Mussels.

I don’t know how you like them (steamed, melted herbed butter with fresh squeezed lemon juice) but for me the essential ingredient is the mussel which should be fresh and lightly cooked so that the fat orange flesh fills the shell.

Mmm… good eats.

Anyway TMC and I have been on kind of a serial mussel quest where at least one of us will order them as either a main course or an appetizer when we eat at a restaurant that serves them.  What?  It surprises you that living on the East Coast as we do we occasionally get together for a “working dinner” that we can write off against the vast profits our little bloggy empire generates?  Oh, it surprises you we have profits.  Well, I was lying about that.  I’m only interested in the art and I have the bloody earhole to prove it (I’ll need some more Orpiment Theo, the light is perfect).

You can’t take me anywhere though because outside of the vaguely disreputable and repellent air that I cultivate as seriously as any other poet, I like to play restaurant games.

In this particular case we were outside on the deck of our newly discovered mussel shack watching the summertime promenade of perfectly ordinary, unsuspecting individuals pass.  Besides the harbor we had a view of a pocket park the chief point of interest of which was an installation of unique chairs and benches that didn’t look like chairs and benches.  The statue of Baal being recently in the news I noted the chair pictured.

Soon enough the trap was set as a young mother and innocent child entered the park and the energetic not exasperated one started climbing around on the public art.

That was when I announced in my best (and loudest) ‘Joliet’ Jake impression-

“Come, come little girl.  Sit in the lap of Baal.”

So those were my favorite mussels this summer, served in the classic manner and done to perfection though if you insist on Haute cuisine we also had a perfectly acceptable dish served with a shallot, garlic, and wine broth.

Oh, you want Science and Tech with that whine.

Ancient Cult Complex Discovered In Israel Dates Back 3,300 Years, May Be Temple Of Baal

By Dominique Mosbergen, HuffPo

10/15/2014 12:59 pm EDT

Archaeologists working in Israel have discovered an “ancient cult complex,” where people who lived thousands of years ago might have worshipped a Canaanite “storm god” known as Baal.

The complex was unearthed at the archaeological site of Tel Burna, located near the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat. It’s believed to date back 3,300 years.

…

Researchers said the site has already yielded artifacts that seem to confirm the complex’s cultic past. These include enormous jars that may have been used to store tithes, masks that might have been used in ceremonial processions, and burnt animal bones that hint at sacrificial rituals.

Itzhaq Shai, director of the Tel Burna Excavation Project, told Live Science that it wasn’t entirely clear which god the complex was dedicated to. But he called Baal — which ancient Middle Eastern cultures worshipped as a fertility god — the “most likely candidate.”

• Russian Hackers Reportedly Exploited Microsoft Windows Bug To Spy On NATO, Ukraine, Reuters, 10/14/2014 5:59 pm EDT
• Powerful quantum computers move a step closer to reality, Alex Hern, The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014 10.43 EDT
• Lockheed announces breakthrough on nuclear fusion energy, Reuters, Wednesday 15 October 2014 11.57 EDT
• Smell Turns Up in Unexpected Places, By ALEX STONE, The New York Times, OCT. 13, 2014
• How to Make a Black Hole, Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, OCT. 8, 2014 (Autoplay)
• Giant kangaroo weighed 240kg, looked like a rabbit and walked like a human, Oliver Milman, The Guardian, Wednesday 15 October 2014 16.03 EDT
• Viking treasure trove discovered in Scotland, Libby Brooks, The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014 14.27 EDT
• Chemical signal gives melanoma cancer cells a ‘green light’ to spread, Dr Nick Peel, The Guardian, Wednesday 15 October 2014 02.00 EDT
• Stem cell therapy success in treatment of sight loss from macular degeneration, Ian Sample, The Guardian, Tuesday 14 October 2014
• This Is Why We Love To Scare Ourselves Silly, By Macrina Cooper-White, HuffPo, 10/16/14
• NASA Braces For Comet’s Close Encounter With Mars, By Macrina Cooper-White, HuffPo, 10/13/2014 12:56 pm EDT
• Creepy ‘Vampire’ Grave Unearthed In Bulgaria, By Dominique Mosbergen, HuffPo, 10/13/2014 3:20 pm EDT
• Incredibly Rare ‘Beaked Whale’ Washes Ashore In Australia, By Macrina Cooper-White, HuffPo, 10/15/2014 2:59 pm EDT
• Lab-Grown Penises May Show Up Way Sooner Than You Thought, By Ryan Grenoble, HuffPo, 10/09/2014 12:59 pm EDT
• This Step-By-Step Guide Lets You Turn Your Phone Into A Cosmic Ray Detector, By Macrina Cooper-White, HuffPo, 10/11/2014 9:59 am EDT

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation – well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

-Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

Science Oriented Video!

