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Guard Dog
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Posts posted by Guard Dog
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Feel better TN.
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Hey Leferd. I have just two words for you my friend! Grizzlies WIN!
Grizz 110 - GS 89 huzzah!
About bloody time really. They haven't beaten the Warriors in forever.
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Now reading Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves by Art Burton. Bass Reeves was an emancipated slave in Texas at the end of the Civil War. He went on to become a Deputy US Marshal and a very effective one at that. As someone with a passing interest in post Civil War US History I'd heard his name but his actual story is nothing short of extraordinary. Definitely worth checking out.
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GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY!
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why would anyone leave Canada and go to USA? with Trump it should be the other way around
Money, usually
Don't badmouth us or we'll take another one of your hockey teams away!
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OK, I'll admit it. I don't get it. It's a P-38 Lightning chasing what looks like an F2F Buffalo.
edit: correction on the first one. Raithe identified it.
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I was having one of my frequent bouts of insomnia last night and I was watching this movie on HBO called Crimson Tide. It's a submarine move from like 10 years ago with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. They were both outstanding as you might expect. The premise is (if you haven't seen it) a group of Russian rebels take over a missile base and promise to fire their ICBMs at the US if their demands are not met. So the President orders the US to DEFCON 3 and ultimately the sub receives orders to fire a sortie of Trident medium range nuclear missiles at the Russian base. But before they order could be confirmed things happen and radio communication with CICPAC is knocked out. The captain and half the crew want to follow the order, the other half want to get confirmation. Yadda yadda, 45 minutes later they find out the order has been cancelled and the missiles were not fired. At the end there is an inquiry to determine who was right.
Why the hell would the President order a nuclear missile strike to take out a Russian base? 10 Trident missiles alone could cripple everything in Russia west of the Urals for a generation or more. A handful of cruise missiles launched from the Med would have done a better job in half the time without destroying the entire country and starting WW3. That didn't makes any sense. And another thing. The real Russian government would not pussyfoot around with a rogue military unit the way they did in that movie. They would have been dead to the last man before that whole mess even made the news.
It was a good movie but it had some major holes in the plot. I just can't get past that.
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Godspeed, John Glenn.
A fine American with the right stuff.
One of my heroes.
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You know that one movie, the one that seems like it's always on every time you turn on the TV? You've seen it at least a hundred times and even liked it for the first fifty or so but now you are just tired of it? But you still catch yourself watching it even though you really don't want to? Yeah... you all know that feeling. I just got it when I signed on the WOT board and saw a new political thread.
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You are welcome to that mess Gfted! My only concession to decoration is the dogs Christmas stockings. That is kind of a tradition going back many long years. It's kind of a sad one in a way though. That box has stockings from dogs long since gone. I never got around to throwing the old ones away. But you gotta hang them high.... higher than a dog can jump! -
I wonder which states leaving the Union would have the least impact
Rhode Island? One of the plains states? Mississippi or another big moocher state?
On the remaining 49? I'd say Hawaii. It's resource footprint in minimal. On the State itself? There are a few that could survive as independent nations. If California actually did break away it would immediately be the 11th largest economy in the world. Texas would be the 15th largest and it would be especially stable if it could convince Oklahoma and Louisiana to go with. Florida, maybe. Maybe not. It would have to greatly expand it's offshore oil exploration and stop driving its agriculture out of business. Alaska is rich in gold and oil but would have to buy literally everything else from the US, Canada, Russia or Japan. That would not be sustainable. I don't think any other State or even cluster of States could do it. Especially not land locked states.
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If New York and California seceded, the US economy would crash faster than you can say "Alan Greenspan was a dogmatic idiot".
If any part of the US separated it would be economically disastrous in the short term. But both regions would recover quicker than you'd think so long as they were able to trade freely and amicably. In the long run the remainder of the US would recover full and accommodate itself to the new arrangement. Whether or not the new nation states would depends on smart governance and a reasonable expectations of the quality of service and life of the populace. Since we are talking about California here I suspect it will spend itself into oblivion once it's tax base can no longer support it's excesses. I expect that will happen pretty quick.
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Oh I appreciate the thoughts gents, but don't worry about me. One is ancient history and the other I was always guarded. You reach a point in life where you, not so much as expect bad things as prepare yourself for them. Then when they happen you are not as wounded and when they don't it's just gravy. Besides, this happened months ago. We agreed not to speak to each other for six months as a cooling off period. That ended last month and we've been in touch again.
