Ghost of LL

We left around 1:15 or 1:20, and it looked like it was probably going to finish in the next 15 minutes or so. But yeah--I'm tired this morning.

I never knew Madonna had so many songs I don’t know.

It’s a very rational response. It’s big and showy for the Islamic world to see that Iran isn’t going to take its consulate getting bombed without a response. But the response is done in such a way that Israel can repel it with little difficulty and virtually no damage. Israel can declare victory and call it a day based on the performance of its air defenses and the support it has received from its allies. And, in fact, that’d probably be the smart play. But it’s not the play that keeps Bibi in office and out of prison. So really no chance of that happening.

Call names all you want—right now, Iran is acting pretty rationally.

I don't exactly know, but I would strongly suspect that the decision on that is with the FAA. This shit isn't being built primarily with city money. Most of the money comes from the FAA. And the FAA is notoriously conservative with its growth projections.

Afghanistan bordered the Soviet Union.

No--fuck that. It's not the minority party's job to help the majority party govern. Johnson is a perfect speaker for the Democrats to campaign against. He's heinous and despicable, but he's also incompetent. Apart from somehow getting Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, Johnson is the best the Democrats can do.

I'm sorry--are you under the impression that I'm in the fucking dugout? There was never anything any of us could do about it. But we can still talk about the umpires fucking up an obvious fucking call for five minutes.

That is exactly why the rule exists. Goddamn MLB has had some shitty umpiring to start the season.

The fucking umpire signaled infield fly. And why wouldn't you? Because it's a fucking infield fly.

I'm watching without volume, but what the fuck was that?

How is that not an infield fly?

A couple hundred thousand ballistic missiles and drones.

Imagine—a place so bad the people in Westlake look over and say “they’re a bunch of assholes out there.”

Another dark-haired gay man from out of town? I mean, not that there’s a pattern or anything.

Yeah, I almost made the same joke. But then I actually watched the ad. And yeah--I'm not cracking any joke about that. I mean, Jesus--that punchline.

Well, it's almost playoff time., so that checks out.

I think he's suggesting that we're on track to get four rate cuts before November, which would be fan-fucking-tastic.

On the upside, he rarely shows up for oral arguments, and SCOTX decisions frequently have the notation "Devine, J., did not participate in the decision."

Well, I know that I'm known for my controversial positions around here. So what's the harm in throwing down another hot take?

I'd fuck her, not gonna lie.

I will never understand this presumption that men have that women should be expected to behave "well" to other women. Men can be assholes to other men; why should we not expect the same of women? And don't underestimate the role of the general human presumption that "what's worked for me must be what's good for you." We see it in everything from the trivial (I had a good meal at this restaurant, so you definitely need to go there) to the meaningful (I breastfed, therefore you should breastfeed). At its root, it reflects a basic lack of empathy and appreciation for the fact that people facing different circumstances may have different needs. And it's just a weird thing that we expect women to have more empathy than we expect from men. TL;DR: Both men and women suck.

That's all correct, and thank you for clarifying. There are some differences on the vehicles that may be worth pointing out, though much of the variation is between parks and not between operators. In the Maasai Mara (Kenya), the vehicles are all open sided. In the Serengeti (Tanzania), there weren't any open-sided vehicles that I saw. They are all Toyota Land Cruisers that have been modified with a pop-top that allows you to stand up and photograph. Now, among the operators, there are some differences among the vehicles. The Four Seasons operates its own vehicles that are kitted out with refrigerators and charging stations. I mean, not that you have a good cell signal. But it's nice to be able to charge your phone for the camera functionality. And having a refrigerator in the truck is obviously a nice thing. But your underlying point is right--the Four Seasons truck is going to be right next to any other operator looking at the same leopard. That is a really great shot of the cheetah. We didn't get to see one of those. But we did see a rhino in the Maasai Mara. And then when we went down to Victoria Falls, there is a small preserve along the Zambezi with a small herd of rhinos. And that's wild. Those rhinos are guarded 24/7 by armed rangers. I mean--those rangers are standing right there with AK-47s within thirty yards of the rhinos. And the rhinos are just chilling. It's the only place along any game drive where we got out of the truck to view an animal. The rangers don't let the vehicles get very close to the rhinos, so you get out and walk up to them. And you can get . . . well, probably a lot closer than you really should get to something as big and heavily armored as a rhino. That was pretty damned cool.

Two caveats with that: 1) If you see the Great Migration crossing the Mara River, then you're going to have a line of vehicles. That is the prime wildlife spectacle in all of Africa--seeing the wildebeest trying to get across that river and dodging the dozens of crocodiles. But when we went (June) the Great Migration was still down in the Serengeti. So up at the Maasai Mara, things were still a little low-key. The most vehicles we saw grouped around one thing was when we spotted a leopard. Leopards are fucking hard to spot. So when you spy one in a tree, you're going to have some vehicular traffic around it. But even then, there were only four trucks (including our own) around the tree with the leopard in it. Alarmingly, there was also a leopard in the tall grass on the ground that we never fucking saw. That was unnerving. 2) The situation you describe with hiring drivers and lodges separately is consistent with your mid-range lodges. But for your high-end lodges like @millhouse is talking about (e.g., the Angama properties), the driver is directly employed by the lodge and is assigned to you when you arrive. The game drives are all included in the price at the Angama properties (and other high-end lodges), and the drivers will just take you out whenever you want to go. So that's a bit of a different experience than what you're describing. And if you want to go that high-end route, you can cut out the travel agent entirely. Because Angama will arrange all of your internal flights and everything if you want them to.

No shit. If you grew up in central Dallas in the early 90s as I did, this freeway is luxurious. I'm not going to hear any complaints about that road from someone who didn't have to go 0 to 70 in the span of 70 yards, close your eyes, and pray there wasn't someone in the right lane preventing you from merging in before the entrance lane ended in a concrete barrier. It was like automotive Russian roulette. That was livin', my friends.