Ubuntu in da house!

For political junkies

Cool statistics/polling site, written by a guy from Baseball Prospectus.

Numbers and pie-charts and cartograms, oh my!

Yay!

Carpets have been munched put down.

What a difference. Now we just need the furniture-moving fairies to show up to put the rooms back together.

Better to know your enemy?

TJ sent me this link to Mass Equality, an LGBT action group.

Listen to the audio clip.

Something tells me that hateful asshole identifies as "Christian" and "Republican." Just a hunch.

Where's Waldo?

Quick! Find Michael Jackson in this picture:



Yup.

Yankees

Man, the glow of that little 5-game winning streak certainly faded fast...

Pitching, anyone?

Flikr browsing

I hate Flikr, because it's too damned slow, but this is an amazing way to browse photos by tags.

Kyle Farnsworth, masterbaker

See, Toast? He serves a purpose after all.

Literary criticism and baseball, a match made in heaven

I heart the Dugout.

"We will now offer queries regarding the logic, circumstances, and meanings both ostensible and deconstructed."

That just kills me.

Memorial Day Weekend Wine and Food Blogging

We had to skip the Rusch's annual party this year, for the first time I can remember. Way too many projects to get done if we're going to get this house on the market for an open house on June 6th.

But, all work and no play makes us dull children, so good food and wine are in order. Our little reward system, if you must.

I don't even remember Friday's dinner, we probably just winged it with some eggs or something. But the wine... oh! the wine. The Colonial Estate Explorateur Old Vine Shiraz, Barossa Valley, 2005, $35. Wow.

The pour: very very dark. We settled on garnet. Nice clarity with very slight rim variation. Long, long legs.

Nose? You want nose?! Quick, go to your fridge, open up a jar of blackberry jam, and stick your schozz right in there. Then double it. And add some cherry jam, some wood, and some pepper. Huge! The taste followed suit. Thick mouthfeel, spices and fruits pinging every taste bud, the roof of your mouth, the back of your throat. Big, big wine. 8 points.

The weekend's menu was greatly enhanced by Erica's trip to the farmer's market. She brought home some just-picked arugula (elitist!), blue potatoes, bok choy, and lamb chorizo.

Saturday's menu:
Breaded catfish, rice, and bok choy. I make my own breadcrumbs most of the time, and there's no fixed recipe. Just toast the hell out of some not-so-fresh bread, and put it in the food processor with garlic powder, fresh ground pepper, sea salt, and whatever the hell else I feel like at the moment. For this meal, I added some bacon/horseradish dry rub to the crumbs. Dip the fish in eggs, batter thoroughly, and pan-fry in olive oil. The rice was basmati, to which I added nothing, because it would get the sauté liquids. The bok choy I had to research on the internets, and after checking out 5 or 6 preparation methods, settled on a 10-second boil in highly-salted water, followed by an immediate transfer to ice-water, then on to paper towels to get the water out of it. In a pan, I started up a sauce of olive oil, soy, sweet-n-sour, black pepper, and garlic. When the fish was almost done, I did a quick sauté of the bok choy in that sauce, just to get it back up to temperature.

No idea which wines we had. Oops.

Sunday's menu:
Sirloin steaks, mashed blue potatoes, sautéed arugula, and home-made bread. Very simple, but oh so tasty. I do my steaks in a cast-iron pan which I heat the hell out of for a nice sear, and then turn the flame way down to let residual heat take care of the rest. Just pepper and Greek sea salt, people. If you need to use A1, you're eating a bad steak. Basic mash on the potatoes: boil, then beat in the KitchenAid with tons of butter, fresh garlic, and half-and-half. They were so tasty. Must buy more. The bread was the hit of the day, though. I've been experimenting a lot with the bread-maker, because the recipes in the book always result in too dense a loaf. Tasted great, mind you, but I want my bread light and fluffy inside, with lots of bubbles. This was probably the best attempt yet. We nibbled at it all afternoon, and by the time dinner came around we had finished more than half of it. Plain, with butter, with gouda, plain, with olive oil, etc. Perfect. Just the right sweetness as it dissolved in our mouths. Mmmmmm.

