Still working on the new site for myself, and on huge site changeover at work. Both are moving forward, but I’m a little short on sleep lately.

I saw a great story on Drudge yesterday. A 76 year old woman on her way to visit her mother, gets attacked by a 17 year old, and fights her off. You can’t make this stuff up.

This website is under construction. It is the future home of High Desert Wanderer, who currently resides at http://hd-wanderer.blogspot.com. Link removed since the old site doesn’t exist anymore.

“Gun law is misstated for juries” In California no less. That bastion of Second amendment freedom is in hot water because they were misstating the law to further punish criminals. Moronic. They’re quick to jump all over someone for violations of freedom of speech. As long as you’re not Christian they’ll defend your freedom of religion to the death. Second Amendment… Anyone who does or has owned a firearm is presumed guilty of something until such time as they confess to said crime.

“The appeals court said the faulty jury instruction allowed the prosecutor to argue that Pitto’s purpose was irrelevant and that the gun’s presence meant that he was armed during the commission of the drug crimes.”

Makes me thankful I don’t live there.

Mike at Cold Fury has a great post on of all things cast iron skillets. If you like to cook, (or eat) it’s a great read.

I Got Mad Skill(et)z…
As I commented at Cold Fury: “Nothing beats good cast iron cookware. Most people would be amazed at what can be cooked in them. I know a couple of old outfitters who can do some serious baking with a dutch oven and a good bed of coals. Cake, bread, pineapple upside down cake, just about anything.

My wife bakes cornbread in one of our skillets. I don’t know the recipe off the top of my head, but you pre-heat the skillet, let the butter melt in the pan, mix the dry into the melted butter and bake. Everything goes right into the hot skillet, no extra pans or bowls needed. Works great, tastes great, and it’s easy to clean up. Hard to beat that.

Did you know that one of Maytag’s first electric washing machines had a cast iron body? The significant part is, it also had a cast iron lid. About twenty four inches square with a half inch rounded lip. If you can find one in a junk yard, they make an excellent frying pan for camping. Because they have no handle they take up virtually no space, though they are heavy. Works great in a horses pack box.” Slightly editted from comments.

I really like Mike’s comments about

“…the satisfaction that comes with knowing you’ve accomplished something that takes a little bit of patience and know how, but which produces better quality results in the end. Skillets aren’t fancy, they aren’t splashy, and they aren’t more convenient than other pans, but they have their own intrinsic merits in the same way a piece of Stickley furniture does. They were purpose built, engineered to work the right way, time and effort be damned, and they produce a very good result, if you have what it takes to use them correctly.”

Zell Miller has a nice piece at the Atlantic Journal Constitution. Never having wandered much in Mr. Millers territory, I’m not as familiar with him as I probably should be. He has a clearer view of this situation than most.

No one seems to care that our intelligence agency has crippled our president. Certainly not the media. They are determined to make Wilson a hero. Recall the dozens of times the Washington Post and The New York Times carried his lies on the front page, above the fold. The conclusive story discrediting Wilson was buried 6 feet deep, back by the obituaries.

The Valerie Plame case has been a sore spot with me for a while. I have a strong distaste for anyone who uses the system to further their own ends. I’ve had the feeling since the beginning of this scandal that Joe Wilson was doing just that. The way he was being given a pass by the media only strengthened my suspicions. Mr. Miller sums the medias actions well.

A generation ago (maybe two) the press would have been all over this. They sought the truth. Now they seek something else. When did they change from reporting the news, to making the news. From writing the story, to being the story. They, in their own way, are doing the same thing as Mr. Wilson. Manipulating the system to put out their own message, while trying to keep the truth from being evident.

