Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Bite to Eat

The 2013 Best Food Blog Awards have been named!

I knew you were waiting breathlessly....and starving!

And the winner iiiiiiissss:

(drum roll, please...)

NOT WITHOUT SALT

 

Not a single one of the blogs that won is on my reading list, so now I have a bunch of new blogs to read and sort through. Oh, joy! I've long since narrowed down my political blogs to a few top favorites, but top food and decorating blogs do seem to change frequently. There's always new talent out there.

Here's my question. Why is it that all the pictures of food on these blogs look as if someone has erected a complicated block and tackle hoist in their kitchen so that they can take the picture from the ceiling? How do they do that??? 

From Not Without Salt


I've tried standing on a chair. I feel completely ridiculous and the pictures look exactly like I'm standing on a chair.  

My food pictures always look like crap and so there's no point in my using them and then trying to make you believe the food will taste better than it looks.


What the HELL is that?

Anybody got any ideas?




Why, as RG points out in the comments, it's just Mr. Sas Squatch looking for a new home. Something with a view, and lots of privacy.


When it's not your turn to die. -- UPDATED!




Just don't run into any plague-infested flying squirrels. 'Cause that'll kill 'ya.

************

It has been pointed out in the comments that this is a hoax -- a carefully edited video. Apparently it didn't happen like that. But I don't care because it is damn fun to watch and I WANT it to have happened that way.

He just tips it over and BAM! He lands it. 

Don't you WANT life to be like that? Just once??? Talk about sticking the landing. Okay....okay...I know not really, but still...WOW!






Cannibalism, Zombies...And Now the Plague!

It just keeps getting better and better.

Rocky the Squirrel is now the carrier of the bubonic plague -- in LA! I suppose, if a plague had to break out in this country, that's not a bad place to start.

Plague found in squirrel prompts closures at Angeles National Forest


A discovery of plague has prompted campgrounds at Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County to be closed down as officials investigate.

A squirrel captured in a trap on July 16 tested positive for the bubonic plague, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Twisted Arrow, Broken Blade and Pima Loops of the Table Mountain campgrounds have been closed since 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.


No people have been infected.

So, not even a very effective plague. And it can be treated easily with antibiotics...if caught in time. And by "in time" they mean within the first day or so. After that, you're either losing body parts or your life. The plague gets you in days. 

Where I live in Northern California we have more squirrels than people. I'm going to rig me up one of these today and have some fun.


Let's see if the little critters really can fly.


Guess not.


 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Liberal Rebuttal


Hateful conservatives continue to push phony IRS scandal despite Dear Leader's assurance that it is really, really phony.

Obama's lies and arrogance and contempt for the American people are beginning to make his initials, B.O., really mean something. There's something rotten in Denmark...and the White House -- and it stinks to high heaven.

PEEEE EEEUUUW!




This is a scandal that should never go away. It should dog Obama through the rest of his presidency. I don't for a minute believe that our gutless Republicans will adequately pursue this or bring anyone to justice or be able to root out ANY of the deep-seated corruption that is now endemic throughout the bureaucracy of our government. It will have to be the American people who don't let this die. Obama didn't create this level of massive corruption; bureaucracies become corrupt all on their own. He was just the first president who had the balls to harness and direct the corruption. Fully. Contemptuously. Flagrantly. Willfully. And with malice.

Lots of malice.






Fat Chick Cures Cancer...No One Cares

Or at least, Ace, over at Ace of Spades HQ doesn't. He's waiting for the "hot cure."

The Twitter feed on this is HILARIOUS!

HAHAHAHA!

Go. Now.


Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Crushing Pain of Learning the Truth

I just realized with great consternation that, although I had early on disabled the page count for my own page views on my blog, somehow it had been turned back on. Therefore, as you have already surmised, my sudden, meteoric rise in popularity was simply a measurement of how well I think of myself.

Just swell.

I'm going to go ride my horse. Hopefully I will stay in the saddle, but if I don't, I'm in no mood to try this hard.



Sometimes losing gracefully is the better option.


It's Sunday and Joe Dan is discussing God.

And the Lord said, "Let there be light!"

...camera!...ACTION!

I told you so.

This is the post where I "out" myself as a hate-filled, homophobic, reactionary, intolerant Christian. But before I regurgitate my bile on this page in a spew of hating hatefulness against everyone who leads an "alternative" lifestyle, let me say that some of the nicest, most decent, kindest and most generous people I have ever known were also people who led "alternative" lifestyles. 

