Shopping/President's/Sauerbraten

Tuesday here in Happy Valley. Back in the saddle on the homefront, getting the sheets washed and like that. We went out this evening, looking for a winter coat for the Princess Piper. We hit most of the likely stores at the local mall. The best coat we found was a pea coat on the boys' side at Gap Kids. It was $85. A little much for the unemployed here. We ended up not finding a coat today, but I did score a sweater dress at Gymboree for $20 that is truly high fashion. The colors are excellent for Piper. Kimberly was impressed. My shopping skills are quite good for a straight man.

Dinner was a pickup dinner of turkey/bacon/avocado/tomato/lettuce on toasted bread. That is to say, sandwiches. But tasty.

The mormon underwear discussion continues apace at Sullivan's blog. The pictures of the underwear are pretty much hideous. I was on the phone today with the my pacific rim friend and he looked up mormon underwear on ebay. There wasn't anything. Then he tried "LDS underwear" and struck, well not gold, but you know, underwear. He was particularly impressed by the little pocket for the male genitals. The packaging, you might say. In any case, I think Mitt Romney's problems running for president actually start with his first name. Mitt. What the hell? Are americans really gonna elect a Mitt, after a George and a Bill and a Ron and even a Jimmy? I don't think so. Not gonna happen.

And there probably won't be another Dick for a good long time, either.

Politically things seem to be in a weird stasis, though Bush was out blowing his horn again today about how he isn't gonna withdraw from Iraq until the mission is accomplished. I guess he's figured out putting up a sign and standing in front of it doesn't make you a conquering hero in today's universe. But you do have to wonder if he really has any idea about the people who live in Iraq, saying that the problem was essentially Al Queda in Iraq. They are the ones behind, well, everything. This will be big news to Moqtada Al Sadr. There is some Al Queda in Iraq, but the US military said two weeks ago that they had been so successful in depleting its ranks that there were probably less than 1300 Al Queda fighters left.

So where do all these dead bodies keep coming from? Them 1300 terrorists must each kill about five to ten people a night, all over Iraq. I think they probably have batmobiles for each of them, letting them zizzer back and forth over the high desert area, planting IEDs as they go. Damn them Al Queders! It's that magical training that ol boy Usama gives em that makes em so damn good at their job.

Then there's the Pope in Turkey. He's running a little scared, I hear. Not using the Pope-mobile. Armored car. You know, he's visiting those peace-loving non-violent Muslims. Of course he's scared. Well, the sooner he leaves the scene the better for us all.

There was a great article in USA Today over the weekend. I think it was Sunday. By a Baptist minister who started out talking about how the Church lost its credibility big time in the Galileo trial and how it had taken centuries to get past it. He went on to talk about how we know that being gay is innate, a born trait, and that science will just go on finding proof of this in the future. Xtianity, by holding on to the prohbition in Leviticus (and ignoring most of the other prohibitions in Leviticus) is setting itself up to be so wrong again, and demonstrably so, that it will call into question all of its teachings and its supposed link to the Divine. If the Divine created people as homosexuals then how can the xtians even pretend to be able to judge those humans' behaviour? Well, we know that it isn't the old testament that makes people scared to death of the gays. It's their own fear of sex, their own and everyone else's. The evangelicals aren't so much xtians as they are anti-sex people. They hate all pleasure, particularly pleasures of the flesh.

If there is any doubt of this all you have to do is go to any church potluck and sample the food. No pleasure there.

Meanwhile I keep moving right along. I was hoping Paige would make me a cd copy of the Decemberists album, but she didn't get it done because she was having too much fun at Dan's house. Dan did give her a beautiful black ghi (spelling?) and a marvelous wooden practice sword for her Aido. Really nice stuff. I wrapped it up for her so she could get on the train without it looking too much like a weapon. But, no problems. Anyway, she's assistant directing a play in Chicago right now. What a great person she has turned out to be. It's really exciting to be in the same room with her. She's smart and intense and attractive and very confident.

I'm thinking of buying a german cook book, Black Forest Cuisine. There's only one reader review on Amazon, but it is truly charming and totally favorable. I'm thinking of sauerbraten here. Any thoughts from my cooking friends? What's a good german cookbook?

Meanwhile we have sworn to cut calories in the wake of a totally off the wagon food-wise stay in Mississippi. Wish us luck.

Better hang it up, here and move along. Thanks to the Great Lady Arianrhod for this indian summer weather and for the bite of winter's cold that came down from the north this very evening. And may we all live in love and mercy. We need it now.

