Cocktail Confessions

Well, here it is, Episode 15.  I wish I could say I’m really happy with the outcome, but in my own humble opinion, it’s “meh” at best.  Why you ask?  Originally, I had sat down last weekend with my friend Brian Liles (yet again) and had made a sweet recording that was a good solid hour plus.  It could have easily been broken into two seperate Podcasts, and I think it was one of our best yet.  There was a myriad of interesting topics on the table as well as we had at least three to four craft beers in us each as we made it.

However, due to the fact that I hadn’t take the time to reboot my computer after some auto-installed patches from Microsoft prior to our recording, it seems that Audacity (my podcast recording software) somehow corrupted the data.  No matter how many times I tried to recover the orphan files after a failed save attempt, I just couldn’t resurect it.  As I say in this podcast, let that be a lesson to all you tech heads out there.  Always reboot your PC after critical patches are downloaded and installed.  I clearly should have known better, so I have no one to blame but myself.

Feeling somewhat pressed to have a new episode ready, I took my portable Zoom to work and made this recording on my lunch break while sitting in my car.  I’m happy with the audio quality, but as you’ll hear, there was really no set agenda for this one.  It’s about 40 minutes of me ranting on some of my political views, Howard Stern, and my upcoming business trip to Atlanta, GA.  Also, I was able to throw in a cocktail recipe, the ‘original’ Texas-tini (not my version from a few weeks back in which I thought I was so clever with the name), and a recipe for grilling artichokes.  Hence the title ‘Smorgasbord’.

In other news, I’m rapidly approaching my 40th birthday (8 days from this writing) and I am clearly having a mild midlife crisis.  I hope its not too evident in my recording, but I’ve been feeling a bit under pressure lately in various personal aspects: financial, work, trying to be a father to a teenage girl, etc. So perhaps that lends to my somewhat dour attitude in if you pick up on it.  Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon because it really just doesn’t feel like me and I’m very aware of it.

I’ll work on the show notes and recipes contained within later if I get a chance, but suffice to say I will be out on business the next week (starting tomorrow) so I most likely won’t be making any updates here for at least a week. 

As I usually do, I try an pick an intro song that encapsulates either my mood or something that somehow pertains to the audio content of the episode.  Here, I chose “Take this Job and Shove it” by Johnny Paycheck.  I have two comments about this: 1) Yeah, I’m not gonna be quitting my job anytime soon, but the last few weeks, I really feel as if I’ve been holding back my frustration on various career related issues and I’m just not that happy overall, and 2) I really thought Johnny ‘Paycheck’ was a fake name and he was trying to cash in on the name Johnny Cash, especially when you have a song about a job and then shoving it.  Turns out, I was partially correct, as his real name was Donald Eugene Lytle.

Texas-Tini II

• 3 oz whisky (try a sweet or smooth blend like Crown Royal or Canadian Mist)
• 1.5 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz Blue Curacao (orange flavored liquer, but blue in color)
• Shake all three ingrediants over ice and pour in sugar rimmed martini glass, or mix all three in lowball glass over ice and skip sugar.

Grilled Artichoke

• 2 fresh artichokes, stems cut at least 1 inch from base.
• Place artichokes in pot of boiling water with the freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon to reduce oxidation of leaves (prevents leaves from turning brown). (Optional: zest some of the lemon peel and add zest (to taste) to fresh mayo.  Mix, and chill in advance for dipping.  Lemon zest adds a nice fresh, flavorful kick to the mayo).
• Remove after 25-28 minutes of cooking, drain excess water, and let cool enough to handle.
• Preheat grill to medium-low heat/flame.
• With sharp knife, cut artichoke in half, lengthwise and remove choke/heart (purpleish center with bristles) with spoon.
• Brush halves with olive oil and season with kosher or sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Place flat side down on grill, cooking approx 2-3 minutes, then turn 45 degrees and cook additional 2-3 minutes or until nice grill marks appear.  In the last few minutes, ‘drizzle’ some quality balsamic vinegar over artichokes for additional flavor and color.
• Serve with fresh lemon zest mayo (above), and/or melted butter and garlic combo.

Show Notes

• Coming soon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (40.7MB)

More often than I would care to admit to, the usual way our department treats is weekly Friday departmental lunch selection for is like trying to figure out who Paris Hilton is dating this week.  So many times, with all us accepting the ritualized anarchy that is our decision making process, we all stand up from our veal pen like cubicles like prairie dogs and stare blankly at each other as we all begin to say “So, where are we going today?”

