Bigger Brains, Little Sense

Tags

Andrew Cuomo, Carl Paladino, Catholic Church, Catholics for Equality, cookies, divorce, gay rights, geography, Individual Rights, invasion of privacy, new world order, Recipes, right wing religious, teabaggers

It should come as no surprise faithful readers that I think that a goodly portion of humanity is rather worthless debris. It continues to marvel my intellect that a surprising number of questionable humanity can walk and chew gum at the same time. Clearly a good number cannot.

From time to time I conclude that this proves that God is busier than I think, and only has time to do a drive by old planet Earth every few millennium or so, taking note that shockingly we still haven’t blown ourselves to smithereens yet.

I make light, but the subject is most serious. A young man, aged 18, took his own life after learning that two fellow students at Rutgers had web cast his room and had broadcast him having a sexual encounter with another male student. The students, both also 18, are being charged with the tame sounding “invasion of privacy,” apparently the only charge that will fit this 21st century crime.

One can wax for pages on how stupid one must be to know that such a thing is utterly wrong. I mean really don’t we expect more of a ten-year-old than this? I have zero sympathy for the two, and hope that they receive more public vilification than any court can hand out. I am not prepared to hear one word of, “we never for a moment thought it would lead to this,” kinda crap.

Nothing more to say on this one, it’s too despicable for words.

***

I wrote a piece on dissent in the Catholic Church which can be found at my other site, Walking in the Shadows. You might find it interesting even if you are not a believer, nor a Catholic. It discusses the responsibility of dissenters to speak truth as they see it. Concomitant to that, I learned that a new Catholic organization has been formed. NCR reports that Catholics for Equality will work for marriage equality, and other issues of importance to the LGBT community.  CFE is founded by Father Joseph Palacios and others. Fr. Palacios points out that while 52% of all Americans support gay relationships, 62% of Catholics do.

***

On a light note: don’t try this at home. This is only for experts. Sit in a comfortable chair. Now raise your right leg and twirl your foot in a clockwise direction. Now raise your right hand and draw the number six in the air. See what has happened to your foot. Now keep doing it until you got it right. Your skeleton will be removed when you have been missed by someone.

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A new and kinda fun blog is called: How to Become a Better You in 365 Days. It has a lot of different aspects, such as good old advice about growth and personality, some excellent recipes, and quotes of the day. Worth a look-see at least. Inspirational, and fun at the same time.

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Ree over at Pioneer Woman has a really really decadent cookie recipe that features oatmeal, M & M’s, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pecans and Rice Krispies. Ya know you wanna try ’em. There are 3,722 pictures, so if you just want the recipe, it’s down at the bottom of the post all nice and neat for ya.

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Mafia Don, turned Teabagger, Carl Paladino, threatened a reporter who wanted proof of Paladino’s claim that his opponent, Andrew Cuomo had cheated on his wife. (Paladino finally admitted to his wife, that he had fathered ten years before, a daughter by another woman.) The Godfather would be proud. Paladino called out the reporter: “I’ll take you out, buddy.”

***

Don’t get me wrong here. I am in no way in favor of overly strict religious laws against divorce. They don’t prevent divorce and they  seem to encourage rather transparent attempts to call it something else–such as an annulment. However, RightWingWatch does have a point when it complains that the right-wing wackos are into every aspect of our sexual lives, always condemning,yet curiously, they are silent on divorce. And I would be the first to admit, that the bible does speak fairly directly on the issue. You’d think that there might be more bible banging about divorce. How come there isn’t? Read the post and see. I think I agree.

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I’ve long believed that nation-states and their silly borders, are just that, silly. I’ve predicted their demise. (well, I predicted it to myself at least, and that does count!) Finally, somebody agrees with me! New Geography to be specific. In an article about the “New World Order” (here come the apocalyptic doomsdayers ala Jack Van Impe!), they find that race, ethnicity, religion and culture are the main drives today around which we are forming. It’s a most interesting look at how the world divides up along new parameters.

***

In our quest to understand the beastie that is Teabaggerism, we offer you a great piece by Kevin Drum over at MotherJones. Not only does it help us define who they are, but it links up to some very valuable articles that further flesh out our understanding. I think this is worth your time. It’s only three pages, and the links, I’ve yet to investigate myself.

Well enuf! Have a good one!

Related Articles

• Cheating Carl Paladino Accuses Andrew Cuomo of Cheating on His Wife [Polidicks] (gawker.com)

What’s Up? 06/21/10

Tags

bible, Books, cookies, gay rights, GOP, heroism, Jesus, reading, Recipes, sacrifice, teabagger, Texas

Take it from me, the Contrarian is a firm firm believer in this adage. You get my drift? You have been warned!

Okay, so it was supposed to rain all day Father’s Day, so you can bet your bippy that it rained nary a drop. Not a drop.

How many fine picnics were not had I have not the number, but I bet the weather people in Cedar Rapids are staying under cover for now.

I had otherwise a lazy day when I returned from church, reading some blogs but not feeling like writing. I noted a few to include today, actually some with significance.

I know this is rare, so hold onto your seats. A few folks wrote of things and did it better than I could. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe isn’t it? As the Contrarian is wont to say, “I made a mistake, then discovered sometime later than I was mistaken.”

Anyhow, I thought these posts were especially noteworthy, so I hope you might drop by and read them in full.

Mompriest talks about yesterday’s gospel reading and proves why she is a priest and I’m not. It’s so thoughtful and provoking and touching all at the same time. I hope you stop by.

