Machine Gun Social ! ! !

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Words just plain fail me.
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Rachel Slajda | September 28, 2009, 3:44PM

S.C. adjutant general candidate Dean Allen

A candidate for state office in South Carolina drew 500 people to a fundraiser Saturday that included the giveaway of a $700 AK-47 semiautomatic rifle.

Dean Allen charged $25 a pop for his "machine-gun social," which included the giveaway, 20 rounds to shoot in a machine gun of your choice and a barbecue, held at an indoor shooting range in Greenville. Allen, a Republican, is running for adjutant general, a position that includes administering the Army and Air National Guard, among other things.

"All of our rights ... are predicated on supporting the Second Amendment. That's what makes America a free country," he said today on MSNBC. (Video after the jump.)

"I like to tell people I'm not the country club conservative," Allen told the Greenville News. "I'm the machine gun one."

A web ad for the fundraiser says the event includes 10 minutes of training, "So you don't shoot a right-wing radical by mistake."

"This event is all about celebrating our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," Allen told The Palmetto Scoop. "We are celebrating these rights in the hopes the liberals in this country never get the chance to take our Second Amendment rights away from us."

(In South Carolina, raffles are illegal, so a "free" entry for the giveaway was included with the fundraiser ticket.)

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Please re-read my post of 3 Sep 2009. The Second Amendment is the 2d Amendment for a reason! My gentle snowflakes, someone, PLEASE, help me understand these people.

"Raffles are illegal," but giving away an AK-47 is OK?

Is there something in the water in South Carolina?

And this office--for which he is running--administers "the Army and Air National Guard?"

And I thought Oklahoma was a scary place to live!

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An Offer From FOX

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This is just too-o-o-o good not to share!



So, look soon, my gentle snowflakes, for "Moments With Moammar."

My breath is bated!
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Bill Moyers Explains It All

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Want to know who is behind the "tea-baggers?"

Well, it is something called "Freedom Works."

Want to know who is behind Freedom Works?

Ah, my gentle snowflakes, watch and learn.

Medicare for All

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48 Assertions & Max Baucus

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If you have received (say from you ever-so-caring Republican/Conservative/Christian Coalition brother-in-law) that email that has 48 claims about HR 3200, FactCheck.org has put those claims through the fact checker, just for you.

Guess what? Included in the 48 claims are 26 LIES, 18 misleading statements, & 4 barely true things.

And yesterday Max Baucus delivered that bloody mess he calls a reform bill. Guaranteed payments for health insurance companies, guaranteed withholding from wages of "we, the people," extra taxes on our Form 1040's for the self-employed.

Yep, here we are ravaged, pillaged, plundered again while the insurance executives & stock holders make out like bandits.

Pheugh. (Please insert the dirty word of your choice here.)

What we really need is:

Medicare for All

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Why No Public Option?

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Mandating coverage of all, without a public option, is nothing more than a HUGE GIFT to the insurance companies.

47 million (roughly) new customers. Think about it. 47 million new customers. That's 47 million new customers to abuse, deny payment to, allow to die while waiting. That's premiums from 47 million new customers--much of it subsidized by tax payers.

Without a public option, the health insurance companies will be handed such a windfall of profits as has been heretofore unseen in this country.

The availability of health care for we the people will be no greater than it is now. The health insurance companies have been very bad players since the Clinton administration tried to force an overhaul in the early 1990's. Premiums have exploded. Payments made by them for care has diminished or vanished.

A mandate without a public option is like sending the uninsured through the mountain pass with no weapons with which to fight off the bandits (the health insurance companies, in case you don't get it). No cavalry to ride to the rescue. No ninjas to appear to save them. The bandits will make out like, well, like bandits.

Pheugh. (Please insert the dirty word of your choice here.)

Medicare for All

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Thoughts to Ponder

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I am on vacation.

So think about this: Success should not be confused with accomplishment. (Paraphrased from David Hare.)
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Riding the Rails

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Tomorrow I will be doing one of my favorite things. I am going to get on a train and ride to my destination. I love it.

