You know guys. When you think about it, I mean spend some time and think, the most crazy stuff about “extraterrestrials” is that you adapt (as a human) they become normal to you.

Maybe it is my “Frankenstein” programming, or just four decades or so of close proximity, but it’s not a big thing. Not at all. To me, they are like my pet cats, my pet dogs, my friend down the street. They are most certainly not a “shock” in any way shape or form.

If anything, I just kind of wish that I would spend more physical time with them, somehow. But, you know, I know that is not gonna happen soon. Sigh.

…

When I was attending university, there was a saying that all my classmates had (guys and girls). And this saying was “I’ll do (try) anything once.”

I wonder how many of them caught Genital Herpies, HIV, or got addicted to cocaine, over the decades. Some of those “first things” can stay with you forever. Don’t you know.

Now, I was NOT one of those people who repeated that mantra. I just nodded knowingly and agreed verbally, but internally disagreed.

Of course, for many, I suppose that (at that time) they were thinking of sex, or drugs. But, to me, I thought that it was like playing Russian roulette. One of those “try once” events could be your last. Like “speeding down a highway way too fast”, or “jumping out of a plane skydiving for the first time”.

To me, it’s all a big “NOPE”.

…

Through, joining MAJestic was one decision that I will never truly regret.

Today…

Why do American expats say that the USA is a shit-hole?

Because it’s true! I am an American who permanently moved to central Brazil. It was the best decision I ever made.

● I built my new house in central Brazil and was able to pay it off in ONE year.

● My property taxes are $100 US dollars a year. No, that is not a misprint. $100 US dollars a year!

● My dental implants are less than half the cost of the same in the United States…with equal and often better results.

● My food isn’t loaded with hormones and chemicals and I even have space to grow my own organic vegetables. Within 2 months in Brazil I lost 40 pounds without much exercise….just eating better food (which is difficult in the US).

● Almost every day is sunny and breezy with low humidity.

● Racism is much less pronounced than in the US. People in Brazil actually help each other and are not afraid to talk to strangers.

● Doctors actually take the time to listen to you and don’t treat you like a “number”.

● Brazilians enjoy life and have “fun”. They don’t worship the “Almighty Dollar”….except for some who are very greedy. For the most part, people are more important than money.

When Americans speak about “life” they speak about “life in the United States”. There are many ways “to live” and , for me, life in the US is NOT “truly living”. Americans don’t know what it means to truly live. In the end, materialism isn’t what brings true peace and satisfaction…….good relationships are.

Tex-Mex Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork sausage
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (16 ounce) loaf Mexican pasteurized cheese
• 1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 16 ounces macaroni, cooked
• 8 ounces shredded Southwestern cheese blend

Instructions

1. Cook sausage and onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.
2. Add flour, cumin and milk, stirring constantly, until thickened.
3. Add Mexican cheese and chiles, stirring until cheese is melted.
4. Add macaroni.
5. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with shredded cheese blend, and serve with salsa.

Yield: 8 servings

Why was China able to abolish the hereditary nobility and establish the absolute authority of the emperor and the dynasty around 200 BCE (when it was first unified), while Europe was never able to do so?

It all starts with water.

China has two very large and very powerful rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangzi River, both of which have their source in the Tibetan plateau. Harnessed the right way, these rivers are able to provide water irrigation to support a very large part of the world’s population. However, these rivers are unruly, and would often overflow their banks, and flood the surrounding plains which were fertile farmland. Many thousands, even millions of people would die in these floods.

The challenge for any Chinese ruler was simple then: control the waters so that the people would have food to eat, and not rebel against their ruler. At the same time, prevent floods from wreaking widespread damage.

This question goes so far back into Chinese history that one of the early, probably mythical rulers of Chinese history, Yu the Great

, had to deal with the issue of controlling the rivers about 2200 BCE. Because he succeeded, he is venerated as one of China’s great emperors.

Now, the challenge of controlling floods required a central government which was able to command huge resources in its ability to create and handle large engineering projects. Not only that, but there needed to be a large bureaucracy.

Here is one example of a successful Chinese hydraulics civil engineering project: Paul Denlinger’s answer to What are the most significant high-impact civil engineering projects in the world?

This is one of the reasons China has gravitated to a large central and authoritarian government. Big challenges normally need big governments and bureaucracies to solve them.

At the same time, this meant that small local rulers and kings would have less power, because in comparison, they would only be able to handle comparatively smaller local projects.

Because the farmers could only pay their taxes in grain, this required a complex national bureaucracy which could collect grain (farmers didn’t have money, and had no use for money most of the time), and store it in central locations so that in case of a grain shortage in one area, it could be shipped to another area where it was needed.

When the water problem was solved, the Chinese then gravitated to small hi-intensity farming. This was highly efficient, and Chinese farmers were able to increase the yield of their crops. As the Chinese farmers fed their families, they had more children, and more sons.

These farmers’ sons then formed the core of the army used to unify China the first time.

This was why Qinshihuang was able to unify China the first time in 221 BCE.

But one piece of the puzzle was still missing. In order to turn these men into soldiers, he needed to be able to quickly train them and standardize their weaponry. Furthermore, these weapons needed to be interchangeable on the battlefield.

The weapon which the Qin dynasty standardized upon was the crossbow, and the piece of standard equipment it needed to make in very large numbers was the Chinese crossbows’ lock and trigger mechanism.

Basically, the Qin dynasty took the Chinese bureaucracy and put it to use to master mass production and manage what was probably the world’s first national armory to produce standardized weapons to conquer all of China.

You can read more about it here: Paul Denlinger’s answer to Why did the Qin dynasty last only 16 years following its unification of China?

Because the conquest of all of China required huge national resources, the Qin unification made the nobility obsolete. The state controlled water distribution, food distribution, taxation, fielded a national army and large-scale weapons manufacture. The nobility was now irrelevant.

If we turn to Europe during the Roman period, the Roman empire also had tremendous central state power. If we take a close look at how the Romans spent their engineering talent, we see roads, aqueducts, temples and coliseums. Compared to the Chinese, they did not have to deal with huge unruly rivers and floods, which probably also meant that the Romans were dealing with considerably smaller populations than Chinese rulers.

If we turn to Europe during the feudal period, the rise of local barons in what is now England and Germany is precisely because they did not have national bureaucracies and armies. As a result, the barons had large estates, and would provide land to the serfs, and the serfs would have to turn over a significant portion of their harvest to the lord of the manor as their rent.

