All Multi-Nationals Should Invert Away From US

If you are a multi-national corporation headquartered in X country, you pay that country’s corporate tax for the business you do there and you pay the corporate tax in each other country for the business you do there with the exception of one industrialized country. If you are headquartered in the industrialized world’s highest corporate tax country, not only do you pay that country’s highest in the industrialized world for the business you do there but you also pay that country’s highest in the industrialized world for business you do anywhere else. You do get a tax credit for paying taxes elsewhere, but you also still pay taxes in that country for business you do in other countries.

Now, why would any fiscally responsible corporation spend more than double its by-nation required corporate taxes if it could just as easily cut it down to the actual rate of said country? If Canada has a 15 percent corporate tax rate (it does), then why would a corporation pay the offending country’s 35 percent corporate tax on business done in Canada, just because the business is headquartered in that offending country? It makes no fiscal sense whatsoever. Especially when it is possible to work the laws to divest yourself of insane tax requirements for doing business elsewhere in the world.

That’s exactly what Burger King (owned in a very large part by a Brazilian) did. (And I have a major issue with Burger King’s rainbow whoppers, but that’s beside the point here.)

Meanwhile, Forbes reported three days ago on the prospective merger and said:

Burger King’s majority owner, the Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital, would hold the majority of shares in the combined company, their statement said.

These Brazilians need to get patriotic and pay their absurdly high American tax rates.

See, Burger King’s majority owner, a Brazilian company, did what it took to get out of the outrageously high taxes the US put on it. That’s right. The United States has the industrialized world’s highest corporate tax, and is also the only nation in the industrialized world to force its outrageous taxes on business done in other countries.

Never mind Michelle Obama will never allow Burger King to sell its product in American schools, and would rather Burger King ceased to exist, the Loony Left are all up in arms about a business deciding it’s not a good idea to overpay their taxes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

OK, most people will see this as more of a Hallowe’en to Thanksgiving recipe, but it’s really for all year ’round. It’s gone around my e-mail group, but York lost it and needed it again, so I said to myself, “Self, the whole purpose behind these cookies is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why don’t you tell the world, hey?”¹

• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup cooking oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag Nestle’s Toll House chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine pumpkin, sugar and oil in a mixing bowl. Add flour, baking powder cinnamon and salt, mixing well. Mix soda and milk in a separate container, then add to cookie mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla.

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake @ 350º F until done; about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm with lots and lots of ice-cold milk, and napkins, since you’ll get melted chocolate chips all over your fingers.

And these cookies can be enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans, moonbats and wingnuts, and even the occasional Ron Paul supporter.
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¹ – I’m guessing that some people will figure out from where that quote came. 🙂
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Cross-posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.

Our friends on the left being oh-so-multiculturalist are not multi-culturalist enough to tolerate opinions of which they disapprove

From William Teach at The Pirate’s Cove:

Philly Mafia Plans Resolution Against Chick-fil-a

July 28, 2012 – 9:42 am

Did I write “mafia”? I meant the Philadelphia city council, which, like many other political leaders in big liberal cities, is acting in a manner reminiscent of organized crime, declaring that a privately owned company must change its behavior in order to operate in those cities, which is a tactic similar to what organized crime does, known as “extortion”, which is a felony. When I first wrote a post about Dan Cathy stating that the company doesn’t support gay marriage back on the 20th, I had no idea of the true extent of the liberal apoplexy to come

(Fox News) The Philadelphia City Council will consider a resolution condemning Chick-fil-A for what one city leader called “anti-American” attitudes that promote “hatred, bigotry and discrimination.”

Interesting: I thought the anti-American attitude was one of stopping both free speech and freedom of association. Silly me. Do you see Conservatives rushing out to abandon Amazon due to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, donating $2.5 million to gay marriage? Nope. If we were truly upset, we’d just create a competing company. But, we all know that Lefties are pretty lose with their definition of “anti-American.”

City Councilman Jim Kenney sent a letter to Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy telling him to “take a hike and take your intolerance with you.”

“My effort is to allow people to understand that in certain segments of corporate America there are folks who are using their dollars to promote hatred, bigotry and discrimination,” Kenney told Fox News.

He is introducing a resolution to “condemn this anti-American attitude of trying to deny civil liberties that every American enjoys.”

Kenney joined the mayors of Boston, Chicago and now San Francisco in blasting the Atlanta-based company for supporting a biblical definition of marriage – a union between one man and one woman.

In Liberal World, one is not allowed to disagree with the tenants. Diverging opinion are verboten, comrades, and must be squashed. It’d be interesting to see what would happen if the company pulled all their stores from the liberal cities, reducing jobs and tax money. Other companies might be reticent to build in those cities, since the possibility of being extorted by the politicians would be ever present, and what business owner wants the extra hassle? Is it any wonder job creation is low, what with crazy liberal politicians out there (among other reasons)?

Mr Teach’s use of the word “mafia” seems appropriate. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Changing Skyline: Unions, developers stuck in standoff over Philadelphia building

Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic

It was early March when the siege began at the Goldtex construction site just north of Center City, and it has continued all through this brutally hot summer – almost five long months. Workers have been beaten, car tires slashed. Delivery trucks are blocked for hours. This week, two people were arrested on assault charges. Neighborhood residents are afraid to walk near the building.

If a gang held a Philadelphia house hostage for this long, you can bet it would have been all over the news and politicians would be issuing releases by the gross. The events at Goldtex are part of a union protest, so there is practically a Cone of Silence hanging over this tense and increasingly violent standoff.

Philadelphia, we need to talk.

It hardly needs to be said that Philadelphia is an old-school union town, one of the last left in America where muscle and tradition rule unquestioned. Until two thirtysomething developers, Michael and Matthew Pestronk, began converting a 10-story loft building at 12th and Wood Streets into 163 apartments, no one had dared in decades to build a major project here without an all-union workforce.

Much, much more at the link. Mrs Saffron continues to note the union harassment of the Post Brothers’¹ project. Post Brothers are using some union and some non-union labor, having offered contracts to union carpenters, electricians and demolition crews, but did not want to contract with the laborers union; to do so would have grossly inflated costs through overly-high wages and requirements for more laborers than the job required.

As I noted here, ALa had a story, last May, about her husband (referred to as The Man in her article) working construction on a non-union job in the City of Brotherly Love:

The Nasty Front Lines of Pay to Play

I have to imagine that even pro-union folks from some cute little Midwest town would be absolutely floored at the abject thuggery that goes down here in Philadelphia. When you meet wildly anti-union people (like me), it’s not because we don’t understand the history of the need to organize or the fact that some companies do take advantage of workers. It’s because we have faith that free market and healthy competition has corrected that need. And it’s because we have been direct recipients of the brand of justice unions here see fit to dish out. Screaming in your face is the best of it and handing out pictures of your children or your wife photoshopped in some bizarre sex act, property damage and bodily harm the worst of it.

The Man is now on a job so contentious it’s made national news. He is escorted in daily by Blackwater security.

You can see signage and video feeds of the actual and documented thuggery here: PhillyBully.com

Do you remember the fire that just took the lives of two firefighters from my brother’s station? Well, that fire took place in an abandoned building that was neglected by the owners and the city that became a den of iniquity and a major health risk for the community…and ultimately two public servants.

This building The Man is at (pictured) is similar. Dubbed “the Graffiti building” by local residents it is a rat infested, homeless flop house, eye sore that has the potential to be a health/fire hazard to the surrounding residents. They are THRILLED that this building is being revitalized. Turned into posh apartments by two ballsy guys from Virginia that refuse to play by the Pay to Play rules here in the city of brotherly love. Kudos to them for standing strong.

We’ve heard that the unions, all of them, are “more riled up than they have been in 25 years.” They can’t believe these guys aren’t caving.

Yesterday, escorted by 2 Blackwater guys and a detective, as The Man drove in to the fenced parking area through a throng of 40+ union members (the masons and the carps that particular day) the guys were screaming various things like, “we know who you are” and mumbled threats…but the two that always floor me…? “We’re fighting for your living wage!” The guys at The Man’s company get paid on the exact scale the union guys do, except they don’t have to pay union dues. Duh. And, “You’re taking food out of my kids’ mouths!” Ummm, you dolt, what about my kids?! Are they supposed to starve? If it’s between my kids and your kids…in what bizarro realm am I concerned about yours?

I wish I could have some Blackwater guys so I could go pick the brains (?!) of these lemmings…

Mrs Saffron noted in her story that the government officials in Philadelphia are remarkably silent about the Goldtex project and the union thuggery that has slowed the project down to where it is four months behind schedule. They have plenty of time to worry that the owners of Chick-Fil-A² are Christians who believe in marriage as it has been known throughout the Christian world for 2,000 years but seem remarkably unconcerned that a private developer is losing money having to defend against illegal thuggery by union picketers or that hard-working men in Philadelphia have been physically attacked, and had their property vandalized by the union goons.³

Chick-Fil-A has about 1,600 restaurants nationwide, and employs tens of thousands of people. Chicago Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno apparently has the legal authority to deny Chick-fil-A a building permit in his Ward, and plans to exercise it due to the statements by company President Dan Cathy. That there will be dozens of people in the first Ward who will not get the jobs which Chick-fil-A planned to create in the Alderman’s district is of apparently less moment than political correctness. That Chicago has the highest murder rate of all of the world’s major cities and that bringing a few more jobs to the Windy City might help just a little is also of less importance.

Now, if Chick-fil-A was denying the benefits required by state law to employees in same-sex “marriages,” there could be some legal action undertaken against the company. However, after a reasonable internet search, I have failed to find a single reference to the company doing that or being accused of doing that.

I am not one of those who will either boycott Chick-fil-A for its owners’ political and religious views or who will take a special effort to eat there;⁴ there isn’t a Chick-fil-A restaurant around here, although there is one in the Lehigh Valley Mall, where I get at least four times a year. Former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) did make a special stop to buy at Chick-fil-A, as noted by Donald Douglas, while William Jacobsen of Le*gal In*sur*rec*tion noted the amazing display of civility amongst our friends on the left concerning Mrs Palin’s visit. We know that the left hate sexism, because they have so often told us so, but somehow the actual evidence of such seems sparse.
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Cross-posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.
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¹ – Post Brothers is the corporate name for Michael and Matthew Pestronk.
² – Chick-Fil-A is a family-owned company; its shares are not publicly traded. Thus, there are no public shareholders who can dismiss the company leadership for the president’s remarks.
³ – The editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer did run the story, but it’s pretty deeply buried in the print edition, in the Home & Design section published Friday. Mrs Saffron was not terribly sympathetic to the unions’ positions, but she did manage to throw in some liberal platitudes, such as, “It’s also worth pointing out that unions play a valuable role in protecting American workers from exploitation and abuse by employers, especially in these days of the suffering 99 percent.” She did note that the city has lost many substantial projects due to the inflated costs and political stranglehold the unions have created.
⁴ – I will not cease using amazon.com simply because the founder, Jeff Bezos, donated $2.5 million to support same-sex “marriage,” something I see as ridiculous, sinful and a contradiction in terms. I use amazon.com because it is convenient, useful and provides me with sales-tax free shopping.

But it’s for our own good!

From CBS News:

Bloomberg soda ban: Board of Health eyes popcorn and milkshakes

By Michelle Castillo

(CBS News) While the New York City Board of Health approves of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to cut all large sugary drinks from New Yorker’s diets, some members are taking issue with one major point: They don’t think the plan goes far enough.

The city’s Board of Health met on June 12^th to approve the Mayor’s proposal; they scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for July 24^th, and a final vote on September 13^th. If approved, the new regulation would take effect six months later.

Certain members spoke up, however, saying that the proposal should include other items. Board member Bruce Vladeck questioned why large tubs of popcorn were not included in the ban, according to the New York Daily News. Another member, Dr. Joel Forman, pointed out that even 100 percent juice and milk-containing beverages have large amounts of calories and should not be excluded.

While Dr. Kenneth Popler, board member and president of the Staten Island Mental Health Society, recognized that it would infringe on New Yorkers’ rights, he felt that the health benefits were worth it, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported. Obesity has led to 5,800 deaths a year in New York City and costs taxpayers $4 billion, according to statements presented at the meeting.

Fox & Friends had a short segment on this issue this morning,¹ and a nutritionist and dietitian, Laura Cipullo, presented the “pro” side of the argument. As always in these brief segments, Mrs Cipullo didn’t have a lot of time to flesh out her arguments — pun intended — but she began by noting that the government has assumed a responsibility for the individual’s nutrition with the Food Stamp program.

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, in his skewering questioning of the hapless and hopelessly overmatched Solicitor General, Donald Virrelli,² suggested that the Obama Administration’s position on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could extend to requiring people to buy broccoli³:

Could you define the market — everybody has to buy food sooner or later, so you define the market as food, therefore, everybody is in the market; therefore, you can make people buy broccoli.

