Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Guess They Had To Wake Up Eventually

...via the International Herald Tribune:
"From the Left, a call to end the current Dutch notion of tolerance"

Like the man says: "Read the Whole Thing..."

A Few of the Money-Quotes:

"Two weeks ago, the country's biggest left-wing political grouping, the Labor Party, which has responsibility for integration as a member of the coalition government led by the Christian Democrats, issued a position paper calling for the end of the failed model of Dutch "tolerance."
================
The paper said: "The mistake we can never repeat is stifling criticism of cultures and religions for reasons of tolerance."
========================
Government and politicians had too long failed to acknowledge the feelings of "loss and estrangement" felt by Dutch society facing parallel communities that disregard its language, laws and customs.
=======================
Instead of reflexively offering tolerance with the expectation that things would work out in the long run, she said, the government strategy should be "bringing our values into confrontation with people who think otherwise."
====================================
"The success of the integration process is hindered by the disproportionate number of non-natives involved in criminality and trouble-making, by men who refuse to shake hands with women, by burqas and separate courses for women on citizenship."

"We have to stop the existence of parallel societies within our society."
====================================================
And the sweetest one-liner of all:

Newcomers, according to Ploumen, must avoid "self-designated victimization."
============================================================

Here's hoping the Dutch can be the spark that lights the fire of sensibility in Europe.

MuscleDaddy-The-Elder always says:
"Everything is cyclical - something closes up somewhere, it opens up somewhere else"

We got Obama (and deservedly so, societally speaking)

- let's hope something good comes of it, if only karmically.


- MuscleDaddy

Monday, December 29, 2008

Obama...."Stimulus Package"?

Okay, I'm confused now.

Obama is urging for a "Stimulus Package" - one that would (in the spirit of stimulus packages) "stimulate" the American economy by encouraging the American people to ....

...buy more stuff?

In the immortal words of The One: "Uhh..."


It seems that I quite vividly remember The Obamessiah saying:

“We can’t just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world’s resources with just 4 percent of the world’s population, and expect the rest of the world to say you just go ahead, we’ll be fine.”

Okay - everyone seems to have gone along with that:

- No one's buying anything,
- No one's going anywhere
(OPEC keeps slicing oil supply to bleed the Ugly Americans, but without demand...)
- No one's homes are worth what they were, so no-one's buying 'up'

In short, America is consuming less than anytime in recent memory...

But now, The One wants to 'stimulate' us back into greater spending/consuming?

But...but... what about "The Rest of the World"???

Surely, those whose good opinion Obama cherishes most (read: any country not America) neither want nor need the Ugly Americans to go back to our Disproportionately-Consuming ways, right?

Oh wait, maybe they do...

But how does THAT fit into the Obama world-view of America-Moving-To-An-Inoffensive-Second-World-Status ?

I just don't get it - the country starts sliding in the direction he wanted, and now he wants to change it - it's like he can't make up his mind.

- MuscleDaddy

p.s. - what are you going to do with your stimulus check?
- I intend to do my civic-duty, being my-part of enacting a bailout of Mossberg!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

This Is Just Too Good...

"Middle East's Shoe-Throwing Hero...
Turns out to be nothing more than a Ba'athist Agitator"

No wonder he's pissed at Bush!

I think it's time for a Caption Contest!
(here's mine...)

"Bastard! I had just purchased season tickets to the rape-rooms!"
"There was a 'No-Return' policy!!!"

Come on, Give it a try...

- MuscleDaddy

Send In The Clowns...

While this pretty much wraps it up:



The inimitable Victor Davis Hanson lays the smackdown in detail:
"Desperately Seeking Caroline"

If he's still around then, I'm sending my kids to Hillsdale if it means selling my organs.

- MuscleDaddy

Will 'Wonders' Never Cease...

Remember "Dad" from "The Wonder Years"?

(Dan Lauria - guy's been getting a lot of work since then, including "The Spirit")

Turns out he's also one o' them "Hollywood Conservatives"

Some one needs to tell Gary Sinise Pat Boone
(the only other screen actor willing to wear the label) ...

Maybe they could get coffee or something.

