How Amber Can Make You Shine

Amber is a jewel for all seasons. It is a natural material made through the fossilization of tree sap over millions of years. Unlike many mineralogical gemstones, Amber is lightweight and naturally translucent making it easy to wear and giving it a  beautiful light-infused look that shines on most anyone. Amber comes is a range of colors that can complement and enhance seasonal clothing ranging from Spring to Winter.

Another property of amber is its ability to be shaped into interesting and even complicated shapes, such as hearts, that can lend extraordinary beauty to jewelry pieces. The more complicated the shape, the more gem stone has to be cut away which increases the cost of the piece, but the results are well worth it. A well crafted Amber jewelry piece can quickly become and stay your favorite as you enjoy it year around with all sorts of outfits.

A recent hand crafted Amber find from the Tucson Gem and Mineral show is up for sale here. There is only one in stock. Click on the link to see and/or purchase it!

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Sterling-Silver-Baltic-Amber-Heart-Pendant/104006455

 

SANTORUM: Winning America Back With Social Conservatism

Aside

If there is one truth the ongoing GOP primary has revealed, it is the existence of several rifts within the Republican Party. The most damaging of these rifts is between social conservatives and fiscal conservatives. Fiscal conservatives claim that the GOP should leave ‘hot button emotional issues’ out of the political conversation entirely while social conservatives emphasize the importance of moral underpinnings to the integrity of our society. Fiscal conservatives often say that they are against social conservative issues entering the picture because such issues are election losers. The reality is that these two groups of conservatives can stand together and win against the progressive (Romney) and libertarian (Paul) wings of the party (and their possible behind the scenes alliance) and against Obama in the general election if they can only find that crucial common ground, Constitutional conservatism.

Fiscal conservatives often cite Rick Santorum’s social conservative stance on the issues as a reason why they won’t support him. The truth is that Santorum truly believes in the concept of American exceptionalism, a fundamental truth of America’s success which cannot be separated from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. God is the source of the rights described in those two foundational documents, He is not a so-called ‘hot button emotional issue’. Santorum is not a ‘bible thumper’ or a ‘preacher’ as often falsely described by liberals, libertarians and sadly fiscal conservatives. He is a man who lives by the tenets of the Christian Bible. He doesn’t coerce anyone else to adopt his way of living; he simply lets us know that the morality of his faith informs his decisions. Washington did this! Reagan did this! Obama and Romney do not do this, and the results of their governing actions speak for themselves in very loud and painful fiscal terms! There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a man of high moral character as our president! Such a man would not spend other people’s money with wild abandon the way Obama and Romney have done with taxpayer funded, government run healthcare plans. Santorum’s sincere, faith driven conscience simply doesn’t allow for such actions.

Social conservatism is in no way a hindrance to the advancement of our common cause of restoring America to freedom and prosperity. On the contrary, it can actually be the catalyst to our success, because it supplies the long term motivation we need to win! There is a good reason why the only part of the conservative base that remains fully energized is the social conservative bloc! This probably rubs fiscal conservatives the wrong way, but it is the reality. Fiscal conservatives can’t win back America without social conservatives because fiscal conservatives can’t muster the energy that it takes and that energy comes only from true conviction! Fiscal conservatism alone is hollow and entirely non-motivating, especially over the long haul. America was not born because of fiscal conservatism and it cannot be reborn because of it either! This nation rose to prominence based on devotion to the very real God to Whom social conservatives still ‘cling’!

In addition, social conservatism actually has a winning track record for the GOP. Social issues were nonexistent in the period between1932 to 1964. During that time period the GOP won two presidential elections out of nine, and had the Congress for a grand total of only four years!  When social issues came into the mix— from the time of the 1968 election – the Republican Party won seven out of 11 presidential elections! Guess what?! We can do it again!!! United behind Rick Santorum the Constitutional, moral conservative as our nominee, we can win back the White House AND the Senate in 2012 and with them win back our traditional united American Republic the way the Founding Fathers intended.

~SANTORUM 2012~

Good Character Matters and Rick Santorum Has It

Through the 2008 crisis in our economy and the interim years we have all seen how important it is for leaders to exercise good judgment, maintain a high degree of honesty and integrity, avoid illegal, dishonest, fraudulent or deceitful conduct, and stay away from acts which show disregard for the health, safety and welfare of the country.

