-Grocery store earlier, in the canned vegetable aisle contemplating sauerkraut for hot dogs, spotted right next to each other both an 8oz can of the stuff & a can saying “hot dog kraut” (including a picture of a hot dog on the can) the same size.  The 2nd can was 30 cents more than the first. Ingredient list on both, verbatim: “cabbages, water, salt”. Somebody in marketing thinks they’re slick…

-Tim Lee writes about an ongoing debate concerning Comcast & bandwidth caps. In short, he points out that Comcast, being a huge company with layers of crap to get through to make a decision, is highly likely to be stupid when it comes to foresight. Of course, the real question that needs to be asked is “how do we make these regional monopoly/national oligopoly network gatekeepers irrelevant, and how soon can we implement it?”.

-”Afghan gov’t claims indefinite detention power in worrying sign of regression”…is how a headline about this would read if not for the fact they’re doing so at the request of the Obama administration.

-This constant drone strike stuff is going to bite us in the ass, it’s only a question of when.  Notice they’re already not even mentioning who they think they were targeting, even though there was apparently enough detail to mention the location was a bakery?  Somewhere in that area is someone who really freakin’ loved their besan ladoo*…

(* – it’s one of the first things that came up in a search for Pakistani baking. Sounds like fancy donut holes with fruit)

Super well-known place, but it was close & I was starving, so why not?  I go in, and the ordering process oddly resembles a lunch line like at school, albeit with way better smells involved. Wanting a 2nd interpretation of a burnt ends sammich, that’s what I go with this time, whereupon I learn a lesson I should’ve saw coming.

“When ordering burnt ends, unless you say not to put the sauce on it, they will assume you want sauce pre-applied”.   This was a curious decision on their part, since they have sauce bottles at each table, but lesson learned.  I dug in & the first thing I noticed was that they smoke theirs to falling apart territory, to where the texture of some bites is more accurately described as pulled beef.  On this measure, while it was good (best with the spicy version of their sauce added, oddly enough), I found myself kinda missing the more toothsome quality of LC’s interpretation.  Sauce comparison though, Arthur Bryant’s blew LC out of the water.  When it comes to sauces, my philosophy is that if the meat is smoked & marinated/rubbed properly it doesn’t need sauce, while any application of it should plug in a useful quality to the already delicious meat much like adding an extended clip to your machine gun in Call of Duty — if you’re leaning on the sauce to provide primary flavor, you’re doing it wrong IMO.  I got the gist of what they were getting at anyway, I just wish I thought to order it nekked.  The ideal would be LC’s meat & Bryant’s sauce, but that isn’t to say Bryant’s is bad, just preference different.

BTW: I didn’t think to grab a fork, so I just picked up the meat chunks with the bread. Now I get why the bread is there w/ sammiches clearly too wet & bountiful to pick up — it’s an edible spoon!

After that, I went back to the hotel, did some more exploring, and decided to cross back into Kansas for a final taste.  Rosedale’s BBQ appears to be in an industrial/office park area of town, to such an extent that the building blends in with the nondescript stuff nearby & I initially missed my turn.

This sign? It was by their exit. 

Having started out with pork, I felt it fitting to finish with pork.  ”One long end rib plate, please”.  This is what I got:

If they don’t look too appetizing, it’s because they’re on the plate face down. That actually worked in my favor, because I was then free to apply sauces to the actual meat however I saw fit.  These were the most tender of the pork ribs I had the whole trip, with the meat itself fattier than most, kinda cheap’n'cheerful quality meat in a good way.  Tried em nekked, with the original sauce, and with the spicy: all were satisfying, with a molasses-like character in the original that I didn’t catch in other places sauces — sweet, but in a different way.

Thoroughly enjoyed the experience overall.

Speaking of that state line cluster, the next place on the itinerary for the day was Oklahoma Joe’s, which is in Kansas City, KS. For this trip I actually found myself praising the freeway system I damned yesterday, because I covered the distance from my hotel on the opposite end of town in 15 minutes.

