btq96r

  When I'm at the stop line waiting a left turn light to turn green, I run a quick count of people with their heads lowered far enough to be texting while driving.  My unofficial count is about 60% of people I see passing by are probably texting as they go through an intersection.  

Alright, we're down to 10 teams.  I adjusted the divisions and schedule to match.  5x teams per division, 4x teams make the playoffs, playoffs are two rounds of two weeks each with Week 17 in the NFL not used.   Draft settings as follows: Draft Type: Snake Draft Date: Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 9:00 PM ET Seconds Per Pick: 90 Draft Order: Randomized One Hour Prior to Draft Time     Any requests for changes?

I think I finally have all this straightened out...hopefully.  The only teams I don't have a confirmation on are Deanburg Giants (jtmaze) Team babelt (babelt) and Team Parrothead (Parrothead).  I sent messages to jtmaze and Parrothead, but babelt hasn't logged into TGO since June, so I'm not sure how much interest he would have.    As it stands, we have nine confirmed teams, with two pending.  Hopefully we can get to an even number before tomorrow.  I'll leave it until about 7pm CST tonight for anyone to chime in with a preference for the draft time tomorrow before scheduling it through ESPN.   Everybody else is good to go.  For the new members of the league, I'd recommend you check out the league rules and settings.  Those from last year will remember how the specifics about scoring and roster spots were important, and I hope interesting.

I'm an Oakley brand whore with no shame.  Their Standard Issue program is great for service members, veterans, LEOs, firefighters, and EMS personnel.  I use the full size ballistic M Frame 2.0 and just keep getting replacement lenses as needed.  I keep an older pair with clear lenses for indoor shooting as well.  I like to think they are more sporty than tactical, but I also have a pair of the Crosshair 2.0's for a regular look.  I'm thinking of getting a new pair of those with my RX after the next trip to the optometrist.  But yeah, Oakley and nothing else for me, worth the extra coin.     TMF, welcome back.

  Thanks.  For some reason I wasn't matching your name to your team from the email.

Still haven't heard from a few guys, or I've misidentified them...that could happen, I don't have a complete TGO Screen name/Real Name/Team Name list, which made this harder than it needed to be, lol.   If anyone is the owner of these teams, let me know.  Right now I only have 7 confirmed, and we need at least 8, though that would lower the prize from a nice gun to a decent ammo buy.  Anyone else who wants to join is welcome as well.   Teams I still need to confirm... Deanburg Giants Team Rotteys Team babelt (he hasn't logged into TGO since 1 June, which may be a sign) TN Eagle_Eye Steeler Nation Team Parrothead   Also, draft this Thursday 9EST/8CST...any objections?

If you just want to backup files like documents, pictures and the like, external drive is the best bet for the money, being a one time purchase and all.   If you want to back up your entire computer to "start from scratch" on a new drive, I'd go with Clonezilla or an old version of Norton Ghost, but that would require a pair of drives- one to store it on, one to image if your current drive goes tits up doesn't work at all anymore.   For either of those, online storage helps, but isn't truly needed.  I'm wary of cloud based services because, 1) they're dependent on internet connectivity, and 2) Dropbox and the like are compromised, by the government for sure, presumably by hackers as well.  SpiderOak is supposed to be a lot better from a security standpoint, and has a fair price, but I don't have personal experience with it.  Some others who do have a great deal with this type of issue have good things to say about it, though.

  I see the benefactor subscriptions just fine.  I'll chalk it up to you using Apple products...inferior brand and all. :P

Gonna tabulate the emails I've gotten and those who sounded off in this thread.  Will let you guys know where we stand on membership, potential prize total, and what needs to happen from there.   Is Thursday, September 3rd, say at 8pmCST local good for the draft?  If we need to move it up to 7pm CST, that's fine as well...just want to know what you all need as a group.

If anyone wants to actually read the thing... http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-03-22/pdf/2012-7019.pdf

Some are already frothing at the mouth over it in the Politics sub-forum. http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/90380-tennessee-is-becoming-a-national-joke/   Never mind that it's a suggestion more than anything else:  The university's Media and Internal Relations Director, Karen Ann Simsen, says there is no mandate or official policy to use the language.

