Taking inventory after the Holiday festivities.......

[Zombie_61]

In Los Angeles, California, people are raiding container trains, both moving and stationary, ripping them open, throwing the contents on thee ground and absolutely shredding everything just too find something to resell or keep. The USA is quickly becoming a nation without morals. Forget an occasional glass of wine or two and polite society, these animal types will kill you for the pennies in your pocket. No honor system here of any type.

So, there's a relatively short stretch of railway in Los Angeles that's been targeted by thieves recently, and in your mind that translates to "The entire nation is without morals"? Bit of a stretch, don't you think? I'm not saying I completely disagree, but this kind of corruption in all of it's manifest forms comes from the top down, and...well, I'd best stop before being accused of making political statements.

 

[Harp]

I'm not saying I completely disagree, but this kind of corruption in all of it's manifest forms comes from the top down, and...well, I'd best stop before being accused of making political statements.

Righto pip. A recent post-a-mine got took to the cleaners for Putin speculative innuendo.
Not complaining butcha never kin tell.

 

[tonyb]

Meh. As is well known, spent the last 18 years living in a wine growing village (Grinzing) just outside of Vienna. Heaven on earth. In a wine growing village, a meal without wine is called “breakfast”. Wife and I could easily do 2 glasses with lunch and 2 glasses with dinner and maybe an extra . No drunken haze; no loss of functionality. As Americans call it: Alcoholism. As Europeans call it: “what? Americans call that alcoholism?!” (Drunkenness is really frowned upon in Austria. My office cafeteria openly sold wine at lunch, but no one ever abused it.) Puritanism or La Dolce Vita? Cultural context, to a degree. Topless sunbathing at public pools and “honor system” on public transit were also the norm. Shrugs. Oh, well.

My father (who died when I was all of four months old) hailed from a family of dairy farmers in Wisconsin. Some are still in that life.

When I visited the farms, way back when, I couldn’t help but notice that even the kids openly drank beer. My wife was taken aback during a family reunion in a public park a few years ago to see the old gals, in their Sunday clothes, drinking beer straight from the can.

So yeah, cultural context counts for a lot. As in Austria, in rural Wisconsin, among the German Catholic dairymen, drinking is perfectly acceptable, but getting sloppily drunk is not.

I do, however, part company with “social drinkers” who argue that they aren’t drug users. Even half a glass of wine affects a person’s thinking and behavior. That’s the drug effect, an effect many find pleasurable. Good for them, I say. Things can be more interesting when approached from an altered state of consciousness. And that’s what alcohol offers. It’s a drug.

 

[LostInTyme]

So, there's a relatively short stretch of railway in Los Angeles that's been targeted by thieves recently, and in your mind that translates to "The entire nation is without morals"? Bit of a stretch, don't you think? I'm not saying I completely disagree, but this kind of corruption in all of it's manifest forms comes from the top down, and...well, I'd best stop before being accused of making political statements.

Well, there was a bit of an insurrection a year ago. Murders are up in most cities, the nation is as divided as it was prior to the Civil War, illegal drug sales can not be stopped, ammunition costs are prohibitive, if you can find any to purchase. So, yes, I do believe there is a problem when any faction of the people believe it is their right to do whatever they please, take whatever the can lay their hands upon, and flout the rules and morays of civil society continually.

It isn't much a of a leap when you listen to the news each day and pay attention to what is actually happening, everywhere.

 

[tonyb]

… take whatever the can lay their hands upon, and flout the rules and morays of civil society continually.
...

Might it have actually been hagfish?

 

[Zombie_61]

...It isn't much a of a leap when you listen to the news each day and pay attention to what is actually happening, everywhere.

The problem there is whose news to listen to. All of the news media are owned by someone, and that someone dictates which slant the "news" will take in order to bolster their own agenda. I don't watch or listen long because I can't stand any of it.

 

[LostInTyme]

I agree, whole-heartedly. Unfortunately, not watching, reading or researching leaves one uninformed as to what is happening to humanity. There seems to be no doubt that the virus has helped to further divide humanity. Believers and non-believers will not change in the near future. Recently, it does seem that hospitals are full of more non-believers than the other side. Perhaps that is how things will be settled.

 

[Zombie_61]

I agree, whole-heartedly. Unfortunately, not watching, reading or researching leaves one uninformed as to what is happening to humanity...

I agree, but tuning in just to struggle through their banal chit-chat and empty-headed anchors isn't much better. I'll generally turn to the news, listen for a bit just to find out whether any nuclear missiles are headed in this general direction, try to hang on long enough to sort out someone's guesstimate about the day's weather, and that's about all I can take. I don't want or need a tuna casserole recipe from some celebrity chef I've never heard of, or the recent stats on the unexplained outbreak of athletes foot in Zimbabwe, or to hear the same information about how badly we've all mishandled the Covid precautions over and over and over despite the so-called "experts'" constant recommendations, and...well, surely you get the point. I find that I'm able to glean any truly necessary information while I'm perusing the World Wide Web, and can disregard the rest at my leisure.

...There seems to be no doubt that the virus has helped to further divide humanity. Believers and non-believers will not change in the near future. Recently, it does seem that hospitals are full of more non-believers than the other side. Perhaps that is how things will be settled.

At this point I'm of the very unpopular opinion that those who have repeatedly and willingly refused to follow any precautions, wear masks, get inoculations, whatever, then show up at their local hospital obviously infected and begging for medical attention with what could be their dying breath, should be turned away to give those people who have done what was asked of them and still contracted this virus a fighting chance. I'm not heartless or uncaring, but at what point do we as a responsible society say "Enough is enough!" and stop letting the inmates run the asylum? Asteroids and comets ended the dinosaurs, hand sanitizer and stupidity will end humankind.

