Where is the red line?

Many on the right really mocked President Obama when he was president and he made a red line on Syria. Saying if they use gas to kill the opposition that US would enter the war.  After he made the red line, Syria reported crossed the red line by using gas.
He did nothing. Well how can you make a red line and do nothing? I guess he was bluffing.
As a young republican I always believed that Republican had red lines on many issues. They were for the all American family. Family values they said. God fearing they said.
When Clinton was getting blow-jobs in the Oval office they were a gasp. Shocked and dismayed that such a man could hold the great office of president of the sunited states.
Now, I guess we are a new brand of Republican. We support pussy grabbers. Yes pussy grabbers make the best presidents. All you have to say is "gym talk". Which means yes I went acound asulting women but I am still going to be president.
Is that all? No I tell you there is more. We now love tariffs which we apply without going to congress under the guise of national security. Yes our beloved friends are now national threats. Canada the land of the friendly are now equal to Russia and China.
So what is a tariff? Well it is a tax. Yes the party of low to no taxes. Is now the party of taxes. Yes the income tax is lower. By most estimates the income tax will soon to be offset by higher product cost at the store. This basically makes your tax decrease at best offset at least can cause an economic meltdown.
But Wane we lose all those jobs. Yes you do but when they dump products  they are giving away their their money. So they are taking jobs in the short term but in the long term they are taking from their economy and adding to yours. Trump is only about what feels good or looks good now.
That must be it right? I mean the party is basically the same except that right?
Well sadly not. We now compare Nazi killers to people who are protesting them. And how does the equation come out? Well their are bad people on both side. So the leader of the republican party has led us to the pro-Nazi party.
Ok that was just a fluke we are still the party of personal dignity. Well the president has used his power to degrade not only citizens. The list of people that the personally attacked is long. These are the people that the government is supposed to protect. He as leader of the party talked about their physical weakness as well as the mental.
You are ranting Wane. Yes a bit but look at what he has done to my party. We are the pussy grabber party. We are the child kidnap party. We steal the kids of parents who came the our country for help.
We have moved from the party of a thousand points of light to a thousand points of darkness. So where is the red-line for the party. There is none. You can always hope the party changes direction but with the support of Mr. Cruel through the roof in the republican party. Perhaps an ass kicking during the mid-term could help.
The red-line of family values is non-existent. We have a president that changes wife as often as he changes his underwear. As real conservatives like George Wills are leaving the party makes us pine for real conservatives like slick Willie.

The grinch that stole winning.

Are you tired of wining?  That is what Donald Trump told us and I for one did not believe him. But yes I am tried of wining.. Winning is always good right?
There was an episode of How I met your Mother. Yes I am a big fan. Barney said that new is always better. Then they offer him a glass of new grape scotch or 50 year-old Glen McKenna. It proved that new is not always better.
In the same way winning is not always good. You can play a game of  basketball with your friend to 10 and totally dominate him. 10-0 Come to find out your friend did not enjoy being crushed. He no longer wants to be your friend. Yeah you won! In his face.
So lets review you won a game. It is a short term gain. You lost a relationship. Did you really win?
This is how Donald Trump is handling our foreign relations. He is trying to crush our friends because in some strange context we allow them to have "wins". Donald does not have friends. So friendship means nothing.
Like Canada is now according to Trump a national security threat. Canada the most friendly country in the world. We have the largest border in the world with them. They follow us to any war we want to go to. They are the ones who are the threat?
Canada is like Robin to our Batman. Now we are scared of Robin. They are awful. All the friendliness. The kindness they show America is just awful. Probably has something to do with Trump's mom not loving him so he could not get friends. Now he thinks friends are just people who wants
We can win at the boarder too. All we have to do is take babies from their parents. Once it gets around how cruel and ruthless America is to those poor people in need. They will stop showing up at our border.
We can win at business too.  All we have to do is roll back the protections that keep banks honest. The protections to the environment. Smog everywhere.
I am against abortion. Sorry I just am. I don't believe that removing a few cells from your body that have not yet formed a person is abortion. Once the it has a head well that is a baby and you don't have long until that happens.
It is the woman's body you say. The baby can not live outside the woman  you say. Well people in commas in hospitals can not live outside the hospital. The hospital is owned by someone. So that person should be able to kick those people out if they want?
I hate the fact that any judge only either side only follows their feelings and not the law. Anyone who joins the court will not be cool with me.

So not I don't want to win by kicking puppies. Thanks Trump for ruining winning for us. 

Who is the best cook?

Ask a Chef or a cook who is the best cook they know. More than not you can guess their answer. Some famous chef at a four start restaurant? Perhaps someone famous like Gordan Ramsey. No, most likely it will not be either.

So the suspense is killing me Wane. Who could this mysterious person be? Well the answer is quite simple: Mom. Yes that woman who carried you in her belly or took over when that person let you down. 

