An Exclusive Publication of The United States Concealed Carry Association
"What To Do About Murder…" By Tim Schmidt USCCA Founder What happened last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut was the kind of nightmare that would make anyone cringe. To say that I was saddened by what happened to those innocent children would be a gross understatement. No one should ever have to suffer this kind of devastation, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by this unspeakable tragedy. This is not the first mass murder that has shaken our nation, and although I wish it weren’t so, this will not be the last time a twisted person attempts to take innocent lives like this. Every time a shooting happens in our nation, a handful of “armchair experts” rise to propose that guns are the reason for the violence. If it weren’t for guns, our schools would be safer. If it weren’t for guns, you could go to the movies without fear. If it weren’t for guns, you could go Christmas shopping without looking over your shoulder... The fact of the matter is that more laws and more control don’t equal more safety and security. If you need proof, just look at Chicago. Chicago is the poster child for gun control, yet since 2001, 2,000 troops have died in Afghanistan while 5,000 people have been murdered in Chicago. Chicago’s homicide rate is four times greater than New York, and twice that of Los Angeles. Good intentions have yielded bad results in Chicago, and it’s time to face the facts: Criminals and psychotic individuals don’t obey “no guns” signs or gun control laws. It might be a cliche amongst gun owners, but arguing that guns cause murders is very much like arguing that spoons make people fat, or cars make drunk driving possible. So if taking guns out of the hands of responsibly armed citizens isn't the answer, then what is? After 9/11, massive steps were taken to harden-up cockpit doors, and we instituted the air marshal program to train and arm pilots. If anyone attempted to break through the cockpit door, they would be met by a hail of gunfire. After Columbine, why wasn't a similar program put in place to harden-up schools and train and arm teachers and administrators in tactical defense? The chilling fact remains that the Newtown murderer had no trouble breaking through the school's glass doors... I have no doubt that there are many people who would be outraged by the idea of our schools having responsibly armed personnel protecting our kids, but my response to them would be the same as Concealed Carry Report writer John Caile’s response: “…these same people who barely raise an eyebrow at the idea of armored car guards carrying guns to protect bags of cash, suddenly go apoplectic over the prospect of teachers carrying guns to protect young children. If that’s not misplaced priorities, I don’t know what is.” Violent criminals and psychopaths aren’t going away, and no law will prevent them from committing murder in the future. Now is not the time to wish the problem away. Now is the time to take this issue seriously enough to actually protect our children so that this never happens again. Take care and stay safe, Tim Schmidt Publisher - Concealed Carry Report USCCA Founder

Retrieved by dpd 12/29/2012

It's the Soybeans...Vern!

Late Thankgsgiving card came in from outside of San Antonio.

YUUPP!!!

Prickly City Says So...

NEW CITIES SPRING UP ACROSS AMERICA

As the people inhabiting the crowded coastline in the Northeast continue to try and rebuild a worn out infrastructure so they can once again live near or in an area prone to disaster, let's try something different.

America is beautiful and bountiful by its' God-made existence. There are rivers to cross, mountains to climb, deserts to flourish, plains to farm, forests to tend, valleys to nurture and cultivate. The point being; the country is full of room and open spaces, why crowd the coastlines, mercilessly.

I propose a forming of new cities across America in the open spaces. The first step to municipality will be to contract with Walmart, Target , K-Mart, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, McDonald's, Kroger, Ralph's, Food Giant, Chik-Fil-A, Shell Oil, Chevron, Big Bank(whichever one still has imagination) to build, at the crossroads, a vast, modern fuel efficient, people friendly shopping experience that will boggle the mind as well as pay for a planet friendly infrastructure. This style of development will reverse the trend of Small Town America's demise caused by these behemoths. If the future entrepeneurs want to challenge, they already have the blue print of what they are up against, not just the sudden, overwhelming presence of the shareholder driven, corporate monster waiting to undercut and suck them dry. I call it guerilla capitalism...skirmish, go after the poor performance of customer service neglect run amok. Over-crowded and under staffed Big Boxes of mindless robots and not of this Earth, Wal-Martians roaming the aisles.

