I’ve been happily tucked up in farm country, trying to keep Bug and I warm in a 130 year old farmhouse. It’s 16 Deg F right now, so I’m tucked up in the narrow wooden bed with Bug, passing the time with a few thick novels that I picked up before Christmas.

Let the Great World Spin: A Novel is billed as a 9/11 allegory. A tightrope walker sets up a wire between the World Trade Towers in 1974, before they were even complete. As his story plays out above the city, others are playing out below. An Irish missionary. Bronx prostitutes. Grieving mothers who lost their sons to Vietnam. I tore through it in two days. It’s so well written, you’ll be able to actually see the characters moving before you.

I also picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Help Deluxe Edition because I’ve been remiss in not reading them. Starting Dragon Tattoo this evening.

Did Santa leave any books under your tree?

Some years back, I wrote a very, very controversial post about Canada’s Native communities. I referred to incest and sexual abuse of Native children, and I was ripped to shreds by the left, the apologists and by some Natives (the only ones I really cared to hear from on the subject). Vilified. Belittled. Hated.

But I wasn’t wrong.

According to some estimates, the level of abuse in aboriginal communities is staggering.

“Sexual violence and sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities affect 75 to 80 per cent of our girls and women,” said social worker Sylvia Maracle, from the Ontario Federation of Friendship Centres.

Among non-aboriginal girls and women the rate is closer to 20 per cent.

You can hate me all you want. You can rail at me, and even blame me for the problem. Or, instead, you can call it what it is and start addressing it at the source.

I didn’t molest and rape Native children. Other Natives did that. But I’m just that much easier to hate, aren’t I?

Big stuff is happening! Big, huge!

But in the meantime, entertain yourselves with this week’s Brass Balls Radio, Horsemeat of the Apocalypse Edition.

Horsemeat, illegal immigration, and parental rights and responsibilities. Kim goes shopping in Dallas.

Brass Balls Radio – Show 114

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When I’m able to fill you in on the BIG HUGE AWESOME stuff happening, I will.

The recipe for my famous chili chocolate chip cookies!

Chili Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 granulated sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips in a double boiler and set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet.
In a large bowl, cream together butter & sugar. Slightly beat egg and add to butter mixture, along with vanilla. Stir in melted chocolate.
Combine flour, salt, cinnamon, cayenne and baking powder in a separate bowl. Slowly add to butter mixture, mixing well with each addition.
Stir in remaining chocolate chips.
Bake 8-10 minutes, taking care not to burn (chocolate scorches easily).

After mixing the dough, let it set for a while. The melted chocolate can make it runny. Same goes for the baked cookies - let them set on the tray for a bit. The dough makes about 24 cookies.