Blacklidge

Pomegranate Secrets

 

How To De-Seed A Pomegranate with Martha Stewart 

http://youtu.be/Y_KKvqQ2QxUMartha Stewart-how to open a pomegranate

Cry Babies And Sore Losers-Taken From Liberals Unite, An Internet News Magazine

I really wish I wrote as well as this, this man says it all.

Cry Babies And Sore Losers

I’m seeing Americans post photos of our Flag hung upside down because the President won reelection. They’re defending this action as a “Naval sign of distress”. Let me tell you something: you are not on a battleship, you are a manager at McDonalds in Follansbee, WV, and you are in fact, a lunatic.

I’ve avoided “spiking the football” over a great night for the President and for common sense in the Senate – Richard Murdock and Todd Akin deserved more than a loss. But I’ve held off, because I respect, am friends with, and on certain issues agree with, many patriotic Republicans who work hard to make this country a better place and simply disagreed with who should be Commander in Chief. That’s fair and healthy.

And, I also didn’t spike the football because I’ve lost elections before and I know how terrible it feels.

It’s called maturity and not enough people in either party have it.

The following jaw punch is not directed at common sense Republicans, nor does it condone radicals on the Left. It is directed at the right wing fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and ideology before science and intellect.

To Tea Party Patriots and hardcore Religious Engineers:

Republicans lost because their party leadership and most candidates feared you, listened to you, and looked the other way on important issues as you picked the dumbest, craziest nominees in key primaries (Murdock and Akin), or converted otherwise sensible, experienced candidates to Crazy Town (Romney).

There’s nothing wrong with wanting limited government. I do. There’s nothing wrong with believing in God, the Golden Rule, or wanting to reduce abortions. I do, too. But you’ve taken it too damn far and scare the shit out of people you could otherwise persuade.

Yes, the message and messenger matter (you’re failing at both, BTW), but no Madison Avenue P.R. firm, K Street lobbying firm, Fox News “analyst”, or local chapter of “Freedom Works” can sell the flaming dung you’re slinging.

Smart people can lose. But smart people always learn.

You didn’t lose because you “weren’t conservative enough” or because the country has become full of lazy “takers” who don’t want to earn a living or just want America to “turn in to Europe”.

You didn’t lose because of Hurricane Sandy or because Chris Christie hugged the President on TV – they were both doing their jobs.

You didn’t lose because of a liberal media, liberal college campuses, liberal polls that were “weighted to Democrats” (mostly because they were accurate), or because of “election fraud”… actually, that probably benefited you this time.

No. You lost because your policies, tone, conspiracies, rigid inflexibility and irrational rhetoric helped align enough moderates, swing voters, and minority groups whom otherwise could be persuaded by Republicans, to align with Democrats and a beatable incumbent.

It’s not that you didn’t get your message out, it’s that we all actually heard it and threw up a little in our mouths.

There isn’t a mandate for Democrats in this election. Liberalism wasn’t rewarded in this election. However, calm pragmatism, compassion, working together, compromise and sincerity were rewarded. People may not have agreed with President Obama, but more felt he was sincere and that he understood their daily problems, fears, and dreams. If you don’t trust what the polls say, take a look at who is sworn in on January 20th. I thought you’d at least believe in Math when it came to counting to 270.

Sincerity is the only thing in politics you can’t fake. You can’t teach it. No matter how shiny a candidate’s bio is, how smooth he is, or how perfect the gray hairs rest on his temples — any average Joe on the street can spot a bullshitter.

Mitt is a generous and good man, but he didn’t know who he was or “needed” to be at any given time in that campaign. That’s largely his fault for lacking core convictions or personal toughness (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed both traits – that’s why they won).

But you, the right wing base of the party, who drove so many of us moderate republicans out the door years ago, were the main catalyst. Your inability to reason, compromise, or let new facts and evidence challenge your predetermined outcomes led millions of moderates to no longer be able to stand on stage with you.

Frankly, you’re embarrassing – more so than a crazy family member at dinner, or having your mom drop you off at a high school dance.

You say stupid shit and look stupid saying it.

You pass amendments to ban flag burning and then hang it upside down and post it on Facebook when you lose.

You preach limited government in the economy when Democrats are in charge and then look the other way when you’re in charge.

You want a government small enough to stay out of corporations and banks but big enough for bedrooms and hospital respirators (see Schiavo, Terri).

There’s a hatred inside of you that burns in a way that scares normal people.

You made unlikely allies in large corporations who are more interested in tax breaks and loopholes even if the government has to cut your Medicare and Social Security or cut education to a point where states and local governments have no financial choice but to educate your children in portable trailer classrooms with 35 other students.