When the King of England would go to war, he would have to turn to his barons for support, and they would be responsible for raising armies from their serfs. The most highly skilled fighters were knights, who would have to be paid by the barons, and had squires and other supporting company. All of their fighting equipment was custom-made, and was not made in a national armory. Moreover, they had to carry the costs of the production of their weapons.

This meant that the local nobility, or the barons, had great power over the King of England, and if he could not rally the barons to support his cause, he would have his knees cut from under him.

This is what happened with the Magna Carta.

It was all about separation of powers, and this is what gave way to what would eventually come to be western democracy.

In contrast, the Chinese emperors and dynasties never had this notion of separation of powers. To this day, this continues to be a foreign notion to Chinese rulers.

To sum up, the Chinese rulers discovered in the second century BCE that with the right combination of water, food, population, weapons and bureaucracy, one emperor and one dynasty could rule all of China, becoming the Son of Heaven. His rule was direct, and he needed no nobility.

This never happened in Europe, which is why the hereditary nobility survived.

The Sopranos – Paulie vs Ralph

Why does the USA Suck?

As a low income American that worked multiple jobs that just covered rent, utilities and health insurance, I can assure you I was scraping the barrel of third world living conditions, my house was ruined, we had no hot water, no heat, and barely enough for food. It cost me $25,000 a year to survive, barely survive.

For the same amount of money in the UK I have a home, all utilities paid, cable WiFi and landline, a cellphone, health care, transportation, a whole months shopping for groceries and money left over. I also get 15 free hours of child care for my children and 28 paid vacation days. I have never lived better in my life.

Some wealthy person is going to say the US is easy, well for lower class people it’s a nightmare. I don’t have time to put the links but Google the following.

51 percent of Americans earn less than $30,000 a year.

Only 0.01% of minimum wage workers can afford a 2 bedroom apartment at fair market rent

The average minimum wage worker needs 2.5 jobs to have a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent

Low income Americans can’t afford 95% of colleges.

Our healthcare, infant and mother mortality rankings.

When you are poor you are left with nothing, there may be programs but they are extremely limited, hard to get, usually you are denied several times until you give up. As someone who just barely survived I got SNAP. I fed my family on over a hundred dollars a month, that does not last.I eventually had to get Medicaid when my job closed up, but nothing in the form of cash benefits.

First, second and third world reside within the US, your income depends on what your reality is.

What are the fundamental differences between Western and Russian tanks?

Design philosophy. What some people are calling “flaws” were conscious decisions and tradeoffs made in the design process.

To be honest, it’s only later in the Cold War where the two began to diverge significantly. Prior to that, both were in a pretty neck-to-neck, “my machine is the better version of yours” competition. I’ll emphasize more on the Soviet side:

• Small turrets and low profile

In World War 2, the Soviets noticed that plenty of the fatal hits their T-34 took were to the turret. The concluded that they need to minimize the turret to make it harder for NATO tanks to hit them. Similarly, keeping it small means the tanks would be harder to find and hit from great distances. At the same time, they also realized the 3-man turret works best, which means that the turret would have to accommodate the commander, gunner, and loader even though it means that each would have a very constricted working environment.

The Western approach of keeping ammo on the turret, making it nearly as big as the hull, makes little sense from this point-of-view.

• Autoloader and ammo inside the hull

People love to jump on this like it’s a “gotcha” thing the past year or so, but this was also another conscious decision.

Having an autoloader means that you eliminate the loader position, allowing the turret to be smaller. It also means that you can crew a tank with just 3 people instead of 4 (Western standard) or even 5 (World War 2). This has massive implications in an all-out World War scenario:

Imagine you have 1,200 trained tankers. With the Soviet approach, you can man 400 tanks, but with the Western approach, you can only crew 300. 100 extra tanks is a formidable force, no matter how you look at it. World War 2 was a numbers game, where quantity can trump quality. Both sides were expecting World War 3 to be no different fundamentally.

(Of course, with only 3 people servicing the tank, the workload is higher during repairs.)

Keeping the ammo deep inside the hull is as old as tank design. Without blowout panels (on the turrets), this is the most sensible place to put ammo since it has the most armor protecting it. The other thing is, if something did enough damage to go through all that armor, the crew would probably be already dead anyway.

In any case, even modern Western tanks have provisions to store ammo inside the hull. The main downside of keeping ammo in the turret is simply that you’re far more limited even with that huge turret and you’ll run out of ammo quicker.

Contrary to what some people say, autoloaders can be installed with ammo-on-turret designs. See the French Leclerc.

• Simple/“crude” technology

It all goes back to World War 2, again. Soviet tanks were designed to be easily repairable in the field and manufactured in great numbers. Those were the main qualities of both the T-34 and the Sherman (even though the Sherman has a much better “finish quality” than the T-34). The Soviets also knew that they stuff they’d be mass-producing wouldn’t be very high quality, but they absolutely needed the numbers. That was how the older but more sophisticated T-64 was supplemented by the T-72.

That said, the newest versions of both are about equal.

• Light weight

Bridges. That’s it. The Germans had issues trying to cross rivers because sometimes they found out that their tanks were too heavy to use certain bridges. The Soviets wouldn’t have any of that. Of course, the downside of keeping the tanks light is that you can’t put too much stuff on it (including armor).

Ground pressure and mobility on soft/rough terrain is a bit more complicated than simple weight. After all, Pressure = Force (weight) / Area. All you really need to do is to make the tracks wide enough. But having lighter weight also helps.

• Gun-launched missile

This is to offset NATO’s superior optics and computers and also that generally, you want to be the first one to shoot. Even if the missile missed, the opponent would have to do something to defend themselves, making them more vulnerable to follow-up strikes.

In any case, the Soviets absolutely love missiles given that they put it on just about anything that moves (the BMP series was ahead of its time, it’s not until late in the Cold War that NATO had anything comparable, with the M113 being the workhorse. The M113 APC versions do not have missiles and barring a few modifications, its armament is usually just machineguns).

This Phone Just Destroyed US Sanctions… America Shocked!

This is STUNNING! Jesus. H. Christ!

Why do American expats think that the USA is a shit-hole?

I haven’t spent that much time in the US, barely two years, but was also very happy to leave.