The only point I was trying to make is that a good marriage is a treasure. In some ways I'm envious of guys like Hurlshot, Shady. and Gfted and others. I certainly have a measure of freedom they don't and I do value that. And I really don't get lonely. I don't know why but I just don't. It's the fun times I miss though. Laughing about nothing, going places I just don't go alone, that kind of thing. But if I want to pack up the dogs and go fishing for a week in Arkansas I can do that without having to consider anyone else's opinion on the matter and that is nice too.
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Well, I can't relate I'm afraid. I've never had kids. Unless dogs count. I treat them like kids. But there are no evil dogs. A puppy is a blank sheet of paper. They will become exactly what you make them. If you don't write on that paper they will because a regular default dog that acts on the drives and motivations of dogs.
To tell the truth my first wife and I tried to have children for years. It just didn't happen which turned out to be a mercy for us and the kids. When we split up she hated me with a passion. And I suppose the reverse was true as well. We wronged each other in the worst way anyone can: we did not live up to the other's expectations. We each knew who the other was but there was such an attraction and physical chemistry we got married anyway. We were already having trouble before falling on some really hard times back in the 90's. It was bad enough to break most strong marriages, our weak one never stood a chance. The divorce was an ugly business and left me financially ruined. I had already lost my business, my foray into politics was an utter failure, and now my wife was leaving. I wanted to keep the house because we had 15 dogs at the time. I couldn't re-home them. That would have killed me. So I agreed to take all of the marital debt and turn over all the assets except the home. But she kept a 50% ownership interest when I sold it. She never liked that place anyway. She liked our first house. A townhouse in Coral Springs. It was close to the beach, close to shopping. The house was out in unincorporated Palm Beach County, far away from everything which is how I like it. And it was small. Just 1100 sq'. We were like two scorpions in a jar. Locked in a death struggle... but only because we were in a jar together. But to tell the truth I didn't take the divorce well. Not at all. It took me a while to get past it. My ex is remarried now. We last spoke about five years ago before she got married. It was a pleasant conversation. I think once we were out of the jar we were able to put the nastiness behind us.
I'm separated from my second wife now. But that is a whole different circumstance. She lied to me about something very important right from the start. And then kept lying about it even after I found out the truth. She has reached out to me many times about reconciliation and we've spoken on several occasions. Uncharacteristically, I'm finding I'm having trouble making a decision on this. But I also know this state of limbo can't last.
Marriage is a really big thing. You are tuning over a very important part of yourself to someone else whose motives and mind you really cannot know. Humans are selfish and duplicitous creatures. If you are married and you have a strong marriage then treasure it always and do whatever you need to do to keep it so. Because is is more valuable than you know are rarer than you would believe.
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Divorce sucks. It's the worst thing you can go through. Unless of course all the assets in the marriage were yours before getting married. Then... well it still sucks but it's a lot easier on you.
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Sorry Shady that map is unacceptable. I insist Kentucky be included in any country that also includes Tennessee. I don't want to pay tariffs on my favorite adult beverage.
But I've never played or know anything about the game so the context is lost on me.
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I just finished reading an outstanding book called Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons by Walter Lord. For those who don't know the Coastwatchers were Australian Naval Officers hidden, or more accurately marooned on small islands in the Solomons and around New Guinea with nothing more than a radio and set of binoculars to report on Japanese air and naval movements. They relies on aid from the island natives and their wits to avoid Japanese detection and were crucial to the early Pacific offensive. Great story about an extraordinary group of men.
Also reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I've been meaning to get to this one for a long time. As historical fiction goes it's pretty good. I think it makes the error of applying modern mores to 12th century characters though.
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There is something about good whiskey that just makes it a pleasure to sip. A guy at the VFW gave me a bottle of Michter's Rye for my birthday. That was a few months ago and I never got around to trying it until tonight. I'm not a fan of rye. It has a "dry" aftertaste that I usually don't care for. And good bourbon has a certain sweetness to it that rye does not. But this stuff is remarkably good. I think it's been spiced with oranges because it does have a slightly sweet orange flavor. It's definitely got that rye whiskey burn. It's not as obnoxious as scotch (that stuff is only good for emergency anesthesia or pest control IMO) though.
You are welcome to that mess Gfted! My only concession to decoration is the dogs Christmas stockings. That is kind of a tradition going back many long years. It's kind of a sad one in a way though. That box has stockings from dogs long since gone. I never got around to throwing the old ones away. But you gotta hang them high.... higher than a dog can jump!
What You Did Today
in Way Off-Topic
Posted
Favorite Rodney Dangerfield quote: "I don't know if you are familiar with who runs that business but I assure you it is not the boy scouts."