Would these corporations do this just to help pad their quarterly earnings reports with certain tax and regulatory policies? You bet your sweet ass they do. And you better believe they’re happy to have you make the “freedom” argument as “concerned citizen patriots” on their behalf.

Yet, after those corporations spent billions on TV adds and herded you like sheep over the last half decade to discredit Barack Obama for everything from being a “Godless communist” — to his “being born in Kenya and hatching a secret plot to take down America” — to Obamacare’s “death panels and job killing regulations” -

YOU still lost.

After having a Senate Republican Leader state that his party’s top priority in Congress was to make “Obama a one term President” and a House of Representatives that blocked everything he tried to do and then had the brass to criticize him for “not getting anything done” -

YOU still lost.

After attacking gay people who want equal protection under the law (BTW, I’m referring to the 14th amendment to the constitution, I know you forget most of the amendments after the 2nd one) -

YOU still lost.

After attacking the Hispanic community who’s tired of being spoken “at” like criminals, attacking low income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services of which 98% have nothing to do with abortion, and attacking relatively trivial things like PBS that children and adults enjoy as “1″ damn television channel that doesn’t include Honey Boo Boo or a “Fox News Breaking Alert” announcing Obama’s latest “Czar” appointment -

YOU still lost.

And after throwing all the red meat in your warped political base out to the rest of the country to eat, the majority of Americans weren’t hungry for it and didn’t trust ordering from your unhealthy, de-regulated menu -

YOU still lost.

You can read me the constitution, but you clearly don’t have a practical understanding of what you’ve read, heard on television, or forwarded to your entire email list of like minded xenophobes.

This country is great because our founders were smart enough to limit the government’s power and give the people enough freedom and authority to correct their own mistakes in pursuit of a “more perfect union” (it’s in the first damn line of the Preamble, in case you can’t find it in your Tea Party Constitution Cliffs Notes).

Our founders were utterly brilliant and sophisticated. I don’t like to speak for them, but I doubt they would have been friends with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. Nah, they wouldn’t have made the guest list at Mt. Vernon or Monticello.

But let’s be clear, our founders weren’t perfect. They owned slaves. Only White male property owners had a say in things. Women, blacks, native americans, and other constituencies had to wait for an American dream and in many cases, are still waiting and working for it. Speaking of work, children were working 12-16 hour days with zero safety protections in statute. Zero.

The constitution, subsequent amendments and Supreme Court rulings and opinions since 1800 aren’t perfectly clear (those who think they are tend to have had a healthy serving of Kool-Aid and have never watched oral arguments at the Supreme Court).

The founders knew that they, and the constitution they drafted, weren’t perfect. This is why they added a Bill of Rights and why they created a Supreme Court and a process that has allowed us to add 27 amendments to their work of art.

Their imperfection is what led to a Civil War to prove that human and civil rights aren’t a “states’ rights issue” – they’re endowed by our creator, not by legislatures in Mississippi or Alabama, and they’re protected equally in our constitution, but also in our democratically passed laws.

I run from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial most mornings that I’m in Washington. I may not be fast or smart, but I can read what’s carved in stone.

Please. I welcome a challenge to what I’ve said. If you think because I voted for President Obama that I’m a socialist or that I don’t want a better America, I’m happy to take time from running a business I’ve co-founded and time from money I’m trying to raise for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to pause and give you a fresh one. At no charge.

But I do ask this: be a real Patriot. Look at that flag you’ve hung upside down. Look at what you’ve done to it and what that means. Thousands of our bravest men and women, braver than me, just lost limbs and in many cases their lives so that Iraqis and Afghanis could vote however they see fit. I did that on Tuesday and so did you. That’s what that flag stands for – equal access to a process, not a guarantee for any of our desired outcomes.

A country that defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and bin Laden won’t crumble because the guy you wanted to be President got beat.

You lost. Now learn from it.