My issue with American society:

1. artificial culture with short lived relationships, therefore people are great at making first impression, but after that it gets quite shallow and interest based
2. materialistic culture where people are quite obsessed with money. This isn’t America specific thing, but it is very strong in America, and rather on third country levels where it is rather understandable that people really need money, but not on more relaxed developed country level
3. overconfident culture based on “American exceptionalism” can be too much for people who prefer to rely on data in their life, and are independent thinker
4. Therefore, a lot of entitled people which is quite annoying since they have often no reason to be so entitled
5. Those entitled people are often in debt, sick and not being able to afford appropriate treatment, education, not having money reserves, but underlying still acting like some movie stars and big patriots

Fundamental problems:

1. The society is overall in a bad shape. High suicide rate, high depression rate, high *insert random sickness and USA is probably quite high in rankings*. You see that in people, overworked, sick and depressed. Most live paycheck to paycheck.
2. Crime rate is quite high for a rich country, actually the highest among rich countries. And it has some unique problems that are not being addressed like mass shootings.
3. Combination of high violent crime rate, mental and economic issues and a lot of “confident” yet not good at problem solving people leads to constant tension in all areas of live. USA just feels tense and stressful.
4. Healthcare and education are way more expensive than elsewhere, probably adds also to the tension.
5. Overall, with all the fear and tension there are technically less freedoms.
6. No specific perks of being in USA. All patriotism aside, there is nothing what you can’t get elsewhere (for guns obsessed ones, yes, guns too, USA isn’t really that special here)

What are good hacks to live cheaply?

In the US, if you’re shopping for food, find a store run by immigrants from India, the Middle East, Latin America, China or Vietnam. Probably almost every item you’re looking for, they’ve got the cheapest prices and best value in town.

I live in the Twin Cities. I go miles out of my way to drive up to Northeast Minneapolis to shop at Holy Land (which specializes in Mediterranean, Balkan and Somali food) and Little India — the mother lode of spices in this town.

Stores like these usually aren’t very “visually appealing.” It’s pretty low overhead. They’re not in very wealthy neighborhoods. They cater mostly to a working-class immigrant clientele. And that’s partly why they’re so cheap. (Many American yuppies actually go out of their way to pay more for products so they can show off and feel rich. That’s one reason why REI is so popular in the clothing line. They might be paying textile workers more — I don’t know — but a lot of consumers just feel like they’re getting a “better” product if they pay more. This is a huge American consumer mindset.)

Spices that I’d have to pay $16 a pound for at my usual neighborhood market… Little India sells for a third of that price. And man, they’ve got spices. This is about half their spice aisle. Both sides of the aisle, all spice:

I also love that they sell a 28-ounce bag of this stuff for a reasonable price. A pound and a half of the stuff:

Honestly, I don’t know if all the products you find at these markets are optimo primo top quality. But if you’re poor (I’m poor), it’s good enough for you.

When I wander into a Whole Paycheck/Whole Foods, the setting is spiffier, but that’s about it. I see just about nothing there I can’t find for a better price at an immigrant market, plus a lot of unique imported goods that I can’t find anywhere else at all. (I don’t know any standard grocery store in the Twin Cities that sells fava beans. No other stores sell Turkish coffee, also called Greek coffee, also called Bosnian coffee. And where I do buy Bosnian chocolate cookies or tangy Bulgarian yogurt — even though the brand I buy at Holy Land is made from California milk? Well, the Lebanese sell it.) I’m also happy to support an immigrant instead of a big company.

I’ve lived most of my life in the Midwest. There’s a lot of immigrants in the Midwest. You can find these stores in probably every big US city. Even if you live out in the country, if you buy bulk, sometimes it’s cost-effective to do your shopping while you’re in a city. Lots of items like spice, oil, tea, coffee and obviously rice and beans — this stuff keeps for months if not years.

What are the scariest social experiments?

This is one of the experiments that, like the Milgram experiment, simply scares me.

Because it shows why people allow themselves to be led en masse to their own downfall.

Let’s take a look at this.

Participants were alone in a room and had to fill out a questionnaire.

Then, suddenly, smoke came out from under the door.

What would you do now?

Leave the room immediately and tell someone, okay?

And that’s what 75% of the people tested did. And, on average, they did it after 2 minutes.

Then, the subjects were exposed to the same situation, but with other people in the room.

In this case, there were two actors and they pretended not to notice the smoke.

And now only 10% of the test participants left the room, continued to fill out the questionnaire.

Even when the smoke burned his eyes and rubbed them visibly .

The experiment shows that people react slower (or not at all) in emergency situations when other people are passive.

They seem to rely heavily on the reactions of others, even against their own instincts. If the group acts like everything is fine, then it has to be, right?

That’s what always scares me, because I see it everywhere.

But I know that others don’t react until they believe that at least most other people would react.

This fact makes me desperate because it is being used to manipulate the masses . And I will never be able to do anything to convince them until everyone cares.

It’s so scary!

Germany just told Ukraine to F*CK off, along with 3 other E.U. countries | Redacted News

We will not extradite people to die! That is what four countries have told Ukraine in response to the country’s request to send back those refugees they were so nice to last year. They need to throw them into battle to die, please.

The Czech Republic has said that it will not do that and so has Austria, Hungary and Germany.

Poland has reportedly already begun to comply.

What are some difficult foods to give up when you move abroad?

Speaking from personal experience; as an American living in China, I have found the following to be rather difficult to obtain. (Oh, anything can be obtained in China. The issue boils down to accessibility, cost, and quality.)

Here’s a brief list;

• Fresh bagels.
• And creme cheese to put on them.
• Thin crust pizza. (In China it is either impossible to get, or cooked to a cracker.)
• Deep dish pizza.
• Cheese-It crackers. (Does not exist in China.)
• Goldfish crackers. (I found some once.)
• Jar of pickles. (Doesn’t matter; dill, sweet butter chips, gerkins. Not available.)
• Jar of relish. (Can be found if you look hard enough.)
• Fresh and hot pretzels.
• Jello. Not unheard of, just very rare.
• Hard rolls. Forgetaboutit.
• Hamburger (Known as “mince”). You have to make it yourself in a grinder.
• Pre-made bread, or pizza dough.

Of course, must Western foods are available in a restaurant. But these are limited to either fast food, or steaks. Forget about “blue plate specials” and things that you normally get in the ‘States.