The wines: a Mondavi Fume Blanc that I wasn't too fond of, but Erica enjoyed. I thought it was too grassy and raw. So I stuck with rum over ice, sipping slowly throughout the day. Very minor buzz, just enough to take the edge off the sheetrock and spackle and paint and putty and... Then, with dinner, Terra Única Tempranillo-Monastrel Reserva, Valencia, 2002, $9. Very nice wine, good spices, a definite hint of Spanish terroir. We forgot to take notes, unfortunately. Well worth it, if not spectacular. 7 points.

Monday's menu:
Who knows? I've got another loaf of bread going, and a turkey in the oven, but that's mostly for having food around during the week. Erica had mentioned grouper, so I might pull some of that out of the freezer. Leftover blue mash, maybe, and some more experimenting with the arugula.

The wines:
Our first bottle today, a McGregor Vineyard Pinot Noir Rosé. Perfect for a hot day. Crisp, with a nice mineral finish. Part of our membership package, it's not available to the public. Probably just didn't make enough.

Second up, McGregor Rosé de Cabernet Franc. Very tasty, and again, a perfect complement to the hard work and hot weather.

Third, an old Amarone di Valpolicella I rescued from the cellar. It was pricey 4 or 5 years ago, as all Amarones are, and I didn't want it to go bad. Also, the less wine we have to move, the better. Rich and fruity, with just enough tannin left to keep a balance. I love Amarones, but understand how they're too much for some palates.

No formal dinner, after all. We nibbled on turkey as I carved it, attacked the bread I made today, and I polished off the leftover catfish with some blue potato mash.

All in all, a very productive weekend. Four or five projects scratched off the list, and a few more started but not finished yet.

Thursday is the big day, when carpet gets put down in 4 rooms, and I start to tear apart the master bath.

Phew. Good fucking night, people.

Brilliant, again

Wow.

I wonder how much that would have cost.

UPDATE: Fake. As many Giz commenter said at the time. Still a great piece, and still a work of art. Just in a different way.

Meme!

Well, that's one way to end the drought. Tag me with an alcohol meme.

1. Beer, wine, liquor, mixed drinks. Rank 'em.

   1. Beer
   2. Wine
   3. Rum
   4. Bourbon
   5. Tequila

2. How often do you drink?

   Pretty much every day.
   

3. Favorite Scotch?

   Laphroaig and Lagavulin.

4. Favorite Bourbon?

   Maker's Mark

5. Favorite tequila?

   None that I can think of. As long as it's 100%, and aged well, I'll try it.

6. Favorite Gin?

   Bombay Sapphire

7. Favorite Vodka?

   Whatever.

8. Favorite Rum?

   Gosling's Bermuda Black

9. Drunkest you've ever been?

   Probably when I funneled screwdrivers freshman year at RPI. 1 liter vodka, 1 quart OJ, less than an hour.
   

10. Red or White?

    Red, but we enjoy busting out some good whites on the deck in the summer.
    

11. Best wine you've ever tasted?

    No such thing.

12. Favorite type of wine?

    I love so many varietals, I'm not going to try to pick a true favorite. Lately I've been gravitating to "non-standard" wines, like Malbec, Carménère, etc.. Always looking for new stuff.
    

13. Favorite every-day red?

    Yellow Tail Shiraz Reserve. Really, spend that extra dollar. The difference between the generic one that took the country by storm a couple years ago and the Reserve is tremendous.

14. Favorite every-day white?

    KJ Chardonnay is a little too expensive for every day, even at BJs, but it's real good.
    

15. Best value wine?

    Too many to mention. Most of our drinking is "cheap" wine, from BJs. There's a ton of good stuff at $6 to $9.

16. Do you drink box?

    There are too few good ones. It's a great concept, but I hate spending $20 (even if it's for 4 bottles of wine) and then feeling like I have to choke it down.
    

17. Fastest you've ever gotten drunk?

    See: most drunk above.
    

18. Longest you've ever stayed drunk?

    There were a few 4-5 day stretches in college.
    

