“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Friday, May 13, 2011
Blogger is Back
I was very disappointed in the way Blogger handled this outage, at times giving away email address and other personal information. i can understand things breaking, but repairing it on line in real time is bad news.
You mother fucks, and I thought I'd get somewhere with my laugh it up shit.
I talked to Lorcecca today, my neighbor who I visit with maybe once in a year, a Phillipino married to the bird guy at Wazzu. PhD. L was county commisioner for awhile. Big envro. I asked, would you be pissed if I offed a wolf? She says no, surprising to me, Erik is pissed about them too, and Wayne has lost two calves.
I had the most perfect comeback to the Quirk/shit before Blogger went down. Damn.
You clean up Detroit, I'll clean up here.
Good Luck.
MoFucker.
I tried to be nice, now I'm grump gain. And may continue to be so, till I puff the smoke outta the .243.
And if no one wants to gets a laugh outta life, and our Laugh Club here, all I can do is say, Fuck You Too, and load the rifle.
She swore that the extreme pain I was having in my lower body was completely normal after my first training session on Tuesday night. When I asked her this morning about my next session she said I had to let my muscles heal.
"Muscles heal? What the fuck did you do to me. I thought you only had to wait three days between sessions."
"Not the way I train."
"Obviously, my muscles want to reach out and strangle you right now"
"You want to look something like this in eight weeks don't ya."
The term "work for" presumes some exchange, some compensation. You can't even afford to get the back window on your car fixed. Good heavens, how much could that cost?
Still a smirk is better than a sneer. And at least it is not fake.
Keep it up and you may even solicit a few sniggers, sniggles, and snickers.
Eventually there may even be some chuckles and chortles.
Watched a Fox News deal on Aghanistan last night. It's looking like it's nothing more than History's biggest "Drug Enforcement Operation" - except they don't, actually, destroy the plants.
Thanks for the advice. Actually I don't like that either but I wasn't in the mood to search for what I want my goal to be. I guess I should have left it alone.
I think the Military-Industrial Complex has finally gotten us to the point that Eisenhower was warning us about.
It's gone beyond Eisenhower to Orwell.
When you have normally sane (well at least borderline sane) people, despite all evidance to the contrary, promoting torture as an effective interrogation device you know the country is headed for the shitter.
When you have guys who constantly talk about the "good old days" and bemoan the coursening of our society, values, and culture that has occurred over the past 50 years and then suggest that after we kill an enemy, we cut off his head and put it on a pike, you know we are fucked. It's only a short downhill journey to the snuff videos al Queda used to put out where they cut of the victims head in real time.
When most of the country is willing to spend $ trillions on security over a threat that causes less damage annually than lightning strikes, you know priorities are warped.
When you have people saying "I don't care what it costs me in terms of my rights or my treasure, just please protect me from this existential threat", you know we have pretty much reached the end of the road to pussydom.
When you have 25% of the country on either side of the political divide who will accept any unsubstantiated and mindless soundbite put out by some political hack as long as he is GOP and not Dem (or vice versa), we are half way to 1984.
When we accept the bull coming out of Washington from a particular party and reject the rest, you know we are intellectually bankrupt.
When we actually start believing the government when they say, "We're from the government and we are here to help you", well...
Morally, culturally, intellectually, as a society we have devolved beyond Ike's worst nightmare.
Mel, this slide show is primarily for Sun Sue; however, if you are looking for a 'hard body' the big blonde in most of the pictures might be worth imulating.
you look nice there Quirk can I use you as wolf bait? No danger to yourself I'll be a hundred yards away with a .243 I'll have your back. Mr. Wolf comes along I'll try to shoot him fore he rips your throat out.
My daughter is done with school in CdA. She gets the condo. We get the parking lot.
:)
My main buyer, blacketter, head of u of i engineering dept got the heaad job at u of montana. 198k a year, he's based out off Butte. I do have some boys coming in from Chicago but that's it.
I don['t much give a shit, I got my daugahter's own use for the alfalfa now.
I'm so happy about my daughter. She made a friend for life in that Miss Marion, the horse lady. She got all 'A's in school, she's happy, some things work out, we've got this deal where I always give her a kiss on her right cheek and she gives me a hug. She's gonna run the business from the condo, while my wife and I go tripping.
Well, folks, I expect you will be disappointed when I tell you that I may not be able to share my adventures with you until I get back sometime around June 1 (assuming I make it back at all).
As you are all probably aware, in trying to defray the cost of an upcoming vacation to Great Britain, I had what I thought was a great idea and signed up as a ‘stringer’ for Soldier of Fortune Magazine: The Journal of Professional Adventurers. I was contracted to report on the growing conflict between the ‘Socialists’ and the ‘Islamists’ throughout Greaqt Britain. It’s to be an expose on mayhem and murder and the effects of sharia law. The hope is that one of the big three networks (Discovery, History, or the Travel Channel) will pick it up.
My expectations, in addition to the contracted fee and my per diem, were that I would be equipped with the latest in recording and transcription equipment, state-of-the-art computer technology, and possibly a satellite set-up for both audio and visual. The photographer that was contracted as my assistant had similar expectations for the level of equipment they were to buy for him.
Our equipment arrived yesterday via UPS. I was bitterly disappointed.
Instead of a satellite phone, I received a Samsung cell phone with 1000 prepaid minutes. Instead of the anticipated state-of-the-art computer system, I received a Pandigital 7 inch eReader. (And it wasn’t even the white model.) Supposedly, it has e-mail capability, but I haven’t gone through the complete manual yet.
My per diem, also falls short of my expectations. And since every hotel we’ve been booked into charges around $20-$30 for use of their Business Center, I probably can’t afford to be sending you guys updates. However, there’s still the chance that I will be able to find some cheap wi fi locations to send you dispatches.
Will keep you advised.
