EXCLUSIVE – Soros, Google tagged for starting Islamic Uprisings
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
Daily Archives: February 14, 2011,
. . . . .More on battling rising prices at your supermarket
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
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Earlier today I posted “Been to the Supermarket Lately?” about the rising food prices. I also posted it at Free Republic, and you should see some of the money saving suggestions folks are leaving over there.
Here’s one of them — loaded with great ideas. Nothing new, but practical reminders of how we can save on the food we’re eating.
Flamenco Lady wrote:
I have done several things.
Instead of purchasing 10 pound bags of rice, I have been buying 25 pound bags of rice at stores like Costco or Cash and Carry. A 25 lb. bag of rice runs about $20 so it is not a big expenditure and not much difference in price. I also have been buying a lot of dry beans, and other long lasting foods, such as dehydrated onions, gravy mixes( just add water and you have a basis for a stew), salt and other seasonings that carry a longer shelf life.
Watching the grocery ads and stocking up on items we use when they are at loss leader prices. I have picked up 30 oz.jars of Mayo for $1.99, Spaghetti Sauce at less than $1 jar or can, dry pasta, canned meats and fish, and lots of other good deals. Canned goods go on sale frequently too, so stock up when the prices are low. Also look for discount grocery stores in your area. Grocery outlet, Winco, Dollar stores, and even pharmacies, often have loss leader prices on canned goods that are far less than your local grocery store.
I pick up meats when they are on sale too. London Broil, pork roasts, ham, and chicken breasts are often on sale for $1.99 lb. or less. Chicken and turkey is often even less than $1 per pound. I have made it a rule to never buy meat unless it is on sale and under $2 per lb. Think about buying large pieces of meat or family packs that you can break down into meal size portions to suit your family and store in zip lock bags in the freezer, or cook a larger piece of meat and then use the leftover meat for other dishes the rest of the week or freeze them to throw in a soup, stew or casserole at a later date.
Doubling up on coupons whenever possible using one store coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon for the maximum discount allowed. Using the store’s double coupons whenever they are offerred. You would be amazed at what you can save. As an example, Toothpaste was on sale for .99 with a store coupon. I had a .75 cent off manufacturer’s coupon, so I got a tube of toothpaste for .24. Since I started using the coupons in the Sunday paper with the store’s weekly ad coupons I have been saving about 30% off my grocery purchases. Plan your meals based on what you have in your freezer, refrigerator, and pantry, instead of going out and purchasing the items at regular prices for a meal.
I also have been stretching the food I cook for my family. I freeze all leftovers if I am not going to use them right away. I then can pull out leftover veggies, meat and rice to add to soups and stews at a later date. Any leftover pasta I usually stir fry with a few veggies for a side dish or make a pasta salad for another meal if there is a larger quantity leftover, or I eat for my own lunch the next day for smaller leftover pasta portions. Most sauces, gravies, etc. freeze well. I have freezer containers in pint, 1 1/2 pint, quart, and half gallon sizes that work well for this and stack easily in your freezer. Using more potatoes, rice, pasta, dry beans, and less meat per person each week can save a lot in your grocery budget. If a recipe calls for a pound of meat see if you can reduce it to 3/4 or even half a pound of meat by increasing the veggies, rice, or pasta in a dish. I also add mushrooms to a lot of dishes. It is a trick of the eye and the palate but they are hearty and the trick the eye and the stomach into thinking there is more meat in the dish than there really is.
Casseroles, soups and stews which enable me to stretch meat further are becoming frequent dinners at our house. I have gotten creative with leftovers so in addition leftover meat can be added with fresh or frozen vegetables to make stir frys, fajitas, used in casseroles, and stroganoff, etc.
Bones from meals such as a turkey or chicken carcass, a large ham, etc. are either boiled down right away to make stock for beans, soup, or stew, or thrown in a freezer bag so I can boil them down at a later date. Any meat that comes off the bones is also saved to throw in the soup or stew. I also save the stock when I fix a boiled cornbeef and cabbage dinner. The stock makes the best split pea soup or beans you have ever tasted.
