Let Them Hate So Long As They Fear

The Air Force has reopened the depot that refurbishes the A-10.

I support this plan.  This should also get ALL of the A-10's that can be made flyable up to the A-10C standard instead of just the last few they grudgingly kept flying while they took a knee and ran the clock out.

I also support getting the damned F-35A up, running and dropping ordnance wherever the USAF is fighting.

Why both planes?

Because it's a rare opponent or potential opponent that isn't scared shitless by the Thunderbolt II Warthog.

I want the bad guys to piss themselves when my planes darken the sky.

On the face of it, there's nothing the Warthog can do that the Lightning can't...  Except loiter time and that great honking gun...  A gun that really doesn't get used all that often, but it's the feature they're most scared of.

The lack of ammo in the F-35 gun options really bugs me too.  Strafing is, in addition to the damage it inflicts, also a psyop.  More dakka is never a bad thing.

It's Hard To Respect You When You're So Damn Ignorant

A little known fact.

The state government cannot commit to any expenditure longer than one year.  That's a hidden consequence to our balanced budget amendment.

Mr Poor Put Upon First Responder, if they can't commit to a longer term than a year, why did you think they'd be able to honor a 5, 10 or 20 year agreement?

I found the "subject to budget concerns" clause, why didn't your union?

Boo hoo, you haven't gotten a raise in six years.  Weren't you just talking about a 10 year contract?  You've got four years left...

But wait, this started because you complained that the state reneged on it's 10 year agreement, but demanding a raise before its expiration is also an attempt to renege.

What really happened is your union told you that you had a 10 year agreement and pensions would be funded at some irrationally optimistic level.  The state, intelligently, included an out if there wasn't enough money for it and, get this, you agreed to it.  This isn't the state fucking you, it's YOU fucking you.

I'd have fucked you harder.  A lot harder.

Why?  Because you're already paid well, have extensive benefits that most people don't get, unheard of job security in the present economy and even though not funded as lavishly as you prefer still much better pension and retirement than virtually anyone in the private sector.

Next contract I'd give you a 20% raise, make you subject to "right to work" and make you responsible for all your health care and retirement just like the people you're supposed to be serving.

Serve, not bleed dry, you greedy fuck.  Every time you pull on your first-responder's-martyr-mantle it's always money.  Money money money.

You can climb down of the "it's a dangerous job" cross too, there's lots of jobs that are way more dangerous that get far less pay and zero benefits.

Any time you feel you're being too put upon that we don't think you're worth the pay you're demanding you can just find another job.  Good luck!  I wouldn't want you to think we're forcing you to stay at this one you clearly hate so damn much.

PS: This goes triple for teachers.

The Results Of Gun Registration

Only one started out as an SBR build from the start.  To my eternal shame, Cheyenne and Kaylee are the only two AR's in the house that have ALL of the AWB features.

Stamp collection...

Exquisitely Crafted, Affordable, Durable And Useless

In the summer I pocket carry.

In the winter I use a Galco Miami Classic.

I used to strong-side Inside Waistband (IWB).

Two things happened to stop IWB.  First I bought a car that I love that has nearly zero room for the gun on the strong side.  Second, I got a boil on my right hip that went septic and necrotic.

No room for the gun to ride is self explanatory.

The boil got medical attention (almost too late Thanks Obama!) but the puckered crater hurts when poked and it's pretty much where the muzzle will ride on most IWB holsters.  I've got enough constant pain from my shin and back from my accident I don't really want to add more.

It might be different if I lost some weight, but my gimpy leg prevents even walking long enough to do any good.

So I am fat and crippled and unable to avail myself of the "best" holsters and methods.

What (I think) I want is a good, IWB cross-draw holster.  Yes, I know, the experts have kittens whenever a carry method that points the gun beyond the 180˚ line is mentioned.  I think we're letting too much range mentality and fear of lawyers intrude on our thinking.

Something I discovered when I got a good IWB for my strong side that stayed put, protected the trigger and firmly held the gun...  It was near impossible to get at the gun with my weak hand!  It could be done but it was not a smooth draw it was more of a grab, pull, shift, pull, shift ready maneuver.

With a cross-draw rig for a gun I don't own or carry I borrowed, because it holds the gun canted more forward I could readily reach it with my weak hand, albeit awkwardly, for a one step draw.

What I want doesn't seem to be made.  That puts it in the custom holster world.  I am not prepared to spend custom holster money to see if what I want is something that I actually want and can live with.

I get extremely frustrated with so many people who are thin, hale and hearty explaining to me, oh so calmly and assuredly, that I am wrong and that I should get a good IWB holster.  Fine, suggest one.  "Oh, you need to try them out for yourself and see which one works best for you!"

ARRRRRRGH!

Never mind that this is SPARTA Florida and we get a combination of heat and humidity you have to experience for yourself to understand the brutality of it.  Yes, I see on your weather histogram that you get heat and humidity where you live too, but it's not the same.  I used to live where I had your weather.  It.  Is.  Not.  The.  Same.  Trust me.

It makes choosing a holster material problematic.  Leather will get soaked, as will fabrics.  Plastics, like Kydex™ get a barrier of sweat between your skin and the material and that's got a coefficient of friction approaching zero.  Neither leather or Kydex™ are known for breathing either, so you end up with skin problems under the holster, like boils!

Plus there's what happens to your gun being bathed in salty water all day everyday and what protective measures to prevent damage to the gun does to your skin.

It makes you long for open carry just to get some comfort!

That There Behind Us Was The Event Horizon

And I quote, "IMPORTANT: These plates are meant to be used strictly as a fitness accessory and should never be used as body armor."

Bold and italics in original.

I can now buy fake plates for my tacticool vest plate-carrier for the express purpose of exercising.

Just $41 for the 5-3/4 lb. plate (3/16" thick) and $54 for the 8-3/4 lb. plate (5/16" thick).

Laser cutting and powder coating sure must be expensive, because that's a $15 hunk of metal for the thin plate and $19 for the thick one either in common as dirt A-36 steel.

Update: these are single sheet, retail prices for the metal; if you're going to go into business doing this you can get it down to $5 per square foot for the 3/16" and $7 for the 5/16" and a square foot is ample to make the plate.

Here's your sign.  I printed it on the plate for you!

I'm Not The Only One With An NFA Approved In October

Marv's SBR and "Maglite" suppressor.

He's still making baffles at present, so no test firing yet.

But You Ate It

Read this:

In effect, she's allergic to dijon mustard, ordered something that normally comes with it without it, and didn't fucking check before digging in.

Gets zero sympathy from me.

Why?

I'm allergic to a food too.

Mushrooms.

When I see something on the menu that has them, I tend to order something else, but I also ask if it can be prepared without them.

Then, get this, I check to see if they've been omitted!

Not once has there been a problem with mentioning this when a mistake happens and my order is generally fixed or replaced.  Often with coupons for a free meal my next visit.

Wanna bet that she didn't call to complain, just called her lawyer?

I'm also willing to bet that her affliction has nothing to do with her allergy.  If they don't kill you, food reactions are normally transient.

2009 Is Finished!

I only have the first eight months of 2010 to port over from my old LiveJournal now.

It's a slog.  There's no automated method of moving the posts that seems to work for me, so I do them manually.

Lots of photos need to be recovered and uploaded to Flickr because Webshots changed out from under me.

What's Inna Name

I think the EMF New Dakota is going to be dubbed "il creatore di pace".

I think it suits both lineages.

Yeah, I already used this picture, but...

In The Other Direction This Time

The drift in language happens in gaming in the other direction too.

Anglic is the official language of the Third Imperium.  It's a descendant of American English.

"Present" day in my Traveller universe is Imperial Year 1110, the year the 5th Frontier War vs the Zhodani ends.

That's 5631 AD to us Solomani types.

Three thousand six hundred fifteen years.

That's more time than Roman Latin had to turn into Italian.  A lot more time.

While on one hand you could say that computers and digitalization of what we read and the permanence of audio-visual entertainment compared to even 50 years ago would slow linguistic drift...

The volume occupied by the Third Imperium wasn't all one nation the entire time.  Anglic has only been the official language for 1110 years.  Even assuming no drift in that time, there's still 2505 years of people left to their own devices just making it up as they go, as people will.

That's also skipping the American English tendency to outright steal words from other languages as it suits them.  Other English does too, but they express it as "borrowing".

Traveller Anglic is probably as similar to English as Coptic is to Ancient Egyptian.  If they're really, really lucky it's a modern vs ancient Greek drift.

It's Devil's Night

Is there anything left in Detroit to burn?

Knee Jerk Triggered

Tam posted, "If you sold chocolate lollipops for $2 and dog shit on a stick for $1.75, the American gun-buying public would suck a turd every time."

I have no less than three incoherent rants in drafts "replying" to this small bit of wisdom.

Really.

No, REALLY!

I reply in detail to the specific things she's said above about my specific purchasing decisions... Wait, what?

WHAT specific things?

Whir click.  Whir click.  Whir click.

Thag, you dumbass, she's said nothing about you or anything you've done and if you're feeling she has; maybe it's YOUR problem and not HERS!

Maybe I bought too much shit on a stick when it came to holsters finding what worked for me and I'm defensive.

It can't be an emotional response to the .25 ACP hoard, I went into that dank hole knowing how shitty some of those guns are.

She is, however, definitely speaking about how Marv decides his gun related purchases...

Dang It A Day Early

The Lovely Harvey was hoping Cheyenne was approved on Halloween.  It is our favorite holiday, after all.

But today, after 179 days, our eFile Form 1 was approved.

14.5" barreled carbine, as much like the one that Tom Berenger lugged around as SSG Robert Barnes as we can make it.  Although we're still looking for the elusive large-round forward assist!

Something Else I Tried

Steve Jackson Games official fantasy setting from 2e on has been a myth-parallel of Earth called Yrth.

GURPS: Fantasy for 2e and 3e; GURPS: Banestorm for 4e.

One possibility for the players has been to play themselves captured by the Banestorm and transported to Yrth.

Humans were sucked up by the Banestorm from 1050 through 1300, in large enough numbers to found nation-states and displace the native Elves and Dwarves.

The players always assume that because the predominate language in the Christian nations is Anglish that they have a decent chance of speaking intelligibly with the natives.

Quote:

The Christian nations of Yrth speak Anglish, a language evolved from medieval English with heavy outside influences, mostly Norman-French.

Now, watch this:



Anglish isn't English from today.  Heck, with the same sort of drift over a similar timeframe Latin became French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

I did succeed in speaking in a biblical enough fashion as an NPC to utterly baffle the players and get them to really understand that they weren't going to be blending in, even if they brought their SCA garb!

On Ejecting Friends

About a year ago I did something to a friend that had only been done to me.

I stopped talking to him.  Not about him, mind you.

I don't make friends easily or readily, so they're so very precious that I'd never.  EVER.  Be the one who cut the ties.

Being an abrasive and inflexible sort, I've had those ties cut by former friends a couple of times.

Then a few months later, I did it again.  To someone I had known far longer and was far closer to.

Why?

It ultimately boils down to the fact that I can be hated and ridiculed the same way by people I don't know or like and don't even pretend to like me.

People who aren't lying when they say they never considered my position on things, but have honestly opposed it before meeting me.

People who don't pretend that I am not the kind of person they despise fully and wholly.

I'll take the honest hate over duplicitous "friends" any day.

In the first case I think there was a "keep poking until Thag goes away on his own" because they'd said they'd never cut me loose.  It was only after that I noticed he was the only common thread that two people who were tag-team tormenting me had.  Almost as if he was providing information to them that allowed them to better dig under my thin skin.  While I was confiding in him about them doing so...

In the second case, she just forgot that I could see her replies to others on FaceBook and read what she thought of "icky conservatives" where she didn't think I could see.  She was engaged in bigotry, no doubt, against people who aren't fully liberal like she is.

It pisses me off to no end because I am also NOT the conservative that I sometimes appear to be.

I've always thought that LGBT PEOPLE were people and should have the exact same rights as anyone else.  I've always thought that any people should have those rights.

But the same rights.  Nobody gets a right that everyone else doesn't.

I've always been an armchair scientist.  I'm also an armchair political observer.  When "science" starts smelling like politics, it stands out to me.  No amount of burying me in links to news articles which link to a handful of press agencies which link to a single statement by a single scientist will shift me.

Want to convince me?  Link me to actual scientific papers.  Make sure you read them too, and you'd better understand them because I'm also the kind of autodidactic polymath who's going to learn enough to understand them myself.  See also burying me in links above.

It's very hard to not just start hating the people who hate me right back.  It's as simple minded as it can get.  People have decided to hate me because I am white and therefore racist.  People have decided to hate me because I am male and therefore sexist.  People have decided to hate me because I am straight and therefore homophobic.  People have decided to hate me because I own guns and therefore a latent murderer.  People have decided to hate me because I don't support huge raft of liberal goals and therefore I'm stupid (and sexist and racist and homophobic).

But you want to know something?  Engineering types see the world as it is, rather than how we wish it was.  While wishes will get a bridge built, wishes don't build bridges.  When you grok that in its fullness, you will also grok McThag.

Idle Hands

Who had "Less than 48 hours" in the "How long before McThag takes apart the Peacemaker clone?'

31 hours, 36 minutes is the time.

I did not remove the loading gate because I don't have that screwdriver bit.

It's almost Germanic how the serial number is repeated over and over on the parts, including the wood for the grips.  Part of this exploratory surgery was to see if there was the locating pin for two-piece grips (or the hole for it) in the trigger guard.  No, there is no locating pin or hole.

Remember When...

Remember when 56.6 was considered super fast and it took hours to download a song from Napster?

Well, NASA just spent 15 months downloading the data from New Horizons.

Imagine coming to work and seeing THAT progress bar finally done!

Who's A Good Gun Dog?

Watching The Great War series on YouTube.

He had this photo in his narrative.

Picture from: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/04/8e/94/048e94eedd0dcfdc091dde5b6914fbe5.jpg

Related.

Picture from http://www.pastreunited.com/resources/dogs%20to%20pull%20their%20Maxim%20Guns.jpg

I can see players doing this...

Escape Plan

Do you think that the refusal to indict Hillary, then a couple months gap and then reopening the case is about the right amount of time for James Comey to insure he's not suicidal.

Commonality

It just hit me.  They're both .45's.  They're both Colt .45's.  Neither is actually a Colt.

It Shoots!

The New Dakota shoots.

