Please, tread on me.

The weather forecast today, as indicated by the Yahoo weather app on my phone, is a series of horizontal lines. That indicates wind. Big wind. Wreck-of-the-Edmund-Fitzgerald windy. Four-to-six-foot-waves windy. Windy, I tell you. (I tried to embed some Gordon Lightfoot music for the occasion, but the stupid code didn’t work. I have better things to do than flyspeck HTML. Or PHP. Or whatever it is. Just hum along in your head: The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, of the big lake they call Gitche-gumee…) I’m just grateful we’re not pulling the boat today. Here are the forces at work, if you like:

Me, I have another stuck-inside-all-day on tap, but I’m going to try to get outside for at least a while. Maybe get hit by some flying branches.

Which may be preferable to being a MoveOn.org supporter in Kentucky these days. Good lord, what is wrong with people? I already see a cultural divide between even the description of this event was — lefties are calling it a “stomping,” with right-wing blogs favoring “stepping.” I call it aggravated stepping, and that stupid geezer and his stupid friends ought to be charged; that is simply beyond the pale. Is this what it’s come to? Is this how the teabaggers take their country back?

By the way, there was more than one camera at that event, and one got clear images of one of the assailants. I expect he’ll skate, too — him and his “don’t tread on me” button, that is. Ha ha.

The more I watch that video, the more irritable I get, and I need to go pick up Alan at the Subaru shop. Let’s all take a happy pill and look at some snapshots from Basset’s housewarming, with some before shots thrown in to get a sense of the scope. I envy his first-floor laundry.

Back later.

Posted at 9:50 am in Current events |
 

59 responses to “Please, tread on me.”

  1. coozledad said on October 26, 2010 at 10:04 am

    That’s likely the only interaction those two winners have had with a woman in their snuff-dipping lives. And they’re the lifeblood of their movement.

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  2. basset said on October 26, 2010 at 10:22 am

    I used to work with a Bay Mills Chippewa from Detour Village in the Upper Peninsula… who said he’d never heard “Gitche-Gumee,” they just called it Lake Superior.

    We like the front-loading washer & dryer, lots quieter than the old ones.

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  3. brian stouder said on October 26, 2010 at 10:56 am

    Basset – your pics are definitely the equivalent of a Happy Pill! They certainly beat the hell out of dissastified google-eyed rednecks beating the hell out of their fellow citizens.

    That guy’s funny ballcap reminded me of a book that was being discussed on C-SPAN’s Book-TV (and which is now on my Christmas list) about Jefferson and Madison.

    Short version – regarding the Constitution and the founders and framers (etc) – there’s no sacred thing to divert from or fall away from. All of today’s arguments about the Constitution date all the way back to when they wrote the thing (and the Federalist papers are over-rated, but we digress)

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  4. Jeff Borden said on October 26, 2010 at 11:00 am

    I’m sure Glenn Beck and the other toads of the right-wing echo chamber will claim the woman from Moveon’s head actually was attacking the shoes of Rand Paul supporters.

    What a brave bunch of brawny Kentucky gentlemen they are. Funny. Both my parents were from northern Kentucky and they drilled issues of politeness and civility into me and my sister to the point where I pretty much call everyone either sir or ma’am, the latter not always well received. I’m glad they’re not around to see this ugly video.

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  5. Connie said on October 26, 2010 at 11:01 am

    It’s a little early for those “gales of November”, Edmund Fitzgerald sunk on November 10. I know this because, as I have told you before, it is my husband’s birthday.

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  6. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 11:04 am

    Oh, basset, I want to be part of your posse. Sitting there under that Yellow Submarine poster, chatting with the young man with the hair and the peace sign…
    Congratulations on your new cozy digs.
    Nancy, perhaps we need to send a NN delegation to the Rally to Restore Sanity.
    http://www.meetup.com/rally4sanityandmarch4fear/

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  7. adrianne said on October 26, 2010 at 11:05 am

    Watch out, Dorothy Gale! Batten your hatches!

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  8. LAMary said on October 26, 2010 at 11:15 am

    It was really windy here yesterday too. Batten down the eucalyptus trees.

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  9. Deborah said on October 26, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Bassett, love the way you show the before and after. The befores were sad and depressing and the afters are warm and uplifting.

    I’m working from home this morning, I’ve got the sore throat thing that’s making the rounds in the office. Having a sore throat and a bum foot is getting me down. It’s windy and rainy in Chicago too.

    Will one of the apostrophe police please tell me if I should have them after “befores” and “afters” in my second sentence above?

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  10. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Now that I think of it, if Rand Paul had just thought to bring his private security force they could have just arrested the woman before she even got into the place and became a bother.

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  11. Snarkworth said on October 26, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Deborah, I believe your befores and afters are just fine as is. As are.

