On the Loss of a Friend

I'm not one for emotional out pouring.... but this once I beg your forgiveness and understanding.

Julie and I have been married for 10 years. Nine of those years... we've shared with Bodacious Bocephous Caster, our chocolate lab... whom we simply called "Caz". We'd only been married a year when got him. We lived for two years in Knoxville without him... He went and stayed at

Mom and Dad's then. They love him as much as we do.

Jeb and Eli have never known a world without Cas in it. To them... he's just part of the family.

He was a playmate... and a protector. Everyone slept easy when he was in the house. He lead a good and happy life. He had a lot of fun, and he worked hard for, and with, the family that loved him. I doubt a dog could hope for better... hell he ate good to.

Cas...

I'm sorry. I ain't got the words.

I may post more pictures tomarrow as I find them. We have some great ones.

For now...




Well... there's just something nice about a 1-year-old wallering on a 100-pound dog.











W'ell miss ya buddy.

Tennessee Tax Free Weekend

Hrm... So... Given recent history... Are firearms and pyshoactive anti-depressants tax free tomarrow?

I'm just askin'.

All Time Hype

So I've been taking Sheryl Crow's advice a little further... see... I've been wiping my ass with dollar bills.

Why not? With inflation going the way it is... that's about all they're worth.

So... the Dow broke the all-time high today. Great. Don't think for a second that's a sign of a strong economy. It the direct result of the dollar going in the tank.

The dollar is approaching an all-time low against gold... and is at an all-time low against various other currancies.

People... this record high is not good news. Its not sign of a boom. Its a sign of inflation out-of-control. Its a simple fact... as the dollar is worth less... things priced in dollars will go up. Gas isn't 3 bucks a gallon because of any reduced production. Its higher because your dollar is worth less than it was in 3 or 7 years ago.

Few people realize that inflation is just covert taxation. As the government prints more and more money, and if you've been paying attention then you know that they've been printing it faster over the last 5 years than they have at any other time in American History, each dollar's value is reduced.

The more they print... the less your paycheck is worth.

And folks... they're printing a lot.

Now excuse me... I've got to go to the bank for some singles... wait... on second thought I may get fives this time... I love the added bonus of wiping my ass with Honest Abe's image.

The Rumor Mill Was Right




Check out the new BMW enduro 450! This is a serious race machine boys. Look close... I do believe that's a chrome-moly frame.










Repeat after me: oooooo! ahhhh!

Titans Draft Report

Ok... the draft is this saturday... and everyone with a website is calling for the Titans to draft a Wide Reciever... preferably one who can return punts. Enter Ted Ginn Jr.

It may happen that way... but I don't see it. I keep hearing the media types talk about the holes the Titans have... for example today I heard, "Brandon Jones is great... but he's got no one else around him."

Really?

Ever heard of David Givens? Givens and Jones are a solid 1-2 combo... a solid draft pick could make an impact at number 3 against nicklebacks.

And we have a pressing need at D-line right? We need both an end and a tackle....

You mean like Rein Long and Antwaan Odom? The Dline was decimated by injury last year. Folks forget that. With those guys back we're in a lot better shape. We need someone to take pressure off of Kyle and share time with Antwaan. If we find another freak great... but its not necessary.

Running back you say?

Lendale White looks great to me.

If I'm the Titans GM... this is my plan:

Round 1: The Best Defensive End available. Probably Moss from Florida.
Round 2: Time to go WR... Sydney Rice would be a steal here
Round 3: Time to snatch up an athletic saftey who can help on special teams

Later rounds:
We need guards... big time. Our O-line coaches always get the most outta his guys... get him a couple 4th rounders that he can work with. Then D-tackle... at the end... take what's there. Need doesn't matter in the last couple rounds. Its a lottery at that point.

There is really only one way the Titans can go that will infuriate me... they cannot draft another Corner in the first or second round. We've got Harper. At this point... you roll with him and Reynaldo. Even with Pac gone the biggest whole in the secondary isn't at corner... its Lamont Thompson.

A Question for the Gun Grabbers

So... you want all guns banned... confiscated. Well girls... here's your chance. Tell us how you propose to do it.

Liberals love to talk about how evil guns are... and how we should get rid of them. Ok... how? What's your plan?

Are you going to try a forced buy back? door to door confiscation? Or are you hoping for voluntary compliance? You could flank the gun rights crowd... and out law ammo sales... but that won't really get it done will it? Not when you consider how many millions of people have literally thousands of rounds already.

I ask... because I honestly believe you've never actually thought about this at all. You just say "Ban them"... as a knee jerk reaction... as if merely passing the law will magicly make the guns all disappear.

Do you realize that if only 20% of the legal firearms owners in america chose to ignore your ban, there would still be 20 million gun owners here? And not only that... they'd be the 20 million most hardcore gun owners? How would disarm them?

So... here's your chance kids. You want the guns gone... tell us how you propose to do it... assuming the tooth fairy is busy of course.

Just Wonderin'

So Dickson County High School recieved more bomb threats last week. I don't know for sure but I think this makes 3 this month. Now... each and every time this happens... the students are always rounded up and marched off to the football field where they sit around and wait until their parents can come pick them up.

Ya think its ever occured to the school officials that someone may be testing their response time and procedures?

I hope it has... but I doubt it.

William Demonstrates...

his spectacular ability to miss the point:

We need to trust the trained & responsible gun owners among us to keep us safe, yea right... like the Secret Service agent who shot his colleagues in the face & leg at White House last Tues?In case you missed it...http://today.reuters.com/news/ar...&src=rss& rpc=22


My response?

William... are you a child?

My 4 year-old depends on me to keep him safe. Why, if you are not a child, are you looking for someone to keep you safe?

The point is that you should trust no one to keep you safe. I assume you're an adult male. Take some responsibility for yourself and accept the fact that dialing 911 won't save you. It will just alert the police to come collect your body.

Ultimately your safety is up to you.

As for your accident... I suggest you look around on u-tube. There are some classic clips of cops shooting themselves in the foot with glocks. Fact is... the accident rate involving firearms is a great deal higher among police officers than civilian gun owners... despite the fact that civilian gun owners on average have more guns and shoot more. No wait... not in spite of that fact... more like... because of that fact.

Do you realize the average cop fires less than 200 rounds per year?

That's one decent day at the range. Not exactly what you'd call a lot of practice.

Another Shooting...

in another "Gun Free Zone."

Full-time professional security can't keep guns out of NASA... but you think a mere law is going to protect you at school?


Idiots.

DrWho Points Out:

The reason these liberals think bad guys with guns are so invincible is pretty simple. They haven't accepted that all people are not like themselves. Consequently, when they think of what an armed citizen would do, they first think of what they would do if they had a gun in that situation. In other words, because they would crap their pants, they assume everyone else would as well.

Since they cannot imagine themselves standing up to aggression, they cannot imagine that someone else would either. If they could imagine it, they would have to stop being liberals, as defending one's self or others is inherently contradictory to liberal ideology.

If you accept that you can defend yourself against criminal aggression... then that changes your world view. It alters everything else permanently.

The Democrats are the Party of the Squishy... the permanently offended... the perpetually insecure and terrified. Their voters are those seeking to hide under their beds from the big bad world... They shiver under the skirt of Aunt Samantha.

Ismail Ax: SuperHuman Badass

This is where I provide the link to an idiotic post

And this is where I quote it so you don't have to expose yourself to more of his stupidity than necessary:

Nashville has it’s own talk radio loudmouth, whom I had the distinct displeasure of listening to for the first time ever last night. Phil Valentine aired his Die Hard fantasies about how someone carrying a concealed weapon could have “ended” the massacre. No, Phil, and “no” to anyone else who believes this to be accurate. Unless the individual was John McClain (a fictional police officer trained to use firearms) or Blade, they would have likely ended up swallowing hollow points.

