Popcorn~ Just Add Hot Air

That good ole snack food standby popcorn is amazing if you think about it.   It is a relatively cheap snack that feed many with very little effort.   I mean if you break it down it is just a little kernel of corn with a lot of hot air which turns to a puffy white buttery goodness.  I think the analogy can be made to pop music.   Although we know that "pop" music is short for popular music, I tend to think of what has become popular music today more closely related to pop corn.   It is palatable hot air with maybe a kernel of musicality.  The lyrics and chord changes are predictable and usually the "talent," behind the song is not vocally strong.

I would like to take it a step deeper and coin a new phrase known as "Pop Politics."   Pop politics is a bunch of hot air surrounding skewed little kernels of fact that can be puffed into provocative sound bytes.   It fits our current culture to a tee though.   We as a society have a bad case of short attention span, we need our politics boiled down to quick buzz words and shorter details of the fact.   This "need," of ours to have our information handed to us on a silver platter as quick as a Google search has created the perfect environment for these pop politicians to pop up and thrive.

Pop Politicians such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, etc. are full of puffed up sound bytes delivered with sometimes corny theatrics rich in recycled rhetoric but short on vetted deeply researched facts.   They chose a "popular," stance and stick with it unyielding to any idea of going beyond the headline and studying all the facts on both sides.  Pop politicians worry more about their image than getting any real work or results.  They are talking heads with eyes set on their own ego led ambitions rather than protecting constitutional ethics or accomplishing any concrete good that takes into account many opinions other than their own nor embracing any fruitful debate.  They are uninformed half vetted talking heads who settle for easy popular sound bytes over any notion of going against the grain out of worry of scraping their own fragile yet glossy slick image.


Pop politicians embrace pop politico speak using loaded words to attach their character to like "maverick," or "rogue," although they never back up these claims with any real recognition of what those words mean nor offering an noticeable action to give these words any real meat.


Pop politics and their participants are just puffed up little kernels with lots of hot air to spare.

Wake Up & Smell the Holy War

Does anyone remember the Crusades from history?   Perhaps Texas has cut that from history text books as well!   Well briefly the Crusades were a military sanctioned war by Christian Europe against Middle East Muslims.   The crusades lasted from the 11^th thru the 13^th centuries.  Now in the 21^st century we have seen Jihad by Islamic radicals against non-Muslims and now I feel the tide is turning back the pages of history and we are getting ready to see another Crusade era.   The rhetoric surrounding the proposed mosque in NYC near Ground Zero, and the most recent media ploy by some two bit pastor in Florida claiming to burn the Qur’an on the anniversary of 9/11 is bringing about a hint of the Crusades to my ears.

Some may argue that we entered a holy war the minute we sat foot in Iraq.   It is true that anti-Islamic sentiments have been growing in volume since we declared war.   In return it has become easier for Americans to lump Islamic radicals in with Islam because it is a religion not understood in our largely Judeo-Christian society.  

There is no denying that everything changed on 9/11.  Americans definitely became more aware of Islam.   However aware we became the dialogue about the Middle East and Muslims since then surrounding Islam I think like most things in our society we allowed to become politicized reducing it all down to quick, easy sound bytes instead of full fledged informed conversations.

It is interesting that Christians conveniently forget about the Crusades the same way they tend to forget more recent history like The Salem Witch trials, slavery, the KKK, Fred Phelps in Kansas.   So called “witches,” were hung in Salem, Mass. By Christians out of situations we have since learned were ignorant misunderstandings.  Many Slave owners justified owning slaves thru selected text in the Bible.  More recently the KKK claims to burn crosses and terrorizes African Americans and people of Jewish faith in the name of God and even more beguiling is the pastor in Kansas that believes in hating soldiers and homosexuals.   So Christians have their radicals too.  

I won’t go into core beliefs held by both religious faiths that they both share; but it is sad that most that spread this kind of hatred are ignorant of some of the really beautiful tenets both Christians and Muslims share.   I have long maintained that ignorance is the biggest weapon of mass destruction known to man.   Ignorance begets misunderstanding, lies, and ultimately hate.

The past decade we have seen our precious American society go backwards in time.   Forgetting history and repeating it.   We have seen the all too eerie return to a war type mentality that closely resembles the horrific Vietnam War era.   In the latter years of this decade we have seen our own consumer based desires and Bush economics bring us back to a time that closely resembles the Great Depression.   

