COMensarations
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Cooking Spices & Herbs HEADS UP!
Saving money with greater value.
Recently revisited the local chain grocer.
Checked out pricing on bottled herbs.
Herbs de Provence, at the chain, goes for about $7 for less than an ounce.
Compare THAT with THIS.
Not only do they cost less...BUT...the quality is SUPERIOR!
Seriously....
....who, in their ‘right’ mind, would pass up better quality for less money?
A Look at Civics in Public Education
Miscellaneous thoughts on the holiday as I’m preparing the feast.
Sitting here at the kitchen counter, listening to great music [Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman], while the guest of ‘honor’ has been thrust into the oven and all the sides are prepared for cooking, diddling on the laptop....I’m reviewing what’s in the Pueblo Chieftain and I was struck by a juxtaposition of todays editorial and other thinks that had come to mind over the last few days. [Ed. Note: Thank God for the internet and the [current] ability to see so much in so little time....without the filtering of the so-called ‘Major Media’.]
I am struck by the idea that the Chieftain thinks it is important to remark on the words of US Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story. Especially his words to the young of this country....
Let the American youth never forget that they possess a noble inheritance bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to ... posterity all the substantial blessings of life, and the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.
What’s going on?
Is the vaunted American Public Education system failing to teach this message?
I wonder.....if I were to ask some high school student, in a man-on-the-street approach, something about Justice Story’s remark....what would I hear in reply?
Get this. I am a judge of Colorado high school debate. I specialize in Cross-Examination, Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and One-on-One Value debates.
Admittedly, I’m very much impressed with the skills, thought processes and command of the English language of many of the contestants I judge in a round at an event. However, I have this niggling concerned that these few that participate in high school forensics are a few ‘rare birds’, indeed. A problematic ‘minority’....in more ways than one.
The BIG problem, as my concerns point, is not that we are not raising up successors with the mental discernment that I and my contemporaries and peers enjoy today. I am certain that many I’ve heard over the last few years will surpass me. Seriously. I’ve heard some stunners just a couple of weeks ago. And I’m gladdened with the thought.
However, I have serious concerns that not ENOUGH young, future-voting citizens are as well instructed. [Note: The process has been referred to, over the last two decades, as the dumbing-down of America.]
Half of the time I sit in on the Pueblo 2010 Commission, I hear ‘concerns’ about how Colorado State University-Pueblo (CSU-P) has problems retaining students. They seem to drop out rather early and never complete higher education.
Ever time I’ve heard that, I’ve looked at the respresentative from Pueblo School District 60....if they are in attendance.
I get the distinct impression that most people think it is the fault of CSU-P that these aspiring young adults fail. I see it as a totally different problem.....something in the realm of K-12, i.e,. District 60.
And this Chieftain article makes me want to ask the D60 rep, “What is taught in civics, these days?” With follow-on questions about Math, English, Life Sciences, Hard Sciences, Art, Theater, etc., etc., etc.....?
TO: Kitty Kennedy
RE: Next Time....
....I hear comments at 2010 Commission about CSU-P and drop-outs....’Be Prepared’. [Note: Yeah....I know....It’s a Boy Scout, i.e., guy, think. But still and all.....]
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Orwellian Nature of ‘Affirmative Action’
An interesting essay on political correctness and the division of a nation.
I am reminded by this article how angrily I filled out my form during the last national census. I struck through EVERY question about race, creed, color, etc., etc., etc., etc....ad nauseam, and scrawled American as my reply.
I did this based on several decades of military service and remembering a famous, nameless company First Sergeant who, when being questioned about his attitude regarding Equal Opportunity by the Annual General Inspection ‘inquisitor’ about Equal Rights replied....
When I look at that formation every morning, I don’t see black, white, brown, red or yellow. All I see is GREEN.
Try THIS Next Weekend — 071118
Tasty suggestions for a weekend of culinary pleasure. And a pleasant change of pace after two days of feasting on occidental turkey.
I’m going to start doing this sort of thing every week or so, as a way to bring fine food and beverage to everyones attention.
This offering is a discovery about Asian cooking. You’ve heard of teriyaki sauce. Used on such delicious dishes as teriyaki chicken, Japanese barbecued chicken, a.k.a. yakatori.
I’ve figured out how to do a variation on teriyaki sauce, known as tsuekeyaki sauce. It is more flavorful as it has honey and lemon in it.
Here’s how you make it.....
Evil, Mad Genius at Work
Welcome to America!
US got a LOT to be thankful for. And Mark Steyn is just the guy to explain it to the Europeans. And a few confused Americans too.
My favorite is...
And just when you think you’re on top of the general trend of novelty, it veers off in an entirely different direction: Continentals who grew up on Hollywood movies where the guy tells the waitress “Gimme a cuppa joe” and slides over a nickel return to New York a year or two later and find the coffee now costs $5.75, takes 25 minutes and requires an agonizing choice between the cinnamon-gingerbread-persimmon latte with coxcomb sprinkles and the decaf venti pepperoni-Eurasian-milfoil macchiato.
Who would have foreseen that the nation that inflicted fast food and drive-thru restaurants on the planet would then take the fastest menu item of all and turn it into a Kabuki-paced performance art? What mad genius!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Quote of the Day — 071117
A Thought on the Music ‘industry’.
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side. — Hunter S. Thompson
Bumper Sticker Wisdom — 071117
Sardonic humor about how smart some slick slogans are.
Check it out....
Another Reason I Killed My Television — 071117
Why I believe in Groucho Marx
Stephen ’VodkaPundit‘ Green provides another reason I don’t watch television.
And he wants the lost two hours of his life BACK!
Science Imitates Hollywood
The SciFi people beat the hard sciences to the punch...AGAIN??!?!?
Someone may have finally found the answer to Life, the Universe and Grand Unified Theory....
....and the guy has the attitude of the hero in a science fiction cult classic from the 80s.
Come on now....the Eight Dimension??!??!!
It’s too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Crushing of Dissent, Pueblo City Government Style
Tired of listening to the little people? Squelch Em!
Used to be that the City Council of Pueblo welcomed the public airing of grievances the citizens who elected them had. They liked it so much that they would let everyone who tuned into City Council public meetings see and hear them over the local cable television lash-up with Pueblo Community College.
That’s all changed now. I guess too many of them were coming forward with things that were somewhat embarrassing.
Now, there IS a ‘public forum’. But it is no longer televised.
Admittedly, some of the ‘regular’ participants in the public forum were some two-legged form of gadfly, but still and all, they all went through the processes to get in the limited slots for the public forum portion and they held to the 3-minute limit. But that doesn’t mean the City Fathers and Mothers had to silence their public decrying of what they perceived to be ‘wrong’.
I’m reminded of a low-grade form of what Chavez is doing down in Venezuela or Putin in Russia.
You people who sit on the City Council knew the job was dangerous when you took it.
That doesn’t mean you’re right in squelching the public airing of perceived problems.