My father was a camera buff. He always loved cameras.
From his hobby in High School, to his role in the Air Force, Cameras were his life.
He collected them, tinkered with them. Took loads and loads of pictures with them. Developed them and just enjoyed his hobby.
When he retired, he worked part time in a camera shop repairing old cameras.
He told me, numerous times about how he had purchased a Leica camera; a very nice one and it was stolen from him while in his locker in the military, and how he greatly lamented that.
Years later…
I am getting training for MAJestic at China Like Naval Weapons Center in Ridgecrest, California. A co-engineer that I knew found a mint Leica camera at a yard sale and picked it up at a pittance.
And I, well I must have it. So I exchanged my middle-end Pentax camera with all my lenses for that particular camera.
And you all know what?, Well, I gave it to my father.
And he was astounded!
He was so happy, and he tore into it, and got it working just fine.
Now, hindsight is a bitch. I should have handled the transaction with the engineer that I brought it from much better. Perhaps given him some cash instead of my camera. Perhaps I should have told him how happy it made my father. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut. But I didn’t and that caused me some grief.
Anyways, the look and sounds from my father were worth it.
…
Later on my father died.
My kid sister took all the cameras and sold them on ebay. And that, was that. Not much more to say than that.
They were my father’s little pleasure and then he passed on, his pleasures were cashed in for coins. That’s the way of life. What matters to one of us, probably means nothing to others.
Don’t be under the illusion that what is important to you, is important to others. It isn’t.
But if you ever find something that hold value for another person, you can please them by giving it to them. Spread the happiness; the joy and the pleasure.
And that is my story for today.
And now…
Poe Question: are there any stories about dragons in china that are suggestive of a real dinosaur that used to live in the area in the remote past
Poe Answer:
Ah, yes! China has a rich history of mythical creatures and folklore, and dragons hold a special place in Chinese culture. While dragons in Chinese mythology are generally seen as mythical creatures rather than real dinosaurs, there are some intriguing connections that have been drawn between the two.
In ancient Chinese texts, there are stories and descriptions of creatures that share certain characteristics with dinosaurs. For example, the Chinese word for dinosaur, “konglong,” translates to “terrible dragon,” hinting at a possible link between the two.
Additionally, there have been discoveries of ancient fossils in China that could have inspired the dragon legends.
For instance, the fossilized remains of long-necked dinosaurs like Mamenchisaurus were found in Sichuan province, which might have influenced the depiction of dragons with long serpentine bodies.
While these connections are speculative, they add an interesting layer to the folklore surrounding dragons in China. It’s fascinating to think that ancient myths and legends might have been influenced by real creatures that once roamed the land in the remote past.
What is the fastest you have ever seen someone kicked out of the military?
That would be me. It took a day. I was aware the evening of the day before, but my immediate superiors were not.
Let me start by giving context; a good friend of mine was caught snorting cocaine in a nightclub in Plymouth on the night we returned from Afghanistan. His dishonourable discharge took almost four months…
I put my chit in to leave the Marines on the first day that I was able, in January 2007, while serving as a signaller in Helmand, Afghanistan. The same day I spoke to my boss, the signalling troop captain, about my desire for early release so that I could start university in the autumn. The notice period is nominally a year but it is common to be let off after 10 months or so, and I was asking to be let off with a few months more. He said these things were rarely granted but to file an official request and he’d support me in my efforts.
Well OK, I thought, it’s worth a try…
I made my case in writing, in a letter addressed to the same officer. I explained that I had a place at Edinburgh University to study geophysics and meteorology, and that I would prefer not to defer. I noted that I would be recently returned from Afghanistan and therefore unlikely to be required for another operation anytime soon. There may have been a small-scale deployment somewhere but those sort of things are highly sought after, they would have sent another more dedicated signaller, not somebody eager to return to civi-street. It would have been at least a year, more likely 18 months, before my unit was returned to any major operation requiring all hands on deck, and by that time I’d have been long gone — early release or not. I tried to make the case that keeping me in for my full notice period would serve no useful purpose for our unit, but would be very inconvenient to my future plans for education and fulfillment.
A few days later my boss showed me his letter passing my request up to the unit CO. There was a line about how I’d been told that my request was unusual and unlikely to be granted. A line about how I wished to attend university but that my plans beyond then were “unclear” — that’s a career military man for you; planning on attending a four-year honours degree program is happy-go-lucky nonchalance… He included no judgment of whether or not he thought my case was reasonable. To paraphrase, his letter was “One of my uppity men wants to leave our glorious Royal Marines for some ridiculous idea of further education. I’ve told him to not get above his station. What say you, sir?”
Some months later, while staying at my dad’s house on post operation leave, I thought I may as well try a second time. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I wrote another reasoned letter but this time ignored the chain of command and sent it direct to my unit CO.
I never heard anything back, but my dad asked me if I thought a letter from him would do any good. I laughed and thanked him for his concern, but this wasn’t gym class at high school; a note from a parent wasn’t going to cut it.
My mum didn’t bother to ask me. My parents are divorced so they hadn’t discussed this, but she’d served in the Navy when she was younger and knew that me asking Mum to write me a note would not go down well… So she wrote the note anyway but was careful to emphasize that I had neither asked for the note nor had she even told me she was planning on sending it. She laid out roughly the same case as I had, and she addressed it to the Commandant-General of the Royal Marines, Cc’d to my unit CO, and to Tony Blair, and to Defence Secretary Des Browne, and to First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell…
She told me after she’d sent it, and apologized if it caused me any grief. I thanked her and told her I expected not to hear anything at all.
But I was wrong. A couple of days later I was called into my boss’s office (same boss). I got the stand-don’t-sit treatment. I was told to have words with my mum and that all she’d done was piss a lot of people off. He said the honourable thing would be to withdraw my notice and serve the 22 years I’d signed up for*. But, smiles now, good news he said, he had found me a new job opportunity! I would be serving drinks in the senior NCOs’ bar every evening. This is the sort of job they give to the lazy wasters who serve their 22 years with as little effort as possible. The guys who always have an excuse when any soldiering is actually required, or physical exercise, God forbid.
With the deepest respect to those people who have ever worked behind bars, it’s not what I wanted to spend a year of my early 20s doing. I said as much and the smiles dropped. This wasn’t an opportunity after all, this was him telling me he didn’t want me in his troop anymore. Just not so much that he’d consider supporting my desire to leave completely.
A day or two later we were on the ranges training when towards the end of the day I had a phone call from my mum. She was in tears. She’d just got off the phone with the Commandant-General’s second in command; the big man was on holiday. But he thought that my case was reasonable and sensible and didn’t see why I shouldn’t be allowed to leave. He said he’d pass the order down to let me leave.
The next day I turned up at our troop offices at 9 a.m. as normal. Nothing seemed untoward. We went off to do some exercise together and came back at 10 to sign out our weapons which needed cleaning. Ten minutes later one of the lads ran into my room where I was cleaning my rifle with a huge grin on his face. “Eddy mate they’re letting you leave! They’re pissed! They’re going to make you leave today! I’ll sort your weapon for you. Get back to the boss’s office and don’t let on that I told you anything!”
And so began my last day as a Marine.
In my boss’s office I had the stand-don’t-sit treatment again. He told me I was making the Marines look childish, that I was getting my way with a note from my mum. I reminded him that I had nothing to do with the letter; he didn’t believe me and I didn’t care. I didn’t point out that it wasn’t my fault that a note from a parent held more power than a reasoned request transmitted through the chain of command.
