May 22, 2005 Announcements

Reason Roundup

This week's Reason Roundup is posted over at the Charlotte Capitalist.

The bigger story here, and the gorilla in the living room that no one wants to notice, is that flushing a Qur'an down the toilet should not be grounds to commit murder.

Amen. Lots of good stuff. Be sure to pay Andy's blog a visit!

Sarah Beth: Back in the Saddle Soon!

Sarah Beth, who has been incommunicado for the past few days checked in briefly to let her readers know what she's been up to.

I should be back online for good after Memorial Day, that’s when they come install the Internet Access at my new place at least. Assuming my furniture comes in on time. Right now my whole life is sitting on a truck in FL waiting to be brought up to me.

Here's hoping that the move goes well!

Memorial Day = Vacation Time!

Barring the unforeseen, Mrs. Van Horn and I will be taking some time off on the sugar-white sands of the Florida panhandle this Memorial Day. This appears to be my big chance to do some reading I've been itching to do, while my home brew continues fermenting in H-Town and the wife pecks away at her dissertation. (Oh well! At least one of us will be on vacation!)

Wine Lovers

Should take note: Willy Shake, whose blog is a fun and enjoyable place, wants to get into fermented grapes! I have a love-hate relationship with wine. Oh, okay! I'll admit it: I am the "battered wife" of wine. I enjoy it from time to time -- when I don't get splitting headaches from it! Nevertheless, I pass this on owing to the fact that it's a good idea. The virtual bard wants to learn more about wine and is looking for others who want to explore the same territory. Stop by if you might be interested. My wine knowledge is, unsurprisingly, very limited with my favorite being the pine-flavored Greek wine known as "retsina." Beyond that, the wife picks 'em for me, and then almost exclusively when we go for Italian. (I pick her beers for her.)

It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I'll at least follow this. It can't hurt -- unless I actually drink something!

Further Thoughts on Granholm vs. Heald

Speaking of wine, the General takes a look at a recent Supreme Court decision concerning interstate wine commerce over at Benjo Blog.

Feedback Solicited at The Undercurrent

Ned Chalmers of The Undercurrent is "giving away copies of Atlas Shrugged to some of the respondents" to a feedback survey for their May issue.

Star Wars

We saw Star Wars this Saturday. After all the "anti-hype," I certainly went in with low expectations. It was, however, pretty enjoyable. The over-lamented anti-Bush bits were nothing compared to the gratuitous agitprop one might see in almost any other film these days. The action and special effects were about what one might expect. There were even unintended comedic bonuses in the dialogue. Much of the stilted hero-villain bits reminded me of the Austin Powers series, and (Am I the only one who's got the guts to say this?) George Lucas's romantic dialogue is almost ingeniously, laughably bad. If you remember the semi-psychotic lingo (Yeah. It's a dated term, but somehow it fits.) with which young Anakin Skywalker successfully wooed Padmé Amidala in Attack of the Clones, you won't be disappointed. But the Ed Wood aficianado in me surfaces and causes me to digress. Heh! On a serious note, the movie is not so bad, as far as action flicks go. You could do worse: C+.

Chief o' the Barbie

This recipe of Bothenook's for barbecued pork tenderloin turned out really well! And his other recipes are all right here.

-- CAV