Oblgatories, news, and blogs below.

Evil or Idiot?

Voldemort Lives!

The real news and this week’s guests below.

We spend the hour with veteran New York Times investigative reporter James Risen, the journalist at the center of one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades. In 2006, Risen won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting about warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the National Security Agency. He has since been pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations in a six-year leak investigation into that book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.” Risen now faces years in prison if he refuses to testify at the trial of a former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of giving him classified information about the agency’s role in disrupting Iran’s nuclear program, which he argues effectively gave Iran a blueprint for designing a bomb. The Obama administration must now decide if it will try to force Risen’s testimony, despite new guidelines issued earlier this year that make it harder to subpoena journalists for their records. Risen’s answer to this saga has been to write another book, released today, titled “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War.” “You cannot have aggressive investigative reporting in America without confidential sources – and without aggressive investigative reporting, we can’t really have a democracy,” Risen says. “I think that is what the government really fears more than anything else.” Risen also details revelations he makes in his new book about what he calls the “homeland security-industrial complex.”

James Risen Prepared to “Pay Any Price” to Report on War on Terror Amid Crackdown on Whistleblowers

Transcript

James Risen on NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: He Sparked a New National Debate on Surveillance

Transcript

The American Government Tried to Kill James Risen’s Last Book

By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept

10/13/14

Not only did U.S. government officials object to the publication of the book on national security grounds, it turns out they pressured Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS, to have it killed.

The campaign to stifle Risen’s national security reporting at the Times is already well-documented, but a 60 Minutes story last night provided a glimpse into how deeply these efforts extended into the publishing world, as well. After being blocked from reporting on the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program for the paper of record, Risen looked into getting these revelations out through a book he was already under contract to write for Simon & Schuster, a book that would look at a wide range of intelligence missteps in the war on terror.

In response, it seems, the government once again went straight to the top in order to thwart him.

…

When Risen’s “State of War” was released against the White House’s wishes in January 2006, it came to represent a watershed moment in the campaign to bring transparency to America’s post-9/11 national security state.

…

Despite the failure of government suppression efforts, it is nonetheless disturbing that White House officials would intervene not just to muzzle the Times’s reporting, but also to pressure the publishing industry to kill the story as well. In its zeal to stifle critical journalism in the name of protecting national secrets, the campaign against Risen’s work appeared to border dangerously close to outright censorship.

Risen is now facing potential jail time for refusing to divulge his sources for classified information.  Nonetheless, he is standing firm.

The Power of Christ compels you!

What an excellent day for an exorcism.

You would like that?

Intensely.

The Party’s Over

As I said when this broke, what I intend to do is live blog Larry Wilmore and list Colbert’s Late Show line up.  You don’t need to despair that the Sausage Grinder of Snark, a little segment of sanity, is going away.

The real news and next week’s guests below (fortunately Jon didn’t do an web exclusive extended segment with Bai).

Asset seizures fuel police spending

by Robert O’Harrow Jr., Steven Rich, Washington Post

October 11, 2014

Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in recent years to buy guns, armored cars and electronic surveillance gear. They have also spent money on luxury vehicles, travel and a clown named Sparkles.

…

The documents offer a sweeping look at how police departments and drug task forces across the country are benefiting from laws that allow them to take cash and property without proving a crime has occurred. The law was meant to decimate drug organizations, but The Post found that it has been used as a routine source of funding for law enforcement at every level.

“In tight budget periods, and even in times of budget surpluses, using asset forfeiture dollars to purchase equipment and training to stay current with the ever-changing trends in crime fighting helps serve and protect the citizens,” said Prince George’s County, Md., police spokeswoman Julie Parker.

