I don't think I've ever had a tamale...I did have an enchilada and a Chalupa today, though...

:)

Are real tamales anything like Hot Tamales candy?  Maybe President Obama will keep them around the White House like President Reagan kept jelly beans.

http://www.blaircandy.com/hottamales24ct.html

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Making Tamales can be a lot of work but can have amazing healing powers.  I had a friend who was a cuticle chewer. Beautiful woman, ugly fingers.  She made a batch of Tamales and it was miraculous, her hands were gorgeous.  So remember; rough chapped hands?  'Lard, you're soaking in it.'

I understand that it is inaccurate hyperbole to say 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss' but I assert that, systemically, there will be little change. The system is where the problem lies in my opinion.  But again, we will see, unless we don't.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

Ladies, form a line to my left for make-outs!  Dudes, form a line to my right for high-fives!

(Name that quote, I dare ya!  Heck, I'm feelin' magnanimous, dudes can hit the make-outs line too...)

I suspect on the economic stuff, and the defense stuff, Obama will stick pretty close to the center, even though that won't stop the usual crew from calling him Stalin, but that goes with the territory.  On social issues, though, he's going to charge ahead with progressive ideas (though we'll still have Don't Ask Don't Tell as a matter of practical necessity, and there won't be any significant federal movement on gay marriage, which are perhaps the two marquee issues the left would most like to see dealt with).

I really want to talk about this socialism business.  You have nothing approaching socialism, and you won't without an armed revolution.  In Canada, which is pretty far to the left of the US on a general scale, we don't even really have socialism.  Socialized ("single-payer") medicine and a thing called the Wheat Board (which collectively negotiates rates instead of an every-person-for-themself approach) are the closest things we have.  And it's true that conservatives here would like to kill both of those, and call them socialist failures.  But they can't point to successful alternatives that are more up their alley (and which are historically proximate enough to be valid for comparison), they just parrot the usual reports from the usual pro-business "think tanks" that the answer to every problem is yet more tax cuts and deregulation.

IMNSHO, what America needs right now is to regulate more, and quit with the tax cuts already!  The big problem areas: Medical care, which is underregulated (or at least not properly regulated, which to me is pretty much a synonym for the purposes of this discussion).  Defense, which is woefully underregulated (read: undercontained, underobserved, undermanaged, underrestricted).  Finance, where regulation is a joke that has been ignored for years as a shadow system has emerged in the background.  Energy, to which I'll only say Exxon and Enron, which covers the bases.  Environment, where the US kicks Canada's ass in terms of actual progress and regulation with teeth, but that's still a fight for next-to-last-place amongst countries rich and smart enough to know and do better.

Corporations have had something that smartasses like me can satirically call "socialism" for ages.  Nobody calls it that, of course, because of this delusion that since they're producing jobs (don't mention that they're all being outsourced) they deserve some special dispensation, kinda like how the church used to sell indulgences.

I don't accept that the sanctity of the founding capitalist dogma is in danger from mortgage relief for the suckers who thought the American Dream was finally being extended to them, or from undoing the least justifiable parts of the Bush era tax cuts, or from making corporations more legally responsible for the negative effects of their actions instead of just letting them reap the rewards and hide them offshore.  At least, no more so than to the same degree to which the original pioneer spirit has been dulled into complacency by common roads and water pipes.

And rainbow, since you've stood up to hold the banner, which I respect, I'm going to say this: I hope you know the immense respect I have for your ideas on a variety of topics, I just happen to think that on this one you're really, really wrong.  And I don't really buy the "Anarchism/Libertarianism" angle in this case, since there's no reason that should lead you to support a patently unqualified star candidate and her weathervane running-mate.  2008-Republicanism and libertarianism have pretty much zero in common, other than a handful of buzzwords; I hope (for your sake and everyone's) that the party gets back to its roots a little bit so that a real debate can start up again about ideas instead of who's toughest or most godly or "least socialist".  We're all socialists, and we all benefit, just as we're all capitalists and we all benefit from that too...

 Just curious what your problems are with Exxon.  Sure, they're huge, but someone has to be the biggest.  They're profitable, but Exxon's profit margins are low compared to most large corporations.  They're overcapitalized, but given the current problems with banks and auto companies, that's not a bad thing.  They spilled some oil (ok, lots of oil) in a tanker accident a couple of decades ago, but overall they seem to be fairly responsible corporate citizens.

I'm trying hard to work tamales into this post, but to no avail.  Guess it would help if I knew what they actually were.  I'm heading out to Taco Bell right now (no kidding!) to try one.

In keeping with the Mexican cuisine/ election theme:

Angel wins the thread.

Taco Bell wouldn't serve tamales because that would require them to serve GOOD Mexican food and not keep inventing their own bizarre combinations (Really? A burrito wrapped around a taco? REALLY? REALLY?!)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Excitement abounds at the bio_hazard household- girlfriend just ordered a 7qt cuisinart mixer!  I can already taste the tamales, and this year without the swearing and strained muscles from mixing up the masa.

Now & Laters > Hot Tamales

 I really didn't know anything about Emmanual before this week.  One thing I've learned there is no question he is pro-Israel.  This may make it less likely a creative solution to the Israeli-Palestinian situation will come out of the Obama White House, but certainly should help Obama politically (domestically).  Of course, hanging the success of any U.S. administration on middle-east peace is not really fair.

Peace? F a bunch of that! That whole chunk of land need to be the 51st state. When I'm dictator, I mean, president, we're going to take over China, too, then there'll be no stopping USA! USA! Whoo-hoo! No, but seriously. Peace is not the only possible military strategy, I don't even think it's possible, from the mil intel guys I know. All I know is that "no" is not a military strategy.

Here is one exception to the retail sales slump.

"Post-election gun sales soar over fears of more control"

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/488348.html

On another subject- poor choice of word ?

Yep, fear buying is going on everywhere. My gunsmith can't order AR parts!  All the major manufacturers are out of stock.  It started when he got ahead in the polls and then got insane since election day.  The dealer who ran my background said "People are really getting scared this Obama guy is going to win."   Man, there are probably more guns in the hands of civilians since Obama got elected than ever before!  That makes me happy :D

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_10910395

Obama will have to Rule so that all this redistributed wealth stays put if he wants his economic policy to work. 

Take money away from the wealthy, they'll increase the costs of goods and services to get it back.  Give more disposable income to those who didn't have it before, and they'll spend it, putting it right back into the hands of the wealthy. 

Unless....

Unless the government can regulate the profits of big businesses and the price of goods and servies, effectively eliminating free market and economic classes, Stalin-style.

"But you can't do that in America!!!"  you say?

Yes, we can... 

*shudder*

One interesting concept that Obama has proffered is a "civilian national security force" with the same funding and power as the military ! Yikes again, a diplomatic peace core I guess but, that's a staggering amount of funding and power. O should tell us more about this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s