Posts made by BigDaddyAmin

@Bobotron

State of Texas be whack with standards, yo.

@BetterJudgment

I wish that the administration of the school that I worked for was like yours. I remember when I taught European History before graduate school, I gave Fs to about three seniors that failed to turn in anything or show any type of effort. Had the principal knocking on my classroom door freaking out over it and demanding that I change them to incompletes. That was kind of a wake up call for me.

@Cobaltasaurus

Get a toddler. I used to think that my wife and I dirtied too dishes. Now with my daughter we pretty much use almost all the spoons up in my house just in one night.

http://www.mudconnect.com/cgi-bin/adv_search.cgi?Mode=MUD&mud=Winter+Is+Coming

Any information on this? Who is developing it? Anyone want to admit to it? (Privately as I know Litigious Linda is lurking).

I am interested...

Parsi-style Green Beans

Found this in a Saveur issue eight years ago when my wife and I first got married. Since then it has been a staple in our house, and our little toddler likes it too. While fenugreek and spinach tend to be popular in this dish, I like using mustard or collard greens.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 (1⁄4") piece peeled fresh ginger, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
Salt
2 1⁄2 lb. greens, such as spinach or amaranth, trimmed and washed
1 tbsp. canola oil
1-2 green thai chiles, slit to the stem
1 small red onion, chopped
1⁄4 tsp. turmeric
1⁄2 tsp. cayenne
1 tomato, cored and coarsely chopped

1. Put ginger and garlic together on a cutting board, sprinkle with a bit of salt, and roughly chop them together. Using the flat side of your knife blade, smash the chopped ginger and garlic to form a paste; set aside. Put spinach into a large pot, cover, and with no more than the water adhering to the leaves, steam over medium heat, tossing occasionally, until the greens collapse, 5–7 minutes; drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the greens chiles and let them sizzle for a moment before adding the onion. When the onion softens, add the ginger–garlic paste, stirring to keep the contents from sticking. Add the turmeric, cayenne, and about 1⁄2 tsp. salt and stir for a few moments before you add the chopped tomato. Let the tomato cook down a little, 3–4 minutes. Add greens, combine well, and cook over low heat, covered, until tender and well flavored with the other ingredients, about 30 minutes. The final consistency should be "fairly dry, not swimming".

I have no clue what this MUSH is really about. But...I'm intrigued....oddly.

​In the very least, I hope that this encourages Muslims and Muslim scholars to be bold and engage in textual criticism of the Quran in the same way that Christian study scholars have done with the New Testament and Jews have done with the Old Testament in the Medieval to the Modern era.​ But with ISIS/Daesh trying to recreate the Abbasid Caliphate right now, I don't think we will see anything like that out of Islamic universities in Baghdad. And we certainly can't rely on the Wahabis in Saudi Arabia to produce any kind of scholarship like that.

Ibn Warraq (the modern scholar who uses this as a nom-de-plume, not the 7th century contemporary of Muhammad) has mentioned this theory, as well as his theory that Muhammad was a fictional character out of Medieval bedouin society almost like England's Lancelot or Arthur. I'm not certain I agree with him but my specialty is Christian studies, not Islam. Then again, as someone who collects Umayyad coinage, I find he bases a lot of this theory on the fact that there are coins dating from after Muhammad with the Shahada on them but yet they have Christian crosses and ICXC NIKA (a Byzantine monogram for 'Ιησούς Χριστός vika' or 'Jesus Christ is Victor) on them. This isn't syncretism as he claims but rather these dinars and dirhams come from confiscated Byzantine coinage which were then re-used by the Caliphate by simply stamping the Shahada on them. His works are nonetheless interesting, in particular Christmas in the Quran"

This presents a big problem because several schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) interpret the Koran as a perfect document, almost going above and beyond what many sola scriptura Christians believe about the Bible (I have yet to encounter a Southern Baptist who believes the New Testament to be a perfect piece of Greek prose much in the same way some Muslims believe that the Koran is the perfect example of Arabic poetry). There are Salafis that even claim that the Koran is pre-eternal in the same way that Allah is.