When I was a little girl, my mom knew a young woman who had been brutalized by her father, both physically and sexually. She then had a series of relationships with men that all were replays of her relationship with her father. She finally became a lesbian. It was literally a matter of self-preservation...of survival. Her partner was a classic dyke - masculine and completely lacking in any feminine sensibilities. The pair were delightful. They were simply wonderful people and great fun to be around. As a child, I didn't care or give it much thought. Certainly no one explained anything to me and everyone acted as if it all was completely normal. It wasn't until I was much, much older that I realized that they were a lesbian couple. It never mattered to me. It still doesn't.

Straight out of college, I worked for a major international airline. I probably don't have to reassure anyone that most of the men who work as flight attendants are gay. If you were ever uncertain...they are. I knew lots of gay men during my time in the airlines. Some were complete jerks. Some were fantastic and I loved them. In either case, I didn't care whether they were homosexual or not.

But when the movement began on the left to decriminalize sodomy, I said then that this was only a first step and they wouldn't stop until they had NORMALIZED homosexuality. I told everyone, despite their incredulity, that the left wouldn't stop until they had legalized gay marriage. I even went so far out in the weeds as to predict that the left was really after the children. I predicted that the left would fight for gay marriage, and then they would carry the fight to normalize pedophilia. Everyone said I was a horrible person. I shrugged, agreeing, in a general sense, with that assessment. But still I stood by my prediction.

I was right.

Pat Dollard brings us this story:

Using the same tactics used by “gay” rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals.

Critics of the homosexual lifestyle have long claimed that once it became acceptable to identify homosexuality as simply an “alternative lifestyle” or sexual orientation, logically nothing would be off limits. “Gay” advocates have taken offense at such a position insisting this would never happen. However, psychiatrists are now beginning to advocate redefining pedophilia in the same way homosexuality was redefined several years ago.
I told you so. A decade ago gay activists took offense at the suggestion that they were going after marriage when they insisted that they only wanted to not be criminals in their own bedrooms. Remember, with the left, you're always the loon if you can see where they are really going.

In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. A group of psychiatrists with B4U-Act recently held a symposium proposing a new definition of pedophilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Health Disorders of the APA.

B4U-Act calls pedophiles “minor-attracted people.” The organization’s website states its purpose is to, “help mental health professionals learn more about attraction to minors and to consider the effects of stereotyping, stigma and fear.”
"Minor-attracted people". It would be funny if it weren't so hideously, sickeningly degenerate.

In 1998 The APA issued a report claiming “that the ‘negative potential’ of adult sex with children was ‘overstated’ and that ‘the vast majority of both men and women reported no negative sexual effects from childhood sexual abuse experiences.”
This is pure, unadulterated hooey. We are a sick, sick nation if we let this move even one, tiny, baby step forward. This must stop. Now.

But wait. Pedophiles...and any and all other sexual deviants, are already protected by our government.

Pedophilia has already been granted protected status by the Federal Government. The Matthew Shephard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act lists “sexual orientation” as a protected class; however, it does not define the term.

Republicans attempted to add an amendment specifying that “pedophilia is not covered as an orientation;” however, the amendment was defeated by Democrats. Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl) stated that all alternative sexual lifestyles should be protected under the law. “This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability or all of these ‘philias’ and fetishes and ‘isms’ that were put forward need not live in fear because of who they are. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule.”
Get that? "...all alternative sexual lifestyles should be protected..." All. No distinction. No line in the sand. No bridge too far. No point at which you are outraged and want to throw up at the ungodly hideousness of it all.

When the laws against sodomy were struck down, they weren't being used to persecute gays, and they hadn't been used against gays for decades. But they did stand as a legal line of demarcation beyond which we, as a society, could not go. When they were struck down, sexual behavior was no longer seen as properly regulated by the law. It was a brave new world. Anyone could do anything with anyone at any time. Of course everyone said that was crazy talk.

Who's crazy now?

I am angry. Really, really angry. The final destruction of society will be evidenced in our willingness to sacrifice our own children to our basest, more prurient natures. We already can kill them as they attempt to draw their first breath under the protection of the law. Why not prey on them once they are born?

This is pure evil. There is no other word for it.







Dress as a thug.

Dress as a thug. Found over at IMAO.US.




She makes perfect sense.

For Trayvon.



Saturday, July 27, 2013

Hometown Happenings

I live in a very quaint, charming little town in the foothills of California. It is a tiny town, amidst other small towns, and quaint and charming are the most often used adjectives of my area...after white and hick. But it is also an area which is seriously bi-polar in that it is divided between the
I took this photo of a local on a hot day.
Need shade? There. I fixed it.
long-time residents who are red neck farmers and ranchers, and the newer residents who all grow pot. I am not entirely sure why quaint, charming little towns in California's wilder areas tend to bifurcate into the strangely incompatible bedfellows of conservative farmers and liberal hippie potheads, but it frequently seems to be the case.