What is it that makes people think it is acceptable to criticize others, but not allow criticism. Mr. Wilson, with the media’s help, has been doing this since the beginning of this. Whenever his accusations or his motives are challenged, he makes accusations of his own. I’m not saying some people in the White House are without blame here, but Joe Wilson has been lying, and nobody is calling him on it. How exactly to do you get a FREE MEDIA PASSCARD? I’d like to be able to say anything I want without somebody pointing out my errors. While President Bush gets criticism for his choice of fast food, Joe Wilson can make public statements which have no basis in fact, or are completely misleading without danger of public criticism. (Gateway Pundit and others have documented his inconsistencies extensively.)

Why aren’t we hearing more about Zell Miller’s writing?

To the media, it doesn’t matter that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says Wilson lied about what he did and with whom he met while investigating Iraqi attempts to purchase “yellowcake” uranium.

To the media, it doesn’t matter that the CIA says what Wilson did actually find supported that Iraq was attempting to buy the uranium — a direct contradiction to Wilson’s public claims.

To the media, it doesn’t matter that he claimed the vice president assigned him to the uranium investigation when we all know now it was his wife.

Where are the real reporters? Would Edward R. Murrow have given this treatment to Wilson? I think not.

Virginia Tech versus Miami was probably the worst football game I’ve watched since attending WSU. WSU was so bad in the late 80s and early 90s that I stopped watching football for almost fifteen years. Oh they had their stars like Bledsoe, and their moments of brilliance, but they also had a habit of choking in the fourth quarter and throwing away the game. I’ve never been particularly attached to a team, but I like to watch a good game. Win or lose teams I watch have to play well. I got sucked into watching football again by reports of how well VT was playing. I watched most of their game this year, and I was starting to get into the spirit of things. It was nice being a fan again. And then Tech played Miami…

That was one of the most pathetic excuses for a football team I’ve seen. Vick was horrible. He almost single handedly gave away the game.

Miami won by shutting down Tech’s offense. Vick suffered his worst game as a collegian, throwing two interceptions and fumbling four times. In all, Tech’s turnovers led to 17 Miami points.

Vick, who completed just 8-of-22 for 90 yards, fumbled on the Hokies’ first three possessions of the second half and threw an interception on the fourth. Miami scored off Vick’s first fumble of the half on a 9-yard pass from quarterback Kyle Wright to receiver Darnell Jenkins to take a 20-0 lead.
Hokiesports.com

While his fans will point out that not all or his SIX turnovers led to Miami scoring, that’s not the point. Nothing sucks the life out of a team like their quarterback taking a dive. Every time VT got moving Vick gave up the ball. He should have been pulled out of the game in the second quarter. Do your job or sit on the bench. And a coach shouldn’t watch a QB flounder through four quarters without acting. Give them the benefit of the doubt, sure, but six turnovers? It will likely be at least fifteen years before I watch football again.

If I ever write a book, I hope the review sounds better than this.

“But tedious isn’t quite the right word here, because it suggests mere boredom while Mr. Carter’s prose manages to be irritating as well. Is there an English-language equivalent to the German Rechthaberei, which loosely translates as the state of thinking and behaving as if you’re in the right and everyone else is in the wrong? Yet even such a term doesn’t quite capture the sanctimony, the self-congratulation, the humorlessness, the convenient factual omissions and the passive-aggressive quirks that characterize our 39th president’s aggressively passive world view. Mr. Carter is sui generis. He deserves his own word.”

I haven’t had the opportunity to ready extensively about the new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito yet, but at first glance he seems good. Jonathan Adler’s description seems quite apt…

In short, his record is neither that of a “pro-life” or “pro-choice” judge, but of a “pro-law” judge.

While some Democrats are of course throwing fits, but he doesn’t seem far enough to the right to justify the noise. The New York Times has an odd article against Mr. Alito. While the major theme of the article is against him, this paragraph was stuck in the middle.

Judge Alito is clearly a smart and experienced jurist, with 15 years on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The nominee should be given a serious hearing. The need for a close and careful review of Judge Alito’s record is all the more crucial because he will be replacing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has been the swing vote of moderation on so many issues.

Only the Times would describe a judicial nominee they dislike as “clearly a smart and experienced jurist” What would they say if they liked him?