A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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August 18, 2006Comments
Big Friday here in Boston, after 4 1/2 months the Red Sox and Yankees are separated by only 1 1/2 games, and they are playing 5 games in 4 days. I know and understand why most of the rest of the country is bound to be pretty sick of Sox-Yankees, but this is such fun stuff. Precious few sporting events match the intensity of these games even under ordinary circumstances, and when the stakes rise, well Oh BOY! Anyway, we're all wondering who is going to measure up, right? And like the sort of real-life poetry you can't ever make up, the match-up in the first game of the series is........wait for it...... Johnson vs. Wang The joke that had to be made. Sophomoric? You betcha. Nevertheless... Posted by: bk at August 18, 2006 09:05 AMJohnson vs. Wang? Probably not as big a deal as you're maing it out to be... Heh heh. Posted by: Tully at August 18, 2006 10:57 AMOh, I'm not done. Here's the beauty part...it's a double-header today. No, really. You can't make this stuff up! Posted by: bk at August 18, 2006 11:07 AMI wondered if anyone can help me flesh out the thought offered here (August 18, 2006 11:01 AM) in reply to Brian's averrance that I am "extremely conservative." In reply, I suggest that: the political spectrum has something similar to the curvature of the Earth, but where no-one ever disappears off the edge of the curve - it's just that the further away from [two people] you get, the closer together they seem [to stand], so once someone's over the horizon, you can't tell with any precision whether someone is [standing] in China or Europe. So I'd suggest that my apparent "very conservative" position is more a function of how far left you are than how far right I am.This idea feels familiar (or at least, obvious), but I'm not sure where I've seen it before. Anyone have any thoughts on this premise? Posted by: Simon at August 18, 2006 11:07 AM Just when things were getting really fun, leave it to Simon... So, are you suggesting that bk is just too far left to recognize your moderation, Simon? "Over the horizon" as it were? Double header... tee hee. Posted by: WHQ at August 18, 2006 11:24 AMI'm frustrated because I can't seem to get the election lawn sign I want. Having a majorly corrupt Congressman here, I really, really want one that says (accurately): "Life-long Republican, Staunch Conservative, For " In an era of gerrymandered districts, wouldn't you think that candidates (in either party) from the party which was drawn to be a minority would offer something like that? Posted by: wj at August 18, 2006 11:28 AMStupid HTML tags! That's supposed to indicate "For" followed by the name of the Democratic candidate. (Remind me not to use angle brackets!) Posted by: wj at August 18, 2006 11:29 AMSimon, I don't recall ever reading a comment or post of yours where I didn't think "Damn, that dude's pretty conservative" and I trend that way myself. So I'm not sure that theory holds water. It's completely possible that I've missed your more left-leaning posts or comments but to me, you're pretty darn conservative. It's 105 here today, going to be 103 tomorrow and then 102 on Sunday. While I understand that North Texas is akin to Satan's armpit with regards to climate, I'm ready to buy a walk-in cooler for the house. Dave Chappelle Chooses Mac Slightly NSFW. Posted by: Scotch Drinker at August 18, 2006 01:21 PMScotch Drinker, I came through last weekend and wish I'd had time to give you a call and have a drink. Yeah, "armpit of Hell" is a decent desciption at times--we're in the other armpit up here. We drove in through that massive T-storm Saturday that managed to miss Plano entirely. It even seemed hot compared to San Antonio and Rio Medina. During the heat wave earlier in the summer we hit 110 here in central Kansas a couple o' days running, bracketed by some 108's. Posted by: Tully at August 18, 2006 01:29 PM"Averrance?" ROTFL. I didn't declare a fact, I stated my opinion and made it quite clear that I was doing so. You sent me scuttling for my AHD though, so nicely done! A. I generally find the behavior of the democratic party more troubling than that of the republican party. B. I generally find the behavior of the republican party more appalling than that of the democratic party. C. I generally find the behavior of each party so troubling that its not worth considering which is more troubling... Please pick one of these options before scrolling down to see my prediction for Simon option D. scroll down
