Strider_Sphinx

Another good one… Remembering who we are (imperfect mortals), and what we’re owed (nothing), can only lead to gratitude for each small gift—be it a breath of air or a ray of sunshine (or divine revelation, intervention, and forgiveness).

@therealDeFlock I’d throw a litigious fit and that camera would be gone.

@SphinxStrider Could you imagine walking out to your mailbox and a shadow is cast upon you by a Flock camera solar panel?

We're out looking, too! Show us photos of your finds. We are looking for strange, unique and odd placements that makes you go "Wtf?" Post them here! #Flock #deflock #Surveillance #ALPR #AI

@hhhtteeee @therealDeFlock Maybe take the money spent on Flock cameras and use it to imprison for life the thugs on the street with 10-40 prior arrests. That’ll clean up a law enforcement jurisdiction

@SphinxStrider @therealDeFlock 99 percent chance that is at the edge of some law enforcement jurisdiction and they are looking trying to help investigations to see when suspects came and left.

@SoveyX Got my first house at 28, in 2013. Fixer upper. Remodeled the whole thing while living in it. 1300ft^2. Put down 8% and paid mortgage insurance until it was 20% paid off. Sold it for a small profit which gave me enough to put 20% down on a cheaper house and lower my payment.

“Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” – The Boxer Boomers say: kids today are lazy, entitled, glued to a screen, allergic to sacrifice. The 30-year-old says: you bought a house and a car for the price of my down payment, then pulled the ladder up behind you. So who is right? Neither. And there is one number that ends the argument. THE NUMBER In 1992, the median first-time homebuyer in America was 28. NAR's latest survey puts that number at 40. The oldest ever recorded. Twelve years added to the wait, in a single generation. That is not a personality flaw. You cannot budget your way out of twelve years. The starter home did not get harder to earn. It quietly stopped existing. THE WRONG VILLAIN Ask anyone under 40 who took the house and you get one answer: BlackRock. Wall Street. The funds. Here is the number nobody screenshots: - Big institutional investors own less than 1 percent of America's single-family homes - They own roughly 3 percent of single-family rentals - The viral "Wall Street owns 20 percent" claim was made up BlackRock is a decoy. You were handed a villain so you would stop asking the harder question. And the harder question is not who is buying the houses. It is why there are not enough houses to buy. THE REAL COMPETITION The instinct is not crazy. You are bidding against investors. Just not the ones on TV. - All investors combined bought about a third of single-family homes last quarter, the highest in five years - Almost none of that is Wall Street giants - It is small landlords. The guy with eight rentals. An LLC you have never heard of, paying cash, on your street Ten thousand small buyers beat you to the house while everyone stared at one big name. WHY THEY EVEN BOTHER Here is the part that ends the generation war. Investors are not the disease. They are the symptom. They poured into houses starting in 2011 because a home became a guaranteed bet. And it became a guaranteed bet because for thirty years, nobody was allowed to build. - Zoning boards - Review processes - Permit queues measured in years This is not a hot take. Economists on the left and the right agree America is short millions of homes. Their only real argument is whether it is four million or seven. Every project blocked added to the equity of people who already owned, and subtracted from the down payment of everyone who did not. Then Washington decided the fix for expensive homes was cheaper debt. Subsidize demand. Strangle supply. Act shocked when prices double. THE VERDICT This is not a story about a greedy generation. It is a story about a system that worked, then quietly got taken apart. Boomers were not more responsible. They were handed a country that still built houses. The ladder got sawed off after them, not by them. Both sides are angry at each other. Neither one wrote the zoning code. The American dream did not die. It got zoned out of existence, and turned into a rental agreement. How old were you when you got your first key or are you still waiting?

@ChivalryGuild “Social capital” is a byproduct of a homogeneous society that shares beliefs—such as there is a God and we must strive to meet His moral standards. Take away the roots (common language, culture, and shared belief in moral and legal accountability) and you lose the flower.

"My argument is that previous generations received an enormous stock of social capital: trusted neighbors, functional public schools, a productive courtship culture, predictable career arcs, and a public square in which children could roam and adults could be relied upon. That stock, once given for free, has now been substantially liquidated. Instead, the young must now buy back, item by item and at retail prices, what their grandparents received as a bounty of prior civilizational investments."

@mattvanswol @howertonjosh Check this guy out serving at 92! Love to see it.

A 92-year-old North Carolina man got so bored 2 months into retirement that he applied to work at Chick-fil-A... ...his smile, kindness, and passion for Jesus became so contagious that when he got sick and missed 3 days of work, an ENTIRE TOWN began asking where he was. His name is Gilbert Martin. Everybody calls him "Mr. Gil." Mr. Gil is 92 years old, and works at the Chick-fil-A on Oleander Drive in Wilmington, NC. He spent decades working in the natural gas industry and when he retired, he greeted people at Sam's Club for 12 MORE years, until they eliminated his position. Most people would call that a sign to finally rest, but not Mr. Gil! Two months into retirement, he got bored... so he walked into Chick-fil-A and put in an application. He was 86 years old at the time. He's been there ever since. Not one or two shifts a week either. Monday through Friday. He says the full schedule gives him more chances to be there for people who need him. His official job is dining host. Clean tables. Clean floors. But Mr Gil doesn't see it that way... as he describes it, his real job is: "I get a lot of people that are coming in, just been to the doctor, and got bad news... I'm able to be an encourager; the Lord gave me that." A 92-year-old man who could be resting at home... chooses to stand in a dining room five days a week... so strangers on the worst day of their lives don't have to be alone. And Wilmington noticed. When Mr. Gil caught a cold and missed a couple of days, the owner said he was FLOODED with HUNDREDS of customers who were panicked about him. Mr. Gil has zero plans to retire. He says if you ever see him working, come say hi. "I don't know what 92 is supposed to feel like, but I feel great. Serving others has always brought me joy because I believe that a smile and a kind word can make someone's day a little brighter.” We need more of this in the world!!!!

