The Folk Prophet

I'm not sure this is true. I mean, obviously...it IS true. But it's not true too. A baseball bat doesn't do any good either if you miss. But the reality is that most self defense needs for a gun are (at least as far as I understand) close quarters. Accuracy isn't the issue. Training is still very, very, important. But the chance of having to shoot a mass shooter or the like from 50 yards with your P365 is not really the likely self defense scenario where a gun becomes useful. The meth-head who pulls a knife on you trying to steal your car is much more the potential case. General accuracy matters. But most people can do that naturally. Anyone can hit anyone else with any gun from under 5 feet. That's my best understanding. I'm not expert. So just my view.

Commie!

Yeah...but now that we've got the tech issues resolved......

Yeah, I've been tooling leather long enough to know what I'm doing! It sure turned out darker than intended. That's because I know what I'm doing tooling....but not dying leather. I used a leather dye called "light brown". And, silly me, expected it to turn out light brown. (Apparently you have to cut the dye with a thinner to get it lighter and the "light brown" is just the color tone, not the darkness.) I actually prefer that look, and have no consternation over the fact that it's splotchy relative to the final look of a hat to wear. But... I do have consternation over the fact that it wasn't intentional, because I'm learning, and want to know WHY! I want to be able to control that. And ruining a $30 felt is fine. But if I get a $200 felt I don't want to do something I don't mean to do! So... ??? Yeah.

Actually I can just paste that link and it converts it for me into the post. So even easier....... after jumping through 6 hoops. Thanks. OP edited.

Right. But I already have them all online, so creating the links seemed the obvious. Thanks. Edit: Maybe that'll be better though...so links don't have to be clicked. It's just.... then I have to download them and re-upload them and....argh.

@zil2 try again.

Argh. I was afraid of that. I thought for sure I could share them. Darn. Okay...thinking on solutions....

We'll have to see if my hat making mania lasts or if it's just a passing phase first.

Here's the splotchy result of the sanding. I'm not sure if it's because the sanding process isn't meant for wool, or if I did something wrong, or if the fact that it was cheap means the dye isn't as consistent, and sanding brought that out. I dunno. I don't know if it can be fixed. If not, I'll go with a "distressed" hat look for this one.

Shooting a .45 1911 feels akin to shooting a 9mm glock as far as kick goes. Not too bad. It's the weight of the gun that keeps the kick down. My 9mm 1911 isn't as chill as I anticipated though. The kick on it feels similar to my other 9mm guns. Probably is slightly less, but not so much so that I was like "wow" or something. And, FWIW, I paid like $250 for my 9mm 1911. Granted, it was on sale at the time. But you can pick up a Rock Island Armory 1911 for sub $500 pretty easily. Yeah, it's not going to be as high quality as the "nice" ones. But they're rated pretty well for a low priced 1911.

For some reason I got into the idea of western wear lately. Got myself some overly long jeans to wear with my boots (I already had a few pair of cowboy boots...but it was more for...I dunno... well, not full on western...), a few western shirts, and a couple of cowboy hats. But here's the thing. Cowboy hats are expensive! Real ones, at least. The "cheap" one I got was on sale for $120 (normally $150), and the nicer one I got I dropped $250 on (also on sale, normally $350). And they're both lower quality hats, in the relative scheme of things. A high-end hat can run up to $3000!! Yowsa! But then, as I tend to do, I went even crazier on the thought, and decided I'd learn to make my own hat!! You see... a 100% beaver felt (which is the high end hat side of things), one can pick up for $200 or so. That's not really why I wanted to make hats. But... it's nice to know that if I get good at it, I could theoretically create a hat that would cost $1000+ for under $250. Shrug. Anyhow... so I got myself a hat block off Etsy ($125), and a hat "blank" or "capeline" in wool (the cheapest material) for about $35, and.... here's what I have so far: Here's the block: The blocking of the felt: Post blocking: And completed hatband (which I tooled myself): I sanded the hat too (a process that's meant to be a part of the process per my learning efforts), but that's made it all splotchy. Don't know if I've ruined it or not. Gotta try a few things to see. Next I have to sew in a sweatband, then shape the thing into a cowboy hat shape of some sort. Lest one thinks I'm only into the cowboy hat thing, I can use the same block to make Indiana Jones style fedoras! So... you know.

I went to the range once and rented about 10 different handguns in different calibers. That started my life-long (haha.... meaning the past like 10 years) love of 1911s. But... here's the one thing I learned for myself. A .45 glock is not for me. Because.... yeah. Hurt my stinking wrist! The lightweight gun with a .45 kicked like a mule. The same caliber in the 1911 was great! I own a 1911, but in 9mm. That's mostly because all my other guns are 9mm and so... you know. I'm more into the idea of .45 for a 1911. Because... you know... America! But...I digress. The overall point was simply to say that I understand.

I keep glaring at my daughter when she does that....and it's not helping! The little apostate!

I tend to respond the same way when people are critical of "Utah Mormons". But.... honestly.... we're meant to be living by a higher standard. Funny though that I'm judgmental against BYU students, but defensive of Utah Mormons. I guess I take the latter personally.

Well, here's my take: (I had actually already googled and found it because you were slow. :D) They're both idiots. The professor is clearly not all there imo. (Someone mentioned he might have some issues). I'm not sure he realized what he was tearing up, or meant it as a "screw the Proclamation to the Family" way as much as a "screw you kid" way. And the kid is everything that's wrong with BYU. Stinking self-righteous holier-than-thou little butthead.

I only know anecdotally from my ward or the like. I think Romney would win again pretty easily. I don't think, despite what I wish, that's the reason he's retiring.

Who's likely to be about the same as Romney on the Trump support side of things.

Question -- in your view: If Romney didn't retire but ran again for the Senate in Utah...would he win?

I think it differs in that trying to legalize gambling through terms like free agency is dishonest. They don't believe in free agency. They believe in money. I don't think anti-Trump Latter-day Saints are dishonest. They believe what they say. The fact that the site is one of the most self-righteous things I've ever seen.... well.... self-righteousness does, at least, take a semblance of righteousness to be. Self-righteousness is particularly annoying when it's also based in things that are false. (Granted, the true/false of it is my opinion in some cases.) Every point they make on their site is, in my opinion, partially, or completely, false.

I'm not sure political reality has anything to do with politics.

Unfortunately, not true. Because one of them is Mitt Romney. Who can (along with 2 other anti-Trump Repubs in the Senate) do more than just raise a fuss, but actually bring the vote against him to 50.

This very, very anti-Trump stance is not uncommon among Latter-day saints (relatively speaking, depending on what one means by "common"). My wife has an uncle who sees things this way. There's a website called the Moroni Project that's about the same p.o.v. It's not unsurprising that a BYU professor sees things that way. I guess the thing I find strange is that they aren't flipping the same way over Kamala, Clinton (both of them), Obama, and Biden. All of them are just as "evil" as the next.

Source?

Yep. And I, for one, am well pleased with the potential here. I don't actually disagree that the Tariffs will cause economic harm. They will. I believe the other, more important economic things that Trump is likely to enact will more than offset that. Drilling and de-regulating will make a lot more difference to the economic strength than the cost of goods from China. And it, honestly, isn't a "we'll see" issue to me. It's a long term security issue. It's worth the pain. It's no different than the philosophy on the left that getting rid of oil and gas systems, while painful, is good for us long term. (A point with which I don't fully disagree.) Some pain is worth it. Some things are worth higher costs. Some things are worth dying for. China is out of control. They have to be reigned in. Even at the cost of goods rising. Tariffs do cause some pain to the US. They cause more pain to the countries being tariffed. And they're a whole heck of a lot better way to curb other country's bad behavior than bombing them or the like. Or, alternatively, as the Dems seemed to choose, letting them just run amok. Maybe there are other, better ways. But the pre-pandemic economy under Trump before belies your point a bit. Sure, there were some pains because of the Tariffs. But the economy was great. The same is true of what I hope Musk does to the government agencies under Trump. Will it be painful for the economy and other things if the government's alphabet agencies are gutted? Yes. But, in my opinion, nothing would be better for the country in the long term.