Letter

Christmas 2008, Phoenix our cat died at 13 ½. Missed him more than I expected. Something exciting occurs each day even though we ‘go’ nowhere. Recently I spied a red-tailed hawk sitting on a stump outside my porch window. High point of year, I got my deer mid- November. Low point, October when we had to give up blood donations because I ‘collapsed’ and Tom barely passed iron req. and had low blood pressure. 2009 saw the return of squirrels, hummingbirds and swallows. I saw a deer fly past me, heard a turkey gobble, saw beautiful sunsets, red moon rises and a rainbow, 16 big orchid orchids bloom on my Aldi plant and 11 big flowers on my Star-gazer lilies. Book are still read. We even sell books and CD’s on Alibris. Best read of year ( ranks high in lifetime) was “1000 Places to See Before you Die.” February attended 1st Tea Party and a 2nd one April 2nd also local. Felt right at home with normal, concerned citizens. Weather report is lots of rain, not enough heat. Spring was the time of bee swarms, a record number. Spring and summer are mowing times. After my last walk behind the mower in July. My stiff back is still not fully recovered. Garden highlights were asparagus, a few brandy wine tomatoes (one 2#), snap peas, beans. Corn got blown down in windstorm as usual and had to be tied up with great difficulty. Neighbor’s corn was delicious. Picked cherries from neighbor’s tree. Only crap apples on our trees this year. Dill lots, basil few. Mother’s day son Sean bought me lovely framed, antique cross stitch of cats. Father’s day each child remember Tom with the usual complimentary card (which he deserves). We killed our fish cleaning the pond so had to purchase 2 new smaller ones. Leftie is the smart glutton; whitie, stupid, swims away from food pellets not around or to them like leftie. We hope W makes it in the ‘real water world’? October was black walnuts and grass raking time. Both required aspirin.
Sean works 24/7 at his businesses. We’re proud of his success. Grandson Kyle started community college but has sinus problems. Other grandson in computer school had drug and alcohol problem. Claims abstinence and reform but who knows? Colleen in Australia had her 2nd child, a boy on April 18th. She sent me a beautiful Coney fur coat for Mother’s day. Her daughter’s 2 ½ . In 2008 she came here to visit but jet lag awful. Trip takes 20 hours and one hardly recovers. Lauren in Munich, Germany visited us the end of October at which time we celebrated an early Thanksgiving feast. She gave me a lovely statue of a faceless mother/daughter for my birthday. Brian in Florida with 2 children . Kevin with 2 girls lives here but trouble seeks him out daily. List of problems include jaw, teeth, reflux, digestion and stomach, house renter, roof, furnace and neighbors. He cracked up his truck skidding on rain slick pavement end of November. Our dog’s legs holding up with a pain pill now and then. Cat loves to have sex with my leg at night; he worships Tom’s computer by day. My neighbor was diagnosed with a mild form of Parkinson’s and given medication. Perhaps mis-diagnosed but she couldn’t walk for over a month after a fall. She’s active and mobile again. Her husband is in a nursing home because he had pneumonia and Mersa and foot infection. He’s on a walker permanently. Tom still can’t walk for long without knee and hip pain. A neighbor got a new man so the ex-husband doesn’t appear anymore to visit his son. A woman moved in with another neighbor. Another neighbor lost lots of weight. The renter of a neighbor had to move out because relatives were moving in (after 20 years). Daily traffic on our dead end ‘highway’ is busy as ever. We go ‘nowhere’ but neighbors go everywhere, day and night without hats and coats in winter. Drat, our windows face the road.
BESIDES my deer, the excitement for year was retrieval of huge, abandoned wasp nest attached to eave of our house. 13 in high, 13 in wide, 45 inches in circumference. Go measure, you’ll be impressed. A 3 tier nursery is inside the paper covering. I’m humbug on consumer-driven gift-giving but big on calling the birth of Christ Christmas.

