A Taste of Bermuda: A Recipe for Rum Swizzles

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

photo-122

 

By Elaine Magliaro

 

I hadn’t enjoyed drinking a Rum Swizzle since 1969–the year my husband and I honeymooned in Bermuda–when I got the idea to search for recipes for the cocktail on the Internet recently. I selected one recipe that I tweaked a bit. My taste testers enjoyed my Rum Swizzles…and requested that I make another batch.

 

Rum Swizzle Ingredients

  • 4 oz. Gosling’s Bermuda Black Rum
  • 4 oz. Gosling’s Gold Bermuda Rum
  • 2 oz. Triple Sec
  • 2 oz. Falernum*
  • 5 oz. pineapple juice
  • 5 oz. freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained
  • 4 or 5 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters

* If you can’t find Falernum, you can substitute simple syrup for it.

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Posted in Edible Flowers, Libations, Recipes | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Frank Serpico Tells How Some Police Are “Still Out of Control” in Recent Politico Article

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro
Frank Serpico

Frank Serpico

By Elaine Magliaro

NOTE: I want to thank Michael Beaton for calling my attention to the Politico article titled The Police Are Still Out of Control, which was written by police whistleblower Frank Serpico.

ABOUT FRANK SERPICO

Frank Serpico–born on April 14, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York–became a New York City police officer in 1959.  He worked for the NYPD for 12 years. An honest cop and a whistleblower, he reported and exposed corruption within the police department. In 1971, Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission–aka the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption. He was disliked by fellow officers who did not come to his aid when he was shot during a 1971 drug raid.

From The New York Times:

Detective Serpico was an important informer against corruption in the police ranks who became a household name for blowing the whistle on graft in the New York City Police Department. He was not the only officer who spoke out against accepting free meals or money to protect the wrong people, but he was the most famous, in part because Al Pacino played him in the 1973 film version of Mr. [Peter] Maas’s book.

From Wikipedia:

Serpico still speaks out against police corruption brutality, the weakening of civil liberties, and corrupt practices in law enforcement, such as the alleged cover-ups following Abner Louima’s torture in 1997 and the Amadou Diallo shooting in 1999.[13] He provides support for “individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of great personal risk”. 

City Room: Watching ‘Serpico’ With Serpico

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Posted in Government, Media, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Obama Redefined

Posted on November 16, 2014 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

Had It About Up To Here.

Chastened by the “Mandate of the Mid-terms’? Hardly. Doubling down on his confrontation with Republicans who control both houses of Congress but lacking a veto proof super majority, Barack Obama has decided to give Americans a real policy choice.  Eschewing the “work-it-out, concede where you have to” mentality that has drawn the ire  of progressives and conservatives alike, the President has decided to contest the notion that Americans sent Republican values to Washington along with the Republican representatives.

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Posted in Barack Obama, Big Oil, Constitutional Law, Economic Policy, Economics, Energy Policy, Foreign Policy, Government, Health Care, Immigrants, Jurisprudence, Legal Analysis, Liberals, Neoconservatives, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Progressives, RNC, Society, Tea Party | Tagged , , , | 47 Comments

On the Subject of Rahm Emanuel, the City of Chicago, and Risky Interest-Rate Swaps

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro
Rahm Emanuel Mayor of Chicago

Rahm Emanuel
Mayor of Chicago

By Elaine Magliaro

While I was doing research on my post about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel accepting campaign contributions from financial firms managing city’s pension money, I came across another interesting story about Emanuel being involved with risky interest-rate swaps. Heather Gillers of the Chicago Tribune said that the mayor of Chicago distanced himself earlier this week “from the risky derivatives that are draining funds from the city’s school system…” According to Gillers, Emanuel declared, “Under my tenure, there have been no swaps.”

But Gillers reported that “records show the city of Chicago has entered into at least four interest-rate swaps under the Emanuel administration.” She said that the swap deals “brought the city nearly $20 million upfront but will require regular payments for up to 30 years, much like the derivative deals sapping Chicago Public Schools.”

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Posted in Government, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Investigative Journalist David Sirota Reports on “Pay to Play” in Chicago: Mayor Rahm Emanuel Accepted Campaign Contributions from Financial Firms Managing City Pension Money

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro
Rahm Emanuel Mayor of Chicago

Rahm Emanuel
Mayor of Chicago

By Elaine Magliaro

Investigative journalist David Sirota reported earlier this week that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Obama, has accepted campaign contributions from financial firms that manage the city’s pension money. Sirota said that, according to documents that were reviewed by the International Business Times, executives who work at the investment firms have, since 2011, “poured more than $600,000 in contributions into Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign operation and political action committees (PACs) that support him…” Sirota added that legal experts have claimed that these “contributions appear to flout federal rules banning companies that manage pension funds from financing the campaigns of officials with authority over pension systems…”

Sirota also noted that the contributions may “potentially conflict with an executive order Emanuel himself signed in 2011 prohibiting city contractors and subcontractors from making campaign donations to city officials.”

According to Sirota, at least 31 executives at firms “that harvest fees by managing city pension funds have contributed to his campaign and associated PACs.” He said that the “list of donors includes Kelly Welsh, a Northern Trust executive who was recently appointed by President Obama to the top legal position in the U.S. Commerce Department.”

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Posted in Government, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Releases Wilson’s Radio Communications and Police Station Video

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Bob Stone

By Bob Stone

The myth about Wilson engaging Brown strictly for Jaywalking has been officially destroyed.*    When Wilson says “21. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car,” he has identified Brown and Johnson as matching the the description of the suspects fleeing from the QuckTrip robbery.   Thus Wilson engaged Brown as a robbery suspect and not a “jaywalker.”  This also helps explain why Brown would block Wilson from exiting the vehicle and fight him for control of his gun.

*Hat-tip to Elaine.

(N.B. You can play the audio for the radio calls by clicking on the actual text in the Post Dispatch article)

FERGUSON • The Aug. 9 fatal shooting here that sparked three months of protests and calls for change from around the world happened in less than 90 seconds, interviews and an analysis of police and EMS records shows.

The records, obtained by the Post-Dispatch via Missouri’s Sunshine Law, provide the best timeline yet for the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown Jr., 18. Also released were police station surveillance videos that provide the most recent images of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, who has not been seen publicly since the shooting. Wilson left the police station for the hospital two hours after the shooting, accompanied by other officers and his union lawyer.

Full article here:  Darren Wilson’s radio calls show fatal encounter was brief

Posted in Law Enforcement | 190 Comments

You Won’t Hear This Story on Fox News: US Government Expects to Earn at Least $5 Billion from Loan Program That Funded Solyndra

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

solyndralogo_202x411By Elaine Magliaro

 

Justin Doom of Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Wednesday that the US government “expects to earn $5 billion to $6 billion from the renewable-energy loan program that US-DeptOfEnergy-Seal.svgfunded flops including Solyndra LLC, supporting President Barack Obama’s decision to back low-carbon technologies.” Doom said that the Department of Energy had already “disbursed about half of $32.4 billion allocated to spur innovation…” He added that the expected return on the government’s investment would be detailed in a report that was expected to be released some time this week.

Doom:

The results contradict the widely held view that the U.S. has wasted taxpayer money funding failures including Solyndra, which closed its doors in 2011 after receiving $528 million in government backing. That adds to Obama’s credibility as he seeks to make climate change a bigger priority after announcing a historic emissions deal with China.

Michael Morosi, an analyst at Jetstream Capital LLC, which invests in renewable energy, said that the “$5 billion return to taxpayers exceeds the returns from many venture capital and private equity investments in clean energy.” Morosi added, “People make a big deal about Solyndra and everything, but there’s a lot of VC capital that got torched right alongside the DOE capita. A positive return over 20 years in cleantech? That’s not a bad outcome.”

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Posted in Government, Media, Politics, Society, Uncategorized, United States | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

POETRY FRIDAY: Those Who Go to War and the “Fortunate Sons” Who Never Have to Serve

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

PoetryFridayButtonBy Elaine Magliaro

At the Concert for Valor on Tuesday night, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and Zac Brown performed their rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.” John Fogerty’s 1969 song “Fortunate Son” is an anti-war “anthem that rails against blind patriotism and the whole ‘rich man’s war, poor man’s fight’ nature of the Vietnam War.”

 

Some of the folks at Fox News and The Weekly Standard got their knickers in a twist and took issue with the musicians’ decision to include “Fortunate Son” at the “ostensibly pro-military” concert. Ethan Epstein (The Weekly Standard) wondered how they could be so “tone-deaf.” Epstein said that “Fortunate Son” was not “a bad song” on a “musical level.” Still, he felt the Concert for Valor “was not the place for it.”

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Posted in American History, Government, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Stephen Colbert Warns GOP Leadership On Calls For Them To Govern: ‘It’s A Trap!’ (VIDEO)

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

Stephen Colbert tells Republicans they had better listen to their leader Rush Limbaugh and the editors at Bill Kristol’s brain trust (National Review) if they’re even going to pretend they’re interested in governing.

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Posted in Government, Humor, Politics, United States | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

A Song for Veterans Day: Eddie Vedder’s “No More”

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

Lest we forget…

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Posted in Government, Politics, Society, United States | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment