Biden is currently pouring our tax dollars into this money pit of Ukraine.  One has to wonder if he's getting his 10%.

My wife's sister... slept (both literally and figuratively) her way through high school.  Moved from one menial job to the next.  Says that we "just got lucky" that we have a plane, a nice house, live in a nice area.  No, we worked hard through high school.  Went to college, got good jobs and worked our asses off.  Then went back for more schooling and worked our asses off again earning PhDs and climbing the academic ladder.  Now we're at the top of our game and doing very well.  We're looking forward to a very comfortable retirement.  Yeah, we just got lucky.  And because of that she's all the time wanting a handout.

Apparently until the latest generation.  Have you heard of the “lie flat” movement?  The younger Chinese are rebelling against the 996 rule which is work 9 am to 9 pm six days a week, for decades and for low pay in say a factory, and that’s supposed to be a life. Alternatively you can try to get into college which is like a lottery system, not available for everyone but when you graduate with your degree, there aren’t enough jobs and you end up unemployed.

So they’ve decided to live minimally, work some low level job for one day, play video games and goof off for three days, and basically live hand to mouth doing as little work as possible because working your ass off doesn’t get you much farther anyway.

I don’t know when this movement started but it really ramped up with Covid, and the worst thing is that it’s catching on among young Americans, enabled by ongoing unemployment and stimulus benefits, and women eschewing marriage and motherhood.

Part of the “lie flat” movement is to vow never to buy a house or get married or have children.  This is direct opposition to the CCP now “allowing” three children, and I put allowing in quotes because it looks like it is heading toward being mandatory. They are talking about banning contraceptives for anyone who hasn’t already had at least two children.

But the Chinese people aren’t having it.  First of all, there just aren’t enough women.  The one child policy had everyone making their one child male (through aborting females), because men are more prized so now you have a bunch of males who couldn’t get a wife if they wanted one so they’re just giving up.  They’re embracing poverty and celibacy as the least difficult path because what’s the point?  Secondly, even if they get a woman, having children is too expensive in the modern world.  Children are a financial liability now, not an economic asset like they are in agrarian economies.

Guess what? Sex with women is THE reason (if subconsciously) males work their ass off building a thriving society.  A man works and gains resources so he can attract a female.  Females drive this process by selecting the most productive male they can so he can provide for and protect any offspring.  This has driven human progress for a million years.  Take away the possibility of getting a female, men have no reason to work themselves to the bone.  Hence you take away the engine of human progress.

I’m loving seeing the CCP panic as their policies are coming back to bite them in the ass.

Too late. 

I've known about the piano key Bo's for a long time, don't know why you didn't, especially when flying one.  Were I flying I'd be completely paranoid of flipping the wrong switch.  I'd be so paranoid that I'd not touch the thing unless I was staring right at it.  To put this in context, I'm paranoid about gear up landings, enough so that the gear comes down 3 miles from the airport.  That means I have to configure the airplane prior to that, and I get majorly paranoid if anything goes wrong with that sequence, as in I turn around if the gear isn't out at 3 miles.

I would add that if you need to get the flaps up after landing to get more weight on the mains you're coming in too fast.  Yeah, I've used that trick too, but I certainly don't depend on it.  My apologies, but despite the long read you made a very common mistake based on your lack of understanding of the aircraft you were flying.

Let's say someone would like a relatively modern, low-wing, radial engine family traveling machine.  I can find only one: the Spartan Executive.  All the others are rag-wing, or high-wing like the Cessna 195.  Or rag-wing with both a high and low wing. Looking for low-wing only because it will fit in the hangar overlapping with the high-wing that's in the hangar already.  Asking for a friend.