IRA'S STUPID STUFF - LATE JULY, 2016

1. The US Department of Justice decides that Bud and Miller owning a combined 70% of the American beer market and 30% of the world market does not constitute a monopoly. "Don't worry," says the DoJ. "We've made deals with them." Meanwhile, the companies say that the merger will help them compete with craft brewers. It's good to know that our government is protecting mega-corporations from the little guys.

2. Ted Cruz refuses to endorse Donald Trump. Let's see. At the Republican convention in 1976, Reagan endorsed the man who beat him in the primaries (Gerald Ford) and went on to become President when his turn came four years later. Hillary endorsed Obama at the Democratic convention in 2008 after her beat her in the primaries and went on to become her party's nominee eight years later. Cruz...is Cruz.

3. Police shoot Charles Kinsey, on camera, while Kinsey was lying on his back with his hands in the air. Next to him, an autistic adult plays with a toy truck. We learn later that the cop who shot Kinsey was aiming for the disabled man. And missed. Three times.

We have to be careful. We can't get used to this. Just as we can't get used to the police being ambushed. Both circumstances are indefensible. You don't have to be on one side or the other. Senseless violence on both sides has to stop.

4. Hillary picks Kaine. In doing so, she pisses off Bernie Sanders. Makes sense. George McGovern wasn't progressive enough for Sanders, so Sanders worked for Spock. (Not Mr. Spock. Dr. Benjamin Spock. The baby doctor. Are you old enough to remember that he ran for President?)

So although Kaine consistently is rated 100% by Planned Parenthood (and the anti-gun lobby and many labor groups and many civil rights groups...), and although Kaine did mission (not missionary) work in Central America becoming fluent in Spanish, and although Kaine started his professional life as a civil rights lawyer, Kaine is just not progressive enough for Progressives.

5. Bill O'Reilly says of the slaves that built the White House, “slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.” O'Reilly says that he was just pointing out facts. You can put lipstick on a pig...

DEMOCRAT BONUS: "I wouldn't vote for her for dog catcher." A Midwestern delegate to the Democrat convention who has never met Hillary much less worked with Hillary decides that she knows Hillary better than Bernie and Michelle and Barack and Warren and Biden and Jimmy Carter and the Presidents of the NEA and NARAL and so on and so on. Maybe she should vote for Susan Sarandon.

REPUBLICAN BONUS: Trump says that his sacrifices...working very hard and building big buildings...are equivalent to that of the Muslim Blue Star parents of a dead Marine hero. Trump also said that the NFL wrote him a letter complaining about the scheduling of the Presidential debates. The NFL says emphatically that they didn't. See either picture above for my take on The Donald's latest forays into theater of the absurd.

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats. So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up? It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

CONGRATULATIONS, DUNCAN AND FIONA: JUNE 1, 2019

We've known Duncan since he was about 5 and were honored to be invited to all of the festivities surrounding his wedding to Fiona. The wedding was held in a magazine converted to a military museum in Gosport. Duncan's dream...a wedding in a place where they used to blow things up. I've never been around so many uniforms. Live Long and Prosper! A kiss was the price to continue... That's Duncan's sister Clair arriving on the right. Grandparents...headed for 100 and sharp as tacks. Reception in an old magazine/museum. Mom baked the cake and made the ducks to order. Not from the wedding but seemed appropriate.

GRAND CAFE OCCITAN: RESTAURANT REVIEW

We made our way to a new restaurant the other day, up toward the hills past La Liviniere in the small town of Felines-Minervois. None of our party had been there before, but a friend had visited and said that she'd enjoyed it. She's a vegetarian. First clue. Now don't get me wrong. I have no gripe with those who choose to go meatless. I understand the environmental concerns and I understand the horrors of factory farming. But I also understand that form follows function in the design of tools, in the design of appliances, and in the design of human teeth. Our incisors and canines did not develop over the course of hundreds of thousands of years to rend the flesh of a fresh-caught broccoli. We are omnivores by design, Darwinian design. And I enjoy eating omni. Enough preamble... I never went inside the Grand Cafe Occitan. A young lady who would be our server met us at the front door of the nicely pointed old stone house, leading us to a pebble-covered courtyard on the side

France, Food, Scooters and More

Search This Blog