If it is within the government’s authority to require health care coverage, and if it is the government’s ultimate responsibility to see to it that everyone has sufficient food on which to live, and if obesity and diabetes are serious health care problems which place financial burdens on the government and the public in general, I fail to see why the government wouldn’t or shouldn’t have the authority not only to compel you to buy broccoli, as Justice Scalia mockingly suggested, but to require you to eat the broccoli as well. After all, broccoli is good for you, being high in nutritional value and low in calories, and the more you fill up on green vegetables, the less room you will have for soda and popcorn and milk shakes, keeping your weight down. I noted, in 2005:

There are plenty of people who seem to find themselves in the business of regulating private conduct. We see it most obviously when it comes to tobacco: several major cities have major bans on smoking in public places and even private clubs. One company, Weyco in Michigan, has not only banned smoking on its property, it has banned smoking among its employees . . . even at home.

Weyco doesn’t see any problem with banning all of its employees from smoking, even off the premises, even in the privacy of their own homes, and has enforced the policy through at least three terminations. “There’s not a liberty right or any other right to have any particular employment, and I think it’s time for people in our country to start taking personal responsibility for many aspects of their life, including health care,” said David Houston, Weyco’s general counsel.

Well, if Weyco, a private company, can regulate its employees’ liberties to the extent that they cannot both smoke and remain employees, why couldn’t the federal government, if it were responsible for all health care costs, determine that Americans (all covered by the national health insurance (Jonathan) Cohn⁴ and so many others advocate) simply couldn’t be allowed to smoke?

Or eat fatty foods?

Or make any of the other private choices Americans are wont to make that don’t necessarily have the best of consequences?

The real problem with Mr. Cohn’s logic is that it is unassailable: he’s actually right about this!

1. If government is going to be obligated for health care costs, government has a reasonable right to take steps to lower those costs; then
2. Government has a reasonable right to lower the costs for which it has assumed responsibility; and thus
3. Government has a reasonable right to regulate private behavior which contributes to higher costs.

Smoking is the most obvious case, and there are plenty of people who advocate government stepping in and making the use of tobacco illegal, period. The fat police (and the ambulance chasers who Mr. Cohn noted were now following pizza delivery boys) have declared war against fatty foods, and if lawsuits against McDonald’s haven’t been successful yet — nearly 90 percent of Americans say they oppose obesity lawsuits against the food industry — it wasn’t all that long ago that the notion that tobacco companies being responsible for smokers’ illnesses, being that smoking was a private decision, was considered ridiculous. If the current lawsuit fails, which it probably will, there will be another, and another, until some idiot jury decides that someone is too fat not because of his hand-to-mouth disease, but because McDonald’s forced him to eat that food!

Count on it: federal government action against food producers and restaurants that serve fatty foods won’t be far behind, at least not if government has a huge vested interest in health care costs.

Of course, the New York City Board of Health isn’t the federal government, but their way of thinking is becoming fairly standard liberalism these days: if your individual choices happen to go against what some official panel of experts believes is contrary to the public good, those choices will simply have to be restricted. And we really shouldn’t object, after all, because it is for our own good!

They will never admit it, of course, and many have probably not even thought about it in any depth, but for many of our friends on the left what is really harmful to our own good, and to society, is freedom. The notion that your choices should not be any of the government’s business unless those choices violate someone else’s rights seems to apply only to abortion these days.
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¹ – During the 0700-0730 segment.
² – Even The New York Times, which editorially supports the health care reform law, noted that, during verbal arguments before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Solicitor General “got off to a rocky start and never seemed to quite find his footing during his hour at the Supreme Court lectern.”
³ – Department of Health and Human Services v Florida, Transcript of oral arguments, March 27, 2012, page 13, lines 8-12.
⁴ – The article was in response to Jonathan Cohn’s argument in The New Republic that the government had a reasonable right to punish or restrict personal behavior that costs the government money:

When you put it that way, the idea of a “Twinkie tax,” as it has come to be known, really does sound absurdly paternalistic. If you want to load up on french fries, health risks and all, why is that the government’s business? Unfortunately, fat consumption really is the government’s business in one, very literal, sense. As taxpayers, we all bear the burden of higher medical costs–either directly, by paying for Medicare and Medicaid, or indirectly, by subsidizing employer-based health insurance (which is tax deductible). So, when some people choose to eat poorly, we all end up bearing the financial burden for their decisions.

