But It Might Explain A Lot

Senator McCain has brain cancer.

Can the tumor explain his RINOness?

Probably not, he was never really a Republican.

I'd be a lot more compassionate if I didn't have to watch him getting, for free, care that I could never even consider asking for because of the crippling financial costs.

After that diagnosis my next stop isn't a consultation with my doctor, but a trip to the gun safe.

Suck It Anglave

Hey look, they were lying and falsifying the data.

Just like I said.

You killed a friendship over this, are you proud?

Too Ambitious

Another project I'm abandoning is my HEL E4A suppressor.

I just don't have the tools to do the work and the eclipse fiasco has really rammed home that I don't have the time and money to travel where friends have the tools.

Never mind the costs of materials.

Pity I wasted the $200 for the damn stamp.

I'm just fed up with my home situation and I'm all bummed out about how dead ended my life is.

Not Going

I have never seen a total eclipse of the sun.

Now I never will.

Reservations are cancelled and I am not going anywhere in August.

It was a pipe dream to think I could actually be allowed to escape a 40 mile radius of home to see it and now that I've cancelled the room reservation, I feel nothing but relief.

PS: This is not an invitation for you to brag about how it's just a day trip for you to go see it.

Bleg

Do you have an old iPod that works, but you don't want/use any more?

The Boy loves his iPod, but it died.

You might note that new ones are both expensive and require the latest OS.

If I had money for a computer running the latest and greatest, I'd have money for a new iPod for him.

Portable music keeps him calm, and he knows how to work an iPod.

We had two complete fails in two days of his used units he's had for years.

A 5th Gen Nano (8gb) and a 5th Gen Classic (30gb Vid).

Thanks in advance if you've got something to help out with.  Leave a message in the comments.

I Can't Remember

There used to be a BobS, from Texas who blogged at http://3bxsofbs.infamousanime.net/

That site appears to be dead, and I dimly remember someone mentioning why...

But I can't remember what it was.

A Long Time Ago

FuzzyGeff related this conversation he had with his mother when Ted Kennedy was attempting to get the Democrat nomination...

At the end of a long, tedious debate about his candidacy she asked, "Well, what would it take for you to vote for him?"

"A personal endorsement from Mary Jo Kopechne," was his reply.

FuzzyGeff might not be hard, but he's cold.

Marketing

Back on Harley's problem attracting new customers.

I was riding before there was Evo.

The Evolution motor is what really let HD sputter along on life support.  Without that, they'd have died the death they richly deserved for the quality control they'd established.

What got them off life support was they stopped selling motorcycles.

They started selling a lifestyle, that a Harley Davidson motorcycle was an integral part of.

It was tailor made to sell to the baby-boomer demographic and like all such tailored sells, it doesn't much appeal outside its target market.

They failed to anticipate where the saturation point of this market was and create a second line of products for a motorcycle lifestyle that appealed to millennials.  Millennials, in general, already have a lifestyle they're happy with and lack the dissatisfaction common to boomers with their status quo that drives a lifestyle change and buying a new scoot.

It's a hard sell, to put it mildly.

Harley is going to have to learn how to sell motorcycles again.  To sell them without the baggage of the lifestyle they've been pitching for decades now.

It remains to be seen if they're agile enough.

Among Its Many Problems

Hollywood is apparently unaware that satire and mockery are not the same word.

To pull of satire, you have to love the subject you're making fun of.

For mockery, all you need is hate.

This is why Galaxy Quest works and Ricky Bobby doesn't.

Deep Subject

Our Man Willard has hit a bit of a snag.

His well pump has crapped out.

I dunno if he needs the money, but if you hit the donation button over there on the right, I will see it on to him.

He's without water at his house until they get it replaced.

Incentive Plan

I've an idea for police body cams.

If the things aren't turned on there's no qualified immunity for what ever happened.

I am fascinated to see how police shootings work when they've got to use the same set of laws and jurisprudence I have to.

Bury Him Deep

And Face Down.

George Romero has died.

Please take all due precautions with his corpse concerning its inevitable reanimation and undeath.

Is This For A Handgun

Bought some .45 ACP from Wal Mart.

The person behind the counter wanted to know if this ammunition was for a handgun.

I was honest and admitted that it was, then needed to produce ID to prove I was older than 21.

Next time I'm saying, "No, it's for my submachine gun." just to see what they do.

Runner Up

Did the bowling pin shoot again this month.

I got second place shooting my .38 Super Gov't Model and lost to someone shooting a Glock with a red-dot.

Adding up all the penalties, I was only about a second behind him at the end of three heats.

