Good Sailing

The Lion Sleeps

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For all those whose cares have been our concern,

the work goes on,

the cause endures,

the hope still lives,

and the dream shall never die.

Edward M. Kennedy
1932-2009

Guns at Presidential Events

Medicare for All

The Good Old Days

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Ah, yes, those good old days. Why can't we just have them once again?

Why can't we go back to the time when we let banks fail and people lost their money without FDIC insurance? What about those happy days when we could employ 10- and 11-year-olds (or even 6 & 7 year-olds) in our sweat shops, before those pesky child labor laws? Or when we could stop or bust labor unions using as much violence and force as necessary, without those irritating labor laws? How about the time when employers could take advantage of employees before the minimum wage laws spoiled it?

Remember those good old days when old people (you know, like your grandparents) couldn't buy food or pay their rent without Social Security and could not get health care without Medicare? Or when poor people starved without welfare and died without Medicaid? Remember when lazy, unemployed people had to shift for themselves and just get a job, before unemployment benefits came along.

And what about the greatest generation of G.I.'s coming home from WWII, who couldn't get a college education or buy a home, and now that damn government comes along with the G.I. Bill. And, now, the G.I. Bill is even better for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Horrors, the government involvement with our lives!

Remember when we could keep "those people" out of our neighborhoods, clubs, restaurants, and jobs and discriminate freely against women before those damn civil rights laws were enacted. Recall when anyone could get lung cancer from cigarettes, take defective drugs and eat poisoned food before that meddling FDA began telling us what was safe. And without government involvement, we wouldn't have had that inefficient postal service which has been delivering our mail for more than two hundred years. Any fool could have seen that e-mail was coming.

"Ah, yes, those were the days, my friend."

And now they want everyone to have health care. Well, say the Republican shills, "I want MY America back!" Pay attention! America no longer resembles the one you grew up in.

And that only further proves the point -- you got it backwards. It's America that did the growing up, and you're the ones we no longer recognize.

Excuse me if I don't want to hear people explain the "reasons" behind the actions of the profoundly unreasonable.

Medicare for All

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That's What I Thought

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Medicare for All

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There Will Be Blood

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I didn't believe it.

I was absolutely astonished when I heard it. I just knew I must be listening to an absolutely raving, bottom-dwelling, white supremacist, Timothy McVeigh worshiper.

Understand that I live in a very small town--about 5500. Most every resident is friendly and helpful in many ways. The most violence the police force in this town has to deal with is when the cowboys and the jocks get in a fist fight/brawl at some local beer bar.

So what happened? What had shocked me so?

Just a very few days after the election in November 2008, I was working (filling-in, actually) in a local retail store when a somewhat regular customer came in to make a purchase. The transaction was completed and THEN he asked, "Well, what did you think of the election?"

Not wanting to start a word fight with someone I considered ill-armed, I said something like, "Well, it is over."

The customer was unwilling to let it drop. "I guess you know," he added, "the streets are going to run with blood."

I was completely taken aback. The election was over; the Bush Doctrine was thrown out. The adults were in charge again--to clean up the mess. Braininess had become popular again. Rational thoughts were a good thing.

But here before me stood absolute racist, overt hatred and anger. It was so astonishing. He and, I assumed, his friends with whom he spoke on a daily basis, were not willing to accept the fact of the election--like a small child pouting because he didn't get his way.

But now, that hatred and racist angst has been overtly harnessed by the big power boys.

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Where will it end? That customer was right: there will be blood. I would never have believed it.

Those hate-filled tea-baggers/birthers/deathers/"Keep the Government out of my Medicare"-groupies seem to have neglected to read the Constitution they are so fond of claiming to cherish. The First Amendment grants the right to peaceful assembly. The Constitution does not grant threatening, shouting, violent assembly--peaceful assembly.

We just need to look at the escalating rhetoric. To anyone familiar with the tactics of terror, it is clear where this is going. First there is the threat of violence. It may be spoken, or it may not (a hanging noose). No matter, the intended effect is the same: put the target on notice to shut up, stay in his/her place, and dare not to challenge the status quo.

It is delivered, often, with a smile that implies not merely a willingness to do harm, but perhaps even a desire to do so — "I will hurt you, and I will enjoy doing it."

