Monthly Archives: August 2004

Domestic Bliss, General

I promise…

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Serious posting (well, not SERIOUS, maybe, but plenty of it) will take place soon, probably Thursday evening. I owe some of you a tank story, or something along those lines, and I want to expound upon the strange character I had for a chemistry teacher in high school.

I’ve spent enough time in front of this thing for the last couple of nights to make me want to spend a night away from it.

I’ve gotten to the point that I can close my eyes and see HTML, and my head is full of FTP pathnames. They’ve replaced the multiple page elementary diagram of a certain client’s 20-megawatt gas turbine generator, which previously occupied my head.

That said, a lady friend from a little town to the east of here has graciously offered to cook me a supper tomorrow as an enticement for me to spend the evening with her. Truth is, for this lady, I’d have gone over there and cooked supper… or taken her out for a meal… but anyway, the meal will be there when I get there. Past that point, well, I hardly think I will be home in time to blog.

So, kind readers, allow me an evening away from the computer.

General, Politics

SwiftVets offer to Kerry: We’ll shut up…

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They did say that. They said they’d shut up! Read about it here.

Here’s an excerpt:

As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home.

I lifted the reference from one of the stars of blogdom, Francis Porretto, who will no doubt crack open a magnum of bubbly when he sees that I have linked to him again…

General, Politics

The McCain Speech

I have a few problems with Senator McCain. I have thought for a long time that his version of “Republican” does not fit mine, but then I fall in to the right of Attila the Hun on some things. However, McCain’s speech at the Republican convention was a good one. Here are a few excerpts, and a little commentary:

The sacrifices borne in our defense are not shared equally by all Americans. But all Americans must share a resolve to see this war through to a just end. We must not be complacent at moments of success, and we must not despair over setbacks.

We must learn from our mistakes, improve on our successes, and vanquish this unpardonable enemy.

If we do less, we will fail the one mission no American generation has ever failed: to provide to our children a stronger, better country than the one we were blessed to inherit.

That’s why **I** served in the Army for eight years — to leave MY children a stronger, better country.

Then he SLAMMED Michael Moore, who was sitting in the balcony as a “reporter”:

Certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe, my friends, who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace, when in fact — when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children inside their walls.

The beauty of that line was that not only did he slam Moore for “Fahrenheit 9/11”, but Senator McCain nailed the lid on a whole genre of Leftist whining about Iraq.

And then this close:

Our adversaries are weaker than us in arms and men, but weaker still in causes. They fight to express — they fight to express a hatred for all that is good in humanity. We fight for love of freedom and justice, a love that is invincible.

Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together. Stay strong. Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up. Stand up with our president and fight.

We’re Americans. We’re Americans, and we’ll never surrender. They will.

Here’s the whole speech. Read it!

Blogging, General

You LIKE me. You really LIKE me…

I may get the vapors. I just noticed that I have moved up another notch in the TTLB Ecosystem. For the first time, I’ve made it to “Adorable Little Rodent”. I’m flabbergasted.

Oh, I know that it won’t last long, but it’s still neat to know that I get you guys to drop by and visit.

UPDATE! See! I told you so! Back down to Flappy bird status.

Battle of the Sexes, Domestic Bliss, Humor

The test

The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were 3 finalists. Two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

“We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!”

The man said, “You can’t be serious, I could never shoot my wife”

The agent said, “Then you’re not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home.”

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes. The man came out with tears in his eyes, “I tried, but I can’t kill my wife.”

The agent said, “You don’t have what it takes. Take you wife and go home.”

Finally, it was the woman’s turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, She wiped the sweat from her brow.

“This gun is loaded with blanks” she said. “I had to beat him to death with the chair.”

MORAL: Women are evil. Don’t mess with them.

(another funny, courtesy of my MUCH older sister)

Domestic Bliss, Humor

That’s how it works..

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A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen.

“Careful … CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful … CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up!

Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind?

Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!”

The wife stared at him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”

The husband calmly replied, “I wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving with you in the car.”

(Credit to an email from my MUCH older sister)

Politics

Bush on Kerry

I have listened to George Bush’s comments to Matt Lauer in an interview. Bush characterized Kerry’s military service as “honorable” and that Kerry was “More heroic than me”. At first I was taken aback. But then I thought about it. From President Bush’s perspective, this is a good move. To say otherwise would be to indicate that he’d taken time to really study Kerry’s “record” as presented by both sides.

Instead, President Bush takes the stance that liar or hero, Kerry is still not the man to runt he country.

The rest of us will continue to hoot and catcall Kerry’s boasts. We will point out the absurdities of Kerry’s lies. And Geroge Bush can look presidential. I think that’s a pretty decent play.

General

This is the new place…

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I’ve done what I talked about doing for months: moved the blog. This is the new place.

Now, a few caveats. For all its problems, Blogger WAS simple to use. I mean, you could go in there, fill in a few blanks, and have your OWN blog. And you didn’t need to know much of anything. AOL’ers could do it…

Of course, if you wanted to add a few things like blogrolling, a few extra links, etc., then you had to get a little farther into a computer than the average Windows user. I had gotten that far.

Now I’m here, running WordPress. It’s pretty simple up front, but as you can see, the template is bland and generic, and I have to figure out how to get all the old bells and whistles ported over, AND I want to add some new ones. So what you’re seeing is a work in progress.

One thing I havent’ been able to do yet is import the old blog. WordPress’s documentation leaves a little to be desired, and as of right now, there are 520 posts on the old blog, and picking them up and bringing them over one post at a time just ain’t happening. So I will leave the old blog up for the time being. It’s got all the old stuff on it, but I won’t be updating it other than to point to this blog.

So, to all of you friends who’ve follwed me this far, let’s just keep on going. It’s fun for me, and I hope it will be fun for you.

Current events - global, General

To All Hands…

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Here’s one to mark down and put away for special occasions…

“Oderient dum Metuant”

A Latin phrase meaning “Let them hate, so long as they fear!” – said to be a favorite of one of the ancient Roman emperors (Caligula?). At any rate, one of the better observations of all times (assuming you have a penchant for establishing an empire!) – the Brits used it most effectively until they started listening to the wailing of a kinder more gentle world (a POX on the UN!).

It described the reaction of the world to our invasion of Iraq, and Iran was trembling in their boots until they discerned that Bush wasn’t ready to invade Iran (not a bad idea actually!). And to think we owe it all to Jimmy (the Wimp) Carter’s inaction in rescuing our prisoners in 1979. Let a diaper-head think you have a weakness even once, and he’ll go for the throat.

Iraq was an excellent start! Never forget, today Iraq, tomorrow, France! Heh, heh, heh…

Best,

Dick

(That’s MAJOR Dick Culver, USMC, Retired. Of CULVER’S Shooting Pages. That’s been a multiple daily visit for me a hundreds of other shooters, old military guys and conversationalists for years)

General, Humor

How to face a problem…

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Boudreaux’s twenty-one-year-old daughter tells her parents she has missed her period for two months. Very worried, they go to the drugstore and to buy a pregnancy kit. The test result shows that the girl is pregnant.

Shouting, cursing, crying, Boudreaux says, “Who was the pig that did this to you? I want to know!”

The girl picks up the phone and makes a call.

Half an hour later, a Ferrari stops in front of the Boudreaux’s house; a mature and distinguished man with gray hair, impeccably dressed in a very expensive suit, steps out of the car and enters the house.

He sits in the living room with Boudreaux, the mother and the girl, and tells them, “Good morning, your daughter has informed
me of the problem. I can’t marry her because of my personal family situation, but I’ll take financial charge of the situation.

If a girl is born, I will bequeath her two retail stores, a townhouse, a beach villa and a $1,000,000 bank account. If a boy is born, my legacy will be a couple of factories and a $2,000,000 bank account. If it is twins, a factory and $1,000,000 each.

However, if there is a miscarriage, what do you suggest I do?”

At this point, Boudreaux, who had remained silent, places a hand firmly on the man’s shoulder and tells him, “Den’ you try agin’!”

General

So Many Heroes

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A report from the Hurricane Charley zone…

It’s been two weeks since Hurricane Charley devestated my town of Port Charlotte and yesterday I took my first hot shower in twelve days. The electric came on due to the monumental effort of linemen from Tennessee,Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and other states I am sure. These men worked 16 on 8 off,.

There were other heroes…

The police who came from all over the state to direct the incredible traffic and protect me from looters in the night.

The very professional National Guard who did the same, on top of spending days in the Florida heat to make sure I had ice and water and food.

Incredible amounts of people came here to help from the Red Cross to insurance adjusters to private business.

I had a much needed hot meal due to the generosity of a Harley Davidson shop from Stuart Fl. and its staff who came to cook it.

The morning after I was at Home Depot at 5:45 waiting for much needed roofing materials and watched bus loads of HD workers arrive from 3 hours away. All these people came in an instant to help me when I really needed them. And so did the neighbors.

It’s not my ruined home, or the memory of the incredible fear I felt that day that keeps bringing me to tears…..its that all these people made feel proud, I mean really proud for the 1st time in my life, to be an American.

I can tell you the looter stories, or about the arguements in the lines for generators etc. …but how insignificant compared to meeting so many heroes in only two weeks.
To all of you who came here in any capacity, and to all your families who sorely missed you in your absence, I offer my gratitude.

I am so very proud of you.

(Posted by “Sandpebble” on CSP GunTalk)