While JD Vance and Pete Hegseth were bringing burgers to the National Guard troops in Union Station, and being jeered as Nazis for doing it, I was also at Union Station.
While I am glad this is improving, I am tired of everyone being surprised , again, that simple policing works. How could we know defund the police if a bad idea?
The skill I really miss is calling out a lie the moment you hear it. Lying about anything used to be grounds for a challenge, if not an outright confrontation. Now it is an opportunity to clap play along and virtue signal.
Remember when Giuliani and Bratton were lauded for cleaning up Times Square and bringing tourist families back into NYC? Well, after they were called racists anyway.
Here in San Francisco the powers that be try to get me to use public transport by making driving more and more unpleasant. It seems that the idea of making public transport less noxious or dangerous never occurs to them. Probably because that would require them to admit it is noxious and dangerous.
I lived in Berkeley in the 70s and took the BART train to SF at least a dozen times with my girlfriend and visiting friends and family. It was cheap, safe, relatively clean, and never anything but uneventful. The only remarkable thing about it was how convenient and fast it was. So much manifest failure in the Bay area, yet voters continue to elect incompetent morons. It's shameful, but apparently shame is no longer a thing.
One of the most egregious examples - for anyone who has traveled to places where it's done right, like say Hong Kong or Stockholm - is that although technically you can get to and from the airport on BART, absolutely no-one with any sense does so. Not only is it not a smooth (let alone express) ride, but you also have to stop at various dodgy stations on the way.
I lived up in the Bay Area in the late 70’s into the early 80’s. I lived over in Marin and worked in downtown SF. I had a boyfriend in Berkeley and regularly would take the bus from Marin into work, and then take BART over to Berkeley to spend the weekend with him. The BART was only a couple of blocks from my work and was a quick, safe, and clean trip over to The East Bay. I never took my car. I live in SoCA but am up in the Bay Area several times a year. I would not likely take the BART over to the East Bay now.
One of the most intriguing things about the Fed action in DC is the potential shattering of the belief that the gradual degradation of urban life is inevitable
I feel that both sides of the political aisle, their interests don’t lie in building back up anything. Their interests are in whatever lines their pockets. Because to admit that is to admit there is a problem in the first place.
And we both know how much $$$$ has been funneled through all the NGO’s and NP’s in the name of “helping the poor”, “the disenfranchised” and “homeless peeps”! 🤔🕵🏼♀️
Yes I know…I’m in The Bay Area a few times a year. I went to college in Santa Cruz and lived over in Marin County for a few years two different times.😉😵💫
When I lived in SF--a long time ago--Muni drivers referred to the 22 Fillmore line as the 22 Fellini. At that time there were already periodic immolations, guttings, beatings, etc. And regular mayhem from tramps. You know, meltdowns, aisle or seat pooping, etc.
At that time Willie Brown (Kamala Harris's cough mentor cough) was responding to concerns about the cost of living by saying that "anybody who didn't make $100k a year"--equivalent of about $190k today--"didn't belong in SF."
I used to take Muni to BART to the East Bay after my employer moved from the Financial District to Oakland. It was one of the things that led me and my darling to conclude we were getting out of there as soon as we could. We had both followed jobs there, and were making bank, but after a couple years the hype was irretrievably deflated by the reality. No amount of money, or "career growth," or etc., was worth it.
In 2013 it was already a tenuously safety endeavor to ride the BART.
There was an incident that went viral nationwide, with a naked man who used the turnstiles as parallel bars.
Some people might say that he was just exercising his freedom, except that he also randomly hounded and attacked several passengers and a BART employee, kicking him in the balls and grabbing his willy.
I hadn’t thought about that guy, the turnstile performer, not Gavin, in a while, so I looked him up.
Apparently, he was a Berkeley circus performer, from Colombia, who had suffered a nervous breakdown.
From one ABC 7 NY article:
[The BART union representing station agents, Amalgamated Transit Union, says this kind of threat to agents and passengers is all too common.
"I've been an agent for 22 years; this is not something that's [gasp] an 'a-ha' moment for me, I live it, I breathe it, my co-workers do the same, as front line workers, and not just with agents, train operators are confronted with a variety of issues as well," ATU Local 1555 spokesperson Antonette Bryant said.
