Speaking of Warbirds

I had to drive home at lunch so that TFR could have the car this afternoon. As we headed back to my work, we stopped at a light on westbound Centennial, when all of a sudden, TFR pointed up at the sky. She didn't know what she was looking at, but she knew it was out of the ordinary. As a guy and a history geek, I knew right away. It was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, one of the planes that won WWII, flying around over Eugene.

I think this grin's about to pull a face muscle.

Proof I Have the World's Weirdest Imagination

Yesterday as I was singing to The Lad, I found myself imagining what it would be like to hear Marlene Dietrich, in her smokiest, suktriest, Cabaret-style voice, singing "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly".

Stop me before I think again!

More Recommended Reading

Twice in one day I'm recommending that you read excellent things written by people who don't exactly see eye to eye with me.

If you've read my Blog for a while, you'll recall that I on occasion take respectful exception to things written by Smallholder over at Naked Villainy, but that at the end of the day, I respect him highly.

Well, he's gone and done it. He's written something I agree with.

Dammit, man, you're going to take all the fun out of Blogging. But I do thank you for the moral support.

Now, I must confess there are a few details on which I disagree with you. I do believe that abortion is the taking of a human life. I do believe that there are some basic doctrines of the faith which are the truth, and must be accepted as such on informed faith in order to be classified as an orthodox believer. But I also agree that there is plenty on which we can agree to disagree -- In all things charity, isn't that how it goes? And I also agree with your assessment that theism and atheism require similar measures of faith.

To Air(Power) Is Human

Thanks for the Memory to The Maximum Leader at Naked Villainy. And yes, the quiz questions amused me too.

What military aircraft are you? EA-6B Prowler You are an EA-6B. You are sinister, preferring not to get into confrontations, but extract revenge through mind games and technological interference. You also love to make noise and couldn't care less about pollution.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Grill Thrill

It's that time of year -- the sun is out (most of thetime), the air is fresh and fragrant, and there's warmth to be felt. Therefore, it's time for men (and women) to exercize their inalienable right to burn meat in their back yard, under the open sky as God intended.

A while back I managed to find a charcoal smoker at a garage sale for five bucks. This weekend, I cleaned it up, and tried my hand for the first time at "real" barbecue. as a novice, I started with a small piece of meat, a 1-pound beef brisket, dry rubbed with a rub I made from scratch. It came out nicely, so I will try some pork BBQ next. However, I still consider myself a learner, so for now I'll be reading barbecue recipes, not writing them.

However, I am still very confident in my outdoor grilling skills, as evidenced by my steelhead recipe. So today I decided to share with you all the very first recipe I ever invented for cooking on a grill. While it's not barbecue, the recipe does benefit if you incorporate one element of bbq -- wood smoke. However, I'd recommend a wood like apple or oak or alder, not mesquite, though hickory would probably do fine.

So, without further ado:

Inside Out Grilled Chicken Sorta Blue

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices smoked Swiss cheese
8 slices smoked ham
1 cup white wine (Pinot Gris, Riesling, or Gewürztraminer)
2 sprig thyme
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp honey

Preparation:
Marinade the chicken breasts overnight in the white wine and one of the thyme sprigs. Place the ham slices, the honey, and the other thyme sprig in a sealed aluminum foil packet. While grilling the chicken, place the foil packet to the side of the grill where the heat is lower. Salt and pepper the chicken and grill over medium heat. About 5-10 minutes before the chicken is done, remove the ham from the foil packet and place 2 slices on top of each chicken breast. Cover each breast with a slice of Swiss cheese; continue to grill until the cheese melts. Remove the chicken breasts and plate. Drizzle with honey mustard sauce, garnish with more thyme.

Honey Mustard Sauce:
½ cup yellow mustard
¼ cup honey
1 tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp paprika
Dash cayenne
Dash chili powder
Dash powdered ginger


Place the mustard in a small bowl and pour in the honey. Mix in all spices, refrigerate.

Who Left Whom?

Many thanks to my good friend DAR for sending me the following link. Quite often it's easy to merely link to a well-written article by one of the many conservative pundits who are out there and say, "This is good, read it." But in this case, I'm linking to a liberal pundit, and saying the same thing. In Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle, columnist Keith Thompson wrote an excellent piece on why he's leaving the Left:

Leaving the left
I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity

Not suprisingly, many of the reasons this man, who still considers himself a Liberal, is "Leaving the Left", are the very same reason that those of us who are unabashedly Conservative are so disdainful of it:

My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.

But when I read comments like this:

I look back on that experience as the beginning of my departure from a left already well on its way to losing its bearings.

I have to respond with a comment that Thompson seems to already know in his heart, and implies throughout his artcile. He didn't leave the Left. The Left left him. Indeed, you can read it between the lines when he says,

I smile when friends tell me I've "moved right." I laugh out loud at what now passes for progressive on the main lines of the cultural left.

All of which is why I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built. The renewal of any tradition that deserves the name "progressive" becomes more likely with each step in a better direction.

Welcome, Keith. Now your journey to the Dark Side is complete.

I May Be a Bozo....

....But I Think I scooped the Big Boys This Time.

A while back, I Blogged on an experimental Mileage Tax here in Oregon.

Yesterday, Garfield Ridge, Partisan Pundit, and The Jawa Report (Who refers to my home state as "The Bozo State". This from the Blog I consider my inspiration for starting to Blog. Nice) all get around to Blogging on it. They're considerably more negative towards it than I was.

As I stated in my comments earlier here and today over at Rusty's, I acknowledge the privacy issues raised by the use of a GPS and computer chip. But I take issue with people who will in one breath argue against this idea because it's Big Brother being too intrusive, and then turn around and argue against it because it "doesn't provide enough incentive to buy fuel efficient cars". That's arguing against it because it's too intrusive but not intrusive enough. Pick one reason or the other, but if anyone tries to pick both, they're being intellectually inconsistent.

Let's set aside for a moment any discussion of the use of the GPS chips and privacy issues, and think for just a moment about roads and how to fund their construction and maintenance. While I prefer small government, there are some essential services that must be provided -- at local and state levels as well as federally. How should we do that? Don't tell me that gasoline taxes are the best answer. As the articles discussing this point out, as it stands, you pay more fore the same amount of road use if your car is less fuel efficient. And while fuel efficiency is a great idea, taxes should be designed to pay for services, not regulate behavior.

The other problem here in Oregon is that we have one of the highest average MPG's per capita of any state in the Union, and it's rising. That means that the state is forecasting DECREASES in the amount of gas tax revenues expected in the next decade.

So if the Gas tax doesn't work, and this mileage tax doesn't (for whatever reason), I'm willing to entertain suggestions as to alternatives.

Belated Blogiversary

I can't believe I missed the 1-year anniversary of one of the best things to come out of Blogging: Strengthen the Good.

It's been a year since they set out to give us all a chance to use our Blogs as a force for good, a chance to help, and the means to look past ourselves. To celebrate their anniversary, they are once again highlighting the microcharity that started it all, Susan Tom and the Tom Family Educational Trust.

Go over and wish them a happy blogiversary the best way possible: By learning more about StG, and about the Toms, and by giving if you can.

Mangled Latin

As you can tell from the title of my Blog, I enjoy plays on words. In particular, I enjoy playing with Latin phrases. Below are a few I've invented, as well as one I've heard before (the last one). If you have any others, I'd love to hear them:

Memento Moron -- "Remember, thou art stupid."
Ex Posteriori -- An argument "pulled out of my ass."
Ad Hominid -- Logical fallacy that states that since the argument is made by a human, and all humans are fallible, the argument must be false.
Cogito Ergo Dim Sum -- "I think therefore I eat Chinese Food."
Carpe Per Diem -- "Seize the expense check."

Meanwhile, In This Corner of the Country

Thanks for the Memory to Traderbob, crossposted over at Blogfather Rusty's:

The investigation into election *ahem* "irregularities" up in Washington is getting interesting. From the Seattle Times:

King County's absentee-ballot supervisor has testified that she collaborated with her boss when she filled out a report that falsely showed all ballots were accounted for in the November election.

Interesting stuff. Given what's going on just over the river, you can understand why conservative Oregonians might look askance at politicians meddling with OUR election process.

The Bachelor (Well, Not Really!)

