Taking her cue as always from Sis, whose Inspirational Pah Opus is a thing of heart-wrenching beauty, Daughter informed me I too must make Pah. Tonight. Right now.
Soak the currants in orange juice and bourbon; soak me in bourbon
six Granny Smiths seems to work out about right
core/peel/slice the apples and mix in a bowl with blueberries, cranberries, the drained currants (but reserve the soakage!), some flour, cinnamon, fresh nutmeg, sugar and salt
fill them shells
schmodge together the flour, brown sugar, butter and tablespoon of cinnamon (which ain’t in the recipe)
say hello to Mr. Hanky
now I have no idea how she gets it to crumble when she makes it, as this has the consistency of Play-Doh so I end up armor plating the Pah
and now they’re in the oven so I have several hours to wait to eat.
A forthcoming erotic novel being described as “fan fiction” will feature the first couple as protagonists-in-chief. According to Pop Culture Public Relations, the firm representing the book’s publisher, the novel, a version of a “personalizable” erotic tome, will be printed with the first couple’s names in it and available online at no cost on January 28. In an e-mail circulated yesterday, Pop Culture PR wrote, “Barack and Michelle Obama Star in This Erotic, Romantic Novel.”
This is so emblematic on so many levels of what is wrong with our society and culture right now.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wash my eyes out with bleach and lye before I gouge them out with barbed knitting needles.
If history holds, President Obama’s second term will be marked by fewer legislative achievements, more gridlock, and more contentious ideological division than his first. It is hard to see how this is possible. But I suspect we’ll soon find that it is inevitable. It’s because of the divide between the leader he promised us he would be, and the politician he actually is.
The ongoing debate over understanding Obama as a politician has moved into odd territory over the past few years – the extremes between being cast as a lightbringer, healer of the planet, solver of all our racial woes, and on the other as a devious socialist bent on national ruin. All this attention gives the man, from my perspective, too much credit for being interesting. He is not all that complicated. The key to understanding Obama from my perspective is the traditional lens of urban Democratic machine politics – an approach bent on bending your foes into caricatures of themselves and organizing your own community into a political blunt instrument to wield at whim…
…Obama accepted the presidency four years ago as someone for whom the hopes of the nation were wrapped up in healing the wounds of the Bush era. Today he accepts it as a self-branded visionary who has revealed himself at heart to be a pedestrian partisan who wants to use the love and affection of his loyal supporters to crush his opponents and their constituencies. This is the essential broken promise of Obama’s presidency and his entire political career. He is not a technocratic wonk or a healer of planets or public squares. The healing he seeks is false talk of goodwill and charity after his opponents have been thoroughly defeated, just as the policy he seeks is the consolidation and cultivation of power. He has four more years to engage in his brand of political rule now – and at the end of it, I suspect we will look back on eight long years full of strife, when little was achieved for a nation where e pluribus unum no longer applies.
…Dawn at the Cowpens on January 17, 1781, was clear and bitterly cold. Morgan, his scouts bearing news of Tarleton’s approach, moved among his men, shouting, “Boys, get up! Benny’s22 coming! Tarleton, playing catch up, and having marched his army since two in the morning, ordered formation on the Green River Road for the attack. His aggressive style was made even now more urgent, since there were rumors of Overmountain men on the way, reminiscent of events at Kings Mountain. Yet he was confident of victory: he reasoned he had Morgan hemmed in by the Broad, and the undulating park-like terrain was ideal for his dragoons23. He thought Morgan must be desperate, indeed, to have stopped at such a place. Perhaps Morgan saw it differently: in some past battles, Patriot militia had fled in face of fearsome bayonet charges – but now the Broad at Morgan’s back could prevent such a retreat. In reality, though, Morgan had no choice – to cross the flood-swollen Broad risked having his army cut down by the feared and fast-traveling Tarleton.
