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  • Tuesday Morning Links

    Tuesday Morning Links

    Day 4 of the cold that won’t fuck off.

     

     

    Today is birthdays we have George Mason, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, gold digger John Kerry, and actress Teri

    Garr.

     

     

    Trump to meet with Democrats about border wall/ government shutdown.

     

     

     

    DOJ requesting to keep reason for raid on Clinton Foundation whistle blower a secret.

     

     

    Steph Curry doesn’t believe in the moon landing.

    I really need to read this one day.

     

     

    When will ya’ll figure out that he does this shit on purpose so it gains more traction and exposure?

     

     

    CNN writing masturbatory wish casting articles for its increasingly stupid base.

     

     

    Possible plea deal in case against alleged Russian agent.

     

     

    That’s all I got for today.  I’m off to get my girls out the door and me to DayQuil.  I’ll leave you a song for the day.

  • Vegan School: Holiday Recipes

    Vegan School: Holiday Recipes

    Many dishes at my holiday table are vegan by nature, like maple acorn squash, three bean salad, raw veggie platters, and cranberry sauce. But most holiday dishes aren’t vegan, which makes it a challenging time of year.

    Mr. WebDom and I are in the middle of moving this month, so I haven’t had a chance to do much cooking. Instead of delighting you with one of my custom recipes, I thought I would do a round up of Vegan Holiday Recipes to inspire you this holiday season.

    Vegan Christmas Roast

    Image from The Easy Vegan

    The Easy Vegan put together this recipe, which I keep meaning to try. I expect I will in January once I get my kitchen at the new house setup.

    OMWC has tried this recipe using this brand of wheat gluten and it seemed to work well. There was something that he wanted to improve, and I’m sure he’ll mention it in the comments.

    While this is not a recipe, I do want to mention the Gardein Holiday Roast. It’s delicious and tastes far more like turkey than you would expect. I had it with SP and OWMC last year. This year I tried the smaller single serving version for Thanksgiving. It’s awesome, and definitely hit that “holiday” food jones.

    The Best Damn Vegan Mashed Potatoes

    Image from Minimalist Baker

    Mashed potatoes are a necessity at any holiday table. Most of the time, they’re not vegan. On Thanksgiving I gave in anyway and tried the mashed potatoes my sister in law made. The phrase wallpaper paste comes to mind.

    For Christmas I’m doing the mashed potatoes and I am using this recipe by Minimalist Baker. It’s simple, requires only a few ingredients, and looks like it will fool my non-vegan relatives.

    Vegan Stuffing

    Sadly, I have no photo for this one.

    But, Epicurious has the best vegetarian stuffing recipe I’ve ever seen. It uses butter, but I just swap for a vegan alternative. Aside from just being, well, delicious, I love that stuffing is simple, and easy.

    Vegan Eggnog

    Image from Simple Vegan

    I. Fucking. Love. Eggnog.

    Yet it’s very much not vegan.

    Then I discovered this recipe last week. As soon as I get a blender, I’m doing it! It uses coconut milk and cashews to create the consistency and flavour profile. Supposedly (I’m a little skeptical…) it tastes very close to the real thing.

    Vegan Pumpkin Pie

    Image from Loving It Vegan

    Uhm, yes, please. I didn’t get any pumpkin pie yet this year because I had to leave my family’s Thanksgiving Dinner before pie. (Migraines suck.) I am going to be making this pumpkin pie recipe as soon as my kitchen is setup again. This recipe from Loving it Vegan uses full fat coconut milk in place of the cream. After much searching, I prefer this brand of coconut milk. No other brand even comes close.

    Bonus: Vegan Pot Pie

    Image from Minimalist Baker

    Not really a holiday recipe, but the holidays always make me crave pot pies. I usually make pot pie in a 9×11 pan, and between the two of us, we usually finish it off in one night. Maybe two if we use restraint. I’ll post my recipe next time I make it (because truth be told I don’t measure anything unless I’m turning it into a recipe for you guys).