 

[LostInTyme]

With this, you and I are in complete agreement. I am also an advocate of using narcan to repeatedly rescue the same drug addicts should be discontinued. You get one at bat. After that, you have struck out.

 

[Bugguy]

I agree, but tuning in just to struggle through their banal chit-chat and empty-headed anchors isn't much better. I'll generally turn to the news, listen for a bit just tions, and...well, surely you get the point. I find that I'm able to glean any truly necessary information while I'm perusing the World Wide Web, and can disregard the rest at my leisure.

I'm with you completely... when the cable contract runs out, we're dumping it and will convert to streaming. We picked up an antenna and can get the local broadcast network affiliates. They are at least good for local news and weather. Receptions not too bad either and they're free to access.

As the cable choices are opinions or op-eds and little unbiased programming remains, I usually look at BBC to see how we look to the world and occasionally that Australian-controlled network. My adult kids seem to filter information effectively and have adopted reasoned positions on the issues, so maybe they've discovered sources that don't demean, cancel or bully those with differing opinions.

 

[Zombie_61]

I'm with you completely... when the cable contract runs out, we're dumping it and will convert to streaming. We picked up an antenna and can get the local broadcast network affiliates. They are at least good for local news and weather. Receptions not too bad either and they're free to access.

I hate streaming. It's an incredibly flawed media that relies heavily on the hardware used to deliver it, and in our neighborhood that hardware is more than 20 years old and hasn't been particularly well maintained. The company responsible for that has been moving at a snail's pace, and they've only recently been blowing their own horn about how they've now made available to us the high-speed internet access that everyone else had over a decade ago, and they'll only charge us another $60 a month to hook us up. Besides which, by the time everyone gets done signing up with all of these streaming services we'll all be paying three times as much as we're paying now. It's a racket and they have us over a barrel at the moment, so I can see a day when I'll have no television in my home because I won't be able to afford it.

 

[LostInTyme]

Everyone wants their piece of the pie. I remember Netflix only costing $4.95 a month. I think it just went up to $17.95 a month. FX is are, but FX+ is not, and that has all the stuff I want to watch. My Version Fios bill is now approaching a couple of hundred a month.

 

[tonyb]

Give ’em the razor, sell ’em the blades.

Video hardware these days is just splendid, and less costly all the time. But what to watch on it? And at what cost?

Movies are now being released for at-home viewing on the same day they appear in theaters. Not all, of course, not yet. And maybe never, but I doubt it.

 

[Tiki Tom]

^^^ Well said.
And, of course, we’ve got a beautiful TV, cable service, and a couple of streaming subscriptions and …there is nothing on that is worth watching. Often M*A*S*H reruns are the best thing on.

Speaking of flat screen TVs, …I’m working on a list of strange things I’ve noticed in the USA… near the top of the list is the American Male’s obsession with owning the biggest flat screen available. Is it a “keeping up with the Joneses” thing? Does a big screen mean a small… ? Is it just a case of affluenza? Often the TV seems (to me) to be too big for the room it’s in. We just remodeled and put the smallest flat screen we could find on the wall. It is still plenty big. Fifty inches or something like that. I guess they don’t make ‘em smaller these days. On more than one occasion visitors have commented to the effect of “why such a small screen?” Huh? Just something I’ve noticed.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
It doesn’t seem that long ago when a 27-inch Sony Trinitron was the gold standard. But I guess it was.

We keep in front of the fireplace screen the 32-inch screen the dewy-eyed bride’s dad (RIP) gave her in ’09. It kinda disappears when not in use, and we never use the fireplace anyway, what with the mess and the often poor air quality around here.

There’s a newer 48-inch “smart” TV in the bedroom, but we’ve yet to use its smart features in the couple-three years we’ve had it. There’s a 21-inch screen in the kitchen and a 60-inch in the basement short-term rental unit. That one was courtesy of a friend, who kinda owed me a favor.

A nephew, who likes his toys, bought an 80-inch a few years back. Paid quite a bit for it. Better ones sell for a fraction of that price today, he acknowledges. And really, it overwhelms the open floor plan house. You cannot NOT look at the thing.

I’m almost embarrassed to say what we give Comcast every month. The bill includes Internet and a phone line (which we never use), which is some consolation, but still …

I went without TV at all for well over a decade. But that was way back in the last century.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I hope you watch the Yule Log on that TV, creating just the right cozy environment.

I found my TV at the dump in 1986, and it was thirty-plus years old then. I replaced the picture tube along the way, but it's stlll plugging along with what little viewing I bother to do. I always enjoy Star Trek reruns before going to bed, and the occasional Red Sox game in season, and if I see a movie worth watching I'll watch that. I don't stream, because my computer isn't capable of it, but if there's something I absolutely need to see I wait till it comes out on DVD.

I also approve of your FDR portrait. Mine is displayed on the kitchen wall.

 

[tonyb]

I fear for what’s left of my brain should I acquire a taste for streaming.

On-demand cable offerings on big ol’ flat screens is already more than enough like cocaine. I’m tempted to advise the boys and girls in the boardroom to offer the first taste free.

 

[tonyb]

I hope you watch the Yule Log on that TV, creating just the right cozy environment.
.. .

Let it snow …

 

[LostInTyme]

I feel warmer already.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Similar to the “watch a fireplace” concept, I’ve occasionally searched for a “stars and galaxies flying by as seen from Ten Forward”, but have never found anything of any quality.