Welcome to our new co-blogger

Raised By Wolverines has put up his first post, which we hope will be one of many to come. Glad to have a little help providing content, as my current gig is killing me (more on that in a separate post later). Right now, though, I absolutely must write about some of the absolutely mindless shit that so distinguishes this blog.

While "wolves" and "wolverines" sound like they should be related, wolves, of course, are related to dogs. Wolverines, on the other hand, are related to otters, minks, weasels, ferrets, martens and badgers. Presumably, that includes honey badgers and, as everyone knows, Honey Badger Don't Care. (No link, because everybody knows what I'm talking about.) In any event, welcome to my new co-author.

He's just exercising his rights

John Kerry, the new Secretary of State, was in Germany the other day telling a bunch of students, "in America, you have a right to be stupid if you want to be." There he was, living proof that not only does he have the right to be stupid, but exercising that right is no impediment to becoming Secretary of State. God help us.

Just trying to be helpful

Commenter Angelica asks, "What is [the] food porn poll? Can anyone explain?" Well, in the Eff You spirit of enriching your world and expanding your horizons -- I am a superhero, after all -- I'm here to explain. During the football season, I weekly posted pictures of the various appetizers and other dishes I prepared as game food, to be consumed along with copious quantities of beer while watching the Green Bay Packers. The "game food" posts came to be known as "food porn," and a tradition was born.

With the football season over, someone asked me if I planned to continue with off-season food porn posts. I figured I would put it to the readers of Eff You, and put up a poll to let folks vote. So, Angelica, the poll is posted in the upper-right corner of this blog. Right now, it is immediately to the right of this post. You still have a day left to vote.

BTW, check out the picture next to Angelica's comment. Wow.

Can't pull a Bob Woodward in the age of Obama

Guest blogger here.  Was planning to post a big end of the project diatribe about temping and the mindless liberalism of many temps.  But as so often happens in Temp Town, the project that was supposed to end two days ago keeps getting extended.  Now I do not know when I will be free to unload.

Got to be careful in Temp Town and not pull a Bob Woodward and end up doing something I will regret.  Good lord - what a banana republic we are becoming.  This is Nixon level crap. Never thought I would see us turn banana republic in my lifetime but looks like it is happening a lot faster than I expected.  Are threats to anyone who questions Dear Leader and never-ending campaign rallies for low info voters all we have to look forward to for the next four years?

Decided I had to at least post one comment before the Internet crashes, phones stop working, street lights fail, all police and teachers are fired, etc, etc on Friday.  Cannot believe anyone buys this garbage but apparently many especially in DC do.

Food porn deadline approaching

Less than two days to vote in the food porn poll, although the results are a foregone conclusion. Off-season food porn will continue. There are no "no" votes. The only dispute is whether there should be step-by-step photos, or whether food porn should only feature "funky" recipes, which of course is defined by me. In any event, you can probably still vote two more times -- you get one per day, near as I can tell -- so if you want step-by-step photos, you currently are losing. Get with it.

I kind of like the idea

I listen to a lot of talk radio, including sports talk, on this gig. Only music is MP3, and there are limits to how many cycles you can listen to in one day. In any event, there is a commercial on one of the sports talk stations that intrigues me. It is an ad for term life insurance and includes the statement, "Don't forget to ask us about the new term life plans that guarantee your money back, even if you don't die."

Now, I'm as interested as the next guy in products that guarantee your money back if you're not satisfied. But I really like the possibility of "even if you don't die." I'm pretty sure that would be a first. Even Jesus had to make a comeback. Who the hell are they insuring?

February 23, 1945

It was 68 years ago today that Marines of the 28th Marine Regiment raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima. The famous photo is of the raising of a second, larger flag and was taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. The first flag raising was photographed by Sgt. Louis R. Lowery.  The second flag-raising featured a much larger flag and a different group of Marines and a Navy corpsman. Sgt. Lowery's film was sent for processing via standard military channels and took a month to be made public. Rosenthal's was sent by seaplane to Guam and wired to the States via the AP, where it was quickly widely published on its way to winning Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize.

