The Musings Of The Consensus

 For some reason, I had a weird thought about the Rapture involving books and media I've read, and in that moment, I realized a lot of them make little sense to varying degrees. Their premise is conceptually sound, as a fictional end-times apocalyptic fiction hook, but most media (invariably Christian-sponsored per the premise) always have some gaping plot holes and a lack of logic. For those who are not Christian, the basic premise goes like this. Presuming the events of the final book of the Bible (Revelation) speak nigh exclusively of some time in the future of humanity after the founding of the Church as depicted in Acts, the premise is that, in the twinkling of an eye, all who believe in God and His Son Jesus will be yeeted off Earth, leaving behind nothing save what was on their bodies, but they will just vanish. The rest of the world will naturally panic for a while after, until a smooth-talking liar unites the world, comes up with some elaborate lie to explain away the vani...

 I recently acquired two cheeses, one an American-made Italian style cheese, and the other a Swiss. I plan to go back to some of my more favored varieties of cheese in later posts, but I decided this month to still expand my horizons. And both of these cheeses will do that job just fine. Satori Bourbon BellVitano is an American Italian-style cheese, and as the name suggests, incorporates Bourbon, specifically Kentucky Bourbon. It's washed in the bourbon to incorporate the yeasty taste of the alcohol into the final flavor.  Now, I must admit, while this cheese tastes fine, and my fellow cheese tasters (mom and grandma) unanimously agreed on two things. One, it was better suited for being part of a dish than cooked in anything, and two, while the taste was a pleasant blend of Parmigiano and Swiss, the yeasty aftertaste of the bourbon was a bit strong for our liking.  As part of a meal, this would be a fine ingredient for a pasta dish. There is nowhere near enough alcohol to...

 I decided to get two cheeses on opposite ends of the texture scale: Smoked Mozzarella for the softer side, and Fiore Sardo for the harder. I've had several other Italian cheeses and regular Mozzarella, but I was intrigued by both of the cheeses above, hence this review. Fiore Sardo is a somewhat lesser-known cheese than other Pecorino (sheep) cheeses. The name stems from the original method of curdling the cheese via cardoon thistle flowers (much like how vinegar is an alternative source of curdling to rennet). Modern Fiore Sardo is however made using regular animal rennet. The original variety is said to date back to the Bronze Age, ergo this is a cheese with a very long historical pedigree. The name is, loosely translated, "Flower of Sardinia", since Fiore means flower and the Sardo is short for Sardinia. Legally, only Fiore Sardo can be sold outside of Italy, it has an alternative version of itself that is combined with cheese fly larvae, which is banned outside of It...

Note : I have had angry political and social cause types hurl abuse and insult my way because they cannot handle civil disagreement on any topic they hold dear. One of those simpering cowards even ran to FSTDT to make me look villainous because I disagreed with them politically instead of having the common courtesy to try to change my views with reason. The below is my personal views and I will not apologize for them in the slightest. I welcome any civil remarks, even those that disagree, and will respectfully acknowledge dissent so long as it's delivered as politely as I tried to phrase the below.  I've generally kept my mouth shut since Trump got elected because I wanted to see just what he had in mind exactly, and to be perfectly honest, I expected nigh all of his programs. https://apnews.com/article/what-has-trump-done-trump-executive-orders-f061fbe7f08c08d81509a6af20ef8fc0 Here is an itemized list of what he implemented above, and while I'm not entirely sanguine on all...

I was recommended this cheese by a native of Norway, and from the way they described it, I was interested. Did some research, was even more interested. Once I tried it, I was all "man, the rave reviews were ABSOLUTELY JUSTIFIED!" First, a little background. Gjetost (also called several other names depending on the variant like Brunost) is a national staple of Norway. It's made via the boiling of cheese whey with added cream until it goes below 80% fluid to solid ratio. The resulting cheese, with a very distinct sweet taste due to the caramelization of the cheese (which results in the brownish color due to the cooking of the milk sugars), is a very soft and spreadable cheese. This cheese is a common breakfast staple, going well with coffee, toast, pancakes/waffles, and can also be good for sandwiches or even a sweet snacking cheese by itself. Now, it can be made with cow's milk, but goat's milk is what most Norwegians would consider authentic. I managed to get so...

 This little blog post is about a bit of economic history that tends to be glossed over in many history books, at least those without a strong economic focus. In fact, it's both ingenious and moronic in equal measure, but the Nazis made heavy use of it to rearm for what would be World War II and I wanted to cover it. First some background. After World War I, Germany was forbidden to rebuild their military beyond a pitiful level, mostly because the guys who won did not want Germany trying to go for round 2. Of course, the Nazis had every intention of going for round 2, but they needed to find a way to pay for the rearmament expenses without getting caught, and also do so without scaring away people because they were a terrible credit risk. It's really hard to do both because credit requires public records of your ability to pay back debts to act as a basis for your ability to get credit. At least, that's how it usually works. The Nazis thus had to get a ton of money by hook ...