Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Scattershooting While Wondering Whatever Happened To Lou Diamond.

I know we are all already tired of the picture showing Obambi ogling, or not, that Brazillian teenager's butt. I am just amused by the studies purporting to prove, yes prove that he was looking to make sure that some one's footing was safe. Oh, I see. Someone was going to walk all over that girl's butt. I have been known to look where I was walking. I have also been known to look at a butt or two in my day.I know the difference. In fairness Obambi might have started out watching his step but then some things just attract the male eye. I am not concerned that the young woman is under aged, under aged has a specific meaning, look but don't touch. It was just a little more than a century ago that a seventeen year old woman who was unmarried would have been an old maid most places. Now we can't even use the term old maid. Go figure.

There is something really wrong with the country when I typed in "Lou Diamond" and got this long lists of entries on that actor, Lou diamond Phillips. So I typed in "Master Gunnery Sergeant Lou Diamond" because I wasn't sure when he died, 1951 for those keeping score.Lou Diamond is a legend in the Corps. He somehow managed to wear a goatee, even while a Drill Instructor at Parris Island. Lou wore Dungarees, which they now call utilities to get a decoration for his service on Guadalcanal. He then looked General Archer Vandegrift (another legend) in the eye and said "These dungarees were good enough to make the Guadalcanal landings in, they're good enough to get this citation" The General just smiled and probably shook his head.

Diamond was no spit and polish Marine, he would never have made it in today's corporate Armed Services. Who could raise chickens at Camp Lejeune today? Could a Master Gunnery Sergeant fail to salute anyone below a field grade officer today? Today Lou diamond would be tried by court martial and jailed for many of his exploits. He wasn't exactly gentle in his training methods, being known for jerking slow risers out of their bunks and throwing them out the door. Ah well, the past, another country. Most days I'd like to go there again.

I can't seem to get well enough organized in my head to write a full post on why so many Americans live conservative lives and yet vote left. I understand some of it, many people still think of the Democratic Party as the Party of Harry Truman instead of the Party of Harry Reid. The network television news does it's best to hide what the Party is actually doing and too many people get their world view from television. I know that.

What I don't understand is how people can miss little details like Obama saying that, if his daughters get sick he won't want them to have Obama care. And why, btw, did the Democrats cut the voucher program that allowed poor (mostly black) kids to go to the same school that Obama's daughters go to?

Why do people still believe the Democrats are the party of equality? The Democrats have run on equality since they gave up on "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever" in the early '70s. And they have run the big, inner cities for about that long. When was the last time Republicans ran Detroit or Washington, DC.

We've come a long ways since black folks had to ride in the back of the bus. Too bad they now get shot at the bus stop. This is called progress.

There I go, sidetracked again. I can understand someone voting Democrat at age 18, before he, or she, has ever had a job and looked at the withholding taxes on a paycheck stub. I don't understand working adults, especially those with families.

I also don't understand the devotion so many black Americans have for the Democrats. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but you can only promise to make my life better four or five times while making things worse before I start to lose faith. Now black folks started moving up to the Detroit area when Henry
Ford started paying black workers the same as white workers, five dollars a day. Back when a dollar was real money.

Somehow, though, through decades of Democrat administrations, Detroit has gone from the industrial powerhouse of the whole world to hundreds of acres of sheer destruction. And yet the inhabitants, those who are still there, continue to vote for the people that brought their city down. Most of the Detroit residents are now though, down here, telling us how to run Texas. Sigh.

Anyhow, that's just another thing I'm not smart enough to understand. Or, maybe, it just flat out makes no sense.

Ooh! Ooh! Speaking of makes no sense, did you see where that fine intellectual, Judith Warner went off of Governor Palin saying that she is responsible for the hatred of educated women? Along with some long diatribe about a lawyer who says educated women can't see the real world because their heads are always in a book. So she says. Given the number of woman lawyers I don't know that I buy that. What I really don't buy is that the oh so smart Judith Warner is blaming Palin for this arrest that happened two years ago. Anyhow this educated woman took a passel of children, the two oldest, twelve years old, too the Mall in, I believe, Billings Montana. The youngest of the kids was three. She dropped them off and then went home to rest. Somehow the local law got involved and the fun began. I happen to know that well behaved, quiet people do not generally attract the eye of the local law enforcement but persactly how it all got started was left unsaid.

