The Last Bass Outpost

Fingering is alright, we can do without the paint this time. 

That was new to me. 

But you guys infected us with racoons! Göring, an avid hunter, let about 30 pairs of them loose in 1934 for trophies. That alone wasn't perhaps a sufficient gene pool for all the racoons we now have, but in 1945 a couple of pairs more escaped from a bombed out Berlin Zoo. And then US GIs had the unfortunate habit of keeping them as mascots/pets, but racoons love freedom! So a third strain was created after the war. Ever since then they have been populating merrily and tens of thousands are shot today of a species of which we didn't have a single one up to 1934!  Never mind, I like racoons.

Other yankee imperialist insurgents are all kinds of North American turtles (from the cute little red cheeked ones that just grow and grow to outsize Mississippi snappers). People bought them as pets, they refused to die after the kids had gotten bored with them and off they went to the next little pond. Where needless to say diese Amerikaner - oversexed, overfed and over here! - have been breeding happily ever since, becoming fully adjusted to our winters.

And now anoles, courtesy of Dave's grandpa ...  ... it just won't end.

Uwe

Most reptiles eat their offspring if they have a chance to. Species with nursing habits such as alligators and crocodiles are relatively rare, monitor lizards to which the Komodo dragons belong never nurse.

Which gives me ample opportunity to bemoan the only recent passing of an adult tokeh gekko in my terrarium when the black iguana who had been living with it side by side peacefully for years decided to adhoc change its dietary requirements. I think I'm gonna sue the pet shop that sold it to me with the comment: "Once adult, they are strictly vegetarian." I could build a great personal injury case on that devoured little gekko I think ...

Evolution or creationism?

The race thing ... no getting around it if you discuss Obama I guess. I would just hope that your Secret Service guys are better than they used to be!

I would hope that times have changed in the US? Of course, racial stereotypes linger (and not just in the US), but not everyone who has them will pull a gun on a black man becoming President. I would think that the faces of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice have gone a long way in making even people with a race bias think twice and at least give the benefit of doubt. Being black doesn't make you lazy (Ms Rice certainly isn't) nor does it automatically make you a better Mideast foreign affairs politician (as Ms Rice again shows), is that so hard to grasp?

Of course that doesn't mean that some frothing nutcase would not want to go after Obama because of the color of his skin. That is where I hope the improved Secret Service guys come in.

An assassination of Obama would be a national catastrophy, but unless you are stark raving mad racist you should be able to see that Obama is not Malcolm X. I put my hopes in that. As regards racial issues, the US today may well not be where Martin Luther King would have liked it to be had he lived on, but what happened in Dallas, the Ambassador Hotel in LA, a balcony in Memphis and the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem are demons of your past I believe. I think you could be ready for a black President and Obama whose good looks fail to match any "menacing black" stereotypes could be it.

Uwe

It would be kind of artificial to avoid discussing the candidates here given how the election will dominate the media and people's thoughts over the next months. So under the benign, but watchful glance of Herr Westheimer we can perhaps have a sensible discussion in this thread and others if people stick to some rules:

- Don't insult people with political views other than your own. Growing up should have brought you the realization that political views are just one part of a person's set of beliefs and that someone can be a decent guy and still hold views that are not your own.

- Don't start libelling the candidates. You can disagree with Frau Clinton's politics, but don't go Ted Nugent over her and insult her as a "cunt" or worse. Same goes for Republican candidates. 

I like McCain, he is the most credible Rep candidate for me in a long, long time. You can't argue with the patriotism of a guy who did time as a POW in Hanoi and if the same guy steps up and says "we should not be torturing people for whatever reason because I've been through it and know what it's like" then that epitomizes credibility to me. As regards his views on Iraq, I think it was ill-advised idiocy that you went there, but now that you did, you're stuck and just can't hastily pull out and leave a void. So, no, I don't think he would be a bad President. A bit old perhaps, you do wonder about his health, but there are healthy old men and unhealthy young men. Something in me tells me that he would do his best because that is just the type of guy he is. In an old-fashioned, but honorable way he would "serve the country".

As a European, I really know too little about the other Republican candidates to form an opinion.

But I've never hidden that my leanings are Democrat. Between Hillary and Obama I'm kind of torn. I think she is a smart and strong woman though she obviously does not suffer fools gladly. She's (to me) not really likeable (more respectable) though I cannot put my finger on what keeps me from doing so, but you can be a good President and not be likeable (you should be respectable). I don't mind how she is an urban woman, East Coast and establishment and I think she handled Bill's more than momentary lapse of good taste with Fräulein Levinsky very gracefully.

Obama is of course Prince Charming and I don't mean that in a bad way. You kind of feel the world would have proven to be a better place than we all thought if he won, right? He has zero foreign affairs experience, but his upbringing and ethnicity at least brought him into contact with other parts of the world.  He would probably learn quickly and surround himself with good advisors.

I guess my dream team would be Hillary the first term and Obama her Vice with him moving in on the second term. But Hillary is probably too career-minded for that. And a certain Californian governor (with lots of blue-blooded Democrat relatives and a heavy accent) as the Secretary of Environment (if that is the correct title?)?

Uwe

PS: Democrats and health companies close allies? I'm not surprised. Bringing health insurance to all Americans would be a billion buck business for health companies. That doesn't tarnish the aim, it's just an economic fact.

Brilliant! This story will be integrated into our treasure grove of collective mudbucker mythology. The devil's frequencies wreaked havoc.

And Chris P: No need to bring the Panzerfaust, you'll have the right of free passage whilst in Germany as long as you drop by in my office for an espresso and some ritual adoration of ze Sammlung ... my office is a ten minute walk from where the fair will be.

Uwe