D-Cup tells us all about what it takes to be a tea partier. Written with raw wit and so much truthiness it makes your nod while laughing. Don’t miss it.

In a posting on heroism and sacrifice, Tobias Haller, BSG outdoes himself, in a writing entitled The Difference of One.

Something I found so excellent, though it’s short, is from Jan at Yearning for God. Hint: It’s about bookcases. And I just loved it.

Backed to the reality of politics:

Joe. My. God has a rundown of the Texas GOP platform for this year. It’s about as hate-filled as you can get. The teabagger influence is apparent. The bright light here is that it’s hard to find two tea baggers who agree on much. I suspect that is why generally they aren’t doing well in general elections and will continue to fail. As long as they are led by their most rabid, which seems the case, they will continually fail to win votes from the middle.

I was kinda off baking for a while but have started up again, (I made bread sticks today for our spaghetti dinner). And I’ve been thinking a lot about desserts again. I was going to make Ree Drummond’s Malted Milk Chocolate Chip cookies tomorrow, but now, I’m thinking I may have to make these first. Coconut and Lime has S’mores Cookies. (I don’t think I have linked to Ree’s cookies, but I have the recipe and can e-mail it to anyone who wants it.)

Michael Bayly over at Wild Reed has a good post on the latest issue of Tikkum which features a number of articles on homosexuality. Tikkum is a Jewish religious magazine.  We carry it at our church and I’ll be looking for it tomorrow when I go in for a meeting.

Enuf for now!

Watercooler Philosophy

Tags

Desserts, ethical dilemmas, ethics, golf, homicide, Recipes, rice krispie treats, Serena Williams, spousal homicide, Survivor, Tennis, Tiger Woods

Ethics is a messy business. At least most of the time. There are often competing considerations and the trick is to figure out what is morally required and what causes the least harm to other ideals imagined or real.

As we gather among friends and family, or nestled within our immediate families this Christmas coming, I figured you might like a few topics to discuss over the cookies and nog, ribbons and used wrapping paper.

We watched Survivor this fall. We don’t always, but we generally like it. Sometimes we watch it part way, then depart in disgust as people play too stupidly or only lousy folks are left. I had that urge several times this season given the rather evil machinations of one “Russell” who coupled with a bizarro woman called “Shambo” to get on my last nerve.

Russell, self styled rich guy who has an oil business, began from the beginning to sow dissension and chaos within his “tribe.” He referred to the women of his group as “bitches” and “girls who would do his bidding before he got rid of the dummies.” He was the typical “Napoleonic complex” sort of dude.

Shambo was on the other tribe. She felt excluded. Perhaps from the out of date mullet hair do replete with cloth headband that she wore at all times around her forehead. (Wore a blue one at the reunion show too so it’s her legit attire) Shambo was ex-Marine though you would be hard pressed to know, since she wasn’t much in physical competitions. She double-crossed her tribe real quick and was a lap dog to Russell after the merger of the tribes.

In the end, Russell was in the final three, along with a young woman from his original tribe and a guy who had been chosen leader of the tribe at first. Russell told them both that only he deserved to win, and challenged the “jury” (discarded members of the tribes) that if “either of them out witted me or out played me, then give them the money.” He was arrogant and increasingly belligerent as he began to get the idea that the jury was not enthused.

During the questioning process, a jury member suggested that Russell’s thoroughly unethical behavior (he made alliances with everyone and honored almost none, lying to literally everyone) was not necessarily more worthy of reward that the woman who had stayed quietly tucked into the background and “ridden” the coattails of others. Why, he argued, should we reward bad behavior instead of good? Was not her methodology as valid and worthy of reward as his bad?

In the end, the jury voted the woman to get the one million. Russell, was utterly incensed and made that clear. Ring one up for the good guys I thought. Character appears to count at least here.

Juxtapose that with the AP’s determination of who should be the winners of male and female athlete of the year. The choices were Serena Williams of tennis fame, and Tiger Woods, from golf. Interesting choices, since both are undoubtedly supreme athletes in their sports, yet both are under indictment as being rather unethical or otherwise “bad” role models. Serena was thoroughly nasty and over the top in her public attack on a lines person in the US Open. This garnered her a rather hefty fine from the Tennis Association. Tiger’s behavior is all over the news these days and needs no further remark.

I thought it an interesting choice. Clearly the voters here decided that technical ability comes first, and has no character component. I  personally have no respect for either of the persons named. I am glad that Serena was smacked down hard, since nobody wants to return to the days of John McEnroe and his vile abusive behavior on court. Parents  no doubt feel the same about their children looking to Tiger as a person to emulate.

I’m not sure what it says about us. We seem always to respond to money and power and to shrug our shoulders and  sorta slink away as we ignore the character-driven individual. Sorry pal, but ya know, people like celebrity even if bad. You can examine all the “entertainment” sites online and see whose getting all the press, if you don’t believe me.

I have an ethical dilemma of my own. Not as shocking no doubt, but I think women like me should consider the problem. It seems that every few months another woman disappears, and inevitably the husband becomes the focus of the investigation. Most of the time, he is charged in the end with the awful murder of his once beloved.

Now, I think. Crimes of passion are unpredictable no? That is their essence. No one knows what last nerve, last button gets pushed and someone turns into a homicidal maniac. I don’t think I would be one, but we don’t know. So seemingly nice spouses might be pushed in some moment of high drama to swing and connect and oops, fatally wound a husband or wife.

