Later On

Take a look.

I start each morning with a review of three Anki decks: one I made from the textbook we use, one is the first Spanish word list from Teach Yourself to Learn a Language, and one is of random Spanish words that I run across in reading Spanish-language newspapers, Spanish books, etc. At this point I am mostly reviewing words, though after the course ends later this month I’ll build a deck for the vocabulary in the second-semester text and start learning that.

The daily review goes fast: this morning, I whipped through 207 words in 15 minutes. Only a handful presented a problem, and those of course will show up tomorrow as well.

“A class at Hamilton College led by public policy professor P. Gary Wyckoff has analyzed the predictions of 26 prognosticators between September 2007 and December 2008.”

Quite interesting article. Best predictor in terms of accuracy: Paul Krugman. Worst: Cal Thomas.

Read it all. Via Ed Brayton.

For a brief period in the spring, starting a week or so ago locally, one can find a different sort of garlic at our Whole Foods. The central stem is wood-like, rather than the stiff, papery leaves of regular domestic garlic. The color is purple, the cloves are large, and the skin around the cloves is hard—almost like a shell—and clings tightly. I can fairly easily shake it loose if I crush the clove with the side of the knife.

Tonight I sautéed some chopped onion and coarsely minced garlic in a dab of olive oil, then added mushrooms. I continued to sauté the lot, then added salt and a few grindings of peppers. The mushrooms immediately released their liquid, and as that cooked down I added a splash of marsala and then reduced that.

Quite yummy, and I particularly noticed the garlic: a distinct flavor without being too strong, and the bits retained some crunch (and distinctive taste) even after being cooked as described. Super stuff.

Interesting case. Something to kick off the dinner-table conversation.

The effrontery of this is astounding. The GOP really does seem willing to destroy the country (by dismantling the government’s ability to protect the citizenry) if by so doing large corporations can make more money.

And, of course, the GOP is working hard to make voting difficult for groups that lean Democratic. You see, the GOP really does not like democracy: the reason the US is rapidly becoming a plutocratic oligarchy is that this is the form of government the GOP wants and believes in.

Extremely interesting post by Kevin Drum, which quotes from and links to an even more interesting article about how a victim of abuse in turn, and when opportunity presents, becomes an abuser: a tragic mechanism. What is the cause? Does the terror the victim feels later translate into feelings of power? Does the victim later replay the drama, punishing his earlier self for not sufficiently fight? It’s a strange outcome, but common.

And now we see an example on an international level. Certainly one would expect that Germany, of all nations, would understand the terrible effects and the long-term costs of the course it is enforcing, having lived through such a thing itself.

This post by Booman about the series Ezra Klein is running seemed quite interesting to me. It begins:

I think Ezra Kleinis getting some good traction with the narrative he’s been using. It’s a narrative that details flip-flops prominent Republicans (and the party itself) have made in recent years to show that policies that they used to be support (and some of which they conceived) are now being labeled as radical, socialist, and un-American.

What changed? Not a whole lot. There just happens to be a Democrat in the White House now, and the Republicans want him to fail.

This narrative has the benefit of being accurate, but, in a strange kind of way, it’s more convincing when we give the Republicans more credit for being reasonable in the recent past than they deserve. It makes their flip-flops seem more extreme and provides a starker contrast.

Here’s one example. When President Clinton was trying . . .

Continue reading.

This is via Crooks & Liars, which has a transcript (at the link):

Karoli notes:

Like other states, Minnesota is fast-tracking a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman, despite already having a gay marriage ban on the books. I suppose they fear the law being declared unconstitutional and think that adding an amendment to the constitution with the definition will somehow immunize them from that.

The only good to come from this effort was the speech on the video above. Steve Simon, speaking in a measured, reasonable tone, made a wonderful argument for gay marriage by turning the argument against it right back around on the bill’s proponents by arguing that if their sexuality is a gift from God, as clergy argues, then how many times does God have to bestow the gift of gay on someone before the rest of us get a clue? Between his delivery and his argument, it was magnificent.

The issue is the debt load and the potential return—as well as the incredibly escalating costs. Worth reading.

Extremely smooth shave today. I found that I was not using my travel brushes often enough—particularly this Mühle, quite a nice brush in itself—so I picked the Mühle today and am glad I did: it’s a very fine brush and (IMHO) perfect for travel and much better for travel than the Simpson Major.

The Mühle also holds plenty of lather, so I had no hesitation in using it with a shave stick, Irisch Moos today. A very nice lather—Irisch Moos is good stuff—and then three smooth passes with the Merkur HD, a fine razor holding, in this case, a Swedish Gillette blade. A splash of the Irisch Moos aftershave, and I’m ready to continue getting well. (I’ve already taken the morning Zicam, and I can feel the cold still advancing slowly. More soup today.)

The man packs a lot of stupidity into one head. Read this one.

He’s ba-a-a-a-ck! And it actually looks sort of cool. Read here.

Via this Ed Brayton post, a good review and discussion of the various types of Originalism regarding the US Constitution.

As Ed Brayton says, the clips from the campaign look pretty good for Obama, not so good for McCain.

I follow the blog Eat Like A Girl, which has continually improved and expanded. The writer is currently in Barcelona, and the posts make my mouth water.

I’ve got to make this. The sauce ingredients:

1 cup yogurt, preferably whole-milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small pinch cayenne
1 shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or more to taste

The fish is cooked slowly in butter.

TYD sent me a link to an extremely interesting interview. The interviewer wanted to know how the recent disastrous weather was related to climate change, and he talks with an expert meterologist. Well worth reading. At the link is a transcript of the interview and a video clip of the levee being blown up in Missouri.

Someone recently asked me how many razors I have. In the bathroom, there are currently 5 dozen razors, but only half of them are loaded with blades currently. The rest will come into rotation as others are put aside.