MacGyver

You know what they say about buying a .25. If you buy it, you'll want to load it. If you load it, you'll be inclined to carry it. And, if you carry it, you might have to shoot someone with it. That's really going to make them mad.

Most training classes I've been to have you police the range at the end of the day. Should be ample time to pick up your brass and then some if no one minds. Also, I could see where a brass catcher might get in the way as you are learning some of the malfunction drills. I would really recommend taking full advantage of the class you're paying for and maybe not worrying too much about the few pieces of brass that get away from you.

Very nice! Enjoy it.

The Rim trails are great. The hike out to Hobbes Cabin is a lot of fun. Greeter Falls is good in the summer. Going down through Stone Door is a lot of fun, too.

This thread is making Alanis Morrisette's teeth hurt. This isn't about teachers at all, reallly. It's about power, and who gets to wield it. The only way the teachers are affected is that the terrible ones are protected and the great ones leave discouraged. Every single day. I know. My wife is a special ed teacher with a Master's degree from Peabody who teaches in Williamson County. She's taking a break right now until our kids are in school, but at last check, I think she made a little less than $35k a year. She's a pawn in someone else's game, and unfortunately, everyone on the board is getting hurt - the students and the teachers. In a fair system, my wife would get paid more. She would be paid on how the special needs students she works with close the gaps with their typical peers. If that was the case, we'd be a lot wealthier than we are. But, unfortunately it's not about what's fair. It's about who has the power and what they're going to do to protect it. We all need to be appalled. Look at the news here in MNPS. You may have seen the story on Pearl Cohn last week. 3% of their students scored a 21 or above on the ACT. 3%. That is the minimum required score to qualify for the HOPE scholarship. Too bad it won't get you into UT or MTSU. We have allowed our schools to be overrun by a bully that doesn't care about our students - at all. They care about themselves. Individual teachers care about students and make a difference in their lives. I can't count how many my wife has bought clothes for when they need them, or lunch when their parent wasn't there when they woke up. My wife cared for those kids because she has the heart of a teacher. But it doesn't matter. She can't win the war alone. I know that I come to the table biased against the union. They sent my wife material from Planned Parenthood on the day we lost our first child. I don't see a thing good about them. That said, I'll judge them as a small business owner on their own merits. If I performed a fraction as poorly as they have, I'd be out of business. I know it takes a village to raise a nut, but when only 3% of your students pass the minimum standard, and they still don't have the skills to make it in the world, you've failed. When only 6 out of 10 of your students in the system overall walks across a stage to graduate, that's 60%. You've failed. They need to be fired. Every last one of them. Let the good ones reapply, and get rid of the chaff. Reward them on their students achievements. I don't know exactly how you replace the system we have, but there are some really smart people out there who are really interested in making it work. We have to find a better way. How's a kid who makes a 21 on their ACT going to pay all his teachers' pensions when they retire.

Here's a mod saying let's try not to take things personally or make them personal. No need for that. I've been thinking about a parallel to this - not quite the same, but very similar - what about armed guards in banks. There are plenty of those who have been targeted first thing in a robbery. Seems like it should apply should it not?

Little known fact - that's how Harry Houdini died.

Man, I'm sorry to hear this update. We'll keep you guys in our prayers.

I go for the brisket burrito at Baja Burrito. Seriously good.

Nice SAR-6!

There have been some good threads on this over the years, including comments from some members here who are attorneys. Feel free to search them out. Here's one: http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/handgun-carry-self-defense/200-calling-lawyer-after-self-defense-situation.html

I really like the Leupold Acadia 10x42's I got recently - around $220? Make sure that you at least look through a decent set of binoculars before you select a pair. Just like scopes, there really is a difference. I think the biggest thing other than the optical quality of the glass is making sure you match up the magnification with acceptable brightness - mainly coming from the objective size. My 10x42s are roughly twice as bright as a pair of 10x25s. To get the same bright image, you would have to step down to a 5x magnification. Same thing going up the scale. If I increased my magnification to 20x, but still kept the 42mm objective, I would lose half of my brightness. Other than expecting a $15 set of Bushness 6x24s to have as good an image as a good pair, I think this is the biggest trade off people unknowingly make. We all want magnification, but that highly magnified image is worthless unless you've got enough brightness to make it out.

That's cool.

Tim's character is one of my favorites on the show. The scene last season where he was on the stakeout with Raylan and is talking about the "stories" that they create as snipers, and then relaying the story he created for a particular suspect later in the episode is one of my favorites of the series.

Well...though I post this with minor hesitation, Howesknifeshop.com, Dale at The-Knife-Connection and Knifeworks.com have both posted getting their first shipments of the production models. If you preordered through one of them, I expect you've already gotten a notice to complete your order. No word from Tom at Chestnut Ridge, yet, so I may be waiting a bit more.

Man, I'm sorry to hear that David. We'll continue to keep him and your family in our prayers.

Good to hear. We'll continue to keep her in out prayers.

I love my 700 Police LTR in .308

Gone for the 2nd time. Maybe he'll get the message this time.

That's really nice, Glynn. I really like those M1 style stocks, and have had great experience with E. Aurthur Brown Co.

That looks great!

I've always thought that blade has a beautiful profile.

I've said before, and still believe that the Dow will see 5,000 before it sees 15,000. Don't forget that as lending rules got looser and looser, significantly more 3/1 ARMS were written in 2008 than in the previous years. It's now 2011, and it's time for them to convert. Oh, but wait...it's harder to get a mortgage now. From my chair, I see multiple single point events that could precipitate a crash that would make 2008 seem mild. The Feds have used all their ammo paying off their friends. We've got very little left to fight another round. Of course, we could just let the market sort it out. However you look at it, we're going to collectively pay the consequences of these decisions.

There have been a couple of precedents for this when judges in foreclosure cases have asked to see the original loan documents and the loan holder wasn't able to produce them. Many mortgages transferred hands so many times, that it's questionable if the original document the loan holder signed still exists - even though it's supposed to legally. I think there are two ramificaitons of this. One, like was said above, it will cause many banks to fail. I'm not sure that getting some of them out of the pool is such a bad thing. The potentially bigger effect in my mind is that it continues to weigh the economy down due to "mortgage owners" who are unable to get non-paying mortgages and the underlying assets off of their books and back onto the market. Mind you, this may all really be moot, as it's all smoke and mirrors anyway. Try and name three things that are different in the underlying fundamentals of the economy today than were present in September 2008. There's been a lot of money moved and changing hands, but nothing has really changed.

Nice review. Thanks.