manchicken here…

Grandpa Mike Stemle's Glam-Shot.

VOLUNTEER PROFILE: Michael Stemle

Volunteer position at Habitat site: General, whatever is needed. Name it and I have most likely done it at least once, except for roofs. I have hammered everything that can be hammered, have painted things the needed (and some that didn’t need) painting, I have laid out walls, installed siding, installed kitchen cabinets, put up drywall, etc. I am the 2009 Vice President of the Board of Directors.

How long have you been working with Habitat? Since 1998. First house that I remember was on Neil and that family has done so well they added on to the house.

What’s your favorite part of working with Habitat? Being on the build site, helping others on the build learn that it is OK to not be able to hit a nail with every swing and that it is OK not to know the proper names for building components.

Previous or current profession: Software Development Manager

First job/weirdest job: 2nd class welder at a shipyard, setup lighting and sound systems for rock concerts.

Hobbies: Software, painting, just did a frog mural in my grandson’s nursery.

My friends describe me as: Crazy. Always has something to say. Willing to help.

What is the most memorable experience you’ve had with Habitat? Having the children of one of our families bringing a cup of water on a hot day and thanking me for building them a home. Watching the houses on the other three corners of a house that we were building get improved (an abandoned house became a clean grassy lot, another got new siding and another got new siding and a roof).

Favorite memory of working with Habitat: Having my children helping on a build site and mailing a donation “Thank you Card” to my son.

Popularity: 1%

It’s been a while since I’ve put up a recipe, and that’s not because I don’t love you all… it’s because I’ve been mastering something that has taunted me for a long time: thick-crust pizza.

Now, you’re probably saying “but manchicken, pizza usually has cheese on it, and vegan cheese substitutes all taste like ass!”  Well, I couldn’t agree more… vegan cheese substitutes do tend to taste like ass, and that’s why I just don’t use them.  I make cheese-less pizza.  Now, without all that extra fat and Calories you can do a lot more with toppings, but you can also feel guilt-free about thick-crust pizza.  You probably could put cheese on this if you want, but I’m happy with just store-bought spaghetti sauce and onions.

You need:

• 1 cup hot tap water, 170ºF/77ºC max
• 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
• 2 tbsp brewers yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 6 cups all-purpose flour (3 cups for dough, 3 to knead into dough)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 8 tbsp canola oil (2 tbsp for the dough, 6 to oil your pans)
• 2 9-inch round cake pans

Popularity: 7%

So I have to call out a racist commenter on the blog today.  In recent days someone posing as one “Ira Goldstein” has been posting in the comments section of my blog with an awful lot of ignorant hate-speech about President-elect Barack Obama.

If this ignorant person is reading this blog, I just wanted to let you know that I cannot permit that degree of ignorant hate-speech go on here.  If you’d like to spread your own hate-speech like that, feel free to go out and get your own blog, don’t hide your hatred in the comments of my blog.

If anybody from the City or County of Denver is reading, I do have the IP of the person who did write this hate-speech from the comfort of your network, and I can provide that information to anybody who can convince me that they’re the appropriate authority… I’m pretty sure you have a rule against posting hate-speech on blogs from your network.

Popularity: 8%

Some of you may already know–and others are about to find out–that I’ve got a rather extreme pro-life view.  No, it’s not the crazy, hijacked, right-wing anti-abortion pro-life view; my pro-life view is that all things that are alive have an inherent right to remain alive–and fight to remain alive–until such time as they cease to be alive via disease, accident, suicide, battle, or a combination of any or all of the above.  This means that I am first and foremost a vegan (e.g. I don’t eat anything that comes from an animal… and no, I don’t eat fish).

Under no circumstances do I find it acceptable that humans would harm animals for their own convenience or pleasure.  I believe that animals are not ours to eat, experiment on, use for clothing, or exploit for entertainment.  As many of you, my family is currently planning on a rather large Thanksgiving and Christmas feast this Holiday Season, and with that comes the torture and slaughter of millions of animals each and every such season.  Turkeys and pigs are killed for turkey and ham, cows are deprived of their children–many of which are then deprived of their lives–and plugged into machines that cause infections and sores.  They’re pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and have third-degree burns inflicted on them in the “branding” process.  They’re stressed pushed around.  Then there are eggs which are laid by chickens crammed into cages so tight that many are even incapable of turning around.  Their beaks are seared off with hot knives to prevent them from killing the chicken next to them out of stress induced insanity.

This is the fate of billions of animals per year, and this post is just to take my own personal stand–no matter how insignificant–against this and say that I will not be participating in murder and torture this Holiday Season.  Instead I will be enjoying the best of what my imagination can come up with.  Sure there are the Tofurkey roasts that many point at, but I’ve never been content to replace the products of murder with look-a-likes.  Instead I will be joining in by bringing my own mashed potatoes, yams, pastas, salads, vegetables, caseroles, and desserts to these feasts for my lovely wife and myself.

If any of you are thinking that I–by some miracle–am making any sense, check out the Vegan Outreach article “Why Vegan.”  I hope you all have a safe and happy Holiday Season, and I hope millions of pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, and ducks will get to enjoy more this season than the most cruel and brutal murders that mankind has to offer.

Popularity: 9%

Dr. Dobson took to the air this morning saying that he was in a “state of mourning” following the election results.  There are two points that I thought were ignorant and fear-mongering about them.

They say that Barack Obama is pro-infanticide, which is ridiculous. Dr. Dobson is a moron for holding and spreading such misinformation as fact.

This group also spreads hate speech against homosexuals, and commends a hate-group for restricting the rights of homosexuals to marry.

Then this entire panel in the radio show are painting Liberals as anti-family.  This group should be ashamed, and in Christian love I rebuke this group for its dissemination of hate speech.  I call on them to repudiate their hateful and divisive comments and call their listeners to respect the rights of ALL Americans, not just white Christian Amercians.

Popularity: 9%

The Christian Broadcasting Network has proven themselves to be a hate group, touting that White Christians are somehow doing something wrong by voting for Barack Obama. These people even went as far as to claim that the church is failing to teach sound doctrine because white Christians didn’t vote more for John McCain.

This sort of hate speech is what I expect from the KKK… not what I expect from folks who pretend to be upstanding members of the Christian community.

See the Video Here

Popularity: 9%

So as one who has dedicated the last three weeks of my life to the Barack Obama campaign for change, I must say that I am not only delighted that Barack Obama won… but that he carried all three states that mattered to me: my current home-state of Illinois, my previous home-state of Ohio, and the state which I fought so hard to win for Barack Obama, Indiana.

As much as I’m savoring the sweet taste of victory, I must acknowledge the hate and discrimination that has also won over four states in our union: Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Florida.

Florida, Arizona, and California all approved state-constitution amendments that will unfairly discriminate against homosexual couples by denying them the right to wed.  These people who seek to restrict the freedom of homosexual couples are ignorant.  They’re ignorant to the point where I would normally pity them had they not just engaged in government-sponsored bigotry.

Arkansas went a step further and even made the incredibly ignorant decision to deny any individual not part of a state-recognized marriage the ability to act as a foster parent or adoptive parent.  Let’s be honest, this measure was taken to deny homosexual couples the ability to adopt or foster… but there are unintended consequences, let’s take a peek:

1. Single people may no longer adopt or foster with this measure in place.
2. If a foster couple divorces then they will no longer be permitted to foster.
3. Folks who have been together long enough to be considered common-law married in states that have such acknowledgements will no longer be able to adopt or foster.
4. Private adoptions are affected just as much as public ones, this means that if your brother and his wife both die and you’re unmarried and living with a girlfriend or boyfriend regardless of whether or not it is a homosexual marriage, you will not be able to adopt your brother’s children.  This includes denying Catholics and many other Christians their religious belief that the God-parents are to raise the children in the unfortunate event that the parents die.

I am sad to see that while this election is a big step in favor of civil rights, it is obvious that the ignorant bigots in this country are still intent on raping the rest of the nation with their ignorance.  I condemn these acts of bigotry and I call on the leaders in these states to quickly overturn these unjust and fundamentally incorrect decisions.  If bigots–even when in the majority–are permitted to force themselves on rest of us everybody suffers.

In summary: Obama win, good.  Anti-gay bigots, bad.

Popularity: 9%

This is awful, shame on this lady.  There is something twisted in this lady’s head.  Maybe we should all take a collection for her to get some therapy?

