Modern Man

I was just watching part of the Presidents speech on the: “American Economic Crisis”.

For reasons I wont go into now, I have a hard time listening to Mr. Bush. But I forced myself in order to stay, somewhat informed.

Knowing that I have a tendency to over simplify things, someone please help me out if I’m way off base. But…

What I got out of this was that, several of the major banks, lenders,  wall street big wigs and the like, have been raping this country for all they could over the last decade. Now that the stink has hit the fan, they are all in danger of loosing their companies and cash cows. Because their greed knows no bounds, and instead of taking it like the rest of us would have to and loose everything, they went crying to the President and congress that if they go under, the US and most likely the rest of the world is doomed, DOOMED!

And of course, all of the bobble heads in Washington went;

“OH NO! WE’RE ALL SCREWED! Oh wait. Let’s just keep stealing from the future generations of American tax payers, and give it to these same people that put us in this mess in the first place. It’s worked for the wars. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ya hoo! WE’RE SAVED!”

“God Bless!”

Did I miss something, or did anyone else see that too?

Without going into all of the back ground of how I became who I am today, let me instead start by saying, that I am what most would call a “non-violent” person. I think it’s senseless. Violence only creates more violence. It’s a proven fact.

Anywho…

Today I have witnessed something so vile, inhumane and down right disturbing I was almost moved to do bodily harm. I’m wondering if I still should.

This morning, my neighbors, 2 military boys early 20’s, 1 woman early 20’s(she swears like a sailor and always at the top of her lungs, usually directed at her kids) with kids of their own, two of them about 3 to 5 years old, spent more than an hour, torturing a small mouse to death.

I heard screams from their house but thought it was just them being them. Rude and obnoxious. Soon it moved out into the drive way. My studio window can see their drive way. The screaming, shrieking, groans and cheers of excitement,  went on for some time more.

Then I heard the woman say(scream) “KILL IT!”

That’s when I looked out the window. They had caught a small mouse. A tiny mouse.

They had been hitting it with brooms, kicking it like they were playing soccer and picking it up and throwing it.

By the time I had realized what they were doing one of the boys had kicked the mouse into the middle of the street. They were trying to get it run over by a car. When the cars missed, they used there own. One of the boys got into there van and ran over it.

All of this was going on with the children watching and participating.

When the mouse was squished under the tire they all cheered as if at some sporting event.

But this wasn’t enough for them. After the van, the boys got out their skate boards and ran over the roadkill and did tricks on it’s little squished body. They laughed about the blood splatter on their boards.

A person that will treat an animal in this manner, will treat an other human being in this manner. They have no regard for life of any kind. They are cruel beyond rational human beings. And they laughed about it. They laughed about taking the innocent life of an other breathing creature.

Then, when their cruelty, and the mouses suffering was no longer entertaining, they went back inside and resumed yelling at one an other. When confronted about their behavior, they instantly reacted with threats of violence and insults to my mother and sexual preference.

I don’t even know where to begin. It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of humanity. I think most people are sheep and will do anything told, no matter how illogical, immoral, illegal or cruel.

I don’t understand how people can be so uncaring for an other living thing.

It makes me want to do the same thing to them. I want to beat them and kick them and push them in the street to be run over by cars. And as they cry and scream in pain I’m going to laugh at them.

I wont, of course but I can fantasize.

It makes me wonder if this is our typical military “man”. Is this, “being all they can be”, “the few, the proud,”. Is this the best our country can do?

My gut reaction says, Yes, this is the future of America. We are the uneducated, uncaring, unfeeling, greedy, self obsessed, homophobic, evil empire.

You don’t have to look very far to see it.

As nice as the rest of the neighborhood is: friendly families, weekend BBQ’s, people walking and talking and making nice with the rest of the neighbors. It’s just this one house that’s unruly.

Yet no one said anything to stop them. Several of us saw what was going on. Not a one of us, said more than a few words. When they reacted with anger we backed away and ignored them. We let them continue this uncivilized behavior. We let them think they were right. We let them win.

It makes me wonder how humanity will ever evolve or even progress as long as there are people like my neighbors. Their kids will grow up and act the same way. Behavior is learned.

So who’s worse? The neighbors from hell, or the rest of us for not stepping in?

Can we be a civilized society if we allow these neighbors to keep acting the way they do? Every neighborhood has at least one house like this. We have all seen it.

Well to me, it’s these people like my neighbors that are the true threat to this country. Not someone half way around the world. We, as a country, will never be any better than my neighbors, as long as we accept thier behavior.

Fall is all but upon us. The temps are dropping (in some places anyway). It’s Football season (American Football). The air is crisp.

Sure this is San Diego. It’s sunny and nice all the time. We don’t really have fall, or seasons for that matter. But it’s still football season and that means it’s a good time of year to make “chili” .

I love a good chili. I prefer mine thick and meaty. Spicy is a plus. I also prefer venison and or buffalo but beef will do.

Chili was a standard in our house growing up. It is also a Christmas Eve tradition. It’s comfort food. Because I always like to brag about how well I cook, I thought I should share my chili recipe with the world. Personally I believe it’s one of my better dishes.

I will warn you in advance, that it comes out a bit different each time. The recipe has never been written down. Measuring is never done. There is usually much drinking involved with the making of said chili. My batches will almost always feed about twenty. Or a family of three for about a week.

I like to have my chili with grilled cheese sandwiches.  That recipe will come latter or by request.

If you want to try it out or did try it and it didn’t come out the way you wanted, email me and we can go over it.

As best I can remember, quantities may vary, here goes.

• 1 lb ground buffalo/beef (the less fat the better) burger
• 8 to 16 oz of a good thick steak cubed (Venison, Elk, Beef)  Boneless New Yorks are a good cut I use most often
• 1 to 2 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 to 1 small/medium red pepper, diced
• 1/2 to 1 small/medium green pepper, diced
• 2 to 6 good sized garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 to 6 chiles whole, the type depends on how hot you want it.
• 12 to 20 oz  kidney beans
• 12 to 20 oz  pinto beans
• 12 to 20 oz chili beans
• about 20-24 oz of pureed tomatoes with juice
• 8 to 16 oz tomato sauce
• 1 to 4 cups of red wine. Depends on how much I’ve had to drink already.
• 2 tbls to 1/4 cup of chili powder
• 2 tbls to 14 cup of crushed black pepper
• about 2 tbls of salt
• about 2 tbls cayenne pepper
• pinch to 1 tbls  each of, oregano, thyme

Start by browning the ground meat over medium heat. Once brown, add the cubed meat, onion, peppers and garlic. Let simmer just to soften the peppers and onion.

Add seasonings and stir well.

I like to transfer everything into a crock pot and slow cook it for about 2 to 4 hours, but you can do this on a stove top over low heat. If you cook your beans your self, you need to do that in advance. It’s easier to buy them canned. Same goes with the tomato puree and sauce.

Add the tomato puree and stir. Add the beans, stir gently. Add wine. Stir gently.Add whole chiles. Stir gently.  Let simmer for 30 minutes to 4 hours. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking. The more wine you use the longer it will need to cook.

I think it’s better the longer and slower it cooks but I have rushed it in less than a hour and it was still good.

Well, that’s it. More or less. I do reserve the right to re-post this after the next time I make a batch myself.

Enjoy, and let me know how it comes out.