So it has been a while since I've updated the old blog, I figured now was as good a time as any.

I know a considerable amount of time has passed since the Senate Finance Committee decided to crush the Obama administration's Public Health Care Bill, but it is important to keep in mind that the Public Option is not dead. We, the supposed engaged and educated citizenry, must continue to speak out, must continue to fight, must never back down from what we know is right. And having a Public Option available is absolutely, unequivocally what is right. It should not matter what end of the political spectrum you are on, especially since Obama has announced that Government health care would not be sponsored by tax payer dollars, but by a premium payed by customers in the same that private insurance companies operate. What should matter however, is that passing legislation that allows for the formation of a Public Option is the right thing to do for millions of Americans who cannot afford to even have basic health insurance, and millions upon millions more who are forced to choose between feeding their families and caring for their sick loved ones. Why should only those who can afford to pay the outrageous costs associated with keeping private health insurance as an option have access to quality health care? Is there not something fundamentally un-American about such a system? A system that retards and distorts rights established by our Constitution, the freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? In fact, being forced to purchase health care from privately owned, profit driven companies infringes upon all three of those rights. Life, liberty, and happiness (originally property), are all restricted heavily when every available penny is sunk into over priced health care.
As for supposed "death panels," a myth that for some reason persists despite there being no mention of anything like that in the actual text of the bill, our current health care system is already one big death panel, and anyone who disagrees with that statement has either not looked at how health insurance companies operate, or is living in forced ignorance. Private health insurers cherry-pick the healthiest customers so that they do not have to spend money on the treatments required for people who are actually ill and need expensive medical care. Most companies also deny policies to individuals who have "pre-existing conditions." Does this not smack heavily of "death panel?"Private insurers are actively denying coverage to those who need it, in effect, killing them.
I know everyone's tired of hearing people bitch and moan about Health Care, but it is necessary to hammer it into your skulls. Write your representatives. We want fair, affordable, and quality health care coverage for every single American. No exceptions.

Halloween

It's almost Halloween, my favorite time of year. It's cold out, and the leaves are all falling off the trees. It's finally proper weather outside. No more of this so hot I sweat when I breathe bullshit. Anyways, I'm going to eat lots of candy and drink lots of beers this Halloween, this way my puke will be as festive as I am this year.

So anyways, The Misfits are a great band to listen to on Halloween. Them and T.S.O.L. But I feel like The Misfits now, so watch this video of two awesome Misfits songs, Halloween and Bullet.

Women

by: Jonathan Raymond

Anyone who knows me knows I love women. The female form is so perfect, the lines created, the feelings evoked, nothing even comes close to the power that women can wield. That's why one of my favorite websites to visit is Synthetic Pubes. It's a site that updates daily with (mostly) photos of women from tons of different artists and photographers. Almost every image is beautiful, or at least interesting. They also do a fantastic job of showing off the bodies of their models, who are by and large women who look like you could have just walked by them on the street or seen them on the subway. They're not plasticized models or porn stars, just normal women which is a big part of the reason why I think this site is so great. It's not pornographic, just really cool photography and really tasteful.

Continuing with the theme of women today, here's this video for one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs. It's a live recording of The Velvet Underground & Nico playing Femme Fatale.

New Video Bar

So I'm not really sure how that works, I guess it brings up new videos related to the key words i put in? Seems cool, even though I just basically destroyed my blog trying to put it in, I had to rescript EVERYTHING!



Anyways, here's this video. The Cramps - I was a Teenage Werewolf

I'm posting this because I was planning on buying plane tickets to California and seeing The Cramps play on Halloween, but Lux passed on February 4, earlier this year.

Words On Autumn

This is from a journal entry I made last month, before I started this blog. I feel like now is the perfect time to post it though.