It rarely ever comes together smoothly, and there is always someone who inevitably will drop out or complain they don’t like the place we all hoo-humingly decided upon.  “Not that place again.” “Didn’t we just go there two weeks ago?” “Ugh, the lines are too long and I don’t have enough cash.” are just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the myriad of complaints and excuses we all throw out in trying to agree on a single place.

I get frustrated with this practice a lot as I generally don’t care where we go, or develop an attitude that I must partake in this tired indecisive banter every week.  Sometimes we spend so much time talking over each other throwing out names of tired and not so true places that we end up wasting a good solid ten minutes of our allotted 60 minute window.

Today, we all agreed upon trying a new selection tactic.  Something revolutionary, and yet so simple in practice.  I like to now call out, “Let’s let the wheel of fate decide.” in a determined and stoic voice, my Droid smartphone held up high in the air like Moses bearing the stone tablets before his wary people. “Let us look upon the written word that is (drum roll for effect) URBAN SPOON!”

My friend Brian introduced me to this fine little gem of an app that he had previously downloaded to his phone.  Currently available on both the Android (v2.0 OS and up) and iPhone platforms, Urbanspoon, is like the old Magic 8-Ball sooth-saying toy you had as a child.  Based upon your current location (thanks to the GPS coordinates of where you are standing) you shake your phone to activate the internal accelerometer.  Like a nickel slot machine at an Indian casino without smallpox, three simulated wheels rapidly spin and soon begin to settle upon the categories: city, genre, price.  City is self explanatory, genre is the cuisine type (Japanese, Indian, German, etc), and price is ranked from $ thru $$$$. 

We all agreed today that the ‘Wheels of Fate’ would dictate our lunch plans.  We all huddled in silent anticipation around my Droid, our eyes locked and wide as I shook the phone.  Clickity, clickity, clickity…..the simulated sound began to gradually slow. 

1st up: Tustin.  2nd wheel: Italian.  Finally price: $$  Urbanspoon had selected the “Pizza Shack”….and to our mutual acceptance and nods, we all agreed, no questions asked.  The ‘Wheels of Fate’ had spoken!

With address, phone number, and a 83% favorable review, we drove off to our dictated eatery.  And surprisingly, we all enjoyed it.  Seven of us attended todays outing, each one of stating we had never once been to the Pizza Shack before albeit it was only a mere two miles from the place we had all worked for years.  Sharing four medium pizzas with traditional toppings in an atmosphere not unlike a low rent college sports bar, we all commented on how good it actually was.  Not just the food per-se, but the atmosphere as well.

With this little tale all told, I thank my friend Brian for the the suggestion and highly recommend that if your smart phone can handle it, go ahead and download Urbanspoon.  A little shake of the wrist and a little random luck can break the doldrums that is choosing a place to eat and may lead you to something new and exciting.

Arrgggghhh….I am so bummed. 

Over the weekend my buddy Brian came over from Brians4×4adventures.com and we had recorded a raw podcast that was clocking in at about an hour and a half.  We covered a range of topics including our recent visit to Stone Brewery in Escondidio, his recent engagements, past and upcoming roadtrips, a spirited discussion on the Sony Bloggie vs the upcoming Kodak Playsport for your pocket flasmedia camcorder needs, recent natural disaters, slow cooking brisket and more.

Plenty of content that could have been split into two seperate 45 minute episodes.  I was looking forward to editing last night as I had the house to myself and wouldn’t be interupted and possibly getting one of them up today and part II next week.  However, when I fired up Audacity, it appears there was a file corruption that had taken place.  While the header data is there and shows up, the actual content is not, and I cannot recover anything.

I may just record a small filler episode in the next few days or so to tide myself and feel like I am accomplishing something.  Otherwise I am traveling to Atlanta next week for business and won’t be able to update much here officially, although I am starting to settle into Twitter.  Again, you can follow me at @alonedisciple on Twitter.

Sometimes I wonder just how lazy I actually am.  It’s a hard question to really answer both honestly and contextually if I think about it for any given amount of time.  And the only really reason I am thinking about it now is that I am too lazy to do anything else more constructive.  However, since I am actually developing a post in the right here and the right now goes to show you I have enough motivation and energy to devout to such a mundane topic, perhaps I am not that lazy afterall.

I suppose laziness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  Or a matter of opinion and perspective.

