By Bread Alone

As I sit here I can smell a loaf of bread baking in the oven. Nothing special, just a loaf of plain sandwich bread. A loaf that looks quite unremarkable but is fundamental. I started baking about the same time I started cooking in earnest - when I got married. I could already cook having learned, literally, at my Grandmother Surro's knee. I'd follow her around asking what she was doing and why and soaking it all in for later.

She always had something wonderful to put on the table no matter how many of her 8 children, and their families showed up - or so it seemed to me. As I child Sunday dinner was always at her house, in the large basement kitchen/dining room that seemed to accommodate all of us. I would always fall asleep, where ever I could find a spot, to the smell of food and the sound of conversation.

But she didn't bake much. She didn't really have to because there were plentiful, wonderful Italian bakeries in Trenton, New Jersey. I started baking because I wanted to prove I could and it was kind of fun. I started watching the early cooking shows on PBS and wanted to try everything. Bread was just one more thing to try but after tasting the fruit of my efforts that was the end for store bought bread and I've been baking bread ever since.

The thing about baking is that it is chemistry and if you make a mistake in a cake or pastry you are sunk. No so with bread. Sure it is chemistry; the amount of flour, yeast, water; the reaction of the yeast on the sugar. Is the yeast alive, can it eat and create the gas that gives the bread the rise? But bread is a lot more forgiving. If you only have a teaspoon of yeast and 3 to 4 cups of flour you can make the most tasty of breads. You don't even need the yeast if you just mix flour and water and let it get the natural yeasts out of the air. In a couple of days you have a starter.

Add an egg and lessen the water. Use milk instead of water. Sprinkle herbs or spices into the flour. As long as the yeast is alive and has something to feed on you have bread. Or do you even need yeast? What about flatbreads and crackers. Well you need yeast even for a flatbread but not crackers. And crackers, to me, are a kind of bread.

Why all the fuss about something you don't even think about when you go to the grocery store? What I say is have you ever tasted home made bread? Had a simple sandwich on it? Buttered it after toasting? Dipped it in gravy, olive oil, sauce? If you have not done that with a home made bread, devoid of preservatives, hot out of the oven you have not eaten.

Does man live by bread alone? I could as long as it is bread I baked!

Global Warming and Other Hysteria

You are looking at a chart from the Hooper Virtual Natural History Museum, Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario . Let me explain what you are looking at. On the left is represented global temperatures 20 thousand years ago. On the far right is today.

As you can plainly see global temperatures have fluctuated in periodic waves throughout that time. Now the last time I checked human kind was not driving cars, using coal, or any other fossil fuels at all and yet if you look closely about 9 thousand years ago it fluctuated approximately 42 degrees F. In fact is was the hottest time in the entire period.

Al Gore, how do you account for that? Well, he can't because he wouldn't know a legitimate scientific study if it bit him on the butt! It certainly doesn't fit into his money making, scare-tactic schemes, now does it. I actually used to admire Gore but he is about as dishonest as they come. Something seriously went wrong when he lost the presidential election or maybe he was always money grubbing and dishonest.

In fact the "studies" on which he based his fatally flawed fantasy movie have been shown to be dishonest and manipulated. And yet the U.N., and our federal government also base their policy on WRONG science. Why is that? What's in it for them? I leave you to speculate.

Yes, temperatures are getting warmer, but where they are now is much lower than in recent Geologic history as shown on the chart. In fact at one point there was no polar ice - at all - on either pole! And yet the earth survived, probably because there were no politicians to try to cash in!!!!

I agree that we as a species are extremely wasteful. We need to recycle when we can. We need to be mindful of our resources and use all of our knowledge and imagination to save our environment and the incredible variety of species on our earth. We need to pollute as little as possible.What we don't need is lies and fake science making wrong conclusions. 

At this moment the Chinese are polluting at a truly alarming rate and yet I hear a big fat nothing from the "environmental movement" (yes I am being sarcastic). Do you think they pick up their garbage and recycle? Don't make me laugh.

Does the media cover Chinese pollution at all? No. Does the U.N. say a damn thing? No. How about American environmentalists?  No. Because it is actually the U.S. they all see as the evil empire. If it wasn't so scary it would be funny. 

IMHO we need to do what we can as a country to curb pollution and waste for our own benefit. Use our resources wisely. Come up with cleaner, affordable energy, respect our forests, rivers, wild animals and tell the U.N. to take a flying leap because they are useless and corrupt!
 

Second Amendment

As passed by the Congress:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

As ratified by the States and authenticated by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Now some people use the first phrase to explain why gun rights can be curtailed - "A well regulated militia being necessary." I say they are fools or think the American people are fools! Yep, I'm not a lawyer nor am I a Constitutional scholar. I AM a thinking American and can see that if the governments takes guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens there can never BE a militia.

I'm not a fanatic. I'm not a "true believer" - what I call fanatics of any kind. I'm a LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, who realizes if the government takes away our ability to protect ourselves it is just the first step in total control.

