Salted-Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe – Kraft Recipes.
Yummy! 🙂
AND, easy to make! Two of my favorite things when it comes to food. So much of it looks and tastes delicious but when I look for the recipe, it takes too much work. 🙁
I’m not much into things that take a lot of effort in the kitchen. I do like pecan pie. I think the extra ingredients will just add to it.
I really love Utne Reader. Their reviews are one of my favorite parts of the magazine. Now that I get their emails, I can even check the music out right away online. 🙂
This time, they have 10 different artists to investigate. I haven’t had time yet to listen to any of them. I don’t want to hold you all back from some good stuff tho! 😉
Enjoy!! Let me know if you liked it, which songs, which artists? 🙂
I’m sure not going to say I’m anywhere near as intelligent as Einstein (duh!), but these quotes of his at least let me know I’m not as stupid (or crazy) as a lot of people think I am. I would much rather know Einstein agrees with me than a few yahoos on Facebook! 😉
I think everybody on this earth is in general equivalent. NOT equal, but equivalent. There is a difference! We all have brains in our heads and our capacity to reason is what makes us special (or at least a large part of it). We all have things we’re good at, things we’re not so good at, things we suck at. No one is perfect. We all have to work together to make a well functioning society. Each of us has our part to play.
One of the things I really like about shipboard life is that it’s very clear there that we’re ALL there for a good reason. We’re ALL necessary for the proper functioning of that vessel. The lowest man is just as important in the scheme of things as the master.
I think that general attitude should be more prevalent in general society. We’re all born with the same rights. We’re all equal under the law (except congress it seems- who can’t understand that they are ILLEGALLY exempting themselves from the ‘laws’ they create for the rest of us).
Our educational system has been going downhill for decades. Have you ever seen that test that’s been going around online? I think it was a grade school graduation test. I’m running out of time this morning, but I’ll try and find it and post it here tomorrow so everyone can check it out. I’ve got 2 college degrees and I would have a hell of a hard time passing it!
If you look at the history of our educational system, you’ll find that we were doing just fine up til the 1960’s or so. It took that long for the ‘public’ educational system we borrowed from the Germans to really take hold and ruin OUR system. It was based on training people to work in an industrial society.
Schools became little more than babysitters where kids were told to sit down, shut up and DON’T question authority! Back in the old days (before ‘public’ schools), everyone who wanted an education could get one. We had TRUE public schools then, founded and controlled by the COMMUNITY. Back then, people were taught to THINK for themselves!
Most people did fine without a college education. Most people TODAY would probably do fine without one (IF they could get a decent grade school and high school education).
I really hate to see so many young people get themselves into such humongous debt loads, especially when they’re just starting out in life. It’ll take them years to pay off their college loans. For what? How many people go to college now and don’t get a job in their field of study? I’m one. I’ve never seen a job in any way relating to my degree (math) since I graduated in 2001.
Our schools no longer teach people to think. They haven’t for a LONG time. Maybe we should take a long hard look at our educational system and see if we REALLY want to keep on training our kids to settle for being a ‘cog in the machine’, to fit into the corporate culture? Or do we want them to be able to develop to their full potential?
Good, short article by Utne Reader. I agree we need to rethink our present paradigm. I don’t really think WORK should be the ONLY thing that matters in our lives. Or even to be the most important thing. That seems to be the accepted practice here in the USA.
I’ve traveled around to a lot of different places in the world. In lots of places, I don’t see that dedication to WORK above all else. In fact, that is one of the many reasons I’ve been wanting to leave the US. I think it would be nice to live someplace where people live to enjoy LIFE, not to spend all their lives dedicated to miserable JOBS!
I saw it all over Europe and South America, people will take time to eat, drink, spend time with their friends and family, enjoy life!
We don’t do much of that here in America. We shovel down our food. We hardly go out for a drink with friends (tho that probably has a lot to do with our ridiculously overzealous DWI laws). We rush, rush, rush around to schedule in all the things our kids are involved in (all of which will look good on a resume and so help them get ahead in WORK later on).
I don’t know what the solution is. I would say that one thing that would be very helpful is their idea of the ‘accountablity model’. Working from home instead of wasting hours every day driving would be bound to help in lots of ways.
I think we really should try to come up with some way to tone down our obsession with getting ahead, status symbols, etc. Things like having to have the luxury car or SUV. Buying McMansions when you only have 1-2 kids. Sure, we all want and deserve to have some nice things to spend our time and money on, but money IS time!
Do we REALLY want/need to spend SO much of our lives at WORK, trying to earn enough to pay the bills when those bills are for SO much more than we really need? We’re all caught in the rat race here (myself included). Maybe we should study some of the other cultures around the world more and see how they manage their lives.
I think there ARE more important things in life than work. I’m one of the lucky ones, I DO still enjoy what I do for my work (of course, it COULD be so much better, but that’s another issue). I’m very lucky to work offshore and have a work schedule where I do get more time off to enjoy then most people do. I like what I do and I like the people I work with.
Of course, I also like the paycheck! That’s the bottom line. I work to get money so I can do all the OTHER things I want to do with my life. I just think I should be able to find a better balance and tip the scales away from work and towards the REST of life. 🙂
Universal Subjectivism: An Ethical Theory for the 21st Century
This looks like a very interesting book. I haven’t read it yet but the review in Utne Reader makes me want to try and find a copy.
I read the review and of course I agree, it would be a wonderful thing to stop all suffering. I just don’t know how to accomplish that.
The author suggests that it would be simple to just pass a law and we could stop factory farming here and so end so much suffering. I totally agree, factory farming is really a sickening situation, horrible for the animals. But how ‘simple’ would it be for us to stop it?
First of all, I’m not sure it would be simple even to pass a law like that. Our political system here is SO screwed up. Our politicians pass laws every day, THOUSANDS of pages long, they never read them, no one understands them, special interests get their little favors hidden inside somewhere, we all have to wait until the shit hits the fan to find out that maybe SOMEBODY should have READ the bills BEFORE they passed them into ‘law”!
We’re fighting Obamacare right now because of that exact same situation. Our agriculture lobby is pretty powerful too. As powerful as the insurance/pharmaceutical/medical lobby? I don’t know. I DO know they would not want to have their profits hurt even a teeny tiny bit! They’ll fight tooth and nail, spend millions of dollars to riddle whatever law comes up with benefits to them and detriments to the rest of us. That is how our politics works now a days! They ALWAYS find a way to screw the little guy! 🙁
Besides the fact that it would be a huge political issue, MY objection to the whole factory farming thing is: would it REALLY be possible to feed everybody (without destroying even more of our land and resources)? I have seen SOME things that suggest that localized, organic type farming can be just as productive, even MORE productive than factory farming, (Farmaggedon-film- was one if I remember right). It just seems so hard to believe. I would really need to learn a lot more before I’m totally convinced that is true.
The author makes the point that people starve every day tho there is enough food to feed the population of today. I would agree with that, most of the people who are starving today are in that situation because of POLITICS and not because there isn’t enough food around. Corrupt and greedy ‘rulers’ find ways to work the system to benefit themselves and their cronies and screw everyone else! The issue is getting the food (or other aid) to the people who need it. Best way to solve that problem is to get rid of politics! Get rid of ‘rulers’!! They’re nothing but thugs wearing suits!
I have to admit, I really don’t want to change my lifestyle. I’m not a vegetarian now and I don’t really want to be one. I don’t want to learn to eat worms or insects either. I travel every chance I get and I don’t want to stop doing that either. So, OK, I am not very ethical according to this author, at least according to what I can get out of the intro to the book in the review. I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t think reading the book will make me change my mind.
How in the heck are we going to get everyone to change their mindsets to this kind of ethics? That question alone makes me want to get hold of the book and find out the authors ideas. I am curious to see what other people propose to solve these sorts of problems. I can’t imagine it ever happening by choice. I have a feeling people will eventually be using force, like they say about climate change, we don’t have time to THINK about the proper kinds of solutions, it’s time for ACTION. Same old, same old here. 🙁
As usual, MY solution to the issue of suffering is the same as it is for almost every other issue… start using some BIRTH CONTROL!!!!! We sure as hell can feed 9 million people on this planet a LOT easier than we can 9 BILLION!!! We MIGHT even have some land/water/resources left over for some of the OTHER creatures on the planet if we would use our big heads instead of our little ones for a change!
To me, that would involve a whole lot less suffering for everybody. I mean, really, how hard can it be to just take a pill every day? or a depo shot every 3 months? Everybody that can have a kid, gets ONE. Maybe that policy would even encourage people to appreciate their kids for a change. 🙂
Let the people who can’t have one adopt one that is already here on this planet (instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on artificial insemination, etc). Oh, you want your own genes? Too bad, life’s not fair, it’s YOUR problem, don’t expect the rest of the world to pay just to indulge your FEELINGS. If you have the big bucks to pay for the procedure all on your own (NO insurance should cover these procedures!), then fine, maybe we’ll consider an exception if you’re some kind of genius (maybe). Instead of giving incentives to HAVE kids, give incentives to NOT have kids!
Just do the same thing as China did, establish a one child policy (must CONVINCE people of the need- NOT force them!). It shouldn’t be THAT hard. After all, most people have been convinced that people caused global warming and they’e only been spouting that story since what, the 80’s?
After a while, the population will eventually start shrinking, human suffering will lessen (and animal suffering along with it) and we can start solving the REST of the problems we have created here, such as starvation, medical care, education, engaging and fulfilling work, improving the condition of our land/water/air, maybe even make a dent in climate change. 😉
Since I’m spending some time in New Orleans and my hotel is right on Bourbon Street, I thought this might be a good time to post these cute little signs. I didn’t take these pictures, a friend of mine sent them to me a while back. I haven’t really spent much time out on Bourbon street (yet), tho I did wander through a couple of times already. I was invited to a few good private parties the first couple of nights I was here. Today I went on a plantation tour and was just too tired to go out and deal with the crowds. I’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow. There’s SO much to do here, its hard to decide what to do when. 🙂
House of Blues
OK, so sorry to all my faithful followers 😉 I’ve been SO busy! Since I got off work I’ve been going non-stop. I made it to the beach clean up (fantastic turnout there)! I managed to get some work of one of my rental houses done . I FINALLY got my taxes for 2012 turned in to my accountants (still was not really finished but there was no way to get all the information to them before time was up so I just had to drop off what I had). And now, I’m in New Orleans for the Workboat Show!
Yeah, its way early this year. Its usually the first week of December. That’s nice since the weather is cool and everything is all decorated for Christmas. It’s different this year, I didn’t think about it, but they’re already decorating for Halloween, so that’s pretty cool too.
I’m staying over a couple extra days to do some tourist stuff. I’m going on a plantation tour tomorrow and a 3-in-1 combo ‘witches brew’ tour Sunday night. I have not managed to get any pictures on the computer yet since I’ve been home, but just to whet your whistle, here are a few from last years show here.
Hurricanes at Pat O’Brians, New Orleans
Voodoo Bar Bourbon Street New Orleans
Street musician, Bourbon Street New Orleans
MLC 2006: Will it Drive Crew On Board
Well, I sure as hell hope so! I think its really pretty disgusting how some operators choose to treat their crews. The issue of communications is not even the biggest issue a lot of times. Sometimes, they can’t even get decent room and board, or the pay they’ve worked HARD to earn.
I’ve been very lucky that the communications issue has been my biggest gripe lately (as far as conditions on board go). 😉 Personally, I will never again take a job where I don’t have internet access. The last time I did, my entire life at home was totally screwed up for months! Yeah, we all used to go to sea for months at a time, stand in line for hours at the telephone office, etc. But that was long before the internet was invented.
No one at home will put up with us being out of touch for so long any more. At home, everyone has instant and constant communication and they just won’t accept it that we don’t have the same access when we’re at sea.
You think its fun to have your house ruined because you couldn’t pay the bills? Maybe your pipes freeze and burst because they shut off the heat? Or maybe it’s just your credit that’s totally screwed since you’re 4-5 months behind on all the bills and not even any attempt to contact them since you can’t get ashore to make phone calls. No one will accept the excuse that we are at sea any more and most of us just don’t have the extra money to pay our bills for months in advance when we go to sea.
I HOPE the MLC 2006 will help us get some better treatment from our employers. I have my doubts, they usually find ways to keep from doing things they really don’t want to do. We’ll all just have to wait and see if they do the right thing this time, or if it’s just going to be business as usual.
Russia Dismisses Dutch Legal Action Over Greenpeace Activists | gCaptain
Did anyone really expect anything different? I’m not sure what people are referring to when they say Russia “unlawfully detained” the Greenpeace activists. They invaded the 500 meter zone (that is illegal) after repeated warnings not to. They tried to board the Russian vessel. Some of them were actually doing it and the rest of them were helping, those are acts of piracy! It is totally and completely illegal under every maritime law of every country as far as I know.
I’m absolutely positive the US would have done the same thing. We probably would have charged them with conspiracy and a dozen other charges, or maybe just terrorism. That seems to be our fail safe lately, anyone we accuse of terrorism is pretty much automatically guilty and they don’t get to have a trial. The actions they took does make them guilty of those crimes under OUR laws (not that I am saying our laws are good ones in this case, they actually suck pretty bad as far as terrorism and conspiracy goes, everybody can be charged for pretty much anything).
Under international law, those people illegally boarded the Russian vessel, the Russians were within their rights to do what they did and actually I’m surprised they have treated them as well as they have.
I admire the Dutch for trying to help their people, but they should have been more involved in trying to stop them from acting against the Russians in the first place. That probably would have been a lot more helpful.
40 Percent of Your Chicken Nugget Is Meat. The Rest Is… | Mother Jones.
Interesting ‘study’ on just what exactly those chicken nuggets consist of. 🙂
OK, as they admit, it’s only 2 samples (out of billions) so NOT scientific at all. But I seriously doubt if those nuggets are all that much different than the ones they DID pick to study. I mean, it’s not like they somehow knew beforehand just which places would have the bad ones, right?
They didn’t even get into the issue of the breading. What all’s in THAT stuff? I’m pretty sure that’s not good for you either. Probably adds a lot of salt, fat, sugar, GMO, etc to your nugget, on top of all the ‘chicken’.
Do they add the breading to make them taste better? To make them more addictive (salt, sugar, HFCS, etc have been shown to light up the same pleasure centers in the brain as other addictions)? Or to make them LOOK better? all those icky things they throw in there might not look very appetizing.
I admit, I almost never eat chicken nuggets. I can’t remember ever really paying that much attention to them, but now I’m going to have to pick them apart and see if I can tell anything just from looking at them closely. Somehow I doubt it will be that easy to tell what’s really in there. 🙁
Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol.
This is the first study I’ve ever seen on IF these tests do ANYTHING. I think some of the premises are false. Such as: using the post accident rates to determine if any drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident.
Just like in the Exxon Valdez incident, these figures can be totally misleading. As found after that investigation, Captain Hazelwood had NOTHING to do with that accident, so even if he WAS totally wasted, the accident had NOTHING to do with it,( if he was or if he wasn’t drinking). The fact that he had a couple of drinks simply allowed Exxon to use him as a scapegoat and get away with the FACT that it was THEIR policies which REALLY caused that accident.
I REALLY hate the fact that we use the excuse that someone, somewhere might be doing (some) drugs, to strip away the rights of millions of innocent people. There is NO authority in the constitution for either the outlawing of (some) drugs OR any sort of random drug testing to be forced on us by the federal government!
Is it worth stripping the 4th amendment, the 5th amendment from the constitution to allow these tests? Is it worth forgetting about the 9th and 10th amendments to even allow the federal government to have ANY say-so about what we choose to put into OUR bodies?? I say NO, I say HELL NO!!!
It is NEVER worth it to give up our rights! Not for ANY reason. And the fact that they haven’t even tried to show any kind of proof that their stupid rules do ANY good at all up until this just shows that they could give a flying f*&k!
Why in the heck are they even in charge of licensing us in the first place? Who the hell gave the federal government the authority to tell me if I can go to work, who I can work for, what hoops I have to jump through in order to apply for a job??? I sure as hell can’t find anything about that in the constitution. It’s NOT there. So, in fact, every single licensing law is unconstitutional and void!
Lets get the companies and the sailors together on this and eliminate the government out of the mix! Now would be a great time since they are ‘shut down” (yeah, riiiight- I only wish they really were)!
Lets come up with a scheme that would actually be sensible and affordable to the people actually involved (instead of a bunch of clueless bureaucrats). Maybe we could stop all our ships from moving overseas and get some jobs back for American sailors if we did that.
Too bad now we have to deal with the IMO. Maybe ALL the sailors around the world should get together on this. I’m sure they realize there is no one in any governmental position anywhere worldwide that is actually on THEIR side. Its always all about the money and we (sailors) don’t have any. ;-(
Taxes: Man’s Inhumanity to Man | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Another great article from Jeffrey Tucker. I have to agree totally. Yes! The difference between voluntary co-operation and the use of FORCE to get your way (politics) is the difference between peace and war. It’s the same from small towns all the way up to nation states.
WHY do so many people think it’s OK to use force to get their way? Might makes right? Most people don’t bully their friends and neighbors directly, but they think it’s perfectly fine to have their stand-in (government) do the bullying for them instead. Why??? If it’s not right for an individual to do something, then its STILL not right for them to get someone else to do their dirty work for them!
The way I look at it is, if something really needed to get done, if people REALLY wanted something, then they would find a way to do it. They would be able to convince enough people to chip in and help WITHOUT having to hold a gun to their heads. Persuasion works wonders, IF something is really worth doing. If you can’t convince someone to do something with a good argument, then it’s probably NOT worth doing!
The fact that we ARE using the FORCE of government to accomplish so many things just means that most of those things are either unnecessary to begin with, or nobody really wants them much, or they’re just to lazy to do the things themselves, OR they think they can get others to pay for what they won’t pay for themselves.
Just think back 100 (+/-) years and all the things our government did NOT do for us then compared to what they do now. We still had everything we needed then, we just did it ourselves. We had a LOT more freedom and a LOT less government. That is what made this country the greatest ever in the history in the world- that FREEDOM.
That same freedom we’ve thrown in the garbage with our continuous abuse of the political way of dealing with everything. With the use of FORCE to get things done. We’re in another huge struggle right now and all set for another huge loss of our freedoms. 🙁
Russian Authorities Charge Greenpeace Activists with Piracy | gCaptain
Pirates or just ordinary criminals? Or possibly even peaceful protesters like Greenpeace insists?
