New Danger In Fried Foods

Check out the label on this Happy Meal box.

Its crazy!!! Its like the label on cigarettes. I once saw a comedian talk about the cigarette industry being cocky. They can put a label on their product telling you its gonna kill you and you shouldn't buy their product but they know people will buy them anyway. He said it much funnier. You had to be there.

That's what I thought of when I saw this Happy Meal picture. People will still feed this to their children.

I'm not a fan of McDonald's foods by any means but I say Kudos to them for putting that on the label. They didn't have to. As they've stated, the FDA doesn't tell us that there's anything wrong with fried foods other than saturated fat causing cholesterol.

*as an aside, it occurs to me that maybe the FDA is really trying to slowly kill us off with food....hmmmmm....makes ya think.*

I was reading another article somewhere about this very issue...fried foods, not the FDA conspiracy that I don't have time to prove. In the article, it stated that a by product of turning foods, mostly starchy foods, into a  golden brown is acrylamide, a chemical thats been shown to cause cancer. I know....that really sucks. I just wrote an article a few weeks ago about which oils are safe to cook with and then I wrote about some super delicious homemade eggrolls. Now, I can't eat them anymore. They were really good too!!! I even bought some duck fat (very expensive by the way and not nearly as tasty as bacon grease!)

So now we need to be careful eating any starchy foods that have been either fried or baked to a golden brown color. Yes, even baked!! Baked and boiled potatoes are still healthy to eat, but not fried. No baked breads either. This is all pretty new information, I think. So it takes me a minute to wrap my head around it. I'm sure more research is on the way and I'll be looking it into further.

Just know that its out there

Lurking behind your mama's fried potatoes and dinner rolls (And biscuits!!!! Crap, I forgot about biscuits...Dangit!)

Offering up a worse punishment than having to graduate up into your fat pants!

Beware. Seriously. Be aware.

More Spending???

Okay, our president is at it again!!!

More spending!!

Hey! I have an idea. Why not just go into a corner and beat your head against the wall and see how that works out.
Seriously, it can't be any worse than what he's doing.
What I wonder about (daily) is if he spends so much money because he thinks he really is helping our nation (and it keeps failing) or if he's just such a socialist (and dare I say Muslim, perhaps radical?) that he is purposely spending so much in an attempt to ruin our nation, in which case he has been highly successful!

Before anyone gets their ponytail in a spin, this is not a post about the possibility that our president is a radical muslim. I think you all know by now how I feel about the whole "radical" qualifier but I'm willing to concede the point as I'm not an expert on such matters.

This post is about our president continuing to spend money as if we have it! Not only that, he's spending money on losing propositions. Here's the latest:

He's going to spend 1 million dollars to house 12 homeless people............


Read that again. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Uh.....yeah.

Get it?

Okay, now get this. The county in Maryland is going to use that money and put it with 3 million of their own tax dollars and build an apartment complex for them.

Awww....how sweet. They get a gym and a computer center too. Yeah, because you know those homeless people like to get their workouts on and then Twitter with their homies when they are done.
Okay, that was kinda mean. But, the cost of this housing for them is $330,000/year.

Are you spending $330,000/ year on YOUR housing? Well, if you are and you can afford it, kudos! But, I'll bet you work your butt off to be able to do that. I don't!

I'm all for helping the homeless, put a roof over their heads, and food in their bellies, with dignity even, not like the horrible housing in the movie Pursuit Of Happyness.

But, 4 MILLION DOLLARS FOR 12 PEOPLE????

What are people thinking???? How can that be productive? And what about all the other homeless? What happens to them? Why are they still living in boxes on the streets while those 12 are "movin on up" to Swaggerville?

Heres a novel idea. Instead of paying $4 mill for housing for 12 homeless people, Offer the $4 mill to people who create the most jobs in this country! Make it a contest. I guarantee, that we'd have massive amounts of jobs created.