 

Now, more than ever, is when we need our leaders to have honesty, responsibility, integrity, and trustworthiness. In short we need our country’s leaders to have good character so that they can lead us through the tough times with honor, honesty, integrity, reliability and responsibility. We can’t afford more of the same lying, cheating, and stealing that got us to this point in the first place.

 

An honorable character is the most important quality a leader like the President of The United States can have, and asking some tough questions will help determine which candidate running for the top office in the land has it. Here are two questions that bring the character picture into sharp focus.

 

Who caused the current economic crisis?

 

Contrary to unproven yet popular media and Democratic claims that Republican deregulation caused the problem, it was really the lack of ethics and good character on the part of Democratic members of congress that caused it. People who are yelling the loudest like Barney Frank and Barrack Obama acted to protect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac CEO’s who were defrauding their companies. They did it by refusing to pass legislation from Senator McCain and others, which was (shocker here) attempting to “regulate” and “oversee” Fannie/Freddie. Under the guise of providing homes for the poor (meaning people who could not keep up house payments) the Democrats in congress consistently killed every attempt by Republicans to regulate the two renegade companies which continued to run amok, almost taking the rest of the country down the drain with them!

 

Who has the character to fix the economic crisis?

 

The answer to this question would have to be: the candidate that has shown the most consistent moral character not just during this campaign, but during his entire life and career. The candidate to vote for would have to be the candidate who has worked to clean up corruption and reform excessive entitlement spending, the candidate who has consistently put the interests of the people of the United States before party and before personal gain, the man who has the bright vision for America’s prosperous future that includes people at all levels of our society. There is only one candidate that fits this bill and that is Rick Santorum.

The current administration has not shown the moral fiber to stop corruption, not once. In fact when they had the chance, Obama and Biden did nothing to regulate Fannie/Freddie and indeed defended their unsound business practices. Later Obama even took advice on economic matters from the corrupt ousted CEO’s of Fannie/Freddie, Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, and accepted record donations from Fannie/Freddie employees. Now Obama and Biden not only refuse to admit to their part in the 2008 crisis, they also falsely blame GOP’s general stance toward deregulation for the entire mess.

 

If that was not enough the current administration not only did nothing to hasten an economic recovery, it did everything in its power to slow down recovery through direct government intervention. The Obama administration adopted a monetary policy that increased the quantity of money in circulation thus devaluing our currency. This action has had far reaching effects on all sectors of the economy especially the key energy sector. The U.S. dollar is the official currency of oil; therefore devaluing it has put direct upward pressure on the price of oil and by extension the gas that we put in our cars. When the cost of fuel rises, so do the costs of production and transportation on all goods from food to cars, making everything we buy more expensive. In the meantime the current administration has seen fit to throw away billions of taxpayer dollars into unproven ‘green’ energy technology companies that have since gone bankrupt. One such company, Solyndra, is known to have been founded and headed by an Obama campaign fundraising bundler. More such companies keep coming to light each showing varying degrees of collusion with the Obama campaign and later administration. The Obama administration has shown deliberate prejudice against gas, oil and mineral exploration and pressed an undue and unprecedented burden of regulation on gas and oil companies in an admittedly deliberate effort to raise the prices of gas, oil, coal and electricity.

 

People who helped cause the current economic conditions through deliberate actions are not the ones that deserve our trust to fix it because their demonstrated lack of moral character tells us no trust is warranted for such wrongdoers and deniers. Only one candidate deserves our trust and our votes and that is the one whose strong moral character and solid commitment to America stands alone in a political landscape otherwise littered with people who are guilty of ongoing dishonesty and self-dealing. In short we must choose the candidate whose character shows the sharpest possible contrast with that of Obama! That candidate is Rick Santorum!

What is socialism and who is a socialist?

If like most people you think that socialism only existed in the past, this piece may interest you.

 

Socialism is a socio-economic philosophy that seeks to first create a division among economic classes and then exploit that manufactured conflict to forcibly confiscate and redistribute the wealth from the most productive and thus wealthiest members of society to the poorest and thus least productive ones.