Don't 'go to Hell"

A comment on an internet blog struck me as powerful in its implications. “There’s an evil I feel certain about. A person who purposely impedes another’s spiritual growth.” I can put this statement another way. Attempting to put a person’s soul in Hell is the greatest evil. How can one tell when this occurs? Why would a sane human being risk the consequences of perpetrating such an evil? Well, it’s happened over and over again in the course of history. It’s happening now. Think of a person who deliberately deceives another person - to achieve power, to foster an idea, however perverted, to selfishly provide a pleasure to one’s self, to prevent enquiry or religious devotion. Does Rev. Wright of "God damn America, the land of the slave," fame come to mind? Or do the family members who hid the murderer of 4 policeman in Seattle come to mind? Also, think about these scenarios.

A bailout out impedes personal responsibility.
An abortion impedes the growth of a human embryo.
A change in a word from Christmas to Holiday impedes knowledge of Christmas’ meaning.
An excuse for not studying and learning impedes an education.
A denial of God impedes the search for answers to life’s journey
A disrespect for authority or property impedes moral living.
An abuse of a person impedes self-respect.

Our culture seems to discourage spiritual growth. Proselytizing one’s religion with enthusiasm is ridiculed or interpreted as fanaticism or extremism. But the opposite is the dangerous condition. Promoting agnosticism, atheism, mysticism, specious spiritualism, etc. are moral hazards, evils. They propagate ignorance and lukewarm living which impede spiritual growth.

Every world religion encourages spiritual growth. Each faith system provides a place for reward or punishment. ‘Go to Hell’ is not a directive devoutly to be wished upon any person.

Broccoli Soup

It’s almost lunch time for me with home-made broccoli soup and cheese sandwich grilled in cheap margarine. I, contrary to being a poor person in the 37% of employed New Yorkers who are having difficulty affording food (according to the Food Bank for New York City), never want for good eats. 2/3 of New York’s soup kitchens and food pantries saw an increase in the number of employed people accessing services, but I, unemployed because I’m retired, never have ‘needed’ to go hungry. Why? I eat home-made. I waste not, want not. Poor New York starves under liberal, politically-correct, outrageous and obscene regulations. How can anyone in good conscience throw away good food? As a consequence of the trans fats ban, perfectly good edible food cannot be received by soup kitchens or food banks in N.Y. Liberating perfectly good edible food from a neighbor’s neglected garden doesn’t bother me, so why should utilizing unwanted deli or restaurant food bother needy recipients? But it does bother politicians in New York. Fried chicken with trans fat is verboten on the menus of a Bowery Mission; it must be chucked.

Outrage and obscenity are not limited to New York. They are outsized in Washington. The recent state dinner took extravagance to new heights but I wonder where they waste went. Vegetarianism disguised as elitism was on the menu screened I’m sure of trans fats. But what about the waste of both food and wine? Who could consume more than what amounts to my soup and sandwich luncheon repast? Here goes the feast’s 4 courses and 4 wine selections!

1. What’s a potato and eggplant salad to me who loathes eggplant? What’s White House arugula to me other than a past emergency trip to indigestion? Vinaigrette with onion seed? I prefer olive oil and balsamic vinegar. On to the 4 courses of wine. One glass - not 4 - from a Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Grenache or Chardonnay whether from CA, OR, CA or Va would be sufficient to my reasonable thirst.
2. Lentil soup, red or green repulses me. I’ll just take cheese sprinkled on my broccoli soup.
3. Potato dumplings? My granny made great ones minus the anathema chutney, chickpeas, and okra; I did not grow up in the deep South. OR the alternative entre prawns, translated as shrimp appeals to me whether with a green or red curry additive. Forget the salsify, caramelizing belongs to onions. Smoked is out, collard greens out, basmati rice coconut aged or not, out. Give me jasmine rice any time.
4. Pumpkin tart should have been a piece of pie. Pear tatin ( I like pears) is a fancy tart.
Whipped cream - oh dear, contains saturated fat as well as the caramel sauce. Petit fours, coffee, cashew brittle ( why not peanut?), pecan pralines, passion fruit and vanilla glacee and chocolate-dipped fruit. Seems to me the only edible part of this 4 course menu is dessert but when - like me- you are not a dessert junkie, pickings are slim.

Summary, A dumpling, a few shrimp, whatever that pear thing is with whipped cream and I’d by choice be full. The first guest chef in White House history to cook during an unprecedented vegetarian State dinner obviously outdid himself with a lovely bow to Indian cuisine. And then there’s a bread course. Papandum, naan and raita included. Granny told me not to fill up on bread because it would ruin my appetite for the meal.

False premise

I heard this morning yet another spokesman for yet another education initiative called STEM make the erroneous contention that “ the most important thing is a great teacher.” Note the false premise. The truism should state that “ the most important thing is a receptive student” or something with similar wording. As usual, liberals get reality backwards. Who else but a liberal would deny the obvious by contending that parents should be involved in their children’s education. History, past and present, shows that many parents are lackadaisical at best when it comes to parenting and often either can’t speak English or haven’t been educated even to the level of their high school age children. Yet parents usually want their children to excel to a better life than they have achieved.

I repeat, agenda driven initiatives - think government-paid sponsorship - usually flow from upside down liberal thinking. The major premise of education must reflect the fact that “all education is self education.” Great teachers are not needed; mediocre individuals with the knowledge of a specific subject of instruction will do. The onus is upon the student to put in the time and effort, to do the work, to accept the role of learner, to think but not to disrupt other students’ thinking.

Oh my, how far from the major premise the billions and billions of taxpayer funded educational dollars have come. On this Thanksgiving, this is not something for which Americans should be thankful. Let’s find something else. Say what?

Deer day

As a M.D. wisely put it, “If you don’t get a little bloody you’re not having any fun.” Proof for me ran red on Monday November 23rd. Sunday was Deer day when we ( husband and I) processed and stored our buck, but Monday, M.D.was fun day. Areas of coagulated blood around the bow wound of our deer, especially ran red. I washed, trimmed, sorted and cut up rejected pieces of meat and sinew in preparation for cooking them in the big dog (and cat) pot. A woman’s animal companions must not be forgotten, her taste buds having been addressed the previous day. I plunged deep into the red on Sunday, fun day, which required hours on my feet. Cooking was followed by snipping venison into bite size pieces and twist tying servings into plastic bags. (My husband helped). How many you ask? 26 bags full. Being a good stewardess of the land, parts unused in the boiling were pitched into the brush, recycled back into the circle of life of other carnivorous creatures in the wild. M.D. a deer day will be commemorated in future feasts for grateful beasts.

Nobama

The bloom is off the plastic rose
Who smelleth not as sweet to those
Who perceived his artifice as real
But now inhale a new raw deal.
I saw through the liberal phoney
The 2nd time he used a TOTUS pony
To preach not hope or change,
Just dependence upon a range
Of government controls that seek
To re-make America and speak
About discouraging wealth
As politicians accrue their pelf.
A plastic rose just cannot tease
Or like a live Sarah Palin please.

Insanity 101

Lesson two in Insanity 101 class begins with the reminder that “those whom the gods wish to destroy, they 1st make mad.” Surely America is going mad. Politicians ignore the will of the people because they “know better”, their ‘better’ being solutions worse than any patriotic, conservative, traditional American could imagine. A rational person could make the case for example, that the discovery of oil enlightened and advanced civilization in one giant leap. Oil caused both industrial and cultural revolutions that led to increased prosperity. But misguided, upside-down thinking liberals ignore the gifts of mother nature and pass mad laws spurning abundant oil and chasing foggy “green energy.”

Perhaps Glen Beck’s 100 year solution will take 100 years. Educating Americans to the insanity. lies, misdirections and deceptions of progressive liberalism will take more than one or two generations. ½ of a present generation is lost in the fog of Obama’s charisma. And at best, ½ of America still wields the power of reason to a halt to the madness of government gone wild.

Insanity 101

Join me in the classroom of lifestyle course, Insanity 101. GM narrowed its loss to 1.14 billion this quarter so it plans to accelerate paying back the loans it received from American taxpayers. GMAC is on its 3rd bailout from the American taxpayers. Food stamps and free school lunches have jumped 70% since last year from the Department of Agriculture yet... 31% of Americans struggle to buy enough food and... 40% of Americans are obese. Locally a woman scammed the Food Stamps program to the tune of $20,000 since 2004 as she was also receiving SSI checks for her 2 children, all at the taxpayer’s expense. Locally too, the Thanksgiving handout will occur. Handouts being everywhere, Insanity 101's final exam will feature a multiple choice question on which bailout, handout, giveaway or free government program saves the taxpayers money. Not surprisingly, there is no correct answer to the final test question because Americans’ lives are restricted by insanity the principles of which are set by Obama’s government.