Now I am going to write about a subject that I am not an expert. As my that is not my favorite cook. My "mother" left when I was a just a tot. Now as a tot of course I have no recollection of this event. Then I was taken by the state as has happened off and on through my life. I again unable to remember any of this.Was able to live my dad a while latter and finally ended in a 'group home'. Where you have house parents assigned to you. So they were charged with taking care of ten boys or so.

Never really bonded with any of them. They tried their best at this impossible job. To take care of so many boy who lost their families. Many abused. Most of us where not the brightest bulb in the house either.

So who as my favorite cook? I was probably Aunt Jo. Aunt Jo was my Uncle Gene's wife. She was a great cook. I was able to stay at her house once a week. She however usually did not cook a meal but time to time she would and man it was good southern cooking. Now I don't remember any of the dishes that she cooked.

What I do remember, is anything that Aunt Jo put the time and love to make. It was great. Now my other aunts and cousins could cook well too. If the southern gene kicked into a woman, the grub was quite tasty. My father had six bothers and sisters who all had their excuse for not adopting us ( I have a older sister too)

So why her, I think it is the same reason that most people find their mom's food preferable to anyone else.   The L word. Yes love. While Aunt Joe had her own kids that she loved and I was an intruder in her house. She never had a bad word to say about me. I thought I was a good kid but most of my family did not.  Maybe that is a story for another post. I did not get in much trouble. I did not excel in anything. I am not sure what made me a bad kid.

There is something about taking something from someone you love and making it part of you. Now I really wish that I had the mother - son relationship I really do. To have someone love you unconditionally and only wish to have good things for you at the expense of their own happiness. Now multiply that by the number of meals for say sixteen years. You are basically part of your mom's cult.

You see many moms who mentally black-male their children. Yet the children consonantly capitulate to her whims.  Along with the other emotional attachments that I am in no way qualified to talk about. The food bond is strong.

Now you can equate it with the sex you have with your wife. Non recreational sex is probably the strongest bond that you can get with another person. How come most people when the wife is not around will still say mom is the best. Time. How many meals have you had and the bonding from bottle to solid food with your mom? That is the some strong bonding to have with one person.

I wish I was writing out of experience and not jealously. Food bonds us together. Someone said that the real Laurence of Arabia was cornered one time and they had a meeting to determine his fate. They had decided that they could not kill him because he had eaten at the table of one the Princes present. When you eat with someone it is harder to hate them. But to be feed with warmth and caring is almost overwhelming.

What tastes good?

When you where young think about what you loved to eat? For me it was the hamburger, the great American fast food hamburger. Bread, meat (beef I think) , some sort of veggie such as lettuce, pickle with way too much mayo, mustard and cheese.

In school I loved the processed pizza and fries. The pizza was cut into rectangles with mystery substances that resembled cheese, sauce and  meat that tasted like sausage. These were the magic food or food like substances that brought joy to me.

You may ask why.Why Wane Burgers and pizza. I have to go back to my not bad childhood but maybe sad childhood. I got 10 cents for every year I was alive for allowance. If you worked on chores that were not your normal jobs you could make more. So at 14 years old I got $1.40 etc. So at that rate you could not practly eat at McDonald's or anywhere else.

I did have family that came and seen me on Sundays and would take me to eat out sometimes. I would look at disbelief as the other children could not only buy a car. They could stop at their choice of eating establishment and order the meal of their choice.

Now image this. Put fresh water fish in a jar and let it sit for 3 weeks.  This is a food substance that many Khmer loves. It is called brohaught (bro-hot). You eat it with rice of coarse and veggies.

They put out a mat along with other Khmer foods, beer and maybe palm wine. Sit and talk loud. Generally having a good time and get drunk.

This is what many Khmer would say what they would pine for when they think of their childhood. Their childhood stories would make mine look very happy. They would look at my childhood except the missing parents and say damn I would love that life.

Contrast those favorite foods though.How could that be? So different.

I believe that if I grew up in Cambodia maybe brohaught would be my favorite. I don't like to eat cats, dogs and horses. That is only because I grew up where I did. Food for thought.

You can be an Artist too!

A friend of mine once said "Anybody can be an artist." How can that be you might ask? Are you saying that anyone can have the vision of Picasso?  The brilliance of Leonardo Da Vinc?

No, No you can not. But you said..? I know what I said. Yes, you can become and artist.  You can become a very good artist. You can most likely make money being an artist. How? Study and practice.

The bible loosely says "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." You can look at the context for yourself. But basically means you spend your time, your money on what you love. 

If you don't spend your time where your love is? Then you are wasting your life. This is your own opinion of what you love. You don't do it. It is your own fault. 

As art is only an example. I wanted to be a auto mechanic when I was young. After that because of my brother-in-law I wanted to be an accountant. As I tested the waters IT ended up as the place that I really wanted to be. 

I am about as bright as a well trained dog. My school grades were bad. While attending university, I did not really have the skills to do well either. I had the attention span of a squirrel on coffee. 

Over the years with a large amount of effort I have gained some control of my facilities. I have promoted my brain to that of a squirrel with no caffeine. Not sure what day was my enlightenment day.

With my set of sills I can do things that other programmers can not. I can also do things things that other system administrators can not. I have in short become a valuable member of any IT team. That was my goal. 

Well my real goal was to make over $100k a year before I died which I did also. As someone with no parents, living in a group home. Making $100k before I was 30 was a good accomplishment. 

So take small steps work hard and you can be what you want. Not sure if I ended where I wanted but I am there. Boy! this one ended cheesy. That is OK I am just practicing.

Is Karma still a thing?

Karma is reportedly from Hinduism and Buddhism. It means that you get as much as you give. If you are a dick head now you will pay for it later. In this life time or the next. Save a baby and good things are on the way for you.

There are examples of these. Just type "instant karma" on YouTube and you will be granted a barrage of guys kicking a baby and turning around and getting his balls cut off. Someone finding a million dollars and returning it the owner gives him half anyway.

 What brings my mind to this today is that my sister-in-law's motor-scooter was stolen today. Well last night. It was her prized possession.  She is poor by any measure.. Lives in a one room "apartment" that has an outside bathroom she shares with others in the building. She had to buy it from her husband in her divorce.

You could see the thieves in the video breaking the lock. Moving the Tuk-Tuk that was in the way. Pushing the bike to the door and then driving away. They took part of her dreams and her life with them.

One of the guys that works with me joked they probably lost money on the world cup soccer games (Pre-Karma?) They were probably poor too. Their prospects brighten by the gain of perhaps $500 US.

In your life you have seen the opposite happen too. Someone at work never really does anything and becomes  your boss. Someone who works really hard.Ask for help and quits when they don't get it. They hire 2 people to replace him.

You can see rich people who steal from others. Stars that treat people like shit. What is their karma? More money. More fame.The Buddhist would say they will pay in the next life.

If you pay in your next life, how is that Karma? You have no idea what you did wrong in your former life? If the person is introspective they may be tormented by what bad things they did.

Sweeney Todd said

"Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief!
For the rest of us, death will be a relief
We all deserve to die!"

We have all done bad..We all hope for forgiveness... and that we will not get what we deserve.

No Rice No Food

No rice no food sounds a bit strange. It is essential to understanding the Khmer. Khmer is how Cambodians refer to themselves in their language. At the most simple 'No rice No Food' means that you have to have rice to have had a proper meal.

Let's say if you go out for pizza, a well loved a appreciated food for the Khmer. Man are you hungry. You go to Pizza Company (not a Cambodian company) and order 2 extra large pizza. Two bastardized pizzas with what they call hotdogs in the crust. Although not what I really call pizza it is tasty enough and you pay the bill. After get in the tuk-tuk or moto-dop and go home.
While most westerners (barrang) would stagger home (because of the beers), flop on the bed and fall in to a food induced comma. Perhaps waking up to pee from all the beer.

If you are paying attention you know is what is wrong if you replace the westerner with a Khmer in that scenario. They have not properly eaten.  They had crust, cheese, hotdog, pizza sauce (sort of) and maybe seafood. What they have not had is rice.

What in English has only one word, in Khmer has at least 3 in Khmer.They have a name for cooked rice (bhi) , a name for uncooked rice (anchor) and for rice not yet picked from the plant(srov.) Most of their ancestor's lives have been centered around the production and consumption of rice. So when they get home they must eat at least some rice. 

As one of us you may think this is nuts. Your stomach is full but still eat rice. It is not about the the nourishment or the desire to fill one's stomach. It is the desire to find that thing in life that is most important and not live without it for even one time. Here rice leads to money, to a live without hunger,to everything that makes life worth living.

As with most countries the old is making way with the new and the rice centered life is slowly fading.

In America we had some ideals that kept our country centered. Values such as freedom and protecting each other especially the poor and the weak. It is being replaced with the Trump view of the world. Anyone less than you needs to be kept in their place. Hurting people because of their race or country of origin is ok. Women are to be used as long as they are young and beautiful and discarded soon after. Friends are just commodities and enemies are to be admired and embraced for their corruption of power.  It is ok for someone powerful to try to hurt the powerless.

Most of us people who are not good in the best sense have found the wrong thing to center our lives. Food, drink, sex the pursuit of the the wrong thing I really thought these kind of people where a minority in the US.. Seem like many more people than I could have imaged centered their lives on hate. Always grabbing for the wrong thing.