Consequently, I’ve spent the last two weeks perfecting an Irish coffee recipe so that Lisa can use the glasses.  I would share it with you, but I haven’t actually measured everything out… you know how it goes… first the sugar, then coffee to this high on the glass, then the Bailey’s, then light cream to this high and then the whipped cream on top.  Here, I think, is the trick to coffee drinks; start with the coffee the way you like coffee.  If you like it sweet and light, like Lisa does, then that’s how you should make the coffee for the Irish coffee.  If you like sweetener instead sugar, use sweetener (my original recipe included brown sugar, which I quickly discarded as it didn’t blend well and left a nasty looking lump of goo in the bottom of the glass).  If you like flavored coffee, use it… though anything beyond vanilla, mocha or hazelnut would probably be risky.  I don’t know how powdered cream would mix with the liquor… you’ll have to try it yourself… honestly though, it’s supposed to be a treat… try the real cream.

Also tucked away in the storage closet was my old Dreamcast.  For those of you who don’t know, the Dreamcast was a Sega video game console (Sega’s final video game console) released just before the Playstation 2, the original Xbox and the GameCube.  It was a great system, but wasn’t nearly as popular as the other systems and was quickly discontinued.  Nevertheless, even though I have a brand new copy of Bulletstorm sitting on a shelf, my video game time is now devoted to my eleventy-third play through of Skies of Arcadia, my favorite turn based RPG of all time… and yes that includes Final Fantasy VII.  Skies of Arcadia was re-relased for GameCube… but I never owned a GameCube.  If I could find a copy I could play it on the Wii… but I can’t… at least not for less than a hundred bucks.  I’m not paying a hundred bucks for a game I already own.  Sega has started releasing old Dreamcast titles to XBLA… hopefully Skies (and Shenmue) will make the list… I’m not sure how much longer my Dreamcast will hold out.

Trent Reznor, who used to record his music under the name Nine Inch Nails, won an Oscar last week for the score he wrote for The Social Network. Trent Reznor, who for years was derided as a vulgar, pot-banging, post-punk band geek; Trent Reznor, the Angry Young Man my wife has had a crush on since 1990; Trent Reznor, the man held responsible for the disaster that is Marilyn Manson; Trent Reznor, who once hit me in the face with a water bottle…  is an Academy Award winner.  Nice job Trent, we’re proud of you.

Here is Wish, from his EP Broken, which to this day never leaves the CD player in my car.

I have no idea if Ron Paul identifies as Christian, but I know an awful lot of the Tea Partiers do.  I’ve read the bible… a couple of times in fact.  I don’t have it memorized, granted, but I seem to remember a parable about a man who helped a wounded stranger lying in the road… and that the general idea of that story was that helping people is the right thing to do.  I don’t have to make some grand metaphorical stretch to relate this story to health care.  The Good Samaritan is literally about health care.  It says to help people who need help.

When did helping people become immoral?  I could see if we were the poorest country on the planet, but we aren’t, we’re the richest; we can afford the tuition down at the local vo-tech or community college.  I think the last time I got sick, it was a $20 copay and the antibiotic prescription it cost me two bucks.  I’m willing to pay for a half-dozen of those a year to help someone else, aren’t you?  Will it require some sacrifice to help people?  Yes.  Guess what else Christianity is about?  Sacrifice.

Why is it the people who are the most desperate to make America a Christian nation are some of the least Christian people I’ve ever seen?  The least forgiving?  The least tolerant?  The least charitable?  I’ve known some remarkable Christians in my life.  I grew up in a church filled with giving, accepting people, people who believed in judging not rather than shouting “abomination!” at the tops of their voices; people who believed that forgiveness and togetherness were more important than wealth and power.  I’ve known good Christians.  Anyone who tells you that helping people who need help is wrong isn’t a good Christian or a good person, no matter how many times they quote the bible.

“Oh the debt!” you cry, “oh, the deficit!”  Oh my fat white ass, I say.  How about we end those two wars.  Not one more penny to Afghanistan until everyone in this country has health care and college tuition.  The whole point of going to Afghanistan was to keep our kids safe.  Are we really keeping them safe if our being in Afghanistan means they can’t go to the doctor or go to college?  What’s riskier, losing 3,000 people to a bomb or losing an entire generation to illness, ignorance, and poverty?  Besides, no one in Afghanistan wants us there anyway, not even the puppet we put in place to run things.

I’m not some naive idealist.  I’ve been poor.  I’ve been rich too.  I’ve needed help.  I’ve occasionally been able to help others.  Tomorrow I may need help again.  Today, thank God, I can help someone else a little.  Maybe you can too.

This Wisconsin thing is annoying.  I’m not sure what the people of Wisconsin expected though, when they elected a far right wing governor and legislature.  You get the government you deserve, right?  The Democrats who ran away aren’t exactly heroes either.  Take your lumps Democrats.  Let the people see what they get when they elect zealots… only 21 months until the next chance for change.

I’m afraid Libya is going to end in a bloodbath.  In fact, I’m not sure if World War 3 (or 4 depending on your perspective) isn’t gearing up in northern Africa.  I just have no idea which side everyone will take.  Are we pro-democracy if democracy leads to more hardline Islamic republics?  Are we pro-something else (dictators?) if it leads to greater economic stability?  I just don’t know.  I’m starting to hear voices in the right wing express regret for removing Saddam Hussein.  Is that the preamble for the stability argument?  This morning I heard a former Marine Corps officer mourn the fact that Iraqi PM al Maliki is close with Iran.  What did you think would happen when you removed the secular Sunni leader of an Islamic nation and replaced him with his opposition?  Imagine everyone’s surprise that they wound up with a Shiite friendly with Iran; Iran, which is the primary stronghold of Shia in the region and in the world… and is Iraq’s next door neighbor.  Anyway… I fear a bad end.  It is frustrating to see the president waffle over all of this, but I also wonder how much more dangerous all of this becomes when we do pick a side and then someone stands up to oppose us, as will almost surely happen.  Appear weak and avoid a fight, appear strong and draw every second-rate contender in the world… and maybe a first rate contender or two as well… what’s the better option?  What do you think?  Am I being paranoid or are we waiting for someone to sink the Lusitania?

It’s time to get out of Afghanistan.  Why?  Have you wondered why no one is worried about Afghanistan having a Day of Rage.  It’s because Afghanistan isn’t a real nation.  It’s no-man’s land.  How many times does it have to be described as “like the surface of the moon” before we realize that only the most hardcore of isolationists would ever want to be there.  Keep the satellites looking for terrorist camps and get our guys the hell out of there.  We have more important things to do with our military than trying to force people to take responsibility for a nation that they don’t even recognize as their own.

Thus endeth the ramblings.  Let me know what you think about all of this junk.

The United States Congress is currently debating cutting funding for higher education.  I can not say with enough force and clarity how stupid this is.  You heard me.  But, if you combine that with the current hard line on immigration, you can begin to see the larger blueprint.  The reason the right wing is so desperate to plug the borders is because they are planning to create a generation of American born fruit pickers, dishwashers, and lawn maintenance engineers.  If we don’t stop importing unskilled labor, what are we going to do with all of the homegrown unskilled labor we’ll have in 15 years?  I mean… you see what happens when people don’t have jobs.  They get really angry.  They might stop drinking the kool-aid and realize that voting for politicians who promise to protect their presumed lottery winnings may not be the best way to plan for the future.

By the way, it is time to abolish lotteries in this country again.  Lotteries give people false hope and serve only to punish the most desperate.   All Americans must realize that the only way they will have a comfortable life is to work hard, be creative, and plan realistically.  Oh, and if they could stop voting for people who think that cutting education so that rich people don’t have to pay taxes is a good idea, that would be good too.

