BerniePragle

Say it isn't so! And why would we believe you, Wrestle Know Nothing?

If by "stupid political agenda" you mean getting guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people, sure, sign me up for that one. "You just can't make this stuff up." I've never heard that before. Is that something you came up with all by yourself? I only wish I were that creative. Alas, I'm limited to only regurgitating things other people come up with. To wit: “Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Even you can't be stupid enough to think I'd be the least bit concerned with what someone would view as a "snide remark in a chat room" if my nephew were shot in the line of duty. I would be "pissed as hell" at the moron with the gun that shot my nephew and at the gun and ammo manufacturers who empowered him in return for company profits. Oh yeah, and the paid-off politicians who perpetuate the cycle. You have a nice day too, Chief.

That would be one way to look at it. Another way would be that my nephew is a PA State Trooper and I worry about him because there are way too many a$$holes with guns. He's already been shot twice, not in Philly by gangbangers but in NC PA, one by the typical mountain man during a wellness check, one by the typical domestic dispute that also resulted in the death of the perp's wife. Fortunately, both had guns handy when they "needed" them. I said what I said in response to the idiotic "If someone wants to kill, he'll figure out a way to do it. He'll use a rock, hammer, etc." I doubt this moron would have done what he did with a rock. Your call to look at it the way you want to. My call to look at it the way I choose.

Fortunately, the attacker didn't have a hammer or a rock instead of a gun. That could have been much worse. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/18/us/pennsylvania-state-police-trooper-killed-juniata-county/index.html

It really depends on the kid. Our younger daughter swam in HS and college, very time consuming. She actually kept her nose to the grindstone academically better during swim season than during the off-season. She knew she had to budget her time better. I would guess that most coaches, or mom and dads, could free up between 7 and 70 hours per week for their student simply by burning their telephone. A very good friend of mine actually graduated from the Architecture school at Cornell 50+ years ago. The first time we ever went up there together we got there a few hours before the match and I got a guided tour of the architecture of Cornell's buildings. That was very cool. Some kids spend their time studying, some spend a lot of time doing or thinking about other things: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/31/561217424/after-20-years-can-cornell-finally-bust-open-its-great-pumpkin-mystery If I ever knew who did this, I would hire them in an instant to work for me though. Those thinkers are rare.

I fear this is getting a little too complicated for "some" of us on here. Please don't start putting any more numbers to it. It'll only get worse. I stole the other team's signals. Their next play is: "Did you factor in the depreciation of your house because someone some day will have to pay to dispose of all those terrible toxic materials on your roof?" What are they anyway? Uranium, Unobtanium, trumpium, Kryptonite?

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein I suspect if he were a young man today, he would come up with that quote a lot quicker.

Of course they'll get pushed back. That was my point. I suppose whether it will be because of lack of capacity or because of what I said will be indistinguishable (chicken/egg). I've thought about trying to put numbers to our electric capacity vs future requirements for electric cars, but just haven't bothered. I'm not sure a non-insider such as myself could access enough valid info to do that legitimately, and I refuse to invent numbers that support an already preconceived notion or to regurgitate such. My gut feeling though is that, as always, we're getting played. It's hard for me to believe that there is anywhere near enough extra capacity to absorb electric vehicles on this scale, or that that capacity will/could be built by the deadlines. To mis-use an old phrase... Electric plants aren't built in a day. Off-peak charging would help but I can't imagine nearly enough. Many people dislike the government meddling in business. Unfortunately, fewer anymore seem to be concerned about big business running our government. They're much more concerned with who's using what bathroom, how many bullets they can put in their gun at one time, and other more important things. I guess it may come down to who's more powerful in Washington, Big Oil or the electric utilities. My money's not on Sparky.

I have no (new or old) scuttlebutt on either Slo Joe or The Orange Imbicile, but the headline on Biden got me to thinking about Big Oil/Gas and payments to our politicians. A lot people here in NYS are all in a tizzy about the electric car mandates upcoming in 2026, 2030, 2035 (and many other things, mostly having a woman Governor). They somehow have been led to believe that no one will be able to drive an ICE soon. I can't imagine that will be the case for a loooong time. To wit: 134 billion gallons of gasoline were sold in the US last year. At $3 per gallon, that works out to about $400 billion per year. If Big Oil were to "invest" just 1% of that in the pockets of our 535 US Senators and Representatives, that would work out to nearly 7-1/2 million for each of the 535. EACH YEAR! (At that rate, Biden was actually getting shortchanged by the Ukrainian gas company). Does anyone actually think ICE vehicles will be outlawed anytime soon? I refer you to oft changed and manipulated CAFE standards. I'm not sure they mean anything anymore. Who do you imagine benefits from that? Hint, they "work" in Washington...

Randy Lewis may want a word...

Two stories from my junior year of HS: The 2 biggest weights then were 215 and 250. Our previous year 250 pounder was an incredible athlete. In fact he went to PSU for football and after was the first pick in the second round of the NFL draft. A new kid went out for wrestling who was about 5' 7" and 245 lbs and had great balance. Anyway, the new kid beat out the incumbent in wrestleoffs, so our previous 250 sucked about 10-15 lbs to make 215. He was kind of a strange bird anyway but he started showing up in the locker room with this little buddha statue that he prayed to. Before every match he prayed to this thing. Whether it was a lower weight or the buddha, I don't know, but he started the year like 10-0. Then we had a match against Ithaca HS and he got stuck by some short, fat kid. After the match, he went in the locker room, threw the buddha against the wall and smashed it. Our 127 pounder, who wasn't afraid of anybody or anything, hollered across the locker room that the Penn State football coach called and wanted him to quit wrestling because he didn't want the little fat kid from Ithaca to hurt him. It wasn't easy keeping them apart. He did quit wrestling. Amazing to me, he never did much in the NFL because he was "too small" for LB. We had home and away matches with a smaller school about 100 miles away in Upstate NY. I'm not sure what time we left for the away match, but it was snowing and it wasn't our usual bus driver. I don't think the driver took us over any hardtop roads the whole way there and I think it was about 8pm when we finally got there. The gym was tiny but they had a good team and the place was rockin'. After I wrestled, I got talking with this cute cheerleader who was only about 5 feet from the end chair I was on. After the match, I ran into her again in the lobby and we talked. After a few minutes, I thought I should get heading for the bus. I walked outside just in time to see the bus taking off. I started sprinting in the snow and banged on the bus. It stopped, I got on, and our coach gave me a real dirty look. Hey, a feller's gotta have priorities. If I'd walked out of that school 30 seconds later, I may still be there.

That's Mr. Phillips in the middle. Both photos.

Trump mentions "the amazing people of Iowa". An honest question: Do you think, other than for campaign purposes, has trump ever been to Iowa? Sure doesn't seem like his kind of place.

You're right, I really don't care about this. There's really nothing I can do about it one way or the other. I also think the country has much bigger fish to fry. In my opinion 90% of that is economic, jobs, income inequality, etc. An awful lot of our current problems in this country are a direct result of disastrous economic policy on both sides. It certainly behooves the ultra-rich however when we argue about every chicken crap thing they dangle in front of us. Example: "Cultural Appropriation". WTF is that, yet there's 3 pages of it on here. One more distraction. As I said before, I was not saying you were wrong about this. I tried to be clear that my statements were in regards to how that word is way, way overused and misunderstood on the internet. Probably most of my previous post was an overreaction to so, so many people using that word in relation to Covid and the vaccine. That was ridiculous. I also thought I was clear that my statements and references were much more about Science than current events in the country. I do stand by my stance that the vast majority of people in this country would do well to learn what the word "research" means and what is involved in it. Generally, the internet is NOT conducive to that. The social media/news part anyway.

Clarify. Try to anyway. Sometimes it's not easy on here without memes I guess... University at Albany and condescending together? Never thought I'd hear that, Lol. You gotta get out more.

Obviously that word doesn't mean the same thing to you as it does to me. In fact, it's safe to say that my professors 50 +/- years ago would laugh at today's generally accepted definition. Today's definition is to simply find some information somewhere on the internet that agrees with one's preconceived notion of something. We used to call that... "Draw the curve, then plot the data." I'm not saying you're wrong about this, just that I won't waste my time "researching" things like this. If you're interested, here's a very quick refresher course on research, and primary and secondary sources. This is Science based, but is a good reminder of what the word research should mean to all of us. https://library.albany.edu/infolit/resource/prisci

I can't speak to those. I don't live there. I try to stick to what I actually know, have seen or heard. With a healthy dose of interpolation now and then. When I don't have a lot to go on, I employ Scott Adams' "What is more likely“ test.

That's clear as mud. I'm certainly no Constitutional expert but I think I can read. Yeah, I can't vaguely imagine how that applies to today's federal debt crisis or even more, how it would "solve" it. We all know the solution, but nobody wants to do it. The federal debt is something everybody wants to blame on "the other guys". Even more, I certainly understand your concern that someone would/could unilaterally use this for something it clearly wasn't intended for. The bigger question, Art, is... Are you sure you want to open the can of worms that is, how applicable is this document, and its ammendments, in some cases from 200+ years ago, in today's world? This reminds me of a time probably about 25 years ago I was listening to the radio. On the news was a story about how the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny a father to be in the hospital room when a woman was giving birth. I thought what the heck is there in the Constitution about that! (As I remember, the mother and father had split up and she didn't want him there.) Lots of people squawking "Constitutional" or "unconstitutional" when all they're really saying is this is the way I want things to be. It's way too often used as a crutch.

OK. I'll do a couple, then you go. 1) 4 more years of the Orange Imbicile and his Nepotism Squad 2) Non-technical people structuring Science education to fit the Conservative Agenda. Earth 6000 years old, et al.

You're up to bat. Give it a go.

Here in rural NYS and Pa, "Take their Guns" is #1. "Limit the # of Bullets in their Magazines" would be #2. "Any Woman in Power" would be #3. "Furriners" probably tied with "Educated People" for #4. We have some enlightened Cats around here. I can only imagine what some other parts of the country are like. (Bama, Goow-ga, Tinisee...)

Let me explain how the trucking industry specifically gets government money. The cost of roads, paid for by "our" taxes, grows exponentially to accomodate truck traffic. The roads have to be built wider, deeper bases, the bridges have to be higher, etc. Also, the roads have to be repaired much more because of truck traffic. Drive in the right lane, then the passing lane here in NYS or PA and notice this. If Reagan didn't get a stiffy for the railroads back in the 80s, we would have a lot less tractor trailers on the PUBLIC roads, conducting private business. This would be the same as me going into a public school, setting up a table and chair and selling candy to the kids during school hours. The last I knew, the federal government was subsidizing Big Oil to the tune of 30 billion a year to drill. I also remember quite a few years ago when the CEO of Exxon Mobil retired with a half billion dollar package. As far as trump's appeal to the lower and middle classes... The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost could explain that to me and it would still make no sense. A NYC, prep school, rich kid who has always been a part of, and catered to the jet set, somehow endears himself to the (below) average American. Baffling, except he is a tough talker... We aren't gonna let them(?) get away with that anymore! All the "drain the swamp" talk. trump, and his daddy, are, were, and always will be "the swamp". I'm beyond certain that trump and his daddy benefited vastly from government money. (NYC real estate... you do the math.) Well, it's a beautiful weekend in Upstate NY. Enough of this nonsense. Sheep will follow the shepherd.