Just What Did Flatten 800 Acres Of Forest In Tunguska?

Some new evidence is out. Apparently they found traces of a 160 foot deep crater close to the main impact site.

Crater Could Solve 1908 Tunguska Meteor Mystery
Dave Mosher
Staff Writer
SPACE.comTue Jun 26, 6:46 AM ET
In late June of 1908, a fireball exploded above the remote Russian forests of Tunguska, Siberia, flattening more than 800 square miles of trees. Researchers think a meteor was responsible for the devastation, but neither its fragments nor any impact craters have been discovered.

Astronomers have been left to guess whether the object was an asteroid or a comet, and figuring out what it was would allow better modeling of potential future calamities.

Italian researchers now think they've found a smoking gun: The 164-foot-deep Lake Cheko, located just 5 miles northwest of the epicenter of destruction.

"When we looked at the bottom of the lake, we measured seismic waves reflecting off of something," said Giuseppe Longo, a physicist at the University of Bologna in Italy and co-author of the study. "Nobody has found this before. We can only explain that and the shape of the lake as a low-velocity impact crater."

Should the team turn up conclusive evidence of an asteroid or comet on a later expedition, when they obtain a deeper core sample beneath the lake, remaining mysteries surrounding the Tunguska event may be solved.

The findings are detailed in this month's online version of the journal Terra Nova.

Submerged evidence

During a 1999 expedition, Longo's team didn't plan to investigate Lake Cheko as an impact crater, but rather to look for meteoroid dust in its submerged sediments. While sonar-scanning the lake's topography, they were struck by its cone-like features.

"Expeditions in the 1960s concluded the lake was not an impact crater, but their technologies were limited," Longo said. With the advent of better sonar and computer technologies, he explained, the lake took shape.

Going a step further, Longo's team dove to the bottom and took 6-foot core samples, revealing fresh mud-like sediment on top of "chaotic deposits" beneath. Still, Longo explained the samples are inconclusive of a meteorite impact.

"To really find out if this is an impact crater," Long said, "we need a core sample 10 meters (33 feet) into the bottom" in order to investigate a spot where the team detected a "reflecting" anomaly with their seismic instruments. They think this could be where the ground was compacted by an impact or where part of the meteorite itself lays: The object, if found, could be more than 30 feet in diameter and weigh almost 1,700 tons-the weight of about 42 fully-loaded semi-trailers.

Caution for now

From a UFO crash to a wandering black hole, wild (and wildly unsupported) explanations for the Tunguska event have been proposed. Alan Harris, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said the proposal by Longo's team isn't one of them.

"I was impressed by their work and I don't think it's something you can wave off," said Harris, who was not involved in the research.

Longo and his team "are among the recognized authorities on Tunguska" in the world, Harris told SPACE.com. "It would be thrilling to dig up chunks of the meteor body, if they can manage to. It would lay the question to rest whether or not Tunguska was a comet or asteroid."

Some researchers, however, are less confident in the team's conclusions.

"We know from the entry physics that the largest and most energetic objects penetratehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif deepest," said David Morrison, an astronomer with NASA's Ames Research Center. That only a fragment of the main explosion reached the ground and made a relatively small crater, without creating a larger main crater, seems contradictory to Morrison.

Harris agreed that physics could work against Longo's explanation, but did note that similar events-with impact craters-have been documented all over the world.

"In 1947, the Russian Sikhote-Alin meteorite created 100 small craters. Some were 20 meters (66 feet) across," Harris said. A site in Poland also exists, he explained, where a large meteor exploded and created a series of small lakes. "If the fragment was traveling slowly enough, there's actually a good chance (Longo's team) will unearth some meteorite material," Harris said.

Longo's team plans to return to Lake Cheko next summer, close to the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event. "This is important work because we can make better conclusions about how cosmic bodies impact the Earth, and what they're made of," Longo said. "And it could help us find ways to protect our planet from future impacts of this kind."

Bryan over at HotAir has some interesting perspective

Here’s something you didn’t know and probably won’t care about: Before starting up Hot Air with the divine Mrs. M and Allahpundit I worked for the Hubble Space Telescope project, and among my last assignments there I produced a multimedia show about the Tunguska event. As those things usually go, I had to write a script about the 1908 event, in which something big exploded over a remote region of Russia and flattened about 800 acres of woods. Over the course of writing the script I researched the event extensively. By the end of it, I had become convinced that the thing that exploded was probably a comet that grazed into the atmosphere and detonated due to friction. But it could have been a porous asteroid too. Basically, it had to be fairly large but also fairly light, since it didn’t leave a crater but did leave a very large area of obvious devastation...................As for my multimedia show, for all I know it’s still playing in museums and planeteriums around the world. And if these guys are right about the crater, I was probably wrong about what caused it. But I wrote the show loosely enough, so I should be covered. It could probably use an update though.

It will be 100 years since Tunguska next year.





We still aren't doing enough to prepare for another impact. My normal rant about this usually ends with a link to the B612 Foundation. Check them out.
Once again. When. Not If.

You have new Picture Mail!

The liquid definition of a bad decision

The Smoked BBQ Addiction Continues

This weekend's smorgasbord consists of Chipotle Tabasco Marinated Smoked Ribs, Smoked Turducken Breast, and Garlic Beer Butt Smoked BBQ Chicken.

Looks good, no?



And now I need a nap.

"It's Not The Years, Honey, It's The Mileage."

Oh man I can't WAIT! Indy is by far my favorite movie character, and Raiders of the Lost Ark is always in my top five all time favorite movies. Here's the latest news on the finale to the Indy series, currently under production..

The Man With The Hat is Back
June 21, 2007


For the first time since 1989, Harrison Ford dons the familiar costume on Thursday, June 21, 2007, as the upcoming Indiana Jones adventure begins production under the direction of Steven Spielberg. The new Indiana Jones movie is set in the 1950s and stars Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent. The Lucasfilm Ltd. production will be released by Paramount Pictures worldwide on May 22, 2008.

Victims Of Communism- Are Atheists Responsible?

We hear a lot about Islam, the so-called "Religion Of Peace", being used as the justification for many non-peaceful acts by its adherents lately. And rightfully so. There have been some horrific murders of innocent people where the murderers used the word of the prophet as justification for their actions. I think God was pretty clear about the whole "thou shall not kill" commandment if you are a Muslim, Christian or Jew. And there is no denying that Muslims and Christians have killed "in the name of God" time and time again throughout the history of their religion. I have always argued that until Islam has a reformation that marginalizes the fundamentalists the way that Christianity has, they will continue bastardizing the whole point behind their religion. And by the way, Islam means "submission to God" not "peace", just for future reference.

But what gets lost in the religion-bashing we hear today is that irreligious people have caused just as much if not more suffering throughout history.


Today, via Tim Blair I came across the following article by Robert Royal about the new Victims Of Communism Memorial that was just dedicated in Washington. Here are some excerpts-

Remembrance of Deaths Past — and Present
By Robert Royal

Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 6:13 AM

We often hear these days about the problems and misdeeds of “organized” religion. We much more rarely hear about the arrogance and downright atrocities of organized irreligion. Yet during the twentieth century, self-proclaimed scientific atheism in the form of communism killed 100 million people. As the old Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky used to say, people consider the Spanish Inquisition a blot on Christian history. And beyond doubt, it is. Yet the Inquisition killed, over three centuries—and after legal proceedings that are not ours, but were not mere show trials either—about as many as the Soviet Union killed on an average day. The high body counts of international communism were and continue to be a huge blot on the history of human rationality.

And I'll go so far as to say that the Islam has yet to catch up to what communism was responsible for today as well. As horrific as killing in the name of God is, killing in the name of "the collective" has a much higher body count.

