Oh Shoot

Outstanding...report after shooting... Sounds like something I might consider down the road if I ever get flush enough for more of the "additional options" category. - OS

To my knowledge, TCA has nothing to say about brandishing at all. It is however, a form of "simple" assault which "Intentionally or knowingly causes another to reasonably fear imminent bodily injury". Then again, if someone threatens you with a beating, he has done the same, and done it first, and you are re-acting to a threat, and not initiating it. - OS

Yes, the Arizona ruling is a stay, not final decision, but nobody expects the final decision to be any different - and there seems no timeline on a final ruling anyway. The TN ruling was as I understand it an actual voiding of the statute, not a stay, since it was ruled as being unconstitutional. ("unconstitutionally vague"). Indeed, it was immediately eligible for appeal, unlike the AZ ruling, which can't be appealed until a final decision is made and even then, an appeal must be granted via a petition to allow it. edit: Just saw where Gov. Brewer said will file immediate appeal. So at least SHE thinks the "stay" CAN be appealed. - OS

Well, first appeal would be to the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco, and considered to be the most liberal of all the Federal Circuit courts, and almost certainly would affirm the decision. This according to Adrew Napolitano on Fox News. Of course, O had this part sussed out, and only needed the first judge's decision to nuke this for a long long time, as it would be a couple years minimum to get all the way to SCOTUS. - OS

$1200 for the cheapest model $60 for mags Guess I won't pre-order one quite yet. - OS

Yep, that's why he was adamant about keeping the Knoxville ordinance against HCP carry in parks. Keep and bear arms, my ass. - OS

I told you the fix was in or Obama wouldn't have filed the federal lawsuit. Federal judge ruling on federally lodged lawsuit. Seems sort of biased, eh? FOXNews.com - Federal Judge Blocks Part of Arizona Immigration Law - OS

It's pretty simple reason, ya know? Haslam is far outspending his opponents. Now has injected about half a mil of his own money to boot. - OS

The US political process stopped being about qualifications long ago. By the time candidates becomes electable, they are no longer fit to serve, even in the unlikely event they initially were. - OS

Your copy was cut short, but here was actually some mayor in VERMONT OF ALL PLACES that belonged to the Bloomberg group? - OS

I guess the folks you talk to aren't the Majority Sheeple population of the state. My mother never heard of him when I suggested she vote for him in the primary. She's not alone by far. Wamp, due to history in Congress, and Haslam, due to the money flood, have the name recognition. There's not 1 person in 10 in this state could tell you who the Lt. Governor is. Ever. Probably not 1 in 25. Gonna write somebody in comes the general election, or just not vote? If he went before City Council and get them to allow HCP carry in Knoxville parks before the election, I'd believe his claims enough to vote for him. Fat chance. - OS

So what is Glock Condition 2? Btw, you sound perfect for an XD (grip safety). - OS

Rimfire Rifle - Model 597 - Remington Rimfire Rifle "Receivers are grooved for standard rimfire mounts and tapped/drilled for Weaver-style bases." - OS

It would take a novelette to answer those few questions completely, and here is certainly not the place, even if I had the stamina. Here is quick Wiki overview and IRS publication link for the "20 factor" test for employee/contractor status. FedEx has failed the majority of the criteria in the various court views: Misclassification of employees as independent contractors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Yep, and FedEx does it all the time, and then ensures that he gets next to zip when forced to sell out, effectively financially ruining the guy's life. Contracts are blanket for all contractors within a state, no individual negotiation, until forced by court, then FedEx changes the model for the whole state until the next challenge. Started out with individual contractors all over the US, turned into first class action suit in Kali, then class actions in 34 other states, now most of those consolidated into Federal class action that has been underway for 1.5 years. About half the states have investigated and or taken action regarding employment tax issues from classification issues. IRS slapped them with multi-billion dollar bill for one year, negotiated it down, is now looking at other years, but mostly waiting on the Federally consolidated class action to resolve as a precedent. All this is a fraction of what's transpired. If you're really interested in more overviews of the sagas, I'll post some links, but a search for "FedEx Ground lawsuits" "FedEx Ground independent contractors" and the like should keep you busy for some time. Actually, here's one, although it is maintained by litigants, that can give you somewhat of a concentrated overview of the saga, including state by state: FedEx Drivers Lawsuit If you really are interested enough to want to ferret out the horror stories that put the personal, human face on the whole debacle, you can spend a week or two at: http://www.fedexaminer.com/ Probably about all I'm going to say about it, as this has become somewhat tangential to the whole topic, and certainly this isn't even the forum where I should have already expend even this much energy on the subject. And just to be clear, I'm not trying to make an overall case of Union=Good in this matter, only that FedEx has indeed been allowed to compete unfairly in exactly the same business that UPS conducts. If resolving that lets in the likelihood of the Teamsters organizing FedEx, so be it. - OS

I don't see how UPS air service and RLA has much to do with unions. FedEx pilots ARE unionized, the only phase of the entire FedEx effort that is. UPS didn't care about FedEx's Express/Air division. It was when FedEx jumped into Ground that they started asking for what they considered unfair competition. Their Ground operations are run exactly the same, EXCEPT that FedEx doesn't have to pay drivers or buy trucks. And since the "independent contractor model" has been shown to be bogus over and over in court, I can't blame them for at least demanding a level playing field. Again, look at the profit margin of FedEx Ground, 17% compared to 7% for Express (which puts the two divisions in much closer equality as to the bottom line), because of the way they've been able to operate with no employee benefits and shunt off all the operating expenses onto contractors. Which would be fine, IF the "contractors" really were that. But every detail of a contractor's business beyond truck ownership/maintenance is dictated by FedEx. Indeed, in ways to numerous to go into here, Ground determines just what any given contractor can actually earn. UPS has watched this process in the courts, and since there is now a long precedence for continually finding that contractor model illegal, has redoubled it's efforts to leveling the playing field. It's not like UPS cares if FedEx unionizes, it just wants it to have to have to compete with the same normal overhead that it does. Again, the big difference is Ground, and not Express. Of course, the Teamsters want FedEx removed from the RLA, as that will make unionizing probably a foregone conclusion over time, but UPS's interest is purely market share driven. Fedex Ground can constantly lowball UPS ground delivery, especially on heavier items, because it has no employees. DHL, as far as I can tell, actually DID run it's terminals fairly, as far as the treatment of its contractors, but it found that it couldn't compete with FedEx Ground OR UPS, because it just couldn't undercut either of them to build up volume and make a profit, FedEx Ground because of its super fast growth due to illegal personnel operations or UPS because of it's simple steady volume built up over a long time of slow but law abiding growth. - OS

The vehicle total you quoted was Express only. I simply pointed out that added with Ground division vehicles, FedEx actually has as many branded trucks on the road as UPS. - OS

Well, you'll have to vote in McWherter to stop him after the primary. - OS

Add > 50,000 Ground Vehicles to the FedEx "not a trucking company" total - OS

Probably, but not big a very big margin anymore. Average quarterly income all divisions, about 9 billion. Ground is 2 billion, Freight is big, but couldn't find breakdown past that. Many other divisions, too, all the way to Kinkos (now FedEx Office). Biggest telling moneymaker: Ground operating about about 17% operating margin, all other divisions lower. Express is 7% or less. There are a number of other criterion for contractor vs. employee status. So far, FedEx has failed every one of them in both state and federal courts. The contractors don't really WANT to be employees, they want to be independent contractors. But since part of the contract says that FedEx can change the contract at any time, it's not worth the blood it's written with. So the courts keep negating the contract, and FedEx keeps rearranging things long enough to stave off things and keep turning a profit until the next round of lawsuits make it change again. Been going on for over 10 years now. - OS

If ever a company SHOULD be unionized it is FedEx Express. The other Smith has kept it regulated by the Railway Labor Act of 1926 by greasing palms in Congress since he fired it up. Basically, FedEx is classified as an airline, UPS as a trucking company. Each has about as many planes and trucks as the other. Then, when FedEx bought out RPS to begin FedEx Ground to overnight compete with UPS, Smith launched the biggest scam of all, the "independent contractor" model. FedEx pays many millions in legal fees and settlements annually to defend against all the lawsuits, including a huge federal class action one, but with such deep pockets, it hasn't even really affected the stock. The Ground Scam has ruined many many lives, and is getting dirtier daily as FedEx keeps changing the terms to skirt each court ruling. TN is the latest state where overnight, contractors have now been informed they must incorporate and own a minimum of three route areas, and not only that, must now blind bid each area against their own fellow drivers. Etc etc. Enough of all that. It's dirty, really dirty. UPS has managed to do pretty well with a union, eh? And while the job is no piece of cake, and the guys get plenty of abuse and micro-managing, their top out salaries and now ten bucks more per hour than FedEx Express, and those guys just don't top out, either. FedEx doesn't much care, since the overnight part of the biz is now minimal compared to Ground. Matter of fact, they could probably just nuke it and not affect them all that much over time. At any rate, UPS has had legitimate gripe about unfair competition with FedEx over the ground biz, since UPS doesn't get the federal labor law breaks that FedEx has enjoyed since it fired up the bogus contractor model with essentially no cash outlay no where near the labor law oversight. Although it is actually the individual states that have made the biggest clamor, mainly over all the lost tax revenues that FedEx avoids by misclassifying its workforce. It would make DSL look great![/CODE] I guess you mean DHL. Which went bust in the US domestic market, actually trying to do what FedEx Ground is doing, because they didn't have deep enough pockets to bribe the right people. Oh, I mean, "successfully lobby" on capitol hill. - OS

Yep. States can pick and choose, for whatever reason. TN and (pretty sure it was) VA got into hissy fit a year or so ago, something about not being able to verify a permit's validity 24/7 or some such, best I remember. - OS

AZ will still issue a permit. So does Alaska. But I understand that Vermont does NOT, so that is a real drawback to the oft touted 2A freedom there. - OS

Actually, as far as medical services, it's almost always the opposite. They charge YOU (much) more if paying out of pocket than the insurance company allows them to charge. Some docs may give a somewhat proportional discount if paying yourself, but not all. That's why even though my insurance doesn't pay a dime till I hit 8500 in a year, I make them run the insurance, and then get the magical "writeoff' lesser price on my final bill. - OS

No, not at all. While services are performed by individuals, they of course can be part of a larger company, in which case the 1099 is issued to the company. Top of head, law firms, plumbing company, web hoster, construction company. Complicated, of course. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf Fish related services figure in heavily, of all things. - OS

Not to all of those...many outlays are exempt. And yes, of course, it's complicated...it's the IRS. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099msc.pdf Of course, this is currently published rules, dunno if they will change, too. The plumber and carpenter (assuming they are not company employees) have always been included in 1099 issuance. But never before has Mike been. - OS