Not much going on, but I rarely get a chance to use the “Snakes” and “Reptiles” tags. So:
Obit watch: Evan S. Connell, Jr., noted novelist and historian. (Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn
Random notes: January 11, 2013.
January 11th, 2013What could it be, it’s a Mirage.
January 10th, 2013The Chicago Sun-Times is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Mirage Tavern stories by rerunning the entire series, one story a day, as they originally appeared in the paper (they also promise extras from their archives and those of the Better Government Association).
For the young and those who don’t remember, the paper and the BGA teamed up, bought a bar (which they named the “Mirage Tavern”), outfitted it with hidden cameras and recording devices, and then proceeded to record a parade of city employees and officials coming in and demanding payoffs. (Wikipedia summary here.)
I particularly like this quote from the Wikipedia entry:
This is backed up by the paper’s reporting: for example, it took $10 to pass a fire inspection, even though there was exposed electrical wiring and other issues in the building’s basement.
The HouChron at the time ran Mike Rokyo’s work a couple of days out of the week, so I kind of knew Chicago was corrupt, but hearing second-hand about the Mirage Tavern investigation was the first time that I realized just how crooked the city was.
(Interestingly, the series was nominated and recommended for a Pulitzer Prize for “Local Investigative Specialized Reporting”. However, the Pulitzer board rejected the jury’s recommendation of the Sun-Times series, apparently because Ben Bradlee and other folks were butthurt over the Sun-Times methods.)
(Hattip: His Jim-ness.)
Enough of this Mularkey.
January 10th, 2013Random notes: January 10, 2013.
January 10th, 2013The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the case of Missouri v. NcNeely.
Tyler McNeely was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving, and had blood drawn from him against his will and without a warrant. The Missouri Supreme Court suppressed the blood evidence. The state is appealing to the Supreme Court, arguing that they shouldn’t need a warrant.
Stop laughing. I’m not kidding. The state of Missouri believes that sticking a needle in someone’s arm and drawing blood is something that doesn’t need a warrant;”exigent circumstances” and all that happy horseshit.
Obit watch: Sol Yurick, novelist. His best known work was based on Xenophon’s “Anabasis”, and was turned into a Walter Hill directed movie.
James M. Buchanan, Nobel-prize winning economist.
I feel like I should make some comment about the Oscar nominations. Well, here it is: I’m glad “Argo” got nominated, as I think that improves the chances it will come back to the Alamo Drafthouse so I can watch it. Lawrence and I plan to see “Django Unchained”, but haven’t been able to coordinate that yet. I’m also interested in seeing “Zero Dark Thirty”. And “Silver Linings Playbook” got a best picture nomination? I’ll admit I haven’t seen anything but the trailer and commercials for it, but those were enough to turn me off: it seems like yet another “magical pixie girl/gee, isn’t mental illness fun?” movie. No thanks. I’ll pass. For now.
I’m also disappointed that “The Master” didn’t pick up a best picture nod, but it does seem to be well represented in the acting categories. Maybe that will make a comeback as well?
In Austin nightclub news, the liquor licenses for all nine of the bars operated by Yassine Enterprises have been yanked. Apparently, licenses are tied to the building, and there’s a one license per building limit; this meant that nobody else could get a license until the Yassine licenses were revoked. Now that that is out of the way, various enterprises are planning to open new bars in the old Yassine locations. I have to be honest: most of these sound like horrible places. Especially Chicago House, which will be run by the people who run Bikini’s Sports Bar and Grill (a place you go to when Hooter’s is too classy for you), and Bourbon Girl, “a ‘country cool, cowboy chic’ bar that will be operated by Carmack Concepts, owner of Chuggin’ Monkey, Dizzy Rooster, the Dogwood and Molotov”.
(Previous entries about Yassine Enterprises and their legal problems here.)
TMQ Watch: January 1, 2013.
January 9th, 2013Time for the backdated TMQ watch. What bloodshed and infamy did we miss last week? Let’s open the briefcase and find out.
Ah, that warm feeling of schadenfreude.
January 9th, 2013The first question I had when I heard this was: are they going to even have a ceremony, if nobody was elected? Answer:
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired their general manager, Brian Burke. The Maple Leafs, as I understand it, play an obscure sport known as “hockey” which is popular in Canada.
Bread blogging: Avery Island Hot Bread.
January 9th, 2013The recipe came from Brody and Apter’s Bread Machine Baking
Slight modifications:
- I coarsely ground some Chinese red chili peppers and cooked those briefly in three tablespoons of chili/garlic oil, and added that to the mix. (The recipe calls for “1 cup chopped red peppers sauteed in three tablespoons of olive oil, OR chili oil”.) Safety tip: after grinding spices, leave the grinder sit for about 15 minutes before taking the top off, unless you like breathing aerosolized spices.