I believe that we chance a return back in our history time machine again to a time reminiscent of the Crusades if we continue to spread this anti-Islamic rhetoric.   Repeating history as we have seen in the past ten years is a costly and deadly course of direction.   Repeating history is a very harmful symptom of the disease of Ignorance.   The less we know the easier it gets to let those with their own greedy agendas to knock the foundation out from under a society and inject their own venom.   The New York City mosque debate & the nut job pastor in Florida calling for Americans to burn a Qur’an may seem like headlines that we take for granted will disappear in a few days but for me they are red flags that something more uglier is festering and boiling underneath and I’m afraid if we don’t recall our history we might just be gearing up for another holy war.

Divas of Daytime Belting Out "Its Raining Men"

All I can say is check it out..............it is a sticky sweet hunk filled video w/glorious vocals by the divas!

(Anyone feel like a rainstorm.........ummmmmmmkay!!!!   Don't forget the "umbrella" )

http://sn.soapnet.go.com/video/its-raining-men-the-divas

Grazing

Sometimes when the idea of a meal just doesn't come to fruition then I just graze.   The past few weeks I have had a lot of issues and situations going thru my mind and it has been difficult how to express some of these thoughts cohesively, so this blog entry is a grazing piece, just tasty bullet points.

• I watched the documentary on the "God Hates America," leader/founder Fred Phelps called "Fall from Grace," and there is so much to say; but it would only be anger fueled right now and in risk of giving any of his hate speak any further attention all I can say is that I truly deep down feel sadness and pity for him and his family and any followers or congregation members in his church.   I pray that one day they will find the Love of God and all their hate will melt away.
• Love and hate can both be action words.   Hate can speak blood, sweat and tears; but Love takes blood, sweat and tears.
• I feel sorrow for those who give their hearts, minds, and money over to the likes of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
• Glenn Beck being in Washington, DC is a sad day for free speech and a sad reminder how easily ignorance begets ignorance.
• Reaction is usually ill informed fear
• I am thankful for Erma Bombeck and her legacy of domestic satire (i.e.  If Life is a Bowl of Cherries Then What am I doing in the Pits?;  Family:  The Tie that Binds.....and Gags!; The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.)  It makes me smile esp. in personal times of domestic lulls.
• It is time for the Obama administration to grow up and start plowing thru all the mumbo jumbo out there.   I believe in him it is time for the administration to believe in themselves once again.

What topic might you, the reader want to see covered in my blog?

Until the next full en tree enjoy grazing my darlings.

Limp Lettuce

Apathy is just LAZY parading around in a fancier vocabulary word

~(Russell Jackson)

I was reminded the other day that one of the top ten food tragedies is biting into wilted lettuce.   I have been known (allegedly~ wink, wink) to love GOOD Southern fried food, buttermilk biscuits, blackberry cobbler, and butter; however I do love fresh veggies.   Overcooked veggies are another tragedy but nothing is as disappointing as the anticipation of biting into a good club sandwich or Caesar salad only to not feel that crisp cold crunch and instead find a limp slimy piece of lettuce.  

As I grow older the cold soul less indifference of apathy like limp lettuce is an infuriating discovery. 

I am thankful for technology, don't get me wrong; but as much as technology has helped society in its progression I feel that it has also had an unintended side effect that results in a good old fashioned case of the "Lazies."   As smart phones, texting, and I-pods help us tune out the world I see that so many are so tuned out that they cannot be bothered anymore to be a real functioning part of society.   

I see people so tuned into their texting that they have walked out in front of cars.   I have waited on people who think having a conversation while they order is okay and get frustrated when I can read their sign language supposedly directing me as to what they want.   The few times that I have commented that if they hung up or paused their conversation long enough to tell me their order they act as if I am the one with bad manners or worse yet they shrug their shoulders in indifference.

I think apathy is the most frustrating quality in a person, government, or society at large.   At least when there is an argument I feel that the person on the other side might actually have an opinion that he or she has thought about or shock, shock, horror of all horror CARES about.   

I think this new higher tech method of tuning out has helped society slip more comfortably into their apathetic lazy boy recliners and throw care to the satellite and gigabyte winds.   Again, technology, Per Se,  is not the evil here, there are a lot of variables.    

Let's face the fact that "caring," does take more work than a shrug of the shoulders or a roll of the eyes.   If we are talking politics here then "caring," means being involved enough to read, listen, and learn.   It means not just hearing one sound byte that tells us what we want to hear but sifting through several sides of the story to at least be somewhat able to hold a conversation and or debate on a subject.    If we are talking relationships it can be as complex as answering "I don't know," to a question about why the relationship isn't working to as easy as "I don't care," when asked what do you feel like for dinner.   (Don't get me started down that path!)

