Goin' To A Party...Meet Me On After School...
Back in the late 1970's I managed to walk over from my dorm room in downtown Atlanta at Georgia Tech with some friends across I75/I85 to the Fox Theater on Peachtree Street to see a number of really excellent concerts.
In the process I managed to see the rock band CheapTrick twice I think...featuring Rick Neislen on lead guitar, Bun E. Carlos on drums, Robin Zander singing lead and playing rythym guitar, and Tom Peterssen on Base Guitar.
Any way, I was fooling around this morning trying to get my head screwed on straight in contemplation of the things I have to get done over the next four to six weeks and I found this video of the band ten years after I've last seen them...in Houston in 1989. (If you are not a Cheep Trick fan bear with the intro and skip to about the middle point of the video where the song really starts playing.)
Then of course there is this song...
Y'all have a LOVELY weekend...if you will (I'm heading out of town for a while)
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Big HUGE Changes Are Coming
Stay Tuned To This Channel For More Information...
I have too much to do to spend any more time writing right now.
Talk to Y'all later I guess...wish me luck...
I have too much to do to spend any more time writing right now.
Talk to Y'all later I guess...wish me luck...
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Food Tip O' The Day
Stuff You Might Not Otherwise Know About...
For a few years now I've been cooking a good deal of stuff based on Eastern and Southern Mediterranean recipes...
Stuff from Turkey and Lebanon and Morocco specifically.
Needless to say they do things a little differently over there and some of the ingredients are hard to find here in the US at your local Kroger or Publix Grocer.
Tonight I made a Crisp Rrosemary Flatbread made based on this recipe...basically flour and water and baking powder and some oilve oil and salt and rosemary. I added a little white pepper for a little kick.
Then I put together a plate around my bread with some Green and Kalamata Olives and the
Moroccan Pepper spice blend called Hharissa sold on line and here locally in a specialty Grocer by a company called Mustaphas.
The other ingredients on the plate was some Cultured "Labne" Kkefir Cheese which beats the heck out of sour cream and cream cheese and whole milk ricotta cheese.
My mouth is burning in a good sort of way and my eyes are watering a little but MAN...
I'd pay money for this kind of stuff if I could find it in a restaurant.
But then again...why pay restaurant prices when I can make it myself here at home in the middle of the night?
(by the way if you are not paying attention anything I write published in RED is a link to a website and all you have to do is click on it to go there...)
For a few years now I've been cooking a good deal of stuff based on Eastern and Southern Mediterranean recipes...
Stuff from Turkey and Lebanon and Morocco specifically.
Needless to say they do things a little differently over there and some of the ingredients are hard to find here in the US at your local Kroger or Publix Grocer.
Tonight I made a Crisp Rrosemary Flatbread made based on this recipe...basically flour and water and baking powder and some oilve oil and salt and rosemary. I added a little white pepper for a little kick.
Then I put together a plate around my bread with some Green and Kalamata Olives and the
Moroccan Pepper spice blend called Hharissa sold on line and here locally in a specialty Grocer by a company called Mustaphas.
The other ingredients on the plate was some Cultured "Labne" Kkefir Cheese which beats the heck out of sour cream and cream cheese and whole milk ricotta cheese.
My mouth is burning in a good sort of way and my eyes are watering a little but MAN...
I'd pay money for this kind of stuff if I could find it in a restaurant.
But then again...why pay restaurant prices when I can make it myself here at home in the middle of the night?
(by the way if you are not paying attention anything I write published in RED is a link to a website and all you have to do is click on it to go there...)
You Get What You Pay For Are Paid For
Government Induced Ineptitude & Stupidity
Wow...I just made myself a killer batch of Crisp Rosemary Flatbread at 3:15 AM in the morning because I Googled it and I wanted a snack and nothing in my ever growing arsenal of recipes fit the needs of my taste buds at the moment.
It came out pretty good I think...
Then in the process...less than 30 minutes for two batches of baking powder based thin crispy cracker like dough to come together and cook...I started thinking about how many people have been dumbed down or otherwise raised today with a basic inability to survive unless they can go to Taco Bell or Burger King or go into their kitchen at 3:15 AM and reach into the pantry or fridge/freezer and get out a box of some MSG and preservative laden slop and toss it into the microwave oven.