Far from being the end of the fight for the island, the battle raged for 31 more days and stands as one of the toughest, most vicious fights in Marine Corps history. Several of the men in Rosenthal's photo did not survive the battle.

Photo from The Marine Times.

I can't lie, it's been tough

Starting in September, each month I have managed to post at least an average of once a day. It took a big burst toward the end of this month to keep up that average, but we're good now. Believe me, I am looking forward to Raised by Wolverines adding some content.

Eff me, I have a sidekick

As befits a super hero -- I'm being fitted for a cape as we speak -- I now have a sidekick. Maybe not Robin to Batman, or Kato to Green Lantern, but a sidekick nonetheless. I now introduce you to Raised by Wolverines: he has posted a comment here and will be posting at his leisure after that. He will not be running his posts by me first because I want him to feel free to say what he thinks -- I believe we are philosophically compatible, but I don't want to impose ideological dogma. My readers are diverse, and I'm not trying to run an indoctrination site here to get everybody to agree with me. My goal is to entertain, maybe educate, but mostly to enlighten with respect to life in Temp Town. Am I putting conservative viewpoints out there? Yes, I am. Is that my primary goal? No. I also put out posts about food, music and God knows what else. I figure you can handle a little conservatism thrown into the mix.

Chicks with guns

Not everything you expect -- this is more like women with guns. There is some hotness here -- actually, a good bit -- but these women and why they have guns  run the gamut. Via http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2011/10/chicks-with-guns/

Damn, y'all, I got some Kazakhstan!

Pretty sure this is my first visitor from Kazakhstan, so they get the National Geographic treatment.

[O]fficially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country in Central Asia, with a small portion west of the Ural River in easternmost Europe.^[2] The ninth largest country in the world by land area, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of 2,727,300 square kilometres (1,053,000 sq mi) is larger than Western Europe.^[2][6] Moreover, lying on both sides of the Ural River makes Kazakhstan one of only two landlocked countries in the world lying on two continents. It is neighbored clockwise from the north by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also borders on a large part of the Caspian Sea. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. With 16.6 million people (2011 estimate)^[7] Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, though its population density is less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq. mi.). The capital was moved in 1998 from Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, to Astana.

OK, so it's really fucking big and lots of people live there, but it's so fucking big that nobody lives close to anybody else. Cool.

Welcome, Kazakhstan.

 

Food porn voting

I have been asked how often you can vote on food porn. As far as I know, the rule is early and often, although it might be limited to once a day. My advice is vote until the poll won't let you, then assume the limit is once a day. I like to see lots of votes.

If your solutions won't solve the problem, they aren't solutions

When the people on your own side tell you that what you want to do won't accomplish what you want to accomplish, maybe you should listen:

Justice Department researchers have concluded that an assault weapons ban is “unlikely to have an effect on gun violence,” but President Obama has not accepted their report as his administration’s official position.

“Since assault weapons are not a major contributor to US gun homicide and the existing stock of guns is large, an assault weapon ban is unlikely to have an impact on gun violence,” the DOJ’s National Institute for Justice explains in a January 4 report obtained by the National Rifle Association. “If coupled with a gun buyback and no exemptions then it could be effective.” That idea is also undermined by the acknowledgement that “a complete elimination of assault weapons would not have a large impact on gun homicides.”

Let's face it -- even a gun buy-back would have to be mandatory, and most places that is called confiscation.  If somebody offers you $500 for a product you paid $1,500 for, are you taking it? Especially if you can't replace it? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So, if the measures you are pushing won't achieve the goals you aspire to, and you know it, what can we conclude? Maybe they're lying when they say they don't want to take our guns? While this columnist called it a "mistake," a Washington state legislator introduced a bill  that mandated yearly visits by police to gun-owners' homes to make sure the guns are stored safely. Fourth Amendment, anyone?

“In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on the effective date of this section, the person possessing shall ... safely and securely store the assault weapon. The sheriff of the county may, no more than once per year, conduct an inspection to ensure compliance with this subsection.”

 As the columnist in Seattle points out, the legislator in question immediately claimed that the provision was a mistake and shouldn't have been in the bill. Right -- except the same legislator introduced the same bill twice before. Seriously? Three strikes and you're out. But progressives/liberals will never stop trying to restrict your right to own  a weapon.

And it isn't about ending "gun violence." Libs love to say that they just want to stop the killing. OK, so ban cars. They kill more people than guns. And two-thirds of the annual gun deaths are suicides. Do you think banning guns will make people stop killing themselves? Get a grip.

Plus, the gun bans that libs push demonstrably don't work. Connecticut has a ban on the kind of weapon used in the Newtown school shootings. Chicago has a complete ban on handgun ownership. How's that working? And the District of Columbia also had a complete ban on handgun ownership until the Supreme Court told them to knock it off. But the District was Murder City during the '80s --because the criminals were the ones with guns. Now, after the court decision striking down the gun ban, the District's murder rate is at its lowest level in decades. (No links here because I'm fucking tired. Use Google.)

It doesn't matter how much proof you throw at progressives, they still push gun control. Doesn't work? Don't care. It isn't about what works. Look at Massachusetts and what happened when it enacted very restrictive gun laws:

The 1998 legislation did cut down, quite sharply, on the legal use of guns in Massachusetts. Within four years, the number of active gun licenses in the state had plummeted. "There were nearly 1.5 million active gun licenses in Massachusetts in 1998," the AP reported. "In June [2002], that number was down to just 200,000." The author of the law, state Senator Cheryl Jacques, was pleased that the Bay State's stiff new restrictions had made it possible to "weed out the clutter."

But the law that was so tough on law-abiding gun owners had quite a different impact on criminals.

Since 1998, gun crime in Massachusetts has gotten worse, not better. Instead of "lead[ing] the way in cracking down on gun violence," the state has seen gun violence shoot up. In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders committed with firearms, the Boston Globe reported this month – "a striking increase from the 65 in 1998." Other crimes rose too. Between 1998 and 2011, robbery with firearms climbed 20.7 percent. Aggravated assaults jumped 26.7 percent.

The laws cut back legal use of guns, not illegal use. And the libs in Massachusetts can't blame their neighbors:

Relative to the rest of the country, or to just the states on its borders, Massachusetts since 1998 has become a more dangerous state. Economist John Lott, using FBI crime data since 1980, shows how dramatic the contrast has been. In 1998, Massachusetts' murder rate equaled about 70 percent of the rate for Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. Now it equals 125 percent of that rate. Clearly something bad happened to Massachusetts 15 years ago. Blaming the neighbors may be ideologically comforting. But those aren't the states whose crime rates are up. 

So when Barry and the rest of you libs start talking about "common sense" gun control laws, could you please exercise some of that common sense? Not to mention, constitutional sense.

Just because

Let's face it -- it's an awful video. And Dee Snyder is hideous. But everyone has had a moment in their life -- hell, probably ever week -- where they wanted to scream this at somebody:

And if you haven't had a moment like that, you should.

Kind of makes you want to put on more clothes

Because it does look cold. But this is the kind of stuff that should make you want to check out R.A.F.'s blog:

Not in Canada, apparently. The official Raised by Wolves guess is now Alaska law enforcement. I still say that makes him a badass. With good photos.

Finally, the media begins to notice reality

At least a little, anyway. It would appear that Jonathan Karl at ABC has realized that the sequester cuts are a) not actually cuts and 2) not devastating to federal services. Frankly, I wouldn't care if they were, but this whole sky-is-falling shit that Barry is tossing out there is getting old. Especially considering that the sequester was the White House's idea, at least according to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame, not exactly a conservative) and former White House chief of staff Jack Lew (soon, apparently, to be Treasury secretary). And it wasn't that long ago that Barry promised to veto any effort to undo the sequester cuts that Barry is now frantically scrambling to undo:

Barry wants to look like he wants cuts but doesn't want to actually cut anything. Besides, these aren't actual cuts: they are cuts to the rate of growth in spending, not cuts in spending. The federal government will still spend more this year than last. Look at it this way. Let's say you make $100,000 a year. (I choose this number for math purposes.) Then you draw up a budget that says you will spend $140,000 next year, and $160,000 the year after that. Someone points out to you that you don't have $140,000, nor do you have $160,000. You imperiously tell them that you'll spend this year's budget (for which you do not have the money) but you will cut the next year's budget by 1.2 percent -- a little less than two grand, so instead of spending $160,000 in year two, you will spend $158,000. That is what the federal government calls a spending cut. And that is what Barry proposed in 2011 to get Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Not actual cuts -- cuts in spending growth. Everybody who thinks they could run their household budget like that, raise your hand Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

OK, now I want one of these

I'm sitting there, minding my own business when one event leads to another and this guy leads me to this. It is a single-shot model, but it comes highly recommended.  A little looking around on the web indicates you can get them in 20-ga. and 12-ga. for under $200. Pretty sweet. This example, from Guns America, appears to to be lying on the skin of a dead animal, which only makes me want it more:

Only one week to go

To vote on off-season food porn, that is. So far, the verdict is a unanimous "yes." People differ on whether they need step-by-step pictures, only funky recipes or just food porn writ large, but there are no "no" votes so far. Still a week to go, so put in your preferences. I'm not sure what qualifies as a funky recipe, so maybe I should have worded that differently, but hey. In any event, it looks like we are going to have off-season food porn, so get your vote in to influence what form that takes. Bon appetit!

This is kind of a big deal

At least for this blog, it is. I mean, sure, for nearly two years I've been shining a light into the darkness that is Temp Town, exposing some of its foibles and follies to the general public in hopes of bringing understanding. At the same time, I have stood stalwartly in opposition to the decline of Western civilization. Hell, I should probably wear a cape and put a big, red "Eff You" on my chest. I'm practically a super hero, after all. And I have sworn  to use this power only for good. But I digress.

Super hero or not, I am but one man. That apparently is about to change. I have received a request from a fellow temp, seeking to become a guest author. Not sure what his blog pseudonym will be, but he and I are working out the details this weekend, and I hope to introduce him to the blog on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. I know he'll add a lot of good content to Eff You. Plus, even super heroes could use a little help now and then.

You should look at this blog

No, not my blog, this blog. Of course you should look at my blog, but you already are. You should look at http://romeoalphafoxtrot.wordpress.com/ because I think he's a certified outdoor badass. He apparently lives in Canada somewhere, and my guess is northern Canada. He is a big outdoors guy, so if you like outdoors stuff, I think he is a good source of gear tips, etc. Also, there are some absolutely fabulous pictures on this blog of Arctic scenes. Check it out, and I'm adding it to my blogroll.

Update: It was late, I was tired, so I forgot to mention that R.A.F. also is not what you want to call a big fan of socialism, which merely improves his stature in my mind.

Who knew?

Apparently Morrissey, the former lead singer of The Smiths (the most over-rated band in the history of mankind, and yes I am including Oasis) is on tour. The PETA-freaky Morrissey apparently got the folks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to bump up the meat-free options from center vendors for his show.  the center

Promoters for the show announced Monday that the downtown arena's food service will incorporate a greatly expanded vegan and vegetarian menu the night of Moz's concert.
Contrary to earlier reports from Morrissey's representatives, however, the venue will not be going entirely meat-free that night. Meat concessions will still be available from Staples Center vendors, though backstage catering will be all-vegetarian.
“As we have done in the past, we are happy to create a menu with a greater variety of vegetarian items for our guests who prefer these types of options,” said Lee Zeidman, Sr. Vice President and General Manager of Staples Center and L.A. LIVE., in a statement today. “We respect Morrissey’s lifestyle and his concern for the wishes of so many of his fans and are happy that we are able to honor his requests in this manner.”  

