Is This Too Much Government Control?

Yesterday I was reading Los Angeles Times Sunday Edition and was going over the bills that the California Assembly and Senate passed. One of the bills made me think that the government of California is going too far in controlling people's lives and behaviors. The bill, SB 7, would penalize those who smoke in a vehicle containing children under the age of 18. However, the police would not be able to stop vehicles to solely inforce the law. The fine for violating the law would be $100.

In its concept, I do agree that children should not be exposed to second hand smoke but do not agree that the government should be imposing its will on us to prevent such things from occurring. It is the adult's responsibility to prevent exposure to tobacco smoke to children and not the government. I do not like it when the government is telling me what to do in cases like this. Would I be smoking in a car with children in it? No, but I do not want the government coming down on me if I did. Next thing you'll know, they will tell us what to eat, how to eat, when to take a dump, etc.

I get the impression that California's government feels that they need to control people because they are too dumb to do anything. They say that it is illegal to use a belt on a child when you spank them, can't use a slipper to whack their bottoms when they misbehave. I'm not in favor of child abuse but come on! I got whacked as a kid with a bamboo stick and I deserved it by being a snotty little punk that needed to be reminded that Mommy is not to be dressed down to. California is starting to look more and more like a socialist playground with all of these control freak laws.

Is there too much government control? Am I wrong? I would love to hear your productive comments.

My Hero, Anthony Bourdain

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Anthony Bourdain. For those of you that do not know who he is, he was a New York Chef at Brasserie Les Halles and author of several best selling books such as Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour. Currently, he is the host of Travel Channel's No Reservations.

The biggest thing that I admire about him is that he is willing to try all different kinds of food...the bizarre like balut to the ordinary sushi. Ok, for some of you sushi is bizarre like eating bait. Hey, today's sushi is tomorrow's bait but I love it. But as for balut, there is no way that I would even attempt to go near it. I don't mean to knock it down because it is a delicacy for a lot of Southeast Asians and Filipinos. Let's just say that it is an acquired taste.

I've been a fan of Anthony Bourdain for about three years after reading Kitchen Confidential. I actually first heard of him when he was a guest on Oprah. No, I do not normally watch Oprah or any of the those day time shows geared toward women. I was channel surfing during one of my days while I was bored out of my mind during a period of unemployment and saw this Chef on TV and it happened to be the Oprah show. It was interesting what he had to say about the restaurant business such as why restaurant food tastes better than what you can dish out at home (because restaurants use butter and shallots), that the bread on your table most likely is recycled, and brunch specials on the weekends are a way for the restaurant to get rid of stuff from the week (frittata comes to mind).

After reading Kitchen Confidential, I got hooked and bought his other books and then I started to get into French style cooking. His book, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, is great! I highly recommend this book if you are a beginner to French cooking. One of my favorite recipes from this book is Steak Au Poivre. It is relatively easy to make and it tastes great. Mmmm...I love the sauce using butter, shallots, and cognac. Dang, it is making me real hungry just thinking about it. This cookbook also inspired me to be create my takes on French food such as braised short ribs with red wine reduction and caramelized wild mushroom ragout, and baked chicken with garlic confit and white wine sauce. Ok, I have to make one of these this week since it has been a while that I made either one.

Ok, back to Mr. Bourdain. The one thing that I really like about him is that he is always gracious with his hosts who cook and serve him. He will not hesitate to try foods that he is unfamiliar with and he will not make a disgusted face in front of his host if he eats something that grosses him out. I remember one episode when he ate a taco made out of iguana meat. In front of his host, he merrily chewed and ate the whole thing. Off camera, he stated that he would have rather stuck his head in a barrel of lye. Hmmm...seeing iguanas in the pet store, I would not blame him for doing such a thing. He is a brave man...much braver than me and I love to eat all kinds of bizarre foods. Well, they are normal for me but for white bread America, it is very exotic or shall I say ralphish?

If you want to see different parts of the world with its culture and cuisine, I highly recommend watching No Reservations on the Travel channel. It is great show and Anthony Bourdain is very entertaining and interesting to watch.

A Very Long Hiatus

Yup, I guess I'm back to blogging. I really don't know how long this will last so don't hold your breath unless you want to die of self inflicted asphyxia.

I figured that I should start out again out of sheer boredom. Yeah, I've been at home all day with no service calls and been tired of watching reruns of the Dog Whisperer, FBI files, and other mind numbing TV shows so I decided to do some blogging.

I really don't know how some people can blog so easily and daily. I mean I have work, chores around the house, places to go and things to do and thus can't really sit down and write about stuff all the time. I have a life...or I think I do. But I guess what it boils down to is the priorities in my life. Blogging is definitely not one of them as you can tell after not doing so for over a year. I mean I really didn't have a big following for my blogs as there are thousands of other blogs out there that are well written and are far more interesting. I'm just a plain, old simple guy who started blogging as a way to pass time during a bout of unemployment. Now that I have been working with computers day in and out, the last thing I want to really do is sit in front of a computer on my time off. So yes, this babbling is due to extreme boredom.

I'm going to have to make some changes on my blog due to it's lack of updating. I mean, there is not Cingular wireless anymore since it is now the new AT&T and Comcast was sold to Time Warner.

Speaking about AT&T, what was up with the whole iPhone thing? I don't understand why people would camp out overnight to be one of the first to get the iPhone. I mean, why camp out and pay a hefty sum of cash when I could go to the same store a couple of weeks later and not have to wait in line? I've done the whole "I want to be the first on my block to have that because I'm a geek" thing and it sucked. It sucked because I ran into major bugs in the system. Of course there was a software revision a couple of weeks later and thus from that point on I decided that I'm no longer going to do the major techno geek thing and wait for some other sucker to suffer through and be the beta tester for me.

Well, that's it for now...I'm tired so I guess I'll take a nap. Aloha!