Since yesterday was my birthday I thought I'd mellow out on the early AM posting today... :)
Here's the comment I left on her page - What a beautiful piece, loved it! And such good encouragement to others to dare, one more time, in spite of feeling burned out emotionally, to love once again, discovering they can now rest in the loving. Thank you for the word treat! Blogging this on over to my poetry blog for everyone else to enjoy too! Thank you for writing it.
Writing, Arts, culture, Literature, Love, Relationships, Society and Culture
One day a cat dies of natural causes and goes to heaven. There he meets the Lord Himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life and if there is any way I can make your stay in Heaven more comfortable, please let Me know." The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more," and a wonderful fluffy pillow appears.
A few days later, six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident and go to heaven. Again, there is the Lord there to great them with the same offer. The mice answer, "All of our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs and even women with brooms. Running, running, running; we're tired of running. Do you think we could have roller skates so we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "Say no more," and fits each mouse with beautiful new roller skates.
About a week later the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes the cat and asks him, "How are things since you got here?"
The cat stretches and yawns and replies, "It is wonderful here. Better than I could have ever expected. And those 'Meals On Wheels' you've been sending by are the best!"
Comfort Food From Louisiana:John's Cajun Pot Roast - Recounting a story about my Cajun father-in-law, Justin Wilson, John's recipe with my adaptations for the classic pot roast Cajun style!
The Soul Calendar:Video: Too weird to be believed - a new planet in the solar system? - While we all have heard of this what struck me as interesting was the illustration of how this planet is located in relation to the others, really weird. It looks like a lost ball in high weeds.
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations:How Can Our Dreams Prevent Us From Awakening? - OK, I had some fun writing this quotation commentary today. Jung is a deep guy and you can write to the end of the Universe and back about his subject matter!
Photo of solar system by alicepopkorn @ flickr
funny videos, funny quotes, pets, Cajun, comfort food, recipes, new planet, Popular Science, Chocolate, dreams, psychology, news, Carl Jung, spirituality
The Social Poets:Video: Uninsured America - a few facts about health care costs you may not know and if you know of some others, please leave your comments.
I've been seeing a lot of ads by the AMA about Charlie Melancon and wondered what all the fuss was about as they were claiming he wasn't voting for health care which isn't the truth. I went to the Louisiana site of Charlie Melancon. He plans to vote for health care; he just wants it nailed down as how to pay for it.
He's a straight talker and taken on the most vociferous of local Republicans hell bent on driving him out of office. While I'm not happy this health care reform is taking so long I can understand it's best to get it right. However, we the public cannot wait any longer as the issue is pressing hard on all of us, especially as the largest population in America is getting older: the baby boomers.
This is a really good book about four cases Edwards tried against big business. Rarely, do I read political books as most are just marketing. These are true life stories of what happened to people and children who needed some justice.
The way to light a fire under all of Congress is to take away their health care and that of their families that is government funded. I find it hypocritical how the Republicans refuse to vote for health care reform and deride government health care when they benefit from the use of it themselves. Like former Presidential candidate John Edwards said, "Take away their health care. Let them see how difficult and expensive it is to pay for out of their own wallets, bankrupting families. Let them see how many in Congress could not even acquire health care because of pre-exisitng conditions like diabetes or a former bout with cancer." Yeah, works for me! :)
"5 Stars from Amazon.com Four Trials, March 21, 2004 By Dan Whipkey (Omaha, NE)
This review is from: Four Trials (Hardcover) If you are looking for a candidate's standard election year political manifesto you won't find it here. What you will find is a can't put down page-turner. Sen. Edwards makes no political pronouncements or promises in this book. He has simply written deeply moving accounts of four notable cases he litigated before he became a national political figure. This book rivals anything John Grisham has to offer and what makes these stories so compelling is that they are about real events and real people. Interwoven throughout the book, Edwards gives us glimpses of his own personal story; his blue-collar upbringing, his rise from a young unpolished attorney to a highly successful trial lawyer, and sadly, the tragic death of his own teenage son.