The seats are huge. The leg room is very spacious. When I sit in the seat and stretch my legs A-L-L the way out in front of me and point my toes, I can almost touch the back of the seat in front of me. The seats recline and there is a leg rest that can be popped up. There is a snack car for refreshments--sandwiches, chips, ice, beverages (including alcoholic if one is old enough).

The trip/ride/time spent is also very relaxing. It decompresses me. I read. I look out the window and actually have a view. The clackety-clack of the wheels on the rails is hypnotic. The sway of the car lulls my jangled nerves. It is a very pleasant way to travel.

Yes, it is not as fast as air, but it is wa-a-a-ay cheaper. I will pay (and this is not mis-typed) $21.25 and spend a little over 4 hours on the train (about the same as driving time & no traffic to worry with). The cheapest air fare I can find is $139.10 with 1 hour flight time plus the 2 hour pre-boarding mess plus the waiting for the luggage at the destination airport. Come to think of it, sounds like the time factor is about a wash.

To board the train, I do not have to take my shoes off. I have never been body searched before getting on the train. Although I do have to show a photo ID.

TAKE THE TRAIN.

Labor Day Celebration

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OK, I am NOT going to re-invent the wheel.

Go here for the Grand Master's guidance on how to "do" pork ribs, KC ribs, baby-back ribs.




Nothing hard just time, time, time. No special equipment beyond a fire powered grill: propane, gas, charcoal, or smoker.

Don't skip the apple juice steam.

I cannot stress enough that the low, slow heat with minimal smoke is truly the key.

Remember, all things come to those who wait.

Have a good Labor Day.
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Note to the Second Amendment Right Freaks

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Don't take your guns to town hall meetings or into other political gatherings . Yes, you have the right. And, yes, it is guaranteed in the 2d Amendment to the United States Constitution as a right.

However, the Bill of Rights has an order 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. The Founding Fathers, of whom you shout such support, put it in order. And since you say they knew all that is right and proper, honor that order.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom to speak. Therefore, the right to speak takes precedent over the 2d Amendment right to bear arms. If, in fact, the Founding Fathers had intended the right to bear arms to be equal to the right to speak freely, they could easily have included it in the list of things--freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition--guaranteed in the First Amendment.

Remember that.

And, by the way, quit mis-using the quote from Thomas Jefferson, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

In the same letter to William S. Smith, a diplomatic official in London, on November 13, 1787, Jefferson stated, "founded in ignorance....The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive."

One more thing, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution states that the purpose of the Militia is to "suppress Insurrections"--not to foment them.

Honor that.
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Again with the Domesticity

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Because I can not stand even to think about "current events" right now, I give you another tasty, easy, really good thing to eat. I guess when the soul aches (and there seem to be no good outcomes on the horizon), the body needs sustenance. So, here it is. Make the body happy and maybe the soul will come along for the ride. And this will make your body happy.


Beer Braised Beef Short Ribs

Serves 2 (Easily scaled up)

2 lb Beef short ribs
¼ cp all-purpose flour
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp sea salt
¼ tsp dry ground mustard
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

• Combine flour & spices in a 1 gallon close-able, plastic bag.
• Add the ribs.
  
• Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake again. Shake some more.
  
• Set aside.

1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
1 clove garlic, minced

• Put into the crock pot.
  
• Dump the ribs on top of the onions. Arrange ribs so that the bones are to the walls of the crock pot.
  

6-7 oz good, high-point beer (Little Kings makes a 7oz bottle that works really well)
1 Tblsp tomato paste

• Stir together beer & tomato paste
  
• Pour beer mixture into crock pot around the ribs.
• Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Meat should be very, fall-off the bone, tender.

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About the last hour to hour-and-a-half, I usually throw a big handful of baby carrots or regular carrots cut into 1-1½" rounds or diagonals on top of the ribs. Sometimes I also add a zucchini sliced 1" on the deep diagonal, on top of the ribs & carrots.

Yummy, yummy.
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