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Cross posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.

A Well-Known Truism Rewritten

Give a man food stamps and feed him for a day.
Teach a man to be self-sufficient and cause him to reject the slavery of the Government for a lifetime.

Celebrating The 64th Anniversary Of The Rebirth Of Israel

I’m on Arutz-7’s mailing list. I get Israel News Network mailings and mailings from some of their advertisers. And intentionally so. I got an email from people who want to teach me Hebrew online (and I would love to learn the Holy language of Hebrew but have neither the time nor the financial ability currently) announcing the celebration of 64 years after Israel’s “birth” which is, actually, Israel’s rebirth since Israel herself is thousands of years old. In that email was an offer of free Israel photos if I fill out a form. I did so. Beautiful photos.

"A land flowing with milk and honey."

Turning the desert wasteland into life-sustaining land.

Thriving Tel Aviv on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea

Israel's Capitol yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Turning barren wasteland into a land teeming with life.

64 years ago, Jewish people who had suffered one of the most aggressive attempts to annihilate Jewry in the history of the world came flowing into their ancient homeland against all odds and against the wishes of the international community. From that point until today, and continuing onward into the future, Israel has had to defend herself from the massively superior — both numerically and in firepower — enemies in the region and across the world who want nothing short of the total annihilation of Israel and Jewry. And Israel has been extraordinarily successful, beyond that which is even remotely humanly possible. Because Adonai is with them. Because Yahweh will not allow His Chosen People to be extinguished. Period. (Full stop, for those using The King’s English.) Not only has Israel succeeded beyond human capacity in defending herself from all her foes wishing her total destruction, she has also turned a barren, life-killing desert wasteland into “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Barren land that Israel gains becomes agriculturally rich and self-sustaining land in very short time. And the reverse is also true. Land that Israel has turned into agriculturally rich and self-sustaining land; land that Israel has turned into money-making tourist destination; land that Israel has turned into economically booming land; that land, when turned over to Israel’s enemies in the hopes of shalom become barren once again. But it becomes worse than when Israel possessed it as it is not only barren, but filled with the ruins of a previously highly successful society, all the while housing large numbers of people who are absolutely incapable of sustaining themselves, but are only intent on eliminating Israel and Jewry from the face of the world map.

When Israel gained control of the Gaza Strip in a self-defense war to keep herself from being wiped off the map, the Gaza Strip was a barren desert that could not, at all, sustain life. Israel made it “a land flowing with milk and honey.” When Israel turned it over to the Palestinian terrorists in the hopes of shalom, the Palestinian terrorists who had no desire at all for shalom not only destroyed the land’s ability to sustain the people but also turned it into a terrorist haven from which to further its hate-filled goals to kill all Jews and to destroy Israel.

Israel pumps hundreds of millions of gallons of the life-blood of all peoples — fresh water — into lands that don’t have that life-blood, lands that want nothing less than for Israel to cease to exist and for all Jews to be eradicated, in the hopes for shalom. Israel is prosperous because of her people’s blood and sweat. Israel is an agricultural behemoth because of her people’s blood and sweat. Israel is a massive exporter of fresh water because of her people’s blood and sweat. Israel is in existence today despite the gargantuan odds against her because of her people’s blood and sweat. And all of this also because Providence will not let those who curse Israel — His Chosen People — succeed.

Israel, a land roughly the size of New Jersey, has succeeded against all human and Satanic odds against her, yet she only wants shalom. She has given up massive chunks of land for shalom. She has given up the Golan Heights for shalom. (The Golan Heights are Israel’s Sudetenland (see: Hitler and Czechoslovakia).) But all the nations surrounding Israel, all the Communist nations, all the Liberals in the US, especially Barack Obama and the absolute nutball Ron Paul, are arrayed against Israel. They have absolutely no desire for shalom in Israel. They want Israel dead.

“I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you.” — The Almighty, speaking to Israel.
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For more Israel pictures like the ones above, register here.

Giving Obama The Respect He Deserves #ObamasDogRecipes

Some Fido Mignon

Chicken Poodle Soup

Shrimp Cockapoo-tail

Shih Tzu on a Shingle

Yeah, if you are what you eat, Obama’s dog meat.

