Troy

… until then, everybody strap up, huh? Fascinating. I do know people who feel this way. Most were “in the life,” or in law enforcement. Still others were regular citizens who feel the need to protect themselves and their families against some threat (mostly imagined if you ask me). The fact is most police officers never have to fire their weapon in the line of duty. But for some reason many civilians are under the impression that this country is so dangerous that they need a gun for protection. I’ve always said the media’s focus on murder and mayhem give people a distorted view of the world. We also know most of the victims of gun violence would not be protected by carrying a gun. Having a gun will not protect you from catching a stray walking down the street, but getting guns off the street and tougher laws might help. @ProfD be very careful if you are ever stopped by the police.

@Rodney campbell what is this, a proposed idea? I hope this has not gone anywhere beyond this post.

This a tough one. But I’m with Stefan on this one. @ProfD using your reasoning people in “soft target” like churches, schools, businesses should be armed if that what your are saying. You make it sound simple. Owning, maintaining, securing, and caring a gum is not trivial, nor is knowing when and how to use it. Do you carry a gun around with you in case you confront a gun man? As the article pointed out armed civilians “defending” themselves kill innocent people and unnecessarily use deadly force all the time. People have been killed over parking spots, walking in the neighborhood, taking too loud in the movie theater. Instead of creating an arms race amongst the population and being the hand maidens of the NRA we should seek other solutions….

pinochle! @richardmurray you must be from Philly. I’ve only played the game there. Outside of Philly I’ve never heard anyone mention it. Plus you need a special deck of cards… anyone else heard of pinochle?

The easiest thing would be to use the word in a sentence. The adjective and verbs are different meanings of the word “proof” we were talking about the definition below: Words can have multiple meanings, but we were shaking about a specific meaning.

Well that is why i like bid whist more than spades. In spades whoever is lucky enough to get the most high spades will win. In whist a hand that is great in hand for spades doesn't necessarily mean anything and you can “Run a Boston” in whist with a scrappy spades hand.

Poignant and interesting — thanks again @Cynique i always wondered about Bridge it always seemed to be played exclusively by white women named Gertude, Myrtle, Gladys, or Mable… On the TV sitcoms men never played. i don’t think i know anyone who plays. we played Spades in college. several times i played till morning myself. I later learned to play Bid Whist a much better game, that I rarely play because i rarely encounter people who know how to play. i understand Whist is similar to Bridge but i have no idea. i prefer bid whist because any suit can be trump or there can be no trump. You can also decide (bid) on whether the low or high cards are most valuable. I play spades with a group of people we pass a trophy to the winning team. I wished they would play whist instead.

Oh, OK.

My recommending other sites is a vestige of the old days when that was common on the web. It was a really simple way to provide mutual support. Now we pay social media and Google to link to our sites… i link to every bookstore site I’m aware of, i don’t think any link to AALBC. That was not always true, but again it is reflective of his the web has evolved. Well I’m glad you picked up on the ISBN that is super important especially for booksellers. Again thanks for taking the time to share your positive experience publicly @Rodney campbell

Is what he says? I’d be unable to determine the exact number? he looks fat and out of shape to me. hey Umar if you ever read this don’t take it seriously, I’m just giving ole Pioneer a hard time. I’ve never heard Umar speak in person, so I’ll take you at your word that the sisters flock to him. What do you think the quality of the ladies running up on Umar is like? Are they highly educated?

Kyrie Irving donated $50K

@Pioneer1 are you really confused about what the word “proof” means? What are you trying to accomplish?

I think gun control should be part of the conversation. Understanding why is good too, but keeping guns out the hands of nuts should be a priority, don’t you think?

you are correct. I use the forums using my phone and I’m really not as careful as i should be correcting typos and bad autocorrections. I’m not so confident that those gun-toting, bunker-building, survivalist have any interest in helping us and Even if they were willing to help there are enough of them. @Rodney campbell if a fraction of writers shared your enthusiasm that would be possible. Shoot you have more enthusiasm than i do — but it takes a lot to get me charged up 😉

Again if Umar is a so called Alpha male, why can he get at least one sister that he is “sure” about? Alpha males are dominant and have many opportunities to procreate because they are considered desirable by the females of the species. How many children did Umar father @Pioneer1?

As far as we know. In 5,000 years it will be interesting to see what is left of our civilization. I’m inclined to agree with @Rodney campbell i doubt we are any smarter as a species than we were 15,000 years ago. The difference is there are a hell of a lot more of us and we’ve had centuries of building upon prior knowledge. What do you think would happen to humanity if we took away all our technology, accumulated knowledge, and humanity and had to start from scratch? There would be very little to separate us from apes. I’d argue we are dumber. who amongst us cold survive more that a few days if we were plopped down in the wilderness. We couldn’t start a fire for warmth or protection. We could protect our selves from predators or find food.

Wow Rodney that was pretty cool! I try 🙂 look out for even more coming up!

Hi @Dee Miller would you list the ISBN13 of your books as follows: 9781520984773: Are Black Woman 'Always' so angry? Hmmm: Truth, Excuse or Something else Let's see what I can do to get your books up on the site. BTW the ISBN 9798218093198 does not come up in any queries -- not even Amazon, Can you double check it?

agreed. The colors don’t really mean anything when the logo was designed, over the years I’ve said they represent the diversity in our culture. Thanks for asking, but I’ll have to point you to some interview or something.

The operative word was “exclusively.” But under further consideration maybe “narrow minded” Is not the right phrase as it applies to the individual. Amazon exerts monopolistic power when it comes to independent book sales and publishing, so the decisions are limited. Indeed that is why I’m compelled to send readers there for some books, when I spent the previous three years boycotting them. The problem is for us collectively; when we publish with Amazon exclusively we give Amazon all the money to produce the book and all the money to sell and distribute it. This just increases their strength and revenue while weakening their competition.

Everyone else.

I watched an interesting program on YouTube that said there were multiple advanced civilizations in the past and all were wiped out by natural disasters. We will be wiped out too… Sooner than later. clearly the civilization that built the pyramids was advanced. Apparently there is evidence of other civilizations prior. So we may have been smarter in the past … it is not exactly a high bar…

that is what i would think, so why are y’all letting him determine what alpha males do?

Depending on the source doing the reporting I would accept it as proof 10 people were killed. Reputable newspapers are not in the business of reporting on murders that did not occur. If Alex Jones said it was actors staging the shooting I would not accept that as proof, as he is in the business of conspiracy theories and sensationalism.