The restaurant is in a gas station building.  Which you can still get gas at. Which I imagine leads to some very easy jokes at times having to do with side effects of eating large amounts of meat.  We have a BBQ place back home that also shares space with a gas station, but it doesn’t tend to have lines out the door at lunch time. Eh, I didn’t have anything else planned right away, and the line moved pretty fast.

Once inside (did I mention this place is busy? And small?) you smell the smoking process & hear blues music, & see the awards the competition BBQ team that started this place won.  You also see the occasional surprisingly small person trying to eat their huge brisket sammiches.  I ordered the ribs & brisket dinner:

The ribs were good, of course. Nice deep smoke & a rub that more accents what was already there than attempts to transform, juicy and tender.  The brisket though was the star, ribbons of glistening beef with an interesting spice note to them I can’t quite figure out…it’s like the rub they do for their beef leans more herbal than most, subtle but noticed when you suck on the juices.  Whatever it is, it works.  As far as sauces, they have their original KC style on the table plus a hot version called Night of the Living BBQ (the bottle artwork is a cartoon of pigs attacking a guy like they’re zombies) — I preferred the original on the brisket & the hot on the ribs.

After this, for awhile I just drove around seeing what was what (good news: I found the Negro League Baseball museum / bad news: it’s closed on mondays. Trying again tomorrow) until I was hungry again, then I dialed in another BBQ place.  Once I broke from the freeway & passed a college, then saw the familiar pattern of church/liquor store/liquor store/pawn shop/liquor store, I said to myself “I do believe we are driving through the Hood”.  It is KC, after all.  This was the place:

I assume the fencing in front of the windows is to make hurling a brick through them difficult, in case someone who works there pissed somebody off.  It’s a small place, with the smoker right behind the counter you order at.

In case someone thought I was kidding…

Having heard about “burnt ends” (beef briskets are shaped such that one end is narrower than the other. The end that doesn’t produce even slices is then shoved back into the smoke for a few more hours & chunked up — hence, “burnt ends”), I decided to order a burnt ends sandwich…

Folks, to state the obvious for a moment, this is not a “sandwich”.  This is a pile of meat, with sauce, on bread.  You are not picking this up under any circumstances.  If told at gunpoint “pick this sandwich up with your hands”, I’d be as good as dead.  The meat took on a character where it was tender yet still providing decent bites per chunk, and gushingly juicy.  The sauce…eh.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly great either, it was kinda just there.  At least it didn’t get in the way.

The plan for tomorrow is to go to the Negro League Baseball museum & actually get in, then try a couple more BBQ places. Tonight, I’m watching the Lakers go down in flames, accompanied by a frosty beverage or two.

First impression of KC as a town: who the hell designed the roads?  A crack-addicted lemur?  It seems like every other street downtown is a one-way, & the freeways bring to mind what would occur if a Jackson Pollock painting were mistaken for a blueprint (BTW: nice touch with the speed limits changing 3-4 times within a couple mile stretch, real cute).  Huge, and easy to get lost in without a navigator (more on that later), though once you do find your way around there’s all the options that you generally only get in a big city: were it not for lacking change for meters, I would’ve just parked somewhere downtown and walked until I couldn’t.

My opening pick was Jack Stack BBQ, in the aforementioned downtown area. It apparently shares a strip with multiple other businesses, because when Tom Tom said I was there, I saw signs for everything BUT Jack Stack’s at first. A short turn revealed their parking, and onward I went…

This place came highly recommended from a friend of mine who also appreciates smoked meat.  Upon entrance, I couldn’t help but notice it’s the most ballerific-looking bbq joint I’ve ever seen:

The place is large, for one.  For another, the servers all appeared to have earpieces like they were in the meat equivalent of the Secret Service.  Several groups of people appeared to have shown up straight from some form of formal gathering.  I’m the type of guy that would gladly bring a date to grub on bbq, believing that you don’t really know someone until you’ve seen them eat with their hands, but this place pretty much anybody could do so and get away with it.  Don’t let that fool you into thinkin’ they’re some borgeoisie pseudo interpretation of ‘cue though — your girl has a big chance to get that cute lil dress plenty messy.

