Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas

I'm not used to having company.  I am in particular not used to having more than one or two people at my house at one time.  So Christmas this year was an adventure.  It was also, despite the stress of getting the house ready, planning meals, wondering how to keep people who are used to way too much TV entertained without cable, etc., one of the most enjoyable Christmases I've had.

Granted, it is also only the third time in 21 years that I haven't had to drive to/from NC for Christmas - our folks had followed my sister down there when they retired in 1990.  I sure didn't miss sitting in traffic on US 95.  And being in NC never guaranteed good weather - in fact we got iced in once and last year got up the day after to find snow pounding down and 8 inches already on the ground.  I found it ironic that my new tire chains got their first use in NC rather than on my mountain in WV.  I know that my staying put meant others had to go through all the travel stresses, but I'm not feeling horribly guilty about it.

Dinner was yummy.  I had help - Angie at So Angelina's prepared the cheese manicotti, caponata, and Italian pound cake, and my daughter prepared the citrus green beans and the pumpkin-chai quickbread that we had for breakfast.  I highly recommend the quickbread paired with an apple compote parfait as a special breakfast - layers of homemade apple sauce, vanilla yogurt, and crunchy cinnamon-butter bread crumbs:


Mine wasn't so pretty, but it did the job.

Of course, the subject of Christmases past came up, favorite stories and reminisces, of fun events and of strange or hideous gifts that had to be greeted with faked enthusiasm.  Uncle Harold always gave us the most awful colored fuzzy slippers - I remember a bright lime green pair in particular.  And there was a seriously ugly pink and purple jacket that fortunately didn't fit me and had to be returned.  Not to mention Mom's ugly flower sweater phase.  But our favorite was the year Mom gave my sister and I matching necklaces.  It would have been around 1970, and we were teens and children of the 60s. Our parents were, um, sort of unaware.  My sister and I opened our boxes at the same time.  And immediately looked at each other.  Which was almost a mistake, because it made keeping a straight face really hard.  The necklaces were very pretty - Mom so admired the turquoise inlay over silver.  Buuuut... well, I can't find mine, but this is something like:


Yes, well.  I think we finally told her what it was many years later, to her horrified "I didn't know!".  My sister still has hers and I thought I had kept mine  - they were a source of much laughter for my sister and I.

Everybody had to leave by Monday morning.  And now I have a problem.  I have two new cookbooks...



...and I have to eat up leftovers before I can play with them.
...

Belated

To all, Merry Christmas!

When I get my head together, back to blogging.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Gaudete!  May you have a blessed, holy, and joyful Christmas Day!



For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men".
Luke 2: 11-14

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christus Es Natus!

In the midst of our hurry and distraction today and tonight, a few minutes music break to remember what Christmas Eve really means.



Gaudete, Gaudete!
Christus et natus
Ex maria virgine,
Gaudete!
Rejoice, Rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the virgin Mary,
Rejoice!
Tempus ad est gratiae,
Hoc quod optabamus;
Carmina laetitiae,
Devote redamus.
It is now the time of grace
That we have desired;
Let us sing songs of joy,
Let us give devotion.
Deus homo factus est,
Natura mirante;
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.
God was made man,
And nature marvels;
The world was renewed
By Christ who is King.
Ezechiellis porta
Clausa pertransitur;
Unde lux est orta
Salus invenitur.
The closed gate of Ezechiel
Has been passed through;
From where the light rises
Salvation is found.
Ergo nostra cantio,
Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.
Therefore let our assembly now sing,
Sing the Psalms to purify us;
Let it praise the Lord:
Greetings to our King.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Gluttony

'Tis the season for over-eating, so after yesterday's menu, maybe Ormie the Pig is appropriate:


I'm hoping I don't make eating this challenging for my guests this weekend.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Obama's 12 Days of Christmas

Because I can't resist tossing out at least one political comment this week:

Menu

Finally getting the menu together.  Our big meal this year will be Christmas Eve due to some of the family needing to leave Christmas Day.  Tradition has dictated that we do the ham and mashed potatoes thing, but with everybody leaving by Monday, that would leave me with a lot of leftovers of things that, while I like them well enough, I get bored with quickly.  So I was mulling over a change.  And happened to run into the owner/chef of the new Italian catering establishment that just opened up when I stopped for a beer at a favorite spot.  She had suggestions.  I liked the suggestions.  So the menu now is combo Greek/Italian and looks like this:

Shrimp with tomatoes and feta cheese


Cheese manicotti


Caponata


Citrus green beans with pine nuts


Of course there will be a lot of crusty bread


And Italian pound cake, probably with raspberries and ice cream to finish


Yeah, I think that'll do.  That'll do nicely.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Up

The tree is.  Up.  Finally.  Oh, and decorated, too.  I had lots of help, of course.


I gave up on having real trees a few years ago - it's just too much of a nuisance for one person to get a real tree set up by themselves.  Plus, I've only spent one Christmas in my own home - I'd no sooner get it up than I'd have to pedal down to NC.  At which point the tree would dry out and start losing needles.  This year, though, Christmas is at my house (panic carefully swallowed down...), so I even paid a lot of attention to getting the limbs well straightened out.

The one problem - my artificial tree is in three pieces:



The pieces themselves aren't the problem - it's finding and connecting up all the cords for the built in lights.  Which is the reason I keep a short green extension cord with it.  It comes in handy when my patience with groping around and following lines along the trunk runs out.

I had even more help with putting on the ornaments.


Fortunately, none of the Mischiefs have shown any interest in un-decorating the lower limbs this year.  Although Perry did try to eat some of the plastic needles.

So it's up.  But I dare not put presents under it yet because Blu will open them.



And while I'm on the subject of Up - the antique pharmacy case is finally done, as well.  I wish I had taken more before and after pics, but the best I can do is that this:


...is finally this...


Not bad for a freebie.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Feeling better...

...about my mere 61 inches in height.


18 yrs old and 24.7 inches tall.  And I thought I had problems finding jeans that are short enough!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Done

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I felt the need to abuse myself by painting the downstairs bathroom.  Did I mention that it wasn't just painting, but a general facelift?  Did I mention that despite a great deal of experience in the reality that such projects ALWAYS take longer than I plan for, I was thinking "I can knock that out in a weekend"?

Well, it's finally done, as far as it's going to be done before Christmas.  The blah white...


...now has some color...


And contractor fixtures...




... have been replaced with something I like a little better...






And of course when I took down the old light I discovered that the electrical box wasn't centered over the vanity.  I will connect white wire to white wire, black wire to black wire, ground to ground, but I'm not going to tackle moving an electrical box - I'll get an electrician in to do that.  So the light isn't up there as well as I'd like right now but I probably am the only one that notices.  And one of the stop cocks under the sink isn't working so I had to cut the water off at the pressure pump, which left enough water in the pipe that until I got the hose connected to the new faucet set I had a steady trickle of cold water running down my arm into my armpit.  And even though the house is new enough that the connections are straightforward, they haven't been loosened for 7 years and so there were a few minutes of concern that I wasn't going to be able to get the old out so that the new could go in.  But it finally let loose.  So far no signs of leaks.  I'll replace the stopcock another day.  As well as the silver shower fixture - I wasn't going to get into that right now, either.

And as I was laying under the sink a couple questions occured to me:  1)  Why do bathroom cabinets have to be raised high enough off the floor that you have to assume a completely unatural position in order to work under the sink?  and 2)  Why is it that every time you reach for a tool after you have crawled in and assumed that unatural position the one that comes to hand is the wrong one?

So now to get the Christmas tree and decorations up.  Finally.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Two Places at Once

Guffaw's reflection on blogger drop off brought me back to an issue I've been aggravated with all week.  It occurs to me that maybe some more 'puter minded bloggers who pass by have an answer.

On Monday my agency switched to Google Mail from Thunderbird.  Previously, I just stayed signed in on Blogger and gmail and would periodically take a break and post or work on my own blog.  Now, I can't be in two places at once - I can't be signed into my work account and my personal account at the same time.  In order to post anywhere I have to sign out of my work account, sign in my personal account, do what I want to do, sign out, sign back in my work account, etc.

