Rest in Peace

Wilson Pickett has died. Another great voice silenced. He was only 64.

The origins of Cajun cooking

People who know history know that the Cajuns are descendants Of the Acadians, refugees from the area now known as Nova Scotia. They went to Louisiana, some by choice, some by being forced out by the British. There, they were shunned by the original inhabitants who already had taken the best land and they ended up forming a distinctive culture of their own in the unwanted bayous.

They are rightly famous for their cuisine. This includes things like creative use of odd things. For example they have held a Nutria cook-off.

Now we can understand their odd culinary traditions. They get it from the French.

Roadkill, it’s what’s for dinner.

I’ve complained about crappy driving conditions before

But this is really crappy…..

I have had cars I wanted to bury

But not for the insurance money……

Channeling Dave Barry

Obscene Yogurt Conviction…

Wouldn’t that be a fabulous name for a band?

Whale of a joke

So, some protesters put a whale in front of the Japanese Embassy in Germany.

Nice to see Ted Kennedy could get another gig after his Alito hearing performance.

Oh, sorry. My mistake. The Whale in question was apparently dead. Only Ted’s liver is…..

Watched The Silence of the Lambs too much

Ok, we have another cannibal in Europe. Sweden this time. Yeesh.

Just like old times

I belong to the generation that witnessed the space race live, up close and personal. The Astronauts were everyone's hero's. We followed every development in vehicle design and capsule development. I remember sitting in school and stopping whatever lesson we were learning to watch the launching and recovery of many space missions, starting with the Mercury missions. We cheered whenever a rocket roared off the pad. So very slowly at first then picking up speed, going faster and faster, disappearing on a column of white smoke. When we watched the mighty Saturn V vehicles rolling so very slowly out of the assembly building we were in awe (Yeah- they even televised the creeping movement of the rockets out to the pads). After the moon landing, watching every mission dwindled away. We did watch the drama of Apollo 13 and had a TV on in every classroom (volume turned down) watching for the "Special Report" flash on the screen. When that happened everything stopped and the volume was turned up until the report ended. Gradually, we only watched a few things now and then and eventually, we stopped altogether. Nowadays, no networks cover any launches unless there's a chance they can get film footage of an accident. Today, I watched the launch of the Atlas V carrying the Pluto mission as it roared off the pad in Florida. Isn't the internet wonderful? They held several times (just like old times!) until they finally had enough blue sky. Then they picked up the count at T minus 4 minutes. Then they gave a "Go Atlas" and started the count. When they started the old, familiar "10, 9, 8, …." it was almost like being a kid in school again. The Atlas gather speed faster than the old Saturn V - at least it seemed so to me. But it still climbed, faster and faster, getting smaller and smaller, dwindling finally away into nothing. An absolutely flawless launch. I wish today's children had the excitement of those old days….

Pluto mission

Now scheduled to light off in about 12 minutes from now. Waiting on cloud cover to break up.

Who the hell does he think he is?

That dirty, unilateralist cowboy. Rattling his nuclear saber and threatening sovereign nations in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and International Law. His ten-gallon diplomacy must be resisted by thinking people everywhere.

Oh. My mistake, make that a 10-gallon BERET!

Who does he think he is?

Oh. My. God.

The pure horror of this is astounding.

To put it in perspective, we have troops fighting in Iraq and Afganistan. A war on terror. Worries about the legality of some of the Government’s actions.

But they pale in comparison to this atrocity: Reese wore a recycled gown!

Oh. My. God.

Google Subpoena

Ok, I am NOT happy with the government’s actions here. They should not have broad powers to grab data. That is overreaching in my mind. I think they should lose this case. Absent probable cause, they should not be able to broadly grab on-line data.

One important side note here. The headlines keep painting this as the “Bush Justice Department” and implicitly infer that it is all Bush’s fault.

This law was signed and placed on the books by Clinton in 1998. It was struck down by the Supremes in 2004. These details are buried ‘waaaay down in the story. Clinton is, of course, never blamed.

Do you really want the state involved?

I mentioned the Massachusetts authorities and their successful petition to the court to withdraw life support from a little girl the other day.

Well, it turns out the little girl is breathing on her own and responding to stimuli.

This confirms that slippery slope for me. These people, with what I presume are the very best intentions, decided that this little girl should not be continued on life support. (This is NOT at all the same thing as sentencing a convicted criminal to death. This is allowing an innocent to die. Not at all similar.)

And they may very well have been appallingly wrong.

Do you want the state involved in these decisions for you? For your family?

Where’s Kim update

Yet another indication that something is actually happening.

Now that’s what I call polling

This is the best poll ever. I simply have to vote! Repeatedly!