For the fourth heat we did a head to head and he got me by a pin.

It was a little amusing that the staff came down and congratulated ME for doing as well as I had.

I did much better with the rented M&P 9 last time than I did with my own gun this time.  It's been a while since I put .38 Super down range, I practice with my S&W a lot.

One guy brought a Llama in .45 and despite not doing very well with this new to him gun, never got down about it.  He was there to have fun, and enjoy himself; so he did.  Contagiously happy is a good way to describe it.

The staff asked us questions wanting our feedback and my suggestion that struck a nerve with them was classes.  Put the high-tech sights in their own class, for example.

They said what they want is something that's accessible to anyone rolling in off the street and to make it fun.  Being grimly competitive isn't fun.

What's Wrong With This Ad

This Should Be Good

F-35A and F-35B will be attending Red Flag this year.

Red Flag is noteworthy in that the adversary group is very proud of humbling the blue forces.

They do it with some regularity.

It would be illustrative to the haters of the Lightning II program if such humbling did not occur this year.

Part of the problem a lot of critics are having is they missed that the paradigm changed.

F-35 changed things as big as the change from bi-planes to supersonic jets.

The pundit world has yet to catch up.

It's still a swelteringly expensive program, but per-unit cost is coming down (as predicted and expected) and as long as Congress doesn't go full retard (like with B-2A and F-22A) that trend will continue.

Next fighter item we need to start working on is the replacement of the F/A-18E/F with something F-22A equivalent for the Navy's Hi portion of the Hi/Lo mix.  Perhaps we can even sell a version to the Air Force like back when the F-4B was ported to the USAF as the F-4C.

Maybe It Was The Impact

I'm not certain, but I think I am sick of seeing science fiction ships slam into the ground or mountains without sustaining any damage at all.

I'm not sure how much that has affected my care-o-meter about upcoming movie releases, but I don't care if they make any more Star Wars movies now.

I've noticed before that the divide between care and don't-care is pretty sharp.

I first noticed with Big Bang Theory.  One day I wouldn't miss an episode, even putting up with watching it on CBS's vile excuse of a website.  The next I didn't care and just didn't tune in anymore.

CLICK

I've noticed that while I own a TV and pay for satellite service, I'm not turning the thing on very often.

How odd.  I used to center my whole existence around that idiot box.

Why Would That Be

Millennials Not Buying Harleys.

It says they don't like riding motorcycles.

Gee, why not?

Because you can be taken out without warning by a tuft gray hair and two clawed, arthritic, hands showing above the dash?

While cars are safer than they've ever been, you are surrounded by those improved safety features.

Bikes... pretty much the same stuff as when I started riding is what's readily available.

Licensing has gotten downright retarded.

Iowa had a ridiculous requirement that you be able to turn the bike 180˚ inside a parking space without putting your feet down.  That was a situation that came up exactly zero times in near 15 years of active riding.

Requirements like that dissuades rather than encourages learning to ride.

Road congestion has also sucked all the fun out of riding.  It's why I hung up my jacket and helmet.  You just cannot sit back and enjoy the ride anymore.  With all the extra traffic density you have to keep your guard up and your head on a swivel.

Not to be discounted is the other riders.  Do you wish to be included in the curses from other drivers who are fed up with being stuck behind two bikers who flat refuse to accelerate promptly or threaten the posted limit?

Because that's most of the Harley riders around Tampa/St Pete.

Drop Back 15 And Punt

Willard's PTR-91 was supposed to arrive today.

A selling feature of the one he bought was the steel trigger housing and paddle release.

PTR calls this model the PTR G.I. (p/n PTR-100).

What arrived today was a PTR-405, in a box labeled for a PTR-100.

Poly "Navy" trigger housing and bullet button...

We think that it was misboxed at PTR since the serial number matches.

The seller is taking it back and sending a replacement.

I Still Want To Know

What is the do not exceed speed for the fan door on the F-35B?

What is the do not exceed speed for the hook doors on the F-35C?

AC Cleaning

It occurs to me that my compressor must be doing just fine.

It was managing to make the house 80˚ while sucking 110˚ air through the hole in the inlet duct with the sun and other things heating things up and an 1/8" of crud on the evaporator coil.

Today it's still blowing 58˚ at the duct, holding 74˚ at the thermostat and it's 100˚ in the attic where the air-handler is.

Three Very Depressing Words

Jimmy Carter recovering...

Dammit.

I shouldn't be surprised, lichs are tough.

I Have Had This Very Conversation

From here:

Having this conversation over and over with liberals has killed more friendships than I care to count now.

