Notable Quotable

I ran across a quote by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Yep.  That goes a long way to explain our political culture today.  Add to that statement a strong sense of personal entitlement to the unearned wealth generated by others and a culture dominated by the politics of pull and widespread moral decay and you get a good picture of America.

Religion

A priest, a minister and a rabbi want to see who’s best at his job. So they go into the woods, and they find a bear, and they try to convert it to their particular religion.

Later, they get together, and the priest says, “Well, when I found the bear, I read to him from the Catechism and sprinkled him with holy water.”

And the minister says, “Well, I found a bear by the stream. I preached God’s holy word to him. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.”

They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying on a gurney in a body cast.

“What happened?” they asked.

The rabbi replied, “I never should have started with the circumcision.”

In the Land of My Birth

Folks like to make fun of Arkansas.  They say the people talk funny.  They claim everyone has sex with their sister.  They say that the people aren't very smart.

Of course none of that is true.

In Clarksville Arkansas they are doing something so enlightened and so revolutionary that the program should be implemented across the nation, but it won't be.

Arkansas teachers to carry 9 mm guns on campus come fall

Teachers and staff at Clarksville High School in Arkansas have undergone 53 hours of intensive weapons training in recent weeks, and they stand ready for school doors to open this fall — locked and loaded, ready to fend off the type of disaster that rocked a Connecticut community in December and left 20 children dead.

“The plan we’ve been given in the past is, ‘Well, lock your doors, turn off your lights and hope for the best,’” Superintendent David Hopkins said, in The Associated Press. But school shootings continued to take place around the nation. And in response, the district decided, he said, “That’s not a plan.”

This story almost starts to give me hope for the future of public education.  In the 70's there was a terrorist attack in an Israeli school.   They solved that problem by handing out Uzis to the teachers.  When was the last time you heard about a school shooting in Israel?  They don't have them.  Let's hope that this experiment with guns produces the same result here in the USA.

Putin Lied?

It's summer time and we need a story worthy of our attention.

Russian Bloggers Cast Doubt on Putin's Fishy Tale

President Vladimir Putin's opponents on Monday gleefully sought to prove the Russian strongman had massively exaggerated the weight of a pike he caught on a recent fishing expedition to Siberia.

The Kremlin on Friday had announced that Putin managed to catch a 21 kilogramme (46 pound) pike while on a trip to the region of Tuva, providing television footage and pictures of the president stripped to the waist as he cast his line.

OK click the link and tell me what you think.  Is it a 12lb pike or a 46lb pike?

The Charitable-Industrial Complex

This is something that was pointed out to me.  I'm posting it here in its entirety with the intention of commenting on it in a post latter this week.  Please feel free to comment on the content of the original author.  Incidentally the author is the son of Warren Buffet, Peter Buffet.

I HAD spent much of my life writing music for commercials, film and television and knew little about the world of philanthropy as practiced by the very wealthy until what I call the big bang happened in 2006. That year, my father, Warren Buffett, made good on his commitment to give nearly all of his accumulated wealth back to society. In addition to making several large donations, he added generously to the three foundations that my parents had created years earlier, one for each of their children to run.

Early on in our philanthropic journey, my wife and I became aware of something I started to call Philanthropic Colonialism. I noticed that a donor had the urge to “save the day” in some fashion. People (including me) who had very little knowledge of a particular place would think that they could solve a local problem. Whether it involved farming methods, education practices, job training or business development, over and over I would hear people discuss transplanting what worked in one setting directly into another with little regard for culture, geography or societal norms.

Often the results of our decisions had unintended consequences; distributing condoms to stop the spread of AIDS in a brothel area ended up creating a higher price for unprotected sex.

But now I think something even more damaging is going on.

Because of who my father is, I’ve been able to occupy some seats I never expected to sit in. Inside any important philanthropy meeting, you witness heads of state meeting with investment managers and corporate leaders. All are searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left. There are plenty of statistics that tell us that inequality is continually rising. At the same time, according to the Urban Institute, the nonprofit sector has been steadily growing. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of nonprofits increased 25 percent. Their growth rate now exceeds that of both the business and government sectors. It’s a massive business, with approximately $316 billion given away in 2012 in the United States alone and more than 9.4 million employed.

Philanthropy has become the “it” vehicle to level the playing field and has generated a growing number of gatherings, workshops and affinity groups.

