Hasta La Gadget!

Everyone needs to have an emergency meal–something you can make at the last minute when dining-out plans fall through, your phone service is dead or it’s 3 a.m. and you’re too hungry to sleep.

College students fall back on ramen soup and cereal. No refrigeration is necessary. Who needs milk on your cereal if you’re desperate?

However, you can do much better if you plan just a little, although don’t do what my friend Michael did. He knew he wanted to eat chicken at some point so he went out and bought some. Two weeks later, he decided to cook it for dinner. He was sick for a couple of days. A few years later he did it again. I wonder if he still keeps his doctor’s number on speed-dial?

If you’re going to buy meat for an emergency meal, keep it in the freezer and thaw it in the microwave. The freezer is a wonderful place. So is the cupboard, where you can easily keep some basics on hand, including cans of tomatoes and chopped clams. Spaghetti with Clam Sauce is easy to make. It’s also filling, cheap and ready to eat in 20-25 minutes.

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce – serves 2 (adapted from Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen)

1 small onion
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 15-ounce can ready-cut tomatoes
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 6-ounce can chopped or minced clams
1/2 pound (8 ounces) spaghetti
Salt
Black pepper
Chopped fresh parsley (if you happen to have some)

Fill a large pot about 1/4 full with water, cover and begin heating over high heat.

Make the sauce. Peel the onion and cut it into small pieces. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir for about 3 minutes, or until the onion begins to soften. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the soy sauce and the liquid from the can of clams. (Save the clams to add just before serving because lengthy cooking will toughen them).
Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking the sauce for about 15 minutes, or until it thickens. Remove from the heat, stir in the clams and season with salt and pepper. Cover and set aside.

Cook and drain the spaghetti. To serve, either transfer the noodles to a large bowl and pour the clam sauce over the top or divide the noodles into 2 bowls and cover with sauce. Sprinkle with parsley, if you have some.

Photo by Nancy Mills

Connect with Nancy Mills at momscookinghelp.blogspot.com

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Anyone know where this country went?

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” – President John F. Kennedy — Inaugural Address 1/20/61

Today, it seems to be all about self. What can my country do for me: A long list of “I want” — presumed entitlements, as rights, by virtue of American birth. The “home of the free and land of the brave” lost to narcissistic death spiral.

How did this happen? For me its simple, two main culprits: The so-called shared American experience has become limited while achievement has been diminished by ‘reward’ run amok.

Re the first: What does the son of Connecticut hedge fund manager know of life on the Iowa cornfield; the daughter of a Silicon Valley venture capitalist of growing up in the projects; or child of a Hollywood mogul of living on a reservation? Nothing! How could they? Kids living on either side of these equations rarely, if ever, crossover and meaningfully mix with their situational opposites.

The result is America has effectively become a series of silos; breeding grounds for bias, misconception and myth to take hold. One side of the foregoing examples oft fall prey to the errant thought of superiority by inheritance — coming up short on empathy and duty to care. The other sides most always succumbing to jealousy or the “woe is me” trap — many missing the chance to seize, even create, opportunity while taking comfort in excuses and/or expectations of a handout.

My second point can be summed up as the ‘participation trophy’ generation has come of age — a group that was raised on a bastardized version of our guiding documents and so soft that differing points-of-view set them to frenzy.

Newsflash: “All men are created equal” does not mean in fact but rather under the law. Our founders’ understood human ability was diverse in nature and they had zero intention of tearing the fruits of ones labor away Robin Hood style.

These poor kids do not understand the chasm between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. The former is the constant striving to an ideal held dear by the greatest country ever known to man. The latter is communism, a systemic road to permanent economic ruin.

Concerning the differing points-of-view frenzy, look at how our supposed centers of higher learning — our colleges and universities — have morphed into First Amendment censors. There are subtle to near riot actions to prevent accomplished people from speaking on campus if their message might offend the children, oops, I mean students.

Guess what? No one learns a thing from listening to somebody who shares the same point-of-view. That’s time spent in a useless, but feel-good, echo chamber — in the case of our colleges and universities, a very expensive one. The end result is cultural inbreeding, champion of intolerance.

So how do we fix this – get back to JFK’s definition of duty as citizen – create a truly equal environment where people spend time together, learn to trust one another, work with each other, be forced to rely on the person next to them and accomplish together? I think this country desperately needs to bring back the draft – a no exceptions one where all citizens, right after high school or college, must serve.

I bet that just galvanized everyone — likely not in the direction I was hoping; perhaps supporting my premise. Anyway, it should be seriously considered and debated.

The required conscription of time living, working and sharing together — on equal footing and pulling in the same direction – likely gives birth to accountability, respect, and empathy. The resulting camaraderie, perhaps even friendships, shape lifetimes of true understanding. No doubt, it will make the country and it citizens stronger, wiser and more unified.

I’m not the only one who suggests this. Here’s similar thought from a famous, liberal, comedian/satirist a few years back:

“There should be a draft where every young person has to do one year of something — military, public works — something so that we all feel invested in the same game, because that’s the part that we’ve lost.” – Jon Stewart

I don’t always agree with Mr. Stewart’s thinking but I always enjoy it. On this we’re reasonably aligned. I would expand the service choices to military, public works, cyber works, education and Peace Corps, with years (up to two as mandatory) and pay scale related to level of peril.

Want to truly put the “United” back in the “United States of America”? It might be time to bring back the draft!

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United States political history (at least its first half century) was punctuated by collapsing party systems. Political parties organized, pursued their specific agendas, and then fell apart. They declined because shifts in the electorate left a party out of touch with the issues that animated people’s political participation or because internal divisions overwhelmed what the party held in common. Alternate parties arose and pulled voters away from the two major parties. Today some historically informed commentary suggest that 2016 might witness another collapse, as the GOP fractures over the runaway popularity of the rogue Republican candidate Donald Trump. See http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-the-2016-election-will-be-one-of-the-most-pivotal-moments-of-our-time-20151203?page=15. Differences between the parties in the early nineteenth century and now may mean that those who hope to see a GOP collapse are in for a disappointment.

The first clear political division to form in the United States split Federalists and anti-Federalists, those who supported and opposed the radical revision of the central government proposed in the U.S. Constitution. Once the Constitution was adopted, the reason for this party rivalry disappeared, and the anti-Federalists ceased to exist as an organized entity. Very soon, however, Federalists (in a somewhat altered composition) upheld a powerful federal government, the economic development of the U.S. and alliance with Great Britain against the Republicans or Democratic Republicans who favored revolutionary France and took the opposite position on each of these issues. The Federalists eventually declined, especially after they tried to withdraw New England from the Union (in a northern move prefiguring the separation in the later Civil War). Another party pairing eventually arose, in which Whigs opposed Democrats over financial policy (especially a national bank), but disappeared in the factional disputes over slavery. By the outbreak of the Civil War both Republicans and the Democrats existed, although the latter suffered from a sectional split. Their politics at the time were not aligned with their positions today: Republicans fought for an end to slavery and the inclusion of African Americans in the political nation (as well as for the development of industry and infrastructure), while Democrats opposed an intrusive central government, sought states’ rights, and opposed a confrontation over slavery or, later, rights for former slaves. Yet these parties were nonetheless the antecedents of those we have today.

While this kaleidoscopic alteration in the party landscape seems to suggest that the current parties might cease to shape American politics, the parties themselves have worked over the last century and a half to insulate themselves from collapse. Party structures are much stronger and more entrenched. Parties wield power separate from their voters in a way that early party organizers did not. They have full coffers, extensive bureaucratic structures, and a formal role in the political life of the nation, all supporting their continued existence. So, for example, the offices of Minority/Majority party leaders in Congress–which are not part of the Constitution and were not anticipated by the founders–are now so much a part of our political system that most Americans do not realize they were a relatively late addition, a creation of the 19th century, arising after the Democrats and Republicans became fully realized political players. How parties with such power would vanish is not apparent, and certainly earlier cases of party collapse offer no analogous precedent.

If you are hoping that the Republican/Democrat lock on American politics will be torn asunder in the coming year, be warned that the path to such an outcome is not as well-worn as some would suggest. Collapse may come, but what that would look like is anybody’s guess.

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Reid Roberts, 46, and his dog Pacer, a border collie, were jogging through Forest for the World, a park in Prince George, BC. As they were jogging, they accidentally came across a black bear mother and her two cubs in the nearby bushes. Although this wasn’t the first time that Reid and Pacer had come across a black bear, this encounter was different.

