Best Posts in Forum: Off-Topic Forum

That's enough to make a man go Bananas........Resolution's: Maybe keep my thoughts to myself !!!!
A Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all......JB

 

The Philippines has welcomed this and have said it is a good thing to help with the West Philippine Sea situation. I do feel bad for France as they bargained in good faith to build subs for Australia, but you also can't blame Australia for taking the USA up on better equipment. Any country in the world would have made the same decision.

Strategically it makes good sense for the USA to enter into this contract, and it should reap long term benefits. It will create stability in a region dominated by China's forces, even though this is still years down the road. The subs don't build themselves overnight. However just the knowledge it is coming is enough for China to take a good hard look at what they are doing, and what they hope to accomplish.

This is no way has any bearing on the Afghan fiasco. After 20 years we should have expected and deserved more than what we actually saw happen, but it also shouldn't be a surprise when you look at the history of the country, including Russia's adventures there just a few short years prior.

Bottom line is the more countries rally behind moves like this and push back on China, the more difficult it becomes for China to just take over. They have their hands full with Taiwan and Hong Kong now, it becomes very hard to put up fights on multiple fronts.

 

Um, er..I’m in two minds about this. The forum owner seems to be more proactive of late and that seems to me to have lifted the tone somewhat. I’d been at the end of one or two stinging personal attacks a few years back (they just stung, bit surprising, no harm done other than to the ego for 5 minutes) and putting a stop to that imho has improved the general tone.

At others I’ve thought some moderator actions have been a little harsh and outside my comprehension. I own that, maybe there’s some stuff I don’t know about going on in the background. He’s the mod, he owns the d*mn thing and has to live with the ball ache. But overall, not a bad and probably un rewarded job. General win I reckon.

As for the political stuff, I welcome views n opinions, I might learn from them to change my set in their ways outlook. I think the freedom to express them without pillory or personal attack is just as important as me commenting on those I disagree with to the same standards. Racist etc views being the exception. No place for that.

so Mod/Admin, not a bad job, thanx for the space, guess we could all a thing or two, huh?

 

My view of the 4th of July is like Memorial day. I think of the freedoms that used to be celebrated on the 4th as dead and gone like my brothers in arms that I memorialize on Memorial day.
I spent the last 25 years in San Diego where I saw at July 4th celebrations all over Southern Ca. more Mexican flags and Viva Mexico signs than American Flags. I witnessed after the first Iraq war El Cajon Ca. completely over run by Iraqi refugees shipped in and given tax payer money to buy up everything. Now That small city is referred to as little Iraq. Now in SoCal flying the American flag is considered insulting to people from other countries so political leaders are forcing people to remove them from their houses. There is even a movement to force a ban on singing the anthem at sporting events.
It is going to get uglier before it gets any better. I feel the American Culture is dying in this age of open borders and Globalism.

 

I used to think most of those who were homeless were due to bad luck and not enough jobs. Then I ended up homeless for a year back in 2002. What I saw firsthand opened my eyes to the reality. While a fair amount have chemical dependency issues and a handful have mental disorders most are their due to straight out laziness. They find it easier to do nothing and have someone else feed them than working and feeding themselves. When I was homeless I started off going door to door at business's looking for work w/o any luck (well who wants to hire on someone without a phone number or permanent address). I started to go to the local day labor place which I walked to but you could take a direct bus to from street that all of the homeless shelters and soup kitchens were on or a block away from. I noticed though that only 2 others from the homeless shelter I stayed at ever went and only 1 of them was daily as I was going. I started to get day jobs semi regularly after I was showing up daily looking for work at 6am when they opened every day and I never left until 11am if I didn't get work and did that for a couple weeks. Eventually I got hired on full-time as a regular employee and went from their. But I saw no one else cared to do that almost and many of them were males and females in the working age range from 20-45 and able bodied.

When I was homeless I also had a week long cash job that was easy as it could be. The company hired 20 guys (5 vans 4 per van) to put flyers on doors and paid $50 cash a day. Two guys would walk one block putting flyers on doors while the other 2 waited until the next block and it was a small couple block area before they drove to the next area usually a 10-20 minute drive. Easy as one could hope for and easy cash. Yet day after day most of the guys never showed back up and ended up being replaced again and again because they took their $50 and ran.

I learned that most who are homeless its become their lifestyle because they don't want to deal with taking care of themselves, having things to manage, having responsibilities, and having expectations put on them. They wanted a carefree life to do whatever they wanted as long as they had someone else to feed them and some clothing handout places that is all that mattered to them.

I no longer give money to homeless or even a sandwich which I tried once offering a fresh "6 Subway sandwich and got cursed at by a homeless beggar because he wanted money, not food.

 

I was in the small store that sells beer in Valencia and i gave the man Michale a PHP1000 instead of Php100
He gave it back as he realized i had made a mistake it would not happen here in Australia you make a mistake you pay for it
I have only met nice people in ph maybe it has some thing to do with attitude and i have been going to Dumaguete for ten years

 

My goal is to stay alive long enough for my 12 yr old to go to college and to support my dear wife and him financially, as long as I can. Absolutely nothing else matters to me.

 

Compared to a metro or just another LRT line, bicycle lanes are much cheaper and easier to realize.

In cebu city I’ve noticed quite a few bicycle lanes in some areas, in the better neighborhoods (it park) even separated with plastic barriers. Seemed to be well respected all in all.

 

JB, thank you for your kind words, and for adding more profound considerations.
One thing I will add, and I'm sure many others have experienced this: As I walked through my life, there have very few people, maybe a handful, that when we met, had such a significant, monumental, rare impact on me. Thankfully, my wife has been one of them. is it fate, destiny, I don't know or try to understand.