Guard Dog

Nice girl: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/02/teen-obsessed-with-human-sacrifice-dressed-as-clown-to-stab-lover-during-sex.html Do you think that guy will be scared of clowns now?

Aaaaaannnnndddd..... here we go again. A whole lot of people in a snit over the entirely made up sin of "cultural appropriation" attacking an 18 year old kid because of her prom dress. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/05/01/its-just-a-dress-teens-chinese-prom-attire-stirs-cultural-appropriation-debate/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b71b5a906ee1 It sucks that there are so many people who wake up every day and just look for something to be pissed off about. There are tons of things going on worth being pissed off about but none of them involve what a total stranger is doing, saying, thinking, eating, drinking, listening to, playing, or wearing to the prom. Oh, and...

Russian police use an armed robot to during a battle with jihadists that left 11 of them dead: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5677705/Russia-uses-armed-ROBOT-gun-battle-left-11-jihadists-dead.html I believe we have a picture of the robot: On another note when I read this happened in Dagestan I completely understood. Having played Russia in ETW I know what a pain Dagestan is!

Old but still funny. Especially the last one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx6WB5YJia8

University of Texas is treating masculinity as a "mental illness" https://pjmedia.com/trending/university-of-texas-to-treat-masculinity-as-a-mental-health-issue/ Don't worry UT boys, we'll have you "fixed" up in no time! OK, they "clarified" it today. It's still worth poking fun at though: https://news.utexas.edu/2018/04/29/statement-on-masculinut

Pour some alcohol in you ear. Once it dries it takes the water with it.

I don't recall any sort of explict promise to never invade Cuba, don't know if one was ever made after the failed proxy invasion of the Bay of Pigs. Actually, maybe we did after the Cuban missile crisis. As for Canada, we certainly became good friends (along with the usual neigborly disputes) after the War of 1812 when both Britian and Canada (still a British colony at the time) gave us a smackdown. Probably a good thing that Britian was busy with Napoleon at the time or it would have been worse than a black eye and generally beaten up and told to behave. We made a promise to the USSR not to invade Cuba following the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The promise not to invade Canada came after the war of 1812. It was not in the Treaty of Ghent but one that came a few years later that demilitarized the border. The war was a total waste of everyone's time and the status quo was restored afterwards. The British did not give us a "smackdown" although they did come off a little lighter on losses. But it was close. No one walked away from that with anything to show for the nearly 6K KIA. Although it did set into motion the events the led to us getting Florida so... I guess that's a positive right? Old New Yorkers gotta retire somewhere.

The NPB is definitely different in a cool kind of way: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/the-japanese-fish-mascot-is-pushing-a-suitcase-from-inside-its-mouth/c-274495836

A pledge by the US not to invade should be taken seriously. We've promised never to invade Canada & Cuba. So far so good.

Actually having boots on the ground in SK only marginally improves our defensive capability there. The Third Marine Division, 3rd Marine FSSG, and 1st Marine Air Wing, the entire USAF 18th Wing, 353d Special Operations Group, and a number of other AF units are all on Okinawa and can be there in less than 18 hours. There are two full carrier battle groups in the West Pac at any time. That is more military strength alone than the entirety of 95% of the nations on Earth. Air strikes from Japan, Carrier based, Guam, Hawaii, cruise missile strikes, and even bomber sorties from the US Mainland would begin immediately following any attack on SK. Giving up land based forces in SK would not be that big a deal since they would just be redeployed elsewhere in the Pacific. Probably Guam or Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, the movement of that kind of force is a heavy logistical burden but there is more than enough air power to buy the time to do it.

I presume that should be 'the agreements made by the US should --not-- be binding only so long as the next election'? Hmmm... big difference isn't it? I could have left out any other word and not completely changed the meaning! You are correct of course.

Jackals are like the Coyote's annoying kid brother. Speaking of which I'm finding coyote tracks around the chicken pen lately. I'm not terribly worried. I built it with coyotes in mind. My attitude towards them has been live and let live. But there have been times when they have become something of a nuisance and compelled me to thin the pack a little bit.

The Iran deal was a mistake. Withdrawing from is is a bigger one. The agreements made by the US should not be binding only so long as the next election. As far as NK our previous "deals" were all carrot and no stick. The way to go might be a no carrot but no stick either.

LC posting the Gettysburg clip reminds me of one. The precursor movie Gods and Generals was actually made after and really did not live up to Gettysburg for a number of reasons. It's a good movie, but it could have been a great one and wasn't. I've always thought the opening sequence was just as masterful as it is poignant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XtNTJhyEYo

I think Hurlshot's analysis of a "come to jesus" moment with the Chinese is behind this. If it IS genuine. Nothing about NK's history suggests it is. They have pulled this stunt before. All you can do is hope for the best. Give them a guarantee not to invade or attack as long as they never attack SK and give up their nuclear weapons program and see what happens. It's a small enough price. If they break the deal we are no worse off and if they attack SK we'll be rid of them for good and all anyway.

Um... yeah

Invade, probably not. Bomb, yes. What is China going to do, take down U.S. planes that are not bombing it's territory? No, that will not happen. The situation on the ground will only be made worse if the US launched a "preemptive" strike. Wait... we HAVE been making things worse by military strikes haven't we? Bah, who the hell even knows. You are assuming a US administration will alt rationally and with temperance. It's been a HELL of a long time since we had one like that. Small chance of that with the elephants and donkeys running the show.

Can't think of any offhand. Tigers are pretty solitary. Same with panthers & cougars in North America and Jaguars in South/Central America. House cats seem to be pretty social with each other but I'm not sure if that's their way or just the accident of cohabitation. Katphood, Tale or LC could probably say better. They have a lot more cat experience than most of us.

Is this politics or humor? Ah screw it, I'll post it here. The political thread can use a good laugh:

I don't know how close Shady is to Blue Mesa Reservoir but it's stocked with Chinook salmon IIRC. He can go get his own damn salmon and drink beer while doing it! I have GOT to go up to the Rockies and go fishing someday.

We're a month in now. The season started with the Red Sox looking like a killing machine, the Yankees fans storming the gates with pitchforks and torches, and the Rays even worse than the Marlins. All that has reversed. The Rays & Yankees are red hot. The Red Sox are cold and throw in the Blue Jays strong start and the AL East is interesting again. In the AL Central the Twins are a disappointment. The rest is going as expected. In the West the Astros, Angels, Mariners and A's are playing well and keeping it tight. The NY Mets didn't get the e-mail that they were supposed to suck this year. They have been tough to beat. Ditto for the Phillies and Braves who are coming out of a rebuild. The Nats... what happened? The Pirates (who were supposed to be rebuilding) are leading a tight race in the NL Central. In the west the D-Backs are just killing it. The Rockies and Giants are in it. As for the Dodgers, when you let the Marlins come into your house and beat you two of three, things are not going well. And this was funny: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/lobaton-and-plate-umpire-simultaneously-threw-ball-to-familia/c-274373192

I don't think feral cats are social in the way lions are. They congregate together but don't seem to interact much of have any social hierarchy in the way lions do. Cats are sort of like the individualists. How much is a fishing license in IL by the way? I have one on TN, MS, AR, & KY. The most expensive one is KY, it's $35 for non resident.

I am always amazed at the longevity and popularity of LOTR, Considering when it was first published, it's so hard to imagine such a huge body of work with such epic scope could have been written back then, There was nothing comparable at the time or since then, which could rival it. Nowadays, bookshops are full to brimming with high fantasy novels, coming from the base created by JRRT, as regards GRRM (coincidence initials?), I think I got as far as the fourth book and couldn't finish it. On saying that, I have the Blu-ray versions of all the TV series released so far, waiting for the final season, so I can binge on the whole thing in 2019. I've only watched 2 seasons, but the prolonged wait between seasons really annoying me, so I'm waiting....at least this will be finished as opposed to the novels As far as the scope of LOTR I can think of a few that came before it that were at least equal. James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales" was a series of 5 books that follow (roughly) the same case of characters throughout. This was (I think) the first series I ever read. Ivanhoe by Walter Scott is at least a good as LOTR is not the same scope. War of the Worlds also comes to mind. If you take Tolkien's body of work as a whole I'd go along with you there. He created an entire universe of people, places, history, cosmology, etc out of thin air and made it feel real. You'd have to go back to King Arthur, or ancient mythology to find anything like that only none of that was the work of one mind and a deliberate effort of creation.

We have a new Tolkien book to look forward to: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/10/the-fall-of-gondolin-new-jrr-tolkien-book-to-be-published-in-2018 So.... lets see here. GRRM says no Winds of Winter in 2018. He has completed just one book in the space of time Tolkien has had three come out. And he's been dead for 35 years!

I was getting gas in Covington on my way home from work yesterday. Someone left a string of 5 lottery scratch off games on the gas pump. The $50 Frenzy game. I looked at them and they had all been scratched already. But whoever left them didn't check them closely. The 2nd card was a $10 winner. I cashed it in at the gas station ans wen't to Milano's across the street for a eggplant parm sub and an espresso. Free dinner... how can you beat that?