Some have not forgotten the significance of these facts. A memorial to the Victims of Communism was dedicated in Washington on June 12. If you have not heard about this event, at which President Bush spoke, among others, it’s no surprise. It was a front-page news story in the conservative Washington Times but appeared only in the Style section of the Washington Post. The New York Times has been beside itself for years about some hundreds of U.S. detainees in Guantanamo and reports of possibly secret prisons in Europe, which may be why it had no space for remembering the tens of million who perished in the gulags, the forced famines, and the re-education camps. Of course, our self-styled paper of record once had space for reporters like Walter Duranty, a Stalin apologist, and Herbert Matthews, a fan of Fidel. It’s just possible that the Gray Lady is reluctant to revisit the cases of victims it missed earlier.

An "inconvenient truth" indeed.

To be fair, the problem does not exist only on the left. Lee and Ann Edwards, longtime conservative intellectuals and the leaders of the effort to remember communism’s victims, spent more than ten years trying to find the money to create a museum on the Washington Mall that would be the moral equivalent of the Holocaust Museum. The result: After truly heroic efforts, they raised only $1 million (the largest proportion from the Vietnamese)—or, if you do the simple math, about one cent for every life lost to an evil ideology that still controls one-fifth of the world’s population. The dinner the night of the dedication of the memorial drew several hundred people, as such events do in the capital. Still, many who should have been there were not.

Hey, not everyone has time to honor the millions of people senselessly slaughtered by "the collective". They have articles to write about the latest atrocity at Guantanomo. You know that they were out of paprika the other day down there? The HORROR!!

William F. Buckley and Sen. Scoop Jackson (posthumously) received awards for leading resistance to communism when it really mattered. Joe Lieberman and Elena Bonner, widow of the great scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, spoke eloquently of the responsibilities to defend freedom. Bonner added that the 100 million “victims” figure is actually way too low. That figure only counts the dead. Tens of millions more, who will never be counted, had their spirits crushed, their minds numbed, their bodies destroyed by communism. And yet there has been no great outpouring of support to remember an ideology that committed a singular crime against humanity—even among those who hated it.

This is what ceases to amaze me. History has proven that this ideology is a failure resulting in death and misery for those unfortunate to be a part of it. YET IT IS STILL in practice in one-fifth of the world.

This listlessness is, frankly, puzzling and worrisome. Several years ago, Tina Rosenberg, a journalist and MacArthur Fellow, remarked that fascism and communism were not really parallel cases, because communists were trying to do the right thing. Many public intellectuals during the Cold War disputed precisely this fine parsing of Marxism, which was not matched by an equally fine appreciation of democratic systems. I don’t know whether all those voices are now consumed in the struggles with Islamic fundamentalism, but, besides a few old warriors like Richard Pipes and Paul Hollander, a whole swath of our intellectual class was absent from the commemoration.

One begins to wonder if the reason for this absence is the fact that people don't want to admit that their wrong. The constant drumbeat of anti-americanism and anti-capitalism has conditioned many people to forget that the only other systems practiced on a large scale were unfathomably worse.

Most worrisome of all, though, was the absence of all but a few religious leaders. Those present were mostly from former communist nations. Ever since Voltaire’s Ecrasez l’infame, militant atheism has not just been incidentally antireligious. Martyrdom appeared once again in Europe in the French Revolution and continued, on and off, until the last days of communism on the Continent. The easy assumption that faith and secularism are really after the same things and may readily coexist, which took hold in the West in the 1960s, has always been a doubtful proposition. There are forms of secularity that are tolerant and even welcoming of religion, but the more usual form of unbelief is ideologically committed to eliminating belief. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens may never have at their diposal security forces to round up troublesome believers, but not for lack of conviction that we are “child abusers” and dangerously delusional. Their kind of reason has deeply intolerant impulses. Benedict XVI has rightly pointed out that one consequence of paying attention to modern martyrs may be “the convalescence of reason.”

As the saying goes, if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything. I don't have a problem with people lashing out against murder committed in the name of their religion, but the opposite appears to be just as bad if not worse.

Religious leaders used to be alert to threats from militant nonbelievers. But in the 1960s, many lost the scent. Indeed, quite a few of them tried to make nice with nasty communist regimes at the time they were still persecuting Jews and Christians. In recent decades, there’s been a noticeable embarrassment among many leaders about having to point out the clear violations of religious rights that continue in communist countries. It’s easy to take up, say, the cause of illegal immigrants in America, harder—in certain circles—to talk about Christians in Cuban or Chinese prisons. It may be a slight stretch, but it seems that anti-anticommunism has survived the heyday of communism itself.

That’s why the memorial to the Victims of Communism is so important. We need to remind ourselves and others of the most extensive political oppression and slaughter in human history. Until more funds are available, the Edwardses have adopted a several-phase plan. Next is a “virtual museum,” which is still not a bricks-and-mortar space where you can feel what it’s like to be surrounded by the artifacts of an evil time. But at least the virtual museum will offer serious information and exhibits. Some day we may come to our senses and discover resources to honor properly the victims and warriors in an epic battle we and allies in dozens of nations won. This is not merely a matter of historical justice: If we do not get the accounts clear about the twentieth century, we will have failed in advance to come to grips with various worrisome currents that continue in the West, largely unnoticed, into the twenty-first.

We in America do not have the perfect system. Our politicians are just as corrupt in some places as those in say China. We have a lower class that struggles to put food on the table every day, whilst the upper class throws out more every day than they could possibly eat. There are homeless people that walk by mansions as they look for a handout. Coporate fat-cats regularly strive for profits at the expense their workers, and exploit resources in horribly wasteful means. We are far from perfect as a nation.

But the reality is, there aren't any other countries of our size performing any better. For all of our faults, people still try to come to the US by the millions every year. Cuban people are willing to risk shark infested waters with dangerous currents just to get our shores so they can have the opportunities they don't have at home. The country that has to build walls to keep people out will always be preferable to the one that has to build walls to keep them in.

I think the main reason why our country succeeds is because of the fact that religion or non-religion is neither enforced nor coerced. People can worship as they see fit, and others can mock religion as they see fit. They are both welcome here and are part of the fabric of our country. I may not like the guy that feels the need to submerge a crucifix in urine to make a point, or the guy that tells me I'm going to hell because I drink, but they are both necessary to keep a balance between the two.

I feel that lately many atheists have had good reason to bash religious fundamentalists for inflicting suffering on innocent people. They need to remember that atheist "fundamentalists" have plenty of blood on their hands too.

Jessica Alba And I Have Something In Common

She wants to experiment sexually and is interested in having a one night stand with another man, in hopes that this man leaves the following morning with no questions asked and no snuggle time.

Annnnnnnd......

I want to have sex with Jessica Alba.

This is a win-win! She gets what she wants, and I get to have sex with Jessica Alba! What could be better for both of us than this?

Here is what COULD be a picture of her leaving my aparment the morning after we have a consensual, non-binding one-night stand.




Courtesy of The Sun Online..

STUNNING actress Jessica Alba says she is up for a one-night stand - as long as the man leaves the next morning. The curvy 23-year-old, who was recently romantically linked to Hollywood hunk Mark Wahlberg, likes the idea of getting intimate with lots of different people because she loves experimenting in sex. She told Cosmopolitan magazine: "I just wanted to see what it was like to be with different people. I don't think a girl's a slut if she enjoys sex. "I could have a one-night stand, and I'm the kind of girl who looks over in the morning and is like, 'Do you really have to be here?' I don't need to cuddle and do all that stuff because I know what it is and I don't try to make it more. "I feel like a lot of women try to make it into more, so they don't feel so bad about just wanting to have sex. I don't really have a problem with just wanting sex. Never have. "Even when I was a virgin and wanted to marry the first guy who I slept with, I never passed any judgments about that. But now I'm done with dating around."