Tarleton pressed the attack head on, his line extending across the meadow, his artillery in the middle, and fifty Dragoons on each side. It was as if Morgan knew he would make a frontal assault – it was his style of fighting. To face Tarleton, he organized his troops into three lines. First, out front and hiding behind trees were selected sharpshooters. At the onset of battle they picked off numbers of Tarleton’s Dragoons, traditionally listed as fifteen24, shooting especially at officers, and warding off an attempt to gain initial supremacy. With the Dragoons in retreat, and their initial part completed, the sharpshooters retreated 150 yards or more back to join the second line, the militia commanded by Andrew Pickens. Morgan used the militia well, asking them to get off two volleys and promised their retreat to the third line made up of John Eager Howard’s25 Continentals, again close to 150 yards back. Some of the militia indeed got off two volleys as the British neared, but, as they retreated and reached supposed safety behind the Continental line, Tarleton sent his feared Dragoons after them. As the militia dodged behind trees and parried saber slashes with their rifles, William Washington’s26 Patriot cavalry thundered onto the field of battle, seemingly, out of nowhere. The surprised British Dragoons, already scattered and sensing a rout, were overwhelmed, and according to historian Babits, lost eighteen men in the clash. As they fled the field, infantry on both sides fired volley after volley. The British advanced in a trot, with beating drums, the shrill sounds of fifes, and shouts of halloo. Morgan, in response, cheering his men on, said to give them the Indian halloo back. Riding to the front, he rallied the militia, crying out, “form, form, my brave fellows! Old Morgan was never beaten!”
Now Tarleton’s 71st Highlanders27, held in reserve, entered the charge toward the Continental line, the wild wail of bagpipes adding to the noise and confusion. A John Eager Howard order for the right flank to face slightly right to counter a charge from that direction, was, in the noise of battle, misunderstood as a call to retreat. As other companies along the line followed suite, Morgan rode up to ask Howard if he were beaten. As Howard pointed to the unbroken ranks and the orderly retreat and assured him they were not, Morgan spurred his horse on and ordered the retreating units to face about, and then, on order, fire in unison. The firing took a heavy toll on the British, who, by that time had sensed victory and had broken ranks in a wild charge. This event and a fierce Patriot bayonet charge in return broke the British charge and turned the tide of battle. The re-formed militia and cavalry re-entered the battle, leading to double envelopment28 of the British, perfectly timed. British infantry began surrendering en masse.
The Americans lost 12 men and had 60 wounded in a little over an hour, but they left the field with 500 British prisoners. Tarleton had 110 dead and 200 wounded to add to his report of the action to Lord Cornwallis.
Green went hot-footing north out of Dodge, towards Virginia, knowing Cornwallis would try to chase him down, as indeed he did. Thus began a game of attrition and seeming British “victories”, which really did nothing more than force Cornwallis to move faster and lighter each time.
…Soon, Greene’s strategy was evident: Cornwallis and his weary army gave up on the Carolinas and moved on to Virginia. On October 18, 1781, the British army surrendered at Yorktown. Cowpens, in its part in the Revolution, was a surprising victory and a turning point that changed the psychology of the entire war. Now, there was revenge – the Patriot rallying cry Tarleton’s Quarter 37. Morgan’s unorthodox but tactical masterpiece had indeed “spirited up the people”, not just those of the backcountry Carolinas, but those in all the colonies. In the process, he gave Tarleton and the British a “devil of a whipping”.
I thought of Cowpens the other night, first because of my Moore’s Creek bridge post and then, oddly enough, because The Patriot was on that evening. I always choke up at the final battle scene, where our beautiful flags go so proudly into the chaos of that horrific, antiquated, unfathomable mode of armies facing each other. We were talking, that the Smithsonian had been cheek by jowl in the production as historical advisors, the Mel Gibson character is based on Francis Marion “The Swamp Fox”, “Tavington” is Tarleton, etc., but then major dad asked, “I wonder if this (the battle scene) has a real counterpart” and I said, “Pretty sure the Battle of Cowpens.” He hadn’t heard of it, so there we are. There are a few liberties taken ~ Cornwallis wasn’t actually AT the field, etc., but the bulk of the action is true to the field that gallant day.
THIS day.
The clip is here, if you’d like to see it. I get weepy thinking about those flags now…
Today, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in favor of Governor Rick Scott’s campaign promise to make Florida’s state pension fund more secure by requiring government employees to contribute to their pensions just like private employees do every month.
Day in and day out, Governor Rick Scott is fighting to keep the cost of living low for Florida families and on fixing our state’s underlying economic problems, and it’s starting to pay off. Thanks to Governor Scott:
Florida has become a leading state for job creation in America
Florida’s unemployment rate is lower than it has been in many years
TALLAHASSEE — In a major victory for Gov. Rick Scott, the Florida Supreme Court narrowly ruled against state workers and allowed the state to retain the 3 percent levy on worker salaries to offset the state’s investment into the Florida Retirement System.