- MuscleDaddy

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Passion of the Plumber III: Resignation

Helen Jones-Kelley, an Ohio state agency official who authorized an inquest into Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, has resigned
But she didn't just admit her wrongdoing. Instead, she's playing the victim card:

Department of Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley said in a statement accompanying her resignation that she won't allow her reputation to be disparaged and that she is concerned for her family's safety.
Whatever. Just don't let that door hit you where the Good Lord split you. And let this be a warning to anyone else who thinks it's OK to use the heavy hand of the State against a mere citizen with the temerity to question His Majesty.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Nah, I'm Sure it's Coincidence...

Hmmm..... (Updated)

- Take a weary country and an economy tottering after years of war...

- Rip down such structures & constants as still exist, in the name of "Change"...

- The situation of the people worsens drastically - politicians offer platitudes
"It will get worse before it gets better."...

- Enact a unilateral withdrawal from all international interests & military commitments...

- Offer the option of a national-service workforce to people whose economic situation continues to worsen.

- Start Nationalizing aspects of everyday society, previously left to the individual to maintain - tell the people it's "to help them and lighten their burden"...

- Appoint someone to the Interior, amenable to nationalizing privately-held land, to better pursue "clean" energy endeavors "to help the planet and lighten its burden"...

- Continue spending taxpayer monies in "economic bailouts" - with the government eventually taking significant ownership of the business & financial sectors...

You know...

This is all starting to sound very familiar.

- MuscleDaddy


P.S. - The only thing missing is a whipping up of the masses, to tear down an existing leader and destroy him as a scapegoat for "the people"...

...no, wait... got that too...
===============================
Update: (*snort* like anyone will look)

As of the 3rd, we get to add to the list :

"Creation of an entirely-new population-sector completely dependent on the government "

4th paragraph - last sentence:

"That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan
- which is to create three million new jobs, more than eighty percent of them in the private sector."

Doing the math - 20% of 3million jobs = 600,000 New Government Jobs

Forget 'Red Dawn' - the communists don't need to invade - we'll run to them with open arms.

....but here I sit, blogging away to you - with music and the truth until dawn...
"the chair is against the wall, the chair is against the wall",
"john has a long mustache, john has a long mustache".

- MD

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Hammer, Meet Nail...

Young Ben Shapiro pounds one straight-damned-over the centerfield wall...

Enough of Radical Islam

My favorite part (reformatted because he was on a roll):
=======================
"We dont lose our souls when we treat our enemies as enemies."

"We dont undermine our principles when we post more police officers in vulnerable areas, or when we send Marines to kill bad guys, or when we torture terrorists for information."

"And we dont redeem ourselves when we close Guantanamo Bay or try terrorists in civilian courts or censor anti-Islam comics."

"When it comes to war, extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. "
=======================

I think that it's time we started standing up like real, live bi-peds and saying this to a great many situations.

Enough.

- MuscleDaddy

Monday, December 8, 2008

Congress Sends White House Auto Aid Proposal...

Ok - it's not the Triple-Digit-Billion tag they wanted the first time around...

"The measure would rush bridge loans to Detroit's struggling Big Three but would also demand that the auto industry restructure itself in order to survive and would put an overseer chosen by President George W. Bush in charge of monitoring that effort, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press."

Yeah, huh?

Okay - I nominate John Bolton.
(yeah they tell the story with a sneer, but that actually makes it better)


- MuscleDaddy

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Styles of pork barbeque indigenous to Nawth Carolina

In a nutshell there are two styles of pork barbeque indigenous to Nawth Carolina:

1) Eastern style; which is prevalent from Durham/Raleigh east. And

2) Lexington style; which is usually found west of Durham/Raleigh.

The main difference is the sauce:


Basic Eastern North Carolina Barbeque Sauce
2 quarts apple-cider vinegar
1 to 2 ounces crushed red pepper
2 Tablespoons salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon black pepper, or to taste

Lexington Style North Carolina Barbeque Sauce
1 ½ cups cider vinegar
½ cup ketchup
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine all ingredients plus ½ cup water in saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool and serve on cooked meat.

Note that the Lexington sauce has Ketchup in it.

And where folks "down East" usually cook the whole pig, folks in the Piedmont and parts West usually cook only the shoulders.

Other links:

http://www.northcarolina.com/stories/bbq.html

http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/bbquest1.asp

Other recipes:

Hush Puppies
3 cups self-rising white cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon onion powder or
1 medium onion, chopped fine (optional)
2 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons bacon drippings


Eastern Carolina Slaw
1 medium-size, firm head of cabbage
1 1/4 cups of mayonnaise
1/3 cup mustard
1/4 cup sweet pickle cubes
2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Note that for "Lexington" style slaw you would take out the mayo, mustard and pickle cubes and substitute a little ketchup to make a "red" slaw.

And peach cobbler is available with both barbeque styles:

Peach Cobbler
Bottom Crust:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup of butter, cut in 1/2-inch slices
1/3 cup ice water

Top Crust: 1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, cut in _-inch slices
2 1/3 teaspoons ice water

Filling:
2 20-ounce bags of frozen, unsweetened peaches (or 7 cups of fresh, sliced peaches)
1/3 cup butter, cut in _-inch slices
2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons floor

But no self respecting barbeque joint would be complete without....................Ta-da! Banana Puddin'!!

The Best Banana Pudding
by Patricia Mitchell
The Banana Pudding recipe you'll find here makes the best banana pudding I have ever tasted. I'll admit that statement qualifies the title of the article, but I'll bet it's the best banana pudding you've ever tasted, too.

Banana pudding is not currently a fashionable dessert. You never see it served in "good" restaurants. And when it is found in a restaurant, more than likely it's a dollop of instant banana-flavored pudding with a vanilla wafer stuck in it and a dab of non-dairy whipped topping.

Perhaps banana pudding gets no respect because of the vanilla wafers. It's likely that vanilla wafers, being ordinary cookies in the familiar yellow box found in stores everywhere, are regarded as pedestrian among gourmets. Of course, your trendy tiramisu, which uses packaged lady fingers as a base, gets away with it.

When I began thinking about writing this article, I started wondering about the origins of this wonderful dessert. I wondered if banana pudding existed before vanilla wafers and, if that is the case, when did vanilla wafers get their start? And is banana pudding a southern dessert? And if so, why, because good bananas are available everywhere year-round. But there need not be so many questions here. Banana pudding merely lacks glamour, because it certainly doesn't lack anything else you would want in a dessert.

Is it easy to make? Yes, it is. Well, you have to do a little more than boil water, but it's definitely not difficult to make. It's wonderful warm from the oven or cold from the refrigerator. It requires no exotic ingredients, other than the bananas which, when you think about it, really are pretty exotic. Banana pudding may be the original comfort food.

The key to great banana pudding is ripe bananas. In fact, they should be very ripe. Yellow with little brown specks. Bananas ripen best in the dark, so put them in a paper bag and check on them until they're perfect. They ripen every bit as well when they're in the refrigerator, too, assuming it's dark in your refrigerator.

Now, if you want to make banana pudding that will have people rolling their eyes and moaning, here's how to do it:

Banana Pudding
* 1 cup Sugar
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups milk (whole or 2%)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 tablespoon butter (not margarine)
* 4 egg yolks (large eggs or better)
* box of Vanilla wafers
* 4-5 ripe bananas

Meringue:
* 4 egg whites, at room temperature
* 5 tablespoons sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Line the bottom of a 9" x 9" baking dish with a layer of vanilla wafers. This recipe will not use the whole box, so you may snack, but don't get carried away.

Peel the bananas and slice into 3/8-inch rounds; use a ruler (I'm kidding). Cover the banana slices with plastic wrap to keep them from darkening and quickly make your pudding.

Combine the sugar, flour and salt in a bowl, and stir well to mix. Mash out any flour lumps with the back of your spoon. Set aside.

In a heavy saucepan, beat the egg yolks well (just use a fork or whisk, but beat them well). Over medium heat, add the flour mixture to the egg yolks, alternately with the milk and vanilla, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil and, when the mixture begins to thicken, add the butter, continuing to stir. Keep boiling and stirring until mixture reaches a nice pudding consistency. [Note: If you're working with an electric cook top, adjust the heat so that it's hot enough to boil, but not so hot that the pudding scorches.] Remove from heat.

