Iraq Today

From Ralph Peters:

"We all recall the delighted leftist claims that Iraq had entered a hopeless civil war. Wrong. That Iraqis preferred al Qaeda to us. Wrong. That Shia militias represented the people. Wrong. And that Iran would seize control. Wrong again.

Looking back over six years of good intentions, tragic errors, generosity, arrogance, partisan vituperation, painful deaths and ultimate vindication, two things strike me: the ever-resisted lesson that human affairs are more complex than academic theories claim, and the simple truth that most human beings prefer a measure of freedom to immeasurable repression."

My Thoughts Exactly

"A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'The man gestured, and the gate began to open. 'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?' 'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.' 'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog. 'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'"

CWCID: Sam Norton at Theo's.

Bring It On

Another Fierce Moral Urgency Vote

Last Friday while we were being bombarded by the 24/7 news cycle coverage of Michael Jackson's untimely demise the US House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Bill. I will not go into details about why the bill alone is a travesty. What I wish to point out is that for the second time in recent memory the Representatives of the People have failed to even read a major piece of legislation that will impact this country for generations to come - before they passed it.

There will be a reckoning for this

Guy Magic

Folding: How To Fold A T-Shirt In 2 Seconds

New Sidewalk

A few weeks ago we contracted with a fine young local fellow to install a new sidewalk for us. This is a "before" picture" I dug up from the archives.

And here is the after picture.

M'Lady and I were very pleased with how it came out.

He replaced the patio stones in the before picture with cobblestones we picked out and installed them in a running bond pattern - after he laid down limestone and sand, tamping it firm. He also raised the sidewalk so there wasn't such a huge step up from ground level and crowned it so the rain runs off both sides.

I will definitely have some more projects for him to work on in the future.

Garden Pictures

You just have to love hollyhocks.

The apples are beginning to develop.

And the blackberries are flowering.

RIP

This is how the men of my generation will always remember Farrah Fawcett. The biggest selling poster of all time - 12 million copies and counting.

Did You Know Michael Jackson Could Sing?

With all of the bilge in the media, here is the best article on Michael Jackson - and it was written four years ago.

Only In America

Everyone in this family loves Sriracha chili sauce. We use it in everything from pho to scrambled eggs - basically any dish that you want to smack with garlic and light up with some heat.

Here is an interesting article from The New York Times about the Tran family that invented and produces Sriracha. The Tran's immigrated to the United States from Vietnam and are of Chinese ancestry. The chili sauce they make in the US is named after an area of Thailand. But the quote from the story which really made me think "Only in America" was this (emphasis added):

"In 1996, the company expanded, adding processing and storage capacity to meet demand. More than 10 million bottles of sriracha now roll off the Rosemead line each year. With the purchase of a nearby warehouse, the company has begun storing its peppers where Wham-O once manufactured those icons of pop culture, Frisbees and Hula-Hoops."

Awesome.

Krauthammer On Iran

In today's Washington Post:

"Moreover, this incipient revolution is no longer about the election. Obama totally misses the point. The election allowed the political space and provided the spark for the eruption of anti-regime fervor that has been simmering for years and awaiting its moment. But people aren't dying in the street because they want a recount of hanging chads in suburban Isfahan. They want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.

This started out about election fraud. But like all revolutions, it has far outgrown its origins. What's at stake now is the very legitimacy of this regime -- and the future of the entire Middle East.

And where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror -- and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world.

Burn Baby, Burn

Watch the slide show here. These people need some guns and international support. Bravo to the Internet community and Twitter specifically for helping fan he flames of change in Iran. The phone rang at 3:00 AM in the White House and no one answered.

No Doubt Left

ABC will air programming about government run health care from inside the White House next week without a dissenting opinion in sight. Apparently, ABC has been given access to government health care and opted for a collective lobotomy. The debate over health care, like the debate over global warming, must have already been decided; I missed the memo again.