As one would assume of a small town, our local paper is, to put it as charitably as possible, rather quaint as well. A recent front page headline read:

Boom Town (not the real name) fixture dies after fall from tree

As you might imagine, I was confused by the term "fixture". Had a street lamp perished in a deadly plunge? No. The fixture was a person.
[Name removed], known to many who frequent downtown Boom Town as "Garlic" with his ever-present bunny ears and boom box, died Tuesday morning after falling out of a tree.
My curiosity was piqued. I know the type of characters who "frequent" downtown Boom Town, and they are the vagrants, the homeless, the drug dealers, and the misfits. They are the leftover humans who seem to proliferate in liberal leaning cities, and Boom Town, with its pot culture and shee-shee air of being Recently Discovered, had developed a serious left tilt in the last decade. For someone to be a "fixture" of downtown and named "Garlic" with bunny ears and a boom box, it was clear that he had probably been suffering from mental illness, isolation, homelessness and drug use for some time. He was not a "fixture". He was a lost and desperate human being.

A woman, who was not being identified, reportedly had driven out to the area of [references to location removed to protect the stupid and the pitiful but suffice it to say she had driven out to bumf*&k nowhere, which is weird right there] just before midnight Monday when she heard a commotion, said Boom Town Sheriff Mickey Mouse.

"She heard hollering, like a baby bear or baby animal, then she heard breaking branches," Mouse said. "She turned on her headlights and saw a man lying in a fetal position on the ground."

Garlic reportedly told her he had been sleeping in the tree and fell.

"He was acting bizarre," Mouse said. "She asked him if he was OK."

Garlic reportedly fell on the hood of her vehicle, then reached in through the window and grabbed the keys out of the ignition.

He then apparently got into the vehicle and sat on the woman's lap, asking her for a hug and asking for help.

The woman told deputies she tried to call 911 but had a bad cell phone connection; Garlic reportedly took her phone and threw it.

At some point, the woman said, Garlic put his arms around her and then bit her on the arm.
"She started screaming, and then he went limp," Mouse said. "She thought he was faking it."
The unnamed woman managed to push him off her and drove away.  Up to this point it is a weirdly interesting story about an obviously sad and abandoned man. It is the kind of story you read aloud to your husband over coffee, stopping frequently to utter, "Oh, my God! Holy shit!" before sharing the next excruciating sentence. It's the kind of story that you don't, at first, believe. Or, at least, it was for me. This is a man who didn't just fall from a tree, he fell through all the cracks in society. But instead of help being there for him, people did everything in their power to turn him into some kind of mystic and spiritual giant, so they could leave him alone, without help, and feel good about it.

Those who grew up with Garlic remember him as extremely creative and a talented cook.

"He was quite the artist," said Betty Boop, who still owns a hip-hop album he self-produced a number of years ago."Unfortunately, he slowly degraded...you could definitely call him clairvoyant in some ways."

Huh...what? Definitely clairvoyant, in some ways? What does that even mean? And I want a follow up on the "slowly degraded" statement. People who "slowly degrade" into clairvoyance are nuts. And need help. Not your moon-blind, drum circle song and dance applause.

Many locals cited the "spiritual insights" Garlic would share with them.

"When he was in the right space, he would give really profound descriptions of how the world worked," said local musician Big Bird. "I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say. He was really insightful, a very endearing character."
A downtown resident still treasures the incredible depth of wisdom Garlic shared with her six-year old daughter one day.

"He said, 'Hi, little girl. I want you to know something - you've got to always follow your dream.' She kept that forever...It was super-simple, but super-magical."

Oh, for the love of all that is holy! How does a woman that super-stupid survive? How does she manage to make coffee and brush her teeth without third-degree scalds or poking her own eye out?

With her riveting insight, she assures us that even though Garlic might seem bat-shit crazy to the casual observer, he was really spouting Deep Truths, if you listened.

Although Garlic often seemed to be talking to himself, it "wasn't just world salad, he was a pretty intelligent guy. You just had to tune in."
Garlic was a mystery to everyone, said longtime friend, Mellow, adding, "That was his persona. He was an oracle...He became an esoteric icon."
 I'm just going to leave that last sentence completely alone because...MELLOW? And oracle? And...esoteric icon???

There is no mystery here to me. He was mentally ill and needed help. Instead everyone turned him into some kind of divinely inspired village wise man so they could blithely go about their day. And now he's dead.

For the record, I'm not certain I would have done anything, either. I'm not even certain, with the laws the way they are in this state, that anything COULD have been done. But what does make me enraged is how easily everyone dismisses the obvious issues of mental illness, isolation, possible drug use, and homelessness in a fellow human being that they knew for years with feel-good gobbledy-gook.

And I will bet my last dollar that everyone interviewed is a self-identified liberal. Liberals don't care about doing good; they only care about feeling good. And they can make up all kinds of lies to make themselves feel good.

Even when there are dead bodies.








If you haven't read this over at Ace of Spades HQ, you should.


The GOP Isn't Going To Be Able To Force A Defunding Of ObamaCare

Actually, that headline should be a trifle longer.

The GOP Isn't Going To Be Able To Force A Defunding Of Obamacare, AND THEY WOULDN'T IF THEY COULD

Read it and weep. Although, I don't imagine any of his analysis is particularly SURPRISING to those paying attention. It is, however, chillingly predictive of just exactly what is going to happen.

ObamaCare in all its freedom and economy destroying glory is a done deal. The reality is that was the case back in November when Mitt "ELECTABILITY" Romney got his ass kicked by a President sitting on one of the worst economies in history.

There's simply nothing the GOP can do about it now. And if you think they are going to win in 2016 by promising to repeal one of the largest entitlement programs in history, you're crazy. And if you think they'd actually do it if they win, you're even crazier.

Nope, from now on the GOP mantra, led by the Chris Christies (who I predict with be the GOP nominee in 2016) of the world will be "fix" ObamaCare. You know like how we've spent decades "fixing" Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The GOP isn't the party of smaller government and more freedom it's the party of big government just run a little differently.

The only people who will still be talking about repeal will be scammers who want money to sign "An urgent petition to tell Washington blah, blah, blah".
No one in Washington wants the problems fixed. Then how would they keep us all in such an agitated stated that we pour money into their re-election coffers for fear the "other guy" will win?

I haven't been in the "LET IT BURN" camp, but now I'm pitching my tent and setting out my folding chair. To hell with all of them. 

Pretty soon people are going to be getting better healthcare from their veterinarians.  Bark like a dog.



Ladies, get your whistles. And your track shoes.

Presented without comment.

Okay...I have one. WOW!


Annie, drop your gun...and RUN!

If anyone had any doubts that the Obama regime has any intention of letting us keep our guns...and the right to use them...this should clear things up.

Get your whistles and start running. It is now considered your DUTY to be a coward in the face of violence.

Liberals are turnips.

Today's quote brought to you by G. K. Chesterton:

Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that there has been in the past, or will be in the future, such a thing as a growth or improvement of the human mind itself, there still remains a very sharp objection to be raised against the modern version of that improvement. The vice of the modern notion of mental progress is that it is always something concerned with the breaking of bonds, the effacing of boundaries, the casting away of dogmas. But if there be such a thing as mental growth, it must mean the growth into more and more definite convictions, into more and more dogmas. The human brain is a machine for coming to conclusions; if it cannot come to conclusions it is rusty. When we hear of a man too clever to believe, we are hearing of something having almost the character of a contradiction in terms. It is like hearing of a nail that was too good to hold down a carpet; or a bolt that was too strong to keep a door shut. Man can hardly be defined, after the fashion of Carlyle, as an animal who makes tools; ants and beavers and many other animals make tools, in the sense that they make an apparatus. Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded.




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Two stories that add up to scaring the hell out of me.

One of my most intractable convictions is that people will use exactly the amount of power allotted them. And when they have too much power, they will use it badly. Always. So we should properly prepare to be screwed. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Because our government has too much power. Far too much power.

What that means is that thousands of citizens --- hundreds of thousands of citizens --- have far too much power over other citizens simply because they work for the government. Take the story of Crissy Brown. She didn't see to an expired license plate on her car. While something this minor might have left you thinking that she wouldn't even be in the drawing for a prize, this infraction afforded her a grand prize luxury, all expense paid trip through the police station, complete with a ride in the patrol car, a free strip search by a vulgar policewoman, and a fancy orange jumpsuit.
From there, I was processed, which included stripping down in front of a female officer. While I stood before her naked, I asked the cop why it was necessary for me to be strip searched; she responded by calling me an asshole and deciding I needed to take a shower to, I suppose, wash the filth out of my mouth. I didn’t even get a towel to dry off with. She handed me a large, burlap-like orange set of scrubs, bedding, and a mattress. I was escorted down to population, made to walk along gray tape on the ground (it really pissed them off if you deviated from the “inmate line”), and then put in a holding cell that had more women than beds, two metal picnic tables, and an old fuzzy TV set.

I was in jail for a little over eight hours. For the last three, my family sat waiting for them to release me, wondering why it takes so long to process a bond. When they finally freed me, I thought to myself, “thank god this is over.”
Not even close.
Of course it gets worse. 

While I was pondering the sensible expenditure of tax money so that thugs with badges could harass, demean, and virtually terrorize a woman over an expired license plate, I came across this story.

Senator: Weak oversight of NSA may lead to massive location tracking

"Most of us have a computer in our pocket that can be used to track us 24/7."

Just swell. Just freaking swell.

