Posts Made By: James C Chandler Jr

I'm no fan of Bush, but the situation has been going south a long time under both parties. Clinton and Carter took great pride in being 'the protector of the world' too.

Have wondered if it would be beneficial to develop military exit strategies not only from Iraq, but also from Europe and Asia.

It would certainly be beneficial to USA, reducing the military 'load' on the economy.

Such a path may not be beneficial to our allies, because they would have to decide to either ramp up their own defense spending, or live 'very risky' in a dangerous world.

It seems insane to spend so much money protecting our friends. It frees up our allies' capital to better economically compete against us? I realize it isn't necessarily a zero-sum game, but dunno if we can afford to be the world's policeman.

ESPECIALLY since many allies don't even WANT us to be the World's Policeman. They would be overjoyed to see us go home. I would be happy to see us go home too.

And it would be somewhat amusing when they look around at the neighborhood bullies, and realize the need to spend their own money on their own defense, once our guys have returned home (grin).

Yep, puppies seem to like electronics as much as wallets, shoes, and furniture. Our house is predominately raggedy furniture. If they go after the sheetrock on the walls, it can get very annoying.

You can put pepper sauce on no-chew items, which helps unless the spice makes objects more tasty. Pet stores sell a 'Bitter Yucki' no-chew spray that is supposedly more humane than capsaicin. Dunno the effectiveness, because I didn't get a bottle until after the last pup had decided that the household rugs and furniture had already been sufficiently modified.

When wife was a kid, her family had a collie pup kept in the screened-in back porch when they were away at work/school. During the teething phase, the pup chewed entirely thru a wood leg of a table on the porch. It was an 'inside leg', so the project wasn't noticed until it had been completed. Idle teeth are the devil's playground.

AFAIK most pups eventually grow out of it. It took the little aussie 5 years to grow out of it. Any time a shoe, wallet, or remote control went missing, we would automatically go hunting in the back yard.

If the theft was noticed soon enough, sometimes the remotes hadn't been so severely modified as to lose function, but the exterior of all such devices in the house were heavily customized.

The expandable baby gates help keep puppies away from wires and such. Had to put baby gates several places in the music studio when the black lab was teething. All those cables behind the equipment racks were just too tempting.

If sufficiently motivated, they can easily chew thru the plastic mesh in the baby-gates. The young coon dog discovered that trick. He is nearly un-trainable for tricks or obedience, but he is a genius at getting in trouble. Hardware cloth wire mesh is easily tacked on baby gates. Perhaps it makes sense to buy hardware cloth when you buy the baby gates...

One other thing on Lab habits-- At least noticed with our dearly-departed Lab. Maybe they don't all do this--

If a door was closed, she would knock by scraping that big paw down the door. That was also her method of pushing-open un-closed doors.

We have antique old-house natural-finish doors. After her passing, when the remodeling got around to refinishing the doors, several doors have big deep concave souvenirs of her legacy. We just sanded em off, stained and lots of polyurethane. I like seeing the reminders of her legacy. It remains pretty wood, just 'distressed' with her signature.

If you don't want such souvenirs, you can buy big sheet-brass scratch-bumpers to pre-emptively protect the doors. The brass will get scratched up, but it is a sacrificial item to protect the door.

Hi Julie

I got the Twilight Zone episode "The Hunt" to play all the way thru from the CBS link, but a download would certainly be better. Had to reload the page a couple of times. Maybe slow ping speed or firewall interference.

Has been years since seeing that episode, back when I knew even less about dogs than my present state of ignorance. Today I could at least recognize that the TV episode dog is probably a blue tick hound. The Twilight Zone episodes were typically rush jobs with indoor sets or back lot shots. Tis surprising how 'appalachian' some of the outdoor shot scenery appears. Of course from the 1930's on, many Appalachian movies and shows had been made in Hollywood. There were probably stock sets ready-to-go.

Early in the episode, in the coon hunt footage. Dunno anything about hunting or hounds, but it was amazing to see the blue tick doing the same treeing behavior my rescue English and Walker hounds do daily for squirrels. The old English hound has probably been hunted, but I know the Walker has not. The English will leap up trees and try to shinny the trunk (with little success). The Walker jumps trunks too, but he will also just walk way up into a tilted tree. The Twilight Zone blue tick does one pretty good run up into the tree, but my young walker would keep on going up, with such an easy tree.

