The Ten Cannots

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

I just came across a listing of "The Ten Cannots," a pamphlet published in 1916 by an outspoken advocate for liberty, William J. H. Boetcker.  Quite a bit of wisdom and insight here.

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. 
• You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. 
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. 
• You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. 
• You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. 
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. 
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. 
• You cannot establish security on borrowed money. 
• You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

 Ponder and Enjoy.

At Last! More Shameless "Self"-Promotion

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

The new edition of my great-great-grandfather's book is available at Amazon.  This is pretty exciting.
An Adventure With Guerrillas by Ethelbirt Crouse is the story of his encounter with Conferderate guerrillas toward the end of the Civil War.  It's quite a good read, really.

[It's also available at my lulu store grandteuton.lulu.com]

I've just noticed that the title at Amazon is spelled with a single "r" rather than two.  This means searching for it only works if you search for An Adventure with Guerillas - but the links I have here will work for you regardless.

Won't Someone Think Of The Children?!

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

Perhaps it's something to do with the programmes I watch, but I've seen far too many of the commercials for a "teach your infant to read" system in the past several months.  Heidi will attest that I can hardly stop myself decrying the pernicious influence this method would have, were it widely adopted.  My basic question is, "When did our writing become logographic?" (Apparently logographic is now the preferred term for the now-disparaged ideographic.)

Memorising full words before having learned the sounds represented by the alphabet simply makes no sense.  Some writing systems (e.g. Chinese) are logographic, that is the units of writing (individual logograms) represent words or concepts [yes I know, sometimes sounds as well], while others (e.g. English) are alphabetical where the units of writing (letters) represent sounds.  In either system, its basic units are combined to represent words.
I will grant you that our current pronunciations often don't match well with the spelling (after all, orthography was mostly set long ago, while pronunciations continued to change with little regard for how the literate folks were spelling things), but without a solid grounding in the sounds of letters and combinations of letters, every new word becomes an exercise in frustration.  I frankly can't imagine wanting to read much of anything under those terms.

Oh, and folks who've learned to read in this sight/sound/meaning system (which reminds me of parts of the whole language system we were told to embrace some years ago) actually don't want to read much.
Still, there is only one criterion for judging a solution to a problem these days - it must be new.  It really doesn't matter if we've moved from something that worked to something that doesn't, going back to the (dare I say correct?) method isn't to be considered.  "Don't you have any new ideas to contribute?  Can't you say anything but no?"

Why can't they be Hooked on Phonics?  Bloody dolts are going to destroy a generation's reading abilities.
grr.

Why Limited Government?

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

I really think this is an important question these days, in spite of its sometimes being asked simply as a pretext for a particular answer.

Here's my take on the question.  Basically it comes down to original sin and the total depravity of man.  This is just basic Christian doctrine that says (among many other things) that Man Cannot Be Trusted.

That's pretty much all it takes to understand why the Constitution is set up as it is - to make sure that the federal government cannot have too much power over the States or over the People, and to make sure that each branch is answerable to the other two.  Further, the right of citizens of the United States to move from State to State was an additional protection from despotism.

The framers had had some recent experience with individuals having relatively unlimited power, and they realised that it was not a terribly good idea.  Even if now and again there might be a monarch, dictator, ruler, leader, or whatever with whom they agreed, more often than not it would be the other way round.

There's the saying that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.  I think it works the other way as well - when a corrupt person takes power, he corrupts the power he's taken.  Given the Christian understanding of human nature, the limited nature of federal power is something for which to be grateful.

Carnage du Jour - 11 September 2010

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

Ah ... Family Camping at Albert Sleeper State Park!

Thanks to the hunting skills of two of our intrepid campers, we had a few nice venison roasts for our annual Saturday night feast, and nice they were indeed.

The question then was how to prepare venison rump roasts for twenty five to thirty folks while camping (with all the comforts of home, such as electricity (that's hydro to our Canadian readers) and water - running water came from the sky, potable water from the tap down the road.

The appliance part of the answer was an electric roaster.  The cooking part of the answer was as follows.
A dry rub of salt, cocoa powder, and chipotle powder was applied to the roasts, and they were seared at the highest setting on that roaster (450F, I believe).  The temperature was dropped to more like 275F and they were slow roasted for a couple hours.  Part of the way through, a bit of vegetable stock and red wine were added, along with some diced onions, sliced mushrooms, and carrots, so I suppose it was more of a braise than a strict roast at that point.  A bit later, some fresh chorizo was added, making that sauce all the better with its spicy goodness.

I had never actually cooked venison before, although I had eaten it several times, and had an idea of what flavours would match well.  Further, knowing that it was a very lean protein meant that I knew it had to be cooked slowly to avoid drying it out too much.  All in all, a very successful entrée for the crowd.

Of course, that was far from the only dish at the feast - cheesy mashed potatoes, Greek peasant salad, bulgur and couscous salad, pasta with Alfredo sauce, jambalaya, I'd better stop before it looks like an exhaustive list, as there's no way I'll remember them all, and I don't want to offend any of the other cooks.  Suffice it to say that no one had any excuse to leave the table hungry.

The food was tasty good, and the fellowship was excellent.

Slowly I turn ...

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

That's right, I was just at Niagara Falls, and I have something very odd to report.



There are strange electrical phenomena there in the land of Tesla, that's for sure.

Those of you who know me personally will be shocked - shocked, I say! - to discover that my hair was forced to stand on end by the relentless electrostatic pressure of that mighty cataract.
(Heidi's hair was similarly affected, but clearly it's less difficult to believe - or picture - in her case.)

Not only was our hair affected, but the batteries in our camera were drained beyond reason, and our mobile phones lost 3G connexion - and thus picture messaging functions - while near the falls.

Clearly there is something extraordinary going on at Niagara Falls, something that neither government seems willing even to acknowledge!  Signs are plenteous along the Falls, warning of strange men climbing over the walls and fences to attack (or perhaps warning tourists not to climb over those walls, they were a bit ambiguous, really), but there were no High Voltage warning signs to be found.

This is likely a bigger cover-up than Area 51, but with some help from others out here on the interwebs, we're hoping to blow it wide open.

Carnage du Jour - 31 August 2010

Well, it was pork chops again, and that's always a good thing.

This time, however, I was looking for a way to make it a bit lighter - not a lot of rice or pasta or potatoes to go with the pork.  Besides, it was too hot to do much cooking.  So ....

A bit of onion, sweated in some olive oil.  Removed from the pan, where the chops were then cooked in that nice onion-flavoured oil.  They had been dusted with kosher salt, some beau monde, and some chipotle powder on one side.  At the turn (of the chops), some orzo was added to a pot of boiling water - it finished up shortly after the chops were removed to rest on a platter.
But perhaps the tastiest part was when the onions went back in the pan, and cucumber slices were added to the mix.
If you've never cooked cucumber, you ought to try it.  They didn't soften and dissolve as one might have expected (I didn't), but rather held up quite nicely, with the browning adding a nice sweetness to their flavour.  As they were finishing up, I added some chopped tomato to the pan and gave it a quick stir.  A small amount of chicken stock was added, and then in went the (well drained) orzo.

Quite a nice dinner, and very quick and simple.