The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[HairOfTheDog]

My Mom mentioned to me today that the Social Services agency in our home county has an opening.

She just wants you to come home Corin. And she probably thinks that is pretty good money for a kid! (you are a kid, you know)

[Sam Cree]

Also, Republicans employ people, and work hard if they are the employed.

Those two things do more for our standard of living and more to help the average American than all the social programs in the country combined, IMO.

[Corin Stormhands]

And she probably thinks that is pretty good money for a kid!

Actually she knows better. And she would like to get me to come "home." But she knows better. Moving from D.C. to Richmond was enough to satisfy her.

[HairOfTheDog]

This is the last three paragraphs from that NRO article my Dad attached.... Sorry, don't have a source link. (Dad cut and pasted the article into a word doc, he doesn't know how to send links!)

"Just as we stay cool in summer and warm in winter and surf 360 channels effortlessly, so too do we expect our military to not only work, but make us feel good and comfortable in the process. In this present age of cynicism and nihilism, above all we demand utopian perfection: An operation that is only 75 percent positive in its results is worse than inaction, and to be condemned as proof of either ignorance or guile.

Yet unlike most of our cultural elite, our military operates on tragic principles — a few men and women still who accept the world's imperfections; who have confidence that while their culture may not be perfect, it is better than the alternative; who hate war, but are willing to make horrific sacrifices for ideas and values for which they make no apology; who believe that, as a last resort, muscle and action alone give morality to thought and talk.

But the problem is that those fighting for us are no longer symbolic of our culture at large, but rather artifacts of an age gone by. And so we can expect to see some pretty interesting press conferences in the weeks ahead — when the world of High Noon meets that of Seinfeld."

[Sam Cree]

I am using Xanax to fly, I still hate flying, but am managing.

[HairOfTheDog]

Also, Republicans employ people, and work hard if they are the employed.

Oh I know all those things Sam...

What I am just saying, when some animal-rights group makes a stink about "Make a Wish" wanting to take a dying kid hunting, is there one Republican in the room at that organization that can at least provide some common sense on it? - Or, in that line of work are there only urban liberals, who never really thought much about it, but when pushed, they do think the whole idea of deer hunting is rather crude and distasteful anyway?

[Sam Cree]

I was talking randomly to the manager of the art supply store the other day. When he found out I was a deer hunter, he looked kind of shocked and hurt, since, I guess he kind of likes me.

He is not a vegetarian, so why would he feel morally superior because he gets his meat wrapped up in a little cute package by someone else? IMO, because I kill the animal myself, witness the pain of its death, not to mention all the time spent outdoors, in the woods, I am far more deserving than he to eat its flesh. Not PC, though, you are right.

My favorite current charity is the NRA.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, I think the reason we lose some of the PC wars is that liberals talk to everyone like a potential convert. They will spell out a very easy to understand and pretty picture of the world as they see it. Theirs is simply "A cute deer". Many conservatives would have just told the guy to "go to hell, don't tell me what to do, you PETA idiot". We just too often *assume* all people should just *know* that deer, in the absense of predators, will overpopulate and starve to death. And that a deer taken by a hunter has a much better standard of living and much higher probability of a dignified and 'painless' death than a steer or a chicken in a slaughterhouse. We need to paint a better picture of our side. In thirty seconds. People will not listen long enough to get it if we can't learn to paint a 'more attractive than the alternative' picture. We have the same image problem in environmentalism. "screw the hippy wackos" doesn't win votes.

[My back yard]

IMO, because I kill the animal myself, witness the pain of its death, not to mention all the time spent outdoors, in the woods, I am far more deserving than he to eat its flesh

Absolutely right!

[HairOfTheDog]

I am sorry I have been so political in here today!

I was ina weird mood and I couldn't find any threads that said what I wanted to say. I shouldn't take it out on you. I am done!

[HairOfTheDog]

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Wow! That's like what I've been saying all day here!

He has, in part, set himself up for a fall -- with the heightened expectations. His going to the U.N. and following the path that obtained from that, he has allowed both an internal and international opposition to form and develop fully. Now so much time has passed, and he's laid down so many lines-in-the-sand that he has had to move back in order to keep the effort at the U.N. alive, that he's taking diplomatic hits day after day. Only a perfect campaign will make all of that go away -- that raises the danger level and the complications to the point that he probably feels a great need for the U.N. cover. And around that nasty circle we go and go.

[HairOfTheDog]

Anyone here do puzzles? - I sure love puzzles, and have done some of these 3-D puzzles they have out now. Apparently there are Lord of the Rings 3D puzzles of The Golden Hall, and Orthanc! These are really cool!

Check out the pictures of the Golden Hall puzzle here:

LINK

I am going to go find out where and how to buy them!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

That last line is priceless.

[Overtaxed]

That's okay....I've been ignored all day. I'm not really here.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hullo OT!

[Overtaxed]

Hi.

[HairOfTheDog]

It really was a good article. If I bothered to search for the article over at NRO, I might even post it, though it might already be here. The first line of it and title of my dad's word doc (maybe the title) is: "War against a murdering fascist has by now become fully postmodern"... I might look in a bit and post it myself, unless you want to.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

I'll go see if I can find it -- at the risk of being accused of being a D.U. again!

[HairOfTheDog]

Ping me!