The term sound money, also known as honest, strong, or hard currency relates to its value in terms of the world’s standards.  For example, when you visit a foreign country, you may be compelled to exchange your U.S. dollars for the coin of the realm if you wish to purchase goods, pay the fee to enter a museum, or do anything else that a tourist may wish to do.

This is just what I did when I traveled to Italy in 2000.  At that time, the rate of exchange was 2,000 liras to every U.S. dollar.  Thus, by exchanging 100 of my U.S. dollars, I received 200,000 liras.  For the first time in my life, I felt like a millionaire!  But when I purchased food, wine, or gifts for my family back home, I learned that the prices of these commodities were inflated, thus creating a money system that paid 2,000 liras to every one of my little ol’ U.S. dollars.

Liras or dollars, Euros or rupees, the real value of money lies in its purchasing power in the world market.  In my lifetime, I have witnessed and felt the affects of deflation and soaring inflation, and I am not alone.  Many are those who remember “the good old days” when our money went a helluva lot further than it does now.  In fact, cyberspace is abuzz with such memories, in the form of circulating e-mails concerning the prices of yesteryear.

For instance, in the 1920s, three pounds of steak cost 50 cents in a typical New York City butcher’s establishment!  And this was a retail price paid by regular consumers, not a wholesale price.  During the Great Depression, a new automobile cost $800 dollars.  Today, the average new car, not a luxury car, can run as much as 40 times more: $ 32,000!

Most of us simply accept the fact that we must pay more for the same goods that we once bought for far less.  Escalating prices are like a ladder whose summit is always out of reach, and a very familiar ladder at that.  We’ve been conditioned to accept the concept and the harsh realities of inflation.

It’s easy to blame inflation — the dwindling purchasing power of our money as reflected in the costs of goods and services — on the greed of the manufacturers.  Manufacturers are those that produce finished goods as well as those that produce merchandise, such as automotive parts, that contribute to the manufacture or assembly of finished goods.  And it would be right and just to lay blame at the manufacturers’ feet.  But where does the government come into this equation?  Are our lawmakers exempt from blame?

Some suggest that they are.  Some suggest that the American Constitution, as written by our Founding Fathers, states that U.S. currency is to be backed by precious metals (gold and silver).  If our government followed these guidelines, it would place limits upon the amount of paper money and coins that it printed, minted, and distributed via the Federal Reserve.  Some believe that the more money we print or mint without limitation, the more the currency could be considered counterfeit as per their interpretation of the Constitution.

When crafting this part of the Constitution, our Founding Fathers no doubt relied upon the history of gold’s stability.  From the days of the ancient Pharaohs, gold has been the one commodity, worldwide, that has never devalued.  Gold has, in fact, risen in value over the years, representing the one form of monetary exchange that has remained unshakable during times of economic flux and crisis.  So sure a bet was gold that our government kept its stores under lock, key, and guard, at the United States Bullion Depository, a fortified vault adjacent to Fort Knox, Kentucky.

On March 14, 1900, the Congress of the United States signed into law the Gold Standard Act. This, in essence, established the price of gold at $20.67 per ounce in U.S. money.  This was in force until the Great Depression.  In 1933, under the threat of a collapsing, paper money-based economy, President Franklin Roosevelt denied private gold ownership to its citizens, with the exception of jewelry.

In 1946, the Bretton Woods system was enacted to fix the exchange rate.  It allowed foreign governments to sell gold to the U.S. at the price of $35.00 an ounce; this continued until August 15, 1971.  In 1971, then-President Richard M. Nixon ceased the trading of gold at $35.00 an ounce.  For the first time in history, formal links between major world currencies and real commodities were severed. The gold standard has not been used in any major economy since.

Today, almost every country, including the U.S., is using fiat money, defined as “money that is intrinsically useless,” used only as a medium of exchange.

Doesn’t that make you feel secure knowing that your money, whether it’s stored under your mattress or in a savings account, has no worth if the economics of the country should change?  Maybe it’s time to spend that useless money for something real!  “Don’t get stuck holding a bag of useless money” may emerge as yet another quote from a White House insider.

Maybe that’s why Publishers Clearing House is giving away “A Million Dollars a Year for Life” and why President Obama is borrowing trillions of Chinese fiat dollars, because … it’s only paper!

Do insiders know what the government doesn’t want its people to know?  “The people” of course are you and me and our neighbors, the average taxpayers, the ones left holding the bag when calamity strikes.  The cold hard fact is that money used for solely exchange purposes is governed by the supply and demand of consumers.

