Smoked Cayenne Pepper and Roasted Garlic Hot Sauce

Red and yellow Cayenne peppers,
Fajita Bell peppers, small, red bell peppers,
onion, garlic and end-of-the-season tomatoes
and three carrots (not shown) go into this
 scalp-sweating hot sauce!

   This year we are growing cayenne peppers in the garden.  One of the great things about cayenne peppers is the amount of yield a couple of plants will give you.  I planted both red, standard US style cayennes and something new I had never seen before.  A yellow colored cayenne pepper from Central America.  At the end of the day the red peppers are larger and produce at least twice as many peppers (probably more) per plant.  Cayenne has a lot of uses and I have pretty much run out of ideas for using them up.  I have dried peppers and crushed them for crushed peppers to add to any dish, like pizza, and powdered them for use in recipes and against ants.  So I tried something new; hot sauce. First I looked at a bunch of recipes on line, on YouTube, etc, and I figured out pretty quickly that hot sauce is very versatile.  Stay tuned for my chili paste!  That's next, maybe.  If you like the roasted chili, Thai stye hot sauce, this is for you.
   I smoked about a pound of cayennes, three fajita bell peppers, and a couple of small "pimento" red bell peppers over hickory smoke in a wire basket for about two hours.  The fajita bell peppers come from Bonnie Plants and taste wonderful!  I'll be growing more next year. The small red "pimento" peppers have an awesome taste as well.  Smoking them over hickory smoke gives them a flavor that will make you want to eat them before they ever get to the sauce.  Some of the skins may blacken a little but that is fine.
   I roasted the garlic head whole as I smoked the peppers.  I cut the bottom from the head, drizzled it in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, added about a teaspoon of kosher salt, a sprinkle of white pepper, wrapped it up in tin foil and placed it near the fire.  In fact, I placed it on top of the cast Iron box that holds the wood for smoking.  When it was done the meat of the garlic cloves were gooey balls of yumminess. Wait until it cools to peel it. 
   Once your peppers are smoked and your garlic is roasted, which takes about two hours or four to five beers, let the peppers and garlic cool while you prepare the other ingredients.  Cut up a large white onion into large pieces, peel and chop your carrots into chunks.  Peel your garlic.  I dare you not to lick your fingers!  Take about two pounds of tomatoes, peel them by blanching them in boiling water for two minutes then plunging them into ice water and peel off the split skins.  I am using end-of-the-season tomatoes from my garden.  In fact, the only thing that didn't come from my garden is the garlic.
   Put two cups of white vinegar into a stock put.  Add one and one half cups of water and an 8 oz. can of original V8 juice.  Turn the heat to high and start the mixture to boil.  Add about a tablespoon of kosher salt to the boil, then put in the onions and carrots, then the tomatoes, smoked peppers and the roasted garlic.  Let the mixture boil, then place the heat on medium and low-boil it for an hour.  Your house will smell so good the neighbors will come running over to see what's for supper.
   Some of the recipes I saw on-line used pectin to add "body" or thickening to the mixture.  None of them used tomatoes. Use tomatoes.  They taste better and will add the body the others were looking for but didn't know how to get.  When the SHTF, you will be hurting for pectin, not for tomatoes.  You will be the best fed, post-apocalyptic family for miles around.  Maybe you can barter some hot sauce for .22 bullets to shoot small game with.
   Once your mixture is boiled and your house smells like heaven, let the mixture cool to room temperature.  I let mine cool overnight on the stove.  I dreampt all night of eating at Ralph and Kacoo's in Baton Rouge.
   Take your cooled mixture and place some into the blender.  Blend it until it is smooth, them strain it through a wire strainer with a large wooden spoon into a large pot.  This will keep the remaining whole seeds and the larger pieces of pepper skin from getting into the final sauce.  Repeat until it is all blended and strained.  Bottle it in your favorite bottles and refrigerate.  I tend to re-use bottles I like.  In the picture is a re-purposed olive oil bottle with a wine bottle cork in it.  I also used an empty soy sauce bottle and standard canning jars.
   This sauce has a that sumptuous smoked pepper flavor that makes you eat more than you know you should.  It has a good heat, no doubt, but draws you in with the garlic and smoke.  It is not stupid hot.  Man vs. Food will not be doing a challenge on this sauce.  But you may very well wish you had stopped before you did!  Enjoy. 
   

