Cyclone In Hawkeye Colors

 

1970 Mercury Cyclone!

A very rare bear.

I recognized it because a buddy of mine had three of these things, he was obsessed.

Like this one, all had a 429 motor.

We saw this one waiting in line for our laps at Daytona on Monday.

Just For Fun

Bought the official pictures of my track day.

Their photographer used settings which deleted all impression of speed, sadly.

You also cannot tell that I had my left blinker on!

Reliable For All Time

 

Took Willard's Astra 600/43 to the range to find out if he'd wasted his money on KKK Triple K magazines.

He hasn't.

Each magazine handled a full load of 7-rounds of 115gr Tulammo steel case with aplomb.

Fed no problem, locked to the rear on empty, the whole deal.

I still shoot the thing way low, but that's not a magazine issue.

It's still an unpleasant gun to shoot.  9mm isn't meant to be a blow-back round.

Giving Their Cages A Rattle

 I wrote my state Congress Creatures today.

I see that Constitutional Carry is, once again, meeting resistance from the same corners of the state legislature as always.

What's the problem up there?

Is it that nobody understands the term?  Are they hoping that we voters can be fooled into thinking that a $0 concealed carry permit is the same as no permit required at all?

Is it that Disney has complained that some tourist who doesn't vote here or for you might succumb to the vapors upon seeing a firearm carried by a filthy unwashed civilian might cause them to go to California to spend their money?

Is it that they feel a need to embarrass Governor DeSantis and hurt his chances at running for President in 2024?

Is it old-fashioned racism because genuine Constitutional Carry will mean that blacks and other minorities will be able to carry what they will, where they will without interference from the police?

I genuinely want to know what the problem is.

It's been clear for years that Tallahassee doesn't understand what gun-control is.  The bills passed and signed by, now, Senator Scott informed us of that in spades.

Considering that there's no DisneyWorld in your district, ignoring The Mouse should be simple, especially with an honest voter saying they'd rather have more freedoms than fewer.

And it is the job you campaigned for.  Representing my wants and needs in the state capitol.  I believe there was an oath to defend my rights in there as well.

Are you as good as your word?

I predict a form letter response and nothing more.

Sadly.

It Sure Looks As If

Constitutional Carry in Florida is hitting a bit of a snag.

The assholes in Tallahassee are trying to pitch a free permit as a substitute for actual freedom.

So, instead of $50 every seven years, it's $0 every seven years.

THAT is what they are trying to claim is Constitutional Carry up there.

It's clear they don't understand the term.

The rumor mill, though, mentions a reason that disgusts me.

If the rumors are correct the stumbling block is that black people will be able to carry guns without getting permission from the state.

WHENEVER THEY WANT!!!!!  HOWEVER THEY WANT!!!!!

Well, yes, that's the fucking point of Constitutional Carry.

Concealed carry, open carry, day or night; without The State granting permission.

Because you shouldn't have to ask permission to exercise a right.

I keep checking the Bill of Rights and both the Federal and State Constitutions and I'm not seeing how race matters to one's rights.

What matters is if you're a person.

Black people are, indeed, persons.

So are whites, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Catholics, greasy wops and filthy Scots.

I'm sick of a supposed Republican supermajority with a Republican governor failing session after session with excuse after excuse.

It's Built In

I've been reminded of something that happened a couple years ago.

A man named Jeffery Spaide decided he'd had enough of his asshole neighbors and killed them both in the street.

Having had a couple asshole neighbors, I can understand the urge.

Western Civilization, and by extension, it's members have a "fuck this shit!" mode built right in.

Mr Spaide had reached the limit of what was going to deal with and said, "fuck this!" by straight up murdering the source of the irritation.

Western Civ as a whole as a similar outlook.

The failure of prohibition is an example.  Too many people to arrest and imprison simply ignored the law and kept buying booze.

We're seeing a bit of this with the war on (some) drugs.  The news focuses hard on the bottom end cases, but so did the movement that got prohibition passed.

Betcha, betcha:  There are a lot of people doing hard drugs you'd never suspect because they're managing their habit successfully.

But we're rapidly approaching a critical mass where it won't matter what the government and the people who call their tune say; the people are going to go their own way.

I'm hearing from non-political folks my wife knows who are asking, "why is the government deciding this?"

Indeed.  Why?

They're noticing that they've no voice.

They're noticing that the police are ineffective because no matter who they arrest, or how often, it doesn't even slow down the criminal.

They're noticing that the elections have a lot of obvious from the ground level problems and are wondering why nothing is being done.

They're noticing an ever smaller group of people is making sweeping decisions about their lives.

They have discovered they are not OK with it.

They are also managing to communicate with others.

The preference cascade is poised.

I have hope.

Books

I remember, once upon a time, hunting down books on the various hunks of military equipment in Twilight: 2000.

Some of those books got very expensive because the information was very niche.

And much of the information on Soviet stuff was just flat wrong.  But we had no way of knowing at the time.

Today, nearly everything I need for T2K levels of accuracy is readily available on the internet.

It's glorious in its way.

I had no idea, for example, that Czechslovakia never adopted the AK or converted to 5.45.  That Poland made their own 5.45 AKM instead of just paying the licensing fees (like East Germany did).

Detailed information about armor and gun performance was simply not available from an unclassified source.

The future is kinda neat sometimes.

That's A Flashback

I cannot remember if it was Technomad or Gerber who always had one of these novels, but I was recently reminded of the series on Facebook.

The Barry Sadler series, Casca.

I never read any of them because I have a policy of not reading any series with more than 3-books that someone is still publishing if I had not already read the first couple books.

Especially a series that spans decades.

Too often the cliffhanger is never resolved in the most recent book and the author is long dead.  Worse, the author is long dead and the books keep coming!  Like Casca!

It's an interesting premise, but I can see it wearing thin.  Like Forrest Gump's amazing ability to be at every major historical event and meeting every memorable historical figure...

DO NOT TAUNT!

Double checking some Twilight: 2000 things.

The line which caused so much consternation with Neo/Open/LibreOffice was the one about the 155mm ADAM shell.

That's Area Denial Artillery Munition.

This lays a minefield of 36 little wedge shaped bouncing betty style mines.

There's a manually deployed version of the mine called the M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition.

The warning section in TM 43-0001-36 is the interesting part.

• -- ONCE ARMING STRAP IS LIFTED, DEPLOYMENT IS MANDATORY.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RE-SAFE.
• -- SAFE SEPARATION TIME IS 25 SECONDS AFTER STRAP IS LIFTED.  LEAVE AREA IMMEDIATELY AFTER EMPLOYMENT AND DO NOT RETURN TO AREA
• -- THE M86 MINE HAS A SELFDESTRUCT FEATURE WHICH MAKES IT EXPENDABLE: THEREFORE, DO NOT RETURN TO AREA.
• -- DO NOT DEPLOY MINE BELOW -25°F.  IF MINE IS DEPLOYED BELOW -25°F, MINE MAY SELF-DESTRUCT EITHER IN A 5-MINUTE TIME-FRAME, OR LATER THAN THE PROGRAMMED SELF-DESTRUCT TIME-FRAME.
• -- DO NOT REMOVE NOSE PROTECTOR OR NOSE PROTECTOR TAPE.  REMOVAL OF TAPE MAY DAMAGE THE ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION (EMR) AND ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE (ESD) PROTECTIVE PAINTS.
• -- IF ONE OR MORE TRIPLINES ARE FOUND DEPLOYED PRIOR TO USE, DO NOT ARM OR ATTEMPT TO USE THE PDM.  TURN IN MINE FOR DISPOSAL.

This cute little pie wedge fires out trip lines out to 20 feet from the mine and if you bump one, pop, BANG!

There's stats for this beastie in High Tech!  8d [2d] cr ex.  Which I cannot figure out from the 21g charge of Comp A5 which should give 2d-1 cr ex...  Grenades and mines don't seem to follow the explosives formulas given in Basic Set and High Tech...

I've Gone And Done It

I just signed up with Utreon so as to see what I've been missing with regards to what YouTube won't allow.

It's a fair amount.

