Facebook Becomes Job Killer

Here we are back at a lovely Monday morning. Is it me or do the weekends move entirely too fast? Now that I have a new schedule that allows me to spend more time with Mrs. Weapon, it seems like we get to doing stuff and before I know it the weekend is gone. But I did get a lot accomplished. I attended the gun show here locally, which was a lot of fun. And both of our vehicles are sparkly clean, which was way overdue. In keeping with what I am transitioning to, I present another article that won’t be too overly long. I will still have the occasionally long article where needed, but stuff like this where I pull an article and give some quick thoughts or ideas to spark debate will become more common. And of course we will start seeing more of the articles from the new SUFA writing staff! This week I am planning on having BF, G-Man, and possibly LOI all presenting articles! Exciting!

Choosing a Tactical Shotgun

I remember in the past that when folks asked there were plenty of opinions around regarding weapon purchases. I honestly just don’t have the time to go back and look for those discussions and wanted to solicit advice from all the folks here at SUFA who know their way around a firearm. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly know my way around a weapon. I have my own preferences and areas where I can offer ample selection advice, but I am entering a new area when it comes to tactical shotguns and thought I would seek some opinions from the folks here. I do ask that the discussion stick to this topic in this thread. Others searching for advice may seek this post out later and I would prefer it stay on topic. Those wishing to discuss other topics can do so on yesterday’s thread!

Nevada Seeks to Trample Rights to Increase Appeal?

As all of you have seen over the last week or two, we are beginning to see the changes at SUFA take shape. This week we had our first article that was actually published by someone else, in the form of G-Man’s article, which obviously stirred up a little bit of controversy and a good deal of discussion. One of the other changes that I have been pondering was the elimination of the “Open Mic Night” as we have done it in the past. To be honest we still have the ability to share articles and start conversations around them every day of the week, and that is exactly what was happening. So instead of the traditional open mic format I will be publishing some open mic type topics in their own articles. This will help focus the conversation and make it easier to follow while I decide what to change in the format. It simply isn’t as easy to follow a discussion in the new comments format, so this will help. And it allows me to publish more articles per week which means fresh content more often.

LIBERTY – UNDER ATTACK!

America as we have understood it finds itself at a crossroads. While the average citizen has collapsed inward, focusing on their own personal lives, a socialist movement has slowly gained steam and is now a full blown revolution. This socialist revolution has been going on since the early 1970′s, if not longer. Political correctness has been imbedded into our minds through well planned media messages and political speeches. All one has to do is turn on the TV and watch just about any show from the major networks from the past 40 years. Remember “All in the Family”, the sitcom that moved bigotry into the realm of no longer politically correct? Watch commercials from all eras. It is about political correctness.

The Mindless Voice of Islam

Like many of you, I have spent the last few weeks watching the events unfold in Egypt. The people rallied to a cause and got to the point where they were able to cause a man who had wielded power for over 30 years to step down. And as many predicted (including that “nut job” Glenn Beck), the spirit of revolution has continued to expand throughout the Middle East. We have watched as protests erupted in Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia. As I watched all of these events unfold over the last couple of weeks, I found myself thinking about some of the discussions that have taken place here at SUFA. Because I believe that what the events of the last few weeks have shown is the fallacy behind some of the more prevalent sentiments espoused during those discussions. So I will put forth what I think these protests mean to us.

Friday Morning Open Mic for February 18, 2011

I thank all who offered me “get well” wishes over the last few days. I have to tell you, on Wednesday I felt like a bus had run over me and backed up to do it again. I was a little better Thursday. Now thursday night, I am still stuffy and congested in the head and chest, but I feel like the worst is behind me. At least I sure hope so. While I am better, I am still not well. My head is still a little fuzzy and I will be trying to get to bed earlier again tonight in the hopes that I can work in my office tomorrow instead of another day of working from the house. But I do want to throw out an article or two for open mic. The first is an economics article. A friend sent it to me with the note saying, “as it turns out, hyperinflation isn’t just around the corner.” So I share the article to get the opinion on it from some of our more economic minded folks. I will try to add another article or two throughout the morning on Friday.

