Good Eats

Here...Try This...


I think that I mentioned previously that we've been doing a good deal of cooking and entertaining--mainly menu re-runs--here over the past few months since we moved into the new house down on our little island.

For instance, last weekend I cooked not one but TWO 16" pizzas for guests that came out pretty well, and last month I did my low country boil for the same group (the dish is a no brainer but still I've seen people screw it up.)

In addition to those events, I'm brining and smoking a half dozen racks of baby back ribs for guests next weekend and I'm handling most of the cooking for a fairly elaborate Thanksgiving lunch for six or eight folks here on the 25th.

Since the weather has cooled off a little, some soup/stews have also been on the dinner menu--things like Seafood/Chicken Gumbo and a Caribbean Jerk Stew I tried out the other night which was served on top of boiled potato and onion pierogies.

Pat and I have also eaten our way through most of a prime twenty pound Angus Beef Tenderloin and of course loads of things like my Chicken Picatta and various pork dishes because, as I said before, I HAVE A FREEZER.

Last night, after meeting friends for drinks on the deck of a local restaurant (yes it was over 70 degrees here at 5 PM,) I put together a made up dish I been working on for the third or forth time that I think is worth mentioning if you're interested and you like fish. It works best with Tilapia, but I think that you could use any mild fish like Flounder or Orange Roughy, etc.

Here's what I did to make dinner for two:

2 Tilapia fillets

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp sweet paprika
pinch of baking powder

a splash of milk in a bowl

1 slice of a large sweet onion, separated into rings (more if you want more onion rings

1 small can sliced green olives (drained)
1 small can sliced ripe olives (drained)
2 medium ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup of chicken stock
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper flakes
1/2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup white wine

3/4 cup of long grain rice

Peanut oil


Here goes...Dice up your tomatoes, then toss them into a large skillet over medium heat while you dump in your green and black olives, the salt, Cayenne pepper flakes, and the chicken stock. Get everything up to a good simmer adjusting your heat as required, and let it cook for a good fifteen minutes. Add your wine and lemon juice and keep simmering.

Meanwhile start cooking your rice according to the package directions and mix up your flour spice mixture in a shallow dish and splash the milk into another shallow bowl. (Don't forget to slice your onion rings.)

Now put enough of the peanut oil into a large heavy skillet to make a 1/2" deep puddle of oil. Kick the heat up to medium high under the skillet and shoot for 375 degrees F. (It really helps if you have a thermometer that clips on the side of the skillet to tell you the oil temp continuously--I do.)

The key here is to get everything done at the same time, so you need to keep cooking down your tomato/olive mix while at the same time prepping your onion rings and the fish fillets.

Dip your fillets and onion rings in the milk, then dredge them through the flour to get a nice thin coating on all sides. Reserve them on the side on a plate or foil.

Once your tomato/olive mix is cooked down nicely and your oil is up to at 375, drop your onion rings into the oil and fry them for a couple of minutes on each side, then drain them on paper towels.

Let the grease come back up to temperature, then toss in your floured fillets and cook them for two or three minutes per side, until they're flaky. Place them on paper towels on the side to drain. (Your rice should be done by now and you might preheat a couple of big pasta bowls in the oven if you want to.)

Plating it all up (it's real hard):

Dump some rice into your bowls, place a fillet on top of each rice pile, dump half the tomato/olive mix on top of each serving, then lay two or three onion rings on top, Grab yourself a fork, and EAT.

I've got to go finish making Pizza now...Y'all have a nice evening.

Forty Acres And A Mule?

How About A Freezer And A Three Dollar Turkey???


Dang I LOVE having a chest type Deep Freezer. I've already got frozen meat running out of my ears, but regardless I just got home from a Harris Teeter "three day" pre-Thanksgiving Day sale and get this...

I bought a 11-1/2 Pound Turkey for $3.34 plus tax ($0.29 per pound).

My bird is now residing comfortably in my garage freezer along with a big plastic bag full of giant Alaskan King Crab clusters that were also on sale for less than half price. If I didn't have the volume of cold real estate in which to store my prizes purchased on sale, I would be forced to pay full price over the next few weeks for my holiday meals.

