I Tell You, It Was a Helluva Weekend

It was one of those long, short weekends.

Friday night we had a benefit deal to go to at a local Horseraceing track. I bet three races, won two and came home $4.00 ahead. Yeah, it ain't much, but it's better than losing!

Saturday morning I had a work function (it was a fun function), but it took up the entire morning. Saturday afternoon was taken up by an old lawnmower. I should have been doing yard work, getting ready for a party we had on Sunday, but after 6 days of rain the yard was too wet to walk in, much less mow and rake, so we played with the lawn mower instead.

The picture ain't my mower, but the one we have is a dead ringer. According to the knower of all things (better known as the internets), this tractor was only made in 1976 and 1977. The one we got had been wrecked and hadn't run in 3 or 4 years. But it was free, so what the Hell.

We pulled it apart and flushed the fuel lines and cleaned the carberator and spark plug, put in a new battery and straightened a few bent parts (precision sledgehammer work is one of my specialties) and fired it up. The broken hulk got delivered around noon and we were cutting grass at 5:00. All it cost was a battery and a busted finger. I lost track of what I was doing and caught my finger between a belt and a pulley. Hell yeah it hurts! But nothing broken, only bruised, and it wasn't the finger I type with anyway.

Sunday was the party. My grandaughter (who was born in December) wanted to have a birthday party while it was warm out. What the Princess wants, the Princess gets. She even had a pink dress and new tights for the party. To go along with her Crown and sash that proclamed her the Birthday Princess.

The dress lasted about 10 minutes into the party (6 days of rain tends to create a little MUD), but she still had a good time. Played some games, ate some cake and developed a new .... spectator sport?

My youngest son has a remote control sand buggy. He and his brothers determined that it was fast enough to maybe jump a ramp, if the operator were so inclined. Around our house we tend to have several operators who would be so inclined.

Turns out we also had several volunteers ready to lay down in front of a speeding remote control sand buggy, in the hopes that the operator MAY actually, you know HIT the ramp. For me, it was a spectator sport. But we did at one point have 4 four year olds behind the ramp, waiting to see if the car would crash into them or jump over them. The car made it, and I think I have it on tape.

So it ain't a night at the Ballet, but it was entertaining. It's what always happens when you mix rednecks and something that moves under its own power.

It was a matter of supreme will power (mostly my wife's) that we did not try to jump the new lawnmower over anybody.

I found this through Instapundit and had this thought:

AWACS stands for Airborne Warning and Control System.

And yet, one of the planes NEXT TO IT crashed into it and brought it down.

Yeah, go ahead and continue work on that bomb; I really don't think we'll mind.

Yesterday Was A Long, Busy Day

It started with breakfast with friends at 8:00; a softball tourney that started at 8:45 (our team played 5 games; I AHed (AH is when you don’t play the field, but still get bat- ain’t this country something?!?!) for the first four and played catcher in the last one). It was a family softball tourney, and all of the teams had to be family. For us it was my four brothers and 4 of my sons (my youngest was my pinch runner, after I pulled something in my groin beating out a short infield hit)

I guess I should do a little full disclosure. I am not the world’s greatest athlete. My batting average is probably about .150 lifetime, and if I am in the outfield I will miss and chase (slowly) more than I actually catch. So, I often wonder why my younger and more athletic brothers always ask me to play ball. I figure it’s one of two reasons; they need some comic relief on the field or Mom makes them ask me. A third reason is that they are desperate, but I doubt that. I’ve seen me play. Nobody is THAT desperate.

Luckily I think my sons have inherited their grandfather’s athletic acumen. The two oldest ones seem fairly competent (both of them hit home runs yesterday, as did two of my brothers), and I think the younger two might be trainable. My youngest brother wants to field a team of just us 5 brothers and my 5 sons. My youngest is only 14, so it will be 4 more years before he can join an organized team , and I am about ready to hang up my glove (for the third time) so I don’t know if that will work out or not. But I do think that would be cool.

But anyway, the last game of the 5 we played ran until about 5:00, and then I had a get together with some friends that broke up about 11:00. By the time I got into bed it had been an 18 hour day, and I felt every minute of it.

Then this morning, unlike the old days; where after a good night’s rest I am ready to do it again, today is like a lousy sequel to a bad movie. Everything hurts, including the little burn I got on my nose. I move like the Tin Man, before he was oiled. And I don’t think oil will help me. Since it is raining, my plans for today are shot anyway.

