Glenn Melancon

Texans for a Brighter Tomorrow

Fear and hate makes you stupid

Fear and hate makes you stupid. No really. It does.

The curly-haired man laughed. He laughed because those scribbles weren’t Arabic, or some other terrorist code. They were math. Yes, math. A differential equation, to be exact. ,,,He’s Italian, not Middle Eastern, or whatever heritage usually gets ethnically profiled on flights these days.

I guess “they” all look alike.

History provides more evidence the climate is changing

Is it any wonder that Exxon and Shell now admit that man-made climate change is real. The evidence is overwhelming.

The study, published today in Scientific Reports, shows that the annual freeze date of Lake Suwa changed very slowly—roughly 0.19 days earlier per decade. But once the Industrial Revolution started, the change of freeze date began drastically jumping and shifted about 4.6 days per decade.

In case you had not heard, Exxon Mobile has changed its tune on man-made climate change.  For years it had bought research to deny climate change.  Now it says this:

The risk of climate change is clear and the risk warrants action. Increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere are having a warming effect. There is a broad scientific and policy consensus that action must be taken to further quantify and assess the risks.

A scientific theory is strong when it can predict future findings and incorporate new data easily.  Climate change theories can meet these standards.

My Doner Kabab

I am a huge fan of the doner kabab.  On a research trip to England as a graduate student, I would buy one several times a week for supper.  The gyros in the US are simply not the same.   This effort was my attempt to get closer then the gyros.  Obviously I could replicate the spit, but I could approach the flavor.

I started with a boneless leg of lamb.  One end is usually intact while the other naturally separates into pieces.   I cut the intact end into cubes 1.5 inch, and then realized they would cook better if I halved the cubes, making them flatter.   The other end I turned into ground meat using a Kitchenaid grinder attachment.

Next came the seasoning.  I could find no consistent pattern online for doner kabab spices.  After sorta through a dozen or so, I settled on the following:

• Ground Cumin tsp
• Ground All spice tsp
• Turmeric tsp
• Cardamon tsp
• Ginger tsp
• Cinnamon tsp
• Dry Orange peel tsp
• Ground black pepper tsp
• Nutmeg .25 tsp
• Ground Clove .25 tsp
• Herbs de Provence tsp

I laid an even layer  of the lamb cubes in a deep rectangular dish and coated them with about half the spices.    After rubbing in the spices, I poured a drizzle of olive oil and then sprinkled with salt.  It marinated for about three hours.

Next, I turned to the ground lamb, adding the spices as well as an egg and Italian bread crumbs.  I shaped the meat into a sausage shape using plastic wrap and placing a metal skewer in the center.  Once the meat was a 1 inch tube, I flattened it into an oval patty.  Below is 1/2 the meat.  I froze the other half to enjoy another day.

I grilled the meat on a BBQ pit will above the flame on a raised grill pan, coating both sides lightly with sunflower seed oil.  The rendered fat cause the flames to jump, and the meat cooked quickly in about 3 minutes for each side.    If you don’t have access to a BBQ grill, you can always use the broiler in your oven or pan-fry.

The smell was divine as it cooked.  The flavor was really close to a real Mediterranean lamb kabab.  I served it in pita with cabbage and topped with a home made Tzatziki Sauce.

Don’t forget the wine.  We had a Chianti.

Cutting government spending now hurts everyone.

This chart from Brad DeLong has to be my favorite for understanding “what’s missing?” or “what’s different?”. The one area of the economy that is going down is government spending. If conservative economics were correct, the economy should be rocking. Instead it is making slow but steady progress. Voters need to stop punishing government workers with job cuts and wage cuts. These cuts are hurting everybody.

Pan-Seared Scallops

Reminder to self: Why you should cook with ‘dry’ scallops

SS: Is there any way to freshen up wet scallops, or any trick to making them a little bit better?

MB: Yes, we do have a little hack to help make wet scallops better, to cover up that chemical flavor taste. Soak them in 1 quart of cold water with 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of salt for 30 minutes. You almost can’t tell the difference.

Recipe

Who are the real conservatives?

Ironic No?

The government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna “has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government. “

“Texas” is richer than ever before yet public education suffers under threat of privatization, budget cuts, pay cuts and perverted standardized tests.

“How do we move forward? in Syria”

Promoting Responsible Gun Ownership

Rewriting the Second Amendment has made us all less safe, particularly Police Officers and Children. Guns should be treated like cars. Owners should be trained, licensed and have insurance, then we could have real responsible gun ownership.

The authors of the Constitution understood their own language.  In fact, they confronted many of the same issues that we do today.  Madison and Jefferson knew guns and college campuses don’t mix well.

No Student shall, within the precincts of the University, introduce, keep or use any \spirituous/ or vinous liquors, keep or use weapons or arms of any kind, or gunpowder, keep a servant, horse or dog, appear in school with a stick, or any weapon, nor, while in school, be covered without permission of the Professor, nor use tobacco by smoking or chewing, on pain of any of the minor punishments at the discretion of the Faculty, or of the board of Censors, approved by the Faculty.

Yet the conservative media and politicians continue to push false narratives that are historically ignorant and intellectual dishonest.  No, gun control didn’t promote the rise of Hitler.  Hitler played on racial hatred, a sense of victimization and a “call to arms.”  No, Europe and the Jews did not submit quietly to Nazism.  The German people voted to support a vast war machine built to impose the master race’s will.

We are not helpless in the face of these senseless massacres.  We should not tolerate this insane fetish.  We can, and should, demand responsible gun ownership.

Lincoln won the election of 1860

Why did the Slave states rebell? Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. What upset them about losing the election? What did Lincoln say? We know he didn’t do anything as President because the slave states seceded BEFORE he was inaugurated? What did they fear? Read Lincoln’s own words from 1859.

We must not disturb slavery in the states where it exists, because the Constitution, and the peace of the country both forbid us — We must not withhold an efficient fugitive slave law, because the constitution demands it —

But we must, by a national policy, prevent the spread of slavery into new territories, or free states, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does demand such prevention — We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade, because the constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does require the prevention — We must prevent these things being done, by either congresses or courts — The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it —

Lincoln wanted to stop the spread of slavery. Southern states feared the entry of new, non-slave states, upsetting the balance in the Senate. They saw the eventual death of their way of life, a way of life founded on white supremacy and the ownship of human cattle. They feared the growing call for racial equality and human freedom.

Who Should Modern America Honor?

The debate over the Confederate flag has finally forced America to confront its past.  In Louisiana “the mayor of New Orleans is proposing the most comprehensive plan yet to achieve lasting racial reconciliation in the wake of last month’s mass shooting in a South Carolina black church. Mitch Landrieu wants to dismantle a historic city statuary that honors key figures of the civil war, and rename a major parkway whose namesake led the Confederacy.”

His proposal starts with the fact that the Confederate States of America left the United States of America to protect the states’ right to legalize race based slavery.  This was their great “moral cause.”  Whites in the South feared they would lose their position as the superior race. Yes, there were other issues, but this issue dominated all others during the war, during reconstruction, during Jim Crow and during the Civil Rights era.  Do the Southern politicians, generals and soldiers who waged that war against the United States of America deserve our honor?  Our respect?  Our admiration?

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