Chantry

I didn't mean to imply your wife rude, it was a general comment. I consider myself reasonably thick skinned, but personally I found telephone customer service, which I did for banking, medical and collections to be a low paying, high stress job. I suspect that telemarketing is even worse. My guess is that the average telemarketer is working that job because it is that or being unemployed with bills that need to be paid.

I spend a lot of time in my twenties working as a customer service rep, including collections, which really sucked. I've been screamed at and cursed at. After a while the verbal abuse can get to you, especially when your management is pushing for the reps to answer more calls and spend less time on each individual score. I no longer even bother to ask them to put me on the Do Not Call List, partly because I don't think they access to update that list and because it's quicker just to hang up or not answer the phone.

I don't answer the phone if I don't know the person calling unless I am expecting a call. Cuts down on telemarketers

Not a new idea, apparently Ford has been thinking about since 2021 and filed a patent about a year ago. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43126498/ford-patent-autonomous-systems-vehicle-repossession/ I suspect the legal department will get involved and when all is said and done, I suspect will just shut the vehicle down and have it towed away.

If this helps: I haven't bought the shotgun belt, but I have bought Tourbon's take down canvas and wood shotgun case. The quality is decent/good for the price point. It's made in China which is why it is inexpensive and while I doubt the build quality of the case is as good as one made in the US, Italy or England, the case doesn't cost the $800+ for the ones coming out of US, Italy or England,

If this was true in the United States how many of us would be dating supermodels?

My fault, I was bored

Might want to check some of your remote controls and make sure they don't have microphones on them. The one remote that did have it (Amazon) I taped over the microphone. The same for computers with cameras and/or microphones. Remember, the microwave is always watching and listening to you!

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest I'm reading a Kindle book where the historian JFC Fuller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._F._C._Fuller thought if the Romans had won the battle it could have drastically changed European history. Fuller was of the opinion that such a victory would have prevented the Germanic tribes and other tribes from uniting together, meaning no Kaiser Wilhelm and WWI as well as no Hitler and WWII. No Napoleon and no British Empire (which would have world wide implications). Thoughts?

Or perhaps a member of the Varangian Guard sent a trinket back to a relative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangian_Guard

Depends on the landline, if it is the old copper landlines that you're fine. If they have switched your service over to VOIP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_IP then your landline is pretty much only as reliable as your internet.

I was thinking more of the head hunters in Burma and wondering how many Japanese soldiers ended up as a meal. I also know of at least once incidence of African soldiers that were in Burma during WWII capturing, torturing and then eating some of the Japanese soldiers.

It was practiced into the 20th Century and I wouldn't bet money that it has stopped at the tribal level in some places https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cannibalism#Early_20th_century_to_present

The M3 Lee remained in front line service into 1945 with the 14th Army in India & Burma

Other individuals and organizations have been active in defending and expanding our 2nd Amendment rights in the court system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller The NRA actively tried to prevent this from going to the Supreme Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._City_of_Chicago was not filed by the NRA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Rifle_%26_Pistol_Association,_Inc._v._Bruen does not appear to have been filed by the NRA Perhaps the NRA has worked behind the scenes in Congress, but the three most recent and important Supreme Court decisions in recent history don't seem to involve the NRA.

Is it bad that I want a portcullis and the walls that go with it instead?

On my cordless phone it comes up with NRA and a phone number that changes. Pretty sure it's NRA members calling on their cell phones dong volunteer work. I don't get messages, but I suspect it's a robo-caller that dials numbers and the call only goes to the volunteer if a human picks up

More "desert blues"

What's with all of the phone calls lately? I'm getting 2-3 a day. Given their near complete lack of help in Connecticut when the "assault weapon" ban took place after the Sandy Hook and until they purge the current leadership of all of Lapierre's flunkies, they'll only get my annual membership money.

Some are still around and will sometimes show up at better gun auctions, sadly most are chambered in some obscure caliber that is no longer available

And in the hands of a good pilot who knew the strengths and weakness of both his P-47 and the opposing aircraft, the Thunderbolt was a very good air to air plane.

Much higher rate of fire compared to the Vickers machine gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1919_Browning_machine_gun#Browning_.303_Mark_II

When the Constitution was written 'well-regulated' meant well equipped, not the current meaning of lots of restrictions

Qualified Expert on the M9 in OSUT. I liked the Beretta, it was accurate and reliable, far better than the worn out 1911's that we had in the armory at my unit. We still had S&W .38 Special revolvers in the armory. The 1911's rarely went 5 rounds without a jam and weren't much more accurate than a thrown rock. I'd be interested in a M9A3 or M9A4 Beretta, but being restricted to 10 round magazines there isn't much point