“Some Swiss Servo guy is holed up in there.”
I used to love fireworks. As a kid, that was the best part of Independence Day. Fireworks shows, shooting off bottle rockets and Roman candles…. ah.
Then a year in NE Afghanistan went by. Came home and went to a Class A baseball game near my town, that featured a fireworks show afterward. First shot started a bit of a panicked reaction from me. (No, really Chipwooder, it did!) It was the sound, not the flash or such. I excused myself, and figured I would wait it out in the restroom. WRONG. Being a Single A park, it was cinderblock and sheetmetal…it actually amplified everything. Before I could really freak out, I got back to tell my wife, that I kind of needed to leave. As we walked back to the car, the show ended. Haven’t been a big fan since. Going to Iraq for the second half of TEH SURGE didn’t help any adjusting, I am guessing.
Later, being a bit discomfited by my fireworks enthusiast neighbors, I wondered….why of all days, is this the one people blow stuff up to celebrate? [NOTE: by the time this started happening, I had started to transmogrify into a libertarian. No police were called, no complaints to the City, no going out and yelling at them….especially since their kids seemed to love it.]. I mean, there is some history of noisemaking on New Year’s Eve…firing off guns seems to be a tradition in many places. [When I was a prosecutor, I spent 8 months running a branch court location in a city with…a sizable Messican, um, transient population. New Year’s Eve 1998, we had 286 calls of shots fired. The next year, the cops got smart – they had a Spanish speaking officer in each car, and they would simply go the area and have the cop tell everyone…”Happy New Year. By the way. No shooting here, please. People think it is a gang war. Thank you and good night.”] But nothing on the scale of July 4.
As with most problems in the entire world IT STARTED WITH A DEAD WHITE MALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Missing by only two days, due to the difference in the vote of Congress and the Declaration being dated)….John Adams explained to his wife
“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”
OK, so I see where this started.
And as any libertarian could tell you – what started as a sort of spontaneous celebration was slowly co-opted and somewhat smothered by the gubermint. Eventually fixed as a holiday, then an unpaid Federal Holiday…then, of course, a paid Federal Holiday. The guns, bonfires and bells got shushed or extinguished. But the fireworks remained. Until the nanny-statists started getting them banned, or taken over by the G. Some cooperation with sponsors and such has kept many a civic fireworks show going (“Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks, as seen on NBC! Chicago Navy Pier Fireworks show, brought to you by Miller Lite”). In many liberty oriented states, fireworks are legal (Hi, Indiana!) and often brought by the carload into more nanny-scold states (Illinois) and blasted away with a complete disregard for rules, laws and finger-wagging. While I may not care for it, I say “good!” At least one little bit of defiance of the Panopticon State.
Go shoot off a Roman Candle and pack of bottle rockets for me, will you? I’ll be in the basement with the dog and some imperial stout or whisky (or both).
May or may not be Brett L
When we were doing large parties and fireworks shows, I would read that passage before starting the aerial show.
Dang….I knew I like you for some reason or another. Well, that and the bagging on OMWC.
Since a lot of the professional shows are fired off from the river, I have a good view of them.
I guess it’s compensation for an environment which makes house caterpillars common.
What are house caterpillars?
All legs, feelers, and really fast moving, ugly bugs
House centipede, sorry.
So a centipede.
As I confessed to having typed the wrong c-bug name in the initial comment.
Yeah, I posted before seeing your correction, BTW enjoying the new book so far. (Thumbs up emoji)
I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
I had never seen one of those critters until moving to NYC. It scared the Devil out of me when I found one in our apartment.
I don’t see one for months at a time, then all of a sudden one dashes across the margins and startles me. They poke a lot of primal disgust responses.
Obviously, you aren’t running your A/C cold enough.
My favorite passage from the article is
I see one every couple years.
I leave them alone. They’ve got work to do.
And I do remember seeing them more often upstate than in NYC.
One of the few bugs that creep the living hell out of me. Intellectually, I know they eat other insects, but I’d rather have a pile of spiders in the basement than a couple of those creepy things.
I don’t recall seeing those here. We have a zillion house bugs here but not that one.
We have these by the zillions. I cant keep them out of the house. They get toe-to-toe about 2 inches. they are harmless and I like critters that eat lots of other bugs but c’mon, I don’t want the damned thing crawling on me when I sleep.
When their egg pouch hatches out the babies, about 10,000 of them, crawl up on mom’s back and form what looks like a big fuzzy ball. If. you touch them they instantly scatter in every direction at crazy speed.
The other night I saw a suspicious lump on the floor. Having dogs in the house it isn’t unusual to see such things. It was darkish and my eyesight aint what it used to be so I walked over and picked it up. Yep, a zillion tiny spiders swarmed up my arm and all over me. Fun times.
I forgot the link.
https://spiderid.com/spider/lycosidae/tigrosa/annexa/
I guess house centipedes don’t do so well in Louisiana climate.
I dunno. They may be here and I just haven’t seen them. If they don’t it is most likely that something here eats them. I wouldn’t think the climate would bother a bug.
Oh, Wolf Spiders. Very common in Oklahoma.
*shudder*
Prefer the occasional centipede to that thing.
The centipedes have never bothered me, but big hairy spiders and venomous spiders are on the “nuke from orbit” list. I think I put a solid gallon of pesticide on the last black widow I saw and her clutch of eggs. Then I disposed of the corpse far, far away from the house.
I don’t think I’ve seen one either.
We have lots of millipedes, however.
I am not a fan of spiders, but I try not to kill them if possible – I’ll capture them and escort them to a more suitable location.
But Florida has one spider that freaks me the hell out. Spinybacked These crab looking things love building their webs inside my pool cage, and I have to clear a dozen or so out every week…
Spinybacked orbweavers that is…
In many liberty oriented states, fireworks are legal (Hi, Indiana!) and often brought by the carload into more nanny-scold states (Illinois) and blasted away with a complete disregard for rules, laws and finger-wagging.
Massachusetts has had their road info signs displaying warnings about not bringing fireworks into the state. Even sparklers (Trigger Warning: PDF) are illegal in MA.
Oh, come on, even the DPRNY doesn’t ban sparklers.
I’ve found MA to be worse for freedom than NY in various other ways – here’s another one I guess.
Puritanism is very down on improper fun.
I bet I know why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU31oXrXzFE
Da fuq? Even IL is ok with sparklers!
The market finds a way. Mass is a small state and the fine folks in NH are happy to fill any market voids. Sparklers were a tradition at our Masshole home. and we could drive up the hill a bit and watch all the (illeal) arial works go off all over three towns.
We’ll take your money here in Indiana.
When I was a kid we had “in state” fireworks and “out of state” fireworks. I state fireworks didn’t shoot into the air (think sparklers, fountains, etc). Out of State firework shot in the sky (bottle rockets, mortars, etc). You could buy both at the store, but you were supposed to take “out of state” fireworks to another state to shoot them. Nobody ever did. Finally, a few years back they just made it legal to do all of them.
Everything is legal in NoDak except bottle rockets. Yep, you can buy huge mortars, but Black Cat bottle rockets are verboten. Why? Some optometrist who wanted to see his name in the paper went on a campaign to get them banned. And for some fucking reason it worked.
Hope you and the dog pull through the night alright. May your beer and whisk(e)y supplies hold up. To help your confusion, Ohio bans people shooting off fireworks, but allows them to be sold.
This law has not stopped anyone that I’m aware of.
When I was a kid, PA banned everything except sparklers. Now, lots of stuff are legal.
NH changed its rules last year but towns and cities can still restrict fireworks. The town I live in requires a permit for use of fireworks after 11 PM. I suspect that none of the people near that have set off fireworks after 11 PM received such a permit.
Good. Eff the “permit”.
Tullamore Dew, Dragon’s Milk and some 90 Shilling.
Sounds like a decent selection. Standard Dragon’s Milk or one of the specialties?
Standard. I think I heard they have an orange variant. That I would try.
They’ve done a couple of variants. I’ve had the toasted chilies, raspberry, and s’more (off the top of my head). They’ve all been solid. Have you had the Southern Tier Choklat Oranj (if not, I recommend it)?
On the bourbon side, I’ll once again recommend the Beer Aged Boubon, which is bourbon that’s finished in Dragon’s Milk barrels after the beer has been removed.
Yummy.
Dragon’s Milk is really, really yummy; good choice. Also, I had the Tullamore the other day for the first time in a couple of decades, it seemed very sweet after drinking Bourbons and ryes for so long; it was really refreshing. Sorry about the noise triggers. At least it sounds like a fun basement, what with an awesome dog and all.
£4.50 for a bottle of whiskey doesn’t sound bad.
How big a bottle?
I’ve got a picture from Dublin of the prices of bourbon over there. If it’s under $10 a bottle, it’s either an airplane bottle, or it’s local. For reference, Bulleit Bourbon was 70 Euro, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select was 110 Euro.
I was just making a joke about 90 Shilling and there being 20 shillings to the pound.
My reply would have beaten yours if I hadn’t had to reach for the asterisks.