  

Breaking trust with the American people

A Dark Day in Washington

The United States Congress, in collusion with the White House, has decided that their political infighting is more important than executing the duties to which we, the American people, elected them.  No one party or independent representative or senator is immune.  Not one.  The United States government has broken trust with us.  Again. 

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, trust can be defined as, "(1) : a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship (2) : something committed or entrusted to one to be used or cared for in the interest of another" 

We sent them to Washington to execute the duties of looking after the affairs of this country, according to our standards, by which they campaigned and were elected to represent us. 

Sequestration is upon us.  A nation at war will allow its elected representatives to severely damage the ability of the nation's war fighting men and women to execute their constitutional duties to provide for the common defense.  All in the name of partisan politics.  Out going Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said, 
“There isn't anybody I've talked to on Capitol Hill
 that doesn't think this is crazy. No one that I've
talked to doesn't think that this a dangerous tool to
impact the country."
 And Panetta is one of them, a hand picked Obama cabinet
member. A man who has made his living in Washington
politics.  A former Clinton White House member.  His 
politics represent the conventional, left-wing, tax and spend,
big government, Democrat Party ideals of the post Vietnam 
era.  If even he can see the danger and articulate it clearly,
what is wrong with the rest of our government?  
The money to pay for sequestration will come, according to 
Secretary Panetta, from readiness.  The seven members of 
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a letter to Congress, said,

"Should this looming readiness crisis be left unaddressed, we will have to ground aircraft, return ships to port, and stop driving combat vehicles in training. We will also be unable to reset and restore the force's full-spectrum combat capability after over a decade of hard fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan."

At a time in our history when we have numerous military threats looming, our Congress cannot pass a Defense Authorization bill..  Our troops in Afghanistan continue to engage the enemy on a daily basis.  By the end of 2014, we will need to remove vast amounts of military personnel and hardware from Afghanistan.  That massive redeployment of forces has yet to be paid for.

North Korea is threatening to attack.  Nothing new, of course.  But do not be lulled into complacency by the fact that they have not done it - YET.  North Korea has the will and capability to kick off a regional conflict that will engulf Asia and the United States.  They have yet to demonstrate the intent, but they have stated their intent.  We are much closer to conflict in Asia than most are willing to believe.  

But Congress cannot pass a bill to fund Defense.  "Provide for the common defense" - Failure.

The conflict in Syria is out of control.  The US Government does not know what to do.  What it does in regard to the Syrian conflict is strategically unsound.  According to numerous press reports, including the New York Times, commie rag that it is, the US government is not sending arms directly to Syrian rebel groups.  We are, instead, providing support to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who are shipping arms to the rebels.  Unfortunately, the rebels groups that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supplying are the very hard-line Islamist groups the United States does not want in power in Syria.  The more moderate groups, those who support a broad coalition government in Syria, are left out in the cold.  Groups like Al Qaida in Iraq, and numerous other Al Qaida affiliated armed groups, are operating in Syria under the banner of "Anti-Assad Syrian Rebels".  The longer the conflict continues, the stronger their influence grows.  Hezbollah is running rampant across Syria, and always has.  Iran is sending "volunteers" and weapons into Syria to fight for Assad.  The last thing Iran wants is to lose it's access to Syria.  The Israelis have conducted bombing raids into Syria to keep Syria's chemical arsenal from falling into the hands of Hezbollah.  At least Israel has a clear goal that supports US interests in the conflict.  We don't.  Iran promises retaliation against Israel.  They have the capability, the will, and have stated their intent to do so.  Let us not act surprised when they do it.  The potential for Israeli intervention to control Syria's WMD is realistic and present.  If Israel is forced to react to protect itself the United States WILL be drawn into the conflict.  And the conflict will be largely conventional, requiring bombers, fighter jets, massive amounts of airlift, missiles of many varieties, Naval task forces, tanks, armored personnel carriers and troops.  All of which are now gutted and not ready for war.  American military equipment will not be ready.  American military personnel will not be ready.  The American military will be thrown into the conflict, ready or not.  Much of our equipment will fail.  Many of us will die.

