Texsox

Obviously what caught their attention was what they were burning. But looking at what they were charged with, I am wondering how safe it was to be carrying that many extremely flammable objects. Wouldn't it have been safer to keep the fuel in an approved fuel can and the Korans in a separate box and cover them with fuel once you get to the park? I have mixed feelings, I believe that burning books, even holy ones as part of a safe, peaceful, protest is something we should tolerate as Americans. It's kind of silly, but whatever floats his boat. I would feel some outrage if it were Bibles, as I assume Muslims would if it was a Koran.

Also affecting supply is how people are accessing care. Currently the best option for people without insurance is to visit an ER for everything. We need cheaper access. A whole lot of minor illnesses could be treated more effectively by PAs and Nurse Practitioners.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 05:01 PM) I think it is amazing that he was even born alive thanks to modern medicine. He should have been dead a long time ago but thru our medical system he is alive. He even stated it himself, born 20 years earlier or perhaps in a different place, he wouldn't be here at all. It says he lost his coverage. Do we know why? Yet we're clinging to a financial model of medical treatment that is from WW2.

To add to Duke's post Be kind. When a truck is trying to change lanes, flash your lights when it is ok to move over.

Makes the post even better.

So last week I decided I needed a new truck more than I needed the cash in the bank. My needs are simple. A 1/2 ton pick up for towing, four doors for passengers, and a few comfort items. My search was fairly simple Ford F150, Ram 1500, Chevy Silverado, and Toyota Tundra. Since I was internet shopping, I looked at dealerships in San Antonio (the biggest city near me) and some local shops. Visited dealer websites for all four and requested quotes on comparably equipped vehicles. I basically had a Ford window sticker to work off of. In Texas if you can't compare your truck to the Ford, you don't know s*** about your truck. Couple observations. The Toyota response was We have many great Tundras in stock for GREAT DEALS!, when can you come in? Ah, I can come in today, but I am not going to drive to four dealers. I am narrowing my choice down via the internet. Yes, but, we have so many to choose from . . . Do you have someone at the dealership that deals with internet sales? (His title was internet sales manager) Yes, but we don't negotiate prices via email, only in person. Here is a link to an internet special Tundra ($6,000 higher than the other quotes) So you don't actually sell any vehicles via the internet. Doesn't that make you the Internet Lead Manager? Bye bye Dodge Competitive price, fast response, but they had a clueless dude call me to gather the same information I emailed. They are a one price shop, so besides a little help with the rebates, they did not have to do much. Chevy crickets chirping from the first dealer. second dealer. Canned automail response. Eventually spent time trying to get me into the showroom. Ford. Back and forth over several days, the internet sales guy seemed to work hard to find all of the rebates that Ford offered. The most annoying was there were about $1500 in incentives tied to financing through Ford. If it is a cash deal, you lose that incentive. No problem I said, I'll just pay the loan in one payment. No, you really need to make a couple payments (paying close to $1000 in interest to get the $1,500 rebate). Then I remembered, one of the Boy Scout leaders I volunteered with works at a local Ford shop. Actually, he and his father own the shop. So I walked the internet deal into his store yesterday and commenced the old fashioned bartering. We laughed, we talked, he mentioned his prices, I told him mine. I laughed, he cried. He expressed skepticism that they could sell at that price and they would be losing money. I said your sales guys tell that to everyone, yet here you are still in business after a hundred years. (I think Henry Ford visited this location). So bottom line Monday they will be delivering to me a new F-150 SCREW XLT. I am giving up a few things from my old truck like HomeLink, automatic temperature control, hidden, lockable rifle storage, heated and power passenger seats. I am getting reliability and about a 25% to 30% increase in fuel efficiency. And some updated electronics like backup camera, satellite radio, power rear sliding window (WTF for I have no idea). This is the first vehicle I did 90% of the work via the internet and phone. I didn't leave home until I was almost certain of making a deal. Just for kicks I checked my bank and they quoted me under 1% interest on a two year loan. I could go all the way out to six years at 2.25%. I can't believe these rates, not wonder I can't get s*** for interest on any savings.

I agree with Alpha in that the law work and we should be happy. I disagree with debating the killers intentions in regard to actually trying to buy it or not. As anyone that has tested anything will attest, as soon as you do test something, a nice employee of the company will come out and engage you in the process of buying and selling. I would consider testing the weapon one of the steps in trying to buy one. Plus, I'm not too far out on a limb here thinking he was motivated to buy one based on his future actions. But again, the law worked as it was suppose to. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from thinking he needed one. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from thinking about buying one. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from travelling to the shop. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from arriving at the shop and walking in. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from looking at the weapons available. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from asking to see a weapon and holding it. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from asking if he would be allowed to test fire the weapon. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from being told that yes he could test fire the weapon. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from being taken to a safe facility in which to test fire the weapon. I don't think we need a law that prevents him from loading the weapon I don't think we need a law that prevents him from firing the weapon I don't think we need a law that prevents him from asking questions about the weapon I don't think we need a law that prevents him from filling out paperwork to facilitate buying the weapon I do think we need a law that prevents anyone from walking out of the store immediately with the weapon. I do think we need a law that prevents him from owning any firearm. Which we do and it worked.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 21, 2013 -> 02:26 PM) All but two cities in the country are "fractions the size of Chicago." Dallas / Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix are pretty large cites in their own rights. And hey, none of them are in a death spiral while Chicago just posted its lowest census figures in like 100 years. But I really dont see the appeal of living in some massive city. What's in it? You're just stacked on top of one another, you can only really go as far as your lame bicycle or public transportation can take you (unless you have a car, which most cities will put in the poor house for having the audacity to own) and everything is more expensive. I guess that's whats cool now though. Urban grit, the concrete jungle. "Yea man, I could totally have gotten mugged on my to Yo Yo Yogurt time from the boutique pet salon." They dont even have that grit anymore, I'm guessing it might've been cool back in the day where if you wanted to do some depraved s*** that skirted legality you had to find a New York or Chicago; but pretending that still exists when most American cities are some combination of hipster dens, yuppie Disneyland and gang warzones is just delusional. Oh, and that's not even getting started on the taxes. So yea, go ahead... if you want the cities you can have them. Most logistics and manufacturing infrasture got kicked out to build ugly condo's years ago and a vast majority of jobs provided are in crucial sectors of the economy like food service, "working" for the city or, if you're lucky, some wealth recycling plant where you camp in a cubicle before you take the bus home. Some existence! By the way, I'm talking about cties that aren't entirely run by liberals. People may have voted for Obama to destroy the country but many of them had better sense in electing local officials. Duke I love your posts. You are bat s*** crazy but as consistent as the day is long. This may be your greatest post ever. Which just goes to show how setting a bar low can have it's benefits. Your total lack of experience living and working in cities doesn't stop you. You can overlook and dismiss the fact that so many major corporations are headquartered in cities. You can ignore entire industries that are almost exclusively in major cities like banking and investing. You can ignore, as not being in a death spiral, Detroit. You clearly have not walked through great neighborhoods in Chicago like Lakeview. You can ignore the inconveniences of living in the suburbs such as needing to hop in your car and drive five minutes to pick up a gallon of milk, drive thirty minutes to find a decent restaurant, or needing to drive to the city for a decent museum, or major league sports team. And you can even take a swipe at Obama, hipsters, gang members, and yuppies. I was entertained and fascinated. You really should be in show business, but that would require you moving from the farm into the scary city with hipsters, yuppies, and gangsters. Say hello to Andy and Opie for me.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 07:02 PM) Now do you think illegal arms dealers are going to obey a new gun law? And rapists ignore rape laws, auto thieves ignore auto theft laws, etc. Are you suggesting we only wrote laws that people will never break? That seems like a nice thing, but kind of naive.

