How to cook like Bea and me.

First off, what the hell is wrong with me?  I drive-by post on my own blog and that's just sad, especially when I drive-by with a pity party like that last one was.  Jeeeez.

In the interest of moving onward and upward and just being an all-around more pleasant person, I decided to cook something...interesting. But first off, this is Beatrice, also known as Bea, Bebe, Miss America and before she was spayed, Miss Antsy-Pantsy.   Bea is a character...one of those cats full of personality and quirks.  Many quirks. Lately, she has decided it is fun to cook with me since she gets tastes of good things like mayo and whipped cream.  Mmmm, yeah, whatever.  :-)  This is where she was when I called her to the kitchen and she arranged those pillows herself, thankyouverymuch.

But enough about Miss Bea for now, since she's not what's for dinner.  What is for dinner, you wonder?    Oh, Baby, we've got something special!  And don't mind the date...it's been in the freezer.

Oh, yeeeeeah, beef cheek!  Now, I've never had cheek meat but Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain just rave about it so when I spotted this, I had to have it.  Good price, too,  They carry on about it being such a delicacy and their favorite bit of meat, so how can I go wrong, you wonder?  Well, just you watch.

These were the ingredients for my initial plan, which was to treat it like a pot roast.  We've got the onions, 'taters, carrots, celery and a rutabaga.  I like adding rutabaga in with other root vegetables.  It's such an underrated vegetable, but has such a nice taste and good texture.  Try one, if you never have.  Anyway, there's also some cheap red wine, garlic, salt, pepper and lavender, which is also a very underrated spice in stews and such.  So, ingredients in place?  Check.

Beatrice in place?  Check.  Yes, she's back in the casserole dish.  There's really a very valid reason for this happening often but I'm not going to tell what it is.  It's more fun letting people think I just randomly let my cats sleep in my cookware.  But I know what you're really wanting to see...you want to see what that cheek looks like out of the package, don't you?  Yeah, so did I.

There you go - all spread out and both sides of it.  I'll admit that I was a bit disturbed here and I wasn't a bit bothered by the cow tongue or any other thing I've tried but this?  Just really bothered me.  I think it was because no matter how I arranged it, I could not figure out how it ever fit on a cow's face; I couldn't tell up from down or anything.  However, that did not deter me.

I browned it and let it aside while chopping my vegetables.  It looked better with some browning and I went back about this with some enthusiasm.

Trust me, always use a big knife when you cut up a rutabaga. Unless, of course, you have a thing for EMTs and/or abdominal wounds.

I browned up the celery, onions and garlic in butter, with a lot of salt and pepper.  At this point, I realized there were only 3 onions in the pot but 4 had been out on the counter.  I never did find that other onion. *scratches head*  I began to wonder how long this meat should cook so I ran to look up a recipe online.  I probably should have done that before, but hey, I found a recipe that sounded really good...so good, in fact, that plans changed.

These are the new seasonings - cocoa, cumin, a bit of cayenne and paprika.  A Latin-flavored dish sounds good, doesn't it?  Mmm hmmm.

Once in the pot, a last taste of the broth confirmed that this whole dish was going to be either really good or really bad.  When in doubt about a dish, add some Maggi seasoning to it.  For some reason, that fixes a lot.  Then  it went into a 325 degree oven for 3 hours.  Now, I'm going to share something I probably shouldn't share, but what the hell.  I never use my oven light and knew there was one small dirty spot in my oven, but no big deal.  It happens to the best of us, right?

 

If you ever want to know what's *really* going on in your oven, take a picture of the inside using your flash.  Yeah.  I'm so ashamed.  But, much like having herpes or something, sometimes you can make others with the same affliction feel better by being the first to admit it, so you're seeing my shame.  And no, I don't have herpes; that was an example. 

Time to make the cornbread!  Hey, I like Jiffy Mix...so what?  Did you know if you add 1/3 cup of sour cream to it while mixing it all up, it makes it really, really good?  Yup, try it!  Now,  here's where you pretend 3 hours have passed. 