Whereas the bear from two years before had been further away and only made a bluff charge, this momma bear “came out right away in attack mode,” Reid wrote on his Facebook page.

She locked in on me right away with head down staring at me.

This one was way too close. She had no option for a bluff. It was a bit surreal when I realized she wasn’t going to stop and I remember thinking ‘she is going to attack.’

I was yelling hard and waving my hands as I was backing up. I never wanted to turn or turtle and knew I had to fight… I’m not sure how I ended up on the ground off the trail but I remember her swatting at me like dogs do with their front paws when playing with another dog. I just started kicking at her while I was on my back.

But just like the black bear was protecting her two cubs, Pacer the faithful border collie wasn’t about to let her owner get mauled and killed. Pacer, outweighed by over 200 pounds, began attacking the black bear. The bites distracted the bear for a short while, but it wasn’t enough.

“[The bear] went at [Pacer] for only a second to chase him off but quickly turned and came at me a second time,” Roberts wrote, saying he tried to find protection in a clump of willows. Reid began thinking that “this was it” and that the bear’s second attack would finish him off for sure.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Pacer attacked again, this time convincing the bear to chase after her down a trail.

Meanwhile, Reid’s hand was all messed up from trying to fight the bear off. He had to wrap his hand in a shirt, dial 911, and walk back down the same path both the bear and the dog ran down.

When he finally made it to the parking lot, Roberts came across two people who asked if he was OK.

“They asked if I was ok. I said no, but I need to find my dog. The ambulance was on its way and I didn’t want to leave until Pacer was found,” he wrote.

Everything began to go blurry after emergency responders and Roberts’ friend arrived on the scene, he wrote. Roberts was treated at a local hospital and received 16 stitches in his hand. He also suffered “minor claw marks” on his stomach and arm, he wrote [source].

As for Pacer, after saving its owners life and taking off down the trail, the smart border collie posted up at one of Reid’s friends’ houses. Sadly, the mother bear was euthanized–probably because we can’t have bears who realize they’re capable of killing people just walking around.

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In his book The Money Culture, Michael Lewis delves into a prescient account of how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump uses illusion to pander to working class people, even as he seeks to enrich only himself: “‘Every blue-collar worker wants to be treated like a high-roller, not like an ordinary guy,’ writes Trump about his troubled casino. ‘These people gravitate toward the symbol of success. They want to touch success. Knowing this, I wasn’t surprised when (a neighboring casino’s) blue-collar ad campaign turned out to be a total failure….’ ‘Success,’ (Trump) writes, ‘is so often just a matter of perceptions.'”

Maybe you’ve met a few people like Trump. I know I have. They’re the type that gravitate toward power, that care more about the outer sheen of things than the truth inside. They’re the sophists, those who employ smoke and mirrors, the tricksters. They’re selling you on something they can’t come through with. They’re only thinking one step ahead and that step involves nothing more than how they can fleece you at this very moment. Details? They’ll figure them out later.

Trump is to success what Adam Sandler is to comedy (with apologies to Adam Sandler). They make a lot of money, but are they producing anything of value? You can go along with Trump at your own peril. I think if Trump wins the election, we are going to have a repeat of the George W. Bush administration on steroids. Whereas Bush pretended to be a compassionate conservative who launched two wars that dispassionately killed and maimed thousands, Trump is pretending to be a successful businessman who will run our country into the ground economically and socially. And Trump has advisors from the same secretive group that corrupted George W. Bush’s administration. I hope beyond hope we don’t get fooled again.

Not all that shines is made of gold. Appearances can be deceiving. Don’t judge a book by its cover. These are trite but true sayings we learned early on if we had good family members or teachers to guide us. Why is it that when it comes to important national decisions, many on the right fall for the same old lies and dishonesty time and time again? I have no answer. I’m just asking.

As I implored my fellow Bernie supporters before, I exhort you to reject Trump and the dross he represents. As historian William H. McNeill wrote in The Rise of the West, encouraging us to make use of the vast opportunities of our age, “The fact that evil men and crass vices have precisely the same enhanced powers should not distract our minds. Rather we should recognize it as the inescapable complement of the enlarged scope for good.” We can vote to help shape a better world, a great world even, or we can trudge toward the tragic mirage that is Trump and watch reality fall apart again.

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