I promise I won't want to snuggle the next morning. Nope. Once I wake up to that I'll be kicking her out the door foah shooah!

Beat it woman! Get out mah house!

Call me Jess! I'm in the book!

The Army of David's Just Ate Themselves

It's the same reason Ned Lamont got spanked by Joe Lieberman in the last election. It's the same reason why Christopher Hitchens completely annihilates the useful idiot Christopher Hedges in the following video (brought to you courtesy of Zombie,read here for the full breakdown of this debate -




Here's the money quote from the above video-"I ask you: You pick that kind of relativism, you'll also find you're dealing with a very surreptitious form of absolutism, which is only capable of describing as fascistic relatively comical forces (who I've denounced up- and downhill all my life in the United States), but cannot use the word totalitarianism about the religion that actually conducts jihad, actually organizes totalitarianism, actually inflicts misery, pain, unemployment, and despair upon millions of people, and then claims what it has done as the license for suicide and murder. A perfect picture [gesturing towards Chris Hedges] has been given to you of the cretinous relationship between sloppy moral relativism, half-baked religious absolutism, and the journalism that lies in between. "

The Left is eating itself.

And it just happened here in Nashville, regarding the recent dismantling of Brittney Gilbert and Nashville Is Talking.

The right simply hasn't been online long enough to do it to themselves, and I suppose it's inevitable just like any other facet of human nature.

But at this point, to borrow a phrase from Charles Johnson,

"Leftist Blogosphere Reaches Bottom, Digs.."

The 40 Year Anniversary of the Six Day War

Today is the 40th anniversary of what is known as the Six Day War, in which the Israeli people decided to eliminate the Arab military forces that had gathered around their borders in a massive pre-emptive military campaign. The initial air strike by the Israeli Air Force destroyed the majority of the Egyptian Air Force, which had been primarily supplied by Russia. Hours later, the same strikers attacked the Jordanian and Syrian air forces, as well as one airfield in Iraq. By the end of the first day, nearly the entire Egyptian and Jordanian air forces, and half the Syrians’, had been destroyed on the ground. This pre-emptive attack disabled the Arab Military forces that were on their way to erase Israel from the map. Without this attack, the Israeli Nation would not be here today.


There are two articles worth reading about this anniversary today. The first, courtesy of Little Green Footballs, is a link to the TIME coverage of he Six Day War from the day it happened. It's interesting to read the article and notice that not once in the entire article is there a mention of the Palestinians.

This is because the "Palestinians" didn't exist back then. They were Arabs that belonged to either Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon or Syria. Here is a pre-1967 map of Israel, notice that there is no Palestinian nation listed.




The TIME article is fascinating for a number of reasons, but the most stunning is the unabashed conclusion at the end of the article that seems to justify Israels actions without any consequence.

In the last analysis, though, it was the Israeli military virtues of superb tactics and timing, its professionalism in the martial arts, that turned an Arab defeat into a classic rout likely to be studied with admiration at war colleges the world over. Beyond those tangibles there looms the dedication of the Jews, forged in thousands of years of dispersions and persecutions, their inviolable determination to ensure modern Israel's survival as a nation. "Everybody fought for something that is a combination of love, belief and country," said Moshe Dayan at week's end. "If I may say so, we felt we were fighting to prevent the fall of the Third Temple."

It is hard to imagine this today, but TIME during the Six Day War supported Israels right to defend themselves.


The other article worth reading in regards to this anniversary is the following editorial from Brett Stephens in the Wall Street Journal, "No Pyrrhic Victory". It's subscription only, but I'll post the excerpts that are the most significant here.

This act of military pre-emption helped save Israel from what Iraq's then-President Abdul Rahman Aref had called, only several days earlier, "our opportunity . . . to wipe Israel off the map." Yet 40 years later Israel's victory is widely seen as a Pyrrhic one -- "a calamity for the Jewish state no less than for its neighbors," according to a recent editorial in the Economist.

And the alternative was?

The Six Day War is supposed to be the great pivot on which the modern history of the Middle East hinges, the moment the Palestinian question came into focus and Israel went from being the David to the Goliath of the conflict. It's a reading of history that has the convenience of offering a political prescription: Rewind to the status quo ante June 5, arrange a peace deal, and the problems that have arisen since more or less go away. Or so the thinking goes.

Yet the striking fact is that all of Israel's peace agreements -- with Egypt in 1979, with the Palestinians in 1993, with Jordan and Morocco in 1994 -- were achieved in the wake of the war. The Jewish state had gained territory; the Arab states wanted it back. Whatever else might be said for the land-for-peace formula, it's odd that the people who are its strongest advocates are usually the same ones who bemoan the apparent completeness of Israel's victory in 1967.

And no post about Israel and the Six Day War would be complete without my personal favorite explanation of the current situation regarding Israel and the surrounding Arab nations than the excellent article written by the comedian Larry Miller in the Weekly Standard, "Whosoever Blesses Them"-

Chew this around and spit it out: Five hundred million Arabs; five million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals. Really? Wow, what neat news. Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding.

Thank God that Israel defended itself 40 years ago in the manner it did.

HaShem Yitbarach Eretz Yisrael!

Imagine If The Government Forced PBS and NPR To Take Over The Airwaves

Liberals would cheer, but the reality is that Fox news would be forced to sign off with the rest of them.



In Venezuela, it just happened.




Let's hope they handle it with the dignity of those from ‘El Observador’ in Venezuela.

"Rage Against the Machine" indeed.

Update: Like clockwork, Cox And Forkum have a cartoon that completely nails the entire story in one frame. I SWEAR I didn't see this cartoon before I wrote this post.

Memorial Day Baby Back Smoked Ribs And A Big Thanks To Those Who Served

Today we will be feasting on baby back smoked ribs along with some beer butt chickens covered in Montreal rub.

The smoked rib method we have perfected continues to get refined, and this time we tried some different rubs on each rack. The results were pretty amazing as usual. In case anyone wants the recipe, we laid out our method during the Super Bowl and you can see the directions here-

Tmans Ribs


Starting off you need smoker. You can spend a few thousand dollars on serious smokers, or you can try what we did. We went with a Char-Broil 4754512 Electric Water Smoker, which our local Home Depot had in a box for $60. It fits up to 50 pounds of meat and the electric smoker has the advantage of being consistent with the low heat making it pretty much idiot proof for your first smoker.



Thanks to some customer reviews of this particular smoker at Amazon.com, we figured out how to max the consistent "ideal" temperature for the smoker in cold weather by covering whole thing in a blanket.

After you decide on the smoker, you need something to smoke. We took Jack Daniels Smoking Chips which are made from old Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrels, espresso and "Made in the Shade" coffee beans from Bongo Java, and soaked them in apple cider and water.



Inside the smoker you have a water pan, and you have to make sure this stays filled during the smoking process so the meat doesnt't dry out (tip: in cold weather use hot water), so we learned to cover the water pan with foil and leave a hole in the pan. Our pan was filled with red wine, apple cider and water.

First thing with ribs is to take the membrane off the back of the rack. Clip an end of the membrane and grip it with a paper towel, it should come off with one pull.



Next we used an overnight marinade consisting of Coca Cola, cayenne, cumin, bay leaves cayenne and Stubbs Barbeque Sauce.



Take another day after the marinade and let the ribs soak in your dry rub of choice. The longer you can let them sit the better. We go one day in the marinade and 12-18 hours in the rub.







