.
… Because at this event, “injuries” will be pretty much a given. Via Alicublog, the Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, TX has found a filler event for the post-Thanksgiving, pre-holiday lull:
Bullets & Bourbon
A special program about, and in exercise of, the Second Amendment – December 2-5, 2015Join Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit and one of America’s foremost Second Amendment Scholars, Dana Loesch, author of Hands off My Gun as well as Steve Green, Ed Morrissey, Mark (Rip) Rippetoe, Roger Simon, Helen Smith and Kevin Williamson for a weekend dedicated to the Second Amendment…
Because of a very low speaker to guest ratio (1:9), guests will have the opportunity to schmooze, eat, drink, ride ATVs, go zip lining, shoot model rockets, use the golf driving range, hunt and shoot with our speakers…
From looking at the site’s web page and various internet reviews, this seems to be an “upscale” gun-themed resort that caters to business conferences and wedding planners — lots of emphasis on their spa, petting zoo, pony rides, video game lounge, paintball, ‘wildlife tours’ in addition to the shootin’ and fishin’ stuff. So, for slightly less than $2K per person (not including spa, pony rides, etc.) proud ammosexuals who would rather pretend to be Dick Cheney than William F. Buckley will be able to bring the wife along on a more active, manly alternative to the annual National Review cruise…
The B&B organizers are careful to state that “with our speaker program, only upland bird, and perhaps duck will fit into our schedule”, which I assume means shotguns only. None of the large-bore weaponry fit for the Lodge’s Exotics – Axis Deer, Blackbuck Antelope, Fallow Deer, Corsican Rams, Black Hawaiian Rams; Trophy White-Tailed Deer and Wild Hogs (canned hunts, I’m guessing), so the organizers run less risk of a lawsuit when an overexcited participant accidentally blasts another paying guest. But I’m sure the stories will be epic, regardless.
***********
Apart from being duly grateful we’re not the B&B target market, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another week?
ThresherK
Playing around with my annuated car, trying to get the check-engine light to go off. While pulling off coils off cylinders (one per cylinder, which was the fashion at the time) trying to isolate which cylinder was not giving ignition, discovered the engine would run on two cylinders.
And all this time I’ve been pumping gas into four of ’em. Silly me.
OzarkHillbilly
How long before one of the guests mixing his bullets with bourbon mistakes the petting zoo as the starting point for the canned hunts?
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Un-possible, these are responsible gun owners.
raven
Joe just had a fucking stroke about Obama’s remarks about christian extremism at the bullshit breakfast yesterday.
Mustang Bobby
@ThresherK: Reminds me of the time I was driving with a friend and his “Check Engine” light came on. He pulled over, opened the hood, closed it, and got back in the car. “Yep, still there,” he said, and we drove on.
[rimshot]
Jeffrey Burr
The rich white man as victim parade continues: David Brooks compares his mean commenters to ISIS, compares himself to a victim of vicious terrorism for having to read them, and wraps it up with a “moral of the story” about not overreacting to terrorism. Or mean comments.
The fact that others at the NYT aren’t victims of terrorism must be because they’re on the terrorists’ side. Except for Ross Douthat. And Roger Cohen. Frank Bruni.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Well, Joe always said Cotton Mather got a bum rap.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: So we only have to worry if they drop their gun while taking off their coat? Or pooping on the toilet? Or cleaning it? Or showing it off? Or installing their cable TV? Or while shopping at Target? Or adinfinitim….
Another Holocene Human
@Jeffrey Burr: What happened to his course on humility?
Jeffrey Burr
@Another Holocene Human: He gave himself an “F”, I can only imagine. As the humble thing to do, which by coincidence was also accurate.
Jeffrey Burr
I had a czech engine once. It was okay, though finding the right viscosity of beer to top it up with was sometimes tricky.
ThresherK
Aliculbog pointed out that the fishing is “catch and release”, and says that Real men and their ladies’ auxiliary catch those suckers and stare them down as they thrash out their last breaths!
Now, I’m a East Coast Elite who didn’t even know what a canned hunt was until I saw Hank Hill disgusted by one on “King of the Hill”. (I miss that fictional man.)
But if you put yourself in the position of a fish, how benign is “catch and release” actually? Isn’t just offing the dang thing easier on it?
(I don’t know if I’m asking this question seriously or just for laffs. I may figure that out when I wake up some more.)
