SomewhereonNeptune

And it'll still feel like I'm putting on a rain slicker and wading boots to take a shower.

Thought you were 'asking for a friend'. 🤣😉

But what are the chances of condom use in that foreign prison? Guess his mind could change very quickly.

I guess I also need to ask why it can't be both? If you're horny, a random fuck can be really hot if the chemistry is there or you're both in tune to each other to get off. And a regular allows the (relative) safety to explore new things in a comfortable atmosphere. Like others here, I can't limit myself to just one or the other, and there's no rule saying we need to. The only potential advantage for a chaser is the lack of knowing whether he's getting a poz load, where normally with a regular he's probably already told you or shared the news if he converted. With fucking randoms, I've never had the question asked and the risk can make things white hot.

[think before following links] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/

We all are familiar with a certain retail giant who is one of the world's largest companies. There was a decent documentary done some time back ("Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price - Link) that showed how the normal costs of doing business -- benefits, reasonable wages, healthcare -- was effectively transferred to taxpayers (food stamps, medicaid) in order to support profit growth and thereby benefitting shareholders. You can rent it from Amazon for about $2 to watch it, it's enlightening. At the same time, Main Streets were gutted, small businesses were killed, and people who wanted work in certain regions had few choices other than Walmart. The economy that revolved around small businesses and decent wages was destroyed for larger corporate interests. Ask yourself where you go for hardware: a local ACE Hardware, or a big-box store? In actuality, no one truly 'benefits' from having to get SNAP (food stamps) because it means they aren't getting a meaningful wage that can let a family afford food. Wait...no, let me correct that, Walmart benefits again because they're most likely the one also getting the food stamp redemption against their low-priced food, so they are effectively double-dipping. And that's how many things have worked ever so gradually over time to benefit business while screwing over middle-and-lower-class Americans. So send a big thank you card to the lobbyists for that. And it doesn't matter if you put a D or an R in front of the actions since most of the mega-corporate donors actually donate large sums to both parties. The transparency I had in working for one of those corporations showed exactly how much was being donated to each to 'cover the bases'. So here is a side question to this: Given all of the soft money campaign contributions, PAC donations, and lobbying money, does it make sense to be anti-Trump/Musk/DOGE (especially since Pelosi, Schumer, Biden and Obama were all once for gutting wasteful spending -- source: just check out the various videos of this from 1996 to 2012 on Youtube and C-SPAN), or are they (in the guise of USAID) just a symptom of a much deeper issue? Asking for a friend. 😉

"There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli What would be more interesting to understand is the demographic detail behind the numbers from each context. For instance: The Texas cases: Are they the result of transitory-migration from other countries across the international border? Is it direct cases, or cases from contact with others who are not immunized? Or is it due to people making the choice to not Vax? What ethnicities are most impacted? Same questions apply to 'Europe', but Europe itself isn't homogenous as there, too, are countries that have experienced transitory-migration (refugees), or perhaps countries that do not have comprehensive and universal vaccination programs (former Eastern Bloc, for instance). Exactly this. The more easily-consumed media will only give coverage to the whims of its masters. 96% of journalists also happen to "identify as" Democrat, Independent or Other; only 3.4% identify as Republican (source: 2022 American Journalist Study). At NPR, there are 87 journalists, all of whom are registered Democrats (Source: Recent Senate hearings). Can we infer that they'll give short shrift to the much more alarming Measles problem in Europe to instead focus on an angle of "Budget Cuts at HHS while Measles Cases Reach New Highs"? Or will the data bear out that the bulk of cases are in Romania as @fuckholedc has cited? I don't know that you'll see that distillation from the media in the form of a two minute news story because it's not titillating.

"I'm usually not on here, let's talk on (insert alternate social media or messaging app here)..." If you get that within the first 5 very esoteric messages, they're scamming. The best ones are those I'd let sit for a few days, note how frequently they're online, then you can respond with "Really!? Because you're on this every time I am", and watch them try to deny it. Telegram seems to be popular as well with them, and Google Hangouts seems used ONLY by scammers.