 

So what’s wrong with this you say? The rich never pay their fair share anyway and we all could use a little wealth redistribution from the wealthy to us, right?

 

Not so right! Socialism takes away individual freedom in order to equalize the status of those who are high economic producers with those who are low to extremely low economic producers. Any socio-economic program that attempts to institute such equality endangers freedom. Once individual freedom is lost, there will not even be equality among the un-free.

 

It is after all people of wealth, those high economic producers, who can afford to invest in research and development of new ideas which lead to the creation of new businesses and jobs. Innovation comes from unfettered individual efforts not from government bureaucracies whose chief interest is self perpetuation. At a time when our nation most needs innovation to successfully take on the challenge to develop new domestic energy sources, is it truly wise to stifle the source of funding for such innovation? History says no.

 

Historically socialism has failed to deliver its lofty promise of social justice in country after country including Russia, China, Cuba, Albania, North Korea, and Vietnam. This history of consistent failure exists because socialism fails to allocate resources according to market needs. It instead allocates resources based on the direction of a single leader or group of leaders.

 

It is hard to believe that despite such a record of historical failure socialism is still being promoted and sold to the people of America and still under the guise of the ultimate in social justice. Who is doing this? If you haven’t guessed by now, it is Barack Obama and his administration who are trying to sell America this old stale bill of goods under a cleverly designed brand of “change”. The democrats like to talk about the insanity of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I’m curious to know why this doesn’t apply to the failed policies of socialism that Obama has pursued in the past two years!

Obama’s policies maybe wrapped in pretty words, but they are the same old, tired and failed Marxist ideologies of two centuries ago!

How to Cook Rice That’s Delicious Every Time

Measure out the grains of rice you intend to use for cooking and out them into your cooking pot. This can be a ceramic or glass casserole with a well-fitting lid for cooking in the microwave (if you have a microwave that has a rice setting) or a pot with a well-fitting lid for stove top cooking.  Generally ¼ cup of rice per person is just about the right amount. Next rinse the rice several times with cold water until the rinse water is clear. Most of the time 5 to 7 rinses will do the job. When the rinse water finally runs clear, pour out all the water from the cooking pot and add the flowing ingredients to the rice and stir:

 

For every 1 cup of rice add:

1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

I teaspoon salt

1&1/2 cups water (For the best possible taste use only filtered water unless your area’s tap water is good to drink without filtration)

 

Next put your pot’s lid on and proceed to cook your rice using one of the following methods:

 

Microwave: Use your microwave’s rice setting. Microwaves with this setting have excellent directions generally found directly on the microwave itself. If not, consult your microwave’s owner’s manual.

 

Stove top: Bring the pot to a rolling boil over high. Wrap the lid of the pot securely in a clean dishtowel so that no part of the dish towel is anywhere near the heat source on your stove. Secure the ends of the dishtowel with a rubber band if necessary. Stir the pot and cover with your towel-wrapped lid. Reduce heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer for 25 minutes.

 

For flavored rice, simply add the flavorings of your choice to the pot along with water and proceed with the same cooking method.

 

After cooking using either method gently fluff the grains of rice apart with a fork before serving and enjoy!

 

If you would like to know how to cook rice with various flavorings, please check the Queen’s Blog for more recipes.

Who is George Soros, and Why Should You Care?

 

In these crucial times for our nation we must all be fully aware of what is going on, and who is trying to manipulate our opinions and why. The current prime mover of voter manipulation and fraud in America is a person who you may not have heard of before now or if you have you have only heard his name mentioned in passing. He is one George Soros and he wants you to vote his way, but you may want to think twice after you learn who he is and what he stands for.

Soros’ own sanitized biography paints him as a Jewish survivor of Nazi-occupied Hungary who became a self-made billionaire through studying economics in England, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1961 and then making a multibillion-dollar fortune as a financier who lead the way in creating hedge funds. The real story, however, is much more interesting and definitely far more sinister.

Soros was in fact a Nazi COLLABORATOR who over the course of his life has authored books painting him as a so-called “stateless statesman”, and a “philanthropist” and who has donated $5 billion of his now $8.5 billion fortune through his principal vehicle, the Open Society Institute (OSI). Upon further examination however, it becomes apparent that OSI has in fact passed these “donations” on to far left radical pressure groups, such as MoveOn.org, eco terrorism groups like Sea Shepherds, Earth First and the Ruckus Society, and organizations that work to free Islamist terror suspects based on legal technicalities involving the violation of their “civil rights”.

