Guard Dog

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those things where a word has different meaning in the US & Europe.

Well, all i know about skinheads comes from a movie called American History X. It's good if you ever get a chance to see it. It's got Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko) in it. But if all your knowledge comes from a movie you really don't have any.

Don't know about the balls but the ratings are juiced. Game 4 was the higest rated WS game in 5 years. WS ratings over the first four games are the highest since 2014.

No I wouldn't say that. They have been around since I've been paying attention in one form or another. Skinheads, Aryan Nation, and others. They have always been pretty brazen. But there just are not a whole lot of them. As Redneck pointed out, 100 people at a rally is only in the news because the media is trying to make hay of it. But it's a thin crop indeed. It's barely even worth notice.

"Some master race," he snickered. "Can't even show up on time." OMG, now that is funny! They said 100 people showed up? That's not a rally. It's not even a particularly well attended party. I wouldn't waste anytime worrying about that.

Oh I have a big problem that it happened. I have a bigger problem that they were there for it to happen to them. That is the point I'm trying to make here. This never ending war BS that can't even be won because no one can even define what victory is has to stop. It's becoming very Orwellian. No, it actually passed that up a long time ago.

Regrettably this is incorrect. There have been a number of attempts to end what Barbra Lee has correctly called a blank check to wage debate free war forever. Including one earlier this year that was quietly scuttled by the rules committee. We have had Democrat led Congresses and Republican led Congresses along with Democrat Administrations and Republican Administrations. But the same story, in every one. More money, men, hardware and escalations. And all of it in secret until someone gets killed. And even then there is far more angst expended over how condolences are offered than why the hell it happened to begin with. Oh and Ben, that uranium and the private companies that are mining it are all French. To my thinking that equals "Not Our Problem". There is nothing, not one goddamned thing in Niger that was worth the lives of those four men.

Great game last night. The Astros almost blew it open with a grand salami in the 7th. Another two feet and it would have been in the bullpen. Nice job by Pea**** in his longest outing of the season. Of course the downside is they have likely lost him until game 6, if there is one.

As most of you know a lot of ink & airtime was used in the past two weeks railing against Trump's comments in a call to the widow of US Army Sgt. La David Johnson. But I wonder why none was spent asking WHY was she a widow to begin with? What the hell were US combat forces doing in Niger to begin with? It turns out they have been there since 2007 supporting French troops who are supporting private Uranium mining. All to the chagrin of Niger's pro-democracy factions who want US & French troops out because they are supporting and propping up a brutal government and military that has a long a terrible record of human rights abuses. In 2011 the Obama Admins Security Government Initiative updated the weapons, equipment, and training of that army in the hopes of them being a force against Islamic insurgent groups like Jamaat Tawhid wal Jihad fi Gharb Afriqa in Mali. But that group and others like it are only a problem because of weapons a funding coming from Post-Ghaddafi Libya, another mess the US helped create. So the question is why are US troops supporting private French mining when there are already French troops doing that? It turns out there are US ground forces in combat operations in 138 different nations around the globe. When George W Bush left office that number was 60. Barack Obama doubled that to 120 over eight years. In just 9 months Trump has added 18 more. Everything from drug interdiction in Columbia (great job there by the way: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-side-effect-of-peace-in-colombia-a-cocaine-boom-in-the-us/2017/05/07/6fb5d468-294a-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.f5e81a5d807d now instead of drug kingpins the Colombian Government is selling cocaine) to hunting rebel leaders in Uganda. How many of these actions are authorized by Congress, in whom war powers ultimately rest in this country? 0. Zip. None. Lindsey Graham, the most powerful member of the Senate Arms Services committee knew nothing about combat troops in Niger. Either he's lying or we have a f-----g problem. Forget Afghanistan for a moment. Something had to be done there. Maybe not what was done but... But I think it's safe to say intervening in Syria, Libya, & Iraq has made a bad situation worse. And Niger whose updated military spends more time brutalizing it's own people than actually supporting resistance to jihad groups in Mali. Prior to WWI the US had a long and dearly held tradition of non-intervention (beyond the western hemisphere at least). That is something we really need to get back to. It may be that cow is long out of the barn, especially since in this, like many other things, the Democrats & Republicans are doing the same things. And there is a price to pay for it. The lives of the people involved in it, the money it costs, and the damage to the fundamental founding principle of this country. And there is another kind of cost too, in the story of King Midas everything he touched turned to gold. Everything we're touching is turning into something else. It's common practice to wrap all this in the flag and say La David Johnson died defending our freedom. We need to reject that. Until someone can explain how my freedom got to Niger and why it was so important to French Uranium mining. http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/25/presidents-are-reckless-with-soldiers-li http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/23/politics/dunford-niger-ambush-briefing/index.html http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558757043/the-u-s-military-in-africa-a-discreet-presence-in-many-places http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/u-s-special-ops-deployed-to-138-countries-and-counting/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2017/06/13/in-the-eye-of-the-storm-niger-and-its-unstable-neighbors/

Yeah... something like this: Make the little b------s stand! It will be really gratifying that class after PE! In all seriousness though go with the second option. You and they will be happier with the flexibility.

Catalonia secedes. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia/catalonia-declares-independence-from-spain-direct-madrid-rule-looms-idUSKBN1CW0VF A meaningless gesture unless they are prepared to fight.

I can't post the image here (it's copyrighted). But you gotta see this! http://dilbert.com/strip/2017-10-25

TR was a man of his time, like a lot of historical figures. He had views that today would certainly be considered racist in a patronizing way. That we think differently now says something about us, not him. $20 says whoever did it thought he was a civil war general and had no clue who he was. http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/teddy-roosevelt-statue-doused-in-red-paint/ Wouldn't think you'd be much of a fan of Teddy since he wanted government oversight in pretty much everything. Didn't say I was. I just said he was a man of his time.

I picked up the mail today and what do I see? Jury Duty. Grrrr....

Today in history: https://youtu.be/2FR5c8p1GCI Happy memories!

Statue of Teddy Roosevelt defaced. Of course the NY Post looked around until they found someone with something bad to say about Roosevelt: TR was a man of his time, like a lot of historical figures. He had views that today would certainly be considered racist in a patronizing way. That we think differently now says something about us, not him. $20 says whoever did it thought he was a civil war general and had no clue who he was. http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/teddy-roosevelt-statue-doused-in-red-paint/

Just me but I like the mods that extend the playlist for the radio stations. But FONV does not need a lot of help. I prefer small mods that add things rather than modify. The mods that add interiors to all of the unused buildings is a must-have IMO. Also the one that merges the Strip into one area is also a must-have.

And here's a quiz because those are fun Exactly zero nuance in that quiz. Some questions both answers are true, others neither is.

They say it's pretty crap without the Crusader DLC though - so I hope you got that as well. The bundle has everything, all DLCs. For $25 why not I figured. I love Stellaris, hated Master of Orion CTS, and I remember this was fun 10 years ago. I'll find out tonight.

There have been a lot of managerial firings that made no sense. This one takes the cake. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/report-yankees-part-ways-with-joe-girardi-as-manager-after-10-years/ar-AAu5iGN?ocid=spartandhp

Giving Stellaris a rest for a while. I bought GalCiv III from steam this morning. The Gold Bundle is 66% off. I haven't played this since the first one. Let's see how far this has come.

OK I suspect a story like this is more of interest to someone like me. But public land access, eminent domain, and "forced easements" is a subject I have a lot of interest in since my property borders a State Wildlife Management Area. Until I built a fence on that border (and once after) I've had to order armed hunters off my property. One was standing in my back yard. So I'm somewhat sypathetic to land owners closing access to public lands. Plus in a litigous society such as ours if one of the hikers is injured the landowner finds themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit. It's also worth noting that access to public land via private is more a matter of convenience than necessity. All public land has public access. And it's always (that I'm aware of) geographically continuous. So you can get to any part from any part. Although not always easily and not always by vehicle. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/this-land-is-no-longer-your-land/ar-AAu3Cko?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Amazing game last night. Verlander was dealing a no hitter into the 5th, three big comebacks and a dramatic extra innings finsh. Game 1 was sort of dull. Game 2 anything but.

Volo is also the master of sarcasm. So it's ok to wonder if there was a joke and you missed it. If you see typo's in my posts it's not my fault. Speech to test does not always understand my southern drawl. Edit: See??? it happened again!