These were once called "Nigerian 419" scams as well. At one time, you could excerpt a section of the text and throw it into a search engine to see if the result was 'recycled', and you could generally find the result on scammer exposing websites. I should post my 1997 Catfish story sometime for the entertainment value of it. Anytime I see a profile that is searching for "love, soulmate, my forever partner", it sends up more red flags than a Chinese Circus and I simply block it. But throw any of the text into a search engine, and if it's repeated elsewhere, it's probably a scam. Yes. Though I thought it occurred more in a 'hetero' setting than in a gay setting, but I guess it shouldn't be too surprising. There are a few documentaries out that expose these, one I saw recently was on "Richard Scott Smith" (you can look him up), think the series was called "Love Fraud". They prey on people who are lonely and lacking interaction, and surprisingly people fall for it. I was going to say this, beat me to the finish. I've found that a lot of the ones who want pics are specific about wanting dick pics pretty quickly, which is also a red flag. So depending what they ask for, this is what they'll get from me: Dick - either 'Cheney' or 'Nixon'. Maybe 'Van Dyke'. Cock - usually a picture of a rooster. Not sending them a pic of my junk unless they're more clear. Junk - usually ends up being a picture of a certain Chinese-style boat in Hong Kong harbor, or a pic of the hauling service "1-800-GOT-JUNK". If they can't see the humor in those, they're not worth fucking anyway. 🤣

I'd argue against this because the average American doesn't view things as "Crisis Cult". Most of us want to go to work, come home to families, make a decent wage and just want peace, law & order. What we had before this back into late 2020 were "mostly peaceful protests" (which involved burning and looting and lawlessness); the FBI treating parents concerned about their kids as domestic terrorists when they complain about young girls being assaulted in a girls bathroom; being more concerned about the fate of criminals entering the US rather than the victims of crime who were citizens; and, just too many other things that were 'a bridge too far' for quite a few people. I partially agree with this, since Americans want their elected officials to work in the interests of the country. And few of them do. I'm not far-right or far-left but somewhere in the center. That describes most people in the US outside of the major cities. My district voted very overwhelmingly for Trump because for good, bad or indifferent, he could articulate positions that resonated with Americans. Democrats? Well, they shoved Harris at us and struggled to articulate a vision. At least one that wasn't "hate Trump". I could ask the question of what they support and their overall popularity rate but we all know how that is. Hell, Democrats are admitting that their messaging is awful, but they seem to be offering more of the same thing that didn't work. So I don't know if everyone saw the outcomes published on these "major crowds", but quite a few bloggers pointed out some oddities. One, they were all reading from the same script. Literally, Written down word-for-word talking points. Second, many of them are paid protestors and they've been to a variety of these protests for various reasons. Same people, different city every day. Do they actually know or believe in what they're protesting, or are they protesting as long as the cash is flowing? Third, when you ask many of them what they're protesting, a lot are just angry but can't explain the anger or articulate it well. I watched the protestors by my local Tesla dealer. A couple anti-Musk or anti-Tesla signs, and then a lot of other signs. I was really waiting for someone to hold up "Pay toilets are fascist" because it lacked a cohesive message. Gonna protest? Super. Just make sure people come away with a resonant message while they drive by at 55 mph. Some good points though. Have you seen the Bill Maher monologue on dinner with Trump? Surprising and Maher is a liberal. By the way, I'll stop here. Be well.

The first line I can't claim credit for: Lookup "Craig shoemaker Lovemaster", it's hilarious. But yeah I get the multiple definitions for it. Q: What's the difference between a porcupine and a BMW? A: The pricks are on the outside of the porcupine.

Sure thing. Americans are largely likable. Maybe some of them are loud, but that's how you can identify them abroad. 🤣 Besides, most of them don't have passports anyway because our country is so damn big there's not a huge need to travel beyond it. 😃 And some of us like Piers Morgan, though I'm still on the fence.