What is to be done? as Lenin asked. Thanksgiving cometh. Christmas follows. I say let’s have a call for sanity at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, Christmas, not the Holiday Season because every new season of politically correct, socialistic, communistic, progressive, big brother and nanny insanity takes away some of our humanity. I say let’s flaunt our freedom to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas without oversight and guilt.

Between the ears

Comments from successful people seem to draw me into a reflection of our failed President. The daughter of Bob Evans, the successful restauranteur and conservationist, observes that “greed and power are the hallmarks of self -absorption, wilfulness and unchecked pride.” Who might fit this bill? Bob Evans himself noted that people who find ‘success’ through unchecked ambition, “know the words but none of the music.” Then too Ralph Waldo Emerson points out that “to know even one life has been breathed easier because you lived; this is to have succeeded.” Again, who might not fit this bill?

Rush Limbaugh hopes Obama’s policies and ideology fail. Don’t we conservatives too? When I really get depressed I remember to fall back on a contemplation of the Arabian proverb: The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse’s ears. Not Obama’s.

So near, so far

Heaven was so near yesterday, yet so far. Hell too. I picked up a discounted red velvet cake so near perfection ( from Wal-Mart) which has always been yummy especially with the cream cheese frosting. It is so near perfection at $4.80 which is far from the regular price with a 40% discount due to its expiration date yesterday. Also on my way home, at the very end of my lane at the point at which I turn left into my home, a small, dead deer lay in the ditch on the right side of the road. So dear to my heart is venison, so near to perfection in its tenderness and taste, that this sad, highway death made me realize how near but how far from the table my dream of venison this year remains.

Now to my encounter with Hell. Our President is a ventriloquist dummy for Totus who again in Japan obfuscates with eloquence. He says that “our commitment to Japan is unshakeable but not exclusive.” In translation, because a translation is always necessary when Saul Olinsky dictates to Totus the party line, Obama reaffirms America’s commitment to contradiction and misdirection.

What’s heavenly is clear, venison. What’s hellish is clouded in Obama. Sarah Palin’s book comes out Tuesday. What’s clear will be her vision. What’s hellish will be the OBAMA media’s spin.

86%

Only ½ of the TARP bailout money has been spend and only 14% of the gargantuan, so-called desperately needed stimulus package has been spent. Why? The 50% and the 86% are the big O’s ‘slush’ fund. What’s slush? Not money from the sale of garbage on naval vessels to buy small luxuries. No, money collected to be used for corrupt purposes such as bribery, lobbying and propaganda to insure that the liberal Democrats remain in power. Don’t doubt me.

With a simple tax cut across the board, jobs could be created and our economy stimulated but our Communist leaning President has just called for a jobs summit to create the fiction of cooperation and negotiation in problem solving. Little more need be said about the wrong direction on the compass directing our politicians in Washington. When the final showdown seems inevitable, when the shootout seems about to occur on my lane (and in the streets and alleys across America) I for one conservative will be ready.

What about you? In an old episode of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon one bad Indian was held responsible for a murder but his followers were placated by a land grant and the assumption that they were misled by a strong, evil leader. I disagree with this solution to the small Indian uprising in the TV episode. Even King, the Mountie’s anthropomorphic dog, could have foreseen that trouble lay ahead when realities are denied. ( In the episode, of course, the dog saved the day). The natives were restless just like the Muslim Jihadists now on the move across America and the world. The killer at Ft. Hood is not alone. Many of his like-minded followers wait in the wings to further his jihad. Let’s face it, we the infidels are the targets of Allah’s mandate of death. But liberal, politically correct politicians in Washington live in denial. And our idealogue-in-chief leads with his example of delusory behavior.

The phoney stimulus package, the jobs summit costumed by a community organizer and the administration’s (and the media’s) refusal to confront and design the destruction of our enemies - what is to be done?

Meet me at the end of the lane with your conservative weapon ready.

