TGO David

Well, sir... make it two great posts that I've read on TGO now. You have my utmost respect.

I replaced both bulbs. No complaints; it gave us a lot of really good light in the master closet.

I removed the ballast units from two 4-foot dual tube fixtures in our master closet and used LED tubes in them. Works perfectly. ZERO problems. Essentially the same thing as buying LED fixtures since all you're using the existing structure for is to get 110VAC to the LED tubes, and to hold the diffusers in place. These are what I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SSNPGSC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Eh, I got interrupted earlier and had to submit my last post before I was really done with it. I'll finish my thoughts here... I wanted to add that nothing sucks worse than getting a new gun that you're proud of and then having everyone pile on the "Nope Train". Links, I hope you have nothing but reliable service out of yours. SIG seems intent on making any faulty pistols whole again, so even should you have problems I am sure they'll take care of you. If the new M&P M2.0 Compact 3.6-inch model doesn't do it for her, my wife may be on the hunt again for another small 9mm to carry and the P365 could very well be in her sights.

I have to take MAC with more than a grain of salt. He's the same guy that faulted the HK VP9 because it didn't survive being thrown hard against a tree. That said, it's still worth noting that a lot of folks are having trouble with their P365 strikers and trigger springs breaking. I really wish SIG would get their crap together because they used to have a fantastic reputation.

I'm just the plumber, Links. I keep the pipes running and the drain flowing. The members are what make the place great. Edited to add... PS: Thank you. I am very humbled by that.

Greg, I still would like your thoughts on this. Feel free to PM me if you'd rather. That being said, however, I am going to recuse myself from this thread for the time being. I am not sure that my continued posting within it will add any more value or if it will just muddy the waters further. Let me say one thing before I check out of it, though: My hope from the start was that this particular podcast episode would inspire the Second Amendment community to be more inclusive of others and more welcoming of diversity within our ranks. The response seems to have been, "But aren't we already doing that?" and I would guess that as far as a forum can be, we're not doing a bad job. But my focus wasn't TGO but rather the larger 2A community as a whole. On a forum, it is fairly impossible to ascertain a member's race or gender from a screen-name or an avatar. I bet a lot of people still think @LINKS2K is Keifer Sutherland. My only ask of everyone here is that we not make assumptions from the vantage point of not knowing, and strive to be welcoming by not giving quarter to behavior that would turn people away. When my wife and I were looking for a new home church recently, we visited a lot of them. None of them made us feel particularly unwelcome, but only one of them made us feel like they wanted us there. I want TGO to do that.

Greg, I respect your opinion. Where am I off the rails?

You know, I am glad that this is making you think about these things but at the same time I wonder why it's making you seemingly obsess over it. Hopefully it is because it caused you to be introspective and ask of yourself the same questions that you're asking here. To answer your question: YES I am saying that, from what I have seen across the spectrum of social media and in person, the majority of people that you see posting online or at gun shops or at the shooting range are white folks just like me and there isn't a whole lot of diversity. What I also have personally witnessed is the difference in how specific minorities are treated when they walk into some gun stores and onto some shooting ranges. If an Asian guy walks into a gun store, no one bats an eye. But if a black guy, a Hispanic guy or a Middle Eastern guy walk into a gun shop, I've personally witnessed them being watched closely by the dudes behind the counter So, am I the only person that notices this? The fact that you're questioning what my motives are suggests that you haven't seen it. But to answer my own question, I know I am not the only one who does. This podcast was a lens into another community's view of the firearms culture and my sincere hope was that people would look through it and see things differently. I had hoped it would help us see things from that community's perspective. But instead I've got folks on TGO, like you, insinuating that there's something wrong with me and that community for seeing and noticing things the way that we do. I'm just going to say it: There's innocent ignorance and then there's willful ignorance, and only the former is forgivable.

OS is correct about this. Your only option nowadays is USPS Priority Overnight. It can be done but in my recent experience you're likely going to need to get the local Postmaster to talk sense into the counter clerk.

I feel like I am talking to a wall here. Can you at least consider for a moment the possibility that you are not seeing the issue because you don't want to see it ?

I think you're talking about a completely separate issue. Sure, the anti-NRA bias is definitely out there in the media and has been projected powerfully enough that weak-minded folks have adopted it as their new opinion of something that they formerly had no opinion on. But please don't write-off the legitimate complaints about the NRA and its past that it steadily ignores, from people who have been directly affected by those things, as being nothing more than the result of anti-NRA propaganda. Like I said, a lot of gun-control laws trace their roots back to 1967-68 California and the Mulford Act which the NRA supported. A lot of gun control laws were and, sadly, still are segregationist even if only evaluated through the lens of who they infringe upon the most. The government's mantra seems to be, "Here are your Rights which we license back to you and tax you for participating in. If you can afford it, come all ye who may. But if you can't, well, you people having them scared us a little anyway". There are entire communities of citizens in this country that don't feel served by the Second Amendment and the NRA isn't doing much to reach out to them and make them want to be part of it. Their lives are as precious as ours are. If that doesn't resonate with you, at least recognize that they VOTE and the Second Amendment needs vocal, voting, advocates.