I’m well aware, but I decided not to go through the fact that the shilling rating of beers was based on the tax rate, and go the pedantic route following UCS.
1 Schilling
Rhywun doesn’t disappoint.
Also 1 Schilling
I think I have a couple of these babies somewhere.
*sotto voce* I think he was converting from shillings to pounds sterling.
Weren’t fireworks illegal in Ohio a while back? There that fireworks store at the Richmond, Indiana exit on I-70 where the store was in Indiana and the parking lot in Ohio. I was always told that was due to Ohio laws.
What’s with all the state line straddling between OH and IN?? Years ago I did some substitute teaching at the grade school in College Corner, OH/IN, where the state line ran down the center line of the basketball court in the gym. Every time I subbed there, I got two separate checks – one from each state.
I hope they were both for the full amount, and not two half checks.
No such luck. For good measure, I think the town straddles two OH counties, though I’m not sure if the school does.
I think so, when the stores opened up here, the story was always that you had to sign a waiver that you were taking them out of state. Never mind the Ohio plates, and the Ohio driver’s license you had to show to purchase them.
Haha yep, my friends and I used to make an annual pilgrimage to Sheldon’s for fireworks.
Gee, if certain Chicago politicians are to be believed, Indiana is a thorn-in-the-side of all its neighbors who just want to ban their citizens from having certain things!
What can I say? We like things that go boom!
I’ll be in the basement with the dog and some imperial stout or whisky (or both).
Enjoy the booze.
I’m sorry that fireworks bring back memories of shitty times.
Thanks. Not really memories, but just the ol’ animal brain yelling “danger”.
I blame mortars.
Some of my coworkers have the same reaction from our time there. We were at VBC during the drawdown, and we were getting indirect fire nearly every night. And our CHUs were right beside the C-RAM. Six months of getting woken up every night with that thing going off will definitely dig itself into your brain.
For me it’s low flying helicopters. Still trying to figure that one out as I didn’t have a bad experience with them during my time there.
NOTE: by the time this started happening, I had started to transmogrify into a libertarian. No police were called, no complaints to the City, no going out and yelling at them….especially since their kids seemed to love it.
You’re a better man than I. I’ll probably be sending increasingly unpleasant texts to my neighbors every five minutes starting at 11pm telling them to knock it the fuck off.
I’m holding fast on not being a hypocrite and calling the cops, despite this being the second night in a row of a terrified sleepless toddler and this neighbor being the guy who volunteered to the cops that he was uncomfortable with the assault weapons another neighbor has.
I LOVE fireworks and plan on shooting off enough tonight to overthrow a small nation-state but if a neighbor had a child who was frightened by them, I would be neighborly and have it all wrapped up by bedtime. But this – “…this neighbor being the guy who volunteered to the cops that he was uncomfortable with the assault weapons another neighbor has.” is draining away my ability to abide by the NAP.
Yeah, that would be mighty tempting.
He’s an interesting guy. Old school hippy who, in social situations, is one of the nicest, most empathetic guys. However, when you’re the unseen recipient of consequences for his actions, he’s the most annoying, self-serving neighbor. He’s a wrecking ball and I don’t think he even knows it.
Wait… you know the numbers of your neighbors and would expose yours to them?
The problem here is that it isn’t dark enough until about 10pm.
So what you’re saying is we should have declared independence in a more clement season?
Yeah, it’s dark enough here at 8:45-9pm to get started. They started yesterday at 9:30 and went to 11:30.
I feel like 1 hour is a good length of time given the fact that this is a neighborhood of 1acre lots. Long enough to blow off substantial ordinance, short enough to let kids and people with jobs go to bed at a reasonable hour. However, this is the neighbor who lets his yappy dogs roam free in the yard barking at all hours of the night, so who knows?
When/where I was a kid, daytime fireworks were really popular. Firecrackers, smoke bombs, bottle rockets and parachutes would be going off since sunrise. Of course, in those days, you could go into you neighbor’s yard to retrieve the parachutes et. al.
Sorry about the triggering from fireworks. That sucks. This would not be a good neighborhood for you to be in tonight. I can guarantee there will be at least three front yard aerial shows within a quarter mile, and that’s just this subdivision. Big dog will be spending the evening in the bedroom closet.
My basement is fairly quiet. I can put the jazz station on and drink. The doggo will keep me company.
Fire away.
While I wasnt ever exposed to that (mortar fire), I’m with ya in spirit.
Drink up.
