I really dislike the RINO label. It speaks of a party hidebound to pretty extreme principles, with no room for variation. The definition of a 'true Republican' has changed a lot over the years, and not for the better.

Sounds like an automatic translation from French probably

Stool pigeon.

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Very neat discovery!

This Ayon Spirit III Integrated tube valve amp is considered "high end". It's made in Austria. At 38kg or 84lbs, it's built like a tank. I picked this up used about a month ago. I have done many amp rolling sessions between this Ayon, a Carver TFM35X 250-wpc solid state amp and the AkitikA solid state amp and preamp i built from kits. I have to use the AkitikA preamp with the Carver as it has no volume control. I can also use the Ayon as a dedicated amp which bypasses the preamp circuitry and it becomes a stand-alone amplifier with no volume control. I have also paired the AkitikA preamp with the Ayon in direct amp mode. The differences between the Ayon and the two solid state amplifiers is instantly registered from the very first sound you hear. The level of detail and separation of voices and instruments is one of the first things you notice as well as a more open "3D" sound stage. High frequencies are detailed but smooth and never harsh when using the Ayon. The same cannot be said of either solid state amp and surprisingly, the AkitikA is actually smoother on the high frequencies than the Carver. Both solid state amps clip anywhere from 66%-85% volume. I have yet to hear the Ayon clip even at 100% volume. [image: 20230927-183035.jpg]

It wasn’t like that initially. When it became so much more powerful in the late 70’s I had a few incidents where it made me think everything I did and said was stupid and my life was nothing. At that point I was done. It was no longer fun. I could easily see that repeated use could change some brain chemistry.

I thought 4 skips was impressive...

Good thing I have neither a iPhone 15 nor a BMW. 5555

@Axtremus said in Talking With The Pea: She could have put all this in a paper, summarize all the responses she collected in a table, then all these could have been absorbed in half a minute. But then you wouldn't have seen her in a bikini!

@Jolly said in Further Insurrection: ....to enter a building through open doors and carefully move furniture without permission. Okay then. Obviously not going to take responsibility so, I tuned him out after this. Sorry.

@George-K said in Cruise Etiquette: @Doctor-Phibes said in Cruise Etiquette: smuggle their own booze You're kidding... At least on Amtrak, in a sleeper, you can BYOB. Yeah, but you don’t get flashed by drunken Scots, so it kind of balances out

I posted that with you in mind. Not being in your dotage like (ahem) some here, you can be aware of what the alarm's for. For some others... That reminds me, it's time for my PM meds...

Consider for a minute just how difficult it actually was to vote in the 1780s…Most of the country was still agrarian. You didn’t have a polling location that was a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute drive away… Exercising your right to vote would typically require a pretty heavy burden on the voter in time and effort.

@George-K Just finished watching the YouTube video. Much better than the tortuous tweet. At least it was a coherent argument based on established facts. I would agree that some of the ethnic autonomous republics would split if the opportunity arose. His examples of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan are well chosen. Both tried very hard politically and economically throughout much of the Yeltsin era to achieve independence from Moscow. Likewise the far east regions in particular, Yakutia. Then there’s the simmering, disgruntled and cowed ethnic pots in the North Caucasus. As well, there are levels of discontent in resource rich Russian regions that get very little in return from Moscow. It’s actually a pretty good argument with which I have only a few minor quibbles other than Sumlenny’s overly optimistic view of a disintegrating Russian Federation. I really don’t see the country passively commiting suicide for the second time in fifty years. I think that if it were to happen, it would be much more violent and protracted than when the lights went out on the USSR.

Somebody did that in the YMCA parking lot next to where we lived during Covid lockdown. I called the police on them, as did about 5 other people, and then watched them have a conversation from my bedroom window.