• Grits
• Cheese omelette
• Rye toast. (Rye anything…)
• Eggs Benedict.
• Milkshakes. (McDonald’s USED to carry them, but they fell from popularity. Presently, they are impossible to find.)
• Pies. (any type; pumpkin, cherry, blueberry, sweet potato, it doesn’t matter. )
• Turkey.

The Sopranos – Like Everybody Else

I’m Not Like Everybody Else (Live) – The Kinks.

What is the best case of, “You just tried to scam the wrong person,” that you’ve witnessed?

I can relate two instances.

Back about 1980 I bought a raffle ticket (for only 50 cents) from a sorority in Little Rock, Arkansas. The prize was dinner for two at the 6 nicest restaurants in town. Eventually I got a call that I had won and would get my gift certificates soon. No tickets ever arrived. I contacted the sorority and they offered to refund my 50 cents! Unfortunately for the girls who sold me the ticket, I worked with a certain fraud division of the state government. I contacted the restaurants mentioned on the raffle ticket and discovered they knew nothing of the raffle. I then brought some serious heat down on the sorority, and they quickly delivered my prize. As they left my home, one of the girls said “We’ll never sell YOU another ticket.” As if.

About a year later my car needed a tune up. The car needed new spark plug wires so I replaced them myself before going in for the tune-up. While I’m waiting for my car to be fixed the technician walks in and announces that I need new spark plug wires. Oh really? I asked to see the wires. They had been cut. I explained to the man that I had just put on that new set of wires not an hour ago, and the only way they got cut was by him cutting them himself. The result of that business’s interaction with the fraud folks? They found themselves closed down. There had been plenty of complaints about that business but now they had defrauded the wrong person for sure.

China Wins the Deep Sea Mining Race, Becomes Precious Metals and Critical Minerals Rich Country

“Thanks for sharing this information, I love your podcasts,,, We don’t get this knowledge on mainstream media.”

https://youtu.be/Bx5bOKGLG3k

US inability to sell Iran’s seized oil angers congressmen

The US congress representatives referred to reports that show that 800,000 barrels of Iran’s seized oil have been wandering off the coast of Texas since about 11 weeks ago, and American companies and parties are reluctant to unload their cargo for fear of alleged Iran’s possible retaliatory measures.

The US seized the tanker in a sanctions enforcement operation, Reuters reported.

The delay in discharging the cargo is also partly out of fear of repercussions from Iran. A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ navy said last month Iran would retaliate against any oil company unloading Iranian oil from a seized tanker.

They continued that enforcement of petroleum sanctions will become irrelevant if American citizens and companies involved constantly live in fear of Iranian retaliation.

They asked the administration for a briefing on the progress of the transfer of the seized oil from the Suez Rajan to US custody.

After withdrawing from the JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2018, the US government has implemented all the suspended sanctions under this agreement against Iran. US has also required third countries and companies to implement its territorial sanctions against Iran.

LOL at uncle shame…

The Teen That Lit 91YO Man On Fire..

That man lived a long hard life and this is how it ends, a teen’s selfish and senseless act. RIP wise old man.

Was Adolf Hitler a talented person? It seems as though he failed at painting, military career, and politics.

He was a talented…. speaker.

After World War I, Hitler was broke and unemployed, and he made money by (1) being paid by the Army to speak to young people about the evils of Bolshevism and (2) spying for the Army at political gatherings.

In July 1919 Hitler, on his second part time job, was sent to a meeting of what was then the German Worker’s Party, a nationalist, anti-Semitic, pro-capitalist reform group of about sixty people. During the meeting, Hitler, who had read up on politics, started talking and everyone there started thinking he would be a good spokesperson for the group.

Now, Hitler was a bright involved student in elementary school (top of his class as a matter of fact) but his ultra-strict father and doting mother (Hitler was the family’s only son who survived infancy) turned him into the equivalent of an emo-kid when he got to high school, and he insisted he was going to be an artist, something that his civil servant father was opposed to, but his mother encouraged.

Hitler’s father died when he was young and his mother actually gave Adolph the money she got from the Austrian State pension for a child benefit so he could move to Vienna to pursue his dream. However, when he was 18, the money stopped when the state stopped paying for him, and his father’s estate and death benefits still had to be used for the support of his mother and sisters.

As such, Hitler became largely homeless, art school didn’t want him (he wasn’t particularly good at it) and he hadn’t finished high school, which was a prerequisite for architecture school. Let’s just say at that point he was like a teenager who discovers Ayn Rand and thinks he’s better than everyone thinks he is. What he read during this period of time started to shape his views on the economy and non-Germans.

When World War I started Hitler actually fit into the army quite well, but after the war he fell for the “Big Lie” of the day, that the socialists had sabotaged the war effort (in fact, the previous government had collapsed under the weight of lack of supplies and money). The peace treaty in 1919 didn’t help as it required Germany to pay more money than existed on the entire planet at the time.

When Hitler and his buddies, now re-named the National Socialist Party, tried to overthrow the government of Bavaria in 1923, he avoided the death penalty by appealing to the right-wing German Empire judges that he was only trying to save the country. He served less than a year in prison while he dictated a very bad polemic book, “My Struggle” (Mein Kampf) to a couple of his friends.

Anyway, Hitler was banned from speaking so the Nazi’s were moribund, but then the ban was lifted just as the Great Depression began. Mainstream parties couldn’t cope, but both the Communists and the Nazis grew rapidly in popularity and Hitler positioned himself as a middle-left alternative to Communist Soviet-supported Bolshevism. As he gained electoral success, he paralyzed the government by having his legislative deputies vote against everything, and then argued that the problem was that there were too many political parties.

Hitler never had a majority of deputies in the legislature (Reichstag) so despite numerous elections and legislative paralysis, the centrist and right parties managed to keep him at bay. Finally, in a panic, Hitler said he would be Chancellor if just two other Nazis were in the cabinet. They bought it, but the two Nazi ministers controlled the police and the army, which were quickly used against Hitler’s adversaries. When someone tried to burn down the Reichstag, he managed to convince it to give him emergency powers, which he used to arrest even more of his rivals. Eventually, when the only balancing force, President Hindenburg, passed away, Hitler just took his place. He had a mortal lock on everything, and most of that was his idea.

What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?

