Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Iraqi Bloggers Central: Where Did Saddam Get His Chemical Weapons?
Iraqi Bloggers Central: Where Did Saddam Get His Chemical Weapons?Sadam got lessthan 1% of his WMDs from America. Gteat info.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The Big Picture | Countries GDP as US States
The Big Picture | Countries GDP as US States Great analogy picture!!!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Brutally Honest: Dispatches from Baghdad - a soldier's view on Iraq
Brutally Honest: Dispatches from Baghdad - a soldier's view on IraqDispatches from Baghdad - a soldier's view on Iraq
Hope filled words from a Brit in Iraq:
Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb CMG DSO OBE is the Deputy Commanding General for the Multi-National Force-Iraq. He is also the UK’s Senior Military Officer in the country. Based in Baghdad, he frequently operates around the country. Here he gives his thoughts and an honest appraisal of Iraq's unfolding story:
"This is my fourth deployment. So I have, if nothing else, a reasonable (albeit soldier’s) perspective on Iraq and its people. I have, as you would expect, in these four tours got around a great deal and in the process I have drunk more tea (it’s very good, but not at all English) and broken more bread than I would care to recall.
But I have enjoyed an honest engagement with Iraqis from all persuasions whose hospitality is humbling, and on each occasion that I return to this country have seen progress being made that rarely gets reported.
...
In July, a poll by the nonprofit International Republican Institute found that 94% of Iraqis said they support a “unity” government. Nearly 80% opposed Iraq being segregated by religion or ethnicity, and even in Baghdad where sectarian violence is heightened, 76% opposed ethnic separation.
Similarly, according to a September WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, 97% of Iraqis said they “strongly disapprove” of attacks against Iraqi civilians, and 96% of Iraqis disapproved of attacks on Iraqi security forces.
These are the voices of that huge, so often forgotten, and silent majority of Iraqis who deserve a better life. They are good people who struggle and fall, but pick themselves up every day and continue to move on. These are people who deserve a chance. Their hopes and their dreams are, I believe as they do, worth fighting for. And it is this that this coalition does every day.
...
Iraq will not be completely free of violence - no country ever is. But as the Iraqis begin to learn to trust their security forces and actively work to rid the country of extremists, violence can be reduced to acceptable levels. Iraqis are making progress, and the Coalition Force remains steadfast in its support of Iraq through its transition to a more unified, secure, and prosperous country.
Can this still fail to meet our expectations? Of course it can. I personally do not believe that it will, and I am inclined to believe that greatness will eventually return to a country long overdue its sovereignty. But it would be a shame to fail simply because we all grew tired of trying."
The whole thing's worthy so go now and read it all and thank Instapundit for the find.
Hope filled words from a Brit in Iraq:
Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb CMG DSO OBE is the Deputy Commanding General for the Multi-National Force-Iraq. He is also the UK’s Senior Military Officer in the country. Based in Baghdad, he frequently operates around the country. Here he gives his thoughts and an honest appraisal of Iraq's unfolding story:
"This is my fourth deployment. So I have, if nothing else, a reasonable (albeit soldier’s) perspective on Iraq and its people. I have, as you would expect, in these four tours got around a great deal and in the process I have drunk more tea (it’s very good, but not at all English) and broken more bread than I would care to recall.
But I have enjoyed an honest engagement with Iraqis from all persuasions whose hospitality is humbling, and on each occasion that I return to this country have seen progress being made that rarely gets reported.
...
In July, a poll by the nonprofit International Republican Institute found that 94% of Iraqis said they support a “unity” government. Nearly 80% opposed Iraq being segregated by religion or ethnicity, and even in Baghdad where sectarian violence is heightened, 76% opposed ethnic separation.
Similarly, according to a September WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, 97% of Iraqis said they “strongly disapprove” of attacks against Iraqi civilians, and 96% of Iraqis disapproved of attacks on Iraqi security forces.
These are the voices of that huge, so often forgotten, and silent majority of Iraqis who deserve a better life. They are good people who struggle and fall, but pick themselves up every day and continue to move on. These are people who deserve a chance. Their hopes and their dreams are, I believe as they do, worth fighting for. And it is this that this coalition does every day.
...
Iraq will not be completely free of violence - no country ever is. But as the Iraqis begin to learn to trust their security forces and actively work to rid the country of extremists, violence can be reduced to acceptable levels. Iraqis are making progress, and the Coalition Force remains steadfast in its support of Iraq through its transition to a more unified, secure, and prosperous country.
Can this still fail to meet our expectations? Of course it can. I personally do not believe that it will, and I am inclined to believe that greatness will eventually return to a country long overdue its sovereignty. But it would be a shame to fail simply because we all grew tired of trying."
The whole thing's worthy so go now and read it all and thank Instapundit for the find.
Amazing Facts: Daily Bread
Amazing Facts: Daily Bread
Some are motivated to step out fearlessly and identify with the despised “remnant” who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3; 12:17). The gospel commission will not be finished with a whimper but with a blaze of glory.
Isaiah 49 is a wonderful treatise on these glorious days as finally the pure truth of the gospel is understood and proclaimed. The Lord says, “‘I will say to the prisoners, Go free!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ ... I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for My people to travel. ... Look around you and see what is happening! Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you. ... I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children” (vss. 9, 11, 18, 23, 25, GNB).
Under that proclamation of “the everlasting gospel,” agencies that have held people back are powerless to keep them from stepping out for the Lord—like employment that threatens dismissal because of the holy Sabbath, or friends or family; truth is more precious than all besides. Honorable people honor the Lord. Some in the very highest levels of the Roman Curia will respond, according to the Revelation 15:2 prophecy.
Abraham was a wealthy, distinguished man in his day. If God Himself preached the “gospel” to him (Gal. 3:8), it must have been “Christ and Him crucified,” for that alone is the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Jesus said that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 9:56). It was not craven fear of hell that motivated him to leave his comfortable home in the great city of Ur and live in tents the rest of his life; it was a glimpse of the abounding grace of the Lord. Yes, in the story of the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham saw the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) of Christ; that’s what nerved and moved him to shine as “the father of all them who believe” (Rom. 4:11).
The same vision will move you and me today, and also many in time to come! Agape is a far more effective motivation than any kind of fear the old covenant can generate.
Some are motivated to step out fearlessly and identify with the despised “remnant” who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (cf. Rev. 15:2, 3; 12:17). The gospel commission will not be finished with a whimper but with a blaze of glory.
Isaiah 49 is a wonderful treatise on these glorious days as finally the pure truth of the gospel is understood and proclaimed. The Lord says, “‘I will say to the prisoners, Go free!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ ... I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for My people to travel. ... Look around you and see what is happening! Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you. ... I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children” (vss. 9, 11, 18, 23, 25, GNB).
Under that proclamation of “the everlasting gospel,” agencies that have held people back are powerless to keep them from stepping out for the Lord—like employment that threatens dismissal because of the holy Sabbath, or friends or family; truth is more precious than all besides. Honorable people honor the Lord. Some in the very highest levels of the Roman Curia will respond, according to the Revelation 15:2 prophecy.
Abraham was a wealthy, distinguished man in his day. If God Himself preached the “gospel” to him (Gal. 3:8), it must have been “Christ and Him crucified,” for that alone is the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1, 2). Jesus said that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 9:56). It was not craven fear of hell that motivated him to leave his comfortable home in the great city of Ur and live in tents the rest of his life; it was a glimpse of the abounding grace of the Lord. Yes, in the story of the offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham saw the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love (agape) of Christ; that’s what nerved and moved him to shine as “the father of all them who believe” (Rom. 4:11).
The same vision will move you and me today, and also many in time to come! Agape is a far more effective motivation than any kind of fear the old covenant can generate.
Dumb Looks Still Free: The Oncoming Storm
Dumb Looks Still Free: The Oncoming StormExcellent discussion of America. Now and to come!
Friday, January 12, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
15 rules for understanding the Middle East -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY
15 rules for understanding the Middle East -- Page 1 -- Times Union - Albany NY
First published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006
For a long time, I let my hopes for a decent outcome in Iraq triumph over what I had learned reporting from Lebanon during its civil war. Those hopes vanished last summer. So, I'd like to offer President Bush my updated rules of Middle East reporting, which also apply to diplomacy, in hopes they'll help him figure out what to do next in Iraq.
Rule 1: What people tell you in private in the Middle East is irrelevant. All that matters is what they will defend in public in their own language. Anything said to you in English, in private, doesn't count. In Washington, officials lie in public and tell the truth off the record. In the Mideast, officials say what they really believe in public and tell you what you want to hear in private.
Rule 2: Any reporter or U.S. Army officer wanting to serve in Iraq should have to take a test, consisting of one question: "Do you think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?" If you answer yes, you can't go to Iraq. You can serve in Japan, Korea or Germany -- not Iraq.
Rule 3: If you can't explain something to Middle Easterners with a conspiracy theory, then don't try to explain it at all -- they won't believe it.
Rule 4: In the Middle East, never take a concession, except out of the mouth of the person doing the conceding. If I had a dollar for every time someone agreed to recognize Israel on behalf of Yasser Arafat, I could paper my walls.
Rule 5: Never lead your story out of Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq with a cease-fire; it will always be over before the next morning's paper.
Rule 6: In the Middle East, the extremists go all the way, and the moderates tend to just go away.
Rule 7: The most oft-used expression by moderate Arab pols is: "We were just about to stand up to the bad guys when you stupid Americans did that stupid thing. Had you stupid Americans not done that stupid thing, we would have stood up, but now it's too late. It's all your fault for being so stupid."
Rule 8: Civil wars in the Arab world are rarely about ideas -- like liberalism vs. communism. They are about which tribe gets to rule. So, yes, Iraq is having a civil war as we once did. But there is no Abe Lincoln in this war. It's the South vs. the South.
Rule 9: In Middle East tribal politics there is rarely a happy medium. When one side is weak, it will tell you, "I'm weak, how can I compromise?" And when it's strong, it will tell you, "I'm strong, why should I compromise?" Rule 10: Mideast civil wars end in one of three ways: a) like the U.S. civil war, with one side vanquishing the other; b) like the Cyprus civil war, with a hard partition and a wall dividing the parties; or c) like the Lebanon civil war, with a soft partition under an iron fist (Syria) that keeps everyone in line. Saddam used to be the iron fist in Iraq. Now it is us. If we don't want to play that role, Iraq's civil war will end with A or B.Rule 11: The most underestimated emotion in Arab politics is humiliation. The Israeli-Arab conflict, for instance, is not just about borders. Israel's mere existence is a daily humiliation to Muslims, who can't understand how, if they have the superior religion, Israel can be so powerful. Al Jazeera's editor, Ahmed Sheikh, said it best when he recently told the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche: "It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this."
Rule 12: Thus, the Israelis will always win, and the Palestinians will always make sure they never enjoy it. Everything else is just commentary.
Rule 13: Our first priority is democracy, but the Arabs' first priority is "justice." The oft-warring Arab tribes are all wounded souls, who really have been hurt by colonial powers, by Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, by Arab kings and dictators, and, most of all, by each other in endless tribal wars. For Iraq's long-abused Shiite majority, democracy is first and foremost a vehicle to get justice. Ditto the Kurds. For the minority Sunnis, democracy in Iraq is a vehicle of injustice. For us, democracy is all about protecting minority rights. For them, democracy is first about consolidating majority rights and getting justice.
Rule 14: The Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi had it right: "Great powers should never get involved in the politics of small tribes."
Rule 15: Whether it is Arab-Israeli peace or democracy in Iraq, you can't want it more than they do.
