors, says hospitals ignored basic hygiene to cram in patients to meet waiting-time targets.
...
The first report, by the Massachusetts-based Institute for Healthcare Improvements (IHI), identified the neglect of patients as a serious obstacle to improving the NHS. “The lack of a prominent focus on patients’ interests and needs ... represents a significant barrier to shifting the trajectory of quality improvement in the NHS.”

One heading in the report says: “The patient doesn’t seem to be in the picture.” It adds: “We were struck by the virtual absence of mention of patients and families ... whether we were discussing aims and ambition for improvement, measurement of progress or any other topic relevant to quality.

“Most targets and standards appear to be defined in professional, organisational and political terms, not in terms of patients’ experience of care.”

This weekend it emerged the recommendations of the reports, intended to help the NHS improve, have not even been circulated.
And on. And on. And this is the level of shit we're told is just freakin' wonderful health care, and we should emulate it. Shit like this:"
The third report, by the US-based Rand Corporation, expresses surprise at the lack of a requirement to identify the specific drug involved when patient accidents are reported.
How the HELL do you report on a patient accident involving a drug and not mention what drug it was?

Damn. Just damn.

"Socialized medicine will be GREAT! Just look at

Britain!"
A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.

Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help.

They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.

The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours.

She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'

Read it, but only with breakables-especially clowns who push Obamacare- out of reach. .

Oh, but the hospital wants to make it all better:
'There has been an internal investigation but St George's never made it public and it was a whitewash-After his death the hospital never phoned me or wrote to me to apologise. How could this happen in the 21st century?'
...
A spokesman for St George's Hospital said: 'We are extremely sorry about the death of Kane Gorny and understand the distress that this has caused to his family.

'A full investigation was carried out and new procedures introduced to ensure that such a case cannot happen in future.

'We have written to the family to explain the actions that have been taken and to answer their concerns about Mr Gorny's care. The family has also been invited to meet with trust staff to discuss the case in detail.'
"We feel your pain. We want to discuss the case. What? Fire everyone who failed at their job? Don't be silly!" Of course, the proper course of action would be to fire them, jail them and make sure they never work in a medical field again(I'm being generous and leaving a flagrum out); but not a chance of any of that, the NHS will let you die but it'll take care of its own.
The tragedy emerged a week after a report into hundreds of deaths at Stafford Hospital revealed the appalling quality of care given by many of the nurses.

It's starting to rain, but at least it's well above freezing

Which makes it a good thing got the heavy stuff done yesterday; helping Dad take a tree down.

Didn't start out as 'the tree', just some limbs damaged in the ice storm. But then we found more damage, and a deep, bad spot down low in the trunk, so the tree. Section at a time so we could avoid the lines it had grown out over. So got the limbs down, with me neither falling out or imitating a light bulb, then the trunk.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need something to drink(no, dammit, I mean tea) and some breakfast.