California, 1949. My 16-year-old mother was called into the office of the very agitated high school principal who explained emphatically, “There are reports that you have been dating a Negro. We have an integrated school here now and the only way than can work is if the races do not ever mix. As a white girl I expect you to uphold that standard.” My mother stared that woman down without a word, then simply walked out of the office and nothing else was ever said about it. The reports were quite true, and three years later they were married. I was born the following year.

Poor Kitten Showed No Sign of Life, and Her Mama kept Worrying for Him

Help the kitties.

https://youtu.be/RRl4DNTSWDI

What was the bravest thing you ever did in a job interview?

My plebe (first year) at West Point, I asked my Tactical Officer (a TAC is the legal commander and supervisor of a cadet company) if I could give up my summer leave (1980) and serve at Nellis AFB. Even this was pretty bold for a plebe to ask a Captain. He said he would (might?) look into it. I mentioned it again during graduation week (just prior to leave) and he said it couldn’t be arranged.

The following week, when I arrived home in Las Vegas, my Dad asked if I wanted to attend the 100th year birthday party at the American Legion for the oldest veteran in the state. (He had been a veteran of the Spanish American War). I said sure and attended in uniform.

There were many veterans, active duty military, and dignitaries present, including the commanding brigadier general at Nellis. He recognized my uniform and that I was a newly minted “yearling” and asked how I was doing at the Academy? I said it was tough but that I was doing well. He asked what I had planned for summer leave? I replied, “Sir, I was hoping to work for you.” He was surprised and asked why? I said, “I thought it would be career broadening.” He said, “That sounds like a great idea. Why didn’t you do it?” I said, “My tactical officer said it wouldn’t be possible to arrange… with all the inter service bureaucracy” He replied, “Inter service bureaucracy? I’ll give Joe Franklin a call and we’ll have it set up by tomorrow afternoon.” Brigadier General Franklin was the Commandant of Cadets. Apparently, they were classmates.

it was a great summer!

Has a cop ever said something to you which was completely unexpected?

I was speeding down a highway in the dark of night, around 10 or so, when I passed a state patrol car sitting in the median. I knew I was busted, so I took my foot off the gas, looked in the rearview mirror to see if he was coming after me (of course he was) and then looked down at my speedometer which read 75. Yikes! How fast had I been going?? Anyway, I pull over and get my stuff ready to hand to him. He pulls up behind me and gets out, and out, and out of his car. Big man, very tall and imposing. I was thinking oh crap. He comes to my window and asks me how I’m doing as I hand him my driver’s license. I tell him pretty good, just trying to get home to go to bed. He stops, leans (way) over and looks in the window at me. I recognize him as one of the regular customers at the convenience store where I work days. He says “what are you doing?? Go home. Slow down and drive safely!” And hands me back my driver’s license. I thanked him profusely and we both went on our way. No ticket, no nothing. Whew! Dodged a bullet there. It pays to be good to law enforcement. 😀

Star Trek Enterprise – Unknown Space Capsule

Please enjoy this segment. I did.

Star Trek Enterprise “Future Tense”

Why do American expats say that the USA is a shit-hole?

Because it’s true. I moved to Spain in 2017.

• My health improved dramatically thanks to high EU food-quality standards (and the 2000 additives and chemicals used in the US food industry that are banned or restricted in the EU).
• My quality of life improved thanks to low crime rates and Spain’s emphasis on quality of life over work. Everyone is happier.
• My cost of living went down a lot, especially my healthcare costs.
• My doctors here actually listen to me and take time with me because they don’t have to rush through as many patients in a day due to the high costs of everything. Healthcare isn’t all about profits. It’s about… health. Imagine that!
• Even the health of my pets improved.
• Instead of Oklahoma and Louisiana being my “backyard” (I lived in Texas), France and Portugal are.

You could not pay me to go back.

The Rule of Thumb

What are some facts about some famous video games?

I’ve just got one.

---

During the Cold War, lots of people expected the US and the Soviet Union to exchange nuclear missile strikes. They thought nuclear armageddon could arrive any day.

So in the event of nuclear armageddon, what are some tips? One tip that was widely popularized, was the Rule of Thumb.

The Rule of Thumb says if you extend your arm, and put your thumb over a nuclear mushroom cloud, you can tell if you’re in danger from radiation. If your thumb covers the entire cloud, you’re safe. If it doesn’t, you’re in danger and need to take cover.

This tip wasn’t necessarily true, but luckily nuclear war never broke out and they never had to use it.

But in the Fallout games, nuclear war did break out. And guess what extremely popular Fallout character is using the Rule of Thumb?

The Government has Secret Listening Posts in Every Major City

New York City has skyscrapers of all shapes and sizes. But why does this 500 foot tall, 29-story building have no windows, no lights and no markings at all?

Because it’s a top-secret NSA spy station built to withstand nuclear war.

Officially, this is an AT&T telecommunications building. But thanks to leaked documents, we now know that 33 Thomas Street is actually a top secret NSA mass surveillance hub.

It’s code name is: TitanPointe.

And right now, as we speak, TitanPointe is listening.

The gray, granite tower is located at 33 Thomas Street in Lower Manhattan. Locals know the building as the “Long Lines Building” and it’s been a source of mystery for years.

What jumps out is that the building has no windows and no exterior lighting.

During the day, it fades into the background of the New York City skyline.

And at night, it becomes an invisible shadow.

Thanks to NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden, we now know that creating an invisible building wasn’t an accident. It was absolutely by design.

33 Thomas Street operates under NSA codename TITANPOINTE.

And Titanpointe is a core location used for a controversial, and possibly illegal, NSA-sponsored mass surveillance program.

According to leaked documents, this program has targeted the communications of the UN, the World Bank, the IMF. It’s been used to spy on at least 38 countries, including US allies like France, Germany and Japan. It’s common knowledge that AT&T is very cooperative with the NSA.

Using an AT&T cell phone? Eh, you might want to rethink that.

Let’s find out why.

Brutally True

What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?

Black Zimbabwean on receiving end here. Many years ago, just after getting married, new hubby & I flew from Harare (capital city) to Kariba (small touristy town 45 minutes away by air) for our honeymoon.

On arrival at the little airport, we head for the courtesy shuttle. A group of mostly middle aged (& all white) American tourists have already taken up most of the seats when we step onto the bus. Some look a little startled, and one woman pipes up, “You can’t get on this bus. This is OUR bus”.

