John Stossel and the Food Police

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I left a comment on John’s blog concerning this issue. You see, this takes away individual responsibility and opens the door for the government to rule every aspect of your life. That’s just what we need in this country now…less individual responsibility…NOT!

At first glance I’m sure there will be many who will say, “Dude, this is a great idea!” A lot are the same people that march in “protest marches” against “the Man”, “Big Brother” and “the evil Empire” known as the US government. So, now they want to let “the Man” manage your table and diet.

A wise man said, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8

This particular issues steams me on a personal level. You see for years I was extremely thin…anorexic actually. I counted every calorie that went into my body and walked at the track and rode my exercise bike as much as 30 miles a day, but never less than 5 miles. I was obsessed.

But, then life…Mother Nature or fate intervened. At the age of 28 I had my first episode of NON-smoking lung cancer…in my right lung. Thirteen years later, a second episode struck my body, this time in my left lung. I had absolutely none of the risk factors for cancer in general and lung cancer in particular. No, none! I had never lived with a smoker, picked up a cigarette…blah, blah, blah… You tell me why…doctors are stumped…unless…

Unless the cancer is related to the several autoimmune disorders that decided to attack my body at a fairly young age. These illness attack internal organs…

The next thing that started happening was rounds and rounds of different types of medications prescribed by the very supposedly health conscience doctors attending my illnesses. There’s one thing they don’t tell you about these medications…many of them have hidden side effects…one in particular…weight gain.

Oh yeah, it happens. So, even though I have always tried to maintain a healthy diet and stay as active as my disease ridden body will allow, I gained weight on these meds. I’m not the only one this has happened too. Who can forget the shock the world expressed when they saw comedian Jerry Lewis in 2002 after he revealed poor health and the side effects the medications caused on his body. At least a 45 pound weight gain…

So, I say, “fat tax”? No way!! How about taking that discrimination and putting it where the sun doesn’t shine?

© 2010 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Global Warming Knoxville Style, by Beverly Hicks Burch

Our young friend Dustin sent me a picture the other night. He had taken the pic on the slow way home from work Thursday night during a winter weather event. He told me most of the roads all looked like parking lots.

Yeah, I know, it may not look like a lot to you folks buried under several feet of snow, but here in the South an inch can close a city down. Were just not prepared for the stuff, Not much money…or equipment of that fact in city budgets for snow removal…

Snow in Knoxville, TN Jan. 2010

John Coleman on Global Warming

Many of you might not know who John Coleman is. Well, he is the founder of The Weather Channel and a seasoned meteorologist. Today I was made aware of a really interesting presentation of Mr. Coleman’s. I’d like to share it…I think it takes guts to go against the grain and share what is being suppressed by the mainstream

The Great Deep Freeze, by Beverly Hicks Burch

The Great Deep Freeze

By Beverly Hicks Burch

How many of you are old enough to remember the 1970s or for that fact the very first Earth Day? Unfortunately I can say I remember that dreadful decade. I mean give me a break…the clothes…the colors…the hairstyles…Studio 54 and disco!! Disco alone is the one thing that should have lead to mankind’s extinction and annihilation.

My “coming of age” era is not one of the golden oldies to look back on, not like the Roaring `20s, the 1940s – also known as the Greatest Generation, the Rock n’ Rock era of the 1950s or, heck, even the Gold Rush and Old West Days of yesterday. I mean really, who’s going to look back and say, “Man, I really, really miss those 1970s!!”? Uh, don’t think so…

One thing I distinctly remember was the approaching mass hysteria…especially in our beloved media concerning the impending, encroaching, foreboding new Ice Age! (Read that last sentence with your voice gradually rising to high pitch hysteria at the end, please.) The ever “cause” loving Time Magazine joined the bandwagon with an article on June 24, 1974 entitled “Science: Another Ice Age?”

I highly urge and recommend you click through and read this revealing article. Why? Well, according to this article meteorologist of the world had been interviewed and all agreed that the temperature across the globe had plummeted for three (3) straight decades on an average on 2.7°F. Yes, my friends, they were talking global cooling!

One researcher found that the snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere had increased by 12% in 1971 alone and in regions of the Canadian Arctic, areas that used to snow free during the summer now had snow year round.