I don't care what Morrissey talks the Staples Center into selling during his concert. I comment on this only because I was stunned to learn that 1) Morrissey is still performing in public and b) that he needs to (or is even able to) book venues larger than a broom closet. Go figure.

BTW, exercise your right to vote

Only nine days left to vote in the poll on whether there should be off-season food porn. So far it looks like the answer is "yes," but I would like to see more votes. This is a lot of work, kids. On the other hand, just test-drove a recipe for orange chicken that went over well with Wolves-affiliated individuals. No photos -- need to see the vote totals first. Cast your ballot!

The plight of a temp-blogger

This week is turning out to be a seriously weird convergence of the world of temping with the world of blogging. I'm just hoping that the cosmic forces involved won't reach the levels experienced in the first Ghostbusters movie and lead to really serious shit.

Anyway, this week is turning into an hours disaster. Naturally, we couldn't work yesterday because the firm we are working for observes all federal holidays, even those honoring presidents for whom they have no respect and probably could not actually name. It's a fucking ski holiday. Then, the agency, which recently moved into our luxurious new space, which is largely like any other fucking document review space in that it is full of a bunch of God damn temps with computers in front of them, wants to show off its luxurious new space to clients and so is holding an open house. This means we will be kicked out at 5 pm on Thursday, because the one thing they don't want potential clients to see is the actual temps the potential clients might actually have to hire. Let's face it, they would cease to be potential clients. Meanwhile, I am concerned that I have simply not cussed enough in this motherfucking post, and so I will probably throw in some totally fucking extraneous obscenities. But that's just me.

Despite the fact that I now have no prayer of making decent overtime this week, I still got home late enough that after walking the various canine units, talking to Mrs. Wolves and Lance Corporal Wolves, and checking my email, I had a choice of getting to bed before midnight or putting up a post on the blog. I seriously had a big post lined up for tonight with lots of links and stuff. It is not a post about temping, however, and I felt that tonight should be about temping. So we now know two things about this blog. First, I will sacrifice sleep to put up a temp-related post on this blog. And, b) tomorrow I will be blogging behind enemy lines on pirate internet.

Times are hard

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. Lotta work hours, lotta stuff to do in my non-work hours. I'll try to do better. In the meantime, I just ran into Ernest Hemingway. Or at least someone who should head down to Sloppy Joe's in Key West next summer for the contest. Not that Sloppy Joe's, which is at the corner of Duvall and Greene, is the bar where Hemingway hung out when he lived in Key West. Back then, Sloppy Joe's was located at 428 Greene Street, site of the current Captain Tony's Saloon. Just for your fund of general information.

Of COURSE no one wants to take your guns from you

Unless, of course, you live in Missouri. Democrats there are really eager to take your guns. Please stop with the shit that confiscation is not on the table and that gun owners are just paranoid about government wanting to take their guns. If someone is out to get you, you aren't paranoid to think someone is out to get you. New York also would like to take your guns. So enough already with telling me no one wants to take my guns. Everybody on the other side of the aisle wants to take my guns. Good luck with that.

Uh oh

When state governments are taking evasive action to avoid the Obamacare burdens, you know that things are getting ugly. Apparently, the Virginia agency that runs the state liquor stores (something the state has no business doing, but that is a post for another day and, also, the height of irony) plans to make sure none of its part-time employees work more than 29 hours a week so that the agency won't have to provide Obamacare-mandated coverage. Just another disturbing indication of what many employers will do to avoid having to meet the requirements of Obamacare. This is not a good sign for temps.

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Incidentally, I asked someone today at the agency I am working for what the agency plans to do about health insurance next year in light of the Obamacare mandates.The answer, apparently, is they haven't really thought about that yet. Wow.

You know you want to say it

We're going link-free here, because I think all of my readers are sufficiently well-read to know all about Iran's recent purported rocket launch that supposedly put a monkey into space for a while. The monkey supposedly survived, even though the monkey shown in pictures before the launch is clearly not the monkey shown in pictures after recovery. But I don't care about any of that shit, which is why this post is link-free. All I want to say -- and I know you want to say it too -- is "Iranian space monkeys."

