This Spring, with the bluebonnets in full swing (mid-late April take on the Willow City loop, 1323, about 5 miles north of Johnson City off of 281. Visit Enchanted Rock while you're out that direction.
Make a second journey to Leakey and stay at the D'Rose Inn (it caters to motorcyclist and bicyclists only). Swim in the Rio Frio (appropriately named) and tour the Three Sisters (335, 336 & 337). You won't find a more pristine, enjoyable putt anywhere on the planet I guarantee it.
TWO TREES AND A WOODPECKER It is hard to find a joke today without a dirty word or two in it, but here is one:
Two tall trees, a birch and a beech, are growing in the woods. A small tree begins to grow between them, and the beech says to the birch, "Is that a son of a beech or a son of a birch?"
The birch says he cannot tell, but just then a woodpecker lands on the sapling.
The birch says, "Woodpecker, you are a tree expert. Can you tell if that is that a son of a beech or a son of a birch?"
The woodpecker takes a taste of the small tree, & replies, "It is neither a son of a beech nor a son of a birch. It is' however, the best piece of ash I have ever poked my pecker into."
Now, for those of you who may not be aware, there's been a bit of a pissing contest transpiring between Justy and me. It was precipitated by our responses to a post by Demoman relative to high fuel prices "gas prices around the world." In his original post Demoman was lamenting the high cost gasoline and made a reference that went something along the lines of "If a gallon of oil costs $130 how can the oil companies make money?" or something to that effect.
I believe Demo recognized his typo and changed it to more accurately reflect the price per barrel and I further believe Demo will back me on this point because even though I've never met or spoken with him and we may differ on the reasons for the high gas prices on a philosophical level his profile and his responses in other posts suggest he is a person of integrity. In the course of making the change he apparently did so while I was in the middle of drafting my post and the change was not reflected in the blog until after my response posted.
So, my original response to Demo was thus: "The reference to $130 per gallon is a bit confusing as well. Oil is currently trading (a key distinction) at roughly $130 per 42 gallon barrel of oil. Depending upon the quality of the crude and the refining process a 42 gallon barrel of oil will yield approximately 20 gallons gasoline (plus numerous bi-products like heating oil, paint, glue, etc.). This calculates to approximately $6.50 per gallon (mitigated somewhat by the bi-products) not counting the costs of getting the fuel to market."
My only intent was to point out the price per gallon versus price per barrel distinction and that a simple, straight-line calculation would yield $6.50 per gallon were it not for the other products created in the distillation process that could be leveraged against the costs associated with that process as well as the costs of bringing the final product to market. Where things went south fairly quickly is when I responded in the same post to Justy who leveraged Demo's blog to promote his ongoing liberal diatribes of half-truths, innuendos, hyperbole and conjecture.
Now, before I go any further there are a few things you should know about me if you haven't surmised them already. First and foremost: I am a capitalist. There is not a day that goes by that I don?t thank the powers that be for allowing me to win the cosmic lottery by being born in the greatest nation this world has ever known. What incredible blind, shit-house luck! And, I believe it to be the greatest nation on earth because of its industrial and intellectual might. I fervently believe that profit is good and that it is not a necessary evil. I also believe the ability to create wealth through hard work and intellect is virtuous.
Also, I do not believe anyone, including myself, is entitled to a smidgen of the wealth created by others simply because the perception of need is greater. You take what you make pure and simple. If, through philanthropy, an individual or group of individual's elect to share their wealth then that is a different story.
Finally, I do not consider myself a conservative or a liberal, Republican or Democrat. I tend to do my best to collect as much information as possible and understand all sides of an issue or candidate prior to making a decision. I will confess the majority of the candidates I have backed to date have tended to be Republican but that stems from promises of reduced taxation and less government versus increased taxes and the expansion of entitlements.
Now I've tried to be as forthright and honest as possible without consuming too much of your valuable time and I thank you profusely for sticking around this long. However, I must warn you, it's about to get ugly so if you are truly put-off by the type of person I am and what I believe then please save yourself some grief and exit now. For those of you who've elected to stick around here we go.
Justy, the remainder of this blog is directed at you. I originally intended not to respond to your blog because quite frankly I am busy creating jobs and, with a little panache and a great deal of luck, hopefully a small degree of wealth at some point in the future as well. I do not believe you came to this site looking for friends or hoping to find that one person who would complete you.
No, I believe you came here because you know we bikers, by and large tend be a very patriotic lot because a significant percentage of us, for whatever reason, tend to be veterans. And, much like FunkyMunky who darkened these very pages several months ago, you spew forth your tripe in hopes of baiting someone into discourse so you can pounce on them with your half-truths and then lay claim to some imaginary moral high ground. You mistake our silence and disdain as ignorance and your actions, words and profile clearly support this hypothesis.