    In the interim, this vegan pot pie recipe, also by Minimalist Baker, looks simple and delicious.

  • Monday Afternoon Detroit Links

    Merry Monday from Detroit. I was at the Happiest (and most expensive) Place on Earth last week. Thanks for Mexican Sharpshooter and Mad Scientist for stepping up.

    Make penicillan (or deadly botulism!) at home with this simple recipe. Archived for TEOTWAKI, but I’m not ingesting mold I made at home unless the alternative is death.

    Now I’ll see the animal version of ST. Peter saying, “Send us, Woga!”

    My new option strategy — short TSLA whenever Elon Musk has an interview.

    Raw cookie dough, much safer than raw lettuce.

    So here’s the Motor City Madman.

  • Romanian music: indie pop, rock and songs of the hipster persuasion

    Romanian music: indie pop, rock and songs of the hipster persuasion

    In my attempt to give this joint a bit of culture – and also link dump posts are easier to write – I had a post earlier about the peak of modern musical achievements, known as manele in Romanian. I am sure that post elicited the curiosity of the glibertariat. But Pie, everyone wondered, that seems like lower class music. What do the young, hip urban people listen to?

    Well, I am not one to leave such pressing questions unanswered. So I have prepared this post. Alas, I am no longer young and, as such, I have no idea what those damn kids listen to these days. So this post will not be about that after all and my insight may be less than valuable. But has that ever stopped me? So what will I post about? Well, whatever I can think of, which is not much as I am well into a bottle of nice wine.

    So I was thinking with what to start… And I will start with something that does not really fit with title of the post. Why? Well… because it is the band of a buddy of mine and why not plug those you know… The guy is not famous enough to be considered an actual rock star or anything – although he has had his fair share of hot 20-something female fans, but not that obscure either, and he is very passionate about the guitar and has practiced it intensely for many years, with results I will leave you to judge. Besides that, he is not in the drugs section of rock musicians, but in the martial arts, meditation and passion for Japanese culture section – he learned the language and spends a few months a year at some temple there. The name of the band is Days of Confusion and the style of music was initially based on something called djent. I will post 3 songs off 3 different albums for your viewing pleasure (as usual I do not expect many of you to click the links but whatever.)

     

     

    Now, getting on to something more topical, indie and/or hipster-ish bands in Romania use a mix of own songs with various covers and mashups. I will post some, in no particular order for bands and no particular selection for the songs. These songs have a chance of being more familiar to you as a style compared to manele, and I think a few are even in English, as are many of the band names. I will post the original band names, not translations of them. The genre of the music I did not dwell on, basically local interpretations of indie pop/rock or even mainstream pop as a style, but not hugely popular. I am not attempting to do an in-depth analysis, as I am not a music writer and Glibertarians is not really a music blog. I will just give some links and maybe write more for a future post. Or maybe not.

    One of the most successful bands, especially with the female demographic, is Robin and the Backstabbers, although the style is called melodramatic pop and the songs can get a bit whiny for my taste. Here is a more recent one:

    And as a bonus one of their more popular ones, which was overplayed on the radio station I listen to in my car to the point on annoyance.

     

    Moving on with various bands in no apparent order and with a song from each. The songs can be as old as 5-6 years or 1-2 years, I did not choose them for a particular reason…

    Toulouse-Lautrec (no relation, and no, they do not sing in French) are a indie rock band of some popularity.

    We then have Moonlight Breakfast

    Followed by The Mono jacks

    The Amsterdams – I went to university with one of these guys although we were not exactly friends. They are an indie band, but sing in a very mainstream fashion.

    Jurjak started as on of the few local indie bands doing a sort of electro-blues sound:

    Les Elephants Bizzar, despite the name, also sing in a fairly mainstream pop inspired way. So nothing too surreal here

    The Kryptonite Sparks – just like hipster beer, hipster bands have silly names, are a fairly young indie rock band

    YellLow is a sort of electro-pop

    And finishing of with something more electronic than pop / rock we have Karpov Not Kasparov

    Anyway if you want further such posts do comment, we can cover 90s pop, classic rock, heavier rock, maybe folk, old time drinking/pub songs, traditional music and more. Sky’s the limit, as the saying goes. Or is Pie the limit? Either way…

  • Monday Morning Links

    Monday Morning Links

    After a night of waking up every ten minutes coughing, all I want is to go back to bed.  But I have responsibilities, entertaining you lovable bastards being one of them.