My wife was gone on a business trip this last week and left me home alone to fend for myself the last five days.  Now generally speaking I am not a lazy person.  I actually get more done in the early hours of the day, than the average Joe does before finishing his first cup of coffee.  I also try an plan out my free time (i.e. not slaving away at my actual job) to fit in the myriad of chores most men slough off.  I do my own laundry, I vacuum, I mop, I do dishes, I walk the dog, I pull weeds, I pick up dog crap, etc., etc.  I also manage to fit in numerous other tasks on the weekends and still manage to get in some drinks and entertainment. 

This can also leave me exhausted, or too brain numb for the trivial things, such as overlooking the fact if there is enough soap or ‘body wash’ in shower when it’s time to get clean.  Not just once, but two days in a row now, thank you kindly.

See I was in the shower the other day and reached for the soap bottle when I discovered it was empty.  So naturally I reached for the other one (it’s always good to have a back up), only to realize that my backup was also bone dry inside.  How I did not notice the evening before they were both empty and why they were still in the shower is something only my subconscious could answer if it wasn’t marinating in a jacuzzi of hops and barley. 

Now the first thing that came to mind was contemplating if there was a full bottle available in the closet which I am sure there was, but this is where the laziness kicks in:  the thought of getting out of a hot shower, dripping and walking to the closest to retrieve bottle of new soap seemed like a very daunting and bothersome task, even if it only did take 20 seconds.  The whole thought process bouncing around in my noggin, weighing both the pros and cons of such a bold and innovative solution took longer than if I just would have performed the task initially.  And again, the fact I am detailing this all out in this very post is beyond any sane comprehension.

Then another bottle grabbed my attention.  It was blue, very blue in fact, and it isn’t that much a of a stretch of the imagination to realize it also had a faint hint of blueberry fragrance.  What was it?  It was my dog’s specially formulated body scrup/shampoo.  I picked up and scanned the bottle.  I read the ingrediants…seemed all above board and normal.  I took a small whiff…yup…blueberries for sure.  I looked at the price: $14.99.  Surly, if his shampoo costs more than mine it can’t be all that bad. 

So with all the facts and circumstances laid out before me, I am readily admitting that due to my laziness of not wanting to temporarily get out of the shower, I lathered by whole body up from head to toe in my dogs shampoo.

Would it suprise you to learn that the following day, knowing full well ahead of time I was out of body wash stepping back into teh shower, that of course I forgot again?  Well, don’t be.  I did indeed forget the second day, and once again lathered up in my doggy sudz, both of us smelling like blueberries.

In the era of Sex in the City, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and half the shows on the CW these days (should I admit I actually watch many of them?) many cocktail concoctions took on some frilly characteristics.  There were a lot more pink umbrellas, red sugar rims, and fruit floating about in poolside glasses than most men would like to admit too.  When was the last time you saw Steve McQueen, Tito Ortiz, T.O. or Derek Jeter sipping on a cosmo? (Well, the jury is still out on Jeter, but that’s another story).

Anyway, I want to introduce you to a few libations that are gonna put a little kick back in your step, make you howl at the moon, and thump your pecs like a silverback gorilla.  Yes, some manly men drinks sure to darken your roots and ground you back in the ’50s where men worked and there was a pot pie, a pipe, and slippers waiting fro you when you got home.

With no further ado:

The Rusty Nail

Straight out of a construction site nail gun, we’re talking two ingrediants - Drambui and Scotch.  Drambuie is a liquer made with a blends of herbs, spice, a touch of honey, and get this….more Scotch!  Liberals be damned when you pour this down your gullet.

• 1oz blended Scotch.  Pick one with enough bite to counter the slightly thicker and sweetness of the Drambuie.
• 1oz Drambuie.
• Lemon twist for garnish.
• Take a lowball glass with ice and pour both ingrediants in.  Stir quickly and drop lemon twist in, allowing natural oils of rind to blend with drink, and then pretend ‘The View’ never existed.

The Negroni

Hey look, I didn’t name this drink so back off.  I know what you’re thinking, but we evolved since then.  Negroni combines gin, vermouth and Campari and supposedly stimulates the appetite and promotes digestion.  Just what the doctor at teh Tiajuana clinic ordered.  It may be a bit tough to get used to, so you probably won’t get many requests to share, but savor this strong and in your face flavor and imagine Mel Gibson handing it to you for a job well done.

• 1oz gin (say Plymouth or Tanqueray)
• 1oz Campari (a bitter apertif)
• 3/4oz sweet vermouth.
• Put ingrediants in shaker full of ice and shake well.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or lowball filled with ice.  If you’re confident enough in your masculinity, you can add a cherry, but stare down anyone who gives you crap about it.