@JohannKurtz “Social capital” is a byproduct of a homogeneous society that shares beliefs—such as there is a God and we must strive to meet His moral standards. Take away the roots (common language, culture, and shared belief in moral and legal accountability) and you lose the flower.

@kateesackhoff Beautiful area and family!

It was a week of new experiences for our family. We rented a sprinter van (trying to decide if we are those people before we buy anything 🤣) and drove up to Canada 🇨🇦 We learned a lot and had a blast! We also went hiking with my BIL and SIL up Jumbo Pass which was amazing!! Albeit I was scared of bears the entire time! Thankfully we took Bex the bear dog with us. She was so attentive it was amazing! Here’s to the next adventure! #Roam

@safewordsorg Prayed for you. May the Lord reach out and give you His peace.

I can hear the church bells ringing in my village, it’s so precious. ⛪️

@braxton_mccoy I did just get a 48v go-cart for the kids with a 1000w motor and that thing is AWESOME. Loved the electric motorcycles I’ve test driven too, although I currently only own gas bikes (electrics WAY too expensive for a toy with 150 mile range).

@braxton_mccoy I’m on year 10 or so with DeWalt 60v weedeater. It’s a beast and one 12ah battery will usually do my 1.5 acres, including perimeter fence and edging the drive. 750cc v-twin zero turn gas mower though. Haven’t tried an electric that can match its power yet.

All the bros will have electric mowers before the end times come.

@Relic10011 @DesireeAmerica4 @UPS I agree that he could have handled the interaction with the owner much better. I have been in these situations with dogs and owners many times and each time I learn how to better handle and de-escalate the situation. I hope this guy learns to do better and keeps his job.

@SphinxStrider @DesireeAmerica4 @UPS I’m fine with defending himself with the box against the dog but he actively prepared, squandered up and an approached the homeowner. That’s not self defense.

@howertonjosh Disappointed Mississippi didn’t make the list. It’s terrible here. Wee Kant spell or reed and eryone is poore and racist. Don’t come here!

Texas (and former TN) resident here. This list is COMPLETELY accurate and TOTALLY true. In fact, the millions of people moving here from CA, NY, WA, and OR… a lot of people don’t know this, but their families and cities MADE THEM move here as punishments for past disobediences. ^COMPLETELY skews the perception of the data. List is TRUE. ;)

@6Busch9 @TheMartySr @mcgregorufc22 @TheNotoriousMMA Yeah I think you’re right. Sucks! Some are speculating he hurt it in warm ups and was trying to shake it off when taking off shoes. What a bummer for him and the fans.

@TheMartySr @SphinxStrider @mcgregorufc22 @TheNotoriousMMA He was definitely injured walking to the ring. Reason he threw that kick first. He wanted it to be over quickly as possible.

He's arrived. #UFC329

@martianwyrdlord @TAmTrib Nice re-use of the Hobbes quote. 😂. Made me chuckle.

You can actually watch white xenophilia disappearing in real time. We were once the most curious people on the planet. Direct contact via mass immigration and indirect contact via the Internet has ripped off the veil of mysterious exoticism. Now we just see foreigners as nasty, brutish, and short. Arabia, India, China, wherever, it's just the Global Shithole from whence the bioslurry is disgorged. Knowledge of other countries is no longer a rare and hard-won treasure, but a burden imposed by the necessity of navigating life in the noisy hellhole of the multicultural post-west. Similar story with travel. Being well travelled was once a mark of distinction, indicating either wealth or an adventurous spirit. Now every foid with a fake email job goes traveling three times a year to "find herself" in Spain or Bali or wherever. Oceans that once carried intrepid explorers now schlep around boomers Spending Kid's Inheritance on package tours. "Travel" is mostly just a consumer lifestyle product now.

@wayofftheres (Then buy a 6.5 CM B14 HMR. 🤣. Way easier than .308!)

@wayofftheres Can be done with a deer rifle. $700 Ruger Hawkeye .308 (16” barrel with $900 Vortex, Harris bipod, and a $50 spotting scope). Find an ammo that shoots an inch at 100 yards and then walk it to 800 yards with a spotter. You’ll learn a lot in a day or two. Shoot what you have.

You want to be good at long range? You buy a B-14 R, a case of Lapua or SK 22lR, a Tract Scope, and a kestrel. Fuck it, chair gun will start you ( app) . And obviously a Harris bipod. Centerfire to match? Tikka T1X, or a Ruger RPR if you are broke. Call me after your barrel is shot out, you are ready to spend more money. But not until.

@LeifBabin @Freedom250 Amen, sir.

Happy birthday, America. 250 years of freedom and opportunity. May we long remain as the beacon of freedom and hope in the world through God’s great providence.

Happy Independence Day and thank God for 250 years! Let’s all entreat Him on behalf of our country and leaders, present and future, that He may bless this city on a hill with another 250 years!