-
Rematch with the Alabama ride
The above is actually spray-painted at the end of the Silver Comet Trail. It ends about 3 feet after this and becomes unpaved Alabama.I decided to try the ride to the Alabama state line again on Saturday. It was brutally humid, and in the 90s, but why not? This was my last endurance goal for the summer.
I wound up making it successfully making the ride. It was 126 miles; over eight hours in the saddle. I wound up drinking 5-7 liters of water, 4 power bars and two bottles of Accellerade. It was a fun, but extremely draining ride.
I saw about 10 deer, probably over a hundred rabbits and I almost ran over a dead snake. Two days later and I’m still exhausted.
Sitting in Alabama, looking at Georgia
The Brushy Mountain Tunnel -
An interesting alternate take on history
Coming Anarchy has an interesting satire on what might have happened had the American civil war been decided less decisively. RTWT.
-
Happy Bastille Day!
As an addendum to previous post, the quote of the moment is from Tucker Carlson
“Happy Bastille Day! It’s like the fourth of July, only with less to be proud of”.
-
The headbutt seen round the world
Here is how it was seen in different nations.
-
My favorite famous last words
From this page on WikiPedia loosely categorized by me:
Toughest
- “No! I didn’t come here to make a speech. I came here to die.”
Who: Crawford Goldsby, aka Cherokee Bill, when asked if he had anything to say before he was hanged. - “Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French Fries’!”
Who: James French (No relation to your humble blogger).
Notes: French, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to the electric chair. He shouted these words to members of the press who were to witness his execution.
Ironic
- “That’s very obvious..”
Who: John F. Kennedy, responding to Mrs. Connolly’s comment, “Mr. President, you can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you.” - “I think I’m going to make it!”
Who: Richard Loeb, half of the famous murderers Leopold and Loeb; said after being slashed ninety times with a razor by a fellow inmate
Funniest
- “Why yes, A bulletproof vest”
Who: Domonic Willard
Notes: Willard was a small time foot soldier during the Prohibition just before his death by firing squad, he was asked if he had any last requests. - “Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”
Who: Francisco (“Pancho”) Villa - “Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.”
Who: Voltaire (attributed), when asked by a priest to renounce Satan
Deadpan
- “Already?”
Who: Hangquin Zhou - “It’s stopped.”
Who: Joseph Henry Green, upon checking his own pulse.
Succinct & True
- “To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?”
Who: George Eastman, Inventor (in his suicide note)
Odd and Worth Mentioning
- “I see black light.”
Who: Victor Hugo
- “No! I didn’t come here to make a speech. I came here to die.”
-
Quote of the moment
From one of the AJC Gwinnett Blogs
Deer come out of the woods and hit our cars like jihadists attacking infidels.
I love the South.
-
Random thoughts on the current Middle East
CNN.com has a nice one page history and description of Hezbollah, which is a useful addition to their coverage. Here is some analysis from MSNBC.
We live in interesting times. On the one hand Lebanon was one of the brighter spots of the Arab world. On the other hand, this might be the only time and way to reduce Hezbollah to the past tense. By not occupying any territory Israel can play to it’s technological and organizational strengths, and avoid all of Hezbollahs guerilla tactics (where their talents lie).
Anothr thing to note is that the IDF seems to have avoided striking the Lebanese military, only commerical targets and Hezbollah.
And for anyone keeping score, this is a case of democracies going to war.
-
Freedom lives in syndication
South Park’s “Super Best Friends” is still airing in syndication, and still shows Mohammed.
-
This might be worth a road trip sometime
Driving on rural Ga. 77 in northeast Georgia, you seem to time-travel across the sea to ancient Britain. What appears to be a scaled-down clone of Stonehenge rises above a hilltop.
Elbert County stonemasons, not druidic priests, fashioned this circular array of six granite slabs, but its origins are almost as intriguing.
In 1979, a mysterious stranger calling himself “Mr. Christian” commissioned the curiosity on the edge of a cow pasture 7.2 miles north of Elberton.
He reportedly told the president of an Elberton granite finishing plant that what he called the Georgia Guidestones would be “for the conservation of the world and to herald a new age of reason.”
As they talked, he admitted his name really wasn’t Christian, but he was a Christian and a patriot, who represented a group outside of Georgia with similar beliefs. Only the Elberton banker who handled Mr. Christian’s substantial deposit ever knew his true identity. He took the secret to his grave, and no one has ever identified Christian or his associates.
-
A perfect one-sentence description
Of the current political situation anyway, from Winds of Change:
as poor a hand as it may be, you can’t beat a pair of twos with nothing.
That sums it up pretty well I think. The dems wouldn’t even have to try that hard at this point. Instead they’ll probably lose a house seat or two and then return to their default position of navel gazing. Perhaps it’s all a big plot by the Clinton faction to set the stage for Hillary in 2008.