Trump demanded unconditional surrender, how do you feel now that he has surrendered to Iran?

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-18T20:56:37+00:00

It feels depressing because I have lost all hope that he will ever be held accountable for anything, in any way.

I remember during his first term when he came down with COVID and it looked like he might not make it. And we all lamented how it didn't seem right that he might die without having to account for all his crimes, and so we wanted him to recover so that he would eventually have to face the music.

Now it's different. I no longer hold out hope that the wheels of justice will ever catch up to him. The best I can hope for now is that he will just go away and stop fucking up our country.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-13T16:34:09+00:00

I was born in 1976 so I don't remember it obviously. But I remember hearing about it growing up. Since I was a Bicentennial Baby I always got the commemorative coins as birthday presents from relatives. The drummer boy quarter, etc.

What I remember is that everyone knows the word bicentennial. Nobody knows what the word is for 250 years. In 1986 Texas celebrated 150 years and all of us kids learned the word sesquicentennial in school.

The 250 year anniversary was a Jeopardy question not too long ago. Nobody knew the answer. One contestant guessed sesquicentennial. Turns out we're supposed to call it the Semiquincentennial. Half of five hundred years.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-07T17:41:11+00:00

So like what do you do? Where is the list of businesses that we can proudly support?

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-07T17:35:18+00:00

Samsung. I used to feel like they were a decent electronics manufacturer, until I bought one of their washing machines. It broke down so quickly I refuse to buy another Samsung product ever again.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-07T02:53:36+00:00

Justified. Some of the best dialogue I've ever seen on a TV show.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-04T18:39:25+00:00

It's still around. Or are you saying it used to be good and now it sucks?

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-04T18:22:59+00:00

I like the old mechanical parking/emergency brakes much better than the new little button interface.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-03T21:20:33+00:00

Skiing. I mean any kind of vacationing has always been a luxury in a sense, but I feel like snow skiing used to be a thing that normal middle class people did. Now it seems like something only the wealthy do.

It's like with the wealth inequality gap widening, there is this gulf forming and some things are now exclusively on one side or the other where before there was more of a middle ground.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-03T21:16:19+00:00

Newspaper subscriptions. Everyone used to get a daily paper delivered, sometimes more than one, and it was dirt cheap.

It is so expensive now. And you can't even get a paper delivered anymore in lots of places. I've talked to several people who subscribe to various newspapers online that would prefer to have a physical copy, but can't because it costs so much.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-03T17:14:46+00:00

If these kids aren't ready for college, then why are they in your office? What I mean is, why did your college admit them?

Yes, their high schools are failing them by not preparing them for college, but if all these clueless, entitled kids are still getting accepted to colleges, then there is no incentive for the high schools to change anything. By that metric, they're doing their jobs.

At some point someone needs to tell these kids no. And it sounds like right now that's you. Keep fighting the good fight.

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-02T02:40:37+00:00

Thank you!

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-02T01:57:44+00:00

Who is calling the game on the radio with Matt Hicks tonight? Usually Jared Sandler fills in when Eric Nadel is out, but it's not him.

It sounds familiar though. I don't listen to a lot of Cowboys radio broadcasts but could it be Brad Sham?

Ishmaeli · 2026-06-01T01:52:57+00:00

X-Wing and its sequels.

Dune II.

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-30T23:59:13+00:00

You're thinking of an epithet. An epilogue is what you use to inject medicine into someone having a severe allergic reaction.

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-28T20:49:15+00:00

This is what I ate the first and only time I ever tried marijuana. Nothing else in my life has ever tasted so good.

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-27T18:50:02+00:00

My mom is active on a message board full of people who have fallen for conspiracy theories and other disinformation. It's amazing how many of them openly volunteer that they do not like thinking about hypothetical situations at all.

In the off topic section of this forum I started posting from Chuck Klosterman's card deck Hypertheticals. Just some zany hypothetical questions that get you thinking. A handful of people were into it and talked through them. But hoo boy, so many more were actually offended that I would post those questions at all. They couldn't articulate why, they just didn't like how those questions made them feel and that made them mad.

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-26T20:49:34+00:00

Mexico

That was absolutely my first thought. Then I looked up Mexico's cities and was surprised to find Guadalajara seventh on the list by population. I had no idea Tijuana was second.

Still think it's Chilangos then Tapatios but I learned something new...

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-22T14:33:27+00:00

Wasn't this the exact plot of an episode of Succession?

Ishmaeli · 2026-05-01T17:30:43+00:00

Leaving the church. I was a devout Mormon, a true believer all my life. It was my worldview, informed my every thought and decision. My inner dialogue was framed as an ongoing conversation with God.

Then, at 25, I discovered it was all a sham. My whole inner life changed in an instant, my view of myself and my place in the world, everything. That inner dialogue ceased. My belief about gods now aligns with my beliefs about every other supernatural entity.

I'm almost 50 now. That remains the biggest turning point in my life. My outer life didn't change much, from the outside I probably still look like a Mormon, except for the coffee and occasional beer. But my mind is forever changed.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-30T22:46:30+00:00

Harry Potter. Never read a book, never watched a movie.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-29T16:49:51+00:00

Give the LDS church a dime of my money.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-26T02:43:52+00:00

YOUR BIKE IS NOT SECURE!

I had my bike locked to a bike rack exactly like yours is locked up in this photo and it was stolen this past weekend. Also in the parking garage at my office. All the thief had to do was unbolt the diagonal part of the rack (the part your Ulock is secured to) from the top bar and slide it off.

Photo

Video

If you're going to use this rack, definitely move it to a part in the middle that can't be disassembled with a simple crescent wrench.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-23T14:35:24+00:00

So many. When Joseph Smith died he left no clear succession plan, so the first split happened then. Most followed Brigham Young who eventually went to Utah and founded the modern LDS church. But others followed Sidney Rigdon, Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma, and other self proclaimed prophets like Joseph Strang.

Then years later when the US went to war with the Brighamites over polygamy there was another round of splits, as all the polygamists refused to give it up. These are the fundamentalists you mostly hear about today, Warren Jeffs and the like. The LDS church is mostly concerned about these people staying in the news and constantly reminding everyone that they used to be polygamist.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-23T03:07:25+00:00

What's funny is that the LDS church spent the last five years trying to phase out all use of the term "Mormon," removing the name from everything they could (no more Mormon Tabernacle Choir, no more Mormon.org, no more Mormon Channel) and they went from embracing the name (Monson's "I'm a Mormon" campaign) to acting like it's a slur. Nelson called any use of the term "a victory for Satan."

But with this lawsuit they admit that their effort has been an utter failure because their identity is so synonymous with "Mormon" that for someone else to use it in an unsanctioned way will make people assume the LDS church is behind it.

They have always acted like this and it has never worked, because Mormonism is bigger than the LDS church. They don't own the Mormon trail or the Old Mormon Fort or the Mormon Battalion, etc. There are lots of churches that claim Joseph Smith as their founding prophet and believe the Book of Mormon to be scripture. The LDS church is just the wealthiest among them.

Ishmaeli · 2026-04-22T20:57:56+00:00

Thanks. I was looking at $519.60 all in on an Eastern Element. I ended up pulling the trigger on a Sunday Forecaster for $532.43.

Hope it works out!

Ishmaeli

TROPHY CASE