Texsox

My school district has been making this point and I think it's worth sharing. Our goal is NOT to return to normal in the fall. Our goal is to return to Better.

Well as we become one of the poorest countries on the planet, with no meat, those riots you've been warning us about will mean the big gun eats. Y'all will be one less that ol' Tex will have to fight with for that T-bone.

Pards allow Tex to offer a little assistance Taurus G2C at about $250, it won't break the bank and is available anywhere handguns are sold. Reliable, lightweight and small it can be concealed easily enough. If you want to splurge and impress your friends in church the Glock 19 has charisma and easy to find 9mm ammo in a 15+1 config that will make you feel safer. Both are considered beginner guns with low maintenance and easy to pull triggers. Enjoy your time on the range. Nothing helps social distancing than a shooter. Keep your rounds downrange. Life is like that. You'll be happier.

Interesting conversation - thank you, I appreciate your points. We could also compare rapists getting probation. You're saying avoid prison time, as if that's the default. I'm not certain it should be. Why are we always looking at ways to put people in prison? Even more so for non-violent offenders. I agree with all your points yet arrive at a different conclusion. I also don't like the thought of the wealthy avoiding prison time when the poor would be different. But this is a crime of the wealthy. They are the only ones who can spend the $500,000 in bribes. They are also the only ones that can pay private tutors and tuition at the best schools to legally assure their kids get into the best colleges. So the system is already inequitable. So I guess I'm looking for a punishment that perhaps tilts that inequity a little more to the middle and not seeing that tilt in a prison sentence.

Least we not forget . . . https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/virginia-pastor-who-held-packed-church-service-dies-of-coronavirus/

OK. You don't think a thousand kids getting $30,000 scholarships would help society more than taxpayers spending $100,000 keeping them locked up?

Sign of the times, I have multiple masks here and I'm kind of matching them to what I'm wearing.

A $3,000,000 fine isn't punishment?

All of their kids are in college. Unless they decide to cheat for other people's kids. Even if they had another child, the world would be watching for where they attend college.

All epic Texas stories end in Mexico. Lonesome Dove, The Road, Blood Meridian . . .

Why haven't you bought a gun yet? Why are you not planning a move to Mexico or someplace safer? Your chances of survival will be slim with the riots that are coming, I understand the folks that don't believe the hype not being prepared, but you are one of the few that really understand what's coming, yet you are just letting it happen. I was puzzled by this but it's all finally coming together, getting clearer . . . You know this is a suspicious virus, created with ill intents towards America. But instead of trying to end it, you want to help it along. You want to help spread the virus by being in public, without a mask, getting haircuts and stuff and wanting others to follow your example. It must be your sworn duty. Clearly you are the enemy, yet you are trying so hard to warn the good people here. Sadly, so many are ignoring you. You are brave G7 to try to lead us away from America's ruin. And as a Texan, and American, I salute you.

Yep, that part doesn't sound good which is why prison time is such a popular outcome. Who is benefiting from them in prison? Taxpayers? No taxpayers will be paying. It's not like they will try this again. So they aren't likely to be repeat offenders. So they screwed over other college students. How about at least symbolically showing restitution to those that were harmed by a really nice scholarship fund or endow an oversight committee to assure fairness in selection at USC. I'm not certain a Federal low security country club prison is really the way to go. Anyone want to spend 6 to 9 months reading and working out? It's not like their lives post prison will be a struggle to find jobs and remove the stigma of time in jail.

As much as I believe what they did was wrong, prison time seems too harsh. I'd rather see a couple million dollar scholarship fund set up than be paying for their room and board for a year or two.

The MJ story reminded me of a story a buddy told about Bobby Knight. My buddy was at a camp at Indiana and not being a blue chip college recruit only saw Knight for a brief moment each day. But on one of the days Knight came in and talked for about 15 minutes about basketball and life (which seemed to be synonymous). My buddy said later if any of the priests growing up had spoken about God like Knight spoke about basketball, he'd still be Catholic.

We had a meeting yesterday for one of the shows I'm in. Basically it is a national chain of company owned shows and franchisees that take place in hotels, restaurants, etc. and it includes dinner and a meal. We are trying to figure out how to reopen in as safe a manner as possible. A couple of things I took away from the meeting. National organizations have an impossibly difficult task of meeting the requirements in all localities with one plan. We're going with limited seating, smaller casts, made changes to the script to avoid guests interacting with each other, menu changes, procedure changes that in some cases are actual improvements and will remain and in other cases temporary. One thing we were not able to get rid of was cash tips. There are some locations where it is illegal to use Venmo, Cash, etc for tips. At least that is what the company is telling us. Out tentative restart dates are in July but every date had an implied asterisk next to it. They sincerely repeated that if you don't feel safe, don't work. But we also know that cast spots are tough to earn and tougher to get back. Who wants to give up a spot and have to fight to get it back?

Casual fans won't care that there wasn't a season. Hard core fans may become less hard core.

I'm cleaning my guns if it comes around here. I'll just shoot that virus.

It does seem to benefit the employer more. I can only think of one time that "right to work" helped an employee. We had an employee leave us to work for a new to the market competitor. They made everyone sign non compete clauses that were really one sided. Then after the salespeople brought their existing customers into the company they quickly started firing people. It was a huge revolving door for about a year or two. It got their foot in the door and they even kept a lot of the customers after the reps were let go because . . . They also aggressively pursued anyone who accepted a position in the industry citing the non comp that everyone signed. They sent us a "presumptive letter" threatening legal action if we interviewed any of their previous employees. Eventually ex employees went to court and were allowed to work for competitors under that right to work. But generally it allows people to be fired easily. Also, remember these are basically union busting laws so realize which party favors workers and which one believes workers benefit when the owners are allowed to make the most profits without interference.

3. We did do that on a small scale. San Antonio hosted cruise ship passengers. 4. I believe one key role of the national government is coordinating national problems. This clearly was bigger than any one state and needed a strong coordinated response. A "the buck stops here" moment or Bush on the pile of rubble with a bullhorn moment could have solidified the nation. Instead we receive denials and suggestions it was all a hoax. Oops.

I'm saying it's better to trade surplus than digging a bigger hole.

Further complicating any calculation like this is not every WAR is equal on a team. I'm wording this weird, but if I have a surplus of WAR at one position , for example I'm trading a 6 WAR guy which makes room for a 4 WAR guy while receiving someone who fills a hole, that's a win.

Companies are not obligated to offer a reason. Most states are "right to work" states and employees are "at will" which makes actually firing someone not risky unless for protected reasons like discrimination (carefully defined by law) or retaliation.

The Great Flood, that was about the strangest disaster of all time. The tunnel system is fascinating.

Kind of like that immigrant invasion right before the mid terms?

Oh the irony of tobacco plants are the savior.