Torture

I don't ever want to hear about we're mistreating our War on Terror prisons again. Making naked dogpiles? Flushing pages of the Koran? Not good things, to be sure...in fact, out-and-out abuse. Should there be administrative punishments to those responsible, absolutely. And the Gitmo suicides that the mainstream media is very fond of covering right now certainly aren't a good thing, but we're talking three successes out of 40 attempts, and 40 attempts out of about 460 prisoners. Is there that much of a difference between either the suicide attempt or success rates of Guantanamo and other prisons? (For once, that question isn't sarcastic--if any one of my six readers can find me those stats, I'd love to see them.)

None of this compares to the barbarism displayed by our enemies. We put ourselves at such a disadvantage by fighting this battle at our own level rather than stooping to theirs--we follow traditional rules of engagement, fighting soldiers and arresting terrorists; they target civilians with impunity and have no qualms about torturing their prisoners. By no means am I advocating that we should even approach that level--it'd just be nice if the left wing and the mainstream media wouldn't put us at a greater disadvantage by beating the minor abuses by our individual soldiers while more-or-less ignoring the blanket policy of true torture and decapitation used by the terrorists.

Worst Buy

Identity theft is all over the news these days. There are lots of different ways for identity-stealing scumbags to get hold of your personal information, and you can't always protect yourself. Consumers certainly don't need companies that they think they can trust making it harder. Think long and hard before buying your next computer or computer upgrade from Best Buy. And whenever you have to turn in a hard drive or any other storage device that could contain personal information, get their guarantee that it will be destroyed, or at the very least, erased thoroughly with a powerful hard disk eraser. Your identity--and your financial future--depends on it.

Roethlisberger

An unintentionally hilarious video from YouTube showing one Steeler fan's reaction to QB Ben Roethlisberger's helmetless motorcycle crash.



Naturally, this accident has spurred a lot of debate on helmet laws, since Pennsylvania has none, and Roethlisberger has said in an interview, "If it was the law, I'd definitely have [a helmet] on every time I rode. But it's the law and I know I don't have to and you're just more free when you're out there with no helmet on." My political beliefs generally run toward small-government conservativism--the less governments interfere into our private lives, the better--but isn't it better to require motorcyclists to wear helmets than to spend public funding caring for the ones who have opted to take advantage of the choice not to wear helmets and crippled themselves?

Hat tip to the Ron and Fez Show for tipping me off to those videos.

Cole

Another Al Qaeda-related story....on the same day as Zarqawi meets his well-deserved end, the former Al Qaeda target the USS Cole returns to the Middle East to conduct anti-terror security operations. Yet another middle finger to those savages, and a great tribute to the 17 servicemen who lost their lives in the attack on the Cole in 2000.

Photo from AP.

Zarqawi

Rot in hell, motherfucker. And congratulations to all the members of the armed forces who made this possible, from the intelligence gatherers on the ground to the pilots who dropped the bombs. Today is a great day for all who oppose terrorism, no matter their persuasions.

Photo from Fox News.

New Blog Link

I've added a new blog to my permanent collection of links this morning--pretty soon I'm going to have to separate my blogroll out from links to more static websites. Anyway, it's NewsBusters, put out by a watchdog group called the Media Research Center to expose liberal bias in the mainstream media. A noble cause, even if it is the brainchild of the head of the pro-censorship Parents' Television Council, Hank Scorpio lookalike L. Brent Bozell III. (The name just sounds like a parody of a James Bond villain, too!) Check it out, and be sure to check out the entries written by my good friend Michael Rule.

Beast's Cookbook: Man's Man's Cheeseburger Quiche

Whoever said "real men don't eat quiche" has never tried this one. It's fast, it's easy, it's hearty and satisfying, and you can make it as spicy as you want....if it's too much for you to handle, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper in place of the Hot Shot and eliminate the Tabasco. Also, if it's too spicy for you to handle, you forfeit the right to urinate standing up. Here's the recipe.

1 pie crust (premade or your favorite recipe)
1 pound lean ground beef, drained
1/2 cup milk
4 Eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon McCormick Hot Shot!
Dash Tabasco sauce

Brown the beef. Drain and set aside. Mix all other ingredients together, then add beef. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. NOTE: You can use a pie pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray instead of a pie crust for reduced carbs and fat.

Sawks-Yankees

There's nothing more frustrating than planning your entire evening around your team's game against their biggest rivals and then having them lose. Unless it's having them go down 9-1, make two quick outs in the 9th inning, then score four more runs, just to get your hopes up before they pop out to end with a loss anyway.

And it's going to get worse before it gets better. Just take a look at the laundry list of injuries they're dealing with during this series:

SP Carl Pavano - bone chips found during rehab start, likely out for the season
RF Gary Sheffield - heading for a minor league rehab start after injuring his wrist
LF Hideki Matsui - out for most if not all of the season after breaking his wrist
CF Johnny Damon - relegated to the DH slot with a broken foot bone
1B Jason Giambi - playing through a neck strain
RP Tanyon Sturtze - out for an indeterminate length of time with a shoulder injury
SP Shawn Chacon - out with a leg injury
OF Bubba Crosby - out with a hamstring injury

That's almost enough to start a completely new baseball team. At the rate they're going, their next homestand will be in Columbus instead of Yankee Stadium. My prediction of a Yankees wildcard berth slips away a little bit as each of these guys gets dinged up.