First published: Wednesday, December 20, 2006
For a long time, I let my hopes for a decent outcome in Iraq triumph over what I had learned reporting from Lebanon during its civil war. Those hopes vanished last summer. So, I'd like to offer President Bush my updated rules of Middle East reporting, which also apply to diplomacy, in hopes they'll help him figure out what to do next in Iraq.
Rule 1: What people tell you in private in the Middle East is irrelevant. All that matters is what they will defend in public in their own language. Anything said to you in English, in private, doesn't count. In Washington, officials lie in public and tell the truth off the record. In the Mideast, officials say what they really believe in public and tell you what you want to hear in private.
Rule 2: Any reporter or U.S. Army officer wanting to serve in Iraq should have to take a test, consisting of one question: "Do you think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?" If you answer yes, you can't go to Iraq. You can serve in Japan, Korea or Germany -- not Iraq.
Rule 3: If you can't explain something to Middle Easterners with a conspiracy theory, then don't try to explain it at all -- they won't believe it.
Rule 4: In the Middle East, never take a concession, except out of the mouth of the person doing the conceding. If I had a dollar for every time someone agreed to recognize Israel on behalf of Yasser Arafat, I could paper my walls.
Rule 5: Never lead your story out of Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq with a cease-fire; it will always be over before the next morning's paper.
Rule 6: In the Middle East, the extremists go all the way, and the moderates tend to just go away.
Rule 7: The most oft-used expression by moderate Arab pols is: "We were just about to stand up to the bad guys when you stupid Americans did that stupid thing. Had you stupid Americans not done that stupid thing, we would have stood up, but now it's too late. It's all your fault for being so stupid."
Rule 8: Civil wars in the Arab world are rarely about ideas -- like liberalism vs. communism. They are about which tribe gets to rule. So, yes, Iraq is having a civil war as we once did. But there is no Abe Lincoln in this war. It's the South vs. the South.
Rule 9: In Middle East tribal politics there is rarely a happy medium. When one side is weak, it will tell you, "I'm weak, how can I compromise?" And when it's strong, it will tell you, "I'm strong, why should I compromise?" Rule 10: Mideast civil wars end in one of three ways: a) like the U.S. civil war, with one side vanquishing the other; b) like the Cyprus civil war, with a hard partition and a wall dividing the parties; or c) like the Lebanon civil war, with a soft partition under an iron fist (Syria) that keeps everyone in line. Saddam used to be the iron fist in Iraq. Now it is us. If we don't want to play that role, Iraq's civil war will end with A or B.Rule 11: The most underestimated emotion in Arab politics is humiliation. The Israeli-Arab conflict, for instance, is not just about borders. Israel's mere existence is a daily humiliation to Muslims, who can't understand how, if they have the superior religion, Israel can be so powerful. Al Jazeera's editor, Ahmed Sheikh, said it best when he recently told the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche: "It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this."
Rule 12: Thus, the Israelis will always win, and the Palestinians will always make sure they never enjoy it. Everything else is just commentary.
Rule 13: Our first priority is democracy, but the Arabs' first priority is "justice." The oft-warring Arab tribes are all wounded souls, who really have been hurt by colonial powers, by Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, by Arab kings and dictators, and, most of all, by each other in endless tribal wars. For Iraq's long-abused Shiite majority, democracy is first and foremost a vehicle to get justice. Ditto the Kurds. For the minority Sunnis, democracy in Iraq is a vehicle of injustice. For us, democracy is all about protecting minority rights. For them, democracy is first about consolidating majority rights and getting justice.
Rule 14: The Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi had it right: "Great powers should never get involved in the politics of small tribes."
Rule 15: Whether it is Arab-Israeli peace or democracy in Iraq, you can't want it more than they do.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Blog d'Elisson
Blog d'ElissonPowerful Eyes O’ Jeremy Tait, by the late Wallace Irwin.
The Powerful Eyes O’ Jeremy Tait
An old sea-dog on a sailor’s log
Thus spake to a passer-by:
“The most onnateral thing on earth
Is the power o’ the human eye -
Oh, bless me! yes, oh, blow me! yes -
It’s the power o’ the human eye!
“We’d left New York en route for Cork
A day and a half to sea,
When Jeremy Tait, our fourteenth mate,
He fastened his eyes on me.
“And wizzle me hook! ’twas a powerful look
That flashed from them eyes o’ his;
I was terrified from heart to hide
And chilled to me bones and friz.
“ ‘O Jeremy Tait, O fourteenth mate’
I hollers with looks askance,
‘Full well I wist ye’re a hypnotist,
So please to remove yer glance!’
“But Jeremy laughed as he turned abaft
His glance like a demon rat,
And he frightened the cook with his piercin’ look
And he startled the captain’s cat.
“Oh, me, oh, my! When he turned his eye
On our very efficient crew,
They fell like dead, or they stood like lead
And stiff as a poker grew.
“So early and late did Jeremy Tait
That talent o’ his employ,
Which caused the crew, and the captain, too,
Some moments of great annoy.
“For we loved J. Tait, our fourteenth mate
As an officer brave and true,
But we quite despised bein’ hypnotized
When we had so much work to do.
“So we grabbed J. Tait, our fourteenth mate
(His eyes bein’ turned away),
By collar and sleeve, and we gave a heave,
And chucked him into the spray.
“His eyes they flashed as in he splashed,
But this glance it was sent too late,
For close to our bark a man-eatin’ shark
Jumped after Jeremy Tait.
“And you can bet he would ha’ been et
If he hadn’t have did as he done -
Straight at the shark an optical spark
From his terrible eye he spun.
“Then the shark he shook at Jeremy’s look
And he quailed at Jeremy’s glance;
Then he gave a sort of a sharkery snort
And fell right into a trance!
“Quite mesmerized and hypnotized
That submarine monster lay;
Meek as a shrimp, with his fins all limp,
He silently floated away.
“So we all of us cried with a conscious pride,
‘Hurrah for Jeremy Tait!’
And we hove a line down into the brine
And reskied him from his fate.
“And the captain cries ‘We kin use them eyes
To mighty good purpose soon.
Men, spread the sails - we’re a-goin’ for whales,
And we don’t need nary harpoon.
“ ‘For when we hail a blubberous whale
A-spoutin’ the water high,
We’ll sail up bold and knock ’im cold
With the power o’ Jeremy’s eye!’ ”
And thus on his log the old sea-dog
Sat whittling nautical chips:
“Oh, powerf’ler far than the human eye
Is the truth o’ the human lips;
But rarest of all is the pearls that fall
From a truthful mariner’s lips.”
The Powerful Eyes O’ Jeremy Tait
An old sea-dog on a sailor’s log
Thus spake to a passer-by:
“The most onnateral thing on earth
Is the power o’ the human eye -
Oh, bless me! yes, oh, blow me! yes -
It’s the power o’ the human eye!
“We’d left New York en route for Cork
A day and a half to sea,
When Jeremy Tait, our fourteenth mate,
He fastened his eyes on me.
“And wizzle me hook! ’twas a powerful look
That flashed from them eyes o’ his;
I was terrified from heart to hide
And chilled to me bones and friz.
“ ‘O Jeremy Tait, O fourteenth mate’
I hollers with looks askance,
‘Full well I wist ye’re a hypnotist,
So please to remove yer glance!’
“But Jeremy laughed as he turned abaft
His glance like a demon rat,
And he frightened the cook with his piercin’ look
And he startled the captain’s cat.
“Oh, me, oh, my! When he turned his eye
On our very efficient crew,
They fell like dead, or they stood like lead
And stiff as a poker grew.
“So early and late did Jeremy Tait
That talent o’ his employ,
Which caused the crew, and the captain, too,
Some moments of great annoy.
“For we loved J. Tait, our fourteenth mate
As an officer brave and true,
But we quite despised bein’ hypnotized
When we had so much work to do.
“So we grabbed J. Tait, our fourteenth mate
(His eyes bein’ turned away),
By collar and sleeve, and we gave a heave,
And chucked him into the spray.
“His eyes they flashed as in he splashed,
But this glance it was sent too late,
For close to our bark a man-eatin’ shark
Jumped after Jeremy Tait.
“And you can bet he would ha’ been et
If he hadn’t have did as he done -
Straight at the shark an optical spark
From his terrible eye he spun.
“Then the shark he shook at Jeremy’s look
And he quailed at Jeremy’s glance;
Then he gave a sort of a sharkery snort
And fell right into a trance!
“Quite mesmerized and hypnotized
That submarine monster lay;
Meek as a shrimp, with his fins all limp,
He silently floated away.
“So we all of us cried with a conscious pride,
‘Hurrah for Jeremy Tait!’
And we hove a line down into the brine
And reskied him from his fate.
“And the captain cries ‘We kin use them eyes
To mighty good purpose soon.
Men, spread the sails - we’re a-goin’ for whales,
And we don’t need nary harpoon.
“ ‘For when we hail a blubberous whale
A-spoutin’ the water high,
We’ll sail up bold and knock ’im cold
With the power o’ Jeremy’s eye!’ ”
And thus on his log the old sea-dog
Sat whittling nautical chips:
“Oh, powerf’ler far than the human eye
Is the truth o’ the human lips;
But rarest of all is the pearls that fall
From a truthful mariner’s lips.”
Friday, December 29, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Gut Rumbles
Gut Rumbles: "I knew that!!! RIGT ON ACIDMAN!!!!
Originally published June 2, 2004
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Wacko-environmentalists are religious freaks, every bit as obsessed and misguided as Islamic extremists. Those people give me the creeps.
Environmental alarmism/hysteria is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. It bears many traces of ancient myth and similarities to religious mania. It also has close ties with that most powerful, and delusive, of all political religions: socialism.
Close ties to socialism? I would call it more than that. Environmentalism is anti-individual, anti-private property, anti-capitalist and anti-progress. Environmentalists don't care how many people die because of their idiotic cause. In fact, they would be the first ones to throw virgins into a volcano to please the appetite of Gaia. They are that goddam superstitious and that goddam crazy.
They won't be happy until we all freeze to death in the dark."
Originally published June 2, 2004
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Wacko-environmentalists are religious freaks, every bit as obsessed and misguided as Islamic extremists. Those people give me the creeps.
Environmental alarmism/hysteria is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. It bears many traces of ancient myth and similarities to religious mania. It also has close ties with that most powerful, and delusive, of all political religions: socialism.
Close ties to socialism? I would call it more than that. Environmentalism is anti-individual, anti-private property, anti-capitalist and anti-progress. Environmentalists don't care how many people die because of their idiotic cause. In fact, they would be the first ones to throw virgins into a volcano to please the appetite of Gaia. They are that goddam superstitious and that goddam crazy.
They won't be happy until we all freeze to death in the dark."
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Thursday, November 23, 2006
FORGOTTEN PROPHETS: Tisquantum
FORGOTTEN PROPHETS: TisquantumSquanto
Tisquantum
That's "Squanto's" real name, in Algonquian. Tisquantum. The shortening can be forgiven, of course. Algonquian rivals ancient Elamite for its opaqueness. Nquitpausuckowashawmen. No, I've not lapsed into glossolalia. That's how Squanto would have said, "There are a hundred of us." Tashuckqunne cummauchenaumiz? "How long have you been sick?" Yep. Tough language.
Of course Squanto could have numbered his tribe in English -- and in Spanish. Alas, there were not a hundred Patuxets left -- his people: all had perished, to smallpox. He alone survived, like some servant of Job -- as indeed he was, to the hardpressed pilgrims. As for how long Squanto was sick, sudden fever took him the year after he had settled with his new tribe of pilgrims.
Well, he must have been used to being snatched away. He wasn’t kidnapped just once, you understand. In 1605, one George Weymouth whisked him away to England -- whether kidnapped or volunteered, history does not record. For untold years he labored -- well, eight or nine -- until returning to America in 1613 as translator for none other than John Smith. Set free as reward for his service, Squanto returned to his own tribe, only to be enslaved and taken to Spain -- kidnapped in 1614 by Thomas Hunt, a lieutenant of Captain Smith. He escaped to London where he remained until 1619 (interupted by one odd intermission in Newfoundland), then he joined an expedition to America. There he found his family and tribe all wiped out.
Providence? To find an English-speaking Indian wandering the coast at just the right time to save the Pilgrims? Well, yes. But how many other Squantos have wandered the earth, who never found their mission? -- Jonahs who made it to Tarshish?
To know one's purpose is something to be thankful about. Father, mother, friend -- and to bring light and love not only to those you care about but to the stranger -- well, this is something in which we might make our own providence. The rest of it -- being kidnapped and orphaned and dying young and such -- we count as beyond our understanding, and trust in God to resolve.
Much fiction will have crept into the story of Squanto and the Pilgrims. Of course. It's not that it wasn't a good enough story on its own. It's just that the reality is complex, and myths have a happy simplicity to them. The tales of childhood are for inspiring us to emulate an example of excellence ... since there are hardly any real examples of excellence ... or is that unworthy? It is a fact that having heroes who actually lived requires a degree of selective blindness on our part. We give importance to what is admirable, and choose not to see the flaws -- or at least to down-grade them. This is as it should be. If we saw the chamber of horrors that is the heart of every human, we'd never stop screaming.
So we have myths.
Is America everything it might be or that we wish it were? The question answers itself. The same holds when we inspect any ideal. There are no “ideals.” If they were real, they’d be “examples.” But part of living in the real world is understanding that it is hopelessly flawed. Well, not hopelessly. Fatally. Even in the face of the inevitable failure of our biology, though -- in the face of ultimate fatality, we need not be hopeless.
And so we have Thanksgiving. It has its own mythology, as does Christmas. But for all that there is the fiction of Santa, there is the reality of Jesus. And for all that the Hallmark and Rockwell images may very well be nothing but a happy conceit -- of convivial Indians supping in sumptuous abundance with the wayfarers from across the gray waves of the churning seas -- yet they have the reality of vivid dreams, that might be true, for all that daylight says otherwise.
The cherished dreams of our hearts have no guarantee of coming to pass. Every prayer of thanks must, must include a prayer of abject supplication, begging God that evil, or greater evil, should not strike us. Thus as a nation we take a day, a single day, collectively to call to mind the many blessing with which we have been blessed. We recall that it need not be so. We understand that who looks for perfection is a fool. We understand that who accepts the inspiration of a myth honors the daylight that the visions of night have promised.
Tisquantum
That's "Squanto's" real name, in Algonquian. Tisquantum. The shortening can be forgiven, of course. Algonquian rivals ancient Elamite for its opaqueness. Nquitpausuckowashawmen. No, I've not lapsed into glossolalia. That's how Squanto would have said, "There are a hundred of us." Tashuckqunne cummauchenaumiz? "How long have you been sick?" Yep. Tough language.
Of course Squanto could have numbered his tribe in English -- and in Spanish. Alas, there were not a hundred Patuxets left -- his people: all had perished, to smallpox. He alone survived, like some servant of Job -- as indeed he was, to the hardpressed pilgrims. As for how long Squanto was sick, sudden fever took him the year after he had settled with his new tribe of pilgrims.
Well, he must have been used to being snatched away. He wasn’t kidnapped just once, you understand. In 1605, one George Weymouth whisked him away to England -- whether kidnapped or volunteered, history does not record. For untold years he labored -- well, eight or nine -- until returning to America in 1613 as translator for none other than John Smith. Set free as reward for his service, Squanto returned to his own tribe, only to be enslaved and taken to Spain -- kidnapped in 1614 by Thomas Hunt, a lieutenant of Captain Smith. He escaped to London where he remained until 1619 (interupted by one odd intermission in Newfoundland), then he joined an expedition to America. There he found his family and tribe all wiped out.
Providence? To find an English-speaking Indian wandering the coast at just the right time to save the Pilgrims? Well, yes. But how many other Squantos have wandered the earth, who never found their mission? -- Jonahs who made it to Tarshish?
To know one's purpose is something to be thankful about. Father, mother, friend -- and to bring light and love not only to those you care about but to the stranger -- well, this is something in which we might make our own providence. The rest of it -- being kidnapped and orphaned and dying young and such -- we count as beyond our understanding, and trust in God to resolve.
Much fiction will have crept into the story of Squanto and the Pilgrims. Of course. It's not that it wasn't a good enough story on its own. It's just that the reality is complex, and myths have a happy simplicity to them. The tales of childhood are for inspiring us to emulate an example of excellence ... since there are hardly any real examples of excellence ... or is that unworthy? It is a fact that having heroes who actually lived requires a degree of selective blindness on our part. We give importance to what is admirable, and choose not to see the flaws -- or at least to down-grade them. This is as it should be. If we saw the chamber of horrors that is the heart of every human, we'd never stop screaming.
So we have myths.
Is America everything it might be or that we wish it were? The question answers itself. The same holds when we inspect any ideal. There are no “ideals.” If they were real, they’d be “examples.” But part of living in the real world is understanding that it is hopelessly flawed. Well, not hopelessly. Fatally. Even in the face of the inevitable failure of our biology, though -- in the face of ultimate fatality, we need not be hopeless.
And so we have Thanksgiving. It has its own mythology, as does Christmas. But for all that there is the fiction of Santa, there is the reality of Jesus. And for all that the Hallmark and Rockwell images may very well be nothing but a happy conceit -- of convivial Indians supping in sumptuous abundance with the wayfarers from across the gray waves of the churning seas -- yet they have the reality of vivid dreams, that might be true, for all that daylight says otherwise.
The cherished dreams of our hearts have no guarantee of coming to pass. Every prayer of thanks must, must include a prayer of abject supplication, begging God that evil, or greater evil, should not strike us. Thus as a nation we take a day, a single day, collectively to call to mind the many blessing with which we have been blessed. We recall that it need not be so. We understand that who looks for perfection is a fool. We understand that who accepts the inspiration of a myth honors the daylight that the visions of night have promised.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Emigre with a Digital Cluebat
Emigre with a Digital Cluebat: "Kids say the DARNDEST things
JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister.
After a while he asked: 'Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for
cold milk?'
MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was
so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you
must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.'
STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. 'I love you so much,
that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'
BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a painkiller. She tried in
vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained
it was a childproof cap and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with
wonder, the little girl asked: 'How does it know it's me?
SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't
give me this juice again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough.'
DI (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I
cost?'
MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and
kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he whispering in her mouth?'
JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named
Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked
back and was turned to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the
flea?'
TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled
woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for awhile and then asked, 'Why
doesn't your skin fit your face?
The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... this particular Sunday
sermon...'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust.'
He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter (who was listening!) Leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little
girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'"
JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister.
After a while he asked: 'Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and one for
cold milk?'
MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was
so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, 'If you don't remember you
must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.'
STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. 'I love you so much,
that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window.'
BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a painkiller. She tried in
vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her Mom explained
it was a childproof cap and she'd have to open it for her. Eyes wide with
wonder, the little girl asked: 'How does it know it's me?
SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. 'Please don't
give me this juice again,' she said, 'It makes my teeth cough.'
DI (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: 'How much do I
cost?'
MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and
kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: 'Why is he whispering in her mouth?'
JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: 'The man named
Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city but his wife looked
back and was turned to salt.' Concerned, James asked: 'What happened to the
flea?'
TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled
woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for awhile and then asked, 'Why
doesn't your skin fit your face?
The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... this particular Sunday
sermon...'Dear Lord,' the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. 'Without you, we are but dust.'
He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter (who was listening!) Leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little
girl voice, 'Mom, what is butt dust?'"
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Official Reality Dot Appreciation Page
The Official Reality Dot Appreciation Page: "The Official Reality Dot Appreciation Page"
SFO Magazine Official Journal for Personal Investing in Stocks, Futures and Options
SFO Magazine Official Journal for Personal Investing in Stocks, Futures and Options: "What I Learned Trading in 2005
by: Thomas N. Bulkowski"
by: Thomas N. Bulkowski"
Yahoo! Mail - jdr1228@yahoo.com
Yahoo! Mail - jdr1228@yahoo.com: "Idle thoughts of a retiree's mind wandering...
...I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
...I had amnesia once -- or twice.
...I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?
...Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.
...All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
...If the world was a logical place, men would be the ones who ride horses sidesaddle.
...What is a 'free' gift? Aren't all gifts free?
...They told me I was gullible... and I believed them.
...Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto the freeway.
...Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
...One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
...My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies.
...I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
...The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
...How can there be self-help 'groups'?
...If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?
...Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.
...Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?"
...I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.
...I had amnesia once -- or twice.
...I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?
...Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.
...All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
...If the world was a logical place, men would be the ones who ride horses sidesaddle.
...What is a 'free' gift? Aren't all gifts free?
...They told me I was gullible... and I believed them.
...Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto the freeway.
...Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.
...One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
...My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies.
...I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.
...The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
...How can there be self-help 'groups'?
...If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?
...Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.
...Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?"
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Something... and Half of Something: Guard Our Borders!
Something... and Half of Something: Guard Our Borders!: "A Cool Change
A Lady's Ruminations
A Tic In The Mind's Eye
Adam's Thoughts
Amber and Chaos
Amboy Times
American Daughter
Bear Creek Ledger
BobGriggs.com
Cao's Blog
Charming Just Charming
Church and State
Customer Servant
DeMediacratic Nation
E L Frederick
Euphoric Reality
Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester
Freedom Folks
Gribbit's Word
Gun Toting Liberal*new!
Independent Conservative
Intergalactic Source of Truth
Jarhead's Firing Range
Kender's Musings
Life~Florida~Whatever
LomaAlta
Mensa Barbie Welcomes You
Morning Glory 2
Most Certainly Not
Mover Mike
Musings and Ramblings
NIF
Nova Townhall Blog
Ogre's Politics and Views*new!
Pamibe
Parrot Check
Part-Time Pundit
Politics, Parenting and Other Hazardous Pastimes
Publius Rendezvous
Ravings of a Mad Tech
Right As Usual
Right on Blog
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Right Wing Howler
Something and Half of Something
Stuck on Stupid
Subterfuge
Team Swap*new!
The Irate Nation
The Neo-Con Blogger
The Original Gobbleblog
The Right Track
Theodore's World
Third World County
TMH's Bacon Bits
Universe and Other Things
Vanishing American
Watchman's Words
Woman Honor Thyself"
A Lady's Ruminations
A Tic In The Mind's Eye
Adam's Thoughts
Amber and Chaos
Amboy Times
American Daughter
Bear Creek Ledger
BobGriggs.com
Cao's Blog
Charming Just Charming
Church and State
Customer Servant
DeMediacratic Nation
E L Frederick
Euphoric Reality
Fort Wayne Libertarian Mike Sylvester
Freedom Folks
Gribbit's Word
Gun Toting Liberal*new!
Independent Conservative
Intergalactic Source of Truth
Jarhead's Firing Range
Kender's Musings
Life~Florida~Whatever
LomaAlta
Mensa Barbie Welcomes You
Morning Glory 2
Most Certainly Not
Mover Mike
Musings and Ramblings
NIF
Nova Townhall Blog
Ogre's Politics and Views*new!
