MacGyver

We'll then I'm certainly hellbound, because my almost three year old shot up the whole church last Sunday morning with his graham cracker he bit into the shape of a gun...

This thread has me pretty lit up, and unfortunately it's not Phil Robertson or A&E that caused it. I'll point this finger at myself before I point it at anyone else, but I think as affluent American Christians, we need to take a good hard look at ourselves in the mirror before we go judging anyone else for anything. The prophetic voice is hard to hear, and I'm not terribly certain that any of us would particularly like to hear it today. It doesn't make me really comfortable, but as I type this and think about it, the gay person in America today is a heck of a lot more marginalized than I am. And, as I read it, Jesus spent most of his time with the marginalized - much to the consternation of folks like myself.

A few thoughts:   I've got a friend in a place where he keeps a family bible under the floorboards of his house.  I will remember the day he shared it with me until the day I die.  His wife smuggled it into the country, and it was considered a capital offense.  It's not a capital offense anymore, but being caught with it will result in your right hand being shredded.  So, I'm sorry.  I just can't see the Christian persecution thing so many people are screaming about.  There are places in this world where Christians are actively persecuted.  A&E isn't one of them.    Are the same people who are screaming persecution right now going to complain with as loud a voice if/when they realize that this was a publicity stunt by A&E.  I see this angle being less and less likely, but I hope people remember that they were played if that turns out to be the case.   In the more likely case that someone at A&E made a snap decision and/or made a statement and suspended the guy, it's interesting that by taking that action, they gave him a much louder voice and wider audience than he would have had otherwise.   As a Christian, I hope that I can have the courage to act out my belief that a gay person's sins don't put any more distance between them and God than do the sins I bring to the table.  If I really believe that, then it should be reflected both in my personal life, my voice and in my church.    Regardless, I just have a hard time seeing this whole brouhaha as something that I need to be outraged about. If I let my more cynical voice come to the surface, I would argue that this is a wonderful example of a manufactured crisis.  As I see it right now, in the short term both A&E and the Robertson Family benefit from this by selling a whole lot of product.  Good product on television only lasts so long.  What a way to move some merchandise and go out with a bang.

Speaking as an American engineer, I'm really pulling for Ford. They made a lot of poor decisions for a lot of years, and that cost them - especially on the car side of the business. But, they stepped up and made some tough decisions. Starting with the rebranded and relaunched Taurus, they showed they were serious about design. They're doing some cool stuff. I hope they pull it off.

Interesting side note - the original 1611 translation of the King James Bible included the apocryphal texts. This won't make sense to you unless you come from tradition where it matters, in which case you'll totally understand. It can really blow some peoples' minds when they find out that 'fun fact'.

I look into it.

Once you shoot a surefire x300 you won't go back to anything else.

I don't expect anyone has ever run into the problem, but how long can that bacon reasonably be kept?

As a person who does a lot of the banning around here, I can say authoritatively that no one has ever been kicked off of TGO for being a "homophobe."  You can think that gays are icky and you're going to catch it if you get to close.  We don't care.     Where I draw the line is when a person is hateful towards another member or expresses open animosity towards a group.  We just don't need that here.     We've got a big audience these days.  Check the front page and you'll see that we're just shy of 20,000 members.  We put a lot of effort into protecting this community, and the "family-friendliness" of it.  Frankly, you guys are responsible for a lot more of that than the staff is.  I really enjoy it when someone tells me that they don't mind their kids reading TGO as they learn about guns.  We're going to protect that.  Plain and simple.

They're ugly, but they look functional enough.  It seems like they would have a lot of flex that would frustrate you when mounting a laser.    If you're just looking for a light, I think the Crimson Trace Light Guard will fit a mil-spec:   http://www.crimsontrace.com/products/manufacturer/1911-pistols/01-7100

Most schools were designed to be places for the community to gather - in addition to their 8-3 use in educating children.  Up until a few years ago, they were designed to be open and welcoming.  It's pretty difficult to suddenly decide we need to apply security controls to buildings that weren't designed for that purpose.   It's a shame that we look at schools these days as places that need to be locked down.  I get the reasoning behind it.  It just seems like as we continue to fail to keep guns out of our schools - maybe we should consider some other options.   It's for the children, after all.

Fixed Kieefer's issue.

I'd suggest a PM if you haven't done it already.  I don't know that everyone is going to be reading this thread.

Saw this video yesterday.  Proof that you don't really have to have that high dollar grinder to roll your own knives:   [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98cGkhN18o&feature=youtu.be[/media]

I'm pretty sure that is a white-labeled NCStar product.    I think they were marketed to the airsoft crowd.  I had one that someone gave me at one point.  I may still have it somewhere.  If I do, you're welcome to it.  I seem to remember it being spotty at best and not holding zero on a "real steel" pistol.

In the spirit of the OP, I enjoyed this video yesterday:   [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoABty_zE00[/media]

Yeah, I'm closing this one. 

That sure is an inglorious end for an old P7.

419eater.com has some great anti-scambaiting tricks.

That makes zero sense, but I guess the law makes no sense. I learned something new today.

I'm pretty sure that once a firearm is on the registry, it stays on the registry. You can't just swap an NFA barrel and sell it.

Check your mailbox. I think you may be full.

Tex shot himself with a Kimber Pro Carry in the video above.  This is one of the best videos I've seen detailing the incident and the problem with the Serpas in general:   [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GDpxVG9XFJc[/media]   I use the safety on my 1911s.

He seems to enjoy posting links to his stuff on reddit:   http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1jsxf5/how_i_write_by_lt_col_robert_bateman/     And yet he seems to think school violence is funny: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1s3z2p/so_like_an_idiot_i_bought_throwing_knives_before/cdtnzw5   http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1rqzqz/how_can_i_become_famous/cdpyn3o   But I can have guns, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1rqna0/what_do_you_want_for_christmas/cdpux55

I've used Bill Carlson.  He does good work.