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who might just be in a position to know what he's talking about since he is on the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence, assures us that our government is capable of monitoring our every move.
"Most of us here have a computer in our pocket that can potentially be used to track and monitor us 24/7," Wyden remarked early on, before vaguely warning of the prospect of "a surveillance state that cannot be reversed." Later he added: "Without additional protections in the law, every single one of us... may be and can be tracked and monitored anywhere we are at any time." And again: "Today, government officials openly tell the press that they have the authority to effectively turn America's cell phones and smartphones into location-enabled homing beacons."

And the FISA courts aren't even being "transparent" to Senators. So we've got zero chance at learning what is going on.
"I know of no other court in America that strays so far from the adversarial process," Wyden said. Of 1,789 electronic-surveillance requests submitted in 2012, the court denied none and modified 40, while the government withdrew one.

And no other court in America keeps its own opinions so secret. Wyden said the Obama administration had assured him in writing in 2009 "that a process would begin to be created to start redacting and declassifying FISA Court opinions."
But those assurances were like keeping your own doctor, or not seeing a dime in new taxes. Yeah, bullshit.
Wyden has been one of a few members of Congress with a long-lasting concern about overbroad surveillance. When he asked the administration about location tracking almost two years ago, he didn't get a satisfying answer. "I want to deliver a warning this afternoon," Wyden said during a 2011 debate. "When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry." (Emphasis mine.)


Wonder if I could perfect this method.
I don't know about you, but I might just start brushing up on my more esoteric methods of communication, like shouting, or maybe smoke signals. Maybe those whistles the Democrats told me to carry will come in handy.

My question: When are liberals going to realize that no matter WHAT George Bush did, Obama is 1,000 times worse?

I know. Never.

Obama is a privileged, black Democrat. He can do no wrong. And he has suffered. He heard doors click when he was a youth attending an expensive private high school in Honolulu. Doors clicked by "typical white people."

I'd say that gives him a pass on instituting a massive surveillance state in total violation of the protections of the Constitution.



And if you don't think so, you're a raaaaaaaacist.




Wednesday, July 24, 2013

When manna from heaven is not your friend.

Apparently in Brazil having a cow wander onto your home's rooftop and subsequently plunge through the rickety structure (they don't have terribly strict building codes there, one assumes) is not entirely unheard of. In fact, it's happened several times before. But this time, the cow managed a true bull's-eye.


A sleeping Brazilian man was killed when a cow wandered from a nearby field onto the roof of his home and crashed through, plummeting onto the bed located directly beneath.

The man, 45, died the next day from injuries. His wife, sleeping alongside, was fine — and so was the cow, Newser reported.

No steak tonight.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Staying fit.


Coupled with plenty of wine for proper hydration, and I'm good to go.

Picture of health. That's me.

It's a boy.

The new prince is born!
Kate and William welcome a little boy.

It's early here, but I might toast the little tyke, just for fun.

The only guy left is the idiot at the top.


The IRS scandal is proving to be a hot potato and career bureaucrats are tossing it from one department to another, seemingly willing to "out" anyone and everyone...well, anyone and everyone except the President of the United States who blithely assured us all at the outset of this story that he didn't have a clue. Unsurprisingly, all of us took him at his word.

But now, unfortunately, it appears there isn't anyone else to blame except the stunningly intelligent yet admittedly ignorant POTUS. 


But President Peace Prize has promised us he's as upset as anyone and determined to get to the bottom of it, by golly. Sort of. But one must understand that $100 million dollar vacations with the family to Africa and deeply painful yet inspired public musings on how he could easily have been a teen-aged thug who jumped a man and tried to beat him to death must take precedence over the uncovering of the largest, most potentially damaging scandal in the history of the presidency.

Our President is a man of vision and sacrifice. In the midst of scandal he can push himself away from the daunting task of delving into rampant and abusive political corruption to grant himself and his family a much needed va-ca in the land of his ancestors (no, not Ireland). In the midst of scandal, he has the humanity to give a speech citing myriad incidents of racial injustice he suffered in his own youth. In the midst of scandal, our Beloved President found a way to insure that Trayvon's death was not in vain; it allowed him an opportunity to talk about himself yet again, and that's always a handy thing. Thanks, Trayvon. You're a real team player.

So, while busying himself with Very Serious Matters, like endless rounds of golf and vacations halfway around the world, or with the tragedy of Trayvon stirring memories of how terrible his own life had been in his early years, President Peace Prize put his best man on the job of ferreting out the truth in the twisted trials of the IRS and the Tea Party. Bulldogs for Truth like ranking Democratic representative, Elijah Cummings, are proving worthy of President Obama's promise to uncover just what happened. In piercingly insightful questioning, Congressman Cummings asked IRS official, Elizabeth Hofacre whether President Obama had ever just picked up the phone and spoken to her directly about deliberately, systematically, and illegally targeting political enemies.