God will be invocated to bless this enterprise from the beginning and will be asked at intervals to continue blessing it, if He so chooses. Churches, synagogues, temples, meeting halls and mosques will be sought out to be built and staffed and attended by making God front and center. If people who don't believe care to live here, it's what America means. They can go to AA meetings for Higher Power infusions.

Secondly, the residential monolith of America will be concentric and congruous to the shopping. People will be able to get to and fro on bikes, foot, trams, golf carts, etc.

Thirdly, all business entities will be encouraged to relocate with the structures, well designed and eco-friendly, and the jobs to also encourage citizens to relocate, live, work, shop and worship here. Tax abatement, infrastructure credit and incremental rebates by future development will entice new job creating entrepeneurs. They will be boosted to the level the community requires; of less grid-lock and more flesh on the pavement, not inside a three-thousand pound shell thundering along the road like anxious scarabs.
It will be an invitation to "get small while thinking big" on the  pursuit of life, liberty and happiness which is so absent today at certain levels of society.

Fourthly, schools will be year-a-round, three semesters per calendar year. There will be a Winter break at Christmas time, a Spring break at Easter and a Summer break. Kids can graduate from high school in two years. Teachers will be paid like doctors and lawyers. Schools will be staffed with security, up to and including military personnel. Truancy will become a crime on students and parents, if necessary. Students will learn the sometimes lost value of discipline, both external and internal.

Fifthly,of course, some form of government will inevitably be required. Simple majority, with frequent elections, plenty of town meetings. Independent audits of budgets and books. A bit simplistic but we need less of it, not more.

Just a thought, but I don't think we will continue to progress unless we share the geography of America the beautiful, make it accessible to everyone, give people the opportunity to live somewhere besides on a row of pavement, bricks and mortar, near industry, pollution, crime. Weather events and Earth driven phenomena will continue to keep man on his toes. We are puny organisms on this Earth. I'm in Texas and everyday I pass from crowds to lengthy drives through pasture, woods, wetlands and farms in short minutes. It is often as if the fourth largest metropolitan area in the U. S. doesn't even exist. The Gulf of Mexico is near. the shifting of air masses converge on us. Droughts come and go. It's our responsibility, according to God, to be wardens of Earth. To be knowledgeable and wise in His knowledge.

Dorieville, Texas is coming to mind somewhere in the Brazos Valley off Hiway 30 where the livestock thinks it's Heaven.

Stymied by Big Brother

We were looking for politically driven events in the last half-century that have brought us a net increase in American liberty. It's an interesting thought experiment. Here is a list we came up with, in chronological order.

• Across-the-board tax cuts (1964)
• Thawing of relations with China (1972)
• Pullout from Vietnam (1973)
• End of the draft (1973)
• Private ownership of gold legalized (1974)
• Airline deregulation (1978)
• Appointment of tight-money Paul Volcker to the Fed (1979)
• Trucking deregulation (1980)
• Marines pulled from Lebanon (1984)
• End of 55-mph speed limit (1987)
• Privatization of the Internet (1995)
• Welfare reform (1996).

And that's about all. It's a pretty skimpy list, and we had to dig pretty deep to come up with it at all. Maybe we left something out.

Some might quickly point to the tax cuts from Reagan's first term, but people often forget that those were completely swamped by the increase in the payroll tax two years later. Also, some of these good changes were inadvertent. The government would never have privatized the Internet if the political class had known the results in advance!

To be sure, the world has a whole has become a vastly better place in the same period of time. In the last decade, global poverty has plummeted. Crime is down. Total states have collapsed. Trade has exploded. The essentials of life are more available than ever and at ever lower prices. The digital revolution is the greatest single technological advance in the history of the human race. We are more networked than ever before.

But here's the thing to note about all this progress. None of it came from the top down. It came from the bottom up, from entrepreneurs and businesses and those much-hated corporations. It came from the private sector and the spontaneous actions of individuals working without approval or mandate from the central plan.

Blogger Interface :: Houston is 93rd out of 100 ....

