Free Republic

“Impactful”

Arrgghhh! “Impactful” makes my teeth hurt! So does using "impact" as a verb instead of "affect", like "How will this impact the bottom line?" Just stop!

"Issue" was mentioned previously. It's a weasel word because "problem" has too much of an impact.

"Reach out" grates on my nerves, but you wanna know what I really hate? "Connect" instead of "meet". "We'll connect later" No- we're going to MEET later, Captain Buzzword!

Another I hate; you see this in e-mails: I am "looping you in." No thanks. I would rather you just "include" me.

If I were ever in a position of authority, I would issue an e-mail banning buzzwords, but it would probably be a big issue to people because it would be impactful to their fragile psyches and limited intellect. If they don't like it, they can reach out and connect with a mental health professional.

I have lived in and around Baltimore since 1965. The present "historic" governor, Wes Moore, is using the Md. governorship as a stepping stone to national office. He spends more time in the D.C. studios of CNN and MSLSD than he does Annapolis. The Baltimore County executive, Johnny O(lszewski), is a pinko's pinko with his PhD in "Public Policy". The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, is DEI on steriods. BTW - they're all democrats. We are screwed.

I agree with all posts on the rebuilding. There will be EPA studies, grift out the wazoo, and only "minority" contractors will be able to bid. As for the name, it will be the Freddie Gray Memorial Bridge. Gray was the criminal who, in 2015, was killed while in police custody. This sparked riots which led to the prosecution of six police officers (all acquitted) by the now disgraced DEI hire Marilyn Mosby.

I am 62 and I will be very surprised if this bridge is rebuilt in my life.

As of the time of my writing this, the FBI has already concluded it was not terrorism. I don't know about you, but I feel so much better. /sarcasm

As I was reading this, I was thinking to myself "This has to be Montgomery County." I see my suspicions were confirmed.

Hey, Bone-o: shut up and sing! On second thought, just shut up!

I have seen "The Forbin Project" a number of times and would still watch it again.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I was always captivated and unnerved by the "voice" of Colussus.

In their mind Bezos (management) should not worry about the bottom line, “the cause” is all that matters and permanent employment.

I don't know if you're being facetious, but having worked at a major metropolitan newspaper - up I-95 from the Compost - I can tell you with certainty that is what many "journalists" believe. These ignoramuses truly believe that mundane things like business expenses have to be subordinated to their "craft" and, as you mentioned, keeping their "lifetime" job.

These losers should embrace the suck and learn to code.

I have been there, my friend.

I am going to reiterate some of the advice given by our fellow Freepers and what my experience was.

You cannot do this by yourself. How do I know? I thought I could, too, until someone told me "If you could do it, you would have." It is hard to ask for help, and it is humbling for those of us who are fiercely independent, but there is no shame in it. You will find there are many people who felt the same way you do, and it was only after they humbled themselves and asked for help did they start the recovery process.

If you can go to inpatient rehab, do it. I tried two three-day detoxes - referred to as "spin-drys" - where they give you benzos to help with the withdrawal, but unless you're really serious about quitting - by setting up a post-rehab plan to attend AA meetings and change your lifestyle and habits, you will almost surely relapse. It wasn't until I spent two weeks at inpatient treatment that I finally sobered up.

Find an AA meeting - or several - and attend as often as possible. My post-rehab plan had me attend 90 meetings in 90 days. AA is like any gathering of human beings - there's an a**hole in every group - but because these folks have been where you are, you will find it to be a very welcoming atmosphere.

Step One of AA's Twelve Steps tells us "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable." That's tough to admit: I am powerless? Yes - you are. You will hear a lot about "surrender." To me, "surrender" had an ugly connotation; it meant that I gave up. But I was told that when you surrender in the context of achieving sobriety, it just means you no longer have to fight.

Step Two tells us "We came to be aware that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." This leads to "letting go". You will hear "Let Go, Let God". This puts off those who are non-religious, but if you don't believe in God, believe in a higher power. The point is you have to let go.

If your entire social life revolves around hanging out at a bar or hanging with people with whom the only thing you have in common is drinking, you are going to have to find something else to replace it. I used to spend my entire weekend at a bar. When I sobered up, I would still go out occasionally to sing karaoke, but I found it was no fun to hang out with a bunch of drunk people. To fill the time, I took up woodworking. In the dozen or so years I have been sober, I have built furniture, display cases for veteran's burial flags, and even two electric guitars. There is a life after addiction. One thing I read at the inpatient facility said "Sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised." It's true.

If you haven't already, develop a relationship with God. Go to church, read the Bible, pray - whatever brings you closer to Him. Find like-minded people.

Don't drink. Period. Don't look at sobriety as "Oh no! I can't drink for the rest of my life!" Look at it as "I will not drink this minute." The minutes become hours, the hours become weeks, the weeks become months, and the months become years. Just don't pick up that first drink.

A counselor told us that the Twelve Steps of AA can be summed up in six words:

Trust God

Clean house

Help Others

With the help of God and AA, you can do this. I wish you Godspeed. I will praying for you.

