Thanks to everyone for voting and commenting about the options for vacations thatJohn and I were considering this year. After careful consideration and appreciation for the overwhelming vote for the cruise to Greece….. here’s what we are going to do.

Yes gang, it will be a “Brokeback Vacation to the Rocky Mountains” … the number two voted response in the poll (with a modification).

On July 6 we are leaving Charlotte to fly to Calgary, Alberta Canada for the annual rodeo festival known as “The Calgary Stampede.” Then on Sunday July 9, we are driving four hours through the Canadian Rockies to an awesome sounding dude ranch for the next seven days. I would tell you the name of the dude ranch, but I fear some weirdo would track us down. So I’m afraid that I’ll have to plug the ranch after we get home along with photos.

We have wanted to experience both a dude ranch vacation and the Calgary Stampede for a number of years, so we just decided to combine it into one trip this year.

And why not Greece? Well, primarily because John’s job involves national security matters that would necessitate a lot of paperwork being filed with his company in order to travel out of the USA. And we costed out the Greece trip and felt as though it is something we will keep at the top of our list, but allow some time to save up for that one. But thanks for the comments and the vote!

So NDT was right…. dude ranch, DUDE RANCH… it is.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Just spotted this “Memo To Future Trolls” over at The Malcontent, and I have to say I couldn’t agree more.

After nine months of blogging at this URL, I have banned my first troll, a commenter going by the name of “studiotodd.”

I think blogs with “policies” – whether regarding commenting or blogrolling or whatever – are exceedingly lame, so I haven’t really put my thoughts on those subjects into writing. Previously, I had banned only spammers, and one gentleman who felt it appropriate to make generalized death threats against gays. And I was proud of fostering free-flowing debate, even if it has tended to be (yes) more right-leaning than the typical gay blog.

My “policy” is pretty simple: I’m an easy-going guy, but I too have limits. I have paid thousands of dollars to keep this site running.

So if you work extra-hard to antagonize me, Robbie or our readers, and you have the misfortune of crossing me during one of my less charitable moods, you too may share what studiotodd calls his “badge of honor.” (Forget that moonbats like BlogActive, AmericaBlog and others make frequent and ostentatious displays of banning trolls for the slightest infractions.)

All points of view are still welcome here. But you will sorely test my patience if you start painting too broad a stroke with terms like “racist,” “Jews for Hitler,” or the like. This won’t be a forum for just anything that anyone wants it to be. My blog, my rules.

And although I have had a bit less patience than Mal has (and banned about a handful of trolls here), his rules apply to GayPatriot too. So this is a memo not only to future trolls, but current ones… you know who you are.

This is my house and I will decide who I let in the door and kick out on the porch.

Thanks Mal, for articulating what I’ve tried to say here a couple of times before.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)