monkeylizard

That's a nice idea, but it doesn't hold up to real scrutiny. First, if we're going to say that statues and monuments are about education then for every Columbus Square and statue we'd need something to show the devastation to the locals that European colonization brought to the New World. For every Washington and Jefferson, we need a Crown Loyalist to show we were NOT a united country at the time. For every symbol of westward expansion we'll need to reconcile the near-genocide that came along with it. For every Lee, NBF, and Stonewall statue we need Lincoln, Grant, Harriett Tubman, MLK, and enslaved people monuments. Then we go to meddling . . . for every Vietnam War memorial, we need a peace and anti-war sign and statues of protestors. But let's keep on meddling . . . For every 9/11 memorial we need a plaque saying that America deserved it for our oil-grabbing Imperialism policies, or because we're infidels, or whatever reason anyone might think. Or let's get some feathers REALLY ruffled . . . For every fallen officer memorial we need a Defund The Police/BLM marker. That's what it would mean to teach EVERY perspective through our statues and monuments. Not only is it not practical, it's not good public policy. Second, the statues aren't creating dialogue. All I hear is shouting and it's impossible to have dialogue when everyone's shouting. The folks who think the statues are about history and are filled with pride by the legacy they symbolize can't hear their neighbors who feel like second-class citizens every time they pass by those same statues. Likewise, the ones shouting that everyone who likes the statues are a bunch of white supremacists can't hear that many of the supporters see them as representative of less government not slavery. If the statues of the Confederacy need to remain so that dialogue will continue, maybe we need to think hard about exactly where those statues should be so the shouting can become dialogue. By its nature, our public spaces, particularly government buildings and their environs reflect who we are and the ideals we seek as a people. But all humans are flawed. We seek to showcase the finest qualities of humanity like courage, loyalty, and the desire for freedom even when it's a misguided vision of freedom framed by the times. Or in some cases like NBF, the people memorialized in our public spaces can represent our ability to grow and change to such an extreme that we can be unrecognizable as who we were before. We need to ask ourselves - When we see that the men and women we've held up as examples of those ideals are flawed in such ways that they no longer inspire us as a community to achieve those ideals for ourselves, do they still deserve a place of prominence in our public spaces? Are we better served by studying them in a more reflective and contemplative location like a museum or a battlefield instead of idealizing them? Having a divisive monument without proper context (like the NBF on I-65) doesn't create dialogue, it only deepens divides. Our unique-in-the-world 1st Amendment has allowed us to create a unique situation with these statues. Nowhere else in the world do they have a plethora of monuments to the losers of a war. Outside museums and memorials to the fallen soldiers (usually within cemeteries), you don't see Hirohito or Yamamoto statues in Japan or Mussolini statues in Italy or Batista in Cuba, especially not erected AFTER the war. That would be crazy, right? Italy actually took an interesting approach. Much of the fascist propaganda and statues/carvings were destroyed, but what's left now remains as a reminder. Not to support a fascist past, but to avoid a fascist future. Maybe we could learn from that. How can we as all Americans use our Civil War monuments from both the blue and the gray to help us remember the terrible cost of letting our divisions grow so much that we start shooting each other?

It wasn't exclusively the Daughters of the Confederacy but they did fund many of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monuments_erected_by_the_United_Daughters_of_the_Confederacy Here's some info on where and when most of the statues went up. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880/confederate-statues-were-built-to-further-a-white-supremacist-future The data comes from the decidedly left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. The data of "when" they went up is fact. You may choose to agree or disagree with what the SPLC says is the "why" they went up. They clearly have an agenda of their own so draw your own conclusions. I don't know if their numbers include monuments erected at the national battlefield parks or not. Those were largely funded by the survivors of the battles and their state legislatures to memorialize their fallen brothers. If it does, that would help explain why so many went up 40-50 years later as those men reached the end of their lives and wanted to leave something behind and that's about when additional battlefields were preserved and needed those markers to help educate future generations. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-civil-war-battlefield-monuments-markers-and-tablets If the SPLC numbers don't include those, then their explanation is at least plausible though they offer no facts to prove causation rather than correlation. It's also important to note that location matters . . . a lot. Markers and memorials to soldiers and generals at the national military parks have a relevance to that location and serve as part of a story-telling museum of sorts. The markers and monuments have context and reference a singular moment in history. Dropping Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues into a park in Baltimore makes little historical sense, much less a Confederate monument in a cemetery in Seattle erected by the DoC.

I've long though that the complexities of the man deserved more than a Hamburglar-esque statue. But pretty much all the statues are of his military deeds. Even his bust in the state museum is from his CSA cavalry days. He didn't found the KKK. He joined 2 years after it was founded. But he was their 1st Grand Wizard which he later disavowed. In addition to trying to end the KKK in his final orders as the Grand Wizard, he also fought to allow blacks into law school and wrote a letter to then-governor Brown offering "to exterminate the white marauders who disgrace their race by this cowardly murder of Negroes" when 4 of them were murdered by a lynch mob AFTER being arrested for defending themselves. He advocated for the advancement of the people he once oppressed and argued for racial harmony in his final years. But how much good does one have to do to overcome the bad they've done? That's really a question for all of us. It would be interesting to see how a good artist might show the complexities, conflicts, and growth of the man over his life instead of just sticking him on a horse with a saber in his hand.

Sure you can. It's standard procedure for dictators. Make people forget or never be taught what happened, and it's like it never happened. Ask anyone in China under the age of 35 what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and they won't have a clue. The ChiComms didn't even have to remove a monument, just put a gag order on anyone talking about it and the next generation never knew a thing.

HO! HO! HO!

Here's hoping this research stands up.

I'm still waiting for the pic of Chuck in those rollerblading sloth swimtrunks with his NVGS and the M14.

There are some historic planes I'd love to have been able to fly in. A PanAm Clipper is easily in my Top 5. Very cool story.

Thanks. I added those to my list in case anyone in the future comes across this thread. One stop shopping!

AFAIK, unimproved TVA land is good to go for hunting, but not general shooting/practice. For the OP, your +/- 1 hour outdoor options are going to be vary depending on which part of Nashville you're in. Cheatham WMA Montgomery County Shooting Complex (temporarily closed for lead reclamation) Stones River Strategic Edge Charlie Hafner (sometimes still called Owl Hollow) MTSA (formerly Gallatin Gun Club before relocating) https://www.midtnsportingassociation.com/ Terry Walden Gun Range in Manchester OK Corral in Woodbury There are no public outdoor rifle/handgun ranges inside the county except Stones River. Nashville Gun Club (Briley Pky @ County Hospital Rd) is in the county, but that's shotguns and clay targets only. No rifle or handgun. Private land can be used for shooting in the "General Services" portion of the county. As a general rule if the city picks up the trash, it's in the "Urban Services" part of the county and no shooting allowed. The rest is "General Services". Here's the service district map: https://data.nashville.gov/General-Government/Service-Districts-GIS-/xxxs-vvs4

Same here. I'm down for some on your next mid-state run.

Really? With the amount of distance between the two of them at the moment the shots were fired? I don't. But as I and others said above, there could be a history between these two or a history of the deceased known by the shooter that may have created a reasonable fear of imminent serious bodily harm or death in that moment. It's gonna take a serious history of violent behavior and a dang good lawyer for the shooter to prove that though.

Yeah, agreed. From what I saw on that video alone, I would say it was not a good shoot. But there's probably more to the story. This one will be interesting to watch to see how the DA goes with it.

^^^ this. We don't know if the shooter has had prior experience with the mouth being violent which could add to the defense that a reasonable person would be in fear of their life or serious harm.

From the title, I thought maybe he got lucky with a super model. Either way, NICE RACK! Welcome back, Spots!

BTW, the people you spoke with in that gun store are ignorant of the law. Do NOT trust their legal advice on anything. Nowhere under any circumstances is a self-made paper trail needed under federal law*. For interstate transfers, a firearm must go through an FFL in the receiver's state. For same-state private transfers, no paperwork is required at all by the law. *It's probably a good idea to do a Bill of Sale when selling, but that's a personal decision and sometimes one made on a case-by-case basis. The law does not require it on a private transfer between two residents of the same state. It's possible that some states may have additional restrictions. I don't know the laws in 50 states, just Tennessee where nothing at all is required.

It has to be sent to an FFL in South Carolina and transferred to him there. The law doesn't care exactly how it gets to the S.C. FFL other than he can't take it to them because it's not his until it's transferred. Either you can hand deliver it to the SC FFL or you can ship it. Shipping is where things get sketchy. Most carriers like USPS, FedEx and UPS won't take a handgun from a private party and ship it to an FFL. They will ship to a manufacturer for things like safety recalls, but not to a normal dealer. That's why most interstate private party transfers end up going FFL to FFL. You'll pay your local TN FFL to ship it to his local SC FFL who will then charge him their transfer fee. The other option is that you can loan a firearm across state lines for lawful sporting purposes. The laws make no mention of how long a loan can last. You could loan it to him indefinitely but it remains your property. He can't sell it or give it away because it's not his. If you leave it to him in your will and you die while it's still loaned to him, it will simply become his property at the time of your death. Inherited firearms do not have to pass through an FFL, even across state lines. See Question #4 here: https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/0813-firearms-top-12-qaspdf/download You could also loan it to him until you go for a visit in SC, then you can hand deliver it to a local FFL who will do a 4473 transfer to him.

I'm not sure what a 4474 is, but 4473 doesn't have a question 11A. It has a 21A and nowhere does it make an exception for gifting to a family member. In fact, the word "family" isn't found anywhere on 4473 or its definitions pages. https://www.atf.gov/file/61446/download As for the OP, yes, they can gift it to you. But you can not have a pre-arranged setup where they're buying it on your behalf. It would probably be easier if you just waited until you're 21.

Where does it say she was pregnant?

You need think more globally. The US no longer dictates the global car market the way we used to. As was pointed out above, EU nations will be all electric in the next 10-15 years. But that pales in comparison to the Chinese market. They never had the massive infrastructure built over the past 100+ years supporting ICE like we built, so they're building out their EV infrastructure like nobody's business. The EV market for China alone is big enough to make every manufacturer go all EV in the next two decades.

If you can drive an ICE to a station where the power didn't go out, you can drive an EV to a charger where the power didn't go out. I know, we have more gas stations than EV chargers, but that's changing . . . quickly

Talking with a few Tesla owners, the mileage seems to be pretty close. As for the power being out, that's also a problem for gas pumps. Except with an EV, I'd always be starting with a full charge after having it plugged in when the power went out, as opposed to an ICE where my gas level could be anywhere from full to fumes. Some EVs can function as a big battery for your house (F-150 lightning can do it) but of course that depletes the range on the car. In time, though, I think the costs of batteries and solar will continue to fall and make buying a solar roof + power wall economical enough that I can install both and I won't care when grid power is down, no matter what kind of motors are in my car at the time.

If I was in the market for a new car, I'd look hard at electric. Plug in each day to keep it topped up, or once a week (if that) if you have a short commute or rarely drive like me now that I work from home full time. Never needing to stop for gas again on the local around town stuff would be nice. It would be a little annoying on longer trips.Take a Model 3 extended range for an example car. Assume I start out fully charged, that's going to give me ~350 miles. Then I need to find a supercharger to get 80% (280 miles) and that will take about 30 minutes to charge. It would take another 30m to get to 100%, so I'd take the 80% and move on. I recently did a trip to Tampa of about 800 miles each way. I'd have to make two stops to charge up to 80%, costing me an hour and I'd arrive close to empty again, needing another supercharger, or at least a regular charger near my hotel for overnight duty. Compared to ~15 minutes for three stops to fill up my Wrangler, or ~10 minutes for two stops to fill up a car with way better gas mileage like . . . well, about anything except a truck. But to be fair, road trips like that are not super frequent for me, and the convenience of an EV for daily use may be worth the hour or two it's going to cost me in a day's driving on those occasional road trips. It's not just the no-gas thing that would be nice. Think no more oil changes, transmission fluid changes, or coolant flushes, plus fewer brake jobs. No more leaking oil seals, spark plug changes, or any of dozens of other things that can go bad with an ICE engine, transmission, exhaust system, fuel system, or emissions control systems. The only maintenance items on a Model 3 are tire rotation and cabin air filter. They also suggest lubing the brake caliper pistons and testing the brake fluid, but we all know the caliper parts get lubed when pads get changed and fluid gets changed once a decade, if that. I know an electric motor can go bad, and battery packs over time lose their ability to hold as much juice, but overall it's going to be less hassle and more reliable. If not yet, then very soon. I'm more interested in the self-driving side of things than the EV. I LOOOOVE to drive, but commuting and mind-numbing Interstate road trips are not "driving". They ARE the perfect setting for letting the car take over. It doesn't have to be perfect, just better than humans. And it's pretty dang close to outperforming hairless apes applying makeup, eating a McBurger, drinking a $tarbuck$, and checking FaceTwit while attempting to operate a motor vehicle. I know all the legal liability stuff still needs to get sorted, but I for one welcome our chauffeur overlords. . . just not on The Dragon

Rare photo of a rare plane. Convair YB-60. They completed 1 prototype and were almost done with the 2nd when the program (and both airframes) was scrapped in favor of the Boeing YB-52.

If it's the local black bears you're worried about, bear spray is a way better choice than a handgun. It's highly effective against them and you'll almost certainly never need it. Black bears are very rarely aggressive towards people. something like 60'ish people killed in the past 100+ years by them. If it's western Grizzlies, bear spray backed up by the biggest hand cannon (.500 or .454 Casull come to mind) I can manage and a paid up life insurance policy would be the way I'd go. For the 2-legged critters, carry what you always carry. An axe murderer on a trail is the same as an axe murderer in town.