Poisson Idea

Deny reason long enough and it becomes lies... c'mon fortune cookie? There's a difference between hoping to find a reason to shoot someone and praying you never find yourself in that position. Brains will help you avoid that situation in Philly and elsewhere, and I acknowledge that there are tough areas in our country. I've also lived in/around them much of my younger life. And since when is NY state a liberal utopia? I'm scare to turn around in someone's driveway around here at night - end up with a .308 in my neck. I'll leave you folks to the echo chamber - that's one thing the far right in left both love. That and driving slowly with a train of cars behind you. Finding common ground!

No, they are reasonably stated. I'm anti concealed, yes. Obviously. I don't see the need for it and do not trust the type of people who are into it to be safe. Why is that not a fair comment?

Paranoia and concealed guns = public danger. Do you guys envision a mall shooter threat in which you save the day by whipping out your gun and saving the day to a stranding ovation without hitting a bystander? Serious question; when someone gets hurt in this scenario, does your heroic leap to action absolve you from legal responsibility, or do you get treated as a threat and danger, including escalating a situation? Not against guns for hunting, fun, etc., just the outdated mentality that they are somehow associated with freedom. Most of us quit that idea when we put down our whiffleball bat M16s. Hopefully anyone with domestic violence, DUI, etc. history at least gets regulated. Any objection to that, or does that include too many CC advocates?

The irony is not lost on me.

SOL threads fill this same bill pretty consistently, unfortunately.

What exactly are you guys concerned about? I couldn't care less if anyone knows I have guns. I'm much more scared of gun nuts than regulations and would welcome better record keeping. Gun glorification and paranoia are a bad combo. Seriously, it's 2022, not 1776. Computers are more of a threat to our country - how many Chinese and Russian bots are stirring the pot on sites like this? Is it all bots botting each other? I'll assume some of you are miffed by my honest perspective, but you don't need to quote this when you rant back.

National averages: 10K miles/yr @ 25 mpg = 400 gal/yr, so a buck increase per gal is only $400/yr. Napkin math is a good habit.

Bush. And that's pretty damn capitalistic talk. Pay to play.

To keep it in perspective, even increasing a buck is only a couple hundred bucks a year to the average driver. Still too cheap IMO - doesn't encourage fuel economy. Remember $6/gal? Then when it came down, everyone started commuting in 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles again... and then complained about fuel prices. Quick calc on trucks would be about $20K/yr, which isn't nothing, but that's divided over the number of widgets they're hauling over that time, and they can pass that on to the client and eventually to the consumer. First world won't suffer substantially because of that. And yeah, boats are going to cost, but that's a leisure sport that comes with a constant bleed on a good day. We already know that...

I never use Amazon. That guy has too much money and kills local and small businesses. With ubiquitous internet, small businesses could easily make more money by selling direct, but laziness sends people straight to Amazon without a thought. There's more criteria to someone getting my money that just price.

Looks like ME annual lobster catch is ~100M lbs, and they use about 2 lbs of bait for every lb market lobster = 200M lbs bait/yr. Historically, a lot of that bait has been whole bait fish like herring that are caught just to be used as bait (i.e. not carcasses after processing - same as crab fisheries down south that use whole spot). Those bait fisheries have been hit hard as a result of bait demand, to the point where lower quotas have been needed, and now expensive bait is even being imported. I have no idea how scrupulous lobstermen are, but I imagine that could be a recipe for a bait black market. So, a lobster dinner either has negative impact on the other regional fisheries because of traditional bait sourcing, or now contributes to our $16B seafood trade deficit...

Car / gun analogy stands pretty well. Some one steals either one from you and hurts someone, you are not liable - the criminal scenario is not relevant. If you hit a car or person with your car, however, even accidentally, you most likely can't afford to pay for it, which is why car insurance is mandatory. Similarly, what if you shoot someone that doesn't deserve it? Hunting accident, hit the wrong person or their kid while trying to defend yourself, etc. Easily $10k to 100K cost - much more over time if you hurt/kill a family breadwinner. Should they get stuck with no income or a disability or hospital bill? Few individuals could pay up like that, and the victim is screwed unless the shooter is rich. If the gun community would support gun stats to be be taken, then maybe they would have an argument that insurance isn't relevant, but that's been blocked, presumably to hide negative stats would justify regulatory measures, and now insurance. Like car insurance, if you are a safe operator, the cost would be low and nothing to gripe about. It could use some refinement, sure, e.g. focus on handguns that are more likely to result in damages, but it's not a dumb idea by any means.

RIP. Emperor of the North Pole and Hell in the Pacific were great ones. Old movies are getting hard to find on streaming services...

Will try to look this weekend for you. It's a good old 550SS.

It's intact, but in bad shape - was a hurricane casualty from years ago. If the rest of your reel is like new, then you can probably do better. Lmk if you get desparate, though. Unfortuanately I'm too busy this week to strip it down and give the frame a scrub to check for damage.