monkeylizard

Glock torture tests are interesting to read. I found one where a guy dropped his out of an airplane into a field. He found it caked in mud. I don't recall if he hit it with the garden hose, or just forced the action open a few times, but it worked fine. It did make some marks in the finish, but that's about it.

This is an example of a union working the way a union is supposed to work. The employees are contributing to the success of the business in a way they don't think is reflected in their compensation. The owners disagreed. They underestimated the value provided by the union workers. Once that became clear, changes were made to better reflect the value the employees are adding. Had the new refs done a good job, the league would have been proven right and the old refs would be out. With teachers unions, it's a more nuanced situation. It's not a profit making business so it's hard to say the teachers add unrecognized value to the bottom line and should get a bigger taste of the profits. The refs create a measurable product. Through tape reviews it can be made more or less known if they are making good or bad calls, helping or hindering the flow of the game, and watching out for player safety. The closest we have for measuring most teachers are tests like TCAP. That can be manipulated to reflect poorly on a teacher. You can do parent/student surveys but those are hardly objective. I'm not generally a fan of unions. They do have their place and can still be an effective tool for employee safety and quality of life. The big unions are rarely so magnanimous. There's simply too much pocket lining corruption in them. They generally seem to promote mediocrity. There are good workers in unions. But there are bad ones too.The nflpa does not discourage individual achievement like many unions do. Each player gets their own contracts and pay, but the contract has general rules that the nflpa has made the league include for things like continued medical care, safety, team workouts, etc. To the contrary, the NEA encourages mediocrity. Even bad teachers are hard to dismiss. Good and bad are paid the same. No nflpa member gets to do a poor job and keep his spot on the roster. Comparing the two unions just isn't a like-like setup. ETA: There are many many many good teachers in our schools who work hard despite there being no additional reward. They spend their own time and money on their classrooms to be better at their jobs. It's by their own personal desire to do a job and to do it well that some teachers do this. My point is that the NEA/TEA does nothing to encourage this behavior. Hardworking teachers get paid the same as the teacher who works to the clock. Some people take pride in their work while others don't. That's true in all professions. The NFLPA has found a way to bargain together for common/shared items while rewarding the dilligent and firing the rest. The NEA bargains together while failing to reward the diligent and protecting the rest. I don't begrudge teachers being unionized. Without some form of collective effort, it wouldn't take long before cash-strapped districts started increasing class sizes and extending school days while freezing or even cutting teacher pay. I think unionized teachers should bargain for those shared elements (fixed class size limits, fixed # of instructional days, fixed # of continuing education days, fixed # of hours in a school day, minimum salary, health benefits, etc.) and for a fair evaluation process. Then allow that evaluation process to reward good ones and fire bad ones.

I don't think that's a very honest comparison. NFL refs are the elite in their jobs. Only the very best can do that job. The screw-ups this season have proven that. They are very thoroughly evaluated. If teachers' unions would submit to the scrutiny and demanding perfection that NFL refs face, then maybe we could make a comparison there. Avoiding that scrutiny through evaluations is exactly what many unions are trying to do. If we had a way to find the very best teachers and dump the rest, they'd deserve much better pay and benefits, and we'd be stuck with a severe teacher shortage. As for part-time, Ed Hochuli is a full-time lawyer and during the season, a 40+ hour ref. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--nothing--part-time--about-ed-hochuli-s-approach-to-game-as-nfl-s-most-famous-referee.html

$90 is actually not out of line. GnL is $65, as are a few others. $75-$90 is a pretty normal range. There are a few in the $125-$150 range. For the classes with higher prices, I would expect smaller class sizes and more one-on-one instruction.

At least one of them had actually been fired by the Lingerie League due to incompetence.

It's about the money. Always has been. Always will be. All of Goodell's talk about protecting the brand, player safety, stiff fines, etc all has to do with protecting the money the brand delivers. Even with the replacement refs, TV viewership is still solid. That means mo money mo money mo money. The league couldn't care less about the $3.3 million it would take to settle this with the refs. Any one of the owners could write a check for that and close the whole mess. But caving in to the refs for the paltry $3.3m will mean big money out of their pockets when it's time to re-up the players' union contract. That's something they won't stand for.

Oh, right. I was thinking of something like the Volt with the gas-powered generator engine. I forgot the Leaf's range. Still, I suppose that if you had all the time in the world to wait between your 100 mile jaunts, you could rig some PVs up to charge the batteries. There are some experimental EVs that run on solar for longer distances, but those are for academic/research purposes and wouldn't work as any sort of practical vehicle. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1000/longest-journey-by-solar-electric-vehicle Here are some specs on the car: http://www.uwmidsun.com/midnight-sun-x

oops

This story delivers http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/09/flight-attendant-tries-to-bring-loaded-gun-through-airport-security/

Box turtles hibernate in winter. That's why he would disappear for a while. I had a beautiful bright yellow female box turtle that lived around my old house. I named her "Flash". She scared the crap out of me the first time I saw her. I was watering the lawn and it was after sunset. A tree's shadow made it very dark in the front lawn. I went out to move the sprinkler and as I was reaching down for it I triggered my motion light. There she was about 6 inches from my hand. I don't know what I thought it was, but "easy going box turtle" wasn't it. I'm sure she was looking for water. This was 2007 or 2008 when we had a bad dry summer in Nashville. I kept a shallow plate of water out for her all summer. I rarely saw her once we started getting more rain. I guess my house was her bug out location when things got bad in the woods. I found out that she liked blueberries...a lot.

Solar cells wouldn't generate enough power to continuously replenish the batteries as they are used by the motors. Instead, you'd be able to recharge the batteries when you run out of charge, given enough time sitting in daylight, and then continue your journey. For example, the PV cells on something like the Fisker Karma don't do much except add a cool/green factor. They generate enough power to run a small fan that keeps the cabin cool when parked in the sun. You might find yourself traveling for your EV's range of 400 miles or so, then sitting for days (or longer with bad weather) waiting for enough charge to keep going. If time wasn't a factor, then I suppose you could do it. Someday, I hope that PV cells will be able to generate enough power to be viable for "normal" people, but that day isn't here yet.

The EM-1 Rail Gun from Eraser. To be fair, part of its awesomeness comes from the scope. http://www.imfdb.org...er#EM-1_Railgun

Yeah. I was thinking that one might use that to add on a charge or two though, but only if one gave him/her reason to want to make your life difficult.

From now on, it's TGO, or via FFLs.

It makes me truly appreciate what David and his team of Moderators has done here with the Trading Post. I only deal with TGOers with positive feedback from other TGOers whose names I recognize as reputable members (Dolomite, Fallguy, OhShoot, etc.).

Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1301 has the definitions for the 39-17-13xx section covering weapons. "Unloaded" means the rifle, shotgun or handgun does not have ammunition in the chamber, cylinder, clip or magazine, and no clip or magazine is in the immediate vicinity of the weapon. Note that by this definition, a loaded clip or magazine, even separated from the firearm, can still be considered a loaded weapon in TN. The best thing you can do when arriving in TN is get a Handgun Carry Permit (HCP). It makes things a lot easier. With an HCP, as other have said, you just have to have the chamber empty. Magazines, proximity, etc. no longer really matter once you have an HCP. Just keep that chamber empty.

<<nevermind>>

Call GnL. Do it there. Easy as pie and a good price.

Just switch it to the other leg. The idea of "inside" carry is that it's more concealed. On the "outside" it could be printing. If "super secret spy" is your game, inside is the way to go. It's just harder to draw. you could just roll it around the left leg and have it on the outside, but the grip would be pointed forward instead of backwards. That would be awkward.

Galco makes one that's less bulky. It also has retention straps that go up the leg to the belt, you just can't see them in this pic. I wouldn't use one. I thought about getting one for my wife for summer time with skirts/dresses, but she's not real crazy about the idea. Besides that, most reviews I've read basically say that thigh holsters in general suck and are used only for deep concealment when necessary. Still....it would be sexy...just not in this stock Galco photo.

Thanks. Sig was my gut feeling, but it doesn't quite match up with any that I know of. I thought it might be an older discontinued model, or some Iranian made knock-off shipped in to Hezbollah. Toy makes more sense because the guy on the edge of the photo doesn't seem worried that a 3 year old kid has a gun pointed at his head.

There's a pic at the top of Drudge today. I don't recognize the handgun. What is it? It looks like it has "teeth" on the front like a breaching tool. http://www.drudgereport.com/ ETA: I couldn't embed the photo, so hopefully the main Drudge page won't change for a few hours.

That would never happen. Nobody wants Grizzlies tickets.

I was just at Chickasaw State Park this weekend. It has a tent-only area. The campsites were good and well spaced so you're not on top of your neighbor. Better spacing than at Mouse Tail Landing S.P. The bathhouse (toilets and showers) get a C-. They are in need of upgrading and were not particularly clean. Hiking in the park is limited, but it's adjacent to Chickasaw State Forest with lots of trails. A plus is that they have horse-back riding available. It's not available in many other parks and can be a nice break from regular trail hiking. Frozen Head State Park is in east TN. About 200yards away from the regular RV/tent camp area is a primitive tent only area. It just has a portable toilet, but like I said, 200 yards away to the main site with a very well maintained and regularly cleaned bathhouse. The tent-only area is setup along a creek bank. It's awesome, and not too busy except for long weekends like Labor Day.

Thanks. It's 39-17-1311. I was searching Lexis for "state parks" and didn't find it. I see in 39-17-1359 ( f) that it doesn't apply to state parks and that they are governed by -1311, so that confirms that even the gunbuster signs are not applicable in state parks.