Tuesday, March 27. 2012
 I suppose I was raised on some foods you might term "Hotdish" - Shepherd's Pie, Tuna Noodle, Macaroni and Cheese, Lasagna, Seafood Casseroles, and the like - but it's not a New England term.
As his main course offering for our game dinner, my hunting pal brought his Oryx Moussaka over in his 18 qt. Nesco roaster oven. Just carried it into the kitchen and plugged it in to keep it hot.
(Being a Louisiana-born-and bred guy, he also made 4 Pecan Pies from his Mom's recipe. Made the crusts, too)
His Moussaka came out great, even though he had never made it before. (At our guy dinners, the men cook, the womenfolk are guests, and a helper cleans up. Mrs. BD does the flowers, of course.)
Point being, I'd never seen these roaster ovens before. Very handy. Waring makes a cheaper one.
If your oven is full, these seem to function as a spare oven, large enough for a 16# turkey, and their portability, their ability to keep food warm, and the inability to burn food in them, are useful features.
Can they give you an oven-like crusty or gratin surface if that's what you want? No. To brown the top of something, you have to put the enameled insert under the broiler for a few minutes.
Do any of our readers use these things?
An interesting young fellow. In New York Magazine, The Paul Clement Court - Seven cases. One lawyer. The GOP’s great hope for this Supreme Court season is an unassuming attorney who just happens to be lead counsel on the most polarizing arguments in America.
A couple of summers ago
Monday, March 26. 2012
From Sipp's Is Frank Bunker Gilbreth Senior The Greatest Man Maine Ever Produced? (h/t Am Digest):
You don't have to coerce people to follow sound advice. The government at all levels is all coercion, all the time, about everything, and in their hearts most government functionaries of both parties have a profound contempt for their constituents, and get elected solely on assembling a coalition of voters with a profound contempt of just less than half their fellow citizens.
From Life on the Mississippi (1883)
 Now when I had mastered the language of this water and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river! I still keep in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steamboating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slanting mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many-tinted as an opal; where the ruddy flush was faintest, was a smooth spot that was covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced; the shore on our left was densely wooded, and the sombre shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean-stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun. There were graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, soft distances; and over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drifted steadily, enriching it, every passing moment, with new marvels of coloring.
I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home. But as I have said, a day came when I began to cease from noting the glories and the charms which the moon and the sun and the twilight wrought upon the river's face; another day came when I ceased altogether to note them. Then, if that sunset scene had been repeated, I should have looked upon it without rapture, and should have commented upon it, inwardly, in this fashion: "This sun means that we are going to have wind to-morrow; that floating log means that the river is rising, small thanks to it; that slanting mark on the water refers to a bluff reef which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights, if it keeps on stretching out like that; those tumbling 'boils' show a dissolving bar and a changing channel there; the lines and circles in the slick water over yonder are a warning that that troublesome place is shoaling up dangerously; that silver streak in the shadow of the forest is the 'break' from a new snag, and he has located himself in the very best place he could have found to fish for steamboats; that tall dead tree, with a single living branch, is not going to last long, and then how is a body ever going to get through this blind place at night without the friendly old landmark?"
No, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river. All the value any feature of it had for me now was the amount of usefulness it could furnish toward compassing the safe piloting of a steamboat. Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart. What does the lovely flush in a beauty's cheek mean to a doctor but a "break" that ripples above some deadly disease? Are not all her visible charms sown thick with what are to him the signs and symbols of hidden decay? Does he ever see her beauty at all, or doesn't he simply view her professionally, and comment upon her unwholesome condition all to himself? And doesn't he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?
 One of our hors d'oevres for a dinner we hosted on Sat. night was duck foie gras on baguette slices.
D'Artagnan terms this stuff "sinfully rich."
It is better than ice cream, thanks to the ducks.
"Worrying about how to live makes me want to die. I want to be a tree."
Buddy Larson, one of our many wise commenters and an oak of a fellow
Sunday, March 25. 2012
"From the moment a creature becomes aware of God as God and of itself as self, the terrible alternative of choosing God or self for the centre is opened to it."
"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."