One July 4th, when I was but a tad of about 16 my dad decided we would celebrate with some giant fire crackers. He fashioned sticks of dynamite with 3 different length fuses. Being the youngest I got the longest, my brother the middle, my dad the shortest. I lit mine, ran like hell, then my brother, then my dad. We had the stuff far enough apart so the blast wouldn’t effect from one to another. BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. Then we did it twice more. Did I mention we didn’t have any near neighbors?
Still we had phone calls, “Wow, did you hear that?” What a difference time makes. I miss my dad.
They had phones when you were 16? :-p
They were all tethered by wires though. You couldn’t carry them vary far.
They were tough to get off the wall too. (True). Our number was 15, 1 long, 5 shorts. Had to be good at math as well.
You were on a party line?
I think my grandparents might still have had one in the late 70s.
My mom’s side of the family was still dealing with party lines up until the early 80’s if my memory serves.
With lots of other folks. I’m not sure when dial came in, I left home in ’56, still was ol’ 15
Ugh… we just had to have some beach-goer towed for parking in front of our (occupied) driveway. Who does that? It sucks to come back from a day at the beach to a missing car and a several hundred dollar tow/storage fee on Friday when the lot opens but that problem is easily obviated by not blocking my driveway.
This is what killdozers are for.
A real glib’s solution
The only time I can think of where someone parked in front of an occupied driveway was when they were told to by the people in the house, and were going to an event at the house.
For the Summer months, Rockaway Beach gets just as densely packed as the rest of NYC and parking becomes a chore. People routinely park in front of fire hydrants and are towed within about 15 minutes.
We actually use our garage for vehicles because we were so excited to find a place with a driveway/garage and a fenced yard after years of Brooklyn apartment life.
I’m hoping you don’t park outside. Someone who is enough of an asshole to block a driveway is enough of an asshole to take out their frustrations on an unattended vehicle.
I’m blessed to be in Colorado today, the beer is good, fireworks are legal, and the people are insane. Not a good place for Vets and dogs, but We love it,
and you’re not in SoCal, feeling the fault lines doing the Hippy Shake
HEY YUFUS!
I’ll need to check the dates, but there’s a chance my girlfriend’s aunt got hit by the Cleveland earthquake and the LA one. She lives in LA, and visits her mom on a regular basis.
Someone needs to buy a powerball ticket.
Back in 1992, my grandparents lived in Homestead. Their neighbors lost their house to Hurricane Andrew – total, wiped off the face of the Earth loss. They decided to take a vacation to get away from the stress of home loss and plan their next steps in a more relaxed environment than Dade County after a hurricane. They jetted off to Hawaii, checked into a VERY nice hotel, and promptly got slammed by Hurricane Iniki.
Thank you for the article Swiss.
Is the noise by itself bad, or the fact that you aren’t controlling it? If you are the one lighting the firecrackers (so you know and are expecting it) is it also bad? Can you shoot comfortably?
That particular noise is the problem.
Whycome We Explode Things to Celebrate?
Because it’s cool.
OT but relevant to Swiss: Swissertopia
I assume only for the professional-class expats that only spend their time with other expats.
When I have been there, I try to hang with Swiss people. I can see Americans anytime.
That would be best for well-off expats, like embezzlers.
Go shoot off a Roman Candle
Way ahead of you. Already done that a few times today. Oh, wait, you were talking about – uh…never mind…
/Checks out last thread
/Tosses Swiss a beer
Dank u wel.
I guess I’ll scuttle that plan to pop the brown paper bag behind your head then.
That’s totally Bret L. Just sayin.
It was really hot ? at the range today. So much so that we had the pistol range all to our selves. That was nice, but damn, we were sweating profusely and left in less than an hour.
It’s clouding up and cooling off here. I think it’s time to finish mowing the lawn.
If I pass out due to heat stroke, send good-looking busty redheaded women with ice cold rum drinks to revive me.
Speaking of rum, Paste has done their bottom shelf reviews of white rum.
*ahem*
https://www.thelocal.ch/20190704/switzerland-named-worlds-best-destination-for-expats-hsbc-quality-of-life-incomes
Cool link, bro!
What? Works just fine from here.
Not enough apostrophes ?
Relevant.
Ohhhhh…….
I blame the cold pills.
I built the duplicate link shamer into Eyepiece because I’m bad at reading the thread if I have a cool link, so I feel ya, brah.
Is it wrong of me to pop the top on a German beer on Independence Day? Currently sipping an ice cold St. Pauli Girl.
No, because the vote for English v German as official US language was reallllly close. …. just sayin’.
That’s actually a myth that was promoted by Nazi supporters in the US during the 30’s.
Just sayin….
OK ! Count me unaware. . . . .
It’s just proof that you’re a Nazi.
No. The legend is much older than the Nazis.
