18 March 2024

First They Came For Pornhub

We're having a Niemöller moment.

Texas, Utah and Virginia have passed laws that require government issued proof of age be used to access porn sites.

Pornhub has been responding by shutting down access from IP addresses in the aforementioned states.

Once again the puritans are being short sighted.

This will be twisted.

Firearms and alcohol companies sell a product where you need government issue proof of age to purchase.  You have to be an adult to buy the product, therefore, you need to an adult to access the content of those web pages.

YouTube, I see you have gun and alcohol content; remove it.

YouTube has been looking for an excuse for a long time to outright ban gun content and you stupid puritan idiots have just handed them the method.

This "for the children" shit always leads to some kind of tyrannical bullshit and makes it even harder to pass good law that's genuinely for protecting children from harm.

Fully Semi Automatic

Another "ackshually" firearms terminology moment spurred by Ian's recent video and Battleswarm's comments on it.

As Ian says; 'automatic' at one point meant self-loading.  The gun loaded the next round automatically.

Automatic becomes the term for when machine guns get developed because the gun does everything automatically and self-loaders become semi-automatic.

All is now well and good.  For all time.

But, wait, there's more!

Today we're calling automatic "fully automatic" but even that term isn't clear because there were a couple of machine guns with rate reducers and a selector that said "slow" and "full".  Full-auto on a BAR is the unreduced rate of fire.

And then there's burst modes.

Burst is it's own thing and isn't fully automatic in the same way that semi-automatic isn't.  It's just between full rate and self-loading.

LEGALLY burst modes are machine gun.

Just like "assault rifle" is a technical term for something, the legal terminology is creeping into the technical language. 

We should really fight that.

And we should learn to say "cyclic" correctly.  It's "sigh-click" not "sick-lick".

Why Nothing Changes

It's an epiphany of sorts.

Ever notice that every single fucking homeowners association is the same?

Run by the same person with eager helpers and they all come to the same conclusions as every other HOA?

And despite only being a tiny minority of the homeowners, they get their way and the rest of the people have to heed to their demands?

Why is this?

Because to effect change, the homeowners as a whole have to make time to actually attend, vote and take control back from the Karens.

It's actual work.

Normal people don't want a second (perhaps third) job keeping Karen at bay.  For the most part they have better things to do.

But how does Karen keep taking control?

For them, it is NOT work.  It's a hobby.  It's a leisure activity.  It's fun!

They don't have anything better to do because this is what they WANT to do.

Now.

Scale that up to the county level.  State.  Federal.

This is why one side thinks that violence is a rheostat and the other thinks it's a switch.

Karen always pushes it too far and gets kicked out... for a while.

They just wait until we decide we want more time to do things we prefer to do and think we're going to get left alone this time.

We're always wrong.

17 March 2024

I Did A Thing

The way modern cars do their door handles causes the paint underneath to get scratched.

The Lovely Harvey found some protectors that should prevent further damage and hide existing damage.


I think it makes the handles pop!


This is my second try at this post.  The text was teeny when I tried from my phone.

Green Beer And Anniversaries

My inlaws celebrated 50 years of togetherness yesterday.

That makes for a slow-blog day.

We ate like pigs!

Then off to have St Paddy's Day green beer and Irishish food.

Plus watching the local hockey team win against the other Florida team when they were definitely the underdog in the matchup.  Go Bolts!

15 March 2024

Alignment

Wu Ping Cough is something making a lot of people go, "they were lying to me, right to my face!"

As time passes, we're seeing that the conspiracy theorists and cranks were correct and that the lock-step march of government, media and government funded science was, not wrong, but lying about being right.

I don't recall seeing it mentioned, but there's a lot of correlation between how government and media treat gun control and climate crisis to how they handled Wu Ping Cough.

I'd start doubting the Earth was round if I couldn't confirm it with my own measurements.

You should too!

Great

Looks like we're going to have a third world Hellhole on both borders soon.

Toronto cops say to leave car keys where the crooks can readily access them.

Yet another entry in the list of "why you never give up your arms."

Did you know that dead perps have a 0% recidivism rate?

I suspect that's a lesson that's going to get taught again soon as more and more police forces effectively give up trying to do anything.

It will be interesting to see "defund the police" coming from "fuck it I'll do this my self." people.

I mean, they have no duty to come help, and they aren't helping...  Why keep them on the payroll?

Especially since what they do manage to do is effectively nada when the DA undercharges or doesn't file on the criminal who is free to return to crimining faster than the insurance company can pay you 38% of the value of the thing stolen.

