Guard Dog

I've had many over the years. I loved every one of them, watched them pass on and think about all of them often. But Tommy is the only one I had since he was a puppy. He was eight weeks old when we agreed to foster him. He couldn't stay in his first foster home because he had Demodex, a type of mange. We treated him and within a hear he had a full shiny coat. He was supposed to go up for adoption but I just couldn't give him up. He was my best friend by that time. After two broken marriages, four career changes, two houses in two states, and many other changes in fortune along the way he still is. I don't mean to sound sad though. He's got a lot of gas left in the tank I think. Now my other dog Sunny... I'm going to kill that one! Or so I tell her. It's an empty threat.

You know it's a terrible thing to realize someone you love has grown old and is slowing down. I worked from home today and this morning I walked down to get the paper. As usual the dogs went with me. But for the first time ever Tommy had to stop and rest on the way back. It's a half mile walk round trip. I sat down next to him under a big pine tree with his head on my lap and realized for the first time how gray his muzzle and neck are getting. A year ago I switched him to senior dog food and he's been on glucosamine supplements for a while now. But he's eleven years old now and maybe it's catching up with him.

Speaking of Asian food. I would KILL for some real Yaka Soba with prawns. When I was stationed at MCAS Futenma there was this little shack called "My House" at the bottom of the mountain. They had a big plate of yaka soba and a 1 liter tin of Orion beer for $5 US.

Enoch, the LP, like the other parties, is not monolithic. Clinton is not championing every position of the democrats. Trump isn't even championing half of the Republican positions. And yes among Baby Boomers and even Gen X'ers the LP message is a harder sell because they remember when it was the "Drugs, Drugs, Drugs and ban the Government NOW" party. The Harry Browne wing of the LP (the big "L" libertarians) is going the way of the "neo-cons". The "little L's" are in charge now. Johnson beat out John McAfee twice for the nomination, neither time was it close. And McAfee has a lot of "Large L " cred. The ultimate aim of the LP is still and always will be less government and personal liberty. And those two go very much hand in hand. But the idea now is small cuts with a scalpel rather than big hacks with a broadsword. I really believe the message has legs it just needs to be let out. Especially in an age when the government IS becoming heavy handed and intrusive.

It's a steep hill to climb for a third party. The biggest problem Johnson faces is getting over 15% in polls where 2/3 of them do not even include him or Jill Stein in the polling. The other problem is media coverage. Clinton & Trump have every place the visit and everything they say on ever news broadcast. Johnson & Stein are largely ignored so the casual news consumer never hears about them. In fact this week they both topped out in coverage this week for bad things. Every time they say something smart or do something good no one hears about it,. Make a mistake and that s all that is reported. Now, that said, it was always the longest of long shots for Johnson to win. Stein even more so because she would need to win every single state she is on the ballot for to get over 270 in the EC. Johnson's only realistic path was to win at least 1 state and have the rest of the election fall out in such a way that neither Clinton or Trump gets to 270. Then he MIGHT be able to present himself as a "compromise" candidate in the House of Representatives. I probably have a better shot at the lottery than that scenario has of happening. But as I have mentioned before there are prizes to be had here for the LP beyond winning the White House. If Johnson/Weld gets 5% of the popular vote the LP candidates in 2020 will automatically be on the ballot in all 50 States. That is a huge win. Johnson has less than 10% of the total campaign cash that Clinton & Trump have. The LP has 4 PACs helping them. Trump has dozens, Clinton even more. If Johnson had access to the cash resources used up on ballot access efforts he would be a lot more competitive at this point. As much as I would prefer him over Clinton or Trump I knew all along how this was going to work out. But there is a "long victory" to hope for here. That is why I'm trying to convince as many Americans as I can that even if he can't win a vote for him is not wasted if you want to see a viable third party in 2020. If you can't support Clinton or Trump (that's me) or just want to see the two party duopoly end voting for Gary Johnson is NOT a wasted vote.

Great game. Denver's new QB made a few errors but the D made that work. It must be especially bitter for Carolina. They played well, it just wasn't enough. But as a Buccaneers fan the outcome works for me.

I agree with Hurlsot. So does RedAlertPolitics & Reason Magazine:

Well you have to give him credit for owning it: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cr1my4JWAAABN0q.jpg:large Then there is this. Behind every cloud they say: http://redalertpolitics.com/2016/09/08/dont-surprised-aleppo-flub-helps-gary-johnson-rise-15/ It is irritating that with the exception of CNN the media has utterly ignored him until he made a mistake. Then out come the knives.