The reader will also discover much about the ins-and-outs of our legal system. If you think of personal injury lawsuits as frivolous pursuits by ambulance chasing lawyers this book may just change your mind. Each of the four cases is about deceit and truth, tragedy and triumph, and each is heartbreaking as well as heartwarming. It is encouraging to find that in the end, at least in these cases, righteousness and justice prevails."
Comfort Food From Louisiana, Comfort Food, Food, Alcoholic beverage, Chocolate, Charlie Melancon, John Edwards
From Denny: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may not have been elected President but she sure got the next best thing: America's Chief Diplomat. The reality is that her personality is actually best suited to the job. She isn't flashy yet is a tenacious bulldog who can hang in there for the long term until a project is concluded.
She also isn't shy about standing up for what is right. On Meet The Press this past weekend she definitely laid down the law with Iran in no uncertain terms; I loved it!
"Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton is laying down the law, not just with Iran and North Korea, but here in the U.S. As for foreign policy, Clinton is leading the charge. Kimberly Dozier reports."
From Denny: From reporter Mike Taibbi he explains why this wedding video has taken the world by storm. This is also a good video for people who are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what all the fuss is about on this one video.
* Yawn, yet another weirdo butt product for you to "enjoy." Who comes up with these things? They claim this advanced product will make your ordinary toilet paper rise to the category of extraordinary! (You have got to be kidding.)
Basically, this is the American convenience fast food version of the French bidet. After all, to quote the salesman hawking this product in the video, "You control the wetness." Enough said. Toilet humor is a bottomless pit of available jokes...
* Valuable information on how to roast your own grits before making the recipe. Never seen this offered on the web (uh, maybe because I'm the guy who finally wrote down the simple recipes for this...) as how to roast your own grits, spiced up grits version for lunch or dinner.
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations: How Do You Test a Person's Character the Most? Adversity? No.
* Truer words could never have been spoken by President Abraham Lincoln! They apply to politics, religion, employers and parenting. It is easy to abuse your power over someone - "because you can." After all, who is going to stop you?
That's why it is so very important to develop true personal discipline in the cultivating of emotional intelligence to protect yourself from becoming an abuser so despised by others - and God. Who wants negative Karma slapping you in the face when you are at your most weak or vulnerable? No one who is sane asks for that intentionally.
How do you cultivate emotional intelligence? Start with ...
Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting Photo by kimberlykv @ flickr
chocolate cake, peanut butter, Chocolate, Baking and Confections, desserts, Society and Culture, Abraham Lincoln, Presidents, United States, humor
From Denny: Every now and then I run into a political article on the web that is, well, disturbing. Yesterday I was on my beloved HubPages where I have a lot of fun and have acquired a lot of contacts and friends. Then I ran across yet another "ditto" article (they call them hubs) about how liberals are evil. I tried to read it all to give the writer a fair hearing but, frankly, it was nothing but confused, irrational, illogical hate speech brain diarrhea.
The main focus of the argument was to promote themselves as real Christians because they have decided that anyone who is generous and kind is evil. The real definition of the word "liberal" means "to be generous toward others." Since when did the Jesus Christ acts of compassion, generosity toward others and kindness get thrown into the dungeon of the "evil" column?
Something is terribly "rotten in Denmark" and "wrong in River City." Something is rotten to the spiritual core in America when this kind of thing is so widely promoted as well as tolerated without so much as a comment as to why it is wrong. Hate speech like this is as destructive to the writers and speakers as it is to the society and country.
Of course, it also begs the proverb: "Not all the crazy people are locked up!" The problem is that with harsh, scorched Earthpolitics it lets loose the underbelly of humanity to do as it wills. What it wills is to destroy all around it rather than build up, connect and cultivate better relationships.
A destruction mentality is unbalanced and just plain creepy. What these people are really saying to us (read between the lines) is that they fear everyone and everything in life to the point of hysteria and extreme paranoia. Since these folks are unable at present to truly embrace the true Love message of Jesus, then I suggest their only alternative is a psychiatrist and meds. These people are seriously ill to scream hate at the top of their lungs like this because they are so very fearful. Jesus Christ told his followers, "Fear not; trust Me!"
This brings me to today's quote where we can spout off what we think, what we believe or even what we think we know, true or erroneous facts, but we will be found lacking if we do not choose to do well by others in our lives. There are some acts, like this irrational hate speech, that are better off left unsaid and not done. Everyone benefits in the end.
Quote
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." — John Ruskin
Photo by snuzzy @ flickr
Jesus Christ, Christianity, liberals, hate speech, republicans, conservatives, bullies, insane, Christian, John Ruskin, Earth, Religion and Spirituality, Denmark, Jesus
Featured over at The Soul Calendar blog: Solar eclipse highlights, NASA video of eclipse time-lapse photography, article on religious and astrological significance from India. Just click on the title link to take you there! Thanks for visiting!
From Denny: This is such a joyful little ad and downright entertaining too! Thanks to the folks over at bestontube.com. It's a fascinating look at how you can employ still photos into a video and gives you a different perspective. Very artsy!
Here's the promo text: "A beautiful stop-motion ad celebrating the 50th anniversary of the PEN camera series."
From Denny: One of the beauties of coming from a family of very long-lived people is that you don't lose the institutional memory of historical events. Another plus is that you don't lose what former generations taught in the way of good character. What is in fashion in one generation is often out of fashion in the next and, so, we lose the cultural continuity of good values.
Like in any family there were those in mine who were, well, slugs, when it came to good character. To a person they lived miserable anti-social lives, unhappy the majority of the time because they focused too much upon themselves. In my book there is nothing wrong with being good to your self. Just try to make the same good faith effort for others as you would yourself and your life is enriched!
For instance, I enjoy writing all these many blogs. It gives me a creative outlet for color, design and writing about anything and everything that interests me in this world of awesome wonders. Writing these blogs also gives me a chance to share with others as if these blogs were the ultimate social site of sharing! By sharing with others a person can enrich the lives of others while they enrich their own.
Then comes the Joy as was taught in previous generations. This kind of Joy has lain dormant for the past 25 years or so, drowned out by business greed and the drive to unbalanced excessive and financial only success. There are a lot of facets to the concept of success. Monetary wealth and accumulation is only a small part of the equation. This much power and large wealth requires the learning of real wisdom in order to not be destroyed by such power. I could get into what the ancient Kabbalists have to say about the power inherent in money and how to prepare for basically trying to grab a tiger by the tail but that would be another very long post! :)
Perhaps it's time for global society to rediscover some of the ancient wisdom of past societies, learning to appreciate the success of others as well as their own. Happiness can be an elusive creature to those who are calculating and refuse to dig deep into their hearts and offer up greater generosity to those around them. Generosity of spirit goes a long way to creating a much happier life!
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Money, History, Family, German language, Good faith, denny lyon, Arts, Kabbalah, Literature, Kids and Teens
From Denny: This girl, Justine, is so funny! She cold calls a bunch of stores asking to order a pizza. Most of them don't catch on to her snarky ways but one guy finally did and the exchange and how she gets out of it is hilarious! He really nailed her and his comments are unbelievable. Of course, her close-up facial expressions steal the show, enjoy!
From Denny: This is a post I ran over at The Social Poets Friday evening for the Bloggers Unite Human Rights Day post on 17 July 2009. Bloggers everywhere are all blogging on the same day about human rights.
***
Humanity is at a crossroads in our world history where we must make a profound decision. It’s time to live better.
Currently, human rights abuses are no longer exclusive to certain regions of the globe. There is a sharp increase in human rights abuses worldwide for decades now and situations are increasing in violence yearly.
Stories abound globally of the most heinous crimes to humanity. Nothing good is accomplished by mankind trying to annihilate mankind. Just what is going on in the world? Here are just a few areas:
• Hamas and Taliban Islamic terrorists and other terrorist groups worldwide are on a bloodthirsty killing spree with bombings of civilians, women and children in many places in the world.
Photo by azrainman @ flickr
• Rogue unstable governments, covertly cozy with terrorist groups, working feverishly to acquire the nuclear bomb so they can kill off their neighbors they don’t like because they are another religion, a different economic or another kind of social system – or just plain won’t give them what they want.
• Genocide in Africa because people of different tribes can’t work out their differences like civilized people.
• Jailing journalists - trying to report the truth - as political temper tantrums to get their own way: North Korea and Iran.
• Tortured prisoners worldwide with the most notable recent heinous acts perpetrated during the Bush years on terrorist suspects never given trials, mainly because there was no real hard evidence.
• Under Taliban Islamic law and culture women are still regarded as subhuman and not deserving of first class treatment like men.
• Here in the United States, during the Bush years, women were raped, often savage gang rapes, at our military universities yet went unreported.
• Then there are battered women worldwide from Islamic to Christian countries whose husbands will not stop pummeling them.
We, the majority, are allowing the few to terrorize us, our neighbors and our loved ones. We must mobilize to stop it. How? Education for starters. In the end, in order for humanity to not come to an end, we must consider a working alternative to what exists today in the way of abuses. It is a basic human right to be loved. Loved, you say? Yes, loved. We all have the right to be loved.
Love comes in many forms. We have the human right to certain expectations of basic decency and civility. We have the human right to healthy drinking water and sanitation and affordable housing. We have the human right to expect our political leaders that are guardians of our country to be honest and get serious about addressing pressing social and economic issues.
Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr
Human rights abuses worldwide, in our own countries, in our homes will continue until the average person stands up and says "No!" to it all. Human rights abuses will continue until we all get serious about connecting up to create a tsunami force to push humanity along until we all do better, choose better and, in the end, start living better. Now that’s Love in action! We all have the human right to be loved. Let’s give Love.
A few places you can go for education and plug in to help:
North Korea, United States, denny lyon, Human rights, Nuclear weapon, Africa, Amnesty International, Human Rights and Liberties, Sharia, The Social Poets
Interrupting GoGo's catnap to tell her about the health benefits of smiling... Image by elycefeliz via Flickr
From Denny:
In case you missed it, yesterday I ran this quote over at the quotes blog, Beautiful Illustrated Quotations, and thought it was also a good fit over here:
Every now and then you get to quote yourself which I find quite amusing! How does that happen? Well, the spiritual development people know exactly what I'm talking about as it often goes like this: You are replying to an email as I was in this instance, or, say, you were having a conversation with someone, and, suddenly, out pops this fantastic one liner. You know it's profound or memorable or just plain good advice.
There is a lot of chaos, job loss, sudden onset of health issues and violence going on right now in our economy. People are struggling with their particular life tests, looking for ways to battle or handle excessive stress.
I grew up in a harsh environment of constant stress and created a lot of coping skills to help me manage the stress instead of the stress controlling me. Here is the most recent advice my spirit jumped up and offered to a recent email friend whose husband is now out of work and lost their house of many years.
There is a lot of hurt going on throughout this country. Like anyone I have my own garbage to deal with from time to time, yet I follow my own advice as in this quote. It has never failed me.
Inevitably, the bad times begin to fade and finally end and then a new cycle of properity begins. Keep your mind and eyes on the positive - even when you know it's down the road. Eventually, you will arrive at that better point in your life.
Quote
“Keep smiling. Humor keeps your attitude pushed up and your heart wide open to sight the new opportunities coming your way.” Denny Lyon, 16 July 2009
Health, Stress, Mental health, Coping skill, Emotional Health and Wellbeing, Kids and Teens, Lyon, Support group, Denny Lyon, humor, smiling
Update: This was such a great comment on this story that I just had to repost this story for you to read. I really like it when someone wants to seriously discuss a social issue. What comes out of any good discussion is more understanding and some new facts to investigate. I have an inkling that this story is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Time will tell as more reporters look into the veracity of the experts and the accusers.
Federal Agents Investigate Burger Kings Treatment of Foreign Students - An excerpt: "RIVERTON, Wyo. – Federal agents from the Department of Immigrations are expected to arrive in Riverton today to investigate a possible indentured service case involving foreign students. Five university students working in the states through an exchange program said they were fired from the local Burger King and evicted from squalid living quarters provided by the company after they complained about the conditions.
They described the 15x15-foot house as a boiler room prison, because the windows wouldn’t open, bunkbeds with air mattresses were the beds, a hot-plate on a counter sufficed for a kitchen stove and the toilet and shower stall were unsanitary due to corrosion.
Riverton police, who executed the eviction notice over the weekend, were appalled at the conditions found and reported the situation to immigrations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Local Burger King management has refused comment and corporate officials in Florida say they were unaware of the situation. The students were matched with the local Burger King through the work/travel programs of Worldwide International Student Exchange (WISE) and Aspire Worldwide. They paid $3,500 to $5,000 each to participate, and were told adequate housing would be provided at an affordable fee.
They said rent for the house was $1,800 a month, paid to Burger King District Manager Peggy Handran. Her phone number listed on the work agreement is no longer in service.
The university students are all men, ages 18-21, coming from Turkey, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine. They have found temporary sanctuary with a neighbor, Donna Michel."
Click on the title link for the rest of the story.
The Discussion
Comments:
smbpott said...
This case is unfortunate and I feel bad for the kids, but the vast majority (95%) of exchanges are positive for the students and the families and communities which host them. I urge the press to investigate Danielle Grijalva, director of Committee for Safety and Chris Gould, a retired British police investigator and PURPORTED consultant to foreign exchange programs worldwide. They say mistreatment of foreign students is significantly underreported. What basis do they use to show underreporting? What is the board make up of the committee for safety? What foreign exchange programs is Chris Gould a consultant for? You will find these two people have NO basis for their setting themselves up as experts, and that they are acting together, but essentially alone (no real committee, no board oversight of organization, restraining order against Danielle...), just trolling the internet for sensationalized cases of exchange student abuse and posting them on one website repeatedly.
16 July, 2009 22:21 Denny Lyon said... Hi, smbpott, thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!
As with most stories like this, it isn't about how well the majority has been treated but rather about the abused minority that went unreported or not investigated.
This story is really not about the concept of foreign exchange students as it is a great idea culturally. It isn't about the whole organization either.
What this story is about is the fact that nothing was done to address these problems, not enough or perhaps any oversight on the part of our government - most likely the vast majority of issues happened during the Bush years of "non-doing."
It was foolish for our current State Dept. not to fine tooth comb every project they had in operation during the Bush years looking for this kind of thing. As it was the GAO was prevented from investigating AND reporting by Bush and Cheney. Normally, they handle these kinds of investigations as these problems always follow one culprit: follow the money. Most likely, Bush and Cheney cut the funds for oversight and hired outside political cronies as payback for campaign funds.
BTW, do you have proof to back up the stats you give that 95% of the foreign exchange students do not encounter any problem? If there was no oversight, no reporting, no surveys, where did you get this stat?
In the end, we are both coming at this problem from different sides and meeting in the middle in complete agreement: not enough oversight to prove either the good or the bad satisfactorily!
I'm glad these people have finally gotten the courage to speak up and speak out about their abuse. It went pretty much the same in the religious community, especially Catholic, when for decades people complained about sexual abuse. The same arguments abounded that it wasn't that bad, it wasn't true, that 95% etc., etc. Since then the abused began to speak up and the whole truth came out: there were thousands worldwide who were badly abused for decades.
My policy is never to deny a listen to anyone who has been abused, especially when it was as a result of an institutional entity for which as part of the public I am partly responsible.
17 July, 2009 08:57
From Anonymous:
Hello:
Thought you may find this of interest: Federal agents investigate Burger King's treatment of foreign students Leslie Stratmoen KVOW/KTAK News Director July 16, 2009
Too many exchange students leave our country with a horrible impression of America.
17 July, 2009 16:16
From Denny: This is a video story I tried to put up yesterday but CNN did not yet have it up on its site until today. Unbelievable what foreign exchange students have lived through when visiting the United States during the Bush years and recently. The truth is just now coming out.
It's a real horror story that our own government funded this abuse and did not take the interest to regulate these agencies that promote and place these students in American homes. Some of those homes were convicted felons, students were raped, starved, forced to live in filthy situations, even placed with known and registered sex offenders! How perverted can you get?
Politics foreign exchange students rape sex offenders starvation abuse America United States State Department investigation
This summer version of beach vacation gumbo was featured in our local newspaper in this week's food section. The family dilemma was there were a lot of people to feed for each meal, fifteen to be exact. The cooks did not have a lot of time to cook and also wanted to take advantage of the fresh seafood as they were vacationing in Florida. It would have been a culinary sin not to enjoy the local freshest seafood! :)
So, they came up with some shortcuts for cooking gumbo using some convenience foods. They also thinned the roux (nothing like the traditional excessively thick New Orleans roux you will get in every tourist restaurant in New Orleans) to lighten the feel of it for the heat of the summer. Sometimes, when you have been at the beach all day the last thing you want to eat is food that is too heavy on spices, heat or texture.
The cooks saved time and heat in the kitchen by using a prepackaged powdered roux and gravy mix. As per their advice, "As with any thickening agent, always stir it with cool liquid before adding it to a skillet or gumbo pot to prevent clumps from forming."
They also saved time again by using pre-chopped bag of Creole seasoning mix of onions, bell peppers and celery. Make sure you check the date for optimum freshness of this kind of convenience food.
OK, this is where I'd draw the line and chop my own. Why? Because vegetables lose their energy quickly and start leaching water, breaking down within an hour or so of chopping them. So, yeah, I'd take the time here to chop my own; the flavor will be a lot more intense and wonderful if you do!
Use low-sodium chicken broth as seafood has enough natural salt on its own.
Lighter Simple Summer Seafood Gumbo
From: Tracey Koch
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons canola oil
3 cups chopped Creole seasoning blend of onions, bell peppers and celery
4. Add shrimp, stir and cook for 5 minutes, then fold in crabmeat, stirring occasionally. Stir in optional oysters, at this point. When shrimp are uniformly pink, the seafood is cooked, and the gumbo is ready to serve.
5. Ladle over hot, cooked rice.
Kitchen Helpers: Kids can help out in several ways with this dish. They can measure the ingredients, whisk together the gravy mix, pick through the crabmeat for shells and even help peel the shrimp. Just make sure they wash their hands well before and after handling raw seafood.
From Denny: They suggested a simple Greek salad to round out the meal. Besides, all those raw veggies like tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers are cooling to your liver which, in turn, will cool down your body from a hot day in the beach sun. Win-win!
From Denny: This is a video story I tried to put up yesterday but CNN did not yet have it up on its site until today. Unbelievable what foreign exchange students have lived through when visiting the United States during the Bush years and recently. The truth is just now coming out.
It's a real horror story that our own government funded this abuse and did not take the interest to regulate these agencies that promote and place these students in American homes. Some of those homes were convicted felons, students were raped, starved, forced to live in filthy situations, even placed with known and registered sex offenders! How perverted can you get?
Politics foreign exchange students rape sex offenders starvation abuse America United States State Department investigation
From Denny: I usually ignore outrageous movie previews but I have to admit this comedian is actually funnier and MORE outrageous in interview! Check him out on the late night circuit and his interview with a terrorist who clearly looked ticked off! We may have to label his style of comedy as terrorist comedy...
Bruno movie comedy Cohen terrorist humor funny video CNN
See how tiny these key limes are? Intensely flavored and tart! Image by m kasahara via Flickr
From Denny: This is a recipe I am running over at my other food blog: Comfort Food From Louisiana. Chocolate is most definitely a comfort food in my mind! :) It's rare I come across a white chocolate recipe that appeals to me as I prefer the full court press when it comes to chocolate: dark! However, that said, white chocolate is wonderful with fruit, especially citrus!
From the Louisiana blog:
Key Lime Pies are basic and easy and constantly evolving as people try variations. This is one of those I've picked up over time, trying different recipes, and finally merged into just one recipe. I like easy but I also like without preservatives and usually make my own crust.
In the heat of this summer (which it seems you have heard me endlessly whining about - grin) and to be enjoyed after a good garlicky seafood dish is a citrus flavor to cut the oils, salt and heat.
We adore Key Lime Pie here in Louisiana! Louisianians often visit the Florida beaches and golf courses where we were introduced to such a sweet treat as to what they like to create with Key Limes! (We also love their soft shell crabs - yum!) Here is another twist on the classic recipe by using white chocolate.
1 tablespoon Breakstone's sour cream (you can use another full fat brand)
1 teaspoon grated Key Lime rind (these things are tiny to grip; if you have a microplane it's easier to grate them)
1/3 cup fresh Key lime juice (these tiny little limes are awesome!)
1 (9-inch) pre-baked chocolate graham cracker crust (I prefer a chocolate crust as I find the plain just a little too bland but you can choose whatever you enjoy!)
Garnish: lime slices
Directions:
Over low heat in a medium saucepan you want to combine the white chocolate morsels and the whipping cream.
Cook 5 minutes or until white chocolate melts; stir constantly. Remove from heat and now add the sour cream, lime rind and juice; stir well. Note: The reason you remove it from the heat is that you don't want the sour cream to separate or the white chocolate to seize up on you.
Note: Variation - Before you pour this mixture into the crust you can add some zing with another variation: spread a thin layer of sour cream on the bottom of the crust. You could also spread a thin layer of melted semi-sweet chocolate here too! I've even placed finely chopped butter-roasted pecans here.
If you want to just proceed with the basic recipe and skip the variations, go ahead and pour the sour cream-lime mixture into crust. Cover and chill at least 8 hours. Garnish, if desired with more whipped cream, finely chopped butter-roasted pecans and lime slices for beautiful presentation! Dare I say it? Lip-smacking good! :)
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From Denny: With the 100 degree heat AND 90% humidity that just zaps your energy, I've been dragging butt lately with the daily posts! Cranked down the air conditioning in the hopes it revives me. :) It seems it's far hotter than usual just about everywhere on the globe this summer. Maybe we are inventing a new species of humans: the Dragging Butts - can't be any worse than knuckle-dragging Neanderthals... (feel free to enjoy a good snicker!)
Anyway, just saw this video as I enjoy the Making a Difference segments from Nightly News (when I'm dragging butt and need some motivation). I really like these kinds of stories where people go into inner cities and turn city blight back into thriving communities by building new AND affordable homes. Listen to their story of those who did well for themselves and then came back to give back to the community! From NBC News' Making a Difference segment.
From Denny: It's Libations Friday over at The Social Poets. Here's what is featured today - Video of how astronauts drink coffee from an open mug in weightless space, essay about the CIA why its important to write to change the world.
Photo by once and future @ flickr
The Social Poets CIA Denny Lyon Politics Society and Culture News Coffee Video Lyon
From Denny: OK, this is rich and I just have to comment since I grew up in the CIA. What the Republicans are doing is unacceptable. What are they doing? Lying, lying and lying some more in the way of misdirection away from the guilty Party: them.
What I find almost as annoying are the media folks who can't seem to remember what they reported for eight years under the Bush administration. It's like they have a collective Who Me? amnesia.
Is the Speaker telling the truth? Yes. How do I know? I watched the news like everyone else during the Bush years and it was clear she and all other Democrats were pushed out of the small loop of information. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rice and Gingrich were the main players, the true holders of power and dominance, policy and decision makers. When the CIA reported what they didn't want to hear, like the bald-faced truth, they demanded they rewrite their reports.
Remember the Valerie Plaume incident? They outted her (which is treason by the way even when they do it) because she came back with nuke info they didn't want to hear and she and her husband constantly contradicted Cheney and Bush's public lies with the evidence. By outting her they lost years of experience and destroyed a tough intelligence network to build.
Only fools would destroy an information-gathering network about the status of rogue nukes in the world and still believe they are patriots protecting the country. Protect us from people voting in these destructive fools who would not know a good decision if it jumped up in their faces and begged them to take it home and sleep with it for free.
How else do I know? I know the culture and the historical beginnings of the CIA. The CIA was originally created as "The President's Men" much like the Jesuits were created as "The Pope's Men." The CIA have always been the loyalists to whichever President is sitting in office, any party. They do what other agencies and public words cannot - whatever needs to be done, legal or illegal.
They basically can enable someone who is corrupted by absolute power and that's exactly what happened in the case of the Bush-Cheney years. After all, Bush and Cheney kept firing all the knowledgeable, competent and people of good character in the CIA, the Pentagon, and everywhere they had reach until they finally found enough weak and greedy people to carry out their bidding.
The short version is that Bush ordered them to lie and present false information. He ordered the CIA to withhold information from the Democratic members of Congress AND any moderate Republicans who just might share that info with Democrat friends across the aisle.
This fiasco belongs to the Republican Party and their minions (lobbyists) and enablers (voters). The press needs to grow a pair and quit forcing us to listen to the whiners who couldn't tell the truth if they tried. Maybe it's time to go to a one-party system as the Republicans have proven themselves useless to this country in our time of great need. They are too busy planning their next grab for power. The CIA has never truly been the issue today or in the past. They were just the reaction to the action set by Presidents.
Without the political party to direct and task them the CIA has no mission other than to gather information worldwide. What IS the issue are two events: the ruling political party who sets the policies and toxic politics into motion and the voters who enable that direction.
CIA Republicans Democrats Speaker Pelosi Gingrich politics Congress lobbyists voters Rove Bush Cheney information-gathering United States
From Denny: This sounds too good to be true! The only problem I ask is this: So, do you have a pill for extra capacity brain storage? :) Because you know people would go wild with this, testing it by reading whole Oxford Dictionaries, encyclopedias, going to the Library of Congress and reading through the entire library - the largest in the world - just to find out how much they could retain.
"Scientists isolate a protein that significantly increases visual recall
"Wish you had a photographic memory? Well, Encyclopedia Brown, drugs may amp your brain up to that point soon. A group of Spanish scientists claim to have singled out a protein that can extend the life of visual memory significantly. When the production of the protein was boosted in mice, the rodents' visual memory retention increased, from about an hour to almost 2 months.
"Unlike the long-term memory creation that was imaged recently, this memory extension only applies to memories made through the poorly-understood visual cortex of the brain."
For the rest of this brief article just click here! Thanks for visiting!
From Denny: When The Social Poets became too much of the Wild Wild West I started dividing my interests into many blogs so people wouldn't feel quite so dizzy when they landed. As my first blog, this has always been a "Musings" kind of blog but was also developing a lot of competing themes, so I began a pack of other blogs to handle the information overload for readers. The scope is narrowed on the other blogs, themed, for easier reading - and so you have the comfort of knowing what to expect when you visit.
When people are stressed we do like to develop healthy routines - like reading favorite sites and blogs - as a distraction to help mediate our mood from work or whatever. To give you an idea of my food blogs this is a video I'm running over at my two food blogs, Romancing The Chocolate and Comfort Food From Louisiana - even over at my health blog The Healing Waters.
This is a great little video chock full of useful information about how the decisions you make to get the most out of that chocolate benefit factor. She gives you percentages of chocolate to sugar for best antioxidant value and tells you how much (really how little) of a percentage of your favorite candy bar has of real chocolate. Also, beware of how chocolate is processed because you can completely lose your antioxidant value!
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