From Brietbart - America Loves Stallone and Stallone Loves America

Over at the Big Hollywood site run by Brietbart they have a snippet of an interview that Stallone is giving at Aint It Cool News - a fanboy site for all things cinema.

It is great to here Sly's take on the action heroes of today (did anyone see Adrian Brody in Predators - come on!!) and what the 80's and early 90's action heroes epitomized about America.

Stallone's money quote is "...I believe that everything is a cycle. And once again America will have its cinematic heroes reflect the incredible honor it is to be defending the most extraordinary country the planet has ever known. Just give it time, everything is a cycle."

I hope Sly is right he we will move away from Adrian Brody and others who demonstrate more of a "feminized" version of the arch typical hero and get back to the awesomeness of Stallone, Willis, Arnold and others who did it right.

I for one am looking forward to the Expendables.

Tks to Big Hollywood for noting this great part of Stallone's interview.

Should you freeze coffee

I love coffee and am a fan of having the freshest coffee I can get. I have invested over the course of some years in a number of one cup brewers (current fav is the Keurig) and even have a french press. One misconception I have been under is that it is good to freeze coffee. Not so fast!!

This site makes a convincing case that it is not a good thing to put the coffee in the freezer. Quoting Coffeeam.com:

Some people store their coffee in the freezer thinking it is going to keep the coffee fresh. Here are a couple of reasons why storing coffee in your freezer is a bad idea:
Coffee is porous. This is a good thing for fans of flavored coffee as the beans absorb the coffee flavoring syrups and oils that are used to make flavored coffee. However, if given the chance, coffee can also absorb other things like the flavor of seafood or the moisture that your freezer produces. This moisture will in turn deteriorate the coffee and even make it taste like, well... like a freezer.
When coffee is roasted, the beans release their oils and essences to give the coffee its distinct flavor. You'll notice these oils are more prominent on dark-roasted coffee and espresso. When you break down these oils by freezing, you are removing the flavor.
Think about it...if coffee tasted better and fresher from the freezer, then you would buy it in the frozen food section, your local coffee shop might look more like an ice cream parlor, and our power bills would be through the roof trying to maintain a meat-locker the size of a warehouse.

So there you go. Coffee should not be stored in the freezer. A one time use of the freezer to store unground coffee beans is "ok" but for regular use, definitely not a good practice.

Hey I didn't know that.

Update - NAACP Racism

I had blogged recently about the condemnation of the Tea Party movement by the NAACP and I said (in part) that "Hopefully the NAACP is working within its own ranks to repudiate those racist elements in its own organization while it calls on other groups to do the same."

Well - here we go. FoxNews and others have a video of an earlier NAACP Freedom Fund banquet (March 2010) where an official in the Agriculture Department entertained the banquet attendees "...with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy".

How rich!! How diverse!! How truly sanctimonious can you get? By the way if you watch the video (up at Big Government) you hear the audience laugh when she describes her racist behavior and attitude. Are you kidding me?

FOXNews.com - Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer

Great quote from Alexis de Tocqueville

Great quote from Alexis de Tocqueville who once observed, "Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

I love that...

Great Article by Ben Stein

I was over at the American Spectator Website and saw this superb article by Ben Stein that I had to post here. Stein presents a view of the current president's actions that is (in his words)"worrisome", especially his demand that BP set up a $30 billion fund to compensate the victims of the current oil leak that is wrecking havoc in the Gulf of Mexico and associated coastlines.

To quote from the article:

"But the action of the President in demanding this immense transfer of the stockholders' wealth without any legislation or court decision is extremely worrisome.

We live in a Constitutional Republic. The President's job under the Constitution is to enforce the laws made by the elected Congress. His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself. His job is as magistrate under the Constitution, not as Caudillo. He is not the law. He is supposed to enforce what Congress decides.

The BP behavior is reminiscent of how, immediately after assuming office, Mr. Obama, with no Congressional authority or administrative allowance, simply made a phone call to fire the head of GM. When I called the White House press office to ask under what law or regulation Mr. Obama was acting, I was told he did not need a law. If the government put a lot of money into GM, it could call the shots at GM, I was told. But under what authority, I asked. "None needed," was the final answer."

In case you are wondering, "Caudillo" is a Spanish word for a political-military leader/dictator.

I have heard too many times folks in my day to day life call for the Government to do something "just because" (BP should pay up since they caused it) but we must remember that Government is not the solution and should not be viewed as some omniscient provider of good or social and economic justice. Too many of my fellow citizens now look to the Government to right the wrongs in their lives while the Government has no authority to do so...unless it is authority that they give up which is in essence giving up their freedom.

Kudos to Ben for a great article. Link below.

The American Spectator : Our Caudillo President

How to fix Tweetdeck & Adobe AIR links…

Argh - another issue that I have had with various twitter clients has (I think) been solved. I use Twhirl to keep up to date on Twitter feeds but was having an issue with the default browser selection. I am a fan of Firefox but wanted to keep Chrome as the default (easier to gmail links or post to blogger) and although i had Chrome as my default browser, clicking on links in Twhirl would launch Firefox.

Tks to Fred von Graf and his blog I now have a solution. Anyone that is finding similar issues with any of the Adobe Air applications (Seesmic, Tweetdeck, etc.) should try this solution. I had to implement the more advanced solution (edit the windows registry) but it does work.

Thanks Fred!!

How to fix Tweetdeck & Adobe AIR links…

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

I may have already posted this but one great feature that I like is the ability to send a webpage right to my blog and have been looking at using this in Firefox 4.0 Beta 1. So found this in the help section of blogger and wanted to post it here for posterity's sake.

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

Michelle Obama Visits NAACP on Eve of Tea Party Condemnation - ABC News

ABC News has a story that is entitled "Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party" story is here - Michelle Obama Visits NAACP on Eve of Tea Party Condemnation - ABC News

I find this to be funny since the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an organization founding on civil rights for one race...colored people (I am just reading the definition). Racism is defined as "racial prejudice or discrimination" by the Merriam Webster online dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism). Isn't that a little hypocritical?

Let me be clear - I don't begrudge the NAACP at all as they can practice and support the people they choose. But I would think that the criticism (not that i mean to imply the criticism of the tea party is valid) would mean more if it came from the National Association for the Advancement of All People (or the NAAAP).

The NAACP should also be on the look out for any member of the NAACP that is a member of the Nation of Islam or the New Black Panther Party. The Southern Poverty Law Center who sponsors Hatewatch, a website that states that it is "keeping an eye on the radical right" has classified both the Nation of Islam and and the New Black Panther Party as hate groups (under the banner of Black Separatist) stating (about the Nation of Islam) that "If a white group espoused similar beliefs with the colors reversed, few would have trouble describing it as racist and anti-Semitic. Although the racism of a group like the Nation may be relatively easy to understand, if we seek to expose white hate groups, we cannot be in the business of explaining away the black ones."

Hopefully the NAACP is working within its own ranks to repudiate those racist elements in its own organization while it calls on other groups to do the same.

How to Safeguard Your Social Security Number

Catching up on a lot of to dos but here is a great article that I wanted to cross post since it covers something that really irritates me. I can't tell you how many times I am asked for complete private info for no apparent reason (why does Radio Shack need your address when you buy batteries? H/t to Seinfeld for that one). One of the most offensive questions involves my ssn. It seems at regular intervals I am asked for this data and my first question is "why do you need that?". Well the folks at GetRichSlowly have posted an article that addresses some questions you should ask when/if you are asked for this personal data.

How to Safeguard Your Social Security Number

Tks to Lifehacker for the tip.