analog_kidd

Ron Palillo from the 70's TV show Welcome Back Kotter has passed away from a heart attack. I'm sure there are many on this forum that have never heard of or seen the 70's show Welcome Back Kotter, Of course just about everyone has heard of John Travolta, who got his start on that same show. It was a great show back in the day. Oooh, Oooh, Mr. Kotter! http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/showbiz/obit-palillo/index.html

Real men should be able to make a fire. And they should be able to cook some kind of meat on that fire.

What the heck is the deal with every politician that is running for office, feels like they have to take off the jacket and roll up their shirt sleeves before a speech? It's almost like it's in a play book somewhere. I know that it's supposed to impart an attitude of "I'm ready to go to work for you". Right now, I just want them to impress me. Once they are elected, they can go to work for me. You rarely see an elected official with their sleeves rolled up. I guess that is supposed to tell me "OK, the work is over, let's relax."

I think he is a great pick. I went around the news channels today and both the left and right channels think he will be a strong candidate against Obama/Biden. He will smash Biden in any debate. What I worry about is that it renders an effective congressman useless. Typically, the VP is a figurehead who doesn't get much say in matters of policy. If Romney is smart, he'll let Ryan actually participate in economic policy making. We need intelligent, forward looking, fiscally conservative leaders in Congress. Hopefully this won't leave a void.

We have bought our home, and two rental properties, and refinanced most of them when lower rates came out. Each time we have gone through our local, hometown bank. They ultimately sell the loan to some big corp, like Chase, but who cares, the terms are set at my bank, and Chase honors them. I like my bank, they all know me, we talk about each other's kids, and drink coffee over the discussion of terms. I have shopped around and everyone else either matches or is worse than my bank. They win the tie every time. If you have a bank you do business with and like them, it won't hurt to have them give you a pre-qualification report. The one thing I like is they hold my checking, savings and HELOC accounts, so they just move the money around for me at closing.

Well, Rush is a controversial guy, who frequently makes statements that rile folks up. I would have figured they would have taken that into consideration before making him their spokesperson.

If you look back say 50 or 60 years ago, living together was looked upon by the majority of society as wrong. Because of the immoral stigma attached to it, there were very few couples who shacked up. It's a very similar situation as we have right now with gays. Fast forward to today where living together is common practice, and hardly an eyelash is batted when couples do it. In my mind, this is just another part of the moral decay of society. I don't have proof, but my gut tells me that this has led to having kids out of wedlock, which leads to a lot more broken families since it is even easier for one partner to leave the other. It also led us to accept promiscuity among adults, which led to promiscuity among teens, which is responsible for a lot of teen pregnancy. It also has caused the increase of the spread of certain diseases. I'm not a prude, and I'm not condemning anyone for living together. Heck, my wife and I did it. But the older I get the more differently I see things. All I'm saying is that these morality concepts, whether they come from the bible or where ever, protect us as a society. When one crumbles and the opposite of it is allowed to flourish, there may be unintended results.

True. One of the talking heads on TV was theorizing that Reid made his comments from the Senate floor, where he is protected from libel, to force Romney to take his focus off the real issues, leaving Obama to run his campaign appearing to not have a hand in the controversy. I'm not sure why Reid gets immunity from libel when commenting as a Senator on the floor, but I haven't heard him make comments outside of that protection.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/03/romney-steps-up-demand-that-reid-come-clean-about-attacks-suggests-white-house/ Seems like Harry Reid bought the story hook, line and sinker. He is making claims that Romney has not paid any taxes for a decade.

So, let me get this straight, Mexico keeps calling for us to tighten our gun control because guns are bad, but they now think it is OK to legalize their own drugs. OoooKayyy

The one in Knoxville is on Peter's Drive. We always call it Dick's on Peter's.Makes me laugh every time. Ours went out of the guns and ammo business a couple of years ago.I guess selling name brand clothes to the Yuppies was more lucrative than firearms.

Word on the street is they may only get charged with misdemeanor trespassing and vandalism. Which means another slap on the wrist and they can be back at it again in no time.

I was considering a backpack trip earlier in the summer before it got too hot. I was going to take my wife on her first backpacking trip, so I was looking for something mild. BSF fit the bill perfectly. They have any kind of hike you could want. Easy, hard, short, multi-day, anything you want. And the views are spectacular. Camping is allow just about everywhere, with a few minor exceptions. One thing I did just learn, however, is the BSF is now requiring back country permits for all camping. They charge a small fee for them, and you can get them at the ranger stations or I think even online. They will ticket you if you are caught without a permit.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/28/activists-infiltrate-y-12s-high-security-zone/ This is a very bad thing for Oak Ridge. The Government is already looking for ways and reasons to shut Y-12 and similar sites down. We don't need this kind of bad publicity. I have no idea how three people could get that far into the site, undetected, and deface buildings. It will certainly be a major embarassment to the security force, and make Wackenhut look really bad. These activists have been coming here for years making their protests. Y-12 even gives them a grassy area to gather up in, and sometimes even provides those Quik-Up shelters to keep them out of the sun. Almost every time a group of them try to make a point by walking across the line that is off limits. They always get arrested, but are just given a warning and let go after a few hours. This time, these three need to spend a long time in prison. I'm sorry, but I think they went too far. It always makes me laugh, I see these protesters out there chanting and banging their drums, and carrying signs that say "Nuclear Weapons Kill People". The irony is that some of them are smoking cigarettes. I don't have a problem with cigarettes, but let's just count up how many people were killed by nukes last year, and jow many died because of smoking. Seems a little hypocritical. Besides, nukes actually helped to save American lives. Not to mention, this site employs nearly 5000 people. If these protestors had their way, every one of them would lose their jobs. I guess in their eyes, the workers are evil too and deserve to be punished by losing their jobs.

We switched to DirectTV last year after getting robbed by Comcast every month. We were paying almost $200 a month for Cable and Internet. Signed up with Direct for less than half of that on a two year plan. It will go up after that, but still be around the $100 a month range. I've been fairly happy with them. There are some things Comcast does better. Their OnDemand stuff is way better. a lot more free stuff, and way easier to navigate. Also I never knew how many infomercial channels were in existence until I got Direct. Sheesh, it seems like every 10th channel is selling some Brazilian Butt Firming DVD, or Enhance your Prostate Health Pills. But even with all those channels, there is still a good selection of channels. For half the price of Comcast, I don't really mind the annoyances. I think Direct was having the same negotiation problems, but it looks like they got them worked out. I keep seeing all these banners in teh channel guide saying Channel XYZ is going to remain on. What I do have an issue with, is their bundle partner AT&T DSL. I have never had so many customer service problems before. They should fire the entire customer service division and employ first graders. I think I would get better service. Last week I had my roof replaced, and the roofers moved the dish, so of course my reception went out. I called Direct and they said they would be happy to send someone out, they can be there in 7 days. I thought how hard can it be, you just have to point it in the right direction. Couple of quick Google searches later, I'm up on the roof and the wife is telling me we got a picture. The Internet is a wonderful thing.

I saw in MidwayUSA's latest catalog that they have on sale Remington Frangible 9mm reloads for $20 / 500 (regular price is $71). Not sure if I would carry those rounds or not, but yikes that's a cheap way to punch holes in paper. Anyone have any experience with these bullets? http://www.midwayusa.com/product/930807/remington-ctf-frangible-bullets-9mm-luger-355-diameter-90-grain-flat-nose-box-of-500-bulk-packaged

Looks like the boy who plays Rick's son is growing up faster than the show.

Funny, I use the words Congressman == Criminal interchangeably.

Man, if I saw one of those Roll Clouds or one of the Space Ship Clouds, I would be certain the world was ending. Those things are unreal. Awesome pics, thanks for sharing.

By most accounts, Holmes seemed reasonably normal up until the shooting. So, lets say Bill's law was in place, and Holmes bought a "Heavy" gun, and the ATF went and investigated. Holmes seems normal enough and has the right paperwork, so the ATF moves on to the next guy. A month later Holmes loses it and goes nuts. Where's the ATF at that point? Long gone. You can't follow every person with a gun every day, it's just not possible. And about ammo, where do you set the limit? Where ever it is, everyone will know what that is and just buy under the limit, wait a month and buy another shipment. And where is that number placed? 60,000, 10,000, 1,000? eventually it will get down to 10 or 1. Then the ATF will be so overloaded they can never keep track of it all. At least without taxing the heck out of the ammo just to pay for administration. Maybe that's the goal anyway. Besides, if Holmes only shot 200 rounds, how hard is that really to collect?

