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Friday, November 29, 2013

Dennys Food and Recipes: Turkey Cooking Tips: How Good Is Your Holiday Roast Turkey?



U.S. President Barack Obama pardons "Popcorn" with his daughters Sasha and Malia at the White House, Nov. 27, 2013.
Dennys Food and Recipes: Turkey Cooking Tips: How Good Is Your Holiday Roast Turkey?:
From Denny:  Roasted my Thanksgiving turkey a day early.  Sure beats stressing on the Big Day.  Also, my husband, affectionately known as "Satan" misses out on trying to micro-manage the cooking, driving me absolutely crazy.  He never did learn to cook but thinks he knows how to tell you all about how to do it anyway.  Getting the Big Bird done a day early is a win-win for everyone as he was less stressed just as much as me!

Though he did try only twice this season to be ever so irritating:  once, when taste testing the fabulous gravy he made The Yuck! Face but could not keep his composure for long, laughed, and then raved about it as one of the best yet.  Later he decided he just had to tell me how to cut the French bread for sandwiches his way rather than the normal slices I was doing for hot garlic bread, his favorite.  Since I'm basically The Spatial Engineer in this house (just ask me to pack a car for travel and I am The Expert on finding every nook and cranny to fill) I explained to him how his way made no sense but cut a few slices for him anyway.  He was so disappointed to realize I was right after all.  "Satan" lost that round.  Never a dull moment at our house, that's for sure!

Hey, we should all be challenging the White House chef to a Roast Turkey Cook Off.  Bet mine is one of  The Best!  We love spices at our house and every year I create something different.  This year's wet rub spices were swimming in clarified butter:  sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, smokey paprika, cumin, curry powder, marjoram leaves, lite sodium soy sauce, Moscato wine and Remy Martin cognac...

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14 AWESOME COFFEE & TEA TIME DESIGNS - teapots, serving trays, cocktail plates and platters, mugs!

Inside the White House Holidays - great video and the White House Gingerbread House too!


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Kudos Watch: First Step Iran Nuke Deal A Win For ALL

Anti-American mural in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Anti-American mural in the Iranian capital Tehran. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



From Denny:  Israel is not in charge of America.  So, zip it, Israeli PM Netanyahu.  Entitled to his opinion?  Sure.  Not entitled to lobby Congress and bully this President to get the legislation Israel wants instead of what the American people expect.

It's bad enough Israel has its long reach tentacles into our poorly managed NSA and a stranglehold on our intelligence community, now it's Congress.  Enough.  Stay out of interfering in our national politics, Israel, before we all give you the bum's rush out of the room permanently.  Or, to quote cheeky Stephen Colbert, "You aren't the boss of me!"

Sec. of State Kerry has done a marvelous job of steering the negotiations between the United States and Iran just to get the two countries to engage in this first step toward thawing a deep freezer cold relationship.

Are there a number of problems wooing this new relationship with a vicious regime after 34 years of throwing feces at each other like a room full of gregarious chattering monkeys?  Oh, yeah...



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Friday, November 22, 2013

222 News Links: 50 Years Later, President JFK Assassination. Are We Any Closer To Knowing The Truth?


Quiz: How Much Do You Know About JFK?


From Denny:  It's been a long day for the entire country, revisiting the worst of American history - the killing of a President.  As the child of a CIA officer I have my own memories of that fateful day and ensuing Cover-Up Week that followed.  I certainly remember watching the news that was discussing how the bullets hit the President and the Texas Governor in the vehicle.  Then, suddenly, there was a commotion on the news show and a shuffling of papers and then the news man changed his story to accommodate the new - and utterly ridiculous - theory.

Even my father thought it was a ridiculous idea of how a single bullet could hop and skip around to create all the damage it did - until the phone rang.  It was his boss at "work" at the Agency.  My father listened, then repeated what he was told to sell to others, "Got it.  You can count on me."  Then my father returned to the room where the rest of the family was yelling at the TV for being so stupid.

My father changed his story.  He was white as a sheet, clearly shaken and visibly frightened.  I heard most of his conversation with his boss and I knew they were both terrified of stepping out of line with the "higher ups."  They even discussed who else might be involved outside of the CIA - which only scared them more.

My father started with his typical engineer style of how to rationalize the possibility of the Single Bullet Theory being true.  As a precocious child with an adult mind, I would have none of his sales talk, "That's a bald-faced lie and we both know it."  That pretty much shut down that vile conversation and we watched the rest of the news show in silence.  My father turned embarrassment red and looked down, ashamed.

Was he ashamed he was caught in an obvious lie and partner to a nasty cover-up for his bosses and those who were guilty?  Was he ashamed he was selling such an insulting lie so soon after a President was killed, even before he had been buried?  Was he ashamed he lied to his family?

All these years later we will never know.  What I do know is that when some author comes along and writes a book about how this killing of a President was not a conspiracy, well, I know that is yet another bald-faced lie from someone trying to profit from a man's death.