Related: German language in the USA.
For Spudalicious’ original question, no, it’s not wrong at all. Lots of Germans contributed to America.
Didn’t say it wasn’t, just that the Nazi’s promoted it.
You must be a Nazi too.
Well, I am to the right of Josef Stalin.
Potential new drummer for Def Leopard?
Those guys are still around? Playing nursing homes?
Not exactly a stadium, but seems they’re still at work.
Branson?
It’s what Vegas would be like if it was run by Ned Flanderd
When I first heard about it, Branson was described as, “Where everyone you thought was dead has a theater.”
Jeff Lynne put on an excellent show in Nashville last night. At 54 I was very much amongst the youngest of the guys. NewWife was happy, all that matters.
For Lynne, it wasn’t about his chops: he’s seriously limited or indifferent (I can’t guess which but I can see) on guitar, but it’s bound to be a ton of fun to show up, portfolio in hand with a huge and competent band, and produce a full review of your work to your faithful and rake in $3M a night.
The dozens of mid-tune bathroom trips would be annoying if I knew I wasn’t headed that way some day.
A real rocker would just get a catheter and a bag and keep going.
Are you still in Nashville tonight? It was quite a scene the time the girlfriend and I were there for the Fourth.
beat feet: it’s a short drive
most of the crowd there are my people, whom you may have figured out that I try to avoid
My wife went to see them play this past summer (co-headliner with Journey). Said the still put on one heck of a show. Journey, not so much…
Defensive tackle is not really a position you can play with one arm.
He might be an upgrade for my Broncos at QB.
Wife put Sons of Liberty on the tv. Now I am hankering for a new BP rifle.
I’ve found that the older I get, my interest in the tacticool stuff has waned and I get far more excited about really old firearms – Curio & Relic FTW!
I never liked the tactical look or the Tupperware pistols.
Give me good old fashioned blued steel and walnut.
It sounds silly to many of my peers but I hope you are the type of fellow who appreciates that very high on my bucket list is building my own arquebus.
I took too long to answer. Yes I can appreciate that.
I took so long because I was at the Pedersoli site slobbering over the mountain Hawken, Pennsylvania and Kentucky rifles. Also the dueling pistols, Queen Ann, Howdah…well, you get the idea.
I don’t know if I would shoot them. They would make fantastic wall art.
I had to look it up, but recognized what they were when I did. That would be awesome. And Glib article worthy…
I look at it like hamburgers or hot dogs. The correct answer is both, either, whatever your mood is.
I ? them all, big or small.
^this^
I broke down and obtained my C&R license. So far, I’ve only used it to facilitate one transaction: the purchase of a Model 1912 Mauser Carbine made for Colombia.
No matter where I live, the good fireworks are always one state over.
Weirdly quiet here in the run-up to 7/4. These Mormons are law abidin’ sorts.
Aren’t fireworks legal in AZ?
Roman candles seem to be, but not firecrackers or skyrockets. Nevada for that.
In IL, the big fireworks show was next door, a family where the parents were Central American immigrants. I think the dad had some secret source for skyrockets and would bring about a truckload home.
They also had the biggest flagpole on the street.
I love America. Not the government, the nation.
Were they skyrockets in flight?
OK, now that’s almost catbuttworthy.
You don’t think about having daytime sex?
I didn’t say that.
Hey now, that song brings back some wonderful memories for me. This one too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKcpodt0YCU
They are silly and light hearted but they came along at a time when life was still magic for me.
Here’s another silly and light-hearted song that will probably make a bunch of folks here retch.
I think you are only allowed to listen to those songs on an am radio in a AMC Pacer or a VW bug.
Try some of this.
Tres, as a sometime insomniac, I consider this to be T5D’s magnum opus.
Assuming neither one dies, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis will be celebrating their 50th anniversary at the end of the month.
That’s not bad – certainly better than “My Eyes Adored You.” I actually tried to like the Starland Vocal Band, but in August of ’75 I fell in love with these folks.
So you’re in the twilight zone?
***SIGH!!!*** Liked that album, but it was after my favorite member left the group. I wanted to be Laurel Masse when I grew up. (Of course, I also wanted to do Alan Paul.)
And I was expecting this.
@Tres
#metoo
So apparently all of you people grew up in my Parent’s home.
NewWife usually has yacht rock etc on during our roadwork
but one Christopher Cross tune per month is about right for me
So the canvas can’t do miracles?
she laffed
Hear more than one and you’ll never be the same.
#metoo.
I was walking doggo earlier…The (legal) messican who runs a landscape business, a couple of doors over had his garage open am empty…was playing some music, nice and low, and teaching his daughter how to use a hoverboard. ‘MURICA!
