Comments on: Election 2005: Big Victory for Fans of Taxes, Terrorism, Turpitude

by: nigel

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:36:55 +0000

I think this fine Norwegian band expresses what we’re all about:

http://www.thecrushingblow.tv/2005/10/30-week/

by: David

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 22:02:38 +0000

Murray,

Hell of an adventure. I made that journey, but in a Beetle with the passenger’s seat removed and a pallet in its place for sleeping. I even did the loop into the deep Everglades on a limestone road off the Tamiami Trail. You would have loved the squatters’ shacks with the “trespassers will be shot” in runny red hand-brushed lettering. I chose not to decamp anywhere along that particular road.

You did survive, so given what I know about where you were cycling and what you were up against, you do qualify as one tough motherfucker. Weaker types would have been an obituary item.

A Semi-Native Son Salute to you from Sandspur Heaven

by: Pete IVDL

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:41:16 +0000

Hmmm. People, don’t get cocky. Remember, in front of every silver lining, there’s a cloud… I’m holding my breath until this apparent reversalization of the stupidification of the few people who bother to read balanced news reporting proves permanent. So Adam’s right - The End Is In Sight, But Don’t Celebrate Just Yet!

Coop - man, you graduated during my last year of primary school! But we still have something in common - the Great Herbal Remedy. ‘Course, I just use it for Medicinal Purposes, as you know, being a “glaucoma sufferer” yourself. (Slightly OT: isn’t it wierd how easy it is to associate Fundies and Conserves with the moronic anti-dope propaganda films of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s? Mind you, we still get our conserve-ative “news” channels and “current affairs” running anti-dope propaganda every time the least benightedly unintelligent local poll-aticians try to legalise hooch. And always, they manage to get some dickhead of a kid to eyeball the camera and swear that dope smoking made them want to eat babies or skin puppies or vote liberal…) Wow. It must be true.

by: Murray

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 17:37:24 +0000

David,
In Feb of ‘84, I biked an 800 mile circle around southern FL. This was my first attempt at long distance, self supported riding. I was camped at a state park near St. Marcos Island and needed to cross to Homestead in one day because there is nothing in between. After starting early in the morning, a 20-30 mph head wind slowed me drastically and I only had so much water with me. The map showed towns at regular intervals which turned out to be abandoned gas stations. I’m stuck on a heavily trafficed 2 lane highway, with no shoulder, a bike loaded with 40# of gear, struggling into a hell of a wind and out of water for several hours. I even stopped at a house along the way and was told that the water there would make me sick. By mid afternoon I was 60 miles into a 125 mi. ride, and finally came across an Indian village that had a restaurant where I got a sandwich. While I was recovering (I had to have looked like I’d been dragged behind a truck) a guy came rushing into the restaurant and needed to use the phone. When he was told that they didn’t have one he went crazy and couldn’t understand how he could be in America and not have access to a phone for over 3 hours. He was delivering a fancy motor home to a show in Miami, had been delayed, and needed to let his boss know where he was. After venting for about 5 minutes he noticed me in a pathetic pile at one of the tables. We were the only people in the place. “What are you doing here?” he asked. I looked up with a smile and said. “I’m on vacation”. We both laughed, he sat down and we gave each other our stories. When we left he offered to give me a 40 mi. lift to the next intersection. For a moment I thought “no, I’m here to do this by my self”, and then I thought, “how stupid are you?” We loaded up my bike and I climbed on board. I couldn’t believe it. This thing was fabulous, cherry cabinets, leather captain seats, a closed circuit rear view TV and camera, I had no idea that such a thing existed. $400,000 and this was back when the average house cost less than $100,000. He dropped me off I thanked him, and now with only a side wind I was able to make it to the state park just as it got dark.

David, I’ve seen the FL wild life up close, I don’t think I need to do it again.

by: David

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 15:18:52 +0000

Cooper,

She was not alone. My childhood neighbors across the street did exactly the same thing, coming from Searsport, Maine, where they owned a motel that apparently had no guests in hard winter. They also worked it out so they could play the dogs.

I do indeed know the whereabouts and the nature of your mom’s house. Central air and heat didn’t get rolling until well into the 60s, and came to be accompanied by shag carpeting as subdivision nirvana. Ah, the halcyon days of the beginning of the end.

by: cooper

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 01:09:44 +0000

David, 731 Pansy Ave. Alright you guys, stop that snickering, right now! I mean it! Pansy runs parallel to Park Ave. near 17-92. Not a cherished Cracker house, but rather a cracker box, built from concrete blocks. No A/C either, can you believe it? When it got too hot to bear, she drove up to Maine and stayed there until that got too cold to bear.

by: David

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 23:07:50 +0000

Murray,

I understand the appeal of a mountain top, fleeing as I do to western North Carolina at every opportunity. Highest point in Florida is 365 feet above sea level, more or less, and is up in the Panhandle near the state line. Otherwise, we have hills which are probably the byproduct of humongous ancient sinkholes.

But you would have enjoyed some aspects of the Florida of my youth, when Highway 50, which transects the center of the state from Gulf to Atlantic, was mostly an honest-to-lobster wilderness road. Granted that if you’d been with my family, you would have been riding in a 39 Chevy with 4/40 air-conditioning, but if you love wildlife, you would have been in hog heaven, sweaty though the experience would have been.

But Cat D8s and drag lines took care of all that, so you ain’t missing anything now.

What’s the highest ambient temperature you can tolerate? The Apocalypse is right around the corner, if Mussolini Junior gets his way.

by: Murray

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 12:20:53 +0000

David,
My living in FL would be one of the signs of the Apocalypse. I hate the heat and find FL too hot even in Feb. I live on a mountain top for a reason, and last I looked, the mountains of FL were pretty sorry things. The only thing FL is good for is SCUBA diving.

Littlebit,
glad to lighten the day.

by: littlebit

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:45:29 +0000

Thank you, Adam. The enunciation will make class especially interesting, and such things have been known to lead to memorable interpretive dances for Talent and Awards night around here.

Am still impressed that these Utah students requested conservative p.o.v. topics they couldn’t come up with themselves to argue against. Something is right with the world. And by thy way, one of those things, in my opinion, is you.

Hey, Murray, thanks for e-mailing the Ivins article (and for the link, David).

by: David

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:12:32 +0000

Do any of you California folk have any info on the author of the piece on the UN providing legal cover for a US nuclear strike against Iran?