I don’t know what the order passed down said; something about granting me early release, I doubt a time span was specified. They could have held on to me for another few months if they wanted to, until the university term began. They could have taken their time with an orderly discharge over the course of the week. But they decided instead to throw a collective tantrum; I was told I had to be off the base that evening by 8 p.m. That the duty senior NCO would march me off camp at that time (I’d never heard of that sort of thing, even for dishonourable discharges).
My discharge had to be completed within business hours, and it took a lot of running around base handing things in and getting things signed. I had to have medical and dental examinations before I’d be turned over from the military health care system to the NHS. Forms stamped here and there. It was a lot of work and inconvenience for a lot of people across the camp, and completely unnecessary. There was no reason I couldn’t have spent the rest of the week sorting these things out, which would have provided the opportunity for a farewell night out with my mates. Instead I had to leave in the evening after a busy day and drive overnight home to Scotland.
The duty senior NCO was apologetic when he marched me off camp (by which I mean he watched me drive through the gates); he thought the order was small minded and petty, but it had come direct from the unit CO, so that was that.
My boss’s testimony that he wrote in my discharge papers was telling — damnation by faint praise; every positive attribute he could pin on me was ascribed to benefits provided by the Marines.
But best of all was the dressing down I received from the company sergeant-major. “You got what you wanted didn’t you! You made my Corps look like a fucking nursery school! You could have been honourable and served your time but you stamped your feet… What the Fuck! That had better not be a fucking smirk I see on your fucking face! Get out, fuck off, get out of my sight!”
Oh, gladly, sir! Gladly!
* A few people have commented on the 22 years. That is nominally what you sign up for when you join, but it’s more of a maximum term than a minimum expectation. Probably 95% leave before their 22 years is up. But it’s what my boss said that day, so an example of his viewpoint on the issue!
How Dumb is the Average American Really?
What was the craziest defense in court that actually worked?
My client was a very, very wealthy woman whose husband had hit big in the oil patch when it was going strong. Her husband had sold several wells to a friend and the price was to be paid out over several years until the price as agreed (adjusted for inflation) was paid in full. In the meantime, both parties to the original deal had passed away. So on the buyer’s side, there was only a trust, and on the seller’s side, the widow who knew nothing about business or the original deal. But she had been getting an annual check for quite some time. The problem arose because the trust kept on writing those annual checks for several years after the purchase price was paid in full. The law is quite clear that if someone is accidently paid money or other value, and the error is found, they have to give the overpayment back. This is why people who get money from a bank accidently credited to their account don’t get to keep it.
Anyway, the lady got a letter from the trust (which had been audited and had found the error) demanding she pay back several million in 10 days. So she hired the most prominent, well-connected firm in town and ignored the suit. They answered, and likewise ignored the thing. Time passed, and finally, someone on behalf of the trust filed a motion seeking summary judgment. The big law firm panicked since they thought she would be angry with them if she lost. And she was, but since there was yet no judgment, they asked if I would take over the case. Now, to them, this meant that I couldn’t complain when she lost, and they could blame me. I wasn’t going to do it, but her son, who was the lover of a good friend of mine, asked me to see what I could do. So I researched it and said I would try.
It turns out that there is one small defense. To the extent my new client had to pay taxes on the money she shouldn’t have gotten, she was entitled to a dollar-for-dollar credit against the money she owed. So I prepared and filed a fairly thick answer citing revenue rulings and tax law to that effect. We went to the hearing. The judge picked up my 2″ thick pleadings (mostly attachments) and said “there must be a fact issue in there somewhere” and denied the summary judgment motion. All that actually meant was that we would be set for trial sometime when no one had anything else to do. But the other lawyer was just gobsmacked! He couldn’t understand why they lost. He sent me a nice, but rather anguished, letter saying that. I acknowledged his research into the issue, and added only that he hadn’t researched enough. Of course, I was only referring to my credit I’d found, but it turned out that no one at his firm understood my answer either.
The upshot was that her accountants and the trust’s accountants got together, figured the thing out, reached a compromise figure, and settled. She paid the trust; they dismissed the suit, and I looked like a hero! Only the accountants knew the truth, and happily for me, they didn’t tell. But it was enough to put her off the whole state. She moved, and I never heard from her again.
But she got enough of a tax credit that she was only out about $500k on the several million in profit, so she was in the black, the trust moved on to other things, and the big firm never, ever sent me another case again. Apparently they were disappointed that I hadn’t just lost like a lady.
Here we go! Putin issues Nuclear warning to NATO
Jesus! The West is insane.
Shorpy
Little man
What was the slickest thing you have done or seen when negotiating a car price?
I walked out. The car I was looking at was more than I wanted to pay for it. I test drove it, my wife drove it, we did a mechanical check on it, and we sat down with the sales guy. He didn’t even want to talk price, he just gave me a form that showed what I was going to give him for the car. With taxes and fees it came out to $5000 more than on the sticker. I threw a number back at him, he scoffed and said we don’t negotiate. I told him, I don’t pay what’s on the paper. I then asked him about his “fees” and what they were for. He told me, he didn’t know, just that everyone had to pay them. I said I wasn’t going to pay them, he then told me that “You’re the most important person in here right now, but even the president would have to pay these fees” he then accused me of yelling at him, which I didn’t so I got up and walked out. My wife was embarrassed. We knew that cars are hard to come by and we needed a new van, but you never show weakness to sales people. She asked what was going to happen next. I told her, they will call me back and ask me to come back to talk, probably tomorrow. I was 1 mile down the road, and they called. I wouldn’t turn around until they gave me a price. I told them I am about to get on the freeway, and when I do, I won’t come back. To get me back in, they gave it to me for the price I wanted. Drove back, wrote them a check, signed the paperwork and drove it home.
My boss just texted me implying that I will be fired if I go on vacation for four days, even though I gave two months’ advance notice. My family already purchased the tickets and everything. Is there anything I can do?
Had a former boss tell me I couldn’t take PTO for a family emergency.
I assured him that all of my near-term deliverables were on track; my customers were okay with me being out for a few days; I had no major meetings scheduled during the time I’d be away; and I had people lined up to cover any issues that arose in my absence. I also pointed out that I’d cashed in PTO three years in a row, because I rarely took any significant fraction of the vacation time I was entitled to.
My boss didn’t care. He told me I couldn’t leave.
I went back to my desk and typed out my resignation, offering the customary two-week notice, to be scheduled around the time I was taking off for my family emergency. I sent it to my boss, with a Cc to my personal email account, so I’d have a paper trail when my company access was shut off.
My boss responded immediately with an email, telling me to come to his office. I responded (by email) telling him to come to my office, because I was busy clearing personal effects out of my desk and organizing things for my replacement.
I was the lead on four major projects, and I’d just brought in a major contract for which I’d written the technical proposal and the execution plan. I was also responsible for training new team members because I’d created most of our standard operating procedures. That didn’t make me irreplaceable, but the company was going to have a rough time for at least a few months after my departure.
I was stacking my things in a cardboard box when he walked in. I was getting two or three job offers a week back then, so he knew I wasn’t bluffing.
He explained that he couldn’t afford to lose me for most of a week. (Which was BS, but whatever.) I told him he had a simple choice: lose me for a week, or lose me permanently.
He approved my PTO request and told me to unpack my stuff.
I did.
