Guard Dog

Yet another example of just how doomed we are: http://rare.us/rare-news/girl-takes-to-twitter-to-criticize-kkk-sign-at-baseball-game-but-theres-one-big-problem-with-her-outrage/?utm_content=inf_4_3427_2&utm_source=influencer&utm_medium=the-social-edge&utm_campaign=influencer&tse_id=INF_424e9ea0629411e790011d41b85aaeb5 I don't what is more galling. Confronting the stupidity of others or being expected to apologize for it.

Well, since my dad used to be a diplomat back in the days I can safely say that it never happened to me in: -Havana -London -Vienna -Frankfurt am Main Don't know, maybe I was...*ehum*...lucky?! If that happened in London the guy would have stopped, helped you up, dusted you off, apologized and bought you lunch. The Brits are just cool like that.

Well, in my opinion when the government's boot in on your neck does it really matter if it's the left boot or the right one?

I hate to tell you this but if you said that happened in Moscow, Rome, New York, or LA it's just as believable. Well... maybe not LA. It's hard to hit someone when you're stuck in a traffic jam. But the driving skill don't improve as you travel west!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pence-jokes-about-viral-photo-of-him-touching-nasa-equipment-labeled-do-not-touch/ar-BBDYoTn?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp

Actually Obama & Trump had to do the same thing to be President: beat Hillary Clinton. So I guess they both jumped six feet!

Hey what did I say in the last thread? Real wealth is freedom from worry. If we lived in a world where things were actually free, meaning it costs nothing to provide them not that someone else has to pay for them, then we would all be wealthy.

A nice opinion piece from SB Nation about the Z-Bo thing. It doesn't change my mind. If he were retiring I could see it even if we wasn't the greatest player ever... or even on his own team. But he's not retiring. He's going to be here three times next season to try and beat his former squad. Heck even if he had done a 1 day retire-as-a-Grizzly contract when he's done playing I'd be OK with it. Bah... whatever. I don't own that team. Things would be done different if I did. https://www.grizzlybearblues.com/2017/7/7/15930936/zach-randolph-memphis-grizzlies-jersey-retirement-haters

I imagine the Western Union Stagecoach driver watching the train pass by told his shotgun "That will never catch on"

I'd like to congratulate the McDonalds workers on their successful "Strike for $15" movement. Enjoy it while it lasts:

Now that is cool! I've got to spend some time reading what else they have digitized,

The city of Hollywood Florida is renaming streets that were named after Confederate Generals: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hollywood/fl-sb-confederate-streets-hollywood-drama-20170703-story.html OK, as much as I abhor this erasing of history that's going on, why were streets of a city that did not exist in a region that played no part in the conflict named for CSA Generals? The closest the Civil War got to South Florida was Ft. Jefferson in the Keys and Ft. Myers on the Gulf Coast. Neither was close or notable. And I have to admit, considering his post war... activities... naming a street that runs through a black neighborhood after Nathan Bedford Forrest is a big middle finger. There is a monument to him not far from me in Jackson. They have been crying to take it down and it has been vandalized a few times. But whatever else he did he was a key figure in the western theater of the war and it would do a disservice to remove it from there.

Well, I don't like it. Having your number retired is supposed to mean something. I thought the same thing when the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays retired Wade Boggs number.Yeah he's a HoF'er and had a great career but he didn't have it in Tampa! He played areound 200 games in two seasons and hit under .300. His combined WAR was 1.2. That is not number retirement stats. Z-Bo wasn't even the best power forward on our squad this year. He only started 5 games. Last season he missed 22 games to injury and his RPG & PPG has been going nowhere but down since 2011. Look, he was important to the team, I get that. Do something nice for him. When the Kings come to town next year give him a gift of some kind. But next to the HoF getting your number retired is the biggest honor in sports. It ought to mean something.

WTF? I mean seriously WTF? Zach Randolph is leaving the Grizzlies. He took a 2 year $24M deal with the Kings. No big deal, good luck Z-Bo it's been great. That would be appropriate right? Noooooo. Grizz management published a nice open letter, which is great, but they also announced they were retiring his number. WTF? That is supposed to be a big deal. He didn't retire. He didn't die. He went to play for a division rival for more money. And on top of that he has been in a serious decline the last two seasons and is often injured. Yeah he is a team leader no doubt. But nothing he did here rises to the level of a Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, Bird, etc. You get the idea. http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/grizzlies-retire-zach-randolphs-number-with-tear-jerking-open-letter/ar-BBDTW2r?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

In other news there is a budget crisis in the State of New Jersey. The Governor of New Jersey, former Presidential candidate Chris Christie, took the step to close all state parks until the funding impasse is broken. So popular public beaches like Island Beach State Park were closed to the public for the 4th of July holiday weekend. But... that didn't stop the governor from taking HIS family there. And since it was closed to the public they has the whole thing to themselves. http://nypost.com/2017/07/02/christie-caught-lounging-on-closed-beach-during-budget-standoff/ Proving once again, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

So that's what that was all about. I heard something about this on the radio this morning. Is this funny or sad? I really can't tell the difference anymore. I'm laughing so it must be funny. Remember all the tweets about Kanye West "discovering" Paul McCartney? The problem with Twitter is it's broken our illusions about the intelligence of our fellow humans.

@TN: You just hit on the biggest bummer of all. Even in the US where social welfare is less than it is elsewhere there are many and more public and private aids to help people that they just do not know about. But we are big on people taking responsibility for themselves here. Part of that means finding out what opportunities are out there for them. Living in the US is like living in a big library. There are lots and lots of lots and lots of books. Most won't help you, some can. There are people who will help you find the books but they are not going to read them to you. @Ben: No one chooses to be poor. But some folks do choose to stay that way by making bad choices. Let's do an exercise here: You have a young married couple. They both work at minimum wage jobs, rent an apartment, and combined barely cover the basic expenses. They want to improve their situation but how? Don't have a baby. Big time. The mother will have to leave her job and the public assistance won't cover everything. Don't buy anything you do not need to live on. That means booze, drugs, anything like that. Don't buy more food than you need Plan your meals. Don't go out to eat more than say once a month. Make that a treat not a regular thing. Don't use more utility power/water than you need to. No dishwasher, etc. Can they use public transportation? If yes then no car. If no buy the lowest cost but newest car they can. You can buy a brand new base model Ford Fiesta for $10k. Financed over 60 months that less than $90 a month. Don't pay for cable, use an antenna. Don't pay for internet use public access. The first step is to get your expense to a bare minimum to save as much of what they make as possible. The second step is to increase income: Do either have a skill that qualifies them for a better paying job? If not then one or both of them needs to be in school at night. Many trade schools and vocational schools have free tuition for low income students. There are many, many educational opportunities for people in this hypothetical couple's predicament. If possible they should explore an after hours work from home opportunity like baking and selling cookies to local stores for example. An unemployed housewife named Debbi Fields baked cookies and sold them in hand wrapped 3 cookie bags to gas stations in Palo Alto California in the 1970's. She called her business Mrs. Fields Original Cookies and today it is a large company with over 4k employees, over 300 stores in the US and 100 more in 33 different countries around the earth. Consider working a second job. John Paul Dejoria was living in his car while selling a shampoo he made with a $700 loan from his uncle door to door by day and working in a small print shop making cheap Christmas cards at night. That shampoo is now the John Paul Mitchell System that is used in high end salons all over the world. He sold that and founded the Patron Tequila distillery. It's a huge business. Get out in the community. Volunteer, or go to church, or other things like that. They are not only free they allow people to network, shake hands, make friends. That opens up opportunities. Being poor isn't a choice. Staying that way isn't necessarily a choice. Not doing something about it definitely is.

