Monday, December 17, 2012

Guns, Bowling, Old Carol.

The Connecticut tragedy illustrates, once again, the unwisdom of such freedom of gun ownership. It’s a never ending argument, the pro gun people will defend their right to ogunwn guns to the bitter end. One woman commented on Facebook about protecting her family – if those had been her kids, how would her ownership of guns have protected them? She wouldn’t have been there. If guns were not so readily available the shooter, on this occasion in particular, would not have had access to them. Yes I know its not guns that kill it’s the human who does the killing, but if people don’t have such easy access to guns, it is so much less likely to happen. Statistically, gun toting America has far more shootings than other countries of the western world, but the pro gun people cannot seem to see this.  A friend in the States insisted that he would defend his guns to the death even if police tried to take them away. I cannot understand such an attitude. This picture was on Facebook it has statistics showing a vast gap between gun deaths in the US and a lot of other countries, I am not sure how current the figures are, but the point is still apparent. Sunday morning we heard a report telling us that there are more gun stores in the US than there are MacDonald’s and that there are some 200,000 guns in the US. Opinions differ widely, but most of us from other nations feel tightening gun laws would be a positive move. One blogging friend, Viveka at My Guilty Pleasures, talked about violence on TV and the movies. I do agree that I think young people see so much of this and know that the actors get up and walk away, therefore that will happen when real people get shot or beaten up. It skews their perceptions I think. Viveka also talked about the terrible shooting of children in Norway; it does happen elsewhere, just not as often. Whatever our opinions, our sympathies and heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims at this latest massacre.

Today is our Christmas ‘banquet’ at the bowling alley, we have lunch and thenHolly bowl some fun games rather than regular games. Usually we bowl one game of bingo and the alley hands out some Christmas goodies – I have more Christmas ornaments than I can shake a stick at received from the alley. Then we won’t be Monday bowling until January 7.  We have one more Friday bowling, but I am not sure about the other two Fridays, probably most people will be too busy celebrating the holidays.

ChanticleerI challenged our local radio station DJ, Randolph J. Johnson, to find a recording of a carol we used to sing when I was young. The first line is “All this night shrill chanticleer”. Very few people have heard of this carol and yet I always loved it when we sang it at school. Matt is always astounded when I mention it because he sang all kinds of carols as a boy chorister but has never heard of that carol either. I know the tune, but my signing would knock you dead. I don’t know if RJ took up my challenge or not, haven’t heard anything from him. For those of you who don’t know, chanticleer is often a term applied to a rooster.

I thought this would be a nice change from my usual recipes. All the highlighted items can be made at home, or bought in stores which specialise in Indian foods and spices. The curry powder frequently sold in regular grocery stores is somewhat bland compared with what you can obtain in specialist stores, their products are full of flavour. Of course, if you live in the UK, you can probably get all this from your local Indian takeaway.

Tandoori Chicken

By A Nutritionist Eatstandoori_chicken
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

Ingredients

Prep: 4-24 hours | Cook: 20 minutes |

  • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 4 tablespoons garam masala
  • 2 teaspoons hot curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
  • 1 pound chicken thighs

Instructions

  1. Combine the yogurt and spices. Add chicken and toss to coat the chicken.
    Marinate for 4‒24 hours.
  2. Heat grill to medium. Cook about 20 minutes, until cooked through. Flipping after 10 minutes.
  3. Serve with dal, punjab eggplant and baked naan drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with zaatar.

Have a great day

Jo_thumb2

6 comments:

  1. I'm not a gun person, but something about too much government control makes me nervous.

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    1. I would rather have government control over guns than 27 dead in a school. We certainly don't suffer for guns not being freely available in Canada, nor in Britain.

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  2. I think Heather at The Waiting is the Hardest Part worded it best today.
    TV and movie both reflect and influence - it's a never-ending cycle.

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  3. I agree with everything you say about guns, Jo. Here in in Australia we have always had fairly tight gun control but after an horrific mass shooting some years ago the laws were tightened even more. There was an amnesty for unregistered guns and a massive buy back so there are very few guns in the community now except for those people like farmers who need them. We haven't stopped criminals smuggling them in, of course - these days mostly via the internet from countries with few restrictions on guns - but personally I feel safer in a country where guns are strictly policed. I just cannot understand the attitude of many in the US that in some way having a gun keeps you safe. I know an amnesty and buy back would be on a much larger scale in the US but if they have the will they could do it.
    On another subject I vaguely remember the chanticleer carol too but couldn't sing it now to save my life.

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    Replies
    1. I have lived with gun controls all my life, in the UK and then Canada. We do get shootings, but nothing like the problems they have in the States. I know what kind of regime I would prefer to live with.

      As I said, I remember the tune, but I can't sing worth a damn.

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