LOOSE LIPS

During WWII, the caution was " Loose lips Sink Ships", which was a warning to military and defense workers to guard their tongues lest the information be leaked to the and cause loss of secrecy and cost lives

The caution seems to fit today's haranguing of Iran and their supposed nuclear ambitions. Too many public officials and law makers are making irresponsible accusations and inflammatory remarks about Iran, their leadership and threat to peace in the Middle East .

It is not surprising that Hillary Rodham Clinton is shooting off her mouth--she is hardly known for her veracity or her sense of responsibility , but others are also taking up the chant about Iran. "It seems to me We've heard that song before. . "

Ref: " How to Stumble into a War--Loose Lips on Iran" by Ray McGovern, www. Counterpunch.com

Mr. McGovern writes:

"I believe we need a new poster, because loose lips can also sink whole countries — including our own.

This is a lesson that members of Congress and Washington's media honchos should have learned from the disastrous invasion of Iraq; especially the ones whose lips helped President George W. Bush portray Saddam Hussein as a monster bristling with “weapons of mass destruction.”

In that time frame, of course, cooperating with Bush was “the smart play” for one’s career, even for many Democrats and liberal opinion leaders. But those politicians and pundits now should share responsibility for having allowed Bush to mislead the nation into a war that has maimed and killed thousands of American soldiers, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, with millions more driven from their homes into fetid refugee camps. The complicit lawmakers also helped sail the American ship of state into a vast iceberg of debt.

In Washington, however, holding such powerful people accountable has become what former White House counsel and then Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, would call “quaint” or “obsolete” — like adhering to the Geneva Conventions.

The same kind of macho language (by no means limited to testosterone-laden men) is coming from lips of lawmakers who think that hyping the “threat” from Iran will position them well in winning an election (or perhaps buy some street cred with some campaign funders or the media mainstream).

Then and today, however, it was not just Tarzans who were spoiling for a fight in the Middle East, but some Janes—in particular, Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat who was a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of the Iraq invasion.[ Add this name, Jane Harman from California, to the list of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein , dingbats one and all]From her position on the Intelligence Committee, Harman was better positioned than most of her colleagues to know that Bush was hyping or inventing the evidence of Iraq’s alleged WMD, but she still joined the stampede to war. Inventing evidence? Sadly true.

After the invasion and an exhaustive bipartisan investigation, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller concluded that the Bush/Cheney administration “presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent.”[emphasis added]

Speaking on the House floor on April 22, Harman said:

“I am often asked to name those countries I think pose the greatest threat to the security of our country and the world. … My answer every time is Iran, Iran, Iran. … Given its myopic obsession with the destruction of Israel … and its implacable, duplicitous march toward a nuclear weapons capability, in my view no other country comes close.”

To punish Iran for its speculative interest in nuclear weapons, Harman called for sanctions to “cripple Iran’s ability to import refined petroleum products.” (As a Harvard-educated lawyer, she should be aware that, under international law, such a blockade would be an act of war. It also would inflict widespread hardship on the Iranian people.)

Hillary in a press conference in Quatar was just as vocal: "Part of the goal … we were pursuing was to try to influence the Iranian decision regarding whether or not to pursue a nuclear weapon. And, as I said in my speech … the evidence is accumulating that that [pursuing a nuclear weapon] is exactly what they are trying to do, which is deeply concerning, because it doesn't directly threaten the United States, but it directly threatens a lot of our friends, allies, and partners here in this region and beyond.”

The 'friend' she spoke of is the United States' nemesis and provoker Israel, who ceaselessly campaigns for our involvement in their foreign relation goals. These people are courting the favor of this foreign state for political or monetary favor.

So please stop already with the inflammatory talk-- Foreigners are listening!

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi,[andJane Harman] they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

Columnist Burt Prelutsky, LA Times

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

HOW CAPITALISM DIED

Ref: Darryl Schoon's excellent article: "America at the Crossroads and the War on Gold" Financial Sense University--www. Financial Sense.com May 4, 2010. His writings are always well researched and lend the balance of history of money and finance to erudite essays. The following paragraphs are excerpted from the referenced article:

"The explosion of debt allowed by Volker’s removal of gold in 1971 has now reached extraordinary levels. In 1971, US debt was $436 billion. Today, US government obligations exceed one hundred trillion dollars. Tethering the dollar to gold was the one constraint on US spending. Volker eliminated that constraint thus enabling the US to indebt itself ad infinitum—and it did.

