Guard Dog

I made chicken piccata with angel hair pasta and steamed asparagus. Add to that home made garlic bread and a nice Pinot Grigio and a dessert blackberry tart for later... much later I hope!

Uh oh... whose?

Feels like a good night for a fire so I split wood today for it. GF will be here in an hour, I've made a nice dinner, soft music, moonlight coming in through the loft window, and a fire in the fireplace to close the deal. Ok, it was a safe bet anyway but I believe in doing it right!

Wow, that's a surprise..you eat normal food. I thought you would have gone hunting tonight with Tommy and tracked down some wild bear or Elk for dinner? Not today! I wondered, briefly, if coyote was edible. But I looked at Tommy and thought it would be too weird! But I'm too busy for real cooking tonight though.

Just to follow up on what some of you have said. I think Bruce was on this point earlier as well. There is a world of difference between what Manning did and what Snowden did. Manning released info on things the US was doing to other nations. Snowden leaked what it was doing to it's own citizens. One is laudable, the other is treason.

Been very busy with work lately. One of our projects is looking like it might not wrap by contract date. It gets expensive if we run late so it's all hands on deck on that one project.

Tomato soup and a grilled cheese with jalapenos and a tomato slice on it

Alan there are many right wingers who are pro gun control. Mitt Romney, John McCain, Christie, Guliani, George H Bush, I could come up with a dozen or so if I think about it. However, the political right in the US tends to be more libertarian and right leaning politicians tend not to get reelected unless they follow. But I believe many if not most of them would be as quick to infringe on individual freedom if it suited them. The left in the US tends heavily to statisim and the concept of individual freedom is quickly becoming the punch line of a joke to them.

I usually drink Knob Creek or Woodbridge but this stuff has a really great flavor. It has a faint cherry aftertaste and is really smooth.

Allow me to repeat my previous question to you Volo, when did you lose your sense of humor? It's been so long I've forgotten!

I was a Boston Red Sox fan for 30 seconds last night. When Ryan Dempster nailed A-Rod after throwing at him three times I thought that was a beautiful thing.

Actually a drivers license is not a right. It IS a privilege and is specifically described as such by state laws. That is why they can take it away from you... which kind of makes my point actually!

It is such a trip reading back through this thread. a lot of names I haven't seen in years. I used to post as RedRanger on BIS but I wasn't really into it or around much. Anyway after NWN came out I moved over to the Bioware boards and there was a thread that resurrected all the drama of putting the names of Forum Members in the game. So I figured I'd pick an inconsequential NPC and make than my board name. There was a Guard Dog outside the Shining Knight store in the NWN city core that never did much but bark at everyone that walked by so.... I thought it was appropriate! The avatar came from Grangier's web site. They sell that sign.

The guys at the VFW gave me a bottle of Four Roses single barrel bourbon for my birthday last month. I just opened it up tonight, oh wow is it good. I was going to have just one glass but that turned into four. Which ended brings me to where I am now, a little buzzed and playing Karliene songs on my wave radio. All in all a good night so far. It's kind of a tradition at our VFW, on your birthday you get a top shelf bottle of your favorite spirit. Sometime in the future, hopefully long into the future the USA will be gone. When that happens and history looks back on our legacy as a people, if we are remembered for nothing more than producing the worlds finest whiskey then I think we could have done far worse!

This is reminding me of a great but overused Shakespeare quote. Present company excepted of course!

Hurlie two points: 1) If you have to ask the government for it's permission to enjoy a right is it really a right? 2) Despite that I'd still be in favor of universal background checks if, AND ONLY IF, no government state, local, or federal. would be involved in the process. You would not be dealing with an honest partner. I'd be in favor of background checks if it were really about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. But, it's just not about that at all. See my previous comment.