For instance, if people stopped buying gasoline, the price of gas at the pump would dip to twenty-five cents a gallon due to the lack of demand.  If you recall just a few years ago, consumers did manage to drive down the price of gas without so much as anything as organized (or disorganized) as “Occupy Wall Street.”   The price of gas had gotten so high that many people nationwide began to carpool and also cut back on unnecessary trips by car.  The gas companies felt the pinch and thus lowered prices at the pump.  Slowly and inexorably, however, those prices have crept back up.   They did so due to supply and demand.  Once the prices went down, more people stopped carpooling and engaged in their normal driving activities; therefore, they needed (demanded) more gas!

Thus, we “the people” are doomed to be the victims of devalued currencies.  If money were to become sound once again, it would regulate prices because it would be in demand.  Until and unless it does, the guys holding the useless money — the average taxpayer — get shortchanged.  And that’s no pun.

Sometime before recorded history, mankind … some of mankind, anyway … learned that to trade with others was neater than killing to possess what another had.  Thus, the barter system came into being.  Swapping one’s goods for another’s goods was expedient, until the concept of money came into play.

One of the earliest forms of money was salt, for in the days before refrigeration, salt was essential to the preservation of meat, and meat (protein) was essential to the preservation of human life.  People would hand over a bag of salt to whoever had goods they’d wanted to acquire; the size of the bag varied with the asking price of the goods.   When people learned to extract salt from the sea and primitive mines, it became more plentiful and so, the mineral no longer enjoyed as great a demand.  Humans then began to barter precious metals instead of salt, bars of gold and silver.  Somewhere along the way, some genius determined that paper money and small coins minted from gold and silver were easier to cart around on one’s person than gold or silver bullion.

Eventually, the acquisition of money — wealth — became an end in and of itself.   The more wealth one acquired, the more power one possessed and the more avaricious one became.  Whether acquired by a feudal overlord who kept his serfs under his thumb for their most basic necessities, or a conglomerate or huge banking institution abusing its power, money and the urge to possess mass quantities of it became the root of all evil.  For as Jesus Christ warned, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Despite Jesus’ admonition, greed — nor William Shakespeare’s reproach, “Neither a borrower or a lender be” — never gave the mega financial institutions a moment’s pause.  If one did not possess the amount of money he needed to acquire the basic necessities (i.e., a home), one knocked on the doors of the financial giants.  Behind those doors, the giants grinned and rubbed their gluttonous hands together, plotting to become more profitable.  Thus was born the practice of charging interest: additional fees for money lent to consumers and other businesses, and additional monies given to consumers or other businesses that allowed the banks to use their deposited money to the bank’s own ends.

While most banks pay out interest to their depositors in the neighborhood of 5% or lower for keeping a saving account open, the institutions charge as much as 30% in interest to consumers who apply for and receive credit cards from the banks.  And, it doesn’t stop there!  Some banks sold mortgages to naïve borrowers who paid back only the interest; their paybacks were never applied to the principal!  Legislation was then enacted to protect the consumer against such practices, thereby creating the amortized loan.  Amortized over a span of many years, each monthly mortgage payment was then applied to interest as well as principal.

Although our current laws demand that banks must be transparent with lenders when selling different types of loans, the banks always find a way to screw the little guy.  It wasn’t enough, just before President George W. Bush left office, that he and his cronies bequeathed $710 billion in bailout monies to the big banks and insurance companies.   Greed is a hungry monster that is never satisfied.   Banks such as Bank of America, to name one, were then caught red-handed, charging their customers for incidentals such as the use of debit cards, or the more prevalent practice of charging as much as $30.00 for bounced checks written out for far less than that amount.

When called on the carpet about those bounced check fees, a representative of Bank of America blatantly stated, in a formal, public announcement, that although her bank would rectify that situation, it would still find ways to extract extra cash from unsuspecting customers! And only a recent uproar from the general public, overturned the fee that Bank of America wished to attach to the use of debit cards.

Although banks may advertise their services as “free checking,” “free online banking,” and other freebies, the truth is another matter.  “Free checking” usually requires a minimum balance of $100 in one’s checking account.  “Free online banking” permits the bank to pay the float on your money, as most banks can take up to 5 days to process a transaction you request.

In all cases, the banks keep a portion of our accounts, to do with as they please, without paying us interest.  Government at the Federal, State, and local levels probably use these same, self-serving practices.  If you doubt this, consider tax credits issued to taxpayers.  These credits are not given in monetary form, but in the form of a statement.  The taxpayer uses the credit and the debtor accepts it without any money being transacted.   The debtor is satisfied, but what about the taxpayer?  He or she never saw any money in the first place, so how can they be sure that they’d really received a credit or just a statement to placate the masses and keep even more money in governments’ pockets?