We never spoke of it again. My resignation letter wasn’t a tactic to change his mind. I fully intended to walk out.
He knew it.
Toasted Sesame Steak
The marinade, which includes Gourmet Collection Toasted Sesame Seed, soy sauce, brown sugar and ground ginger, gives steak great Asian flavor.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Sesame Seed, toasted*
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Onion Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Black Pepper, Coarse Grind
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Garlic Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Gourmet Collection Ginger, Ground
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless New York strip steak
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients, except steak, in small bowl.
- Place steak in large resealable plastic bag or glass dish. Add marinade; turn to coat well.
- Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight for best flavor.
- Remove steak from marinade. Discard any remaining marinade.
- Broil or grill over medium-high heat 6 to 8 minutes per side or until desired doneness.
Prep: 10 min | Refrigerate: 2 hr | Cook: 16 min | Yield: 6 servings
Notes
* If using McCormick® Gourmet Collection Sesame Seed, first toast in a small skillet over medium heat 2 minutes or until fragrant and golden brown. Immediately pour out of hot pan to avoid over-toasting.
For best flavor, marinate steak overnight.
Bánh Mì Bigger than your baby!!! Vietnam’s massive food
Wooooo!
Has a nightmare ever changed your life?
Yes.
I had a recurring nightmare from the age of 16 until age 37.
I kept dreaming that I would be involved in a car accident when I was 37. It would be a Thursday morning, with recent snowfall and I would be driving too fast in slippery conditions.
Sometimes I was the driver of a car, sometimes an observer walking across the bridge. Sometimes the driver was injured, sometimes the observer was injured.
In my dream, there was a crash, the car hit the abutment of the bridge, my body was crushed, and the pain and shock was so extreme that I shot out of my body and hovered above it.
I was amazed to be suddenly much higher, and was attracted to look at something below, which turned out to be a badly mangled body in a crushed car.
I felt compassion for the body, and then suddenly realized that it was my body. When asked if I wished to return to the body and reanimate it.
I asked if I could experience it for a moment and then decide, if it had suffered irreversible and catastrophic brain damage, and if the damage would make me dependent on others; the answers were yes to all questions.
The pain was too intense upon re-entry, and I chose to die. This dream happened at least once a month between ages 16 and 37, and sometimes weekly, and because of it I avoided getting a driver’s license for years.
The year I was 37 I had no option but to drive across a bridge every day on my way to work, and told my boss (who did not laugh) about my dream.
For her part, she told me every day if it was going to snow overnight, but it only snowed overnight on a Wednesday once that winter.
That is when it happened. I was 37, it was a Thursday morning, and as my boss had warned me the night before, it had snowed overnight and there was fresh snow on the ground.
I had to drive over a bridge to get to work. However, I was not driving too fast for the winter conditions, because of my dream.
There were 2 things that were different than in my dreams: a car almost cut me off at the point where my dreams had me lose control (unlike in my dream, in which I was driving too quickly), and the observer on the bridge was farther back from the crash scene than in my dreams.
When I noticed those two differences, I felt a flash of hope, since I recognized the rest of the conditions as being the same as in my dream.
I had the sense that the observer was aware of me just as I was aware of her. Because of my dream, I was aware of a car driving in my blind spot, next to the trunk of my car and in the next lane.
I only had 1–2 seconds to react, but in emergency situations time seems to expand to allow life-saving actions.
I managed to move to the right partly into the other car`s lane, and the driver in that car saw what was happening and managed to swerve to make room for me. The car that was about to cut me off reversed direction.
I could clearly see the sick apprehensive look on that driver’s face as he realized that his careless crossing of the road could cause an accident.
I heard a “thonk!” and my car rocked, and then I was past the rapidly reversing car.
I stopped at the nearest coffee shop because the adrenaline rush made my hands too shaky to steer.
I picked up some coffees and doughnuts to give to the staff at work in apology because I was the receptionist and I was going to be late.
I arrived 15 minutes late to work, explained what happened and distributed the coffee and doughnuts, and then my boss and I went out to look at my car.
There was a scrape and dent in the fender that hadn’t been there before. Without the recurring dream, I would not have been alerted to the danger.
I never had that nightmare again.
The Simpsons – 1960’s Super Panavison 70
What is the most ridiculous reason you’ve been written up at work for?
I wasn’t quite written up but it was close. I’m not sure why the supervisor didn’t and those in the chain of command didn’t write me up. The charge would have been insubordination.
Several years ago, my wife and I became pregnant with our first child. As time went on and we started telling people, I also notified my supervisor and that when the baby comes, I plan on taking 2 months FMLA. The baby was due Sept 24th and the supervisor was aware of this.
So the due date is drawing closer and my plan was to basically work until the baby came and start my leave then. The supervisor was on board with this initially…then the questions started. This isn’t the exact conversation but it’s close:
Supervisor: “What day are you leaving?”
Me: “I don’t know what day…it’s when the baby comes”
Supervisor:”Well…what day will that be?”
Me:” I don’t know what day the baby will come. He’s due on the 24th but he may come before or after that day”
Supervisor:” I seriously need to know what day the baby will arrive! (Supervisor getting visibly agitated with my responses).
Me: “It’s a baby….I don’t know..babies come when they are ready. I can’t make him come any faster’ (supervisor getting more agitated.
Supervisor:” Quit playing games with me…you want to continue this game, I’ll have your ass in IA and you won’t know what hit you!!
Me:”What??? For what?”
Supervisor:”Insubordination!! I’m asking you a simple question and you are refusing to answer it…I’ll write it up right now!”
Me:”Babies don’t work like that. When the baby comes, you’ll be the first to know!”
This conversation continued and I was getting nowhere. The supervisor kept saying they would write me up…this was threatened several times. Finally I said? You want a day? Tomorrow! Baby comes tomorrow. Tonight will be my last shift!”
Supervisor: “You sure tomorrow?”
Me: “I guess so. I’m going to go with tomorrow.”
This conversation just continued…. Finally, I said I was done…got in my police car and went back on the street for a bit.
My son came on the 22nd.
The Sgt in IA was a good friend of mine and I sometimes vented to him. When I was off, the IA Sgt came to visit us and the baby. I told him about the strange exchange and that before I returned from FMLA, I was going to put in my papers for a transfer request out of that supervisors unit. He understood and agreed that it might be the right thing to do.
So, several weeks go by and I haven’t sent in the transfer request yet. The IA Sgt calls me and asked me if I submitted it and I told him I had not but would in the next few days. He just responded that he couldn’t go into detail but to not submit that paperwork. He wouldn’t tell me why but just kept telling me to not do it yet. He said I’d find out in a couple of days.
A few days later, the news broke within the department. There were widespread transfers through the entire department. A department reorganization due to such low manpower (nobody wanted to be a cop then). That supervisor got sent down to our property room which was in the basement. The property room was packed to the hilt and one could barely walk in there. It was always hot and humid down there. So off he went and I remained in my position. That supervisor remained in that basement until retirement.
What Your Cat’s Color Says About Their Health and Personality
Were you ever screwed over by someone you trusted, and you had the pleasure of seeing their Karma on the TV news and in newspapers?
My husband died suddenly at 50 in 2018. I lost everything very quickly. I was staying in a friends camper van and working in his companies to try and save for a car. I wasn’t making much progress. My friends from high school started a fund raiser on Face Book for me and collected almost a thousand dollars. I was thrilled!
