tvashtarkatena

That would have been Colleen's job, and she made fine work of it. Actually, she did most of the cooking while I cleaned the place up and tried to fix, but wound up breaking, a 1941 toaster. Some guys watch the game.... My contribution was baking french bread, whipping the cream, and making coffee. I think I might have chopped something up, too.

Same here, only it was Tobasco. Big bottle. They dragged him off to sick bay, afterwards. Saw another guy do a bottle of ketchup. I guess the second guy was trying to one up. He did.

Turned out the 19 pounder was frozen. the outside was thawed in the store. Or something. Anyhoo, we panicked and ran out and bought another one (non-frozen). So now, I'm dealing with the frozen one. Which is thawed now. I think.

Well, I'm about ready to roast my first Big Bird. This would be our 'extra' turkey from Thanksgiving. I'm not very motivated to do it right, either. Just want to get rid of it. Anybody want leftovers?

It helps to know a good Jew Bear, too.

I thought the guy was coughing up a blue ribbon asceris. Sometimes they come out your nose, too.

Do NOT use Captain Morgan. ABORT. I just use Bacardi. Works fine. Mai tais are very forgiving. They're not complete anal retentive assholes like martinis. My Krobar standards are: Bombay Sapphire Absolute vodka Bacardi amber rum Whaler's dark rum Amaretto (whatev) Triple sec (whatev) lemons limes olives Martini and Rossi dry vermouth BYOB or W Can't do a summer party with mojitos n shit wit dat, but it serves for the indoor winter months.

In the meantime: 1 shot amber rum 1/2 shot amaretto 1/2 shot orange curacao, grande marnier, or triple sec juice from 1/2 lemon Shake with ice, pour 1/2 shot dark rum (Whalers) floater

Come on over to 'The Coast' and I will, fo sho. Hell, I'm even authorized by my wranglers to buy you lunch....

Put it this way. We're the only folks who have a serious shot at ending our trillion dollar War on Drugs. Donate to the ACLU now and, who knows? You may even make a profit on your donation based on your reduced taxes later LOL.

A little goes a long way....

Bush ginned up the NSA spying program, indefinite detention, GITMO, torture, and extraordinary rendition based on the congressional Authorization to Use Military Force of 2001. Basically, he believed that the Authorization gave him carte blanche to do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, which pretty much worked out to be shitting all over our most cherished principles. Oh well, we were scared, right?

Best to be your highly flawed self from day one and let the chips fall where they may.

It's cool just to give us money, too, so we can pay our lawyers. Cheaper for you. PM me if you've got some extra cash on that half time salary and I can fill you in on how that cash will be spent.

It's impossible to say how the government will use a given power in the future. All you can say is that it will probably use that power to its fullest extent (and often go beyond that power's legal limits), if history is any guide. Any power that erodes our most fundamental shared values and principles: Probable cause, due process, fairness, checks and balances, provides a fertile environment for abuse of that power. This usually happens when things go wrong: the economy or other tensions produce protests or riots, the country is attacked, the country goes to war, etc. That's when the shit usually hits the fan, and the somnambulent (I'm not gonna fucking spell check that) population suddenly wakes up and says "Huh? How can they do that?" "It happened while you were asleep."

Finally ending up in a good place makes all the previous shit you had to go through to get there seem like it was worth it. Such a mechanism makes humans dumber but happier.

The ACLU argued against the ban in all three cases, BTW.

I assign all my quotes, regardless of origin, to either Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. Who doesn't like Franklin and Twain. In reality, Franklin was a complete fuck off on the job while in Europe. He spent much of his time partying on the public's dime. Not that that bothers me, much. Given their recent 'results', I'd rather most of Congress spend their paycheck's drinking and whoring rather than showing up for work.

Oh, right. That makes more sense. Well, I guess it's no more Russian jokes, then.

this is a technical nit, but the Patriot Act has nothing to do with indefinite detention or the use of the military as police. It does contain other troublesome powers...just not these two.

I think they are bigger than that now. They seem to do whatever they want. The elected officials do not listen to the people anymore. That is very clear. It's only 'clear' because you're not trying in a meaningful, effective fashion. They do listen, and they're not any more untouchable now than before.

A fun read: Fast and Furious and the Gun Nut Conspiracy Theories it spawned...

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when when our resident science illiterates attempt to prove that the jury's still out on whether or not CO2 can cause climate warming. Plunge in CO2 resulted in Antarctic ice sheets Next up: DO ANIMALS REALLY NEED OXYGEN TO LIVE?

Lawmakers and executives do things and draft laws that conflict with existing laws and/or the constitution all the time. Some of them are clueless when it comes to civil liberties issue. Some see civil liberties as liberal whining. Some are morons. And some do things extra legally because they know they can and they have little respect for our democratic processes. Bush's torture and NSA spying programs come to mind. Good legislators will consult the experts in civil liberties to determine if their proposals pass constitutional muster - this step can preempt big ole expensive lawsuits later on. This is part of an ACLU lobbyist's job, to make sure that process happens. In the end, government will do whatever it can get away with. We are the true check and balance on that propensity. When people ask "How can they DO that?" I answer "Because YOU let them."