Chris Christie's Convention Highlights . . .

#1 – Our founding fathers had the wisdom to know that social acceptance and popularity is fleeting and that this country’s principles needed to be rooted in strengths greater than the passions and emotions of the times. Our leaders today have decided it is more important to be popular, to do what is easy and say “yes,” rather than to say no when “no” is what’s required.

#2 – Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.

#3 – They believe in teacher’s unions. We believe in teachers.

#4 – It’s the power of our ideas, not of our rhetoric, that attracts people to our Party.

#5 – When there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than worrying about winning re-election, it’s possible to work together, achieve principled compromise and get results.

#6 – Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to put us back on the path to growth and create good paying private sector jobs again in America.

#7 - Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and burying our economy.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.

#8 – Our problems are big and the solutions will not be painless. We all must share in the sacrifice. Any leader that tells us differently is simply not telling the truth.

#9 – What will our children and grandchildren say of us? Will they say we buried our heads in the sand, we assuaged ourselves with the creature comforts we’ve acquired, that our problems were too big and we were too small, that someone else should make a difference because we can’t? Or will they say we stood up and made the tough choices needed to preserve our way of life?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to read in a history book what it was like to live in an American Century. I don’t want their only inheritance to be an enormous government that has overtaxed, overspent and over-borrowed a great people into second-class citizenship. I want them to live in a second American Century.

#10 – We have never been victims of destiny. We have always been masters of our own.

Chinese Chicken Soup!

I needed a quick meal for dinner last night. I didn't have time to make an Asian soup from conception to reception so scoured the freezer for possibilities. I came across a container of chicken broth I had frozen for a lazy day and decided this was that day. Usually, I braise the chicken in Chinese mushrooms, garlic, and fresh ginger . . . but didn't have time. I decided to invent dinner and if it worked, yes, I made you all Chinese Chicken Soup! If it didn't, it would still be good and the family would figure I was creating in the kitchen, again.

Given the time frame, I put the lump of frozen broth, garlic, and ginger in my big soup pot. I turned on the heat and let all the flavors meld. I added soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chicken bullion. I tasted it and it tasted almost like my usual rendition. I excavated a bag of stir fry vegetables from the recesses of the freezer and discovered a package of Chinese dry noodles in the cupboard. A couple of pieces of boneless chicken showed up in my search. I put them in a frying pan and browned them well on both side. I added some Sherry to bring up the tasty brown surface from the pan, chopped the chicken and added it to the pot. In went the stir fry vegetables. When they were warmed through, I put in the Chinese noodles (you could use regular spaghetti, too) and stirred the contents of the pot until the broth came back to a boil. I simmered it just long enough to cook the noodles, added some chili flakes and served. Got rave reviews, too!

We are trying to live out of the cupboard until payday so I guess my first attempt was successful. It seems that whenever I don't have an ingredient for a specific recipe, I head over to the grocery store and always come back with more than I went to buy. Besides, finding substitutes makes the 'out of the cupboard' adventure all the more fun.

What?

Just read that a three-person civil union was granted to a trio in Brazil. Looks like we are working on another slippery slope down in our morality. Just when you think, 'what next?' the answer appears. The one thing that has survived the test of time for the last 2,000-plus years is . . . drum roll! The Catholic Church. It is the only organization that has had it's ups and downs, major and minor problems but still survives. It is interesting to think of all the civilizations, empires, etc. that thought they were invincible yet are no longer. I guess that when the power is stronger than the belief in God, God steps back and lets man cope on is own . . . and it doesn't work.

Like Will Rogers quote, especially!

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
-- Oscar Wilde

"It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it."
-- Henry Allen

"We're all in this alone."
-- Lily Tomlin

"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."
-- Will Rogers

The Wasting of our Future . . .

I was talking to a delightful couple after Mass on Sunday and, as usual these days, our conversation turned to politics. Although we all agreed that our current politicians in office needed to be replaced, they did say they rejoiced with everyone over the election of our first, black president. To me that seemed to be a superficial elation. Not that being black makes anyone unfit for office but that the fact that he was adamantly in support of all abortion made him an 'unfit' vote for a good Catholic whether he was black or not. In the 2008 election, too many people failed to look past the possibility of an historic event to see what would face the country with a staunch, anti-life president in office. Now, if we fight to replace him with a more conservative candidate that would respect life and the Constitution of our country, we are called racist.

It took me aback when this couple were happy that they could put their Catholicism aside and vote in someone who was very open about his views on abortion and made good his election by rescinding the safeguards President Bush had put into place during his term in office. The then-newly elected president signed any pro life  safeguards away before his first week in office was over. I don't think they can claim invincible ignorance as the information was out there for those who bothered to research the possibly far-reaching effects of their vote.

Another reason I voted against the current president in 2008 was his lack of respect for his own race. Abortion is a problem among the black community. A priest once said that the most dangerous place in the United States for a black child is in his mother's womb. Did all the Catholics stop to think that their vote made them accessories to abortion?

This election is pretty nasty with the one side saying the Republicans have declared war on women. Why? Because we are against having to pay for contraception and abortion when it is against our values? The Catholic Church has lawsuits pending because the separation of Church and State has been breached by the current administration and we have been mandated to act against our moral values and the precepts of our Faith . . . in a country that is supposed to guarantee us those rights.

I watch the protests during the convention and have to wonder about the women demanding abortion and contraception. The are loud and shriek their agenda. I heard a sermon from a very humble, devout priest who said that any mother who kills her baby isn't a true mother. I think about the children of such mothers who are allowed to live and realize that they could have been the chosen one to die.

Mother Theresa said the violence will not leave our world until we stop aborting our future. A look around the world and the frequent headlines of needless death and murder would tell a thinking person that she knew of what she spoke.