We actually wash the ribs after both the marinade and the rub to get rid of any grit or imperfections, and them place them in foil smothered in Stubbs BBQ sauce. The foil is left half opened with the meat side down and the fat in the meat cooks the ribs along with the BBQ sauce.

After around seven hours in the smoker, here are your Memorial Day Smoked Ribs...

Enjoy the day folks, and thank a veteran if you can!

Tim Wakefield Drank A Budweiser On The Mound at Yankee Stadium

I can't find the exact picture and/ video from that night for various reasons (if you want the blog experience from the 2004 run click here.) After game seven versus the Yankees Wakefield was pounding budweisers on the mound at Yankee Stadium while he soaked in the redemption that he earned as part of one of the greatest comebacks of all time.


Wakefield has always been the grease in the gears of this particular Red Sox era and he doesn't get enough credit for the longshoreman-type effort he puts in game in and game out.


Did I mention this was one of the greatest comebacks of all time?

So You're Saying Removing Saddam Was A Good Idea?

Just a reminder to those who love to beat the "Iraq war bad! Bush bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!" war drum, Wednesday in Iraq they held a ceremony and observed a moment of silence to mark "Mass Graves Day".

Iraqis observe a moment of silence to mark Mass Graves Day

The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

BAGHDAD: Traffic stopped in Baghdad's main streets and squares Wednesday as Iraqis observed a moment of silence to mark a new national day of remembrance for the victim's of Saddam Hussein's regime who were buried in mass graves.

The Iraqi government declared May 16 as Mass Grave Day to commemorate the day when the first such grave was uncovered near the Shiite town of Mahaweel, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) south of Baghdad.

Human rights organizations estimate that more than 300,000 people, mainly Kurds and Shiite Muslims, were killed and buried in mass graves before Saddam was overthrown by U.S. forces in 2003.

"It is a lesson that we will never forget," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said. "We want to build a civilized society in which humanity is respected."

Cars and pedestrians stopped in place at noon, while policemen and Iraqi soldiers conducted a military salute.

During a conference held to commemorate the somber day, al-Maliki described the graves as one of "the ugly crimes" of Saddam's regime and drew a parallel with the current daily attacks against Iraqis.

"The criminals are the same. In the past, they created the mass graves. Today, they explode, kill and behead innocent people," he said.

Al-Maliki, accompanied by several Cabinet ministers, also stepped out of the building housing his office Wednesday to observe a minute of silence and offer a prayer.

In the autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, however, the day was not commemorated because the Kurds there were not notified, said Hutiyar Nouri, the deputy governor of the city of Sulaimaniyah, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Kurds annually mark the anniversary of the March 16, 1988 chemical attack on the northern Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed 5,000.

One thing that particularly annoys me is when people claim that Iraq was "better off" under Saddam. This is such complete garbage and it shows intellectual laziness on the part of those who make this argument. Thanks to the US military and our coalition Allies, Saddam will not be filling anymore mass graves. Yes, Iraq is far from being "back to normal" and there are many obstacles to overcome, but no one can make the argument that anyone would ever be better off under a tryannical dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and dumped them in to mass graves.

Cox And Forkum for those who need an explanation..

Kill A Tree For Al!

Oh man this is great...

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Do We Really Kill Trees?
The short answer is "Yes". We run a burgeoning business of clearing trees from grasslands so the Antelope won’t be scared. As silly as that previous sentence sounds it is the truth. So, you can have a clear conscience that you removed a terror inducing tree in an effort to improve the antelope state of mind – which makes them better targets during hunting season. Although we don’t completely follow the logic of the game and fish department on this, we go along with it.

And I very much agree with their ultimate reasoning-

WHY WE DO IT-
The reason we sell Carbon Debits is simple – we want to take away the pathetic excuse of Carbon Credits from those liberals who hide their shame filled lives behind money-bought lunacy. Carbon Credits are simply a way for the rich (Al Gore) to continue to hypocritically live lives that look nothing like what they try to enforce on everyone else in society. We want to take away those excuses.

Our goal is to completely wipe out every Carbon Credit ever bought by selling their nullifying opposite – the Carbon Debit. The guilt and shame that caused people to buy Carbon Credits in the first place will be placed back on them as we let them know that their actions caused us to nullify their credits. They are the cause of us killing trees; they need to face up to their guilt.

This message is important for one reason – Far Left Liberals are lunatics that operate solely on shame of themselves, their success, their country, and their wealth. It is time to expose their ideas and self-defeating idiocy – and selling Carbon Debits is the best way to do that.

I wonder if I could combine the carbon credit killers t-shirt with this on the back-






Yeah, I guess you could say I'm in a mood.....

We Have Perfected Smoked Ribs

Perhaps a bold statement, but this batch was hands down the better than all the rest. The routine we used this time was the spare rib cut, one day in the marinade, one day in the dry rub, and about 8 hours of smoking and here are your results....



MDC, from the Houston Texans blog Da Good, Da Bad, and DeMeco and I are working out a wager for Vince Bowl III coming up. Here's what you get if they win MDC, and to wash it down, a bottle of vodka and a six of Boddingtons was it?

We better get some Wide Receivers.

I Think The Terrorists Are Not Quite As Bright As We Thought

Have you heard the latest?

Murder assault on Fort Dix ‘very easy,’ says accused plotter
By John Shiffman
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The FBI arrested six people last night, including five in Cherry Hill, for an alleged plot to kill soldiers at Fort Dix, several federal officials said.
"If you want to do anything here, there is Fort Dix and I don't want to exaggerate, and I assure that you can hit an American base very easily," one of the men told an FBI informant, according to the FBI. "You take a map and draw it and then you calculate that there are areas where there are 100 to 200 individuals . . .

"When you got a military base, you need mortars and RPGs," the man allegedly said.

"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," the man on the tape said. "You hit 4, 5 or 6 humvees and light the whole place up."

Greg Reinert, a Justice Department spokesman in Camden, described the six as "Islamic radicals . . . who were involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey."

"Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the Army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible," he said.

Um, they were going to attack a FORT? Full of US Military Soldiers armed to the teeth? Was Paris Island too easy or something?

Wow. As I like to say, that's a mountain of stupid.

Public Service Announcement For NFL GM's Draft Day Tomorrow

Do not listen to a damn thing you've heard from a guy named Merril Hoge.

Exhibit A




We Titans fans would like to take this opportunity to thank the Houston Texans organization passing on #10 last year.

A truly generous gift, thank you Houston!

Listen Folks, Carbon Offsets Are Stupid.

Think about it. When you are on a diet to lose weight, are you allowed to buy calorie-offsets? If your doctor tells you to quit smoking, can you pay someone else to stop smoking for you? If your lawn needs to be cut, do you pay someone to cut their own lawn instead?

No, you do it your damn self. If you eco-nuts want to lower CO2 levels, than do it yourself don't pay someone else to do it.

Do you now see how unbelievably stupid this is?


Here's a comment I just left at one of my favorite blogs, Protein Wisdom

Al Gore:”....mgrrblr...You see because Gloubaul Warhmingh....can be reduced by carbon offsets.....I buy mine from Generation Investment Management, and theirs are great. They like totally kill off gloubaul warhmingh. The best offsets you can buy!”

Inquisitive Tennessean: “Um, hey Al, aren’t you on the board of Generation Investment Mgmt? So basically you’re buying offsets from yourself? Cause if that’s true, well, that’s pretty weak man. You sound as stupid as Cameron Diaz did on “Trippin’”."

Al Gore:”You know I invented the internet, right?”

