Guard Dog

If the US Presidential election were held today and all candidates currently in the running were on the ballot, Howard Schultz gets my vote. Here s why: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/howard-schultz-federal-debt-is-out-of-control-but-no-one-is-doing-anything-about-it Of course he's not entirely correct. I'm doing something about it. I'm building an investment portfolio based largely on assets not tied to the value of any one currency. Bitcoin, arable real estate, commodities such as gold and silver and other assets that have value beyond their trading price. I'm also preparing a home that can produce food and electricity and other consumables. And of course stockpiling ammunition. Because zombies might take advantage of a severe economic down turn... or something. Yeah... zombies that's it

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The Alliance of American Football is pulling the plug: http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/26423928/source-aaf-immediately-suspend-operations Wow, most football leagues make it a season or two before they are found floating at the top of the bowl. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

You know Kurt Vonnegut used to drink a full glass of grapefruit juice right before he wrote. That was how he got in the "zone". You might try that. Hemingway used to drink before writing too. Not grapefruit juice though.

Here is a little good advice from a friend: DO NOT use threaded unions on pressurized PVC pipe. I know what you are thinking, double wrap the threading with Teflon tape and it will be fine. No... it will NOT be fine. Do not be fooled! You will end up taking a hacksaw to your leaky pipes and doing it over correctly. Unpressurized? Drain lines? Fine. But NOT pressurized.

Now reading

I would have just left a bad review on Amazon... but I guess this is another way to go: https://news.yahoo.com/catholic-priests-burn-harry-potter-books-poland-131950572.html I wonder... should we explain to them that buying a bunch of books just to light them on fire still supports the folks who write and publish those books? Does JK Rowling care what you do with her book AFTER you bought it? She got her royalty not mater what you do! Amusingly enough my method is more likely to keep someone from reading a book you didn't like AND you don't need to sweep up ashes after!

If you knew the room you were about to walk into was completely inescapable would you still walk in? If someone told you beforehand it would be would you still do it? I would have been leery of joining the EU right from the get go. Free trade, free travel, etc that's all great. But giving some aspects of the governance of you home over to people not from your home? That is a big "no" from me.

About half f what I say around here is with my tongue stuck in my cheek.

Robotic lower half huh? Well, now I remember why I hate fantasy & sci-fi most of the time. Just because anything is possible doesn't mean it should be done. You know what? I hate when a killed off character is improbably resurrected. That has got to be the weakest story crutch. That is even worse than a "Chosen one" narrative. Although it might be a little ahead of time travel... but not by much.

What? You've never had a one night stand? Not the same thing. Molecules don't choose to combine. Chemical reactions happen because they can. Two protein chains didn't just hook up in the Primordial Soup night club dance floor and decide "what the hell let's go out to the car and start all life as we know it". Your point being

If I had told you the Yankees would lose to the Orioles at home two games to one would you have believed me? Or that the M's would take three of four from the Red Sox? The Marlins would split four game with the Rockies and look pretty good doing it? Or the Rays taking three of four from the Astros? OK, that one wasn't such a big surprise. In other news Yelich is on fire and Brinson is hitting .143 with two errors in four games. Man the Marlins got f----d on that trade. Hard. No lube.

US Military planning to used fish as spies. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/us-military-fish-underwater-spies-marine-life-darpa-a8847706.html It's actually not the stupidest idea the US has ever had. Of course that does not mean it isn't stupid. (It's a sliding scale after all) It made me think of the 90's and our man Mr. Pond

I watched Solo on Netflix for the first time last night. I thought it was pretty good. The guy that played Han was a little irritating at times but over all it was a fun movie. Until the end. According to my math Darth Maul was dead at least 15 years in this movie's timeline. How is he at the end of it? Or was that even him?

Everything wrong with Brexit right now is an object lesson against joining such union to begin with. Once things like this are put together it is a hell of a lot harder to take them apart. That is actually a pretty good argument against marriage too.

