While I agree with your sentiment, who are you going to replace them with? As long as the selection criteria for policemen (and military policemen) is scoring low on entry placement tests, things won’t change. (Although a higher IQ is no indication of the intelligence categories of compassion, empathy, appreciation…

Yeah, about the only time I want to watch someone else’s team (not my home team) is when my team has a day off. Luckily, I live in my team’s viewing area. (That may sound silly but a lot of people do not. The above deal won’t really help them any more than a free cigarette every day would help a chain-smoker.)

I remember thinking most of those thoughts in the early 1960's. I knew, knew, that our education system was going to ferret out racism, redneck-ism, ignorance, etc. I think we live in some recurring circle of Hell, where the only thing you can do (and you probably must do this until you get it right) is figure who or…

Does South Korea still have Oscar “wine”? In the 70's, (when I was there) there was a very cheap wine, if that was what it was, that tasted like cheap weak grape juice. After a bottle or two, it actually started tasting good. It was good for roof-top parties in the afternoon.

The “opposing the Soviet Union” was a pile of crap from the get-go. Everyone was worried that the USSR was going to invade the USA. WITH WHAT? The first war in Irag, imho, where Iraq mostly used Soviet stuff, showed that the Soviet stuff was trash, and it was not a coincidence that the Soviet Union pretty much went…

Many people think you have to buy into some religion in order to meditate. I don’t think that is the case. Just watching what you are thinking and feeling is the first step in most styles of meditation. Then seeing that those thought and feelings come and go helps you realize that you are not those thoughts and…

(begin rant) Pet Peeve: Use of the word “cult” as it is used in the West. The word “cult” was just another word for the sub-group of a religion until the religious wackos in America started using it for a dangerous bunch of nuts. (Takes one to know one, I guess.)

To extend the premise a bit, the movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, took a mediocre, silly Disney ride and turned it into a money-printing behemoth movie dynasty.

Exactly right. And it always smells badso...

Probably comes from our European ancestry, where they still line the streets to wave at the royals as they ride by. Heritage and honour are two of the illusions brought over from the Old World.

The ZX had aftermarket highlight covers that made it look more like a European sports car of the time. Can’t remember which one, of course.

Also looks like a 2+2, one of the ZX “4 seaters”, although having legs (on a person over, say, 5 years old) rendered the rear seat pretty much unuseable. I had a 80 ZX, which I absolutely loved to drive. So much fun. Eventually, the race to fix the rust got old about the same time our first-born was scheduled to…

I visited for a few days many years ago. Didn’t have time to do much but did find the Van Gogh Museum. In addition to the obvious VG stuff, Vincent Van Gogh was a (for his time) a prodigious collector of Oriental art. Much of his personal collection was on display at the time. Like I noted above, that was many years…

Re: the process of death:

With 6-8 BILLION people in the world, it’s really not necessary for anyone to have kids. While being a father was and is the most wonderful part of my life, if you aren’t really up for that responsibility (etc., etc.), why do it? I happen to think the whole universe is probably full of sentient beings, too. If you are…

I love Panda Express. Saw something (maybe a commercial or a short documentary) on Youtube, I think, years ago, where some Chinese-American kids (14 - 30, say) were given Panda Express food to try and were then asked whether it tasted “authentic”. Most said “no”, etc., etc. Then the same food was sampled by elderly…

Converse, you don’t turn “appropriate” thousand-year-old symbols of love and hope by making them symbols of hate for a few years. The issue is in your head, not ours. Your argument is silly, in the least. (Disclaimer: Buddhist westerner)

It just looks like an Audi-knockoff now, like many other sporty, but more inexpensive, cars look much like the beamer’s signature look.

Hiragana and Katakana can be learned in about a couple of hours each, on such sites as Memrise, etc. The two syllabaries are the equivalent of learning the English alphabet. That gets you tickets into Japanese elementary school. There are also many android/ios apps that do the same thing, maybe not so much fun as your…

Agreed, and I am one of those old f*rts. I do wish that ships would spend a night at each of the ports so better food and entertainment could be had on shore. Then again, since few (if any) ships do spend the night as they want to get to the next port for the next day, perhaps there isn’t much nightlife or good food…