Her answer was no.

And that, kittens, was good enough for Bulldog Cummings. Apparently Rep. Cummings' level of proof is not a smoking gun, it's not even a stained dress. No, Rep. Cummings apparently needs Obama to stand in front of the Congressional hearing in a blood-stained shirt, holding a gun, sobbing, "Yes...YES! I did it. I targeted the Tea Party! I hate those bastards!"

Absent that, there is no scandal, and Bulldog Cummings would like for everyone to realize that and go home. Please. Please, dear God, everyone just go home and drop this whole thing.

However, Rep. Trey Gowdy, one of the racist Tea Party assholes, just won't take "no" for an answer.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, finally woke the proceedings up with what he called "the evolution of the defense" since the scandal began. First, Ms. Lerner planted a question at a conference. Then she said the Cincinnati office did it—a narrative that was advanced by the president's spokesman, Jay Carney. Then came the suggestion the IRS was too badly managed to pull off a sophisticated conspiracy. Then the charge that liberal groups were targeted too—"we did it against both ends of the political spectrum." When the inspector general of the IRS said no, it was conservative groups that were targeted, he came under attack. Now the defense is that the White House wasn't involved, so case closed.

This is one Republican who is right about evolution.










Monday, July 15, 2013

It's hot here.

It's weeks into summer and it's sweltering here; the air is languid, full, voluptuous, insisting on attention. Everything stalls in such heat. The voice of Beth Hart drips with the warmth of summer and wine and slow emotions.



But if you need something cool, I'll take care of you. Make this sherbet. It is divine. Heavenly. Seductive. Sublime.

ROASTED STRAWBERRY-BUTTERMILK SHERBET


  • 4 cups strawberries, hulled, halved or quartered if large
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • Pinch of kosher salt
Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine strawberries and sugar in a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Toss to combine. Roast berries, stirring occasionally, until juices are bubbling, 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

Purée berries, vanilla, buttermilk, sour cream, and salt in a blender until smooth. Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator before processing in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer sherbet to an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve. Best served after freezing overnight.

I got this recipe from Epicurious, but it needed tweeking. You're welcome.



Sunday, July 14, 2013

It's Sunday morning...say your prayers.


"That's not rain."

David Angelo explains trickle down economics.

Apparently trickling down prosperity is so much more socially just and progressive when it's trickling down through the theft of government instead of the action of a free market. Who knew?


Friday, July 12, 2013

Joe Dan punches it up.

One can always count on Joe Dan Gorman at Intellectual Froglegs to take the day's headlines and make sense of them -- with a hard punch to the gut - followed by a swift upper cut to the chin that will put you on the floor where you will find yourself rolling around either laughing, gasping or just sobbing...depending on your overall capacity to handle the complete insanity of today's news stories.

If you're up for it, here's his latest.



Enjoy! When the truth hurts this much, you might as well laugh through the pain. And Joe Dan helps with that.


When you've found your "look", stay with it.

A high school gym teacher accidentally wore the same snappy shirt and sweater vest combo two years in a row for his yearbook picture. His wife, apparently the real cutup in this marriage, suggested that he stay with the look forever, just for fun.

And fun it was.

Forty years of side-splitting hilarity.


This guy is a pro at working a joke. Not only did he not change his outfit, he did not change his eyeglasses, moustache, or expression.

Now that's impressive.

Nice, Mr. Irby.



Summer is my best look.


Prison inmate admits it ain't lobster, but it's good enough for you proles.

And it's all you're getting. So EAT it!

Indiana school district loses $300K because students refuse to buy first lady’s healthy meals


School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu changes brought on by First Lady Michelle
Obama’s federal lunch regulations.

“I’ve had a lot of complaints, especially with the little guys,” Linda Wireman, a food service director for North White School Corp., told JCOnline. “They get a three-quarters cup of vegetables, but if it’s something they don’t like, it goes down the garbage disposal. So there are a lot of complaints they’re going home hungry.”

Mama Michelle says it's for your own good. Don't you see, kittens? You desperately NEED someone to tell you what to eat, and how much to eat; someone who is wiser, smarter, more caring and so much less materialistic than you grubbing, grasping little corporately brainwashed consumer idjits that she can see through the trappings of wealth and power and compare living in the White House and jetting around on vacations to prison. Yet despite her trials, she takes time out of her grueling prison schedule to make sure you don't get one single thing more than you need. Because she cares. While this may be confusing for many of you inner city children as you choke down your meager cup of mushy vegetables while watching Air Force One whisk away the prison inmates on another multi-million dollar vacation, this confusion only serves to prove how stupid you really are.

I think I've made my point.