What if I DON'T "advertise and invite the public in" and I only advertise and invite one groups and not the other? What if I have, like now, a production company? It's closed to the public you cannot come in from a street, you need to be an employee, invited client, arranged supplier and such? Can I decide whom do I sell and whom I don't? If I get a call and I here "Salut", "Shalom", "Salam alaikum" etc. can I answer "Sorry, we don't make business with you guys? If no, then your argument is again invalid as the "publicly open" rule does not apply but the laws still do. If yes, then basically this law could be avoided by simply closing the door or putting bouncers/selectors at the entrance. Which again proves how insane this law is. If you did that then yes will likely see the inside of a courtroom soon after. If you were in the US.

Even then it's an uphill struggle. success is not a guarantee. But someone wise once told me "Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is"

Oh you are completely correct there. I was working a pretty high paying job when we started the project. I left to pursue that opportunity. It was a risk. A big risk because they job would not have been waiting for me if it failed. Plus I was 40 then. I'd been working for 23 years. I did have some money saved up but that was all used to support myself during the first 16 months of the business. We did not see a penny of return for almost that long. I knew what we were getting into. You are an educated man Orogun but you are young still. If you are careful with your money now, stay out of debt as much as possible, don't buy what you don't need, you'll start to save over the long term. That will open up opportunities later on you might not have now. Your life and the success you enjoy in it will be defined by the choices you make all along. That's advice from a rich guy. I started my first business at age 22. I was still living in Ft. Lauderdale back then. I invested in a PMEL & ISO certification for myself then leased equipment and started a test equipment calibration business. I aggressively pursued business, offered services under cost to build up a client base, hell I even worked for free for West Marine in Hollywood & Aventura just so they could see what I could do and maybe consider a contract with me. In three years it was over and I was dead broke. I lost everything including my wife who had no patience for what I was going through. But the lessons I learned form that made my next attempt a success. I chose to save money and invest it in my first business. I chose to save more and invest it in my second. The opportunites did not fall into my lap, I went out and found them. That is how 90% of business are built. Sam Walton started out from nothing. The son of a depression era life insurance salesmen. He started out delivering papers and milking cows for money to go to school on. He worked his way through college doing odd jobs and waiting tables. He served in the army then got a job with JC Penney for $75 a month. All along he saved his money until he opened his first department store in the late 40's with the $5k he'd saved and a loan from his father in law. That store became Wal Mart. He died a billionaire. Stories like that are common in this country like nowhere else. Sure it can happen anywhere but it does happen here all the time and it more the rule than the inherited wealth story. The whole idea of discounting what someone says because they are rich is just closing your mind to potentially wise advice.

I wonder, do Gay bars open up that way or do they become that way over time? If I owned a bar I'd want to attract the crowd that drank the most ****tails. Most bars I understand make about $0.10 per 8oz of draft beer, $0.30 per bottled beer, and $1.70 per ounce on booze.

@Sharp One: Your home is not open to the public. If it were, for example if you operated a restaurant from you home then it becomes open to the public if you advertise and invite the public in. Then you don't get to discriminate who comes in, unless they violate a reasonable rule of your establishment (dress code for example). If your restaurant were not open to the general public, say it were invitation only, then it would qualify for the private club exception. You see the difference here?

I disagree. Slavery brakes the rule I mentioned above: Your freedom ends where another freedom begins. Your definition of discrimination is very broad and nonsensical. Discrimination is systemic. If based on race, gender, faith etc. you have different laws/rights we are dealing with discrimination. Interaction between two people is not discrimination and shouldn't be governed by the authorities unless there is criminal behavior involved. Answer me this simple questions: 1. Do I have the right to NOT allow people in my house based on their race, gender, whatever? Yes/No. 2. If yes than why my business should follow different rules? 3. If no than why is it ok for the government to tell who I should allow in my house? In your house? Yes. See my answer above for the rest.