ATU is currently in contract negotiations with BART and is using the video to bolster its case for more safety measures.]
It had taken BART and SF police eight minutes to arrive, to a train station in the center of the city’s busiest area.
Ten years ago everyone in SF knew there was a safety problem in the city and especially on its public transit system, but there wasn’t much motivation on the part of city government to change that?
Gavin Newsom had just left office the year before, after serving as mayor for eight years?
Reports from SF outlets at the time didn’t seem to focus on the safety issue, not so much as his mental health crisis.
The crazed attacker’s friend said that the agile nudist had a hazy memory of the episode, but that in his head, he was acting out a play in the BART station.
They also stated that though he was released by the city to seek mental health services, he was facing deportation proceedings.
None of the articles that I could find mentioned the president, by name or otherwise, at the time, nor did they refer to ICE as fascist or accuse agents as bent on ‘disappearing’ Yeiner Perez Garizabalo to a death camp.
It was so long ago that I can’t even remember who the president was at the time, but it probably doesn’t factor in to why this story wasn’t elevated to the level of National Fascist Emergency™️, above the already bizarre, sensational plot of a naked gymnast, gone wild in a train station.
I couldn’t find any news articles that confirmed whether Perez was actually deported or not.
Perhaps he wasn’t deported, or maybe there just weren’t any senators or congressmen who cared enough about his mental health status to fly to Colombia to retrieve him.
Regardless, it is likely correct to assume that neither the video nor the incident helped the Amalgamated Transit Union in their efforts to win better (significantly, anyway) safety measures from the city.
Denver Union Station had similar issues with crime and homelessness post-pandemic. The City of Denver and Regional Transportation District looked at public transportation ridership and economic activity or lack thereof and realized there was a problem, when forcibly confronted with overwhelming evidence. I spent six hours there today for client meetings. There was a large, visible, armed law enforcement and security presence inside and out. It felt like 2018 all over again. Amazing.
When visiting Colorado I have taken the light rail from the Denver Airport into Union Station many times before and then popped over to Enterprise car rental near Union Station and got my rental car. It was an easy trip and quite manageable. I have not gone to Colorado via air travel in over 5 years. Now I drive and make it a nice road trip. Union Station in Denver is a beautiful building.
It seems to me anyone with children, or in education, or in any large organization intuitively knows how 'broken windows theory' is fact. It always, always, always works. Read years ago about how one study literally put cartoon eyes over the honor jar for coffee...and the donations went up by something like 85%.
We are so damn predictable. Our behavior adapts to the environment. If you don't think this is true--try to fast in the kitchen all day.
If we believe we are being watched/monitored, we obey the rules.
This will leave only the most hardened thug to commit crime, and they will be easier to catch.
" Our behavior adapts to the environment. If you don't think this is true--try to fast in the kitchen all day."
Yep. Tried to get one or two too-woke-for-their-own-good colleagues to read about the Marshmallow test back in the day, but their feeds had already informed them that it was a fascist test or something equally inane.
I do this when trekking: buy a bag of candy, a small one. Dried peaches or something like that.
Then, I put it in the same compartment as the map and compass and such in the rucksack so I'll see it often.
And then I don't open it until I get home.
Learned it from Dad. It's an old, old Army-thing for training willpower. Works great.
I did a 10-day fast in June. I had a commitment that I hadn't lived up to, and so I had painted myself into a corner. I also needed a system wide (mind-body-spirit) ctrl-alt-del.
I should have journaled during the fast because it was a full-size, high-fidelity mirror into the good, bad, and ugly of one bsn...I clearly saw, repeatedly--sometimes 100s times a day, what I will say to myself to justify my 'wants over goals/virtue'.
That said, I completely 'fast-proofed' the house. Nothing that I could impulsively throw in my mouth-no fruit, no cheese, no nuts--everything needed to be cooked to be consumed. I know myself too well to have it any other way.
However, I do really like your technique for 'mini-excursions'. I might even think about how to do that with water, or better yet--my tobacco (quit in 2022...nearly WRECKED ME) substitute of Smokey Mountain caffeine or herbal pouches. Thanks! I will begin a similar practice this weekend.
