Great Art

Via Borepatch. BTW I love great art.

LSP

War Dogs

War dogs. They were used in Antiquity to strike fear into the enemy and they're used today, witness the raid on Al Baghdadi's compound. Speaking of which, one of the few readers of this out of the way mind blog sent in a photo of his son's dog, see above. 

Pathetic President Figure Led By Poodle

They travel with their handlers muzzled in case they sense an enemy and attack, with ferocious result. For example, war dogs were always muzzled in the presence of  Barack Hussein Obama.

Shadow Wolf

Here at the Compound we're fortunate to have a war dog too, Blue Destroyer. He's a Blue Heeler rescue dog and getting on in years but he's fierce to the bone, especially in the face of UPS drivers, squirrels, and rural potheads. Seriously, he can't stand the latter and goes into growling fighting defense mode when they get through the perimeter.

Face-Off

I don't muzzle him but I do worry when I park him at the Pick 'n Steal on his morning walk as I get my coffee. Will someone be cornered, whimpering and screaming as I leave the filling station? Hasn't happened for a couple of years, thank God.

That's all for now, spare a thought and a prayer for our brave canine warriors and their fellow soldiers.

God bless,

LSP

Fish, You Fool, And The Ghosts Of The Brazos

The sun was shining, the air was crisp and it seemed right to go fishing; Genius Patrol weren't invited, their job was to stay behind and guard the Compound.

A short drive later I was at Soldier's Bluff or Sosebee's Bluff, named after George Sosebee who left Georgia in the 1870s to escape the "odious" Reconstruction Government after the Civil War.

Reconstruction reached its most odious stages in the mid '70's and George Sosebee determined that he could stand no more of it. On the raw frontier, he reasoned, there must exist a place where no Reconstruction Official or carpetbagger would venture.

By 1875 Sosebee had found his frontier, where the Big Rocky Creek tumbled through a limestone precipice overlooking the Brazos river in Bosque County. 

Carpet Baggers

Today, Sosebee's Brazos is gone, inundated by the Corps of Engineers' dam which was built in the 1950s. Still, the tops of his limestone bluffs remain and you can fish from them, sometimes with spectacular results.

With that in mind, the lake was choppy and surging, thanks to a fierce North East wind, and I wondered if the expedition'd be a bust. "How's the action, kids?" I asked a professional crew of youngsters who'd set up on the shore with an impressive array of surf casting rods. They said it wasn't bad, holding up a very respectable Largemouth.

Inspired by success, I cast off with a plastic minnow allied to an earthworm and sure enough started getting bumps and tugs; fish were out there, no doubt about it. But could I close the deal?

It took a while but then, BOOM, a fish was on, pulling out the drag and glinting silver in the topwater. At first I thought it was a Drum but no, it was a decent young Bass around 12". I put him back and reflected on the towns flooded by the dam, including Towash, across the way from the bluffs. In case you wondered, Towash wasn't Cheltenham:

On January 5, 1870, Hardin was playing cards with Benjamin Bradley in Towash, Hill County, Texas. Hardin was winning almost every hand, which angered Bradley, who then threatened to "cut out his liver" if he won again. Bradley drew a knife and a six-shooter. Hardin claimed he was unarmed and excused himself, but claims that later that night, Bradley came looking for him. Bradley allegedly fired a shot at Hardin, which missed. Hardin drew both his pistols and returned fire, one shot striking Bradley's head and the other his chest. Dozens of people saw this fight, and from them there is a good record of how Hardin had used his guns. His holsters were sewn into his vest, so that the butts of his pistols pointed inward across his chest. He crossed his arms to draw. Hardin claimed this was the fastest way to draw, and he practiced every day. A man called "Judge Moore", who held Hardin's stakes of money and a pistol, but refused to give them up without Bradley's consent, "vanished. Later Hardin admitted killing two men in Hill County Texas - Donald Long.

Here's another account, fictional but I'd say on the money.

...in 1865 Towash made a big sign... Texas-style. It boasted the Boles racetrack, which attracted the sports and gamblers from as far away as Hot Springs, Arkansas. There was a hand ferry across the Brazos and close by a grist mill powered by a huge water wheel. Dryer & Jenkins was the trading store. There was a barbershop that did very little business and six saloons that did a lot, dispensing red-eye... raw. Typical of many towns in the Texas of 1867, there was no law except that made by each man with his own ‘craw sand.’ Occasionally the Regulators of Austin rode in... always in large groups... more for protection than law enforcement. 

I reeled in the Bass and cast off for more, while the ghosts of the Brazos lay heavy on the lake.

Tight lines,

LSP

Happy Easter

I know, I know, it's a few days late and a couple of dollars short but Happy Easter, vast international readership.

The Masses at the missions went well and then it was time for some R&R in Dallas before heading back to the country, where the air is crisp and clear after a Texan downpour and Friday's enjoying herself on the porch like the puppy she is.

I need to get her checked but the consensus is that she's a purebred Airedale, which is odd. A Blue Heeler landing on your porch is pretty Texas but an Airedale? More like Yorkshire, surely.

And yes, Airedales aren't Norse but they are war dogs and served with distinction in the trenches of the Western Front in World War I. Friday continues this martial tradition, exhibiting loyalty, intelligence and bravery, especially in the face of enemy sticks and knotted rope toys. Blue RSM watches over her training with a knowing eye.

In other news, Trump's approval rating is high, a crazed vegan shot up YouTube despite California's strict gun laws and some Muslims have been let off with a slap on the wrist for terrorizing a convent in France. 

To say nothing of that pesky Sabo who's been mocking Zuckerberg and lest we forget, a group of migrants are making their storied way through Mexico in the hope reaching the US before the wall's built.

Question, would the Democrats be so ardently, passionately, fervently in favor of abolishing our southern border if they lost a vote for every illegal immigrant that moved into the country? 

Your Old Pal,

LSP