Angriest Places in America | Men's Health
We've discovered that if you want to really piss off an entire city, all you have to do is rank it last among 100 cities and then print the results in a national magazine. Happens every month. But what we don't know is how angry a city might become if we actually name it the "Angriest Town in America." Well, Detroit, go ahead and let us have it: You are officially the most spitting-mad metropolis.

How did we gauge rage? Statistically (and from a safe distance). We calculated the number of aggravated assaults per capita (FBI), the number of people with high blood pressure (CDC), the amount of time spent in traffic during rush hour (Texas Transportation Institute), and the number of anger-management specialists per capita (American Psychological Association).

Most PO'd
100 Detroit, MI
99 Baltimore, MD
98 St. Petersburg, FL
97 Las Vegas, NV
96 Newark, NJ
95 Charleston, WV
94 Dallas, TX
93 Houston, TX
92 Philadelphia, PA
91 Miami, FL
90 Riverside, CA
89 Memphis, TN
88 Oklahoma City, OK
87 Louisville, KY
86 Los Angeles, CA
85 Jersey City, NJ
84 Fort Worth, TX
83 Jacksonville, FL
82 Indianapolis, IN
81 Boston, MA
80 Chicago, IL
79 Orlando, FL
78 New Orleans, LA
77 Stockton, CA
76 Oakland, CA
75 Sacramento, CA
4 Washington, DC
73 St. Louis, MO
72 Phoenix, AZ
71 Baton Rouge, LA
70 San Jose, CA
69 Tampa, FL
68 Aurora, CO
67 El Paso, TX
66 Winston-Salem, NC
65 Birmingham, AL
64 Tucson, AZ
63 Santa Ana, CA
62 Bridgeport, CT
61 Billings, MT
60 Tulsa, OK
59 Manchester, NH
58 New York, NY
57 Lexington, KY
56 Little Rock, AR
55 St. Paul, MN
54 Charlotte, NC
53 San Diego, CA
52 Fresno, CA
51 Atlanta, GA
50 Cleveland, OH
49 Columbus, OH
48 Lubbock, TX
47 San Antonio, TX
46 Plano, TX
45 Richmond, VA
44 Greensboro, NC
43 Providence, RI
42 Albuquerque, NM
41 Denver, CO
40 Austin, TX
39 Kansas City, MO
38 Jackson, MS
37 Bakersfield, CA
36 Milwaukee, WI
35 San Francisco, CA
34 Chesapeake, VA
33 Corpus Christi, TX
32 Nashville, TN
31 Sioux Falls, SD
30 Raleigh, NC
29 Toledo, OH
28 Laredo, TX
27 Cincinnati, OH
26 Buffalo, NY
25 Minneapolis, MN
24 Norfolk, VA
23 Honolulu, HI
22 Wilmington, DE
21 Durham, NC
20 Seattle, WA
19 Des Moines, IA
18 Fort Wayne, IN
17 Pittsburgh, PA
16 Boise, ID
15 Omaha, NE
14 Portland, ME
13 Virginia Beach, VA
12 Portland, OR
11 Columbia, SC
10 Anchorage, AK
9 Reno, NV
8 Wichita, KS
7 Cheyenne, WY
6 Salt Lake City, UT
5 Madison, WI
4 Colorado Springs, CO
3 Fargo, ND
2 Lincoln, NE
1 Burlington, VT

Read more at Men's Health:  http://www.menshealth.com/health/angry-cities#ixzz22dTNPbyP

_____________________________Reference
http://www.menshealth.com/health/angry-cities

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "FRACKING"

Today's Question from Left Field: Are They Fracking in the Brazos Valley, Texas?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | Aug 4, 2012 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]
Insurance Company Won't Cover Fracking Process | Seneca Daily News: "Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. has become the first major insurance company to say it won’t cover damage related to a gas drilling process that blasts chemical-laden water deep into the ground.

The Columbus, Ohio-based company’s personal and commercial policies “were not designed to cover” risk from the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Nationwide spokeswoman Nancy Smeltzer said Thursday.