Pamibe
Parrot Check
Part-Time Pundit
Politics, Parenting and Other Hazardous Pastimes
Publius Rendezvous
Ravings of a Mad Tech
Right As Usual
Right on Blog
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Right Wing Howler
Something and Half of Something
Stuck on Stupid
Subterfuge
Team Swap*new!
The Irate Nation
The Neo-Con Blogger
The Original Gobbleblog
The Right Track
Theodore's World
Third World County
TMH's Bacon Bits
Universe and Other Things
Vanishing American
Watchman's Words
Woman Honor Thyself"
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century
Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century: "n other words, the greatest damage to the people of Chernobyl was caused by bad information. These people weren’t blighted by radiation so much as by terrifying but false information. We ought to ponder, for a minute, exactly what that implies. We demand strict controls on radiation because it is such a health hazard. But Chernobyl suggests that false information can be a health hazard as damaging as radiation. I am not saying radiation is not a threat. I am not saying Chernobyl was not a genuinely serious event."
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Is thinking obsolete? by Thomas Sowell - May 10, 2006
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Is thinking obsolete? by Thomas Sowell - May 10, 2006: "Amid all the hysteria among politicians and in the media over rising gasoline prices, and all the outraged indignation about oil company profits and their executives' high pay and lavish perks, has anybody bothered to even estimate how much effect any of this actually has on the price we pay at the pump?"
Monday, April 24, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Warts & All: Hey, Teenagers! Enjoy Yourselves While You Can!
Warts & All: Hey, Teenagers! Enjoy Yourselves While You Can! Some have it pretty tough growing up.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
Welcome to AnnCoulter.com
Welcome to AnnCoulter.com: "BROWN IS THE NEW BLACK
April 12, 2006
This is the only country on Earth that thinks it's not sporting to consider our own interests in choosing immigrants. Try showing up in any other country on the planet, illiterate and penniless, and announcing: 'I've seen pictures of your country and it looks great. I think I'd like to live here! Oh, and by the way, would you mind changing all your government and business phone messages, street signs and ballots into my native language? Thanks!' They would laugh you out of the countr"
April 12, 2006
This is the only country on Earth that thinks it's not sporting to consider our own interests in choosing immigrants. Try showing up in any other country on the planet, illiterate and penniless, and announcing: 'I've seen pictures of your country and it looks great. I think I'd like to live here! Oh, and by the way, would you mind changing all your government and business phone messages, street signs and ballots into my native language? Thanks!' They would laugh you out of the countr"
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Hog On Ice
Hog On Ice: "Little Victories, April 16, 2006
How I Earned my Oxygen Today
1. I discovered three Lester Young albums which look to be pretty excellent. First, Lester Young With Oscar Peterson Trio. I guess Lionel Twain must have named it. The samples are mindblowing. Ladies, if you think you hate jazz, go to Amazon and listen to this album's rendition of 'Stardust.' You will realize that you were wrong. Throw out those goddamn shitty Kenny G. albums. That isn't romance. THIS is romance.
Second, The Lester Young Trio. Guess what 'trio' mean? It means Lester Young, BUDDY RICH, and NAT KING COLE. Talk about crappy marketing. 'Trio'? Are you pulling my tit?
Third, Pres and Teddy. 'Pres' means 'Lester Young,' and 'Teddy' means 'Teddy Wilson,' one of the kings of elegant, tinkly, sophisticated jazz.
In case this is all blowing right by you, Lester Young was a sax player. And he didn't play music that was clever but hard to enjoy, like some people I could name. He had a soothing, gentle sound. Sort of like Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton.
2. I ate almost an entire bag of Cheddar Chex, and I washed it down with cane-sugar kosher-for-Passover Coke. I really enjoyed that. Tomorrow, back to salad and sawdust.
3. I found downloadable sheet music for 'Prisoner of Love.' A beautiful but neglected old standard. I remembered it when I saw that Lester Young played it.
4. I reached the point where I can play the third part of Chopin's A minor waltz well enough to practice it effectively, instead of sight-reading it at a glacier's pace. After I conquer this part, all I have to do is get through the A major bit, and then it's all repetition. According to my teacher. I'm afraid to look.
Every day, if you make an effort, something will go right. It's probably a good idea to think about those things before you go to bed.
I have two main tools for maintaining my motivation to practice the piano. First, I read a lot of books about pianists. Reading about other people playing the piano will make you want to play it, yourself. Second, after the nightly prayers, I go back over my daily practice in my head, and I pick out the things that went well. Even when I feel like I made no progress, if I think about it I always discover one or two definite improvements that justify the effort I put in during the day.
If that works for the piano, maybe it will work for other things."
How I Earned my Oxygen Today
1. I discovered three Lester Young albums which look to be pretty excellent. First, Lester Young With Oscar Peterson Trio. I guess Lionel Twain must have named it. The samples are mindblowing. Ladies, if you think you hate jazz, go to Amazon and listen to this album's rendition of 'Stardust.' You will realize that you were wrong. Throw out those goddamn shitty Kenny G. albums. That isn't romance. THIS is romance.
Second, The Lester Young Trio. Guess what 'trio' mean? It means Lester Young, BUDDY RICH, and NAT KING COLE. Talk about crappy marketing. 'Trio'? Are you pulling my tit?
Third, Pres and Teddy. 'Pres' means 'Lester Young,' and 'Teddy' means 'Teddy Wilson,' one of the kings of elegant, tinkly, sophisticated jazz.
In case this is all blowing right by you, Lester Young was a sax player. And he didn't play music that was clever but hard to enjoy, like some people I could name. He had a soothing, gentle sound. Sort of like Oscar Peterson and Lionel Hampton.
2. I ate almost an entire bag of Cheddar Chex, and I washed it down with cane-sugar kosher-for-Passover Coke. I really enjoyed that. Tomorrow, back to salad and sawdust.
3. I found downloadable sheet music for 'Prisoner of Love.' A beautiful but neglected old standard. I remembered it when I saw that Lester Young played it.
4. I reached the point where I can play the third part of Chopin's A minor waltz well enough to practice it effectively, instead of sight-reading it at a glacier's pace. After I conquer this part, all I have to do is get through the A major bit, and then it's all repetition. According to my teacher. I'm afraid to look.
Every day, if you make an effort, something will go right. It's probably a good idea to think about those things before you go to bed.
I have two main tools for maintaining my motivation to practice the piano. First, I read a lot of books about pianists. Reading about other people playing the piano will make you want to play it, yourself. Second, after the nightly prayers, I go back over my daily practice in my head, and I pick out the things that went well. Even when I feel like I made no progress, if I think about it I always discover one or two definite improvements that justify the effort I put in during the day.
If that works for the piano, maybe it will work for other things."
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Condoleezza Rice on Piano - New York Times
Condoleezza Rice on Piano - New York TimesAmazing article about Sec Rice!
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Hog On Ice
Hog On IceLately, I've been eating a lot of grilled cheeseburgers. When you have a gas grill, burgers are ridiculously convenient to cook, and naturally, that appeals to me. You just turn on the grill, get the burger ready while it heats up, throw it on, and take it off. And then there's almost no clean-up. Or, in my case, none.
Here's how I fix them these days. I start with between a third and a half of a pound of ground chuck. "Ground beef" probably tastes better, but God knows what's in it. Everytime you go to McDonald's, you probably eat half of a bovine penis and seven sphincters. I assume ground chuck is a little less disgusting. But I refuse to buy ground sirloin, because it's dry.
Anyway, I throw the meat in a bowl and salt it generously. I'll tell you something I have learned through experience. A burger with salt mixed into it will taste a lot better than a burger with salt ON it. Try it yourself and see. I also add pepper, and then I press a clove of garlic into the meat. Powder isn't the same. Then I mix it up and grill for 3.5 minutes per side. That makes it a little black on the outside, but not completely cooked inside. I don't care about the bacteria. Once you get to a certain age, your body deals with filth pretty well.
I like using Swiss cheese on these things, not just because of the taste, but because it's a fairly tough cheese that doesn't break up and fall into the grill or on the patio when you handle the burger.
I generally use Pepperidge Farm "Farmhouse" sandwich buns with onions or sesame seeds. These buns are bigger than the tiny, stupid regular buns, and they're always available. Homemade buns or something from a bakery would be better.
I prepare the buns by throwing them on the rack above the grill when I start cooking, dark side down. That warms up the outsides of the buns and takes the limpness out of them. Then a minute before the burger comes off, I put them face-down on the grill, and I toast them a little. When the burger is done, the buns are hot, and you can throw the cheese on the burger and put it on the bun and count on it to melt. You don't have to put it on the burger while it's cooking and stink up the yard.
It works really well. Hamburger has lots of flavor, so you don't really need to pimp it out much, although you certainly can.
Some people mix Lipton onion soup mix into their burgers. That's pretty good. I was thinking one of these days I might start adding a few carraway seeds, like on the famous Ollie burgers of the Seventies.
I also like a fried egg on top of a cheeseburger. Wonderful. I ought to try bleu cheese some day, too.
I don't salad my burgers up, but if I did, I'd go all the way, like a Whattaburger or a Whopper with everything.
Oh, hey, have you tried grilling bacon for your cheeseburgers? It's very nice. More flavor than stove bacon, and you don't have to clean a skillet.
I'm not a burger expert, but you'll get good results if you try it my way. If you learn nothing else from me, make sure you learn to mix the salt in before cooking.
Man, a couple of these babies with fries cooked twice in beef fat...oh, that would be sinful. Oh. Oh.
I'm back now.
You should probably also butter the buns after they toast. I'm too lazy.
Geez, that sounds good. Now I'll be thinking about it all day.
Jimmy Buffett was right about Heinz 57 on cheeseburgers, by the way. I also like ketchup and brown mustard, but Heinz is excellent.
Damn it. Why did I go read that? I just know I'm going to go turn the grill on.
In other news, Dan From Madison tried the ribs recipe from my cookbook, and he really liked it. Now that I'm set up for convenient smoking, I don't use my fake-rib recipe any more, but it really is good. Also, Dan is well on his way to becoming a troublemaker and agitator like me.
I may as well accept the fact that I'm going to grill today.
I make my bugers similarly, but with some different details.
I use 80% lean ground chuck usually, because it's enough fat to grill well, but not so much that it shrinks excessively.
In the bowl I mix the meat, some grated parmaggiano and romano, salt, black pepper, some crushed whole dried red chilis, some prepared mustard, and some crushed garlic.
The mustard, vinegar, and chili add some great tang, and the cheese salt, and pepper do for the savoriness.
I then very lightly butter the buns (or I use my home made chili oil - light olive oil infused with red chili) and grill them.
I personally like to put the chees on the burger cold, and let the heat from the buns and burger do whatver melting.
Oh and I think the best cheese for a good juicy burder is smoked gouda, or horseradish sharp cheddar.
I've done the grilled bacon trick, but I prefer to pan fry the bacon, and then use the drippings and some butter to fry steak fries in.
Posted by: Chris Byrne | April 8, 2006 02:46 PM
If you enjoy spicy burgers, in Austin they used to make something called a Primo at a place called Mad Dog's by the UT campus. I finally figured out how to make one after years of effort. More cleanup, but great taste:
Ground chuck
raw onion
raw jalapeno
raw bacon
All in a Cuisinart or other food processor with the blade attachment so it gets hacked and mushed together. Then make medium thick patties and cook slow, between 12-20 minutes depending on thickness. Best burger ever. Made them for 20 people last summer at a friend's birthday party and literally every single person wanted the recipe, and half of them said it was the best burger they had ever had.