Post Bird Day WrapUp

Home today, Sunday, from the Mississippi trip. Paige said to me, going to the car Saturday morning, "Well out of four extended families at least I got one really good one." Meaning the Brittons. And they are some pretty decent, yet very funny people. At tgiving dinner, for instance, Uncle Jimmy brought up a new game, the "penis" game. In this game you substitute the word "penis" for any word in any movie title. This led to an extended riff, substituting that word endlessly in every title anyone could think of. And all pretty much joined in, except the three year old. The fourteen year old, Cousin Alison, had many of the very best, but Grandpa Bob also contributed some zingers. A merry time was had by all while we ate our turkey, cranberries, and all the lovely food you have at thanksgiving.

Later we had Kimberly's pumpkin swirled cheesecake. So good Uncle Jim ate the filling and the graham cracker crust. Kimb also made a lovely shortcake. We killed some champagne and later some beer. I spent part of the week finally finishing off the Gentleman Jack that Gary bought me last August as we past through Tennessee. I was making a drink, ginger ale, lemon and Jack when Uncle Jimmy comes up to me and says, "hey that's really good bourbon man!" And I apologized for adulterating it with ginger ale, but that is how I get to drink it these days. I invited Jim to help me kill the bottle and he partook with some real gusto. Many tgiving thanks to Gary for the libation.

We all watched Shrek 2 on broadcast tv in High Def on Bob's new Polaroid LCD tv. It was jolly fun. And we played some games and sang some songs. Piper made both Grandpa and Uncle Jimmy play guitar for her repeatedly. She had such a good time, with some many people to play with.

Of course as soon as Aunt Wendy showed up she reconfigured Bob's network to our pcs would all work on it. We only brought two, Paige's Toshiba and Kimb's work Dell. Wendy brought two IBM laptops, one of which was running Red Hat Linux. She had them all on the net that first day. Conversely, as soon as she left the house the internet failed. Bob got it back easily enough, but it was kind of funny. Like Wendy has a special aura, internet wherever she goes. She is such a classic computer guy.

The only political news I had this week that stuck with me is that, in re Mitt Romney, the gov of Mass who might run for pres on the Repugnant ticket, Mormons have to always wear special underwear to remind them to stay pure and holy. So if you know a Mormon then they are probably wearing this creepy underwear while they are talking to you, having it bunch up in all their naughty places and distract them from whatever you were actually saying. Can we really have a man for president who has to wear holy underwear all the time?

You know if it were me being reminded me of my naughty bits, I would probably require even more sex than I currently do!

Not that we have the time for that stuff, with a three year old.

Well Paige goes back to Chi-town tomorrow to crew a play for the next two weeks. Then she is off to Colorado for the Yule season with her mom and stepdad. We have had a wonderful time with her and she has been a great big sister for Piper. Pipe will be pretty pissed off tomorrow when she realizes Paige is gone. But life will go on. I took Paige out today and bought her new headphones and a game for her PS2 so she will have something to do for the next two weeks, besides crewing the play. Crewing happens at night, 5-10 and on the weekends. The rest of the time is her's. Classes don't take up again until January. How's that for a crazy schedule??

I hope everyone had a good tgiving. We all have something to be thankful for this year: Democrats in ascendance. Mark my words, there will be war in DC. This white house isn't really capable of working with people who disagree with them. Those people they fire and toss out on their ears. But they can't fire the dems. There will be lots of logjamming on both sides. It should be quite interesting.

Well, we love our new car, the Saturn VUE. It's a lot bigger, with better pickup, and it's just more comfortable in general. Maybe we should get Sirius for it. Bob has Sirius at his house and there was a lot of good stuff getting played.

May we all thank the Lady for Her mercy and may we all learn to accept the Lady's love, whatever form it takes.

In the Land of the Dixiecrats

Tuesday night in Mississippi. My wife's big sister, Wendy, and big bro, Jim are flying in pretty quick. They are bringing niece Alison, who is a whizz with little kids and who is quickly turning into a big kid, fourteen just this last week. Paige finished up her paper for her psycho professor and we stuck it in the FedEx box around 2:30. Then she sang "I am the champion of the World", although she also said she had to wash her hands after writing the piece because she felt so "dirty". Dishing the college bullshit. I'm sure she is good at it and I am sure she knows what is bs and what isn't. She's honest enough to be a good artist.

Meanwhile this p.m. I have made roast chicken, salad, and guacamole for dinner. Driving around today, it was election day here. I think they had runoff elections, but don't really know the score. Anyway there were people standing by the side of the road with signs for certain candidates, waiving their gloved hands as if they were the queen of england. Seriously. I also saw some signage for our boy Trent Lott. If the Dixiecrats had only won He'd be king of the world. Of course he is about king of the deposed Republicans. If they had only listened to him and played the race card early on those dems wouldn't be in control today.

Not that they really are in control. Did you here about theguy Bush put up for the Family Planning Council (whatever the feds call it). This guy is so evangelical he not only is against a woman's right to choose an abortion, but he is utterly against contraception, even for married folks. He has even said that too much sex causes brain damage. Check out the latest Slate for this garbage. Of course George is behind him one hundred percent.

