ness

Gol darnit -- we've all gone soft! 101 outside, and 74 inside with 35% humidity. Dehumidifier hummin' along, the dial on the meter outside is spinnin', and I'm still not comfy. Gonna have to head down to the Bat cave.

Yeah, I'm not an Al Gore fan by any means -- but geez. That is one tired, old, argument that never held water. If you can't find issues with him for legitimate reasons, then just 'hesh up', as my junior high (that's middle school to you young pups) gym teacher used to say.

...says the putz

Hmmm. Had to Google that one. Kinda surprised I hadn't heard of it.Is that a pretty good movie?

-1 Hah!

As long as I'm taking unpopular positions, I'll weigh in on that one too. I actually read a large part of the Freeh report, specifically the part about Paterno, and all the e-mail exhibits that were used to support their findings. Ain't nothing there. It's gonna be interesting to see how it plays out after the media circus leaves town.

I was just eye-balling the cost thing. Let me get back to you on that.

I'd agree this is a media circus, but everything is a media circus these days. Turn off the TV, or change it over to TV Land and watch some reruns. I couldn't say if the motivation for this guy is glory, but maybe you're privy to some information the rest of us don't have. As to the effectiveness of capital punishment -- you've got some statistics of crimes not committed to back that up?

Oh yeah, JD -- executions are a real deterrent. Whoops -- not this time. This PhD candidate probably hadn't thought of that, right? You wanna blame this guy's acts on his seeing others do it? Or, blame future acts on this guy? And, somehow, justify his execution as a preventative measure? Good luck. He's nuts. When you've got 300-plus million folks, there's gonna be some nuts. Not to diminish the fact -- it's truly a tragedy. But don't for a minute think executing him fixes things. Holster your gun, cowboy. And, I didn't say anything about reform -- that's your cop out. Reform isn't the only acceptable outcome. Rewind back to what was said -- simply take this guy out of society. Turns out it's cheaper to do that than execute him anyway.

Read up on the Amish response to the Nickle Mines massacre. It's really interesting how they got past it -- when just about anyone would think a different approach was warranted. I thin there's a real lesson in that.

By the way Mitch -- I'm with you on most of the rest of your post. Be responsible for what you do. No excuses.

Hey Mitch, I guess where I get hung up is on the fact that we can't be perfect in all this. We should know that death is not a deterrent, so what is it really? It's tit for tat. (Sorry Phil, not that kinda tit). It's revenge. If we get even ONE wrong, we're just as bad as the bad guy. Any question in your mind that we haven't executed somebody in error along the way? This guy is nuts. He doesn't fit. I'm not saying we fight tooth-and-nail to prove he's not responsible -- he is. It doesn't matter if mamma spanked him or Uncle Jerry touched his privates. I'm saying what's the point in killing him? Lock him up and move on. He's got nothing good to offer today, so put him away. If he comes around, let him minister to the other prisoners and convince a parole board. And then -- there's the whole concept of forgiveness. What a powerful, powerful thing that is. But I know that conversation won't fly in this crowd. But guess what? That's where the comfort lies for the victim's families. That,and only that. Anything else just eats you up.

Al, you should listen to your wife more. One of the fundamental problems with our justice system is that we've adopted the death penalty, but our justice system isn't perfect enough for that -- and it never can be. I don't think one wrongful execution can be justified because we got the other bozillion right -- one is one too many. And, at some fundamental level, we should all know that revenge isn't really any solution -- it just makes us feel good, temporarily, but it doesn't fix a thing. Who's to say the teenagers who shot up Columbine HS are somehow not quite mature enough to have understood, but the 20-something kid who shot up the theater is? That shows your uncertainty with the process. Even if you go all the way and conclude he was fully aware of his actions, and wanted to kill as many people as he could -- is there any question this guy was simply whacko? Lock him up, figure him out, whatever. But killing him doesn't fix a thing. Surely you're just spouting off in the heat of the moment. Overcrowded jails, endless appeals, money spent, whatever -- they're the symptoms of a (mostly) fair and civilized system. We're lucky we've got it.

Oh, and get yourself a Runza and a Maid-Rite.

I don't know if you'd find this interesting, but I've enjoyed it in the past: http://www.lhf.org/ Living History Farms They've got several farms setup for different time periods, like homesteaders, mid-19th century, early-20th century.

Good for you and them! Hope everyone's healthy. I didn't picture you as a grandpa. This opens up a whole new avenue of sh*t-flippin'

Hold on there, tjulianc. Don't go getting all logical on us. If the folks watching in on TV are pretty sure somebody's guilty, we ought to skip the trial, sentencing and appeals and herd folks into the nearest gas chamber. Maybe get Nancy Grace's read on it first, just to be sure we don't execute too many folks in error.

No, I don't think there were brookies in NE. Their range covered upper midwest, east and along the Appalachian spine. They were down as far as IA, and included WI, MN, MI, etc. All the way down into GA. Closest thing to NE would be cutts, which ranged east of the divide. But, I don't recall hearing THAT far east.

Them brown trout down in AR have figured out how to do it.

No trout are native to MO or AR. Brown trout are native to Europe. Rainbows are native to the western US. Brook trout are native to Eastern/Upper Midwest of US. Cutthroats are native to Western US. All trout around here were introduced. But, there are self-sustaining populations of rainbows and browns in spring creeks and tailwaters around here.

Why the hell would you do that to some perfectly good Bushmill's?

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/21/3716400/floating-through-the-past.html Nice article, Kyle. Hope you get a ton of business -- you've got a cool idea there.

It just feels like the right time to trot out this little gem again:

An oldie, but goodie right there

Flat may mean standing water. No better time to fix that than when it's bare dirt.