A Chicken Is Not Pillage

I Swear

If only to benefit somewhat older Americans, HTML desperately needs a <sarcasm> tag.  Perhaps it could change the font style to Comic Sans ...

Well Done, Little Davey Budge

Oh yes.  I see your point.  Let's not take our 40 cents from the people who have robbed us, and don't give a flip about the largess we have offered in the past.   Let's instead, take it from our infrastructure funds.  Let's rob our neighbors instead of the robbers.  How bold you are, sir.

(Golf clap ...)

Like A Free Ride When You've Already Paid ...

One of the best posts I think I've written all year ... and it's over at Left in the West.  Hell, even the wingnuts thought it was worth looking at.  But I would like to point this out to Wiley, who is, apparently, NOT familiar with all Internet traditions:

"Wingnuts" are righties.  "Moonbats" are lefties.  Do try to keep it straight.

The Road Less Traveled, Part 1

Every year, the sister of one of my very best friends hosts a party to celebrate the Summer solstice at her house in Kalispell.  She and her husband (people who are truly great in the most moral and human sense) allow a bunch of us to descend on their home, drink to excess, laugh like the loving fools we are and get reacquainted with what truly makes life good.  This year was special beyond measure, because their greatest wish had been fulfilled.  This was the first Solstice celebration for their son, Morgan Finn.  (Welcome to the wild ride, little man.  Hold on tight, and enjoy everything!)

Every year I've gone I have taken a different route from Bozeman to Kalispell; and by a strange coincidence, every year I've driven a different vehicle.  Those streaks will likely end soon, but not this year.  This year, as once before, my beloved went with me, and we had one quest in mind: to take the road less traveled.  It was our intent to journey roads we'd never been on, and see places we'd never seen, and avoid the Interstate whenever and however possible.

We left Bozeman on Huffine, and just went straight to Norris.  This was nothing new for either one of us, but pleasant just the same.  What we had never done was visit the town of Pony.  It's a tiny little mining burg, about two miles off the main road, in the Madison valley.  It's nestled in the bosom of some pretty impressive rocks. 

That big shaved looking guy to the right is called Hollow Top, for somewhat obvious reasons.

The town itself is cute and quaint beyond compare.  In fact, calling it those things may be an insult.  My beloved was enchanted with the place.  It has a big brick school (abandoned) and several houses that speak to the glory of mining riches.  Victorian 'painted ladies', my wife calls them.  In truth, I could live there (if I had the money to live there.)  One of my co-workers obsessed for a week with the idea that the Pony Bar is for sale.  I now understand why, and have twisted fantasies that I  might buy the place just so I could live that life under the shadow of great mountains.  I wish we had had more time to spend there (like a few others have.)  But we had miles to go before rest.

We headed north, and cut over to Cardwell.  From there, it was over Pipestone pass, dropping us into the lap of Butte.  More later ...

Oh, Andrew, tsk, tsk ...

I think I'm going to have to make a new category just for Andy Hammond's silliness.  He isn't even worth being offended by any more.  I just feel embarrassed for the man.  I go away for the weekend, and this is all the man can come up with:

1)  The majority of British folk don't think that Global Warming is caused by humans.  Andy's poorly thought out opinion?  That proves that it isn't.  What's truly moronic is his sad attempt to deride the very people who have studied the issue for thinking that the uneducated and uninformed are ... wait for it ... uneducated and uninformed.  Tada!  The Aristocrats!  Uhhm, Andy, how many times now have you argued that a consensus of people who've actually studied the problem isn't proof?  Given that, exactly what "gotcha" do you think you have by trotting out a bunch of Manchester mill workers to disprove what the vast majority of scientists who've studied the damn issue believe?  In case the news hasn't made it to Happy-fun-time-Andy-land, facts don't conform to popular opinion.

I'm sorry, Mark, but you're flat out wrong.  Andy really is dumber than Eric.

2)  BARACK OBAMA IS GONNA DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!!1!  Look out, America!  He's stealin' your seal!

Okay.  Andy posts the following comparison.
Wow, that's pretty damning evidence that Obama is "presumptuous and arrogant", to use Andy's words.  Certainly that uppity ... person ... can't presume to think he can appropriate the symbols of real Americans, can he?  After all, imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery unless you're an uppity ... person ... running for the highest office in the land, who obviously HATES America, just like everybody else who steals it's great symbols.  No true patriot would ever do such a loathsome thing, right?  AMIRIGHT?  Uh oh.

What the hell?  Is that Saint Reagan's name applied to such presumption and arrogance?  Why yes, yes it is.

Andy, you're embarrassing yourself.  I know there's a touch of thoughtfulness in that rattling brain cage.  So I'm asking, begging even, would you just quit being so dumb?