Quotable Quotes

There has been quite the row about the Ground Zero mosque, by whatever name it wishes to call itself lately. Some are dead set against it, some are adamant that we allow it to be built, but most mirror my sentiment that just because you can doesn't necessarily follow that you should. For my money, Vanderleun at The American Digest says it best when he points out that tolerance does not mean approval.

"In essence" he writes, "we agree that I tolerate your worship of a moon god and you tolerate my worship of a tree. It's "live and let live" at the most basic level. If, on the other hand, you decide that I have to make continuous noises of "approval" of the moon god in order for you to grant me the right to worship the tree god in peace, we are headed towards an argument that ends in guns."

Good, right? More? OK, how about this: "It is well to reflect that every single move in the past few decades that has resulted in a loss of individual liberty has begun in a plea for tolerance and ended with non-negotiable demands for approval."

RTWT.

If you aren't reading The American Digest regularly, perhaps it's time to start. You can find the link on the sidebar.

Squeaky Wheel

Greased.

Die For A Good Cause

Details here.

Ready

The Refuge had been somewhat deficient in zombie elimination equipment. I'm happy to say that little issue has been resolved.

I'm also happy to report that following a visit to the dealer yesterday the damage done to the valence panel on the Mustang while on vacation has been repaired, as has the airbag warning light.

So now it's off to Roanoke to visit Sister. Maybe one day I'll have time to rest.

Happy Blog-Day

Is it unusual to get links from a cartoon?

At any rate, drop by and wish Mind Numbed Robot a Happy Blog-Day.

Welcome to the blog roll mnrobot!

Home Plate

We're back. It was a long trip, and long overdue.

Stripes

The wheel has been replaced, so some of the damage has been repaired. The valence is scheduled to be replaced when the airbag light is fixed, then the ouchies will be all better (except for the paint chips, but I'll talk to the dealer about that when I get back).

I also had some stripes installed, because it really needed to say 5.0 somewhere.

I can't say enough good things about Hawkeye Ford in Red Oak, IA.

Mabry Mill, Blue Ridge Parkway

Mabry Mill, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, is a grist mill, saw mill and woodworking shop that was all run off of the water wheel. The park service has restored the mill; the wheel turns, but none of the belts are installed.

Mabry Mill is so picturesque that other states have stolen it's image for their postcards (including, ironically enough, Iowa).

This is also where I curbed the wheel.

Bottoms Up

w00t!!!!

Another year is in the bank.

Nice!

I Need A Vacation

from my vacation. So far we have fixed three cars (including a clutch in the car belonging to the same nephew that was with me when I got my speeding ticket) and there are still a couple to go.

To prove that there are indeed Idiots Out Wandering Around in Iowa, my sister in law took her car in to have a squeaking noise in the front end. The tie rod ends were making the noise, so they drilled holes in the boots and pumped them full of grease.

Yes I did say holes in the boots.

Monday I take the Mustang to the closest Ford dealer (thirty miles away) to have the curbed wheel replaced. I have yet to catch up to my old high school chums, but I did manage to talk to one of their mothers so I have a number for one of them.

No one told me that vacation was so busy!

Hitting the Links

Patrick at The Political Byline is mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more. So, in a fight-fire-with-fire gesture, he has a shirt of his own. Go over and check it out.

Smitty at The Other McCain (who has yet to link me, the ungrateful bastards, which makes me The Blogger Whom TOM Hateth, I guess) has the Progressive Commandments.

And while you're at it, check the link for The Political Byline on the sidebar. Be warned, like several other links over there Patrick is wont to use some spice in his invective. Those with an underdeveloped funnybone (and those who are offended by language) should probably not hit that link.

Really?

What was your first clue Sherlock?

Another Year Gone

Happy Birthday Mom! Sorry it took me so long to make it back for one of them.

Just Caught This

Apparently there was a thing going around the interwebtubies about some girl who quit her job via 33 pictures with a dry erase board. This is right in line with the airline attendant who quit his job by similarly spectacular means.

The difference is that Steve Slater is a real live person and "Jenny" is not.

Should have known, coming from Chive, but enjoy the pictures anyway!

Oops

Well, the state troopers know I'm here.

