I’ve always appreciated the fact that here in America we have so many choices. Choices are what define this country. Pretty much. But d*mn if I’m not sick of it.

I hate going to the grocery store. I think the ridiculous amount of choices that are being shoved down our throats there is actually a conspiracy to get us to spend more time (and money) at the store, stress us out and ultimately drive us completely insane, so that we’ll have to then spend even more money at the pharmacy. They’re out to get us folks!

The other day my daughters wanted juice. No…grape juice, to be specific. God damn if there weren’t at least seven kinds of grape juice in the fridge. And that’s not even the juice aisle. I would have had to stand there freezing to death for at least fifteen minutes, looking at the ingredients to see which ones were actually grape juice, which ones had high fructose corn syrup as the first ingredient, which ones were a blend of apple, and various other juices with grape juice down at the bottom of the list of ingredients, which ones were made from concentrate, which ones weren’t….and so on and so forth. After ten minutes I said “f*ckit” out loud (they hate me at Walmart – I’ve become their most vocal shopper.. sorry all you anti-Walmartites for the fact that I shop at Walmart but I’m frugal and price does count in my world), and after this small but distinct vocalization which pretty much summarized my entire universe of feelings with regard to the world of choices available to me at the grocery store, I left with no grape juice in my cart.

There are just too damn many choices. I could go on and on. The water aisle is a mile long. It’s f**king WATER for Christ’s sake.

The snack aisle is ridiculous. How many salty, crunchy, fattening blends of high blood pressure can we come up with and press into a grease-fried wafer? And now they’ve doubled it by baking the wafer, for the more health-conscious of us. Too much!!!

And the cereal aisle. Holy shit on wheels. Forget about it. I don’t even know where to begin with that one. Toxic…that’s a start. Honestly, I’d like to invent cereals for a living. Sugarcoated Pudding Puzzle Pieces (construct your very own 500 piece puzzle while you eat!) …Alien Puffs from Hell (fortified with eight vitamins and minerals and your very own pet alien treasure hiding inside the box! Be careful; its alive!)…Frosted Dipped Whipped Bullshit Flakes, (send in three box tops and $9.99 NOW for your free after breakfast surprise candy-coated bullwhip. What could be more fun than a little after-breakfast breakfast?! Now dance bitch! But eat first.), o.k. I’m getting a little out-of-hand…but it would be sort of fun…

Anyways, so I finally came up with my own little rebellion. This could be sort of anti-climactic (after the cereal aisle) but it works for me. I refuse to buy bread. Ever again. The bread aisle exhausts me. It just kills me walking through that aisle. There are so many versions of bread in that aisle and none of them are real bread. They’re like a bunch of bread imposters, crouching in the shape of a loaf, hiding in plastic. And some of them are downright scary. They will last for six months without even looking old. I don’t trust bread that doesn’t get old. I don’t trust bread that gets rock hard before it molds.

So here it is. I call this my Anti-Too-D*mn-Many-Choices Bread Rebellion. Of course, I’m lazy so this rebellion is one that doesn’t take more than an ounce of work. And my time is precious (I mean, I need at least four hours a day to sit on my arse at my computer). In addition, I pretty much hate cleaning up. I HATE cleaning. This rebellion is a one bowl, no-flour-on-the-counter, to-hell-with-cleaning dealio. This is, in a word or two, the easiest rebellion in the world. I got it from youtube…the guy from the Sullivan Street Bakery in NY has decided to change the world with a bread coup d’état and I’m on board folks. Here’s the link:

I changed the recipe to suit my own particular tastes.

5 cups flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon dry yeast
2 ½ cups water
some honey (I don’t know; maybe three tablespoons give or take)

Mix the dry stuff, throw in the water. Blend til it’s blended. Cover with any old thing – a top to a pan works fine. Let it sit for 12 hours (or longer depending on when you can get to it). It takes two seconds to throw all that together and then I let it sit overnight, and bake it in the morning.

Stick the dough into a couple buttered loaf pans. Bake at 400 for forty minutes. It’s done. I don’t let it rise in the pans a second time…too d*mn much work…not to mention time. The cool thing is, you DON’T have to knead it (like I said, the perfect rebellion for lazy people), and it does get old in a normal amount of time, which is very reassuring in (I guess you could say) a subconscious, primal, Ma and Pa Ingalls, wholesome sort of way. And besides all that, there’s nothing that compares to the smell of fresh baked bread. Nothing!

Yay real food! And to hell with all those d*mn choices. Who needs so many choices when you have the real thing?

