Don Joe

Please don't send me any private messages. I do not read them.

5/11/2006: See notes below with this datestamp for latest update.

21FEB06:Earth
Are you one of those yip-yip anklebiter types, who stalk me about the forum, incapable of restraining yourself from incessantly baiting, taunting, annoying, accusing, and -- in a fit of cosmic irony -- when I refuse to "take the bait", finding yourself slapping the Abuse button until your "working hand" is raw?
Well, Bunkie, if the above applies to you, then I present for you two items.

1. Get a life.
2. Do you post for a living?

Please note that the two items above -- one, a helpful suggestion, and the other, a request for very salient information -- are NOT to be construed as any kind of invitation for ANY private communications. In fact, any such annoyance shall be reported as abuse.
As to the first item, no reply is necessary. If the suggestion is embraced, it will quickly become apparent to all who read your traffic. Regarding the second item, it will be sufficient for you to slip the reply into any ongoing thread at your earliest convenience, i.e., "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do post for a living!", or, "No, actually, I do not post for a living."
See how simple it is?
Now skedaddle, before I shake a leg, and run the risk of bending your tooth (as well as tearing my trouser leg!)

[...]

The night of the weak knees
The night of the weak knees
Christopher Hitchens
Wednesday December 5, 2001
The Guardian
Four weekends ago, I really did receive two Friday-night telephone calls from well-positioned Washingtonians. "Leave now," they told me. "There's a tactical nuke on the loose, and it's headed for DC." One of these callers was in a position to know, and the other was in a position where he was actually paid to know. Calls were being placed to an immediate circle of friends to which, in theory, I was flattered to belong. Those who were calling were also leaving - while not informing the rest of the citizens. Why, then, did I resolve to stay? It wasn't just British pluck, strong as that naturally is. I thought, first, that it was unlikely that al-Qaida, if it had the bomb, would have conducted a petty dress rehearsal with United Airlines. I thought, second, that the detonation of a "use it or lose it" freelance nuke could not be predicted for any given weekend. And I thought, third, that I would feel a colossal cretin if I fled and then came slithering back on Monday morning (especially if the nuclear holocaust was timed for Monday's rush hour after all). In the end, I did take the family on a pre-arranged trip to Gettysburg, leaving late and returning early.
Officially, nobody now remembers this night of the weak knees. It rated a brief and embarrassed mention in Hugh Sidey's Time column, and that was it. But I shall not forget how some of those in supposed authority decided that the end had come, and made it a point to keep it to themselves and their immediate friends, perhaps to stop the crowding of the roads. That's how it will be on the day of Armageddon, and that's why the citizen should always plan to outlive the state, rather than the other way round.
...

[...]

5/11/2006:
To all those who have requested these files, I am still unable to win my wrestling match with Murphy. After a series of catastrophic hard drive failures, I am left with a large Sargasso region that I hope to at some point be able to access. Unfortunately life, as it were, has me at a bit of a disadvantage. My real-world obligations, compounded by my decomposing body, have relegated many things to the proverbial back burner.
But, take heart. Most if not all the salient material in that late thread has been covered in recent days (months, in fact). If the FR search engine cannot locate them, Google should be able to dish them up for you with a modicum of effort.
(Actually, in the grand scheme of things, a few files floating in the ether are the least of my worries at this time. My main concern is trying to do what I can to ensure that my family will have food on the table if things turn ugly. The bird flu is a reality that may very well give the entire country a big ugly dose of Katrina, on steroids. I'm working my spine into dust trying to put in a nontrivial garden, work up a decent flock of poultry (no, it's not an oxymoronic goal, if you think about it), finish off the coop, "do something" about the goats ("meat of last resort" on-the-hoof -- of last resort, not because it's "ikky" -- it's delicious -- like lamb, but with more flavor, and less grease -- but rather, because my wife says she won't eat it. She will, of course -- if it's there, and the alternative is to be taken to "the shelter" by the kindly gov't folk, if bad comes to worst.) And, I'm trying to do this with a spine that's shot to hell, and a heart that's trying to outdo my spine.)
~~3:09 AM 7/10/2004:~~
Anyone who would like a zipped archive of the thread "Al Qaida has 20 suitcase nukes in the US, intends to use them, soon." -- which the trolls and seminar posters succeeded in having first kicked to the backroom, and then pulled en toto, please freepmail me.
I have the posts through 636 archived in IE's .MHT format ("web archive", stores everything in one file your browser can read, presuming you're running IE). I have several "editions" of some of the thread portions, as I was archiving as various posts were getting deleted. All editions will be included in the zip.
~~I'll need an email address that can accept a .zip file as an email attachment, if you'd like me to send this archive to you.~~
~~This thread contained very important information, so it is no surprise that the "virtual gang-bangers" descended on it en masse.~~
~~Oh well. As they say, "I miss the old FR."~~

Every now and then, I stop back here... and when it reaches the point that I feel like I'm trying to reason with a bunch of residents at the local Bus Terminal, I slap my forehead and wander off to catch up on my reading.. or gardening.. or photography.. or *anything*, to get out of that #^#$$* virtual bus terminal! :)
[Aside, as of 21FEB06: I really did not intend for this section to read like the lead-in to Moby Dick. Really, I didn't!]
God Save the United States from "conservative" Statists!
I see more and more "conservatives" advocating policies that they would be out in the streets protesting against if promulgated during the Clinton Regime.
Very disheartening. Very, very disheartening.
And very discouraging.
If "conservatives" are so blood-rage angry (as they increasingly appear to be) in their rage against those who reject the concept that "statism=good" so long as it's "our" statists issuing the dicta, then we are basically screwed.