The 4-3 decision allows lawmakers to avoid another $2 billion budget hole next year, while state employees will see their salary cuts remain indefinitely.
The lawsuit, Scott v. Williams, was filed by the Florida Education Association. Lawmakers and Scott had approved the new law over pension fund contributions in 2011. It affected the salaries of 623,000 public employees, including teachers, state, county and some city workers.
“The court’s ruling today supports our efforts to lower the cost of living for Florida families. This means even more businesses will locate and grow in our state, which creates even more opportunities for Floridians to live their version of the American dream,” said Scott in a statement from his office.
Big, big, BIG!!
God, how they HATE Rick Scott in the papers in this state.
The guy’s been a ROCK STAR as far as we’re concerned.
Statement by Gov. Perry on President Obama’s Executive Actions
Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama’s executive actions:
“The Vice President’s committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.
“Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.
“There is evil prowling in the world – it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.
“In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.”
Via The Right Scoop, the Executive Actions Marco Rubio also called “an abuse of power”:
Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions
Today, the President is announcing that he and the Administration will:
1.Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2.Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3.Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4.Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5.Propose rule making to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6.Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7.Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8.Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9.Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10.Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.
11.Nominate an ATF director.
12.Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13.Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14.Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15.Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
16.Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17.Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18.Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19.Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20.Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21.Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22.Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23.Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
Marco’s statement:
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today issued the following statement reiterating his support for the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, in light of President Obama’s announcement regarding gun policy in America:
“As the father of four young children, I was deeply saddened by the murder of innocent kids at Sandy Hook. In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, I expressed my hope that President Obama and our elected leaders would take a sober look at how we can prevent such heinous murders in the future. Doing so would require addressing the underlying causes of these evil acts, and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill without curtailing the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.
“Nothing the President is proposing would have stopped the massacre at Sandy Hook. President Obama is targeting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens instead of seriously addressing the real underlying causes of such violence. Rolling back responsible citizens’ rights is not the proper response to tragedies committed by criminals and the mentally ill. Making matters worse is that President Obama is again abusing his power by imposing his policies via executive fiat instead of allowing them to be debated in Congress. President Obama’s frustration with our republic and the way it works doesn’t give him license to ignore the Constitution.
“Guns are not the problem; criminals with evil in their hearts and mentally ill people prone to violence are. Rather than sweeping measures that make it harder for responsible, law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms, we should focus on the root causes of gun violence and keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.”
“As a strong defender of the 2nd Amendment, I will oppose the President’s attempts to undermine Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.”
Andrew’s empty gun win It’s always about the polls
…The law focuses heavily on rifles, for example, never mind that rifles were used in all of five murders in New York state in 2011; fists killed 28.
As for handguns, New York’s laws are already among the nation’s strictest — but criminals simply ignore them; only Mayor Bloomberg’s aggressive stop-and-frisk program seems to be having any positive effect. When he’s gone, so will be stop-and-frisk, and then it’ll be Katie-bar-the-door once again.
But if Cuomo had waited, some other governor would have gotten there first — dimming the luster of his own rising star.
If a legislature can middle-of-the-night pass something this horrific, criminalizing half the populace for something perfectly and constitutionally legal twenty minutes before, what IS the average citizen’s recourse? You really need to start asking yourself that. If recalls work for the Left (we KNOW rotunda sit-ins won’t, because some of us ~ again, no thanks to the Left ~ still have day jobs), let’s go. Whatever guerilla tactics make these guys legislative lives a living Hell, while simultaneously working hard for both their replacement in office and the repeal of these draconian, unconstitutional edicts.
There’s a line from a poem about dark times that keeps going through my head ~ I am SURE it will be pounding when the Royal Ass has his presser surrounded by children today ~
…But the Consul’s brow was sad, and the Consul’s speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall, and darkly at the foe.
“Their van will be upon us before the bridge goes down;
And if they once might win the bridge, what hope to save the town?”
Then out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods,
And for the tender mother who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses his baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus, that wrought the deed of shame?
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may!
I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path, a thousand may well be stopped by three:
Now, who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?’
We need to ALL be Horatio, because we are ON the at the bridge, my friends.
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Such a short phrase, isn’t it? Yet subject to such intense argument and debate these last, oh, 50 years or so.
Remember who wrote this. These were men who had just recently fought for freedom and liberty from an oppressive government. They knew that there were but two defenses that a people had versus a government that was drifting tyrannical. The very first and most important was to prevent that government from acting in secret, the right of the people to be able to expose and discus and criticize any and all actions that that government might take with out fear of retribution and also t be free of religious coercion by the government.
