This may be less apparent in some nations than others.  My working explanation for that is that as cultures age, the public culture absorbs the ethnic culture.  That’s probably not correct, but as far as it goes I think it offers a starting point.  By this theory, the older the nation the less divergence there should be between the ethnic and juris-economic cultures.  Adding fresh confusion to this would be recently created nations that straddle ancient boundaries (eg; Iraq).

In the United States, the contrast could hardly be more stark.  This is a root cause of many of our disagreements and much of our rancor.  Here’s a simple little example.

Some ethnic cultures hold public spaces in common.  Other ethnic cultures hold private property paramount.  Of course there is room for private property in the former, and public spaces in the latter, but let’s see what happens when these clash.

The common spaces culture may anticipate and expect citizens to fully utilize public spaces, and hold little private property; no more than is required for one’s individual and family welfare.  The private property culture might expect citizens to tread lightly on common spaces to insure no individual intrudes on others’ use of the common spaces; reverting to private property when significant personal use of spaces is desired.

So, we have a supermarket parking lot.  Drivers in the parking lot are a mix of common spaces culture and private property culture.  A driver enters the parking lot with a window rattling stereo pumping out the tunes.  How do the various drivers react?  We can’t know for sure, and there are a multitude of variations, but two reactions that I’ve witnessed are that some drivers will pick up the beat and enjoy the tunes, while other drivers will either studiously ignore the racket, or quietly seeth at what amount to the confiscation of common spaces by an individual or small group.

This scenario plays out all the time, in scores of different ways.  I find this a very fascinating subject because it is so visual, so tactile, yet so fundamental, and leads to exquisitely abstract examples.  Does that guy down the street have the right to roar through the neighborhood on his Harley-Davidson, with deafening exhaust pipes blaring?  If I’m sitting in my front yard, or even my back yard, whether he realizes it or not, is invading my privacy.  But if private property should be minimal, then my recourse should be to go inside my apartment or house and close the windows.

This isn’t just about noise or ruckus on public streets and parking lots.  It utterly permeates our political, legal, financial and economic, and civil society.  Ultimately, it is about comprehending the difference between ethnic and public culture, and reconciling the two.  In a profoundly multicultural liberal Western democracy (of which the United States is the only example), this is a Really Big Challenge.

This hypothesis deserves much better, more thorough treatment than this blog post provides, but I don’t have the time or energy right this moment.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America.

But this isn’t any ordinary month.   On July 21st, 1969, meeting the challenge laid down by President Kennedy nearly a decade earlier, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.  He was the first human to leave planet Earth for another celestial body.  By all accounts, he was a humble person, the epitome of the greatest accomplishments of America and Americans.  Neil Armstrong left Earth for the final time last week.

And the full Moon came back, for a second time this month, to say goodbye.

Anyone who thinks “these things just happen” has a dead spot where a human soul ought to be.

Godspeed, Neil Armstrong.  You were the best of us.  You carry our hopes and dreams with you, and we have have no doubt that you will deliver them safely.

G’night all, and may God continue to bless America.

So I took my assessment (last college class was 42 years ago) last week, and began my classes this week.  I was fortunate to get into English 150 and Math 103 a few days into the term.  Now all I have to do is pass the classes!

This is very different from my previous college experience.  At Kings Point in 1968, you didn’t “sign up for classe”, or “get a parking permit”, or “buy textbooks”.  You showed up, they shaved your head, they issued you a sea bag full of uniforms and a huge stack of books, assigned you a room (and a room mate), and the next morning you “mustered” in Barney Square to march to class.  Man!  Those were the days!

Now I have to get started on my homework, so I’m signing off.  Wish me luck?

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

I’m sick of this market.  The whole thing is responding to government interventions … gaming the monetary and fiscal policies of both governments and central banks.  I feel as though we’re headed for a correction, taunting the Fed, taunting Congress to do something (throw Wall Street a bone).  So I’m going fully defensive:

L Income:  100%

I’m not going to jump completely out of all equities and bonds, the L Income fund leaves about a quarter of my portfolio exposed to the total F/C/S/I spectrum of equities and bonds.  I don’t think this is the end of the world, just another nasty little ‘correction’.  So I’m gonna’ see if I can get on the right side of things, this time.  Ha!Ha!Ha!

