Weekend Open Thread

| October 20, 2023

There are conspiracy theorists who will tell you that there are “lizard-like” entities running global events from secret locations. Some may argue that lizard people have been behind a lot of the events during our history. The attempts to label the conservative argument as a bunch of “conspiracy theories” attempts to assign the same level of nonsense to valid arguments. For those willing to metaphorically see our politicians as swamp creatures, then “lizard-like” powerful people could already be found. Enjoy your weekend!

Category: Open thread

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KoB

FIRST?!??!!!

Commissioner Wretched

King, you beat me by two seconds! I hereby offer crown, orb and scepter and hope you find the Throne Room in acceptable shape.

KoB

Many Thanks, Good Sir. The trappings of power are most gratefully acknowledged and your 26 leaden soldiers did an outstanding job on policing the debris left by the crayon munching, Red Hat (Outdated) Software peddling Stoned Hacker. I am well aware of the mess made by half chewed crayolas that are normally scattered about when said Stone of the Hack has been lounging around the Throne Room instead of continuing his search for long missing Elaine Ricci. Give those lads an extry ration of grog from my Class VI Stores.

Didn’t think I’d be a contender today what with last minute escort duty and a provision run for my Lady Friends. Just happened to get in and get lucky. Since the miscreanted d’weeded and adorable deploreables probably spent their grocery money on the TAH Fund Raiser (Beats contributing to the FIRST Sergeant’s slush fund, eh?), I open up the larder with a crocked pot full of beef beast veggie soup, skillets of Real Southern Cornbread (sans sugar), hand tossed pizza pie, the House Wine (Sweet Iced Tea), and the vast assortment of other refreshing beverages arrayed around Firebase Magnolia. ENJOY!

It is good…to be The King!

ninja

gabn/gabaf/hbtd/trt

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ninja

😉😎

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ninja

🫡😆

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ninja

Yep…KoB language…😊😁

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ninja

Yeppers! 😃

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KoB

A Hotdog is what you get when a certain soon to be 3 pete Natty Champion’s Gridiron Mascot loses power in his Dawg House.

Dennis - not chevy

I had a tree hugger tell me of the joys of being a vegetarian; I told her if wasn’t for hot dogs and hamburgers I would be a vegetarian. It was fun watching her reaction. If her face had turned one more shade of red, I was calling EMS.

Commissioner Wretched

Vegetarian – Native American for “lousy hunter.”

A Proud Infidel®™

More than once I’ve said to a vegan “Plants release oxygen and you eat more plants than I do, thus you’re taking oxygen from the lungs of children!” and they just clam up!

ChipNASA

You made me go there….

KoB

American by Birth…Southern by The Grace of God. “Those people” (ht2 Bobby Lee) speak English. We’uns speak Southern ‘Merican…y’all

RGR 4-78

Done!

KoB

Sugar in cornbread is an abomination before God and All that is Holy. Sugar goes in cake, cookies, and iced tea.

Graybeard

I beg to differ.
I can eat Mrs. GB’s cornbread (with a smidgen of sugar) and blackeyes (with bacon) for a week and not tire of it.
Slather some butter in a slice ot two, or crumble it up in a bowl with sugar and milk for breakfast and Hooooo Son! I can make myself sick on that!

5JC

That fat better be bacon grease. You can put pimentos in there if you are having beans.

SFC D

Yup, that’s how mom did it. The south Texas way!

Graybeard

Mrs. GB grew up in South Texas, coincidentally.
She can talk about the Running W for hours.

SFC D

Mom’s family is from the Cotulla / Pearsall area. My aunt Bonnie took Jr. High math from John Strait. Apparently, he has a son that’s a pretty good singer.

Anonymous

Grits should get salt and pepper, too. Yankees who put sugar on ’em don’t know.

Odie

Sugar and butter. Kinda like cream of wheat.

SFC D

My dad put sugar on grits just to piss mom off.

