Weekend Open Thread

86
  by: Colorado Pols April 17, 2015 at 11:27 PM MDT

“Self-conceit may lead to self destruction.”

–Aesop

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86 Community Comments, Facebook Comments

  1. Nurse Chaps says:
    April 18, 2015 at 7:11 AM MDT

    Traditional Marinara Cheesecake (for Earth Day, April 22)

    Ingredients:

    4 ounces (2 cups) Graham cracker crumbs
    1/2 stick butter
    1 heaped tablespoon sugar

    2 cups cream cheese
    3/4 cup superfine sugar
    3 eggs
    3 egg yolks
    3/4 cup sour cream
    1 teaspoon lime juice
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 tablespoons rum
    1 cup marinara sauce

    (for the syrup)
    1/3 cup water
    1/4 cup rum
    1 tablespoon ketchup
    1/4 cup superfine sugar
    1 tablespoon butter

    Preparation:

    Preheat the oven to 350°F, and put the kettle on to boil.

    For the base, process the crackers, butter and heaped tablespoon chestnut purée until like fine crumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan and place in the fridge while you make the filling.

    Beat the cream cheese until smooth and add the sugar. Add the eggs and egg yolks, beating them in one by one until they are incorporated into the cream cheese and sugar. Pour in the sour cream, lime juice, vanilla extract and rum, and beat again until smooth and creamy. Finally fold in the marinara sauce.

    Line the outside of the springform pan containing the crumb base with a good wrapping of plastic wrap, so that the whole of the bottom and sides are enveloped in plastic. Do the same with aluminum foil, covering the layer of plastic wrap to make a very watertight casing. Stand the springform, thus covered, in a roasting pan and pour in the filling. Once that’s done, pour water from a recently boiled kettle into the roasting pan to come just over an inch up the side of the pan (the plastic wrap will make it bob up and down a bit) and place in the oven to cook for an hour.

    When the cheesecake’s ready it should be just set on top with a hint of wobble underneath; it certainly carries on cooking as it cools. Take the cheesecake out of the roasting pan, take off the foil and plastic wrap and let the cheesecake cool on a rack. Refrigerate overnight before unmolding and leaving it to get back to room temperature. If you need to unmold it long before you want to eat it, then just sit it on its serving plate in the fridge until about 20 to 30 minutes before you want to eat it. You can make the syrup in advance but do not pour over until the actual point of serving.

    You just put all of the syrup ingredients into a saucepan and melt together. Let the syrup boil for 10 minutes, then cool to just warmish (or even room temperature) before criss-crossing the top of the cheesecake with it.

    Enjoy!

     

    • notaskinnycook says:
      April 19, 2015 at 12:48 AM MDT

      This sounds yummy. With the marinara, I wonder how it would be if the rum was replaced with Strega, an Italian liqueur. I may try it. I’ll report back on how it worked. 

  2. Diogenesdemar says:
    April 18, 2015 at 7:34 AM MDT

    Sounds awesome, Nurse Chaps — I especially like the way you worked in that bit of (demon) rum!!!   

    Hey, it life gives you demons, why not bake a cheesecake??? 

    Dog bless! innocent

  3. DavidThi808 says:
    April 18, 2015 at 11:14 AM MDT

    So yesterday there was a front page post by Pols calling out Senators Bennet & Gardner for political grandstanding over the veterans hospital. Spot-on post.

    And now it’s gone. Do Pols have a nothing negative about Bennet rule like Tucker Carlson has a nothing negative about Fox News rule?

    • James Dodd says:
      April 18, 2015 at 12:48 PM MDT

      I thought everyone knew that Colorado Pols is nothing more than a political organ of the Colorado Democratic Party.

      • DenverMom says:
        April 18, 2015 at 1:45 PM MDT

        Even so, I would hope that you accept posts critical of Democrats.  That is democracy after all.

        • Duke Cox says:
          April 18, 2015 at 3:28 PM MDT

          You may have noticed that criticism of just about all Democrats (except Ed Perlmutter, it seems) is plentiful in these parts. Not many kind words for the likes of Michael (Thurston) Bennet or John Frackenlooper, to name a couple, coming from this corner.

