Politics and Race

Image by BL1961 via Flickr

I make no bones about the fact that my beliefs tend to lean a little right of center.  While the majority of the time, my beliefs will be in conflict with Democrats, it is my desire to be fair.  My disagreements with President Obama and his fellow Democrats are strictly ideological in nature.

Unfortunately, too many on the left are quick to find racism as the cause for anybody who disagrees with Barack Obama.  During the election, I took offense at folks on the left who would claim that anybody who would not vote for Obama was clearly a racist.  It didn't matter that I had previously voted for Michael Steele when he ran for the Senate in the state of Maryland.  I guess an African American candidate that is a Republican doesn't actually count.

So I took great offense at Jimmy Carter's comments in an interview with NBC News where he said "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American. I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."  

During my commute in the morning, I listen to talk radio.  In the morning that is usually Grandy and Andy with former Congressman Fred Grandy.  In the evening, that is usually the tail end of Sean Hannity's show and maybe a bit of Mark Levin.  Yesterday, I had an early appointment and went into work a little later than usual and was listening to the Joe Scarbourough.  He played a clip of former President Bill Clinton commenting on Carter's comments, "There's no question racism exists in some outbursts in recent months. If he were not an African-American, all of the people who were against him on health care would still be against him. They were against me, too."

On my commute home, I was catching the tail end of Hannity's radio program.  Hannity also played the Clinton clip.  Unfortunately, he only played the portion of the clip where Clinton says racism exists.  He also repeated the same thing on his Fox television show that night.  To put Clinton's comments in the same class as Carter's is irresponsible at best.  Don't get me wrong, the main stream media does the same or worse looking for the extreme examples to perpetuate their biases.

Personally I think that Jimmy Carter is a doddering old fool who should just go away.  I am not naive enough to think that racism is extinct in this country.  Clinton is spot on when he says that there are some Obama opponents that are racist, but the vast majority are not.  Comments like Carter's, however, do nothing but diminish the real cases of racism that still exist.

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More Unintended Consequences

There is something about this story that makes me laugh, and makes me glad that I don't live in Cairo, Egypt.  Earlier this month, I posted about how I felt that the government seems to operate in a vacuum and they do not fully think through all of the consequences of the laws they pass.  It's good to see that is not something that is unique to the US experience.

Currently in Cairo they have a major garbage problem.  The roads in Cairo have never been considered clean, especially compared to our suburbia, but the problem is taking on epic proportions.  The garbage in the streets continues to pile up and is rotting in the streets. 

The problem came about earlier this year when the Egyptian government tried to take some proactive action to head off the potential swine flu pandemic.  Their solution was to kill all of the pigs in the country.  Oops, the swine flu isn't transmitted by pigs.

This error has led to the current garbage crisis.  The pigs, along with goats, used to eat the organic garbage in the streets of Cairo.  The goats are still out there working, but they just can't keep up without the assistance of the pigs. 

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Music Monday-Tim McGraw "My Next Thirty Years"

The main reason I am posting this song for Music Monday is for the following verse:

In my next thirty years, I'm gonna watch my weight 

Eat a few more salads and not stay out so late

Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers

Maybe I'll remember my next thirty years

For a while now, I have known that I need to lose some weight.  A couple things happened recently to get me to finally start working on it.  Last week I weighed myself and was about four pounds shy of my heaviest weight.  I finally decided I was tired of feeling shitty overall.  Then one day at work, I tore the seat of my pants.  I am pretty sure that I caught my pants on something, but the idea that it could have been just my fat ass also entered my brain.

 

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.




PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!

Stouffer's Anytime Gourmet-Chicken & Asparagus Carbonara

One of my previous positions was the category manager of frozen food for the local division of a national supermarket chain.  One of my responsibilities was to decide what products the stores in my area would carry.  Over the years I got to see a lot of cool products, no pun intended.  Even though I have not been involved in frozen food professionally for some time, I still like to see the wide variety of new items available.  Frozen foods have come a long way.

When both my wife and I worked full time jobs, we had an agreement that I would cook on the weekends.  For some reason that I can not understand, that tradition continues on Sundays in my house, even though I work two jobs and my wife doesn't work.  No matter.

Today was my day to cook.  At first I was going to do something fairly simple like soup and salad, but I had a coupon for $2.50 off of any variety of Stouffer's new Anytime Gourmet kits.  I decided on the Chicken & Asparagus Carbonara.  The box describes the dish as "Chicken breasts seasoned with Italian-style spices and served in a smoky bacon cream sauce with linguine, peas, and asparagus."  As you can see in the picture, it comes as a kit with each part of the meal in individual pouches.

When I opened the pouch containing the two boneless chicken breasts, I could really smell the seasoning.  The first step is to saute the chicken until it is done.  You then remove the chicken and set it aside under aluminum foil to keep it warm.  Next you heat up the sauce briefly and add the pasta and vegetable pouch.  Pretty simple really.  All in all, the total cooking time was about 15 minutes.