Brad Cates, a former director of asset forfeiture programs at the Justice Department, said the spending identified by The Post suggests police are using Equitable Sharing as “a free floating slush fund.” Cates, who oversaw the program while at Justice from 1985 to 1989, said it has enabled police to sidestep the traditional budget process, in which elected leaders create law enforcement spending priorities.

“All of this is fundamentally at odds with the U.S. Constitution,” said Cates, who recently co-wrote an article calling for the program’s abolition on The Post’s editorial page. “All of this is at odds with the rights that Americans have.”

Of the nearly $2.5 billion in spending reported in the forms, 81 percent came from cash and property seizures in which no indictment was filed, according to an analysis by The Post. Owners must prove that their money or property was acquired legally in order to get it back.

I suppose it all depends on what your definition of reasonable is.

Moyers & Company, October 3, 2014

Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation last week reminds us of an infuriating fact: No banking executives have been criminally prosecuted for their role in causing the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression.

…

While large banks have been penalized for their role in the housing meltdown, the costs of those fines will be largely borne by shareholders and taxpayers as the banks write off the fines as the cost of doing business. And by and large these top executives got to keep their massive bonuses and compensation, despite the fallout.

But the story gets even more infuriating, the more Black lays bare the culture of corruption that led to the meltdown.

“The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations all could have prevented [the financial meltdown],” Black tells Moyers. And what’s worse, Black – who exposed the so-called Keating Five – believes the next crisis is coming: “We have created the incentive structures that [are] going to produce a much larger disaster.”

Chimichanga

Indigenous People Day

The real news, 2 songs by Robert Plant, and next week’s guests below.

There are 4 big stories heading into today’s race, Bianchi’s accident, Vettel leaving Red Bull and being replaced by Kvyat, Alonso leaving the Scuderia to be replaced by Vettel, and Lotus/Renault dumping Renault power in favor of Mercedes.

In it’s simplest form, Suzuka was a predictable mess.  Formula One cars are good, but they are not boats meant to be driven around in typhoons and all the weather forecasts agreed that at the scheduled race time it was going to be coming down in buckets.  It was race promoters, not the FIA, that insisted on keeping the original start despite the FIA’s greater investment in the global audience.

As a result the bulk of the race took place behind the safety car, nothing much changed from qualifying, and at the end when they started racing a bit during one of the lighter downpours there was a rash of accidents one of which sent Jules Bianchi sliding underneath a crane removing another wreck.  He suffered generalized brain trauma with the neurons literally ripped apart and whether he survives or not he will certainly never drive again.

Automobile racing is inherently dangerous.  For all the hand wringing, lamentations, and proposals for new regulations, Formula One has an exceptional safety record, especially compared with Turn Left Bumper Cars.  I hope Bianchi has a complete and speedy recovery and that any reforms don’t ruin the sport.

The Vettel and Alonso stories are intertwined.  If you ever needed proof that Vettel is unbelievably stupid and arrogant you have it now.  He’s never shown the slightest bit of talent for anything except taking the most superior car on the track and qualifying well enough to get out in front and drive away in clean air.  Faced with the slightest deviation from this scenario he’s a massive failure.

So, after a mere season of disappointment, he petulantly decides to abandon the team that has nurtured him and made him look much better than he really is since he was a mere go-carting teen.

And for what?  He moves from a car that is arguably the 3rd fastest (except Ricciardo makes him look bad by beating him with the same equipment) to a team with a rabid swooning fan base that doesn’t care that for at least 5 or 6 years they’ve been putting bricks with square tires out there.

Priorities.

And what of Alonso?  You know, I hate him, but even I have to admit the man is a genius driver who can take a brick with square tires and make it look like a racer.  Scuderia Marlboro are a bunch of clueless dopes with inferior chassis and power plants and that’s unlikely to change in the near future as the suits from Fiat boot the last of Enzo’s F1 boys.  Fitting that Vettel should spend the rest of his career in hopeless purgatory spiraling the drain.

But Alonso has a problem now too.  There are not many competitive seats out there and while he’d be an ideal replacement for Rosberg (who’s good, but not great), Rosberg has a year left on his contract.  Kvyat has already grabbed the second seat at Red Bull behind Ricciardo (better than Vettel, but who isn’t?) and then…?

