Merry frakkin’ Christmas

h/t Driftglass and

Nowell.

Nowell

h/t Monkeyfister.

Let’s kick this off right

Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?

Watching my recent visitors compared to those who have been reading this blog for awhile, we are becoming more of a musical tribe and less of a political one. Unfortunately for my desire to abstain from national politics, I cannot put out of my mind the pictures of torture that have been committed. And it is not the actual photographs, which I would not care to see more than I must, but the knowledge that it is going on even now and worse.

This is still a political blog, until the administration and those who continue to dehumanize the world with such foulness are removed from power. We must restore civilization now.

Issa

Global warming a reality

We might as well make the best of it, and this will probably be good for Finland’s tourism and immigration, if they wanted such things. The downside to tourism (and for that matter, the general warming trend) is that we lose our traditional winter cultures. We need to preserve them, however, for future generations to survive a time when the world might again return to the past or present day temperatures. We as a human species need to be prepared to live in changing environments and teach our descendents how we have fashioned ways of surviving.

That, you see, is the purpose of religion.

It is a survival trait of the human race, and of all species of animal and plant. We alter ourselves by our choices of what we value and pass along to the next generation. In our choices of how and who we conceive with, on a physical plane but also on an intellectual or emotional plane, because these teach others and ourselves to make good or bad choices as we and others have made.

Here’s some pictures of Finland.

I pass along my understanding of the world as I gain it, and sometimes my understanding changes. I am willing to admit that I make mistakes. We all do, but not everyone will say so.

All of the mythologies are history. None of them are false, in the sense that they aren’t talking about real things, but they are metaphors to some extent, due to the limitations of human language. When and as we overcome our communication barriers, our language becomes stronger and our stories become better.

Not every story is a good example to follow. You need to be discerning. Consider whether the source is trustworthy. Test for yourself. What do you want to be when you evolve?

Whose example do you follow? Do you evolve beyond that?

What will humanity be like in the future? What do you think we can do right now?

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

— Mohandas Gandhi

Is it A.D. yet?

“Please don’t sue me. I’m just a fan.”

How to make a starter

My tinctures of vert, azure, or. Knit together to form a unity.

No more bread nor wine from these

It is done, and a New Year.

Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Last day!

Seven trumpets blowing.

Related posts:

• Six days of creation
• Five cups of wine
• Four forced confessions,  three henchmen, two purple gloves, and a US body count higher than 9/11

World Contact Day

Hat-tip.

Update: Boing Boing links to video.

Here

Let me show you a miracle.

Six days of creation

Related post:

• Five cups of wine

Fine herbs for bread making

As any decent person knows, hops had nothing whatsoever to do with sinful chemistry; they just kept bad company. They did not prevent, sustain, catalyze, or effect in any way the process of alcohol formation from various sugars, cellulose, starch, taters, beans, seaweed, or from whatever else human folk have attempted its secretion. Except that when hops are included in a bread recipe, the dough is, for some reason, the more ecstatic. Hop cones ground to a fine grayish powder, rendered then to a tea, this in turn stirred into bread yeast, caused the carbon dioxide that spewed forth from asexual torment to come off in the most exquisite bubbles. Not belching, gargantuan bubbles that lift the crust of the bread so horribly that the result is bread with gopher holes. Hops do for white bread what only an extra half hour of intensive hand-to-hand combat with the bread board could equally bestow. A fine-stranded gluten that gives farm bread an unblemished texture, almost silken smooth was the flesh of this oven varmint. Hops in my grandmother’s bread recipe brought about the same result as three rounds on the wrestling mat.

Excerpted from The Hop Pole, by Justin Isherwood. The whole story is well worth reading.

I haven’t yet tried adding hops to my starter.

A poem that shows

The rose is a rose
and was always a rose;
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose,
but were always a rose.

– Robert Frost, “The Rose Family”.

No more war between the roses, I say.

Taken from Wikipedia’s entry on Rosaceae, the order of which is called Rosales, of which it is said within,

In the APG classification, well-known members of Rosales include: roses; strawberries, blackberries and raspberries; apples and pears; plums, peaches and apricots; almonds; rowan and hawthorn; elms; figs; nettles; and hops and cannabis.

So there you have it, and enjoy them all.

From someone who goes, but comes in repose.

It’s log, it’s log, it’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood.

Everyone loves a log.

