jgradyc

I turned over a board and found this underneath. The lizard is some sort of salamander, I think. They're pretty common, but what are the eggs. They can't be from a bird or a turtle, because there's no way for them to get under this board. The eggs are bigger than the salamander, so I don't think they're salamander eggs... if salamanders even lay eggs. Maybe these are snake eggs and the salamander is waiting to eat the snakes when they hatch?

I'd even be willing to donate a few bucks to go to some charity... like teaching kids gun safety, for example.

Wouldn't it be better to hold a buyback program where gun owners could sell their unwanted weapons to responsible HCP licensees?   If people are responsible enough to turn in their unwanted weapons, they should be responsible enough to check for a TN HCP permit at a big, open to all, swap meet.   Just hold it in a big parking lot... like the old 1st Saturday farmers' swap meets we used to have when I was a kid.

I haven't seen the movie yet. I don't go to movies when the theatre is basically a killing field. I'll wait until only a handful of people are in each showing.   I am reading the book right now. I'm a little more than half way through. It's snippets of what's happening all over the world told in 3-6 pages each. There's no real protagonist so far... just the guy conducting the interviews.   The writing is good... nothing distracts from the story. The characters are believable. So far, only one deus ex machina (a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object). I hate those in a book, but in this case, it's okay. It involves a helicopter rescue, for those who are wondering. Most of the short stories are action oriented, so the book is reasonably entertaining.

This is like the fat guy in cycling who buys a $6,000 road bicycle to impress his friends... who've bought $3,000 bicycles... who get passed by guys like me on a $1,500 bicycle......       .... who gets passed by my training partner on his $900 bicycle. :surrender:

The prosecution scored some big points at the very end of today's testimony with the revelation that Zimmerman had started taking MMA classes. It wasn't clear if this was before or after the shooting. The defense had the opportunity to clarify this and couldn't. This was a tactical mistake by the defense in letting Z's medical records be part of the trial. They had a sidebar at the bench to discuss it. Obviously, the defense was not aware of this in the medical records or they would have fought harder to keep the records sealed.   Worse for Z, it was the last thing the jury heard before breaking for the weekend.   It doesn't prove anything, but it's like being up 17-0 at two mintues before halftime and letting the other team score two touchdowns right before the half.

Wow. I just watched the Johnathon Good testimony this morning and now I'm watching the expert pundit on NBC Sanford local TV.  It's like he's describing a totally different witness!  The NBC expert is incredibly biased in favor of the prosecution. I'm amazed! Even the NBC announcer is saying "Emails are coming in saying this testimony supports Zimmerman's case."   I am really stunned. This was so overtly biased. I can understand pundits showing bias much later, but this guy assumes we're too stupid to listen and figure it out for ourselves. This is a huge disservice to the Sanford community. They really need balance down there.

I agree with most of this. One of the big lessons learned for all of us is don't drop your situational awareness in the moments AFTER an incident occurs.   In other news, one overlooked tidbit in the testimony this morning is devastating to the TM team.   Jeantel said TM was calling her from behind the father's girlfriend's house. That house was at the south end of the neighborhood. Yet the altercation as seen by witnesses and confirmed by the location of the body was 120 yards north, only a few yards away from where GZ had parked his truck. If Jeantel's testimony was truthful, for some reason TM went from the safety of the house 120 yards back towards Zimmerman.   Either the state's #1 witness is lying or Martin went back towards Zimmerman's truck.

Andrew,    Thanks for posting these updates. 

Zimmerman seems totally believable in that video, with the exception of how he described drawing the weapon. There, he seems to hedge a bit. To me, that makes his prior description even more believable. From a legal perspective, it doesn't matter at this point whether he drew and shot or TM was going for his weapon and he drew and shot. Self defense either way.   Add to this that the help 911 call wasn't released until days later. GZ didn't know it would become part of the case, yet he describes it just as it happens on the help 991 call.   Reasonable doubt. Yes.   I suspect the big defense prosecution surprise will be girl on the phone with TM before the incident. Don't be surprised if she "remembers" something that she left out in her statement to the police... something that implicates GZ.  Then, she gets invited to The View and gets a book deal.

The suggestions so far are pretty good, but I'm concerned about the "occasional carry" part. If you mean you'll carry it sometimes in lieu of your primary EDC, then all the suggestions so far are fine.   If you mean you'll only carry it occasionally and go unarmed the rest of the time, I'd strongly suggest you rethink your logic. At the very least, increase your budget by $300 and buy a tiny 380 that you will carry everywhere every day. The TCP, LCP, and P3-AT are all pretty good "carry-when-you-can't/won't-carry-anything else" guns.

Occasionally, my tap water in north west Nashville smells like Chlorine. When we wintered in Florida at one camp ground, the water was literally brown.   I don't drink tap water... haven't in over 20 years. We double filter it. First, it goes through a Clear2O pitcher to get the big particles out. Then, it goes through a ZeroWater filter to get everything else out. The Zero filter will do it all, but it clogs up in a couple of weeks if you don't get the big particulates out first.   The folks complaining about water should get a field test kit and just use their smartphone to video the testing process. Then, they would have proof of their complaints.   I have a simple device that counts ppm (parts per million) of particulates. It came with the ZeroWater filter. Today, water quality is exceptionally good at only 114 ppm. After running through the two filters, it's 1 ppm.

I don't get all the discussion on profiling. It doesn't matter if Z profiled M.   As I understand the definition of profiling, profiling is not an illegal activilty when done by a civilian. From USLegal.com....   "Profiling refers to the law enforcement practice of the detention, interdiction, or other disparate treatment of an individual on the basis of the racial or ethnic status."   If I'm wrong, can someone with a legal background provide a better definition, please? I'm not trying to be a wise guy here, but as I understand the term, it's not being used properly in this context.

This is why the parents played the race card.  

I finished Enemies Foreign and Domestic by Matthew Bracken and moved on to his second book in the trilogy. I'll stick by my review of EFAD. It's slow for half the book. He can't decide who is the protagonist. His prose is weak. I'd read a few reviews on Amazon to get the Cliff's Notes version of the plot in EFAD and then skip it. Just move on to his second book, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista. Bracken's writing skill has improved and it's a decent read... maybe a 5.5 on a scale of 10, with a 4 being weak to the point of being distracting. Writers like Tom Clancey and Clive Cussler in their primes might rate a 8.5 to 9.

Not odd exactly, but learning how to tie hitches and knots is extremely useful. Here's a website that shows all major knots and hitches without hands and fingers getting in the way. http://www.animatedknots.com/

First, thanks for the list. This is awesome!  I've been looking for some light reading for the summer and the books on this list will be the ones I'll look at first.   I'm 500 pages into the 700 page ebook Enemies Foreign and Domestic. I found it hard to get through the first half of the book... weak character development, no action to speak of, and too much time spent away from the main character(s). As a writer myself, I'm a bit critical of books that aren't top of the line, so take my criticism with a grain of salt. Since this was his first book, I'm assuming that Matthew Bracken has gotten better with his subsequent efforts.   Again, thanks for the list.

  You need to listen to the whole tape. It's clear that Zimmerman stops chasing.   Here is the link to the unedited 911 call by Zimmerman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L04Vh4do6bY   Key points: Zimmerman says guy is acting suspicious, like he's on drugs. 0:18 Dispatcher (18sec into video) : Is he white, black, or hispanic? Z: He looks black. Z: Additional references to the kid. Something's wrong with him. Has his hand inside waistband. 2:07 "He's running" 2:15: Car door opens. 2:25: Dispatch: Are you following him? Yes (labored breathing. Wind noise ) We don't need you to do that.  (The dispatcher never tells Z to return to his vehicle.) 2:45 Wind noise stops. Zimmerman's voice returns to normal breathing. Zimmerman is talking in complete sentences. He is no longer running. The dispatcher asks questions. Zimmerman responds in full sentences. This goes on a long time. 3:35 Z: I don't know where this kid is. 3:39 D: You want to meet them by the mailboxes? Z: Initially says yes, then says could you have them call me and I'll tell them where I'm at? 3:50 D: Okay, yeah, that's no problem. 4:12 Call ends.   That's 90 seconds that Z was not chasing AND had lost visual contact with M.

Did the 911 call help or hurt Zimmerman?  If he hadn't made the call, would this case still have gotten such widespread attention? Would Zimmerman still be in as much trouble as he his now?   This is a serious question. I have to wonder if it was really the wisest thing to do if I found myself in a similar situation.

I'm reposting this since it contains facts that are being overlooked. I've highlighted key points in red.     The chase was over at 2:45 into the phone call. Zimmerman talks in a normal voice for another 90 seconds. He obviously wasn't chasing Martin during those 90 seconds. He's talking in complete sentences. Yet the confrontation occurs very close to where the chase stopped.   So... how does this confrontation occur unless Martin comes back?

Something in this story is missing.   Why would this guy stop in Readington Township? It's a podunk nothing town at least 10 miles from the nearest interstate exit. It sure sounds suspicious to me.   Anyway, the take away for me is never carry anything visible in your vehicle that could be appear to be a firearm or firearm case or anything valuable. I normally toss an old blanket over gear, computers, etc. when I'm traveling.

I bought the 3 day bag for $29.95 plus shipping. It's well made. The zippers were sticky and it took 2-3 home remedies before I could get them moving smoothly.   I also bought the Bates Rat Boot... outstanding value. I don't normally wear boots, but these are the best boots I've ever owned. I ordered a second pair.

I had just the opposite experience with speedplay zeros. I didn't find them as stable for my knees as my older Look Deltas. I've also had Keos. The Look Keo and Delta feel exactly the same, but they are not interchangeable.   To be fair, I didn't invest a lot of time trying to adjust the Speedplays because I couldn't walk anywhere without picking up bits of gravel that jammed into the cleat. Then, I'd have to clean the cleat before I could clip on. The Delta and Keo are just plastic triangles, so nothing would jam into them. The plastic triangle would wear down from walking, but they were still fully functional.   Oh, I also found the Speedplays harder to clip into, but that could have just been from riding in Looks for the past 18 years.

I have a Gen 4 Glock 26. The trigger would hit a snag after about 1/8 inch movement and then be hard to pull until it would "snick" past the obstruction.   I posted on one of the Glock forums thinking this might be a common problem. They just said, "Send it back and they'll fix it." Heck, if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have bothered to post on the forum. I got the impression most of the posters didn't know squat about guns.  I'm not going to package a gun, drive 10 miles to UPS, and go through the hassle of sending it in if I can fix it myself.   I determined the the trigger safety at the back of the trigger was not getting completely recessed and was catching on the frame. I filed it down a fraction of an inch. It works fine now. Once I determined the problem, it took maybe 3 minutes to make the file and one minute to file it the right amount.

Wow... just, wow!   A Litespeed, no less.   Congratulations.