Posting May Be Sporadic This Week

Not that y’all might actually mind, but just so you know I think I’ll be switching the site over to WordPress this week, so things may get…odd.
But we still love ya’!

The Fight Continues In Afghanistan

Do we have sufficient resources in theatre for the Afghan surge?

KABUL, July 12 (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed two U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Sunday, the latest deaths in an escalation of violence that has put pressure on coalition leaders over their war strategy.
Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of British soldiers have been fighting major new offensives in the past 10 days in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and Afghanistan’s biggest producer of the opium that funds the insurgency.
The assault by U.S. Marines, Operation Strike of the Sword, is the first major operation under U.S. President Barack Obama’s new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan, which holds a presidential election on Aug. 20.
It was launched with insurgency violence at its highest since the Taliban’s austere Islamist government was ousted in 2001 by U.S. and Afghan forces for failing to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted over the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Violence has flared again throughout Afghanistan since the operation began on July 2, with attacks in traditional Taliban strongholds in the south and east as well as in relatively more peaceful areas in the north and west.
The Taliban backlash has put pressure on leaders in Washington and London, who say U.S. and other NATO-led troops have pushed back Taliban insurgents but that a lot of tough fighting remains to be done during the summer.

The British troops are feeling the effects of budgetcutbacks

The parents of soldiers killed in Afghanistan have accused the Government of starving British forces of urgently needed equipment. They joined politicians and former Armed Forces chiefs in demanding that ministers provide more money to pay for helicopters and armoured vehicles for troops fighting in Helmand.
…The deaths of the eight soldiers prompted other families to speak out in criticism of the Government’s funding of the campaign.
Jane Ford, whose son Ben was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan two years ago, said: ”It is our sons who are suffering because of [ministers’] stingy attitude. It is their blood that is paying. If we are not careful the Government will just waste money on things that are not necessary – like giving the money to MPs for their luxury apartments. Why can’t we have luxury bombs?”
Ian Sadler, the father of 21-year-old Jack Sadler, who died in Afghanistan in 2007 when his Snatch Land Rover went over a mine, said: “Our soldiers must have a lot better than the vehicles they are being given at the moment. A Land Rover or a high-mobility truck are just not suitable for travelling in a mined environment. We also need more helicopters.”
Last week The Sunday Telegraph highlighted how the lives of British troops were being put at risk by delays to a new fleet of up to 50 Mastiff armoured patrol vehicles – designed to withstand the blast from the most powerful mines and roadside bombs.

The helicopter shortage is becoming a real problem

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox will demand answers about what he says is a scandalous shortage of helicopters in Helmand, which has left British troops more vulnerable to roadside bombs.
He told the BBC: “If we have an inability to move our troops safely, or we only have the option of moving them on the ground, that does increase the risk to them.”
Mr Fox claimed that at the beginning of recent operations “up to 10” of 12 Chinook helicopters used to transport 350 British soldiers had to be borrowed from US forces.
He said the problems stemmed from cuts to the budget covering helicopters at a time when Britain had been fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our troops, and our allies troops, need all the resources we can give them to get their job done.

Some People Need To Practice Safe Swine

In all of their, er, activities

Pigs at risk from people as new flu spreads
LONDON (Reuters) – There is a growing risk that pigs will catch the new H1N1 flu strain — commonly known as swine flu — from humans, German researchers said on Thursday.
Widespread transmission from people to pigs could mix up virus strains further, leading to unpredictable changes in the disease.
There have already been a handful of suspected cases of humans passing the current pandemic H1N1 virus to swine. The latest German research confirms it is infectious to pigs and can spread rapidly.

There’s something about the phrase “the latest German research” that just gets me nervous…

WordPress

I’m getting tired of MT and I’m considering changing the Swilling to WordPress.
Anyone have any experience/comments on that?
Thanks

Oh Great

Just what I want to happen right by my house

TRENTON — President Barack Obama will appear at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel … not New Brunswick … when he comes to New Jersey for a campaign rally for Gov. Jon Corzine next week.
The Corzine campaign announced on its Web site Thursday that the rally would be moved from Rutgers University in New Brunswick to accommodate a larger crowd.
Corzine campaign manager Maggie Moran says in a Web video the move was made to accommodate the anticipated crowd.
More than 50,000 people have signed up through the governor’s Web site hoping to go. About 17,500 will be allowed to attend the July 16 rally.

The Garden State Parkway will be completely shut down for hours on a Thursday in the height of the Summer Shore season.
What could possibly go wrong?
$20 says this costs Corzine more votes than it gains him.

And The Worst Tourists Are…

Sacre Bleu!

French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as penny-pinching, rude and terrible at languages, according to a new survey.
The study by travel company Expedia asked 4,500 hotels worldwide to rank tourists on their behaviour.

