Guard Dog

Congrats Tig that is great!

Well Monday morning has rolled around and we are all still here. Maybe less a few brain cells but hey, we're young and we got lots of those to spare anyway.

All this posting about booze is working up a hell of a thirst. So I just grabbed a Flying Dog IPA (if you don't know what that is you are not a beer drinker. I bet Monte & Enoch know!). Here's to all of you guys and dying young! Cheers.

Heh, that was a joke my friend. Not all of us yanks hold Cognac is low esteem but here in the south it is thought of as a tad... dainty? I strongly reccomend Woodbridge and Knob Creek also. Woodbridge is light in color and taste and has an aftertaste that faintly suggests cherries. Knob Creek is a strong corn sourmash like Makers, but with a more bitter taste. Reccomendations please! I'm always looking for a good beer I haven't tried.

Your fingers will hurt less and less as you develop callouses on your finger tips Is my guitar a decent one? Seems solid and sounds nice to me but I know next to nothing about such things.

I actually do enjoy the taste Tig. The relaxes nerves, decresed stress level and positive attitude of slight inebriation that comes with it all I just consider a fringe benefit. I do not drink cheap stuff by the way. I'm too old for the rotgut crap that was all I could afford when I was younger. Hell would freeze before you catch me with Jim Beam, or Budwieser these days. There a are few things I loves so much as a glass of really good bourbon, either neat, with ice, or a spash of ginger ale. Really good stuff like Knob Creek or Makers Mark. I love that smoky taste it picks up from the charred oak barrels it's aged in. Never pick one less than 10 years old. I love the deep mellow after taste with just a slight burn. It goes so well sitting on the porch around sunset, listening to the birds, wind in the trees. Thats how I spend almost every evening these days. I alos like a good scotch. Not Jonnie Walker or Cutty or one of those trashy brands. Single malt only is the best. Talisker is my favorite. It's bold yet smooth with a sharp and slightly nutty after taste. It is the perfect drink to go with cigars (that is unless you're some brandy quaffing fairy). Unfortunately it is expensive and hard to come by in the US. When it comes to beer the best IMHO come from Boston, Sam Adams. Flying Dog, Guniess, and Yuengling are all solid choices (the latter especially if money is tight). Rolling Rock is excellent and just tastes like Friday night. Molson Canadian is the best thing to come out of Canada since...ever. Bass Ale if proof the British can do one thing right if everything else they ever did meant nothing. Will drinking kill me? I dunno. I don't plan on living forever anyway.

I've always wanted to lean how to play guitar, so I have all this spare time on my hands I figured I'd give it a shot. I bought two books and a book CD combo about teaching yourself to play then a went out and bought a Yamaha FG730 which someone told me was a really good one. I'm still not sure about that. But I have been making progress. I've mastered most of the chords and my fingering is getting faster. But there is one thing holding me back. My fingers hurt. They really really really hurt. I'm assuming thats normal though. I've found that bourbon does a lot to dull the pain. It also improves your playing, or at least your opinion of it anyway.

They would... when and if they got around to it. Given the scale of their mission and the complexity of the rules they have to operate under, the IRS is redonkulously overworked. (Plus, people who don't pay their taxes aren't usually the type who get "wages." Payroll deductions take care of that issue pretty well. It's the self-employed, the independent contractors, the "arseloads of investment income" taxpayers, and the "ridiculous maze of off-shore shell corporations" taxpayers who cause the most trouble.) Oh yes they view the self-employed as real "enemies of the people". In fact I know a guy who owned a small electronics company who made one small seemingly innocuous mistake. Three years later, after that company had shut down the IRS came calling and the small mistake made in good faith cost that man his entire life savings. The IRS is a monster. I did not mean to imply any deceit or malice on the part of the parties listed. Simply that, on the aggregate, non-payment of taxes due is larger problem within those populations. I believe the IRS like many other law enforcement agencies follows the path of least resistance. If someone is basicly honest and makes a small mistake either knowlingly or accidently they will come down on them twice has hard with both feet than they will a honest to god tax dodger simply because it's easier to pursue and destroy someone who is not trying to avoid being caught. A real tax cheat, especially one of means can tie them up in court and force them to expend countless man hours. So they go after the easy cases twice as hard to make it look better when they don't go after the hard ones. That is why honest people live in mortal fear of them and crooks don't give them a second thought.

martin is fat and old... which is pretty much the same as being ill 24/7. also, the geek grapevine has suggested that martin's efforts these last couple years has been focused on the tv series. am not certain if such rumors is based on anything other than wild speculation and dubious hearsay. HA! Good Fun! I visit his website 3-4 times a month and I can confirm he has a lot of irons in the fire. The selfish side of me wished he would focus on his novels but they are just one of many projects he writes, edits, produces for.

They would... when and if they got around to it. Given the scale of their mission and the complexity of the rules they have to operate under, the IRS is redonkulously overworked. (Plus, people who don't pay their taxes aren't usually the type who get "wages." Payroll deductions take care of that issue pretty well. It's the self-employed, the independent contractors, the "arseloads of investment income" taxpayers, and the "ridiculous maze of off-shore shell corporations" taxpayers who cause the most trouble.) Oh yes they view the self-employed as real "enemies of the people". In fact I know a guy who owned a small electronics company who made one small seemingly innocuous mistake. Three years later, after that company had shut down the IRS came calling and the small mistake made in good faith cost that man his entire life savings. The IRS is a monster.

So to summarize the liberals were thrown out for corruption and replaced with a coalition led by the conservatives with a promise to clean up corruption. Now they are being thrown out for corruption. Does any of this actually suprise anyone?

Now there is a smart man!