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  12. coozledad said on October 26, 2010 at 11:26 am

    Sue: They’re his peeps. Before the assault they’re helping Natty Rand out of the car. But I guess it’s just another case of cultivating the appearance of Nazism, not actually indulging it to the skull-shattering fullest.

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  13. alex said on October 26, 2010 at 11:27 am

    Deborah, as a former publishing house apostrophe nazi, I’ll tell you that your befores and afters are splendidly executed and don’t change a thing.

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  14. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 11:44 am

    Cooz: really? I can’t bring myself to watch the video – it’s his own people doing this? Or just overly helpful supporters?

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  15. Dexter said on October 26, 2010 at 11:48 am

    C’mon! Let’s go, devil wind. You’re thirteen minutes late. You were supposed to be right here, blowing my windows out at 11:30 AM on the nose. Where are you?
    I am tied to the mast here, come get me. 80 mph? Bring it. –OK, THERE you are. Hello. Be nice now…I just had all new cable wiring installed from way back behind the house where the tap-plate is. Please be nice. Sirens have been wailing for 33 minutes. Let’s get this bastard outta here. Now it’s very, very calm. You know what that means. “…sayin’ : fellas, it’s been good… ta know ya…”

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  16. Mark P. said on October 26, 2010 at 11:54 am

    Just a side note – it’s the closeness of the lines that indicates the strength of the pressure gradient, and thus the strength of the winds. And that is one tightly wound system you got there.

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  17. Julie Robinson said on October 26, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    bassett, very nice! I know it was a long hard journey and I hope you can sit back and enjoy now.

    It’s amazing how primal we all are–over on Facebook everyone is posting about the weather. I don’t mind the wind but sure would love me some sun.

    Our daughter gets back into the USA tomorrow and is hoping to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity. Not sure what the mechanics of that are but she flies in to Newark. I’m at the point where I just want her safe in my arms and I know I’ve just had a tiny taste of what military moms go through. One told me that she never sleeps through the night when her son is deployed.

    Edit: wrt elitism, my son just sent me this link from the Onion: http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-opponent-knows-where-washington-is-on-a-map-i-d,18330/

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  18. MarkH said on October 26, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Had my 40th high school reunion this past weekend in Cincinnati. Hoping to get out of here to Denver this afternoon.

    Oops – tornado warning sirens going off now in the Loveland area.

    More later.

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  19. Bob (not Greene) said on October 26, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    Looks like I need to put Kentucky on my growing site list for my arm-band factory empire. I’m going to make a fortune!

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  20. nancy said on October 26, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    Yes, I forgot to say: Wherever Pilot Joe is flying today, I hope it’s far from here, or not at all.

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  21. John said on October 26, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Bob (NG),

    Jackbootstraps are needed too.

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  22. beb said on October 26, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    Sadly Flickr is one of the proscribed sites at my place of employment. I’ll have to wait until I’m home to see the wonders that are Bassett.

    One of the sad things about politics is the level of project found in the Republican party (and/or among conservatives) While they complain about “jack booted thugs” in the IRS who exactly had pepople arrest for attending public events featuring our nation’s president? Who had a reporter handcuffed for asking a candidate for public office a question about his fitness for office. Etc.

    I especially like how conservatives want to get the government off our back — except when it comes to abortion, drug use or sending emails. Then they’re all for a police state.

    Is “bringing a bag of David Sedaris books to a knife fight” a good thing?

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  23. Jeff Borden said on October 26, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    Beb,

    If you were a “real American,” you would understand. Everything you know and believe is completely wrong. Only the wingnuts know the truth about our fair country. Clearly, the Constitution allows complete non-regulation of our businesses and corporations, undeclared wars of all kinds, obeisance to the wealthy and a Judeo-Christian approach to all our problems. Only the wingnuts know what the Constitution does not allow. See above.

    BTW, I am not a witch. I am you.

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  24. jcburns said on October 26, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    that ‘series of horizontal lines’ looks kinda vertical up where you are, nancy. Actually, I guess they’re parallel to the map.

    The great thing about the legend of the Edmund Fitz, the song, is that the balladic chords make a great accompaniment to any lyrics whatsoever: ♫ “and later that day, they headed mall-way, to the store that sells apple computers. iPads they had, and MacBookAirs were so bad…the displays were there just for the touching…” ♫

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  25. Peter said on October 26, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    So far so good in Chicago. They were calling it the worst storm in the last 70 years, and so far, it’s been the worst storm in the last 70 hours.

    OTOH, if the map is right, it’s not looking too good in Escanaba.

    And hold the phone, wasn’t Gitchee-Gumee from Longfellow’s Hiawatha? After all, Hiawatha built his canoe on the shores by Tahquamenaw Falls (now Tahquamenon in the UP).

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  26. kayak woman said on October 26, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    I grew up in Sault Ste. Siberia and we have a summer cabin on a beach on Gitchee Gumee or Lake Superior or whatever you want to call it. My brother (who was a teenager when the Fitz sank) had a multi-band radio on which you could hear conversations between folks on the lake freighters. The night the Fitz sank, he listened throughout the night to the Edmund Anderson calling for the Fitz. No answer.

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  27. Scout said on October 26, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    Batten the hatches, my midwestern friends. I won’t give you the local weather report for Phoenix, it wouldn’t be kind. But then, we do deserve this after our hellbrew summers.

    I posted the stomping on my FB page. The more people who see what the baggers are all about, the better.

    Bassett, your housewarming was heartwarming. Congrats on a job well done. There’s no place like (a newly renovated) home!

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  28. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 12:58 pm

    So far a possible tornado, wind damage and power outages in SE Wisconsin. Sun’s out finally but the trees and flags are dancing.

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  29. Bob (not Greene) said on October 26, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    For what it’s worth from Wikipedia. People can invoke Godwin’s Law and all, but when people start stomping on people, it just seems, well, relevant:

    “The precursor to the SA had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Hitler, with an eye always to helping the party to grow through propaganda, convinced the leadership committee to invest in an advertisement in the Munchener Beobachter (later renamed the Volkischer Beobachter) for a mass meeting in the Hofbräuhaus, to be held on 16 October 1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for 13 November in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended; there were hecklers, but Hitler’s military friends promptly ejected them by force, and the agitators “flew down the stairs with gashed heads.” The next year, on 24 February, he announced the party’s Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2000 persons at the Hofbrauhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his army friends, armed with rubber truncheons, ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed.[4]”

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  30. Dorothy said on October 26, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    Stay on the ground today Pilot Joe!

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  31. LAMary said on October 26, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    California politics just keep on delivering:

    http://gawker.com/5673732/meg-whitman-loved-california-when-jerry-brown-was-governor

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  32. brian stouder said on October 26, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    Mary, THAT was funny!

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  33. LAMary said on October 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    It’s real, Brian. She’s spent 140 million of her own money but never thought about who was governor in the time she says she wants to bring us back to. I bet someone gets fired.

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  34. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    Well, they’ve found the first stomper, and as you would guess, it’s actually the stompee’s fault.
    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/10/apnewsbreak_paul_volunteer_apologizes_for_scuffle.php

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  35. brian stouder said on October 26, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    Sue, this bit killed me:

    Tim Profitt, a volunteer with the Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the camera angle made the scuffle Monday night appear worse that it was.

    as Rachel Maddow might well say, this guy must be engaged in “performance art”; the details in the story are just too over-the-top. The guy who stomped the “Republicorp” award presenter is named “Profitt”?* Really?

    And – he didn’t like the camera angles, with regard to his attack??

    Y’know, I’ve turned up in the background on a few recent local news stories (with regard to the school board), and I NEVER think it looks like me – the angle is ALWAYS wrong, and indeed – it looks much worse than I’d like to think it “really” was.

    *as an allegory with regard to the results of an unbounded pursuit of predatory profits via “free markets”, it is almost too good

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  36. Sue said on October 26, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    The scuffle appeared worse than it was – well then she should be grateful she came out of it with no worse than a concussion.
    I liked the part about criticizing the police for not stepping in (to protect the person you were attacking or help beat her up?)(also what a clever unintentional pun) and how they ‘warned authorities’ about the woman they eventually stomped.

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  37. coozledad said on October 26, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    Another taste of Rand Paul’s KY Jelly:
    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/paul.html

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  38. Jolene said on October 26, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    Following Mary’s link to the Whitman ad, I came to several posts describing the thuggish behavior of her sons. Boy, do they ever sound like ill-bred, over-privileged louts.

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  39. MaryRC said on October 26, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    kayak woman, that is such a poignant story. The Arthur Andersen and Captain Cooper and crew are almost as famous as the Edmund Fitzgerald for their role in that story. And the Andersen is still sailing today, at over 50 years old.

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  40. nancy said on October 26, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    We saw the Arthur Andersen not long ago, in Lake St. Clair. I’ve heard KW’s story before, but it still gives me a little chill. Nothing like radio transmissions to evoke humanity.

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  41. Scout said on October 26, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Apparently the local authorities and the Paul campaign are taking this seriously now. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101026/ap_on_el_se/us_kentucky_senate_scuffle

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  42. Jolene said on October 26, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    On PBS tonight, a NOVA show re the rescue of the Chilean miners and a Frontline/Pro Publica special re the BP oil spill. Facebook blurbs for each:

    We were all mesmerized by the harrowing story of those 33 Chilean miners. NOVA was on-site at the San José mine by early September, and tonight at 8pm they bring us “Emergency Mine Rescue.” Conferred special access, they interviewed engineers, NASA experts, medical personnel, and key figures from the companies that provided drills and crucial rescue equipment to give us a detailed scientific account of the unfolding events.

    Could the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf have been prevented? Tonight at 10pm Frontline joins with the investigative non-profit Pro Publica to examine the trail that led to the disaster, exploring BP’s record of accidents, spills and safety violations.

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  43. JayZ(the original) said on October 26, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Julie

    Glad to hear your daughter is coming home and that she’s anxious to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity. I’ll be at the satellite rally in LA. My sign reads “Intolerance will not be Tolerated”, and on the reverse side –“Correctly Spelled Slogan”.

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  44. Harrison said on October 26, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    In regards to the incident at the Rand Paul Senate debate, I offer this prayer:

    Oh Big Cheese Upstairs, thank you for giving us Kentucky because in comparison, it makes Indiana look good.

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  45. brian stouder said on October 26, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Harrison –

    And they all said – Amen!

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  46. Joe Kobiela said on October 26, 2010 at 7:13 pm

    Well I thank you all for the good thoughts but I was flying today, I went from Auburn to St Marys Penn, and then to Terre Haute Ind, If you want to look on flightaware.com type in 403dm in the tail number section and take a look. I was in front of it going to Penn but came right thru it on the way back. I crossed just north of Columbus Ohio at 8,000ft, alot of rain and about 5 min of solid bumps with one really big one. I was with Columbus app at the time but they told me I could do what ever I wanted because they were evacuating the tower. Now thats quite a feeling. I was strapped in tight and was doing best structural speed, I only had a box on board I probly would not have gone thru with Passengers. On a brighter note, Mrs Pilot Joe and I came home from Orlando on Monday, took a bump and got $600 in vouchers and 2 first class seats from Orlando to Detroit,SWEET.
    Pilot Joe

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  47. LAMary said on October 26, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    JayZ, where is the LA satellite rally going to be? I heard they got turned down from some location but never heard news of a new place.

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  48. moe99 said on October 26, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    It’s his Bourbon County chairman doing it. Nice work.

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  49. JayZ(the original) said on October 26, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    LAMary

    Levitt Pavillion in MacArthur Park from 9:00 to 2:00. Live feed from DC for the first three hours. Check out restoresanityLA.com for more info.

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  50. moe99 said on October 26, 2010 at 8:55 pm

    Richard Cohen just does not know when to shut up:

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/10/time_to_forget_the_clarence_th.html

    Cohen, among other sexual indiscretions, had an affair with the Katie Marton, wife of Peter Jennings, in 1987 and Ben Bradlee found out, refused to lie and Jennings divorced her 5 months later.

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  51. basset said on October 26, 2010 at 9:15 pm

    Sue, the young man with the hair and the peace sign is Basset Jr., he’ll be 21 in December. Can’t see it in the picture but the Yellow Submarine poster is in Italian, it was meant to hang in a theater lobby and may have at some point. “Il Sottomarino Giallo” is the subtitle.

    The water was just over doorknob high in that picture.

    MaryRC, back about 1979 I rode a lake freighter, the Philip R. Clarke, from the Soo down to Gary in winter with two Coast Guard icebreakers in front. The Arthur Andersen ran alongside and a little behind us* for awhile, quite a sight.

    *(that would be, what, abaft the beam or something? ahind the side? about four o’clock, anyway.)

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  52. Dexter said on October 26, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    Nuts. A small tree blew over and is laying on top of my new cable line. Now the waiting game. Will they respond to my call to come clear it out before the line snaps?

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  53. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 26, 2010 at 9:40 pm

    The NOVA special was well worth the viewing; my wife is now watching Dancing With the Stars and I’m trying to figure out how to care. Apparently someone will be dragged off and executed at the end of the hour, which should be interesting. Or perhaps have their head stepped on.

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  54. Holly said on October 26, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    When did it become OK to act like total A–Holes towards each other when it comes to politics. Someone needs to explain this to me because I don’t understand it. How can people treat each other like this.

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  55. nancy said on October 26, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    Because we have their country, and they will take it back by any means necessary.

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  56. joodyb said on October 26, 2010 at 9:55 pm

    you know you’re in trouble when the isotachs and isogons look like an overdone swordfish steak.

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  57. Holly said on October 26, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    What scares me is how crazy it has gotten. Men are now going after women who don’t agree with them.

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  58. Dexter said on October 26, 2010 at 11:29 pm

    I just watched the PBS show about what a horrible entity BP is. Just one calamity after another, from Texas to Alaska and then the Gulf blow-up , Deepwater Horizon. It really could dampen a chap’s enthusiasm for greedy, money-grubbing capitalism.

    Good job on the house which is again a home, bassett.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GugzLSbOQE&feature=related

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  59. basset said on October 27, 2010 at 8:29 am

    appreciate that…

    the whole song all on one hand, very interesting…

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