But the competition was fierce

France’s rivals for the world’s “worst tourist” tag, Spaniards and Greeks, came near the bottom of the pack in almost every category.

Well, my invitation to a certain french couple still stands.
I’m big that way.

A “Mission Accomplished” Moment?

Schmaybe, schmaybe not. But you might as well play it like one.

Read more »

Lab Vindication!

Oops! Sorry!
Scottish Judges prove their clear-sightedness

A dog walker who was knocked down and injured by a black labrador has failed to convince appeal judges to award her £160,000 in damages.
…Lord Malcolm said: “In my view, what occurred was an unfortunate and unforeseen collision – it was a pure accident.
“If the law was to consider a labrador running in a field as something which is dangerous in itself, this would come close to making dog owners insurers in respect of all injuries and damage caused by their animals.”
…Sir David said the question for the appeal judges became: “Are fully grown black labradors, by virtue of their physical attributes or habits, likely, unless controlled or restrained, to injure severely or kill persons or animals?”

The answer is, of course, hell no!

Would it help if I fell asleep on your feet?

There Are No Green Shoots

…says the chairman/CEO of American Express. (And the Obamacans are gonna have a hard time calling his views a racist distraction.)

But I’d be VERY wary of the bus that was taking me back to the resort if I were him.
UPDATE: Wowsers! I can’t believe what I’ve been hearing, but CNBC has been all NObama, ALL day. The latest CEO to jump on the Beat Up the ‘Bama Bus is CKE’s [Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., etc.] Andy Pudzer, who just said:

…”What we need is someone to get scared. 9.4% unemployment would scare me. but I guess it doesn’t scare the government. It just scared them into spending more money. They need to do something to stimulate business.

Spending on roads and bridges don’t get it.”

It’s been an astonishing smack-down, from floor traders speaking their mind to CEO after CEO. Recently acquitted former AIG head Hank Greenberg (“Greenberg has criticised AIG since his ouster [2005], which was unrelated to the company’s massive financial problems over the past year…During the trial, he continued his attacks on the managers who succeeded him, saying, “Things do change when you have a management that does not adhere to principles that would be good for AIG stock.“) said…

“…government involvement [forcing officer removals/installations, etc.] in private business is un-American…”

‘Twould appear there’s quite a few folks who didn’t get the Hope ‘n Change memo…

On Thin Ice

Sigh. I guess now we can only await her wedding-night video

(CNN) — Former figure skating champion and Olympian Nicole Bobek was free on bond Tuesday after New Jersey police accused her of being part of a drug ring.
Former figure skating champion Nicole Bobek faces drug charges in New Jersey.
Bobek, 31, who won the U.S. figure skating title in 1995, was arrested at her home in Jupiter, Florida, last week on a charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Hudson County, New Jersey, according to Guy Gregory of the Hudson County prosecutor’s office.

This is your Rink Leader on drugs
Quite a crop of little skating princesses we produced in the early 90s, eh?

Passing Wind

Forget all those commercials: T. Boone’s becalmed

NEW YORK (CNN) — Billionaire oil man T. Boone Pickens is shelving plans to build the world’s largest wind farm.
T. Boone Pickens says the capital markets will not support his plans to build the world’s largest wind farm.
The chairman of BP Capital Management announced Tuesday that his plans for the Pampa Wind Project, designed to generate 4,000 megawatts of electricity using thousands of wind turbines, is on hold.
“I had hoped that Pampa would be the starting point, but transmission issues and the problem with the capital markets make that unfeasible at this point,” Pickens told CNN’s Ali Velshi. “I expect to continue development of the Pampa project, but not at the pace that I originally expected.”

No surprise, really. With the global recession and subsequent drop in the oil markets wind power makes very little economic sense, and when combined with NIMBYism most of these projects generate nothing more than smug press from politicians about how they’re “making a difference for the children.”
There was one little interesting point in the article, though:

Renewable energy is the source of only a small portion of electricity used today, but in 2008, the United States became the world’s leading provider of wind power.

Damn you, Chimpy! How’d you let that happen on your watch?

WHAT a Great Plan!!!

U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in — only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women’s burqa robes.

Jesus, we just NEVER freakin’ learn. And our kids get to pay for our willful, mealy-mouthed blindness over and over and over again.

LET THEM DO THEIR JOBS, Obama.
Or bring them the fuck HOME.

IMHO: On the McNair Murder

Two words sprung immediately to mind:

Garden Weasel

Doncha Just Hate It

…when somebody lays numbers out that way/people can SEE what’s going to happen?

Obama’s Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011
President Obama’s budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.