Not only do you trust your sources but can you? I get my news from a number of sources, my local newspaper, news channels, on-line news sites and out-of-state newspapers plus international sources. I trust none of them. Why? because they slant the news to fit their agenda. I won’t come right out and say they lie but they have a way of leaving out key parts until it reads different and is meaningless to me.

During the presidential election process, my local paper (the Rocky Mountain News has since ceased publication) slanted their news to favor Obama and I found that insulting to my intelligence. The Rocky lent a lot of space to discrediting McCain while puffing up Obama, he was the media darling. My other local paper, the Denver Post, is doing the same thing but to a lesser extent.

I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, he’s just a talking head for the Republican Party. I used to watch Glenn Beck until he became too hostile with his opinions, almost unAmerican. Bill O’Reilly, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Anderson Cooper all talk for ratings, not to tell the news. Even our own government can’t be trusted to tell us the truth. Remember the Defense Department admitting they engaged in a propaganda campaign in order to put the war in a better light? They actually paid writers to spin their stories into fluff and downplay the harsh truth. There is nothing good about a war, it’s about killing and dying on both sides.

How can we get our reliable news? It takes some digging and adhereing to the age, old truth, “Believe half what you hear and a quarter of what you read”. You have to remember that news writers work for a news agency, whether it be a newspaper, news magazine or news wire. They have a set of policies they have to adhere to or risk losing their jobs. Perhaps the best news reporting came during the Vietnam War, the news came from reporters actually out in the field, seeing with their own eyes what was going on, the horrors of a napalm attack, the incredible savagry of the enemy, all written in vivid words and pictures. I know, I was there.

I’m not saying that all reporters won’t tell the truth but most just don’t put in all the facts and putting their own spin on the news. I prefer to do that myself. All I ask is give me all the news, all the facts and let me make up my own mind.

What are your thoughts on this?

The United States is $2 trillion in debt and each man, woman and child owns $37,000 to the IRS. And that is for the foreseeable future. I won’t live long enough to pay it off as won’t 60% of today’s citizens. Sounds scary? You bet it does. We are being asked in a nice way, as if we have a choice, to tighten our belts and sacrifice for our future. I don’t mind that, I’ve been doing it for years just to survive but to be asked to do it for a bunch of bankers is way beyond reason.

Supposedly AIG, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are too big to allow them to fail. Or so says our elected officials. The effects would be felt worldwide, or so they say. This country would go into a depression, or so they say. What about the average, tax paying American? Are we so small that we can be allowed to go bankrupt, lose our jobs, our homes? AIG wasn’t making money but did make enough to give their officers huge bonuses from the bailout (I call it corporate welfare). Even as we speak, thousands of small businesses are closing their doors, putting thousands of people out of work and in the unemployment line. It is the small business that creates most of the jobs, not corporations.

Now, President Obama is pushing for legislation that would increase the Peace Corps and the Conservation Corps by making it mandatory for young people to perform community service. It looks like the draft is coming back but for civilians. High schoolers would be forced to contribute 100-hours a year to civic projects while giving nothing in return. Does slavery sound familiar?

Yes, there will be an outcry from the populace over increased taxes, corporate bailout, ineffective government and a reduction in our civil liberties. Former President Bush started it by suspending parts of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to suit his agenda. President Obama is prepared to carry it a step further in the coming months.

Homeland Security has begun building, or has built, internment camps on military bases. Under the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR-645) with the excuse of being for a national emergency, i.e. civil unrest, these camps are built to hold those opposing the government and advocating the return of the government to the people. That’s right. Our government is prepared to arrest those who oppose the government and hold them indefinitely as a threat to national security. Can’t happen, you say? It is already happening and if President Obama has his way, those camps will be filled in short order.

Personally, I’m headed for the hills and a safe, if there is such a place, haven where I can’t be found without GPS and a squad of Special Forces soldiers.

The fireworks of explosive comments from Ann Coulter, Meghan McCain and Laura Ingraham aimed at fellow republicans demonstrate the inevitability of all out war between progressive and conservative factions for controll of the republican party.

Conservative Ann Coultre devastated the McCain faction when she said, “I would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than John McCain.”  Meghan McCain, (who supports stem cell research,  gay marriage and describes herself as a progressive republican), campaigned for her father and blasted  Coulter saying, “I find her offensive, radical, insulting and confusing all at the same time. She also said, Coultre represents bad stereotypes of republican women.

Conservative talk radio pundit Laura Ingraham insulted Meghan McCain with derogatory shots aimed at McCains body weight in describing McCain as a “plus size.” McCain fired back saying Laura Ingraham can “Kiss my fat ass.” McCain who claims to presently be a size 8 also said, “I am not overweight in the least - But even if I were overweight, I expected substantive criticism from conservative pundits for my views. That is the nature of political discourse, and my intent was to generate discussions about the current problems facing the republican party.