On one of my many trips to Key West, I took a seaplane out to Fort Jefferson. During the 40 minute flight, we flew over two shipwrecks and an atoll. Once there, we were free to explore the place. I took the stairs to the roof and walked the entire perimeter. The view was magnificent. We were supplied with snorkeling gear, so I went snorkeling on the southwest side of island. There was another island - about 200 yards to the east - I believe it was called Bush Key - that was a bird sanctuary. There were thousands of birds and they made quite a racket!

Back then (2006) "woke" was not a thing and the rangers did talk about the fort's history as a Union prison- as well as some of its infamous residents from the Lincoln assassination.

Because my phone did not work - imagine that - I could not check this, but my understanding is that the Dry Tortugas Park is in the Central Time Zone.

I would like to go again, and the wife would like to go for the first time, but she ain't getting on a seaplane. There is a ferry, but it's three hours each way. I suppose there are worse ways to spend six hours...

If you get the opportunity, the trip is worthwhile. It's beautiful and, if you don't mind the squawking birds, very serene.

NOOSECAR was dead to me after the Bubba Wallace incident. With this in their future, they will only be more dead to me.

What I don't understand is how professional sports, like so many other institutions, believe they can appease the radical "progressive", "woke" mobs by acquiescing to their demands. Churchill said it best: "Appeasement is feeding a crocodile hoping it will eat you last. The radical left hates them - especially NASCAR with its patriotic and mostly God-fearing fan base - and seeks to destroy them along with every other vestige of American patriotism and traditional religious values. You cannot "coexist" with people who hate you and want to see you dead.

Someone commented the other day she’s a horse face. No kidding. Narrow and long, just like a horse. When she smiles the teeth prove it.

Horse faced bich.

My first thought when I saw her - horse face.

Reminds me of a joke: Alissa Heinerscheid walks into a bar. The bartender says "Hey! Why the long face?"

A few weeks ago, there was a story on FR about Nina Jankowicz and her whining on MSNBC. Someone posted “horse-faced women were going to be the ruin of America.” Then I look at this thread and see this woman - another horse face. She’s also a “Karen” who’s educated beyond her intelligence. I would tell her to make me a sandwich but I wouldn’t want to be in the same zip code with this beeotch. STFU already!

In 2020, I lived about a quarter mile from an elementary school. I live in Maryland, outside of Baltimore, and it being the leftist cesspool that it is, the teacher's unions had schools closed post haste at the first sign of a sniffle. There was no learning going on - unless you count "virtual" learning.

However, I would pass the school early in the afternoon and there was a masked gaggle of people dutifully handing out lunches to the waiting queue of "needy" parents in late-model cars who, by the looks of them, missed few meals themselves.

Mind you, I am not against helping people who are unable to help themselves, but it pi$$es me off when I see tax dollars going to people who are able to take care of themselves but don't. Where I live the 2020 median household income, pre-Bidenflation, was over $75K! Were there really that many people who need "taxpayer-funded" lunches for their kids? I guess people figure if someone else is going to foot the bill to feed their kids, they can use their money to but necessities like cigarettes, tattoos and liquor.

I am 60, and I am old enough to remember when parents - even the ones who were poor - had too much pride to take a handout and didn't want their kids to be stigmatized. Now, with the touchy-feely leftist scum running everything, they've removed that stigma. Wouldn't want to offend anyone now, would we? I guess those of us who work for a living and provide for our own families are just suckers.

...no one gets a carry permit in MD...

Believe it or not, Maryland is now effectively a shall-issue state. In the wake of the Bruen decision, Governor "Lockdown Larry" Hogan, in one of the few things he did right for freedom-loving Marylanders, nullified the "good and substantial" requirement for obtaining a Maryland wear-and-carry permit. My wife and I took a qualification course (pretty much mandatory for the hoi polloi and $400 a pop) and upon successful completion we submitted our paperwork. It took about 60 days but we both received our permits.

This is, of course, subject to the whims of the Marxist Maryland legislature. These freedom-hating, criminal loving SOBs, with the help of our new "historic" black governor, Øbama acolyte Wes Moore, will pull out all the stops to infringe on the rights of the law-abiding. I don't believe they can cancel permits that have already been issued, but they will do anything else they can to stick it to those who have permits.

The wife and I are getting out of the People's Republic of Marylandistan next year. Good riddance.

In August 2009, I checked myself into a local hospital for a three-day detox. Because of a painful and financially devastating divorce and the recent death of my brother (due to an overdose and long-term substance abuse), I had been self-medicating and was drinking a 30 pack of beer each day. While I was detoxing at the hospital - and this further bolsters my belief that God has always been there for me, even in my darkest hours - I had severe abdominal pain that turned out to be acute pancreatitis. I was transferred from detox to med/surg and spent seven days recuperating. The doc in detox told me point blank that if I continued drinking, I was going to die - soon.

You would think this would have been a wakeup call for me - but no. I sobered up for about two weeks but went back to drinking heavily. I finally sobered up for good in March 2010 but only after two additional stints in rehab.

The scary thing about alcohol addiction for me was that I knew what I was doing was killing me, but I could not stop. I wasn't even that concerned about developing pancreatitis again. It was insanity!