I think that instead of just handing out food stamps to people that the government should drive a truck around poor minority neighborhoods public housing developments up to the front door of the recipients of the public largess and dump a deep freezer off and chain it to the back porch of every address.

Then once a month (every time the local grocer has a sale) the truck would back into the driveway and deliver whatever was on sale that day.

Forget letting our benefactors buy cigarettes and ground beef to feed their dogs, I say that if they want to participate in "assistance programs" that they do like this mean old angry white arrogant "rich guy" and get themselves a freezer and a three dollar turkey rather than waiting until Thanksgiving or Christmas eve and spending $16 of taxpayer money on the exact same meat.

Just call me pragmatic insensitive, I guess...

Sauce For The Goose

How Do They Keep A Straight Face?


I was cruising around this morning looking at what was happening in the world when I came across this story on the "Editor & Publisher" website about the announcement of yet ANOTHER circulation decline over the past six months for the major print newspapers.

...The push to herald total audience is coming not a moment too soon since paid circulation continues on a downward slide. According to industry sources speaking to E&P, daily circulation for reporting papers in the six-month FAS-FAX period ending September is down about 2.5% while Sunday is expected to fall 3.5%. Those types of declines -- in the 2% and 3% range -- have been occurring as far back as the March 2005 period.

E&P has learned that several major papers have suffered declines in daily circ of over 7%, including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Miami Herald and The Dallas Morning News.

Asked for comment, publishers of these papers blamed the decreases partly on the cut back in other-paid circulation -- which includes Newspaper in Education, hotel, and third-party copies. And papers have been chopping distribution areas--it's too expensive to serve outlying communities, at least in print.

...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's circulation fell about 9% for both daily and Sunday. "Those loses are in-line with our expectations," Robert Eickhoff, senior vice president of operations, told E&P. "We are focusing on individually paid and marching down a very strategic path." [emphisis mine-VRR]

...

Daily circulation at The San Diego Union-Tribune declined about 8.5% while Sunday was down about 7.9%. The paper has almost completely eliminated third-party copies and reigned in some of their bonus days as well as discounted copies. Bill Nagel, the vice president of circulation, noted the paper's total audience reaches more than 60% of the market.

Combined circulation for The Miami Herald and Nuevo Herald declined daily and Sunday about 8.4% and 12.3%, respectively. Terry Whitney, vice president of circulation, said the papers were cutting back on third-party and event copies under a two-year plan.

These people kill me. They are explaining rearranging the furniture on the deck of the Titanic like they're just doing a little planned redecorating.

They simply can't bring themselves to publicly admit that they are losing readers because their product SUCKS--either because of or in spite of all of the Columbia Journalism Grad school alumni they have hanging around their offices.

I, your lowly unpaid Internet blogger, tilt my head back and laugh to mock the dead tree legacy medias' fate as you keep your quarters in your pockets to feed the parking meter rather than paying fifty cents each day for want ads and useless false ASSociated Press stories about jobless recoveries and death and doom in Iraq.

How long will it take for them to figure out that they will either improve the quality of their product, else ultimately be forced out of business?.

It's not a question of IF, it's just a matter of when...

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Political Activism

Blogging On The Back Burner


Sorry folks, but I'm busy these days doing some real writing on a story about Political Polling, and this morning I had to take time out to write a letter to the State Republican Party headquarters on behalf of my County Commissioner Cap Fendig's campaign for President.

I know...I know...I know, Cap stands a snowball's chance in hell of actually getting elected, but the assholes in Atlanta geniuses on the Republican Executive committee jumped the gun this week and tossed their slate of candidates for the February Republican primary to the Secretary of States' office with only the nine national candidates names on it--omitting Cap entirely.

Apparently they knew that he had qualified with the Federal Election Commission, that he was already on the New Hampshire and South Carolina primary ballots, but the "powers what be" are afraid of a two term county commissioner and what he might do to the state wide pecking order for offices like Senator and Representative and Governor if they allow people to find out about him by letting him on the presidential ballot.

Well, you know me, I couldn't just silently sit beside the process as it goes on (the deadline is November 17th), so I sat down at the keyboard this morning and blasted this off to Sue Everhart, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party:

Chairman Everhart,

I am writing to you this morning to express my dismay over the state Republican Committee's decision to limit the slate of Presidential candidates in the upcoming State Republican Primary to the nine national candidates, in the process omitting Glynn County commissioner Neil H. "Cap" Fendig, Jr.

I believe that the committee owes the Republican voters of the state of Georgia the opportunity to consider the candidacy and, as a result, to potentially vote for any legal resident living within the borders of the state of Georgia that spends the time and money required to qualify to run not only for President, but for any statewide office.

I find the words "Grassroots Leadership" plastered all over the home page of the Republican Committee's website, yet apparently the words have a different meaning for the committee that they do for myself and the other Republican and independent voters down here in Glynn County.

It seems that you and your fellow committee members believe it prudent and fair to allow 56 people on the Executive Committee, mostly from the Atlanta metro area, to decide that Georgia voters aren't sophisticated enough to read ten names on a ballot, therefor limiting our choice to nine. (One has to wonder how many other excellent but as-yet unknown candidates' efforts have been stymied in the past here in Georgia by this same heavy handed political tactic?)

Commissioner Fendig has an excellent reputation here in Glynn county, he meets all of the requirements to run for President to the letter of the law, and it's just plain dirty politics that you deny him the opportunity to win or lose his bid to be on the November 2008 ballot by letting the GEORGIA VOTERS DECIDE as the voters will be doing in at least two other states.

I doubt that the cost of the extra ink on the ballots or the pixels on the electronic voting machine display are going to break the Committee or the State's budget next winter, therefore I respectfully ask that you and the committee reconsider your decision.

Best Regards,

Virgil R. Rogers, III
St. Simons Island Georgia


Now let's see what happens...

UPDATE 1:30 PM

I just received an E-mail from Commissioner Fendig thanking me. I copied my letter to both of my US Senators, and the two southern Georgia US Representatives who are also on the committee, and I really hope that they will reconsider.

If The National Weather Service Were A Company

I'd Buy Stock...


These guys at the National Weather Service, or more specifically, the National Hurricane Center, are truly amazing. I was sitting around here this evening checking the progress of Noel, the latest storm down in the Atlantic, and I compared the current 11:00 PM plot against the plot done last Saturday (three days earlier.)

Take a gander at Point A on each of these charts:

Not to be insensitive because I realize if you were in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba, things have turned out quite differently and even been deadly, but look how close they were with the track three days out.

It was supposed to be where it is now during the middle of the day on Tuesday, but that was because the actual storm track moved north of the models' projections and then deviated back to the south southwest during the day on Monday and Tuesday.

Next notice the 8 PM Thursday point on the Saturday projection matches the mid-day projection for Thursday on tonight's projection.

As far as South Florida is concerned, so far they've nailed it and they also correctly projected that it would not make it up to Hurricane strength.

Twenty years ago this kind of forecasting would have been impossible, and Global Warming aside I think that everyone here in the southeast can close the book on the 2007 Hurricane season.

Thank GOD...

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Pumpkin Reruns

I'm Too lazy to Care Carve


Sorry folks, but the pumpkins available down here on our little island this year were basically overpriced and small, so my pumpkin carving efforts were put on hold for this season. I just couldn't get fired up for some reason.

For my new readers, here's some of my golden oldies from years past...

First a look at my own original design for 2004...John sKerry Herman Munster:

Here's a simple little haunted house I did for a friend's grand kids last year:

And finally, the giant 120 pounder last year with a more elaborate haunted house theme:

That big sucker kicked my butt--it took about three days to design the pattern on Photoshop and do the carving for the kids at the local Montessori School.

We ended up giving it to the local Nursing home the day before Halloween for them to display in the lobby.

After doing that one, I guess that you could say that I'm all "pumpkined out..."

UPDATE:

After looking around on my external backup hard drive I found this one from 2005. Guess what it represents?




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Joe Torre and the Dodgers?

Some Personal Recollections...


Let me start out this posting by saying that I'm a real fan of Joe Torre, but not just because of his work with the NY Yankees.

