I am CuTRis

Saddam Hussein died at the end of a rope. He was once proud and cared little for the common people. This may be true of some of our leaders as well. Of course Saddam was deserving of his fate. Yet, I have some difficulty with binding a man and killing him. It touches something deep inside that sees no honor in such a death. Perhaps that was the point. Still, now that he has claimed his martyrdom, it is honor backfired. Dynasties rise and then they fall. Have we accomplished anything wonderful amidst all of the bloodshed and torture? I hope so. It is time for the Iraqis to play their own hand and time for us to stop stacking the deck. May 2007 bring peace.

On December 23rd, me and Dave made a Lager. It will now sit in the "Chumperator" for a couple of months until we bottle it. Most homebrewers don't make lagers, because you need temperatures between 38 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit during fermentation. After the initial, active fermentation, the brew will be moved into a glass carboy for a couple of months before bottling. The "Chumperator," is Dave's invention to keep the cool temperatures needed for a lager. It is a wooden box in his basement with a plastic pipe going outside to provide cool winter air. When the temperature outside gets too cold, Dave uses a sophisticated device to prevent the temperature from becoming too cold. He stuffs a rag into the pipe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! If you happen to be offended by my wishing you a Merry Christmas , I would like to point out that my constitutional rights offer me the freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. It kind of makes you wonder what the controversy is about doesn't it? If someone wished me a happy Ramadan, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa , I would not be offended. Furthermore if I was, I would not expect that I had the right to make that person change. So, have a very Merry Christmas EVERYBODY! KJC

I was reading in the newspaper about some of the awful things that people do to each other around the world. One story was about a group of Hmong in Laos who had finally decided to surrender to the Communists, after hiding in the jungle for many years. They had been abandoned by the U.S. after the Vietnam War. Their fate was questionable when they were rounded up by soldiers and driven away in trucks. Most of them were reported to be women and children. Another story led off with a picture of a young Palestinian girl in tears. I found it heart-wrenching. It leaves me with the question, how can people hate so much that the tears of a child no longer affect them?

Bipartisan Commission on Iraq vs. President Bush December 12, 2006 UnAssociated Press On December 6, a bipartisan commission produced a report that said the situation in Iraq, is “grave and deteriorating,” and the United States’ ability “to influence events within Iraq is diminishing.” This came as the death toll for U.S. troops is nearing the 3,000 mark, troops from other countries, private contractors, journalists and thousands of Iraqis have died. Bush thanked the commission for its work and said that their input would be valuable as he reassessed the “sit-chee-ation.” Then the President announced that he would push for an additional 80-million-trillion-zillion troops to be deployed by the first of the year. After that, the President started laughing, and said that “the only way to peace, is through war.” He also said that “victory is the only option,” and it is his “solemn duty as President, to protect the citizens of the United States, by sending them to war.” The President did sa...

I have worked scoring exams for Special Education, and now as a detention supervisor at a Jr. High, I frequently have Special Education kids in detention. Among the problems I have noticed with the system, is that once a kid is labeled by a psychologist as a “behavior problem,” that child is suddenly allowed to stop trying, and stop behaving. The bad behavior is expected. Where does this leave the child when they grow up? Can they expect to say nasty, obscene and hurtful things to their boss and coworkers and then storm out to the parking lot for an hour to cool off? Aren’t kids supposed to learn coping skills in school to prepare for later life? Though I am not a licensed professional, I find it disturbing to expect less from a student and enable them to behave poorly because that student gets angry when asked to do schoolwork or behave in an acceptable manner.

The novel that I am currently writing is called, " Cottonwood ." It deals with the history in the bottomland forest of the Minnesota River Valley. As a volunteer park ranger in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, I have become interested in the history, animals and giant trees in the areas where I frequently hike. This story covers a lot of individual characters, events and natural history. It covers a considerable span of time -during the lifespan of a giant cottonwood tree. The story begins around the time when European immigrants began to move into the area. It deals with how the indigenous people and animals were displaced by the new arrivals. This story comes from history and from what I have observed on my many hikes into the river valley and the bottomland forest. I am perhaps a quarter of the way done with it. I am hoping for a new publisher. More information will come later about this. KJC

Yesterday a group of religious leaders decided to call for a boycott of US Airways, due to the removal of six suspicious Muslims on November 22. Now that radical religious people will no longer be flying on their airplanes, US Airways is now the safest airlines in the world. Therefore, if you want to have a safe flight and not be blown up or have your plane crash into buildings, etc., choose US Airways for your flight transportation needs. http://cutris.blogspot.com/2006/11/flying-while-muslim.html

Grandma passed away on Saturday. She was 96. When I was really young, I had three grandmas. That's because the mother of my grandma who just passed was still alive. She died at 99. Most of my grandparents died a long time ago. For most of my life I had one grandma. Now she is gone too.