This is the last nail in the coffin of the MSM. Most certainly they will not disappear after this programming is aired but their credibility is already gone and they have exposed themselves in all their glory as the propaganda machine of the Obama White House.

Quote Of The Day

"Any argument is more persuasive when made by a hot chick. Just think if Friedrich Hayek had been a sexy dame with big gazongas..."
- Robert Stacy McCain

Obama Knows Best

From Coyote:

Bill Whittle makes a great point in this video which is at the heart of the problems with this administration: While Obama and his young policy wonks may be smarter (or at least think they are smarter) than other folks individually, they cannot possibly be smarter than the sum of 300 million well educated, realtively affluent Americans making decisions for themselves. Every technocrat founders on these rocks, when they substitute their decision as command and control planners for individual decision making. Everyone talks about a revival of interest in Ayn Rand, and that is great, but it is Hayek who has never been more relevent.

Just Make Stuff Up

Victor Davis Hanson over at NRO (emphasis added):

Why has President Obama developed a general disregard for the truth, in a manner far beyond typical politicians who run one way and govern another, or hide failures and broadcast successes?

First, he has confidence that the media will not be censorious and will simply accept his fiction as fact. A satirist, after all, could not make up anything to match the obsequious journalists who bow to their president, proclaim him a god, and receive sexual-like tingles up their appendages.

Second, Obama is a postmodernist. He believes that all truth is relative, and that assertions gain or lose credibility depending on the race, class, and gender of the speaker. In Obama’s case, his misleading narrative is intended for higher purposes. Thus it is truthful in a way that accurate facts offered by someone of a different, more privileged class and race might not be.

Third, Obama talks more than almost any prior president, weighing in on issues from Stephen Colbert’s haircut, to Sean Hannity’s hostility, to the need to wash our hands. In Obama’s way of thinking, his receptive youthful audiences are proof of his righteousness and wisdom — and empower him to pontificate on matters he knows nothing about.

Finally, our president is a product of a multicultural education: Facts either cannot be ascertained or do not matter, given that the overriding concern is to promote an equality of result among various contending groups. That is best done by inflating the aspirations of those without power, and deflating the “dominant narratives” of those with it.

The problem in the next four years will be not just that the president of the United States serially does not tell the truth. Instead, the real crisis in our brave new relativist world will be that those who demonstrate that he is untruthful will themselves be accused of lying.

All Along The ....

M'Lady and I have been thinking that our next adventure into animal husbandry may be goats. We have seen many for sale and have noticed that they seem to enjoy climbing - a lot.

Perhaps we should put a goat tower on our build list.

Harvest Time

The strawberries M'Lady planted last year are finally here. In the last few days we have harvested 55 pounds of berries with many more still to come.

We are experimenting with various jam recipes, drying some for granola and probably freezing some. The best though is eating them right off the vine. This evenings meal, which we did not sit down to eat until after 9:00 PM because we were busy canning, consisted of garden salad greens, purple onion, goat cheese, fresh strawberries and grilled chicken breast dressed with balsamic vinegar.

Canning, in general, is hard work but we find it to be a wonderful way to stock our larder with items picked at the peak of their flavor.

Besides, the lavender hand soap we use mixed with the scent of strawberries is not altogether displeasing either when you're cleaning up after picking or canning.

Quote Of The Day

With all due apologies to The Clash:

Should I weed or should I mow now?
Should I weed or should I mow now?
If I mow there will be trouble
If I don't weed they will double
So come on and let me know
Should I weed or should I mow?

Peonies

I have always loved the beautiful colors of peonies but have found them to be quite droopy. I found this French flower pail at a local resale shop and immediately imagined it full of peonies. Then the strangest thing happened and the house began to fill up with an almost rose-like scent. Never having brought them inside before I had no idea peonies had such a fabulous scent. They will now have an honored place in our home as a harbinger of spring.

Give 'Em Enough Rope

A friend recently asked me "How should we deal with the mess in Washington?" and I replied "Rope."