In fact I guess that I should say I'm a fan in SPITE of his work with the Yankees since, currently being a luke warm Atlanta Braves fan, it was tough watching the Braves lose not one but two World Series to Mr. Torre's team.

Joe Torre won my favor way back in 1982 when, having suffered through the lows and lowers of watching the Braves since Ted Turner launched his "Superstation" on cable TV in the early/mid 1970's and broadcast every single game each season, he moved to Atlanta.

You see, the problem with being a Braves fan in those "Pre-Torre" days was that they lost more games than they won. They lost A LOT of games--a 199 versus 388 game record in the 1977-1979 seasons.

Don't believe me...look it up here.

When I moved from my childhood home in south Alabama to college in Atlanta in 1977, I started attending Braves games in person instead of just watching them on TV. In spite of their record, making the 15 minute drive down to the old Atlanta stadium from North Avenue was at least a monthly if not weekly event in those days.

Back then you could get in on "day of the game" outfield seating from something like 2 bucks and a beer cost you another $2 and you had yourself an evening with parking for about $7.

We used make an event out of watching the games in my dorm's common room or the Fiji fraternity house until the sixth or seventh inning, then if the Braves were winning we'd jump into my Camaro and run down to the stadium and park in the preferred parking area for free, then run inside for free also (after the seventh inning stretch they opened the gates and stopped charging admission) and grab some drinks and cheer the conclusion.

Sometimes the Braves would still lose, but it was the adventure, not the final score, that counted most.

Now back to Joe Torre's three year stint as Braves manager...

After beginning his major league playing career with the the Milwaukee Braves in 1960, in 1982 Joe came to Atlanta from managing the NY Mets to reunite with the Braves as manager, in the process inheriting a team that was moving forward but had not achieved their true potential.

I vividly remember a guy named Bob Horner was playing first and sometimes third base that season, and the Braves, under Torre's new supervision, opened with their best start ever...a 13 and 0 win loss record.

The city of Atlanta was ecstatic.

The Braves went on to become the NLCS champions that season, and I camped out with my roommate Andy and a few friends at the old stadium to buy a set of World Series tickets for something like $13 per game for four games. (Oh for the days before TicketBastard TicketMaster and the other online BS that favors the professional scalpers.)

Unfortunately, Atlanta lost their second ever NLCS appearance that year in an 0-3 sweep to the St. Louis Cardinals, and I never got to use my World Series Tickets.

A humorous highlight of that season was when an Atlanta pitcher named Pasquel "Perimeter" Perez missed a start at home during the regular season when he got lost on I-285, the perimeter interstate, and drove two or three 60 mile long circles around the town while his fellow players wondered where he was (Perez also pitched the final losing game in the NLCS series that season.)

So any way, Torre has most definitely gone on to bigger and better things, and with his departure from the Braves after the 2005 season due to Ted Turner's quirky management style I remember proclaiming that the Braves would suffer and Torre would prosper.

I was right, but thank god that Bobby Cox came along later and saved Atlanta from themselves and Generalissimo Turner.

I had to look this fact up here, but ironically Torre left management to become a TV analyst for six whole seasons for the California Angles before coming back into the front lines of the sport as their manager in 1990.

What a HUGE waste of talent, in my opinion, but I could see where he might be discouraged and burned out and based on his success since then I guess that his mother can forgive him.

After this season's unprecedented loss in the playoffs, Torre has been dealing with yet another wealthy megalomaniac in the form of George Steinbrenner, who's management style often resembles that of a pack of Meerkats or some form of mentally handicapped dwarf.

I felt that his treatment was deplorable, but Steinbrenner's got a long long history of bashing managers and then kissing and making up more than once (see Billy Martin.)

According to tonight's breaking news, Torre could take the helm of the LA dodgers as soon as tomorrow, certainly with a better deal than the one year pay cut that Steinbrenner offered him this month to stay with the Yankees.

I don't think that Joe Torre plays the "kiss and make up crap" that Steinbrenner loves, and therefore, all I can say is...

GO JOE GO


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Porter Wagner's Dead

He's finally seeing "The Green Green Grass Of Home"



I think I've mentioned before that back in the late 1960's and early 1970's I was the world's worst guitar student. It's a funny thing what not practicing diligently does to your musical career.

