The Doghouse

To Republicans Pissed Off By Obama's Prime Time Ad

2008-10-29T21:47:00.001-07:00

Fellow Republicans,

If you are like me, you saw an extended prime time television extravaganza chock full of families, kids of many races, and carefully selected speech montages. You saw bold statements about creating jobs, cutting government spending, and the word "hope" used more than once. You heard frightening statistics about rising unemployment, the price of milk, and how our world credibility required immediate repair. There were tacit promises made by images of wheat fields, ordinary citizens waving flags, and various other icons of the American Dream.

If you are like me, you remember these television advertisements as part of Ronald Reagan's 1980 and 1984 election campaigns. Highly successful election campaigns by any measure. Landslide election campaigns.

There is much to dislike and disagree with regarding Obama's policies, but let's try not to be dicks; tonight's prime time campaign advertisement was first rate, and you know it.

Food Report: Burger Bar, Mandalay Bay

2008-10-05T21:38:00.001-07:00

This past week, I was somehow tricked into going to the Burger Bar at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Of all the places we could go in the city with allegedly the highest density of five-star restaurants in the world, the last thing I was excited about was paying $10 for a hamburger.

First Trip: Monday

While my companions anted up for toppings, sides, and other upsell wares, I decided I would go Spartan and ordered the $9 Black Angus Beef burger (the "Pride of America's Heartland" according to the menu) along with a diet coke. No fries coated with spices in odd shapes, no pesto sauce toppings.

It was freaking awesome.

Black Angus Beef burger: +7

Option for "Rare": +5

Actually cooked Rare: +9

Diet Coke: +4 *

* As any soda-drinker knows, there are substantial variations to fountain-derived soda.

Second Trip: Thursday

On the first trip, we noticed there was something on the menu called the "Rossini", which was their "Kobe beef" burger with fois gras, shaved truffles, Madeira sauce, on an onion bun ($60). After Day 1's epiphany, it was time to take this Burger Bar out for a spin, but since truffles and desert-wine seemed a little much, we opted for the Kobe beef burger and added the pan-seared fois gras for an extra $12 (total $28). To complete the "diner" experience, I added a chocolate milkshake (lactose intolerance be damned, this is a $28 burger!@) and onion rings (fried + milkshake = good). Medium-rare was selected as per the world-weary waitress' recommendation.

Now, despite the previous day's success, I was still somewhat apprehensive about whether it was going to be worth $28. After the initial taste, I was somewhat convinced I would have paid $28 just for that single bite. Prior to this, my best single course food experience was a caviar & salmon amuse bouche at Gary Danko. This burger made that seem like a Chicken McNugget.

The burger came cut in half and was done on the rare side of medium-rare, and had a thin seared outer crust (no gradient, just crust and medium-rare meat). The fois gras was a decent-sized slab (maybe 1/8 inch thick) and covered the entire surface of the burger, which covered 95% of the bun. Perfect ratio, IMO. I think I might have actually started drooling when it was served.

I don't know exactly how to describe how it tasted (I think I blacked out briefly after each bite) other than that it was a little reminiscent of eating toro sashimi in that it was so soft you could just smash it down on your tongue and savor. The first thing you taste is the beef, but right after that, the fois gras kicks in hard and it's like a big complex ball of fatty goodness. It was Love in food form.

The chocolate shake was made with real non-low-fat ice-cream and came in the big stainless steel cup (yielding about 2 full soda-glasses full of shake). The onion rings were just onion rings (minus-points for the onion sliding out of the outside shell, which I hate), but they did go well with the shake.

Kobe beef burger + pan-seared fois gras: +10

Chocolate Milk Shake: +7

Onion Rings: -2

A word on this "American Kobe Beef", the term "Kobe beef" is a standard used in Japan to describe certain well marbled grades of beef (preparation begun while still in cow form). This stuff served in the restaurant is "Kobe-style" beef (therefore much much cheaper) and comes from a domestic producer (Snake River Farms). Allegedly, US beef producers claim that the difference between "Kobe-style" beef and true Japanese Kobe beef is minimal/cosmetic. I haven't done any type of taste-test side-by-side, but I have had, on multiple occasions, Kobe/Wagyu beef in Japan, and I have a hard time believing this assertion. In addition, if you tried to buy Kobe beef in Japan and told the vendor you were going to grind it up and put it on a bun with ketchup, they would probably either kill you, kill themselves, or both.

Explanation of the ratings scale: http://www.sharkfeeder.com/foodreports/ratings.html

Underestimating Palin Power

2008-09-22T13:27:00.001-07:00

Strategically, if we really care about electing Obama, we need to stop attacking Palin. The more we do, the stronger she gets. Like her or not, she's running a terrific campaign. Without Palin, McCain would be getting his ass kicked. We need to stop helping her help McCain.

The only way to defeat the Palin Machine is to ignore it.

Maybe We FINALLY Can!

2008-09-20T11:54:00.001-07:00

Recently, the Obama Campaign has made two claims, first that McCain's social security strategy would cut benefits "in half" and second that McCain has a tight relationship with Rush Limbaugh.

Both assertions are false.

Because of this, my Hope is slowly building for a possible Obama victory. Many are going to believe these types of assertions are true (whether they are true or not) and furthermore, many aren't going to even care if they're true or false. Feels like the gloves are coming off, and I'm cautiously excited!

How Long Would You Live

2008-09-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

I asked my friend's daughter, Adriana (5th grade) for a blog topic. She came up with:

If you have a choice between living forever or living for the normal human lifespan which would you pick and why?

That's a good question...

Bad News, Daddy.

2008-09-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hi Daddy,

In short, I have bad news. I believe that I will be trying to get Barak Obama elected in 2008.

I choose these words carefully, in that I neither "support" Obama, nor do I think he will make a good President. However, I have become convinced, not in small part due to Adams' survey of economists (see link below), that McCain will be significantly worse, especially for the economy.

I still believe (and will defend aggressively) my right to own guns, my belief that government is way too big, and that the world needs a policeman. However, this election is not about how fast the North Pole is melting or whether we get Bin Laden, it's about fixing the economy. Because if we don't do that, nothing else is going to matter.

I am still first-and-foremost a Republican, and as I stated, I plan to fight the good fight when it comes to Republican issues. Unfortunately, McCain is simply the wrong guy, and Obama is the only one that has a chance of beating him. I wish we had put someone better forward in the primary.

McCain and Palin are running a terrific campaign. Democrats don't want to believe this, but attack politics, whether based on truth or lies, is extremely effective at moving large blocks of voters in this Country, and McCain/Palin are executing this strategy relatively flawlessly. Furthermore, Democrats continue to fall into the trap of pointing out the factual and moral flaws of McCain and Palin, not realizing that most of the country doesn't care.

Given the fact that I want Obama to be elected in 2008, I hope that Obama quickly changes his tactics. Specifically, I hope he moves away from trying to prove he's the "better candidate" and instead adopts a more politically driven strategy. By "political", I mean he needs to lie, cheat, bite, scream, swear, punch and start shooting people in the face who stand in his way, friend or foe. If his 4th quarter aggressiveness is limited to explaining why he's right and McCain is wrong, he's going to lose the election. And if that happens, we're all screwed, because however good or bad it will be during an Obama Presidency, it will be a lot worse under McCain.

Sorry you waited so long to have a son, only to hear he'll be voting for a liberal. Maybe you'll have better luck with Michael.

Scott Adams' survey:

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/dilbert_survey_of_economists/

GC.

Test 4: Never Say Never Again

2008-09-17T14:56:00.001-07:00

Okay, I really mean it this time. If this doesn't show up on Facebook, then THIS will be the last attempt!@