Join The Dogpile

The Rott has an interesting link to a poll, subject of said poll being "what should happen with James Hansen's call to put oil execs on trial?"

All Loyal Citizens of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler Empire are hereby ordered to report and vote for "fire his stupid ass" at their earliest convenience.

And for the record, we here at the farthest-flung outpost of the Empire (the sun rises two days late here at the Refuge, when it bothers to rise at all) are actually looking forward to global warming, because we hate to be cold.

This Just In

The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 decision, upholds the Constitution.

Not totally, and not enough, but perhaps enough for the camel to get it's nose under the tent.

Which is how we got to where we are at present, only in reverse.

Note to the NRA: here's something to work with. Don't blow it.

Linky

Another new link.

The Political Jungle: Moonbats Beware

With a title like that I hope you have sense enough to know that tender feelings are in the crosshairs.

If not, keep your head down and your mouth shut and you should get out with only minor flesh wounds.

But for those of you that like a good fray, have at it.

Courtesy of a link found in comments on The Rott.

The Government We Deserve

So now certain members of the Federal Government have come completely out of the closet.

Not only did Maxine Waters threaten to nationalize (socialize) oil companies, now they are talking about seizing control of - excuse me, Nationalizing - the refineries.

I seriously wish SOMEBODY would review a little history. To start with, see United Soviet Socialist Republic and check out how well everything worked out for them over there.

What was the last thing we nationalized? Oh yes, the TSA. Now THAT'S a success story.

"You don't professionalize until you Federalize" or some such claptrap as that.

And they want to control your healthcare, too.

Addition: Comments on Mostly Cajun reminded me that the government took over the Mustang Ranch for non-payment of taxes and ran it into the ground. These idiots are so incompetent that they can't run a house of ill repute - and I don't mean the house of representatives, although the similarities are numerous - and make a profit. Just imagine what kind of a mess they would make of oil and healthcare.

Kinda gives you a queasy feeling, don't it?

God Save The Queen!

As if the UN didn't have anything better to do, they have issued a report saying that Great Britain should abolish it's monarchy.

Oil for food, mistreatment of children, not paying parking fines, criminal waste of office space in NYC, and these twits think they have the moral authority to tell a sovereign country what sort of government they should have.

I've noticed that they never issued statements about the Soviet Union's government, nor Cuba, nor North Korea, they haven't issued any statements regarding the fate of women in Muslim countries, etc etc ad nauseum, but they have a problem with Great Britain's monarchy? Pa-LEEEZE!

The UN Human Rights Council issued the report. Members of the council include Saudi Arabia and Cuba among it's stalwart supporters of human rights.

This factoid was not lost on Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, who remarked "Saudi Arabia and Cuba should pay a little more attention to their own human rights record."

I know from experience that one sure way to piss off a Brit is to insult the Queen. As a representative for the Royal Family said, "The Queen is a focus for national unity, identity and pride." And I'm sure there are plenty of Brits who will invite the UN Human Rights Council to perform anatomically impossible acts upon their persons, in perfect British style.

One more reason why the US should withdraw it's membership and issue the eviction notice.

A tip of the fedora to Barking Moonbat Early Warning System for the story.

The Price

I went to help a friend the other day. He had bought a stove and we were going to move it in my trucklet.

I got there insanely early because, not knowing what traffic was going to be like, I left the house about 15 minutes before I had to. As a result I ended up loading the stove with the homeowner that my friend had bought it from and had some time to kill.

The homeowner offered me a cup of coffee, which I gladly accepted. We ended up shooting the breeze for a while, and inevitably the subject turned to gas prices.

He said something about the Government needing to "get serious" about making the auto manufacturers make fuel efficient cars. I commented that yeah, that worked so well for us in the 70's after all, and besides I wasn't a big fan of government mandating what the people will expect anyway.

I went on to say that the car company that doesn't lead the way in efficiency and alternate fuels is going to be forced out of business by the companies that do, and that the auto industry needs to be driving that particular train.

I don't know what shape or form our next mode of personal transportation is going to be, all I know is that there will be one. I'm still hoping for the flying cars that we were promised, but I'm not holding my breath.

I personally think the next big thing will be electric cars powered by fuel cells, but I have been wrong in the past and I will be wrong in the future. It's more likely that the next generation of personal transportation will be unlike anything we ever dreamed of.

Think about it, when we used the horse and the horse drawn conveyance the idea of a "horseless carriage" was completely foreign to most folks. Then it was a toy of the rich. Along comes Henry Ford and all of a sudden there is a car in every driveway.

In the same time frame the train was the greatest transportation system known to man. Now the only passenger trains that run in the US (outside of local commuter rail and tourist railroads) is AMTRAK, and they only have one route that makes money.

If you were to go back in time to the turn of the last century, say 1890 or so, and speculate that in another hundred years men would go about in horseless carriages and not take the train as a general rule, you would be regarded as a blithering idiot at best. Throw in that men would fly about regularly in great metal birds and you would likely be locked up as a threat to yourself and others. And as far as flying in those great metal birds across the oceans in less than a 24 hour period, not to mention traveling beyond our own atmosphere, don't even pretend to mention that unless you are Jules Verne.

Just in the last 40 years we have reached great heights. In the last 40 years we have left the confines of our own planet, if only for a little while. We have stepped onto the soil of a completely different celestial orb, if again only for a little bit. The computers in our digital watches now have more computing power than the ones that put men on the moon.

I am typing this post on a computer that folds up and fits on my lap, it is not connected to the wall or Internet by any wires, and if I want to travel away from the Refuge I can take my 'net with me by means of a cell card that connects through the cellular network. These things were the stuff of science fiction not even fifty years ago.

I am curious to see what will spring from the fertile mind of Man in the next 50 years.

With Apologies to George Lucas

Like I said kid, it's hard to beat a good blaster.


how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Spare Me Already

I can't wait for the day our "carbon dioxide footprint number" goes the way of "what's your sign" and disco.

Global warming my ass. Of course, they call it "climate change" now, as if the climate on this planet has never changed before.

Quick, someone call the dinosaurs and tell them it was all a big mistake!

I need some aspirin.

Addition, for all you stupid people. And you know who you are. Well, maybe you don't know who you are.

I'm not saying that the climate has not changed. It has, and it has gotten warmer in the last 30 years. I can remember snowstorms when I was growing up in Iowa, they would pile the snow in the middle of the main roads and take it out with front-end loaders and dump trucks. The banks in the roads would be higher than the cars. It has been many years since they have had that kind of snowfall as a regular event.

At the time, the doomsday theory was that the world would be overtaken in the next ice age, which would surely be upon us by the end of the century.

The ice age is not upon us, and the pendulum has swung back to Global Warming! as the inevitable result of all those carbon-spewing humans polluting the planet with their presence.

The globe has been warmer, even in the short span of human existence. Look up Viking settlements in Greenland, settlements that were abandoned because the world was destroyed by ice, caused by all those carbon spewing Viking Stupid Useless Vehicles running all over the place.

AAAAACCKK!!!!

Today was another fishing day.

Off to the store we go after a quick breakfast to get worms, soda and ice. We pack the sodas and ice into the cooler and off we go to the lake.

We get to the lake and open the tacklebox to put the worms inside for their brief walk from the trucklet to the lake when...

Oh yeah, THAT's where the last batch of worms went!

The smell was, to put it mildly, memorable.

Everything came out of the tacklebox and got washed at the lakeside, the smell is a little better but is certainly still with us. Mom won't allow the stinky thing inside her house, so further decon will have to take place naturally, through rain action.

We caught 5 fish between the two of us, all crappie, the largest about 5 inches long. They all went back into the lake.

Just as we were drowning the last two worms a man and his two girlfriends came down and between them caught a 10 inch bigmouth bass and two catfish, the smallest of which was at least 7 inches, in about 5 minutes time. They kept the bass but threw the catfish back after letting Christopher listen to them croaking.

What, you didn't know? Catfish croak. They sound like bullfrogs, but don't croak nearly as long or nearly as loud.

The catfish catcher was standing not 3 feet from me, and all I caught in that last hour was a 3 inch crappie.

Life ain't fair, I tell you. But, like the saying goes, it was better than a good day at work.

Memorial Day

General George Patton said that it was wrong to mourn those who died, that instead we should thank God that they lived.

I remember them.

Taps: PFC Ross McGinnis

PFC Ross McGinnis gave his life so that others might live.

PFC McGinnis was a hatch gunner on a Humvee in Iraq. While on patrol a grenade was thrown at his vehicle and went right into the open gunner's hatch.

PFC McGinnis could have thrown himself clear of the vehicle at that point and saved his own life.

He instead threw himself into the vehicle, and onto the live grenade. His selfless act of heroism saved the lives of his four squadmates at the cost of his own.

PFC McGinnis will be awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony on June 2, 2008 for his actions, which brought great honor upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the U. S. Army.

Photo courtesy of the McGinnis family

Extraordinary Gentlemen

I just got done reading "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell.

I don't have the words to express my admiration for these incredible warriors.

If you haven't read the book, do so. HM1 Luttrell (known in the SEAL world as "the ONE") is not a professional storyteller, he is a warrior, and his story is told in a warrior's words.

If you do not know anyone who is part of the Special Operations Force (SPECOPFOR in military jargon - SEALs, Green Berets, etc) this book gives you a bit of insight into the culture that breeds these special men.

