Thursday, January 26, 2012

I'M REVEALING THE SEALs WHO RESCUED THE HOSTAGES!

I'm going to tell you who the men are that make up the SEALs Team Six. I will reveal who killed Osama. I will reveal the men who heroically saved two hostages recently.

But first I would like to tell you who the SEALs are not.

The  megalomaniac who married into my family once that bragged he was a Navy SEAL was what he appeared to be….a narcissistic sociopath. He couldn't have made it through SEAL training to save his life. No patriotism, no morals, no common sense.

The guy who sat in my office a few months ago and apparently decided to impress me since I'm probably the only woman private investigator he's ever run into. Never have figured out why some men see that as an immediately challenge to their manhood and try to impress me with stories of their daring adventures. Granted this man never said the word SEAL, but he kept hinting at it, finally pulling out his Iraq I.D. to show me.  At this point I started rolling with laughter, lowered the boom on this little short, chubby, clean shaven piece of bovine scatology. His testicles probably still haven't come out of hiding.

Pretending to be a Navy SEAL is illegal and if someone will just tell me how and where, I would report these gutless wonders in a heartbeat. How dare they

Now let me tell you about a REAL SEAL…

He is totally ripped. Big upper body, muscles in places you probably don't even know you have muscles. He has undergone torturous training in numerous training programs. He's one of the few who made it. Then he had to be approved by, not only his superiors but his peers.

He's super intelligent and could even  have a master's degree.

He's an adrenaline junky to the max. He may have had some trouble over the years, because of his love of love of adrenaline, he was always looking for some excitement. Even with this, he is extremely disciplined physically and mentally.

He loves his country and is a serious patriot. He may also be married with a child. He's the personification of honest. His word is his bond.

He's not a killer but if that's what it takes to complete the mission, so be it. He's successful because he takes no prisoners.

Think he's easy to spot? Just look for the most military looking ripped man in the room, knife creases in his pants, short military haircut, standing straight and tall? Not on your life.

A SEAL has to be able to move around in different cultures without being spotted. So he's probably a little on the scruffy side, certainly not the most well-groomed. His hair is too long, he may have a beard, never clean-shaven. He may be short, he may be tall.

He'll be on a dangerous mission one day and home mowing his grass the next.

He's arrogant, but doesn't have to brag to make himself feel better. He's arrogant because he's the best and he damned well knows it. The only place he talks or jokingly brags is among his little group of other SEALs because they're probably giving him all kinds of ribbing over how much better they could have done what he just did.

He's a hero but is always ready to be only one of the team. He'll lead or follow, whichever will get the mission accomplished.

SEAL Team Six…You are my heroes. I love you all, I admire you, I salute you. I would gladly take a bullet for any one of you.

HOW TO HELP SEALS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Monday, January 16, 2012

BOARD OF TRUSTEES SCREWED COACH JOE PATERNO DURING PENN STATE SEX SCANDAL

I find I'm sympathetic towards former Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who was fired in November in a knee-jerk reaction by the board of trustees . A few years ago, I think most people would have probably done exactly what he did, when McQueary came to him with allegations about Sandusky.

Paterno went to HIS superiors and reported it. I think in his case that was the proper thing to do. Think about it…

An organization named Perverted Justice was started a few years ago. At that time children being raped was not talked about. I joined the staff not too long after the organization started.

Having been in law enforcement, I had watched child molester after child molester either let go or given six weeks probation and then put right back in the home with the victim. It seemed like nobody knew what to do. There were no laws in place to handle this and judges didn't seem to take it seriously. It was the dirty little secret.

Perverted Justice worked diligently to expose how prevalent child molesting had become while nobody was watching and get the laws passed to protect children. Then they were approached by NBC to do a series of programs called dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator. Finally the problem was getting the attention and people became aware of how prevalent the rape of children had become.

