Bush and His Dragnet
The preview for this winter so far has been mild. We've seen this before though, and it could suddenly turn into a really bitter winter. The Farmer's Almanac? Up here, we trust the horses more. Some of them have already grown really thick winter coats, so we don't know what to think about what lies ahead, but hopefully, for the animals' sake and for the sake of Max who will continue to grill great dinners for us no matter the weather, let's hope we have a mild winter.
A few couples have the sniffles, so tonight will be a shorter evening than other ones, and maybe we'll all retire early and make sure we don't all get sick with a cold. We can't afford to be sick for long because farm and ranch chores don't wait for you to feel good: the animals have to be cared for whether you feel like it or not!
We had the fireplaces going tonight, one in the great room and one in the dining room. Barry fixed us a new drink, called a Pompanski, specifically calling for a Polish vodka, Wyborowa and dry Martini & Rossi vermouth and Cointreau. They were delicious, and completely new to us, but of course, that's part of the plan, to have a new cocktail almost every night.
Now glowing, we had just a few words to say about the "war on terror" which this Prez really thinks of in terms of a Crusade against the heathens, which of course is the worst way to think about what is going on right now. Barry told us that he would be talking to us next week about fascism, about the wrong choices this administration has taken, and about the idiocy of labeling what is going on in the world today in terms of a "Crusade."
Also, Barry told us, the disdain that Bush and Cheney feel for what they call "Old Europe" is the height of cretinism, in light of the fact that this administration only knows how to use a dragnet to catch anyone who smells remotely of being Islamic, whereas "Old Europe" actually has the brains to track down, arrest and bring to trial the terrorists that Bush only dreams of being able to arrest and bring to trial.
When Elizabeth asked Barry to explain a bit better what he meant, he said that Bush & Corrupt Co. capture thousands of people, torture them all, and never seem to be able to actually find anybody culpable of anything more than being Islamic, whereas the Europeans go about their task quietly, without using torture, but do manage to bring to trial the true terrorists. And they do this without Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib or rendition, which has rendered nyet, zero, zip, nada.
Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Great Britain and Jordan have all managed to track down terrorists and bring them to trial, whereas this farce of an administration hasn't done anything of similar consequences, unless you measure success by how many times our Prez has gone out in some kind of drag to talk about his war on terror. He just went to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis to give a fictitious accounting on the progress on his "war on terror" and for the first time in memory wasn't in drag of some kind or another! Quelle Surprise!
Barry asked us to be patient, and he would explain more to us soon, so we thought, with so many of our neighbors sick, we'd have an early dinner, but of course, still a good dinner.
Marie Christine and Jean-Paul Prepare Dinner
For starters, they served us a delicious, perfect Shrimp Ceviche with avocadoes, cilantro, and of course, lime. They paired this appetizer with an Aria Cava Extra Dry sparkling wine. Although Marie Christine and Jean-Paul are both French, they said that Champagne just doesn't go as well with dishes such as this ceviche as do other sparkling wines.
The next dish they served was skirt steak they have marinated overnight. Their Churrasco-style Skirt Steak, reminiscent of trips to the Argentine Pampas, they served with a medley of grilled vegetables from Art and Terry's greenhouses. What made this a special dinner were the little braziers we had imported from Mexico, enabling every four diners to have a small charcoal brazier to keep their steaks and vegetables piping hot and full of mesquite charcoal flavor. Trust me, the kids think it's really "neat." For the Churrasco, Marie Christine and Jean-Paul served a Freixenet Brut de Noirs Rosé. Bliss in a glass and a brazier, and how we missed the neighbors who were home sick.
Since there were so few of us tonight, we didn't have dessert, and instead just went back to the great room to visit with the teenagers and enjoy Max's after-dinner espresso.
Liz thought this poem by Emily Brontë, would impress on us the horror of being a prisoner, especially an innocent prisoner caught in Corrupt Bush & Co.'s dragnet:
O! dreadful is the check - intense
the agony
When the ear begins to hear, and the
eye begins to see;
When the pulse begins to throb -
the brain to think again -
The soul to feel the flesh, and the
flesh to feel the chain.
Good way to win the hearts and minds of billions, isn't it, Georgie boy?
Summary:
The Europeans Cheney loves to mock are much more adroit at apprehending and bringing to trial the real terrorists. Bush and The Corrupts & Co. are only good at using a dragnet and hauling in anybody who remotely resembles a follower of the Islamic faith.
The Europeans actually don't bother to incarcerate everybody in site: they only apprehend those that they know will be brought to justice because of their actual guilt, unlike bushie boy who grabs everybody in sight and can bring not one to court. Yet, bushie boy keeps his big brown nose firmly up Cheney's derrière.