24 rounds of Winchester Cowboy Action Loads (USA45CB) 250gr Lead Flat Nose at 750 fps.
20 rounds of Winchester Super-X (X45CP2) 255gr Lead Round Nose at 860 fps.

Not perfect groups, but still lots of fun and this isn't a work gun.

Surprising to me, it points very well and shoots naturally.  The ducks were shot about as quick as Willard could squeeze them off.  I did three bottom rings and the two center ducks as fast as I could as well.

I am also the first person to apply a solvent to the gun.  The color-case-hardening was covered in some sort of lacquer, and that started peeling off when Shooter's Choice hit it.  I got most of it off and I think you can see the color better now.

Because It Came Up

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's sidearm.

Well at The Battle of the Greasy Grass anyway, he had numerous sidearms.

I vote for SAA because the Army was on a standardization kick at the time.  At least one of the 7th Cavalry troops lobbied hard to retain their Spencers to no avail when the transition to the M1873 Flop-Top carbine happened.

Of course, being a contrary cuss, a standardization kick would trigger a response from the Brevet General to use anything but the standard weapons.  He was packing a Remington rolling-block in .50-90, for example, rather than a Trap-Door.

Speaking Of Phantoms

Four Clicks

The EMF New Dakota makes four clicks when you cock it.

Click one is just barely taking the firing pin off the primer.  The trigger comes forward too.

Click two retracts the bolt (cylinder stop) for loading.  This is "half cock".

Click three re-extends the bolt.  If you let go of the hammer here, it returns to half cock with the bolt extended.

Click four is full cock.  If you ride the hammer back to half cock, the bolt remains extended.

Clicks two through four index the cylinder to the next chamber, if you go straight to full cock, it's one smooth rotation.

Plead The Fifth

What I want to see, by law or amendment, whichever is required...

If you hold an elected or appointed position and you plead the fifth, you're also resigning and forever barred from holding an elected or appointed position again and forbidden to lobby.

I want such people held to a higher standard than me, not a lower one.

Just One Number Off

Upper is a S&W Model 909.  Lower is a S&W Model 910.  They sure look similar, don't they?

Could you tell I switched which one was on top?

From the back it's really obvious what the difference is:

The 909 is single stack and the 910 is double.  Which didn't make a bit of difference in capacity in the mid-nineties.  The "ten round" 910 magazines only hold nine rounds, just like the 909's!  What you can do with the 910 is use a pre-Clinton 15 rounder.

Also of note, magazines for the 909 work in a Model 39, but not vice-versa.

Firearm Friday

Reservations not withstanding...

An EMF S.A. imported, Armi San Marco made, Colt Peacemaker with a 4-3/4" barrel in .45 Colt.

With it's bigger brother, also in .45 Colt.

According to the proof marks it was made in 2000 and it passes every check I can think of throwing at it short of metallurgical analysis.  The trigger feels good, everything locks like it should and there's no play where there shouldn't be.  I've read, over and over, that if you get a good one, you've got a good one.  Fingers crossed.

An interesting thing about it... it has a safety!

With the cylinder pin like this...

The hammer can fall all the way.

But if you push the cylinder pin release and push the pin to this position...

The hammer only falls this far.  That's because the hammer is resting on the pin that's now intruding into the hammer groove.  This was done to skirt around the import laws to allow a fixed firing pin to be used instead of a transfer bar setup.

Phuck

On 21DEC16 the very last mission with the F-4 in US service will occur.

Granted it'll be a QF-4E, but still.

The Phantom was a warhorse, sad to see her go.

Service Active Handling Code

JT brought his whiz-bang scan-tool to talk to The Precious...

He pulled out code C0161, which is the brake pedal position sensor.

A whopping $15 part lays low a $55,000 car.

It's essentially the switch that turns on the brake lights!

More than that, really.  It's a three wire connection.  One is a constant ground inside the Body Control Module (BCM), one is a 5v signal from the BCM and the third grounds inside the BCM when the pedal is pushed.

The BCM then talks to the Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) and that's just one of the inputs for the anti-lock brakes, traction control and active handling system.

Something else that is probably going to get GM sued someday is the brake lights are triggered by the BCM too.  If the BCM loses power, no brake lights.  No BCM, no engine.

So some dark night, the BCM takes a dump and the driver stops the car... and a car behind him can't see...  SMACK!

If It Seems Too Good To Be True

One of the local shops has a Single Action Army clone for a very reasonable $325.

It's an EMF New Dakota with a 4-3/4" barrel in .45 Colt.

It's made by Armi San Marcos based on the markings.  You know the company that went out of business for spotty quality control?

Poop!

I guess one could take the position that there's a lot of room to fix on it since it's so far below MSRP, on the other hand... if you have to pay MSRP in the end, won't you save time and effort just crying once and paying once?

Wrong

If the gun-grabbers were correct, someone just got murdered in a parking lot.

But they aren't.

How can I tell?

Because in possession of both a carry permit and a firearm I did not shoot the driver of a special needs excursion van for SPITTING ON MY CAR for taking the last (and apparently HER) handicapped parking space.

The real stupidity here was doing it where I could see it and driving a van with your employer's phone number in 18" high letters on the side of it.

HR was certainly interested in what I had to say about their driver's behavior.  I repeated my story three times as the title of the person I talked to got higher and higher in the company.

Relief

Ever get told off by someone then find out the reason they were talking to you in the first place was a very very narrow overlap of your Venn diagrams?

Ever been happy when they just leave?

Happened to me the other day.

Intermittent Problems Are Best Problems

Twice now The Precious has spit up a message on the driver's information center, "SERVICE ACTIVE HANDLING".  Then lit the active handling disabled light.

The first time, shutting off the car to read the codes with my scanner cleared it.

The second time running the steering lock to lock then restarting the car cleared it.

There's only like 18 things it could be, none of them particularly expensive on their own, but quite a lot of you start randomly swapping parts.

Never mind that a goodly number of them are inaccessible, like the steering wheel position sensor which requires the steering column to be removed.  More of a pain in the ass than difficult.

I would tend to ignore this system shutting off on me, but it takes the cruise control with it.  With my bum leg and ankle, I need that to drive very far at all.

That Hurt More Than Expected

Deleting the notifications of former friend's birthdays and anniversaries actually was unpleasant.

One because he can't learn to say he's sorry.

One because she can't see she's a bigot.

Clearing The Back-Log

VA Approves Pension Claim From Civil War Veteran.

I Think I've Found A Way To Express It

Let's say I decide I want to learn Calculus.

I go down to the local community college that offers such classes and try to sign up.

Before they take my money they ask, "what math have you already taken?"

If I am uncertain about my abilities, there's a test.  If I need to brush up on my algebra then I take those classes first.

Do you know what they don't ask me to do?

Take the kindergarten class on arithmetic if I show I already know how to add and subtract during the test.

The paradigm for shooting classes seems to be to assume that unless you've attended their arithmetic class, there's no possible way you can know algebra so you must take that class first.

Even when they don't have such an attitude, they don't seem to be able to communicate what they are teaching at their various levels so that I can make a self assessment about which class is most appropriate for my default skill level.  There doesn't seem to be a test I can take that will place me either.

It's so very frustrating.  I want to expand what I know, but I also don't want to spend money on needless remedial teaching.  That'd just make me bored and cast a pall on future classes.

Never mind the eyewatering cost of most of these classes!  Heck, if they were cheaper, maybe I wouldn't worry so much about relearning something.

Speaking of those costs; where are the classes priced for the people who make minimum wage delivering pizza or behind the counter at the Kwikie-Mart?  The people whom are far more likely to encounter someone with a gun pointed at them than someone who can casually plunk down $1,000 and take a week off three times a year.

OK Navy Guys

There was once a time when I almost began the process of becoming a naval architect.

I was even hired by Electric Boat to do as-built's.  Then laid off before my first day because the boat I was going to work on had been cancelled.  Remember when boat four of SSN-21 was going to be named Scorpion?  Ach, Scorpion is a bad luck name!  Remember when it was going to be built in the early nineties?

Anyway...

I am looking at the debacle that is LCS.

I am looking at the lack of Frigate.

I am looking at the eyewatering price of DDG-1000.

Then I wonder...

Dust off the old Gearing class plans.

Replace the forward twin 5" turrets with single 5" Mk45 Mod4's from a DDG-51.  Replace the mid-ships torpedo tubes with a vertical launcher.  Or put the VLS forward and one of the 5" mounts mid-ships.  Keep the hanger and flight deck from the FRAM upgrades.  Add some CIWS.

Nuke the steam plant and go diesel-electric (or gas-electric).  Just look at all the free space in the hull now!

Upgrade the deckhouse to look all modern and geodesic, so nobody will see you just dusted off the old Gearing FRAM I plans.  Add in modern amenities like air conditioning and he/she berthing.

Sensors and electronics can be pulled off the shelf, heck didn't we spend a lot on LCS stuff?

I'll bet there's even room for ASW junk too.

PS: 15k tons is NOT a destroyer!  Zumwalt is a cruiser.

PPS: I've an alternate plan for the "module" idea from the LCS.  The ships are designated as whatever they are at building and the modules installed then, never left blank.  That way you never lose the training and tribal knowledge by swapping modules willy-nilly.

Of Course

Of course she's lying, all politicians lie.

The problem is she's bad at it; despite all the years of practice.

Ah Now I See Where You're Coming From

What you mean is, "I want to have it BOTH ways!" and you don't see they are in conflict.

The government's laudable power to intervene in the first case is also their reprehensible power to intervene in the second.

The actual answer is they were not granted any power in either case.  If we'd get back to that, then the mob demanding intervention wouldn't be seeking Government intervention and expecting to get it.

If only Slaughterhouse had been decided correctly.

Another Shock

Most of the increase spending on education hasn't gone to hiring better teachers, but to service the mismanaged pension plans?

You mean the politicians lied to the teachers and their unions too?

Isn't it nice to know it's not just you?

Artsy Fartsy

FÉG SMC-380 in, .380 ACP.

Trying to be all artistic with the chopping log in the back yard.

I seriously want a better camera.  Being familiar with how Canon thinks already thanks to my PowerShot S5IS, I think the transition to DLSR will be smoother if I stay with Canon.

The problem with picking out a camera to replace the PowerShot is the features added with each model really are sweeter.

I've decided that I have to have the live-view to the screen rather than just looking at what the mirror shows through the viewfinder.  What my eye sees and what the CMOS sees won't always agree, seeing the CMOS output on the live-view fixes that.

I want the screen to pivot out, like the PowerShot does.

That kind of makes it the EOS 60D or the Rebel T3i (600D).  There's a camera shop right next to one of the local gun shops, I will have to stop in and see what they have.  By the way, the T4i is actually the one I'd really like as minimum; but the T5i (for some reason) is running cheaper on ebay.

Besides, last time I had a Nikon, people shot at me.  Picture quality suffers when I get shot at.  Or was it because I had 35mm film?  GET AWAY FROM THE CANS!

How On Earth?

As much minutia and trivia as I have learned about airplanes, I never found out about bob weights on the stick until very recently.

I'd always wondered why pilots seemed to be struggling to keep the stick or yoke back while pulling g's and the bob weight is why.

Essentially it's a small weight on an arm attached to the stick linkage that gets heavier as you pull more g, and that tries to pull the stick back forward and ease off on the g.

Used It All Up

Willard tells tales about how many near misses he's had.

I was going to suggest he play the lottery, but then realized that he's used all his luck.

So I says, "Dude!  You could have died a millionaire!"

God Damn You 2016

Bob Hoover too!?!

First World Problem

When you pocket carry, the gun wears out the pocket like no wallet ever made.

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me to sew!

From Behind Every Blade Of Grass

The 35 hardened 1 ESAPI plate with a DR 12/5* OTV...

Hit with your average hunting round, which is an expanding round.

That's 7d(0.5) pi+ for most common calibers (.30-06, .308, .270 Win).

You divide the armor's DR by the number in parentheses, 47/0.5=94.

Max damage roll is a mere 42, so an expanding hunting round just goes "spack" against the ESAPI plate, every time, never penetrating.

But wait!  That ESAPI plate is ablative.  The average hit is 24 and the plate loses 1 DR per 3 that hit it.  So, 8 per shot on average (2-14 range).  So about 5 hits will break the plate up enough to leave the wearer with just the OTV for protection.

Assuming the wearer stands there and foolishly laughs mockingly while his plate insert is ablated to nothing...  The DR 12 of the vest is also doubled to 24, just barely stopping the average 7d(0.5) pi+ hit every time (but there's the potential to get 18 through which will be upped to 27 if it does).

Please recall that the 12 is flexible armor and for every 10 points of damage it stops, the wearer takes 1 point of cr damage.  In this case, 2 points of cr damage with the average hit!

Of course, someone with a scoped hunting rifle firing soft-points is going to see the armor and aim for something more vulnerable, like the eyes, face or neck.

Proof

Doing up Twilight 2000 in GURPS with equipment upgrades has caused some interesting things.

Things like how much DR does an Outer Tactical Vest have?

How much DR should the vest itself have?  SAPI plate?  ESAPI plate?

The OTV plus SAPI is supposed to be proof against 7.62x51mm ball at essentially muzzle velocity and it must take three of these hits.

7.62x51mm at that velocity is 7d pi.  Which is 7-42 points of damage, so a DR of 42 stops it dead every time.  A DR of 24.5 stops it on average.

The vest is DR 12/5*.  The split DR uses the higher value agains pi or cut attacks, lower against all other types like cr or imp.  The asterisk means it's flexible armor and subject to the blunt trauma rules.

12 is not enough to stop most 7d pi attacks, but it's not supposed to.

The SAPI plate is DR 23.  This combines with the 12 to give a DR of 35 against rifle fire.  The SAPI plate is also ablative armor, and loses 1 point of DR for every 3 hits it receives, regardless of if the damage penetrates.

DR 35 is going to stop nearly all 7d attacks!  But it won't last forever.

Next, the ESAPI plate is supposed to be proof against .30-06 Armor Piercing, 7d+1(2) pi-.  The same penetration criteria stands for acceptance and most places say its more effective against normal penetration too.

So I gave it a DR of 35 but made it hardened level 1 armor.  This gives a total of DR 47 against pi or cut attacks!  It's still ablative as the SAPI plate.

The 8-43 range of the .30-06 AP normally gets an armor divisor of 2.  That would halve our DR 47 to just 23.  What hardened armor does is eliminate the same number divisor steps as levels (the steps are 100, 10, 5, 3, 2).  In this case, the DR 35 of the ESAPI stops 35 and the underlying vest 6, so 41.  So, nearly any .30-06 AP shot is blocked by this combination.  Again, not forever.

