Author Archives: D.R. Slaten

What I Did Last Election… Outing Voters is Despicable

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There’s this thing. A group is publishing who voted, when and their addresses. And sending out mailers to everyone giving out this information. They hope to shame people into voting.

It’s not cool. It’s not okay. And at least for me, it won’t work.

Out me. Tell me neighbors and my friends and random strangers when I voted and when I didn’t. It won’t alter my voting behavior. Not at all. Not one bit. I just don’t care enough about what other people think of me and my behaviors to care that they “know” what I did last election. Or the one before that. Or the one before that.

I don’t even care if they’d published how I voted and who I voted for. I’m not ashamed of my voting pattern and behaviors. I choose to vote. I choose when not to vote. And no one is going to make me do any differently than I want to do. Period. Not for any reason. Hell, let me “out” myself. Y’all, if you want to know who, how and when I voted… ask. OR if enough people seem even remotely interested, I’d be willing to publish it right here on the blog to be preserved for all eternity. Cause I just don’t give a shit who knows what about my voting habits.

What I do care about is that these people (a PAC) are also giving out address and other personal information. Now, I know anyone can get this info for a small fee. However, it feels like an invasion of privacy. And it makes at the ridiculously small hurdle of paying to get this info non-existent. And makes it that much easier for the loopy-loos out there to have in their possession information they might not have paid even a nominal fee to attain. And it feels like an invasion of privacy.

People are pissed about it.

The group doing the “outing” has some psychology to back them up. It seems shaming people does bring them out to vote. Which is tragic– on so many levels. I don’t like it that people are shamed into altering their behavior. I don’t like it that people are doing something for which they feel shame. I don’t get that at all. If you felt bad about not voting why not just vote and not wait for some group to shame you into doing it? It also makes me sad that there are people out there wanting to shame people into doing what they want even if it is something like voting (which I generally think of as a good thing).

If I haven’t made myself clear previously, the right to vote–our franchise in our country and government–is the apex of citizenry and a functional democracy. Our country confers citizenship upon every person born on our soil.  The way we express that citizenry is by voting. The right and responsibility to vote is, in my mind, the primary right upon which all other rights are built. Without our franchise in our government and country, no other rights matter. If we can’t have a voice, an effect and the ability to alter the way we govern, who governs us and how we are governed, no other rights are secured. Not by us, the People. Not if we can’t vote to effect shit. We are voiceless minions, squirrels trying to get nuts forever out of our reach. The right to vote is SUPREME, y’all.

To use shaming tactics to make people vote might seem like a good thing. But I have never thought the ends justified the means. So many times, it is the means that determine the worth of the ends. The mercenary nature of only caring about outcome, regardless of the damage getting there has never interested me as a tactic to use for anything. I might see clear of scorching the earth if a child was in danger, or some other immediate emergency situation was occurring. But everyday? No way. I’m just not built that way.

If I get one of those mailers, I’m throwing mine away unread. I don’t care to know this stuff about people I know and people I don’t know. This forced outing is wrong on so many levels. I don’t want any part of it. Not in the outing of others. As for me, out me all you want. I still will do what I want. No matter who knows. I just wish my personal info had been treated as such, not used in a bid to make to behave in a certain way.

So… shame on you.

Stalking Is Not Okay and Other Shit You Need to Know

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Yeah, I said it. For fuck’s sake, ya’ll. Stalking is not okay. Never. Not ever. Not at anytime.

And it doesn’t matter if you have a penis or a vagina or both. It’s STILL not okay.

And don’t tell me what the person did that you think warranted your whacked out, crazy-assed stalking behavior. I just don’t fucking care. Stop whining about how the blogger was dressed. Or whether the blogger was asking for it. Or maybe the blogger made a suggestive remark. Yes, I know I am using the hell out of a hyperbole, but shit. Does it sound any better using the real “actions” of the author to justify borderline criminal behavior? Seriously? Haven’t we gone beyond the shaming of the victim to see if maybe the fucking criminal had a reason to do what they did? SHUT THE FUCK UP about victim behavior.

I don’t care if the blogger danced naked in the street screaming she hates the author’s book. I don’t care what the blogger’s action were, bad or otherwise AS LONG AS IT DOESN’T RISE TO THE LEVEL OF A CRIMINAL ACT- it still doesn’t justify being a stalker, singling someone out to be stalked. And in this case, all the blogger did was blog about a book she was reading on a reading forum. And oh yeah, the blogger used a pseudonym like MANY other people. For this she gets stalked at her work, at her home.

Can we say fucking bat-shit CRAZY, boys and girls? I mean, who does that? Umm, yeah crazy pants people.

I tweeted about this. Only to let any potential stalkers know… I have guns. I like guns. I like to shoot the guns I have. I will defend my home and my children from crazy-assed bitches who don’t understand things like boundaries and laws and reasonable behavior.

Don’t like something I said online. Disagree with me online. Don’t being that shit to my door. You won’t like what you find on the other side. Like my double barrel 12 gauge shotgun. And me not afraid of using it. Just sayin’.

Given the season of politics. I MUST say a few things. I just can’t help myself. And if I alienate your ass because you don’t agree with something I say, cool. You won’t alienate me by saying shit I don’t agree with. Cause I believe we all should talk and express diverse viewpoints, and I think its important not to have homogeneity in thought. Otherwise, its gets kinda creepy having us all have one collective thought. Didn’t someone say that I might not agree with what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it? Yeah, that.

So, here goes. If you tout yourself as pro-life, but the ONLY life you really care about and vote on is the one you think might be living in another person… you might not care about life at all. Cause if you did, you’d be voting to increase medicaid and head start and WIC. You’d have already adopted an unwanted child. You’d be voting to outlaw the death penalty. You’d be working to end war. You’d be working to make sure EVERYONE has access to the best medical care and stem cells and other technological advances that make lives better or richer or fuller. In other words, you’d ACTUALLY care and do something about the human lives ALREADY here, not spend all your energy on ones that might or might not be in the future. If you’re really pro-life, you’d be working to make life awesome for those of us already alive.

If you vote based solely on party lines, you are doing disservice to our country, to your neighbors and to yourself. If after consideration you find in your heart you are all liberal or all conservative, then cool. But do a little thinkings, a little researching, a little talking. Most people I know aren’t all conservative or all liberal. They are a mix. And they didn’t know it until they started really evaluating their position. Take me for example. I’m across the spectrum. On some things I’m liberal. Others I’m conservative. Most things, I’m moderate. That’s just the way my idealogical views pan out when I think about individual issues or certain topics.  I’m not ashamed of my viewpoints and I have good reasons for them. Do I think that I have the corner on good reasons for doing shit? Umm, yeah no. I don’t. And I know it. See how, this allows for others to also have divergent viewpoints? Try it out sometime. You’d be surprised. I’ve even changed my mind about shit after new evidence was presented. This means that I like to think. I hope that at some point we ALL can say that we like to think.

If you are against government intrusions and you think voter IDs are good, you’ve been brainwashed. Voting isn’t just a fundamental right. It is the one right upon which all other rights, our country and everything else we do as Americans is built upon. Think about that. The right to vote might be, and is in my opinion, the most important right we have as a free people. Period. To liken that shit to driving, or getting liquor and shit or some other stupid “privilege” we’ve conferred through laws is not only stupid but undermines the franchise given to us by the right to vote. I’m going to go so far as to to say the right to vote is the only thing that makes us citizen in fact. We are only the PEOPLE because we have the right to vote. End of. Stop trying to disenfranchise motherfuckers because you don’t like the language they speak, the country they’re from or the color of their skin. Just stop it. Do not use the right to vote as a shield for your racists and prejudicial thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. Just fucking stop it.

Women, Hate Crimes and Games

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If your “movement” is mostly filled with women-hating, rape-threatening, gonna bomb a school if you have “X” speaker, then your movement has been taken over. It’s been co-opted. And it’s become the rally group for haters, and only that. Any legitimate goal your group purports to have has just become a footnote. Now all your group stands for is hate. It has in essence morphed into a hate group. And it puts out hate speech and calls for hate crimes. Cyber hate crimes that become real life targeted hate attacks have no place in reasonable, adult discourse. Ever. Seriously.

