Exxon Mobile has released their 2008 Financial and Operating Review. Looking on page 16 (18 of the PDF) we find that Exxon made a profit of $45.22 billion — and paid $112.757 billion in taxes. For every dollar in profit, there was $2.49 in taxes.

Kudos to Obama for sending the military after the pirates and then getting out of the military’s way.

And kudos to the military for getting the job done without loss  of innocent life.

Someone claimed that my post regarding Only Buddhists and Atheists was stating that all atheists are as evil as Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, and Mao. That certainly is an interesting misinterpretation and certainly was not my intent. My intent was to show that the vast majority of the evil of the 20th century did occur because of atheists in power. This is a fact.

The problem that non-Christians have with Christians being in political power is that some Christians want to take away some rights (e.g., abortion) and want to blur the line between church and state (e.g., Bush’s faith based charities). This is a fact. And that is why I contend that government should not be allowed the power or authority to take away rights: abortion, guns, freedom of speech, privacy (5th amendment protections), or any other right..

I will contend that my position is the classical liberal / liberty position as opposed to the, for lack of a better description, neo-fascist liberal position that wants to control what people say (college speech codes), what people eat (fatty foods), what people smoke (tobacco), and what people do (too numerous to mention).

The scary part is that the classical liberal establishment that has traditionally been there to safe guard liberty from the encroachment of government tends to turn a blind eye when those encroachments are being conducted by someone who calls themselves “liberal” (even though they clearly are from the neo-fascist side of the house).

Specifically, how much hue-and-cry was [rightly] heard when Bush had his warrantless searches? How much hue-and-cry is there when Obama does an even worse job than Bush with regards to warrantless searches?

We [rightly] heard endlessly about how Bush was trashing the U.S. Constitution. Most of those same complaints can be lodged against the current administration and even more complaints piled on (Gitmo, warantless searches, controlling wages, targeting a small subset of the population for new confiscatory taxes).

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I voted against Bush in every election that I had the opportunity to. But I’m not so blind or so stupid to believe that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The current crop of Democrats [sic] are not the friend of liberty. Just because it was called the German Democratic Republic doesn’t mean that it was either democratic or a republic.

Interesting.  I was in an internet conversation with someone who is so full of hate that I’m seriously afraid that they’re going to pop a blood vessel.  He cut off the conversation by automatically deleting my comments (and most of my comments are “calm down” at this point).

We’re told over and over again by the media and the Democratic Party that the Republicans and Christians are the ones that are the hate mongers.  In this case, I’m sorry to say, it’s a liberal.  I haven’t seen enough of his views to tell if he is a libertarian liberal or a neo-fascist liberal.  He is pro-gay marriage — and hates Christians to the point that he can’t see straight.

It’s interesting, in a depressing sort of way, that so many people who fancy themselves “open minded” and “liberal” are so thoroughly bigoted and close minded.  They aren’t able to discuss their point of view rationally enough that their response is simply to shut down those who point out where they are wrong.

Okay, I should probably point out that the person is claiming that the people who voted for Prop 8 are the same ones that were denying civil rights to blacks.  I had the audacity to point that blacks voted for Prop 8 (53%) compared to the whites (49%).  If it had been up to the whites, it would have failed.  He is effectively lumping blacks in with the KKK — which is beyond insulting.

It looks like Barney Frank is attacking Justice Anthony Scalia because Scalia has a principled view on what is and what is not within the courts power to do.

Specifically, Frank called Scalia a “homophobe” in an interview with a pro-gay web site. Turns out that Scalia doesn’t believe that it is up to the courts to decide about gay marriage, but rather it is up to the legislature or up to people to change the constitution. Please note: Scalia hasn’t taken a stance on the issue of gay marriage, only on whether the courts should decide such matters. But that doesn’t stop Barney Frank’s ad hominem attack.

By the way, since when does the federal government decide who can and who cannot get married? You will note it is not against federal law for brother and sisters to marry. It is against state law. The issue of marriage should not be a federal issue. It rightly belongs as a state issue.

I got this recipe from a friend. Going online I found several more complex recipes, but this one is rather straight forward and the Scottish Eggs keep well in the refrigerator (making great breakfasts on the go).

Ingredients

• 12 soft boiled eggs with shells removed
• 29 oz ground sausage (I use mild Italian sausage … but only because I don’t care for breakfast sausage).

