I ordered my wife’s gift a few days ago and over the weekend we planned what we will gift to family members.

In years past I’ve gotten gifts as much as eight months early if I found the perfect gift.

Back in 2002 or so I got the perfect gift for my now ex-brother in law. He was a huge Hitchcock fan and a coworker who collected life masks ended up with an extra Hitchcock.

Now life masks were made for special effects in movies, and were essentially a cast of the head used to make models.

For most of a year I had a paper bag on my living room table, the top neatly folded over.

I got to experience the joy, over and over, of people asking what was in the bag, telling them it was “Alfred Hitchcock’s head,” and seeing the shocked reaction when Hitchcock stared back up at them.

And the jerk of my ex-brother in law loved it too.

That would’ve been so much funnier if you’d use the backslash.

Smuggler, or kink?

Are you sure about that? Billionaires have a lot of reach in hiding shit they don’t like.

Wasn’t even employed for a month. What a total piece of shit.

The Aristocrats!

Bear down for jailtime.

Fuck EA.

I absolutely feel sympathy for young men. They didn’t ask for any of this either. And they might have to do some work on themselves to get to a healthier place.

I certainly struggled with relationships, to the point of not understanding signs of clear interest.

It’s hard to notice this stuff when your head is down with despair.

I’m fifty as well, and I can be fairly certain my wife would not have risked dating me in the current political climate.

We were both a bit older and she had never had a very serious relationship prior to meeting me.

Who knows how the math would’ve played out? My life was a wreck and she took a gamble on me.

I’ve made sure that gamble paid off.

But nowadays the odds have changed.

How do you know you’re with one of those men, really? What happens when they change their tune?

A lot of men will say whatever they need to so they can get laid. Or think they really believe it until the relationship is threatened.

It’s not that women can’t do all that too but that women now have less ways to extricate themselves from such relationships.

Why risk it?

Women can take care of themselves or each other.

But yeah, the human libido will take charge sometimes. They’re just worried it’ll be men taking charge regardless of their wishes.

If you were a woman in today’s world, why would you take the risk of dating someone who can rape, impregnate, and either leave or stay and dominate your life?

The reality is that tender, gentle, trusting relationships will still form… and the rest of the men will have to decide whether to try to be better men or not.

Am I unaware of my own bias? No! It’s the women who are wrong!

Except Game of Thrones was hotly anticipated and with ‘The Dune Show’, people are responding “What? Now? Huh.”

“Blaming the economy won’t cut it.”

blames the economy

Maybe so. But he’s a good example of someone getting ‘close’ nationally.

Ross Perot had a shot in 1992 but blew it by promoting conspiracy theories (that may have even been true, who knows) about Republican infiltration at (iirc) his daughters wedding.

And the split in the vote let Bill Clinton beat the incumbent Bush.

The only way a third party takes a seat is when they capture the attention.

Locally, that’s easier. Less people to win over, you get to focus on local accomplishments, etc. But national you need to become the national conversation or too many voters wouldn’t know who you are.

One step past that is “Congress shall pass no law.”

I’m not positive they won’t go that far either.

You do realize that when you say “virtue signalling” you really mean “nobody has any virtue and you’re just pretending,” don’t you?