But Congress cannot pass a bill to fund Defense.  "Provide for the common defense" - Failure.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz in response to the United State's policy of isolation and sanctions against them.  It has promised to do so if any strikes against their nuclear program were to occur.  Iran has the capability to engage us in the Arabian Gulf and inflict extensive damage to our Naval capabilities.  A war game conducted last spring in the Pentagon resulted in escalation with Iran and ended with massive US military engagement.  The possibility exists, may even be considered probable.  Fortunately for Iran, unfortunately for the United States, were are not going to be ready for a massive military engagement.  Iran will get its way.  If we are forced into conflict our equipment will not be properly maintained.  Our equipment operators will not be properly trained.  Our equipment will fail.  We will die. 

Should any of our global adversaries decide to push their agendas in the near future the US will be incapable of responding in a manner that can guarantee success for our nation.  Incapable.  UNREADY.  

Both China and Russia are bullying Japan over islands in dispute.  Should the US wish to respond in defense of Japan, we will be UNREADY.

NATO might as well fold up and go home.  Article 5 will be meaningless.  Russia will be the strongman of Europe and Eurasia.  The United States will not be able to respond if Russia decides to push its agenda in the Baltics or Central Europe.  Europe should get used to buying heating oil from Russia at inflated prices.  The country of Georgia should be prepared to have a Russian-backed regime change.  The military might of the United States is the backbone of NATO.  Plain and simple.  No other NATO country has the capability to conduct military operations in Europe with any chance of success.  Only the participation of the NATO partner countries in alliance with massive US military might can prevail in another land war in Europe.  But we are not READY.  

Secretary Panetta also said that allowing sequestration to happen, with its subsequent cuts to Defense, would result in the US becoming a second-rate power.  At the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Saudi Arabian General (Prince) Khalid gave a speech, in which he said, "If there is only to be one superpower on earth, thank God it is the United States."  The United States of America is abdicating its superpower status so that two groups of politicians can blame each other for failing to cooperate and pass a budget.  An historic, ground breaking, permanent, appalling change.  The fall of Rome to the barbarians had less impact on the future of the planet.  Utter FAILURE. 

Let there be no doubt; there is blame enough to cover everyone in Congress, but history will record Barack Obama as the president who dropped the ball.  He who, during the presidential debate with his challenger stated the Sequestration would not happen.  Broken trust.  He will go down in history as the man who destroyed America's standing in the world.  There are plenty of conspiracy theorists who will believe it was his intention all along. 

Old books and the plight of American veterans

Yesterday I picked up an old book from a box of old books that had been rescued from an old farm out building, a corn crib to be exact, that was due for demolition.  My wife, ever industrious and thrifty, was given the opportunity to salvage the wood from this century-old structure for re-use.  Since many of these older farm buildings here in the Olde Dominion were constructed from virgin timber and rough milled nearby to where they were constructed, such opportunities are hard to pass up.  The old corn crib timber was used to construct a hen house that may well last another half century or more.  But I digress.  Inside the old corn crib was a treasure trove of neat old books, secured within a large cabinet.  The last owner of these books had been a history teacher in Stafford County and shared an interest in American history with me.  Had Stephanie not rescued the old books they would have been burned with the remnants of the other old farm buildings to make room for the new construction that was going in.  Unfortunately, "rescue", for most of these books, was defined as a box in my old garage.  So they went from one old farm outbuilding to another.  Some of the more interesting books that caught our eye came quickly into the house to sit on the shelves with other books, both old and new, but most languished outside unnoticed unless or until a reason to root through a box presented itself.  I love old books.  Call it a sickness.  Walking into a library or a used bookstore reflects a element of heaven for me.  I'm sure the streets of heaven are paved with gold and lead to libraries full of ancient manuscripts and cartoon books of Calvin and Hobbes.  I enjoy the musty smell of old books.  Like I said, it's a sickness.  The one I picked up is a perfect example.  It was published in 1947 (third printing), its dust jacket is best described as tattered and worn.  The pages are all intact and the very edges are yellowed from the many years of storage in corn cribs and garages.  It is complete, clear, readable, musty, and very enjoyable.  A brand new printing of the same book would not bring me nearly as much joy.