The article goes on further to say that the world’s temps had only been has high as they were at the time (in 1974) 5% of the time and that over time the Earth had gone through at least seven glacial periods that covered most of the planet. But, according to a climatologist at the University of Toronto named Kenneth Hare there was an impending disaster facing earth inhabitants worse than the forecasted Ice Age. The foreseen shadow was a threatened shortfall in worldwide crops and food supplies for mankind. According to Hare…quote, “I don’t believe that the world’s present population is sustainable if there are more than three years like 1972 in a row.”

Errr, well, dang guess he missed that one. A few more years than three have passed since 1972…or 1974 for that fact…

So, what’s the point? Well, maybe “know it alls” don’t really know it all! And maybe sometimes the “facts” they use are wrong, skewed and maybe even misguided. For instance, the current “global warming” dogma is largely based on info and junk science that doesn’t really have all the real facts and data to back it.

Recently it came to light that a Penn State researcher named Mike Mann had hidden and suppressed facts and used “tricks” over the years to make the “facts” fit his data or maybe we should say his desired results. Kinda like cheating on an exam, isn’t it? Mann who is the director of the Penn State Earth Science Center went as far as suggesting to others that emails be deleted that might otherwise contradict him. What a Prince!

If you would like some real facts on global warming I would highly recommend a UK website on the subject.

Now I don’t know about yall, but this global warming is freezing my tatas off! I can’t remember when I’ve been this cold…well, maybe not since the 1970s… Here in Alabama (Roll Tide by the way) we had snow before Christmas and the temps since Christmas have been frigid. No, I don’t mean by Alabama standards…I mean by even Minnesota standards…you know wind chills near 0! One evening this week one little town where T & H and I use to live had an overnight low of 8°. Yes, in Alabama! The high here tomorrow is going to be about 29.

Today we had more frozen precip to move through. They were predicting about 1 – 3 inches, but we managed to dodge that bullet…this time at least. I got off the phone with my sweet “adopted” son, Dustin in Knoxville and it was snowing like crazy there. He said the roads were like parking lots and there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Yep, folks…♪we’re having a heat wave…a tropical heat wave♪…

By the way, remember that reference to Earth Day? Well, did you know one of the primary concerns of the first Earth Day was global cooling? Oh yeah, buried in news archives are protest pictures of tree huggers carrying signs warning us all of global cooling and how we were all going the way of the dinosaur because of it. Just keep that in mind this upcoming Earth Day when you see apocalyptic global warming signs waved in your face by this generation’s tree huggers and you make Al Gore a little fatter and wealthier by buying his “carbon credit”.

I snapped a couple of pictures this morning and thought you might like to see what global warming looks like in Alabama…

Snow falling in central Alabama…

Tall & Handsome’s beloved grill freezes it burners off

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

I’ll pass on the seat…

© 2010 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

At The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro: New Year, New Dish – Spanish Tortilla, by Beverly Hicks Burch

At The BamaSteelMagnolia™ – New Year, New Dish…Spanish Tortilla

By Beverly Hicks Burch

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s hoping this year will bring all of us better news and “change” than we’ve had in 2009. I don’t know about you, but 17% unemployment in this country is totally unacceptable and this “global warming” is freezing my tata’s off!

Here at the Burch house we’ve celebrated Christmas, our anniversary, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day…and my birthday. Whew! Add a move, unpacking and a bug of some sort and I started the New Year a sick puppy:(.

Tall & Handsome and I did have a chance to try a new recipe for the new year. It’s a recipe I found shortly before Christmas and have had on the back list of “things to do” since then. Well, today proved just the day for that recipe.

Check out New Year, New Recipe – Spanish Tortilla over at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s™ Bistro. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this hearty comfort food during this deep freeze we’re in!

A slice of hearty Spanish Tortilla

© 2010 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Gifts From the Kitchen – at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s Bistro

If your looking for some last minute gift ideas, I’ve got some great “gifts from the kitchen” over at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro. Check out Bean Soup Mix, Bev’s Savory Cheese Ball, Nuts and Bolts, and Rocky Road candy.

At The BamaSteelMagnolia’s Bistro today…Bev’s Southern Style Sweet Potato Casserole

Today over at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s™ Bistro I’m offering on the menu a recipe for Bev’s Southern Style Sweet Potato Casserole. This is one of my tried and true recipes I’ve been cooking (especially during the holidays) for 30 years are more. Hope you enjoy…and Merry Christmas!

Heartbreak at Christmas, by Beverly Hicks Burch

Heartbreak at Christmas

By Beverly Hicks Burch

There must have been an almost deafening silence after an explosion and collision of sounds of metal grinding against metal, glass shattering and tires squealing. And in the aftermath of that collision one little angel laid thrown from the mangled vehicle and the other was battered and bruised inside with the lifeless body of her once vibrant and adoring mother.