If it stopped there, it'd be fine.

.50 BMG does 7dx2 pi+.  That's 14-84 points of damage running, on average, to 49.  On average, a .50 ball round barely penetrates an OTV and ESAPI combination.  Notice that it readily penetrates the plate though!  This appears to be accurate believable based on a couple of YouTube videos shooting Level IV armor plates with a Barrett!

.50 BMG AP does 7dx2(2) pi.  This drops the OTV+SAPI DR to 17 and nearly any hit breezes right on through.  The OTV+ESAPI still gets 41.  On average, 8 will still get through.  Again, this kind of result is borne out by a couple of YouTube videos.  It's scary, sometimes, how plausible GURPS numbers are compared to a reality check.

Chickens And Eggs

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

The Glock 20 or the 21?

The first Glock 20's have serial prefix 'MC' and were made in July 1990.

The first Glock 21's have serial prefix 'UB' and were made in December 1990.

They were designed concurrently, with the 10mm taking the lead and .45 being a derivative.

It's apparent in a couple places, but the two key points are the slide having material removed to make it lighter because of the reduced recoil impulse of .45 and the frame having a second pin to better hold the locking block which is unneeded for .45.  This second pin shows up on Gen3 Glocks as well because .40 S&W was stressing the small frames the same way 10mm stressed the large frames.

In most places, both hit the shelves at the same time.

Mutter Mutter Update Mutter

Windows update just flat don't work anymore on my Win7 Ultimate 64 Bootcamp partition.

Spent all day on it and nary an update.

I know there's updates to Win7 out there, my laptop is getting them just fine.

A Reminder For New Readers

"Try to remember you are a guest here when you comment. Inappropriate comments will be deleted without mention. Amnesty period is expired."

My lead in to a topic might not be what the topic is about.  Sometimes that lead in is on a tiresome topic that I will not debate here, because the horse is fucking DEAD and no amount of giddy-up is going to make it ride.

The most recent example is pointing out constitutional powers and using abortion as an example.

This was not an invitation to debate abortion.  Or Islam.

Thank you: The Management.

PS: You can thank RavenclawEric for the "off topic" comment deletion rule.  He's the master of latching on to an aside and running with a rant about it.  And I will add mention of the Anglave rule: "If you've so much to say, you should have your own blog to say it."

PPS: The comment deletion policy is brutal, by the way.  Others shat in the pool and made it what it is.  Interestingly, it's a hammer I've not had to wield very often, but I can see with a wider readership it's going to come up more often.  I don't suffer trolls.  Period.

No True Texan...

Chili has beans.  By their own admission, even Texans put beans in their chili.

See this map.

Not seen in the screen shot are two Mexican respondents whom also use beans.

Judging by the no-bean distribution in Texas and the political make-up of those areas.  Liberals don't put beans in chili.

We kind of always knew, didn't we?

Prepare For The Apocalypse

The first harbinger of the end times has occurred.

The Cubs have made it to the World Series.

The CHICAGO Cubs have made it to the World Series.

This is the end times as predicted in the sacred scrolls.

Campus Carry

Here's a sticky wicket.

Many states forbid campus carry.

Iowa is such a place in that they allow the individual campuses to decide.  "Shockingly" all of them have decided to ban carry.

Fine.

Where's the boundary where I can and cannot carry?

I am familiar with Ames and Iowa State and I can't tell you if you're legal on the North side of Lincoln Way or not.

Lincoln Way is what I'd think of as the southern border of campus.

But then there's all the ISU property all around Ames.  Are these campuses as well?

How well defined is "campus"?

Is there signage?

I, for one, want to KNOW where the edges of the gun free victim zone lie so that I don't disrupt Father Darwin's work by trying to fire into them to save anyone stupid enough to enter one.

For Next Year

Happy Dead Che Day

Order yours from MagPul today!

Also available (while they last):

Somehow them misspelling intelligence makes the shirt more appropriate rather than less.

Maybe We Did Too Good A Job

It just occurred to me that we can't just show young people East Germany and East Berlin anymore.

It's been just Germany their entire lives.

They can't see the contrasts we old farts do.

We won too well.

New Blues

The Blue Angels are transitioning to the F/A-18E/F from the A-D.

Popular Mechanics wrote up an article in December, about how they'd keep the Legacy Bugs if they'd their druthers.

They mention that the Super Bug is more expensive and quote a price, like the Blues are buying the planes straight from McDonnell Douglas Boeing.

The fleet provides aircraft for their display team just like a line squadron.

It also sidesteps the issue that the A-D planes are getting very long in the tooth.  The Marines, for example, are already scouring bone-yards and museum displays for parts that McDonnell Douglas Boeing no longer stocks.

Je suis choqué!

I am constantly amazed that people are shocked that the cheapest ammunition they can lay hands on is not the best ammunition you can buy.

Inaccurate, inconsistent, underpowered so it doesn't cycle?

Well, you paid 1/3 what premium ammo costs.

On the other hand, I'm deliriously happy that there is cheap ammo that works as well at it does!

But I guess it's expectations management.

Does it go bang every time?

Does it cycle the action consistently?

Does it group well enough to get an honest zero?

I get those three things and it can shoot a 12" group at 50 all day and I'm going to be happy.  Especially if the center of the group stays put when I change over to the premium fodder.

Maybe I'm a little more philosophical about it because there's not much out there in non-premium in some of the guns I shoot.

Oh The Vapors

I hereby declare that you may not define ANY first world problem as "oppression".

Wanna see real oppression?  Head to Iran and tell them you're from Gay Christian Ministries to preach to the heathen Muslims.

I fucking dare you.

Until then, tell your multi-millionaire sportsball dancing monkey spokesthings to shut their pie-holes and enjoy the riches of the only nation where they can conceivably BE multi-millionaires.

Research Project

According to the Public Accommodation Act... and referenced supporting acts...

I cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, citizenship, familial status, disability, veteran status or genetic information.

OK.

Which of those is being a homosexual?

I was actually surprised to see that sexual orientation wasn't on the list.  The reaction to a baker refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding sure made it seem like it was already encoded into the law...

But I cannot find it.

I'm in an awkward place philosophically and morally with regards to this situation.

I believe it's wrong to discriminate against someone who's gay.  The key part of gay people being PEOPLE.  Are they a person?  If so, they they get all the same rights and legal protections as any other person.

Being an athiest, I don't have a God demanding anything about where people stick their pudenda.  My libertarian leanings have the same lack of demand about people's sex lives.

But I'm not sure that forcing people to do business with someone they hate is the answer.  It seems that nurtures the bigotry rather than stomp it out.

What about forcing the bakery to make that cake, or go out of business, makes them less bigoted?

From what I've read about the situation suggests that they shopped around until they got someone to say, "no, I will not make you that cake (or pizza)," then they screamed, "DISCRIMINATION!"  Almost as if the primary purpose wasn't to get a wedding cake, but to find someone who wouldn't make one and then destroy them.

That bothers me a great deal if that's what was happened.

First Day Of Real Autumn!

The first day of autumn in Florida is when that first cold front finally manages to push down and cool things off.

Overnight lows in the 50's and it doesn't break 80 the next day.

Ah!  Bliss.

You get that moment where you can't figure out what's changed inside, but realize that it's just that the air conditioner has shut off for the first time in two months.

