Guard Dog

Eh, he lives a mile and a half from the 6th district while his girlfriend is attending Emory medical school. Supposedly he grew up and lived previously around Northlake, which is currently part of the 6th district but wasn't part of it until 2013, I think. You're right. He did grow up within the district. I read that a little while ago. He was not the stranger the AJC made him out to be yesterday.

Yeah counting Handel's fundraising and all the soft money spent this election ran up a tab of over $40M. If that's not the most ever for a congressional seat it has to be close.

In other news last night Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat John Ossoff in a special election for a vacant congressional seat in Georgia's 6th District. That district includes parts of Atlanta and it's suburbs. The Democrats invested heavily in this one as a referendum on Trump (which is what they said about the ones in Kansas, Montana, and South Carolina too) but the outcome really should not be a surprise. Ossoff out raised Handel by a margin of 5:1. He raised $23M to try to win a job that pays $170k per year. But most of his donations came from outside Georgia, let alone the 6th District. He didn't even live in the district he was running for. He could not even cast a vote for himself. Factor all these things in and consider Georgia is a place where the term "carpetbagger" is still in the vernacular.

Shady you have already thought of this I'm sure but there is a consideration beyond the salary. Stability. After what you just went through you also have to consider which of the offers you are holding has the best long term prosepcts. For both advancement and just keeping the job!

There is an exception I think. Voting for members of legislative bodies really has become an exercise in picking a party rather than an individual. Congressmen, State Legislators, etc who are willing to buck the party line are becoming rare because they are punished be getting primaried or having re-election funding withheld.

I think finding anyone who is 100% for any political party here would be tough to do. Voting here in the US has become an exercise in choosing the people you despise the least. Last year few people liked our choices but ended up picking the lesser of two evils. Unless they voted for Johnson, Stein, or the other guy whose name I've already forgotten. You can be a mix of both D & R. You can be neither. That is what I'd call myself. I wouldn't want to cast my vote for either of them. It's like choosing which butt cheek to get a shot in. In the end your political opinions are entirely your own and you come to them through your reading, education, and life experience. They need not conform to any ideology.

Of course! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island were two of my favorites growing up. I also loved The Lighthouse at the End of the World. It's not as well known as his other stuff but it's every bit as good IMO.

SI had a pretty good interview with James Harden a few months ago. I just saw it today. He's always struck me as a pretty down to earth guy. He didn't go looking for fame and has never been comfortable with it. https://www.si.com/nba/2017/02/28/james-harden-the-beard-houston-rockets-mike-dantoni He did mention his relationship with one of the Kardashians in it and why they broke up. I think it's because he didn't want to end up dead, ruined, broke or female.

Good luck!

Now reading this: So far it's ok. It's got a little Planescape thing going. I'm not a fan of fantasy writing because it's usually so awful. This one isn't making me a bigger fan but it's far from the worst I've ever read. The setting is holding my interest. We'll see how it goes from here. Also reading this: I just started it during my lunch break today.

Now playing Icewind Dale EE. Hats off to Steamdog. They did a great job on these games. There is more than just modernization. The dialouge trees are bigger and there is more stuff in the game now than the original. Plus I had forgotten home much fun Icewind Dale was. I haven't played this game in at least 15 years.

No new TW titles from Creative Assembly. They are doing the Warhammer crap for the next few years. Bethesda totally mailed it in and the next ES game is so far off in the distance it mat as well be never. Steamdog failed to get a deal to do an EE of Fallout 1 & 2. At least we have a new PoE to look forward to. Other than that things are bleak for me at least.

What people need to realize is all those off year elections when the Presidency is not being decided, they count too.

I am curious to see how this plays out. It's my understanding that the state government has a lot of latitude in determining this kind of thing.

In other news the Supreme Court released thier opinion on Matal v Tam yesterday. In an 8-0 decision the court ruled the government may not prohibit registration of trademarks that are offensive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rejecting-trademarks-that-disparage-others-violates-the-first-amendment/2017/06/19/26a33ffa-23b3-11e7-a1b3-faff0034e2de_story.html?utm_term=.e3300b9a27f3 Matal v. Tam was a challenge to a federal law prohibiting the registration of any trademark that may "disparage...or bring...into contempt or disrepute" any "persons, living or dead." The Patent and Trademark Office cited this provision in 2011 when it refused to register a trademark in the name of a band called The Slants. Justice Samuel Alito wrote "We now hold that this provision violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment," Alito wrote. "It offends a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend." Now this is a big deal because the government used this law to take the trademark of the Washing Redskins away. I expect their lawyers are working on that right now. Personally I don't see the sense in being offensive just for the heck of it. But I certainly don't like it when Big Brother tells them they can't.