Here’s the plate I got:

I was indecisive, so I got the Ultimate Rib platter: pork spare & back ribs, LAMB ribs, & a Crown Prime beef rib.  The pork ribs were basically what I expected: moist, deeply smoked, & more towards the sweet end as far as sauce character as is KC’s niche. The Lamb ribs…honestly, the first time I heard of any place doing lamb ribs I thought it’d be too hard to pull off, but these were decadently tender & unctuous.

Then, I got to this:

Well HELLO there, dinosaur-sized glistening hunk of meat! How you doin’?

This was an experience in and of itself.  The depth of hickory love, the pretty much pornographic juiciness…while holding a huge piece of meat in your hands like this, I swear, for those moments you feel a bit more of a man.  The rub doesn’t penetrate as deep as for the other meats, but with this it’d be beyond the point if it did.

All in all, this was well worth it.

Next up, pretty much because it was still open & I got the gist of the area from earlier, was Winslow’s BBQ.  It’s in a large area known as City Market, with several restaurants and other stores sharing the same walking space.

While Jack Stack resembles a hunting lodge, this place takes on the feel of your friendly neighborhood bar, one that ooh, what do you know, we just happen to have barbecue! Have some! Don’t mind if I do…

Their thing, from what I gleaned from the menu, is sammiches — pulled pork, brisket, burnt ends, that type of thing.  Seeing a beef brisket option with a “bourbon bacon” sauce — you know damn well I’m getting it.  This was what came out…

I lift up the top to show just how meaty this was.  And that meat…sweet frickin’ Cthulhu!  Super slow’n'low smoked most of the day, this was the best brisket I’ve ever had.  I’m more of a pork guy when it comes to ‘cue, but this sammich made me understand in the depths of my very soul what beef brisket can indeed be with the right care.

Back to the navigator: I don’t like its reaction time.  There were two instances where the voice turn-by-turn command said to turn only as I was going straight through the light. Gotta respond faster, yo.

As for the car: ye olde 96 Cutlass is turning out a comparative beast at highway speeds.  The gas gauge needle floats, so I’d been using the trip meter to supplement it; the same distance that in town was taking almost the whole tank, from home to KC & traipsing the freeways it took that & another half before I even needed to consider gas.

For the moment, this big negro is happy.  Goodnight.

Some people have very, very low expectations.  For example, the following is being cheered:

President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.

In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and own daughters.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday.

It takes consultation with friends & family, observance of actual gay couples in the wild, and years of soul-searching to reach the conclusion “Y’know, preventing people who love each other from doing something we let everyone else do because they have the same plumbing is kinda sorta unfair”.  The rank and file supporters of his faction of the ruling class, due to this, are squealing with delight like that pig in the stupid car insurance commercial.

My reaction: “…what? You want a cookie?”

As I have made a point of reminding folks on the issue of marriage, the “traditional” definition has been constantly changing since long before any of the ones currently on either side were born.  The very concept of government being a party to it, in the scope of mankind, is relatively new, and the relationship until even more recently than that for those not barred from it was more like master & slave than that of equal partners.  Within the current nature of the arrangement — that being an overlap of the deeply personal/philosophical/spiritual or what have you, & the political — I believe in the rule that the state should be non-discriminatory until it is non-existent.  While the worth of government recognition is in my view zilch, if others disagree then I’m not going to stop them.

So, this flawed, internally contradictory but nonetheless important to many people status exists, and a man has declared that in his view, of the things that the state does to people, denying them access to this should not be one of them (though, if people want to do so on a state level, go ahead, he adds. Because rights have neatly drawn boundaries).  Many people already believe this, & it is not news. They don’t matter.

Who it is finally coming around to this view matters simply because he is The Motherf—ing President.  He who has their finger hovering over The Button is who is relevant.

The real question is why the relationships of consenting adults is anyone else damn business whatsoever.  That Obama’s view of said relationships is of even the most remote concern should stand as a lesson for us all, a lesson about the absolutely suicidal and absurd amount of power a few people hold in this society.  When the views of anyone else on that which does not harm them simply roll off, relevance vanished, that’s when you’ll know true equality — and freedom — has been achieved.

Edit: figures I’d hit Publish right before someone shares w/ Marc Ambinder (and thus, I’m assuming until further notice, the world, since it got retweeted like crazy) this…

Really.

Despite several failed tests, & recent history showing that missiles are really irrelevant as a 1st world security risk compared to, say, the angry relatives & neighbors of people who those countries fire their missiles at, U.S. construction of an attempted missile shield continues.  Extending this nonsensical plan to Europe, one of the stations — 6 years from now — is set to be placed in Poland.  Nearby Russia, realizing that 1) the Cold War is over & 2) this crap isn’t gonna work anyway, is shrugging it off.

I’m kidding. They’re actually threatening — well in advance — to fire on it:

Russia’s top military officer has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.

President Dmitry Medvedev said last year that Russia will retaliate militarily if it does not reach an agreement with the United States and NATO on the missile defense system.

“Just you wait!  Go ahead and build the missile defense system for those several years, and the second it’s done we’ll attack it & trigger WW3!”

Nice use of the “pre-emptive strike” talk, btw.  So, what’s the purpose of this shield, beyond the usual billions for the endless war industry?

Moscow rejects Washington’s claim that the missile defense plan is solely to deal with any Iranian missile threat and has voiced fears it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Moscow has proposed running the missile shield jointly with NATO, but the alliance has rejected that proposal. (emphasis mine)

The stated assumption here by Washington D.C. is that somewhere along the line the Iranian government is going to fire missiles at Europe.  Because…just because they feel like it, I guess?  Meanwhile, the assumption by Russia is that it’s meant instead to stop them from firing on the rest of Europe.  Which they would do because…Boris Badenov takes over in a coup & really wants to get that damn Moose & Squirrel?

During all this, here in the real world, the shield Doesn’t. Frickin. Work.  Also, it is long proven irrelevant even if it did (a thought: if Russia really wanted to hurt the U.S., it would simply disrupt the flow of oil).  Reading mutual mounds of Stupid like this make me wish I had a glue-sniffing habit.

First, let me preface this with the following: Ted Nugent is an absolute fricking idiot and his music is garbage.  Ok? Now, onward…

This guy is in the news lately for pretty much the only reason he gets any attention at all these days: his ultra-right-wing political views and how he expresses them.  Recently, in keeping with the partisan charade that the problem with the State is who happens to hold the nuclear launch codes at this specific moment rather than its very nature, Nugent said, among other things, that if Obama were re-elected, by this time next year he — as in Nugent — would either be dead or in jail.  The Secret Service was not amused.

If you remember, there was an incident while someone more favorable to Ted was at the helm of the empire where a teenage girl got a Secret Service contact because of something she posted on her Myspace.  While there are a lot of threats, most of which the public will never know about, neither whiny kids nor washed up musicians pass a smell test as far as credible ones go.  For one thing, announcing an actual intent to follow through on the kind of national stage Ted crawled onto due to his endorsement of Generic Republican — excuse me, Mitt Romney — would be rather detrimental to any odds of success.  It would be as if a potential plane hijacker happened to get on one of those stupid TV talent shows and said after their performance “I’m going to hijack a plane!”; if we damn near get roto-rootered for trying to board a plane, imagine what that person would encounter.

That said, he didn’t say why he would be locked up or dead.  Considering he made these remarks at an NRA convention, he’s more than likely envisioning seizure of his firearms, which he would resist at all costs.    My view of the right to bear arms being such that I responded to mainstream liberal howls over armed protesters at Tea Party rallies with basically “if anybody should be armed it’s the Left”, I’d completely understand such a reaction were that to occur despite disagreeing with him on just about everything else.  Yet, I would be kidding myself if I didn’t admit that the understanding of personal firearms as a primary hedge against tyranny* seems a bit quaint at a time where we’re discussing missiles routinely being fired by aircraft controlled from thousands of miles away.  While there’s application still when it comes to the local kind of violent oppression (as I previously discussed, & which amounts to admission of failure to check law enforcement as promised), let’s be real here: If Obama really wanted him bad enough, Ted Nugent would be dead already.

I’m reminded of Ioz’ remark concerning the regular threats that come with the territory of political power:

If we are cursed forever to be ruled by such men, let them at least pay for their power by looking over their shoulder from time to time.

Personally, I think it says something profound about that power that “watch what you say” is ever said without irony.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a properly frivolous political story without exchanges of additional nonsense.  Nugent followed up his remarks by comparing himself to a “black Jew at a Klan rally”, and a writer for CNN.com provided…well, just look:

Ted Nugent should be arrested.

Not because he doesn’t like Barack Obama but because he got up in front of a group of people and insinuated he would attempt to assassinate Obama if he’s re-elected. Or let’s put it this way: A man with a truckload of guns has threatened the life of our president while the country’s at war. (emphasis mine)

Because Things Are Different while we’re bombing people…

(* – I stress, again, that to interpret the flawed logic & illegitimacy of the ruling structure as reason to go attack individual members of it is Stupid-with-a-capital-S)

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said. [...] If approved, the change would probably accelerate a campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that is already on a record pace, with at least eight attacks in the past four months.

This request, amounting to a gripe that knowing who you’re shooting at is a hassle, comes up even though it is admitted that much of the activity cited as reason for it is local in nature (read: not concerned with a threat to the U.S.).  Keep it up though and of course that’ll change.

I suspect the biggest reason for the type of militancy the U.S. “defense” apparatus is so worried about overseas is because of the power it claims over the rest of the world & how it leads desperate people in already crappy circumstances to conclude that Washington D.C. has more pull in their lives than they do.  Call it a hunch.

Edit: “Bug splat“? Really??

Had a fairly random, albeit particularly interesting IMO, thought and felt like hoisting its flag out to see if it catches return fire. So here:

Consider the varying definitions used for “capitalism”.  People use it to refer to everything from a system of inherent state-collusion in the favor of connected interests, to the anarcho-capitalist definition of an ideal open market order, to the simple (and simplistic) “anything involving prices”.  These are about the process, but what about the root?  That is, what about Capital?  Economics textbooks routinely say that Capital is not — NOT! — a reference to money, but to basically Stuff that can be used to make other Stuff.  Yet, significant portions of modern economic activity have pretty much jack squat to do with this anymore, to an extent where that textbook definition is alien to most: when you say “capital” to the general public, they generally respond “money”.  The influence of finance looms large here.

This poses a dilemma with regard to that textbook definition: stick to it, and it is arguable that modern economies approach a post-capitalist state.

Ultimately, I am confident the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress. [...]

I just want to remind conservative commentators that for years what we have heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this has been a good example. I am pretty confident this court will recognize that and not take that step.

Justices of the Supreme Court, upon confirmation, effectively can serve for the rest of their lives.  Judicial Review allows them to declare laws void upon challenge — regardless of how popular those laws are.  According to the foundational fable of the U.S. government, a key portion of which prior to becoming the head of the U.S. government Barack Obama achieved a level of recognized expertise in sufficient to allow him to lecture others about it, restraining what a “strong majority” of a “democratically elected” legislative body can do is the entire damn purpose of the Supreme Court!

If legitimacy begins and ends at “there was a vote, majority rule, bitches!”, then the implications are clear: Any judicial action whatsoever fits the definition of “judicial activism”, and any legislation that can get 50%+1 is automatically a-ok, even if it amounts to saying the other 49.9 are to be fed to lions.  That someone who past majorities wouldn’t have even allowed to learn to read is willing to dismiss this just about sums up how thoroughly power corrupts.