Thunderstixx

Butter, nothing but butter for me, and I’m from Iowa but transplanted to The Great State of Texas 9 years ago.
A friend of mine back in Iowa taught me the right way to eat them.
And I haven’t strayed yet !

KoB

I flat lined on unsweet tea @ Ft. Sill during Gun Bunny School. The Dust Off Driver was a ‘bama boy that had just finished whirly bird school at Rucker. That thermos jug of the good stuff his mama packed for him saved my life.

Dennis - not chevy

I confess, I drink unsweet tea, the stronger the better. Then again, I never drink anything with more than two ingredients and ice counts as an ingredient. I once caught mono from sharing some fruity drink with the most attractive and willing young woman at the bar. Once I was cured, I limited myself to two ingredients.

SFC D

Rum and coke. Two ingredients. Keep the rum in the freezer and you won’t need ice.

UpNorth

Canadian Whiskey and soda, I keep the Canadian in the freezer.

RGR 4-78

Evan Williams Honey in the beer fridge, strait up.

Who needs a second.

SFC D

Jameson’s and a couple drops of water.

Odie

The freezer equals the great white north doesn’t it?

MustangCPT

Canadian Club neat, please…leave the bottle.

I’m going to make my newest cocktail creation a “thing”…The Don Draper:

1 rocks glass
Canadian Club whisky

Pour Canadian Club into glass 2/3rds full. Hand to customer.

That’s it. The easiest cocktail on the planet.

🥃🥃🥃

MustangCPT

In the show, the real Don Draper was an Engineer officer. And a bit of a souse, but the guy who took his identity really loved his CC.

Thunderstixx

I quit drinking H2O when I quit drinking Scotch !!!

rgr769

I guess, that way you won’t have your Cuba Libre diluted with melting ice.

Anonymous

Ditto. Grew up on non-sweet tea of both hot and cold variety, but alcohol cuts down on the germs.

A Proud Infidel®™

Nothing wrong with a Long Island Iced Tea!

Odie

It’s not sweet enough if the spoon doesn’t stand by itself, not supported by the glass or ice.

KoB

That thar food pyramid resembles this weekend’s menu @ Firebase Magnolia, ninja.

gabn/gabaf/rtr/hbtd/’noles

SFC D

I think there’s supposed to be Dr. Pepper or RC Cola in there somewhere. Personally, I’d rather have a cold Shiner.

MustangCPT

I second that emotion!🍺

Commissioner Wretched

First!

Odie

3rd apparently. Happy to be here tho

Commissioner Wretched

With the King of Battle on the throne, all seems right with the world! So let’s get into this week’s trivia. Enjoy, my friends!

DID YOU KNOW…?
What popular board game was created to head off boredom in a World War II air raid shelter?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com

I celebrate seven years of this nonsense and find I’m still not doing it all right.

Two weeks ago, I said that only two countries in the Western Hemisphere used French as their official language – Canada and Haiti.

Turns out, I should have said “the Americas,” as a friend on another website pointed out that within the Western Hemisphere itself, several nations use French: Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso (all on the African continent and all entirely within the Western Hemisphere) and … France itself, a portion of which is in that part of the world.

Sometimes, I get a little too big for my britches, it seems, and I am always grateful to my readers who find me in a fault and correct me.

Heavy sigh … this getting old is getting to me. Let’s move on to this week’s new stuff, shall we?

Did you know …

Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster doesn’t really eat cookies? Well, he does, but not on camera. Real chocolate chip cookies have grease in them and that would damage the puppet, so the show uses rice cakes painted to look like cookies. (It’s hard to imagine old C.M. saying, “Rice cake! Rice cake!”)

Commissioner Wretched

… a perfect pint of Guinness™ beer takes about two minutes to pour? Most people I know don’t care about such niceties, but if you’re into precision, there are six steps in the process of properly pouring a pint of Guinness stout. One of the steps involves waiting exactly 19.5 seconds for the beer to settle between the first and second pour. (Yeah, all that’s nice, but when you’re waiting to quench your thirst, two minutes is two minutes!)