Because, well, we ARE warm wonderful people for the most part. 😃 This is why I don't often wade into this sub-forum, but I wanted to give y'all some perspective, because most people can and do want to have civil dialogue and not have political division. Consider that the majority of voting Americans had reasons to vote for a change as they weren't aligned with the Biden administration's direction. For 4 years, a lot of us were gaslighted about 'what was right' and 'what was wrong', told we were 'racist' for not buying into the narratives we were being fed by the media. The media out and out lied about the mental state of Biden, which has now come out in various books written by people who have worked with him directly, and people saw it fall to pieces during the Presidential debate. Simply, the emperor had no clothes and there wasn't anything to hide or explain away. And parents at school board meetings who are concerned about their kids did not deserve to be branded as 'domestic terrorists'. We were also told there was nothing that could be done about our border security. We now realize that was wrong since we can look at the state of the border since January and see that got-aways are down by over 90%. Now that we have a policy about the treatment of TdA and MS-13, we see one party rallying to the defense of a single individual who was ruled as deportable. Twice. And a certain senator is quick to want to fly down there and return a gang leader to Maryland, but was noticeably silent on the murders committed in his state by MS-13. Now I'm an 'independent' voter, more aligned to issues and probably closer to libertarian in beliefs, and I've been finding that many of my friends who were on the fence are not leaning into the Democratic Party here because they've lost the plot on what they stand for. Other than hating Trump but offering few, if any, solutions. Their words. We could go on but I'll stop there. I also have quite a few friends in the UK -- former colleagues, friends, the like. A couple of them are like you and struggling to understand what is happening. I don't blame them. One of them is a good friend but we'll never see eye to eye, and that's ok. A few others I've had here as guests and took them to the shooting range. They were open-minded but not very pro-gun. I'm a gun owner a few times over. Once they got the hang of it, they had a good time and a very different outlook. Being American and living in Florida is a much different experience than British living in the midlands or London. They understand it more, I won't say we always agree. There are a few things to keep in mind about most Americans: The media stopped being about facts long ago, so very few are trustworthy and all are focused on spin. Americans DO want a closer relationship with our allies. We don't want to alienate them, but we don't always see things the same way. We're not racists. Or fascists. That's just people spewing the term without an argument behind it in most cases. If you can cite an example in this administration, I can probably cite a few in the prior one, but it's just not worth the vitriol that comes from most arguments. Most Americans -- as shown through DOGE's discoveries -- are tired of the lack of financial transparency in our government. There's a whole discussion in that, but we're spending beyond our means for really stupid shit that doesn't benefit us (though it's likely making politicians like Stacey Abrams rich). And most Americans are tired of seeing our country give itself away and letting our jobs flee to places like China or India or Mexico where it diminishes our living standard. So some things need to change. But please don't mistake people that voted for Trump as being symbolic of the average American -- they aren't -- and try not to judge the chess game right now on each individual move. There's a longer game playing out here and it remains to be seen if it'll be successful. In some ways, it has been. It's a massive shift from the past 4 years of us not really knowing who controlled the auto-pen or who actually was leading us, and people are probably not very comfortable with the rapid change of pace. I just wanted to weigh in on your post only, I'm not responding to ad hominem attacks if we disagree. Just because we might not agree on every single issue doesn't mean we can't be civil or either of us can't be allies. Hope this provides some perspective. Peace, mate.

Oooh, is that swollen? I've got some penis-cilllin that'll clear that right up. Don't worry, it'll only be a prick. 🤣 (ahem) I haven't heard prick used for anything other than what's on the outside of a porcupine or the inside of a BMW.

If I hear "geezer", I automatically think that there's a Brit on the other side of that post since it's commonplace for them to use it. Folks in the US tend to put 'old' before it, but I've never heard of a young geezer. In a lot of places in Asia, "cock" means a male chicken (a.k.a. rooster). Probably the same in a lot of Latin countries where "cock fighting" is a thing (male chickens who battle each other with a razor sharp scythe attached to one leg), the loser is dinner. And cock flavored soup does not taste like semen (usually). 🤣 A Filipino friend of mine got a cock for me that he said he'd keep there to put it in fights, where it's legal and people bet on them. It grew nicely and he messaged me to say that "(I) had a handsome cock". I wish he knew what that might mean in the West. 🤣😂

There are those, including medical professionals, who believe Metformin is a fairly solid and benign drug for treating Type-2 diabetes, or for those who are on the cusp. Now my disclaimer is that I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. Last year, my A1C level tested slightly above range, so my ex-doctor (there's a reason why he's "ex", we're getting to that) put me on the lower dosage to see the effects. Of course my glucose readings came dead back into a decent range, but I could enumerate the list of possible side effects and I certainly had most of them. Advised my GP of the outcome and we agreed to chuck the remainder immediately. I also chucked him and went back to my former doctor who subsequently asked "why in Hell did he put you on Metformin?" (Because my former-now-current doctor wasn't taking my health plan, so I got the few who would take my sketchy coverage until I could change it). Moral of this story: Nothing is 100% 'benign'. Your mileage may vary. And be sure to check contraindications for any drug you're taking.

