Free Republic

Apparently, on this thread, dogs have no free will!

That said, my parents had a German Shepherd named Kessie...now, that dog liked ice cream, and who could blame it.

But one day, my dad and I had been talking in the kitchen, and went back on the porch where he had left his cup of coffee, and Kessie had her long, pointy, snout in the mug, lustilly lapping the brown liquid!

My dad stared in amazement. then looked at me with a big grin and said
“She’s a Kaffeehund!”

He wondered why he was going through coffee so fast!

Oh, come on folks. We know he is simply catering to his viewers.

Both of them.

"...if you recall the “Doomsday Prepper” with his homemade body armor who was going to help himself to everyone else’s stuff if necessary, there was strong disapproval of him too..."

I remember that thread. I made this graphic which referenced the quote of the liberal prepper (hard to tell, but he is the scumbag on the right):

Well, that would do it. I have never had an experience like that, and it would no doubt color my views as it had yours.

I still treat cops with default respect. I try to adhere to my own personal code I call “Default Respect”. That is, I treat people (or attempt to) with respect until they demonstrate to me via word or deed they aren’t worthy of it, at which point I can be civil, but respect is not given, which colors any interactions thereafter.

The first thing to go is respect. The next thing is civility.

I will treat anyone with civility and respect until they compel me to do otherwise, and that includes police.

Funny you should say that.

My wife and I were driving north on I-95 through Bridgeport Connecticut a couple years back. It was the middle of the day, and traffic was moving bumper-to-bumper at about 75 mph.

All of a sudden, the two cars right in front of me swerved, and before I could do anything, I ran over a 4 x 4 in a cinderblock in the middle-of-the-road.

For split second, I wondered if the car had been damaged, and then the wheels began vibrating badly. I had blown out both tires on the left side of my wife’s 1985 Toyota Corolla.

I could barely control the car, but what made it worse was the fact that there was no breakdown lane, and I was heading around a curve and there was a high retaining wall where the breakdown lane should have been, so I had very little visibility on what was coming up behind me.

So, here I am struggling with the steering wheel that’s going wildly side side, and I look up and see cars coming up behind me around the corner in my rearview mirror, breaking hard, and trying to swerve out-of-the-way. Then I saw an 18 wheeler coming up. The whole time, I was barely looking ahead of me except to make sure I did run into the back of somebody, and I had my eyes glued to my review mirror. My wife kept saying “what’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

I eventually got to an exit, and pull down onto the grass right off the highway ramp about 100 feet after the exit. Interestingly, there happened to be a tire repair place within sight up the road.

How curious.

So my wife and I left the car and walked down to the tire place. They said they would send a tow truck up. While I was waiting, I remembered I wanted to get something out of the car. When I walked back up there (literally within 10 minutes of leaving the car there) there was a tow truck hooking up to the car with a good-sized Connecticut state trooper standing there supervising.

I ran up and said “What are you doing? I have a tow truck coming up here right now to get my car to repair it!”

The cop said “sorry. There’s nothing I can do. Once we hook up to the car, we have to take it…”

At that point, I heated up really quick, and I said “No Effing way that you are taking my car. I am going to lie down the road in front of the car, and you’re going to have to run me over to take it!”

I reached a boiling point nearly instantly, and I meant every word I said, and even started walking in that direction. The cop said “Sir, calm down.” He told the guy to unhook the car just as the tow truck from the tire company came up.

I think if I had got up there even one or two minutes later, I would’ve had no idea where my car was.

The whole thing reeked of a scam. If not a scam involving the tire company throwing debris on the road, a scam involving the state police and the tow truck company.

In retrospect, I always have to remember that when a state policeman tells you to calm down after you use profanity… Even if you are right, it is probably a good idea to do as he says. I figure I must’ve been pretty close to getting tasked and cuffed.

Hahaha...gotta do something on those boring shifts at work, eh?

Given that he knows hundreds of cops, he is a cop, or works every day with them.

He cannot abstract that what a specific cop does is wrong, but instead takes criticism of the cop personally and ends up defending the indefensible.

Much in the same way many women defend other women even if what they did was wrong, or the way blacks will often defend other blacks because they personalize it.

This guy thinks because he is stubborn and persistent, he can come on here and keep making one word responses to posts. I say everyone should give him the last word.

It isn’t going to change what actually happened, and won’t change in the least his perception. The fact that he personalizes this issue is his problem, and everyone is just wasting their time responding to him and getting a one word/line response in turn that contributes nothing. People are wasting their time with the guy.

What cops like this forget is that they work for US, not the other way around.

It is jackbooted thugs like him that lead to despotism, since they are willing accomplices to those who want to exercise power.

Is there any doubt this guy would have fit right in with the Soviet NVD?

Hahaha...my mom had a bell on the back porch.

When she rang, you had to go. No questions asked, because it was dinner.

Later, when we went back out, it was 9:00. Funny, my parents didn’t brook being late for dinner, but later in the evening if you came in ten or fifteen minutes late, it was no big deal.

Dinner was different.

We played a lot of army, especially when I lived in Yokosuka and Subic in the Sixties.

We usually had between five to ten kids playing. Some had to be Japanese. Some had to be German.