Oh man, tobacco! I was a 40-a-day man once upon a time, yellow scabs on my fingers and all. Working outdoors and no regs against having a handrolled in the side of your mouth while working - and my handrolled were so tight they laste 20 minutes.
Quit cold turkey when I couldn't walk up four stairs without throwing a wheezing cough, black lumps included. First day was just fine.
Second day I got shakes, cramps, vomiting, sweating - in my mind I was sweating out pure nicotine because I reeked. Lasted a week I think.
Second week I got my sense of smell back. And taste - suddenly I couldn't load Sambal Olek onto my food like I was used to.
Been smoke-for 20+ years now.
That willpower-exercise is a good one, I really recommend it. Any "apple of temptation" will do, really.
I chewed Copenhagen snuff, probably 35 years. When I started, in junior high/high school I think we justified it by thinking of it as “athlete’s tobacco”. I could still run, breathe, maintain low, resting heart rate and blood pressure for all these years as a tobacco user.
When I detoxed, it was for about 90 days. I didn’t go cold turkey, I used nicotine replacement for a couple of years, gum, and now these lovely, “manna from heaven” nicotine pouches.
I would’ve stayed on them forever, but my wife wasn’t having it.
It stripped me bare, down to the studs. For me, nicotine was an all purpose medicine/crutch.
Antidepressant, anti-anxiety, appetite suppressant, nootropic… led me to some very uncomfortable, but necessary insights and introspection that I’m still working through.
What I realized, was that nicotine even without the tobacco, allowed me to hide from myself for decades.
I would not want to go through the withdrawal/detox again. Similar to you, I stank, I couldn’t sleep, my blood pressure skyrocketed, I was nearly panting with unease and anxiety. It was fucking horrible!
Now, on the other side, I’m so thankful I went through it.
The leftists even managed to screw that up with no cash bail. So they make the arrest and they're back on the street in 15 minutes. Then the cop is frustrated because he's just spinning his wheels.
True. Similar in kind to the ROE frustrations we felt overseas in Iraq/Afghanistan. A terrorist's wife was better protected (legally, according to ROE), than PFC Nelson.
Of late (last 100 days or so) I've had to minimize my social/news media down to SubStack (Bray, Childers, Surber, and a few others)--and even then try to stay away from the internet all together--lowers my internal temp significantly, and clears my mind towards a more naturally optimistic view.
In about 3-5 nanoseconds, and am capable of painting an absolute irreversible doom scape--so I have mostly removed myself from the media landscape.
Chris's recent article is actually optimistic. Let's hope, even if out of dire desperation, the cities begin to behave like adults.
Yes limiting ones social media/news consumption is a very good idea. And what I’ve been doing is trying to límit my time to a few hours in the morning and brief time in the evening. In the morning I play Gregorian chant or classical music as the background to what I read. Gregorian chants are on the Solfeggio frequency, which are know to lessen one’s stress, and elevate one’s consciousness. 🕯️🙏🏼
I have this music downloaded from iTunes and CD’S that I have purchased and downloaded to my laptop. But I am sure you could create a ‘playlist’ of Gregorian Chant music on Spotify or iTunes/Apple Music.
The one that I like to listen to is “Benedicta” from The Monks of Norcia, a monastery in Norcia, Italy.
I just don’t have either Spotify or Apple Music. I have a music library of over 5,000 plus songs in my Music, that I’ve downloaded over many years. I’m of the “pre streaming music platforms” era. I have enough music to last me the rest of my life! 😆
I do break away also. Now that Bobby Jr hasn't been doing his podcast, I try to find something I can learn from. Chris is very easy to read, and his choice of topics is, well, choice. And a great writer. I like watching Jordan Peterson because there isn't one podcast of his that I've watched and not left feeling like I learned something. Oh, but he's a Nazi too. No wonder.😅I have to know what's going on, so there's Tucker and Jimmy Dore with some humor interspersed, and the best all around news program I've found is Redacted on Rumble and YouTube. They broadcast the stuff legacy media won't touch. Because it's the truth. Can't have that!🤥
I saw JBP back in 2017/18 during his initial tour. Great stuff. I enjoy him as well. Skipped his latest interview with ‘lost my shit’ Sam Harris.