Somehow, I've always looked at Zebras as just being a horse with prison stripes. 🤣

You make really good points, but here is where I part with your premise. When I say 'emotional', I mean argumentation that is not based on purely factual reasoning. These are the "2 + 2 = 4's" of the world, things that we've proven with evidence. Like we know that base water is composed of 2 hydrogen molecules and 1 Oxygen molecule. Fairly standard information that we've come to know as factual. On your corporate culture points, I know it well since I've lived a life in IT project management. I could breakdown the cost-benefits and ROI or NPVs of a project only to get pushback from other executives who had personal agendas ('your project might be the best thing for the organization, but it will mean that my group will be marginalized and put at risk for losing my budget or their jobs, so I'll block you for various reasons, none of which have any basis in fact'.). I've seen it far too many times to mention to the point that I might get angered about something, but rarely get emotional or take it personally. I agree that emotions can run amok over rational, logical, and factual decision-making. The element you might be referring to could be the "gut instinct", which actually has a lot to do with our anatomy and our gut affecting our health. "Trust your gut" does have some relevance. It may be a sign of high EQ or emotional intelligence to have an ability (innate or learned) to compartmentalize the emotional elements of an action or situation against intellect or fact. None of us want to hear law enforcement making a decision to prosecute us based on 'just a feeling that he/she committed a crime' versus the actual evidence that leads to the conclusion. I'll let our friends from Britain opine on the famous stoicism or lack of emotional feeling or want to express any emotions. Just try to get them into therapy. 🤣🤣

But it doesn't need to be. Where it goes sideways is when people let emotions dictate rather than facts. People can generally debate facts but you cannot argue emotions or feelings. If you tell me, "I hate you, you suck", that doesn't help me as feedback because it isn't supportable in an argument based on facts.

I do moderation on another site (more locally oriented, not specific to LGBTQ+ topics) and there is a clear set of guidelines that all members are advised to follow in keeping with the site's purpose. It can be easily summarized as this: It's ok to disagree without being disagreeable. I think some folks tend to forget that. I remind people on this other very local site that the person they may be vitriolic toward could live right next door. Something to consider that there is a real human being behind the words. In diplomacy, it's not so much what you say but how it's said. There are persuasive ways to make an argument, then there are those that make the poster feel like they've been continually whacked over the head with a baseball bat. I know I'm perhaps the outnumbered minority here, but I believe firmly that both sides should have a voice without being shouted down. That's why I've avoided some of the topics here because there are those on the other side of the discussion that have made BZ less than welcoming to others. This. And I've avoided some folks -- and some topic areas -- since they've demonstrated lack of tolerance to any point of view that isn't in total agreement with theirs. I stopped using the red arrow and now just avoid them as being vexations to the soul. I think if there were greater acceptance of differences in views we'd all be a lot better off. And so would BZ. Be happy, life's too short. I wonder how many people voted with their feet and just walked away as I did years ago. Yes, I'm back but wiser now for who and what to now avoid.

85. Somehow, this feels like the gay purity test and I haven't done most of the craziest things on this list. Meaning I've led a more sheltered existence than most others. Need to live a little. My score would be a lot lower if you took the items out that only apply to guys.

Kinda like saying there's been more men in you than half-price wing night at a Hooters? 🤣🤣

Simply put, it's consent. Now that may involve CNC or a bit of coercion, but that's still consent because I talked you into it and you agreed. If you say "anything you want" however, you'd be leaving that open and some people might take that as "Well, you did say anything."

Such a shame to waste that Poz load though.

@ChainedBoy seems surprised by this, and I wonder why? The church has done very little to acknowledge and combat the issue, and I knew situations where the practice was to move the abusive priest to another parish, or further yet, another diocese. I knew one personally that abused a minor, was arrested, copped a plea deal and was sent to a 'rehabilitation facility' in Canada for a year, only to return to a different Archdiocese in an adjacent state to go on to diddle other kids. Once things go sideways with these guys, they reassign the problem elsewhere far enough from the prior parish hoping that it'll go better elsewhere. Now during that time, this priest taught religious education and there was a lot of side comments on how much he 'liked younger boys', something you would think the school would have realized and not put temptation right in front of him for 6 periods a day with freshman and sophomore students. [think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2005_09_21_Philly_GrandJury/Philly_05_08_Connor.pdf Eventually he was finally defrocked. During the 90's, I attended a party with friends who invited a couple of seminarians, and they very clearly gay and also spoke in hushed tones about how much fun they could have once assigned a parish. You could see where that might end up. And with so few inclined to be celibate and join the priesthood, the church will take anyone they can get and probably continue to pay the price and settle damage claims from pedophile priests for the foreseeable future. I personally don't care if a priest is gay, but the hypocrisy over acceptance of gays (which they've tacitly done) while basically condoning molestation can be infuriating. Can we talk about Scout Leaders next? 🤣