For Christmas.

Hat-tip Buck Batard.

We got ourselves a DVR for Christmas

My wife is having a great time watching her show and being able to pause and skip commercials. The nicest thing that I noticed right off is that it effectively upgraded our cable service to digital, because all the program listings are nicely organized into categories and can be selected with the remote control. So unlike having to manually channel surf we can find what we want to watch when we had nothing in particular we were looking for.

More cooking and eating today

The pancakes were made with starter, bananas and hemp protein, oil and honey, and added salt.

The wine is very fine and a portion was blended with some organic strawberry lemonade. Christmas punch indeed.

Bananas are a kind of herb. Who knew?

Water into wine

The starter which is used to make bread, may separate while refrigerated. The top layer is a liquid, in my case a mixture of water and oil with some suspended herbs, because I always feed my starter with flour, water, oil, honey, salt and fine herbs.

This is mead, a kind of beer.

Do not martyr prisoners

Saddam Hussein is no threat to anyone in the world now. Do not kill him.

This is my first commandment.

What’s next?

Four forced confessions,  three henchmen, two purple gloves, and a US body count higher than 9/11.

For the third day of Christmas

Three hench men, two purple gloves, and a US body count higher than 9/11.

Two purple gloves

and a US body count higher than 9/11.

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

US deaths in Iraq exceeded 9/11 body count today. Isn’t that special?

Hat-tip BradBlog.

I don’t even want to give him a name.

Blue Texan (guest posting at Unclaimed Territory) has assembled some quotes to put in context this surge idea, of sending more troops, escalating the conflict in Iraq — against the combined and unanimous judgment of the joint chiefs of staff, the senior American commander in Iraq, George Casey, Jr., and the senior American commander in the Middle East, John Abizaid.

The good judgment of the commanders being what that man said he would follow above all political considerations.

“Here’s a lump of coal for your stocking, kids. We’re bringing back the draft, too.”

Happy holidays, and anyone who thinks I’m at war with Christmas for saying so is insane.

Fresh bread and smoked salmon

American whistleblower tortured

Seriously. This has to stop. Five days ’til Christmas. Click the link.

Sourdough latkes

In honor of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, here is the recipe.

Starter, mashed potatoes, honey, oil, salt and fine herbs.

Just mix ’em up and fry ’em in a pan. This is something I’ve done when it was time to feed the starter but I didn’t want to make bread that day. It’s good stuff.

Bon appétit.

Hat-tip to Jan in San Fran.

Related post:

• Starter biscuits

A lovely beverage

If you have a vaporizer, you do not burn your flowers. When you have finished enjoying their aromas, you can place the roasted pieces into a tea ball and steep them in hot water for a few minutes.

Really, it’s delightful.

(Don’t try this with tobacco, kids. It’s only cannabis that is so benign.)

Bring the troops home

America is an empire, an expansionist empire, and this is not a new development. From its inception, the territory it has claimed and controlled has expanded, the native people it has subjugated, and so Iraq fits into a larger pattern which was briefly interrupted as a reaction to Vietnam. Now I am not passing judgment on this behavior in calling attention to it, but I am saying that it is an important context to understanding current events.

The empire extended beyond its ability to control the margins of its authority, and the empire will not continue to hold territories it cannot control.

We are faced with a time of great change in society, and in our economy, which has been on a war-footing for a long number of years. The war is going to come to an end one way or another. Either by trying to hold the outlying regions and so weakening the center, or by letting them go in peace. We are striving for peace.

There may be no similarity between America of 2006 and America of 2012. This frightens people who have been brought up with certain expectations and have no idea where they will fit in a new society.

I think it is a conversation we need to be having with one another, about what we hope for and expect to happen. My hope is to reduce suffering and increase happiness for everyone.

We cannot continue to subjugate people, we cannot defend ourselves against the people we destroy, because the victims have families, and the families are not going to wait for us to destroy them. The more war you make the more war you have.

The spirit of Christmas

Hat-tip to the Xsociate.

It’s all over but the counting

Cannabis is the top cash crop in America according to a new study.

The study shows that 10,000 tonnes of marijuana worth $35.8bn (£18.4bn) is grown each year; the street value would be even higher. This dwarfs the $23bn-worth of corn grown, $17.6bn-worth of soybeans and $12.2bn-worth of hay. Marijuana is the biggest cash crop in 12 states, with the value of pot grown outstripping peanuts in Georgia and tobacco in North and South Carolina. In California, the biggest producer, it is worth $13.8bn.