When US banking and financial interests repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, it reopened the doors to another depression, doors that had been sealed since the 1930s. Prior to its repeal in 1999, Congressman John Dingall (D-Mich) whose father helped write Glass-Steagall in 1933 warned:

What we are creating now is a group of institutions which are too big to fail... Taxpayers are going to be called upon to cure the failures we are creating tonight, and it is going to cost a lot of money, and it is coming.

Congressman Dingall’s warnings were ignored by both republicans and democrats. The republican-sponsored bill to repeal Glass-Steagall was passed overwhelmingly in the House by both parties (362-57) and in the Senate (90-8) effectively enslaving America’s future generations, gratis of a $300 million lobbying effort by banks and insurance companies.

Once again, both republicans and democrats sold out the nation’s future and allowed banks to bet the savings of America, this time with obscene leverage of 40:1 and more. Not surprisingly when the banks bet the house and lost, the house collapsed.

Recently, President Barack Obama went to Wall Street to ask for help in reforming the financial system. Asking Wall Street’s help with financial reform is akin to Neville Chamberlain asking Hitler to assist in redrawing Europe’s borders. The current effort is designed not to fix the system, but to continue it."

Much like in 1913 the Creature from Jeckyl Island, the Federal Reserve was sold to us by the heads of the big banks as the answer to the power of the money interests to control our country.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

BEST CADILLAC EVER MADE

1993--1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham--last of the great ones.

America saw the last of what made Detroit and America the envy of the world in 1996. General Motors had succumbed to the small car fad and ceased to be the leaders in the luxury car field. The people wanted the small throw away cars and the behemoth tall

SUVs which could climb over curbing when you came home late at night.

GM was going , going and almost gone, but putting their best together, the fleetwood and the brougham they created their finest, before the lamp went out.

The Beautiful last of the true luxury automobiles with the corvette 260HP LTl engine that take this 4400 pound car to 60 mph in 10 seconds. The car gets an astounding 24 mpg on the highway. The car has all the bells and whistles and power equipment. AM/FM radio with cassette player or CD. Opera and courtesy lights with lighted make- up mirrors for front and rear seat passengers. A trunk so large you can carry all your luggage and Grandma too.

. An incredible machine with an incomparable ride--the best model Cadillac ever made. Someone dubbed it: A corvette in a tuxedo

SPECIFICATIONS

ENGINE: 5.7-liter V-8

HORSEPOWER/TORQUE : 260 hp @4800 rpml3 30 ft. lb. @ 2400 rpm

TRANSMISSION: Four-speed automatic

FUEL ECONOMY: 17 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, 15.3 mpg test

WHEELBASE: 121.5 in.

OVERALL LENGTH: 225.0 in.

OVERALL HEIGHT: 57.1 in.

OVERALL WIDTH: 78.0 in.

CURB WEIGHT: 4451 Ibs.

FUEL CAPACITY: 23.0 gal.

LUG&AGE CAPACITY: 21.1 cu. ft.

TIRES: P235/70R15

INSTRUMENTS: Speedometer, fuel level, water temperature.

EQUIPMENT: Electronic level control, cruise control, traction control,

ABS, dual air bags, power windows, power mirrors,

power seats with memory, Twilight Sentinel,

AM/FM stereo with cassette, leather seats.

STICKER PRICE: $41,855.

There is still a few around with low mileage, but collectors are grabbing them up. It is not too late to get yours.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

"WE NEED TO OPERATE"

Dr. William C. Douglass II writes in " Daily Dose", May 2, 2010 ,

"I bet I can tell if your doctor is going to recommend surgery before you even sign in at the front desk.

You don't have to be the Amazing Kreskin to figure it out: If the doc has an ownership stake in an outpatient surgical clinic, you can bet all the magazines in the waiting room that he'll be itching to get you under his knife.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System looked at patients in Florida who were given one of five common outpatient surgeries. Then, they checked to see if the docs who did the work had an ownership stake in the facility. Surprise, surprise: Owner-docs operated 50 percent more than non-owners, according to the study published in Health Affairs. What's more, they also found that docs who didn't have an ownership share at first saw a big boost in caseload after they bought in."

It is a triple play, because the doc gets a fee for the surgery, a share of the clinic's profits, and finally the business appreciation because the investment

in the clinic is worth more because of more business.

These surgical clinics are popping up everywhere, an increase by 50% over the past decade and 83% are owned by doctors. "It's the money, stupid!"

What ever happened to ethics or the Hypocratic Oath of 'do no harm'? These things have all but disappeared along with house calls. Government intervention in health care with the hand maiden, Private health care insurance have had unintended consequences.

Are all doctors greedy and self serving? Is the medical community corrupt?

No, not at all. They suffer from over work , over government regulation and the constant threat of lawsuits from unfettered attorneys. Can we ever get back to the ethical practise of medicine? Or for that matter an ethical legal system?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

More FED SHENANIGANS

Perhaps you suspected, but didn't really know.

To support the housing market by keeping the mortgage rates low the government,

who doesn't like the free market of capitalism, but prefers to intercede to make the outcome more politically palatable, has entered the market to purchase mortgage securities from banks.

Here is how it works:

The bank who makes a mortgage (with money it does not necessarily have) then packages this mortgage with others and offers it as a mortgage backed security,

which before the interceding, would have been sold at market rates of interest ,i.e. higher rates. But instead it is sold to the Federal Reserve at artificially lower rates.

Where does the federal reserve get the money to purchase these securities? It doesn't get it from the Treasury, nor from Congressional Authority. Yes, the money is created from nothing or "out of thin air", and shows up on the books of the lending bank and Federal Reserve as a Reserve Balance.

This money is being created silently all of the time and no one knows the amount of it, just part of the swollen assets of the Federal Reserve and an insidious dilution of our dollars. Of the $12 Trillion U.S.bank Assets, $1.3Trilllion are phantom numbers- they are there, but are not real.

From: Daniel Amerman, www.SafeHave.com, April 29, 2010

". . .the Fed's ability to create money is also likely the eventual source of funding for unsustainable federal government deficits, for financial system bailouts to come, and for future derivatives bailouts. Ultimately, the Federal Reserve is the likely source of repayment for the bailouts of Medicare and Social Security, to the extent these bailouts cost more than taxes can realistically raise. And when the time comes for an already bankrupt US Federal Government to bail the bankrupt states out of their pension fund insolvencies (as well as the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation),

the Federal Reserve is also likely to be the ultimate source.

. . There's a long history of nations creating money out of the nothingness in times of perceived national need. It's an infamous history. Well-known examples include the continental dollars issued by the US Continental Congress during the Revolutionary war. Other international examples include Weimar Republic Germany, several episodes in Argentina, as well as modern Zimbabwe. Monetization has a very long history. And that history is one of almost always ending badly, usually very badly for a nation's savers and retirees.

. . There are, however, some unprecedented features to this particular monetization. For 97 years, since its creation in 1913, the Federal Reserve has been able to openly manipulating investment markets by paying banks in reserve balances - but it has never done so. Not in any prior crisis on any significant scale. And there have been plenty of crises, including the Great Depression, World War I and World War II. Yet the Federal Reserve has never resorted to doing this before on a massive scale, and the reason is that for responsible economists (unlike the current Federal Reserve) this is terrifying and risky stuff. When a nation stops worrying about taxes or bonds, and just starts creating money without limit for political purposes - we know what usually happens."

Who benefits and who loses with this dilution of the value of money? First, lenders lose and borrowers gain with cheaper money, but even if it affects all with price inflation, ultimately those who have saved and the fixed income pensioners are most affected. The FED with no authorization or transparency by you or your representatives is cheating and robbing you and your families, so that it may appear that all is well and we are "recovering" from the economic downturn.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

YUM YUM

CRISPY POTATO CHICKEN

1 cut up fryer chicken or 3 large split chicken breasts

1 cp buttermilk

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 Tsp black pepper

1 Tsp bay seasoning mix

1 tsp salt

1Tsp grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp red pepper (opt.)