Who knows what their motivations are.  Could be a rehearsal, could be a reconnaissance for others or general planning, or it could just be to jackasses being jackasses.  Arab kids are as immature, and prone to do dumb things as much as American kids.  The act itself certainly justifies a very thorough investigation by TBI, or even the FBI to see if there is a plan for a larger shooting, or they have any connections to something.       I had a Saudi in one of my classes last summer.  He was a smart, polite, and very well reasoned individual.  But we butted heads when discussing the Kafala System used for migrant labor when it came up in class for some reason.  He felt it was completely justified and things like the employee holding the workers passport, their work conditions, and other things that we look at as deplorable were just part of the process needed to keep their economy going.  I'd imagine it would be similar to how a slave holder might feel in America circa 1850.   A lot of these foreign students are just here for the classes and will go back home after getting a degree, not the children of immigrants who came to America to put down roots.  So, they have a lot of the home country mentalities.  As it pertains to Arab's, I've found the females are easier to socialize with as their perspectives are being opened being outside of the male dominated home, versus the males who are finding themselves in a position of having their perspectives challenged and tend to get defensive over it.

What is a "right"? A specific legal guarantee or set of legal guarantees for individuals with relation to their government.   Where do they come from? A political system that recognizes, codifies, and protects them.   How do you exercise them? By using them as they are needed or desired.  Also by accepting & protecting their use by others regardless of personal feelings, and defending them when they are threatened by any process other than the established method to change or eliminate them as part of the political process.   What are their limiting factors? Unless otherwise prescribed in the laws that establish them, when they interfere with the exercise of the rights of others is the standard default for their limits.   Do you still possess them if prevented from exercising them? If they are guaranteed under law, they you still possess them, even if you are being denied them or they are being prohibited.  An individual actions can forfeit their rights if convicted by a legal process, such as is the case with imprisonment.   Can you have a right to a thing? If prescribed by law that establishes the right, yes.   Can you have a right to a service? If prescribed by law that establishes the right, yes.

The mud pics make me wonder how top heavy the JLTV is, and how rigorously they evaluated the vehicle for rollovers.  

Condolences to the family and friends of the Deputy.

Another reason I'm staying with Win7 for a good while then.

I have my Win7 partition set to only notify me about updates. That way I get to manually select and install updates. Saves time, doesn't let the process happen when I don't want it to, and best of all lets me control what goes on my computer.

I sent an email through the ESPN league site, but just to put it here as well...   I need you to let me know if you are in or out for this years league.  I would like an email either way to find out earlier.  The latest I would like to know is by 5pm on Monday the 31st.  That way I can figure out how many more people we need to get to an even number.  If I don't hear from you by then, I'll have to drop you from the league since we will be drafting a few days later.      As for the draft, I'm thinking Thursday or Friday night of the upcoming week, sometime between 6-9pm.  Whatever is easier for the majority of the members.  I'm good to go either night.       I'll let you know.  That can be our alternate plan if we have an odd number of teams.     Either or for number of teams.  My line of thinking is I'd rather get one more guy like Xx has to avoid either an odd number or having to ask someone to leave.   As for the pot, I'm thinking $50 commitment, and we find a sponsor vendor to buy a firearm from with the prize money.  The winner can choose from their inventory, and either go pick it up, or have it shipped to their hometown FFL if they aren't in driving distance. 

Basic education is the key.  We sometimes take our love and knowledge of firearms, the laws regarding them, and everything else for granted.     My ex is pretty conservative on most issues.  She's solidly anti-illegal immigrant, and believes that "if she has to take a drug test to earn the money at her federal job that gets taxed for welfare, that welfare recipients should have to take a drug test to receive it."  But when it came to guns, she knew next to nothing, because she never grew up around guns.  She just assumed that my AR's were "registered" as a requirement for purchase and that led to a conversation where I had to explain to her the same things you did.   It comes down to the conversation with the public.  Scaring people is easier than setting their mind at ease, and the anti-gun side is very, very good at getting their argument to people, and we're not because we see it as an individual conversation, and something passed down within the family, not a mass communications campaign like they do.    As far as what we can do, taking someone shooting to let them see how guns really are is a start, and so is what you did, just explaining and correcting misconceptions.  At some point, there needs to be a much better job at putting out information, which the NRA would seem to be the most logical choice for, but they appear to be more about preaching to the choir and the political side.  A massive outreach effort could do wonders, especially with social media helping spread the message.

  I'm obviously not in line with the "God given" qualifier on all that, but I believe the intent of our rights extends to citizens and non-citizens alike.  The only one that stands alone is the right to vote, and the Constitution specifically addresses that by making reference to "the right of citizens...to vote" or words to that effect in the 13th and 19th Amendments, so it's a given that only citizens should be allowed to vote.    With that, all the amendments are of equal weight, and should be uniformly applicable.  We wouldn't let any type of legal process fly for an undocumented immigrant, so if we're going to extend the protections of the 4th - 8th Amendments to them, why not the 2nd as well?  Unless a Constitutional guarantee is specifically listed as for a citizen, it needs to apply to anyone in the country.  That includes the 2nd.

I tried a few of the "leaf" style antenna's but they didn't get NBC, PBS (NPT) and a few other channels for me. Sunday Night Football and PBS documentaries are two of my favorite things to watch, so I had to get an old school sheet metal antenna, mount it outdoors and run a coax cable. Wasn't hard at all, didn't even need to go up on the roof, it's at a normal person's height. One thing I did that seems to help is on my Roku, I set the display type to 720p instead of 1080. I use my Roku every day for anywhere from an hour on a weekday to up to six hours when I'm off from work & school and want to binge watch some shows and movies. With Comcast's 300GB data cap before having to pay for more, I'm good to go. Not sure what your cap is.

  I'm thinking sometime between 2-4 September to do the draft.  Should be similar to last year where we all logged in, and had about a minute per pick or else the computer would automatically draft based on ESPN' rankings.  That way we're through the 3rd preseason game, but not during Labor Day since I'm guessing some of you might have family plans or something better to do than draft a fantasy team during the holiday.   Also, I'll send an email through the league to confirm membership, then see if we have room for people, or need one more to make it an even number.  An odd number team league would just be a headache for scheduling. 

  I was fine with the light skinned HMMWV as it was a great fit for what it was designed for.   It's when we started making ourselves an easy target for IED's that the need for the mass production of uparmored versions came into play.  With that came a lot of safety risks and issues with the aforementioned gas mileage drop, but that was the trade off for the increased protection from SAF, IDF, and IED's to a degree.  Once the EFP came around, the MRAP was needed, and that wasn't enough sometimes, as I knew a medic who was lost when the MRAP she was in got hit with one.   The biggest issue I see with this new vehicle is wondering if it's too big for utility use.  My last deployment to Iraq, we couldn't use MRAP's because the area had too many narrow canal roads that the MRAP just wasn't able to navigate.  The bigger the vehicle, the more your vunerablilities in manuaver come into play.  I'm also wondering how much of a maintence headache this thing will be.  It'll also be a nightmare if it requires as much contract support as the MRAP did.

  I haven't seen the video since most news sites I've seen aren't showing it out of respect.    We may see the gun now because it's what we're looking for, but there is no way to know if we would have noticed it then and there depending on what is going on, and others would identify the same.  People are in their own zone too often, looking at their cell phones, watching something else, checking out a hot chick...unless something grabs their attention I can see how he slipped by from notice like he did.   Also, I was speaking in generalities when talking about how having someone carrying around an indicent could prevent it.

  I get what you're saying and yeah, I've looked at people and told myself I'm going to do what I can to know where they are in the store or wherever...but I just don't like the line of thought that having people carrying is the cure all to these events from going the way they do with the "if only there was someone carrying" mantra.  My gun is for my safety, I'm too worried about what I'm doing and securing myself to actively think about others.  Not trying to be cold blodded or uncaring, just realistic.