K.T. Pinto's Blog, page 60

I love this picture:

Red Fox catching mouse under snow
With his exceptional hearing a red fox has targeted a mouse hidden under 2 feet of crusted snow. Springing high in the air he breaks through the crusted spring snow with his nose and his body is completely vertical as he grabs the mouse under the snow. (Photo and caption by Micheal Eastman/National Geographic Photo Contest)

KT's First Newsletter of 2013!

I finally found a site that creates newsletters that's in my price range (aka: nothing!)

Here is the first newsletter I sent out today using this program:

Newsletter #1

Enjoy!

Really not the right thing to say...

When the president was interviewed on "Meet the Press" today, he said of the tragedy of Newtown, CT: "This is something that, you know, that was the worst day of my presidency," he said.

Really? The worst day? Yes, it was terrible. Inhumane and horrible. But the worst day? Apparently the president thinks nothing has happened over the past four years - January 2009 to current day - that could be up there in the 'worst' category. For example:

* Fort Hood, November 5th, 2009: a single gunman killed 13 people and wounded 29 others on a military base.

* Binghamton, N.Y., immigration center, April 3, 2009: 13 killed

* Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, Arizona, Jan. 8, 2011: wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six.

* Aurora, Colo., theater, July 20, 2012: 12 dead and 58 wounded

* The Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, April 16, 2007: killed 32 people and wounded 17 others

* Benghazi, in Libya, September 11, 2012: Four people killed, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, ten injured.

Oh, and then there was that small little rainstorm called SUPERSTORM SANDY, October 2012. Sandy killed at least 125 people in the United States. That includes 60 in New York — 48 of them in New York City — 34 in New Jersey and 16 in Pennsylvania. At least seven people died in West Virginia, where the storm dropped heavy snow. Sandy killed 71 people in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti. (stats for the storm from this site)

This list doesn't include the tornado disasters in the midwest and the fires in the west... nor all the murders, deadly accidents, suicides and terror scares that occur regularly, or that pesky war thing we've had going non-stop for YEARS...

My point? The president shouldn't use a term like "worst day". It belittles all that happened before and sounds a bit like he's challenging the crazy people.

QotD

If there's nothing wrong with me, then there's something wrong with the universe.
- Dr. Beverly Crusher, Remember Me, Star Trek: TNG

That's kind of how I feel most days...

NORAD's Christmas Story

Why would a North American command center that usually is looking out for threats to the air and water turn its attention to jolly Saint Nick? It all started back in 1955, when a local Sears Roebuck & Co. catalog that promised a Santa hotline misprinted the number. Instead of Santa, callers got Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD.

Calls going into the command center were generally red alerts from the secretary of defense or even the president. Instead, a little girl on the other end of the line asked for Santa. Col. Harry Shoup, who was working on Christmas Eve, knew a call to service when he heard one. He instructed staff members to check the radar for signs of Santa. And the tradition has continued ever since.

From this article.

I didn't know that! Macy's affects the holidays once again!

Iiiiiiiiiit'ssssss COOKIES!!!

Saturday, October December 22nd was my official COOKIE DAY!

I baked, baked, baked all day, going out of my comfort zone to make some traditional family recipes that I haven't tried before.




Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies!

You would think I'd have made these before, but I hadn't, especially the crispy kind.


Nut Cups

This is Nanny's recipe, which I've made before. They don't last very long...



Fruitcake Cookies

These are my favorites, more so because I got my anti-fruitcake family to fall in yum with them!
These are for Pops; he doesn't like citron.




These are the ones with citron (candied fruit) in them.



This is a better picture of another batch. They came out crispy this year.
Wish I knew how I was doing that...




I wasn't going to post this picture, but then I saw the vampyre cookie in the lower right corner.




This looks like Play-Doh, but it's actually cream-cheese-cookie dough.





I used a cookie press to make these. It was a little tough getting them out of the tray.



So I used more colors and more disks in the press.



I wasn't sure what shapes the disks actually made, so that's why the purple wreaths.



I used this disk because they looked like hot dogs. I'm not sure what they're supposed to be...



Then I used tall the dough remnants from the press and made these!


These are all the cookies I made...




But wait!



There's more!


Believe me when I say I was EXHAUSTED when I was done!

QotD

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

- Rebecca West
The author of The Return of the Soldier was born on this day in 1892.

Hmm... was that it?

So, my toaster burnt the bread to a blackened mess and then melted in a cloud of smoke.
If that's the apocalypse, that was rather lower-keyed than I thought it would be...


Shown actual size

QotD

When the KKK steps in as the voice of reason, you know you are dealing with the bottom-of-the-barrel crazy.

- Kimberley Johnson, Liberals Unite Magazine

QotD

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.


My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crib, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her: “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said: “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein