MacGyver

He probably should have studied up a little bit on how Wayne and his friends engineered the original takeover of the NRA. It is interesting to consider that Oliver North is probably far more popular amongst the NRA faithful than is Wayne LaPierre or Chris Cox. I don’t see this settling down soon. Not do I see it being particularly helpful to the organization at large or the 2nd Amendment in the near term.

Oh, I like that.

It’s crazy that they’re airing their political grudge match in open at the convention: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/nras-wayne-lapierre-says-he-is-being-extorted-pressured-to-resign-11556314763 They don’t even need to anti-gun crowd to run it into the ground.

All of the above said, having the ejector on the mag is an issue for me. If you want to drop a magazine with rounds still in it and render the weapon safe, you're going to have to rack the bolt and manually remove the round that's still going to be attached to the bolt face. That's less than ideal.

I've got a Glock-pattern lower for exactly the reasons above. But, the weakness in all of those platforms is the jankiness of the bolt hold open - it's less than ideal on all of them. You should never have to read in a manual - "if it doesn't work, bend it until it works better." The fact that the BHO works as designed on this one is a big draw. Couple in the fact that you can use your same mag pouches, and mag changes, etc are the same as on 5.56 - it's a compelling feature set. If I was looking to move to the platform - I'd at least give this a hard look. At $30, I'll probably pick one up at some point just to test and play around with.

I’d like a short, blued .44mag, too. Cimarron makes an 1873 in .44mag, but they’re hard to find and expensive. I guess Marlin makes the 1894, too. But the fit and finish between it and the Henry should be miles apart.

Well...dang it. That’s a fun rig in 35 Remington.

Sounds like a fun Arduino or Raspberry Pi project with a couple of limit switches.

Paging @mikegideon and his Quickload license... Or @RED333 or @leroy - they’ve probably loaded more .44 mag than most of us will ever shoot.

Off topic - but if you ever get the chance to parse through the mail that comes to your church, you should. Truthfully, I regard the above flyer as “senior ministry is hard and it’s something not many feel called to do. If they like Branson, they’ll like this” But, some of the mailers that come through are truly bizarre.

I just found it a weird juxtaposition that I didn’t expect at all when I opened the mail. They can put red noses on the pair of reindeer and take pictures with Santa on the forecastle of the Ark for all it affects me. It’s just interesting that on one hand you have a group that goes so far as to sponsor scientists to “prove” young earth theory. But, on the other hand you’ve got a giant Christmas village... My kids have been. I asked them earlier what their favorite part about it was, and they all said riding the camels. If I was close by and had some time, I’d check it out.

To bring this down a level, I was going through the mail at church on Wednesday evening and there was a flier for the Ark/Creation Museum in the stack. Greg, there weren't any coupons - or I would have saved them for you Rather they were advertising for group tours at Christmas. Now, mind you, I come from a conservative tradition - church of Christ. While my practice has changed somewhat from that of my ancestors - I still worship in that tradition, and the faith of my family before me has been absolutely formative in my faith. As such - I did not have a bucket to put this flier in, as the things it was advertising simply wouldn't have mixed in the conservative tradition of my upbringing. I give you, Christmas Village at the Ark Encounter: Christmas trees, zip lines, ice skating, and a wonderland of lights. My ancestors may have lost their minds over something like this. I'll admit that I don't quite have a bucket to put this in - but find myself a little less than comfortable with this whole "commercialization of Christmas" sort of thing from a group that I would have thought more conservative than me. But, if you see the above - and you're like "heck yeah, that's better than going to see the lights at Opryland for the eighth year in a row," here's a link: https://arkencounter.com/christmas/ It's even free after 5:00.

Filter the first chapter of Genesis against the way the ancient Israelites understood their universe: Then filter that against our post-Copernican understanding of the universe with the earth orbiting around the sun. How does Genesis address the ancient Israelites, medieval people before 1543, and us today? Each of our cosmologies is vastly different. But yet, God still speaks to us. Looking at our understanding of the universe - and knowing how other peoples through time have understood it - I'm left to surmise that maybe it's in the story. But, I also try to read the story like my children do - and not get so hung up on things.

