The Queen’s Blog

I heard from my sister in Iran this week . She told me many things and among them were these.

 The overwhelming majority of people she knows voted for the opposition leader, Mousavi. She says this is not at all surprising given that the people of Iran have lived under crushing oppression and poverty for the 30 years since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Over the years young men and women have been snatched off  the streets of Iran never to be seen or heard from again. The Basij (government funded militia aka goons) can grab anyone for any reason. They wear plain clothes and no one knows who is in the Basij. Your next door neighbor could be a Basij member or a “committee” member, people who are used to snitch on others and arrest them surreptitiously. My sister says the people of Iran have had it with living in fear, poverty and shame in front of the world community and that this unrest is about more than simple election results. The people of Iran sense that this is their moment to overthrow the mullahs’ government of oppression, and they are not about to back down. She says more people have been killed than the government of Iran says, but no one knows exactly how many. She says that the Basij people are committing acts of terror and looting while wearing green and claiming to be Mousavi supporters, thus manufacturing “crimes” giving the government an ostensible excuse  to crack down on demonstrators.

The most poignant thing she told me was that Iranians are hoping for some sign of solidarity from the American President. She told me they are hanging on his every word hoping to hear some vestige of support. She said Iranians did not understand why Obama is being so circumspect and not outwardly and firmly supporting them in his speeches.

Regardless she assured me they would fight on despite the danger to life and limb because they are tired of the crushing oppression perpetrated by the mullahs. The people of Iran have been living in abject fear and poverty and they know who is responsible and surprise surprise, it is NOT America! They know that Ahamadinejad and the mullahs are the ones who have taken away everything they have and embarrassed them in front of the world community.

 God Be With the People of Iran and help them to succeed. All they want is their freedom.

 Please pray for them with me or just hold good thoughts if you are not a believer in God.

Have you always wanted to know how to cook rice that isn’t bland and boring and turns out just right?  Rice can be delicious and easy to make when you know the tricks of the trade. Here are a few tried and true methods that will show you how to cook rice to perfection every time.

First, start with high quality rice. Long grain varieties are not only tastier, they also hold up well during the cooking process. Basmati rice, which you can easily find in any supermarket these days, is particularly aromatic delicious and good looking variety. Just about any kind of rice, however, will benefit from the following cooking method.

Measure out the grains of rice you intend to use for cooking and put 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 recipes.

Karastan rugs are world renowned for their beauty durability and exceptional design. Innovation has always been a large part of the company’s success. The first Karastan rug was manufactured in 1928. That was the year when a loom able to duplicate the meticulous craftsmanship of a hand-woven rug became available.

Today Karastan rugs are acknowledged as the highest quality machine made rugs available. The company even offers custom made rugs using Karastan design and a customer choice of color pallets.

Another factor that makes Karastan rugs special and popular is that they are made of New Zealand Wool. While this serves to make the rugs both beautiful and durable, it also presents a special cleaning challenge. Many Karastan rug owners wonder how to care for their beloved rugs, and fortunately Karastan has answers for them.

Karastan first recommendation is that customers buy pads to put under their rugs. The pads will stop Karastan rugs from slipping, which can wear out the rugs too quickly.

Secondly Karastan recommends that customers move their rugs to another spot in the house after six months. Over time continuous traffic and sunlight on the same spots will fade rug colors or cause the rugs to wear unevenly. Regular rotation can prevent these problems.

For taking care of everyday dirt and dust Karastan recommends regular vacuuming. In the case of fringed rugs customers are advised to take care not to get the fringes caught in the vacuum. Catching the fringes in the vacuum can tear them off the rug.

At a minimum new Karastan rugs must be vacuumed two to three times a week during the first year of ownership. This is to eliminate the extra fuzz that builds on top of the rugs. The fuzz is a completely natural occurrence and does not affect the longevity of the rugs at all. It is made of the loose yarns that result while weaving the rugs and it will stop appearing after a bit.

When customers have owned their rugs for over a year Karastan recommends vacuuming based on how much traffic the rug bears. Where there is high traffic, customers are encouraged to vacuum daily. This is because if soil and dirt are allowed to accumulate, they may cause undue wear on rug fibers.

For stain removal Karastan has very specific recommendations on its website. Following Karastan’s regular maintenance and stain removal recommendations will ensure the Karastan rugs will endure to delight the next generation.

With the recent announcement of the candidacy of Pat Toomey for the US senate race in Pennsylvania there seems to be some confusion as to the background of former congressman Toomey. Some have confused him with Pat Toomay of the Dallas Cowboys, but the two men are definitely different people.

