Crap You Should Know... But Probably Dont....
I just saw a Saturn Auto commercial on TV, and they were yapping about the company or someone they designate making your payments for you if you lose your job while still paying them back for their loan....blaa...blaa...blaa...
All I want to know is...
Is that the level where we've all sunken to today?
A. You'd buy a car you don't need because you probably already have a perfectly good one.
B. You buy a car that costs more than you can afford because you "just want it."
C. Now you'd buy a car because the company selling you the car will make your payments for you because you're insecurely employed and can't afford the vehicle in the first place.
D. Under "el Presidente" Obamarama you'd buy a car from a company that THE GOVERNMENT has to guarantee the warranty for because the company is financially insolvent?
(cue the sound of the crickets chirping while I catch my breath...)
OK, the "financially insolvent company" I'm talking about would be none other than...
get ready...
General Motors.
The one and the same General Motors which has a thinly veiled stinky history of double dealing and politically aided self serving activities that many if not most people either never knew or have forgotten.
To wit...I remind you of The Great American Streetcar Scandal.
To paraphrase the story if you're too lazy to Google it or click on my link, just know that it's been proven that in the late 1940's and early 1950's companies like GM and Firestone joined with other like minded companies in buying up city public transportation systems i.e. electric trolley lines and then proceeded to scrap them and tear up the tracks in favor of either replacing them with gas/diesel buses or in most cases private automobiles which they sold and made profit from.
I say that the fact that you can hardly get anywhere these days without a car in most smaller towns and cities is a direct result of GM's self dealing exploits, and the fact that they're responsible for putting an excessive cost burden for basic transportation on "working families" is an unpardonable sin for which they're finally being held accountable for today.
What a horrible ending to what was once considered to be a great company we're witnessing in 2009.
But then again...maybe it's a well deserved reward for the self serving, corrupt, behind the scenes dealing which ended up putting us all in the position we find ourselves in in the first place.
I say let the giant rotting corpse die, and take the idiot union goons with it to the grave...
Friday, April 03, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Today's Topic
Summary Investigation
of Recoginzed Industry Testing Standards
For High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
Jacketing as they Relate to the In-Situ Installation
of Direct Contact Steam Distribution Piping Systems
at Kent State University
There's no blogging this morning, because I spent my time writing a report with that garbage as the title, and it included the above aerial infrared photos and drawing of the pipeline I put together with my Photoshop skills...
Somebody shoot me...Plueassssseeee...
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
President Obama Sez "Some Are To Blame...But All Are Responsible"
Blaa...Blaa...Blaa
I just watched the Obamarama press conference live from London with the British Prime Minister, and what BLEW ME AWAY was Obamarama's insistence in pre-selecting the questions and the questioners in his news conferences.
WTF?
This stupid SOB can't answer a question off the cuff or on the fly?
Horry Crap Batman...the idiot doesn't answer a question when he "answers a question" which is pre-screened.
And he has the audacity to complain about about "the press" being unfair in their portrayal of the non-issues we're throwing shit-loads of money at.
I just watched the Obamarama press conference live from London with the British Prime Minister, and what BLEW ME AWAY was Obamarama's insistence in pre-selecting the questions and the questioners in his news conferences.
WTF?
This stupid SOB can't answer a question off the cuff or on the fly?
Horry Crap Batman...the idiot doesn't answer a question when he "answers a question" which is pre-screened.
And he has the audacity to complain about about "the press" being unfair in their portrayal of the non-issues we're throwing shit-loads of money at.
World Class Chili
Recipe By Request
Looking back, I find it to be somewhat amazing the circumstances which have produced some of my best recipes and cooking experiences over the past fifteen years since I began cooking on something other than a charcoal grill and moved into my kitchen almost full time for good portions of the week each week.
After my ten year apprenticeship spent learning which end of the spoon and ladle to put in a boiler or pot, and the difference between the spices Nutmeg and Cumin, the past five years have found me cooking larger and larger quantities of food for ever increasing crowds of people in a variety of venues--most recently...
PUBLIC venues.
With the assistance of Pat and my good buddy Rusty I've done a killer Mexican menu for over thirty people at our 2006 celebration of "Sies de Mayo" (actually an unintended insult to the illegal immigrants' Cinco de Mayo national holiday because the fifth of May that year fell on Friday.)
I've almost single handedly done Christmas dinner for seventeen during a recent holiday season including main courses and appetizers like Oysters Rockefeller.
Then this past holiday season I handled the main Chef duties for my soon to be defunct former employer's company Christmas party including about 24 guests and featuring Chateau Brianne, pan seared Salmon, and my signature Chicken picatta over angle hair pasta.
Now, on April fools day, I find my head spinning as we continue to move forward into 2009 and, looking back across the month of March, I seem to vaguely recall figuring out how to cook Chili for something like what...a THOUSAND people?
In preparation I cooked half gallon quantities of Chili three times in February to fine tune the recipe, then on March 7th my team man -handled 10 gallons of beef stock, 5 gallons of chicken stock, 40 pounds of top round roast cut into 1/2" steaks, and THIRTY pounds of ground beef and when we put it all into a giant pot with a ton of spices and stirred the concoction with a boat paddle we ended up with about THIRTEEN GALLONS of "Peoples Choice" award winning chili.