Damn that felt good.

Holy crap, I want one!

No explanations necessary. You know you want one, too.

Found this through I Hate the Media

Apparently, I am a visionary

I swear, I knew this without benefit of research. Beer is what you should have after working out. Not that I'm advocating working out. I'm advocating beer.

I not only like beer, I like people who like beer. Specifically, women who like beer:

Now there's ambition

Just heard an amusing Temp Town story. A guy I've worked with a number of times over the years told me about a project he was on several years ago. He got a call from the agency rep, who told him to get everybody together because she was coming over to "bless them out." The source of her dissatisfaction, apparently, is lost in the mists of time.

 

True to her word, she came over and blessed them out, finishing with, "If I have to hire somebody to sit here and watch over you like a babysitter, then I will."

 

The room was silent for a moment, and then a contract attorney asked, "So, how much would that job pay?"

Gotta admire the drive there.

Of course the media has no bias

And yeah, I used to be a member of the media. I spent 10 years in newspapers, and Mrs. Wolves was part of the newspaper industry for close to 20 years. We know those people. They're libs. They can claim they have no bias, but that is horseshit. When they call someone for comment, they don't have a single conservative in their contacts list, because they never met one at a party, and if they did, they damn sure didn't keep his/her card. They don't realize they are biased: no one around them ever espouses a different opinion, and when someone does, they know, deep in their hearts, that the person with a different opinion is simply wrong, because that is what all of their friends think. We had to keep our mouths shut at parties and what not so that our fellow media types wouldn't realize we were conservatives -- they would have ostracized us. They can't tolerate dissent. If you disagree with them politically, you are not simply someone who holds a valid but differing opinion, you are wrong, stupid, not worth talking to and perhaps even evil. This is not speculation: a pretty substantial number of Mrs. Wolves' former media colleagues have unfriended her on Facebook because she espoused conservative views. The folks in the media are to the left of the left. In any event, that's why this story at Mediaite surprises me not as far as the content goes, but because a lefty outlet like Mediaite came clean on this shit. It is always surprising to see a lefty site put out a story this fair:

Alleged Los Angeles shooter Christopher Jordan Dorner, influenced by left-leaning media coverage of gun crime in the wake of the Newtown shootings, has virtually paralyzed the City of Angels. Floyd Lee Corkins, a gunman incensed by anti-gay marriage bias after reading articles by the liberal advocacy group Southern Poverty Law Center, took a firearm into the Family Research Council’s headquarters with the intention of killing “as many as possible.” He hoped to smash Chick-fil-A sandwiches in the faces of as many corpses as he could. These shooters were clearly moved by left-wing media, and we should thank every benevolent force in the universe that they were. Had either shooter possessed even a tenuous link to a conservative group, a media-driven hysteria about the malevolent influence of right-wing broadcasters and commentators would be gripping the nation today. Fortunately, when a crazed shooter’s ideology is explicitly and demonstrably left-wing, the media displays admirable restraint about linking a gunman’s politics to their acts of violence. 

By all means, go read the story. It provides numerous links to stuff that ought to make your hair curl.

How do we feel about food porn?

We are entering the worst six weeks of the year -- the scouting combine isn't for about six weeks, the draft is four weeks after that, rookie mini-camps are the only thing between the draft and OTAs in June. Sure, free agency starts in early March, but what is a football fan to do for food porn? None of those things -- not even training camp at the end of July -- is worthy of special food preparation. Nor is the pre-season, really, since the games are not routinely on Sunday. We are looking at no food porn until September.

Or are we? We have a poll up. As a former professional cook, I have been known to try new recipes. I can continue the food porn feature through the off-season. The poll offers several options on that. Check it out, and make yourself heard.

Jamaica mon!

Welcome to I blog, Jamaica! The tropical island nation, located on the fifth-largest island in the Caribbean about 90 miles south of Cuba, has graced Eff You with a pair of visits. The home of Bob Marley, Jamaica is famous for music, tourism, really bad crime and serious, serious weed. Welcome!

