My Beautiful America

[Robert Sears]

Sindawe,
No I would not beat him to a bloody pulp even though that's how I would feel. He would get verbally dressed up one side and down the other. It's called repsect , you don't have to say it you don't want to be you should at least be repectful of others. That's something I've noticed in a large portion of people under 30 and  some over.

Bob

[Dannyboy]

Blackburn, didn't you start a thread not too long ago about possibly joining the military?  Just so you know, in the military, you don't get a choice to salute the flag or not.  Although, I have to admit, I'd like to be there if you tried to argue about it with your pseudointellectual tirade about what American really stands for these days.

[grampster]

Blackburn,
Just a simple question expressing a curiosity I had.  No ulterior motive.

[Perd Hapley]

What?!  Complete sentences that fit together to make a reasonable argument?  Who are you, and what have you done with our Blackburn?

Whoever you are, you make a good point.

[jefnvk]

Have you ever spent the late afternoon watching the purple shadows deepen in the Arizona desert?

-- Nope, but have you watched the sun set 10 miles outin the Great Lakes?

Or seen or heard an elk plow their way through waist-deep snow on a cold Colorado dawn?

--Nope, but have you seen one swim right through your decoys in the Michigan duck marsh?

Did you ever see the sun go down in Hawaii or see the stormy waves break over the rock-bound coast of Maine?

-- Nope, but I have been hit with 20-foot waves in the Gales of November on Lake Superior

Or have you ever seen an eagle fly up out of the mists of Alaska or a big October moon hanging full over the still Dakota badlands?

-- Nope, and will August work?

Have you ever tasted the gumbo in New Orleans, barbecue in Carolina, or the chicken wings in Buffalo?

--Nope, but how about fresh brook trout and grayling in the Mountains of Montana?

Have you ever had Brunswick stew in Macon or cornbread in Birmingham or brisket slow cooked over Hill-country mesquite wood?

-- No, but I have had cornbread in Macon

Did you ever drink water from a gurgling branch in Utah, stand on the mountain above El Paso del Norte and see the lights twinkling clear over into Mexico?

-- Have you stood on a hill and look straight over the Soo Locks complete with a few ships into Canada?

Did you ever jingle horses in the pre-dawn stillness of a perfect Texas day and watch their shod hooves kicking up sparks on the volcanic rock?

--OK, don't have a smart remark fot his one.  You got me.

Or tended a trot line on a foggy Carolina morning or heard the distant song of a lovesick whippoorwill in the pristine Tennessee late night?

-- How about a loon or wolf on a crispy Northern Michigan night?

Have you seen the faces on Mount Rushmore or stood at the Vietnam Monument?

-- Got me again

Have you ever crossed the mighty Mississippi or been to The Daddy of em All in Cheyenne, Wyoming?

-- Yes, and no, but I have been to the Poor Boy's

Or seen the mighty Vols run out on the football field on a chilly autumn afternoon?

-- I think watching the Packers play in a blizzard would be more fun

Did you ever see the Chicago skyline from Lakeshore Drive at night or the New England foliage in the Fall or the summer beauty of the Shenandoah Valley or Indiana covered with new snow?

-- How about a UP countryside 'fall color' tour (PS I really hate people that drive 5 halfway on the shoulder gawking at LEAVES), or snow higher than your head?

Did you ever see a herd of wild horses running free across the empty spaces of Nevada or caught a wall-eyed pike out of a cold Wisconsin stream or marveled at the tall ships docked in the harbor at Baltimore?

-- A herd of Wild Horses running across Maryland (Virginia?), and out make Wisconsin's fish look like bait

Did you ever see the early morning dew sparkling on the bluegrass or the wind stir the wheat fields on a hot Kansas afternoon or driven the lonely stretches of old Route 66?

-- Nope, but I walked a half mile over dew covered gras at Camp Perry, and it wasn't much fun

Have you ever heard the church bells peal their call to worship on an early Sunday in some small town in the deep South or passed through the redwood forest as the sun was going down?

-- I have heard our electronic church bells get themselves caught in an infinite loop

Have you ever been to Boise or Baxley or Beauford or Billings?

-- More than one of them, I am afraid

Have you ever passed through Sanford or Sulphakur or San Angelo?

-- Just ate in Sanford

Have you ever seen the falls at Niagara?  The Ice Palace in St. Paul?  Or the Gateway to the West?

-- Have you seen the falls at Thaquamenon?  Or the ice mountains on Lake Superior

[Justin]

Although, I have to admit, I'd like to be there if you tried to argue about it with your pseudointellectual tirade about what American really stands for these days.

Blackburn may be an overly-opinionated, sanctimonious shmuck, but he's hardly pseudo-intellectual.

[grampster]

jefnvk,
C'mon you mothballer you, you're gonna let out the secret of our Michigan and all them flatlanders are gonna start comin' our way and there won't be enough pasties to go around anymore.  (How about standing on a bluff looking south along the dunes of Lake Superior in the Nat'l Park north of Grand Marais.)

[jefnvk]

(How about standing on a bluff looking south along the dunes of Lake Superior in the Nat'l Park north of Grand Marais.)

I gotta do the looking up from a kayak view one of these days

[Justin]

Why not sanctimonious?

You do sanctimony pretty well.