Besides, there's always this:



I think it's ironic that the kids who listened to this music and screamed at authority are now the ones insisting that you eat your meat!


Saturday, July 6, 2013

Students Question the NSA at Recruiting Session

I don't agree with absolutely everything these kids have to say, but DAMN! it is heady stuff to actually realize there are kids out there who are paying attention to something other than SnapChat and Vines.



It is also worth the 12 minutes to listen to the hilarity of government stooges struggling mightily to address legitimate concerns over illegitimate government overreach and intrusion by trying to redefine adversary. Finally the NSA woman wrestling with the meaning of words, just rolls over and exposes her soft underbelly by admitting that the NSA is not for everyone.

Nope. As the young woman points out, it's only for liars.

Remember, great evil requires large, unaccountable bureaucracies. Hundreds of thousands of people just like these flagrant idiots recruiting for "the team." Hundreds of thousands of people willing to do anything they are told to do.

Cogs in the wheel.

Paper pushers.

Listeners.

Friday, July 5, 2013

A man's home is his castle.

Unless it's the police's stakeout. Then you're screwed. And arrested. After being brutalized and beaten.

Mayberry RFD it ain't, kittens.

This is what our police look like now, kittens. And they
don't play nice. Or fair.
The Third Amendment, which forbids the “quarter[ing]” of “soldiers” in private homes in peacetime without the owner’s consent, is often the butt of jokes among lawyers, because it generates so little litigation. But the Amendment has come up in this ongoing Nevada case, along with the Fourth Amendment and state law claims [HT: my former student Michael Mortorano]:

Henderson [Nevada] police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.
Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell sued the City of Henderson, its Police Chief Jutta Chambers, Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley, and City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister, in Federal Court....

The Mitchell family’s claim includes Third Amendment violations, a rare claim in the United States....

“On the morning of July 10th, 2011, officers from the Henderson Police Department responded to a domestic violence call at a neighbor’s residence,” the Mitchells say in the complaint.

It continues: “At 10:45 a.m. defendant Officer Christopher Worley (HPD) contacted plaintiff Anthony Mitchell via his telephone. Worley told plaintiff that police needed to occupy his home in order to gain a ‘tactical advantage’ against the occupant of the neighboring house. Anthony Mitchell told the officer that he did not want to become involved and that he did not want police to enter his residence. Although Worley continued to insist that plaintiff should leave his residence, plaintiff clearly explained that he did not intend to leave his home or to allow police to occupy his home. Worley then ended the phone call.

Mitchell claims that defendant officers, including Cawthorn and Worley and Sgt. Michael Waller then “conspired among themselves to force Anthony Mitchell out of his residence and to occupy his home for their own use.”

The complaint continues: “Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to move to 367 Evening Side and attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.’”

It continues: “The officers banged forcefully on the door and loudly commanded Anthony Mitchell to open the door to his residence.

“Surprised and perturbed, plaintiff Anthony Mitchell immediately called his mother (plaintiff Linda Mitchell) on the phone, exclaiming to her that the police were beating on his front door.
“Seconds later, officers, including Officer Rockwell, smashed open plaintiff Anthony Mitchell’s front door with a metal ram as plaintiff stood in his living room.
“As plaintiff Anthony Mitchell stood in shock, the officers aimed their weapons at Anthony Mitchell and shouted obscenities at him and ordered him to lie down on the floor....

We allow a militarized police force and then are surprised when they begin to act like the military? I'm not.

I am surprised that liberals/lefties/progressives aren't screaming their little heads off over such obvious incidents of police brutality. Remember that phrase -- police brutality? I had never EVER heard it until the hippies started throwing it around in the sixties. I was a little kid, but I remember the phrase. Oh, and "pigs". That's what cops used to be to progressives - pigs. Apparently, since the police have become lawless fascists, it's all good and they are now friends.

Scratch a liberal, find a fascist. But if you do scratch one, don't smell your finger afterwards.

Oh...and fuck you, NSA.






Good dog.


Mystery Solved.


Thursday, July 4, 2013

A Brief History

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! When you are barbequing or while watching fireworks, pause for a moment and remember just WHY we are celebrating...and say a prayer of thanks to the men who made it happen.

REPOSTED.


Over at Cold Fury, Mike links to a post by Bob Owens on the Declaration of Independence.

When was the last time you really read the Declaration of Independence? I’m not talking about skimming over it superficially, or searching for a part of it to quote. I’m asking you: when was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence in the context of the momentous statement of rebellion, resolve, hope and defiance of those brave souls committing treason, punishable by torture and death, against their King?

You probably haven’t. I haven’t.

I invite you to do so now. Stop after every sentence. Consider the personal destruction guaranteed in every syllable if they failed.

