How to Make a Perfect BLT

That’s right- a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich! It’s a cool, sunny, late summer day. I’ve been waiting all summer for this BLT - today is the day! It was not a good year for tomatoes in New England, but I managed to salvage a few large beefsteak tomatoes. They’re marbled through and through with bright red flesh, unlike anything you can buy in a store- except possibly at a farmer’s market.

Here’s how I do it:
Pick your best tomatoes. They should be large enough for one slice to completely cover a large piece of bread. Slice them thick, a half-inch or so, and lay the slices on a paper towel to drain out some water.

If you have a lettuce garden, run out to the garden and pick a handful of lettuce, otherwise take the store bought stuff out of the fridge and wash a few leaves, then pat dry. I prefer baby lettuce.

Get two iron skillets going on medium low heat- one for the bread and the other for the bacon. The bacon and the bread should be cooked at about the same time- 10 to 12 minutes or so.

Select your favorite bread- today I used a large coarse multigrain- and spread soft butter on the outside of each slice. Put them together, like a sandwich without a filling, butter side out on the skillet at medium low heat. Flip it over when it turns golden brown and crispy- about 5-6 minutes.

Cook the bacon at the same time on the other skillet. You need really good quality bacon. I like extra thick cut bacon. (My wife likes it thin and crispy). I’m lucky to be able to get North Country Smokehouse bacon locally from Claremont, NH. (You can buy it on-line too) It’s smoked with apple wood- the smoky flavor is strong, but very pleasing to the senses. It’s also very lean and cut very thick so you can really sink your teeth into it. Add a little extra coarse ground pepper to the bacon and cook it slowly on the skillet at medium low. I use 2 slices per sandwich.


Assemble the Masterpiece:
Place the bread on a plate, grilled sides down. Smear mayo on both slices. (A purest would make their mayo, but I don’t) Place the lettuce on one slice, then the tomato slice, and top with a couple slices of bacon.


Put it together, cut it in two, and enjoy it with someone so you can tell each other how good it is!!
Here’s a video of the final taste test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0IwkFwj4Sk

Rest in Peace Senator Kennedy

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this man? Forgive me for trying. I believe the world is a better place because of him. It’s interesting how greatness seems to come from those whom we least expect. When I was young I didn’t care for the man. I changed my political views over time, becoming more liberal, but he didn’t. He was steadfast. As the years went by I grew to appreciate what he stood for and how effective he was; unwavering in his convictions; always fighting the good fight and winning more than not. They say no one is indispensable, but for now there is a void. For now anyway, there is no Senator to pick up the mantle for the liberal cause and carry on as he did.

Rest in peace Senator Kennedy.

What I’d Ask Politicians at a Town Hall on Health Care

My Congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter is holding two town hall meetings today to answer questions about the proposed health care reform. I won’t be there, but if I could ask a question, these are my concerns:

Opponents say we will have “Death Panels” and the Government will decide when to “pull the plug on grandma”. Is this true?

Opponents say the health care system isn’t broken and we should leave it alone. That means we should allow private insurance companies to cancel policies when people get sick, and deny them coverage with pre-existing conditions, so they can go bankrupt paying their medical bills. Do you agree with this status quo?

Opponents say the 46 million people who are not insured either chose not to buy it, or they’re illegal aliens. Is this true?

Opponents say the proposed health reform will hurt Medicare service and quality. The Republicans really love their single payer Medicare and don’t want the Democrats to mess with it.) Is this true?

Opponents say the proposed public option will cover illegal aliens. Is this true?

Opponents say the Government will pay for abortions on the public option. Is this true?

Opponents say the proposed health reform will put a government bureaucrat (instead of an insurance bureaucrat) between you and your doctor. Is this true?

Opponents say the proposed public option is a stalking horse for socialized single payer and 170 million people currently on employer paid insurance will eventually lose their private insurance. Is this true?

Opponents say the proposed health care reform will increase the deficit? Is this true?

In fact, none of these assertions are true, but that doesn’t stop opponents (mostly Republicans) from being disingenuous and continuing to use fear to block health care reform. I hope Americans will have the good sense to see past these attacks and support health care reform that benefits everyone.

