Happy 2005, y'all.

You too Muskwa.

Or as Eddie Murphy said in Coming to America.........Merry New Year!

Big-box outdoors store plans Twin Cities assault

The Wal-mart of outdoors stores will plop down with a resounding thud in Rogers.

It's a good ways out of town. Maybe the local fly fishing shops will survive. I even like the one in St. Paul.I've gotten to know the people at all of them. Fly fishing is so small-time here it's hardly worth the bother of the larger fishing stores. But the Cabela's in Owatonna has a large selection.

[Edited 5 times. Most recently by on Jan 9, 2005 at 08:38am.]

Assault?

And battery.

I don't think it will hurt smaller shops.

I look at the local hardware store as a good example. They've adapted and are doing well. They do it by offering service. I walk in and 6 people are asking if I need help. You have to send a flare up in a Home Depot to get help but that's the trade off. Less service lower prices vs. higher prices vs. service. I can get in and out of the local hardware store in about 2 minutes. Home Depot kills an hour minimum it seems. Same with the gorcery store. We still have a local grocery store who has higher prices yet they'll bag your groceries, actually say hi and carry it to your car. I'll shop there too because of the service and I can get in and out without making a day of it. I'd rather give them the business and go there when I can. Yea I'll still go to Home Depot and Cub but there's a place for the smaller and independent shops and if they adapt they can do quite nicely.

I don't think Cabellas will kill the smaller places. It's way the hell up in Rogers, same with the Owatonna one, if it's 2 days before opener and you need stuff you probably won't have the time to go there you'll go where you always do. I've ordered stuff from Cabellas I couldn't get elsewhere before through their catalog. But I think their stuff is overpriced IMHO.

But I think their stuff is overpriced IMHO.

They gotta pay for all those stuffed animals somehow

I'll goto Cabellas just to look around (being that I'm in Maple Grove) But I'll still bargin shop elseware before I drop tons of money at that store.

[Edited by on Jan 10, 2005 at 12:59pm.]

I picked up three pairs of Cabella's camouflage jeans at Goodwill this fall for my son to make bean bags out of....99 cents a pair.  Wonder what those things sold for new??

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Jan 10, 2005 at 01:26pm.]

The gun gallery is very cool I love all the hand engraving.

I had an uncle who was a gunsmith and he carved custom stocks.  Very cool.  Wish I had gotten one when he died. The nephews got them :(

That would be a fun job.

This was written by a college student who was apparently good and baked when he wrote it. It's friggen hillarious. Make sure you read all 7 pages, it's funny.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/image/essay/1

Wow oh WOW! I bought Terry Goodkind's Chainfire book yesterday. I was very very lucky. Terry Goodkind signed a little over 7,000 of them. He signed only 200 of them in red ink. He signed 10 of them with the Wizard's 9th rule and labeled them 1 of 10, 2 of 10.... I got the one that was 10 of 10! =)

I'm just finishing a book about the history of salt.

Seriously, Rick? What's the name of it?

Salt: A World History

[Edited by on Jan 16, 2005 at 09:59am.]

You learn what a role salt has played in shaping societies, commerce and government. Not to mention cuisine.

The only rock we eat.

The same guy, Mark Kurlansky wrote a book, about the history of cod. A fish that changed the world. It's in my stack.

[Edited by on Jan 16, 2005 at 05:31pm.]

Cod's fished out. It's nothing like it was.

Cod was fished heavily for a couple centuries because it's a strong, lean fish. It could be preserved in salt on the boat and and make the journey from the fishing grounds back to Europe.

IT'S BUSH'S FAULT!!!

I bet there's the book on the history of watching paint dry in that stack too.

Worth their salt

In a poll of 4,000 British movie fans conducted by video rental giant Blockbuster, John Cleeses rant demanding ‘What have the Romans done for us?’ has been named the funniest movie scene of all time. The poll results were announced 20 December.

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Full text by the People's Front of JudeaNot the Judean People's Front. Don't mix them up.

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Jan 26, 2005 at 03:39pm.]

Gotta admit that was one of the best scenes ever. I love Python.

Python is great! I still laugh at that skit where the army guy wants to quit because the job is too dangerous. Then two mafia guys come in trying to sell the colonel some "protection" for his army base.

Luigi:Well suppose some of your tanks was to get broken and troops started getting lost, er, fights started breaking out during general inspection, like.

Dino:It wouldn't be good for business would it, Colonel?

Colonel:Are you threatening me?

Dino:Oh, no, no, no.

Luigi:Whatever made you think that, Colonel?

Dino:The Colonel doesn't think we're nice people, Luigi.

Luigi:We're your buddies, Colonel.

Dino:We want to look after you.

Colonel:Look after me?

Luigi:We can guarantee you that not a single armoured division will get done over for fifteen bob a week.

Not "a dime a dozen" in any way.

"Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman," came to symbolize the American Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89."

[Edited 2 times. Most recently by on Feb 11, 2005 at 08:27am.]

Truly a great loss.

He said he was trying not to gloat about something or other.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7006

::slams head on desk1::

Of course, as products of the California educational system, it’s unlikely the students have a clue who Jefferson is

HA!

I hope these people don't plan on using any kind of currency any time soon. That would surly be against their own beliefs.  Having vile monsters like that in ones own wallet is a sure way to get your one way ticket to hell.

I've read some accounts. Columbus, to me seemed a capable sailor and chartmaker. Applying contemporary standards of racism to a man of his time seems out of place. He was a poor administrator. When he reached the New World he couldn't find gold. So he sent back slaves. Spanish royalty didn't care about slaves. So he ended up persona non grata.

I don't know anything about Columbus as insane murderer. But the general philosophy of conquering Spanish was one of Christian conversion. They laid down a choice to the natives, but with few options: Convert to Christianity and you might prosper. If you don't, we're not responsible for what happens to you.

[Edited 6 times. Most recently by on Apr 5, 2005 at 05:47pm.]

and they all killed untold hundreds of thousands with the diseases they brought with them from Europe...!

and how can he be held responsible for this??

The People's History of the United Statesis written from a decidedly Marxist viewpoint.

Howard Zinn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Howard Zinn speaks at Marlboro Collegeon February 16, 2004.







Wikiquotehas a collection of quotations related to:


Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn(born August 24, 1922in Brooklyn, New York) is an influential American
historianand political scientist, whose political philosophy incorporates ideas from Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and social democracy. Together with Noam Chomsky(with whom he has collaborated on several books and speaking engagements), Zinn is among the most well-known figures of the radical leftin the United States.

Author of more than 15 books, Zinn offers a radical re-telling of United States history in his most popular work,
A People's History of the United States
, first published in 1980 and often updated. Zinn is also a vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy, arguing that the U.S. military often commits acts of terrorism, and that since World War II"there has not been a more warlike nation in the world than the United States."¹

MYTH: Columbus died a pauper, in chains, in a Spanish prison.

FACT: Despite the fact that the Spanish crown retracted some of the privileges promised to Columbus, he was a relatively rich man at the time of his death. Although he returned to Spain in chains in 1500 after his third voyage, the King and Queen apologized for the misunderstanding and had them removed. Columbus died quietly at the age of 55 in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506 in his own apartment attended by family and friends.

<http://www.stmary.k12.la.us/holidays/columbusday.htm>

[Edited by on Apr 8, 2005 at 06:59am.]

Paranoia has reached new heights.

He is a Marxist? No.

When I was 17, I began to read Marx and Engels. At 18 I began to work in a shipyard. Together with three other radical young people, I organized the Young Shipyard Workers Union. At that time, unions were very exclusive and young persons could not join them. The four of us became a team and met once a week. We read Marx and many years later, when I became a professor, I gave a seminar on Marxism. I read a lot of literature on Marx and became interested in his family life. For me to learn about him as a human being is as important as learning of his ideas.

 

My first theater work was not about Karl Marx but about an anarchist and feminist, Emma Goldman. That play was shown in several cities of the US: New York and Boston, but also in London and Japan. Later, already interested in the theater, I decided to write a play about Marx. I made this decision after the fall of the Soviet Union because, after its fall, everyone thought that Marxism had died. So I tried to tell the US public: Marx is not dead and I am going to prove it by bringing him back to the scenario. From there I would teach this same public the difference between Stalinism and Marxism. I would remind them what Marxist criticism of capitalism consists of. I would demonstrate that these ideas have much to do about the US today. In other words, that Marxist criticism of capitalism is still exact and current today.

I do not believe he is Marxist, but rather something even beyond Marx himself.

[Edited by on Apr 10, 2005 at 03:27pm.]

Using this line of reasoning, GW is a Seussist.

Man wanted to warn world about Siegfried & Roy

April 11, 2005

LAS VEGAS -- A former pro football player accused of shooting at the compound of Siegfried & Roy wanted to ''warn the world'' of the threat posed by the illusionists, according to a psychiatric report.

The evaluation was performed by psychiatrist Norton Roitman after Cole Ford was charged with firing several shotgun blasts at the Las Vegas home of entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn.

Ford, 32, a former kicker for the Oakland Raiders, has been ruled incompetent to stand trial and sent to a mental health facility.

Ford said he never intended to harm anyone and his actions were intended to ''warn the world of the illusionists' unhealthy danger to them and to animals,'' according to the report published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. No one was hurt in the Sept. 21 drive-by shooting, but police said shotgun pellets shattered windows.

AP

how did I miss this one back in Sept?

kitty love?? geez...

"When I was 17, I began to read Marx and Engels. At 18 I began to work in a shipyard. Together with three other radical young people, I organized the Young Shipyard Workers Union."

Anyone else remember what writing they were influenced by at 17 and 18?

I think at 17 or 18, I'd consider a kid who said he was a Marxist to be rather healthy and open minded. He might not settle there, but I'd applaud his idealism. So he wasn't about to be pigeonholed and indoctrinated. That takes guts. These days, I bet it's even more difficult.

As the old saying goes: Age is when a broad mind and narrow hips change places.

[Edited 5 times. Most recently by on Apr 13, 2005 at 05:30pm.]

An awesome Lego church:

http://www.amyhughes.org/lego/church/photosfirst.html

 

impressive.

Awesome

Amazing what people latch onto....

It must have come like bolt out of blue. The bright light on the road to Damascus. "That's it," Amy said, "Legos."

[Edited 3 times. Most recently by on Apr 15, 2005 at 09:17am.]