Can I help you? No, we don't sell pesto sausage, but we do have little weenies.

Aug 29, 2008

Sarah who?


The governess of Alaska will be McCain's running mate. I guess Vickie Iseman wasn't available.
via Kos.

I suppose Ted Stevens (R-lobbyist's pocket) will do his best not to implicate her. And her husband is an oil industry executive worker. Drill her, (I mean here) Drill now.

Update: Did McCain pick her so he'll have a scapegoat when he loses? Or is his "little pilot" doing his decidering for him?

Aug 20, 2008

Finally a meme I can sink my teeth into

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten. (I've given myself some leeway as you can see in my comments.)
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (there is no food that I would not consider eating.)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
There's a few maybes that reflect some dishes I had in Japan. Sometimes not even my hosts knew the ingredients. And I've eaten squirrel, but I didn't cook it in Huckabee's corn popper.

1. Venison- yes, and other wild meats
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile-- not yet, nor has a crocodile eaten me
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich-- I could live on PBJ and milk.
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses-- not yet
17. Black truffle-- white but not black
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes-- Yes, especially if Boone's Farm counts.
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese-- not yet
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda-- not yet
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi-- not yet
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar-- yes to both, but not together
37. Clotted cream tea-- not yet
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O-- not yet, but obviously an oversight on my part
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat-- goat, yes, but pickled not curried
42. Whole insects-- candied grasshoppers
43. Phaal-- not yet
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more-- Maybe
46. Fugu-- I think so
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin-- My second cousin once removed was a kaolin miner. I've only had it in Koa-Pectate
64. Currywurst- not yet
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis-- No
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette-- yep, in Japan in a soup of some sort, they were very chewy.
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini-- both but not together
73. Louche absinthe-- nope
74. Gjetost, or brunost-- nope
75. Roadkill-- not that I'm aware of, but I wouldn't put it past some of my hosts
76. Baijiu-- I've had (a lot of) the Japanese equivalent, Shochu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini-- No, but it sounds tastier than a fuzzy navel
81. Tom yum-- I think so
82. Eggs Benedict-- Yes and its lowly counterpart, the Egg McYouKnowWhat
83. Pocky-- and giant Pockys, too.
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.-- Alas, no
85. Kobe beef-- Yes
86. Hare-- you mean four legged chicken as we used to call it for my cousin who had delicate gustatory sensibilities
87. Goulash
88. Flowers--
89. Horse-- yes, raw in Japan as horse sashimi (ba sashi) or euphemistically as sakura niku (cherry meat)
90. Criollo chocolate-- no
91. Spam-- hell yeah!
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa-- not yet
94. Catfish-- Yum-yum
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake-- yes, at camp many years ago

Aug 14, 2008

Let me get this straight....

"I light the fuse, and then I run like hell...."

Getty Images via the Seattle P-I

Aug 13, 2008

Requisite Olympics Post #2

Nice binoculars, Chimpy

Is there a back story here?
That could explain a lot.

Requisite Olympics Post

I think this is a great picture from the Olympics. This guy is from the UAE and may be as rich as Midas, but he looks like a regular guy. Put a John Deere logo on his hat and he could be my neighbor. His ear muffs are great, too.

Ahmed Almaktoum of the UAE unloads his shotgun during the qualifying round of the men's trap competition of the shooting event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 10, 2008.
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

Aug 12, 2008

There they are

Popeye and Sweetpea enjoy a lighthearted moment at the home.

AP/Mary Altaffer

Aug 11, 2008

Lower than a worm's sub-basement

From Think Progress

Bush Veterans Affairs Department bans voter registration drives at veterans facilities.

This needs to be circulated far, wide, and repeatedly. Apparently there is a dearth of shame in the Bush appointed members of the VA. This is so reprehensible.

Separated at birth?


Presented for your consideration....

Aug 7, 2008

Bush's TOILSEC acccomodations revealed.


How timely, given my repost yesterday.
From TreeHugger. Click through to see more pictures.
From the Brown Company, no less. And the character? His first name is Jack....

Aug 6, 2008

More than you want to know about Chimpy's toileting

This is a rerun, but after I heard Jon Stewart comment that Bush is the most traveled president ever, I go to thinking about TOILSEC again. Are they saving all his excreta to fill the Bush Library and Stink Tank?

Pissed in New York found an interesting story.

Check this out. No one but a two-year old is this concerned with excreta.
And this extract from the original at Kos.

According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out to Viennese home owners, business proprietors, and pedestrians by US Secret Service agents and local police before and during Bush's visit received widespread Austrian media attention, it was White House "toilet security" ("TOILSEC"), which has Austrians talking the most. The White House flew in a special portable toilet to Vienna for Bush's personal use during his visit. The Bush White House is so concerned about Bush's security, the veil of secrecy extends over the president's bodily excretions.


Is this why he had to write a note to Condi about going to the little boys' room. Is she in charge of TOILSEC?

I dislike her less now

Funny in an odd sort of way. Take that, you wrinkly old white guy.

Aug 1, 2008

Mr. McCain, there's a transmission for you on the Marconi apparatus...



Anna Quindlen makes a good point in this week's Newsweek.

The terrorists have laptops in their hideouts. Can America afford to have a leader who is just learning how to use one?
Honest Abe was a techie. Yep, it's true. President Lincoln pushed hard for the spread of telegraph lines across the country and used the new medium to make communications with his generals during the Civil War swift and specific. Sometimes he even slept on the couch in the telegraph office when he was monitoring battlefield conditions. In his book "Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails," author Tom Wheeler brings the language of Silicon Valley to Gettysburg. "Lincoln's early-adopter instincts," he writes, "coupled with his being unburdened by the old dogmas, allowed him to outperform his generals in the ability to see change and harness it to his purpose."

Paging John McCain. Or at least calling him. Because he doesn't text-message. Or have a BlackBerry. Or use e-mail. Anyhow, he might want to pay more attention to Lincoln's successful future-think.
Read the whole thing, it's interesting.

Borderline computing

I'm not sure if this family are worried tourists or Homeland Security agents in training.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/135465558/

Tell The Bush Administration: Hands Off My Laptop

I have enough problems with my laptop without having to surrender it to officials on demand.
From the link above:
Today the Washington Post ran a front-page story on a topic previously reported by ThinkProgress. Homeland Security is telling customs agents they can search, and take, travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices without needing any reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

The Post story highlights a new Customs and Border Patrol policy document that states:

In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States.

The new policy says CPB can take away the laptop or analyze copies of its contents:

Officers may detain documents and electronic devices, or copies thereof, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search. The search may take place on-site or at an off-site location.

CBP says that the officers are supposed to return the laptop and destroy copies of the contents if nothing illegal is found (but be sure not to have any downloaded songs that you haven’t paid for).

That is far from comforting, even once you get your laptop back days or weeks later, because “nothing in this policy limits the authority of an officer to make written notes” about what was in the laptop.

Insane? Yes. Maybe they could offer spyware removal and defragmentation services. (That is, if indeed, they aren't installing some nefarious software or device.)