You know?
I could start a fire in the back yard--I have the charcoal and wood--and cook this flatbread on a cast iron skillet...
Yet the poor people armed only with microwaves are crap out of luck if the power is off and FEMA has declared an EMERGENCY and is mobilizing into their area of our country.
Let's face it Ladies and Gentlemen...in the past 75 years or so our country and our citizenry has allowed themselves to be made helpless in the face of earthquake and wildfire and tornadoes and hurricanes and even famine because they have to open a Government Provided and Approved shrink wrapped yellow or orange box of bullcrap in order to just avoid starvation.
Most will die from either not having water at all or not knowing how to determine if the water is safe for drinking and if it isn't not know how to filter and sanitize it to a condition where it is not poison.
I guarandamtee you that in 1935 that was not the conditions here in the United By-God States of 'Merica.
In 1935 my Father's family and my Mother's family used outhouses, and they pumped their water for drinking and washing and watering their livestock from a well on their properties. I don't believe either side of the family had electricity until after World War II....I'll check and get back with you on that detail.
Any way...while my Father's family worked in the Coal mines of West Virginia and had access to the "Company Store" for some provisions, they also raised a garden and new how to shoot a gun and if things got lean the occasional deer or squirrel or rabbit might appear on the table beside a chicken or rooster from the back yard.
Same way down in lower Alabama on my Mother's side of the Family Tree. My Grandfather "Pa" Rushing had a hand dug well with a Windmill and a Smokehouse for curing meats, a Hay Barn, a Corn Crib, a Sugar Cane mill on 355 acres of land he paid cash for with a house he built by hand with lumber harvested and had sawed and milled from the property.
"Pa" Rushing could live for several months without going to town if he didn't want to I suspect...and town was only three or four miles away and he owned a car and a Ford Tractor and even a couple of sweet old tame Holstein Milk Cows that could get him there if he wanted.
My point is this...this morning.
There is a insidious, dangerous, creeping poison which is working it's way into our society and country.
A little "tax increase on the wealthy" HERE with an ever evolving definition of what "wealthy" is...
And a little "extension of unemployment benefits" THERE with the Government screwing with the private sector and making it less painful for people that actually believe that it's the Government's job to "produce Jobs."
And right now it's pretty much certain that over 75% of our population would die within a year if all of our so called "infrastructure" went away and they were left to their own capabilities and devices.
Think April 1776 in America.
Of course some would just take their guns and run out and rob and kill and steal to get food and the other "stuff" that they believe that they needed.
And some would just wander around aimlessly and fall off a clift or into a river and die.
And then all of the Democrats would run out of other people's money to spend and they'd all be tar and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail (to quote Samuel Clemmons.)
And then you know what else might happen?
The PRODUCERS...
the people like me and some of you that have benefited from and in the day helped start this country and make it great at times in its history...
They'd end up being in charge and owning stuff and making stuff again.
Somewhere I read where if you took all of the wealth in the entire world and divided it up and distributed it equally to every single person on the planet, that within 100 years the same groups/nationalities/races of people would have most of the money and the same groups/nationality/races of people would be broke.
It's not about fairness and equality and government driven "income redistribution".
It's not racism and bigotry.
Other than catastrophic illness or birth defects or certain unspecified issues, in general I say that it is a CULTURAL PROBLEM which puts people in the position they are in in life.
Drop out of a free 12 year government paid education...?
Minimum wage.
Get pregnant twice before you are 16?
WIC and Welfare.
Sit your lazy ass on the couch and smoke Crack and clean your pistols all day?
Prison.
It's just that simple...and I'M FREAKING TIRED OF LISTENING TO THE POLITICIANS TELLING ME THAT I DON'T PAY MY FAIR SHARE--EVEN AT MY CURRENT TEMPORARY INCOME LEVEL--and that somehow if we can just throw some more of yours and my money at the problem we'll solve this situation.
President Johnson swore that Welfare would help bring the "less fortunate" people out of poverty.
Almost 50 years later all it has done is paid people to stay in the situation the government defines as poverty, living a a lifestyle level which is considered middle class in many European countries.
I'm so tired of this stupid crap my head wants to explode every day. I write about it here to let off steam and to keep Pat from beating me with her Dustbuster.
We can't even watch TV together most of the time other than game shows because I start foaming at the mouth and yelling.
My dog gets all concerned and afraid and goes and hides in her crate because she thinks something is wrong if I'm watching CNN or NBC or CBS news.
AhhhhhHHHHHH
ahhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Clunk (the sound of me falling out of my chair.)
Wow...I just made myself a killer batch of Crisp Rosemary Flatbread at 3:15 AM in the morning because I Googled it and I wanted a snack and nothing in my ever growing arsenal of recipes fit the needs of my taste buds at the moment.
It came out pretty good I think...
Then in the process...less than 30 minutes for two batches of baking powder based thin crispy cracker like dough to come together and cook...I started thinking about how many people have been dumbed down or otherwise raised today with a basic inability to survive unless they can go to Taco Bell or Burger King or go into their kitchen at 3:15 AM and reach into the pantry or fridge/freezer and get out a box of some MSG and preservative laden slop and toss it into the microwave oven.
You know?
I could start a fire in the back yard--I have the charcoal and wood--and cook this flatbread on a cast iron skillet...
Yet the poor people armed only with microwaves are crap out of luck if the power is off and FEMA has declared an EMERGENCY and is mobilizing into their area of our country.
Let's face it Ladies and Gentlemen...in the past 75 years or so our country and our citizenry has allowed themselves to be made helpless in the face of earthquake and wildfire and tornadoes and hurricanes and even famine because they have to open a Government Provided and Approved shrink wrapped yellow or orange box of bullcrap in order to just avoid starvation.
Most will die from either not having water at all or not knowing how to determine if the water is safe for drinking and if it isn't not know how to filter and sanitize it to a condition where it is not poison.
I guarandamtee you that in 1935 that was not the conditions here in the United By-God States of 'Merica.
In 1935 my Father's family and my Mother's family used outhouses, and they pumped their water for drinking and washing and watering their livestock from a well on their properties. I don't believe either side of the family had electricity until after World War II....I'll check and get back with you on that detail.
Any way...while my Father's family worked in the Coal mines of West Virginia and had access to the "Company Store" for some provisions, they also raised a garden and new how to shoot a gun and if things got lean the occasional deer or squirrel or rabbit might appear on the table beside a chicken or rooster from the back yard.
Same way down in lower Alabama on my Mother's side of the Family Tree. My Grandfather "Pa" Rushing had a hand dug well with a Windmill and a Smokehouse for curing meats, a Hay Barn, a Corn Crib, a Sugar Cane mill on 355 acres of land he paid cash for with a house he built by hand with lumber harvested and had sawed and milled from the property.
"Pa" Rushing could live for several months without going to town if he didn't want to I suspect...and town was only three or four miles away and he owned a car and a Ford Tractor and even a couple of sweet old tame Holstein Milk Cows that could get him there if he wanted.
My point is this...this morning.
There is a insidious, dangerous, creeping poison which is working it's way into our society and country.
A little "tax increase on the wealthy" HERE with an ever evolving definition of what "wealthy" is...
And a little "extension of unemployment benefits" THERE with the Government screwing with the private sector and making it less painful for people that actually believe that it's the Government's job to "produce Jobs."
And right now it's pretty much certain that over 75% of our population would die within a year if all of our so called "infrastructure" went away and they were left to their own capabilities and devices.
Think April 1776 in America.
Of course some would just take their guns and run out and rob and kill and steal to get food and the other "stuff" that they believe that they needed.
And some would just wander around aimlessly and fall off a clift or into a river and die.
And then all of the Democrats would run out of other people's money to spend and they'd all be tar and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail (to quote Samuel Clemmons.)
And then you know what else might happen?
The PRODUCERS...
the people like me and some of you that have benefited from and in the day helped start this country and make it great at times in its history...
They'd end up being in charge and owning stuff and making stuff again.