Over the years too many people have tried to assign the guilt of this President's murder to this group or that.  The reality is that they all did it.  That is what is so heinous:  there was a confluence of groups and individuals with resentments, grudges, bigotry, and just plain hatred that joined together to kill a President. They were heads of government agencies.  They were so callous and cavalier they actually believed that after six months no one would care any more and the country would move on.

The truth is the country has never really been able to "move on" because this murder of a President is a festering wound that political leaders and current Presidents have not had the courage to address and heal.  It's created a restlessness and mistrusting attitude toward government.  President Clinton saw to it a bill was passed in 1992 to release all the papers concerning this assassination.  Yet various parts of the government refuse to release these documents decades later.  Since when do they outrank a President?

It really is past due time one President step up and get these documents released:  all of them (please sign this White House site petition to reach 100,000 by 11 Dec 2013 - currently at 99,846.)  The only way for a badly infected wound to heal is to do the messy business to lance it, clean the wound thoroughly and then dress it to properly heal.  You can't have infection present and expect the wound to ever heal.  So it is with a country, this country:  America.

President Obama, perhaps this is your time in history to do this country a tremendous service?  Perhaps this is your moment.  Now really is the time to step up:  "Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country."  Heal your country, Mr. President, please.


This Day In History @ History Channel - Nov 22, 1963:  John F. Kennedy assassinated

The following are the news links from the major news networks:

Thursday, November 21, 2013

WTF? Outrageus Afghanistan: Many Reasons Wrong Idea To Commit To Another Decade There

Standing by on a hilltop, Soldiers with the 10...
Standing by on a hilltop, Soldiers with the 101st Division Special Troops Battalion, 101st Airborne Division watch as two Chinook helicopters fly in to take them back to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2008. The Soldiers searched a small village in the valley below for IED making materials and facilities. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Denny:  This is crazy.  America does not need to remain in Afghanistan for any reason and certainly not for an undetermined amount of time, committing any amount of troops.  To hear the Afghans tell it they expect us to subsidize their economy by training and financially supporting their entire army.  It's outrageous.

The Afghans possess both the natural resources - and a thriving drug trade - to pay for themselves.  American taxpayers do not want to spend billions of dollars more on this boondoggle with the tail wagging the dog yet again.

What is the matter with this administration?  The American people have weighed in on this long-running Afghan War and want nothing to do with the country.  End it and end the relationship now.  If Big Business wants to go into Afghanistan and work their various projects then let them hire their own security forces.  It is not appropriate to force the American taxpayers to foot their bills.  Nor is it appropriate for American soldiers to lose their lives, leaving their blood on the field of the greedy outstretched hands of the Afghan drug lords, er, President...


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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Kudos Watch: Could Prez Obamas Next NSA Chief Be A Woman; Where Would He FInd Her?



From Denny:  There are a few good things going on in our federal government.  OK, not much, but it should still be celebrated, especially when it involves breaking through the glass ceiling for women in the work place.

Finally, back about 1995, part of the intelligence community realized how stupid it was to not aggressively recruit women for development in the intelligence field and maybe eventually grooming them for positions higher up in the organization.  At the time the CIA only felt women should "get the privilege" to ascend to middle management - and never higher.

The natural go-to first line of recruitment started with the children of CIA officers.  As the child of a CIA officer, it was about then the CIA tried to recruit me yet again and again and again.  Of course, they had all the bullying finesse of stinking billy goats and I would have none of their toxic organization.  Clearly, they were seriously clueless as how to recruit smart women.  It would take a lot of time before they got it right.

Usually, the CIA quits trying to recruit you once you reach age 35 but they persisted with me long after, probably because I never have looked my age.  Even after I was married ten years strangers would ask me what high school I was attending.  It's really annoying - until you get older and people half your age ask you about a music group of which you have never heard.  I've learned to just play along rather than give them the Big Speech of true age disclosure that shocks them. Awkward.


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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

NSA Leaks: Can DNI Clapper, World Govts Prevent Coming Cyber War? Not A Chance.


Photo: Getty Images, NSA Chief Gen. Keith Alexander
speaking at hearing, DNI Clapper to the right

From Denny:  If ever there was a group of clueless guys who needed a crisis consultant it's the Pentagon, the NSA, the IC (intelligence community) - like DNI Clapper - and this President.

Or to reminder quote former President Bill Clinton, "When you are in a deep hole, quit digging."  Yet watch this clown circus and they are still digging - all the way through Middle Earth to China.  Maybe the Clown Circus should be renamed "Ridiculous On Steroids."

Just this weekend Sen. Diane Feinstein went on "Face The Nation" and basically threw President Obama under the bus, claiming it's Obama's fault as he sets the parameters and policies for all they do - the NSA and the IC (Intelligence Community).  Of course, embattled NSA Chief Gen. Alexander did the same "throw them under the bus" tactic last week when he claimed it's the State Department's Sec. Kerry who has been ordering them to tap the personal phones of world leaders.

Is there anyone left in the world that does not agree that the NSA, the IC, President Obama, the much too secret FISA Court with no one investigating or oversight on them, have all over played their hand?  Now the EU wants to create their own spy agency to counter the NSA stupidity.  The European Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, believes it's time the playing field got leveled out though it's doubtful it will become a reality.



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