rottndog

Lurking since Drudge first linked to FreeRepublic.com

American First, Conservative Second, Republican Increasingly Reluctantly...

The big difference between the left and the right--the left is afraid that people will find out what they believe, and the right is afraid people won't.

Government is a necessary evil, but as with all evils, the less of it the better.

If you think the U.S. Constitution is a "living" document, then you don't believe in it--Either you accept the Constitution as it is written and properly amended, or you reject it, and subsequently you reject the country that was founded by it.

If the Left obeyed the 10th Commandment, maybe they would learn to obey the 10th Amendment.

"Communism will only work in Heaven, where they don't need it, and in Hell where they already have it."
-Ronald Reagan

I love this country, the greatest in the history of mankind, thanks to God!

Let us never forget those who have paid the highest price.....

.....that we may live in freedom.

I have in the past, and would so willingly again, defend her...

Freedom made us great, and God willing, Freedom will keep us great.

And lest we forget our brothers to the North who also serve valiantly in the defense of freedom...

One of the few things I believe EVERY American should learn, memorize, and be able to recite from heart:

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln

________________________________________________________

Joseph Kilna McKenzie - Sgt. McKenzie (video)

Original Scottish Version
Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun
Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid

Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Ains a year say a prayer faur me
Close yir een an remember me

Nair mair shall a see the sun
For a fell tae a Germans gun

Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

Lay me doon in the caul caul groon
Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

Whaur afore monie mair huv gaun

English Translation
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground Ill not be afraid

Thoughts of home take away my fear
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me

Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

Where before many more have gone

In memory of Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie
Seaforth Highlanders
Who along with many others gave up his life
So that we can live free

We will remember them

Proud Member

My Favorite Song--Ever!

God Bless The USA---Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone Id worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
Id thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they cant take that away.

And Im proud to be an American where at least I know Im free.
And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And Id gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
Cause there aint no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, theres pride in every American heart,
and its time to stand and say:

Im proud to be an American where at least I know Im free.
And I wont forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And Id gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
Cause there aint no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

My boat, which is now serving America as razor blades:

MM2(SS), Nuclear Field, 6 years active duty, Home Port Pearl Harbor Hawaii
,

My Clan Badge and Tartan:

"...The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in... Rebuilder of the Ruins"

My little ones:

My Bestest Buddy, Cain, who now chases rabbits in Doggy Heaven:

Some words about dogs:

I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we werent certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying. ~George Bird Evans, Troubles with Bird Dogs.

My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs. ~Mme. de Staël

They never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation. ~Jerome K. Jerome

Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ~Roger Caras

The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue. ~Author Unknown

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. ~Robert Benchley

You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself. ~Josh Billings

Children are for people who cant have dogs. ~Author Unknown

The more one gets to know of men, the more one values dogs. ~Alphonse Toussenel

rottndog's 10 Simple solutions to the crisis of illegal immigration:
1. Immediately allocate funding for as many border patrol agents as necessary to effectively secure the borders. This would include the use of military forces, as defending the country against invasion is supposed to be the primary function of the Federal Government.

2. Immediately allocate funding for a modern and effective border fence.

3. Cut off all federal funds to any state, county, and/or city that has an expressed (or even unexpressed) sanctuary policy, including police noncooperation policies such as LAPD's special order number 40.

4. Immediately sue in federal court all aforementioned entities to overturn these patently unconstitutional policies (enforce the supremacy clause).

5. Cut off all federal funds to any state, county, and/or city that refuses to verify eligibility requirements for the dispensing of federally funded or subsidized public services.

6. Start prosecuting repeat illegal border crossers and put them in prison. It is a felony to recross the border after deportation. Give them a warning after the first offense, but after that, off to jail. Maybe have longer sentences for multiple offenses (I like Three Strikes).

7. End the "anchor baby" citizenship loophole. This can be done simply by federal statute.

8. Establish and implement a system of instant electronic checking of residency status for the purpose of employment. They have instant checking for firearms purchasing, why not for employment eligibility verification?

