Dechristo

sorry I'm late. Some goody-two-shoes took Spray out of the "Last 24 Hours" page.

Am I allowed to take a spraydump on this thread?

It doesn't seem clear at all "that 99% of our problems with them would go away" by severing ties with Israel. "Revenge" for past misdeeds is at least half of the rant. The requirement to embrace Islamic ideology/faith will remain as well.

insanity by religion

They were seminal, after all.

Sunny Bono?

Haven't we all? Probably, the most comical of bear encounters I witnessed did not involve me directly. In the Fall of '76, I took a job in Yellowstone Park working for a private construction contractor who was employed to renovate the sewer systems in and around Lake, Wyoming. The workers were housed in mobile homes in the government employee trailer park. My two house-mates were 18-year-old Steve Quinlan (who developed into a prodigious climber, pioneering FA's throughout the world), and Richard Teer. Richard owned a house in Gardiner and for years (until that year) had the firewood contract for the whole Park. Due to losing that contract, he needed to earn some coin to get him through the coming Winter and, so, took this job. Richard worked only in the Summer and Fall. Every Winter and Spring, he toured for months on end on near eight-foot-long touring skis, throughout the vast Yellowstone taking meat as he needed. Although he narrowly escaped severe injury or death due to the ravages of Winter storms, most of his travel time in the backcountry was spent migrating from one hot spring to another. He described a veritable Winter paradise: at the hot springs, in the dead of Winter, there were broad expanses of warm green carpet, continually groomed by grazers, surrounding the thermal outcrops on which to comfortably abide. A warm bath was always available. Melting snow was as easy as floating a pot-full in the spring. Verdant oases in a sea of deep snow and wilderness. Anyway, the bear. As any experienced wayfarer, Richard rarely was without food at hand. Parked alongside the government mobile home, his '65 Ford pick-up truck held a footlocker full of food in its bed. One night, as we all snored away the fatigue of the previous day's work, a large bear discovered Richard's larder. It's important to know Richard's appearance: 6'-8", rail-thin, long reddish-brown hair in mane and full-beard. Eyes and visage as hard and piercing as a boar spear. He was dressed for bed which meant stripped down to his one-piece cotton union suit that was slowly wearing away from him in tatters. Repeatedly, as the bear was heard attacking the footlocker, Richard would spring from his cot, and with a broom in hand, burst out of the door with a war cry. This went on for hours. Steve and and I both made protests alternately for the interruptions to our rest to which Richard would softly mutter, "fuckin' bear", as the house settled after the latest skirmish. The last uproar in the wee hours ended with the sound of Richard's laughter outside followed by his command, "...and don't fuckin' come back!" At work the next day, I asked him just how the previous evening's war had concluded. He said, "Every time I ran out the door that bear would run off before I got to it. Finally, the last time, I got out there fast enough to hit that mother-fucker right in the side of the head with the broom." I laughed and asked him, "what did the bear do?" He said, "That stupid mother-fucker just looked at me like 'WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO!?!' and ran off for the last time". Ok, maybe you had to be there to see it and hear it.

I've never read any Rand... is it that... painful? Not for me, but apparently for him. Like Buckley, I found The Fountainhead to be more engaging.

what was the caliber? a grizzly skull is pretty thick... Yep. I knew I wouldn't be employing the weapon unless and until the animal was on top of me, literally. I've had, compared to most, extensive experience with bears, at home and on trips. Many false charges, chasing them out of camp at night, when called for, surrendering to their whims, and incidences of mutual respect initiating mutual withdrawal from situations. Most of the time, they want out of the situation of an encounter more than I. Like any big animal, you can't count on a stopping shot to the front or top of the head.

A great show tonight on Charlie Rose. Out-takes from most of his shows interviewing W. F. Buckley. "Bill" stated, in an '02 interview, that he was "ready for the end". He wrote 54 books and founded, fifty years ago, The National Review. He said he had to flog himself to read Atlas Shrugged.

I've never known a change for the worse.

I carried a pistol in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks several times. I had several encounters with Grizzlies, but thankfully, never needed to discharge the weapon. The tightest spot involved a mother with two baying cubs.

Ok, de-evolves to moderator status

and T. Rex wasn't glam rock

All the Young Dudes

Forsberg has come back to the Avalanche in time for the play-offs

I heard you behaved badly in the Pet Patrol forum.

that statement is definitely against the rules. Await your reprogramming.

Talk about a broad-brush. Are you aware at all of The Great Game (a superb book) that was played out between Great Britain and Russia during the 18th century? It was all about the race between the two to control more land areas, strategic countries, and natural resources. It had NOTHING to do with the dissimilarities of people groups. Methinks you protesteth too much (do you know what that implies?).

It all starts with an obsession for rules

only if one evolves to moderator status

Of course, none of the quotes or historical references are footnoted. Nonetheless, I don't doubt much of it is substantively true. Churchill was a bulldog of a fighter and rarely minced words when expressing his sharp opinions; it was these very attributes that saw England and its people through the years of hellfire rained down on them. It was this hard-nosed approach that allowed for his own people to be bombed into eternity rather than tip England's hand to the Nazis that they had broken their code. Having spent time in Central Asian Muslim countries and witnessed much rhetoric poured forth from the mouths of Islamic leaders, I share much of the view espoused by Churchill. Are you inferring that my agreement with him on this makes me party to all of his views? Or, do you maintain that this assessment of his is void due to his other views? I dare promise that there is nary a person, if all their deeds and thoughts were known, that could pass muster in regard to a life lived flawlessly allowing for the occupation of a high moral ground from which to speak. Hell, early on, Gandhi was a racist. Nothing and everything is wrong with me. How about you?

they'll supersize your order

As found in The River War, first edition, Vol. II, 1899, by Sir Winston Churchill: "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome." 109 years ago.

or Geechee?