20-9-09

- On Autumn

Today is a perfect day. I have spent the majority of the day outside and have not even come close to being what I would consider hot. The temperature today has hovered consistently at about seventy degrees, and their has been a slight breeze to make things even balmier. The sky has also remained a pristine azure for the entire day.
The walk through Central Park was serene. There were many people there, as their often are, but the atmosphere was characteristically relaxed and slow. I have been fortunate enough to have been listening to the song of birds all day, something that is conspicuously absent from city life.
This is the most beautiful time of year, surpassed only by what will come in the next several weeks. The waning days of summer, though they mean school will once again enter my daily life, are often the most cherished days on my calendar. The sun still provides light late into the evening, but the temperature of the air gets cooler by degrees. The color of the leaves slowly changes, and yes it's corny and rather obvious, but those moments always instill in me thoughts of; reflection, the passage of time, and an appreciation for everyday things.
As the air becomes cooler it becomes more pleasant to be outside. Maybe I will be able to go to upstate New York and experience the season briefly in the small town aesthetic that goes hand in hand with this kind of seasonal change. Though I am often cynical, there is nothing quite like the feeling one is possessed by when participating in yearly autumnal rituals.
Some of my best memories come from this time of year. I often tend to think that this is mostly because my birthday happens right at the peak of tthe fall season, but there is more to it than that. Fall is the time when, as a child, you participate in on the most fun and exciting events ever in a way that you can never do again. This event is of course Halloween. Halloween is a time for kids, or at least it was for me, that can rival birthdays and Christmas in terms of excitement. What other time of year is dressing up in fantastic costumes, roaming the streets in search of candy, and causing general havoc so universally accepted and celebrated? Not only that, but you become a gang with your friends, sticking together throughout the night, and only retreating to your home when everyone's appetite for candy has been satiated. Bonds created on Halloween night last a lifetime and can almost never be broken.
Fall is also the time when you try to cram all the days of outdoor fun in you can before it becomes unbearably cold and one cannot go outside without donning a suit of heavily stuffed armor. This leads to last chance football games, bike riding, skateboarding, and general play, all of which consistently yield unforgettable results.
Beyond the realm of friends, some of the best memories I have with my father also come from the Autumn time of year. Playing catch till the sun goes down, we didn't stop throwing the baseball until October ended, at which point it was time to break out the pigskin. We used to play football until we couldn't see where we were throwing, and then for a little while after. We would alternate between who would run routes and who would quarterback. My father is the one I owe for my marginal prowess in the realm of sports, and those lessons mostly came to me in the fall.
This brings me to the next great thing about Autumn, and that is football season. besides baseball, which as a Cubs fan is mostly over before Fall gets anywhere close, football is the greatest American sport. It's only shortcoming is that the season is too short. Well it's not actually all that short, considering the competitive season just started and the Super Bowl won't crown a champion until February, but number of games is too few. Every other aspect of the game is perfect and appeals to all the male sensibilities. If there is one regret I have in life, it is that I did not pursue a career in football. Granted that this could have greatly changed my circle of friends and present situation, but I have always wanted to have the chance to pit my raw strength, cunning, agility, and determination against another man's and crush him. What better arena is there for that exact purpose than the gridiron? The most civilized version of war-like combat, football pits man against man in an all out contest of sheer physical endurance and brute strength. Bit it is not just a contest of brawn. Football is a game that requires and amazing ability to think on ones feet and be able to change the plan of attack based on split second changes in the situation. Success in Football is also entirely dependent on one teams ability to outmaneuver the "enemy." This is achieved by trying to make unique but sensible play calls, which more often than not are thwarted by the opposing teams relentless defense. This small journal does not contain adequate space to describe in detail every aspect of the game, but it is one of the most fascinating, multi-layered games on the planet and also the most fiercely American. It's also the best game to watch after stuffing yourself with turkey, which leads me to my final and most favorite thing about the Autumn season, Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is without a doubt the best time of year. It has all the homey nostalgia of Christmas, without all the shameless commercial and consumerism. It is a time for families to come together and simply enjoy each others company. There are of course nay-sayers who point out that Thanksgiving is just a shameful endorsement of gluttony, and that it is essentially a holiday that snubs other parts of the world. There may be some credence to that, but thanksgiving is not simply about stuffing yourself and falling asleep. It is a ritual that has ceased to be just American, and has become Human. That being said, I have also never been ot a Thanksgiving dinner where food has gone to waste. Not that every single scrap of food is devoured in one night, but leftovers are taken and consumed for days afterwards, ensuring that no food has gone to waste. Beyond the feasting though, Thanksgiving is first and foremost a time to come together with people who though you may not see them everyday, are still an important part of your life and have a good time.
In my zeal to rattle off my favorite things about the fall season, I seem to have missed talking about one of my most enjoyed Autumnal activities. I love it when the air reaches that perpetual cool, and blazing sunlight is accompanied by a brisk breeze. The leaves are slowly falling from the trees but even the ones that are still hanging on have turned golden and red, and the leaves on the ground shatter under foot like paper thin sheets of ice. Taking a walk in this type of weather, with the sky the most beautiful, pristine shade of blue, is an unrivaled past time of mine. The sickly sweet smell of rotting foliage fills the air, and even with eyes closed a breath through the nose will remind you of what season it is. Autumn is the Earth's golden age an I am eternally grateful to be able to live in a place where it's coming is os predictable and dramatic. Every year the leaves change, I am more impressed than the last.

Recipes; first posting

I'm a pretty big foody, I want to share some of my favorite recipes that I've come up with and that I've "borrowed" from other food blogs.

Perfect Hamburger:
Makes about 4

1lb ground chuck, 80/20 is the best
Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Blue or Feta Cheese
Olive oil

Divide the beef up into whatever amount you want to use for individual burgers, and season them individually. you'll start with the salt and pepper, using just a bit at first to actually mix into the burger. Then, you can either make a big pocket of cheese inside the burger, or mix it into the burger so you get tiny little chunks of it throughout. I prefer the latter method so that I can get that great flavor the cheese gives in every bite. Once you've got the burgers formed, season one side heavily with Salt and Pepper, or really whatever spices you like, so that it's covering one entire side, massage it in gently. Then, using whatever method you prefer, cover that side in Olive Oil taking care not to wash off your spices. Put the burger down on the grill so that the unseasoned side is face up, then you can do the same thing on that side. The Olive Oil and spices will not only give the burgers an amazing color and taste, they will also from a barrier that helps to seal in the natural juices of the chuck, something that gets lost during traditional grilling. Coo them to however you like your burgers done, and enjoy on whatever kind of bun is your favorite.

My favorite condiments for this burger are typical burger toppings, fresh green romaine lettuce, ketchup, pickles, onions, mustard, etc. If you want your burger experience to be really amazing though, you can grill your onions till they-re nice and brown, and use a Dijon mustard instead of regular yellow. Also, go for a kosher pickle that has a nice, cool taste, and crisp texture.

The best way I've found to grill onions is to either wrap them in tin foil and just leave them on the grill for a little while, or to bring out a small baking tray and put that onto the grill. You can of course just do it on a stove top if you like.

Red Velvet Cake Balls:

I tried to make these one time, and I got all the way to the part where you're supposed to melt chocolate and cover them. Long story short, I ended up with about 30 non-chocolate covered red velvet cake balls. I got rid of them at a party, people said they were good, but they would have been so much better with a chocolate shell. Here's the recipe.

http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/

She uses milk chocolate, I think that white chocolate is a better fit for this desert though. Not only does it make the balls look like individual little red velvet cakes, but who doesn't love things covered in white chocolate.

Fried Rice:

1 1/2 cups of rice(uncooked)
3-4 eggs, beaten.
soy sauce(duh)
Whatever kind of meat you want, I chicken + shrimp

Cook the rice, when it's almost done, start to prepare the meat, have the eggs ready in advance. Fry up the meat to your discretion, putting a little bit of Olive or Canola oil in a large pan or preferably Wok. You can season with a generic season salt. Dump in all your white fluffy rice, a little more Canola oil, and then the eggs. Once the eggs start to cook, dump in a shit load of soy sauce, so your rice gets nice and brown. Make sure you mix this stuff up really well as you're frying it. The whole process only takes about thirty minutes if you time it right. this could easily feed 3-4 people.

Best Red Beans and Rice:

1 1/2 cups of rice(uncooked)
1 can dark red kidney beans
2 links of Italian Sausage, or 1 1/2 Andoullie sausage links. Sliced(shrimp is good too)
Salt
Fresh groud pepper
Season Salt
Hot Sauce of Choice
Scallions for garnish

Many people will say that you have to use dry beans, and soak them over night, or use smaller kidney beans, but those people don't understand the miracle of canned food.

Cook the rice. This is the least important part of the dish. In a medium sized pot, cook your meat, then dump kidney beans and cook over medium heat. Before you dump them, make sure you drain at least half of that nasty bean juice, it's not a soup. Mash up about 30% of the beans and stir thoroughly, this should give your red beans the thick consistency that the best red beans and rice has. Season to taste, using plenty of pepper and hot sauce to give your dish that hot Cajun bite. Simmer this all together for as long as the rice is cooking. Once the rice is done, divvy it up, and cover it with your "gravy." This is another quick, and filling dinner which you will come to love.


Sorry there's no picture. I haven't made any of this stuff recently, I'm recalling it all form memory. That's all for now, Enjoy!

Well sports fans, it's the end of the Baseball season in Chicago and this year was a dismal one. My beloved Cubbies couldn't even make it into the post season this year. In fact, they looked like a completely different team this year as opposed to the last two years when they easily reached the playoffs and clinched the National League without so much as batting an eye. Who's to blame? Where do you start is a better question. This was the final year of Mark DeRosa's contract, but the Cubs organization thought it was a better idea to trade him to the Cardinals, on of the Cubs biggest NL Central rivals. I don't know about you, but when my baseball team reaches post season two years in a row, I don't get rid of one of my best players when the team actually has enough talent to win a World Series. The really sad thing is that now the Cubs are scrambling to get him back, but now that other teams have seen what am amazing player he is, he is going to be getting a lot of offers from teams with a lot more money. Milton Bradley also fucked the Cubs this year. He didn't live up to his last season numbers, and had consistent attitude problems that led to far too many strikeouts, and a late season suspension. He's only a little worse than Alfonso Soriano, who can never seem to get any kind of consistency going and routinely commits errors in the outfield. Hopefully Bobby Scales, and Jake Fox are able to work their way into the line up next year, since they've shown they can actually produce in game situations. Not to mention the problems with the Cubs relief pitchers, who can't seem to throw decent pitches to save their lives.

Thankfully however, when the Baseball season in Chicago ends, the Football season is just getting underway, and so far the Bears have surpassed all my expectations. When I first heard that Kyle Orton was traded along with two draft picks to the Denver Broncos for Jay Cutler, the first thing that popped into my head was a line from the episode of South Park where Stan meets Jay Cutler and says, "Hey you're Jay Cutler! My dad says you suck but that maybe one day you'd be okay." This seemed to resonate with Jay Cutler's actual performance accurately. I was astonished that after Kyle Orton gave the Bears a winning season last year that he was traded, especially since he was just starting to sync with his receivers and develop a competent offense. But, so far Jay Cutler has been disproving my grave expectations. Even though he lost the first game of the season, he won the next two games, and in the game against Detroit they're playing right now, the Bears have matched the Lions touchdown for touchdown and are eager to extend their win streak to three. Getting back to the game now, hopefully they'll be 3-1 next time I post.

Inaugural Post

Hello blogosphere! This is my first foray into this crazy blog thing that everyone does now. I've wanted to make one for a while, but I'm savagely intimidated by html script. Anyway, here I am. Hopefully some people will decide to follow this blog, I'll be posting whatever I want here, most likely without any continuous theme. That's all for now, happy surfing.