“Flying While Muslim” was the title of today’s cover story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The initial title made me think it was going to implicate the airlines and ask us all to pity the poor Muslims who were behaving suspiciously. Fortunately, that isn’t how the article read, though these stories usually pull the liberals out of the woodwork. In my own opinion, I think the six Muslims Imams were intending to cause trouble. In post 9-1-1, how could they be so naïve as to think that loud praying and cursing America wouldn’t raise suspicions on a commercial airplane? I saw this type of tactic used when I worked for the county. Certain protected groups caused trouble, and when they were confronted by administration they levied accusations of prejudice/racism and filed a lawsuit. It effectively held administration at bay, because we live in a society that is hypersensitive to minority rights. In the case of the county, one of the biggest instigators was found to be dealing crack while wor...

Man Offended by Sun UnAssociated Press Land of the Easily Offended, USA November 21, 2006 A man was offended by the sun today, and said that he was humiliated by the fact that the sun was shining on him in a threatening way, without the man's permission. 14,563 lawyers are trying to persuade the man to choose them for his attorney, since this could become a major discrimination/harassment suit with long-term implications and possible multiple book deals. Several liberal groups turned out at a press conference this afternoon, to help shout, “Down with the sun!” When it was announced that the sun would set at 4:39PM, people cheered and then began to shoot guns into the air. Later, two people died from wounds they received from bullets falling from the sky. Some other people said that the sky had discriminated against the two because the sky is an infidel. The mob blamed this on the United States and began to chant “Death to America!” Then they began to burn American flags and throw ...

Remember, my book makes a great holiday gift! http://www.publishamerica.com/books/6406 I am currently writing a new novel. More about that later.

Yesterday a moose was gunned down because it wandered too close to the city. This is an all-too-often reoccurring theme here in Minnesota. For being a state with significant wilderness, Minnesota DNR/police seem to have only one way to handle animals that accidentally wander into the city limits. They gun them down in cold blood, in the name of public safety. If one sees a moose even in northern Minnesota, that person is lucky. I am ashamed and horrified by this continued trend in our state. There has to be a better way to handle animal encounters. If there isn’t, then we need new people in charge of such things. http://www.startribune.com/462/story/800216.html

"Homey don't play that game!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homey_the_Clown http://www.tvacres.com/clowns_homey.htm

President George W. Bush finally accepted Donald Rumsfeld's resignation yesterday. It seems that though Bush still claims Rumsfeld did a good job, it was time for him to go. I guess the president finally decided "staying the course," (i.e. continuous fighting, death and no progress) in Iraq wasn't working after all. Too bad as Bush showed Rumsfeld the door, he and Vice President Dick (and Condoleeza Rice) didn't join him.

One thing I learned from "He Who Goes First," http://www.publishamerica.com/books/6406 is that we can only take our honor and spirit with us when we die. I prefer not to be remembered for being rude and dishonest. We can try to be good people, even if the trend seems to be for street culture, rudeness, cheating and vulgarity to take over.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Thank God for that too! I am so tired of the negative campaign commercials, the propaganda in my mailbox and the signs all along the road. It will be so nice when it's over and we can go back to having the drug companies bombard us with commercials about how we need chemicals to make our lives better.

Last evening and this morning, the news was all about some remarks that Senator John Kerry made about “study hard or get stuck in Iraq.” The Republicans, more specifically President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain were shown, blasting Kerry for “his insult to the American Troops.” Anyone who hasn’t spent the last eight years in a vacuum can tell that decorated, Vietnam War Veteran, John Kerry was not commenting about the troops. He was commenting about our current President, George W. Bush. This is irrelevant both in politics, and in Jr. High. I work in a Jr. High School and I know how mean the kids can get and how twisted the truth can become. Let me tell you, these kids got nothing on the leaders of this country. Take my own presidential run. I was quoted as saying that, “wolves should be allowed to run free in the north woods of Minnesota.” This was twisted by the (Republican and Democratic) parties who are against me, to “sexual predators should be allowed to live free and u...

Yesterday I went hiking in the woods and I actually got pretty warm since I was off trail and it was 67 degrees (F). Before I finished my two-hour hike, however, the temperature dropped about ten degrees and the wind got stronger. By this morning it was 26 degrees (F) when I was driving to work. You've got to love it here!

I have yet to share any recipes on my blog, though I am thought to be a pretty good cook. This is perhaps best explained by the fact that I really don’t use recipes, I just cook. Recipes usually have some ingredient that I don’t have. My mom learned to cook on a farm with whatever was in the pantry. This is how I cook too. I find it to be an enjoyable experience when I make up my own rules. Anyway, here is an outline for a fabulous dinner I made last Friday. I took two thawed game hens, and spiced them with chopped onion, green pepper and a clove of crushed garlic. I also used a little thyme, cilantro, ground ginger, Lawrey’s Season Salt, salt and pepper, crushed red pepper and maybe some other stuff, I don’t remember. Then I placed them in a large roaster with about an inch of water in it. Then I poured wild rice in the bottom (spread out). Then I cooked this, covered, at 350 degrees (F) for one hour. Next I removed the roaster, turned the hens over, added a little more water and then...