What Elf Stuffed Into His Brain On His Commute This Morning...

Fox to FCC: Your sexual fantasies are not our problem

Wait, isn't this the channel that promotes good family values?

The Long Defeat

David Brooks, whom I would not normally quote, tells us about the eventual nomination of Barack Obama and Hillary's spoilsport tactics.

Pat Buchanan's America: Blacks Not Included.

America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

...

No people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Wait, those services have never gone to white people? I'm pretty sure they have. And as for "Christian Salvation," I'm pretty sure the faiths they had before then were serving them just fine, Pat. The whole thing is pure WTF. Hilzoy has the same complaint, and more.

"You have exported poisoned financial products."

Remember how Americans felt about China when we discovered that there were poisons in our cat food and dog food? That's exactly how European and Asian markets now feel about American collateralized bond obligations, credit default swaps, and other derivative exotic financial instruments, and many of them are going to make us pay for it. The legalism system used here in the US may not be as robust as the reputation system familiar to Europe. (On the other hand, the reputation system makes it much harder for newcomers to get into the game. I'm not sure which is better.)

John McCain: We're winning. I don't care what anybody says.

McCain says this after being "on the ground" in Iraq. The soldiers call McCain's visit combat slumming.

US Assistant Attorney General for Ronald Reagon, Doug Kmiec, endorses Barack Obamam

In various ways, Sen. Barack Obama and I may disagree on aspects of these important fundamentals, but I am convinced, based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing, that on each of these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view and, as best as it is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them.

...

As Americans, we must voice our concerns for the well-being of our nation without partisanship when decisions that have been made endanger the body politic. Our president has involved our nation in a military engagement without sufficient justification or a clear objective. In so doing, he has incurred both tragic loss of life and extraordinary debt jeopardizing the economy and the well-being of the average American citizen. In pursuit of these fatally flawed purposes, the office of the presidency, which it was once my privilege to defend in public office formally, has been distorted beyond its constitutional assignment. Today, I do no more than raise the defense of that important office anew, but as private citizen.

Whoa.

Hillary Clinton sits down with Richard Mellon Scaife

I'm still in WTF mode after Buchanan, so the fact that Hillary is sitting down with Scaife, a man who spent almost two million dollars trying to prove the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered and used state troopers to cover up their other crimes, simply has my poor little neurons melting down.

The Obama Doctrine

A much better article by Spencer Ackerman on Obama's foreign policy team and their focus on restoring not just America's dignity in the world, but on treating other nations as if had dignity and worth of their own. An excellent read.

Grid-Based Design: Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques

All play and no work makes Elf a poor boy.

Ten Unusual Wordpress Themes

A nice collection of layouts that show the different kinds of density you might try to acheive depending upon the kind of website you're running.

The Correct Answer To One Common Stupid Question (Thanks, Mike!)

Last night, I concluded my talk with a quote from Dover, PA creationist school board member William Buckingham, who declared, "Two thousand years ago someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?"

My response was, "In the last two minutes, someone died from a bacterial infection. We take a stand for him."

Giant Squid Homosexual Tentacle Rape (SFW)

No comment.

Yeah, and... ?

Must be all those darn video game reflexes.

Bacon makes everything better!

Omaha forgot one Sunday recently to place our orders for grocery deliveries, so we ended up with whatever odd things the organic delivery service happened to have on hand. Among our blessing: sweet onions, chard, butternut squash, parsnips and collards. I decided to tackle the collards first, and my weapon of choice: maple syrup. And when you've got maple syrup, your next thought has to be... bacon! I made Chicken with Maple Mustard marinade, and Collard Greens with Maple Syrup and Bacon, and a bog-standard rice pilaf.

Maple Mustard Chicken:

1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 pound chicken breasts, skinless and boneless

Mix all the liquids into a sauce. Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes with the sauce in a plastic bag, then toss onto a medium-high grill pan and cook for 3 to 5 minutes on a side. When I turned the chicken, I just drizzled all of the sauce onto the bird, brought to a fast simmer and covered to keep the steam in. Made it juicier. (I've become a big fan of the "heat is an ingredient like salt: learn to use it well" school of cooking.)

Maple & Bacon Collard Greens:

1.25 pounds collard greens.
1 tablespoon water
3 slices bacon
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Start cooking the bacon in a frying pan that has a lid. Don't cover.

Trim collard greens and put them with 1 tbsp water into a microwave-safe dish with a cover, and microwave on high for five minutes to wilt.

Remove bacon and let cool. If the bacon wasn't very fatty, add enough olive oil for the next step: saute the onion until glassy, about two minutes. Add the wilted leaves, vinegar, syrup and broth to the pan, bring to a simmer, cover and leave for about half an hour. Crumble the bacon and add. Serve immediately.

It was all very, very delicious. But wait 'til you hear what I did with the chard.