But before that, normal people couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that a man would do such a thing. If someone had made that accusation, nobody would have gone to the police because what if it wasn't true and you ruined the man's reputation? And unfortunately, if you did go to the police they probably wouldn't have done anything. There just wasn't anything they could have charged him with.  Normal men had trouble even knowing what to do.

McQueary took it to his superior, Paterno, who in turn took it to his superiors. That's the way things are supposed to work in an organization. You take it up the ladder. The boss is supposed to take the action.

Paterno said he had never heard of "rape and a man. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it."

He said he called his superiors and said "hey, we got a problem I think. Would you guys look into it? Because I didn't know, you know…I had never had to deal with something like that, and I didn't feel adequate."

I believe that and understand it. If he had gone to the police himself and a scandal had ensued, he would have been fired immediately because he should have gone to his superiors and let them handle it.

Either way, Paterno was screwed. The board of trustees couldn't care less that children were raped. They couldn't care less how Paterno handled it. The only thing they care about is washing their hands of whoever it takes to get as far away from the scandal as possible.

Penn State's board of trustees have tried to do this the old way: Keep it quiet. Divorce yourself from it and turn it into another good old fashioned dirty little secret.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

LSU VS. BAMA...PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL

Speaking of football…you weren't? Oh well, most others have been talking football for the last three days.

Starting with the BCS championship game on January 9:
Here's what happened in MY world during the game. Being a fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide, I was glued to my television when they first entered the stadium for warmup before the fans even arrived.

As they entered, the LSU players went running over, lined up and began posturing, puffing out their chests and trying to intimidate the Bama team. Considering this was over an hour until the fans started arriving, I thought it was a totally classless thing to do. The Bama players completely ignored them.

Then it was game time. When the Crimson Tide ran onto the field, the LSU fans began to boo. When the LSU team entered, I heard not a single disrespectful boo from Bama fans. So what did it prove? It proved the LSU team and it's fans have absolutely no class.

When Bama coach Nick Saban entered, he made a point of walking around the LSU coach from a distance. My opinion is Saban was not giving the LSU coach a chance to start some kind of crap.

Crap trickling downhill is true. I can't imagine Coach Saban tolerating that kind of behavior from his players or the fans. He'd be all over them like white on rice and I'm proud of the Crimson Tide's ethics and behavior.

Usually I probably would stop watching a game that was an obviously going to be a humiliation to a team, like this one was to LSU. Not this time. After the arrogance and bad sportsmanship I witnessed, you couldn't have pried me away from that game.

Ordinarily I get pretty vocal during a game, cheering on my team. Even when I'm alone I really get into the game. Can't help myself.

Not this time though. I couldn't cheer because I spent the whole game rolling with laughter, as LSU's team, who had been so rude only an hour before, stood with this look of horror on their faces as they realized the Tide was rolling all over them and there wasn't a thing they could do to stop it. It was the first championship game I've ever seen where the supposedly #1 teams was stomped into the dirt, only got over the 50 years line once, immediately got the ball intercepted and came out of the game with a score of zero.

Coach Saban proved he deserved the Crystal Football. Congratulations to the Crimson Tide. You make your fans proud to say "ROLL TIDE!"

Thursday, December 29, 2011

OCCUPY MOVEMENT THREW WRONG BITCH OUT OF WINDOW

The occupy movement reminds me of an old joke:

A man got on a train and the only seat left was beside a woman with a little well-dressed poodle. The man asked the woman to move the dog so he could have the seat and the woman, sticking her nose in the air, said "I will not."

The man stood until his legs were tired and again asked the woman to please move the dog so he could sit. Nose in the air, she again refused.

Finally the man grabbed the dog and threw it out of the train window. The woman began to scream. The train porter came, assessed the situation, then turned to the man and said, "Excuse me sir, but I think you threw the wrong bitch out of the window."

Maybe I'm missing something about this whole occupy thing. Here's MY thoughts on the thing.

Just exactly what are they trying to accomplish. They've made their ideals known. What began to quickly happen, all the freaks who had too much time on their hands and a gripe about ANYTHING showed up.