Each and every man signing this Declaration was not only risking his own life by authoring and signing it. He was singling out his wife and daughters for possible rape and murder, his sons for torture and death. His relations would become pariahs, shunned by those who swore allegiance to the crown. By signing this document each and every man was all but promising the end of his bloodline, the destruction of his home, ostracism from his friends, and taking up the mantle of a traitor and terrorist.

Seriously. Read it.

And after reading it, watch this video by Bob Parks of Black & Right, and ask yourself, "Are there such men among us now? Are we willing, once again -- or ever again -- to recognize tyranny and address its grievances? Would we fight? If so, when?



Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Democrats Never Get the Irony.



Greg Gutfeld is always very funny and typically insightful, but he missed on this one. Apparently Democrats WILL use children as props to protest their right to kill them.

Behold the little darlings holding protest signs defending
their mother's right to kill them.
Ponder, for a moment, the raging insanity of having your child hold up a sign protesting a bill that would limit abortion past 20 weeks. This child is PROTESTING against setting limits on his mommy's right to KILL him indiscriminately. These women are showing their moral courage and outrage at the idea that requiring them to figure out whether they want a child or not within the first FIVE MONTHS of pregnancy is anti-women.

It's anti-stupid, that's for sure.

You've got to be an utter moron to not have made up your mind about whether you want the child or not before 20 weeks have passed. There are guideposts, kittens. Markers, if you will.

First Marker: You decide to have sex. If you REALLY don't want children, don't have sex. As my brother, the scientist, likes to say, "No exposure. No risk."

Second Marker: You decide to have unprotected sex. If you REALLY don't want children, and being celibate isn't your thing, then at least use proper birth control. Remember that? That was supposed to make abortions rare. 56 million dead babies rare.

Third Marker: You realize you've missed your period and, knowing you had sex, figure you'd better discover whether you're pregnant or not. You then make the decision as to whether you want the "unexpected" pregnancy. Remember, kittens, this bill does not in any way restrict abortions in the first trimester. If you're going to do it, get after it. Waiting won't make things better, honey.

Fourth Marker: The marker of STUPIDITY. There does seem to be a lot of stupid to go around here, kittens. Apparently there are vast numbers of women who need to be protected against the tyranny of others who feel they should be just a trifle smarter and make this decision a tad sooner, before the "clump of cells" is indisputably a baby - a baby that can feel pain.

*****************************


The best thing about being a liberal Democrat is that you can vociferously protest for your right to be stupid selfish, stupid indecisive, stupid irresponsible, stupid immature, stupid promiscuous, and stupid stupid. And do it feeling supremely smart. Go figure.

The next best thing about being a liberal Democrat is that you can protest for whatever you want according to your momentary impulse. Everything is "for the children", unless it's for women who want to kill the children, then it's anti-woman if you're still for the children. Get it?

But these are also the main reasons I'm not a liberal Democrat. The stupidity is exhausting, and I simply find it impossible to stay up to date on what I am for and what I'm against and why. It's all too tiring.

And it's getting really weird.


The attention span of a gnat.

Well, it has happened, kittens. We have been reduced to the buzzing idiocy of annoying little bugs. There is now a new Phenomenon of Stupid called Vines. It's an app that allows you to create a seven second movie.

Yes, that is right. SEVEN. SECONDS.

SEVEN.

SECONDS.

And we are entertained, amused...even INSPIRED!

It can be cinematic art.


It can be classic rock.


It can be spontaneous pratfall.


It can be social commentary.


It can be my solution to the stupid.

Sucks to be you.

According to our most beloved President Peace Prize, not everyone gets to live large like he and his family do. Oh no. He must smack your little hand for reaching for a piece of the pie.

"The planet will boil over" if everyone in Africa is allowed to live in anything even closely approximating middle class comfort. So shut your yaps and take one for the team...





Of course, that's just the scary future without President Peace Prize to rescue them. He warns that they will all stay in poverty if he doesn't spend 7 BILLION dollars in Africa to develop alternative energy sources. You know, like Solyndra. That was a huge success. Remember?

Seven billion dollars directed right to the pockets of his friends. And if all their efforts produce squat, well...they TRIED! You can't ask for more than that. Sorry about that continued desperate poverty, but these $100 million dollar trips to visit you all and give you pep talks about being "collective" team players aren't going to pay for themselves.

Someone's got to make sacrifices.



Monday, July 1, 2013

"We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way."

Over at IMAO, Harvey posted a story about a guy arrested for drunk driving in a shopping cart. After I stopped laughing, I remembered this classic YouTube video.



But Steve knows his rights, by golly. AND he pays the cop's salary. Pointing these things out makes all the difference, as you can see in the cop's response to Steve's threats.

Oh...and don't f*&k up his beer.

That would be bad.

H/T: IMAO.US