Another recipe

Chile Verde con Puerco (green chile with pork)

Cook time, about 4 hours. Preparation time, maybe half an hour.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 pounds lean, boneless pork, diced ½ to 1 inch
• 4-6 cups chicken stock
• 2 lbs fresh tomatillos, husked and coarsely chopped
• 10-12 roasted, large green chilis, deveined and chopped (Hatch or Poblano are best, Anaheim will work, add a jalapeno or two if you want some spicy hot)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-3 large, sweet onions, finely chopped
• ½ cup chopped, fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons coarse ground coriander seed (soak in water)
• ½ teaspoon sugar (optional)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Flour
• About ½ cup bacon fat

PREPARATION:

Season the pork with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour coating on all sides. Heat bacon fat in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat – not quite hot enough to smoke. Brown the meat in small batches ensuring you brown on all sides. Remove, drain and place into a large, deep pot. 

Add chopped onions and peppers to the remaining fat, continuing to simmer over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent and chilis are limp. Add garlic and continue to sauté 1-2 minutes longer.

Combine sautéed onions and peppers, chopped tomatillos, dry spices and cilantro with the pork in the stew pot. Add enough chicken stock to cover the ingredients, increase heat and bring to a boil, the reduce to a low simmer.

Cook uncovered for two hours to reduce, adding more stock if necessary to ensure the ingredients remain covered. Taste and adjust for seasoning by adding salt and pepper as desired. Cover and continue slow simmering for another two hours, stirring often from the bottom to prevent scorching.

The finished product should be a semi-thick stew, chunky with meat but with most of the veggies reduced to a thick liquid.

Serve over rice garnished with a little sprinkle of chopped, fresh cilantro, grated sharp cheddar cheese and chopper sweet onion.

Alternately, mix with either rice or cooked, diced potatoes and roll up in flour tortillas to make burritos. Use a bit more of the chile verde as sauce. Garnish with shredded cheese and chopped sweet onion.

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The Controversial Non Sequitur Muhammad Comic Strip

H/T New Humanist via Hemant...

Take note of Wiley Miller‘s comic strip Non Sequitur in your newspaper this weekend if it regularly appears there.

Several newspapers are rejecting this Sunday’s strip in advance.

What’s so offensive about it?

[It] depicts a lazy, sunny park scene with the caption, “Picture book title voted least likely to ever find a publisher… ‘Where’s Muhammad?’” Characters in the park are buying ice cream, fishing, roller skating, etc. No character is depicted as even Middle Eastern.

So that’s where we’re at now. Some papers are scared shitless because someone is simply implying the existence of a drawing of Muhammad.

Miller was equally disturbed:

“[T]he irony of editors being afraid to run even such a tame cartoon as this that satirizes the blinding fear in media regarding anything surrounding Islam sadly speaks for itself. Indeed, the terrorists have won.”

They have, haven’t they?

When the comic shows up on his syndicate’s website this weekend, please post it wherever you can.

So here it is...

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Sunday Funnies

Let the battle between state and church begin

The Rev. Cary K. Gordon, a pastor at Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, IA, sent a letter to area churches asking them to join in Project Jeremiah 2010, an effort to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices who are up for retention votes in November. The state’s high court ruled 7-0 in 2009 that Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

Americans United for Separation of Church & State is a nonpartisan group that works to protect church-state separation. AU has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Cornerstone, alleging the church has violated its tax-exempt status by trying to influence the upcoming election.

The Rev. Cary K. Gordon fired back, stating, “Let the battle between state and church begin,” and offering free legal services via the Plano, Texas based Liberty Institute to any church following his misguided direction. 

The full story is reported in an online article by the Sioux City Journal.

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SCOTUS trivia

How many female Supreme Court justices have there been?

Out of 100 Justices, only four have been female, three of whom remain on the court today. Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Bill Clinton in 1993. Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are recently appointed by Barak Obama. Kagan was sworn in today as the 100th Justice of the Supreme Court.

There have been only two black justices. Thurgood Marshall was appointed in 1967 by Lyndon B. Johnson, and the still sitting Clarence Thomas, appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991. Sotomayor is the first hispanic Justice. 

SCOTUS has historically been a WASP club, but over the years the Court has managed to diversify similarly to U.S. society as a whole... just not quite as quickly. There have now been several Jewish and Catholic justices, but so far none of anything except European or African descent, no avowed atheists or adherents to non judeo-christian religions. 

It might be fun to break this down further into ethnic, religious and cultural divisions. Considering the speculation surrounding Kagan, we could possibly toss in sexual orientation... 

In the end though, does any of this matter?

Now for the trivia question: Only two Supreme Court justices have ever been forced out of office. Who were these, and what was their crime?

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What kind of speech needs protection?

This is the question asked by Hemant. He goes on to say...

"The Center for Inquiry recently held a video contest for their Campaign for Free Expression. Today, on International Blasphemy Rights Day, they announced their winner — and it’s a great pick"

Hemant then quotes CFT...

"Center for Inquiry (CFI) is pleased to announce that Gregory Walsh and John Schmid of Maryland are the Grand Prize winners of its Campaign for Free Expression Video Contest, which asked contestants to submit short videos in the form of a public service announcement that addresses the importance of free expression. The Grand Prize provides Messrs. Walsh and Schmid with a cash award of $2000"

A tiny, little award for a very simple yet dynamic work. Hemant is correct; it is a great video. My heartfelt contrats to Walsh and Schmid.

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Sand castles

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been on TV a lot lately. Even though he is running ahead in the polls, I guess Bill White is getting a bit too close for comfort so Goodhair is shelling out some of those bucks the oil and insurance companies have been giving him.

I just watched his newest ad, in which he "confronts" President Obama and takes credit for "keeping our border safe." It hasn't hit You Tube yet or I'd show it. A previous ad had birds and butterflies flittering around, with Goodhair showing his dental work bragging about the wonderful state of the Texas economy.

If only it were true.

Just taking the example of education in Texas we can see where 10 years of Perry leadership has gotten us. For example, our K-12 public schools have performed so poorly that our high schools are now required to implement a fourth year of science. We have a new TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills), but thanks to the creationist wingnuts on our State Board of Education, some of these have no foundation in science.

There is no money for textbooks. For some unexplained reason a Senate proclamation that would have provided money for new science textbooks was not adopted by the State Board of Education. Next year, as a requirement of graduation, there will be end-of-course exams for Biology, Algebra, English and World Geography, but there is no funding for testing.

At a minimum Texas schools have an $18 million budget deficit, and the TEA (Texas Education Agency) is recommending cutting $260 million in education programs, including eliminating money for new science labs (required by the new science requirement), teacher mentoring, teacher professional development, and new textbooks.

Are we kidding ourselves? If we are serious about graduating students from Texas public schools we are going to have to find the money somewhere to ensure we have the trained personnel, facilities and instructional materials to make that happen.

Rick Perry, it seems, is not interested, and Bill White is the only candidate for Texas Governor talking about fixing it.

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