The book I picked up is book by Bill Mauldin, the WW2 cartoonist for Stars & Stripes, the US Military newspaper.  Mauldin's characters Willie and Joe are depicted throughout the stages of their induction, training, overseas combat tours and, eventually, through the reintegration and discharge process at the end of WW2.  Mauldin's dry, irreverent sense of humor speaks to today's military generation just as it did in WW2.  The first page I flipped open to has a cartoon drawing depicting a newly discharged GI standing by the side of the road with his thumb out.  Two cars are shown.  One zips past the GI without pausing.  That car is labeled, "John Q Public", and the other is an old jalopy driven by an older man who stops, opens the door and says, "Hop in, kid. I'll take ya any place ya wanna go," and is labeled " Professional Veterans Organizers". 

As a veteran of Iraq I stopped and stared at this depiction of theWW2 veteran's plight in America.  Even the Greatest Generation, the WW2 vets who fought the evil empires of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, felt as we do.  I have often regarded the complete lack of participation by "John Q Public" in the wars we are fighting and have been fighting since 9/11.  No doubt, we are fighting the evil empire of Global terrorism and Islamic extremism.  And yet, the recent elections brought clearly to light the fact that the average American is not remotely involved or invested in the wars we are fighting, in spite of the lives lost and damaged by these conflicts fought on their behalf.  Those who are invested either are in the military or have a loved one in the military.  Most of us have experienced multiple deployments to war zones.  Yet the average American is not more concerned about the war than they are about the daily events in their lives.  The left will always have an excuse to blame the wars for the national debt while ignoring the failed tax and spend policies that put the debt out of control long before 9/11.  Those on the right, while looking to reduce the national debt, are pondering the costs associated with veterans' programs and see them as a fiscal burden along with Social Security and Medicare.

During WW2 American households suffered and sacrificed to support the war effort.  The country's industrial base was turned from consumer goods to war material.  IBM manufactured small arms, GM and Ford manufactured tanks and military trucks.  The textile mills of America focused on producing uniforms and tents.  Gasoline was rationed and cars could only be driven on "A" days or "B" days.  Meat, milk and cigarettes were in short supply.  Victory Gardens were the standard for American families looking to supplement the food on their tables.  The draft took every able bodied male into military service.  American housewives went to work in the factories and government offices.  In short, life was hard and not just for GIs and the ones they left behind.  Everyone felt it and the average American was motivated to see the war come to a successful end, not just take the fiscal monkey off their backs and get back to consuming Chinese imports.  There were drives to collect scrap metal and rubber to be recycled into war material.  Being fit and not serving in the military was a disgrace.  Being unfit and not serving was still a disgrace.  Many men would lie about their age and their fitness level so they could serve.  Today, 1% of Americans serve in the wartime military.  Employers fire their Reserve and National Guard employees who get deployed.  There is a cottage legal industry that teaches employers how to do away with the positions of mobilized reservists so the government cannot sue the employer.  There are no rations of gasoline or "A" and "B" days, but the price of Middle Eastern gasoline is a major point of discussion and frustration while the wounded warriors among us go largely unnoticed.  Some Americans sacrifice by spending a couple of dollars on a bumper sticker to support the troops.  The American government has done a piss poor job, as have the various veteran's organizations, of telling the American people HOW to support the troops. 

I guess my point is that few Americans seem to be involved in the war effort or care about the troops, in spite of the rhetoric.  For all of those who do care, I thank you.  Your prayers and support are felt.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

This year we have bell peppers growing in the garden, along with Ancho Chilies, Red Chilies, and Jalapenos.  We have red, yellow, and green bell peppers.  I recently fixed a batch of stuffed green bell peppers and was asked for the recipe.  So I guess this blog is turning into a recipe and food blog.  So much for religion and politics for the moment.  I'm too disgusted with politics and religion takes too long to express adequately, so maybe food is the best subject for this medium at the moment.

