'FREE' FOOD - SNAILS INTO ESCARGOT

Urban rumor states that ALL of the snails in San Francisco Bay Area gardens are descended from four snails brought over by the French in the 1800's so they could eat escargot. I was once part of a group of highly educated Berkeley residents who tested this theory.

First, you need LOTS of snails. By offering to cook the snails, I figured that I would get out of any further work as no one would collect snails. Did I mention Berkeley people tend to follow through on their obsessions?

Once LOTS of snails were living in two large buckets with weighted screened tops, we all discussed the possibility of the snails having eaten poison. The problem with educated people is that they can solve the little problems that the prospective cook brings up.

After a MONTH of someone else feeding the snails clean water and corn meal, the snails were unfortunately pronounced safe to eat. I had already consulted James Beard for the best cooking method. A date for a snail feast was set.

Cooking took a long time but was fairly easy. James said to remove the snails from the shell after cooking. James did NOT mention how to do that. I finally shelled the snails like they were badly cooked boiled eggs. I even had great Berkeley bread toasted and ready for the feast. (Note that the snails shrink when cooked.)

The French are correct. Snails taste REALLY GOOD. I was worried that there would not be enough snails for the cook to overindulge. Luckily, the thought of eating snails, and the gray color of the snails, kept most of the guests drinking wine and eating cheese.

Honestly, I just do NOT understand why restaurants charge so much for escargot. %<)

LET UN GUYS GO

Whoever is holding the UN people hostage need to let them go.

I am not certain that it is actually Syrian rebels holding the UN people. I did not think the Syrian rebels were that stupid.

The rebels have been careful to be as humane as possible. Now they supposedly make hostages of UN peacekeepers.

If it was really rebels, they need to release the peacekeepers immediately.  If it was another of Assads stupid disinformation ideas, it is another reason why the rebels need to get organized.

NEW NUKES BUT NO HEALTH CARE

The House Republicans are trying to pass a budget that fully funds replacement nuclear bombs but unfunds health care and financial regulations.

I guess they really want to lose the next election. Or else they are AGAIN trying to win the next election by trashing the economy.

Heads up, Republicans. We are not that stupid

TEA PARTY STUPIDLY TRIES TO DAM THE MONEY RIVER

Republicans are THRILLED to be able to dry up monetary cash flow as if they were damming a river. Every time you see the word sequestration, substitute the deliberate drying up of the money necessary to run the economy, with a special emphasis on hurting justice, schools, hospitals, and disabled vets..

The last time money quickly dried up, frightened people actually voted for these selfish silverbacks. *

Silverbacks learn quickly. If they think the only way they will get votes is to trash the economy, they will gladly trash the economy. After all, someone needs to keep those upstart liberals in check. Can you imagine, those liberals think we should pay people enough so they can actually afford to rent an apartment. %<)

They now believe the only way they can stay in power is to keep people poor and frightened. So expect to have to vote them out of office.

* A silverback is a old male gorilla who pushes everybody around.

ONE PERSON - ONE VOTE - SOMETIMES

Democrats in the House of Representatives got ONE MILLION MORE VOTES than Republicans in the House, according to the Washington Post. This is gerrymandering* on a massive scale.

One of the best ways to stop gerrymandering is to file a lawsuit in federal court.

Right now the US Supreme Court is deliberating whether the anti-gerrymandering laws from the Civil Rights Era should still be enforced. Southern states are telling the Court that they would NEVER draw districts to stop minority votes from affecting the outcome of an election. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can sell you.**

The Democratic Party needs money in order to fight gerrymandering at every level. They need to educate people, elect people, and hire lawyers for lawsuits. Otherwise, we might be stuck with an unfairly elected House of Representatives. If you can afford to give them money, you should.

California finally got redistricting right. I recommend other states look at what California has done.

* Gerrymandering is the art of drawing up districts so that your party can win the district. Each Representative in the House represents a different district. Usually, these districts at least have the same number of voters. I guess Republicans are getting desperate as they rapidly lose market share.

** This is a polite way to say that someone is telling a lie in an attempt to con you into believing something. (I guess people actually did con people into thinking they could buy shares in the Brooklyn Bridge, which is owned by the government.)

LOVE AND CONTROL

Loving and being loved does not give you the right to control another adult. Love should help the other person be the best person possible. It should not make decisions for the loved one, or expect obedience from the loved one.

Too many men think that women are their possessions.

For instance, this idea that you can not date a woman who once dated your friend without that friend's permission is DUMB. THE ONLY person you need permission from is the woman you want to date.

Of course, you should also NOT flirt with another person who is ALREADY in a relationship. But once the relationship ends, each person should be free to have a relationship with ANY other person. Dating someone does not give you endless control over the person you are dating.

It is not romantic to chase after a person who keeps saying, "No". It is stalking.

The culture of "stay away from MY woman" seems romantic. Actually, it is a statement meaning, "I get to control access to an adult person because I am unable to trust the adult person."

Men of my generation were sometimes confused when their women left them. I always understood why the women left. They left because poverty is better than enslavement.

I enjoyed my marriages. I try not to focus on the end of the relationship, but on the good times. Loving and being loved is a wonderful experience. Keep loving fresh by giving rather than taking.

Happy Valentine's Day!

BEN FRANKLIN'S BEST IDEA - POSTAL SERVICE

We need to save the US Postal Service. Too many of the email documents we send are forgeries. We need an inexpensive way to send original documents.

Ben was right. The Postal Service is one of the ways we bind the citizens of our country together. The Postal Service is especially important in small communities.

Postal Service is part of our justice system.The US courts use the Postal Service to reliably send originals and copies of court documents.

Email is a great new method of communication. But it contributed to the real estate fraud that we are all still paying for. It became so easy to email documents that companies forgot about the possibility of forgery. Real estate agents had no trouble falsifying documents because they could use Photo Shop to change documents.

I am seeing increasing numbers of documents that are possible forgeries, but there is no way to tell because we no longer think that seeing the original is important.

I recommend that all originals be signed in blue ink. For some reason, blue ink does not copy well, so that it is easy to spot a copy of a blue signature.

IT IS STUPID TO TREAT THE POSTAL SERVICE AS IF IT WERE A PROFITABLE BUSINESS. Ben was right, the Postal Service is something that the government provides to its citizens.