Just a few years ago, gamers were all up in arms about having the public correlate violence and death in real life to violence and death in games. They wanted ZERO correlation between the violence in games giving rise to violence in fact. Now, those very gamers are threatening violence… wait for it… because of… games (and game reviews, development and other game related activities). That’s right. See how far they’ve come, baby?

It makes me sad that having women FINALLY become more involved in gaming and the gaming world, only to have their voices stifled, some have left the game development field, some have fled their homes (after personal addresses and the like were leaked on a forum), and others have had vicious attacks against them via the internet turn into real life rape and death threats against them and any institution who supports them. All because some guys don’t like girls playing in their sandbox.

Many are saying to ignore the threats. But as a woman, you can’t. We face violence almost daily. We might not actually encounter said violence. But I guarantee every woman has everyday thought about who is surrounding her when she uses public streets, transportation, goes into a garage, an alley, or just really anywhere. Women have to far more vigilant in guarding their personal security than a man does. I don’t think men even understand this level of caution. To make it more under stable, I would liken it soldiers who are always scanning the environment for enemy forces. Women constantly scan their environment for potential perpetrators of crimes against women. Cause not only do we have to be afraid of the same criminals as men- pick pockets, purse/wallet/bag thieves, car jackers, murderers, etc. We are targeted by criminals for those crimes which can only be committed against women. As a result, most women live a heightened sense of vigilance that is ALWAYS present.

And shit. Its fucking games.

Some are saying how much damage can a 13 yr old pimply adolescent boy cause? Most make threats and wouldn’t ever leave their homes or high school to actually DO anything. Seriously, that is a stupid fucking argument. And quite frankly, dangerous. Because if these were truly 13 year old’s, then yeah. But I don’t think the vitriolically spewed hate crimes are being committed by teenaged boys with too much time on their hands. No, I think these are socially retarded ADULT men with serious personal issues. I’m not sure if they’re not getting laid enough- or ever, or if they felt safe from female encroachment in their lonely little rooms staring at a computer or TV screen for hours on end. I’m not sure of the full extent of their sad little lives. But I don’t think that ignoring these hate mongers is the solution. Besides, it’s been tried. It didn’t work.

Again. Games.

There are a handful in “that”  group who keep trying to take the message back to where it’s not hate filled crazy verbal garbage. But no one hears you. Not anymore. You didn’t oust the haters in your group, and now the original non-haters and any non-hating message is drown out and colored over by the voices of hate. No one hears any other message. And nothing anyone says at this point makes that different. It’s a fact. And at this juncture, I don’t care what else you and your hate filled group have to say. About anything, really. I’ve heard enough. The cacophony of hate speech, hate threats, hate crimes, just plain ol’ hate doesn’t allow for any other sounds to get through. The hate-filled voices of your group have come to stand as the “speakers” for your group. It’s over. Give up the ghost. No one will believe you when you say otherwise. I don’t.

Trying to navigate a male-dominated society is hard. There are mine fields all over. Glass ceilings, unequal pay, diversion form certain fields to hidden biased channeling of “female” talents into “female” professions and more. In our personal lives, being insecure in our non-professional relationships because we are physically not as strong as men and are targets for rape, assault and abuse just because we are women. That’s not to say that physical abuse of women doesn’t happen in the work place, it just normally doesn’t in such explicit ways as say a street crime against a woman as she walking home. In other words, a woman getting her ass beat at work isn’t the norm. However, it all overlaps in this particular instance. A layer of rage against women, hate-filled, female-targeted attacks is the unfortunate joining of what we face in our personal relationships with our professional lives, if you’re a female in the gaming industry. We were already screwed in both the professional and personal aspect of our lives. Layering what we face daily as we fear for our physical safety on top of the discrimination we face in our choice of profession means that there just isn’t anywhere that it is safe to be a women and be secure in her person and body. Before this, most women just faced non-violent professional attacks. This campaign against women gamers, game developers, game journalist has melded the physical threat we face in day-to day life with the shit we get on the job. It’s just fucked all the way around. And again, nowhere are we physically safe.  Not on the streets, not at home, and now, not at work in our chosen field.

