Chairman MaoBama

Since he's already been compared to the last century's other great mass murderers [Stalin, Hitler], why not just go all the way and throw some clever graphic design in while you're at it (on that last part, I'll have to say that the Tea Party movement, up to this point, has been pretty aesthetically unpleasing).

Also, Newt Gingrich himself will be spouting nonsense at this evening's New York City Tea Party. Should be fun to wtch his head expand in person (insert teabagging joke here.)

This is What Government Does because of You.

So, you either paid your taxes today, or filed for an extension (like me). But where is all of that cold hard cash gonna go? The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a nice chart for the rest of us who prefer circles and pie pieces to reading numbers:

There is Teabagging and Then there is eTeabagging

The GOP just made my life so much easier; they appear to be poised to ride internet technology to landslide electoral victories for the forseeable future. I'm just glad that I can finally teabag someone without having to leave my desk:

McCoys 10, Hatfields 1

And note the possible explanation as to the origins of the Halfield-McCoy feud (from AP via Microkhan):

Bo McCoy, right, one of the organizers of the Hatfield-McCoy Reunion, accepts a trophy on behalf of the McCoy team after defeating the Hatfields 10-1 in a softball game on June 10, 2000, in Pikeville, Ky. Man on left is unidentified. The most infamous feud in American folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, disease inherited by the McCoy clan that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.

[McCoys]

[Hatfields]

Not Today, Motherfucker!

Isn't there a short film category for the Academy Awards? I hope somebody lost their job for not nominating this masterwork. A genre-bending mix of action, sci-fi, comedy, thriller, and drama:

Damn, and I thought my Business Card was Kinda Nifty

'Looks Like Crap? It is Crap'.
Who is this guy? He's golden:

And Now for Something Really Special

Just watch it:

Susan Boyle sings 'I Dreamed a Dream' from
Les Miserables on Britain's Got Talent.

Because I Should Have Done This Days Ago (and Made Your Day)

This guy kind of puts John Tesh (though you'll always have a special place in our hearts, John) and that other guy to shame. Really he puts all humans to shame. I know this thing is old news, but you really ought ot be checking his site's News section so that you can be up-to-date on all of the New news:

SHINE ON ME director Robert Short, CDO and the film production team begin preproduction planning for the next installment in the Third Kingdom music video trilogy. Lots of adventure ahead!! Please check back on this site for some advance test-shots from the new production.

Rare Pete Incaviglia Rookie Card!

These are hilarious. By Pat Riot. (via Boing Boing) Pete Incaviglia here:

Minutes Before Six - A Death Row Blog

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker is currently on Death Row in Livingston, TX. In 2003, he orchestrated a plot in which his former roommate shot and killed Whitaker's mother and younger brother, while wounding both Whitaker's father and Whitaker himself. Intended to look like a botched burglary, the perpetrators were eventually caught, tried and convicted for their crimes. Whitaker's father, Kent, while lying in the hospital -- unaware of his own son's involvement in the crime -- trying to decide on what path was right for him- vengeance or forgiveness- vowed to forgive the killer, one of whom turned out to be his own son, and prayed that one day his family and the killer would sing praises together in heaven. The father is a rare human, indeed, able to see deep into himself and his son and find forgiveness for such a horrible crime. Whitaker has a blog that he writes in his cell, and which his father types up for him:

I think it is fair to say that a certain sizable portion of the people who come to this site start with the view that I am to be believed about as far as I can be thrown. I acknowledge this, and accept it. I recognize that the reasons for this are entirely my own fault. That said, just because someone was once dishonest doesn't mean that they will always be so; such a conclusion is neither logical nor healthy. I spoke a little about this subject in a past entry, and I called the process "uncrying wolf", an obvious reference to the story we tell our children about what happens to liars. I lamented that there was very little succor for the boy (or man) once he gets painted with the "liar's brush". Turns out, the best way for the boy to once again earn his way back into the realms of the believable is to have someone of irrefutable character standing with him in the fields, guarding the sheep. Call it "honesty by association", if you will. Most inmates never find individuals of such high moral quality, as they are pretty rare these days. I guess DNA is about the truest friend (or greatest enemy) an inmate can have. I am fortunate in that I have something even better: my father.

It is all chilling and sad and disturbing and I can't get this story out of my head. Its rare that you see such darkness and light intertwined in real life. Read the blog and see how it makes you feel.

Four weeks til pickled Green Almonds!

[Photo by Aglaia Kremezi]

A few days ago, I came across this recipe for Pickled Green Almonds as I was searching for a passover-cookie recipe (these were great and easy to make, too; plus, its fun for the whole family, since someone gets to put a single almond on top of each cookie. Though Miss Missy helped on this front, I was thinking that it would be fun for my nephew). I have always wanted to pickle something, because I love pickles and olives, and I'm always fascinated by the realm of non-cooking cooking (I know this is different, but its related, I think). Also, I am always interested in foods that exist in forms other than the ones we're accustomed to. So I read it over and was interested, but didn't really expect to come across any Green Almonds any time soon. However, when I went the next day to Sahadi's to pick up Almonds and Orange Blossom Water (another strange, fun, and amazing-smelling ingredient (and cheap, too!)) what did I find but Green Almonds, sitting in a basket with all of the other nuts and berries (strangely, they were self-serve, and everything else, the workers there will get for you (if you live in New York and haven't been to Sahadi's, its worth the trip- especially if you live six blocks away like I do; if you don't live in New York, I'm Sorry). A woman next to me asked what they were, and then said that where she is from (Greece) they are everywhere, but taste horrible. I wonder if this is one of those cases of someone not making the connection between foods in one form and another, like not realizing that prunes and plums are the same thing. Well, I wouldn't say they are disgusting necessarily, though I would not go out of my way to eat them raw (they taste like a raw green bean, but with a little bit of almost-lemony tanginess) and so therefore I pickled the whole lot. Or at least, I am in the process of pickling them. In four weeks, we'll see how they really taste.