          This is a liberal blog, I think it is safe to say, and I consider myself a progressive. I am a registered Democrat and have been since I first voted in 1972. But even though I participate in some party activities, I never get invited to the private parties. I don’t fit in and I can be disagreeable…sometimes. I do not gladly suffer misinformation, nor the presence of those who wield it as a weapon.

          But that is the great thing about the Democratic Party. While it has a cash-centric power base, just like the Pubs (and, presumably, most other parties), that base has a looser hold on the troops than does the very regimented and autocratic Republicans. We, progressives, are hard to lead because those who saw the t-shirt that said “question authority” and took it to heart, tend to be of the donkey party. Democrats, in my experience, are far more likely to think for themselves, unlike the intellectually lazy, financially eager money hounds on the other side of the spectrum.

          So, yes, speaking only as one old timer around here, yes…thank you, please. 

          • DaninDen says:
            April 18, 2015 at 4:06 PM MDT

            Agree with Duke and I am sure the issue is the site itself, It’s overstuffed -hardest site for me to navigate (even w Firefox)

             Here’s the prob- too much here (hoarding) I have the meagerest Internet connection so it takes forever to build pages, (my fault) But,(for example) “recent comments” only match with those  pages  one has viewed  so I think the article slipped through the cracks, assume it’s still there -anyone checked?

             Back to Col pols its about at intervention stage for them, Time to fess up as to exactly how many cats (hoarding) are in the house. LOL

      • DavidThi808 says:
        April 18, 2015 at 5:14 PM MDT

        It used to be a lot more evenhanded with a substantial number of conservatives participating. And it was a lot more interesting when it was that way.

        • Phoenix Rising says:
          April 18, 2015 at 6:55 PM MDT

          At one time we had more conservatives who could write a post without consulting the Tea Party Talking-Point-Of-The-Day site for a copy/paste session.

          I do appreciate having a few thoughtful conservatives posting these days, even if most of them are half-renegades.

          I suppose you can take comfort in just how many of us are former Republicans. Or not, if you’re not feeling like being comforted.

  4. DavidThi808 says:
    April 18, 2015 at 11:16 AM MDT

    Due to popular demand (thanks mamajama), here’s another, Poland’s entry. To understand the video, the parts showing the past – those are all of the artist (singer).

     

  5. mamajama55 says:
    April 18, 2015 at 11:52 AM MDT

    It’s an OK pop song, and the lyrics general enough not to offend anyone’s sensibilities. I don’t know if Poland is still an extremely religious and conservative country, as it was after it broke from USSR’s domination in 1990. It’s been through quite a few changes since then.

  6. MADCO says:
    April 18, 2015 at 1:08 PM MDT

    http://weeklysift.com/2014/08/11/not-a-tea-party-a-confederate-party/

    I don’t know how to embed, nor to persuade- but everyone who wants to think more care fully about American politics, should hit the link and read.

    • BlueCat says:
      April 18, 2015 at 2:02 PM MDT

      Thanks. Great analysis.

    • Duke Cox says:
      April 18, 2015 at 2:11 PM MDT

      Very interesting read…

      Thanks, MADCO.

    • DaninDen says:
      April 18, 2015 at 3:38 PM MDT

      Join in with others, in the read, John C. Calhoun is a predominant intellectual character of the times, and leading up to secession, as senator(?) ..from the article (last) … published posthumously in 1851, which completely misrepresented the Founders and their Constitution. Calhoun’s view (that the Union was a consortium of states with no direct relationship to the people)

      From James A Mitchner’s epic historical novel, Chesapeake, Calhoun delivers a “white paper” speech to Congress outlining how the labor intensive tobacco( and later, cotton)cultivation required slave labor in order for the bottom line to survive. Disingenuous artifice to be sure, as is practiced today as well.

      With the predominance of Right to work (for less) states being Southern,  their peculiar view of labor stands out. Also, Southerners such as Calhoun were not above bringing to the Congress canings or gun play. Other writers have recently pointed out the role of Northern Banks of NY & Boston profited from the south agronomy.

    • notaskinnycook says:
      April 19, 2015 at 1:08 AM MDT

      It’s much too late to read this now, but it looks intriguing. Copying and saving for when I’m firing on all cylinders.

      • notaskinnycook says:
        April 19, 2015 at 3:18 PM MDT

        Okay, I’ve read it and it’s spot on. I’ve been watching the modern phenomenon for a while now: the 1%ers pointing at minority populations and immigrants and telling the lower middle-class white people, “It’s them! They’re why you can’t get ahead! We ‘create’ all of these great jobs and they poach them.”  It’s nothing new or different. It’s been going on for over a hundred years.

        You’d just think that eventually, the people who keep getting this crap preached to them would catch on, but if you bleed the schools of enough money that they can’t even teach the basics adequately the population stays too dumb to figure it out. 

        • FrankUnderwood says:
          April 19, 2015 at 3:41 PM MDT

          You would think eventually the people who kepp getting this crap preached to them would catch on?

          Not really. I’m old enough to remember George Wallace’s appeal amongst lower middle class white folks as he warned them that African-Americans were threatening them in their place. (Not much mention of Latinos in the late 60’s. That came later courtesy of asshats like Pat Buchanan and Tom Tancredo.) 

          It’s amazing (and not in a good way) but not all that much has changed in 40 or 50 years.

    • The realist says:
      April 19, 2015 at 9:22 AM MDT

      Thanks for this.

  7. doremi says:
    April 18, 2015 at 3:29 PM MDT

    This was a lovely song, by a beautiful singer. Thank you for sharing. Unless you watched the video to the very end, you wouldn’t know that Ms. Kuszynska is paralyzed from the waist down, which makes it all the more amazing. (Singers can tell you that you always sing better standing up, and opera singers can tell you that they have to work hard to produce a good sound when they singing in different positions).

    • dustpuppy says:
      April 18, 2015 at 3:53 PM MDT

      My bar mitzvah teacher has a granddaughter who’s an amazing soprano (she is still studying in IU-Bloomington for her master’s in voice). Her zaidy is a well-known cantor himself, and have sang high holidays for West Virginia up until two years ago for 40+ years, so that’s where she got her talent from.

  8. MichaelBowman says:
    April 18, 2015 at 8:39 PM MDT

    Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It’s time for a medical marijuana revolution 

    I see signs of a revolution everywhere.

    I see it in the op-ed pages of the newspapers, and on the state ballots in nearly half the country. I see it in politicians who once preferred to play it safe with this explosive issue but are now willing to stake their political futures on it. I see the revolution in the eyes of sterling scientists, previously reluctant to dip a toe into this heavily stigmatized world, who are diving in head first. I see it in the new surgeon general who cites data showing just how helpful it can be.

    I see a revolution in the attitudes of everyday Americans. For the first time a majority, 53%, favor its legalization, with 77% supporting it for medical purposes.

    Ending prohibition, as we did in Colorado in 2012, isn’t The Great Social Experiment.  The Great Social Experiment was prohibition – and it has failed miserably.  After decades of corruption and impotence, nearly a trillion dollars spent and incarceration at a scale never before known to man – it’s time for our politicians to put on their big boy panties and end this scourge on our nation.  

    #healthcare not #handcuffs

  10. BlueCat says:
    April 19, 2015 at 12:12 PM MDT

    Lindsey Graham says there’s a “91% chance” he’ll run for President, a bit lower than the 99.9% who couldn’t care less:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/19/lindsey-graham-president-2016_n_7095360.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

  11. MapMaker says:
    April 19, 2015 at 5:08 PM MDT

    Here’s an idea:

    Send a donation to Alan Grayson and a copy of your receipt to Michael Bennet.

     

    While I’m at it, I’ll send something to Al Franken too.

  13. MichaelBowman says:
    April 19, 2015 at 10:30 PM MDT

    Defenders of Freedom:

    Religious liberty in our country is under fire as never before.  We’re standing up for it.  Please stand with us.

    I’m not sure how I got on this mailing list, but I’m confident all of my homies on CoPols who get up every morning hell-bent on destroying John’s Freedom and way of life in Backbone would want to peruse this fundraising letter “embrace” of all who choose to attend (as long as some of you stay in the custodians closet). 

    “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” … and call our your bigoted white ass when necessary. 

  14. MichaelBowman says:
    April 20, 2015 at 8:19 AM MDT

    From the Mayor of that rugged, boot-strappin’ panacea of all our social ills (ain’t no cheeseburger joint or polyester pants in this town, no siree) , Backbone:  where men are men and sheep are nervous…

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