I was a frugal shopper and cook before I started cutting the food budget and implementing cost containing strategies, but by buying larger quantities of staples, sticking to sale items and necessities at the grocery store, and gradually stocking up on items with a longer shelf life (many of which do not require the use of my freezer space so I can reserve it primarily for leftovers and meat) I have cut our family food budget by 50% despite the increases in prices at the grocery store and my freezer, and the freezers in both our refrigerators are fully stocked at all times now. Our pantry is also full and we emptied out a storage closet and installed shelves in it to use for additional longer term pantry storage. Think creatively when it comes to storage too. I know of people who store items under beds, in garages and attics, inside storage benches, etc. Even in a small apartment there are places you can store extra food stores.
Hope this helps anyone who wants to save on groceries.
Head to Free Republic for more great money saving ideas.
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“It’s not my job to tell people what to think” or Evil is a parasite on the good.
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
Tags
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, David Gregory, John Boehner, John Galt, Meet the Press, NBC, Obama eligibility
What Did Wade Rathke Know About Egypt that the CIA Didn’t and What Will Obama Do Now?
Michael Gaynor at Emerging Corruption has done some digging into the situation in Egypt – about how much Wade Rathke knew about it beforehand and what influence Obama may wish to have on the situation now.
Meanwhile… on to what the media thinks is more important.
'The president says he’s a Christian. I accept him at his word,' said John Boehner. | AP Photo
John Boehner speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Not his job to tell people what to think.
On Sunday’s Meet the Depressed, David Gregory asked House Speaker John Boehner the Left’s favorite entrapment game — the “birther” question:
“As Speaker of the House, as a leader, do you not think it’s your responsibility to speak out against that kind of ignorance?”
You know, just once, I’d like to see Boehner say to these sniveling little shits:
“If there’s something wrong with this, it would come before Congress, so I suggest you ask the President of the United States about this because he’d know the absolute answer to your questions. Why you’re asking me puzzles me… you’d probably get a more definitive answer from the president.
I believe he’s American citizen, but if you really want to know the answer to those questions, why don’t you ask the president or his chief of staff.. you see them all the time.. get the answers, nail them done for your audience. We have so many other critical things to deal with — and you’re wasting your time asking me this… why don’t you ask the president?”
Boehner says in the next breath that his job is to “listen to the people”. Oh really? Just WHO is Boehner listening to? Certainly not the growing number of Americans who are wondering why Obama has spent some $2m to keep his birth certificate and all his other records (passport, academic, medical etc.) hidden from public view?
Boehner’s got his talking points, evidently, and he won’t go outside the lines, because one word out of his mouth would start that snowball rolling down the hill. And then what? Is he afraid of what might result? We know from Congressional insiders that they are scared witless over Obama’s eligibility question. The media and the political left (but I repeat myself) have them cowering in a corner. Why?
Boehner must have left the NBC studio smoking ten cigarettes… Gutless wonder.
You know, yesterday I was reading about Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED. And I came across this. It seems to fit with Boehner’s (and others’) refusal to shrug on the issue of Obama’s eligibility issues.
The concept “Sanction of the victim” is defined by Leonard Peikoff as “the willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the ‘sin’ of creating values”.
This concept may be original in the thinking of Rand and is foundational to her moral theory: she holds that evil is a parasite on the good and can only exist if the good tolerates it. Atlas Shrugged can be seen as an answer to the question of what would happen if this sanction were revoked. When Atlas shrugs, relieving himself of the burden of carrying the world, he is revoking his sanction.
John Galt vows to stop the motor of the world by persuading the creators of the world to withhold their sanction: “Evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us”, and, “I saw that evil was impotent…and the only weapon of its triumph was the willingness of the good to serve it”.
John Boehner has deliberately failed Constitution 101. He is still using citizen interchangeably with natural born citizen. He knows better. What he doesn’t know? How to shrug. Shame on him. Shame. Shame. Shame…
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The Egyptian revolution – coming into focus.
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
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This probably explains it better than any of the blonde glossy lipped talking heads out there in TV land… (h/t Noisy Room)
Glory to the martyrs!
Down with the system!
All power to the people!
Victory to the revolution!
Trevor Loudon of New Zeal writes:
At least these guys let you know where they stand.
February 11, 2011 — A statement issued by Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt:
Glory to the martyrs! Victory to the revolution!
