November 14, 2020

  • 2020

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    I'm here after a long absence because I'm sick of Facebook. Not sure any of my old friends are still on Xanga, and I'm not sure, either, if Xanga is in the pocket of the Democratic party, but I'm tired of Facebook deciding what is truth and what is not. I'm going to post here the last political post I wrote on Facebook before it is taken down and tagged as "unverified."

    My liberal friends are saying, “Get over it! Trump lost.” That is of course, what CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC all are saying. But it is not over until it is over—until the electoral college certifies a winner. As the major networks have consistently done throughout the last four years and longer, they have continued to refuse to report the news that does not support the narrative they are trying to sell the American people. The evidence that proves voter fraud is simply ignored.
    I don’t really blame my liberal friends. They are still clinging to the idealized notion that their party wants equality, free speech, and though they surely must be aware of the Antifa and BLM violence, have believed the propaganda that blames Trump for it. Trump is blamed for everything. They ignore the fact that the economy under Trump was booming until Covid, and in fact is recovering much faster than they predicted. They consistently say he has mishandled everything despite ample evidence to the contrary. Of course, they blame Trump for the virus too. You name it, and they have found a way to blame Trump.
    My democrat friends seem to be completely blind to the fact that their party has been taken over by a radical Marxist element that lies consistently to further their socialist agenda and seeks to silence anyone who disagrees. Free speech is being suppressed by those who think they have a right to silence anyone who disagrees with them. They refuse to believe the irrefutable evidence that the election was manipulated by the Democratic Party and its allies—big tech and the news outlets. They refuse to believe that their leaders are taking them for a ride and getting rich by selling influence.
    If it turns out that Trump does indeed lose the election(and I’m waiting until the legal challenges are decided) it will be because we have quit teaching history in our schools in favor of indoctrination and propaganda. We have refused to look at evidence of corruption and voter fraud, and choose to believe the lies instead.
    Perhaps most damning and indicative of the decline of our society, is that we have, as a country, decided that Christianity and morality are outdated and irrelevant. The country is tolerant of anything and everything, except of course those who hold faith in Jesus Christ. I point to the fact that the left thinks it is okay to kill unborn babies up to the point of birth. Abortion is touted as a value—a moral principle. If that isn’t a perversion of morality, I can’t imagine what would be. Christians are ridiculed, discounted, and maligned, and the country is paying the price. Those who believe in freedom and equality of opportunity are called racists for no other reason than it is effective. God help us! I don’t know if our great country can yet be saved from sliding down the road to socialism, a system that has been disastrous for every society that has allowed it to take over.
    Spare me the platitudes about coming together, compromise, and acceptance. You, who spent the last four years calling a duly-elected president “illegitimate” because you hated him… and wasted millions upon millions of tax-payer dollars promoting a conspiracy theory that was proved to be absolutely without merit. I will stand with other Americans who still love freedom against the tyranny of the leftists until I have no breath.

July 21, 2018

  • Is anybody still here?

    I haven't been to Zanga for a very long time and just wondered if anyone is still here from the old days when Xanga started. I've been working in my garden and writing in recent years. I have several books on Amazon is anyone is interested. Here is my writer's website with links to what I've written... if I can figure our how Xanga does it now. Things have changed. http://www.woodrome.com/Author/Home.html

    http://www.woodrome.com/Author/Home.html

    http://www.woodrome.com/Author/Home.html

July 2, 2013

June 25, 2013

March 23, 2013

  • Some thoughts from an "old school" cook

    I love to cook. If you know me, that is not news. Over the years I have learned quite a bit about the chemistry of cooking. Nothing that any "old school" cook doesn't know, but important stuff, nonetheless. Not that I still don't have a lot to learn. I do. Like most things, the more you get into it, the more you realize the depth of information that is still there to learn.

    And so, I'm always cooking, or reading about cooking, or browsing #recipes.  I probably subscribe to a half dozen online recipe sites that send new recipes every day. There is a trend that I'm sure you've noticed -- you might even like it, but I'm not a fan. And that is that the "ingredients" listed in so many of today's recipes are not ingredients at all, but convenience foods, canned foods, or boxed mixes.

    I just now read two recipes for coffee cakes that sounded scrumptious, and looked great in the pictures. The first two ingredients in one was "1 yellow cake mix, and 1 pkg. vanilla pudding." The other recipe started with "16-18 frozen dinner rolls, and 1 box butterscotch pudding mix". I am sure that the recipes work, are super easy, and I'm sure that the coffee cakes tastes good. I have nothing against making cooking simple, either, but there are three things that bother me about those kind of recipes -- the kind that are so typical now.

    One... You don't actually learn how ingredients interact... you don't really learn how to cook. You just learn to open boxes and cans, and flavoring packets, and you learn, I guess, to follow directions. How many cooks now ever make soup without using canned or boxed stock? It is so easy to simmer leftover bones to make homemade stock -- without all the sodium in the boxed and canned alternatives, yet it is a simple technique that is all but lost now. Such a shame. 

    The second thing that bothers me about those kind of recipes: Cooking this way is more expensive than cooking from scratch. If a day comes when we all have to tighten our belts, we may well have a generation of mothers who don't know what to do with a bag of dried pinto beans -- who haven't a clue how to make biscuits or bread from scratch. I suspect even now that most people with low incomes still spend a high percentage of their food dollars on convenience foods. These mothers probably don't know that their food dollar could go twice as far if they prepared their meals from scratch.

    The third thing that bothers me is the chemicals used in the prepared food and mixes. With all the stabilizers and flavor enhancers and other chemicals, we really don't know what we are feeding ourselves or our families when we use mixes and other convenience foods. As an example, did you know that Jiffy corn muffin mix, aside from containing pyrophosphate and other chemicals, has hydrogenated lard in it? Lard! Yet it is so easy to make delicious corn muffins from scratch using vegetable oil and no chemicals. We Americans eat way more salt than is good for us, and convenience foods are certainly one of the reasons.

    I realize it is a trend that is probably not going to change for a while, and I even must admit that I'm tempted to try that coffee cake with the yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding, but it would be great someday to check my recipe email and not see a single recipe that lists a convenience food in the ingredients.

February 9, 2013

January 30, 2013

October 11, 2012

October 6, 2012

  • Frost warning

    Our growing season may be over a little early this year. They are predicting a frost the next two nights. This is a hyacinth bean vine on the back fence.

September 24, 2012

  • Passion Flower

    Another passion flower that is presently blooming.
    I don't know how long Xanga has had the iPad app, but I just discovered it. Since I spend more time with it than on my computer, I am going to really like it.