Tips For A Food-Aggressive Dog

I have a food-aggressive dog. She’s very friendly (overly friendly) with people she knows and a loud-mouthed, barking coward with people she doesn’t know. She would never actually intentionally bite anyone, because she’s too cowardly. But people are afraid of loudly barking German Shepherds, and rightfully so. Okay, that was a side-point, but one that I used to tell you what kind of dog I have. I have a purebred German Shepherd. And she’s food-aggressive. Try to hand-feed her and next time you do that, you’ll be stump-feeding her. She’ll chomp down HARD on the hand that’s feeding her.

And she’s a Shep. She can do it. It can become an issue with neighbor children around, even though she’s tied up. So, I’ve come up with a plan to break her of her food-aggressivity. A former neighbor suggested I put her food on a plate and then hold a board across the plate so that she can only get so much of it. He said that would break her. So there’s one tip. But I’m not using that tip. It doesn’t really make sense to me, but he swore by it, so you can try it out if you want. I’m using an idea I came up with myself.

Necessity is the mother of inventions. And, while this doesn’t exactly qualify as an invention, it fits within that realm as it’s creative ingenuity. When my daughter just recently moved out, she left behind a good sized bag full of “small” dog biscuits. It says so right on the bag. “Small dog biscuits.” Miniature, microscopic, barely visible. Those terms are more fitting. I could hold 15 of those “small” biscuits in my hand and still close it to make a fist, they’re “small”.

So, I decided to use those tiny things to break my German Shepherd’s food-aggressivity. But I wasn’t going to hold them in my hand. I like my hand just the way it is, thank you very much. So, what to do? I went out to the shed and into my tool crate, and pulled out just what the doctor ordered: a pair of small vice grips.

Want to make your food-aggressive dog not food-aggressive? Here’s how to do it, the Truth Before Dishonor way. First you get yourself a large supply of far-too-small-for-your-dog dog biscuits. Securely tie your dog to a stake or a tree or what have you, where it cannot get free. Then you grab your vice grips. Setting your vice grips to a position where they grip the dog biscuit just well enough that it doesn’t fall out, place the tip of the tiny biscuit in the vice grips. Hold onto the very end of the vice grips. Stretch the dog biscuit out to where your dog is quite literally at the end of his rope and let him bite down wherever he wants to. And then repeat. Your dog will quickly realize he doesn’t want to bite the vice grips (they are not so soft as your hands) and will then start being very careful as to where he bites, only biting onto the food. And even grabbing the food with his mouth without actually biting it, in order to free it from the vice grips.

Repeat this process several times with the too-small-to-be filling dog biscuits. And then do it on several more days. Soon, your dog will automatically be careful as to where and what he bites, and you will no longer have a food-aggressive dog. (That’s my hope anyway. I’ve just begun the process, and the signs are there that she’s learning.)

Well, of course we were!

I was minding my own business, when SPC Pico said, “Dad, we need milk and sugar for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I said that I’d go get the necessary supplies and asked if we needed anything for dinner. “We’re having the cookies for dinner,” I was told.

My Holiday and Other Occasions Unrant Rant

You know it’s coming. The house is on High Alert. Company is coming. And the great UPHEAVAL begins. Like all families you want to make the house look like it is not lived in. So, the first thing that was stopped was “the project” because it meant sanding spackle even though I have a palm sander with the shop vac attached. Then the area invasion starts. First, all your daily stuff on the table must be quarantined. So, the daily routine is altered. Then the stack of mail that was split into subsections of Bills, Magazines, and stuff you need two weeks to decide to throw it out. With the grandbabies at 11 months acting like sea turtles, they are officially moving on their own. So, baby proofing everything is in order. Then the turkey. (By this time the cat has been spooked by the sea turtles and is hiding under the quilt on our bed.) We’ll sit down to our dinner, and two people will play Jack-in-the-Box jumping up to get stuff.

Then the grand clean-up starts, and pumpkin pie shows up. (With REAL whipped cream) Mostly everybody helps to clean-up. My yearly job is to produce a turkey bone carcas and cut off all the left-overs. Of course FOOTBALL. But the “Harbaugh Bowl” is on tomorrow night – RAVENS and 49ers. It’s the first time two brothers as head coaches play against each other. Their father said he was going to hide.