No you are right. On the road to a destination is not the same as being there but it is better to turn back before you are too far along. Plus in this instance there is a point of no return (gun control) after which there is no turning back without bloodshed. Or even then. Only Gun Control? Not gonna lie, your shotguns aren't going to do anything if a tank (or even an APC) rolls up to your front door. There is a reason you never see a drug cartel (you know, guys who break the laws to have MUCH higher powered weapons than are legal) going head to head with a Swat Team and winning. You'd think that other amendments would be as sacred as that, but nobody gets in to much of a fuss if a law passes that makes it easier for a cop to stick his finger up my rear. Calax, you are missing my point. I do think every infringement is worth fighting over. But once they succeed in disarming everyone there is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING stopping a political cabal from infringing on any right if finds inconvenient to it's ends or just seizing total power all together. Why do you think the left wants gun control so badly? Do you really think they give a damn about crime or school shootings or yours or my safety? Gun control is not about any of those things. Politicians care about one thing; themselves. They want only what will enhance their influence, expand their power, advance their position. They are the lowest and basest of human beings. But you can never be the final arbiter over everything if someone else has the means to resist either through political power (votes) or hard power (armed rebellion). As to the shotguns remark, if they start banning guns do you really think they will let you keep shotguns? It's domination by incrementalisim. You don't really need automatic weapons so let's ban those. You don't really need military style assault weapons, so we'll ban just those. Well, you don't really need handguns so we'll ban those. Nobody needs rifles for self defense so we'll ban those. Then it will be why do you need shotguns? The police will protect you so we'll ban those. They try to make each step sound so reasonable. Then they strip you of your freedom with a smile.

No you are right. On the road to a destination is not the same as being there but it is better to turn back before you are too far along. Plus in this instance there is a point of no return (gun control) after which there is no turning back without bloodshed. Or even then.

It was necessary, what was Tommy doing when you shot the Coyote? Well, he was growling at the front door downstairs when they first started yapping around the grill. I was by the loft window upstairs. I had it open but I was back in the room about 1 meter from the window so they wouldn't see me. I watched them for about 5 minutes until a really big one came out and started pushing the others around. I figured he was my guy. Once I shot I think tommy went from growling to barking. I'm not sure. My ears are still ringing from firing from inside a small room! Its quite an amazing story, I live in a big city so something like that happening just sounds surreal. Yet this is a reality that you have do deal with. Really interesting when you think of the different lives we live yet we are similar in many ways I could tell similar stories from cities. Except instead of a coyote it was a drunk and stoned guy in his forties, shouting about his ****. And in the Uk we aren't allowed to ping people like that with a .22 We have Coyotes in the parks in Surrey(BC, suburb of Vancouver), that sometimes wander into people's yards and such. Urban raccoons, skunks, and sometimes the occaisional cougar show up too. Usually animal control gets called instead of controlling the animals yourself though, then again not so many people have the means. In TN coyote population control is both legal and encouraged. Plus I live out in the sticks. It's a 30 minute ride to the nearest town so there is no animal control out here.

After an ugly six game losing streak the Rays are hot again and the Red Sox can't even buy a win. Nice to see Alex Cobb back, Matt Moore comes back this weekend. If we can figure out what's wrong with Hellickson we'll be in good shape for the stretch run!

You are dead on with that Nep. it really started with Woodrow Wilson after WWI and continued incrementally all the way up to the last year of Carter. Then it went in the other direction for twenty years. Then came 9-11, GWB and the Patriot Act and it has started going bad again. But where Bush took small steps, Obama is taking leaps.

It was necessary, what was Tommy doing when you shot the Coyote? Well, he was growling at the front door downstairs when they first started yapping around the grill. I was by the loft window upstairs. I had it open but I was back in the room about 1 meter from the window so they wouldn't see me. I watched them for about 5 minutes until a really big one came out and started pushing the others around. I figured he was my guy. Once I shot I think tommy went from growling to barking. I'm not sure. My ears are still ringing from firing from inside a small room!

What do you mean? You obviously don't mean you specifically but a group of people that you identify with? In 2009 Homeland Security sent a memo to local law enforcement everywhere asserting that they should pay special attention to Veterans, libertarians, tea party members, people opposed to abortion, etc as likely terrorists. It is the single most heinous document this government has produced since FDR ordered all Americans of Japanese descent rounded up and put in camps. Apparently all you need to do to be considered a terrorist is not be a supporter of Obama.

I "took care" of my coyote problem last night. I don't feel particularly good about it but it had to be done. I only shot one, but I think it was the right one.

Bruce, Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and the HSA named me their enemy and a potential terrorist. I never thought I would live to see that happen. No, they really are not. The federal government no longer even pays lip service to the constitution. That is beyond scary.