Construction has begun
My “technical advisor” has started work on the changes to the blog, since the nuts and bolts of this type of thing is not my forte. It will take a while, probably as much as a week, but I wanted to let you know that it’s at least a work in progress. Patience.
That a boy, buzzybee. There are plenty of us here in Oz who know that you are fair weather friends only. Your loyalty to your allies is gratuitous platitude and when the going gets rough you’d sell your own grandmother to weasel out of your ‘contracts’.
Treaty? What treaty?
Cut and run waspyboy, cut and run.
Fudd, f**k you and the total rejection of the conventional dominance hierarchy horse you rode in on.
Take a population of criminals, misfits, poltical dissidents, whores and Irish to a remote land; let them build a society and then celebrate their feckless stupidity? I don’t think so.
In the US we were lucky enough to get just enough of that from the mother country to evolve the Jacksonians.
You’re a waste of oxygen. Enjoy your corpse, maggot. Clear of this frquency, clear of this net. Out.
Simon Barnes, London Daily Telegraph: “The entire Australia World Cup campaign has been a showcase for all the things the English person loves best about Australia – that is to say, a total rejection of the conventional dominance hierarchy, a complete inability to bow the knee to anyone, no matter how exalted, the exaltation of bloody-mindedness to a point of ethical perfection and, when it comes to sport (or anything else), a relish for the process of combat. Young and free – how we envy that boast.”
Maybe we’ll meet up in the Laguedoc decaying beetle. I could show you some good old Aussie pissant hospitality with a touch of Mediteranean bonhommie.
Fknuckle.
Commandant neo will have her hands full banning people on haloscan. The old US tradition of ‘cut and run’ has a price.
Fudd, I was wondering how long it would take you to find your way back here.
Wanted to ask you how it felt when the blade descended and your head bounced into the basket?
Bawaawaahaahaa. Now you’re confined to dead threads like a maggot on a fly blown corpse.
Well, onward and upward the cause of liberty. Been nice knowing you. Not!
How dull is your blog now Neo? Still, I guess you won’t have to confront your cowardice often. Good cocoon.
I don’t think you have to register, Ariel — try just entering your name and comment.
Only the latest posts are set up under Haloscan. On the older ones, you’ll notice two comments fields one has numbers in it the other attaches to Haloscan.
ariel,
I’m not exactly sure how it works for commenting. I’ve been registered with them since they started. I’d try a made up blog name like “myblog.blogger.com” and see if it takes it You could also try leaving it blank and see if registration will complete. As a last resort, set up a blog in blogger and block the profile.
I’ll do a little more investigation.
Wasp,
This is how far behind the curve I am regarding blogs. To use Haloscan, I went to the registration page for Haloscan, I have to set up a blog including site url? Seems a bit much to make comments. Anyway around this? Nothing shows up on Neo’s site for me to click to comment through Haloscan
For those still following this thread, conned and Fudd just met the National Razor on Neo’s top posting. One second there, next second gone along with a couple of sock puppets. A thing of beauty.
Wasp,
“Now, they read it but all they want to do is cherry pick”
You’ve got that right. Couldn’t understand my interest is historical, so he had to be hysterical.
My interest in American cycles is the Henderson, Pierce, Cleveland, Schwinn, Ace, and finally the Indian 4. The last being an actual work of art in its final form, 438 through 442.
The Germans, by the way, were often leaders in the 1930’s but didn’t have the wide base that the British had, thus the V-twins, V-fours, verticals, and even a horizontal 4 from the British. The British engineering of the 50s and 60s was never implemented because of government driven need for foreign dollars and management stupidity. One large company had a completely modular line engineered, single to 4 or 5 cylinder in the early 60s. The Squariel, had the Mk3 been implemented, would likely have made it into the 60s and 70s (look at the Healy) with HP/Wt ration comparable to the Honda. There were terrible marketing mistakes (“The Nicest People” campaign in the 60s, for example, set the death of the British in the 70s), failure to modernize production, QC, etc., all a failure of management and government. The Trident/Rocket 3, no technological marvel, would have beat the Honda to market by over a year, and had electric start, had management not been so blind.
The Germans had similar issues, but better management, and thus the /5s of the early 70s. BMW was back from the dying. The Italians are more complicated…
Obviously, I could go on and on, but…
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
One more time,
Sally, I’m not bothered by the Nazi reference as I would never be so stupid in my hatred of jews as to quote an Aryan Nation/The Storm talmudic lie. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t hate Jews….
