Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Recipe: Better Than Rice-a-Roni

A recipe in three parts by Rebecca Hartong

Well, really it’s just a recipe in one part but I liked the way that sounded.

Get yourself these items:
Rice-a-Roni, Spanish Rice flavor
One package Morning Star Farms Breakfast “Sausage” Patties (a vegetarian product in the frozen foods dept of most big supermarkets)
One can Ro-Tel tomatoes with chiles (the original flavor)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter

Do these things:
Put all 6 of the breakfast “sausage” patties on a paper plate and nuke for 3 1/2 minutes. Cool, then break into small-bite-sized pieces
Melt the butter in a big frying pan
Add the rice/pasta part of the Rice-A-Roni to the butter and let it fry over medium heat until it’s light brown
Add the breakfast patties, the powdered mix that came with the Rice-A-Roni, the Ro-Tel tomatoes, the 2 cups of water and stir the whole works up
Let it come to a boil
Put a cover on the pan, reduce the heat to low, and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes

Then do this:
Eat and enjoy! This is really good. It will feed three hungry people.
MmmmmmMMMM!

The Doughnut’s The Thing

Krispy Kreme’s Failings Tough To Glaze Over (washingtonpost.com): “And a Krispy Kreme in a box at the supermarket might as well have been made in Minnesota. Hot doughnuts have the half-life of a sub-atomic particle. Hostess cupcakes hold up better over time. Cartoned up in cardboard, Krispy Kremes taste as fresh as an Amtrak sandwich.”

Hey! They write that like being made in Minnesota is a bad thing! Well, I’m here to tell you, people: Being made in Minnesota is a very very good thing. You all should be so lucky as to have been made in Minnesota.

I was made in Minnesota. Look how well I turned out!

Anyway…Krispy Kremes. Yuck. They’re tooooooo sweet. It’s true that I’ve only had the ones you buy at the grocery store. Still, I can’t believe hot-and-fresh-ultra-sweet is all that much better than cold-and-slightly-stale-ultra-sweet.

Well…maybe it is. It’s still ultra-sweet, though, and I don’t really like that. I’m one of those people who would much rather have another slice or two of pizza and another glass of wine instead of dessert, anyway. I’ll eat sweet stuff if it’s all that’s available but I don’t typically search it out–if you know what I mean.

So, you can keep your Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I’ll have a beer.

More Pictures of the Glidehouse

…from the FabPreFab web site

Here are LOTS of additional pictures of the Glidehouse that was set up for Sunset Magazine’s Celebration Weekend in May of 2004. This is one great space. I want one. Right now. Maybe situated on 50-100 acres of land…with solar and maybe a wind generator set up…

Ah…paradise!

Modernism in the country.

Pictures of a Glidehouse

More photos

It’s like they got inside my head somehow and designed the house I’ve been dreaming of. Big open space, walls with built-in storage closets, it’s all there.

How did they know? It’s scary and wonderful!

Coolest Houses Ever!

LiveModern – Welcome to LiveModern!

I really love modern architecture–and I’m enthusiastic about the idea of living in a smaller, green-designed kind of place. This website has some wonderful examples, including the “Glidehouse” shown in this photo. It’s a modular design that’s reasonably priced and very cool. (There are pictures! You must visit the site if only for those!)

The site is nicely designed with blogs, chats, forums, links to modern design websites, and so on. I plan to join (it’s free) and maybe I’ll see you there, eh?

One of the neatest modern designs I’ve ever seen is something I saw on…some television show…and the house was designed by…some guy in Japan. Yeah, I know. Really helpful. I wish I remembered the name of the architect because I really really liked his design.

The exterior shell of the house was built sort of like a greenhouse only with an opaque material instead of transparent glass in the walls. I think the opaque stuff may have been some kind of fiberglass. So, there’s a big open space inside with no walls (except for a couple to enclose bathrooms) and lots of light and air. The floors were a nice tinted concrete and there was a big door (like a barn door) on one end of the shell with a patio on the outside so the house could be completely opened up to the outdoors during nice weather. Inside the house the common areas were all located within the large open space. There was a big wood table that could be used for dining, studying, craft projects, whatever. The kitchen was an open design. There were some comfortable chairs clustered in an area where an entertainment center might be. The absolutely coolest part of the house was how the ‘bedrooms” were done. The bedrooms were 10x10x10 foot cubes on wheels. Each individual living in the house could decorate the interior of their cube any way they wanted. The architect had his elderly mother living with him and she had her cube decorated very sparsely with tatami mats on the floor and a futon for sleeping. Because the cubes have wheels, an individual could move his room to any part of the house he wanted at any time. He could even move his cube outside to the patio on nice nights. A person could cut a couple windows into his cube if he wanted…put in a sliding shoji screen for the door….whatever you’d want. The possibilities are endless. Isn’t that just the best idea? I really like it. One of the best parts about it is that it really could be built very inexpensively. You’d need professional help for the shell and the plumbing and wiring, of course, but the cubes could be easily built by anyone who’s reasonably handy with a hammer and saw.

