Recent 9-11 Deaths

According to Jay Carney and all the news outlets, an anti-Muslim movie trailer is the cause of the 9-11 American consulate deaths in Libya and escalating riots around the world despite the fact that quite a number of protesters were armed with machine guns and rocket grenade launchers.

This conclusion is ludicrous. This trailer was first released in July on YouTube, but Muslims waited until 9-11 to get upset enough to burn consulates and kill people?

Instead of asking hard questions the news media and White House spokes people are focusing on Romney's comments after Obama apologized for upsetting the religious sensitivities of Muslims. My religious sensitivities are insulted on a daily basis by films, TV, and the Internet, but I'm told that I have to accept it. It's one of the consequences of living in a free society, although I have a lot to say about courteous speech some other time.

I didn't know that Romney is responsible for our foreign policy? I thought President Obama was, but if that were true then the news media would have to be drilling him for answers.

Healthcare vouchers?

During the DNC Obama attacked Ryan's plan to give Seniors the option to select a voucher plan for healthcare. Conventioneers acted horrified, but at the very same time in Washington, Obama's Health and Human Services Department was launching a pilot program to shift two million poor seniors out of Medicare into private health insurance plans overseen by states.

Eighteen states have applied to participate in this program and Massachusetts has already been approved. States will be given federal funds to purchase managed-care plans for people who are either disabled or poor enough to qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. 

Ryan's plan is very similar to this and I'm very happy to see the federal government trying something new. Ryan's plan gives all future retirees currently under the age of 55 the choice to remain on Medicare or use a voucher to purchase private healthcare.

Right now Health and Human Services isn't giving those two million poor people any choice. I hope they will get better care than I'm receiving under Medicare. I'm going on three weeks now without a diagnosis or treatment for a blown out knee. 

Either Obama was playing to his audience during the convention or he doesn't know what's going on in his own administration. 

Welfare State

We have a welfare state, whether it's Reagan's 18% percent of GDP or Obama's 28% and climbing percentage of GDP.

Republicans want to protect the safety net by balancing the budget so that 2008 doesn't happen again, reduce taxes, reduce tax loopholes, and rethink business and industry regulations.

Democrats want to protect the safety net by increasing taxes on anyone earning more than $250,000 a year, tax fossil fuels out of existence, and borrow almost a trillion dollars a year more to pay for health care, infrastructure, and green energy.

If Democrats win back Congress and the Presidency, will anyone want to start a new business or hire new workers unless it's subsidized by the government?

We need at least a decade of fiscal conservatives to be elected and we voters need to hold them to a pledge of balancing the budget, cutting taxes, reducing loopholes, and preserving the safely nets of Social Security and Medicare. Duplication in government offices and services need to be identified, reduced by attrition, and then merged or eliminated.

We need to finish up these foreign wars, use returning troops to protect our borders and shores, pare down troops to peacetime numbers, and begin replacing outdated ships, planes, and equipment.

Empty Promises

Thursday night Obama made more empty promises. He's going to rebuild America by using money saved by ending war, the so called “Peace Dividend”.

NEWSFLASH – there is no pot of gold sitting around that was used to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan! We borrowed most of that money. Now we have to pay it back, or in the very least, pay back interest on those loans.

We are Broke! We are in Debt up to our great, great, great, great grandchildren's necks! What's it going to take to make politicians and regular folks understand that?

Open your frigging eyes people. Empty promises, cheering crowds, and slick speeches are not getting us anywhere.

We need to let loose the creative juices of this country to expand our economy with the most minimal restrictions possible. Government needs to step back a bit, release its death grip, and let this growth occur.

Homemade Mayonnaise

So tired of muckraking politics that I'm going to concentrate on more mundane matters. I made my first successful batch of homemade mayo! Recipe is thanks to Melissa Joulwan.

I used a mini food processor with two venting holes on either side of the top handle. This allowed me to slowly add olive oil drop by drop at first, then very slowly increasing to a thin stream using a half teaspoon at a time. The whole mixing process took about ten minutes. I may have gone slower than necessary, but I was determined to be successful!

Mayonnaise is technically a colloidal dispersion - remember your high school chem class - and adding the oil too quickly will prevent the ingredients from mixing properly. I also allowed the egg, lemon juice, and mustard to sit in the food processor until room temperature (about one hour).

I'm always apprehensive about using a raw egg, but the heat of the mini processor and the freshness of the egg probably offset any problems. I tasted the mayonnaise at the end and no bad reactions, so all good.  Used mild, inexpensive grocery store olive oil instead of the stronger flavored expensive stuff. Also used dijon mustard, since I was out of the ground mustard. Then end result was a thing of beauty!

Homemade Mayonnaise recipe from Melissa Joulwan's blog The Clothes Make the Girl
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 tablespoons lemon juice @ room temp
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 1 cup olive oil

Directions:
1. Place the egg and lemon juice in a blender or food processor. Let them come to room temperature together, about 30-60 minutes. Add the dry mustard, salt, and  1/4 cup of the oil. Whirl until well mixed – about 20 to 30 seconds.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!
2. The only remaining job is to incorporate the remaining 1 cup oil into the mixture. To do this, you must pour very slowly… the skinniest drizzle you can manage and still have movement in the oil. This takes about three minutes or so. Think about three minutes during a WOD; it’s a fairly long time. Breathe. Relax. Drizzle slowly.

If you’re using a blender, you’ll hear the pitch change as the liquid starts to form the emulsion. Eventually, the substance inside the blender will start to look like regular mayonnaise, only far more beautiful. Do not lose your nerve and consider dumping! Continue to drizzle.

If your ingredients were all at room temperature and you were patient, you will be rewarded!

Are Taxes Making the Average American Poorer?

Resident of North Dakota was quoted saying -

“I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can’t pay a tax,” said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to end the property tax.


“When,” Ms. Beehler asked, “did we come to believe that government should get rich and we should get poor?”


“The same problem kept coming up,” said Charlene Nelson, a homemaker who became a leader of the effort to amend the (North Dakota) Constitution, pointing to what she deems the underlying problem with the property tax. “It means all of us are renters — none of us are homeowners.”


“No tax should have the power to leave you homeless,” said Jim Cox, a state representative in Pennsylvania.

Everyone will have to pay

Government needs to take a moratorium on new spending, cut everything across the board 10%, reduce military, cost of government, and social programs an additional 10%, and raise taxes on everyone by eliminating all loopholes except property taxes and interest, medical costs, and charitable contributions. I know this won't be done, because we keep electing people for all the wrong reasons.