This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Pointless blather

  • Input requested, please

    The other day, our friend Zero Ponsdorf asked me, once again, if I’d consider adding a discussion forum to This Ain’t Hell in which you guys could start topics and flame fests about things that interest you.

    In the past, I’ve always shied away from the idea – mainly because I remember what an asshole I was when I did the forum thing. My last banning from a forum was the impetus for starting this blog (I think I still hold the record for more than 50 suspensions at The History Channel forums). My membership at Democratic Underground lasted about 30 seconds after my first comment back in 1999.

    To convince me to change my mind, Ponsdorf offered to handle the moderating duties at the new forum. Now I know that forums added to blogs have varying degrees of success. Powerline seems to have done a good job at it while Little Green Footballs recently closed their Lizard Lounge.

    I also remember we had a great time when we live-blogged the presidential debates last year, so I’ll admit that the idea has some merit, at least initially.

    Well, I’ve done some shopping for software and figured the cost out and the technical aspects of it, and all that’s left to do is ask y’all if you think it’d be worth my time and expense. Judging by the number of tips we get, you guys have great ideas for discussion – unfortunately, I can’t use them all so this would give you an outlet.

    However, I don’t want to spend money and time on a project that ends up having me, COB6 and TSO the only ones writing on it. We average about 2600 readers every day – as you can tell from our comments, most of them are silent. A discussion forum that has silent readers is pretty useless.

    Initially, I plan to have participation to be absolutely free just like the blog, but I’m not promising what the future will look like – I don’t think my wife would understand my English if I tried to explain to her why we can’t eat this month so you guys can discuss the merits of flame-broiled burgers vs. grilled cheese sandwiches.

    So leave me some relatively constructive comments on how much, or little, you’re excited by this suggestion from Ponsdorf.

  • Specter slips into incoherency

    The Washington Times reports this afternoon that Arlen Specter has made the final leap into total lunacy. While on ABC’s Face the Nation, Specter responded to a question by Bob Schaeffer whether or not Specter felt he let down Pensylvanians who voted for Republican representation in the Senate, Specter yammered something about how he was let down by the Republican Party, then the cheese slid off his cracker right there on national TV when he accused Republicans of killing Jack Kemp;

    Mr. Specter continued: “If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”

    Yeah, we’ve had three Democrat Presidents since Richard Nixon left the White House. The Democrats controlled both houses of Congress with the exception of two years for twenty years after Nixon left office – so what the hell is this nincompoop trying to say?

    I guess it’s true that when you join the Democrat party, they suck whatever is left of your brains out.

    Added: I just remember that when Jocelyn Elders, Clinton’s first shot at Surgeon General, was asked why the Clinton Administration was shifting money from Heart and Cancer Research into AIDS research, her answer was “Everyone has to die from something”.

  • Rock Out With Your Glock Out

     

    I like guns.  Virtually any kind too.  I like revolvers, pistols, rifles and shotguns.  I even like blackpowder weapons of nearly every make, model and description.  Truth be told, if I were to hit the lottery or get a fat stimulus check from my pal Barry, next to hiring Van Halen to play at my birthday, I’d probably buy a couple million dollars worth of the damn things.   

    Buying your first gun is a lot like getting your first car, or drinking your first beer; it’s a rite of passage, at least if you happen to live south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  It’s different than when you shoot your first firearm (.22 LR Remington Nylon), mainly because while plinking the crap out of an RC can is fun, nothing beats doing it with YOUR gun.

    (more…)

  • The politics of good taste

    This comely lass is Christine Kelly;

    She’s France’s new Minister for Overseas Territories and is one of the bevy of beauties featured in a Mail Online article about some of the women who have overcome the curse of their extremely good looks to start careers in politics.

    Thanks to Rurik for sending me the article. In his email, Rurik writes;

    Oh fine…WE get Hillary, Janet Reno, Janet Napolitano, and Pelosi. Look what THEY get…

    My thoughts exactly.

  • This explains the black Crown Vic parked out front

    Ever wonder who else reads This Ain’t Hell? Well, thanks to one of Michelle Malkin‘s readers who forwarded her some military email about the discussion about the “Overseas Contingency Operations” dustup this week, we discover that folks at the Pentagon read us, too;

    So those of you who are lurking out there, they’re reading our comments, too. Join in and let your opinions be heard. Yeah, I know, shameless horn tooting here, but you guys make us what we are – so thanks to y’all for making This Ain’t Hell the one of the biggest bunch of opinionated assholes who must be heard on the internet.

  • Is there someone who didn’t see this coming?

    I’m just wondering why this is even news;

    Everything I know about the Irish I learned from Family Guy;

  • Paul Harvey Aurandt: Another bit of America is gone

    Paul Harvey was part of the soundtrack of my young life. I remember my grandfather, in his 60s shutting down his one-man operation saw mill just before noon and walking back to his wood shop behind the house to meet my grandmother who brought him a sandwich (usually his favorite liverwurst and limburger cheese – typical Scandi, he always loved food that stinks) and a glass of milk in the weather-worn shed so he could listen to Paul Harvey read the news to him. In his seventies, of course he couldn’t run the saw mill anymore, but his daily Paul Harvey routine continued.

    I remember staying at my Great-aunt Edith’s farm with her and Uncle Barney. At noon, Barney would stop doing chores and head back to the house for lunch with Paul Harvey and Edith.

    My other grandfather would stop doing chores on his dairy farm in time to hear the Paul Harvey-delivered news of the day wit hall of his pregnant pauses and strange inflections.

    It was reasonable that when I got to a point in my life when I had the opportunity to listen to Harvey on a regular basis, the sound of his voice brought back the smells of farms and saw mills and Grandma’s kitchen, liverwurst and limburger sandwiches.

    When Harvey’s son started doing the news a few years back, I lost interest because it just wasn’t the same. But today, Mr. Harvey is with his greatest fans.

  • He does exist

    Don Carl sent us this;