We politely explain that no, it isn’t ‘your’ bus, it is actually meant for anyone booked at the local hotel.

She argues; there are a few supportive mutterings from her compatriots, until the driver chimes in, and with a huge smile, confirms what we’ve just told her.

I suspect he’s encountered this before.

A few minutes later we are on our way, & we soon strike up a conversation with our nearest neighbours (the natives are friendly here ). A woman in the next seat interrupts and says, in baffled tones, “Your English is really good”, and her male companion adds, almost accusingly: “You sound educated!”

I don’t remember feeling offended, just mildly taken aback and amused at the level of unconscious presumptuousness.

People are PISSED off

What’s the most ridiculous adult tantrum you’ve witnessed that you couldn’t believe?

My sweetie and I were in a BBQ restaurant in Cambridge, MA. The place was crowded with lots of people, including a family of 2 adults, 1 son, and an infant. The son was going from table to table flailing his arms, screaming in people’s faces, grabbing their food, knocking over their drinks, while their parents did absolutely nothing to control their child, who was ruining dinner for everybody else in the place.

The layout of the restaurant meant that we would be the last table for him to torment. Sure enough, he arrived and began shrieking very, very loudly in our faces. My sweetie smiled at him, and made the exact same sound back at the kid. In an instant, the child stopped, smiled, and began a low and happy conversation with my guy. End of problem. It was the first and only time the kid smiled.

What happened next was unbelievable. The wife/Mother came up to our table, and began to yell as loudly as she could that we were being horrible to her child, we should be thrown out of the restaurant, and never allowed back again.

The next thing that happened was my sweetheart changing his demeanor 100%. In an instant, the gentle man playing with the kid was gone, to be replaced with a deadly serious person who quietly but forcefully said to the woman “Hey lady, f*** off!” Other customers actually applauded. As the husband/Father got control of his family, he came to apologize for his wife’s behavior, saying dealing with the kid was very hard on her.

While I had all the sympathy in the world for the family, no child should be allowed to ruin the dining experience for 50 other people. If the child can’t be controlled, then take it outside. Period.

This has to be a joke…

What are telltale signs of an ambush?

Ideally, there wouldn’t be any ‘telltale’ signs of an ambush, but in practice, this is as good as impossible.

To successfully set up an ambush, there need to be a few elements in place and this can give the attacker away.

Ambushes are executed from concealed positions, locations where you’re able to hide a number of soldiers very close to the troops that you want to ambush.

The ambush has to take place on a road or path frequented by your enemy, most often at a certain time. An ambush is not a fishing expedition. If you don’t know that an enemy will pass by your ambush site, you are just wasting your time.

If you attack vehicles, you need your enemy to slow down or stop. This can be achieved either by choosing a location where your enemy has to slow down (a sharp bend or uphill) or you place an obstacle on the road (a tree ‘fell’ down, a carcass, etc.).

Very bad for your health, but not an ambush: a roadside bomb or IED (photo: US Army 25th Infantry Division soldiers during an “IED trainer course”).

Often a mine (or Improvised Explosive Device, IED) is placed on the road. It has two functions, to stop the enemy’s vehicles and to give the signal for the attackers to open fire.

To make things clear, an IED per se is not an ambush but a remote controlled mine. An ambush by definition is “a surprise attack by people lying in wait in a concealed position.”

[1] This can happen with the help of an IED, but the detonation of a road mine alone isn’t sufficient to qualify an attack as an ambush. In other words, you need soldiers attacking you.

When you are on patrol, you’ll probably never see a direct sign that there is an ambush ahead of you, but bearing in mind how an ambush has to be set up to be successful you will have a good idea where it’s most likely going to happen and how to avoid it.

• If you use the same road twice, the risk for you to be ambushed increases dramatically.
• If you approach an area with buildings, bushes, or other covers near the roadside, be careful!
• An obstacle on the road that forces you to slow down is an alarm sign.
• Sharp bends, ravines, and hollow-ways are the classical spots for an attack.
• Every activity “out of the usual” might point to a possible enemy attack. The absence of people or animals or a road that has been blocked and requires you to take a detour might point to an ambush.

Experienced soldiers learn to read those signs and many others, often unconsciously. You acquire a ‘feeling’ when something ahead of you doesn’t look, sound, or smell right and you’ll be able to take countermeasures.

The Sopranos || Easier

Guy in there has a natural canopy.

What is the nicest thing a stranger ever did for you?

My birthday one year ago was really sucking. I decided to go buy myself a cake at the grocery store and get it decorated, because it was my birthday and I wanted something nice. When the guy at the counter asked who it was for (in retrospect he meant what name to put on it) and I said it was for me, he was incredulous that I had to buy my own birthday cake. I just kind of shrugged and went out to finish shopping for groceries. He said my cake would be need to be paid for at pick up.

When I came back to pay for and pick up my cake, a different person was at the register and she said my cake had been paid for. It was also decorated a bit more than I thought it should have been. I have not seen that guy working there since and in my head I’ve called him the cake fairy.

It was a good cake. I still cried eating it because the entire day sucked, but it was a good cake.

The Sopranos Tribute “Don’t stop believing”

“Strange how you can miss people from a tv series like they were your family even though you know they are fictional characters. Even today I feel like a part of my life ended when the series stopped.”

What was something that someone said or did that has changed you forever?

My baby son was fast approaching his first birthday. I was working away from home in South Wales and had just completed a 3 month long project before returning to head office in Aberdeen. I received a phone call, at home, informing me of a problem in another location and requesting me to travel to Shotton steel works, in England, as soon as possible.

My wife went ballistic. She informed me that I had only been home to enjoy my son growing up for 6 weeks of his first year of life. Not only that but I would miss my boy’s birthday. On reflection, she was correct.

All that night I reviewed my life. I recalled my own childhood with my father being a fisherman. He was away at sea for 3 to 4 weeks at a time and only home for a couple of days before sailing off again. We never had time for any father/son activity. I loved my dad but he was a stranger to me. I simply didn’t know him well.

The next day I scheduled a meeting with my managing director and informed him that I couldn’t continue to spend as much time away from home. His response was that I was the only person qualified for that job and nobody else could do it. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

I tended my resignation and started looking for another job. I ended up working in the oil and gas sector. I was office based and got to help raise my kids. It was definitely the best decision I ever made.