Why not reward the people that are creative, hard working, and successful instead of punishing them by taking away their hard earned money via taxes? Instead, this government rewards the losers in life. I know that's mean too and I hate to say it. I feel sorry for them. I do. I truly do. I don't want them on the streets and I would gladly be willing to pay for shelters, foods, and JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS! But, 4 million is WAY over the top when there are real, hard working americans out there barely scraping by because jobs are scarce.

Its just another example of stupidity, overspending, and yes, socialism in our government. And personally, I'm getting really tired of it.

Tolerance

I don't know about ya'll but I'm getting really tired of people telling me that I need to be "tolerant".
What I want to know, at this point, is WHY??? And who the heck are these tolerant police tolerant of themselves anyway?

There's a big difference between being cautious and an intolerant, racist, bigot. I have no problem whatsoever with people from the middle east. I love the whole zen buddhist and hindu philosophies as a whole. They are very peaceful and loving religions and there is a lot of overlap with christian principles so I think there must be some truth in all these teachings. HOWEVER, islam is NOT a peaceful, loving religion. their teachings are based on intolerance, deceit, and hate. So, why on earth, are we being told to be tolerant of them.

The same people claiming that we need to be tolerant of the muslim faith and all their antics are also going around bashing Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, George W. Bush, and Fox News. I don't understand any of that. Truly. It occurs to me that people are offended by anyone with strong views that differ from their own. But, seriously, Dr Laura???? She espouses raising healthy kids, intact families, and having morals and values that your mother should have taught you anyway. What's so offensive about that???
Glenn Beck talks on his show about preserving our freedom. Why does that "scare the crap" out of people? We want the muslims to have the freedom to build a monument to their killing and destruction, but we shouldn't have the freedom to say we don't like it. Why is our freedom offensive but their freedom is not?
Fox News does have a little right wing slant. So. Big Deal. I know they are slanted to the right, but the mainstream network news are all slanted to left. So, why is Fox News offensive, but the liberal love fest is not?
And finally, George W. Bush. That one truly baffles me. My one complaint about him is that he was not conservative enough. When he campaigned for president, he said he wanted to reach across the aisle and govern with non-partisanship. Boy, did he ever do that. And the liberals absolutely HATED him. They also hate any of the Democrats that sometimes vote right.

So, back to the tolerance issue. Why are we expected to be tolerant of EVERYTHING these days? What if you had a friend that was being beaten by her husband. Should we be tolerant of his abuse and tell her she's just being hateful for wanting to take away his right to beat her. Or....would we be angry and offended and want to whip his ass? What if another friend had a kid that came to your house and ran amok, screaming and throwing tantrums, pulling your child's hair, breaking toys, etc. Should we be tolerant of that behavior? Or...would we ask our friend not to allow her child to do that in our home? I think you can see where this is going so I'll stop the scenarios right there.

I was reading Dr. Laura's blog the other day and this caught my eye.

Mohammad Mukhtar, a cleric and candidate for the Afghan parliament in the September 18th election, in reaction to the news reports of the September 11th Koran burning set to take place at a Florida church said:







“It is the duty of Muslims to react. When their holy book Quran gets burned in public, then there is nothing left. If this happens, I think the first and most important reaction will be that wherever Americans are seen, they will be killed. No matter where they will be in the world, they will be killed.”

It's my understanding that we still live in America. I don't agree with burning holy books, or any books for that matter. Nor do I agree with people burning our flag.  But, I absolutely respect the right that an American has to do those things. I would never want laws passed that keeps a person from expressing their views. I also don't want our nation to be so "tolerant" of others that we have to give up our own beliefs.
There is also a movement beginning to start that wants us as a nation to become sharia law compliant. If you don't know what that is, it's the law that governs muslims. You see, there is no separation of church and state in the muslim faith. So, basically, if we are to be tolerant of their religion then we must also be tolerant of their laws, sharia law. Under sharia law, a man can beat and kill his wife and children if he deems it necessary under his religion. According to that religion he is just in doing so. That sounds barbaric doesn't it? Well, it is. But, there are some judges in our own country who are pushing for sharia law compliance. In fact, one such case just happened where a man killed his wife and was aquitted because it fit into his religious beliefs. Luckily, that ruling was overturned. Again, we're still in America right? So, if we are to be tolerant of this man's religion, we have to give up our own beliefs. We have to turn our back on the Constitution of The United States. We don't allow people to kill in our country. We have a rule of law. We offer protection and freedom to those who come into our country legally (don't even get me started on that!).

So, basically what I'm seeing is that we're supposed to be tolerant of muslim men and no one else. We're supposed to be tolerant of those that want to take from us and give to others. We're supposed to lay down, be quiet and allow our Constitution to be trampled on or else, we're greedy, hateful, intolerant, racist, bigots.

Well, I'm tired of being "tolerant". I know what I believe in. I believe in freedom, family, morals, decency, and values. And I for one, will not be silenced by the people who wish to take those from me.

Who Are The Radical Muslims??

This may be offensive to some but I think we as a nation are too worried about offending people. If we have something that needs to be said, then just come out with it!

Unless, of course, you want to tell me I'm fat. Then keep it to yourself please!! :)

I was having a facebook debate with someone else's friend about politics earlier today and yesterday. BTW, it's important I think not to berate your friend's friends. It's just rude. Say what you want to say in a polite, concise manner. Not only is respectful to your friend, but people will listen to what you have to say.

One of the contentious points this lady was making was that we should not be biased against Muslims simply because they are Muslim. It would be equivalent to hating Christians because of what Timothy McVeigh did. Well, I contend that that is just flat out WRONG!!!

Timothy McVeigh wasn't acting in concert with a group of Christians to kill another religious group. He was a mentally disturbed guy who had a problem with his own government and decided to bomb a government building. It was a terrorist act in my opinion but not exactly the same thing and I'll tell you why.

The Muslim faith states that a good Muslim is to kill the infidels (Christians) and tolerate the Jews as naughty children. Well, we know that Muslim terrorists also kill Jews because we see it in the news everyday. I read the Koran in college and it stated that quite clearly. I'm not making this up!! It is naive to think that if only Christians and everyone else would be supportive and tolerant of the Muslims they won't want to kill us. It is all our fault!! That's just nuts!

Did you know that the president of our United States created some multi-religion outreach program. The interesting thing about this is that the only religion represented is Muslim. Muslim Imams go out and speak with other Imams. Hmmmmmm....that's doesn't really smack of diversity and tolerance. Where are the Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian leaders?

Does it not bother people that groups of Muslim terrorists are killing christians, jews, buddhists, and hindus all in the name of their faith? And we are supposed to "tolerate" that? Not only that, there is no separation of church and state in Muslim countries. So to be truly tolerant of Muslims we must allow them to follow their own laws while in our country. That may or may not sound crazy to you but there are actual public officials and judges that would like us to become Sharia Law compliant. That is a smack in the face to our constitution! Under Sharia Law a woman has no rights! So, immigrants can come here looking for a better life.......unless you're a woman....then you're screwed! A family can migrate here and if they are Muslim, the husband will be allowed to beat his wife and children if we deems it necessary and they would have no legal recourse. That is just barbaric and backwards! Why would we allow that? Why would we WANT to is what I want to know.

I submit that the radical muslims are NOT the ones killing in the name of Allah! I submit, because I READ IT IN THE KORAN, that the radicals are the ones not killing people!!!! Also, have you noticed that no "peace loving" Muslims are standing up denouncing the terrorist acts of other Muslims??? Suspicious, huh?

Also, have you noticed that there are no groups of Christians killing groups of people in the name of God? There are no groups of Buddhists, Hindus, or Jews forming sleeper cells in other countries so they can bomb other faiths? It seems that is limited to the Muslim faith, but we aren't supposed to say anything so as not to offend them. Why is that? I think it's because our country has gotten so soft, that we're scared of them!

I'm tired of people calling me a bigot, racist, or intolerant because I'm cautious of the Muslims and because I don't want a president apologizing for me for standing up in my beliefs!!! I think he should represent my beliefs because that is what he's hired to do!!!