If you do not know the story of Operation Redwing, the Soldiers of 160th SOAR, or the Sailors from SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 and SEAL Team 10, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this book.

Most liberals will dismiss them as simply nothing more than trained killers. Yet another example where they are moronically wrong on most things.

There is nothing simple about these men, and although they are indeed well trained in the art of killing, there is much more.

A successful SEAL mission is the one that the enemy never finds out about. These men go in, complete their mission, and if possible never make contact. It is the intelligence that they gather that makes the difference, because a small team will never be able to kill enough of the enemy by themselves to make a real difference in the body count.

They are also trained snipers, because it is true that while killing a lot of people may only make a small difference, there are times when killing just one will make a huge difference. But there again, they are trained to get in, complete their mission, and get out undetected (except for the obvious calling card of a corpse where there wasn't one before).

"Lone Survivor" is the tale of what happens when it all goes wrong. And if you do it long enough, it will go wrong sometime. This time it went horribly wrong, and just got worse.

The American SPECOPS warrior is the best there is, but Petty Officer Luttrell also acknowledges their weaknesses. And even though he takes two full chapters just to get from Iraq to Afghanistan, the story is riveting.

That's all the spoilers you are going to get. Get the book. You won't regret it.

Unless you are one of those liberals I mentioned before.

Click on the picture to learn more about the US Navy SEALs

From My Heart, Laid Bare

Happy Mother's Day Boo.

I bought a card to go with the flowers, but when I looked at it more closely I realized that it sucked. It didn't say what I wanted to say.

So I went back in to the store and looked some more, and realized they all sucked. None of them said what I wanted to say.

So my only option is to write it out, hope that it comes out the way I want it to, and hope that you will appreciate it as much as a card.

It's been almost 14 years since we met. We joke about my name for you, but the truth is that by September of 1993 I was comfortable with being alone, with not needing anyone to make me complete.

Then there you were, on my beach.

Kicking down my sandcastle walls.

Scaring me.

I was afraid of facing the same pain that I had so recently put behind me. It took me 5 years to put that pain behind me, and there it was right in front of me again, staring me in the face.

You were afraid, too, and for a similar reason. It would have been easy for both of us to turn away, to not face that pain. But we did face it. Together.

And now 13 and a half years later I am again faced with pain, the real possibility that I will not have you for very much longer. And I am afraid again.

I am afraid of the pain again. In some ways it may be easier because I have some slight idea of what is to come. But, because I have an idea of what is to come, I am afraid it will be worse. Much worse.

Then, too, there is Christopher.

I had a vision of my post-Navy life that is quite different from what actually is. In my vision there was just the two of us, the kids have moved out and we had each other all to ourselves.

Nine years ago we brought Christopher home. He had no one, but now he had us, and we had him. And I would not trade that for anything.

That adds to the problem. He needs you in a way that I never really have, and at his young age he doesn't understand what is going to happen. Your......

death.....

there. I said it.

Your death will affect him in a way that it will not affect me. He doesn't understand the concept of death, and I do. I grieve for him, the way that he will be forced to find out about it.

I don't know if I can be for him what you are. I know only that I will try. And that we will be OK. But I selfishly wish for you to live long enough for him to grow into maturity, so that he will not have to find out about death with yours. And yet I do not wish for you to linger in pain, either.

These are not the happy thoughts that I wish for you on Mother's Day. So let me say instead that if the choice was between having you for a little bit, or not at all, that I will choose to have you for however long I am allowed to by the grace of God, and I will cherish it and thank Him for every day.

I love you more than life itself.

Larry

Today's Schedule

I spent most of my time in the junkyard today.

Normally I enjoy my trips to the junkyard, but today was too much like work.

The wife's Pontiac had white smoke out of the exhaust, so we pulled the head. I couldn't find a machine shop open on a Saturday, so we cleaned the head with purple power and a pressure washer and took a look at it under the magnifying light I use for my Nn3 models.

Cracked, from the intake valve seat to the spark plug hole, number 3 cylinder.

So, to the junkyard we go, find a Grand Am with the Quad 4 motor, and pull the head.

That's an all-day job, in case you have never dealt with the Quad 4. It's an excellent motor, but it sure wasn't built with the mechanic in mind.

The car we got the new head out of was wrecked, so it's not likely to have had any engine troubles. That's the secret for getting engine and running gear parts, get them out of cars that have been junked for obvious reasons. Large amounts of body damage suggest the cars were running when they were junked. Wheels that lean over and don't quite touch the ground are even better indications that the motors are OK, as long as they were not physically damaged in the crash.

At any rate, we got the head off just as we were being thrown out at closing time, so no chance to check it. I get to work for the next 10 days straight, so the inspection and reassembly will be up to Eldest Son.

