The Last Bass Outpost

A Dutchman playing with Michael ...

Quote from: Son of Dave W on March 28, 2025, 02:09:34 PMTrue, but the Sweetwater back of headstock shot says "Indonesia".

D'oh!

Every Tobias in their inventory says Indonesia. Guess that settles it.

I notice that the over-$2K neck throughs all say that they won't be restocked, so maybe these are old stock.

I sold this Ridler IV a while back, but forgot to take photos before I shipped it. It showed up on the resale market, so I grabbed these photos from the listing after it sold again.

There is a schism where the US Constitution places Freedom of Speech (pretty much above all else in your First Amendment) and where most European democracies see it. Article 1 of the German Constitution reads:

"(1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.

(2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world."

Only Article 2 states:

"1) Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law.

(2) Every person shall have the right to life and physical integrity. Freedom of the person shall be inviolable. These rights may be interfered with only pursuant to a law."

You get the gist, there is much more of a "yes, but ..." element to Freedom of Speech. The German Constitution is shaped by historic experience: How the Nazis lied and defamed the Weimar Republic to get elected - and once in power dismantled democracy.

There are pros and cons to the respective emphases of both philosophies.

The older I get, the more my tolerance for hate speech, inventing things just for the heck of it or denying scientific progress shrinks. Social media amplifies these things beyond what we have experienced before in our history and algorithms lead people down rabbit holes where they no longer take part in a discourse. By now, I would likely favor algorithms being outlawed completely or at least programmed in a way that they do not filter out opposing views. I guess you can say that I'm no fan of freedom of ignorance.

I always enjoy your videos, nice work!

Quote from: 4stringer77 on March 28, 2025, 11:22:39 AMHopefully some day most Europeans can say what they want without fear of having a knock on their door for expressing views contrary to what their establishment prefers.

As being a Swede I don't have any fear of speaking my mind (well, yet. Give Sverigedemokraterna some more slack and then we'll see). I'm not sure which European country you are referring to in that statement.

Quote from: Dave W on March 28, 2025, 02:00:22 AMAt those prices, I would guess Korea. That's still Samick headquarters.

True, but the Sweetwater back of headstock shot says "Indonesia".

If he can afford to buy it and it's for sale, it's a free country. If someone doesn't like him owning the product, they don't have to use it. It's not like Twitter is an essential utility. I don't use twitter but from what I understand there's less censorship now there than before and freedom of speech is more important than whatever the corrupted established order was allowing for. Hopefully some day most Europeans can say what they want without fear of having a knock on their door for expressing views contrary to what their establishment prefers.

No one is denying that Musk has real, selective talents and can be a driving force of innovation - but through all of history people like that have not been the right ones to wield significant political power. You wouldn't have wanted Thomas Edison or Henry Ford to be Presidents either. Musk can spend his zillions all he wants on flying to Mars, letting him buy a social network was a mistake under any rules-based order preventing concentration and misappropriation of powers.

Well, at least it was nice of Elon to finally rescue those stranded NASA astronauts whatever else you may think of him. Personally, I'm happy to see DOGE trimming down the bloated bureaucracy. Speaking of Canada, I've had some of the happiest moments of my life there and I wish Canadians the best. I'm optimistic things will work out eventually.