Yes, the manipulation of money is highly profitable, if the right ones are holding the sacks of dough, that is.  Have you noticed how the devaluation of money was achieved by manipulating public perception?  Not very long ago, millionaires were considered rich beyond the wildest dreams of most people.  Now, millions are chicken change.  Billions, trillions, and quadrillions are the way to go, the path to overwhelming wealth.   All of this money is ground out and doled out daily by the Federal Reserve Bank (but not to hardworking taxpayers).  When money is printed and exchanged in billions and trillions of dollars, its purchasing power will diminish to the point where dump trucks will be needed to carry it to market … again, not by the average taxpayer, who actually work for his or her living.

Those dump trucks may not be all that far behind.  Remember how gold and silver bullion was abandoned in days of yore, in favor of lighter paper currency and coins?  Well, recent trends indicate that savvy (read: rich) investors are returning once again to gold bullion as a hedge against a tanking economy.  If we as a nation should return fully to the gold standard, our present-day U.S. dollars would shrink in number.  And those of us who cannot afford to buy gold bullion will, once again, be screwed.  But the banks will still stand strong.  Who said feudalism is dead?  It may be some time before I get to heaven, but when I do, I’ll wager that there are more camels up there than rich bastards.

“Ask not what your country can do for you,

but what you can do for your country.”

(President John F. Kennedy)

Although John F. Kennedy’s reign as our nation’s 35th President was all too brief, he left behind a legacy of courage in action.  This included his support of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., resulting in the passage of legislation that led to Constitutional equality for people of color.  These and other acts identified JFK as a President who truly cared about the citizens of this country.  After his assassination, eight Presidents succeeded him.   In none of them have we, the people, found a leader who has measured up to JFK’s strides toward a better future for every American citizen.

In the 48 years since JFK’s murder, promising and seemingly sincere Presidential candidates have come and gone.  Some were defeated in the November elections by those who took office in the White House; some were defeated by carefully calculated political assassinations before their names could ever appear on a Presidential ballot.  Herman Cain was one of those candidates in the latter category.

A product of the School of Hard Knocks and a successful businessman, Cain understood firsthand the plight of the American people.  He understood how we have suffered under a government that stole from the poor and gave to the rich, the powerful, the callous, and the undeserving.  In response to this situation, Cain crafted an original plan, 9-9-9, designed to restore fiscal and economic sanity to our nation waiting too long for a savior.

But, an old scandal — which Cain had resolved legally years ago — resurfaced via his political enemies, causing him to bow out of the Presidential race.  So much for the land of the free and the home of the brave, eh?  Had Jesus been in the same race, his detractors would no doubt have nailed him to a political cross rather than a wooden one.

Cain, however, refused to die.

Just when America thought he’d gone away quietly and for all time, Cain has returned to offer us a measure of hope.  Like a Phoenix, he is rising from his own ashes by bringing 9-9-9 before Congress.  He aspires to achieve the bi-partisan support needed to endorse his plan before the 2012 election occurs. And, he has called upon the electorate (we, the people) to issue an ultimatum to their representatives in Washington, DC: “Endorse 9-9-9 or lose our votes!”

If we, the people, rise to Cain’s challenge, we can effect positive change in this nation.  I speak of genuine change, not the type of change promised by previous administrations, including the incumbent President, who never delivered on their promises.  By following Cain’s lead, we can alter the tax code, increase revenue, and put America on the road to financial recovery.  The true beauty of this plan is that we can accomplish this regardless of who is elected President!

God willing and we do accomplish this, history will record the logic, vision, and perseverance of a man who put country first in times of crisis and left an indelible mark upon its political scene: Herman Cain.

If you are interested in making history, if you are interested in putting a stop to the royal screwing that we, the people, have been getting for far too long from our lawmakers, support Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan.  Visit his website and vow to make you, your family, and JFK proud by doing something of true value for your country. 

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When humans began to walk upright, they relied upon the five senses endowed by The Creator to survive in a harsh environment.  Along with the organic senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste, God in His infinite wisdom included an innate sense of awareness.  This “sixth sense” existed to clue early man into the fact that danger, in the form of predatory animals, an unforgiving landscape, or inimical tribes, were lurking nearby — even though undetected by any or all of man’s five senses!   This awareness, if you will, served as a survival mechanism.  As humanity evolved, so did its sense of awareness.