Regardless of my ineptitude, one of the songs that I did manage to pick my way through mostly one note at a time with a few strummed chords thrown in was Mr. Wagner's 1965 hit "The Green Green Grass Of Home."

(If you look at the lyrics, the song is actually written from the viewpoint of a prisoner on death row dreaming about his home before he's executed. Fortunately Porter took a substantially different path to his grave.)

Living down in Lower Alabama back in those days, it wasn't uncommon for shows like "Hee Haw" and the "Grand Ole Opry"--which Porter joined in 1957--to flash across our new color TV screen every few weeks and there he was in his fancy sequin spangled suits singing and strumming away.

I have to admit that I wasn't a huge Porter Wagner fan, but I still have a great deal of respect for he and the other musical artists of his generation that put country music on the international map while making their meager incomes (by today's standards) from small venue live performances and radio, long before TV invaded the lives of most Americans.






RIP Mr. Wagner...

When Fall Doesn't Give You Beach Weather...

Put On A Sweater





(That little pup sure loves her beach chair.)

Owl Gore and The Unwashed Masses Celebrate

But Hopes For New FEMA Disaster Evaporate Within Hours...


I just noticed that I had received an e-mail from NOAA announcing the formation of Tropical Depression 16 at 11:00 PM. I'm sure that there are fingers and toes crossing in the ranks of the Global Warming zealots as the drama unfolds over the next week.

Here's the path He/She is expected to take according to the weather nerds:

I did a little checking, and here's the surface water temperature chart for the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Western Atlantic:



Anyone but me notice that hard turn to the North, then the northeast, that our newest threat to mankind and the most features of this hemisphere of the planet is expected to take?

You don't have to have a PHD in Meteorology to understand why.

It's because of this stupid stationary front that's been dripping and drizzling on everyone and everywhere from Savannah to Miami for the past half week.



Feel free to go back to sleep now, because the storm will be a total non-issue shortly...

Hallo-weenies

I'm Struggling To Give A Darn...


Well, the #20 Georgia Bulldogs beat the #9 Florida Gators late this afternoon in football down in Jacksonville (Georgia Tech was idle in anticipation of a Thursday night game with Virginia Tech later this week.)

I have to commend both Georgia and Florida for providing a fairly exciting game, punctuated with the usual vulgar behavior of Young athletes that resulted in numerous penalties for things like "unsportsmanlike conduct" and "facemasking."

After the dust cleared here on our little island around noon with the fan's departure we snuck out to the grocery store for some last minute shopping prior to entertaining guests and cooking two of my soon to be famous pizza recipes for dinner. That event went off as planned and now I'm sitting around belching while trying to catch up on the evening's news.

The past week's grocery store visits have caused me to continue to be disappointed by the quality of the pumpkins available this year because of Bush/Cheney's maniac dabblings and the effects of Man-Made global warming induced drought.

I was really looking forward to designing and carving another couple of masterpieces this year, but all you can find are overpriced basketball sized blobs in all the stores.

Last year I acquired several nice pumpkins, including this 120 pound fellow shown strapped down in the back of my Chevy Suburban:

(That's a large set of jumper cables rolled up there on the left to give you some more sense of scale.)

For those of you that weren't around as readers last year, here's Mr. Giant PumpKing sitting on a garden wagon in mid-carving at a local elementary school (the walls were over 4" thick and there was over 12 pounds of seeds inside.)


More exciting "PumpKing" reruns to follow unless I can find some new subject matter....

Yawn...

They're Here

Woof, Woof, Woof...woof


Well, it's official. Nine tenths of the Georgia Bulldog and a small segment of the Florida Gator Nations have arrived here on our little island.

A bunch of the blue collar crowd and the younger alumnus have to settle for roadside motels and even the fancier places IN JACKSONVILLE WHERE THE GAME WILL BE PLAYED, but if you're well-to-do or just well connected (i.e. you got a friend with a house here ) the place to stay is St. Simons

All both of the Georgia Tech fans like me can do is batten down the hatches and avoid going outside until Florida finishes stomping Georgia's butt on the football field tomorrow afternoon and everyone goes home.