Something I've pondered a lot over the last few years is what if one day we get the chance to ask God all of those big questions, and the response we get it, "oh, you just weren't created to understand that."

I very much believe the whole thing. I am just willing to look at it as the story of God's people - and not necessarily have to have it be a scientific text. I might even go further to say that I'm willing to believe in divine revelation even when human authors, translators, preachers, and readers are imperfect. For example - take the King James Bible that is generally revered by the most conservative traditions. Those traditions that still regularly use it do so because they believe that it is the "purest" English translation. Modern vernacular arguments aside - did you know that the original 1611 version of the King James included several books of the Apocrypha? In fact every version up until 1666 did - and they were included in most versions up through 1885. They were already debated at the time. Jerome labels them as such in the 4th century - even though they were in the Jewish Septuagint. Really he keeps them because St. Augustin talks him into it. Post-reformation, they're really removed (despite a big war being fought) because the protestants would really like to appear less Catholic. There's a lot more here - and it's an interesting bit of history I recommend - but there are some pieces not in most Bibles today because one tradition wanted to look less like another tradition. What do we do with that? All of our translations are problematic. The best translators are upfront about the decisions they make and why they've made them. But, they're admitting that their translation of the text is imperfect because of the lack of ability to express ancient languages across into something accessible by the reader. Does God still speak to us through imperfect translations? What about through imperfect understandings of ideas? I read an article the other day that made a compelling case for needing a second person plural in our translations - basically the Bible needs "y'all" and "all y'all" because we don't have the words in English do describe a Greek plural "you." As such, we mistake "you" in some cases to speak to us individually when we should be reading it "y'all" to speak to us as a community. I guess I say all of this to say that I can continue to believe without a full understanding - and even an imperfect one. I pray that God will be graceful with all of us...

Patricia Heaton doesn't have a belly button. Maybe she's Adam reincarnated?

I don’t. I am in practice what most would consider a conservative Christian. But, I also work to sync my faith with what’s been revealed to us through science - or art for that matter. My faith is not challenged if the narrative of Genesis has more to say about the relationship between God and his created people rather than it does specifically, literally about “how” the earth was created. I do very much believe in a creator God. My kids were taught the creation story on the flannel graph just like I was. But, as a church - we don’t want our kids to grow up feeling like they need to turn part of their brain off when they go to church - so we try to struggle with these things in a way that’s open and genuine. As scientists, the more we learn, the more we find we don’t know. I’m certain future peoples will look at us with the same wonder that we look at the understanding of other ancient cultures. I think our modern, post-enlightenment minds make a mistake when we try to take the Bible and turn it into a scientific text. That’s not how the intended audience would have read it - and so we should be careful there, too. I do believe it has an enormous amount to tell us about our relationship as a community with a creator God. In that way, the stories in the first part of Genesis represent a far different story than the creation narratives of other near-Eastern cultures of the time. For that matter, and back to this topic, I’m even okay if the flood narrative is mostly apocryphal. It doesn’t disrupt my faith. But, at the same time, I can go to see a full-scale model in Kentucky and think it’s pretty cool.

The amazing thing about stings like this is just how productive they are. Still. Today. In 2019.

This is just heartbreaking.

They’re young earthers, but if you can get past that, it’s pretty cool and worth seeing. My kids went there last summer and really enjoyed it.

Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this. Know that you remain in my prayers. Additionally, if there’s anything that we can do as a community to make things easier in the coming days, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

It’s way easier than it used to be. And faster, too.

I didn’t know Lodge did factory tours. I’d love to check one of those out sometime when I’m down that way.

Good luck and Godspeed my friend. Y’all have put the work in while you’ve been in Nashville. I know y’all will be glad to be back close to family.

We’ll keep you all in our prayers. I hope that you last days with her are filled with the joy of a life well lived and the comfort of faith. I pray that you all will be filled with peace.