Music Friday: "After Curfew"

Joe Pug's new album is one album I've bought this year that I probably need to listen to more often. 

I will admit that the album is mainly slower tracks. I tend to like tunes with a peppier beat. I get that Joe Pug is not a rocker kind of guy, but I hunger for something stronger. 

This is probably one of my favorites from the new album, The Flood in Color. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The Washington Post has a fine article about the efforts of Denmark to be a carbon-neutral country: "What It Takes To Be Carbon Neutral - For a Family, a City, a Country." The U.S. could so this if we had smart leadership. 

Speaking of some of our so-called leaders, a word I need to use more often is "dullard." 

A while back, I did a workshop for someone who used the word "amazing" way too often. Everything, to her, seemed to be "amazing." When everything appears to be amazing, then nothing is amazing. 

There's also a sensible editorial in The Washington Post by the newly elected governors of Kentucky and Louisiana: "How Democrats Can Win, Everywhere." 

Sunday Hangover: Western Carolina

The Tide looked great in the annual tune-up game before the Iron Bowl. 

Mac Jones had a solid game, but he's not typically going to get that kind of time in the pocket vs. Auburn. So we'll see what happens down on the Plains. 

There was all kinds of hype about Tua's younger brother playing, but Jones is clearly the more polished of the QBs. Jones threw some solid deep balls, and Sarkisian called the game as if Tua was in the game. 

From my amateur eyes, Jones looked fairly mobile and had a good pocket presence.

If Alabama loses against Auburn on Saturday, they have no shot of getting into the playoffs. If they win and if LSU beats Georgia (which I suspect will happen), the Tide has a good shot. 

Music Friday: "Wave That Flag"

One of my friends on Facebook shared an experience of being behind a semi the other day that proudly displayed the stars and bars. 

I hate Confederate flags. 

Sunday Hangover: Mississippi State

It was a costly win. Besides Tua's season-ending injury, the two starting DTs got banged up too. 

As for Tua's injury, Coach Saban will be second-guessed ad nauseam about still playing the QB with the Tide up 35 to 7. I'm not going to go there. 

But I am a little peeved that people are thinking the Tide's season is over. Mac Jones was a highly touted QB coming out of high school in Florida, probably at least f four-star recruit.  He has a lot of talent. He just doesn't have a lot of experience except for mainly mop-up duties and his lone start against Arkansas. 

Sarkisian's play calling in the Arkansas game was, for the most part, conservative. So I hope they call some more downfield passes in the next two games. Jones has a good arm. 

Western Carolina is up next, which is not much of a matchup. The real proving ground for Jones will at Auburn. 

Music Friday: "The Symbol"

I bought the new Son Volt album, Union, when it came out, but I need to listen to it much more often. Good old Jay Farrar has some things to say that are worth a serious listen.

This song, the final one on the album, came across my iPod Shuffle the other day. I had forgotten about it. 

In light of the Supreme Court likely to rule against the Dreamers (DACA), this song if relevant. 

Sunday Hangover: LSU

That was a terrible first quarter for the Crimson Tide. They tried to come back from shooting themselves in the feet, but they couldn't pull out the win. 

I'm still pissed at the allegedly completed pass that the LSU TE had. It was clearly illegal touching, but the announcers explained that they supposedly can't review illegal touching. If that's true, that's patent nonsense. 

It was a disappointing afternoon and evening. 

Alabama needed to run the ball more.

I guess there's an outside shot of the Tide getting the playoffs, but I think Alabama won't be in them for the first time since they started. 

I hope to be proven wrong. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the October issue of The Atlantic there's a short article by Jeffrey Goldberg based on his interviews with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis: "The Man Who Couldn't Take It Anymore." Like the author, I wish Mattis would speak out more. 

The anonymous author who wrote an op-ed column a while back about the unhinged, racist, intellectually dubious, and easily influenced nature of Moscow Don has published a book: "Book by Anonymous Describes Trump as Cruel, Inept, and a Danger to the Nation." 

It's a narrative that should seriously concern any American citizen. In one of the early ¶s of the article, it paints a chilling but not surprising portrait comparing Moscow Don to "a twelve-year old in an air traffic control tower, pushing button of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flight frantically diverting away from the airpot." 

I've compiled a bunch of metrics and stats from past Harper's Indexes dating all the way back from May:

• Factor by which users of marijuana edibles are more likely to require emergency care than marijuana smokers: 33
• Percentage of U.S. adults who admit to shopping while drunk: 26
• Average amount of those adults spend annually on purchases made while drunk: $736
• Estimated value of drunk shopping to the U.S. economy each year: $39,400,000,000
• Number of U.S. counties in which a full-time worker making minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment: 22
• Percentage by which a same-sex couple is more likely to be denied a home loan than other couples: 73
• Estimated percentage of New York City police officers who have received tickets for speeding tickets for speeding and running red lights: 59
• Of New York City drivers in general: 36
• Percentage of Republican or Republican-leaning whites who are bothered by hearing a non-English language in public: 47
• Of Democratic or Democratic-leaning whites: 18
• Factor by which more migrants with criminal records are apprehended at the Canadian rather than the Mexican border: 3
• Percentage chance that a U.S. woman who is denied an abortion will be in poverty six months later: 61
• Factor by which more Americans died in school shootings than in combat last year: 3
• Rank of Candid among countries resettling the most refugees in 2018: 1
• Minimum number of years for which the United States previously held that distinction: 59
• Number of U.S. state that require permits for children's lemonade stands: 34
• Estimated number of active police officers who use racist, bigoted, or violent language on Facebook: 20
• Of retired police officers: 45
• Percentage by which the federal minimum wage is worth les today than it was in 1968: 31
• Number of years for which the federal minimum wage has remained unadjusted: 10
• Number of U.S. representatives and senators who are naturalized American citizens: 14
• Number of those who are Democrats: 14
• Number of think tanks in the United States: 1,872
• Factor by which this figure has increased since 1980: 2
• Percentage of American adults who think the Iraq War was not worth fighting: 62
• Of veterans: 64
• Portion of violent protest movements seeking regime change from 1900 to 2014 that were successful: 1/4
• Of nonviolent protest movements: 1/2
• Rank of Brazil among countries with the highest amount of annual forest depletion: 2
• Rank of Russia: 1
• Minimum number of Afghan civilians killed this year by the Afghan military and international forces: 577
• By the Taliban: 423
• Average number of times per week Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is mentioned on Fox News: 42
• On CNN: 14
• Number of states whose Supreme Court benches are all white: 24
• Number of those states in which at least a quarter of the population consists of people of color: 8
• Minimum number of U.S. universities that have offered courses related to the marijuana industry: 14
• Rank of subscription television services among the forty-six major U.S. industries in terms of customer satisfaction: 46
• Of breweries: 1

Some initial thoughts based on all that data...

Thank the Gods for beer. 

Prejudice against same-sex couples is quite alive. 

Arguments for a much higher minimum wage have some ammunition. 

As much as people want to talk about the "thin blue line," to think there are not problems with policing in this country is foolishness. The tickets for NYC cops is somewhat jejune but not an aberration. People in power can easily abuse that power. 

The GOP has become a nativist party that has become obsessed with painting Democrats as socialists. 

Legalized marijuana has its challenges. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Garbanzo and Black Bean Salad

You would think people who truck in the English language, especially foodies who like to call concoctions "compotes" and such, would come up with a better name than "salad" to describe a mixture of beans and veggies, but here I am, providing a repipe for a bean-based salad. 

I went to Aldi's after work and saw a bean salad, so I decided to make one of my own. I like garbanzos and black beans. So here you go. 

Ingredients

1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 small bell pepper, chopped finely

1 bunch of green onions, whites chopped finely

1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic

1 handful of fresh cilantro, chopped finely

Smidge of rice vinegar 

Salt and pepper to taste

Process

Drain and rinse the beans. Once fairly dry, dump them into a bowl and add the bell pepper, scallions, garlic, cilantro, and a little bit of vinegar. Salt and pepper to your desired level of seasoning. 

Music Friday: "Ain't Got No Money"

The Saint of Lost Causes Is one of the better efforts by Justin Townes Earle in recent years. I've listened to it off and on since it dropped. 

Here's the second song on the album.

Music Friday: "I Will Buy You a New Life"

I'm late again. I got home late last night, walked the dog, had a refreshing highball of Old Grand Dad 114, and then fell asleep. 

This song came across the Lithium channel on SiriusXM radio this morning when I took my son to the walk-in clinic. He's had a fever for a couple of days. 

I've always enjoyed Everclear's songs, but I don't have any of the band's albums. 

This is probably one of my favorites.