OK, they are NOT just peaceful protesters like Greenpeace says. They invaded the 500 meter zone (that alone is a crime), and then ILLEGALLY BOARDED the vessel! THAT is an act of piracy! A PEACEFUL protest would have remained OUTSIDE the 500 meter zone!!!
Pirate = one who robs at sea. Technically, they DID act as pirates. By their actions, they cost the Prirazlomnaya oil platform millions of dollars. Those rigs cost hundreds of millions of dollars a day to operate. So, did Greenpeace commit an act of piracy? Yes, they did, they cost the oil company a TON of money by their intentional actions, so yes, they DID rob them.
OK, so they did not intend to cause harm. So what? Just by the fact of them invading the operations of the Prirazlomnaya, they DID cause harm and they knew they would! Maybe not much harm in the scheme of things, but they still disrupted the activities on board the oil rig. That costs time and that costs money.
Were the Russians doing anything illegal to board the Arctic Sunrise (the Greenpeace vessel), tow it to port and arrest the people on board? NO! Those people were ALL involved in criminal actions.
Nothing has come out about anyone on the Greenpeace vessel trying to prevent the boarding of the oil rig so no one is innocent. As far as I know, Russia does not have any Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of speech, or of protests, peaceful or otherwise. They’re lucky they DID get taken to jail instead of just shot! After all, they WERE caught in the act!
Greenpeace may have some great goals they’re working for. Even I don’t disagree with their goals. No one wants to see the oceans destroyed by oil spills. No one wants to see the environment polluted. Greenpeace is just wasting time and money on these stunts and also putting peoples lives and livelihoods in danger. That is NOT the way to accomplish their goals. They need to go fight their battles where they might actually do some good. Go to the courts, go to the legislatures, go to the people who are responsible for MAKING the RULES and get the rules changed!
Even better, or more effective in any case, they should spend their resources on trying to find some way to convince people to lower the population! To stop having so many babies! If we could/would lower the human population, then pretty much ALL of our problems would be solved, or at the very least minimized. THAT would be the greatest service to the planet, why don’t they go do THAT instead of trying to stop people from getting the resources they NEED to survive and to enjoy a decent standard of living?
Personally, I would like to see every person on this planet able to enjoy a GOOD life. I would like to see them have everything they need to live on and opportunities for enjoyable, fulfilling work. Not slaving away all day in dangerous conditions for barely enough food to get them through another day. Get people into a place where they are not so concerned about their own bare survival and they become a little more concerned about the rest of the planet around them.
Facing Changing Climate, San Francisco Prepares to Share.
I can’t be sure just from reading this one article, but it is encouraging. FINALLY someone is doing something sensible! Taking care of themselves! Wow! What a novel idea!
As they say in the article, ‘it’s about knowing your neighbors, lending a hand, and sharing your knowledge’. Yes, that’s right. Why have we stopped doing that sort of thing and turning OUR responsibilities over to the government?
I disagree with their statement that we “should be able to count on government to respond”, we SHOULD already have learned that they’re NOT going to! We SHOULD have already been doing what they suggest now and helping ourselves and each other. We USED to do that years ago, til we let the government take over all that kind of thing.
In all sorts of disasters all over the world, the most successful ‘programs’ for actually getting the help where it’s needed and fixing things best, it’s been done from the bottom up. Neighbors helping neighbors. People who know what needs doing. People who just DO it. Sure, there might be some outside help, from either government or charitable organizations, but the MAIN driver for getting things done is the local people.
I get really sick and tired of hearing about New Orleans and Katrina. Nobody ever talks about any of the other communities devastated by Katrina, or Rita, or Ike, etc. It seems to me the major difference between what happened in New Orleans and all those other places was the total dependence on government to take care of everything.
Before the hurricane, everyone thought the levees (built by the Army Corps of Engineers) would protect them. But there had been reports for many years that the levees would NOT hold. People trusted the government anyway.
When Katrina was on the way, people counted on the government to take care of them instead of finding ways to get out of town like they should have. Then they depended once again on the government to take care of them in the shelters. How did that work out again???
Most people in New Orleans are STILL waiting for the government to “take care of them” in regards to their housing situation. From the f*cked up formaldehyde laced FEMA trailers to the totally screwed situation with them being able/allowed to rebuild on their properties, almost everything would have been better dealt with if they had just forgotten about any government and just found ways to do it themselves.
Junk Food As Addictive As Illicit Drugs : Personal Liberty™.
Oh yeah, they’re definitely working on it. Soon enough, they’ll be making all those fattening foods illegal too. Mayor Bloominidiot already tried it in NYC. 🙁
We are turning into a nanny state. No doubt about it. ‘Do what we tell you or we WILL find a way to punish you.’ Nanny knows best. 🙁
Yes, sugar is bad for you. Yes, it will make you fat. We’ve all known that forever. We REALLY don’t need anybody coming up with more stupid laws to keep us from eating it. We WILL find a way! Just like the idiotic war against (some) drugs, when people want something, they WILL get it. It’s not the ‘thing’ (whatever it may be) that causes problems, its the prohibition of it that does.
Just like with the war on (some) drugs, a war on sugar will turn into another expensive, destructive war on US. STOP trying to FORCE everybody to live the way YOU think is best!!! Leave us the hell alone! (NO, you should NOT have to pay for my health care when I get sick from eating fattening foods, just like you should NOT have to pay for me if I get cancer from smoking. The problem there is health INSURANCE, NOT my choices of how to live MY life!)
The only thing that would help this situation would be for the producers to label their products CORRECTLY instead of the way they do now (which is borderline fraud). Label foods containing HFCS as poison and maybe people will actually get to know what is in the food they’re buying. Label GMOs as just simply GMOs so people will know what they’re buying. What’s wrong with that??? Why don’t they already have to do that????
Obamacare: Is It A Divide-And-Conquer Distraction? : Personal Liberty™.
Is it? I really wouldn’t doubt it. Can ‘our leaders’ REALLY be so stupid as to think Obamacare can possibly be anything but a humongous failure? Failure if the intention is actually to do something to HELP our broken health care system…
I don’t know about that. Hard to imagine anyone could be that stupid, but I know plenty of people who are ideologically committed to socialized medicine. Somehow, their brains just can’t seem to process the basic laws of economics. That when you offer something to people for “free”, yes, they are going to take it!
Sorry to have to say it (again) but NOTHING in this world is free!!! Someone is paying for all that “free” stuff and those someones will not keep on paying forever!
SO, Obamacare is doomed to failure. It WILL leave our health care system even more broke and broken than it is now. It will break the country with it, since how much more in debt will we go trying to support it?
We are already broke, our debt is in the TRILLIONS now!! Add another few trillion??? Who is going to pay for that? You? Me?? Your kids?? We DON’T have the money! Where is the money going to come from? We’ll just keep on printing it up forever? You DO remember what happened when they did that in Germany, right???
Or, we could ‘raise taxes’? How??? I am already being taxed over 50% of my salary! Do you really think I’m going to stick around and have 75% or more stolen from me for something like Obamacare??? Hell NO! I’m already trying to leave! If it gets any worse, I’m just going to have to say the hell with it and take my chances somewhere else.
No, I’m not legally allowed to work anywhere else. That is the ONLY reason I’m still here. Watching this country go downhill is just so frustrating. So annoying. So sad.
I can’t do anything about it but get out before it gets any worse. So, I’ve BEEN trying. I wish the hell I did, but I don’t have enough money saved up to just retire. If I try to use any of the money I’ve managed to save, I’ll get a huge penalty and they’ll steal 30-40% of if! I might just have to suck it up and take that loss. 🙁 I do know that I sure as hell am NOT going to sit around here and LET them steal everything I’ve worked over 40 years for!
I wish someone who supports Obamacare would TRY to explain to me why they think its OK, why they think its a GOOD idea to STEAL from me (and everybody else who’s worked for it) what they’ve EARNED to support anybody else for any reason. That ought to be real entertaining at least. We’ve all been taught our entire lives that its WRONG to steal. Now, why is it right all the sudden???
More Shutdowns, Please: The Pro-Democracy Case for an Obamacare Crisis | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
As usual the government is trying to scare us into going along with its desires. The fact that its desires are almost all completely unconstitutional is not something we peons are supposed to ever think about. The FACT that our government is ONLY authorized to do certain very strictly limited functions is never brought up for serious discussion. We are only here to keep on shelling out our hard earned dollars to pay for all the ridiculous things ‘our leaders’ decide is best for us.
You ever notice that every time they talk about what will happen if they have to suffer any kind of minuscule budget cut (or even a cut in the rise in spending), they always threaten the people who need it most? It’s always the social security checks that won’t show up, never the funding for the ridiculous amounts of spending on mini-tanks for small town SWAT teams so they can continue to fight the war on (some) drugs. Never the pork projects they waste billions on every year. Never the corporate welfare they hand out like candy at Halloween to anybody that figures out how to ask.
I say, hell yes! Lets shut it down! NOW!! Let the people see once again that yes, they CAN function very well without all the things the federal government supposedly does for them. Too bad they won’t really be shutting down anything except what will cause you and me some inconvenience and probably major annoyance. They won’t even be laying off any federal workers, they’ll just get to stay home- WITH PAY!
How about lets get rid of Obamacare?! It’s nothing but a very expensive sop to the insurance companies. I guarantee you it will NOT be any benefit to the general public including me and you! It WILL eventually break the country! While we’re at it, let’s stop ALL the wars we are involved in, including the most stupid of them all… the war on (some) drugs!
Do those 2 things and we can all sit back with a sigh of relief. We can start over to maybe, just maybe, start thinking rationally about what would REALLY help solve our problems with health care (and everything else) in this country. Take some time to THINK about real solutions instead of having this crap shoved down our throats that ‘our leaders’ admit they never even LOOKED at it, much less took any time to think about it!
It is NOT worth trying to fix it. It can’t BE fixed. It is rotten at its core!! Best thing to do is stop wasting time, energy, money to save an obviously terrible program and instead come up with something that at least has a POSSIBILITY of working out.
Yeah, shut it down!
Beating Swords into Solar Panels – Politics – Utne Reader.
Well, there’s a lot in this article I disagree with, but I sure as hell agree that we can and should start dismantling our military-industrial(-prison) complex. It has become so big and bloated, it’s corrupting our politicians and its lobbyists have convinced “our leaders” that we MUST continue to spend billions to imprison people for decades for possession of a plant(??!!), or to blow up people in foreign countries rather than take care of our own people here.
We do NOT need to keep spending those billions- no,trillions!- of dollars to keep our country safe! There is no other country in the world today that can even come close to our military capabilities. WHY do we keep on building more, more, more???
It’s simple, the defense (at home and abroad) industries make billions (trillions) of dollars off our FEAR and ignorance. They will keep on spending millions to convince “our leaders” that they need to keep on spending our tax dollars on the military-industrial-prison complex.
Those ‘leaders’ will not ever think to actually CUT military (or prison) spending. Oh, NO!! They might lose a few jobs in their district. Those people who would be affected by a military operation closing down will be screaming bloody murder.
Maybe they might actually be better off if we weren’t spending trillions on military crap! Or locking people up for trivial BS! Their taxes might go down so they could have a better standard of living if we stopped spending so much on the military.
If people actually followed the suggestion in the article and converted that military spending to spending on something useful (productive) instead, they might actually be SO much better off, they might enjoy making something that HELPS the world instead of destroying it. They might enjoy having more peace and prosperity around the planet. They might enjoy having more money to spend when (if) the US ever gets around to lowering taxes like they should as a byproduct of cutting military spending.
I can’t even imagine all the fantastic things the people who work now on military projects could come up with if they were turned loose into the commercial/civilian marketplace. Wow! Just think of all the cool things they would come up with. These are intelligent, determined, educated people we’re talking about! How about all the good that would come from allowing all those people we lock up for victimless ‘crimes’ (possession, gambling, prostitution, etc) just get on with their lives instead of locking them up and so ruining their (and their families) lives forever?
The article focuses on environmental projects, stopping global warming, etc. Sure, they might eventually be able to make a dent in that. There is just SO much they could be working on to help make things better instead of finding more ways to destroy everything.
Yeah, I’m sure the military people (law enforcement too) probably think they’re out there fighting to save the world. I know they get told that they’re ‘fighting for our freedom’ here. All I can say to that is… why the heck do they always enlist YOUNG people to do all the dirty work???