If you don't like spicy, dump the jalapenos and just use onion and bacon. I tried precooking the veggies and bacon to cut down on grill time, but the burgers don't hold together when you do that.
Will probably double comment this at Acidman's.
Posted by: Uncle Mikey | April 8, 2006 02:50 PM
Same thoughts on the gas grill.
My $0.02 on Grilled Turkey CheeseBurgers
Throw the following into a bowl and use your hands to mix it up:
- Ground Turkey
- Diced Onion
- Diced
- Chopped Cilantro
- Garlic (powder or fresh diced)
- Salt
- Ground Pepper
Throw it on the grill then add pepper-jack cheese after the flip - add the bun/roll to the grill at this time as well
Cook till just past rare.
Posted by: Brian | April 8, 2006 03:12 PM
"That can't be anything but good."
we'll be waiting for the report. Best burger I ever ate, was at Fat Alberts in Gridley, Illinois. Called a Fatburger. 1/2 lb of ground beef. 1/2 lb of ground pork. Grilled separately, then smooshed together around a chunk of cheese the size of a wallet. Wrapped in a deep-fried bun. Spread with some buttery substance which I'm sure was raw cholestrol. I gained six pounds just then. And now I'm drooling uncontrollably. I think only one of those in my life is the limit.
Posted by: og | April 8, 2006 03:32 PM
Waking up after a severe MI several years ago, I saw a cardiologist looking down at me. His first words were, "You don't know it yet, but you had a pretty interesting experience there."
A few minutes later, after some discussion of payment for his services and other thoroughly exasperating issues, he continued with, "You know . . . you're going to die . . ." and then paused for effect. Confident that he had my focused and thorough attention, he continued, "Unless . . ." which included a ridiculously long list of things NOT to do or eat, chief amongst them salt, fat, and sweet.
In rehab, a cardiac nurse put it all in perfect perspective for me: "If it tastes good, spit it out, 'cause it's not good for you." That, of course, reiterated the doctor's list of condemned items (i.e., salt, sweet, fat).
So I began to read labels and modified my diet in hopes that my arteries would unharden and my cholesterol and triglycerides would come down from the high hundreds to under 200 or so.
One of the substitutes I tried was Boca Burgers for good ol' honest-to-goodness foodburgers made from large, hairy, stupid, smelly ruminants. At first they were simply awful, a kind of mystery meat sans flavor with no redeeming features except that they fit the whole-wheat buns I had shifted to.
Particularly hungry one day after mowing the lawn, I nuked two Bocas with salt substitute and minced garlic on 'em. Laid out two buns and smeared 'em with fat-free mayo, plopped a thick slice of yellow onion on the bottom half and a generous slice of big, red termater on the top half.
Somethin on the moron monitor distracted me for a few moments, but soon I had grabbed one of the sandwiches and was munching away, happy with my ability to self-delude and imagine that I was indeed consuming a forbidden menu item.
As I walked back to the counter to lay the pattie on the second bun, I saw TWO faux burgers there on the nuke pad. It was then that I learned how really unsatisfying the damned Bocas truly are.
The first sandwich had been bread, mayo, tomato, and onion. And it tasted good . . . but only because I had duped myself into believing that it would be. With the second one, the alien substance of the patties doubled in one bun overwhelmed the other, natural flavors.
Moral: you can talk yourself into one helluva lotta shit if you think it'll permit you to continue that nasty habit of breathing . . . but there ARE limits.
I would murder a gaggle of nuns for the ability to eat cheeseburgers with cardiovascular impunity. Hell, I'd take out the entire state of Massachusetts with thermonuclear weapons if I could eat pizza once in a while and not have to worry about that goddam elephant sitting on my chest again.
Here's how I fix them these days. I start with between a third and a half of a pound of ground chuck. "Ground beef" probably tastes better, but God knows what's in it. Everytime you go to McDonald's, you probably eat half of a bovine penis and seven sphincters. I assume ground chuck is a little less disgusting. But I refuse to buy ground sirloin, because it's dry.
Anyway, I throw the meat in a bowl and salt it generously. I'll tell you something I have learned through experience. A burger with salt mixed into it will taste a lot better than a burger with salt ON it. Try it yourself and see. I also add pepper, and then I press a clove of garlic into the meat. Powder isn't the same. Then I mix it up and grill for 3.5 minutes per side. That makes it a little black on the outside, but not completely cooked inside. I don't care about the bacteria. Once you get to a certain age, your body deals with filth pretty well.
I like using Swiss cheese on these things, not just because of the taste, but because it's a fairly tough cheese that doesn't break up and fall into the grill or on the patio when you handle the burger.
I generally use Pepperidge Farm "Farmhouse" sandwich buns with onions or sesame seeds. These buns are bigger than the tiny, stupid regular buns, and they're always available. Homemade buns or something from a bakery would be better.
I prepare the buns by throwing them on the rack above the grill when I start cooking, dark side down. That warms up the outsides of the buns and takes the limpness out of them. Then a minute before the burger comes off, I put them face-down on the grill, and I toast them a little. When the burger is done, the buns are hot, and you can throw the cheese on the burger and put it on the bun and count on it to melt. You don't have to put it on the burger while it's cooking and stink up the yard.
It works really well. Hamburger has lots of flavor, so you don't really need to pimp it out much, although you certainly can.
Some people mix Lipton onion soup mix into their burgers. That's pretty good. I was thinking one of these days I might start adding a few carraway seeds, like on the famous Ollie burgers of the Seventies.
I also like a fried egg on top of a cheeseburger. Wonderful. I ought to try bleu cheese some day, too.
I don't salad my burgers up, but if I did, I'd go all the way, like a Whattaburger or a Whopper with everything.
Oh, hey, have you tried grilling bacon for your cheeseburgers? It's very nice. More flavor than stove bacon, and you don't have to clean a skillet.
I'm not a burger expert, but you'll get good results if you try it my way. If you learn nothing else from me, make sure you learn to mix the salt in before cooking.
Man, a couple of these babies with fries cooked twice in beef fat...oh, that would be sinful. Oh. Oh.
I'm back now.
You should probably also butter the buns after they toast. I'm too lazy.
Geez, that sounds good. Now I'll be thinking about it all day.
Jimmy Buffett was right about Heinz 57 on cheeseburgers, by the way. I also like ketchup and brown mustard, but Heinz is excellent.
Damn it. Why did I go read that? I just know I'm going to go turn the grill on.
In other news, Dan From Madison tried the ribs recipe from my cookbook, and he really liked it. Now that I'm set up for convenient smoking, I don't use my fake-rib recipe any more, but it really is good. Also, Dan is well on his way to becoming a troublemaker and agitator like me.
I may as well accept the fact that I'm going to grill today.
I make my bugers similarly, but with some different details.
I use 80% lean ground chuck usually, because it's enough fat to grill well, but not so much that it shrinks excessively.
In the bowl I mix the meat, some grated parmaggiano and romano, salt, black pepper, some crushed whole dried red chilis, some prepared mustard, and some crushed garlic.
The mustard, vinegar, and chili add some great tang, and the cheese salt, and pepper do for the savoriness.
I then very lightly butter the buns (or I use my home made chili oil - light olive oil infused with red chili) and grill them.
I personally like to put the chees on the burger cold, and let the heat from the buns and burger do whatver melting.
Oh and I think the best cheese for a good juicy burder is smoked gouda, or horseradish sharp cheddar.
I've done the grilled bacon trick, but I prefer to pan fry the bacon, and then use the drippings and some butter to fry steak fries in.
Posted by: Chris Byrne | April 8, 2006 02:46 PM
If you enjoy spicy burgers, in Austin they used to make something called a Primo at a place called Mad Dog's by the UT campus. I finally figured out how to make one after years of effort. More cleanup, but great taste:
Ground chuck
raw onion
raw jalapeno
raw bacon
All in a Cuisinart or other food processor with the blade attachment so it gets hacked and mushed together. Then make medium thick patties and cook slow, between 12-20 minutes depending on thickness. Best burger ever. Made them for 20 people last summer at a friend's birthday party and literally every single person wanted the recipe, and half of them said it was the best burger they had ever had.
If you don't like spicy, dump the jalapenos and just use onion and bacon. I tried precooking the veggies and bacon to cut down on grill time, but the burgers don't hold together when you do that.
Will probably double comment this at Acidman's.
Posted by: Uncle Mikey | April 8, 2006 02:50 PM
Same thoughts on the gas grill.
My $0.02 on Grilled Turkey CheeseBurgers
Throw the following into a bowl and use your hands to mix it up:
- Ground Turkey
- Diced Onion
- Diced
- Chopped Cilantro
- Garlic (powder or fresh diced)
- Salt
- Ground Pepper
Throw it on the grill then add pepper-jack cheese after the flip - add the bun/roll to the grill at this time as well
Cook till just past rare.
Posted by: Brian | April 8, 2006 03:12 PM
"That can't be anything but good."
we'll be waiting for the report. Best burger I ever ate, was at Fat Alberts in Gridley, Illinois. Called a Fatburger. 1/2 lb of ground beef. 1/2 lb of ground pork. Grilled separately, then smooshed together around a chunk of cheese the size of a wallet. Wrapped in a deep-fried bun. Spread with some buttery substance which I'm sure was raw cholestrol. I gained six pounds just then. And now I'm drooling uncontrollably. I think only one of those in my life is the limit.
Posted by: og | April 8, 2006 03:32 PM
Waking up after a severe MI several years ago, I saw a cardiologist looking down at me. His first words were, "You don't know it yet, but you had a pretty interesting experience there."
A few minutes later, after some discussion of payment for his services and other thoroughly exasperating issues, he continued with, "You know . . . you're going to die . . ." and then paused for effect. Confident that he had my focused and thorough attention, he continued, "Unless . . ." which included a ridiculously long list of things NOT to do or eat, chief amongst them salt, fat, and sweet.
In rehab, a cardiac nurse put it all in perfect perspective for me: "If it tastes good, spit it out, 'cause it's not good for you." That, of course, reiterated the doctor's list of condemned items (i.e., salt, sweet, fat).
So I began to read labels and modified my diet in hopes that my arteries would unharden and my cholesterol and triglycerides would come down from the high hundreds to under 200 or so.
One of the substitutes I tried was Boca Burgers for good ol' honest-to-goodness foodburgers made from large, hairy, stupid, smelly ruminants. At first they were simply awful, a kind of mystery meat sans flavor with no redeeming features except that they fit the whole-wheat buns I had shifted to.
Particularly hungry one day after mowing the lawn, I nuked two Bocas with salt substitute and minced garlic on 'em. Laid out two buns and smeared 'em with fat-free mayo, plopped a thick slice of yellow onion on the bottom half and a generous slice of big, red termater on the top half.
Somethin on the moron monitor distracted me for a few moments, but soon I had grabbed one of the sandwiches and was munching away, happy with my ability to self-delude and imagine that I was indeed consuming a forbidden menu item.
As I walked back to the counter to lay the pattie on the second bun, I saw TWO faux burgers there on the nuke pad. It was then that I learned how really unsatisfying the damned Bocas truly are.
The first sandwich had been bread, mayo, tomato, and onion. And it tasted good . . . but only because I had duped myself into believing that it would be. With the second one, the alien substance of the patties doubled in one bun overwhelmed the other, natural flavors.
Moral: you can talk yourself into one helluva lotta shit if you think it'll permit you to continue that nasty habit of breathing . . . but there ARE limits.
I would murder a gaggle of nuns for the ability to eat cheeseburgers with cardiovascular impunity. Hell, I'd take out the entire state of Massachusetts with thermonuclear weapons if I could eat pizza once in a while and not have to worry about that goddam elephant sitting on my chest again.
World 'cannot meet oil demand' - Markets - Times Online
World 'cannot meet oil demand' - Markets - Times Online: "
World 'cannot meet oil demand'"
World 'cannot meet oil demand'"
Friday, April 07, 2006
Quote
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck, is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
-Ernst Jan Plugge
-Ernst Jan Plugge
To My Dear
To My Dear
and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more that whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more that whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
To One in Papadise
Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"- but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!
For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o'er!
"No more- no more- no more-"
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"- but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!
For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o'er!
"No more- no more- no more-"
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
The New Colossus
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
Cafe Hayek
Cafe Hayek: " I also do not think that true love of liberty was ever born just from the sight of material goods that freedom produces; for this often succeeds in hiding it. It is certainly true that in the long run, freedom always brings, to those who know how to keep it, ease, well-being, and often riches; but there are times when it briefly hinders the enjoyment of such goods; there are others when only despotism can temporarily afford their enjoyment. Men who prize only these kinds of goods have never enjoyed freedom for long.
That which, in all times, has so strongly attached certain men's hearts to freedom, are its own attractions, its own peculiar charm, independent of its benefits; it is the pleasure of being able to speak, act, and breathe without constraint, under the government of God and the laws alone. Whoever seeks anything from freedom but itself is made for slavery.
Now such men and women who love freedom so dearly are easily accused, chastised, castigated as being ideologues -- as if commitment to some non-material value is shameful or evidence of simple-mindedness."
That which, in all times, has so strongly attached certain men's hearts to freedom, are its own attractions, its own peculiar charm, independent of its benefits; it is the pleasure of being able to speak, act, and breathe without constraint, under the government of God and the laws alone. Whoever seeks anything from freedom but itself is made for slavery.
Now such men and women who love freedom so dearly are easily accused, chastised, castigated as being ideologues -- as if commitment to some non-material value is shameful or evidence of simple-mindedness."
Thursday, March 16, 2006
The Brier Patch
The Brier Patch
It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
--Mark Twain
It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
--Mark Twain
The Brier Patch
The Brier Patch: "It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
--Mark Twain"
--Mark Twain"
The Brier Patch
The Brier Patch: "It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
--Mark Twain"
--Mark Twain"
The Brier Patch
The Brier Patch: "It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail."
Gut Rumbles: Acidman is sick...
Gut Rumbles: Acidman is sick...It sounds like you have/had some sort of dysentery. The problem with dysentery is that although a healthy body will fight it off without resorting to medicines, you have to eat to stay healthy, and the disease won't let you keep anything in.
Two avenues of self-help are still available. First, you have to eliminate the chance of continuous re-infection. Scrub down the bathroom with 10% bleach solution. Wash all the bed linens in disinfectant soap. Spray down your bare mattress with Lysol and let it dry before putting new linens on. Put all your pillows in the dryer and roast them on high heat for an hour each, or better yet, burn them and get new. Do your skivvies in hot water and dry with high heat.
Keep yourself scrupulously clean. Shower with soap after every bowel movement.
Eat one-serving foods (except if on the purification diet listed below) and keep no leftovers. Run your dishwasher on it's highest heating and hot-washing cycles.
Lay in a supply of Gatorade. Do not chill it. You don't need to make your body work harder to warm up cold liquids you are putting into it.
Here is the risky part. Get some water-purifying tablets or drops. Make up an amount that will purify
10 quarts (liters) of water. With the tablets, you crush them with something in the bottom of a shot glass. Carefully fill the shot glass with water and stir, dissolving the tablets. If drops are used, they will self-mix as you add the water.
Horn the contents of the shot glass. DO NOT CHASE IT WITH ANYTHING. DO NOT SPIT OUT ANY RESIDUE, SWALLOW IT ALL.
Lay down for about four hours, then start in on the Gatorade, taking it as small as you must to keep it down. Try to manage at least a quart every 6 hours.
Stay on the Gatorade diet (NO FOOD!) for two days.
On the third day, eat one pint of plain yogurt. Not the fruity kind, PLAIN YOGURT. Continue with the Gatorade for another day, then slowly introduce SMALL amounts of food back in your life. What you are doing here is killing off all the digestive bacterial in your gut. You will kill the evil ones that are causing the problem as well. With all the bacteria gone, the gut can't do it's job, so any food in there will not digest. So, don't put any in. Just gatorade for survival, it will keep you going (or Pedialyte, it's better but way more expensive). Eating the yogurt next re-introduces the Lacto-bacillus Acidophillus, the good digestive bacteria, back into the gut. It will grow rapidly (if you've waited the two days for the killer-compound to be flushed out by the Gatorade, if not, the compound will negate the yogurt).
Start with the B.R.A.T. diet: Bananas, rice (plain) applesauce and tea. Or the B.O.A.T. diet, which is the same but substitutes oatmeal for rice. Saltine crackers are a decent substitute also.
After two days successful on these diets, try bringing in eggs, and a little fat (butter or some light fat). Then step up to meats.
The key is quantities. Your GI tract and colon will get into a reactive mode called enteritis and colitis, where it shits everything right out (so you don't get the food value out of it). You have to combat that by not overloading the tract and colon. Small meals, fed often, will get you adequate nutrition to recover.
By the end of the bout, you will have lost a lot of weight, which your body will try to compensate for by storing carbs and fats faster. Let it work. This isn't a weight-reduction program, and if you stay underweight too long, organ damage might occur.
BTW, the Halzone tablet amoeba-killer deal works. I have friends who used this remedy in 'Nam. The docs knew it was being used, and said nothing, so it can't be all that bad for you.
You've got a serious disease, but this is one that will actually respond to non-medical intervention.
If you let the docs treat it in the ER or Urgent Care (if they will, they might just pass it off as some gut virus and let you suffer it out). If they treat it properly, they will give you (IV) a strong antibiotic, replacement fluids and morphine and phenergan. That does everything quickly, but you will still have some residual trots until your gut gets rid of all it's previous infected waste. Then they put you on a clear diet (Gatorade), then the BOAT or BRAT diet, etc.
Then you pay their bill, $2,000 thank you. Plus about $250 worth of antibiotics to go home with. If they decide to do a CAT scan of your gut, add another $4,500 to that bill.
Two ways to go, the docs or the home-remedy way.
BTW, the cleanliness regime applies to either program.
Two avenues of self-help are still available. First, you have to eliminate the chance of continuous re-infection. Scrub down the bathroom with 10% bleach solution. Wash all the bed linens in disinfectant soap. Spray down your bare mattress with Lysol and let it dry before putting new linens on. Put all your pillows in the dryer and roast them on high heat for an hour each, or better yet, burn them and get new. Do your skivvies in hot water and dry with high heat.
Keep yourself scrupulously clean. Shower with soap after every bowel movement.
Eat one-serving foods (except if on the purification diet listed below) and keep no leftovers. Run your dishwasher on it's highest heating and hot-washing cycles.
Lay in a supply of Gatorade. Do not chill it. You don't need to make your body work harder to warm up cold liquids you are putting into it.
Here is the risky part. Get some water-purifying tablets or drops. Make up an amount that will purify
10 quarts (liters) of water. With the tablets, you crush them with something in the bottom of a shot glass. Carefully fill the shot glass with water and stir, dissolving the tablets. If drops are used, they will self-mix as you add the water.
Horn the contents of the shot glass. DO NOT CHASE IT WITH ANYTHING. DO NOT SPIT OUT ANY RESIDUE, SWALLOW IT ALL.
Lay down for about four hours, then start in on the Gatorade, taking it as small as you must to keep it down. Try to manage at least a quart every 6 hours.
Stay on the Gatorade diet (NO FOOD!) for two days.
On the third day, eat one pint of plain yogurt. Not the fruity kind, PLAIN YOGURT. Continue with the Gatorade for another day, then slowly introduce SMALL amounts of food back in your life. What you are doing here is killing off all the digestive bacterial in your gut. You will kill the evil ones that are causing the problem as well. With all the bacteria gone, the gut can't do it's job, so any food in there will not digest. So, don't put any in. Just gatorade for survival, it will keep you going (or Pedialyte, it's better but way more expensive). Eating the yogurt next re-introduces the Lacto-bacillus Acidophillus, the good digestive bacteria, back into the gut. It will grow rapidly (if you've waited the two days for the killer-compound to be flushed out by the Gatorade, if not, the compound will negate the yogurt).
Start with the B.R.A.T. diet: Bananas, rice (plain) applesauce and tea. Or the B.O.A.T. diet, which is the same but substitutes oatmeal for rice. Saltine crackers are a decent substitute also.
After two days successful on these diets, try bringing in eggs, and a little fat (butter or some light fat). Then step up to meats.
The key is quantities. Your GI tract and colon will get into a reactive mode called enteritis and colitis, where it shits everything right out (so you don't get the food value out of it). You have to combat that by not overloading the tract and colon. Small meals, fed often, will get you adequate nutrition to recover.
By the end of the bout, you will have lost a lot of weight, which your body will try to compensate for by storing carbs and fats faster. Let it work. This isn't a weight-reduction program, and if you stay underweight too long, organ damage might occur.
BTW, the Halzone tablet amoeba-killer deal works. I have friends who used this remedy in 'Nam. The docs knew it was being used, and said nothing, so it can't be all that bad for you.
You've got a serious disease, but this is one that will actually respond to non-medical intervention.
If you let the docs treat it in the ER or Urgent Care (if they will, they might just pass it off as some gut virus and let you suffer it out). If they treat it properly, they will give you (IV) a strong antibiotic, replacement fluids and morphine and phenergan. That does everything quickly, but you will still have some residual trots until your gut gets rid of all it's previous infected waste. Then they put you on a clear diet (Gatorade), then the BOAT or BRAT diet, etc.
Then you pay their bill, $2,000 thank you. Plus about $250 worth of antibiotics to go home with. If they decide to do a CAT scan of your gut, add another $4,500 to that bill.
Two ways to go, the docs or the home-remedy way.
BTW, the cleanliness regime applies to either program.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Winds of Change.NET: Maybe Iraq Is A Lot Like Vietnam - Maybe We're Wrong About Vietnam
Winds of Change.NET: Maybe Iraq Is A Lot Like Vietnam - Maybe We're Wrong About Vietnam: "COUNTERINSURGENCY: The John Paul Vann Model
By Rich Webster
In November of 1968 I can remember the legendary John Paul Vann speaking to our graduation class of newly trained advisors at Di An, South Vietnam. You cant win a guerrilla war by dropping bombs from the air, he said. You may kill some of the enemy, but you will alienate the people you are there trying to help, and they will turn against you."
By Rich Webster
In November of 1968 I can remember the legendary John Paul Vann speaking to our graduation class of newly trained advisors at Di An, South Vietnam. You cant win a guerrilla war by dropping bombs from the air, he said. You may kill some of the enemy, but you will alienate the people you are there trying to help, and they will turn against you."
Friday, March 10, 2006
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
43 Folders
43 Folders: "43 Folders is Merlin Mann’s site about personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better. "
Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide
Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide: "Benjamin Franklin’s 13 personal goals"
Monday, February 13, 2006
MORE CRAP
Neanderpundit: Crapblogging, of course.: "Crapblogging, of course.
I love spicy food. I can't take too much of it, because it kills my stomach, but I love to eat it. One type of particularly spicy food I had not tried, at least until a couple of weeks ago, was Indian cuisine.