scroll down scroll down scroll down scroll down scroll down scroll down scroll down Simon option D Brian, Scotch Drinker, Simon, I don't have a theory. I have my opinion, which I am stressing for the 3rd time now. And I have asked a question which I felt was a decent seat of the pants way to make a simple and (I thought) pretty obvious point. And you refused to answer it. Scotch, I have to ask, do you generally think that I'm "pretty darn liberal?" Or can I pass as a moderate from time to time? (Leaving aside, of course any discussion of whether I might be, say, a sophomoric and reflexively contrarian a-hole.) Posted by: bk at August 18, 2006 02:51 PM...the implied powers of the President (which I think are miniscule compared to those asserted by the Bush Administration) This is an intersting one. This certainly puts you at odds with the administration and most of its ardents supporters, Simon, but does it put you at odds with conservatives? I know I'm raising the spectre of the "real conservative" converstation from a week or two ago, but so be it. I suppose this argument about who is a conservative (or a liberal) might really be one about who is a partisan. Posted by: WHQ at August 18, 2006 03:20 PMSimon belongs to the Intelligent Party. There are those of us who belong to that party, and then there is everyone else. :) Posted by: Dennis at August 18, 2006 03:33 PMFor you legal eagles, there's a really good discussion going on about the ruling on the warrantless surveillance program at Legal Fiction. One reason it's interesting is that the blogger is a liberal who is arguing that the ruling is crap from a legal standpoint, being an inappropriate summary judgement, even if he agrees that the program is illegal. Posted by: WHQ at August 18, 2006 03:40 PMTully, no worries, offer is open any time. We actually go 1.75 inches of rain in that storm which was wonderful. Simon: Fair enough. I'm just saying, I don't remember seeing you bring those points up. No need to bring up links either, I'm not going to read them on Friday. I'll take your word for it. Brian: I think you're generally amusing (and probably reflexively contrarian) and I don't have a theory, opinion or dog in the hunt as to whether you're liberal or not. I was speaking directly to Simon's request. I'm making homemade pizza for dinner tonight. What's everyone else having? Posted by: Scotch Drinker at August 18, 2006 03:58 PMFriday is probably take-out. FWIW, I've discovered that if you are making homemade pizza he best way to get a well-cooked crispy crust (if you want that) instead of a doughy one is to put the poiuzza on the bottom shelf and NOT preheat the oven. If you try to preheat and get the over really hot, it doesn't help. I only learned this by trying the instructions that came with a special pan. When it worked, I spent some time trying to figure out why. (Bear in mind we have an electric oven, so mileage may vary for gas). But what I came up with is that when you DON'T preheat, the bottom element starts cooking the bottom of the pizza beofre the qwhol oven heats up and starts cooking the top, so the crust gets nice and cooked and isn't too doughy like it is when it gets undercooked. This method sounds bassackwards, but it works great. It may have something to do with the special pan though, which is closely perforated along most of its bottom. Posted by: bk at August 18, 2006 04:31 PMWHQ: This certainly puts you at odds with the administration and most of its ardents supporters, Simon, but does it put you at odds with conservatives?Well, I don't mean that I'm opposed to this President having broad powers, I mean that I'm opposed to a strong executive branch, particulary (but not exclusively) in domestic affairs, period. I think that as a rule, conservatives tend to believe in the efficacy of executive power and its attendantly masculine capacity for decisive action, while I believe very strongly in the efficacy of the legislative process, with all its attendant compromise and contemplation. If youo really want to see the picture get muddy, let me add that for all the foregoing, I also wholly support the unitary executive doctrine. So I want a smaller executive branch, and a more assertive Congress, but I also think the Constitution requires the President to be prima inter pares in foreign affairs, compared to Congress, and I don't think it's possible under our present constitution to have any executive functions exercised other than through the President's authority (ergo, while I think Clinton should have been impeached for perjury, I think the independent counsel was unconstitutional and therefore incapable of bringing charges before a grand jury). Scotch Drinker: I'm making homemade pizza for dinner tonight. What's everyone else having?I'm probably having regular pizza, but I'll be making up for my laziness by drinking homebrewed beer. :p Posted by: Simon at August 18, 2006 04:39 PM Ummm...not sure yet what anyone here is having for dinner, except for my 3mo. and the guinea pig. I think we're having leftovers to get them out of the way before the weekend. We love doing homemade pizza, but it's such a major effort. Do you make your own crust from scratch? (That's part of why it's such a major effort.) The great thing is that every member of the family gets their own custom pizza. It has also allowed us to accommodate everyone's food allergies. ...and I thought the heat here had been bad...there are a number of reasons that I would not want to live in Texas, and the heat is right up there on the list. At least it's reasonably dry heat; I would never want to live in the deep South. Posted by: isidora at August 18, 2006 05:06 PMNo way on making homemade crust. That's the last thing I want to do after a long week. They make quality ones now that you can buy in the store which I'ma big fan of. Good pizza is all about the sauce though so we make that from scratch. Might be pesto (which we already have some made up) tonight. Simon, I haven't managed to convince myself to make homemade beer yet. I might give it a try some day but too many irons in the fire currently. I think I'll have some Eagle Rare when I get home and then a beer with the pizza. Posted by: Scotch Drinker at August 18, 2006 05:18 PMMmmm, Eagle Rare....one of the few bourbons I like. Shrimp fettucini tonight, with salad. Some nice fresh avocados. Posted by: Tully at August 18, 2006 05:20 PMIs this site for folks in the political center or folks who dislike excessively partisan politics? Having lurked at this site for a while, it definitely seems more like the latter than the former. For example, McCain and Lieberman are perhaps the two most extreme Senators from their respective parties in promoting and continuing to support the disastrous war in Iraq (hardly centrists), but there are not particularly partisan compared with other members of their parties. Posted by: H. Rostow at August 18, 2006 06:12 PMOk, I'll give it a go: I'll say it too: Snakes on a Plane. That has to be the coolest movie title ever to just come out and say. I'm convinced that movie is going to be awesome. Simon: I think it's an established consenus that you lean to the right of most of us here. I think you've admitted outright once or twice. There's nothing with that. It's not my view, but that's OK. Posted by: Rafique Tucker at August 18, 2006 07:21 PMWHQ: My concerns about the warrantless surveillance program are well-established. I think the program is basically illegal, because it goes against FISA. I think this ruling may have gone too far because it asserts that the program is unconstitutional, even if Congress approves. I think that's going too far. Posted by: Rafique Tucker at August 18, 2006 07:33 PMH. Rostow, that issue is the subject of much debate around here and a great deal of difference of opinion. Posted by: PatHMV at August 18, 2006 09:22 PMRafique: Simon: I think it's an established consenus that you lean to the right of most of us here. I think you've admitted outright once or twice. There's nothing with that. It's not my view, but that's OK.Oh, I certainly accept that much. I don't mean to suggest that I'm not well off on the conservative side of the moderate camp, I'm just suggesting that I think most hardcore conservatives would spit coffee at their monitor at the suggestion that I'm representative of them. I think most - if not all - liberals and left-leaning moderates would be a lot happier with me in charge of the GOP agenda than they would with, say, Sam Brownback. Which, of course, is why they don't let me near the policy making center at the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy® H.Q. And that's probably a good thing, because I favor air strikes against any countries with names that are hard to pronounce. I continue to basically agree with you vis-a-vis the NSA, the Fourth Amendment and FISA, what I find most incomprehensible about this decision out of Michigan is that the judge didn't even mention the border search exception - I could understand (although disagree) if she held that it didn't apply to electronic communications, but to just point-blank ignore