AdamSmith

Forget mass government espionage -- here's what The Guardian knows is really important: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/oct/24/how-to-eat-biscuits

I try to follow what a high-tech CEO I knew used to berate his sales force to do: "Sell what you've got!"

He has stopped. It is the press now continuing to publish what he gave them before leaving Hong Kong.

Aww I want a kid like that. (One that is run by batteries! )

Yes, my dear, you have put your finger on it. The breach of protocol here was our getting caught. How gauche.

Ah! Nothing jogs the memory like flattery. Our CharliePS, long ago in a galaxy far, far away (well, on the Other Site, at least), posed an open question to the forum, to the effect of: What pleasures do you think will take the place of sex for you, once the sex drive wanes? I came up with: Savoring the smooth satin lining and the measured gait of my pallbearers.

Merkel calls Obama over reports her phone may have been tapped by US Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal mobile phone may have been monitored by the US, according to a German government spokesman German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called US President Barack Obama about the alleged monitoring of her mobile phone Photo: YVES HERMAN/REUTERS By Raf Sanchez, and Peter Foster in Washington The Telegraph 8:23PM BST 23 Oct 2013 The White House was today scrambling to head off a major diplomatic incident after the German government said it had received information that US spies may have tapped Angela Merkel’s personal mobile phone for years. In the most significant protest by a world leader since Edward Snowden began leaking details of the US’s global surveillance network, Mrs Merkel called Barack Obama and demanded his personal assurances she was not being monitored. The president promised his German counterpart that US intelligence “is not monitoring and will not monitor” her communications but the White House did not explicitly rule out the possibility she had been bugged in the past. German diplomatic sources said they were still not satisfied with the White House’s explanation and would demand further clarification over the “completely unacceptable” allegations. The row comes two days after France summoned the US ambassador to Paris to demand an explanation to reports that America swept up 70 million French telephone records in a month including politicians and business leaders. In the latest flare up with a European ally, the German government said it had received information that the National Security Agency had targeted Mrs Merkel’s personal mobile over a series of years in an effort to gain diplomatic intelligence. Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for Mrs Merkel, said the spying “would be a serious breach of trust” and that the German leader “unequivocally disapproves of such practices, should they be confirmed, and regards them as completely unacceptable” “Among close friends and partners, as the Federal Republic of Germany and the US have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of the communications of a head of government,” he said. The German government did not elaborate on what information it had been given but the call to Mr Obama appeared to have been prompted by information from Der Spiegel, a news magazine that has begun publishing information from Mr Snowden’s trove of stolen classified US files. Der Spiegel reportedly approached authorities with a US document that contained Mrs Merkel's mobile phone number, triggering the sharp German response. Mrs Merkel telephoned the president on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before he went into a sensitive meeting with Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, who was expected to confront him about US drone strikes. “Today President Obama and Chancellor Merkel spoke by telephone regarding the allegations that the US National Security Agency intercepted the communications of the German chancellor,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “I can tell you that the president assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor.” Mr Carney did not answer a question about whether the NSA may have intercepted Mrs Merkel’s communications as part of a broader eavesdropping sweep. He also did not rule out the possibility that the US had in the past monitored her telephone, a nuance that was picked up by German diplomats. “I would just urge you to look at the tenses used by the White House,” one German source told The Telegraph. “They speak only about the present and the future – we 'are not’ monitoring and we 'will not’ monitor, but not about the past. The clarification we are seeking is about the issue over all.” The row with Germany comes two days after Le Monde, the French newspaper, published claims that the NSA was collecting millions of records of French telephone calls. “This sort of practice between partners that invades privacy is totally unacceptable and we have to make sure, very quickly, that this no longer happens,” said Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister. Charles Rivkin, the US ambassador to Paris, was summoned to the French foreign ministry to address the claims and Mr Obama spoke to Francois Hollande on Monday. However, Mrs Merkel’s personal phone call to Mr Obama is the most direct and potentially serious protest by a fellow world leader. Last month, Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president postponed a planned state visit to Washington in protest at claims the US was intensely spying on her country. Globo TV reported that the NSA targeted Mrs Rousseff’s aides, collected billions of Brazilian emails and telephone records and hacked the internal network of Petrobras, the state-run oil company. As revelations of US spying mounted in recent months, Mr Obama ordered a review of how the NSA conducts its intelligence gather. “The US is reviewing the way that we gather intelligence to ensure that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share,” Mr Carney said. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10400825/Merkel-calls-Obama-over-reports-her-phone-may-have-been-tapped-by-US.html

And oddly enough... http://www.embalming.net/

What, another reference to BN's blog?

Not sure whether arousal or disquiet is the stronger emotion evoked by the notion it might be detachable.

In case it helps the diagnostic record, I don't sign out before closing my browser, and now under both Win8/FireFox 24.0 and iPhone 5/iOS 7.0, the system keeps me logged in all the time, on both platforms.

So it occurred that it might be a hoot to subscribe to Casket and Sunnyside, not the band (!) of that name but rather the funeral-industry trade journal referenced in Jessica Mitford's not-for-the-fainthearted exposé The American Way of Death. Upon googling, turns out the mag ceased (de-!) publication some years ago. I did, though, find some images of it, and related ephemera...

I don't know. Yesterday I saw very similar in a KFC in a small town out in the sticks in NC. Not Chapel Hill! Rather one of the fading mill towns that dot the Piedmont, where open gay expression and behavior were unimaginable a few short years ago.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/21/yachtsman-describes-horror-at-dead-rubbish-strewn-pacific-ocean

Pope "suspends" him, one step short of removal: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/23/pope-suspends-german-luxury-bishop

Such as a cute gardener. ...Someone like the Marble Faun in 'Grey Gardens,' say.

You brought it up! So to speak.

Glenn Beck is on serious drugs. Watching the Tea Party et al. try to take down Norquist for acknowledging at least small bits of realpolitik promises some amusement. Glenn Beck Presents ‘Just the Beginning’ of Why You Need to Pay Attention to Grover Norquist Oct. 21, 2013 8:45pm Erica Ritz theblaze.com Glenn Beck on Monday began what he said is “just the beginning” of his work to reveal the background and motivations of Grover Norquist, the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform. Beck began by playing recent clips of Norquist calling out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his efforts to derail Obamacare, noting that while he used to joke about the left’s portrayal of Norquist as a “big power player,” he’s since revised his dismissive opinion in light of the warnings that you “don’t ever take this guy on unless you’re prepared.” Beck’s show Monday primarily concentrated on Norquist’s alleged connections to Islamists. He invited Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, and Daniel Greenfield of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, to weigh in. Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist attends a press conference discussing the taxation of marijuana businesses outside the U.S. Capitol September 12, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Getty Images) “[Norquist] is the guy responsible for a lot of the Muslim Brotherhood stuff that goes on in the White House, isn’t he?” Beck asked the two. “Glenn, I think most people who know Grover only as a prominent anti-tax guy in the conservative movement would find that statement unbelievable, and to be honest with you I would’ve, but for the fact that I saw it first-hand as a result of sharing office space for what I think of seven biblically long years with Grover Norquist,” Gaffney remarked. “I saw terrorists in his office space. I had colleagues come to me and say, ‘You know there’s a Muslim Brotherhood front operating out of his office suite?’” “It was called the Islamic Free Market Foundation, or Institute,” Gaffney continued, saying it is more commonly known as simply the Islamic Institute. “This was an operation that was created by a man who’s now serving time in federal prison for terrorism by the name Abdurahman Alamoudi.” Gaffney added that at MuslimBrotherhoodInAmerica.com, where viewers can find a ten-part course on the Muslim Brotherhood by the Center for Security Policy, there is a clip of “Norquist at a meeting in Dearborn, Michigan in October 2011 put together between George Soros’ progressives or leftists, radicals, and the Islamists.” “[Norquist] talks very candidly about what amounts to an influence operation that he’s been running against a prominent conservative Republican Senate leader, and you just can’t come away from this with any conclusion other than he knows exactly what he’s doing, and what he’s doing in this case is advancing the agenda of not just Muslims, but Islamists, and I’m afraid that’s the kind of thing that he’s got to be held accountable for,” Gaffney said. Glenn Beck speaks with Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, and Daniel Greenfield of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, about Grover Norquist. (Photo: TheBlaze TV) When asked why he would have such connections, Greenfield weighed in: “Well the Muslim Brotherhood, like the communists and the Nazis before them, are experts at setting up front groups with innocuous names and finding people who would be useful to them. Norquist was useful to them, and in some ways, they were useful to him.” Greenfield later added: “If you were a freedom guy, then why would he be backing an ideology associated with a complete totalitarian regime? Why would he be backing the…misfortunes of the conservative movement? And why would he be doing everything possible to undermine the possibility that the Republican Party can back a freedom-based agenda?” Beck concluded by saying this is a “complex issue,” but that it is time that somebody takes on the “establishment Republicans” and tell you “exactly who’s who.” “If you’re for the Constitution, I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a Democrat or a Republican and a conservative, I don’t really care, if you’re for the Constitution of the United States of America,” Beck said. “That’s our dividing line, and there are too many in the Republican Party, so let’s clean out our own house first.” http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/21/glenn-beck-presents-just-the-beginning-of-why-you-need-to-pay-attention-to-grover-norquist/

