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Where the buffalo roam
After I left China Lake Naval Weapons Center, we spent a brief period of time in rural Pennsylvania looking for work.
During that time we (my wife and I) were living in a mobile home. It was just an old ratty mobile home on a farm in the middle of the country.
We lived there for just under a year. Hustling to find work. Typing out resumes and knocking on doors. Sigh.
The land was rural and there were all sorts of Amish and Mennonites around. And the people who owned the farm were really nice to us. They managed a herd of buffalo, and every day we would see the buffalo heard up and roam about.
It's not something that I speak about a lot, but it is part of my life experience. So, yeah. Now you know.
No surprises, eh?
Today...
What is the scariest thing you have seen or experienced when hiking?
For about 15 years we lived in rural Claremont on a 15 acre parcel that had East Duffins Creek running through it. This is in Ontario Canada and just outside Toronto. It was morel season so I jumped on my ATV and headed over to the north side of our property where I had found morels in previous years. I hopped off and went for a hike down to the creek and up through some native apple trees. I had to part some cedar branches to get back to my ATV about 25′ away. When I climbed on the ATV a full grown Easter Cougar came out of the cedars in the same place I had just walked. Clearly he had followed me. I was afraid to start the machine as this would have required moving one arm and both feet and I was worried that the movement might trigger him to come after me. We stared at each other for a moment and then I jumped in the air and yelled BOO as loud as possible. Fortunately the big cat turned and ran. I went home and called the Ministry of Natural Resources to report this sighting and they weren’t too surprised. They said these Eastern Cougars are about 150 lbs, follow river corridors, have a hunting area of about 90 square miles and take a deer a week. Two months later my daughter-in-law captured this photo south of Barrie about 50 kms away. It was exciting but scary.
Why Is China Not Afraid of the US?
What is the most difficult thing you have had to do to one of your children?
When I was doing the single parenting thing and my son was about 17 and my daughter 15, my son started showing a very bad temper. I understood it and knew how it felt because I also had an awful temper that I learned to control long before he was born. Anyway, he’s over a foot taller than me and pretty strong. We were living in a rented townhouse at the time. He got so angry one day and punched a large hole in a wall. Nothing I was saying or doing for him was getting him to be less angry. He would sometimes stand over me and give me the ‘I want to punch you’ body language. So, on the day he punched the wall and seemed to threaten me, I called the police. The policeman came to the door knowing it was a domestic dispute and once I told him why I called, he suggested letting him talk to my son alone. I was not in the room but I was in earshot. The cop was saying things like, “Dude your mom is letting you live here and this is a nice place. She could kick you out when you turn 18. How would you like that?” and “What about all the great things your mom has done for you? Do you get nice clothes?” Yes. “Do you eat well?” Yes. “Then what’s your problem, man?!” He basically gave my son a talking to. My kid needed to hear that from someone of authority. It did make a change in him. HOWEVER, he has never let me live down the fact that I once called the police on him. He’s only 26 now and maybe ONE DAY he will finally realize I did something that worked and did no harm to anyone.
Why Leaving the US is the New American Dream
Andrew Henderson is the CEO of Nomad Capitalist, the world’s #1 resource for global citizens, helping people around the world gain access to second passports, reduce tax liabilities, and learning to safeguard their assets. Andrew was born an American but has since renounced his citizenship, obtained 5 new passports from countries around the world, and lives in multiples cities throughout the world. In today's video Andrew shares his life and journey and what it means to be a Nomad Capitalist.
What was your most glorious moment in a classroom ever?
At the university, I was a political science major. I was also sick a lot so I was excused from taking physical education, so I only had one semester of PE, which was worth one half of a unit. While I was excused from the class I was not excused from the required number of units in order to graduate.
I chose most of my classes based on the time of day they were offered, prefering morning classes. I signed up for International Law. On the first day of class, the professor stated that International Relations was required to be taken before International Law. I had not taken International Relations, but decided to at least try the class, I had a month before I could drop the class with no penalty.
I understood the subject matter and was doing all right. Towards the end of the semester, the professor found out that I had not taken the prerequisite course. He let me stay in the class as I was one of the top students.
The professor told me that I still needed to take International Relations to qualify for my degree, but he said that it would not be fair for another professor to have me as a student, so he requested that I take the class from him
In my last semester, I realize that I would be one half of a unit short in order to graduate. I was telling my professor about the problem when he suggested I do a one half unit independent study. He wanted to go to a seminar and would be out of the class room for a week.
He said that if I would teach the unit on International Law for his classes of International Relations classes, I would earn my one half united.
So this is where it got strange, I was a student in one of his classes, and the week the professor was gone, I stood in front of all my classmates and taught the class for a week.
When the professor returned, I became just another student.
I graduated on time.
BLINKEN TRIP TO CHINA: U.S. dominance is over!
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went home with his tail between his legs after an official three-day visit to China in which he tried his very best to convince the world of a litany of nonsensical crap that neither he nor anyone else with a brain believes, including spouting the “over-capacity” myth that Yellen tried to start on her last visit, and trying to tell Beijing that Washington has some kind of right to decide who China can and cannot trade with. This desperation and hypocrisy blatantly on show from U.S. leaders visiting China is a sign of one thing: the hegemony of the U.S.-led West is falling, and it’s a joy to watch! Today we’ll talk about it.
What do police officers say are the things that make them more or less likely to give a ticket to a speeding driver?
My gauge was always reasonableness.
If your license plate tags expired one month ago, I can see you not noticing and would probably cut you a break. If they expired one year ago, not so much.
If I pull you over for plates expired months ago, and you say, "I've been trying to get money together so I could renew them," but there are $300 worth of cigarette butts in the ashtray and the backseat is full of bags from the mall, you're getting a ticket.
If you don't have insurance, you're almost certainly getting a ticket. People who didn't want to pay for insurance figured if they could get less than three tickets a year, they could get out of paying a premium and just pay their insurance fine, which would actually be less expensive since they were high risk. I never gave them the satisfaction.
I never really ran radar, so I didn't write many speeding tickets - maybe four or five over three years. Even then, they were all for going at least twenty miles an hour over the limit (or speeding while they were drunk). Every officer has a magic number. One of my colleagues' was, "Twelve [mph] over you're fine, thirteen and you're mine." Now, some officers' magic numbers may be one, so don't bank on any kind of window. I never nailed one down, but probably would have if I ever did traffic enforcement.
If you're driving drunk, you're getting so many tickets. I've personally written as many as eight to one person after one incident, and a colleague in another agency (with a more permissive pursuit policy) once wrote 36 after a drunk driving pursuit. I have seen so many dead bodies lying on asphalt because of drunk drivers. No mercy.
The answer from the officer in the UK has some good insights - especially the bit about asking me why I'm not finding 'actual criminals.' But ladies, don't count on sexing the situation up to dodge a ticket. I've written lots of citations to women with heaving cleavage who had obviously fussed with their blouse prior to my approach. What favor am I currying by not writing a ticket? There is absolutely nothing in it for me in that scenario. It's not like just giving a warning is going to prompt her to go ahead and peel her top off. I'm not saying it would never work on anyone, but it didn't go anywhere with me.
In any situation where a citation issuance was in the cards, I honestly tried to put myself in the shoes of the driver. Where are they coming from? Where are they going? Would I have noticed the same thing on my car? Would I go that fast off-duty? I tried to be very fair with my citations, and I like to think that if I ever gave you one, you could at least admit how I saw it was necessary. Some officers issued them indiscriminately, but I tried to, again, just be reasonable.
What are some habits that are good to get into?
- Read non-fiction books : It will transform your thinking process.
- Cooking : It will save you from eating junk and lots of money.
- Travelling : You are not a frog who is destined to live in a well rather explore the world .It is beautiful.
- Pick a hobby : Now you don’t have time to get bore.
- Drink adequate water : Because you are made of water and it is necessary to keep yourself hydrated.
- Practice selflessness - Feed that stray animal , help your needy friends without expecting anything in return.
- Remove inferiority complex - That famous writer whom you admire and feel inferior to , they are just a human like you. You too can become successful like them if you will put that amount of hard work that they usually put in.
- Earn before spending - It’s okay to buy IPhone X but buy it after earning, not on EMI.
- Smile in adversity - It will diminish half of your pain.
What is a time when you've seen a co-worker get fired who totally deserved it?
I worked for a personally owned McDonald's and many of the workers and customers were female and minors. One of the managers constantly made extremely inappropriate comments about the customers and crew. Many workers including me had told managers above him including the General Manager what was happening.
One coworker was to the point she requested to not be scheduled on the same shift but her request was ignored. She was driven to the point she put her two weeks in because of it, and she was a hard worker who if she made mistakes instantly fixed them. When I heard of her wanting to quit and why many female coworkers told me of his comments.. comments that if I had heard personally make, I probably would have punched him. But I called the owner and she told me the managers were “Investigating it". Which i knew was bullshit because the GM's wife was also a Manager and was high school friends with the predator. When I heard this I explained what my coworkers had told me and all she had to say was I needed to remember who I was talking to because I was getting angry and upset quoting his disgusting comments. So I started ripping her a new one(Bitched her out) about how she is allowing a predator to make workers he is preying on to do what ever he wanted. And hung up on her and went back to work.
Next day her younger brother was waiting for me to clock in since he was who took care of small things like firings. He told he understood my rage as he has daughters and would feel the same way. I told him a few comments he made that made my blood boil. He said the same thing about my tone with his sister and then told me to go to work. The predator went to clock in and was instantly taken back to the managers office and fired before he could even clock on. He stormed out and shouted, “I just got fired I hope you're all happy" and I laughed and said yes actually I am very happy. I honestly see it as my greatest achievement in my work experience.
What are the types of people that you should always avoid?
A good friend of mine got Engaged to the love of her life and was about to get married within 2 months.
She was extremely happy. Both the families willingly agreed. No objection from any side. Her would be in laws told her parents that they don't want anything from them. So far so good.
Just one month before marriage her would be mother in law called her mother.
MIL: Apki beti bahot achhi hai. Humein to bas aapki beti chahiye. Baaki aapne jo dena hai apni beti ko hi dena hai.
(Translation: We are blessed to have your daughter. We don't want anything for us. However, you may give anything to your daughter as you may please.)
Mother: okay ji. Definitely.
And this continued for the following 3-4 days.
Her MIL used to drop subtle hints about their demands which included a destination wedding, innova car, diamond rings etc. Each time she ended the conversation with the same dialogue.
We don't want anything for us. You can give your daughter anything you want to.
My friend came to know about this just 15 days before the wedding, when she overheard her parents talking about borrowing from relatives.
She was furious and called her fiance.
And then it was the fiance's turn.
Unhone jo dena hai tumhe hi dena hai. Humari koi demand nai hai.
(Transaltion: We haven't demanded anything. They are giving it to you.)
She ended her 3 year long relationship right away.
I met her yesterday and she told me about the entire incident and to my surprise, she was rather relieved to know everything before marriage.
In her words: Those people were wolves disguised as sheep. Even more dangerous.
Edit: I showed all the comments to my friend. She wants to pass a message through this forum. "Whenever you hear we don't want anything for us but you can give your daughter whatever you want to."
Run. Run as fast as you can and never ever look back. You definitely want to avoid such people.
I Caught My Girlfriend "On The Clock" Doing Her Secret Job, Now She's PLEADING That We Talk It Over
...she's not your girlfriend, it's just your turn, or someone else's or something like that....
What is the strangest thing you've seen someone return to a store?
A couple of years ago I went to Costco to return an item. I don't even remember what I had bought – it was the wrong item and I had not even opened the package. Waiting in line, in front of me was a man, probably 10 years younger than me, carrying a Hewlett-Packard Deskjet printer. I knew that model well because it is old – over 15 years old, and it looked it. I am a computer nerd, and I know most models of Hewlett-Packard printers – be it Laserjet, Deskjet, Designjet, Office Jet, or whatever. Since I was right behind him, I could hear everything that he was trying to tell the Costco employee. He said had bought it from here at this store – and it stopped working. I looked at the employee because she looked up at me and I just grinned.
