No Go Filibuster

Let me start off by saying,

Thank You Justice O'Connor for your service. I may not have agreed with you, but you have served honorably.

also

Congrats, Justice Alito may you serve with understanding and wisdom.

I also want to reiterate something here I said on the Wizbang Bomb Squad. The attitude and tenor of the activist Left has given an opening to Republican challengers of Senate Democrats of all stripes in the '06 races.

Those Democrats who supported filibustering Alito have shown how beholden they are to the Left, whose ideas the moderate voter increasingly reject.

Those Democrats who supported cloture are not going to receive networking or money from the activists and will face bruising primary campaigns. If you think the hatred directed at conservatives was bad, when they turn on their own it will be worse. Turncoat heretics are how they are being portrayed.

The dirt will be dug up and displayed for moderate voters to see and the voters will vote Republican if only because they do not want to be associated with hate filled crazies. Voters do not want to support officials who are endorsed by incoherent, obcenity spewing, foam-flecked paranoids.

For officials like Senator Cantwell, who had a bare majority vote last time, even in a state as blue as Washington, Leftists will be dealing the campaign a body blow that will be difficult to recover from.

Ed Whelen at NRO says this:

Kerry and Kennedy have turned the wrath of the Left against those 19 Democrats (nearly half the caucus) who voted for cloture. (Byron York quotes one angry, obscene diatribe from DailyKos.) I don’t see how this is going to help red-state Democrats. If only Kerry and Kennedy could have been uniters rather than dividers

Tracked at Don Surber's Tuesday's Best Posts

Squeak, Squeak

The Infant is a bit, um, spoiled. She woke up from a nap and after being fed and changed was put in her saucer. Besides the built in amusements on the saucer there are plenty of toys clipped onto it. I gave her sweet potato puffs and she ate them contentedly and played with her toys while I walked back and forth from the laundry room. She finished her puffs and refused all other edibles.

Jump, jump. She watched me pass with an armful of laundry, her eyes expectant.

I came back her way, arms empty. Jump, jump, giggle, coo. Her eyes turned accusing as I passed her by. Those arms were EMPTY mom.

I filled milk cups for the other kids, and refilled the endless request for more peanutbutter sandwiches.

Jump, Jump, JUMP. Mehhhhh. The warning. You only get one. Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

She jumps, she arches. I pass by with apple slices. The premptory cry becomes a full fledged shriek of anger. The back of her head gently taps a button on the saucer.

Squeak, squeak. The light squeak cuts through the din. Silence.

Jump. Arch. Squeak, squeak. A new game.

Challenger 20 years later

I was in 5th grade when the Challenger exploded. That year is one I remember with great clarity; not just the events, but the sounds, the scents, the sensations. I think the Challenger is one of the things that anchored everything about that year in my memory.

The class had gathered with two others to watch the launch being broadcast on a TV. Everyone was excited and chattering. There was someone sitting on my desk and another with their foot propped on the metal bar that connected the chair to the desk. The other fifth grade teacher went into the supply closet and raided the Twinkie stash Mr. P. kept on the top shelf. The teachers sipped coffee and ate Twinkies.

At last they began the countdown to launch, and the chattering quieted. We cheered as the shuttle launched and then fell silent when it exploded. No one moved for a minute, we were all frozen in place, then the teacher who had snagged the Twinkies hurried forward and turned off the TV, her coffee slopping on Mr. P.'s desk. The other teachers gathered together their classes and went back to their classrooms, silent and sober.

Mr. P. was a cold and retentive man. That was one of two times I remember him showing much emotion. Even through my own shock I could see how stunned he was. He launched into a explanation of risk and the likelihood of an accident.

The Challenger accident was the thing in my kidhood that impressed on my mind the immediacy of death. I had been aware of death in a vague way, as something I knew in my mind. Challenger brought in to me in a visceral fashion. People died in front of my eyes, it wasn't a movie, it wasn't pretend; it didn't happen again until 15 years later on a sunny September day.

Round up at Michelle Malkin's.

Ox tail Soup

It has been cold and rainy here lately. It's rained everyday since Christmas. The rain is not steady anymore, but the wind has started. The wind kicks up a little bit more, a precursor to the spring wind storms that blow off the ocean. So we need something warm, something rich and cozy. Cue Oxtail Soup. It's mmmm, mmm meaty.


Oxtail Soup

3 pounds oxtail
1 large onion coarsely chopped
1 tbsp garlic minced
1 bay leaf
2 cups beef bouillon
1 tbsp vinegar
3 large carrots sliced
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup barley
1/4 cup wild rice

In the bottom of medium pot, brown oxtail pieces on all sides. Add onion and garlic, sautee until onion just begins to turn clear. Add boullion, vinegar, bay leaf, and 2 cups water. Cover and simmer about 2 hours. Add barley, rice and vegetables and simmer another 45 minutes or so until meat and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste.

I always knew. Even as a young girl. It explains so much.
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You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test


Ht: Richmond

A Movement to Support

This I like. Of course, like any protest the winning side is evaluated by the protest babes that support it. Perhpas the relative coolness factor can also be taken into account. Hmm. Sean Connary, Mel Gibson, Liam Neeson, Samuel Jackson, Ewan MacGregor. Pretty good protest babes to me. (ht: Dave Barry)

Mary Poppins

This week's movie: Mary Poppins (1964).

It had been a while since I had seen this movie, but I recently got the 40th Anniversary edition from Netflix. I love the book, and while the movie was charming there is something about the borderline creepiness, not-quite-safeness of Mary in the book that is quite enjoyable. There is a scene in the book where Michael gets up on the wrong side of the bed and decides he will be naughty all day. He sneaks Mary Poppins magic compass away from her and uses it to travel around the world. Without Mary though, the world is a daunting and frightful place. Instead of the friendly greetings he expected he finds:

They were rushing upon him from all our quarters of the room with their weapons raised above their heads, and, instead of looking kind and friendly as they had done that afternoon, they now seemed threatening and full of revenge. They were almost on top of him, their huge, terrible, angry faces looming nearer and nearer. He felt their hot breath on his face and saw their weapons tremble in their hands.

Later in the book we meet Mrs Corry (who is only lightly touched on in the movie), whose fingers snap off to become sweets and who is cruel to her large daughters. She is perhaps the only one Mary is deferential to. P.L. Travers, author of the book, wanted many things changed about the movie (removing the chalk drawing sequence or one) but Walt Disney refused. The compass sequence, mentioned above, was removed in preproduction.

Walt Disney was set on casting Julie Andrews after seeing her in a stage production of Camelot. In fact, it was her role of Mary Poppins which landed her the role of Maria in Sound of Music (1965). In The Sound of Musicals, a thoroughly enjoyable excursion through Rogers and Hammerstien movies, the anecdote is told. It seems there was some concern that Julie Andrews did not have a broad enough vocal range to portray Maria. To allay concerns, Disney let them get a peek of Mary Poppins, in the can but not yet released. They immediately called Andrews to offer her the role.

Anyway, the movie. Something I saw which I had never seen before. It is Bert, not Mary, who effects the needed change in Mr. Banks. Bert is able to understand that Mr. Banks is not stuffy to be stuffy, rather that he is weighted down with responsiblity and no longer knows how to let go of it for a time.

"Chim, Chim, Cheree" is my favorite song in the movie.

Beating Your Head Against the Wall

It got us a movie though.

http://www.fireflyseason2.com/

Decision '08

Yes, yes it's much too early to be talking '08 candiates, well except for politicians, Patrick Ruffini, and well, Mark at Decision '08. Still, Island Passage and I are going to start a draft Ken Blackwell movement. We've been back and forth about who looks good, who's viable. No one really floats the boat. McCain? Rudy? Allen? Some of the people reading this blog are wondering if Allen is the first or last name of the candidate I'm talking about. No pizazz, no yeah baby moments.