Man, I **HEART** me some Tapper.
But I’d steer clear of buses if I were him…

Kate P, Book Goddess

Seriously. if it wasn’t for her I probably would not have heard of or bought Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, and I would have missed out on the funniest book I’ve read in a long long time.
Now I freely admit that P&P is a book and story that I know very well, and I laughed out loud this weekend reading lines like this

“His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion, but little in the way of combat training.”

The way the zombie story is woven into Austen’s words is brilliant, and with one notable exception it works exceedingly well (and no I’m not going to spoil anything by mentioning the one plot element that rings false, at least to me).
For a quick, fun read I highly recommend it.

Stock Futures Lower Again

Obama’s “false Spring” may be ending

(Reuters) – Stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday following a long weekend, as oil tumbled nearly $3 a barrel on mounting doubts over a quick economic recovery.
At 4:54 a.m. EDT, futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.9 percent, Dow Jones futures were down 0.9 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.9 percent.
Oil sank to a five-week low near $64 a barrel on Monday, as investors remained cautious over the prospects of a speedy global economic turnaround, while the dollar gained ground in the wake of last week’s grim U.S. jobs data.

When the only sector of the economy that has added jobs…is the government, then you know you’re screwed.

The Smartest, Most Brilliant, Most Saavy Administration EH-vah

And they can’t read…

U.S. misread scale of Honduran rift
Zelaya’s ties to Venezuela’s Chávez was source of concern for opponents
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Although the U.S. government knew for months that Honduras was on the brink of political chaos, officials say they underestimated how fearful the Honduran elite and the military were of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

…a damn thing right?

Biden: ‘We misread how bad the economy was’
He stands by stimulus package, says jobs will be created in months ahead
WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration “misread how bad the economy was” but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up.

Schmaybe we need to have czar created to insure Barack and Co. revisit the basics before they blow anything else for lack of cognizance and comprehension. We’ll call it:

“No Chider Left Behind”

Lest We Forget

…the cost of it all.

When in the Course of human events

it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Read more »

This Guy Defines “Pitiful”

…It’s not unusual to see a flag in liberal provinces, of course.

But in the Bush years of sanctioned torture and war built on deceit, many Americans withdrew from overt displays of patriotism.

Some said they were ashamed of their country.

News flash, idiot. Only you and your sensitive friends cowered from that hideous symbol of neo-conservatism and torturing war-mongers, that GARISH red, white and blue banner of shame.
The REST of us remember what that Manhattan hole in the ground looked like beFORE the airplanes hit, remember what the aging gentlemen with the VFW pisscutters did to be able to march in the parade, get a little teary eyed when we watch “Glory”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Sgt York”, “Patton”…and don’t think Jeff Daniel was half as bad a George Washington as we thought he was going to be. Remember that, at the very moment your bemused piece appears in a safe and comfortable environ, that there are men and women in the service of that flag who don’t get to choose there wars. Who die where they are sent by a freely elected government and ask only that we remember THEM. They do not ask us to cherish their sacrifice, but I do. MY friends do. And I set those little flags out every morning and hope in my heart that, somewhere in an Afghani goat cave, with the horrors that surround them…I hope they know.
And a fair amount of us sniffle like little girls when we hear the Star Spangled Banner, because there’s so much wrapped up in that song, written in the heat of yet another battle defending our freedoms…thinking of family and friends in uniform and the flood of emotion can take our breath away at the very first “Oh, say can you see…?”
Yes. We can. And we have always proudly hailed it. Because it is a constant, like that “We the People” piece of paper. They stand firm always, ensuring that BOTH the torturing war-mongers and elite, ineffectual, guilt-ridden intellectuals will not perpetually lead us, should we choose to make the change. Your banner of shame is our symbol of RIGHT ~ not a political leaning, but a freedom ensured by the pursuit of a “more perfect union”.
I am sorry your world is so small that something so wonderful has to creep back into it. How sad that someone can only raise those stars and stripes when his candidate wins, and now it’s cool again. ‘Safe’, you mean. So you don’t get picked on by those “urban Americans” ~ those sophisticated, embittered, twisted lip, sneering decriers of anything remotely red, white and blue. I’d tiptoe timidly through that bunch, too. “I support the troops, BUT…”…red, white and blue is neo-fascist. How things change! Writing for the New York Times, your target audience has grappled with the same roiling guilts and anguishes (Check the comments ~ you scored beaucoup “empathy” points!) and now your tormented, cowering collective all can fist bump virtually together. Krishna, krishna.
And safely wear your little flag pins.
But for your president, not your country.
I’ll never get it.

Get Ready For Some Serious Spinning

Let’s see how The One and his worshipful followers in the Media spin this

WASHINGTON (AP) – Out-of-work with no place to land, the legions of America’s unemployed are growing. The Labor Department is scheduled to release a report Thursday expected to show the nation’s unemployment rate edging closer to double digits. Wall Street economists predict the jobless rate will rise to 9.6 percent in June from 9.4 percent in May. That would mark a 26-year high.
The rising rate comes as recession-weary companies continue to cut workers. Economists expect a loss of 363,000 jobs in June, up from 345,000 job cuts in May.