     

    I’ll cut you, bitch!

     

    Today in birthdays we have King James I, William Lloyd Garrison, Emily Dickinson, and drummer Meg White.

     

    Crazy Eyes gives his equally crazy base an erection.

     

     

    For the 100th time all the usual cast of players are predicting the end for bad orange man.

     

    Unfortunately for them, wishcasting is not journalism.

     

    Despite Macron temporarily backing down on fuel tax, riots continue, making people question the media narrative of this merely being about a fuel tax.

     

    Daily reminder the media is fucking horrible.

     

    Big drop in murder rate in the US.

     

    That’s all I got for today, I now need to gulp down a bottle of Dayquil and drag my ass through the day.  Hopefully this will help.

  • STEVE SMITH’S SUNDAY EVENING LINKS

    STEVE SMITH WISH ALL HAPPY HANUKKAH!

     

    STEVE SMITH IN REFLECTIVE MOOD – THINK HOLY DAYS RESPONSIBLE. HIM PONDER LIFE AND MEANING OF IT ALL. ALSO, REDEMPTION… AND HIKER AND CAMPER RAPE. STEVE SMITH NOT LET MOOD AFFECT HIM MAKING QUOTA!

    REMINDER! CHECK STORE NEAR YOU FOR STEVE SMITH HOLIDAY ALBUMS!

    ALL PROFIT GO TO CASCADIA INDEPENDENCE.

    NOW YOU GET LINKS TOO:

    • THIS MAKE STEVE SMITH LAUGH. HIM THINK FUNNY GLIBERTARIAN PEOPLE LAUGH TOO.
    • MAYBE FRENCH PERSON ANNOUNCE CHAMPAGNE RATION GO UP FROM 330ML  TO 250ML! OR SURRENDER.
    • WHAT ELSE ONE DO WHEN RETIRED? STORY NEED BLACKJACK AND HOOKER, BE COMPLETE.
    • STEVE SMITH THINK “YELLOW VESTS” COME TO LONDON NEXT.

     

    FREE CASCADIA!

  • Enslaving Yeast – Mead

    Enslaving Yeast – Mead

    So we’ve made cider and wine, let’s move on to what is commonly claimed to be the oldest fermented beverage in the world, Mead.  What is mead? Mead is a fermented beverage where the majority of the sugars are coming from honey. Honey is naturally antibiotic, and is unique in that it doesn’t spoil (while it will crystallize, it stays edible).  So, since we want the yeast to survive, we’re going to need to water it down. There’s several different paths you can go to add water to the honey, each with different drawbacks:

    1. Boiling – Get water up to boiling, then add in honey.  This runs the risk of scorching the honey, as well as driving off aromatics, but will ensure that the honey is equally mixed into the water.  You’ll also need a way to cool the must before putting it into a fermentor and pitching yeast.
    2. Hot water – Get water up to ~160 F, and mix in the honey.  This will help the honey dissolve, but will drive off some aromatics.  This also may require some method of cooling before putting it in a fermentor and pitching yeast.
    3. Cold water – Mix water with honey.  This will require more mixing and more stirring to make sure the honey is fully dissolved, has the highest risk of infection (still not a high one), but preserves the honey aromatics the best.

    You won’t need any new equipment for making mead, but you may need a couple of additional ingredients.  Yeast nutrients and yeast energizer.  Fruit (and barley) have the compounds that yeast need naturally occurring in them, honey does not.  While you can make mead without yeast nutrients and energizer, using both will help the yeast do well and convert the sugars into alcohol.  With the cost of honey, it’s well worth the extra couple of dollars to ensure a good ferment.

    There’s an ongoing debate in most of the mead forums about the best way to use yeast nutrients, with everyone certain that their way is the best (sound familiar?).  You can either add it all in at the beginning of fermentation, you can do step additions (add 25% at the beginning, then an additional 25% each following week).

    For those who think there’s too many different styles in beer, there’s a large list of different types of mead.  For those of you here, I’m guessing the most popular will be:

    • Braggot – A mead made with malted barley and honey
    • Capsicumel – A mead flavored with chili peppers
    • Cyser – A mead that users cider instead of water to dilute the honey
    • Hydromel – A light/low alcohol mead (think around 5% ABV)
    • Pyment – A mead that uses grape juice instead of water to dilute the honey
    • Sack mead – A strong mead with more honey then a standard mead (to get to ~15% ABV)

    For your standard mead, plan on between 2.5-4 lbs.of honey per gallon.  Adjust as you wish for higher/lower ABV, and based on if you’re using a fruit juice to dilute (which will have sugar of its own).  Be aware of the different types of honey, and realize that they will have different flavors when the fermentation is done. I recommend starting with small batches until you find something you like, then ramping that up to a higher volume.

    Now for the recipe of a mead I made that came out really well, and should be ready for your next Thanksgiving.  Yes, I’m talking about the one in 2019, most meads do well with a lot of mellowing and aging on them.  Since it’s a 1 gallon batch, I generally bottle this into about ten 375 ml bottles instead of risking only getting four and some change into 750 ml bottles (remember that there’s sediment you don’t want in your bottles).

    Cranberry Mead (1 gallon batch):

    • 1.5 lbs Cranberries – Reduced to juice (or just buy cranberry juice)
    • 3.5 lbs honey
    • Water to top off to one gallon

    Blend the cranberries (or buy juice) and run the resultant liquid through a filter.  Mix that with 3.5 lbs. honey and top off with cold water to get to one gallon. Shake it up (which will both aerate it, and make sure that the honey is mixed in with everything else) until the honey is dissolved.  Figure out what nutrient schedule you want to use, and pitch a white wine yeast. Fermentation will take at least a month, so be patient with this one. After fermentation is done, wait for it do drop clear (sediment will settle at the bottom of the carboy), then bottle it up.

  • IFLA:  The Horoscope for the week of December 9 — a Tutorial

    IFLA: The Horoscope for the week of December 9 — a Tutorial

    This week, the signs are simple and clear.  So simple and so clear that I’ll be giving a free tutorial on how to read them.

    Alignment the first:  Sol-Jupiter-Luna.  Sol = life, growth, benevolence.  Jupiter = government, rulership, mirth.  Luna = change, water, femininity, secrets.  An obvious reading would therefore be “prosperity for the ruler of water” or more plainly “Aquaman will have a good opening weekend.”  However, we can safely rule out this interpretation because Aquaman does not open this weekend.  But it should have.  This is what Warner Bros. gets for not having an astrologer on staff.  *koff*I’m available*koff*.  Since the naive interpretation is out, we need to go a bit deeper.  In this case, having both the Sun and Moon together being the greatest lights serves as a source of auspicity, trebly so with Jupiter being involved.  If the moon were full, this would be the maximum positive good luck arrangement, if the moon were new, this would indicate perfect social stability.  Neither are the case here.  The moon is a waxing crescent, but waxing is good.

    Alignment the second:  Sol-Saturn-Venus.  The sun is still the same here, but we’re adding Saturn (time, ending, cannibalism) and Venus (love, peace, rumpy-pumpy).  There are two classic interpretations of this based on the typical reading of Saturn as “ending.”  The gypsy one (better in my opinion since it acknowledges Sol) is “a windfall resulting from the death of a female” though it can also obviously mean the figurative death of a woman e.g. the departure of someone at your employer leading to your promotion.  The more modern (and in my opinion lesser) interpretation couples Venus and Saturn to mean “the end of relationship” while nodding at the sun “to your benefit.”  This seems a bit wishful thinking to me.  My modern-modern interpretation notices that Saturn is another name for Chronos (the legendary anthrotheophage) and concludes that the only way Saturn could have an effect on such a beneficent construction as Venus-Sol is obvious:  oral sex.

    The relationship between the alignments:  if these two were at 90 degrees, they would be opposing each other. There are important meanings at 30, 45, and 60 degrees as well.  Actually, some poor sod actually spent his life correlating angles with historical events and came up with a table for everything, including the angle these two are at (~55 degrees) but I don’t have it at hand so I won’t worry about it since it’s not a cardinal angle.

    Venus and Mercury in Scorpio – Venus does not always refer to sexual love.  But if it’s in Scorpio, it does.  Scorpio is the scorpion; it hides under rocks, it has secrets, it is easily pissed off.  It’s the earth counterpart to the water sign of the crab.  On the human body it refers to the genitals for reasons I’ve never understood (except maybe the analogy of sticking something into a crevice and becoming poisoned).  Mercury (which is no longer retrograde thank the stars)  is a sign of change, but it is also the messenger of the gods.  So this particular conjunction is less about actually having sex, but more about news of sex.  So, porn.

    Mars in Pisces – God of war, fire sign meets the fishes, water sign.  Pisces is one of the plural signs, indicating duality, contradiction, and spirit.  Since neither of these signs are involved in anything else, the meaning of this is that the skies are trying to confuse you.  Don’t let them.  Ignore astrologers, they are going to be wrong.

    Saturn and Luna in Capricorn – we’ve already talked about Saturn and the moon, so we just need to talk about Capricorn.  Capricorn is kind of odd.  Everyone has different interpretations — some say it is a crocodile, some say it is a goat, some say it is a fish-goat hybrid, some say it is the god Enki.  And because of that, there are lots of different attributes associated with it.  However, everyone agrees that it is an earth sign, and probably the heaviest, most negative one at that.  Saturn’s metal is lead, so combining those two results in immense stasis, but but not the comfortable, nesting, homeostatic stability kind, more of the oppressed, nothing ever changes, there is no hope kind.  This is kind of why I gloss over it most weeks.  But, there is a glimmer (literally) of hope.  This week the waxing (good luck) moon shows up.  The crescent moon is the least powerful, but in this extremely slim crescent form it represents new life/rebirth.  So, for those of you in the darkness, look carefully because there will be a light.

    Jupiter and Sol in Sagittarius – Sagittarius is the archer, and represents the civilian/peaceful use of weapons as opposed to the warrior/military aspects of Mars.  Sagittarius is also the centaur, representing the aspects of the astrologer, such as wisdom and having an enormous penis.  Leo is the sexual partner you’re with because they seem like what a partner should be, Scorpio is the partner you crave, Sagittarius is the partner that make you orgasm in ways you didn’t know were possible and how the fuck did they do that?  Also, watchmakers.  Obviously, your watches are going to run great this week.  Well, sort of.  See, on Monday, Jupiter is going to go retrograde.  What this means is that while currently it’s best to do things as if you were a devout Taoist or Confucian, starting Monday, that path is going to lead to heartache.  Instead, violate teleological norms and you’ll have better luck.  “Explore” a little.

     

     

     

  • Sunday Morning Yes, Yes, I Know, Links

    Sunday Morning Yes, Yes, I Know, Links

    I cannot believe that we’re entering the last stages of the football season. And the end of the year. Tempus is fugiting at an alarming rate, and we’re already preparing our “Best of 2018” lists. And speaking of lists, today’s birthdays include anarchist and proto-libertarian Peter Kropotkin;  physical chemist Fritz Haber; brilliant character actress and all-around decent human Margaret Hamilton; one of my favorite chemists, William “The Colonel” Lipscomb, who seemed to bring magic to every field he touched; and actor John Malkovich, subject of one of my favorite movies.

    And on to the news.


    The French once again show their solidarity with the Palestinians by engaging in riots and destruction as weekend activities.