I don't care if I ever see another bowl of Chili for about two more months now, but I want to publish the recipe before I forget it and as a warning if you don't care about how to make my Chili you can stop reading right now, because "Virgil's World Class Competition Chili" recipe ensues:
To do about a half gallon batch of my "World Class" Chili in your home kitchen...You'll need...
Meat:
1-1/4 pound top round steak (about 1/2" thick)
1-1/4 pound ground beef or ground chuck
Other Stuff:
1 cup white wine
1 cup water
2 (14) oz cans beef stock
1 (14) oz cans chicken stock
1 (12) oz can tomato paste
2 (12) oz cans red beans (pureed in blender and reserved on the side until needed later)
Spice Blast #1
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp flaked onions
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp Wyler's Instant Beef Bouillon Granules
2 tsp Wyler's Instant Chicken Bouillon Granules
Spice Blast #2
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tbsp Chili Powder
1 tsp white pepper
3 tbsp Goya Reciato (look for the green Cilantro sauce in the "ethnic food" isle at your local grocer)
Now...as to the process of making the Chili...
Toss your top round steak in a big boiler pot or dutch oven with the cup of wine and the cup of water.
Cook it covered for 1-1/2 to 2 hours over medium heat until it falls apart when you poke it with a fork..checking it often after about 75 minutes so you don't boil it dry.
Dump the cooked round steak out into a colander to drain, then break up your ground beef and render it in the same boiler/pot/dutch oven until it's cooked through.
Now dump it in a colander to drain (removing your round steak so you don't get it all greasy again.
Go through the round steak pulling out any "chewy" bits and break it up into 1/2" to 3/4" chunks or smaller so it will assimilate into the pot with the ground beef when the time comes.
Is your drained/degreased meat now sitting back in your boiler/pot/dutch oven?
Well then...put it back in there and set your burner heat on medium and dump in your beef and chicken stock.
Stir, stir, stir, stir...
Add the Tomato Paste.
Stir...
Now...While you're standing around drinking some wine or a beer and bragging about your favorite NASCAR driver or the College basketball final four, dump your red beans into your blender or a food processor and grind those suckers up until they look like baby food.
Now hold them (the pureed beans) on the side until you see how things work out in the next couple of hours.
Once everything is starting to simmer nicely on the stove top, dump in what I call "Spice blast #1."
Smell that?
Don't get too close or you'll hurt yourself...
Stir, Stir, stir and turn the heat down a little and put the lid on the pot.
Now go watch Fox News or CNN while your eyes roll back in your head for fifteen minutes.
Smell that?
Stop by and check on your chili every fifteen minutes and make sure there isn't any unexpected flames coming out of your pot.
Got a fire extinguisher handy?
Back to reality, cook things slowly for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, then add "Spice Blast #2."
If things start to thicken too much you can always add some more beef stock or chicken stock or if you're really cheep..WATER.
Now I have to leave things up to you from here on out.
Cook my Chili recipe down as thick or thin as you like and you can dump any or all of the pureed red beans in at any time to thicken the whole pot out and to increase the volume of the mixture--I use the beans as a filler rather than a basic ingredient, but be prepared to stay on top of things for the last half hour of the cooking process lest you screw things up and have to start over again.
in the mean time...
Bon Appetite...!!!
Looking back, I find it to be somewhat amazing the circumstances which have produced some of my best recipes and cooking experiences over the past fifteen years since I began cooking on something other than a charcoal grill and moved into my kitchen almost full time for good portions of the week each week.
After my ten year apprenticeship spent learning which end of the spoon and ladle to put in a boiler or pot, and the difference between the spices Nutmeg and Cumin, the past five years have found me cooking larger and larger quantities of food for ever increasing crowds of people in a variety of venues--most recently...
PUBLIC venues.
With the assistance of Pat and my good buddy Rusty I've done a killer Mexican menu for over thirty people at our 2006 celebration of "Sies de Mayo" (actually an unintended insult to the illegal immigrants' Cinco de Mayo national holiday because the fifth of May that year fell on Friday.)
I've almost single handedly done Christmas dinner for seventeen during a recent holiday season including main courses and appetizers like Oysters Rockefeller.
Then this past holiday season I handled the main Chef duties for my soon to be defunct former employer's company Christmas party including about 24 guests and featuring Chateau Brianne, pan seared Salmon, and my signature Chicken picatta over angle hair pasta.
Now, on April fools day, I find my head spinning as we continue to move forward into 2009 and, looking back across the month of March, I seem to vaguely recall figuring out how to cook Chili for something like what...a THOUSAND people?
In preparation I cooked half gallon quantities of Chili three times in February to fine tune the recipe, then on March 7th my team man -handled 10 gallons of beef stock, 5 gallons of chicken stock, 40 pounds of top round roast cut into 1/2" steaks, and THIRTY pounds of ground beef and when we put it all into a giant pot with a ton of spices and stirred the concoction with a boat paddle we ended up with about THIRTEEN GALLONS of "Peoples Choice" award winning chili.