it? (Sadly, that isn't the worst that can be said about this judgement). Posted by: Simon at August 18, 2006 09:40 PMI'll jump in here to make my oft-repeated, oft-ignored comment about why labels are bad. It's a lot easier to fight over what label to apply to some person or policy than it is to discuss calmly why a particular policy or candidate is good or bad. Labels have some marginal utility to identify different sets of views and outlooks held in common by many people, but they pose many dangers as well. The biggest danger is that everybody has their own sense of what believes are implied by a particular label. Posted by: PatHMV at August 18, 2006 10:02 PMMmmm the pizza was pretty darn good, though could have used another 10 minutes in the oven (way too many ingredients which is a downfall of mine) and St. Arnolds Fancy Lawnmower Ale which is a quite tasty summer beer. I'm sure it doesn't measure up to Simon's home crafted brew but it's good and local (Houston) to boot. Pizza had three kinds of peppers, artichoke hearts, black olives, fresh basil from the garden, homemade pesto and mozzarella. I highly recommend it. Posted by: Scotch Drinker at August 18, 2006 11:31 PMWell Simon, I know I would indeed be happier with you in charge of the GOP versus Sam Brownback (even though believe it or not, I actually respect him, despite his undesirable politics), because you've always come off as a straight shooter ready to have an honest debate. And you're right. Your views on climate change alone would keep you from reaching the helm of the VRWC ship. Ditto on the NSA program too. Posted by: Rafique Tucker at August 19, 2006 12:51 AMWe're having homemade pizza tonight, from a store-bought crust (Boboli). Yeah, I also tend to overload my pizzas. We have a pizza stone, bake the pizza right on it, and it really does make a much crisper crust. With the stone, we to preheat the stone to 500, and reduce to 450 for cooking. The summer beer I'm working on is Pyramid's Curve Ball, an herbed beer. Tasty stuff! There is a store here in RI which sells a wide variety of doughs - and they turn into awesome pizzas, stombolis and calzones in my oven. Posted by: Dan at August 19, 2006 12:06 PMI'm probably left of you all with the exception of waiting until our enemies are fully loaded and cocked. If centrists can't agree on security and economy (critical need for energy), then I wonder if centrism is a myth. The theory is that after the next round of terror, America might become right of us all. I wonder what the Left would do about the following; 400 French troops securing peace in Southern Lebanon? Not even 4000 could. hahahahaha T-minus three weeks and counting....... Posted by: Maxtrue at August 19, 2006 12:17 PMOh, and the Yanks win 14 to 10. If anyone is bored this weekend tune into the Iranian war games........ Maybe the North Koreans might even test a nuke. Posted by: Maxtrue at August 19, 2006 12:19 PMJon, Boboli crust on stone GOOD! Mmmmmm. That's how we do it too--rolling out pizza crusts is just way too much trouble when you can get Bobolis. And with small bobolis also available, everyone can make their own. Keeps the kids from arguing. I'm a carnivore, but one of my faves is very thin-sliced fresh romas instead of sauce, with real (fresh not shredded) mozzarella and basil leaves and black olives and onion and salonika pepper bits, brushed with a little garlicked olive oil. Wash down with chianti. Mmmmmm....(Homer drool) Posted by: Tully at August 19, 2006 03:15 PMScotch Drinker, do you have any sauce recipes you'd be willing to share? The one time I tried homemade pesto, I made the mistake of not getting up at sunrise to pick the basil, and the stuff ended up tasting something like grass clippings with body odor since a lot of the essential oil had burnt off by noon. Buying fresh basil from Kroger would be exorbitant. I can get some pretty good pre-made pesto at Kroger, though. We use high-quality pre-made supermarket sauces, such as Five Brothers, Classico, and Newman's Own. (My daughter only recently learned that Paul Newman was an actor and a race car driver. She knew him from the supermarket.) We used either tomato or alfredo sauces; I never thought of using pesto. We've also simply spread the top of the dough with extra-virgin olive oil. Our secret is to sprinkle the sauce with a thick layer of mixed dried herbs. We mostly use a stone, but also own one of those perforated pans. Mmmm. Everyone's descriptions of their own pizza are making my mouth water. I'll have to try the Boboli crust once as a quick alternative