Rendevous With Destiny

"Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer--not an easy answer--but simple.

If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based upon what we know in our hearts is morally right. We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion now in slavery behind the Iron Curtain, "Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skin, we are willing to make a deal with your slave masters." Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender.

Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we are retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he has heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he would rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance. This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."

- Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing

Nutella Cinnamon Coffee Cake

National events being disturbing as they are, I find myself seeking the comfort of home, family and friends this weekend. Jessica and I spent time making holiday plans. Our friends, Michael and Martha, joined us for an old fashioned chili supper and Halloween candy giving. And a sleepless night provided me time to seek meditation and mindfulness in a mixing bowl and baking pan.

Earlier this week, I came upon a guy boasting of having perfected a Nutella mousse on Giada de Laurentiss' website. My only Nutella concoction has been a Nutella Mocha Frappe that I have made frequently over the summer. I must say J.C.'s post got me thinking this morning. I believe I have a recipe submission for the upcoming World Nutella Day!

Nutella Cinnamon Coffee Cake 1 8" x 8" cake
















2 cups All purpose flour
1 1/2 tea Baking powder
1 tea Baking soda
1/2 tea Salt
1 cup Sugar
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tea Cinnamon
1 stick Butter
2 large Eggs
1 cup Sour cream
1 tea Vanilla extract
1/2 cup Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread

Bring butter, eggs and sour cream to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray baking pan with non-stick spray or grease with butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon together, put aside. Combine remaining dry ingredients in a bowl. For 5 minutes, cream butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy. To butter-sugar mixture, add eggs, fully incorporating one at a time. Continue combining wet ingredients with the sour cream and vanilla.

Mix together flour into wet ingredients in two batches. Mix lightly. Spread 1/2 of cake batter into prepared pan. Melt Nutella in microwave 15-30 seconds, just until it will pour in a stream. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cinnamon sugar over the cake batter. Pour and spread the melted Nutella next. Spread the remaining cake batter over the filling, spreading carefully to cover the Nutella. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar. Bake for 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Revision of Janet's Chocolate Coffe Cake in the May 2007 issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray

and the Lord will not answer you in that day

Excerpt by Laura Hollis...

...remind me of the Israelites’ demand for a king, as recounted in the Book of Samuel:

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."

Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots … He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." (1 Samuel 8:1-22)

Blueberry Coffee Cake

At church on Sundays, there is usually a very popular platter of Shipley donut holes. Once, I made biscuits with cheddar and bacon as a carb plus protein alternative. I learned the congregants really want the sweets with their coffee. Although they barely touched the biscuits, the 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/4 cups butter in this simple but delicious crumb cake had them scraping the baking pan.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Crumble Topping

1 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 stick of butter, diced

To make crumble topping, sift the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Place the butter in the sugar and flour mixture. Crumble with your fingers so the butter turns into little pea sized bits.

Cake

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1/4 c. butter, melted
12 oz of frozen blueberries

-Sift the first five ingredients together in a bowl and set aside
-Whisk the milk, eggs, vanilla, and melted margarine together in a bowl.
-Add the mix of wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients.
-Beat together with a hand held mixer until well incorporated.
Pour into a pre-greased 13×9 pan. Arrange the frozen berries on top of the batter. Sprinkle the crumble toppings.
Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes.

Adapted from the What Did You Eat blog's Strawberry Coffee Cake

Rereading Orwell's 1984

Observing events of late, I find myself troubled by how much of it seems reminiscent of previous rises to power of the Socialists and Communists of the 20th century. These were leftist Totalitarian regimes with their progressive leaders promising "change". And change they delivered - witness the 100 million graves dug in order to make a better world by Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Jong II, Castro and others.

Myself, I am a staunch anti-communist. Watching the Democrats select a Socialist/Communist as their Presidential candidate is almost as disturbing as watching a Republican President allow the nationalization of an industry.

I located a used copy of Orwell's masterpiece dystopia. It was as awful a tale as I remembered. I just hope it remains in the fantasy rather than non-fiction category at Amazon.




"...he seemed to have lost the power of expressing himself..."

"It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy."

"...a mass of imbecile enthusiasms - one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges...

"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible...ungovernable little savages...It was almost normal for people over thirty to be afraid of their own children."

"The enemy of the moment always represents absolute evil."

"Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past."

"We're destroying words - scores of them, hundreds of them, every day."

"Don't you see that the whole aim of New Speak is to narrow the range of thought?"

"...a feeling that you had been cheated of something that you had a right to."

"Nearly everyone was ugly."

