Is Torture Really un-American?

America, it's time for a reality check:

People who think that torture, 'is not who we are as Americans' and 'goes against the soul of our great country' are sadly mistaken. For at least the past 50 years, the U.S. has been violating international treaties and laws while engaging in wars and other aggression against both friends and enemies. All the dishonesty and despicable actions that America has engaged in IS what America really stands for.

Prideful claims of American Exceptionalism based on the belief that we are morally superior, and a beacon of truth and justice are dishonest, delusional or ignorant. America is despised around the world, and for very good reason. Apparently the only folks who don't realize this are the vast majority of American citizens who actually believe the jingoistic tripe being fed to them, i.e. "they hate us for our freedom."

If Americans would actually take some responsibility for the actions done in their name and admit to themselves that the whole freedom, liberty and under God stuff is being used as justification for theft, murder and greed, then we might be able to take an honest look at ourselves and make some badly-needed changes.










Another blog post by Ken Padgett

Our Kitchen Remodel

Last year in a blog post titled "A Low Low Budget Kitchen Remodel" I showed how I removed a gas cooktop and duel oven from our kitchen, replaced them with a commercial style gas range, and reconfigured the cabinets.

 It was a good temporary fix but wasn't enough to stave off a complete makeover for very long.

Here's the story in pictures of our remodel:

Jim Larson, our kitchen designer at Europe Construction doesn't need a fake beard when he works as a Santa during the holidays.

 First, the cabinets were delivered

 Then the demo started

 Since there was no room in the house or the garage to store everything, it was put outside under tents. Good thing the weather cooperated.

 The new floor looks great, but some of the drywall that used to be behind the sink was pretty nasty, so it was replaced.

 New overhead lighting with the kitchen and dining room on separate dimmers. I replaced all of the incandescent bulbs with dimmable LED's. 

 What a difference!

Thanks to Sergiy, Paul, Andre, Vassily and several others at Europe Construction for doing a wonderful job.