The basic ingredients for this recipe are:

• 6 large, ripe bell peppers (7 total, see below) with symmetrical  bottoms so they will stand up in a pan - color of your choosing 
• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1.5 cups of rice
• 3 cups of water
• unsalted butter or margarine as you prefer
• enough extra virgin olive oil to lightly coat your skillet bottom
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 eight oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 can of mild Rotel tomatoes with chili
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 large slices of mozzarella cheese to top the peppers  

To get your peppers to the desired ripeness (is that a word in English?) pick or buy them a few days prior to using them and let them sit before stuffing them.  When their skin is just starting to pucker they are ready.  Cut the tops off of your peppers and remove the seeds and white innards.  Retain the pepper tops and trim the excess from the bottoms.  Set them aside.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Boil 3 cups of water in a sauce pan, add butter or margarine and salt to taste.  Add your rice and simmer while you Saute your onion an garlic in the olive oil.  Add a little black pepper.  Once the onion is translucent, add the diced bell pepper and saute a few minutes, until wilted.  Add your ground beef and brown with the vegetables.  Drain any excess fat from the beef.  Add the Rotels, tomato sauce and the tomato paste.  Mix the ingredients together and simmer until the rice is done.  Once the rice is done, add rice to the mix until the mixture is pleasantly mixed to your desired consistency.  I know, that is a cop out.  Here is the key: don't over-do the rice.  You want a mixture of about 50% rice or slightly less.  You will probably have some rice left over.  Don't panic.  There is nothing "Hard and Fast" about this recipe.  Modify it for your taste and your family's.  Use the extra rice in your boudin sausage or feed it to the chickens.

Place your peppers in a baking pan and fill them with the meat and rice mixture.  Pack them full, don't be e'skeered.  Reserve the pepper tops aside.  Place your stuffed peppers into the oven and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  At 45 minutes, remove the pan, place a slice of mozzarella on each so that it will melt over the top and down the sides.  Place the pepper tops on top of the cheese and put the peppers back in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.  Remove the peppers and serve on a plate with a glass of sangria by candlelight while listening to Nora Jones' "Shoot the Moon."  

Squirrel & Dumplings

A Grey Squirrel Awaiting His Culinary Debut

A combination of a rediscovered love for hunting squirrels, my friend's desire to rid his property of fruit tree raiders and my dad's visit caused me to take a handful of squirrels I had in the freezer and whip up a game recipe that my dad has not enjoyed since he was a teenager in Florida.  Squirrel is a plentiful and pleasant game meat.  When I was a teenager in Florida we would spend days in the woods hunting and eating what we killed.  Most often, it was the ubiquitous tree rodent.  Cleaned and roasted on a spit over a camp fire sounds very romantic and appetizing to those who haven't done it.  Eaten in this fashion squirrel is as tough as an old tire and almost as tasty.  There are better ways to prepare it in the field, but this recipe is about the kitchen, or at least a hunting camp with some amenities.

The basic ingredients of this recipe are:

• 4 good sized squirrels, cleaned and quartered.  
• 1/2 gallon of buttermilk
• salt and pepper to taste
• biscuit mix for 9 biscuits (I use Bisquick but you can substitute biscuits from scratch or your favorite mix) 
• 2 cubes of beef bullion 
• 1 drained can of peas and 1 of corn, if you like

Soak your squirrel in buttermilk overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.  Retain the unused buttermilk for your biscuit mix.  In a large Dutch oven add the squirrel, the beef bullion and cover with water.  Boil the squirrel a long time, at least an hour, probably more, until the meat is tender and ready to fall off the bone.  Remove the squirrel and strip the meat from the bones.  I have found that you end up with small bone in your meal even when you are very careful, so pick carefully and eat carefully.  Be especially careful if you hunt with a shotgun to ensure you get all the shot out.  I use a .22 rifle, so I seldom have that problem.  Strain the broth through a fine, mesh strainer and return to the Dutch oven.  Bring the broth back to a boil while you prepare your biscuit mix substituting buttermilk for milk.  Form the dough into golf ball sized balls.  Once your dough is ready and your broth is boiling, carefully drop your dumplings into the broth, reduce heat to medium, cover, and boil for 15 minutes.  Watch carefully because the dough will cause the broth to form a thick froth of yummy goodness, which can overflow.  I usually vent the lid by placing it slightly to one side to reduce over-frothing and mess.  Stirring occasionally also helps.  This part of the process adds the thick sauce that gives the meal its heartiness.  After 15 minutes add the meat back to the pot, add the peas and corn, and simmer for 20-25 minutes.  Serve with cornbread, black-eyed peas and rice and a large glass of sweet tea in a quart Mason jar.

Its Gumbo time

I'm not a Louisiana native.  I'm not a Virginia native either, I just wound up here.  I spent a long part of my life, comparatively, in Louisiana.  Again, I just wound up there and then I decided to stick around.  I would still be there if not for 9/11.  Louisiana is a different kinda place.  There is a large European influence, but it is 100% America.  Louisiana had a huge impact on me.  One of the things I miss dearly about the Sportsman's Paradise is the food.  Louisiana food, and I mean South Louisiana food, is very different from other American rural cooking traditions.  The Acadian people who were exiled to South Louisiana from Canada were thrust into an unfriendly, inhospitable region on the deep south.  They managed to make a living and even thrive in the swamps and bayous.  They learned to incorporate the local flora and fauna into their diets, out of necessity, and they turned what others still often wrinkle their noses at into gastronomical wonders.  Gumbo is one of those wonders.  Gumbo is one of those dishes that every Cajun family makes differently.  It is Louisiana's chili, or borscht.  My best buddy is from a real Cajun family in Vacherie in Saint James Parish.  If you've ever seen a picture of Oak Alley Plantation or seen it in the movie Vampire Diaries you have seen Vacherie, Louisiana.  Of course, Oak Alley is a representation of what antebellum wealth was like in Vacherie.  Most folks in Vacherie are simple, hard working, salt of the earth folks, like my buddy's family.  My first real gumbo was at his house.  His family spoke French at home, mostly because his grandmother didn't speak English very well.   I've learned a little about Cajun cooking over the years and I put it to work for me when I make gumbo.  Gumbo is cold weather food.  The major variants include either seafood, shrimp mostly, or fowl and sausage.  Today mine is made from leftover Thanksgiving turkey and andoulle sausage.  Chicken and sausage is very common, duck and sausage is one of my favorites (another reason to start raising ducks) but its not uncommon to hear of whatever meat is available going into the gumbo.  Game meat is pretty common.  Squirrel, rabbit, and robin appear in gumbo, deer sausage is not uncommon.  Gumbo is comfort food in my house.  It reminds me of my adopted home in Louisiana and it tastes great.

American Supremacy

I've read some other blogs and done a fair amount of thinking and reading about the future of this country and how we got into the economic and cultural state we are currently in.  The first reaction is to protect ourselves by seeking distance from dependence on others and becoming more self reliant.  I'm right there with the group of Americans that believe we need to be less dependent on Government, grocery stores and the electric company.  I was in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.  It was an eye opening experience.  People died.  Lots of people.  Government from the ward and city level, state of Louisiana level and federal level all failed.  In the crisis local first responders were unable to respond.  Law enforcement from New Orleans and outside the city seized privately owned firearms from people who had no other means to protect themselves from roving bands of criminals who took what they wanted from the helpless.  The Governor of Louisiana failed to react in time, she failed to decide to send assistance and to ask for federal assistance.  The only entity that provided support quickly and to its full capacity was the Louisiana National Guard.  The National Guard Bureau, the national level HQ for the Guard, reacted quickly and arranged support from numerous other state Guard units, but not until after the Governor got around to asking for help, days later after lots of people had died and the situation was extremely bad.  Those folks who were stuck in the city with no food, clean water and electricity were on their own.  Grocery stores were quickly emptied of food.  Looting was rampant.  Vehicles were flooded, there was little fuel available for those that were running and it went fast.  Price gauging was occurring.  People were fighting for what few life sustaining assets were available.  As I said earlier, there were roving bands of armed, opportunistic thugs.  Some were brazen enough to engage law enforcement and National Guard troops in shoot outs.  When federal "help" arrived it came with Blackwater security contractors.  The same ones who were over-employed in Iraq and Afghanistan and freely engaged in shooting innocents and making the situation worse for those of us who were trying to help establish a working civil government and defeat the insurgents and Al Qaida.  Seeing them on the streets of New Orleans had me seething. 

The nation, as a whole, is not in danger of Katrina-like natural disasters, but disaster is disaster.  Economic disaster, I predict, would look a lot like Katrina.  Military disaster would too. 

American supremacy is the key to continued prosperity and security.  I mean economic and military supremacy, not some cultural/racial/"we're better than you" kind of supremacy.  American economic supremacy means that the USA stays at the top of the world's economic pyramid, a position currently threatened by China.  What a change from the late part of the last century when the USA was the unquestioned economic superpower and no communist entity could ever hope to aspire to our level of economic stability and market dominance.  Economic supremacy is key to military supremacy and both are the bedrock of security.

