Slimeballs All

I had written a four-paragraph post about the oil spill, the upcoming environmental destruction in the Gulf, the drill-baby-drill mentality of Limbaugh, Gingrich, Palin, and more. But once I finished, I felt like I had been slimed by the words of those idiots. I just couldn't post it. Plus, the thought of looking at pictures of Palin, Limbaugh or one of the other crazies to include along with my post grossed me out.

That said, I do look forward to Sarah Palin flying into Louisiana to clean oil off the beaches. Can't expect her to clean up the animals because she kills them, evil person that she is. Ultimately, I look forward to the day when that witch (hopefully covered with oil) slinks back to Alaska where she will shut up and have another four or five kids.

Glass Houses

The SEC-inspired rampage against Goldman Sachs is mob mentality at its scariest. When a mob goes wild, not only does it often wield injustice against the innocent, it also becomes completely blind to its own failings.

How many American consumers have asked themselves personally, in the midst of their feeding frenzy on the blood of the multinationals like Goldman and A.I.G., whether they should have been buying more house than they knew they could afford? A long era of disgustingly easy credit (it was the Age of the Credit Card Offers), low interest rates, and the asinine and irresponsible government policies (including subsidies) to push home ownership on absolutely everyone gave millions of consumers that buzz, that pleasurable anticipation of gluttony sated.

Every one of you who put little to no money down for a first-time -- or a bigger and flashier -- house, regardless of how meager your actual income may have been, share the blame for the collapse of the real estate market and, by extension, the world economy. You took irresponsible advantage of home value bubbles from 1998 to 2006 by borrowing against the equity you had for more and more credit. And for what? For Land Rovers, for swimming pools, for Carnival cruises, for home entertainment centers with 60-inch televisions . . . for brighter, flashier toys than your neighbors had. When you were mortgaged or leveraged to the hilt and the value of your McMansions plummeted, you lost your toys and your homes and even your jobs (because your employers don't operate in a vacuum).

Did you look yourselves in the mirror and say, "I shouldn't have bought all that" or "I shouldn't have borrowed so heavily" or "I shouldn't have eaten every last bit of equity I spent years acquiring"? Nope, you just blamed the Other Guy. And you're blaming him still.

Steeped in Tradition

The tea party participants have been taking it on the chin -- and worse -- for a year. The Left accuses them of bigotry, racism, and physical violence. The reprehensible, tendentious Rachel Maddow likens them to mass murderers in her recent MSNBC special on Timothy McVeigh.

Tea party critics never address the fundamental and solidly traditional view of the movement: A government that seeks to increase its power over the citizenry in the interests of ensuring their safety and security is no legitimate government at all but a tyranny. If the tea parties constantly bring up the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, it's because the philosophical principles of government and liberty are at the very heart of the tea party movement, and Washington's dangerous straying from those principles animates their anger and anxiety.

My Hero of the Day: Binghamton, NY Mayor

Matthew Ryan is the mayor of Binghamton, NY. He's sick and tired of the cost of both Middle East wars, the Afghanistan war being the longest in American history. He's tired of having to make decisions about what to keep open in his city, schools or police stations, fire or library. He has determined that the citizens of Binghamton have spent millions of dollars for the wars. So he has decided to install a digital "cost of war" sign in a prominent place to show how much the wars are costing local, state and federal taxpayers. A peace group is paying for the sign.

Good for you, Mayor Ryan. Sometimes I wonder if we're still fighting the wars because no one even talks about them. Fortunately, our local paper lists the dead soldiers from both wars on an almost daily basis. And the national cemetery nearby has weekly interments for dead military. Otherwise, not much is said or done regarding the wars. Congress OKs many billions every few months to keep the slaughter and defense thefts going. And President Obama should be ashamed of himself for lying about pulling out a brigade a month from Iraq 60 days after inauguration and not mentioning that he would direct a surge in Afghanistan. Like his predecessor, he must have no conscience regarding all of those dead soldiers and how the wars are destroying our treasury, all for nothing.

Mayor Matthew Ryan: A hero for our time.

God's Gonna Get Ya

Comments are often the best part about reading a story on the net. Today, CNN featured a piece about a "massive fireball" over Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and other parts of the Midwest. It particularly interested me for two reasons: 1) I've lived in Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. 2) I've seen a large meteorite burn itself out as it crashed in the sea near the Cliff House in San Francisco. But the best part of that story was the comment section. These are my two favorite comments from the many offered:

"I am a member of the Tea Party and I think God is using the fireball to punish the Midwest for being too liberal."

"I'm a liberal and I think god is using the tea party to punish America for being too dumb."

A Breath of Fresh Air

Peggy Noonan, the invaluable columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a stirring, satisfying column the other day on what one wishes Charles Prince (the former CEO of Citigroup) would have said in his testimony in the Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings:

"Let's be real. This is what happened the past ten years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how, under your watch, everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the tax payer and hoped for the best.

"Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats: 'Look what I give you!'

"Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans: 'I'm a homeowner, I've got a stake, don't raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!'

"And Wall Street? We went to town, baby. We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay his mortgage. As if we cared! We invented financial instruments so complicated that no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were.

"You're finaglers and we're finaglers. I play for dollars, you play for votes. In our own ways we're all thieves. We would be called desperadoes if we weren't so boring, so utterly banal in our soft-jawed, full-jowled selfishness. If there were any justice, we'd be forced to duel, with the peasants of America holding our cloaks. Only we'd both make sure we missed, wouldn't we?"

Peggy again:

"OK, Charles Prince didn't say that. Just wanted to get your blood going. Mr. Prince would never say something so dramatic and intemperate. I made it up. It wasn't on the news because it didn't happen.

"It would be kind of a breath of fresh air, though, wouldn't it?"

Wouldn't it, though?

My Heroes of the Day: Jesse Ventura and Ron Paul

Former governor Jesse Ventura sat in for Larry King one night last week on the CNN talk show. During one segment, he asked his guests if President Obama is a radical. Each of them gave their opinions, then Jesse gave his. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, that he thought the last president, George W. Bush, was the radical. He then outlined his reasons for such thinking, including Bush's lying to get us into a war with no end. Guest Ron Paul added how America is bankrupting itself because of the war costs. (And I add how horrific it is that so many thousands of precious lives were lost for nothing, absolutely nothing.)

All of this reminded me how perplexed I am these days when I hear Republicans whining and moaning about the cost of health care for American citizens while never uttering a word about free health care for Iraqis, new schools for Iraqis, roads for Iraqis, new hospitals for Iraqis, etc. etc. Do they ever stop to realize there would have been no need for rebuilding such a country without American bombs and guns destroying it in the first place, destroying it to satisfy the military industrial complex? I must also ask the right wing if they hate Americans. If they don't, then why not want the same for American citizens as Iraqi citizens? Don't the red, white and blue of our flag mean as much to them as the colors of the Iraqi flag?

Easy Cooking: White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Sauce

I created this fabulous dessert for a birthday dinner several years ago. Any berry, fresh or frozen, works well for making the sauce, but raspberries provide both the perfect color and flavor accompaniment to the rich mousse.

2 large eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 pound white chocolate, chopped

1 cup whipping cream, very cold

Raspberry sauce:

1 basket fresh raspberries

3 tablespoons white sugar

For the mousse, whisk the eggs in a saucepan until they're blended. Stir in the 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice and cook over medium-low heat, stirring the mixture constantly until it's thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the white chocolate until it melts. Set mixture aside to cool, stirring it occasionally.

To whip the cream, put the bowl, beaters of electric mixer and cream in the freezer about 30 minutes before whipping. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the cool white chocolate mixture. Put in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving; overnight is OK.

Make the raspberry sauce by cooking the raspberries in a small saucepan over low heat until they're soft, about 10 minutes. Press the cooked raspberries through a strainer to get the juice. Then place the juice and the 3 tablespoons sugar in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring the mixture constantly until it's slightly thickened.

Serve the mousse in small dishes or crystal stemware with raspberry sauce in a small pitcher to pour over. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Census Schmensus

If you haven't filled out the Census for reasons that include mistrusting the government, please consider trashing the form. I live in a Blue State. Because of irresponsible politics, we pay high welfare costs for Red State residents who makes lower salaries than we do. If those of you in a Red State destroy your Census form, that will mean one, two or more fewer people who might be able to get more money out of me sometime in the future. Go for it.

If you reside in a Blue State, and you resist providing stats for the Census, you're probably a Tea Partier, Libertarian or Republican. The fewer of you counted for representation in state and federal government, the better. No need to get out your guns to harass a Census worker, as threatened by CNN spouter Erik Erikson. Just don't answer the door. Of course, I can't say what happens to those who don't fill out the form. I mailed mine in two weeks ago so I'm not concerned. Still, I hope there's a way you can legally figure out how to keep from doing what the big, bad U.S. government asks of you.

That said, I want you to know how much I respect you for refusing any government assistance of any kind, be it Social Security, Mediare, Medicaid, VA benefits, FHA home loan, etc. More power to you because it will leave more for me in the future. You also might want to stay off the public highways because you won't be counted toward future needs in that area either, consequently depriving your area from road repairs and installations. More for me and my Blue State. Hey, this hating the government stuff could be good for me in many areas. Thank you.