Awareness is the factor that puts one initially on his guard.  Once those factors have been carefully weighed, awareness allows one to make the decision to trust — or not.  Trust, in turn, is defined as:

1.       Assured reliance of the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

2.       Dependence upon something, future or contingent.

3.       A property interest held by one person for the benefit of another person or persons.

The word trust is used in various situations, most commonly, with respect to relationships (i.e., lovers, friends, partners, employer and employee, etc.) or contractual agreements (i.e., marriages, businesses, the transfer, purchase, or sale of real property).  Trust is something that is earned, and it takes time to earn it.  It is never given lightly, like a cheap prize won at a carnival.  Now just past the threshold of a brand new year, the word trust has taken on deeper, more ominous meanings.

Given the current state of the world, with its widespread economic woes and proof of governments who care nothing for their citizens, the concept of trust has been tested to the limits.  In years gone by, we, the people, trusted in our lawmakers.  We trusted them to represent us, the voters; we trusted them to pass legislation for the good of the majority.  We define “majority” here as the bulk of our populace, meaning, not a relative handful of politicians, not the wealthy, and not special interest groups.  We define “majority” as the middle class (the workers, those who must earn paychecks in order to survive).

In the past, our lawmakers have, more often than not, earned our trust. If you, dear reader, doubt this, think of the great lawmakers and law-influencers of American history.  Think of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: all men who put the greater good above all else.

Now, however, our lawmakers seem to be on the side of the “haves” rather than the “have nots.”  As this reality is revealed more and more with each passing day, we find that we must ask our lawmakers the following questions:

1.       Must we, the people, accept a global society?

2.       Do elected representatives defy the will and needs of their constituents?

3.       Do we need a private bank to sell and purchase U.S. dollars?

These are just a few questions that concern and frustrate the American people as we struggle to remain a free and open society.  Clearly, we don’t trust our government or big business as we once did, and this is not good for the nation.  Without trust, our economy would crumble; credit without collateral would be non-existent.  With less consumer demand, fewer products are produced in this country, and the loss of manufacturing has had a negative, domino effect upon all other industries. Thousands of people who are unemployed will be forced to sell their possessions to survive — if they can find buyers with the desire and wherewithal to purchase what they are selling.

Perhaps, God saw the lay of the land from the very moment that he created Adam and Eve.  Perhaps, He foresaw a human race that would evolve and lay claim to immense strides in science, medicine, and technology.  Perhaps, He foresaw governments later leading their citizens down the road to perdition.  And perhaps, that is why we, as a race, have retained that special sixth sense linked so closely with trust.   This is food for thought as we cull and consider the list of hopefuls vying for the highest position in the land: the Presidency of the United States of America. 

Frequently dubbed the sport of Kings, horse racing provides the origin of the phrase “dark horse,” an unknown horse on which handicappers have difficulty in establishing betting odds.  Later, the term was broadened to apply to any unexpected winner.  In American politics, the term was first applied to James Polk who, in 1844, wrested the Democratic Party’s Presidential Nomination from a field of well-known candidates en route to winning the Presidency that year.

2012 is shaping up as a similar type of year – albeit, on the opposite side of the ledger – as Republicans seek a savior to help them recapture the Presidency, lead America back to its capitalist roots, and rescue the Grand Old Party (GOP) from its own historical proclivities.  Noted for its pattern of nominating the next person in line (i.e., the runner-up in the previous Presidential election cycle’s nominating process) – particularly when running against an incumbent President, the Party has nominated such lackluster candidates as Bob Dole and John McCain, candidates who were not really in step with the Party’s conservative mainstream.

This cycle, it appears to be Mitt Romney’s turn.  Lacking the passion and conservative chops that the Party’s faithful desire most, Romney has been challenged by a host of candidates whose primary credential for the Presidency is that each is not Mitt Romney.  And so, we have seen the rise and subsequent fall of Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul (whose fall is still in progress).  Thus, it appears likely that when the smoke clears, a bloodied Mitt Romney will prevail as the Republican Nominee.

But, something is different this time.  Hailed as among the most defining elections in our nation’s history, the 2012 Presidential Election – coming as it does at the conjunction of the Great Recession, jobless recovery, declining middle class, rising income inequality, worldwide financial crisis, international political and social unrest, exponential growth in healthcare costs, and growing class of senior citizens expecting to receive entitlements in the form of Social Security and Medicare to which they have been paying taxes their entire lives –  may well determine America’s future course.  Are we still going to be a country “of the people, by the people and for the people,” or will we go down the same road as previous republics such as the Roman Empire?