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

Oh, wait!  What’s farro?  Apparently, it’s an ancient form of wheat.  Pearled farro cooks in about 15 minutes and yields a tender but substantial grain with a delightful nutty flavor.  It also has good nutrition, but check the gluten content if you’re sensitive.  Basic cooking: 1 cup of farro in 2.5 cups water or broth, simmer for 16 minutes, test (should be al dente).  Drain and rinse.

So for this sautéed farro entre, we start with these ingredients:

Here we have, clockwise from top: black pepper, garlic salt (I know, I know, but it’s easy), EVOO, a great big handful of arugula, about 10 shrimp (16-20’s), browned bacon, shrimp shells, a couple eggs, some sliced green onion, vegetables (corn, purple onion, red bell pepper), and finally in the plastic bag, a cup of dry farro, cooked and chilled.

Before we start cooking the farro, let’s put a 3qt bowl in the oven at 150-160 to hold the finished farro sautee, and a green salad to serve on the side.

Sautee the shrimp shells to flavor the bacon drippings:

When fragrant and the shells are all pink, remove and discard.  Then add the vegetables:

I let the vegs go to fragant, softening, and the corn gets a bit of color.  You’ll know, it’s not rocket science.  Then add the farro:

I want medium high at this point, we want to get the whole shebang pretty darned hot and toasty.  At this point, I season with garlic salt and ground black pepper.  Now, add the shrimp and bacon:

Sautee like crazy, until the shrimp are nearly cooked, then fold in the arugula:

When the arugula is wilted, add the green onions and sautee to combine and warm , then transfer to the warm bowl to hold while you fry a couple eggs:

I didn’t get any pics of frying the eggs, which is OK because I just fried two of the worst eggs I’ve ever friend.  In this spot, imagine a picture of frying an egg.

To plate, a big mound of the farro, topped with a fried egg, and a green salad on the side:

This was one of the truly great “comfort food” dinners I’ve ever made.  When we were finished, we just sort of sat there and smiled.  Well, a better looking fried egg would have been nice, but wouldn’t have tasted any better =8-/

If you shop for ingredients, this can be a very economical dinner, too.  It’s red bell pepper season, so I got 3/$0.99.  The pearled farro is a bit price, around $4/lb at Whole Foods.  I included shrimp in this dish because Safeway had 16-20 shrimp on sale for $6.99/lb.  On another day, it might have been scallops, or something else.

Like fried rice, this dish is almost infinitely adaptable.  I suppose that with a few of the basics, you could use it to clean out the old fridge’ when too many bits and pieces stack up.  And I enjoy the sauté experience, cook for a minute, flip, cook for another minute, shake.

Oh, you can add toasted nuts, too!  YumYum!  Enjoy.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America.

I’ve read claims that government is a source of morality, an enforcer of morality, an arbiter of morality, or somehow has something else to do with morality.  It’s not so.  Government is amoral, it needs to stay that way, and here’s why.

Morality is about free choice.  If there is no option, there is no morality.  Without options there is instinct, or obedience, or impulse, or whatever.  Morality must be founded on the option, the choice, to select one path over another.  Note: interestingly, a wolf can’t be moral or immoral, it can only be a wolf.  Only humans can be moral or immoral, because only humans have free will.  Okay, back to the topic at hand.

Government truly does derive it’s just authority from the consent of the governed.  Once established, government becomes a monopoly regarding coercive force.  There’s nothing optional about government.  Government is the arbiter of justice, and justice is based on laws, police, prosecutors, courts, jail and other penalties.

Justice might possibly claim to be ‘informed’ by morality, but for the reasons already stated, justice is not morality.

Only institutions composed of one or more people who’ve made the free will decisions to associate can arbitrate morality.

In the past, we had government involved in morality through a legal association and bond with the Church.  That worked badly and led to much suffering.  So when the Founders established the United States, they made sure to erect a wall of separation between Church and State.  They established a system of government that would restrict itself to justice, and leave morality to the individual.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

Now, one of the several challenges to serving a steakhouse dinner at home is that you won’t have a kitchen staff and you won’t have a wait staff.  Rather, you’ll be both.  So if you want to socialize with your dining companion(s?), there will be some staging involved.  Typically, a steakhouse dinner will begin with an appetizer, move on the steak/entrée, and conclude with a dessert.  In presenting this dinner, I’m leaving the appetizer and dessert to you, but recommend that you focus on courses that can be staged in the ‘fridge and simply served at the appropriate time.  For example, you could pre-stage a shrimp salad appetizer and cheesecake dessert in the ‘fridge … both covered in plastic wrap, please! … ready to appear at the appropriate moment.

This “Flatiron edition” steakhouse dinner will run less than $20 per diner, with wine.  Here’s the menu:

Appetizer of your choice

Flatiron steak with an onion, mushroom & pepper relish
Crispy Tater Pops
Field greens dressed with a Dijon caper vinaigrette

Dessert of your choice

Total prep time will be an hour and 15 minutes of so.  Only the last 30 minutes will be active cooking time.  Here are the ingredients (to serve two):

A Flatiron steak, just over a pound

plus 2 Tsps Kosher salt and 2 Tbsp worcestershire

Two handfuls of greens

For the dressing, a Tsp of Dijon, a Tsp of capers (chopped), a Tbsp chopped parsley, big pinch ground black pepper and big pinch (or two) of sea salt.  2 Tbsp red wine vinegar and 3 Tbsp EVOO extra virgin olive oil.

Some onions, mushrooms, and red bell peppers

And some Tater Pops

(Bake them on a brown paper bag for extra good results.  That’s a nice serving for two, BTW)

And a nice wine!  There are so many really good California red blends now, it’s a Golden Age for table wines….

So we dissolve the Kosher salt in the Worcestershire, and put the steak on a plate, on the counter, to marinade for one hour before jumping on the grill.

That steak is actually a good inch thick.  I flip and baste with marinade every 10 minutes or so.  I find that steaks cook better on the grill if it’s near room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 450, and start your grill and get it as hot as you can, or 550-600.  If you’ve read these pages, you know that I swear by Grill Grates, and you’re about to see why.  Here’s where timing comes in.  If you’re going to serve an appetizer, and be the kitchen staff, and the wait staff, you’ll need a campaign plan.  The grill will need your attention, so you can join your guests at the appetizer either a) before grilling the steak, or b) the second the steak comes off the grill.  Option B is probably a better choice.  So here’s one possible timing sequence:

30 minutes before appetizers, add the onions, mushrooms, and peppers to a skillet on medium heat, with a turn of oil, salt and pepper, and some herbs as you desire.  Continue to shake/stir throughout.
25 minutes before appetizers, put the Taters in the oven.
10 minutes before appetizers, shake the Taters, pop the Flatiron onto the grill
(see note at the very bottom of this article)
- 7 minutes before appetizers, turn the Flatirons about 60 degrees
- 4 minutes before appetizers, flip the Flatiron:

Give the steak a push test to verify doneness, then remove it to a warm plate to rest while you start your appetizer.  Turn off the oven and crack the door.  Give the onions. mushrooms, and peppers a final shake.

When your appetizer is finished, slice the steak (add any juices to the onion relish).  Whisk the vinaigrette and dress the greens.  Remove the Taters and plate your meal

Now, you can probably do a more artistic job of plating, the steak and relish probably should have gone in the middle.  I wasn’t completely happy with this steak.  It’s the first Flatiron I’ve gotten from Safeway that had major gristle running through the meat.  And the thick end came out a little rare, although the thin end was nicely medium-rare:

Costs were: steak and marinade ingredients $9, wine $7, Taters $2, Greens $2, dressing ingredients $1, onion mushroom pepper relish ingredients $4, propane and hickory chips $1.  So $26 for the entrée and wine for two.  Add an appetizer and dessert and you can come in under $20 per diner for a three course steakhouse dinner with wine!

“note at the very bottom of this article”:  If you serve the steak intact (not sliced), one side will be “up” and the other side will be on the plate.  In this case, it pays to pick with side you want to “present”.  As a general rule, cooking on my Weber with GrillGrates, I divide the cooking time into thirds.  The first third, presentation side down.  Then I give the steak a “twist” and another third of the cooking time.  Then I flip the steak over to cook the “plate” side for the final third of cooking time.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

I addressed the problems with Progressive positions on gun control in my previous post.  Now I’ll address the problems with Progressive adherence to Atheism (yes, yes, yes, I now that’s a hyperbolic statement, but if you subtract ‘atheist’ from ‘Progressive’, you’re not left with much).

The central question is, “Does there exist an authority that exceeds the authority of Man”?  There are dozens of venerable philosophical arguments addressing the existence of God.  It’s unnecessary to go there.  It’s only necessary to answer whether Man has the final say on human rights, or not.

The Americans, famously religious, thought not and had a revolution against a foreign King.  And they lived peacefully and happily ever after.  The French, famously atheist, thought not and had a revolution against their own King.  And they descended into the bloodbath known as “The Terror”, and have gone through conquest and upheaval and actual colonialism ever since.  Although, as Progressives are so inclined to point out, everyone in France has healthcare.

The Founders, being ever aware of the tyranny of Kings and Mobs, perceived that by their very nature, our fundamental human logically rights could not derive or depend on the efforts of Man.  Their senses and their logic told them that Man is born with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  And that, being born with these rights, they could not derive from fickle laws and rulers.  Therefor, these fundamental human rights must derive from an authority greater than the authority of Man.  So they stated that Men are “endowed by their Creator”.

As to religion, it is a path to understanding aspects of this Creator, but it is not equivalent to this Creator.  Religion is one way that people organize themselves, voluntarily, and interact with each other, independent of civil authority.  People thereby form communities which can bestow position, recognition, comfort, and support on its members.  Because religion is voluntary, it is possessed of moral authority that is unavailable to government (which relies entirely on coercive force).  And this poses a threat to the hegemony of the “Rule of Man” over his (often unwilling, but coerced) fellow men.

For the atheist Progressive, the quickest, most direct, and lowest effort way of ending the moral authority of religion is to kill the Creator.  To kill the Creator, the atheist Progressive will insist on physical proof of a physical Creator.  Clearly, this is not just nonsense, but a logical contradiction.  It is a demand that everything about human beings should be described in the equations of physics (or, for the slightly clever atheist, the chemistry of the brain).  Only a materialist, who sees in technology the answer to every challenge, would pursue that line of reason.

The Creator, in terms of our legal system, is not a physical being any more than “zero” is physically provable.  You can write ‘0’, but that isn’t ‘zero’, it’s a symbol that stands for zero.  Zero is not ‘nothing’, it is an abstract concept that encircles the concept of ‘nothing’ within a finite space, that finite space not actually existing anywhere, but rather existing everywhere.  The Creator is equally and exactly this type of completely abstract, yet utterly concrete, entity: the source of the basic human rights with which we are each born.  The Creator is the concept that adds to our goodness when We The People do good, and which deducts from our goodness when we do bad.

Everyone doesn’t think carefully about every topic of daily life.  Not everyone is inclined, not everyone has the time, not everyone, frankly, has the capability.  Religion serves as a guide toward the most important aspects of the Creator.  Organized religion does serve as a limiting force on the power of spiritual persuasion.  The Branch Davidian/Waco tragedy, and the horror of People’s Temple/Jonestown were example of spiritual sermonizing being harnessed and used by deviant individuals outside the confines of organized religion.

Finally, being voluntary, religion is another vector of personal liberty.

Random thought: the claim to aspire to perfection not only does not claim to have achieved perfection, it affirmatively states the opposite.

I’m sorry that President Obama was baffled by the tendency of people to cling to their “guns and religion”.  I’m sadder yet that he ascribed it to fear and uncertainty.  In this article, and the previous, I believe that I’ve shown how both are fundamental vectors of individual liberty.  Perhaps President Obama, now with almost four years experience being President of all of We The People, and not just his native group of liberal academic and media elites, might be coming to understand this.  And that is likely why the (incendiary hyperbole to follow) atheistic, anti-gun liberal academic and media elites are building such a fury against him.

If we understood ourselves better, we would be a happier, more prosperous, kinder and safer nation.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

The United States has a model for government that was highly unusual, and probably unique, at the time of its creation.  Our Founders established that the government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.  In the United States, unlike the monarchies and principalities of the day, we the people granted limited authority to the government.  And the government was charged with protecting and defending our fundamental human rights, which (in the Founders’ plan and documents) derive from the Creator.  This completes the Elegant Triangle of the society of the United States: we the people, the Creator, and our government.

Government, granted a monopoly on coercive force by legislation, has no need to be defended from anything.  As I’ve stated elsewhere, “Religion isn’t God”. Likewise, “The government isn’t the Constitution”.  Besides safeguarding our basic human and civil rights, the government is also charged with protecting and defending the Constitution.  With that monopoly on coercive force, the only real danger related to the government is an overreach of power: an unwarranted extension of government power that impinges on the rights and freedoms deriving from the Creator.

So finally, after all that, we’re positioned to move on to the ‘guns’ thing.  Of the three elements of the Elegant Triangle, “we the people” are the most vulnerable.  The government has overwhelming force.  The church, standing in as representative of the Creator, has not only significant resources, but a worldwide presence to which it can retreat, on which it can call for support, and from which it can reconstitute.  But we the people, the true source of legitimacy for the government, lack the resources of either government or church.

The Founders, having personal experience in the reality, were keenly aware how vulnerable we the people would be in the face of government oppression.  Among the first acts of Great Britain in attempting to end the rebellion was to seize the communal arms of the Colonists, in Virginia and in Massachusetts.  To a significant extent, the Founders were left with nothing but their personal arms with which to defend themselves and prosecute their rebellion.

And the United States was born in violent rebellion against the mightiest Empire of the day.  Canada wasn’t, Australia wasn’t, New Zealand wasn’t, none of the nations of Europe were.  Some of Latin America shares our heritage as a revolutionary nation, but they were Spanish and lacked the blessings of the English system of common law.  And where the United States inherited the vile burden of chattel slavery of Africans, our Latin American neighbors inherited the Spanish legacy of Church/State collusion.  So enough wandering about, the United States was born in violent revolution, largely enabled by private ownership of firearms.

This yields two points of difference between the United States and much of the rest of the world, when it comes to private ownership of firearms.  We grant authority to the government, we expect that government to overstep, so we place safeguards, checks, and defenses against government oppression in place.  And we were created as a nation, from the first, in a tremendous paroxysm of violent revolution.  So we recognize and defend the privately owned firearm as one vector of individual citizenship in America.  It is crude, and in practice ineffective, but it serves as a powerful, tangible reminder that in the United States, the citizen is sovereign over the government.

It’s no longer 1783.  The privately owned firearms current today aren’t single-shot, muzzle loading flintlocks.  I’ve stated support for appropriate, effective firearms control on many occasions.  But look at the problem: 9,000 firearms homicides per year.  Who commits firearms homicide?  According to the FBI, firearms homicide primarily results from a) the commission of other felonies, and b) gang activity.  Anyone who proposes a solution is obliged to explain how their solution will address those origins of firearms homicides.

Without that connection, gun controls take on an entirely different character.  Without an explanation of how the proposal will address the sources, such a proposal would assume the character of obstruction, if not confiscation, of private ownership of firearms among law abiding citizens.  Through this sequence, those with an agenda (in this case, unnecessary and inappropriate limitations on private ownership of firearms) generally become the worst enemy of their own cause.

And precisely because of those with an agenda, meaningful reform becomes impossible.  I don’t know all the details of “stop and frisk”.  All media reports indicated that it was a policing policy that was making a difference in getting illegal firearms off the streets, and reducing violent crime.  That is many times more effective than “banning assault weapons”.  Progress in reducing firearms violence has already been significant, the rate has dropped by half over the past 20 years.  To continue that progress will require good faith cooperation from both sides.  On the gun control side, offering support for “stop and frisk” would be a strong first step.

So now the origins of private firearms ownership in the United States, and the challenges to reducing firearms-related violence, are laid out.  Imagining these factors away … as if we weren’t born in violent Revolution against a despotic ruler, as if most homicide isn’t committed by garden variety criminals … simply won’t work.  Propagandizing these issues away is another alternative, but ultimately that would be more damaging to the entire constellation of causes that fill the night sky of the “gun controllers”: social safety net, right to healthcare, right to education, corporate non-personhood, and so forth.  Anyone who tries to propagandize an easily verifiable truth ends up losing credibility on all future, even unrelated, claims.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

Over the next few days, I’ll explain what I see as the background for that quote, the real and enormous divide that it represents for our Nation, and the challenge we face in moving forward as a house divided against itself (to borrow from another President).  I’m not at my own computer, where I have a really nice blog editor (MS LiveWriter), I’m at my volunteer job and having to use the editor provided by WordPress.  So I’m not going to write any more today, but I’ll be back tomorrow to begin sharing with you what I’ve come to realize about the issues of government, guns, and religion.

By this time tomorrow, I may have a better idea how many installments this will take….

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!