Overseas Retirement Spots

# 10 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, looks like the most affordable but does lie a little too far from my beloved Florida and nieces.

[Kuala Lumpur, located in the heart of the Malaysian peninsula, is a city of contrasts. The shining stainless steel Petronas Towers, two of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, anchor a startlingly beautiful and unique skyline. Modern, air-conditioned malls flourish, selling everything from batik clothing to genuine Rolex watches and Tiffany jewelry. In the shadows of these ultra-modern buildings, the ancient Malay village of Kampung Baru still thrives, with free-roaming roosters and a slow pace of life generally found in rural villages. Less than a 20-minute walk from the city center, you can find yourself in the company of monkeys.]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-peddicord/best-places-to-retire-overseas_b_2387774.html?utm_hp_ref=fifty

Charles Pierce on Republican'ts

[Sorry, kids, but this is not the way the system is supposed to work. This whole puppet show was the result of a jerry-rigged burlesque of the legislative process that was devised a year ago because the House had been rendered dysfunctional by a claque of feral children. This whole puppet show likely will be replayed — with even more spectacular special effects! — in March when we deal with Fiscal Cliff 2: Sequester Boogaloo because of jerry-rigged burlesques that are part of this new deal of which everyone is so very proud. My man Chuck Todd is calling the sequel, "March Madness." If the pundits are already being cutesy about it, the March thing could be a nightmare.

This is a continuation, not of the proper constitutional order of things, but of Government By Improv. There is no serious coalition in evidence here, no matter how many Democrats offered themselves up to defibrillate John Boehner's career. This was a deal cobbled together by the vice-president and the minority leader of the Senate and passed by a Republican House with more Democratic votes than Republican votes. This leaves the government still in a weird, suspended place, creating tiny mechanisms within itself on the fly just to keep running, and then newer tiny mechanisms on the fly to keep the previous tiny mechanisms running. Sooner or later, you can't improvise your way out of your basic problems, which is that one of your two political parties continues to have a kind of prion disease eating away at its brain. This deal last night did not extinguish the nihilistic streak in the Republican party, nor its delight in legislative vandalism.]
Read more: Fiscal Cliff Averted - And The Debt Deal Winner Is...Somebody - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/fiscal-cliff-averted-010213#ixzz2Gq5gu4d9

"Rational Idiocy"

Update: Great, Republican'ts ARE crazy, just not "batshit crazy."

Update #2: Republican't economic terrorist Lindsey Graham on TeeVee promises to use debt ceiling threats to extort concessions from Democrats.

How can anyone run a railroad like this?  Sheesh, such insanity on such a large scale actually boggles the mind of rational observers, even those somewhat inured to Republican't intransigence.

These sincere ideologues, safe in their gerrymandered sinecures, actually, actively aim to drive the American economy into the proverbial ditch due to born again fervor against federal budget deficits--deficits they recently embraced by voting for unfunded wars and Cheney administration tax cuts for the wealthy.

How could they for an instant think of wrecking the US and probably world economy?

Because they can, and doing so inoculates them against electoral challenge from even more right wing and irrational challengers.  Even President in Waiting Rubio voted against the Senate compromise.

[This makes the Republican Party look terrible: irresponsible, incompetent, obstinate. You can expect the stock market to open sharply lower tomorrow and Republicans to take all the blame for the voluntary economic damage caused by the fiscal cliff.

But this course still makes sense from the perspective of individual Republicans in the House. Voting for Plan B, or for the Senate fiscal cliff deal, or even for an amended version of the Senate deal, can open a Republican incumbent to attacks from conservative primary challengers and anti-spending groups like FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth.

Opposing everything and offering no plan to avert the fiscal cliff won’t encourage such challenges from the right. And if you represent a reasonably safe seat -- as the vast majority of Republican members do -- boosting the party’s national vote share, or governing in the national interest, is apparently no competition for the instinct of political self-preservation.]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-01/house-republicans-rational-idiocy.html

Stupid Crook News

Maybe consumption of marijuana does cause stupidity, at least for one pot grower who called police to report a robbery at his house, which house he used to grow marijuana.

Which house he actually gave permission for police to enter.  Golly, you might as well just turn yourself in at the jail if you have that much stupid in you.

[Shaune Lawrence, 54, called deputies Monday to report a robbery at his Fleming Court home in Palm Coast.

Lawrence told deputies his home had been invaded by two men trying to rob him.

After receiving consent from Lawrence to enter the home to search for the two men, deputies found a grow operation in a spare bedroom and bathroom, they said.

During the search, 110 marijuana plants were recovered, authorities said. The plants had a street value of $44,000.