Sincerely,

Guest Contributor, Rob Ellsworth, “A Proud American”

They Came, Wrapped in a Flag

Who can forget the image of Sarah Palin, wrapped in an American flag? Quoted was Sinclair Lewis,

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” It amazes me how the Republicans in theis country seem to think they are so ultra patriotic and yet condone the cheating, voter suppression and disgusting vilification of our current president, President Barack Obama. Not just that they are patriotic but that the Democrats aren't patriotic at all. It's like there is a disconnect that they can't jump over. Most people I know are comfortable in their beliefs about America, about how we are governed and we don't need the other side to try to shame us into aligning ourselves with their idiotic political ideas. The fact of the matter is that all the efforts that the right put into this last election were borderline treasonous. Trying to send an army of grey haired thugs to the polling station with ambiguous roles to confuse and muddle anyone that they deemed the "other side" was not such a great idea. The amounts of money put in by the religious right and the non-religious right, (read wealthy, old, white people) is amazing in scope. I wonder how the morning after was for the billionaires that paid all that "black" money out and got almost nothing in return? While all of these people seem to have the same goals, in reality, the rich class are leading the religious people along to do their bidding. Fooled for years, a long running scam that keeps Americans perpetually fighting with each other. Not to forget some of the other techniques employed by the right wingers in this last outing, let's mention a few more. Sending out false information about where and when to vote. Restricting early voting in areas that are predominately Democratic. Not legally registering huge stacks, 10,000 that we know about, of people who leaned Democratic, (Mississippi). Deliberately trying to suppress the numbers of voters knowing the numbers were against them.Trying to clear the voting rolls just before the presidential election. How about publicising how voter fraud is rampant and must be stamped out, all the while working their own gambits of voter fraud. There are more of these instances but I can't think of all of them now. You get the picture. Listening to the aftermath and play by plays on the news, it gives me hope that several things may be occurring naturally. One, that the Tea Party hit its peak in 2010 and will never cause as many headaches as before again. Two, that the minority and female participation ensures that the Ol' boys party can never dominate by the numbers. Of course, they keep thinking of new ways to cheat and rile up the unfortunates that follow them but the numbers are against them. I am hopeful but this was such a bitter contest and there are so many angry right wing people now, being incited to riot and revolt ans things like that. I remember how unutterably sad I was when Shrub Bush  his second term, ( by hook or by crook!). My side wanted to move away. I know the Republicans are sad and outraged, but they threaten to do bad things to our country, to take things into their own hands, which they weren't able to do the legal way. With leaders like Ann Coulter, Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh, ( to name but a few of the most objectionable), they are goosed and prodded into outrage. It isn't pretty to watch. I say that these people and all the ones that tried to obstruct the age old voting process should be held as treasonous. Inciting people to throw over a legally elected president seems just that. Treasonous.

Sinclair Lewis quotes (American Writer, 1885-1951)

Racism, Alive and Well in Ajo, Arizona

And every other town in America. Most of them don't even try to hide it.

 

By accident, I found myself in Ajo today. Nice little place to spend the winter, especially if you get one of those cool, old houses in the historic district. Funny thing, saw a church sign when I went down the main drag. It said, "Our leaders should look like Jesus" or something like that. I meant to take a picture but I forgot. Anyhoo.....when I got over cussing at them, I started laughing because as most people know, that beautiful Jesus you see in all the literature of today is merely a composite and sort of a wish list made up of years of priests and preachers idea of Jesus. So here is depiction of modern day Jesus next to a CGI model of what he probably really looked like. It was based on the times, the area he came from and other factors like that. Hmm...what on earth could that preacher in that rundown, ratty looking church meant by his hate filled sign? I think there should be some new legislation after this election.  Tax the churches. Oh, yeah, big time. I bet they'd keep their big, fat mouths shut next time.  I could go on, but why? I am so disgusted with so many of the citizens of this country. Hey, stand up and call them what they are when they throw it out there. Racists!  Obama\ Biden, 2012 

Time Drags On As 11 Million Americans Sweat It

 Time marches on and still no resolution to the problems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac customers. While all around us, mortgages that were written as Conventional loans have been modified, principle and interest. The man in charge of these agencies, a Bush era appointee named Ed DeMarco, doesn't feel like we all deserve his consideration. I don't know if this person has thought about the emotional cost his obstruction is causing, I don't know if he cares. His rich handlers want to hold onto their money, of course, while Americans stay in stagnant loans, stagnant homes and stagnant situations with no hope of ever getting out of them. I have been looking on line for cheap properties, in hopes of finding a place to move to that maybe we can pay for before we retire. Certainly not this house, I owe more on it than I will ever be able to pay, more than ten years of increasing values will ever overtake. I love to read comments from snarky people online about how we, the 11 million of us that are upside down, are all takers and leaches. I figure there were another 11 or 12 million people who have already lost their houses, people who got in over their heads, were qualified by by mortgage brokers for houses they should have never have been looking at. Those are the houses already sitting on the market. Now let's take a look at who is buying those nice repos, usually priced well below the current market. Well, there are the investors, looking for a bunch of rentals. There are individuals who happen to be in a good position now to acquire a home. There are people who have had to sell in another city, now free to scoop up something but probably not able to get much out of their old house. Lots of variations here. Now, who has a house for sale? Not me, why bother to try? What about the people who bought from, let's say, 2000-2004. They paid a fair price and they have been paying their payments, towing the line for all these years. Now they want to take advantage of the great, low prices all around. Can they sell their houses and "move on up" to something new? They aren't the bad guys, they did everything right but they can't get much for their houses, too many foreclosures on the block, prices too low. What about the fools who bought from 2004 to 2008? Needed a house; the market was high, but fear that it would get higher drove people to carry on and secure someplace to live. Maybe they had transferred or maybe promoted, need to move into a new place. You go where you need to go, you pay the price that is current and you hope you'll be able to sell it someday if you have to move again. Then, the bubble broke and we were all messed up. I bought my house in 2006 and it is worth half what I paid for it. All the years of owning it will never bring it back up to anywhere near the price I paid.Not to mention the fact that most people buy a house to amass some wealth, some savings that occurs as you pay it down. I could pay on this for 20 years and have very little to show for it.  So what do I do? I was qualified for it, I had a good job, as did my spouse, and  I had no way of knowing that the economy would be falling apart when it did. All this being said, I don't want to be a victim. What angers me is the fact that the banks here in America are sitting on great big piles of money and they don't want to reverse the trend of their greed and carelessness. None, not one, of them has even been questioned about how this came about and how they all seem to have landed on their feet so nicely. The only financial person to have been tried and sent to jail is Bernie Madoff. Why? Because he ripped off wealthy people. That just reeks of mendacity and I think that something should be done about it. I keep thinking they are trying to run out the statute of limitations before any government official takes notice of all this. Yes, I am a bit bitter but I am so afraid to just turn it over to the bank. What if Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae change the rules the day after I give up? The whole thing would then become some kind of macabre episode in my life. The banks are ok, good news! The regular folks, not so much so because there are so many aspects of this scenario where we are have been hurt. Not just financially, emotionally as well. If I walk away from my house of 6 years, all of my carefully tended landscape will die, all of the things we have done to make our house a home will be wasted. The banks, as if to stick to a new set of owners, specifically mandate that no one can water the property, even after it is under contract. The arrogance that the banks have risen to is frightening. Despite the fact that circumstances have all conspired to mess things up, there would still be a sense of personal failure. Let's add that feeling to the reality of what this horrible economy has done to the average person and it really is an emotional struggle to stay above it all.

This is political, it is very political. The Congressional creeps in power in Washington need to face up to the bankers and resolve this. One fell swoop by the government would completely clean up the sluggish housing market. This is what is making our economy so ugly. If the housing market was free to adjust to normal, jobs would open up and things would be better all over.  

Since this is one of my most viewed posts, I thought I would maybe add some more to it. The man that wrote it really hit the nail on the head. Foreclosure Review Sample Letter

 

The Bee's Knees

 

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They say it is unnecessary to feed the wildlife in our area, just keep water available and they can find their own food. Certain times of the year, this is even more evident.

Clouds-August 2012

 

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Just another shitty day in paradise!

Sprouts buys Sunflower Market

Well, you all seem to like my story about Trader Joe's vs. Sprouts

(Trader Joes VS Sprouts-NW Tucson's Dilemma ), so, just to fill you all in, Sprouts went and bought up their main competitor, Sunflower Markets. There was only one of the Sprouts stores, across from Trader Joe's in Oro Valley. Now, there will be five total because there were 4 Sunflowers. I like them both but I like Sprouts best and of course, I always go to Trader Joes for certain things like coffee and such.

Money Threatens To Overwhelm Election

 

Today brings sobering news of the big piles of money the Mittens Romney is hauling in. It is something to be concerned about, true, but there are a couple of angles to view this from. Who is donating all of this money and what about the Super Pacs? Are they counting that in? Are the old, white Republicans scraping the bottom of their tea pots and sending all that in? Some, maybe, but it is mostly the other rich folks that are building up his coffers.Remember last election, Obama got millions in from the rank and file Democrats. Even though they don't seem to be breaking out the cash this time, maybe it is all relative. Maybe in comparison, it just doesn't seem enough this time. We know the rich folks are lining up to elect that elitist, little creep Mittens, so it's natural that they are giving all they can to him. Maybe their maximum trumps the $5-$10 bucks the idealists are sending to Obama.

