The C.H.I.P. Program, What America Needs

On the 19th of July, the Senate Finance Committee voted 17-4 to reauthorize and expand the CHIP Program. This is a program that allocates monies to help low income working families get health care for their children. It now heads to the full Senate for debate. A similar bill was vetoed by President Bush last year.

This is exactly the kind of work that the Congress needs to be doing for the people. What kind of country is this, the richest in the world, where a low income WORKING family cannot get health care coverage for their children. This program, much like Head Start, has been hailed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office as one of the most efficient programs the government runs. It was co-sponsored by two republicans and two democrats.

The bill brought forth to the floor of the Senate would increase the funding from 25 to 35 billion over 5 years. Keep in mind that the entire cost to federal government to pay for this program is less then 5 months operations in Iraq. This amount would provide health care for 6.6 million kids whose parents are working and trying to obtain the American Dream. Here is the Finance Committee's press release. I don't know if anyone out there is as fried up about this as I am, but you can pick your senator out on this site, and write them an email encouraging them to support this bill in the full senate.

JD.

Sweet Cherry Pie

Well talk about a evolution of an idea or concept. I was over my brothers apartment last week and we were playing Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360. Now I had never played this game before, but let me tell you... it is a blast. I am not the best fake guitar player out there, and I still had a great time and made my left hand nice and sore. Anyway, one of the songs on this game was Cherry Pie by Warrant. I had head this song before, but after attempting to master in on Guitar Hero, I had to download if from Itunes.

Then on Friday, the Wife comes home from Kroger telling me about how there were cherries on sale and she is going to make a cherry pie for some company that was coming over on Saturday. Wife has made all kinds of pies and crisps, but never cherry, and I looooooove cherry pie, so I was excited. Here is the picture of the final result:

So, I don't really know if all these things are really related, but if they are I sure am glad that playing Guitar Hero got me a nice Cherry Pie.

Giant Spiders are Cool

I was over helping my parents pack for their big move to Arkansas. Now why they are moving to Arkansas could possibly fill a novel the size of War and Peace, but I am not here to write about that. I am here to write about a giant spider that we found in the garage while moving some stuff. Now some people who read this might be from down south where this size spider is commonplace, but not up here in Michigan. This has to be the largest spider I have ever seen here. I don;w know what kind of spider it is, so if anyone out there does, let me know. Here is the pic:

Pretty Cool...huh??
Yup, I am definitely male.

America's Global Imperative....MIA

America has lost it's global imperative. It is not hiding around the corner, or on vacation, it is completely MIA. It went on permanent leave when the Communist bloc fell, and suddenly we were the sole superpower in a world accustomed to two ideologies going toe to toe all over the world. The problem with this is that America likes to have the moral high ground, and this we did when were leading the world to freedom and democracy against those dirty commies. But afterwards all we had was our economy, which sounds great, but it is not something that you always feel proud about.

The current political leadership has tried it's darnedest to regain America's global imperative by substituting terrorism for communism. The problem is that it is not working. I agree terrorism is a threat, but it does not rank up with communism. We cannot look on a map and point to a big old huge mass that is the "enemy." Our kids cannot shake in fear of a mass nuclear attack. While terrorism is a threat, it is not the threat that communism is. For much of us in the "Flyover" part of the country, terrorism is a remote distant thing that only happens to those people on the coasts. I am in no way saying that terrorism should be ignored, but we cannot use it as the national rallying cry, it's just not going to work.

My suggestion is that we focus our national efforts on something that is positive, and will help American reclaim the high moral authority we used to have. Instead of being the proverbial big bully, lets pick an issue and lead globally on this issue. For example, we could embrace facing global warming head on, China be damned. We could invest trillions in new technologies and lead the world in deploying these HOMEGROWN technologies. Not only could we brag to the rest of the world while they scramble to catch up, but American companies would be able to export this knowledge and technology across the globe, thus helping our economy as well. I know some out there don't give a crap about global warming, but the rest of the world does. If we are going to gain back our moral and global imperative, it would be a great issue to lead on. If not global warming, pick something...global hunger, water access or literacy. This would restore us to a place of leadership in the world, and give the average American something to believe in again.

Just a thought...JD

Homemade Veggie Pizza, Who Knew It Could Be This Good

Let's just say that JD was always raised as a meat and potatoes kind of guy. There is Polish in my blood, so there was always a steak or sausage at our dinner table. In the spirit of branching out to try new things, and in the quest to get back down to the college fighting weight, JD has agreed with the Wife to try some vegetarian dishes. Now of course I laid down some ground rules:

1. No fake meat - If we are going to have soyburgers, lets just have a burger. There is no reason to try and fake something that God has already perfected in the fleshy counterpart.

2. Veggie dishes must stand on their own - I have no problem eating vegetables as long as they are good as vegetables. This means that I will not compromise good taste just for the sake of eating vegetarian. There are plenty of veggies I like, so lets find a way to work around those.

3. No Tofu....Ever - I think this one is self-explanatory.

Anyway, so we have been eating 1-2 vegetarian meals a week, which has been pretty good. Sometimes it approaches a "hot and ready" night. This is when the meal fails and we go get a pizza. Thankfully there have been none that fully meat this criteria. so tonight it was time to try some homemade squash and sage pizza. Let me tell you, this was delicious. I am going to post some pictures, but unfortunately that does not do it justice. The aroma was amazing and the taste was so good I burned the top of my mouth shoveling it in so fast. Major kudos goes to Wife, for making an excellent dinner that was also pretty healthy (note: blue cheese is not a healthy ingredient, but it's damn good) If anyone out there wants the recipe, just leave a comment and I will type it in. Also, as a side comment, this is partly to show off to our good friend Rosiecat over on Life, Love and Food. On to the pics:

This is Wife showing off her HOMEMADE pizza crust
(She was painting earlier in the day, hence the clothes)

The finished product......yummy