ness

I always wanted a squirrel smoking a cigarette while standing on a duck avatar -- but F&F beat me to it. Kind of a limited audience for Maynard G. Krebs. A lot of these young pups wouldn't even get Gilligan. I'm fresh outta ideas. Maybe Google Mad Magazine images?

Wayne, Jack: I really have a hard time taking you serious with those silly avatars

Mitch f mentioned it on the other thread -- about Hannity and Matthews -- and how nasty all this is. Well, on February 22 (I think -- whenever Lent started) I 'gave up' cable news. I'm talking all the majors. There is just tooo much of it that's opinion, quoting other (crappy) sources, and very little true reporting. And they seem to have formally adopted the 'simply make stuff up' approach as routine. It's often presented in a format that is little more than argument -- with the loudest talker or the one who gets their point in before the break 'winning'. It's like watching reality TV -- you know it's wrong, you know they're all misbehaving, you wouldn't hang with these folks if you were stuck on a deserted island, but you sorta want to watch anyway because there might be a pretty good zinger or a shot of Kim in a bikini. I've expanded my boycott into all political punditry. And, what I've found is that all this kinda clears my head. Not so much BS floating around in there, and I'm less worked up about stuff. There are fools all cross the spectrum, but the biggest ones are at the two extremes. No sense even giving them my time. The truth usually falls somewhere in middle anyway. And if all you can do is repeat what a fool said, well... I did watch the debate -- turned it on right before, and turned it off right after. I know how I feel about it, and it helped me understand a little more about the plans and/or philosophies of the two. Then I watched a Leave it to Beaver episode to see life as I'd like it to be.

I really don't know the ins-and-outs of the part time/full time thing and the healthcare act. But big business making the rules? Feels more like business adjusting to rules that have been put in place. If government could look a couple moves ahead, they might be able to avoid some of this stuff. To your second point: honestly, how can you find fault with Romney for making decisions that donors don't like? Are you suggesting a little old-fashioned palm greasing is a better way? Man, I wish we had a lot more people thinking like Romney on that. Of course, as always, it's a lot easier to say it than to do it.

You really need to justify every expense, every year. They used to call it 'Zero-Based Budgeting'. Every year, every department starts with zero and asks for money. But, it was more theoretical than anything at the federal level. I know a lot of states manage to balance their budgets. Not sure if that's because they're constitutionally bound, or just good stewards. But the federal government needs a major overhaul, far beyond anything that's been proposed by either side. How hard can it be? Kevin Kline did it in less that two hours in 'Dave'.

Heck, if it won't jack up my stellar internet record, I'll click on every ad I see to help the cause.

Nooooo. Not CRP! Yeah, that one kinda stings, personally. But it's well on the way to being eliminated in corn-producing country, due to the subsidies, and other places due to high commodity prices. Justin -- I'd love to have infrastructure improvements too. But I just feel like we've got to quit trying to spend/borrow our way to prosperity. Fed announced 'QE3' a couple weeks ago. For those that don't follow those things -- it's the Federal Reserve stepping into the markets and buying massive quantities of long-term bonds though a program of 'Quantitative Easing' -- it's round 3 of that, so QE3. Supply and demand tells you the buying will make the price of bonds go up, and there's an inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates, so rates will go down. The long-term bonds they're buying are mortgage-related, so they're driving down mortgage rates even more. This is literally 'printing money', not the old government borrowing kind of printing money -- but creating money. $40 billion a month, for 3 years. Besides the ridiculous debt and deficits, we've got these phantom liabilities too. Of course there's social security, medicare and medicaid. But then there's the banking backstops, Fannie/Freddie/Ginnie guaranties, money market fund guaranties, you name it -- we've made trillions and trillions in promises since the markets went in the crapper -- both Bush and Obama. We could NEVER meet those obligations. Our president said we've been repaid on the bailouts, and have even made a profit. That's simply a falsehood. Not taking sides here -- BS is BS -- and that's a whopper. We've been repaid on some, with interest, but there's a ton still outstanding. Look at GM, Ally Bank ownership and the TARP funds still outstanding. It's gonna sound like I'm taking sides again, but I'm really not. Romney talked about the guy who added up all the taxes he paid and it was about 50%. Well, I've done that calculation myself several years in a row and that's about where I land -- without even taking a stab at the sales tax I pay. Last year my kids could get a couple pieces of pizza for lunch at school for about $3. Now it's $6, because the guvmint doesn't want my kids eating pizza for lunch. It never freakin' ends. I've haven't been this pessimistic about the future since I was a kid and thought the chance of nuclear war was pretty high.

That's true to an extent JD, but I think there's more going than just that. I have definitely searched or shopped for something and then see ads here and elsewhere with the product or web site. But I've also seen a sketchy one here. It was only once, and it wasn't graphic -- more along the lines of "Meet Shawnee women", or something like that. It was several months ago. I would have tipped Phil off if it was way outta bounds or happening frequently. Back when we were discussing concealed carry, there were a lot of ads relating to that. I didn't search anything like that, and I wonder if anyone else was seeing the same ads.

This whole thing goes to a point that I think is overlooked. Everybody loves it when the guvmint comes in and does something that benefits them. But when you get right down to it, it's plain greed and selfishness. And it's an abdication of our obligation to support the right thing. It's the epitome of being unpatriotic! Throw your philosophy aside for a minute. Forget those talking points that you've been subjected to ad nauseum, and think with your own brain for a minute. When taxes are high, and economic activity is stagnant, and unemployment is high, and the deficit is at record levels, and it makes more economic sense to set up shop overseas, and folks are getting unemployment for 2+ years, and food stamp participation has doubled, and new regulations on business are coming so fast they can't even meet their legislated enactment dates, and banks are discouraged from lending, and major 'shovel ready' projects are launched, and the Post Office figures out a way to lose $5 billion in a QUARTER, and 12 million illegal aliens came here and fill jobs 'we' wouldn't take, and healthcare costs are sky-rocketing, and hospitals are closing and being torn down and newer, beautiful ones built in 'better' neighborhoods, and drug companies can shrug off multi-billion dollar penalties... Stuff is jacked up, bad.

Wait a minute -- you've got DSL thanks to the guvmint? Sh*t -- it's even worse that I thought. How can you sleep at night knowing you're suckin' at the teet while we're spending a trillion a year more than we take in? And don't think for a minute you're $1,400 ahead in the end thanks to a $400 refund and avoidance of a $1,000 presumed increase in insurance. Ever stop to think where that's coming from? It's two major problems disguised as a windfall for you. If you give a mouse a cookie...

Everything you need to know is right here in this book by economist Laura Numeroff:

I believe I speak on behalf of all fly fishermen, nay, all humankind, when I say: Huh?

Justin -- love the signature quote!

Yeah -- Yellowfin. That's a pretty interesting story in itself. I can't say I'm optimistic -- just glad they found those in Bear Creek, and appear to have them started over at a hatchery (even if their record at hatcheries is less than stellar).

People that don't use them, that's who I'm with you -- I like my stuff clean

What's the fourth, Tim? Never mind -- just read the article. Pretty interesting and timely stuff. I had heard they thought the Greenback broodstock might be contaminated. Cool that they've figured all that out, and cooler still that they found a pure strain to build from. It's also interesting to see all these other invasive species listed. I tend to think of kudzu, zebra mussels, carp, etc. -- things that cause problems and are publicized.

Welp, there's more than one recognized subspecies of cutt in CO...3 IIRC: Greenback, Colorado River and Rio Grande. And they've been moved around some by you-know-who.

I agree with sentiment above -- presentation trumps fly selection. The idea that certain flies are necessary generally can be traced back to someone who has those flies for sale. But to add a bit to what Al said -- you should expect the current near the bottom to be moving slower, due to friction with the bottom. The larger the 'grit' the more friction and turbulence you can expect too. So, keeping your indicator moving with the current at the surface is really just giving you an approximation of what's going on underneath, and it's usually indicating faster movement than what is going on below. Gentle, small, upstream mends will help slow down the fly.

Good to have you here, WR. Love the handle, too!

Kinda glad the debacle happened. We could have clunked along all season with marginal refs before a huge blown call changed the outcome of a game. It really highlights the complexity of the task, and the need for top-quality refs, and that will help move things along at the bargaining table. Sorry Cheeseheads -- I wouldn't wish that on any team .... well, other than the Raiders or Broncos.

I just love this post.

Otters and giggers is, like, so last problem. That was either an elk or a mountain lion.

Yeah, the Celtics and Scandahoovians used them with regularity. What ever happened to those guys?

You'd rather we cast aspersions? Another nice edit

Nice edit there, Bry.