Report From Camp

Camp is almost two weeks over now, and the reports from PD1 and PD2 are beginning to come in. Actually, PD1 seems to be writing quite a bit and PD2, after two very early letters, hasn't sent anything! I assume this is a good sign since it is her first year, and she must not be too homesick.

PD2, is 10 now and she seems to be growing up pretty quickly. I had to laugh the other night, when I went on-line and checked the radar for their undisclosed location. Big Freekin Storms! I admit, that this normally wouldn't be very funny, but in PD2's case it brings back some funny memories. She has always been a little nervous around rain. Not necessarily storms, she can get very worried about tornados at the hint of a little inclement weather.

In fact, when we were in Rome two years ago, we had a bit of an amusing experience. The five of us (Grandma Pursuit was with us) were enjoying a delightful dinner outside in a Roman plaza, when a little heat lightening started to flare up. PD2, who was 8 at the time immediately became concerned. We did our best to console her, but I had a Campari and Soda going, a Caprese salad, and Pasta on the way........there was no way we were leaving.

You can guess what happened. As we sat there and yucked it up, PD2 became increasingly silent- until we noticed the sound of her wretching next to the table. She had gotten so nervous about the storm (Tornados in Italy!) she had caused herself to throw up. Well, we didn't want to create a scene, and since we had the happy coincidence of nobody noticing our little incident, and the location of a street drain only 4 feet away, Mrs. P saved the day by washing away the evidence with a couple bottles of water. None of us has looked at a bottle of Pellegrino the same since!

So I do wonder how she survived the storm in her cabin the other night, hopefully we'll get a letter soon.

As some of my regulars know, I've always tried to instill in the girls a sense of strength and confidence as they've grown up, and have wanted them to try new things. Last year, after PD1 and I had been trap shooting a couple of times I bought her a shotgun so that she could join me regularly. We haven't gone out as much as I would have liked with every other activity pulling at our limited free time, but we have managed to shoot often enough and she seems to enjoy it. So I'll leave you today with the little present that arrived in the mail this afternoon. Targets. Specifically, targets with holes in them......and they're not half bad! PD1 seems to be developing an interest, wouldn't you say?

UPDATE: Rummy phoned from Washington. PD1 is showing a distinct aptitude for Camp X-Ray next summer. Upside is that apparently there is no fee. He did want to know if "screams in the night" would keep her up. I said the loons are pretty loud up north, so I think she's good to go.

De-Constructed Lasagna - Its What's For Dinner

I made a little (very little) culinary conquest last night, when I conceived, implemented and delivered "Pursuit's Deconstructed Lasagna". In truth, the dish wasn't completely deconstructed since all the ingredients were still together, but it was free form, and incredibly delicious. Look at that photo. Truly, a wonderful sight in all it's gooey glory don't you think? Do you want to try it at home? Here is how.

Filling:

1 Spanish Onion, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 pound ground beef (ground veal would be more traditional, but beef is what I had)
a palm full of "Italian Seasonings" (Dried, made by McCormick)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chahula hot sauce to taste (I would also try Tobasco Chipotle)

Saute the first five ingredients until the onion is tanslucent, about 5 minutes. Add veal, salt and pepper and brown. Next drain the excess grease from the pan, put in a bowl and set aside to cool. While still warm add hot sauce to your desired taste. Remember it is going to be the filling in the lasagna, so a little extra heat is ok. You want it to just "kiss" the tastebuds, kind of in a pre-coital way. You know what I mean, a strong suggestive sensation that asserts itself; the promise of more to come.

Tomato Sauce:

1/2 a Spanish onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, grated
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes with juice
1 tablespoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Saute first three items until translucent, then add the tomatoes. Smash up the whole tomatoes a bit, and then add the thyme. Salt and pepper to taste and cook until thickened. At least 1/2 hour, and up to 1 hour. Cook very, very slowly.

Pasta:

1 1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
maybe some water if necessary

Start a large pot of salted water to boil, and next to it set a large ice bath.

Combine eggs and flour into a dough. Knead for 5-10 minutes. Dough should be just slightly tacky, but not too much. Run through pasta machine through all settings. You'll have long sheets at this point, cut them into 6x4 squares (that is the size in the picture. In retrospect, I'd go with smaller squares say 3x3 so you have four plates of individual servings) and dump into a pot of boiling salted water. Dump in 5 squares at a time, cook for one minute, and then remove and dunk in an ice bath for one minute. Remove from ice bath and drain squares on clean kitchen towels.

