Guard Dog

The US Navy is planning on releasing genetically engineered microorganisms into the ocean to become a "living sonar net". https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/12/us-military-genetically-engineering-new-life-forms-detect-enemy-subs/153200/?oref=d-river Of course after a few decades of evolution we'll get: The story just writes itself!

Took Sunny back to the vet today. She has a heart murmur. It's grade 3 so she's on a couple of medicines to help. It's been a year since it was diagnosed and so far it hasn't progressed. It will eventually but hopefully not for years. I guess she's about 6-7 now. The was at least 2-3 when we found her wandering around a campground in Sugarloaf Key, nothing but skin and bones. She is my best buddy. I take her pretty much everywhere. Update: Still Grade 3, staying on the same meds. Good news for sure.

Wrong topic

I burned my hand doing something stupid. It's not serious. Hurts though. I'm taking this as a hint to spend the remainder of the day watching football and cooling it with beer bottles from the fridge.

Whelp... I believe we have f----d that one all up!

I like stock bumps. Especially if it's a stock i own.

RIP George Bush. He was from a different time. He was certainly not hesitant to use negative comments to disparage opponents but there was never the meanness or absolutism we have today. He & Bill Clinton were the last holdouts from a time when political opponents were just people with differing ideas. People you were friends with otherwise. Not evil incarnate as they are seen today. He was the last WWII Veteran to serve. Actually he was the last combat veteran of any conflict to serve for what that is worth. You'd think President's who had seen war first hand would not be so cavalier about sending his countrymen into another one but even a casual look at our history shows that isn't true. As far as his place in history I think he was a middle of the road, caretaker President who made some mistakes and did some things right. Certainly not the worst and not counted among the good ones. He was honest and even tempered (relatively speaking considering his peers then and now)

Not even in the top 5! With guys like Pierce, Harding, Hoover, Johnson, & Nixon blocking the way that is a tough summit to reach. I'd imagine the patriot act would trump all, given your libertarian inclinations. Did you mean MY personal least favorite or Americans collectively least favorite? If it's my personal I've never made a list. If i did it would probably have Woodrow Wilson at number one. The corrosion of the enumerated powers differences of the Executive and Legislature began with him. To tell you the truth I'd have a much easier time coming up with a list of Presidents I liked and respected. It would be a much shorter list. And no, GWB would not be on that one.

The Story of the 3 Bulls Once upon a time there was a farmer who had a big herd of cows and three bulls. An older one, a middle bull and a young bull whose horns were barely grown in. The three bulls overheard the farmer talking about bringing in a fourth bull. Needless to say they were not happy. “I’ve been the king of this pasture my whole life” said the eldest. “Half these cows are mine and I’m not sharing” The middle bull nodded and said “most of the others are mine and I’m definitely no sharing” The youngest said “Well I’ve only got two cows and he can’t have either of them. I’m not sharing either” A few days pass and a big trailer pulls up in the farmyard. The farmer opens the gate and out steps the biggest, meanest looking Aberdeen Angus bull the other three had ever seen! He had long horns, deep chest, stood 6’ high at the shoulder and had an evil gleam in his eye. He cast one look at the original three bulls and they started shaking. The eldest turned to the other two and said “You know, maybe I’ve been too hasty. We should be friends with our new herd mate. Maybe I will share my cows with him” The middle bull nodded and said “no need in being un-neighborly. I think I’ll share some of mine as well” The youngest bull took a long look at the newcomer and let out a bellow. He kicked down the fence jumped into the yard and started snorting and pawing the ground and shaking his horns at the giant bull. The other two looked at him like he had lost his mind. “Get back here” the eldest said. “You can’t fight him that thing will kill you!” The youngest looked back at them and said “I don’t want to fight him… I just want to make sure he knows I’M a bull!”

https://womenintheworld.com/2018/11/30/dominatrix-specializes-in-turning-white-right-wing-men-into-socialists/ British Dom (who says she is a socialist) uses her sexuality to turn her clients into socialists : LOL I think she was absent the day they taught socialism in school!

