Froth Slosh B'Gosh

In Which I Attempt To Recreate an Ancient Roman Condiment

I've read a lot about garum, and how it differs from modern fish sauces.  I'm trying to recreate it.  Since I live in Pittsburgh, not known for extended periods of warm, dry, sunny weather, I decided to use a crock pot to simulate the southern Italian, north African climate.  Four pounds of whole sardines, a pound of canning/Kosher salt, and a few tablespoons of oregano and basil go into the pot! Now to let this cook down on a low setting for a few days.

Still Unconstitutional

Pennsylvania's odious Voter ID law struck down.  Again.

Governor-Bought-And-Paid-For can appeal to the PA Supreme Court, but I strongly suspect that the attempt to disenfranchise voters via photo identification laws is quite dead.  For now.

Corbett Trails Five

I knew Governor Bought-and-Paid-For was unpopular, but still....

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett trails several Democratic challengers in his  bid for re-election, a poll released this morning show.

In a survey over the past week of 1,405 registered voters across the state,  the Quinnipiac University poll found that Gov. Corbett's biggest challenge would  come from York County businessman Tom Wolf. The poll said Mr. Wolf would top the  Republican incumbent, 52–33 percent, if the election was held today....

Voters said by a margin of 55–34 percent that Gov. Corbett does not deserve  reelection.

Gov. Corbett has a negative 36–52 percent approval rating, nearly matching  his worst net score ever in the poll.

That said, its a long time until November.  I'm more politically aligned with Allyson Schwartz, but Wolf has the deep pockets to counter any Republican dirty tricks.

 

 

 

Stay Classy Tom

Governor Bought-And-Paid-For compares gay marriage to incest.

Kane Wont Defend DOMA

Well, isn't this interesting!

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who is the state's chief legal officer, declined  Thursday to defend against a lawsuit challenging the state's prohibition on same  sex marriage, calling it unconstitutional and leaving the job of bolstering the  ban to Gov. Tom Corbett.

Which brings up this question:  Is she required, as attorney general, to defend the law?  Daryl Nutcase, The Shame of Butler County, thinks so.

"This is clearly dereliction of duty. It's her responsibility to defend the laws  of the commonwealth regardless of her personal feelings," said state Rep. Daryl  Metcalfe, R-Cranberry. "If she doesn't want to do that, maybe she can resign and  have the governor appoint someone who wants to do the job."

I'm sure if I wanted to, I could find many examples of Nutcase ignoring the laws of the Commonwealth due to his personal feelings.  Oh wait, here's one from a couple of weeks ago! Pot, meet kettle.

Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims, an openly gay legislator, was blocked from speaking on the floor of the state House on Wednesday by a colleague who believed Sims’ plans to speak about the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage decision would be in "open rebellion against God’s law.”According to WHYY, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe raised a procedural objection to stop Sims from speaking during a part of the House session in which legislators often give wide-ranging remarks. "I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God's law," said Metcalfe, R-Butler.

"God's law", and secular law, are of course, different things.

What A Surprise!

Governor Bought-and-Paid-For is bought and paid for!

Voter ID Delayed Again

Some good news.  PA citizens will not be required to present their "papers" for the spring primary.  The case challenging the voter suppression law will be heard on July 15th, but so far, I haven't seen or heard of anything the Corbett administration or the Republican controlled legislature has done to address the court's issues with the law.

I'm starting to get the impression that perhaps the administration just wants this to whole matter to go away now that the presidential election is over, and they don't want it to be another "everybody hates Tom" issue for the 2014 gubernatorial race.

Lottery Sale Stymied

Pennsylvania's Attorney General rules that Corbett's attempt to sell off the lottery to an overseas company is illegal and violates the Commonwealth's constitution.

The attorney general described the conclusions of her office that the 20-year management agreement with Camelot Global Services PA LLC is an "unlawful extension of executive authority" that infringes on the power of the General Assembly to make basic policy decisions.

She said also state law governing the lottery does not authorize the development of monitor-based games, such as keno. And she said a provision for the compensation of indirect expenses by Camelot is too open and undefined to be allowed under the state Constitution.

Its a damn good thing that Democrats swept the state's row office elections, because that's the only check to King Tom weilding dictatorial power in the Commonwealth.  The fact that Republicans failed to win a single statewide election in 2012 doesn't bode to well for his chances at a second term, and adds more evidence that the only reason why Republicans control the state legislature is gerrymandering.

State Store Statement

Governor Bought-And-Paid-For unveiled his plan to sell the State liquor stores and privatize the whole shebang...and few seem to like it, according to this P-G story.

Speaking for myself, why can't we open up the beer and wine markets, and leave the spirits in the State Stores? When Corbett says "a more mobile population was increasingly familiar with the convenience of private sales in other states" what he is failing to see is that other states we can buy beer and wine in the grocery store, and we can by six-packs of beer instead of cases, and if we want a six-pack, we won't pay an inflated "bar price."  Corbett's plan doesn't address the beer distributor issue, other than allowing them to sell quantities smaller than cases.

Under his plan, you'd be able to by hard liqour just about anywhere.  I don't think that's a very wise idea.  I think all we're really asking is that we don't have to make seperate stops at the grocery for dinner, the State Store for wine, and the beer disributor for some ballgame suds. 

Most states I'm familiar with do this very thing.  The state maintains control over distilled alcohol sales, while the groceries handle the beer and wine, and I think that's a reasonable compromise.

The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!

Governor Bought-And-Paid-For is outsourcing the Pennsylvania Lottery to Camelot Global Services.

The question of course is "why?"  The lottery makes money hand over fist, and when being run by the state, there is no profit motive.  Once overhead costs are paid, all the proceeds goes towards programs benefitting the commonwealth's seniors.  That's amounted to nearly 20 billion dollars over 40 years, or a rough average of 500 million dollars a year.  Why would any sane person give up a cash cow like that?  There's only one compelling reason in my mind.  Corbett wants to smash a union.

I'd like to know what Camalot's "vig" for running the lottery is?