Guard Dog

And to boot most were put up sixty to seventy years after the war ended. And some of them ended up in odd placed. Statues of Jeff Davis & Lee in New Orleans made no sense to me. Neither had any connection to New Orleans. Leave the battlefields and historical site markers and headstones alone IMO. Do what you will with the rest.

The bigger the monument the greater the contrition I guess.

I just saw Fats Domino passed. Ain't that a shame. He was 89 and surrounded by family. That's the best way to go I guess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6JZW7zMDfY

I have no clue who the daily stormer is. But whatever. In other news it seems the Reoublicans in Congress are coming up with a tax reform bill that Eliminates deductions the middle class count on Cap the tax free 401k contribution Raises rates Very.... democrat... of them. So based on what I've read my tax rate will go from 28% of adjusted to 25% of adjusted but I lose all my deductions so I pay more after my tax cut than before. And now my tax deferred retirement saving is not so tax deferred. So the democrats want to raise my taxes and I get to pay more. The Republicans want to cut my taxes but eliminate my deductions and I get to pay more. Oh, and the government spending is only going up so.... Explain to me again the difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Those 36,5 billion were approved yesterday. I wasn't aware. Trump can certainly be considered culpable in the normalizing of such behaviors. His words regarding the Charlottesville incidents are the most egregious example of this. Refusal to distinguish peaceful demonstrators from openly racist, violent white supremacists definitely carries a burden of guilt as far as normalization is concerned. That 35.5 is in addition to the 15 already expended. Combined that is more money for aid in two months than the annual GDP of all but sixty some odd of the 200 some odd nations of the world. And that does not even cover the operational costs of the military and guard assets working on the ground. To say nothing of American Red Cross, United Way associates and other privately funded groups. Despite the political axe grinding of certain politicians here and in Puerto Rico their government is not ignoring them. Trump is a j-----s. No one here has suggested otherwise. Hell I didn't vote for him and it galls a little that I am defending him (somewhat) right now. But if you are suggesting him saying there were no good guys in the Virginia thing is normalizing racism and white supremacy you are off base. That was two groups of a------s who showed up looking for a fight. One was less repugnant than the other but they didn't have any real claim on the moral high ground either.

36.5 Billion Dollars in aid, four US Navy vessels, the Florida National Guard, 60% of all FEMA's assets, to say nothing of the billions of dollars in private aid. Yeah, we're not doing a damn thing to help Puerto Rico. Oh and Pidesco as to your first dumb comment, the US government and the people in it are not responsible for the words or actions of demonstrators who happen to support the current President. They are not agents of the government so the government could hardly be said to be "normalizing" anything. The downside of free speech is you are going to hear a lot of dumb s--t. Of course the media makes it a bigger deal than it is when the less than 2k people show up for a statue are painted as a representative sample of the 63 Million who decided Trump was the lesser evil.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. I want the US Government to do as little as possible and just leave us alone. So far Trump and the 115th Congress have done nothing. I'm pleased.

In terms of personality Trump is an abberation. We're going to get them from time to time. There have been others. Franklin Pierce comes to mind. But going back to 2004 and beyond, other than the Supreme Court is there anything that would have been done differently the the Presidential election had gone the other way? A few things, small things, yes. But in general, no.

The Grizz have been a plesant surprise so far. I recorded the game vs Houston and watched the world series instead. I just watched the recording and they handled the rockets. 3-0 and only 79 to go.

There isn't a nickel's worth of difference between the two parties anymore. It's the greatest con in the history of the country now. The only thing they are really fighting over now is comittee chairmanships. No matter who wins the government gets bigger, the deficit and debt go up, taxes go up on some things, down on others but spending goes only up. No programs get cut, the states lose power, the people lose liberty and the bombs never stop falling overseas. Exactly what the f--k are we fighting over here that is so important? If you really want to get new blood in Washington step one is Don't Vote For Republicans or Democrats. You do have other options. Everyone says Third Party candidates can't win. You just end up empowering the "other side". Then one day you realize there is no "other side" and hasn't been for a very long time.

I was talking to someone today about Jeff Flake. He made a comment about being happy another RINO (Republican in Name Only) is leaving the Senate and that he hopes a real conservative replaces him. He didn't realize Flake WAS one of the "real conservatives" that came in with the "Tea Party Revolution" in 2012 & 2014. I told him with a laugh today's "tea Party Conservative" is tomorrows RINO.

