Do the math

Remember < from math?  4<7?  We are now in a time of consistently being told USA <.  < What?  I'm not sure yet.

Go to any liberal hangout on the web and see grievance upon grievance against the USA.  Someone killed a wolf.  DEMONIC!  Now, that wolf might have been killed because the wolf population got so large it was threatening the very existence of ANOTHER wildlife population, but someone killed a wolf.  That person <.  And as a nation, we are < because it happens!

Someone poor is losing their house!  USA is < because everyone should get a house here even while there are tent cities in Africa.  They got the loan because we changed the policies because the poor person > the ability to repay.  Now we must make them = by paying up.

An industry is emitting CO2 into the atmosphere.  That business < now, even though they've consistently kept emissions standards.  It would be fine to move that business to a poorer country.  Employing near-slave labor there would = out their emissions violations.  At least the people would have jobs.  Here, though, the union > the individual rights of the worker.

Some people in country X are expressing concern about the actions of some Muslim immigrants to their country!  That country < because ALL Muslim immigrants are = or possibly >!  Just misunderstood!

A soldier becomes a conscientious objector.  That soldier > other soldiers!

An atheist gets upset because he/she's being exposed to people of faith.  Since that person is < in number, their opinion > in weight!

America, the young nation that elected its first black president is a nation of cowards in talking about race.  We are < France, < Sudan!  Some people should get to be > in order that all can be =.

The head of the UN calls us a deadbeat nation.  The HOME to the UN is < even in the midst of a huge crisis because he wants us to show him the money.  Who is greedy again?  But he's the head of the UN so his intelligence > ours.

We are < in education even though the per capita spending on students is > every country except Canada.  But we should spend more and if we question this, we are against education.  The liberals seem to feel that any student graduating the system and becoming a Republican is an indication that education <.  I would, however, say it's a sign that indoctrination <.

I think what's going on in America is a backlash from the gut.

Self-loathing doesn't suit a person.  To look in the mirror and be preoccupied with everything that's wrong.  How can it be a healthy prescription for an entire country?

We are getting tired of being told we are <.  We are beginning to see that it's just a way to destroy our sense of self and push an agenda we don't agree with.  We understand that in the eyes of some, if we feel a need to rein things in, we are not progressive, we are <.  We used to believe we were =.

Some people believe we, as a nation,  >.

Almost everyone's had a job where the motto seemed to be: "The floggings will continue until morale improves."  Now, from our gut, we feel that this is a national preoccupation and we're waiting for the one who will say, "You know, you're actually great.  You are not <.  You are certainly = to the task.  And in some respects, you really are >."

People are recovering their sense of selves and watching the government do more and more in the name of <.  We've begun to do the math.

"Do some firebombing"?????

Have a read  of a left-winger's comment on Reddit awhile back.  This person is well known on social media sites.

"The Republicans were so rabid against FDR, that they even went so far as to attack his dog, just like they did against Obama http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/15/731884/-They-also-attacked-FDRs-dog

The difference is this: FDR fought back, and he fought back hard. History (and the voters) reward real leadership, and Obama has been severely lacking. I understand everything you are saying, and know that perceptions matter, but in the end, who is playing who? The end result of this political theater is an ever increasing conservative position and the sacrifice of real change and reform.

Stand strong, fight back, do some firebombing. Progressives may take a temporary hit, but will send an undeniable message to the cons: they mean business and are willing to do anything it takes to support progress.

If the Republicans want to hold START hostage, so be it. Fight back and kill all highway funding to red states. Or better yet, start to play the media harder and get the message out. There has never been a better time for progressives to draw a clear contrast with the regressive right, we have the moral highground, and need to broadcast it."

Sometimes a person has to introspect.  Exactly WHAT SORT of radical is giving me my "talking points"?   This Reddit poster, Novenator, is also a blogger known as Ole Ole Olson at the far-left site "NewsJunkiePost."

The comment on Reddit is something I had not seen until today, but doesn't it speak volumes?

What's particularly egregious is that the author of the quote is someone who frequently sends up distress signals about the dangerous "right-wingers."  In addition, this person talks about language used by politicians as something that might incite those "right-wingers" to violence.

Do some firebombing for the progressive cause?  It can be a tendency on the part of some people to hold folks responsible for things they did not say... things that were said by people who shared their ideology, but here we have an actual encouragement to do violence from the horse's mouth.

You know who used to like to use fire-bombs?  The KKK.  

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Freedom Riders arrived in Anniston in May 1961.  The KKK threw firebombs on the bus, which forced the Freedom Riders out of the bus into the violent arms of the KKK, who wielded bats and chains upon the Freedom Riders.

What sets YOU apart from barbarians?  Are you "willing to do anything it takes to support progress"?  Well, are you?

Obamapologetics and the idea of patriotism.

When the president talked about American "arrogance" in Europe, it didn't bother me all that much.  I saw comments from older Americans, folks who remember wars who were deeply offended.  I didn't want to jump on the "he's an embarrassment" bandwagon because he also told Europe that they have had an insidious tendency to criticize America and overlook the good we do in the world.  That is true.

When I saw his comments in Turkey, however, I got annoyed.  Now, let me say, I liked the Turkish people I met in Europe.  Turkey IS one Muslim country that reaches out to be an ally to other countries that don't neccessarily share their religion.

But I really think Obama should have a meeting with the Pope.  He's an American.  And he's obviously feeling guilty about that.  So guilty that he has to announce the sins of the past into the winds of the future as though he's uttering a new truth.  Or maybe he's just trying to keep old vendettas unearthed.  No one in the USA is ignorant about our past.  We put ourselves under the microscope through our media and our art.  We try diligently to right wrongs and trudge onward to a destiny that is better than the sum of the wrongs of the past.

And we succeed.

Clearly he feels that he needs absolution for his nation's history.  It must be hard to represent a country that you feel has done so much wrong that you need to pronounce things already on the historical record from the podiums of the world.  Even though the nations you are apologizing to are not spit-shiny with their own histories.  In fact, some have far worse in their own closets.

I'm proud of my country.  I think Obama isn't. The more he pines for recognition of the manifold pivot points in American civil rights, the more he seems to somehow DENY they were pivot points.  That we, internally, did the right thing to rectify them and ... I'm not sure where he's going with this.

Are America's past sins so grave that She must proceed directly to Hell?  Must Americans give up liberty and prosperity because Her record isn't spotless?  At some point, does a generation that was NOT AT ALL involved in the troubled history get to live without the sins of the former generation visited upon them in the form of shame and guilt?

When will we be forgiven for what we didn't perpetrate?  When can our youth be released from the chains of the past and the scorn of people they never oppressed?  When will the ire of those who were never personally oppressed dissipate in the interests of uniting the nation and REALLY moving Her forward?

Where is the forgiveness after all of this confession?  What sort of atonement is required for people who never perpetrated the crimes?  Self-loathing is a ball and chain, but prominent figures espouse national self-loathing.  Bill Ayers, Ward Churchill, Reverend Wright, Louis Farrahkan...when are we allowed to say, "Shove  it.  You are not talking about me and you are mired in a kind of hate that I have no interest in embracing?"

I understand that I haven't even TOUCHED upon the sort of anger that people who have worked for human rights or fought in wars must be feeling right now as a result of the Apologist in Chief.  If we are going to hold ourselves to an impeccable standard and require that guilt becomes a suffocating blanket thrown over our entire population, then we certainly have the right to indict other nations that don't apologize and atone.

But we won't.  We are forgiving of other nations.  When do we get to be forgiven and when will the finger-pointing end?  When might we be allowed again to look at the stars and stripes and feel that pang of togetherness and pride?   As long as we remain divided by the moral authoritarians, we are easy to conquer and that's not the America I know.

That one time when I went to a Tea Party protest (April 15, 2009)

Overturned burning cars.  Broken windows.  Ok... actually there was a canned food drive and we were asked to bring some beans. Those insidious rapscallions!  We didn't carry our beans concealed.  Sometimes beans CAN be a weapon, if you know what I'm saying...

Being slackers like we are, we were late to the protest on account of a previous appointment.  We got there for the last half hour.

We didn't know if we'd find the event.  This is the mild midwest, not some right-wing terror state like Texas or Alaska.  How would we locate our fellow dangerous-minded people?  We thought maybe we'd join five or six revolutionaries, talk bad about the government for awhile and then disperse to go eat meat for supper, as we do.

Then we saw, like, a whole BUNCH of people!  Like four hundred or so. It's almost as though regular folks heard about this anarchist movement and actually decided to turn up and wave signs in an organized manner!

We parked across the road from the Congressman's office.  I guess he wasn't there.  Some people said they weren't letting protesters park in his lot, but then the media showed up and they decided to go ahead and let people park in their congressman's lot.  I can understand him not coming out to meet with or talk to people.  These people might not have voted for him after all.

We parked in the far end of an empty lot of a bank.  You won't believe what we found out next.  It'll scare you right where you are.

This guy is clearly a dangerous revolutionary.  You can tell by looking.  He said that the woman from the bank walked out and told people they couldn't park there because it's private property.  I can understand.  If sixty customers had showed up at the bank all at once, seven of them wouldn't have been able to park in the bank's lot!

Anyway, this guy told the woman that he'd move his car and withdraw his money from their bank the next day!  Turns out he is a customer and he actually THREATENED to stop doing business with the bank!  Can you believe it? 
Someone has to stop these people.  The woman was so scared that she went inside the bank and didn't come out again.