I haven't signed up to get paid or to pay anyone with it, but that could change.

Is There ANY Wheat In This Chaff?

The more I try to figure out what's actually going on in Ukraine, the less convinced I am that one can.

The quality of the information is poor from both sides, and they are obviously biased in favor of their own position.

If any given source is correct, then this war should have ended months ago.

The only thing I think is certain is that Russia did not expect this to be as hard as it has ended up being.

When they invaded, I figured that they'd have walked over Ukraine as fast as we'd done Iraq.

At the time, I considered the Russian military a professional, organized and modern combined arms force.

It doesn't appear to have ever been that good.

Their obvious losses say a lot about that.

But Ukraine is stretched thin and they're hanging on by a damn thread even if they're giving a good account of themselves.

In a war of attrition, numbers matter and they don't have them.

They might have local superiority, but don't have overall.

What will matter is Putin.  The exits are his winning, his quitting or him being removed from power.

I don't see him quitting or stepping down.

I don't think Russia invading and then making Ukraine a puppet state is a good thing, and I can certainly see Poland and Finland being terrified of Russia getting away with that.

I am also a bit scared that preventing Russia from making Ukraine a puppet state is going to drag our asses into a nuclear war; I'm getting really pissed at our leaders ham-fisted bullshit wrecking our economies over it.

License To Drive

 

Yesterday Marv and another friend went to The NASCAR Foundation's "License to Drive" event.

It's just silly fun, not racing or even pushing the car that hard.

But it was gratifying to see my friend driving my old Caprice and not being outperformed by the Mustang ahead of him.  He has the money to revive the project after all the neglect I'd heaped on her.

He had something of the same experience seeing his old car in the rear view!

Even at 80 mph the event maximum speed of 55 mph, it takes a lot of right wheel to go straight on the slight bank of the tri-oval across the finish line.

The Beast was very well mannered, as befits an Australian Pursuit Special.  I did the Main Force Patrol proud!

Thanks to Marv for providing and running the camera.

It Went Well

Lost a couple of apps I don't use anymore, but I'm now running Ubuntu 22.04.1 on Ye Ancient Lenovo T420S!

Huzzah!

Unrelated, the version of LibreOffice before was 6.4, and not the current 7.4.  My T2K files open correctly, but there's a glitch now saying they're locked and I can't edit them.

I remember fixing this once, and I think it's just rebooting the other machine which fixes it.

What Could Go Rong

I just stabbed "OK" on upgrading from Ubuntu 20 to 22.

Pray for me.

The Face Of White Suppremacy

Asians continue their slow march to becoming white.

They are now capable of being white supremacists who will murder Asians out of racial hatred of Asians...

Uh...

I know everyone on the gun-control side was eager to dance in the blood, but...

I will shut up now, because you should never interrupt your opponent making a mistake.

Impressed At His Restraint

Willard has not called to gloat that I was "forced" to put a different grip module on the P320 he gave me.

I am impressed at how well he's controlling himself!

I am very tempted to ask him if he'd prefer black or tan for a grip module.

I deeply suspect that he's got one too he hasn't mentioned.

As Many As Smallpox

55gr 5.56x45mm from a 20" 1:12 pencil barrel works.

It worked well enough that the Russians Soviets copied the idea based on data they'd accumulated in Vietnam.

While improving the materials for the furniture on the A2 was something that needed to happen, and flat-tops give a flexibility unheard of in 'Nam...

I'm still not convinced we needed to change to 1:7 and should not have acquiesced to the Belgians in 1980.

I know I've read treatise after treatise about how to improve on M855, and how that leads to using heavier rounds; I don't think I've seen a comparison between M193 from a 1:12 barrel compared to a 77gr SMK from a 1:7.

Just Like Except

Caught a video about a "1911 that takes P320 magazines."

I went in thinking, "NEAT!" because I kinda think that double stack 1911's are cool.

And, despite the cool, magazines are the frustrating part.

By the time I was done, the list of things they'd changed from a 1911 to what they were showing told me...

This isn't even close to being a 1911 anymore.

Not necessarily bad, but not what they're billing it to be.