Since the game starts at 3:30, that means that the island will clear out a little before noon and, assuming about four hours of game time because of the TV coverage, they won't be home until well after dark.

Then if like the past twenty years last year Florida wins, they'll all pass out after midnight and get up and slink back out to Athens and Atlanta before noon on Sunday--leaving piles of trash and about three or four million dollars in the local economy.

Since we don't sell anything tourists and football fans want, we'll just issue a heavy sigh of relief and go back to enjoying paradise in a normal manner.

If you don't hear from my by then, someone send up a flare...

Another Chinese Recall

I'm Getting Into The Toy Business...


So now we have YET ANOTHER TOY RECALL, again resulting from things made somewhere across the Pacific Ocean.

When is it going to ever end?

I think that it's about time that someone here in the US started building some quality toys that don't involve a computer and Monitor in order to inspire our children's imagination and get them up off their lazy butts and playing again like we did back in the 1960's and 70's.

Here's a few ideas I came up with by Googling around...what do you think about:

The Lead Paint-By-Numbers Set (wait..the Chinese already have that one.)

The GI Joe Rooftop Parachute Kit

Mattel Chicken Bone Crib Toy

My First Chain Saw

The Black & Decker Silly Driller

The Mommy's Little Helper Butcher Knife

My Abandoned Refrigerator Playhouse

Ronco's Pocket Bee Hive

The Junior Fire Eater Kerosene Play Kit

The Bathtub Toaster

The Junior Electrician Outlet Patrol

The Lee Press-On Sucking Chest Wound

Rudolph's Red Nosed Sobriety Test

Make Your Own Gasoline' Chemistry Set

The electric eel Bath Toy

The Sewing Scissor Relay Race

Tasty Treat Fungus Farm

The Sammy Davis Jr. Eye Gouge Game

Slippery Steps

My First Ferret Farm

Baby's First Bungee Jump Cord

Gasoline Powered Hula Hoop

I'm gonna do a little more work and see if I can come up with some pictures or drawings to further elaborate the concepts. I'm sure that there's a profit in here somewhere if I can just get organized.


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Photoshop Fun

For The Jihadist That Has Everything???


Matt Drudge at Drudge Report had a link to this story about the FBI threatening us with more "shoe bombers" again.


Here's what some recent future Owners of Virgins were working with on their path to Allah...

Pretty crude, huh?

Just out of curiosity, I wandered over to the Dr Scholls website to see if I could come up with something more comfortable to wear...something like this:



I was astounded to find this warning on the same page:

Under new security measures put in place by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), airline passengers are not permitted to board aircraft with gel insoles in their carry-on baggage or on their persons.


TSA regulations do allow passengers to pack their gel insoles in checked baggage.

As an alternative, travelers may wish to use Dr. Scholl's insole products such as Memory Fit® Customizing Insoles.

I had no idea that, after taking off your shoes at the airport security desk, that now you have to have your insoles consficated if they are't "factory."

What's the world coming to?

UPDATE:

I can't leave well enough alone...

Insane Insanity

Dumbasses Speak...The World Listens


I don't know what else to say, except that I'm pretty sure my hair is turning grey and falling out faster and faster because of my mind and body's reaction to the crap that I read on the Internet and see on the TV news each day.

Even FOX News isn't immune to being infected by the rampant stupidity that's bouncing around the planet, although they do usually manage to put some perspective on things over the course of time.

This CNN report by some self proclaimed "Expert" about the world's oil production peaking last year is the latest thing that makes me foam at the mouth when I read it.

Here...take a look:


LONDON, England (CNN) -- The world has reached the point of maximum oil output and production levels will halve by 2030 -- a situation that will eventually lead to war and disaster, a report claims.

The German-based Energy Watch Group released a report Tuesday saying the world's oil production peaked in 2006 and from now on will drop by around 3 percent a year. It says that by as early as 2030, the global availability of oil will be half of what it was at its peak.

"It's a very serious result," said Hans-Josef Fell, a German lawmaker from the environmentalist Green Party who commissioned the report. "I fear the world will come into a big economic crisis in the coming years."