Some, many in the broadcast media included, want the United States to become a European-style social democracy.  Founded on the principles of personal liberty and economic freedom, America and its capitalistic system have been viewed by many as a “shining city on a hill.”  Yet, unfettered capitalism and its close relative, free trade can create a cold, cruel world for those who do not attain at least a middle class income – a class which, by the way, is ceding many of its members to poverty.  Capitalism and free trade care nothing about people, only about costs and profits.  And, our public policies, economic system, and the rise of multi-national corporations are among the most significant reasons why American jobs are being exported to other parts of the world.

Yet, not everyone in our society must adhere to the laws of competition.  As was evident during the economic crisis of 2008, we live in a country that practices Socialism for the wealthy and Capitalism for the working class.  Taxpayer dollars have been used to bailout corporations and financial institutions, despite the fact that these enterprises created the situations that bankrupted them and ultimately used bailout funds to reward their executives through lavish bonuses.  Social Security contributions are still being dumped into the general tax fund and used for projects other than that for which they were intended.  Whatever happened to the Social Security Lock Box?!?

Among the most tried and true paths to wealth in our country is by gaining elective office.  Our political leaders are all extremely well off financially.  They live by a different set of rules, have their own healthcare system, and exempt themselves from many of the laws that they pass (e.g., laws preventing those with insider knowledge from profiting by virtue of that knowledge).  Yet, absent a significant bankroll, the little guy seeking entry into the national political scene is largely shut out; unless, of course, he can secure the support of wealthy Godfathers to whom he will be indebted when he assumes office.  And, when it comes to running for the Presidency, outsiders are not welcome regardless of their financial status.  Remember Herman Cain.

Social programs that make life in America a little less harsh and cruel to the poor and working classes are deemed welfare.  Yet, subsidies to industries (like the now bankrupt Solyndra) are termed investment.

Charity is the balm of a capitalistic society, the salve that eases the consciences of today’s Ebenezer Scrooges – the one percenters like the members of Congress and the captains of industry enriching themselves on the blood, sweat, and tears of their underlings.  Like the unrepentant Scrooge at the beginning of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, they seek profits first, with their consciences and concerns for others running a distant second.

Home and property ownership, hailed as the American Dream and one of the pillars of our society, is a farce, because you never really own your property if you cannot afford the taxes.  Many seniors living on fixed incomes have become increasingly aware of this situation as their fixed incomes vanish before the tidal wave of increasing property taxes and costs of living.  What will become of the American Dream?

In this great struggle to reclaim the soul of America, we the people can only hope for the emergence of a dark horse who has the best interests of our citizens and country at heart.  Then, perhaps, we can create a new America where individual freedom is tempered by compassion, and we reclaim our place as the moral and economic beacon to the rest of the world.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes (la festa dei sette pesci), celebrated on Christmas Eve, also known as The Vigil (La Vigilia), is believed to have originated in Southern Italy. Today, it is a feast that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes (although some families may change the number to nine or eleven). This Feast takes me back to my childhood during the Great Depression.  If you want your family to enjoy a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner, you’ll have to prepare the following:

Warm Seafood Salad

Ingredients

12 mussels cleaned. Scrubbed  and rinsed

6 baby octopus, boiler 45 minutes with cork and cooled

12 Prawns (large shrimp), peeled and developed

4 small squid peeled and cleaned whole, the cut with scissors into rings

2 scallions thinly sliced

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 cup extra- virgin olive oil

1 tbsp hot red pepperoncini flakes

¼ cup fresh mint leaves

1 cup of parsley

2 cut lemons

Salt & fresh ground pepper

Kosher salt

Preparation

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, add 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, add mussels, octopus, and prawns and boil for 1 minute.  The prawns will redden and mussels will start to open.  Add squid and continue cooking until squid becomes translucent (a few minutes).  Drain mixture into a warm bowl.  Add scallions, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and mint.  Toss to mix and coat.  Add parsley and toss again.  Serve with lemon wedges and kosher salt.  Voila!

Mussels Marinara

Ingredients

1 cup of olive oil

2 red onions finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic minced

8 dozen mussels, de-bearded well scrubbed and rinsed

2 cans of beer

2 large cans of whole tomato squeezed

3 tbsp of kosher salt

3 tbsp of cracked black pepper

1 cup of fresh basil leaves

1 lb. Linguine

Preparation

Heat oil in a large stock pot.  Gently saute onions and garlic till golden brown.  Add mussels, beer, tomatoes, salt, pepper and fresh basil.  Cover pot and simmer until mussels open.  Remove mussels to serving plate, (discard unopened mussels).  Spoon sauce over mussels and linguine.  Serve hot.

