Hurlshort

There is an entire entertainment industry built on defaming the US government, so clearly that isn't illegal in the US. 😝

I'll give you Tibet, but that was still 60 years ago. I had to look up the Vietnam one to even remember the details, and the India stuff tends to be more border clashes. You can throw Hong Kong in there for good measure, but it still pales in comparison to all the pots the US has its fingers in. Not that I'm saying they couldn't become a warmongering nation. I'm just saying they have shown little interest in sustained warfare throughout their history. Meanwhile the US has been mired in Iraq and Afghanistan for ages and has a global military presence. I'm not even making a judgement call on that, I'm just saying these are major philosophical differences in the way they operate.

China doesn't have a reputation for invading other countries though. The US certainly cannot say the same.

I washed my cars today. It had been way too long (March?) Since we've barely been driving them, it's easy to not think about cleaning them up, but now they look good and sparkly.

Thanks for the response, Darkpriest, that did help me understand your viewpoint better. I will say this about the protests in the US; thousands are happening peacefully across the country. They don't get the same coverage that the violent ones do.

Wealth privilege linked to English Cultural Descendants doesn't quite roll off the tongue like White Privilege. There are a lot of contradictions here. Prejudice has existed for a long time, but now it is simply too much too ignore? Different groups were prejudiced against in the previous century based on their race, but white privilege doesn't exist? Which one is it? What's going on now is nothing new. Not the privilege part, the prejudice, nor the reaction. We've had numerous civil rights movement throughout history, and this one is nothing different. But things do tend to change as a result. As you mentioned, Irish, Italians, and Polish immigrants were all pretty well prejudiced against in US History, and over time, that changed.

Yeah, there was very little prejudice in the US back in the 60's and 70's. Everything was bright and nice. So the Balkans are a worst case scenario, but Russia is now the dominant player on the world stage? So does that mean in like 30 years the US will re-emerge on the world stage minus a few bits and pieces? Personally I'm rooting for the Republic of California. We've got some good stuff going for us if we don't fall into the Pacific Ocean. Generalizing a country made up of 50 separate and unique states as ignorant is not necessarily how I would make my first foray into the politics thread, but welcome aboard!

I don't understand why people who put loads of sugar in their coffee even drink the stuff. Coffee isn't good for you, so if you need to mask the flavor of the stuff, just stop.

My daughter has always really been into creating somewhat morbid scenes. It started with turning her barbies and their house into of a psych ward with handmade straight jackets and scary makeup. Then she started really getting into the Halloween makeup. Like she would make me a list of all the different products she needs and I would gawk a bit, but she did make some pretty great stuff and she used it all well beyond October 31st. Now as a teenager, she has really gotten into makeup. Which is great, because she does competition dance and the fact she can do all her own makeup is awesome, but it has also been hugely expensive. She likes to experiment with it all before bed, so when I go to say goodnight to her, sometimes she will look like a scary clown, or an elderly person, or a zombie. So now she wants to start doing masks and learning how to work with clay, and I'm trying to figure out how to best support her in this. I've started creating a workshop in the garage. Unfortunately the materials for this type of thing are not cheap. Thankfully there are quite a few special effects on a budget video, including one be the guy who did Army of Darkness. So yeah, my summer project is now figuring out how to best direct her creative endeavors.

Life of the Party - This was a surprisingly hilarious Melissa McCarthy comedy. The boyfriend twist was a great moment.

Missed opportunity there. Teenagers are going to be naive and think they know everything. That is the way the youth works, and it can be great. The idealism of youth can be wonderful. It needs to be tempered with realism, but that is where being an adult parent comes in. Instead of getting angry, it should have been used as a teachable moment.

I enjoyed The Old Guard as well. Charloze Theron is always good swinging weapons around. Seems set up for anothee film, for sure. Kind of funny that big pharma is the new villain in today's world. 😝 Music was off, for sure.

Seemed to have a lot of pro-environmental awareness tones to me, which was surprising. Green Party ad could be almost identical.

You are driving around in a multi-ton vehicle with a powerful engine, and cyclist are pedaling around on a small frame that weighs 15-30 pounds, yet they are the menace?

So you are saying that All Traffic Matters? I get that cyclists and pedestrians can be more mindful, but I don't think you are going to find any cars killed by them. The cars are the bigger problem here. People drive around in multi-ton weapons at high rates of speed while being distracted by all the technology of the day. I'd say the whole culture behind cars needs to start changing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/us/bloomington-car-attack-protesters.html I've been disappointed in how people keep trying to dismiss vehicular manslaughter and homicide because people were jaywalking. Then again, I regularly deal with this on the road when I run an cycle. Drivers seem to feel that it is alright to endanger peoples lives if they are in a hurry.

It's a western version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on a spaceship.

Yeah, my PS4 gathers dust most of the time. The Nintendo Switch gets a lot more use. It is portable and multiplayer friendly. Every time Nintendo puts out a console, I think it is weird, but then it ends up being the right tool for the right time. That's why they make the big bucks.

I've been sucked back into Conan Exiles. I started over again, and currently have a neat base set up in the desert near thee pirate ship. I've bridged a couple plateaus and have an elevator that takes me to a rich resource area, so I an happy with the location. The new Greek DLC pack is pretty awesome looking.

I get my cast off tomorrow. I am soooo ready. I also need to get a TB test before I report back to work. But I have no idea when I will be reporting, and I really don't want to go to the clinic where they take the test.

This morning I realized I was way behind on my family photo books. Typically I put together a book from our summer trips, and I have them starting from 2009. I guess I never finished 2018, so I polished that one up and ordered it from Shutterfly. Now I need to work on 2019. 2020 is going to be a weird one. We sold our RV, which we've had since that first trip in 2009 when my daughter was just a toddler. So it was already going to be a bit of a change with that, but now the summer trips, triathlons, dance competitions, parades, and hockey camps are all cancelled because of a pandemic. I suppose it will just be pictures of us laying around the house for a summer.

Happy 4th of July to my countrymen. We had a nice group workout this morning, and now we are taking it easy. I'll BBQ for dinner. I am enjoying the folks poking fun at the All Live Matter crowd by posting All Countries Matter. People really need to laugh at themselves a bit more.

So the NFL is going to play the Black National Anthem before games in week 1. This was surprising to me, since I had no idea it existed. Turns out there is a fascinating history behind the song dating back over 100 years. It seems like a pretty safe way for the NFL to acknowledge their players, who are overwhelmingly African-American, and the current climate. But I am sure insecure people will freak out about it and consider it an attack on their version of 'Merica.

I mean, African children probably don't complain about their lives like gamers do, but I will leave it alone.

Yeah, but people usually don't go to AA and try to blame the bars for serving them alcohol. That tends to be the case with gamers who encounter issues. Granted it might be a buggy game, but it also might be an issue with your computer.