"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
-George Bernard Shaw
I did install a Sega Genesis emulator on a old laptop during the Xmas break to play some NHL94 and 95 with modern rosters.
That was a lot of fun. I also installed Pirates! Gold after a day and it was fun to revisit these games from my youth.
I loved the ability to save stats.
However after a couple of days I've not really played them again since. It only cost $14 for the Sega controller so it was worth the price. I don't think I could buy 2 beers at a bar locally for that.
I think as we all move closer to death we speed these things up with groaning when getting up, and living with the rose colored glasses of how good things were in the past. Those that live in nostalgia become stuck in a repairing *of reality that was never that good while ignoring the moment we all currently live in
I'm wondering which slot Lord Buckethead will come in
Yup. Haven't really gamed much since my 20s which was half a lifetime ago now.
The more forceful he is at his defense, the more his supporters dig in. He doesn't care about defying the court, because he hopes to make the court irrelevant.
Unfortunately the more I read from the right the more disturbing it is. I find they want blood and punishment for all the things they find wrong and they don't want to have to deal with anything complicated again.
The most convenient lies will do and there is no use for courts as they are not extreme enough. Faces must be eaten. Sadly it will be some of theirs too.
I've seen people argue the real numbers of the decline for China are much worse than they have shared and they may already be past the point of no return like Japan and South Korea. It's going to be interesting to see how they handle an aging population.
Asia does have a more recent tradition of kids being the retirement plan so they might fair a little better than places like the US where that is not the norm anymore. The US with their infrastructure crumbling from underfunding and a general lack of care, should provide a good side by side comparison of the ride down with the differences of family versus industry support of seniors.
I would imagine it would have been much harder for his Loser routine if there was still a debtor's prison. It wouldn't be a standard way for him to do business.
With how many things he's failed at and in a big way involving investors, customers, regulators, and the courts, it's been amazing how he's been able to get his hooks into the country. Celebrity truly is king in America.
Well when one is a professional Loser like Trunp, another bankruptcy is no big deal. It's par for the course.
Warren Buffet was one of the first I heard a few years ago say he's not being taxed enough and they should be taxing companies like his more. I think this was related to him signing up to the Gates fund which will see most of his wealth donated to charity.
There were others that were not happy with Buffet's comments about taxing billionaires more. It's nowhere near as high as Britain which spurred on the Taxman song by the Beatles. At that point 90 percent was going to the tax man then. Britain still had an enormous debt from WW2 and left over from WW1 they were still trying to pay off.
For the US I did hear a argument being made for a return to corporate taxes levels pre Reagan as that was a time when corporations and industry in America contributed a lot to society. The tax rate was like 58 percent if I recall correctly from the interview and the companies paid their staff well and they invested into a great deal of research like Bell Labs as preferred ways to earn write offs to not give the taxes to the government.
Don't worry I'm on the other end with my Cherokees over the years. Barely lifted, fully loaded, stock, and the quietest exhausts I could find. Drove the rock and mud crowd nuts that wanted to see them super lifted, no exhaust and beat to hell. I love back road driving but I prefer to be a little more civilized about it.
Confirms my bias to not buy newer cars than the early 2010s. My last new car was a 2011. It is just right with OEM Bluetooth hands free but navigation etc is handled by the phone. The controls are still knobs and buttons. Not a screen in sight
The real truth!
Ugh that's awful for you with the house.
Our gas Fireplace crapped out when it was coldest and we are waiting on repairs. We have baseboards as a back up but they aren't keeping up and I'm not looking forward to the hydro bill when it comes.
It's nowhere as bad as your situation by any means but we are glad to have them.
I bought electric blankets for the bed and couch this winter based on a gut feel in November and with how warm it's been this up until this point the gf has been right that we didn't need them. That was until this cold snap. Bloody thankfully to have them as they can't be found in the stores now.
I hope those leaks get sorted out soon!
In Vancouver we don't know that kind of cold. Wet and damp cold yes, but it's been a unusually warmer winter. Low 50s even for Xmas and not at much rain and hardly any snow for local mountains.
Now it's down to low 10s F it's bloody super cold for us. With the wind chill it has been down to -10F. Not breaking your car quite yet but you don't want to be out and about for too long without one. Usually the couple of days we get snow here it's chaos and the major routes are a mess. It was just as bad the one day we did get some during the cold snap and it wasn't even the wet and heavy stuff we normally get.
I usually go for short walks daily but not during these days - 10F days. We are warming up to near 32F for highs and I'm thinking this is probably nice BBQ weather for Edmonton now.
