Gromnir

speaking o' quincy jones, and am knowing is weird, but is possible our favorite kill bill moment were when we first heard the ironside sirens sound in tarantino's flick. were just too cool. HA! Good Fun! ps full disclosure: we prefered mr. jones' sanford and son theme to ironside.

which is why we recent had people buying toilet paper enough to last a year and eggs in bulk they had no chance o' consuming before they became dubious fresh. your nervousness and need for agency, on a large scale, leads to toilet paper shortages and literal many thousands o' complete avoidable handgun related deaths a year. oh, and if you carried around a fire extinguisher in case o' potential fires, or wore a suit o' faraday cage armour in case o' being struck by lightning, people would perhaps chuckle at your paranoia, but that would be the end o' the conversation. sadly, you ain't carrying around a single-purpose tool meant to extinguish fires. you is carrying a single-purpose tool which is designed to serious injure/kill. accident happens and the mess you clean up isn't just foam but is blood. will spend the rest o' your life cleaning up a handgun accident. even with best training, mistakes happen, and unlike the pens we mentioned earlier, when an ardent gun wielder has their weapon "sudden go off" or in the dark they accidental shoot the 14-year old in a hoodie, carrying a lethal weapon to protect 'gainst infinitesimal small dangers when the statistic chance o' accidents is far higher, will be small consolation. gd is concerned 'bout a whole lot and seems like the crazy world is not paying attention to his rational fears. am not gonna convince gd if all the statistics, which in almost any other situation gd would find compelling, don't dent his resolve. gd knows handgun ownership is, by any statistic measure, dangerous and has a disturbing high chance o' leading to accident. regardless, the world is outta control-- just look at the news, right? gd sees a world gone crazy and the handgun on his person is one o' the few options he possesses to prevent the insanity o' the masses from affecting him in all those ways his imagination tells him is possible and increasing likely. well, at least we can both agree medicine dan is not looking at same economic numbers and debt totals as is Gromnir and gd. unfortunate a handgun won't save gd from the US economic stoopidity o' the last decade or two, although the last three years has been particular wanton and capricious. somebody wanna tell us where all the republicans preaching fiscal responsibility has gone? we loved you guys. heck, we were one o' you... though we always thought it were were kinda weird to get lectures 'bout fiscal responsibility and prudence from folks sipping single-malt and smoking $50 cigars at a club with initiation dues o' +$200k. HA! Good Fun!

to be fair, it's three times in two months the same vid were posted, not three times since august of last year. we mention 'cause while is not unusual for repeats to happen in long threads, is curious to get three so close together. three since april 19. HA! Good Fun!

everybody who ever died 'cause o' their handgun ownership were certain the statistics did not apply to them. each corpse were the exception, until they became a statistic. and you don't really believe that in a high pressure situation informing a police officer you is armed will significant decrease your odds o' getting shot, do you? is better than cops discovering during a search incident to arrest, but c'mon man. *shrug* is one issue we know gd will not budge regarding, and neither will many thousands o' americans each year who will kill selves or others, or be killed by others. is too many gds who would otherwise be alive but for handgun ownership. so no, you ain't alone in getting all panicky and wanting to carry a weapon to protect yourself and stuff during a time o' crisis. too bad. HA! Good Fun!

ironic, meatloaf had dropped a whole bunch o' weight previous to his fight club role, and he were wearing a fat suit throughout the film. is actual one scene, which didn't get edited, where you may see meatloaf with his pants falling down and he needs pull 'em back over his foamy suit. also, in spite o' being much shorter than edward norton, he towers over ed in that scene. movie "magic." still hope. @Hurlshot from our pov, the only reason for swimming in the waters o' san francisco bay is no longer valid: escape alcatraz. those waters is having sharks and is brutal cold. 'least near half moon bay you got great surf. regardless, congrats on the mixed blessing o' your newfound vigor and "health." HA! Good Fun!

am hesitating to mention, but seems as if you has developed an increasing number o' peculiar and unfortunate health concerns since taking up serious fitness. no doubt the uptick is correlative, but... HA! Good Fun!

