Knowing Is Half The Battle

I know you are thinking, “Chilli with chocolate!?”

But don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice, or one 16-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 15-ounce cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
5 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS

In a stockpot, over medium heat, cook the oil, garlic, onion, and green pepper until slightly softened, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, vegetable broth, cumin, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Before serving, stir in the chocolate until melted.

Recipe can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 4 months. Freeze individual servings in heavy-duty zipper bags.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

NUTRITION (per serving)

CALORIES 263(0% from fat); FAT 6g (sat 1g); CHOLESTEROL 0mg; CALCIUM 83mg; CARBOHYDRATE 43g; SODIUM 3139mg; PROTEIN 12mg; FIBER 10g; IRON 3mg

Picture this, you are at the gas station waiting in long lines. You are tired, impatient and just when you think you can’t take it anymore, someone cuts in front of you.

What do you do?

On October 10th, two Providence, Rhode Island women took matters into their own hands. They were in line at a gas station whose prices had dropped to $2.98 per gallon.

Seeking a deal, the ladies got into the long line to wait for gas. They believed they were cut off by a gentleman who was in fact, not cutting them off at all, but their short patience and eagerness to fill up got the best of them and they got out of their vehicle to confront the man.

One assaulted him with a baking pan, while another chased him around the gas pump with a hatchet. One lady was taken into custody.

While not condoning the violence, witnesses say they can understand the frustration these women experienced.

Some say they are tired of spending their paychecks on gas alone.

The economy is putting great stress on the American public as they try to squeeze their pocketbooks just a little tighter and stretch their budgets just a little longer.

Even still, a few gallons of gas is not worth getting into a fight that may lead to imprisonment or worse.

With Election Day just two weeks away, voters are focusing on several key issues including affordable healthcare, the economy, the lack of jobs and high gas prices.

One of the topics, which has been pushed to the background, is gay and lesbian rights. It is still an uphill battle for the gay and lesbian community to obtain the same rights and legal protection as anyone else. 

A little over a week ago, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples anxiously awaited the Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision to recognize same-sex marriages.

Connecticut joined Massachusetts and California in the legalization of same-sex unions. The Connecticut Supreme Court declared the equal protection clause of the state constitution was discriminatory. The state is apparently yielding to a more contemporary definition of the meaning of marriage. This ruling guaranteed the rights of same-sex couples be protected by the law.

The governor of Connecticut, M. Jodi Rell, released a statement announcing her disagreement with the judgment, but declared her willingness to uphold it.

Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote:

“Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice.

In a nutshell, refusing marital rights to same-sex couples would create separate standards.

Some political groups such as The Family Institute of Connecticut were not so happy with the verdict. Executive Director Peter Wolfgang made a statement.

<blockquote>”Even the legislature, as liberal as ours, decided that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is about our right to govern ourselves. It is bigger than gay marriage.”</blockquote>

In related news, Grammy and Emmy award winning singer Cyndi Lauper, who is a champion for human and LGBT rights, can relate to the excitement the citizens of CT are experienced regarding this ruling.

Lauper’s sister faces discrimination on a daily basis due to her sexual orientation and the singer has been instrumental in her efforts to push for full equality for the LGBT community.

<blockquote>”It’s always wrong to discriminate. I grew up in the civil rights movement. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

We are teetering back and forth right now, and we need to act together to push us in the right direction.”</blockquote>

This country is experiencing change whether individual citizens like it or not.

Have you ever been cyber bullied? Have you ever been a cyber bully?

One of my pet peeves is people who bait and try to argue with others online. It is ill spent energy. I think these people are unhappy with themselves or some situation in their lives which causes them to lash out and vent their frustrations on the worldwide web.

Granted, we are all human, and sometimes you get involved in heated debates or are passionate about a particular subject, but maybe it is best to walk away from your computer for a few minutes, or even clicking out of the site you are in can save a few a few minutes of your life arguing online, that they can’t get back.

Please view the video below on cyber bullying. If you see yourself doing any of the things they talk about… then maybe you need an attitude adjustment.

INGREDIENTS

• 1⁄4 cup 1⁄4 cup instant plain oatmeal
• 1⁄4 cup 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1⁄3 cup 1⁄3 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon 1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 11⁄2 tablespoon tub margarine
• 4 item Granny Smith apples
• 2 cup vanilla nonfat frozen yogurt

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 375ºF and coat 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

In a bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, 1⁄2 of the brown sugar, spices and margarine. Peel, core and thinly slice apples and spread them evenly in a baking pan. Sprinkle remaining sugar and oatmeal mixture over apples. Bake until apples are tender and topping is golden brown, (about 30 minutes).

Serve warm and top with your favorite toppings such as frozen yogurt, whipped cream, etc.

Serves 8.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Per serving: 152 calories, 3 grams fat, 0 cholesterol, 50 milligrams sodium, 31 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams protein.

Sharing an iPod with your spouse is a wonderful way to explore new music together.

There are many perks to sharing an iPod with your spouse. With the help of MiShare, you can swap files with your mate. Unprotected songs allow for immediate playback, but when syncing your iPod with iTunes, you will need to unlock songs and videos that are protected by Apple’s anticopying system with the original purchaser’s user name and password.