On the upside, illegal immigration is down.

They look at our country and think "Ah, it's not so great anymore." 

That makes me sad.

Holiday Weekend

Happy Independence Day!!!!!!!

It's 4th of July weekend and guess what I'm doing? Well, of course, right now I'm blogging. But, I'm just taking a break from what I was doing earlier, which was working!!! I'm a little cranky and bitter about that.

I know there are lots of other people working today and not complaining about it. But, the difference is that they got a day off during the week. I didn't. I'm not blaming anyone for it and I really have no one to be cranky AT. I'm just very tired. No one is making me work. I chose to do it, because I own my business. That is what this post is about, really. It's not about me complaining about being exhausted and working anyway. However, if you want to feel a little sorry for me while you're swimming and cooking out that would be appreciated! :) Just a little "awwwwww".

It's about those of us who own our businesses. We scrimp. We save. We re-invest our money and work sometimes seven days a week, 12 hours a day to build a business and a better life for ourselves and our families. Here's a little history about my work schedule.

We used to live northeast of McKinney, Texas where I was the fitness coordinator for the McKinney Family YMCA. I loved it. We moved to Gainesville, Texas where the only place to workout was Bosco's Gym. I taught aerobics, did a little personal training, and homeschooled our son. I loved it! We then decided to start our own company, Pearson Pools, a swimming pool service business. This is where the real work begins!!

We started by running an ad in the local newspaper advertising our service and bought about $300 in supplies. That was the start of our company. I learned how to do all the service work and over the years hired a few people to help us out, mostly in the summer as you can imagine. Melanie has been with us since about year 2 and is truly a God-send! Our business has steadily grown over the years and at our 5 year anniversary we opened a retail store. That was exciting and scary all at the same time. I had been telling my husband for years that the store would do well. He is very cautious and conservative and was a little afraid to quit his job and jump in. He lost his job last year selling cars for GM (Government Motors) and that was the perfect time to open the store. It's time to sink or swim! Ha! funny, huh? Get it, a swimming pool business.....sink or swim.....? Oh well, never mind!

So, we've now had the store open for a little over a year and it's been fantastically busy. The winter was a little skinny but we've been able to keep food on the table and a roof over our head. So, our business continues to grow and bank account is starting to look a little better and we are working ourselves ragged to keep it going. The ultimate goal is to grow it big enough to hire more people to take over some of our responsibilities so we can have regular days off. But, right now, a lot of our money goes into savings.

Okay, so that's where we are in the business. We are saving money because at home, all 1200 sq ft of it, my son's bathroom needs to be re-modeled. The tub leaks and there is mold growing in his walls. The flooring in the whole house needs to be replaced. The kitchen sports some old linoleum while the living room is just plywood at the moment. There is carpet in the bedrooms but it really needs to go as well. The back door has fallen off and has to stay shut and locked so we don't have a huge, gaping hole in the wall where there is supposed to be a door. The siding is literally eroding away and every single tree on our 9 acre property needs to be trimmed. AND..... and... to top it all off we are watching an old tv that really belongs to my son (we commandered it from his room. I think I'll get him a nice one for his birthday coming up). The tv was free and is old and the picture is now completely washed out and we have no more tivo!!! Oh, the humanity!!!!!

We haven't taken time off or a vacation since we started the business, either.

I know lots of entrepreneurs are in the same boat as us. That is just part of it. You have to work really hard now so you can take a little break later. We're still in the work really hard phase. But, it seems like we're getting close to being able to take a break and get help repairing the house. We are even talking about booking a cruise in February!!!!

Isn't that the American Dream?? Save, work hard, and reward yourself???

It seems there's been a shift in our country. People are living on credit cards, taking the vacation first, and then working for it. The problem with that is when you reward yourself first, you have no incentive to work for it anymore......It's gone! You are left paying for nothing.

Millions of people are doing that very thing. They play and buy nice things for their homes. Build bigger and better homes and THEN pay for it. They have a hard time paying for these things and then expect the government to pay for those things for them. It's sad, because more and more people are falling into that trap.