McCain says she is trying to be a good role model for a new generation of republican women and describes Coultre as being a bad role model for republican woman.

What say you?

A religious figure who basically rules the one of the largest groups in the world. Christians treat him as if they heard the words escape the lips of Jesus Christ himself. But who is he really? A man who found a way to receive millions of dollars of government grants. Wait…, isn’t that wrong. It’s seems if our government actually adhered to its separation of church and state mandates, this could not be possible. But this is where we are. We have hundreds of thousands of taxpayers paying for something they don’t believe in. Basically a giant cult. We already know that government officials have altered this “Holy document” (the bible), and even before this, ideals were stolen to persuade a potential following for this new religion. It’s basically an abnormally large drug ring. We can consider our federal government as a giant grow house, the priest and others offiliated directly with the church as the pusher men, and the helpless brainwashed public, as the feening addicts who don’t know they are slowly killing themselves. We as a body of citizens can see our government as being a morally bankrupt pile of money grubbing, soulless swine, drooling at the prospect of a few extra dollars. What we cannot see is where this money is coming from. The pockets of every US citizen. A person like myself absolutely loathes an idea like this. The belief of some mystical creature in the sky who will decide our fate, while allowing some people magical powers to do things like part massive bodies of water. Right. What we need to do is pull our money out of somebody elses fantasy world, and let the people who choose to live this way, support their addiction themselves. Now don’t get me wrong. The idea of a life of nurturing, selflessness, and charity, I am not opposed to. But the thought, that people are willing to step over someone else just to get into heaven, is a little ridiculous. Or the religious fanatics who will literally isolate, ostracize, and go so far as to teach their children, to separate others who think differently completely. Perfect. Lets make it so the people with new, useful ideas, can have no impact on the world. The money involved, though its a serious issue that needs to be paid attention to, is not the only issue. What this country has bred, is an assortment of people, all ages and races, to fear a higher power. To fear the “chosen one”, always the one with the authority. Now think of this. If we were given free will, we wouldn’t need to fear God, or Bush, or the Pope. We would need to fear the direct repercussions of our actions, which may not have a single thing to do with being smighted by God. What implementing this religious concept also does,  is allow people to be ignorant. Believing that so long as they are one way, someone will take care of the rest. Some people need it. The ones with nothing left in the world. As for the rest, I believe that understanding the nature of what it means to exist in such a planet, will provide insight as to what is truly reliable, and what is merely a scam. The Christmas tree for example, a pagan ritual. A tree would be placed over the remains of a tribes deceased, in hopes that the nutrients from the body (not buried in a casket) would be absorbed into the the tree, allowing it to flourish. People so busy fearing death, and essentially a dream world that they created, they forget things. They forget that as we sit and use all our resources to pursue an overindulgent, self fulfilling life, means that our future relatives will be left with nothing but hardship. But no, the fuzzy feeling they get when the mock their “pagan death tree”, by wrapping it in garland and putting a star on it, is far more important than conserving our natural resources. Reality, is a very unpleasant world at times. Not understanding this means that at any given point of a persons life, they can only achieve so much knowledge, thus so much power. You want to be ahead of the pack, pick up a god damn book, and start filling your mind with something other than nonsense.

Minnesota was colder this year. The temps reached beyond the “below zero” then necessary – even for Minnesota. There is a true feeling of being cursed this year – both with the weather and our dueling Senator candidates.

The promising economy here as plunged, much like our out door temperature. Our Senate race between Coleman and Franken have attached icy chains to all of us, making it harder to get on with business and shovel ourselves out of our winter hole.

We have little patients here after a very cold and snowy winter. We do know that the coming summer will be hot and humid. There is an essence of constant “doing” to maintain. That maintaining happens before we can even get into our car in the morning. If you listen to the radio on your way to work – you get the gist that the long cold winter of Minnesota is plagued with something more discerning. Coleman recently reneged on another decision. Ballots that he had agreed to, and wanted rejected in the recount previously - now wants them to return. Are you tired of this yet? We are - and it would not matter what party you affiliate yourself, if you act stupid repeatedly, maybe you are stupid. (I am from Minnesota – I trying to uphold my respective position of being “Nice”)

The new – but not so new, revelation is that some of the absentee ballots that were sent into counties may have been counted twice. This is not news – at least nothing new. This regurgitation of events from the Coleman Camp is going to make us “not so nice”. The latest and the best of this “tit for tat” is that the Coleman Camp just sent out emails to different counties asking them for an opinion, and a pretty broad based opinion at that. It is now being considered in court – between the judges, if the floods of email requests are legal and if they get an answer at all - submittable as true evidence in court. Would they be considered “hearsay”? They could be and according to different laws - what question, and how that question is answered, or if that person’s “opinion” can be cross-examined is now being considered. Nothing gained today, except that I was able to chop some ice away on my sidewalk.

