billeisele

Complicated topic with plenty of emotion, and opinions and beliefs on social norms, phobias, mental condition, bias, prejudices, personal beliefs, personal comfort and security, and more. Should a person be able to go to a private space and know that anyone else in there is of the same biological sex? Do their feelings matter? One solution would be to have three spaces: guys, girls and unisex. Everyone could make their choice and everyone is comfortable. Maybe that's too simple.

Phil - I'm not justifying anything. No where did I say anything even close to that. Only pointing out that there are plenty of bad actors on both sides of the fence. Some seem to forget that fact and act like the D's are angels. I get it, Trump has done plenty of bad stuff. But he is the elected President. Folks can be mad about it all they want, it won't change the outcome. No doubt he got a boost from the unsuccessful assassination, Obama's admonition to black males and Joe's timely garbage comment. One has to wonder if Joe did that on purpose. The shame is that there were two choices and they were both bad. 2.5 million more voters thought he was more capable despite his transgressions especially since he won all the swing states. One State I find most interesting is NC. They voted for Trump (51% - 48.7%) but every other state level position went Democrat. There were a whole bunch that voted split ticket.

I'm glad that Biden, Harris, Obama, Bill or Hillary, Ted Kennedy, Blagojevich, Menendez, Weiner, Corrine Brown, Chaka Fattah, Jesse Jacson, William Jefferson, Schumer and AOC never lied. "You can keep your doctor" "I never had sex with that woman" At least one party is honest.

Oh, so now he says unity and bipartisanship are needed. "I remind my colleages..." I guess he forgot about the last 4 years and what he said during the election. You have to wonder how any of these two-faced politicians sleep at night. He's just one example. There are plenty on both sides.

Jerry - certainly not. Was just commenting on the demand created by unchecked immigration. As some mentioned, we don't know how many are in houses, guests of existing homeowners, or many other facts. I'm aware of a few in my area and they live in rental houses. They are in construction and tree cutting, hard workers. I'm sure that's not true in all areas. I agree with Wendy on AirBnB and VRBO type companies. In my area the County is working on rules to manage short term rentals. In Charleston, Folly Beach, Isle of Palms and other surrounding areas they already did it. The problem I'm seeing (we have one 4 doors down the street) is the noise, trash and general disruption. About 1 out of 5 renters are a problem. It's on the lake and attracts fishermen, families and party groups. The owner is learning to screen them better. In my area lumber prices are back down to pre-Covid prices, other materials are up some and labor cost hasn't changed that much. I've not looked at the financial reports of large home builders, my guess is they are quite profitable. Last month I got quotes on 5 construction projects. One source is a homebuilder. Apples to apples, his quotes were 20-40% higher than the other contractors. The only significant difference is the high price guy has 1st and 2nd tier subcontractors, the others have 1st tier subs. What I don't know is their margins but suspect that's a contributing factor. The Zillow CEO made a public statement this week about his opinion of what will happen if mass deportation occurs. Lower demand and corresponding decrease in rent rates and decrease in house prices. We'll see what happens with deportation. There are many real issues to resolve on that issue.

Jerry - certainly not. Was just commenting on the demand created by unchecked immigration. As some mentioned, we don't know how many are in houses, guests of existing homeowners, or many other facts. I'm aware of a few in my area and they live in rental houses. They are in construction and tree cutting, hard workers. I'm sure that's not true in all areas. I agree with Wendy on AirBnB and VRBO type companies. In my area the County is working on rules to manage short term rentals. In Charleston, Folly Beach, Isle of Palms and other surrounding areas they already did it. The problem I'm seeing (we have one 4 doors down the street) is the noise, trash and general disruption. About 1 out of 5 renters are a problem. It's on the lake and attracts fishermen, families and party groups. The owner is learning to screen them better. In my area lumber prices are back down to pre-Covid prices, other materials are up some and labor cost hasn't changed that much. I've not looked at the financial reports of large home builders, my guess is they are quite profitable. Last month I got quotes on 5 construction projects. One source is a homebuilder. Apples to apples, his quotes were 20-40% higher than the other contractors. The only significant difference is the high price guy has 1st and 2nd tier subcontractors, the others have 1st tier subs. What I don't know is their margins but suspect that's a contributing factor. The Zillow CEO made a public statement this week about his opinion of what will happen if mass deportation occurs. Lower demand and corresponding decrease in rent rates and decrease in house prices. We'll see what happens with deportation. There are many real issues to resolve on that issue.