    From all corners of the country, French protesters — the vast majority of them men — came by the thousands in trains, buses and cars. But once together in the capital, the most concrete thing they shared was simply fury. Fury at President Emmanuel Macron. At taxes. At jobs that don’t pay the bills. At politicians they accuse of stuffing their own pockets. At the elite. At banks. At ‘the system.’ At life in general.

    Don’t forget fury at McDonalds and Coca Cola! And love for Jerry Lewis!


    Interestingly, the upheaval appears to be spreading to neighboring countries.

    Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannons at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel after they tried to breach a riot barricade, as the movement that started in France made its mark Saturday in Belgium and the Netherlands. The reasons for the protests are not entirely clear. Neither Belgium nor the Netherlands has proposed a hike in fuel tax — the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks. Instead, protesters appeared to hail at least in part from a populist movement that is angry at government policy in general and what it sees as the widening gulf between mainstream politicians and the voters who put them in power. Some in Belgium appeared intent only on confronting police.

    “Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can’t get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society,” [protester] Ieneke said. “The social welfare net we grew up with is gone,” she said.

    “The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests,” she said.

    Smart lady, that Ieneke.


    And while we’re on the subject of international chaos, in South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa says to Robert Mugabe, “Hold mah beer!”

    The country’s National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77. This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation. Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she declared: “Your time is up, white people”.

    I used to travel to South Africa on the regular, so I’m particularly saddened by how a vibrant country which was overcoming a legacy of actual racism has consciously decided to spin down the toilet. I’m guessing that my last trip there was my last trip there, and it’s time to stock up on Pinotage before that disappears as well.


    I can’t say much about this story beyond, “There’s some things that even STEVE SMITH won’t rape.


    This one will bring a smile to SP’s face.

    A dog that survived the catastrophic wildfire in Northern California apparently protected the ruins of his home for almost a month until his owner returned. Madison was there waiting when Andrea Gaylord was allowed back to check on her burned property in Paradise this week.

    Gaylord told news station ABC10 she couldn’t ask for a better animal. “Imagine the loyalty of hanging in in the worst of circumstances and being here waiting,” she said. “Their instinctual job is to watch the flocks and we’re part of them,” Gaylord said about her dogs. “It’s a comforting feeling.”

    Since we own a dog which is a related breed with similar instincts and origins, we can absolutely imagine her doing the same thing. Good dog, Madison!


    Old Guy Music. Of course. And this is a ballad of the original victim of #metoo, written and performed by a brilliantly clever and funny guy.

  • Coming Attractions (oh, yes, and Saturday Night Open Post)

    I’ve been unwell the past few days, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet, just like me. 😉

    Next week on Glibertarians.com, you’ll get links. Mostly by Sloopy/Banjos, Brett L, and OMWC, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see mexicansharpshooter or Mad Scientist in the mix. Work happens. (Hi, Rufus!) Everyone’s favorite floating stone head and his pals from the SMITH family might turn up, as well. And by turn up, mean…give links.

    In the Regular Features Department, Not Adahn not only gives you the IFLA forecast, but gives you a lesson for free! Web Dom has a vegan holiday recipe round up for you, and I’ll have a weekly poll. mexicansharpshooter will have something for you on Saturday, assuming he remembers to hit the Schedule button. And, oh, yes, there is a terrific, just the best, story from SugarFree in the usual Wacky Wednesday time slot.

    What else? Nephilium has the next article in his Enslaving Yeast series, PieInTheSky spins some more Romanian tunes, CPRM has a new animated H&H for us, we have a Jewsday tradition, Sensei has some advice on learning a language when one is old, another member of the SMITH family drops by, and Animal continues your six gun education.

    What a full week! As always, much heartfelt gratitude to the writers among the Glibs. We seriously could not do this without you!

    And, we don’t say it often enough, thanks to all the donors who keep the server squirrels fed and the electrons humming to keep us online!

    OK! On to the Saturday Night Open Post. Have a great rest of your weekend, kids.