Victory for 1st Amendment.

Supreme Court Drop-Kicks McCain/Feingold, Scores Victory for 1st Amendment. Obama preparing "Forceful Response"

So there it is: the President and members of the Mandarin Class are preparing a “forceful response” to the First Amendment.

Had enough yet?

Ann Coulter accurately describes Christianity

I'm not Ann Coulter's biggest fan, but I have to point out this column:

If you can find a better deal, take it!

You should read the whole article, but I'm going to quote a few lines of it here to give you the gist of it. She starts of by quoting Britt Hume on FOX News, talking about Tiger Woods. Hume mentions that Tiger is a Buddhists, and he suggests that Buddhism doesn't offer the kind of "forgiveness and redemption" that Christianity does.

Quoting Ann now:

Most perplexing was columnist Dan Savage's indignant accusation that Hume was claiming that Christianity "offers the best deal -- it gives you the get-out-of-adultery-free card that other religions just can't."
   
In fact, that's exactly what Christianity does. It's the best deal in the universe.

God sent his only son to get the crap beaten out of him, die for our sins and rise from the dead. If you believe that, you're in. Your sins are washed away from you -- sins even worse than adultery! -- because of the cross.

 "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9.
   
If you do that, every rotten, sinful thing you've ever done is gone from you. You're every bit as much a Christian as the pope or Billy Graham.
   
No fine print, no "your mileage may vary," no blackout dates. God ought to do a TV spot: "I'm God Almighty, and if you can find a better deal than the one I'm offering, take it."

With Christianity, your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean and your eternal life is guaranteed through nothing you did yourself, even though you don't deserve it. It's the best deal in the universe.

King Cakes!

If you're from North Carolina, you may not know what a king cake is. My Louisiana friends sure know about them! They appear in bakeries along the Gulf Coast every year, starting on January 6. They vanish from the shelves after Mardi Gras.

A king cake isn't actually a cake, it's a ring of bread. A traditional king cake is a brioche dough filled with a butter/cinammon/brown sugar mixture, although more modern ones tend to have cream cheese or pie filling in them. The top is sprinkled with granulated sugar that has been dyed in the Mardi Gras Colors of purple, green and gold. A small plastic baby doll is inserted into the cake after it's baked.

In offices all along the Gulf Coast, someone will bring a king cake to work tomorrow. The tradition is that whoever gets the piece with the baby in it has to buy the next one. This goes on until Ash Wednesday, when we all repent our fattening sins and diet until next year.

I've discovered two bakeries in the area that make king cakes: La Farm in Cary and Great Harvest Bread Company in Chapel Hill. La Farm has a counter at all of the Triangle area Whole Foods stores, so you might even find a King Cake there (or have the bakery manager order one for you). I haven't tried either of them yet, so I can't tell you how they compare to Randazzo's or Gambino's. But those require a trip to New Orleans, or about $40 to have one shipped here. I'll bake my own before I spend that kind of money.

Quote of the Day

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
John Kenneth Galbraith

NC Economic Forecast

Yesterday in Raleigh, Bank of America's new CEO Brian Moynihan delivered the keynote address at the North Carolina Economic Forecast Forum. Here's the video, courtesy of WRAL:

New BofA CEO, economists look to future

New Year's Day - Stew!

Angela and her friend Steph decided we'd do something different for New Year's: make a Brunswick Stew at Steph's house.



First the girls cut up the beef and pork, while I was outside setting up the cooker. This big cast-iron kettle (also known as a "Number Ten Washpot") is nearly 100 years old, and originally belonged to Angela's great-grandfather. It's 20 inches across and 18 inches deep.

The stew recipe came from Angela's daddy, who is said to have spent 10 years perfecting it.



First the beef and pork go into the big stewpot, while the chicken is boiling in a separate stock pot.




This picture is one of my favorites... but then, I'm a pyro from way back.


Then the onions and potatoes go in. As the potatoes cook, Angela breaks them up with a pair of tongs.



After the chicken has been boiled, we pulled it off the bones (and removed the skin) and put it in the stewpot. Then we added corn, baby lima beans, and tomatoes.



See, I did more than just take pictures:


Starting to look like stew:


When the paddle stands up by itself, the stew is ready to serve!


I, personally, am from Louisiana. I never tasted Brunswick Stew until I came to North Carolina in 1999. So my opinion of this stew isn't really relevant. (But for the record, let me say that I really love it!) There were a number of people at the party who were born in North Carolina, and they all said that this is the best they've ever tasted. I guess over the years Angela's daddy got his recipe perfected.

Before we made this batch of stew, Angela believed that the pot has a 10-gallon capacity. It does have a big "10" stamped on the side. But it holds more than 10 gallons. We had about 12 adults at dinner, and after we all ate as much as we could hold, we packed another 42 quarts of stew for the freezer. Someday I'm going to measure how many gallons of water it takes to fill it. 

Just to keep my Mama from rolling over in her grave, let me mention that we also had some cabbage and blackeye peas, too. So I won't have to be poor and friendless in 2010.

Stephanie, like me, is originally from Baton Rouge. As we were setting up the pot, she said, "I bet we could make a great jambalaya in this thing." We talked about that some more after dinner, and Angela mentioned she has a birthday coming up next month. So we'll be making jambalaya for Angela's birthday! Stay tuned...

New Year's Day

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. To-day, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient short comings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion.

-- Mark Twain, Territorial Enterprise, January 1, 1863