Mind you you, this is during the promised “accelerated” stimulus spending that has “created or saved” some 30 million jobs since January as the unemployment rate continues to, er, climb to 26 year highs.
Damn you Chimpy!
Oh, and there’s this

Even if companies slow the pace of layoffs, they will be reluctant to hire until they feel certain the economy is back on its feet. That’s why economists are forecasting a continued rise in the unemployment rate over the next year. It’s expected to hit 10 percent this year.
Many think it could rise as high as 10.7 percent by the second quarter of next year before it starts to make a slow descent. Some think the rate will top out at 11 percent. Others think the peak will lower — around 10.5 percent — by the spring of 2010.

Yep, there’s going to be some serious spinning coming out of DC over the next few days.
My guess is, much like they do when their education or welfare polices fail, they will respond that the problem is not the policy but the scope, so we need to spend even more.
Gulp.

Father’s Day Grub

In every man there is some flaw, some tragic quality that leads them from the path of Grace to that of peril, ruin and perdition. For some, this Siren takes the form of narcotics; for others it’s money; whilst others invariably yield to the allure of a woman.
Strong and heady temptations all. Yet none, in my mind, is so deceptive, so cunning, so singularly focused in its irresistible draw that pulls me in to its inescapable maelstrom as…Costco’s Meat Department. My God. Do you folks realize that they are now selling Prime meats? Not “Select.” Not only their usual “Choice” grade (which is damned good) but Prime grade, the highest grade of meat, at ridiculous prices. Just look at this

Boneless Prime Ribeye for $9.99 per pound. Most places charge a minimum of $20-25 (and a restaurant will charge you at least $35 for each steak) for these babies…and just look at them

That soft still voice you hear is the exquisite marbling crying out to be generously coated (on both sides) with Montreal Seasoning and left to sit at room temperature for 45 minutes or so whilst your Bride makes the Creamed Spinach of the Gods and some pan-roasted Rosemary Red Po-taters as the grill heats up. I’ve become a convert to the “reverse sear” method of grilling, where you cook the steaks indirectly on lower heat then sear them on high heat at the end of the cooking.
Now what to imbibe during this…

yummmmmmmmmm. As you know I really don’t like spending more than $10 on wine if I can avoid it, so when I do I want to make damn sure that it’s worth it. For $19 this Mondavi Cab is simply fantastic; full of luscious smooth fruit and velvety chocolate yumminess.
Especially when joined with the assembled Father’s Day Feast

And the second bottle was even better.

“Roadside” Game Hens

As I’ve mentioned before we’re big fans of the Roadside Chicken recipe posted at the Virtual Weber Bulletin Board. A few weeks ago I decided to see how it would work on Cornish Game Hens. So I prepared the marinade and, er, marinated the wee buzzards

for a few hours, flipping occasionally, and grilled them over indirect heat until the usual sign of avian doneness (clear juices and loose bones, etc) and served them with some grilled asparagus (which had itself been marinated in lime juice, balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil) and some of that faithful old standby: Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice mix

There’s something just primally satisfying about having an entire carcass on your plate.
And damned tasty, too.

To Counter Those Ugly And Unsubstantiated Rumors…

…spread most likely by fauxpseudovinoenvyists that “all” I’m imbibing of late comes from a box may I offer the following partial testament from June









Oops, that last one is the mussels (recipe here)I made last Friday as an excuse to consume the Sancerre…

Filed Under: Why Celebrities ALWAYS Know What’s Best for Us

…and why they tell us so often.
Because they’re deep, people. Deep people. Smart and DEEP, like the deepest blue of Gwinnie’s eyes, but deeper than that. Deep like the ocean, but only DEEPER. Deeper than the deep happiness she felt when we all voted for Obama because she told us to, but, like even DEEPER. Like deepitydeepdeepdeep DEEP DEEPER.
But deeper than that.

…In a new interview which is sure to irk her American fans, Gwyneth belittles her native country’s 223 years of history compared to the older nation of Spain.
The Oscar winner fell in love with the country when she spent a month living with a family in Talavera de la Reina in central Spain when she was 15.
Speaking in Spanish, she said: ‘When I was 15, I went to a small town outside Talavera de la Reina and I had the most wonderful experience. It really changed my life.
‘Spain became a second home. It is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a history, and the buildings are years and years and years old.

‘Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it’s from 500 B.C., it’s incredible…’

**fans self** “Incredible”, indeed!
I read her words and feel something deep, too…rumbling in my bowels.
Excuse me for a minute.