Obama Reaches Out to Socialist Dictator Chavez

Obama gave hearty handshakes to Hugo Chavez and accepted a book blaming the U.S. for all of the ills south of the border. Hugo Chavez engages in a style of socialism known as Bolivarianism and has been lauded with honorary degrees from Russia and China. I guess Obama counts accepting the ideas of Chavez as the "change we need." In a time when Mexican drug violence is spilling across the border, Obama should be chastizing our southern neighbors and threatening to invoke the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, but instead has nothing but good to say about the Latin American states. Mexico had the audacity to claim earlier this month that the cartel violence was due to the U.S. ending its ban on "assault weapons", and Obama paralleled their effrontery by waffling on the issue instead of calling the Mexicans to task for their pitiable and lamentable job of securing their country and their grossly hypocritical views on the porous American border. I hope the GOP leadership is taking notes. All of these photo ops will be great four years from now.

American Waffle Company--Smart Growth!

I had an opportunity over the weekend to visit the new American Waffle Company on Church Street. This new eatery opened in an abandoned Cheesesteak Factory location in an old strip mall with multiple vacancies (Why are we currently building new strip malls in the 'boro, then?) It is within walking distance of the Summerlake and Indian Park apartments. It is pretty much the same fare as you'd get at Waffle House. The waffles smelled really good, but I hardly ever buy breakfast out as I can do a superior job with that meal at home. I hope the restaurant is able to make a go of it. With the apartments so close, it offers a "green" choice for eating out, because you don't have to drive to get there. With the offices and banks nearby, they should do a respectable lunch business, although nearby Sonic offers some stiff competition for affordable burgers. I plan to visit them again, especially in the summer when I'm off.