Then came the carnival atmosphere. WHEE! Half of them didn't even know what the issue was and the damage was to small mom and pop businesses being blocked.

I agree with some of the goals. There's too much pressure put on politicians by huge corporations, who pay big bucks hiring lobbyists. Then they make huge contributions to their chosen candidate's campaign.

Get the Federal Reserve back under control. They're the ones in control of the problem. Research what's going on with the Federal Reserve. It will shock you. Banks need more money? Hey, no problem, The Federal Reserve will just print it, with only thin air to back it up, and then loan it to the banks, who make huge profits off of it. Meanwhile people's homes are getting taken away by the banks, jobs have gone away, etc. But the bankers are getting richer and richer. And because there's no laws to control them, the Federal Reserve has now gone rogue. Our government no longer has the laws in place to stop it.

Pressure on politicians got us into this mess, putting pressure on politicians can get us out of it. We need to take back our democracy and take back our country.

If the occupy folks want to demonstrate, do it to the people who make the laws. Get some controls back on the banks. Deregulation of banks was not a good idea. Put the pressure on politicians  to raise the minimum wage so people can live on it. Refuse to work for those who don't pay fair wages.  Corporations who move to another country because they can pay lower wages….start a movement to stop buying their products. Jump on the buy "Made in America" products.

While we've been feeding and taking care of half the world's people, we stopped paying attention to what was happening in our own country. It's time to get informed before you vote. Stop voting for someone just because they have a nice smile. Stop voting for someone just because they can debate well. Vote for people who will clean up this mess we're in. Be an informed voter.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Coming out of the closet

For me, the highlight of every year is when the boys of fall come out to play. As the college football bowl season approaches, I'm always filled with a mixture of excitement and dread. Excitement because of the upcoming bowl games and dread that the football season is almost over.

Everyone who knows me is aware  that I don't work on Saturday during football season. I don't go anywhere or talk on the phone. DO NOT mess with my football day.

It hasn't always been that way. Growing up in Eureka Springs, Arkansas meant you loved basketball and knew NOTHING about football. They always claimed it was because there was no place flat enough to build a football field.

One day somewhere around 1968, a football game came on tv. I became curious enough to watch. Then I started watching lots of football. My then-husband walked in one day, kinda sneered at me and said "What are you watching!" I just kinda shrugged and replied with some drivel about not knowing, just whatever's on, not paying attention, and so on. That's the day I became a closet football fan.

My mother knew I was interested so in 1969 she came up with a pair of tickets to the Arkansas vs. Texas Longhorns game for our anniversary.  Then-husband refused to go, so I took my dad. That game was dubbed the "Game of the Century". President Nixon, Billy Graham, Senator George H. Bush, Gov. Rockefeller and other dignitaries too numerous to mention, attended. Marine One delivered Nixon on the practice field next to the stadium in Fayetteville. It was snowing and sleeting and I just didn't care. I had a bloody good anniversary that year.

Then a few years later, during the Sugar Bowl game between Arkansas and Alabama, I tripped right out of the football closet and fell completely in love with Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and with Arkansas coach Lou Holz. No problems there. They were in different leagues until Arkansas joined the SEC years later. Now I'm torn between the two loves of my life, the Razorbacks and the Crimson Tide of Alabama.  WHEEE! It's almost college football season!

Not to be outdone by Yogi Berra, Lou Holz once remarked about a player, "He just had shoulder surgery on his elbow."

Saturday, December 10, 2011

How to survive Holiday Hell!

For various reasons the holidays are hard for many people. Family traditions are wonderful until a key member of your family dies. You know things will never be the same. You know your holiday traditions will never, ever be the same. You know the holidays are going to be hell.

When my dad died I began to dread the upcoming holiday season. Christmas was the worse. I was still mourning and I couldn't even imagine being able to get through the holiday.

We had always had the traditional Christmas dinner with a large sit-down dinner Just the thought of it made me want to crawl in bed and cover my head and not come out until the groundhog saw his shadow.

