How to Buy a French Veto

Here’s an interesting op-ed about the UN Food for Oil scandal. It says:

Why did France and Russia oppose efforts to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime? And why did they press constantly, throughout the ’90s, for an expansion of Iraqi oil sales? Was it their empathy for the starving children of that impoverished nation? Their desire to stop the United States from arrogantly imposing its vision upon the Middle East?

It now looks like they it was simply because they were on the take. Saddam was their cash cow. If President Bush has suffered some discredit over his apparently false – but not disingenuous – claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the lapse is minor compared to the outright personal selfishness and criminality that appears to have motivated many of those who opposed his efforts to rid the world of one of its worst dictators.
…
Now we know why the French and Russians were so insistent. Iraqi government documents (leaked to the Baghdad newspaper Al Mada) list at least 270 individuals and entities who got vouchers allowing them to sell Iraqi oil – and to keep much of the money. These vouchers, and the promise of instant great wealth they carried with them, bought vital support in the United Nations to let Saddam stay in power.
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Now it appears that Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s sanctimonious posturing may have concealed oil bribes which reached high up in the ranks of the U.N. organization itself.

Just another reason not to trust the U.N.

Napoleon Dynamite

I saw the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” tonight and I loved it. I hope you get a chance to see it soon. Here’s part of a review that describes the film better than I could:

The most hilarious movie this week [at Sundance] – and one of the funniest to play here in years – is “Napoleon Dynamite,” a gut-busting loser-makes-good comedy so brilliantly loopy that its off-kilter sight gags, straight-faced performances and eccentric script are as disorienting as they are hilarious. Its study of an Idaho high school geek and his search for love and respect owes much to Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse” but substitutes that film’s deep-rooted cruelty for a sense of true admiration towards its outcasts and misfits. Directed by Jared Hess (and co-written with wife Jerusha), “Dynamite” is sharp, silly, sweet and a joyously original vision.

What makes “Dynamite” such a sly first film is that it uses its inherently raw style and low-budget production value to its advantage; this is not a story of wisdom gained or maturity realized, but a snapshot of awkwardness briefly conquered.”

In some ways Napoleon Dynamite is similar to Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” in that it focus on rubes. But where Punch Drunk Love snears at the rube, Napoleon Dynamite celebrates rubes and their foibles. Plus it helps that Napoleon Dyanmite was shot in Preston, Idaho, 30 miles north of my hometown.

The trailer is available here.

I Could Respect Paul Krugman If He Made Good Arguments

Paul Krugman is a frustating writer—not because he is a good writer and utilizes brilliant logic, but because he is obviously smart and should know better than to write what he writes. Today’s op-ed is a prime example. Krugman is apoplectic about Vice President Cheney’s refusal to detail who he met with in formulating the Administration’s energy plans. Krugman writes:

Mr. Cheney’s determination to keep his secrets probably reflects more than an effort to avoid bad publicity. It’s also a matter of principle, based on the administration’s deep belief that it has the right to act as it pleases, and that the public has no right to know what it’s doing.

Well, what does the public have a right to know exactly? Does the public have the right to know everything that effected Cheney’s thinking? If so, why? The public knew the final product and that product had to go through Congress to become law. In Congress, the enviros had their chance to beat up the energy policy and as a result they stopped almost all of it. So what’s the big deal?

Using what I hope is hyperbole, Krugman also writes:

What Mr. Cheney is defending, in other words, is a doctrine that makes the United States a sort of elected dictatorship: a system in which the president, once in office, can do whatever he likes, and isn’t obliged to consult or inform either Congress or the public.

Earth to Krugman, what are you talking about? According to Webster, a dictator is “one ruling absolutely and often oppressively.” Cheney, even in Krugman’s dystopian view of the current events this is obviously not what happened with the Energy Task Force. For the benefit of Mr. Krugman, here’s a little civics lesson. First, the Energy Task Force could not change the law. Some of the proposals had to go to Congress where many of the proposals died ignominious deaths. Even changes in regulations had to go through notice and comment rulemaking where the public and special interest groups could comment on the rules.

What’s so radical about Cheney meeting with some companies to formulate a plan? I fail to see how this is such terrible thing. If Krugman were such a believer in absolute transparency, each of his articles would heavily footnoted and he would disclose everyone he talked to. If transparency is good for Cheney, it ought to be good for Krugman. Obviously Cheney is an elected official and Krugman isn’t, but Cheney’s ideas about energy policy are no more the law of the land than Krugman’s are. But Krugman’s panties are in such a twist I don’t think he understands the most basic workings of government.

How to Cook Boston Butt or Pulled Pork

Boston butt may be a strange name for a cut of meat, especially because it is a pork shoulder, but it is awfully tasty. When I was in the Carolinas a couple months ago I ate at some great barbecue places (such as Sweatman’s). After eating some delicious pulled pork, I decided that I needed to try my hand at making some. On Saturday I barbecued pulled pork for the first time and it turned out great. I thought that it wasn’t any harder than barbecuing brisket and just as flavorful. See below for the recipe:

Pulled Pork
1 Boston Butt (5 to 7 lbs.)
3 Tablespoons Basic Barbecue Rub

Basic Barbecue Rub¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sweet paprika
3 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons coarse salt
1 tablespoon hickory smoked salt or more coarse salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons celery seeds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl or container, making sure to break up the lumps of brown sugar.