I predicted two months ago the moment the left thought Johnson was a threat to Clinton they would turn on him like hungry piranha. http://redalertpolitics.com/2016/09/07/data-gary-johnson-pulling-votes-away-hillary-trump/

Ouch. That Johnson clip was painful to watch. Please... allow me: Q: Mr. Johnson (Gary & I do have the same last name) what would you do about Aleppo if elected? A: Nothing. Q: Nothing? A: You heard me. It is not our problem. We'll be happy to send humanitarian aid, food, medicine, etc. But it stops there. Syria is involved in a civil war. There are no "good guys" in this war. No matter who wins tens of thousands will be killed or displaced. Nothing we do will stop that. Under my administrations these pointless and endless foreign interventions will cease. Q: Would you continue President Obama's resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States? A: No. If Syrians wish to come to the United States by following the immigration process we will welcome them in as we would anyone else from anywhere else. I like Gary Johnson and I am voting for him. But there are times I think someone needs to explain the words "Non-interventionist" and "Libertarian" to him.

To catch up on things... The Red Sox have surged into 1st in the AL East thanks to the Jays losing three in a row. The Indians are five games up over Detroit. Texas is dominating the AL West despite losing last night (I watched that game). The Nats lost Strasburg (again) yesterday but are still in control of the NL East. The Cubs have an insurmountable lead in the Central and the Dodgers are winning inspite of themselves in the NL West. The Giants have the opposite problem. It's a six team race for the WC in the AL with the Blue Jays in front but facing a tough schedule. It's a three team race in the NL with the Giants, Cards & Mets in a virtual dead heat. The Rays will be eliminated from playoff contention if they lose three more games (or the 2nd wild card team reaches 80 wins whichever happens first) and the Marlins lost their hopes when they lost Stanton. Oh, and Tim Tebow signs a minor league deal with the Mets that includes a ticket to the Arizona Fall League and Spring Training. To quote Mel Allen "How about that"

Well he's not wrong, really. No... he's totally wrong. But even if not it is unseemly for the leader of a country to spend eight years bad mouthing his own country every time he goes abroad.

A riddle for you. This is a true statement: 6+3+4=2. How is this possible? (Note: if you are from anywhere other than North America or Japan you get extra credit for figuring this out.)

Is it January yet? I think we've heard enough from this guy: http://thefederalist.com/2016/09/07/laos-obama-repeatedly-calls-americans-lazy/

For what it's worth Gary Johnson is 63, has climbed the "Seven Summits", is an avid mountain biker and general fitness buff. No health problems there. Just sayin.

Just hitting the news today. CNN excludes registered voters under 35 in their polling. Typical of CNN, if you don't like the story outcome... don't report it. I heard it on the radio coming into work. Looking for it on websites now.

I caught up on Fear the Walking Dead today. I'm trying to like this show... not doing too good at it.

Ok this will make your whole day! https://www.facebook.com/HuffPostAustralia/videos/1783475431873582/

Well I'm boycotting the 49ers because the worst seat in Levi's Stadium is $128 per game. Nuts to that. Plus i find the 20 hour drive a little off-putting.

Someone compared him to Jackie Robinson? Now that's offensive. He is not fit to carry Robinson's jock.

Hurlshot do you remember a movie from the 80's called The Last Temptation of Christ? It painted a rather.... unflattering picture of Jesus. Well, folks, particularly Christians flipped out. There were pickets, protests, boycotts, the whole works. The thing was it was an abysmally bad movie (I rented it from Blockbuster a long time ago) and it would have tanked but all the hoopla generated curiosity which made people WANT to go see it. You are correct, the best way to make something go away is to ignore it. My advice to anyone is if you see something you don't like but isn't hurting anyone just say "whatever" and get on with your life. Making a fuss has the opposite intended effect.

It occurs to me a lot of people are missing the point on Colin Kapernick's "protests". Those that agree with him are railing against the people who are criticizing him as denying him free speech". They are wrong. His free speech has not been denied... far from it. He can continue to do this as long as he wants for any reason he wants. I don't think anyone has ever said "He can't do this". But exercising free speech does not exempt one from criticism from others. Only from government. Those who support him seem perfectly willing to champion his freedom to protest but they are much less supportive of everyone else having the freedom to criticize. One is every bit as important as the other IMO. You have the right to say what you will but not the right to be agreed with. Edit: This is not in response to anything said here in WoT. This is more the general attitude towards the situation in the media & sports radio.

Get out! You lucky dog. You get to play it for the first time. Go offline, go on amazon, or steam, or GOG, or whatever and order it now. As a game it's just ok. As a story that you experience first hand it's outstanding. Best plot, best story, best characters in any game I've ever played. PoE is second.

Well... my Steam library looks like that. My laptop doesn't even have a DVD ROM.