In the past two decades we have seen the erosion of American economic supremacy.  This is where I get on my soap box.  Throughout human history successful societies have been agricultural societies.  The American economy must be based in economically healthy, sustainable agriculture.  America is an agricultural powerhouse.  I would go as far as to say we are the probably the world's preeminent agricultural producer, producing surpluses of meat and grain that feeds the global market.  Russia produces a lot of grain, but their methods are feeble.  America actually exports rice to Asia.  Many of us on-line tend to disdain the grocery stores and large "industrial" farms.  As a result of large agricultural success in this country the average American of today relies on the grocery store to receive the produce of American (and foreign) farms.  We do not have to rely on growing our own food.  At least, not right now.  That is a positive thing, not a negative thing.  Maintaining the level of economic security that allows us to be lazy enough to buy our food instead of growing our own in something many, many people on Earth envy us for.  Even those advanced, industrialized nations in Europe and Asia that have similar convenience do not have the total security that we have been blessed with.  We may all curse the big oil companies but the fact is Russia is not turning off our winter heat to make a political point.  Germany lives in fear of that.  Energy security is a real issue for them.  Their politics reflect it.  We don't have that problem, yet.  I believe that having a piece a land on which I can grow food is part of my family's rainy day survival plan.  What does that mean?  It means I am learning to be self reliant while I have the luxury of being reliant on the grocery store and the electric company.  I am learning which breeds of chickens are best for my homestead.  Which are the best dual purpose birds that lay in cold weather.  I am learning what vegetables grow best in my garden, which keep best and longest and what I can grow in the off season.  I have learned how to heat and cook with wood.  I am planning to provide my own basics: clean water, healthy food and personal security.  Why? Because history has proven that the government will fail us, the grocery stores will fail us and the people beyond our circle of trust will fail us.  In the mean time we are blessed with the best economy on earth, even with our high unemployment rate, high foreclosure rate and artificial inflation.

Sustaining our agricultural supremacy means sustaining the industries that produce the tools and transportation that keep our agricultural base supreme. Keeping America supreme means owning our own industrial assets that allow us to build the tools and infrastructure to keep our economy on top.  Sending industry to foreign countries to take advantage of lower wages and a lack of union manipulation is the wrong answer.  Moving industry to locales inside the USA where the industrial base can take advantage of lower wages and lack of unions is the right answer.  I hate the labor unions, but they serve a purpose.  I see them as nothing more than a socialist irritant to big business, one that has become an industry all to itself, irrevocably tied to the political left and bereft of their original purpose, which was to protect the American worker from being exploited by the robber barons of early 20th century industry.  Without them, however, and the threat of activism (strikes) and legal action to protect the American worker, we would continue to have the economic exploitation of our dark industrial past.  Unfortunately the AFL-CIO = The Democratic Party, and that makes them part of the problem, but no other non-government entity exists to protect the American worker, and we can expect the governmental organizations to fail.  I believe workers would pressure the unions to get real about wages and benefits when their Detroit based auto-worker jobs are threatened by moving to Arkansas or Mississippi to escape the unions' exploitation of the industry.  The bottom line is America needs to own our industrial base, not be reliant on foreign governments and workers for our economic security.  Industry leaders must be interested in long term sustainability of the critical industries and be more willing to forgo the multimillion dollar bonuses for individuals at the top.  Long term economic security means long term industrial supremacy.  We are losing that one.  America needs to own the global steel industry and we don't.  That is a problem.

American military supremacy is key to long term security.  Being able to produce the aircraft, ships and weapons to project American might against global threats means having the industrial base to manufacture those tools.  Being able to feed the workers that produce the tools that can project American might means having the world's supreme agricultural base.  History has proven that stronger nations will exploit weaker nations.  This is one of the things that makes America so great - we don't exploit weaker nations, we protect them.  If we exploited weaker nations we would own this entire hemisphere and nothing could stop us.  Personal security for me and my family is provided by us.  Because we are Americans we have the God given right to own firearms.  Should the economic situation deteriorate to such a level that we had to defend ourselves against individuals or small groups intent on doing us harm we would be well situated for defending our family and home.  Being a combat veteran, I pray we never see those days in this country.