The barrel lock up is Hi-Power.

The grip safety is gone...

A 1911 slide (with modifications) will go on...

Yeah, it's its own thing.

I Have Altered The Deal

People are doing some in depth analysis of the pistol brace ruling from ATF.

Among the surprises is violations of 922r.

A rifle can't have more than 10 Godless foreign parts in it, but pistols can have as many as you want.

ATF is specifically saying that you can't just change the Godless foreign parts count to be in compliance because it was already made in violation.

So your choice is surrender or destroy.

Anyone else sick of the "once an X always an X" shit from ATF yet?  

PS: This is my 14,000th published post.  Damn!

Warhammer Fantasy Role Play

I have consulted with FuzzyGeff and we are going to convert 1st edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play to GURPS for Technomad!

The initial read says that it's going to be simple.

The magic systems are actually similar enough that porting the GURPS spell list over will do.

From there it's just racial and character templates.

Actually easier than Traveller.

Such A Beautiful Day

I decided to (finally) put the fog light housings in The Beast!

Before:

After:

Next stop: Wiring.

The lights need connected to 12v and ground.

The relay that controls it needs switched power to send to the switch in the dash.  The switch leads to a ground.

When I was under there, I found and removed the siren.  The siren wiring is my path from the engine compartment to under the dash!  Just need to find the siren bundle under there.

Nothing too hard.

Justice

The present brouhaha about pistol stabilizing braces is an injustice.

No doubt about it.

But, you have to remember that this is also about the law, and the law is only tangentially related to justice most of the time.

The reason there's a lack of sympathy from a few quarters is they warned that the process that ATF had used to allow braces was the same flawed, and likely illegal, process we'd condemned repeatedly when ATF used it to restrict our rights.

I have sympathy for the people who are getting caught up in this.

If the upper estimate is correct, 40-million people.

It sucks for them.

It's not clear what they should do and I don't think that anyone set out to break the law.  If they had, they would have just put a normal stock on their SBR and called it done.  Instead they were led to believe that they weren't breaking the law because ATF exceeded their authority in telling them they could make an SBR without registration.

Lots of people, however, were definitely making a braced pistol as a means of obtaining a short barreled rifle without going through the process of getting a tax stamp.  This is likely why ATF is reversing their ruling which was originally intended to allow braces to be used for their stated purpose.

In a couple of locales, this also sidestepped state and local laws against owning a, so-called, assault-weapon or a prohibition on NFA items.

These folks are really sweating now.  They're also being very vocal.

Are their voices being heard where the laws can be changed?  Because changing the law is all that will save them from jail if they keep their gun.

We're also hearing from the people whom these things were originally intended to help.

One impassioned post from someone with limited arm use who shot a pistol from a bipod until that got declared a vertical grip and is now poised to lose his brace because of this ruling.  It's not even a legal issue for him, it's the ability to do something he enjoys at all.  Ever notice how much legislation is aimed at preventing people from having fun?

The problem isn't even ATF.  The problem is the law.  Fix the law and the ATF gets corrected by default.

Get your congress creatures to tack an NFA repeal onto EVERYTHING.  Especially things that the liberals feel they must have.

But "our" side is working loopholes and hoping the courts save us.

Eventually, the courts just might.  Until then, someone is staring down felony charges, or even a felony conviction because they have a less effective rifle that's difficult to conceal carry.

Updated

Just for fun, I looked up when the various office apps updated.

Apache Open Office last updated on July, 22 2022.  It split from the original Open Office in 2012.

LibreOffice was last updated on January 12, 2023.  It split from OGOOo in 2011.

The version of NeoOffice I have on The Mac side of things is 3.4 released on October 11, 2013!  It's based, in turn on OGOOo 3.1.1.  Ancient.

I think I'm impressed that the old version on The Mac opens stuff I've modified with the newer LibreOffice.

Two Ecks

The.  Verbal.  Delivery.  Of.  Many.  Gun.  Rights.  YouTube.  Videos.  Is.  Plodding.

But if you select 2x on the playback speed, they suddenly sound like normal conversation.

It's like a revelation!