The football player Pat Toomay was a defensive end back in the early 1970’s.  I believe he was drafted in 1970 (see below). The candidate for Senate Pat Toomey is too young to have been the Cowboy and his name is spelled differently.  Most of the below sites are not necessarily authoritative sites (some misspell Toomay’s name), but they serve to verify the dates of Toomay’s tenure with the Cowboys.

http://www.geocities.com/~jrbeasley/dallas/seasons/70over.html

http://www.dallas-cowboys-apparel.com/1970season.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Toomay

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/toomay/020212.html

Pat Toomey is a former three-term congressman from Pennsylvania who has distinguished himself as a national advocate for limited government, lower taxes and personal freedom. Pat Toomey has earned recognition from the Council for Citizens against Government Waste, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Taxpayers’ Union and the US Chamber of Commerce through his dedication to conservative principles. Find out more about Pat Toomey on his website: http://www.toomeyforsenate.com/index.php

 

Athletes need to pace themselves so they can finish and win their various competitive events. They need to avoid mistakes such as going too fast and getting exhausted so they can’t make a good finish. Equally frustrating can be going at too slow a pace so that they don’t place high enough to make the winner’s circle. Pacing is likewise important in the pursuit of various life goals such as investing, obtaining higher education degrees and pursuing careers of our choosing.  For athletes, and for anyone pursuing a worthwhile goal, pacing is an essential skill that can make the difference between getting there and falling short.

For athletes, pacing is a skill learned during countless training days and races .Those of us who are burning the midnight oil pursing our adult education while holding down hectic jobs and raising children, can similarly become skilled at pacing ourselves through learning from our mistakes. When, for example, we see that we are too busy and or exhausted to enjoy the best things in life such as time with family and children that is when we know that maybe doubling up on classes to graduate faster wasn’t such a good idea. Conversely, if we see that taking too long a break between classes is taking the fire from our bellies, it is time to step on the gas and drive our educational goals harder. Learning to pace ourselves may at times mean giving up that movie in favor of studying, but it can also mean setting aside the pursuit of excellence long enough to share an evening meal with our family members.

For athletes to pace effectively, means they need to know exactly where and when to spend their energy, and how much energy they have available to spend. They must know how long their event is going to last and what intensity they can maintain for that duration. The same rules apply for pursuing an adult education. The longer one has to attend school in pursuit of a degree, the more important it is to hold back and plug along at a pace one can sanely maintain. Just as sprinting too fast in an Ironman distance event can make even reaching the finish line difficult, doubling classes in pursuit of a four-year degree can burn out a student’s motivation and stop him or her from reaching graduation.

Pacing is the golden rule of finishing, be it a marathon, the 100-meter dash or a higher education degree. In all cases, you must pace yourself if you hope to succeed.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. This is as true today as the day Lincoln uttered it.

We are at a momentous period in our history. This is a time of great challenges for us, but it is also a time of tremendous opportunities. I propose to you today that to win against the enemies who threaten our country’s security and meet the challenges of a difficult economy we have to make a great national sacrifice.

This admittedly difficult sacrifice is first and foremost about putting aside petty party differences to work together for the common good of our beloved country, the country that has nurtured, protected and defended us all our lives. This means no longer bashing the other party or its individual members but genuinely working together with them with all options available to us on the table. It means genuinely caring more about America than we do about party agendas or about what is politically correct and expedient. It means working together to correct mistakes of the past instead of doing our utmost to point the finger of blame toward the other party or person. While dissent is a very desirable American quality, we cannot allow dissent to deteriorate into vitriol that painfully and irrevocably divides us, because unity in the face of a fearsome enemy is also a desirable American quality. It was unity of purpose and resolve that helped America and its allies to stand and ultimately triumph against the evil that was Nazi Germany. It was this same unity that brought our founding fathers together who then risked everything they had in the service of the common cause of freedom. It was the lack of this unity of purpose that nearly tore our nation apart during the civil war, a horrific conflict that claimed at least 618,000 American lives.

In the face of our current economic and security challenges we have an important choice to make. Do we choose to surge forward as one to retain and advance our greatness as a nation, or do we let America down and continue to bitterly fight amongst ourselves? Do we become the generation that started another great era in American history or do we lose ourselves in an endless internal conflict?

People are so obsessed with the R or D after a candidate’s name they tend not to see much else.  Imagine a world without D’s and R’s.  A place where people are judged people based on what they say and do.  If there were no political parties and you had to vote for a person, not a party, what would the process be like?

Without parties we would not have preconceived ideas to shape our opinions.  We would have to take the time to look at each candidate and think about what they have done in the past and what they say they will do in the future.

Barack Obama and John McCain are the only choices Americans have to choose from for the upcoming presidential election of 2008.  Without any political parties what would this race look like?

John McCain is the son of a US Navy man and his family has served in US military for generations.  John became a naval aviator and was shot down over Vietnam during his 23rd mission.  He spent six years as a prisoner of war.  John had the opportunity to leave prison in 1968, six months after his capture, but he chose to stay with his fellow Americans.  He spent two years in solitary confinement and was finally released from prison in 1973.  John served as the Navy Liaison to the Senate after returning from the war.  John McCain became a US congressman in 1982 and a US Senator in 1986.  John was involved in the Keating five scandal of 1987.  John was cleared of any wrong doing by the Senate Ethics Committee and he publicly stated that what he did was wrong.  McCain claims he learned a valuable lesson from this experience and has fought against corruption since.

Barack Obama is the son of an Islamic father and he attended an Islamic school in Indonesia and his registered faith was Islam.  Today Obama claims he never was a Muslim.  Barack became a community organizer in Chicago where he encouraged the down-trodden people to vote for the political candidates he supported so they could receive help. Barack became an Illinois state senator in 1997. While Barack was in Chicago he made friends with at least two figures who have openly hostile feelings toward our nation, Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.  Jeremiah Wright was the pastor of Barack’s church where he attended twice a month for twenty years.  Wright is well known for his strong anti-American rhetoric and Barack claims that after attending Wright’s church almost 500 times he never heard any anti-American statements. Bill Ayers was a member of a radical organization which set bombs and was responsible for killing policemen during the Vietnam War.  Bill and Barack worked together during their time in Chicago and Obama wrote the forward in a book written by Ayers.  Obama claims not to share the views of Wright and Ayers but he only discontinued his friendships while running for president.  Michelle Obama also publicly stated that she has never been proud of her country before Barack ran for president.  Obama has said that he values Michelle’s opinions more than anyone else’s. Barack became a US senator in 2004.  Since being elected Barack has sponsored legislation to create a Rosa Parks postage stamp and several other pieces of legislation which are intended to help the poor and urban populations.  Barack has opposed the war in Iraq and voted to cut funding for the troops.  Barack has voted to raise taxes many times and has never voted to cut them.

The two party system in our country forces us to swing back and forth rather than voting for the best person for the job.

Here are the facts about Barack Obama:
1.    He is an eloquent speaker.
2.    He is young.
3.    He is supported by the majority of Hollywood and pop culture.
4.    He is treated very gently by the mainstream media.
5.    He has a history of raising taxes.
6.    He has a history of associating with people who are hostile towards America.
7.    He clearly states on his website that the US cannot win the war in Iraq.
8.    He has been endorsed by enemies of the United States including Hamas.
9.    He has no history of doing anything which helped the economy.
10.    He says he would regulate business to solve the current economic crisis.
11.    He has no history of helping the poor or middle class.
12.    He helped to build some community housing in Chicago which is unlivable.
13.    He had to be shamed into putting his hand on his heart during the national anthem.
14.    He refuses to admit when he is wrong.  The surge has worked and he refuses to say so.
15.    He has never been friendly toward business.
16.    He believes in taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the poor, that is Marxism.
17.    He calls it racism if anyone asks him questions about his questionable associations.
18.    He has worked with organizations which encourage voter fraud, ACORN.
19.    He quotes the media as proof and the media quotes him as proof.  This one is amazing.
20.    He personally attacks people who discuss these points and refuses to talk to them face to face.
21.    His supporters encourage children to sing for change.
22.    He uses intimidation to keep the NRA from running ads against him.
23.    His supporters bus the homeless to register and vote at the same time, for him.
24.    He voted present well over a hundred times while an Illinois senator, instead of choosing a side.
25.    He took more money from Freddie and Fannie than anyone else during his senate term.

In a country without republicans and democrats this election would be much different.  People are ready to vote for the D rather than the man because of the current R administration.  This could be a mistake most of us regret for a long time.

Don’t vote for a D or an R.  Vote for the man you trust to do what is right.  Vote for the man who shares your values.  Vote for a person, not a letter.

Roget’s II defines character as “the combination of emotional, intellectual, and moral qualities that distinguishes an individual”. A person’s ethical qualities can be virtues, such as steadfastness and reliability but they can also be vices, like megalomania and vengefulness.

Through the recent crisis in our economy 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. We have all witnessed how a lack of good moral character caused Democratic members of Congress to insist on little to no oversight at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how the subsequent collapse of these institutions led to an expanding failure of banks worldwide.

Now, more than ever, is when we need our leaders to have honesty, responsibility, integrity, trustworthiness, mental and emotional competence, and respect for the rights of others. 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 we must ask some questions to determine which ticket running for the top two offices in the land has it. Here are two questions that bring the character picture into sharp focus.

Who caused the current economic crisis?