Jumbo Shrimp Marsala

Ingredients

1 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 medium red onion diced

1 rib of celery with leaves cut in 1 inch pieces

1 can of diced tomato

1 tbsp of pine nuts

2 tbsp of capers rinsed and drained

1 cup of Marsala wine

½ tsp of fennel seed

2 lbs of Large shrimp / prawns peeled and de-veined

salt and fresh ground pepper

Preparation

In a 10-12 inch sauce pan,heat oil over medium – high, heat until almost smoking, add onions and celery and cook until softened.  Add tomatoes, pine nuts, capers, Marsala wine and fennel seed.  Bring to a boil, then remove pan from heat and layer shrimp in tomato mixture and add bread crumbs.  Cover pan and simmer (low heat) for 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to stand 5 minutes covered.  Serve warm or room temperature.

Clams with Oregano & Bread Crumbs
(Vongole Oreganata)

Ingredients

24 littleneck clams (medium)

½ cup of extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 cups of bread crumbs

kosher salt & fresh ground pepper

2 tbsp of oregano

Preparation

Carefully open clams, saving the liquid in a bowl.  Discard top shells, loosen but do not remove clams from bottom shells.  Arrange clams in a 10-12 inch pan.  Heat oil over medium heat till just smoking.  Add garlic and cook till softened.  Add bread crumbs.  Cook till golden brown (3 minutes).  Remove mixture from heat and salt and pepper.  Allow to cool.  Stir in reserve liquid and oregano.  Preheat broiler (350), add 2 tsp of mixture to each clam and broil for 2 minutes or until golden brown.  Drizzle with extra oil and serve.

Grilled Smelts with Lima Beans

Ingredients

1 cup of Lima Beans (soaked overnight in 6 cups of water)

1 medium red onion thinly sliced

1 bunch of mint (leaves only)

1 cup of olive oil

2 tbsp of hot pepper flakes

1 tsp of capers

1 ½ lbs of fresh cleaned smelts

3 tbsp of red wine vinegar

1 head of Frisee lettuce (washed & spun dry)

2 tbsp of chili oil

Preparation

Drain soaked beans, place in pot with 4 quarts of water, and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer until tender.  Drain and cool.  Place cool beans in a mixing bowl.  Add onions, mint, and ½ cup of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Toss to coat and set aside.  Place remaining oil in a blender, add chili, oil pepper flakes and capers and blend until smooth.  Pour mixture in a bottle with cap and set aside.  Preheat grill.  Place cleaned smelts on hottest part of grill and cook thoroughly (1 minute per side).  Meanwhile, add vinegar to bean mixture and coat salad (toss to mix) and place on platter.  Remove fish from grill and arrange around salad and serve.

Oysters, Spinach and Pancetta Gratin

Ingredients

12 large oysters

2 oz pancetta (bacon), chopped

1 tbsp of olive oil

3 tbsp of butter

1 shallot minced

10 oz of spinach (frozen)

½ cup of bread crumbs

hot sauce to taste (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven 400 degrees F.  Shuck oysters and separate them from shells (discard top shells and reserve liquid set aside).  In a skillet, saute pancetta till brown (4 minutes), add shallots, defrosted spinach, and 2 tbsp of butter.  Stir while sauteing for few minutes, add a dash of hot sauce, stir and set aside.  Melt remaining butter in skillet, then remove from heat and add bread crumbs and some of reserve liquid to moisten bread crumbs.  Place oyster shells on a baking sheet and spoon spinach mixture on each shell and top with an oyster.  Sprinkle bread crumb mix on top of oysters.  Bake 3-4 minutes until bread crumbs are golden brown.  Serve immediately.

Baccala in Red Sauce
(Cod Fish in Red Sauce)

Ingredients

4 lbs of salt cod fish cut in 3” pieces

3 tbsp of olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 bunch of celery cut in 3” pieces

2 cups of Gaeta olives

2 cups of white wine

4 cans of San Marzano tomatoes

10 cups of chicken broth

8-10 potatoes diced

Chopped parsley leaves

salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

Soak cod fish in water 3 days (refrigerate) to get rid of excess salt, change water twice a day.  3 days later, in a large casserole, heat oil, and saute onions and celery until golden brown.  Add olives and wine.  Then reduce by half, stir in tomatoes and broth, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Add potatoes and codfish.  Cook until codfish breaks with fork and potatoes are tender, add parsley and seasonings, and serve over your favorite pasta.

PLEASE NOTE: This feast is not be confused with the fishes and barley loaves of the Biblical stories and should be eaten by sampling each dish and not gorging yourself into oblivion.  Remember a little bit of this feast goes along way, please pass the Briosche!

