January 2006 Archives

From the Associated Press (link):

"The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.

In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported."

I could fill this blog with outrage. Day after day of it. Outrage at the torture, the secret prisons, the warrantless wiretaps. Outrage at those on the right who defend all this. Outrage at those, including prominent voices in the media, who compare dissidents on the left to Osama Bin Laden.

I'll quote from Xopher in the comment thread over on Making Light:

"I'd rather have 100 9/11s than be a country that does these things and justifies them, excuses them, or even ignores them. But I don't have a choice about that.

I'd rather die myself. That choice I do have; and it's tempting, but I think it's my duty to keep living and trying to change people's minds.

Besides, I don't suppose public seppuku would have the same impact here as in feudal Japan."

Over Chris Matthews. Visit the website here.

...for not posting since New Year's Day. I'm trying to decide whether to switch to a different webhost. I'm paying more than I need to for this site, and I can't upgrade movabletype because I don't have access to MYSQL. I could get it through my current host, but it'd cost me even more. I want to upgrade movabletype so I can get comment filtering. I've had to close comments on every post. I'll leave comments open on this one for a while.

Filler:

still outraged by Bush. Some special elections here in Virginia have been going well for dems--could it be a sign of good things to come?

I've been very busy at work--lots of travel this time of year. I recently got promoted to Chief Scientist of my division (shhhh--it's not official yet), which is cool but it means more work.

I ordered a new laptop for use when I travel. The company had given me an old, heavy, clunker; I wanted something small and light. I ordered a Sony VAIO, which has been shipped but hasn't arrived yet.

I opened up a "home equity line of credit". Any day now I'm going to get around to calling someone about a back porch. any...day...now...

As always, at about 5 minutes to midnight last night I tuned in to NBC to watch the ball drop in Times Square. As always, I said this to my son: "Someday I'm going to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square." This idea holds no appeal for my son, and I wonder why it appeals to me, since I'm not really a party animal. Maybe it's just because it looks like all the people there are having so much fun.

I heard fireworks at midnight; I have no idea where they were coming from. Are there fireworks on the mall in DC on New Year's Eve? I've lived in Alexandria since 1989 and I don't know the answer to that question.

I had a rare success in the kitchen last night. I made cioppino from a recipe I found online. I'd swear it was a "Barefoot Contessa" recipe, but I can't seem to find it on foodtv.com. I modified it a little anyway. I used fennel, shallots, plenty of garlic, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, white wine, fish stock, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, clams, mussels, shrimp, halibut, crab meat, and, um, one bay leaf. It was outstanding. The house smelled like the ocean. The cioppino tasted like the ocean, in a wonderful way. I served it with a "mixed baby greens" salad with a light balsamic vinaigrette dressing (thank you Paul Newman) and french bread. Yum.

I had to buy a whole bag of mussels, and I have leftover mussels in the fridge. What to do with about a dozen mussels? I could steam them for lunch, I suppose.