@Derp

SoS was written in Aramaic, originally, but the bulk of Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek around the 3rd century B.C with the advent of the LXX. So much was the prevalence of Greek that Hebrew became a liturgical language used in the Temple, and Greek and Aramaic became predominant for business and everyday life (when Jesus is handed the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue in Luke 4:17, he probably is reading from a Greek or Aramaic copy). I am more familiar with Greek. My Hebrew and Aramaic needs work.

A fellow colleague and graduate of my theological school told me to take a look at these cards. He also is a gamer, like myself (he taught me about World of Darkness in between Hebrew classes).

Aside from being a Biblical scholar, I like card games - poker, Cards Against Humanity, hell I even play Klondike Solitaire with tarot cards. Meet 'A Game For Good Christians.' No it isn't a game Ned Flanders would play. He would probably put on sack cloth and ashes to atone for even touching them. Besides, Ned would probably blush if he could read Song of Solomon (not the Kate Bush song) in the Septuagint Greek, where the phallic and vaginal references are most enlightening!

It is sort of a mixture between Bible trivia and Cards Against Humanity. Results can be hilarious, sacreligious, and fun.

Great fun for believers and unbelievers alike.

www.agameforgoodchristians.com

When your job fucks you over...

Time to start looking for other career options and going back home....

Chicken in a Dark Chocolate Mole sauce. Wash that stuff down with a Portuguese wine.

Speaking of lazy, this is what the wife and I are eating tonight:

http://memoriediangelina.com/2014/11/28/zuppa-pavese-pavia-style-soup/#.VaAoDvlVhBc

@Ganymede

I am not a big bourbon drinker. I find it too sweet. I will, on occasion, sip a mint julep on a hot day or have a glass of Blanton's Single Barrel.

I enjoy single malts, in particular Islay malts - Lagavulin, Caol Ila, and Laphroaig. Though, blends work in a pinch. I find that Black Label by Johnnie Walker to be a very welcomed respite after a long, hard day at the office.

I have noticed that a few of us around here are foodies, gourmets, gourmands, and lovers of fine wines, spirits, cigars, and other goodies. I love to cook and like the next, fat, white American male, I enjoy a good whisky.

So I have created this thread for just that. It could be describing something you made for supper, swapping recipes, a great new cookbook, and in general just sharing something you enjoy.

Let the gourmandizing begin.

A lot of libertarians and a few anarcho-capitalists (in particular the shrill Stefan Molyneux bots) tend to all agree that if you want to control people you control their health care. I disagree with that. Maybe if we weren't investing in the military industrial complex, not to mention supporting countries that we shouldn't be in the first place, perhaps a really great health care system would be at our fingertips as Americans and quite possibly an economically good decision.

And I think it all depends on where you are at. I live in Wyoming and where I am at, the nearest endocrinologist for my wife is in Rapid City, South Dakota. Aside from the odd trip that we make once a year to visit to check up on her A1C levels (which we normally make a weekend out of, filled with shopping and stuff we cannot do in our neck-o-the-woods), we find that her general practitioner can do quite a bit.

A few years ago before the pre-existing condition issues abounded, it would have been unthinkable for us to pay into our own health care. Now, we can, though thankfully I get good insurance through my employer.

@ThatGuyThere

In spite of the fact that I am a fairly right-of-center Libertarian, one thing I do believe we need in this country is a national health system. I say this as the husband of a type I juvenile diabetic.

Waiting. Waiting on a transfer with my present employer. Pisses me off. In the meantime, I have six-seven jobs currently hot as irons in a fire, waiting to see them develop. I hate waiting on employers...

I won't go into my personal details too much but I am essentially an Arts and Letters guy who was forced into Information Technology as other employer put me in my current location. If you want to know more, feel free to send me a PM. It is a long story...one of those, "Call me Ishmael" things.

@Ganymede

Indeed. Easier said than done. Things are complicated. Given some whisky, Skype, and some fortitude I could tell more. But good advice.