Bea had some Doritos and ranch dressing, then went to take a nap in my recliner, wrapped up in her blankie.  It was all so exhausting, what with the whole recipe change and all.  I should have just joined her.

When it came out of the oven, I sorted it out into separate dishes and pretty much knew this wasn't going to be a rousingly successful meal.  Sometimes, you can just tell by looking, even though it did smell nice. That cheek, once sliced?  Was even shinier than it had been.  And really, it was no wonder when you look closer.  Please, enlarge it or you'll always wonder...

 

Look at the fat in that sucker!  But, weirdly, this made me a bit hopeful.  See, I'm that weird person who just loves the bites of fat on a roast or steak...so I tried a piece.  Mmmmm, it was actually pretty good.  Fatty, but good.  Until I hit that cartilage or whatever it was.  We fixed our plates and Jake managed to choke down about 3 bites before he actually gagged.  It was the texture, "like eating a glob of fat on a sneaker sole", he said.  I suggested he make himself a Hot Pocket and I ate mine.  My whole serving.  In fact, I was thinking that I'd maybe make it again, but using a very different recipe since the whole cocoa and cumin idea pretty well sucked. Not a great success but not a dismal failure.

Cut to about an hour later...I'm watching TV and get hit with a stomach cramp.  I ignored it.  I also ignored the next few, except for some Rolaids.  What I could not ignore was the sudden need to teleport myself to the bathroom since running might not be fast enough.  *sighs*  And I spent most of the rest of the night performing this very activity, leaving me with a very clean and very well greased colon.

I will not be making beef cheek again and do not suggest you make it either, although it could be served to guests you don't like as long as they're going to have a very long ride home that night.

The end.

Saving love.

Oh, I have sorely neglected this place, haven't I? Well, I just found an email from NaBloPoMo and it made me feel bad I've been such a poor blogger.  I wish I could offer up exciting excuses, like that I've been held in a Cyprian jail cell for smuggling art or something, but alas!  I just suck and am boring to even myself.

July is a bad month for me for many, many reasons.  For the most part, though, it's because everyone I've loved the deepest has died in July.  I hate July...passionately.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the month of death and sadness. A child I loved beyond reason and words died in July.  A father I loved fiercely and who was my other me died in July.  A beautiful, kind man, one of the few truly good people in this world who I was honored to call my best friend, my brother, my family and a true love of a different kind, died in July.
I hate July.

But NaBloPoMo gave me a thump on the head and while I'm technically a day late, it's still July 1st  in Hawaii or somewhere so, aloha and let's get on with it.  The theme is "saved".  I struggled over "saved" a bit and thought about sharing some of my packrat ways but found myself thinking instead of what I have saved in my heart from those I lost.  Many things came to mind and it seemed right to share those, instead.

From the father, I have saved the lack of societal convention and acted on it in his honor.  It's okay to be different.  It's okay to embrace your "oddities" instead of fearing them  or being scared of them. It's okay to be a loner. It's okay to laugh at yourself.  It's okay to rebel. It's okay to be wrong, to apologize, to be a fallible human.

From the child, I have saved in my heart that it's okay to look different, to come from a different background, as long as you know it all comes from love.  As long as you know you came from love, were created with love, and knew unconditional love, that gives you the strength to live and die with peace and knowing it is God's will.

From the best friend, I have saved in my heart that love can come in so many different forms and just because our society doesn't acknowledge them, they are no less valid.  Real love is precious, rare, and brings many unexpected joys when not shunned just because it is different.

I have saved all the love I have been given from those who are gone.  I have known true love, given true love, lost true love, mourned for true love in all of its forms.  And I have saved all of it in my heart.  I am beyond lucky to have that.

PS:  I just saw that the writing prompt for the day is to tell what your favorite movie is.  Well, mine would be either Billy Elliot or To Sir, with Love, followed closely by The Graduate.