I have to say that the flavor was fantastic.  The pieces of asparagus were a pretty nice size and very tender.  The seasoning on the chicken and the flavor of the sauce were spot on, not too mild and not too overpowering.  That was the good.  Now for the not so good.  I did not feel that the kit came with enough sauce.  There was no additional sauce to pour on the chicken breasts or pasta.  The only other complaint that I might have is that there really wasn't enough food for a stand alone meal.  Next time, I will have to add a salad or something.

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For Energy Independence

I believe in the goal to be energy independent and to end or reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  I am all for developing new clean energy sources, but until the infrastructure is there, we need to use every available domestic source.  It is folly to rely on oil from Middle Eastern countries that hate us and our way of life.  Below is an email I received from American Solutions encouraging people to let the Department of Interior know your opinion about our energy policies.  The link in the letter takes you to their page where you can submit a pre-written message to the Department of Interior or you can edit to send your own message.  Please take a few minutes to let them know that you support domestic production of oil and natural gas.

Dear Dick, If you care about making sure we're not dependent on foreign countries for our energy, we have a very timely call to action that will take you less than 1 minute. The Department of Interior, which decides when and where we drill for oil and gas, has been holding a "notice and comment" period. This is when they solicit input from the public as to whether we should drill or not. This is one way that the anti-energy interest groups have been able to successfully block any common sense development for decades. Well the deadline for submissions is on Monday, and we need your help to overwhelm the Interior Department with comments in favor of drilling. Please take 1 minute to submit your comments right now at YourEnergyOpinion.com. If you don't have time to write anything, don't worry. We've already taken care of it for you. Once you submit your comment, please forward YourEnergyOpinion.com to anyone else that you think would be willing to help out.   This is an opportunity that we must seize.   Thanks so much for your participation, and we'll report back soon as to how we all do. Sincerely, Dan Varroney Senior VP & COO American Solutions

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Leah Lust AKA Tiffany Sheppard

I remember when the story of Florida biology teacher Tiffany Shepherd was first reported last year.  For those that don't know the story, she was fired from her position as a teacher when pictures of her in a bikini surfaced from her part time job as a hostess on Smokin Em Fishing Charters.  When she lost the job, she claimed it was because of those pictures.

At the time, I thought who cares what she does in her own time, so long as it does not interfere with her full time vocation.  However, according to the school board, they cited excessive absenses as the reason for her termination.  The firing was determined to be of merit because she never did return to teaching.  As you can see, she is an attractive woman and with the publicity of her termination she drew offers from Playboy magazine.  She turned those offers down because she was afraid that it would hurt her chances of ever teaching again.

A lot can change in a year.  Despite her efforts to return to teaching, she has been unable to land a teaching job.  Not only has she been unable to find work, but she went through a divorce and lost custody of two of her three children.  Desperate to earn an income, Tiffany Sheppard has started a new career, in the porn industry under the name Leah Lust.  In a bit of an ironic twist, one of her first films was under the title of "My First Sex Teacher."

According to an article on the NY Daily News website, Tiffany is quoted as saying,"I'm not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it," Shepherd told Page2live.com. "I'm an educated woman, but I never thought it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they'll be a floozy."

It doesn't sound like she is particularly happy with her new vocation.  Or it could be she is just saying what she thinks people would want to hear.  Personally, I do not have a problem with her new job, so long as she is involved in it willingly.  I hope for her sake that she can be satisfied in whatever path she takes.  If she truly hates the porn industry, she should get out and take any job she can get.
 

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TGIThursday?

Here is a government program that I can get behind. Last year, the Republican governor of Utah implemented the "Working 4 Utah Initiative" that put the majority of the state government employees on a four day, ten hour per day, work week.  The program has been in place for a year now and has had a number of benefits for the state.

1. Budget Benefit-By closing office buildings on Friday's the state has benefited in reducing energy expenses by $1.8 million in the first nine months.  They expect to improve those savings even more with more efficient energy consumption.
2. Traffic Congestion-The longer work day has spread out the "rush hour" reducing the number of cars on the roads at any particular time, making commute times shorter.
3. Reduced Emissions-With fewer cars on the roads and less energy used in buildings, the state has reduced their "carbon footprint" by some 12000 metric tons.  They also project to reduce gasoline consumption by 744,000 gallons annually.
4. Happier Workers-Let's face it, who doesn't like a three day weekend, and the thought of having one every weekend would thrill me to no end.  Plus they end up with extra cash to spend by reducing their commuting expenses by 20% per week.

In an economy that is struggling, businesses and governments are always looking for areas to cut expenses.  Most of the time it ends up being employees.  Here is a plan that could save money and jobs, not to mention all of the other benefits that the state of Utah has enjoyed so far.

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