Tom Austin

10% Solomon Kane, 90% Respectabiggle

Like = I'm glad you posted this, even if I disagree

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@blackstarops The 8 oz. RipIt is a thing of beauty.

Sadly, they no longer sell those in CONUS.

@RIPITEnergyFuel

[National Association for Gun Rights @gunrights]

This is not a drill: the ATF is accepting public comments on 34 proposed rules. We need you to flood the record before the deadline closes.

That’s why we built a simple action center where you can review each rule, see our position, and submit pre-written comments in just a few minutes (or if you’d like, use our tool to give your own written comments).

Some of these rules are long-overdue corrections to Biden-era abuses. Others need tweaks to actually make them pro-gun. But one thing is certain: if gun owners stay silent, the bureaucracy gets to write the record without us.

Take five minutes and make your voice heard below ⤵️

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@owenbroadcast Trying to put your finger down the throat to induce vomiting in a toddler who has just swallowed an entire bottle of medicine and she can't stop giggling at your efforts.... peak gremlin behavior.

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@goinggodward Puns are the lowest form of humor.
It says this in Leviticus somewhere.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@NathanpmYoung @mercoglianos It is to me, in that it explained more than I knew before (which was just cabotage) and avoided the tone of most responses I've seen, which tend to be "I guess you just want CHINA to own every ship in the WORLD, huh?"

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@ArynneWexler "Don't cry for me, Arynne Wexler!"

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@mercoglianos @NathanpmYoung Thanks, that's a succinct and clear explanation of the pro-Jones position.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@OrwellNGoode @EdLatimore Wrote a whole book on this...

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@bendellwerry I'm persuaded, just not .... $800 persuaded.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@DamndestBastard +1 for Paksenarrion

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

Ahem.

TAMPONS ARE INEFFECTIVE FOR TREATING GUNSHOT WOUNDS!

[Community Notes & Violations @CNviolations]

Tampons are ineffective for treating gunshot wounds

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@AliceFromQueens I'm 6', but I tell people I'm 5' 12".

It helps me spot both dumb people and people without a sense of humor.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@JoshuaSteinman But first, they write a lot of monkey porn.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@cremieuxrecueil I didn't, but I'm not too ashamed to look it up.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@John_ProductDev @ASN_RDA "Cheaper" is not the metric that needs to be used here.
That was the primary problem with the decison to close SIMAs.

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@owroot And learning car repair in order to keep your beater running fosters both technical and personal growth.

[Leah Libresco Sargeant @LeahLibresco]

“Somewhere in the last twenty years we collectively decided that to explain a behavior is to excuse it, that causation and culpability are the same substance, that the moment you locate a structural reason for an action you have thereby dissolved the actor inside it”

[Tom Austin @TFA303]

@XianJaneway And if you've had more than one kid, you can spot major differences in personality from Day One.

[ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 @kunley_drukpa]

Replace all police officers with Gurkhas. Bipartisan move that satisfies twin requirements for both diversity and competence in policing. Everybody loves the Gurkhas and it makes public spaces more thrilling if you know your every move is being tracked by Gurkhas hiding in trees