Guard Dog

If I watch it like I read the book I'll watch two and a half episodes then give up on it and donate it to the local library

Just finished reading A Memory of Light last night. I'd give it 4 of 5 stars. Some of it was a little forced but overall it was a good conclusion. One observation for those who read it... do you guys thing Brandon Sanderson might have been playing Portal while he was working on that book?

Yesterday I wrote Uncle Sam a big check, then went fishing and listened to the Rays - Red Sox game in the morning. I was depressed about the check, even more depressed after the game, didn't catch anything (although that hardly matters) then heard about the bomb. It was a bummer of a day all around.

I did two float deployments. I can't say I shared Wals & Gifteds awe though. But then again I was on gator freighters both times. USS Dubuque & USS St. Louis. That's a long way from Enterprise! The upshot was though, I was just cargo, not crew.

From what I'm reading the bomb was a somewhat amateurish build despite the number of injuries it caused. The current thinking is that is was more likely one or two a******s working alone rather than an organized attack. So far a number of groups have disavowed responsibility. I wonder if this is another incident like that Adal Hassan guy in Texas? Whoever it was needs to be hunted down like the vermin they are... and they will be.

I just woke up to a hell of a racket. I flicked on the porch light and saw my grill overturned and a pack of coyotes running through my yard. Tommy is going nuts barking at them. So I swept up the ashes and cleaned up the mess muttering curses on all coyote kind. But I'm sort of glad to see them back. I wondered where they had been.

A female gamer explaining why many female gamers are not present on these forums because they would likely not be as interested as their male counterparts are in the niche that these forums fill? I'm surprised that it took to page five of this thread to get that. Very shortly you are going to find out why I think this post is funny!

She's 48, clearly Ponce De Leon was on to something when he looked for the fountain of youth in Florida. GD, I remember you were once married and I think it was in Florida, is this the ex missus? Not quite! My ex was not that good looking, and not that successful. And she HATED politics. Considering how things turned out I guess that was understandable.

I've got to agree with Trashman. The President has said and done scores of things worthy or criticism and scorn but this is not one of them. My only concern is that he is dead wrong. The best looking state AG is Pam Bondi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Bondi of Florida. Of course she is a Republican and is in the process of suing the government over Obamacare so I'm pretty sure he hates her. He seems to hold everyone who disagrees with him in total disdain.

The Rays took tow of three from the Indians this weekend. I caught all three games. David Price go rocked on Sunday though. He's off to a rough start. Tonight it the Marlins home opener. It will be interesting to hear what the attendance will be. I'm betting >10k.

Wow, somewhat surprising to hear this kind of venom. But then everyone was snarky and nasty when Regan passed too. I guess speaking well of people who were champions of liberty is out of style around here, even if they were not perfect. But then freedom is not something the posters on this board value highly so there we go.

I just had the funniest thought reading this forum. It's like we're all sitting around this giant bar at happy hour and Bruce says "This bar is great but it needs more chicks! It's a sausage fest in here!" Tell me you did not totally get a flashback to Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle there! There actually used to be a good bunch of regular female posters here, Dark Raven (who actually accounted for about 4-5 of them) Darque, Lady Di, Quioxitic, they were not treated any worse than anyone and each one gave as good as they got. Lady Crimson is the only longtime regular female poster left unfortunately. Out of all of them if I could bring one back it would be Di, she was sharp on topics like this. I have never played an MMO and the games I like tend not to attract female players so I don't have much to offer on this and most of the women I know who do game seem to prefer MMOs. Eve seems to be the favorite based solely on my uninformed non scientific information. So if you want to meet lady games that's where they are.

This one if for you Volo! http://youtu.be/_JbcHf13wCM

You and I could probably do it. Just walk Stanton and throw off speed junk to everyone else! In other news Yu Darvish came within one out of a perfect game. Wow, remember when that was rare?

Back from a road trip for work. I'm taking the rest of the week off (sort of) then meeting next week for the purchasing agreements for the Dyer County project. Busy busy. On a side note it gets bloody cold in Iowa. Yeah, yeah I know all you Scandinavians are rolling your eyes right now. Canadians too. Remember all experiences are relative.

Lot of action over the last two days. Kershaw beats the Giants single handedly, marathon game in Cincinnati, Astros stun the Rangers on opening night. I actually DVR's Game of Thrones to watch that one. King Felix flirts with a no hitter in Oakland, Bryce Harper single handedly beats the Marlins and the Red Sox spank the Yanks. Were off to a great start.

Thank you! I was somewhat pessimistic about this venture when we first started last year. I could not be happier with how it has shaped up. Plus today I figured out how to sync a Jawbone Jam Box to a laptop Bluetooth. It was not as easy as you'd think!

The idea wasn't to imply they are making a choice, that example was to set up the point that they are not actually a minority as defined by the law. But, I don't actually think that way, I was just demonstrating the opposing argument.