The report warns that coal, uranium, and other key fossil fuels are also in declining supply. It predicts the fall in fossil fuel production will bring with it the threat of war, humanitarian disaster, and general social unrest.

But Leo Drollas, who leads oil and gas market analysis and forecasting at the Center for Global Energy Studies in London, said there are plenty of supplies and no looming crisis. He said the report sounds like "scaremongering."

Drollas says production could still slow one day, but only because new reserves will be considered too difficult or expensive to extract.

Anyone want to bet me that Heir Hans has never seen an oil well in person, let alone set foot on an offshore oil drilling platform?

Further, does anyone want to bet me that Comrad Hans is a card carrying member of the Socialist party and drives some kind of silly little Korean manufactured econo-box car to work at the university each day? (actually he probably drives a giant bad assed Mercedes or BMW and parks in a garage bigger than my house each evening when he comes home from his job at the Energy Watch Group)

How the heck can we let these so called "experts" that have virtually no credentials and only giant egos and agendas as motivation tell us what to do as a nation and individuals?

Oil hasn't even been a primary fuel of industry for a hundred years yet. Coal's been around for hundreds of years, and Nuclear hasn't seen it's 60th birthday yet, but this moron is proclaiming doom and destruction and demanding global legislative mandates to force us to change.

WE WILL CHANGE, but market forces should be allowed to cause the change, not government and new laws.

So what if gas is $3.00 a gallon. Pay the price, or DON'T DRIVE.

Walk.

Take a Cab.

Hitchhike.

Here's an idea, buy a horse and carriage. There's a whole bunch of horses and buggy whip makers (or the descendants thereof) that were put out of work by Henry Ford's production lines, and there might still be a few blacksmiths out there looking for work.

If we don't manage to waste all of the corn and oats making ethanol, you can convert your garage into a stable and spend your money on agricultural products instead of sending your cash to Nicaragua and the Sheiks in the middle east.

No...that won't work, because the GOVERNMENT has stepped in and zoned your house out of supporting livestock, so now you'll have to move even further away from town and your job if you want to not pay the market price for gasoline.

Isn't government wonderful?

Fully half of what you pay for gasonline is taxes of one form or the other, yet the people in the very government that's taxing your ass off have the audacity to stand up in Washington and complain about the profits that the oil companies make each year.

The government takes more in taxes, yet the oil companies are supposed to cut their profits and at the same time invest in new exploration and low pollution technologies.

Hans offers no solutions, just dire warnings and usless proclamations

What a total load of CRAP.

I've got to go now...my head hurts.

I'm Making a Roux

Gumbo Ensues...

The Audoulli Sausage is browned, the celery, bell pepper, and shallots are sauteed, and I'm about to dump a bunch of chicken and beef broth into the pot on top of a nice dark, dark, dark dark, DARK brown Roux I've been cooking for over an hour.

Chicken, shrimp, and Okra will complete the concoction with another hour of simmering before spooning it over some rice in a bowl.

Don't you wish YOU were here this evening for dinner?

Something Wicked This Way Comes

It's Georgia/Florida Weekend...AGAIN


Dang it all. I can't believe that once again we're going to be forced to live through yet another "Football Weekend" here in the Golden Isles.

The most damning thing is that there isn't a NCAA Division I college football stadium within 75 miles of our house, yet beginning today and continuing through Sunday we're going to be assaulted by grown men and women that should know better barking like drunken idiots and hooting and hollering and generally acting up in public.

The source of all of this misbehavior is, of course, the Georgia/Florida football game down in the stadium in Jacksonville this weekend. I almost wrote the words "Gator Bowl" when I mentioned the stadium, but now in this schizophrenic world they call it something else depending on who's playing--Florida Jaguars or whatever. (The last time I was there Georgia Tech beat Notre Dame back in the late 1990's.)

Any way, every idiot that has ever set foot in Athens Georgia, and all of the other idiots that never went to college at the University of Georgia but still cheers for "The Dogs", along with a good portion of the people that meet those same qualifications for the University of Florida will descend on our lovely little island home this weekend and proceed to make life unbearable for those of us that are fortunate enough to live here year round.

