Ultrasound shows a face on this mans testicles! http://tinyurl.com/3pdsmoc

I’m trying to figure out what Tom Menino has against Wal-Mart.  The mayor told the Herald that “all of a sudden Wal-Mart has become Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes” because they want to open a location in, gasp, the city that the 86 term Mayor has convinced himself he owns.  Aren’t there an awful lot of the mayor’s constituents, who find themselves without a job, who would love to be gainfully employed at a dependable chain like Wal-Mart?  Aren’t there people who live and work in the cities that the mayor rules with an iron fist that would love the opportunity to save some money and shop at a Wal-Mart?

Do you think his opposition has anything to do with the fact that Wal-Mart has refused to unionize its employees around the country?  What a nasty word “union” has become, huh?  The unions were invented to keep 8 year old kids from working 18 hour days in sweat shops.  At many times in this country’s history they have, and they still do, serve their purpose.  But in dire economic times, when people are desperate for jobs, it should be a crime to prevent a company that wants to create them from doing so, for political reasons.

Ask yourself what jobs Mayor Tom Menino, or Deval Patrick for that matter, have created in these tough times?  They are more than happy to throw millions of dollars at a “green” company that bolts the state for foreign lands when times get tough, but they are standing in the way of an American company that wants to come to Boston, and Somerville, and create employment opportunities?

Whether you see the value, or not, in unions, should it be an issue that stops Wal-Mart from creating jobs in a city, and an economy, that really needs them?  Can we really afford to be that picky?

• Reading through the entire transcript of the Congressman’s “sexbooking” exploits with the ladies, not once does he use the “wiener” play on words.  How could he resist?
• Do you think that before she married a man who’s last name was Wiener, his wife’s name was pronounced “Humma”?
• When researching his role in “State of Play” as a philandering politician who gets caught, Ben Affleck met with, and received advice on the character, from none other than the dirty Democrat himself.  I guess Ben was looking for realism in his acting.
• If you keep your underwear on in a photo that you are tweeting to someone, it definitely means you’re stuffing, right?
• Why didn’t Larry Craig use the “it was a joke” defense?
• When President Clinton married Congressman Wiener and his new bride, he apparently passed on some marital advice.   Which is kind of like Aaron Rome instructing youth hockey players on clean hits.
• Newt Gingrich would only have accepted the Congressman’s apology if he had been wearing red, white and blue boxers in the photo
• If there is such a thing, the blackjack dealer was definitely “sexting upward”
• Who looks better in their nude photo spread?  Congressman Wiener or Senator Brown?
• Rather than ask the obligatory question about why someone would participate in such risky behavior when we all know the answer, we should really ask the Congressman (and everybody else, on both sides, that is in our employ in Washington) why they haven’t been able to get people back to work.

We talked this morning about San Francisco child protective services removing 8 year old Brittney Campbell from her mother’s custody, after the mentally ill woman went on “Good Morning America” to describe the botox treatments she gives her daughter so she “can become a star”.

Brittney participates in the pedophile smorgasbord that are “Child Beauty Pageants”.  Her mother buys Botox online and injects her daughter when she thinks she sees a wrinkle.  She also gets her daughter full body waxes in the hope that she won’t develop hair when she hits puberty.

This certifiable lunatic of a mother says “what I’m doing will help her become a star”.  Really?  What it will help her become is completely obsessed and paranoid over her own looks, so much so that she will be in a mental institution by age 15.  Either that, or by age 16, she will have had so many procedures that she looks like a teenage borg.  Or any 45 year old soccer mom from Newton.

The worst thing about this is what Brittney appears to believe about plastic surgery.  Remember, she’s eight years old!  She told the “Daily Mirror” in England, “I also want a boob and nose job soon so I can become a star”.  Soon?  Is she waiting til she’s ten?  Or until her prize winnings equal the five grand she would need for a good set of fake bombs?

It is well within the rights of any child protection agency to remove a child whose parent is so obsessed with making their 8 year old a star, that they are willing to alter their kid’s body.  It should be a crime to convince your daughter that a firm C cup will someday make you a success.  And…somebody should put a limit on child beauty pageants.  Like you can’t get in one until you are old enough to drive.  Little girls don’t need any additional pressure in their life.  And they certainly don’t need to worry about getting implants before they get their period.

Implants don’t make you a star, talent does.  Just ask Tia Tequila.

We tried the Mint Julips made by the 3 finalists in the Greg Hill Foundation’s “Great Mint Julip competition” and, since you might want to make them for your Derby party, here are the recipes:

Jamie Walsh – Bar Manager – Stoddards Fine Food – Boston

Tradition with a Twist

• 2-3oz Makers Mark Bourbon
• 1/2oz Burnt Sugar Syrup
• About 5 to 8 sprigs of Chocolate Mint & 2-3 more for garnish
• Crushed ice

Add Chocolate Mint Leaves and Burnt Sugar Syrup ( see below) to the cup and press/muddle, add crushed ice and cone the top of the cup or glass. Add Makers Mark Bourbon and garnish with Chocolate Mint sprigs on top. I like to whack the mint on my hand to “wake” up the oils before I garnish about 4-5 sprigs.

Burnt Sugar Syrup

Take 1 pint of granulated sugar 3 table spoons of water & cook until amber….Adding water at this point takes a little longer but it helps caramelizing it…Pull it off the heat add a pint of water (equal parts water to sugar) put it back on bring to a boil…. then cool

Giuseppe Iannello – AGM – McFadden’s Saloon Boston

Strawberry Mint Julep

• Fresh Mint
• ½   oz simple syrup     ( equal parts sugar & water dissolved together)
• ½ oz Strawberry flavored water
• 1 ½ oz Makers Mark Bourbon
• Red Pixie Sticks
• Crushed ice

lightly coat bottom of a ten oz. glass with the red pixie stick, add ¼ oz of simple syrup and strawberry flavored water, using a shaker combine the pixie stick, water and syrup, lightly muddle mint into mixture, now fill cup to the top with crushed ice, add Makers Mark over ice, add another 1/4 oz. of simple syrup, fill the rest of the glass with the strawberry flavored water. stir drink to blend ingredients and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Dan Galupo – Howl at the Moon & W Hotel Boston

Maple Mint Julep

• 1 ½ oz Real Vermont Syrup – ( no Aunt what’s her face)
• Fresh Mint
• 2 oz Makers Mark Bourbon
• Crushed Ice

In a glass add 1.5 Ounces of Maple Syrup and good amount of fresh mint muddle this up real good to infuse mint into the syrup. Add fresh crushed ice and Maker Mark Bourbon, shake and strain into glass, add fresh ice and garnish with fresh mint.

Kentucky Classic Mint Julep

• Fresh Mint
• 1 teaspoon Powdered Sugar
• 2 ½ oz Makers Mark Bourbon
• 2 tablespoons of water
• Crushed Ice

In a glass, muddle the powdered sugar, mint leaves and water, add crushed ice and Makers Mark Bourbon, garnish with fresh mint. Simple and Delicious

As you read this, a Lawrence jury is reviewing the facts in the case of Kristen LaBrie, a mother who made the decision to stop giving her 8 year old son the cancer treatments doctors told her he needed to fight the disease.  He died in 2009.

She is charged with attempted murder, child endangerment, and assault and battery.  There are some who think she has suffered enough.  A prosecutor told the jury that she did not feel one bit of responsibility for the death of her son.  She stopped the treatment because she felt the side effects would kill him.  This is not the case of a 78 year old man whose wife told him she’d had enough and it was time to die in peace.  This is a 9 year old kid, who looked to the adult in his life for the guidance and care he needed to fight an awful disease.  And what does he get?  A mother who disregards the advice of doctors and denies him his treatment.

There is every reason for this woman to be found guilty.  He should have been given the treatment he needed so his body could fight.  There was an 80-90 percent chance he would have survived if she didn’t take it upon herself to decide he could do without his medication.  That is criminal.

No one knows what really motivated Ms. LaBrie.  There was testimony about her resentment of the boy’s father and his lack of involvement in raising their son.  We’ll never know unless she tells us what role, if any, that played in all of this.  We do know, however, her son had a better than good chance of surviving and she denied him that opportunity.  For that, she should go to jail for a long time.