His Biblical series, the initial 12 or 14 lecture series all in Genesis sparked my curiosity to begin reading the Bible anew…and eventually choosing to believe.
I’ll check out redacted…and need to tune into RFK’s podcast. Didn’t know about it.
Really something how Newsom straight admitted that's why they temporarily cleaned up SF, and now he's calling the criticism "bullshit" because there were other world leaders there too. The libs really think they can alter reality by the way they speak about it.
Restricting the waiting area to ticketed passengers has been in place for years at Penn Station, NYC. The civilizational decline making it necessary is regrettable, but in the actually existing country it’s a pretty basic measure.
I just saw Union Station, Los Angeles make an appearance in “Crime Wave” from 1954 (ironically). Sterling Hayden as Detective Lt. Sims wouldn’t have put up with this crap.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again, and again, and again:
Anyone who posted on social media in favor of defunding the police is not qualified for public office.
I don't care if that person changed their mind.
It was blatantly idiotic from the start. The telos of such a proposal was obviously chaos and disorder.
That so many people in my circle presented this as the right way to think sank my heart into the depths of despair. Apparently a 100 IQ is not that bright.
In any case, that's Mamdani. No business running for public office. Too stupid.
If I may inject some history (and historical photos) again: “The Station was designed by the father and son architect team of John and Donald Parkinson with an innovative blend of Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival and Art Deco architecture now commonly referred to as Mission Moderne. The stunning facility was completed in 1939.”
I used to ride Amtrak from DC to NY; destination train hall is 1.5 blocks from our office there. Problems: crime and vagrancy in the station, run down facilities, and dangerous drive home after dark. Now I drive park just outside Lincoln Tunnel. No crime in tunnel yet!
And can we also notice that this security presence is not even the least bit menacing in appearance. A good 75% looked like they couldn’t chase you for more than 25 yards without being out of breath. They are mostly standing around, checking tickets. It doesn’t take much.
Look you can't just show you can fix the problems created by your own neglect using powers and resources you already have. If you do that how are you going to convince the public you need radical new expansions of power and budget which you'll promptly apply toward rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies?
The UK is doing it right. For instance they just leveraged their willful neglect of children's safety, leading to an epidemic of pedo rape gangs, into a law allegedly meant to ban pedo videos online, which in under 24 hours they immediately applied toward suppressing complaints on social media about their complicity in pedo rape gangs. This is how technocracy gets things done, and Drumpf is ruining everything.
The same lesson could be learned from Atlanta's Underground. Alternating between cultural destination and shithole depending on the amount of security dedicated to the area.
While I am glad this is improving, I am tired of everyone being surprised , again, that simple policing works. How could we know defund the police if a bad idea?
Tom Wolfe called it "the great relearning." The thing we all know, but then we fashionably forget and have to needlessly rediscover.
I think that is a bit kind. If it were re discovering something non obvious, fine, but there is no excuse for adults to re learn…
Fire hydrants have to be full to fight fires
Patents don’t want their daughters to get assaulted on the sports field
Men can’t get periods
Calling yourself a woman, or s giraffe, won’t make it so
Etc etc etc
The skill I really miss is calling out a lie the moment you hear it. Lying about anything used to be grounds for a challenge, if not an outright confrontation. Now it is an opportunity to clap play along and virtue signal.
But, but, but one man’s lie is another man’s truth.
Only to barking seals.
they were being sarcastic
And for as long as we have men and guns there will also be men WITH guns.
Let's make them the best we can get, on the public payroll, with clean nice uniforms, a chain of command and a righteous code of conduct.
Right from the beginning, society has been based on and around the correct control of armed men.
That's kind of what king Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was all about, among other things
What’s a chain of command? Who can say.
apparently not the person who is supposed to be at the top of the chain of command.
Isn’t that a new Gucci accessory?
I can't say - I am not a Gucci expert.
Remember when Giuliani and Bratton were lauded for cleaning up Times Square and bringing tourist families back into NYC? Well, after they were called racists anyway.
