The Great Bacon Odyssey: One Burger, Ten Strips Of Bacon!

Oh yeah! This burger from GeekDad is right up my alley. The chef used uncured bacon to keep the salt level tolerable to his circulatory system. Then, he chased it down with a very stout beer--the Dogfish Head 90-minute IPA--to help cut the richness of the fat.

My wife would love the burger but pass on the beer.

The Great Bacon Odyssey was prepared as follows:

I began by putting down some aluminum foil on a kitchen counter, because I didn’t want to have to scrub down the counter afterward to get rid of the raw bacon smell. I created a lattice, weaving five vertical strips with five horizontal. I then placed the perfectly ordinary, roughly 1/3lb hamburger my lovely wife had made in the center of the lattice. I tried to neatly enclose the burger in the lattice, but the bottom became a bit of a mess regardless. The top looked very nice, though, if I do say so myself (see the picture, above).

I cooked it using my oven’s broiler, the burger set on a rack over a Pyrex dish to catch rendered fat. Burgers of course taste better on a grill, but consider how many flareups ten strips of bacon would create and you’ll see why I chose not to go that route. I had to trim a few of the strips’ ends when cooking the bottom side, because they got a wee bit too close to the heating element and set off all the smoke detectors in my home. At most, though, I cut off a half-strip’s worth (and probably less), so my experiment was not terribly compromised.

And then I put it on a bun, with an excellent Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA to wash it down, and I proceeded to eat the whole thing. It was really, really good! The burger was probably the juiciest burger I’ve ever eaten, which I suppose makes perfect sense. Probably due to the bacon being uncured, I was able to stand the saltiness, leaving the richness of the pork fat the only obstacle to consumption. The hoppiness of my chosen beer helped cut the richness of the fat enough that I was able to eat the burger in less time than it took my kids to eat their bacon-wrapped hot dogs. And I even had room for corn and a little dessert afterward.

To read the whole article, click on the blog post title or copy and paste this: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/07/the-great-bacon-odyssey-one-burger-ten-strips-of-bacon/#ixzz0t6FjWQSB

Hat tip to David McComb. Thanks for the tip!

Friends of Obama and Holder--Oh, Brother!

If you watch the video closely, you will see a bi-racial couple and a Mennonite lady walking by. Mennonites are pacifists. The irony is incredible.

Obama's Justice Department dismissed voter intimidation charges on this dangerous man. The lack of public outrage is also disturbing. Hail to the Chief.

Click on the blog post title to read some commmentary from HotAir.com.

Alan Jackson -- "Blessed Assurance"

Anyone wanna start a Cowboy Church? I am willing to preach if we can get Alan Jackson to do the music.

Deliverance --"Dueling Banjos"

Remember this one? It'll make the redneck in you come out!!!

Otis McDonald--American Hero

Otis McDonald is an American hero! A working-class man who lived an honest life and felt helpless as his Chicago neighborhood spiraled downward into the gang and drug culture prevalent in most US cities. Mr. McDonald took his fight to own a hand gun all the way to the US Supreme Court.

In a 5-4 split decision, the Court decided that the Chicago gun-control laws were in violation of McDonald's 2nd Amendment freedoms. Hats off to our 5 Supreme Court justices who still hold to an originalist view of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The other 4 justices--well--let's just say it is scary that 4 of our 9 justices have such low regard for the 2nd Amendment.

Solution: The US should amend the Constitution to require that Supreme Court Justices be reaffirmed by the Senate every 8 or 10 years.

There are hundreds of articles about McDonald v. City of Chicago. Here are clips from a couple that show some good background to McDonald's story.

High Court To Define Reach Of Gun-Control Laws

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In 2008, when national gun rights advocates were looking for residents to challenge Chicago's ban on handguns, Otis McDonald was in effect looking for them. McDonald, 76, says he had seen his neighborhood on the far South Side of Chicago turn from bad to worse over the years with "gangbangers and drug dealers."
"My wife and I are here alone all the time now," says McDonald, a retired maintenance engineer, who with his wife, Laura, reared three children. "I've got burglar alarms hooked into the police department. I have a shotgun, but a handgun (would be) more handy for me to handle."

McDonald got involved with his states gun owner rights organization, the Illinois State Rifle Association. Otis said:

"I said the Lord is hearing my prayer," recalls McDonald of meeting Gura [gun-rights attorney] and other gun rights lawyers in early 2008. "They never pressed me. I'm not doing this for them. I am doing this for me."

McDonald had been trying for years to protect himself and other seniors in the deteriorating neighborhood.

Crime in McDonald's area has been steadily rising, although it is mainly property crime rather than violent assaults, according to Chicago police district statistics. Burglaries and thefts are the most common types of crimes in the district. There were 881 burglaries reported in 2006, 1,109 in 2007 and 1,215 in 2008, the most recent annual report available. There were 17 murders in 2008, a number that has held steady since 2006.

McDonald says he often challenged young drug dealers as they hung around idling cars and warned that he would alert the police: "They'd just call me, 'You old gray-headed so-and-so' and say they'd get me."

McDonald took the threats seriously.

When he first got involved with the Illinois State Rifle Association, he was a rare voice from his South Side neighborhood.

"I was probably the only black at that first meeting" in Springfield, McDonald says. "I met a lot of people. Everybody was friendly." The Army veteran adds that "it was like a bunch of old GIs getting together. ... I liked their message."

The Gulf Coast Simpleton would like to give a 4th of July salute to Otis McDonald--American Hero.

Mug Shot Of The Year

How is this for a mug shot? Pretty, ain't he? Fortunately, this is not a Corpus Christi resident.

Convicted Felon Had Pot, Guns Near School

EAST PRICE HILL - A convicted felon was arrested and charged Wednesday with growing a large amount of marijuana inside his home near a school.

Cincinnati police said they also recovered two handguns and a rifle from Robert Prosser’s residence in the 3000 block of Glenway Avenue, which is just around the corner from Rees E. Price School on Considine Avenue in East Price Hill.

Prosser, 49, was booked into the Hamilton County jail just before midnight on charges of possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, cultivation of marijuana and illegally having firearms.

In court Thursday, Prosser's attorney said his client is recovering from cancer, possibly alluding that the marijuana was for personal and medicinal use, which is also illegal in Ohio.

The attorney also said that police went through the yard without a search warrant.

The allegation set off Judge Cheryl Grant, who paused and said, "Wait a minute. I signed it."

When Prosser asked the judge if he could speak, Grant fired back sternly, "No."

She ordered Prosser to be held on a $10,000 bond.

A previous felony conviction for a violent offense prohibits him from having guns, according to court documents.

He was growing some 33 marijuana plants inside his home, police said.

Hat tip to HotAir.com.

Battle Video From Afghanistan--Taliban Ambush Of Brits

Here is a good video of British soldiers being ambushed by Taliban insurgents in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The British soldier who got shot in the face received only three stitches and was back on patrol the next day. GUTS!

The video is copywrited by The Sun newspaper, so I am unable to embed the video. To watch the whole skirmish, click on the blog post title or copy and paste this:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/video/article300101.ece?vxSiteId=0bc72527-aa8e-4487-a5e8-94aae448c9dd&vxChannel=Sun%20Exclusive&vxClipId=1347_SUN46302&vxBitrate=300

I will try to embed and post the video as soon as possible.