TFR is heading off to a women's retreat with the ladies of our church tomorrow, and she's taking The Lad with her. They're only spending one night, but she'll be gone all tomorrow evening and most of Saturday. I'm still trying to decide how to make the most of my "Bachelor" time. This will be the longest I've been apart from The Lad since he came home from the NICE, and the longest apart from TFR since SHE came home from the hospital after having him. It's gonna be weird, but a nice break too. Sleep is definitely in the cards, but other than that....

Suggestions?

Purple Mountains Majesty

Twenty-five years ago today. It's amazing to thing that I'm now old enough to reflect on my memories of a historic event that happened that long ago. Of course, here in the Pacific Northwest, history is divided into Before Mt. St. Helens and After Mt. St. Helens.

I was living on the fringes of the region at the time, an 11-year-old about to finish 6th grade in the small town of Filer, Idaho. I had a passing interest in the new leading up to the eruption, since I had family in Portland, and the summer camp facilities owned by the denomination in which my father pastored (Camp Lackamas, at that time owned by the Northwest District of the Missionary Church) lay between PDX and the volcano. And of course, everyone was watching to see if they could get Harry Truman down from his cabin at Spirit Lake before the eruption. they didn't. He refused to budge, and he died on his own terms.

When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it pulverized a cubic mile of mountain in seconds. The day after the mountain blew, the sky turned blood red in Filer from all the ash in the air, but we received almost none of it on the ground. Months later, I would visit Lackamas and find a good half inch of the stuff on everything. We swept it up and I kept a small amount in a film jar, but lost that years ago, For a long time, you could buy small vials of ash, and even glass ornaments blown from ash that had been collected and reheated, in just about any souvenir shop in the region.

The mountain became an intrinsic part of our culture -- especially in Washington, but throughout the region in general. In school, they showed us the film "Keeper of the Fire", which was about Mt. St. Helens, and which recounted a local Native American myth about the mountain. In the myth, there were two great warriors of a local tribe who both fell in love with the same woman -- the beautiful maiden who tended the tribe's fire. They both wanted her for their own, and so they fought for her. Their fight was so violent, and lasted so long, that it angered the gods, who put a curse on all three. They turned all three into mountains, with one of the warriors on either side of the maiden, where both could see her but neither could reach her. The two warriors are Mt. Adams in Washington and Mt. Hood in Oregon, and the maiden is Mt. St. Helens -- the Keeper of the Fire.

The biggest way in which Mt. St. Helens changed the region, though, is probably the way it changed how we look at our mountains. We have always loved the Cascades, and they are one of the features, along with the Pacific Ocean, that most define our region and our climate. They are beautiful mountains, with plenty of snow-capped peaks and vast foothills, and while there are higher ranged and more rugged ranges in North America, few if any are greener or more varied.

But before St. Helens, few people in this region, apart from geologists, paid much attention to their geological history. Now, we have been made startlingly aware of just how these mountains we love were formed. And we view them all a little differently. At least three peaks, including one within 100 miles of where I sit typing this, have the potential for erupting in my lifetime. Oregon's only National Park, Crater Lake, was formed by the eruption of a Cascade volcano. Now, when we look at the Three Sisters or Hood or Rainier, we are reminded just how dangerous and powerful these mountains are.

And I, for one, think it makes them all the more beautiful.

A Win for Wine

Thanks for the Memory to Ace of Spades.

Court Lets Wine Lovers to Buy Out-Of-State

WASHINGTON May 16, 2005 — Wine lovers may buy directly from out-of-state vineyards, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, striking down laws banning a practice that has flourished because of the Internet and growing popularity of winery tours.

This is a Supreme Court case I've been watching for some time, and the ruling is a big win for Oregon's wine industry. While Oregon does not produce as much wine as California or a couple of other states, our wineries produce some very high quality wines. Unfortunately, many states require that out of state wineries sell only to in-state wine distributors. Because many of our wineries are small operations, they often don't have the volume or market clout to even appear on a distributor's radar.

The arguments in this case were the states' constitutional right to regulate alchohol production vs. the rights of Interstate Commerce. Commerce won, and so did many of the small Oregon wineries.

And so did you, if you like good, reasonably priced wines.

Cross-Posted at Head West, Turn Right.