And this is where I explain why its idiotic...

First of all... in fairness to the author, he is expressing a view widely held on the left... ie; bad guys with guns are invinsible. Only the government can stop criminals... and if the government doesn't stop them... they simply cannot be stopped. This stems from the fact that the average leftist has never actually encountered real aggression in his life. When he does... its on tv... and his conclusion is the same as this dude's. Ismail Ax was Superman.

To the leftist... when a badman has a gun... he is invinsible. Interenstingly... when a good guy has gun... the same doesn't apply. Criminals with guns are infinitely skilled... while civilians with guns are just dumb rednecks playing Rambo.

Now... let's consider shall we?

Superbadass Ismail Ax purchased his first firearm 1 month before the rampage began. How many times do you suppose he went to the range? How often did he shoot? Did he have tactical training? Did he have any training at all?

The left is blinded by their own ignorance of firearms. Shooting is a skill. It takes practice. You can't just pick up a gun and morph into some unstoppable god.

Honest men and women defend their lives against these supposed unstoppable gods every day in America. Much more often than not... the good guys win. Why? Because the good guys practice. The good guys train.

People go the the range once... twice.. three times per week... every week... all year long. In Tennessee the average concealed carry permit holder for example goes to the range a couple times a month. Remember... that's just average... consider the ex-SEALs among us.

What if a guy like Underwater Operative had been there? Or an ex-marine? or Ranger? or anyone with real combat experience? Legally they'd be unarmed. Are you seriously going to argue that an ex-seal couldn't have smoked the Superbadass Ismail Ax?

Sorry... my money's on UO.

Ya know what else?

My money would be on anyone who'd actually had some training... anyone who'd been to the range a few times... and took their safety seriously enough to prepare.

These idiots think Ismail Ax was a badass because he was killing sheep. I suggest you watch the cell footage. He was taking his time. He was not just blasting all over the place. Why? Because he felt safe. He knew he was the only one there with a gun.

Fact is... he never would've known someone had drawn down on him until it was to late.

Dozens of lives could've been saved with a single shot.

But no... in the idiot mind of the left... if we'd just had stricter gun laws... after all... if having a firearm was illegal on school grounds we wouldn't be seeing these shooting rampages... because no one would have guns.

Right?

Then again... quick... name the last shooting rampage that took place outside of a "gun free zone"...

Stumped are ya?

And Now For Something Completely Different

Pool Update!

We can dig a pool with a Bobcat right?

Hey I know... let's spray some concrete!

One week's work. Not bad eh?

For The Record

I've now seen dozens of people from VaTech interviewed... and ya know what they all have in common?

They're enjoying this a little to much. These kids are smiling the whole time they are intereviewed. They are eating the attention up.

This is discusting.

What's almost as discusting is... I've seen all these people interviewed... and I've not watched more than about 10 minutes of coverage total. My TV has basicly been off since this crap started, and it will remain so until the dead horse is buried.

The Elephant in the Room

Lets face it... the reason people are so pissed about the posts yesterday, here and elsewhere, is that we're talking about the ulitmate taboo; personal responsibility.

You are responsible for your own saftey. Not the government. Not the police. Not your professor. Not the principle of your school. Its up to you.

The police will never be able to stop insane attacks like VaTech. SWAT teams have the training and the tools... but they can't get there in time. In fact, for the most part.. these attacks are over before the police have time to figure out what's even going on. Generally the attacker has done his damage and killed himself.

That's the way it works.

There are two answers... put incredibily well trained and well armed cops in every building on every campus in the country... or allow qualified professors to carry firearms.

By the way... a year ago a law came up in Virginia that would've allowed the latter... but it failed. One of its opponents claimed it was a victory... that it would help students and their parents feel safer.

