Free Republic

I thought they were like... perpetually stoned. How would you tell if they were stoned.. lay around licking themselves all day? Chasing flies? Fighting a ball of yarn?

Good title.

As the song goes... “It’s the end of the world as we know it...”

The democrat idea of bipartisan is “You vote yes on our proposals, and we will let you take the blame when things go bad”.

Perhaps, but it would be the best thing to happen to the nation.

D.C. needs an enema.

He had best be more worried about losing his base. I know of at least two (my wife and myself) which he just lost.

Well, up until this moment, I was resigned to holding my nose and voting for McCain, who had redeemed himself somewhat by his choice for a running mate. Now, after the passage of the “bailout”, he has lost my vote entirely. Screw the congress, and McCain. Sure, he will buck his own party.. too bad he cannot figure out whose side he is supposed to be on cause he is not worth a damn at bucking the democrat party. What the crisis amounted to was credit for people who were not qualified for credit was going to dry up. Well, boo hoo. People who are unqualified for credit should not be getting credit. But thanks to the congress, banks will now be able to continue giving loans to people who cannot afford it, so we will get to revisit this issue in about 10 years when they need another bailout.

Hope oua all at least got a reach around, cause we just got screwed.

Yeah, thats something ya never see in Alaska.

Brainwashing is so much easier when conducted on a routine schedule.

Prosecute whoever is abusing any children. Once the abusers are removed from the equation, the children should probably be returned. If any case can be made against particular parents, of neglect or abuse, then their parental rights can be dealt with on a case by case basis.

A blanket condition requiring them to change religion or lose their children is, in effect, outlawwing their relgion. You are accepting a precendent that could come back to haunt you someday. If certain elements of our society ever get enough political clout, they might determine that your religion is harmful for your children, and put you into the position of making a choice between your kids and your faith. This cannot be allowed.

We cannot allow ourselves to become a nation where parental rights are terminated based upon what someone believes in. Only when they act upon those beliefs (or there is imminent danger of them doing so), and harm a child in doing so, should the rights be terminated.

As for the practice of polygamy, I do not approve of it, but know of no compelling interest the state should have in it since we are not talking about legal marriages. If a bunch of women are willing to shack up with, and get impregnated by, some guy they are not legally married to... there is no law against it. The only place where these folks have crossed the line is involving minors in their “spritual marriages”. On the other hand, in MANY states in the U.S., it was not that many years ago when a 13 yr old getting married was not uncommon, and a girl who was not married before 18 was considered an “old maid”.

One thing I would support, wholeheartedly, is when these “unmarried mothers” go in to get welfare and food stamps, and they do and they declare themselves as unwed when they do (they know how to play the system), a dna test of any minors on welfare should be required, and paterrnity detemined from it so the state can nail the father for child support. I wonder how anxious these men would be to have 40 kids when they had to pay child support for them... and do not just nail them for the amount that goes to the woman and kids.. but hit them har with “administrative” fees too. Make sure that whatever they get is less than the old man pays, so there is no advatnage to them financially.

The notion that a state can basically outlaw a religion and remove your children based upon your religion is setting a very bad precedent if this is a condition they are setting.

Since you live in Kansas, I know you are no stranger to them. I was born in Winfield, and lived in Udall when it got wiped out (killed about half the town too). I spent most of my childhood growing up just outside of Dodge City. We had tornado warnings when I was a kid more times than I can count.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I have little doubt that all will work out according to God’s plan. I do believe there is a purpose for everything.

The power of these things is phenomenal. I have been thru them before, and seen the aftermath of them numerous times, and never cease to be amazed. 4 foot diameter oak trees just twisted as if someone were unscrewing a bottle cap, shattering it into toothpicks. Our little valley serves as a good demonstration as to how dangerous flying debris is. Everywhere ya look are pieces of sheetmetal torn from chicken houses and other metal bldgs... millions of them ranging from full sheets to jagged little plate sized pieces. For anyone caught outdoors in that it would have been like being dropped in a food processor.

It has been very gratifying to see how neighbors and others have reached out to help each other. I have met a number of my neighbors who, while I knew who they were, I knew nothing else about them. Some are very nice, such as a couple of the older ladies who ya just wanna give a big hug to they are so sweet and kind. (I kinda imagine them as my new adopted grandma’s) I have met and made a lot of new friends, and it seems to have brought a lot of people closer together. Shame that it takes things like this for that to happen.

