I suppose I should comment on President Bush's latest tax cut proposal. I'm against it for the following reasons:
1) a lowered tax revenue due to a faltering stock market and ecomony. Those so called budget surpluses were estimates based on a continuing strong economy.
2) it doesn't address the Alternative Minimum Tax, which affects more and more people every year.
3) if the US is fighting a war on terrorism, doesn't it take money to fight this war? What about increasing spending for the new Homeland Security Department?
4) I read somewhere that the proposed war on Iraq is estimated at costing $4 billion. I know the Iraq war plan includes seizing the Iraqi oil fields to help pay for the war, but the logistics of the seizure don't make sense. Even if we could seize the oil fields, how do we pay for the war till then?
5) don't we need money to pay for a possible war with North Korea?
6) The UK Telegraph is reporting that America is veering towards the biggest hole ever in its government finances as the cost of tax cuts and increased military spending threaten to unsettle the world's largest economy.
Need I say more? It's just like budgeting at home. More money going out than coming in makes for a bad financial situation at home and for our federal government.
Monday, January 13, 2003
I love making my own croutons for salads. They taste so much better than the stuff you can buy in the store. I feel so Martha Stewartie when I do this.
I take my favorite bread, Grace Baking Pugliese (italian country bread), and let it sit around till it's hard. Then I cut bread up into cubes, pour two tablespoons of light olive oil and lots of this seasoning called Garlic & Herbs. The seasoning is so tasty, you don't even need salt. Then I toss the bread cubes in the oil and seasoning, and then roast them till they're crunchy. YUMMY!
I got the gist of the recipe from this woman I used to work with, when I first moved here, who eventually started her own catering business. She gave me such a great recipe!
I take my favorite bread, Grace Baking Pugliese (italian country bread), and let it sit around till it's hard. Then I cut bread up into cubes, pour two tablespoons of light olive oil and lots of this seasoning called Garlic & Herbs. The seasoning is so tasty, you don't even need salt. Then I toss the bread cubes in the oil and seasoning, and then roast them till they're crunchy. YUMMY!
I got the gist of the recipe from this woman I used to work with, when I first moved here, who eventually started her own catering business. She gave me such a great recipe!
I'm taking advantage of San Francisco's Dining About Town 2003, and have reservations at Hawthorne Lane, Bacar and the Pacific Restaurant at the Pan Pacific Hotel. I've always wanted to check out the Pan Pacific Hotel, so this is my excuse.
On Saturday I had lunch at Postrio, which was great. The menu lunch prices weren't that bad, and I'll probably eat there again when I'm downtown shopping.
I'm trying to decide if I want to spend more money and try Boulevard, and go back to Farralon. Farralon is a great restaurant; beautifully decorated and heavenly food. I want to try restaurants I've never been to, and although I've been to Farralon before, I just love this restaurant.
The money that's spent goes to Meals on Wheels, a service that delivers meals to homebound elderly people. It's a fun way to donate money to charity as well as try new restaurants for budget prices.
On Saturday, there was an event at Union Square Park to kick off Dine About Town 2003. I heard something about it on the radio, but forgot and made reservations to eat at Postrio. For $10, you could go into a tent and sample food from all the participating restaurants as well as meet the chefs. I was bummed out, but the lines were really long to get in so that made me feel better about not going.
For entertainment, they had a band made up of restaurant people including Joey Altman from the Food Network. Altman isn't a bad guitar player! He's also much better looking in person, than he is on TV. Too bad that accent of his annoys me to no end.
On Saturday I had lunch at Postrio, which was great. The menu lunch prices weren't that bad, and I'll probably eat there again when I'm downtown shopping.
I'm trying to decide if I want to spend more money and try Boulevard, and go back to Farralon. Farralon is a great restaurant; beautifully decorated and heavenly food. I want to try restaurants I've never been to, and although I've been to Farralon before, I just love this restaurant.
The money that's spent goes to Meals on Wheels, a service that delivers meals to homebound elderly people. It's a fun way to donate money to charity as well as try new restaurants for budget prices.
On Saturday, there was an event at Union Square Park to kick off Dine About Town 2003. I heard something about it on the radio, but forgot and made reservations to eat at Postrio. For $10, you could go into a tent and sample food from all the participating restaurants as well as meet the chefs. I was bummed out, but the lines were really long to get in so that made me feel better about not going.
For entertainment, they had a band made up of restaurant people including Joey Altman from the Food Network. Altman isn't a bad guitar player! He's also much better looking in person, than he is on TV. Too bad that accent of his annoys me to no end.
Sunday, January 12, 2003
A scary article from the New York Times via Yahoo on the catholic priest sex abuse problem, Trail of Pain in Church Crisis Leads to Nearly Every Diocese.
Points I found interesting and horrifying at the same time:
¶The data show that priests secretly violated vulnerable youth long before the first victims sued the church and went public in 1984 in Louisiana. Some incidents date from the 1930's and 1940's.
"This has been going on for decades, probably centuries," said Richard K. O'Connor, a former Dominican priest who says he was one of 10 boys sexually assaulted by three priests in a South Bronx parish in 1940, when he was 10. "It's just that all of a sudden, they got caught."
¶Half of the priests in the database were accused of molesting more than one minor, and 16 percent are suspected of having had five or more victims.
¶Eighty percent of the priests were accused of molesting boys. The percentage is nearly the opposite for laypeople accused of abuse; their victims are mostly girls.
¶While the majority of the priests were accused of molesting teenagers only, 43 percent were accused of molesting children 12 and younger. Experts in sexual disorders say the likeliest repeat offenders are those who abuse prepubescent children and boys.
¶The survey also shows how pervasive the abuse has been. Using information from court records, news reports, church documents and interviews, the survey found accusations of abuses in all but 16 of the 177 Latin Rite dioceses in the United States.
¶The church is still covering up cases. Despite the pressure on bishops over the last year to reveal the extent of the abuse, some refused to release the number of accusations or the names of the accused priests.
One question keeps echoing through my head - what if they didn't get caught ... how long would the catholic church have allowed this go on if no one had said anything?
Points I found interesting and horrifying at the same time:
¶The data show that priests secretly violated vulnerable youth long before the first victims sued the church and went public in 1984 in Louisiana. Some incidents date from the 1930's and 1940's.
"This has been going on for decades, probably centuries," said Richard K. O'Connor, a former Dominican priest who says he was one of 10 boys sexually assaulted by three priests in a South Bronx parish in 1940, when he was 10. "It's just that all of a sudden, they got caught."
¶Half of the priests in the database were accused of molesting more than one minor, and 16 percent are suspected of having had five or more victims.
¶Eighty percent of the priests were accused of molesting boys. The percentage is nearly the opposite for laypeople accused of abuse; their victims are mostly girls.
¶While the majority of the priests were accused of molesting teenagers only, 43 percent were accused of molesting children 12 and younger. Experts in sexual disorders say the likeliest repeat offenders are those who abuse prepubescent children and boys.
¶The survey also shows how pervasive the abuse has been. Using information from court records, news reports, church documents and interviews, the survey found accusations of abuses in all but 16 of the 177 Latin Rite dioceses in the United States.
¶The church is still covering up cases. Despite the pressure on bishops over the last year to reveal the extent of the abuse, some refused to release the number of accusations or the names of the accused priests.
One question keeps echoing through my head - what if they didn't get caught ... how long would the catholic church have allowed this go on if no one had said anything?
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