Anybody know a way around this so I can keep two accounts open on the same machine at the same time?

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Droopy

Well, now.  There are some fashion styles that one just wishes would go away, and that whole "my pants are down around my knees" thing is one of them.  The only good thing I can think about it is that if someone who is making that particular fashion statement runs from the poh-lice they are likely to be seriously  hampered by a waistband riding at mid-thigh.

Apparently, one school in South Carolina is tired of droopy-drawered students and now keeps spare belts around, offering an option of belting up or being referred for discipline for dress code violation.  One hopes that catching the sagging early will prevent more serious infractions later in life.


Article can be read here.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Hate it.

I hate painting.  I hate every moment of it.  I hate prepping.  I hate edging. I hate rolling.  I particularly hate having to put on two coats.

And because the family is spending Christmas here this year I decided to finally, finally, paint the one room left in the house that was still the original off white bland that the rest of the house was when I bought it.  So my weekend was spent remembering why that bathroom wasn't done yet.


Yep.  I hate painting.

Friday, December 9, 2011

And what about that whole freedom of speech thing?

The blood-boiler of a headline is "Criticism of Islam Could Soon be a Crime in America".  Ms Clinton is to get a visit from the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) this month.  On the agenda - how the US can implement the OIC agenda to criminalize criticism of Islam.  This would be the same OIC that adopted the Cairo Declaration +20 years ago, said Cairo Declaration exempting Muslim countries from compliance with the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  Not surprising - rights aren't a big concern in the dream of an Islamic Caliphate ruled under shariah law.

As Salmon Rushdie found out, "slander" is a big deal in shariah.  And since the OIC views anything a Muslim doesn't like to hear as slander and therefore as Islamophobia, it wants the U.N. to "...adopt an international resolution to counter Islamophobia" and to "call upon all States to enact laws to counter it, including deterrent punishments."

Let's see now:  on Nov. 5, 2009, one Major Hasan, who had been in regular contact with terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, yelled "ALLAHU AKHBAR" as he slaughtered 13 and wounded 32 at Ft. Hood, TX.  The administration has classified that event as "workplace violence".  Think the head of the OIC will have a warm welcome when he knocks on Hillary's door?

Victim of "work place violence" at Ft. Hood

The article aptly closes:

A phobia is an irrational fear. It is not irrational to give warning of an ideology resolutely committed to eradication of free belief, expression, speech, and even thought. It is suicidal for a free society willingly to collaborate with those, like the Muslim Brotherhood and the OIC, which are determined to destroy Western civilization from within—and have told us so, repeatedly, consistently, and publicly. Further, collaboration in such an anti-freedom campaign represents abrogation of the professional oath of office of every federal official who has sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Silencing those who would warn of impending catastrophe only ensures victory to the enemy and loss of our most rare and precious inheritance: the American love of liberty.

I'm sorry, but if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then I'm going to call it a duck, no matter what some p.c. nimnul declares.

The full article can be read here.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Heeeere's your sign....

The headline - "Thieves Pawned Camera  with their Photos".  Story is here.

I remain firm in my belief that there should be added penalties for stupid.  In other words, when these pics are identified, the perps should get a penalty for robbery, and then a penalty for being stupid enough to take pictures of themselves with a stolen camera and then pawning it without erasing the memory.  That's worth at least an extra 30 days.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Brrrrrrr in the Middle East

As Vacationer in Chief gets ready to go off on another vacay - Rome burns while Nero fiddles comes to mind - the Arab Spring that we knew wouldn't be has gotten rather chilly.

 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

New Addict

In honor of kx59's discovery of Firefly, but from a female perspective of appreciation of the show's many merits:

Monday, December 5, 2011

We Occupied

I'm slow, I know...

Saturday's blog shoot was a hoot, enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Many thanks to Murphy's Law for arranging it, for manufacturing ammo for my Arisaka and getting the spring it needed to make it a five shot again.  Bet that old gun's going BANG for the first time in +60 years would have made Dad happy.  And thanks to everyone for letting me test out various guns and shoot up your ammo. 