Here in San Francisco the powers that be try to get me to use public transport by making driving more and more unpleasant. It seems that the idea of making public transport less noxious or dangerous never occurs to them. Probably because that would require them to admit it is noxious and dangerous.
I lived in Berkeley in the 70s and took the BART train to SF at least a dozen times with my girlfriend and visiting friends and family. It was cheap, safe, relatively clean, and never anything but uneventful. The only remarkable thing about it was how convenient and fast it was. So much manifest failure in the Bay area, yet voters continue to elect incompetent morons. It's shameful, but apparently shame is no longer a thing.
One of the most egregious examples - for anyone who has traveled to places where it's done right, like say Hong Kong or Stockholm - is that although technically you can get to and from the airport on BART, absolutely no-one with any sense does so. Not only is it not a smooth (let alone express) ride, but you also have to stop at various dodgy stations on the way.
I lived up in the Bay Area in the late 70’s into the early 80’s. I lived over in Marin and worked in downtown SF. I had a boyfriend in Berkeley and regularly would take the bus from Marin into work, and then take BART over to Berkeley to spend the weekend with him. The BART was only a couple of blocks from my work and was a quick, safe, and clean trip over to The East Bay. I never took my car. I live in SoCA but am up in the Bay Area several times a year. I would not likely take the BART over to the East Bay now.
One of the most intriguing things about the Fed action in DC is the potential shattering of the belief that the gradual degradation of urban life is inevitable
I feel that both sides of the political aisle, their interests don’t lie in building back up anything. Their interests are in whatever lines their pockets. Because to admit that is to admit there is a problem in the first place.
And we both know how much $$$$ has been funneled through all the NGO’s and NP’s in the name of “helping the poor”, “the disenfranchised” and “homeless peeps”! 🤔🕵🏼♀️
Here in SF we have no experience of there being more than one 'side of the aisle' ;-)
Yes I know…I’m in The Bay Area a few times a year. I went to college in Santa Cruz and lived over in Marin County for a few years two different times.😉😵💫
The saddest part is they been convinced they're right.
And probably because they have less control over you if you own & drive a car.
When I lived in SF--a long time ago--Muni drivers referred to the 22 Fillmore line as the 22 Fellini. At that time there were already periodic immolations, guttings, beatings, etc. And regular mayhem from tramps. You know, meltdowns, aisle or seat pooping, etc.
At that time Willie Brown (Kamala Harris's cough mentor cough) was responding to concerns about the cost of living by saying that "anybody who didn't make $100k a year"--equivalent of about $190k today--"didn't belong in SF."
I used to take Muni to BART to the East Bay after my employer moved from the Financial District to Oakland. It was one of the things that led me and my darling to conclude we were getting out of there as soon as we could. We had both followed jobs there, and were making bank, but after a couple years the hype was irretrievably deflated by the reality. No amount of money, or "career growth," or etc., was worth it.
Where did you go to? Did you stay in Commifornia or leave?
In 2013 it was already a tenuously safety endeavor to ride the BART.
There was an incident that went viral nationwide, with a naked man who used the turnstiles as parallel bars.
Some people might say that he was just exercising his freedom, except that he also randomly hounded and attacked several passengers and a BART employee, kicking him in the balls and grabbing his willy.
I hadn’t thought about that guy, the turnstile performer, not Gavin, in a while, so I looked him up.
Apparently, he was a Berkeley circus performer, from Colombia, who had suffered a nervous breakdown.
From one ABC 7 NY article:
[The BART union representing station agents, Amalgamated Transit Union, says this kind of threat to agents and passengers is all too common.
"I've been an agent for 22 years; this is not something that's [gasp] an 'a-ha' moment for me, I live it, I breathe it, my co-workers do the same, as front line workers, and not just with agents, train operators are confronted with a variety of issues as well," ATU Local 1555 spokesperson Antonette Bryant said.
ATU is currently in contract negotiations with BART and is using the video to bolster its case for more safety measures.]
It had taken BART and SF police eight minutes to arrive, to a train station in the center of the city’s busiest area.
Ten years ago everyone in SF knew there was a safety problem in the city and especially on its public transit system, but there wasn’t much motivation on the part of city government to change that?