If you get any updates from “Lone Wolf” (my code name on this gig), you’ll know I was successful.
Worse than the equipment SOF sent me was what they sent to the photographer, Rick (code name “Gonzo”). Rick had expected a digital camcorder similar to a Panasonic AG-HVX200K 3-CCD P2/DVCPROHD with Leica 13x zoom, enhanced Gamma modes, 14-bit A/D conversion, and dual XLR input. What he got was an old Sony Super 8.
This was bad enough, but instead of a professional still camera, they ended up sending him a Kodak Easy Share M590, the type you can purchase at Best Buy for less than $100. To add insult to injury, it appears they expected Rick to buy his own memory card.
Frustrated and angry, Rick quit.
Soldier of Fortune (SOF) has now hired a new photographer. His name is Timmy (code name “Flash”). He is nineteen years old and has a GED. He also received an associates degree in graphic arts for Phoenix University’s online “Picture Taking Institute’.
Timmy seems especially excited about the Kodak M590.
One good point was that SOF did pop for both a kefiyeh and a ninja type headband that reads “Ichiban”. Pretty damn kool, especially the headband. However, as I said, I feel a little let down by SOF, so I did a little investigative reporting on my own.
Found out SOF was the prototype for all the journals of professional adventurers that followed. However, it appears the magazine has fallen on hard times. No longer are they noted for their hard edged exposes on the “Shining Path” in Peru, or the Sri Lankan civil war, or the Eritrean war in Ethiopia.
Their finances have also suffered from the numerous ‘wrongful death’ lawsuits that were brought against them in the 80’s and 90’s over their ‘gun-for-hire’ adds.
Worst of all, a lot of their key people have left. Many have moved on to lucrative positions with security firms such as Xe, Aegis, and KBR. Others, lacking the required technical training or just too old for wet work have retired and moved on to other avocations such as protecting the wild ponies of the Southwest.
At any rate, SOF has been squeezed pretty thin; and I feel my artistic drive is being severely hampered by trying to record this epic clash of civilizations on the cheap. However, I need the money so I intend to go through with my contract. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?
It's all bullshit, I tried to get intrepid Quirk to push the black button at the Kabaa and the Detroit turkey dun crapped out. I should have expected as much.
My wife recorded "Late Night" with Jimmy Kimmel last night. Jimmy was commenting on the news that OBL had a lot of pornography stashed in a cabinet in his bathroom.
After watching the Bob Newhart video, I watched a few others there especially some from the Dean Martin show.
It reminded me of the difference between comics then and now. Then you had guys who were funny (Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Jonathon Winters) without being vulgar, smarmy, and insulting. They played it for the laughs not to just show how clever they were.
Now, even Jay Leno, who seems like a pretty decent guy, spent 8 years night after night cracking wise about Dick Cheney's heart condition.
I came out here to the 'hotspot' and in the parking lot there was and Hispanic man, nice looking, well suited, and a hot chick in red with a little, hmm, short skirt and they were 'fooling round' on their car, making really nice, and they walked by me, parked, and I said "Get Married!!!" and they laughed. Happiness is all round, if you look for it.
Remind me to ask the Oleson Brothers who are doing the alfalfa for me if they've lost any cattle. They have lots of cattle out there on American Ridge, and I bet they got some stories to tell.
Wayne 'an me we got hunting thought now, we be bustin' 'em, an no lookin' back, we be high school mates, our pappas have law school in the background we built this fucker, we built the law school, so's we don't give a big shit bout some fucker from Detroit, let him lick his own balls.
It's so so sad that Hemingway made such a fool of himself, domestically, when he had Hadley, whom he called, in despair, at the end of his life, and she said "No Ernest, I have my own life now."
Mary couldn't stop it good girl that she was.
I love that man. Like I love Roethke, and Twain, and Walt.
Conservative economists propose selling US's assets to help US out of it's current financial crisis (although in truth they have been proposing the same thing for years).
This fits right in with what has been suggested by some here although most of these economists would not go nearly as far as has been suggested here.
In some cases it makes sense. When Homeland Security was formed, the government spent billions building new offices to house it. They do this everytime a new department is formed and they are constantly replacing old buildings.
There are thousands of federal buildings that are either unused or underutilized that coudl be sold.
However, the current justification the conservatives offer falls short. Trying to sell buildings to overcome problems associated with the economy doesn't work too well when nobody is buying buildings because of problems associated with the economy.
Still, the general idea isn't bad. And toll roads might not be a bad idea (although inconvenient) either. Or privatizing other commercial enterprises.
Selling gold is bad for other reasons, and selling national treasures like the national parks makes no sense at all.
However, the main reason the plan falls short is that is is merely a short-term fix. No assets are created and if you sold all the gold in Fort Knox you'd net less than $400 billion even at today's prices.
If you were very successful you might be able to take care of one years budget deficit. You wouldn't come close to eliminating a significant portion of the total debt.
Thousands of Palestinians and their supporters marched toward Israeli border positions from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hurling stones and surging across one frontier before being repelled by army gunfire that killed at least 12 people and wounded scores more.
The protests marked the anniversary of the establishment of Israel in 1948, which Palestinians commemorate as the “nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were displaced in the war that followed Israel’s declaration of independence.
Israeli military spokesmen accused Syria and Iran of instigating the protests to divert attention from the anti-government uprising in Syria and the deadly crackdown there...
Scores wounded in latest religious clashes in Egypt
A day after dozens were seriously injured in the latest spate of clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians here, thousands of Christians on Sunday defied the request of the community’s leader to lift a sit-in demonstration.
Witnesses said the clashes began late Saturday after snipers opened fire from locations across the Nile River on Christians who have been camped outside the main state television building for nearly a week to demand better protection from the government...Religious Clashes in Egypt
Sartre and I had a few whiskeys at that Bar Hem made famous, and we shared a young girl, then Husserl dropped in and I taught him how to find the transcendent ego, and when I got back to the Palouse I mailed the bar one of our Vandals flags, that bar had flags from all over America. Husserl was smart just kinda lost is all. Sartre was always rapping on bout how death always comes up from behind, like in a mirror. I don't think the dude knew shit, but he sold some books.
