JamesSavik

It's not that the US is any less corrupt. To get away with acting that way here, you have to call yourself a corporation and own a dozen senators.

The reason that so many people agree that homosexuality is such an evil, abominable sin is that it's not one of the more popular sins. Only a few percent of the population is GLBT. It's not like straight adultery that 90%+ of people are tempted with. It's not like gambling, booze or any number of the more popular sins that people overlook because attacking those sinners is considered just plain rude. Any pastor can safely rail about the evils of homosexuality BUT, he won't be the pastor for long if he attacks the more popular sins in the same venom. Imagine how quickly a congregation will give such a pastor the bums rush if he were to attack divorced people in the same way that he attacks GLBT people.

James- my namesake. He hit the beaches of Guadalcanal in 1942 and fought his way across the Pacific with the 1st Marine Division. Richard- an Uncle on my Mom's side was a pilot in the old Army Air Force flying B-24 and eventually B-29s for MacArthur out of Australia, the Philippines and Guam. My Dad- was 16 when he joined up in 1943 and was a Flight Engineer on B-17s. He flew out of Italy and England. As he was training on B-29s, the Japanese surrendered. After the War he went to college and he and his brother James became the first men in a long line of dirt farmers to be college educated. His ROTC commitment recalled him to active duty in 1950 for the Korean Crisis. By this time the Army was out of the bomber business and Dad was a GI. He landed at Pusan as a 2nd LT with the 2nd Infantry Division and, in coordination with the Inchon Landings, they broke out of the Pusan Pocket and drove the North Koreans out of the south. They all had a collection of medals and ribbons but they didn't tell many stories. They weren't the sort. If you asked, they would just say they were grateful to come home in one piece. They are gone now. The rest are leaving us all too soon. For we are a world in desperate need of adult supervision now that those titans are gone.

No. That generation is special both here and in the UK. Despite the bombs, the Brits still stopped for a cup of tea. Never forget what we owe them. This generation defeated fascism and communism as a world threat in their lifetime. They set the bar very, very high.

I don't think much of the labels people try to assign to the generations. By the numbers, I would be a Boomer but, I don't share any of their traits. I've met Gen Xers and Millennials that are way more conservative than me. Maybe astrology would be more accurate. At least it is so generic, you can't actually claim it's wrong.

Baby Spiders Reportedly Rain Down on Australian Town May 19, 2015, 1:02 PM ET By Olivia Smith Hot Link to Story Baby spiders are falling from the sky in a town in Australia, according to a local media report. Millions of spiders seemingly dropped from above earlier this month in the town that is about 125 miles southwest of Sydney, the Goulburn Post reported. It quoted a local resident, Ian Watson, who reportedly posted on the Goulburn Community Forum page: "Anyone else experiencing this 'Angel Hair' or maybe aka millions of spiders falling from the sky right now? I’m 10 minutes out of town and you can clearly see hundreds of little spiders floating along with their webs and my home is covered in them. Someone call a scientist!" The scenario, nightmarish as it may be for those who suffer from arachnophobia, is entirely plausible, experts said. "It's a phenomenal event, but it’s not unprecedented,” said Rick Vetter, a retired research associate of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. The main reason this happens is because of a dispersal technique called ballooning, Vetter said. Ballooning occurs after a mother spider lays her eggs and they hatch. more at source ________________________________________________ Yes. It gets worse.

Happy birthday and many, many more. Take care Myr!

When I was a kid and adults were trying to scare me out of my nasty homosexual hobby, they used to tell me stuff designed to scare it out of you. They said all you could ever hope to be is a bartender or a prostitute. Homosexuals always end up in prison. Homosexuals are useless, can't have families and other delightful things. Of course that was all a product of the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) society that I was immersed in. Some of it was self fulfilling. Many young gay men in the South were denied any way to make a living. They were pushed toward crime and the law was always right over their shoulder. No one knows how many young gay men were disposed of in the prison system or forced into the underground economy- that part of commerce that goes untaxed, unregulated and all of the right people don't get paid. That's our past and it's ugly. There's a reason that our federal goverenment doesn't want to pass any non-discrimination legislation. There are people alive that could sue for billions if that were the case. Every level of our goverenment from federal down to district dog catcher would be liable to some extent. They know this. We know this. There are other things they don't tell us. We have to figure this out on our own: We have gifts. I've never met any gay people who didn't have something going for them. I've seen them beat down and despondent but their gifts are always there: their intelligence, their talent and their drive. Just look at history. Say a great name and, there's a good chance that they were gay or bisexual. Alexander, Caesar, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato- any of these guys sound familiar? They practically invented Western Civilization. I won't try to list all the gay people that made their mark. The list is entirely too long. If you are curious, you can find it here :>> GLBT in history. As 2 or 5 percent of the population, we have had a much larger impact on history than our mere numbers would suggest. A FAR larger impact. Like we lead the parade out of the stone age, the classical period, the dark ages, the Renaissance, the age of Enlightenment and the age of Revolutions and the Great Democracies. Look at every field: science, the arts, the military, politics. We have been there and our contributions have been dominate. We know this. They know this. It begs a very interesting question: are they scared of us? I think they are. We have nothing to be ashamed of. Let us use our gifts in peace for the benefit of mankind. Those that curse us will be shown for what they are: losers choking on sour grapes.

