Some thoughts on improved pills

I have reached that state in life where I am faced with a battery of seven prescription drugs, to be taken daily.
They ought to find an ink for the labels that will last as long as the pills in the bottle do. About halfway thru the life of a bottle, the ink has rubbed off the label so badly that I can't read it. This could be a real safety hazard.
Then the damn pills all look alike, round, and pink. Drop one and then try and figure out which one it was. Surely they could make different shapes (square, oval, triangular) and more colors than just pink. It would be nice to look in my hand and be sure that I had seven different pills in it rather than two pills of the same kind.

April Fools. Six inches of snow on my deck.

I think they must have repealed spring. The April Fool's day snow storm laid down as much snow as we get from a January storm.



Note shiny new town plow truck. We voted for this truck at town meeting last year. It missed hitting my mailbox yet again. Be thankful for small favors.

So what does Obama do now?

Libya doesn't look good. Even with US air support, Quaddafi's army is pushing the rebels back. Which is not to be wondered at, regular armies can usually beat civilian militias. Unless some of Quaddafi's army defects to the rebels, or the US Army steps in, or something bad happens to Quaddafi, the rebellion looks to be in trouble.
What will Obama do to pull his chestnuts (prestige) out of the fire? He will look mighty foolish if Quaddafi whips the rebels and retains power in Tripoli.

Recipe, chicken soup from scratch

You start with a chicken carcass, you know the bony ribcage left after all the white meat has been carved off and eaten. Fill a soup kettle with water and break the carcass up into pieces small enough to submerge in the water. Add some chopped veggies for flavor, an onion, a celery stalk, a mushroom cap, a carrot. Some spices, I use Bell's poultry seasoning, but a bay leave, and sage works too. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for some hours, until the chicken meat comes loose from the bones.
Now comes the sticky part. Take the pot off the stove and when it's cool enough fish the chicken bones out. I use a slotted spoon and put all the chicken in a strainer. Pick thru the strainer with fingers, separating the bones and discarding them. Return the deboned chicken to the kettle and step 1 is done. You have a kettle of chicken broth, fresh and homemade. The veggies will have cooked down to almost nothing, but they contribute flavor.
Step 2 needs to start about an hour before serving time. Put the kettle back on the stove and then add things to cook in the chicken broth. Veggies, onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, what every seems good. Some rice, or some peeled and cubed potato. Bring to a boil and then back off the heat so the broth is just on the verge of a boil and cook until the veggies are tender and the rice is cooked. Taste the broth and decide if it needs salt. I wound up adding a whole teaspoon of salt to a large kettle last night. Don't overdo the salt, its bad for the flavor.

How can you tell when a politician is lying?

Obama on TV just now. "My administration has done everything in its power to encourage off shore oil exploration". Right. In actual fact, Obama shut down all off shore exploration after the Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year. It's still shut down.

So who gets blamed if the US govt shuts down?

Compromise doesn't seem close, or at least nobody will admit to it. House Republicans passed a continuing resolution to keep the US government running until the end of the fiscal year, September or October of 2011. The House passed measure calls for $61 billion worth of cuts. Which is chicken feed compared to the $1.6 trillion estimated for this year's deficit. But it's a step in the right direction, and if Congress cannot take a first baby step, we are going down the drain like Greece. The democratic controlled Senate doesn't want to pass it, they want the House Republicans to back off and continue spending as usual.
If the Republicans hold fast to their spending cuts, the government runs out of money and will "shut down", unless the democrats cave. Actually some crucial government functions like mailing (or direct depositing) social security checks and paying the troops will continue but life will get rough for a lot of people who work for Uncle Sam.
The democratic media, that's about all of them except Fox and the Wall St Journal, will blame the Republicans. The Democrats will blame the Republicans. But will the voters believe the media and the democrats? Who knows. Have any voters thought about this one? Rasmussen isn't polling on this one. Presumably the Republicans are watching their polls and will stick to their guns if their polls indicate the voters won't retaliate for a shutdown next November.

Rick Santorum at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner

Clearly Mr. Santorum is sizing up his chances in the upcoming NH primary. He was the after dinner speaker and the Republican audience gave him a warm welcome and lots of applause. He spoke at length, and he speaks well. He described his family and childhood. He promised to sign a repeal of Obamacare. That's about all I can remember on the morning after. He took questions from the floor and handled them well.
Herman Cain (who spoke before this same audience a month ago) made a stronger impression.
And, Rick has some enemies out there. Upon leaving the event, I found an anti-Santorum flyer tucked under the windshield wiper of my car. It attacked Santorum for being insufficiently conservative. The flyer was unsigned, indicating a low level of courage on the part of its printers and distributors.