One nice thing about having Republicans in Congress is the small, unknown bills that roll back Big Brother in innocuous but meaningful ways are starting to move again. Like this one: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2657/text What this does is get the USDA out of the mix and allow the State governments to regulate the process and sale of meat that is raised, processed and sold within State lines. The hope is it helps bring back locally owned and produced farming and ranching. In the late '60's President Johnson signed a law that made the USDA the ultimate arbiter of meat processing over the whole country. Like most things the government does it was well intentioned (I'm being really charitable here) but followed by a lot of bad unintended consequences. The USDA really hasn't proven up to the task. It's rules are arbitrary and inconsistently enforced and have driven up the cost to the point that private farmers and ranchers sold their herds and land to big Agribusiness. Like the Rancho Feeding Co. Unless you live in the US and really pay attention you might not have heard of Rancho Feeding Co. They were a beef business in California. It turns out they had a large number of diseased cattle. Rather than putting them down they processed them anyway. The very thing the USDA was supposed to be safeguarding against. The problem is the USDA inspector was romantically involved with one of the upper management at Rancho and the company also did what companies do: purchase political protection with large campaign donations to two California congressmen and the senior Senator from California, one Diane Feinstein. It took a plant employee going to CNN to blow this whole thing up. This is one of almost a hundred incidents of USDA malpractice over the last 30 years. They have also been used in a case in Florida during the '70s as a mafia like punishment to business for not making donations or supporting legislative measures. Yes the guilty were fired once this came to light. But it demonstrates that this kind of thing happens. Barack Obama was hardly the first political leader to weaponize the agencies of the Government for his own ends.

They can take my DNA the same way they can take my guns. From my dead, twitching corpse. The ammunition however I'll happily serve up as much of that as possible before then.

https://youtu.be/zIH-J3uLN3E I thought this was funny. I think 90% of it is in the delivery

If you guys don't read Reason magazine, you should. It's the best News Commentary publication around IMO. But this one piece is a pretty interesting defense of the positive effects computer and console games have on young men. http://reason.com/archives/2017/06/13/young-men-are-playing-video-ga I did get a good laugh out of this. The author is describing the experience of playing Mass Effect Andromeda

Channel Islands does look amazing. I've found the more amenities a park has the less I'm going to like it. That was the problem with Land Between the Lakes. Too many people, crowded campground, jet skis, boats, etc. You could walk across Rushing Creek inlet without getting your feet wet. I was so irritated I packed up and left early Saturday morning. I did stop at the Fort Donaldson battlefield in Dover on the way home. It was out of the way but since reading about the battle in two different books lately it's one I wanted to see. I had the place all to myself. The tour guide was nice. He let me bring Tommy & Sunny up to the battlements where dogs are not allowed to go. We talked about the battle and the history. It was thoroughly enjoyable. I told him I go to work every day in a place named for the man who lost this battle through sheer incompetence; Gen. Gideon Johnson Pillow. Although it's better that he did. With the defeat the CSA lost control of the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Had Pillow stuck with his guns and not retreated the war in the west would have turned out far differently. No one would ever have heard the name Ulysses Grant outside of a history book. Today I'm going to walk down to Cold Creek and go fishing where I know there will be no boats, or jet skis, or noisy campers complaining about dogs who were not bothering them in any way.

Wow, I go on the road for a few days an miss a 23 page flame war. I can't leave you guys for 3 days without you getting into trouble. Oh, and buy the way, if you happen to be looking for a great place to go camping and fishing don't go to Land Between the Lakes. F--k that place.

Tanking off work today and tomorrow. That's one nice thing about government jobs. The pay isn't that great but they do give you a lot of vacation time. After four years of 12-14 hour days six days a week while working in my own enterprises that is a nice perk to have. This afternoon the pups and I are going to Aurora KY and the Land Between the Lakes National Park for 5 days of camping, fishing, and just enjoying life.. So have a good weekend everyone. I believe I will.

Congrats LC. Great job.

That sucks the Northwest didn't work for you. I know it was closer to your family. Hopefully Minneapolis will treat you better.

@Gromnir: Heller solved the issue for the most part. But the Court has been all over the map on this in the past. In the 1930's they ruled it wasn't an individual right for man facing gun charges because he wasn't in a militia and his weapon wasn't a "militia weapon". In the 1880's the decided the US Government could not restrict gun rights but the states could. But after Heller I stopped worrying about this for the most part. But what one Court does another can undo. So the danger is always there but it's way off down the road if it's there at all. But I digress. Gun Control is not where I was thinking this should go. In other news the shooter worked on Bernie Sanders campaign. Sanders is supposed to address the media about it soon. He's in a tough spot. He is in no way responsible but still has to do the dance in front of the cameras.