Health Care Debate- Fear Trumps Logic

NPR has a good article on this. You can read it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112315433 , but here's my take on it.

Fear has always been the tactic of choice to dissuade, deny, and defeat health care reform. It’s not new. It was first proposed in 1915. Opponents said that national health insurance was a plot by the German Emperor to take over the United States.

In the late 1940s, the American Medical Association ran ads saying that national health insurance would lead to the Red Army marching through our streets; Communism would take over the United States.

In 1991, The Health Insurance lobby was in control by then, and ran “Harry and Louise” ads expressing doubt and fear about how changes to health insurance would hurt “middle America”. It worked.

And so it goes today. Now we have the Republicans talking about “death panels”, care for illegal aliens, public paid abortions, scaring seniors about losing Medicare, and on and on.

The battle for health care reform continues, and the tactics of fear, half-truths and lies by opponents of health reform continues too.

Is the Road to Green Energy a Driveway or a Highway?

What is the best model for power generation- a supergrid highway power distribution with few sources or a billion sources with no grid? Solar power is our largest source of green energy, but how do we make it work 24/7?

The biggest draw back to solar power is that we only get energy when the sun shines. We can develop storage systems or create an international smart grid. It’s daytime somewhere. The areas of the earth that have daylight could provide electricity to the areas in the dark. We would need to work together and become mutually trusting of other people to make it happen. That could take a while- like a few generations, and a trillion dollars, but it’s possible. The large corporations would make a lot of money moving energy around on this super-highway grid. It’s not a very satisfying approach though, and we’d still be dependent on large energy corporations.

The other end of the spectrum in power generation is having everybody be local and independent of everyone else. This makes more sense, because we wouldn’t need the trillion dollar grid to implement it. We need to invent better energy storage systems, but they would be smaller in scale, and if we could redirect the grid money into local generation and storage it would be more efficient and kinder to the environment as well.

How do we convince the nation to develop a gridless energy system and keep your power in your driveway? It could start on a small scale and grow from experience. Start with a community, then expand to a town, then a county, then a region. Over time we could wean ourselves off of the grid and eliminate the need for it entirely. We need to work together to make this happen too. That could take a while- like a few generations, and a trillion dollars, but it’s worth the thought. I like this approach the best.

Eating Fried Clams in the Shadow of a Nuclear Power Plant

Tuesday we took a trip to the beach. I had never been to Salisbury State Beach in Mass, so we thought it would be fun to try something different. Hurricane Bill came by offshore on Sunday so the surf was still exciting. The beach is very impressive. It’s like Cape Cod, only closer. There is a long boardwalk over the sand dunes, but that just added to the atmosphere.

Later we went to Markey’s Lobster Pool in Seabrook Beach, just up the road. What a delightful place. We sat at a picnic table on the deck right at the water’s edge of the tide pool, watched the sun set over the silhouette of Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, and indulged in all sorts of fried food. When our food was ready, a girl announced through the loud speaker to pick up our food and said, “ Number 88, your fried food is ready!” We topped it off with ice cream cones and then drove home.

I got thinking, do we have the will to get to a zero carbon footprint? Think of all the wicked things in life we get simple pleasure from- like fried food. Not everyday, but like that special trip to the beach, fried food goes with it. I hope we can keep the simple, fun things in life when we get to a zero carbon footprint. I'd miss fried clams!

1978 Ford Pinto Goes 0 to 60 in 3.5 Seconds!

Not my 1972 Pinto! I loved that car anyway. It had a 4 cylinder engine, nice 4 speed stick shift on the floor, rack and pinion steering, and disk brakes- all unheard of in American cars at the time. It handled like a little British sports car. That’s because all of the parts came from a European English Ford. It got good gas mileage too- 30 mpg. Europe was serious about energy conservation even back then- we just laughed at them. We had the oil. They didn’t. Sorry for the digression, back to the fast Pinto…

So how did this guy do it? He cheated! He put an electric motor in his Pinto.

Check this out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112006313

As he said in the article, the only pollution from this car is the rubber burning when he accelerates! Wow, I wonder if all drag racers will go electric some day? What about NASCAR? Probably not- it’s not very macho. It would be like racing golf carts! And if the crowd could hear you talk, you’d have to have something to say besides “Drill baby drill!”

