Guard Dog

I hope I don't lose too many more. After all the drinking I did in my younger years I might be only a cell or two away from being a talking monkey. Sometimes I think my dog might be smarter than I am.

I thought it was pretty good all the way up to and past the New Capirca part in season 3. It really jumped the shark after that. It's like they were out of ideas.

Mugabe pays off the right people in the AU from what I've read. But the truth of the matter is, even if he didn't the AU, like every other international organization, is not about solving problems but maintaining the status quo. If they thought the Zanu party would respect a fair election and peaceably leave power they might be more inclined to intercede politically. But they would rather have a dictator than civil war.

Things were pretty quiet at the trade deadline. Except for the Peavy deal not much happened.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! It's not a done deal yet but I am confident how she will answer when I ask. I met her a few years ago. I was in a bad car accident and ended up with a few broken bones. She was a nurse in the office I did PT in, but not one that worked with me. I asked her out and things just went from there. We dated for almost 11 months until we just drifted apart. There were a lot of reasons for that, mainly me though. My first marriage did not end well. Neither did hers actually but she had put that behind her and I hadn't I guess. I was carrying around all this bitterness for my ex-wife and was just totally against the idea of getting re-married. So I tended to run off women I dated long enough for things to get serious. My ex called me a year ago to tell me she was getting remarried. We spoke for a long time and I wished her all the best and I think that was when I finally put down that load I didn't even realize I had been carrying. Stephanie reached out to me last month I think just to say Hi and I took her to dinner and we ended up spending the weekend together and have sort of picked up where we left off. It might be too soon to ask but now I KNOW I want to and I think she wants me to and hopefully the combination of Hawai'i and a nice ring will help settle any doubts she might have. Plus doing it like this might preempt any expectations she might have. I WANT this to sweep her off her feet. I want this to be a surprise. She is a lot like me in many ways. Divorced, no kids, independent, and very self confident. Plus she is sexy as hell! A winning combination. I have been looking around for rings. I was looking at Tiffany's actually but it seems they really only make solitaire rings. There is something about that little blue box though.

Hopefully the second time will be the charm!

I knew you would come around to my suggestion, Vegas Baby yeah !!!! I love Vegas and it's only a seven hour drive away but I've done that to death!

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's all taken care of now. I booked a villa for seven days at the Weke Road Estate resort in Kuai, Hawai'i. I wanted either Kuai or Molikai because they are off the beaten path but I figured one day we'd take the plane over to Oahu to go shopping and hang out at Waikiki. I picked a US destination because I didn't want there to be any snags or hang ups. This has to go perfectly, plus I don't know if she has a passport and I don't know don't know how to ask without giving anything away. I already asked her to take some time off work for a little get away. She doesn't know where though. That's going to be a surprise. I'll tell her a few days before we go so she knows what to pack but I've taken care of everything else. But that's not the only surprise though. If all goes well I'm going to propose on this trip so wish me luck!

After researching on the web most of the night it comes down to this, we can go to Europe for four days and stay in four star places or go somewhere in the US or near by for a week and stay in five star places. That's pretty much what it boils down to as far as costs go. Makes the choice pretty easy actually. As much as I like going to cool places outside the US, you just get more bang for you buck staying close.

Race is a factor in this case only because of the comparisons to the Zimmerman case. The same people who turned THAT into a debacle are now descending on this one. To wit, Nancy Grace started on this tonight. Now if we accept the facts at face value there is less of a case for murder here than with Zimmerman because the shooting happened on his own private property. Yes the victim was 14 but there is no way for the homeowner to know that. All he knows is that some stranger has invaded his property and might be reaching for a weapon when confronted. To me that is an open and shut case. Once again that is only if all the facts can be accepted at face value. Now if there is reason to believe his story is untrue that is a whole horse of another color. But if he is being prosecuted to mollify the political activists who cry racism for a living as happened with Zimmerman then we have a problem. And your insinuation about the shoe being on the other foot is just absurd. And just to be clear on my position of the Stop and Frisk Law, I think the passage of that should have been ample justification for armed insurrection ending with firing squads or ropes for the governor and state legislature. Every day the damned governments at every level intrude on our liberty and tell us it's for our own good. And everyone just seems to accept that. "Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither and will have neither"

Are you looking to get laid and party or something more touristy? I was thinking something romantic. My girlfriends birthday is in October and I wanted to surprise her with a vacation somewhere exciting. From what I'm seeing though Italy might be a hell of a lot more trouble than I thought. It seems to require a lot of planning to actually see all the interesting places. It's something you can just go and do when you feel like it. I was actually looking at the US Virgin Islands but October is the peak of hurricane season. So, now I'm looking at Jackson Hole or Hawaii

Anybody ever been to Italy? Any suggestions on "must see" places besides Rome?

I'm assuming your point is that it's somewhat shocking that an arrest happened, right? Seriously, playing up the race card, as if a black man shooting a white man would be the type of thing that historically was a non-issue in the United States? If your opinion is that there's extra pressure to arrest a white man that shoots a black man today, the most empathy you'll get from me is "I guess it sucks that the pendulum is swinging the other way now?" If this is reality now (the extreme over representation of black people in the prison system makes me skeptical, however), then I hope it self corrects relatively quickly, but at least now you have some perspective of what it was like being on the other side for a few centuries. No I'm not actually surprised he was arrested since there seems to be some conflict with his story and an eyewitness account. I was not trying to "play the race card" as you so venomously put it. And yes there are a lot of black faces in US prisons. I'm sure they are all perfectly innocent angels locked up only because they were black right? You know better than that. Crime goes hand in hand with poverty and a large percentage of black Americans are below the poverty line. Don't even get me started on poverty. You will not like what I have to say. Nobody chooses to be poor but they DO choose to STAY that way. Now in this case there may be a criminal act here, there may not. But in my book you come on my property uninvited will ill intent against my person or possessions you better be prepared for a dirt nap.

When, exactly, did you lose your sense of humor Volo? It's been so many years ago I've forgotten myself.

Here is the next George Zimmerman thing. A man in New Orleans confronts a burglar who had climbed his fence into his yard and was apparently breaking into his car. The burglar, according to the homeowner, reached as if for a weapon so the home owner shot him. Cut and dry so far right? It turns out the burglar was a 14 year old kid who happened to be black and the homeowner happened to be white. Guess who has been arrested and is facing murder charges? Of course the fact that the kid had a long criminal history, was caught in the act of breaking in on a fenced property, and the fact that the homeowner had no way to know it was a kid are interesting but not relevant facts to those who are writing this script. We'll see where this goes. From what I've read there are conflicting details. In my opinion though if someone breaks into you property with ill intent, they deserve to be shot. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/marigny_homeowner_shooting.html#incart_m-rpt-2 http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/29/homeowner-charged-with-attempted-murder-in-new-orleans-after-shooting-teen-he-says-he-thought-was-breaking-into-his-home/

Wals wins

Now reading Dan Brown's Inferno. I haven't been a real big fan of the pervious three books. They were all right don't get me wrong, but I found them to be a little contrived and full of some obvious plot holes. This one is a little better. I'd give it three and a half of five stars at the halfway point.

Like Woldan said, this is how it starts. If they get away with this the sooner or later the party that controls the government begins blocking news of the opposition of stories with a political slant it does not approve of. I'm reminded of a great quote from a video game no less "Beware the man who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."

Speaking of that, I was talking about Skyrim to another die hard player this morning. He asked me why I married Lydia since there were better characters for that. I told him it was because all she did was sit in the bedroom, drink, and stare at me as I slept. After a while she started to remind me of my ex-wife! I laughed about that all day

I've always taken a sort of perverse pleasure when the one that got away made the next guys life a hell that would make Dante cringe. I don't normally take pleasure in the suffering of others but it get the sense I dodged a bullet. That has happened two times that I can think of. Then again sometimes the ones that got away come back!

Apparently Rangers pitcher Tanner Scheppers was attacked and beat up on the street of Cleveland. I'd say those were some die-hard Indian fans but in all likelihood they were just thugs who had no idea who he was. Or he was flirting with someone's wife and that was him being "put on notice" http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2013/07/27/rangers-scheppers-attacked-on-walk-in-cleveland/

The reason I'd never date a young woman (18-24) is they have never been anywhere, never done anything, and don't know anything. I want a woman who has had all of her unrealistic expectations of life burned out of her. Someone more like me I guess!

This just in, there is a hole in the sun! http://news.yahoo.com/spacecraft-sees-giant-hole-sun-video-153040642.html When will people learn? This is clearly caused by deforestation, over industrialization, capitalism, and George W Bush. Why can't we see that the only way to save our sun is to give up all of our freedom and technology and go back to feudalism with the left wingers as our nobles? Now some skeptics (like me) would admit this might be true but it is clearly a natural occurrence. Others might refuse to believe it at all. Most will see it as an opportunity to advance a political agenda and don't give a damn about if it's true or not. Sound familiar?

The book I posted above stunk. If it was a movie I'd have walked out. Since it was a book I just deleted it from my Kindle.

If you woke up and her number is written on the back of your hand it was a good night. If you woke up naked with her next to you it was a really good night!