I am always willing to give sobriety advice to people who solicit it, but I will not proselytize. However, it is madness to give people something that enables them to continue to drink even after developing alcoholic pancreatitis. If your drinking causes alcoholic pancreatitis, that is, in the words of one of my many friends from AA, "a postcard from God," and you might want to put down the bottle. I just wish I had done it sooner.

My two cents.

I am a monthly donor and do not post much. It's usually because I am learning so much by reading the collective brilliance and wisdom of my fellow FReepers. I only post when I know that I can contribute to the conversation.

Having said that: I thought I was well-versed in music theory, and I did understand how Pythagoras linked mathematics and music, but I have never heard of this!

As a guitar player and luthier, I see the relationship between the ratios in frequencies and their corresponding position on the fret board. As anyone who plays the guitar would know, twelve frets is twelve semitones which is an octave. The ratio in frequencies between octaves is 1:2; interestingly enough, the twelfth fret is halfway between the nut and bridge. The fretted note at the twelfth fret should sound the same as the harmonic - one octave above the open string; that's how a guitar's intonation is checked.

In 1978 I took music theory as an elective in high school. My teacher was brilliant - played the piano, was a clarinetist in the musician's union who would accompany touring musicians, and spent his retirement building violins. He took a small group of us and taught us to tune pianos. Mind you, in those days, it was done completely by ear, so you had to be able to hear what he heard. You could have used a Conn Strobotuner, but no serious piano tuner would have ever considered using one - it was sacrilegious! We would tune middle C with a tuning fork using sympathetic vibrations. Then, we would tune the A-flat below middle C by playing the middle C, letting it ring, and then play the A-flat and listening for the C harmonic two octaves above middle C - it was in tune when you could hear eight beats a second. Using equal temperament, we tuned the octave between middle C and the C# below it, then we would tune the octaves - as we went up the keyboard, the octaves were slightly sharp, and as went down, the octaves were slightly flat. It's been over forty years and I only did it once, so some of you might know better than I, but it was an experience!

In the People's Republic of Maryland, where I live, the pinkos in the General Assembly pushed through a microstamping law when Owe'Malley was governor. It was used to solve exactly ZERO crimes and was eventually repealed.

Hochul should look to the futility of Maryland's law as a guide, but being the hosebag tyrant she is, she will not let a crisis go to waste.

Don't even get me started about "red flag" laws. It's a middle finger to the 5th Amendment's due process clause, but what do you expect from "progressives".

I am beyond trying to coexist with these people.

I have been there, friend. The bottle "kept getting me" too. I have managed to string together 12 years of staying sober one day at a time.

There's many great recommendations in this thread. AA does work. I was initially resistant because I thought I did not need anyone else's help to quit, but if that were true, I would have already quit. I was then that I had my epiphany, after many abortive attempts to quit drinking, that I was truly powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable. AA is wonderful because of the support you get from your fellow members, but ultimately, if you put your trust and care into God's hands, you can prevail.

You may hear the term "surrender". At first, it was off-putting to me because I thought it meant you gave up. I wasn't until someone explained that surrender is not giving up, it means you no longer have to fight. Surrender your fight and put it in God's hands.

My life has been so much better since I quit drinking. I taught myself to build guitars from scratch and built two. I earned a college degree at the age of 59. I got re-married to a woman who is my best friend. Your life will improve, too. You can do it. Get to an AA meeting ASAP.

Good luck and Godspeed to you.

This hag is my delegate in the House of Delegates of the Maryland General Asylum. Just when I think my hatred of living in the "Free State" of Maryland has reached rock bottom, along comes another leftist moron in Annapolis who further plumbs the depths of that hatred.

Ruth did not respond to a request for comment.

Of course she didn't.

Not sure where in the district she lives, but this bee-otch deserves a "tent city" on the public land nearest her house. I'm sure her neighbors would love that. "Progressives", like her, think this is a great idea - as long as it happens somewhere else.

I live in Maryland. I can attest that Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore are, for the most part, conservative. Unfortunately, most of the population of Maryland is in the reliably statist counties of Montgomery and Prince Georges - which both border D.C. - and Baltimordor City. In live in Baltimore County, just outside the Baltimore City limits, and the majority of people I see are still wearing masks while walking down the street or driving alone in their cars with the windows up. Virtue-signaling is all the rage; BLM and those wretched "In this house we believe" signs are everywhere. I am in the minority who dislikes Biden; my car has a "F**k Biden" sticker on it. Believe it or not, even in deep blue Baltimore County, I get many thumbs-up and people expressing their approval.

My wife and I are moving out of the Soviet republic of Marylandistan next year. It cannot happen soon enough.

Hoyer makes me sick.

As a resident of the People's Republic of Maryland, I heartily concur. Steny Whore is a loathsome and contemptible waste of protoplasm and is a poster boy for term limits. This S.O.B has been in the congress for 40 friggin' years! Every time I see his face I want use it for a pinata!

Maryland might as well be a Soviet state. All people who desire freedom should leave or plan on leaving - like me!