Guard Dog

Well... you can only do that once I guess. Don't burn it!

I guess sometimes problems just solve themselves: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/boris-johnson-s-brush-with-police-puts-leadership-bid-in-turmoil-1.1277059

Here is what I'm doing tonight:

Look at this BS: https://www.mlb.com/rays/news/rays-tampa-bay-montreal-split-season This absurdity will never happen. The MLBPA won't allow it. The City of St. Pete won't allow it. And Sternberg wasn't serious anyway. Just a ploy to increase pressure. The reality is that franchise is doomed. Here is why: Vince Namioli: The clubs founder was a meddlesome cheapskate that did little to endear himself or his club to the Bay area. He did not rise to near the level of sheer malice Marlins fans go to experience with Jeffery Loria but those to were close. Hi tenure was marked with bad teams, bad decisions and bad fan service. What begins in misery tends to end there. The Bay Area: The Tampa Bay area is a mid sized market by MLB standards. It's made up of three cities, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Bradenton. Combined they are the fourteenth largest market in the MLB. The problem is you can't combine them. There is a body of water only slightly smaller than New York City separating all three of them from each other. That means you really need to look at each city individually. The Rays are in St. Pete with about 260k people. That makes them last in the MLB. Dead last by a long bloody way. Worse still the average age of the citizens of St. Pete is 47 years. It's a city with a large population of retirees. Unfortunately that means such industry it has is largely service based. Which means lower income. $45k per year is the avg in 2017. It's expensive to live there so disposable income for luxuries like baseball tickets is a problem. St. Pete cannot support a MLB team. Period. Across the bay to the east is Tampa. Population is over 1M as of 2015. Average age is 36. Avg income $51k. There is a slightly better corporate community, a large Air Force Base, thee Universities, and lower cost of living. Just one problem, there is no money to build a stadium. Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa can't help much. Not won't... can't. It's ironic. St Pete can help the Rays build a stadium where they will continue to struggle. They could thrive in Tampa but it can't happen.Here's why: The Tampa Bay Lighting and Buccaneers both are playing in relatively new facilities that were mostly publicly funded. And not totally paid for. Plus both teams are very popular and present a challenge to the Rays in getting leisure dollars from a populace that still has limited disposable income. It's cheaper to live east of the bay but brother, this is still Florida. It ain't cheap! Which brings us to the last problem: Economics: At an avg income of $51k the Tampa/Hillsborough market is 26th in the MLB. Ahead of just Cleveland, Miami, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. It has a higher cost of living than all of those save Miami. Tampa is also home to Busch Gardens and a short drive from Orlando with all of it's distractions. The Rays would be trying to break into a well saturated market with many alternatives to fight with for a lower than league average disposable income. So, the Rays are doomed in Tampa Bay and all that is why. They will keep on until 2027, impressing us with innovation and confounding sports prognosticators sometimes. But there is no escaping the reality of their situation. What begins in misery tends to end in misery.

The irritating thing about this Iran mess is it's absolute needlessness. Yes the deal agreed to by the previous admin was a bad deal. But it was still a deal the US agreed to. Agreements with the United States should be expected to extend beyond the next administration. No matter how little the new POTUS might like it. Now the US is obligated to respond to the drone incident. The only thing worse than a punitive air/missile strike on the air defense battery that shot down that drone would be to do nothing. Doing nothing would only encourage more aggression. Maybe the next time they shoot down a manned plane. Or attack a ship. Then we WILL be in a war. But the worst part of all is it is so stupid that we're even in this bind to begin with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3rBBRIVYsc

This is just getting creepy https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/18/sex-doll-maker-creates-replicas-dead-partners-combat-loneliness-im-providing-comfort-9997632/

That is cool stuff... I didn't know most of this

Don't worry, you're in good company!

Well, I was thinking movies like Rocky and Die Hard as being one off. They were not adapted from novels, or a series of novels with a continuing charterer(s). The first one had success so they keep yanking on that teat as long as milk comes out even though the creative concept becomes a parody of itself. Aliens is an exception. It was equal to Alien in quality. Definitely some seriously diminishing quality after that though. I've never seen the original Mad Max. I thought Road Warrior and the one with Tina Turner were weapons grade stupid though.

A persons's faith and relationship to the man upstairs (or lack thereof) is entirely their own business. But I am suspicious of displays of faith from political leaders. Not all of them. Bush and Obama were both regular church attendees prior to being elected so I was 100% willing to accept theirs are genuine. But when Trump or Clinton did it it strikes me as a tad exploitative. Just politicians being politicians. That does not mean they were not religious. No one knows what's in another persons mind. I'm a very religious man and except for weddings and funerals have not set foot in a church in decades. I'm just put off by disingenuous gestures done for appearances.

Demonic networks are aligned against Trump: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/449226-trump-spiritual-adviser-a-demonic-network-aligned-itself-against-the Pretty bad when even the demons want to see you lose! What network is that I wonder? Must be one DirectTV doesn't carry.

Not really a one off though. Those were adaptations of Harris's other novels. The original Death Wish was also adapted from a novel. So many liberties were taken with the story the author disavowed the movie IIRC. I'm sure he still cashed his rights check though.

Starting this one on my lunch break today

Uh oh.... we're in for it now!

It will be. I'll be writing them a check... and it won't be for the amount they say. But it will be something. The funny thing is when I read their "tax adjustment proposal" I got sick to my stomach. Then I realized they did not include any of my deductions, just gave me the single standard deduction. Once you add in my itemized deductions it's not as bad. Still a crooked number four places west of the decimal... but not as bad.

Thesis statement: Sequels to one off movies always suck. Supporting argument 1: Rocky II - V Supporting argument 2: Dirty Harry II - IV Supporting argument 3: Death Wish II - ? Exception that proves the rule: Bladerunner 2049 Conclusion: Sequels to one off movies always suck.

Just when you thought you could not have any less respect for the human race: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/tennessee-preacher-cop-lgbtq/index.html I prefer the company of animals.

I retained a lawyer a few years ago to represent me in some recent real estate deals. One of those deals got me a letter from the IRS this week. So my lawyer tells me I need a different lawyer to deal with that. He was the one who advised me on capital gains deferment. No offense to Gromnir, Enoch, & Nep but dammit Shakespeare was right!

Totally!

If I could teach the human race one thing it would be this: With the exception of non-adult children that share your DNA or are your legal responsibility, the only behavior you should concern yourself with or are responsible for is your own. Don't worry about what everyone else is up to. If they are not doing it to you or yours it's none of your business! Just think of how that simplifies our politics.