So they wrote this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Sunlight, shame, ridicule, humor, righteous indignation, transcripts of ‘closed door’ meetings. Expose the fools in government to all of these things and you have a good chance, they knew, of curbing the autocratic, tyrannical influences that every government invariably develops.
But sometimes that wasn’t enough. They knew, oh and let us never forget that did ever they know, that redressing grievances could fall on deaf ears…or bayonets.
And when that happens the people have but two choices: to submit to the government’s yoke or to throw it off. Remember, this was written by people who had just a few years before successfully fought an oppressive overbearing government, and they wanted to make sure that the people who followed them would have a chance to do the same if it ever came to that, that their descendents would have the ability to defend themselves against all threats, both domestic and external.
And so they wrote the second most important amendment:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Probably the most contentious word in the above to most modern opponents of the Second Amendment is “regulated”. To our modern ears it is very seductive to ascribe that word its modern connotation of “government control” but nothing could be farther from the truth or intent, most especially in an Amendment expressly designed to protect citizens from an over-reaching government; the idea that the government should have the power to grant citizens the means to protect themselves from the…government is simply to ludicrous to seriously entertain. In the 17th and 18th century the word “regulated” meant “trained” or “experienced”. Think of all those novels from that period that you’ve read. What were the trained troops called? The Regulars. The Founders knew that if People were to have a chance to successfully defend themselves from all threats they must have unfettered access to arms and also be familiar with their use.
In this rush by the government and gun opponents to take advantage of the horror of Newtown, in this mad emotional scramble to expand government’s reach into every facet of our lives and make us ever more dependent on on centralized unaccountable power for our daily existence, let us not give in to hysteria and sacrifice far more.
And low-information voters pushed this horse’s beHIND back into office, so John Hayward’s article tastes truly bittersweet to me.
THE VINDICATION OF MITT ROMNEY
Defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney was right about an awful lot of things, including some things he was roundly criticized for saying during the presidential campaign. The most grimly humorous example was his comment about Jeep production moving to China – hilariously rated “Lie of the Year” by Politifact, which ignored a blizzard of absolute bull from Barack Obama to bestow the honor.
… Insurgents were sweeping through the desert and scooping up the American-trained commanders of elite army units last year? Why didn’t somebody mention Mali during the presidential debates? Why, as a matter of fact, somebody did… and he was roundly mocked for it by Obama supporters, although not in France. From a contemporaneous report in the New Yorker:
Une petite note on last night’s foreign-policy debate: Mitt Romney’s mini-seminar on Mali, largely overlooked by Americans, drew notice in France. Bob Schieffer’s first question to the candidates concerned American policy in the Middle East, “the new face of terrorism,” and what happened in Libya: “I’d like to hear each of your thoughts on that.” Romney went first. His answer: “This is obviously an area of great concern to the entire world and to America in particular, which is to see a compete change in the structure and the environment in the Middle East. With the Arab Spring came a great hope that there would be a change toward moderation … but instead we’ve seen in nation after nation a number of disturbing events.” He mentioned Syria. He mentioned Libya. He mentioned Mali—northern Mali, in particular. He concluded, “What we’re seeing is a pretty dramatic reversal in the kind of hopes we had for that region.”
No, no, no, we were told! It’s crazy to question Barack Obama’s dazzling foreign policy triumphs! He killed Osama bin Laden, didn’t he? Why was this strange Romney fellow bringing up some obscure country called “Mali,” and mentioning it in the same breath as Syria and Libya? Low-information voters couldn’t even understand why Romney was so upset about those four “bumps in the road” in Libya. They certainly didn’t want to hear about the bumpy road to Mali, and who can blame them? It would be almost three whole months before we found ourselves supporting our ally France in a shooting war over there.
What is that hiding back there? Is that what I think it is???
Why yes
yes it is.
Can you believe that my Bride refused to let Daughter and I buy it and bring it home? She coldly and cruelly ignored/defeated/deflected all of our heart-felt pleadings and, well, outright whiny begging. I just know it would have fit in our luggage.
All because of some silly puffed-up concerns about violating various Federal laws concerning explosives.
Geesh.
Spoilsport.
And then I saw these which made me think of dear Suzette
Fun, Swill Food and Grog | Mr. Bingley | 
January 23, 2013 7:35 pm | 
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