9. Fund random inspections of businesses by ICE officials to verify employment eligibility (legal residency). Include in this a task force to immediately respond to the use of bogus employee social security numbers.

10. Arrest and prosecute employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. After instant checks are established, there will be no excuses.

Some of these things could be done under current law--in other words, much of the problem would go away if our current laws already on the books were ENFORCED!

Race baiting: The practice of injecting race into a debate where it has no legitimate place, for the sole purpose of heightening and exploiting racial tension, in order to stifle the debate. Those who engage in it are by definition racist.

create your own visited states map

Still Here? Keep scrolling down for a priceless treasure!!!

No, really, keep scrolling...

OK,so now you are officially in the dungeon, but you still need to go lower yet.

The Flying Castle...

On which resides the denizens of the Undead Thread.

My Discovery of the UT

Archives of the Undead Threads:
The Undead Thread
The Undead Thread II
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005

January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
April Temp 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006

January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007

January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008

Another quick, tiny review of the castle:

Then again, a review of the layout would be of service to our more recent arrivals. Most of them don't know where in space we are.

You might even want to join in. The Habitats A and B are open to entrepreneurship. Many people have set up shops there for handmade items and small restaurants. A good interhabitatnet café would be a charming way to entertain the rest of us. I'd have to warn you that the selections of coffee beans is pretty limited, since we have to grow our own, but spices of all kands abound for adulterating various types of beverages.

Cheese and wine are also possibilities. We have a lot of time on our hands; it takes four years to make an orbit out here.

History of the Flying Castle:

Well, it started with the castle, of course. And at first, it didnt fly. It was just a castle.

We had a moat, a courtyard, a great hall, magnificent rooms, a tower, and of course, dungeons.

Actually, they werent really dungeons. They were caverns and tunnels and excavations under the castle, usually ending where the fractured rock gave way to more solid substrate.

You see, we happened to build the castle upon the site of an old meteor crater. Based upon the strange phenomena that attend this location, I suspect it wasnt an ordinary meteor, but an interstellar craft of some type.

Of course, nothing of the original ship would have survived a fiery reentry and collision except possibly some nano-structures, with their own alien instructions and purposes.

And the influence of those alien devices may have contributed to the instability of the founding troll, j.j.fate. Certainly, something did.

Anyway, after the troll was accorded his appropriate fate, and the asphalting was completed, we didnt want to give up the partying, so we sorta set up camp.

That our shoddy construction was inadequate was made abundantly clear by the arrival of an adolescent with a pet Tyrannosaurus Rex. We needed a bit more room for both of them.

Accordingly, we started construction on the castle, excavating the moat and the underground areas, and just stacking up the building stones until we had a castle.

One thing about the castle is a little different. The walls of the courtyard are extremely thick, and they house a double row of stacked, cozy rooms rather like monks cells. Each has a bed, a bathroom, and an entertainment/communication kiosk. They also have a delivery system that supplies packages of no more than about six cubic feet.

This makes the tiny rooms sufficient for workers, students, artists, single visitors, and friendly folks who need a bit of solitude. Ive estimated that with eight levels of these rooms, and the size of the courtyard, we could house about three thousand guests.

And then of course, the main castle has more spacious accommodations; swimming pools, theaters, libraries, dining halls, kitchens, bars, and so forth.

And that is just the castle. But why did we make it fly?Why We Made It Fly:

In the original Undead Thread, we were running out of space. Not physical space, but mathematical space.

We were limited to a thread length of 65,535 posts. We started worrying about it.

The only option seemed to be that we would have to pick up everything and relocate.

But how do you move a castle?

Very carefully.

We moved the Flying Castle to Loch Ness, and sent a beer truck over to Ireland for a large quantity of Guiness.

Then we flew to the Norwegian Sea, where we picked up the Thrust Ring as part of our new ambitions. We carried it across the North Pole, and on to Kauai, Hawaii for a bit of rest stop and refitting procedure.