Humbug

The ultimate contradiction, humbug, that “gets my goat” every time I encounter its bogus, politicized agenda is... ta dah ... the fight against obesity. Who out there feels the same rational anger as I when you read that “Instead of hoping that individuals can muster the self-discipline or common sense on their own to avoid processed foods, fast food and days without physical exercise, the idea is that governments must actively work to change environments and reduce the menu of harmful options available in everyday life.”

This soft dictatorship of nanny government is simultaneously contradicted by the words and agenda of its supporters and implementors. “If something sweet gives you pleasure, then it’s not forbidden,” says a coordinator for a program to cut obesity in a town in northern France. She continues, “The point is not to stigmatize foods. It’s to do things in moderation.”

NOTE the contradiction between pointing out evil foods and admitting foods should not be stigmatized because the solution is MODERATION. Duh, any fool knows that any food is good.
Oh the agony knowing that we rational beings are being defeated outright by the liberal gift of lies and contradictions. Reality is irrelevant to the liberal agenda. I am always reminded of Winston (as in Churchill). He proves to me that genius as well as longevity depends upon genetics. Smoking, drinking, avoiding exercise (except for walking) and eating immoderately did not, thank goodness, keep Winston from strutting upon the world’s stage as he bettered it in countless ways.

Yes, common sense tells us that moderation and selectivity in food and drink choices will do the trick to stave off obesity (though some morphologies will be thicker than others). Calories, not exercise, is the determining factor. And man is still a free agent. Taking away his free will reduces his humanity not his waistline.

A daily plebiscite

Democracy is a daily plebiscite, an observation by a Polish dissident. Adam Michnik, who was deprived of freedom in his country under the Communists. In the dark of last night, democracy relinquished many of its freedoms by 5 votes to the elitist, liberal politicians in the House of Representatives in Washington, 220 to 215. No plebiscite was involved, just the business of big government behind closed doors. Adam Michnik also observes that “when politicians enter the courtroom, then through the other doors exists justice.” Reading just one of the myriad of mandates in the 1000 page health care reform bill makes my conservative gut churn.

Referendum on lies

Are you listening Sarah and Doug? I am. Yesterday, concerned citizens voted against what’s wrong with Rev. Wright who calls America “the land of the greed and the home of the slave.” We conservatives (who have studied history and actually thought about it) know this country belongs to the free and the brave. Period. A liberal columnist Thomas Frank recently penned his lies about conservatives ( and a few Republicans) who have been telling the truth about the current economic crisis. Pressure from Acorn and Washington on lenders over the last decade, devotion to Unions and politically correct lobbyists and ‘leveling’ policies from liberal Democrats since the 1970's with President Carter who hoped for a “socialist Utopia,” - these factors brought forth the collapse of banks, car companies and lenders. But Frank perpetuates the lies about greed and corporate corruption. He denies any blame belongs with meddling Democrat liberals. The voters yesterday voted the old bums out and the new bums in. We’ll see as the future unfolds, what freedom and bravery can deliver.

A ‘public service’ announcement on the radio, aimed at helping citizens avoid the H1N1 flu, suggests that “you maintain your personal space,” eat fruits and vegetables and exercise.
How can wrong-headed messages be presented as so right? Rev. Wright of course is also wrong. What’s right can’t be wrong and wrongs can be righted like government meddling in our lives.

Unholy alliance

3 billion dollars, over 10 years would cut the cases of malaria in Africa in ½. Any chance this investment will be made? The upcoming environmental summit certainly won’t tackle this economically and morally sound idea. Of the 3 components to the solution of the malaria problem, nets probably, possibly some talk of increased therapies, but DDT never will be utilized to the extent needed. Political correctness, the cult of global warming and socialistic governance have already spread to the 1st world “states. What’s happening in America seems to reflect this trend. Here too, the unholy alliance of Marxists and elitists bent on the destruction of a country’s common sense tradition holds sway. Money’s wasted instead of problems being solved. Here too the ironic contradiction between Marxist (communist) thinking and elitist (wealth) wields political power.

Perhaps in upper New York a true conservative candidate now running for office will win. Surely the Tea Party protest movement which has swept the country represents conservatives who (like me) know what they believe. We stand for some core things unlike the mercurial, liberal delusionists for whom winning power takes precedence over all things.