My co-Hare and I did some scouting yesterday and pretty much finalized our trail for Monday’s Hash. We’ll go back out in the morning and put chalk on the trees and powder on the ground for the Kennel to follow.
That’s the trail; you can Relive the scouting adventure here:
Now, about my Friday night. I did decide to skip the SOB. Back in the old days (pre-scamdemic), I only attended the SOB once a month or so. When the SOB resumed last year, I went every week as a show of support and appreciation to the sponsoring bars. Lately, they have had more attendees than they can accommodate, so I can take a break and give my seat to someone else to watch the show.
I started out at Cheap Charlies, where I enjoyed some facetime with Nerissa. She’s definitely not the typical bargirl type, at least not yet. I need to decide if I want to take the next step toward a potential relationship. As with Mary, I’m just not sure I want to give up my freedom from drama and my ability to do as I please. I know some positives come with having a girlfriend, too, but damn, why risk it?
After I left Cheap Charlies, I was feeling a little hungry. Running through the options as I walked down the highway, I decided to pay Thumbstar a visit. It’s rare for me to patronize this venue for various reasons, but their shwarma shop was enough motivation to overcome them. Plus, a girl I met at Queen Victoria several months ago messaged me that she was working there now, so it seemed appropriate to pay her a visit too.
It was weird being in Thumbstar on a Friday night during the SOB. Thumbstar briefly was a participating bar in the SOB, but because of some disagreement over something, pulled out. And now Thumbstar’s management is engaging in a Bar Wars tactic–a competing event on Fridays they call the SOP. It’s ridiculous and, frankly, one of the reasons I don’t visit this bar very often, but by chance, here I was, experiencing my first-ever SOP. It’s nothing like the real thing, though. No dance competition, just the regular Thumbstar crew.
When I arrived, I saw Che, the former Queen Vic waitress, on stage dancing. So, I called her down to join me. She tried to order a bottled beer double lady drink for a whopping 350 pesos, but I put a stop to that, and she settled for a more reasonably priced single drink. I did buy her two (or maybe more), so it’s not so much the money as it is the principle. My waitress had difficulty understanding my drink order (a shot of gin in a tall glass and a can of soda water on the side). Seems simple to me, but it was confusing to her, and I admit I got a little frustrated and cranky with her. Felt wrong about being a grumpy old man, so I bought her a drink too.
The best part of the SOP is that drinks AND food are all buy one get one free. So, I got two chicken shwarmas for the price of one. Che wanted chicken, so the second order went to our waitress. The waitress wanted fries, so we shared those as well. The way I drink, every order is a double–the shot of gin and the can of soda. So, last night at least I could get my soda water for free.
And in a first for me, the waitress picked up my phone from the table and took a selfie without being asked (or asking permission). I didn’t care, of course, but joked that my wife would be very angry when she saw it. That made her nervous until I explained I was kidding.
And then a two-week millionaire (the name we expats use for free-spending tourists) came in and called most of the dancers down from the stage to join him at his table. I snuck a picture of his bounty and their booties.
I have to admit; I had a better time at Thumbstar than I expected I would. I decided to make Queen Victoria my nightcap destination, and I appeared to be the only customer in the bar. No idea how they stay in business, especially when they were paying a live band to perform with no audience. Anyway, I was joined at the bar by two friendly waitresses, and I enjoyed sharing a drink with them to end my night on the town.
And now it seems I have a dinner date with Mary tonight. There’s just no telling that girl no.
Oh, I almost forgot. I came across this post of mine from 2009, back in the days this blog has some substance. I found it especially interesting given what’s been going of late with the media covering up the sins of our government rather than reporting them to the people. Our founders believe a free press was the “fourth estate” that would help preserve our freedoms. Instead, they are facilitating their destruction.
but who will read the Hanguel?
Close! Hangeul. We don’t want to be saying “hang-gwell.”
That Da’Kudos sign looks like a faded, black-and-white photocopy. They couldn’t afford color? Then again, in a land of colorful signs, a colorless sign stands out.
chicken sh[a]warmas
I watch this Canadian guy on YouTube who works at a restaurant called Shelby’s which, despite the white-bread name, sells Middle Eastern food—mainly shawarmas and salads (and “Don’t forget the Pepsi!” the guy says). Here’s the channel. His shtick is that he’s loud, speaks with a strong accent (I’m guessing it’s fake), and he never gives you what you order because he’s always going to try to give you something better.
Seems simple to me, but it was confusing to her
This is when it’s good to know how to draw.
but I’m sure some guys would get off on those boobs.
At least, you can see they’re natural.
Che is definitely more my type.
We likes the trashy ones! Yes, Precious!
In your 2009 post, you wrote:
I guess most folks think of me as a neocon these days, and hell, they might be right.
and
I certainly always believed that the oppressed in the world had a God-given right to drink from the cup of liberty. And if you stand up for human rights, be it women or gays or just freedom from tyranny, how can you turn your head to what was happening in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or North Korea and Iran? So, if that makes me a neocon, I will wear the mantle proudly and without apology.
Trump, in remaking the paradigm, made neocons the enemy because, as you say, they think the world ought to “drink from the cup of liberty.” What became clear under Trump, if not before him, was that many non-Western countries don’t want American-style liberty. The neocon project, especially under people like George W. Bush and John McCain, was about starting wars as a way to “spread democracy.” I hope that most of us, post-Bush, see how wrong and arrogant it is to do other cultures’ thinking for them. Dubya, in particular, misinterpreted a generic desire for liberty as a desire for specifically American-style liberty, and we see how well that went in places like Iraq, where we knocked over the sand castle of Saddam’s government, established what was supposed to be a more American-style government, and watched that slowly backslide. I can’t say that Iraq today is all happy and prosperous.