When something is bought from Costco, they keep a thorough record of it and this man did not even have a Costco membership (that gave it away), but he insisted that he bought it from here.
The young lady was intimidated by him so I interrupted him and I said, “Give me a break. That printer is over 15 years old and they never sold that model here and when it was made, this store hadn’t been built!”
The guy argued with me and said he bought it here. I said, “No, you didn't. You either bought it for $10 from a thrift-shop, or got it out of your garage. What you are trying to do is committing fraud and I will call the police right now to have you arrested!”
It took him a couple of seconds and he ran out. I was a little afraid of him waiting for me outside but it was in the middle of the day when I was leaving the store and by then, he was already gone.
Cheating is wrong, and the guy was a complete idiot who tried to circumvent their generous return policy and he was not even smart enough to come up with a good story.
The young lady thanked me for helping her. I made a joke and said I was in a hurry to buy a Costco hot-dog and he was holding up the line.
Daily comics
What is something that needs to be said that nobody wants to hear?
I call her “Little Girl” because she completed her 12th last year. She always greets me with morning messages without failing any day.
But yesterday I didn’t get any message from her.
Then I pinged her today and asked for the reason. Initially she was hesitant but after insisting she told me the reason; she was thrashed physically by her dad because she couldn’t clear medical exam this year. She might have fractured her wrist.
She is a bright student and she loves physics. She has an outstanding academic record in physics. But it was her father’s dream to make her a doctor. And on top of it, she is the only child and that is why she is bearing this burden of hope.
She has least interest in biology and couldn’t make it to any medical college for two years in a row. They are adamant to make her a doctor, they want to send her to foreign countries (Ukraine, Russia) to complete her education.
This is a famous dialog from “Kota Factory”,
Your parents might take wrong decision for you, but their intentions are never wrong.
I agree, they are your kids and you will always take best decision for them. But I believe there is a thin line between taking a decision for them and forcing your decision on them.
Obviously, her father has no wrong intention. But his disappointment in his only daughter because she couldn’t clear medical exam is wrong.
Everyone is worried about their kids’ future. But how many of you bother to ask where does their happiness lie? What are their dreams? What do they want to become in their life?
Indian parents and their ideology. Obviously they are your kids and you don’t want to listen to someone else’s advice. But I believe, becoming the best in the area of your interest is better than becoming an average person in the area of your least interest.
Your kids are not average, you are forcing them to become one.
Legend of the Hanging Munchkin - A Wizard of Oz Mystery
Is American cuisine considered to be bad?
As a European who has traveled often to the U.S. (with shopping groceries and cooking), let me answer this question:
With a firm no.
First, let me make something clear: American cuisine is not McDonalds and Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Subway. These are fast food chains and not representative for American cuisine.
American cuisine is very diverse, maybe the world’s most diverse cuisine. This comes partly from the many immigrant groups who brought their food to America where it was transformed into American cuisine, but it also comes from the different regions of the USA, a geographically huge country. Think of regional cuisines:
- The Northwest with lobsters, clam chowders, oysters and crab cakes - all delicious seafood dishes which belong to the best of their kind in the world.
- Florida cuisine with Cuban and Carribean influences.
- The creole and cajun cuisine of New Orleans.
- Tex-Mex.
- New Mexican cuisine which is not a version of Mexican cuisine but a indigenious fusion of American Indian and Spanish influences.
- Californian cuisine with Mediterranean, East Asian and Spanish accents, all blended in a unique way.
- King crab and the world’s best salmon in Alaska.
- Southern BBQ.
- And, everywhere, some of the world’s best steaks.
What does it take to live an authentic life?
Courage and humility.
It took me years of chickening out and trying to fake it till I’d make it to learn that lesson. When you live authentically, you accept a lot of things. That can be incredibly hard, depending also on who one is.
Some people will face a lot less adversity than some, because of the way they are.
I, for my part, am not a very common person, so when I decided to drop the pretense and face the music, to see what it would be like, I prepared myself for a possible, lifelong shitstorm and hatred 24/7. I fully expected murder.
Interestingly, this did not materialize.
It was as if I stepped through a curtain of my own fears, only to emerge with a corrected image on the other side. An image that I could just live with naturally. It required no upkeep, no explanations, and no thought.
People peeled away, and surprisingly, they were the ones I didn’t care for, or who didn’t care for me, anyway. I learned right there and then that those who really like you will like you as you are, and probably do so even before you go through such a change, because they may have known your real you before you even tried to meet it.
And new people came, who viewed me in a very different light. People who actually gave me energy rather than taking it.
I can only recommend to take the step.
So what did I actually do?
It was at a stage of my life where I had some real doubts about the validity of my professional and life choices, and I decided that I needed a break. I “turned myself grey”, as I tend to think of it. I stopped transmitting, and went into a pure listening mode. I wanted to figure out life, and the way to do that, I figured, was first and foremost to shut up.
So shut up, start listening, and stop using the word “I”. Drop all self aggrandizement, all life editing, and all those theater acts we put on to please certain people. Let them have it from the horse’s mouth, and let that mouth be yours. And then just sit there and take the backlash.
It may never come. If it does, it’s more likely like a little demon detonating into thin air.
The Chinese owner of TikTok claims they would rather shut down than sell TikTok. (To the surprise of many lawmakers who voted to ban TikTok). Do you think they are serious or bluffing?
Very serious.
Chinese don’t bluff the way Americans do.
PULP SCI FI - Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, 1950 Science Fiction Paperback Novel Cover Art
What were the last words you heard someone say before they died?
My wife died during the pandemic. She had suffered from dementia for a number of years prior to her death. Many have called dementia ‘the dying brain’.
Because of her refusal to take her medication as directed, her primary care physician suggested that she be admitted to a care facility. That was in late January 2020. I visited her every day, ate lunch with her, and left when she started ‘sundowning’. In early March 2020 the hospitals and care facilities closed down to any visitors. In late March she was placed under hospice care.
The only contact we had was by phone. Most of the time when I called I was told that she was sleeping which meant that she wasn’t fighting her demons. When she was awake, she could only mumble. The last time we spoke, I told her that I loved her. Her response and last words to me were “I love you”.
On April 8, 2020 at 2:15 AM I got a call from the hospice facility telling me that she was dying. I asked if I could come and be with her. I was denied that. Then, at 6:30 AM I got another call telling me to come as fast as I could. She was unresponsive. I held her hand and played hymns on my phone. I would tell her that she could let go. She would squeeze my hand. At 2:17 PM she stopped breathing.
I am blessed to have those last minutes and words with her.
End of the Globalists w/ Jay Dyer (Live)
How has President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr's shift towards the United States affected China-Philippines relations and tensions in the South China Sea?
It affected the living standard and livelihood of Filipinos. It make him very rich and get back US confiscated wealth by the state department back for the Marcos clan!
He is doing a very clever 2 way play. He knows China don’t want war and U.S. U.S. pushing and bribing home to provoke war like Ukraine so he gets good money from the U.S. and he does nothing to China except soft groan and play act with China, all is well. But U.S. will on their own bribed poor fisherman on high seas to provoke Chinese naval boats. The fisherman gets 5K bucks to get hosed not bad for a days job. CNN gets their pretentious headlines where the edit and fabricate into Chinese “aggression” and state department gives them a nod and wink!
All is well as long as no one goes overboard!and some people got rich others get hosed and China gets bad publicity which it don’t gives a shit as long as it is costing the US an arm and a leg! Let’s see how much more and how long US can do shit as its nation dwindles down into oblivion.
What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?
About 1992 I bought a used, just off-lease, Chevy Blazer at a local car lot. The salesman told me that they’d rebuilt the front end, as it was loose when they got it. (S-10s, Blazers, Jimmys, and Sonomas from the 80s through the 90s were notorious for front ends that needed to be rebuilt just as they came out of warranty) I got under the car and looked, all the parts looked clean and new, no reason to doubt the salesman. They’d also put new tires on it.
The new tires were wearing funny, so I took it to a well-known local under-car shop to have it aligned. They looked at it and said that they had bad news, the whole front end had to be rebuilt, all the joints were worn out, as was common on these vehicles just out of warranty. Of course, they were lying and wanted over $1000 in early ’90s money to “fix” it.
I took it to another well-known local under-car shop and told them what happened and had them look at it. They told me that the car salesman had told the truth and that indeed the front end had been rebuilt, but they screwed up the alignment. They aligned the front end for less than $50. They said that the other shop had tried this scam on other people before me. The tires wore normally after that.
The good shop went out of business a few years later, and the bad one is still open in 2024, more than 30 years later. For over thirty years I’ve been telling locals about this incident and advising them to not go there. Maybe the people who work there nowadays are honest, but when you do things like they did over 30 years ago, you ruin your reputation from then on.
What did your parents allow you to do as a kid that you now realize was not age-appropriate?
I was born in 1961. My parents were a bit older than my friends’ parents, as this was their 2nd marriage. Both growing up during the Depression, so “parenting” wasn’t a verb. Dinner was at 5:30, “don’t be late, TV will ruin your eyes, don’t break your neck, don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about”; those were about it in terms of rules. Of course, if my brothers and I did something wrong, we were punished, not knowing it was something we shouldn’t have been doing. That’s pretty typical for my generation.
But my father had a great idea about how I could be useful. He noticed that our dog, a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks English Setter named Randall, was picking up lots of ticks. I can’t tell you how gross it was; the ticks would reach his tummy and just swell up. There were dozens of them.
Dad had an idea. Since I liked giving Randall belly rubs (and he’d flop on the ground for me), why not give me a box of “strike anywhere” matches. have me light each one, blow it out, and apply it to the ticks? The bloated ticks would die instantly and I could pull them off Randall. Dad set us up on the brick patio. Me, the dog, and a huge box of matches that could be struck on the bricks to light. I thought it was fun, sort of like picking grapes.
I WAS SIX YEARS OLD!
I learned to be adept and deft; I never burned Randall. I may have singed the tip of my finger a few times, but it was a great system. Any grossness wasn’t affecting me because I WAS SIX! That, and dad told me to do it!
Let’s fast forward to 1994. I asked my son, then 8 years old, to light the candles I had placed on the dining room table. (He is the sweetest kid, and saw me rushing to get a holiday meal ready, and asked what he could do to help.) I handed him a pack of matches. I saw him go over to the candles and struggle to light a match. I think he went through half the pack before I took them from him and told him to get the dinner rolls instead. It was at that moment I realized that little kids generally don’t use matches, and my dad really was taking a chance with me, a box of “strike anywhere” matches, and a furry dog! Do they still make “strike anywhere” matches anymore? My dad was a smoker and a badass. He liked to tease me by lighting the matches with his thumbnail, then lighting his cigarette. Of course I’d try to light one myself, fail, and he’d laugh. Oh, 1967! Oh, I got caught smoking in high school, and there was hell to pay.
What is it like to enter a prison for the first time?
When I was 16 years old my father was elected as a judge in Los Angeles County. He thought it was his duty to see, first hand, what the prisons were like before he sentenced anyone to that prison.
He made arrangements to tour all of the prisons in Los Angeles County. One day he asked me if I wanted to go with him. I think he may have wanted to scare me straight.
So I accompanied him to Wayside Maximum Security Prison. Let me tell you that was one of the most sobering experiences of my young life. All of the inmates were locked in their cages (cells).
The thing that impressed me the most was that there was absolutely zero privacy. The was no place where the inmates could not be seen, either they were watched by a gaurd or a camera.
They could not take a shower, use the toilet, change their clothes or anything thing else without being watched.
I did not see even one smile that day on a prisoner or a guard. It was one of the most gloomy places I have ever been
Why The US Government Hate China Scott Ritter Interview with Carl Zha and Alex Reporterfy
Completely interesting. Worth your time to watch.