There must have really been a coon (or other furry critter) in the tree to get such authentic behavior. Mine don't waste their time on empty trees, and they are not especially trainable.

While watching the coon hunt scene-- The audio was just medium amplitude in the computer speakers. When the TV hound started yowling up the tree-- My hounds never pay attention to TV or radio, and had been soundly sleeping in their favorite chairs. They both woke up barking wildly, rushed down the stairs, thru the dog door and out into the woods sniffing trees. To me, the TV dog sounded like ordinary generic barking, but apparently it means, "There's a coon!" in hound language? Universal dialect perhaps?

Thanks Paul

I appreciate your insights on the market.

With stocks so deflated, maybe George Soros will soon just buy the entire world? (just joking)

The light is a Mag Solitaire flashlight, available from wallyworld for a couple of bucks. It is a single AAA incandescent light which is not particularly bright (which is a good thing for a nighttime reticle illuminator).

The little adapter was amateurishly machined on a mini lathe from a piece of 0.75" diameter 6061 aluminum.

Like various sun cycles, which at times positively or negatively reinforce each other, there are the various economic cycles, which at times 'hit top' or 'hit bottom' about the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_cycles

Given the reality of the cycles, it doesn't necessarily make sense to have a revolution and change everything just because a couple of cycles bottom out about the same time. It would be like sacrificing virgins to the sun god every time the sunspot count goes low.

The USA has resorted to 'about the same' responses to economic dips for 200 years, and then when the cycle 'comes back', everybody congratulates themselves that the intervention worked. Like knowing that the sun god sacrifice worked, after the sunspots come back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1819

>Proposed remedies included:
>
>increase of tariffs (largely proposed by Northern manufacturing interests).
>reduction of tariffs (largely proposed by Southerners, who believed free trade would stimulate the economy and increase demand).
>monetary expansion; i.e., restriction or suspension of specie payment.
>rigid enforcement of specie payment.
>restriction of bank credit.
>direct relief of debtors.
>public works proposals.
>stricter enforcement of anti-usury laws.

===

The quoted economists are not the first to suggest that the deep 1930's dip was a natural 3 year deep dip which was artificially stretched by 'well-intentioned but incorrect' world political intervention. I recall hearing the same ideas in economics courses back in the 1960s/1970s.

Trade war policies are often applied in response to economic dips, including the 1930's dip. Such policies historically seem counter-productive, but they feel so good to do. This emotionally appeals to me because I'm a complete isolationist, but just because it is appealing, doesn't mean it is a good idea. I expect new trade war policies regardless who wins, and more extreme versions if Obama is elected.

Michael, do your rings have 1/4-20 threads on the opposite side to your mounting dovetail?

If so, it should be easy to add a balance rail on those points, and attach a movable weight to the balance rail. The balance rail could either be home-made or store-bought.

Some folks have attached velcro exercise ankle weights to the front of a scope.

Shortly after the invention of fire, in rural Alabama, I got a Daisy BB rifle about age 8. Was also allowed to fire a .22 single shot rifle squirrel-hunting or plinking, under supervision.

Adults at that time and place were obsessive about gun safety, and seemed guaranteed to go 'ballistic' if a kid didn't do the right thing. Corporal punishment was neither rare or unusual. Spankings did not result in child abuse reports to social workers.

After some training, parents let me shoot the BB gun under my discretion, and I probably ran thousands of rounds thru the thang out in the woods. Not many people or houses nearby to present a problem.

Adults in the sparsely-populated area were psychicly wired together. A kid could not do anything within a mile of any adult, without parents knowing every detail in the same day. One time-- just one little time-- I operated the BB gun in an unsafe manner. I knew it was unsafe when I did it. Didn't see any adults anywhere. The single instance of unsafe behavior didn't even result in injury, but it resulted in loss of BB gun privileges for about a year.

Decisions, decisions. Should Obama appoint Al Gore to head the EPA or the DOE?