btq96r

If anyone wants to actually read the thing... http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-03-22/pdf/2012-7019.pdf

Some are already frothing at the mouth over it in the Politics sub-forum. http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/90380-tennessee-is-becoming-a-national-joke/   Never mind that it's a suggestion more than anything else:  The university's Media and Internal Relations Director, Karen Ann Simsen, says there is no mandate or official policy to use the language.

Who knows what their motivations are.  Could be a rehearsal, could be a reconnaissance for others or general planning, or it could just be to jackasses being jackasses.  Arab kids are as immature, and prone to do dumb things as much as American kids.  The act itself certainly justifies a very thorough investigation by TBI, or even the FBI to see if there is a plan for a larger shooting, or they have any connections to something.       I had a Saudi in one of my classes last summer.  He was a smart, polite, and very well reasoned individual.  But we butted heads when discussing the Kafala System used for migrant labor when it came up in class for some reason.  He felt it was completely justified and things like the employee holding the workers passport, their work conditions, and other things that we look at as deplorable were just part of the process needed to keep their economy going.  I'd imagine it would be similar to how a slave holder might feel in America circa 1850.   A lot of these foreign students are just here for the classes and will go back home after getting a degree, not the children of immigrants who came to America to put down roots.  So, they have a lot of the home country mentalities.  As it pertains to Arab's, I've found the females are easier to socialize with as their perspectives are being opened being outside of the male dominated home, versus the males who are finding themselves in a position of having their perspectives challenged and tend to get defensive over it.

What is a "right"? A specific legal guarantee or set of legal guarantees for individuals with relation to their government.   Where do they come from? A political system that recognizes, codifies, and protects them.   How do you exercise them? By using them as they are needed or desired.  Also by accepting & protecting their use by others regardless of personal feelings, and defending them when they are threatened by any process other than the established method to change or eliminate them as part of the political process.   What are their limiting factors? Unless otherwise prescribed in the laws that establish them, when they interfere with the exercise of the rights of others is the standard default for their limits.   Do you still possess them if prevented from exercising them? If they are guaranteed under law, they you still possess them, even if you are being denied them or they are being prohibited.  An individual actions can forfeit their rights if convicted by a legal process, such as is the case with imprisonment.   Can you have a right to a thing? If prescribed by law that establishes the right, yes.   Can you have a right to a service? If prescribed by law that establishes the right, yes.

The mud pics make me wonder how top heavy the JLTV is, and how rigorously they evaluated the vehicle for rollovers.  

Condolences to the family and friends of the Deputy.

Another reason I'm staying with Win7 for a good while then.

I have my Win7 partition set to only notify me about updates. That way I get to manually select and install updates. Saves time, doesn't let the process happen when I don't want it to, and best of all lets me control what goes on my computer.

I sent an email through the ESPN league site, but just to put it here as well...   I need you to let me know if you are in or out for this years league.  I would like an email either way to find out earlier.  The latest I would like to know is by 5pm on Monday the 31st.  That way I can figure out how many more people we need to get to an even number.  If I don't hear from you by then, I'll have to drop you from the league since we will be drafting a few days later.      As for the draft, I'm thinking Thursday or Friday night of the upcoming week, sometime between 6-9pm.  Whatever is easier for the majority of the members.  I'm good to go either night.       I'll let you know.  That can be our alternate plan if we have an odd number of teams.     Either or for number of teams.  My line of thinking is I'd rather get one more guy like Xx has to avoid either an odd number or having to ask someone to leave.   As for the pot, I'm thinking $50 commitment, and we find a sponsor vendor to buy a firearm from with the prize money.  The winner can choose from their inventory, and either go pick it up, or have it shipped to their hometown FFL if they aren't in driving distance. 

Basic education is the key.  We sometimes take our love and knowledge of firearms, the laws regarding them, and everything else for granted.     My ex is pretty conservative on most issues.  She's solidly anti-illegal immigrant, and believes that "if she has to take a drug test to earn the money at her federal job that gets taxed for welfare, that welfare recipients should have to take a drug test to receive it."  But when it came to guns, she knew next to nothing, because she never grew up around guns.  She just assumed that my AR's were "registered" as a requirement for purchase and that led to a conversation where I had to explain to her the same things you did.   It comes down to the conversation with the public.  Scaring people is easier than setting their mind at ease, and the anti-gun side is very, very good at getting their argument to people, and we're not because we see it as an individual conversation, and something passed down within the family, not a mass communications campaign like they do.    As far as what we can do, taking someone shooting to let them see how guns really are is a start, and so is what you did, just explaining and correcting misconceptions.  At some point, there needs to be a much better job at putting out information, which the NRA would seem to be the most logical choice for, but they appear to be more about preaching to the choir and the political side.  A massive outreach effort could do wonders, especially with social media helping spread the message.