Makes you wonder when the last time Laura Bush got her nut was? Ever? But looking at the twins you know there's some girls know how to get it off. George, he just desperately needs a drink and a way out of washinton. No matter what he does, however, he wll be viewed as the worst presient in the last century and maybe ever.

Well, I gotta go get dinner on the table. May the Lady smile on us this day. May you all be happy and thankful and remember that these dweebs in DC are just a very bad comedy, out to ruin your life. Don't let 'em.

Mississippi Monday

Here in Mississippi after a long drive. The weather is still fairly cool here, though not like in Illinois. Bob and Arlene's house is even nicer, now that they have all kinds of household goods here. They are here, of course, for the winter.

Paige has been working away on her end of quarter assignments. She actually had a teacher assign a task on the last class day of the quarter. Talk about your egotistical assholes. But so many college profs are like that. It's like how design engineers seem to ignore normal human existence when they design things. Perhaps it is the curse of being overly focused. Or maybe it's just the loss of their own humanity. But many college teachers seem to enjoy a sort of sadistic torturing of their charges. I tend to think it is one of those macho things which are so destructive to people's lives in our culture. Of course the teacher in this case is an out lesbian, so ... do we still call her butch? I don't know what is politically acceptable.

Meanwhile here we are planning tgiving dinner and negotiating all the usual issues of food: fats, calories, sugars. Kimb's mom has diabetes and Kimb's family is all prone to heart disease, so we are working our way towards an acceptable menu. All that is for sure today, Monday, is cranberry confit and turkey. We shall see. Kimberly is planning on making these pecans she has been going on about for the last couple of weeks. A recipe she got from a co-worker that involves five spice powder and many other things.

I haven't read any political news of late so I don't really know what is going on, but I'm sure it's not good news, eh? How's that for a run-on sentence?

And Tricia sent me some more pictures of Morgan, so I am in a place of peace. I must figure out how to post them to this blog. I knew at one time. I just figured it out so here are a couple. What a beautiful girl. I hope my mom and dad can see them whatever reality they may occupy at this time. In any case, thanks to my wondeful daughter-in-law. You are the best, Tricia.

May the Great Lady Arianrhod have mercy on us and may we all glory in Her love that is all around us, in every leaf and stone, in every raindrop and twig, in the clouds and in the dirt itself. Take care my friends.

Power=Fortune (May Be Hazardous to Your Soul)

Politics
Thursday in November. Several more Democrats have won seats in the house. The counting and recounting goes on and I think there are like eight more seats that could go either way. So the dems will end up picking up about 32-34 seats. The wisdom is that that is no more than the usual historical pickup in the sixth year of a presidency. What that does not take into account is the gerrymandering, cheating, and voter suppression tactics of the Republicans. In a fair election I think it is safe to say the democrats would have taken more like 60-65 seats. But there will be no more fair elections in the united states of america. The rightwing will do whatever it deems necessary to get their hands on the levers of power once again. Count on it.

And you have to wonder if right now Joey Lieberman is having a billion dollars waved under his nose by the autocrats who really run the other side. If he does go over to the dark side it will signal the beginning of all out war in the trenches of washington. They will do whatever they have to to get their way. A lot of serious money depends on it.

Yes, power equals money, particularly in Washington, District of Columbia, where Dwight Eisenhower said beware of the military-industrial complex. Well, that warning went unheeded. Dwight, you know, was a fellow traveler of the international communist conspiracy. I know that because I grew up in the state of Kansas in a city that was pretty much owned outright by the John Birch Society, and they believed that that was true. That Dwight David his-ownself was a dirty red. I knew these people growing up, and they were crazy then. And they have only gotten crazier.

But for most of the republican rats it is about buckage. It is about bank accounts in the caribbean. It is about hookers, and boytoys, and the good life and hiding it all from the folks back home. That is why the Abramoff stuff is merely the tip of the iceberg. If it were all to come out the red party would fall apart in complete disgrace. Unfortunately I think it is likely there are rats on the other side that will help cover it up. They too are owned by the CEOs and the CFOs of this world. Frankly most of the people at the top are out and out prostitutes, doing whatever their johns require for their little piece of the pate.

Still working on getting it together to go to Mississippi on Saturday. Paige is coming on the train tomorrow night and then we will do the drive in two pieces Saturday and Sunday. Piper seems in a little better mood today and she is certainly wired up for going to Mississippi where Grandma and Grandpa are. And I am up for it too. Be nice to get out of Illinois for awhile, though Ms is a red state. But I try and remember that there are democrats there.

Food
Meanwhile Kimberly is making peanut butter cookies. I made a pizza for dinner: smoked mozzarella cheese with some asiago, vidalia onion caramelized, bacon chopped up and cooked, and mushrooms sliced and sauteed. Turned out quite well and we are now full of pizza, waiting for the peanut butter cookies to come out of the oven.