PurpleGirl
I get tempted to read David Brooks, then I think about my blood pressure and decide to forgo the agony. All the pills in the world couldn’t bring it back down if I did read Brooks. I salute those who can read Brooks and report back to us what his latest stupidity is about.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffrey Burr: Note the neo-con hand-wave about the true mission in the Middle East:
Brooks is still in the “civilizin’ the A-rab” bidness.
Mustang Bobby
@PurpleGirl: Then I would suggest avoiding the first twenty minutes of NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Fridays. Mr. Brooks and E.J. Dionne team up as their “regular Friday political commentators” where DB regurgitates his Friday column. The only saving grace is that on occasion E.J. politely tells him he’s full of shit. This is a warm-up for his appearance on PBS two hours later with Mark Shields.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
I’m never surprised that I want to punch Our Mr. Brooks but most weeks I’d gladly add a swift kick to the crotch for E.J. He is way too lenient with Brooks and is only a liberal by NPR standards. Some Friday they are gonna cause us to have an accident as I yell at the radio.
WereBear
@raven: Yes, proof of concept: President Obama is going to use his last two years to stroke out the cardiovascularly vulnerable among the Republicans.
Mustang Bobby
@Schlemazel: That’s true; I once got some strange looks on US 1 while driving home on a Friday when I yelled “What the F*CK!?” at the radio, forgetting that I had the top down in stop-and-go traffic.
gogol's wife
@Jeffrey Burr:
That’s some wicked Hoekstroika he’s got going on there!
CS insulted me on BJ, it was just like getting my head cut off slowly or being burned alive in a cage.
gogol's wife
@Schlemazel:
I just told my husband your witticism, and he said, “Were it that he were as witty as Eve Arden.”
Baud
@WereBear:
Sometimes, I wish Obama weren’t married so he could spend these last two years dating a litany of young white women.
The reaction would be so awesome, I’d start watching TV news shows again.
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
I’d love to take Diones place just one Friday. “That is bullshit Mr. Brooks and you know it.” would certainly get said at least once.
I understand these koffee-klatch minuets are not supposed to be confrontational but there should be a limit as to tonnage of BS shoveled before it is commented on.
Schlemazel
@gogol’s wife:
I knew there would be someone here old enough to catch that reference – thanks you, made my day (it does not take much, sadly!)
Steeplejack
It’s 10° here in NoVa this morning. ¡Caramba! It was weird to see the temperature gradually go down all day yesterday, sunshine be damned. Supposed to get up to 41° today, which is more normal.
I talked to an old friend for the first time in about 15 years last night. I thought it would be weird—mutual friend gave him my number and told me he might call—but it was all right. Not quite “We picked right up where we left off!” but nowhere near “I’m going to kill X for giving him my number.” He’s going to be in Washington in late April, so we’re going to get together for dinner or something.
debbie
I was listening to a call-in show on my local NPR station yesterday. The subject was measles. A caller stated he was against the vaccine because it was made with aborted human fetuses and it went against his religious freedom. The head of a medical center tried to explain that the vaccine was grown with material from chicken eggs, but he would have none of it. There was another doctor representing some sham organization, and she insisted there was no firm evidence showing human fetuses weren’t used.
How do you argue with these people?
Schlemazel
@debbie:
There is a comment in the next thread suggesting that education with facts could overcome the stupid in the healthcare debate. AS IF. There really is no winning with this sort of stupidity. Disagreement simply means you are in the pocket or duped by big pharma.
If that really was a doctor saying human fetuses are used he or she should be hunted down like the mad dog they are. Those people are responsible for deaths & that should not go unpunished.
Elizabelle
@PurpleGirl: The trick is, skip the Bobo column and click straight on “readers comments” and arrange those by “Readers Picks.”
It is there you will find sanity in a David Brooks column. Many readers are gentle, attempting to set the good columnist correct. Some are not.
I think I read 1, at most 2, actual David Brooks columns each year, and my blood pressure is quite the better for it.
Shame on the NYTimes for giving Brooks (and lesser Brooks, Douthat) columns.
Steve Gravelle
Uh, you Googled ‘Rough Creek Lodge’ and missed this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11391661/Texas-murder-trial-picks-up-the-story-where-American-Sniper-left-off.html
Jamey
“[Glenn Reynolds]… one of America’s foremost Second Amendment Scholars.” Sadly, they’re correct in this assumption.