Then Kathryn Lopez at NRO linked to this City Journal article. All I could think was: "I wish this guy could be our '08 candidate." From the article:

Ken Blackwell has so many people worried because he represents a new political calculus with the power to shake up American politics. For Blackwell is a fiscal and cultural conservative, a true heir of the Reagan revolution, who happens to be black, with the proven power to attract votes from across a startlingly wide spectrum of the electorate. Born in the projects of Cincinnati to a meat-packer who preached the work ethic and a nurse who read to him from the Bible every evening, Blackwell has rejected the victimology of many black activists and opted for a different path, championing school choice, opposing abortion, and staunchly advocating low taxes as a road to prosperity. The 57-year-old is equally comfortable preaching that platform to the black urban voters of Cincinnati as to the white German Americans in Ohio’s rural counties or to the state’s business community.

Also:

Heading into the 2006 elections, Blackwell is clearly on a roll. But as the election draws closer, he will have to deal with increasingly insistent accusations from within his own party that he is too conservative for Ohio, while Democrats, public-employee unions, and social-services advocacy groups try to paint him as an extremist. Indeed, already signs of how the campaign will play out are visible in the state’s mainstream press, which celebrated Blackwell’s early successes as an up-and-coming black politician but now increasingly dismisses him as outside the political mainstream.

And:

“This is what happens to you when you are a politician like Ken, who is more interested in change than in playing along with the old-boy network,” says former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich, who enlisted Blackwell to serve on one of his advisory groups in the mid-1990s. “Ken Blackwell is a guy who pursues big ideas.”

We need someone to pursue big ideas. Assuming Mr. Blackwell, is successful this fall he will have two years executive experience as Governor. Young, dynamic, and charismatic he's what the right needs. Draft Ken!

Law and Order will be Lost

So the main part of this Breitbart article is about West Wing getting canceled. I say, who cares? It jumped the shark about season 2 or so. What grabbed my attention is the line up shuffle. They are pitting Law and Order agaist Lost??!! When Jerry Orbach died so did the last lingering interest I had towards L&O. Law and Order can not possibly compete with the mysterious island full of good looking men. (Naveen Andrews, I'm pointing at you. Please, please, please audition for Ammar in Lions of Al Rassan.) L&O is toast.

New Link

New link on the ole blogroll. Alarm! - movies and tv stuff. Plus, Mr. Suderman has a great line I'm going to steal: "Narrowly escaping death-by-incoherent-plot in most every scene"
Isn't it grand?

Who is the Parent? You are!

I must confess, I have bought a themed product or two for my kids. Albertsons had Pirates of the Caribbean fruitsnacks on sale for a dollar a box. The Verbalist has a pirate groove going on with his toys so I bought a box. It was an impulse buy too, horrors! I bought boxes of cornflakes ad nauseum to collect UPCs for the Cinderella spoon set for my daughter and niece. If there is a Princess Jasmine on it chances are I have considered it's purchase. You noticed I was the one purchasing the goods, I am after all more flush than the preschoolers. I make the meals, I drive to the grocery store. I provide the children snack options, so I have no sympathy for this abdication of personal responsibility masquerading as a lawsuit.

It's not as if Spongebob is only slapped on sugary cereal and Pop Tarts. His inane grin graces products from bandages to chicken soup. Indeed, if the kids watch the cartoon mindlessly they are more apt to ask for a krab patty, the delicacy of choice for Spongebob and crew. It could be worse, Scooby Doo graces kid snacks and dog treats alike. What's next, some illiterate upset they fed dog biscuits to a three year old and suing Purina for their dumb mistake?

Here's a parenting tip for you: if your kid wants junk food with a cartoon character, and you want to indulge them, let them choose one. One. One will not ruin your kid. If they are ungrateful, they lose privilege for that one. Heck by the bandages or a pencil emblazoned with a cartoon character and circumvent the food issue altogther. The thing to remember here is you are the parent. You buy the groceries, you are in authority over your children. Sheesh.

Tracked at Michelle Malkin.

My Whidbey - On Intelligent Design

The Yeps on the Steps

The WSJ has an article about Green Eggs and Ham, the best Seuss book written. For all the high flown meanings ascribed to the humble text, the real meaning is quite clear to a parent and child. Don't distain food you've never had because it looks funny. Sometimes a moral is just a moral.