Thanks to the Lady for another good day. Love & mercy to you all tonight and every night.

Trent Lott: "I'm Back!"

Another brief moment in a complicated existence. It is rainy and cold here today, but the mood isn't too bad. The weirdness that is american politics trundles on. The repugnants elected Trent Lott their whip in the senate. Funny, wasn't he the racist bastard that was driven out of town a few years ago? Haha. There's a lot of unhappiness in the winger ranks, not just with Lott, but with Mel Martinez taking over from Ken the incredibly straightfaced liar Mehlman. They think it portends an immigration bill that has the Bushies marching in step with them terrible democrats to let the mexican horde in. I don't think that is exactly what will happen, but who knows?

Speaking of Trent Lott, the senator from Mississippi, we go to Mississippi in a couple of days. I am hoping the weather is a little better than it is here. Meanwhile I am trying to get things done around the campfire. As is always the case the websites that I maintain, for free, always seem to need things right before I am going to be doing something. The moral is I gotta offload the free website thing. It's not that hard either. But it is a question of basic software and reasoning skills. Oh well.

As for food, I am trying to spend as little as possible since we will be gone for a week and a half. And I have a bit of a cold coming on which I am doing my best to deal with.

But whatever the democrats do, at least it won't be the republicans continue the march to the totalitarian republican/xtian state. Oh that will continue, but there will be more pitched battles and they won't win them all anymore. And what of George Bush, worst president ever? Eventually he will be a war criminal in a significant part of the civilized world. I think of Pinochet here. That's okay because we all know George just likes sitting on his ranch, not drinking and watching his daughters party with their friends, dreaming of his fratboy days. As an ex-president you know George won't be in the Jimmy Carter/Bill Clinton tradition. He'll be more like Pappy Bush, having a jolly richboy time of it.

I really do wonder, though, if he's ever schtupped the secretary of state. There's just a little something there, the Condi Rice story. And speaking of secretary did you ever see that movie? Rather a bit of the whole dominance/submission thing. I have to say though that George strikes me as the more submissive of the two. And Condi, can't you see her in that dominatrix regalia? A little historical payback there.

But now I am just going on to go on. A bad habit of mine from wayback. I'll be occasionally posting from the road; there'll be plenty of computers there this time and an internet connection at the house. I hear Bob Britton bought a 36" flat screen lcd television too, but of course he's deep into football, so the Detroit Lions will be on tgiving day, as usual. Still we have the dvd player and we should bring some movies to diver the bunch. Perhaps "Bell, Book and Candle" with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. One of our favorites. I'm no Jimmy Stewart, but Kim does a great Kim Novak.

All for now. Take care fellow travelers on this planet earth. May we all walk with the Lady.

Paige Weekend Report

After a really good weekend with Paige in town, I am trying to get it together to get something, anything done. We are going to Mississippi for T'giving next week, so I'd like to get some of the household chores in before we hit the road. And speaking of hitting the road, we bought a new car to do it in. We ended up staying with Saturn, the deal was pretty good. We bought their Vue, a small SUV, that gets about the same mileage as the SL1 we have had for the last four years. It is silver and very comfortable. Paige was impressed and gladdened as it has quite a bit more room. So this is the mobile we will take to Mississippi. It should make it a little better drive.

We had Tandy over for dinner last night. Dan is on the road, and has been most of the last month. Good for him. I hope he is making some real money. For dinner Kimberly made one of the best pestos I have ever had. T. brought a bottle of red wine, and we had a salad and a good loaf of italian bread. Later we had vanilla ice cream and raspberry sherbet with Kimberly's chocolate chip and white chocolate chip cookies. Very nice.

I bought some wood on Friday and useda significatn amount of it while Paige was here. We had fires every night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it was toasty and nice in the house. What else did we do? Artmart cheese and pate luncheon, waffles for breakfast. Some miscellaneous shopping. We drove down to the outlet mall in Tuscola, mostly to take the car out for a highway drive. Kimb bought shoes and a purse there. We have always had pretty good luck in Tuscola for the bargain.

Sad fact of the matter though, I lost my atm card on Friday. It has made my life significantly more difficult. I am not the kind of person who loses things, so I was pretty upset. But I called the bank and I'm supposed to get a new one this week. I can vaguely remember the days when you had to go to the bank and cash a check to get money. It was always a pain in the butt. Let's hear it for computers. Whatever else they are they have made the financial aspect of being significantly easier.

Paige did bring me several compilation cds. I don't know if she was trying to cover for Marian, who owes me from awhile back now, but they are all pretty funny sets. Paige has a remarkable sense of scene. This will be why she will be a great playwright and story teller. She's also deep in the Aido thing. We talked a lot about school and I think she is doing okay, but we shall see how it goes. The best thing I think is that she is in Chicago. What a great place it is! I am glad for her for that. And I think it is good for her she has friends like Will Irvin around. They have been going to school together since like the second grade at Metcalf. I don't even have a clue where anyone from my second grade class is today. Well, it has been a good long while, hasn't it?

