Martin Luther King Speech Anniversary

Or maybe I should have titled this rant Democratic Campaign Speech.  I do have to admit that I didn't watch the speeches.  Quite frankly, I forgot about it.  I do remember the original day and the speeches.  I was between jobs and watched.

But I digress.  Have you looked at the list of speakers?  Presidents Obama, Clinton and Carter.  Do you notice anyone missing?  Were either of the Presidents Bush invited?

None of the other speakers were conservative blacks.  Where were they?  The few snippets of speeches I heard didn't praise Dr. King.  He was a man of principals, he truly believed in his cause and was willing to take responsibility for his actions.  He was a man of peace.

There has been a lot of progress toward true equality in the past 50 years thanks to Dr. King and his peaceful crusade.  We need more leaders like him.

Fort Hood Shooter

I just saw the news that the Ft. Hood shooter has gotten the death penalty.  Even though he does deserve it, I'm disappointed.

He should have gotten life.  He wanted the death penalty so he could be a martyr for his cause.  We gave him just what he wanted.

If I were in charge, I would have given him life and since he is paralyzed and will need medical care, he would have had a female doctor assigned to him for his care.  Radical muslims like him tend to consider women as lower, inferior members of the human race.  Being cared for by a woman for life would be a wonderful punishment.

Giving him what he wants is certainly no punishment and will only give encouragement to other radicals to become martyrs for their cause.

Soapbox Time

The recent senseless murders in Oklahoma and Washington make my blood boil.  This is one more example of the deterioration of respect of any kind in our country.

The males arrested in this case claimed they were bored so they decided to kill someone.  Of course, some in the media blame this on the fact that there are no jobs.  They don't want to mention some of the other reasons. 

In the other case of the WWII veteran who was beaten and left for dead, I haven't heard any reason for the attack, except that it was a probable robbery.  What cowards those males are, two young, strong men against an elderly man.

There is no respect for human life in this country.  An injured or abused animal gets more attention than the abuse of a person.  If these males in Oklahoma and Washington had abused an animal, there would have an outcry in all the media.

Now, I'm going to be HUGELY POLITICALLY INCORRECT.  I wonder if any think tank would be courageous enough to do a study on the increase in violence across our country since the supreme court issued their decision in Roe V. Wade. 

I truly believe that since some people believe abortion is OK when a pregnancy is inconvenient, those some people think there would be no problem in eliminating inconvenient people if they don't hand over their money when you tell them to, or when they're bored and want some excitement.

We need to go back to our original  values of family, respect for others and ourselves.

My Bug

Shortly after I retired, I caught a bug.  I think the bug was always there, but it was dormant.  Since retiring, the bug has gotten stronger with every year.  I think that now it is at its strongest.

You see, I caught the travel bug.  No, it isn't the result of travelling, rather, it causes travelling.  After I retired, I was content with one trip a year and a visit to my son in Seattle.  Sometimes I combined the two trips - driving cross country and ending with a visit in Seattle.  One year, I took the train to Seattle, that was a good way to visit my son and also try a train trip. 

Now, the travel bug seems to have gotten out of control.  This year I have two trips, plus my trip to Seattle along with one or two short driving trips.  So far, I've already booked two trips for next year.

These trips don't help me meet my goal of visiting every presidential home/library.  So far, I've visited four - Kennedy, Truman, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower.  As you can see, my visits have been bi-partisan.

I think I should cut back on the big trips and concentrate on the presidential trips.  I could cover three presidents in Texas (LB Johnson and GHW Bush and GW Bush), then another year to California for Reagan and Nixon.  Washington and Jefferson could be covered in a road trip.

Guess I better get busy making arrangements for these trips before I hear about another big trip.  Do I hear any volunteers for cat sitting?

Gardening

I admit I'm not much of a gardener.  I really don't enjoy playing around in the dirt.  However, every spring I head to my local Lowes and pick up an assortment of herbs.

I usually get 3 or 4 basil plants, some mint, oregano, and as a tribute to Simon and Garfunkle - parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  Most times they don't amount to much, they either die or go to seed before I get a chance to harvest them.

This year is different.  I didn't buy my usual assortment, but did buy about 6 basil plants, some mint, parsley and oregano.  I heard that putting used coffee grounds in the soil feeds the plants, so I thought why not.  I couldn't do any worse than in previous years.

I don't know if it was the coffee, all the rain we had earlier, or after all these years, my thumb has become green.  My basil is thriving.  I have made 5 batches of pesto, plus I've taken some leaves for salads and there is still plenty.  I haven't harvested the mint yet, think I'll do that this week.

 

As you can see, I don't put them into the ground, I keep them in pots.  At the rate they're doing this year, I may be able to take them into the house in the fall.

 

 

While I was checking the plants tonight, I saw a pot of soil from last year that I had abandoned to the elements.  Among the weeds, there seemed to be some basil leaves and on the other side of the pot, some mint leaves.

 

Ah yes, this is a very good year.

 

More Adventures in Cooking

Back in June I wrote about my attempt at General Tao's Chicken.  Well, I'm a very stubborn person and don't like to give up.  I tried again today.

I had my rice and noodles all ready.  I followed the recipe to the letter.  I checked and double checked each instruction. 

Success!  It was very good, but now I know why so many people are afraid to order it, or they ask for it to be less spicy.  It was VERY SPICY.  Maybe I shouldn't have used the crushed red pepper.

I did make one mistake with the meal.

Whenever I try a new recipe, or retry one where I made an error, I always have a glass of wine.  To my way of thinking, if the meal is a disaster, at least I can have a good glass of wine.  Tonight, I chose a nice merlot, one I've had several times before.

Unless you want a really spicy hot experience, don't drink merlot with General Tao's Chicken.  The wine multiplied the effect of the spices, my mouth burned, my lips burned.  Although, it did clear my sinuses.  Maybe that's why they always serve tea at Chinese restaurants.