Probably because by the time they grow up a little and spend a little time learning the truth, they won’t go fight someone else’s battles for them anymore! They finally figure out they’re only being USED to make money for somebody in the background. Anyone who really believes ‘our’ military is fighting for our freedom is surely needing to do a bit more thinking about things.
I could say a LOT more about that, but I’ll leave off by saying this: if they’re fighting for OUR freedom, they’re doing a pretty shitty job of it! We’ve lost a HELL of a lot of OUR freedom since 9-11!!! All those stupid wars (including the drug war) we’ve got involved in since then haven’t saved one tiny iota of OUR freedom! So, maybe, just maybe, all you cops and military people ought to just rethink your basic assumptions.
Anyone else going out to the beach cleanup this morning? I posted this to my mariners meetup group (www.meetup.com/boating-39) calendar a couple of weeks ago (thanks P.) but only know of 1 other person going. I’ll be there (Surfside). 🙂
I know they do this worldwide. The link to the Ocean Conservancy at the bottom of my post will take you to their website and there you can find a location near you. I’m not exactly sure if they have it the same date as we do. Here we do it twice a year, in the Spring and in the Fall.
Click the links for more information!
http://www.glo.texas.gov/adopt-a-beach/cleanups/participate.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TMFQOrOk3Fo
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/international-coastal-cleanup/sign-up-to-clean-up.html
Russia’s Imprisonment of Greenpeace Freelance Photographer Crosses the Line | gCaptain
I wasn’t there so I can’t vouch for what really happened, but from reading the news I would think that YES, the Greenpeace activists could and should be charged with multiple violations.
Yes, the photographer/journalist has certain rights (here in the USA- maybe not in Russia!). I think he knew very well what he was getting into. Greenpeace has done this kind of stunt before (and not only on the Disco)!
The Arctic Sunrise violated ALL the rules of maritime traffic. There are 500 meter security zones around drilling operations. Greenpeace surely knew that. The vessel captain and crew absolutely must know that! They’re even marked on the charts! It is illegal for ANYONE to enter that zone without asking and being granted permission from the rig.
The Arctic Sunrise at the very least helped the Greenpeace activists in their attempts to board the Russian rig. That boarding can certainly be seen as piracy. It is of course illegal even if they did not intend to harm anybody or steal anything. It is a dangerous place and could have resulted in a major accident (which of course would have been blamed on the drilling company).
Of course I don’t want to see the Arctic ruined by oil spills either. But I can’t agree with Greenpeaces’ tactics. Either they fight to change the laws so that there will be no Arctic drilling, or they fight to change peoples minds.
The ONLY way we are ever going to not NEED the oil is for people to limit the growth of the human population. Either that, or come up with some miracle energy source that is cheap, efficient and can replace everything we use oil for today. There is nothing even close to oils ability to provide the things we NEED to survive now.
The Missed Opportunity For Medical Freedom : Personal Liberty™.
As stated in the article, freedom of choice in medical care is a RIGHT. Where we have become confused is over what is a right. Our ‘public’ schools don’t do a very good job anymore of explaining what is and what is not a right. They have completely confused the issue.
There are natural rights, those are the ones we had BEFORE there was a Constitution. Those are the ones we are all born with. They are part of what makes us human beings. ALL people all over the world have them, it’s just that the USA is the only country ever in the history of the world to base its entire purpose on PROTECTING those rights. (Too bad the USA no longer protects them but is intent on destroying them now).
Our schools now confuse the “rights” we get from government, like voting rights for example, with those natural rights. Now, most people think something like an education, or healthcare are rights. They are NOT. Yes, you have a right to seek an education, to apply for health care. But you do NOT have any claim on anyone else so that they must give it to you. That is the difference.
Obamacare supposedly turns health care into a right. That is impossible. You can not just SAY something is a right when at its core, it involves violation of other people. That is NOT a right! You can not ever justify raping or stealing!
That is exactly what Obamacare does. It takes the very lives (their TIME) of every health care provider and says to those people, YOU have no rights. You are now our slaves. You will only be allowed to do what WE want and we will only pay you whatever WE feel is correct. How many of them do you think will stick around for that kind of treatment?
It ALSO violates the rights of everyone who uses it. Who may think they’re getting a good deal. Hey, they’re finally getting to screw the system. Yeah, riiiiight. It doesn’t quite work that way. Besides the fact that ALL your medical data will be digitalized and available online to anyone who wants to spend a minimal amount of effort, YOU will not be the one deciding anything about your own medical care anymore. There will of course be rationing. There is no way around that! There is only a certain amount of resources and so those resources will have to be managed. YOU will no longer get any say-so about HOW they are managed! You will lose any semblance of privacy and don’t forget about the huge increase in risk of identity theft. 🙁
Obamacare is just another scam. It will never work. It is probably intended to fail, just so they can move us into a (totally) government run system. It’s just simple economics. When something is ‘free’, more people are going to use it than if it has a cost to it. Our health care system is already broken. How in the world can that help it? (It can’t).
More and more people are going to use it for more and more stuff. That is a large part of what caused the prices of our health care system to get so high in the first place. Government wage and price controls after WWII encouraged corporations to pay their employees with health insurance instead of wages.
That insurance encouraged people to spend more on health care (to use that insurance!). Since no one paid any attention to prices (insurance covered it), the price naturally went up. Add in medicare and medicaid and the problem only got worse. So, now how in the heck can adding even MORE people to the insurance scam make prices go down???? Simple, it WON’T!
Just Who Are We Radicals And Reactionaries? : Personal Liberty™
Originally posted in the Dollar Vigilante, this is an EXCELLENT article. I couldn’t have said it better so I won’t try. Please take a look, it makes some important points.
Yes, I am a libertarian. 🙂
I have been against Obamacare from the beginning. I am against it in principle and in practice. I do not believe it is in anyones interest to FORCE people to buy anything.
Insurance is usually a scam and no one should have to buy it for ANY reason. Not for property, not for car, not for health. A person should be able to CHOOSE whether they want to take the risk of being financially wiped out or not.
The problem here is that we have decided as a country (not really since we have NEVER had any kind of discussion about any of this) that we are going to spread the risk. We are NOT going to let anyone choose to take any real risk of anything. We will take over all such decision making, since we know best. We can not allow anyone here to fail.