Now I know Judith Warner is so much smarter than me, just ask her. But two years ago not one person out of fifty could identify Governor Palin. Heck, I have look up the name of New Mexico's governor and that's next door. I used to know the governor of Arkansas, I met him once and consider myself lucky to have gotten away before he humped my leg. But still, Judith, Palin's fault? Actuall, very few people in America dislike educated women. Some of us do dislike insufferable people of any, or no, sex who go around blaming others for their problems and looking down their noses at people. And, Judith, it ain't because of Palin. I used to aspire to be an intellectual. So what if my education is mostly from The University of the Public Library. That used to be the great thing about the United States of America. Even a por person who couldn't afford an expensive university education could go to the library and educate himself. Or herself. Many people learned just by doing. I am wondering what happened. Palin makes all right to hate accomplished women? Judith, I fear most folks think that being elected Mayor is an accomplishment. Being elected Governor, even more so. You, Judith, heap hate on this bright, beautiful, accomplished woman and then you blame her? Judith, you make my poor old head hurt.

Abraham Lincoln did not have a university education. Ben Franklin did not have a University education. I suppose the Judith Warners of the country would sneer at them.

In more important news, it's time to taste my first try at Shepherd, or actually Cottage Pie. I'll finish this entry after supper and let you know how it came out. Shepherd's pie seems to be lamb and stuff, cottage pie is beef and stuff. There are hundred, if not thousands of recipes for this, I looked at several and then kind of winged it. This is going to be a big hit with the dogs, I needed about half a can of beef broth. What to do with the rest? Pour it over the dog's kibble and stir it around good. FEEDING FRENZY!!!

The bottom layer is always some kind of vegetable or vegetable mix. Because they were handy I used green beans and minced onions. Then I added the broth, three quarters of a cup did it. I do not believe this needs to be measured to the cubic millimeter. I'm eating this as I type, I'm beginning to believe that the right recipe for this is, any kind of vegetables, a little broth, whatever meat is handy and mashed potatoes. Cheese on top, whatever is handy, or no cheese. If cheese is chosen, use whatever kind is handy, sprinkled lightly or poured on by the pound.

So ends another lesson of the Chez Shakey Culinary School. I used heavy whipping cream and real butter in the potatoes. It came out really good. I am, however, already thinking of ways to make it better. I'm thinking a mix of corn and green beans, along with minced onion and garlic mashed potatoes. I also think I can fry up a little more beef, use more veggies and fix this in the crock pot. That will have to wait until we have a little more room in the fridge. I suspect that this cheap, easy meal can easily become a complicated, expensive meal. In the age of Obama I can't afford expensive. For those keeping score, desert was a few of Linda Lou's Oatmeal Raisin cookies. If I decide I'm getting too skinny (in my dreams) there is some peaches in vanilla ice cream.

Oh, and Linda Lou brought home blueberries. Guess who is having blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast tomorrow. Only question is am I going to use buckwheat cake mix or buttermilk? I hope I can sleep tonight with these weighty decisions hanging over me.

Oh, and Lou Diamond? He retired after WW2 and went back home to Toledo. He died in 1951. Gunny Lou was fifty-two years old at the Guadalcanal invasion. Some say he was born in 1890, others say he was created, full grown with his foghorn voice, at Tun Tavern on November the Tenth, 1775. Believe what you like, just know that Lou diamond Phillips couldn't carry his jock.

I hope y'all enjoyed Cow Appreciation Day. The part of the cow I ate sure was worth appreciating. I snapped a couple of photos if my culinary masterpiece, plus a few pics of the dogs. I'll post them someday.

No comments: