Political observations

So, at work, when I'm not playing CDs or tapes, I listen to NPR. I always listen to Morning Edition, but today, I just kept it on, because at 10 AM, they were going to be broadcasting live coverage of the hearings before the state Supreme Court about whether the governor could be subjected to a subpoena to appear before the impeachement committee.

I was able to pay fairly close attention to the arguments, because, honestly, washing lettuce and making Southwest Chicken Salad wraps doesn't take a lot of brainpower.

As far as I could tell, that "separation of powers" argument that the governor's legal team is trying to use to say he can't be subpoena'd?

Totally and entirely specious.

I especially liked the part where the governor's team was trying to argue that being forced to testify would cause an undue burden on the governor and prevent him from attending to his other duties, and the committee's team pointed out that he would have to walk up exactly two flights of stairs, kthxbye.

We've had the hearings with other people testifying before the impeachment committee on in the past few days, too. "Are you saying it didn't take place or you can't recall whether it took place?" "I cannot recall whether it took place." I swear, shades of Iran-Contra. By the sixth repetition, Jen and I were catcalling rhe witness, saying "Dude, did you walk through the magnetic memory eraser on your way into the courthouse instead of the metal detector? Did the orbital mind control lasers zap you? WTF?"

And, on a federal level... the torture investigation? It's reminding me depressingly of the report I did in eleventh grade on the My Lai trial. Except it looks like the direct intent to do exactly what they did goes much further up. With My Lai, they definitely didn't chase the responsibility up as far as it extended, but I got the sense that the top guys at home were just waving their hands and saying "Will nobody rid me of this meddling priest population? And I don't want to know how you do it, either, just do it." And the next level down from them came up with a boneheaded plan that sounded good to them, and the people at Calley's level just went "Boneheaded plan, yes sir, doesn't make sense but nothing here has, whatever you say sir." Criminal incompetence, but eventually incompetence more than malice, on all levels, and it just got so ogly because nobody stopped to think about it. Or so I concluded when I did my report. It's been about half my lifetime ago, or a little more, so I have (happily) forgotten most of the detailed evidence, and if someone wants to present a different argument, I won't take it amiss.

But what I'm trying to say with that is, My Lai, as horrific as it was (and it was far more pervasive than just what came to trial, too, I got the impression), grew out of top-level indifference, mid-level incompetence, and a sense of futility at the closest levels to the action.

The Abu Ghraib business?

It's looking more and more like the absolute top levels came up with the direct idea of doing exactly what got done all the way down the hierarchy, with the argument "I think we have a loophole that lets us get away with this."

Now THAT is what I call depressing.

The joys of giving professional advice

eternaleponine is going off to graduate school at University of Michigan at the end of the summer. We were chatting, and she was talking about having to learn to do domestic things like cooking and grocery shopping for herself.

Naturally, I stressed the importance of having Good Knives.

I told her that to start, you really only need three: an 8" chef's knife, a paring knife, and an offset bread knife.

We looked online for my Dexter-Russell offset bread knife, but the exact one I have was not to be found. The Forschner actually looked closer to my model than the Dexter-Russell white-handled one. This one looked the most like what I have, but I knew nothing about that brand's blade quality, never having used one, so I suggested sticking with the Forschner, because they're the same people as Victorinox, which means Swiss Army knives, and it's hard to go wrong there.

Oh, and a sharpening steel because it's important to keep the straight-edged knives in good condition.

And a 12x18 acrylic cutting board. Because they're dishwasher safe and bleachable, and will cushion the knife.

I suggested buying three cutting boards in different colors -- one for raw meats, one for fruits, vegetables, and other ready-to-serve foods, and a third one reserved for garlic and onion to segregate the stinky things -- but even though the colored cutting boards were only $6 each, we agreed that it would probably be too much trouble to train a roommate to follow ServSafe procedures, so one would do for the basics.

Good trustworthy knives are THE most important things in a kitchen. And eternaleponine said she only had crap knives in her current collection of kitchen stuff.

I love the Internet. I got to give good advice AND go shopping with my friend, and help her get the right things, even though physically we're two hours' drive apart.

We probably ought to get together in person again before she goes, though, so I can show her the Really Cool Way to dice an onion with the offset knife.

eternaleponine, got a Tuesday you can trade off with anyone?