Rahm Emanuel

I'm convinced Drudge does this on purpose. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

And above Rahm Emanuel's "You got nothin on me" picture, there's "Michelle: We Teach Our Kids South Chicago Values"

I suspect they try to teach their kids better than that. So far this year, there have been 94 murders in Chicago. There were 66 in the same period last year. There have been 408 shootings so far this year, compared to 296 in the same period in 2011.

Remember the stolen newspaper vending machine in Rahm's crawl space? That's how it begins.

I Think I Can, I Think I Can, I Think ah, What's the Use?

via

Curious Story

The Obamas went to church (church!) without Malia yesterday, so it looks like there might be something to this story (which is fast disappearing from the internet tubes):

President Barack Obama’s 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her spring break in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents.

The young tourists will be in a downtown hotel in the city known for its colonial architecture and native traditions, reported a state police official.

“We are here to block access to the hotel by other people and escort the vehicles that are carrying the visitors to tourism sites,” the police official told AFP under the condition of anonymity.

Along with the 25 Secret Service agents, Obama and her friends will protected by a slew of Mexican police officers, according to the AFP.

But now the story is disappearing.

So I wonder why. Malia isn't with the family so she must be somewhere. If she is in Oaxaca, is the story being scrubbed because:

She's 13 and the Obamas just realized that is too young to go on spring break without your parents?

This isn't the time to be telling the beleaguered American taxpayer that he's paying for this crew's lavish lifestyle when he couldn't afford to go on vacation at all for the last two years?

The kids are in a dangerous area and publicity puts them in more danger -- plus the smartest guy in any room didn't realize there would be publicity around the president's daughter and her posse jaunting down to Mexico?

Whatever is going on, it's got Obama written all over it.

Har, George Clooney

Barack the Bacon Hoarder

Barack the Bacon Hoarder - his weapons include
taxation and endless stories that go nowhere.

I don't know my dungeons from my dragons but when I saw a request for a D&D avatar, I figured I'd give it a shot. This was adapted from an avatar from Lee Smith. (don't know who that is but who's got time to paint boots or swords?)

Sometimes, when I feel like photoshoping but I'm uninspired, I'll go here and do requests for people. It's really great when I can restore a picture that is especially important to someone. But sometimes I'll see a request that gives me fresh ideas; like this.

Also, it's fun to make light of Barry the Unsubstantial on reddit. Reddit is a place where, if Obama steps in dog poop, they will hail it as a masterful move. Why, we should all step in dog poop. Don't know why it took us so long to realize it.

Kony 2012

What a strange thing the internet is. It gave huge coverage to the situation with Joseph Kony and the LRA via the movie Kony 2012. But it brought down huge criticism as well. Why? I don't know. At first I thought it was the Justin Bieber phenomenon - it's a big thing and it's not my thing, I think I'll call it stupid. But maybe it's a macho thing; the movie tugs at your heart strings and young males don't like to admit having heartstrings. Whatever it is, it's taken a toll on the founder of Invisible Children:

(Reuters) - The director of a video gone viral that calls for the arrest of fugitive Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony has been hospitalized in California for exhaustion following an "unfortunate incident," his group said on Friday.

It said filmmaker Jason Russell's condition stemmed from the emotional toll of recent weeks.

The 30-minute YouTube video called "Kony 2012," viewed by tens of millions of people, aims to wake up the world to atrocities committed by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, including kidnapping children and forcing them to fight.

"Jason Russell was unfortunately hospitalized yesterday suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. He is now receiving medical care and is focused on getting better," Ben Keesey, head of Invisible Children, said in a statement.

"The past two weeks have taken a severe emotional toll on all of us, Jason especially, and that toll manifested itself in an unfortunate incident yesterday," he added, without giving details.

AWL readers may remember me mentioning that Lumberkid has been an Invisible Children supporter for years. It's great that the film has taken off but she reports encountering its detractors as well. It's unfortunate, but there's no way I can shelter her from stupid people, they're everywhere.

Speaking of stupid people, driving home from work today, I had to lock the brakes to avoid a horse mounted cowboy on the highway. I say cowboy because he had the hat and jeans. He probably also had an iphone and was on his way to Starbucks, but he was cowboy enough to drive a horse into the traffic lanes. Ten minutes later a half dozen weekend bikers shredded their way through cars and shoulders at speeds in excess of 85 mph. Obviously on their way to an organ donor conference.

Stupid people.

Charles on Oil

Charles Krauthammer sums up the oil situation:

Obama boasts that on his watch, production is up and imports down. True, but truly deceptive. These increases have occurred in spite of his restrictive policies. They are the result of Clinton- and Bush-era permitting. This has been accompanied by a gold rush of natural-gas production resulting from new fracking technology that has nothing at all to do with Obama.

It drove me nuts to hear Obama boast about oil production being up on his watch. Yeah, only because Bush approved leases that became productive after he left office.

Another thing - if increased production won't help ease prices, why on earth would releasing from the Strategic oil reserve ease them? In fact, we have a huge pool of available oil if he would just let us drill. And a pipeline that everyone except him wants built... Read the whole thing.

Your Food is Trying to Kill You

But you can advance the War on Women if you take the wife down with you.

Have you seen the latest your-meat-will-kill-you study? (done by vegans for vegetarians and edited by the pale elite who refuse any nourishment that isn't delivered via IV) The good news: you can end it all quickly with salami and hot dogs. Me, I plan on dragging it out with sirloin steak.

Truth is, I didn't read the study. These sorts of things tend to find what they start out looking for. What new science can come from that? But the study did remind me that it's been awhile since I've fixed steaks, so tonight I threw together a Marinade Marvelous. It's a minor sin to only marinade for a few hours (instead of the usual 24) but I am weak when in the grip of bovine appetency.

It goes like this:
Marinade Marvelous

3/4 cup Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Ketchup

2 TBSP Sugar

1/2 cup Sherry wine (grocery store wine is ok)

1/3 cup Chopped onion

1 clove Garlic (squashed and minced)

Juice and Rind of 1 Lemon

Mix it all up in a gallon freezer bag, add steaks, burp the air out, and let it sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. You should use the actual lemon - the rind makes a difference - but I have gone to lemon juice in a pinch. Most important though is the time; give the marinade 24 hours and grill it rare or medium rare at most, and you'll have a steak that makes you want to go out for an after dinner vegan beat-down.

Just kidding of course. I suppose if vegans want to be vegans, well ok. But I suspect this recipe could cure them.

Marinade Marvelous came from my dad. It was a revelation to kid-me, I mean, who knew food could be that good? Years later my mom gave me the recipe. She said that my dad modified a recipe that came on the Kikkoman bottle many years ago. I'm sure he did what I do: started out with the basic recipe and tasted and adjusted as he went along. He also refused to cook any steak past medium rare. I balked at that as a kid but I'm wiser now. All your great minds take their steak rare. Look it up.

If you're going to try it, follow the recipe exactly the first time. And use real lemons and garlic. Sirloin is best, though you could use any choice cut of beef.

Someone Keeps Putting My Dreams on the Internet

h/t:
presurfer

Look What I Found at Work Tomorrow

via

Happy Pi Day

And what could be more appropriate than a cake made from pies? Second question, is there any situation in which a cake made from pies isn't appropriate?

So happy pi day. Pi, which is just the ratio of radius to circumference. Sometimes with a delicious fruit filling.

Rated R

Looks like the episode where Bill Maher was guest host.

h/t: Lumberbrudi

90 Years Ago

Notice how many people ignore the danger of the rotating blades. Either they were braver back then or they had no sense of physics.