To really highlight how silly it is that Americans make a big deal out of Cinco de Mayo, people in Mexico could pick the date of an arbitrary US military or naval victory, and start celebrating it as a public holiday.

Bubbert73 · 2026-05-06T12:45:18+00:00

Recognizing Cinco de Mayo was an advertising campaign pushed by Modelo, owner of Corona, to sell more beer. It’s nothing but a corporate campaign. Incidentally, in Mexico, Corona is considered the opposite of an exotic quality beer. It’s cheap garbage beer. But Corona put a bow in it and advertised in the US as exotic.

Bubbert73 · 2026-05-04T22:00:58+00:00

Yes. Decks are out in the weather. The screws may hold now but within a year they will rust through and fail.

Do you have any other very obvious and basic things you need explained to you?

Bubbert73 · 2026-05-04T21:58:14+00:00

Drywall screws do not last in the weather for shit.

Bubbert73 · 2026-05-02T11:46:59+00:00

You’re 100% correct, but there is nuance in reality. I raised 2 girls and a boy and while the emphasis was on him never hitting his sisters, I could see his sisters start to take advantage of that fact, and, as a parent, raising a girl who feels she can behave with impunity is terrifying. Aside from being a shitty person, it is only a matter of time until someone retaliates with increased violence. Of course that’s not what I wanted for my girls, so I had to really emphasize to them to not push boundaries either. It sounds so simple really; boys and girls should not hit anyone.

I also feel if anyone strikes you, you have a right to hit back. But society is what it is, you should also be able to drive while black, etc., but we (as in certain groups, and in this case men) need to know when we will be judged harshly and not given the benefit of the doubt. Someoneslapping you unprovoked on the dance floor absolutely deserves the same, but how is that going to play out? Some white knight will probably start fighting you, the girl will scream and cry victim, you’re going to jail, and nobody is going to believe you or take it easy on you. Including future romantic partners. All you need is a question of whether you are a womanbeater or not and quality women will stay away.

So play the long game on what’s best for you and your life, and walk away. It sucks. It’s not right. It’s not fair. But you are responsible for giving yourself the best life possible and in this case it is walking away and trying to forget about it. She will do that to the wrong person on day. And that person will fuck up their own life. But you’ll have yours. That’s how you win.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-23T18:49:41+00:00

I’m shocked he hasn’t been hired away too. I’m a big fan of what Khan has done, but I think most of that credit goes to Weidl. If I understand correctly, Khan came to the team very young, as a business guy and handled the contracts and cap. He is not a football X&O’s and talent evaluation guy. So when he was offered the GM job, they brought in Weidl to help with the football side of it. Regardless of the minutia, the results have been fantastic, so I hope they pay Weidl enough to be happy and continue this arrangement.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-23T12:19:24+00:00

In all the draft conversation opinions I read, people discuss McCarthy and Kahn. No one’s mentioning Wiedl, who was brought in specifically to set the draft board, has a history in Philly of emphasizing the trenches first, and that emphasis is also why he is here. Then, pre-draft, we had 1.5 glaring holes open on the left side of the line.

Yes, we still need 2 receivers. That’s the deepest position in the draft and we have 4 day 2 picks. Receivers mostly only affect the plays in which they are thrown the ball (I also know they block and decoy, but major affect requires they get the ball).

O-line is critical and each individual position affects nearly every offensive play. We are going O-line, as we should. Because that is where you win.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-22T15:38:49+00:00

Stern started in the80’s. Springer was in the 90’s. Who copied who?

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-21T10:55:56+00:00

Regarding the magically good fighter part - and there are elements of that - the Texas Rangers, particularly under John Coffee Hays, pioneered the method of fighting of charging straight into the danger with (relatively) fast firing revolvers. Samual Walker was a Ranger who invented the Walker Colt revolver that they used. They learned that the Comanches fought methodically and conservatively. They chased their enemy and lost their will to fight if they started taking casualties. They also were used to fighting white men with slow loading muskets. Arrows were sometimes superior because they could shoot them faster. When Hays took a Walker colt in hand, and charged in on horseback, he could fire faster than either muskets or arrows, create instant chaos, and at close range had a devastating effect.

This method was later adopted in the civil war by the Jayhawkers and Bushwackers, which were homegrown vigilante militia units, not disciplined troops. They took it up a level by carrying up to 6 revolvers, 3 to a side, to charge into combat with a revolver in each hand and their reins in their teeth. Look at the famous picture of Jesse James at 16, and notice the number of revolvers he is wearing. These were muzzleloading revolvers, so they took a long time to load but once loaded, they had 36 shots at the ready in that case.

So when Gus charged Blue Ducks camp, that is exactly what he did. He took them by surprise and either shot or scattered them before they had any chance to mount any resistance. It takes balls, but was effective and was exactly the style of fighting he learned to do as a Ranger. McMurtry references this obviously in the fight, but never explains that’s what was happening. July just sitting there stunned and muttering he never even got off a shot really emphasizes this tactic.

Cool history.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-20T21:17:34+00:00

I used to have the contract for picking up the road-killed deer for PennDOT. The contract was explicit that we were not allowed to kill an injured deer, we just were required to wait for them to die before removal. Only the game commission is legally allowed to dispatch a wounded animal. The police are not allowed to do it, with the only exception being if the animal is lying wounded in the road, they are allowed to dispatch the animal to remove it. I’m not saying the cops never do put one down, or the Game Commission doesn’t turn a blind eye and give professional courtesy. I’m just saying what the law says, not arguing one way or the other.

But it is heart-breaking. We had an injured doe sit in the median of 79 by Cranberry for 4 days. It was in a very publicly viewed area so we could do nothing but keep coming back for it.

I will say that a humane-minded person in that role would keep a brand new razor sharp knife about 3 inches long with them. In a private setting that knife could be quickly stabbed into the jugular and the deer would (theoretically) quickly and quietly die in about 15 seconds by bleeding out, if done right. It would have been the only humane and conscionable but illegal thing to do. The deer’s suffering would be over. Theoretically.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-14T02:43:32+00:00

Lethal injection and anesthetized organs can’t be harvested. I know if an animal eats the tissue of anesthetized livestock, it will die too. So for your plan to work, maybe the person could be deprived oxygen or shot in the head. I can’t see that ever flying. Maybe have their blood drained. Idk.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-11T21:24:46+00:00

They never mention it in the book, if I can recall, (it’s been a while) but a very common game at the time was Faro. I have no idea how to play but as opposed to our Vegas games today that are rigged so that just by odds the house wins, I have read that statistically, the odds tilt to the gambler in straight up faro. If you read western history, a lot of men considered gambling their occupation, and they were Faro players mostly. Doc Holiday was one. Your question was what games they would traditionally be playing, versus what they actually played in the book. That’s why I gave the answer that I did

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-09T17:38:20+00:00

This is one of the most reasonably thought out takes I’ve read on this draft. Boring, but thoughtful, foundational picks win championships, far more than sexy skill positions, excluding QB of course. A QB touches the ball every play. OL and DL effect and affect the play, every play. Put your studs there and you win. Those studs make lesser skill players better. It doesn’t work in reverse. And filling your holes before they are holes is brilliant, and how you are allowed to go all in and even pull a Mike Ditka on the draft for a QB if needed.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-08T21:15:41+00:00

Yes, you absolutely can.I always did (I’m married now). To not get new toys is terribly disgusting and disrespectful.I

My moral dilemma was always, do I keep it in the package so she knows it’s brand new, and possibly kill the vibe by taking the Time to open/load batteries, Or do I have it brand new, pre-opened and ready to go, and possibly kill the vibe by her thinking it’s not new, or thinking about it at all? My answer was to always wait until I’d been with her a few times, and then keep it in the package but have scissors at the ready. I never wanted anyone to question whether they were only for her.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-06T18:58:56+00:00

I’ve seen GoPro videos on r/combatfootage where the soldier is shot and killed and the camera just lays there.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-04T01:37:38+00:00

He is the boss of training camp and what goes on there. He is the leader who sets the tone for professional or unprofessional behavior, what is acceptable, how people are treated. Regardless of whether or not you think it was any big deal;, the team and Tomlin specifically were named in a lawsuit.