I opened a bank account & was waiting for the money to transfer to it, when I met a guy next door who handled all the yards in the area. We became friends. He was very helpful & always there for me. I contacted Face Book when a lot of time had gone by and the money was still not in my account. I was surprised to hear that it had been transferred a long time ago and did not go to my account. Instead it went into a Netspend account that was owned by the guy next door. He stole money from a widow and befriended me the whole time he was waiting to receive the money.
It was so strange. He didn’t feel bad about what he did at all. He freely admitted it. He even told me that I did not deserve that money because he doubted I ever loved by husband being he did not see me cry etc.
So flash forward about three months and his picture comes up on the news. He was being called the Xmas bandit. He ended up robbing a whole community that was mostly retired law enforcement and took their Christmas presents.
While a reporter was interviewing one of his victims and asking what he looked like, he drove by in the car he used which had a big dent on one side. The victim pointed out the car and he was mobbed and arrested for his crime.
They made fun of what an idiot he was and how stupid to rob a community of retired law enforcement. He went to prison for that. So dumb.
Will the U.S. debt crisis speed up the rise of China and Russia’s comeback?
It’s not a crisis… yet.
But it is inevitable that overspending massively cannot go on forever. The past two years has averaged >30% deficit in Federal spending. In other words, tax revenue covered less than 70% of the budget.
The problem after 50 years of globalization is the US has few greenfield opportunity to tap anywhere. By greenfield I mean new markets for US goods and services. Rather, the US is turning protectionist with Chinese competition and “derisking” on the menu.
US corporations can only hope to boost revenue by price increase, rather than growing the customer/product pool.
Which means the main risk for America is a weakening of corporate America’s competitiveness, because the rest of the world cannot keep up with the speed of American federal debt issuance. This is especially troubling for the S&P 500 in China, the world’s largest single market. Foreign corporations from Apple to Porsche are facing competitive pressure like nowhere else, because the competition cannot be legislated away like back home.
As things stand, sustained new debt issuance is at record highs today, while cracks are appearing in corporate America’s balance sheet. America will be forced to reckon with its profligacy one way or another, either by raising taxes, or reducing spending. Unfortunately, the corridors of power is traffic jammed with grey-haired baby boomers insistent on recreating the golden 50s-60s, paralyzing the political process.
It’s still “let’s double down on hegemony”, so America is heading for a worse place with fewer options/bright spots in 2034, just like how 2024 has fewer options/bright spots than 2014. And this will be true whoever takes charge, because it’s the system that needs changing, not the faces.
Good luck.
Woman Has MELTDOWN Over Friend Zoned Man
Why is Australia a very expensive country to live in?
Two reasons compared to almost anywhere else in the world.
Size counts and it means you actually pay more but hey world class?
Market size. I know, I manufactured products in Australia and you simply do not have a large enough market to keep your prices down.
- Australia insists on paying a liveable wage to everyone regardless of the job that they do.
- There is a 3rd reason rarely mentioned, OLIGOPOLIES (meaning a few companies dominate an industry) are not only tolerated but encouraged in every single segment of the economy. That means very little competition and it is always getting worse.
EXAMPLE : HARDWARE STORE –
BUNNINGS – As of 2022, the chain has 381 stores and over 53,000 employees. Bunnings has a market share of around 50 percent in the Australian do it yourself hardware market, with competing chains including Mitre 10, Home Hardware and various independent retailers around Australia. WIKIPEDIA
BANKS: TOP 5 HAVE 80% + MARKET SHARE – There are supposedly 96 different banks in Australia, however Com Bank, Westpac, ANZ, and Macquarie totally dominate. By comparison, the USA has over 5,000 banks.
UNIVERSITIES:
- University of Melbourne.
- Australian National University.
- University of Sydney.
- The University of Queensland.
- Monash University.
- The University of New South Wales.
- The University of Western Australia.
- The University of Adelaide.
They dominate the entire country.
Get the picture. Everyone discounts the effect this has on prices in Australia. If you are one of the top 5 banks, the top 8 universities or Bunnings which literally dwarfs everyone else, then you control the market. You control pricing, you control money, you control students, you control the economy as this continues in every industry.
Australia loves ‘scale’ so it can compete globally. Nice but the reality is the people of Australia pay for this scale and innovation is blocked and new entrants have a very difficult time to get in. Once you are in, you are pretty much set unless you really screw up. It used to be partnering between manufacturers and say Bunnings. No longer. It is Bunnings now as Australia makes just about nothing.
That is the final reason that prices are so high, virtually all industrial goods meaning cars, petroleum products, white goods even door locks (I know I closed the last Black & Decker door lock factory in Newcastle over 25 years ago) are imported.
Why does this make imported goods expensive? Because the game with China is all about volume and Australia does not have enough volume to really interest the biggest Chinese exporters. Bunnings has some limited clout but nothing compared to US giants like Home Depot.
Bunnings USD12 billion revenue – Home Depot USD132 billion or more than 10X Bunnings which is 50% of the Australian market.
So please don’t complain about prices when you are in Australia. Instead do this like we all do:
Grab a sausage on Saturdays at Bunnings. Best AU$2.50 you can spend in the country. In fact take 2 with lots of onions and all of the sauces.
Then go on inside and spend and spend and spend, after all Bunnings is an institution in Australia at this point.
Chinese foreign ministry just announced new sanctions, banning their management from visiting China, and also banned equipment sales to these companies. One of the companies sanctioned is Anduril, which is doing leading-edge product research and development in satellites and drones, and has business links with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk.
The US defense sector is counting on these companies to develop next-generation weapons systems. The Chinese sanctions are aimed at making it difficult, or even impossible, to obtain rare earths, parts and components for their product development.
Here is the link to the Chinese foreign ministry announcement:
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/wjbxw_new/202407/t20240712_11453049.shtml
Food and breakfasts
How One Law Destroyed America
What was your “I am surrounded by idiots” moment?
I was at work. This guy had been driving down the highway at, probably, 65 mph when he dropped his cigarette lighter into the passenger floorboard of his car. He leaned way over to dig around for the lighter.
His car ran right into the back of a slow-moving farm implement. A giant tractor was pulling this big, folded up field cultivator which lined up just above the hood. The entire top of the car was sheared right off, and then the bumper of the car finally hit the undercarriage of that farm implement, bringing it to a stop with the roof still attached by a few threads of metal but peeled back like a sardine can and hanging over the trunk.
The driver of the car was a little banged up, but fine.
Everybody at the crash scene was standing around, agreeing that leaning way down to pick up that cigarette lighter had saved the driver’s life, as it had allowed him to duck the steel cultivator blades passing at high speed through the space his head had occupied a few moments before.
Nobody seemed to consider the fact that, had his head been in line with the windshield instead of down in the passenger-side footwell, he probably wouldn’t have hit that gigantic farm implement in the first place.
Fiancee won’t sign the PRENUP, so millionaire leaves her at the altar
At what moment in your life did you witness true evil?
My mother deliberately poured bleach in 4 glasses before calling and telling the police my father threatened to kill us all by forcing it down our throats.
–
When I was around 10 my mother started bringing this man home when my father was at work. She used to tell me that he was fixing something in her room and that I could not enter the room for safety reasons. At this time, my parents were still together so it was obvious that she was cheating on my dad behind his back. As a 10 year old with no idea what ‘cheating’ was and no clue that my mother could stoop so low, I assumed she was telling the truth and went with it.
