BamaGradinTn

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Prisons are even worse than local jails. For every decent person who treats the inmate population like fellow human beings you have half a dozen or more sociopaths straight out of the Shawshank Redemption. That entire industry, and an industry is exactly what it is, is designed to be a human suffering machine that slowly destroys people.

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Think about it...what kind of person wakes up every morning and voluntarily goes to prison?

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He retired to Bangkok 3 years ago but has struggled to find other expats to hand out with.


Then why the hell did he retire there?

Oh wait, I think I know the answer.

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He was tired of the rat race where he was living in the U.S....high cost of living, etc, etc. He was miserable. He visited Thailand with his son, liked it, and made up his mind to move. He enjoys a much higher standard of living for much less money. Rents a fully furnished, beautiful condo for maybe $700 a month, and lives very well without having to pay for a vehicle. Eats very well for a fraction of the cost in the US. Since he moved there, he has not only traveled all over Thailand, but also Japan, China, Vietnam, and one family trip to Eastern Europe. Anyone who has visited there knows that you can live like a king, with a very nice lifestyle, for not a lot of money. But creating a social life with other expats has been a challenge for him. When he posts something in expat Facebook groups, he just gets snide, anti-American comments from Aussies, Kiwis, and Brits.

When I lived in Bangladesh several years ao, my family and I would do a couple of trips to Thailand each year, so I was already very familiar with it. In the weeks leading up to his move, he started to get cold feet. I told him two things...1, if he doesn't do it, he will always wonder what life might have been like and he will continue to be unhappy, and 2. if he doesn't like it, he can always come home.

I get why he struggles to meet friends. Lots of the expats are Aussies, Kiwis, and Brits who were already bitter when they arrived, and who have a dim view of America and Americans. And, as with many places where expat Americans retire to...Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama...they get there expecting paradise and when things don't go well, they become disenchanted. He has been pretty happy there, but other expats he meets in bars or wherever fall into that other category.

If it was me, I would start by finding a couple of nice sports bars that show NFL & NCAA football, MLB baseball, and hang out there some. I'd join a golf club...but he isn't a golfer. I'd volunteer at the US State Department-sponsored International School of Bangkok. But that's just me. It would be easier for me, because I'm in my 19th year of living as an expat abroad. He never had lived abroad.

I have a HS buddy that also went to Bama the same years I did. He retired to Bangkok 3 years ago but has struggled to find other expats to hand out with. I suggested finding a sports bar frequented by SEC fans on game days. Do any of you know any fellow SEC fans living there? Facebook groups haven't helped...usually he gets negative comments by non-Americans. Because I work internationally also, I get to visit him a couple of times a year.

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It seems Trump is treating Iran like MacArthur treated Japan

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I'll believe this when I see an Iranian leader sitting on the deck of an American warship signing an unconditional surrender.

Does the lawsuit over his residency have legs? Seems that would be pretty easy to prove.

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I can't accurately gage Alabama voting patterns, but it would seem any competent caddidate-- even Doug Jones, the former Senator, is a better option than Tubs


Very wrong.

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I wouldn't vote for Jones.

But Governor is a much different job than Senator. And sometimes voters take that into account.

Exhibit A: Phil Bredesen.

Bredesen, a Democrat, was a popular two term mayor of Nashville. Helped bring the Titans to Nashville and getting Nissan Stadium. Yeah, Nashville is more liberal than the rest of the state. But then he became a popular two-term governor. When he was reelected in 2006, he won all 95 counties in the general election and defeated his Republican opponent by more than a 2 to 1 margin. You don't do that statewide in Tennessee without a lot of Republican votes.

So why couldn't he get elected to the Senate? It's a different job, and moderate and conservative voters in Tennessee understood that. Governors don't confirm Supreme Court justices and other judges, or get involved in foreign policy, or immigration legislation.

That doesn't at all mean that I'd vote for Doug Jones. Not at all.

But I'd vote for Phil Bredesen for governor if he was running against Tubberville.

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Private event organizers cannot require you to leave a public place.

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You don't believe this,

If you rent a picnic pavilion at your local city park for your family reunion of 30 people, and some random people come and occupy the picnic tables so that your family can't use the space, you're saying that the interlopers can't be required to leave the space you rented. That's bullshite, and you know it.

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Centcom Does Not Agree: SOH is Open

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What are they saying about Iran's ballistic missiles now?

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Apparently, New York Yankees had one scheduled in several players said they weren’t gonna play.

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No, they didn't. You were close, though. :lol:

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the Democrats response to all of this was to start the Ku Klux Klan

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Let's not forget this guy. Senator Robert Byrd. (KKK-WV)



"In December 1944, Byrd wrote to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo:

I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.

— Robert C. Byrd, in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS), 1944"

He wasn't just some Klan member. And he was the Democratic majority and minority leader in the Senate from 1977 to 1989.

"Byrd became a recruiter and leader of his chapter. When it came time to elect the top officer (Exalted Cyclops) in the local Klan unit, Byrd won unanimously. Despite his later claim to have only been a KKK member for a year, documents indicate that Byrd joined the KKK around 1941, and a 1946 letter to Samuel Green indicates that Byrd was a Klan member until at least 1946."

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