Chicken and Corn Chowder

A quick and easy recipe for a chilly evening.

Take:
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1 red pepper diced
1 16-1/2-ounce can cream-style corn
1 14-1/2-ounce can chicken broth
2 5-ounce cans or one 12-1/2-ounce can chunk-style chicken
1 cup loose-pack frozen crinkle-cut carrots
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups fat free milk

Stir into hot saucepan sprinkling flour over top

Veteran actor Pat Hingle dies at 84 in NC home

Pat Hingle, a veteran actor whose career included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman movies in the 1990s, has died after battling blood cancer.
He was 84.

Family friend Michele Seidman says Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday.
Seidman says he decided to settle in the coastal town after shooting the movie "Maximum Overdrive" in the area in 1986.
He lived there for more than 15 years.

Family spokeswoman Lynn Heritage says Hingle was diagnosed with Myelodysplasia in November 2006.

His career in movies and television spanned six decades, and he was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1958.
Hingle's last movie was "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which was released in 2006.

How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

Q: How much sleep is ideal?

A: Studies show that people who sleep between 6.5 hr. and 7.5 hr. a night, as they report, live the longest. And people who sleep 8 hr. or more, or less than 6.5 hr., they don’t live quite as long. There is just as much risk associated with sleeping too long as with sleeping too short. The big surprise is that long sleep seems to start at 8 hr. Sleeping 8.5 hr. might really be a little worse than sleeping 5 hr.

Read more: How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?

Gorilla

Johnny Bravo

Earthquakes increasing

The Earth seems to be shaking at the prospects of the damages the shrub and the cabal will do to it in the last days of their junta by convulsing everywhere ...

Yellowstone National Park.

Hundreds of earthquakes have hit Yellowstone National Park, raising fears of a more powerful volcanic eruption.

The earthquake swarm, the biggest in more than 20 years, is being closely monitored by scientists and emergency authorities. - Timesonline

In the last eight days, there have been more than 400 earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park — where the volcanic system powers the geysers, mudpots and steam vents. - NPR

Yellowstone National Park sits atop a supervolcano. The entire park is the depression of a caldera more than twice the size of Oahu that is the result of an unimaginably large eruption some 600,000 years ago.

By comparison, the caldera left by the explosion of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 is about the size of downtown Honolulu. - Honolulu Star Bulletin

Indonesia

A series of powerful earthquakes have killed at least four people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia, cutting power lines and destroying buildings.

One of the quakes - a 7.3-magnitude tremor - sent small tsunamis into Japan's south-eastern coast, but there were no reports of damage there and no tsunami in Indonesia's impoverished Papua area. - Australia Herald Sun

Afghanistan

A moderate earthquake shook northeastern Afghanistan Sunday, sending people running from their homes, but there were no immediate reports of damage, witnesses and officials said.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck at 12:53 am (2023 gmt Saturday), around 255 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of the capital Kabul and near the border with pakistan, the us geological survey said. - AFP

Timber lobbyist masquerading as head of Forest Service

In yet another potential last minute rule change, “the Bush administration appears poised to push through a change in u.s. forest service agreements that would make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions.”
Though president Obama has opposed the move, Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who heads the forest service, has signaled that he intends to finalize the plan before Obama’s inauguration.
As a presidential candidate, Obama vocally criticized Rey’s plan while campaigning in Montana, calling it “outrageous.”

Read more at Think Progress

US blocks UN Security Council action on Gaza

The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

*****

While statements don't mean a hill o'beans, they mean everything!

The events in Gaza are to be condemned by all and that condemnation is for all 'sides'.
By blocking approval the US shows the rest of the world its tacit approval for the events in Gaza ... be it reality or just a perception - that is what the world sees.
For the American public it is a fallacy ... we condemn the events (all the events).
As for the cabal it is hardcore truth ... they wholeheartedly embrace the events from one 'side'.
They have never represented the American public in anything - always standing against the wishes of the public in the interest of special interests and is such the case here.

Hamas firing mortars and rockets into Israel is wrong.
Israel responding with a full scale invasion of Gaza is wrong.
There is an old adage that says: Two wrongs do not make a right.
The events in Gaza (and elsewhere around the planet) re-prove that adage over and over again.
Someday we will learn it ...
Soon, I hope.

President Obama's Weekly Address

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Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama
Weekly Address
January 3, 2009

As the holiday season comes to end, we are thankful for family and friends and all the blessings that make life worth living. But as we mark the beginning of a new year, we also know that America faces great and growing challenges—challenges that threaten our nation’s economy and our dreams for the future. Nearly two million Americans have lost their jobs this past year—and millions more are working harder in jobs that pay less and come with fewer benefits. For too many families, this new year brings new unease and uncertainty as bills pile up, debts continue to mount and parents worry that their children won’t have the same opportunities they had.