As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering” — feeling better about accumulating more than any one person could possibly need to live on by sprinkling a little around as an act of charity.

But this just keeps the existing structure of inequality in place. The rich sleep better at night, while others get just enough to keep the pot from boiling over. Nearly every time someone feels better by doing good, on the other side of the world (or street), someone else is further locked into a system that will not allow the true flourishing of his or her nature or the opportunity to live a joyful and fulfilled life.

And with more business-minded folks getting into the act, business principles are trumpeted as an important element to add to the philanthropic sector. I now hear people ask, “what’s the R.O.I.?” when it comes to alleviating human suffering, as if return on investment were the only measure of success. Microlending and financial literacy (now I’m going to upset people who are wonderful folks and a few dear friends) — what is this really about? People will certainly learn how to integrate into our system of debt and repayment with interest. People will rise above making $2 a day to enter our world of goods and services so they can buy more. But doesn’t all this just feed the beast?

I’m really not calling for an end to capitalism; I’m calling for humanism.

Often I hear people say, “if only they had what we have” (clean water, access to health products and free markets, better education, safer living conditions). Yes, these are all important. But no “charitable” (I hate that word) intervention can solve any of these issues. It can only kick the can down the road.

My wife and I know we don’t have the answers, but we do know how to listen. As we learn, we will continue to support conditions for systemic change. 

It’s time for a new operating system. Not a 2.0 or a 3.0, but something built from the ground up. New code.

What we have is a crisis of imagination. Albert Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it. Foundation dollars should be the best “risk capital” out there.

There are people working hard at showing examples of other ways to live in a functioning society that truly creates greater prosperity for all (and I don’t mean more people getting to have more stuff). 

Money should be spent trying out concepts that shatter current structures and systems that have turned much of the world into one vast market. Is progress really Wi-Fi on every street corner? No. It’s when no 13-year-old girl on the planet gets sold for sex. But as long as most folks are patting themselves on the back for charitable acts, we’ve got a perpetual poverty machine.

It’s an old story; we really need a new one.

A Good Pun Is Its Own Reword

Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.

A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.

Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.

I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.

Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

Sea captains don't like crew cuts.

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.

Without geometry, life is pointless.

When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.

When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Where is the Outrage?

Welcome to Chicago

I'm sure Obama will want to address the nation when he hears about this story:

Two visitors to Chicago received a rude welcome to the city Friday when one was robbed by a group of city teens and the other was punched while trying to help, officials said.

The two visitors – a 15-year-old Florida girl and a 51-year-old Michigan woman – were both walking on the Mag Mile Friday evening when the older woman was robbed of her iPhone by a group of eight juveniles, officials said.

Two visitors to Chicago received a rude welcome to the city Friday when one was robbed by a group of city teens and the other was punched while trying to help, officials said.

The two visitors – a 15-year-old Florida girl and a 51-year-old Michigan woman – were both walking on the Mag Mile Friday evening when the older woman was robbed of her iPhone by a group of eight juveniles, officials said.

After feeling her iPhone being pulled from the pack pocket of her jean shorts, Tammy grabbed the boy who took it by the backpack and held on until police got there two or three minutes later.

"He just kept saying, ‘We didn't take your phone, you white b------, leave us alone,' '' said Tammy.

"The rest of them swarmed around her to disorient her,'' and began to become more physical and push the women against a small metal fence around some shrubs, the girl said.

With a rush of adrenaline, the Florida girl said she decided to step in, against her mother's wishes.

"They felt endangered, but I'm a person who tries to help and I wanted to help the lady,'' she said. "My mom tried to stop me three times."

No word on the racial make up of the group of attackers.  Some thoughts:

"I don't think it was racial. I just think they targeted anyone whose phone they could get.''

You should have stopped at "I don't think".  Criminals pick the weakest, slowest, easiest target they can get.  An old white women is about as easy a target as they could hope for.  They profiled your decrepit white azz and would have gotten away with it if they would have acted faster or more violently.  They will not make the same mistake next time.  There will be a next time.

No word on the race of the girl who stepped up and stood up for what's right.

FWIW, your mother was right, getting involved was a big risk.  It came off ok this time.  You need to thank God for that.

Illinois is still stalling on the concealed carry law.

Jesse Jackson isn't out protesting this instance of racial/gender profiling.

To bad this didn't happen in Florida.

WYO Politics: Liz Cheney and Shameless Self Promotion

Liz Cheney announced her intention to run against fellow republican Mike Enzi for his senate seat this last week.  Mike Enzi is a popular conservative republican that has served in the US Senate for three terms.  In Wyoming he is popular with the voters and generally well liked.  As a personal note, I've always found him and his wife Dianna (and his staff) to be very personable and approachable.  

The question I and lots of other folks in the Cowboy State have is "Who does Liz Cheney think she is?".  The first part of our dilemma is that Mike Enzi is regarded as one of the most conservative members of the Senate. (That's not saying much, but it is something) That reputation is part of why we like him.  The second part of our problem with Liz Cheney is, she isn't from Wyoming.  Yes she bought a second home here last year, and I'm sure her legal tax domicile is in Wyoming, but she lives in Virginia.  Cheney was born in Wisconsin.  She graduated high school in McLean Virginia.  She's spent most of her life in Virginia.  Virginia as it so happens, is a long way from Wyoming.  There is a word for what Liz Cheney is, "Carpetbagger". 

Dizzy Lizzy is confused.  She seems to think that just because her family came to WYO in 1800 and whatever and that her father grew up in Casper, that she is entitled to occupy one of our senate seats.  Her stump speech right now is Enzi's age and a cry for less compromise in fighting Democrats.  I'm not sure she is believable. 

If Cheney truly wants to shore up Republican opposition to Obummer and the evils of the DNC, her name recognition and alleged fund raising prowess should be put to use in a state where she could roust a liberal RINO (Arizona comes to mind) or a Democrat and add to the GOP's numbers in Congress.

Cheney is a deep inside the beltway insider.  It's hard to be more of a Washington wank than she is.  Read her Wiki page.  Liz Cheney has two things going for her, bind unprincipled ambition and name recognition.  We don't like unprincipled DC insiders who would sell their mother's soul for power.  Nothing about her "new, younger" agenda appeals to us. She has spent her professional life making back room deals for folks with deep pockets inside the beltway.  Does a leopard change its spots so quickly?  

I believe that diapers and politicians should be changed often, and for the same reason; but not when the result of changing them is going to worse than what you already have.  So yes I'll be supporting a shoe salesman, who was the son of a shoe salesman this time around.  I'd rather have that than a DC insider from Virginia representing me in Congress.  We already have one female RINO sell out representing Wyoming in DC.  We don't need another DOOM Us Loomis to speed up the Gotterdammerung.

So far Liz Cheney is getting clobbered in the pols.  Which is how it should be. 

Thoughts on Detroit

Prior to moving to Wyoming I lived for a couple of years near Detroit.  I went to college near the city.  Afterwards I did a good deal of business there as a buyer for the mortgage industry.  I have developed some strong opinions about the place over the years.  Like its best to live far far away from the city.  I don't take any pleasure in its down fall.

This last week the city filed for bankruptcy.  This came as no surprise, Detroit has been bankrupt for decades, but lenders and the dying auto industry kept some cash flow going and the city stumbled along.  They can't keep doing that anymore.

Bankruptcy is the city's best option.  They should have done it 20 years ago.  The sooner they clean house dump the debt, and assets; the sooner they can call in the bulldozers and push the rubble into the lake St. Clair.  Let's not kid ourselves about it.  Bulldozing the place, literally and fugitively is exactly what needs to happen if Detroit is going to rise from the ashes.

Detroit can't be "fixed" any other way.  Detroit became great in a time of low taxes, free enterprise and they made products that people wanted to buy.  If Detroit wants to be great again they must unlearn the system of business as usual that they have been engaged in for the last 45 years, throw off restrictive government regulations, repressive taxes and irresponsible government programs designed to increase dependence and debt.  They must allow free enterprises to succeed or fail on their own merits, with no sweetheart deals for insiders or those with the cash to lobby decision makers.  Labor and management must be free to work out their own deals without forcing people into unions that don't represent the interests of either.

Come to think of it that would work in the rest of America too.

Dating Explained

Here is this weeks contribution to the topic of Game.

 

This comic first seen here.  They have other funny stuff, check them out.

Slacking

My whole life I've been concerned with social issues and being a good citizen.  I couldn't wait to turn 18 and vote.  It was grown up, mature and responsible.  That was how I saw myself, and how I wanted to be.

There aren't very many duties for a good citizen to preform.  Yes you pay taxes, but that is designed to eliminate any chance of you not paying them.  So you can't claim any civic virtue just because you fork over the cash.  Voting is no longer relevant.  Being informed doesn't make you a good voter, it makes you cynical.  I'm past the age for military service, and I'd be 4F anyway, so that is out.  The last remaining civic duty I can fill is jury duty. 

I think I'd be a good juror.  Good in the sense I'd stick to my guns and only vote according to what I believed to be morally right.  I've been eligible for jury service more than half of my life, and I've never been called.  This month I got the call.  I went down and turned in my juror questioner and got myself a hardship deferral. 

I hated doing it.  I feel like a bad citizen.  There was noting else I could have done, so I shirked my civic duty.

The Economy is So Bad

Use your best Rodney Dangerfield voice when doing this one.

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

I saw a Mormon with only one wife.

I bought a toaster oven and my free gift was a bank.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

They renamed Wall Street " Wal-Mart Street."

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call center in Pakistan , and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck...

Not Guilty

SANFORD, Fla.

George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter Saturday night.

The verdict is the culmination of a case that captured the nation's attention and will undoubtedly be imprinted in America's history. For Zimmerman, it means trying to recapture his life after he was at the center of a national maelstrom over racial profiling, state gun laws and what constitutes self-defense.

The not guilty verdict means the jury of six women found that Zimmerman justifiably used deadly force and reasonably believed that such force was "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm" to himself — Florida's definition of self-defense.

Zimmerman showed no emotion as the verdict was read. After the verdict was read, he smiled slightly and shook hands with one of his lawyers.

No news on rioting and burning cities at this point.  No surprise either.  I have no idea of if its happening or not, just not a lot of news at this point.  Here is the link for google results on "riots in Florida over trayvon martin". 

A few thoughts.

1. George Zimmerman was factually innocent.  All the media BS about the prosecutors not doing a good enough job, is just that, BS.  The cops didn't arrest Zimmerman until after the black president put political pressure on them to do so.  He should have never went to trail.  There was no evidence to support a conviction in the first place, that's why the cops didn't arrest him, back in Feb 2012.

2. Trayvon Martin's case is not the same as Emmett Till.  It's not a civil rights issue.  If you hear someone saying "civil rights and  Trayvon Martin's name in the same sentence, be assured that person has no idea what the definition of "civil rights" is.   Trayvon was a black thug, just like the thousands of other black thugs in this country.  Being black is no excuse for being a thug.  Being black doesn't make it OK to assault and attempt to murder whoever you want whenever you want, even if you think they are a creepy ass cracker. 

3. The only racist basis in this whole story is on the part of blacks and their enablers. 

4. George Zimmerman isn't going to ass rape prison.  He still is getting the short end of the stick.  His life is ruined by a thug who tired to kill him.  The only thing of value that thug ever did was be born black, so the professional race agitators could make a few bucks off his getting shot.

5. We need more armed citizens on the streets.  Make it harder on the thugs.  Dead thugs, regardless of race, are good for America .

6. The feds owe Zimmerman and his family a new name, ID's and social security cards etc. as well as relocation.  All expenses connected with the new identity should be charged to the media and celebrities who broadcasted this information to the public in the first place.

Congratulations George.  I hope you can find a new home in another state, where you will be safe from the thugs who are sure to be coming after you.  Please invest in better weapons and body armor, America needs more men like you.

Breaking News

Water is wet.

The sky is blue.

Obama lied to you.

Numbers don’t add up on Obama’s pledge to deport more illegal immigrants

The Obama administration is deporting fewer people than it did in 2011 or 2012, but has ousted more than 110,000 illegal immigrants this year who didn’t have criminal records, according to statistics that call into question the Obama administration’s public statements about its deportation policies.

Sensible immigration reform starts with making English the official language, closing the boarders for the next 50 years, throwing out the illegals, eliminating social services and welfare to immigrants.  After that we can talk about other "reforms". 

D'oh!

Nude swimmer distracts home burglary victim

The woman then approached the victim and asked him about his pool, and if she could take a swim. He told the woman it would be OK and led her to the rear of his house where the pool is located. The woman then asked if it would bother him if she swam in the nude, and he replied that it would not. She proceeded to take off her clothes and jumped into the pool, swimming for about 20 minutes. The home owner retrieved a towel from inside his home, the woman dried off, dressed and left.

News Flash

Guys if you are not a rock star, or otherwise massively famous, and a women wants to take her cloths off for you for no apparent reason, THERE IS A CATCH.

This is true if the women is a complete stranger and it is true if you are married to her.  Deep down you know this.  That is why when the wife does it, you instinctively know she has purchased some expensive bobble and she is trying to soften you up for the news.  Sure you take advantage of the quickie, but you know the other shoe is going to drop. 

If you aren't married to her, the risks are even greater.  I know, deep down we all posses that certain je ne sais quoi, that makes it nearly impossible for any women to resist the urge to pounce on us, its a curse.  Yet when they do pounce, they still have an ulterior motive.  It's best to know what it is, before you let them rob you blind.

Chicken, Road, Etc.

Q: Why do chicken coops have two doors?

A: Because if they had four it would be a chicken sedan.

It Beats a Rape Whistle

Woman Who Hid Gun In Vagina Gets 25 Years

JULY 8--The Oklahoma woman who had a loaded handgun concealed in her vagina when she was arrested earlier this year on a drug charge has been sentenced to 25 years in state prison, according to court records.

Investigators subsequently identified the weapon as a Freedom Arms .22-caliber handgun, which was loaded with three live rounds and one spent shell. The police report notes that “gun located in suspect vagina.”

I am so going to give Bob a load of crap about this next time I see him.  FA builds some of the most powerful handguns in the world, perfect for the pussy.

Marinara or Marijuana?

Brooklyn cops bust roof top tomato grower.

Is this what they mean by reefer madness?

Cops responding to a report of a marijuana farm on the roof of a Brooklyn building didn’t find the wacky tobacky they were looking for — just tomato plants, police and witnesses said Wednesday.

Building superintendent Christian Delarosa, 34, said he discovered the potted plants when he went to check the roof for leaks after Wednesday’s rains.

“I don’t know much about plants. I’m not too good with that,” Delarosa said. “When I saw them, the first thing I thought was ‘Oh, my God.’ Right there I looked it up on my phone and they looked close to marijuana plants, but I thought I should call someone who knew about plants, so I called police.”

Experts don’t know how the cops could have confused the two.

“They’re not the same species; they’re not the same genus. I don’t even think they’re part of the same family,” said Mikeal Roose, chairman of Botany and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. “It’s very hard for me to see that somebody could (confuse the two). If you put the leaves side by side, you wouldn’t be able to mistake them.”

Cops eventually got hip to the difference and closed the investigation, leaving the tomatoes alone.

The unidentified owner of the tomato stash won’t have to deal with the cops but he will have to deal with his super, who said he’d lock the door to the roof.

First they came for the raw milk, but I didn't care because I can't stand the stuff, but now they're coming for the tomatoes, and I like BLTs.  When I first saw this story, I wondered if the cops could tell the difference between Jelly Filled and Glazed.   I thought to myself, "this is material for another dumb cop post".  Cops should be able to recognize a pot plant when they see one.  Three cops together, one of them a supervisor should have been able to figure out the mystery in about five minutes.  Even if they had no idea what a living pot plant looked like, they could have googled one on a smart phone and got a picture to compare it to.

The problem isn't just dumb cops.  The real problem is dumb people, especially the dumb building superintendent.  He said he looked up marijuana plants on his phone.  Apparently he can't tell one plant from another, of course he lives in Brooklyn, and probably went to public school.  I'm expecting to much.

The said thing is, the story kinda makes sense.  That is what we have come to, turning in our neighbors to the cops for growing tomatoes.  We live in a nation of people not smart enough to know what's going on, who when they run into a situation they are unfamiliar with, think the solution is to call the cops. 

Update:
There is a blog put together by a guy looking for affordable NY City Apartments, called The Worst Room.  I guess you can't be too smart, if you're willing to pay more a month for a closet than I pay for a house.

Atheist Homeschooling

It may seem counter norm on the "who" but not the "why". 

(RNS) When KellyAnne Kitchin began home schooling her three sons three years ago, she had difficulty finding  curriculum programs that fit her atheist and humanist beliefs.