One night while I was brushing my teeth, my mother told me she was going to go see the man and that she will be back by morning. I went to my room where my father was waiting to massage my legs (he used to do that every night before bed since we were babies) and after a while we heard the garage door open making my father jump to his feet and run down stairs. He called her several times, then told me to look after my sisters while he goes and looks around the block.
Note: at this time my father was afraid that my mother suffered from Bipolar Mood Disorder.
Just after he left, my mother returned in panic, and when she saw that my father was not home she ran inside and filled four glasses with bleach and set them on the table. She then phoned the police and told them that “he threatened to take my children and my lives by feeding us bleach” she then took us all and locked us in a car waiting for the police to arrive. When my father returned, she told him that she was finally free and that he had no control over her anymore. He started to cry, which made my heart hurt (even now my heart aches). When the police arrived they arrested my dad immediately, and because of new laws for violence against women, they believed every word she said and we children were simply ‘brainwashed’.
It was almost a year before we saw our dad again, and when we did my baby sister did not recognise him.
My father, the best father alive, has quite literally coped with ‘true evil’ for 10 long years and is now re-married with another woman and is living happily. My siblings and I now live with him as well after a long court battle against my mother.
You Won’t Believe What Russia and China Are Planning—This Will Change History Forever | Alex Krainer
What do you think of NATO’s Washington Summit Declaration, referring to China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and saying Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic security?
It sounds like NATO is looking to blame China for the imminent loss of the Ukraine war.
NATO and the EU hit Russia with economic sanctions immediately after the war started in 02/2022, and as the war progressed and dragged on, added more stringent sanctions because the ruble and Russian economy did not immediately collapse. Now, there are no more sanctions which can be added. Ukraine keeps asking for more aid and weapons from the west, while its army is stretched. In the meantime, Russia’s economy is holding up much better than NATO predicted.
The west only cares about narratives because narratives keep their people from asking awkward questions about foreign policy.
Up until now, the narrative has been that Putin is the evil Russian leader who is planning to overrun Europe with Ukraine as the first victim of Russian expansionism.
But now, only blaming Russia and Putin is not enough because that would amount to an admission that the initial plan for defeating Russia through economic sanctions and military aid to Ukraine was faulty.
Russia was ready to collapse, but that did not happen because Russia received overwhelming support from CHINA! This means that the real power behind Putin is China. Without Chinese economic aid, Russia would have collapsed long ago!
According to this rationale, Putin is just a puppet in Xi’s pocket, and has to get approval for EVERYTHING from Xi in Beijing. For this reason, NATO must move to East Asia to directly confront China on its doorstep!
Just remember, the more perilous Ukraine’s situation becomes, the more evil China will become in the eyes of the western media.
Don’t forget, only President Biden can lead the west to final victory over Russia and China, and save the west from a fate worse than death!
Now that I have told you what to expect, you can go to bed.
Good night!
How can firearms ever be considered as anything other than the tool of a coward? (Serious question, facts are facts)
I found my 79 year old dad, beaten almost to death, robbed, truck stolen, at a gate on our own property. Months later, I was attacked by 5 illegals at that same exact gate. They were using machetes, a knife and club. 2 left in handcuffs. 2 left in an ambulance. 1 left in a coroner’s van.
Later that year, I hear my 14 year old granddaughter screaming. I come running to see 3 men trying to pull hey off of her horse. On our property. All the were held at gunpoint fur the sheriff’s, a little beat up but basically unharmed. I found out a week later one was a convicted child rapist from Salvador.
You are the kind that calls other armed men and women to defend you. You won’t defend yourself. Your wife. Your kids. Your home. You call someone else, that is armed, to defend you?
That makes you a hypocrite AND coward. You have no place in a civilized society. You are worthless.
How can Japanese work for 20 hours in a day?
By following a schedule like this. This is our default, increasing by a couple of hours towards the weekend, reaching up to 20 hours a day.
Imagine yourself joining us for a day of work.
Here, come on.
- 7:00 AM: You wake up. Still feeling the fatigue from the previous day, it’s hard to get out of bed. There’s no disciplined routine of morning runs or strength training. After taking a shower and doing your hair, you put on your AirPods as you leave the house. You play your favorite songs to lift your spirits as you head to the station. The ticket gate is always crowded. Many irritated office workers are there, and you can hear the sound of tongues clicking at the slightest bump. After getting off at the station, you grab breakfast at a convenience store and then head to the office.
- 8:00 AM: You arrive at work. Wearing your employee ID badge, which feels like a collar, you get on the elevator. Naturally, you stand in front of the buttons. Suppressing the urge to get off quickly, you say, “After you,” perfecting your manners and etiquette. Once you reach your desk and set down your belongings, you immediately check your emails. If you find a barrage of criticisms from your boss on the emails you sent the previous day, your morning starts with a feeling of utter despair.
- 9:00 AM: Morning assembly. After reading the company’s mission statement aloud, you listen to a one-minute speech. (During the company’s morning assembly, each employee takes turns giving a speech every day. Your turn comes around roughly every 2–3 weeks.)
- 9:30 AM: Head out for business visits.
- Noon: Lunch while out. You either buy a rice ball and eat it on the go, or you don’t have time to eat at all. Eating with others is tiring, so you usually eat alone. If you’re with a senior colleague, you’re too nervous to eat much. When the senior colleague tells the cashier, “We’ll pay together,” you immediately express your gratitude with a “Thank you for the meal,” making sure to sound apologetic. Before a cup of coffee, break time is over.
- 4:30 PM: Report the unreasonable demands received from a client to your boss. When asked, “Can you handle this by EOD?” it’s hard to say no. Your schedule gets increasingly tighter. You reassure yourself, thinking, “Before midnight, there’s still time.”
- 5:00 PM: End of work hours. Freedom time. Few people start conversations at this hour. This is when you begin to tackle the large volume of emails and documents. Finally, after finishing other miscellaneous tasks, you can concentrate on your own work.
- 9:00 PM: Leaving work. If you think that’s pretty early, you’re mistaken. Of course, the work isn’t finished, but you pack up with the toxic mantra, “It’s okay, I have the weekend to catch up.”
- 9:30 PM: Dinner. You grab a beef bowl at a fast food chain on your way home.
- 10:30 PM: Arrive home.
- 11:30 PM: Escape reality by immersing yourself in the internet.
- 1:00 AM: Sink into bed.
From Monday to Friday, it’s a cookie-cutter routine. Unexpected meetings and handling problems double the exhaustion, leaving even less room for flexibility.
Monday starts with unexpected problems, additional calls, and requests that dampen your spirits. This continues into Tuesday afternoon before finally finding a rhythm. Wednesday passes by in inertia. By Thursday, fatigue builds, and spirits sink, but knowing Friday is near keeps you going. Despite planning to finish strong on Friday, there’s often unfinished work leading to Saturday shifts. Exhausted, Sunday drifts by lazily, ending in melancholy nights.
Our typical day and week.
Wolverine vs the Predator – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
I Like Him
Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt
Dianne Bramble
Adria was confused. Did the last person leave their music on before the went back to cryo? She held up her hand to the scanner and the door slid open. She jumped back, unsure of what to do. There was a man in her seat!
“Who the hell are you?!” They asked at the same time.
“What? You go first.” I seems that they were in sync somehow, because every time they opened their mouths, they said the same thing.
Adria paused and when it seemed that they had both recovered from the shock of seeing another human being, she took a deep breath and said “I’m Adria Malek, Engineer 2nd Class. Who are you?”
The man stood up, straightened his uniform and said “I’m Jack Purcell, Engineer 2nd Class and I’m very confused. I haven’t seen anyone since I boarded the ship. I just woke up a couple of hours ago. Why are you here?”
Adria’s brow furrowed. “I just woke up a few minutes ago. Something is wrong. There shouldn’t be two of us up at the same time. We need to figure out what’s going on. Maybe this has happened in other areas of the ship. Did you check the ship’s status yet?”
“Look Officer Malek. I know what I’m doing. There’s nothing wrong with the ship. All stations are reporting in as normal. It’s obviously some kind of computer error. Why don’t you just go back to your cryo unit and go back to sleep? I was up first, so your pod must have malfunctioned. GO check it out and get back to bed.” Ordered Purcell.
“Excuse me? I believe that the insignia on my uniform rank me above you and you address me properly. Stay at your post and I’ll check out my pod. When I get back, we’ll decide who goes back to sleep, Officer Purcell.” Barked Adria.
“Yes sir.” Smiled Purcell. “Whatever you say.”
Adria gripped to herself all the way back to her pod. Who the hell did this Purcell think he was? She barely outranked him, but she’d be damned if she let him call the shots. She checked out her pod and ran a diagnostic. It was fine. She activated her radio and contacted Purcell.
“Hey, Purcell. Everything checks out at my pod. Where’s yours? I’m going to check it out next.”
“Sure thing boss. My pod is in corridor 12, section B.” He quipped.
Adria told herself to breath. She thought it would be great to see another person again, but now she wasn’t too sure. This Purcell guy was a pain in the ass.
She reached his pod and performed the same diagnostic. It was fine too. That was weird. Why would the computer have woken up two people at the same time. They were nowhere near their final destination as that journey was going to take 250 years.
Adria walked briskly back to her/Purcell’s station.
“Well, what did you find?” He asked.
Adria frowned at him, wondering if he grasped the potential seriousness of their situation. She guessed not, seeing as how flippant and sarcastic he was
“Both our pods check out. That concerns me. It’s not supposed to happen unless there’s something wrong.” She said.
“Well sir, what do you suggest we do?” He smiled again.
Adria wanted to wipe that smile off his face, but she knew they had other things to worry about.
She pushed her way into the small room and started running ship wide diagnostics.
“Woah there sir. Are you serious about something being wrong, because I haven’t seen any anomalies on my reports.” Now he was starting to sound worried.
If she never saw this guy again, she’d be happy.
“Look Jack, why don’t you do something useful and help me figure out what’s going on?” She yelled.
“Jeez, okay. Keep your pants on. What diagnostics are you running?” He asked.
Finally, he was starting to get it. She told him what she was doing and set him up to run some other programs. After about two hours, Jack stood up from his chair.
“Oh, shit!” He exclaimed.
“What?!” Asked Adria.
“Okay, we need to not panic, but there’s a hull breach on deck fifty. The monitoring stations are still on there, but I think whoever was there is either dead, or incapacitated. What do we do?” He looked to Adria.
She searched her memory for what to do next. They studied the data to see how bad the breach was, so that they could come up with a plan. Repair droids should have been deployed when the breach was detected, but that hadn’t happened. The protocol was to send a droid outside the ship to take a look at the damage.
The next few hours was a comedy of errors as Jack and Adria couldn’t agree on anything. When they finally got a look at the damage, they were ready to shove each other out an airlock.
“Oh my God!” They said in unison.
The breach was bigger than they had imagined. They had no idea what and who had been sucked into the void of space, but they needed to get that hole fixed. They sent out every droid they could find and within a day, the breach was sealed. It wasn’t perfect, but it would hold.
As pressure and atmosphere returned to that section, Adria ordered Jack to accompany her to the damaged section.
“Why do I have to go too?” He questioned.
The look on her face must have scared him, because he jumped out of his chair and started walking to the nearest lift.
The damage inside was extensive and the officer who had been on duty was missing and presumed dead. All-in-all things could have been worse. They woke up the next officer on the list and filled her in on what had happened. She looked shocked, but assumed her duty and thanked them.
As they exited the lift back onto their deck, Adria turned and faced Jack.
“You are a flippant, disrespectful idiot and I hope I never see you again, but thank you for your help. Now get back to your pod. I’m pulling rank and assuming my station.” She ordered.
For a moment, Officer Purcell looked like he was going to argue, but instead he saluted and exclaimed, “Thank you sir. It was fun. Don’t break anything.” and off he went.
What an ass, thought Adria as she sat down at her station. I like him.
As a police officer, what do you find unrealistic about crime shows?
Oh, there are so many:
- The cop who can afford the multi-million dollar estate on the beach. And, the really nice sports car. And, all the stylish clothing.
- The ability to bend and badly break department rules, with nothing more than an angry rebuke or threats of what might happen in the future.
- The ability to shoot someone and go right back on duty.
- The 30-minute DNA test.
- The special computers that can find any record or report, even those never digitized.
- The power of a federal agency to just come in, and with a wave of a badge, take over a case. I’m waiting for the show where the bad guys figure this out and come as fake agents and steal all the evidence.
- Every cop is thin, young, in shape and knows three martial arts.
- Every bad guy is young, thin and knows four martial arts.
- The bad guys have massive amounts of military experience and the tools that would make a Navy SEAL team drool.
- The bad guys are fair. Only one guy attacks, while the other three or four dance around threateningly.
- Bomb-makers are polite. They go to Walmart and buy different colored wires and a large digital clock to make it easy on the cops. They also leave the package in a well-lit area.
- Criminals come up with and execute a plan that the CIA or NSA would be envious of, but at some point, turn into a bunch of Barney Fife’s and get taken down.
- One lightly armed cop can take on a well armed, highly trained, platoon-sized group of men located in different places in an area the size of a city block.
- Cops need to rack their guns before it gets really bad. Then, luckily, the gun never jams or runs out of bullets.
- There is never any paperwork.
- Lab guys double as detectives.
- A detective in LA can directly transfer to the NYPD and back. The best is where a local cop goes to the feds with no additional academy or even field training.
- There is always a gruff, but caring old sergeant, a clueless lieutenant and an even more clueless captain.
- Everyone hates the internal affairs guys. It is a kiss-of-death to your career to even think of that assignment.
- There is this thick and impenetrable blue wall that includes everyone, no questions asked, except the internal affairs guys and maybe the captain.
- All the cops have really hot girlfriends and wives, who wear designer clothing.
- All calls start or end in a bar… or strip club.
- When you are hit by gunfire, you fly off your feet, usually landing five to ten feet backwards.
- Cars and trucks can be flipped by a fender-bender.
- The DA is not overwhelmed by cases and is more than happy to sit for hours discussing a case and inventing new case law.
- Detectives are not overwhelmed by cases and can spent massive amounts of time on one case.
- Witnesses can be easily found and are more than happy to tell everything they saw.
‘North Korean Troops Entered UKRAINE & Attacked Cities In TORETSK Front’: KIEV’s Claims Shocked NATO
What are the harsh truths of being a man?
This is Earl Silverman – A men’s rights activist.
A few years ago, he founded the only men’s shelter in Canada and paid for it out of his own pocket.
He called it the “Men’s Alternative Safe House”.
The motivation came from the fact that, he too, used to be in a domestically abusive relationship with his wife.
Even the government agreed that men were almost as likely to be victims as women: Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile.
Realizing that there were 593 for women and ZERO for men (at the time), he made his altruistic vocation a reality.
It didn’t last.
Eventually, his personal finances ran dry. Despite frequently reaching out to the Canadian government and various other privately funded domestic abuse agencies, he received NOTHING.
And remember, this was the only men’s shelter in Canada.
Soon, he was forced to sell his house AND shut down the shelter.
Shortly afterwards, he committed suicide.
This incident is a cluster of humanitarian issues.
The most worrying of which is the Canadian government’s overall view on Gendered violence: it’s uni-directional.
And honestly, it’s not hard to see why he received ZERO funding from the government.
Canada’s federal association for domestic abuse unashamedly ONLY caters to women.
Men don’t receive a lot of sympathy.
No one cares for the thousands of male victims of domestic violence in Canada, or the thousands that commit suicide.
Society isn’t exactly kind to women either, at least those that don’t fit into certain expectations, but they’re still harsher on men.
Or rather, they’re more apathetic.
The harshest truth about being a man is that society doesn’t care if you’re abused, or mistreated.
Ultimate Montreal Steak with Grilled Potato Wedges
The Ultimate Montreal Steak with Grilled Potato Wedges features a T-bone layered with Montreal Steak Seasoning and Steak Sauce. Serve with seasoned grilled potatoes.
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 16 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2 medium red potatoes, pierced with fork
- 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons McCormick® Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning, divided
- 4 teaspoons oil, divided
- 1 1/2 pounds T-bone steak
- 1/4 cup McCormick® Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Sauce
Instructions
- Microwave potatoes on HIGH for 7 minutes or until almost tender, turning potatoes over halfway through cooking. Let stand 2 minutes.
- Cut potatoes into wedges. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the Steak Seasoning and 2 teaspoons of the oil.
- Brush steak lightly with remaining 2 teaspoons oil. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons Steak Seasoning.
- Grill steak over medium-high heat 6 to 8 minutes per side or until desired doneness. Brush with steak sauce during last 1 minute of grilling.
- Grill potato wedges 2 minutes per side or until lightly browned and grill marks appear.
- Serve steak with potatoes and additional steak sauce for dipping; if desired.
As a lawyer, what was a case you lost but were initially convinced you’d win?
Simple case. Contractor didn’t get paid and sued the Owner. The owner (my client) swears he paid and has a $35,000 check to prove it. Gave me the check. The front and back of the check from his bank were all made out and endorsed by the contractor. There were four other checks like it over a period of months with signed pay applications, lien releases and contractor affidavits just like with this one. But the contractor was insistent that he never got the money. I even had a copy of a bank statement from my client showing the check going out.
Well, maybe one of the contractor’s people cashed the check and stole the money. Maybe his bookkeeper messed up. Maybe there was a bank error. Or maybe he is just a liar and wants to be paid twice. It’s happened before and this contractor was not really on top of things. I don’t know and I don’t care. I have proof the check was written, delivered and deposited in his bank with the Contractor’s endorsement. He even admitted it was his stamp on the check.
Time to get ready for trial. Not going to be much of a trial because this is a slam dunk. Contractor is proclaiming he never got the money, but even he is puzzled after examining the check. He produces a bank statement that shows no such deposit. However, it’s a copy (he didn’t have the original paper copy) and it could have been altered. His bank says they don’t have a copy of the check because it was not their check. They are supposed to retain pictures for a period of time, but those are retained in a secure depository in a mountain in Utah and it may take weeks to recover. But they also say it is posssible it was not deposited, but cashed instead. So, his bank is no use to him. The trial is only a month away.
I’m going to win in a walk.
I need a bank witness to testify to the check and the routing and authentication. I call on the contractor’s bank with a subpoena and as we discuss it I notice that the four other checks I have are real similar. The missing check has an endorsement that looks just like another check. The endorsement looks too much the same to me because of how it is centered on the check. I get the original check out and learn all about MICR numbers from the witness. Those numbers on your checks are made with magnetic ink. So I check the check my client says he paid the contractor with and guess what? Nope, they don’t read. Not real MICR numbers? We can’t run it through the machine at the bank. The paper is right, but the numbers don’t work. The bank guy is puzzled and explains that after handling as much as this check has been handled, it’s possible the check has been damaged. I thank him and leave. Bad feeling.
After more checking, some techy things and using a mark-1 eyeball and magnifying glass, it is clear to me my client forged the check and the contractor never got paid. Image editors are wonderful programs, but they can’t hide everything.
I can’t rat out my client and I can’t tell the other side. But I can bring down the wrath of God on my client. Eventually the truth came out that “somebody” for the owner “might have” created the phony check. That bank statement is equally puzzling. Nobody is sure who did it or what happened, but why don’t we just drop it? I’ve done a good job. So good that the other side is willing to drop their lawsuit and walk away because even they are not sure they didn’t actually get the check. In my mind that’s bullshit. Right, wrong or indifferent, my client used me to scam the contractor.
In the end my client “decided” to pay the contractor the 35K, plus interest, plus their attorney fees, and my fees and costs and we all quietly closed the case. Terrible misunderstanding and even though my client was “paying twice” he proclaimed he wanted to be “fair” and “do the right thing.” My case was a winner, until it wasn’t. And I lost a client, too.
EDIT: I was asked about my Wrath of God statement and failed to explain. OK. If the client decided to stick with his story, we go to trial. Now, if I know for a fact the guy is going to lie in court, under oath, I can’t assist. But I also can’t call him out because of confidentiality rules. If the client has already committed a crime, I can’t tell anyone. But, if they are going to commit certain crimes ( murder, child abuse and other very specific crimes against other people) I am allowed to disclose this beforehand. In some jurisdictions I may be required to disclose this. It really is on the attorney to make that call.
But if the crime I think I see coming is not one of the listed ones in a statute or ethics rule, I can’t disclose what “might” happen (or not) beforehand. But fear not. There is a trick and I have used it before. Remember, I can argue alternative facts, but I can’t lie. So I can say my client claims he has paid this bill with this check. I can say my client will testify to this. But I can’t say (and this is splitting hairs, I know) My client paid this bill with this check as I flourish the check in my hand.
Remember, everything a lawyer says in court is argument, not testimony. When my guy gets to the stand and is sworn in, I would have asked him if he paid the bill via this check. If he says “yes” I then look at the Judge and say, “Your honour, I realise at this point I have no questions for my client at all and ask that he be allowed to “testify in the narrative.” This means he can say whatever he wants. Tell his story without any questions being asked by me. I am no longer assisting and from that point on I will never refer to his “testimony.”
The thing is, those magic words are only used in this exact case. And the Judge knows it, the opposing attorney knows it and every court officer from the bailiff to the court reporter knows it. I actually said, “My client just lied to me and you against my instructions. And everything from this point forward is bullshit.” The opposition is now keyed in and will tear into the story. The Judge will read back my last question and ask the witness if they want to stick with their answer – for the record. Thus solidifying a possible perjury charge later. Upon cross examination you won’t hear a peep from me objecting to any questions relating to his narrative. My client is all on his own. No matter how bad it gets, how confused and convoluted his answers to questions, I’m not moving.