  I'm obviously not in line with the "God given" qualifier on all that, but I believe the intent of our rights extends to citizens and non-citizens alike.  The only one that stands alone is the right to vote, and the Constitution specifically addresses that by making reference to "the right of citizens...to vote" or words to that effect in the 13th and 19th Amendments, so it's a given that only citizens should be allowed to vote.    With that, all the amendments are of equal weight, and should be uniformly applicable.  We wouldn't let any type of legal process fly for an undocumented immigrant, so if we're going to extend the protections of the 4th - 8th Amendments to them, why not the 2nd as well?  Unless a Constitutional guarantee is specifically listed as for a citizen, it needs to apply to anyone in the country.  That includes the 2nd.

I tried a few of the "leaf" style antenna's but they didn't get NBC, PBS (NPT) and a few other channels for me. Sunday Night Football and PBS documentaries are two of my favorite things to watch, so I had to get an old school sheet metal antenna, mount it outdoors and run a coax cable. Wasn't hard at all, didn't even need to go up on the roof, it's at a normal person's height. One thing I did that seems to help is on my Roku, I set the display type to 720p instead of 1080. I use my Roku every day for anywhere from an hour on a weekday to up to six hours when I'm off from work & school and want to binge watch some shows and movies. With Comcast's 300GB data cap before having to pay for more, I'm good to go. Not sure what your cap is.

  I'm thinking sometime between 2-4 September to do the draft.  Should be similar to last year where we all logged in, and had about a minute per pick or else the computer would automatically draft based on ESPN' rankings.  That way we're through the 3rd preseason game, but not during Labor Day since I'm guessing some of you might have family plans or something better to do than draft a fantasy team during the holiday.   Also, I'll send an email through the league to confirm membership, then see if we have room for people, or need one more to make it an even number.  An odd number team league would just be a headache for scheduling. 

  I was fine with the light skinned HMMWV as it was a great fit for what it was designed for.   It's when we started making ourselves an easy target for IED's that the need for the mass production of uparmored versions came into play.  With that came a lot of safety risks and issues with the aforementioned gas mileage drop, but that was the trade off for the increased protection from SAF, IDF, and IED's to a degree.  Once the EFP came around, the MRAP was needed, and that wasn't enough sometimes, as I knew a medic who was lost when the MRAP she was in got hit with one.   The biggest issue I see with this new vehicle is wondering if it's too big for utility use.  My last deployment to Iraq, we couldn't use MRAP's because the area had too many narrow canal roads that the MRAP just wasn't able to navigate.  The bigger the vehicle, the more your vunerablilities in manuaver come into play.  I'm also wondering how much of a maintence headache this thing will be.  It'll also be a nightmare if it requires as much contract support as the MRAP did.

  I haven't seen the video since most news sites I've seen aren't showing it out of respect.    We may see the gun now because it's what we're looking for, but there is no way to know if we would have noticed it then and there depending on what is going on, and others would identify the same.  People are in their own zone too often, looking at their cell phones, watching something else, checking out a hot chick...unless something grabs their attention I can see how he slipped by from notice like he did.   Also, I was speaking in generalities when talking about how having someone carrying around an indicent could prevent it.

  I get what you're saying and yeah, I've looked at people and told myself I'm going to do what I can to know where they are in the store or wherever...but I just don't like the line of thought that having people carrying is the cure all to these events from going the way they do with the "if only there was someone carrying" mantra.  My gun is for my safety, I'm too worried about what I'm doing and securing myself to actively think about others.  Not trying to be cold blodded or uncaring, just realistic.

  Would they?    From what I read, the guy walked up, and shot the reporter & camerman.  Your logic presupposes there are people carrying, and actively searching out threats to others and not themselves like some kind of security element.  I know when I'm out and about, my priorities for safety are me and anyone with me, and anyone else who happens to be there secondary.  I'm also focused on what I went out to do and have my attention divided by that at some level.  I can't say I would have seen this coming and acted before the shooter carried out his plan.  Maybe as a reaction, but it wouldn't have saved those gunned down today.   Just my thoughts on the subject...condolences to the family and friends of the victims. 

  I only got to Murfreesboro in late 2013.  Before that I was in Kuwait, Fort Campbell, or Afghanistan since 2009.   The GI Bill is great, but I'm trying to keep money fluid so that when I graduate I have enough for a down payment for a house and a new car if needed wherever I wind up.  Form 1'd guns and suppressors aren't exactly the easiest things to sell off if funds need to be regained.