They fall into that trap and then people like me (working on a holiday) are left holding the bag and have to pay for it.

So many, in fact, that a president who believes that "those who can, should pay for those that can't" gets elected to ruin  run our country. I submit that it should be phrased differently. It should be phrased "those who will and those who won't". Not everyone today is going to get up, get dressed, leave the lake or the grill and go do some work.!

There's real hope though!!! There is a movement that wants to take back America and all that she stands for! The Tea Party movement is a massive group of Americans that believe in the Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance. We, who work and save, are called radicals to those that believe "they can't". We are not radicals. We are the backbone of this nation.  We love our country. We love the principles that this country was founded on and we are willing to fight for it. God Bless America!!

Now, I have to go back to work.

We got change all right!

My brother married a girl he really didn't know very well. She was a little negative, needy, and very manipulative. We tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. We welcomed her in all our family functions, hugged her, and hung out with her. No one ever said they didn't like her, but my brother one day asked me to tell him why the family wasn't as in love with her as he was. I said (BIG MISTAKE here on my part) "Since you asked, I'll tell you. She's a little negative. She speaks badly of everyone in the family. It's not endearing." To which he replied, "She's just repeating what others in the family are saying!!!" It doesn't matter! Families can bicker, fight, and disagree. But, families will defend each other, by God, to outsiders.

This my friends is the point I'm making.....Our president is going to other countries and leaders and speaking badly of us. It's disgusting and absolutely traitorous!

The Mexican president spent an afternoon lecturing our president about our immigration policies. How dare he!! Our president spent the afternoon telling him he's right and we have no right to enforce our own laws. Double how dare he!!

Firstly, Arizona's law is not new. It's simply a way to enforce a federal law already in place.

Secondly, it very specifically prevents any sort of discrimination. The major Washington critics of the new law admitted they haven't even read it. They adamently oppose it and its something they wouldn't support but they don't even really know what's in it. This little bit of information is extremely important. It tells me they're a bunch of buffoons!! I don't know about you, but I'm getting more than a little irritated at my elected representatives passing laws and speaking for me to other countries without knowing what they're even talking about. They apparently can't read in Washington!! They apparently don't listen either! The majority of Americans are supportive of Arizona's new law.

Thirdly, Mexico doesn't give us carte blanche in their country. If you're there illegally, they put you in jail and deport you! Without due process.

Fourthly, it needed to be done. Arizona has the highest rate of illegals, kidnapping, and drug trafficking. Are we not going to allow them to defend themselves?? Again, it is already a federal law!! They didn't create some half baked, redneck law to go round up everybody that might be from another country! They simply created a law that allowed them to enforce a law that is already in place. Police officers already ask for ID when they pull you over. WE as citizens already have to show identification if we get stopped by the police. Should we now refuse and claim that its discriminatory??

And lastly (deep breath here because its a biggie) they are here ILLEGALLY!!
Why, oh why in God's name do the liberals want them here?? The very fact that they are here is demonstrative of the fact, they don't feel a need to assimilate and follow our laws. If they did they would go through the proper channels and come here legally like immigrants have done for hundreds of years.

At what point, then, do you draw the line? You can come into our country illegally but you can't steal anything. You can sell drugs but you can't be a prostitute. You can steal but you can't murder. You can murder but you can't write hot checks.
It makes no sense. So, then if we allow them to break one law how do we prevent them from breaking all our other laws?

Not only that, thanks to our great leaders in Washington, all the illegals are emboldened. They're protesting on our streets and claiming that we owe them healthcare, education, social security and citizenship. Honestly, I don't, at this point, know why they even want to be citizens. They apparently have more rights than we do! And they get it all paid for by those of us who are following the rules and abiding by the laws.

And the leader of the American people should have our back!!
He just threw us under the bus the Mexican president was driving. SHAME ON HIM!!

....one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.


Btw, my brother and his wife are no longer married in case you were wondering. It didn't have anything to do with us!! As it turns out, she...... oh, never mind. Its a long story and they should be the ones to tell it. :b