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So, according to the source linked below, the event organizers spent $10k to hire 40 officers for security.  My gripes against moonlighting law enforcement aside, if you need to hire that many armed guards, you should wonder if your event is too stupid to proceed.  Whoever does the risk assessment for events booking the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland should be fired.   I'm also digging/hanging my head in shame at all the photo attention on the multicam dressed, taticool gear equipped SWAT team.  Aside from looking like an Airsoft team, they really didn't do anything besides crowd control after the fact.  It was an everyday traffic cop who actually dealt with the threat, and normal beat cops alongside alert citizens who carry are the best defense in this type of situation.  But I'm sure this incident will be used to justify or increase the budgets for SWAT teams...sigh :shake:     As an aside, some of the aforementioned SWAT guys could use some time on the treadmill more than I do...which is saying something.  The tactics of the bad guy shooting at you is going to be moving faster and lighter than you, which puts you at a disadvantage.  So jacking up or carrying all that extra weight isn't really "doing it right." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066779/Police-officer-suspect-said-injured-shooting-outside-art-anti-Muslim-exhibition-art-depicting-prophet-Muhammad.html

I didn't watch it live, but I had a feeling it would underwhelm.  The big fights these days tend to do just that.  I sure as hell wasn't paying $100 bucks for PPV or paying a cover charge somewhere for it, to say nothing of the crowds.   Mayweather's fighting style has been pretty constant.  As he gotten older, he's played it long going into each fight, and it obviously works for him. Between his treatment of women, childlike flaunting of wealth, and friendship with Justin Bieber, I think very little of him as a man, but as a boxer, he has to be respected for his dedication to the craft.  You don't go 48-0 in fights without being good.

Yeah, it's an A2 FSP.  I'm not worried about it being salvageable after since resale would be a whopping $10-$15.  I'd just like to get this done sometime next week (my low-profile gas block should be in then) so I can take advantage of a few weeks off and hit the range before it gets oppressively hot.

I need to replace the standard delta ring and front sight post on a 16" PSA upper with a Troy Bravo Rail and low profile gas block.  I wish I had a garage, a bench, and the tools so I could watch some videos and learn to do this all myself, but since I live in a townhouse, I'm going to need some help.   If anybody has a name in mind for someone who can do this in the middle Tennessee area, I'd be glad to give a local business or individual some work for a fair price.   Thanks.

  It's was as much prudence as a blessing and it was the smart play.  Going the other route, you would have had to deal with an empty house with a 2nd mortgage/insurance/property tax hit to worry about until you sold it.   But this is America, and for some people selling a house equates to a hustle opportunity.  When the day comes that I buy and sell a house, I'll be as thankful as you to just avoid a loss in the giant shell game that is the housing market.   Piece of mind, having the deed done (no pun intended) and a small profit to squirrel away or apply to your current house are reward enough.

All caps...the commenter must have been angry.  :rolleyes:   Comes across a a bit whiny as well, but that might just be my quirks on writing styles kicking in.

  To put it into a western context, it would be like holding all Christians accountable for the exact wording of the Old Testament and its list of punishable by death edicts.  Plenty of words there for a non-Christian to be worried over if they take it at face value.   Beliefs don't infringe on your rights, but actions are another story.  Being ready for that is one reason why we have guns, right? :)

  The KKK, IRA, anti-abortion killers, the Jewish Defense League...all use their religion, or their perversions thereof, to justify their means.

  Islam is most certainly not one unified force.  Aside from that whole Shia/Sunni divide, there is a wide spectrum when it comes to how strict its followers are, just like with other religions.  Some take it literally, go jihad with its application, while the vast majority want to just say their prayers five times a day, and raise their families to be God fearing people.

  The violent response is aside from everything else that went into that event.  Though I will say the actions that happened weren't unpredictable.   If a "Mohammed Art Exhibit and Contest" isn't a bigoted event against Islam, I don't know what is.  It is protected speech in our country, though.  But I'll bet a brick of .22LR there were plenty of high and mighty religious types there who get offended when their religion has scorn heaped upon it.  Just because they aren't opening fire doesn't mean they aren't hypocrites.

Since those who are the most stridently anti-Islam are usually religious in their own right...anybody who participated in, or supports this event looses all credibility if they get upset or insulted when someone pokes fun, or degrades Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Scientology, Jedi...whatever shoe fits.  If Islam is fair game for ridicule, so is every other religion.

Part of me thinks the attack plays right into the aims of its organizers.  Not saying they were hoping to become the target of an attack, but it definitely give them a "told you so" moment.  The left isn't the only one to use a crisis to further their aims.