It's interesting that no one is connecting the dots of illegals needing a place to live decreases supply. To know if it's an issue one first has to know how many illegals there are. The last reliable number of 11 million was in 2022. In 2023 DHS reported 2 million that they interacted with. No idea on how many more weren't contacted. In SC they've noted that a large number of formally private residences are owned by housing corporations and investment groups. They buy them for rental. That takes those homes off the market for family ownership. That decreases supply. Who knows what the overall impact is.

Oh man, in SC Clyburn is an icon. Great example of why term limits are needed. He's 84 years old and won 60% in the election. He's wasted millions of fed $$ in this state and used his political power to enrich his daughter. Got her appointed to a prestigious State Board then leveraged that so-called experience to a federal job as a commissioner with the FCC. Somehow being the publisher of the family-owned newspaper made her the best candidate to be on the SC Public Service Commission. In SC those positions are appointed by a group of primarily politicians then voted on by the General Assembly. He crossed swords a few years ago with another politician over which candidate to support for the Mayor of the capital city. The former Mayor was to be Clyburn's successor but he supported a different person for Mayor so Clyburn is still there. Politics is nasty.

Analogous to Clintons statement, as reported by Time magazine, that half of Trump supporters belong in a basket of deplorables. Both are unacceptable statements.

Please stop making assumptions, you're better than that. Many of the issues/differences are known and understood. Some feel that being on a movie set means that there's no personal responsibility. With the movie-making rules, guidelines, etc. I see how one could have that conclusion. As we now know, rules don't always work, duh. I was brought up to check a firearm regardless of who gave it to me, regardless of if I had previously checked it or watched it being checked. For some that seems excessive but it ensures that there are no "accidental discharges." Seems that the movie peeps should modify their safety protocols. My issue is that Baldwin repeatedly and adamantly claimed that he didn't pull the trigger. Experts examined the gun and determined that it could not have gone off without the trigger being pulled. In his trial the attorney said in his opening statement, "Baldwin may be wrong, and that he may have pulled the trigger. He argued that would still not make him criminally negligent." The attorney also said, "He called the issue a “shiny object,” meant to distract from the key fact that the gun would have been harmless had it not been loaded with a real bullet — a grave violation of film industry safety standard." The Metz case has distinct differences. Willful, purposeful, no one handed him the gun saying it was safe, the person shot didn't die, etc. Wonder why he said, "oh s---, my gun went off." Trying for the Baldwin defense? Apparently to cryptic for some to follow. The Baldwin case disappeared due to legal technicalities, as it should have. The prosecution mishandled evidence. People don't remember details, what they remember are sound bites and summaries. What they remember is Baldwin killed someone and wasn't punished. Hopefully the Metz case will be different. My point was, and what was stated is, at the end of the day in both cases a guy pointed a gun, pulled the trigger and someone was shot. To say there are no similarities, as some have stated, is simply false.

Don't know if or how much of a difference it makes. The writer for the Post thinks it does.

If you say so. I didn't say it. Seems that the similarities are: someone pointed a gun, it went off, and someone got hurt. There will always be differences in the scenarios.

It's the Alec Baldwin defense. I didn't pull the trigger, it just went off. Crazy. This stuff won't be taken seriously if the 'special" people can get away with it.

Plenty of reasonable ideas. We should be moving in this direction. In SC there was a 17-year old arrested this week in possession of Glock switches that he purchased on-line. Not good that they are available.

Hadn't thought about it. Agree with what is said above. Looked up the award. It requires one to be a USPA member, have a C or D license and the jumps. There's no definition of how the jumps are done. She would also have the freefall time for the 12-hour award. To your question, if one only had front rides they most likely wouldn't have the qualifications for a license and wouldn't meet the award criteria. But, if one really wanted it, it seems that they could do the formation skydives and accuracy requirements. Fifty formation jumps, 10 with 4 or more people. Landing within 7' of a target on 100 jumps. I'd be OK if the award was given, it's not that big of a deal.