We are supposed to be moving forward as a society. It just seems like when the status quo is rocked in anyway that benefits women (without the corollary  that anything that helps women must necessarily hurt men) is seen as threatening and, therefore, physical threats of violence are okay. Here’s the deal unless your main reason for being is to fuck women over, then nothing a woman does to doesn’t do should impact any male person to the extent that death and rape threats are necessary. Female success doesn’t necessitate male failure. The world doesn’t work that way. It never has. One persons success doesn’t impact another person’s failure (well, unless they are in a head-to-head competition. But that’s something else entirely).

Dude, if you can’t deal with women don’t engage with real ones. Just keep interacting with the fake ones in the vids. At least there, the rest of us can ignore you. Like we’ve always done. Getting notoriety based on death and rape threats and hate crimes might not be the best way to make your foray into the real world. And if you think it is, your social retardation extends so far that none of the rest of us WANT you to interact with us. Really, we’d prefer if you stayed your miserable lonely, adult loser wanna be man self living in your own small, little world. Alone. Forgotten. In isolation. Obviously, that’s all these man-babies can handle. Real woman scare them. Scare them enough to make threats of physical violence because they can’t match women when it comes to mental and verbal arena.

Isn’t there a saying about losing an argument if you’ve resorted to name-calling. Well, guess what it’s called if you have to resort to threats of violence and hate? You haven’t just lost the argument, y’all have lost your every-loving minds, all credibility and your toe-hold on  a former male-dominated industry. You’ve lost public respect. And hopefully, those making these threats will also lose their freedom and get stuck in a small cell.

Random Rights Review: Part 2

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If you aren’t exercising your rights, at least once in a while– YOU are part of the problem. Please, become part of the solution.

I do this randomly. What you ask? Exercise my rights as a citizen of the United States, that’s what.

Here’s the deal, if law enforcement normally deals with the “dregs” of society, who exercise their rights, we as law-abiding citizens must do so as well to give law enforcement a balanced assertion of rights. The availability of our rights to all people is only secured if all citizens exercise those rights and don’t do so only when in trouble. Our rights exist ALL the time, they should be used ALL the time. A part of a dynamic democracy is the ability of it’s citizens to avail themselves of the protections afforded us by our Constitution. In other words, YOUR responsibility to our Republic isn’t just to show up for jury duty and call it good, no it goes way beyond that. We are stewards, ALL OF US, of our Republic. Our rights come with responsibilities. Period.

Every society is measured by how it treats it WEAKEST members, not its strongest. Never that. How do we treat children, the mentally ill, the elderly, the accused, and so on.  Do we protect them, or do we leave them out for the wolves. How many times have we turned a blind eye to injustice BECAUSE it was perpetrated against a group to which we did not belong. Here’s a poem by Niemoller that has stayed with me through civics classes and law school.

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

This. So this.

Please don’t believe the rhetoric that our society treats people equally. We don’t. We should, at least under the color of law, but we don’t. There are vast differences in how our citizens are treated based on the classification of that citizen. This isn’t me rambling, google that shit. Smarter people than me have done extensive research into this topic and come tot the same conclusion. I just happened to see it first hand in my work. It exists. It’s real. And it needs to be changed.

So when you’re stopped at a traffic stop, make them jump through ALL the hoops and do their job the way they’re supposed to be doing it. With minimal encroachment on you, your property and your rights. Give them only what they are entitled to under the law and force them to jump through other hoops– in place to protect us ALL–to make any further encroachment. Because here’s the deal, not ALL if us who deny  cops every thing they want as their verbal request indicates is trying to hide something. The rational that if I didn’t have anything to hide, I wouldn’t mind if the cop did *insert your choice of action here* isn’t a correct one. It sounds good. It appears rational. But its simply not true. Many of us have taken to making cops do what their supposed to do and NOTHING more as our civic duty. A right not exercised is a right that will eventually be taken away. That’s why I do it. And don’t be putting your fucking idiotic spin on my actions. Just ask. Don’t assume. Not with me and not with anyone else.

Here’s my call to all you wanna be journalist: Find how many people are shot by cops. The DOJ used to do this. Now we have no way of obtaining this info in one report with some numbers from which we can extrapolate data. Then find out how many are justified killings and how many are not. Tell me what happened to the police officer as well. And finally, let me know how many of the people killed could’ve been proved to have committed the crime for which they were shot.

Why do I want this info you ask? Because the natural progression of a citizenry that fails to exercise their rights and allows their law enforcement officers to work unchecked eventually ends up with MANY officer related killings, officer related assaults and massive lawsuit payout in civil actions. The end result of us failing to exercise our rights ALL the time to keep our government and their law enforcement officials in check, is that they run amok. And if you think that amok-ness running isn’t what is happening right now, you are failing to piece together all of the recent reports of unarmed men of color being killed by LEOs.

Why do cops still have a union? When most other industries that were unionized have busted their unions. Why do we have a system in place that shields those who were supposed to protect us when THEY harm our citizens? Less unions would mean more accountability. No more paid leave for dirty cops. No more administrative protection from criminals in uniform.

And FYI: don’t give me the argument that not all cops are bad cops. That there are far more good cops than bad seeds. See, if the good cops were actually good cops, THEY would’ve taken care of the bad cops already. Instead, the blue shield is strong and active. The good cops shielding the bad cops. Well, guess what that makes the “good” cop? A bad cop. I am unclear as to why these “good” cops cannot see that these bad cops aren’t cops. Not really. They are criminals disguised as cops. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. These criminals have infiltrated your ranks and are destroying police from the inside out. And if “good” cops aren’t part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Why is it so hard to understand that having criminals within the ranks of law enforcement does nothing to inspire trust, public respect and any there good thing about cops.

But I digress. In the end, here’s the deal. Exercise your rights. Film police stops and post them on youtube. Encourage your community to require all police to have body cams. Stop the rights grab by our government. Again, criminals aren’t going to bring us to our knees. We are stronger than that. Our laws are better than that. It’s the people enforcing those laws that need to be retrained. Bitches who commit crimes are gonna get caught. We don’t need to trample on constitutional protections to get ’em. I promise.

Music Monday: Waves

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Totally digging’ Mr. Probz’s Waves. So cool sounding, bluesy, jazzy and tots awesome. Like water. A tall drink of water. I mean what else would the title inspire if not H2O related. 😉

The first version is mostly just the man and the instruments. Excellent.

 

This next one is the radio remix that you’ve been hearing on the airwaves. Well, if the song is playing in your neck of the woods. lol Both are excellent, but they do sound different.

Random Rights Review- Part 1

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I feel like I’m beating a dead horse. Or that I’m sounding like a paranoid lunatic. Or even a little like Chicken Little screaming about the sky falling. The thing is, I don’t want the sky to fall. I don’t want any of my crazy-sounding writings to be true. Or about to become true. Dude, I just want to get along.

I want to be left alone as long as I’m not hurting others, and I pretty much want others to be left alone if they aren’t hurting me. It’s that friction’ intersection where people interact that seems to be rife for trouble. But that’s to be expected as well. Cause there will always be people on the make, on the take and plain ol’ dirty. And in dealings with this segment of the population over the course of human history, we have evolved to our modern system of laws to regulate that intersection of interaction. To enforce those laws, we created  a special class of persons with special rights and duties.

Lately, it seems as if we have aggression directed at our particular system of governance and all those people we’ve given special powers. Some of knee jerk reactions in the face of said attacks leaves me with feeling of shame and a really shitty taste in my mouth.  Because there are some travesties being wrought in my name and the names of all American citizens, shit I do not agree with. And never will.

And the defense of these atrocities, I hear the ubiquitous, “yeah, but…” Fuck you. There’s no yeah but in the belief of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. That we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. When push comes to shove, if our ideals cave under, they weren’t so great to begin with. There weren’t strong at the inception. And under pressure, our ideals CRACKED. And how do we respond? Do we steady ourselves, reaffirm our belief in our laws and our Constitution, and dig back in to make that a living reality? Or as close as flawed humans can get? Fuck no. We seem to have gone the fuck off the rails, ya’ll. Seriously.

I’m sick of hearing that 911 devastated us and our country. Does that make you mad? Why? Those bitches that terrorized our country DID NOT BRING US TO OUR KNEES. They barely bloodied our nose. And no, I’m not being callous about these that died that day. It was a horrible, terrible event. But shit, guys– why elevate the acts of terrorists to such spectacular levels? As it stands, the death toll of Pearl Harbor and 911 are about the same. Did The Japanese also bring us to our knees, too?  If they did, we seems to be dropping to our knees awfully easily.  Not every time Americans die on American soil because of assholes does that bring us to our knees. At most, it bloodies our nose.