Address to a Haggis28 January, 2013 in Charcutepalooza, Meat | 1 comment I first had haggis about ten years ago, when visiting my great aunt and cousins in Yorkshire and Scotland; I had not had it since…until yesterday. My introduction to haggis was a positive one, and I resolved on my return from that trip to find some in the States to accompany the scotch I brought back with me. Turns out, however, that haggis is not easy to come by in America. In the intervening decade, however, my meat skills have improved and internet food lore has blossomed and so, for the 254th birthday of the poet Robert Burns, I managed to make all my haggis dreams come true. First, a bit of background: it is a longstanding Scottish tradition to serve a haggis on Burns’ birthday, and to recite his poem “Address to a Haggis” as a toast. I’m not that into Romantic poetry, but I’m always up for a party with whiskey and offal. So, I decided to have a Burns Supper. The 25th of January fell on a Friday this year, so my birthday party was a little belated. I needed the extra time, though, to get my haggis together. For those of you who don’t know, a haggis is traditionally made from the pluck and paunch of a sheep. Translation: mutton heart, lungs, and liver are stuffed into a sheep stomach. One of the volumes in my collection (A Taste of History: 10,000 of Food in Britain, from the British Museum Press) tells me scholars believe the dish originated in prehistory, when hunters would pack the brains and entrails of a kill into the animal’s stomach and cook it over an open fire. Mrs. Beeton has a recipe for the dish; her instructions are a little spotty, though, so I took extra guidance from Tim Hayward’s illustrated haggis article at The Guardian. The first, and most difficult, step in my haggis journey: finding sheep organs. I thought about going to a Greek or halal butcher in Queens, but in the interests of meat quality and time saving, I decided to look into farmers market butchers. Thankfully, 3-Corner Field Farm, which has a stand Saturdays at the Union Square Greenmarket, agreed to supply me with liver and heart. Sadly, it turned out that consumption of sheep stomach and lung is illegal in New York. I found another intrepid haggis-maker who’d used beef tripe as a lung substitute (for spongy texture) and decided to go this route. The Guardian calls for boiling the offal the night before and letting it sit in its broth overnight. I didn’t have time to buy tripe until Saturday morning, so I decided to trust in Mrs. Beeton and do my boiling morning-of. I cooled the pot in the fridge and was ready to go by early afternoon. “Going” in this case involved organ grinding. OK, food processing. I pulsed the tripe and heart and, according to Tim Hayward’s recommendation, I grated the liver – also in the processor. I imagine this process was a lot more difficult back in the day. Grated liver, by the way, is…a little weird. I moved on, though, and while I was toasting Irish oats for the haggis I also used the processor to grate onions. Mrs. Beeton calls for nutmeg to flavor the haggis, and Tim Hayward used thyme, sage, and rosemary. I decided to go the hybrid route: nutmeg, thyme, and rosemary. And some good plain salt and pepper. The last secret ingredient is beef suet. I had to order this from England: Chowhound’s NYC boards failed me. If anyone has a local source, please help me out. Anyway, the mix looked pretty much…like dogfood. New York, as I mentioned, has outlawed sale of sheep stomach. Since I’m now pretty intimately familiar with it from my assorted charcuterie efforts, I immediately thought of using beef bung. Tim Hayward, it turns out, had the same idea. This stuffed haggis might not look as plump and lovely as some sausages I’ve posted here – but as you saw above, it cooks up quite nicely. I left it half-empty to start, because it expands as the oatmeal in the filling cooks and absorbs juices. And while it was cooking, I whipped up a few classic accompaniments: oatcakes… …and some awesomely-named rumbledethumps (mashed turnips and potatoes with cabbage and cheddar). For