My dilemma is this. Whenever it comes up appropriately, I’m very fond of smiling broadly and announcing that my husband is a jewel among well jewels. You’ve heard me say that here, and I say it everywhere. It happens to be true. But. . . .

What if, well, you know, I turn up missing? Here I have left this corpus of gushing love about the Contrarian. They will read it, investigate, talk to neighbors and friends, and every one will agree–she never said a bad word about him. He was perfect as far as I know.

So I’m just sayin’ . . . . well how exactly do I put it? Well, he is wonderful, but just remember, if I turn up missing. . . .well, that doesn’t mean he didn’t snap! Probably he didn’t, but. . . .

Finishing up, hey, did ya know that you can make rice krispie treats without rice krispies? Yep. I substituted corn chex, but I think Cheerios and shredded wheat might work as well. Just use the rice krispie recipe (3 TBSP butter, melted, and melt 10 oz of marshmallows, pour over 6 cups of cereal, add whatever junk you want, choc. chips/nuts/dried fruit and pat into a buttered bowl quick). Tasty!

Lil Bits of Rancor or Not 9/19/08

Tags

Archaeology, cake, chicken, cookies, dessert, Election 2008, energy, environment, fundamentalism, gay rights, Greek history, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Spain, tex-mex, voting

Starting out with good news, it appears that the bloom is definitely off the flower as regards the Palin candidacy. The cracks are there, and the buckling is starting to occur. Nearly 1500 gathered to denounce her candidacy in Alaska (that is a huge number for Alaska folks). The media seems to be ready to fight back at last, and there are plenty saying that only the most rabid racist hate mongers among us will be voting for that ticket in November.

Oh, I just love Tex-Mex if you hadn’t heard. And one of my favorites at the restaurant anyway is Chimichangas. Baking Delights  has a wonderful recipe that doesn’t require deep frying which is such a mess and since her brisket recipe was SOOOOO GOOOOD, I’m assuming this will be a hit too. These are for chicken but I’m sure you could substitute about any meat you like.

In a tour de force, the NYTimes  has vetting Ms Palin themselves, and boy what they have turned up is enough to curl your nose hairs as they say. It’s all cronyism and strong arm tactics and plenty of secrecy. Sound familiar? Believe me this is one damning article and you should read it. I’ve been saying that Palin would be relegated to a closet in a McCain administration. I may have been very wrong. It may be McCain who is shoved in the corner. This woman is an egomaniac on a mission to be president herself.

Oh boy, and don’t miss Frank Rich’s op ed in the Times  on the 13th. It is simplya scathing indictment of Palin and the weak McCain who now holds onto her coat tails hoping she can drag him into the White House.

We seem ruled by polls these days. And they seem to go up and down and round and round with little agreement. Distributor Cap NY  tries to make some sense out of them, and tries to explain to us how they should be viewed. I’d take a look and read his analysis and then you will understand why they are not the things to place too much credence in.

The mere mention of the word chocolate and I am there! So here is a lovely recipe, reprinted at Epicurious  from Gourmet Magazine. Chocolate-Glazed Chocolate Tart  is easy to make and will soothe the savage beast of a chocolate addiction. Don’t miss it.

There is a new website called Women Against Sarah Palin. You should take a look. Impressive response by women in America. They have an email and you can give you views of Ms. Palin some of which will be printed on their site. Email them at womensaynopalin@gmail.com. Please do so and make your voice heard. The tide is beginning to turn. We need your help.

Remember when Sarah and John told us that she was qualified to handle the economy since Alaska produced 20% of all US energy? WRONG. According to experts, even under the broadest definition, Alaska contributes at best 7.5%, and under traditional definitions, they produce only 3.5%. They lie it seems about everything. Alaska is 9th in production behind states like Texas and Wyoming. This was fact checked by the Washington Post  and brought to us by Ezra Klein.

Garrison Keillor gives us his take on the remade Republican party. Just forget the past  (and our responsibilities for it) and write a “new narrative” as the people who are going to clean up the mess we made. As always, nobody says it quite like Mr. Keillor. Enjoy the ride.

More bad news for McCain. It seems his pundit buddies, Richard Cohen, and now David Brooks are jumping off the trackand saying, “gone too far there John, we’re done with ya.” His colossal dishonor in picking Palin is just a tad too much for even some of his former supporters.

Joseph Welch? Remember him? He is the guy who finally put an end to the McCarthy hearings with the well placed words, “Have you no sense of decency sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” History News Network  says this campaign of McCain’s is simply stunning in its use of lies and deception. If this works, then there facts and issues no longer matter at all, it’s just about skillful manipulation of facts to distort character. The answer, a well placed Welch remark in the debates. I hope it happens, and I’ve been predicting that Obama will push the buttons of Mr. McCain until he erupts. And that shall be that as they say. End of campaign.

If you are tired of the old rhetoric of gotcha politics, head over to Institute for America’s Future where they make a fine attempt to actually discuss the issues. There is a forum there as well. I haven’t had time to look it over very carefully but I got the tip from Hullabaloo.

Maureen Dowd  has a not to miss article this week. She slams dear Sarah for her non-thinking approach to running the world. Just platitudes and well, Sarah is sounding more and more like Dubya than Dubya did. Not a McCain clone at all, she’s a carbon copy of our dumb boy Bush himself. And we know where that got us don’t we?

