I was on Malibu beach this past weekend and had an interesting (for me anyway) interaction with an owl handler at a 'beach club' there.

The guy was walking around using his owl to scare away seagulls and pigeons... Oh, and also taking tips for people to take photos of the bird and/or hold him. He said he did some film and print work with the bird and otherwise, did what he was doing there.

As my GF held the bird, he began a conversation with another woman who was clearly in awe of this beautiful guy... admiring his talons and his eyes... and the guy was decidedly dismissive of the bird...

My favorite line from him was that Owls aren't great hunters. Everything they have is given to them. They live off of their privilege.... which I found ironic, given that here the owl was working... while he was not only higher on the food chain, but quite literally living off the labors of the bird. My GF asked if it was a 'great horned owl', which most of us would know is native... and he dismissively told her that it was its much larger and stronger European import.

All I could think of was that in addition to living off the labors of this 'privileged' bird, that the bird (or his ancestor) was actually hunted down, captured, put in restraints, transported by boat across the sea, and sold to live a life of servitude in another country... so that some worthless schmuck can degrade him while earning a living off of his labors.

Of course this guy isn't the typical democrat and obviously doesn't even know what it means to have privilege...... but he certainly thought his schpeel was going to sell well to the Malibu crowd (clearly not knowing or caring that there were a number of conservatives there)... and has been influenced by their rhetoric.

We are often directed to some schmuck from the right and told that 'these are the people your side empowers'... well, if that is so then the left needs to own THIS moron. The very embodiment of cognitive dissonance.

(06-21-2022 10:46 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I was on Malibu beach this past weekend and had an interesting (for me anyway) interaction with an owl handler at a 'beach club' there.

The guy was walking around using his owl to scare away seagulls and pigeons... Oh, and also taking tips for people to take photos of the bird and/or hold him. He said he did some film and print work with the bird and otherwise, did what he was doing there.

As my GF held the bird, he began a conversation with another woman who was clearly in awe of this beautiful guy... admiring his talons and his eyes... and the guy was decidedly dismissive of the bird...

My favorite line from him was that Owls aren't great hunters. Everything they have is given to them. They live off of their privilege.... which I found ironic, given that here the owl was working... while he was not only higher on the food chain, but quite literally living off the labors of the bird. My GF asked if it was a 'great horned owl', which most of us would know is native... and he dismissively told her that it was its much larger and stronger European import.

All I could think of was that in addition to living off the labors of this 'privileged' bird, that the bird (or his ancestor) was actually hunted down, captured, put in restraints, transported by boat across the sea, and sold to live a life of servitude in another country... so that some worthless schmuck can degrade him while earning a living off of his labors.

Of course this guy isn't the typical democrat and obviously doesn't even know what it means to have privilege...... but he certainly thought his schpeel was going to sell well to the Malibu crowd (clearly not knowing or caring that there were a number of conservatives there)... and has been influenced by their rhetoric.

How much insight exactly do you have into this bird handler?

Quote:We are often directed to some schmuck from the right and told that 'these are the people your side empowers'... well, if that is so then the left needs to own THIS moron. The very embodiment of cognitive dissonance.

Yeah... I think we are unanimous that wokeness is OOC and in many ways it sucks. It does seem to be getting some level of pushback recently IMO.

(06-21-2022 10:49 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 10:46 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I was on Malibu beach this past weekend and had an interesting (for me anyway) interaction with an owl handler at a 'beach club' there.

The guy was walking around using his owl to scare away seagulls and pigeons... Oh, and also taking tips for people to take photos of the bird and/or hold him. He said he did some film and print work with the bird and otherwise, did what he was doing there.

As my GF held the bird, he began a conversation with another woman who was clearly in awe of this beautiful guy... admiring his talons and his eyes... and the guy was decidedly dismissive of the bird...