- For the one tablespoon of chopped canned chiles called for, I used canned chipolte peppers in adobo sauce, and included a fair amount of the sauce. I think the adobo gave the bread an interesting color.
- I used habanero Tabasco instead of the regular Tabasco called for. I probably put in more like 15 drops instead of 10.
- I made my own chile honey with a tablespoon of ground chipolte and a eight ounce container of honey, warmed a little in the microwave and left to sit for about two days.
End result? Well, the photo of the loaf I took before cutting it turned out crappy. I’m mostly happy with the way the top crust turned out, but there’s a weird indentation on the bottom at one side of the loaf; almost as if it didn’t rise and expand around the bread paddle. I’m not sure what happened there.
As for the inside:
It has a slightly coarse, but not unpleasant, mouth feel (probably due to the cornmeal). In terms of taste, this is a really assertive bread. It isn’t overwhelmingly hot, but there’s a slight and lingering spice burn to it. I wouldn’t recommend this as a morning breakfast bread, but it tastes pretty good for lunch with some leftover fresh cheddar on top, or just with some butter and perhaps a little honey. I think it’d go well with chili or perhaps something Cajun.
I think I’m going to give this a B, mostly because of the bottom crust problem. I’d make it again, especially as an accompaniment to something that would stand up to the flavor. Next time, I’d take the two teaspoons of salt the recipe calls for and substitute a small amount of ghost pepper salt for part of that. (Trust me: a little ghost pepper salt goes a long way.)
Next up, I was considering making a sourdough goat cheese bread, but the recipe calls for “powdered goat’s milk”. I can actually get that at Sprouts, but they want $13 for a large can that I won’t use all of in eight weeks. I’ll have to see if I can find a smaller size.
Comments and criticisms welcome below.
Obit watch: January 9, 2013.
January 9th, 2013Film director David R. Ellis. (NYT. A/V Club for all your “Snakes on a Plane” needs.)
Reporter and Pulitzer winner Richard Ben Cramer. Cramer may have been most famous for one of the greatest Esquire stories, “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?“
TMQ Watch: January 8, 2013.
January 8th, 2013Yeah, we know. We got caught up in a bunch of stuff around January 1st, and last week’s TMQ totally slipped away from us. We figure we’ll do this week’s TMQ tonight, loop back and catch up with last week’s TMQ tomorrow (we’re doing them out of order because there’s some stuff we want to address in last week’s column), and then we should be in good shape all the way through to the end of the season.
At least, we hope so.
After the jump…
Gun show update.
January 8th, 2013Austin Rifle Club sent out an email late last night stating that the Travis County Commissioners Court was considering the gun show ban today. I didn’t see that email until this morning, otherwise I would have considered going down to report.
According to the Statesman, the commissioners “discussed” the proposal, and heard testimony from residents, but did not take a vote. So you still have time to contact them.
So Judge Biscoe thinks gun shows are a threat to public safety, but not one that we need to act on immediately? One that can wait “three or four months”? Option two is that Judge Biscoe is a political hack who wants to be seen as “doing something” when he’s really doing nothing. But that can’t be true: political hackery on the commissioners court? Why, that’s unheard of! (Option three is that Judge Biscoe figures things will blow over in “three or four months”, we can return to the current status quo, and voters will forget his actions. My message to Judge Biscoe: “He’d seen how ‘civilized’ men behaved. He never forgot and he never forgave.”)
And, again, I’ll make the points that:
- Any dealer with an Federal Firearms License who sells guns at a gun show has to do a check, just as if they were selling guns in a physical store.
- Any person who regularly sells guns at a gun show, or any place else, is required to get a FFL. Not getting one is a Federal crime, if you engage in the business of selling guns. If a relative dies and you engage in a private sale of a few of his guns, that’s not a crime. But if you sell guns regularly at the gun show without a license, the BATFE will come after you, and you may do time.
- Those same private sales will take place in supermarket parking lots, subdivision driveways, and other places even if the county restricts gun shows. There’s nothing the county can do to stop that.
The Statesman does not give a breakdown of how many people spoke at the meeting, nor does it give any indication how many supported or opposed the measure.
And, once again, I’ll mention that Judge Biscoe is wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong! Here’s some legal precedent from the 5th Circuit for you, Judge Biscoe. The tl;dr version: the city of Houston tried something similar and ended up paying $50,000+ in legal fees to a gun show operator.
Keep that in mind. The opposition managed to get 200 people to support their illegal proposal. I think we can do much better.
Edited to add: Forgot something else I was going to mention: I updated the .CSV files of the county commissioners and the city council members with fax numbers, just in case anyone finds that useful. Someone yesterday (and I forget who it was) made the comment that they can ignore emails, but they have to answer the phone and they have to put paper in the fax machine. I am slightly dubious about the latter, what with modern technology and all, but the fax numbers are there if you can use them.
Edited to add 2: Updated story from the Statesman:
You don’t say?