NORTH KOREA TO SEND 300,000-500,000 TROOPS TO ASSIST RUSSIA

This is FLASH Traffic. North Korea has agreed to send three-hundred-thousand (300,000) to five-hundred thousand (500,000) troops to Russia to assist with its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, against NATO.

The first deployment will be about 20,000 soldiers to assist with Logistics.

North Korea will also deliver to Russia, the new KN-09 Multiple Launch Rocket System.

This is the latest North Korean version of the KN-09, with two pods of SIX rockets each.

Intelligence assessment of these new rocket launchers is as follows:

Judging by the published photos, the military received MLRS, known under the Western designation KN-09 or KN-SS-X-9. Its caliber is 300 mm.

The first version, which has eight missile tubes, was shown in 2015 at the parade in honor of the 70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

It is believed that missiles with a warhead weighing up to 190 kg are capable of hitting targets at a distance of at least 220 km.Guidance is inertial, in preparation for use, the calculation uses data from navigation satellites, which provides a fairly accurate hit.

In 2020, an upgraded version was introduced, in which the three-axle all-terrain vehicle was replaced with a four-axle platform with twelve tubes.

THOUGHTS & OPINIONS

• North Korea is supplying military materials, ammo, weapons systems, supplying military logistics, and manpower to Russia.
• A 500,000 man military presence is large enough to; Completely take over the Ukraine war effort from Russia. Occupy and conquer Ukraine. Serve as a complete self-contained invasion force for NATO and Europe.
• All reports indicate that Ukraine has been sufficiently weakened by the USA / NATO leadership decisions that it is a “404 nation”.
• NATO, and the largest European nations inside of it are now in the process of De-industrializaiton, suffering energy shortages and high inflation. All of which is a very terrible mix were they to be invaded.
• North Koreans have been taught, from cradle to grave, how dangerous the West is, and that the United States and it’s proxy nations need to be eliminated from the surface of the planet.
• North Korean soldiers are “enraged” soldiers, and are a very dangerous and lethal force.
• The decision to place a NATO office in Japan is viewed as a direct threat to North Korea.
• The decision, last month, to have NATO war games next to North Korea, (to include Germany) is viewed as a direct threat to North Korea.

CONCLUSIONS

• The NATO use of Ukraine as a “cat’s paw” has been a disaster.
• The American neocon dream of a “Pacific NATO” has resulted in dangerous consequences.
• Now, North Korea is basing an enormous invasion force at NATO’s door. This is exactly what the United States (and it’s proxies) have been doing to Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and the Global South.
• The size of the force betrays it’s intent; the conquering and subjugation of Ukraine. Followed by a “dagger at the throat” of NATO.

Did you tell your parents you’re an ex-Muslim? How did they handle it?

Yes I told them.

But parents aren’t dumb. Especially when the family is as religious as mine it’s easy to see when your child strays. It’s like having a gay kid who you can easily see his lack of interest in the opposite gender early on.

However, if I were to pinpoint the start of them noticing, It would go back to the time I was in high school.

I was curled on my bed sobbing like there’s no tomorrow. My mother came up to me and asked me why I was crying. I said that when I pray I sometimes wonder what if I’m talking to myself and no one’s actually listening to me. And I said that I hate myself for having such bad thoughts. She said “Salma it’s the devil playing with your mind. It’s okay all of us have thoughts like that sometimes”.

But I wasn’t anyone. I was obsessive, still am. I had a form of OCD where I had to wash so many times before each prayer to make sure I’m clean. I always repeated my prayers over and over to make sure they are to God’s liking. And at the end of the day after all the washing and repeating I would go to bed crying and whispering “please god make it easier on me”. But he didn’t.

My thoughts increased “what if god doesn’t even care about washing five times a day to meet him and pray?” “What if everything I believe in and take for granted is false?”. And naturally I was devastated and drowning in guilt and shame for even having in such thoughts.

I talked to my mother about it and she was really scared and told my father. They took me to a therapist who’s from their very same religious circle. I told him about my obsessions and my thoughts. And he would try to convince me so strongly of the falseness of my thoughts and that they are all OCDish thoughts not what I truly think. And with my excessive washing and the like it was believable at the time. I was prescribed meds to get rid of my OCD. And my obsessive actions stopped. But my thoughts never did.

The more time passed the more I doubted things. Then I went to pray while sobbing and said “help me ! I’m about to stray. Please don’t take my faith away. I don’t want to go to hell”. Yet by that point my blind faith and certainty of the rightness of my path had already vanished. Despite myself when I sat with religious people and heard them talk about Quran and Sunnah, I thought of everything they say with a critical eye and not the eyes of a believer who listens and obeys. And when I did that I noticed how much I roll my eyes at the silliness of what’s said.

I was miserable. I lived for Islam and wanted to die for it. My whole life revolved around it. I was a teacher at a mosque, I knew the Quran by heart, and I prayed much more than the average Muslim. So I felt like the very core of my personality and life is being pulled away from my heart.

In my last prayers, I was desperate. If you know the Islamic prayer, you know we place our foreheads on the floor. I would stick my head to the floor, holding to the rug around me like I’m holding to dear life. And from the very bottom of my heart I would whisper with a cracked voice “Help me. Help me. Help me.”. I would cry and sob and pray “please god take me. If you don’t now I’ll die as an infidel and spend an eternity in hell”.

And that was it.

The knots of faith were already fully untied after that. My mind went numb. And I finally allowed my brain and heart to be on the same page.

My parents noticed it all. They especially noticed that I didn’t pray anymore. Which was anything but easy, for weeks everytime I skipped a prayer I felt utter shame and fear of hell. But then even that disappeared. My parents gave me advice constantly urging me to pray again. They would always tell me the benefits of prayers and all that.

They urged me to visit a therapist again. And what’s a therapist going to do? Make me believe that god cares about washing before praying especially if I farted beforehand? (Yes this is a teaching). He’s going to convince me that God wants me to not listen to love songs or shake hands with male cousins?

What was the point?? So I insisted on not going.

The final straw, was after I met my husband. They discovered that we’re chatting. And yelled at me “you’re going to marry an infidel??” And they insisted that this marriage will never come to life.

So I had to come out and say it bluntly.

“I’m not a Muslim. And if I married a Muslim he’d be sinning anyway because he’s not allowed to marry a non-believer”. (Muslim men are allowed to marry Muslims, Christian’s or Jews which I was none).