I'd love to live in a world, or just a country, where private ownership of guns didn't matter. Where peaceful people lived together, didn't covet other's goods, didn't rob, cheat, steal, kill each other. I'd love to live where I can leave my doors and windows open. The reality is we don't live in Utopia. By and large we are blessed to live in a country where we are mostly safe but we aren't without crime and violent crime at that.

If this administration is allowed to regulate the ability of law abiding citizens to have firearms then who will protect us in case of crime? Do you REALLY think criminals are going to turn in their guns, or wait for the police to show up? How damn foolish are you? Criminals themselves will tell you that sometimes the only deterrent for them is the possibility that the homeowner might be armed.

OK, so your argument is that we don't need "assault" weapons. What exactly ARE assault weapons?  Do you know or do you just take the word of the media? Well according to the restrictions proposed almost every firearm other than a breech-loading shotgun and a derringer can be labeled an assault weapon. The fact is most people have no idea what is or is not an assault weapon - and don't care to find out! It is a label anti-gun lobbyists use to scare people into agreeing that they must be controlled.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that every gun should be allowed to be owned without any regulation. I'm all in favor of rigorous background checks. I'm in favor of only allowing ownership of fully automatic guns under strict federal license. I'm in favor of banning kits to turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones. I'm even OK with some limits on magazine capacity - as long as it would not take away existing owned
handguns or long arms.

My thoughts are to take a smarter approach. We have to look at the problem with a clear, unemotional eye. The common denominator of most of the horrendous multiple killing tragedies in America is mental health. The perpetrators have all been mentally ill AND able to get (either purchase or steal) guns.

Another factor is the absolute promotion of sick, gratuitous violence in movies, TV, music, and video games. What do we expect from kids if all they see is hyper violence in the media? They are programmed to believe that violence, shooting a gun, killing your opponent is the answer to all of your problems. How can an immature brain understand that what they are seeing is fantasy?

And yet Hollywood and violent music lyrics get a pass! They even righteously attack gun ownership when their very expensive bread and butter depends on the depiction of gun violence!!!!! Hypocrite is too light a term for the likes of Tarentino, violent rappers, and Moore! They are foul.

But our president is beholden to Hollywood and the Left for HIS bread and butter. So he and his followers will continue to attack the instrument instead of the very complex problems; easy access by criminals to guns, lenient gun crime punishment, sick, gratuitous violence in the media, ignoring mental health issues.

In fact if we want to have a positive outcome of the issue a commission of NON-POLITICAL people would be gathered with gun experts, licensed mental health psychiatrists and psychologists, law enforcement, constitutional experts, gun owners. But THAT won't happen because this administration wants to pander to his constituency, forward his agenda - PERIOD!

The Beginning

So begins my blog on what I think and feel. Why would anyone want to know that? I have no idea and I really don't worry about who will read this. I don't care if no one reads it. I care about the ability TO write a blog and TO express my thoughts and ideas freely. Blogs, while given a whole lot more credence than they deserve, are a great place to get things off of your chest.

I begin by telling you what to expect - not who I am. I consider myself rather socially liberal but fiscally conservative. In other words I won't be labeled and I speak my mind. If you don't what to hear an opinion then leave this blog now because I have no intention of mincing my words! I'm going to say what I think and I don't care about being PC.

I am UNHAPPY with our current federal administration and I think our president is hell bent on ruling by decree and executive order to get his Socialist agenda entrenched in America.If I wanted to be a Socialist I'd have moved to Russia!
The absolute amount of regulation the government exercises in 2013 is appalling! I fear this is only the beginning. If I follow the issue to the logical conclusion we will be in a police state very soon - we are almost there now. Just think about it:

• Unions can FORCE people to pay dues even if they don't want to join - and the government wants to protect that!
• The government dictates how much a private business can charge for a commodity.
• We are FORCED to have healthcare insurance AND to pay for "affordable" healthcare for others (I don't mind giving assistance to the poor but I DO mind being told what we have to do ourselves).
• We are forcing private business to produce a product (electric cars for example) because the government decided we must regardless of the free market. 
• The government is giving money to businesses who are their friends without any input by the Congress in the name of economic stimulation - does Solyndra ring a bell!
• The government is destroying the coal industry by decree.
• The EPA is creating rules without any oversight by the Congress. *Who the hell elected them???

  And this is just the few things I can think of on the fly. I've been putting my thoughts mostly on my Facebook page but I thought I'd rather blog. Below is just one of the posts I've recently put up.

Women in Combat:

I've pondered the new rule allowing women in combat positions in our military. You would think as a feminist I would welcome the change. Well I would if the world were all feminists and women prisoners would be treated as they do in Western cultures. But they won't and I can't. I know it is instinctual in our culture for men to protect women. There is also the very real worry about the fate of American women if captured by men in a culture that HATES women and subjugates them. American men have suffered greatly when captured, American women would suffer much more at the hands of the fanatical Taliban or Al Qaeda. Is the American public ready for pictures of tortured American women? I think not. I know I'm not, even though I want women to be treated exactly the same way as men WHEN THEY CAN. I predict our enemies are going to go out of their way to show us just how brutal they can be. This is a bad idea IMHO!