But no cops at all means criminal will get dead stealing sooner rather than later because the person they're stealing from knows they won't get in trouble for owning the gun and shooting the thief.

Shooting thieves should be legal.

"Property isn't worth someone's life," should be a stark warning.

It's not worth dying over, so don't steal it!

I despise the notion that someone else has decided that my property isn't worth defending because they value it so low as to make it illegal to do so.

Update:

I am not the only one thinking along these lines...


More Questions Than Answers

This article asks more questions than it answers, but it raises real doubts about the governmental consensus.

I love the line about the only measurable effect of the extra CO2 has been increased crop yields.

If The Doors wrote Enter Sandman

13 March 2024

Skaven

Skaven (WFRP 1e p.226)

9 Points

Attribute Modifiers: HT+1 [10].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will-2 [-10]; SM 0.

Advantages: Damage Resistance +1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Night Vision +5 [5]; Sharp Teeth [1].

Disadvantages:

Features: Fur, Tail.

Talents:

This is how far I've gotten the races for the GURPS conversion of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying (1e).

This is the bog-standard Skaven.  Shamen and chaos-mutated versions to come later.

A sticking point was how to stat out their filthy bites.

They point out that there's a chance that you'll get an infection from being bitten.

I was stressing what this would be in terms of afflictions when I noticed that this chance of causing an infection after a bite is mentioned with several run of the mill animals.

No need to give stats on something normal and everyday that a common dog has.

Not finding any actual rules for what disease you'd catch in Warhammer led to FuzzyGeff's remembrance of the lack of rules and violet fungi.

Something About The Quantity Of Guns And The Effect On Crime

More guns, less crime seems to be proving to be true again.

Correlation isn't causality, but...

How many times does the trend have to align that less restrictions have a chilling effect on criminals before the anti side packs it in?

Trick question.  The answer is they will never pack it in because crime is just their justification for disarmament to grease the way for tyranny.

Tyranny is their goal, not less crime.

Someone Was Naughty

 

Contrary to the instructions given her by the vet, Shadow chewed at her surgery site.

Now she's got new sutures and must wear the cone of shame.

Less than pleased is how I would characterize her response to these events.

Not A Principled Stand

Neil Young returns to Spotify.

Money quote:

“My decision comes as other music services, Apple, Amazon, Qobuz, Tidal, all high res, have started serving the same disinformation podcast I had opposed at Spotify,”

N Young

Translation, "to actually stand by principles, it would cost me something, so I am caving in so that I keep making money." 

Good job, Neil.

I'll Know I've Succeeded When...

 


I Remember Being In The SCA

I am not shocked by this story.

The SCA was great fun as long as I kept myself to a very superficial level.

I learned a lot from some really great amateur historians (and a couple of professionals).

But the organization, the corporation...

Even at my tender young age I could see how liberally biased they were.

It really got laid bare when I got interested in firearms and noticed that there were many black-powder arms that were within the period the SCA allows.

They banned a static display of period firearms like a handgonne.

For safety reasons.

A hundred people wandering around with live steel and they're worried about a cannon lock firearm that takes more than a minute get get going from zero.

A cannon lock firearm that was wired to a wooden board...

So, discovering that they did nothing to protect someone with a differing opinion and, in fact, punished them for it:

I am not shocked.

Clarity

I figured out how to say it!

It's not that Morgan and Morgan isn't spending money on advertising through clever accounting.

The costs to a multi-billion dollar law firm here don't matter and I shouldn't have side tracked into it.

The "we bought guns with that ad money" defense is the problem.

Morgan and Morgan was going to spend that money advertising, no matter who they hired.

So, yes, Admin and Donut are getting over, somewhat, in spending an anti-gunner's money on something their employer would be happy to see banned.

The problem is if their ad gets someone to hire Morgan and Morgan and the pittance spent at the guntubers results in a winning case for the law firm.

The law firm's cut of these judgements is significant.  Far more than they spent on ads.

If they then turn around and use that money to fund the election campaign of a district attorney who rapes gun owners every chance they get...

Sure are nice guns aren't they?  But, hey, you got yours, right?

I'm old enough to remember when we called out dancing monkeys for their hypocrisy when they owned guns and shilled for anti-gun politicians.

I can even remember people being critical of places like Taran Tactical for training dancing monkeys who shill for anti-gun politicians.

But ex-cops shilling for anti-gun lawyers?

Cool?

MaxMin

Character conception is important.

When you play a game like GURPS, where you have to design the character from scratch, it's paramount.

There are many things you can do to maximize the capabilities of your character while spending the fewest points.

There are other times when being inefficient with the points is part of good character design.

Ambidexterity is 5 points.  It eliminates the -4 penalty when using your off-hand.

Eliminating the -4 penalty with the Off-Hand Weapon Training technique also costs 5 points, but the character still has the -4 penalty with other off-handed tasks.

It costs 5 points for each weapon skill.

So being just as good with both hands with a pistol and a rifle would cost 10 points if the character isn't ambidextrous.

You have to make a decision which fits the character.

I've been practicing with my left hand, and left eye.

I'm getting pretty good.

I am NOT ambidextrous.

A "me" character shouldn't have the 5-point advantage.  I should plunk the 10 for the techniques.

12 March 2024

где твой проклятый пластырь?

I am getting sick of science fiction where a small puncture is a death sentence for the person in the vacc suit.

Even worse in settings where they're doing industrial work where wearing one is necessary.

I've had patch kits in the rules of just about every space RPG I've ever played.

OK Now What

FuzzyGeff pointed out something he'd noticed about AD&D a long while ago.

Violet fungus does: "The excretion from these branches rots flesh in but one melee round unless a saving throw versus poison is made or a cure disease is used."

That's all well and good, but what is the game effect of that?

Here is the complete quote from both the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide:

"                                                                                             "

Yup, nada.

Although the DMG calls the attack "rotting poison" and under poisons on page 20 it says,

"The poison of monsters, regardless of its pluses or minuses to the victim’s saving throw, is an all-or-nothing affair. That is, either they do no damage, or they kill the victim within a minute or so. Poison potions generally do the same, although you may optionally elect to have any given one be slow-acting, so that the victim will notice nothing for 1-10 hours after quaffing it."

Surely they fixed this for second edition, right?

"The excretion from these branches rots flesh in one round unless a successful saving throw vs. poison is rolled or a cure disease spell is used."

What do the rules say?

Nada.  But there are rules for "rotting touch" from a mummy.

4th edition doesn't appear to even HAVE violet fungus.

5th edition says, "Multiattack. The fungus makes 1d4 Rotting Touch attacks.  Rotting Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 10ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d8) necrotic damage.

Now we're getting somplace!

What's necrotic damage?

The 5e Player's Handbook says, "Necrotic. Necrotic damage. dealt by certain undead and a spell such as chill touch. withers matter and even the soul."

Damage is damage in 5th edition, unless you're immune to a type; then it's harmless.

Play Dead Games

Sick of being lectured and shamed because of your race and gender?

Tired of sending people who hate you because of your race and gender money?

Play role playing games that are out of print or have been effectively abandoned by their publishers.

If you have even a little imagination, all of those old games still work just fine.

You don't need the newer edition.

Really!

Even better, you're probably going to be buying the books from someone who can't play anymore and could use the bucks.

Fates

The cars I've owned list...

Some came to bad fates.

The Passat was the battalion floater that was officially owned by some long forgotten soldier who'd bought it new and handed the keys to the next guy when he ETS'd.

The despised Lynx was sold to a dealer to haunt the dreams of some unsuspecting new owner.

The Rust Monster succumbed to the rust.

The Silver Bullet got sold to someone who promptly parked it under the tree to spawn a new Rust Monster.  It was still there last time I was in Iowa.

The 86 Honda got traded to help lower the bill on The Bicayne SS back when she was a Caprice Classic.

The Biscayne SS is still running.  A friend redubbed her Capricious and is doing a rat-rod thing with her.

The Precious got eaten by a tree.

Flossie is in the hands of a ricer kid.  She's looking happy with rims and a loud exhaust.

11 March 2024

Maybe Going To Be Dead Soon

Reading the posts at the Rott's backup site sure looks like the guy running it is ready to quit and that Misha isn't interested in doing the simple things needed to keep the old site running.

That'd be a bummer.

Practical (Upated)

Doing some online comparisons of me and my friend's cars.

My Timeline...

The car I learned to drive on was a '76 Vega "Kammback," with 29.4 cu-ft of cargo space and 81.2 cu-ft of passenger space with the seats up.  Seats down changes it to 52.8 cu-ft of cargo and 57.8 cu-ft of people space.

The first car I owned was a '73 VW Passat B1 Wagon.  46.6 cu-ft of cargo space with the seats down and 16.7 with them up.  Passenger space was 139.1 cu-ft with all four seats and 109.2 cu-ft with max stowage.