It seems all relative. I was down in Arizona this past winter. It was one of the coolest ones they had in Yuma and the day time temperatures were reaching high 60s to low 70s during the day with a lot of sun. I thought I was in heaven for winter. The locals were so disappointed.
Mind you at one point it was snowing in California, northern AZ, Phoenix, Tuscan, NM, and Texas while I was in a sun pocket so they may have had something to complain about but I would still take their dry and warm during the day over my normal wet and soggy days.
Being from BC the basic car insurance is a non profit Provincial run scheme. All vehicles on the road need this basic insurance. They also manage rules, regulations, and other safety requirements for the Province.
Then extra coverage can be bought from the government agency or from private providers. The government is covering for all the bad drivers and then dealing with all the scammers while the private providers then cherry pick the best drivers for the extra coverage.
Insurance is expensive and there are the usual cries to make it private so it will be much cheaper!
I've lived in other Provinces where it's a private scheme. They are very expensive for new drivers, and those that have problematic issues can't afford to get insurance making it harder on those that have it and become tangled up with these uninsured drivers. This affects the good drivers eventually too. Most insurance works this way as it is.
It seems the grass is always greener...
Well based on the American consumer trends they will basically eat anything that remotely looks or smells like food so I'm sure some cost cutting accountant thought this was a good idea...
Wait until they replace them with plastic alternatives with a food like coating in the years ahead...
I hear it's not a lot of fun with the Provincial Government being in on the ground floor of this stuff especially when it comes to ending alternative power generation, not allowing health care professionals refer to vaccines and what they are for publically, and I'm sure the list goes on from there which is fun to endure.
I was referring to my local redneck relations and friends in BC.
In years past I've had shorter wait times due to late night injuries from sports or hockey. I've always driven to smaller hospitals on the edges of town.
I'm not sure today how quickly that would go. A couple of years ago I broke a bone in my foot during a road trip in northern BC. They treated me in a small town were I was the only patient that day. I was treated by a GP and Nurse on a 2 week rotation from Saskatoon as there was no BC doctors for this small town. They didn't have the air cast I needed but told me I could deal with that at my ER when I get home to Vancouver.
A week later when I got home I spent 8 hours one day at the local ER before I left due to a crazy medial situation that was erupting in the ER that I felt uncomfortable with, then the next day when I returned it was another 4+ hours waiting to see a doctor for the cast. Then I was able to get a referral to a specialist from there.
Most people would prefer to go to a drop in clinic before ERs but often the clinics are full for the day by the first hour they are open. There's limits on how many patients they can see. If you have a illness many can't wait the 2-4 weeks it takes to see a family GP so the walk in clinics (which are becoming more by appointment only) become that next stop before the catch all of the ER. I can't imagine the BS those sick that need a note for work from a Doctor do.
I had a minor surgery in the summer. There was minor complications afterwards. It was 2 weeks before I could even do a phone consult with the family GP and then the walk in clinics were full. I was lucky to have one of the local clinics have me to wait around at the end of the day to see if they could squeeze me in to tend to my bandage issues. If they didn't I was looking at a 2-3 day game of trying to find a clinic each morning.
In Vancouver I know someone that went to a thing called "Urgent Care" on a Sunday to get meds for her senior mother that had covid. The urgent care was there to take the load off the ER. After waiting 3 hours in there to see a healthcare person they were told they don't issue prescriptions there and they would need to go to the ER for the prescription which was another long wait. It's a good thing she wasn't too sick /s.
There are issues with the timing of prescriptions, how far out they can be issued, and combined with the time frames it can take to see your GP many end up at the ER as a stop gap measure especially seniors if they lose track of their prescriptions.
There are also huge issues with nurses/care aids doing home care. Often there aren't enough and seniors that rely on them for in home care need to wait for a day or two extra for those visits when there is enough staff. I saw this with my senior family members first hand just before Covid.
I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better from here.
I would have to suspect if they haven't already reduced hours or closed the facility it's in small towns. They often can't find enough staff so they close down and residents then need to make drives to the next major city to get treatment.
Often this involves multiple hour drives on icy and snow covered roads this time of year.
That said in the greater Vancouver area it's not uncommon to wait 8+ hours in the ER for less severe cases. Often the ERs become overflow for drop in clinics that cannot handle the volumes.
Often the ER is the stopping place for those needing prescription renewals too as GPs (if one has one) can be 3-6 weeks out for bookings and I'm told there's a mismatch to the renewal length maximums.
Ideally, never get sick, old, or need meds and there's no issues... /s
I'm guess I'm the odd man out with this