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F
2. For each egg, take 2.4 oz of sausage and flatten into a thin oval and wrap around the egg.  Ensure that the entire egg is covered and try to eliminate the seem.  Place on deep cookie-sheet.
3. Bake at 350º F for 30 to 40 minutes.

2.4 oz  per egg? Huh?

2.4 oz per egg?!  28.8 oz for a dozen eggs?!  The sausage that I buy comes in a 1 pound package with 5 sausages.  I remove the casings and for each egg use about 3/4 of one link.  16 oz package divided by 5 sausages times 3 divided by 4 yields 2.4 oz.

For every 3 links I can cover 4 eggs.

I admit that I didn’t buy the argument made during the campaign for California’s Proposition 8 that gay marriage was an attack on traditional marriage. That some how that gays getting the right to marry was their sinister plan to end traditional marriage. But it looks like I was wrong. Looks like the gays are trying to eliminate traditional marriage.

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that

California same-sex “marriage” supporters are collecting signatures to support a ballot initiative that would remove civil marriage from California law entirely, as well as the provision codifying marriage as between a man and a woman.

I’m willing to bet that this backfires on them. It will get those who were middle of the road, “live and let live” types to oppose the gay agenda.

This recipe is from Southwest Slow Cooking by Tammy Biber and Theresa Howell

Ingredients

• ¼ C sesame seeds, lightly toasted
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 Tbs cornmeal
• 3 Tbs cocoa
• 1 pound boneless turkey breast
• 1 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (10-ounce) can pureed tomatoes
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded
• 2 Tbs raisins
• 1 C chicken stock
• 5 ancho chiles, seeded, stemmed, and chopped
• ¼ C cashews, taosted and chopped
• Fresh cilantro

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine first 11 ingredients (sesame seeds through cocoa). Set aside.
2. Brown turkey breasts in oil for 3 to 4 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.
3. Coat each breast with dried mixture, put into slow cooker, and top with remaining dried ingredients.
4. Add onion, garlic, tomatoes, chipotle, raisins, and stock.
5. Mix in ancho chilies, making sure they are covered in liquid.
6. Top with cashews
7. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.
8. Remove turkey and shred with a fork. Set aside.
9. Transfer remaining ingredients to a blender and puree mole sauce until smooth. If sauce is too thick, slowly add more water until desired thickness is reached.
10. Return shredded turkey and sauce to slow cooker.
11. Cover and cook on high until mole is heated throughout.
12. Spoon turkey mole onto individual plates, top with a few sprigs of cilantro, and serve with rice and tortillas.
13. Makes 3-4 servings.

Variations

Right off the top, I double the amount of turkey.

Recently I had lunch with a friend and his daughter. The daughter graduated from a top university in California and went on for a masters degree abroad. Somewhere along the way she was thoroughly indoctrinated in modern ignorance. I state this because she made the statement that Christians shouldn’t be trusted with government and that only Buddhists and Atheists should be allowed to vote.

At the time I made the comment that having a government that actually lived up to the principals of turn the other cheek, do unto others, and love thy neighbor as thyself would be quite a refreshing change.

I wish that I had followed it up by asking if she would have preferred to live under Stalin, Mao, Lenin, or Pol Pot. All outstanding atheistic leaders of the twentieth century.

I was listening to NPR just before the elections and the reporter was interviewing the “King of Propositions” in Washington state. The reporter commented that states that allow propositions are generally in financial disarray compared to states that don’t. Being from California, where the state is on the verge of running out of funds to continue operation, I can certainly relate to that concept. The joker from NPR then made the [probably] off the cuff remark that this was because people in proposition states constantly vote to reduce taxes. Say what?!?

Well, I finally got around to researching the California propositions that passed in the last 8 years (since 2000). Guess how many times Californians voted to reduce taxes … Zero. Nada. Not once since 2000. That said, they voted to raise taxes six times – a total of $942,600,000 annual increase in taxes.

Okay, if it’s not because they vote themselves tax cuts, what about spending increases? Since 2000, Californians have voted to increase the annual state spending commitments by $7,920,000,000 dollars. Most of that is servicing the $188,627,000,000 bond cost ($98,385,000,000 in bonds and $90,242,000,000 in interest payments).

So once again we have a complete misrepresentation of reality by NPR. They took something that could easily be researched and instead decided to overlay their own ignorant political biases on what could have been a decent investigative report.

Click the more link below for more details.

Numbers in millions of dollars.