Steyn re Teddy: whip of the week

You can’t make an omelette without breaking chicks, right?

Consumer Reports narcs on shower head

In the words of the old labor song, “Whose side are you on?”

In its latest issue (Oct. 2009, released this past Friday), Consumer Reports states that the British-made Hudson Reed Theme Thermostatic Shower Panel had a forceful spray that “seemed too good to be true—or legal.”  Environmental Protection Agency regulations limit shower head water flow to no more than 2.5 gallons per minute.  Consumer Reports acknowledges that many shower fixtures get around this rule by using several shower heads, but the magazine decided to report the new single-head fixture to authorities, anyway.  (In its words, “We’ve contacted EPA….”)

Consider this a review of a consumer support publication that has gone badly awry, and act accordingly.

Last Mass at St. Procop

They’ve closed the old Czech parish… and Bishop Lennon, the hatchet man himself, was there to celebrate Mass. I don’t know what to think of that. They didn’t have a priest there. It was good of him to man up, put himself on the spot and take responsibility. But in another sense it was just rubbing salt in the wounds. And all the security was a little distasteful.

This is telling:

A choir, accompanied by organ, trumpets, guitars and drums, filled the majestic Byzantine Romanesque structure, rich in sacred art, stained-glass windows and glorious ceiling medallions. The old church, with paint peeling from its walls and ceiling, hadn’t seen such liveliness in decades.

With that lineup, you can bet they weren’t doing Palestrina. The incongruence between the building and the music is pretty stunning.

We need a Godwin’s Law for 9/11

mattizcoop It feels a bit like 9/11 on Martha’s Vineyard. End-of-summer weather is achingly beautiful but the mood is melancholy because of Teddy

Yes, Teddy Kennedy being dead feels like watching the towers crumbling over and over again. It feels like being stuck on a bus in Public Square because TPTB are afraid to run the Rapid underneath Terminal Tower, even though the parking spot is within fry distance of any jet hitting Terminal Tower. Ted dead is like being able to get no info through the Internet because everyone in the country is doing the same thing. It’s like living near an airport and not hearing any planes for 3 days, then freaking when you finally do. It’s like worrying about NYC friends. And that’s just how it was for somebody safe in the Flyover.

If Kennedy dying really were like 9/11, it would have been sudden. And his Senate seat would be empty for years.

I don’t know who Matt Cooper is — besides a dickwad — but Kathryn Jean Lopez seems to assume I know.

No. Hell no. Non serviam.

The NEA is being co-opted as a means of creating pro-Obama-program propaganda:

I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!”

The people running the conference call and rallying the group to get active on these issues were Yosi Sergant, the Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons.

We were encouraged to bring the same sense of enthusiasm to these “focus areas” as we had brought to Obama’s presidential campaign, and we were encouraged to create art and art initiatives that brought awareness to these issues. Throughout the conversation, we were reminded of our ability as artists and art professionals to “shape the lives” of those around us. The now famous Obama “Hope” poster, created by artist Shepard Fairey and promoted by many of those on the phone call, and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” song and music video were presented as shining examples of our group’s clear role in the election.

Obama has a strong arts agenda, we were told, and has been very supportive of both using and supporting the arts in creative ways to talk about the issues facing the country. We were “selected for a reason,” they told us. We had played a key role in the election and now Obama was putting out the call of service to help create change. We knew “how to make a stink,” and were encouraged to do so.

If a former Obamabot can see just what bad boogly this is for the arts community in general and the NEA in specific, what more can I say, except this:

If they want politicized art, I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to “help create change”. If art should “bring awareness to issues”, well hell, I can do that. I’m enough of an old folkie to remember what part music had in the 60s Communization of the culture. And I’ve read of the old Popular Front composers of the 30s, Uncle Aaron and his Socialist Realism. We can do that, just like we can do Alinsky.

And the first change, before anything else, should be to abolish the NEA.

Ace says:

As a commenter points out, artists are overwhelmingly leftists and do 99% of Thy Master’s Bidding anyway. And yet they apparently feel they must organize the effort and have the NEA — the country’s largest funder of art — slip out the word that all efforts in this area would be much appreciated.

Did you know that there are now 150 tracks in the iTunes Store with “Obama” in the title?

UPDATE 9/2: Apparently Yosi Sergant is a lying POS. And whazzup with that name anyway? Did his mom ask for baby-naming advice from Ayn Rand?

YIPPEEEEE!!!!!

That was my response when my wife told me the news. No, I’m not either going to Hell. Why not celebrate the kindness of death to a suffering Christian?

I believe in a God who can forgive all sin…drunkenness, manslaughter, advocacy of covetousness and baby-killing, theft. And by all public appearances, Edward Kennedy believed in that same God, so we must assume he has his place in Heaven. As the prey of the “Lion of the Senate” (thanks, Rush!), I might have an unholy personal desire to see Teddy burn in Hell, but I can forgive.  I believe that, when the aeons roll on and Teddy finally leaves Purgatory, he’ll be greeted at the Pearly Gates by Mary Jo Kopechne. To watch that encounter would almost be worth the price of admission.

And for all those who might find this snark a little tepid, Beck delivers a proper eulogy.

UPDATE:  Memories of Teddy in his prime.

Madoff in the sweat lodge

Meanwhile, a bare-chested Bernie has been killing time at the prison participating in Native American religious purification ceremonies held at an on-grounds “sweat lodge,” other sources said.