The process injects chemically treated water into wells to fracture shale thousands of feet underground and release trapped gas or oil. There are rich shale deposits in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere."

'via Blog this'
__________________________
Oil business balks at a term it created: ‘fracking’
The same energy industry which created the term “fracking” is now criticizing its use by others.
Energy giants feel the word has a negative sound to it and is being used by environmentalists and others to make them look worse. They now prefer the term from which fracking was derived: “hydraulic fracturing.”
__________________________
Groat, a former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, also sits on the board of Plains Exploration and Production Company, a Houston-based company that conducts drilling and fracking in Texas and other parts of the country. According to the new report (and a review of the company’s financial reports by Bloomberg) Groat received more than $400,000 from the drilling company last year alone, more than double his salary at the University. And one of the shales examined in Groat’s fracking study is currently being drilled by the company, the report says.
Since 2007, Groat has received over $1.5 million in cash and stock awards from the company, and he currently holds over $1.6 million in company stock, according to the PAI report.
__________________________
johnbob
10:37 AM on 6/17/2012
Tell the people around wells near Dallas or people whose home is over the Eagle Ford shale. Fracking cannot be separated from the deep well disposal of used fracking fluids containing unknown dangerous compounds. The deep well disposal of these compounds have absolutely been shown to cause earthquakes.

So dispense with the double-speak. Fracking causes earthquakes.

Whether these earthquakes cause damage or injury is luck. Nevertheless, corporations that create waste liquids that are disposed of by deep well injection should be financially responsible for the damage the induced earthquakes cause, and damage to the ground water that results from their activities..
___________________________
Congress and the Department of Energy requested the 240-page report.
___________________________
Natural gas and oil companies are expected to begin revealing which chemicals they employ in the drilling process hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in compliance with a new rule of the Texas Railroad Commission.
The companies also must reveal the amounts of water they use in the drilling process, which is widespread in such areas as South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale play and North Dakota’s Bakken oil field.

The companies still can keep a lid on any “trade secret” formulas for fracking fluids.
Some environmentalists believe fracking compromises an area’s groundwater supply by polluting it with chemicals. Such chemicals are mixed with sand in millions of gallons of water injected into shale formations at high pressure to release trapped oil or gas.
____________________________
Weatherford
2411 Clarks Ln, Bryan, TX 77808
(979) 778-6503

Where: Carrabba Industrial Park
What: Oil & Gas Exploration & Development, Oil Field Service
____________________________
Welcome to FracFocus, the hydraulic fracturing chemical registry website. This website is a joint project of the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

On this site you can search for information about the chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells. You will also find educational materials designed to help you put this information in perspective.

___________________________Reference
http://senecadaily.com/?p=18273#axzz22dKQOot7
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/tag/oil-rig-accident-lawyer/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/university-of-texas-fracking-study_n_1699391.html?utm_hp_ref=green
http://www.yellowpages.com/bryan-tx/weatherford-fracking
http://www.theeagle.com/article/20120616/BC0105/120619668/-1/bc20/cancer/Genetic-Code-Cracked-for-Most-Common-Pediatric-Brain-Cancer-&slId=11
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/tag/oil-rig-accident-lawyer/
http://www.texasoilrigaccidentlawyer.com/energy-companies-to-reveal-chemicals-in-fracking-water/
http://wtaw.com/2011/12/13/texas-to-require-disclosure-of-fracking-chemicals/
http://fracfocus.org/
http://8020vision.com/2011/04/17/congress-releases-report-on-toxic-chemicals-used-in-fracking/

Whiskey & Gunpowder Re-Visited

How does US manufacturing get back on its feet?
Get the central bank out of the money monopoly business. Get rid of government backing for unions. Get rid of tariffs and taxes. Let the cost of labor fall and the ease of doing business rise. Manufacturing will trip over itself in its hurry to get back here.
What is a reasonable corporate tax rate? 25%?
Zero. The same goes for the personal income tax rate.