If there is going to be another civil war in the US this is where it starts: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/31/us/colorado-red-flag-gun-law/index.html I have said it before and I will do so again now. And do it in complete earnestness and seriousness. If they come for mine they had better be prepared to die for them. Because I am and I will do my damnedest to see some of them do. In other news: https://www.newportri.com/news/20190327/state-police-no-bump-stocks-turned-in-since-ban You f-----s want them so goddamned bad why don't you go kick down peoples door and take them? You f-----s know you want to.

At least stand by the s--t you shovel! I'd have more respect for him if he just said "hey I get paid a lot of money to stoke some people's wildest fears"

This is awesome. Volo would love this channel. The perfect blend of sarcasm and acid wit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOmhrGGsVb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MK20NUVkqw

odd syllogism. you create a whole line o' reasoning dependent on big money and then suggest best way to get such money is to put forth a national candidate who is doomed to lose... to generate money? is no different than sandwich shops or auto parts stores. local guys don't need a national celebrity spokesperson to be successful. your sandwich guy can't initial afford more than one store much less contemplate national franchise to compete with subway. sell a product people want. do better than competitors. keep costs Down. focus on location... cause we all know as with sales and real estate, three rules is: location, location, location. bass ackwards. you are trying to sell national franchise before getting local success. don't need big money local. don't need a national spokesman. HA! Good Fun! t comes back to ballot access. To use your sandwich shop example Subway & Panera don't have a legal means to keep Jersey Mike's from opening in their strip mall. Imagine if they did. D & R do not have to fight to get their candidates on the ballot or even have their parties certified as actual political parties in every state in every election. The LP has to fight for what they get for free. It is that way because the D & R made it that way. They figure that is their tree house and they are cutting the rope to keep anyone else from climbing into it. That effort to get on the ballots, hell just to get recognized AS a political party, costs money. The only way to get it for free to get people to vote for you. The only way people can vote for you is to be on the ballot AS a LP candidate. In TN & OH Johnson/Weld were independents not Libertarians because rules in those states for ballot access as anything other than D & R are draconian. So to get the votes you need to advertise but when damn near every nickel is spent just getting on that ballot and there is no matching money from the state or federal governments you have quite a hill to climb. A presidential ticket gets a little bit of free advertising from the media and you just have to hope they don't f--k it up. Johnson wasn't the best candidate. I preferred Austin Peterson but since the LP does not officially exist in TN (there is one but they are not allowed to participate in elections. Feel free to eat the s--t in the red or blue bag however) Since there is no LP there was no primary in my state so I didn't get a say in who our candidate was. Nice to live n a free country ain't it?

The sox have a much weaker bullpen than last year. If they have a weakness, that's it.

Working from home today!

Ballot access and campaign funding. The LP has to fight tooth and nail for ballot access in every state in every election. And they are battling rules the D & R created to ensure no one else gets in their exclusive clubhouse: elected office. That fight costs money. By the time elections roll around whatever money there is to support campaigns is utterly exhausted fighting for ballot access. So campaigns run on donations alone which means you need a face to the party. Which means you need a Presidential ticket because that is the only way the word Libertarian ever gets spoken or printed in the media. So... wasteful as it may be to run a presidential campaign (and God knows it is) it cannot be dispensed with because without it the odds of the down ballot races drop from next to none to totally none. When you are looking at your ballot no matter what race it is the LP candidate likely has no shot at winning. No matter how vile the other names are. But I've been repeating this over and over trying to drill this point home: the votes cast for that LP candidate will probably not help get him/her elected. But they WILL make things easier for the ones in the next election. Or the one after that if there is enough of them. The D & R have a stranglehold over the politics of this country and it is leading us all to ruin. The only way to break that is NOT VOTE FOR EITHER OF THEM. Yes that will help the one you were voting against. So what? The red bag is just the same as the blue bag when both bags are full of s--t. And they are. Get over this notion of wasting your vote. If you live in a state like CA or TN and vote for a Democrat or a Republican you HAVE wasted your vote. Voting for a 3rd party candidate will not help THAT candidate in all likelihood. But it WILL help the next one, maybe even the ones after that.

It was pretty average before he edited it!

List of the 25 Healthiest Counties in the US. Most of Colorado made the list: https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/slideshows/healthiest-communities-in-america?onepage Alright Shady you need to stop working out. You're blowing the curve for the rest of us.