Ruth Bader Ginsburg suffers from convenient memory loss

She's in her mid-80s, so I guess we can forgive her for this slip. Apparently she completely forgot who started this shit. She apparently is wistfully hoping that the confirmation of Supreme Court justices can stop being so partisan:

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Thursday she hoped the traditional “bipartisan spirit” of congressional hearings for judges will once again prevail in Washington, rather than the votes of recent years that have mostly divided along party lines.

She apparently is not old enough, at 85, to remember when this shit started. They even call it getting Borked. Ted Kennedy had his speech written before Robert Bork was nominated. The speech was going forward regardless of who the nominee was. One of the most qualified jurists in the land got rejected as a result. Guess what Democrats did this time with respect to Brett Kavanaugh? Yeah, you only get three, and the first two guesses don't count:

Ruth needs to pay more attention to what her party is up to. But I don't expect that to happen.

Corey Booker wants you to love everybody, except the people he wants you to hate

Yeah, guess who those people are:




Fuck him. I hope he gets the nomination.

Oh, dear Lord, I beg you -- stop her

Apparently it's too late. Yoko Ono is releasing a new album. Fortunately, she didn't write any new songs for this. She is releasing remakes of the same shit she's recorded since 1970. I'm not sure that's much better.

The 85-year-old talentless sack of crap will also be covering "Imagine." It's a pretty song, and many John Lennon fans love it. Of course, it's a musical blow job to communism, and the millions of people killed by that political system might not like "Imagine" as much, but, fear not, this apparently won't be John's version. Yoko is covering it. Can't wait. For those of you who think Yoko might do a good job with this, keep in mind that this is what she sounds like:



This is the only track released so far:


Not clear to me why they released anything.

If this doesn't creep you out, please don't vote

The Democrats keep saying they don't want to take your guns, but they keep trying to take your guns. This is way fucking worse. They want to take your children:


I think it is helpful when they admit out loud what they actually want to do. At least then we know who the enemy is and what their objectives are.

Meet the world's biggest pussy

A 27-year-old reporter for Politico has put in his entry in the "World's Biggest Pussy" contest. He apparently did not participate in any athletics in high school. Golf, maybe. Whatever. In any event, he recently wrote a story about how he tried to do the workout that 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg does, and that it "nearly broke me:"

I’m no athlete, but I’m young and reasonably fit. I thought the workout would be pattycake, but it was much harder than I expected. Ginsburg’s personal trainer, it turns out, is no joke.

The article is not as bad as the headline, at least when it comes to making the reporter sound like a complete bowl of jello, but it isn't much better. The guy is clearly a fanboy of liberal activism on the Supreme Court and wrote the article to give hope to libtards everywhere that the oldest member of the court is in great shape because she does a workout that damn near killed a 27-year-old and thus will clearly outlive the Trump administration. Dream on, wimpoid.

When Cpl. Wolves was 27, he was leaving the Marine Corps after his deployment to Afghanistan where he walked around carrying more than 70 pounds while people shot at him. I doubt he would be impressed by an octagenarian's workout routine.

And I know exactly what he would think of a 27-year-old who had trouble completing that workout routine.

The Su-57 is so good Russia isn't going to build it

I've talked about this shit a lot. China and Russia both are trying to field a fifth-generation fighter, while we are busy fielding our second (the F-35, the follow-up to the F-22). They're failing miserably. Russia has decided that the fifth-generation fighter it's been working on for years, the Su-57, just isn't worth the money:

Russia announced earlier this month that the Su-57, its proposed entry into the world of fifth-generation stealth-fighter aircraft, would not see mass production.
"The plane has proven to be very good, including in Syria, where it confirmed its performance and combat capabilities," Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Russian TV on July 2, as reported by The Diplomat.
But despite Russia's nonstop praise for the plane and dubious claims about its abilities, Borisov said, per The Diplomat: "The Su-57 is considered to be one of the best aircrafts produced in the world. Consequently, it does not make sense to speed up work on mass-producing the fifth-generation aircraft."

Oh, I'm sorry, they said the airplane is so fucking good that it would be stupid to put it into the field. Basically, that means it sucks. I've written a lot about the SU-57 (formerly known as the PAK-50 -- just search the blog for "Russian fifth-generation fighter" for all the posts) and I've never been impressed. Apparently, the Russians aren't, either. And they should know.

Document review haiku number whatever

This project is winding down. There is a lot of work out there, but not much overtime, so I have only been applying to overtime projects. No luck so far. Is this the right approach? I feel a haiku coming on:

Projects keep posting
Am I wrong to ignore them?
Only time will tell.