Ad Critters

Via Don Surber comes the Forbes list of America's Most Loved Spokes-Creatures. The list includes such abominations as Poppin Fresh and the Snuggle Bear.

I know I am not alone in my loathing of Poppin Fresh and the Snuggle Bear. Poppin Fresh has the sinister giggle most closely associated Frank Booth. He is a dough boy happy to put his dough compatriots in an oven and then shove them into people's mouths. Then there is the Snuggle Bear who wipes his nose on your stack clean towels, under the auspices of smelling the freshness. Smarmy little bear boogers, great.

Layer Cake

No, not another recipe: our movie review of the week, Layer Cake (2004). This movie had a couple of attractions going in. First, it gives a good look at the new Bond, Daniel Craig. Second, it is a Matthew Vaughn movie, which I confess, I tend to like. (No, I have not seen Swept Away. I consider Breathless Mahoney the exception that proves the Madonna rule. I would never have watched Evita without the inclusion of Antonio Banderas, and yes, I fell asleep in Evita. Satisfied? No emails)

I knew it was going to be full of violence and extra full of cussing. I was right. Couple of cringe worthy scenes that were not graphic but evocative. I think the f bomb was there every third word or so. Kind of like a Tarantino flick, or a Sam Jackson movie, or a Tarantino movie starring Sam Jackson. I'm sure there is a cussing trifecta out there somewhere in movie land, but other than a script that was nothing but f bombs I am hard pressed to conceive of how they would pack it in.

The premise: Daniel Craig plays a drug dealer middle man. He is a business man and cocaine is his product. He's made a pile of green, wants to retire and gets roped into one last deal where everything goes horribly wrong.

Moral of the story: do business with drug dealers and criminals and bad things happen, no matter how cool you are. Daniel Craig is cool too. He is not very good looking, but he gives off the aura of coolness that James Bond is supposed to. I am less apprehensive about the new Bond than I was before.

In the course of the movie, Craig (whose character is nameless) is told to find the daughter of a the big time crime boss. He sets two of his associates on the job a couple of guys named Cody and Tiptoes. These guys stole the screen everytime they appeared. They didn't fit the movie stereotype "C" level badguys at all. They were not bumbling, funny in a sidekickish way, thuggish, junkie, slavish, or achille's heels. They were likeable guys but not fools. They were small fish in a pond full of sharks and were not looking to so anything but skirt by.

The romance was atypical too. The woman didn't play a big role, she didn't have an agenda, she doesn't sell out the main character. She just was. The director did not throw in a sex scene when there usually would be one, which was fine. We got the point, that they are hooked into each other.

All in all I liked it. A bad Dumbledore, an amoral Transporter Chief O'Brien, a satisfying end.

I Scream You Scream

One of the things I received at Christmas was an ice cream maker attatchment to my Kitchen Aid. I have made a few batches of ice cream and plan on making many more. I have yet to make my favorite, Rocky Road. Rest assured, I will make it the way God intended, with mini-marshmallows and almonds, not with marshmallow cream and walnuts. I also intend to try my hand at something I have only tasted a few times before but really enjoyed - Green Tea Ice Cream. Here is the recipe I intend to try:

Green Tea Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups half and half
1/2 a vanilla bean
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp dry green tea

Split vanilla bean and scrape the insides. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, half-and-half, and vanilla bean scrapings, stirring occasionally to make sure the mixture doesn't scorch on the bottom. When the cream mixture reaches a fast simmer (do not let it boil), set aside for 12 minutes to let flavors marry. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the still-hot cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook until thermometer reaches 180 degrees. Remove it from the heat and add green tea incorportaing thoroughly. Strain and chill. Follow the directions of your ice cream maker to finish.

While you do not have to use it, most recipes call for maccha green tea powder, which I gather is a traditional Japanese green tea. I have had green tea ice cream made from Lotus Tea from Tazo and it was good, just try and use a quality green tea and powder it.

Verbalist Turns Five

The Verbalist turned five a week ao and had a party on Saturday. It was cute and fun, with a tasty cake. Not a whole lot of story fodder, other than the fact that a Navy non-com officer couldn't figure out how to transform a Transformer from ambulance to robot. Good thing he has a daughter.