… it really is not possible to suck snake venom out of a snakebite? Once a poisonous snake bites, the venom spreads too quickly through the bloodstream. Not only that, making those little “x” incisions over the actual bite and trying to suck out the venom can lead to a pretty nasty infection. Using a tourniquet to “stop” the venom from spreading is a rather bad idea too, since most people aren’t trained in putting one on and can make it too tight, cutting off blood flow and eventually leading to amputation (in the worst cases). The best bet, if someone is bitten by a venomous snake, is to get them to a doctor as quickly as you can. (It doesn’t hurt to hope that the bite was “dry,” and no venom was injected.)

… a museum dedicated to French fries exists? It’s called the Frietmuseum and is located in Bruges, Belgium. The museum has a collection of art, equipment and other artifacts tracing the history and development of the French fry – which, by the way, originated in Belgium, not France. (Here I always thought they were invented at McDonald’s.)

SFC D

No shit, there I was… spending a week in Dublin, spending the evening at Oliver St. John Gogarty’s pub. Stroll up to the bar and order a Guinness. Bartender hands me a pint, I took a sip, it’s ice cold. Apparently, the bartender saw the face I made. He laughs and says, “oh, you’re one of the good Yanks!” He takes my pint, replaces it with one the proper temperature. Awesome place.

David

At the “Old Vic” in Gourock on the Inverclyde a “half and half” is part cold Guinness and part room temp. They also have a two section bar area… woe betide the fool who wears green into the ble side and vice versa.

Odie

Guiness best drank from enlish half yard beer glass. Watch your beer level, because you could be wearing it if not careful. Lesson learned the hard way. Not a recommended way to meet the ladies, or having to talk to cops later.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

A perfect pint of Guiness beer takes about two minutes to pour, so all I have to say is “Grin and Beer it” while waiting

Commissioner Wretched

Booo! (I wish I’d thought of that one.)

A Proud Infidel®™

Regardless, the first French Fries were cooked in grease, get it?

I give myself s *BA-DUM, TSSH!* for that!

Commissioner Wretched

… a popular board game was invented to alleviate boredom in an air-raid shelter? During World War II, Anthony Pratt (1903-1994) was spending yet another boring stretch in a British air raid shelter when he came up with the idea of a game based on murder. Pratt used his love of murder mystery games to come up with one called Murder! – or, as we know it today, Clue. Aided by his wife Elva (1913-1990), Pratt developed the murder mystery game, which in the beginning had some wild weapons – an axe and a bomb, for instance. (I still think it was Col. Mustard in the Drawing Room with the Rope.)

… the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, was not always called that? The community that eventually became St. Paul was originally called “Pig’s Eye” after a saloon there. The town was renamed St. Paul in 1841 after a chapel built by a Catholic missionary, which was dedicated to St. Paul (5 AD-67 AD). It was designated the capital of the territory in 1849, and became the capital of the state when Minnesota was admitted to the Union in 1858. (In a pig’s eye!)

… oversleeping helped the world’s first billionaire escape death? John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) was set to meet with Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) one day in 1866 to negotiate shipments of kerosene to save his failing oil refinery. But on the day of the meeting, Rockefeller overslept, meaning he missed the 6:25 a.m. train that was to carry him to the meeting in New York. Good thing for him that he did, though: the train derailed and fifty people were killed in the car in which Rockefeller would have been seated. (Use that as an excuse for work the next time you oversleep. Let me know how it works for you.)

SFC D

I thought COL Mustard did it in the library with… the maid.

ninja

😆😅🤣😂

Hunter Biden did it with some White Powder in the Library…😉

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SFC D

Bill Clinton did it in the Oval Office with the intern.

KoB

with a cigar, not a candlestick.

Commissioner Wretched

Yes, the colonel was … shall we say … on duty.

RGR 4-78

He was up for it.

Anonymous

Fully erect, even…

Devtun

I remember seeing an interview by Seth McFarlane (Of Family Guy/ American Dad fame) missing his flight because he overslept. That flight he missed crashed into one of the WTC towers that morning.