I know you, like me, are always desperately happy to learn more about Troy. No not where I live, but where the whole Trojan Horse thing came about from. You know, Homer, Illiad? Ringing a bell? Sure, I knew it would. Well there are ongoing excavations going on there, and so I thought you would appreciate an update. Go to rogueclassicism  and read all about what they are learning these days.

A reader of this blog, Shannon, brought this to my attention, and I think it’s one of those things that we all should bookmark and read whenever we get depressed during this never ending election cycle. Anne Lamont offers us sage advice on how to deal with the insanity generated by the McCain campaign.

Two excellent entries from Scandalous Women today. One is a scandalous biography ofthe woman pope, Olimpia Maidalchini. No she wasn’t elected pope, but her brother was, and the word is she wielded the real power. And the second, right below, is a list of 100 of the best history blogs. So if you love history, check that out.

Lots of baking in the fall, as the kitchen is cool. You might want to try these Pistachio White Chocolate Cookies. These seem rather unusual and well, nuts and chocolate just go together. You can of course substitute white chocolate for any of your liking. I generally prefer bittersweet myself, but heck,  who are we kidding, there is no bad chocolate.

We of the liberal persuasion all know that if Barack Obama had Sarah Palin’s “qualifications” or did the things she and John do, he and his family would be vilified in ways that are too disgusting to relate.  Acts of Hope  has a fine piece that she got from Tim Wise on what it means to be White Privileged. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, stop by now and do so. It is very true. And I need to thank a number of folks like FranIAm  who have done similar whatif’s.

I’d recommend Susan Posner’s column, The Fundamentalist  this week at American Prospect.  She has a good perspective on the evangelical wacko right and how they have infiltrated and control the McCain campaign platform. They see Palin as their best hope of controlling McCain, whom they have always been suspicious of. They see her choice as their return to firm power. I suspect they are right. Let’s hope they don’t win.

Good news for gay marriage proponents. Prop 8 in California is losing steam and now trails by 17 points in the polls. I find this so wonderful and delight frankly in the fact that the wingnuttery right is gnashing their teeth over this development. They continue to tout that they are giving voice to the majority, but I submit that this isn’t the case! Bravo to Californians.

We reported yesterday that Old McCain got confused when being interviewed by a Spanish radio stationperson and didn’t apparently know who Jose Luiz  Rodriguez Zapatero was. Randy Scheunemann claims that of course that is wrong, he knew perfectly well who he was, but in his own bumbling round about way, he was just suggesting that he was going to continue the snub that Bush has started for the Spanish leader, when Zapatero withdrew his troops from Iraq. Well, okay, if you want to buy that rhetoric which is obviously silly, go ahead. So McCain is once again promising a continuation of Bush policies. That works! (So why did he say he would be happy to meet with Zapatero merely five months ago?) I just want to thank McCain now for screwing up relations with another ally. Good going there big guy. Ain’t senility a bitch?

Sorry, but the old dude is not to be believed. In trying to drum up voter support for his off shore drilling mantra, the dull one touts that oil rigs are safe and come through hurricanes just fine, and “fish love them.”No explanation for the latter remark of course, just the usual nonsense that pops into the old guy’s head. But the bit about oil rigs having no problems with hurricanes is simply absurd. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed 113 rigs off shore, and three rigs simply disappeared and their whereabouts is unknown. Untold spills were also the result. As they say, yes, and telephone wires are essential to the habitat of birds too. Caretakers, come in and clean up another one for da loony boss.

Okay, so I have to finish with AA. Today is a special, his love letter to  his wife. I know you will enjoy it, and you will recognize perhaps some things about your own spouse. Might be a good time to mention one or two. 🙂

Lil Bits of Rancor or Not 8/1/08

Tags

Barack Obama, Bush, cookies, crafting, Election 2008, energy, Iowa, Iraq, Israel, John McCain, Literature, lobbyists, Media, oil interests, War, Women's history

Whether from concerns about the environment, or simply the need to cut back on expenses, or perhaps for some singular mendacity, lots of folks are crafting. It’s become “IN” and in some cases haute couture. Martha of course has been trying to convince us for years. Alternet has the story and a link to a site that has exploded called Craftster.org.  There are tons of new books out there touting the DIY method of acquiring unique and useful items at way below store cost. Check out the link and don’t miss the link to Craftster. I’ll add it to my sidebar.

I made some Cherry Garcia Ice cream the other day. It turned out wonderfully, but  the taste was not quite there. I used frozen sweet cherries, but I found the taste lacking. I guess fresh cherries? Anyhoo, I thought this recipe from Baking Delights sounded good and she said you can use dried cherries which I usually keep on hand for muffins and bread puddings. It’s Cherry-Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Recall that John McSame was against drilling off shore before he changed his mind and was for it. He claims that he is for it to help Americans who are paying high gas prices. Uhuh, na. We already know that off shore drilling won’t have any impact for years, first of all. But more importantly he gave that speech just before he met with–you guessed it–Republican energy monied folk, who dutifully gave him a whopping 1.3 million the very next day! LOL, and the old guy didn’t think we could figure it out.

Oh just for fun, go to Balloon Juice and read his take on McCain and his lies. Not so much for his post which is short, but for the comments which are worth it. Some guy says Bush is going to pass by his house on the way to a campaign fund raiser and he wonders should he stand on his porch and give him the finger as his car goes by! ROFL. It’s a hoot to read.

