Hil, I feel so bad for you. Call the pulmonologist and have hysterics? You can't wait a freaking month for this shit.

I'll try calling tomorrow. I just checked, and this cough started on October 16, and has gotten worse and better, but never actually went away.

Thanks, Hec! They can probably answer some questions.

Excellent.

But now I am convinced I need to own a number of items, and they can all be classed as deductible items. For RESEARCH. Right?!

So interesting!

But now I am convinced I need to own a number of items, and they can all be classed as deductible items. For RESEARCH. Right?!

Of course!

It's also a good resource to find out what's legal in what state. Lots of different rules for what's allowable. For example, in most states a sap or blackjack is considered to be as dangerous as a knife and has the same restrictions.

Some of the detailed descriptions about the effectiveness of the blackjacks and saps are fascinating. You can easily break somebody's bones with even an 8 ounce blackjack. For concealment a lot of them like the finger sap, which is just a round piece of leather holding a lead weight that slips over your fingers inside your palm. You can knock somebody down with a light slap to the jaw. You don't have to rear back and clock them, just a slap in the teeth with some lead.

The folks in law enforcement seem to like the TDI Knife which is fixed blade and draws from a holster like a gun. (Designed for use with your off hand.)

Just because -- ita !, here's some vids from the KC area Krav place: [link]

I am currently engrossed in watching them all. Damn, I wish I had money.

Hec, see, I always thought they were called asps. Or is that a specific name for the retractable ones?

Asp Knife is a very different design.

I kind of dig this all-in-one Fireman's tool. It's got a rappelling ring! It scores glass to break through windshields. You can chop through sheet steel. And the end can be used to turn off fire and gas.

I know what CJ wants for xmas...

Call me impatient, Erin, but what's that one second vid about? I hopped and skipped through it, and all I saw was bagwork.

It's about the illusion of safety with concealed carry -- just because you have a firearm doesn't mean you're safe. It demonstrates how fast an assailant without a weapon can incapacitate a trained person with a concealed weapon. The big guy is hitting the bag, nstead of the older guy.

The older guy can draw from concealed carry in 1 second, and the big guy can get 4-6 good hits in before he can get it out.

The older guy can draw from concealed carry in 1 second, and the big guy can get 4-6 good hits in before he can get it out.

If the guy decides to pull a gun while a guy is in arm's reach, then he's an idiot. But I guess they say that. Guns are much better than punches at a distance.

Yeah, from what I get, the class is predicated on the "Don't be Too Stupid To Live" model.

They have 2 hour intro classes for $35 that includes a one week pass to any self-defense or conditioning classes. I might take one in February.

It'll probably kill me, but it'd be good research. I'd have to buy non-marking sneakers, though. My only pair are roughly 800 years old, have holes in the toe, and have black soles.

I just checked, and this cough started on October 16, and has gotten worse and better, but never actually went away.

I think a lot of people have that. Tim got sick the week before Thanksgiving, and while he's 98% better, he still has a cough.

I started having some amped-up allergy symptoms around Thanksgiving, and they're not going away, not even with Benadryl (on top of daily Zyrtec [and I have cycled through Zyrtex, Claritin, and Allegra]), so I have a doctor appt. tomorrow morning. I don't know what it is, unless living with cats finally got to be too much after 4 years.

(You guys, it was 4 years on Dec. 1st. FOUR YEARS OH MY GOD.)

But the thing is, I haven't been having gradually increasing symptoms; they just suddenly got bad around Thanksgiving. Normally, I would assume sudden bad symptoms are due to a change in *something* -- new drug, new food, new cat, new *something.* I can't figure it out, but it's starting to freak me out.