If anyone out there knows who this architect is, I’d appreciate being told. I’d really like to give him credit here for his amazing design.

“I’ve Seen Things You People Wouldn’t Believe”

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Scientists vote Blade Runner best sci-fi film of all time: “‘Blade Runner is the best movie ever made,’ said Dr Stephen Minger, stem cell biologist at King’s College London. ‘It was so far ahead of its time and the whole premise of the story – what is it to be human and who are we, where we come from? It’s the age-old questions.’”

See?!? Scientists even say Blade Runner is the best movie ever.

The story and dialog are fantastic, of course, but I think my favorite part of Blade Runner is the cinematography. Every single scene is so beautifully planned and filmed. The framing is perfect. The lighting is perfect. The color and quality of the images are all so…perfect.

If somehow or other you’ve never seen Blade Runner, you must take the time. Try to get the director’s cut. It doesn’t have some of the voice-over stuff that was in the theatrical release and the ending of the director’s cut is ambiguous–as it should be, given the general tone of the movie.

“…All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”

Poetry For The Rest Of Us

Salon.com Life | Lynda Barry

Heh, heh…I really love Lynda Barry’s cartoons. You need to see this one entitled:

A Pupa’s Garden of Verses
by Jeff the Fly

I’m Pro-Life

Salon.com News | Republicans endorse ban on gay marriage: “The party’s full platform committee was taking up the marriage plank and other planks late Wednesday, meantime seeking ways to appease Republicans who support gay rights or abortion rights without embracing their positions.

“‘We are the party of the open door,’ said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who led platform deliberations on social issues.”

Yeah, and I wish he and his pals would go through that door and close it on the way out.

Those of you who’ve been following along are probably getting pretty tired of my rants about gay marriage. Sorry. It’s just that…it really pisses me off that anyone would want an actual constitutional amendment to deny gay couples the legal and social benefits of marriage. That’s just wrong.

I’m also annoyed by how this salon.com article–and lots of people just in general–keep pairing up gay marriage and abortion rights as though the two were inseparably linked somehow. Like…a person couldn’t be completely in favor of gay people getting married and also be opposed to abortion.

These political pundits and journalists don’t understand people like me at all. And I don’t think I’m really all that unusual.

Here’s what I’m about, if you’re interested:

• In favor of gay people getting married
• Opposed to abortion except in cases where carrying to term would kill the mother or the kid would be born without a brain or some such awfulness.
• Completely in favor of safe, reliable, and inexpensive (free!) contraception for anyone who wants it. (And by this I mean real contraception–the kind that prevents conception altogether.)

I’m a pro-life kind of person, you see. I’m in favor of all life being allowed to flourish however it best can and I believe in not intentionally killing anyone or anything except in self-defense. That’s how I try to live my life. I’m not completely successful, but I do try.

So, that’s where I’m coming from.

Who Should Decide Whether Gays Can Marry?

Salon.com News | Cheney backs freedom for gay relationships: “Last month, Lynne Cheney said states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships…”

Hmm….doesn’t that sort of fly in the face of the 13th Amendment? (That’s the amendment banning slavery.) I guess what Lynne Cheney means is that states should have the final say about sexual personal relationships. All other kinds of personal relationships get federal treatment. Why the states should have the authority to create their own laws with regard to an individual’s access to some of the benefits of federal regulations is a mystery to me, though. I’m talking about federal income tax here, people. In Lynne Cheney’s world, gay couples in one state could claim their spouse for tax deductions while right over the border in another state they could not.

Does that make sense to you?

No, me neither.

The only rational way of handling this situation is some kind of federal legislation guaranteeing the rights of gay couples. They should have all the same legal benefits available to straight couples.

Read this entire article on salon.com if you have a chance. This quote from Lynne Cheney is really just a small part of it. The more interesting stuff is where Dick Cheney attempts to explain why George Bush was backing a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage. It’s one of the more entertaining examples of double-talk and buck-passing I’ve seen lately.

National Campaign to Stop the American Civil Liberties Union

Alliance Defense Fund

Somehow or other my husband wound up on these people’s list and today we received one of their mailings. He claims total innocence. “Never heard of ‘em. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask ‘em to contact me…” That sort of thing. Since my sister is an actual card-carrying member of the ACLU and I myself am a big fan of civil liberties, I couldn’t resist opening the envelope.

First the envelope itself: it has pictures of Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Bill Bright, Larry Burkett, Dr. D. James Kennedy, and Marlin Maddoux across the top and the words “You are invited to follow in these leaders’ footsteps to take a stand against the ACLU’s attacks on your family’s values…”

First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of most of these guys. Aren’t a couple of them tel-evangelists? And I’m absolutely positive they don’t know the first thing about my family’s values. I’ll delve a little deeper into the identity of these men later, though. Let’s move on…

The back of the envelope tells us that the National Campaign to Stop the American Civil Liberties Union (let’s just call it NCSACLU from now on, okay?) is a project of the Alliance Defense Fund which has a mailing address in Scottsdale, Arizona. We’ll look a little further into the Alliance Defense Fund later on, too.

Inside the envelope are two pieces of paper. The first contains “An Urgent Message from ADF President Alan Sears”. I’ve never heard of him either but he identifies himself under his signature as President, CEO, and General Counsel of ADF. Gee, he must be a pretty busy guy, eh? I have to admit I’m always a little suspicious when a single person seems to be completely in charge of an organization. It makes me wonder whether he isn’t, perhaps, the only member of ADF.

Anyway, he begins…”Do you believe the ACLU and its allies, which are trying to censor America’s true Christian heritage, have too much power?” For the moment, let’s set aside his claim that America’s true heritage is Christian. Shouldn’t this correctly read “who are trying to censor” blah, blah, blah…?? I guess Alan couldn’t afford to hire an editor.

He goes on to ask that we sign a “Message of Concern Regarding the ACLU” that he will forward on to “Government Officials Battling the ACLU over Ten Commandments or Other Displays of America’s Christian Heritage”. That’s exactly how he has it. Oh…and he wants us to send him some money “to help ADF continue its mission of defending traditional family values, religious freedom, and the sanctity of human life.” I guess the religious freedom part only applies if the religion happens to be Christian since, as Alan reminds us several times, America’s true heritage is Chrisitian.

Oh, look! On the back of this paper there’s more information about ADF! They tell us “ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth, through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.” Uh-oh. When they write it “Truth” with a capital “T”, I get worried. At least they explain who in the heck those guys on the envelope are. They’re ADF’s founding members!

Dr. Bill Bright is the president of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Larry Burkett is co-founder of Crown Financial Ministries (hm…that sounds interesting…we’ll look into that later.)
Dr. James Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of Focus on Family.
Dr. D. James Kennedy is pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries.
Marlin Maddoux is the host of the “Point of View” radio program. (Sorry Marlin, never heard of your program either.)

Besides quotes from Drs Dobson and Kennedy about how swell the ADF is, they’ve also got a nice quote from good old Ed Meese. Quoth Ed: “The Alliance Defense Fund has done a tremendous work already, even though it has been in existence for only a short time.”

Uh…okay. Well, I guess you take your quotes where you can find them.

Onward! The second page in the envelope is a double-sided essay entitled “Banning the Ten Commandments” with a bold-print sub-title, “American Civil Liberties Union launches multiple lawsuites to destroy public displays of God’s law and America’s Christian heritage.” Essentially, it’s just a bunch of whining about how bad it is that the ACLU should be challenging the existence of religious displays on government property.

Here’s a fun quote. “”Imagine if across America every plaque like this [referring to a Ten Commandments plaque in Pennsylvania] that represents our nation’s heritage were covered or removed,” says Alan Sears, president and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based Christian legal group. “It could happen. And people who care about religious liberty and preserving our nation’s heritage should be alarmed. Although the Pennsylvania case has been resolved at least for now and the Ten Commandments have been uncovered, this kind of legal harassment and intimidation by the ACLU and its allies represents just the tip of the iceberg and part of a growing hostility to America’s Christian heritage.”"

Alan’s got a little bit of everything going there, doesn’t he! Complete blindness to the multi-cultural nature of American society, ignorance of the principles guiding many of our founding fathers, all combined with a thick, creamy layer of good old fashioned paranoia.

I wonder whether Alan believe non-Christians living in this country ought to have rights. Does he think they should just…leave?

But wait! There’s much, much more! According to Alan, the ACLU also:

• “Pushes same-sex “marriage” and much more of the homosexual legal agenda” [The homosexuals I know don't have an "agenda". They just want to have the same legal rights that straight people have.]
• “Tries to stop children from praying publicly at school.” [Guess what, Alan... I think this is a good idea. I think religious observance belongs in people's homes and in their churches or temples or synagogues or whatever. Not in the public schools.]
• “Works to prevent Christians and ministries from publicly sharing the Gospel at various times and places.” [See above.]
• “Defends the distribution of child pornography.” [Say what?!?]

I think Alan forgot to mention that the ACLU also worships Beelzebub and drinks the blood of children.

I don’t like these people. They claim to represent my family’s values but they don’t even come close. They’re mean and intolerant. They don’t care about all people. They care only about people who are just like them.

I think it’s a good idea to remove all religious references of any kind from government goods, services, and facilities…and I do mean all references. No more “In God We Trust”, no more Ten Commandments in the courtroom or in the national park, and no more “one nation under God”.

There is morality without religion. Religion isn’t a requirement for justice. That is not to say that religion is evil–not at all–though, unfortunately, much evil has been done in the name of religion. Rather, religion is and must remain a matter of personal individual choice. It should not be foisted upon a person through government buildings or required oaths.

So… as you might imagine, Alan won’t be getting any money from me.