How often have you heard and dismissed the phrase “time is money” as an old cliché?  But, if you really give it thought, it makes a lot of sense.  If you hire a person to, for example, rake and weed your lawn, the cost includes that person’s labor as well as the supplies that he needs.  If you order a meal in a restaurant, the cost covers not only the food but also the time that it took to prepare that meal.  Labor translates to time or man-hours worked.  Understanding that, let’s take a look at the average paycheck.

After a week of work, an hourly employee receives a check for hours that he or she put in on the job.  A salaried employee is paid for his or her time as well, but the actually hourly compensation may vary from pay period to pay period.  A closer look at that paycheck reveals that the gross sum is larger than the net (take-home pay).  The difference between the two figures represent governmental deductions:

1.       Federal tax

2        State tax

3.       Local tax

4.       Union Dues (if applicable)

Add up all the deductions and divide the total by the hourly rate of pay.  The resulting figure illustrates how many hours were worked to pay those deductions.  For example:

$10.00/hour x 40 hours = $400

Total Deductions = $80

400 divided by 80 is 5.

That makes 5 hours worked by an employee just to satisfy Uncle Sam.

And now we get down to the nitty-gritty of a union worker’s check.  Let’s say that you are a union laborer, working a three-day holiday weekend (i.e., Memorial Day).  You might receive:

1.       Time and a half for Saturday (equating to 12 hours of pay)

2.       Double time for Sunday (equating to 16 hours of pay)

3.       Double time and a half for Monday (the actual holiday, equating to 20 hours of pay).

Total up those hours and you’ll see that you would have been paid for 48 hours worked. In addition to your 40 regular hours worked the rest of the week, you’d have racked up grand total of 88 hours in the shop for which you are to be paid.  At $10.00 an hour, your gross pay would have been $880 for that week.

As you review your big fat paycheck, reality slaps you upside the head.  Your gross pay did increase, but it increased along with your deductions, the latter of which are based upon percentages.  When $80 was deducted from $400, as shown above, it accounted for 20% of the paycheck.  But 20% of $880 is $176.00.  At $10.00 an hour, that turns out to be 17.6 hours worked solely to pay those taxes.

As they say in Denmark, “Aw shucks!”  Your wife and kids were ticked off because you weren’t there to barbeque or picnic or go to the beach with them on the long holiday weekend.  And you were ticked because you got shortchanged, literally.  But, the good ol’ boys in government had a blast with your hard-earned money and never missed a beat enjoying the fruits of your blood, sweat, and tears!

You were screwed by percentages and not just as you perused that dwindled paycheck.  By April 15th of the following year, you will have spent many hours trying to recover your wages from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), or as I like to think of this agency, The Income Removal Service.

To add insult to injury, think about this.  If you did not work that holiday weekend, you would have had three days off to relax with your family and enjoy life, instead of being tied to your job.  And, the extra money that you did not remit to the government would have been time well spent! 

“We are products of our environment.”  This maxim accounts for the way that we relate to the world around us.  As a child growing up in the Great Depression, and as a young man serving his country during the Second World War, these events have colored the way that I view the world as well as how I look back upon it, particularly now, as the holidays approach.

Fraught with hope, the phrase, “Peace on Earth, good will toward men” held special significance for me.  With our nation’s economic resources depleted, I wished these things for everyone, including my own family.  Although our circumstances were reduced, my family still managed to make the holidays special for my brothers and me.

Our holiday season began on Thanksgiving Day with a gathering at my maternal grandfather’s Barber Shop, where we feasted on soup to nuts to a rare treat, ice cream.  After Thanksgiving, my parents took my brothers and me to Center City in Philadelphia.  There, we pressed our noses against the gaily-decorated windows of department stores and consulted with Santa Claus, who we clued in as to what toys we’d hoped to find under our Christmas tree that year.  We were sure to tell Santa that we had been good all year, for our parents had warned us that if we were naughty, old St. Nick would leave us lumps of coal in our stockings!

After visiting with Santa, my parents would treat us to a meal at Horn & Hardart’s Automat.  For those of you who have never visited the Automat, this was a cafeteria-type chain of restaurants that served good, inexpensive American fare, but not by humans.  The food was displayed behind glass panels.  You selected what you wished to eat and lifted the panels to retrieve your food.  A cashier rang up your purchase and you settled in for a quick and tasty meal.

Black Friday was non-existent.  Department stores extended their closing times for the Christmas season, but the average family was more concerned about putting food on their table than they were with buying gifts. They were also concerned with honoring the holiday in the way that it was intended: as a religious celebration of the birth of Jesus.  Most Christians displayed nativity scenes in their homes along with fir trees and decorations.