Everybody had to die.

A lot.

It’s what kids used to do. Later in life I wondered what some of those Marines on the base were thinking as they watched us, many of them having served in Vietnam.

Heh, times were so different. That’s the way it was. I do feel bad for kids nowadays. I don’t think they have the freedom many of us had. I remember being six or seven, and thinking nothing of walking miles from my house, picking up bottles to cash in for candy at a economically depressed part of the area.

Now they would have your parents in front of DYS for neglect. Amazing.

This is the inside of my bathroom door. We bought one of those pressure assisted toilets a few years back, and we laughed...is sounds EXACTLY like an airline toilet! Then, we stumbled across this online, and had to buy it!

"...in a frumpy dress beating on a submarine with a hammer..."

In my weirdest dreams I never saw Chief Torpedoman's Mate Mackelprang beating on the hull of a submarine with a ball peen hammer while wearing a frumpy dress...:)

Hahaha...I can understand that. Kind of how many of us view New Yorkers, even other blue state Northeasterners!

The problem is, that no matter where there money ends up coming from (us)it drives industry away from areas with a corporate tax burden to areas with less corporate tax burden.

When they have to pass the cost on to the consumer and the price for a product goes up, people begin to be more discriminating in their choices. They choose to either buy over a border (where that is possible) and where it it not possible, they preferentially buy similar products from another country.

Government, bureaucracy and,yes, “corporate taxes” drive jobs to “other” states and other countries where they can be more cheaply produced.

Add in union costs, local,state and federal bureucratic loading on everything from environmental policies and packaging of products to the types of lightbulbs and toilets that must be used in the facilities, and is it any surprise that industry has been fleeing to other countries?

Until we directly attack those issues, our industrial base will continue to shrink, while that of our foes expands.

Good advice.

From Road Trip:

1.) Get your French Toast:

2.) Complain about too much sugar on your French Toast

3.) Cook takes French Toast back to kitchen and cleans sugar from French Toast

4.) Warms them up by putting on slice down front of sweatpants...

5.) Warms the other slice by putting it down the back of sweatpants...serves several other customers to get them nice and warm:

6.) Gives you back your New French Toast:

7.) Express to fellow diners how good your French Toast is:

Hahahaha...I laughed when I read that! “White man...”

Some of the comments here are hilarious...

But I don’t know how real or not this article is, but I will say this: I found it flattering as an American.

There are many things about being an American that other cultures dislike, and as far as I am concerned, they can go pound sand. I am not going to intentionally become more of a douchebag just to suit their culture or customs.

I laugh when Euroweenies speak disparagingly about someone being a “cowboy”. As far as I am concerned, I can’t think of a higher compliment that could be paid to me by a foreigner than to be disparagingly called “a cowboy”.

And I like it even more because they think it is an insult.

Well, I only went to France once as an adult in the mid-Seventies when I was in the Navy, to Brest. The people were damned rude to us and sure gave the outright impression they hated us.

It could have been the uniform. Who knows. But my everlasting impression of that place was typically passing an older French couple who openly glared at me.

And it wasn’t just me. It was a homogenous impression. Without exception, every guy I spoke to when I got back to the ship had the same experience.

I went there as a young teenager in the Seventies, and I don’t remember anything like that. But as an adult, my overriding impression of being in France was black dislike.

I liked the version you linked to, but...to me, is just isn’t a song for feminine voices. Just doesn’t sound right to me.

But a nice version, nonetheless.

I am with you, Kabar. Grew up with it, heard it at my dad’s funeral at Arlington.

Powerful stuff.

On the lighter side, “What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor”...:)

I watched five on that video, and that was enough for me.

As a returner, yes. A Hall of Famer. I looked at his records, and he is no slouch because he has nearly every kick return/punt return record for the Bears, not a shabby feat when you consider Gayle Sayers probably held them all before him. (granted, Hester has played far longer and healthier, but...he does hold the record for kickoff and punt return average for the Bears, but...the Sixties and Seventies was a different kind of football)

I am a Pat’s fan, and I can tell you we sure hate seeing him back there, he is that good. Most returners are containable and you get the feeling most of the time that if your team does its job, they will not except in unusual circumstances let the guy get by, but this guy has it in spades.

His instinct for seeing the pathway and going single-mindedly for it once he sees it is phenomenal. And he had great balance. Runs with great strength.

I have been watching football avidly since Nov. 14, 1971 right after my family moved back to the states. I had never watched a football game even though we played a lot of neighborhood tackle and recess flag.

I was in Washington DC, and was watching a Sunday afternoon/night game on a little black and white television, and saw Dick Butkus score a touchdown on a bungled extra point attempt by the Bears. Oddly enough, I became a Redskins fan for many years..:)

Point was, I have watched a lot of kick returns, and while there are a number of players who have intermittently made some pretty electric returns, this guy seems to do it consistently. I think he is a real weapon for a team.

"GOOD GOD! NOT THE ANAL SEEPAGE!"

"...valvular revolvular..."

Hahahahahaha....all I could see when I read that was "vulvavulvavulvavulva"...too many "V", "U", "A" and "L"s in one short segment!