It was there that we began the process of replacing our jet engines and hot air balloons with Gas-Cooled Nuclear Reactor/Rocket Engines. You see, we were preparing to go into space.

Why? Im not sure I can even answer that question. It was suggested, and apparently voted on by acclamation, so here we are.

Anyway, we began gleaning Uranium from the ocean currents to fuel our reactors, modifying and improving the process as we went. I wont describe it in too much detail except to say that it combined aqueous ionic separation using electrical attraction and laser impulsion, with the physical separation processes of mass spectrographs and Hilsch tubes. Essentially, it functioned like a horn of plenty operating in reverse. A lot of ocean water went in the big end, and separated isotopes came out the small end.

We used the process to gather useful materials such as Uranium, Irridium, Gold, Silver, Platinum, and other exotic substances for our engineering projects and processes.

Actually, the gold we didnt really need in large quantity, but it was easy to pull out of the ocean, and we could exchange it for other useful materials such as the basic structure for the additional habitats, and the steel used to complete their construction.

You see, we needed three structures of equal mass in order to maintain our balance and induce artificial gravity once in space. We also needed the additional room and surface area to supplement our growth of foodstocks and oxygen-producing organisms.

Habitats A and B are designed like large cruise ships, with multiple decks and large open spaces where livestock, grain fields, fishponds, rice paddies, and hydroponics production facilities are spread around, interspersed with synthetic villages, towns, and market places.

Habitat A follows a more or less southern European plan, with meandering narrow streets and stairs linking different levels, while Habitat B is distinctly Oriental in flavor, with crowded markets, and open cafés in glad profusion.

It becomes easy to forget that we have established a world within a world. Essentially, we had to, to make sure that we could provide for ourselves out in the vast loneliness of interplanetary space.

To help with the illusion, each Habitat has its own time zone, separated by eight hours from its neighbors. The Flying Castle Habitat follows West Coast American time. Habitat A is on Greenwich, and Habitat B is set to Hong Kong Time.

Daylight Savings? Forget about it.

But this world within a world has advantages to its smallness. For one thing, one can easily travel from one habitat to the next by means of the spherical elevator cars. Our Transportation System:

It was realized that as soon as we decided to close up our Habitats, we would have a problem with free movement of people and materials. Accordingly, an integrated transportation system was developed to facilitate such movement. It can be seen that it was influenced by such systems as the Star Trek Enterprises turbo-lift system, although that seems to have roughly normal cubical elevator cars.

Our cars have to rotate within their shafts in order to deliver the passengers in an upright posture to the new locations, so the shafts are cylindrical, and the elevator cars are spherical.

Think about it. In space, each habitat is rotating around a central point, and each is one hundred and twenty degrees of orientation different from its neighbor. (Three times one hundred and twenty equals three hundred sixty, a complete circle.)

When you travel from Habitat A to Habitat B, the spherical elevator car, in addition to accelerating and decelerating as it snakes its way through the twists and turns of the arms and structures connecting the habitats, slowly rotates to reorient the passengers to what is up and down at the arrival point.

Utility carts and delivery wagons can also be sent this way, although piping and other delivery systems compete with that. Our Castles integrated delivery system to the tiny rooms within the courtyard walls is also tied in. One can cruise the equivalent of the internet, which is isolated to the Flying Castle Habitats, and have items packed up and sent into a package delivery system which will bring them right to your room.

Across the literally miles of tubing and interconnections that tie these systems together, that delivery may take several minutes to arrive, but it is all automated.

This is one of the efficiencies that promotes productivity here. Whatever it is you wish to produce or consume, your raw materials or tools are only moments away. If an idea occurs to you to start making something unique, you can be set up and in production within mere moments. Its fascinating to see the rapidity with which a graphically illustrated tee shirt or other bit of amusement can spread around the Habitats.

Also note that time of day is irrelevant to availability of materials. Someone is always awake. In space, everything gets recycled.

We know this, but we don't think about it. Prior to taking off for space, we had to think about it.