More Donald Driver

Sorry, kids, but the more I look at this (belatedly, I admit, but I've been working a lot lately) the more I think this is special. The Packers only gave out 1,000 tickets to the retirement ceremony for Driver, and people went to great lengths to get them. The mayor of Green Bay came to give Donald a key to the city and let him know that a street would be named Donald Driver Way, and the governor of the state came to proclaim the day Donald Driver Day. With all the championships and all the champions that have been a part of this team, no one ever had this kind of celebration of their retirement. It wasn't an announcement, it was an event. The guy is the consummate Packer. Plus, the dude can dance.

How could this gig be more boring?

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Long hours and virtually no interaction among the temps do not make a good recipe for blog posts. I'm sure there is a lot of great temp behavior going on here, but people don't talk much (evil overlords) and the lack of internet means everybody is looking at shit on their iPhones (Droids, whatever) with their headphones on. Not much to comment on there. I'll try to find something relevant that is worth putting up here. Barring that, I'll try to find something irrelevant. What the fuck, right?

How to retire with class

Thank God the Ray Lewis retirement tour is over. Great player, no problem with his faith, but sweet baby jeebus I am tired of hearing about his last ride. Perhaps he should have paid attention to how Donald Driver ended his career after 14 years as a Packer. He could have played elsewhere next year, but he had promised years ago to always be a Packer, and so that's how he ended it. Then he did this:

I will miss Donald.

Super Bowl Food porn, delayed edition

So excuse the fuck out of me for being maybe too something to post last night after the Super Bowl. I had company, I was busy, it was a long day and there is a possibility that beer was involved, meaning by the time the day was over, it was freaking OVER and I didn't have the energy to post food porn. Don't like it, refer to the name of the blog.

In any event, apologies for some of the pictures. In cleaning up to prepare for our gameday company, Mrs. Wolves put my camera somewhere that it could not be found. Consequently, she took the food pictures with her much more expensive, far more sophisticated and capable camera. That's why the pictures are blurry. On the one hand, she got every picture on the first take. On the other hand, the first take was maybe not good. So here we go.

First up, we had French dip sandwiches:

There was au jus to go with these. Very popular. We also had meatballs with marinara sauce:

While I normally try to take pictures that leave out the kitchen detritus that goes along with the preparation of game food, Mrs. Wolves obviously feels no such inhibitions. In any event, we then went with shrimp. First, steamed, with cocktail sauce:

Then, stuffed:

We also had onion straws with the secret sauce:

Before the action started, we put out some tortilla chips and salsa. Of course, with the top still on the helmet, not way to tell what is inside, and you can't see the salsa inside the facemask, but hey:

Finally, we had what we always have, stuffed potato skins:

All in all, we were not unhappy with the result. I preferred a Ravens victory as opposed to a 49ers win, and we got a good game thanks to the power outage, which reversed the momentum enough to make this very interesting. Hope everybody enjoyed the game. We sure enjoyed the food!

I totally feel safe about my gun rights now

Because, hey, Barry shot skeet, right?

via Hot Air.

And he looks so comfortable. I guess that's because he "does skeet shooting" all the time. Right? Or maybe not.

News of President Obama's apparently long-secret fondness for skeet shooting came as a surprise to those who say they have witnessed the president's "awkward" attempts at pinging the (clay) pigeons.

This has only happened with the president at Camp David, at most, a couple of times, according to a source who says he has been to the retreat on a half-dozen visits with Obama.

"The only time he shot skeet was for President's Cup," said the source, referring to a shooting competition tradition involving the presidential Marine guards. "I was there. He stayed for about five minutes, and couldn't leave fast enough."

Skeet shooting "is very hard," said the source. "Especially for someone not used to guns ... He couldn't have been more uncomfortable."

The source said a friend of his recalled Obama skeet shooting one other time at Camp David -- very early on in his first term.

