bwjordan

I'm thinking about buying a new handgun for personal defense. I have a .38 that my dad gave me a few years ago, which I feel is about the right power/recoil for my wife to handle ok. Downside is the trigger pull, which reduces accuracy (or speed, if you miss and choose to cock manually).

Of course, the semi-auto is sexier, but have heard "stories" about jams, misfires, spring malfunctions, etc. I am wondering how much of this is just anecdotes or "theoretical" or if anyone has had first-hand personal experience of any significant problems with semi-autos. When it is ever brought up, everyone always says revolver is more reliable (in theory, yes). But at the same time, I just don't see the police and military relying on something that has a high chance of malfunction.

Also, I know there is a difference between different brands/materials of semi-autos. I'd be willing to pay the extra money for a particular brand if it would make a difference in this kind of reliability

FYI - I live in the suburbs, and the thing is probably going to sit in my nightstand for 4-5 years without ever being shot. I guess I could rotate the ammo every year or so.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

My wife and I recently went on a trip to Los Angeles and decided to reserve a car at Budget. We travel a lot and rent a car occasionally, never really having a problem. But when we got to the Budget office in LA, they said they didn't have our car available "right now." We had pre-paid through Expedia. I first told her that we would wait for our car, but she kept saying they did not have our car on their lot then and she wasn't sure how long it would be. I told her that we had made a reservation and really expected to have a car. She said "Do you see all of these people in line? They all have 'reservations,' too." She did not offer to give us another car for the same price, but said that she could give me the next-highest-quality car for only $10 more per day.

In the end, we took the deal, since the car had a GPS and we were kind of wanting that anyway, but I still feel like this was wrong and perhaps illegal in some way. Anybody have any more knowledge or experience with this?

How do you feel about Edwards running when they know her time is limited? According to them, she has metastatic (stage 4) breast cancer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Edwards

I have cared for many patients with metastatic cancer, and their time is unfortunately quite limited.

From UpToDate (a respected review of the latest clinical data, written and edited by experts in each field:

"Prolonged survival — Despite the disappointing cure rate, treatment prolongs survival in women with metastatic breast cancer. The average survival duration for women treated for metastatic breast cancer has improved over the last 20 years [2,3], and is approximately 24 months"

http://patients.uptodate.com/topic.asp?file=cancer...

I feel horrible for anyone with cancer, and I think it takes a lot of courage to face cancer every day. But does anyone have any concerns with her husband running? What do you think?

Seriously, would any President be a good one if his wife lost a long, hard-fought battle against cancer? Wouldn't he be totally distraught? How is he going to deal with Iran and Korea if he is in a dark room grieving? You could say, "Ah, he'll get over it." But you just don't know. Politicians--believe it or not--are people, too. They are subject to being distracted, getting depressed, and needing some time to get affairs in order. Would you be really comfortable knowing that your President is about to start taking a new anti-depressant? Those things have side-effects in some people, you know...

And if he is not grieving, what does that say about him??? Shouldn't he be spending the last few months of his wife's life with her??? What does that say about this man???

Seriously, would any President be a good one if his wife lost a long, hard-fought battle against cancer? Wouldn't he be totally distraught? How is he going to deal with Iran and Korea if he is in a dark room grieving? You could say, "Ah, he'll get over it." But you just don't know. Politicians--believe it or not--are people, too. They are subject to being distracted, getting depressed, and needing some time to get affairs in order. Would you be really comfortable knowing that your President is about to start taking a new anti-depressant? Those things have side-effects in some people, you know...

And if he is not grieving, what does that say about him??? Shouldn't he be spending the last few months of his wife's life with her??? What does that say about this man???

I am selling my first house; after it sells I am going to put the money into my current house. I am wondering if it's going to lower my payment or just shorten the length of my loan.

I am thinking of buying one.

Before anyone suggests a Prius, I don't like them. I can't see anything out the rear-view window, they are more expensive, and they look weird.