It is one thing to be easy going and carefree; but easy going and carefree doesn't equal apathetic or non-caring.  

Apathy is dangerous.   In a smaller setting such as one's personal relationships ironically the "I don't knows/I don't cares," can eventually erode the basic foundation of a relationship.   If you don't care or don't know about a lot of things then eventually the other person(s) feel you ultimately don't respect them enough to take the time to care or know.

In society Apathy grows opportunity for propaganda, disease, and even war.   I think this recent economic meltdown for example has become worse because all of our outlets of tuning out has kept us shielded and blind to the brewing storms and underlying causes that pummels our financial stability to this day.

I agree it is nice when life is calm and you can coast along.   I have no problem in adapting to a life that is drama free; however being able to evolve means sometimes getting involved.  Settling for a bowl full of limp lettuce to me means settling for a life of so-so.   I still say there is nothing better than taking a bite full of crisp crunch.   I think life needs crunch.

Canned Biscuits

It was not cafe society, it was Nescafe society~ Noel Coward

I have never been able to reconcile canned biscuits in any form.   Even my dear Southern Cook Diva Paula Deen has several dishes which utilizes canned biscuits and I've been there and the end verdict is that the ideas were time savers but not taste bud pleasers.   The recipes were not bad tasting but neither were they blow your mind good.   Biscuits are one of those foods where homemade is mandatory in my opinion.   There are other examples of food that I believe needs to be as organic to homemade as possible.   I believe friends come under the same category as pieces of your life that need to remain as organic and original as possible.

A few years ago during my second go around in the amazing Southern California oasis, San Diego I fell into a little click that was unexpected and turned out to be more drama than it was worth.   You know that pop that can biscuits make when you open them, well when ever I have gone the canned biscuit route there were two things I could count on; I always jumped when the can popped and I was always underwhelmed by their taste and wound up feeding them to the birds and squirrels in the park.   Well I get those feelings every time I think back on those friends.   Thankfully just like I never use or rarely am served canned biscuits I hardly ever think about those bleak days and fake friends.

I ran across the Noel Coward quote above a few days ago and I agreed completely with Mr. Coward.   Sometimes you find people are just not what they present themselves to be.   I could give a lot of juicy stories about this couple of years in my life; but that maybe another story or novel another time.   The main and quite hard lesson I had to learn is that you have to let go of those things or persons in your life that makes your journey full of drama, less genuine, or even just bland.  

When I left San Diego I let go of a lot of all the hurt and anger I had experienced during that acquaintanceship with that click.   The triangle had grown incestuous and  it seemed that even maintaining friendships with even the fringe people whom I had grown close to out of that group still came with strings and tainted energy from the core group I had pulled away from.   The hard part was letting go of those friendships.   I came to realize that although these people had wonderful qualities the fact was they couldn't cut their losses as well and remove themselves from the center of  that negative energy.   I found my last communication with some of them still talking smack and relating disappointments in the core group; but they still endeared themselves to them through dinner parties, clubbing, and miscellaneous other functions.  

I found myself feeling that anxious feeling I got when unrolling the canned biscuits anticipating the pop every time I talked to one of them.   The anticipation of hearing more gossip on the others or what one of them had said or did to this one, it was still one last string keeping me remotely attached.    Even at a non invested literal thousand mile distance I came to realize that even that remote string had to be cut for me to move on in my own life.  

It is easy to stay in something because it has just become the norm or it is easier than just letting go.   Letting go is such a powerful step.   The older you get and the more stuff life hands you the more you realize how precious time is and how little room you have for all the clutter and drama.   Instant coffee is easy but brewed tastes heavenly, so why bother with instant.   Canned biscuits don't taste horrible but they are a very poor substitution.  Friends and people in general in your life that pull energy away from you adding drama, negativity or just existing in your life is like a flavorless canned biscuit on a plate.  

Tossing Salad: Obama's Religion, A Mosque & Gay Marriage~ OH MY!

"I tossed so much salad that I forgot the fucking dressing~ I need a drink!"  
~ June Bug Guice

Summertime brings about the predictable magazine and food show clips with ideas on salads and bbq.    They are always titled something obligatory like "A New and Fresh Way to Spruce up your Summer Salads!"   Blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah, blah!  Not that salads & barbecues aren't a sensible and season appropriate food; but much like the media making much ado about nothing like Obama's confusing religious ties, a mosque in NYC and then don't forget forbidden and "fabric of society threatening," Gay marriage; there is just too much focus on unoriginal material and rhetorical "been there, done that," bullshit that we forget the important stuff.   (How do you like that segue way folks!   No, your Diva is not afraid to reach and grasp when she has to!)

I used to work in food service when paying my way through college and I was lucky (god, I can't believe I just said that) enough to land myself in a new retirement facility.   I learned and heard amazing stories from a gilded generation of elderly folk.   Most of all I was blessed to work with this crazy out of a sit-com cast of characters.   One of my favorites was this curmudgeonly chain smoking, quip slinging woman named June Bug.  The quote above come from her on a day of an event we were preparing for at the "home," and of course chaos and insanity ruled the day.   Even though she is gone I still hear her funny quips and crazy stories and I laugh.   There is no way to shed light on how funny this quote was because you all would have had to of course been there; yet picture in your mind Bette Davis (circa All About Eve) playing Flo (from the sit-com Alice) with a deep smoky boozy voice like Bea Arthur and you may be able to envision how over the top funny this one moment and this one little snippet could be.

Like that day (here comes another "smooth" segue way) I can't help but to envision myself taking on the role of June Bug Guice being delivered like Bette Davis playing Flo from Alice standing on the front steps of the White House and delivering that line over a loud speaker in front of thousands of reporters and live news cameras.  Although I would add an addendum:  "Stop this fucking insane ignorant white noise and get something fucking done already, HELLO our economy is sinking down an already shit clogged toilet!"   (How is that for a vivid statement!)

All of the right wingers, tea party zealots and media are tossing this huge shit storm of a salad with very benign thin veneered sustenance to take away the spotlight from the fact the economy is spiraling downward again, we are slowly (but trust me) losing interest on the BP spill creating a small window of opportunity to perhaps skip out of some responsibilities and clean up and ultimately tying up the President so that he has to worry about wading through all this iceberg lettuce to get to any real nutritional nugget of any count.

The Republicans and the right wingers all of a sudden realized they could not keep using the rhetoric about Obama screwing up the economy and throwing away zillions of dollars like wilted lettuce because they have no real solution except to say and vote "NO," on everything.   All of sudden is this rhetoric not only sounding like the wrong way to Americans without jobs and dependable income; but some are starting to wake up to the fact that "Oh yeah, some of these Republicans were there during the past Bush Whacker Jr. Presidency of 8 years which led to this huge meltdown."  

And I'm not just blasting the right wingers and mislead misnamed so called tea party numb skulls!   Here is some whoop ass for the left and middle as well.   Whining and putting out the fires is like digging through your salad to locate a croûton that still has crunch.   Send the fucking salad back and get a new one for god's sake!   You cannot run nor hide nor just rebut the opposition at this point.   Remember many Americans obviously voted for Bush Whacker Junior twice so our new found "moment of change and racial evolution," is very very fragile at best.   It is to easy for the masses to return to their dumbed down rhetoric from the likes of Palin that we are at a very slippery slope my darlings.  

And oh, as for the middle~ well sit on your asses as usual on this mid term election, it might be a good idea this time.

The fact that America which is founded on religious freedom is caring what religion he is and if he goes in public to pray (and how often) and so blatantly spewing hate about a mosque's right to build because it is a few blocks from a national tragedy & lest we forget about the battle scared equal rights of a segment of the population to marry because it offends someone's religious views on the sanctity of marriage is simply UN-AMERICAN.  

How would Sarah Palin or Meg Whitman feel if their state or nation had to vote on whether or not they could marry their spouses?    Again it is another piece of  freedom of religion we are all supposedly guaranteed in this country.   How can my religious views affect your religious views?   If I don't like your religious views does this mean I should draw up a Prop 8-esque initiative to be voted on to ban your view?  

This is at the very heart of why the pilgrims sought out the new world because at the time England was demanding one way of  religious thought and practice.   Those that vote on Prop 8 or any ban on Gay Marriage, those who care what religion Obama is, and those who spread hate about a Mosque to be built without thinking through their opposition call themselves Americans but ironically their actions and their words prove they ultimately disapprove of America's first founding ideas, they are proving to be ignorant of their path that could shake and undo the foundation of this great country.   They are proving to be Un-American.   Their salad is truly tossed and without dressing.