March 2011 – Page 4 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Food Bleg

Sebastian requested some old family recipes for his birthday, and received scanned copies of them from a cousin this weekend. I’m now adding these to my database of recipes, but I need a little help from some of you who might be a bit older and have memories that stretch back a litter farther than my own.

At least two of the recipes call for half a can of evaporated milk, but they include a notation that half can sizes are “now” available. While I love old family recipes, this is one reason I hate old family recipes. I have no idea what can sizes were common when these recipes were written down. They are billed as Sebastian’s grandmother’s recipes, but one of them is cited as “Aunt Florence,” who Sebastian believes was older than his grandmother.

I know I can get evaporated milk in little squat cans like the sweetened condensed milk I have on hand, but when I looked at that can, it says 14 oz. I don’t know if that means the original sizes were 28 oz. or if there are (or were) 7 oz. sizes available. Any help or random kitchen/shopping memories would be helpful at this point.

In the meantime, I’ll have fun guessing the proportions of some of these old recipes that simply have the ingredients listed with no measures whatsoever. It could make for some interesting dining in the future.

Funding the California Recovery

Never let it be said that bureaucrats in Pennsylvania aren’t doing their part to stimulate the economy. Well, the economy of California anyway. Because the feds & Pennsylvania are giving a Catholic high school money to buy iPads for all of their students.

Funding for the iPads came from an allotment by the state of Pennsylvania for textbooks and technology and the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Enhancing Education Through Technology program. Bishop Canevin received $23,000 from the technology grant program, of which $19,000 will be used to purchase the iPads and $4,000 will be used for professional training and development.

Clearly, the school was in desperate need for some kind of technology solution, and iPads were a simple and reasonably priced option, right?

The school has state-of-the-art computer labs, a wireless infrastructure, business class high-speed Internet, streaming audio and video broadcasts and SMART Boards in most classrooms.

But with all of that other technology at their disposal, the high school administrators have launched some new and innovative teaching methods that can only be served by giving out free iPads, right?

“That’s a crucial component,” said Mr. Sinagra. “Certainly from day one, when the students enter the classrooms, teachers need to be ready to use the iPads.”…

In the meantime, Mr. Sinagra has an assignment for the faculty.

“Their homework, beginning now through mid-summer, is to learn to use the iPad and to research what applications would be appropriate for their curriculum,” he said.

It’s such a crucial component to the curriculum that teachers don’t even have lesson plans ready to use the devices.

I’m so pissed about this, I’m seriously thinking of printing the article, taking my highlighter to key points and sending it off with a letter to my state lawmakers and Congressman. This is a school that seemingly has everything, and we just handed them $23K in education and recovery funds to buy iPads to give out for free while not even having a plan in place to utilize the technology. Insane.

Bans on Guns in National Parks Upheld

Both Eugene Volokh and Dave Hardy have commentary. The courts can not be counted on to do anything except take the extreme, like total gun bans in the home, off the table. I’m not optimistic about much else.

UPDATE: More from Josh Blackman

UPDATE: Even more here.

Lack of Due Process

Kudos to Jeff Winkler of the Daily Caller for noticing:

Get collared years ago on a bogus drug charge because the oregano in your back pocket looked like was a bag of weed? Or maybe a judge back in 2006 dropped those charges because you were able to provide proof for that Adderall prescription? Under proposed legislation, it will not matter if you were innocent all along or even proven innocent by a court of law.

Read the whole thing. The article points out one of the hidden easter egg in the bill to encourage more states to report mental health records to NICS, which I pointed out flaws in a few weeks ago.

The whole point here is that owning a gun is a constitutional right. If that’s going to be the case, you can’t just take the right away from people without due process of law. Our opponents in Congress suggest they accept Heller and McDonald, but their policy preferences show that’s all lip service. There are certainly criteria for prohibited drug users that would probably be constitutional, but that’s not what our opponents are talking about. Their goal is different. Their goal is to expand the class of prohibited person to be as wide as humanly possible.

It’s very interesting that even the Brady Campaign acknowledges due process concerns here. They say they are working with McCarthy’s office on this. It will be very interesting to see the language of McCarthy’s bill.

Castle Doctrine in Iowa

Seems it needs some help.

OC Passes Out of Committee in Florida

Vote was 14-4.Â Says Marion Hammer:

“Every time they leave the house with a concealed weapon, they run the risk of it being accidentally or unintentionally or inadvertently exposed, and being observed by a law enforcement officer who’s having a bad day,”Â Hammer said.

You mean like this?

Civil Rights Lawsuit

Right here. Seeing someone with a gun is not even legal cause to stop someone in Pennsylvania, let alone draw a gun on them.

UPDATE: Listening to the whole video, and listening to the tone in the cop’s voice, I think that guy was actually close to being shot. Probably best to just keep quiet and be very compliant in that situation. The lawsuit can come later. I’m not sure whether it’s exceptionally brave, or exceptionally stupid to amp up a cop who has a gun drawn on you.

“Because He Needed a Killin'” Defense

What that argument would look like, if spelled out in legalese.

Major Victory Over HSUS in Iowa

Yesterday the legislature passed a bill creating a dove hunting season, and today the Governor signed it. This bill was opposed very strongly by the Humane Society of the United States, who say that people don’t want this gentle bird of peace to be hunted. Apparently enough Iowa legislators thought, “Screw that, peace is tasty wrapped in bacon and basted with maple syrup,” to get this done.

Great Article on the History of the AN-94

Over at Shooting Illustrated.