But the resurgent nationalists are not listening, and neither are the voters who don’t want to pick up bills for other nations’ follies. The European ideal looks more fragile today than at any time since it began to evolve in the 1970s from a “common market” to an enlarged community of states.
And that is no cause for celebration or schadenfreude. Tarnished and flawed though it may be, the EU has made a huge contribution to peace and has supported the democratic aspirations of many millions of people.
It urgently needs two things: a strategy to deal with the debt crisis in which no options are ruled out, and a new set of leaders.
Four thick ledgers compiled by Special Branch officers have been kept under lock and key since the Whitechapel murders in 1888.
...
Another senior officer, Detective Superintendent Julian McKinney, told the tribunal that releasing names would make police officers less capable of preventing terrorist attacks and organised crime, and make informants vulnerable to attack.
Det Supt McKinney said: “Regardless of the time, regardless of whether they are dead, they should never be disclosed.
But now, sadly for UFO spotters, a new book offers an entirely man-made – and some would say even more bizarre – explanation, featuring two of the greatest villains of 20th century history: the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death” Dr Joseph Mengele.
...
The EG&G engineers were told “that seeing the bodies would be a shocking and disturbing experience”.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a spokesman for the US Air Force said: “We have not yet read this book so we are not able to make a comment on it.”
This is why you have to choose your Gurus, wisely. The "Conservatives" have been very untruthful about the efficacy of Renewable Energies.
It's pretty easy for me to visualize the 10th largest economy in the world running, entirely, on electricity from Renewable Resources (No Coal, or Nat Gas - possibly no nuclear.)
It turns out that "Wind," when sourced over a Wide Geographic Area becomes pretty predictable. Not nearly as much "back-up" is needed as has been ballyhooed by the anti-wind/solar crowd.
A pretty good study was done, recently, in which the result was that the "intermittency" of wind adds about half a penny per kilowatt hour. That's not much at all, especially, when you consider that, as the prices of oil, and coal continue to rise, the cost of wind, and sunshine remains the same - Zero.
Call me cynical but I don't think there are any "pretty good studies" done.
Regardless of the resourse, they are all geared to an agenda or have an ax to grind. I've seen reports where a number of the wind companies don't bother doing repairs because they don't get paid for those. The just put up new towers because those are being subsidized.
It's rare I see a study were all the costs are genuinely accounted for without adding some off the wall estimates (that seem like pretty good numbers to someone)regarding other energy types.
It's all a PR game and an effort to enlarge their piece of the pie. Which is the most efficient and to right way to go? Who the heck knows?
That's why it's good to push on all of them. We will need them all in the future and eventually the truth on efficiency and negatives for each will become clear.
The POS Link Rufus posted a few days ago repeated ad-infinitum how cheaply Windpower's intermitancy could be addressed, but I sure as heck was not impressed by any arguments or details to support that in the windy wordy pile.
Got anything SUBSTANTIVE about addressing the problem, Rufus?
Here on Maui they were talking about water storage, which may well be the most efficient storage scheme, but ALL storage scheme are tremendously expensive.
...and do not address the occasional extended windless lulls.
And, for your information, Genera is growing switchgrass on freeway rights-of-way, as we type - and harvesting it the old-fashioned way, with mowing machines, and balers.
Q, I guess California's unique, but if you'll look at the links I've been posting the wind tends to die down in the middle of the day, there, and, lo and behold, that's usually when they get a little "sunshine" for their solar.
As for Gingrich, and Romney, and Romneycare, and such: It seems like Romneycare is just about the biggest Non-Story of the Day in Massachusetts.
Wait times are up a few days for Non-Urgent Visits, a few more Doctors are full up, and not taking new patients, and it's impacted State Expenditures by Less than 1%.
Insurance premiums have gone up (just like everywhere else,) and it's still "one" of the highest cost states (but not the highest.)
The last half of the twentieth century was all about petroleum, and plastics made from petroleum (Mr Robinson was right.)
The first half of the 21st Century will be all about Biology, and products made from Biology. It will be about harnessing "Natural" forces to produce our power.
And, efficiency. Shitloads, and shitloads of "efficiency." Driven by Computers, and Robotics. And, Exporting to the "Developing" World. Obama's right; we Have to double our exports, because we can't possibly consume half of what we can produce.
x
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm Rufus, again.
ReplyDeleteHuh, Now I'm too tired to comment.
ReplyDeleteBlogger withdrawal anyone…
ReplyDeleteWouldn't have that problem with word press.
I thought maybe they had had enough of Wio and Rat.
ReplyDeleteBlogger or Deuce and Whit?
ReplyDeleteblogga, already heard from Deuce and Whit more than once.
ReplyDeletesunny and 75 degrees in North Texas today....
North Texas heh?
ReplyDeleteDickeys BBQ...
yum
coit & spring valley...
ReplyDeleteBagelsteins
ReplyDeleteYou mother fucks, and I thought I'd get somewhere with my laugh it up shit.
ReplyDeleteI talked to Lorcecca today, my neighbor who I visit with maybe once in a year, a Phillipino married to the bird guy at Wazzu.
PhD. L was county commisioner for awhile. Big envro. I asked, would you be pissed if I offed a wolf? She says no, surprising to me, Erik is pissed about them too, and Wayne has lost two calves.
I had the most perfect comeback to the Quirk/shit before Blogger went down. Damn.
You clean up Detroit, I'll clean up here.
Good Luck.
MoFucker.
I tried to be nice, now I'm grump gain. And may continue to be so, till I puff the smoke outta the .243.