4/4 cp melted butter

2 Tsp oilve oil

1 egg

1cp potato buds ( dried potato flakes

Pull off skin of chicken. Place in large sealable bag or marinating container with buttermilk, garlic,black pepper, bay seasoning and salt. Allow to marinate at least 2 hours, or overnight if possible.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Drain marinade. Mix parmesan, garlic salt,paprika, garlic powder and red pepper ( if using), add to bag and shake until chicken pieces are well coated.

Mix melted butter and olive oil and coat bottom of 13x9x2" baking dish.

Whisk egg in small bowl with 2Tps water.

Dip chicken in egg mixture and roll in potato buds.

Bake for 30 min.Turn pieces over and bake for 30 min . more or until juices run clear.

Yum yum, eat 'em up.

The above picture and recipe was extracted from the May 2010 edition of the

Texas Co-op Power magazine, from an article written by Kevin Hargis.

Our family has not tried this dish yet, but it looked so good it belonged on the comncents blog. We hope you try it and enjoy it with our good wishes.

SORRY, THE BLOGSPOT COULD NOT PROPERLY HANDLE PHOTO AND TEXT. PLEASE EXCUSE THE DISORGANIZED INGREDIENT LIST,

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

BOYS ARE NOT BECOMING MEN

REF:"Boys Don't Automatically Become Men" by Joel Hiliker,www.theTrumpet.com, 4/28/10

" Increasing numbers of boys have no clue how to be men. It is common to see grown boys who have cultivated no drive or ambition, no moral conviction, no ability or even desire to lead, and no bodily strength. They have few salable skills and a poor work ethic. They haven’t been taught any sense of honor toward women or responsibility toward children, nor of duty to provide for or protect them."

These roles for men, encompassing values, traits and duties used to be taught in the home. Father was the head of the house and was responsible for putting a roof over the family and food on the table. Mother was the homemaker, child rearer and keeper of togetherness. Her skills for detail, budgeting and grace provided the glue for the family, allowing, compromising and loving. Mother was home to greet the children returning from school.

This is a very disturbing and distressing result of our contemporary culture. When women "became men" in the late '50s and early 60's, they stormed into the workforce to get the things they wanted for themselves and families. Yes, at first they had menial jobs with low pay as compared to the men, then came the ERA, and hiring quotas. Later they were allowed into the military in combat roles. Education provided them with opportunity for executive and professional jobs.

"For 28 years running, more women have received college degrees than men, and the gap has widened every year. U.S. Census figures revealed last week that all told, more American women than men now hold undergraduate degrees. Women have also pulled even with men in advanced degrees, and could pass them this year."

"The education gap has also helped to flip the traditional family of a breadwinning father and homemaking mother on its head. Only one in five American families with children have a working dad and stay-at-home mom. The majority of America’s workforce is now female. In fact, nearly 40 percent of moms are their family’s primary breadwinner.

“How do you manage not to emasculate your husband?” a Telegraph reporter asked a friend who out-earns her husband. “I don’t manage,” was the answer. “If we disagree about how money is spent, I decide because it’s my money, and he hates it".

" Statistics suggest. . that men are settling into their diminished role as providers. “The idea that men see themselves as breadwinners is collapsing,” says Rob Williams of the UK’s Fatherhood Institute. One short generation ago, 72 percent of men believed a man should provide his family’s primary income and a woman should be the family’s primary caretaker and homemaker. Today only 42 percent of men believe that."

"It’s a shame. Because those traditional roles were not arbitrarily concocted by a primitive society. They were assigned by the Being who created human beings and made them male and female. . . The fact is, God is the source of everything that makes men men and women women. He designed differences in physique, in emotions, in intellectual and psychological composition. He is the author of masculinity and femininity. For the sake of order and organization, God created men to fulfill one role within the family and within society, and created women to fill a different and beautifully complementary role."

"This same God also prophesied that in our day, society would suffer curses as that order was disrupted—as men abdicated their responsibilities, women filled the leadership void, and ungovernable children oppressed them all . We are living that prophecy today."

Isaiah 3:12

O my people! Their oppressors are children,

and women rule over them.

O my people! Those who guide you lead you astray.

And confuse the direction of your paths.

Our culture or system got all screwed up somewhere along the way. We let greed get ahead of need and want. Money and things became more important than virtue and honor. Debt became a way of life and our successfulness was measured by our credit score.

We have been deceived.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN