Weekly Open Thread

Slat there are things that are just done better and safer without your spurs, like swimming!

Up in the hills we had what we would call The Noballs Peach Prize, that you would get fo being a chicken and not shootin at yo neighbor. Does this be what Obama done won. It sure do be fittin. It was more easier to come by then a chicken for the fox who got in the hen house.

Jane P that is pretty good for a Saturday morning. Always nice to get a good chuckle. Thanx

In spam. P&T

Don’t know if this is mostly fact, or mostly urban legend, but it makes for a pretty good laugh on a Saturday morning.

Kids!!! Aren’t they funny?

‘Flaming Arrow’ By name withheld

Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little bad-to-the-bone
long bow beginner kits.

Of course, the first month I went around our land sticking arrows
in anything that could get stuck by an arrow.

Did you know that a 1955 40hp Farmall tractor will take 6
rounds before it goes down?

That was one tough son-of-a-gun.

That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazard fan
that I was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up T-shirt doused in
chainsaw gas tied
around the end and was sending flaming arrows all
over the place.

Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so there
really wasn’t any fire danger.

I’ll put it this way- a set of post hole diggers and a 3ft. hole
and you had yourself a well.

One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large
rotten oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether).

The light bulb went off. I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would
probably just spray out in a disappointing manner…let’s face it, to a 10 yr. old mouth-breather like myself ether really doesn’t “sound” flammable.

So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of dads muzzleloader pyrodex. At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie… 1lb pyrodex and 16oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you know?

You know what? Heck with that. I’m going back in the house for the other can. Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too.

Now we’re cookin’. I stepped back about 15ft and lit the 2 stroke arrow.

I drew the nock to my cheek and let fly.

As I released I heard a swish as the arrow launched from my bow.

In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my dad getting out of the truck… OH
CRAP he just got home from work. So help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the can.

My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a ‘what the heck?’ look in his
eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom.

Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can.

Oh. #@$%^&. When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don’t know if it was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk back from 235 decibels of sound.

I caught a half a millisecond glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1ft above the ground as far as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two.

The daylight turned purple. Let me repeat this… THE DAYLIGHT…TURNED…PURPLE.

There was a big sweetgum tree out by the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said “was”. That sucker got up and ran off.

So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my thundercats T-shirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE YOUR BRINGIN’ EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE
DAMIT CEASE FIRE!!!!! His hat has blown off and is 30 ft. behind him in the driveway.

All windows on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling mushroom cloud about 2000ft over our backyard.

There is a Honda 185s 3 wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped down and are now touching the tires.

I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don’t know- I know I said something. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t hear inside my own head. I don’t think he heard me either…not that it would really matter. I don’t remember much from this point on.

I said something, felt a sharp pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke later…. repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so dad could beat me some more. Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again. Thanks mom.

One thing is for sure… I never had to mow around that stump again. Mom had been griping about that thing for years and dad never did anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.

Dad sold his muzzleloaders a week or so later. And I still have some sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating. Or both.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, get your kids into archery. Its good discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.

Well, I guess you get to see 2 posts of the same story! I thought I’d try one more time in case my luck was better the second time.

This just in, Biden gets Nobel for Literature.

http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=7829

The Hill:

Fox News is simply “a wing of the Republican Party,” a top White House aide said today.

Appearing on CNN this morning, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Fox News exists simply to further the agenda of the GOP.

“Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party,” Dunn said.

So, that’s is the ’cause.’ … and the effect? …expect Fox puff up lots of righteous indignation in a rhetorical noise reaction.

Thanks to http://deweyfromdetroit.com, I found a terrific new-to-me contributor on American Thinker. Her article “Sympathy for the Devil” blew me away. You may have read her before…

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley. Now I’d say that takes guts to be coming out as a conservative in Berkeley!

http://comments.americanthinker.com/read/42323/436781.html

‘top 1000 enemies’, huh? … you have an awful lot of enemies.

I sort of assumed, Graham –owing to all the wingnut things he’s said– would be a real contender for ‘favorite conservative senator’.

I have to admit, however, his comments regarding Beck and now this piece with Kerry, it all makes me wonder if he’s changing his stripes and moving into the moderate column.

Gore & Obama have figured out that without the Global Warming Hoax, these record temps would have been much worse. Even so, it is necessary to stop this deadly carbon dioxide before the earth experiences another cold snap, on its way to a Global warming meltdown. Many skeptics urge using reason and logic, while Obama and Gore are bewildered at resistance to their Climate Control Plans.

“A Republic If You Can Keep It”
Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention. Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman, “What kind of government have you given us?” Franklin responded with one of the most famous quotations in history, “A Republic if you can keep it.”

Do You All reckon We Can or What?

@Missy: Thanks so much! Well, many of the comments made references to winning over the famous Independents by “making nice”. Allow me to introduce myself to the apologists on that particular AT thread. I was a life long Democrat from many generations of Democrats. I am not unique in the least. The people I communicate with online are pretty much the same. We left the Democratic Party because of the blatant hypocrisy and out right theft of the primary by the Omama Leftists. It was stunning to watch the R&B Committee meeting and I left the party that same day. Many of my friends who count themselves as New Independents after watching that take over, after seeing how he stole the caucuses with the help and intimidation of ACORN and SEIU thugs and we saw a dictator in the making. Yes, that is evil.

Perhaps Republicans weren’t interested in the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting back in 5/08. Certainly they don’t seem to understand the impact it had on us. In one day, they destroyed any faith I had in their ability to be honest representatives of the US Constitution. And, we are gone for good…as the odious Donna Brazille stated, they are the New Democrats and the old guard is no longer necessary. OK, I said, I hear you. Watching the outcome of the election, I was dismayed when Republicans stayed home. You may have thought McCain a RINO but I believed him to be a patriot and at the very least, reasonable. If the Republicans allow this to happen again by staying home, they deserve what they get. Unfortunately, I don’t deserve an evil dictator running the country my ancestors created. I will vote for anyone other than a Democrat in 2010 and 2012. These people have to be removed from office and ANYONE would be better…even if it’s not the one you’d have preferred. To quote The Dixie Chicks, “I’m not ready to make nice, I’m not ready to back down, and I’m mad as hell….” Yeah, I know that was directed toward this side but ya know it goes both ways. The author of that AT article was a disgusting terminal niceness case and suggested that Republicans have to be civil in response to the attacks from the Left. That is strictly Leftist propaganda. People have to respond appropriately and being angry with a smile on your face, spouting nice sounding platitudes is not appropriate. And no, I’m not for the Hitler and Nazi signs at Tea Parties because it plays into their hands but that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe he has all the qualifications to become another Adolph.

The American grandmother of one of my friends was trapped in Rome during WWII; she used to say about Mussolini, “Watch out for that chin!”. Even though she had no illusions about the Fascist government, she waited too long and the ship on which she had booked passage to come home was never allowed to leave the Naples port. Has anyone noticed that the arrogant chin is back? Well, I have and it has cold, calculating eyes, seething with hatred to go with it.

When the unemployment rate hits 12% and large numbers of people are running out of benefits, watch to see which group begins to be demonized and blamed by the Left. Maybe it’ll be just blue eyed white people (as Lula has said, the source of all the world’s problems); perhaps only Republicans. Their self-hatred will translate into something we haven’t experienced before in the US and if it’s you, you’d better duck. We do have a chance though in 2010 to take control back from these un-democratic Dimocrats before it’s too late. Let’s hope the opposition doesn’t fumble again.

@Missy: Yes, I like Sarah and her positions very muchl. If I needed any further evidence (I didn’t really) that I’d never return to the Dims, Sarah was the confirmation. However, I was so afraid of what the Dims were doing, as Robin of Berkeley said, the wilding of Sarah and her family, enraged me. Very frustrating that McCain’s campaign didn’t fight for her. Still, the Dims were going so far out that I’d have voted for McCain even if he had Big Bird as his VP. I was a part of all that in the 60’s and it was shocking to see that it still had a following, much less wannabes in the youth. They made the actual 60’s look pretty in contrast.

Although I never met David Horowitz in the bad old 60’s, I relate to his story and am so thankful he revealed the inside of all that crap. The first crack in the facade for me came in the early 90’s working to pass Prop 187, the state proposition to deny social services to illegals, and when it won by over 60% but was overthrown by an activist judge, it left me shaking my head. Guess it started cleaning out the cobwebs even though I wasn’t a druggie!

Thanks to you too for sharing your story. Glad I’m not alone. I’ll probably change my registration for the primaries next year in order vote in whichever seems most advantageous…either to get Republicans in or Dims out, then change back for the general. I’d love to see our local Dim rubberstamp, Sam Farr lose his seat. He’s a disgrace but I doubt anyone will challenge him…as usual.