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NotActuallyALonghorn

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Everything posted by NotActuallyALonghorn

  1. I was hoping for Ezra or Thrawn as a lead in to the Ashoka series, but not sure how they get there with the way they are going.
  2. It definitely feels like The Mandalorian Wars this season. It seems like after the finale of last season they really didn't have a direction to go other than integrating it into all the other Star Wars properties. I don't know that we can blame The Book of Boba Fett getting the best material for the general direction of the show. It just doesn't have any of that space western feel anymore.
  3. So I called the park, and got confirmation that my reservations did go through, so I'll post up here. Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas is one of the best parks in the state and almost dead center of the path. They take reservations one year out. You can make a reservation now for starting Thursday night the week before the eclipse and modify it later to drop Thursday or Friday night off of your reservation if you decide not to make a whole weekend out of it. Good luck, y'all.
  4. Got a reservation for a campsite near the center of the path this morning. Took a lot of waiting and refreshing, but finally made it through to the confirmation page. Still waiting on a confirmation email, so hopefully it is good.
  5. You're probably right that the rise in militia type groups is correlated with the rise in AR type weapons. I'm not going to look it up, I'll take your word for it, as a general correlation seems reasonable. However, we get into the old adage that correlation does not always imply causation. There are plenty of other factors that overshadow the rise of militia groups. They may not be intuitive for someone who is outside of the "gun culture," but I'll list a few off the top of my head. 1. Obviously repealing something previously banned will lead to an uptick of its legal usage. The rise in AR type weapons began as soon as the AWB sunset in 2004. It probably would have been quicker had the industrial capacity been there to produce them quicker. People naturally want what they can't have, and there was a real fear at the time that it would be renewed by the Bush administration if congress put it across his desk. 2. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with a pretty high level of support and adulation of the military in the wake of 9/11. Our vets were heroes, so it was only natural to want to be like them. 3. The technological development of optics and the industrial base to manufacture them. We suddenly had an industrial base manufacturing large numbers of reflex sight like red dots and holographic sight that allow you to get on target quicker than ever because you don't have to carefully position your head on the stock to align iron sights or to see a scope. As long as you can see the dot on the target through the window on the sight, your bullet will hit there. It's like having a laser that points to your target, only visible at all ranges and vitually all lighting conditions. I've heard anecdotes that the number of head shots on enemy combatants increased dramatically as these types of sights proliferated in out military. This also happened to be useful for hunting in cases where a quick and accurate shot is needed. If you are hunting deer in thick brush where you may only have a couple seconds to get on target and shoot your quarry, these types of sights dramatically help your success rate. This also kind of leads into my next point. 4. Firearms manufacturers began to notice how practical these guns would be with modern optics, but the caliber of the typical AR was not suited for hunting most game other than varmints. But one of the strengths of the AR platform is that you can easily change the bullet it shoots with a new drop in upper as long as the new round isn't too long or too fat to fit in the magazine. They began to produce more and more rifles for rounds more suitable for hunting and even developed new rounds specifically to maximize hunting performance of the platform. Now the AR in suitable calibers is one of if not the fastest growing platform for hunting. To say that it isn't particularly useful for hunting is pure poppycock and can only be claimed by someone who isn't familiar with hunting with one in an appropriate caliber and with modern optics or someone who just prefers to do things the old fashioned way. I hunt with both an AR and a flintlock, so I do get the old fashioned stuff and go more old fashioned than most of the haters do themselves.
  6. No, you're right, that's not why it was repealed. But, yes, there are plenty of racist sheriffs out there who would at the very least be less likely to approve a permit for anyone who is less than desirable to them, which happens to scew conveniently along racial lines. But that is not the only way such laws disenfranchise them. It is no secret that minorities typically have less disposable money and less free time to pursue all the requirements for obtaining these types of permits, yet they are statistically far more likely to actually have a need for a firearm for self defense than those who happen to have less melanin. The end result is that these kinds of laws prevent them from exercising their rights in the same ways that poll taxes did years ago or voter ID laws now typically do. Now, if you can come up with a system where there is little or no burden to them exercising their rights, then that is a conversation worth having (despite your claims to the contrary, there have been proposals like this that have been ignored by both sides because they actually made sense and would have stripped them of their ability to campaign on divisive politics. Look up Senator Tom Coburn's universal background check proposal and how much support it got about ten years ago).
  7. Lol, you are literally bemoaning the repeal of a Jim Crow era law that was designed to prevent black people from being able to purchase a handgun to prevent groups of white folks showing up in their front lawn, dragging them out in the street, and lynching them in front of their families. Laws like this were designed to, and were effective at, preventing civil rights reform and probably set it back decades. And at a time of increased violence against minorities, you are still advocating for laws that would disproportionately disenfranchise them from their rights to defend themselves against anything similar that might happen in the future.
  8. I used to have that problem, but she's six now and knows better. The two year old, now? He's all sorts of trouble.
  9. Yeah, I was a bit worried it was just going to be another two forgettable episodes after the first one, but then it got real.
  10. I thought this was one of the better ones this season. Some classic western themes. A pirate space ship with a full compliment of broadside guns. My only complaint is the cheesy pirate leader, but he gone.
  11. Our first never really did much on a balance bike, but the second can wiz around on his like no tomorrow. It helps that he has to try and keep up with her. We've got to try and transition him to a regular bike now that the weather is warming up and there is daylight in the evening.
  12. Of course the wheel comes back to try and finish off the job at the end.
  13. My feelings towards her are mixed. Now that she can't take off her helmet during sex, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
  14. US Dollars take up a lot less butthole space than Mexican Pesos. Just something to keep in mind.
  15. Someone tried that outside New Orleans a couple years ago. It probably didn't go the way they imagined it in their head.
  16. I guess the Mandalorian hangout is basically Space Australia where everything wants to kill you. And they are basically space rednecks just standing around randomly blasting at the water.
  17. Good episode. Last week makes more sense, even if the writing and the episode itself were trash.
  18. Rebels is excellent. I ranked it above Clone Wars until the final act of Clone Wars came out. It's much tighter and doesn't really have much filler in it. You just have to get over the cheap looking animation and stick with it while they set the stage.
  19. We should definitely downplay the fact that restrictions on firearms have almost overwhelmingly been used to suppressors minorities in order to prevent them from scaring God-fearing white folk. Especially at a time when those who look down upon said minorities have become emboldened in their disdain for them and wishes to further supress them.
  20. 11 years? I guess you never watched Rebels or Clone Wars? Yeah, there's a lot of filler in Clone Wars, but the good stuff is very good. And the final four episodes strung together are as strong as or stronger than Andor, IMO.
  21. Wegovy is the same active ingredient at a higher dose approved for weight loss. You rant against people not believing in science while claiming that science is wrong about weight loss and its long term effects on metabolism.
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