My favorite line from him was that Owls aren't great hunters. Everything they have is given to them. They live off of their privilege.... which I found ironic, given that here the owl was working... while he was not only higher on the food chain, but quite literally living off the labors of the bird. My GF asked if it was a 'great horned owl', which most of us would know is native... and he dismissively told her that it was its much larger and stronger European import.

All I could think of was that in addition to living off the labors of this 'privileged' bird, that the bird (or his ancestor) was actually hunted down, captured, put in restraints, transported by boat across the sea, and sold to live a life of servitude in another country... so that some worthless schmuck can degrade him while earning a living off of his labors.

Of course this guy isn't the typical democrat and obviously doesn't even know what it means to have privilege...... but he certainly thought his schpeel was going to sell well to the Malibu crowd (clearly not knowing or caring that there were a number of conservatives there)... and has been influenced by their rhetoric.

How much insight exactly do you have into this bird handler?

Quote:We are often directed to some schmuck from the right and told that 'these are the people your side empowers'... well, if that is so then the left needs to own THIS moron. The very embodiment of cognitive dissonance.

Yeah... I think we are unanimous that wokeness is OOC and in many ways it sucks. It does seem to be getting some level of pushback recently IMO.

I’m really lost on how this is an obviously partisan thing this guy did, and why a likely liberal crowd would eat this schpeel up.

The guy sounds like a hack who tried to cover up his knowledge gap with a fake sense of confidence and gravitas. What a schmuck indeed!

(06-21-2022 11:15 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 10:49 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 10:46 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I was on Malibu beach this past weekend and had an interesting (for me anyway) interaction with an owl handler at a 'beach club' there.

The guy was walking around using his owl to scare away seagulls and pigeons... Oh, and also taking tips for people to take photos of the bird and/or hold him. He said he did some film and print work with the bird and otherwise, did what he was doing there.

As my GF held the bird, he began a conversation with another woman who was clearly in awe of this beautiful guy... admiring his talons and his eyes... and the guy was decidedly dismissive of the bird...

My favorite line from him was that Owls aren't great hunters. Everything they have is given to them. They live off of their privilege.... which I found ironic, given that here the owl was working... while he was not only higher on the food chain, but quite literally living off the labors of the bird. My GF asked if it was a 'great horned owl', which most of us would know is native... and he dismissively told her that it was its much larger and stronger European import.

All I could think of was that in addition to living off the labors of this 'privileged' bird, that the bird (or his ancestor) was actually hunted down, captured, put in restraints, transported by boat across the sea, and sold to live a life of servitude in another country... so that some worthless schmuck can degrade him while earning a living off of his labors.

Of course this guy isn't the typical democrat and obviously doesn't even know what it means to have privilege...... but he certainly thought his schpeel was going to sell well to the Malibu crowd (clearly not knowing or caring that there were a number of conservatives there)... and has been influenced by their rhetoric.

How much insight exactly do you have into this bird handler?

Quote:We are often directed to some schmuck from the right and told that 'these are the people your side empowers'... well, if that is so then the left needs to own THIS moron. The very embodiment of cognitive dissonance.

Yeah... I think we are unanimous that wokeness is OOC and in many ways it sucks. It does seem to be getting some level of pushback recently IMO.

I’m really lost on how this is an obviously partisan thing this guy did, and why a likely liberal crowd would eat this schpeel up.

The guy sounds like a hack who tried to cover up his knowledge gap with a fake sense of confidence and gravitas. What a schmuck indeed!

*holding my breath* Are we OK here?!?

(06-21-2022 11:19 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 11:15 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 10:49 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 10:46 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  I was on Malibu beach this past weekend and had an interesting (for me anyway) interaction with an owl handler at a 'beach club' there.

The guy was walking around using his owl to scare away seagulls and pigeons... Oh, and also taking tips for people to take photos of the bird and/or hold him. He said he did some film and print work with the bird and otherwise, did what he was doing there.