I don't know why he thinks that claiming to have fired a shotgun once or twice means we will think he believes in our Second Amendment rights. No one thinks he does. Some folks like that, some don't. But the fact of the matter is, he claims to respect our right to have weapons to hunt or shoot at targets or whatever, but refuses to acknowledge that the right to bear arms has nothing to do with those things. The founders of this nation recognized that we have the right to bear arms so that we can oppose tyranny.  "Consent of the governed" takes on a whole new meaning if the governed are armed. Progressives don't like that idea.

If a tree falls on you and you don't scream, does it make a noise?

I am told that Chris Matthews, who apparently has a show on MSNBC -- which, I am told, is a news network of some sort -- had some really odd things to say the other day about U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Now, mind you, I am not a big McCain fan. I think he is a squish on many important issues and wants to get along with Democrats (which means supporting their positions) rather than stand up for conservative principals. However, he has served his country honorably and well, in the military and in the Senate. Maybe the "well" applies more to his military service than his Senate service, but that is a matter of opinion and something into which we will not get at this time. (Eff me, did you see the correct grammatical construction that dude just used? Who says "into which" these days?)

In any event, Sen. McCain apparently took to task Chuck Hagel, the dipshit recently nominated to be Secretary of Defense. It apparently does not matter that Hagel can't articulate a coherent thought about defense policy (or anything else, from what I can see). The lamestream media declines to criticize him, although they acknowledge, apparently, that pretty much everybody thinks Hagel proved himself to be a moron at his Senate hearing the other day. (I am not providing links because this post deals mostly with my opinion, but also because some of the links are to places to which I refuse to link, and also because I am one seriously lazy sumbitch.)

So, Chris Matthews, who used to be a staffer for former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil, a Democrat from God knows where, apparently thought that Sen. McCain, because he was putting some pointed questions to Mr. Hagel at Hagel's Senate confirmation hearing, was having a "Vietnam flashback." Sen. McCain, of course, spent a number of years in a North Vietnamese prison camp after being shot down during the war and still suffers from injuries inflicted upon him there while he was tortured. Chris Matthews, of course, once had a really bad dream about being chased by monsters after he read "Where the Wild Things Are." Matthews still has flashbacks to that dream, and assumes that other people also have flashbacks to the worst moments in their lives.

It is not amazing to me that Chris Matthews said something extraordinarily stupid and simultaneously outrageously insulting to a Republican. What is amazing is that anyone was watching his show and that I heard about what he said. Imagine my surprise to learn that MSNBC is still on the air.

Super Bowl conundrum

The problem with the Super Bowl is that most football fans don't have a dog in the hunt. Most fans don't even have a grudge to bear against the teams in the big game. Thus the question is, for whom do we root? (Eff me, this guy has good grammar, the readers silently say to themselves. Since they can't really say it silently to anyone else. But I digress.)

How you answer this question reveals who you are. Fickle sack, or steadfast loyalist? Personally, I always root for the team from the NFC, even if I hate that team. When I became a football fan as a child, the Packers were winning everything and the American Football League was meaningless. When the two leagues merged and created the Super Bowl (which was not called that at first), I rooted for the Packers still, and they won the first two. It was nearly 30 years before I got to root for the Pack in a Super Bowl again, but I always rooted for the NFC to win the big game. I had to root for teams I hate upon occasion -- the Cowboys and Vikings come to mind -- but I did it.

But that came with a caveat. As an NFL fan, I decided I am allowed to root for teams that were in the NFL before the merger with the AFL, meaning that I was allowed to root for the Steelers, Browns and Colts. This came in handy in Super Bowl V, allowing me to root for the Colts against the Cowboys, and in XLI, allowing me to root for the Steelers against the Seahawks (who, after all, were an AFC expansion team before being moved to the NFC).

This weekend, it allows me to root for the Ravens, who used to be the Browns, against the 49ers. Since the 49ers beat the Packers in the playoffs this year, I want them to die. The fact that the Ravens have their roots in the old NFL lets me root that way Sunday. Go Ravens.