ness

Hell, if a prowler showed up in my yard, and me and Kevin (across the street) felt threatened and decided we needed to take him out, chances are one of us would be kilt and the prowler would turn out to be a neighbor walking their Yorkie. Put your freakin' six-shooter away, cowboy, and clean up your yard.

Well, I've worked with cats professionally myself. I don't like to brag, but I was the head trainer for Siegfried and Roy, back before the accident. So I guess I'm saying I can tell the difference between a tabby and a tiger, and I know how they think. All cats are focused on the three F's -- food, ... well, I'll let you fill in the blanks. They don't care if you're living in a gated community with a manicured lawn and architectural lighting, or a Winters Bone shack with 3 generations of trash on the porch and a pit of caustic chemical residue in the back. They're looking to scratch the 'F' itch.

Thanks for the link, OB. It's nice to know my local 'secret spot' is crawling with e-coli, lead, chlordane, fecal stuff, and other things too nasty to mention here on the web.

You tournament dudes and your phony etiquette concerns! It's flippin' war out there, boys! Etiquette doesn't even enter into my thinking -- ever. When I'm on the tournament trail, anything goes. Some local putz who's not even competing? Screw him! I'm trying to make a buck and/or win, dammit! Clearly I've got priority over some numbskull just out with his kid/grandkid trying to catch a fish or two and create a 'memorable moment'. Cripes -- teach that punk how to win! And stay the hell outta my way! I can't beleive I've even got to explain this to you idiots.

Just know this, smokers: You're killing yourselves, and it's costing others in ways you're probably not considering. A life well-lived? It's hard to buy off on that logic. If you spend the last 20% of that life tethered to an oxygen bottle and drag down all the folks who depend on you -- either by costing the family a crapload of money, or sucking them into caring for your feeble, tar-stained-finger-azz, well -- your habit affects others. It blows my mind that some are advocating for smoking -- or the right to smoke. If you're holed up, living the life of a hermit in your little cabin, well -- ok. If you're not -- well, think about the rest. I've seen enough heart disease, cancer, emphysema, whatever -- and the effects it has on the rest of the family -- to know it's freakin' selfishness to lay that on others. Quit now, you self-centered pussies!

Chief -- another good point. 1,000 yard self-defense shots? Turn off 'Hurt Locker' and get a little perspective fellows.

OK you CSI wannabes: Trail cams are equipped with flash. That mushroom-shaped thing could be about anything. To discount the whole pic (which is so freakin' obviously a cougar or a labrador retriever) based on an anomaly like that is nuts! Oh, and who says cougars can't be photographed in nicely-landscaped yards? Not sayin' you're nuts, F&F, but....careful there.

And subsequent ones as well. Mrs. McAwee, my sixth grade teacher, would have all of you out in the hall for this!

This is getting out of hand! I think we all need to be a little more careful.........with grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Geez. At least he didn't shoot the poor thing.

That's a good point/question.

LOL

NEVER!

Re-reading a couple favorites right now: 'In Cold Blood' and 'Another Autumn: The Rufus Chronicle'. If you're a dog lover, and especially if you're a bird hunter, The Rufus Chronicle is a must read. The author is Charles Gusewelle, a Kansas City Star columnist, who tells the story of his Brittany from start to end with a lot of funny stories about Rufus at home, and a year-by-year chronicle of his hunting. Reminds me an awful lot of our older Brit Molly. Justin -- I've heard really good things about O'Rielly's Lincoln and Kennedy books -- gonna add them to the wish list.

OK -- the level of BS has risen to where I can't let it go any longer. Ward Clever had a pipe, but he NEVER smoked it. NEVER. Beaver and Larry smoked some coffee grounds in it, but that's it.

I didn't say diseases like diabetes are taxed! Alcohol causes a lot of problems, and is taxed pretty heavily, requires a license to sell, etc.

I don't buy that, Wayne. Everybody eventually gives up smoking. No question there are other health issues mucking things up -- and they generally get taxed pretty heavily.

That's a good question, Justin. I'm on a group plan through work, and I don't personally disclose any health information to get it. But, I'd bet the insurance company gets information about us as a group before they set the price each year. I'm gonna ask our HR lady about that. I just Googled and it appears Medicare and Medicaid don't discern between smokers and non-smokers (or diabetics, etc). There have been some attempts to put a surcharge on smokers, but I don't know if any have passed. When I redid my life policy a few years back, I had to give blood and they said they checked for smoking and other stuff with those tests.

Boy, this argument that comes up about the poor not being able to afford smokes sure misses a lot of more important points. Can 'they' afford emphysema? Heart disease? Lung cancer? Wayne, as to more stable sources -- that would sure be nice, but I think turning down a stream of revenue because it may go away doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Your Social Security may go away, so can I have it?

Agreed -- but we just keep voting in the same knuckleheads, so we pretty much get the same results. I heard between $6 and 9 B spend on this round of elections, but we're essentially where we were before it. Here's a pretty good piece from 60 Minutes that shows how messed up our Congress is. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50134480

Went to school at Baker; remembered you lived there; lake sizes you quoted were about right. Just drove through over Maple Leaf and swung by the 'Old Lake' for grins. Did some prairie restoration work along the road to the county lake. Used to hunt quail below the dam. Other assorted shenanigans at both lakes.

Baldwin City Lake, Douglas County Lake by chance?

That way of thinking is extinct in Washington. They pay lip service to the notion, but nobody is suggesting significant change that would get us there in a reasonable amount of time. We had War Bonds in the old days. In WWI, the government borrowed binoculars from citizens and returned them after the war with a nominal fee (I think maybe $1). As few as 50 years ago there was a real emphasis on balancing the budget -- when we had just come out of a world war and had a lot of work to do. When you owe money, you lose control of your destiny.

Agreed -- you're kind of a fool if you don't take what's available to you. I just wish we could review these programs, and a lot of others -- really the whole flippin' budget -- and figure out what makes sense given where we are right now. But the programs are so entrenched, nobody wants to cut anything if it might cause some citizen (voter) a little pain, and they just keep adding layers. When the issue comes up, everyone wants to point at something else and say cut that, or that. Or turn it into a red vs. blue thing.

Never mind. Thanks Justin.