Or maybe two:

Project nearing end
Should I take shitty project?
I don't fucking know.

Thanks, I'll be here all week.

Totally not astroturf opposition to Trump Supreme Court nominee

I mean, totally.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh is going into the Supreme Court confirmation process with a hail of rhetorical arrows zinging by him, including a phony letter-writing campaign aimed at unsuspecting American newspaper editors
At least 21 papers were duped last week, including big-market brands like the Dallas Morning News and The Washington Times. They ran identical letters over a four-day period, each signed by a different person.

The left can't even get real people to oppose a reasonable court choice, so they make shit up. Seriously, this is what they call grass roots opposition?

A little dessert food porn for you

Mrs. Wolves gives me recipes. I make them. Especially when they are dessert recipes. So here we are, with something called cherry clafoutis. It's French, and sounds like "clah-fu-tee." Anyway, it's more like a flan than cake, so get ready for that. Flan or cake, it's pretty fricking good.

You will need the following:

• 2 cups of fresh cherries, pitted
• 2 tablespoons of slivered almonds
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour.
• 1/8 tsp of salt
• 1 cup of milk
• 3/4 tsp of almond extract
• 1-1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• A little powdered sugar to dust the finished product

So scatter your slivered almonds all over the bottom of a greased 9x9 baking dish:

Slap those cherries all over that:

By the way, I'm not going to tell you how to pit your cherries. There is such a thing as a cherry pitter. I don't own one, so I had to do it with a knife and my fingers. I hope you own a cherry pitter. I have to believe it is easier.

In any event, whisk the eggs, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth:

Then whisk in the flour and salt:

Toss in the milk, almond extract, and vanilla extract and mix it up right:

Pour all that shit over the almonds and cherries in your baking dish:

Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes -- I hit it for 40 minutes and it worked great - and pull that sucker out.

Let it cool, then dust with powdered sugar.

Bon appetit, bitches.

This about says it all

A document review haiku

The project I am on, which is good but not great, has been going for about two-and-a-half months. Not bad. But it's the middle of summer -- the worst time of year to have a project end in Temp Town -- and no one is sure how much longer this project has left in it. Is the swordfish sick, or strong?

Project ending soon?
Nobody knows anything.
Uncertainty kills.

Big project ramping up next week. Everyone is applying. Is that the right thing to do, if this project keeps going? Read the haiku again.

I'm sure these negotiations will turn out well

The battle between Saudi Arabia and its allies against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen is on hold, apparently. The Saudi-led coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, is willing to give the United Nations a chance to prevent a bloodbath as the coalition prepares to finish taking the Yemeni port city of Hodeida from the Houthis:

"We welcome continuing efforts by UN Special Envoy, Martin Griffiths, to achieve an unconditional Houthi withdrawal from Hodeida city and port.
"We have paused our campaign to allow enough time for this option to be fully explored. We hope he will succeed," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter.
The condition for a full withdrawal by the Houthis from Saudi Arabia and its allies has led to previous peace talks to collapse, and in his comments on Sunday Gargash made clear that if this was to happen again, the UAE would continue its military campaign.

I cannot imagine why anyone would not want these people in their neighborhood:

Look at those bulging cheeks. That ain't Skoal, baby. Those bitches are chewing khat. It's a stimulant, but maybe closer to cocaine than coffee. Anyway, these guys apparently really like it, and these are the Houthis that Iran is backing. In general, anyone Iran likes, I don't. I'm sure talks will break down soon and the Saudis and company can get back to the business of kicking these guys' asses.

Could the Faroes (gasp!) pull away from Denmark?

According to one Agence France Presse story, apparently, there is strong sentiment in the Faroe Islands to become independent of Denmark after 600 years of admittedly loose Danish rule. I guess it's understandable -- the islands are nearly 700 miles northwest of the Danish capitol, Copenhagen, and since 1948 they've had their own flag and governing institutions. Of course, they have their own culture and language which long predate Danish rule.

Hey, they're Vikings, damn it, and Vikings aren't ruled, they rule! And rape, pillage, and plunder, but that kind of stuff seems to be well in the past. But these days, all Denmark controls is defense of the islands, as well as some aspects of foreign policy, monetary policy, and judicial policy. AFP is a little vague on what all that means.

Apparently, the economy in the Faroes is doing well, based mostly on tourism, fishing, and agriculture. Unemployment is close to zero. I wonder how much that has to do with damn few people living there.