Open Thread for Wednesday

Sorry for the delay in getting things rolling again folks. I moved from surgery to what appears to be some sort of flu. Too out of it to write anything coherent so I am adding this thread for you to use and then hitting the Nyquil and going to bed…

Don’t Reduce… Eliminate

The hot button topic these days in Washington DC seems to be deficit reduction. I have followed this banter back and forth between the two parties for a long, long time in terms of spending and where to make cuts. It seems to flow in a cyclical pattern, as all political issues tend to do. Every 8-10 years we seem to have the “level of spending in Washington” as a primary issue and each time the leaders within the two parties pay lip service to the issue in an attempt to appease the voters just enough to get them to move on to some other issue that will require new organization and alignment. It has been a convenient plan for Congress. Let the issue build. Allow the “movement” to organize and rally to a level where something must be done. Then do as little as necessary and repeat the process with a new issue. There are probably a total of 50 or so “hot button issues” that just wax and wane in DC. And each Congress claims to have done something about each one each time they arise. What we rarely see from Congress is a true fundamental change meant to eliminate the issue from coming back up in the future.

Weekend Open Thread February 12-13, 2011

A great week of conversation. I have decided that with the posts coming more regularly as we move forward and that coupled with articles gaining hundreds of comments, I would start posting an open thread like this every weekend instead of simply continuing conversations throughout the weekend on the existing threads. So feel free to bring over conversations or start a new one. An open thread like this will now be posted each Friday night/Saturday morning for those who visit SUFA on the weekends.

What If I Can’t Look Up Egypt on Wikipedia?

We have all been following the revolution unfolding in Egypt over the last week and a half. I have to say that it is interesting TV. Further, I find it to be an interesting study in what a group of citizens can do when they band together, take a stand, and demand better than what they have. Now I don’t live under the illusion that such a revolution could occur here in the United States. Mubarek didn’t have the military under enough control to use them to put down the revolt. But here in the good ole USA, there are plenty enough men with guns to make taking a stand against your government a risky proposition. But that is a discussion for another day. Instead, I want to talk about what happened in Egypt once the revolution started and how it is a relevant warning for those of us here in America. The Egyptian people found that when the government has the ability to control the ISP’s, they have the ability to control the ability to communicate. And under the shadow of this glaring example, we have the dolts in DC making sorry arguments to gain a similar level of control over ISP’s.

Wednesday Morning Open Mic for February 9, 2011

Back to the open mic topics! I will have to wait and see how my night plays out before I know how this open mic area is going to look in the morning. I have three topics picked out that I want to write about but I am not sure I am going to have the time to write the commentary under the article at the same time. So I will begin to do so and if need be I will post the unfinished ones as articles and then go back and add the comments I have on them in the morning when I can find a few minutes. I will also be trying to see how the open mic works with the new format. It used to be a lot easier to distinguish between different comment threads. But now without the numbering and without the lines designating so it may be more difficult to see the separation between topics. If that becomes the case we will try to figure out a new way! So let me know throughout the day how you are doing with it. I have three topics planned and a fourth if I find time.

An Open Thread and Some Announcements

Let me first say congratulations to any Packers fans who may be checking in. As a rabid Ravens fan, I am certainly no fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I personally believe Baltimore v. Pittsburgh is the best rivalry in the NFL right now. I like Aaron Rodgers. I think the kid is a class act. But I have to be honest and say that I didn’t think that the Packers would be able to overcome Pittsburgh’s defense. I was obviously wrong. The Packers played a hell of a game and absolutely earned that Super Bowl Trophy. Now that I have that out of the way, I have a few announcements as to who some of the new writers at SUFA are going to be. After I do that this can become an open thread to continue discussions. For the rest of this week I intend to do open mic to post on Wednesday morning and then I have an article written to post on Thursday morning. Beginning next week we will start working in some of the other writers and work to create a schedule around that!

Some Thoughts on Change

Whew. So let me just tell everyone that I have had a lot of surgeries in my days. Some worse than others. But this one was not a good time. My entire midsection was basically rendered useless. And anyone who has ever had their core muscles injured or hurting can tell you that you use them far more every day than you think that you do. So that means that everything hurt for the last couple of weeks. Sitting hurt. Laying down was kind of OK. Standing hurt. It all still hurts but is now becoming bearable. So I am attempting to ease myself back into sitting for long enough to actually write something longer than a paragraph. But rest assured all, I am recovering fine. And I want to thank everyone for their constant well wishes and patience as I get through this madness. Tonight begins my foray back to SUFA in earnest as I have been dying to write over the last few weeks. But what I want to talk about tonight isn’t politics, but instead the way forward on SUFA as I try to balance a new career, a new schedule, and a Mrs. Weapon that has always been far more tolerant of my writing than I have any reason to expect.