He accepted invitations from Native American inmates to join them at their weekly prayer services. The ceremonies involve praying, using heated rocks to induce sweat and smoking from a ceremonial pipe.

He’s probably purifying his allegedly-cancerous body rather than his soul. He’s also buddying up (but not THAT way, we’re told) with the gay prisoners.

I’m not crying because he won’t be here long. I’m crying because he won’t be here long enough.

Bedwetter travel writer: don’t let the door to Arizona hit you on the way out

Arthur Frommer (the name means “pious” in German) has decided that the state of Arizona is just too nasty and dangerous to enter, because the people there are allowed to carry guns in public, oh the horror! You’d think he could deal with it, given that Uncle Sam himself trained Frommer in their use. But that was pre-AR15, and he doesn’t seem to have realized that the civilian-use version is not auto-fire and thus not in any accurate sense an “assault rifle”. And those civilians were carrying somewhat in proximity to Frommer’s Lord, which only compounds the horror.

“I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a travel boycott by others of the state of Arizona,” he says, thus advocating a boycott while giving himself plausible deniability. Well, “I am not yet certain whether I would advocate a boycott of certain travel writers.” But if Frommer actually thinks that AZ is more dangerous than NYC (where he has lived, and perhaps lives now), one has to question the accuracy of any information on personal safety that he would give to a traveller. And Arizona is, I’m sure, better off without anyone who would follow his advice.

Lisa Rainsong and the bugs

Today the Plain Dealer online version has a wonderful piece on my dear friend Lisa Rainsong (one of Ohio’s better composers) and her new project studying insect music. There’s a nice little video where she explains it all, far better than I ever could.

Lisa’s also an avid birder, carbon-sucking Earth-destroyer that she is.

Trader Joe’s: cheese and beer

I went off to Trader Joe’s Thurs. night, having recently discovered there was one in the area. If Whole Foods is the Giant Eagle/Heinen’s of natural food, then Trader Joe’s is the Aldi/Save-a-lot. They’d probably be insulted by this, but it’s an accurate comparison: smaller stores, no ready-to-eat food, a big reliance on store brands, and low prices. Whole Foods is fun to go to, but they kind of lost my respect when I saw the varietal chicken eggs; sorry, I’ve raised a number of breeds of chicken, and there’s no discernible difference in taste between Rhode Island Reds, Araucanas, and Leghorns, and it isn’t really nice to fleece the city slickers who don’t know better, at 3/$1 (i.e., $4/doz). (To be fair, there’s a “brown egg mystique” out there too; brown eggs aren’t ipso facto better, it’s just that brown egg breeds are more likely to be ranged, and that definitely makes a difference in the product.)

Here’s what I love about TJ’s:

1. Cheese! They have a selection of raw milk cheeses for under $10/lb. Yes, WF has wonderful cheese too, but it’s a lot spendier. I’ve just had the Swiss Emmenthaler @8.99, and it’s wonderful. I also bought NY extra-sharp cheddar@5.99 and their regular cheddar @5.29. IIRC, that’s even lower than the lowest price I’ve seen for Heini’s raw milk cheddar. Yes, I wish they were Aldi cheese prices, but I’m willing to pay a little more for raw milk.

2, Booze! TJ’s became famous for Charles Wood wine, aka “Two-buck Chuck”. It’s $3.69 now. I bought some Shiraz, and a slightly more expensive ($4.29?) J.W. Morris Riesling

But TJs also does a whole run of craft/import beer knockoffs. I just finished a Simpler Times lager. This is an excellent, full-bodied beer. I’m reminded of what the old Frankenmuth Brewery used to say about their beer: “Pour it in a glass with 2 ice cubes, let the ice cubes melt, and it tastes just like Coors.” Except it doesn’t. there’s a hint of aged hops, sort of like the revival POC (alas, now defunct) but not as strong. It’s very drinkable but at 6.2% alcohol, you won’t want to overdo. $3.99/6 cans. $4.99/6 bottles…sipping beer at lawnmower beer prices. Buy! Buy! Buy!

They also have a generic lawnmower beer which I haven’t tried yet.

Black Toad is a “dark ale”…pretty much a porter, really. Not too hoppy, a creamy finish.

Trader Jose Light and Dark are their Mexican beers (made in Mexico). The dark is supposed to be a Negro Modelo knockoff, per the store advertising. Er, not quite. It’s too brash and fizzy to be a Negro Modelo. Not a bad drink, and would go well with Mexican food, just not Negro Modelo.

I have the Stockyard oatmeal stout and the Vienna lager yet to try…but 3 beers in a day is about my limit, lightweight that I am.

3. Other stuff. Their coffee looked interesting, and reasonably priced, but not competitive with the Aldi Beaumont French Roast I’ve been drinking. I’ll try it someday. The Euro-style Yogurt is a quality product at $2.99, but there again, Aldi has the better deal. I’d gotten some excellent chicken-basil sausages there on an earlier visit, $3.99 IIRC. This last time, they were demo-ing seafood sausage. Tasty but quite fishy, definitely something that would not appeal to the wife, and at $5.99/lb a little spendy for sausage. In general, their cured meats looked quite interesting and competitive. Some of their breads looked quite interesting, but I’m not eating grain products these days. Also some good frozen entrees for those who do that sort of thing, including some Indian dishes.