Anonymous

Commissioner Wretched

Amazing!

Commissioner Wretched

… astronauts sent to the Moon considered making a practical joke? The crew of Apollo 8 – Frank Borman (born 1928), James Lovell (born 1928), and William Anders (born 1933) – were the first humans to leave Earth orbit and travel to the Moon, in December of 1968. Though they did not land, the lunar-orbital mission was a successful test of the hardware that would eventually lead to the first men on the Moon the next year. But a few months before the mission took off, the crew viewed the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Long after the mission ended, the astronauts revealed that they had seriously considered playing a practical joke on Mission Control: they reportedly thought about radioing back a report that they spotted a huge black monolith on the Moon. (Open the hatch, Hal.)

… calm winds aren’t always calm? According to the National Weather Service, air can move at a speed of under one mile per hour and still be referred to as “calm.” (Kind of like how having ten cents means you’re not broke.)

… there are about 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year? (Sing it … “I feel the Earth move under my feet …)

Now … you know!

KoB

Another fine j.o.b. on the trivia, My Man CW. Not that it was unexpected…it’s what you do…and you do it so well. Your weekly contribution is muchly appreciated. By THE King’s Decree…Keep it up!

“I feel the Earth move…” That’s what she told me.

Commissioner Wretched

By your command … I shall do so, King! Thanks so much for the very kind words.

Hate_me

Yeah, sorry about the correction. I didn’t give myself this moniker because I was looking to make friends (though I’m honored that you refer to me as one).

Commissioner Wretched

Never apologize for being right. I depend on my readers to keep me on the straight and narrow when it comes to the facts, and I’m very glad you pointed that out to me.

My friend.

Sapper3307

Happy WOT!
Send it!

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Graybeard

That’s believable.
The Disney execs probably have enough FIRST-hand experience to make it very realistic.

Anonymous

True that.

Sparks

Top 10 anyway.

ninja

Well?

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SFC D

She’s quite the uniter.

MustangCPT

Well, remember, Muhammad Ali addressed a Klan rally back in the day so it’s not unheard of that the Nation of Islam would make common cause with the Klan.

Hate_me

Joining a movement is like riding a bus, you yield all control of where you’re going to one single driver.

Groucho Marx was a wise man.

MustangCPT

And that driver is usually a lunatic:
Karl Marx
V.I. Lenin
Josef Stalin
Adolph Hitler
Pol Pot
Jim Jones

SFC D

I was gonna add Joe Biden but he ain’t really driving the bus.

MustangCPT

That fucker is riding the short bus.

MustangCPT
ninja

Sadly, the current status of the House GOP…😔

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A Proud Infidel®™

Yeah, looks like they’ve handed the House to the D-rats in 2024.

Odie

The dick heads voted in secret so their names wouldn’t be attached to the vote. Plausible deniability and all that.

Just keep in mind when they come asking if they can keep doing the hard work they will claim to be doing on our behalf.

Spit. Maybe ChipNASA will loan us his signatures picture for us to send back as a reply.

ChipNASA

Here and accounted for.
Good on ya KoB.
Lord kindly over weeds of the dickonators.
Blessed are the cheese makers.

SFC D

So… does that mean Wisconsin is the promised land? I’m kinda confused

Graybeard

Present (at work)
Will check back later
Y’all play nice now, y’heah?

MarineDad61

Today’s Stolen Valor QUIZ —
There are 3 things wrong with this 2021 official bio at
Department of Pennsylvania, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Can you guess what is wrong here?

Answers will be surprising to some of you,
and (sadly) not surprising at all to others.

BONUS – Can you guess where he is today?

Good luck.

2021 BEFORE as COMBAT VETERAN in IRAQ 1.jpg
MarineDad61

Indirect Hint – Think JR Majewski.

ChipNASA

Please don’t tell me this retarded. Air Force national guard. Shit bag was a cargo puke.
It said he did all these combat missions and classified shit with the 193rd wing.