you o' all folks know how statistical you has significantly increased the likelihood o' your own death and injury by carrying such a weapon, but every handgun toting person seems to believe the folks responsible for such numbers is untrained or ignorant, so... regardless, if you do care 'bout gd's life, smart money is to ditch the handgun asap. HA! Good Fun! ps particular as gd referenced "these days," death by cop numbers multiple by a factor o' ten if the unnecessary corpse were armed. regardless o' race, you is statistical more likely to die from a pen/marker than a cop... unless you are armed.

on the positive side, if they ever do a stage show o' fight club, (five minutes from now somebody will perhaps inform us there is such a thing... maybe even an ice show?) you got an inroad for playing meatloaf's part. warning: first rule in death, a member of project mayhem has a name. fare thee well azdeus. fare the well. HA! Good Fun!

we hesitated to mention as we much enjoy the play for change, song around the world treatment o' the doobie brothers, but is literal the third time since page 11 o' this thread the same vid/song has been linked. what the hell, we may be repeating self, but the drummer in the play for change song liked by orogun is the inestimable and preternaturally funky james gadson. any excuse for more bill withers and/or james gadson is welcomed. HA! Good Fun!

just a heads up: the comrade board character, which am dubious as to legitimacy, is a cartoonish level ideologue. his/her posting strikes us as disingenuous and am suspecting the post you respond to is just one o' many offerings which function as a kinda inside joke, so far played out in +300 segments, only the poster gets. alternative, he/she is a genuine cartoony ideologue. decide for self which alternative is less worthy o' serious response. HA! Good Fun!

our favorite author is james joyce and we didn't honest finish ulysses until we were compelled to read complete as part o' a class at university. even today am willing to admit we dislike ulysses to a point which approaches loathing. have read ulysses a total o' three times and each were more excruciating than the last. dune were not so punishing for us as joyce's magnum opus, but by midway through the third dune book, mr. herbert had exhausted all the good will he built up with us as a reader o' earlier works. am not certain why we eventual read white plague after the complete and total nightmare which were children. kinda glad we did soldier on with herbert 'cause while the prose and characters were utter pedestrian in herbert's book 'bout terrorists unleashing a bioweapon targeting human fertility, it were conceptual intriguing enough to be worth the slog. HA! Good Fun!

isn't there something on the order o' 200 three stooges films, which has neither laugh track or crowd noise, though sound effects were added. if wwe is experimental theatre, that particular experiment started in the 1920s. whatever is wwe, the stooges did it earlier and better, though late 20th and early 21st century versions has added well-oiled actors in bathing suits, so there is that. ... clearly Gromnir is not the target audience o' wwe. HA! Good Fun! ps am s'posing punch and judy came much earlier, but they did indeed play to live crowds back in the 17th century, or perhaps even 16th?

am also glad to hear shady's dad recovers, but am thinking we is kinda simpatico on not wanting to go to a hospital if we get covid-19, particular if we feel we require breathing assistance. we do not wanna go thorough interminable er triage only to discover there is little the med folks may do for us save make us feel more comfortable, which is actual impractical given a few o' our medication issues. am having a hard time seeing our self consent to a ventilator. so... hospitals is not too strained here in norcal at the moment, but if they become such, am certain gonna be less likely to go to hospital even for potential life saving measures. given a few o' our health issues, we has had a pretty good run. all things considered, am less afraid o' death than am o' dying in a hospital. will opt for the "dad move" if such a situation arises. HA! Good Fun!

another argument nobody here made. who is blaming all cops? a few folks has suggested cop job attracts wrong persons, but nobody has suggested all cops is guilty for the actions o' those who done wrong in minneapolis and elsewhere. too many bad cops? too much violence? not anywhere near same as all guilty. blm and antifa is same "crap pile"? so, no longer concerned 'bout fairness, eh? blm and antifa is all same and anybody who supports any aspect o' either group fails vol's weird racism test? vol may not be as clever as loki, but he got same smell. but since am posting movie clips, give dc a shot. at the beginning o' june, bolton was nobody to anybody. on the right he were all too often seen as the weak link who trump jettisoned from the wh and on left bolton were viewed as a coward who, when the moment came for him to show his mettle, he cowered behind a subpoena which were not actual forthcoming. however, with legal action taken by doj, bolton is getting new life. is nothing with which trump and barr may threaten bolton. transform bolton form an ordinary clown into the joker? no way. HA! Good Fun!