Some say Bush but as intelligent people we know that the president has little to no effect on the economy other than signing or rejecting legislation that the congress puts before him. 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 ticket that has shown the most moral character not just during this campaign, but during their entire career. The ticket to vote for would have to be the ticket whose members have consistently worked to clean up corruption and excessive government spending, the ticket whose members have consistently put the interests of the United States before party and before personal gain. There is only one ticket that fits this bill and that is McCain/Palin.

Senator McCain’s sacrifices for America speak for themselves. It was he who spent 5 years of his life under pain and torture in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Likewise it was McCain who tried to regulate Fannie/Freddie and in 2006 warned, “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole”. Governor Palin’s record also reveals a person of tough moral character who stood up to deep corruption in her own party despite her newness on the political scene of Alaska.

The other ticket, by contrast 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 crisis, they also falsely accuse McCain’s general stance toward deregulation for the entire mess.

People who helped cause the current economic collapse 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 ticket deserves our trust and our votes and that is McCain/Palin. McCain/Palin’s 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.

References:

character. (n.d.). Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Retrieved October 02, 2008, from Thesaurus.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/character

Here is a video of statements made in congress from 2004.

Barack Obama and his supporters have been saying that the current financial crisis was caused by a lack of regulation.

Many people in congress were calling for increased regulation on Freddie and Fannie long before this crisis occurred. Most of the people asking for more regulation were republicans. Some republicans even sponsored legislation to increase regulation, including John McCain (Read the bill).

Many people in congress claimed that there were no problems with Freddie and Fannie. Most of those people were democrats. The democrats even attempted to discredit the OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) regulator.

I do not like playing the blame game but the democrats insist on blaming the republicans when there is clear evidence that they blocked attempts to increase regulation. This is the truth and it needs to be stated loudly.

First let’s get something straight. The current economic crisis is not an overnight phenomenon. It is a dangerous and destructive poison which has been brewing for years in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s kitchens. While Fannie/Freddie are more directly responsible for the current financial catastrophe, they have enjoyed the support of powerful enablers who must be exposed and made to answer for their harmful actions against America’s economic system.

Starting in the 1980’s Fannie/Freddie began intentionally loosening underwriting standards under pressure from “progressive” politicians and groups like ACORN (a criminal organization proven to be involved in voter fraud) who were ostensibly pushing for ending discrimination. What they termed “discrimination” was the inclusion of what these groups called “arbitrary” or “outdated” criteria that tend to disqualify urban or lower-income minority home loan applicants.

Some of these “outdated” criteria included the size of the mortgage payment relative to income, credit history, savings history and income verification. Those “outdated” standards existed for the sole purpose of limiting defaults! But this did not deter bank regulators who demanded the loosening of underwriting standards, with approval by “progressive” politicians. This was despite warnings by experts such as Alan Greenspan that loosening lending standards could lead to wide-scale defaults.

Given that the government created Fannie/Freddie to keep money flowing to mortgage lenders by guaranteeing payment to investors if the borrowers default, how responsible was it for these institutions to increase their financial risk by ignoring legitimate borrowing criteria?

That’s not all the Fannie/Freddie and their “progressive” supporters did to put our nation into this crisis. They disdained holding greater capital to insulate themselves against defaults. Instead they blindly maintained that housing was too safe of an investment to need any additional capital. They refused to admit that having all their eggs in one basket would leave them more vulnerable to a downturn in the housing sector.

Even worse, corruption set in at both institutions under chairmen like Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson and Congress failed to act to put a stop to it and to the risky behavior.

When a federal regulator charged that Fannie Mae had cooked its books to increase executive bonuses, lawmakers lined up to criticize the regulator. Rep. William L. Clay Jr. (D-Mo.) said a House panel had no business holding a hearing on the matter — “unless this is truly a witch hunt.” Fannie Mae was later discovered to have overstated profits by $6.3 billion.

Congress was deadlocked over passing legislation to create a stronger regulator even after Freddie Mac was shown to have manipulated earnings. Opposing one such bill in 2004, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued that a hostile regulator could use the proposed powers to disable Fannie/Freddie.

Former representative Richard H. Baker (R-La.), who chaired a subcommittee that oversaw Fannie/Freddie, fought for years to rein them in and attempted to show they were being managed for the enrichment of their executives. When Baker obtained data on Fannie Mae pay, an attorney for Fannie threatened him with personal liability if he made the information public.

Even Senator McCain who tried to reform Fannie/Freddie by cosponsoring the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, failed to generate enough support for its passage because Democrats used business-as-usual stalling tactics to stop the bill’s progress. McCain’s words at the time of cosponsoring the bill now ring prophetic: “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole”.

While it is not certain whether success in imposing the new tougher regulations on Fannie/Freddie, which Senator McCain and his cosponsors proposed, would have saved us from the present predicament, it is quite clear which side of the isle actively worked to protect Fannie/Freddie’s corrupt practices and which side actively worked to stop them!