The Home Stretch:

Turn on oven to 350.

Remaining ingredients:

1 1/4 cup Fresh mozzarella
3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
1/2 cup Ricotta
Handful of Basil leaves, torn
Maybe some toasted pine nuts

Here we go. On an oven proof plate, lay down a little sauce and then one pasta square. Cover it with the filling, and then dot it with mozzarella, ricotta, and sprinkle a little parmesan. Your gonna have to eyeball this to your taste. Top it with some a little sauce - not too much! Lay down another sheet and repeat. Keep up this process for 5 to 6 layers. Top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan, and fire it in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes. Watch it, you don't want it too runny or the noodles to burn too much. A little brown on the ends of the noodles with some good gooeyness on the inside is what your shooting for.

Serve immediately with a nice salad and some good crusty bread. I choose a 2001 Marco Donati Sangue de Drago (Blood of the Dragon). This is a hearty Italian wine, made from the Teroldego grape. Nice complexity with some tanin, the taste of cherry, pepper, blackberry and perhaps tobacco. It was a lovely choice to accompany the meal. Ripassos or Chiantis would work well too.

The Lost Liberty Hotel

Right on brother!!!!!!!!!

A Swede With (Meat) Balls

I found this story over at Annika's this morning. So often we think of the Swedes as pacifists, unwilling to fight the good fight. I don't know if this assessment is accurate or not, but if this story is any indication, once you piss a Swede off he's going to look for some revenge. Ulf Hjertstrom is my new personal hero of week.

Happy hunting Ulf!


Note: More at Annika's about how poorly the Australian left is treating one of that country's recently freed hostages. Can you believe he called his captors assholes? Where is the love?

A Liberal Outrage

Yesterday's Kelo decision by the Supreme Court has created a very interesting reaction in the public at large. For those of you unaware of this ruling, the Court essentially expanded the definition of "public use" in the takings clause of the 5th amendment. As a result, governments can now use eminent domain to take possession of private property for the benefit of private development.

Traditionally, eminent domain was viewed as the right of governments to take private property for the "public good", which was generally understood to mean the construction of public infrastructure. Projects such as highways, streets, schools and perhaps even hospitals were understood to meet this definition.

The Kelo case was different. In this case, the city of New London, Connecticut wanted to take the river front property of 15 land owners - one who had been in her property since birth 87 years ago - to enable private development of an office park. New London's motivations for doing so are obvious; such development will increase the value of the property, and raise tax receipts to the city.

Yet, the "public good" is not clear at all. Justice Stevens in his majority decision, expanded the definition of public good to now include economic development. This broad definition is a stunning defeat of property rights in the United States that will have far reaching implications for private land owners and our economy.

It is not a stretch to say that the fundamental building block on which our freedoms are based is the right to private property. John Locke, who's work on "natural law" was the basic philosophy on which the founding fathers justified our revolution and based the founding of our country, was quite clear on this point. In Locke's view, private property results from an individual's hard work to build on and improve the land that God has provided. Without respect for and protection of private property rights, individuals will be reluctant to make the investment necessary to improve land, and in doing so, drive the economy forward.

Building on these thoughts, Locke then argued that individuals must band together and create a system by which their rights to property are protected, and their ability to benefit from their investment maintained. This then is the very moral foundation that gives government its right to exist and enforce the rules by which man has agreed to live. Government's primary role is the protection of individual rights, and the primary right that we expect our government to protect, is our right to property.

Alas, yesterday the Supreme Court decided otherwise.

The question that we all must ask is how did we get to this point? We spent much of the last century fighting this type of abuse of governmental power, only to have our own Supreme Court, shoot us in the back. The answer, my friends, is that this is a liberal outrage.

It is not without a high sense of irony that this morning I read all the liberal blogs in high dungeon about this revocation of our rights. Yet it is the liberals who are to blame. For years in their zeal to force a right to abortion via the judicial branch instead of the legislative branch, liberals have fought ardently for justices that believe in a "living" constitution. They've argued that justices must interpret what the constitution says. In this way, rights that are not enumerated can be "discovered", such as the right to privacy on which the Roe decision was based.

Conservatives on the other hand have argued that the justice's role is to follow the original intent of the framers. They've stongly resisted the idea that the constitution is a living document in favor of the argument that we should conserve the original meaning, and when change is necessary enact it through the legislative process. The two most important battles of recent years where these opposing views met were in the nomination battles of Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas.

Robert Bork's battle was fundamentally about original intent and liberals fought his nomination for this reason. The Thomas nomination fight often centered around Thomas' views of and belief in natural law. In both cases, liberals had difficulty opposing these nominations on their merit, and resorted to personal attacks on Bork and Thomas succeeding against Bork, but losing on Thomas.

Yesterday's decision was the result of those fights. While Thomas remained on the side of original intent Justice Kennedy, who was appointed to the Court after Bork's nomination was defeated, was the swing vote that created the majority.

Some may argue that the framer's original intent was unclear. This couldn't be further from the truth. Recall that Thomas Jefferson, writing in The Declaration of Independence, said that we had certain inalienable rights; the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Recall also that Jefferson, in his original draft cribbed from Locke and wrote that we have the right to life, liberty, and property. His intent, and that of Madison and Monroe who did the heavy lifting on the constitution, is clear.

This morning, hoisted on their own petard, liberals are outraged. Yet, one must ask them, if you appoint judges that you expect to find new meaning in a "living" constitution, why be so surprised when they do exactly that?

A Tortured Apology

Big Boys Don't Cry

Well the pressure that comes with making statements on the floor of the senate which undermine your country's credibility and put your fighting men and women at greater danger, finally became too much yesterday, and Senator Dubin waddled down to the well of the Senate to apologize.

Kind of:

"Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," said the Illinois Democrat, at times holding back tears. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

There was more, but this captures the essence of what he said. I just don't get it. Couldn't the man just stand up like a man and say, "oops, sorry folks I was wrong. Please forgive me". Instead we get the tired half apology, half blame those who took offense approach that is so comon for politician's these days. One wonders who they think they are fooling at this point.

At any rate, it would be bad form to continue to press the issue, and since we all know our teary eyed Dick didn't really feel he did anything wrong this is about as good as its going to get. So apology accepted Dick.

And there is a much larger issue to discuss here: What the hell is wrong with American men?

I don't mean to single out Teary Dick, for he is just the latest example, but why in the world has it become acceptable, even encouraged, for American men to blubber in public at the drop of the hat? Just in the past few weeks we've seen Voinovich weep in the senate, and Dan Rather weep at a commencement address.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against male weeping when there is something to cry about, but for goodness sake, these wimps let the tears flow at virtually the drop of a hat. Is this something women like in men? I can't believe we've moved so far from traditional male/female roles that public blubbering about minor issues is something women look for in their men, but maybe I'm out of touch.

I blame the liberals. Who else could be responsible? Oh sure there was a time when men were to insecure about showing their feelings, but we've long sense departed from that norm. Now we must examine whether we've gone to far, and if so, who is responsible. Given any normal testosterone producing man would agree that we have indeed crossed the line of decency, we can move on to the culprits.

Liberals. Phil Donahue, was an early mover in this trend. Alan Alda. God, who could forget all those wretched MASH shows were Hawkeye Pierce prostletized about the importance of men revealing there sensitivity. I could go on, but more important work needs to be done. We need to stop this scourge.

Its times like these when I turn to a great authority on manliness. Oh sure, you'll say the man was a criminal and a killer. Trivial points. In things manly, The Godfather knew his stuff. Remember when Johnny was blubbering about not being allowed to have a role in a movie.? I take you to the scene:

CUT TO: The Don's office

JOHNNY (as Tom quietly enters the Don's office)

A month ago he bought the movie rights to this book. A bestseller -- and the main character,

it's a guy just like me. I uh -- I wouldn't even have to act -- just be myself. Oh, Godfather, I

don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.

VITO CORLEONE

You can act like a man!

(then, after slapping Johnny on the face)

What's the matter with you? Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood

finocchio that ah cries like a woman?

(then imitating Johnny, as Tom giggles)

What can I do?! What can I do?!

(then)

What is that nonsense? Ridiculous.

[Sonny enters the room]

VITO CORLEONE (to Johnny, after glancing to see Sonny enter)

You spend time with your family?

JOHNNY

Sure I do.

VITO CORLEONE (to Johnny, but toward and about Sonny)

Good. 'Cause a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man.

(then, to Johnny)

Come're.

(then)

You look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while. And in a month from now,

this -- Hollywood bigshot's gonna give you what you want.