19. Ever do anything you really regret while drunk?

    Yeah, of course. A drove a lot in college, even if it was only 2 miles up the hill. Punched a window and wound up with a few stitches. A couple dickish things. You know the deal.
    

20. Favorite lager?

    Grolsch.

21. Favorite IPA?

    Dogfish Head 60-minute.

22. Favorite brown ale?

    Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale

23. Favorite doppelbock?

    Samichlaus.
    

24. Favorite Belgian?

    Ommegang from the US, and Duvel's Tripel. (UPDATE: Chimay Blue, too.)
    

25. Favorite stout?

    Péché Mortel and Dogfish World Wide Stout. I ain't pickin' just one. You can't make me.

26. Favorite Winter Ale?

    Don't like most of them. Too much spice, instead of just a hint. If I have to pick one, I'll go Corsendonk.

27. Favorite Scotch Ale?

    McEwan's. Nothing else comes close in this category.

28. Favorite Other? (Because I realize this is getting abusive to non-beer-nerds.)

    Lots of barleywines are competing for this slot.
    

29. Favorite Brewery?

    Dogfish Head

30. Favorite mixed drink?

    Rum Swizzle. Cuba Libre. Manhattan. Mint Julep (made my way).
    

31. Favorite morning libation?

    Bloody Mary.

32. Do you suffer memory loss when you drink heavily?

    What?

33. Favorite place to drink?

    Hmmm. I don't think I've been to a truly memorable bar. I've had great memories at many places, but to think of any of them as a destination... nope.

34. Favorite sports bar?

    None. Never been to a chain, and the sports bar in downtown Saratoga sucks moosecock.

35. Ever consider AA?

    No. I hate meetings.

I tag Bill. TJ, put yours in comments.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

One of these days I'll actually write something myself (or bring something out of drafts), before this thing becomes a total link-dump.

The Dark Wraith has spoken

On China and "free trade."

Brilliant

Read the whole post to see where this is coming from...

(h/t Pam)

Wait, what year is it again?

Rawk!

Who is John McCain?

Must read.

Hilarious

Best mugshots ever.

Too much awesome.

America!

Harvey now works part time for $8 an hour, and she draws Social Security to help make ends meet. But she still cannot afford an apartment, and so every night she pulls into a gated parking lot to sleep in her car, along with other women who find themselves in a similar predicament.

There are 12 parking lots across Santa Barbara that have been set up to accommodate the growing middle-class homelessness. These lots are believed to be part of the first program of its kind in the United States, according to organizers.

Jeez, I suppose pinko commie liberal DFH-types think there should be ways to help these people. But what we really need are more tax cuts, so the riches trickle down.

For all you clown-haters out there

KSK delivers.

NBA talk

I know there are only "19 NBA fans" out there, of which I'm not one. But I've just got to opine, even though Toast may be the only one of my readers who cares.

While the sport of basketball is pretty damned entertaining, I can't stand the NBA game most of the time. On too many teams, there is only one good-to-great player, which leads to zero team play. Really, as great as Dwyane [sic] Wade is is, do you really want to watch a Heat game? I didn't think so.

So... year in and year out, since I don't have a team to root for (NY doesn't have a basketball team of which I am aware), I pretty much ignore the NBA until the second round of the playoffs, and then only selectively watch interesting teams in compelling series (Suns, Mavs, Spurs, Lakers, etc.). Yeah, the West.

This year, though, the regular season was truly interesting to follow.

To begin, the Celtics went all in during the offseason, and made a series of trades that turned them from a joke into a contender in a matter of two weeks. Changed the landscape of the Eastern Conference before a single game was played.

Then, during the season, the No Balls League, well... grew some. Gasol to the Lakers! Shaq's corpse to the Suns! Kidd to the Mavs! It's like the league's GMs collectively realized that they're paid to work or something.

The regular season in the West was a thing of beauty. I didn't watch any more games than I used to, maybe 2-3 a month, but the playoff race was astoundingly interesting to pay attention to. Every game for the last month was a playoff game. Nine teams were in contention into the final week. Truly, everything sports should be.