I sure would like to have a couple of days off where I don't have cars to work on. If the Pontiac goes back together OK, that might happen. The mighty Rampage finally runs OK, the Aries has proven itself to be well worth the money I have sunk into it (it has, surprisingly enough, been the only vehicle that has reliably run for the past couple of weeks), so maybe I'll be set. (We did end up changing out the rebuilt right drive shaft for a new one from the parts store, and the irritating vibration at 30 MPH is now gone.)

Of course, I still have a motorcycle or two to deal with.

On The Tube

I was watching "The Dead Zone", the movie based on the Steven King novel. I hadn't remembered that Christopher Walken played the lead part.

He looked so young. But didn't we all, once?

What It Means

She got the results from her latest scan today.

The tumor has grown a little bit since the end of the radiation treatments, but not much.

She has come to the end of the line with radiation, there will be nothing but chemo from now on.

The tumor is too big to remove.

It will sit there at the top of the lung, laughing it's dark malignant laugh, until the day it takes her.

From here there are basically three paths.

Path one is that the tumor explodes into growth and she lasts months.

Path two is that it sits there, growing a bit at a time, and she lasts years.

Path three is that it shrinks on it's own, and she lasts forever.

Basically, she's like the rest of us in that she doesn't know how much longer she has left on God's green earth. Only He knows, and He is silent on the subject.

She does have the advantage on us, though, because she knows what it is that will do her in. At least, if nothing else gets her first.

So what do we do about it?



That's about all you can do.

Public Service Announcement

Today's public service announcement is brought to you by Chris Rock:



Eldest daughter, please heed the above message. Especially when the man says "Be Polite." Please remember that you do not win arguments with the police on the side of the road, you win arguments in the courtroom in front of a judge. That's why they call it "presenting arguments" when your lawyer stands up to say something in a courtroom.

Policemen, firemen, EMT's, and others who work in what is called the public service sector often do not get to see us at our best. Do what you can to counter that image, won't you?

That's Amore

Another budding romance dies aborning.

Mr Fixit has some advice.

I myself have loved and lost, as have so many. Almost 20 years later I harbor no animosity towards my ex. Meaning I no longer want her dead and in hell. There was a time though...

If we were still on talking terms (I haven't spoken to her since shortly after I got married again) I would tell her that I understand.

The simple fact is that being a Navy (Marine, Army or Air Force) Wife is a hard job, and not everyone is cut out for it. She wasn't, but she gave it her best shot.

She wanted someone that was 9 to 5, supper at 6, off weekends and holidays, split level ranch in the suburbs with the white picket fence, the whole 9 yards. That wasn't me, especially when I was Navy, and it still isn't to this day.

Lucky for me I found someone who would put up with me, which is half the battle right there. She is married to the guy that introduced us so long ago, one of her ex-boyfriends that was a good friend of mine. They have been married for over 14 years now so it looks like it worked out for them as well.

Now that it's so far in the past I would tell her that I wish her well, and hopefully there is a good memory or two in there for her.

AD and Babs, I hope there are good memories for the both of you, too. I'm sorry that time and distance could not be overcome.

God bless you both.

Atlas...

Neal Boortz had a story in the Nuze (link on the sidebar) about the latest oil company "questioning" in Congress.

Short story: the oil company execs went to Congress again, to explain to them again, the difference between profit and profit margin, which again the Congress doesn't understand since most of them have never held a position of responsibility in any kind of for-profit company in their lives.

And once again the execs played the lapdog, not a single one of them pointed out that they are complying with the law, that the "subsidies" that keep getting thrown back at them are in fact tax breaks that all American corporations take advantage of, and that their primary responsibility was to the shareholders, not to the hired temps that make up the Congress and Senate.

Where is Hank Rearden when you need him?

Atlas sculpture on a building on Collins Street, Melbourne

Constitutional Lesson

For all who say "The Constitution does not give you a right to ________________."

I would like to draw your attention to the following:

"Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

In other words, it's there.

What the Constitution does NOT allow, however, is to let you have the Government enforce your "rights" for you. The Constitution does not allow the Government the power to rob the evil hated rich to finance your personal cause of the day. The Constitution does not allow you the right to use the Government to infringe upon the rights of others.

You have the right to privacy, health care, housing, etc. You do NOT have the right to demand that the Government provide them for you because the Constitution does not allow the Government the power to do so.

The Constitution is a document that spells out the powers and limitations of the GOVERNMENT, not the People.

I have often said that the Constitution does not allow you the right to be free from being offended. In light of the above, allow me to modify my statement.

The Constitution does not allow you the right to infringe upon my freedoms in order to keep you free from being offended.

Thus endeth the lesson.