I'll pay the fine and be glad they didn't just stuff me in the back of their car for a ride downtown.

Of course my nephew, who was riding with me, smugly informed me that he had me beat. His speeding ticket cost him his license for six months.

Corn Corn Corn

I showed this to Youngest Son before we left, and all across Illinois and Indiana he sang "Corn corn corn corn what's that smell? corn corn corn corn corn....."

Yeah, it got old pretty quick.

The Time Of Our Lives

I'm having a great time in Iowa.

That's probably not a phrase that gets bandied about very much, but it's true nonetheless. It's been twelve years since I was here last, a lot of things have changed but many things are the same as well.

Laura's sudden departure from my life reminded me that we never have as much time as we think we might, so we have to show all the love we have to all the ones we love while we have the chance, and we have to live our lives as if today will be the last day, because one day it will be.

This visit has reminded me that even though things change, there are things that you can always count on. For me, it's family. They have always been there for me, and I know that they always will be. I haven't always held up my end of that bargain, so it's time I did.

Learn from my mistakes, folks. You never have as much time as you think you do, and it's running out fast.

Call your mother.

Soft Landing

Here we are in Iowa, after a harrowing trip down the Blue Ridge. As you can see, the valence is scraped and the wheel on the right front has been curbed. I also found a chip in the paint on the spoiler, a result of the rainstorm while we were there that knocked sticks and such out of the trees right on top of us. I won't be taking the car down the Blue Ridge Parkway any time again soon I can tell you!

I know I'm being ridiculous about this car, I know that the only way to keep the dings and chips off of it is to lock it up and never drive it, and I am not about to do that. But it's my first new car (and what a car it is!) so I'm trying to keep it nice and new for as long as I can.

The local Ford dealer is shut down, so I have contacted the nearest dealer and arranged to have a new wheel put on it. I contacted my Wake Forest dealer and arranged to have the valence panel replaced (the Red Oak dealer couldn't guarantee that the valence panel would get here in time).

At any rate, two days of traveling got us here and we have two weeks of visiting to do.

Click photos to embiggenate and see all the gory details

This Day in History

338 BC - Battle of Chaeronea

216 BC - Battle of Cannae

1610 - Henry Hudson finds Hudson Bay while looking for the Northwest Passage

1790 - First US census

1903 - Fall of the Ottoman Empire

1905 - Myrna Loy is born

1937 - DuPont conspires with Congress to destroy the hemp industry

1943 - PT109 sinks

1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait

And forty-something years ago, I made my first appearance.

This year my son had a date with the girl in the picture while I went to work. How is that for a birthday present?

Can't Fix Stupid

I drive a Mustang.

One of the reasons I chose Mustang over Challenger (sorry GM people, I've never been a Camaro fan, but I do have a '62 C-10) is there is not a Challenger convertible. I would have loved to have had one, except for one thing. The other reason, as it were.

The other reason I chose Mustang over Challenger is that Chrysler took my money by force through tax dollars doled out in the bailout. Since the bastards took my money by force, there was no way I was going to give them even more by choice.

I made that point when I was talking to the Ford salesman. He said that they hear that a lot, and in fact they are very proud of the fact they didn't take the government money, and that their customers have shown appreciation by buying Ford products. As a result, Ford showed a profit early.

Beltway Bob, the simpering imbecilic motard, apparently didn't know that. Upon being told by a reporter that Rush Limbaugh was criticizing "Obama Motors", Gibbs retorted "We’ve got auto companies that for the first time since 2004 all showed an operating profit in the first quarter of this year. It’s adding jobs. And the money that this administration invested — about $60 billion — we believe we’re on the path to recouping all of that. That’s a significant story."

(Note that, as I mentioned, Ford showed the first profit, and without governmental assistance.)

“I’ll let those that sat in the cheap seats a year-and-a-half ago and wanted to walk away” from a milion workers, he continued, “explain to every one of those workers why they made that decision.”

Finally, he wrapped it up: “And then you should ask Mr. Limbaugh — I don’t know what kind of car he drives, but I bet it’s not an F-150.” (emphasis mine)

Perhaps not, but he might drive a Lincoln. Not everyone needs a full size pickup after all.

HT: Confederate Yankee. Mustang Club of America logo is linked to the MCA site.