There are some good US beers, but they're all micros. With the possible exception of some regional stuff. Sierra Nevada isn't too bad, neither is Anchor Steam or several varieties of Sam Adams' stuff.

Stone & Rogue are two of my favorites - somewhere between "micro" and "regional" brews I think. There's a new one near here called Wachusett which isn't terrible either. Micro.

Home-brewed is ALWAYS best though. :)

Alarms have worked in protecting empty houses. Most break ins seem to be druggies who arent looking for any problems and have little skills. Case in point. My Aunt and Uncle live in a decent middle class neighbor hood. A couple of youths got hooked on heroin. Started breaking in to houses for cash. Aunt and Uncle left for dinner in mid day. Came home around 5:30. There were police on front of house. The kids must have seen them leave. Kicked in front door. The alarm went off they grabbed some cash off a table near door. The other houses that they broke into that had no alarms were trashed trying to find stuff. So they do have there benefits.

I do not have one. I live and work from home. So most of the time I am here. I have a deal with my neighbors. If they see someone breaking in and i am home. Give me a few minutes before calling the police. I want to have had my time with them first.

All the women i care about have .357 magnums that i bought them and taught them to shoot. Well except for one, but she has a P7 that i taught her to shoot. :)

That reminds me, I need to pick up some jacketed hollow points for my home security system.

Me too. I've got about 13 rounds of Golden Sabre left, and about 900 rounds of target ammo. I'd like to pick up about 200 rounds of defensive rounds.

I'd also like to get an alarm. I don't actually expect any problems here, and we have 2 dogs, but it would make my wife feel better, so I'm all for it.

I won't even be considering Comcast or Broadbrinksview.

I have some ideas for a home security system. I'm not going to discuss them online. No, no booby traps, I just don't want to expose potential weaknesses.

I have some ideas on how I can get people to send me money for nothing and be happy about it. I'm not going to discuss them online though.

I also have some ideas on how to turn your garbage into fuel for your car with common household chemicals. By weight, it'll create 125% fuel per pound of refuse. I'm not going to tell you guys though. ;)

:D

My aunt has a "Brinks" type alarm company. When the alarm gets triggered, the company is calling within 20 seconds or so. It has happened during the day and night with the same results. We accidently set off the fire alarm once changing the back up batteries...same call within seconds.
She has plenty of loaded "home protectors" within arms reach all over the house. If there were ever a real threat..you know, the psyco meth head, the guy better hope the phone rings to save his sorry a$$.

A much better Broadview Security commercial would depict a pyscho ex-girlfriend in a screaming fit of rage throwing things across the entryway of the house.

The control center operator would answer the automatic call from the alarm pad and begin laughing.

I don't understand the need for a call center (and the associated subscription).

With modern technology, it is possible to create your own home security system that can automatically call your cell phone, or even 911 directly.

We had the Brink's system a decade ago. Every time they called us for an alarm, the person barely spoke English. Seems they outsourced their dispatch staff to Mexico... It would take 5-10 minutes just to get the person to understand what we were saying...

Exactly...if my alarm goes off, plan #1 is to grab my dear friend Mr. Browning.