Popularity: 10%

So today I read an article on the far-right smear website LetFreedomRingUSA.com advising people to boycott Google and Apple because of their staunch opposition to Prop 8. in California.

For those of you who don’t know, Prop. 8 is a measure designed to overturn a court ruling that permits same-gender couples to wed within the state of California.

This group is calling for a boycott on Apple and Google.  I say that we should support these two companies in calling for and end to discrimination in the state of California.  This hatred has gone on long enough, it’s time for it to come to an end.

Popularity: 10%

So I caught wind of this “pretend letter” via Christianity Today–not as right-wing as many would think, so I can often tolerate it–that was release by Focus on the Family.  This is a complicated situation here, so let me break it down for you…

In this 16-page PDF letter written by “A Christian from 2012,” Focus on the Family says that in the first Obama administration the following things happened.  Please note, reading this and sharing it with you *TURNS MY STOMACH*.  The very idea that a group claiming to have the best interest for Christians at heart would release such filth just aches my soul.  I am in tears thinking that an organization I once respected would dare go to this length to affect a Presidential election with so much hate and ignorance.

I reluctantly submit to you the 25 items I gleaned from the “letter” before I became physically ill at the thought of how society in general would view Christians–and even me as a Christian–as a result of this letter.

1. Obama tilts the courts 5-4 in favor of liberals over conservatives.
2. The court subsequently starts making decisions based on what is right for society not what is legal and constitutional.
3. Gay marriage is instantly legalized because the new “liberal court” recognizes gay marriage as a constitutional right.
4. The Boy Scouts disbanded because they would now be forced to allow homosexual scout masters, and they wouldn’t allow the scout masters to sleep in tents with young boys.
5. All schools now must teach elementary schools about gender identity issues as soon as Grade 1, parents may not opt out.
6. Homosexuals may now adopt, and even Catholic organizations must allow them to do so.
7. All companies with government contracts must provide gay couples with equal benefits as they do heterosexual couples.
8. The Bible is censored over radio and TV
9. Doctors who won’t artificially inseminate lesbians will face fines or lose their licenses.
10. All other professionals are prohibited from discriminating against homosexuals.
11. Churche-like organizations must now hire gays.
12. The President issued an executive order encouraging homosexuals participate in the military openly.
13. High school students are prohibited from praying anywhere on school grounds.
14. Schools are no longer permitted to lease space to churches.
15. Campus Christian organizations go away.
16. They pull “Under God” out of the pledge.
17. Obama will somehow make abortion a “right”
18. Nurses and doctors are no longer free to refuse to participate in abortions for reasons of conscience, so many Christians leave their medical careers.
19. Children are now permitted to look at porn with no legal barriers.  Porn is now considered an art form, and is openly displayed in grocery stores and gas stations.
20. Gun ownership is illegal, and somehow that leads to a sky-rocketing inner-city violence rate.
21. Home schooling is illegal now.
22. Terrorists are emboldened by US pull-out of Iraq and start attacking the US.
23. Because the government respected our privacy and stopped illegal wiretaps and closed Gitmo, terrorists have detonated bombs in two large and two small US cities, killing hundreds.
24. Iran detonated a nuclear weapon in the middle of Tel Aviv.
25. Because of Obama’s healthcare policy, the prostate cancer surgery  waiting list is 3 years long.

I once thought that Focus on the Family was an uber-conservative group that actually did have a focus on how faith plays a role in the family… I am now coming to a completely different conclusion… and it’s not a pretty one.  It is categorically offensive that Focus on the Family would release such filth, and I call for a boycott of Focus on the Family.  Focus on the Family has chosen to focus on smear tactics and has become the mouthpiece of the neo-con movement.  They are not focused on my family or your family, they’re focused on GOP political control.

Dr. Dobson, if you’re watching (which I doubt you are), shame on you for allowing your organization to release this.  Have you really sold out to the GOP?  Do you not see that this undermines everything that Focus on the Family pretends to stand for?

The rest of you, I’ve reluctantly attached this soiled wad of toilet tissue in PDF format for you to see for yourself.  Feel free to comment, this is just sick.

Focus on the Family letter

Popularity: 11%