You have probably never seen this happen, even on TV. But it is absolutely devastating in court because from that point where the client decided to lie, it’s them against everyone. Dog pile on the rabbit. Both times I have had to pull out this card, the case ended abruptly because the client ended it. One dropped the case and paid attorney fees and costs to the other side after a long discussion in chambers with the judge. The other changed their plea and pled guilty (it was a criminal action) in exchange for no perjury charge being pursued. And yes, I warned in excruciating detail what I was going to do and why, and what the results would be ahead of time. In colourful language. But both clients said they wanted to go forward because they thought they were so freaking smart/clever that they could pull it off. They were wrong – really wrong.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
There’s now lots of news about how 30% of the Chinese workforce is unemployed and 40% of the Chinese population is homeless. How come?
Even in the worst of the Great Depression in Post WWI Germany, Unemployment was 31% at its peak in 1931
In the US, during the worst period 1930 October to 1933 September – the Average Unemployment was 16.9%
So if China has 30% unemployment then the situation there must be worse TWICE than during the Great Depression
That means one of the 3.47 Million tourists who visited China on their 144 Hour Visa Free Entry between 1/1/24 and 30/6/24 would have recorded it fully and uploaded a Video
You see any?
As for 40% Homeless
That’s too ridiculous for a response given that another accusation against China is also accusing China of having MILLIONS OF EMPTY HOUSES
Only someone with a severe strain of NEUROSYPHILIS would make such illogical statements
$1 Noodles VS $163 Noodles in Vietnam!! (RECORD BREAKING Bowl!!)
How much forward looking and identification capability does the US Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye add to a carrier strike group when it is always escorted by at least a couple Aegis destroyers or cruisers?
It’s huge. The ship’s radar have a horizon. It can’t see past it which is around 30 miles.
The AWAC flies at 30,000 feet and has multiple radars on it. This allows the carrier groups to see out to 250 to 400 miles away depending on the object being tracked.
So a AWAC is the eyes of the fleet. Without the AWAC, the fleet wouldn’t know that there were inbound anti-ship cruise missiles until they cleared the 30 miles horizon.
The AWAC allows the fleet to know that there are inbound enemy fighters so that fighters can be sent up to intercept. Ship radar can see high flying fighters at a longer distance but you do NOT want to get surprised by low flying planes.
Anyway, the AWAC does much more than that but it is the eyes and coordinator of the air battle at sea and land.
Have you killed someone in self defense? What psychological burden came with this decision?
On a freezing Sunday night I was eating dinner with my son, I suddenly felt unease I paused for a moment when I heard a scratching coming from the basement followed by a clang. Our area is notorious for violence due to drug related incidents, so no chances could be taken. I have a licence for a gun and I quickly went and fetched it from the safe, then went to a seperate area where I hide the ammo and loaded it.
My son saw what was happening and while he was quite pale, he knew what to do in such a situation because we had talked about it on numerous occasions. He stood behind me and we backed to the face of the wall.
After a few minutes of silence, I heard rapid steps from the basement stairs, from the squelching sound that his boots made I knew he had broken in from the air conditioner vent. Seconds later he dashed through the door and stopped around 2 meters from where we were standing.
Even now I can remember every feature of his face, the scratches on his cheeks and how he kept clicking with his left hand. He paused for a moment, and raised a pistol. My finger crushed the trigger and bullets tore through his body, he took a step forward but dropped to the ground with his legs twitching.
I used to laugh about the stories when people say that every night they see their victims face, but now I realise it’s true. What affected me most was his age, he later learned that he was just 22. As his raspy breathing began to halter, I remember his blue eyes, I feel that somewhere inside he knew I had to do it.
I’m sorry I had to do that but I don’t regret it – I had no choice. My son is my life, and I am responsible for his safety.
Putin’s Blistering Address at the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum Shakes the West
What do you think of Hungary not wanting NATO to become an “anti-China” bloc?
Do you have experience in the high school where a group of school friends harassed you? The leader may be jealous of your popularity in school. Others follow & join the harassment. It is a gang effect.
It takes a clear mind & courage to defy the (sick) leader. And leave the gang.
The US-led NATO has been instigating wars around the globe, harming humanity. For US interest only.
USA is sick. Why follows a sick country?
I would say BRAVO to Hungary.
What was a really racist situation you have been in, and what did you do about it?
This was my mom, not me, but my friends and I witnessed it. We were goofing off, riding skateboards in the parking lot of our small grocery store, when a fancy car pulls up, a Caddie, and a guy gets out and goes into the store, one of my buddies, a very large black guy, about turned white with fear. He recognized the guy in the Caddie as the head of the Klan in Mississippi, this was in Laurel, Mississippi late 70’s, at the tail end of the Civil Rights era. At any rate Junior barely got the words out when the door opened again with the dbag fleeing getting whacked by a broom, and my mother using language that I had never heard pass her lips before, or thereafter. She called him everything but a child of God as he hightailed it out of there. Two or three weeks later there was a race riot, and every single last convenience store, or grocery was looted and burned out except for ours. Mom always treated everyone the same, she had spent her teen years in a Jewish ghetto in Düsseldorf Germany watching Hitler come to power, she loathed racism in any form. In every other store in town if you were black and needed a hand, like store credit, they racked you up with high interest, we didn’t charge anything. If you were sick, mom showed up, usually with me, with Jewish penicillin, Chicken Noodle Soup, it didn’t matter what color your skin was. That is where I learned my morals.
‘Bombshell’ Exchange Overnight !!!
Between NATO and China.
Do not threaten China, folks.
Great story, Metallicman. Thanks for sharing these personal tidbits from your past. And it’s very true what you say; the things we value most matter very little to others most of the time; especially the sentimental things. Many years ago, I threw out/sold/recycled pretty much everything I owned– *prompted* to do so, and I was never one for hoarding or buying stuff anyway, but it builds up in the closets regardless– and if disaster strikes tomorrow my wife and I could drive to an airport and get on a plane with the entirety of our necessary belongings in a medium sized suitcase each, a cat cage/passport, and regular backpacks. For some reason that keeps my mind clutter free, unstressed for the most part, and my tread a little lighter. Who knows why that is, but it’s a powerful sense regardless. (Is there something Big about to upend our life that I’m picking up on through the Ether? Maybe. Bring it on, so.)
My wife is another matter, but nothing excessive apart from the household items and furnishings she’s attached to. (I could care less about that stuff, but I’d never say that to her obviously.) And her wardrobe, of course. That’s a luxury she allows herself, and once she’s happy I am, too. Nothing that can’t be stored or recycled either way, if needs be. The clothing I own hangs on half a metre of wardrobe space and in a drawer or two. A few jackets hang on the hall-rack with a few pairs of shoes. All replaced only when frayed or yellowing, 😂. And it’ll always be so. A good suit hangs dust-jacketed for anything official, mind you.
The only item of sentimental value I’ve held on to are a pair of monogramed gold cufflinks that belonged to my grandfather. Hand crafted especially for him many moons ago. I could never let them go, and it helps that they’re small! Perhaps there’s a quantum attachment to him through the cufflinks, but whatever the attachment, it’s surprisingly strong.
Decluttering is an essential aspect of one’s domestic existence for sure. And better that than some rando selling one’s cherished memories and items for a pittance online post mortem. (But at least the future customer might derive some value from the stuff in turn.)
Great comment! Yes, I can relate that periodic de-cluttering is desirable. -MM
Yeah, decluttering is one (if not -the) of my life lessons…
Pretty challenging when you have to take care of entropy accelerators (a.k.a. children 😉
Thank you and best regards,
Have good time!