The MAGA project rejects the neocon’s warlike desire to spread democracy on the assumption that that’s what everyone wants. If we swept into Iran, destroyed the current government, and installed a US-style democracy, Iranians would simply use that democracy to vote in more theocrats. This is a point I’ve heard in certain sectors of the right quite frequently: countries can’t just have democracy imposed on them—democracy has to grow up organically. There has to be a history of it for it to work. Meanwhile, it’s dictatorships and warlords for the masses until a home-grown Thomas Jefferson shows up and starts changing things from the inside. I think part of Trump’s reluctance to start new wars was linked to his anti-neocon stance (and also, of course, to his businessman’s reflex to solve problems through deal-making).
So, where do you stand these days? Would you still call yourself a democracy-spreading neocon, or are you more of a “leave everyone alone” type, maybe gravitating a bit toward MAGA or libertarianism?
At this point, I think America has enough problems of its own that it should spend way more time cleaning house (which may mean taking a flamethrower to Congress while it’s in session, forcing the Supreme Court to grow some hairy balls and a spine, and throwing out the chimpanzee currently in the Oval Office) than worrying about how free other countries are.
We should also be less hypocritical in how we conduct business with other countries. Our addiction to China’s cheap labor has to go: China is a fucking genocidal country almost on the order of North Korea, not to mention a global polluter and an epic thief of Western technology. It’s currently gobbling up parts of Africa and all of Sri Lanka, after having raped and murdered Tibet. It’s also slavering over Taiwan. Why align with China at all? Pivot to India, I say. India may be corrupt, but it’s nowhere near as far gone (morally) as China is. Elon Musk, who’s putting on the airs of a free-speech advocate in the States, has major Tesla facilities in China, both in Shanghai and Xinjiang, the latter being where all the Uyghur concentration camps are. It’s hard to take Musk seriously as an advocate for free speech when he’s still buddy-buddy with a repressive regime. This is the sort of hypocrisy I’m talking about.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of countries whose values align with ours, and with whom we could be doing productive business. Remember when people used to talk about the Anglosphere, and they included Eastern Europe? There’s so much untapped potential in that region, and we’re all dropping the ball on this.
Anyway, I could rant on and on, but I’m just curious as to whether your political needle has moved from “neocon” or not. Neocon was the way to go for a lot of Republicans/conservatives a couple decades ago, but then along came Trump, who is basically a 90s-era Democrat, and he flipped over the chessboard. As Trump was happening, the left realigned itself to become a psychotic moral scold. 60s lefties used to be antigovernment and pro-free speech, but today, they’re totally the opposite, probably because those 60s radicals have all become old farts staring down the twin barrels of retirement. Meanwhile, it’s conservatives who are defending the potty-mouthed people while giving the government the finger. What universe is this?
Kevin, What would a post of mine be without a misspelled word or two? Better, you say? Okay, I’ll try. Maybe I’m pronouncing “Hangeul” wrong–I say han-goo-el, which might explain the spelling error.
In Che’s case, I don’t know her well enough to confirm she’s a trashy girl, although being a go-go dancer in a girly bar might lead one to that conclusion. I was actually referring to her body type–I like the skinny ones best–big boobs and fat asses don’t do it for me.
As to the neocon thing, I tend to agree with most of what you wrote. Back in 2009, I might have adopted that label to differentiate myself from the Obama-loving crowd. That’s the problem with labels, they don’t age well or change with the times. I’m not a fan of interventions to “spread democracy” but when an evil power invades a country to enslave (i.e. Iraq/Kuwait), I support us in helping to defend our allies. But yeah, the world is changing and we should not go where we aren’t wanted or invited. I’m encouraged to see the internal revolts taking form in Iran, but disgusted by what we did in Afghanistan. These days, as recent events have shown, our freedom at home is in peril and I agree we need to focus on getting rid of the deep-state scoundrels.
I’m totally on board with your views on China. I don’t know if WWIII can be avoided, but we sure as hell need to be prepared for that event. A good first step as you say is a realignment with India, the sooner the better.
So, to answer your question: based on the definition of neocon you provide, I am not in that camp. I lean more libertarian I think. The left in this country has gone stark raving mad, so the sane folks need to start fighting back more effectively. I’m more and more of a fan of DeSantis and would prefer him over Trump. But just as I chose Trump over Hillary, I’d take Trump over whomever the Dems try to foist on us.
Thanks again for your thought-provoking comment!
I say han-goo-el
I have to wonder where that’s coming from. It’s a two-syllable word, and since the first syllable ends with “n,” and the second syllable begins with a hard “g” sound, you end up with an “ng” sound in the middle, so while the word is spelled “hahn-geul,” the pronunciation is more like “hahng-geul.” The “eu” is roughly like the “oo” in “book,” though more muted. To pronounce that second syllable, just try to go straight from the “g” sound to the “l” sound, with barely any vowel in between. Say the word “glass,” then concentrate on just the “gl” sound, and that’s closer to how “geul” sounds.
HaHa! Not only can’t I speak the Korean language, I can’t even pronounce its name! I effed up the phonetic spelling, I was trying to say I pronounce it Han-gool. Which I know now is still wrong. Thanks for the lesson!