If Republicans keep standing silent or even cheer on the mob, the assumption must be one of three things: (1) they don't know what fire they're playing with, (2) it's what they want, (3) or — for the sake of their ideology — they are willing to take the risk.

Much as I decry the use of violence, I remember Molly Ivins saying that during WWII people went around kicking dachshunds, but they didn't kick German Shepherds.

Our dog had better get a lot bigger.
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Simon Says

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Simon says, "Today we live in the age of rabid response."

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Medicare for All

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More Domesticity

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Yes, I made it.

Many thanks to my daughter, Becky, for the photo.

Fresh/Frozen Fruit Galette

• 3-4 cups fresh or frozen fruit (berries* or sliced stone fruits--peaches/apricots/plums)
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 TBLS flavored liqueur (peach brandy/schnapps for stone fruits, framboise/raspberry liqueur for berries)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 2 TBLS all-purpose flour
  
• 1 TBLS Minute tapioca
  
• scant TBLS butter
• 1 crust for a 9" pie (uncooked)

1. Preheat oven to 400°. (I use a large toaster oven.)
2. Place fruit into a bowl. Add 3 TBLS of the sugar, the flavored liqueur, the spices and mix gently.
3. Place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
4. Mix remaining 1 T sugar with the flour and tapioca; sprinkle this in the center of the dough.
5. Spoon the fruit & their juices on top.
6. Fold the edges of the crust in over the edge of the fruit, brushing the crust with a little milk to make the folds to stick together; make a neat package with an approximately 4-5 inch opening in the middle.
7. Brush the crust of the tart with more milk, and sprinkle with a little sugar.
8. Drop little pieces of butter on top of fruit.
9. Bake in 400° oven for about 40 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned and the juices are bubbling and thickened.
10. Allow to cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

*The galette pictured is mixed fresh berries I found on sale at the local grocery (NOT WAL-MART--but that is another rant entirely.) I had blackberries, raspberries, blueberries. It was yummy. I always have a problem with the crust breaking and the juice leaking out the sides. So, take great care when you fold the crust.

I usually cut this galette into 4 pieces. They are generous, but it is mostly fruit with very little sugar, so relax and enjoy.

I like it with heavy cream drizzled over the top. I hear it is good with vanilla ice cream, too. Hey, if you are going to indulge, indulge!
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Ahhh, Now I Understand

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Medicare for All.

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Bill, of the Golden Tongue

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OK, Bill Clinton has pulled off a miracle. Hooray, I say. Hooray.

So, why isn't Pres Obama using him more in this fight for health insurance reform?

Bill cares deeply about this issue--and having him help accomplish this reform would, rightfully, allow him to claim at least a partial victory. So, he has no reason not to do it.

Bill has the golden tongue. He can explain any complicated issue in terms everyone/anyone can understand. He should be out there this August stumping for a single-payer system.

If he can talk crazy Kim Jong Il into releasing those 2 young women reporters (and he did), then surely Bill can out talk the crazy Republican shills who would deny health care to citizens.

Now it is time for Pres Obama to send Bill forth across the nation. Let Bill do what he is good at--talking truth to falsehoods. This is the kind of stuff Bill lives for.

Where are you bound, Charming Billy?

Medicare for All.
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How much H20 goes into everyday products?

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From Mother Jones comes this interesting set of data:

Microchip -- 8 gallons

Apple -- 18 gallons

Pint of beer -- 20 gallons

4 oz. wine -- 32 gallons

16 oz. Diet Coke -- 33 gallons

4 oz. coffee -- 37 gallons

7 oz. orange juice -- 45 gallons

Diaper -- 214 gallons

1 lb. chicken -- 467 gallons

1 lb. cheese -- 599 gallons

Hamburger-- 634 gallons

Cotton T-shirt-- 719 gallons

Ream of white paper -- 1,321 gallons

1 lb. beef -- 1,857 gallons

Pair of leather shoes -- 2,113 gallons

Pair of jeans -- 2,866 gallons

Midsize car --39,090 gallons

Frightening, isn't it?. At least, arresting, thought provoking, mind boggling.

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