Boss: I’d rather employ a paedo than a veteran

[grumbler]

I'm not saying that they are liars, they're just the kinds of people to pick up a slogan without thinking through what it means, and thus come away with a highly inconsistent ideology.

Nope. I am an expert in this because I signed up once for a web discussion board on this topic, and so say not only that you are wrong, but that your statement is a sad indictment of how poorly trained accountants are in how humans think.

[Ed Anger]

DG is infamously a Nascar fan.

I bet he likes the Busch brothers. 

[grumbler]

I am always amazed at the people visitors to the states manage to run into.

And how they can come to such firm conclusions about Americans after a coupla weeks.  I lived in the UK for more than two years and formed no such firm conclusions about Brits.

[Berkut]

I am always amazed at the people visitors to the states manage to run into.

And how they can come to such firm conclusions about Americans after a coupla weeks.  I lived in the UK for more than two years and formed no such firm conclusions about Brits.

You are exceptionally slow - I found out everything there is to know about the UK, all parts of it in fact, in the 10 days I spent in London.

All Brits have bad teeth, and drink tea. And they say "Wot, wot?" all the time. They riot during soccer games a lot, and repress the Irish.

I saw this while I was there, so I know it is true.

[Grey Fox]

DG is infamously a Nascar fan.

I bet he likes the Busch brothers. 

You can do it Mark Martin!

I still find it funny that Jeff Gordon owns a car but doesn't drive it but instead drives Rick Hendrick's car.

[Ed Anger]

I am always amazed at the people visitors to the states manage to run into.

And how they can come to such firm conclusions about Americans after a coupla weeks.  I lived in the UK for more than two years and formed no such firm conclusions about Brits.

You are exceptionally slow - I found out everything there is to know about the UK, all parts of it in fact, in the 10 days I spent in London.

All Brits have bad teeth, and drink tea. And they say "Wot, wot?" all the time. They riot during soccer games a lot, and repress the Irish.

I saw this while I was there, so I know it is true.

Plus the people are surly, fat and not that clean.

[DGuller]

DG is infamously a Nascar fan.

Not just a NASCAR fan, but a fan of many kinds of auto racing.  The reason I went to NASCAR races is because they're by far the easiest to attend.  It's kind of hard to get a seat at Grand Prix of Monaco for me.

[DGuller]

DG is infamously a Nascar fan.

I bet he likes the Busch brothers. 

Nope, Montoya fan.  Followed him since his CART/Indy days.

[Barrister]

I concede that NY, after 9/11, may be a special case.

Ya think?

[Grey Fox]

DG is infamously a Nascar fan.

Not just a NASCAR fan, but a fan of many kinds of auto racing.  The reason I went to NASCAR races is because they're by far the easiest to attend.  It's kind of hard to get a seat at Grand Prix of Monaco for me.

Come to the Grand Prix of Montreal then!

[The Larch]

I concede that NY, after 9/11, may be a special case.

Ya think?

Bit of an understatement, I know. 

[DGuller]

Come to the Grand Prix of Montreal then!

I actually might one day, especially if I can get a seat in the wall of champions section, although F1 races have a reputation for having grossly over-priced tickets.

[Grey Fox]

~225$ canuck for the 3 days. For now that's ~225$ US, in 2 weeks ~230$ US.

[DGuller]

~225$ canuck for the 3 days. For now that's ~225$ US, in 2 weeks ~230$ US.

That's not so bad.  Can you just ask your fellow Quebecans to not have a transit strike on the Grand Prix weekend, like they usually do?

[The Larch]

It goes way beyond deserved appreciation, IMO, it's borderline worshiping them.

Maybe you were not visiting the country I live in when you encountered this.  Or it could be you were just hanging around with police groupies, who probably do borderline-worship police, but are considered weird by the rest of the population.

Let me tell you an anecdote, please bear with me.

When I was in Philly, Capetan Mihali (great host btw  ) took me to one of the two most famous cheesteak joints in town, called Pat's, located in South Philly. In front of Pat's there was its main competitor, called Geno's, world famous for their policy of only accepting orders in English. When there's a presidential campaign, candidates for each party will go to these joint and do a photo-op there trying to gain street cred in a "here I am rubbing shoulders with the salt of the earth" kind of gig. Both places have tons of pictures of celebrities eating there. Bottom line, these are not some hole in the wall dumpsters, they're actually very popular establishments.

So, after having our cheesteak (at Pat's), Capetan took me to Geno's and we walked around it just admiring the views. All around it, there were several things that really stroke me as odd, bizarre, or downright creepy. There were, besides the "English only" posters, other posters stating that servicemen, both active and retired, could always eat for free there, posters stating things like "You, foreigner, if you can speak English, you have to thank the Marines!" (I personally prefer to thank Miss Judith, my teacher when I was a kid), posters honoring the memory of officer Daniel Faulkner (The Philly policemen shot dead by Mumia Abu Jamal), a hollywood style walk of fame honoring fallen Philly policemen (quite gaudy IMO), and placards with police, firemen and emergency services badges and pictures from around the USA and some from abroad. Amongst these badges and souvenirs there were a few letters from county sheriffs congratulating the establishment, with one of them, from North Carolina's Mecklenburg county sheriff that was pretty fucking scary.

Pictures below (not mine, I googled them):







What do you make of this? Obviously for the owner, it's a sign of respect, appreciation and gratitude. For an observer like me, with a different mindset, worldview or however you may want to call it, it was really really strange thing, bordering as I said before in some kind of weird authority worship. Note that I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, although some parts of it were, as I said, scary and creepy from my POV, only that for an outsider like me it felt like something uncommon and absolutely unheard of.