It was great meeting folks that have only existed electronically up until now - hope we can do it again and get even more folks together.  Peacemaker is a great range, with the added plus of glorious views of the mountains.  And we could not have ordered better weather.

Despite the number of guns I handled (and how tired my hands and arms got doing it), Saturday actually allowed me to narrow things down a bit.  I always practice with the S&W Airlite because that's the one I've got right now and I need to be used to it.  I always take my Browning 1922 because it's fun to shoot, though I need more magazines because I spend more time reloading the one I have than I do shooting. But the baby Kahr and Glock that Old NFO brought, and the middle size Glock that ML brought suited me particularly well.  And an M-1 carbine is so at the top of my rifle want list. 

I think I finally understand what "in the pocket" feels like - no bruises this time.  But my little arms and hands were tired by the end of the shoot.  And somehow I started the day with the total delusion that I was going to spend a whole day outside in crisp, cool air shooting, eat, then come home and work on the house.  Yeah.  No.  I came home and crawled in the shower, put my p.j.s on, and fired up Netflix.  Started a documentary about the history of the Greeks and realized that I had no ability to absorb it so switched over to an old George Burns movie. 

So Occupy Peacemaker (or Occupy Right to Keep and Bear Arms, as the sign said) was a success in my book - a lot of fun, some learning, and money going off to a good cause.  See everybody at the next one!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

When in doubt, punt. Gun, that is.

So Kead's question as to what I was interested in trying got me to thinking about my leg-stretch stop at Gander Mountain just north of Richmond on my way home Sunday afternoon.  I wandered around a while and of course I had to go back and see what they have that goes "Bang!"  The first two guns I saw sure got my attention, but a gentleman was standing right there being an actual customer, so I didn't get to read their labels. They were the honkin'est biggest revolvers I've ever seen.  So big that I thought "I'd probably never be able to fire them but they'd make a heck of a club."  I swear the barrels looked 2 ft long.  Then yesterday I mused on the fact that there are calibers that would probably knock me on my butt, and wandering around Youtube turned up this:


Explaining that my shoulder is bruised because of a shotgun - not embarrassing.  That my nose is bruised because of a pistol - yeah that would be embarrassing.

Then my mind took a trip on the way-back machine.  Thirty-five or so years ago I read James Michner's Chesapeake.  Loved it, but I never knew what the heck a punt gun was until I went to the museum in St. Michael's, MD. Ah.  A punt gun is a cannon disguised as a shotgun:


I'm thinking that's probably too big for me even tied down on a boat.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Blog Shoot!

I've been remiss, but better late than never:  BLOG SHOOT SATURDAY, DEC 3!!!

Not too far from Charles Town, and it's supposed to be a nice place.  Murphy's Law has made the arrangements so I'm taking that as a guarantee.  I only have two pistols, a shotgun, and a Japanese rifle to play with, but I'll buy ammo if folks will let me play with their toys too.

We have a new Irish pub opening on Dec. 1 - I'm going to give it an official inspection on opening day (It will probably take me several hours to ensure that all their beer is good...) and check on space.  Mayhap we will end up back there to also inspect their food offerings.  Local friends of mine have been involved in its establishment and I have high hopes for it.  In any case, we will bang away at various targets from 9 to 2 and then thoroughly inspect SOMEBODIES food and drink offerings!

P.S. to Canada Jenn lurker - I live just down the street and I have a spare room if you really want to make the trip!

Lost

Shtoopid phone.  And shtoopid memory.  I took some pics while away last week.  I want to post them as part of  a blog.  I can't find the shtoopid chip that I need to copy them to my computer.  Until then, I thought this might entertain:

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Victorian Cholera, Global Warming, Settled Science

I like well written histories.  When I'm sick, I have a perverse tendency to read well written histories about illness:  bubonic plague, Spanish flu.  Or disasters:  the Johnstown Flood, the great London fire of 1666 (which followed the plague outbreak of 1665 - Charles II just couldn't catch a break).  Last Saturday's selection was The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson - a tale of Victorian epidemiology.

This was one of my random grabs on one of the last days before Borders closed.  It got my attention because it was about a map I had heard of but never seen.  Created from carefully collected disease data, it provided a clear visual indication of the source of the disease.  Common enough now, with computer GIS programs handily generating confirmation of the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words."  This map, however, was painstakingly created in 1854.

London of 1854 was a nasty place a-swim in muck.  The Great Stink had not yet caused the engineering marvel of the London sewer system to be built. Way too many humans and animals were crammed into way too small an area without a sanitation infrastructure and their garbage and effluvia was just dumped - in cellars, yards, alleys, streets, the river.  Mounds of what was euphemistically called "night soil" were piled high under houses, and when the mounds grew too high it was loaded up and carted to the Thames, which served as a very large open sewer.


There were some sewage systems, but they were piecemeal and scattered, and so dangerous that occasionally methane gas would build up enough that some poor sewer scavenger would blow himself up with the flame of his kerosene lamp. Such a feces-saturated environment is, of course,a perfect breeding ground for disease, and one of the diseases that loves it best is cholera.


Cholera is a nasty bacteria that works by a cycle of ingestion, reproduction, then production of a toxin that causes the host to violently and rapidly expel the fluids in its body.   With the fluids go new bacteria,  re-introducing the disease into the water source to start the cycle again.  It kills by dehydration caused by fierce diarrhea.  Even today, it's only treatment is re-hydration and food - there is no antibiotic for it.

In August of 1854, a five month old baby in Soho came down with cholera.  She survived nearly a week - surprising for an infant with a disease that can kill in a day's time.  Her mother did as was always done, washing the baby's soiled clothes in a bucket and tossing the water into the cistern in front of their tenement on Broad Street.  It must have been awful for the woman - her husband came down with it too, and in the end she lost both of them.  Within three days, 127 people had died - by the time the outbreak ran its course 616 people were dead.

We live in an environment where we don't even think about the availability of water - it's just there for the turning on of a tap.  We don't much think about its cleanliness, either.  Neither did the people of that era - water was just water.  It might smell, it might be cloudy, but it was just water.  It didn't come to the house, though - the source was the public pumps scattered throughout the area.


Disease was known to be spread through miasma - contaminated air.  Combating an outbreak consisted of burning pots of tar and other smoky fuels.  That had long been known - the science was settled.  There was an annoying gad fly by the name of Dr. John Snow who was suggesting that it was passed through water, but the authorities knew better.  In truth, the local health officials did go into the area in an attempt to find the source of the outbreak.  But here's the thing - all of their research was geared towards a predetermined answer.  The science was settled - disease spread through bad air - so their research was skewed to find that answer.

Dr. Snow, on the other hand, suspected that the disease was traveling through the water, and he carefully overlayed the cholera deaths on a street map that also showed the community pumps.


Snow's map, the map of ghosts, clearly showed the outbreak centered around the Broad Street pump.  And as it turned out, the crumbling cistern into which the mother had thrown the wash water from her dying baby's clothes was just a few feet away from the pump. 

Legend has it that removal of the Broad Street pump handle finally stopped the outbreak, but in truth it was probably burning itself out already - too many hosts dead or fled.  But that's not the important part of the story.  What got my attention was the well-meaning health officials trying to deal with it.  They were so convinced that they already knew what was happening that their research couldn't help but find it.  How many of our climate scientists have unwittingly fallen into the same sort of trap of believing that the science of one thing is so settled that their research is unwittingly geared to find more evidence of it?  How many times have we heard the circular arguments:  if it's hot it's global warming, and if it's cold it's global warming?

Unfortunately, we tend to think of those in the past as less intelligent and more flawed than we are, thinking that we don't make the same mistakes.  Truth is, human nature has remained the same, and the researchers of the past just dressed differently and had different tools, just as the researchers of the future will.   And thinking that any science is settled is just as liable to lead to bad science now as it was 150 years ago.

