The power of the mouth

On Meet the Press this morning:

Anchorman David Gregory: "What will President Obama do to improve the economy?"

White House staffer Valerie Jarrett : "He will give a State of the Union Address..."

Highly effective that.

Full body scanners == Electronic Strip Search

In reaction to the serious screwup that allowed the crotch bomber to board the aircraft, the TSA has ordered 150 "full body scanners" essentially small radar sets that see thru clothes. The scanner images are black and white, a little fuzzy, but embarrassing. If they were a bit less fuzzy you could peddle them as pornography. I sure wouldn't want anyone to see my full body scan.

Instead of harassing passengers, we ought to be looking for the bureaucrat[s] who failed to react to the bright red flag warnings the crotch bomber was waving furiously as he boarded. Single male, paid cash at the airport for his ticket, no luggage for a trans continental trip. He should have been marked for extra scrutiny just for that. The Amsterdam airport should have asked him to step aside, patted him down, and interviewed him. If the bureaucrats had been really efficient, a computer search would have turned up the father's warning that the son was turning radical. These things didn't happen. Let's find the negligent bureaucrats and hang them out to dry.

And please lay off us poor passengers.

Brown was elected by independents

Us Republicans need to keep that in mind. Massachusetts Republicans are only 12% of registered voters. Independents are 52%. Brown won by 52%. Assuming every registered Republican voted for Brown, that means the other 40% came from independents and democrats.
Independents tend to be fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Republicans need to concentrate on fiscal issues and stop worrying about the social issues.

Cherry Pie (recipe)

Comes out very tasty. Very simple. Make the crust (2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tablespoon baking powder, some sugar, one stick of margarine, 1/4 cup cold water). Sift dry ingredients together. Toss in the margarine and use a pair of table knives to chop the margarine up into pieces the size of a baked bean. Add the water. Dust your hands with flour to prevent sticking and knead the dough into a single mass. Adjust the consistency of the dough by adding water til the dough all sticks together and soft enough to roll. Divide pie dough into two parts, one for top crust one for bottom crust. Dust rolling surface and rolling pin with flour. Lacking a rolling pin, use a bottle. Grease the 9" pie pan by rubbing it with the margarine wrapping paper. Put the bottom crust in the pie pan.
Fill the pie with cherry pie filling. Or make your own filling from two cans of cherries. 1/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons corn starch and the juice from ONE can of cherries. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat and add two drained cans of cherries. Pour into pie crust. Add top crust and bake at 375 for 40 minutes or so. Pie is done when filling is bubbling hot and crust is browned. A cookie sheet under the pie pan will catch any leaks before they bake themselves onto the oven floor.

Popguns

This month's American Rifleman (the NRA mag) has a review of nine little automatic pistols, the pocket sort. They are all good looking and chambered for low powered 380 ACP cartridge. Prices range from $318 to $1150. Each gun gets a picture and a writeup.
The striking thing about the writeups. All, except but one, experienced "malfunctions" during the test shooting. We used to call them stoppages or jams. One pistol maker recommended shooting in the gun with 200 rounds before carrying it for real.
Where as a plain old .38 Special snub nosed revolver never jams, always works, and .38 Special will do a bunch more damage than 380 ACP. If you are going to carry a gun best to carry one that works.
Used to be Americans believed in revolvers, powerful and reliable, and distrusted automatic pistols as jam prone and apt to let you down in an emergency. Dirty Harry carried a revolver. That was then
Now all the cops carry Glocks, and private citizens are carrying 380 automatics. At least those who read American Rifleman. Me, I don't carry, but if I did, it would be a revolver.

Nice Guys can win

I watched Scott Brown's victory speech last night. He was good. He thanked all the proper people, and congratulated his opponent for running a good race (she didn't but Scott said the right thing). He was funny. He teased his daughters, made jokes about the pickup truck, did a good standup routine. He came across as a nice guy, witty, likeable, who likes people.
In short, Scott Brown showed as a helova good candidate, where as Martha Coakley is stiff and formal, doesn't like people much, doesn't campaign hard, and isn't very likeable. Plus she carried some formidable baggage from the Amiralt Malden daycare case and the Woodward infant death case. There's gonna be gallons of electrons and ink spilled over "why Scott won" in the near future. Maybe it is just a nice guy who happens to be an effective candidate, beat a not-so-nice woman who was a poor candidate.

Scott Brown Wins. Coakley concedes

With 83% of the vote in, Scott Brown has 52% and Martha Coakley has 47%. Coakley has formally conceded. Scott Brown will be the next Senator from Massachusetts and the 41st Republican Senator. 41 votes is enough to block action (like passing Obamacare) in the Senate.
Let the avalanche begin.
Hallelujah.