These people do realize that paying for education a literal investment, right?  It isn’t rhetoric; it’s putting money into an endeavor that will pay greater dividends later on.  Investments only really work well if you buy low and sell high.  Buying high and selling high is pointless… there’s no growth there.  Pell grants for poor kids is the equivalent of buying low.  And don’t they realize that cutting summer Pell grants only punishes the hardest working students, the most highly motivated workers?  The spoiled frat boys don’t go to summer school.  Poor kids desperate to make a better life for themselves and their families to go summer school.  Are those the people we want to punish?  Apparently so.

So what is the overall plan here?  Is it to create an American born, English speaking, unskilled labor pool?  Why?  Is plutocracy (rule of the wealthy) disguised as democracy the goal?  Was it ever not the goal?  Isn’t the oligarchy (rule of the elite) we already have bad enough?  When America voted for Barack Obama, they were hoping for another Franklin Roosevelt; someone to save them from the next great depression.  It turns out what we really needed was another Teddy Roosevelt; someone to save us from the new generation of robber barons and monopolists… read investment bankers and energy executives.  The unions have been effectively marginalized (though they aren’t entirely guiltless), so there likely won’t be anyone to speak for this new underclass.  Is that another link in the chain that will bind the average joe to his minimum wage job?   Heh… yeah, like we’re going to have a minimum wage in 20 years.  It will be gone like fiscal responsibility and social security for anyone born after 1965.

How much weed did Paul Ryan smoke before his rebuttal of the State of the Union for his eyes to be that bloodshot?  Sorry… the news is on.

The speech was good.  Inspiring and vague, like a good speech should be.  Yes, vague is good.  Specifics are for memos.  Facts are for Powerpoint presentations.  Speeches are about ideas… concepts… intangibles.  Just because the 24 hour news machine wants hard information to grind into paste doesn’t mean the president, any president, should give it to them in the State of the Union.  Once or twice a year a president gets an opportunity to inspire people; to motivate people.  I think the president pulled that off last night.  But then, I like a little oratory now and again.  The parties should mingle every year… less silly applause, more general politeness… though Boehner made some pretty funny faces along the way.  Is it just me or does he always look like he’s just about to roll his eyes… the tiny, irony laced grimace/smile, the half-closed eyes… it’s like he’s always waiting for the last word of a bad punchline.  You have to like the guy though… he drinks, he smokes, he cries in public… if he thought that helping people was more important than making money, he’d be my hero.  Well… that’s not fair.  He is helping people, just not the people who need help the most.

That’s me with my second best gift ever.

That’s me with my best gift ever.

May you find peace, joy, and serenity this Christmas.  Thank you all for a great year at the CI.

This is not to say we didn’t decorate.  My mother loved Christmas, and our halls were decked.  Every room was transformed, even the guest room no one ever went into.  The candles were changed, the cocktail napkins replaced, even the potholders were swapped out for holiday versions.  Place mats, guest towels, and toothpicks all transformed into red and green, silver and gold.  Though, my mother did have a line she wouldn’t cross.  Holiday drinking glasses and dinnerware were tacky.  Anything made of plastic, unless it was a tree ornament, was forbidden… and even plastic tree ornaments were frowned upon.

The tree was another of her Christmas idiosyncrasies.   When she was a child, her mother would only allow red globes to be hung on the tree.  Also, as I recall, only one color light, though I don’t remember if it was white or red… maybe one of my older cousins can help me out here.  Anyway, my mother, who would readily admit she was neither artsy nor craftsy, found this totalitarian control to be artistically limiting and, as an adult, she rebelled.  Our Christmas tree always had the big, multi-colored lights, even the orange ones, with every kind of ornament you can imagine… and no tinsel.  Her father was a tinsel man, carefully hanging each strand one at a time.  If you wanted to hear my mother swear, all you had to do was ask her about tinsel… or democrats.  Our tree was my mother’s one concession to the tackiness that can overwhelm the holidays.  She was proud of her big, tacky tree, and if you didn’t like it, you were welcome to go and drink someone else’s egg nog.  That’s another good story… my grandmother’s egg nog… but it will have to wait for another day.