Ukele Rap

Saw this video this morning and thought it was really funny.

Looking for a few good Jews

Dothan, Alabama wants you if you are Jewish and they are willing to pay. If you move there, become active in the synagogue and live there for five years you do not have to pay back the $50,000 they will give you for just moving there in the first place. That is right, get paid $50,000 to move to podunk Alabama and all you have to do is stay there for five years you do not have to pay it back.

Pros: It is $50,000 just for moving there
Con: It is living in podunk Alabama in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Pro: Small town life could be good.
Con: It is living in podunk Alabama in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Pro: It is only 80 miles from the Florida beaches.
Con: It is podunk Alabama in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Pro: There is no snow.
Con: It is hot as hell in the summer and it is podunk Alabama in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Pro: No traffic jams.
Con: Probably no jobs either and it is podunk Alabama in the middle of the Bible Belt.

Overall, I guess if you were willing to live in the middle of nowhere Alabama in the middle of the Bible belt, it would not be so bad to get paid to do so. I am not sure it is for everyone, but if you are Jewish and need money and want to live in the Bible Belt, this is the way to go.

We are in tortillas heaven

I have recently become addicted to tortilla chips and usually have a bag of them in the house to just munch on when I get hungry, sometimes with salsa (especially the really good homemade salsa from GG's mom), sometimes I get stuff to make guacamole, but most of the time I just take a few out of the bag and munch on them. I have always been a fan of tortilla chips and when I wanted something to snack on, they were one of the options I would look for sometimes, but they shared time with pretzels and potato chips. Well, since I moved here to the Chicago area, it has become almost always tortillas and rarely potato chips and pretzels have really faded away in the snack food preferences. I blame my most recent love of tortilla chips on two factors. One, GG also really likes tortilla chips and so this snack is something we can both enjoy. Two and honestly far more importantly, there are a lot of really really good tortilla chip companies in the area. There is of course Frontera Grill products which are made by Frontera Kitchens, Rick Bayless's company. Bayless has three restaurants in the Chicago area and his chips are really good, but I don't even usually count him when I think of tortillas in the Chicago area. I think of him as a more national product, which I am not sure is fair as I am not sure he is really is national. But he is a chef on PBS and I used to watch him when I was still living in NC so somehow he has lost that local appeal for me. But his chips are really good and I really want to go down to all three of his restaurant at some time, not on the same day though obviously. The next chip company is Del Rey Tortilleria. These are great local chips. They also have at least two stores in Chicago in which you can watch them make the tortillas and buy them pretty cheaply. The next ones are a bit thicker than the others, but again are just really good, El Ranchero . The final chips and my favorite of the bunch are El Milagro. These chips come in a paper bag while the other ones are in the regular cellophane bags. The paper bags give them a nice distinctive look. I have no idea if this actually makes them that much better, but I do think they are the best. Although, I do have my preferences any of these chips are better than any of the national brands, Doritos, not to name names or anything. So if you live in the Chicago area or are visiting the Chicago area, you should get a bag of any of these chips if you have never tasted them before.

Youtube Fridays

This song is dedicated to the new cat, Kali. She is a bit of smelly cat, she has some gas issues among other things.


Smelly Cat- from the TV show "Friends"

This song is dedicated to my mom, whose birthday it is today.

Happy Birthday- The Beatles

Question of the day, well sort of

As I was watching Sarah Palin's speech last night, yes I watched, don't ask me why, I started to wonder a few things? First, how could anyone ever think that she would attract the same voters that Clinton did? Two, is Todd Palin afraid to hold the baby too long as at the beginning of the speech he was holding the baby, but then after a few minutes he gave the baby to the youngest daughter? One of the older daughter is usually holding the baby, but this time the baby was given to the youngest daughter who looked like she was all of 8 or 9, but I am not sure how old she is really. Three and most seriously, I know that Palin's oldest son will be serving in Iraq soon and Biden's son is serving in Iraq, so are either of these children actually put in any kind of danger? Are they like Prince William (I believe that is the right royal son) who served in the military and even we sent overseas, but was also carefully guarded and never really on the front lines. So are sons and daughters of Congress people, governors and other high profile political officials actually placed in harms way or are they very protected in what duties they serve even if they are sent overseas? I honestly do not know the answer to this question and am not trying to be a smartass, I really did start to wonder about this last night, aske GG I asked her the same question last night.

Finally we get to hear from Gov. Palin

In addition to the speech she will be giving tonight at the Rethug convention, she was nice enough to create this vlog so that we can all get to know her better.

Into the scrum I go

I am finally getting into the fray about Palin. Up to this point, I really didn't feel like I needed or wanted to do this as so may other lefty bloggers were doing it better than I could have, but I decided to put up a post about this article. McCain is defending Palin and saying that this vetting controversy is "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for vice president" and that the media is just an ol' boys club that is trying to destroy Palin. I am not so sure I can totally disagree about the mainstream media being male centered and male run, but so is the GOP. Just because you now have a female VP nominee, does not mean you no longer an old boys club. We still live in a patriarchal society where men are valued over women and a female VP does not seem to be as impressive to me as the fact that Democrats had a viable presidential candidate. I did not see any females even mentioned for the Republicans when it came time for possible presidential nominees. McCain is also saying that Palin is subject to gender bias in the media, yeah no shit Sherlock. I didn't hear him speaking out when Clinton was viciously attacked by the media and by other candidates. Where was McCain standing up for women earlier in the presidential campaign? Am I supposed to believe that if Clinton had become the presidential nominee or even the VP nominee McCain would not have been launching all kinds of sexist ads and comments toward her? Of course not, he would have been firing as many dirty shots as he could.

The other issue, of course, that keeps coming up is the lack of experience for Palin. Former Governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift is now being quoted as saying that Palin is more prepared to be the president of the U.S. than Obama. And on what planet is this women living? How does six years as the mayor of Wasilla and four years as governor of Alaska give her that much experience? Although Alaska is a large state geographically, it is one of the least populous states and really how do you compare a short span as a governor to the same amount of time working in Washington as a Senator? Where is Palin's foreign policy experience? What is her policy on healthcare, energy, the Iraq War, or Social Security? McCain is not a young man, knowing her views on these issues will most likely become very important.

UPDATE: Sorry I gave Gov. Palin more years as a Governor than I should have. She has had only two years, not four.