We had an advantage. We were designing systems that would never have to operate in zero-gee. At least, we hoped so! If we didn't have either thrust or rotation, a non-functioning toilet would be the least of our problems.

The Castle would literally come apart. Our apparent gravity keeps things in place, and our systems were designed to work that way.

So just like terrestrial systems, our water reclamation works by gravity, pumps, and filters. Like systems that were designed a hundred years ago, the first stage involves separation, settling, and the addition of chemicals to speed the process.

In the Castle Habitat, there is an additional stage of biological filtration and separation that is not available on A and B. Their systems are purely mechanical and energy intensive. (At least we have nuclear energy, so don't worry!)

The Castle system takes advantage of the swampy area to the left of the main Castle gate. Treated water which has not reached its final filtration level is released into that ecology to nurture the wild plants. You will notice that they are thriving, just as Irma Bombeck predicted.

It is important that we do this, as there is no other way that a natural ecology could be sustained. Many small creatures depend upon that ecosystem, as confined as it is. From frogs and snails to lizards and songbirds, the nutrients move up the food chain. It is a safety valve for us, and we monitor the health of these organisms.

Most of the rest of the natural world we have captured here is watered by the nearly continuous condensation that occurs on our transparent canopy. The forest and meadows are satisfied with this because they have other methods of getting nitrogen for example. Eventually we may need to take more direct measures, but for now the systems maintain themselves fairly well.

Aquifer collection stations rim the exterior of the Castle Habitat, where naturally filtered water is then mechanically filtered, checked for pathogens and contaminants, and then resupplied for consumption. The entire Flying Castle Habitat is a functioning still for producing clean water!

The separated solids are returned to productive use by a system of double biological separation. First they are tilled into special fields by machines which blend them in like kneaded dough. Selected grasses are sown and eventually harvested.

The collected grasses are then tilled into regular fields as so-called "green manure", meaning pure biological material that is intended to fertilize a second tier of crops.

This is the material that brings the nutrients back to our pastures and orchards. In several stages, possible contaminants are separated out for more intensive treatment.

Metals, for example, are separated in a variety of ways to be recycled in the forges and kilns of our factory levels.

In loving memory of my brother, Douglas L. Forsythe Jr.

August 7th, 1964-February 6, 2007
May his soul finally rest in peace.

For My Bro:

When Tomorrow Starts Without Me

When tomorrow starts without me,
and I'm not there to see;
If the sun should rise and find your eyes,
all filled with tears for me;
I wish so much you wouldn't cry,
the way you did today,
while thinking of the many things,
we didn't get to say.

I know how much you love me,
as much as I love you,
and each time that you think of me,
I know you'll miss me too;
But when tomorrow starts without me,
please try to understand,
that an Angel came and called my name,
and took me by the hand,
and said my place was ready,
in heaven far above,
and that I'd have to leave behind,
all those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away,
a tear fell from my eye,
for all life, I'd always thought,
I didn't want to die.
I had so much to live for,
so much yet to do,
it seemed almost impossible,
that I was leaving you.

I thought of all the yesterdays,
the good ones and the bad,
I thought of all the love we shared,
and all the fun we had.

If I could relive yesterday,
just even for awhile,
I'd say goodbye and kiss you
and maybe see you smile.

But then I fully realized,
that this could never be,
for emptiness and memories,
would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things,
I might miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you, and when I did,
my heart was filled with sorrow.

But when I walked through heaven's gates,
I felt so much at home.
When God looked down and smiled at me,
from His great golden throne,

He said, "This is eternity,
and all I've promised you".
Today for life on earth is past,
but here it starts anew.
I promise no tomorrow,
but today will always last,
and since each day's the same day,
there's no longing for the past.

But you have been so faithful,
so trusting and so true.
Though there were times you did some things,
you knew you shouldn't do.
But you have been forgiven
and now at last you're free.
So won't you take my hand
and share my life with me?

So when tomorrow starts without me,
don't think we're far apart,
for every time you think of me,
I'm right here, in your heart.

Erica Shea Liupaeter

What happens when I am a BAD DOG!