Neanderpundit

is how your mouth is gonna water.

I made ShishKebab last friday, because I could. Well, I had a brotherinlaw in from out of town, and he brought his girlfriend, and took back a wife. The new Mrs Brotherinlaw, besides being a riot, is an Austrian trained chef, went to school in Vienna. I can cook well enough to satisfy the ogwife and oglet, but cooking for a Viennese chef? The pressure was on.

So: I mixed up this marinade:

1-1/2 cup oil (I used olive)
1/2 cup soy
1/4 cup worcesterschire
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp mustard powder
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 large garlic clove

Blended all together and soaked the kebabs therin. The kebabs by the way, courtesy of this guy:
The Chef and her new husband fought over the kebabs.

So tonight I revisited the recipe with a deer roast, and it’s every bit as good:

yeah, it’s not as pretty as it might be, I did it outdoors on the Weber- but your tongue fair slaps your brains out getting to it.

Mmmmmm.

On my tenth birthday, dad slipped this into my pocket and said “don’t tell your mom about this”

I was reading about gravveling potatos at Rob’s blog, and thought about carrying a pocketknife.
It’s a uniquely male thing, though more women are beginning to do so, but in my generation, you were nobody if you didn’t have a knife to play mumbletypeg or whittle or skin the occasional squirrel.
There were four kids my age in my neighborhood, and I was the last to get his own knife. I kept mine sharper than anyones, though.

The knife I carry, the knife above, is an old timer. I never liked stainless knives, because the edge isn’t easy to produce or keep. I prefer the little extra work to keep a carbon steel knife clean.

Anyway, that little knife never left my side until I was twenty seven, when I bought it’s brother, a three bladed old timer (clip, sheepfoot, spey) again in carbon steel, and with hardwood scales instead of the imitation stag.

Three days after I started carrying that knife, Dad died. At his funeral, alone in the room with him just before the closed the coffin, I took that shiny new knife (I’d just sharpened it sharp enough to shave with) and put it in the breast pocket of Dad’s suit. Yeah, more for me than him.

After we buried Dad, I came home and took the old knife and put it back in my pocket. It hasn’t left me (other than on business trips) in nearly twenty years. Sometimes I also carry a swiss army, sometimes also a leatherman in a sheath, but this knife is with me always.

Anyway, I’ve used that knife to peel potatos, to clean my fingernails, cut steak, clean fish, clean squirrels, trim hair away from burs in the dog’s tail, and a million other things.

Yes, I clean the knife between those things.

A knife is a man’s jewelry.

This is partly prompted by the appearance of this post by Steve. Broad? you probably want to leave right now.

It’s the subject of a couple of uncomfortable truths that people would rather not look at up close and personal. First and foremost in my mind is the subject of abortion.

Let’s get a couple of things straight: I oppose abortion. I oppose it on moral grounds. I am right. There is no other argument. Period. I know I am right because I’m capable of looking hard at an uncomfortable truth that many people will not even glance at, because it makes them uncomfortable. At the same time, I am completely disinterested in making abortion illegal, for reasons you’ll read below.

Uncomfortable truth 1: Abortion ends a human life.

No matter what euphemisims you want to use, zygote, fetus, embryonic cells, it’s gonna be a human. It’s not gonna be a goat, it’s not gonna be a bicycle, it’s not gonna be a cancer, it’s not gonna turn into a circus peanut, it’s a human life. It becomes a human life the moment sperm meets egg. Anyone that tells you otherwise has one and only one agenda: to desensitize you to the fact that aborting whatever you want to call it ends a human life. Period. Don’t like it? tough. Think it’s untrue? you are patently a fool. Makes you uncomfortable, tough.

Uncomfortable truth 2: Stem cell research is only a smokescreen to make people believe abortion is a necessity.

Pro Abortion folks will tell you that embryonic stem cell research is the key to developing miracle cures. Herculean efforts are being made to develop embryonic stem cells while “adult” stem cells are being ignored in spades. One thing not mentioned much is that “adult” stem cells are actually not from adults, but from placentas and umbilical cords. If the real issue is finding cures to anything, maybe someone should be looking hard at the placental stem cells. Two million pounds of placentas are thrown away every year as medical waste, give or take the few hemp wearing dipwads that cook and eat them, or make art prints from them. Still, teams of people are trying to make a case for developing miracle cures from a handful of cells, because if those same miracle cures are developed from naturally occurring medical waste thrown away by the ton by every suburban hospital each year, there won’t be any way to make a case that abortion is necesary.(yes: Harvesting embryonic cells is also abortion, as it ends the normal development of a human life)

Uncomfortable truth 3: Conservatives are not chomping at the bit to end legal abortion.

I will do anything in my power to stop someone i know from having an abortion; I consider life to be precious, to the extent that I agonize over finding a new home for an agressive dog. I will participate in any activity that helps women keep their children, or get those “unwanted” children to people who want them. I collect and donate baby clothes, furniture, we support local unwed mothers organizations, and do what we can to see that the children are taken care of. Besides, many of the very nicest people I know, are adopted. I would not lobby to make abortion illegal, and here’s the straight dope on why:

If a 17 year old girl wants an abortion, she’s gonna get it. Period. It may be a neighbor, it may be a friend, it may be her in the basement with a bowl of hot water and a coathanger, but she’s gonna get that kid out of her. While I’d hate to see this happen, I cannot be everywhere, and neither can anyone else. So, if someone is gonna have an abortion, I’d far rather they have it in a safe and theraputic manner so they can survive to learn and grow and maybe be able to have children when they choose to. Additionally; middle class people whose daughters make that specific mistake are taking their daughters to hospitals for abortions all the time. I’m not pleased about this either, but stopping legal abortions will not stop the people with money from having them, it will merely be more inconvenient. If people want to end abortion, they should look hard at making it rare, and killing clinic doctors is not an effective method.

There’s a hardness of the heart, also, that says, if you’re gonna get an abortion? Please do. Please get rid of that child, and have the doctor tie your tubes as well. I do not want you passing on your DNA. Besides, that aborted child would probably have grown up to be a liberal. That was a JOKE!! sheesh.