whiskey, I put out Oban and Laphroaig – one easy, one peaty. Both went over well, and both paired beautifully with haggis. I got a surprising number of people to try haggis (the whiskey may have given courage to some), and it went over very well. Haggis, for all its fearsome reputation, is quite a mild-flavored dish: the liver dominates, the spices bring its earthiness out nicely, and the oatmeal gives it great texture. It’s a bit late now for a Burns Supper – but if you feel moved to make haggis for any reason (and you should), here’s one way to go about it. Haggis (Makes one haggis) One beef bung (as wide as possible) One sheep liver and one sheep heart 1/3 lb. honeycomb tripe 2 Spanish onions 400 g beef suet 500 g Irish (pinhead) oatmeal 1 tbsp. chopped rosemary 1 tbsp. chopped thyme 3 tbsp. coarse sea salt 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 a nutmeg, grated fresh 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the liver, heart, and tripe, and simmer for 90 minutes. Remove from heat and cool in the refrigerator for about 3 hours. 2. While the offal is cooling, soak the beef bung in cold water for at least 60 minutes. 3. Reserve 2 cups of the cooled cooking liquid from the offal, and drain the rest off. Chop the heart and tripe into sections about 2 inches across, and pulse in a food processor until both reach a consistency similar to oatmeal. The meat should have texture – it should not be smooth like pate. Place the chopped meat in a large bowl. 4. Using a food processor grater attachment (or a hand grater), grate the liver and add it to the other offal. 5. Chop the onions finely using a knife, or grate them with a food processor grater attachment if you have one. Add the onions to the offal mixture. 6. Spread the oatmeal on a baking sheet and toast it in 350-degree oven for 5 minutes. Add the oatmeal to the already-mixed ingredients. 7. Add the spices and suet to the offal, onions, and oatmeal, and mix well. 8. Bring a very large pot of water to a boil. 9. Drain the bung and pat it dry, and begin stuffing it using your hands. Push the stuffing down to the bottom of the casing and pack it tight enough to push out air bubbles – but don’t force it. Fill the casing halfway. Press the air out of the empty half and tie it shut using butcher’s string. Then push the filling up into the empty half, so it is evenly distributed along the length of the casing. 10. Gently lower the haggis into the boiling water. Immediately puncture it in about a dozen places, using a skewer or the tip of a narrow-bladed knife. 11. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for 2 hours. Drain the cooked haggis and let it stand for about [Here the text breaks off, for whatever arcane reason.] http://www.cookbookarchaeology.com/?p=2254

P.S. A recipe for haggis... Ingredients 1 sheep stomach 1 sheep liver 1 sheep heart 1 sheep tongue 1/2 pound suet, minced 3 medium onions, minced 1/2 pound dry oats, toasted 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon dried ground herbs Directions Rinse the stomach thoroughly and soak overnight in cold salted water. Rinse the liver, heart, and tongue. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook these parts over medium heat for 2 hours. Remove and mince. Remove any gristle or skin and discard. In a large bowl, combine the minced liver, heart, tongue, suet, onions, and toasted oats. Season with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Moisten with some of the cooking water so the mixture binds. Remove the stomach from the cold salted water and fill 2/3 with the mixture. Sew or tie the stomach closed. Use a turning fork to pierce the stomach several times. This will prevent the haggis from bursting. In a large pot of boiling water, gently place the filled stomach, being careful not to splash. Cook over high heat for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, if you serve it at all. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/haggis-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

Ah. And robokoi.

In PS, what would your H2O bill for this be?