The wypipo down two house were being noisy and parking in front of fire hydrants, when there was plenty of other places to park. *narrows gaze*
Serious question Swiss, were fireworks used at the start of nation? John Adam’s prose is a little opaque to me.
John Adams, the dipshit who was wiping his ass with the constitution while the ink was still wet. Fuck John Adams.
But he never owned slaves, so he is objectively the most correct of the founders.
The dumb-ass even got the date wrong!
I give him some credit for not going to war with France
Some, apparently. But it was more guns, cannon and bells.
As it should be.
*takes another drink and heads to gun cabinet*
Thanks
Early U.S. settlers brought their love of fireworks with them to the New World and fireworks were part of the very first Independence Day – a tradition that continues every 4th of July when we celebrate as John Adams had hoped
Meant to be an answer to Chafed’s question.
Thank you!
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Apparently Booker wants in on the border action since Beta beat him to the speaking Spanish point.
https://www.newsweek.com/cory-booker-mexico-migrant-women-asylum-claims-1447519
Now that’s Class A pandering, I’m impressed.
Oh go fuck yourself. You know full well that generic “fleeing violence” is not a valid reason for asylum.
YOU and your kind are causing the crisis.
My goodness what a one-sided story. It’s like Booker’s campaign manager wrote it. I like the last paragraph:
And? You will do what when they reply? Write a different story and bury it?
If trashmonster is around, I’d like his opinion on this.
https://voxeu.org/article/decline-us-business-dynamism
Trump speech starting. So far, so good.
Dems still scowling in the corner refusing to celebrate America? That is such a brilliant strategy. I don’t see how they can lose in 2020.
They’ll do great in Portland
Whoever wrote this speech nailed it from a political optics standpoint.
and just enough references to borders to drive the media up the wall.
Trump is killing it. He’s highlighting Americans that have done things that have made us great. He just hit womens right to vote and Civil Rights. One of the people from the first lunch counter protest was called out and given a standing ovation. Gawd, OrangeManBad is such a racist.
Most importantly he highlighted current and past individuals acting as citizens rather then fellating the govt. Of course he is also doing the military fellating thing now, but that is standard political fare.
He just got himself the Coastie vote.
I actually can’t stand Trump but dumb military parade and speech —- still better than invading Libya or Syria or doubling troops in Afghanistan.
I think, “be very afraid of our military, so I don’t have to use them” is the right approach.
Peace through strength, iow speak
softlyloudly and carry a big stick.Like him or not, Trump gonna Trump.
Now compare him to creepy Joe.
Joe ain’t even in the same ballpark as Trump.
They aren’t even playing the same game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paMulmvrlbc
Clearly air superiority and white supremacy go hand in hand.
Good read, Swiss. I am sorry for the anxiety they cause you. I am more sorry for the reason they cause you anxiety.
Oh, and maybe this will help.
?
I’m seriously considering that now for one of my cats. Might have to get the dog-sized one, though. She’s a little thicc.
Have you considered getting a turtle ??
To torture and take their mind off the fireworks! Great idea Sean! I’d get a hamster or two also, just for good measure.
Well stated, Mike. Thanks, Swiss.
John Paul Jones gets a mention!
This is about independence from Britain. It’s not time to be honoring the Led Zeppelin bassist.
Why can’t it be about both?
???
He is a Highlander style immortal. It actually is the same guy.
My hot take on the Trump party, even though I don’t even have a TV and haven’t seen or heard anything that actually happened.
The fact that Trump will most likely deliver the “big speech” himself makes this a campaign rally not a celebration of ‘Murica! He should have asked Mike Rowe or some other well liked but not necessarily polarizing figure, to give the keynote, that would have been classy, the classiest, even.
The president giving an Independence Day speech automatically makes it a campaign rally?
Yes.
So any speech ever given by any president ever is a campaign speech?
To be fair, any speech by a politician is a campaign speech.
That’s an extra cynical view I don’t subscribe to, but I guess I get it.
Maybe having worked with politicians from both parties prior to discovering Libertarianism made me too cynical, but that is how it always was from my experience, anything public is staged for optics no matter what.
By and large, I am sure you’re right. But I keep (Pollyanna alert) wishing, hoping, that some actually get into politics to serve their fellow citizens.
it is a lose lose situation, if he didn’t show up and give a speech, he would be accused of a lack of patriotism, if he does show up, it is polarizing.
Nah, he showed his jingoism by merely hosting the event, having someone else make the keynote means that it’s not all about him. That’s a win win for me, but admittedly I represent a very small minority.
GO BACK TO MEXICO, LIBTARD!
He said small minority, so that would be go back to Asia.
S A V A G E
Meh. He is killing it. Again.
I don’t get the hate for the guy.
At a dinner party last week one of the women said she chooses her vote based on who she likes personally, not policy. She admits she doesn’t even know who has what policies but she hates Trump because he is ‘best pals with Putin’.
*facepalm*
I am beginning to think that women’s suffrage was a mistake.
Not a single “I”, “me”, or “my administration”.
I noticed that.
That can’t be true. I’ve been told it has to be a campaign rally.
Gotta admit, that’s surprising , and good for him, but..(ignore everything after the “but”) he has already made this about him, every news agency, dirty commie CNN and glorious Fox have been calling this “Trump’s Fourth Party” for weeks.
Sounds like they made it about him.
Only because he made them do it! He’s an evil genius playing 4-D Russian Roulette!
WHY DON’T YOU GO SUCK JUSTIN AMASH’S DICK, SHITLIB?
I don’t usually pay much attention to the 4th of July celebration and parades and such but aren’t events involving the president sort of standard operating procedure? Is this year’s spectacle unprecedented in some way?
I’m quickly realizing that the smartest decision I have ever made was to cut cable. Am I allowed to just flat out not give a shit about any of this? That seems like the easiest way forward to me.
Am I allowed to just flat out not give a shit about any of this?
Yes.
I agree to the extent that women have largely traded finding a partner that can provide in favor of big govt instead, but a lot of men think the way you describe as well.
Chicks like that are why I’m proud to be a traitor to my gender.
If you want to see my wife get spitting mad, bring up “those females”. Hoooeee! I thought I was opinionated!
See people? This is how you do it.
He’s on his game, all right.
I have something that approximates a Dark n Stormy. I have no limes. Oops. I thought I had some Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, but no, I don’t. I have Gosling’s Old Rum. I used the Old Rum instead. Otto’s Ginger Beer for the ginger beer.
It’s good.
Drinking Spencer Trappist. Thanks! Didnt get to celebrate the job offer, so celebrating the 4th instead.
You’re welcome!
Didn’t get to celebrate the job offer? What happened?
They hired someone else, apparently.
You want we should whack ‘im?
Nah, now I can find something that starts in October and get my severance.
Working thru Sept instead of saying “screw you guys” in July sucks, but its probably financially to my advantage.
That might be for the best.
Good luck! I’m certain you’ll find something.
In February,I missed out on a job because the other applicants was already in the department. Within a few months that person got fired for something shady and I ended up with it after all.
Sam Adams
but I probably drink 200 of those a year on days that are not Independence Day
Make certain you put it in the fridge, because you don’t want Otto’s warm beer.
Boo!
that thing you did . . . .
Yes, I larfed, but I’m not proud of it.
[Rubs palms together with gleeful expression on face]
It was in the fridge. Now it is being transferred from a glass to my belly.
Im watching Darth Cheeto on CBS News, and he isnt very orange, and he doesnt seem to have the sith-eyes.
Isn’t very orange? It looks to me like he touched up his spraytan recently.
You need special sunglasses to see the true him.
-1 Roddy Piper
A flight of F18s to close? Meh. If you want to do America resurrect a few F14s for a flyby. Large, fast, loud.
SR-71 or stay home.
Loud? Try a B1. With afterburners on.
That too, I was thinking in the realm of fighters.
Better:
A mix of P-51, F-4U, B-29, B-52, B-1, F-15, and A-10.
And a single U-1A, just because my dad worked on them in Vietnam.
A10s are at their best when they let the GAU-8 rip loose.
I was behind a car just the other day – it had a license plate frame that said “My other ride is a Warthog.” Personalized plate? “BRRRRT”
He could buy a few working ones from Iran, they still fly those things.
Ok, because no matter what the tool is, there’s a glib who knows about it…
I’ve got a rondel leather punch that I need to replace. Any recommendations?
You make your own holsters? Amazon has leather punches.
It’s been many moons since I’ve done leather work but Tandy was trendy back in the day.
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/craftool-pro-rotary-leather-punch
Lol, I got this one from Tandy many moons ago. That one looks to be significantly upgraded.
I have a heavier duty version of that.
XOOL Revolving Punch Plier Kit on Amazon looks to have a bunch of good reviews.
See! The Glibertariat is an endless source of knowledge on all things..
If not, we’ll make something up.