What happened…how could this happen? These were the questions I asked myself Friday afternoon after I took a phone call from my little Momma. I could tell by the sound of her voice that something was amiss.

She had called earlier in the day with the news that the Christmas Day order from Honeybaked Ham had arrived totally wrong and mismatched with what she and Daddy had ordered. On top of that Honeybaked had no intentions of rectifying the wrong. So, the family network had to go into gear to put Christmas dinner back on track.

But, this call was different… T & H and I were downstairs working, unpacking trying to get that space put slowly into something that resembles normal. First, Mom gave me an update on Christmas dinner, but then she asked where Tall & Handsome was. That was odd, and when I told her he was right there with me and asked why she wanted to know she got very, very quiet. Finally she said, “I have some bad, bad, bad news.”

“Oh dear God”, I thought. One of them is terminally ill.

“Momma, what’s wrong?”

“Honey, there was a bad wreck Wednesday evening and Mandy was killed.”

And, there it was…heartbreak at Christmas. I was instantly sick to my stomach. Mom had few details except that Mandy was dead and the kids were hurt and one of them had been airlifted to the hospital. The proverbial rain kept pouring because at the hospital when a MRI was perform on the son prior to his proposed released, a tumor was found on the little fellow’s brain. How much can a family take? And why now?!

Later in the day more details began to unfold. Mandy was lost almost immediately at the scene…her injuries were just that severe. The little boy was thrown from the car but blessedly the injuries were non-life threatening…there was just the new found tumor to deal with. The daughter sustained bumps, bruises and a black eye…and I’m sure a tattered heart and spirit.

Mandy was almost a month past her 34^th birthday. Way too young to leave this world. Things like this are called “accidents”…a pickup truck plows into a small four door sedan loaded with a young Mom and two young children…and changes lives forever. It just seems like there should be a better word than “accident”.

I met Mandy about 10 years ago when she was engaged to and married my son’s best friend…the guy I called my red-headed step child for years. Mandy and I were close for years and she was there for me in some difficult times…when Gomez left. She saw bruises he left on my neck and shoulders and she saw what he put me through.

I was there when she found out she was expecting her first child…and when that baby was born. There was many a night when the three of them came over for dinner and just a fun evening. Mandy felt comfortable enough to visit in the winter in her comfy PJ’s. We would sit in front of the fire place, prop our feet up on the hearth and bare our souls with girl talk. She was there when I met T & H.

She started her career as a stylist and wherever I’ve lived, I’ve always said Mandy was the only one that could give me a really good haircut. But, she was so much more than that. She was brighter and smarter than she realized…and I made a point in telling her that whenever I could. I could tell she was a budding computer techie and was able to give her a computer I no longer needed. Just as I suspected she exceeded what many expected…

Mandy was vibrant, happy, cheerful, loved her kids and loved her God. And, there is a hole in many, many people’s lives today.

On Saturday people gathered to celebrate her life…and they did, but sometimes in grief people do things that are unexplainable…otherwise, why would they try to tear families apart?

I saw this very thing happen in 1973 when my own much beloved aunt died in August of that year in yet another “accident”. She was taking her middle school teen Sunday School class to Six Flags Over Georgia. There were several carloads going that hot August day. My aunt’s car was loaded with five teens. Her son was traveling in another car. That was a blessing in disguise because a tractor trailer truck inexplicably hit my aunt’s car killing her and four of those teens. Not only did her son witness her death, but even today as an adult he suffers from the turmoil of custody issues. Nothing good comes from situations born in anger…

Mandy and I had grown apart and lost touch over the years other than an occasional “howdy” through MySpace. T & H and I have made about six work related moves. Mandy moved a few times and went through some pretty intense personal stuff herself. Knowing her I can’t help but feel she would be extremely troubled by this heartbreak at Christmas. Somehow I think Mandy would be more inclined to heed the words of Solomon:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.

Proverbs 3:5-8 NASB

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Curry Chicken with Apples and Rice at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro

Over at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro today I’m serving up a recipe for a yummy curry dish that’s full of flavor and color. Click over and give Curry Chicken with Apples with Rice a look.

Bev’s Golden Pecan Pie at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro

Just in time for Christmas an easy to make recipe for Pecan Pie! Check out Bev’s Golden Pecan Pie over at The BamaSteelMagnolia’s(TM) Bistro.