Politics
I know we are all waiting to see what the democratic miracle will bring. Rumsfield is gone, but not forgotten. I don't know really how Bush will deal with it all. Lieberman could go over to the Republicans at any time. He has shown he has no real beliefs and has mentioned it in passing to remind eveyrone how very cool he is. If he does, however, his career really will end. The Republican implosion is far from over. While I do not think the Democrats are necessarily in an ascendancy, I do think the Republicans will be falling from grace for quite awhile. Particularly if oil prices hike again which will probably happen during the winter.

Yule is coming soon and I spent some time at Toyrs R Us with the 3 year old this a.m. She has very specific desires now. It is fun to watch this happen. Paige is now mostly beyond Yule as a time you get a lot of stuff, but she still has her want list and I hope to fulfill some of it. Still, I know she is grateful for the financial support she gets going to university, and I know that is the main thing. But I like to try and get her and Kimberly something good for the Winter Solstice.

And yes, I try not to call it xmas. That's not my feast, it's not even really their feast. But I don't much care. I know what is really going on and I simply try and lead my life my way. Y'all can do what you want, as far as I'm concerned.

As always, my final thoughts are of gratitude to She who's breath we breath.

I'm Pretty Happy

So today Allen conceded in Virginia. A wise move on his part. The difference, nearly 8 thousand votes, would've been very difficult to make up in a recount (not like the 500 votes Al Gore lost Florida by in that stolen election). This way Allen doesn't get blamed for keeping the partisan action going when we all know he really wanted to get out of the senate anyway. He said, last spring, that he was "bored" with being a senator and he was ready to move on to the white house. Luckily that will now never happen. People will always remember his inherent racism and that alone will keep him from being a serious candidate.

And so the democrats hold the senate. Which means whatever happens to the supreme court in the next two years we can be reasonably confident that it won't involve another Alito. Unfortunately Alito is there now and the Court is talking about late term abortion law. We'll see how that comes out and that decision may empower the Democrats in a whole new way.

It is absolutely true that Dems have moved toward the center. Now if the Repuglicans figure out that is what they must do perhaps we will survive long enough for global warming to finish us off. We shall see. I for one have never been against the Second Amendment, I happen to like all of the Bill of Rights. That's what separates me from the wingnuts.

And the most fun I've had this week is going to the corner, the blog part of the National Review Online site and reading the sad wailings of the rightwing bloggers. One of the funniest things they wrote is that they took it all better than the lefties when they lost. Pretty hilarious, since they whine every day, hour in and hour out, such victims of liberal oppression they are.

But the GOP did it to themselves. This wasn't a great move to the democrats. What people want back is a more centrist governing class. I hope the dems realize this and keep themselves more toward the middle. But, like the hardcore wingers who have to have a candidate be absolutely pro-life anti-stem cell, I have to have a candidate be pro-personal freedom anti-invading people's sex lives. So we shall see where it all goes.

My unimpeachable clandestine source out east (though he was calling from the west) brought up a faux Grisham/Tom Clancy scenario that will doubtlessly appear on many a rightwing blog: Now you can envision a time where during an impeachment of George Buh, Dickie Boy Cheney could have a heart attack and suddenly there would be President Nancy Pelosi! Wouldn't Hilary and Condi Rice be so pissed off? That would be funny, and Fun. Official Fun, even.

Tomorrow Paige is coming to see us for the weekend. We can hardly wait. It seems like months since we have seen the girl, but it's okay. She's being the good college kid. In any case we will spend a lot of the weekend hanging out and feeding the young playwright and giving her the warm embrace of a family who dearly loves her. She's the best, you know.

And so I will check out here, with words of gratitude to the Lady who once again has shown us Her mercy. I don't believe that the Lady would ever try to influence anyone's vote in any way (unlike the jehovah god of the evangels), but I do think She intervened in republican plans to cheat and disrupt us all. That is the kind of mercy I know the Lady brings to the human world. All the while gently laughing at our remarkable foibles.

Gratitude

I thank the Lady for Her great mercy on this wednesday in November. Now we will see if reason can once again rule in this great country. Whatever happens the darkenss is starting to give ("one way or another/this darkness got to give" New Speedway Boogie, The Grateful Dead, responding to the Altamont disaster).

"and we all shine on/like the stars and the moon and the sun/we all shine on/and on and on..." Instant Kharma, John Lennon. Boy do we miss him.

Take care everyone.