You can create a joint iTunes account and copy your music to a mutual iTunes library. How about fusing your playlists together and setting it to shuffle? You will experience the bets of both worlds. While he gets familiar with her favorite artists like Avril Levigne or Ne-Yo, she will be able to rock out to his favorite Kidd Rock or 50 Cent tunes.

If you are at a loss to which music to share with him, get help with discovering the perfect playlist. If she doesn’t like your taste in music, iTunes 8 gives you the ability to use the new ‘Genius’ button. iTunes will create a playlist of songs from your current library that will go great together. It is the perfect way to broaden both of your available tunes. Sharing an iPod is a great way for you to double, even triple the songs in your playlist.

In addition to music, you and your spouse can share movies, videos, photos,
games and HD TV shows. If one you are more tech savvy than your mate, you can introduce them to iTunes tutorials, which will show you how to use your iPod’s cool features.

And the best part is, if you get tired of each other’s music, movies or games, you can unplug and slip back into your own wonderful world of entertainment.

MiShare lets music connoisseurs swap files between iPods on the fly.

Social network sites are instrumental advertising tools for companies and individuals. They can also be your worst nightmare.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Utterz can boost site traffic overnight, which in turn, may mean more customers for your business or more readers for your web site. But, are you or your children giving out too much information online?

As you ‘tweet’ on Twitter or share your location on Brightkite, who is watching? Not just your ‘friends’ that’s for sure.

Are you heeding the same warnings you impose on teens on MySpace or Facebook? Pownce, Twitter and other social media like it, can be used by shady individuals for no good.

For example: You sign into a service like Brightkite and mark your location: “John Doe checked in at: Boston, MA, 02108, US - 2 minutes ago - via web.”

Then you send out a ‘tweet’ on Twitter to all your followers: “@all: I am currently at Borders at Downtown Crossing.”

Then you shoot over a photo of yourself inside Borders shopping for books.

Not too revealing right? Wrong. By performing the steps above, you have just provided a considerable amount of information.

• Location - You have just announced you are not at home and gave anyone within distance a way to contact you at your current location.
• Photo - You just shot off a photo of yourself to all of your followers so it won’t be hard to pick you out of the crowd because they now know what you’re wearing.
• Vulnerability - If you have ever made such a post while at school or work, anyone reading your messages informs readers how far you are from your school, job or home - leaving those locations vulnerable for 1- robbery, 2- a place to stalk you and 3- you just let everyone on the net know you are out alone.

Suddenly those posts are not so innocent are they?

MySpace has received much unwanted attention for instances just like these. Minors tell everything from where they live to where they got to school, work and what time they will be in their local mall.

Adults on Facebook or Linked In give their first and last names, their city, age, name of their company and even cell phone numbers.

When does networking cross the line into working against you?

Related info:

• Thief Hires Decoys on Craigslist
• 8 Teens Invite Girl Over, Beat Her Up & Post It On YouTube
• MySpace Prank Leads to Teen Suicide

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 6 tablespoon cooking oil or melted butter
• 2 item eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

PREPARATION

Heat waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions.

In large bowl, combine dry ingredients.

In large measuring cup or small bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir liquid ingredients into flour mixture. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; fold into batter. Brush waffle iron with oil. Pour batter into waffle iron as manufacturer directs. Cook until steaming stops and waffle is golden.

SERVINGS

Serves 8.

Serve with butter and warm syrup. For more nutritional value, add the fruit topping of your choice.

Nutritional Information

Per serving: 257 calories, 12 grams fat, 55 milligrams cholesterol, 309 milligrams sodium, 30 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams protein.

Voters were hit in the face with what is being described as a ‘typographical error’ on absentee ballots in New York.

Earlier this year, Barack Obama’s name was misspelled on 2,000 absentee ballots in Volusia County, FL back in January. His first name was on the ballot as Barak.

Now, some 300 ballots in Rensselaer County, New York have his name listed as Barack Osama. This is a travesty.

At some point, someone has to take ownership of the mockery this country is making of our presidential election. A typographical error would be Obamma, or Onama, or any other letter on the keyboard that sits close to the letters used to actually spell Obama.

But in my opinion, the ’s’ is deliberate.

Election officials claim the typo is a mistake of “human error” and say it’s “very unfortunate” that the misspelled ballot reminds Americans of the name of Osama bin Laden.

My question is this.. would you be able to cast a vote for Barack Osama? Or would flashbacks of the September 11 attacks on the very state that you live in come to mind? Would you think of the panic the terror and the ruins that your community went through? Would visions of planes hitting the Twin Towers come to mind? Or would you think of the countless hours the NYPD and the NYFD spent digging for bodies?

Would you be able to bring yourself to cast that vote?

I know I wouldn’t. And that is the reaction I think the election officials are hoping for, the unwillingness of New Yorkers to vote for someone with the name Osama.

“This was a typo,” said Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee. “We have three different staff members who proof these things and somehow the typo got by us.”

Three different staff members read the proof and no one caught the fact that Obama’s name was spelled Osama?

I find that hard to swallow.