It just isn’t the same without the noise. The noise is half the fun. It stimulates the primal senses. I have a Harley. It goes very loud. When I was a kid, I clipped baseball cards on my bike with clothespins and made noise. That was cool. I wish I had those baseball cards today. I’m sure I clipped a $200,000 Mickey Mantle on there at least once.

I hope the lack of noise won’t kill the electric car. I will miss the purr of the engine when it accelerates. I suppose we could install boom box speakers and simulate the good ol’ days. Someday I’m going to have a plug-in electric car. I can’t wait, but I will miss the noise.

Afghanistan- President Obama’s Vietnam?

Iraq was not Vietnam. Afghanistan is. We need to face up to what’s going on. Look at the similarities:

Same tactics:
We fought rebels in South Vietnam, but the enemy was in North Vietnam. Today the rebels are Afghani Taliban, but our enemy is Al Qaeda, based in Pakistan. We say there are links between the two, but in reality the Taliban just want to control their country. While we don’t like what they're doing, why do we have to be in the middle of it? The Taliban forces are not Al Qaeda. Yes, they may be aided by Al Qaeda, but there is a distinction. Al Qaeda wants to harm us. I don't think the Taliban cares about us.


Same Outcome:
We initially got into Vietnam in 1963 and we were there for 12 years. It cost us dearly with American lives. We’ve been in Afghanistan for 8 years. I don’t think America can endure many more years of Americans making the supreme sacrifice in pursuit of a goal that has little direct meaning to America in the end.

We should get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. Things are getting worse.

Check out this story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24military.html?_r=1&hp

High Speed Rail- The Next Ideology Battle?

Opponents of high speed rail seem to want their freedom of movement with cars to go where they want, when they want, and keep big government out of their life. They seem to ignore the fact that the Interstate Highway System was initiated under President Eisenhower and it is still the largest government funded public works project in the history of mankind. It paid it’s own way through taxes and didn’t increase the national debt. If you’d like to experience what life would be like without it, try driving from Skowhegan, Maine to Burlington, Vermont- in the winter.

If we had a modern high speed rail system, then our freedom of movement by that means would also be available to us. Driving by car isn’t always a dream- I drove through New York City one day. It took me 4 hours to go 10 miles. I can understand why special interest groups, like car manufacturers and truckers may oppose high speed rail, but not the large majority of Americans.

Today, most of us choose between driving and flying. Why wouldn’t we want more options? Could it be because it's just one more thing President Obama is pushing, and his political opponents want him to fail, no matter how good it is for America? I'm affraid so.

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter held a Telephone Town Meeting

Congresswoman Shea-Porter held a telephone town meeting on health care reform last night. There were over 13,000 callers on the line. It was very informative. People asked tough questions and she gave thoughtful, detailed answers. After hearing the discussion I felt very comfortable with the health care reforms being proposed and I believe that all Americans will benefit from these reforms.

Some of the key features she highlighted are:

· If you like your current insurance plan, you can keep it
· You won’t be denied insurance coverage if you have pre-existing conditions
· Insurance companies will not be able to cancel your policy
· If you can’t afford insurance, you may qualify for assistance funding
· A public option, similar to Medicare, will be one of many options available
· A pool of private insurance plans will be available for people to select
· There are no “death panels”- doctors will be able to be reimbursed for consultations with patients regarding their final wishes- and the consultations are your’s to choose to have, only with your doctor, and no one else
· Medicare service will not be changed. Actions will address quality, redundancy and waste to reduce costs.
· Health Reform will not increase the national debt- it will have to pay it’s own way
· Some of the cost will be covered by a surcharge on people with incomes over $300,000
· Medicare Drug coverage will improve over a few years to reduce the “donut hole” currently in the plan
· All Americans who do not have insurance will now have the opportunity for coverage
· Half of the small businesses in America don’t provide health insurance to employees today- these people will now have insurance available to them
· Illegal aliens will not be covered by the public option
· The choice of private plans available to people will include companies that do and do not provide abortion funding
· The government paid public option will not cover abortions

I think these reforms are good for everyone. It will make us healthier and it will make America better.