Personality Disorder has been the scapegoat discharge for some time now. This discharge robs soldiers of benefits, help, and a future life in certain occupations. The military has turned their back on soldiers and just to save a few bucks, the military doctors are ruining the future for over 24,000 soldiers. And now they are trying to do the same thing to me. THIS must stop!

Because GWPDA was looking for a pickled onion recipe.  Read more 

[Note from Shystee: the following appears to be either very exotic blogspam OR some sort of desperate appeal for women’s liberation from Iran.  Read more 

The Right-wing pundits sure know how to pour gas onto their own funeral pyre:

Of course, the big difference is that the Democrats don’t have a Ronald Reagan to take advantage of the situation. Nobody will ever confuse Hilliary’s (sic) shrill denunciations with the twinkle in the Gipper’s eye when he zinged an opponent. Nor will anyone fail to see the difference between the inspirational yet empty platitudes of Obama with Reagan’s soaring rhetoric that touched something so American in people’s souls.  Read more 

Popcorn is one of the essential elements of Constitutional restoration, consumed in vast quantities by those who abjure Cheetos as they would the Devil in an earlier time. But like anything else, you gotta watch yer ass in an day when corporatism owns the food chain:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Labor Department on Tuesday said it was increasing inspections to address potential health hazards to workers at plants that make microwave popcorn with butter flavorings that contain diacetyl.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s program will call for more inspections in places that make butter-flavor popcorn, a spokeswoman for the department said. Diacetyl is an artificial flavoring.

Nobody is saying you have to give up your microwave and go back to Jiffy-Pop (anybody remember that?) or finding one of those metal baskets used to pop it over an open fire. This one is easy—use non-flavored popcorn and add yer own butter!  Read more 

Meme of the day: Bush as Loser.  Read more 

What’s your favorite homemade dish, and how do you make it?

GWBushCo loves him some torture. Acccording to ABC News, though, the military is now prohibited from:

—Interrogators may not force a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner.

—They cannot use hoods or place sacks over a detainee’s head or use duct tape over his eyes.  Read more 

Been reading Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert’s book, “Barbecue, Biscuits and Beans.”

What are you folks eating?

Something, I hope, non-corporate. Farmers’ markets in your ’hoods?

Malkin says:

Why publish maps and specific street names and photographs of the private (not anymore) homes where the Vice President and Defense Secretary and their families spend their vacations?

Why?

Because blabbermouth Bill Keller feels like it, right? (Interesting timing, no?)

Because the “people” (you know: Code Pink, Fred Phelps, jihadis) have a “right to know,” right?  Read more 

While researching for a blog post I was going to write, I came across this:

Curtis Salgado, the singer and bluesman who was the visual inspiration for John Belushi’s Blues Brothers act, has liver cancer and has suspended concerts.  Read more 

From an Atrios comment thread. Usually I stash these things in a mail which I then either store as draft (I have circa 27 brazillion drafts by now) or mail it to myself, but Outloot is behaving badly, as is not unusual. So I will hide this here in plain sight. Don’t tell SHG, who posted it originally….  Read more 

Sometimes I do things just to fuck with people looking things up on search engines. I am evil that way.

VANILLA ICE

2 pints milk
8 oz. cream
small piece vanilla bean
12 oz. sugar

Two pints of milk, eight ounces of cream, four grains of vanilla, twelve ounces of sugar, split the vanilla [bean], and cut it into small pieces; beat it with a little sugar in a marble mortar till it becomes powdered;  Read more 

The sort of thing I’ve been working on the last few days, since a certain database got goofed up and we have to rescue the escaping contents and stash them safely on new pages before they drift off to sea and are lost:  Read more 

For the last 7 days, the 2nd-3rd most e-mailed story in the NYTimes has been about macaroni and cheese. Not only macaroni and cheese, but cats, as well. Do you need any further evidence that our nation’s people are paralyzed by the deepest clinical depression since 1932? I cried at Brokeback Mountain, I freaked over Terry Gilliam’s dispatch of an adorable kitten in The Brothers Grimm, yet I sit here hardly lifting a finger as my country goes down the tubes and we skate ever closer to genuine facism. I am Exhibit 1 for the case for public depression.

So as long as we’re going to be depressed, let’s wallow in it. Below is the recipe I got for mac and cheese from a former co-worker. It is better than the NYTimes recipes for mac and cheese. It is better than any mac and cheese I’ve ever had, and may well be a tantric meditation leading to one’s final entry into heaven when eaten.

(BTW, the “Out of Iraq” event went rather well, and we hope to do more and similar events in the future. Thanks to those who came or spread the word. Stay tuned.)

• 2 blocks each of Kraft sharp, extra sharp, and mild cheddars, shredded
• Big box of Velveeta
• 4 eggs
• 3 cans evaporated milk and a little whole milk
• 3 1/2 one-pound boxes of elbow macaroni
• Salt to taste
• Breadcrumbs if desired

In saucepan combine canned milk with Velveeta. Stir till melted, add salt.

Cook macaroni.
In large pot or dish, combine macaroni, shredded cheese, and cheese sauce.

Add eggs.

Put in casserole, top with shredded cheese and breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees about 1 1/2 hours.

This should feed 40. If you have any left over, give me a call.

So we went to the relatives’ yesterday and ate omnivorously and so what are we doing today? Making another whole dinner of basically the same stuff because eating at the Relatives (1) does not generate leftovers and (2) does not fill the house with Cooking Smells. These are important.

UPDATE 1 posted 45 minutes in.

UPDATE 2 posted…way later: The Meal, The Pie: The Epilogue  Read more