SS Officer #2: Er, Hans?
        SS Officer #1: Have courage, my friend.
        SS Officer #2: Yeah. Er, Hans, I've just noticed something...
        SS Officer #1: [Looking through binoculars] These communists are all cowards.
        SS Officer #2: Have you looked at our caps recently?
        SS Officer #1: Our caps?
        SS Officer #2: The badges on our caps, have you looked at them?
        SS Officer #1: What? No. A bit.
        SS Officer #2: They've got skulls on them. Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them?
        SS Officer #1: Uh, I don't...
        SS Officer #2: Hans... are we the baddies?

Well I only do busy work now, so Outlook Web is good enough for scheduling meetings.

President Jimmy Carter under estimated the support the Ayatollah could muster, burned his own political capital in supporting the Shah, miscalculated the importance of the clerics to Iranian culture (especially in rural and the lower class), and ultimately unprepared for the Iranian Revolution, Absolutely bungled it, and the result was he lost backing of his own party, and haunted the remainder of his presidency.

It's like 2026 is 1978 all over again. And we have people in charge that are incapable of learning from their own mistakes, let alone the mistakes of their predecessors. The end results that I believe are likely is that we're going to botch this one, either through President Trump's direct orders or m ore likely one of the crony appointees is going to make a bad call that is going to cost us dearly. At the extreme end of what is possible is well-funded supporters of Iran could back Yemeni Houthis to carry out attacks on American civilians in order to create discord in the US and weaken political support for Trump and the GOP. And it's not like it would even take much, as support has long been waning Trump and the GOP controlled Congress.

Tariffs, high gas prices, and substantial threat to public safety. This is what voting with a cult costs you. Economic recovery is going to take a decade or more starting in 2029. The 30's are going to be the DIRTY THIRTIES. Zoomers are going to be pissed at all of us when they figured out just how badly we let the Boomers and GenX fuck them over.

Hmm....over the years, I've had several girlfriends report loss of appetite after trying to watch a lot of Monty Python with me......

It is something to do with 2 X chromosomes...?

I'm too old for the draft. But I'm scared what it might do to the younger generation. It certainly had a negative impact on the generation that raised me. I had many public school teachers and coaches in the 80's and 90's that were unhinged Vietnam vets.

Tariffs and fuel surcharges. So nice that big corporations aren't the ones burdened by what is obviously another tax on the consumer.

I used to get real work done from mutt and alpine. Back when emails were mostly text and a small attachment or hypderlinks.

We'll have at least one billionare-built base on the Moon in our lifetime.

The MAGA true believers are just like that drunk guy in the strop club that believes the stripper really loves him.

Wow, just realized it has been YEARS since I last went out, cut loose and had fun at one of the local "strop" clubs here in New Orleans....

Basic epidemiology: when a vampire feeds on a person, that person also becomes a vampire, and vampires are immortal. So it won't be long before everyone's a vampire. Can vampires feed on each other? (According to Blade, there are second-level vampires who feed on other vampires.)

As I've read the books and seen the movies...NOT every victim becomes a vampire too.

Only if the vampire wants to turn a victim....they drain most of the blood to almost point of death and then have the still alive victim drink blood from them......then they turn into one.

Do you not possess an instinctive revulsion when presented with an idea so gruesome?

If it is something that will allow me to preserve, extend and improve my life?

No....not the least bit.

You don't get to create and then destroy life just to prolong yours

Why?

I made it to earth and processing oxygen...why should I not make and have the opportunity to extend my run for as long as possible?

I guess my innate sense of self preservation is much higher than yours.

I really love my life and I love being me and there's not much I'd not do to keep that going.

Why would I not?

Hey....all the smoking, drinking, general partying and getting laid as much as possible was FUN as a kid and young man.

I feel it has been a life worth living so far....sure, things are starting to fail and fall apart a bit, but whew....glad I got to travel the road I did....not boring, and really ....how much life did I lose with all that in the past?

I tell you what....I'm gonna hope vampires are REAL...and that I can become one.

No spare parts required for immortality......Just a little blood.

I'm good with that....

Hell, if there really were such things as vampires, I'd become one in a heart beat....well, err....I'd like to lose some weight first, I'd hate to spend eternity being chubby like I am right now, but I'd do it.....

I dunno about so many people I really really like being ME and would like to do so for as long as possible....and would do almost anything to prolong that.