Hat-tip.

Conceived in nucleosynthesis

Joseph Alois Ratzinger

What did you know about the camps in Germany, and what did you do about it?

Why do you not ask for understanding and forgiveness from the world?

Who do you think you are in your fancy costumes?

Why do you not condemn torture?

*crickets*

Democracy

Click here if the video does not properly embed.

With comment

Press release. Copied in full because it deserves to be read.

On Tuesday December 12th the largest single marijuana cultivation bust in the history of the DEA was dismissed in the 9th circuit courts by Judge Meredith Patel. Judge Patel ordered that all evidence and information taken from and used against Charles Edward “Eddy” Lepp in the 2004 Raid of Lepp’s home, ministry and garden (better known as Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens and Multi-Denominational Ministry of Cannabis and Rastafari) be suppressed due to the illegal service of warrants. The raid conducted in August of 2004 was a considerably large one. The DEA confiscated 32,524 plants on Lepp’s 20+ acre home and ministry taking a total of two days and using members of the local law enforcement and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Elite National Guard Wolf Team. The DEA estimated it to be an 80 million dollar bust calling it the most sophisticated cultivation they had ever seen.

Judge Patel has called for a Franks hearing on January 9th 2007 at 9:30am about the warrant from the 05 raid on Lepp’s home and ministry. At this time they will hear testimony from witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense to determine the validity of the warrant and the information used to attain it. It is the hope of the defense to prove once again the criminal behavior of the DEA by the attainment of yet another illegal warrant. This hearing is open to the public and is on the 19th floor of the Federal Court Building in San Francisco at 450 Golden Gate Ave.

Check Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens for more information on this case, updates on the next court date and to read the current court documents from this case which will be posted very soon. You may contact Lepp at 707-275-8879.

Friend

If you wish to be a priest you must lead a very pure life, set a standard by which every one of your followers might do likewise, or practice hypocrisy by doing privately what you despise publicly. None can do this forever, all are exposed in time. For we are born naked and so we are naked before God.

I am not your superior.

I have my opinions and my own experiences, and I relate them as I think best. You may have different ideas, and may express them in different ways. We are not adversaries.

We make mistakes and learn from them, and this is intentional. We do not learn by doing correctly, we do correctly by learning, and fixing our mistakes as we go. These corrected flaws are the most beautiful aspects of the jewel of your life, they are crystals of great complexity and deep feeling.

Maybe that metaphor doesn’t work for you, and this does not seem meaningful. It’s a matter of perspective. I have mine but I will gladly know yours.

Bring US home for Christmas

Hat-tip to Ellroon.

His name is not remembered.

Watch them fly away

Interregnum

Habeas corpus

Starter, yellow corn meal, whole wheat flour, distilled water, extra virgin olive oil, hemp protein, cacao powder, mesquite honey, maple syrup, vanilla extract, sea salt and fine herbs.

A plan for exit from Iraq

Okay, this is a plan that will take some effort, and it will be ambitious. It cannot be floated for very long it must simply be acted upon. Will the president de jure do the honors? Not likely. But it would be a sweet thing to do and would count a great deal toward mitigating his damages when we are considering his war crimes.

Ready?

Bring them home for Christmas.

Press the peace button

Hat-tip.

Addressing the military

You war game everything and you know how things are likely to go in a variety of ways, but the decisions are not up to you. They are up to your commanders and your adversaries, and that goes as well for the highest ranking officers in the services.

You cannot change this, so long as you serve at arms.

A draft is despicable because it purports to deny you of your right to lay down your arms and be free of command.

You have only that decision, and if you withdraw your consent you are free. So long as you serve willingly, you accept your own responsibility for what you do.

Refuse unconscionable orders. This war is unconscionable.

War is human sacrifice, we stop now

First twins, third generation

Starter, rye flour, distilled water, extra virgin olive oil, mesquite honey, cacao powder, sea salt and fine herbs.

Bread blogging: Second twins

Starter, unbleached wheat flour, distilled water, extra virgin olive oil, mesquite honey, hemp protein, sea salt and fine herbs.

Red and green repeatedly, I guess

What else do you expect during Christmas season?

It’s got groove, it’s got meaning