MacGyver

I watched that whole video thinking, "this seems like a great way for a non-pro to really cut themselves."   I'm impressed, though.

The interesting thing to me is that the GOP establishment is screwed both ways with the Tea Party. They made some major tactical errors early on, and now the damage is such that I'm not sure it can be undone. The GOP has just assumed up until the shutdown that the Tea Party was going to caucus with them, and you see where that's gotten them. Yet, if they tell them to go take a hike, as many are encouraging, they won't be able to win without them. So in effect, that fairly small group definitely has a loud voice. And, they may wind up walking this whole American experiment off the cliff. They represent a big threat to the establishment on both sides of the aisle. It's too early to tell if they'll last or simply get purchased like the rest of their peers. It'll be interesting to watch.

You're welcome.

There you have it.

Does your local Ace not stock individual bits anymore? I know most used to.

My wife leans towards this position as well. And, she's got a masters from Peabody in early childhood special education. I think something that really is lacking in discussions like this sometimes is that raising/educating a child is a responsibility born by the parents first, the community second and the government when all else fails. So often, the first two are lacking, so can you really expect any school to pick up all the slack? We're so blessed as a family with a great community. Our church, our friends and even our neighbors are all great. But, at the end of the day, my children are my responsibility. We will probably choose a private school as my kids get older, but I'm fairly certain that our kids would do okay in public school. We're not depending on them to pick up our slack.

I had a colleague who was interviewing for some open developer positions earlier this year.   He had a kid who was out of college and in his 20's show up to the interview with mom in tow.  He almost cancelled the interview right there in the lobby, but was intrigued.  He said that in a thirty minute interview the kid tried to answer several questions, but his mom kept cutting him off.  He obviously didn't get the job - and though he didn't cite any particular reason - the mom threatened him with counsel.   How'd you like to be that kid's girlfriend coming home for Thanksgiving dinner?

I don't buy too many albums these days with the advent of Spotify and the like, but Dominican Sisters of Mary are going to get my $12.   Their Mater Eucharistae is well worth a listen even if like me, sacred music not your normal genre:   On Spotify:  Bogdanowicz, OP, Sir Joseph Andrew – Bogdanowicz: Holy Mary, Mother Of God   On YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209u7A_MwD8

So, I know we've got several members that homeschool their kids, or have in the past.    I saw this blog post from a friend on Facebook and part of it stood out to me.   http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/10/23/we-are-going-to-home-school-our-kids-but-thats-only-because-we-hate-education/     Mind you, I wish we'd take this approach more often when discussing matters of politics.  I'm interested in opinions here.   Thoughts?    

I might add that not only are good tools worth it, but when you've dinged a top-shelf billet receiver, it's too late...

Yeah, I tend to agree with you.   Our old neighborhood had parents lined up every afternoon.  So much so that I felt like all the parents in cars were probably more of a problem than other cars.   The kids I see getting off the bus now don't have a parent in sight.   Being in my kids' school every morning, I do hear bus drivers talking about kids fighting at bus stops, goofing off and doing stuff that kids will do when parents aren't around.   I'll ask one of our bus drivers next week.

If there's a law, it's unenforced.   I take my oldest daughter to school, but once a week we pass an apartment complex where kids are waiting for the bus.  There are so many kids waiting, that two buses are required to pick them up.  There may be one parent out there waiting with them on a good day.   Mind you, I'm in Brentwood, but within our neighborhood parents waiting with kids is a rarity (and one I'm kind of thankful for).  Kids wait at the end of our street on their own.   It's kind of funny.  I take my first grader to school because I like to walk into her school and actually see what's going on and I figure she's only going to tolerate it for so long.  We live less than a mile from her school, but she's dying to ride the bus.

Here are links for each of the three bureaus.  Unfortunately the lobbyists have persuaded our lawmakers to make this way more difficult than it needs to be.  Right now you have to go to each of the three bureaus:   Experian - http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html   Transunion - http://www.transunion.com/personal-credit/credit-disputes/credit-freezes.page - This is the bureau most commonly used to pull consumer reports right now   Equifax - https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp   Also, if you have children, this is well worth doing for them as well.  Though in the case of a minor, you'll have to write the bureaus first to see if your child has a credit report before you can place a freeze.  With recent changes in the law, it's not uncommon for minors to have some form of credit report.  Criminals know this, and we see cases all the time where family members take advantage of their young family members' credit to finance their bad habits.   Here's some info on that through Experian that's applicable to all three bureaus.

As a forensic professional, our experience is that credit monitoring is non-responsive to the problem of identity theft.  It's kind of like a smoke alarm.  It's not going to prevent anything.  If it goes off, you're on fire.   Unfortunately, it's become sort of the defacto "give me something" response to data breaches.  There are two contributors to this.  One, our government sort of set the standard of giving it away in every breach they've had.  And two, it's cheap.  When a provider is buying them in bulk, credit monitoring costs a few pennies per person when you're buying them 100k at a time.  But, that gets sold to the company that had a breach to provide to its customers for several dollars.  There's a huge amount of money in it, so it keeps getting offered.   I wouldn't tell anyone not to take it, but understand that there's nothing being done there that you cannot reliably do yourself.  Open and read both your bank statements and credit card statements each and every month.  Get your credit reports at least once a year (you're entitled to one per year from each of the three providers for free - go to annualcreditreport.com - not freecreditreport.com where they try to sell you stuff).  Finally, put a credit freeze on your account with Experian, Transunion and Equifax.  This will lock down your credit so that no one can pull it without you removing it via a PIN first.   Then, know that if you get your identity stolen and actually become a victim, there are some great services out there that can take the burden of recovery off of you and get it resolved.

Man, the ELCAN Spectre is a great optic.  It's like mounting your living room window on your rifle.

Can anyone point definitively to when "reparation" language first entered into the conversation? I'm assuming this is a later development, as I can't see it as having gotten any traction in the post-war South.

For the record, I'm in agreement with Rob.  If you think that whites are the only ones with an interest in "preserving" America, then you really need to get out more.  You and reality parted ways sometime around 1955.

All I got from that article was - Thomas Sowell is writing for World News Daily?  Has the man lost so much credibility that it's come to this?  Does he need a paycheck that bad?   I've got a bunch of stuff that I'd love to say on this topic, but I am going to refrain for now so that I don't find myself having to moderate myself.    I'm really of the mind to shut this thread down before it gets started.  But, I'm going to leave it open for now.   Let this serve as your warning.  Bring something intelligent to the conversation or don't participate.

Here you go, Gordon:   http://shop.redxarms.com/75-STAINLESS-STEEL-300-AAC-BLACKOUT-PISTOL-BARREL-75300AAC.htm   It's a shorty, but it looks like they're rolling their own, so I'm guessing they could do about any length.

Let's not let evidence get in the way of our speculation...   We're talking 70 year old rifles, here.  Regardless of how much Obama, Hillary and all the other boogeymen out there might hate the CMP, we're operating with a fixed supply of rifles that's going to run out sooner or later.  They've seen their business change.  A lot of folks today would much rather order online or via email instead of making the drive - so a private company made a business decision that makes sense for their business.  I don't see a conspiracy here.   People probably should hurry up and get one of these great old rifles; CMP supplies are going to be exhausted one day.    But please, do it because of the respect you've got for the old warhorses - not because Obama's going to come take them.

I'd rather have the M3s, but there's nothing wrong with the M2s.  I'm still in unless there's more demand than supply, then feel free to reallocate mine.

Put me down for 10 in a flat rate.  I've yet to wish I had fewer quality magazines.

I think we're talking two different concepts. One certainly has biblical roots. The one in question here, though is an arrangement defined by the state to confer a state endorsed package of benefits (tax status, contract law provisions, survivor benefits, estate planning benefits, insurance benefits, etc...) which don't have a thing to do with church. Assuming you're married, you may have had a ceremony in a church, but you asked the state for permission when you went and got a marriage license. Despite the rhetoric, they're not going to start beating down the doors of your church demanding that you start marrying same-sex couples.

Yep. Anyone who thinks that might work out for us ought to have to spend time in a country that's got a theocratic government. It might work out for you for a while. But, then one day you wake up in the minority. See how it works out then. Our founding fathers had first hand experience with this. They knew better.

Those chicks don't shave, Mac. That's some legislation that I'm just not going to be able to support.