Rand Paul actually suggested eliminating the Married filing category for Federal Tax returns. It makes sense in a number of ways because it gets Uncle Sam out of the marriage business and it eliminates the "Marriage Penalty". For those who don't know that is the disparity in personal deductions when filing jointly as a couple rather than two single people filing separately. The single folks get a bigger deduction. Don't know why that is but it's always been that way. I'd say the proposal is a win/win

Absolutely!!! Because as everyone knows, every PC player if given the chance will illegally download and steal a game rather than pay for it. I thought they still had a couple of more major pieces of DLC to go. Perhaps they are going to do an Ultimate Edition further on down the road. I thought there were no more DLCs? I know they are going all in of their Elder Scrolls online game. The trailer looks great but I just don't do MMOs. Hopefully the article is right. I've held off buying Skyrim but I'm getting tired of waiting. Especially now that I have a computer that will run it well.

Our company has won a bid to build Wi-Fi in the public schools in Dyer County. Woo-Hoo! This will make them the first county in the state to have it in every school. I'm meeting with the county engineers tomorrow to begin planning, then I'm off to Des Moines and Sioux City on Thursday. Busy busy busy

Ok, I'm going to play devils advocate here because generally speaking we all agree on this one. It is not accurate to describe gay folks as a minority. When you get down to brass tacks being gay is only about who-sticks-what-where in the bedroom. If I put you in a room with 100 guys all dressed the same and told you 10 were gay you would not be able to tell me which ones they were. If I put you in that same room and told you 10 were black you could pick them out in a few seconds. If being gay makes someone a minority then so does scuba diving because scuba divers are scuba divers only because they scuba dive. So if they are not actually a minority they are not entitled to any special protection under the 14th or any other law. After all no one is stopping them from getting married, they are just being stopped from marrying someone of the same gender. Since there IS no Constitutional right to marry there IS no discrimination. Since there is no federal right to marry the 10th amendment specifically assigns that power to the "people and the states". Right or wrong the people have spoken. Now if they had passed a law stating that black people could not own land, or that women could not vote that WOULD be a violation of federal (as well as every other level of law). Ok, devils advocate mode = off. But generally that is the argument of the pro-prop 8 side and it is not without some merit I'm afraid to say. Actually Calax you are close but a little off target on what my problem with this is. The SCOTUS absolutely can and should override state courts and state legislatures where violations of the constitution or other federal law is concerned. AGX was correct to point that out (AGX I believe the term you were looking for was The Supremacy Clause). However, if this is not an Equal Protection case and that argument has failed every time it has been tried in favor of gay marriage, and it is not a 14th Amendment case and it is not a Full Faith and Credit case (that has also failed) and it applies ONLY to California then the 9th should have declined to hear the case at all since the 10th Amendment specifically makes this a state issue. Now the SCOUTUS is going to be compelled to rule on something that never should have come before it and not matter what the outcome of their decision is there are going to be some bad side effects. I am very troubled when the very things that safeguard our liberty are bypassed (or must be bypassed) to ensure liberty. If it brings us a good outcome today that's great but don't ever forget that once the precedent is set it can be used to so something terrible to us tomorrow. @Hurlshot: Great quote, right on point. I like one attributed to Benjamin Franklin "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch".

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/26/17460260-supreme-court-hints-that-it-wont-issue-sweeping-ruling-on-same-sex-marriage?lite The short of the story is it does not appear to SCOTUS is going to come right out and declare that it is unconstitutional to ban gay marriage. That said it looks unlikely they will overturn the 9th Circuits ruling on Prop 8 so it (Prop 8 ) will likely be permanently overturned either way. I have to tell you guys I'm torn on this one. You all know where I stand on the subject of gay marriage, and indeed any subject regarding personal liberty. But I have a problem with this whole mess. The voters of California by a margin of some 52-53% decided they did not want gay marriage recognized in their state. However wrong headed I think that decision might be it was their decision to make. That decision was upheld by State courts then overturned the Federal 9th Circuit Court. This looks like a clear 10th Amendment violation to me. The Federal Court never should have taken this case as it did not concern anything but the state of California and could not really be called a violation of any ones rights since there is no Constitutional right to marry. The prediction here is that the SCOTUS will refuse to rule on the case on the basis that the plaintiffs do not have standing to bring it. Kennedy all but stated that was his intention. If that happens then the 9th Circuits ruling will stand and gay marriage becomes legal in California. That is good in a way because it is a good outcome but it is not good because 9 unelected judges usurped the will of over 7 million people. That is bad... it's very very bad. I think the right thing to do would be to vacate the 9th's ruling and refer it back to the state court because it IS a state issue. But that would mean Prop 8 stands and the liberty of gay people to live their lives the way the wish is infringed. Quite a nasty paradox. Achieve the right outcome by a bad method to grant some people liberty now only to hazard losing even more liberty by the same process later, or have a wrong outcome but the will of the voters is protected and we are less likely to lose more liberty later. Like I said, I'm torn on this one. Very seldom do proponents of Liberty and the 10th amendment find themselves at odds.

You have a house full of cats yet still need a hand warmer?

It looks like we may be getting close to an all in one Game of the Year edition for Skyrim. http://dualpixels.com/2013/03/15/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-game-of-the-year-edition/ I for one have been waiting for this for too long now.