What’s far more sinister is that Soros is not merely a hands-off donor. He has an agenda of toppling democratic governments whose voter verdicts he opposes. According to OSI’s own website “Soros is personally involved in planning and implementing many of the foundation network’s projects.” Furthermore Soros covers his true motives under the guise of “philanthropy”, allowing him to pull off covert manipulations of our democratic process toward his own ends.

Interestingly enough Soros first began this type of covert activism work supporting organizations that played a role in undermining the weakened communist regimes of Eastern Europe in the 1980’s. Since 2003, however, he has painted the United States as a fascist regime and has made tearing down America the central focus of his efforts using his vast resources.

For example he gave Moveon.org a $5 million donation thus giving the once lunatic fringe organization the power and influence it now wields over the Democratic Party. His money enabled MoveOn.org to place the now infamous full-page New York Times ad that branded General Petraeus “General Betray Us.” Soros has funded Moveon.org and directed it to use those funds to wage professional public relations campaigns depicting President Bush as a Nazi, a view that Soros personally espouses.

But that’s not where it ends! Soros has also funded spin organizations like Media Matters whose sole purpose is to provide distorted conservative political statements as grist for the mills of leftist politicians and media. Media Matters in conjunction with MoveOn.org managed to succeed in denying incumbent Lieberman the Democratic nomination for Senate in Connecticut. Their joint efforts not only drove the moderate  Lieberman out of his own party, they also managed to intimidate any other Democrats, including today’s group running for office, from challenging any Soros-financed pressure group.

The scariest of all is what Soros has done to manipulate and steal elections from the US electorate. Soros has funded two criminal groups, Americans Coming Together (ACT) and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which were both sanctioned recently by the Federal Election Commission for fraud. After giving a combined total of $11.5 million to these organizations, Soros now claims to have stopped all such efforts but curiously runs a rich-man’s club called “Democracy Alliance” that has donated $20 million to shady activist groups like ACORN.

In addition Soros’ pet organization, Moveon.org promotes “paper-trail” electronic voting in the U.S. This is the same system that Venezuela used to disastrous ends, where charges of electronic fraud and ballot secrecy violations destroyed confidence in the system and established Chavez’s dictatorship.

 

These are by no means all the questionable covert activities that Soros has sponsored! They are, however, more than enough for us as voters in a free society to pause and ask ourselves some serious questions. Questions like: Why has the Democratic Party swung so far to the left in recent years? Why did the Democratic Party choose a presidential candidate whose only qualification is espousing a far left agenda over a candidate who scored so much better with Middle America voters? Why did Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton both refuse to vote to support a symbolic sanction against Moveon.org for the defamation of General Petraeus? Why are the Democratic Party and Barrack Obama (he served as ACORN’s attorney) so closely tied to criminal organizations that seem determined to commit voter fraud? Could it be that they are following the will of their powerful puppet master, George Soros, who is determined to destroy America?

Glenn Beck’s GBTV Begins Its Inaugural Season

Today’s date, September 12, became a significant one for Glenn Beck after the September 11 attacks of 2001 but this year it acquired even more significance as it marked the beginning of his GBTV enterprise. GBTV is akin to a TV channel but it is only available at GBTV.com via paid subscription.

I must say I had my doubts about the quality of content as well as the quality of streaming but the 14-day free trial subscription emboldened me to try it, and am I glad I did! The show content was even better than when Beck was at Fox and the streaming was in HD and of fantastic quality. After just one show I have already decided I am staying with it for an entire year!

If you are a Glenn Beck fan and you have missed his show on Fox, GBTV is just the ticket for you! It is well worth the subscription price and the GBTV people make it easy for you to subscribe, pay and watch.  If you are interested just click on the link below to take advantage of the free 14-day trial offer! You will almost certainly get hooked and won’t want to cancel, but if you don’t it is equally as easy to cancel. Hey, you know it’s Glenn Beck, an exemplary man of honor, so what else would you expect? Just relax and enjoy! :-)

 

http://web.gbtv.com/schedule/index.jsp