Me and Thomas Dolby.

I have so sorely neglected this poor blog, haven't I?  When I'm online, I seem to stay busy either on Daisy or playing Farmville and now, Treasure Isle.  I've also been making a lot of calls trying to drum up some help for our sweet queerple,  Chris.  He's on the level,  totally legitimate, if you can help him. See?  He's even had an article written about him. Caring for Chris is a family affair, cats included  If we weren't both gay, I'd have a crush on Chris.

Anyway, as I was saying, this place has been all but abandoned, hasn't it?  I keep taking pictures and then second-guess myself and begin to think no one would possibly care about that (whatever "that" was at the time).  But it's 3am, we've got bad weather rolling through and I can't sleep when we have tornado warnings because we all know I can single-handedly ward one off or something.   If I was (were?) smart, I'd go on to bed and just let it happen.  I am not smart.  I'm up, fully dressed and have appointed myself the weather alert of the neighborhood since we don't have sirens. You know what that means?  It means that in the event of a tornado, I will either have a massive fail of my self-appointed duties and just grab Jake and throw his mattress over our heads or I will take myself very seriously and try running door to door, screeching, as a tornado bears down upon us. Either way, it's destined to not be my finest moment and by God, I'll own that.

So, here I sit.  I started thinking about the rain and Jake's penchant for leaving his windows wide open at all times and I remembered he has work in the morning.  As in 4 hours from now.  Me?  Up then?  Doubtful.  I know he's going to be groggy and will not remember those damn windows.  His room is so bad, so hoarder-y, that I can't get to all his windows easily, so I started worrying about that and decided to leave him a note on the door he will go out, over the knob, so he can't possibly miss it.  Back-story here, we always leave one another odd notes.  Whatever crosses our minds, we write.  So, I wrote the note, taped it up and then realized this could give y'all some insight to the funny stuff that goes on in this house.  With no further ado...the note:

Below you can read it, complete with my own weird writing, offered up for posterity in green glitter gel pen ink.  Oh, and yes, I'm iffy about that shiny brown paint, too.  I don't want to discuss it. 

Enjoy the insight into our lives. :-)

                               

The last part of my "political" postings for now.

So, we've had some interesting discussion here on political things, haven't we? I want to go off on a different tangent tonight, but will jump off something CK and, I believe, Corinne were saying about eduction being the key.  I have to disagree.  No amount of education is going to overcome peer pressure, parental influences and immediate societal influences, even over time.  At least in my opinion.  The DARE program proved this to us.  Kids aren't going to take to being taught better values, personal responsibility and ambition when they don't see it among those they love and respect the most - family and friends. Oh, sure, you'll get the occasional success story but overall?  It won't work.  What will work, I think, is being tough on people.  Fair, but tough.  I'm going to lay out a plan I spoke of years ago and I still believe it will work.  I'll enlarge on it now, based on today's circumstances. 

So, my plan for rebuilding our country? 

1.  Announce a 5 year plan to eliminate all welfare programs, barring exceptions such as the terminally ill, mentally retarded, severely physically handicapped, etc. "Welfare" means food stamps, TANF, WIC, EITC, Section 8, SSI, etc.  If you're on one of the plans already, you can continue on for your promised span but new children conceived after the start date get nothing.  No medical, no WIC, noth-ing.  Be responsible for what you do.  So, this being the case, you better be prepared to do it on your own or face child neglect charges if you have kids and don't care for them after the 5 years is up.  Those already on assistance have 5 years to figure out how to get off...go to college, go to tech school, whatever.  Five years is a long time.  It *can be done, even in this economy.

2.  Loosen up domestic adoption costs and requirements. Of all things, *this is a good one for the government to actually run and make free for qualified people.  Gays, "older" parents, single but well-established parents, parents who have an illness but are still able to parent?  Let them adopt and let them adopt children of races other than their own.  Kids will get good parents *and we'll make strides in diminishing still-existing color barriers.  Win-win.  You don't comply with #1?  #2 kicks in.

3.  Repeal the law that states you're a citizen simply by virtue of being born here but open up our borders to legal immigration via checkpoints like Ellis Island was.  If you can come here legally by the new standards and work, pay taxes, support yourself and prove you can be a contributing, law-abiding citizen, we'll be proud to give you that citizenship and have you join us.  In 5 years.  Prove it for 5 years and you're an American, we'll make your ass legal.  If you sneak in? We will assume you mean harm and seeing as how we're pretty easy under the new plan and we'll react accordingly.  Think of our country as your literal new home...if you ring our doorbell and politely ask to come in, as long as you aren't the dangerous sort, we'll welcome you as family.  We just ask that you cook and clean up after yourself and supply your own things...you're no guest, after all.  But if you sneak in the window knowing how lenient the doorbell policy is, we reserve the right to shoot you in self defense.

4.  Parents need to be held responsible for their kids until age 18.  Period.  No more of this "I can't control them....waaaah!"  When you know you won't be held responsible it's too easy to put your head in the sand and your kids?  Just laugh it off and know that as long as it's fairly small-time crime or misbehavior, not much will happen. That needs to change.  Your kid under 18 does damage, gets in trouble, steals?  You pay for it and out of your welfare, if necessary.  If you have to sell a car, sell your house, perform community service, whatever...you made them, you pay for what they do wrong.  If your kid doesn't care about the hurt this puts on your ass, you've screwed up somewhere in raising them and deserve it anyway.

5.  This one will shock a few here to their core but I say require 2 years of mandatory public service of some type (the military would qualify) for every 18 year old (if they don't graduate, in which case a GED is required) or graduating senior unless they opt for college. If they graduate from college, the public service can come afterward and be in their chosen field, so that it will also count as work experience.  Alternately, 4 years of half-time service would be acceptable since some will be immediately working in family businesses or whatnot.  This country gives us a lot - we need to give back and not just by way of taxes. 

6.  Medical care. Life is rough and often not fair.  Accept it.  Health care being a "right"? I'm iffy but I'll give you that for the sake of argument.  *Paid health care is a privilege, though.  This new health care plan is a joke and, as I've said, will bankrupt us.  Instead, let's put medical/nursing/pharmaceutical students who can't pay for their own education outright through school but require a year of service in their chosen field for every year this country covers for them in college.  What then?  So many towns have houses sitting empty, foreclosed upon.  Same with whole apartment complexes.  Even empty lots.  Use whatever is available for housing for these brand-new medical professionals (think dorm or student apartment type housing) and have these new graduates live there rent-free, paying them minimum wage for their personal expenses.  Build medical clinics close to said housing.  Free/cheap clinics, where people can come and get basic medical care and even specialized care, at no cost if they can show they need it...unemployment papers, bank statements, utility statements, etc....or they can pay very affordable rates if they cannot prove the need for free services. If you choose to live beyond your means and spend money on things that could be put to insurance, too bad.  You're out of luck and have to pay clinic rates for care.  Look at that - you still win.  Your kids, however, are not out of luck if you refuse and will be treated but it will be looked upon as child neglect by you since you chose the nicer home, newer cars, expensive cable package, etc.  Child neglect is punishable by law. This will serve many purposes - providing health care for our citizens, forcing parents to be responsible, allowing our new medical professionals to gain more experience, and preventing the default of many students loans.  It should also serve to help revitalize some run down areas as a side bonus.

7. Legalize drugs but enact far harsher penalties for crimes committed under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  There are many, many benefits to this idea.  For one, the price of street drugs will fall and crime will naturally fall with it.  Big score.  Let's relate it to health care, shall we?  If you're sick due to substance abuse problems, you chose it.  You pay for it.  We have low cost clinics under my plan, remember?  But employed or not, we aren't directly paying for your stupid decisions; you are an exception.  You die from drug abuse?  No great loss.  Sorry.  Self-inflicted illnesses?  On you.  Own yourself.

8.  You'll notice I've been mentioning legalizing drugs a lot...yep, we should and all of them.  Let those intent on using them do so...but have far stricter penalties than we do now if a crime results.  Driving under the influence of something?  We all know more people die from drugs than guns; therefore, attempted murder charges apply because you were intentionally "shooting" at people with your car,  an object far larger than a bullet.  Selling drugs?  Attempted murder.  Someone dies of an overdose and the supplier can be found?  First degree murder. Using drugs, though?  Simple possession?  Ehhh, slap a dumbass label on their forehead.  They'll either get over it or kill themselves off.  Treatment for addiction, though?  Out of pocket.  You made the choice, you pay for it.

9.  About the whole foreclosure situation?  Here's a thought - if Mary bought a home for $500.000 and it's now in foreclosure, look at what Mary *can afford for a house payment.  Can she afford a $250,000 home?  No?  How about a $100.000 home?  Yes?  Great.  Take that $100,000 home that Joe owns in Mary's general area (or any home she prefers in a pool of similarly priced foreclosures) and that he can't pay for and *require Mary to step into it (or a similar one) and take over those payments. Instead of having a mass of foreclosures bringing our economy down, require people to honor their commitments to the lending institution but help them out of a bad situation by allowing them to downsize into something affordable with no penalty. Again, win-win.

10.  Eliminate our federal income tax system and institute a percentage-based sales tax system instead.  Say an additional 2% tacked on to what states and counties already charge, but for everything...food, drugs, services, etc.  The income generated from this would be staggering yet fairly painless for everyone, even the poorest of people, and it would be the fairest system we could have.  You don't like paying?  Fine. Cut back on your spending.  You are in control here over what you pay in federal taxes for the most part and everyone will pay a fair share, commensurate with income, for the services they receive from our government.  The poor will naturally pay less than the wealthy, yet they will still contribute...as they should.

Trust me, I could go on and on but I'll stop here.  I just felt that it was important to balance out all my complaining with fair and viable solutions to problems we are facing as a nation. If you can't offer alternative solutions, you have nothing.  I'm curious what you think of mine...let me know.

And with this, I'll end my "political" posts.  For the moment, anyway.  Tomorrow (okay, today) will bring pictures and fun junk.  If my lazy ass gets in gear, we might even get that new cooking post or something.  It's after 4am and the hell with spell check or making sense.  I'm posting as is, so deal with it and goodnight.

Happy Easter!

I thought about trying to do a religious post, especially considering I'm one of Jesus' biggest non-Christian fans but in the end, I've got to tell you that I'm not buying this whole resurrection thing.  Sorry.  So, then I decided to show you old Easter pictures of me and Jake, only that seemed sort of boring.  Then I got the bright idea to just upload and show you whatever is on my camera right now, no deletions.  As I sat here doing this, I realized something sort of funny and took pictures of that, too.  In the end, I decided to do it all and give you a photo-documentary of...something.  Enjoy!

First picture off the camera is Beatrice in my recliner.  She is, quite possibly, the funniest and quirkiest cat ever.  So much so that I forgive her my scars.

In doing my Spring cleaning and digging into some hidey-holes, I found my old wedding rings and decided I best take a picture for insurance purposes.  I've long wondered what I'd do with my engagement ring and have decided that if I ever have grandkids, I'll have that stone reset as a pendant for my first granddaughter who graduates from college.  If I never have grandkids, it'll probably wind up on the 2060 version of craigslist.  I'll be dead.  I won't care.  If nothing else they prove that this bit of utter sweetness below isn't a bastard.

That's my baby boy.  It was taken on Easter night after a full first Easter of bunnies, cake and colored eggs that turned his tongue blue when he sucked on them. He had a busy and wonderful first Easter, my sweet Jacob did. And back then, he was Jacob.  He only became Jake when he was about 12 and announced he preferred it.  This is one of my favorite pictures of him, taken in old-fashioned black and white film.  Ahhh, I look at that face and wish I could have some do-overs.  Who knew that face would become this face below?