on a weeknight to see how it turns out. Last night, we ended up having take-out after all, but tonight I had olive tapenade (some black and some green) on crackers, with a glass of retsina that I found at the same store. For lunch, I got to try alligator for the first time, as well as the best calamari I've ever had. Posted by: isidora at August 19, 2006 09:46 PMI am honestly not crazy about bobolis - I would rather roll my own out, which only takes a minute or 2 - I dont like veggies either, of any kind. So for me it is pepperoni or sausage usually, sometimes both, occassionally diced ham and ground beef. and there is only one sauce I will ever use on my pizza - Francesco Rinaldi Marinara - only the Marinara - brilliant taste, and I was a head chef of a restaurant 15 years ago and used to make my own sauce. Posted by: Dan at August 20, 2006 12:43 AMisidora... alligator and calamari? Have you been visiting down here in Louisiana? Posted by: PatHMV at August 20, 2006 01:16 AMOur evil pizza plan didn't work out. The oven's pilot light was out, and we ended up abandoning ship for a nearby Thai place. Dan, I wasn't fond of Bobolis either until I discovered a couple of enhancement techniques: at first, I brushed them with just a bit of olive oil, and then when we got the stone for a wedding present, baking on the stone turned them into great crusts w/o the olive oil. Found alot of books to sell/donate. I realized that all these years, I've been asking the wrong question when considering getting rid of a book. For decades, I've been asking myself, "Do I like this book?" This week, I asked myself, will I ever read this book again (for a few unread books, the question was, will I ever read it in the first place). alligator and calamari? Have you been visiting down here in Louisiana? No, but it was Louisiana cuisine. We go to Church in Cincinnati. (I know it was a Saturday morning; yesterday was the Feast of the Transfiguration - the commemoration of the Lord's transfiguration upon Mount Tabor; fruit and wine are also blessed.) Anyway, we needed lunch afterward, and we're right in the middle of a fast (abstaining from meat, egg, and dairy; shellfish are ok, as well as a few other things.) Transfiguration is a day when fish is allowed, but my husband doesn't like fish, and I can't eat it since I am nursing an infant who is allergic to fish. We decided to go to a place called Papadeaux Seafood Kitchen. When I saw fried alligator on the appetizer menu, I felt that we had to try it. After a brief discussion (Is alligator Lenten (fasting)? It's a lizard; it must be Lenten. Frog legs are generally considered Lenten. Insects would be, too, for that matter.) we decided that the alligator was lenten, so we ordered it along with the fried calamari. Both were really, really good. Afterwards, my husband had a surprise for the family. He had found out on the internet about this place called Jungle Jim's. http://www.junglejims.com It't the biggest grocery store that I've ever been in in. They've got nearly everything imaginable from all around the world for sale there. You gotta see this place if you're ever in Cincinnati. The fresh olive tapenade and crackers and retzina that I ate last night all came from there. Unfortunately, I learned this morning that I need to remember to read lables more carefully; the kalamata olive tapenade contained anchovies. I'm just hoping that it won't be enough to bother my daughter. I'm also hoping that she isn't allergic to olives. We should find out tomorrow afternoon when we see her allergist again. Posted by: isidora at August 20, 2006 01:23 PMIsidora, my wife actually made the basil using some from our backyard and it turned out pretty good. I'm not sure what the recipe was but I'll see if I can't get it from her. Our basil plant is about the only thing that's really doing well through our current heat wave so we get to have lots of basil based dishes: pesto, mozzarella caprese (Tully, it's kinda cheese sacrilege that you even know they make shredded mozzarella), etc. We actually had a crust from a local Dallas baker that turned out pretty good on the stone but we just needed to cook it a little longer. For good cajun food, I can't recommend Jazz in Austin among other places highly enough. Mmmm I'm getting hungry thinking about it. Tiger thumped them again this weekend. I'm reading Jack Nicklaus' biography right now and I long for the competition he speaks of in majors. Apparently, no one is ever going to step up and challenge El Tigre. Posted by: Scotch Drinker at August 21, 2006 09:11 AMI delivered Boboli for entenmann's one summer during graduate school. They're not bad, but they're not especially cheap either, so if you're not saving money, why not get a fresh pie? Little tip: bobolis go stale fast, so take from the back. I always replenished a little bit at a time to cut down on stale returns. Also, if you can find an entenmanns bakery outlet nearly, you can buy the out-of-code returns cheaply in bulk, and then freeze them. Because they're the out-of-code retuns, they're a bit drier, but since they get baked, they do bounce back pretty decently. I agree that making crust isn't worth the effort unless you take the time to become really good at making doughs and have a food processor witrh a dough hook.. I have found that using thawed out bread dough works pretty well as long as you handle it with a little care...it actually seems to work better if you let the yeast work out for a longer period of time in order to cut down on the amount of rising during baking. I think jar sauces are a bit of a pain. You're going to spend probably $3 for decent jar, and then you may have 3/4 of a jar left over. My approach is to always keep ample spices around. This includes a large jar of garlic, which while not as good as fresh is much easier, and you just use more to compensate for reduced power. For one pizza, I start with an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, and then I add a big TB or two of jar garlic, onion powder, oregano, basil, freshly ground black pepper, and ample shakes of crushed red. Pesto: we grew lemon basil this year, and I think I like it better than regular, which can get too sharp to use, especially if you don't pick it while it's young. (the lemon does too, but it's a nicer lighter taste overall, IMO) On speculation, I made a greek lemon pesto just to see how it tasted. I took lemon basil, olive oil, the juice of a lemon, salt, and toasted almonds and ground that up in the blender. Then I finely crumbled some feta in a blow and stirred that in. When done, I minced it over some skin-on boiled potatoes. I thought it came out quite good. I'll be curious to see how it tastes cold tonight. Posted by: bk at August 21, 2006 10:05 AMTully, it's kinda cheese sacrilege that you even know they make shredded mozzarella One of the volunteer orgs I'm involved with raises money by manning a big-name pizza booth during a major local multi-day event every year. I've made a LOT of "regular" pizzas. And I have kids, on whom the distinction (and the MAJOR price difference) is wasted. One of my favorite dinners is just a decent salad and some antipasto, with some fresh French or Italian bread. Of course, antipasto covers a heckuva lot of territory. Pecans make a decent pesto, but it doesn't keep. Pinions are best but the price is outrageous. Crushed pecans can also make a very nice crust for salmon steaks. Posted by: Tully at August 21, 2006 10:45 AMAre "pinions' the same as pignolia or pine nuts? That's the usually recommended ingredient for pestos. Toasted of course. I'm wondering if any of the folks out there outside of the really dense urban areas are lucky enough to have a chain called Trader Joes? They're becoming popular here in Ma, if I guessed I'd say they came from California first. They use a Jimmy Buffet motif as a vehicle for selling less expensive gourmet offerings like pine nuts, olive oil, cbalsamic vinegar, coffee, and so on. They do this by shopping worldwide and offering goods from small brands/labels that you may not have heard of before. At the average grocery store round here pine nuts are going to cost you $5-$7 for a tiny jar about oh lets say 4 or 5 inches high with a diameter of about 1.5 inches, that holds say 4 oz of pine nuts. Possibly just enough for one decent sized batch of pesto. At a place like trader joes they'll sell you a 12 or 16 bag for a similar price. Posted by: bk at August 21, 2006 01:27 PMThe Yankees just finished sweeping the Red Sox 5 straight. What a fricken bloodbath. Talk round here should turn to free agents for 2007 shortly, as the ship heads to the west coast where it qietly finish sinking. This debacle will be one for the annals, but hey, at least it didn't happen in the ALCS. So we've got that going for us. Posted by: bk at August 21, 2006 04:17 PM!!!!!DISASTER STRIKES!!!!! Hailstorms Cause Pesto Shortage in Italy I blame the Middle East crisis..... Posted by: Tully at August 21, 2006 05:54 PMThanks for the cajun steer, Scotch. I've been missing Trader Joe's. There was one in San Diego. |
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