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Posted on 08.17.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 6:26 pm
Journalists feign objectivity for the public, but get them in a free-wheeling chat and they’ll spout opinions about anything — even the merits of coins. Hence this Q&A today with Paul Farhi of The Washington Post:
I happen to agree with Farhi about the penny, an annoying coin of no value in a country where inflation long ago made the penny worthless. I also happen to be an objective journalist in one format who still spouts opinions every day. But Farhi’s condemnation of the penny — and of the dollar coin — came in the context of an online chat where he cautioned other journalists to choose their words wisely so they wouldn’t be suspended for revealing personal bias. How ironic. I guess it’s safe to assume that Farhi won’t be covering any future debates about the merits of the penny. Filed under: Coin Collecting and Media Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.07.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 10:53 pm
When I hit the hills every October, I had one goal in mind: Fill my game pouch with the daily limit of six squirrels. The only thing I hated more than squirrels were chipmunks. Their incessant chirping and scampering spooked the squirrels. Absence from the oaks and hickories didn’t make my heart grow fonder of squirrels. I grew to detest them even more when my career path forced me to go urban. Squirrels own the big city and its suburbs, and they aren’t lovable like Rocky of “Rocky and Bullwinkle” fame. Squirrels destroyed the corn we planted in our garden one year — even after we bought squirrel feeders just for them. They dug up all of my wife’s daffodil bulbs and replanted them in the neighbor’s yard. They ate through the top and bottom of our plastic garbage cans and to this day still string trash all over our driveway and lawn. I was thrilled when our two dogs, Shelby and Peanut, successfully plotted to kill the squirrels that dared come into the yard at our old house. Shelby would go to one side of the yard and Peanut to the other. Shelby chased the squirrels to Peanut, who was part rat terrier, and she dispatched them more consistently than any shotgun I ever fired. A few years ago at Thanksgiving, my wife put the pies on our screened back porch to keep them cool. It wasn’t long before one of the local squirrels got a whiff. My son and I shot him with water pistols all morning and finally thought we had scared him off. But a few hours later, just before the feast, we heard my mother-in-law yell, “Ahhh, there’s a squirrel on the pie!” I wanted to cut out the part with squirrel footprints and eat the rest of my favorite chocolate pie, but my wife reminded me that squirrels are disgusting, disease-ridden squirrels. My favorite Thanksgiving dessert was ruined, and it now has a new name for the family cookbook — Squirrel Pie. All of those bad squirrel memories rushed to mind today when I read this New York Times piece celebrating the wonders of the squirrel:
The article is full of fascinating information about the squirrel that I never knew. But as I read it, I just kept thinking of how tasty they are — yes, they taste like chicken — and how much I’d love to kill six a day for the rest of my life. Squirrels have their moments. The little guy in the photo above is the resident mooch at the L’Enfant Plaza train station. He introduced himself my first week of commuting by Virginia Railway Express, letting me hover my iPhone a couple of feet above his head to snap the photo. Even I couldn’t resist that photogenic rodent face. But at the end of the day, he and all his kin are still rodents and they deserve to die, just like the sewer rats who roam the city streets at night. Filed under: Food and Hunting & Guns and West Virginia and Wildlife Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.22.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:51 am
When a public official resorts to crudely threatening an inquisitive reporter with a rifle to make a point about gun control, he’s already lost the debate. So it was with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. At a press conference to defend his city’s handgun ban, Daley said this to a reporter who dared ask how effective the ban has been: “It’s been very effective. If I put this up your butt, you’ll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know.” (Hat tip to Don Surber) Daley later apologized for the comment — sort of. “Sure, I’ll be sorry. I’m not going to sing the [1960 Brenda Lee] song ‘I’m Sorry’ now, but sure, you can write it. But I hope I shocked you that you can write about now the gun manufacturers.” But his apology was about as effective as … the city’s handgun ban. I hereby proclaim Daley the first winner of the “Real Leaders of Genius” award here at The Enlightened Redneck. He’s earned it. Filed under: Government and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics and Real Leaders of Genius and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.09.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 4:22 pm
Beware both the sellers and the buyers. The companies pushing gold and silver as sound investments know the metals market is in a bubble, just like real estate was a few years ago and dot-com stocks before that. Wait for the gold and silver bubble to burst, and then start buying, which is what those companies did years ago. As for the firms that buy gold and silver in bulk, avoid them altogether. You will not get anywhere close to the true value for your coins, jewelry or bullion. One newspaper in Texas has done its community a great service by attending the gold- and silver-buying bonanzas where out-of-town companies try to part residents from their valuables. The newspaper sends a reporter to the events with a collection of gold and silver whose fair-market value already has been determined. Then it compares that price with the offers from buyers. The gap between the two numbers is huge, as is evident in this report:
The company representative went ballistic when the reporter confronted him about the discrepancy. “It is business. It is as simple as that,” he said. “When you go to buy a used car, is it worth what they are charging you. Your newspaper is not worth a dime, I can tell you that right now. You are as low as low gets.” Methinks he did protest too much. I have a small stash of worn and common silver coins that I may sell once it’s worth enough to buy a digital camera, but if I do, I won’t be dealing with a shyster in a hotel. I’ll find a reputable, local coin or bullion dealer. Everyone should do the same. Filed under: Business and Coin Collecting Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.03.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 10:45 am
This is a hypothetical scenario in the form of a law exam question, but as Instapundit Glenn Reynolds says, it’s “a fun hypothetical” that actually has constitutional weight behind it:
It’s also proof that there is at least one enlightened redneck who went to law school. If word of this idea spreads, rednecks across the land may start lobbying for it. UPDATE: I tweaked the text slightly to reflect the correction in the comment below from the brains behind the idea of mandatory gun ownership. Filed under: Government and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics and Rednecks Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 02.20.10 by K. Daniel Glover @ 7:32 pm
… Gun-control laws do. That’s the hidden and ironic message Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail found in a new Brady Campaign for Gun Control report. “I am laughing so hard now that it is difficult to type,” Surber wrote after noting that Utah earned a grade of zero from the Brady Campaign but also has a murder rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people, with 46 percent of those murders being firearms related. By contrast, California scored a 79 on the Brady gun-control scale, but its homicide rate is 5.83 per 100,000 and 69 percent are firearms related. Annie, get your gun and move to a state where you can own it legally. You’ll be safer there. Filed under: Government and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.19.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:03 pm
Think of all the small game that died to make this festive wreath possible — and smile knowing that it is driving the animal lovers at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals crazy. Filed under: Holidays and Hunting & Guns and Just For Laughs and Redneck Humor Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.19.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:51 am
“It’s really a neat way to do business,” Tom Klebe told the Herald & Review in Decatur, Ill. He and his wife, Darla, have been selling the snack baskets online since 2004 and have new mixes planned for after the holidays. “The challenge we are running into is all of the different shipping options.” The store has arrangements for hunters (lots of jerky and other meaty morsels), fisherman (Goldfish crackers and other aquatic-themed snacks), soldiers (everything your favorite military man, or woman, could want while away from home) and more. The biggest basket, “Bubba’s Little Brother,” sells for about $130. And right now all 10 versions of the redneck basket, which actually come in metal tubs, are “stimulus priced”! Filed under: Business and Fishing and Food and Hunting & Guns and Rednecks Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.18.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 10:58 pm
Still Christmas shopping for that special redneck in your life? Well, nothing says “I love you” like a gun rack under the mattress and a shotgun within reach as you sleep: That reminds me of a redneck Christmas carol I learned as a kid and sing to our children now: “Jingle bells, shotgun shells, Santa Claus is dead. Tried to steal my teddy bear, so I shot him in the head.” Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Filed under: Holidays and Hunting & Guns and Just For Laughs and Redneck Humor and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.18.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:59 am