New Plan for today: 10 heating pads, some Advil, the recliner and a movie marathon. I just need to decide: Star Wars, Harry Potter or John Wayne Westerns? Or maybe something daring: John Wayne non- Westerns?

Yeah, I know the choices sound limited, but I have never been a big fan of things I don’t understand. And at least I understand these movies!

What a Crock!

So Obama can't go to New York for September 11th, but can go a couple of days later to give a speech to let us know how much more of the economy he is taking over?

Everyday in everyway I hope you people who voted this administration in regret it.

An Enjoyable Way to Spend 45 Minutes

I was considering calling this post “Guilty Pleasure”, but since a guilty pleasure is one you don’t talk about in public, and is usually way out of character, that title really doesn’t fit.

Here’s the truth: I enjoy watching the “Dukes of Hazzard”. The TV show, not the movie. It was always believably acted; the characters were pretty well fleshed out and the storylines were… well, the storylines weren’t usually plausible. But when you had fit in a crooked county government, at least 2 good lookin’ women, at least 3 car chases and at least 4 wrecked police cars into 45 minutes, some sacrifices had to be made. And if the choice was the car chase or the plot device, they always opted for the car chase.

And in my opinion, that was the correct choice.

It kept the show consistent for 7 seasons and 3 reunion movies and pretty constant cable reruns. So I guess I’m not the only one who watches.

September 12, 2009 March on Washington

I found this great photo series on AOL of all places. I tried cutting out a few photos, but the site wouldn't allow that. There are some phots of the signs that are worth scrolling through for.

The other interesting thing is that depending on your source there were either 'ten of thousands' or 2 million people on the march. I'll let you guess who is low balling the numbers. This article from the UK Mail News says 2 million. And has some great pictures. Thank God for the British Press.

The title shot came from Instapundit, who has been extensively covering the Tea Parties from the beginning

Have You Dropped Google yet?

Friday was September 11th. Google, who has in the past year had a tribute page to Micheal Jackson for his birthday, and missed Abe Lincoln's 200th, also didn't post a tribute to September 11th.

I have dropped tham as my search engine, and switched to bing, which seems, so far, to be just as good.

My problem is now the blog, since Google also owns Blogger.

I guess I can wait until it looks like they might make a dime off this blog, instead of costing them money, and I might move it.

Cousin Throckmorton and Taxes

Dear Cousin Red,

It has been and interestin’ week up here in the Holler. The Mayor has decided he needs a new official car, and has been workin’ out how best ta pay fer it.

I don’t mean he’s lookin’ inta loans and things like that; he lookin’ at how best he can get the rest of us t pay fer it. An’ that means taxes are a’ goin’ up. We been thru this a’fore. Every coupla a years- years that DON’T seem to be years he needs our votes- the Mayor decides the city bank account is slimmer than what he needs ta spend. Just once I want him to look at that bank account and decide its too fat, but I guess as long as getting more money is just a pen stroke away, what the Hell, right?

So anyway, the Mayor has just about wee-weed off everybody up here in the Holler with his taxin’ every little thing. 15 years ago he wanted a new desk for his office; so he started taxin’ food down at the Koffee Kup (yeah, I know its suppose to spelled with a ‘C’, but its a very old sign), and got every one of the old farmers up in arms. But he got his desk, and the old farmers STILL voted fer ‘im. Then he wanted a new fancy chair to go with the new desk, and started taxin’ yarn and bolt goods down at the General Store, and got most of the women riled. But, he got his desk chair, and most of the women folk STILL voted fer him.

About 10-12 years ago the Mayor decided it was time for him to have an Official Mayor’s Car, paid fer by the City. Now this was a major expense, and called fer some right serious money. Well, there is only one way to raise some some right serious tax money up here. I know what yer thinkin’- oh no he didn’t. Well, Cuz, oh yeah he did. He started taxin’ the beer that Rembert’s sold outta back door of the butcher shop. I still can’t figur’ out how he could tax somthin’ that ain't even legal 'round here in the first place, but he did. It weren’t much of a tax, only a nickel a can, but it weren’t long and he raised enough fer his official car.