The silence resounded in the room. My father’s broken voice was the only thing that put an end to it “so you’re really not a Muslim anymore? That’s it?”. He looked devastated.

I hated it all. Should I have just lied for life? Should I have hidden the truth sentencing myself for a life with misery and hypocrisy? But I didn’t take anything back. It was either now or never. Either I choose to break free and be true to myself or bury myself to suit their tastes. I loved them so much but I couldn’t make such a sacrifice.

They were heart-broken for months. Until I broke down completely mentally and emotionally. The guilt and pressure were too much for me and I snapped. I was in so much heartache. I had to be put on a big dose of anti-depressant and an even bigger dose of mood-stabilizers.

That’s when my parents softened up and came around. Finally my happiness meant something to them and they just gave in.

My father was in denial for long though. Whenever the topic came up he would change it. And when I said something that indicates that I don’t care about Islamic teachings he would ask “why?” As if he doesn’t know the answer.

However, after months, our relationship now is really good. I no longer lie, hide and sugar-coat. So they know me better. They still hope I go back on my decision but never pressure me to do it. And I love them for it.

Dr. Phlox Confirms That the Pilot Was A Human Male

Star Trek Enterprise Season 2 Episode 16 Future Tense

Why do American expats think that the USA is a Shit-hole?

I’ll start with the definite truth of my own life: Leaving the US was, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made.

I have said this out loud and reflected upon it often. In short – it had to do with identity and personal happiness.

I was always an energetic child and a hardworking student. Motivated by accomplishments; incredibly obedient; afraid of getting in trouble – a teacher’s pet type. I was generally nice to people around me; just wanted to do well and get on with my day.

After elementary school, I started going to private school – for a better education and hopefully better access in life. During that time, my Black, middle class background became the center of the world. I still did well in school, but I wasn’t spoken to as if I did well or was capable. I was made to feel inadequate at every turn, even in the face of great accomplishments.

As a teenager, this racial alienation was emphasized through social and dating dynamics. All teens have teen problems, but I wasn’t just a moody, insecure kid – I was a Black kid in a sea of White and there was nothing to be done about that. There was no amount of patience, kindness; weight loss; working out; grooming; hair perming – that would make me less Black. And you can’t talk about that to anyone; no one can relate; you’re unceremoniously accused of “bringing race into everything”. A very lonely reality.

Throughout the entire secondary school process, my intelligence was always doubted and I was constantly insulted. My school offered Chinese – they tried to tell me I wouldn’t do well because it’s “a very difficult language”. Within a year, I had top marks. I once had a teacher tell me my writing was so bad I probably had a learning disability. (I’m about to finish my Masters with distinction in England, and I’ll be starting my PhD in the fall).

By high school, I decided to spend a portion of my senior year in China. It was like night and day from my home school. Suddenly, I was smart again. Without a concerted effort of teachers telling me how stupid I was all the time, I was flourishing. I got straight A’s in AP Calculus – a course, among others, my home school wouldn’t let me take because it would be “too hard for me”. When it came to college lists – I was told I couldn’t get into any of the schools on my list; I shouldn’t aim higher than my State school. Mind, at 17 I was a varsity athlete; president of thespians; worked on a number of school plays; danced on the school team and studied Martha Graham independently; first chair clarinet; played alto sax in Jazz band; fairly skilled in drawing and painting; spoke Chinese and had a high honors GPA. So – what made me less than my peers?

In China, it was the first time anyone (other than my parents) had ever told me I was pretty. Looking back, I was still quite young; so a lot of firsts would be happening around that time anyway – but it was definitely different than in America. In America, I was just ugly. People might not say that to my face – but it was reflected in certain ways.

Beyond that, college was the same for socialization. I tried to be cute, preppy and peppy like my White friends – but I wasn’t. I was sad and defeated. And still had some discernible, inferior, human status.

So again, in college, I went to China. And again, I was able to find normality, humanity and love.

After I graduated college, I went back to China to work. I soon met my current partner and we’ve been together six years. We moved to England together last year so I could continue studying to change careers. I’ve done incredibly well and I’m just happy.

In summary:

I personally felt my intelligence and beauty were never appreciated in the US.

I was suicidal sad; until I could no longer deny that I needed to live life a different way.

My partner is Greek and it feels very freeing to not be a part of the radical, radicalized, American fervor. Also, biracial relations aren’t questioned in England the way they are in the US.

Life doesn’t feel so heavy. My days are nice. I have a nice home. A nice partner. My efforts are recognized. I’m just, whole.

What is the most dangerous object that you’ve seen on the road when driving?

This happened about ten years ago.

I was going to Providence, RI on a stretch of highway known as Route 295. It’s a wide highway but in a rural area and there are no lights on the road. It’s long and actually pretty boring. It was nighttime and I was racing down the highway in the middle lane when I thought I saw a glimpse of something dark. I only noticed it because it created a black patch of dark in the middle of the dark night which otherwise was studded by ambient light from other sources. I pulled into the fast lane and when I got to it, it was a shipping container, right there in the middle lane, just sitting there, with no lights. It had evidently fallen from a truck – but there was no truck to be seen. Apparently the driver didn’t even know he had lost it. It was just like this in the photo:

If I hadn’t been paying attention I would have plowed right into it as if it were a brick wall at 70 MPH.

I immediately called the State Police who dispatched a cruiser. My brother is a state cop who told me that there were almost many accidents. They had to put a cruiser with lights flashing behind it until a truck could come and retrieve it. I was astonished at how nearly invisible it was. Without power from the truck or reflective panels, it was as if it weren’t even there. It would have been easy to crash right into it.

Casino | “Meeting in the Desert Always Made Me Nervous”

Ace (Robert De Niro) and Nicky (Joe Pesci) arrange to have a secret meeting in the desert outside of Las Vegas. As federal law enforcement closes in around them, the two find their friendship has reached its breaking point. They exchange insults and foul language in one of the finest acting moments in any Martin Scorsese’s film.

Tex-Mex Hash

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup rice, uncooked
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 onions, sliced
• 1 can whole tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• Dash of pepper

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Pan fry ground beef until light brown in skillet. Drain fat.
3. Add onions and bell peppers and cook until onion is tender.
4. Stir in remaining ingredients and heat until warm.
5. Pour into a casserole dish. Cover, and bake for 1 hour.

Yield: 5 servings

HEAVEN