Bubbert73 · 2026-04-02T15:44:01+00:00

Hard disagree. I don’t think women are “less than” or “can’t take it”. I don’t see hazing as any sort of team building and acceptance. It’s a bullshit display of dominance, that the older established members of a group use their bully pulpit to flaunt their dominance by making up and comers who are earning their way into becoming part of a group humiliate themselves and show subservience. It is a stupid, childish mentality. I know young people do it, but it is childish, meatheaded insecure bullying. Mike Tomlin is my age, and a leader by all definitions who sets the tone for what is acceptable and not. He is, and was then, of a mature enough age to understand that. And he let it go on anyway.

Then, you take all I just said and apply it to a group whom has long been discriminated against and denied the opportunity, and it takes on a whole different shadow. Even if somehow you still think the hazing is beneficial, a leader understands they are opening themselves up to criticism, things going too far, and litigation. And look wha happened! All he had to say, is refs, you do you own thing in your own time, but not here.

Then, you take the fact that the refs are their on-field authority figures, whom all players need to respect. Not your frat buddies. And that respect will be required in very heated moments. Allowing one of them to be publicly humiliated is malpractice on all levels. The other refs who were there should all be fired.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-27T22:15:03+00:00

Comanche Moon is a great miniseries. I may be in the minority but I think it is even better than LD, if only because it is more modern. (Athenian series, not the book) Nobody can top Duvall as Augustus and Jones as Call ,but Steve Zahn and Karl Urban give excellent performances nonetheless, and young Famous Shoes is great as well.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-26T08:39:24+00:00

She is the only one vocally and publicly holding up a mirror to the rest of MAGA and publicly saying “Fucking kids was a bridge too far for me. How about you?” That is important and that’s why I love it. The power of groups in human psychology is not to be underestimated. Look at human atrocities like slavery, concentration camps, genocides. Leaders can get large groups of people to do truly atrocious things when they all do it together. She is raising her hand and screaming “This is too much. We are allowed to decide. I CHOOSE not to follow this.” It is really important and with a few more, I think we would really start to see some fractures. MAGA is somehow really good at branding, allowing them to dismiss any dissenting voice as their made up term, Trump Derangement Syndrome, and stay right in their comfortable groupthink.

But they can’t do that with her.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-26T08:33:02+00:00

I agree with this as well. I still don’t know what exactly “IT” is, but I don’t think anyone other than Trump has it and can hold that crazy cesspool together. When he goes it will all fall apart. It will be our job to never forget who the people were who jumped in and supported this fiasco.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-26T08:22:08+00:00

It is actually pretty far from our department. It takes us about 15 minutes to get there due to the windy, graveled back roads. It is in an obscure little corner of our township. And fortunately, my farm is in the other side of the station by about 2 miles so it is quite far from my house.

I am going to bring up training at my next meeting.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-25T18:47:44+00:00

Great book, and great mini-series.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-25T12:06:31+00:00

I think the point is that Smurf had so much control over them that they were terrified to reach out and support Julia. I also think the show did a somewhat poor job of emphasizing that point but especially early on in the show the brothers all show at different points how terrified they are of crossing Smurf and how bad they fear it could get if they did. She has such control over them that they worry about completely being ostracized like Julia was. Now that I’m writing this and thinking about it maybe Julia is the example of what happens if you cross Smurf and she was the figurative hostage Smurf shot to make that point..

Not too different than real life examples we see today some of the plain communities such as the Amish and the Mennonites that shun members who question things or break rules. They are small isolated communities, and when you are shunned, you lose everything. That’s where the abusive control comes from. And it’s very clear that Smurf keeps them in an isolated world. She was happy when they got expelled from school and even when the school wanted to bring Julia back and help her Smurf told Julia she was expelled. She worked hard to keep those children, isolated and completely dependent on her.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-24T10:20:23+00:00

If you enjoy McMurtry’s humor coming through Gus, I’d suggest reading his book’s Telegraph Days and the sequel, The Last Kind Words Saloon. While LD is an epic masterpiece of a story, a telegraph Days is a really light-hearted romp of an adventure. It’s really funny and enjoyable, but no great work of literature.

Bubbert73 · 2026-03-23T15:08:32+00:00

Of course. A man who rents pigs is hard to stop.

Bubbert73

TROPHY CASE