Somewhere I read where if you took all of the wealth in the entire world and divided it up and distributed it equally to every single person on the planet, that within 100 years the same groups/nationalities/races of people would have most of the money and the same groups/nationality/races of people would be broke.
It's not about fairness and equality and government driven "income redistribution".
It's not racism and bigotry.
Other than catastrophic illness or birth defects or certain unspecified issues, in general I say that it is a CULTURAL PROBLEM which puts people in the position they are in in life.
Drop out of a free 12 year government paid education...?
Minimum wage.
Get pregnant twice before you are 16?
WIC and Welfare.
Sit your lazy ass on the couch and smoke Crack and clean your pistols all day?
Prison.
It's just that simple...and I'M FREAKING TIRED OF LISTENING TO THE POLITICIANS TELLING ME THAT I DON'T PAY MY FAIR SHARE--EVEN AT MY CURRENT TEMPORARY INCOME LEVEL--and that somehow if we can just throw some more of yours and my money at the problem we'll solve this situation.
President Johnson swore that Welfare would help bring the "less fortunate" people out of poverty.
Almost 50 years later all it has done is paid people to stay in the situation the government defines as poverty, living a a lifestyle level which is considered middle class in many European countries.
I'm so tired of this stupid crap my head wants to explode every day. I write about it here to let off steam and to keep Pat from beating me with her Dustbuster.
We can't even watch TV together most of the time other than game shows because I start foaming at the mouth and yelling.
My dog gets all concerned and afraid and goes and hides in her crate because she thinks something is wrong if I'm watching CNN or NBC or CBS news.
AhhhhhHHHHHH
ahhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Clunk (the sound of me falling out of my chair.)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Obama Still Full Of Crap
He Needs A Good Ass Whoopin' Economics Lesson...
In writing this blog posting this morning I assume that probably 99% of my readers are non-pilots, and further, I assume that 99.9% of my readers both don't own a "Corporate Aircraft" including piston engine/turboprop/jet and have also never flown on a "Corporate Aircraft" in their entire life.
I have had that experience several times--flying on a "Corporate Aircraft"--and I wasn't going on vacation (and it was somebody else's "Corporate Aircraft.")
That said, I want to make a couple of points here about our disingenuous President's commentary and constant harping on "Corporate Jets" and "Corporate Jet Owners."
First of all, just like motor homes and tour buses owned by famous musicians and some athletes like NASCAR drivers and others, "Corporate Jets" are not a LUXURY.
They are a time saving NECESSITY for them to conduct the business which they do.
It is much safer and much less time consuming, if you are the owner of a successful business, to be able to have your plane on standby on an hour's notice and be able to drive over to the airport (possibly in your private limousine), get on your "Corporate Jet" and blast off across country from Knoxville to Houston or where ever when ever to attend a meeting and possibly get a new order or correct a dire problem on one of your existing projects.
Yes, a perk to owning a "Corporate Jet" is being able to also use it to fly to St. Simons Island or Aruba or Micronesia on vacation, but by in large the hours on the engines and airframe of most of the "Millionaires and Billionaires" "Corporate Jets" are generally afforded to business purposes.
Heck, it takes me two hours on the Kayak Website to make a decision about an air fair and hotel every time I leave town, and the "Corporate Jet Owner" can be out of town this morning and back in town this afternoon and doesn't even need to stay in a Bedbug infested hotel room overnight in the process.
He or She doesn't even need to pack luggage.
Yet President Obama, in his never ending campaign of Class Warfare, continues to sprinkle in the words "Corporate Jets" almost every single time he opens his stupid Race Baiting mouth.
And you know what?
President Obama is the EXACT person which signed into law in his original STIMULUS BILL in 2009 the CURRENT set of IRS rules allowing the accelerated depreciation of business assets like "Corporate Jets" which he and the other Democrats are constantly bitching and complaining about on a daily basis.
I tried to do some research to find out exactly how many corporate jets are already in service and how many are actually rolling out of the factories annually, but I ran out of patience. I do know that there are less than 200 Gulfstream V's out there and I think if you add LearJet and Cessna Citation and the other brands together I pretty well believe that there are not a total of 1,000 new "Corporate Jets" built and sold each year...
WORLD WIDE.