  I would never want to use a carbine or rifle for home defense without a red dot sight.  Yeah, maybe you should be able to hit a plate sized target at 25' with a rifle just by pointing (since I never tried it, I won't even say I can)...but in an adrenaline filled, live speed situation like a home defense scenario, I want the red dot.   Also, x2 on what Mike said about opening the other eye.  With enough practice and walking around with the rifle up, it becomes natural.  Like having a HUD in your brain.

  There is going to be level of rioting no matter what the verdict is, I think we all know that's going to happen.  But yeah, acquittals would make it worse than convictions.   Only one officer (the driver) is charged with 2nd degree murder, which I doubt results in a conviction.  All the manslaughter charges (4 of the 6, including the driver) are involuntary.  I think those four have the highest chance of getting a conviction, especially since it seems the department has an SOP these officers didn't follow when securing Gray in the van, and there are officials from the BPD on public record about it.   Misconduct in office, (which I want to see a lot more of when it fits) seems another one that can be made to a jury if they can prove the arrest wasn't valid or procedure wasn't followed.  2nd degree assault will stick or not depending if they can show the arrest was valid or not, but you bring up a valid point about the good faith issue.

WWJC...What Would Jesus Carry?

  That's why I don't think, aside from the murder 2 charge for the driver, the list of charges are as much of a reach as some here do.    If the prosecution can prove the arrest wasn't valid and the police abused their authority, the jury will be a lot more sympathetic to viewing every subsequent action without the legal actions/immunities a police officer has in the performance of their duties.

The VA is going to be stringent for their benefit as much as the buyers.  If the buyer defaults on the mortgage, the VA has to pay the loan, and deal with the re-sale of the house.  They are going to do everything they can to minimize their re-sale costs up front by making you pay for repairs.    Unless the money between the two offers you mention is enough to cover more repairs and still be worth the pain, I'd say go with the non-VA source.  At the end of the day, I'm guessing you're ready to be done dealing with a home you aren't living in or getting a rent check from.

There really is nothing new under the sun.    Civil unrest has gone through evolutions in tactics and techniques, but from the first Jewish-Roman war, to the American Revolution, to the events we've seen in our country in '65 and today, history teaches us civil unrest is usually derived from a population that feels oppressed, and finally reaches the breaking point.   For my money, a major part of all this is directly tied to the economy, employment and opportunity.    A lot of jobs have been lost to free trade and globalization over the last generation.  Those jobs were low skill, yet economically stable enough to provide a home if someone put in an honest days work.  Replacing a good paying factory job with minimum wage shifts at McDonald's has to put in a healthy amount of discontent.   Employed people don't riot without damn good cause.  When there are only so many ways out of the bad situations a lot of our citizens find themselves in...taking to the streets doesn't seem like a bad option.  We've shipped away jobs to the 3rd world, and replaced it with expanded welfare to try and make up the difference.  How's that working out for us?       There are plenty of us don't need a God to hold ourselves to standards, morals, principles, scruples and ethics.

  I don't think the public record requirement should be taken away, but it should only apply to government agencies.  Personal Identifiable Information of non-governmental actors in reports should be redacted for privacy and safety concerns.

I'm jealous of everything besides the actual fishing...that's not so much something I enjoy.  That looks like some beautiful country to hike around, and I'd for sure want to camp out for at least a night there.

  I think they're both connected through the issue of culpability, but I wasn't trying to bounce back and forth, just saying what comes out of the one (guilty or not) will set up the other.       After the perfectly timed story from the Washington Post, I'm not trusting anything until a medical examiners report comes out.  That's what they will use at trial, I'd imagine.   The media is in their usual game of trying to scoop each other, and I'm actually a bit disappointed that the Post would use that uncorroborated story like they did.

  I think the whole cause of arrest thing is being overlooked by the injury and death, but it's just as important.  If it can be proven that the police had no cause to approach him, and no reason to arrest him, then everything after that can be related to their misconduct in that, and laid at their feet.    The criminal burden of that is hard to make, but if it's found out that the cops were wrong to arrest him in the first place, that's a slam dunk for a civil trial.

  Anything medical is probably going to be kept at close hold until at least jury selection is done.  Put the information out now and finding enough people to serve as jurors and alternates becomes a miserable chore.

Here's a link with the charges the officers are facing. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-mosby-presser-0502-20150501-story.html#page=1

  It's a weak draft class by comparison, but every team is dealing with that, so it isn't a problem unique to the Titans.    Offense or defense, a tackle in the first round isn't bad at all provided he is ready to play in the NFL and isn't injury prone.  Draft the right one, lock in a contract extension early enough, and you can have him as a steady presence for a long time to build around.