Soon it will be safe to venture to an outdoor range and shoot longer ranges.

Guilt

If you are feeling guilty about wearing fur or eating meat:

The mink would wear you like a coat in a heartbeat.

The pig will not hesitate to eat you.

Trump = Hitler

Why is it when the Democrats identify someone as Hitler they focus on the Nationlist part and completely skip the Socialist part of National Socialist?

Especially since it's the Socialist part that's most worrisome.

Even if Donald was Hitler, something is missing from his movement that actual National Socialists used...

Can you spot it?

Where is the other who lives among us, pretending to be one of us, who is to blame for everything that keeps Germany America from being great and who must be punished?

For the people who're victims of public education (and are having trouble with the big words anyway) that was Jews in National Socialist Germany.

If Trump is Hitler, who are his Jews?  Now that you have a group in your head.  Is that group actually guilty of the activities Trump singled them out for?

German Jews weren't, but every group that I've seen Trump single out so far is.

We're looking at the difference between racist and rational again.

"That black guy, right there, stole my television," isn't racist.

"Black people steal televisions," is, even if the above statement is true.

Trump may be a lot of things, but he's not Hitler.

Of all the leaders we've had in the past 40, Mr Obama has come closest to the Fascist ideals so loved by The National Socialist German Workers Party.  Closest doesn't mean matched, but it's a trend I don't want to see continued.

Oh, another clue that Trump isn't Hitler, he's not a leftist.  Fascism and National Socialism were never right wing movements, they were only labeled so by Communists.  If you think of Hitler or Mussolini as right wing, congratulations, you're a victim of Commie propaganda!

Wait I Think I Got This One

"If pocket carry is bad why is appendix carry fine?"

I'm going out on a limb and say, "holster", otherwise appendix is better known as mexican.

And I don't even appendix carry, I'm simply too fat.

The Truth Is Revealed

Revealed Message to Garcia Guy Actually A Lazy Shiftless Turd

Lemme Jog Your Memory Here Barry

You had NOTHING to do with that?

I beg to differ, Mr President.

Destroyed Evidence

Donna Brazile says that WikiLeaks is lying about what was in those emails?

Perhaps if Hillary had not had them deleted you could prove WikiLeaks was making stuff up.

I know a forensics specialist and he says it's quite common for people to panic and destroy evidence that would exonerate them.

So, if WikiLinks is making this all up, then Hillary has done exactly that!

But...

If those emails proved WikiLeaks data dump was false, they'd have had zero reason to delete them in the first place, would they?

Voting Machine Integrity

I fired off a letter to my county election commissioner today.

He's been talking about how secure and unspoofable the electronic voting machines are.

I told him that doesn't mean there's no fraud, it just means that every vote recorded was actually cast by someone.

It doesn't mean someone didn't vote twice.

It doesn't mean that someone voted who shouldn't have.

I predict we're going to have more votes than voters, again.

Abortion

Roe v Wade was incorrectly decided.

There, I said it.

But it's almost the correct decision!

Pulling a right to an abortion out of some vague penumbra of a right to privacy attached to the 4th Amendment?

Bullshit.

Saying the Federal Government has been given no power whatsoever about abortions and its a state matter under the 10th amendment?  Correct.

Saying the 9th Amendment protects rights not mentioned already and that Texas' own constitution gives no power to regulate abortions?  Also correct.

Thus a right to an abortion because nobody actually empowered the governments to regulate them.

If you want to talk the talk of restoring constitutional government, you're going to hit walls like this where you're going to need to amend the thing before the government has the powers to do what you want them to do.

Also, considering how closely tied anti-abortion has become to Christianity, there's a strong 1st Amendment argument against the government having any authority here because that would be a State endorsement of one religion's view on the topic.

It's quite sobering to look at the Constitution and see exactly how little power it actually gives the Federal Government.  Then looking at the State Constitutions and seeing they have similarly small grants of power for the most part.

Then you look at the powers actually exercised...  Yes, Virginia, nearly everything Government does is illegitimate and illegal.  Including how the Supreme Court operates, look it up!

Bonus round:  Even if the States granted themselves massive new powers amending the state constitutions (Florida adds several amendments every year by voter referendum) everyone forgets what the 14th Amendment actually says.  The 14th was supposed to be a massive bitch slap to the states and imposing much of the limitations on Federal power to the states.  Slaughterhouse fucked that up...

Ground Hog Day

The new Westworld is trippy.

I think the player piano they use to show the 'bots have reset to the next act should be playing "I got you babe" though.

France?

My blog is popular in France?

Buh whuh?

Well, hello there, anyway!

I'd give a badly translated by Google greeting, but... well an American butchering French is SO clichéd!

A Gem From Arfcom Of All Places

Arfcom's signal to noise ratio is often bad, but sometimes you get some truly great rants from the inmates.

Dear REPUBLICAN PARTY, here is the reality of the situation.

YOU --- have left US --- about three decades ago. Now, YOU have created a situation where WE --- will finally all leave you.

Your treatment of the GOP nominee, DONALD TRUMP, has been appalling. WE --- are the ones who chose Mr. Trump, not YOU!

WE --- rejected all the other candidates that you threw at us.

If there is a PRESIDENT HILLARY CLINTON, then every consequence of that presidency will be on all of YOU!

We voted Republican to FIGHT the democrats, not to get along with them.

We DID NOT vote for the Republicans to "reach across the aisle" to the democrats.

Above all, we DID NOT vote for Republicans to just give the democrats everything that they want.

Here's the reality that will come because of your establishment, corrupt career politician actions. If you all do not come around and support Mr. Trump, then it will then be OUR turn to leave YOU!

You will lose over half of your base, over half of your membership, over half of your donors. The GOP as we know it will be rendered impotent. You will then be equal to the Libertarians, the Greens, and every other third party option out there.

You could then stop being REPUBLICANS IN NAME ONLY, and join the democrats as you all really wish to do anyway.

The future of the party is up to you.

The destruction of the GOP is up to you also.

I also remember the do-nothing that came from the Contract With America, so this little gem isn't surprising to me.

Amusing Myself

Hornady has announced a William B Ruger Commemorative Line of Ammunition.

I stand by my comment, "This ammo will be so polarizing you can use it for sunglasses."

Near Contemporaneous

These guns are not separated by so many years in design.  Both are lineal descendants and product improvements of another gun, the Browning from the Colt M1911 and the Luger from the Borchardt C.93.

The Luger is the pinnacle of the toggle-locked handgun.

The Browning is the beginning of the wonder-nines.  It's such an establishing pattern that someone familiar with a modern gun has no troubles at all with it.  In many ways modern polymer framed guns are simply High-Powers upgraded to modern materials.

The Luger... last of its kind.  Even with all of the machining that the Browning has, you can see how rationalized the design is for mass production on an assembly line.  The parts on the Luger aren't made for the high-rate production processes of the 1930's any more than the Browning is suited to today's production methods.  Just about the only thing on the Luger that's common today is it's striker firing rather than hammer fired.

Still it's a neat window into a world where the best way for a service pistol to function had not been shown, let alone decided.  There's a romance to these older guns.

Because Willard Was Worried

If we should happen to see an Allosaurus outside...

.270 Winchester is enough medicine.

Its 36 ST gives it 36 HP and it's thick hide is DR 2.

7d pi will be 7d(0.5) pi+ with the hollow-point ammo I've got laid in.