so, you are retreating to a trumplike, "some people say," defense o' an argument nobody hereabouts made? you are using the vol transitive property for argumentation? conflating blm and antifa is a nice trick too, but notion you is justified in knocking the stuffing outta an argument some rando yutz somewhere in cyberspace made 'cause those unnamed clowns has affiliation to otherwise diverse groups and such groups has found support 'mongst a few obsidian board members? ... well, ok then. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, am not certain what barr and trump is doing with their case 'gainst bolton, other than working as free publicity and making the book more salacious than it has any chance o' being for reals. am predicting the book underwhelms, 'cause in spite o' pre-release sales pitches, bolton has taken great efforts to maintain his tarnished standing w/i the gop in spite o' the trump fallout. "any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity." you youngsters feel free to do a search for "pentagon papers" case. regardless, Court gave a hearty fu to government attempt to suppress so-called harmful and libelous material, even when government made claims o' the substance o' the publication being otherwise classified material. the doj and trump is punching way above their weight class in this battle. oh, and while it garnered less attention, there were a legal kerfuffle for chris simms and his publication efforts o' team of vipers. barr suggesting the current situation is a novel issue o' law requires him have memento kinda recollection impairment as vipers were a 2019 publication. find a trump sympathetic judge who wants to review the entirety o' the work in camera and perhaps we see a short delay, but is tough to imagine the publication o' bolton's book is prevented. all trump and barr has done has made it so that those folks who were angry at bolton for not testifying at impeachment and were likely gonna boycott his book, now is gonna be doing anything they may to get their mitts on the work as soon as it becomes available. HA! Good Fun! ps pentagon papers were 1971, so were kinda before time which we were reading nyt articles on a regular basis... full disclosure.

is good to know you are here to defend against an argument nobody has made on these boards, least not that we may recall. am thinking "potential misleading " is a bit o' an understatement, but regardless, folks now have the actual table and data from which to be drawing their conclusions. HA! Good Fun!

agreed. nevertheless, is one o' the many less than obvious costs of fixing US busted health care. regardless, question were asked 'bout how we got to this improbable place and answer is less sinister than some may imagine, but worse 'cause it is everyday ordinary. US income disparity got worse and fewer people were able to pay hospital bills. indigent population got worse, but not so significant as to cause a serious need to shift billing. accounting logic had hospitals raising prices o' procedures to help cover losses from previous unpaid bills, which common sense predictable led to even more folks failing to be able to pay hospital bills and yet hospitals continued with same busted logic in an attempt to stay ahead o' the debt. so now we got this improbable bloated system which is nevertheless seeming self-sustaining. obvious there will be a breaking point, but we ain't quite hit it. shady is correct in that something needs change sooner. problem is the fix is gonna be bad for a whole lotta people regardless o' what efforts is taken to mitigate, and there is not enough discussion 'bout mitigation efforts. charlie fox. HA! Good Fun!

is so not table 14 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18.pdf table 14 is on page 13. numbers does make white offender and hispanic victims and black offender and asian victim numbers looks curious enough to need further explanation. HA! Good Fun!