As a member of an unpopular minority that is often the target of violence, I rather like my Beretta. Besides- I live in da hood. If you aren't armed here, you're dead or a victim. Police don't actually prevent crime. They just solve it after you are dead.

Honesty is the best policy. At least you didn't show up at home sloshed.

What can you do for me? What's in it for me? Why are you being so nice? What is YOUR game? So, how does this scam work? How are you going to hurt me? What can I do, How can I help? << Winning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8QxOjuYHg blues haiku don't work the Crossroads devil deal fails too few syllables

We aren't getting older, we're getting better.

You're welcome and, welcome new friend!

Start with this douche-bucket.

I want to free you from bondage. How weird is that? I don't want to tie you down. I don't want to smack you with whips. I want to free you. Now if I can just free me.

One is supposed to have beaten up Senator Harry Reid. It was either the treadmill on the Vegas mafia was showing their displeasure with his work on their part.

I've had this though too. My idea was to put some of Joe Conrad's sea stories into a sci fi setting. I started work on a remake of A Secret Sharer and have notes for the Heart of Darkness. This is... a little ambitious. I found myself reading and re-reading the originals and commentaries and felt a little like the boy who wanted to fly his kite to the moon.

I know this character Silas/Drake. Hell I've been that guy. Anger and paranoia may help you survive but it's like adrenalin in a fight- it will only take you so far.

Me too! Welcome Aaron!

When navies build a ship, it's a big expensive deal. Ships are supposed to last decades but many things change over decades. There are engineering improvements and new technologies. Missions expand and more capabilities are required. There is a real danger and, it has happened many times, that multi-million dollar state of the art warships are obsolete before they leave their builders slip. It's called different things by different services. Refit. Modernization. Overhaul. Sailors wouldn't call it a makeover. They just wouldn't. I found myself in need of an overhaul. If it was hardware, that would be easy. The software- now that gets sticky. I needed to feel differently about myself. That's about as difficult as it gets. When you get in a rut, when you feel negative about yourself, you don't expect good things to happen. And they don't. It becomes a perfectly vicious self-fulfilling circle. I needed to make some good things happen. I needed to get back in the habit of success. Where most people screw this particular pooch is to try to do everything at once and don't succeed at any of them. My strategy was to pick a few strategic goals and concentrate on them. Focus on them. Succeed at them. Learn what it takes. I started this plan in Aug. 2014. It's now May 2015. Let's have a look. Goal 1- Improve my physical fitness. Too many people say I'll lose X number of pounds and I'm done. That doesn't work. I need gym time several times a week. Since the project began, I've lost 30 pounds and my body shape has changed. The pounds I didn't lose moved somewhere more useful. I look better, feel better and I'm about as hot as a fifty something guy can get without cheating (steroids or plastic surgery). This will continue. I've discovered that I like people staring at my pecs. Goal 2- Add additional professional/technical skills. I decided to get an Associate degree in Electronics Technology to compliment my degree in computer science. I can do it without mortgaging the future at community college. So far: Digital Electronics A Solid State Electronics A Tested out: DC Electronics and AC Electronics. GPA 4.0 Lesson Learned: It takes a plan to make good things happen. It takes consistent, persistent effort. It takes attention to detail. It takes focus. So far, so good. I'm beginning to believe in myself again.

>>God, the 70's was an ugly fashion decade. How do you think we see todays fashions? Crew cuts and scruffy beards and hipsters, oh my!

Happy Star Wars Day. Crowds gather to see the opening of Star Wars in 1977. Note the bell bottoms and shoulder length hair. #maythefourthbewithyou

I don't know. There are some facts about the video here The rest of the info is here