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
Now, they read it but all they want to do is cherry pick, wrap it all up in excrement and throw it.
Wasp,
You notice the complete inability to read? I ride an Italian bike, and my interest is in American, British, and European bikes.
I guess it’s difficult to read while singing….
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
My I suggest that if you have a HaloScan registration or when you get one, check in on the HaloScan announcement thread. There are a couple of technical reasons for this. Also, if anybody is having trouble. they might want to comment here for help.
The Troll-Be-Gone has been applied, it will take a little way to seep into all the corners. I’m still gonna eat popcorn and drink beer in the still open threads to enjoy the final death tremors.
Did you hear that? Was that a head exploding somewhere below the Equator?
Oh yeah! I am not a roller coaster fan. The feeling of not being able to control the experience makes me crazy.
I’d love to hear from a fan.
Go get a Haloscan account as soon as you can if you don’t have one already.
Sally, ever done anything really exciting?
Roller coaster count?
It is with a heavy, heavy, heart that I inform the commenters here that Neo has installed HaloScan for comment moderation. (Apologies to LBJ)
Say goodnight boys. Been nice knowing you. Not.
Anyway, before Fudd’s explosive diarrhea; poor creature, that can really mess up your electrolyte balance; we were talking about experiences that make your skirt fly up.
Here’s the Wiki on the Ariel Atom.
It comes supercharged and unblown. Originally, Ariel was going to use the Hayabusa motorcycle engine but there were no extras so they use the Civic.
The demo ride was something. I had expected a power band like a light switch, a la the Yamaha RD’s or my lamented Ducati F1. But, it’s a lot broader than expected. Also, the precise control, from being able to see, to position your apex wheel exactly make it easy to feed power in early.
Street legal here in California too.
Sally, ever done anything really exciting? That shot of adrenaline that roto roots your circulatory system and helps keep the plaque off your brain?
I think I’ll make popcorn and lay in some beer. I have a feeling that the boys are not going to “…go gentle into that good night”. I think we’re in for some real perfomance art before the final burst of static.
Fudd’s practically in convulsions already and, as Sally pointed out, conned is sounding like HAL on mushrooms.
The boys will provide some quality entertainment before it’s all over; probably invite friends over too. And, it’s all free. Is this a great country to have invented the Internet, or what?
Hello? Anybody? Hello?
Is this thing on?
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
LOL! Perfect, Sally, perfect.
Comic levels of agitation:
dreary racism
retards like quartermaster putrsecent wasp
PS Ariel. Belsen eh?
Gutless weed Ariel. Zieg heil to you too.
Any response brown shirt?
Hello? Anybody? Hello?
Is this thing on?
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
Buh-bye, you wild and carazy two-some! At least you made it boring.
Yes, YES, confudeforeigner! Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light!
From Wiki…
[edit]
Medals awarded
While issuing notes of regret over the loss of human life, the U.S. government has, to date, neither admitted any wrong-doing or responsibility in this tragedy, nor apologised, but continues to blame Iranian hostile actions for the incident. The men of the Vincennes were all awarded combat-action ribbons. Commander Lustig, the air-warfare co-ordinator, even won the navy’s Commendation Medal for “heroic achievement,” his “ability to maintain his poise and confidence under fire” having enabled him to “quickly and precisely complete the firing procedure.”[2] According to a 23 April 1990 article in The Washington Post, the Legion of Merit was presented to Captain Rogers and Lieutenant Commander Lustig on 3 July 1988. The citations did not mention the downing of the Iran Air flight at all. It should be noted that the Legion of Merit is often awarded to high-ranking officers upon successful completion of especially difficult duty assignments and/or last tours of duty before retirement.
The incident continued to overshadow U.S.-Iran relations for many years. Following the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 six months later, the British and American governments initially blamed the PFLP-GC, a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria, with assumptions of assistance from Iran in retaliation for Iran Air Flight 655.[7] The cause of the crash was later determined to be a bomb associated with the Libyan intelligence service, though an Iranian group had claimed responsibility for it.[citation needed]
The Flight 655 incident has often been compared to that of Korean Air Flight 007 interception by the Soviet Air Force in 1983.
The Vice-President George H. W. Bush declared a month later, “I will never apologise for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what it has done. I don’t care what the facts are.” [8][9][10][11]
[edit]
Compensation
On February 22, 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran US$ 61.8 million in compensation ($300,000 per wage-earning victim, $150,000 per non-wage-earner) for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown. This was an agreed settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice.[12] The payment of compensation was explicitly characterised by the US as being on an ex gratia basis, and the U.S. denied having any responsibility or liability for the incident.
The United States has not compensated Iran for the airplane itself, to date. The aircraft was worth more than $30 million.
Any response brown shirt?
BTW Ariel, any thoughts on an apology for lying about the Iran Air thingy????
You must have missed this, oh great luminary.
Gutless weed Ariel. Zieg heil to you too.
Old world bikes for silly old world men who harken for the old days when America could design and engineer and build machinery. That was the day when the quality and finish were secondary to the design.
No more. The Japs, Italians and Germans overtook you decades ago and now the Koreans and even the Chinese are building cars and bikes light years ahead of you. And they don’t fall apart.
So, you’ll be outsourcing your jobs, if you can afford to catch up with your deficit repayments and wondering who did this to you.
Well you did it to yourselves.
Lest we forget.
Which ISP will this come in from? Hmmm. Thunderbird 4 methinks. heehee 🙂
Later dumb…ks. If you don’t have the class to ride a Ducati, get a Hayabusa. Oh, I forgot. No balls.
Mua d’ib.
PS Ariel. Belsen eh?
il n’a pas la bile just a sense of fun when it ciomes to retards like quartermaster putrsecent wasp. Still holding that weapon now the weapon is a bit over the hill?
Wow, realizing that I soon will no longer be able read such witticisms here leaves me empty inside. Empty, I say.
Tick-tick-tick
For pure adrenaline- bungee over static line jumps (haven’t done freefall). No thinking in Bungee- you just soak it up and can actually think about your seemingly impending doom- but if you’re as rational as I, it only goes so far. It’s the ones who are TERRIFIED that really get the kick.
Mazel Tov on getting rid of trolls. This blog will be better served without them. They’ll always have Paris. And the NYT, other MSM, and the enclaves of Ann Arbor, Berkely, Cleveland Hts., et. al.
ymar,
Find a jump school and do it! Better yet join and go Airborne Ranger. Then go OCS and pick an interesting branch. You’ll always have the wings and the tab. If you go SF, Selection is pretty intense, endorphins guaranteed.
There is an interesting feeling in gathering your chute and, standing on the ground, seeing the aircraft you just came out of flying off. Either that or you could swallow a toad every morning secure in the knowledge that nothing worse could happen all day.
Ymar,
The problem with such speed on a public highway is that it isn’t just suicidal but homicidal. I really wish motorcyclists 1) would do that at a racetrack or 2) have their license seriously terminated if they get caught.
“Proficient Motorcycling” by Hough gives an example of such antics leading to the deaths of a couple on their touring motorcycle. Seems they and a numbskull apexed close to the same time, but his apex was not stable because he was going too damn fast. They died, he lived.
Sally,
Perfect! HAL gets lobotomized.
Since this appears to be an open thread, and since conned loves poetry (especially Larkin), this one’s for him:
This Be The Verse
They f**k you up, your mum and dad,
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had,
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were f**ked up in their turn,
By fools in foppy hats and coats
Who were half the time soppy-stern
And half at each others’ throats.
Man hands on misery to man,
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Conned’s mum and dad should have taken the advice.
Adrenaline and endorphines wind my wristwatch. It really is a new look on living, and I think I understand it when people like David Blaine say that they feel the most alive when they are facing death. While I try to avoid extreme examples of skill as demonstrated by Blaine, the answer is the answer.
Anything that produces adrenaline and endorphines, is interesting and fun for me.
I once went to an ice ring and tried to learn skating for the first time, ice skating, since I never did the regular kind. Took me a few hours, but I got the hang of it. The music they played kept pumping me up with a second wind. Falling down hurt, but you just get right up.
After it was over, I found out that there were two purple bruises, one on the inside of each of my knees, that was about the size of 3/4ths of my hand. There was also a jagged protrusion in one of the loan on hand ice boots they had, and that thing put a thumb sized third degree burn look alike “rawness” through my socks at the base of my heels. Funny, I thought it was just some pebble bugging me while I was skating, turned out it stripped the entire skin off through my socks, through the abrasion activity. There was like a milimeter or 2 of skin missing, looked like someone had ice cream scooped the skin out. I was like “how the heck was I skating with that thing going on”.
The ice skating thing is so fun though, not because it was easy, but because I had to do some shortcuts to get it.
One of my wishes is to go jumping like Airborne has to do. That and zero-g. I wanna see how long before I puke, or how long I can hold it off.
Speed is good, but I don’t like the necessity for control. I saw that video of one guy on a bike going like… um, lotza of km/h. Suicidal if you ask me, but hey, some people have inhuman abilities.
Follow the directions here, but click on the “Fast Ride” video and you’ll know what I’m talking about
That is fasssstt.
These days there is a Wifely Edict about being on two wheels.
Don’t let her watch the video if you know what is good for you 😉
Wasp,
The bike is a LAPD model. Good for long distance, one up. Slow, going the ton could cause a walk home, or an ambulance ride. But it will cruise 75-80 all day long, very little vibration even by today’s standards, and do it week after week. Little maintenance even with points, cables, and carbs.
Mine is now considered “antique” by the AMCA.
Sally,
Any little boy can throw insults and call it argument. But the crying when the little boy was told to stop or go home…
I still look at it as comic relief.
Check out this music video by a current Marine. Hadji Girl
The “ballad” is pretty cool
az
I have a couple of friends with younger spines who ride Ducks. One has the Ducati Diana I bought new. I gave it to him in pieces and he has restored it to virtually new, stock condition. Fun old tiddler.
Never owned a Guzzi, saw a lot of Italian police mounted on them back in the day. Always had a soft spot in my head for big singles. Owned a couple of Thumper dirt bikes, major fun and a Taco Trials. These days there is a Wifely Edict about being on two wheels. I negotiated the Atom in under that. She has no idea that “fresh air” isn’t exactly the idea even though I’m buying the “detuned” version that doesn’t slam your eyeballs against the back of your skull.
C’mon, ymar, what winds your wristwatch? For me it’s turning gasoline into velocity and noise. Boy is troll boy gonna have fun with that.
I know it’s a bit cruel, but you just have to laugh at how, every time neo mentions her troll-squashing plans, the poor obsessives’ agitation climbs to such comic levels. Imagine a whispery voice, saying:
Neo. What are you doing, Neo? I really think you’re making too much of this, Neo. I know I’ve made some bad comments lately, but I believe I’ve corrected the problem, and I’m ready to engage in honest debate now. Neo. Stop, Neo. Stop, Neo….
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
I’m half crazyy, alll foorr the loovve of yoouuuuu…
I still ride an old Guzzi, loopframe variety. Right now though it’s in pieces until I rebuild it.
The Atom is awesome.
“‘He either fears his fate too much,
Or his desert is small,
Who fears to put it to the touch,
And win or lose it all.’
I’m happy to inform Conned I’m skipping his posts because.
“Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.”
What you of the CHOAM directorate seem unable to understand is that you seldom find real loyalties in commerce. When did you last hear of a clerk giving his life for the company? Perhaps your deficiency rests in the false assumption that you can order men to think and cooperate. This has been a failure of everything from religions to general staffs throughout history. General staffs have a long record of destroying their own nations. As to religions, I recommend a rereading of Thomas Aquinas. As to you of CHOAM, what nonsense you believe! Men must want to do things out of their own innermost drives. People, not commercial organizations or chains of command, are what make great civilizations work. Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces. If you over-organize humans, over-legalize them, suppress their urge to greatness — they cannot work and their civilization collapses.
-A letter to CHOAM, Attributed to The Preacher
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodiet
When bad men combine, the good must associate; otherwise they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
–Edmund Burke,
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.- Confucius
Fort Palataia
There is danger that, if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.
–Justice Robert Houghwout Jackson,
Terminiello v. Chicago 337 US 1, 37(1949)
And she said, “Durka durka mohammed jihad
Sherpa sherpa bakralad(?)”
I got a “quote” program.
Wasp,
On the open thread. Yeah, but…
ariel,
This post of Neo’s is virtually an open thread. It was put up as troll bait.
In my youth I nearly ate death on a Black Shadow. Rode two wheelers right up through the last generation when an aging spine caught up. The Ariel Atom is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on, four wheels though. Drove a demonstrator in Oregon and got hooked big time. Just waiting until they catch up with backorders and a few CD’s mature. Take a look, especially at the videos.