In other news today Jeff Flake R-Arizona has announced his retirement from the Senate after this term. And told off Trump and the whole gang of elephants in the process (obliquely). http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/24/flake-retiring-after-2018-244114 His re-election was far from a sure thing apparently. It's a real dog fall now.

It has been keeping YOU coming back!

So you're bothered by people doing absurd stuff that doesn't affect you enough to mock them, for some reason. But yeah you're totally indifferent. Didn't think they were editing the play and it was just the warning for three lectures. Never did look up to see how the course works to see what that matters. I'm interested in it for conversational value. Like I said, we got five pages (and still counting) on entertaining discussion out of that post.

No you don't. That's the point. There are plenty of situations where a person's body, brain included, can and will be uncontrollable. It can be anxiety attacks, a chemical imbalance in the brain, arousal due to sexual stimulus, the fight or flight response, Tourette's or a bunch of other things I can't recall right now. Trigger warnings help towards managing some of these. For instance, if someone is a Vietnam vet who suffers from severe PTSD, that person should be aware of anything that might unexpectedly trigger the disorder, like descriptions of the war in a book. OK, back to the Shakespeare example. I'm assuming an English Lit student at Cambridge University know about William Shakespeare and his work long before reading Titus Andronicus. Nothing contained in that play is far beyond any other work of his. They really should not need to be warned. A Vietnam vet reading Fields of Fire knows what kind of book he's reading. It should not come as a surprise to find depictions of war in a novel about war. If you order a cup of coffee you don't get to be mad it wasn't tea. Does the cup really need a trigger warning "This is coffee not tea" ?

And that's kind of the crux. For example, as a former Marine, you're probably aware that it's largely impossible to predict how a particular individual is going to react to the stress of actual combat, regardless of training. Don't you think everyone would react in the exact same calm, collected fashion if it was something that's under one's control? Not a great example because they go to great lengths to teach people how to deal with that. But I do get your point. I can't tell someone how to feel about something.

@Malc: I just enjoy pointing out absurdity and that particular instance pegs the absurd-o-meter. Shakespere (or someone) wrote Titus Andonicus around 1600. So people have been warching or reading it over four hundred years. Now a Cambrige professor needs to warn the poor little dears and edit parts out so they won't feel bad? Absurd city. I don't really care one way or another to tell the truth other than conversational value. And since we got five forum pages out of it I'd say it had some. It wasn't even Shakespere's best play. King Lear & Henry V have that distinction. My copy of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare is safe from being edited so I'm good. But when it comes to mocking people who can't even read a four hundred year old work of fiction without needing therapy, guilty as charged. @Pidesco: How is that illusory? Sure you can't (and shouldn't try) to control everything around you but you DO have full control over how you deal with it.

Someone has been watching too many movies: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4746212/vladimir-putin-russia-super-human-soldiers-nuclear-bomb/

Men are taking classes to "unlearn" toxic masculinity. https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/the-men-taking-classes-to-unlearn-toxic-masculinity.html From what that class is teaching I could boil the whole 10 week course down to one lesson: don't be an ****. That will be $1200 please.

Somehow my sarcasm and derision of the poor little dears being unable to read Titus Andronicus without needing therapy morphed into being against safety warnings and movie ratings huh? You never know where the conversational road will go around here. But the ride is entertaining.

You would restrict their rights to bear arms? Gasp! If they bring their own and their own ammo they can keep them! But if it's "community" weapons and ammo and I'm the leader of that "community" then you better not be wasting my bullets! Seriously though, last night they pull up in front of the savior's compound and Negan walks right out with his whole command staff in the face of automatic weapons in covered fighting positions. He ought to know better than that! And why talk at all Rick? Assign three gunners for each target and it's all over. And then, Rick unloads a half a clip at 20 yards and hits nothing! Grrr! Bad marksmanship! But all in all is was a good show and a solid opening. If I can suspend disbelief in a world where zombies walk around I can look the other way on bad infantry tactics too.

Nah, this NK thing will blow over.

You know what annoys me about the Wallking Dead? Poor marksmanship. So many unproductive rounds fired every week. If I was the leader of a group I'd have two rules: 1) No guns for you unless you can hit the center of the target 8 of 10 times from 100 meters. 2) Use semi auto fire for crying out loud. Unless you are laying down supressing fire to cover movement you are wasting ammo. Battles are won with aimed shots.