Inquisitive Tennessean: “I can’t fucking believe I voted for you in 2000. You're such a tool.”

NASA Near Earth Asteroid Update To Congress

I guess a good way to get your mind off of the senseless slaughter in Virginia would be to freak out about Asteroids. Well, it works for me anyways.


NASA recently had to give their latest report on the NEO issue to congress, and the report was, well, not very optimistic.

First, here is the bleak assessment signed by Michael D. Griffin, the NASA Administrator-

This is a complex issue, potentially involving many other U.S. Government agencies and international organizations ... I look forward to working with the Administration and Congress in setting realistic goals for a NEO survey program given the challenging demands already placed on NASA resources… NASA recommends that the [current Spaceguard] program continue as currently planned, and we will also take advantage of opportunities using potential dual-use telescopes and spacecraft—and partner with other agencies as feasible—to attempt to achieve the legislated goal within 15 years. However, due to budget constraints, NASA cannot initiate a new program at this time.

Here's the congressional mandate-

From Section 321 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, the objectives of the NEO survey program are to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of NEOs equal to or larger than 140 meters in diameter with a perihelion distance of less than 1.3 AU, achieving 90 percent completion within 15 years. NASA is directed to provide a report to Congress that provides: (1) an analysis of possible alternatives that NASA may employ to carry out the survey program of NEOs, including groundbased and spacebased alternatives with technical descriptions; (2) a recommended option; and (3) an analysis of possible alternatives that NASA could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth.

So the issue here is that the mandate Congress laid out (a weak mandate at that) is not going to be achieved within 15 years due to the current budget restraints.

That means that the International Space Station (the one where the rest of the world was supposed to pitch in to help pay for it) which has several billion dollars worth of NASA's resources tied up is a FAR more important project than achieving the congressional mandate for NEO's. NEO-related projects at NASA have rarely ever reached the tens of millions of dollars of NASA's budget. NASA gets by on $15-20 billion a year. Therefore, one could say, NEO-related projects have never been anywhere near as much of a priority with NASA as the floating port-a-potty that is the International Space Station.

I have nothing against the ISS. It's cool and all- learning how spiders spin webs in zero gravity, the effects of space on the human body, and the other various scientific projects that the fine folks at NASA pour their hearts and sould in to. I have a lot respect for the work that has been done as it is remarkable.

But my point, which I've been pounding on since pretty much day one of this blog, is that NONE of these ISS projects will mean anything if and when we find a potentially threatening asteroid on its way to earth. If this happens it will make every other space related project irrelevant, and most earth bound ones as well. And the numbers don't lie. We WILL get whacked again. It is simply a matter of time.

Back to the report-

A study team, led by NASA's Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E), conducted the analysis of alternatives with inputs from several other U.S. government agencies, international organizations, and representatives of private organizations. The team developed a range of possible options from public and private sources and then analyzed their capabilities and levels of performance including development schedules and technical risks.

Key Findings for the Survey Program:

* The goal of the Survey Program should be modified to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize, by the end of 2020, 90 percent of all Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) greater than 140 meters whose orbits pass within 0.05 AU of the Earth's orbit (as opposed to surveying for all NEOs).
* The Agency could achieve the specified goal of surveying for 90 percent of the potentially hazardous NEOs by the end of 2020 by partnering with other government agencies on potential future optical ground-based observatories and building a dedicated NEO survey asset assuming the partners' potential ground assets come online by 2010 and 2014, and a dedicated asset by 2015.
* Together, the two observatories potentially to be developed by other government agencies could complete 83 percent of the survey by 2020 if observing time at these observatories is shared with NASA's NEO Survey Program.
* New space-based infrared systems, combined with shared ground-based assets, could reduce the overall time to reach the 90 percent goal by at least three years. Space systems have additional benefits as well as costs and risks compared to ground-based alternatives.
* Radar systems cannot contribute to the search for potentially hazardous objects, but may be used to rapidly refine tracking and to determine object sizes for a few NEOs of potentially high interest. Existing radar systems are currently oversubscribed by other missions.
* Determining a NEO's mass and orbit is required to determine whether it represents a potential threat and to provide required information for most alternatives to mitigate such a threat. Beyond these parameters, characterization requirements and capabilities are tied directly to the mitigation strategy selected.

Again, most of the key points raised show that with a little more help from Congress budget wise, and maybe a little assistance from the international community, the goals laid out in the congressional mandate are feasable. The problem is that this isn't going to happen.

Then we start to discuss current mitigation theories for dealing with a potential threat, and things get, um, a little less hopeful.

Key Findings for Diverting a Potentially Hazardous Object (PHO):

The study team assessed a series of approaches that could be used to divert a NEO potentially on a collision course with Earth. Nuclear explosives, as well as non-nuclear options, were assessed.

* Nuclear standoff explosions are assessed to be 10-100 times more effective than the non-nuclear alternatives analyzed in this study. Other techniques involving the surface or subsurface use of nuclear explosives may be more efficient, but they run an increased risk of fracturing the target NEO. They also carry higher development and operations risks.
* Non-nuclear kinetic impactors are the most mature approach and could be used in some deflection/mitigation scenarios, especially for NEOs that consist of a single small, solid body.
* "Slow push" mitigation techniques are the most expensive, have the lowest level of technical readiness, and their ability to both travel to and divert a threatening NEO would be limited unless mission durations of many years to decades are possible.
* 30-80 percent of potentially hazardous NEOs are in orbits that are beyond the capability of current or planned launch systems. Therefore, planetary gravity assist swingby trajectories or on-orbit assembly of modular propulsion systems may be needed to augment launch vehicle performance, if these objects need to be deflected.

Read that last part again -"30-80 percent of potentially hazardous NEOs are in orbits that are beyond the capability of current or planned launch systems." The B612 Project/Foundation has designed multiple plans for a gravity assist type project, and it has proposed testing out our abilities with a transponder mission for the upcoming flyby of asteroid 99942 Apophis.

My proposal for dealing with this issue is take half of the measly few million that they spend on NEO projects, and GIVE HALF OF IT TO the B612 Foundation.

Yet another huge government project that proves why government is never the answer to the problem, and perhaps even part of the problem.

Here is the response that Rusty Schweickart sent in response to NASA's report to congress. The main thrust of his analysis is the following-

Because of the “hypothetical scenarios” presented in the NASA Report to Congress the nuclear options are either best suited to the task or absolutely required. This selection of specialized scenarios is not, however, representative of the deflection cases most likely to be encountered. The highest probability impacts will always correlate with the smallest NEOs and, based on the assumption that the world will not choose to “take the hit” of a Tunguska-like object if its potential impact is known ahead of time, this cohort of NEOs is selected in this analysis as the lower limit of the pragmatic threat cohort. 99% of the NEOs in this cohort are more likely to call for deflection than those cases selected in the NASA Congressional Report.

Again, why don't we put them in charge?

It Just Sucks Man. College Kids Just Trying To Learn.

To the families of the departed, I'm really really sorry.

You have new Picture Mail!

Game one. GO PREDS!!

Is Food Sending Me Subliminal Messages?

(ATTENTION-Mom, if you're reading this, just skip this post and read the NY Times or something.)

A regular reader of this here blog -we'll call her "Sue"- sent me an email regarding my most recent post about smoking the turkey. Here is the text of "Sue's" email-

Ok, is it just me, or does your recent blog post have a sort of encrypted sex blogger ring to it? Let's examine the evidence, shall we?

"...we're getting a little crazy..."
"...we've only gone 2 or 3 weekends without smoking something..."
"...using my tried and true wet rub..."
"...the breast gently enough so I can push..."
"...not worrying about it drying out..."
"...as tender as the ribs and pretty spicy too..."
"...you can see the breast came out very nice..."

Need I say more? Is this what one would call sex with food?

Too much x-rated web surfing apparently. This must stop... or one could become fexually strustrated.

Hmm. I have been awfully distracted with all of this great food all over the place, not to mention the Predators starting in the playoffs tomorrow. Maybe I've been neglecting my innate desires. Either that or I just like to eat a lot. Maybe it's both, who knows.

What I need to do is find that woman who likes to smoke ribs, watch hockey and football, and have lots of sex. Then -problem solved! Or maybe I'm just thinking too much. I'm pretty damn happy as it is, 99 problems and whatnot.

Exit question (not for family members): has anyone else reading this blog found as many sexual connotations as "Sue" did in other posts?

What's Today? Easter? Let's Smoke Something.

We're getting a little crazy with the meat smoker. I think we've only gone two or three weekends without smoking something since we bought this Char-Broil Electric Water Smoker, and this weekend will not be one of them.

Today we are going to try a smoked turkey using my tried and true wet rub.

Here's the rub ingredients-

Saffron
Chili Powder
Curry
Cumin
Rosemary
Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper
Mashed Garlic
Dijon Mustard
Olive Oil
Brown Sugar
Whiskey (today it's Jeffersons Reserve Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon)

I take mostly equal relative amounts of each ingredient except for the salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Then you take the turkey after removing the giblets and cleaning with cold water and smother with the rub. I separate the skin from the breast gently enough so that I can push the rub under the skin to cover the breast and the sides. It sat since last night in the fridge covered up so the spices have had a chance to soak in the meat. We are going with alder chips and wine barrel chunks for smoking, and using bay leaves and other spices in the water pan.

They say to go with 30-40 minutes per pound of turkey, and since we have the water pan we can make sure you lean towards the 40 side to make sure the turkey is done and not worry about it drying out. I'll post a picture along with the side items for this weekends feast.

Update:

Success. The meat is as tender as the ribs, and pretty spicy too. I pealed back the skin and you can see the breast came out very nice. Notice that the meat is so tender that the leg fell from the joint.

NewsFlash: We Are Fighting A War Against Islamic Fundamentalists

And so are the moderate Muslims. Today's Wall Street Journal has an article from a Dr. Tawfik Hamid, a onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, and who is currently a medical doctor and Muslim reformer living in the West. The article is entitled "The Trouble With Islam"- here are the key excerpts-

Not many years ago the brilliant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, published a short history of the Islamic world's decline, entitled "What Went Wrong?" Astonishingly, there was, among many Western "progressives," a vocal dislike for the title. It is a false premise, these critics protested. They ignored Mr. Lewis's implicit statement that things have been, or could be, right.

But indeed, there is much that is clearly wrong with the Islamic world. Women are stoned to death and undergo clitorectomies. Gays hang from the gallows under the approving eyes of the proponents of Shariah, the legal code of Islam. Sunni and Shia massacre each other daily in Iraq. Palestinian mothers teach 3-year-old boys and girls the ideal of martyrdom. One would expect the orthodox Islamic establishment to evade or dismiss these complaints, but less happily, the non-Muslim priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists' defense.

These "progressives" frequently cite the need to examine "root causes." In this they are correct: Terrorism is only the manifestation of a disease and not the disease itself. But the root-causes are quite different from what they think.....

Dr. Hamid goes on to document the historical manifestations of the current Islmic fundamentalist movements, namely Salafi Islam- a violent, ultra-conservative version of the religion. A troubling aspect of this struggle against radical, violent Islamists is the way that the "progressives" in the west are handling it.

Dr Hamid explains-

The grave predicament we face in the Islamic world is the virtual lack of approved, theologically rigorous interpretations of Islam that clearly challenge the abusive aspects of Shariah. Unlike Salafism, more liberal branches of Islam, such as Sufism, typically do not provide the essential theological base to nullify the cruel proclamations of their Salafist counterparts. And so, for more than 20 years I have been developing and working to establish a theologically-rigorous Islam that teaches peace.

Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals -- who unceasingly claim to support human rights -- have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror. (emphasis mine-ed.)

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

Dr Hamid on western feminists-

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

But here is the million dollar phrase from the article-

Progressives need to realize that radical Islam is based on an antiliberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism spells the death of liberal values. And they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and indeed, the West, today.

What he's saying is that we in the west need to wake the hell up. These radical Islamists don't care how much you hate Bush. They don't care whether you're pro-life or pro-satan- you are the enemy because of the liberal values all those of us in the west have come to expect as a human right, things like personal liberty and equal rights. And our constant internal bickering is only further reinforcing the idea that we in the West are too weak to face up to these bullies.

Recently I've been perusing the various liberal blogs here in Tennessee and the nation to see what's the current mood and ideas on that side of the aisle. I am curious now that we are almost six years removed from 9/11 how seriously people on the left are treating this war. Thanks to Brittney at Nashville Is Talking, I am able to hit the most prominent ones in Nashville pretty easily. I'm going to use some recent threads as an example.

Over at Tennessee Guerilla Women, an uber-feminist blog, I've been reading their take on the trip to the middle east to visit Syria and others by Nancy Pelosi and some other congressfolks. This trip is not exactly what one would consider a wise move on our part if we are trying to isolate state sponsors of terrorism. Oh and uh, by the way- the Syrian regime is currently under investigation for the murder of Rafik Harriri, the former PM of Lebanon. How anyone can justify negotiating with assassins and dictators is beyond comprehension, but the Tennesse Guerilla Women have it rationalized somehow-here is what passes for rational discourse on the left-

"President Pissypants Disapproves of Pelosi's Trip to Syria" The neat part is I tried to argue in the comments to this thread and was accused of being racist and stating "KKK material, at least". Good times.

Then there's my buddy the Freedonian, who writes the following in his post "Turfing Out the War"

See the soldiers in this picture?(see post for the pic) Sure, they may, at first blush, look like any other soldiers carrying out combat operations in a war zone. Know what's different about these?

They're Canadians.

Now don't get me wrong--- I'm quite happy that our neighbors to the north felt so strongly about an attack on our soil that they wanted to help out.

But this is our job, and our fight.

Freedonian is making the grave mistake that this is the US's fight alone. He could not possibly be more wrong.

If you are someone that approves of equal rights for women, and oppose such atrocious practices as clitorectomies, then this is your fight.

If you are someone that believes that gay folks shouldn't be hung for their lifestyle choices, then this your fight.

If you are someone that believes that government and religion should remain seperate, then this is your fight.

If you are someone that believes in the right to worship whatever god you want, then this is your fight.

The question is are we still willing to fight it?

You have new Picture Mail!

Wii bowling @ the trace on a monday night. There are worse ways to kill a monday night.

You have new Picture Mail!

You have new Picture Mail!

The boundry?

Mom's Visit Weekend Recap

You know what it's like-your Mom comes to visit and you want to put on a good show so that she's happy and you're happy that she's happy and all that stuff. Thank god I live in such a cool town that it's effortless to show her a good time.

First off, the main thing she wanted to do was hang out with the folks while we eat ribs and watch hockey, and well, let's just say that that's something we've been getting really good at doing. The hockey team is playing out of their minds, and we've pretty much mastered the smoked ribs at this point.

Dinner friday night at F. Scotts, and after my Mom went to bed I put the ribs that had been both marinating for a day followed by a few hours in a dry rub in to the smoker. I tried orange slices in the smoker water along with some rosemary this time, and alder chips for the smoking. I also went with a half wrap on the tin foil so that they held the moisture yet got full access to the smoke. Once again, they were falling of the bone and had a flavor that had a nice long finish. It's been fun playing around with the details now that we've got the basics to smoking down- slow and low. The slower the better.

