Twins Separated At Birth?

I know that the only thing happening in all the world today is Chelsea’s wedding, and I do sincerely wish her all the happiness in the world and a most joyous and loving marriage.

But, really,

what the hell was Hillary smoking?

When You’re Done Listening to Bingley’s Videos

…think positive!

Saturday ‘Listnin And Learnin’

Pour yourself a cup of coffee or wine and settle in for some clear thoughts that are exceedingly relevant for our time. They are well worth the 25 minutes or so.

Spam Of The Day

On this post about terrorism in India was left this comment by my close friend “Free NY Limos”

I think this is one of the healthiest vegetables. It always helps satisfies my hunger and doesn’t have much calories versus the amount.

Ho-kay….

Speaking of Sexy Men in Uniform: Remember My Nephew Darkstar?

(I mean, after the unfortunate “taunting” incident?)

You know, the post where his mom (our very own, much loved Kcruella) and I went up for his Army graduation at Fort Benning? (wait…there’s the taunting again…)

Well, I think the Army agrees with him splendidly, don’t you? He has a comPLETEly adorable wife (and baby girl due this winter), who has been a consumate, good humored trooper, God bless her. They’ve just gotten back from living in Korea for a year (she joined him on her own) and were stationed in Colorado.

He leaves for a year in Afghanistan Sunday morning.

I know your mother’s already threatened you as far as “volunteering” goes (The specter of waking up in a hospital in Germany with Kcruella and aunts en masse circling the sickbed should be deterrent enough. I can get there Space “A”, with a Dunkin Donuts box.), so ’nuff said.

Don’t worry about a single thing here ~ that girl of yours is dynamite. (And like the New Jersey crew would ever let a thing go awry?) Take care of yourself and your guys. We’re so damn proud of you, don’t you know.

We love you, Creature.

Has The Worm Turned?

MSM’s favorite Bushy McHitler headline now used on Obama

Grim milestone as three U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By the CNN Wire Staff

…The grim milestone comes amid concern at home over Washington’s strategy in the Afghanistan war.

Hmmmm………

GDP “Unexpectedly” Only 2.4% Growth

I’m sure the response will be “we need more stimulus.”

Update: Ah, don’t you love the old Friday Morning Revisions?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The recession was deeper than the government previously thought.

The Commerce Department, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year — the steepest drop since 1946. That’s worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated.

The economy’s plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1 percent in October, a 26-year high.

The revisions in gross domestic product, or GDP, now show zero growth in 2008. That compares with a 0.4 percent gain previously estimated.The economy also grew less in 2007 (1.9 percent) than earlier thought (2.1 percent).

And it ain’t getting any better, folks.

If You Don’t Want Nekkid Pictures Of Yourself On The Internet

…Well, it seems to me best if you don’t take them in the first place

SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) — A Sacramento woman says a tech support engineer in India managed to expose her secrets and make charges to her credit card after she called him with a desperate request.

There’s no getting around the fact that Tara Fitzgerald was faced with an embarrassing situation and a 14-year-old daughter in the house.

“I was missing pictures on my computer. And they were personal pictures and I didn’t feel comfortable,” said Fitzgerald.

Oh, and there’s also no getting around the fact that she, um, makes poor decisions…

So she called Dell support for help with her new Dell computer and delicate problem. She was connected to a Dell support contractor in Mumbai, India named Riyaz Shaikh.

“I trusted him. I trusted him because he was a Dell technician and I don’t like the cyberworld, you’re so vulnerable,” said Fitzgerald.

She gave the technician permission to access her computer remotely and watched as he found the pictures and downloaded them.

Shockingly, dear Riyaz then promptly created a website and posted the photos.

But the story gets even better (you’ll have to read the link to find out).

Suffice it to say that our Dear Tara ain’t the brightest star in the firmament.

A Certain **Ahem** Handsome Airman First Class

…is getting his choice of duty station for being number one in his Weather class.

(Not that his mother would brag or anything unseemly like that.)

Overachievers are sexy, no?

UNEXPECTED BFD News for Smartest Administration Eh-Vah

Today’s Recovery Bummer round up:

The nascent US economic recovery would be halted in 2011 if Congress fails to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, analysts at Deutsche Bank said.

Ouch! That’s gotta hurt!

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economic recovery will remain slow deep into next year, held back by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.

The latest quarterly AP Economy Survey shows economists have turned gloomier in the past three months. They foresee weaker growth and higher unemployment than they did before.

…The unemployment rate will be no lower at the end of the year than it is now — 9.5 percent.

A majority think it will be 2015 or later before the rate falls to a historically normal 5 percent.

Whoa! That’s sure gonna leave a mark!

I’ll bet somebody’s gonna need a vacation when he hears this. Whaddaya think? Any takers?

Project Runway Season 8

STARTS TONIGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAH-hhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 p.m.EST/PST, 8 p.m. casa de major dad time!!!!!!

Breaks My Heart

Body of 2nd missing US Navy sailor recovered in eastern Afghanistan; US, Afghan officials say

Man.

As Always, a Hilarious Jules Post From LURCH Central

(Right here) But.
What really got me? This second-to-last line from Jules about at the end (emphasis mine).

…But enough with the class warfare, now that he’s been forced to pay up like a commoner. Prime election time is coming up, and it will be interesting to see which local candidates, congressional or gubernatorial, are ready to embrace Old Owed-Or-Not, and which will treat him like some kind of biblical ocean-going pariah. Could get awkward next month. The Obamas are vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard. Don’t bring the boat over, John!

The SOB can’t stay off the telly and he SURE as HELL can’t stay home either, can he?

I need a barf bag and it’s not for motion-induced nausea.

It’s just to get through the next 2 1/2 years.

Evil Elf Murders Afghans

How many will die because this little turd published the names of the brave people who have helped Coalition forces?

Oh, but he’ll be the very toast of the Chardonnay Set this Summer, though, won’t he?

Go read Fausta, and set your blood a-boil.

OUTRAGE

The only word possible.

Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit

The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.

…As time went on, she says, she tried to use one of the “checks” to buy a bed, and the salesman rejected it. That happened again this year, she says, when she went to a Target store to purchase a camera on Armed Forces Day, May 15.

…Lohman, a public health nurse who helps special-needs children, says she had always believed that her son’s life insurance funds were in a bank insured by the FDIC.

That money — like $28 billion in 1 million death-benefit accounts managed by insurers — wasn’t actually sitting in a bank.

NOT a penny of it is FDIC ensured. One of the “handbooks” omits that information entirely, not that a grieving family would notice the omission.

Read the WHOLE thing.

SHARE the WHOLE thing. How many of us have active duty kids, know someone who does, or, like our own Skyler, are active duty themselves?

Bullshit, my friends. This can NOT stand.

Obama Administration/Pelosi Congress TRANSPARENCY: CLEAR As Mud and Bright as

…night.

SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure

So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

I think we need Dr. Peabody and Sherman’s “Way Back Machine”…

…to (in the words of the high school cheerleader I never was):

“Push ’em BACK! Push ’em BACK! WAAAAYYYY BACK!”

And the Award for “Most Pretentiously Named Work in the Non-Fiction Category” Goes To…!”

Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

…by James Hansen.

And (from a review I’ve found), of course, the book opens “with an interesting chapter on his [ths: Dr. Hansen’s] participation in four meetings of Vice President Dick Cheney’s cabinet-level Climate Task Force in 2001. It seems that the Bush Administration was prepared to let Dr. Hansen’s views on climate change influence policy. However, Dr. Richard Lindzen, whom Hansen describes as “the dean of of global warming contrarians”, was also present at the meetings. Dr.Lindzen was able to confuse the task force members enough so that they never took Dr. Hansen’s views seriously.”

Get. Outta. Muthalovin’ DODGE?!?!?!??!?! NOT Bush again?

DAMN those constantly confusable, confused Bushians!

(You just never know where the little devils’ll pop up in the blame game next, do you? Great googleymoogly, I wish I’d trademarked the bastard ~ for every Bush whine, a dime! In just the past 20 months of incompetent bitching, major dad and I could have accrued enough petulant lucre to purchase a seagoing conveyance to make Lurch’s tax scofflaw look positively scowish!) (No offense intended, TahRAYza. Talking boats here.)
Anyways.

BUY. THIS. BOOK.
Or we all dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…….aaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Sorry, it’s true. Book says so. No shit. Guy’s a doctor.

Tax Evader Payer Reports For Duty

You’re a shining example to us all, Lurch

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Sen. John Kerry has told the Massachusetts Department of Revenue he will pay all the taxes due on his new $7 million yacht despite basing the vessel in tax-free Rhode Island .

In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, the Democrat said, “The payment is being made promptly.”

He was Swift Yachted!

In his statement, Kerry says, “Whether owed or not, we intend to pay the equivalent taxes as if the boat’s home-port were currently in Massachusetts.”

As if.

Hello To Our Readers From Iran

Hi! I hope you’re having a nice day there in Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari.

But just don’t let the Imam know you got here by googling “tasty juicy butt” because the questions that might raise would be…unpleasant, I’d imagine.

I Couldn’t Resist This One

(h/t Darleen)

Please Pass The Ketchup

Folks are just going to town on poor JFK

Oh, the hurtfulness. Boston Herald piles on, with New England boat builders wondering why, in times of hardship, Sen. Thurston Howell … I mean John Kerry, D-Mass., had to outsource his luxury, going halfway around the world to buy the $7 million luxury yacht he was berthing across state lines in tax-free Rhode Island

Read the whole thing; it’s just wonderful.

When is Lurch up for re-election?

Moink Moink Moink

The other day I mentioned that I was trolling food blogs looking for inspiration…and in my usual hangout I came upon the Moink…basically bite-sized meatloaves wrapped in bacon. What’s not to love?

I mixed together a pound of ground beef, added a cup of seasoned bread crumbs, 2 eggs, three chopped cloves of garlic, some salt, some pepper and a tablespoon of berbere spice

got myself half a pound of bacon (as you can see I cut the pound in half for short strips and I froze the other half)

I made little meatball sized, er, meatballs and wrapped each lovingly with a half strip of bacon and secured with a toothpick

than on to the new grill for some indirect charcoal cooking

after a half hour or so the bacon had crisped up nicely

and we had a most delightful appetizer, served with my variation on the Number 5 sauce for dipping.

I Admit It

I’m a sucker for a label that strikes my fancy

For about $7 I figured “why not?”

Sadly the bottle I had wasn’t all that good; the acidity had turned somewhat sour.

Ah well.

When The Bride’s Away…

A few weeks ago my Bride and Daughter were out of town for the week and once again left me cruelly to my own devices. Every year when they do this I end up wandering around food stores like the 13th Tribe looking for the gluttonous promised land. I was trying to think of something else to use the baby portabellas I had in, as ‘shrooms are generally verboten when the Beloved Ladies are around. Since it was early July and only around 95 in both temperature and humidity I figured what better Summer dish than a nice hearty lamb and potato and mushroom skillet?

As I am a big tent kind of guy I picked up some of those funky fingerling rainbow coalition ‘taters

and sliced them as thin as I dare attempt after a drink or two

well, first actually that empty glass needed to be taken care of

I do apologize for this shoddy caipirinha technique; please be assured that I would never use the lime press for guests but by gum it sure does speed things up when I am thirsty. Claude, of course, purist that he is, found my corner-cutting to be beneath contempt

Anyhow, refreshed and refilled I carefully made ever thicker slices of these pretty little things called spuds

until I had about a pound or so done

Now I threw half a stick of butter into the pan and let it meltify

over medium-high heat and dumped in the spuds with a little salt and pepper as I reckoned they’d take a while to cook

Now it was time to turn my attention to the lamb, which suddenly made a certain someone forget his earlier (wholly justified) disdain for me

after tithing him his portion of the ground lamb in it went to a different pan

to be browned and drained of all that lanolin slickness. This gave me a moment to slice up about a pound of the baby ‘bellas and mince up a little onion and toss them in with the spuds

along with some rosemary and a little bit of thyme. After five minutes or so in went five cloves of garlic

and a couple of minutes after that the by now browned and drained lamb made its glorious entrance

I then added about a half inch of beef stock

loosely covered it and let it simmer for, oh, twenty minutes or so while I attended to some pressing business

that I could no longer safely ignore.

At the end of the twenty or so minutes things smelled quite delish and it had reduced somewhat to the point where it was rather good

Not quite traditional “light” Summer fare, but, hey, that’s why we have air conditioning.

Meh

can…not…get…motivated