Trucks and Star Wars and Ninja Turtles. Ah boys.

Yes, oh Yes

Do I think the Outer Rim will hear? A very slim maybe. Dollars often speak louder than letters, but I will sign this. Would you?

An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

Little Gold Statues

Dana Stevens writes in Slate about reactions to Jon Stewart's new gig as Oscar host. She says:

What's most striking about the reaction to the academy's choice of Stewart as host is how intense, and how immediately political, it's become. It's hard to imagine such a sustained and feverish discussion of most other likely choices for the gig: Whoopi Goldberg? Ellen DeGeneres? Jay Leno? But apparently, to be a red-blooded American, you must have a strong opinion on Jon Stewart as Oscar host 2006.

Political, Stewart? I mean it's not like he's ever interviewed a politician. Oh wait, he has. It's not like he has admonished pundits for being partisan. Oh wait, he has. I am not particularly astonished that this has gotten immediately political. Everything is political it seems like these days, because everything is George Bush's fault, except when it's Cheney and Rove's fault. I'm not really picking at Ms. Steven's astonishment, what got my goat were her three catagories of reaction.

1. Yay! From the Jon-Stewart-walks-on-water school (which includes lefty bloggers and a lot of crushed out girls on LiveJournal), there is unalloyed celebration: Finally the academy does something right, he will make the show worth watching for the first time in years, etc.

2. Jon Stewart has sold out. The blogger Ron Mwangaguhunga, proprietor of the gossip site Le Corsair, accuses Stewart of "lounging at the Chateau Marmont with Scarlett Johannson" and asks why he isn't volunteering instead to host this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner.

3. The choice of Stewart is proof that Hollywood is a seething vortex of Bush-bashing liberals (read: Jews). The code for this viewpoint is the use of Stewart's real last name, Liebowitz, which he once told 60 Minutes he dropped because it sounded "too Hollywood." This joke has now been turned against its teller, as anti-Semitic knuckle-draggers attempt to "out" Stewart for the very Jewishness he's constantly alluding to on his own show.

So I toddled over and read the comments and find guess what? Maybe one or two allusions to the Liebowitz joke. So Ms. Steven's "read: Jews" commentary seems like more of a projection of stereotypes than anything else. Of the many, many, many liberal Hollywood bashing discussions I have read or heard among conservatives and conservative Christians, Jews are not a factor. Even in the criticisms of Spielberg's new movie Munich, a movie about Israeli Jews and terrorists!, the complaints are centered on leftist tropes rather than feverish concern about Hollywood based Jews. Conservatives shake thier heads over an equivalence drawn between terrorists killing atheletes and Moussad agents killing terrorists; not much attention is given to racial identity. Put another way, if Spielberg's heritage is clucked over, it is because most Christian conservatives hope that Jews realize they are not the enemy.

If I were to catagorize the comments I would thus:

1) Yay! Jon Stewart is the funniest thing ever.
2) Nothing can save the Oscars from thier slide to marginality because Hollywood is a pack of liberals (read: those who do not care about traditional societal building blocks like religion and marriage)
3) Conservatives are evil, Jon exposes those corrupt liars with biting wit.
4) Poor Jon, it's bound to be a difficult, thankless, tedious job.

I like the Daily Show. I find Stewart funny. Sometimes I sit and correct the "news" that issues from the desk while Dear Husband shakes his head. What I appreciate about Stewart and the Daily Show is that while they have a relentlessly leftist tilt to the show, they aknowlege it and still skewer sacred cows of the left. The "Coot" War last week between Ted Stevens (Coot-Alaska) and Robert Byrd (Coot-West Virginia), fabulous.

I hope Stewart revitalizes the Oscars. I hope that he is funny and takes great pot shots at such a self congradulatory industry. I will tune into his opening monologue, a good bet to be the most entertaining portion of the evening. I just will not hold my breath that it will remain funny. No reflection on Stewart, Hollywood continues to marginalize itself because it usually ignores or belittles those of us who place importance on religion and other traditional societal building blocks.

Now go check out Island Passage and thanks to James.