Glenn Beck Admits That he is Nuts (well, he doesn't exactly admit it, but he does demonstrate it)

A little more Glenn Beck for you. This guy only gets better, and is making Stephen Colbert's job harder and harder. Does he want Obama to personally shoot him in the head, or just personally douse him in gasoline and set him on fire?

A Little Bourbon in your Port?

Apparently not a good idea, but still seems like an interesting experiment and worth trying for oneself (because bourbon is an aquired taste to some degree, and not all palates think alike).

In the United States, Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace have experimented with bourbon finished in wine barrels, a la many scotch expressions, to mixed success. (Woodford failed miserably; Buffalo Trace produced a fantastic bourbon finished in cabernet franc barrels). But this was something different and completely unheard of: the unlikely and, to an American palate, unwise blending of two dissimilar beverages. I had to try it.

I also didn't know that congress declared bourbon to be "America's native spirit"and "a distinctive product of the United States". Here are the rules for bourbon:

Federal regulations now stipulate that bourbon must meet these requirements:

• Bourbon must be made of a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn.^[1]
• Bourbon must be distilled to no more than 160 (U.S.) proof (80% alcohol by volume).
• Bourbon must be 100% natural (nothing other than water added to the mixture).
• Bourbon must be aged in new, charred oak barrels.^[1]
• Bourbon may not be introduced to the barrel at higher than 125 proof (62.5% alcohol by volume).
• Bourbon which meets the above requirements and has been aged for a minimum of two years, may (but is not required to) be called Straight Bourbon.^[2]
• Bourbon aged for a period less than four years must be labeled with the duration of its aging.
• If an age is stated on the label, it must be the age of the youngest whiskey in the bottle.

'Milk Teeth' and Fallout

Over 300,000 baby teeth were collected in the St. Louis area during the 1950s and 60s in order to study the link between above-ground atomic testing and human exposure to radioactivity. Researchers are now trying to track down some of those tooth donors in order to study correlations between fallout and subsequent health problems. From The Economist (yet another cute English phrase that I learned from The Economist: 'Milk Teeth'):

The radioactive isotope Strontium-90, one of the by-products of the bombs, spread into the atmosphere, fell onto the land, was ingested by dairy cows and passed into the milk supply. Strontium-90, like calcium, was concentrated in children’s teeth in detectable amounts.

....

The rediscovery of the 85,000 samples, about a quarter of the total collected, has spurred a new effort to study the link between early childhood exposure and health problems in later life. There is already some evidence that 1950s children in St Louis grew into adults with a higher-than-average rate of cancer. Now researchers at the Radiation and Public Health Project, based in Brooklyn, are attempting to find more than 6,000 of the teeth donors to track their health problems or, in some cases, their premature deaths.

The RPHP has begun their work:

In a pilot project RPHP has found it is possible to identify a significant sample of teeth donors, finding current addresses for 80% of the male donors and death records for donors who died after 1971. Nearly half of the sampled surviving donors have expressed a willingness to complete a health history questionnaire.

Big and Orange and Full

Did anyone see the moon last night (who am I asking this to, anyway?)?
The internet is failing me, because I can't seem to find a picture of last night's moonrise in New York, despite its spectacular-ness.
Unfortunately, the limitations of my iPhone camera were reached when I tried to take a picture of it:

As you can see, there is nothing that looks big, orange or full in this picture. I think the moon is one of the four white spots in the center, though I'm not sure which.... I guess I'll just have to remember it with my brain...

Snap

I think the running lesson here is that you just shouldn't debate Christopher Hitchens. The Family Research Council ought to get somebody who knows anything about either Christian history in America, the difference between pilgrims and the Constitutional Congress, or at least debate technique. Hitchens just looks bored with the whole thing:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Department of Homemade Instruments [I want that]

Miss Missy and I were talking yesterday about people we know that play weird instruments. This is not so much weird as it is awesome. I love the idea of making musical instruments, be they cigar-box guitars or Steinway Pianos: there is something beautiful about the patience and precision involved, and also about the foresight and vision needed to realize that various bits and pieces of metal and wood will eventually be put together into a whole that makes music. You can make your own Cigar Box Guitar by following these instructions. Shane Speal is the King of the Cigar Box Guitar:

[Thanks, Boing Boing]

Remember the Ten Commandments (and watch it again!)

While the film has its low moments (and is so long that it hurts- especially when you watch it on TV with commercial breaks), it also stars Chuck Heston and Yul Brynner (and Vincent Price) and was directed by Cecil B. DeMille (and was his last film as a director). I'll be catching scenes of it this weekend at my roommate's multi-media seder (his favorite scene is when Moses goes up to the mountain with gray hair and beard and comes back with white; I wonder if Tolkien ripped this idea off of Moses (and God, naturally) or if de Mille stole it from Tolkien/Gandalf- nerds, I'm looking to you for clarity, here) which also will include an LP he found of Heston reading biblical passages and doing the various voices with backup-gospel-singers.

Anyway, here's the trailer to get you excited: The Greatest Event in Motion Picture History:

Happy Passover

Passover is here again and I will leave it to those who know the rituals best:

Miss Modal goes a-Dining

After a week of hard work, I went diner-hopping in the Catskills with Miss Missy. She will be posting some reviews/reminiscences in the coming days. Until then, this is why you're fat (alright, its not that bad; these were diners, which try to attract customers, not make them want to throw up):