Guard Dog

I am far more concerned about that actually. From what I understand since Obama has been in office every prominent conservative pundit has been audited multiple times. And everyone knows they were going all out to stop or even prosecute conservative PACs while rubber stamping liberal ones. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/conservative-activist-green-name-gets-irs-stamp-approval-193457897.html He is turning the IRS into his own secret police. Now they are even training tax agents with automatic weapons. What the hell is going on here? Who are they planning on fighting? I have an idea. http://nation.foxnews.com/business/2010/03/22/irs-hiring-thousands-armed-tax-agents-enforce-obamacare http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/06/12/Rep-Jeff-Duncam-Questions-IRS-Training-With-Automatic-Rifles-Video http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/06/breaking-obama-irs-agents-seen-training-with-ar15s/

That sounds like it came from The Onion.

Not really Hurlshot. Nothing will change. The media will eventually be told to shut up and they will comply because they are friendly to the current admin. The Briebarts and Drudges won't for all that will matter. Like I've posted before, the fatal flaw in our country is that too many people will accept the most horrifying malfeasance from the government so long it is "their guy" doing it. Nothing will change, already their attitude is "So What?" and they are actively looking to prosecute everyone who blows a whistle about it. I think we are in serious trouble.

Oh yeah, THATS what I'm making for dinner tonight. Bruce have convinced me. Time to go to the grocery store!

I expect that exact thing will be happening at some point in the near future Bruce! When it happens to me you will all know it. It will make the news. I've always said when they come for me they had best send well armed men with no families to worry about. You hear that Janet Napolitano, NSA, CIA, and whomever else is reading?

All joking aside there is a lot going on in the country that just depresses the hell out of me. Prism, the IRS has become Obama's own secret police targeting political dissenters, DHS is buying armored personnel carriers and weapons and ammo like they are expecting to go to war tomorrow, the IRS is training tax agents in the use of automatic weapons, our phone calls and internet use are being monitored, military members are being ordered not to read certain books, a mayor is Pinellas County is being sued for keeping a bible on her desk, the DHHS refused to allow a pair of 10 year old girls to have a lung transplant to satisfy policy... I could go on. The people of this country have voted away their own freedom, bit by bit, and they don't even seem to know it yet. The worst part is they voted away mine too. I don't even think elections matter anymore. I've made jokes about this but I really believe a second civil war is inevitable. At some point the government is going to do something we just cannot tolerate and then the choice will be to acquiesce and surrender the last pretense of freedom or fight. Speaking only for myself there is no there choice at all . Besides, I don't think I want to live in the world the left is trying to build. I used to think this would happen sometime far in the future. Now I would not be surprised if it starts tomorrow.

Now reading You Gotta Have Wa, it's about the experiences of US baseball players in the NPB in Japan. Cool stuff. Also reading Dogs Don't Bite When a Growl Will Do by Matt Weinstein. It's about dog behavior.

I got my first electric bill since installing the solar panels. Based on past history I'm estimating they are saving me a little more than $60 a month. No too shabby. With Cold Creek right next to my house and a stream that feeds it actually on my property if I could figure out how to make a water turned turbine I could tell MPO to piss off for good! On another note I picked two 1 gal buckets worth of strawberries and a hamper full of summer squash from my garden today. It might be my imagination but I think it tastes better from the stuff that comes from Kroger.

Busy saving the world from not enough wi-fi! Gotta keep those government a******s busy by giving them lots of traffic to spy on!

We made our first target of having all the Dyer High Schools wi-fi equipped by the end of the school year. We'll have the whole county done by the start of the fall term. The staff all seems to be very happy with the throughput. The school districts in the big population centers all have that already, now the rural counties are catching up. That is pretty cool, especially since it keeps us employed!

Hurlshots annual summer vacation: He goes on a trip so we don't have to! I hope you guys go to Zion, I've always wanted to go there.

I'd post what I really think of all this but I don't know who might be reading it.

Longer nights means more time at nightclubs!

OMG where can I get one of those! (The lawnmower that is, not Woldans new tooth!)

Sorry, posted in wrong thread!

Heck after all that I'll invite them in for a cup of coffee! Such determination has to be admired at least!

The best part about where I live is you need 4wd to get here this time of year since it's at the end of a 3/4 mile (a little less than 2 km to most of you) dirt road. That tends to discourage unauthorized visitors. Plus a have a sign that says in no uncertain terms that trespassers will be used for target practice! Even the LDS & Jehovah's Witnesses folks find their recruiting fervor dampened by that!

I finally watched the Red Wedding episode of GOT this morning. No surprises since I've read the books several times but man... seeing it is just a shock to the system.

I think I am done with big, long, 6-14 book sagas that cannot help but drag at some point. If a writer can't wrap his story up in 1-3 book he needs to rethink his story! Think about the greatest works of fiction you've ever read, the stories that really made you think, were any of them a meter high when stacked? Didn't think so.

Once I finish paying some bills, returning some e-mails and checking in with you folks I'm going to pour a stiff drink, Knob Creek with a splash of ginger ale, and then I'm going to sit on the porch, watch the rain and think about what a great week this has been!

Taking Washington in itself would not have achieved a decisive military victory for the south. Although the capital was the supposed objective the real mission behind the invasion was to pull the union forces out of northern Virginia and lure them to attack Lee's army on favorable ground. The southern government had no illusions about their prospects of winning a long war with the Union. Their best hope was to crush the Army of the Potomac on northern soil which would have left the Union states with nothing but militia to defend itself outside of the second army assembling in New York and Grants army in the west. The idea was to offer peace in exchange for recognition once the union army was defeated. Lee marched north on the west side of the Blue Ridge, Hooker marched north with the Union troops on the east side and they came together at Gettysburg. In truth the entire engagement was decided on the first day when John Buford arrived in the town with the 2nd Federal Cavalry. He realized Lee would arrive before Hooker and occupy the strategic hills around the town. He deployed his cavalry as dismounted infantry and held the confederates off for a full day allowing the union army to arrive first and take the hills despite being outnumbered 10 to 1. He died later from complications of wounds taken that day. I always wondered if he ever knew his decision probably changed the course of history and saved the country?

One of my favorite figures from the Confederacy, James Longstreet, wrote in his memoir From Manassas to Approtimax that the south should have freed the slaves before firing on Ft. Sumter. I believe the majority of the men who took up arms for the south, especially the professional soldiers who left the Union army to fight for their home state armies did so not out of dedication to slavery but loyalty to their homes. You have to understand that prior to the civil war there was no strong national identity. People identified themselves as citizens of their state rather than as Americans. That changed in the years following the war. Lee was Lincolns first choice to command the Union army even though he was only a colonel at the time but he refused to take up arms against Virginia. Only the wealthy landed gentry actually owns slaves but they are of course the power behind the politicians. The thing is the institution was doomed at any rate. If Lee had won at Gettysburg the war would have ended in an armistice with the south as a new nation. But Great Britain and most of the other nations of Europe would not have dealt with a country that practiced slavery so economic pressures would have done what the war would not have if they won. Since the south lacked any kind of industrial base it would have been left behind in the industrial revolution and since it was a weak union to begin with it would have collapsed with the states breaking away to form their own nations within 100 years or so. Some people think there might have been reunification with the north at some point but I doubt that. War makes for bad blood. But even if slavery had ended after the war you have to figure the cause of civil rights would have been set back by years.

Yeah that's pretty much my understanding of history too.

I have a lady friend coming over for dinner tonight... and hopefully breakfast tomorrow!