IS RELIGION THE ENEMY?

(sigh)

Is it me or does it seem as if religion is going to be the death of every single one of us?

Every day another religious conflict or out-right war breaks out somewhere across the globe.
There's barely a pocket of civilization anywhere that isn't involved in some type of continuing religion-based struggle for dominance. There's the situation in Afghanistan with the radical Muslims; the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs in India; the Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir; Christians and Muslims in the Philippines; the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland; the Jews, Muslims and Christians in Palestine; the Hindus and Muslims in South Africa; Christians and Muslims in Kurdistan; Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Russia and Chechnya; Jews, Muslims, Christians in the Middle East; Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka; the Animists and "Witches" in South Africa; the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq; the Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians in Bosnia; and there's even internal wrangling within this country involving a plethora of religions.

That religion is meant to be a stabilizing force in our lives is lost.

The irony should not escape us.

(sigh)

IN THE KITCHEN WITH A RUTABAGA

(sigh)

Aha! You thought this was going to be a seriously decadent post, didn't ya? LOL!

Screwball maybe, but not decadent.

A friend of mine professes to LOVE rutabagas, which I personally place in the category right up there with brussel sprouts. But she has convinced me that my life is never going to be fulfilled until I make peace with the rutabaga and learn to love it as she does. My first thought is: HOW MANY PEOPLE EVEN KNOW WHAT A RUTABAGA IS??? (This is not to be confused with the regal rhubarb, which I do adore made into a pie.)

Okay, so my culinary skills have not evolved into an intimacy with root vegetables, at least not with rutabagas. The recipes provided me by my friend Penny confused me: Rutabaga apple casserole, mashed rutabagas with turnips, rutabaga fries, turkey pie with rutabagas, and the most tummy-hurling one -- rutabaga custard. This bitchin' vegetable can't decide whether it wants to be the entree or dessert! She insists that the rutabaga apple casserole is to die for.

She's right.

I nearly did.

I promised her that at some point I would indeed whip up one of her cherished recipes. I actually OMG bought a rutabaga and am contemplating its fate as I sit in my kitchen and stare at it with reckless abandon. Until I decide how to use it, I'm going to place it on a doily and elevate it to a position of importance -- right beside the tin of cream of tartar that expired in 1999.

(sigh)

CARBON KIDS

(sigh)

I recently read an article in a respected news magazine about children being bad for the environment. Now aside from the fact that I've written several times on this blog about my intolerance for poorly-behaving children in public places, this article pushed my buttons.

Mark Steyn from the Orange County, CALIFORNIA (where freakin' ELSE!!!) Register thinks kids are as bad as SUVs for the environment since they're "belching carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and choking the planet with their waste and pollution." This thinking, however, is not just limited to the lunatic left in California but has migrated to Australia where a local professor there has called upon the Australian government to require parents to pay a "carbon tax" every time they have a child and be given a "carbon credit" to those voluntarily undergoing sterilization.

In the late sixties I remember the then-new initiative called Zero Population Growth (ZPG), which was considered at the time to be over-reaching. The idea behind ZPG was that couples should have only two children who would replace themselves but not add to the population numbers. That concept is tame today compared to some of the stuff out there (like what I've written in this post).

Is it possible to find a middle ground?

(sigh)