Blue Blazer

Sounding more like a mexican luchador (wrestler for you non-bilinguals), this has the added component of fire, always sure to amaze and impress.  It’s a bit more involved in preparation and not for the timid or drunk to try and mix.  We’re talking boiling water and fire, and silver plated mugs people!

• 2.5oz high proof rye whisky (100 proof or better is recommended)
• 2.5oz boiling water.  Yes, boiling.
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar.
• lemon peel for garnish.
• 2 silver plated mugs as most other materials can’t hold up well with flames involved.
• Pour whisky in one mug with sugar and mix slightly, and boiling water in other mug.  Ignite whisky (be careful) and pour into mug of water.  Continue pouring back and forth to mix displaying a stream of fire.  When done, add lemon peel to glasses.  You are now the ‘most interesting man in the world’.

This post is only used for setting up CocktailConfessions posts to Twitter.

Update: Success!  Follow me on Twitter @alonedisciple (name pending to change).

I’m usually pretty good at creating my own content here, but I came across an interesting article over at FoxNews.com and thought it deserved a little attention here.  I’m cutting out some of the fluff, but you get the meat of it.  If you want to read the full article as it was written by Elena Ferretti, go ahead and click here.

Article

It’s axiomatic: from summer barbecues to Octoberfest, beer makes the party. Lucy Saunders takes it a step further. Beer, she says, makes the meal when the meal’s cooked with it. And she’s talking more than beer-battered onion rings.

She’s talking Cheddar Ale Spread with ancho, chipotle and pale ale, and Chocolate Malt Ganache. Saunders, author of “Cooking With Beer,” “Best of American Beer and Food” and “Grilling with Beer” also runs Beercook.com, whose emphatic motto is: “Because beer is Food!” Beer, specifically craft beer, she says, is for far more than just quaffing.

Most people understand - intuitively if not practically - that cooking with wine infuses food with depth, distinction and subtlety. Some dishes use the harder stuff, too; think Penne alla Vodka, or Bananas Foster aflame with rum. Beer hasn’t (yet) become part of our pantry, says Saunders, because while cooking with beer has been part of culinary history for centuries, “it’s been under-appreciated as it’s generally been the province of home cooks, via hand-me-down recipes.”

A craft beer’s flavor is determined by how barley is treated during malting, the process of germinating barley to create a high-starch content seed. The starch will eventually be converted into a fermentable sugar. The ‘maltster’ heats the grain to stop seed growth, which retains the starch content, then roasts it to develop various flavor characteristics and color, similar to the process of roasting coffee beans. Briess Malting in Wisconsin, says Saunders, is the last independent specialty maltster in North America and makes an incredible range of specialty malts for brewing.

Saunders, a Midwest native who, in addition to teaching, runs water conservation workshop for brewers and cheese makers, says she has a “palate for grains” and has loved the taste of beer for as long as she can remember. It started with her mom’s Cheese and Beer soup (beer, caramelized onions, asiago, cheddar and parmesan), Carbonnade (a jaw-dropping ale, beef and onion stew and a major Belgian culinary contribution along with waffles and chocolates) and her dad’s beer-based steak marinades.

The first commercial cookbooks, including some with recipes for cooking with beer, appeared in England during the Tudor era, late 1400s to mid-1500s. That was due not to beer’s ubiquity but to Gutenberg inventing the printing press in 1440. Previously, cookbooks were hand-written and used primarily by monasteries and the upper classes, says Saunders, who majored in Old and Middle English. Instead of a term paper she translated Tudor recipes, cooked and catered a medieval feast for her professor and other students and “hired frat brother friends as serfs to serve dinner.”

Americans’ love affair with craft beers started in the 1980s for a few reasons, says Saunders. By the mid-70s many states lifted a Prohibition-era ban on home brewing allowing people to recapture a forgotten craft. Also, in the late 70s and 80s, study-abroad programs proliferated and students started tasting European beers that had been crafted from long-standing brewing traditions, introducing their palates to flavors other than Budweiser and Miller Lite.

Saunders says that craft brewing combines the artistry and creativity of cooking with the rigors of science. It’s about fermentable sugars, final alcohol content, color and mouth-feel, and evoking flavor and aromatics from grain’s entire taste spectrum. “It’s a continuous learning and creativity curve. That’s the allure. It’s a great challenge and when the results are delicious they are shared and enjoyed. It’s why it’s here to stay.”