And if no one wants to gets a laugh outta life, and our Laugh Club here, all I can do is say, Fuck You Too, and load the rifle.
dwr
In Abbey, there is a business card --
ReplyDeleteAh have listened to all you say, an considered it well, an Fuck You just the same.
That I Submit, is AMERICAN FREEDOM!!!!
dwr
If you want to be a bunch of sad asses, FUCK YOU JUST THE SAME.
ReplyDeleteBut--
when I breathe with the birds, the spirit of wrath becomes the spirit of blessing, and the dead begin to sing in their dark in my sleep
Such dark to us is light to them.
And if you can't get that, you are a Rat.
dwr
From Arizona.
ReplyDeleteFrom Phoenix.
But I won't bore you with the myth.
A true moron.
dwr
Occupied Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteBut, my wife calls.
dwr
Great, blogger comes back, and we find out Bob's back off his meds.
ReplyDeleteBut rathole ain't gonna get it, he be into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteAnd, who is the ass criticizes Hem's clothes?
Can he write?
naw
dwr
I love you Ruf, but you jus ain't mythy, like me.
ReplyDeleteMyth is reality.
You jus don understand.
You'll be ok.
Even if you don pray.
Gotta go now.
dwr
.
ReplyDeleteMy. My. My.
Come on dhwr, fake cheer up, put on a great big fake smile, and we'll all have a great big fake laugh about it.
Remember, fake laughing leads to real laughing, or so it is said.
Or am I being too mythy here?
.
.
Arshole, Detroit Fool, the scientific studies of such prove me to be correct.
ReplyDeleteYou are liken to one of those Prostestant Preachers, that warns us against moving towards the natural ligtht, at death, least it be SATAN.
You FOOL
What you are really moaning about in your pathetic
Detroit ways is --
You are worried we will not need a slovenly comedian any longer.
And you will be broke, and have to work for me.
dwr
And that would would be a death sentence, you wouldn't make it till noon.
ReplyDeletedwr
Lorecca, our former county comissioner, a
ReplyDeleteflilipino, said
"Shoot the fucker, bob."
.243
dwr
She swore that the extreme pain I was having in my lower body was completely normal after my first training session on Tuesday night. When I asked her this morning about my next session she said I had to let my muscles heal.
ReplyDelete"Muscles heal? What the fuck did you do to me. I thought you only had to wait three days between sessions."
"Not the way I train."
"Obviously, my muscles want to reach out and strangle you right now"
"You want to look something like this in eight weeks don't ya."
Tonight I worked the upper body.
.
ReplyDeleteAnd you will be broke, and have to work for me.
Hey, maybe there is something to this afterall.
That did actually generate a slight smirk.
Work for you?
The term "work for" presumes some exchange, some compensation. You can't even afford to get the back window on your car fixed. Good heavens, how much could that cost?
Still a smirk is better than a
sneer. And at least it is not fake.
Keep it up and you may even solicit a few sniggers, sniggles, and snickers.
Eventually there may even be some chuckles and chortles.
One can only hope. Hang in there.
.
.
ReplyDelete"You want to look something like this in eight weeks don't ya."
Mel, please don't do anything that would give you arms like in the picture.
You would be destroying that fantasy image I have of you.
.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSnickers? I Love Snickers. :)
ReplyDeleteDitto, on the arms. I almost said the same thing, myself.
Watched a Fox News deal on Aghanistan last night. It's looking like it's nothing more than History's biggest "Drug Enforcement Operation" - except they don't, actually, destroy the plants.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of bullshit.
85% of the oil from the Middle East goes to Asia. Time to start wrapping up that nonsense, too.
ReplyDeleteWe can sell a couple of Aircraft Carrier Groups to the Chinese, and let them guard the own oil supply.
ReplyDeleteI think the Military-Industrial Complex has finally gotten us to the point that Eisenhower was warning us about.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. Actually I don't like that either but I wasn't in the mood to search for what I want my goal to be. I guess I should have left it alone.
ReplyDeleteIt was an impulse link.
You can continue your fantasy image of me.
.
ReplyDeleteI think the Military-Industrial Complex has finally gotten us to the point that Eisenhower was warning us about.
It's gone beyond Eisenhower to Orwell.
When you have normally sane (well at least borderline sane) people, despite all evidance to the contrary, promoting torture as an effective interrogation device you know the country is headed for the shitter.
When you have guys who constantly talk about the "good old days" and bemoan the coursening of our society, values, and culture that has occurred over the past 50 years and then suggest that after we kill an enemy, we cut off his head and put it on a pike, you know we are fucked. It's only a short downhill journey to the snuff videos al Queda used to put out where they cut of the victims head in real time.
When most of the country is willing to spend $ trillions on security over a threat that causes less damage annually than lightning strikes, you know priorities are warped.
When you have people saying "I don't care what it costs me in terms of my rights or my treasure, just please protect me from this existential threat", you know we have pretty much reached the end of the road to pussydom.
When you have 25% of the country on either side of the political divide who will accept any unsubstantiated and mindless soundbite put out by some political hack as long as he is GOP and not Dem (or vice versa), we are half way to 1984.
When we accept the bull coming out of Washington from a particular party and reject the rest, you know we are intellectually bankrupt.
When we actually start believing the government when they say, "We're from the government and we are here to help you", well...
Morally, culturally, intellectually, as a society we have devolved beyond Ike's worst nightmare.
.
.
ReplyDeleteMel, this slide show is primarily for Sun Sue; however, if you are looking for a 'hard body' the big blonde in most of the pictures might be worth imulating.
Brazilian Bikini
.
Listen. I started to write a post, good Lord not here, and didn't like the way it was going so I just posted what I had written here.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteListen.
No criticism intended.
:)
.
Yeah, but it looks like the Good Lord used up most of his stuff on the legs, and was running "short" by the time he got to the titties, though. :)
ReplyDeleteNo criticism taken, you should know me by now. Trust me if I felt offended you would know it.
ReplyDeleteBut I must say my girl does look better than your girl.
.
ReplyDeleteI always was a leg man Ruf.
.
hohooho i think blogger ate some of my comments
ReplyDeleteyou look nice there Quirk can I use you as wolf bait? No danger to yourself I'll be a hundred yards away with a .243 I'll have your back. Mr. Wolf comes along I'll try to shoot him fore he rips your throat out.
dwr
.
ReplyDeleteBut I must say my girl does look better than your girl.
Your 'girl' looks like one of those transgender prostitutes you see in the documentaries about streetlife in LA.
Looks like the operation turned out ok but he/she needs to do something about the arms. It will likely hurt business.
(Criticism intended.)
.
My daughter is done with school in CdA. She gets the condo. We get the parking lot.
ReplyDelete:)
My main buyer, blacketter, head of u of i engineering dept got the heaad job at u of montana. 198k a year, he's based out off Butte. I do have some boys coming in from Chicago but that's it.
I don['t much give a shit, I got my daugahter's own use for the alfalfa now.
:)
dwr
I look at legs as a "journey," not a "destination," Q. But, that's just me. :)
ReplyDeleteObammy Promotes Alaska, and Offshore Drilling.
.
ReplyDeleteNo danger to yourself I'll be a hundred yards away with a .243 I'll have your back.
You walking around with a .243 at any distance would pose a grave danger to society.
Danger to me? Likely.
Danger to the wolf? Not as much unless there is a lucky accident (or unlucky in the wolf's case).
Danger to yourself. God yes.
Leave the gun home Annie Oakley.
.
dhq, you need to get some spirituality and quit this thinking bout girls alla tim.
ReplyDeleteI understand the only thing to do in Detroit is watch young girls pole dance but you otta come out here you can watch the ducks float by on the river
dwr
Rufus II said...
ReplyDeleteI look at legs as a "journey," not a "destination," Q. But, that's just me. :)
heh
that be the spirit ruf
when you be pokin' the fire you ain't lookin' at the mantle
Ed Abbey
dwr
I'm so happy about my daughter. She made a friend for life in that Miss Marion, the horse lady. She got all 'A's in school, she's happy, some things work out, we've got this deal where I always give her a kiss on her right cheek and she gives me a hug.
ReplyDeleteShe's gonna run the business from the condo, while my wife and I go tripping.
Life is not so bad, somethimes.
dwr
(Criticism intended.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning.
At least she doesn't look anorexic and anemic. Your poor girl looks like she is ready to pass out from starvation. And look at those thin flabby arms.
All I know is I need to drop about 75 lbs and 6 inches so I guess it really doesn't matter which photo I go with.
ReplyDelete; )
.
ReplyDeleteYours looks like a surfer boy who from an early age knew 'she' was trapped in a male body and had to get out.
As for mine's arms, they don't look that bad to me. They may need a little muscle tone. Hard to tell without touching them.
She's probably a vegan.
.
.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is I need to drop about 75 lbs and 6 inches...
Stop putting olive oil on your cauliflower.
And won't 6 inches off make you a little short?
.
Vegans make the worst lovers.
ReplyDeleteBest lay I ever had in my miserable life loved steaks.
And mountain tops, and the wind whispering through them trees.
Heaven must be constructed out of stuff like this.
Imagination is creation, the way I've got it figured.
That lasts.
dwr
Well, quoting Melody from the past, a little nip and tuck here and there is fine, if you got the money for it.
ReplyDelete:)
dwr
You start talking about "losing six inches," and Q gets nervous. Why is that, you might wonder. :)
ReplyDeleteMight it be that at "minus six" Q would no longer stand for "Quirk?"
"Queen?"
ReplyDeleteQuirk's a big bullshitter,
ReplyDeleteRufus, I had that figured out long ago.
Thankfully, he's harmless.
It's what you do, in Detroit.
:)
dwr
.
ReplyDeleteWell, folks, I expect you will be disappointed when I tell you that I may not be able to share my adventures with you until I get back sometime around June 1 (assuming I make it back at all).
As you are all probably aware, in trying to defray the cost of an upcoming vacation to Great Britain, I had what I thought was a great idea and signed up as a ‘stringer’ for Soldier of Fortune Magazine: The Journal of Professional Adventurers. I was contracted to report on the growing conflict between the ‘Socialists’ and the ‘Islamists’ throughout Greaqt Britain. It’s to be an expose on mayhem and murder and the effects of sharia law. The hope is that one of the big three networks (Discovery, History, or the Travel Channel) will pick it up.
My expectations, in addition to the contracted fee and my per diem, were that I would be equipped with the latest in recording and transcription equipment, state-of-the-art computer technology, and possibly a satellite set-up for both audio and visual. The photographer that was contracted as my assistant had similar expectations for the level of equipment they were to buy for him.
Our equipment arrived yesterday via UPS. I was bitterly disappointed.
Instead of a satellite phone, I received a Samsung cell phone with 1000 prepaid minutes. Instead of the anticipated state-of-the-art computer system, I received a Pandigital 7 inch eReader. (And it wasn’t even the white model.) Supposedly, it has e-mail capability, but I haven’t gone through the complete manual yet.
My per diem, also falls short of my expectations. And since every hotel we’ve been booked into charges around $20-$30 for use of their Business Center, I probably can’t afford to be sending you guys updates. However, there’s still the chance that I will be able to find some cheap wi fi locations to send you dispatches.
Will keep you advised.
If you get any updates from “Lone Wolf” (my code name on this gig), you’ll know I was successful.
Worse than the equipment SOF sent me was what they sent to the photographer, Rick (code name “Gonzo”). Rick had expected a digital camcorder similar to a Panasonic AG-HVX200K 3-CCD P2/DVCPROHD with Leica 13x zoom, enhanced Gamma modes, 14-bit A/D conversion, and dual XLR input. What he got was an old Sony Super 8.
This was bad enough, but instead of a professional still camera, they ended up sending him a Kodak Easy Share M590, the type you can purchase at Best Buy for less than $100. To add insult to injury, it appears they expected Rick to buy his own memory card.
Frustrated and angry, Rick quit.
Soldier of Fortune (SOF) has now hired a new photographer. His name is Timmy (code name “Flash”). He is nineteen years old and has a GED. He also received an associates degree in graphic arts for Phoenix University’s online “Picture Taking Institute’.
Timmy seems especially excited about the Kodak M590.
(continued on next post)
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ReplyDeleteSoldier of Fortune assignment
(continued from previous post)
One good point was that SOF did pop for both a kefiyeh and a ninja type headband that reads “Ichiban”. Pretty damn kool, especially the headband.
However, as I said, I feel a little let down by SOF, so I did a little investigative reporting on my own.
Found out SOF was the prototype for all the journals of professional adventurers that followed. However, it appears the magazine has fallen on hard times. No longer are they noted for their hard edged exposes on the “Shining Path” in Peru, or the Sri Lankan civil war, or the Eritrean war in Ethiopia.
Their finances have also suffered from the numerous ‘wrongful death’ lawsuits that were brought against them in the 80’s and 90’s over their ‘gun-for-hire’ adds.
Worst of all, a lot of their key people have left. Many have moved on to lucrative positions with security firms such as Xe, Aegis, and KBR. Others, lacking the required technical training or just too old for wet work have retired and moved on to other avocations such as protecting the wild ponies of the Southwest.
At any rate, SOF has been squeezed pretty thin; and I feel my artistic drive is being severely hampered by trying to record this epic clash of civilizations on the cheap. However, I need the money so I intend to go through with my contract. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?
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It's all bullshit, I tried to get intrepid
ReplyDeleteQuirk to push the black button at the Kabaa and the
Detroit turkey dun crapped out. I should have expected as much.
Whatever the
Quirker is, he ain't got the blood of a martyr.
dwr
Further, he likes to grill streaks on his barbeque.
ReplyDeletedwr
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ReplyDeleteMy wife recorded "Late Night" with Jimmy Kimmel last night. Jimmy was commenting on the news that OBL had a lot of pornography stashed in a cabinet in his bathroom.
One interesting video title was Deep Goat
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Whatever the
ReplyDeleteQuirker is, he ain't got the blood of a martyr.
That's cause like all my friends I'm a vegan.
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Quirk, a serious question -- what the hell happens to a guy like that?
ReplyDeleteWe know that Dante got a lot of his images from islamic sources, but what the hell happens to a guy like that?
I am so so happy I wasn't born into total nonsense like that.
dwr
.
ReplyDeletewhat the hell happens to a guy like that?
As the 'Old Prospectors' (Hudson and Landry) used to say, "I couldn't live like that".
The Old Prospectors
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Well I'll tell ya, culture means a lot.
ReplyDeleteI wonder sometimes how can you blame these people brought up the way they are.
I have no answer/
dwr
I thought of this one when I was watching the Prospectors. Air Controller
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the Bob Newhart video, I watched a few others there especially some from the Dean Martin show.
It reminded me of the difference between comics then and now. Then you had guys who were funny (Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, Jonathon Winters) without being vulgar, smarmy, and insulting. They played it for the laughs not to just show how clever they were.
Now, even Jay Leno, who seems like a pretty decent guy, spent 8 years night after night cracking wise about Dick Cheney's heart condition.
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That got me to thinking about Karnak
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDelete32-24-36 and 9
Reminds me of an earlier post.
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ReplyDeleteMy wife is reading the Enquirer and filling me in on new insights into the character of that criminal genius bin Laden.
Seems he liked Whitney Houston and wanted to arrange for Bobby Brown to be taken out.
Also he didn't like Sadaam Hussein. Called him "Fatso".
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sunglasses
ReplyDeleteanother good one
ReplyDeleteHuckabee's not running.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this would be good news for Palin.
I came out here to the 'hotspot' and in the parking lot there was and Hispanic man, nice looking, well suited, and a hot chick in red with a little, hmm, short skirt and they were 'fooling round' on their car, making really nice, and they walked by me, parked, and I said "Get Married!!!" and they laughed. Happiness is all round, if you look for it.
ReplyDelete.243
Good news for Palin.
ReplyDeleteShe be my girl.
.243
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ReplyDelete.243
The question is
IQ?
Credit Score?
or
Sperm Count?
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You got to report on the independence movement in Scotland when you are across the pond, Quirk.
ReplyDeleteActually I don't think you are really going anywhere, maybe the 7/11 cross the street, is all.
dwr
Remind me to ask the Oleson Brothers who are doing the alfalfa for me if they've lost any cattle.
ReplyDeleteThey have lots of cattle out there on American Ridge, and I bet they got some stories to tell.
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ReplyDeleteYou got to report on the independence movement in Scotland when you are across the pond, Quirk.
I usually get paid for such assignments.
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Quirk your profile picture is very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteMorally, culturally, intellectually, as a society we have devolved beyond Ike's worst nightmare.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's from a guy in Detroit.
Flee, Quirk, Flee
Flee the wrath to come.
YOU CAN DO IT
I'll teach you the basics of fly fishing. Then you be on your own, like Thoreau, like Whitman, like Twain.....like bob....
You will survive.
Out here in the great west.
dwr
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ReplyDeleteSo is yours.
.
Quirk your profile picture is very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAin't that God's Truth.
But that's the Quirker for you.
dwr
Quirk your profile picture is very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAin't that the God's Truth.
But that's the Quirker for you.
dwr
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ReplyDeleteI am writing up my travel checklist:
. MREs
. Insect spray (for Paris)
. Bed bug spray (for anywhere outside of my own house)
. Language Translator (set from English to English)
....
.
The Google Toilet
ReplyDeleteThe one time I was in Paris, I thought it a real shitter.
ReplyDeleteThey had pisser stalls around the streets, piss running down the streets, the gutters, and it stunk like hell.
Christ Almighty, and we fought for these folks.
Their hos though were world class, up in that working district.
Sexy beyond belief.
I did not partake.
dwr
Sometimes I read alternative history.
ReplyDeleteThere is a girl from Israel who posts around, one of her ideas is that it might have been better if Germany had won the First World War.
No commie Russia.
No bitterness and drive to the east.
No Holocast.
No WWII.
I don't know what I think about this, but it is an interesting idea.
dwr
Now I've talked to Wayne.
ReplyDeleteHe does indeed have two calves down.
We goin' a huntin'
We be Shakespearean, the grafting of the rose, we be billy blake, make a civilization outta da wilderness.
dwr
While da boys in Detroit rob da liquor store.
ReplyDeletedwr
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ReplyDeleteWe goin' a huntin'
We be Shakespearean...
Foolscaps and bells.
Changelings and mooncalves.
Dolts and tomnoddies.
Sir Andrew Aquecheek and Homer Simpson enter the forest to hunt.
Lordy.
.
tomnoddies
ReplyDeleteOnly, ONLY the fuckin' DETROIT MAN coulda come with that shit!!!!!!!!
dwr
Wayne 'an me we got hunting thought now, we be bustin' 'em, an no lookin' back, we be high school mates, our pappas have law school in the background we built this fucker, we built the law school, so's we don't give a big shit bout some fucker from Detroit, let him lick his own balls.
ReplyDeletedwr
It's so so sad that Hemingway made such a fool of himself, domestically, when he had Hadley, whom he called, in despair, at the end of his life, and she said "No
ReplyDeleteErnest, I have my own life now."
Mary couldn't stop it good girl that she was.
I love that man. Like I love Roethke, and Twain, and Walt.
dwr
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ReplyDeleteThe one time I was in Paris, I thought it a real shitter.
They had pisser stalls around the streets, piss running down the streets, the gutters, and it stunk like hell.
Did you get a chance to see Sarah Bernhart or Marshall Foch while you were there?
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ReplyDeleteConservative economists propose selling US's assets to help US out of it's current financial crisis (although in truth they have been proposing the same thing for years).
This fits right in with what has been suggested by some here although most of these economists would not go nearly as far as has been suggested here.
Raid Fort Knox?
In some cases it makes sense. When Homeland Security was formed, the government spent billions building new offices to house it. They do this everytime a new department is formed and they are constantly replacing old buildings.
There are thousands of federal buildings that are either unused or underutilized that coudl be sold.
However, the current justification the conservatives offer falls short. Trying to sell buildings to overcome problems associated with the economy doesn't work too well when nobody is buying buildings because of problems associated with the economy.
Still, the general idea isn't bad. And toll roads might not be a bad idea (although inconvenient) either. Or privatizing other commercial enterprises.
Selling gold is bad for other reasons, and selling national treasures like the national parks makes no sense at all.
However, the main reason the plan falls short is that is is merely a short-term fix. No assets are created and if you sold all the gold in Fort Knox you'd net less than $400 billion even at today's prices.
If you were very successful you might be able to take care of one years budget deficit. You wouldn't come close to eliminating a significant portion of the total debt.
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ReplyDeleteThousands of Palestinians and their supporters marched toward Israeli border positions from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hurling stones and surging across one frontier before being repelled by army gunfire that killed at least 12 people and wounded scores more.
The protests marked the anniversary of the establishment of Israel in 1948, which Palestinians commemorate as the “nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were displaced in the war that followed Israel’s declaration of independence.
Israeli military spokesmen accused Syria and Iran of instigating the protests to divert attention from the anti-government uprising in Syria and the deadly crackdown there...
Protests in Israel
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ReplyDeleteScores wounded in latest religious clashes in Egypt
A day after dozens were seriously injured in the latest spate of clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians here, thousands of Christians on Sunday defied the request of the community’s leader to lift a sit-in demonstration.
Witnesses said the clashes began late Saturday after snipers opened fire from locations across the Nile River on Christians who have been camped outside the main state television building for nearly a week to demand better protection from the government...Religious Clashes in Egypt
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Had a fuck of a lunch with Fock and a young Bardot showed me round the town but I know nothing of Sarah whoever.
ReplyDeleteBB's hefted up but she's a member of PETA
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Sartre and I had a few whiskeys at that Bar Hem made famous, and we shared a young girl, then Husserl dropped in and I taught him how to find the transcendent ego, and when I got back to the Palouse I mailed the bar one of our Vandals flags, that bar had flags from all over America. Husserl was smart just kinda lost is all. Sartre was always rapping on bout how death always comes up from behind, like in a mirror. I don't think the dude knew shit, but he sold some books.
ReplyDeletedwr
But the resurgent nationalists are not listening, and neither are the voters who don’t want to pick up bills for other nations’ follies. The European ideal looks more fragile today than at any time since it began to evolve in the 1970s from a “common market” to an enlarged community of states.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is no cause for celebration or schadenfreude. Tarnished and flawed though it may be, the EU has made a huge contribution to peace and has supported the democratic aspirations of many millions of people.
It urgently needs two things: a strategy to deal with the debt crisis in which no options are ruled out, and a new set of leaders.
On The Brink
Husseril
ReplyDelete\
dwr
Four thick ledgers compiled by Special Branch officers have been kept under lock and key since the Whitechapel murders in 1888.
ReplyDelete...
Another senior officer, Detective Superintendent Julian McKinney, told the tribunal that releasing names would make police officers less capable of preventing terrorist attacks and organised crime, and make informants vulnerable to attack.
Det Supt McKinney said: “Regardless of the time, regardless of whether they are dead, they should never be disclosed.
Files Secret
But now, sadly for UFO spotters, a new book offers an entirely man-made – and some would say even more bizarre – explanation, featuring two of the greatest villains of 20th century history: the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death” Dr Joseph Mengele.
ReplyDelete...
The EG&G engineers were told “that seeing the bodies would be a shocking and disturbing experience”.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a spokesman for the US Air Force said: “We have not yet read this book so we are not able to make a comment on it.”
US Panic
California got a little less than 15% of its electricity from Coal, and Gas, Yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThis is why you have to choose your Gurus, wisely. The "Conservatives" have been very untruthful about the efficacy of Renewable Energies.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty easy for me to visualize the 10th largest economy in the world running, entirely, on electricity from Renewable Resources (No Coal, or Nat Gas - possibly no nuclear.)
It turns out that "Wind," when sourced over a Wide Geographic Area becomes pretty predictable. Not nearly as much "back-up" is needed as has been ballyhooed by the anti-wind/solar crowd.
ReplyDeleteA pretty good study was done, recently, in which the result was that the "intermittency" of wind adds about half a penny per kilowatt hour. That's not much at all, especially, when you consider that, as the prices of oil, and coal continue to rise, the cost of wind, and sunshine remains the same - Zero.
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ReplyDeleteA pretty good study was done...
Call me cynical but I don't think there are any "pretty good studies" done.
Regardless of the resourse, they are all geared to an agenda or have an ax to grind. I've seen reports where a number of the wind companies don't bother doing repairs because they don't get paid for those. The just put up new towers because those are being subsidized.
It's rare I see a study were all the costs are genuinely accounted for without adding some off the wall estimates (that seem like pretty good numbers to someone)regarding other energy types.
It's all a PR game and an effort to enlarge their piece of the pie. Which is the most efficient and to right way to go? Who the heck knows?
That's why it's good to push on all of them. We will need them all in the future and eventually the truth on efficiency and negatives for each will become clear.
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The POS Link Rufus posted a few days ago repeated ad-infinitum how cheaply Windpower's intermitancy could be addressed, but I sure as heck was not impressed by any arguments or details to support that in the windy wordy pile.
ReplyDeleteGot anything SUBSTANTIVE about addressing the problem, Rufus?
Here on Maui they were talking about water storage, which may well be the most efficient storage scheme, but ALL storage scheme are tremendously expensive.
ReplyDelete...and do not address the occasional extended windless lulls.
...Rufus will respond that on the mainland, the grid can and will compensate:
ReplyDeleteShow me a REAL study of the issue.
"A pretty good study was done, recently, in which the result was that the "intermittency" of wind adds about half a penny per kilowatt hour. "
ReplyDeleteThe POS link repeatedly said MANY studies showed the costs to be low.
Show me studies in an understandable format.
DEFEND the "pretty good study" with FACTS, not the endless windy drivel of the referenced POS.
...and fess up that you and 'Rat were wrong about some of your utopian cellulosic schemes to power us to Nirvana.
ReplyDelete...like growing fuel on freeway dividers.
Which would make sense energetically only if we had little ladies with scyths and baskets on their heads to harvest and transport the bioMASS.
Gingrich now on Gallegher defending his LATEST indefensible BS trashing of Ryan wrt Medicare.
ReplyDelete...out of context.
har de har har.
Never once did he address the fact that Medicare change is VOLUNTARY for all old farts 55 or greater.
Scumbag
Would be cool to transfer Medicare to the states, however.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
Also would be nice to see number of birds wiped out per megawatt per year.
ReplyDelete...cause a World w/o birds would be a lot more unlivable than one with a miniscule bit more CO2 in the atmosphere.
200 MORE Waivers.
ReplyDelete...how much more bogus could any scheme be?
Our plan is for thee, not me.
ReplyDeletebin Laden Porn Library included an original videotape of...
ReplyDeleteDeep Goat.
Damn RUFUS
ReplyDeleteI got up this morning to
SNOW
It's all that ETHENOL from mid= mississippi
dwr
Hell, it's 51 degrees down Here.
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear, Doug, I could give a fuck about some flea-speck island out in the middle of the Ocean.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for your information, Genera is growing switchgrass on freeway rights-of-way, as we type - and harvesting it the old-fashioned way, with mowing machines, and balers.
ReplyDeleteQ, I guess California's unique, but if you'll look at the links I've been posting the wind tends to die down in the middle of the day, there, and, lo and behold, that's usually when they get a little "sunshine" for their solar.
ReplyDeleteAs for Gingrich, and Romney, and Romneycare, and such: It seems like Romneycare is just about the biggest Non-Story of the Day in Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteWait times are up a few days for Non-Urgent Visits, a few more Doctors are full up, and not taking new patients, and it's impacted State Expenditures by Less than 1%.
Insurance premiums have gone up (just like everywhere else,) and it's still "one" of the highest cost states (but not the highest.)
Pretty much a non-event.
Except, now, everyone has health insurance.
We still haven't seen any of those fleeing Massachusetts Doctors down here at the Med.
ReplyDeleteVilsack visits home of Greengenes.
ReplyDeleteThe 20th Century was fun. But, It's Over.
ReplyDeleteThe last half of the twentieth century was all about petroleum, and plastics made from petroleum (Mr Robinson was right.)
The first half of the 21st Century will be all about Biology, and products made from Biology. It will be about harnessing "Natural" forces to produce our power.
And, efficiency. Shitloads, and shitloads of "efficiency." Driven by Computers, and Robotics. And, Exporting to the "Developing" World. Obama's right; we Have to double our exports, because we can't possibly consume half of what we can produce.
Trump: Out
ReplyDeleteGingrich has stirred up a shitstorm.
ReplyDelete