RobertNashville

I'm still waiting for you to tell me what YOUR solution is? I've suggested a transition to a privatized system but you seem to reject that...you've said many times that the money is gone...there is not money...your taxes needed to keep paying would turn you into a slave, etc, etc. It sounds SO non-threatening; so benign to say you want to "cut entitlements" but what you are really saying is that you are willing to let a lot of people die of hunger and/or exposure and/or lack of medicine/medical care as there are thousands upon thousands of elderly who are either completely or almost completely dependent on SS/medicare for their meager existence and thousands close to that point...many are simply too old/too frail to work and generate an income themselves and there are only so many Wal-Mart greater positions even for those who can work so tell me, is your solution to just kill grandma and grandpa? It would be more humane to give them all a fast-acting poison than to do what you seem to be suggesting (without actually saying what you are suggesting). I know there's no GD money but it sure isn't because I haven't been paying through the nose (and other orifices) in taxes...all of you need to get off your self-righteous high-horse and stop trying to blame the baby-boomers for this problem. Virtually no one alive today had ANYTHING to do with starting these programs and there hasn't been more than a handful of politicians of either party in the last 70 years with the guts to solve this problem - the few that have tried have been quashed by everybody else and that includes EVERYBODY of VOTING AGE no matter what generation they are part of. If you are alive today and of voting age then YOU are the problem as much as anyone else so get over yourself already; stop trying to blame someone and come up with a SOLUTION that doesn't equate to mass murder.

I do get lots of email from them...but what I get from them but some of it is worth reading and their "advertisement" emails are a drop in the bucket compared to the ton of other stuff I get on a daily basis so, like all the other stuff, if it isn't automatically recognized and junk and deleted automatically, I delete it myself...junk email is sort of the price you have to pay to be able to get the email you want.

I don't know who "Haffner" is or what his connection to TWRA might be...all I can say is that the one TWRA affiliated rage I've been to (Montgomery County Shooting Complex) is a top-notch facility and both the staff and volunteers are first rate people (of course MCSC is a bit of a haul from the Nashville/Franklin/Murfreesboro) area. I haven't been, yet, to the Stones River range I mentioned above so I can't comment on it but I've no reason to think it won't be a good place to shoot.

You most likely need an attorney in CA; not TN but one of each probably wouldn't hurt.

I had a similar incident happen to me...an arrest record from over 20 years before but wrong person; charges against me were dismissed. HOWEVER, Tennessee, in its rush to not do anything more than necessary found the "arrest record" and no "resolution" and the burden was on me to "prove" I was eligible for my carry permit. I hired an attorney to get notarized records from the court (in another state) and then supply them to Tennessee so they could issue my permit. This is a perfect example of the HUGE holes in the present system...our constitutional right to keep and bear arms is held hostage to miss-identification, incomplete or erroneous records or "electronic records" that no longer have anything in paper to even back up their existence and subject to the whims of 50 state legislatures and thousands upon thousands of court and court employees who you hope did their job perfectly. Right now, if you go to buy a weapon, the primary burden of proof that you are legally ineligible is on the "state"; it should be that way with issuing carry permits as well...being "arrested" for a crime is NOT the same as being convicted of one and the HCP folks simply finding an arrest record should not then put the burden on proof on YOU to prove you are innocent; especially given the state of such records...the HCP folks should be required to prove you were convicted (and therefore ineligible).

I have a course booked at Tactical Response at the end of March and I'm hoping to go to Low Speed High Drag sometime this late summer/fall...I'll let you know how they turn out. Next time I do a Route 66 trip I'm hoping to include a course at Front Sight but that will have to wait until next year.

Of course it will; if businesses pay taxes (as you have said) then all we have to do is increase the tax burden on them and collect all the tax revenue we need - the entire population as well as government is off the hook (you need to call the dalai-bama right away; he'll be happy to hear the news). Likewise; no more need for this thread since you've solved the spending and debt problem for everyone.

Yes...and I don't think anyone here has said otherwise have they? Really??? Who, exactly...name some names. I've never missed voting in an election even while deployed...I've written Congressmen even when we had to write a real letter and put some effort into it rather than just "send an email". I've been a volunteer in many different campaigns from county commissioners to mayors to governors to presidents...I've traveled to D.C. many, many times and had face time with sitting senators and representatives. So where do you get off blaming multiple generations as if everyone but you are guilty? Better questions, what the hell have YOU done??? Maybe you think posting about it on an internet forum is actually doing something. ROTFLMAO Many of us have saved for our own retirement because most of us don't want to live on the dog food SS can provide us even though the U.S. as a whole has a pathetic personal savings rate; why do you assume no one has? How much are YOU saving for retirement? If you aren't socking away at least 15% of your gross pay/salary every pay period then good luck to you but don't come crying to my generation's grand or great grand children to bail your lazy self out of your financial problems. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to save for my retirement if the government wasn't taking 15% of my pay for FICA and another 30-40% in all the other taxes and fees I have to pay at the point of a gun. If I had been able to save just what FICA has stolen from me for my entire working life I could EASILY Have in excess of $1M in the bank right now...money that would not only fund my retirement but could be passed onto my family or charity once I'm gone. Instead, that money was taken from me and if I die a month after I have to quit work my family sees nothing after all I've put into the system. Then I have to put up with *******s who think I should feel guilty for expecting to receive something back after having paid in for the last 40 years. The only thing most people are asking for is to be treated fairly...perhaps that's too much to ask in the opinion of some.

Thanks for the education on price setting...I can't imagine why I wasted all those years in college - now I know the companies I've worked and work for have been so foolish and wrongheaded when setting their prices...I can't wait to go into work on Monday and tell everyone we've been doing it wrong all these years. Even better, you just solved our $1.X Trillion dollar deficit and $14.X Trillion dollar debt - all we have to do is raise taxes on business...we;ll make them pay taxes and everybody else can go back to watching TV...Problem Solved!!!

I'm glad it was a good experience for you! I've no doubt and I've always heard that they have great courses/programs and I'm hoping to take a course sometime when I'm out that way. That said, I think there are equally good (perhaps even better in some respects/some courses) places/instructors that are a lot close to home than Front Sight. Just my $0.02

Great...now tell me how you are going to fix SS and Medicare and then the the other $1 Trillion per year we don't have.

Everybody today pays 15% FICA whether they are self employed or they work as an employee of a business...if you don't believe me that's fine...don't believe me. When you were a business (and I'm assuming you mean you owned a business), if your product cost $10/unit to produce did you charge your customers only the $10 or did you charge more than that to have a profit and to cover the taxes you were going to have to pay on that profit? Maybe you just paid the taxes out of the goodness of your heart and didn't take your tax burden into consideration when establishing your prices but I've worked for some of the largest corporations in the world and I've yet to work for one that didn't take their tax burden into consideration when pricing their product...corporations pay nothing in taxes that they didn't first charge their customers. That is why if the government "taxes big business"; while some businesses will eat it in the short term, long term it's always the people who buy "big business's products" who truly pay the taxes. EDIT: Frankly, who gives a s**t whether anyone thinks they pay 7.5% or 15%??? I'm still waiting for someone to tell me if they are going to kill grandma or not and to explain how they are going to fix a $1.3 (or more) TRILLION DOLLAR annual deficit???

Okay...so you too think businesses actually pay taxes. ROTFLMAO

I don't disagree about the politics; especially in the long term. The "fear" I see out there at the moment is fear that the unrest we've seen in Egypt and Libya might spread to someplace like Saudi Arabia...minor disruption in oil flow from someplace like Libya is nothing...anything that might cause a major disruption from a major produces like the Saudis and we could see the entire world in a sh**storm. Long term we nee to be developing our own resources while also doing what we can to limit our need for oil...there is nothing wrong with the concept of "green energy" but that doesn't mean we have to commit financial suicide to have it when it doesn't make financial sense.

Just giving this a little "bump" for the weekend.

There is a state range " Stones River Hunter Education Center Hobson Pike Gun Target Rifle Range SRHEC Nashville Lavergne " that, while not in the Franklin, area, might be wroth your time to check into. I actually haven't been there yet but I and another member here are trying to pick a time to meet over there, he swears by it and it looks like a great range. I'm taking anything away from Owl Hollow...that's a nice range, great people and you can't hardly beat the price.

The entire budget is the problem...all of it...every penny...every program...all of it and none of it should be off the table nor can it be off the table if we are going to get control of the overspending and debt before it overwhelms us.

I'm not extolling the virtues of government largess (there are none); I simply quoted the above to illustrate the fate of those we cut off after having made them dependent on the government...it's even worse now because unlike England of that time period, we don't even have the work houses for such to go to.

Food for thought... "Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. "Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again. "And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?" "They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not." "The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge. "Both very busy, sir." "Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it." "Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?" "Nothing!" Scrooge replied. "You wish to be anonymous?" "I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there." "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

I've never had one attack me. I do remember one day when I had just finished plowing one of our fields and I was walking from the tractor to my car that just as I reached the road, a skunk popped out of the ditch that separated the fence line from the road, walked within a few inches of my feet...I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity because had he/she decided to spray me I would have gotten sprayed. However, he just kept on walking like I wasn't even there.

AND... At this point, unless someone has a way to fix SS/Medicare without killing grandma I see nothing here worth further discussion...have a nice weekend everyone.

Your "real world examples" are predicated on an erroneous belief and your refusal to understand the concept of compensation and that compensation is not $X/hour doesn't make it "Utopian". You are free to believe what you want and to be screwed by employers. Have a nice day.

An ill-informed or uneducated worker not understanding the concept doesn't invalidate the concept. If your skill-set and knowledge was worth $150K/year to an employer while SS/Medicare is being deducted and then, SS/Medicare is no longer being deducted, your skill-set and knowledge is STILL worth $150K/year and if your employer tries to screw you out of it then you either demand and get it or you don't get and go somewhere else or you simply bend over and take it.

It's your money...it's all your money and if you truly don't understand that your money is more than $X/hour so be it. If you truly think an employee is "paying" 7.5% of an employee's SS/Medicare then you must also assume that that the 10/15/20/25% they send to the IRS is not your money either and that companies pay taxes.

I try not to park in parking lots where skunks (two or four legged) hang around but if a four-legged kind raises his tail at me I would generally just try to retreat rather than use deadly force. Killing a skunk simply for doing what skunks do just doesn't seem right to me.