I'm sure they felt safer... obviously they weren't safer... but hey... at least they felt that way... for a while.

In a situation like that... the cops can't help you. You have to help yourself. Lots of them did... lots didn't.

And to those critical of my stance... writing me off as insane... find a transcript of Dennis Miller's radio show yesterday. He called them all cowards. Is he insane as well?

The fact is, the public reaction to this has been quite a bit different than the attacks before. The squishy among us just don't like it.

Are You Pretending?

So... did you wander around all day ringing your hands? Did you jump at the chance to participate in our nations most recent emotional circle jerk?

OO! Fun! Look... we all have a chance to have some quality emotional masterbation!

That's what was going on yesterday. As a nation we were jacking off our emotions while staring at the porn blasting from every channel on our TVs. Discusting.

You don't know these victims... and you secretly enjoyed the hell out of yesterday. The unknown... that feeling like you don't know what's going to happen next... the chance to indulge in an emotional outburst.... ya loved it.

If you have an decency at all... you turned off the news yesterday, said a short prayer for the victims, and went and bought a couple hi-caps... after all... they'll be banned in a few weeks.

On VaTech

1. CBSNBCABCCNN is already beating the drums for a hi-cap ban... even though while they were reporting they sometimes acknowledged that they didn't know if the shooter actually had a hi-cap mag.

2. I've heard 2 9mm... and 1 9mm and 1 .22. either way... that's a lot of head shots.

3. Two students were inteviewed on NBC.. both admitted to watching him reload. They said they were to scared to try to stop him.

4. Students were apparently lined up execution style. Seriously. Since when did human beings become devoid of all character and courage?

5. The cowardice displayed makes me sick.

6. If 10 people had charged this guy... he would've been able to shoot 1... 2 at most. Instead... he just played shoot the sheep.

Vista Baby!

The new Dell arrived today... and I must say they did me right. They sent a significantly upgraded PC. Its the same chassis but it has a dual-core processor... windows Vista... 3 gigs or so of ram... and something like 250gigs of hard drives capacity.

So far... I've not done a lot of exploring... but Vista has serious gaget appeal. We'll see. For our use, XP was rock solid... hopefully this will be as well.


WOOT!

Warning: Un PC Post Below

Hey... I don't know if you heard... but apparently its the 60th anniversary of something about Jackie Robinson. I mean... you may have missed it. You might not have seen the 200 hours ESPN has DEADicated to it... or the pathetic pandering of the media on every level.

Can you people get a freakin' grip? He was black.. and he played baseball. Great. He wasn't even close to the best player in the negro league of the day. He was in fact, a freakin' publicity stunt... Hand picked for his personality... not his play.

I wonder if I am the only one noticing a sea change about race in America. There has been a backlash in the whole Imus thing... not to mention the Duke Lacrosse deal. At the same time the media is pounding the PC drum... the common folk are sick and tired of hearing about it. I've even heard liberal radio personalities defending Imus.

The ever present under current of racism in the world is a forbidden topic. We are never allowed to say what it is that we all know.

And what is it that we all know?

Everyone is racist.

Everyone.

Global Warming My Ass

Its April 15th... and its been snowing all morning.

Time for Chicken Little to start crying about the next ice age.

Play Time

And this is why I still have the stock exhaust on my KLX 250.

Big Day

The kid in A Christmas Story had to wait till he was 11 years old to his first BB gun. Yesterday, at the ripe old age of 4, Jeb brought home his first... the mythical Red Rider. There is just something heart warming about the site of a gun safe in your 4-year old son's closet.

And... if that wasn't enough to mark it a red letter day... when we got home last night we found several huge boxes in our driveway... with labels like... "Hayward"... or "Diving Board".

We'll be swimming in a few weeks.

Yeah baby.

Yeah.

The Miracle of Revelation

Setting aside the symbolic debate for a moment... I'd like to focus on the book itself... and the proof it provides by its very existence.