And edited to add again: by way of Lawrence over at Battleswarm, ““If Austin or Travis Co. try to ban gun shows they better be ready for a double-barreled lawsuit.” Click through to find out who said that. Hint: it wasn’t someone who runs gun shows. Hint 2: it was someone who can unleash hell on the city and county.
Random notes: January 8, 2013.
January 8th, 2013Those of you who have been following Radley Balko and The Agitator know that Balko’s been on the story of Mississippi forensic pathologist Dr. Steven T. Hayne like flies on a severed cow’s head at a Damien Hirst exhibition.
For those of you who don’t follow Balko (I don’t click through as regularly since he moved to the Huffington Post), the NYT summarizes the story:
More:
Worth noting for the record: the Innocence Project has also been involved with Dr. Hayne. Dr. Hayne and the project settled a lawsuit out of court last year, and the project paid him $100,000. The NYT article touches on this some: one key point is that, in the process of preparing their defense, the project claims to have discovered new evidence that contradicts Dr. Hayne’s sworn testimony in various cases.
Bob Dylan: The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1. No, that’s the real title.
Fun. Nasty fun.
January 7th, 2013Just finished calling all the Austin City Council members (none were available to talk to me, so I left messages with their staff), and sending emails through the forms on the city website.
My message was short and simple:
- The Martinez proposal is a bad idea that will do nothing to solve any real problem.
- It will expose the city to legal action under section 229 of the Texas local government code.
- If the council member votes for this proposal, I will not only vote against them in the next election, but I will also give money to, and actively work for, their opponent.
- It only takes 38,000 signatures to get a recall election going.
I can be a real mean SOB if I want to be. (“Take a jam to make you think. Take a challenge to make you great.”)
I plan to back this up with physical letters, which will probably go out tomorrow (assuming I can get my printer working).
Here’s something that folks might find useful: a MSWord merge file of all the council members, with addresses and office phone numbers. The email addresses come off the copies of the emails I sent through the contact forms; the “PO Box 1088” physical address is the one they all list on their contact pages. The phone numbers come from their contact pages as well.
(I could add fax numbers, I guess. If anyone uses fax machines these days.)
Edited to add: At Lawrence’s instigation, here’s a CSV version of the Austin City Council members. And here’s a CSV version of the Travis County Commissioners Court, both commissioners and their executive assistants, including phone numbers and email addresses.
To hell with Best Buy.
January 6th, 2013Battery life on my Android phone has always been an issue.
Not too long ago (I think slightly more than a year) I bought a 1750 mAh hour battery from Best Buy. That worked okay for a while, but over the past few days, it has become clear that battery is dying.
“No problem,” I thought. “I’ll get another one from Best Buy.”
Went to Best Buy. Looked for batteries. Couldn’t find any. Got a clerk’s attention.
Best Buy no longer carries any cell phone batteries. At all. They’ve got car chargers. They’ve got cases out the wazoo. But no batteries for any cell phones, even the ones they currently sell.
The clerk told me “go to Batteries Plus”.
(Batteries Plus wanted $43 for a standard capacity Evo 4G battery, and didn’t have any 1750 mAh batteries. Screw that. I can get two 2000 mAh batteries from Newegg for $11.29. And I still have my original Evo 4G battery, plus a 3500 mAh battery that I paid $4.99 for a while back. I haven’t been using the 3500 mAh one because it is a physically larger battery that requires putting a custom back on the phone (included with the original purchase), which would in turn require removing the case I have on the phone. But it is there if I need it while I wait for the Newegg ones to come in.)
(Yes, I know it was CompUSA, not Best Buy, but this is still obligatory.)
Lampooned.
January 5th, 2013Back in March of 2011, I noted the arrest of Timothy Durham, the CEO of National Lampoon Inc., on fraud charges. Specifically, he was accused of running a giant Ponzi scheme.
I missed the followup on this; it doesn’t seem to have gotten a lot of play in the press, plus it took place shortly after things went south for the winter for me. Anyway, Durham was tried, convicted, and sentenced at the end of November:
Durham was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The prosecution was asking for up to 225 years.
Durham’s co-conspirators, James Cochran and Rick Snow, were also convicted. Cochran got 25 years (against 145 years requested by the prosecution) and Snow got 10 years (the prosecution was asking for 85).
And, hey, how about that governmental oversight?
January 5th, 2013But, apparently, nobody did. Including “representatives of the organization that was most closely connected to the Austin Police Department and had the easiest access to criminal records: Blue Santa.”
Way to go, APD.
Also interesting: the “board” (or the former board, depending on how you look at it) is remaining silent. One former president, and the guy who set up the organization’s PayPal account, “declined through his lawyer to comment due to the ongoing investigation.” A second former president, who allegedly brought Shon Washington into the organization, also declined to comment.
“Like a dolphin into a tuna net.” I cannot lie: I live for analogies like that.
(Previously. Previously.)