I can just see it now, an entire nation with no religion is allowed. Then if the citizens do find someone practicing a religion they'll all gang up on that person and kill them. Soon they will be invading other countries forcing them to give up their religions too or be killed, yes because obviously religion is the problem here right?

The NY Times did an interview with George RR Martin. It makes for some good quick reading http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/...rones/?src=tptw

Now reading Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley, the sequel to Winterbirth.

I agree wholeheartedly with Grom (nothing unusual there) Volo (happens from time to time) and Oblarg (now there's a first). Lets call these "people" what they really are: a mob of ignorant flybitten savages who will take any pretext to lash out, brutalize and kill in the most barbaric fashion anyone who is not like them. Granted making a public spectacle of burning the Koran is stupid but he is free to do whatever the hell he wishes. Assigning one iota of blame to the nobody in Florida DOES mean you are at least partially legitimizing the actions of the barbarians, and you know Wals, it's not like they don't do this sort of thing all the time. Your example of calling a mans wife ugly does not work here because the pastor did not burn their Korans and he did not do it in front of them. I'm a Christian and you could light a stack bibles two meters high and cook hot dogs over the blaze and I would not care unless 1) one of them was mine or 2) you did not share the hot dogs with me. It's just a book. It's not hard to go get another one. Religion is not found between the covers of a book. It's not assigned to any physical object, it's in your heart. Nothing can burn or steal that. When religion becomes a thing of objects it's called idolatry which I believe is punishable by death is Islam. But then again so is everything else.

Holy cow! Did you get married and then divorced while I was away? But seriously you seem to be getting laid on a regular basis with multiple women which, if I remember correctly was one of your hearts greatest desires. Now you're knocking it?

Excellent point.

I finished Wise Mans Fear. It's good, really good, compared to many other books out there, just not it's predecessor. The story is sort of a mess actually, it does not stand o it's own like the Wind did, it will need a third title to clean it up. But don't get me wrong, it is well worth your time and it does advance the story quite a bit. So, go buy it, you will like it, maybe not love it, but you will like it. Now reading The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri. Perfect for the start of baseball season!

I uninstalled FO3, Space Empires 5, & Dragon Age from my computer today. I'm free at last, free at last, thank GOD almighty I'm free at last! Thats it! I'm giving up these colossal, addicitve time devourers called PC games. From now on the only game I'm going to have on my computer is Fritz Chess. No more buying new expensive video cards every few months, no more sitting down for a few hours game time then being shocked when I hear my alarm clock going off. Whew, I feel like a weight has been lifted off me. Soooooo, I'm looking at my computer, I've read my email, the news, sports, cheked the forums I like... now what do I do? Hey I heard Dragon Age II is out!

Nice job, I was blown out before the end of the first round.

There is an old saying, "Friends come and go, enemies accumulate". But seriously, the UK and the US have a common set of values, shared history and culture to a point. Our governments are similar enough that our ends on the world stage often complement each other. The same is true with most of Europe, even Russia & China at times. But nothing could be farther from the truth when discussing the regimes and muslim theocracies of the middle east. Their viewpoint, politics, religion, ambitions on the world stage and ends are so different from ours as to be nearly alien. They might as well be a different species. There are some exceptions, Turkey has managed to integrate the muslim faith into a modern nation, although their loyalty to thier western partners has yet to be seriously tested. Iraq, if it is succesful may become a second example. But for the most part history has taught us that in the middle east, the friend you help today will be the enemy you fight tomorrow.

Actually I think most people take installments so that this doesn't hit them that hard. Unless the law has been changed, once in your life you can take a federal tax deferrment for up to three years for a fee. At the end you will owe all of the taxes accumulated during the deferrment. If you did win a big jackpot you could take that deferrment and then work with the full amount (minus state taxes of course). Of course if you wanted to aviod the tax bill all together you could use that time to get all of your assets and the rest of you too off shore. But then you could never come back.

Just re-quoting my previous comments to gftd1's sentiments on US isolationism for Di's and Guard Dog's delectation. You can't put toothpaste back in the tube! I missed this post before, very well put! Like I said, the days when American self sufficiency and neutrality were the ideal are long gone. As much as I could wish for a renaissance as you said we cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. Military power hase been used and misused in equal measure since the end of the cold war made it realtively consequence free. I do think it is all together appropriate to intervene when country A attacks country B (1991 Gulf War for example), Civil Wars/Revolutions however are another matter all together. It is one thing to support one side or the other politically or logistically through clandestine means but this is not the case in Libya. We have for good or ill actively thrown in with the rebels the moment we began air stikes on Libyan ground troops. Plus for all of Obama's protestations that we'll be out in days and no ground troops are coming why are the 2nd Marines and 82nd Airborne now on full alert and packed for deployment? If Gaddafi is replaced with a theocratic government or a government controlled by an organization like the Al-Queda or the Muslim Brotherhood does anyone here seriously believe the world would be better off. A military dictator can be expected to act in his own best interests most of the time, not so with some radical religious leader. I would not sacrifice one drop of American blood or one penny of American treasure to settle an internal struggle of a country in which there are no "good guys" just two choices of evils. Apparently in this, as in so many other things these days in the USA, I am in the minority.

Comes with age my friend, it will happen to you too! I do not think the US should give up any of it's military power, far from it. I would like to see it go back to being used as a deterrnet not a tool to reach the politcal ends of whichever idiot manages to get 270 electoral votes every fourth year. And the last four of those idiots have been very quick to pull out the big stick, and not always for good reason. I do believe there is an isolationist streak ingrained in the American charachter and that does not strike me as a bad thing. We as a people once took great pride in self suffencincy and non-intervention. I know those days are gone for good and all but I can still wish it were otherwise.