I could go on and on and on about all the multiple reasons why Obamacare WILL fail and will take the entire country down with it. But I’ll limit this post to just the very basic issue of responsibility.
Who the hell decided that ‘our’ government was now going to be the responsible party instead of the individual??? When did that happen and WHY??? There is SO much to discuss on those issues. I really can’t get into it all right now. I’ve been traveling all day and I’m just too tired.
I’ll give you a hint. Think back about the Civil War. Think about the issue of states rights and the peoples rights. The 9th and 10th amendments. Think about how that whole thing went down. How did congress legally declare war and how did they re form afterwards. There is SO much involved in that history. I don’t even understand all of it myself but I’ve learned enough that it REALLY makes me think.
Check out the table, I don’t see even 1 state where you’re not going to wind up paying more for your insurance. Most of them are at least double (+100%) and many of them are more than tripled. These are for the young, healthy people who will now be paying for the old sick people. Its just another SCAM! It will not and CAN NOT work. You can try, but you can not succeed at breaking the laws of economics!
Part IV of Monkey Fists great series on maritime movies, this one has a lot of Navy related movies.
Everything from comedies like McHale’s Navy (Ernest Borgnine, Tim Conway) and The Navigator (Buster Keaton) and musicals like On the Town (Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra) to drama and suspense (Riddle of the Sands based on the novel by Erskine Childers). There’s bound to be something for everyone.
There’s almost two dozen movies to choose from. Take a break and check it out. 😉
This Guy’s Stomach Made Its Own Beer | Smart News.
This is pretty interesting. I wonder how the law on DWIs is going to treat this. If you did NOT drink anything, but your BAC is over the legal limit, do you get charged and have your life destroyed for not hurting anyone? Just like the people who are in the exact same condition who have had a drink??
I’ve been arguing this for years, that the laws against DWI are just wrong, totally unjust and so should NOT BE laws! If I can drive down the highway, talking on my cell phone (or eating a burger, or falling asleep, or yelling at the kids, etc), get in an accident and kill 15 people and not get charged. Then, I could go home and have a beer to take my nerves off, get pulled over for having a tail light out, and have my entire life destroyed for being “drunk”. How in the HELL does that scenario make sense??? Simple answer, it doesn’t!
Our ‘justice’ system is totally screwed up. This situation with alcohol is just one example.
I wonder how many college kids are going to try and fill their bellies up with these bacteria? Cheap date?? Oh hell yes, I bet this becomes a new fad. 😉
How Long Have You Been a Sailor? | gCaptain
What a cute kitty. Too bad it looks like its already been through hell. 🙁
I would adopt it if I could. Anyone need a good ships cat?
So, how long have I been a sailor? Almost as long as Sir Stuffington. 😉
I wasn’t born on a boat but my brother almost was. He’s only a year younger than me so that’ll give you some idea. For sure I could swim before I could walk. My family has always been close to the water.
When I was very young, we spent a lot of time playing on the beach and our families had boats we would go out on. We spent a lot of time around Long Island NY. My grandfather had a nice old cruiser we used a lot. We would go to Montauk, East Hampton, Jones Beach, Fire Island…
We settled down in Florida when I was ready for 1st grade. My father fell in love with the Island Girl. She was a large (LOA 72′) staysail schooner built in Detroit in 1910. He bought her and sailed her around from Miami to Madeira Beach where we spent the next few years working and living aboard (part time).
He eventually turned the Island Girl into a commercial fishing boat which is where I got my start working on the water. Between fishing trips, he would take friends out for fun sails around the Gulf of Mexico. We had such a blast with that boat. She was well known around Florida for years.
I moved on to the party boats down the street as soon as I could. That was a much more fun job for me. I could make a couple of trips on the weekends and earn enough to pay my dad rent for the month. I know it was unusual to rent an apartment from my dad instead of living with him but it worked for a while.
I was able to go to high school with the Oceanics. That was a HUGE opportunity for me and I jumped on it. It literally changed my life. I was able to sail around the world and I decided on that trip I was going to be a sea captain (instead of a Dr). 🙂
I’ve been working toward that goal ever since. I moved to Texas to go to school to get certified as an AB/QMED (Able Bodied seaman/Qualified Member of the Engine Department).
I finally earned my license from the US Coast Guard as Master Any Gross Tons just a couple of years ago. I was SO happy! I still haven’t had time to properly celebrate that accomplishment. If any of you reading my blog are sailors, you’ll know what I mean.
I do plan to have a party one of these days. As soon as I can find both the time and the money to spare, we’ll be having one to remember! 😉
So, here’s my question to my readers… how long have YOU been a sailor? Tell us your story. I’d like to hear it.
I’ll call it the ‘How long have you been a sailor’ challenge. Write up your story: when did you start sailing? why? do you still like it? or not? what kind of boat (it doesn’t have to be a sailboat!)? where? If you have a blog, do a link from your blog back here (pingback). If you don’t have a blog, don’t feel left out, just post it as a reply.
Aerial Views of Our Water World | Collage of Arts and Sciences.
Smithsonian reports on the latest project from photographer Edward Burtynsky. His focus has always been to capture the impact humans have on the landscape. “Nature transformed by industry” is how he puts it.
I remember reading about one of his earlier projects on the subject of Oil and I thought he did some fantastic work. His photographs of a ‘dirty’ subject were really beautiful. This project on Water is even more exciting. His work is simply stunning!
Burtynsky spent the time from 2007-2013 traveling around the world to investigate the way water is used, how it (or lack of it) effects the land, effects our lives, how we deal with it, how it deals with us. Now, he is coming out with a triple header.
He will be releasing a new documentary film, a book and multiple exhibitions, all on the theme of water.
Watermark, his 92 minute long documentary will premier at the Toronto International Film Festival and continue showing in theaters across Canada afterwards (and hopefully worldwide).
His book, Burtynsky- Water, will feature over 100 of his photographs.
His large scale photographs will be making the rounds of a number of exhibition spaces around the country. In New York at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery and the Howard Greenburg Gallery (September 19- November 2), the show will move on from there.