So Kitchin, 33, cobbled together what she could. She left out one geography textbook’s description of the earth as God’s creation and another’s disdain for Darwin, and substituted her own point of view  — that no supernatural powers guide human beings, who alone have the power to improve the world.

According to the article 2/3 of home-schoolers are of some variant of protestant while only 1/4 are atheist/no religion.  They don't report on the religious identity of the remaining apx 9%.  It doesn't surprise me that most home-schoolers have a particular religious identity.  It also comes to no surprise that the parents keeping their kids at home belong to religions that the public school is most hostile towards.

I am surprised that 25% of home-schoolers are atheist/no religion.  When you consider that, again according to the article, 1.5 million kids are home schooled, the 25% represents 375,000 kids.  That's not a small number when you consider that the public school system, as a matter of policy teaches the world view that their parents profess to be true. 

According to the US Dept of ED:
2010 projected enrollment figures:

54,704,000 Children enrolled in public and private schools (k-12).

5,398,000 Children enrolled in private schools, religious and sectarian.

49,306,000 Children enrolled in public schools, includes chatter schools.

I'm not sure whose methodology is most correct however three facts are of particular interest:
1. It seems that the current number of home schooled children is between 1.5 and 2.1 million children.
2. The trend is for growth in both private schools and home school education.
3. The number of sub-literate graduates from the public school system is between 66% and 75%.

Going with the above data and statistical assumptions, 32,541,960 (maybe higher) of the kids currently enrolled in public schools are not going to be able to function at the "normal" level of a high school graduate from 1980.  That leaves 16,270,980 public school graduates, 5,398,000 private school graduates, and apx 2,000,000 home-schoolers who will have the educational skills needed; for a total of apx 23,669,000.

It occurs to me that 23.6 million educated kids is less than half of all kids in the K-12 age group.  Further, 7.3 million kids (home school and private school) is less than half of the educated kids, but growing according to the trends.  While these statistics may seem scary it may be quite reasonable from a historical perspective, to produce a population where 13.34% of the people have the intellectual ability to rule over the others, with a 35% middle class. The rest of the great unwashed masses will need to be content with their bread and circuses. Whether or not this is an advisable course of action for the USA is another matter. 

This brings me to another things which surprises me:

She also found many online forums for home-schoolers were unwelcoming. Some had statements  faith members needed to agree to. On others she was made to feel unwelcome because of her lack of beliefs.

This is a surprise to me for a few reasons:

1. IF you're a Christian, homeschooling parent, exactly how many true blue atheists do you know that are seeking to associate with you?  I'd think you might want to have one around if for nothing else evangelistic reasons.
2. Having a atheist home-schooler in your group makes easier to fight arguments against state regulating agencies who may want to paint you was a bunch of "religious nuts".
3. Education was historically a sign of one's social class.  With the sociological changes that are coming, we may be well advised to keep in touch with members of our own class, regardless of their religious beliefs. 

4th Groaner

In 1873, a team of German explorers and their three dogs decided to penetrate the heart of the South American jungle.

After twelve years, they had set up a fort in an Incan town, the centerpiece of which was a large idol with a huge ruby for an eye.

The German church had sent out their best man, Friar Wilhelm Werks, three times to check on the progress of the fort, and each time the appearance of the idol had sent him into fits of screaming, complete with shouts, curses, and rending of garments. Each time, he screamed so loudly that he sent the dogs running for cover. And each time, he left with a warning that the next time he visited, the idol had better be torn down.

The commander of the fort, Hans Brickner, received a message that Friar Werks would be coming to visit again in a fortnight. He quickly called a meeting with his top commanders. All five agreed that the friar would explode when he saw the idol still standing.

"But," said Commander Brickner, "there's nothing to be done.

If we take down the idol, we will anger the local tribe, and without their cooperation, we're dead."

His second-in-command, Herr Kommandant Wagner, said, "In that case, we'd better make sure we put the dogs away."

"Why?"

 

"You know how scared the dogs get when Friar Werks goes off on the Fort of Jewel Eye."

Rehatch

Remember today is the day we celebrate overthrowing a dictatorial monarch and embracing individual freedom and constitutional government.

Snowden

Oldie

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence.

One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.

“One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle.

As he passed, he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate.

Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.”

He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.

“Come here quick,” said the boy. “You won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls!”

The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.”

When the boy insisted, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.

Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”

The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord.”

Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”

They say the old man had the lead for a good half-mile before the kid on the bike passed him.

Cry Me a River

It seems things are tough all over.

Obama said she loved her job and found it liberating in some respects, but confining in others.

“There are some prison elements to it,” she joked. “But it’s a really nice prison.”

Former first lady Laura Bush reminded the crowd that First Ladies had a chef.

“You can’t complain,” Michelle Obama admitted. “But there is definitely elements that are confining.”

Exactly which prisons make sure the inmates get to take several multimillion dollar taxpayer funded vacations each year?

Puppy Love

Anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows my feelings for the German Wirehaired Pointer, AKA the greatest dog ever.  Part of the reason I'm so attached to this breed is because I love bird hunting.  The other part of the reason is that they are just plain good dogs.  They are smart and they love the people that they adopt.  That isn't just my anthropomorphizing, they really do adopt their human families. 

Combine the great personality traits with a great love for hunting and you get a dog that is hard to beat, at least for a hunter.  For a non hunter or someone who doesn't like a high energy dog, the GWP would be a bad fit. 

I'm a boy!  Somebody rub my belly!!!

For the last 16 years I had one or more GWP's around.  After putting down my last two GWP's I thought that maybe we could get by without a dog for awhile.  (This is what the wife wanted).  I researched getting another dog of similar quality to my last one.  There was no way I could afford that right now.  Then I thought that I could get a rescue dog that wasn't a hunter but that would be a pet for the kids.  The more I looked into that, the more I liked the idea, but the more impractical it seemed.  Most dogs are in rescue for a reason, and all those reasons aren't always given up front.

One night I was surf'n the puppy pages on the net and found an ad.  The guy mentioned that he was expecting a litter in July.  He also did something most breeders neglect, he posted nearly 25 years worth of his dog's pedigree on line.  I like to read pedigrees just to see which dogs I recognize.  The good news is that I recognized about 8 of the dogs.  The bad news was that one of the dogs was SGR's Silent Running.  I shouldn't say that's bad news, its great news, it just seems to be expensive news.  Gail Richardson is a top breeder.  She selects dogs the same way I would if I was a professional breeder.  In fact I had tried about a year before to buy a dog from her, only to learn that she is basically retired. 

Silent Running was my Abby's grandfather.  Abby was the most intense and talented bird hunting dog I've ever seen.  She was the one I was offered $5,000 for when she was just six months old.  The problem, as it often is with fine cigars, whisky, women and hunting dogs, was money.  The last breeder who I found with this dog in the back line wanted $2,500 for a male and $3,500 for a female with no breeding rights.  In other words more money than I could spend.   I called anyway.  We talked.  We talked hunting.  We talked about the GWP being the best dog ever.  We talked about my Abby and how much I missed her.  Then he told me, if I made the drive down, I could have any dog I wanted for $500.  I called my boss at home and asked for the next day off from work and drove like a mad man.

It just so happens that the wife and kids were out of town at Grandma and Papa's that week, so there was no unnecessary input form anyone.  i.e. the wife didn't get to try to veto the project.

I had made up my mind that I would choose the best female out of the bunch and breed her and thus keep the line alive.  I met the pups and their parents and grand parents.  They were all good dogs.  They just started some wing work that morning and they all were pointing.  They all were solid friendly dogs with good temperament.  I started eliminating dogs.  We were down to 6 then to 4 and then to the last 2.  One female and one male.

My son had been wanting a boy dog (he doesn't know about how you get puppies yet).  I wanted a female.  (I do know about puppies).  There was a problem.  The female I wanted had no interest in me at all.  Sure she was a good dog.  She had a real nice point.  She was aggressive and probably the alpha female in the litter.  She just wasn't into me.  Her brother was.  He kept hanging around being goofy, trying to get my attention.  He even bit his grandfather on the nuts right in front of me.  He had the good sense to immediately submit to the old man before he got killed. 

One thing I learned from my Abby, was that sometimes its better to let the dog pick the human.  That's what Abby did with me.  She picked her people and she never stopped loving me or hunting with me.

In the end I got a boy dog.

Boy dogs are immeasurably harder to develop a line from.  Can you imagine this guy getting a date on his own?