The Winn Dixie parking lot will see car loads of people loading onto buses to make the trip down to the stadium, and every single restaurant will be crammed with red/black and orange/blue clad fans stepping and stumbling over everyone and everything that gets in their way.

Have you figured out by now that I've learned to HATE Georgia/Florida weekend?

The most amazing thing to me is, the WOMEN, full grown women, behave worse than the men do.

Imagine that???

I'm going to the grocery store on Thursday, then coming home, bringing Missy the Turbo Pup inside, and locking our doors until Monday.

Wish us luck, if you will...

Famous Quotations Revisited

My Personal Golden Oldies...


"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

--C. S. Lewis

Unspectacular

But A Success None The Less...


Here's the view from the boardwalk at the Old Coast Guard Station down on East Beach.

A small crowd gathered, and due to the haze an even smaller show was had.



(Click and look at the small streak in the middle of the photo)

At least it didn't blow up, and Shuttle Mission #120 is off to a successful start...

Mouldy Data?

NASA Squelches Air Safety Survey Report


I've mentioned here in the past that I've spent a little time as a pilot flying airplanes, and I've also got a few hundred thousand miles under my belt sitting in the back seats of commercial airliners since my first flight in 1977.

Aviation, including model airplanes, continues to be something of interest to me so I tend to keep abreast of things happening in the world of "things with wings" more than I do automobiles and soap operas on TV these days.

That said, I've been following this story for a while, and the latest evolution of it makes me think that the title of it should be "Aviation Safety Better In Spite of Government Intervention."

Members of Congress and aviation safety experts yesterday criticized NASA's refusal to release the results from an extensive survey of pilots that may help pinpoint potential safety lapses in the country's aviation network.

The reaction came in response to attempts by the Associated Press to obtain a copy of the database, which contains the results of more than 20,000 telephone interviews with airline and general aviation pilots. It is not known what the surveys uncovered.

NASA officials told the AP, which reported that it requested the database more than 14 months ago, that they would not release the information because it might shake the public's confidence in the airlines.

Members of Congress said that was not a valid reason to withhold the information and announced yesterday that they were also seeking a copy of the database and would hold hearings on the matter

[snip]...

David Mould, a NASA spokesman, said the data were still being analyzed and that he expected a final report on the project to be released this year. He conceded that it was behind schedule and said that denying the request on the grounds that it might scare the public "was probably not the best thing to do."

The database cost about $8.5 million to compile.

Here's my take on this situation and what NASA might be hiding in the process. It's bad, but I bet that it's also not what you think.

In my opinion, if aviation safety were left entirely up to the efforts of the GOVERNMENT, everyone would be in real trouble. It's been that way since the government got into the business of regulating aviation back in the 1930's.

It's the people--the professional pilots and mechanics and administrators--that keep us all safe in our daily comings and goings, in SPITE of the GOVERNMENT, not BECAUSE of the Government being there.

It's just that simple, but alot of you out there have been brainwashed to think otherwise.

Just like everything else the government is involved in, they take credit for the successes after imposing infinite artificial barriers and hurtles that have the effect of stifling progress. In this case, the problems lie with the FAA and the National Air Traffic Control system, and I say that is what NASA is covering up by refusing to release the data.

I've know a couple of Controllers in my day, and in addition to being under-paid and over worked, they were all critical of the computer and communication systems they had to work with. The FAA is still screwing around today--twenty years after I first visited the Control Tower at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport--implementing new software and hardware systems. Generally the projects are over budget and under performing,

On my visit back in 1988 I was appalled to see the display on the "Ground Control Radar" system that they used during periods of fog and other low visibility situations. It was like something out of a 1950's TV show using an antenna rather than a cable feed.

Seriously, a layman couldn't any more make out what the display was showing than if you were looking at a MRI or an ultrasound image of the human brain.

Yet these guys managed to successfully keep all of the airliners apart and I don't think that there's been a substantial runway incident in Atlanta IN SPITE of the government and their CRAPPY SYSTEMS.

I hope that Congress or SOMEBODY makes NASA pony up our $8.5 million worth of results, but I wouldn't hold my breath on my next flight on Delta.