inch at a time. is ironic, but core and most fundamental problem seems simple to fix, but only in retrospect. the more that people failed to pay their increasing impossible to pay bills, the more hospitals had to charge new patients to stay afloat. hospital accountants kept the unpaid stuff on the books as long as possible while increasing costs for every other service to cover the eventual loss. such insane behaviour were universal and caused inflation in all aspects o' medical service. the industry is now so large it is requiring dramatic efforts to change. the number o' folks employed to do nothing but medical billing is many thousands, and those folks lose jobs almost overnight if any number o' single-payer/uhc plans is adopted. just as we cannot let mega banks fail 'cause o' cascade effect on economy, sudden fixing the healthcare system is gonna be equal disastrous for any number o' folks who is now dependent on the system in its current bloated form. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing is a movie and not reals, but isn't the point o' marine training to put just a smidge o' col kurtz into young men who would otherwise never even contemplate pointing a weapon at another human being much less killing 'em? gotta hand it to the corps as is amazing just how successful such training is. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, our personal experience suggests trying to educate individual racists into having some kinda epiphany is offering an extreme low rate o' success. in fact, in rl, we never accuse a person o' being a racist if our intent is to have a constructive dialogue. self-aware racists who is knowing they is racist and believe they is justified in their racism will surprising often be offended when you suggest they is racist. who knew? those persons who behave racist but just don't realize their actions is bigoted, will near certain react poorly to an accusation o' racism. "react poorly" is an understatement. in the US, racism is inexorably linked to iconography o' nazis and kkk, so when you suggest a person is racist, the christian woman who insists she can't be racist 'cause she once dated an italian man who, during the summer, got skin as dark as Gromnir, is gonna be mortified by suggestion she is a racist. there is the possibility for salvation. maybe mom and dad are the kinda everyday racists who think most minority problems would go away if "those people" were more diligent and worked a bit harder, but if their daughter, little cindy-lou who, goes to school and realizes the minority kids is not so different, then next generation has a shot at real change. rare does Gromnir suggest trying to fix a problem by addressing effects, but racism is kinda such an issue, though am not saying we only address effects. today we may address the effects o' racism by reducing income disparity and health care gaps 'tween white and minority populations, but am thinking we tend to go 'bout it the wrong way. eighteen year-old white kid from backwater arkansas has never gotten a break... evar. his parents were poor. his grandparents were poor. as far as he knows, his family going back to adam and eve were poor. tell some o' these kids how they is privileged and they get angry. now go ahead and suggest racism and privilege is mundane and matter o' fact for all white folks whether they realize or not and see how poor white kid reacts. explain to the kid who can't get a decent job, but is killing himself working crap jobs such that college feels like a pipe dream... and everybody keeps telling him college is needed. tell the white and underprivileged they need wait for help 'cause we need first fix generations o' white privilege. is not winning strategies. long term and real solutions come from cultural changes which start with kids. gotta take a +15-year approach which is unsatisfying for those suffering today and for political types who need show immediate results to get elected next year or a few years from today. short-term we are able to address income disparity and health care issues and many other problems, but we gotta be savvy enough to frame the debate so as to not further polarize an already horribly divided nation. we give gd a hard time 'bout the confederacy. as we have noted, more than once, we believe the confederacy deserves to be given a nice and final immolation, but we always stress need for education. the ordinary southerner who venerates the confederate battle flag do not see themselves as racist. sure, there is more than a few who fully acknowledge and embrace their bigotry, but is not most. the ordinary white southerner who loves what the confederate flag represents *groan* were taught in school how the civil war were not fought 'cause o' slavery. schools taught these confederate loving folks that slavery were bad and it were a terrible thing, but that most slave owners treated their slaves like family members, or perhaps beloved house pets, and that even so, the real fight were 'bout liberty and self determination. you got generations o' southerners who, right or wrong, honest believe the narrative they were taught in schools, and is much easier to embrace such a narrative when the alternative is that you has believed and perpetuated a lie and an injustice for near all your life. point at confederate flag and says anybody who venerates is a racist forces all those southerners (and a few northerners) to make a hard choice which is punishing in its polarization: either gotta admit that all those people shouting at you that you are an ignorant racist is correct or side with an increasingly vilified defense o' the confederate battle flag, which is often perpetuated most aggressive by modern day kkk and nazis. we push folks to embrace an extreme and then act surprised when those people become extreme. oh, and human is animals. when an animal is afraid or hungry or angry, it often runs away, but humans is pack animals, so if we are in groups and we is hungry and afraid and angry, we lash out at the weak, particular those weak not part o' our group. such behaviour is an ugly reality and is all twisted up with racism and stupidity and fear and base animal instinct which regardless o' fact we may split atom and travel to the moon, will always be a factor in our interactions with other humans... human animals. HA! Good Fun!

didn't think there ever were a claim uhc or alternatives would be free o' a price tag. has been a few studies which show uhc may actual be cheaper overall than current system. am not wholly convinced, particular as is just as many reputable studies which show different. regardless, particular given current charlie fox situation in many cities, should be concerns regarding all kinda secondary social costs which result from the expanding gulf in income disparity. those who have less/not enough, tend to become angrier and more fearful o' a government which consistent does not look out for them. is not a new phenomenon. 'course there is also the whole morality issue regarding American willingness to ignore homelessness and healthcare issues. the most depraved and soulless me and mine character might balk if we begin talking 'bout kids. children make up a large % o' folks receiving insufficient health care or enduring homelessness, and am thinking it takes an impressive amount o' callous indifference to ignore the plight o' kids. perhaps those kids shoulda' thought ahead, planned better, and chose better and more responsible parents? as hurl noted, we already endure evils o' socialism. when it comes to basic education, infrastructure spending, and bailouts for farmers when a President decides to have a trade war with china, we got many folks cheering socialism. that said, am knowing many see the world as being made o' teflon and one big slippery slope which only needs a slight tip towards the abyss to send us all plummeting. *sigh* we, as a people, may make choices 'bout how much o' a grip we wanna maintain on the image o' American self-reliance. is not a flippant observation. American self-reliance, while deride elsewhere, is important to many voters. is core value kinda stuff. nevertheless, am thinking is only possible to ignore the growing health care, homelessness and income disparity issues if one is either psychopathic indifferent, or consciously unaware. gotta be a tipping point for most, and such a tipping does not result in an inevitable and inexorable slide down the new created unidirectional slope. HA! Good Fun!

close to 40% o' the emt in nyc don't have health insurance. were a couple stories 'bout such when pandemic first hit the city. after obamacare, employers had to pay health insurance... for full-time employees. so many employers take a bunch o' full-time jobs and make 'em part-time, just to avoid health insurance coverage. the emt also need make hard choices. food, housing and basic utilities is kinda non-negotiable costs o' living, so if you is making bare enough to survive, particular if you is needing pay off student loans, then you need make hard choices 'bout health insurance. restaurant staff. delivery people. small business owners... who ironic may be paying for insurance for multiple employees, but not themselves. is hundreds o' different jobs which see a large % o' those employed nevertheless unable to afford health insurance. if monetary penalty for not having insurance is less than one or two months o' health insurance premiums you cannot afford... and it always were as much 'bout the premiums as anything else, 'cause that is the actual functional cost o' insurance for most americans, though is just another way the poor (disproportionate minority) get screwed by the system. if you got co-pays which is also expensive 'cause you may only afford cheapest health insurance, then you are going to avoid doctor visits n' such unless they is absolute necessary. only first three dr. visits a year is covered? have a $10k deductible (ordinary), which goes extreme fast for any serious med issue, and we see how even a single person w/o amish numbers o' kids, may be on the hook for near $15k in out-pocket med expenses in a given year even if they have insurance. making maybe $40k a year in a part-time job and that $15k is enough to start a credit death spiral leading to bankruptcy. me and mine. doesn't affect me and mine, so is not real or is qq worthy. HA! Good Fun!

Trump calls it 'inappropriate' for Bolton to write book “If he wrote a book, I can’t imagine that he can because that’s highly classified information,” Trump, who said he hadn’t read the book, told reporters during a meeting in the Cabinet Room. “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified. So that would mean if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he’s broken the law and I would think he would have criminal problems,” Trump continued. ... well, that's just wrong. not need to explain why is wrong, yes? should be axiomatic that President don't get to declare all private conversations with his exalted personage highly classified and the divulging o' contents from such conversations to be worthy o' criminalization. *shrug* am admitted curious to hear how the fox pundits will spin this as we continue to see the chief executive slouch towards tyranny. HA! Good Fun!