"The Party claimed, of course, to have liberated the proles from bondage. So long as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance."

"Truisms are true...laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet."

"The older generation had been mostly wiped out in the great purges..."

"If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?"

"It's all Inner Party stuff. There's nothing those swine don't have, nothing."

"The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed."

"It is precisely in the Inner Party that war hysteria and hatred of the enemy is the strongest."

"The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought."

"The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim...is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal."

"The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists and professional politicians."

"In general, the greater the understanding the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the more insane. One clear illustration of this is the fact that war hysteria increases in intensity as ones rises in the social scales."

"Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

"Power is the power over human beings. Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation."

"There will be no art, no literature, no science."

"The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant, the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism."

"The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world varies from individual to individual."

"For everyone, there is something unendurable."

-George Orwell

Southern Lady Celebration Savannah

I just returned from my 2nd Southern Lady Celebration. This year was a gathering of over 750 women to celebrate the heritage of being a Southern lady in Savannah. I met my daughter, Jessica, and her friend, Melissa, in Atlanta and we drove to the GA coast. Here are some highlights of our trip...

Flying Biscuit Cafe
My trip actually began with an overnight in Atlanta and a long overdue catch up with my friend, Phyllis English. Phyllis introduced me to the man who would become my husband many years ago. We will always be fond of her. If you are looking for a great Atlanta colorist, she's your girl.

The next morning, Jessica and I went on the search for a great Southern breakfast. We were not disappointed with the Flying Biscuit. The biscuits were high, the bacon was crisp and there serve apple butter.

Anna Griffin
Anna was an elegant woman who gave a great motivational talk.

Success Secrets

• Fill a void.
  
• Build a brand.
  
• Do what it takes to succeed.
  

Principles

• Value your time - no one else will.
  
• Take care of yourself.
  
• Be present to all opportunities.
  
• Take risks - instead of not growing.
  
• "And" - "or" is not an option.
  
• Be unstoppable - get excited.
  

"Being Southern is a state of mind. It's truly wanting to know how someone is when you ask them." -Anna Griffin

Barbara Bradley Baekgarrd - Vera Bradley
Barbara spoke to the audience about the forming of Vera Bradly with her friend and partner, Patricia Miller. She told amusing stories, one of which included her daughter-in-law keeping the coming baby's name a secret to prevent a handbag from being named after her. In our gift bag, we received a Pinwheel Pink umbrella. the Pinwheel Pink line donates 10% to breast cancer charities.

Sandra Lee
The Semi-Homemade star was the keynote speaker. First, we met her in the elevator on the way to the gala. She is rail thin and very outgoing. There was a cake decorating demo that became a very funny skit much to the dismay of the event producers! What was a girl to do - cocktail time! Sandra announced her new magazine, Sandra Lee Semi Homemade (Feb) and a new Food Network show, Money Saving Meals, based on her new cookbook. Sandra Lee fans should look out for a girls weekend featuring their hero in October 2009 in Atlanta.

"...smart women partnering to do business smarter." - Sandra Lee

Nancy Grace
"When you find yourself in a race you didn't sign up for, you run the race you are in." -Nancy Grace

The Tea Room
If you find yourself in Savannah around lunchtime, you will want to make a beeline for this tearoom. The food is fabulous and the decor is arts and crafts, rather than florals run amok.

Southern Lady Celebration 2009
Southern Lady will return to Savannah, GA for its 7th event Oct 9-11, 2009. Check with www.southernladymagazine.com for early registration until November 1, 2008. Requires a $100 deposit that is non-refundable.

Instant Glamour with Red Hot Shoes

From ivillage...by Aarti Sanan

It's hot, it's hot...in fact, it's red hot! Add a splash of color to your office suit and winter coat with sexy, bright red shoes. It's the most va-va-voom Hollywood trend this season, and it works perfectly with everything from the little black dress to pencil skirts and even minidresses. Bright red shoes go best with basic black, but you can have fun pairing them with khaki, white, charcoal or bold prints. Just stay away from obvious color clashes like purple. Remember, if it doesn't look good to you, it might look even worse than you think. And please avoid the matching red bag. That would be overkill.

Peep toes, pumps, round toes, accessorized with little bows, satin finish, a little bling with rhinestones for the holidays ‑- there's a red shoe out there for every outfit and every occasion. It's the new style statement, the new red lipstick. So get yourself a pair of racy red pumps today ‑- or maybe you want the slingbacks, or the kitten heels. And then there are the sexy red boots...

Go, Sarah, Go!