I tried to look, but all I could find was VFW press releases, and a huge issue with malfeasance of funds and embezzlement in 2018 and 19 the post not him specifically

MarineDad61

ChipNASA,
You got 1.
Air National Guard, yes.
Air Force, only when on activation orders.
Therefore,
Retired Air National Guard, yes.
Retired Air Force, NO.

Do you STILL see “combat” claims?
(I haven’t looked in over a year.)
If so….. Show us the money shot. Or a link.

NOTE – He was NOT in cargo.

Mission and history of the 193rd SOW,
which provides further hint.

UNIT HIGHLIGHTS
As the only airborne Military Information Support Operations broadcasting unit, the 193rd SOW maintains a very high operations tempo and deploys in numerous contingencies throughout the world.

https://www.193sow.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/display/article/439262/193rd-special-operations-wing/

Last edited 1 year ago by MarineDad61
MarineDad61

Personal Note – In 1989,
1 year out from 4 years active duty Air Force,
I considered joining the Air National Guard, and approached the 271st Combat Communications Squadron.
Nice folks. Electronics nerds like me.
They had a slot for me, but only at E-3,
that required I agree to take a rank reduction,
from E-4 SGT back to E-3 Airman 1st class.
So, I passed.

Soon after, I found a decent electronics slot with the Army National Guard, with much greater education benefits, and keeping my E-4.
So, I enlisted for 3 years (part time).

21 months later, I’m in Saudi Arabia.
So I got that going for me… which is nice.
Gunga Ga Lunga.

Anonymous

Big hitter, the Lama!

MarineDad61

Anonymous,
And a bad tipper.

Anonymous

Total consciousness on one’s deathbed don’t beat $20, true.

MarineDad61

Hack,
That’s hilarious. Good find.

Last edited 1 year ago by MarineDad61
MarineDad61

Here is his updated 2023 official bio,
originally from Fall 2021, and updated further in 2022.

Compare this new long bio to the short 2021 bio above.
Check the keywords, and you solve this quiz.
Good luck.
🙂

https://vfwpa.org/uploads/Documents/State%20Line%20Officers/DavidW.(Spike)Gyger-BIO-National-May2023.pdf

MarineDad61

Fall 2021 long bio, further updated in 2022,
that replaced the (very) short Summer 2021 bio in this quiz.
Still online, even though replaced by the new bio May 2023.

https://vfwpa.org/uploads/Documents/State%20Line%20Officers/DavidW.-Spike-Gyger-BIO.pdf

MarineDad61

ANSWER to QUIZ BONUS –
Can you guess where he is today?

Meet the 2023 COMMANDER.

2023 Dept Commander 1.jpg
Slow Joe

Dangit

RGR 4-78

Someday you too will be retired and able to snatch a WOT first from the jaws of KOB. 😉

Odie

Retired? I recently retired and am busier now than when I was working. No more claiming I’m tired after work

Graybeard

I feel your pain brother

RGR 4-78

Yes, yes, yes, but it is so much more fun when you get to set your own uniform and grooming standards.

Graybeard

Good point.
‘Ceptin’ I gotta run my uniform/grooming standards past Mrs. GB – but she’s pretty nice about them.

RGR 4-78

My “Rangerette” gave up on grooming me a long time ago.

Odie

And hours.

rgr769

A retired friend warned me that the trouble with retirement is that you never know when your days- off are. Seems that his missus always had a long “honey do list.”

Odie

True that. Plus my own self imposed list of what I need to do.

RGR 4-78

Every day is a Saturday.

David

More work for the wife than my old boss…

Sam

Open Thread!! What are you doing this evening?

jeff LPH 3 63-66

FIRST THIRTY SECOND

AT1 ret

getting to be that time of year

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Graybeard

I’m starting to hint about a MSR already

fm2176

Depending on budget and such, you’ve got plenty of options if you’re talking about a “modern sporting rifle” as opposed to the “Modular Sniper Rifle”. I bought my Ruger AR-556 MPR (Multi-Purpose Rifle) a couple of years ago. Full length M-LOK fore end, Magpul furniture, 18″ barrel, and so on. I put a SIG Romeo 7 on mine along with MBUS sights. About $1200 for the setup, but I don’t need a Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 and EOTech…yet.

I was very behind on my AR knowledge. My issued M4A1 had the Picatinny rails and such, so M-LOK was new to me when I started buying guns again. Now, even the Rossi Rio Bravo I bought months ago and haven’t looked at since has M-LOK. As for MSR, I was going through my training at Bass Pro last year and heard the term, wondering why in the hell the company had its own terminology for such a popular platform. Now I “get it”, and so long as we don’t become Dicks and stop selling them, I’ll use the term. Of course, not being a gun store, per se, we only sell AR-15 and AR-10s, along with some PCCs, new. We’ve gotten a few Kalashnikovs on the used side (NHM-90 and NHM-91 new-in-box, but sold for $1500 apiece, some $1300 more than I paid for my MAK-90 in ’96), along with the “Paratrooper” SKS and M1 Carbine I have in my closet, but of course we mostly focus on hunting rifles. With wild boar being so prevalent, though, the .300 Blackout ARs sell like hotcakes.

5JC

The Lizard People seem to be grabbing the ammo.

https://www.westernjournal.com/forei…hers-sold-off/

Commissioner Wretched

AT1 ret

yep

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Andy11M

When I went into the Army back in the dark ages of 1992, all the training videos were from the 80s. I kind of enjoyed the feel of those videos. Found this gem recently.

Sapper3307

Periscope films on TY is gold.

Sam
A Proud Infidel®™

WOW, been so busy working I forgot it was Friday, nevertheless, I will once again award myself Honorary First

((((OVER))))

Epstein’s list has been guarded MUCH tighter than the TOP SECRET documents found in a garage next to Biden’s Corvette.
Epstein did not kill himself.
The “Feebies”, members of Friendship Before integrity consider cisgender heterosexual Christian Men a threat to our way of life.
And another UP YOURS to the Feebies monitoring this site.

MarineDad61

Funny Jan 6 knucklehead UPDATE –

The guy with the most hilarious Jan 6 hashtag nickname,
Conan O’Brien lookalike #ConanORiot
has been charged.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/fbi-arrests-redheaded-cosplayer-dubbed-conan-oriot-jan-6-sleuths-rcna118948

ConanORiot charged 2023 10 05.jpg
5JC

Based on their statements, they could also charge The Beatles.

MarineDad61

5JC,
For knucklehead Conan O’Riot,
goggles and gas mask in the halls of Congress are plenty.
No statements or quotes required.
He will eventually see some jail.

Green Thumb

Lord of the Shitbags: The Return of Phil Monkress.

MustangCPT

Is he up to something new that I missed?

Green Thumb

Avoiding calls seeking clarification of his claims.

Besides, If I am not mistaken, people were growing tired of “working balls” and “tickling taint”.

Hack Stone

No, just Phil Monkress being Phil Monkress. Did the All Points Logistics HR Department send out a corporate wide memo telling employees to completely wipe from their memory bank any reference to Phil Monkress and US Navy SEALs?

Hack Stone

Hack Stone late to the show as he spent all weekend in negotiations with an extremely talented potential employee. He has extensive experience with US Army regulations, and has had prior interaction with both North and South Korea. He did show interest as to (see what Hack did there?) the company on site dental maintenance program performed with blowtorches and pliers, and the retirement plan consisting of $10 worth of Maryland Scratcher Lottery Tickets almost sealed the deal, but in the end he weighed his options and decided that his best career path would be with All Points Logistics. Good luck in your future endeavors, Travis King.

MustangCPT

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

I saw where that was going after the second sentence, but I gotta say, you finished the story well. 🤣

A Proud Infidel®™

Wow, Navy couldn’t hold up against Air Force yesterday!