So, since I had a chance to spend some time with a co-worker who was indian, and knew some nice restaurants where we were staying, I let him order for me. I had Tandoori chicken with rice and some kind of goats-milk yogurt drink.
Man, I LOVED this stuff. I had my friend order something relatively mild, so it wouldn't kill me but it was GOOD! I liked it a lot- the chicken, especially, was great. Even the rice had a lot of flavor, something you don't usually get in an American restaurant.
I decided, I'm going to eat a LOT more of this stuff, it was great!
Then cam the 6:05. You know, that first morning crap, the one that you hit right after waking, where you can sit, crap, piss, and read the morning paper just before the shower. I settled in to read the Click and Clack article about America's ten ugliest cars, and then the first wave hit.
oh. my. god.
my. ass. is. on. fire.
I never felt anything like this- it wass like being sodomized by a red hot poker while flaming maggots crawled out of your ass- yes, I could physically feel each grain of semidigested rice as it exited, and it felt, well,it felt bad. At about the same time I began to sweat, and my sweat smelled like a polecat in heat. I opened the window, despite the cold, and gasped for breath, and then the aroma hit me.
I have no idea what it was that was coming out of my ass, but it sure wasn't chicken and rice. Then, each time I thought i was done, and moved on, I ended up sitting back down again, and by the time I got through with my shower, I had been back out of the shower and on the throne several more times. By the time I was through I literally had nothing in me, i had shat every bite I had eaten the previous night, and even (by the smell) some things I hadn't eaten in years. Hey! Where'd that White Castle come from?
Before I got to work I'd been on the john again several times at rest stops, doing the anal equivalent of dry heaves, there was just nothing else. Then, the farting started, and it was worse than the smell of burning brakes and armadillo guts. I thought they were going to chase me out of the office, and finally, I left early, stopping at a Walgreens for a big container of Tucks.
No more indian food for me."
I love spicy food. I can't take too much of it, because it kills my stomach, but I love to eat it. One type of particularly spicy food I had not tried, at least until a couple of weeks ago, was Indian cuisine.
So, since I had a chance to spend some time with a co-worker who was indian, and knew some nice restaurants where we were staying, I let him order for me. I had Tandoori chicken with rice and some kind of goats-milk yogurt drink.
Man, I LOVED this stuff. I had my friend order something relatively mild, so it wouldn't kill me but it was GOOD! I liked it a lot- the chicken, especially, was great. Even the rice had a lot of flavor, something you don't usually get in an American restaurant.
I decided, I'm going to eat a LOT more of this stuff, it was great!
Then cam the 6:05. You know, that first morning crap, the one that you hit right after waking, where you can sit, crap, piss, and read the morning paper just before the shower. I settled in to read the Click and Clack article about America's ten ugliest cars, and then the first wave hit.
oh. my. god.
my. ass. is. on. fire.
I never felt anything like this- it wass like being sodomized by a red hot poker while flaming maggots crawled out of your ass- yes, I could physically feel each grain of semidigested rice as it exited, and it felt, well,it felt bad. At about the same time I began to sweat, and my sweat smelled like a polecat in heat. I opened the window, despite the cold, and gasped for breath, and then the aroma hit me.
I have no idea what it was that was coming out of my ass, but it sure wasn't chicken and rice. Then, each time I thought i was done, and moved on, I ended up sitting back down again, and by the time I got through with my shower, I had been back out of the shower and on the throne several more times. By the time I was through I literally had nothing in me, i had shat every bite I had eaten the previous night, and even (by the smell) some things I hadn't eaten in years. Hey! Where'd that White Castle come from?
Before I got to work I'd been on the john again several times at rest stops, doing the anal equivalent of dry heaves, there was just nothing else. Then, the farting started, and it was worse than the smell of burning brakes and armadillo guts. I thought they were going to chase me out of the office, and finally, I left early, stopping at a Walgreens for a big container of Tucks.
No more indian food for me."
Shit Happens
Gut Rumbles: carnival of the crappers: "Other people study the metaphysics of crap.
THE SHIT LIST GHOST SHIT- The kind where you feel the shit come out, but there is no shit in the toilet. CLEAN SHIT- The kind where you shit it out, see it in the toilet, but there is nothing on the toilet paper. WET SHIT- The kind where you wipe your butt 50 times and it still feels unwiped, so you have to put some toilet paper between your butt and your underwear so you won't ruin them with a stain. SECOND WAVE SHIT- It happens when you're done shitting and you have pulled your pants up to your knees, and you realize that you have to shit some more. POP-A-VEIN-IN-YOUR-FOREHEAD-SHIT- The kind where you strain so much to get it out you practically have a stroke. ICEBERG SHIT- The kind where the shit is so long that the end of it sticks above the water. RICHARD SIMMONS SHIT- You shit so much, you lose 30 pounds. LINCOLN LOG SHIT- The kind of shit that is so huge, you're afraid to flush without breaking it into little pieces with the toilet brush. GASEY SHIT- It is so noisy, everyone within earshot is giggling. DRINKER SHIT- The kind of shit you have the morning after a long night of drinking. It's most noticeable traits are the treadmarks on the bottom of the toilet. CORN SHIT- Self-explanatory GEE, I WISH I COULD SHIT, SHIT- It's the kind where you want to shit but all you do is sit on the toilet, cramped, and fart a few times. SPINAL TAP SHIT- That's where it hurts so bad coming out, you'd swear it was leaving you sideways. WET CHEEKS SHIT (THE POWER DUMP)- The kind that comes out of your butt so fast, your butt cheeks get splashed with water. LIQUID SHIT- The kind where yellowish-brown liquid shoots out your butt and splatters all over the toilet bowl. MEXICAN FOOD SHIT- It smells so bad, the room must be condemned. UPPER CLASS SHIT- The kind that thinks their shit doesn't smell. FISHERMAN'S BOBBER SHIT- That's the kind where you are in a public restroom, there are two people waiting on your stall, you shit and flush two times, but several golfball size pieces are still floating above the water line."
THE SHIT LIST GHOST SHIT- The kind where you feel the shit come out, but there is no shit in the toilet. CLEAN SHIT- The kind where you shit it out, see it in the toilet, but there is nothing on the toilet paper. WET SHIT- The kind where you wipe your butt 50 times and it still feels unwiped, so you have to put some toilet paper between your butt and your underwear so you won't ruin them with a stain. SECOND WAVE SHIT- It happens when you're done shitting and you have pulled your pants up to your knees, and you realize that you have to shit some more. POP-A-VEIN-IN-YOUR-FOREHEAD-SHIT- The kind where you strain so much to get it out you practically have a stroke. ICEBERG SHIT- The kind where the shit is so long that the end of it sticks above the water. RICHARD SIMMONS SHIT- You shit so much, you lose 30 pounds. LINCOLN LOG SHIT- The kind of shit that is so huge, you're afraid to flush without breaking it into little pieces with the toilet brush. GASEY SHIT- It is so noisy, everyone within earshot is giggling. DRINKER SHIT- The kind of shit you have the morning after a long night of drinking. It's most noticeable traits are the treadmarks on the bottom of the toilet. CORN SHIT- Self-explanatory GEE, I WISH I COULD SHIT, SHIT- It's the kind where you want to shit but all you do is sit on the toilet, cramped, and fart a few times. SPINAL TAP SHIT- That's where it hurts so bad coming out, you'd swear it was leaving you sideways. WET CHEEKS SHIT (THE POWER DUMP)- The kind that comes out of your butt so fast, your butt cheeks get splashed with water. LIQUID SHIT- The kind where yellowish-brown liquid shoots out your butt and splatters all over the toilet bowl. MEXICAN FOOD SHIT- It smells so bad, the room must be condemned. UPPER CLASS SHIT- The kind that thinks their shit doesn't smell. FISHERMAN'S BOBBER SHIT- That's the kind where you are in a public restroom, there are two people waiting on your stall, you shit and flush two times, but several golfball size pieces are still floating above the water line."
ECONOMY FACTS
Everything I Know Is Wrong: It's too bad the economy is in such bad shape...
It's too bad the economy is in such bad shape...
Just think how good the news would be if it were in good shape.
Payroll growth averaged 160,000 per month in 2005; it has averaged 229,000 in the past three months. The drop in the jobless rate in January to the lowest level since April 2001 was a surprise: Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected the unemployment rate to remain at 4.9%.
The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.7%.
Average hourly wages rose 7 cents or 0.4% to $16.41. Economists expected a 0.3% gain. Average hourly earnings are up 3.3% in the past year, about the same as the inflation rate.
The average work week was steady at a revised 33.8 hours. Total hours worked in the economy increased 0.2%
Payrolls in the goods-producing sectors increased by 58,000, including 46,000 in construction and 7,000 in manufacturing. It's the third increase in factory jobs in the past four months.
Payrolls in the services sector rose by 135,000 in January. Education and health care industries added 39,000 jobs; leisure and hospitality industries added 26,000. Retail jobs fell by 1,500.
Of 278 industries, 57.6% were hiring in January. Among 84 manufacturing industries, 47.6% were hiring.
My wife was "discussing" the state of the economy with a liberal friend who was convinced that it was in seriously bad shape. In the end my wife said that it must be "only the numbers" that made it look so good. Her friend agreed.
It's too bad the economy is in such bad shape...
Just think how good the news would be if it were in good shape.
Payroll growth averaged 160,000 per month in 2005; it has averaged 229,000 in the past three months. The drop in the jobless rate in January to the lowest level since April 2001 was a surprise: Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected the unemployment rate to remain at 4.9%.
The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.7%.
Average hourly wages rose 7 cents or 0.4% to $16.41. Economists expected a 0.3% gain. Average hourly earnings are up 3.3% in the past year, about the same as the inflation rate.
The average work week was steady at a revised 33.8 hours. Total hours worked in the economy increased 0.2%
Payrolls in the goods-producing sectors increased by 58,000, including 46,000 in construction and 7,000 in manufacturing. It's the third increase in factory jobs in the past four months.
Payrolls in the services sector rose by 135,000 in January. Education and health care industries added 39,000 jobs; leisure and hospitality industries added 26,000. Retail jobs fell by 1,500.
Of 278 industries, 57.6% were hiring in January. Among 84 manufacturing industries, 47.6% were hiring.
My wife was "discussing" the state of the economy with a liberal friend who was convinced that it was in seriously bad shape. In the end my wife said that it must be "only the numbers" that made it look so good. Her friend agreed.
Cartoons
EconoPundit: "Via Rantings of a Sand Monkey we have those insensitive cartoons printed in a matter-of-fact fashion by a major Egyptian newspaper LAST OCTOBER during Ramadan:"
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Restroom Revelations
Restroom Revelations: "First of all, ADHD is real. Second of all, it isn't called ADHD anymore, hyperactivity is but one symptom of many. They used to think THAT was the problem, but it's not, it is merely a symptom. Don't forget, this is an ADHD house, and only one of them, well, two, are hyperactive. The boys were when they were a lot younger, but only one of the older ones has retained that symptome, the rest have kind of outgrown it. It IS hereditary and undiagnosed can cause a HOST of problems. Kids who have undiagnosed ADHD are much more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol in an effort to self medicate."
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Everything I Know Is Wrong: A New Mini Ice Age.
Everything I Know Is Wrong: A New Mini Ice Age.: "A New Mini Ice Age.
My friend Tim points to this article where a Russian scientist is predicting that a mini ice age will occur in just a few decades.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
Abdusamatove said that fluctuations in the Earths surface temperature are normal and are caused by differences in solar activity.