It will be in New Orleans at the Contemporary Arts Center from October 5- January 19). I’ll be in town for the Workboat Show and will be sure to see it then. I can’t wait to feast my eyes. 😉
Here’s a peek. Enjoy 🙂
Here’s another one from Utne Reader. Linda Buzzell writes about what it takes to build a sustainable community. Community- yeah, she’s right, we need it, we yearn for it, we miss it, we seek it out.
I remember growing up in a little fishing village on the beach in Florida. We used to have a real community there. Everybody knew each other and would keep an eye out for each other. Yeah, it was like a soap opera sometimes. But I always knew I was home, I fit in, I was accepted.
I moved to Texas when I was just barely 17. I didn’t know a single person. I moved there to go to school and luckily I found a community in my little group of fellow OMT students (Ocean Marine Technology).
We most definitely did NOT fit in with the rest of the school or the surrounding towns. 😉 Bunch of hippie ‘boat trash’ with long hair, shorts and flip-flops in a town where no one left the house without perfect makeup, new cars all washed and waxed. We were definitely on our own.
I made friends with the only other girl in the class. She took me to meet her ‘mother’ and we’ve been best friends ever since. That was over 30 years ago- wow!
With my friends from class, we went to the beach and had cookouts over the bonfire. We played music. We drank beer. We danced. We hung out with each other even when we weren’t in class. We had many similar interests. After all, we had come from all over the country to take this course in Ocean Marine Technology. We had an automatic community.
When I finished the program, most of my friends wandered off into the wild blue yonder and I never heard from them again. Only occasionally I’ll hear of someone or run into somebody in some unlikely place.
Since then, I’ve tried a few times to find or create another real community. I think I find it most easily at work. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy working at sea. After all, we are still isolated out here. In our own little world. We have to depend on each other for everything. To get our work done, to have someone to talk to, to help us if we need it, to take care of us if we get hurt. We get to know and care about each other. It is a community in its own right.
In the article, there’s a checklist for community building success. A list of 16 things to do or have. I think a lot of the things are good to have and I’ll definitely suggest them to our local meetup group (Campaign for Liberty). We’ve been struggling to grow and find more members.
We’re a community, we do a lot of those things, but maybe not consistent about it. Somehow we can’t keep the new people who come excited enough to come back, to join our community. What can we do to make them more comfortable? Maybe the things in the article will help. We can try…
This is a link to an article on the Utne Reader site. Janelle Orsi is a ‘sharing lawyer’ from California and coauthored the book Policies for Shareable Cities.
I think the whole idea of sharing things we aren’t using all the time is a great idea. Rent my truck from me while I’m offshore and I can’t use it anyway. Or I’ll rent you a bedroom if I’m going to be home for a while. People are doing more and more of that sort of thing. Airbnb is just one example. Of course, the officials want to step in and ruin it before it even gets a chance to get started.
The problem Orsi seems to have with it is that the firms who are getting into this now are all just the usual types of business. She seems to be fixated on the issue of the corporations and their owners (shareholders) getting rich(er). I do get the idea of the rich getting richer, that is true- for sure! No argument. But why is it always assumed by the left (Utne Reader is definitely on that side of the aisle), that to get rich you MUST be raping the poor?
Yes, in this country, at this point, we DO help big business get bigger and stay that way. We DO use all kinds of tax dollars and incentives from the public (the poor financing the rich) to help a bigger business over a smaller one. That is WRONG and should not be allowed to go on! There is nothing in our Constitution that allows for that sort of thing and so it is illegal as well as just plain wrong. We are supposed to be for the FREE market, NOT helping some businesses at the expense of others!
The fact that we do those things is NOT an excuse for saying that any kind of business but a co-op, (or another kind that is owned by the employees and customers), is unacceptable. It is only a reason to go back to our founding principles and STOP providing welfare to big business! STOP picking the winners and losers in the business world and allow the process of creative destruction to function properly. Try allowing the free market to work for once (which of course does include co-ops).
I’m not sure that any kind of co-operative won’t eventually deteriorate into exactly the kind of thing that the left is always crying about. Read George Orwells’ Animal Farm. Somebody has to run the thing. Whoever is in power eventually gets corrupted. It seems to be an unchangeable part of human nature. 🙁
I admit, I would need to do a whole lot more studying to try to figure out how something like what Orsi suggests would work in practice. The idea seems to be very much in line with the ideas of personal liberty and empowerment, voluntary actions, etc. I like that. Yes, co-ops can work. The ones I’ve seen have been on a pretty small scale. Fishermen co-ops in one small area. Farmers markets. All very small in scale. How would a large scale one work? One involving hundreds of thousands or millions of people?
The idea has some merit, I would just like to see some details of how to make it work in reality. I would like to see it work. I would like to see the sharing economy compete with the corporation based economy we have now. I just don’t see how it could be made to work in the real world with real people. Maybe she explains it in her book on shareable cities. I haven’t read it yet. One more for my list. 😉
Functional Medicine for Autoimmune Diseases – Mind & Body – Utne Reader.
This is a book review from Utne Reader on the new book The Immune System Recovery Plan. Dr Susan Blum MD MPH recounts her own experience with immune disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) and how she has been able to cure herself and even repair her body using functional medicine rather than the usual type we get now a days. They sound like totally different fields of endeavor.
I like how she describes the ‘new’ field of functional medicine as an approach that looks at the person as a whole, not as a collection of symptoms. I would really like to find a Dr that treated me like that. I’ve always had a hard time with that, most Drs I’ve had take one look at me and blame everything on my weight. My arm could be half chopped off, I’m spraying blood all over the place, and they would tell me I needed to go on a diet and that would fix it. 😉
Yes, it would be ideal to live in such a way that you stay healthy all the time, never get sick or come down with a disease. I just wonder how HARD will it be in reality to be able to do that? I do have to admit, I’m lazy. I don’t want to go on a strict diet. I don’t want to have to exercise for hours every day. I don’t want to take pills every day for the rest of my life either. So, is there any hope for people like me?
From reading just this article, it looks like there actually is. I have a couple of friends who swear their lives have been totally changed by ‘simple’ changes in their diets (and have lost a lot of weight). A couple of friends who’ve had their hormones adjusted and say they’ve been feeling SO much better. I remember my dad had such bad arthritis, but then he started using apple cider vinegar and it just went away. I guess I’ll have to try to find a copy of the book when I get off.