Congress cuts the feet from under Iran deal

Dunno what counts for conventional wisdom in Iran, but in the rest of the world, a letter from the national legislature dissing a nuclear deal would kill that deal.  I mean why give them anything at the bargaining table when they have announced they won't keep the deal even if you get them to sign it. 
  Off hand, I'd say that Obama's relations with Congress are about as bad as they can get.  I wonder how that happened :-)
  I don't think anything like this has happened since the War of 1812.  And that was a long time ago. 

Words of the Weasel Part 39

"Unusual Dreams"  quoted as a side effect to some TV advertised pill.  That may be what the pill maker calls them, but ordinary people call them "nightmares". 

Why cut a deal when you don't trust 'em?

Dunno.  We don't trust the Iranians.  We know they want the bomb, badly.  They have spent a lot of money and time getting as far as they have.  The bomb would make the Iranian regime safe against regime change.  Even the boldest American future leadership would shrink from invading Iran if the Iranians threatened to nuke Jerusalem.  Real people (the kind with brains) have to figure that the Iranians will keep driving for a bomb no matter what kind of deal they sign with Obama.
   So why is Obama so set on a deal?  Especially a bad deal.  Even if the deal holds together for the next two years, it will ruin Obama's historical reputation for ever, if the Iranians produce a nuke right after Obama leaves the presidency.  Obama ought to know this, although sometimes you have to wonder about him. 
   The only way to keep the Iranians from the bomb is to remove all those centrifuges, along with all the uranium in the country.  Anything less is foolishness.  We ought to keep the sanctions on, ratchet them up tighter, until the Iranians turn over the centrifuges.  And we ought to destabilize their regime thru propaganda, aiding internal dissidents, assassination, and other dirty tricks. 

Beware the malware spreading flashdrive

Flashdrives, very convenient, very big, and deadly.  It was flashdrives that spread the Stuxnet virus into Iranian secure nuclear enrichment network.  Flashdrives with the virus were scattered in the parking lot.  Sharp eyed employees spotted them, picked them up, and took them into work.   Once the flashdrive was inserted into a computer, Stuxnet was sucked off the drive and started up. 
   Why does this work?  Blame Micro$oft.  Way back, about Win 95 time, the microsofties put "Autorun" into Windows.  It's still there.  Back in Win 95 days, before flashdrives, Autorun would scan every CD inserted in the CD drive and attempt to run program disks (say a new copy of Office) or to play music disks.  Automatically, hands off.  It was possible to turn off Autorun, but the turn off wasn't reliable, Autorun would come back to life at unexpected times. 
   Now that we have flashdrives, Autorun attempts to run any program it finds on the flash drive.  For that matter it still tries to run CD's, and floppy disks. 
   So, inserting a flashdrive in your computer can open it up to hackers, to use in bot nets, to launch Distributed Denial of Service attacks, to read all your email and suck up all your passwords.  And post any embarrassing photos they may find on your hard drive.  If I was running a secure network, I would use a pair of diagonal cutters to snip off all the USB ports on all the secured machines. 

Does anyone vote in Ferguson?

Eric Holder's justice dept just released an ugly report on Ferguson.  It says that the mostly white police force and criminal justice system spent their time shaking down black residents via parking tickets, speeding tickets, and pot busts.  It sounded really bad.
Question:  where are the black voters in Ferguson?  Surely, with a bit of leadership, they could get out the vote, and  elect a black mayor, city council, or selectmen, depending upon what kind of city government Ferguson has. 
   I haven't heard a word on the msm, not even Fox, about who runs Ferguson, and why the substantial black population (for all I know a majority) has not been able to shape up Ferguson city government via the ballot box. 

Bashing Barbie

The TV was hard at it this morning, claiming that Barbie's really thin waistline, generous bust, and super long legs was setting a bad example to girls, leading to eating disorders and worse.  Perhaps.  Was I gonna bitch about Barbie, I'd bitch about the feet.  Barbie's won't stand up.  Which reduces their play value a lot.  Girls cannot stand Barbie up and pose her, and act out  adventures with them.  At our house, some 30 odd Barbies, all without a stitch of clothing on, spent their lives packed in a basket.  Occasionally they got pulled out and played with, but not much. 

Rock Cornish Game Hens

It's a mini chicken.  Very tasty, gives that roasted stuffed chicken taste in a smaller package.  A hungry teenager will be able to scarf down a whole game hen.  Older adults will be satisfied with a half a game hen.  I stuff them with supermarket stuffing mix jazzed up with a bit of sliced apple, some grapes (in season) or raisins (out of season), the game hen liver, and some chopped onion.  Rinse them with water, and rub them down, inside and out, with lemon, or orange, and oil.  Olive is good, plain old veggie oil is fine.  Then stuff them.  Roast at 350 for an hour, maybe an hour and ten.  Baste with pan juice or oil every so often.  Game hens are too small to get a cooking thermometer into so I rely on the old fashioned fork  test.  The breast should feel cooked to the fork and juices should run out.  Skin should have browned.  When in doubt, give 'em a little more time in the oven. 
   I make gravy from scratch.  When the bird goes in, I put the neck and gizzard and heart in water and bring it to a boil.  Add a bit of Bell's Poultry Seasoning, and simmer until the game hens are done.  Then pick the meat from the neckbones with a couple of forks, and chop the gizzard and heart up fine.  When the game hen[s] are done,  take them out of the roasting pan, put them on plate and let them rest a few minutes before carving them.  To the roasting pan, add some flour to the pan juices, as much as the juices will soak up.  Then add the broth from cooking the neck and gizzard.  And the neck meat and gizzard.  Put the roasting pan on the stove, medium heat and stir until the gravy thickens.  Taste and season as necessary.  Go easy on the salt.  Thyme is good, Bell's Poultry Seasoning is good, some pepper.  
   To do it right, you ought to have a veggie, peas, broccoli, squash, green beans.  With the stuffing you don't really need a starch. 
    Next day you can do a chicken soup.  Put all the chicken (game hen) bones and left overs in a pot with a lot of water.  Add a bay leaf, and some chopped onion.  Boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Give it four hours or so.  Then turn off the heat, let it cool enough to touch, and separate the bones from the broth.  Fingers work for this, it's a little messy, but you can do it.  Pitch the bones, put the meat back in the pot.  Add some veggies, peas, carrots, corn, anything you like.  Add some rice.  Reheat and cook long enough to get the rice soft and the veggies cooked. 
   I got three nice meals out of a single game hen this way.