 How the Left Can Shut Down Rush Limbaugh
I don't think he would mind one bit if that happened, but he loves his job too much
Pity the Progressive. Progressive pundits are befuddled, time and again, by the resilience of Americans’ faith in free enterprise. Consider Thomas Frank.
Libertarianism Does Not Equal Selfishness - Setting the record straight about the philosophical foundations of libertarian thought
The Ineffective Greenhouse - A liberal legal legend's ludicrous ObamaCare defense.
Americans just don’t like ‘ObamaCare’
The Perils of Wishful Thinking: On Europe and the Middle East
Secret files reveal 9000 Nazi war criminals fled to South America after WWII
How Are Obama’s Regulations Taking Billions Out of the Pockets of Americans?
Anti-CAIR: In Defense Of The Constitution
The Great Rumor Mill of China -Something strange is going on in Beijing. Here are the five most virulent conspiracy theories making the rounds -- and a stab at the likelihood of them panning out.
Obama is Fooling Lots of People on Israel
Hey, remember when high gas prices were all Bush’s fault?
'Here Piggy!' Occupiers Taunt NYC Cops With Doughnut On String
Pitiful
Pope Benedict: Communism No Longer Working in Cuba
Dem Operative Links Fla. Shooting to Koch Brothers
I blame Rush
'They said they found the bullets... that's what could f*** me up': What teen accused of gunning down two British tourists in Florida told brother in prison phone call
New Black Panthers offer $10k bounty for Trayvon Martin's shooter
Powerline:
Coincidentally, the ongoing trial of Shawn Tyson for the cold-blooded murder of two British tourists in Sarasota provides plenty of ground for outrage and “soul-searching,” but you probably haven’t heard much about it. The UK’s Daily Mail carried an excellent account earlier this week.
The 'Inequality' Movement--A Campus Product
Kudlow: The Reagan in Romney - Mitt’s tough conservative positions.
Fourth Largest Gun Maker In US Is Out Of Guns
Libs attempting to understand Conservatives
Psalm 51:1-12
51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
51:4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
51:5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
51:6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
51:11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
The Old Meeting House, Hadley, Massachusetts. Yankee readers know that Meeting Houses, in colonial times, served as Congregational worship centers, as the site for the Town Meetings which made local governmental decisions by direct citizen vote, and generally as all-purpose town centers.
(People with kids in the grammar school contributed in cash or in kind - eg firewood, bags of potatoes, jugs of hard cider to keep teacher happy, putting up the teacher in your attic for a few months, etc).
At the time, the puritan Congregational Church was the established sect in much of New England, supported by local taxes. Their spartan, barn-like buildings for worship did not start to look "churchy" until the 1800s (like the newer replacement of the old-fashioned one, on the right of my photo). The Congos were phobic about anything fancy or ostentatious, or anything reminiscent of the Anglican Church or - God forbid! - Roman Catholicism which was commonly viewed as a near-diabolical cult in New England if not a manifestation of the Anti-Christ itself.
Saturday, March 24. 2012
 In youth, one needs and wants stuff: a roof over one's head, maybe a spouse, transportation, some domestic machines and comforts, recreational toys (guns, tennis raquets, boats, speakers, etc), appropriate clothing, and decent schools for your kids.
In midlife, one begins to hunger for an accumulation of life experiences - or at least I do. I haven't wanted any stuff for years except maybe good cigars, good food at good restaurants, interesting beers, books, and Teaching Company CDs. I buy nothing else anymore - not even an iPad. Well, I did need to replace a couple of computers recently, and it did not go very well. I guess I'd buy more art if I had money to burn, because I look to look at pictures.
My skis are 12 years old, as are my ski boots.
I do not say this from some sort of moral or anti-materialistic standpoint; it's just something I noticed. People tease me about having inexpensive cars and obsolete cameras, but that isn't on my life agenda right now. My father-in-law has always advised "Do it now. Later, you won't be able to enjoy it."
To read things, learn things, go places, see things, do things. That's what I want. What I want is my good work, one cultural outing per weekend day (just one per day, mind you, Mrs. BD), time with my spouse, friends and kids, good energetic manual labor at home and at the farm, interesting and adventurous travel, and a tangible relationship with God.
I sort-of gave up on pursuing the rational goal of financial security long ago: it's a fool's errand, one keeps raising the bar - it can be life-destroying. Furthermore, whenever you think things are going swell, a surprise happens to mess it up. Everybody worries about money, even Warren Buffet. Worry is part of life but it should not be allowed to get in the way of living. Otherwise, what's the point?
Do you feel the same way? Or am I suffering from "Midlife Disorder"? (If so, I sure hope this is only midlife, and that there is a pill or an app for that.)
 Image stolen from Theo
Where's the color?
Did you know that there is now a Real Clear Religion?
Whit Stillman's "Damsels in Distress"
Analysis: Why U.S. high court may uphold healthcare law
I predict that they will
The case for why they will: Individual mandate is constitutional - Supreme Court should find that key aspect of Obama's signature law is a legitimate exercise of Commerce Clause power
Krauthammer: Obamacare: The Reckoning/ The stakes could not be higher.
Star Parker: Obamacare undermines America’s founding principles
Yep. Federal gummint has done lots of things like that over the past 100 years
Obamacare Foes Pick Experienced Lawyer For Their Case
Los Angeles Moves to Restrict Radio Speech
Medieval Warm Period In the News Again
Monckton’s Presentation to the California Assembly
Democrats in the Legislature Chicken Out of Climate Debate With Lord Monckton
Zimbabwe 'sperm hunters' picking up male travellers - Gangs of women in Zimbabwe have been picking up male travellers to have sexual intercourse and harvest their sperm, according to reports.
Babes are constantly trying to do that to me. That's why it's important to be armed - to keep the female sexual predators at bay.
Liar in the White House: When You Have to Say "Per Se," It Means You're Lying. From a commenter there:
I keep seeing this “failed administration” and “failed presidency” meme. I think this is inaccurate and we conservatives need to move away from it. Failure effectively means not achieving ones goals and objectives for a particular endeavor. Unfortunately this is not what he is doing. He has been quite effective in achieving his stated and unstated goals much too American’s dismay. Socialized medicine, failed wars, nationalized companies, subsidized industries, defanged military, shackled financial industry, crony capitalism, political patronage, stifling energy industry regulations, reducing religious liberty, funding unproven green technologies, NASA’s change of mission, increasing abortion access, the list goes on and on. The problem is not that he is a failure; the problem is that he is succeeding at the wrong things. This is the point that needs to be made and driven home.
As for Solyndra, this too was an Obama win. His goals were to promote Green energy, reward political allies and finance his next campaign. Once these goals were accomplished the company was shutdown. It is only us silly conservatives with our quaint belief in commerce as a noble pursuit that are appalled. The Left understands that all good things flow from the government.
Goldberg: The Federalist Solution - Making political decisions at the lowest democratic level is the best Left-Right compromise.
I completely agree. People can pee in their own lemonade if they want, just not in mine.
The Geography of Government Benefits - The share of Americans’ income that comes from government benefit programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, more than doubled over the last four decades, rising from 8 percent in 1969 to 18 percent in 2009.
 If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Plenty of space for all of your closest friends. (They need to get that ivy off their trees.) Central heat is for sissies, right?
Except for the Yuppie invasion of recent years, Nantucket is still pleasant and charming. I am more of a Cape Codder, meself. It's a Yuppie-free zone.
Friday, March 23. 2012
From The PTSD Trap: Our Overdiagnosis of PTSD In Vets Is Enough to Make You Sick:
The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) defines PTSD as the presence of three symptom clusters — reexperiencing via nightmares or flashbacks; numbing or withdrawal; and hyperarousal, evident in irritability, insomnia, aggression, or poor concentration — that arise in response to a life-threatening event.
Both halves of this definition are suspect. To start with, the link to a traumatic event, which makes PTSD almost unique among complex psychiatric diagnoses in being defined by an external cause, also makes it uniquely problematic, for the tie is really to the memory of an event. When PTSD was first added to the DSM-III in 1980, traumatic memories were considered reasonably faithful recordings of actual events. But as research since then has repeatedly shown, memory is spectacularly unreliable and extraordinarily malleable. We routinely add or subtract people, details, settings, and actions to our memories. We conflate, invent, and edit.