Saturday we went to breakfast at Jacksons so my Mom could enjoy breakfast on a patio in March without needing snow tires. Boston has been getting dumped lately, and Nashville in March is pretty damn pleasant.

Later that night we had the full layout ready to impress-Mashed potatoes, fresh broccoli, biscuits, cole slaw (side note: KFC apparently has the best cole slaw in the world, and my Mom insisted on getting some for the feast. Well, we did and it's pretty amazing cole slaw, just throwing that out there) corn on the cob, and of course the ribs.

Add a nice Nashville Predators beat down of the Edmonton Oilers, and mission accomplished.

We did Noshville Deli for breakfast Sunday morning, and then we went to the Picasso exhibit at the Frist Center which was well done. Some margaritas at the Rose Pepper to top off the weekend, and she got the full Nashville treatment.


This town is almost idiot proof when it comes to having visitors.

Erinnn Go Bragh!!

Something I'll be thinking about today when I knock back a few Guiness will be the The Boston Irish Famine Memorial I saw last time I was in Boston-

The Boston Irish Famine Memorial is a tribute to an entire generation of Irish men, women and children whose lives were disrupted by a series of events that took place 150 years ago. The Irish Famine, which lasted from 1845-1850, began as a succession of potato crop failures in Ireland. But an inadequate response by the English government then ruling Ireland, and the spread of contagious diseases wrought by starvation and poverty, quickly turned the Famine into the greatest catastrophe of the 19th century. Nearly one million Irish died of starvation and disease, and another two million fled the country, emigrating largely to North America. The remaining population was left to contend with death, dislocation, poverty, and the near ruination of a culture that had flourished for centuries.

Some 100,000 Irish refugees headed to Boston, taking a perilous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, which poet John Boyle O'Reilly called a 'bowl of tears.' Settling into overcrowded, unsanitary tenement housing along Boston's waterfront and in the North End, this generation of Irish endured great hardship and humiliation, plagued by poverty and disease. The average l ife span of an Irish immigrant in Boston was 14 years. 'No Irish Need Apply' signs in newspaper ads and storefront windows were common, as nativist Americans, strenuously opposed to foreigners, continued to harass the struggling Irish.

Comforted by their faith and culture, the people of Ireland eventually recovered. In Boston, inspired by the American principles of democracy and freedom, the Famine generation continued to move forward, eventually defining their place in society. As the 'first great minority' in the United States, the Irish helped pave the way for other ethnic groups coming to America in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Around the world, Irish communities are commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine. Boston, which many consider the capital of Irish-America, holds a special place in these activities. This memorial is being built in tribute to the Famine Irish generation who endured Ireland's greatest tragedy. It is fitting that the Memorial is being placed along the city's Freedom Trail, as a reminder of what the Irish, and other immigrant groups, seek when they journey across oceans and continents to reach these shores.

I really need to go to Ireland and see my ancestors roots but in the meantime I'll settle for being happy with my friends here in Nashville, and celebrate the way that those ancestors would've wanted me to- in style.

Hockey and Smokin' Ribs On A Saturday Afternoon, it's like a bit of heaven.

Doesn't hurt to have the Western Divisional Leaders as your hometown team either.

The Preds continue today on their road to the playoffs. My blood pressure would like to see a blowout, mainly because they are coming off an exhausting fourth consecutive overtime game, but this team has been a lot of fun to watch recently. The Forsberg/Erat/Kariya line is putting the fear in defenses that I haven't seen this team do before, and Legwand has been playing out of his mind. He had a backhanded goal in the second period of last Saturdays Red Wings game that pretty much saved the game from getting ugly fast. Vokoun and Mason are at the top of their game, and the addition of Vishnevski has helped Weber on defense tremendously. We will need Sullivan and Hartnell healthy before the playoffs but it's not like they start tomorrow.


Todays feast consists of Tmans Ribs, Lobster claws, Sauteed Spinach, Garlic Mashed potatoes, Bratwurst, Biscuits, and generous amounts of Guiness. We've been working to perfect the rib recipe and I think we nailed it this time. The marinade started thursday, then a five hour stint in the dry rub last night, and then in the smoker at midnight. We took them out around one this afternoon and the texture is perfect. We tried one rack unwrapped and smothered in Tubbs BBQ sauce, and the other was removed from the rub and then wrapped again in BBQ sauce and foil. The extra prep and smoking time has really made the difference with this batch.

I'll update a picture soon, GO PREDS!!!


Update: Success...the ribs in the foil were better, and both racks were falling-off-the-bone tender, I think we've got this rib thing down..

New Saturn Pics From Cassini.

Its been a while since I posted something from my favorite Saturn orbiting satellite, and this one is a beauty. Thanks to my work buddy for the heads up (you know who you are)...

More Hippie Hypocrisy

Before I get to the point of this particular rant, I want to recommend to the five of you who read this blog some great essays about the various aspects of alternative energy, our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels, and the relationships thereof with the war on terror and global climate change. Steven Den Beste wrote these a few years ago, but they still hold up solidly in terms of relevance. Personally, I think any blog post discussing this matter should reference these essays, as they help clarify the factors involved when you are discussing the subject.

This page entitled A New Manhattan Project lists each essay and also details the fundamental points about alternative energy, and why many have unrealistic expectations about it.

I know it's long, and there are a lot of links, but trust me-it's worth reading. One point that Steven makes that is often ignored in alternative energy discussions is the fact that electricity isn't an energy source. We use energy sources to MAKE electricity. So when you get all excited that your new Toyonda Pious is using less gas than a regular car, don't forget that this electricity has to be made somewhere. And half of our electricity is made from coal. If we switched to nuclear power it would make sense, but no one is seriously proposing that we build more nuke plants (which we should).

I happened upon the amusingly entitled blog The Only Republican in San Francisco. The author discusses a recent article from the Independent about a new study which points out that organic farming is in many cases worse for the environment than conventional methods, thanks to the relative inefficiencies of organic farming.

Good job hippie. Yet again another wonderful eco-friendly solution that exacerbates another environmental problem.

The latest one besides that is the ethanol situation. Ethanol is made primarily from corn, and the government recently set a goal of cutting gasoline consumption 20 percent by 2017, mainly by more than quadrupling production of ethanol and other alternative fuels.

Guess what happened so far? It's making corn more expensive. Guess what that means?

From Reuters-

Soaring U.S. demand for ethanol - produced from crops like maize and sugar cane - has sent corn prices to their highest level in a decade.

Mexicans are already feeling the impact. Tens of thousands took to the streets in January when the price of tortillas tripled to 15 pesos ($1.36) a kilogramme (2.2 pounds) - about 35 of the flat corn patties that are Mexico's staple food.

Since half of Mexico lives on $5 a day or less, that's no small jump, and the Mexican president - who generally presents himself as a champion of free trade - stepped in to cap prices at 78 cents a kilo.

Food prices have been on a downward slide ever since the Second World War, but Clay says one of the big questions now is whether biofuels could reverse that process and take us into a new economic era with obvious implications for the poor.

It gets better. Here's more about ethanol from Chemical and Engineering News: Ethanol—Is It Worth It?-

.....First, the U.S. gains little advantage if we burn more oil to make ethanol than is replaced by the biofuel. Second, ethanol holds out the promise of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by recycling carbon from biofuels into presently growing plants; by contrast, gasoline increases today's carbon budget by burning fossil fuels that were generated millions of year ago. The greenhouse gas advantage disappears, however, if more fossil fuel is burned to make ethanol than is used to make gasoline.......corn has many other negative environmental impacts: It erodes more soil, uses more nitrogen fertilizer, and uses more water than any other crop. "Corn is the prime cause of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is the size of New Jersey," he says, referring to an area off the coast of Louisiana that is depleted of oxygen due to high levels of nutrient-rich agricultural runoff from the Mississippi River. "These are serious problems," he says.

Good job hippies.

I plan on firing up the smoker this weekend while we watch the Predators/Red Wings game, and I think I'm going to try cooking both an organic and regular beer butt chicken to see which one is better. I'll try and post the results tomorrow.

Forsberg Looks Good, But The Preds Lose Anyways....Food Was Good Though.

Preds lose 4-1 as Peter Forsberg made his Nashville debut. Minnesota played a very fast game tonight and matched Nashville's speed stride for stride. Forsberg had some flashes of brilliance, and I can't wait until he gets some time to adjust to his new teammates. Forsberg played on a line with Kariya and Erat which was exciting to watch, although the most dangerous lineup tonight was Sullivan with Arnott and Dumont, who scored the only goal for the Preds tonight.


Ah well, can't win em all.

At least we did it up right with the food. Tonight's smoked meat spectacular set up consisted of the following-






Using the new smoker we did a beer butt chicken covered in Paul Prudhommes Poultry rub, roast pork tenderloin, chessburgers wrapped in panchetta and topped with fresh basil and mozzarella, some baby-rack ribs with Stubbs BBQ sauce, and some smoked salmon to top it off.


Losing never tasted so good.....

Your Nashville Predators Fans Are Losing Their Sh*t Right Now..

Barry Melrose just explained it for everyone paying attention...apologies because this is paraphrased-



"I said Nashville was the top team in the NHL last night, and they just picked up one of my favorite all time NHL players, Peter Forsberg..."


Imagine the Titans picked up Jerry Rice in his prime about halfway through this past years season, and then you can begin to imagine what Forsberg will be able to bring to the table with the Predators. All of the pieces are in place, the games just need to be played out.





We were toasting to Forsberg tonight and thanking Stevie Sullivan for being the guy who was the first big time NHL player not from Nashville who really believed in what these Nashville Predators are capable of. The Preds management went all in when they chased Sullivan, and he's been one of the most incredible hockey players -hell one of the best ice skaters-I've ever seen. Since then the Predators mystique has been building, and it's only a matter of time before the rest of the world gets to see what's been brewing at the GEC for the last few years..

I can't wait to see this team get unleashed in the playoffs. It's going to be something special..

There's suv's and then THERE'S SUV'S..

I drive a Ford Escape. I love it: plenty of room for my drum gear, handles well, decent gas mileage (22mpgal city), low emissions so I don't have to worry when I get my registration checked, and a great sound system. It's not very big either, so I can maneuver around city streets with ease.




Deadspin has a story from Bugs n Cranks about Phillies pitcher Jon Lieber and his big ass truck/suv/earth destroyer

Lieber rumbled into spring training yesterday in his 2-week-old Ford F650 SuperTruck, a customized blue-and-black beast, 9 feet, 2 inches tall and 25,000 pounds, with six doors, 45-inch wheels, seating for seven, a satellite dish and customized leather interior. It cost him $211,000, more than twice the $94,000 base price. But when you throw in, say, $22,000 for the two extra doors - actually, an extra half of a cab - it adds up fast.

Recently there was a big kerfuffle over at Nashville Is Talking about SUV's. I think this truck would pretty much cause some heads to asplode.

Me? I think it's pretty awesome. I already have the bumpersticker ready-

Football Ends Too Close to Valentines Day.

I mean seriously, I have to wean myself away from the NFL channel now that the season is over, as nothing exciting will happen in the NFL until the combines in a couple of months. And to top it off, now you want me to celebrate love and romance on Steve McNairs birthday?

Ain't happening folks.

I looked at my posts over the last two years worth of Valentines days, and well, I sense a theme.

2005:Happy Valen-Nah Screw That I'm Getting Tanked.

2006: For All the Lovers Out There

This year will be no exception. I like to make it a tradition to read The Alt.Suicide.Holiday Valentine's Day Survival Kit, but my kit is basically consisting of copious amounts of Guiness and Jager, I consider it elegant simplicity. I have somehow been managing to end up single about this time every year, despite all signs to the contrary when the fall begins. It's either a curse or a blessing I suppose. I'm not saying I have commitment issues, it's just seems to have worked out this way the last couple of years. I will admit that as I get older I'm no longer interested in being with someone just for the sake of not being lonely, I am perfectly happy with my friends and current social scene. I just don't see the point anymore of dating someone if I can't see myself with them for a long time.

So back to the theme, I still believe that it is cruel and inhumane to force men and women like myself who love football to have to deal with this stupid holiday less than a week after the Pro-Bowl.

It just ain't right.

Well, this makes it a little less hazy...

Does everyone remember 9/11?

Yeah, me too.


Well, there are two questions that are asked to Dearborn Michigans own Islamic Imam Husham Al-Husainy in this video that should make everyone remember who we are fighting.




Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization?

Yes.

Read Michael Totten, who is in Lebanon for further explanation.

Is Israel a peaceful nation?

Yes.

Live-Blogging the Super Bowl -AND THE FEAST!!!

Come check it out, would you?

Super Bowl Feast Manual version 2007

The Last Hurrah of My Favorite Time of the Year

And it has been a great one, this the 2006-07 NFL season. There was my personal favorite story, the beginning of the Vince "oh-yes-he-can-do-that-in-the-Pro's" Young era, the changing of the guard as Big Mac goes off to Baltimore to rejoin old compatriots, the tragedy that was Tony Romo, the mind-numbingly asinine first pick of the 2006 draft -perhaps one of the best draft classes in 20 years by the way- going to our favorite AFC South practice squad- The Houston Texans (can I say thank you again that Houston passed on Reggie AND Vince?-Thank you Houston, thanks you) Peyton and the Bears finally getting over the hump and in to the big game. ........yes, that- this Super Of Bowls..


The Indianapolis Colts Vs. The Chicago Bears

Peyton Manning is playing in the biggest game of his life. So is pretty much everyone else on the field besides Adam Vinateiri. This could really turn out to be a good battle as you have a nice balance between both teams. The Colts have Peyton, Reggie, Dallas and Marvin, but the Bears have a smashmouth style of defense that this years version of the Colts haven't played very well against all year.

I'll take a moment to point out that your Tennessee Titans only gave up 32 points to the Colts in two games this year, and the days of Indy and Peyton owning the AFC South are officially over. Have fun chasing Vince and Jones-Drew around next year Indy. I am looking forward to watching you get beaten senseless nest season like most previous years Super Bowl teams. Enjoy the moment, as they say.

I still think that if you get to Peyton early you can get him to rush his throws, and that usually causes his receivers to start to mess up on the timing that they rely on so heavily. The obvious X-factor this year will be the play of Sexy Rexy "F--k It. I'm Throwing It Downfield." Grossman . But I think that if the Bears get T jones and Benson going early, and the Bears defense gets to Peyton and his receivers early, it could be a long day for Indy fans. The Indy defense has been carrying the Colts throughout these playoffs, and you wonder when they finally get exposed. The Bears are not the offensive juggernaut that will challenge the Indy defense too much, but they keep things simple enough to win and let their defense play to their strengths.

I say the Bears are too much defense this year for a struggling Colts offense, and the Indy defense will finally get exposed by a thunder and lightning style running game.


Final Score:

Bears - 26

Colts - 15

Update: Aw yeah..........courtesy of the Fine Folks at Kissing Suzy Kolber