Columbus puts on a good fireworks show but it’s not worth it to me to go. It’s always 90 degrees, high humidity, and a million people all of who are stupid. Last time I went there was a tent full of idiots and toddler in a diaper running around out front waving his 18,000 degree sparkler. Afterwards there was a fight and the mass crowd runs like herd of gazelle. Not to mention it’s hell getting out of there. I’ve seen my share of fireworks, I’m good. We have the neighborhood drunks doing fireworks even though it’s illegal. The only thing that worries me is having something land on my roof and catch my house on fire but still would never call the cops. Also, centipedes are creepy as hell.
I once got to watch Red White and Boom from the 19th(?) floor of a high rise condo building southeast (?) of town. That was quite the experience! They put on a good show.
That’s the way to do it!
We lucked out – traded one set of our Dayton Dragons partial-season tickets (from right after the Dayton-area tornadoes when the stretch of state highway near our house was closed and our power was still out) for tickets to Tuesday night’s game, and got fireworks after as part of the deal.
The best show I ever saw was San Francisco. We were on the top floor of our hotel near Fishermans wharf. SF had simultaneous shows at the wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge. From the hotel we could see both. But the capstone was we could see shows from all of the towns around the bay. I’ll bet we saw 15 shows that night without ever leaving the hotel.
Also, the people in the next room got arrested. They were shooting bottle rockets out of the hotel window and one went down and into a car sitting in traffic. The police showed up a few minutes later. Must’ve been someone visiting from Florida.
This year NYC has moved it to lower Manhattan so I should get a great view, plus I will probably see bits of other shows in Coney Island, New Jersey, Staten Island, etc. And there are always a dozen or so amateur acts much closer by.
Second hot take on the thing I haven’t seen.
The “Tank parade” is a heaping dose of “who cares” and everyone forgets that it was a big issue yesterday, tomorrow.
You know who else had a tank nobody cared about?
The Matrix?
Speaking of fireworks. Here they come. Guess I’ll be up late again.
Too muggy to open a window this year. I probably won’t even notice them.
I guess they were going off after 1am last night in our neighborhood. I could hear them when I was reading at night but I went to bed maybe 11:30 and they didn’t wake me up. So hopefully that’s the case tonight since I work tomorrow. I was up early so should sleep ok.
I sleep like a rock. So If I fall asleep, I’m not worried about fireworks waking me up. I am one of the few that has to work tomorrow. I mean, as long as I don’t get canned the my random.
How many days in between toke and test?
Friday-Monday.
I guess what might help is I got the test notice after finishing my morning pot of coffee, so it was fairly diluted.
Unless you really went to town Friday, there’s a good chance you’ll be fine. It takes more than a few tokes to build up in your system. I’d be wondering who ratted you out though.
It was random, they pulled 5 of us. They’ve never done that before (at least since I’ve been there). We’re splitting off into a separate company soon (under the same parent company) and I think it has something to do with that. Or they are getting new insurance bids.
Sounds you you have my luck.
Sounds like..
This is how you rock the 4th when you’re a bitter, unhappy person.
Yeah I don’t know why you would want to ruin every one of your life’s events just to be smug.
My wife and I got our first dogs back in 2007 – a pair of pit bull mixes that were left in a cardboard box at the end of the driveway of a rescue. These dogs were fairly traumatized, and were skittish at best in most situations. One was absolutely terrified of noisy situations, and months of working on desensitization only got her to the point of just standing and quivering rather than trying to bolt in fear.
We were living in Germany at the time, and the Germans love blowing things up on New Years Eve, and thankfully they chose fireworks rather than, say, Poland. But my wife and I were worried about how our dog would react to the noise. We waited nervously for the first booms, and when it finally came, the dog perked up her ears and looked over at us. She hopped off the sofa and went over to the door, wanting to go outside. When she got out there and really heard the noise and saw the flashes, she started jumping around, absolutely thrilled with the sounds. Definitely wasn’t fear – she was loving it. For the rest of her life, every time she heard the first boom, she was immediately waiting by the door to go out to watch and listen. In her later years, after having both knees operated on and couldn’t jump around anymore, she would simply sit out on the deck and watch the show.
We had to euthanize her a year or so ago, and I miss watching the fireworks with her…
Great Story! And such a rarity. May your pup RIP by being surrounded by an eternal fireworks show.
You know what I hate? When you see a celebrity in an untouched photo and realize how bony they actually are. It’s disgusting. I was just looking at some pictures of Diane Kruger, who I think is beautiful. At least I did until I saw bikini photos. She needs some fat.
Yeah, I know everyone has an opinion, but yours is completely wrong.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t. I’d just like to have her eat some cake first.
I’m a big fan of scrubbing their faces and feeding them cheeseburgers until their BMI’s are back in the “normal” range.