God, I miss his eyebrows.  This is a picture I found on my camera, taken about 2 weeks ago.  He thought I was trying to figure out how to put batteries in it, so he wasn't all posed.  I do love that boy to distraction and his sweetness shows here. I'm so damn blessed to have him.

But when he poses, he's not so sweet.  This was on my camera and taken after he got home from a photo shoot.  He's been modeling for a local photographer and building a portfolio so he's used to striking a pose.  Those boots?  Christmas present from me.  I still hate them. 

 
Now for a total change of pace, here are the eggs in my fridge that will become deviled eggs tomorrow.  I took this for my cousin who was having trouble grasping what I do.  It's very simple, really.  Boil your eggs and then roll them with force, cracking the shell into very fine bits but still remaining on the egg.  Then soak them in dye (20 drops of food coloring, 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of water here) for at least 24 hours.  The dye soaks in the cracks and when you peel them, you get a cool, colored cracked effect on the egg white itself.  It makes pretty deviled eggs.  While it's too late for Easter, do red and blue dyes for the 4th of July!

Now, I happened to notice the contents of my desk and got tickled at what I saw since it's *so me.  I took pictures.  I hope you find them as amusing as I do.

That's Gina.  She'll be 17 in August and I can't stand her.  She?  Loves me. Whatever.  I've got a prime spot picked out in the backyard for her.  But take a look around...see my cell phone?  My home phone?  My vitamin and mineral stash?  Nail implements?  The Ruger .357 Magnum?   Lol, what can I say?  I'm cautious and prepared.  I own it.  Want to see the rest of my desk?

There's rum and Coke in that Hyundai mug.  *nods*   Got my bottle of grapefruit scented cleaner, my Xenu lamp, my router, an apple cinnamon candle and back scratcher.  Seriously, who needs more than what I have here?  Now, do you wonder what that print is on the wall?  I would, if I were being all nosy and checking out someone's room like you are.

I love Paul Gauguin.  He's my favorite artist.  And there you have it...my random assortment of pictures.

Happy Easter to you all.  To those I know, thank you for choosing to be in my life.  I am truly honored and I don't say that lightly...you don't have to be here and I'm so glad you want to be.  To those who might read this but haven't formally introduced yourself, the same applies.  Thank you, and may the Easter Bunny be good to you all. 

I hope you all looked as cool as I did at 6.
Me?  Sunglasses?  Still a thing.  I grew out of the blonde weirdness but wish I still had those gloves.

Love, Lisa

I'm happy now.

Doesn't it look better around here?  More...me?  Yeah, I think so, too.  I played with making my own layout and got some stuff that was fine but not the feel I wanted.  Somehow, I was thinking I wanted deep pink and tropical but in strolling around some sites, I spotted this and that was all she wrote.  Now, it's not all settled in around here yet and you'll notice some tweaking going on for a bit.  The pictures all need resized or something since they're too big for these columns but I dunno, since they're still viewable and clickable to enlarge, I might say "screw it" on those.  I'm still trying to get my music playlist to show and still working on a button for oopsie daisy...i said that?.  But overall?   It reflects me and feels right again.  What do you think?

Now, since I'm going to experiment with picture sizing, I'll leave you with this mugshot from my local paper. I have to tell you, I think she's pretty fugly in Florida, too.

Part 3: Probably not the turn you expected me to take.