My husband came up with a fabulous idea. Instead of a sit-down dinner, how about doing a bunch of finger foods buffet style, and everyone could eat whenever they wanted. That was just what I needed.

So the kids, my mother and I began to plan. We decided to get an get a shaved ham and assorted sliced cheeses, sliced for sandwiches, rye and white bread, a sandwich spread cream cheese with chopped black olives in it, chips, a hot cheese dip, a clam dip, numerous relish tray items, deviled eggs, and several desserts. It was fun, easy, and more relaxed than if I had to stand and cook all night.

TIP: If you want to serve deviled eggs, or take some to a potluck, here's a great way to serve them. Take a large plate with raised sides, cover the bottom with dried green split peas. Then place your deviled eggs on the peas. It's beautiful and they'll stay in place and won't be slipping all over the place.

The other side of the story is if you're going to have a wonderful Christmas, share it with someone less fortunate. Here are some ways you can help:

Donate blankets and pillows to the homeless.
Give of yourself by helping out at a soup kitchen.
Make it possible for some family to have a Christmas
Find someone who is ignored by their family and do something special for them.

And you can help all of us if you'll buy MADE IN AMERICA items.

Remember what Christmas is all about and giving Him a gift is the best ways to honor the one whose birthday is being celebrated. I know just what He wants for Christmas....love each other, forgive those who have offended you, love the unlovable, provide for the less fortunate. Don't be seduced by materialism. Remember: JESUS is the reason for the season.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Holiday drinking takes a turn for the better

Holiday party time is quickly approaching If you drink alcoholic beverages you have no problem finding recipes for fancy cocktails. But what do you do if you're having a holiday party with no alcohol?

Here's what you do. If you have an easy punch recipe, you mix it up and toss it at your guests. If you don't have a recipe, you call one of your friends and request a recipe. At this point they will give it their best shot and give you that punch thing where you float orange sherbet crap in it.

That particular recipe is fine if you're giving a baby shower or even a wedding shower for someone you barely know.

But be reasonable guys. This is the holidays we're taking about. Do you really think your recovering alcoholic friends are going to be thrilled drinking something with a big orange blob floating around in it?

There are lots of people who don't drink because of religious beliefs, or are on medications where they can't drink alcohol. There are thousands who are recovering alcoholics and can't drink. Too many of these abstainers think the only alternatives, unless they serve the above floating stuff,  are milk, water and coffee. Not true.

Almost any drink becomes elegant when served in stemware. Don't rule out drinking some of the mixes for drinks and just leaving out the alcohol.

Another option available for those of us who cannot tolerate alcoholic beverages:
Virgin Mary:
3 oz. tomato juice
3 oz. cranberry juice
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1 teaspoon lime juice
and a little black pepper.
Mixed and served in a highball glass with a stick of celery and a lime wedge.

If you want to really wow your guests, put together an old English tradition, the Wassail!

There are many recipes out there. Many use pineapple juice, apple juice, even grapefruit juice. For a number of years I fixed wassail every Christmas. It's a delightful drink that's served hot in mugs. Very nice for cold nights during the holidays.

Here's my favorite recipe. You can adjust it if you're having a large crowd.

Start by juicing 2 oranges, 2 lemons, and 2 limes. Set juice aside.

Into a large stockpot bring about a quart of water to a boil. Add to the boiling water: 8 teaspoons allspice berries, 10 teaspoons whole cloves, 4 cinnamon sticks, and all the peels from the fruit you just juiced. Bring back to a boil, cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Dip out the spices and peels. Then add to the pot: 1 gallon apple cider, the juices you set aside, 1 large cranberry juice cocktail, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar. Heat it up and you're ready to serve. If you have very many people, I suggest you double everything, because they're going to want refills.

Put a cinnamon stick in each mug and fill with wassail. You can float thin slices of oranges, lemons or limes on wassail. If you don't want the cranberry juice, add pre-mixed lemonade, and/or orange juice. Make it to your taste and your guests will love it!