MacGyver

No, it’s in case we need to bury Raoul’s son in law out on the grassy knoll with the second JFK shooter.

I’d make the drive over for that. And, I’d bring a shovel just in case.

I’m glad to hear a good report on this. Glad to hear you Knoxville guys out shooting again, too.

I didn’t say that I like it heck, I’d love to trade up to a twin engine boat that I could make the run to the tortugas in. But, I’d also like to stay married.

That’s probably a wise choice.

Someone apparently fumbled a squirrel fish coming out of my livewell recently, and it got stuck in the scupper. It was a bear to get that thing out of a 2’ hose. And, fish get to stinking fast in this heat. Did you decide on a new boat?

The problem with a setup like this is the rudimentary bead sight that’s typical on a break action shotgun. I might argue that you’d be better off with the 9 33 caliber balls that come prepackaged in a 00 buckshot shell. i get the appeal for a survival setup. But, even then for both gathering food and defense, you’d likely be better off with an appropriate shotgun shell.

Oh man, that sucks! I'm so sorry to hear this.

I will not be a bit surprised if a Grand Jury does a No Bill on this. It sucks - but there's a lot about this that is simply tragic. When it comes down to it, the contributing factors here are bad policy and bad training - coupled with a stressful situation. Plenty of people would probably respond in a similar way. Hopefully it wouldn't beup to the point of pulling the trigger - but it could certainly happen. A 15-hour shift is ridiculous. People make bad decisions when they're exhausted. The data shows that impairment from exhaustion can be just as bad as impairment from drugs or alcohol. Add in a stress event, and you're asking for bad stuff to happen. I came out of my office the other day convinced for about 3 minutes that someone had stolen my truck. It was 0930, and I was confused and angry. I didn't realize that our new parking deck with two entrances has one that's a half floor higher than the other entrance. From the street level they look the same. I get it that she parked in the wrong place and was confused. But, how did her long shift (or string of long shifts) exacerbate that? Also on the departmental level - I think we'd be well served to have hard conversations about use of force. I recall a conversation not to long ago with a friend who had come back from multiple deployments with the military and got a job with a local PD. After their "warrior training" he was baffled. His words to me were essentially, "in Iraq we had to go through a long, multiple step escalation of force - even when someone was actively trying to kill you. Here, you can escalate immediately." I know that this line of questioning causes some people alarm - but I think we'd be better off as a country if we went ahead and had it. This poor lady didn't follow departmental policies or guidelines for something like this. She certainly should have stayed outside and called for help. There's a lot that we're likely to simply never know. There were two people who saw what went down - and one of them is dead. I don't know what "punishment" even looks like here. She'll have to sleep with this every night for the rest of her life. She is unlikely to be a cop any longer. There will likely be civil damages - but those will be complicated without criminal charges. The victims family is likely to get some sort of insurance settlement and a "sorry." I don't know how you'd even define restorative justice here, but knowing this man's religious tradition - it's likely what he would desire. This case just really sucks. You'd likely not know this guys name if he wasn't black - and she wasn't a white police officer. That by itself is unfortunate. But, we need to know this guy's name. And gun owners, and police officers, and maybe most importantly police departments need to know this story. Overwork people who hold life and death in their hands, and what else should you expect?

I think they can, now.

I was as surprised as anyone. Last time I needed actual cards as a part of adjudication on clearance stuff - they were the only ones who could do it. There was some non-standard card that was needed or something if I remember right. Now, to the rest of the story - there was no one there who actually knew how to take a set of prints. I offered to take my own - knew that old Fingerprinting merit badge would come in handy one day. It was finally decided that the director was the only one who had ever taken prints. He came and did it - and showed a few staff members how to do it. Needless to say, it was a bizarre experience.

I don't know that the fact that she was a police officer - or the fact that he was black and she was white ought to really matter here. While they may or may not have been relevant in the shoot, there's really only one thing that matters. She had a gun. There's a guy that's dead from a bullet fired from her gun. She's ultimately responsible for that bullet. There should be an investigation. And the results should likely be made public for transparency's sake. Regardless of what happens in this case, she'll go to sleep every night for the rest of her life knowing that there was an innocent life there and she took it. At least two families were permanently altered this weekend. My prayers are with them all - for there is no peace right now for anyone.

Man, there were a ton of companies that straight up copied the Phantom back in the day. I guess karma combined with bad business planning caught up to them all?

My local VA office will do it.

This will at the very least be a manslaughter charge. I feel terrible for everyone concerned.

I’m so glad to see that the FBI has finally located and recovered Dorothy’s original ruby slippers. Because we all know if you’re going witch huntin’... these suckers get results! https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/entertainment/wizard-of-oz-stolen-ruby-slippers-found/index.html

Consumers just have a lot of choice - and have frankly already made up their mind. Police departments and other public buyers really chose .40 S&W over .357 Sig in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. It will remain a niche round at this point. It will likely stay available - less available than the big calibers, but probably a box or two in any big store. The heart of the matter is that it would take an enormous amount of money to market it to the masses at this point to try to offset mediocre gun rag press over the last 20 years. And, no one is going to invest that in this market. If it’s your thing, enjoy it. But, it’s probably as available as it’s going to get.

I’ll be surprised if you find that you need a muzzle break. That said, it might help balance it out a bit. Make sure to update us when you’ve had a chance to shoot it.

That’s definitely one of the more desirable combos.

My in laws pay around $45/month on a contract to get their 300 gallon tank topped off. They don’t heat with it, but have a gas hot water heater, a gas fireplace, and a gas stove.

That’s certainly true. But, it’s double the less than minimum wage he’s making right now. And, the benefit of being done at 3:30 is that you could reasonably do something else like lessons or a part time gig. Sometimes when you’re down in a pit, it doesn’t seem like there’s any hope. I know Mikey’s is a loyal worker. The benefit of someone his age is that they’re also pretty dependable. I’m hoping something pans out. And soon.

Stick around and get some experience, and I expect it pays a lot better.

Heck, Lowe’s is paying $11/hour. I talked to some parents of one of my daughter’s friends who just opened a restaurant down on Nolensville Road this summer. They’re first generation immigrants, and I asked how it was going. They said they’ve worked in other people’s restaurants for years and understand that part. The hard part was finding and keeping good people. They said they had raised their base pay to almost the mythical $15/hour for unskilled labor just to try to keep someone more than a few weeks. I’m hopeful you’ll find something better. It sucks to hate what you do.

I don’t know a car salesman alive still making $10k/month. The internet has flattened out the front end of car sales. There are still some F&I guys making that kind of money, but even those guys are making less than they used to. Are you still looking?

While the article doesn’t make it clear, if these folks were unindicted and unconvicted, then we have another word for this. Theft.