Iron Chef San Bernardino

One of the many trials of bachelor living, especially when you are truly living alone, is cooking. Fast food and food from a can gets tired real quick. But I am making progress. Earlier this month I finally perfected a spaghetti recipe I really like. It produces lots of leftovers also, which is a bonus for bachelors. (this stuff is even better reheated.)

When I woke up this morning, I didn't even really know how to boil an egg. However during the course of the day I not only taught myself how to properly boil an egg, but also how to make an extremely delicious deviled egg.

Look out Morimoto, I'm coming for you..........

posting gap

Sorry again folks. Life intervened, and then my computer went down. (and there is a whole story coming about the Geek Squad)

I'll do my best to be more regular.

Poverty

John Edwards gave a speech this week in which his main point was that the U.S. should eliminate poverty over the next 30 years. Predictably, all the leftwing websites are praising him and endorsing the idea.

Are you kidding me? Doesn't anybody study history anymore?

1) There has always been poor people, and there always will be poor people. Hell, even the Bible recognizes this. People are poor for various reasons, but the primary one is poor decision making. Deciding not to study in school, deciding to do drugs, deciding to have children you cannot support, etc. Other people are poor because they are lazy. Frankly some people are poor because they are mentally deficient. Very few people who are hard working and desire to better themselves are unable to do so.

2) This country currently spends billions every year subsidizing the poor. This includes income tax "refunds" to people who don't pay taxes, and food stamps and cash payments to people who own color TVs and $200 shoes. To anyone who says we aren't doing enough to help the poor I call bullshit.

3) Another "buy the voter" Democrat (LBJ) declared war on poverty nearly 50 years ago. Hundreds of billions of dollars later, we have more poverty than ever. The Democratic party is so set on declaring defeat in all our wars, why haven't they demanded our withdrawal from this one yet?

4) Poverty is an entirely relative thing. The only people who are homeless today in the US are homeless by choice or mental incompetence. (another legacy of the feel good Democrats is the fact we can't institutionalize the mentally incomptent, instead we have to let them beg on the streets and shit on the sidewalks) Even the poorest person today has a better quality of life than 90% of all the people who have ever lived on this planet. We have people with indoor plumbing and running water, electricity, gas, color television, refrigerators, cars and a healthy diet, and they are considered poor. Folks, in my grandparents generation, most middle class people didn't have all of those!

This is just another example of a Democratic leader pandering to his base, people who have abandoned logic and reason for emotions and feelings.

Retention

I have been told by my principal that he is not going to retain (keep in the same grade for failing grades/test scores) a single student this year. This in a school with over 1,000 students. I have students who have failed every class in the fifth grade, every class in the sixth grade, and every class this year in the seventh and have never been retained. At least two of these students (who I tried to have retained) have not turned in a single assignment in my class all year. What do you think the chances are that they are going to do any work in the 8th grade next year? What are their work habits in high school going to be like? We tell these kids every year that their grades and test scores matter, and every year they see kids like these two go on to the next grade anyway. What message are we sending? At least we need to stop lying to these kids about retaining them. No wonder they get to the 12th grade without passing the exit exam...they don't believe us when we tell them they won't get a diploma. We have been lying to them for 12 years after all.

Until I get a principal who publically commits to retention, I will never again mention retention to a student or parent. I don't understand why my district's parents tolerate this type of behavior.

Please, for the sake of our children, support school choice and vouchers whenever you can......public education is broken and will never fix itself until forced to do so by competition. (and remember I say this as a beleagured public school teacher)

Memorial Day

Thank you to all of America's fallen heroes, who gave the greatest sacrifice to preserve our nation and way of life.

Thank you to all the men and women who have served in America's armed forces whether it was in time of war, or time of peace. Service in the armed forces is never easy and always dangerous.

Thank you to all the men and women currently serving in the armed forces. America supports and appreciates you. Never believe the insults and slights of the insane and immature reflect how we truly feel about you.

Thank you to the wives, husbands and families of those who serve and have served. Your trials and sacrifices are often overlooked, but have to be endured just the same.

Thank you Dad. I have often made fun of your service in the past, but I truly respect you and your service. Thank you Mom. It was never easy being a service wife, especially with two young kids, and a husband in Vietnam.

I salute all of you, and though mere words can never repay you, it is all I have to give.

Crazy Weather

I had the air conditioner on last Saturday, and I nearly turned on the heater last night.

Don't you just love living in Southern California?

New Orleans

OK, your reaction to Hurricaine Katrina showed you guys were stupid. But re-electing Nagin? You guys are just retarded.

Combine Nagin's re-election with the behavior of the refugees, especially in Houston, and we might be better off just letting you drown yourselves next time.

Stockard Channing

While Stockard will never when a beauty pagent, she is one of those rare women who has become more beautiful as she has aged. And it doesn't appear to me that she has accomplished it surgically.

Mea Culpa

If I have any regular readers...I apologise. Work has been a little stressful of late, and what energies I have had for blogging I have spent arguing immigration matters on other people's blogs.

I will get better, I promise.

West Wing (4/30/06)

OK, so they crossed me up on the Vinnick thing. His character does make a good Sec. of State though. I wish they had shown a little of Josh and Donna's vacation. That's probably coming next week. I still want to see a series based on the Santos administration.

Yet More Evidence of Why the Texans Suck

Look, they didn't have to take Reggie. In fact, my suggestion all along has been that they trade down. The Texans are last for a reason. They need help, lots of help. Primarily on their offensive line. Carr spends more time on his back than a call girl in Las Vegas.

Believe me, a rookie Defensive End is not going to make a bit of difference to the Texans. Even if he gets two sacks and 10 tackles a game, (which he isn't) it would just mean that the Texans would lose by fewer points.

And how do you think Houston is going to take this? They wanted Vince Young, the hometown boy. They were willing to accept Bush because he was clearly the best player in the draft. But Mario Williams? How many seats do you think he's going to fill? The only way that this doesn't turn out to be the worst pick of the draft is if Millen picks another wide receiver in Detroit.

National Anthem Outrage

Some idiot has re-written the words of the American National Anthem and translated it and recorded it in Spanish. The pro-immigration groups are distributing this recording to radio stations in an effort to get everyone to give it airplay. This was a serious mistake. It will destroy all the goodwill they have been trying to build by downplaying the Mexican flags.

John and Ken had the great, great grandson of Francis Scott Key on today talking about this, and he got it exactly right. There is one flag, one national anthem, and one president, and if you disagree, you don't belong here.

It's the NATIONAL Anthem , numbnuts. You can't have more than one version.

Bicentennial Memories

Today is the 30th anniversary of the day Rick Monday rescued a flag that was about to be burned in Dodger stadium. Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters is blogging about it today.

I certainly applaud the actions of Monday, but I was troubled by one paragraph in the story

"With the bicententennial of the Declaration of Independence coming up, the country had started a celebration of the event that overloaded on red, white, and blue. The nation tried to put on a coat of faux patriotism it didn't really feel, and the entire effort felt commercialized and hypocritical. With Independence Day two months away, many already had had enough of the celebration."

In 1976 I was eleven years old, and living at Lakenheath AFB in the United Kingdom. And after reading this, I'm very glad of that. Because the Bicentennial was very different for me. It was a time of unabashed patriotism and a celebration of the birth of our nation. It was something we tried to share with our bemused British hosts, who after all, were the ones we were celebrating our separation from. I am sure the fact that I was living on an Air Force base overseas had a great deal to do with my experiences, but that makes them only more special to me. I am an unembarassed, unreformed and undying patriot. I have seen the sacrifices our men and women make to make the world a better and safer place. There is not, and has never been, a better nation than ours.

Thank you Rick Monday, thank you to all those who have served in our military (and their families) and God Bless America.

Two and a Half Men

OK. I know I'm supposed to be mature, and full of disapproval of tonight's episode. But I actually thought it was funny as hell.

West Wing (4/23/06)

I know there are only three episodes left, but I'd like to see the series continue. The Santos team looks intriguing to me. I wonder if there is any chance of Bravo or TNT or someone ordering new episodes?

On another note, the sneak peeks seemed to show Santos asking Vinnick to be his VP. Looks like my 25% prediction is coming true.

South Park

South Park has just jumped the shark. I'm sitting here watching a show that features Oprah's "minge" (how'd they get that past the censors?) and asshole as the main characters. Towelie carries the whole episode...none of the kids appear. The only thing I can imagine is that Trey and Matt are trying to get fired. At the very least they are punishing Comedy Central. No telling what is coming up next.

State of Confusion

I just watched five minutes of a Japanese Samurai drama, translated into Spanish on a Spanish language TV station. I need to go lie down now.

Sin City

Just saw it for the first time. Farking awesome! Hands down the best adaptation of a comic book into a movie ever!

Ward Churchill

I am watching Ward Churchill on C-SPAN debating David Horowitz about politics in the classroom. One of the inanities to come from Churchill's mouth is that there is no objective truth. This is one of the foundations of leftwing thought. Truth doesn't matter, only feelings and perceptions. He also believes it is impossible to be objective as a teacher in the classroom. Again, this is absurd. As Horowitz said, "you can teach about a controversy" without being either in favor or against it.

The crowd heckled Horowitz while he made his opening statement, and sat spellbound while Churchill made his.

Highway to Hell

I bought a few CDs recently, including a new copy of Highway to Hell. This re-mastered version is so much better than the original CD. The music is much brighter and crisper. This album is truly one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Every song on it could be a single. The only AC/DC album that comes close is Back in Black, but Back in Black has a few weak songs on it. If you are an AC/DC fan, and you haven't upgraded to the re-mastered CD yet, do yourself a favor...you won't regret it.