His side won and losers walk? A three year old isn't in school. But yeah, why isn't he playing baseball?

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 06:38 AM) I actually think my state government functions rather well. When did you move to Texas?

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 20, 2013 -> 12:32 AM) This is the greatest free speech case ever.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 19, 2013 -> 07:37 PM) I wouldn't make those dogs walk the line out in that heat. I don't even want it all fenced. but would like SOME of it fenced, And patrolled. And enforced. But that is a different argument. In this we agree. I'll bet we will disagree which areas I would like to have fenced.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 10:37 AM) That seems obvious to me. Did it really need to go to a Federal appeals court? What had to go to court was the question regarding the firing of those deputies. In answering that question, the court(s) had to answer the question of "likes". When people point to how small the Constitution is, they fail to mention that these court ruling are as much a part of the document as what Jefferson, et. al. wrote.

For the Constitutional originalists, I wonder what the Founding Fathers had to say about "likes" and electronic communication via social media.

That was mentioned a couple times in the presentation. I was wondering what jobs it was refering to. Thanks.

Worth it.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:55 AM) Sorry misread that, but even better...if its just a few hundred or a thousand we're talking about, I don't get the gripe. These people shouldn't be walking the streets until properly treated, if they even can be treated. IE, get them the f*** off the streets. And in some countries, usually third world, that is what happens. Here we have legal protections that allow innocent people to walk the streets.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:54 AM) He didn't have to be locked up, but he should have been prevented from (legally) obtaining a firearm due to his mental condition. But the appropriate people failed to do their jobs and make that happen. So it was a failure of a system, not related to guns. Alpha, the pro gun lobby has convinced me that criminals will get guns regardless of the laws. So fixing the mental health issue would be more effective than the gun laws. How many people would he have killed with a knife? Baseball bat?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:50 AM) LOL, no. I think you need to read up on this guys history of mental issues. If there are hundreds of thousands of people walking the streets hearing voices in their heads, yes, lock them the f*** up, too. LOL, No. Read my post again. I didn't write hundreds OF thousands, I wrote hundreds OR thousands.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 18, 2013 -> 09:36 AM) Mental illness. Aaron Alexis, Adam Lanza, James Holmes, Jared Loughner and Seung-Hui Cho are/were all mentally ill. Fixing the mental health system will go much farther in stopping these tragedies than any gun laws. Of course, the pro- and anti- gun lobbies contribute far more to political campaigns than the mental health lobbies, so politicians on both sides will continue to ignore the real problem and continue to make every tragedy as much about guns as possible since that's what rakes in the cash. Fixing the mental health system is tricky. It shouldn't come as a surprise that many of the mentally ill do not hold down jobs, and many that do are mineal jobs without health care benefits. Also, those with health care benefits find the benefits for mental health care are negligable or non existant. So we need to fund their care somehow. There are a lot of people in this country that object to paying for other people's health care.

He was walking the streets because if we locked up everyone that fit his profile we would be locking up hundreds or thousands of people who would not shoot up a workplace, or commit those crimes. Hindsight is 20/20, predicting who will, and who will not, break those laws, is not.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 16, 2013 -> 09:35 AM) Well, over the past 15 years we've seen fewer gun laws and more guns. ?? I can not think of any gun laws being repealed. IIRC at no time in the last 15 years have we had fewer gun laws than the year before. We may have seen a slow down in the rate of new gun laws, but I don't believe we have had fewer. Unless you are talking about slight shifts such as certain weapons being allowed, when they previously have been illegal. But even in that nuanced area it seems that we have continued to reduce the types of allowable weapons.

I have to check out the list feature. Currently I have work stuff mixed with sports stuff, mixed with b.s. so it becomes a giant mess. Maybe I would use it more if I could compartmentalize it a bit more.

I just left the Spanish teacher's classroom. The feast the students brought in is amazing. I love traditional Tex-Mex and Mexican cooking so this was a special treat. Enchiladas are being kept warm for lunch. I love September 16.