What types of jobs are sustainable?
None. The market eventually destroys all jobs as it spurs innovation and creates new ones. Over time the need for human labor keeps dropping while the standard of living goes up. You want "sustainable jobs"? Go to a command economy and become a land serf. If you want progress, then join us in the free market and learn to adapt as old jobs die and new ones are created.

What are reasonable farm subsidies and when should they be available?
None and never. Subsidy causes distortion.
Subsidies kept food prices high during economic depression. They benefit corporate mega-farming and not the moms and pops the general public seem to think subsidy helps.
What should happen when Wall Street or banks shirk their fiduciary responsibilities? How about the Iranian solution?
The same thing that happens when you or I shirk our fiduciary responsibilities. We lose credit standing and reputation and bear the economic brunt of our missteps when people voluntarily stop doing business with us.
Do we bail out banks and corporations and make them whole or do we make individuals whole: where is the money better spent for the overall economy?
Neither. The money is best spent by individuals for what they want. Bailouts are stealing (taxing) from one set to bail out another set. It's morally wrong to steal (even when it's called "taxation") and it's economically distorting and ultimately destructive to bail out one favored group at the expense of another.
State and federal infrastructure priorities. Bridges, then roads, then water system, then power systems.
Let the market build the bridges, roads, etc. The producers will be guided by consumer demand for these things. "Infrastructure" isn't a magical area where the market stops working and centralized, politically-directed production works better.
What are the goals for US education? Is affordable college education important? Does college training level the employment playing field?
The goal of U.S. education is to indoctrinate impressionable minds with pro-government propaganda. "Education" under the state is a huge waste of resources.
In fact, true learning is a self-directed activity that the market is making ever cheaper (especially thanks the Internet). Schooling, however, is what the state does and the collectivized schooling under the state is expensive and wasteful.
You want something affordable and useful? Let the market in. Let teachers and schools compete. Let people pick the path of learning that suits them instead of the one-size-fits-all method of the state.
I'm for a strong military but not spending half of the world total for military spending. What is a reasonable readiness cost?
I'm not for a strong military. Strong militaries are like children with hammers. Everything looks like a nail. Strong militaries tend to blunder around the globe, inducing multiple conflicts and body counts. They tend to cause blowback.
Readiness cost approaches zero when you stop stirring up trouble.
How many overseas military bases should the US have? Is 700 too many?
Zero. You may as well ask how many overseas bases China, or Iran, or France or Lichtenstein should have.
How many US based military installations should we have? Is 4500 too many? (90 per state average!)
I'm no fan of the U.S., but I love the idea of America. No one wants to hear that there should be no standing army...but there should be no standing army. So ideally none, but since that's too crazy for most people, let's just pick a round number and say 10% of what currently exists.
Healthcare costs: what is reasonable percent of yearly income? 8%-10%-12%.
That's like asking what a reasonable food or clothing or electronics costs should be. It's really up to the individual. And if the government weren't involved in providing medical care, then it would be a lot cheaper.
Your health starts with your habits. Medical care shouldn't be more expensive or daunting than car maintenance. For catastrophic injury, one should have insurance (which would also be cheaper in a truly free market) just as one would for one's car. But even that is an individual choice.
Entitlement programs for aging population are costing more and more so need to cut or put more resources here. How? Develop plan A, plan B and plan C.
Those entitlements shouldn't have been there in the first place. Now we have generations of people who can't live without them. Yet these programs were all unsustainable Ponzi schemes from the get-go. (Yes, that includes Medicare and Medicaid as well as Social "Security".)

There is no easy way out. The can will be kicked down the road till quality of life inevitably declines. The market will eventually drag quality of life back up. But first people will have to learn -- painfully -- that government cannot improve that quality.

Deconstructing Dad

Old man and the sea Photo courtesy of Flickr user mikebaird

Having children changes a man. All of us know examples of that. I’m pretty sure, for instance, that the only time I ever saw my father sing was to his kids. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was pure Dad.

But is there something about fatherhood that actually changes the male brain? Studies suggest that it does, including one published a few years ago which found that new sets of neurons formed in brains of mouse dads that stayed around the nest after their pups were born.

Still, there’s much yet to be learned about the effects of being a father. And so scientists continue to explore the eternal question: “What’s with this guy?”

Here are 10 recent studies deconstructing dad:

1.The upside to an old old man: So what if they’re only good for one throw in a game of catch. Old fathers can do something for their kids that young dads can’t–pass on genes that give them a better shot at a long life. A study published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says children of older fathers–men who wait until their late 30s to have children–inherit longer telomeres, caps at the end of the chromosomes that protect them from degeneration. And that seems to to promote slower aging and likely a longer lifespan for those kids.

2. See what I do for you?: Most dads know they’re going have to make a few sacrifices for their kids, but lose testosterone? Who knew? A recent study of 600 men in the Philippines found that testosterone levels dropped considerably after they fathered children. Scientists were quick to counter the notion that raising kids makes someone a less manly man and instead concluded that men’s bodies helped them evolve hormonal systems that make it easier to commit to their families. And the men who spent the most time taking care of their kids had the lowest testosterone levels, suggesting that biology helps them shift into parent mode.

3. And see what I do for you: Looks like being a dad may be good for your health. According to a study published last fall, fathers are less likely than childless men to die of heart-related problems. While the scientists acknowledged that their research didn’t prove a definitive connection between fatherhood and reducing fatal heart problems, the size of the study–it involved almost 138,000 men–gave credence to the belief that having kids improves your odds of dodging ticker trouble.

4. This is how you return the favor? Apparently, that healthier heart thing doesn’t go both ways. A study published in The Lancet earlier this year concluded that sons who receive a certain genetic variant on their Y chromosomes from their fathers were 50 percent more likely to develop heart disease than those without it.

5. Who needed all that testosterone anyhow?: At-risk men are less likely to drink, use tobacco or commit crimes after they become fathers–particularly if they have their first child in their late 20s or early 30s. Researchers at Oregon State University said the decreases in bad behavior went beyond what comes simply with young men maturing. Said lead researcher David Kerr: “This research suggests that fatherhood can be a transformative experience, even for men engaging in high-risk behavior.”

6. Of mice and men: Researchers in California have determined that more anxious mice make lousy fathers. Further tests showed that less paternal males had higher levels of vasopressin in their brains. That’s a hormone strongly associated with stress and anxiety. The scientists stopped short of saying stressed-out men struggle as fathers, but do think that what they’ve learned about mouse fathers could shed light on the behavior of anxious human dads.

7. The unkindest cut: A father’s love–or lack thereof–can have a greater influence on the shaping of a child’s personality and development than the mother’s. So says a recent wide-ranging analysis of research about the power of parental rejection. The research, based on 36 studies from around the world and involving 10,000 participants, concluded that nothing has as strong or as consistent an effect on a child’s personality development as rejection by a parent–an experience that can make them feel more anxious and insecure, as well as more hostile and aggressive. And the research suggested that it’s often the father’s rejection that has the greater impact.

8. Diapers…the final frontier: The idea that men have truly become involved in the raising of their children only in the past few decades just isn’t true, says a University of Warwick paper published yesterday. What has changed is that many more fathers now are willing to make the ultimate expression of love–they’re changing diapers. Figures from a 1982 study suggested that 43 percent of fathers had never changed a diaper. By 2000, that figure, according to another study, had fallen to 3 percent. Which makes you wonder: How did the 3 percent pull that off?

9. Bowed by the weight of dirty diapers, but not broken: A large majority of American men now say they place more value on being a good father than on having a successful career. That’s according to a survey of 1,000 men–both dads and non-dads–which found that a full 77 percent said doing a good job at home was very important to them, while only 49 percent felt that way about how they performed at the office. The Mad Men are so over.

10. You’ve come a long way, baby…and yet: Despite the strides fathers have taken in manning up around the house, they still have a way to go if they hope to go halfsies with their partners. The latest Father’s Day Index, published on the Insure.com website earlier this week, estimates that if the average dad was paid for what he does at home, his income would be slightly more than $20,000. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the value of what moms do at home is about three times that.