Oh no.  Clearly a shill for the military-industrial complex conspiracy type of guy!  Support the military?  You have to be kidding me.  Who do these people think they are.  Defense=war.  Didn't they get the memo?

What an angry mob!  Don't they scare you?  You're going to have nightmares about this aren't you?  Sue them for it, I say!

Ohmigosh.  These Nazis are actually laughing and smiling.  I can. not. believe. it.

No no newsguy!  Don't give media attention to this rabble!  It will just encourage them and they will tear America down!  They want to say stuff!  It has to be stopped.  It has to.

Get a load of this goon.  Sitting there all smug and smiling with her sign acting like she might have some wisdom just because she's 101.  Don't be fooled by the modest springlike jacket, I'm sure this plant is Leona Helmsley rich!  Those old people have to go!

My goodness.  These war mongers have no shame.  Obviously this deranged woman is PROUD to have a child in the military.  It just goes to show you how unhinged these folks are.

That is NOT funny young lady!  You clearly need to volunteer in the civilian youth corps and get educated properly.  Don't you know what 1773 led to?  It led to a war!  Yes, the country got its liberty...but there was a huge rebellion.  And it didn't STOP taxation!

I just don't understand the thought process of these people!  They are like another species!  Can you imagine wanting to take a photograph of that 101 year-old woman sitting all regal in that chair like she's the queen of the world and can't stand up like the rest of them?  It's like something bad out of Revelations or something.  Society has gone ca-raaazy! Anyway, it was clear that this was a totally insignificant completely staged event where people were utterly out of touch with reality.  Zombies. I mean, a centenarian protesting for the first time in her long life?  The country is going to Hell in a handbasket and the government had better do something about it.

This doggy knows what danger lies ahead.   Someone actually suggested that a uniformed police officer in an unmarked car drove by and discreetly gave the mob a thumbs-up!  We need to find out who that was and report him to Homeland Security!  And some driver rolled down his window and yelled, "Remember your freedom!  Remember your freedom!"  Like that bad guy in "Braveheart".

Rabble.  Anarchy.  Chaos.  It's all HERE.  Here's the pudding wherein lies the proof.

Fly the mighty (poem)

Dedicated to the Seals who were murdered.  May God hold you softly.




Fly the mighty
Into night
Over continental breeze
On a raft of silvery
To the home of family

Fly the mighty
Out of squalor
Into arms of evernever
Embracing stars
Endeavor peace and dignity

Fly the mighty
From the rubble
Of the trouble
Always spoken
To the land of whispery imagination blossoming

Fly the mighty
From the midst of petty
Thievery and drift on satin apron strings
To meditate on golden things won long ago before
The Earth shook angry because we looked down

Fly the mighty
With the innocents
To swoop and joyful shout
In aerial endeavors free from tethers
And, formerly mute, shout silently of liberty.

Proof of hollandaise.

My niece likes to ask me to make food.  I have mastered the Giouvetsi.  I made "those green dippy vegetables" (artichokes)...but I had not made the Hollandaise Sauce.

I told her that I wasn't really partial to Hollandaise sauce, but she wanted it.  So I cooked some fresh asparagus one night and made Hollandaise sauce to top it.

My Hollandaise sauce was glorious, but the others decided they are not partial to it, either.  So, it will be my last Hollandaise Sauce.

I took this photo a good half hour after the sauce was made.  It was lovely and stayed together all saucily.

Please to oooh and aaaah at my one and only Hollandaise sauce.

Good food...BAD fortunes!

We have a local Chinese place that is very good.  It's in a small town where, as far as I know, cats aren't disappearing.  You know how sometimes you go to a Chinese place and everything tastes the same?  Well, it doesn't at this restaurant.  This hole in the wall is really, really yummy!  But the fortunes in the cookies, frankly, stink.

This is W&F Fortune Cookie company outta Chicago.  They must have some very disgruntled employees.  Here are THREE fortunes that found their way into our hands.

1) 19,30,59, 22, 21...oops, wrong side.  I am SOOOO winning the Mega Millions.
But seriously,

"Money is the root of all evil and man needs roots."

THIS is supposed to be a fortune?  That is an anti-fortune!  "I would like to pay the bill, but your cookie told me not to. It might be evil."

2)

"A good time to finish up old tasks."

An admonition to get back to the daily grind?  Just what I want while picking beef and peapods out of my teeth.

3)

"Be moderate where pleasure is concerned, avoid fatigue."

Hum drum, much?  What if I already live a Spartan life devoid of much pleasure?
At least I had two Mountain Dews with the meal, so I can at least fulfill the last part of my mandated cookie fortune.  The Dews brought me pleasure, though, so uh-oh.


And the cookies were stale, too.