Not even in the top 5! With guys like Pierce, Harding, Hoover, Johnson, & Nixon blocking the way that is a tough summit to reach.

I do have to hand it to Bush & Obama. I have little positive to say about either of them or their time in office but at least we had 16 years without any major scandals (from the White House at least)

It's shaping up to be one of those nights. The kind where I sit on my porch drinking whiskey and thinking over roads not taken. And jamming some 70's tunes while doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtGjJVcrKQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyQUCYl-ocs

Rover would do a better job than chump He'd have my vote. The government that governs best governs least. Dogs don't do any more than they have to!

A data scientist looked into what makes a book a best seller: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-data-scientist-cracks-the-code-to-landing-on-the-new-york-times-best-seller-list-2018-11-28 One of the topics looked at is what sub genres sell the best. Fantasy did better than I expected:

Love the arboreal look on the top. I hope they can make it happen. The Rays new stadium is proceeding well enough with the financing. But they have to have the money in place by year's end. Tick tock tick tock

Well, I learned something I didn't know from all of them. I have been disabused of notions I've taken for truth and had other ideas I'd always assumed were true confirmed. One thing I'd say has really changed is my understanding (or lack thereof) of the US Civil War. I've always been fascinated by it and I have read extensively about it. But a lot of what i thought I "knew" was wrong. I was like many people in these parts a proponent of the "lost cause" narrative. The whole "slavery was the cause but it wasn't really about slavery" that you still hear a lot. Well, it was. Not everyone holding a rifle was fighting for slaves, neither to free them nor keep them. But none of them would have been there otherwise. It's also common to paint the Union as the "good guys" and the Confederates as the "bad guys". That is also a incorrect reasoning. There was plenty of virtue and brutality to go around. No one had a monopoly on either. Actually the biggest thing that all my reading has impressed upon me (now that I think about it) is how easily one thing or another might have happened that would have completely changed every event after. Sometimes it's as simple as the decision of one man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

I'm falling behind I guess. I've never read any of these. Heck I've only heard of a few of them. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/best-history-books-2018-180970864/

Veterans "offended" by rap star wearing medals and "dress uniform" https://pagesix.com/2018/11/26/the-diplomats-anger-vets-after-wearing-military-medals-on-stage/ OK, first off that is not a uniform dress or otherwise. It's a jacket with patches sewn on it. Second, f-----g get over yourselves. WTF do you care what he wears? We all REALLY need to mind our own f----g business and not get into a snit over inconsequential BS. Besides, haven't we learned by now how to make something stop? Ignore it. The bigger deal you make the more it will happen. Case in point:

Fun fact: Mars is a planet inhabited entirely by robots!

I started watching Man in the High Castle on Amazon. It's pretty good. Only a passing similarity to the book, but pretty good by itself.

How Star Trek (TOS) explains Donald Trump: http://reason.com/archives/2018/11/26/how-star-trek-explains-donald-trump Or, as I'd call it, what happens when Trekkies write political commentary!

I have always been fascinated by "turning points" in history where the decisions of one person literally changed the course of history. John Burford's decision to dismount his cavalry and line up along Chamabersburg Pike against Ewell's advance into Gettysburg is a great example. But for that one action The Confederates would have reached the heights south of town first and likely would have won the battle and the war. Buford died of wounds six months later. He never knew his decision literally saved the United States and changed the lives of billions of people through history. Another was a decision by CDR Wade McCutsky while commanding a squadron of SBD Dauntless dive bombers at Midway in 1942. The Japanese fleet was not where he expected it to be and low on fuel his best call would be to turn back. Rather than taking the wise call he followed his gut and turned his squadron north and found a Japanese destroyer that had been hunting the submarine USS Nautalis. They followed the destroyer back to the fleet and initiated the first attack of the greatest American naval victory in history. The entire outcome of the Battle of Midway turned on that one decision. It's hard to say Midway decided the war in the Pacific. The Manhattan Project was well underway by that time. But it did for the Japanese into a defensive posture for the duration of the war. It certainly won THAT battle. The US Navy was outnumbered 4 carriers to 2 and 2:1 in support and combat ships. Now reading: