Hixter

Two of my neighbors are brisket masters. I love it when they decide to have a smoke-off. One of them just texted a photo of the brisket he's preparing for tomorrow night's neighborhood Christmas party. It's massive.

It shouldn't be required with good BBQ, but it's usually available. I usually spurn it unless the brisket is dry.

I've only been a Texan for 9 years, so I'm down with just about any kind of BBQ there is. But it's hard to beat the brisket in Texas. This sauce is from a chain restaurant, but it's pretty good. My family always asks me to bring a few bottles when I visit.

They lobby against gun control which would disarm law-abiding citizens and/or turn them into felons at the stroke of a pen. It turns out that the San Bernardino shooters broke yet another of the president's proposed legislation by utilizing a straw buyer and failing to record the transfer of their AR-15s as is already required by California law.

My military experience allowed me to visit the exotic locales of South Carolina, Georgia and California. I also spent a month in Panama on what was essentially a vacation, since the commander told me that there wasn't anything for me to do and he encouraged me to see the sights. Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Colombia, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. I've been to most of them multiple times. Not exactly a world-class explorer, but I've seen a bit of the world and I have a few trips planned for the future.

The New York Times linked to a fake news site in their latest anti-gun editorial: The "ammunition" link points here: http://nationalreport.net/california-implements-statewide-ban-45-acp-ammunition/

Nor did I say they did. I was relating a political news story that I ran across that had a couple degrees of separation link to someone on VC.

I saw someone on Facebook who posted a link to this ACLU guy's suggestion that Trump voters should be shot before the election. Just the usual political crap that abounds on Facebook, right? http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/10/colorado-aclu-board-member-shoot-trump-voters-before-election-day/ I went to check out the guy's FB page to see if he'd actually written that post (skeptic 'til I die) but what really surprised me was this post. Small world!

Highly unlikely. There are about 5 million NRA members, so only 1 in 60 Americans are members. Nobody keeps murder stats for NRA members, but Texas does keep stats of a similar demographic: Concealed Handgun License holders. Every year about 3 of them out of a million are convicted of murder (not necessarily with a firearm). That's less than 1/13 of the murder rate for the nation as a whole.

It's not exclusively a Muslim issue, but it cannot be denied that many/most of the perpetrators of terror attacks in the west have traveled a bit. Traveling to a far away country is always an educational experience, but to some people the exposure to a foreign culture is not a positive experience. Sometimes it fosters or increases a sense of hatred for the foreigners and their culture. I've done my share.

It's pretty simple to Google something like gun+control+blacks and you'll find almost 300 years of history, but for starters you can look at the Mulford Act of 1967. Armed Black Panthers were patrolling the streets of California in full compliance with existing open carry laws and there was nothing the cops could charge them with, so Governor Reagan changed the law to prohibit carrying firearms. It doesn't seem to be working for some Muslims who emigrate to Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

Some of the earliest (and not so early) gun control laws were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of black Americans.

Just in case anyone thinks it's only Republicans who have an unfavorable opinion on Islam: https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/12/09/most-americans-dislike-islam/

Definitely. It was a cloud that hung over him the rest of his life and he noticeably changed from a happy-go-lucky joker to a sad clown.

As I've mentioned before, there is a difference between "all male Americans" and "adult American males." It's kind of silly to include toddlers in the equation.

Anyone interested in Who history and trivia should check out "The Who This Month." It's well researched and loaded with all kinds of media and interesting tidbits. It's updated on the first day of every month. http://www.thewhothismonth.com/

They were arrested in Montreal for destroying a hotel suite. Entwistle memorialized it in his song Cell Number 7. http://ultimateclassicrock.com/the-who-arrested-in-montreal/

Myopia? I posted a link to a Gallup poll. There are more than 20 million veterans in this country and that's an indisputable fact. The demographics in my neighborhood may not jibe with the national figure, but nobody can contest the fact that one in 4 or 5 adult American males is a veteran.

If I remember correctly, Entwistle was on a honeymoon cruise when the song was recorded, so Townshend played bass on the two Stones covers that were intended to keep their music in the public eye (ear?) while Mick and Keith were facing prison sentences.

Daltrey designed the cover. I remember hearing that he and Pete had to switch helmets because their intended ones didn't fit. The original pressing also had cutout holes where the photo was ripped, in addition to the braille titles on the back cover. It was probably an expensive album to manufacture.

Their first single (as The High Numbers) and so many fantastic non-album songs. I listen to it frequently.

I just counted up all of my neighbors: 9 out of 16 men are veterans. One out of 16 women is a veteran. I guess we're overachievers. I think that's a much more likely scenario than some secret plot to pit Muslims against one another. They're going after each other across wide swaths of the world and they have been for centuries. Although this article claims that Assad is guilty of funding and growing ISIS: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12038032/As-long-as-there-is-an-Assad-there-will-be-an-Isil-hell-make-sure-of-it.html

I'm certainly not trying to change anybody's mind. My gun posts are typically in response to a stated falsehood; sometimes they're just a reminder that everyone doesn't hold the same opinion and just because someone disagrees doesn't make them wrong/stupid/insane/violent. One man's weapon of death and destruction is another man's method of gathering dinner. I never hunted (or owned firearms) until I was almost 50, but I've grown to enjoy it and the time that's spent with friends. I feel less guilty about eating venison sausage than I do factory-raised meat, to be honest. Likewise.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/158729/men-women-veterans.aspx Maybe your figure takes into account all males and not 18+? 25% seems to track pretty well with what I've found in my circle of acquaintances. Nope. The FBI's murder stats are broken down by race and weapon, but not in the same chart. But these latest figures show that murder arrests for African Americans outnumber those of whites (which are combined with Hispanic citizens. https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-43 Countless pages of reasonable discussion and you've com