It's particularly true of people who feel that the Tea Party was founded by and for racists and people who're fully convinced that global warmering is something that people are causing.

Fe V Al

The H&K G3 and its derivatives have two milspec magazines to choose from.

Aluminum and Steel.

Empty the aluminum mag is 5.1 oz., the steel is 9.9 oz.

Loaded the aluminum magazine is 1.4 lb., the steel 1.7 lb.

Conventional wisdom says that the aluminum is less resilient than steel, but there's scant examples of actual failures being shown.  It's an "everyone says" thing.

The spring wire on the aluminum magazine is 0.064" in diameter, the steel is the same.

Just For The Record

Only one of these rifles is an Enfield.  That would be the one on the bottom.

It's a Rifle, Short (Magazine) Lee-Enfield Mk III* and was actually made at Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF), Enfield in 1915.

The younger gun, made in 1917 at the Eddystone facility of Remington Arms Company, is not an Enfield.  The design comes from Enfield via a circuitous route, but RSAF didn't actually make any.

The M-1917 rifle came to be when the British realized that with an encroaching war they weren't going to be able to do two things: switch to .276 Enfield, or shut down production of Lee-Enfields to transition to making the P.13 rifle.

They did manage to get the design into production by changing it to .303 British and getting Winchester and Remington to make them, with Remington making them at two facilities; Ilion, NY and Eddystone, PA.  That is the P.14 rifle (technically Rifle Pattern 1914 Mk I and Mk I* with an initial of W, R or E for each factory).

Once the run of P.14 rifles was made the US found itself in a similar bind with regards to rifle production.  They were making all of the M-1903's they could and still needed more guns.  It was bad enough that they type standardized the Mosin-Nagant Model 1891 being made by Remington and New England Westinghouse as the Rifle 7.62mm M-1916 and left it in 7.62x54mmR!

Because the P.14 was derived from a rimless Mauser action in the first place, it was relatively easy to switch it to a different rimless cartridge, our .30-06.

This went into production as the Rifle, .30-caliber, M-1917.  It was, in fact, our primary service rifle for the Army in World War One; despite being a secondary standard.  It is also the finest six shot (6+1) turn-bolt rifle the Army ever issued!

New Motto

Nam vetus American bonum vitae: nam pecuniam, ad gloriam et ad amet ... maxime pro pecunia.

Is This Too Far Gone To Fix

Willard got this rifle today...

Finally Number One At Something Good

State Fiscal Rankings

This is because we made the hard decisions a long while ago and have maintained our government such that it keeps those decisions made.

It tends to make the governor unpopular, but you can't argue with success.

The roadblocks put in place are absolutely needed since so much of our population is imported from other states and are accustomed to irresponsible spending.

I've Had This Moment

From: The White Board Comic

Gun Peoples

The "People of the Gun" linkimage on the sidebar has been repaired.



It's also a little larger.

It's Happening

Willard and I are going to do a 7.62x51mm NATO recoil comparison!

I've a full length DSA SA-58 (50.00 configured FAL clone).

He's got a new PTR G.I. (H&K G3A3 clone), Springfield Armory M1A (M14 clone) and for the bonus round a DPMS LR-308 TAC 20 (sort of an AR-10 clone).

It's a battle rifle blast-off!

Because Willard and I are old school adherents of God's Own Cartridge (New Testament) we're going to rope a hapless victim eager volunteer in the form of a Marv to lend his shoulder to the testing.

We might even add a Garand and an M-1903A2 to the mix for sport.

Excuse Me While I Laugh My Ass Off

One sure thing about science is you MUST share your work so that others may repeat your experiment so that your conclusions can be confirmed or disputed.

Remember cold fusion?

Well, Michael Mann has refused to disclose his data.  Again.

Looks like this time it will cost him.

Always remember.

Any experiment which cannot be repeated, is invalid.

Any hypothesis which cannot be falsified, is invalid.

Operation Market Garden 2014 Renkum 19/09/2014

Not Quite 100˚ Up There

The AC at Casa de McThag has not been keeping up.

I found a giant rat-sized hole in the inlet hose Sunday and patched that up.

It helped to not suck 90+ degree air from the attic into the inlet.  But not enough.

Today I opened up the plenum and found the evaporator coils were clogged with dust that was sucked into the unfiltered hole from the rat.

Some foaming cleanser and a bit of brushing on the fins and we're getting 60˚ at the furthest outlet with 80˚ at the inlet vent.

Not too shabby.

The can recommends more than one application of the stuff spaced over several days.  Can't hurt.

Oh, and it's almost 100˚ up in the attic.  I am sure I lost weight.

Ranking

A thought occurred to me reading about civilian control of the military. I remember Bill Clinton as being the first president in a long time who hadn't served. That got me to thinking about what rank the various presidents attained in the Military.

Note that the "reserve" does not mean "not active duty". The military has long divided the officers into regular and reserve.

I am showing election to election unless there's a death or resignation for the dates.

2016-         Donald Trump (Republican) -- No military service.
2008-2016 Barack Obama (Democrat) -- No military service.

2000-2008 George W Bush (Republican) -- 1st Lieutenant (O-2) -- Air Force -- No combat
1992-2000 Bill Clinton (Democrat) -- No military service.
1988-1992 George H W Bush (Republican) -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1980-1988 Ronald Reagan (Republican) -- Captain (O-3) -- Army Reserve -- No Combat
1976-1980 Jimmy Carter (Democrat) -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy -- No Combat
1974-1976 Gerald Ford (Republican) -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1968-1974 Richard Nixon (Republican) -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1963-1968 Lyndon Johnson (Democrat) -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1960-1963 John Kennedy (Democrat) -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1952-1960 Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) -- General of the Army (O-11) -- Army -- WW1 and WW2 Combat
1945-1952 Harry Truman (Democrat) -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- WW1 Combat
1932-1945 Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat) -- No military service.
1928-1932 Herbert Hoover (Republican) -- No military service.
1923-1928 Calvin Coolidge (Republican) -- No military service.
1920-1923 Warren Harding (Republican) -- No military service.
1912-1920 Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) -- No military service.
1908-1912 William Taft (Republican) -- No military service.
1900-1908 Teddy Roosevelt (Republican) -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- Spanish/American War Combat
1896-1900 William McKinley (Republican) -- Brevet Major (O-5) -- Army -- Civil War
1892-1896 Grover Cleveland (Democrat) -- No military service. Drafted for Civil War and paid his way out of service.
1888-1892 Benjamin Harrison (Republican) -- Brevet Brigadier General (O-7) -- Army -- Civil War
1884-1888 Grover Cleveland (Democrat) -- Same guy as 1892-1896
1881-1884 Chester Arthur (Republican) -- Quartermaster General (O-7) -- New York Militia -- No Combat
1880-1881 James Garfield (Republican) -- Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1876-1880 Rutherford Hayes (Republican) -- Brevet Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1868-1876 Ulysses Grant (Republican) -- General of the Army (O-10) -- Army -- Mexican/American War and Civil War
1865-1868 Andrew Johnson (National Union/Democrat)-- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- No Combat
1860-1865 Abraham Lincoln (Republican/National Union) -- Captain (O-3) -- Illinois Militia -- No Combat
1856-1860 James Buchanan (Democrat) -- Private (E-1) -- Army -- War of 1812 -- Only enlisted president!
1852-1856 Franklin Pierce (Democrat) -- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- Mexican/American War
1850-1852 Millard Fillmore (Whig) -- Major (O-5) -- Army -- No Combat
1848-1850 Zachary Taylor (Whig) -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- War of 1812, Blackhawk War, Second Seminole War and Mexican/American War
1844-1848 James Polk (Democrat) -- Colonel (O-6) -- Tennessee Militia -- No Combat
1841-1844 John Tyler (Whig/Unaffiliated)-- Captain (O-3) -- Virginia Militia -- War of 1812
1840-1841 William Harrison (Whig) -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- Northwest Indian War and War of 1812
1836-1840 Martin Van Buren (Democrat) -- No military service.
1828-1836 Andrew Jackson (Democrat) -- Major General (O-8) -- Continental Army and Army -- Revolutionary War, Creek War, War of 1812 and First Seminole War
1824-1828 John Quincy Adams (Democrat-Republican) -- No military service.
1816-1824 James Monroe (Democrat-Republican) -- Major (O-5) -- Continental Army and Virginia State Troops -- Revolutionary War
1808-1816 James Madison (Democrat-Republican) -- Colonel (O-6) -- Orange County Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1800-1808 Thomas Jefferson (Democrat-Republican) -- Colonel (O-6) -- Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1796-1800 John Adams (Federalist)-- No military service.
1788-1796 George Washington (Unaffiliated) -- General of the Armies of the United States (O-12?) -- Continental Army, Armies of the United States, Virginia Militia -- French and Indian War and Revolutionary War.

And Who Invited Them?

Rob Reiner says that Russia has invaded the US.

Well, Meathead, I remember you from when the Cold War was simmering.

You and your ilk would have been tried for giving aid and comfort to the enemy if the war had gone hot.  You were THAT obvious.