NashvegasMatt, thanks for your post. You make the Ridgid's sound pretty good. I swung by my local HD this evening to take another look at them.What I did notice was the extra batteries that you buy separately from the tool say they have only a three year warranty, not lifetime like when you buy the battery with the tool. The kit does come with two batteries and that may be enough, but I would probably end up buying more anyway just because I dislike swapping batteries between tools when I'm using several at a time. I did notice the Milwaukee tools while I was there, and remembered that they get pretty good reviews. I also noticed they had a set similar to the Ridgid two piece for just $20 more ($199), but the drill was a hammer drill, which should be a better deal. Looks like they are the M18 RedLithium and not the newer Fuel style. Do you know if the two styles of tools use the same battery? The Milwaukee's have only a 5 year warranty, instead of the lifetime like Ridgid, that's the negative. But Milwaukee has an impressive collection of different tools (I think I read 30 tools) that use the same style battery. Thanks

RIdgid is offering a lifetime warranty on their batteries right now (for a limited time) but that is only on the battery that comes with the tool. If you buy a spare, that battery is not covered. From some reviews I've read, most people have to use that warranty because their batteries have a high failure rate. Plus their selection of tools is limited, whereas others have an amazing array of different tools. I didn't realize how many different tools Milwaukee had until I just started looking at them. Ryobi too, they've got all kinds of things that run off their batteries, even yard tools. The best bang for my buck would be to just upgrade my Ryobi batteries and continue using the tools I have. They have held up now for probably 6 or 7 years. If I do that, I'll probably buy a kit with a new drill, since they really aren't that much more expensive than buying a set of batteries and a charger. I just thought that if I was going to get a new kit, I'd spend a $100 more and get contractor grade tools. I could upgrade the rest of my tool collection over time and sell my old tools. I do have two fairly new Ryobi batteries to keep things working for now. The drill is probably what I use the most, the rest of my tools can probably last on those two batteries. Plus the color of the new Ryobi tools is awful. I know that's a stupid reason to not buy a tool, but ugh!

I have quite a large collection of older Ryobi 18v tools. I'm thinking of upgrading my tools to something a little more professional grade. I'm happy with my Ryobi drill, but the rest of the tool collection always seems a little cheap. Plus the older NiCad batteries are all shot. That's the real driver for me. I need to buy new batteries, but is seems like most tool makers practically give away the tools free with the batteries. They are so expensive. So, if I'm going to invest in new batteries, I don't mind paying a little extra to upgrade the tools too. I'm thinking of one of the kits they all make with two or three tools. I was originally thinking about Ridgid. I like their corded tools, but I have seen some bad reviews about their batteries. Plus you can only get them at Home Depot. Ryobi is the same deal, only available at HD and that hasn't hurt me with the Ryobi's, but it might be nice to get something that is sold at more places and maybe get a better deal by shopping around. I don't use my tools for work, but I do use them a lot. I own two rental houses, and am hopeful to buy another one very soon. The one I want needs extensive remodeling, so a new set of tools will come in very handy. I was hoping that some members on the board may have more experience with some of the tools on the market and have a recommendation. I just got $100 in Home Depot gift cards, so whatever I get has to be sold by them. At the moment I'm leaning toward the Dewalt 20v tools (which are really just 18v.). HD is offering a free battery with certain sets through July. What do you all think?

Well, I may not be as smart as Esquire, but I don't go around making threats and insults.Did the incident go down exactly as my friend describe it to me? I don't, know. I'm just relaying what I was told from a first hand witness who saw the whole thing and made the report to CCA employees. The local online news agencies had very little details to report on the incident, and it sounded to me like maybe there was a little bit more to the story. If I remember correctly, he told me that CCA has video running of the range and the whole thing was caught on tape. I know (and hope for the family's sake) that the video would never be made public, but I'm sure someone has seen it and knows the details. I'm pretty sure he told me the police reviewed it with him and discussed the timing of events. I know the whole "My friend told me so" thing is not very believable to a lot of people, and if anyone wants to call BS then it is their right. However, I consider him a reliable source. If it's not true, then my friend is a dirty, scum sucking liar. But if it is true, then this incident should be a recruiting tool for how NOT to run a gun/range business.. Esquire, if you have information that conflicts what I said, then by all means share it and set the record straight. All your post did was to make it seem like you are a CCA associate, that wants someone to just shut up by hurling insults and threats at them. While I've never personally experienced it (until now), I have heard that is similar behavior from some of the CCA staff. The fact of the matter is, this really is an unfortunate event. This young man's life will forever be changed and will be difficult to say the least. I'm sorry if I caused hard feelings among any members here on TGO, that was certainly not my intention.

I kind of thought that too. It seemed weird the two ladies standing in the middle of the bridge like they were.