They're Scaring Folks

As noted by Guffaw,  the administration is trying to squeeze out hunters and target shooters on public lands.  From the "Washington Whispers" blog at www.usnews.com:
Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.
Officials say the administration is concerned about the potential clash between gun owners and encroaching urban populations who like to use same land for hiking and dog walking.
Bad enough, but here's the kicker (bolding is mine):
"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," said Frank Jenks, a natural resource specialist with Interior's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees 245 million acres. He adds that urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands.
It's not a safety issue.  It just scares city folks.  Next thing you know they'll be whining because they got some nature on their shoes.

And as to their discussion of trash, I have just two words:  Zuccotti Park.

What this administration can't get one way, they'll go for another way.

The full story can be read here.

And I'm not a hunter.  But I have sense enough to check the hunting seasons if I'm thinking of hiking in certain places at certain times of the year.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Mus musculus

From Wikipedia:

A mouse (plural: mice) is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (Mus musculus). It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles. They are known to invade homes for food and occasionally shelter.
Being laid up has certain advantages:  cats get extra snuggling (I've got 3 - it does get crowded on the sofa), books get read (The Ghost Map, Lampiere's Dictionary), the Netflix queue gets attention (thumbs up to both "The Last Lovecraft" and the original "The Taking of Pelham 123").  And you notice things that you might not otherwise.  Like the flick of  a tail as a mouse slips out from the laundry room and behind the tv stand and the pitter patter of little feet in the ceiling.  Perry has nabbed one since someone left me Sunday's gift, but I've seen and heard at least two more since then.  That's a bit above the norm for the seasonal influx.

A couple years ago I ran into an very large, very fat copperhead as I was clearing brush next to my house.  I let him be and just keep an eye out when I'm working outside.  This boom in the mouse population makes me wonder if that version of the better mousetrap has moved on or died. 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Thoughtful Kitties

Diagnosis - bacterial infection of throat.  Doc said something about it being like having bronchitis in the throat.  I really didn't care about the details.  At that point I was at the "Just make it better pleeeeeaaaasssseee!" stage.  Although I couldn't say that because I pretty much completely lost my voice for two days.  Thanks to antibiotics, I'm feeling better today.  Not ready to dance a jig, but better.

The cats have been happy to have me to cuddle with for hours on end, and apparently they are aware enough of something being wrong that they felt they should help with my care.  So when I woke up yesterday morning I found that they very thoughtfully had left breakfast in bed next to me:


I really was appreciative.  They were probably somewhat puzzled by my tossing their gift out the door, though.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Hack, wheeze

And I'm thinking maybe strep - a trip to the urgent care may be in order.  Back when my groggy brain, much jostled by coughing, begins functioning again.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thank You

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month I offer my sincere thanks to all those, living and dead, who have served.



In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Occupy Wall Street and Antisemitism

Update 2:38 pm -

I give up on the links.  If you can get out to www.youtube.com/user/encounterbooks watch their videos.  They are great.

And because I went to the trouble of making a pretty picture for it when I was trying to link through www.wcbm.com:

Wizard Free

So over time we've been treated to things like this:
There are white niggers.  I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time; I'm going to use that word.  Sen. Robert Byrd (D) WV, 2001
Didn't hear much about it from liberals, although if you bring up Byrd's past, they tell you he left his racist past behind.  OK, I accept that - people do reform.  Except that his bigotry apparently still wasn't left completely behind in 2001, and he was a liberal darling then.

Occupy Wall Street has presented us with a stereotype of rich greedy Jews...


....that is reminiscent of pre-WWII German anti-Jewish propaganda:


And so far the only liberal discussion of it is how it doesn't exist, despite video after video showing it does.

Then I'm pretty sure I heard comments this past week about Republican women being fascinated by black men:


No, no discussion of that.  I won't even go where that full discussion, once considered an ignorant stereotype of two different groups of people, goes.

And now David Gregory appears to have lamented that there's no Grand Wizard in the Republican party to push Herman Cain out:


Doesn't seem to be much in the way of horror at stereotyping a whole group of people as akin to Klan members.

Um, could somebody explain to me again how it is that I, as a conservative, am the bigot?