In any case, take care of yourself...hope you are feeling better.

How did they manage to get all those stewardesses up in the cockpit?

(...ducks...)

I think thackney hit the nail on the head in the post right before yours. Some are implying (not necessarily you, Blood of Tyrants) that genetics plays a part, and in some cases I think it does, but I think the upbringing has a far more concrete impact.

Hahahahaha....talk about making their heads explode.

They tout about how great Kennedy was for having the vision to get the space program going, and in the next breath, have to talk about how great Obama is to have the vision to end it.

Even a small whiplash injury might make it all worthwhile.

"...OSHA declaring carpets were no longer safe for flying..."

IIRC, it was the legislation that mandated they had to have restraint systems and airbags, coupled with the union carpet maker demands that did them in.

Sigh. If only people had listened to me and put all their efforts in developing flying cars.

"...Send Al Gore over it in a barrel NOW..."

LOL...ESPECIALLY since there is no flowing water, only ice...:)

I have a degree of first hand experience with Code Pink outside Walter Reed.

I despise and hate them. There is no "middle ground" with them.

When I saw one of them outside Walter Reed with a "Enlist Here to Die for Halliburton" sign, that pretty much sealed it for me.

She needs to read this:

I love it when there is good news!

US defend Israel with Obama as President?
HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA HA HAH HAHH HAA HA HAA !!!!!!!!!

Yep. You have that exactly right.

Screw all those people.

One of my favorites, as well as this one:

That is true, but...it takes a special skill set to run for office, including the desire to do so. Not everyone has that, and neither Michelle nor Laura do.

A politician is, by nature, a compromise.

One of my favorite commercials involving rental cars and jet packs!

I still laugh every time I see this one...:)

When I was a kid, I was scared to death of spiders, and that Johnny Quest episode just stuck in my head for a long time...

"...Many young guys today like their women...shall we say...looking more like themselves..."

Whaaaaat...Emo????

Well, I have found there are certain topics I don’t even bother bringing up just because people jump in and start hammering you.

It isn’t even worth the effort.

Don’t know what compelled this opus, but being hammered for speaking in less than glowing terms about Sarah Palin seems like an odd thing to elicit the opus.

I would think that if you don’t think Sarah Palin is consequential, you would have plenty of people who would agree with you.

It was indeed the John Wayne one...I liked it. It reminded me a bit of “Lonesome Dove”, and I really liked the old guy and the indian. The thing with losing his teeth in a poker game was hilarious!

"...if subjected to that finger point of entry..."

Damned spell check. ENVY, darn it, ENVY

That was the first thing I thought of as well when I read this article.

I know that I shouldn’t expect more from liberals, after all, when they view any issue under the sun, their analysis and understanding is often miles wide and nanometers deep.

I had a conversation with a friend recently, and I don’t really regard him as liberal per se, but he does have some liberal tendencies in various places. One of them has to do with money, which I don’t really understand.

It’s very difficult for me to understand, because he’s hard worker, he has a house, he gets to go on fairly expensive vacations, so he isn’t offering this viewpoint on the basis of his own experience.

We were having a discussion one day, and it involved some wealthy person. He began making statement after statement about the wealth that this person had accumulated. He said it was too much, said he didn’t deserve it, and so on.

I felt it necessary to point out the dangers inherent in his line of thinking. Here he is, pointing his finger at some guy who owns enough to buy his own private jet and yacht, someone whose wealth is far beyond anything we could reasonably hope to make, so the difference in wealth is significant. I said to him “You have to be careful about that. You’re looking at this guy who makes a boatload of money and saying it’s more than he needs, it’s unfair, or whatever. The problem with taking that stance, is that no matter how much, or how little money you have, it’s always going to be more than somebody else may have. If you think it’s fine to point your finger at someone who, in your words, has more money than they need or deserve, you better be prepared for somebody to point their finger you and say the exact same thing.”

That’s the problem right there. Once you go down that road, there’s no stopping. I was astounded to hear this coming out of his mouth, because he didn’t seem to understand that he could be the target of someone else because he owns his own house, and goes on vacations several times a year that most people would consider extravagant to some degree.

And that’s the issue with a lot of issues that liberals have opinions on. They seem incapable of reading the sign on their own back.

It’s almost hilarious, because many liberals, if subjected to that finger point of entry would be genuinely astonished and would say something like “Me? I’m not rich…” without thinking for even one second that someone else might view them as wealthy.

Of course it isn’t...I was paying more attention to the message than the math.

I’ll give a little more...

As soon as I saw this thread, I began watching “Red River”.

Never seen it before...:)

Almost done.

Could be said of a lot of things. Look at professional football...sure, a guy like Ben Davidson was extreme, but he wasn’t so far away from a lot of guys who played in that day.

Crazy stuff.

Hehe, I have no idea what the context of that is, they look like they are on the same team.

I don’t really dislike soccer, when I see it being promoted in this country, it always seems to be by liberals. That is just my impression, don’t know if it is true or not. Probably not.

I guess it is a euro thing, so I feel obliged to poke at it. God knows they poke at our eyes a lot more than we poke at theirs!

They aren't pussies.

They just act like it!