The despised '83 Mercury Lynx 17 cu-ft in the back with the seats up and 26.4 with them down.  Passenger space was 83.3 cu-ft with four seats and 73.9 with two (tiny back seat!).

The Rust Monster a 76 Camaro Type LT trunk was 6.4 cu-ft (3 of it consumed by the spare) with 85.1 cu-ft for the cabin.

The Silver bullet 79 Camaro Berlinetta trunk was 7.11 cu-ft (3 of it consumed by the spare) with 83.4 cu-ft for the cabin.

The oft-lamented soul-crushingly underpowered '86 Civic hatchback managed 15 cu-ft of cargo with 70 cu-ft of interior.

The Biscayne SS a '91 Caprice Classic had 20 cu-ft of stowage with a cavernous 114 cu-ft for you and five of your friends.  Marv's Impala SS has identical dimensions.  It should be noted that the spare tire takes up about 3.3 cu-ft of trunk space.

Flossie the 2002 Civic sedan had 13 cu-ft of cargo and 91 cu-ft of passengers.

The Precious a 2008 Corvette had 22.4 cu-ft of cargo space and 52 cu-ft of passenger space.

Moxie a 2010 Equinox has 31.4 cu-ft with the back seats up and 63.7 cu-ft with them flat.  Passengers get 104.6 cu-ft with the back seats up.  Doing the math, passengers get 72.3 cu-ft with the seats down.

The Beast a 2012 Caprice PPV has 17.4 cu-ft of trunk space and 112 cu-ft in the passenger compartment.

FuzzyGeff is rocking 12 cu-ft in back and a mere 84 cu-ft up front, the price you pay for the lower roof-line of that two-door '08 Civic.

Marv's noticeably smaller '96 Corvette has a mere 12.6 cu-ft for the junk and 48.7 cu-ft for the people.

JT's 2003 Corvette has 25 cu-ft under the hatch and 51.8 cu-ft in the passenger compartment.

His '08 CTS trunk is 13.6 cu-ft with 96.4 cu-ft for the people.

All of the cars listed, except the Biscayne, Beast, and Camaros can have cargo intrude into the passenger space because there's some form of pass-through from the cargo area to the passenger area.

All of the cars listed, except the Corvettes, can stuff overflow into the back seat.

907.9% Inflation

US Inflation Calculator says that the $27.95 M1917 in 1963 dollars is the equivalent of $281.71 today.

They're worth a bit more than that today.

Gunbroker is saying about $1,500.

But don't sell until the court case about whether a single sale makes you a dealer is settled!

Did Exxon Make It Rain Today

Interesting essay.

Long and dense four parter. 

Again, the person I really wish would read it no longer stops by here as far as I know.

Like Clearcoat Over Primer

Article on why there's a distinct lack of color in new cars.

You get the colors that the dealer has, so I doubt that this is customer driven.

When I ordered The Precious in late 2007 I wanted a dark blue.  Dark blue was not on offer, so I settled for black.

The customer might want different tints, but the manufacturers don't offer them.

Considering the price of painting a car correctly, people are unlikely to change from the dealer's offerings.

10 March 2024

Who Has A Time Machine I Can Borrow?

I'll stop and throw some of your money at Apple and Microsoft on my way home for you in exchange for letting me use it!


Perhaps Some Explaning Is Due

"We're so clever taking Morgan and Morgan's money to buy guns hur dur hur!"

Yes, you can spend that money on guns despite their backing hard core anti-gun politicians.

You might be telling yourself that you've cost them something.

You have not.

Advertising is a business expense.

It's written off.

Net cost to Morgan and Morgan: $0.

If you, after buying your guns, manage to convince even one person to hire Morgan and Morgan and that leads to a win in court or a settlement, you just made the people who support banning you owning that gun a profit.

Aid and comfort to the enemy.

That Was Stupid

The GunTuber Administrative Results has snagged sponsorship from Morgan and Morgan.

Considering that John Morgan has dropped millions on anti-gun Democrats, I don't think I can continue watching this YouTube channel.

Not even ironically.

Update: As is the norm for the people who do stupid things like this, they're defending it with, "I'm so clever taking his money to buy more guns."  May your chains rest lightly...

No More Rott?

Emperor Misha's Anti-Idiotan Rottweiler has been down for me the past few times I've gone to visit.

At one time it was a daily read, but I've let it slide to a monthly or less.

Now, it appears to have died. 

Update: An unsigned anonymous comment says that Hosting Matters no longer supports WordPress and that's why it's down.  There's a back-up site running, https://nicedoggie.blog/