JOHNNY

It's too late, they start shooting in a week

VITO CORLEONE

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.

(then)

Now you just go outside and enjoy yourself, and ah, forget about all this nonsense. I want

you to leave it all to me.


That, my friends is good advice. Somebody slap Durbin, and ask him why he cries like a woman.

Hey! Where Is Everyone?

It was a strange way to start the Monday after Father's Day. We woke up at 4:15a.m. and by 6:30 the kids were gone........

Camp has now become one of the summer rituals at the Pursuit household, but even in the second year, I just do not see how I am going to get used to it. The funny thing is, that in February when their departure is so far away, Camp actually seems like a great idea. The kids escape to the Northern wilderness where the sun stays up until 10p.m., they swim, go on overnight treks, waterski, shoot 22's the whole package. While they're gone Mrs. P and I get to do the stuff we used to do before kids.

But there we were, misty eyed in the morning putting them on the plane to Minnesota. All of the sudden, it didn't seem like such a good a idea after all. Sure the house will be clean, and yes we're going to have a lot of fun together, but the truth is that we really enjoy having our little buddies around. The arrival of this time of year really comes as a bit of a shock. You see, their 4 week absence is much more than a short time of separation; it is the exclamation mark on our realization that they really don't belong to us.

I don't know how it is with other parents, but at some point early in each girl's childhood I realized that although we named them, and although they carry the combined heritage of their mother's and my families, each girl is a gift from God that we only get to keep for a very short time.

The temptation is to grab them and hold them close. These little perfect creatures are so vulnerable and innocent when they come into the world. As a parent the idea of letting them free to fend for themselves is anathema to all that comes natural to a human being, and frankly, they don't help things much either. Children look up at you as if you're the perfect being. They don't see your flaws, or know what memories you may hold that you may not be particularly proud of. To them you're the omnipotent Dad!

Yet it is this very misconception that quietly lets you know, that you must let them go. Not right away, but gently, over time, gentle pushes must be administered so that they begin to feel confident in their own being, and ironically, less confident in your own perfection. This is the great disillusionment all children experience with their parents, and it is as important to experience as it is painful for the parents to encourage.

For me, it is simply the hardest thing that I have ever done.

Last year was PD1's first trip to camp. At 12 she had been on overnights before, and even spent up to 4 days away from home at a basketball camp which was a full two miles down the road. She was supposed to head up north with a friend from school, but her friend chose at the last minute to go somewhere else.

So, June found us driving north. Her tears the night before we left were tough, but not unexpected. We reassured her that she would be ok, and also let her know that while we would miss her, we would be fine while she was gone. In other words, she shouldn't worry about us. Truthfully, I couldn't believe that we were dumping her in the woods with no friends for four weeks.....but I put on a brave face.

I'll never forget the next day when we arrived at camp. This was where it got tough. PD1 was trying so hard to be brave, and Mrs. P and I made sure we kept our sunglasses on. We pulled into camp, and helped her get her stuff stowed away in the cabin, and then went for the grand tour of the area. We spent a lot of time trying to find reasons to put off the inevitable. Finally, we could stall no longer and it took all my strength to turn and walk away.

Four weeks later we returned to camp, and the cool thing was, all of us had grown a little a bit. Mrs. P and I had been able to spend some solo time with PD2, as well as remember what it was like to be just a pair. PD1 had made friends, learned to do things she had never done before, and in the most bittersweet of developments, she had successfully navigated the first passage in leaving the family to start her own life.

This year, at 10, it is PD2's first trip to camp. She is going with PD1, but we still had tears the night before, Father's Day, and the same reassurances as well. It wasn't a whole lot easier, except that this time we were buoyed by the knowledge that it went well last year.

But the truth is inescapable; they don't belong to us. Our daughters are children of God and the world, and while we get to experience the joy of raising them, we also have the honor and responsibility to let them go.

I prayed for my girls last night. I prayed for the usual things; for God to watch over them while I can't, and for them to have fun and make friends. I prayed for them to grow, and build confidence, and continue to successfully navigate the journey to womanhood.

I prayed for Mrs. P and me. Our children are beginning to discover what we know all too well. We aren't perfect, and to be honest, we're winging the parenting thing. I prayed for God to grant us the wisdom and the judgment to make the right decisions and help them on their way.

I also prayed for the strength to let them go.