Ezra Kleinhas a bute of a post on John McCain and a group called the International Republican Institutewhich he heads oddly enough. From its chairmanship he solicits millions of buckeroos from all the key players he loves so dearly: defense contractors, oil folksies, lobbyists (oh no Mr. Bill!!!), and others, many of whom magically have issues before his Senate committees from time to time.  Course, we shouldn’t think anything nefarious or wrong is going on should we? No. Course not.

While in Jerusalem, it seems that both of our presidential contenders and the one and only Georgie Bush have been interviewed by the Jerusalem Post. Here is their take on the three in terms of ability to speak to the issues of concern to Israelis. It’s pretty much what you might assume, Obama wins again!

It continues to be the rallying cry of Republicans–the liberal media is giving Obama a pass. Nothing of course is further from the truth. Republicans have been saying this for eons. Actual statistics show that Obama is criticized more than McCain and by a wide margin. You see, the so-called liberal media has internalized the criticism and now bends over backwards to appear “neutral” while actually favoring the Republicans. Don’t believe that? Read the fine post by Chris at Inside-Out the Beltway.

Iowa: Anybody paying any attention to the “impeachment” hearings conducted in the House, has seen our Rep. Steve King make a complete ASS of himselfdefending the prez. According to Iowa Independent, Dem hopeful Ron Hubler has hired high profile Joe Trippi, who helped mastermind the Dean campaign in 2004, to run his campaign. This King is one loonie I tell ya, and I am hopeful that Hubler can unseat him. Lets get out there 5th District and oust the idiot boy!

More Iowa news. It seems Becky Greenwald in the 4thdistrict is making a real horse race out of it with Tom Latham.Moreover, Latham is campaigning using the national McCain issue of the surge and off shore drilling for oil. Recent polls suggest that the numbers of the public who favor off-shore drilling is substantially below the 73% mark touted by McCain, in fact it is below 50%. Moreover, Republican national strategists are urging local candidates to run on local issues and NOT to assume a coattail effect. They figure that McCain can’t win. Good news!

John and his troop of merry misfits can’t seem to keep things straight. After telling George Stephanopoulous that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to social security reform, McCain retracts this through a spokesman saying “there is no imaginable circumstance where John McCain would raise payroll taxes. It’s absolutely out of the question.” The inside scoop: the GOP right wing went nuts, and our boy, never particularly sure of what he is saying when he says it, had to back pedal fast.

Okay, ready for some salacious and devilish murder mystery? Then go and read the utterly captivating story of the murder of Charles Bravo. Did wife Florence do it? Intrigue, affairs, oh this one is full of them. And to this day, it has not been solved. Scandalous Womendoes it again, with a thoroughly brilliant writing. It’s long, but she does her stories so well, you can’t stop reading, and wish there was more. Don’t miss it. And in a week or so, she’s doing one on Lillian Helman, one of my favorite women!

Urantian Sojourn has a nice piece on the Bush maneuverings to get the Iraqi government to agree to basically allow an army of occupation in their country for all eternity. It seems that this is not going well with the Iraqis for a myriad of reasons. Propagandee leads you through the sewer of Bush and his Bushbaby plans that have gone awry. It’s the July 31 post, since I still cannot link directly to any individual one.

The Angry African is at it again, telling us next weeks news. His prescient abilities continue to astound those of us in the good old US of A. Must be something about living down there in the South African tropicals. Anyhoo, get your laughter in the ready before you link up and see what fun he has in store for you today. Features this week span the globe as they say. And no, I don’t know who they are nor what they really say.

High Fallutin’ Notions

Tags

1st Amendment, abstinence, American History, casserole, church/state, cookies, creationism, dessert, Election 2008, Gardening, GOP, Human Biology, immigration, Iowa, Iraq, Italian, James Webb, John McCain, Karl Rove, Lasagna, Media, Native Americans, Presidents, salad, science, Zoology

Called, “Street, Dresden,” this painting was done by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1908. It was undated by the painter in 1919. It is from MoMA.

On the home front, things continue with house cleaning quite well. I have all the cabinets and drawers done but for a small thin one on the other side of the stove which I use to store pot lids and cooling racks mostly. I’ve really reduced a lot of clutter in all the cupboards and hopefully it will be a much friendlier work environment. Of course it’s maddening now, since one is constantly opening the wrong door looking for something.

We also got a lot of planting done this morning. Tomatoes, lettuce, beets, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet and hot peppers are all in. Tomorrow we will do corn, beans and probably peas. Squash, summer and winter will go in later as well as chard and a few other odds and ends. Gardens always look so great at this point, clean and tidy. We have been having a lot of trouble with rabbits the last few years so we fence in the cole crops and that does help. The dogs are too lazy to chase anything much. LOL.

On to the news:

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Abby Sweets has a nicemadeleines recipe. That is just a cake-like cookie that is baked in a special formed pan. I doubt you actually need one, but they are available in most high end stores that cater to kitchen wares. This has just that lovely hint of lemon that is so very nice.

I just found this article fascinating and thought you might be interested as well. Margaret McKeehan, a young woman from the South, tells us what sex education was like in her public school. She also relates what she learned from her minister in a similar class. You might be surprised and you might get to thinking. I know I did.

Read about the Creek Civil War, part of the War of 1812 at American Presidents Blog.Andrew Jackson figures in this part of the war. The tribe itself was somewhat split as to whether it wished to drive the whites out or assimilate into their culture. After the battle of Taladaga, Jackson ended up with an orphaned child whom he adopted. It’s a fascinating story.