And yet this idiot we have elected President insists on hanging the words "Corporate Jets" onto and around and in the middle of every speech and every written document that comes out of his office.
This is stupid shit...Ladies and Gentlemen.
If you put a 100% tax on every "Corporate Jet", you know what would happen?
Every "Corporate Jet" builder would go out of business.
If you think back, the Congress already tried that tactic with the 1984 "Luxury Tax" on cars (automobiles) and boats (Yachts) and airplanes ("Corporate Jets") which cost over $100,000.
It ended up nearly putting everybody in those businesses out of business before they re-thought their "non-thinking" and understood that adding a tax to a product in facts discourages the production and use of that product.
They use the exact logic on Tobacco under the guise of taxation reducing the number of people smoking cigarettes, but they reverse the logic when it comes to "Corporate Jets" thinking taxation won't actually kill jobs as the production of "Corporate Jets" declines
What a bunch of stupid dumbasses we have in government.
Think about this crap before November 2012, and try not to vote like a Dumbass yourself...
Please?
In writing this blog posting this morning I assume that probably 99% of my readers are non-pilots, and further, I assume that 99.9% of my readers both don't own a "Corporate Aircraft" including piston engine/turboprop/jet and have also never flown on a "Corporate Aircraft" in their entire life.
I have had that experience several times--flying on a "Corporate Aircraft"--and I wasn't going on vacation (and it was somebody else's "Corporate Aircraft.")
That said, I want to make a couple of points here about our disingenuous President's commentary and constant harping on "Corporate Jets" and "Corporate Jet Owners."
First of all, just like motor homes and tour buses owned by famous musicians and some athletes like NASCAR drivers and others, "Corporate Jets" are not a LUXURY.
They are a time saving NECESSITY for them to conduct the business which they do.
It is much safer and much less time consuming, if you are the owner of a successful business, to be able to have your plane on standby on an hour's notice and be able to drive over to the airport (possibly in your private limousine), get on your "Corporate Jet" and blast off across country from Knoxville to Houston or where ever when ever to attend a meeting and possibly get a new order or correct a dire problem on one of your existing projects.
Yes, a perk to owning a "Corporate Jet" is being able to also use it to fly to St. Simons Island or Aruba or Micronesia on vacation, but by in large the hours on the engines and airframe of most of the "Millionaires and Billionaires" "Corporate Jets" are generally afforded to business purposes.
Heck, it takes me two hours on the Kayak Website to make a decision about an air fair and hotel every time I leave town, and the "Corporate Jet Owner" can be out of town this morning and back in town this afternoon and doesn't even need to stay in a Bedbug infested hotel room overnight in the process.
He or She doesn't even need to pack luggage.
Yet President Obama, in his never ending campaign of Class Warfare, continues to sprinkle in the words "Corporate Jets" almost every single time he opens his stupid Race Baiting mouth.
And you know what?
President Obama is the EXACT person which signed into law in his original STIMULUS BILL in 2009 the CURRENT set of IRS rules allowing the accelerated depreciation of business assets like "Corporate Jets" which he and the other Democrats are constantly bitching and complaining about on a daily basis.
I tried to do some research to find out exactly how many corporate jets are already in service and how many are actually rolling out of the factories annually, but I ran out of patience. I do know that there are less than 200 Gulfstream V's out there and I think if you add LearJet and Cessna Citation and the other brands together I pretty well believe that there are not a total of 1,000 new "Corporate Jets" built and sold each year...
WORLD WIDE.
And yet this idiot we have elected President insists on hanging the words "Corporate Jets" onto and around and in the middle of every speech and every written document that comes out of his office.
This is stupid shit...Ladies and Gentlemen.
If you put a 100% tax on every "Corporate Jet", you know what would happen?
Every "Corporate Jet" builder would go out of business.
If you think back, the Congress already tried that tactic with the 1984 "Luxury Tax" on cars (automobiles) and boats (Yachts) and airplanes ("Corporate Jets") which cost over $100,000.
It ended up nearly putting everybody in those businesses out of business before they re-thought their "non-thinking" and understood that adding a tax to a product in facts discourages the production and use of that product.