Place a layer of banana slices in the baking dish on top of the vanilla wafers. Don't stint and put one slice of banana per wafer. Line those banana slices up edge-to-edge. Pour, spreading as necessary, half of the pudding over the banana layer. Put down another layer of vanilla wafers, another layer of banana slices, and cover with the remaining pudding.

Beat the egg whites at high speed until they form soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar. At high speed, gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the vanilla into the meringue, and spread the meringue over the pudding, sealing it at the sides of the dish.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until meringue browns, 12 to 15 minutes, depending upon your oven.
The size and shape of the baking dish are important. If you don't have a 9" x 9" baking dish, you really should. It's a handy size to have. You can get this baking dish from Amazon by clicking here. I've made this banana pudding in a round casserole dish, and it just doesn't turn out as well. Another thing to wonder about. (Horse hocky! It's usually baked in big oblong pans in the restaurants. And covered with about 3-4 inches of meringue. The absolute best I've ever had, although the Wife's comes reeeeeeeal close, was at an old cafe in Burlington. A little old black lady cooked it on Tuesdays and Thursdays and you couldn't get in the parking lot at lunchtime on those two days! She's come out of the kitchen with a pan of the stuff that looked as big as she was...)

This recipe makes 6 or 8 servings, and you can count on people asking for seconds. Any leftovers should be covered and refrigerated. And, yes, it's hard to cover anything with a meringue top and anyway, banana pudding is not as attractive after it has been refrigerated. But it's still just as delicious.

I also find it interesting that I had to get this recipe out of a "Texas" cookbook. Couldn't find one that looked right when I Googled "Southern".

[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full article.]

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Catfish Hole; a review

Friends and neighbors, I don’t do this often. I’m always hesitant to recommend restaurants since my tastes may not match other folks’. But I gotta tell you about the experience I’ve just had….

My buddy and I were heading back from Colorado. Having crossed the panhandle of Texas and all of Oklahoma we were feeling a little hungry, the biscuits and gravy we’d had for breakfast in Dalhart, TX long since gone. Now Miss Baby, my buddy’s girlfriend (see Brother Dave Gardner’s “Chuck and Miss Baby” routine) had told him about a catfish restaurant in Ft. Smith, Arkansas that she had found on the web as she followed our progress. And from the web site she though it looked pretty good.

So we stopped at the first Ft. Smith exit and did something decidedly unmale; we asked for directions. Several people in the gas station knew exactly which restaurant we were talking about and gave us directions. Not very good ones as it turned out because we couldn’t find it. So we came to a side road (see Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant”) i.e.: the Alma, Arkansas/US 71 exit and jumped off of I-40. Off the side of the side road (ibid) was a Shamrock gas station so we pulled in. Eric, the nice young man in the station, said yes he knew exactly which restaurant we were talking about….but it was about six miles back. However, if we wanted the best catfish in Arkansas it was just up the road. A place called the Catfish Hole. Eric said to ask for Jeannie. So we went.


Now I’m going to tell you like a friend and a brother: this was undoubtedly the best restaurant experience that I’ve had in many a day. Everyone in the place could not do enough for us. Every waitress that passed our table asked: “can I get y’all some more tea/coffee; are y’all ready for some more catfish; are y’all doing ok; is there anything you need?” And the food was out of this world.

The fried dinners menu included: catfish steaks (bone in), catfish filets (no bones), fried shrimp, scallops, ocean clams, and frog legs. And that was just the seafood. Then you could get a combination of any two or three of the above. So I got the catfish filets (small catch) and frog legs. Oh. My. Gawd. The catfish was lightly breaded, and fried to perfection. Not the least bit oily. The frog legs…….tasted like chicken. Well what am I supposed to say?!? They were wonderful! And the fixin’s: hushpuppies, kosher dill pickles, green tomato relish and coleslaw (that came out before the meal) weren’t bad either! My buddy got a combo of catfish steaks (small catch), shrimp and frog legs. We were in heaven….