Haven't seen anything on how the Danes feel about the Faroes pulling away. Maybe they don't care. Perhaps my European correspondent, who is Danish, will chime in with a post (hint, hint).

I always wonder why some old posts draw viewers

I understand when folks come by and look at a post from a couple days ago. It might be that they haven't been by lately, or ever, for that matter. What puzzles me is when random posts from several years ago draw a new view. Again, it could be a visitor here for the first time, but I still wonder what attracted them to that particular post.

For instance, today I had two posts from 2014 draw a couple new views. Both were related to the swordfish story, which compares the life of a temp project to a swordfish on a fishing line. One had great art with it, one didn't. I will never understand why someone visited those posts.

A little dessert food porn for you

Yeah, the Fourth of July calls for a new, special dessert, right? Of course it does. So get ready, people, because this will rock your world.

First, you will need to gather the ingredients. You'll need a stick of butter, an egg, some cinnamon, a cup of milk, 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, a cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a cup of sliced strawberries, and a cup of sliced peaches.

Melt a stick of butter with a teaspoon or so of cinnamon. Pour that stuff into a 13x9 baking dish.

 Put the egg, milk, flour, wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl, and mix it up right.

Like that.

Pour the flour mix into the baking dish you already poured the melted butter into.

Slice one cup of strawberries and one cup of peaches (peel the peaches, just like you would a potato) and layer those on top of the dough (batter?).

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 or until golden brown, much like the picture above, as this particular cobbler is perfectly done and tasted magnificent. Bon appetit.

Biscuits, baby. Serious biscuits

Mrs. Wolves is a big fan of "Fixer-Upper." Consequently, when some magazine did a profile of the couple that did the show -- Chip and Joanna Gaines -- she bought the magazine. She never does that. Anyway, on one episode, Jo Gaines made buttermilk biscuits, and Mrs. Wolves really wanted that recipe. It appeared in the magazine story, so I was told to make it. These are the kind of directives that you ignore at your peril. Just a word of warning for recently married men out there seeking the secret to a happy marriage. It is: shut the fuck up and do what she wants. Learn to enjoy it if you can.

Having resolved countless marital disputes with nine simple words, we move now to the recipe. You will assemble these ingredients:

 OK, so for those of you who are more verbal than visual, that is 4 cups of self-rising flour (yes, I used all-purpose. Sue me), 2 tablespoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 3 sticks of cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, 3 eggs, and 1-1/2 cups of buttermilk. Yes, I only showed two eggs. Like the p in "pseudo," the third egg is silent. Trust me, you'll need it.

 So cut up the butter.

Put the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl and mix it up. Add the butter, and cut it into the flour with a pastry blender. Everybody has one, right? Use two knives if you don't.

Add the buttermilk:

And the two beaten eggs:

Mix that with a wooden spoon until it looks like its ready. Refrigerate it, preferably overnight, but for at least 30 minutes. Yeah, forgot to take a picture of that stage.

No matter how long you refrigerated the batter, get a tablespoon of butter and your third egg. Melt the butter, and beat that third egg like it is that asshole who constantly ragged on you in high school. Beat the motherfucker to death. Make it wish it had never been born. OK, it's an egg. It hasn't been born. But you get the picture. Then mix the cooled but still liquid butter into the beaten egg. Keep that shit ready.

 Meanwhile, get the batter (or is it dough? fuck if I know) out of the refrigerator and put it on a floured cutting board. Flour your hands and spread it out into a circle of dough (or batter) about a half-inch thick. Use a circular cookie cutter (2-3/4 inch) and cut out the biscuits. You should get 20, although you probably will have to roll the dough (batter?) out a couple times.

Put some parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Put your biscuits on the cookie sheet.

Brush your biscuits with the egg-butter mixture.

Bake your biscuits at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius -- if you're in a Celsius country, do the conversion. I can't because I was told there would be no math involved.) for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Eat them now, dammit. So good.

Happy Independence Day

These guys let you celebrate it, as do all the members of the other branches of the military. Keep that in mind.


Enjoy your fireworks tonight.

Been busy in the kitchen lately

Yeah, took a break from food porn for a while. Actually, I took a break from pretty much all blogging for a while. But I'm back, damn it. Although I despise New York, so I am not "Back in the New York Groove:"

Certainly not the worst song that came out of the four Kiss solo albums. Anyway, I'm back in some sort of groove, just not a New York one. So on with the food porn.

Search your kitchen or grocery store and come up with a couple pounds of chicken thighs, 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of potatoes, about 6 half ears of corn, 5 or 6 medium carrots, a pound of green beans and a cup of barbecue sauce. Get your shit together. I'll wait.