An’ he got re-elected. I beginnin’ ta think meybe we ought not ta let him count the ballots anymore. But that’s beside the point. Well, in this letter it is anyway. The point is he has taxed about everything y’all can beg or borrow. Not havin’ stole anythin’ lately I can’t tell fer sure if’n he’s taxin’ the stealin’ or not. But we was tryin’ ta figur’ out where the next tax hike was comin’ from when he up an’ announced it. He was startin’ to tax soda pop and candy, Well that’s why the adults couldn’t figur’ out what was next; we don’t eat much candy or drink much pop, so we didn’t know they weren’t taxed.

But the worst part was how he made it sound like it wasn’t fer his good he were doin’ it, but it was fer the chilluns, as the mayor said it. He said ta think ‘bout them little ‘uns with their teeth all rotted from too much candy and soda pop, and how this tax will make it harder fer them ta af’erd so much sugar. Well, how do y’all fight somethin’ like that? I don’t know ‘bout y’all Cuz, but I don’t get no sleep at night if’n I go against the kids. It ain’t my conscience that bothers me, its the wife. But that ain’t the point a’ this letter either. He wound up taxin’ the pop an’ candy, and the Mayor was instantly less popular than the High School Principal. Seems the young ‘uns don't really cotton ta bein’ takin’ care of that way.

Well, we got ta thinkin’ ‘bout it, and up here in the Holler we never had too much trouble with the kids teeth anyway. ‘Cause were parents, don’t ya know, and we limit things like that ta make sure we don’t have kids with rotten teeth. Or rotten minds fer that matter. But that ain’t the point of this letter either. Well Cuz, to make a long story short, if’n it ain’t too late, the mayor got his tax an’ got his car. The kids still buy ‘bout the same amount a’ candy and pop, it just costs more.

An’ guess who is payin’ that more? Yeah, me. The kids had ta get a raise in their 'lowance to cover the new tax. So now they’re happy. Momma has ‘saved the young ‘uns, so she’s happy. The mayor got his new car, so he’s happy, but I didn’t get a raise, so I had ta cut back on the beer, so I ain’t happy.

By gum, I swear this comin’ election I am goin’ ta find somebody ta count them votes fer mayor that ain’t got a dog in that fight!


Best wishes from all of us in the Holler,

Throckmorton Q. Sheisseschnitter

Newspapers Are Out of Touch

I had a conversation at work Friday with a coworker about the main stream media. His assertion was that the reason people hate Obama is because they aren’t reading newspapers anymore. His proof that people aren’t reading the papers? The fact that they are dying all over the country.

He and I tend to disagree on quite a bit. I blame his education. This was just one of the examples of how his teachers have failed him over the years. He failed to recognize the slant in the news; he failed to understand the history of print journalism in this country and he failed to understand why people are no longer following the MSM.

Point one; he didn’t recognize the way words can be used to sway even the reporting of facts. Take for instance just reporting the description of a crowd at a Tea Party Rally. Describing them as “simmering with hostility” leaves a different impression than calling them “boisterous”. Both may be basically accurate, but neither may convey the whole truth.

The Van Jones resignation is interesting too for the slant it can show. Here is the Fox News story; and here is NBC. Notice the difference?

It was also his contention that the MSM isn’t slanted, Fox News is. I argued that all of the MSM is slanted BUT Fox. The channel is slanted, but I don’t see any slant in their reporting. Read the NBC report. This is a screen shot; in case they see the light and change the story later this weekend:



In 4 short paragraphs they reference “Smear Campaign”; “Lies and Distortions” and that Jones was “under fire for a series of inflammatory statements he made about Republicans”. But they aren’t biased. What were the statements, NBC?

Now read the Fox story. I found it quite fair.

Point two: his contention was that media bias is new. Well, if you consider William Randolph Hearst and his creation of Yellow Journalism in the 1890’s new; then maybe. Of course the whole idea that there were entire newspapers against Abe Lincoln has to be forgotten about. And the entire Jefferson presidency. And everything back to the pre-revolutionary days.

Anybody remember when every town had at least2 papers? One would lean left and one would lean right, and you got the whole truth by reading both? He was complaining that people got their news from blogs, and not newspapers, and blogs are biased.

Well, duh! It’s just like the old days. Read left blogs and read right blogs; then you get the whole truth.

The reason nobody reads the newspaper anymore (or watches ABC; CBS and NBC) for their news is because they have lost their credibility. We know they are biased; but they refuse to admit it. And until they decide to admit their bias they will continue to slide.

But the left NEEDS us to reads their propaganda organs. Their version of the ‘truth’ is correct; we just need to realize it.

Oh Crap! How Do We Report THIS?

Well, the good news is that Van Jones has resigned his position with the Obama Administration. The Fun news is that the MSM has no idea how to handle the good news.

Apparently he resigned yesterday, but a Google search this morning only one Media outlet had the story; The BBC.

ADDED: I was mislead by Google for some reason. ABC, CBS and NBC all had small stories on the Jones resignation (all of which mentioned the "smear campaign"), but none came up in a news search on the resignation. I had to search specifically for "NBC Jones", and even then the correct link was 3 or 4 down the page. Weird.

Why is this a problem for, say… CBS? Because they never covered the fact that he was in trouble! Why? Because then they would have need to report WHY he was in trouble, and the very fact that Obama even appointed this clown to a responsible position brings Obama’s sanity into question.

So now we get to see the MSM slowly twist in the wind, reporting a story that they didn’t want to report, because they did not cover the basics, because even the basics made their messiah look like an ass. Some time I think the next 1232 days are going to be fun.

Provide we survive them.

A Modern Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a kingdom ruled by a very wicked King. King Obambi (any similarity between real life and this fairy tale is purely coincidental. Or, maybe not) believed that the king should be in charge of everything. But some of his subjects disagreed. Well, actually most of his subjects disagreed.

King Obambi consulted his Royal Vizier, Ramdam A’Dingdong, and the Vizier suggested that because the adults were already infected with the idea that they actually had Freedom, maybe King Obambi should start working with the children, who didn’t know they had this thing called freedom, and maybe the children would start believing whatever King Obambi said, and when they were adults they wouldn’t miss that pesky Freedom thing.

King Obambi thought that was a fine idea. So did the leader of the House of Minions, Princess Pelosomuch, and the leader of the Chamber of Grovelers, Duke Readsalittle. The only one in the Kings inner circle who disagreed was the Court Jester, Bidenhistime, but he never really understood anything anyway.

So King Obambi put his plan into action. Fist he sent all of the teachers in the Kingdom who belonged to a special group of supporters called the NEA (which stands for Never Endorse A republican) a book to help them guide the children though the King’s speech, and having the children describe ways they could help King Obambi convince their parents that King Obambi was not an evil ruler, but a nice man who wanted to help everybody get over their infatuation with that evil Freedom thing.

But the subjects revolted. Despite Vizier Ramdam’s best efforts, word leaked out about the King’s book. And the plans were changed. But the people were still angry about the King’s speech, so he promised to tell the parents what he was going to say before he said it. Which as long as King Obambi relied on his chief advisor, the Royal Prompter, was fine. But when the King stopped relying on the Royal Prompter, not even the King knew what was going to come out of his mouth.

I’d love to say this fairy tale ends with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’. But I can’t. We have to wait 1233 more days for that.

And counting!

The End.

Things That Make You Go WTF!?!?!

I heard something on the radio today that made stop and think, It was an ad, and I tried to find it on Youtube or something so you could hear it too.

But I couldn’t. basically, a local Casino in Indiana is having a show. K.C. and the Sunshine Band. FIFTY BUCKS A TICKET!!! And the real kicker; they are forced to mention: “Must be 21”.

What the Hell? I mean this is wrong on so many levels. First; is there anybody under the age of 40 who knows who these bozos are, much less be willing to pay $50 to see them?

Second; FIFTY BUCKS?!?!?! I wouldn’t pay $50 to see the 1977 version of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Well, maybe them, but nobody else.

Third, are’t they a charter member of the One-Hit-Wonder Club? I mean Wiki lists about 5 hits, but they were really just the same song with the same 5 notes in the same order. They just started on a different note for each song.

Fourth; FIFTY BUCKS?!?!?!? I mean; Damn…

Fifth; I seriously hope they mentioned ‘Must be 21’ because it’s a casino, and not because of the band, because, well you know… I mean… Damn; FIFTY BUCKS?!?!? For K.C. and Sunshine Band?!?!? Are there really that many stupid people out there?!?!?

Look what I’m saying… Obama managed to get elected.

A Top Ten List I'll Never be On

I found this list through probably Instapundit, and became intrigued. This list is by sheer numbers reported, so low production autos aren’t on the list. I would love to see a per capita list on stolen cars (what percentage of the cars made are reported stolen), just to see where Rolls Royce and Mercedes would show up. That is one of the problems with this list by the numbers. Just because they made millions of a specific model increases the chances of it being on the list. I remember a few years ago when various years of Olds Cutlass held 4 or 5 spots in the top ten.