Meanwhile, the Celts ran away with the East, Detroit was really good as usual, Orlando was good, LeBron carried another pathetic Cavs team to a better-than-deserved record, and everyone else sucked. It's kind of like ECAC hockey. Everyone makes the playoffs! Yay!

Of course, the playoffs started, and there was a complete reversal. The first round in the West went 4, 5, 5, and 6 games. Boooooo-ring. The East was a little better, going 5, 6, 6, and 7, but that 7-gamer was ridiculous, as the Celts should have taken the Hawks down in 5 games, easy.

Queueueueueue up Round Two, which is when I usually start paying attention. What. The. Fuck? Granted, by this point, the eight teams left should be pretty good (or at least be playing well). And good teams should be able to defend home court, whatever that advantage is statistically. But of the 24 games played so far (with another game 7 to come tomorrow), the home team is 22-2! I'm too lazy to figure out the odds myself, and I'm sure some dedicated NBA blogger has done it already, but that's just out of control strange.

Anyway, enough rambling.

In conclusion:
Go Hornets!!!!! CP3!! CP3!! CP3!!

Shoo! Shoo!

Republican "values" in action.

Don't bring up my gay son when I talk about hating Teh Ghey!

Depressing

The Poorman:

It’s all like this. Everything is just like this. Some blank young person who has memorized a 5" x 7" index card of focus group-approved phrases, yelling, yelling, yelling over everyone. And you can say what you want, and be as right as you want, but he’s going to keep yelling, and yelling, and yelling until you get sick of it, and at the end of the day everybody knows that Barack Obama goes to secret Muslim church. Everything is like this. An election won’t fix it. This rules the world.

Now, the inspiration for that is fucking hilarious:


But still, the fact that's it's noteworthy for a media hack to actually put a wingnut in his place is depressing. That wingnut is your typical GOP voter. Made of pure stupid.

Damn I'm smooth

I forgot my iPod home a couple days ago, so on my way to work, during the seemingly interminable commercial breaks for Mike and Mike, I switched to Free Beer and Hot Wings, your typical Morning Zoo-type show. They were talking about a survey some men's magazine (I think Men's Health) did in conjunction with some university research team. They studied people watching porn.

So one of the hosts says to the others, "I'll give you five standard porn scenes, and you tell me, from most arousing to least arousing, which the women watching them preferred."

The scenes were:
Man performing oral on woman
Doggy
Woman masturbating
Anal
Woman performing oral on man

The other three people took a few second to write down their lists, and then compared to the real results. They all sucked at it. Of course, the woman on the team happened to be out that day. She's pretty funny, and would have provided some insight, so that was unfortunate timing.

Anyway, I aced it. I was absolutely sure about 1, 2, and 5; 3 and 4, I was waffling a bit, but made my best educated guess.

From most arousing to least, here's what women watching porn preferred:

1. Woman performing oral on man
2. Doggy
3. Anal
4. Woman masturbating
5. Man performing oral on woman


Please share your thoughts and opinions.

More totalitarianism

It's ridiculous that we have to go through this shit.

Splooge

From Uncrate:
The Ferrari California ($TBA) is an all-aluminum 2-seater with a retractable, folding hard top. Under the hood, the Maserati-esque convertible will feature a mid-front mounted 460-hp 4.3-liter V8. Other specs include a 7-speed dual clutch transmission, F1-Trac traction control system, and a 0 to 60 time of under 4 seconds.

I'm grading you, honey

UPDATE: The whole test was found and scanned.

America the disgusting

You know what I would like? I would like our tourism industry to collapse entirely. I want a complete and total destruction of the US economy, and I want it now. Real estate, tourism, manufacturing, service, everything. I mean, we're already 50% of the way there, let's just let it all go. Let's complete the job of turning "republican" into a profanity.

Seriously, why the fuck would anyone want to come here, if this is the potential result?

Some key quotes:

"Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit — meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon — eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out."

"They were pretty shocked that the government could do this sort of thing, because it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.”

And because such “arriving aliens” are not considered to be in the United States at all, even if they are in custody, they have none of the legal rights that even illegal immigrants can claim.

One recent case involved an Icelandic woman who was refused entry at Kennedy Airport because, a dozen years earlier, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, was deported Dec. 10 after what she described as 24 hours of interrogation and humiliating treatment — locked in a cell and barred from making phone calls.

Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Ten days after he landed in Washington, Mr. Salerno was still incarcerated, despite efforts by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and two former immigration prosecutors hired by the Coopers.

“He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Luis Paoli, a lawyer hired by the Coopers, said there was no limit on detention while waiting for an asylum interview. But even after officials agreed the asylum issue had been a mistake, Mr. Salerno was not released.

Own this, you stupid fucking GOP voters. OWN IT. You can't cherry-pick your "republican values." You can't say "well, I'm not a racist/sexist/xenophobe/whatever, I just believe in low taxes" or some shit like that. You own all of this. You are it.

How not to serve your customers

Why the airlines keep going bankrupt.

Christ on a cracker

Dïsködäns

Oh noez! Like sands in the hourglass, the blogwars have risen from the embers of post-deconstructionalist Iraq. Or something.

Here are just a few of the SCUDs and Pätriöts launched over the last few days. Really, bounce around the links and enjoy some wonderful blunderful awfulness.

My favorite:

Cozy little dump, half price!

A gallery of 19 foreclosures.

I'm a dumbass

Meme!

Stolen from Mike, who only posts once every couple months it seems. Fucker. Arm-wrestling, bookshelf-destroying fucker.

1) Ten years ago I was...
Moving from Troy to Saratoga, to live in my parents' house with my brother, who was attending Skidmore. For my parents, trustworthy tenants. For me, cheap rent. For my brother, no $7000 worth of Room & Board tacked on to already-ridiculous tuition loans. Wins all around. Dating Mary. Self-employed, successfully.

2) Five things on today's to-do list:
Not die from this strange stomach pain.
Chug some Pepto.
Get a lot of work done at the office. Fucking Bengali fonts can suck my ass.
Chill with Erica.
Make some phone calls for house-hold projects. Carpets, a couple yards of stone, garage doors, etc.

3) Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:
Buy a baseball team.
Visit many tropical islands.
Have a media room to embarrass even the best movie theaters.

UPDATE: I was so caught up in my newfound wealth, I forgot the things I'd do after my 2 personal needs were taken care of (the islands are for both of us).
Use the money, and the power that comes with it, to make more money for causes. I have 2 or 3 favorites, Erica does too. But rather than just cut $100,000,000 checks to six organizations, I'd want to build something that would make them that much in interest alone. Na-mean? That would be my "job." Building something real, chillin' with Sachs (I'd call him J Sack, 'cuz we'd be tight) and Bono, doin' it and doin' it and doin' it well.

4) Three bad habits:
No such thing.

5) Five places I've lived:
Cherry Valley, NY
Athens, Greece
Troy, New York
Saratoga Springs, NY

I don't remember any towns before Cherry Valley.

6) Six jobs I've had in my life:
Telemarketing
Pizza Delivery
Copy shop (x2)
Translation and typesetting

Fuck, I'm boring.


If you see this, you're tagged.

Speed Racer - the critics

Hah.

As I figured it would, the movie is getting killed critically.

I don't know. I enjoy reading criticism, mostly because I can't write it well myself. But in terms of paying attention to critics, whether music or films, I've found very few voices that consistently speak to me. That's fine; it all just boils down to debate, which can be fun.

Thing is, I see lines like "Or maybe it's the predictable story about a guy who goes up against crooked corporate sponsors" and wonder to myself, doesn't this idiot know that every movie can be boiled down to a one- or two-sentence pitch? Sure, that device isn't new, but what is? It's the execution, dummy!

Maybe it's my ADD-addled brain, but I still believe that it was a fun movie, a basic David vs. Goliath plot well-acted within the context (this was a Japanese cartoon after all), wonderful visually.

I tend to agree that the movie didn't need to be as long as it was; some of the whiz-bang could probably have been cut to bring it in under 2 hours. Other than that though, for escapist entertainment, the movie is all win.