But given our response in the wake of 911, you’d think that enemies were something we can’t handle. Not and hold to our beliefs and ideals if our continued scared response is anything to go by.

Torturing prisoners. And playing semantics on whether they are emery combatants and covered by the Geneva Convention or not, is ridiculous and stupid. We are suppose to be the good guys. Error on the side of good, dickheads. Treat them with a small degree of humanity even if their side tried to take out your side. Treating them in any other way leaves our soldiers open to retaliation. Plus, it’s just he right thing to do.

Don’t lock bitches up indefinitely under the guise of law. It makes a mockery of the law. Give them due process- remember, we’re the good guys– and either jail/execute them or let them go. Don’t be like the Nazies and have concentration camps  and call it something else. Those men aren’t leaving for anything less than death. And it’s wrong. We need to make this right. And playing games with where they are housed, is stupid and sophomoric.

Don’t change portions of our Constitution pretending fear of terrorists when in reality, this is a rights grab by the government. If our fear is enough to compel us to throw out long-held fundamentals beliefs, then we didn’t have a solid foundation to begin with. Really? Allowing surreptitious recordings isn’t going to lead to more terrorists captured. It’s just going to lead to further encroachment of lawful citizens’s rights by the government under the color of looking for the bad guys. Slowly, this fear is turning our good guys into bad guys.

I mean, doesn’t “Homeland Security” sound like fatherland rhetoric from Hitler? First, we needed to erode the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because of our “War on Drugs.” Now, we are told we need less rights because of our “War on Terror.” Doesn’t it just seem like our governmental law enforcement agencies keep begging for more rights erosion in fighting these nebulous opponents skipping from one reason/cause to the next? Before the drug war, it was the cold war. What will it be next? Will we be duped again? Don’t forget the INNOCENT Japanese citizens who were sent to internment camps and had their property taken by the government for being of Japanese descent. All those crazy witch trials to get communist sympathizers by McCarthy. And so on. It won’t end. Those that have power want more, and they don’t want to give it up. And if you don’t believe they are USING these opportunities as they present themselves to do a rights grab, you are either a part of the problem or hopelessly naive. We look back on that shit now and shake our heads. Why aren’t we shaken’ our heads now?

I believe the founding principles of our country can withstand any enemy. I BELIEVE this with all of my heart. Subverting the law, our country and our people into fearful reactionaries makes me so sad. We don’t need to take on the tactics of the bad guys to get them. They’re freakin’ bad guys, they’re gonna fuck up. We’re gonna catch them. We don’t need to trample all over the Constitution or our citizenry to do it. We don’t need to compromise our ideals to go after terrorist, or criminals or anyone else breaking the law or acting in war-like aggression. Or become like the people we’re tracking down. Or create a society like the ones in which those we hunt down live.

If I could wish for one thing, it would be for people to run toward something good and make changes based on that instead of running from something we fear and removing Constitutional protections along that flight.

Manday: Briefs and Chains

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Gotta give you another Manday. Smokin’ hot in underwear and chains, Kirill  is rocking the abs in this shot.

This pic could be a story unto itself. Inspiration? Perhaps. Eye Candy? Def. I love it when a picture CAN paint a thousand words, and be used as the daily writing prompt. lol

Random Thoughts: NFL, Cops and more

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It’s been a while since I’ve done random thoughts, but I’ve had a few and so here I am sharing… randomly. lol