As my GF held the bird, he began a conversation with another woman who was clearly in awe of this beautiful guy... admiring his talons and his eyes... and the guy was decidedly dismissive of the bird...

My favorite line from him was that Owls aren't great hunters. Everything they have is given to them. They live off of their privilege.... which I found ironic, given that here the owl was working... while he was not only higher on the food chain, but quite literally living off the labors of the bird. My GF asked if it was a 'great horned owl', which most of us would know is native... and he dismissively told her that it was its much larger and stronger European import.

All I could think of was that in addition to living off the labors of this 'privileged' bird, that the bird (or his ancestor) was actually hunted down, captured, put in restraints, transported by boat across the sea, and sold to live a life of servitude in another country... so that some worthless schmuck can degrade him while earning a living off of his labors.

Of course this guy isn't the typical democrat and obviously doesn't even know what it means to have privilege...... but he certainly thought his schpeel was going to sell well to the Malibu crowd (clearly not knowing or caring that there were a number of conservatives there)... and has been influenced by their rhetoric.

How much insight exactly do you have into this bird handler?

Quote:We are often directed to some schmuck from the right and told that 'these are the people your side empowers'... well, if that is so then the left needs to own THIS moron. The very embodiment of cognitive dissonance.

Yeah... I think we are unanimous that wokeness is OOC and in many ways it sucks. It does seem to be getting some level of pushback recently IMO.

I’m really lost on how this is an obviously partisan thing this guy did, and why a likely liberal crowd would eat this schpeel up.

The guy sounds like a hack who tried to cover up his knowledge gap with a fake sense of confidence and gravitas. What a schmuck indeed!

*holding my breath* Are we OK here?!?

In George’s defense, he ractheted down the rhetoric.

I did have a bit of an internal laugh as I typed that, though, given the back and forth last night.

(06-21-2022 11:15 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I’m really lost on how this is an obviously partisan thing this guy did, and why a likely liberal crowd would eat this schpeel up.

The guy sounds like a hack who tried to cover up his knowledge gap with a fake sense of confidence and gravitas. What a schmuck indeed!

Note that I said he wasn't a typical democrat, but that he was 'woke'.... which is some faction of the left. Certainly few on the right would be characterized as 'woke', but I don't consider a whole LOT of the left to be 'woke'. You have your far left moments, but I wouldn't consider anyone on here remotely 'woke'. I said he thought it would sell well to the MALIBU crowd... which isn't political. I think it obvious that he thought his characterizations of the owl wouldn't hurt his tips nor get him fired/replaced by the venue.... nor even that the SPCA would be called (and if that happened, it would likely be by the left)... and noted that we were probably 8 pretty staunch conservatives just in my crowd... who, had the guy not been so woefully misguided that we almost felt sorry for him, but we were on a magnificent beach and his bird was making it even better overcame our desire to correct this fool.

If he had similarly been out there telling me how God had given him this bird to dominate him, I would have said the same thing about him not being typical of a Republican... and that he too misread his crowd, especially if there were liberals (animal rights activists, not 'anti God') there.

So 'being woke' is certainly political IMO... and although part of the left, even in Malibu it can be taken too far.

That said, He's been there a while and I'm sure this wasn't the first time he'd said such a thing. He said (in response to a comment by someone about how smart they were) that they were actually very dumb... which preceded his comment about privilege. I assumed that many or maybe even MOST liberals/democrats wouldn't have liked his schtic... maybe I should have been less generous and given us more to argue about??

FTR, there were lots of kids there... Had he been remotely smart, he would have been talking about how AMAZING the bird was... not how dumb and privileged he was.

I mean, if he thinks the BIRD is privileged, it seems obvious what he thinks of a bunch of old white men who paid Malibu prices to have an owl chase sea gulls away from the beach

(06-21-2022 11:39 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(06-21-2022 11:15 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I’m really lost on how this is an obviously partisan thing this guy did, and why a likely liberal crowd would eat this schpeel up.

