impulse

But that ain't gonna happen in my lifetime. So, based on US and OZ studies that found scooters to be 20-40x as deadly per km, I'm going with my 4 wheeler. It may not save me from everything. Just most things. All I can do is what I can do. What I can't do is change a culture. Don't even want to try. Don Quixote and all.

Agreed. When I was a kid first learning to drive, I was young, bulletproof and pretty oblivious to danger. But I was too broke to afford a ticket. So I practiced driving to avoid tickets. Which, not so coincidentally, was good practice to avoid accidents.

Call me cynical, but I don't think claiming a Thai girlfriend helped your case... Assuming this isn't a wind-up.

I protected myself from the idiots on the road with a ton and a half of steel, 4 wheels, seatbelts and a roof over my head.

I don't move in those circles, so I have to count on input from experts. Reading the rest of the interaction, O'Leary doesn't seem to be a fan of The Donald. But solely on the topic of the lawsuit, he's pretty clear. This doesn't even make sense.

If that's true (and I'm not claiming to know), you need to remember that was before globalization and all the trade barriers came down, so it wasn't feasible to invest in overseas plants (and jobs and...) You couldn't build stuff overseas and afford the import duties even if you could get past trade barriers. Also, it was before shipping containers took off, revolutionizing international movement of goods. Today, if they implemented a 91% marginal tax rate, every company would move production jobs overseas. They'd take their profits in the low tax locations and their US distribution arms (because that's all they'd have in the USA) would just break even so they still wouldn't pay tax. Edit: And as I recall, Eisenhower inherited the high marginal tax rate. It was FDR that called in all his rich buddies after the depression and told them, "you broke the economy, now you're going to have to pay for the mess you made".

Have you considered upping your donation?

Interesting what Kevin O'Leary had to say on CNN Friday... And so, that's what this case is all about. And by the way, forget about Trump. Every single real estate developer everywhere on earth does this. They always talk about their asset being worth a lot, and the bank says no. That's just the way it is. So, in this case, what I'm trying to figure out, and I'm not pro or con, I don't care about the politics, who lost money? Nobody. The bank got paid back the construction finance loan and a new building was built. And if you're going to sue this case and win, you've got to sue every real estate developer everywhere. This is all they do. This is what they do all day long, every day. So, I don't think this thing will ever survive appeal, regardless of what the fine is. This doesn't even make sense. The interview is all over the right wing blogosphere. Being of a cynical nature, I looked on CNN to confirm that's what the guy actually said. I dare anyone to try to find it on CNN. They buried it. Crickets. I finally found it buried in their "transcripts" section. Had to Bing "Mr Wonderful" to find it. But I guarantee, no CNN viewer will ever know about it. Doesn't fit their narrative. https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lcl/date/2024-01-11/segment/01

That's racist. Back when I was in the volunteer fire department, we called them friction fires. It's when the mortgage rubs up against the insurance policy.

It's an intractable problem, because the very people who could solve it are the ones benefitting from the way things are. IMO, the solutions are term limits, campaign finance reforms, and stop shielding the real people that are behind corporate malfeasance. But good luck with that. Too much money going the other way.

But felons can't vote.

So you don't think there's already bots cruising the interwebs looking for keywords and phrases, and listening into our smartphones, and perusing CCTV cameras all over the world? Measuring how many miles you're moving, where you're going, and at what speed? The more benign use (on a personal level) would be to sell us stuff by putting ads in front of us to match what they think we may be willing to pay for. Which is spooky enough. Less benign uses would be to squelch free discussion and shut out views they don't like. And, I suspect, compile lists of "friendlies" and "unfriendlies". Which opens a whole Pandora's box of ways to control us. So yeah. I believe the thought police are already here. And the technology is getting scarier and scarier.

Whaddaya mean "will be"? Already here.

On that, we agree. That's one reason I don't get all excited when the market goes up.

I believe their raw data. And for that reason, I appreciate when TGJIBKK posts it. I still try to check the raw data with other sources to see if it jibes. Their analysis, conclusions and recommendations, not so much. And they'll have to hold a gun to my head to get a 3rd jab in me. My quality of life took a nosedive after Pfizer #2 and still hasn't recovered. Sadly, like a lot of folks, that reluctance has transferred to other vaccines as well.

In my defense, I'd add that, up until about 3 or 4 months ago, I needed a Covid test to board my flights to and from China. And last month, they actually tested us at the airport in China. Nasal swab, but I don't know what for. May have been for weed for all I know...

My bad. I saw the Jan 13 and thought it was today... I wonder how it even popped up so I'd see it. Still, I never hesitate to call the airline with any questions regarding boarding requirements, whether they be Covid or visa related. Too much bad info on the interweb and in forums.

I'm curious what that guarantee includes. Will they just refresh the coating, or is that an agreement to repaint the car if the coating doesn't protect it and the paint fades or peels?

If anyone's still seething over something that happened over 150 years before they were born, they've been indoctrinated into a victim mindset. Someone's indoctrinating them for their own selfish purpose and is robbing the "victims" of their potential. I refuse to feel guilty about what happened in the USA when my ancestors were poor dirt farmers in what is now Belarus, and I vehemently reject any claim that I owe anybody any reparations or special treatment for something that happened 50-100 years before my genetic material set foot in the USA. It's very telling that this story is about a settlement that apparently collapsed 1000 years before Columbus and the first serious replies are about how Europeans caused the collapse of so much in S. America.

Can please you provide a link to the claims that habitation in this newly discovered city was brought about by diseases from Europe? This thread's posts from John Drake and mfd101 both discuss the effects of Euro diseases on S. American cultures. I was pointing out that this location died out long before that. And, how quickly the discussion turns to the bad white man, even when they had nothing to do with the collapse. We've been indoctrinated into guilt. Which keeps the reparation $$$ flowing...

So apparently one of those advanced cultures was behind on their human sacrifices to appease the Volcano Gods?

Do what you want, obviously. But if I just gave QA a wad of money for a R/T ticket, I wouldn't feel a bit guilty about spending 2 minutes on the phone with their customer service to make sure they'll let me on the plane.

If it were me, I'd call the airline a few days before the flight, enough time to get the test(s) done if still required, but as close to flight day as possible in case something changes last minute. Too often, info on the interwebs is either not up to date, or one site conflicts with another. DM'ing works if they respond in a timely manner, but I wouldn't count on that if it's my time and money at risk. I wanna talk to a live person with skin in the game. The airline has a financial incentive to not let you on the flight if you're going to encounter an immigration problem along the way. I'd also write down the name of the person I spoke to, so there's a little bit of recourse (if only guilting them) if he/she gave me wrong info.

Maybe on aptitude tests. But you can't teach a kid social skills without peers around. And that includes negotiation, which is the skill most likely to make people rich. I'd go along with home schooling supplemented by a big dose of social interaction outside the classroom, but that's a tough one.

In a global economy, is it better to just let Ireland get all those companies and jobs with their super-low tax rate, or would it be better to reduce US corporate tax rates to incent companies to move those jobs back to the USA? I don't claim to know the truth, (we're bombarded with propaganda from both sides, often masquerading as scholarly studies) but many of the studies I've seen show that lower corporate tax rates result in more jobs, more products being made in the USA, better trade balance, and ultimately, more tax revenue. Hopefully, they target those tax breaks toward productive enterprises and not to the importers, the banksters and the money changers. And it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if they imposed stiff tariffs on goods and services from, for example, Ireland who are gaming the system. Just to level the field.