Then Friday comes. Now here is where the “real fun” begins, where did you hide all the stuff that usually sits out waiting for some action. You’re still in a Turkey Coma, but it will give you something to do all day, that is if you are not dragged out kicking and screaming to Black Friday sales.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since Foxfier is asking about recipes, I figured it was a perfect time to recycle an old — as in: from December of 2007 — CSPT post that no one could hate!

Most people will see this as more of a Hallowe’en to Thanksgiving recipe, but it’s really for all year ’round. It’s gone around my e-mail group, but York lost it and needed it again, so I said to myself, “Self, the whole purpose behind these cookies is lost, if you keep it a secret! Why don’t you tell the world, hey?”¹

• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup cooking oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag Nestle’s Toll House chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine pumpkin, sugar and oil in a mixing bowl. Add flour, baking powder cinnamon and salt, mixing well. Mix soda and milk in a separate container, then add to cookie mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla.

Drop by spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake @ 350º F until done; about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm with lots and lots of ice-cold milk, and napkins, since you’ll get melted chocolate chips all over your fingers.

And these cookies can be enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans, moonbats and wingnuts, and even the occasional Ron Paul supporter.
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¹ – I’m guessing that some people will figure out from where that quote came. 🙂

Fish Friday

I don’t know about anyone else— at least this time of year, come Lent I know it’ll be a group obsession — but I’m constantly on the look-out for something to make that doesn’t involve carne.

Beyond the staples of fried cheese sandwiches (Thank you, George Foreman), the treat of deep-fried calamari, and various canned soups, my childhood only offers one option:

Clam chowder.

Take a big soup pot, put a glob of bacon fat in the bottom and heat it up to frying temp.
Chop a small potato per person into cubes and fry in the fat until tender or slightly translucent.
Pepper and garlic salt to taste, if you wish.
Turn down to simmering temp.
Add a can of chopped clams and add milk until the potatoes are covered, then about a quarter inch more.
Simmer until thickened and serve. (Has the big advantage of being something that doesn’t have a point where it’s ready and MUST be served right now—it can set on the stove for an hour, just fine.)

You can add some onion when you’re frying the potatoes, or add dried onion when you add milk, and probably add some other things to taste, it’s kind of like jazz.

As good as this is, my husband got tired of it pretty early, so I had to branch out; unfortunately, our budget was extremely limited at the time. Grandma to the rescue—she raised a whole flock of boys, mostly on casseroles or one-pan bakes. (To the point that we never had them when I was growing up, unless we ate at her place—my dad can’t stand them!) The format of a cup or two of carbs like leftover rice or pasta, a can or two of tuna, a cup or so of cheese and enough ranch dressing to make it stick together is very simple while leaving room for adjustment.

Substituting mushrooms or eggs for meat can also help with existing recipes.

Anyone have some favorites?

cross posted

#OccupyWallStreet Forces Food Drive Cancellation, Conservative Bloggers To The Rescue

Legal Insurrection points out the Occupy Wall Street rabble up in Boston hurled epithets, spit, and water bottles at a woman in uniform. There is very little Conservatives can do about that incident, other than continue pointing out the violent, lawlessness, hatred endemic to Left-Wing protests and contrast that with the peaceful, law-abiding rallies held by Conservatives. But on a different issue, there is something Conservatives can do.

The Occupy Wall Street mob in Boston (Occupy Boston) forced the cancellation of a food drive. While the Anarcho-Socialists for Big Government and Freebies (AS Big GAF) prevented a charitable organization from collecting food to provide to the needy, Conservatives stepped up to the plate. Specifically Conservative bloggers. From the Legal Insurrection story:

Fortunately, the blog The Right Sphere has mobilized conservatives to replace the lost donations that the Greater Boston Food Bank suffered due to #OWS:

Since ‘Occupy Boston’ has forced the cancellation of the Greenway Mobile Food Fest, The Right Sphere is trying to raise $1,000 for the Greater Boston Food Bank, which was supposed to benefit from that event. Please consider donating as little as $1, $5 or $10 to the Greater Boston Food Bank to help defray the Occupy movement’s damage to Boston’s nonprofits and to to show that we can put ourmoney where our mouth is and support the needy in Boston. You can do so using the button below. We understand that times are tough, so if you are unable to donate at this time, you can still help by sending this to others and posting this on any social media platforms you may use.

They are past $4,000 so far. Who Really Cares indeed.