Relative to the ongoing liberal diatribes of half-truths, innuendos, hyperbole and conjecture allow me to point out just a few from your most recent blog.
"George Washington called himself a liberal and so did Thomas Jefferson. Without Liberals black would still be slaves, woman would not have voting rights, and America would still be a colony of England."
Really? George Washington? Before there were even such titles associated with parties or individuals George Washington called himself a liberal? In point of fact Washington was probably one of the preeminent businessmen of his day. He is noted as most probably being the No. 1 whiskey producer in all of colonial America. Additionally, the executive director of Washington's Mount Vernon estate and one of the foremost historians on Washington is quoted saying "He thought like an American businessman. He was a true disciple of the free enterprise system, and he sensed that our new system of government would encourage people to think creatively, take chances and invest." Oh, and by the way, Mt. Vernon was a plantation complete with more than its fair share of slaves.
Also, consider the following quotes from Washington:
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness."
"Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive."
"My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty... it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein."
You no doubt selected Thomas Jefferson because the DNC website lists him as a member of the Democratic Party. But here again your argument, as so many liberal arguments, is shallow and intended to 1) merely incite and 2) solidify a weak position. Jefferson believed in States Rights and a small central government. In a writing to James Madison in 1785 he stated the country needed a rebellion every twenty years or so because rebellions were "a medicine for the sound health of government." He ended the correspondence with the Latin maxim: Malo periculosm libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Translation: "Rather a dangerous liberty than a peaceful servitude."
As it pertains to taxation he stated it was "the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens." He further stated:
"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association; "the guarantee to everyone of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it" ? extra-taxation violates a law of nature."
Also, consider this excerpt from a letter Jefferson, while in Paris, France, wrote to James Monroe on June 17, 1785:
"? I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. The pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own country, its soil, its climate, its equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. While we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe and continuing there. Come then & see the proofs of this, and on your return add your testimony to that of every thinking American, in order to satisfy our countrymen how much it is in their interest to preserve uninfected by contagion those peculiarities in their government & manners to which they are indebted for these blessings."
No doubt if Jefferson were alive today he would be appalled to the point of wretching forth his intestines by how we've allowed ourselves to be infected by European socialist tax and spending practices. How sad he would be to know that literally tens of thousand of Americans have fled to Europe to escape a tax bureau known the world over as the world's worst in complexity, intrusions and punishment. Gee, it sounds as though his philosophy is right in line with yours relative to nationalization doesn?t it.
As for Jefferson's view on women and black suffrage? Upon entering the Presidency Jefferson removed from civil service all whose views on the role of government were not aligned with his own. At this same time able candidates were turning away from politics to the extent that Jefferson had to ask five men before he found a secretary of the navy. The problem was so pervasive that it led Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the Treasury, to suggest naming women to the vacant posts to which Jefferson replied "The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I."
However, on the point of slavery, and to their credit, both men found the practice reprehensible and a blight on the American landscape. With that said, it took a Republican, Abraham Lincoln to actually do in the institution of slavery at the cost of his own life.
Now to women and the vote. The House of the 65th Congress was comprised of 214 Democrats, 215 Republicans and 6 of obscure political affiliations. The Senate was comprised of 42 Republicans and 54 Democrats. The right for women to vote passed the House by a two-thirds majority but failed in the Democratic controlled Senate. It wasn't until the 66th Congress wherein the Senate had shifted to 49 to 47 in favor of Republicans that the 19th Amendment was passed and ratified. Once again proving your baseless accusations and characterizations to be libel and false.
I could go on to dismantle your arguments regarding Russia's downfall, the military and so forth but the fact of the matter is I'm too busy creating jobs and generating profit to do so. And besides, as I pointed out earlier, this is a site devoted to bringing together people who enjoy riding motorcycles and, to the best of my understanding, it was never intended as a political forum. You however perceive us all as buffoons in need of your enlightened intellect yet you lack the courage necessary to take your arguments to forums more suited to them ergo your integrity is suspect as well. Your profile promotes a pious self-righteousness without any substance (photo, motorcycle events participated in, individuals from this site you've met, etc.) that would promote you as a member of the community on this site which, again, leaves your integrity suspect.
Now in closing I will leverage a vehicle promoted by you (go figure) when you attempted to punctuate a point by leveraging a line from Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn wherein the Enterprise is severely damaged and leaking coolant from the Warp Coil. In this scene Spock, recognizing the ship is about to blow, killing everyone, including himself, makes the same logical choice any serviceman would make (something despite your references to the military I'm quite confident you have zero first hand experience), he jumps on the grenade (enters the Dilithium Chamber) to protect his fellow soldiers. The logical, though truly ultimate sacrifice. However, in the world of your choosing, the troops would have grabbed Spock, or the captain for that matter, and thrust them into the chamber because as leaders they would be sacrificed for the good of the many non-commissioned troops.
So my closing statement to you is this; I intend to ignore every post you make from this point forward. The vast majority on this site had already written you off but I allowed your short-sighted comment to get the better of me thereby giving you relevance once again where none is deserved. I'd like to believe that if we all ignored you it would be enough for you to crawl off into obscurity but that would require integrity on your part and we've already covered that topic. So with that said, and borrowing from you, I will leverage a line from another spaceman in a genre more suitable to an individual of your stature: a cartoon. This from Buzz Lightyear to Woody; "You are a sad little man and you have my pity. Farewell."
May 2-4 Llano, Texas. Was decent at the inaugural event last year. They seem to be skimping on entertainment this year but the area surrounding venue is great riding.
The old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital. He motioned for his nurse to come near.
"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.
"I would really like to see Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton before die." whispered the priest.
"I'll see what I can do, Father" replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to the Senate and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived. Kennedy and Clinton would be delighted to visit the priest.
As they went to the hospital, Clinton commented to Kennedy "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images." Kennedy couldn't help but agree.
When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Kennedy's hand in his right hand and Clinton's hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.
Finally Senator Kennedy spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"
The old priest slowly replied "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Amen" said Kennedy.
"Amen" said Clinton.
The old priest continued. . . "He died between two lying thieves. I would like to do the same."
Now, didn't that touch your heart like it did mine?
This represents the continuation of a previously posted blog. For those of you who visited and posted to that blog you will remember it began with a question regarding the eradication of the information under the heading. No one knew how to remove it so I, in my zeal to limit the unnecessary noise from future postings, contacted BK Customer Service (an oxymoron if ever there was one). After much back and forth dialogue with me providing what I was certain amounted to a clear and concise request the final solution in BK's esteemed opinion was to eliminate the blog altogether and proudly notify me of said removal. What remained as a result was a blank space where the blog title had once been with my user name and the number of postings remaining. For those of you who visited that blog you know it was of a deeply sensitive and personal nature for which many of you, such as Maneater (there were others as well but unfortunately I don't remember you all and cannot access the data thanks to the aforementioned Customer Service) offered very poignant suggestions. To that end I felt it necessary to "close the loop" on that blog so that those of you with even a passing interest will know the final outcome.
To recap: wife returns home after night of clubbing with girlfriend(s) and odd imprint is left in dust on hood of car. Following the advice of Maneater I asked wife if said impression (see picture below) were hers and if so how did said impression find it's way to hood of vehicle? I was extremely relieved, as I am certain you all will be as well, to hear the absolutely logical and rational explanation.
It seems she and girlfriends stopped at one of those large commercial pharmacy / drug stores to procure "rain coats" for the evening. While I thought this a bit odd considering the mere 10% chance of rain in the forecast I could not fault her foresight and desire for protection from the elements. Upon exiting the pharmacy she happened to notice an auto parts next door and, as she put it, "a very nice, strapping young man" assisting a female patron. Once again, thinking only of protecting herself against the elements, she felt it best if she were to replace the windshield wipers on her car because, after all, there was a 10% chance of rain that evening.
The nice young man who, as she put it "probably spends far too much time in the gym to be very interesting", was all to happy to assist in the selection of the appropriate wipers. After purchasing the wipers she then attempted to install them but was unable to reach completely across the hood and that is how her imprint came to be there. The young man, observing her dilemma, felt the need rise within him to assist her and in the process left his handprints on the car. So, as you can plainly see, the explanation was perfectly logical and there as so many of you were quick to point out there was absolutely nothing for me to be concerned about. Thank you all for being the voices of reason.
For those of you riding Early Iron a great source for parts is a local shop here in Austin; Bud's. I don't know how long they've been in business but my guess is Noah probably donated the deck planks from the Ark for the wooden floor. The people that work here are not your golf shirt wearing, gee-gaw selling "Gee, I need an identity types". They are dyed in the wool scooter tramps with more miles backing their scoots into bar parking spots than the vast majority of those riding today do in total. A few words to the wise; 1) Bud's proud of his parts 2) Bud rebuilds Early Iron on the premises and tends to keep the pristine used parts for their projects. However, if you need a part NOW and you don't want to wait for it to pop-up on ebay Bud's will have it. If you're ever in Austin you should go to their shop and just ask to walk around the used parts in the back; it's like going home all over again. If you have any questions or need local assistance re: tracking something down let me know.