There are two reasons a car is reported stolen. First is when somebody takes the car who is not allowed to. This breaks down further into two kinds of thefts; desirable cars (crimes of passion) and available cars (crimes of opportunity). The other kind of theft is actually fraud; something is broke on the car that is expensive to repair. The car is reported stolen, found later (with the transmission now trashed), and the car is either repaired or replaced.

The Top Ten:
10- 2002 Ford Explorer
9- 1999 Ford Taurus
8- 1994 Acura Integra
7- 1996 Jeep Cherokee
6- 2000 Dodge Caravan
5- 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup
4- 1997 Ford 150 Pickup
3- 1989 Toyota Camry
2- 1995 Honda Civic
1- 1994 Honda Accord


I don’t know about you, but I am fairly sure NOBODY ever stole a Dodge Caravan in a crime of passion. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. I would say 95% of those thefts are Opportunity or Fraud.

It is also interesting (to me anyway) that the top 2 are ‘tuner’ specials. I wonder what the percentage of these cars stolen were stock versus modified? And too, there are millions of these cars around. Even if a smaller percentage of the available Hondas are actually stolen, because there are so many of them the actual number stolen is high.

Okay friends; now a test:

Which of these cars are Crimes of Passion do you think? Name at least one, but you can name 10 if you like.

Southern Poverty Law Center

What exactly does that mean? It sounds to me like some dam fool strung together a bunch of words that are meant to sound impressive, but mean absolutely nothing. About like the subject line in a SPAM email put together by somebody who doesn’t speak English.

Shall we parse it?

Southern Poverty. Are they fer it or agin it? Since they sound like a bunch of Yankees, my guess is that they are fer it, and we deserve it anyway.

Poverty Law. Based on what I’ve seen on their website, they have about the poorest set of lawyers, so maybe this makes sense.

Law Center. Again, their version of the law isn’t Center, but decidedly left. As 180 degrees out as you can get.

Southern Poverty Law Center. Even put together, it doesn’t make sense. Are they trying to fight poverty by suing it? Or maybe they expect poverty not to be able to afford a lawyer anyway?

A friend of mine sent me this link this morning; what a way to ruin a Wednesday.

I almost hate to include the link and increase these idiots traffic, but I figure it this way: One you need to see the drivel tehat passes for news, and I figure if half of my readers follow the link it will only increase their traffic but maybe 3 hits.

I read the basics of what they were saying and responded with this email:

I am angry that we have a minority president. Not because of his racial minority, but because of his ideological minority. Had ANYBODY put a viable candidate (Hillary Clinton is the BEST the Dems had?!?! And don’t get me started on McCain- the only thing keeping him from being a Democrat is the fact they probably don’t really want him) we would not be stuck with this socialist in the White House.

But see, that is the usefulness of a minority president. No matter how crappy his ideas, anyone who is against his policies is a ‘RACIST’. Any group formed to counter his proposals to slide us into socialism are “dangerous’; ‘violent’ and ‘anti-American’.

Do you think for a minute that had Hillary gotten the final nod (had the ass kissing media actually questioned any of Obama’s qualifications) from the Dems and was now in the Oval Office, that things would be different? Except instead of being racists, any opposition to her policies would have made us sexist.

I really don’t think the militia groups disappeared in the last 8 years; they just didn’t fit the MSM narrative (kinda like all the homeless disappear when a Democrat is President, and come crawling back out the shelters once the Republicans are back in- NOBODY is homeless when the Dems are in charge). I don’t think they are any more dangerous than they were 8 years ago (and of the hundreds of militia groups there are probably the same number of nut cases as there are in the general population. Maybe less, because I doubt any of them are Democrats), I don’t think there are more of them and I certainly don’t think they are the rebirth of the KKK because we have a minority president.

They are the same as they were 10 years ago. Folks who want to keep their Constitutional rights (ALL of them, not just the ones convenient for the government to let us have), and to be left the Hell alone by a meddling Federal Politburo.

Hell, if those are the criteria, then I must be militia material. Do they have a local recruiting office or do I need to find one in Idaho?

Sorry for the rant, but this outfit makes it sound like it is the people outside of Washington who are destroying the American way of life- not the people inside the I-495 Beltway.

And I mean it.