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So if someone owns 17 guns they're a "super owner"? I always thought anything below that was 'cute' and 20 was 'a good start'

Ohhhhh..., Ahhhh..., I was in a panic there for a second or two. 17 TOTAL firearms makes you a Super Owner....... I misunderstood it at first to mean 17 of the Same Type of firearm - - - was thinking I was short a couple of 1911s!

The older I get, the more I appreciate the old Ian McLaren quote: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting such a hard battle." I'm certain, whether it's Kroger sushi or Monster drinks and beef jerky, few of these folks are proud of where they are. At some point in their day they face reality - and it sucks. Even for those few who are actively gaming the system - they know that their ceiling is limited - and that really sucks. Do some of them abuse the system? You bet. Are some of them being abused by the system? You bet. Does it move the needle for me when someone who Walmart pays $7.25 an hour for 29 hours per week blows a few bucks on stupid stuff? Not really. What does get me fired up however is when a company with one of the highest market caps in America depends on EBT and WIC as supplementary income for their employees so they can deliver more profit to their shareholders while delivering those "everyday low prices."

With all the anticipation surrounding the new WW2 movie "Hacksaw Ridge" I thought this old "This Is Your Life" episode circa 1959 honoring the real life Medal of Honor recipient Desmond T. Doss might interest some folks. The cheesy commercials are a hoot. We Baby Boomers grew up surrounded by WW2 vets and yet so few shared their stories. I guess many just wanted to forget and move on with life. I just recently learned one of the vets I knew growing up earned the Silver Star and three Bronze Stars in Italy with the First Armored Division.

Precisely my predicament and what happened when I experienced hard-times myself. I have a B.A. in Graphic Design, and a 20-year career in the printing industry. I work(ed) with hi-tech computerized equipment automating the back-end of things, and now 'my job' pays $12.50/hr (employers are still expecting a degree and experience). I drive a produce truck for a Sysco-subsidiary b/c it pays $400/wk more than I can make w/ my 20-year career in the print-biz. Evolve, adapt, onward... sitting on my duff w/ a 'disability' or on food-stamps was never a permanent option (but I was one of those 99-week's on UI way back when). I worked w/ a paving company that helped me get my CDL, and I've been gainfully employed ever since. Not what I invested 25-years of my life in, but, I pay my bills and take care of my family. Frankly, I haven't made this kind of money in 15-years!

Which is true but the underlying issue is why is it true? Because people today do not have the same outlooks, ethics, and ambition today as was the case in the past. It shows everywhere in our society as Entitlement disease is prevalent throughout the country. Not just in the welfare programs but all over. Look at any storm that comes through and people want the government to build them a new house? Why? Did you not have insurance? I know the insurance companies were horrible about their end but we see it all the time. A lack of personal responsibility is the norm it seems these days. Part of it is the economical changes that have occurred but that is a crutch for a lot of people. Get off your ass and better yourself. Most folks did it. You do not start at the top but rather earn it. Now in these times that is a little more difficult but can still be done. This country has a major shortage of truck drivers. That is a job that pays fairly well. It also has a lot of time away from your family though. But it can be done and that is just one example. There are lots of jobs just folks that think they should get paid $15 an hour to flip fish or burgers is driving the impression that companies are evil things. Not always wrong but for the most part it is a choice on an individual level. Either work hard and get ahead or don't and whine about it. Enough of my rant for the day. All kinds of issues that are part of the bigger picture with these topics that could make a discussion lst forever. Long story short is help yourself and do everything you can. If you need help you should be able to get it. Welfare should be a hand up not a continual hand out.

No sweeter music than an AS400 bouncing off the bottom of an empty dumpster. I still have some twinax connectors stuck back somewhere.