Revelation was written by John... it was a work that he felt was just as important as any he'd written... prehaps more so. He wrote it while on the Isle of Patmos. Now... likely you have no idea where that is or what its like... because why would you? But facts like these are important... and the Church is often neglegent in omitting them.

See... Patmos was a prison... an island of banishment. Political criminals... enemies of Rome... where exiled there to work in the quarry. The prisoners lived in squaller... in caves... they had nothing.

It was here that John was given his vision. Its that vision... the details recorded... and the perfect accuracy with the old testament writings of centuries before... that are the miracles I write of tonight.

If John had a team of 10 men... with access to the internet... working 8-hours a day... its conceivable that he could've written Revelation. Its concievable that he could have dug up all the arcaic references and accurately painted such a picture.

But the internet didn't exist... and now that it does its still not available in the caves of Patmos.

There is only one explaination for the existence, and the accuracy... for the continuity of Revelation. It is that there is a God... and He gave John a vision.

There are people out there who claim that Christianity is easy to believe. They claim that makes perfect sense. I am declaring tonight that it is not easy to believe. It does not make sense.

God's don't love men enough to sacrifice themselves. Men don't get up and walk away after being dead for 3 days. Men don't walk on water. Seas don't part. Worlds don't flood.

All of this is nonsense.

Its also true. By modern historical standards.. the Bible... and the account of Jesus' Resurection is the most verifiably true even in all of human history. We have less historical evidence of Hannibals elephants... of Rome's gladiators... of Aztec sacrifice... yet all of these things are taken for granted. We all know they happened... but the same standards that teach us that they are true.... also teach us that Christ rose from the dead.

It is nonsense... and it is true.

How can that be? Because in a nonsensical world... its the truth that is indeed bizarre.

I've used this analogy before but bears repeating... Imagine you drew some stick figures on a piece of paper... and these stick figures became self-aware. Not only would they be really cool stick figures... but they'd also go about learning about themselves.

But what could they possibly learn? they could learn about each other... and they could observe the paper and the lead and the ink lines... How would they describe themselves? And what would they say to one stick figure who spoke of a huge individual... a creature... with a pencil... and a massive table that they're paper rested on... where the creature sat and created them and their world.

They'd say he was crazy. They'd say its nonsense.

We're those stick people friends. Only the creature drew Himself into the picture and explained things to us.

Yet somehow... we still won't see.

Dell Sucks

Sorry for the lack of posts guys... but between the work in the backyard... and the fact that my PC went completely tits up... my web time is basicly non-existant. Truthfully I have no idea what's going on in the world.

I'll say this for Dell though... they really know what "catastrophic failure" means. My PC's power supply was popping and throwing sparks out the back. Helluva show... unfortunately my balls are now nailed to the proverbial data recovery wall.

screw it... there's a tractor in the backyard... we're gonna go play,

Jonah's Sin

We are told in the Bible that Jonah is ordered by God to go to Ninaveh... to deliver God's message of impending destruction... We're told that Jonah instead went elsewhere... in defiance of God.

Now... I ask you... what was Jonah's sin? Was it disobeying a command by God? Or was it the act of getting on the ship and leaving?

This may seem all a little pointless... so let me clear it up.

In another Biblical account... another man is commanded by God... and he also disobeys. In this case he is commanded to impregnate a woman. Instead he masterbates.

Was his sin masterbation? or was it disobeying God?

From that latter story the Catholics insanely extrapolate that all birtch control is sin.

Its amazing that they don't also find that travelling by ship is also a sin... since applying the same standard to each story requires it.

Catholic logic is often bizarre... but this is one of the most extreme cases. Its total lunacy.

The sin was not spilling his seed upon the dust. The sin was disobeying God. Just as Jonah's sin was not getting on a ship... but disobeying God's command.

So... Dear Catholic friend... before you preach about birth control to me... consider weather or not you've ever taken a cruise.