Oh, I finally had to put that bull in the photo down. I had hoped he would make it, but apparently whatever hit him in the side had caused some internal damage. He was suffering pretty badly when I finally shot him. He was such a good fella... I cannot tell ya how bad I felt doing that. Being an old farm boy, I try not to get emotionally attached to animals... but sometimes ya cannot help it. I think thats going to be the last one we lose.. the rest are doing really good.

Democrat blowhards are adding CO2 and hot air, thus contributing to global warming so they are responsible for the high number of tornados we are having.

Sound reasonable?

California?!?! LOL. I was in the Whittier earthquake back in 87 (???, somewhere around that time anyway), and this is the second tornado I have had a close call with. I will take a tornado anyday over a big earthquake. With a tornado, ya just gotta find a hole. When the whole Earth shakes, there is not much ya can do except pray.

But one of these days the New Madrid fault is going to kick off, and we will not be safe from earthquakes here either.

Thanx for the concern. My family made out ok. Lost a few things, but they are just things, and insurance covers most of it. We came out very lucky, we know how blessed we are.

I did hate having to look over the rifle sights at the cattle I put down. Makes ya feel sick, seeing them looking up at you with those big eyes, trusting you to help make things ok.. and having to shoot them. The kid, wife, and I had raised several of them from the bottle and we had gotten pretty attached to them. I literally vomitted when I was done. My wife and son took that really hard. I feel like sh*t for having to do it. However, I guess I got lucky there too... one neighbor had to put 22 of his cattle down.

As bad as that is, losing the neighbors and friends is the worst. But at least we did not have to do the deed, or even see it, with them.

Kinda hard to deal with in some ways... we just keep reminding ourselves how well we have it and thanking God for protecting us.

Correction to caption..

Says “you can see what looks like the remains of a large desk”

Should say “large DECK”

Sorry about how that last post looks screwy. Having trouble getting the formatting right when posting pics.

I live about 4 miles west of Neosho Missouri. My house was missed, thankfully, however it destroyed my dairy barn, killed several neighbors and friends (not to mention a bunch of my livestock), and destroyed a large number of my neighbors homes. It even plucked a couple of our chickens... they are now running around with nothing but a few tail feathers. Ripped a tree out of the ground 50 feet from my house, but did not even disturb a shingle on the house (we got SO lucky). Among the cattle that survived, I had to put 6 down immediately, and 8 more over the next day. They had injuries ranging from broken legs to being impaled on a 2x4.

From the way it is looking, the folks around here who lost everything are not going to be seeing much, if any, assistance from the govt, and the Red Cross set up their unit in Joplin, about 25 miles away from any tornado damage.

The tornado was an F4, which stayed on the ground for over 70 miles. Where it passed by my place, it was about 3/4 mile wide. All of these pics were taken within 1/2 mile of my house.

The trees along my driveway.
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My neighbors RV got wiped out. The RV had been sitting on this slab by the boat. Left the boat untouched.
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The above 3 pics are what remains of a house. The girl who lives here saw the storm coming, ran inside and got into an interior closet. That closet is about all that remains of the house. 2x4's came punching thru the walls when she was in there.
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You can see the injuries this poor fella suffered, on his neck and right rear flank. The following couple pics are what remains of the barn he was in..
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The follwing two pics are of a home of a nice gentleman who has lived here for 50 years. He lost everything.
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Moved off of foundation about 50 feet...
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If you look carefully, behind this vehicle you can see what looks like the remains of a large desk. It is actually the floor of a mobile home which no longer exists. The lil old lady who lives here is such a sweet lady. She had just left about 5 minutes before the hit to go pick up her grandchildren. Good thing. The rest of her home is in a lake.
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A bunch more miscellaneous pics...

“One of the many ironies of politics is that those politicians who do the most to reduce supply often express the greatest outrage about high prices. “

Truest statement I have seen in a while. How many libs are running around screaming about high prices, who opposed drilling in the ANWR, building new refineries or reactors, drilling off-shore, or even building wind farms off-shore because it would hurt Ted Kennedy’s view? They are legion.