Part of me feels like I sold out to the Media Man.  I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve been fairly proud to have gone thus far so long without jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.  There’s a couple of reasons why I never felt the need to jump on this trend, and I suppose on the technological front it was because I never had a smart phone prior to my Droid and there was no way in hell I was going to use my regular phone (sans QWERTY keyboard) to attempt and fumble through pecking out a tweet.  It didn’t help either that Verizon charges like $.10 for every text message as well if you don’t have a data plan.

The second reason was more of a social ego thing for me which of course goes both ways.  On my side of the coin, I’m not sure what I would ‘tweet’ or why I would in the first place.  I’m not of the generation where this technology is second hand nature to kids have my age.  It seems that ‘tweeting’ was the next step in evolution for teens who were already maturing beyond Myspace, and now had a mobile way to keep friends updated.  I’m pretty sure that if I were 16 again, I’d really be into Twitter.  On the flip-side of things, it seemed Twitter became all that when celebrity douche’s like Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and John Mayer got on-board and felt the need to tweet about everything they came into contact with.  Soon, ‘entertainment’ news shows such as Access Hollywood and Extra started to report the often mundane and sometimes insane musings of so called celebrities and hung on every word as if the ability to tweet now turned them into wise old sages that we as a culture needed to hang onto every word.  It was no longer about what we could do or experience for ourselves, but we were more interested, (for whatever reason) in “What would Ashton do?” or “What does Brittany think?”, as if somehow we were actually no closer to them, understood them, and now could tell others we were friends.

So why did I succumb if I am so against it?  Well, like all things, even my opinions change over time.  I still think Ashton and John Mayer are douches, but I cam to realize that there are other people out there that actually do write about things that interest me.  There are people I am interested in following as it comes to discovering new technologies, new restaurants, new clubs and venues, and even news that affects my world.

So who the hell am I following then?    Funny you should ask.  For the first time, it seems I have the ability to ‘interview’ who I want to follow on a trial basis.  Some may come, some may go.  For example, I don’t think I could follow a John Mayer even if I like him because my phone would be chirping upwards of ten times a day on just him.  Now suppose I began to follow 10 people, or maybe 20, or even 30.  If they even just tweeted once a day, I’d be inundated with chirps that would drive me up the wall.

The current list I have is relatively small (10), and there wasn’t all that much thought put into it.  Some of them I added like Neil Patrick Harris, because he actually has something to say and it has content, not like Kim Kardashian who peppers here with just links and nonsensical crap like advertisements.  I looked at a few dozen random celebrities in different fields and here’s my list thus far:  Nikkie Jackson (fitness model), Catalina Cruz (Internet entrepreneur), Niel Patrick Harris (actor), Bobby Flay (celebrity chef), Denise Richards (actress, model, animal lover), Kevin Smith (director, comic buff, actor), Blair Herter (TV personality, comic geek, video games), Adam Sessler (TV personality, video gamer), Aziz Ansari (comedian, actor), Guy Fieri (celebrity chef, tv personality).

I also realize it’s a great self marketing tool.  I’d love to get more people to listen to my podcast and if I can even attract one person via Twitter over to CocktailConfessions, then by measurement, it worked.  I doubt I will be personally be ‘tweeting’ much, I mean what possibly do I have to say to the masses who don’t even know I exist?  If I’m lucky, maybe I’ll get a few followers, although I suspect they will be friends and I can share with them some new eats I’ve discovered, or inform them of a new podcast, or perhaps an occasional mobile picture….but isn’t that what we have Facebook for?

On my Droid phone I installed ‘Tweetcaster lite’, a freebie version of Tweetcaster Pro.  It seemed to get a lot of positive ratings 4.5/5 and seems failry intuitive to use.  Not sure if it is the best one out there as it seems a few people said it doesn’t have the ability to upload video’s to Twitter….but do I care about that?  Maybe it will come with an upcoming patch or release upgrade?

Anyway, now I’m looking for an appropriate and easy Twitter plug-in for Wordpress.  I’ve already seen a few, but I need to decide which one will suit my needs here.  Don’t be surprised if you see one or two come and go over the weeks as I decide which one is for me.  However, in the meantime, if you so choose you can follow me on Twitter at ‘@alonedisciple’.

Finally, if you were to become a follower of me, what would you want me to tweet about?  Recipes?  Grilling?  Cocktails?  Funny crap?

So as any self respecting nerdy geek like myself will admit to without embarrassment, I enjoy video games.  Always have.  My very first console was an Intellivision, followed by the following: Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Xbox, Wii, Xbox 360.  That doesn’t include the portable systems I’ve owned as well: GameBoy advance and PSP nor my pure gaming rig, the PC computer.

Anyways, I’ve played a lot of games over the years.  Some good, some bad, some strange.  But Japan has the market on weird shit as the picture states.  The land of the rising sun in all their tech savvy ways is also very perverted.  That’s not to say the Germans and a few other European countries don’t give the Japanese a run for their money when it comes to eroticism and perversion…well, I suppose perversion is in the eye of the beholder, but the Japanese often blend sex with just about anything they can.  Take vending machines for instance:  it is well known that Japanese business men can often be seen dropping coins into public vending machines in order to obtain panties.  Yes…panties.  Not sure if they are ‘used’ or not, but no one seems to think this is out of the ordinary over there.

They are also obsessed with Manga, or to qualify, cartoonish looking robots and young school girls with larger than life eyes, huge breasts, and some kind of innocent-slash-constipated look on their faces.

Now throw in video games.

This is what you get: Eroge, a video games that not only encourages masturbation, but also keeps score and statistics regarding your solo activities if you feel so inclined.  Yes, you are indeed reading this correctly….the game keeps track of how many times you have decided to a choke the proverbial chicken.  There are numerous categories you can enter data in (wash your hands first though), such as: Did you use socks today?  How long did it take you?  How many times did you spank the monkey today?  You get the idea.  The best part is, there is a handy graphing tools as well for those math centric racial stereotyping we are go good at.  Hey, go compare your graph with that of your friend.  Fun!

One of the old adage’s we have all heard time and time again, but seemingly and knowingly tend to ignore for various (and quite possibly mischievous) reasons is to never talk politics or religion with those you are close with or coworkers.

I came across a recent news article online regarding an anonymous benefactor back in Minneapolis who purchased some billboard space and had the following picture adorned on the side of the highway.  Personally, I found the picture quite funny as former President Bush looks a tad cartoonish here, but more so in lieu of all the pop-shots the media has been taken this last year at the right and Sarah Palin.

Now before you get your own personal panties in a tizzy, I’ll have you know that while I do consider myself a person who leans towards the conservative side of things, my stance the last few years has grown increasingly Independent.  See, personally, I wasn’t happy with the last few years of the Bush administration, not because of his convictions or morals, but more so because I thought his administration dropped the ball on a few things and forgot about many others.  I believe the GOP had lost sight of their core constituents and stopped listening to those who placed them into office.  I am one of those Americans who no longer believe that those in Washington were working for the people, but working for their own designs and elitist agenda.

That goes for both parties, and while I’ll be the first to say I will never be a ‘liberal’ or lean so far left that I throw all common sense out the window, the ‘right’ hasn’t been doing themselves any favors in my eyes either. 

Enter the 2008 election where the messiah of Hope and Change was elected to nauseating heights and the masses began to trip over themselves as they abandoned all common sense and truly became blind and deaf to the world around changing around them. 

Now it’s more than a year later and this administration continues to blame the previous guard for all their shortcomings.  Healthcare?  No.  Immigration?  No.  Guantonimo?  No.  Iraq?  No.  National Security?  No.  Stimulus?  No.  Housing market?  Not yet.  Iran?  Still no.  The list goes on and on, but I digress.

I placed this picture on my Facebook page as an attempts of humor, and I was shocked on how quickly and visceral the comments were from my ‘liberal’ friends.  Yes, I do have friends who swing left, but I always find it very amusing that they are also the most intolerant and one-track mind when it comes to politics.  The party that proclaims to be progressive, enlightened, and tolerant of all viewpoints….really isn’t.  No, sadly when it comes to politics and religion, if you can’t agree with them or sit back and laugh, they take their ball home from the sandbox and pout.

Does that mean all liberals?  Before you flood my email and comments with yet more knee jerk reactions, the answer is no, of course not all liberals are this uptight.  I’m just stating from my own personal pool of friends (who will remain nameless here) is the old “They can dish it out, but can’t take it themselves” attitude.  When Obama won and was sworn in I can’t recall any of my conservative friends throwing a hissy fit.  However, you mention any of the string of quantifiable instances that Obama hasn’t been able to pull off any of his agenda of ‘change’ as promised you better duck for cover and steel yourself for the tirade of insults that are about to fly your way.

To my liberal friends….lighten up, drink a cocktail..or in your case two or three.  We’re still friends, we’re still adults, act your age and prove me wrong that you can actually handle a little criticism, even if in jest.  You only have three years left to enjoy this mess anyway.