With the announcement from Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin, that he will hold Congressional Hearings aimed at protecting the civil rights of Muslims, we get another glaring example of why Democrats insist on wasting taxpayer dollars pandering to a minority in this country.
There are, by most estimates, one to two million Muslims here in America. By comparison, using those same estimates, there are five million Jews, and 159 million Christians. According to a statement announcing the hearings, they come as a result of the “spike in anti-Muslim bigotry and discrimination” that has occurred in the last year.
Has Senator Durbin looked into the bigotry and discrimination the other aforementioned religions have dealt with forever in this country? Where are the Congressional Hearings to ferret out the reason why the Andover Fire Department can’t hang a “Merry Christmas” sign on their station anymore?
“Quran burnings, restrictions on Mosque construction and hate speech” are the things Durbin says necessitate these hearings. Is he joshing us? Unfortunately, in this country, there has long been a tradition of bigotry toward those who’s religion differs from yours. It’s ugly, but it’s true. To waste hours of the Senate’s time to determine that there are those who are biased toward those who worship another religion is silly.
If Congress wants to stand and support a religion, they should start with the majority and work there way down. I imagine there are a bunch of Scientologists who think that Tom Cruise has gotten a bad rap and would love to testify about it. Yes, we must make sure everyone is free to worship whom they choose in this country. We also (some may believe unfortunately) have to insure that those who want to burn a Quran, or restrict mosque construction have the same rights as the small minority in any faith.

I’m about to kick “Sesame Street” in the nuts and I feel bad about it. I learned a lot from watching Big Bird in the early days, same with “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood”, “The Electric Company” and, when I got older, Ken Burns “Baseball” and the “Civil War”. But I think the time has come for PBS and NPR to operate the way the rest of the country has operated the last 3 years, and dial it down a little.
Barack Obama’s budget offers $451 MILLION to fund public television and radio in the next budget cycle. At a time when are we running the largest single monthly deficit ever, that just doesn’t compute. Put those numbers in front of Bert and Ernie, and neither one would get it. That’s why Republicans in Congress are looking to take that money away.
Is a government in a free society obligated to provide programming for it’s people? Is the concept that children can always turn to PBS for pure, educational shows unencumbered by the nasty influence of commercials or product placement? That I might support for a measly $10-15 Million! But the money we are pouring down the drain to fund a television and radio network that essentially provides one dimensional, politically biased content is bogus.
Have you listened to NPR lately? You certainly are not getting an unbiased, objective look at today’s headlines from that bunch. Why should our tax dollars go to support a radio network that should be forced to compete for dollars like every other broadcast entity?
When Dan Rather was fired from CBS for allowing his liberal bias to lead to the use of forged documents on a hatchet job on former President Bush, it’s a wonder a show wasn’t created for him on PBS.
All one need do is watch Bill Moyer’s “Buying the War” or see PBS anchors Jon Meacham and Alliston Stewart knock each other out of the way to fawn and drool over former President Clinton on “Need to Know” to see the clear left wing bias that is ingrained in their outlook. And that’s fine-if the taxpayers aren’t paying for it. Last time I checked, those of us that actually do pay taxes, are both liberals and conservatives and I don’t want $451 Million going to one sided radio outlet and biased network.

Great job by Ken Casey and his Dropkick Murphy’s mates on assembling a star-studded cast for the brand new video for “Going Out in Style”:

I am pretty sure this is the first music video that the great #4, Bobby Orr, has appeared in.  (What two Bruins stars of the 80’s and 90’s appeared together in the “Hole Hearted” video from Extreme?) You will also see Youk, Milan Lucic, Lenny Clarke, Sean Thornton and few other local A-listers.

Mayor Menino gets a shout out in the song but doesn’t make the video.  Which reminds me of the Dropkicks almost getting tossed off City Hall Plaza when they played live for the 15^th Anniversary of the Hillman Morning show in 2004.  I guess the Mayor has a short-term memory issue going.

Just a few short weeks till the first harbinger of Spring….Dropkicks shows at the House of Blues!

The Boston Globe this week revealed some of what is contained in Deval Patrick’s forthcoming biography, called “A Reason to Believe”.  I have been thinking about some potential alternate titles that I think are more appropriate:

-“A Reason to Leave”  :  perfect for those considering picking up their worldly possessions and moving somewhere like New Hampshire where you aren’t taxed into oblivion

“A Ransom if you’re Green” :  the Governor explains why the state was willing to pony up millions of dollars for Evergreen Solar, only to have them bail on our state

“Another Trick up my Sleeve” :  this applies to the new “tax” on water and juice bottles and whatever other “fees” are coming this year so he doesn’t have to actually cut the budget

-“A Raisin to Eat” :  if things keep going the way they have economically in this state under Deval, this is all some residents will have left for dinner

Perhaps you may have a title that you feel is more appropriate.  I’m gonna wait until the paperback comes out so I save a few bucks for tax time.