Gavin Newsom had just left office the year before, after serving as mayor for eight years?
Reports from SF outlets at the time didn’t seem to focus on the safety issue, not so much as his mental health crisis.
The crazed attacker’s friend said that the agile nudist had a hazy memory of the episode, but that in his head, he was acting out a play in the BART station.
They also stated that though he was released by the city to seek mental health services, he was facing deportation proceedings.
None of the articles that I could find mentioned the president, by name or otherwise, at the time, nor did they refer to ICE as fascist or accuse agents as bent on ‘disappearing’ Yeiner Perez Garizabalo to a death camp.
It was so long ago that I can’t even remember who the president was at the time, but it probably doesn’t factor in to why this story wasn’t elevated to the level of National Fascist Emergency™️, above the already bizarre, sensational plot of a naked gymnast, gone wild in a train station.
I couldn’t find any news articles that confirmed whether Perez was actually deported or not.
Perhaps he wasn’t deported, or maybe there just weren’t any senators or congressmen who cared enough about his mental health status to fly to Colombia to retrieve him.
Regardless, it is likely correct to assume that neither the video nor the incident helped the Amalgamated Transit Union in their efforts to win better (significantly, anyway) safety measures from the city.
Denver Union Station had similar issues with crime and homelessness post-pandemic. The City of Denver and Regional Transportation District looked at public transportation ridership and economic activity or lack thereof and realized there was a problem, when forcibly confronted with overwhelming evidence. I spent six hours there today for client meetings. There was a large, visible, armed law enforcement and security presence inside and out. It felt like 2018 all over again. Amazing.
Not that hard, once they stop pretending and playacting.
Denver is next on the list for a communist mayor...just watch. New York, Minneapolis, Denver.
Hey, don't leave Karen Bass out
she's easy to forget!
actually, she too obvious.
(is). Need more coffee.
How could I have forgotten the Castro regime's dumb sychophant?!
When visiting Colorado I have taken the light rail from the Denver Airport into Union Station many times before and then popped over to Enterprise car rental near Union Station and got my rental car. It was an easy trip and quite manageable. I have not gone to Colorado via air travel in over 5 years. Now I drive and make it a nice road trip. Union Station in Denver is a beautiful building.
It seems to me anyone with children, or in education, or in any large organization intuitively knows how 'broken windows theory' is fact. It always, always, always works. Read years ago about how one study literally put cartoon eyes over the honor jar for coffee...and the donations went up by something like 85%.
We are so damn predictable. Our behavior adapts to the environment. If you don't think this is true--try to fast in the kitchen all day.
If we believe we are being watched/monitored, we obey the rules.
This will leave only the most hardened thug to commit crime, and they will be easier to catch.
bsn
" Our behavior adapts to the environment. If you don't think this is true--try to fast in the kitchen all day."
Yep. Tried to get one or two too-woke-for-their-own-good colleagues to read about the Marshmallow test back in the day, but their feeds had already informed them that it was a fascist test or something equally inane.
I do this when trekking: buy a bag of candy, a small one. Dried peaches or something like that.
Then, I put it in the same compartment as the map and compass and such in the rucksack so I'll see it often.
And then I don't open it until I get home.
Learned it from Dad. It's an old, old Army-thing for training willpower. Works great.
I did a 10-day fast in June. I had a commitment that I hadn't lived up to, and so I had painted myself into a corner. I also needed a system wide (mind-body-spirit) ctrl-alt-del.
I should have journaled during the fast because it was a full-size, high-fidelity mirror into the good, bad, and ugly of one bsn...I clearly saw, repeatedly--sometimes 100s times a day, what I will say to myself to justify my 'wants over goals/virtue'.
That said, I completely 'fast-proofed' the house. Nothing that I could impulsively throw in my mouth-no fruit, no cheese, no nuts--everything needed to be cooked to be consumed. I know myself too well to have it any other way.
However, I do really like your technique for 'mini-excursions'. I might even think about how to do that with water, or better yet--my tobacco (quit in 2022...nearly WRECKED ME) substitute of Smokey Mountain caffeine or herbal pouches. Thanks! I will begin a similar practice this weekend.
bsn
Oh man, tobacco! I was a 40-a-day man once upon a time, yellow scabs on my fingers and all. Working outdoors and no regs against having a handrolled in the side of your mouth while working - and my handrolled were so tight they laste 20 minutes.
Quit cold turkey when I couldn't walk up four stairs without throwing a wheezing cough, black lumps included. First day was just fine.
Second day I got shakes, cramps, vomiting, sweating - in my mind I was sweating out pure nicotine because I reeked. Lasted a week I think.
Second week I got my sense of smell back. And taste - suddenly I couldn't load Sambal Olek onto my food like I was used to.
Been smoke-for 20+ years now.
That willpower-exercise is a good one, I really recommend it. Any "apple of temptation" will do, really.
I chewed Copenhagen snuff, probably 35 years. When I started, in junior high/high school I think we justified it by thinking of it as “athlete’s tobacco”. I could still run, breathe, maintain low, resting heart rate and blood pressure for all these years as a tobacco user.
When I detoxed, it was for about 90 days. I didn’t go cold turkey, I used nicotine replacement for a couple of years, gum, and now these lovely, “manna from heaven” nicotine pouches.
I would’ve stayed on them forever, but my wife wasn’t having it.
It stripped me bare, down to the studs. For me, nicotine was an all purpose medicine/crutch.
Antidepressant, anti-anxiety, appetite suppressant, nootropic… led me to some very uncomfortable, but necessary insights and introspection that I’m still working through.
What I realized, was that nicotine even without the tobacco, allowed me to hide from myself for decades.
I would not want to go through the withdrawal/detox again. Similar to you, I stank, I couldn’t sleep, my blood pressure skyrocketed, I was nearly panting with unease and anxiety. It was fucking horrible!
Now, on the other side, I’m so thankful I went through it.
bsn
Adding marshmallows to the list of Facist things.
/s (just in case)
The leftists even managed to screw that up with no cash bail. So they make the arrest and they're back on the street in 15 minutes. Then the cop is frustrated because he's just spinning his wheels.
True. Similar in kind to the ROE frustrations we felt overseas in Iraq/Afghanistan. A terrorist's wife was better protected (legally, according to ROE), than PFC Nelson.
Of late (last 100 days or so) I've had to minimize my social/news media down to SubStack (Bray, Childers, Surber, and a few others)--and even then try to stay away from the internet all together--lowers my internal temp significantly, and clears my mind towards a more naturally optimistic view.
In about 3-5 nanoseconds, and am capable of painting an absolute irreversible doom scape--so I have mostly removed myself from the media landscape.
Chris's recent article is actually optimistic. Let's hope, even if out of dire desperation, the cities begin to behave like adults.
bsn
Yes limiting ones social media/news consumption is a very good idea. And what I’ve been doing is trying to límit my time to a few hours in the morning and brief time in the evening. In the morning I play Gregorian chant or classical music as the background to what I read. Gregorian chants are on the Solfeggio frequency, which are know to lessen one’s stress, and elevate one’s consciousness. 🕯️🙏🏼
Do you find those chance on iTunes or Spotify or some other subscription?
bsn
I have this music downloaded from iTunes and CD’S that I have purchased and downloaded to my laptop. But I am sure you could create a ‘playlist’ of Gregorian Chant music on Spotify or iTunes/Apple Music.
The one that I like to listen to is “Benedicta” from The Monks of Norcia, a monastery in Norcia, Italy.
I just don’t have either Spotify or Apple Music. I have a music library of over 5,000 plus songs in my Music, that I’ve downloaded over many years. I’m of the “pre streaming music platforms” era. I have enough music to last me the rest of my life! 😆
Very helpful. My taste in rock music hasn’t changed in the last 30 years. My iTunes library will probably see me into my dotage.
Thank you. Have a great weekend.
bsn
"“Benedicta” from The Monks of Norcia". Thanks for the tip!