However we got here, the problems we face today are not Democratic problems or Republican problems. The dreams of putting a child through college, or staying in your home, or retiring with dignity and security know no boundaries of party or ideology.

These are America’s problems, and we must come together as Americans to meet them with the urgency this moment demands. Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach.

That’s why we need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. And this plan must be designed in a new way—we can’t just fall into the old Washington habit of throwing money at the problem. We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down. That is how we will achieve the number one goal of my plan—which is to create three million new jobs, more than eighty percent of them in the private sector.

To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year. To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. And to put more money into the pockets of hardworking families, we will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers.

I look forward to meeting next week in Washington with leaders from both parties to discuss this plan. I am optimistic that if we come together to seek solutions that advance not the interests of any party, or the agenda of any one group, but the aspirations of all Americans, then we will meet the challenges of our time just as previous generations have met the challenges of theirs.

There is no reason we can’t do this. We are a people of boundless industry and ingenuity. We are innovators and entrepreneurs and have the most dedicated and productive workers in the world. And we have always triumphed in moments of trial by drawing on that great American spirit—that perseverance, determination and unyielding commitment to opportunity on which our nation was founded. And in this new year, let us resolve to do so once again. Thank you.

Religion aside, monkey meat needs permit

A federal judge in Brooklyn has rejected a Liberian woman's religious reasons for smuggling endangered monkey meat into the country.

U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Dearie ruled Wednesday that Mamie Manneh's faith didn't preclude her from applying for permits to import exotic food or explain why she misled officials.

Manneh was charged with smuggling the meat three years ago after customs agents seized a shipment of primate parts as it passed through Kennedy Airport on the way to her home in Staten Island.

Manneh's lawyers claimed a First Amendment right, arguing that some Liberian Christians eat monkey meat for spiritual reasons.

She faces up to five years in prison and deportation if convicted.

Have the right answer about doing the right thing?

A tricky question of morality is this year's brainteaser in the annual philosophy competition called the Great American Think-Off.

"Is it ever wrong to do the right thing?" is the theme of the 2009 Think-Off.

The event is organized by Minnesota's New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the cultural and creative opportunities of rural Americans.

Anyone can enter by submitting an essay of 750 words or less. Four finalists will be chosen to debate the question on June 13 before a live audience.

Last year's question was whether immigration strengthens or threatens the United States. The audience decided Craig Allen, of West Linn, Ore., was most convincing with his argument that the system of immigration and immigration policy is broken, that it encourages illegal immigration and poses a threat to the country.

New York Mills is a farming town of some 1,200 people in central Minnesota, about 170 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

'Hello 911? I'm driving drunk'

Police get calls about drunken drivers all the time, but rarely do they come from the alleged offender.

A 17-year-old girl in Bismarck called 911 on New Year's Eve "to report herself driving under the influence," police Lt. Randy Ziegler said. "I've never heard of such a thing happening, and neither has anyone here."

The girl told authorities her location shortly before midnight Wednesday and officers found her in a parked car near downtown, Ziegler said. She failed a sobriety test and was arrested for failing to have control of her vehicle while intoxicated.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, was not cited for drunken driving, Ziegler said.

"Her keys were in her purse and she was parked," Ziegler said. "She did tell us that she had been driving around for hours."

The call probably was a plea for help, he said.

"She told us her life was spiraling out of control, and she had spent the majority of time drinking over the past two weeks," Ziegler said.

The girl was released to her parents Thursday.

*****

They might ought to have found out why the girl was drinking for the better part of two weeks before releasing her. At least one would think.

Man shot, then ends up in jail

Sometimes it's just not your day

A man who police said was shot by his stepfather ended up in the same jail with him after officers discovered outstanding arrest warrants against the victim.

Police in Jacksonville, North Carolina, said that 37-year-old Richard Hayes shot his stepson Thursday night.

Authorities say 21-year-old Michael Bass was holding a bloody towel to his abdomen when paramedics arrived, saying his stepfather shot him.

Deputies then discovered Bass had outstanding warrants for failing to appear in court and took him to jail after he was treated and released from the hospital.

Police say Hayes told investigators he has a bad neck and shot his stepson because he thought Bass wanted to fight him.

Both men remain in jail.

*****

Idiocy runs in families it seems.

Jury finds SC man not guilty of murder

A man who was the subject of a massive manhunt after he was released from a state prison instead of being sent to a Darlington County jail to face a murder charge has been acquitted.

A Darlington County jury found Mardrall Addison not guilty of murder in the June 2007 killing of Wildrikus Hough.

Addison was mistakenly released from a state prison in December 2007 after serving his time for a probation violation. He was supposed to be sent to the Darlington County jail to await trial instead and spent four days free before turning himself in.

At the time, county officials said their workers failed to thoroughly check paperwork and told the state prison to release Addison.