American Revolution Blog has a great series starting on the founding fathers and faith. I keep telling you of the book review I have to do, and in truth I have about 80% of it done, but this will give you a nice flavor of that upcoming post. He starts with Madison who perhaps was the clearest in his statements of how faith fit into the newborn government.

I’m getting my act together one day this week and making lasagna. This recipe is not what I am doing, but it sure is one that I want to keep in my hip pocket for something very different. It is Eggplant Artichoke Lasagna. A very different kind of lasagna for sure, but a lovely one too. Baking Delights gives us the recipe.

God knows I don’t know how the people of Iraq continue to exist in that hellish environment. Blue Girl, Red State has a post on what is happening to psychiatric care in Baghdad, and it is sickening. The horrifying conditions the doctors work in, the limits of care, all just make one so angry and depressed. It seems the world is full of such utter meanness these days. Has it always been so ugly? I don’t know. It seems worse now, but then again, maybe I just pay better attention.

A nice salad that I would like, and the Contrarian would not is in the offing from Epicurious. It’sAvocado Watercress Salad. I love avocados and the Contrarian does not. He would be okay with the watercress probably. I’ll make it and let him pick out the avocado. Sounds good to me.

Bruce Braley is sure making Iowa proud in his thoroughinvestigation of the Postville raids.He is turning out to be one of the real shining stars among new House members. I wish he was representing me frankly. That is juxtaposed against Latham who has yet to even make a statement from the Republican side of things. Read about his ongoing questions to ICE at Essential Estrogen.

Free Sample Forager has a few new offers. Dove Body Lotion, Mighty Dog Canned food, and Purex Detergent are offered today. Stop by and get your free samples. I must say, I get my offers usually within 3 weeks of filling out the forms, and while all are not so great, I do get one free wash, or use, so hey, over time, it’s worth the few minutes it takes to type in the info.

Dick Morris is a Clinton Admin. reject, sent packing for his sexual indiscretions. He’s hated the Clintons ever since, and is  on board  at Foxy Giggle News as a resident opinionator on political things though he is mostly brain dead. Still he is laughably funny. Inside-Out the Beltwayhas a humorous take on his latest assessment of the proposed Obama/McCain run for the White House. Read it and chuckle along.

The hook said, mind-blowing new Creature found. Well, that caused me to run up the feed quite quickly. Live Sciencehas the story.  Called Y-larvae in the young stage, scientists were able to grow them up into slug-like masses. I have no clue why that is mind-blowing. They seem like parasites, they seem creepy and I don’t like em. Nexxxt.

I heard something to the effect that Karl Rove had concocted some red state/blue state thingie and decided Hillary had a better chance against McCain than Obama. The question is why would I believe anything that came out of the mouth of that so-called genius of the GOP?  Now it seems that the Pillsbury Dough Boy has such a nice deal with Foxy OopsNewsthat nobody seems to realize that he is the errr, campaign adviser to all things McCain, and is simply using his position at Fox to further that enterprise (among other devious things no doubt). Oh well, what would you expect from Fox and Idiots anyway?  And we are learning that we can expect absolutely no morality from the Crooked Mac either. Salon has the story.

Okay, listen up you dairy farmers. You have a new method of making some extra cash. Just advertise and welcome a tour of your barns filled with all those sweet cows to pregnant women! Yep, you should be able to set a fee of say $25 a head for a tour. Okay, I have your interest now, so follow the link and learn how you too can make money without even trying. Science Daily would never steer(haha) you wrong!

This is one that makes you go “whhhaaaat?” I thought that it was against the law to mix religion and state. I wonder how one gets through university with a science degree and an education certificate and then goes this route. One in eight students in America is being taught creationism along side evolution by their teachers, all of this against the law. Read it and weep. What is worse, fake history is also being taught, the type that emanates from David Barton from Wallbuilders–disguised Christian nation stuff. This is so tiresome and so unnecessary.

Jim Webb is sure the up and coming Senator these days. Many are talking that he would be a fine Veep for Obama. The Nation has an excellent post on Senator Webb and I urge you to learn more about this guy. He’s pushing through the New GI bill and giving McCain fits over his opposition.

Ya see, the reason the surge appeared to work is that the US was busy paying off insurgents to not shoot at us.Of course that only created another problem, and of course, they knew that, but hey, they are trying to protect the GOP this election cycle so I guess all is fair in love and errrr war. Course, the expected future has arrived a bit early and it seems Iraq is full of little warlords, all making their demands, just like they do in Afghanistan. The Washington Independent has the story.

Think Progress weighs in on the Rove/Foxy dilemma in this, can you believe the chutzpah?, post onFox accusing MSNBC of blurring the lines between news and commentary. Oh my goodness, I may piddle my panties I’m laughing so hard. Read it and try to keep the tears of laughter from your eyes.

To mulch or not to mulch. I think mulches are great in flower beds, but a pain in veggie gardens, and frankly us rural folks have big gardens and good mulch is prohibitive in terms of cost. But if you have questions about it, Veggie Gardening Tips has a good discussion about it.

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“If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.” Johnny Carson

“Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein.” Joe Theisman

“I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave.” E.M. Forster

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Funny signs from around the world

In a Texas funeral parlor: Ask about our layaway plan.

In a toilet: Toilet out of order. Please use floor below

In the vestry of a New England church: Will the last person to leave please see that the perpetual light is extinguished.

In the window of an Oregon general store: Why go elsewhere to be cheated, when you can come here?