Beast's Cookbook: Whole Grain Pasta with Seafood Sauce

A recipe of my own creation. I was actually aiming for something a bit hotter as I was making it, but I was very pleased with how it turned out. The marsala wine gives it a very unique flavor.

3 28 ounce cans tomatoes, peeled and pureed
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup marsala wine
4 stalks celery
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 teaspoons chopped garlic
6 ounces tomato paste
8 ounces scallops
8 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 ounces crab meat, shredded
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1 pound whole grain pasta

In a blender, puree the tomatoes with their juices. In a food processor, chop the onion. Chop the celery by hand. In a large pot, heat the olive oil until it just begins to smoke. Put in the onion and garlic and sautee until almost transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the celery and sautee for about a minute. Add the Marsala wine, stir. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, stir. Bring mixture to a near boil, stirring. Reduce heat and begin to simmer. Add scallops, shrimp, crab meat, and spices. Stir until well mixed. Simmer until seafood is cooked (about 30 minutes to an hour), stirring frequently. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, top with sauce, serve with whole wheat bread and salad.

Chasing Babe Hank

Barry Bonds trails Babe Ruth by only one home run on baseball's all-time list, having been robbed of #714 last night by Astros' centerfielder Juan Pierre. Barring a complete breakdown of his body or an act of God, Bonds will catch the Bambino, and overtake him soon. After that, the all-time home run crown of Hank Aaron is well within his sights.

Of course, all of this hoopla is generating its fair share of controversy, for a couple of reasons. Bonds has gained the rep over most of his career as an ass, especially towards the media--a bad move for anyone in the public eye, since they'll be the ones shaping the world's opinion of you. But that's really neither here nor there in most discussions of the home run record. What's really got everyone buzzing is Bonds's connection via his personal trainer to convicted steroid distributors BALCO. Should his records count? Should they be marked with an asterisk to denote his steroid usage?

Much as it'll irritate The Blowhard, my answer is no. First off, Bonds really didn't confess to anything, nor has he been caught. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a hallmark of American justice, and shouldn't it apply to the national pasttime as well? Second, and more importantly, moreso than any other sport that I can think of, baseball is a constantly evolving game. There are things in each era of the major leagues that make some aspects of the game easier, and others harder than in other eras. Hitters in Ruth's day didn't have to face the likes of Dontrelle Willis and Pedro Martinez simply due to their ethnicities. On the other hand, you didn't have the late-inning relief specialists you see today in Ruth's day, or even in the early days of Aaron's career. Pitchers tended to throw more innings more often, with less opportunity to rest their arms. And with far fewer teams in the league than there are today, the cutoff for pitchers who made it into the majors was far higher. The fifth starter for the Kansas City Royals (I looked it up--his name is Jeremy Affeldt) would be kicking around the minors at best in the 16-team major leagues in Aaron's rookie year of 1954. The old records make a great benchmark for players and teams to test themselves to try and reach, but there just isn't a case to be made that all eras are created equal--they're apples and oranges, and you really can't compare them, except over drunken "what-if" contests with your buddies.

Am I rooting for Bonds to take the home run crown from Aaron? Hell no. I'm rooting against Bonds every step of the way--"innocent until proven guilty" only applies to punishment, not suspicion--but you just can't take away his records or mark them with an asterisk. At least not until he fails a piss test.

Album Review: Stubbs the Zombie Soundtrack

I find some of the best stuff while I'm on "the throne". I was idly flipping the pages of a very old issue of Computer Gaming World, when I saw a preview for a video game called Stubbs the Zombie--and more specifically, its soundtrack's unique concept. The game is set in a 50's vision of the future, and the soundtrack follows this with Baby Boom-era pop songs sung by modern alternative artists. I was first drawn in by the cover of Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" by Cake--they're one of my all-time favorites in spite of lead singer John McCrea's shoddy treatment of his audience at a show I was at a few years ago. They do a great job with the song, as I expected, but so does pretty much everyone else on the album. You just have to get past the "poof factor" of some of the songs, and enjoy them for the pop culture kitsch that they are. If you're going to head to iTunes for the best songs on the album, I'd go with the aforementioned Cake cover, followed by the final three songs of the album--Clem Snide's ska-ified version of "Tears On My Pillow", Milton Mapes's twangy rendition of "Lonesome Town", and the Phantom Planet original "The Living Dead". Just to round out the top songs to a square 5, let's go with Death Cab For Cutie's surprisingly faithful remake of "Earth Angel". The only outright miss on the album is the muted vocals of the Dandy Warhols on their cover of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream". All in all, this unique concept album gets a high recommendation from me for fans of oldies or indie-punk-emo rock.

A Day Without Immigrants

The immigrants aren't coming to work today--they'll show us what silly geese we are for wanting to know who's living in our country. They'll make us feel really bad for ensuring that those who come here legally get the protections of minimum wage, and even those who break the law to get the basic freedoms of the U.S. Constitution. We're sure going to miss all that money they spend to stimulate the local economy--never mind that many illegal workers only buy the basic necessities here and send the rest back to their native countries.

But if they must go, let's hope they go all the way. Let's hope that in addition to boycotting their jobs, they boycott hospitals and free clinics. Let's hope no illegal children are in our public schools today. Let's hope they move out of their HUD-discounted housing. Let's hope they boycott all of the publicly funded services available to them.