The snow is melting, and the temperature here has gotten a little warmer. Perhaps that is some how an omen. Perhaps we can just simply hope that soon this will be over. Now – that once not so beloved Comedian – Franken sounds pretty good to me. Since we are considering all these changes – will you consider a vote change from me? The judges have decided that no “wrong doing” from those election officials have been done. You can see the mad mess of ballots that are being, or have been challenged yourself online. Some of them are pretty funny. My next vote in a election might be a “write in” for “Lizard People”. It now seems, in hindsight – that this one person who wrote in their choice, maybe had some brains after all.

Republican unison by Maurice D.Williams

The Republicans think they hurt President obama,being unified as a party.Not passing the bill for the $800 billion dollar stimulus.All they really did was alienate themselves from him.They’ll really want a bill passed down the road!.Rest assured  he will veto it vehemently.About this 800 billion stimulus,I admit at first view to some extent it looked as the spending was relevant towards most programs.That was until the specifics were revealed.

There’s severe”pork”(over-spending) for certain programs that wouldn’t”jumpstart”the economy or produce jobs.Though admirable but probally not $460 million for contraceptive research.What I and other American citizens see is it doesn’t take geniuses or rocket-science to see where the money should go?,”to us that really need it”.The people of this country who have lost their jobs,savings ,homes have been foreclosed and have no healthcare.But all we are feed is the propaganda of  the big car manufacturers,wall st. and madoff need the bail-outs more!.They blatantly live high on the hog even after the bail-outs,”awarding themselves bonuses”.Total-disrespect and no accountability.”The hell with the American people”,but it’s us whose money you take for investments.

Yet the “fat-cats”in Washington the members of the senate too are exposed being the same as their counterparts.Dragging the people of the U.S. through all this red-tape to get this bill done.I believe there can be revisions of the stimulus where there can be compromised.Through Bipartisanship that it’s passed and distributed to us immediately!.The government and rich dislike that president obama’s”shutting-down”their over-spending on things irrelevant.Because if they hadn’t misused the money and pocketed it,the country wouldn’t be in it’s current state!.

Among animals with black and white skin or fur, my favorite is panda.  You have to agree with me that pandas are cuter than killer whales and skunks.   My first encounter with pandas took place in Japan more than two decades ago, and the most recent was when I took the train to visit the resident pandas at San Diego Zoo.  I am willing to travel some distance to see those adorable creatures.

Last month, on the Lunar New Year’s Day, Taipei Zoo in Taiwan formally introduced two giant pandas sent by the People’s Republic of China.  Curiously, they were named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, which when put together means “reunion” in Chinese. Considering China’s decades-long intention to annex Taiwan which was once part of the Chinese Empire, the two pandas would be more aptly named “Re-unification.”  The Chinese government generally loans pandas to other nations on a 10-year term with an annual fee of up to US$ 1,000,000 and a provision that gives China the ownership of any newborns.  Taipei Zoo most likely got Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan for free; the animals became highly publicized “gifts,” blatantly political ones.

In 2008 I visited the vast and verdant Taipei Zoo for the first time and almost thought the captive animals were happy to call the place their home.   Formosan Black Bears, also known as white-throated bears, slept lackadaisically under the shade.  (Come to think of it, these bears are also black and white.)   Clouded Leopard, thought to have become extinct in the wilderness in Taiwan, could not be seen in its cage.   The magnificent home for the two pandas of course cost the Taiwanese government a bundle; its construction is debated especially feverishly in this global economic crisis.   The last Taiwanese administration under President Chen ShuiBien declined the first offer of gift the Chinese government made in 2005, arguing that it was best for the pandas to stay near their natural habitat in SiChuan Province, China.   Now seeing in tv news these giant pandas behind the display glass at their new home, I not only feel sorry for them but also for the rest of the animals which, as one commentator noted, seemed to have been treated as second-class citizens at the zoo.

I decided to survey my friends and relatives in Taiwan to find out if any of them was planning a trip to Taipei Zoo in the near future.  Almost all of them e-mailed a quick and decisive NO.   My cousin elaborated in her response, “FYI, pandas ain’t that innocent.”   What could she possibly mean?  The pandas are not innocent because they are wild creatures with such sharp teeth that chew on woody bamboo for hours daily?  Or because innocence is always lost when exploitation is involved?

Especially during these difficult economic times, some guys complain about spending $80 dollars for roses plus $100 for dinner plus the cost of an expensive Valentines Day gift. Some guys even feel like they are being played like a slot machine. Other guys enjoy the opportunity to express their love and appreciation and have no problem spending a lot of money even if it means running up their credit cards.

What say you?

It’s all the rage these days; talking about the high cost of pharmaceuticals and the evil drug companies. We are forced to give our hard-earned dollars to gigantic corporations and insurance companies so that we can manage our blood pressure, depression, ADD and HD children, and our erections. Billions of dollars spent on drugs that don’t work, cause debilitating side-effects, and force people to live in poverty. Yet a rising number of people in this country are willing to swallow the most expensive pill ever formulated. It’s going to cost us jobs, industry, and billions of dollars and it will grind our economy to a halt. We won’t need a prescription or any particular illness; we won’t even need water to swallow it. I am talking about the global-warming pill.

We are constantly bombarded with “green” adds and the message of inevitable, catastrophic destruction of our planet under the boot heel of our carbon footprint. Most of our ills will magically disappear if we just listen to our Earth. It wants us to drive hybrids, and build wind farms, and purchase carbon credits. Only we, and our devine egos, can save the planet from a fiery death. Massive storms, melting ice, and starving polar bears are just some of ways the Earth is warning us of our impending doom. Almost every natural occurrence (and so-called disaster), even though they have been around for billions of years, can be attributed to our (relatively) short-lived existence and the effects of global warming.

Accurate and steady temperature records have only been kept for about the last 150 years. In that 150 years our planet has seen population, industrial, and technological growth like never before. We have altered the course of rivers, cleared lands of forest, and unleashed nuclear weapons. But as hard as it is to believe, we have never altered the temperature of this planet. We may have affected local temperatures in and around our biggest cities, but not the entire planet. Though hard to imagine, there is something out there much bigger than us; bigger still than our collective egos. Something even greater than the love we express by hugging fur seal. A universal force of almost limitless power and unbridled energy; it’s known as the sun.

The sun is the single largest contributor to our planet’s temperature and consequent unending cyclic temperature changes. Why is this fact so hard to accept? Because we cannot change it. Regardless of how many CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards we enact or loads of laundry we dry on clotheslines. There are factors in this universe that will not yield to our presence or lack thereof. Solar cycles are one example.

Solar cycles are recurring cycles of sun spot activity. Solar cycles last an average of 11 years according to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and have been observed almost as long as the telescope has been around. These cycles reflect the increasing and decreasing number of sunspots that appear in the sun’s atmosphere. Sun spots are closely associated to solar flare and magnetic field anomalies. The beginning of one cycle (or the end of the previous) is marked by a minimum of sunspots while the middle of the cycle is determined by a maximum of sun spot activity. Temperature changes on Earth can also be tied to solar cycles; as sunspot activity increases, so does the temperature due to solar-flare activity, and vice-versa. As a matter of fact, when man started recording sun-spot activity (about 1600), the Earth was in the middle of the “Little Ice Age” which lasted about 250. Concurrently, sunspot activity was at minimum during that time (referred to as the Maunder Minimum).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dismisses the “Little Ice Age” as merely a mild change in global climate, about one degree Celsius. The IPCC and Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, remember? This is the organization set up by the United Nations Environmental Programme and World Meteorological Organization, and was instrumental in the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which lead to the Rio De Janiero Summit and Kyoto Protocol. Try saying that three times, fast. What’s ironic (or moronic, depending on your take) about this, is that this same group has labeled our current global climate change (less than one degree Celsius) a crisis.

It is no mystery why the planet undergoes temperature changes. And we are destined to see them in the future. We are currently in the transition period between solar cycles 23 and 24, which means that sun spot activity is at, or near, minimum. It has also been documented that the last few winters have been setting record-cold temperatures around the globe. Surprised? Probably not, because it has all been attributed to global warming. Realistically (that means ignoring the global warming hoax) we can count on colder temperatures for the next 5-7 years, followed by a warming trend; playing the odds established over the last 300 years, and the Farmer’s Almanac.

Our new president gave his ideas on global climate change this morning (January 26), and our collective need to squelch it. He is going to save us all by investing our money in “green” technologies and fuel-sipping autos, while leading us all into a world free of gas fumes and economic despair. We can all revel in the fact that it will be paid by the prescription we have so willingly filled, and the pill we so blindly swallow.