So, I know some who read that last post are thinking I've missed a huge set of numbers - the numbers this new plan is supposed to save us.  Supposedly, it's going to actually help trim our deficit but we are given no valid details as to *how.  All we have are some random numbers thrown out. Most people think it's going to help save the cost uninsured people bring upon hospitals, particularly by using the ER.  Make no mistake, that figure is enormous and very, very expensive.  Staggeringly so; however, I don't see how this plan is going to help.  In the first place, just because it requires people to buy health insurance, that doesn't mean they *will.  They may choose to pay the cheaper fine and continue using ERs as their main source of health care.  They may simply not pay the fine at all, out of choice or out of being broke.  Let's be real about a couple of things here...are we *really going to refuse someone medical care if they've not bought the insurance and failed to pay their fine?  No.  Are we really going to jail anyone for not paying their fine?  Possibly, in the beginning.  But we're going to need a hell of a lot more jails and people are going to get pretty pissed when the unemployed parents of 4 kids go to jail because they chose to give their folks $500 a month out of their unemployment so the family could live in Grandma's basement instead of buying health insurance with it.  In the end, there's not going to be any real repercussions from not buying the insurance or failing to pay the fine.  And that?  Means not much will really change by way of saving money to counteract the cost of this bill.  We'll still have the costs of Medicaid because in no way is this plan designed to eliminate Medicaid.  Bluntly, not much will change for those most apt to use the ER as a primary health care facility and not much will change anywhere else, either.  Status quo, but with trillions more taxpayer dollars going out.  Again, I challenge you - but in a totally not mean way, I swear - to prove me wrong on this.  Show me numbers, explain to me where I'm missing it.  I can guarantee I'll keep an open mind because I'd really love to be wrong about this.  All of this.

So, why would our President want such a plan if it seems doomed to failure?  "That doesn't make sense so it can't be right", you think. Well, it won't fail at a few things...it's going to cause some health insurance providers to shut their doors. It's going to cause far more to up their rates to the point only the quite-well-off can afford them.  It's going to cause some small businesses to go under, creating greater unemployment numbers.  Why in the world would our President want all of this to happen, you wonder?  There's an easy answer to that.  The greater financial chaos we have, the more people will be turning to the government for financial support for survival.  Medicaid, all welfare programs, educational grants, food stamps, assisted housing,  etc.   And why would our government want *this?  Because the greatest way to have real control over the masses is to make them financially dependent upon the government.  Economic slavery.  Look back to the 60's.  To civil rights fights. To desegregation.  And a government packed up the ass full of older, rich, white men who feared the idea of a black man with some power. Uppity niggers.  And how best to get those uppity niggers under control, the old, rich white men wondered?  Limit federal funding for improvements to areas in which they lived in higher numbers, causing the areas to deteriorate and then give them money to survive on.  Be their saviors to their faces and make them dependent upon the white man, the reality.  And tell the world how bad they are so there's fear of them.  Shocked to hear me say that?  Don't be.  See, it's all about numbers and control, once again my two favorite things to rail against.  And now, our government is simply looking at it on a broader scale with this new bill.  I've said before that I am a staunch Libertarian, yet I not only voted for Barack Obama, I actively campaigned for him.  Why?  Well, partly because I thought we needed a real change, cliche as that sounds.  The other part of why I voted for him?  He's black.  Hey, I'll say the politically incorrect thing right on out loud.  He scored bonus points with me for being biracial and identifying as black.  I thought he would be a good bet for being offended at what our government has done to our black citizens in the past and would work to undo that dependency since it really has a major effect on our entire nation.  I was wrong.  He's nothing but a younger, darker version of those old white men from the 60's, only he's looking to control the lot of us this time, not just black people.  Again, I'll say, and I ask you all to really give this some thought, that the greatest way to control people is to make them dependent.  And we, as Americans, started out as stronger stuff than this.  Back when we had that sense of independence, that sense of freedom and self-preservation, when we took care of ourselves and our own families, we did amazing things in this world, didn't we?  Staggering, awe-inspiring things.  It's what we were founded on, in fact.  We were independent, we declared it and we were good, despite some tough and ugly ups and downs.  You want to know why I hate this health care reform bill so much?  It's the start of slavery in this country again, only this time not based on race but rather, based on socio-economic status.

Something to think about anyway, no?

Now, I'm not done because I just thought of something else for the next one.  Lol...be glad you don't actually live with me.