“Even after the Super Bowl victory of the New Orleans Saints, I have noticed a large number of people, implying with bad jokes and anecdotes, that Loozianna Cajuns ain’t smart.

I would like to state for the record that I disagree with that assessment.

Anybody who would build a city five feet below sea level in a hurricane zone and fill it with Democrats who can’t swim is a damn genius.”

heh™

h/t Leigh Ann

SwampMan and I had worried about what had happened to a former student for years. As a child, he’d been subjected to the most horrific physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those who should have protected him. His mom, also a victim, was helpless to protect him, herself, or the younger ones. As he grew older, he was small and thin and could go into rages when provoked. He was bullied/provoked relentlessly in school and fought back violently. He was often in trouble.

He was an ESE student. I helped him with his reading. I thought he was brilliant and creative and told him so frequently. He had a gift for writing and WHAT an imagination! My heart ached for the gentle, sensitive young man I could catch glimpses of underneath the sullen, combative exterior of a middle schooler that should be in high school.

SwampMan REALLY worried about him. He tutored him. He listened to his problems. He did not report things that probably would have gotten him arrested, suspended, and some mandatory jail time, preferring to handle it himself and talk with the young man.

Then something really bad happened and he was removed from his home and school. We didn’t know where he had been placed or what had happened to him until he graduated, then he came back to the school and told SwampMan how he was a better dad to him than his dad had ever been.

We saw him this evening at a fast food establishment. He came to our table to tell us how much we meant to him. He brought his manager out and told her how we never stopped believing in him. He showed us his car, and told us how proud he had been to cook our food. We are so proud of him!

So many kids that we’ve known with backgrounds like his are dead or in prison. We’ve so happy that he’s getting along fine, even in this crappy economy, holding a job, and being a productive member of society. The slight young man is now a well-muscled, confident, handsome man.

Well done.

I don’t know how long it was before the deep breath I took was expelled. I couldn’t process what I was reading and didn’t want to…American racing legend Carroll Shelby dead at 89.

As the light changed and traffic began to move again, I was numb. If the song “The Sky Is Crying” had been playing it would have been apropos, as it was raining and my tears were rolling down the street.

I was in my very early teens when I first heard of Carroll Hall Shelby, after the introduction of his first car, the Shelby Cobra. It took the automotive world by storm, following Carroll’s simple philosophy for performance…”small car, big engine.”

The man and his machines impressed a young man that was a ‘car guy’ from an early age. I’m convinced my Dad, an aircraft engine mechanic in WWII, put gasoline in my juice bottle and bearing grease on my toast. The beautiful lines of the A/C Bristol body and it’s compact size, along with good old Detroit iron under the hood made men realize they too have nipples when they saw it for the first time. I experienced that same sensation, along with another that young men often experience, while peering through the show room window of a Ford dealership in downtown Shreveport, La. The unobtainable Shelby Cobra sat there in its gleaming glory, right next to the “Kooky Byrnes” hot rod from the hit TV show, 77 Sunset Strip.

The legend of the Shelby Cobras continued to grow and the enthusiasm for his products did, as well, as they got better and more powerful, while everything Shelby waved his ‘magic wand’ over continued to win races. It is important to note that no other man has accomplished in racing history what this former East Texas chicken rancher did:

Carroll Shelby is the only man to have won the prestigious Le Mans race as a driver, team owner and automotive manufacturer.

In Shelby’s view of his long and illustrious career, his greatest accomplishment was not his racing success, his car building or his being the world’s longest living heart transplant survivor, it was forming The Carroll Shelby Foundation. As Carroll Shelby stated:

“when you hear those words ‘i think we found you a heart’ there is nothing so sweet”

More than anything else, Carroll Shelby was one of my personal heroes because of his character and inner strength. In his many endeavors, he always faced adversity, but not once did he ever shrink or slink away in defeat, he just cinched up his overalls and got to work again.

Here is a brief synopsis of his working life:
*WWII flight instructor
*Dump truck operator
*Chicken rancher
*Dallas sports car dealership
*International champion race car driver
*Bonneville Salt Flats world speed record setter
*Two time Sports Illustrated “Driver of the Year”
*Created the Texas Chili Cook-Off in Terlingua 1968
*African Safari Hunting Operator
**Created some of the most iconic American muscle cars-his Ford and Shelby created cars are in the below photo:

Let's Race!

I, as well as many, many others, have lost a friend, a hero and an inspiration. Posting this is a small consolation to the many who admired and loved this perpetually smiling entrepreneur. I wish nothing but the best for his family and the many dedicated employees of Shelby American and sincerely hope they will continue the many endeavors he created.

In a way it is only fitting that Shelby left us at this time, just one month after the 50th Anniversary celebration in Las Vegas of the founding of Shelby American, even if he was unable to attend.

Godspeed and a heartfelt THANK YOU, Mr. Shelby, for being such a fine example of an American and a Son Of Texas.

The race is run, the flag unfurled, the champion now will rest. God speed, Carroll Shelby, we will never forget you. Jan. 23, 1923 – May 10, 2012.
~Carroll Shelby Foundation

*Additional Links*
Car And Driver-So Long, Shelby: Carroll Shelby 1923–2012

Hot Rod Magazine

Shelby American, Inc.

**Cross-posted at Urban Grounds**

” When I think about those soldiers or airmen, marines, or sailors out there fighting on my behalf …”

(emphasis mine).

/sigh

In an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts, the president did his best to quell controversy begun by Vice-president Biden over the weekend. Some, in fact, are calling the Biden statement a gaffe.

Riiight.

Biden has made many gaffes in his career, in both word and deed. But folks, this wasn’t one of them. This one had a purpose: to lay the groundwork for Obama to control the talking heads. It was simply the play of the day to continue the Obama’s team effort to control the news cycle. Don’t believe it? Look for yourself, network and cable news, internet, the issue may be controversial, but so far, given the lack of a coherent response by the GOP, it’s a win for Obama.

Even the Tea Party was trotting out the, “we’re just about economic issues, we leave the social issues alone.”

Call me cynical if you like, but the response to this so-called gaffe was way too smooth, too clever, and just had the feeling of being contrived. But, as usual, it is working.

I think I just found a use for the old breech break 16 ga shotgun in the cabinet. A target load should run about 5 bucks for a box of 25.

Talk about making your money go farther!

h/t Havoc.

..

hat/tip JJ

..

I don’t know how many times we have to say it, but we’re not voting for Mitt Romney or any other RINO. And tonite on FREE REPUBLIC, Jim Robinson made the point loud and clear….

No more Doles!! No more McCains!! No more RINOS!!

NO ROMNEY!!

Those who cannot stomach rebellion might as well start looking for a new home on the net!!

Those who have ignored my hundreds of posts on this crucial issue or who have doubted me these last three or four years might as well get used to it. FR will never support the abortionist, homosexualist, socialist, mandate loving, constitution trampling liar Mitt Romney.

In case you haven’t noticed, a TEA Party rebellion is on and Free Republic signed on years ago. There is no turning back. No more crap from the GOP-e!! They’ve screwed us for the last time!! Karl Rove and Mitt Romney, et al, loathe conservatism and loathe the tea party and took it upon themselves to use their money and connections to destroy nearly every one of our conservative tea party candidates while pushing their big government RINOS. That makes them the enemy. I will not reward that betrayal by giving them my support or my vote.

FR is and will remain a pro-life, pro-limited government conservative site!!

We are beholden to NO ONE!! We bow to no kings!! We bow to NO RINOS!!

I’d rather fight and die like a man than bend over and be screwed by a RINO!!

Long Live The Revolution!