I hear what you all are saying about the focus on the NRA in this particular episode. I agree that maybe we could have moved on to other things, but these podcasts aren't exactly scripted. It's like any other conversation between friends: You might sit down with a group and talk about a thing. You might talk about that thing from one perspective, and then another. You and your friends might talk about it from different angles and make the same points several times over, but in different ways. You do this because people tend to try to conceptualize, rationalize and explain things to ourselves and to others. We're both students and teachers, simultaneously, and this multi-angled approach of informing and learning is the method that we go through to make sure that we're not being lazy about our thoughts. To some folks, it feels maybe like beating a dead horse. That's probably why college English Composition professors and good high-school teachers tell us to write rough drafts, distill our thoughts down into something concise, and then write our papers. Podcasts, unless highly scripted, aren't often like that. You get to see the whole process play out. It's like sitting at the Chef's Table at a restaurant. You're going to see the sausage get made before you ever see it cooked on the stove. I guarantee you that Tiffany and Aqil's message isn't singular, nor is it all about the NRA. That's why I am glad to keep the door open for them to come back and continue the conversation with us. There's a LOT to consider when we start talking about diversity and inclusion. We didn't even scratch the surface.

Really glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing it with others!!!

I'll be anxious to know what you think of it after you listen!

We recently had the chance to sit down with US Navy SEAL (ret.), past VP of Security for the LA Dodgers, and current Director of Security for a large church and attached private school here in the greater Nashville area, to talk about establishing and strengthening the Safety and Security protocols for churches and other faith-based organizations. This episode is lengthy but thankfully your phone and computer have ways to pause it and finish it in manageable chunks. Click here to listen now on the Shooters Nation website, or search for this episode on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play Music and iHeartRadio.

I'm not much of a motorcycle guy, primarily because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I'd kill myself within an hour on one, but... Damn that's a sexy machine! THAT is a motorcycle I would love to have in my garage.

Excellent choice. Read Left of Bang next if you haven't already.

https://www.lifewire.com/windirstat-review-2619184

I'm finishing up Varg Freeborn's book Violence of Mind and then I am moving on to Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms.

Link to the thread?

I normally quote parts of a reply that I think are important. In this case, every single word you posted is important. We had someone post on the Shooters Nation forum, using a screen name and a throw-away email address to obscure their identity, who took real issue with the notion that Dana Loesh, Ted Nugent and Colion Noir aren't the best representatives of the NRA that we could have. That person clearly didn't use any of the critical thinking that you just outlined and that's a damned shame. No one called Loesh or Noir "racist" in the interview. Angry, yes, and angry doesn't sell well unless it resonates with you. Other people can be turned off by it and never listen to the message or feel invited in and made welcome. Nugent, on the other hand, has several well documented cases of making racist and xenophobic remarks. He's verbally assailed the Jews, Arabic people, and black people. You don't have to take my word for that, you can Google it and find his own words supporting it. This episode of the Shooters Nation Podcast was absolutely meant to be an opportunity to see things through the eyes of others and ask yourself if you're doing anything to lower barriers and be ambassadors of the Second Amendment, if you're just being passively apathetic about who partakes, or if you're intentionally or unintentionally fostering anything that deters people from joining the cause and exercising their Rights. It's sad that MacGyver and I were chatting about this very thing yesterday and he commented that sometimes as a community we're just so white that we can't even see the issues and relate to how other people might feel. That might piss some folks off. If it does, I'll pray for you, but you need to ask yourself why you're so upset about it.

I honestly didn't interpret that from what he said, but you do make a very good point. My interpretation of the statement was that people buy online because they don't have to pay a 9-10% sales tax on the item like they do at a local store. 9-10% isn't much for items under $50 but after that people start to look at it as being "real money". Case in point, a $550 Glock handgun purchased locally normally amounts to: Handgun = $550 Tax = $55 TICS = $10 Total = $615 Purchased online it can amount to : Handgun = $500 (lower price from a volume retailer) Shipping = $20 (worst case, I'd hope) Transfer Fee = $25 TICS = $10 Total = $555 Savings = $60

6/22/2018 @ 12:40PM Central: The re-indexing has completed. Things should be back to normal as far as speed and search-results go.