Election Day

Election Day and we voted early. The word from blogworld is that the Repugnants are doing everything they can everywhere to keep Democrats from voting. That's standard karl rove crap, of course. Will it succeed? It very well may make enough of a difference, but the true story is this: if the Republicans hold both houses tomorrow you can bet there was something fishy going on, and you can also bet that this will finally bring back talk of the Revolution that was so prevalent in my youth.

I often just want to say to the rightwing middle class if you want to bring back the 1960s then just be as intolerant and vile as you can be. Just try and keep the people out of the process. They will eventually empower the kind of wacko leftwing nuts that we had in the sixties. Nothing wrong with that, they were at least more respectful of people then the Rush Limbaughs and the Anne Coulters we have now. And a lot more interesting, though dumbasses and evil shitheads that they were.

In any case, I am mildly optimistic, but I've been disappointed most elections in my life and I wouldn't be too surprised to see the thiefs take another one.

What does it all mean? That money and power make people into terrible machines, unable to think, to reason, and to care about anything but their own skins. That describes the Bush family and everyone around them and pretty much most of the people who vote for them. It is the way America will end.

Well, I always wanted to live in the free state of Illinois, without all that federal crap being handed to us. Once again, I call for the secession of this dominion from that failure of federalism once known as the United States of America. Hey, we got Obama, we don't need you guys

Once again, I ask the Lady for Her mercy on this day in November, 2006.

The Intervention

Chicken tacos made with free range chicken thighs that they now sell skinless and boneless at Schnucks. Pace salsa and pretty standard other aspects. Still pretty darn good. Why would anyone eat at Taco Bell? Mind you I have eaten there a lot, paricularly with Becky Bradway who is obsessed with mexican food and good coffee. Joel and I used to go out when he came for the weekend and we'd buy like 20 tacos and a couple of burritos for BB. And then he and Paige and myself would scarf them down. Good stuff.

A day later, the day before what happens to the end of the republic. One thing is for sure, the Pax Americana is Ovah, folks. There will be no big peace orchestrated by Dickie Perle and his buddies at the American Enterprise Institute. Today Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista, is ahead in the polls in Nicaragua. Most of South America is turning left wing. Because? Because you can only do broadly spread wealth for so long before the people on the bottom start to get pissed off and try and do something about it.

I personally don't think there is a workable socialism, but I also know that what passes for free market capitalism in the West is a total lie. Eventually there will be various forms of class war. Marx had that part right. People will only take it for so long. Even in these United States, the grumbling about the wealthy is starting to get loud enough to hear again.

You'd think rich people would understand this and try and trend toward the middle. But people only see the world through their own blinkered vision. So you get Republican administrations, transferring all the money to the top ten percent who are, we all understand, their friends and peers. When the next big depression shows up we will re-run the kind of politics that Franklin Roosevelt pioneered and that the dems let get away from them. Of couse there will be violence and bloodshed.

Let's hear it for video game America! How many wingers can you kill? How many liberals can you hang? How much secret treasure can you hide from your fellow "travelers"? Enough to reach Bill Gateland? Nah. You'll lose just like all your people. You haven't the blue blood and Harvard education to know how to sweep all the money up into a big pile for yourself.

I remember Ross Hulvey always reading Scrooge McDuck comics. What a laughable and wrongheaded vision that presented to the world. But of course Ross, as an only child, was truly only concerned with his own life. He once put in on a shrimp dinner with Jessica, Becky B. and myself and insisted on counting the shrimp so he'd get an even split. Afraid his friends would screw him over. Most of my siblings are like that. Afraid of not getting the most, the best. And people like that end up with the least, in terms of love and human contact. No one will give a poop when my sister Kathy cashes it in. Probably not even her husband.

But tomorrow we all need to go out and vote. Whatever it takes people. Andrew Sullivan has taken to calling this election an "intervention" and he is right that a significant defeat for the Bushies could actually change things in the two years before George leaves office (assuming, once again, that George is gonna leave and that there won't simply be an emergency powers statement and a dictatorship of the God-given masses installed sometime in late 2008...could be could be). It would be nice to see some course corrections in the path of the ship of state. So vote. It is pretty much all we can do at this late date.

And if that doesn't work, time to buy a gun and prepare for the next civil war. Or maybe move to Canada.

Let the Lady smile on us today, and tomorrow. May you all be well.

Another Evangelical Confronts Himself and Lies

Another Saturday. I am glad to be home in Urbana this week, though I had a great time with my granddaughter and her parents. Piper seems to be a bit under the weather today. So we aren't getting much done. But Kimberly did make waffles for breakfast. And I had an iced coffee, something I've been avoiding of late.

I need to buy a load of wood for the winter. I am currently going through the logs I cut myself from the tree limbs that were felled by the ice storm year before last. They burn well, and for a long time, so I've already had a half dozen fires. Very comforting. Piper recently pulled an electrical plug out of the wall and caused a spark which she called 'blue fire' and which scared her. So we have had occasion to talk about fire these last couple of days. Since she has her fireman obsession we've been able to explain a little more of what makes a fireman a fireman.

Politics
Well, sort of politics. The blowing up of that evangelical minister in Colorado is an interesting story because it does support a lot of the thinking about the damage of being in the closet. The guy is obviously really gay, but has built a life around the whole concept of "gay" being a choice. It's not, of course. And his behaviour shows that most clearly. He had so much to lose, yet he needed to have gay sex, and with the same man for three years. Do you think he felt some sort of relationship there? I do. Andrew Sullivan says we should feel sorry for the poor guy. But I don't really. He's spent his life villifying himself and many others who don't live in self hatred.

The question for Americans is this: should people be punished for living the way that God made them? Or should the prohibitions in a several thousand year old book take precedence? And if they should, then why isn't slavery allowed? It's in the book too. But no evangelical will give you an honest answer to these things. It's their way or no way. They are too insecure to allow doubt to exist. How sad is that?

But, hey, we were all created by some dorky old Jew with a beard five thousand years ago, so that we could do exactly what whatever prophet held sway that century to fulfill a bunch of deliberately obscure verses in some scrolls that may or may not be the ones that were written down at that time, but you know the old bearded Jew Himself, Yahweh/Jehovah, makes sure that nobody gets the wrong thing in there. Just like Mohammed's version of Yahweh, the one (al lah), makes sure that nobody has ever copied the Q'uran wrong, or gotten any of the punctuation out of line, and that their boy, and his nine year old bride, is doing exactly what The One (he's so great and merciful you know, ask osama bin laden if you don't believe me) says.

And if you are even mildly critical of "the chosen people" you must be an anti-semite. Even though most of the evangelicals wouldn't belong to a club that accepts Jews as members. The hypocrisy of these people, across the board, is remarkable and devastating. And don't leave the current pope out: stupid and nearly evil in his disregard for the way Yeshua would deal with this world. He's no John 23rd, is he?

In any case. I'm thinking wings tonight. Better get them out of the freezer. And I will be making a fire. Why have a house with a fireplace if you don't use it all you can?

Hopefully next weekend we will have Paige with us. We are pretty psyched by that thought. She is such a remarkable woman. I hope you are all well. May the Lady enjoy the spectacle as it is played out this week. The sadness of power, usurping all else. I see Doogie Howser turns out to be gay. Surprise, surprise.

In-Laws and Chefs

A quick one on a Thursday in November. I've got a pork roast for dinner, rubbed with a variety of things, mainly cumin, mustard, garlic salt. Mashed potatoes are on the menu, and perhaps a salad. Currently my little bunny is a sleeping child. I am trying to set her up with an earlier afternoon nap.

My in-laws left for Mississippi this a.m. While they were here they fixed the dryer that was punking out on us and they bought us a leaf blower to blow out the dryer vent. We took them to a nice restaurant in downtown Urbana last night. They are really the most decent people. I've had quite a range of in-laws, having been married three times. But all the in-laws I have had made at least some effort to be nice to me. Even Norman McGovern, my first father-in-law, who was none too happy to see me in his daughter's life. But I do point out to his shade (he left us last year) that I did at least provide him with an excellent grandson. Still, I don't really blame him. I was a hippy punk and he was a good republican catholic. Oil and water.

So I don't know what is gonna happen next week, but I guarantee there will be some cheating. There are already numerous stories coming out about the voting machines. I wonder if the powers that be understand that if the dems don't win people are going to assume it was a lie and a cheat and that we are starting to prepare the soil for active and armed revolt. I would guess we are about thirty years away from homegrown suicide bombers in this country. Let the Repubs keep ruling and doing everything for the rich and you will end up with a terrible situation.

And in thirty years I hope to be pushing ninety. And I hope my children and their children are all living in blue states so they have some semblance of what the United States once was before Rusty Limbaugh and the boys pissed on it so it would smell like them.

Joel loaned me the book Julia Child in France and I hope to start reading that pretty soon. She was a great human being. She would not have tolerated the Bushies in her dining room though she was not on the left side of the spectrum. I have loved Julia since the old French Chef days. She inspired me to cook in the seventies and I am sorry she is gone, even now. I even liked that show at the end where somebody else cooked and she sampled it and made comments. What a sweetheart.

Let's see, other chefs I really like (by way of their tv shows or books): Ina Garten, Anthony Bourdain, James Peterson, Mario Batali. I love Bobby Flay's food but he is very limited in what he does. I love the old french ways and I love stews, soups, and braised meats. I don't actually cook that much italian but I appreciate it. I also like Rick Bayless, and Morimoto. It's fun living in a time with so much cooking on tv. I admit it, I love food. I am a foodie.

With that said, I say adieu today. Or I guess whatever the female declension of that would be. My french speaker is not here. She's at the jobsite, giving good meeting. In any case, may we all walk with the Lady through this strange time. May we learn to see Her in all that is around us. May we find Her mercy and Her love.

