Guard Dog

@ShadySands Happy Birthday my brother! We are older, grayer, and likely heavier than we were. But we carried the legacy in our time! More than that no one could ask!

I just dropped in to take my victory lap. I believe I predicted the 47th President of the United States would be a complete idiot who has no business being put in charge of anything? Nailed it! Of course that was a bet I really couldn't lose!

Beautiful weather in LaCrosse the past few weeks. But you can feel the air getting drier. Winter will be here soon. We're planning a trip to Big Bend National Park in November. Already have a campsite reserved in Cottonwood. We will spend the winter in West Texas. Looking forward to it. Hope you guys are doing well. @Azdeus hope your foot is doing better.

I know you are all eagerly waiting for my endorsement of a candidate in the 2024 US Presidential race. I have made my choice! Not Trump or Harris. Oh God no they are both just awful. I wanted to endorse someone who has served honorably in war. Someone who will supports for the free practice of all religious faiths. Someone who will fight for his people!

Hey Everyone! I was trading emails with Azdeus and he said I should come see you guys. It has been a while hasn't it. The beginning of last year I think. I didn't even realize how long until I signed in and couldn't remember my password. I really hope all you fine folks and your families are doing well! 2022 and the first half of 2023 were a pretty rough time for me. I was dealing with lymphoma but with the help of early detection, some really great doctors and medical folks I'm almost as good as ever. Please don't ignore symptoms. If you feel off please see a doctor. After that experience I decided to retire. Much earlier than I was planning but life is beautiful, and short. It's meant to be enjoyed. Gwen (her real name) and I are still together and doing well. I don't know why I didn't want to use her real name online. It probably made sense to me at the time. I am so lucky to have met her. She is semi-retired as well and we are currently wrapping up a road trip to visit all the national parks in New Mexico. Eventually we will visit all the US & Canada national parks. 21 down, 90 to go. And forever to do it. Bri is graduating from college next week and we will be there to cheer for her. She is an amazing young lady with a bright future. So proud of her. I made peace with my brother I'm happy to say. I never really understood what the resentment was about but dealing with a serious illness changes your perspective on things. That's pretty much it. I do miss talking to you guys. After a career in tech I'm doing retirement decidedly low tech. I barely even use the internet anymore. I hope all of you are happy and healthy.

If a cable TV channel could even do such a thing that social fabric needed to be destroyed.

Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson fired on the same day? Two turds with one flush!

Three torpedoes in the water. Two are homing. The suspense is killing me!

That will be the heaviest load I've towed. But I had a small pop up trailer a little while back. Used it quite a bit. My truck is a 2017 GMC Sierra so it's up to it. I have a 10 kw portable gen from the old house. It's stored down in Dyersburg with the rest of my stuff from the house. I really need to do something with all that. I don't want it to end up on storage wars one day.

Just saw the A's bought land for a stadium in Las Vegas. Looks like they are leaving CA.

Had a Dr. appt on Wednesday. Some good news and some not as good. But nothing unexpected. I've been feeling pretty good recently so I'll take that. I made some business moves and I am officially semi-retired. Still on the insurance plan for six months but after that I'll look for an alternative. In other news B is graduating from college next month. G & I are going to buy her a new car as a gift. We're getting her a new Nissan Rogue. I'm so happy for her. She has a very bright future. Also looking at buying this: 2023 Jayco Jay Flight 284BHS #1556 | Interstate RV Sales & Service, Inc. It took a while for G to warm up to the idea spending a few years traveling the US & Canada but she seems to be all in now. There is just too much of North America we haven't seen yet.

OK there is a big distinction between book burning and book banning UNLESS both happen to be a state sponsored activity. If the government has you goose stepping around piles of burning books (something Florida is coming perilously close to) and has made it a crime to read them then it past time to start a revolution. Remember who Guy Montag worked for after all. If redneck Pastor Joe from Micanopy Florida wants to burn Heather Has Two Mommies because Satan wrote it that is a different story. It makes him a jerk but not a criminal in any stretch of imagination. Nor should it. As long as he came by those books honestly. Redneck Pastor Joe is not keeping someone from reading that book just because he burned a few copies. What he's doing is neither immoral nor illegal. Just stupid. When the state says "Thou shalt not have this book in thy library" they ARE trying to restrict people (kids mostly) from reading it. That is immoral hands down. Not illegal. But definitely immoral. IMO at least. The irony is most of the books folks want banned would seldom get a look. Remember back in the 80's the movie The Last Temptation of Christ? It was an abysmally bad movie that probably would have flopped had folks not gotten into a twist about it. So many people were out there protesting because it painted Jesus as insane IIRC (been a while since I've seen it) that movie goers who would have otherwise passed went to see it. Sometimes the best thing to do about the stuff that pisses you off is to just ignore it. Try to make it go away and it has the opposite effect. The pet discussion goes down a whole other rabbit hole. If shelters were a bit more circumspect about who they adopted to that would not happen as often. Plus people are teaching their children that pets are disposable commodities when they do that and they will teach their children that and on it goes. People suck. Most of them. Well, more like about half of them .

Was I unclear about posting a story that should be mocked and laughed at? Does that sound like I was suggesting a Fox News story should be taken seriously? BTW, I'm sure you know this but ALL news is propaganda. All of it. Even when it's true and even when it informs. In fact most of it is true, even Fox & MSNBC. From a carefully tailored POV. All of it is presented in a way to persuade thinking from one direction or another.

I didn't hear about Angelou's books being burned. But I will point out if they bought the books they burned her estate still got the royalty. I think the author of the Harry Potter books went through that a while back and responded to a book burning with a quip along the lines of "thanks for your money". As for the morality of it, that is in the eye of the beholder. I draw the line at harming people/animals. Vicks dogs may have been no more than property according to the law but that same law protects them from cruel and abusive treatments. It is immoral to do harm. Usually illegal too. It is immoral to take someone else's property for the purposes of protest/destruction/malice/gain etc. Usually illegal too. Unless a government entity is doing it. As for the rest, flame on. Burning poetry books, or bibles, or Quarans just to piss people off makes you a jerk. It's not illegal to be a jerk. Nor should it be. If those were YOUR books whatever they were and you want to burn them and post it online go ahead. Jerk. If you want to by a couple of cases of Bud Light and shoot them with an automatic rifle on tick tok, go right ahead. It was YOUR beer. If everyone stopped getting into a twist every time someone does this it will stop. They are TRYING to piss people off. Just ignore it and don't get pissed. Laugh at it instead like the harry potter lady. I probably would have acquitted Roark as well. BTW, if you want to get a good laugh at stupidity this Bud Light thing is the gift that keeps on giving. Also kudos to Dylan Mulvaney. Never heard of her before this. Most folks probably hadn't. There is no famous like controversy famous. Budweiser's new pro-America ad sets social media ablaze: Can't put the 'genie back in the bottle, guys'

Just throwing this out there. Buying a product to only destroy it afterwards is no different than buying it and drinking it. You still BOUGHT it. Just sayin. Guys at the VFW used to give me grief about my indifference to burning American flags. They (flag burners) bought the flag. It's their flag. If they want to burn it that isn't my business. If you steal MY flag and light it up, then we'll have a problem.