I don't care if I ever see another bowl of Chili for about two more months now, but I want to publish the recipe before I forget it and as a warning if you don't care about how to make my Chili you can stop reading right now, because "Virgil's World Class Competition Chili" recipe ensues:
To do about a half gallon batch of my "World Class" Chili in your home kitchen...You'll need...
Meat:
1-1/4 pound top round steak (about 1/2" thick)
1-1/4 pound ground beef or ground chuck
Other Stuff:
1 cup white wine
1 cup water
2 (14) oz cans beef stock
1 (14) oz cans chicken stock
1 (12) oz can tomato paste
2 (12) oz cans red beans (pureed in blender and reserved on the side until needed later)
Spice Blast #1
1 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp flaked onions
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp Wyler's Instant Beef Bouillon Granules
2 tsp Wyler's Instant Chicken Bouillon Granules
Spice Blast #2
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tbsp Chili Powder
1 tsp white pepper
3 tbsp Goya Reciato (look for the green Cilantro sauce in the "ethnic food" isle at your local grocer)
Now...as to the process of making the Chili...
Toss your top round steak in a big boiler pot or dutch oven with the cup of wine and the cup of water.
Cook it covered for 1-1/2 to 2 hours over medium heat until it falls apart when you poke it with a fork..checking it often after about 75 minutes so you don't boil it dry.
Dump the cooked round steak out into a colander to drain, then break up your ground beef and render it in the same boiler/pot/dutch oven until it's cooked through.
Now dump it in a colander to drain (removing your round steak so you don't get it all greasy again.
Go through the round steak pulling out any "chewy" bits and break it up into 1/2" to 3/4" chunks or smaller so it will assimilate into the pot with the ground beef when the time comes.
Is your drained/degreased meat now sitting back in your boiler/pot/dutch oven?
Well then...put it back in there and set your burner heat on medium and dump in your beef and chicken stock.
Stir, stir, stir, stir...
Add the Tomato Paste.
Stir...
Now...While you're standing around drinking some wine or a beer and bragging about your favorite NASCAR driver or the College basketball final four, dump your red beans into your blender or a food processor and grind those suckers up until they look like baby food.
Now hold them (the pureed beans) on the side until you see how things work out in the next couple of hours.
Once everything is starting to simmer nicely on the stove top, dump in what I call "Spice blast #1."
Smell that?
Don't get too close or you'll hurt yourself...
Stir, Stir, stir and turn the heat down a little and put the lid on the pot.
Now go watch Fox News or CNN while your eyes roll back in your head for fifteen minutes.
Smell that?
Stop by and check on your chili every fifteen minutes and make sure there isn't any unexpected flames coming out of your pot.
Got a fire extinguisher handy?
Back to reality, cook things slowly for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, then add "Spice Blast #2."
If things start to thicken too much you can always add some more beef stock or chicken stock or if you're really cheep..WATER.
Now I have to leave things up to you from here on out.
Cook my Chili recipe down as thick or thin as you like and you can dump any or all of the pureed red beans in at any time to thicken the whole pot out and to increase the volume of the mixture--I use the beans as a filler rather than a basic ingredient, but be prepared to stay on top of things for the last half hour of the cooking process lest you screw things up and have to start over again.
in the mean time...
Bon Appetite...!!!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Obama And Population Of Government Schooled Idiots Take On Executive Compensation
AIG and General Motors Today...Your Family Business Tomorrow...
I say that you're STUPID if you agree with the government being able to kick out the GM CEO and keep a dead company alive (can you say corporate Zombie?) in order to prop up the United Auto Workers Union.
Take the $100 Billion they project they'll have to spend to keep GM out of Bankruptcy (forgetting the $17 Billion Bush tossed to them last December), and divide that by the 140,000 GM workers and another 60,000 supplier jobs...and it comes out to FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PERJOB PERSON.
(taking a big breath...)
A HALF MILLION DOLLARS TO SAVE ONE JOB?
Why not just pay the people the half million each and tell the union tokiss the US taxpayers asses take a hike?
I have to go now before my head explodes.
I say that you're STUPID if you agree with the government being able to kick out the GM CEO and keep a dead company alive (can you say corporate Zombie?) in order to prop up the United Auto Workers Union.
Take the $100 Billion they project they'll have to spend to keep GM out of Bankruptcy (forgetting the $17 Billion Bush tossed to them last December), and divide that by the 140,000 GM workers and another 60,000 supplier jobs...and it comes out to FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS PER
(taking a big breath...)
A HALF MILLION DOLLARS TO SAVE ONE JOB?
Why not just pay the people the half million each and tell the union to
I have to go now before my head explodes.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Russian Ship With Tourist Docks With Space Station After Glitch
More Headline Confusion...
When I read the headline to the story linked on Drudge Report I immediately had this mental picture until I read the story (click to enlarge):
When I read the headline to the story linked on Drudge Report I immediately had this mental picture until I read the story (click to enlarge):
The real story is here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.fcf7d52916b4b8d5cd940c4df33235a1.7f1&show_article=1
You can understand my confusion, because it was a Russian SPACE SHIP...
(not a CRUISE Ship)
Silly me.
