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."