Guard Dog

This story has a cringe factor of 10 :http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/28/woman-26-chops-of-boyfriends-****-with-garden-shears-during-sex-game-7113883/

The absence of evidence IS the evidence!

Matt Lauer from NBC was fired. Why? Sexual misconduct. http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/29/media/matt-lauer/index.html

Now, a country that wants the government to do something about the homeless and proceeding to vote Trump into office, THAT's ironic. Don't blame me. I voted for Johnson. Oh, and thanks a lot. Now I'll be humming that song all day.

Yeah the Memphis newspaper is making a very big deal about the racist angle right now. I think it's literally made up from thin air. And I doubt Gasol wanted Fizdale fired. Gasol is playing like crap and did not suffer his justified benching gladly and shot his mouth off to the press. It was Wallace and the front office Clown College who fired Fizdale. Hardly their first act of self sabotage. Yes the team is playing badly but there are reasons for that, none of which are Fizdale's fault. But he's the one to be served up for sacrifice. He's hardly the first coach that has happened to. But for the Grizz I predict this will be the beginning of a total death spiral.

OK, let's work this out. Trump made a "funny" by calling a Caucasian woman who lied about being Cherokee the name of a Tsenacommacah woman, while talking to a group of Navajo while standing in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson who is known for fighting the Seminoles (and British). This is what everyone is worked up and "offended" over right? First off, all of those Nations named are separate people with different languages and cultures. The only thing they all have in common is they all lived on the same continent much like Spain, Germany, & Italy are all on the same continent. So the only way this is "offensive" is if you lump all native american Nations into one lump. Which is often done especially by people trolling around for things to be offended by. And doing so is itself a little offensive I'd imagine. Are Italians and Germans the same thing because they are both white and both live in Europe? Put another way if Trump made a stupid joke about Christopher Columbus not really being Spanish while talking to a group of Romanians while standing in front of a picture of Edward II of England would that be offensive? So what we're left with is Trump making a stupid comment that has no relevance to the occasion or people he was talking to. But if you are expecting anything OTHER than stupid comments to fall ot of his mouth by now you have not been paying attention.

Double post

BREAKING NEWS: DONALD TRUMP SAID SOMETHING CRASS AND MEANLY SARCASTIC IN A NEWS CONFERENCE! DETAILS AT 11! IN OTHER NEWS THE SUN ROSE TODAY! IIRC it was Scott Brown who tagged her with the nickname Pocahontas in the 2012 Senate Campaign in MA. It's a pretty low class schoolyard thing to do, tagging someone with an unflattering nickname. But as Sharp One and others pointed out, she's hardly blameless for it.

Regardless of whether she is being disingenuous about it (I think she is), using a racial slur to describe her, even as a joke, is not ok. That Trumpelthinskin decided to use that racial slur during a meeting with the Navajo is indefensible. If Elizabeth Warren self-identifies herself as having some Native American ancestry, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. Just because we don't necessarily see it doesn't mean it's not there. The actor who played Zach from Saved By the Bell is a quarter Indonesian -- he doesn't necessarily look it. A childhood friend of mine who has pale skin, red hair, and green eyes claimed he was black. Didn't believe him until I met his parents. Mom was a ginger but his dad was definitely black. Except she was publicly debunked by the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Oklahoma Historical Society. She lied to the AALS back in the '80s to help with finding a job, Then the Boston Herald found out, ran the story and she was obligated to stick with her lie.

The irony is the people want the "government" to help the homeless. This usually comes from the misguided notion that nothing ever happens except when the "government" does it. But instead of helping the homeless the government hurts them by shutting down the people who actually ARE helping them. And I might add, doing it in such a way that costs the tax payer nothing. Still not sure how that's ironic. Terrible, maybe. Ironic, though? The irony is the thing that people seem to think is there to "help" does the opposite of helping. Take that guy that thinks the earth is flat for example. Here is a fellow who thinks we all live on a flat disk at the center of the universe and everything we've ever been told is fake. And to prove it he's going to climb onto a rocket fuel bomb he built himself and blast himself into space. Clearly this is a fellow we'd be better off if he were removed from the gene pool. And he was likely about to do that for us. But noooo the government has to step in and screw THAT up!

Guard Dog: Well, at least Wallace can't screw this team up any more than he has. Chris Wallace: Oh yeah? Watch this! Marc Gasol is 6 of 17 the other night. Utterly ineffective. And he has been for a while now. The team is buried in a seven game losing streak, Conley is hurt, Chandler Parsons has never NOT been hurt (when was the last time he had half the minutes in a game on the floor?) and the only two guys who seem to hustle are a no name rookie (Dillon Brooks) and a middle of the road power forward (Jamichael Green). They absolutely croak in the 2nd half, Gasol rants to the media and now Fizdale gets fired? Last year this team out performed expectations. They have been a team in decline for a while now. Bad drafts, bad free agent picks (Parsons) and bad upper management. Only two things have kept the Grizz relevant, Conley and decent coaching. Conley is out, has been for 8 games and the Grizz lost seven of those because the "veteran" leadership of Gasol & Parsons is MIA. Ah screw it. 93 days until Spring Training.

The irony is the people want the "government" to help the homeless. This usually comes from the misguided notion that nothing ever happens except when the "government" does it. But instead of helping the homeless the government hurts them by shutting down the people who actually ARE helping them. And I might add, doing it in such a way that costs the tax payer nothing.