Never mind that, for the most part, I'd much rather READ what these people have to say than to listen to them wander around the point for half the video.

Video forcing me to go at their pace instead of mine makes the experience irritating to painful many times.

Ceci N'est Pas Un Char

This article reminds me of a story.

One of the things the cannon cockers do is to train for direct fire.

You never know when you might be near to being over-run and a direct hit from a 155mm round is nothing to sneeze at.

At some point in live fire training, our commanding general must have felt the M109 crews were getting a bit too confident in their ability to deliver fire directly.

He whirled onto our range just as my tank was getting ready to start our table and he commandeered us to the range where the arty guys were.

He set us up "head to head".  Fire as many rounds at the target as you can when you get the "go" order.

We were confused, but it was simple enough.

GO!

Gunner, HEAT, SPG!

Identified!

UP!

FIRE!

On the way!

That took us three seconds.  The range was, in our minds, ridiculously close because we and the target were stationary.

HIT!  Re-engage!

UP!

FIRE!

On the way!

Five seconds.

HIT!  Re-engage!

UP!

FIRE!

On the way!

BOOM! from the M109.

CEASE FIRE!

The arty guys are kinda looking around embarrassed.

The general screams at them, "YOU ARE NOT FUCKING TANKERS! THAT TANK KILLED THREE OF YOU BEFORE YOU GOT OFF EVEN ONE ROUND AND H-E AGAINST THE FRONTAL ARMOR WOULD JUST MAKE THEM MAD AT YOU!"

We, diplomatically in my mind, didn't mention that the Ma Deuce would have sufficed for a 109.

No You Idiots

"Constitutional Carry" does not mean "permitless concealed carry" or "free carry permits".

It means carry however the citizen wants, without a permit or permission.

It even concedes to some gun-free zoning, but the core of it is that as long as the citizen can have a gun, they can carry that gun.

Openly, concealed, semi-concealed...

Pistol, rifle...

As long as we use our manners, there shouldn't be any problems.

But the "what about the tourism dollars?" crowd is terrified some foreigner from someplace that bans guns, like New York, will see a holster without a uniform and not spend money at Disney.

There's a part of me that thinks that's a feature of constitutional carry and not a bug. ;)

But everyone knows what constitutional carry means, except the Florida Senate.

If you're voting here, you might wanna remind your state congress creature who brought them to the dance and that you know what the term is supposed to mean.

Handy FL GOA link to send an (editable) form letter to the Tallahassee Swamp Tower.

Swing And A Miss

Representative Gaetz has introduced HR-374 to abolish the BATFE.

Here's the entire text from his office's website:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

This Act may be cited as the "Abolish the ATF Act". 

SEC. 2. ABOLISHMENT OF THE BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS, AND EXPLOSIVES.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is hereby abolished.

Matt, that ain't gonna fix a goddamn thing!

Who takes over for them?

The FBI?  IRS?  Coast Guard?

The problem isn't the agency, though they do suck, it's the laws they're empowered to enforce.

Eliminate the gun laws they're being abusive about, and the problem solves itself.

I hate to admit it, but nuking the entire BATFE is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The E part of it is valuable.

Good!

Alec Baldwin, firearms expert, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for breaking all four rules of gun safety.

The person hired to be the on-set firearms expert, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was likewise charged.

Shut Up Bigot

Ms Jones,

To say that I cannot criticize an ugly sculpture because I am white is racist.

It's bigoted.

So, y'all can just fuck right off with your demand that I not call that ugly abomination an insult to Dr King and his legacy.

I am constantly amazed at the amount of ugly brought to bear when attempting sculpture associated with Dr King.

I worry that the color of the artist skin matters far more than the content of their character (or artistic talent) when selecting sculpture to honor Dr King.

I think we know the content of Ms Jones' character.

PS: Nothing about being an unfunny "comedian" or bad actress gives you any authority to tell me what to do.  What would Dr King say, Ms Jones, about you being a racist?

Curiouser And Curiouser

I downloaded LibreOffice for Win7.

The odt opens fine in it.

I think that SoftwareJanitor is onto something about the fonts.

I'll keep pecking at it!