WereBear
@Elizabelle: I have never, ever, read a Brooks column, nor do I envision myself doing so in the future. Like dealing with a Gorgon, I only read the reflection of his columns in places like BJ.
danielx
Whiskey and firearms, always a winning combination.
I have to go back to the same client’s house where I discovered black mold (type, undefined) day before yesterday. The customer did not see fit to perform even the minimum essential maintenance on the house for what I guess to be five years or thereabouts, leading to such minor problems as windowsills rotting out to the point where you can see fiberglass insulation showing. Naturally this permits moisture to enter wall cavities and do what it does. Nonetheless, the homeowner decided a year ago to embark on kitchen remodeling – new cabinets, tile, countertops…the original contractor booked mid-job, which from what I can tell is no great loss. Evidently this person had never heard of this fancy new device called a ‘carpenter’s level’, which allows one to do such things as making sure that cabinets are hung straight and so forth. Of course all this sort of begs the question as to why the customer elected to remodel the fucking kitchen while the house is crumbling, but it’s not polite to ask “what the fuck were you thinking” of the person who’s paying you.
The homeowner’s stepdaughter and her daughter are the ones actually living in this place. As I was showing her this area where I’d peeled back the wall to fix a crack and the subsequent discovery of black crud, she mentioned that her daughter has had asthma for a while, but this winter she’s just had a hell of a time (“she’s had the flu three times!”), been in the hospital, etc, and did I think the health issues could be related to the mold. Entirely aside from the fact that one generally doesn’t get the flu three times…I said, well, lacking mold testing and not being a medical professional, I couldn’t say for sure, but it does sound indicative.
I really don’t even want to go back in the place, given the horror stories I’ve heard and read about where after testing for mold the testing company calls back and tells the residents to leave the home immediately in what they’re wearing, don’t stop to pack a suitcase – just leave, and right the fuck now. However, needs must….
Elizabelle
@Steve Gravelle: I wonder if they use Chris Kyle, informally via word of mouth, to market this ammosexual outing. Stand where Chris Kyle drew his last breath.
From your link:
Elizabelle
@WereBear: And you and I both are happier for not reading Brooks, no? Better to catch some truly good movies. Reward one’s time better.
I saw “Frozen River” on cable first time this week. Incredibly good. Melissa Leo and the late Missy Upham; bleak snowscape near the upstate NY Mohawk reservation. Writer-director is Courtney Hunt; she made this movie for very little money, but it’s just perfect.
Also caught last half of “Bonnie and Clyde” on TCM yesterday afternoon. Wish I’d tuned in earlier. The banjo soundtrack stays with me this morning.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: That’s a good point. You have a doctor saying something patently false on TV. Putting other doctors in a bad light and putting those who would benefit from vaccines at risk.
File a complaint. Go after the lying doctor’s medical license.
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
Did you see Counsellor at Law the other night? Talk about a forgotten gem! Fantastic performance by John Barrymore and fantastic direction by William Wyler. Incredible set.
Bobby Thomson
Shouldn’t they be plugging a high speaker to guest ratio?
Morzer
http://wonkette.com/575109/vermont-proposes-official-latin-motto-wingnuts-tell-vermont-to-go-back-to-mexico
Some of the wingnut comments are unintentionally laugh out loud and roll on the floor clutching your sides funny. And then the Children of DougJ arrive to add their ten hundredths of the national currency unit. (Foreign terms like cent and dollar obviously being right out).
Morzer
One more masterful piece of trolling:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/05/coca-cola-makeithappy-gakwer-mein-coke-hitler
Mr. Longform
I’d advise the menfolk attending to read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” beforehand….
Gin & Tonic
Bullets & Bourbon, maybe not so much, but a couple of years back I went to a Bourbon & Bacon dinner. Better B&B combo, IMO. We all now know how unreliable memory is, but I’ll swear I had a great time.
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife: No, but thanks for the recc. Will look for its next broadcast.
TCM, El Rey (Robert Rodriguez’s cool new channel), Law & Order reruns, and a few midlevel movie channels (IndiePlex, Encore, Sundance, IFC) are the only reason I still pay for cable. They make it worth it. Oh, and BBC Worldnews in the mornings.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: I think this ammosexual gathering could also be called “Bilge and Babble.”
Rooting for injuries.