Both rooms contained an elaborate grow setup with lights and chemicals used for cultivating marijuana, deputies said.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/police-palm-coast-man-calls-deputies-his-marijuana/nTjcN/

Nilsson: 'We can make each other happy"

Best Fried Chicken in America

This list omits Olde Dixie Fried Chicken, Pine Castle, FL, 5 miles south of downtown Orlando, for my money THE best chicken shack in town,

Forget frills and froo frou touches but come for the perfectly fried and seasoned chicken.

You'll pass 10 KFC's to eat here, I guarantee.

http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/best-fried-chicken-in-the-us

"Conscience wins over making money."

• [By: Chris Trenkmann

SEMINOLE, Fla. - As a pawn shop owner, Frank James was always a big believer in gun rights and the second amendment.  After all, it was his bread and butter business. 

But after what he saw in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, he's had a change of heart.  "I basically broke into tears and looked up on the wall, seeing the types of firearms I am selling," James said.

At the Loan Star Pawn store in Seminole, a glass display case that once housed several Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifles is now empty.  The glass counters normally filled with handguns has been completely cleared....

The father of four said he was especially touched knowing that his youngest child, a six-year old daughter, was the same age as many of those children who were shot to death.

"I dropped my daughter off at school this morning.  That was enough for me," James said.  "Conscience wins over making money."]
Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/gun-seller-i-cant-do-it-anymore#ixzz2GYRrhhL0

151 Victims of Mass Shootings This Year

Daniel Barden, Age 7

[The total number of lives devastated by these attacks far exceeds 151, of course, starting with survivors who narrowly escaped physical harm, such as the unidentified six-year-old girl who played dead and walked out of Sandy Hook Elementary School against all odds. Mother Jones has only included photos of those injured and killed that were shared publicly by the families or survivors themselves, or for which we were granted specific permission. For essential context and findings from our in-depth investigation, also see our guide to mass shootings in America.]
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-victims-2012

Petition to Declare Westboro "Baptist" "Church" a Hate Group

[WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups.

Their actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation.]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/legally-recognize-westboro-baptist-church-hate-group/DYf3pH2d

And let's build a Death Star while we're at it.

The Kinks; "Have a Cuppa Tea'

"I Have Become Annoyingly Partial to the Kinks."

All the Doctor's Regenerations

Blur: "Song 2"

Scriptural Socialism

Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor [God].
- Proverbs 14:31 

Hot Toddy Recipe

Ingredients
A good Irish whiskey. (Jameson or Powers is ideal)
A heat proof glass
7/8 Cloves
2 teaspoons sugar
Slice of lemon

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Preparation:
1.    Fill a kettle to boil hot water.
2.    Place a metal spoon in a glass (will prevent glass from breaking) into the glass to pre-heat it, before emptying it out
3.    Cut a slice of lemon, remove the pips and stick some cloves into the fruit.
4.    Put a teaspoon of sugar into the glass followed by a shot of Irish whiskey.  Give the whiskey and sugar mixture a bit of a stir and try to dissolve the lumps.
5.    Add boiling water and then stir.
6.    Add the lemon and additional cloves (if desired) to the mix.
7.    Wrap a wee napkin around the glass, so you don’t scald yourself.

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/food-and-drink/How-to-make-the-perfect-Irish-whiskey-hot-toddy-for-Christmas-184309391.html#ixzz2GC41rfeW 

Word for Today: Recusant

Recusant: "adjective

1.

refusing to submit, comply, etc.

2.

obstinate in refusal.

3.

English History . refusing to attend services of the Church of England."

Joe Cocker: "Honky Tonk Woman"

(This and previous tune found at Suburban Guerrilla: http://susiemadrak.com/2012/12/22/hony-tonk-woman/.)

Bob Dylan: Beating the Holiday Blues

Blogs that Educate and Amuse

Teamster Nation: http://teamsternation.blogspot.com.br/.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat: http://www.peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.com/, featuring worst apocalypse ever: "So, last night I kissed my kids goodnight and tucked them in.  I climbed into bed and ignored the repeated phone calls from my mortgage company, American Express, Visa, Discover and Target begging me to pay the debt I'd run up in the last year.  (I had to live large during our last year on this planet - you can't take it with you, might as well spend it.)  I kissed the Hubs good bye and I finished the last good book I'd ever read.

Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning to a bright morning (the light was from the sun, not asteroids like I had originally presumed) and birds were singing (not squawking by the millions outside my house as they dropped from the sky in death spirals) and the power was still on (I did continue to pay that bill this year, because those guys mean business!) and my kids were standing there demanding breakfast.

What happened? I wondered as I fed my children breakfast - mostly pumpkin pie and Oreos (don't judge, I thought if we survived the night we'd eat the neighbors) and started paying bills again.  I thought the world was going to end."

Origins of Christmas Traditions

Plus a torch song.  Gosh, I love old black and white movies.  The song 'Spring Will Come a Little Late this Year" comes from the movie Christmas Holiday, sung by Deanna Durbin.


[C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.

D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.

E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.]
http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2012/12/21/the-xmas-factor/