I do break away also. Now that Bobby Jr hasn't been doing his podcast, I try to find something I can learn from. Chris is very easy to read, and his choice of topics is, well, choice. And a great writer. I like watching Jordan Peterson because there isn't one podcast of his that I've watched and not left feeling like I learned something. Oh, but he's a Nazi too. No wonder.😅I have to know what's going on, so there's Tucker and Jimmy Dore with some humor interspersed, and the best all around news program I've found is Redacted on Rumble and YouTube. They broadcast the stuff legacy media won't touch. Because it's the truth. Can't have that!🤥
I saw JBP back in 2017/18 during his initial tour. Great stuff. I enjoy him as well. Skipped his latest interview with ‘lost my shit’ Sam Harris.
His Biblical series, the initial 12 or 14 lecture series all in Genesis sparked my curiosity to begin reading the Bible anew…and eventually choosing to believe.
I’ll check out redacted…and need to tune into RFK’s podcast. Didn’t know about it.
Thanks for the info.
bsn
Yes Redacted is a good podcast, one of the better ones!
Childers and Surber are my top favorites
President XI must be coming…
Where did they find the money to pay these people? Did they stop funding a bunch of advocacy groups for a month or two?
probably a week or two.
My cynicism says this all ends the week after the olympics.
Safety for Xi but not for thee.
Really something how Newsom straight admitted that's why they temporarily cleaned up SF, and now he's calling the criticism "bullshit" because there were other world leaders there too. The libs really think they can alter reality by the way they speak about it.
By train?
😂
Restricting the waiting area to ticketed passengers has been in place for years at Penn Station, NYC. The civilizational decline making it necessary is regrettable, but in the actually existing country it’s a pretty basic measure.
I just saw Union Station, Los Angeles make an appearance in “Crime Wave” from 1954 (ironically). Sterling Hayden as Detective Lt. Sims wouldn’t have put up with this crap.
Broken Windows Policing works everywhere we try it.
It doesn’t work for anarcho-communists though.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again, and again, and again:
Anyone who posted on social media in favor of defunding the police is not qualified for public office.
I don't care if that person changed their mind.
It was blatantly idiotic from the start. The telos of such a proposal was obviously chaos and disorder.
That so many people in my circle presented this as the right way to think sank my heart into the depths of despair. Apparently a 100 IQ is not that bright.
In any case, that's Mamdani. No business running for public office. Too stupid.
I think few of them have will admit to having changed their minds: "That's not what I meant..."
I did notice the Millennial retard wearing a mask.
bsn
Green shirt = unarmed Metro “ambassador”. I’m sure she’ll keep you safe if a crazy homeless guy with a knife or gun shows up.
Looked like more security than passengers.
A result of what I was focused on photographing, I think. Seemed like a decent number of passengers.
If I may inject some history (and historical photos) again: “The Station was designed by the father and son architect team of John and Donald Parkinson with an innovative blend of Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival and Art Deco architecture now commonly referred to as Mission Moderne. The stunning facility was completed in 1939.”
https://www.unionstationla.com/history/
We went to a wedding held in Union Station once, probably 2006-2008 timeframe. Very memorable.
I used to ride Amtrak from DC to NY; destination train hall is 1.5 blocks from our office there. Problems: crime and vagrancy in the station, run down facilities, and dangerous drive home after dark. Now I drive park just outside Lincoln Tunnel. No crime in tunnel yet!
And can we also notice that this security presence is not even the least bit menacing in appearance. A good 75% looked like they couldn’t chase you for more than 25 yards without being out of breath. They are mostly standing around, checking tickets. It doesn’t take much.
Look you can't just show you can fix the problems created by your own neglect using powers and resources you already have. If you do that how are you going to convince the public you need radical new expansions of power and budget which you'll promptly apply toward rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies?
The UK is doing it right. For instance they just leveraged their willful neglect of children's safety, leading to an epidemic of pedo rape gangs, into a law allegedly meant to ban pedo videos online, which in under 24 hours they immediately applied toward suppressing complaints on social media about their complicity in pedo rape gangs. This is how technocracy gets things done, and Drumpf is ruining everything.
I followed that link to the photos of the bar in Los Angeles. Magnificent! Stunning!
That's what life was like, back when we were still civilized.
So incredibly civilized. It hurts to think about.
The same lesson could be learned from Atlanta's Underground. Alternating between cultural destination and shithole depending on the amount of security dedicated to the area.