Once you have these things, slather the inside of your crock pot with nonstick cooking spray. You can spray it on the outside, but I don't see that helping things much, and you'll probably drop your crock pot when you pick it up. Is crockpot one word? Never mind.

Having greased up your crock pot/crockpot, you will put the ingredients into the crock pot thusly:

Potatoes on the bottom.

Corn, beans, and carrots on top of that.

Chicken on top of that, and sauce that bad boy up. I make my own sauce, but you can use Sweet Baby Ray's or something until you, too, achieve badass status. Is bad ass one word? I digress.

Cook that sucker on low in your crock pot/crockpot for 5-8 hours. Six is probably a good guess, but check on it. It's ready when the chicken is done. Cooking longer won't hurt anything, so if you cook it eight hours, it's ready then, too.

Bon appetit.

More farm stuff

Almost forgot to post these photos. The okra is coming in well:

The peppers could be stronger, but I blame the weather so far:

Second crop of beans looks good:

Carrots are coming along well. Thought I had a picture, but maybe next week.

So, I made it to The Farm this weekend

Operations at The Farm are much more limited this year because of the copious amounts of rain we had in March and April, as well as in the first half of May. No potatoes, no onions. Barely got the peas in, and they did not do well because rain kept me from putting up a trellis. Finally, we are getting consistent sunshine, though. The tomatoes are doing well. Other crops also are coming along nicely. For instance:

The beans are doing well. This is the first crop, which I harvested on Saturday:

It should keep producing for a few weeks. I put in a third crop Saturday, and the second crop is coming along well. Meanwhile, the chard continues to produce:

Kale is going gangbusters, although I think the heat will kill this off soon:

 
 One of the side effects of the poor weather early in the spring was that I was not able to prepare beds for squash and zucchini, among other plants. Couldn't till the ground. Anyway, two weeks ago I planted two squash and two zucchini plants in the old bed, without tilling. Saturday, I had to make things right. There these plants were, in the middle of a bunch of grass:

I had to dig out an area of dirt around the plants then fill in with topsoil:

Looks good, actually:

Anyway, we might be on a more normal course at this point. We have okra, carrots, more beans, and tomatoes in. We also have more room for other crops, so we'll see what we put in the ground in coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Dear God, I love blue-on-blue violence

Rep.Maxine Waters, D-Cal., is in a stiff competition with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., for the title of the dumbest member of Congress. Of course, it took the retirement of former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., for years regarded as one of the stupidest members of Congress, for those two to even enter the conversation. And, to be fair, that list was compiled by Mother Jones magazine, which as a liberal publication felt compelled to put four Republicans in front of Boxer. Even lib publications like this one and Politico, hardly a right-wing blog, put Boxer right up there as the dumbest member of Congress. Alas, she retired. Is Maxine ready to take on the title? I think maybe:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Sunday she was surprised to see Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) criticize her for advocating to publicly confront Trump Cabinet officials, but noted that political leaders "will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership.”
“You know, I was surprised at Chuck Schumer, you know reached into the other house to do that,” Waters said when asked by MSNBC host Joy Reid if she was surprised to see leaders in her own party criticizing her. “I’ve not quite seen that done before. But one of the things I recognize, being an elected official, is in the final analysis, you know, leadership will do anything that they think is necessary to protect their leadership.”
Waters' statement on Sunday comes about a week after she called for protestors to confront members of President Trump's administration over his "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

Not only is Maxine dumb enough to publicly call for people to openly harass anyone who supports the president, she is dumb enough to turn on her party leaders when they suggest she might be a moron for advocating that course of action. Hope they keep it up.

I think this sums up modern life nicely

Sure, it's from a satire site, but you would have no trouble believing this if you didn't know it was made up:

AUBURN, CA—Local 36-year-old man Nate Ripley, who identifies as a six-year-old, “absolutely crushed” a game-winning homer at a local tee-ball game and won the championship for his team Monday evening, reports confirmed.
Ripley reportedly walked up to the plate in the bottom of the 6th, pointed his bat toward the left-field wall looming 130 feet in the distance, and let her rip, sending the ball rocketing over the fence and into a parking lot as the fans cheered and his coach yelled out, “Attaboy, Nate! Good job, bud!”

His team, the Lil’ Padres, attempted to hoist him up on their shoulders in celebration of their great victory over the favored Tiny Tigers, but were unable to pick up the large 230-pound man.

Seems like this is where we're headed.