AS Big GAF forced the cancellation of a food drive that was designed to help out the truly needy, and people could have starved as a result. Conservative bloggers stepped in and set a goal of 1000 dollars to replace the lost food AS Big GAF caused, but instead of reaching 1000 dollars, the Conservative bloggers have surpassed 4000 dollars. Now, does anyone believe Bostonians are suddenly going to give up their Liberalism and become Conservatives as a result? Not even the Conservative donors to the worthy cause believe that. So, why did they do it?

Liberals: generous with Other People’s Money.
Conservatives: generous with their own money.

That’s why.

Old McDonald(s)

 

 

While I have a moment here I might as well comment on a phenomenon I’ve noticed recently; though I make no claim that it is a necessarily recent phenomenon, nor that it is a widespread one. Just one that a potential variation from my normal habits caused me to take note of.

I think in the last several months it’s happened about oh, three or four times, maybe five times.

While driving to the office relatively late, and after not having eaten breakfast, it occurred to me to take advantage of the “drive-thru” at a McDonalds which is a couple miles from my house and which I pass by on my way to the office.

Now, I know it’s not exactly a healthy choice, and that even under time pressures, there are better alternatives. But I chose it anyway. See, I had a B-vitamin pill slurry sloshing nauseatingly around my otherwise empty stomach, and exemptions were justified. At least that’s what I told myself.

That said, there turned out to be no real reason for guilt after all. My new pathway to sin more resembled that of the kid who tries to buy beer and fails, than the one who succeeds.

For I was never able to force myself to bear the wait necessary to obtain said forbidden fruit. Why not? Well, in each instance there were nine or more cars lined up waiting to order. That’s why. The last two times, disbelieving what I was experiencing, I actually counted them: 13 and 11 respectively.

Now what this is all about is not really how many cars there were, nor my cholesterol saving impatience, but the socially significant fact of who was in all those cars that blocked my way and prevented my from fall from dietary grace.

Other than the couple of guys in tradesman vans you might expect, those populating the queues of suppliants yearning for the Mikey D experience, were nearly all very late middle-aged, or just-elderly, women.

That’s who, figuratively speaking, elbowed me out of the food line. A bunch of grandmas.

What’s the world coming to when even Grandma can’t be trusted to do the right thing, while I do the wrong?

Now, if you want to split hairs, they are of course, technically speaking,  free to eat whatever they like.  And, if you insist on being a killjoy about it, I guess I don’t really even know for certain what it was that they were buying there at McDonalds, at 9:30 in the morning.

But it just kind of surprised me, and brought home more forcefully than ever, how the generations now living, even the older generations, are so thoroughly co-opted by, and apparently comfortable with, “the program”.

And … and … well,  who can we rely on to do the right thing,  if we can’t rely on America’s old ladies? I mean, shouldn’t they be pruning roses, or watering the raspberry patch, or interfering in vestry affairs, rather than spewing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and shamelessly gorging themselves on Egg McMuffins?

Aren’t there even any sixties era types left who remain true to the “whole foods” movement, and who, as a result, do not conspicuously clog up the McDonalds’ drive-thru??

They must still exist somewhere! Just look at how many Democrats continue to be elected.

I guess it’s just that they, and their McDonalds, are found in another part of town …

“Hunger Triggers Anger”

So I’m on the NewsMax mailing list and I get this email from NewsMax Health with the header being, among other things, “Hunger triggers anger.” And I think to myself “well, duh.” Ya see, there is this little family history where certain members of the family get “the shakes” on occasion and need food NOW! My mother has it. I have it. My daughter has it.

Now, when we say we need food NOW, that is not an invitation to discuss dinner plans or options on what to cook and eat in 45 minutes. That’s a requirement to get something into our gullets immediately if not sooner. And if you take it as an opportunity to discuss dinner or to ask about a person in our charge while we need food NOW, you will definitely get your head chewed off and then we’ll find something to eat and instantly be fine again.

You might get an apology from us after the fact. You might not. Since you were the one that caused the explosion. But when “the shakes” come, and it is a quite rare event (it’s happened to me 6 times or so in the last 10 years) that demands very immediate attention. And our nerves are extraordinarily on edge to the point of explosion with the wrong input.

Does hunger trigger anger? I say it depends on the form of the hunger, but it most definitely can. And you don’t want to get my Irish up or I could go native and add another scalp to my collection.