I loved this line though:
I'm being serious when I caution epileptics to avoid this film.

See? I wasn't kidding.

This is bad, but it will not prove to be the "ultimate"

IrvineHousingBlog has another ridiculous house-as-ATM scenario, the largest one he's found yet.

Take out 1 million dollars in 5 years, and just mail in the keys.

WANT

Craftsman 1470 pc. Professional Tool Set

A great collection of mechanics tools. Includes 300 pc. Base Essentials Set (33300), 198 pc. Professional Essentials Set (33198), 189 pc. Specialized Essentials Set (35189), 204 pc. Advanced Access Pro's Set (33204), 106 pc. Advanced Professional Tool Set (35106), 89 pc. Specialized Access Professional Tool Set (35086), 83 pc. Ultimate Fully-Polished Ratcheting Set (35183), 77 pc. Heavy-Duty Mechanic's Set (35079), 94pc. Auto Specialty Professional Tool Set (35098) and 130 pc. Professional Impact Set (34130).

I just had a nerdgasm.

Now I need $9000.

You've got to be kidding me

So I'm reading this, and thinking it's pretty funny for the most part. I mean, sending mass e-mail advertising "sales" on cocaine?

Then this stopped me dead in my tracks:

One student allegedly dealing cocaine was a month short of obtaining a master's degree in Homeland Security and worked with campus police as a student community service officer.

What?!?!? That must be some sort of self-created program, because it's not listed at SDSU's website.

Any input, Chemist or Tart?

A little faster... up and to the left...

Presented without comment

Found at shakes, who found it at another blog, who found it...

Sneak Preview: Speed Racer

A couple weeks ago, I won tickets to tonight's showing of Speed Racer at Crossgates, and boy am I glad I have useless trivia rattling around in my head so I could call into my local ESPN Radio affiliate and answer the question "Name 5 players affected by the Madden Curse."

Brewing partner Bill (link is to his better review, and a cool screen-cap that I didn't find last night) came along, as did Dave, who is always willing to drink the beer at least. Erica backed out at the list minute, as she's just too swamped with grad school work right now, because the prof for her current class decided to add three last-minute assignments to be due this week. Did I mention this is the last week of the class? Hey, dumbass, not all of your students are 22-year-olds just off their first degree. Some are actual teachers (you know, with jobs) who plan their days to the minute; springing 6+ more pages of off-syllabus writing on them at the last minute really fucks with their lives.

Sorry, where was I?

Oh, yes.


One of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. Sumptuous, even.

Solid-to-fantastic performances all around. John Goodman and Susan Sarandon were pitch-perfect as Mom and Pops, and some guy I don't know was just the right amount of over-the-top as the cartoonish bad guy.


Christina Ricci was a great Trixie, and it was nice that the role had more to it than just "the girlfriend." She was sharp. Oh, and pretty damned scrumptious.


Emile Hirch (who was supposedly very good in Into the Wild) was a good choice for Speed. It's been at least 15 years since I've seen an episode of the original cartoon (and I was probably stoned), but he just felt right in the role.


Matthew Fox, inspiration for much Tart lust, was a solid Racer X.


I didn't really have expectations going into this, good or bad, but I was hoping it wasn't another Transformers, pretty but vapid (at least according to everything I heard - I'm not much of a movie person, so I never saw it). Turns out I had nothing to fear.

Now, this ain't Shakespeare, but the plot was more than sufficiently fleshed out, nicely paced, with a perfect balance between comedy and drama. There were plenty of timely theater-wide LOL moments, many involving Chim Chim the monkey and Spritle the little brother.

And did I mention the movie was fucking gorgeous?






Stunning use of color. Remember what a big deal it was a zillion years ago when they did Dick Tracy in primary colors? That idea times 1000. Excellent blend of CGI and meatspace, a nice "illustrated" feel.

If this movie were candy, it would be a Lindt truffle, not a Reese's cup.

My only complaint would be that a couple of the racing scenes were too fast. I honestly can't wait for the DVD, to try to freeze-frame a few of them and figure out what exactly happened.

Rating: 5 stars. Eye candy of the highest order, good story. You will have fun.

My only caveat is that if you are prone to seizures, you might want to stay away. I'm not kidding, I used to date someone who was. We couldn't go to clubs that had strobes or disco balls. This movie might have killed her.

Irony has been dead for a while now...

... but they keep kicking, and kicking, and kicking.



Really, Laura? Really? (sorry, SNL)

Do I really need to mention New Orleans? I didn't think so.

No. This was not an accident.

WTF?

A hunter mistook his son for a turkey, shooting the boy to death in what authorities called a terrible accident.

Oldham County police said a man and his 14-year-old son were hunting on private property in the 2000 block of Rebel Ridge Road about 7 a.m. Sunday when they got separated.

When the father noticed some movement in the woods, he fired a 12-gauge shotgun, accidentally killing his son, police said.

Nope. Sorry.

"Accident" lets this guy off too easily. He heard a noise so he shot at "it?" Without knowing where the other member of his hunting party was? This is why I hunt alone, on my own posted property, or with 5 guys I trust at a second property.

Now, I don't know what the Kentucky hunting season is like, but here in NY, in Spring season we can only take males. Which means we have to be able to identify a beard. Which means, you know, seeing a fucking turkey!

I don't know what any legal punishment should be (though there will likely be none), especially when this man's psychic punishment will last forever. But he certainly should never be given a license again.

Makin' mad coin, and of course not paying taxes

Via TJ, a quite relevant follow-up to the previous post.

New Rule: companies that operate under government contracts need to hire Americans as employees, and pay all employment taxes.

Makin' mad coin

Killing our own soldiers.

Shoddy work = bigger profits.

It's a no-brainer, to a Republican. Or is that redundant?

I shall call this... mini meme

1. What is your name? Angelos

2. A four-letter word: arts

3. A vehicle: Alfa Romeo

4. A city: Athens

5. A boy's name: Andrew

6. A girl's name: Adrienne

7. Alcoholic drink: absinthe
   

8. An occupation: architect

9. Something you wear: ascot

10. A celebrity: Angelina Jolie

11. A food: Ahi

12. Something found in a bathroom: aloe
    

13. Reason for being late: Accident

14. Something you shout: Aaaaargh!

15. An animal: Aardvark

16. A body part: Ankle

Well, that was stupid.

The Yankees pitching staff

Fucking terrible too.

Bobby Abreu

Terrible fucking outfielder.

Shortsighted regulation is funny

Priceless:

Fans of foie gras celebrate its luxurious taste and texture, but animal rights advocates decry the cruelty of force-feeding geese and ducks via a feeding tube to enlarge their livers before slaughter. In 2006, the Chicago City Council agreed with the protestors and banned the retail sale of foie gras.

The law is enforced by citizen complaint, and restaurateurs risk fines of up to $500 per violation. There is a loophole, however: While it's illegal to sell foie gras, it's not illegal to give it away, so restaurants and hotels just serve foie under the umbrella of other menu items.

"We sell more than ever now," Jimmy Florek, owner of Chicago Game & Gourmet, an epicurean meat and produce supplier. While he doesn't personally approve of foie gras, he's happy to serve the market: "If they don't buy it from me, they'll just buy it from someone else."

This reminds me of various alcohol regulations they passed in Boston. You know, because they don't drink - the 3 bars per city block are just there for decoration. TJ can rant about those for hours.

First, they tried to ban Happy Hour. The legal language involved "discounting" or something. It took all of a day for bar owners to realize that it was bullshit that Bob's Furniture could discount or have a sale, but Murph's Bar couldn't. So they didn't have Happy Hour, they had "sales." One day only: Vodka drinks, $2.50!

The other one was the amount of drinks that can be served to an individual or group. If I show up at a bar first, expecting two other guys, I can't get a pitcher and 3 mugs. They can't sell an individual a pitcher. But, if the other guys show up and decide to get mixed drinks instead, I can still get a pitcher all to myself. Um...

Today's must-read

Wolfrum hammers the point home.

Snort