Last Edited Food Blogs (3,353)

Now 58% (up 21% since July) of Americans approve (versus 38% disapprove) of an impeachment inquiry into Trump's behavior.

In addition several key Republicans are now speaking out against Trump's handling of Syria.
This might be a signal, that their previous universal blind tolerance and support of Trump is dissapating.

In this month's Scientific American, these issues get discussed. Sadly, the whole article focuses on classical null hypothesis rejection using p values, or "confidence" intervals. Alternatives are discussed, such as Baysian approaches, or a new gimmick, how things don't seem right by analogy with repeated coin tossing. I wish the writer had had more knowledge of research methodology, including various study approaches, and analytical biases. Current approaches merely attempt to rule out errors based on chance. The real meat of the process comes with discussion of results. This would include: Degrees of strength of findings, dose response trends, analyses of biases and efffect modification, appropriateness of study designs, biological/physical/chemical coherence, funding/publication biases,----and how results fit with existing evidence in building stronger theory of any scientifically answerable questions. But it does touch on how hard it is for humans to think outside of existing theoretical boxes. Yet ignores how all this relates to crafting real policy in the real world.

Some police/fire chiefs in Californicateya, even in tiny municipalities, if on the job long enough, can earn 2-300 large yearly. A life pension then can amount to almost half of that. And when the chiefy dies, wifey continues to collect. With only grammar school math, any Bozo on the bus can see how unsustainable that becomes, given current demographics, which is why such defined overly generous pension plans, once very common, are now rere. That is in the dreaded private sector. If one still pretends to work in the government/public sector, such pensions, once awarded to almost all, when vested, still exist, but are also becoming less common. Now such pretend workers must pay in their share, although this is typically much less than in the dreaded private sector, where workers self fund their own retirement plan, when they exist, with the employer sometimes kicking in a shilling or two yearly. Several US states are either in, or approaching, receivership/bankruptcy, largely due to pensions, but also to typical spend and tax government mentalities. Used to be that these plans were "justified" by claiming that employees in government "service", earned less than those in real productive jobs in private industry. Long no longer at all true. More voters and taxpayers need to know this, and work to have it all become much more fair.

The blogs on CS are programmed so that any member can comment to their blogs at any time and bring them to the top of the page. If you comment to each of ten old blogs, all ten will float to page one. Current discussion in the blogs is about limited exposure to reduce the number of blogs a member can display. As a newbie to CS, I thought it was odd to the amount of self promotion that goes on here. People have the ability to bump their dead blogs and bring them to the top of the page.

That didn't happen on the site I was previously associated with. No matter how many comments you added, each blog would slowly drift away...
It was only when another member commended that would bring your blog to the top.

(side note, this was one of the reasons members created sockpuppets so they can intentionally bump their own blogs)

I asked CS administration if they would consider a format change to stop self promotion and their reply was no.

Their response didn't surprise me as it's expensive to implement website changes. I'm thinking status quo should someone actually contact administration requesting a change.

Everybody Talks About A Lot of Things............................Stuff................ That If Tackled?............. Could Be Taken Care Of.............But....Nobody Talks About ................What We Are Doing To The Wild Life On This Planet ............Who Are Inferior To Humanity....................Well.........At Least I Do........But Im Only One Voice


..........................."Extinction".................................

"I Am The Lion.............................I Was Here So Long Before You"
"No I Never Bothered Humans....I Had Much Better Things To Do"
"You Know? .............................The Only Time I Did?
"Was When................................. You Wouldnt Let Me Be"
"Was It Ever A Fair Game?..."With Your Gun Against Me?"
"Oh No.......Oh No"

"Here I Am The Elephant...No Way Im Just Too Big To Hide"
"When You Shot Our Mothers And Fathers?"
"All Of Us Young Ones........................................ Just Cried"
"And They Died Because Of China"..."A Part Of Their Medicinal Trade"
"But If They Didnt Have Their Weapons?...Theyd Be All Just So Afraid"
"Oh Yeah....Oh Yeah"

"Now Here I Am The Rhino...............Were Being Slaughtered Every Day"
"On Our Horizon? Its Extinction".....Upon The Landscape There We Lay"
"And Us Wildebeest Migrated...North South..................... East And West"
"But Youve Taken Most Of Our Land......And Now? We Have Much Less"
"Oh Yeah....Oh Yeah"

"Im Just One Voice For Earths Wild Life"
"But For The Humans?..Its About Greed"
"Of Yourselves Theres Just One Kind"
"Were...... A Thousand Different Breeds"
"And When You Finally Do...Do Something?"
"Its Always................. Way Too Far Too Late"
"Youre In Control................ Of What We Do"
"And Its You............... Who Decide Our Fate"
"Oh Yeah.....Oh Yeah"

"Id Bet You Wont Be Content..............When All Of Wildlife Is On Your Shelves"
"And That Time? Its Fast Approaching....Then Youll Start To Kill Off Yourselves"
"But You Know If Man Played On Even Odds?"
"And Took Us Animals On..... "One On One?"
"Man Would Never Have Survived Here"
"Unless He Had His Gun"

"Oh Yeah.......Oh Yeah"

For the record, every country has their own style of Country Music.
I was active on Citizens Band (CB) radio in the 1970's and listening to channel 19 that was commonly used as a call channel for truckers, someone asked "What radio station is Country Music on?"
Unlike other places in America, Miami is multi-cultural... so I just had to ask "What country?"


I see there is some confusion including cross reference between the different styles of early music in America. Not all are lumped into "Country Music"

Today, I'm blogging about Mississippi Delta Blues. That's the original folklore story where the young man met Satin at the crossroads and sold his soul for a musical talent he couldn't achieve without 20 years of practice!

That is not to be confused with American style of 'Country Music' with my ex'es from Texas or 'Fiddles from Hell' ala Charlie Daniels Band.

Steel Guitar is associated with Country Music. That instrument is played horizontally where the strings are 1/4" (or more) above the neck and uses a solid bar of polished metal (steel) played on an instrument. Due to the metal bar, all the notes played ring out clear.

Delta Blues is played on a standard guitar... at least 50 years before electric guitars came along and the 'slide' sound comes from a piece of glass. Commonly, it was a broken neck of a whiskey bottle, hence then name 'Bottlebeck Guitar'
The notes on the bottleneck aren't as sustained as a Steel Guitar and that contributes to it's unique sound and style of play.

One of the early legends to this style of music is Muddy Waters. Here is a sample of this music:

As long as there is something about you that causes you to feel bitter, inferior or ashamed, the mere mention of certain words will hurt you. I said it many times before and I’ll say it again; words cannot hurt until you give it the power to do so. Only then can they hurt you.

Some of the causes for hurt may be being dyslexic, stuttering, wearing glasses, having lost a limb, being born cripple, blind or deaf and too many other things to list here. We’re talking about things that you cannot change; things that are neither disgraceful nor scandalous. And until you can make peace with yourself, they will continue to hurt when people talk about it.

And if the reason for your hurt is something you can change, like bad teeth or untidy hair, or is due to intolerance to others, I have no sympathy with you for you are making yourself unhappy. If you don’t like homosexuals or hunting or if you don’t eat meat, you cannot expect the rest of the world to agree with your views. You either fix it you have to tolerate it.

Insults normally come to you as a statement of contempt and there are several ways to deal with it, depending on whether the insult is based on the truth and also whether the insult is based on disgraceful behavior on your behalf or just plain pettiness.

If the statement is based on ill behavior on your behalf, it is not going to help to trade insults with your quarry. This is not just words; it is the truth and it is embarrassing. We are not always proud of our actions. Nevertheless, admit that you were wrong, apologize for the indiscretion and not only have you gained the respect of the people around you but you also have taken the wind out of your enemy’s sails. Your enemy has nothing further on you and if he wants to proceed with his assault he must resort to lies and/or pettiness.

If the statement is untrue, it is not an insult but a lie. There is very little you can do about it… and unless if you can expose the lie in one swift and final stroke, ignore it. Those who know you will see it for what it really is; a common lie. If you try to defend yourself against it, it can only create a perception that there may just be some element of truth in it.

Then there is the third category; normally the tactics that slimeballs employ to hurt innocent people. The attempted insult is true but it is based on pettiness rather than shameful behavior. This is not an insult but we perceive it as an insult because we resent the truth; we feel bitter, ashamed or inferior about something that we cannot help for.

Don’t waste your time on shit you cannot change; don’t fall into the bottomless pit of self-pity because of something that you don’t like about yourself. Accept yourself for who and what you are for there is no shame in it. Say to the world, “OK, I have freckles and so what? How does it affect my character or my person?”

Only then you will have the resilience to resist words but until then words will hurt you more than sticks and stones.

Imagine being the youngest gal ever elected to Congress and taking on both Democratic and
Republican leaders, while being surrounded by MUCH older women and mostly MUCH older men men, including the president, in an effort to truly represent her district and fight for real justice.
It would be massively daunting for most young people. But, this kid has true gumption and
a fire in her belly to insist on what is right and to not take crap from anyone.

From USA Today;



Maybe one day, perhaps long after the impeachment, Trump will be sitting down to a nice prison meal
and it will finally register in his corrupt malfunctioning brain, that the president is not a king.
He (or she) is not above the law.

So now the honeymoon is over and what used to be ‘oopsy doopsy, who had a poopsy?’ became ‘you will still shit me out of this house!!’ and you feel that it is going nowhere. Then it is high time to get the ground rules in place if the relationship is to survive.

The most important thing now is that either the man or the woman has to be good at taking orders. Preferably, the man’s vocabulary should not exceed ‘Yes Dear’. There are no guarantees; if that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a stove or a fridge, depending on whether you want a hot or a cold relationship.

Relationships don't always make sense; especially to those on the outside. The difference between being in a relationship and being in prison is that in prison they let you play ball on weekends. Relationships, on the other hand, give you a steady partner to argue with. No longer do you need to argue with a different partner every night.

The secret of a long relationship is to take time off to go to a restaurant once a week; a little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. It is important that they go to different places. Ideally, couples need to live three lives: one for him , one for her and one for them together . Men are from Mars, women are from Venus and they’re both marooned on Earth. Deal with it.

A bachelor’s life is no life for a single man. It's better to love and lose than having to do 40 pounds of laundry every week.