… in the stocking of this butchery. Sometimes people become so emotionally invested in a belief that their minds don’t work as quickly as their mouths run: (Via Don Surber) Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Just For Laughs Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.15.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 3:54 pm
Riflery is a sport made for West Virginia, and the Mountaineers of West Virginia University excel at the redneck sport. The team and its stories history — 14 collegiate championships — get much-deserved props in The Washington Post today:
In short, we hillbillies love to shoot things, be it deer or targets, and we know how to do it. Well, some of us do. I wish I could say I’m an expert marksman, but alas, I am the kind of redneck who more often than not can’t hit the proverbial broad side of barn. There are plenty of us. But at least we can live vicariously through the WVU riflery team. Male or female, they make all of us Mountaineers proud. Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Rednecks and Sports and West Virginia Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.12.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 3:48 pm
American singer and songwriter Pink (her given name is Alecia Beth Moore) thinks Prince William of England needs a better education. That’s the only explanation she has for why someone as royal as he is would stoop so low as to hunt:
Wear that redneck label with pride, Prince William. And keep on hunting. Pink, like everyone else who works with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is the one who needs educated. Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Music and People Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 12.11.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 11:28 pm
As a young man, I loved catching carp in the rivers and streams of West Virginia. I never kept the ugly, bony fish for food, but hooking them was great sport because they are fighters. Apparently the enlightened folks in the Great Lakes region don’t see the Asian carp that way. One family established the Redneck Fishing Tournament “to get those carp out so we can take back the [Illiniois River]” because the carp eat ravenously and jump from the water when spooked by boats. But fishing for the carp didn’t work. The population continued to rise, and officials fear that the invasive species will ruin sport and commercial fishing in the Great Lakes. That’s why frantic officials in Illinois spent $3 million to poison … one carp. Your government at work. Next time, maybe I’ll lobby the state to pay this redneck $3 million in exchange for catching and killing two carp. Illinois will double the return on taxpayers’ investment, and I’ll be able to retire early. Sounds like a win-win scenario to me. Filed under: Fishing and Government and Rednecks and Video and West Virginia Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.10.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 6:01 pm
I’ve been missing a good series. Since 1995, Israel has been striking coins about biblical stories. This year’s coins, available in gold and silver and in different sizes, illustrate the story of Israeli judge Samson killing a lion with his bare hands. Past coins have featured the Big Three patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — and characters such as Joseph, Moses and his sister Miriam, Solomon and the prophet Isaiah. The Tower of Babel makes an appearance, too. Meanwhile, on $1 coins here in the United States that nobody uses, this year we’re celebrating presidential powerhouses William Henry Harrison (dead one month after his inauguration because he didn’t have, as the cliche says, the sense God gave a lemon), John Tyler, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor. It’s enough to make an all-American guy want to start collecting coins from Israel. Filed under: Coin Collecting and History and People and Religion Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.05.09 by K. Daniel Glover @ 12:00 pm
Outrage and insights in a 140 characters or less (most of the time). This is a weekly recap of topics that capture my fancy. To get your fill of my rants on a daily basis, follow The Enlightened Redneck on Twitter. Much to the chagrin of many fellow conservatives, I supported Mike Huckabee for president in the 2008 Republican presidential primary. The news this week that he granted clemency to a man who years killed four police officers in Washington state, and Huckabee’s comments after the news broke, made me change my tune. I still like Huckabee, but I don’t believe he has the judgment to be president. Here is what I had to say about the matter over a series of tweets: “Mike Huckabee freed a man now suspected of killing four cops. He no longer looks as presidential to me. … Huckabee dodges responsibility, blames “Arkansas” (and Washington) for freeing a man suspected of kiing four cops. What a cowardly statement from Huckabee. I expected better of him. He made a huge mistake and should own up to it. … ” And here are some redneck rants on other topics:
Filed under: Entertainment and Government and Human Interest and Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and People and Redneck Rants and Sports and Technology and Wildlife Comments: None |
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