What is happening today is the largest popular revolution in the history of our country and of the entire Arab world. The sacrifice of our martyrs has built our revolution and we have broken through all the barriers of fear. We will not back down until the criminal “leaders” and their criminal system is destroyed.
Mubarak’s departure is the first step, not the last step of the revolution.
The handover of power to a dictatorship under Omar Suleiman, Ahmed Shafiq and other cronies of Mubarak is the continuation of the same system. Omar Suleiman is a friend of Israel and America, spends most of his time between Washington and Tel Aviv and is a servant who is faithful to their interests. Ahmed Shafiq is a close friend of Mubarak and his colleague in the tyranny, oppression and plunder imposed on the Egyptian people.
The country’s wealth belongs to the people and must return to it.
Over the past three decades this tyrannical regime corrupted the country’s largest estates to a small handful of business leaders and foreign companies. 100 families own more than 90 per cent of the country’s wealth. They monopolize the wealth of the Egyptian people through policies of privatization, looting of power and the alliance with Capital. They have turned the majority of the Egyptian people to the poor, landless and unemployed.
Factories wrecked and sold dirt cheap must go back to the people.
We want the nationalization of companies, land and property looted by this bunch. As long as our resources remain in their hands we will not be able to completely get rid of this system. Economic slavery is the other face of political tyranny. We will not be able to cope with unemployment and achieve a fair minimum wage for a decent living without restoring the wealth of the people from this gang.
We will not accept to be guard dogs of America and Israel.
This system does not stand alone. Mubarak, as a dictator, was a servant and client directly acting for the sake of the interests of [the United States] and Israel. Egypt acted as a colony of [the United States], participated directly in the siege of the Palestinian people, made the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace free zones for warships and fighter jets that destroyed and killed the Iraqi people and sold gas to Israel, dirt cheap, while stifling the Egyptian people by soaring prices. Revolution must restore Egypt’s independence, dignity and leadership in the region.
The revolution is a popular revolution.
This is not a revolution of the elite, political parties or religious groups. Egypt’s youth, students, workers and the poor are the owners of this revolution. In recent days a lot of elites, parties and so-called symbols have begun trying to ride the wave of revolution and hijack it from their rightful owners. The only symbols are the martyrs of our revolution and our young people who have been steadfast in the field. We will not allow them to take control of our revolution and claim that they represent us. We will choose to represent ourselves and represent the martyrs who were killed and their blood paid the price for the salvation of the system.
A people’s army is the army that protects the revolution.
Everyone asks: “Is the army with the people or against them?” The army is not a single block. The interests of soldiers and junior officers are the same as the interests of the masses. But the senior officers are Mubarak’s men, chosen carefully to protect his regime of corruption, wealth and tyranny. It is an integral part of the system.
This army is no longer the people’s army. This army is not the one which defeated the Zionist enemy in October 1973. This army is closely associated with [the United States] and Israel. Its role is to protect Israel, not the people. Yes we want to win the soldiers for the revolution. But we must not be fooled by slogans that “the army is on our side”. The army will either suppress the demonstrations directly, or restructure the police to play this role.
Form revolutionary councils urgently.
This revolution has surpassed our greatest expectations. Nobody expected to see these numbers. Nobody expected that Egyptians would be this brave in the face of the police. Nobody can say that we did not force the dictator to retreat. Nobody can say that a transformation did not happen in Middan el Tahrir.
What we need right now is to push for the socioeconomic demands as part of our demands, so that the person sitting in his home knows that we are fighting for their rights. We need to organixe ourselves into popular committees which elects its higher councils democratically, and from below. These councils must form a higher council which includes delegates of all the tendencies. We must elect a higher council of people who represent us, and in whom we trust. We call for the formation of popular councils in Middan Tahrir, and in all the cities of Egypt.
Call to Egyptian workers to join the ranks of the revolution.
The demonstrations and protests have played a key role in igniting and continuing our revolution. Now we need the workers. They can seal the fate of the regime. Not only by participating in the demonstrations, but by organizing a general strike in all the vital industries and large corporations.
The regime can afford to wait out the sit-ins and demonstrations for days and weeks, but it cannot last beyond a few hours if workers use strikes as a weapon. Strike on the railways, on public transport, the airports and large industrial companies! Egyptian workers! On behalf of the rebellious youth, and on behalf of the blood of our martyrs, join the ranks of the revolution, use your power and victory will be ours!
