Posted on 12/17/2002 7:32:02 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)
Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.
He was probably saying that Scouts were not supposed to wear their uniforms at a political event. Where has this guy been? Scouts are at political events all the time! They are not supposed to do any 'politicking' in their uniforms, but don't you remember when a group of Scouts 'brought the colors in' during the Democrat Natl. Convention in CA and got BOOED by the crowd?
I think it is wonderful if the Scouts are at a rally supporting the troops. I think it would be a safe bet to say that a vast majority of the soldiers on the ground in Iraq were Boy Scouts back in the day!
But the Nazgûl turned and fled, and vanished into Mordor's shadows, hearing a sudden terrible call out of the Dark Tower; and even at that moment all the hosts of Mordor trembled, doubt clutched their hearts, their laughter failed, their hands shook and their limbs were loosed. The Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies they saw a deadly light and were afraid.
Then all the Captains of the West cried aloud, for their hearts were filled with a new hope in the midst of darkness. Out from the beleaguered hills knights of Gondor, Riders of Rohan, Dúnedain of the North, close-serried companies, drove against their wavering foes, piercing the press with the thrust of bitter spears. But Gandalf lifted up his arms and called once more in a clear voice: 'Stand, Men of the West! Stand and wait! This is the hour of doom.'
And even as he spoke the earth rocked beneath their feet. Then rising swiftly up, far above the Towers of the Black Gate, high above the mountains, a vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire. The earth groaned and quaked. The Towers of the Teeth swayed, tottered, and fell down; the mighty rampart crumbled; the Black Gate was hurled in ruin; and from far away, now dim, now growing, now mounting to the clouds, there came a drumming rumble, a roar, a long echoing roll of ruinous noise.
'The realm of Sauron is ended!' said Gandalf. 'The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest.' And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.
The Captains bowed their heads; and when they looked up again, behold! their enemies were flying and the power of Mordor was scattering like dust in the wind. As when death smites the swollen brooding thing that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in sway, ants will wander witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of Sauron, orc or troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope. But the Men of Rhûn and of Harad, Easterling and Southron, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in evil servitude, hating the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle. But the most part fled eastward as they could; and some cast their weapons down and sued for mercy.
I was watching this morning as Eleanor Clift tried to say the NY Times has NOT been overly pessimistic about this war. I wondered about that whole parallel universe thing as she was talking!
On Neil Cavuto's show this morning, I had to laugh when he was describing some of these 'suicide' runs on the 3rd ID as they were rolling into Baghdad. He described it as their being attacked by people in Plymouth Dusters! SSQ and I were laughing because someone had made a comment the other day on FR, wondering if they were using old Ford Pintos as car bombs on the troop columns.
The coverage has been fascinating. They showed some footage from Greg Kelly, and you could see one Iraqi soldier kneeling on the side of the road as the APCs rolled by, and taking off his kit bag then laying face down. Right after that, Greg Kelly started yelling, "There's another one in the trees, don't shoot him!" The man was coming out from behind the trees with his hands in the air. The guy on the side of the road made motions kind of like "Don't shoot him, he's with me", then hit the deck again.
Both SSQ and I are sick because we've been staying up WAY too late watching the coverage. Our room sounded like a TB ward this morning with both of us hacking and coughing!
He's just being "Daddy"!
I saw an ad for that last night. Looks like James Carpenter has blended the images from the documentary he did about going down to the Titanic wreckage with his movie "Titanic". I got some e-mail about it the other day, but don't know if I'm interested.
We're seeing that on our TV screens right now!
We screen all our calls, and our 'message' begins with the pipe solo from 'Concerning Hobbits'. It plays a few measures, then the music gets softer and I give the "we're not home, leave a number" message. When I got up this morning and came downstairs, I noticed the 'message light' blinking on our phone. I listened and one of the messages sounded like a telemarketer; you know how there are sounds like the call is being made from a big room with lots of people? Anyway, this female voice (about mids 20s, I'd guess) comes on and says "That is the GAYEST phone message I have ever heard. Thank you for ruining my day." I laughed so hard I started choking!
I feel so proud that I have ruined this stupid chick's day!!
GRRRRRR.
Hullo! busy cleaning for company here! - It's Sean Astin day!
You mean on our TV screens? The 3rd Infantry Division is rolling into Baghdad from the airport, going down both sides of the highway, and along the way you can see the burning carcasses of T-72 tanks, army trucks, little pickup trucks, Land Rovers, and artillery. There were two Iraqi soldiers who were along the side of the road in the trees, and surrendered when they saw the column rolling down the road.
It's just like 300winmag posted from RoTK! Only the hardcore thugs are riding their trucks into the column, and committing suicide in the process. Apparently, this is what the Dis-info smurf meant by 'non-conventional' means.
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