The NFL has been in the headlines a lot lately. And I’ve got mixed feeling about what’s going on. But here are some of my thoughts in no particular order. Is it any surprise that an industry that promotes violence is plagued by violence off the field as well? It reminds me of the Siegfried and Roy’s tiger attacks. Nobody blamed the tiger. As Chris Rock said, “the tiger went tiger.” In other words, the tiger wasn’t doing anything the tiger wasn’t supposed to be doing and would normally be found doing; i.e., biting the shit out of people who are bugging the hell out of them. So, here we have NFL players who are doing what they are paid a LOT of money to do, for weeks at a time. And it found its way off the field. Is it right? No. Not even a little bit. Because even though the tiger went tiger, NFL players are human beings with higher reasoning and the ability to do the opposite of what they would normally be found doing. Second thought, do the players have to pay for their mistakes and/or crimes forever? For the rest of their lives? For the rest of their ability to play? For how long? In no other industry- banking, legal, health, etc.- do we require that people who are let go for personal misconduct never be allowed to work in that industry again. Personal misconduct, y’all. Conduct not related to their work.  They didn’t embezzle; they didn’t do anything bad work-related. I’m not sure that’s something I can agree with. Now, before you scream in protest, think about it in the context of yourself. How would you like if your boss could fire you for something you did not at work and then prevent you from working in that industry ever again? Fair? Right? See why I’ve got mixed feelings?

Back to cops. Is it just me or have American citizens become the target of trigger happy police officers? Ferguson, South Carolina, Florida. It just goes on. I want to advocate buying one of those dash cams for all citizens because it just seems like unless you’ve recorded the incident, the police spin that shit like they’re caterpillars turning into butterflies. Only what emerges at the end of their spinning is not so beautiful. In fact, it’s down right ugly. But, holy fuckbills, Batman… really, have we come to the point of NEEDING to record our interactions with cops? Apparently yes. Many police departments are turning to body cams for just this reason. And bad public-police interactions in those departments have decreased. But seriously, there is a real problem if the public needs recordings to protect themselves from law enforcement. And it needs to be fixed. Pronto. We can’t be secure in our persons or our homes or anywhere really, if we can’t trust those public servants who we as a community have chosen to arm in order for said officers to better protect us. Our shield, previously used to guard us, has been turned into a sword taking us down and out. It must be stopped.

There is a scandal going on with some judges taking kick backs to place juveniles into these privately run facilities. Jaysus. What the hell is the world coming to? Screwing over kids to get rich. I guess that’s not a new thing, but it offends me that judges are on the take and subverting justice in this way. One of the problems is electing judges. When you put politics and money into electing your judicial officers, you are screwing yourself over. I don’t know which special interest group got you and your fellow neighbors to okay elected judges, but they deliberately fucked you. They knew you didn’t have the money to elect good, fair judges. These companies and special interest groups KNEW you couldn’t defend against THEIR choice in judges. They knew that. And they sold it to the public by telling them that they wouldn’t have shitty, incompetent judges if those judges knew they could be elected out. They never pointed out who would be elected in. Now, I’m not for shitty, incompetent judges. But I would rather have a bumbling buffoon who can be reversed on appeal then smart, paid-for-by-special interest group judges who can insulate their bought opinions from review. The dumb ones get reversed because they don’t normally hide their errors. The smart ones ,well the damage that can be done in those cases? Astronomical. In Alaska, we do a huge survey after names are placed into a pot for a judicial vacancy, then several of the best candidates are put forward. And THEN they go up for re-election. Appointment- impartial choosing of names, followed by election to allow for more accountability. Every state should start out this way. Otherwise, you end up with bought and paid for judges. So not a good thing. So.

Einkorn: Success and Failure

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I’ve been slowly replacing my family’s wheat products with Einkorn wheat-mostly. Some wheat strains are pretty old and haven’t changed too much. One is durum wheat used to make semolina pasta. The ancient grain from which durum is derived is khorasan wheat, trademarked and sold as Kamut. To make really good pasta, durum/semolina/khorasan wheat is a MUST. So I’ve decided to use mostly einkorn, and a little  Kamut wheat. I’ve done this slowly so that the replacement has been fairly painless.

It is tempting to walk down the gluten free aisle and/or the specialty bread aisle and pick breads that use ancient grains, or use grains other that wheat. However, this is a trap. I can’t say definitively that all store-bought stuff have things in it that are not so good for you. I mean, half the time I can’t even pronounce some of the chemicals used. Part of eating better is making the food myself so I can control what is put in the recipes. To that end, I’m buying a bread maker at some point so I can make my own bread loaves. Because the thing I’ve noticed when I eat only einkorn wheat is that I don’t have the continued salty/oily food craving that so often comes when I eat bread of any kind. I can’t wait to see what happens when my house is one hundred percent modern wheat/grain free.

That was my success. My failure is recipe related. Seriously, I am not an awesome baker. Not like I can cook. So it should come as no surprise that my Cioppino came out FAB, but my bread loaf was a bust. Don’t get me wrong, it was edible. Just not great. And bread should be great. That’s part of the draw. I didn’t like how hard the crust became. So I am thinking a bread machine might help with this issue. Especially if I get one that has different crust settings. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Not to disappoint, let me leave you with this success. Summer fruit crostata. Crostatas are rustic fruit tarts. Free form, if you will. And they are delicious. And did I mention that I am not the best baker? Well, crostatas are extremely forgiving. EXTREMELY. 😉 You can use almost any fruit you have. I like berries and peaches, or strawberry and rhubarb, or you can come up with your favorite fruit combo. The picture for today’s recipe is my peach and mixed berry crostata made from einkorn wheat. It was delicious.

Fruit Crostata

2014-09-02 14.29.54Ingredients
1 1/4 cup(s) (plus 1 tablespoon) all-purpose einkorn flour
1/4 cup(s) (plus 2 tablespoons) sugar
1/8 teaspoon(s) salt
1/2 cup(s) (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup(s) raspberries
1 cup(s) fresh blackberries (<— or a combo of fruits to make 2 cups)
1 tablespoon(s) fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon(s) turbinado sugar

Directions
1. Make the dough: Combine 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Form a well in center of the dry ingredients and place the butter and 1 egg in the well. Using your hands, mix the ingredients into a soft, pliable dough. Form it into a 4-inch disk and place it on lightly floured parchment paper. Lightly dust the dough with flour and roll it into a 10-inch circle. Place dough with parchment on a baking sheet, cover the dough with plastic wrap, and chill for 10 minutes. (I like to chill my dough for at least 30 minutes, preferably up to an hour or more- it has to do with the butter getting real cold. So you can follow the recipe or follow my suggestion. I know which one I would do. lol). Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Make the crostata: In a small bowl, mix remaining flour and sugar and set aside. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and evenly spread the flour and sugar mixture on the dough, leaving a 1-inch-wide border around the edge. Place berries on top of the mixture and sprinkle with lemon juice. Fold the 1-inch border over top of the berries to form a 9-inch crostata.

3. Bake the crostata: Lightly brush the top of the crostata dough with remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake on the middle rack of the oven — about 35 minutes, or until the top turns lightly golden brown. It normally takes about 40-45 minutes for me to get the desired color on the crust. Remove from the oven and slide crostata with the parchment paper onto a wire rack. Or if you’ve used a cast iron skillet like me to bake your crostata, just leave it in the skillet to cool. Cool for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tip: Make real whipped cream. Serve the warm crostata with the best vanilla ice cream you can buy and a dollop of fresh cream. You will think you’ve died and gone to heaven. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth. I maybe indulge in desserts a few times a year. Crostatas are always something I can’t resist when I make it. It’s just that good.

Music Monday: Big Hair Boy Bands

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I haven’t had much time or opportunity to listen to music lately. Which makes me sad. I love music. Can’t make it in any shape or form, but shoo I love me some tunes. Like a lot. Plus, I have an excellent ear. Not for picking music, although I do think I have an uncanny knack for knowing which new bands will make something of themselves, but you know… the ear. I know I can’t sing because I can hear how shitty I am. Really shitty, yo. But that’s neither here nor there. (<– What the hell does that even mean?!?! :))

And I’m probably dating myself. Because I’m doing a throwback to guys with big hair, long hair, you know… feathered hair, a/k/a Farrah Fawcett hair. Some even had mullets- business in the front and party in the back. lol And it’s from my adolescence. I grew up with these guys. They had better hair than most of the girls back then. Seriously.

Is any 80s line up complete without some Journey? I think not. A ballad is what I’ve picked. And here is Journey’s Faithfully.

The second pick is Def Leppard. I must say they were one of my favorite bands. I really, really think it was the hair. I mean, come on. Take a look and I bet you too would’ve swooned back in the day. 😉 Rock of Ages, y’all, live in concert so you can see the hair move.