Friday, August 13, 2010

Daddy's Dyin' (for some a' this chili)

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 – 2 lbs hamburger
  • 1 small or medium onion (Vidalias are best), chopped
  • 1 medium size tomato, diced
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp mustard powder
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • 4 – 5 beef bullion cubes
  • 1 small jar of your favorite salsa
  • 18 ounces tomato paste (3 small cans or 1 large 1 small)


DIRECTIONS

Throw the onion and hamburger together in a large skillet and brown the hamburger. Combine all ingredients EXCEPT the tomato paste in a 5-quart pot. Top off the pot with water (save for a half-inch) and bring it to a boil for three to five minutes, stirring just enough so nothing burns. Lower the heat to simmer and stir in the tomato paste until consistency is smooth. Serve however you like to eat chili (crackers, cheese, sour cream, whatever).

You can substitute just about any kind of meat for the hamburger (Jimmy Dean sausage, stew beef, chicken, goat, road kill). You can even substitute black beans if you have a hippie vegetarian in the house. Or you can add the beans anyway if you just like beans. To really spice it up, throw in a couple of those exotic Eastern chili peppers.


But whatever you do....DON'T PEE IN YOUR CHILI!

Monday, August 9, 2010

The Second Bill of Rights (that we never got)

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”[2] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.


Franklin D. Roosevelt

January 11, 1944