What do I love? My family, my friends, my country, good-hearted conservatism, TRUMP (2024!), Ronald Reagan (as much as I love Trump, Reagan is still the Presidential GOAT in my book), law-abiding capitalism (and people, for that matter), history (particularly WWII), cool cars — I have a nice ‘86 Shelby Charger (Bucket List car) and a cherry ‘06 Mustang GT — auto racing and '80s New Wave/Alternative music. I spend most of my days living in the past.

What do I hate? People. The vast majority of them are bad, regardless of who they are, what they believe (or say they believe) or their status in life. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, religious or not, politically left or right, it doesn't matter — they all behave exactly the same way.

Additional Thoughts and (Informal) Rules of Life:

1.) Human beings are really bad at being good people. “My hate is general, I detest all men; Some because they are wicked and do evil, others because they tolerate the wicked, refusing them the active, vigorous scorn which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.” ― Moliere, The Misanthrope

2.) Regarding #1, always try to be a good person and do the right thing. Always. "All men are bad. But some of us try real hard to be good." ― Chief Thomas Rainwater, Yellowstone

3.) Regarding #2, it never hurts to remember Road House Rule #3: "Be nice, until it's time to not be nice." — Dalton James, Road House

4.) Live your life as if "it's nothing until it's something." Too many folks live as if "it's something until it's nothing," and -- IMHO (see #5, below) -- that's no way to live. “I know worrying works, because none of the stuff I worried about ever happened.” ― Will Rogers

5.) I accepted a long time ago that my opinion is the most worthless thing I own. Life would be so much easier if everyone would come to the same realization. (And that's just my opinion.) “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” ― Ernest Hemingway, but I first heard the quote in Kingsmen: The Secret Service

6.) "Don't get dead." ― Dan Bongino

7.) Regarding #6, the only thing that fixes stupid is getting dead. “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

8.) Always keep at least one awesome hot rod in your garage, and as many hobbies as you can comfortably afford. "It was fun to blow off a Porsche with a 3900 donkey [the 1965 Shelby GT350 Mustang]." ― Carroll Shelby, THE GOAT

This is my '86 Charger, photographed at the showroom just before I purchased it. Dodge only produced 793 of the blue Chargers in '86 (total 7,669 for the year), with a total production run of 16,389 for the three turbo years ('85-'87). The low production numbers make it fairly rare when compared to other "muscle cars" (an oxymoron in the '80s) produced, like the Mustang (Ford made over 50K GTs in '86 alone, more than all Shelby Charger model years combined). And because you rarely see one it always draws a small crowd at the local gatherings. It was never a great car (cheap thrills), so many of them were driven into the ground. So glad I finally have it, and especially in this condition -- it's not perfect (the previous owner did a repair to the right side of the hood that I'll have to have redone), or a show car, but it's pretty darned nice.