Hacker

Just as an aside, the book Steve is giving away is an excellent read -- a first person account of flying a Thud mission in Vietnam.

Very, very sad. I considered Raz one of my mentors, having started to correspond with him in the late 90s via the old rec-aviation-military USEnet newsgroups, where Raz was a frequent poster. I corresponded with him frequently then, and continued to do so for years as I went to UPT and became a fighter pilot myself, including some very poignant conversations while I was deployed for OIF during Shock and Awe in 2003. Those of you that have heard the "A Night At The Bar With The Boys" CD of fighter pilot songs mentions Raz by name as one of the old-school songmeisters. Great fighter pilot...wrote some fantastic books....someone who will be righteously missed. How'd he go? Here's an excerpt from the old 435th FTS doofer book (RIP doofer books, too...) from the days when Raz was an AT-38B LIFT instructor at Holloman.

Is there a point to posting all those Jessie Abbate pics, other than she is attractive and a damn good shot?

Benefit to what? No, there is no practical difference other than what you do for a living.

How's the view from 1990?

Just as "outrageous and scary" as an AR-15 appears to people who want the AWB, and with similar (lack of) rational reasoning behind it. Just because someone is scared of it doesn't make their fear logical or rational. Biden can say just about anything he wants, but he is also not the person who can actually execute any of the "recommendations" he makes because those recommendations to have to adhere to any particular laws...which EOs do. Biden couldn't even say what the EO might do, because he has no idea. It is some gun owners who seem to be taking that comment and turning it into a 12-foot-tall monster in the closet, mostly based on their own lack of understanding of the law. EOs have very specific guidelines that include not being able to create new law where there was not one previously. That is a fact. What someone is scared of them being is irrelevant.

Feel free to post up some examples of those EOs that created new law.

What exactly are you worried about with an EO? EOs cannot make new law, they can only clarify/focus existing law.

Fortunately, that is so obviously unconstitutional by Heller's standard.

None required there.

Despite the article that is saying that the gun control faction is in disarray, that by no means that this threat is over. If the Feinstein bill -- or even a gutted shadow of it -- passes and is signed, it will still be another significant move away from a crucial right. Stay on the pressure to your elected representatives, ESPECIALLY now what the summary of Feinstein's proposal is out. She basically proposes limiting gun owners to choose from anything designed before 1900. We're all going to be able to "bear arms" like the Colt SAA and the Winchester 1894 lever action, and that will be called "sensible restrictions". The Cowboy Action Shooters and the hunters will shrug their shoulders and not care about the loss of ability to buy or own a Glock or AR....right up until some idiot shoots up a movie theater with a pair of six-shooters, and then the leftists will be asking for another round of "sensible restrictions" on the "high power handguns" that are only "designed to kill people". They'll be playing the clip from Dirty Harry in an endless loop, showing how we need to get "the most powerful handgun in the world, the .44 magnum" off the streets! DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN!

Probably a lot more than you think (and not just for what you are saying about common criminals and gang bangers) -- nice article on that here: http://reason.com/archives/2012/12/22/gun-restrictions-have-always-bred-defian

Pretty bad taste, and obviously done with a huge anti-firearms agenda and bias.... ...but that's 'freedom of the press' for ya.

How is it that we have raised aviators that think like this?

And yet, they still have great fundamentals and have been making a bazillion dollars this year. Ruger's special dividend hurt it a bit, too. It was paid to all stockholders as of 6 Dec...and as you can see, the floor fell out on the 7th after everyone collected their dividend and dumped it.

CTD pissed a lot of firearms owners off during the 2008 feeding frenzy by jacking up their prices in what a lot of folks felt was an unreasonable way. Apparently they did the same thing a day or two ago, and the reaction has been, shall we say, negative. Stopped by my local Wally World tonight, and while the shelves in sporting goods aren't completely bare, all the reloading stuff is gone and the ammo has been decimated.

Just as an aside, there is no such thing as a Medal of Honor "winner" (as in the caption to this thread). it isn't the Olympics.

Is there such a thing as preparation not in advance? The thing about durable goods like firearms and ammo is that they're pretty much timeless (ammunition shelf life is longer than most of our lifetimes) and prices generally only increase over time. Thus, if one sees a need for either in the future and isn't buying them now, then you are throwing money away.

Well, who knows what the price of components is going to be in the future, but I've been reloading .223 for about $0.20/round....I can see it getting more expensive than that soon, though.

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em. If you ever wanted an AR or AK, or any double-stack handgun with a normal-capacity magazine, go buy them ASAP, else face at least seriously jacked up prices very soon.

She? Or a significant American freedom?

ADCs aren't attached to your command, either -- and that is intentional. It isn't the fear of Command influence that should motivate someone to hire a civilian attorney; it is for their wider range and depth of experience than the SJA prosecutors they will be up against. In my narrow experience in this area, the correct civilian attorney (especially those who are former SJAs) can run circles around most ADCs and SJAs.

The crime-and-punishment actions are completely separate from anything flying related, including Q-3s and FEBs. While information from UCMJ or NJP actions can be used to influence decisions made about a pilot continuing to fly (like an FEB), it most certainly is not an automatic process (at least so far as acquittal goes). In other words, acquittal at the Court Martial means zero in terms of going back and overturning a Q-3 or stopping an FEB.

There is only one side to the 'privilege' contract, just like a lot of things with the military.

Given the types of "combat" the USAF has been engaged in for the last 6-9 years, I think there is still quite a ways to go. Most leaders in the flying community are trying to duel each other for who can make the most conservative decision "just to be safe". Until we are in a situation where taking that conservative answer actually costs troops lives, the pendulum will continue to swing toward total risk aversion.