Right Wing Nation

Today is Don Everly’s birthday. Dream:

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.

TCM is running a classic sci-fi marathon today.

Forbidden Planet, 9:15
Them!, 11:00
The Time Machine, 12:45
The Black Hole, 2:30 (okay, not exactly a classic)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 4:15
The War of the Worlds, 6:30

You know what channel I’ll be tuned to all day.

From Blue Crab Blvd. If you don’t have a gun, use a snow shovel:

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. - It looks like a couple of suburban St. Louis purse snatchers picked the wrong women to attack. The victims fought back — with a snow shovel.

Police in Maryland Heights released details of the Sunday incident outside a Schnucks grocery store. The women were unloading groceries when the thieves tried to steal two purses from their cart.

One of the women grabbed a shovel from the suspects’ pickup and smacked one of the men upside the head. The other woman jumped into the cab and attacked the other suspect, then grabbed the keys so he couldn’t drive away.

And from Blue Star Chronicles, we have this hilarious story of a Green Beret who was court-martialed for not using a .45 to save the taxpayers the expense of a trial:

BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it.

Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December.

The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.

When the intruder threatened him with a knife, Taylor warned him, then brought his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes.

That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen, Taylor said after his trial. The bullet bounced right off. The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily. He crawled out of the room then got up and ran out the door and down the street. Knoxville police apprehended him a few blocks away and he now awaits trial in the Knox County jail.

The charges against Taylor were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial, said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasnt big enough to get the job done.

Taylors defense attorney, another retired Weapons Sergeant, disagreed. He said Taylor had done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22.

If he’d used a .45 or something like that the round would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbors wall and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed, he said. I believe the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in his choice of weapons. He did nothing wrong, and clearly remains to this day an excellent weapons man.

Counsel for the defense then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced off the perp’s forehead.

He was victimized by old ammunition, he said, just as he was in Korea and again in Vietnam, when his units were issued ammo left over from World War II.

Taylor said nothing in his own defense, choosing instead to allow his peers to debate the matter. After the trial he said the ammunition was indeed old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as he crawled out of the house.

I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it had gone through his forehead, Taylor said. It was good for both of us that it didn’t.

Following testimony from both sides, Taylor was acquitted of the charges and was given a round of applause.

Meanwhile, back in Knox County, the word is out: Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.

Yes, but fresh .22 or .45?

Here is the Rasmussen Super Tuesday poll:

McCain is leading in all states except for Georgia and Missouri.

So who are the runners-up and by how much do they beat the third-place candidate?

Rasmussen reports that in head-to-head polls, McCain beats both Hillary and Obama by single digits.

The Cynical-C Blog has a collection of complaints to the FCC, including such gems as:

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF FAMILY GUY BASHING CHRISTIANS, ALSO, THE SIMPSONS & THAT 70′S SHOW. IT HAS DRUG RELATED MATERIALS, THAT I DO NOT WANT MY CHILDREN TO SEE. ITS PRETTY SAD THAT 2 OF THESE ARE CARTOONS, WHICH CATCHES MY CHILDRENS ATIENTION. ; PLEASE DO SOMETHING AlB THIS.;

We really need forced labor camps. These people have far too much time on their hands. But I wonder if the FCC has a form letter that says, basically, “Get a life.” And if you have the patience to read through even more complaint letters from drooling morons, check them out here.

Offered without endorsement of any kind (hat tip Ace), the latest Fox News Poll (PDF results file here):

In the narrowed field, McCain now leads among Republicans with 48 percent, far outdistancing Mitt Romney at 20 percent and Mike Huckabee at 19 percent. Ron Paul receives 5 percent. The number of undecided voters has dropped from 13 percent in December to 5 percent today.

[ . . . ]

Clinton and Obama both essentially tie McCain in hypothetical head-to-head matchups. Among registered voters nationwide, the poll finds that 44 percent back Clinton and 45 percent McCain. Similarly, 44 percent prefer Obama, while 43 percent choose McCain. These results fall within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

Clinton (+14 points) and Obama (+18 points) each have a double-digit advantage over Republican Mitt Romney when tested in two-way matchups.