That may be, but even if they have lots more spending cash, it doesn't mean they are automatically going to win. As a former advertising person, I know that a quality use of the money that you do have can be effective against a larger expenditure of funds. In other words, work smart, not hard. Make every ad count, use alternative methods, be strategic in placement and even if we don't have as much as the richie-riches of the world, we still have a big bunch of money to spend. Last election, Obama's people were so smart in the way they ran the campaign. Don't let their big bucks intimidate you guys, be like the pit bull in the back yard, "Sic "em."

It has to be pointed out, early and often, that this man cannot and will not represent the majority of Americans. The people that hate Obama may never be convinced but the fence sitters might be and we need to target them. It also has to be pointed out, as much as possible, that this Republican has huge, huge amounts of his own money. Not a few million, but millions and millions and yet he seems so low class and sleazy. Yeah, sleazy is a real good word for him and his pathetic wife. Show them in your ads, with their poor, dead dog, their crippled horse that they pawned off on some other unsuspecting rich people. These are just what we already know, there must be many more unsavory things to go after him with. I know, I know, that is sooo negative. You have to know at this point, if Obama doesn't go down and dirty and do it soon, it won't matter how much money both of them waste on this quest. Tax returns are an issue, get on it, Team Obama, every day! Go after this from every angle that make Mittens look bad. Use other Dems money, too. get after them!

Major Decisions Loom

 

So, we again find ourselves with a national election on the horizon. It's tense while the opposing sides spend millions to help us decide. The Super Pacs alone have spent more already than both sides in thelast election. All of this loose money being spent really breaks my heart. How many poor people could be fed with that money and how many teachers, firefolk and cops could be hired with it? Why do these politicians spend so much money to win us over, why is that power that they win so important? They can't want to get elected for the salary, it just isn't up to the standards of the private sector. The bankers and lobbyist make piles and piles of loot, every year. No, politicians aren't trying to get in for the money offered there. 352 members of Congress have left office since 1978 and 79% of them have worked as lobbyist since then. Hmmm...I guess we just never put two and two together; we trusted them to do their jobs for the reasons they were elected. Nearly 42% of the House are already millionaires and 67% of the Senate are in the same club, and they are the ones that will decide on how to tax the rich. Ha, funny that. For years, we let them just do whatever they wanted to do with only an occasional hiccup and their income has dramatically risen since 2008. Since the Occupy movement last year, we have been paying more and more attention to their actions and it is sobering. 

I am an Obama supporter, you don't need to look far on social networks or this blog to figure that out. I'm sure he will be rich when he is done, even though he was a pretty ordinary professor married to a lawyer before his election. I think he deserves to be rich after all the hideous things said and done toward him in the last 3 years. The vile ugliness that has surfaced in America makes me squirm in embarrassment, No matter how the Tea Party claims to be non racists, their words and actions show differently. Say and do what you will, Barack Obama will go down in history as the first black president and one that did the best he could with an almost constant onslaught of negativity and hatefulness. That being said, let's look at the opposition in this election. Mittens Romney, famous bon vivant and rich guy, lying and shrugging off huge deficits in character as he goes. The Republican party has fooled millions of poor and middle class people into thinking that he is worthy of the barest consideration. As a woman, once firmly ensconced in the middle class, I find him repugnant. He is not for me, he is not for anyone unless they are very, very wealthy. Why is that these hood-winked sorts think it perfectly fine to hound Obama about his Hawaiian birth but it is perfectly okay to have all of your money offshore in places where the IRS can't go? That is about as un-American as any presidential candidate has ever been. Add to that, Romney sent thousand of good paying industrial jobs overseas. These jobs will never be back, and he can no more "fix" our economy for the better than the man in the moon. Yet, Faux news has found a way to sell him to the lame,fuzzy brained of the right. They sold him piecemeal to to the public. To the anti-abortionists, hell, he's (now) against abortion. To the 1st Amendment folks, he's going to save their guns, even though Obama has never done a thing to try to restrict them. A little bit here, a little bit there and all the poor and middle class on the right have bought it, hook, line and sinker. 

The economy may be a problem for Obama in the fall but he has tried every step of the way to get it going. The Republicans have blocked him any way they could, every step of the way. Yes, he had a Democratic majority when he started but he underestimated how far the Republicans would go to stop him once they took control. Once he finally realized that they would never, for any reason, help him, it was almost too late. How the Republicans can justify complete and utter blockage of anything that might help us, I'll never know. It should be considered treason to give a pledge to Grover Norquist and abandon the people that elected you.

I think we will look back on this time in history as one of the bleakest periods of our contry. That is, if we get out from under the grasp of the ultra wealthy and are able to get back on track as a nation. If not, the history books will be written a whole different way.