You can accuse me of whatever you wish. I basically don't give a damn.

But since you do seem to consider yourself the higher authority on a finer plane than anyone else, go ahead and blow as hard as you wish. Trying to displace responsibility on someone else may impress a few others, but I swore off taking blame that doesn't belong on my shoulders too many years ago to count.

Have fun.

You really know how to pour oil on troubled waters, don't you?

I don't buy false-sounding pseudo apologies, and I'll not be intimidated by accusations of incivility when I don't, thank you very much.

Hell, if McCain had won, the Witch From Wassila would probably have drawn a bead on him already.

Amen to that. No quarter.

Thankfully we neither require nor desire your permission to run the group as WE see fit.

Face it, you don't have the right to invade anyone's living room and crap on the floor. Your claims of accidental stumbling don't hold an ounce of water. SheShe may just ask you politely (at first) to wipe your feet at the door, but I have no such genteel approach. I'll happily tell you and any other person who acts like a barbarian in here to shut up and get the hell out. After all, that's the only approach you'll understand.

BTW, my patience is shorter than I am.

(ahem) If you meant your size comment as a generalized statement, you should've noted

that you're aware of other standards. As it is, your statement was ambiguous at best..

BTW, declaring someone who disagrees with you, even adamantly, as 'defensive' is passive aggressive at best. And once again you're wrong when you say I 'backed off' my 'initial snark'. That would require some degree of regret on my part when I have none, only lingering pique with you for having continued your attitude in what you might have hoped would pass as a faux-apology.

Neither did I say that animals UNDER 13 hands were considered horses by anyone. My Sunshine was barely over OUR standards for pony size, but she made it by a hair. If you had bought your daughter a Polish (or Russian) Arabian, you might've had a winner at halter but still no more than a useless toy. When it comes to the most efficient design for strength, speed, and stamina, 13-14 hands is the sweet spot. For every inch over 14 hands, you start to lose a bit of that prime mix.

Might I recommend a good course in reading comprehension? Maybe a few lessons from Miss Manners, too. You kicked me in the shins first and then wanted to cry foul when I kicked back. That doesn't pass muster.

Not for Egyptian Arabians, the original small desert horse. The original bloodlines,

not always popular in the size-crazy US, were and are horses even though they seldom rose much above 14 hands and many were only 13. Anything approaching 15 hands is not a real Arabian. My Sunshine had a pedigree going back almost as far as records were kept. To call them 'ponies' is a deep affront. I don't need you to define 'hands' for me either, thank you. I was breeding and training these HORSES long enough to know more than you ever imagined.

The larger Arabians you see so much in America and Europe have been bred to a height totally out of keeping with their original purpose. They're not good for much except halter classes in my opinion. Couldn't do a decent day's work or a real FIVE DAY marathon if their lives depended on it. Certainly not w/o great risk. One time My Sunshine had a 3 month layoff while I was working 2 full time jobs. The day that ordeal ended, I hopped on her and we took a goat path up, down, and over the mountains and raced across the valley for 8 hours. At the end she was barely lathered on her neck, and she never once in her life limped or even needed leg liniment. Iron legs. Never wore shoes either. She had PERFECT feet. That's what you can get with a genuinely ancient bloodline.

BTW, when she used to run in pasture and fallow crop land near the highway, it was such a spectacular sight that people would pull over in their vehicles and stop to watch. I moved up to a better ranch 3 times while she was alive, and in the new location I could generally snooker quarter horse people into a race at least half a mile long because like so many, they had no respect for her small size. We'd even give them a good head start and still win. (It didn't hurt that My Sunshine carried only about 115 lbs including me and the racing saddle while those big ol' cowboys were loaded down with baggage and their horses had little to nothing after the 1/4 mile mark. Before long word would make the rounds and I couldn't beg or buy a race with anybody. No $ involved but their egos took a beating. Big old horses couldn't beat that little bitty mare, boo hoo. With thoroubreds I always insisted on a 2-mile race because I could watch them a few minutes and know pretty well what they were good for. But I'll admit that even I'd have wanted a minimum 3 miles against Secretariat in my notion of a dream race.

One other thing, too, since you did kinda get my Irish up. 'My Sunshine' was only her pet name, of course. Her registered name was about 3 feet long, haha! Almost bigger than she was!

Yep. The GOP sheeple believe it all the way to the economic (and sometimes real) slaughterhouse.

They're so drunk on hate that they'll continue to resist change even if they happen to have a glimmer of what's being done to them, and I think some actually do. Perverse suicide.

I like Krugman, Piketty, and Wolff too.

Thanks, Faygo.

Funny little story here that touches at least somewhat on our favorite horse:

A neighbor of mine around that time bought a full brother of Secretariat for only $6K a couple years after the Belmont - HE looked like a twin but hated to run at all. She bought him for a kid's horse. Plod, plod, plod no matter what else was going on around him. He wouldn't even trot back to the stable. Bloodlines are important, but they're no guarantee. Secretariat was all fire and speed. His brother a few years later had absolutely nothing in the tank.

I really hope CA Chrome makes it. He's a great horse.