Notice in a field: The farmer allows walkers to cross the field for free, but the bull charges.

On a fence: Salesmen welcome. Dog food is expensive.

On a plumber’s truck: We repair what your husband fixed.

On a Tennessee highway: Take notice: when this sign is under water, this road is impassable.

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And the oldest serving member of Congress, former Klan member Senator Robert Byrd, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. That’s got to make Hillary feel good, huh? Even the Klan guy is going, “I’m gonna go with the black guy.” Jay Leno

Oil is now $125 a barrel, a very, very high price. But if you return the barrel, you get a $2 deposit back. So that’s not so bad.

Ladies and gentlemen, President Bush is back from his trip to the Mideast. And he did accomplish one thing. He found the crystal skull. David Letterman

 John McCain is so old, he can remember when “Saturday Night Live” was actually funny. – Janice Hough, Palo Alto, Calif.

Big Brown’s trainer has admitted that he gives the horse the steroid Winstrol twice a month. That is the easy part. The hard part is getting Brown to hit away from the shift with two strikes. – Marc Ragovin, New York

Wandering in Circles

Tags

Catholicism, Chinese, John McCain

This photo was done by the famous Richard Avedon and is called “Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’ Hiver, Paris, 1955. It is located at MoMA. The look to me had that art deco appeal that I so love.

On the home front, work on the living room is going along fine. The ceiling, walls and one cabinet are cleaned and done. All paintings and photo’s are cleaned as well. So a few more days to go. I’m really hoping we can turn the corner on possible frost (and indeed I think we probably have) so I can take the house plants out. We’re going to move some furniture around and that will make things a bit easier.

We are also on the trail of a new vehicle. The Contrarian found a likely one on Craigslist today, and I’ve fired off an e-mail to see if it’s available and when we can take a look. It looks great (a Bronco 4×4) and the price seems reasonable. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

In today’s news:

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Continuing with my current lemon fascination, I’ve found this nice little recipe from Abby Sweets, Vanilla-Lemon Pudding Cakes. Now that seems to satisfy just about all my passions, vanilla, lemon and gooey cake. Nothing could be finer than a day in Carolina….oops…wrong venue.

Sandi’s Crochet Blog has a smart little headband you might want to take a look at. Little girls seem always to love these tiny embellishments and adults can use them too.

One of the things this crazy administration suffers from is a complete and utter arrogant disregard for the past. Woodrow Wilson may have a thing or two to teach us about foreign policy. Ted Widmer from MIT Center for International Studies has some ideas. Read his interesting thoughts.

Cookies are one of those things that you can usually make quickly and they offer a nice snack, or for me, breakfast! Try out these Maple Shortbread Cookies and see if they fill the bill. We thank Baking Delights for this one.

Begging for Bargains sends us to CraftFreebies where we are promised, yep, you guessed it, lots of craft free things. It seems most are sewing projects, so get out that machine and dig in. It is a site filled with tons of patterns! But if you back off the URL to the main address, it broadens to a gargantuan number of free craft ideas. So enjoy to your hearts content. Free Sample Forager has a number of new offers, including some baseball “club packs” for kids, Dunkin Donuts free coffee samples, A Coldplay download, and others. Take a look.

Remember the investigation into the Bush eavesdropping programs? Remember the “lost” e-mails? Blue Girl, Red Statehas much more on the story. Will this stonewalling by the Bushites continue to work? Who is looking at prison these days? The Pale Rider brings you the latest.

Civil War Women has another profile, this time of Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge. This is the story of a woman determined to serve as a hospital nurse. Imagine the courage this took back then. She worked the Mississippi hospital boats that brought wounded  from the posts. Read all about her dedication to helping the war effort no matter the physical cost to herself.

I love Japanese gardens. I would not want my entire garden that way, but I’d love a little corner that was this place of beauty, serenity and order. Sally’s Gardening Tips has some ideas if you would like to try creating a little magic yourself.

Cupcakes! Oh yeah. And to not belabor the point, a little lemon can be found in these Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes. I think they sound soooo very delicious. Thanks to Epicurious for this one.

If you sew, or know one, (a sewer I mean) or do anything that requires a pin cushion, you might want to take a look at the toadstool that Feeling Stitchy has for you. The pattern is there, and it makes a cute little pin cushion. Of course you can use the pattern for other things as well. Take a look.

Garrison Keillor has a new little essay for us all. This one is on flying. Personally, the Contrarian and I have given up on this method of travel. My last trip was to Iowa in 1999, wherein I had to bus from Chicago in the end. His last trip was a flight to Connecticut, wherein he stopped at Detroit, and was late as heck due to snow. We decided we had spent all our free lives and it was time to stop! Read “Remember when it was fun to fly.”

Undoubtedly there is debate about President Jimmy Carter’s recent trip to the Middle East and his meeting with Hamas. I am one of those who favored the trip, regardless of whether anything worthwhile appears to have been accomplished. I don’t favor isolating enemies, and find talking to anyone much more rational and in the end much more productive. Read Scott Kaufman’s assessment at the History News Network and see what you think.

It seems we have always had a sweet tooth. See? Now I have no reason to feel the least bit guilty. It’s genetic! It seems that early hominids all were fruit eaters, and they liked the soft squishy types the best. Read more at Live Science.

Another of those famous limericks from Mad Kane. I never cease to chuckle at her wit, and I am envious of her talent. Take a look at her latest jab!