Preparation of the Pulled Pork
1. Cover the meat with the rub, massaging the rub into the meat. Let the meat stand for up to 24 hours. Because I didn’t have the time to wait, I only let meat stand for 20 minutes while the grill was heating up.
2. Prepare the grill for indirect grilling and heat the grill to 225-250°F. Toss a couple handfuls of woodchips (such as hickory) on the coals. The woodchips will produce more smoke if they have been soaked in water first.
3. Place the meat in the center of the grill and close the lid. Cook the pork for 4 to 6 hours. Because I had to run some errands, after an hour and a half in the grill placed the meat in the oven at 250°F. Because the meat cooked for the first hour and a half in the grill with lots of smoke, the meat had a nice light smoky flavor even though it was cooked for the most part in the oven. The meat is done when the internal temperature reaches 195°F. However, if you are pressed for time, you can eat the meat at any temperature above 165°F. (find pulled pork website).

Western Carolina Barbecue Sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup minced yellow onion
2 cups ketchup
2/3 cup light brown sugar
½ cup yellow mustard
½ cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes more. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

Slather the barbecue sauce over the meat and dream of eating pulled pork barbecue in the Carolinas.

I Could Respect Kerry If He Actaully Believed In Something

I think the John Kerry medals story is very revealing about what kind of a person John Kerry is. CNN reports:

At issue is Kerry’s participation in a 1971 protest at which several veterans discarded their medals in protest of the Vietnam War.

Kerry threw away the ribbons from his medals, along with the actual medals of two veterans who were not able to attend the ceremony, according to the candidate’s Web site.

When he returned from the war, Kerry became an active opponent of the conflict and was a leader in Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Karen Hughes, a campaign adviser to President Bush, described herself as “very troubled” by the fact that Kerry only throw away his ribbons — not the medals themselves.

“He only pretended to throw his,” she charged Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.”

“Now, I can understand if out of conscience you take a principled stand and you would decide that you were so opposed to this that you would actually throw your medals. But to pretend to do so, I think that’s very revealing.”

Kerry is trying to draw a distinction between throwing away medals and ribbons, not only is there no real distiction, Charlie Gibson called Kerry a liar because as Gibson told Kerry:

GIBSON: Senator, I was there 33 years ago and I saw you throw medals over the fence and we didn’t find out until later -

KERRY: no, you didn’t see me throw th. Charlie, Charlie, you are wrong. that’s not what happened. I threw my ribbons across. all you have to do -

GIBSON: someone else’s medals, correct in?

KERRY: after — excuse me. excuse me, Charlie. after the ceremony was over, i had a bronze star and a purple heart given to me, one purple heart by a veteran in the V.A. in New York and the bronze star by an older veteran of World War II in Massachusetts. i threw them over because they asked me to. i never –

GIBSON: let me come back to the thing just said which is the military –

KERRY: this is a phony — Charlie, this is a phony controversy.

GIBSON: the military makes no distinction between ribbons and medals but you are the one who made the distinction. in 1984 –

KERRY: no . we made no distinction back then, Charlie. we made no distinction.

I don’t mind that John Kerry protested the Vietnam War. Good for him to stand up and believe in something. But now (and apparently then) he is a complete squish that doesn’t believe in anything other than getting elected.

Super Size Me or Not

Super Size Me is a new documentary about what happens if you eat at McDonald’s with exercising self control. Morgan Spurlock, a filmmaker decided to see what would happen if he ate at McDonalds for 3 meals a day for 30 days. Because he wanted to tell good story, he gorged himself and gained 25 pounds in a month. That is hardly surprising.

What is more surprising is that Soso Whaley’s, another filmmaker, is losing weight while following Spurlock’s same eating rules of eating everything on the menu at least once and eating 3 meals a day at McDonald’s. So far, she has lost 7 1/2 pounds in 19 days of eating at McDonald’s.

The difference between Spurlock and Whaley is that Whaley exercises some self control while Spurlock wanted to tell a good story of getting fat. It’s too bad that Super Size Me will receive so much press attention because his story fits the preconceived notions that McDonald’s is ultra-fattening and un-nutritious. As Whaley shows, sure there is a lot of fatty food at McDonalds, what is more important than the fat content is that people exercise self-control and know when to say when.

The Da Vinci Code

Tonight I finished Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Overall it was a fun read. Tonight, by sheer coincidence I was reading Tuesday NY Times online and I found an article titled, “Defenders of Christianity Rebut ‘The Da Vinci Code.” Apparently a large number of Christian are concerned about the doctrinal implications of the book. For example, the article says that:

The Rev. James L. Garlow, co-author with Prof. Peter Jones of “Cracking Da Vinci’s Code” and pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, said: “I don’t think it’s just an innocent novel with a fascinating plot. I think it’s out there to win people over to an incorrect and historically inaccurate view, and it’s succeeding. People are buying into the notion that Jesus is not divine, he is not the son of God.”

This is a point that I must diverge from other Christians. Even if we assume that the Da Vinci Code were true (which it isn’t) where are the implications that Jesus was not divine? The Da Vinci Code argues that Jesus was married and had children. This there something non-divine about marriage or having children? Is marriage condenmed in the Bible?

Legalize Drugs

If you have never been ticked off about the war on drugs, read this article in Reason. The Pasco County Attorney just sent Richard Paey to 25 years in jail because Paey took a lot of painkillers to deal with pain as a result of a 1985 car accident, failed back surgery, and multiple sclerosis. Is there a person more evil that the County Attorney of Pasco County?

Pat Tillman

Read this story about Pat Tillman from SI. It seems to capture who this extraordinary guy was.

I Passed the Virginia Bar Exam!

I passed the Virginia Bar Exam! Thank goodness!