People seem to have this idea that politics is the end-all-be-all of everything. If the Koch Brothers do own time 2-3 levels down along with a hundred other things they are not going to concern themselves with editorial choices or other nuts and bolts parts of day to day operations. In other words they will be far more interested in how many issues sell than what is actually IN those issues. Politics is fun and all but business is business. I think Mother Jones is the worst publication in the free world. I would not wipe my butt with it if it was the only thing I found in a porta-john after an all you-can-eat binge at Chipotle. But I I owned Mother Jones and it was making money I would tell the editors not to change a thing.

It's funny, there are groups, charities & churches for example, TRYING to help the homeless and the government is shutting them down: http://wqad.com/2017/04/20/shut-down-the-city-of-davenport-closes-timothys-house-of-hope/ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/11/08/malibu-church-told-they-must-stop-feeding-the-homeless/ http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/dundalk/bs-md-church-homeless-fine-20161212-story.html https://thinkprogress.org/city-demands-church-stop-sheltering-the-homeless-85af2cac718b/ http://nj1015.com/nj-church-told-its-not-allowed-to-take-in-the-homeless-from-the-cold/ https://www.fastcompany.com/3046331/this-homelessness-organization-says-you-should-stop-donating-to-the-homeless And people think that same government should do something about the homeless! Now THAT is irony!

Time was relevant? Huh. I thought it was relative. In all seriousness it's sold next to the grocery store checkout, sharing space with Good Housekeeping, The National Inquirer and Archie comics. It wasn't exactly a bastion of great journalism from the get go.

Now reading this.

No kidding. Especially this one:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US. Happy Thursday everyone else.

Going back to Micheal and Jeanette I heard a lot of good advice for them. What I didn't hear, that I was hearing a lot of previous to that post is "you're born poor, you die poor because you live in a (mostly) capitalist country. So just give up". If they listen to any of you their situation will improve. If the listen to Majestic and Sharp One they will likely reach their goals. They are not going to make it unless one (or preferably both) find higher paying jobs. Doing that is easy, you just acquire the skills the higher paying jobs require. They need to go to school. And it does not have to be Penn, Temple, LaSalle etc. Britghtwood, UTI, Philadelphia Community college will all do fine. Just because you can't go to an Ivy League school does not mean you can't get an education. Atoms still have protons, neutrons, and electrons when you lean about them in a community college. The other thing I heard was get out of Philadelphia. Yes. The absolutely should look at that. 1. You need to go where the work is. If you can't find suitable employment where you are you need be ready to look elsewhere. 2. Cost of living is absolutely a consideration. It's just baffles me the rank defeatism I'm hearing from KP, Number guy, and others that it's impossible to better yourself in a capitalist economy. It's not. It's not even all that hard. You decide to do it and you do it. Becoming a millionaire is a lot harder that becoming affluent if that's your goal. That does require a bit of luck. There are two good paths to it. First off is you will need an advanced education. You are looking at grad school in all likelihood to find a career where salary and basic investments alone can get you there. It's a long and hard road to walk and it requires a commitment but it's open to anyone and can even be done without a great deal of cost if you're smart about it. The other is to start a business. This is a riskier road because the initial investment is the once you can least afford to lose. In my most recent business venture I re-mortgaged my home for the max amount to cover my share of the start up costs. Had our company failed I likely would have lost everything. All of my assets were tied up in my home at the time. I literally pushed every chip I had to the center of the table. That is often what it takes. And if we missed it I likely would have tried again at some point once I recovered. Success is sometimes an act of pure will. Yes I was lucky that I knew people who could invest and help pull this thing together. But my entire career I made a point of networking and staying in touch with business contacts. Is that really luck then or just being smart? Once your business is off the ground you need to work hard and run it carefully. Forget holidays, forget weekends, vacations, etc. All you are going to do is work. It was not unusual for me to work 100 to 120 hours a week. Literally every waking moment at times. In the beginning. Once we stabilized and began to grow steadily that pace did ease up because we were in a position to hire employees to help. But that first year one of the partners and myself literally did every single task from design, purchasing, installation, contract negotiation, everything. That is what it takes. The people who commit like that have a good shot at succeeding. It's still not a guarantee. You can still do everything right and fail. Like I said, this is life, it isn't fair. Yes there is a big disparity of wealth. If Micheal and Jeanette were the children of wealthy parents they would not have to worry about the same problems they do. Their task would be easier. But starting at a disadvantage in terms of money is NOT a show stopper. It's a problem to be worked around. People do it every single day.

OK, we're spinning our wheels here. Let's come at this another way. Meet Micheal & Jeanette The are a newly married couple living in Philadelphia let's say. Micheal makes $29k a year working as unskilled labor for a construction company. Jeanette makes $12k working part time at a grocery store. Neither has an education beyond high school. They are renting a small, not so nice apartment. They have one car with a payment and a few credit cards. Their basic expenses eat up 90% of their income. They dream of an upper middle class lifestyle with a house,two cars, two kids, a retirement plan, a nice vacation every year. Realistically they will need a family income around $70k give or take to achieve their goals. The are asking all of us how to do it. What is your advice?

If you guys want to see an example to follow, ask Gromnir to tell you his life story. No one on this board has bridged a bigger gap between misery and success than he has. And I'll give you a hint... he didn't get it because it was handed to him.

The plural of anecdote isn't data, and the data says you're vastly more likely to stay a miserable failure than you are to pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Especially if you don't even try.

LOL! 40 hours? That's L-A-Z-Y! And what else? Free weekends? What do you expect after that? A mansion? Get to work and stop complaining. OK, sarcasm and acid wit is all fine and good. But you are dipping into it a lot. You are a smart guy sharpie, you can up your game a bit and make compelling arguments without that.