Update:

Despite his usual impeccible taste and class, The Maximum Leader misses the boat by expressing plans to order wine that exlude Oregon wineries.

May I humbly suggest that our esteemed erzats emperor, and all other regarded readers consider the following excellent Oregon Wineries:

Girardet Winery -- Their Barrel Select and Petit Cuvee are my two favorite Pinot Noirs.

Abacella Vineyards -- They pride themselves on their Spanish-style Tempranillo, but I prefer their excellent Cabernet Franc.

King Estate Winery -- Producing good wine at a reasonable price, they also have one of the prettiest wineries in the state (and that's saying something)!

Yes, Sir, That's My Baby

In response to all those who requested more pictures of The Lad:

Unfortunately, I have effectively rendered us sans digital imaging technology. However, the last time we had a couple of rolls developed, we ordered CD's too. So, without further ado,

The World's Most Beautiful Baby:


Start 'Em Young




Little Big Dog takes an early interest in The Lad (This photo was... umm... Digitally Cropped).


As you can see, we neglect LBD so....


A Happy Family


The Lad and his paternal grandmother


...and his maternal grandfather


And with his Godfather, Lurch (The Mini Me Pose).

Dogfight

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous -- blue skies, somewhere in the 70's. The day before had been quite rainy and cool. that's the way Spring is in Oregon -- it comes in fits and starts, with an unexpected mixture of dry and wet, warm and cool. Don't like the weather? Give it fifteen minutes, it'll change. TFR tells me that Minnesota Springs are not like that -- she says that in the Twin Cities, if you blink, you miss the transition from bitter winter to blazing summer.

Spring days like yesterday tend to draw Oregonians out even more than nice summer days -- the more recent the cold, the more appreciated the warmth. I couldn't get out too much yesterday afternoon because the Lad had had a fussy morning, and was finally sleeping, but I stepped into the back yard for a few minutes, passing Little Big Dog over the fence to play with the neighbor dogs (a hyper Papillon and a cowardly Golden Retriever, whom LBD has completely cowed).

All of this is just to introduce what happened next, which was one of the most interesting things I've ever witnessed. As I stood at the fence talking to our neighbor, I heard a faint, high-pitched soundcoming from what seemed to be above. I looked up to see a large bird soaring towards me. At first, I thouight it was a turkey vulture -- a very common carrion bird in these parts. But I noticed a couple of differences. This bird was much bigger, the wings didn't have the right shape, or the split finger-like feathers, and the head was white, not the hairless red of a buzzard.

It was a bald eagle.

Bald eagles aren't that rare in this part of the country, I've seen them numerous times around lakes and rivers up in the Cascades, and even on one occasion circling over the river by a county park just outside of town, but from the angle he was approaching, he had to have flown right over downtown Springfield.

And that wasn't even the oddest thing about the sight. As he flew, his course was not as straight and graceful as normal. As my eyes focused, I noticed that another bird was wheeling and circling the eagle, swooping in and trying to strike. It was obvious that the smaller bird was the aggressor, and the eagle was trying to get away as quickly as he could. And most interesting of all, the other bird was also a raptor. It was one of the Osprey that are so numerous here in the Northwest. Both the bald eagle and the osprey are fishing birds, and I live less than a mile from the Willamette River.

Now, I've seen smaller birds chase of bigger birds before. In fact, a few days ago, standing at the window at work, I watched another osprey (I work even closer to the Willamette than I live) being driven off by a pair of corvids. From a distance I couldn't tell if they were ravens or crows. I've seen crows chase ravens. I've seen sparrows chase both. Hummingbirds are absolutely vicious when it comes to this behavior. But I'd never seen a raptor-on-raptor fight like this before.

Given that they're competitors for fish, and I believe osprey are territorial, I shouldn't be surprised. But I couldn't help but be fascinated by what I saw.

Note to Pat Buchanan: Lay Off the Cough Syrup

Thanks for the Memory to my good buddy Vulture 6 over at Vulture's Row.

Apparently, Pat Buchanan questions the validity of defeating Nazi Germany in World War II:

On the radio and Internet, Buchanan framed his positions as amplification of remarks made over the weekend by President George W. Bush that the pact ending the war brought on a Stalinist domination that was "one of the greatest wrongs of history."

Yes, Stalinism WAS one of the greatest wrongs of history. Right up there with the equally heinous wrong that was the Holocaust. The fact that it took us until the 80's to defeat one doesn't mean we shouldn't have fought the other.

But Buchanan's comments on the Don Imus radio show and in an essay posted on the Web site of his organization, The American Cause, went much further. He suggested that because Germans voted Hitler in, they did not need to be liberated, and that Britain and France drew Germany into the wider conflict.

Um... Earth to Pat. Sprechen zie "Lebensraum"? Remember the Sudetenland? Poland? The camps?

He did not mention Jews or the Holocaust - the most outrageous omission for Yaffa Eliach, a Holocaust expert and survivor.

Not just for Yaffa, actually. Trivializing 6 million deaths tends to get under the skin of ANYONE with even a modicum of decency.

Former Mayor Ed Koch offered this blunt rebuttal: "I believe that no decent human being should ever sit down at the same table with Pat Buchanan and I am shocked that otherwise responsible, respectable citizens share platforms with him on Sunday shows."

Absolutely right, for once, Ed. I am amazed and ashamed that Buchanan was once considered a contender for the presidential candidacy of my party. What a maroon.

Update: I'm as hesitant as anyone to play the Race card, but in the case of Buchanan, I think that Ace is right.

Update II: Thanks for the Memory to The Maximum Leader. He links to an excellent essay by the esteemed Victor David Hansen which, while not directed specifically at Buchanan, provides ample ammunition for rebuttal of his view.

Anybody But Anybody But Bush

Thanks for the Memory to Vultures Row.

Interesting news today. Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Convention, has endorsed a candidate for U.S. Senate in Vermont. Interestingly enough, the candidate in question isn't a Democrat. He's an independent.

Not so big a deal, you might argue, since Vermont's exiting Indie Senator, Jim Jeffords, leaned to the Democratic side, and the endorsement is strategic, since anyone who can defeat a Republican is good news for the Dems. But here's the catch -- Bernard Sanders leans even farther leftwards than Jeffords. In fact, he leans even farther than most Democrats would like to admit they lean. Sanders is a Socialist.

My good friend Vulture six maintains that this support by Dean indicates either Socialist tendencies on the part of Dean, or a calculated willingness to overlook Sanders' socialism just to stick it to the Republicans.

I'd be willing to consider the possibility of both options being true. The most influential Democratic President of the Twentieth Century, F.D.R., was definitely a socialist, and most liberal domestic policies smack of at least small-s socialism. The difference between the Dems and Sanders is more a matter of degrees than of kind, and when compared to Dean, even the degree is hard to distinguish.

But I've also noticed a willingness among the left, especially among the more radical Democrats and the leadership (less so among rank-and-file Democrats who tend to be idealists), to get in bed with the most odious elements of the left if that's what it takes to defeat the Republicans. This is reflected in the "Anybody but Bush" tone during the elections, as well as in expressions by notable leftists like Michael Moore, expressing hope that insurgents in Iraq would succeed in inflicting more casualties just so Bush's election chances would be damaged.

Again, while I know many who lean farther to the left than I who truly believe they are fighting for good, and while politicians in general tend to Macchiavellianism, the level to which the DNC has taken it in recent years is truly frightening.

Recommended Reading

Blogfather Rusty has posted an excellent piece on comparisons between Communism and Naziism.

Actually, his piece is a review of an equally well-written article in the Washington Times, so he had a head start, but his additional comments are well worth the read.

Forewarned is Forearmed

Thanks for the Memory to Lars Larson.

Sex offenders may be forced to drive vehicles with pink license plates

According to the article, Ohio is considering a law that would require that registered sex offenders be issued special plates for their cars. The plates would be all pink (why that color I don't know, other than high visibility), and the rationale is that children would know which vehicles to stay away from.

I don't know what Ohio's paws regarding sex offenders already are, so this might be a "band-aid" law, but if it's being proposed in conjunction with other effective laws, I'm all for it. Anything to help protect our children from real monsters.

Slainte Mhath! (Indeed!)

The word Whisky comes from the Gaelic uisge beatha, which is translated "Water of Life". The traditional Gaelic toast is Slainte (in Ireland, Slainte Mhath in Scotland), which is translated "health".

Appropriate.