So we finished up. As we sat there wondering when we were going to be able to move again, Jeannie walked up. “Are you going to try one of our deserts?” she asked. We groaned. “Oh you’ve got to try our fried pies!” Fried pies? Fried pies??? Those little turnover looking thingies that are fried? Er, what kind do you have? Not that we had room for one, mind you….

“We have apple, cherry, peach, blueberry, coconut……” WAIT! You’ve got a fried coconut pie?? “Yes, do you want it with ice cream?” What could we do? We split one; with ice cream. OH! MY! GAWD! Now my mother made fried apple pies when I was a kid but they weren’t anything like this. Jeannie brought us a freshly fried coconut pie with a bowl of ice cream on the side. The ice cream tasted homemade. We asked; it wasn’t. I repeat: the ice cream tasted homemade. And the combination of the ice cream and fried coconut pie was out of this world!

So how do you get there? Glad you asked! And if you didn’t ask, what’s the matter with you?!?

Take the Alma, AR/US 71 exit off I-40. If you’re coming from the west: turn left at the bottom of the ramp. If you’re coming from the east: turn right. Go to the first traffic light past the Interstate (second if you’re coming from the west) and turn left between the Taco Bell and the Bank of the Ozarks. You will see a sign saying “Catfish Hole”. Turn right and look for a building with the sign below on it:



Walk inside and enjoy. Period. Paragraph.

And ask for Jeannie; or her daughter Bailey; or any waitress wearing this tee shirt:



They’re all good! And you won’t be sorry!

The Catfish Hole
24 Collum Lane West
Alma, AR 72921
479-632-9718
www.thecatfishhole.com/Catfish%20Hole%20Menu%20Alma.html
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full article.]

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Remember This...

Every time someone starts on some drooling rant about how terrorism is:

"All about Israel"
or "All About Iraq"
or "All About Bush"
or "All About the American Empire" ....

You remember this face:


Clutching a toy basketball, his face contorted by tears at today's memorial service for his parents. The two-year-old orphan's rabbi father and mother were murdered in Mumbai's Jewish centre.

His name is Moshe Holtzberg - he turned 2 years old last week.

Last Wednesday, his mother and father were tortured and killed in front of him by Muslim Terrorists.

His nanny spirited him away after finding him sitting next to their bodies, covered in their blood, crying for them to wake up.

Not in Israel - Not in Gaza - Not in the Settlements.

This wasn't about some "Right of Return" or "Creeping Zionism" or "Jooos Stealing Olive Trees".

This was in Mumbai, India - where the Jewish community that was established sometime around 70 A.D. makes up about twenty-five-thousandths of a percent of the approximately 2 Billion people in a country otherwise overwhelmingly Hindu, Buddist, Christian and Muslim.

The mother and father of this otherwise happy little boy:



...were singled out, tortured and murdered in front of him...

For Being Jews and Nothing More.

Remember this.

Remember what we face - and, the next time someone starts shrieking out their weak, hand-wringing song of relativism and inverted blame...

Remember Moshe - this sweet, perfect little boy whose life will never be the same...

...because his parents were Jewish - in Mumbai, India.

(excuse me now, I have to go hold my son and make him a promise...)

- MuscleDaddy

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Is the Honeymoon Already Over?

Is it possible that Obama's press pass may actually have an expiration date? Here Campbell Brown takes Obama to task for derisively dismissing the "tough questions" about his apparent change of heart regarding Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience/expertise. Now, granted, the toughness of this question must be judged on a sliding scale, but still . . . is this a sign of things to come? Is that possible?

Monday, December 1, 2008

Naming Contest!

Since we've lost sight of that whole "Posse Comitatus" thing...
(perhaps Barack is putting together a different kind of 'posse')

I propose a Naming Contest!

What will we call the new Stasi?
Who are to be deployed only in case of a disaster, of course!
(wouldn't it just be a disaster if The One's approval ratings were to dip suddenly?)

So far, Monopticus & I call dibs on "Praetorian Guard".

What can the rest of you come up with?

- MuscleDaddy