Bourbon and Bacon: can’t you see that in a donut or cupcake too? Or premium ice cream? Yum.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
I just recently discovered El Rey. Some nice stuff on there, although I have been appalled to realize how many of the awful kung fu movies I remember seeing in the theater when they first came out. WTF? Apparently I had an early, undiagnosed case of Tarantino Syndrome.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: Things don’t always work as you intend, though. Exhibit #1 – the worst beer ever made by professional brewers.
debbie
@Schlemazel:
Your post got me to Google for this physician and her group (Association of American Physicians and Surgeons). They’re out of Arizona (dead giveaway). The organization’s Executive Director, Jane Orient, was the spokesperson.
They’re very anti-AMA and just about everything else.
http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/about_us/
WereBear
@Morzer: After what happened to Bill Cosby, you’d think they’d be more careful.
But, you know, that would require foresight, and people get fired for that.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Is it a joke that it comes in a Pepto Bismol solid pink bottle? Almost looks like a gag product.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
I knew I liked you!
Not into the Kung Fu movies, aside from watching a little bit to see the scenery and sets. And how they inspired other filmmakers.
What’s been interesting to me is the dubbing. Sounds like the Kung Fu movies and the spaghetti westerns have the same male voiceover, reading — not acting — in some recording booth somewhere.
Recent Texas, Addio movie with Franco Nero from the 60s — visually beautiful, and wonderful, wonderful score. One of the best. And then the supporting characters open their mouths.
If there’s a Spaghetti Western soundtrack channel out there, sign me up. Who knew “Duck You Sucker” [aka A Fistful of Dynamite] ** would be so aurally gorgeous?
** not shown on El Rey yet, to my knowledge. In heavy rotation on Retroplex and Encore Westerns, though.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
I keep waiting for They Call Me Trinity and Trinity Is Still My Name! with Terence Hill. I haven’t seen those since they first came out (1970-71). I remember them as being very funny. Wonder if they hold up. I think of them every time I catch a glimpse of the wretchedly saccharine Don Matteo on MHz.
LOL. I just checked IMDB, and Terence Hill was born Mario Girotti in Venice. Apparently he was forced to change his name by producers who had hired him to be in Western movies because he looked like Franco Nero, who was unavailable.
ETA: Duck, You Sucker coming on in half an hour on EWest. Also tomorrow at 1:30 a.m. EST.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Franco Nero is so handsome. Looking like him — how awful could that be?
Recorded Dario Argento’s Opera and some of the giallo movies from a few weeks back. Will have to check them out.
I like Tarantino’s violence, because he’s good with the timing and comic relief, the murders are sometimes funny (the Wolf’s clean up job), and it’s stylistic. (Did find the final shootout in Django Unchained boring; would have cut a few minutes there, but it was probably a homage …)
Not sure how they handled it with giallo. Might be way bloody without comic relief …
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Duck is, in parts, really great. It’s too long, but some very memorable scenes, and it gets you interested in the early 20th century social injustice that spawned the violence.
James Coburn rocks. I didn’t recognize Rod Steiger at first. The Irish scenes don’t hold up as well, but they’re very 1960s style.
Too many bullets, but that soundtrack …
John John John …. (or whatever they’re singing…)
WereBear
@Elizabelle: What I do love about the Kung Fu movies is the underlying structure of the genre conventions. It’s like Noh only slumming.
And the totally unexpected and hilarious. An early Jackie Chan picture featured the villain letting a blanket slip, exposing his nipples. The subtitled exclamation of “Ah! I see you are Japanese!” practically had us on the floor, and is now what Mr WereBear and I say whenever we see nipples in any movie.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@Mr. Longform:
I just read a synopsis of that story. Hemingway would come up with something like this (not a huge fan of his stuff, and I haven’t read much of him; in my high school literature class, we studied “Big Two Hearted River”). Macomber’s wife sounds a bit like Sarah Palin.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Great Japanese quip. LOL.
Haven’t given Kung Fu movies an honest try; did record “Films of Fury” — documentary on the genre — and mean to start working my way through some of the best.
Have “Duck” on in background, and watched its opening 20 mins or so, but got some stuff to do.
That eating scene is so memorable. And the horses and countryside …
vheidi
@Elizabelle: a friend’s wife’s new Brooklyn venture: Butter & Scotch
I’d link, but I’m dumber than my smartphone
Elizabelle
@vheidi: Your friend has a concept.
And I give you credit for even posting from a smartphone. That Richard composed his excellent post above (on Baton Rouge area hospital closing) on a phone. That’s persistence!