Williams is doing better, but that’s not saying much.  McLaren is coasting on the fumes of past greatness which are in shorter supply for them than the Scuderia.  Toro Rossa is looking racy at the end of the season, but they’re saddled with that crappy Ferrari engine, which leaves…?

Lotus?  Used to be called Benneton, then Renualt, then Lotus/Renault, and now they’ve done a deal with Mercedes for their clearly superior power plant.  As noted Alonso has a talent for making cars race better than they should so it might be a good fit.

I’d rather he not have to sit out a year since he might just be the best driver out there (besides Hamilton of course).

Mediums and Softs.  1.5 seconds per lap Delta.  Mediums will last forever but take several laps to warm up.

I could make more elaborate excuses, but they’d just suck down the energy I’ve found in such short supply the last couple of days.  I’m hopeful I’ll get back to my normal level of obnoxiousness soon, but it’s a wish not a promise.

In today’s highly abbreviated version I haven’t even bothered to summarize the news with quotes, it’s all links all the time.

News

• Thousands to gather in Ferguson for ‘weekend of resistance’, The Guardian
• Edward Snowden’s girlfriend living with him in Moscow, film reveals, The Guardian
• Lab official admits he faked water samples to help coal companies skirt regulations, Salon
• Virginia tells agencies to clear way for adoptions by gay couples, Reuters
• Haitian man faces U.S. charges over reclining airline seat squabble, Reuters
• Thousands of Hong Kong protesters regroup after government rejects talks, Reuters
• After gaffe, Microsoft board to look at gender pay gap, male culture, Reuters
• Pentagon Accused of Whitewashing History of Vietnam War Era, Common Dreams
• Lego Ends Shell Contract After Greenpeace ‘Save the Arctic’ Campaign, Common Dreams
• Saudi Arabia Unleashing ‘Systematic and Ruthless’ Repression Against Dissenters: Report, Common Dreams

Blogs

• Police Act Furious About Encrypted Phones But Still Love Them. Here’s Why, By Micah Lee, The Intercept
• Are Democratic Leaders Already “Tea Partying” The Progressives?, by Gaius Publius, Down With Tyranny
• Again the Peace Prize Not for Peace, By: David Swanson, Firedog Lake
• How You Know Your Political Brand Has Problems, By: Jon Walker, Firedog Lake
• Can Virginia Democrat John Foust Survive The Steve Israel Effect?, by DownWithTyranny
• NSA Says Secrets It Leaked To The Press Are Too Secret To Be Disclosed Publicly, by Tim Cushing, Tech Dirt
• US Gov’t Wants To Use ‘State Secrets’ Claim To Kill Defamation Case (Not Involving US Gov’t) Without Giving A Reason, by Mike Masnick, Tech Dirt

Today in History

Your sympathy is not required.  My apologies are.

Debt Scolds: Pay No Attention to the Falling Deficit!

By Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

October 8, 2014 3:21 p.m.

The Congressional Budget Office announced today that the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2014 came in at $495 billion, almost $200 billion below the previous figure and probably low enough for new reports to stop calling it a “trillion-dollar deficit.” Within minutes, Washington’s debt-scold community sprang into action to guard against complacency. It is true that the deficit is falling right now, they warn. But right now is not the problem. Later is the problem. “Unfortunately, Washington’s myopic focus on short-term deficits has likely slowed the recovery by cutting deficits somewhat too fast in the short term while leaving substantial imbalances in place over the long term,” laments the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Maya MacGuineas likewise protests, “Our leaders are focusing on the short term when we should be looking at the medium and long term.”

…

(W)here were the debt scolds when the short-term deficit was high and the business and political communities were freaking out? Their belief in patience and the long view might have helped the political system avoid its disastrous turn toward austerity. Instead they fomented panic.

…

That analysis turned out to be completely wrong. Interest rates were not rising in 2009. Indeed, they remain extremely low even five years later.

In September of that same year, MacGuineas was insisting that deficit-financed public spending could not work because the deficit was too large.

…

The fiscal crisis still showed no signs of occurring. Still, two years later, Erskine Bowles cautioned that it would occur in “maybe two years, maybe a little less, maybe a little more.” As recently as last year, MacGuineas wrote, “The federal debt is the nation’s most pressing economic problem.”

Now they concede that it is not actually the most pressing problem but merely something we’ll need to get around to. This could have been brought to our attention yesterday.