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The Tale of the Pale Horseman
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
Tags
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OK, this is weird…
Over at The Blaze, you’ll find this video that some say shows a pale horseman riding through the crowd.
When an eerie, pale-green image appeared in a recent Euronews report on the Egyptian unrest, some bloggers asked an interesting question: “Is this the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?” Foxnation.com, a news aggregation division of Fox, picked up on the story and repeated the same question. But while video does show something odd, the way some covered the story is overshadowing the story itself. First the video (the anomaly occurs at about 1:20):
Here’s the vid:
What do YOU think? Could it be connected with this?
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Been to the supermarket lately?
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
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Last night I sent out an email to all on my list about the rising price of food in our supermarkets. It included a post by Director Blue. This morning, as I was hearing Glenn Beck — in a lead in to a commercial spot for a food storage company — give out some facts and figures about how much food prices have risen, I was reading the responses to my email. (I’ve included them at the end of this post).
Friends,
I went shopping for groceries last Friday — green peppers were $1.24 each — at Walmart! No peppers for me this week. Lucky to have onions… Below explains why, and that’s not even counting higher prices coming due to increased fuel costs at the pumps — Andrea
I forget: is the proper term global warming or climate change? Either way, the following memo from food giant Sysco appears rather dire (PDF).
All of our growers have invoked the act of god clause on our contracts (force majuere) due to the following release:
The extreme freezing temperatures hit a very broad section of major growing regions in Mexico, from Hermosillo in the north all the way south to Los Mochis and even south of Culiacan. The early reports are still coming in but most are showing losses of crops in the range of 80 to 100%.
Even shade house product was hit by the extremely cold temps. It will take 7-10 days to have a clearer picture from growers and field supervisors, but these growing regions haven’t had cold like this in over a half century.
This time of year, Mexico supplies a significant percent of North America’s row crop vegetables such as green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, peppers, asparagus, and round and roma tomatoes.
Florida normally is a major supplier for these items as well but they have already been struck with severe freeze damage in December and January and up until now have had to purchase product out of Mexico to fill their commitments; that is no longer an option.
With the series of weather disasters that have occurred in both of these major growing areas, we will experience immediate volatile prices, expected limited availability, and mediocre quality at best.
This will not only have an immediate impact on supplies, but because of very strong blossom drops, this will also impact supplies 30 – 60 days from now. Some growers are meeting with their boards right now to determine whether they should immediately re-plant, hoping for a harvest by late-march-to-early-april, or whether they should disc the fields under and wait for another season.
We are doing everything we can with our growers to minimize the effect of this disaster on you. With the unprecedented magnitude of this event we wanted to immediately make you aware of the conditions. We will continue to send out communications as our people on the ground report back to us. We thank you and we appreciate your understanding during this time.
Tiffiny wrote: “I was in Walmart and they had this sign posted to say there were manufacturer shortages. Funny… well not so funny.”
Susan: “I buy local produce from the green markets. So much cheaper AND it keeps the money local with the small biz!!!”
Vic: “Interesting release. I bought a 50lb bag of onions at work (Sam’s) on Saturday. They come in 10′s or 50′s. I noted we were out of 50′s but and the price of the ten’s had gone up about 25%. I went in the back and an palate had just come in with bags of the 10′s in 50lb sacks. So I got a bag of 5 and got the 50lb. price. 20 lbs. for free. Hey who said men weren’t frugal shoppers. Our 6 pack of green peppers are still. $5.96. Glad we grow and freeze our own green beans. The victory gardens are going to have to make a comeback this year.”
Bob: “Try this: http://www.survivalseedbank.com/”
TMH: “Hey – try $2.50 for a pepper here in Idaho. We got you beat. Not good…”
Patti: “Try to shop at the PRODUCE PLACE on Wickham and Pineda.They are cheaper,better and the owners are Patriots.”
(Read others comments at my post at Free Republic. Some good suggestions there.)
What is happening in your supermarkets? Are you cutting back and making your food dollars stretch? How?
At the checkout, I chatted with a woman in line who told me she’s now making things “from scratch”. It’s cheaper that way, she said.
How you’re coping with rising food prices?
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Where we’re headed…
14 Monday Feb 2011
Posted in American Spirit