Back from Eugene

It's November, folks. Let's all hope for good news a week from today, though I am a cynic when it comes to vote counting in the United States. Certainly something will be stinking in a municipality or state in these united.

Meanwhile, though, I am back from my sojourn in Oregon. I can say without question that Morgan Jane Osburn is the most rare and beautiful infant I have ever seen. Being with her, holding her, playing with her, was one of the sweetest experiences of my odd life. She's a fun baby, too. I had her giggling and she had me completely captivated.

And it was great to spend a few days with Joel and Tricia. They are such decent people, and very cute with the new baby. They are devoted to the girl. And learning so much. One thing about parenthood from the jump: you learn that you are capable of doing whatever it takes, sleep, hunger, pain, nothing matters as much as being there for your child.

I had a great time. That said, getting there was one of the worst travel experiences of my life. It took over 36 hours, and only because Joel drove up to Portland to get me when the plane wouldn't land in Eugene and had traveled to Redmond to re-fuel to go back to Portland. As it turned out, that drive to Eugene with Joel cost me an extra $115 for the bad folks at United Airlines, who canceled the rest of the reservation (the part where I went home on Monday) because I hadn't "completed" one leg of the trip.

No need to dwell on the details, suffice it to say that bad weather (in Denver) and an engine that wouldn't start, and various other factors caused significant delays. I did spend the night in a La Quinta in Portland (the same one I stayed at with Bob and Arlene and Kimberly and company a year and a half ago. The airline paid for that, but because I had a reservation in Eugene, I paid for a room down there. Argh.

I really enjoyed the food stores there. Of course Joel took me to the ones I would enjoy the most, with the best selections. And I could've spent thousands of dollars. I did grill them a good chicken done up with fresh herbs, lemon slices and olive oil. And I made my crudite guacamole that everyone seems to like so much. We bought a marvelous vanilla custard cake covered with a medley of berries, straw, rasp, and cran. It was delightful. Joel cooked me a rolled pork loin on the grill. We had some local beer and we found Hoegarden at the grocery store for less than you pay for it here.

For those who commanded me, I took a lot of pictures. And when I get them developed I will try and post to the blog. I also took some videotape. I should get a capture card and figure out how to upload it to YouTube. I hear that Viacom sent YouTube a cease and desist order for the Colbert stuff and the other things from Comedy Network. It's amazing how business guys shoot themselves in the foot, over and over again. They're so scared that people aren't giving them money for something they "own". Not realizing that common culture isn't owned. And that if everybody knows it you have an influence far beyond the money you are making.

It's difficult to get anybody to even listen to you. Why would you want to shut down what is essentially free advertizing? I swear, business people are just sad. They don't seem to recognize how things actually work. But, when your life is strictly about the all mighty dollar you end up a soulless pathetic ghost, who's afterlife is gonna be a huge shcok. Talk about lying to yourself.

Well, not to go on, because I know I am a deeply flawed human myself. Book notes: On the way there I took Anne Sexton's Selected Poems, which would've been okay if the trip had only been as along as it was supposed to be. Unfortunately, a few hours in I recalled, from my reading, that Annie's biggest subject was her own suicide. And I read all those poems about her sad relationship with her religion. Jesus was like a friend that betrayed her, not even meaning to. He just did.

So I bought the only book I could find that I thought I might read, the new Grisham in paperback. Don't ask me what it's called. It was okay, but not too deep. A lot of it took place in Italy and there were many descriptions of Italian architecture and food. That was the fun part. The american part was all politics and money and power and influence and the people all made you sick. But the italian part was jolly fun.

On the trip back I read a book I got at a wonderful book store in Eugene. It's a Sneaky Pie Brown mystery, by Rita Mae Brown. She originally was known as one of the country's first great lesbian writers, Rubyfruit Jungle. These days she writes these murder mysteries set in a kind of upper class small Virginia town. What makes them standout are the characters of the animals who are the pets of the protaganist: Mrs. Murphy, the cat, and a corgi dog, Tee Tucker, and another cat, Pewter. There are other diverse animal characters also. She has them speak to each other, though the humans can't understand them, they understand each other. This is done in italics so you are clear who's world it is we are in. Of course, oftentimes the animals are blown away by how stupid the human world is and how venal. Worth reading if only for Mrs' Murphy's pronouncements on the world.

Paige and I have been reading these books for the last ten years, though we haven't looked at the last couple. So it was fun going back to a world I'd spent some serious time in.

Well, I wanted to at least post something today. I hope to develop some time in the next few days and write some more about Eugene. It was fun, as always, to go there. Such a beautiful town.

I thank the Lady Arianrhod for this world and for my time in this world. I ask only that She looks upon us all with mercy and love.