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aardwolf wrote:

Piney wrote:Interesting comments floating around about the Baytown's mayor banning booze and firearm sales. I dont have a problem with the booze ban but the firearm ban is a bit overboard (and possible way outside that office's authority).

I'm more annoyed that Spec's wasn't allowed to sell booze yesterday after the storm passed.

Sunday is still Sunday. The wise ones keep a constant stock in case of sudden hurricane or party conditions. Glad to know my rum collection survived.

I've been watching the news from the wife and my staging area in Killeen. Haven't seen or heard anything about League City or South Shore Harbor. We live on a 4th floor apartment and covered the windows, so I'm not concerned about that as much as the car we left behind. Does anyone know how the streets look? In hindsight we should have parked it in the parking garage across the marina, but oh well.

We managed to get all the photos, guns, jewelry, and papers, as well as about 2 weeks worth of clothing packed and headed out within 2 hours. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how quickly we were able to get what we needed and leave. The only things we didn't bring were some movies to watch, but we have netflix online.

Also, had my first experience with law enforcement with a CHL. My brother-in-law lived on Fort Hood, so we got a hotel in Killeen so keep the family in one location. Well, we arrived before the room was ready, so we decided to visit his home first. With all the chaos of packing and driving, I completely forgot about the 3 handguns, 2 rifles, and 2 shotguns thrown in the back of the truck. Well, I give my license and registration to the DPS at the visitor center, and he matter-of-factly asks if I have my weapon on me. I naturally said no, because it digs in my hip while I'm driving, but then he asked if I had it in the car. The "darn it" look on my face gave me away as I remembered, and he very nicely said that he couldn't give me a pass, but that I was welcome to leave my car at the center and have my brother-in-law come pick us up until the hotel was ready. Overall, a pretty pleasant experience, and I was treated very respectfully. I now have the handguns stored in the hotel's safe deposit boxes, and the long guns are stored in a gun safe at his friend's house off base. I figured all heck would break loose once the security guy asked about weapons, but I guess it just shows how much they actually do trust us.

Russell wrote:

agbullet2k1 wrote:Went to Wally World in Kemah today to get some new wiper blades, and the store associate yelled out as she was putting out new price stickers that the gas cans had just tripled in price. Good to know that price gouging is just a myth.

I disagree with the entire notion of "price gouging." It's capitalism at its finest, and yeah it can be a pain on the consumer side of things, but all the anti-price gouging laws do is encourage consumers to take advantage of short supply by buying more than they need, thereby using up the entire supply quite a bit faster than normal.

For example, the anti-price gouging laws that go into effect during evacuations for hotel rooms. Instead of a room going from $40 a night to $90 a night and encouraging families to get only 1 room, thereby saving rooms for additional evacuees to use, the parents will get their own room, maybe the kids will get their own room, grandma will also get a room for her own use......

The law is ignorant and is just paying lip service to ill-informed consumers, because, well, "Price gouging is bad. We need to ban it."

Sound familiar?



Edit: Btw I'm not trying to throw this thread off topic, "price gouging" is just one of those phrases that get under my skin, just like "working class" gets under my skin as well.

Well, I'm not advocating setting laws in place by any means. I just think it's dishonest business to try to make extra money off of people who are trying to plan an evacuation. I also noticed them changing prices on batteries and coolers. The Home Depot next door wasn't charging any more for plywood or batteries, or gas cans I'm sure (can't verify the last one). And if they decided to charge more, I can't believe they would have tripled the prices.

I guess I'd summarize with, I don't want gov't making sure businesses do right, but I'll take my money to places that do right of their own accord.

Edit: Just as a side note, I do think it is a perfectly reasonable alternative for businesses to ration critical items as opposed to raising price in order to keep people from hording in emergency situations.

Went to Wally World in Kemah today to get some new wiper blades, and the store associate yelled out as she was putting out new price stickers that the gas cans had just tripled in price. Good to know that price gouging is just a myth.

Managed to get gas before there was a rush, and stocked up on the essentials at the grocery store. I just hate that our trip to Florida had to get cancelled so we could take care of our stuff here. They wouldn't even let us reschedule to avoid the cancellation fee.

And as a public service, I'd like to anounce that the Spec's in Clear Lake had a run on Pat O's hurricane mix, and is down to their last few packets.