The only thing that keeps me from dropping more Form 1's is the fact full time school with part time work means that I don't have the time to hit the range to justify spending the money.   I'll just live vicariously through all of you until that situation changes.  :P

I see it's time for our semi-annual cutting cable thread...   I did it when I got back from Afghanistan almost two years ago.  Don't miss the bill for cable, but like others I'm thinking of SlingTV for sports once football and basketball come back in season.  I only wish NBCSports would jump in on that so I could watch hockey games as well, but since NBC is owned by Comcast, that isn't likely to be an option anytime soon.    For those of you on the fence, I'd say give it a try.  My TV channels come in crystal clear in HD, and the antenna only cost me $50 from Amazon.  All I had to do was install it outside, run a cable from it to the hookups outside my house, and move my internet modem to another port since OTA and cable internet can't run over the same feed.

  Bingo.  All I ask is that businesses be up front with the costs and not give me a reason to do a double take when the bill is presented.  If they have reason to hide the true cost, it makes me wonder what else they're hiding.

Zero chance of making it out of committee, and I doubt it would even get scheduled for a vote.  Just more "see what I fight for legislation" since Congresswoman Maloney represents a district in NYC that hasn't had a Republican win in over 50 years.

Best time to find a job is when you have one if you aren't satisfied with your current conditions.

  I'd rather just get it on a good sale or used in good condition, let Amendment 2 Custom Coatings color it up nicely and have a win for my pocket while supporting local business who does great work and supports TGO.

There is constant debate on what a "Ranger" actually entails.  Even the U.S. Army Ranger Associations definition which includes those who only earn a tab is disputed by those who think the association is just a good ole' boys club for retired officers and should be limited to those who served in Ranger units.   As has been said here, Ranger school is just a school. Way back when, the Army realized that garrison training just wasn't good enough at producing small unit leaders for combat, so the school was created as a way of doing that in between wars.  It's meant to push people way past their comfort zone, and show them what they can do under multiple forms of stress and external factors.  It also shows you how leadership works when everybody is miserable, tired, hungry, sore, and isn't inclined to do something just because the platoon leader says to do it.    Ranger school isn't officially required for infantry officers, but if you're an infantry officer and you show up to a light infantry unit (10th Mountain, 82nd & 101st Airborne) without a tab, good luck getting a platoon leader slot.  As a contractor, I worked with a former infantry officer who was dropped on request from Ranger School because the cadre basically told him he would never graduate with them there since he didn't want to play the mind games.  He was on battalion staff until a tasking came up to augment the Artillery battalion with an ad hoc infantry platoon for a deployment to Iraq.  That was when he finally got a PL slot.    I've always thought that Ranger School meant more to the officers than the enlisted.  Interestingly enough, with Iraq and Afghanistan in full swing, officers still had Ranger School in their training pipeline before getting to a unit, but for NCO's in line units who only go later in their careers, it wasn't really feasible with deployments so close together.  The time to train up, go to the school, and then recover after would have deprived units of combat experienced team and squad leaders, so the emphasis to send NCO's was all but gone when time home from a deployment was only 12-15 months.  There will be a lot of NCO's at the Platoon Sergeant and First Sergeant level without Ranger Tabs, but 4-5 combat deployments for a bit.  Back when I first reported to Fort Campbell in March 2001, it was rare to see an Infantry Company First Sergeant without a tab.  Different, but not necessarily bad.   The 75th Ranger Regiment is a entirely different story.  These are the guys who have been deployed on and off for near 14 years, and were hitting multiple targets every night in Iraq and Afghanistan (still are there probably).   The Regiment was taking women on missions to deal with Afghan females due to cultural issues, but that's about as far as it ever should go.  Their place in the military is to be a wrecking ball when called upon, and the mission set, training and operations tempo, as well as the lifestyle reflect that.  A Ranger Battalion is no place for a woman unless we're talking Ronda Rousey levels of fitness, and even in the hypothetical fantasy world where a woman could meet the physical standards without any gender curving, then we'll have the same problems with fraternization that come with male/female units.  For guys from Regiment, Ranger School is a block to check so they can take a leadership position.  Ranger units can send troops as low as Private First Class, and Ranger students coming from Ranger units have a much higher graduation rate than others.   As to these women, they got in from a special selection process to find the best candidates for a trial program, and only two of them made it this far out of I think 25 or 26.  I'm not sure if they made it through a pre-Ranger course like they used to run at Fort Campbell or any other base before they went, but regardless, this was a very specific sample set.  Good on them for sticking it out, it speaks well to their character, but the breaking of the gender wall this isn't.