The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.
It is reports like this one that have global warming scaremongers changing their terminology to 'global climate change.'"
My friend Tim points to this article where a Russian scientist is predicting that a mini ice age will occur in just a few decades.
Khabibullo Abdusamatov of the Pulkovo Astronomic Observatory in St. Petersburg said Monday that temperatures will begin falling six or seven years from now, when global warming caused by increased solar activity in the 20th century reaches its peak, RIA Novosti reported.
Abdusamatove said that fluctuations in the Earths surface temperature are normal and are caused by differences in solar activity.
The Northern Hemisphere's most recent cool-down period occurred between 1645 and 1705. The resulting period, known as the Little Ice Age, left canals in the Netherlands frozen solid and forced people in Greenland to abandon their houses to glaciers, the scientist said.
It is reports like this one that have global warming scaremongers changing their terminology to 'global climate change.'"
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Gut Rumbles: The religion of peace
Gut Rumbles: The religion of peace: "The religion of peace
Deeply offended by cartoons portraying Mohammed as a whacked-out, bloodthirsty, lunatic bomb-head, peace-loving Muslims set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus today. Protesting against what the Muslims regard as an insult to their Religion of Peace, 500 demonstrators gathered in the Pakistani city of Lahore to shout 'Death to Denmark' and 'Hang the culprits.'
Other insulted protesters attempted to approach the French and United States embassies with their peaceful messages, including 'Behead the Infidels,' but were turned away by police with water hoses and tear gas. Disappointed by the heavy-handed response of the authorities, some Muslims chanted 'Europe, Your 9-11 Will Come,' referring to the Muslim custom of performing The 9-11 Happy-Feet Dance in the streets when feeling particularly religious and peaceful.
Allah Akbar! Such dignity they have! Such respect for life!
Our dangerous, manical, bloodthirsty, zealous Religious Right sure could learn a lot about civilized behavior by studying these peaceful people...
"
Deeply offended by cartoons portraying Mohammed as a whacked-out, bloodthirsty, lunatic bomb-head, peace-loving Muslims set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus today. Protesting against what the Muslims regard as an insult to their Religion of Peace, 500 demonstrators gathered in the Pakistani city of Lahore to shout 'Death to Denmark' and 'Hang the culprits.'
Other insulted protesters attempted to approach the French and United States embassies with their peaceful messages, including 'Behead the Infidels,' but were turned away by police with water hoses and tear gas. Disappointed by the heavy-handed response of the authorities, some Muslims chanted 'Europe, Your 9-11 Will Come,' referring to the Muslim custom of performing The 9-11 Happy-Feet Dance in the streets when feeling particularly religious and peaceful.
Allah Akbar! Such dignity they have! Such respect for life!
Our dangerous, manical, bloodthirsty, zealous Religious Right sure could learn a lot about civilized behavior by studying these peaceful people...
"
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
[The] English-Blog [.com]: Poems In The English Writing Classroom
[The] English-Blog [.com]: Poems In The English Writing Classroom: "FIRE AND ICE
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost"
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost"
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
BlogginWallStreet: The Whole World's a Bitch Fest
BlogginWallStreet: The Whole World's a Bitch Fest: "
The Whole World's a Bitch Fest
Yes, I'm off my rocker. I'm off my rocker with frustration. These are things I hear day in and day out. Seems like no one has a word good to say. Is it any wonder so many people obsess over so many of these things when it's thrown at them the way it is.
The U.S. is in decline. It's going the way of Greece and Rome.
Capitalism is a failed experiment.
Our trade deficit is too large.
Our budget deficit is too large.
Our debt is too large.
We'll all be sharecroppers to the rest of the world because we owe too much to foreigners.
We don't save enough.
We spend too much and buy too many frivolous things.
We're cashing out too much equity from our homes.
The dollar is doomed as soon as China and Japan stop buying our bonds.
From one year to the next uncontrollable deflation then rampant inflation are inevitable.
There's too much crime.
There's too much corporate corruption.
Our corporate leaders make too much money.
We're too fat.
We're stupid. Our kids get stupider with every generation.
We can't invent anything anymore.
No one wants to buy our stuff.
The rest of the world has passed us up and is leaving us behind.
China and India are the best places to invest your money.
We've seen the end of cheap energy.
Commodities are the greatest investment in the world.
Stocks stink.
Put 25% of your money overseas and half that in emerging markets.
Buy gold. It's the only thing that will be of value when our economy collapses.
Healthcare costs too much.
Education inflation is out of control.
Social Security is unsalvageable.
Too many men are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The government is spying too much.
The government isn't doing enough to stop terrorism.
Companies don't pay out enough of their profits.
Corporate boards are corrupt.
Companies aren't transparent enough.
The Fed isn't transparent enough.
Bernanke is too focused on inflation targeting.
Bernanke is too focused on deflation.
The money supply's too big.
Foreigners are buying up all our land, which I don't know why they'd want it anyway since our corporations are polluting it to death.
What do any of these things matter anyway when we're all about to die from bird flu, WWIII with China, Global Warming, or an asteroid, whichever comes first. And if the first one that happens doesn't get you, then one of the others will finish you off. We might as well go ahead and blow ourselves up and get it over with since we're all a bunch of heathen atheists anyway. Just launch the missiles straight up in the air and watch 'em come back down. It will be quite a show. The expatriate perma-bears can watch our self inflicted Armageddon on Al Jazeera while they gloat and cheer over our self-destruction. It's too bad though that they won't be able to cash in on their shorts since the exchanges will be gone.
My biggest complaint is that we complain too much. We just bitch and moan about everything. We bitch about the destruction of our planet. We bitch about our country. I was just working in the local Borders café and the mayor of the town next door was sitting nearby bitching to some kind of planner person about whatever there is to bitch about in a small town. People all across the country are bitching about their towns and schools. There's no end to the bitching.
How can I complain when I made it to Arapahoe Basin last Friday on the first day they opened up the famous East Wall for an afternoon of untracked bottomless powder skiing above the treeline? About the only other thing I have to bitch about is that neither the Colts nor the Broncos made it to the SuperBowl.
posted by Mark Mahorney at 7:34 PM
1 Comments:
Mark Mahorney said...
I'm an optimist. Is that so wrong?
7:52 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home
The Whole World's a Bitch Fest
Yes, I'm off my rocker. I'm off my rocker with frustration. These are things I hear day in and day out. Seems like no one has a word good to say. Is it any wonder so many people obsess over so many of these things when it's thrown at them the way it is.
The U.S. is in decline. It's going the way of Greece and Rome.
Capitalism is a failed experiment.
Our trade deficit is too large.
Our budget deficit is too large.
Our debt is too large.
We'll all be sharecroppers to the rest of the world because we owe too much to foreigners.
We don't save enough.
We spend too much and buy too many frivolous things.
We're cashing out too much equity from our homes.
The dollar is doomed as soon as China and Japan stop buying our bonds.
From one year to the next uncontrollable deflation then rampant inflation are inevitable.
There's too much crime.
There's too much corporate corruption.
Our corporate leaders make too much money.
We're too fat.
We're stupid. Our kids get stupider with every generation.
We can't invent anything anymore.
No one wants to buy our stuff.
The rest of the world has passed us up and is leaving us behind.
China and India are the best places to invest your money.
We've seen the end of cheap energy.
Commodities are the greatest investment in the world.
Stocks stink.
Put 25% of your money overseas and half that in emerging markets.
Buy gold. It's the only thing that will be of value when our economy collapses.
Healthcare costs too much.
Education inflation is out of control.
Social Security is unsalvageable.
Too many men are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The government is spying too much.
The government isn't doing enough to stop terrorism.
Companies don't pay out enough of their profits.
Corporate boards are corrupt.
Companies aren't transparent enough.
The Fed isn't transparent enough.
Bernanke is too focused on inflation targeting.
Bernanke is too focused on deflation.
The money supply's too big.
Foreigners are buying up all our land, which I don't know why they'd want it anyway since our corporations are polluting it to death.
What do any of these things matter anyway when we're all about to die from bird flu, WWIII with China, Global Warming, or an asteroid, whichever comes first. And if the first one that happens doesn't get you, then one of the others will finish you off. We might as well go ahead and blow ourselves up and get it over with since we're all a bunch of heathen atheists anyway. Just launch the missiles straight up in the air and watch 'em come back down. It will be quite a show. The expatriate perma-bears can watch our self inflicted Armageddon on Al Jazeera while they gloat and cheer over our self-destruction. It's too bad though that they won't be able to cash in on their shorts since the exchanges will be gone.
My biggest complaint is that we complain too much. We just bitch and moan about everything. We bitch about the destruction of our planet. We bitch about our country. I was just working in the local Borders café and the mayor of the town next door was sitting nearby bitching to some kind of planner person about whatever there is to bitch about in a small town. People all across the country are bitching about their towns and schools. There's no end to the bitching.
How can I complain when I made it to Arapahoe Basin last Friday on the first day they opened up the famous East Wall for an afternoon of untracked bottomless powder skiing above the treeline? About the only other thing I have to bitch about is that neither the Colts nor the Broncos made it to the SuperBowl.
posted by Mark Mahorney at 7:34 PM
1 Comments:
Mark Mahorney said...
I'm an optimist. Is that so wrong?
7:52 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home
BlogginWallStreet: I'm thankful for...
BlogginWallStreet: I'm thankful for...: "I'm thankful for...
Yesterday, I took my six-year old son to play hockey. When it was time to leave all he could do was complain about having to go. He didn't appreciate that I took him there. He didn't appreciate what he had until I threatened not to take him back again.
The perma-bears have the mentality of six-year olds. They can't appreciate what they have. Most countries don't have social security systems to lose. Most countries don't have stock markets, commodity markets, and 401k plans to invest in. Most countries don't have home equity to cash out. Most countries don't have trade deficits because their citizens don't have any money to spend on much of anything more than the bare necessities. Some countries have better school test scores because only their most privileged citizens are tested. The U.S. has lower college scores because just about anyone can go to college. The U.S. has one of the highest college participation rates in the world. I'm thankful for having so many opportunities to screw things up and get screwed over.
posted by Mark Mahorney at 8:25 PM"
Yesterday, I took my six-year old son to play hockey. When it was time to leave all he could do was complain about having to go. He didn't appreciate that I took him there. He didn't appreciate what he had until I threatened not to take him back again.
The perma-bears have the mentality of six-year olds. They can't appreciate what they have. Most countries don't have social security systems to lose. Most countries don't have stock markets, commodity markets, and 401k plans to invest in. Most countries don't have home equity to cash out. Most countries don't have trade deficits because their citizens don't have any money to spend on much of anything more than the bare necessities. Some countries have better school test scores because only their most privileged citizens are tested. The U.S. has lower college scores because just about anyone can go to college. The U.S. has one of the highest college participation rates in the world. I'm thankful for having so many opportunities to screw things up and get screwed over.
posted by Mark Mahorney at 8:25 PM"
Sunday, January 22, 2006
the irish lass
the irish lass: "Rat Pack Lingo
Do you need some new vocab?
18 KARAT
All the way, full-out: “An 18 karat idiot.”
BABY
Used as an exclamation as well as a term of endearment.
BAG
As in “my bag,” a person's particular interest.
BARN BURNER
A very stylish, classy woman. " Etc
Do you need some new vocab?
18 KARAT
All the way, full-out: “An 18 karat idiot.”
BABY
Used as an exclamation as well as a term of endearment.
BAG
As in “my bag,” a person's particular interest.
BARN BURNER
A very stylish, classy woman. " Etc
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