It seems that the Catholic Church is not the only one faced with a minority of right wing wingnuts. The Methodists are getting ready to hold their every four year meeting in Texas and it seems there are two camps and a threat by one to separate from the other. Always good to add another denomination to the mix I’m sure. That makes probably somewhere in the vicinity of 34,103 now, give or take a dozen or so. Since the article by Mark Hemingway uses such rhetoric as “Bible-oriented traditionalists find themselves opposing a leadership that is dragging the church in a direction defined by liberal political activism,” I guess you can assume what side he is on. It’s sad nonetheless.

I have some thoughts on Jeremiah Wright, but I think I’ll save them for the Editorial on Sunday. Still, the darn story is not going away, and at this point, one has to look to Rev. Wright as the reason why. I’m not quite sure I understand why he is doing what he is doing, but I do know that it is harming Obama’s campaign in ways that may prove fatal. Read Maureen Dowd’s take on the whole mess. A more thorough discussion about Wright and what this means can be had at On Faith, over at the Washington Post. The panel includes essays by Deepak Chopra, Anthony M Stevens-Arroyo, Cal Thomas and others.

Kevin Drum (Political Animal) brings us news on the GI Bill, currently before the Senate. Seems Senator Webb did not like Senator McCain’s remarks and has replied with some shall we say vituperative remarks himself. I’ve taken you directly to the source, Politico.com

Politics Plus has another fine article on the just down right sickening tactics being used by the military to lessen the load of health care to returning vets. This stuff is so outrageous that it begs more attention. Democrats over and over attempt to do something and are met by a stonewalling, vetoing idiot named George. Read all the disgusting details and follow the links to read more from several publications.

Having seen a layout of Rome, one is always amazed at the sheer size of the city created over hundreds of years. That the Romans were masters of existing technology is not disputed. Students attempting to replicate a number of the more spectacular buildings are learning a lot. You might, as well if you take a look.

You see, John McCain seems to continue to get a pass from the media regarding his little problem with religious zealots. Rev. Hagee’s has said, and I quote: “As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now.” Yet McCain not only doesn’t repudiate him, he still claims he welcomes his endorsement. Read the sordid little story at Talk 2 Action, and ask yourself, what is going on with this? Is it only because McCain doesn’t attend Hagee’s church that he can get away with it? Doesn’t seem a good enough reason to me.

Speaking of both Hagee and Wright, Susan Posner’s Fundamentalist addresses both in her weekly article at The American Prospect. Don’t miss her fine analysis of what’s happening this week in the crazy world of fundamentalism.

Boy, this sounded really good to me and I realized it was sure time to make something Chinese for dinner. I’ll plan that for next week some time. Anyhow, a nice recipe for fried rice comes from the Baking Beauties. Hope you like it!

I’m never sure quite how I feel about athletes in college quitting before graduation to join the professional world of sport.I used to not be sure, that is until the salaries became so humongous that you pretty much need to be brain dead to turn down the money for a diploma and maybe that money later on. But it did not persuade one young lad from South Carolina, who is foregoing the NBA draft to stay in school for his senior year. It only takes one class and one professor it seems to change the tide of greed. Tongue in cheek?

Veggie Gardening Tips has a nice little gardening log that you might want to examine. It can give you a hint as to whether you are ahead or behind, and kind of helps organize things a bit. The Contrarian walked the garden today and thought it still too wet to till. I tend to agree. On our trip to Cedar Rapids yesterday, we saw very few fields that had been spring plowed. It’s taking a long time to seep this water away, and we still have some standing puddles.

You know it’s bad enough to go to a forum and find wingnut Catholics who ponder if poor people deserve health care, housing, food, and education. (Mostly they do not, because poor people are for the most part lazy, and everyone knows we can handle the small number of  really deserving with charity alone.) But of course, it’s actually much worse than that. These whack heads also spend lots of time worrying about whether people receiving communion should be allowed to, based on their politics. If you want to see real crazy fundamentalist rhetoric on a par with anything you are likely to read about radical Islam, take a gander at Vox Nova today. The comments as always is where the fun begins. The post is rational for the most part.

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“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”  Christopher Morley

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”  Arthur C. Clarke

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.” John Maynard Keyes

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Bumper stickers:

“Watch out for the idiot behind me!”

Keep honking! I’m reloading!

To all you virgins: Thanks for nothing!

Tennis players have fuzzy balls.

The fastest way to a fisherman’s heart is through his fly.

Stupidity is not a crime so you are free to go.

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And on ABC News tonight, they said gas prices are now flirting with $4 a gallon. Flirting? Huh? Aren’t we a little beyond flirting? Aren’t we getting screwed at this point? Jay Leno

David Blaine today broke the world record for holding his breath, on “Oprah” — 17 minutes, four seconds. Blaine has now frozen himself, he’s starved himself, he’s gone without sleep for weeks, and deprived himself of oxygen. Today, Dick Cheney said, “See, it’s not torture. It’s magic.” Jimmy Kimmel

The Kentucky Derby is Saturday. It’s an annual ritual that is truly symbolic of American culture. The rich owner watching earns a million dollars. The participant doing all the work gets fed hay.

The Weather Channel is for sale. Ratings for the network have slipped as viewers who are interested in world around them are turning to its chief rival: looking out a window.

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, has died at 102. He had no idea his creation would spawn a host of negative after-effects. Bad trips, freak-outs, and incredibly tacky clothing. – Alan Ray, Stockton, Calif.