I am skeptical about the existence of the diagnosis as a disease entity, because it sounds like a normal, or at least unremarkable, reaction to me. Intense reactions to intense things in life is not pathological. It's how life shapes us, twists us, and eventually wears us down and ultimately kills us. Who said "Reality is for people who can't handle drugs"?
Show me one adult who does not harbor some deep pain which affects his life in mostly negative ways. I'd like to meet them. There's a CS Lewis quote which I cannot remember but which goes something like "Be kind, because everyone you meet is enduring some deep struggle and pain." It's not called "a vale of tears" for nothing. People - and kids - are commonly permanently wounded by divorce, for example. Some joy and delight in life too, thank God.
However, I do understand that nowadays people want their struggle called a disease so they can get insurance and/or disability checks.
 "I want to work in an office full of unicorns.”
Whit Stillman is back
Federal Student Aid: The Worst of Both Worlds
I Got Asked Again The Other Day, Rather Bluntly, Why We Don't Send The Kids To School
Good riddance to Rowan Williams:
...the Church of England has taken a decidedly leftward turn in the last century, prompting the Earl of Onslow’s immortal observation that “one hundred years ago, the Church was in favor of fox hunting and against buggery. Now it is in favor of buggery and against fox hunting.”
But where does it stand on God and all that?
Obama Lies About Oil AGAIN!
Higher Ed Bubble Hits Housing Market
Don't blame Islam for the Toulouse killings (h/t Am Digest)
Of course not
Nearly 1,000 Pakistani women ‘killed for honor’
I don't blame Islam for that, either
Stockton Woes Send A Message On Pension Reform
"I Don't Get It:" Obama Baffled As His "Green" Investments Produce No Jobs
Pond scum update: Obama’s algae racket
The Left's plans for income equality
Why Liberals Like Taxing the Wealthy
A note to the campus:
You want to redistribute wealth? Spend your endowment to provide free tuition. You want to fight inequality? Start admitting applicants at random, without regard to SAT scores or grades.
The Air Force's 'March Madness'
Six Big Lies About How Jerusalem Runs Washington - From the Jewish cabal to the Capitol Hill Knesset, the worst leaps of logic when it comes to Israel, U.S. politics, and the Middle East.
Saudi Wahhabism Expands into Libya
Fairly common: a cute half-house in town.
Thursday, March 22. 2012
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”
Not quite from Cicero, c. 55 BC, but apparently a modern riff on him
 Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image
Da Vinci was not his last name. He was plain Leonardo - the one from Vinci
Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" Illustrates the Horrors of Big Government:
Though agreement is not uniform, and our government not nearly as oppressive as the one in The Hunger Games, many Americans simply want to be left alone, to get their lives back. The Hunger Games seems to channel this natural, and very American, urge to be free.
Affirmative Action and Radical Politics - Affirmative action radicalizes minority students whose achievements become suspect.
Va. middle-schoolers assigned opposition research on GOP candidates
U.K. schools to kids: No best friends for you!
Stossel: What is fair"?
Chicago Democrats Vote Overwhelmingly for Lawmaker Charged with Bribery
That's life in the big city
Rubin: The True Perpetrators of The Antisemitic Attacks in Toulouse and Throughout the World
ObamaCare's Costs Are Soaring - We already know the rosy budget estimates used to sell the law were wrong.
Is My Union's Pension Fund Hypocritical? It's not uncommon for a pension plan's sponsoring organization to give the trustees general guidance on unacceptable investments
Turkish Reporters Struggle Against Repression
'Global March on Jerusalem: If It's Not About Israel, It's Not About Us
Seriously, can we all agree Ryan deserves our respect?
But reality and politics don't seem to mix well
Obama Doesn't Care About Debt - Democrats are willing to move heaven and earth for the things they do care about.
Axelrod Can't Explain Why Democrats Haven't Passed a Budget in 1,040 Days
Can't or won't?
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