7d is 24 points of basic damage on average.

Against the body the DR is doubled to 4, allowing 20 to penetrate which expands to 30.  Not enough for a one shot stop.

But the vitals are located where any other bird's are.  The 20 that penetrate will blossom to 60 and that's enough to knock it out, and with a HT of 11, it's prolly going to get knocked unconscious from this.

Trying to nail its tiny brain is much more difficult, but it could lead to a single shot death roll with 72 points delivered.

Luger Pics

Got out the camera and got left alone with Willard's bucket list item.

It's a 1916 P.08 made by DWM, well... mostly.  It's a parts gun.  But all that really means it was "affordable" rather than unattainable.  The slide, toggle, bolt and barrel are from one gun.  The frame and most other parts are from another and the side plate from a third.

It was made for Die Deutsches Heer, and we can tell from the proof marks!

It's got a loaded chamber indicator!  Does this mean it's Massachusetts or California legal?

It field strips readily.

Plus a bit more to make cleaning easy.

A hundred years ago, wood was what you used for polymer.

The spare magazines have plastic base caps, and I have literally bought entire guns that were cheaper than a Luger magazine is!

This guy took one all the way apart, so I don't have to!



Even if he hadn't, this animation is excellent for showing how it works, even if it's not quite the same version.

In China, they're both Luger!  In Japan they're both Ruger!  Isn't that handy?  Bill wasn't trying to sow any confusion with how it looks at all, was he?  I think under modern laws Ruger would be in some sort of trade dress violation against Deutsches Waffen und Munitionfabrik.

No Disassemble!

I tell you...

You don't really understand how a gun works until you take it completely apart.

You also don't understand how much energy is stored in a spring until you launch one across the room.

You cannot fathom trust until a friend loans you a Luger so you can grok it.

T2K Timeline Change

Now that Twilight 2000 is an alternate history, I need to fill in the blank from when it was published and when its timeline picked up.

Here's the start:

1989The year the Cold War almost ended. Enough was apparently enough with the Soviet hardliners and Mikhail Gorbachev was found dead in his suite in East Berlin on October 6^th. Without the intervention of the Russian leader, Chairman Erich Honecker cracked down on dissidents in East Germany in a manner reminiscent of Tiananmen Square.
1990Under pressure from the new Soviet leadership, Hungary remilitarizes its border.
1991To the terror of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet leadership, US weapons and doctrine work exactly as advertised in the Liberation of Kuwait. A crash program of defense modernization begins, increasing internal strife and causing violent crackdowns. NATO, distracted with their victory, does little more than complain to the UN.
1992Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, considered to be more hawkish than Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, wins the Democrat presidential nomination and narrowly defeats President George Bush in the election. The realization among American voters that perhaps the Cold War was winding up, rather than down, sends an electoral message and an atmosphere allowing increased defense spending takes hold.
1993Despite a “no more Vietnams” message in his inaugural speech, President Kerrey approves a limited draft measure. There is much speculation that the new selective service act is, perhaps, racist in its selection; however domestic crime rates are down severely in the wake. Some noted sociologists suggest that the people drafted were exclusively from a strata that tended towards crime and gang affiliations, and were simply being given a new gang to associate with. “Gang in Green” becomes a popular, if unofficial, motto of the US Army. In reality the point structure turns out to be aimed at how much and how long the draftee's family had received financial assistance. While a seemingly disproportionate number of blacks and latinos were drafted, so were large numbers from Appalachia and the south.
West Germany records an unprecedented number of border crossing attempts from East Germany, with an attendant increase in deaths.
1994While the crash modernization of the Soviet armed forces was bearing some fruit, it was also hollowing out the USSR economically, forcing them to crack down ever harder on their citizens and subject nations. Clearly something was coming to a head, but what and where was the question.
1995Please turn to page 23 of your Twilight 2000 Referee's Manual.

I need more detail, historians please chime in and add suggestions!

Drive By Bayonetting

It was an early realization of mine of how far in the tank the entertainment industry was for the Democrats when what would be banned by the AWB was published.

I know you've heard the jokes about drive by bayonetting.

If the entertainment industry was neutral, someone would have filmed that skit, illustrating it for the pathetic bit of uselessness it was.

Yet...

No comedy show stepped up and made it, and there were oh-so-many sketch comedy shows on the TV in 1993.

If they won't satirize the absurdity of banning a bayonet lug...  and only on a semi-auto with a detachable magazine.

It makes you wonder why.  I think it's because if you start being critical of the bayonet lug, you start seeing what else is absurd about the law, like a shoulder-thing-that-goes-up barrel shroud.

Oh Wow

Ever been genuinely surprised you're alive the next day?

I dunno what I had, but it started yesterday with a few trips to the toilet then moved on to every single joint screaming in pain to a fever so stark I grabbed the winter comforter to snuggle under.

Then the weakness kicked in.  I couldn't move and was uncoordinated.  Good thing I was already in bed, huh?

The dreams were staggeringly impressive, and I don't remember a single one.

I woke up this morning sore, but the fever has obviously broken.

I don't remember ever getting this sick this fast before.  It was kind of scary.

It's also why I took the day off yesterday.

Increased Traffic

The number of hits my humble blog receives has quadrupled recently.

I don't run anything to tell where the hits come from, I just have the basic Blogger stats to go on.

I do want to say, thanks for stopping by!

Ranting And Raving

To everyone on both sides of the aisle:

The reason the stakes are so high this election is because we've got government in every facet and aspect of our lives.  It matters who's in control of the strings, because those strings are connected to everything we do.

We've got, essentially, a third party candidate running on the Republican ticket because a lot of people finally recognized that neither party is at all interested in cutting some of any those strings and leaving us alone.

Both parties have long forgotten that we're supposed to have a bottom-up government rather than a top-down one.

Not really that long ago the phrase, "don't make a federal case out of it," was an ironic joke.  Because the federal government was minuscule.  Strongly contained in its Constitutionally defined cage.

We have a press that's chosen sides.  How can you tell?  Just look at what they complain about when the wrong person is president and check to see if the right person still does those things.  Did the complaining stop?

I'm sick of watching the media proclaiming the Republicans are the most evil of all evil by doing X, then ignoring that Democrats do it too.  I am sick of the media dismissing outrage at a Democrat's behavior as if what they'd done was nothing while screaming to the rafters that the same behavior from a Republican is substantial and important.

I am sick of "they did it first" being a positive defense for one side and not the other.  It shouldn't be a defense at all!

If it's wrong for me, it's wrong for you too.

Each party wants different things, but they both need the government to be bigger and more intrusive to get them, so choosing R or D isn't really much of a choice.  Either way you get less control of your own life.

Both sides are lying through their teeth about just about everything too.  Well, except this time I think Trump is being honest.  I will not say if I think he's right or wrong but I don't think he's being dishonest.  That honesty is fucking scary, ain't it?  He's not mouthing the reassuring platitudes we've become accustomed to hearing, is he?

He's the very antithesis of "more of the same" and if the prospect of real change scares you, guess what?  You actually want more of the same.

Good news for you and bad news for people who're honestly supporting him.  The likelihood that he'll actually be able to affect any changes is about zero.  Because while he's effectively a third party candidate, Congress will still be run by the two main parties.  If you want to see how this works just look at what Gov. Ventura managed to leave as a legacy, and note he was a single term Governor.

I know I'm getting old, but I can remember when the FBI was famously apolitical.  They'd chase criminal politicians, regardless of party affiliation, wherever they found them.  I watched that change sharply from 1992 through 2000.  I also watched the Republicans do nothing to undo that change from 2000-2008.

The economy is often a trailing indicator of Government.  We act like the president has a magic fix-the-economy wand and is, for some reason, not using it.

The dirty little secret is the government can do very little actively to make an economy flourish.  Government is damned good, however, at throttling economy.

Innumerable taxes and regulations (literally impossible to count now rather than merely figuratively very difficult to count) choke businesses from every angle and only the very largest can endure the millions of gnat bites and afford some form of protection from it.

Laws, regulations and rules about every aspect of hiring, firing and paying someone move jobs outside our borders.

While we talk about illegal aliens entering the country and doing jobs that Americans won't we often forget they are also doing the jobs extralegally.  Their employer is skipping all of those laws, regulations and rules about hiring, firing and paying.  They're typically not paying bad wages to their illegal workers, but save so much by skipping the government overhead they can pay decent wages.

They don't hire Americans because an American can't risk not telling the IRS where they work or have their bank lock their account because they can't come up with a "legitimate" source for their income.

It's a bipartisan problem and it will take bipartisanship to fix.  The problem is neither party is particularly interested in fixing things for the people they're supposed to, by constitutional decree, be working for.

Yes, It Matters

There is a distinction between "talking with" and "talked to" in politics.

That distinction matters.

I am sick of being talked to.

Especially by people who have no interest whatsoever in where my interests lie.

It leads to desperation and making the least worst decision rather than making good decisions.

Oddities

I've noticed that I gravitate towards the oddities sometimes.

.38 Super instead of .45 ACP in my 1911.

.45 Colt instead of .44 Magnum in my Anaconda.

6.8 instead of 5.56 in some of my AR's.

.270 Winchester instead of .30-06 in my FUDD rifle.

Kinda makes me itch for a .327 Magnum now...

Interesting Coincidence

A .38 Super casing is an exact fit for the oversized selector hole in my M16A2 clone.

The ID is too narrow, but that's why we have drills!

The semi-rimmed nature of the round also provides a step to keep the bushing from falling into the action.

This is serendipity.

Pot Metal

When I got my AccuTrigger replacement trigger group I noticed that the trigger frame that came with the gun was slightly bowed.

So I tried to straighten it.

As you can see, the metal that it's made from isn't very malleable.  At least I didn't break my ONLY trigger frame or break any of the internal trigger parts.

COAL

Cartridge OverAll Length

Weer'd's comments here got me to check...

The rounds are well back from the mouth of the cylinder, let alone approaching interfering with the forcing cone.

Something I was able to find out was they never had their own headstamp, starline is the norm for BVAC.  This picture also got me noticing something else.  That bullet is cocked slightly in the brass.  That can't be good for accuracy!

The End Of Politics As We Now Know It

I've another modest proposal.

Pick a day, let's say sixth months before the election and that's when all the states have their primary.

Make it illegal, with severe punishments, to leak results before they are all tabulated.

Results day is a week after Primary day, at the convention!.

Then, come Election Day.

Same black-out on results and they aren't read until all the votes are in.  It's two months from the election to inauguration, there's plenty of time for a proper counting.

Why?

I am sick of two solid years of campaigning for the next election.  For fuck's sake we're starting to see positioning  for the 2020 election already.

Sealing the results until they are all in will also end the discouragement that many feel about the process.  How many voters in Hawaii don't bother because they've seen the Florida and New York results before their polls even open?

Holy Crap I Agree With Hillary

I too would like to see a borderless, single nation for all of The Americas.

Except I'd call it The United States.

I wouldn't like to see a balkanized mess like the EU without borders where there's many language and cultural differences between the member states.

There's nothing that precludes the USA from expanding peacefully into both continents except an unwillingness for the other nations of The Americas to become US of Americans.

Yet, they're perfectly willing to do the EU thing, because they've much to gain and we've much to lose.

We first have to admit that the US has a culture of its own.  Regardless of if it was assembled from spare parts of the cultures of everyone one who's ever immigrated here.

Next we have to decide that this culture is ours and worth defending and worth not diluting faster than it can assimilate new parts from other cultures.

To say, if you move here, you conform to OUR norms, respect OUR way of doing things, speak OUR language and if you can't, then go back where you came from.  Better yet, never leave there for here.

Stunningly, our norms, ways of doing things and language aren't really very hard.  Remember how we came by our culture?  It's adaptable, inviting and permissive.

But there's limits, please don't actively seek them.

We're still members of Western Civ, and that means there's a jackboot mode hidden in our genes.  Sure, we'll feel guilty afterwards, but that's AFTERWARDS.

Can You Count

Dear Hollywood,

The missing man formation is a four ship formation, not five.

Someone knows this out there, because you've gotten it right before.

Things To Do When You're Bored And A Geek

Go through the Midway ammo section and find all the pistol caliber shotshells; then run the conversion process from High Tech on them.

#4 Bird is 1d-4(0.5) pi- 20/300.
#9 Bird is 1d-5(0.5) pi- 10/100.
#12 Pest is 1d-5(0.2) pi- 10/100.

The only difference between calibers becomes the number of pellets.

You will be availing yourself of the blunt trauma rules because none of these will do damage based on actual dice.

Because these can kill small things in the real world, small critters must have a super fragile rule or something.  Taking away the default DR 1 for DR 0 would do it.  I guess you could get a DR -1 for [-5] points and that would remove the DR 1 against fractional armor divisors.

Ever Notice

Declaring that I am sexist because I am a man, is sexist.

Declaring that I am a racist because I am white, is racist.

Declaring that I am a homophobe because I am straight, is heterophobic.

Calling me paranoid because I own guns, then living in terror of my owning them, is paranoia.

The Coming Shit Storm

One thing I can say is that I did not vote for candidate Trump in the primary.

I didn't vote for anyone in the primary, despite being a registered Republican.

Why?

Because by the time the primaries roll down to Florida, it's already decided and nearly any candidate I'd want to vote for has been eliminated by the voters of 25 states, 2 territories and The District of Columbia.

I mean look at it.  How many candidates were there on February 1st when Iowa vote and how many were still actively running come March 15th when my chance came?

My favorite guy hasn't hung in there for past four primaries where there was some contention.  It'd be five, but I don't count 2004 because there really wasn't a primary to knock out Bush Jr.

I wanted someone besides Bush in 2000.
I wanted someone beside McCain in 2008.
I wanted someone besides Romney in 2012.
I want someone besides Trump in 2016.

I am absolutely terrified of third party candidates now.  In 1992 I voted for Perot with a lot of people.  That got us eight years of Clinton.  This year the Libertarian candidate doesn't even own a gun.  I am almost to the point of staying home unless the candidate has more guns than my wife.  I'll limp door to door stumping for the candidate who owns more guns than I do!

I definitely don't want any more years of Clinton!

Sigh...

I've felt disenfranchised for a long time.  My issues are really on both sides of the aisle.  I'm guaranteed to not get someone to vote for.

Is it criminal to say that the only reason you watch The State of the Union speech is because it's a joint session of Congress with the President and Supreme Court sitting in one place and you want to see it when a meteor slams into the place?

Pity about all the museums, maybe it will be a small meteor?