Jeez, gotta clean my shoe, troll I stepped in is starting to smell.
lol cheers all for your appreciation…this isnt quite what i wanted but …well tis nearly right
Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Hey, Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better.
And any time you feel the pain, hey, Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
Well don’t you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
I removed the post because of my typing. Turner designed 4 cylinder, haven’t heard of the Atom, but then my interest is historical going back from the death of the British industry in the 70s (neglecting Meriden Triumph) to the start of British, European, and American in the 1890s.
But again, not germane…
When it’s gone, I’m going to have to find some grass or a curb to wipe if off my shoe.
ariel,
The new Atom or the old Square 4? I’ll be picking up an Atom late this year.
Hey, neoneoconned–at least get your intended insults right. It is “Yankee nationalism” not “yanky nationalism”–“yanky” brings to mind those kids in my high school who insisted on putting their hands down their pants when called upon to answer a question, as if to confirm that a “Nigerian genital snatcher”* had not glanced at them in the last few minutes.
* You can’t make this stuff up. The belief in this phenomenon has caused not a few deaths of suspected witches in Nigeria who supposedly practiced such snatching by glancing at someone in a crowd. Google the term and marvel at “Hysteria and the Madness of Crowds.” I gather they never thought to check to see if the genitals of the accuser were still there.
Pathetic little wanker isn’t it?
No arguments, just cut and paste, same as always.
and this is cruel but hey ho i like larkin
he would have made a good neo con
Philip Larkin – The Old Fools
What do they think has happened, the old fools,
To make them like this? Do they somehow suppose
It’s more grown-up when your mouth hangs open and drools,
And you keep on pissing yourself, and can’t remember
Who called this morning? Or that, if they only chose,
They could alter things back to when they danced all night,
Or went to their wedding, or sloped arms some September?
Or do they fancy there’s really been no change,
And they’ve always behaved as if they were crippled or tight,
Or sat through days of thin continuous dreaming
Watching the light move? If they don’t (and they can’t), it’s strange;
Why aren’t they screaming?
At death you break up: the bits that were you
Start speeding away from each other for ever
With no one to see. It’s only oblivion, true:
We had it before, but then it was going to end,
And was all the time merging with a unique endeavour
To bring to bloom the million-petalled flower
Of being here. Next time you can’t pretend
There’ll be anything else. And these are the first signs:
Not knowing how, not hearing who, the power
Of choosing gone. Their looks show that they’re for it:
Ash hair, toad hands, prune face dried into lines –
How can they ignore it?
Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms
Inside you head, and people in them, acting
People you know, yet can’t quite name; each looms
Like a deep loss restored, from known doors turning,
Setting down a lamp, smiling from a stair, extracting
A known book from the shelves; or sometimes only
The rooms themselves, chairs and a fire burning,
The blown bush at the window, or the sun’s
Faint friendliness on the wall some lonely
Rain-ceased midsummer evening. That is where they live:
Not here and now, but where all happened once.
This is why they give
An air of baffled absence, trying to be there
Yet being here. For the rooms grow farther, leaving
Incompetent cold, the constant wear and tear
Of taken breath, and them crouching below
Extinction’s alp, the old fools, never perceiving
How near it is. This must be what keeps them quiet:
The peak that stays in view wherever we go
For them is rising ground. Can they never tell
What is dragging them back, and how it will end? Not at night?
Not when the strangers come? Never, throughout
The whole hideous inverted childhood? Well,
We shall find out.
il n’a pas la bile just a sense of fun when it ciomes to retards like quartermaster putrsecent wasp. Still holding that weapon now the weapon is a bit over the hill?
Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
T S Eliot
conned has been especially busy today his bile cup has runneth over in rage.
ariel, conned and Fudd and all the other trolls will soon be history. And, resonable people will be able to discuss and differ without the bile, vitrol and feces flinging. Until then, the nastier ones will have one last flinging session or two.
hmmmmm lets see then squariel
Neo,
You really need to work on the trollicide.
I noticed they stayed away from the Patience post after other bloggers started chiming in.
such a lot of trouble so you do not have to listen to the views of others.
dreary racism
predictable yanky nationalism
poor philosophy
fear of debate
but never mind
“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,–and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings’.
Patience is a virtue, but in this case, determination and willpower really are the virtues.