What gets me fired up is the folks that think companies like the fast food places and walmart should be paying much higher. 3 issues with that thought for me. One, it is not a career type job. Those type of jobs are really not to support a family. However if it is all you can get then adjust your lifestyle to the situation. Two, No company owes you anything other than a fair days pay for a fair days work! Have you been to a Wal Mart lately. Hard to find a worker in the first place more or less one that cares or knows anything about their job. $7.25 is too much for some of those lazy people. It is also not near enough for the few that actually do work. Bottom line for me is don't like it, Study, work hard, move up and out. Three, I am overall tired of hearing about it from folks that did not pay attention in school or try to better themselves. If you want more then you have to go get it. Work hard and find something better. Problem these days is the same entilement story. A lot of folks think they are entitled to everything. As for Sushi, well been dirt poor in my life before, worked hard and got out of it. Like most folks we start life with nothing and have to work hard to get along. Worked 3 jobs at one point. Difference is and what bothers me is the folks that do not understand the choices and decisions you make are what is the difference. Don't run out and buy a 50" TV when the kids need shoes or food. If you have a limited income you need to do whatever it takes to make your situation better. I have a lot of respect for anyone that works hard to better themself. Not so much for someone that sits around and expects someone to give them things. Unfortunately we see more of the latter than the former. I have covered the bill for folks that looked like they could use a hand. I have also looked on in disgust when I see people making poor choices at Kroger. Kids look hungry, need clean clothes, and there are the parents buying items I personally did not see as a wise decision. However that is their decision and they have to live with it. Problem is when they look to me to assist, sure here are some clothes for the kids, some good food items and advice on where a good job can be had. Maybe even a ride to that job every day if I can figure it out. I have personally tried very hard to help some families make a better life. Some just are not going to get it. There is a lot to be said about this topic but like a lot of things in our wonderful country these days they are not going to do a bit of good to discuss. All it does is make noise. A vision without execution is naught but a dream!

Guess it's the near annual food stamp rant thread time. Time flies. I grew up free lunch and food stamp poor. After they divorced, my parents spent my childhood sitting on their asses. Difference being my father was sitting behind the wheel of a truck driving all over America, and my mother just sat in the house doing nothing. She wasn't quite a welfare queen, but she sure wasn't chipping in as we know it. She was one of those parents that spent food stamps on junk at times, and as such I had chips, soda, and candy bought with food stamps. I'm sure if the internet had been invented back then, someone could have gotten on and posted about some punk kid getting junk food with food stamps after seeing me. But we also bought a lot of bread, milk, orange juice, and eggs from that same corner store with food stamps. LINKS2K is right when he tries to get you to think about the overall context and not just enjoy confirmation bias. Does abuse happen in the system...sure. Welcome to human behavior 101. But as mentioned, it's on both the abuser and the system. There is a Kroger just over a mile away from my house, and I intentionally avoid shopping there. I hate seeing their "EBT Eligible" stickers on items to make a lazy choice even easier. I also loathe how Walmart is so dependent on food stamp customers that their revenue can take a measurable hit from any negative changes it. I'd be quite fine with SNAP being limited in what can be bought, so long as it didn't get too draconian, but do you really think all those sugar food stuff companies will sit still for it? It's been tried, and coca-cola among others come knocking on legislators doors to nix it riki tik. The abusers are getting over and since that's what we see standing behind them in the queue at the store, that's what we tend to focus on. But just remember it's the companies getting rich off of it all and they're laughing at both the people making the purchases, and the taxpayers giving them the funds to do so.

Not trying to be better, trying to make folks see that this is total abuse of the system. Everything I have mentioned is eye witness viewed, not second hand and please tell me where Monster and beef jerky were helping that lady live a better life? I also worked as a stock boy and watched MOM line the kids up with 1.00 food stamps and send them in for bubble gum. As there was no change but real silver for 1.00 food stamps, they would all flock back out and hand her the change and she'd come in and buy the smokes. Sure setting up a moral guide pole for those kids. Look if your mom was in a bad situation where she needed the assistance, so be it, that's what it's there for. But if your mom were using the food stamps for the luxury foods I've seen folks buy and get in their SUVs I can't afford to this day....I call her a free loader too. YMMV

I have to disagree, I don't need to have a conversation with someone that has expendable funds to buy things like pop and sushi, to be pissed off when they break out an EBT card on the side to buy other things. If things are so bad that you need an EBT card, you will not be in a position to have 'extra' money. Make me king for a day and this is the first issue I'll fix.

I hope I don't offend anyone but I have to rant... Was in line at the Kroger this afternoon and a pair of seriously overweight and heavily tatooed individuals were in front of me w/ their 2 darling kids. I couldn't help but notice all the sugary cereal they were buying w/ food stamps. Being a parent myself I wanted to suggest the "Cheerio's for your 2- and 3-year old might be better choices", I refrained. They bagged up their groceries and then paid for the final 3 items with their Bank-card. A 12-dollar box of Sushi, half-drunk Soda Pop, and a pack of gum. It took every ounce of civility I had not to say something. Folks, I've been there, we've all been down on our luck, but I'll be damned if I'm going to buy your kid's groceries while you take 'your money' and drop it on Pop and Sushi, fer crying out loud..... Send your husband (errrr. baby-daddy?) through the line separate so I don't have to watch you spit in my tax-paying face like that. Gawd! Thanks, I feel better. Rant-off. - Kevin

It's not the doctors. They have some exceptional doctors. It's the government ####bags that administer the thing. I hope they all rot in hell.

I can assure you that they don't give a damn. My dad passed away 10 days ago, and the VA's administrators made it lots worse than it should have been. For all they cared, he could have died in the street. #### the VA. Sorry for your loss, Randall. I feel ya.

Randall, I am devestated along with you. This makes me sick to my stomach. I saw the title of the post and literally teared up. I am so sorry! Words cannot even describe the emotions that I feel - and I'm certain that they don't hold a candle to your's and your wife's. There are good providers in the VA who care deeply about our soldiers. But they're handicapped by a bureaucratic system that I'm afraid can't be fixed. We need to burn it down and start over. The politicians that profit on "fixing it" while asking us to be patient should be in prison. Our best and brightest give our country the best years of their lives. And in return they come home and are ignored by a system that would prefer they'd just go away. How many more of our kids have to lose their lives like this? This has to stop. Words seem hopeless in times like these, but I will keep your family in my prayers. If there is anything that any of us on TGO can do, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

If they're smart, they transition to the team that writes the APIs.

Or maybe things will improve to the point that we can make more than cheeseburgers in this country

I like gas in my tank , because if there's an emergency to get somewhere in a hurry, stopping to fill up doesn't help at all.

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I like my assumptions though. Growing up in a family of five, I remember my mom crying one day when she was doing their taxes ( was probably 11 or 12 at the time) because she seen that they made a total of $10,000 that year. Not only had our electric cut off, but even had our water cut off a few times in that era. So I know exactly what it is like to be poor. Know what happened? When the whole understanding about being poor set into my brain, I went door to door asking and started mowing yards. From the age of 13 on, my parents never bought me a single item for school, my clothes or anything. Everything came from the money I made. Still wasn't much, but the whole point is that we are pacifying laziness and mediocrity because of the 'poor baby' syndrome. Poor thing is so bad off, we just have to give them something... Who are you to judge what they went through... yada yada yada. Philippines has a fantastic welfare policy that we should adopt - if you want to eat, you go find work. problem solved. You want to have 11 babies? You better find a lot of work.

Who is John Gault and where the hells that valley!

Sorry Link, I would never bat an eye at a woman buying orange juice, cheese, milk, bread, etc (used to be called WICK, don't know if it still exists) to keep a child fed but when you witness day in day out flat out ABUSE of the system, then it not only needs to be called out but changed. There was no reason that woman at the convenience store needed me and you to buy her Monster drinks and beef jerky, none! No one here would deny a needy person a meal, but to have these folks wrap their lifes around the free stuff that allows them to have their phones, rims, and cigarettes when it was designed to keep them fed is BS! Don't try to defend it, not defensible.

I'm sorry, but I can't make assumptions and judge people like this. I had a crappy childhood, and once lied about my age to get a warehouse job. After leaving active duty life was pretty crappy, so I worked crappy jobs. I've never been on public assistance, and my family has been well off for over twenty years, so I could easily make assumptions about those on public assistance. I've learned that unless you really know a person, you never know what circumstances lead to a person being in certain situations. Are there abuses? I'm certain there are, but I'm not judging everyone on assistance based upon a snapshot of what I see at a convenience store. It's like walking up on an employee at work who has been busting it for hours, then decides to stop for two minutes to catch a break at the exact moment that you walk around the corner. Many times all you have to base your opinion on is the snapshot of that moment. That's not a good thing.

Yep. This was all according to plan. They wanted this.

Mistake my a$$.......Your Obama Administration at work.

I've got no words....no civil ones anyway.

If they're buying sushi from Kroger they're probably getting what they deserve.

So what is the number required for "Super-duper" gun owner? How many do I need to unlock the next achievement level?!

I got ya covered.

.

So sorry for your loss. Not much I know to say to help but you will be in my prayers.

I am truly sorry for your loss. Prayers sent.

I am truly sorry for you loss and angry at the failure of those who did not listen and help! You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers and my heart aches for y'all.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what his mother must be going through either. I'm heartbroken hearing this.

I'm So sorry for your loss

I am very sorry for his pain and your loss. This is unacceptable at every level. You and your family are in my thoughts.

So sorry for your loss. Speechless

Looks like a Mako Group catalog vomited on that rifle.

Agreed. Unfortunately amassing the skills to make that transition may be as significant as the ones people in low skill jobs face today. I probably have the, "learn to code and you'll always be able to feed your family" conversation at least once a week. There is so little motivation to move when the pressure is low, though. And when times do get tough - then it's almost always too late. As the saying goes, "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few."

Truthfully, I wonder what the "information workers" with their business degrees are going to do when they get replaced by an API? It's manufacturing today. It's fast food tomorrow. But it'll come into the management ranks before the Gen X'ers retire. There's some truth to the statement that if you can't find your job being done by a snake or cat in a Richard Scarry book, it's probably not a real job.

Simply put, if we index wages to the poverty line, the poverty line will increase:) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That was the reason I was wondering if MO allowed open carry without a permit before the new law allowing concealed without a permit. If Tennessee ever gets to the point of concealed carry without a permit I believe it would only be after open carry without a permit had been legal for some time. Honestly, I don't think either of those will happen - not so much because of safety concerns but because of revenue concerns. The state legislature isn't going to vote away all those application fees, renewal fees, etc. In other words I don't expect either - and especially not concealed without a permit - any time soon. Probably not until at least after the next time I renew my permit at which time I plan to do the $200 fee and obtain a lifetime carry permit, anyhow - assuming that is still an option by then.

Ooooh, I hope so! I will start with some of these democrat version:

Got mine yesterday. The Wicked Edge sets a new standard for my knives. I won't be happy until they are equal to this.

This is exactly the reason I don't like to get below a half a tank.

If I ever catch the ear of a politician that cares, I am actively asking that they ban the use of food stamps at convenience stores. There is NOTHING needed at a convenience store that these should be used for. I watched a lady buy slim jims, monster energy drinks and sundry other crap on the EBT and stared her down like a basilisk. Another time I got in trouble working for the old gun shop. I swept up the parking lot and found a Walmart receipt. Took a look at it and noted 2 containers of cupcakes, 6 each, purchased on the old EBT. I took a pic of it and posted it on Face book (back when I used it) and then got told to take it down. Didn't want no one angry if they associated me with the gun shop.. Pfft And then there is the super calculators. Got folks at work that will tally up their hours and either go home (taking a point towards dismissal) or refuse overtime just so they don't exceed the take home that boots them off EBT. The same folks complain that we don't pay enough. Call it what it is, free loaders. When it all comes tumbling down, they will be the ones on TV complaining they can't live cuz the gubermint aint there to feed and house them and they can't call cuz the phone don't work no more. Screw em

Not really similar, but last Saturday I needed a couple things for a get together that evening. So I go to a gas station a few minutes up the road for what I needed. I get beer, a Gatorade, a sundrop, and 4 bags of chips. When I put these items on the counter the Indian gentleman says "You pay food stamps?" Kinda bewildered, I said no, I pay cash. I got to the truck and thought, you can't buy beer with food stamps can you?! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To even touch a handgun in NY without having a license is against the law in NY. Having said that at the very least I would put in a locked box and stay quiet until the TN line.

Hold on now, don't be so hasty...

Keep em coming, enjoy your vids