They use the exact logic on Tobacco under the guise of taxation reducing the number of people smoking cigarettes, but they reverse the logic when it comes to "Corporate Jets" thinking taxation won't actually kill jobs as the production of "Corporate Jets" declines
What a bunch of stupid dumbasses we have in government.
Think about this crap before November 2012, and try not to vote like a Dumbass yourself...
Please?
Monday, September 12, 2011
Goin' To Mexico (Beach)
Two Weeks In Paradise
Unless something really weird or stupid happens, this week I'll spend half my time making a long list and packing up stuff for me and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup in anticipation of a two week saga down through Alabama and into and onto the Florida Panhandle.
Week Number 1, beginning next Sunday, will involve attending the celebration of my Dear Aunt Mary's 90th birthday in middle Alabama, before proceeding south to the Farm for a week.
I'm sure that if the weather holds out I'll get to stand on the roof for a while cleaning gutters and probably have some other maintenance issues like fallen trees on the fences and stuff to take care of, but hopefully the Turbo Pup can go fishing with me and attack some Bream and Catfish over the next five days.
Then the following Friday we're heading down to our Timeshare Condo in Panama City Beach for a week...this being something like the 25th year or so we've visited the place...just to sit on my fat butt and do virtually nothing but a little cooking and drinking and possibly some deep sea fishing over that next seven day period.
Of course we have high speed Internet everywhere we'll be staying and Pat can work when she needs to and I can work if anyone wants me to also---those opportunities being sort of few and far between right now, but any way...
I was fooling around the Internet tonight and found a couple of more of my favorite James Taylor songs posted on YouTUBE from the same session of recordings made at his home in Martha's Vinyard that I posted previously.
Here's "Mexico"...and we'll be having dinner in Mexico Beach Florida one night...and "Smiling Face"...which is what my face hopefully is going to be doing over the next two or three weeks
(OH...as an inside joke I just have to ask..."what's WRONG with your FACE"...Rusty???)
And you're WELCOME...
Unless something really weird or stupid happens, this week I'll spend half my time making a long list and packing up stuff for me and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup in anticipation of a two week saga down through Alabama and into and onto the Florida Panhandle.
Week Number 1, beginning next Sunday, will involve attending the celebration of my Dear Aunt Mary's 90th birthday in middle Alabama, before proceeding south to the Farm for a week.
I'm sure that if the weather holds out I'll get to stand on the roof for a while cleaning gutters and probably have some other maintenance issues like fallen trees on the fences and stuff to take care of, but hopefully the Turbo Pup can go fishing with me and attack some Bream and Catfish over the next five days.
Then the following Friday we're heading down to our Timeshare Condo in Panama City Beach for a week...this being something like the 25th year or so we've visited the place...just to sit on my fat butt and do virtually nothing but a little cooking and drinking and possibly some deep sea fishing over that next seven day period.
Of course we have high speed Internet everywhere we'll be staying and Pat can work when she needs to and I can work if anyone wants me to also---those opportunities being sort of few and far between right now, but any way...
I was fooling around the Internet tonight and found a couple of more of my favorite James Taylor songs posted on YouTUBE from the same session of recordings made at his home in Martha's Vinyard that I posted previously.
Here's "Mexico"...and we'll be having dinner in Mexico Beach Florida one night...and "Smiling Face"...which is what my face hopefully is going to be doing over the next two or three weeks
(OH...as an inside joke I just have to ask..."what's WRONG with your FACE"...Rusty???)
And you're WELCOME...
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9/11
Ten Years Later And We're Still Under Attack...
What a Freak Show we have for both an elected government and their appointees.
Pray for the victims and their surviving families of the horror which struck our country a decade ago, and pray that it won't be further politicized or disrespected by a group of people which only think of themselves and their power and political gain.
My head hurts just thinking about this crowd, so I guess I'll go now.
Regards Y'all...
What a Freak Show we have for both an elected government and their appointees.
Pray for the victims and their surviving families of the horror which struck our country a decade ago, and pray that it won't be further politicized or disrespected by a group of people which only think of themselves and their power and political gain.
My head hurts just thinking about this crowd, so I guess I'll go now.
Regards Y'all...