When I Was Going To Be A Psychologist

I took part in an experiment as a test subject.

The thing is, we didn't know we were participating in the experiment when we volunteered to attend a seminar on the biology of race.

It was shortly after The Bell Curve had been published, so race stuff was all the rage on campus.

What the seminar "really" consisted of was just about everything Hitler had ever said, translated to English and substituting blacks for Jews.

The actor they put on the podium had perfect delivery and we were fired up to DO SOMETHING about the Black Problem.

All of us.

It was illustrative about how fast you can lose yourself to the crowd and adopt beliefs you thought were anathema to you.

Luckily we were intercepted from our plans to do Krystal Nacht Zwei by the second seminar, which showed us we'd just essentially attended a Nuremberg Rally.

It terrified me.

As does this.

Bid Shill

Willard is taking advantage of the buyer's market in evol brack ryetoofuls.

Since he got a couple, in contentious bidding from the same seller on Gunbroker, there's a bidder who surely thinks he's a shill bidder for the seller.

They're going to be disappointed if they're waiting for the relist.

Knowledge Is Power

There is an actual fish called a brown trout.

It's not just a euphemism for a floating turd.

I did not know that.

Now, can you imagine...

"What's for dinner?"

"Brown trout!"

"Uh...."

In Murcia They Speak Spanish!

Look it up!

¡Murcia!  ¡Joder si!

700 Round Break In

Break in, broken, what a difference a couple vowel changes and a space make.

The suppressor was well dead long before they got to 700.  I applaud them for continuing.

h/t XBRADTC

Old Joke

What's happening in France today can be directly attributed to it being too long since the US Army spent some time there.

It's like their genes get stale if an occupying army doesn't inject fresh material from time to time.

Things are bad enough now, we're going to have to send the Marines.

It's A Racket

If you drive a car on public roads you're required, by law, to have insurance.

The cost of the insurance is largely influenced, not by your driving record, but by your credit rating.

Mine sucks.

Why?

Because I don't have credit cards.

I was shopping for cheaper insurance and discovered...

The consumer reporting agency provided the following description of the credit factors that had the most influence on the price we quoted you: 

No open verified bank revolving trades with valid credit limit. Optimal value is utilization > 0% and < 1% on open bank rev trades. 

Months since oldest mortgage opened is greater than or equal to 60. Optimal value is 0 to 12. 

There are 0 bank revolving trades. Optimal value is 10 or more. 

There are no credit card trades with valid open date. Optimal value is 120+ months since most recent credit card opened.

 So... I don't have a credit limit to establish that I'm using more than none, but less than 1% of it.

I have one mortgage, that I'm paying on and have been paying longer than 60 months.  Notice that optimal is 0-12 months.

OPTIMAL IS GETTING A NEW MORTGAGE EVERY FUCKING YEAR!!!!!

I looked up revolving trades.  They want you to have a card, make at least 10 payments on credit you've received per year and have had the card for 10 or more years.

This is being fucked for being responsible.

The Man Has A Point

I note with disgust that CNN can quickly ascertain the identity of a post that is negative to CNN, but seems totally unable to find the identity of all the “anonymous” sources of information negative to our president. Communist News Network, Clinton News Network, “All the news that fits our agenda” OOPS, that’s the new york slimes, my mistake.

--Roger in comments here.

MPAA Guilt

Watching a DVD and they mention how many jobs there are associated with the making and distribution of the film.

Something occurs to me about this line of guilting people into buying a movie.

The movie is long paid for in many cases today.

The people who were supported by the creation of the film are long dead in quite a number of them.

So for a movie made in the distant past, no my purchase is not supporting that many people.  Especially so since they didn't have hundreds of people involved in the process back then.

Jobs And Unemployment

I read the breathless headline that unemployment numbers were up.

Then I saw that new jobs had exceeded expectations.

Did you know that this is actually consistent?

You are not unemployed unless you are looking for work.

So, if there's more folks who have confidence that the economy has recovered sufficiently for them to look for work than before, then unemployment numbers will spike as these people check the "no job, looking for work" response on the survey instead of "no job, not seeking employment" box.

More people looking for work is a sign of confidence in the recovery.

Fingers crossed!

Script Blocker

You truly don't know the internet until you run a script blocker on your browser.

Then you get to see exactly how much dross there is when you, say, encounter a twitter hosted video.

You get to see the expansive list of sites that are allowed to do... something so that you may view a 30 second long funny.

Speaking of twitter videos, did you actually read their cookie terms of use?  Yeah, fuck them.