When World War II erupted, it forever changed our lives, especially during the holiday season.  Many families had a loved one in uniform serving far away in strange parts of the world.  Songs like, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” still remind me of the time when I was serving overseas, thinking of home.  Unfortunately, 400,000 American soldiers never lived to keep the promise of the song title.

Today, Christmas is under attack.  God suddenly has been usurped by political correctness and the phrase, “Merry Christmas” has been replaced by the bland, ‘Happy Holidays.”  The peace and harmony of Christmas is only demonstrated by the faithful.  With them lie the hopes of the world for peace on earth and good will toward men, women, and children.

God willing, I will spend this coming Christmas with my family, celebrating the birth of the newborn King of the World.  I’ll be wishing our readers a very Merry Christmas and dreaming of the White Christmases I used to know, just like the old song says:

Where the tree tops glisten,

And children listen

To hear sleigh bells

In the snow.

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,

With every Christmas card I write.

May your days be merry and bright.

And may all your Christmases be white!

In the beginning, God created light to take us out of darkness.  Between the dawn of time and 2011 A.D., man has done a helluva great job of blotting out the light, particularly here in the alleged Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  American citizens are besieged by economic blight, characterized by rampant unemployment, jobs outsourced overseas, and Social Security jeopardized.  Capping off these woes is a political system run by men paid off by Corporate America’s lobbyists, men far more concerned about lining their own pockets than providing concrete solutions to the constituents who voted them into office.

But yea, unto this darkness came a light at the end of the tunnel.  The name of this light was Herman Cain.

As a 2012 Presidential hopeful, Cain possessed more than a modicum of common sense.  A far cry from the wealthy braggadocios that America has elected for too many decades on the strength of their empty promises, Cain was a hard-working man who understood the plight of the average taxpayer.  As a Black American, he made no bones about his struggle to make it here.  His strong work ethic enabled him to attain the American dream, a dream he hoped to give American citizens via election to the highest office in the land.  A dream he hoped to implement through modification of tax codes, ensuring that taxes would then provide enough revenue to run the country efficiently.

But now, those dreams have been shattered.  Darkness once again engulfs us.  Cain has dropped out of the race on the heels of allegations of sexual misconduct with a consenting adult woman, misconduct that occurred and was settled legally years ago.   In his farewell speech, Cain declared that the negative press hurt his family, hurt him, and most of all, hurt the American people.

Cain had brains, balls, and a sound work ethic.  What he did not have was cutthroat political savvy born of covering one’s ass time and again with the American public.  Cain lacked the experience of his smarmy competitors: politicos who retain spin-doctors for hefty fees — fees, no doubt, footed unwittingly by taxpayers.  The spin-doctors lie between their teeth, bail the  politicians out of sticky situations, and allow them to emerge smelling like roses in the wake of allegations and scandals.

Any American-born citizen, such as Herman Cain, can run for the office of President of the United States … on paper, anyway.  The harsh reality is that anyone can run, but only the lying, wealthy bloodsuckers, a.k.a., the seasoned politicians, have a real shot in the race.

R.I.P., America’s dreams of transparency in government and economic recovery. 

In the long, rich history of Italian cuisine, there are few dishes as simultaneously beloved and detested as pasta e fagioli.  Despite its truly delicious flavor, nutritious and inexpensive ingredients, and ease of cooking, many Italian-Americans associate this dish with hard times, ergo, bad memories.

During the Great Depression, when beans were a cheap and plentiful source of protein, we ate this dish often … perhaps a little too often!  Nevertheless, my family and I are still addicted to it, for it’s a great recipe to enjoy on chilly nights.

Ingredients

1 1-lb. box of ditalini macaroni

1 15-oz can of cannellini Beans

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves of chopped garlic

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp. dried basil

Fresh ground black pepper

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)

1 6-oz can tomato sauce (optional)

******

Directions

In a medium saucepan, sauté the garlic and onions in the oil.  Do not allow the garlic to burn; just brown it gently.  Remove the pan from the heat and allow the onions and garlic to cool a bit.  Add the beans carefully (the moisture from the beans will cause the oil to splatter).  Add the spices and one can of water, using the can of beans as your measuring device.  If you are using the tomato sauce, add it at this point.  Stir the ingredients, bring them to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow a good half hour of cooking for all the flavors to meld.

In a large pot, boil the macaroni until al-denti (“to the tooth”). Drain the pasta and add the bean sauce.  This recipe serves 4.