Between McCain and Romney only, 62% of Republican respondents would vote for McCain, and 29% Romney; for Independent respondents, the split is 60-21 for McCain.

Hillary was seen as the candidate most likely to embarrass the country, and the candidate who would do anything to win the election, including something unethical. All of the Republican candidates were way behind her on both of these questions, for all respondents.

The respondent breakdown for the poll was 42-33-20 (Democrat, Republican, Independent). The margin of error was ±3.

Speaking of lard, Twice-Cooked Pork is to Szechuan items on a menu as Moo Shu Pork is to Mandarin items: If a Chinese restaurant has any Western Chinese at all, it will have Twice-Cooked Pork. The problem is that it’s usually nasty.

I have about seven recipes for it, and a couple were okay, but I was never crazy about either. Then, I had it at the Szechuan Gourmet in midtown, and it was amazing, totally unlike what I’d ever had, from a restaurant, or any of my recipes. It wasn’t sweet, for one thing. For another, the pork was succulent and luscious.

So I started experimenting. What I had at the SG was pork belly and leeks. Sometimes, it also has bell peppers.

The first key is pork belly. Think bacon, because it’s bacon-to-be (cure and smoke pork belly, and you get bacon). Finding it is difficult, since we make all of ours into bacon and salt pork, but the local Asian grocery carries it. Again, think bacon, alternating streaks of meat and fat, but we cut the skin off; the Chinese do not. Mmmmm, skin! If you can’t find it, and unless you have a Chinese grocery with a meat section, you probably can’t, substitute boneless spare ribs. They are nowhere near as succulent, but they work.

The second key is to slice it as thinly as possible after the first cooking. If you don’t, the fat is too much, even for me.

The third key is don’t stir-fry the cooked pork slices too long. Think bacon. You don’t want them crispy. Yeah, they’re pale, but that’s okay. When you add the sauce, they don’t be.

The fourth key is don’t overdo the leeks. They can easily overpower the pork. Also, when you start cutting into the green, stop. I find that 1 of each (1 pound of pork belly, 1 leek, and 1 bell pepper) is ideal. I’m finally happy with the results, after playing with it for several months. So here it is.

Switching chili paste with garlic for hot bean paste gives a more honest, straightforward dish. The sweetness in my other recipes comes from way too much sweet bean paste or hoisin (depending on the recipe). I use hoisin, since I have more uses for it than sweet bean paste (and it’s a lot easier to find). About half my recipes add soy, “for color,” which is mystifying, since there’s plenty of color without the soy, but it’s better with than without. And I increased the black vinegar, to counteract the sweetness of the hoisin. So here it is.

Twice-Cooked Pork

1 lb. pork belly
1 leek
1 bell pepper (I use red, because I’m not fond of green pepper, but it’s up to you)
1 T. oil

Sauce ingredients:

2 T. chili paste with garlic (I like it better with three, but it’s pretty hot)
1/2 T. hoisin
1 T. dark soy
1 T. black vinegar
1 T. sesame oil

Cover the pork belly with water, bring to a boil, turn the heat down, and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Remove the pork belly and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.

Mix the sauce ingredients.

Cut the pepper into small (about 1/2 inch) squares. Cut the leek on the bias into very thin slices (when you get up to the green, stop). Put the pepper and leeks on a plate.

Put the pork belly slices on their sides (they sit flat until you simmer them, and then, they curl). Cut into very thin slices with a sharp knife, as thin as you can manage.

Heat the tablespoon of oil in a wok until smoking (you don’t need more than a tablespoon; the pork belly will render some of its fat). Add the pork belly slices, and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes, until some of the pork belly slices just start to brown.

Add the veggies, and stir for another minute. Add the sauce, stir it around for a few seconds, then eat.

Mmmmmm, pork belly!