The guy sounds like a hack who tried to cover up his knowledge gap with a fake sense of confidence and gravitas. What a schmuck indeed!

Note that I said he wasn't a typical democrat, but that he was 'woke'.... which is some faction of the left. Certainly few on the right would be characterized as 'woke', but I don't consider a whole LOT of the left to be 'woke'. You have your far left moments, but I wouldn't consider anyone on here remotely 'woke'. I said he thought it would sell well to the MALIBU crowd... which isn't political. I think it obvious that he thought his characterizations of the owl wouldn't hurt his tips nor get him fired/replaced by the venue.... nor even that the SPCA would be called (and if that happened, it would likely be by the left)... and noted that we were probably 8 pretty staunch conservatives just in my crowd... who, had the guy not been so woefully misguided that we almost felt sorry for him, but we were on a magnificent beach and his bird was making it even better overcame our desire to correct this fool.

If he had similarly been out there telling me how God had given him this bird to dominate him, I would have said the same thing about him not being typical of a Republican... and that he too misread his crowd, especially if there were liberals (animal rights activists, not 'anti God') there.

So 'being woke' is certainly political IMO... and although part of the left, even in Malibu it can be taken too far.

That said, He's been there a while and I'm sure this wasn't the first time he'd said such a thing. He said (in response to a comment by someone about how smart they were) that they were actually very dumb... which preceded his comment about privilege. I assumed that many or maybe even MOST liberals/democrats wouldn't have liked his schtic... maybe I should have been less generous and given us more to argue about??

I should have written that less directly perhaps - not trying to argue with your perspective there. My brain didn't make the connection you were making; that his discussion of the owl being privileged was an instance of the guy being woke. I feel like we hear a lot about criticism of privilege coming from the right as well (ivory towers, elites, etc.); hence the disconnect on my end.

Quite comically (or interestingly?), I think this is a decent example of how political backgrounds inform perspectives. Reading your story, I thought he was much more a caricature of a conservative that many liberals try and paint - someone who is disregarding the effort of the worker while reaping the majority of the economic windfalls. Which even more explains why I didn't see the connection in your mind to wokeness and liberals.

Maybe liberals and conservatives aren't that different after all, and we get blinded by tribalism.

(06-21-2022 12:02 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Quite comically (or interestingly?), I think this is a decent example of how political backgrounds inform perspectives. Reading your story, I thought he was much more a caricature of a conservative that many liberals try and paint - someone who is disregarding the effort of the worker while reaping the majority of the economic windfalls. Which even more explains why I didn't see the connection in your mind to wokeness and liberals.

Fair on some levels, especially that he could change a few words and be a conservative caricature.... and of course on perspectives...

I associated his comments with 'woke' because of the privilege comments... I associate those with the left because those are leftists terms and spins. Conservatives wouldn't have degraded the animal's 'privilege'... They would have used a different term... like dominance or superiority or 'higher on the food chain' or something. A Conservative would likely have spoken about how we deserve to dominate this 'lesser' bird. This guy spoke about how the bird wasn't worth of the praise he gets... and that he is only where he is in the food chain based on his 'privilege'. That is what I found so ironic; because at LEAST as much could be said about him... as he was born human... and of course he was 'exploiting and denigrating the worker'... who is really his 'slave'... brought here by those who captured and imprisoned him.

(06-22-2022 09:49 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  and that he is only where he is in the food chain based on his 'privilege'.

Was he a white owl?

I don't know where else to this so I'll just put this here...

Many good Black and Brown citizens are D@mn tired of ignorant people like this SC Demokkkrat Racist...they give Everyone a bad name and they hurt all people who have made tremendous progress in this country, but especially people like this hurt Black and Brown people the most...people like this lady gotta go get ta steppin':

Quote:BREAKING: Leaked Call With Prison Inmate Reveals SC Democrat State Rep & Senate Candidate @kmforsenate
Calling For "#SecretSleepers" to Infiltrate @SCGOP
; Advocates For ILLEGALLY Funding Campaign with "Dope Money"

"We can flip some sh*t from the inside out."

[VIDEO]

6:49 PM · Jun 26, 2022

We see this lady's kind of ignorance here on our boards by some ignorantly indoctrinated leftists, too, but this lady is supposed to be better than that, well, she ain't.

full:

more woke wonders in California...why would anyone vote for these kinds of policies that hurt poor and middle class American citizens most?

Renting an Apartment in LA? Here's How Much You Need to Make Per Hour: Report

Quote:We all know California is an expensive place to live -- but staggering new data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the price in perspective.

Californians are well aware of the high price of housing — but a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows how deep the divide truly is between the minimum wage and the cost of an average two-bedroom rental.

The housing coalition, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., released its annual report last week showing the minimum wage workers would need to earn in U.S. states and cities to be able to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment at fair market rate.
How Much Do I Need to Earn to Afford an Apartment in Southern California?

Californians, on average, would need to earn an hourly wage of $39.01 and work full-time to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Understandably, that number changes drastically depending on what part of the state you live in.

In most of Orange County, workers would need an hourly wage of $44.69, the date shows. In the Los Angeles area, the number is on par with the state average at $39.31.

At the state’s current minimum wage, LA residents would need to work between two to three full-time jobs to meet that threshold.

In San Diego County, renters would need to work about three full-time jobs, or earn a minimum wage of $42.92, to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

What About the Bay Area?

In San Francisco, the numbers get worse.

Residents need an hourly wage of $61.50 to afford a two-bedroom rental, the report shows, making it the most expensive city in the state.

Other parts of the Bay Area aren't much better. Workers in the Santa Cruz area need $60.35 per hour, while those in the Silicon Valley — the state's tech hub — need to earn $55.15 per hour, according to the report.

What Does An Apartment Really Cost in Los Angeles?

An online search for Los Angeles apartments is bound to make your head spin — but prices hover around a minimum of $2,000 per month.

Add a washer and dryer or a dog into the mix and you’re looking at an even higher cost.

Housing website Zumper estimates a two-bedroom rental even higher, at $3,250 per month.

Wherever you're renting in LA (or California,) the cost of housing is nothing to joke about.

My son lives about 4 blocks from the Tokyo Tower in mid-town Tokyo, in a city known for high real estate prices. He pays less for a larger apartment than does a friend of his in Palo Alto.

I recall an ad on the Bart... I don't remember the service being offered... maybe Staples??

Their hook was...

Easier than finding a 3rd floor walk-up efficiency for less than $4,000.

(08-03-2022 01:35 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  My son lives about 4 blocks from the Tokyo Tower in mid-town Tokyo, in a city known for high real estate prices. He pays less for a larger apartment than does a friend of his in Palo Alto.

Tokyo is an impressively resilient real estate market from an affordability perspective. I've read a few articles over the years that talk about this, and they focus on how Tokyo has been able to keep up with demand by increasing supply regularly and easily.

That's about as deep as I can get from memory - but I don't think they suffer from the same sort of NIMBY-ism that many cities in the US suffer from nor from the backwards and regressive zoning policies that exist here.

(08-03-2022 09:25 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 01:35 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  My son lives about 4 blocks from the Tokyo Tower in mid-town Tokyo, in a city known for high real estate prices. He pays less for a larger apartment than does a friend of his in Palo Alto.

Tokyo is an impressively resilient real estate market from an affordability perspective. I've read a few articles over the years that talk about this, and they focus on how Tokyo has been able to keep up with demand by increasing supply regularly and easily.

That's about as deep as I can get from memory - but I don't think they suffer from the same sort of NIMBY-ism that many cities in the US suffer from nor from the backwards and regressive zoning policies that exist here.

Plus, multi-generational living is much more common there.