Guard Dog

I think you're giving the Griz too much credit.

LOL! I think the only thing that would satisfy the Democrats as if He were was laid out behind the Senate building shot twice in the head, scalped, and his body hung feet first in front of the Supreme Court building as a warning to all other nominees. Oh and the scalp will be used to make a new purse for Diane Feinstein!

Posted for humor purposes only. not to provoke a discussion on the merits

Yeah, I'm not a fan of comparing sexual assault to cheating on a test. Let's keep in mind that Gorsuch got in. It was still a bipartisan mess of a confirmation, but he was clean. As should anyone that is given a lifetime seat on our highest court. Again, you believe her or you don't. You can try and make it a more complicated issue of politics and grandstanding, but at the end of the day sexual assault is extremely serious and should be taken as so. I agree it sucks that every nomination gets destroyed by the process, but understand that Ford is also going to get destroyed by the process. Which is why I find her completely believable. She knows what this will lead to and is still willing to testify. This isn't some celebrity obsessed with the spotlight, this is a women with a family, a community and a career, and she is risking all of that to confront the man who assaulted her. She has my full sympathy and support. I've been listening to this stuff on the radio all day today. I asked myself "Do I believe her" You know what answer I arrived at? I don't care. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's sort of true and she is a pawn in the game. Maybe she has an axe to grind and made the whole thing up. It really does not matter. He will be confirmed or he won't be. If he is and it's true he won't be the biggest dirtbag to ever sit on that court. If he's not and it's not true he won't be the first decent man destroyed for politics. If it's not him it will be someone else and they will fight over that person. Like I said it's a farce. It's professional wrestling. His being there or not being there will make far less difference in the course of history than people believe. There is not one Senator on that committee I have a shred of respect for. Not one person in that whole city I want making decisions over me or minyou e. I would not cast my vote for any of them. They have whipped people into a frenzy by calling that guy evil and saying his presence on the court will kill people. It's absurd. But people love drama and the rat circus is providing it. Republicans do it too. They had half the country believing Obama intended to start a civil war. Heck even I half believed it. After a while you realize that if you make a list of what would actually be different had McCain won in 2008, or Romney in 2012 it would be a very short list. And mostly inconsequential. But every election the rats are right there whipping people up with "this is the most important election in history". 2016 is really was about picking the rat that stank the least. Almost nobody was really pleased with who they voted for. Except perhaps the folks like us who went 3rd party. Like I said it's all a farce. No matter who wins it's still the same rats in the same sewer. Maybe someday people will realize that but probably not. Because the next election will be "the most important in history" and you have to pick these rats over those rats or you will be rounded up and put in FEMA camps. Anyway. No point in railing on about how people should be suspicious or contemptuous of the rats who deign to rule over us. Too few do it. And as Machiavelli wrote: "How we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation."

Kt, it does not have to be sexual assault. It can be anything. Maybe she cheated on a Calculus exam in college. Hell during her appellate court nomination hearing Diane Feinstein practically called for her to be fed to the lions for being religious. That would be an issue they could use. This is the new normal. They are going to go over every interactions, meeting, written document, whatever of the the nominee. And heck if that turns up nothing maybe they will just make something up. No matter which color of rat is doing the nominating this is how it is now. You will be destroyed. Nothing personal.

I pointed out the blue rat hypocrisy because it's their show right now. If the red rats were pulling out the surprise witnesses at the 11th hour.I'd be down on them. I'll tell you one thing. Dem or Repub God help every SCOTUS nominee going forward. No matter who you are it's going to be all out war.

This whole thing is a farce. If you support Kavanaugh you don't believe her, if you oppose him you do. The truth is unknowable so the politics of the beholder decide the truth. Does she have a political axe to grind? Do the others? Is there money involved? Who knows. Keith Ellison assaults his girlfriend so badly she flees the house and calls 911. Al Franken who sat right next to all the democrats on this committee before he resigned has multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. The are defended by the same people who are believing every word Ford says. Sheldon Whitehouse used political influence to sidestep insider trading charges. Richard Durbin was caught funneling tax money to his wife's clients. Let's not forget Clinton's dalliances many of whom accused him of forcing himself on them. He was defended by all these people too. But there are no saints in hell. If he were a democrat appointee and the Republicans on the committee had some kind of dirt like this the screws would be turning just as hard with the roles reversed. Just a bunch of s--t covered rats infesting the same sewers. And here they are on TV complaining about how much the other rats stink.

Asimov was doing it right before the genre even knew what was right.

The interesting thing about Paul Atredies is he is the messiah who does not want to be followed.

I'm a big fan of McCarthy. The Road was his second best work.

Have you ever tried Malazan Book of the Fallen? I read the first one, Gardens of the Moon I think. I didn't like it. It's a mess. A book of subplots with no real central story. I've heard it gets better as it goes but it really wasn't my thing.

That would be a massive undertaking. Even cutting out half of the material there is still a lot there to cover. I always thought WoT started very much like a RPG. A small story with small characters that grew into a big story with the three small character growing into the people who saved the world. ASoIaF you need to get a history lesson to understand the context of what was happening in the present tense. I liked that but I know it turned a lot of people off. The feeling that on page one you had a lot of catching up to do. Let me get some opinions here. If you have read Dracula what did you think of Stoker's narrative device, presenting the story in the form of letters and journal entries? I was a little put off by it at first but the more I read the more I appreciated it. I don't think anyone else has done that.

That was obvious when none of the locations changed their signs. They still caught hell for it though.

Dunkin Donuts is changing it's name. https://www.businessinsider.com/dunkin-drops-donuts-but-invented-word-2018-9 I get the feeling IHOP is over here saying "I wouldn't do that if I were you"

These days I'm just over here like:

Any fan of fantasy really should buy a kindle and get the Kindle Unlimited package from Amazon. There are writers turning out libraries of fantasy as self published titles on amazon you can read for free. Most of it is s--t. But if you are partial to shoveling s--t at least you won't have to pay for the privilege of doing it.

I read some of Sanderson's Mistborn books. I could not get into it. Goodkind has never had an original thought, Brooks with Shanarra just copied Tolkien, etc. I'm not a fan of fantasy fiction in general. I find most of it either unoriginal or intentionally tedious. I liked the WoT series well enough until Jordan lost control of it in the middle. I think the same thing has happened to Martin. He is letting the road obscure the destination and it's making the completion harder. I really enjoyed Rothfuss's writing style. But writing is not his primary profession and it's become such a hot property he is distracted with making a series, video games, etc out of his works. Plus his day job of teaching. It's funny, with a fantasy genre a writer can create an entire world out of whole cloth. But so many just revisit the same tired themes. One thing I do like about Martin's work is his characters are interesting. There are not many stereotypes in ASoIaF in my opinion. Speaking of churning out truck loads of dreck what was the last Stephen King novel that you guys actually thought was good? For me it was the Shining. It was all downhill after that. And a steep hill at that.

It's funny but the really good writers start series they never finish. Meanwhile others are churning out tens of thousands of pages of dreck that is little more than a poor copy of better works by better people. Oh.. hey Terry Goodkind. We were just talking about you!

I could tell you the Dune series gets better as you keep on reading. But I'd be lying. The next two books are decent if you actually like the first one. After that is gets.... it gets.... well... look I realize they are looking thousands of years past the first three but did it have to get weird? Herbert was doing way too many drugs in those days.

Now reading this. Good not great so far. It's an interesting concept but she's not pulling it off :

he's so mercurial that he makes Mercury jealous. I am sooo stealing that line!

Mandatory Training! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwbKYcBdVyk

Few political ideologies are inherently bad. It's what bad people are able to do with them that matters. IMO is most correct ideology is one that makes it the most difficult for one person or group to exert their will over others. Political power is what is to be feared. Not a political rule set.

I'll be on the other side of alligator alley from you.

If you're coming down to Florida remember; Hurricane season is here. It will be in November. It should be over by then. But, hurricanes don't buy calendars. November storms are not unheard of.