30 September 2019

Historic Prices

In 1974 what was the average price of a used Cessna 310?

There's gaps in what the internet will provide when making a period GURPS character.

Moderated

So far the only people who've dared to brave comment moderation have been upbeat and positive about the controversial topics.

It even sparked poor Beans to write several long and detailed comments and then proceed to expand on his thoughts at Chant du Dèpart.

Despite a ton of hits from people linking in from the opposition, not one comment from them.

I want to be clear that comments get deleted for being a jerk, not for the content.

I didn't want to delete that last comment before I changed over to moderation, there were some excellent points and good information in it.  But it was delivered in the most demeaning and insulting manner the author could summon; because they apparently doesn't regard anyone who disagrees with them as entirely human.  This commenter had previously been warned about their tone and language before when they being jerks over LGBT issues.  Three strikes is more than you get here.

A note to the opposition, if you find yourself in agreement with Bloomberg's paid shills, you might want to look a lot harder at your position on a matter.

Especially since the vile insults and demeaning language you're throwing around so casually is a clear sign that emotions, not reason, are running the show; just like the gun banning mommies.

Did You Get Your Checks?

While trying to track down exactly where the open carry at Target picture took place...

I discovered something VERY interesting.

Aesop and Miguel are in complete agreement with Mothers Demand Action with regards to open carry.

The pride they must feel!

I Need A New Computer

The screen shots from the upcoming MS Flight Simulator 2020 are very impressive.

The details about flying in DCS are very impressive.

The flight-sim monkey on my back is chattering.

The Options Are Endless

The fuel filler hose, that might be cracked and venting vapor, on The Precious appears to be a relatively simple 1" rubber hose.

Picture taken from RockAuto.


GM wants $100 for p/n 15814859.

$100 for a 1" fuel line which has the hose clamps captive?

Searching around it appears that 1" "rubber" fuel hose is not a common thing.

What I have found is a clear fuel line for fuel cell vents, but I am having trouble seeing why it can't be used to fill the tank.

What the clear inspires me to do; is to put LED's around it so the fuel filler neck hole glows!

Wouldn't that be cool?  Or, at least, ricer?

I went searching for the number printed on the side of the 15814859 part in RockAuto's picture, GM6289M A7 and found a 2013 engineering document describing permeablity standards and that GM6289M has been supplanted by GMW15349 in 2016.

This makes me wonder if the fuel filler shortage is because a new part number to the new permeability standard is on the way and the existing part number, while not discontinued, had already stopped production to make way for a new, unreleased, part number.

Send A Birthday Message To Jimmy Carter

The local news has a link to a place where you can send a message to Jimmah.

He's turning 95.

Would sending, "Just die already!" be something the Secret Service take as a threat?

I don't want to kill him.  I don't want anyone else to kill him.

I just want him to know that he's done enough and can let go so he can say "hello" to Robert Mugabe.

I really miss the days where ex-presidents disappeared when they left office.

Hate When That Happens

Started to cook the pork for pork and rice last night and the cooking smelled... off.

Not "gone bad" per se, but off.

I aborted and changed to chicken and all was well.

28 September 2019

Stabby Shotty

My old Remington 870 Express can now accept an M16 type bayonet!

It's been a dream for a good long time, finally realized.

Sadly, it doesn't count as a banned feature because it's a pump shotgun and because bayonet lugs were apparently safe on shotguns from 1994 to 2004 despite being extra deadly on rifles.

The kit is from S&J Hardware in Canada.



Getting the damn thing attached was a lot more work than it should have been.  The barrel side of the connector doesn't spread far enough to get over the Sage front sight.  That sight has been on the gun for close to 30 years and had taken something of a set.  Then, because of my heat shroud, everything has to be lined up at the same time before you start screwing the magazine extension back on.

Pretty fetching now, though, isn't it?


It's now totally unsuited for legal hunting because it holds too many rounds and it's not simple to just plop the old magazine cap back on.

Speaking of too many rounds!  It has the same 7+1 capacity with 2-3/4" rounds it had with the old Choate extension.  With 3" rounds capacity went up from 6+1 to 7+1.

Update:  Links!

The bayonet lug and magazine connector.
The magazine extension with spring, follower and sling mount. 
Cheaper, Remington, magazine extension with spring.

How I Became The Spokesman

All of this hullabaloo about open carry came about because I expressed doubt about how much harm people who were open carrying were doing to public opinion.

The reason I had my doubts was a lack of reporting outside of gun blogs.

One would think that if the level of harm was as high as it was expressed in such places, that it would be easy to point to journalism which the mundanes read and affected their opinions.

I noticed that several (many?) gun publications oppose open carry as a matter of editorial policy and that several gun bloggers were employees of these publications.

I began to notice that many trainers and instructors who were teaching that open carry was a poor tactical decision (and it really is) were shifting from, "this is why it's not a great idea," to, "you're a fucking moron if you do."  This change in tone doesn't appear to have an explanation.

But, what the trainers and instructors say tends to be repeated and their tone became the tone of the debate.

I changed from not caring much, one way or the other, when (despite promises to the contrary) after the amending of Florida Statute 790.053 in 2011 the practice of arresting conceal carriers who'd had some sort of wardrobe malfunction continued.

Attempts to get a definition for "to briefly and openly display" that did not depend on the arresting officer's opinion have met with fierce opposition from Florida's law enforcement organizations.  Many of Florida's jurisdictions hate that there's licensed conceal carry, let alone that such a person could be allowed to accidentally expose that they were carrying.

Hardly any of the people arrested for wardrobe malfunction have ended up in jail, but here the process is the punishment.  Money spent, time lost and property not returned.

The reasonable attempt to get law enforcement to enforce the law as intended by the legislature rather than their biased opinions on the matter failed.

"Fine," I said, "you don't want to be reasonable about this; then I want open carry so you lose all discretion on the matter."

What I wasn't expecting was the bile spewed at me from what I'd thought was my own side.

I have been insulted and ridiculed.

It certainly didn't change my mind on the matter.

Personhood

A person has rights.

People have rights.

So, to strip someone of their rights, what must you do?

Take away their personage.

This is called othering.

The first step in making someone the other is to demean them.

Call them names rather than to discuss the merits of your differences.

Insult rather than debate.

It's the lowest of the moral low grounds.

27 September 2019

San Check

Grab an impartial person and ask them to read both sides:

Get this quote in reply, "I'm right because I'm right, and anybody who disagrees with me is therefore defective.  QED," about the other side.

I feel much better about how I phrased my side.

Yelling At The Wrong People

The open carry condemnation thing brings up another thing the pro-gun side does really poorly.

We're always angry with the wrong people.

"What about how the mundanes will react to this?  We must condemn and stop open carry because they might react badly!"

Is the problem the person who is carrying openly or the mundane who is frightened by something unfamiliar to them?

Whom should we be trying to educate?

People who condemn open carry must be terribly afraid of the mundanes because they go to great lengths to never expose them to anything which might scare them.

"Don't make noise, the herd will stampede!"

Hidden in this fear is the notion that the majority can rightfully take away our civil rights, so don't scare them!

But being armed IS a civil right.

Condemning open carry is akin to saying you can worship any God you like as long as you do it as a Presbyterian.  You can say anything you want, as long as you say this (or never say that).

I know that analogy just doesn't work for the condemners, so that was lost on them.

It's OK to be gay, as long as you keep it a secret; because people being openly gay freaks out the mundanes!

How did homosexuals get from freaking the mundanes to common acceptance today?

How did black people go from being murdered for the accusation of being attracted to a white woman to being able to openly date and marry them?

It wasn't by laying low and hoping it would pass.

There's about 13 million people we cannot ask if laying low and hoping it will pass is a good strategy (and now I've gone Godwin).

The key to securing civil rights is to freak the mundanes and show them that nobody even got hurt, let alone died, when those civil rights are exercised and respected.

Respect!  That's what's missing from the open carry condemnation side.

If the mundanes are not freaked, there's nothing for them to be educated about.  They don't have to learn about it or how to deal with it.

The derisively named Florida Carry Fashion Show has shown me one thing which is lost on the condemners...  Hardly a single person who's not participating even notices.  If they do notice, they don't care.

The mundanes are not freaked.

But I was promised they were a skittish herd terrified of the mention of a gun and would vote Nancy Pelosi to save them from the evol gunnies!

Or maybe it's just prejudice.

Since the condemners are fond of calling people names, I have a title for them: Sonderkondemmer.

First Rule Of Successful Debate

1: Always and without fail insult and belittle your opponent.

This shows your absolute authority and solid position of your argument and causes the audience to fall into an adoring thrall to your every word.

Or...

It entrenches the person making the opposing argument and turns people away from you.

Slow Clap.

But, thanks! for making it easier for me to make my case by appearing to be the calm, rational voice.

WOW.

LIberty IS Scary

Expressing, even a little bit, that there's nothing inherently wrong with open carry is yanking hard on a trip wire.

The people who don't like open carry, and think that nobody should, come out of the woodwork to condemn the very idea.

They insult anyone who does it.

They linkspam without checking to see if their links actually support their position.

They link to people who linkspammed.

A lot of them claim to support the right, but not the act.  Then proceed to condemn the act.

If you condemn the act you are condemning the right.  It's one thing to say that someone has a right to do something, but that you will not be doing it yourself.  It's quite another to say that someone has a right to do something; and they are morons for doing it.

One way supports the right.  The other doesn't through condemning the act.

I've tread this path before over helmet laws.

When I rode, I always wore a helmet.  I think it's an important, and essential piece of safety equipment and tried my darnedest to get others to wear one too.

But I never wanted to see the wearing of one mandated by law.

We'd go to "Let those who ride decide" rallies and be mobbed by the local press who were expecting us to condemn going bare pate and demand helmet laws.

We would always say that it's a decision that a person has a right to make and they need to make for themselves.

Right or wrong, it's up to them.

That's the thing about liberty and freedom.  You're free to fuck up, even if it kills you.  Yes, that's scary.  But don't put your fears onto others at, literal, gunpoint.  Another thing about liberty is when someone has the right to fuck up, you have to let them.

If there are consequences, then they will bear them.

But notice the difference in the advocacy?

We wore helmets to the rally.  We vocally, and publicly, stated that it was their right to go without helmets and they they had to make their own decision.

We did not show up and say, "while these morons can decide for themselves what they're going to do; WE'RE wearing helmets; like all intelligent people should!"

One way supports the right while not exercising it; the other condemns the act and the right.

If you're going to be an advocate FOR freedom and liberty you're going to have to learn this lesson; and live it.

Brace For President Cheese Sandwich

Judging by the amount of money that was donated of the past couple of days to the Republicans:

If Nancy and AOC manage to impeach and the Senate convicts...

The Republicans can run a cheese sandwich for president and enjoy a supermajority at least until 2022.

The joke will also be on them because there's not near the NeverPence momentum to get him impeached and convicted too.  At least not enough to get the job done before the election.  So no President Pelosi, sorry Nancy.

26 September 2019

Living Rent Free

There's times when I get a burr up under my saddle and I just CANNOT change the subject until I've said all I have to say.

Often I'm reminded by others that there's still some more in there that needs to come out.

Once it IS out, I'm all better and can resume what passes for civil discourse with me.

While I'm working through things with the muse and her water Tabasco boarding; I provide rent free space in my head for those who keep reminding the muse that I had more bile to vent.

You're welcome?  I guess?

Smile You're On Candid (Body) Camera

Because commenting at Miguel's fails at random from something on my end...

I'll turn my comment to this post into a whole post here.

Prolly better here, because it's a bit tangential to him.

Where I live has body cameras on the deputies.

Our sheriff was one of the first to adopt them in Florida.

The deputies grumbled and put up mild resistance to them, at first.

What happened was complaints against deputies fell through the floor.

Did Deputy Dog really call you a racial slur?  What's the camera say?

Did Deputy Dog really hit you and cause that cut in your forehead?  My, Deputy Dog sure looks like a wall on the footage and he appears to be well outside arm's reach...

Did Deputy Dog plant those drugs in your pocket?  His empty hand go in, drugs come out...  His name is "Dog" not Penn or Teller; so...

The deputies have also found that the cameras are providing them evidence that's improving conviction rates.

Pro-tip: Don't commit a crime in front of a cop.  Doubly so if they have the means to record you committing the crime.

The Argument Against

It boils down to "criminals will do criminal stuff to you if..."

29 examples of where having a gun openly carried elicited a criminal to break the law.

I also expect that, like many mainstream media listings of sources, we weren't supposed to actually click on every link and read the article.

First thing that jumps out is several of these articles are run in magazines which are opposed to open-carry as a matter of editorial policy.  Confirmation bias is in play.  Some of the examples support their position, others do not.

In the same order as the link above:

December 26, 2017: Gun got stolen of OC'er's hip.  Lecture on how to better open carry.

October 8, 2014: Gun stolen at gun point from OC'er.

February 2, 2016: Gun stolen after being assaulted.

February 28, 2015: Gun stolen for failing at conceal carry, not actually trying to open carry. 

April 20, 2015: Gun stolen after it falls out of holster during assault BUT no mention of open carry or that the person was targeted for it.

April 19, 2012: Failed attempt to steal openly carried gun.

October 3, 2018: No mention of open carry, but implied.  Apparently the "pistol" in question was a cap and ball revolver.

October 17, 2016: Shot with own gun.  Conceal fail, not open carry attempt.

August 4, 2017: Conceal fail not open carry attempt.

April 20, 2017: While they say the victim was an open carrier, no connection is made between the shooter and the open carrying.  Especially odd since the victim was driving their car at the time of the assault, so even an openly carried gun would not be visible unless the victim was brandishing (and that would change them from being the victim wouldn't it?).

This link kills my browser.

June 29, 2016: Conceal fail not open carry attempt.

April 5, 2016: Open carrier assaulted for assisting someone else who'd just been assaulted by the assailant.  Assailant deaded by open carrier.  Open carry not a factor in the assault.

December 3, 2011: Open carrier targeted for gun and killed.

Repeat of the June 29, 2016 link.  Different, unrelated, headline.  copy-paste error

December 22, 2017: Gun stolen from open carrier.

August 17, 2015: Conceal fail, not open carry attempt.  There's even video showing no open carry.

October 7, 2014: OC'er robbed of gun at gunpoint.

October 17, 2016: Investigating a noise with your long arm isn't open carry!  This is more of a "ranged weapon, you're doing it wrong" than anything else.

December 3, 2018: THIS HAPPENED IN MEXICO!  Bar owner was CONCEALED carrying and lost his gun after drawing it from under his shirt.

December 19, 2018: OC'er gets handgun taken from a holster, but then uses long gun, also openly carried, to subdue the thief.

December 10, 2018: No mention of the victim being armed or not.

404 link

January 3, 2019: Gun stolen off the CORPSE of a motorcycle accident!  This is really what you're using to condemn open carry?

January 7, 2019: We are only told that the victim was shot and killed with his own gun.  Not a clear cut case of open carry.

February 18, 2019: Targeted for openly carrying... watch the vid.  HEADDESK on the carrier's response after he was assaulted.

March 6, 2019: Gun stolen from holster.

April 20, 2015: Not clear if the victim was targeted for open carry or if the assailant was simply nuts.

April 13, 2019: JAMAICA conceal fail not an attempt to open carry..

Green for supporting the idea that OCW is a bad plan.  Red where it doesn't.  Black where ambiguous.

Out of 27 examples with good links...  9 support the author's claim.  That means that 2/3 of the examples they chose do not.

Also, 27 examples over 8 years is not a lot of examples.  This is statistical noise.

I'm not going through the assaults on police.  People who attack the cops are in a different category of criminal.

You're Lying

While you claim that you support the right, but not the practice; you actively fight having that right restored.

That means you don't support the right.

That makes you a liar.

That also means I can discount anything you say from now on.

I'm going to try to explain it AGAIN.

The cops and government in much Florida have decided that "accidental and brief" exposure of a concealed weapon is the same as open carry.

Since you like links:  Here's one.

Showered in glory is the Citrus County Sheriff's Department.

Get this shit to stop and the problem will go away, I think.

I was going to look for other instances, but ONE is enough when our rights are violated.

Update at 1501:

Florida Carry says that there's about one instance of the police arresting a conceal carrier for brief, accidental exposure per month for the past 8 years since the law was changed to allow, "[someone] who is lawfully carrying a firearm in a concealed manner, to briefly and openly display the firearm to the ordinary sight of another person, unless the firearm is intentionally displayed in an angry or threatening manner, not in necessary self-defense." 

Good News Bad News

Bad News: Comment moderation is now turned on.

Good News: Anyone can comment now!  I only ask if you're anonymous that you sign your post at the bottom with some sort of name like "--Angus McThag"

Totally Stolen

Yanked from the comments at Old NFO's Facebook!

25 September 2019

Almost From The Very Beginning

My very first GURPS character!


Mr Wilson is from the Car Wars universe and this sheet is dated December 26, 1986.

FuzzyGeff is to blame with his purchase of Man to Man and then GURPS 1e.  Then GURPS: Autoduel, which was the sourcebook for Car Wars for GURPS.

Not shown is my trike design, but it's priced on the sheet.

A Right Denied

Because of a right delayed.

NICS was apparently down today.

One FFL said it was down nationally.

It has resulted in Willard needing to drive all the way down to St Pete tomorrow to pick up a gun he paid for today.

This is the special Hell that universal background checks want for us all.

Be Polite

I'm getting sick of deleting comments because the commenter can't understand they're a guest here and be polite about it.

Especially since, mixed in the vitriol, is some excellent information.

The Funny Thing Is

I don't even really want to open carry.

What I want is a more comfortable option to carry, and that hazards brief exposure.

Outside the waistband under a bowling or Hawaiian shirt, for example.

The wind gets a vote.

Under the laws as written, if I notice in time, that might be "brief exposure" and I'd be OK.

The problem with the law as written is the legislature never defined what they meant by brief exposure and left it up to the local constabulary to decide.

Many have made it a matter of policy that any exposure is open carry.

That it was going to be this way was clear during the committee hearings and the statements of the Law Enforcement Officer organizations.

From their repeated statements, it was obvious that the only way for a person whom honestly lost track of their cover garment for a moment to be treated as the brief exposure law intended was for the law to actually allow open carry.  In Florida that would mean licensed open carry.

The skirmishes with the state congress creatures and the state's law enforcement organizations ended up making me more radical than I originally intended and my goal became getting unlicensed, unrestricted open carry of anything the carrier can lug just to piss off the police organizations who've been preventing my previous, reasonable, goal.

That it would also anger "don't rock the boat, my cats will fall out" Marion Hammer... bonus round!

Acting Like I Have Class

I have joined the class action suit against FDLE over being charged for background checks despite my CCW.

Link to join if you're affected and so inclined.

Dunno if anything will come of it, but it's something that Florida Carry generally gets right.

They go to court and win and they fish.

That's much better for me than anything I've seen GOA do.

The NRA, while they piss me off so very much, their job is to suck up attention so other groups can work.

I don't think SAF would have won near so biggly if the press wasn't laser focused on the NRA instead of the group actually litigating.

24 September 2019

Which Is Scarier?

This:


Or this:


If you're scared by the first picture and not the second, I don't think you're paying attention.

If you're worried that the person in the first picture is going to cost you your rights because that's scaring people; stop yelling at your fellow gun owners and start convincing the mundanes that the second picture is a lot more scary.

Because the people in the second picture will sure as shit take away all of your rights as soon as they are ordered to do so.  How do I know that?  Because the cops enforce unconstitutional laws every day.  Because the police have obeyed those illegal orders every single time they've been issued.

History shows it time and time again.

That's the real problem.

People (the mundanes) don't understand that we own the government and not the other way around.

People (the mundanes) don't grasp that because of that ownership we cannot delegate a power to the government that we do not personally, and individually, possess.

Where does the power for the police to openly carry come from?

Where did the authority to bar you from carrying a gun come from?

The mundanes have become inured to seeing not just openly armed police, but militarily armed police.

The government and police, in the process of exceeding their mandates and authority have, repeatedly, demanded to be the only-ones allowed to be openly armed.  They have been so successful that the common person, with no knowledge of firearms and little awareness of politics, is terrified that someone without a badge be seen with a gun.

They have been so successful that even pro-gun people will step up to demand that monopoly remain intact!

Sadly, there's no way to get someone used to seeing a gun without them seeing a gun.

The panicky herd creatures that the common people are need to call 911 and be asked, "what are they doing with that gun?" and if the answer is "just carrying it" then the caller needs lectured.

26 states are doing just that.  By the way, that's up from 11 in 2009.
6 states allow some local restriction on open carry, down from 13 in 2009.
13 states allow open carry with a permit, down from 19 in 2009.
4 states plus DC outright forbid open carry, down from 7 plus DC in 2009.
California is so muddled that you cannot tell if open carry is allowed or not.

In 2009 43 states had some form of open carry.
Today there are 45 states allowing some kind of open carry, but the percentage of them being unrestricted is much higher.  Only California became more restrictive.

Open carry is spreading, not contracting.

UPDATE:

To everyone linking in from Racontuer Report:  Aesop doesn't mention that he's been deleted from commenting here before for being a dick about things.  He's cleaned up his language in his "recreation" of his comment here that got deleted.

Which was sad because there was a lot good in that comment, but he'd been warned before.

So far the people who're spending the most time being pissed off at open carry are mainly just being dicks and throwing insults and attempting to belittle anyone who disagrees with them.

Ridicule, as I've said before, only works when the recipient of the insult cares if the insulting party likes them.  I've also said before that I don't tolerate bullies, which he is.

Anal Oh Gee

The problem with using analogy to express your point is the person you're expressing it to must first understand what an analogy is and they must accept your premise as a given.

The second failure is far more common.

They don't accept your premise and insert their own givens in the form of their own analogy.

To put it mildly, it's a refusal to listen to the point being made; especially when they cannot let go of their new analogy to see the point you were attempting to illustrate with your own analogy.

Something that must be understood about analogy is that none are perfect.  They cannot be, almost by their very nature.

They are to illustrate the point.

Taking that illustration and inserting consequences which have not occurred, but could, is missing the point.

The gun rights community often uses analogies from The Civil Rights era to make our points, because gun ownership is, after all, a civil right.

Open carry protests have been compared to Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat.

I'd like to delve into that.

First.  Rosa Parks broke the law in place at the time.  She was arrested.  The immediate response of the Black Community was not destruction of property on Montgomery's buses, but a refusal to use them; for 381 days!

There's two competing analogies in the pro-gun community.

The first is that the open carry protesters are the moral equivalent to Rosa Parks and the, admittedly silly, act of carrying rifles openly (and legally) is the equivalent to refusing to, unjustly, give up their seat.  The idea being this will lead to a Browder v Gayle type ruling supporting gun rights.

The point this analogy is attempting to illustrate is we just barely have the right to "be on the bus" by owning guns at all and being forbidden to "sit where we want" is an infringement on our rights through the numerous prohibitions on what we can carry and where we can carry it.

The second is that some, as yet unnamed, person has already performed the Rosa Parks role and that open carry protests are the equivalent of The Black Community destroying property in the wake of Browder v Gayle.

In the second case I want to know who Rosa Parks is and what is the equivalent ruling to Browder v Gayle.  Without those equivalences it's not an analogy at all.

The point this second analogy is attempting to make is that we've long since won the right to sit wherever we want on the bus in the form of being allowed to own firearms and be licensed to conceal carry most places and that open carry protests are endangering this right.

This might be a better point if it ever came from someone who had not long condemned the idea of open carry.

It'd be a solid point if it had actually prevented open carry from passing or gotten open carry banned.

The two repeated examples of open carry activism which "harmed" the gun rights community are Open Carry Texas and Florida Carry's Miami event.

Open Carry Texas did not manage to derail open carry being passed in Texas, and they were not mentioned in Austin during the debates.

Florida Carry's event has not been reported outside the local news except by pro-gun sites fretting that they cost us the war.  Neither has reported that the over-the-top carry event was a response to the Miami police illegally detaining people at gun-point at the previous, and much more subdued, Miami fishing event.

If you're trying to draw a causal link between open carry protest and further restrictions on our rights, you have to show X caused Y.  It's a relationship that, so far, does not exist.

But while we advocate for the status quo and don't raise our voices to keep the mundanes from becoming frightened....

The status quo, in Florida, includes black letter law that lets an individual law enforcement officer make the decision about if the exposure of firearm carried by a permit holder is illegal open carry or legal brief exposure.

This status quo includes an unreasonable deference to the opinions of the aforementioned cop, so there's no such thing as legal brief exposure in any jurisdiction which has traditionally been opposed to the very idea of citizens being armed.  Broward and Miami-Dade in particular.

When something is illegal it should be because the law says, not the cop thinks.

23 September 2019

Three More Years!

Got my C&R renewal back today.

I don't do much with it, but it's sure handy when I do.

It's kind of sad that the surplus finally dried up.

Private sellers and gun shops are slowly coming around to recognizing that it's OK to ship to Crufflers, and that's excellent news.

Also excellent news is any gun made in 1969 or earlier is C&R eligible.

That's a whole lotta AR-15 SP-1's!

Relief On The Horizon

Starting today there will be more night than day for the next six months.

That means the AC will actually shut off from time to time.

That means not losing five pounds to sweat for daring to enter the garage.

I've got some stocks to checker and it will be cool enough to get them done!

22 September 2019

All Signs Point To

The gas smell has been missing since I started drawing fuel from the driver's side tank.

I got gas this afternoon and I can't detect any fresh smell.

It occurred to me that if I'd overfilled it, then the driver's side tank would stay overfilled until the passenger tank was completely drained and the system started drawing from the driver's tank.

I am cautiously optimistic at this point.

Especially since the car took gas normally; unlike last time with the twisted filler neck.

Fuck Their Feelings

We make no headway on getting MG's dragged back to 1985 standards because...

We make no headway on getting a holstered pistol openly carried because...

We make no headway on CCW reciprocity because...

We make no headway on campus carry because...

Supposedly pro-gun advocates keep demanding the status quo and providing cover to the anti-gun people who share their goals.

I'm fed up with it.

You don't fight, just condemn the efforts of others.

At least they're trying to do something besides sit there and bitch someone else isn't doing it to THEIR liking.

I'm still waiting for the roadmap that doesn't offend anyone that leads to an actual expansion of my rights and liberties.

I refuse the status quo and any further contraction of my liberties.

I don't care about your feels on the matter, so unless you're going to provide a manner in which rights are expanded everyone is better off if you shut up.

You're not helping our side, you're granting succor to the enemy.

Congratulations.

Go On Suck That Cock

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Samuel Adams 

I am officially fed up with the debate.  We're well past the cannot understand and deep into refusing to listen territory.

The only people whom I seem to have any disagreement with are those who're supposed to be on my side.

The fact is they are advocating for the status quo and are quite happy with it.

May your chains set lightly...

21 September 2019

Analogy

Colt is going to stop selling AR-15's to the general public.

This simply conforms to the public not buying them.

It's a reaction to the market.

12 years ago Colt quality was difficult to approach for less money.  Now?  Quality is up across the board and surpasses Colt at a lower price point.

Worse for Colt is there are several innovations they don't embrace which customers have.

This sort of market shifting has happened before and the analogy is Oldsmobile.

When Olds left the market, you were essentially buying a differently styled Chevrolet for 30-40% more money.  How important was that label on the hood to you again?

Mercury, likewise, was an overpriced Ford.

Another part of the analogy that fits; the buyers of the product didn't stop buying them.  They simply bought from a brand that was still for sale.

Lost

If your right to do something hinges on the capricious and mercurial opinion of a soccermom®, you have already lost.

You are done.

Pack it in.

There is no more shining example of why giving women the vote was a mistake than the soccermom®.

Which is sad because, except for them, giving women the vote was the right thing to do.

But granting the right to vote to any disenfranchised portion of society hinges on them behaving like people and in a thoughtful and rational manner.

Soccermoms® are irrational troops of baboons and cannot encompass thought past their emotional response to any situation.

PS:
There's a distinction between a mother who takes their child to soccer practice and a soccermom®.

19 September 2019

Mystery Holster

While at the local pawn shop ogling an all original 1944 Remington-Rand M1911A1; Willard laid eyes on an old leather holster.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"A gun!" I, helpfully, suggested.

"We don't know." the Pawn Mistress said.

But for $10 how far wrong can he go?  So he purchased it; hoping it would fit his .30 Carbine Blackhawk.

It's a Hunter Holsters 1100P-22.

They no longer list the #22 size.

Through the magic power of Bing, after Duck-Duck-Go failed, I was able to determine that it's for a Colt Woodsman.

The near identical Colt Challenger fits right in there!


The threads in the seam had failed, so I sewed them back up.  Before the repair, it didn't seem like it was the correct fit.

I Am The Captain Here!

Shan iyo toban Ruux oo saaran nin dhintay xabadka. Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
Cab iyo shaydaan ayaa sameeyay intii hartay
Yo ho ho iyo dhalo rum.
lammaanaha waxaa hagaajiyay mashiinka bosun
Bosun wuxuu ku faashaday marlinspike
Oo hunguriga hunguriga ayaa loo calaamadiyey inuu caaro
Waxaa lagu qabtay faraha toban;
Oo halkaasay jiifsadeen, raggii wanaagsanaa oo dhammuna way wada dhinteen
Sida jabsiga maalinle ee booli-boobe, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!

Shan iyo toban nin oo liiska lixda markab oo dhami, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!
Dhinteen oo la xukumay inta soo hartayna ay liqeen!
Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
Kabtanka ayaa seexday isagoo duleelkiisa gashaday
Halkaas oo fajashku uu dhabanka ka soo baxay
Hadana afartii jeer ayaa la garaacay
Oo halkaasay jiifsadeen, iyo cirwareenno cirro leh
Hoos udhac indhaha kor u kaca
Qorrax dhaca iyo qorrax dhaca, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah

Shan iyo toban nin oo ad-adag oo qalloocan, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!
Toban ka mid ah shaqaalaha markabka ayaa leh sumadda dilka! Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
T Faashad muruq galaas ama waqiyam ah macdanta "lead"
Ama dalool yaashiinka ku jirta madaxa dillaacsan
Iyo xujayda 'kuxiran casaan guduudan
Oo iyana halkaasay jiifsadeen, bal eeg, indhahayga way dayaan
Jannada fiiri
Dhammaan nafta waxay ku xidhan yihiin caqli-gal, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!

Shan iyo toban nin oo wanaagsan oo run ah, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!
Ev'ry nin jaakada ayaa ku rari kara Old Pew,
Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
Waxaa xabadka ka yaal xabadka dahabka Isbaanishka
Iyada oo tan oo saxan ah ay ku jirto dhexda
Iyo xadhkaha waaweyn oo aan la tirin karin,
Oo waxaa la jiifsaday halkaas kuwa tuubada qaatay
Iyada oo dhalaalaysa aragooda iyo bushimahooda ayaa carrab la '
Intii aan wada wadaagi jirnay sharciga suulka,
Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!

Inbadan ayaa lagu arkay shaashadda sternlight ...
Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
Shuruucda shaki kuma jiro meeshii ay haweenay joogi lahayd
Yo ho ho iyo dhalo rum
Wuxuu ku beddelay sariirti jiifa
Iyada oo la adeegsaday dirk slit shaashadda iyada oo laabta booska
Oo xadhiggu wuu qallalan yahay isagoo dheecaan leh
Oh waxay ahayd wench ama gabar shudderin ah
Taasi waxay ku adkaysatay mindida waxayna qaadatay gubashada
Eebbe! Waxay haysatay alaab loogu talo galay caws jare ah, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah.

Shan iyo toban nin oo saaran xabadka nin dhintay, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!
Cab iyo shaydaan ayaa sameeyay intii hartay
Ho ho ho iyo dhalo rumay!
Waxaan ku wada duudduubnay 'dhammaanteen si isku xirnaan' ah
Iyada oo laba jeer toban laab la wareegid ah hawlwadeenka
Oo waxaan maqalnay 'aragtida' iyo aragtida
Iyada oo leh Yo-culus-Ho! iyo nolol wanaagsan
Iyo si kadis ah oo qalqal leh oo qalloocan
Toban xabo oo qoto dheer ayaa ku socota wadada cadaabta, Yo ho ho iyo dhalo caano ah!

Atari F-14B

If you own the DCS F-14B module and are bored in the RIO pit...

Go down to computer address panel's keyboard and punch in:

2 - 3 - 1 - 4 - 1 - 5 - 9 - 2 - 7 - ENTER

You can now play Asteroids on the tactical information display.

Brutal Honesty

I made up myself as a character from Technomancer.

Because Technomancer is a Weird Parallel things tend to happen there as they do here; so my life wouldn't be that different despite a myriad of changes to the world and me.

For fun I decided to make myself a Coyote Chimera.  FuzzyGeff often styles himself a Fox Chimera.

I hit a couple of roadblocks making Me.

First, with magical healing readily available, I would not have been crippled by my fall from the tank.

Without that injury, I would have been able to remain a lot more active.

Even with magic, there's no cure for what ails The Boy, so he ends up being a significant [-60] dependent.

Magic should have kept me from wearing glasses.  You only get one chance with the Restoration spell per disability...

But the part about being honest:

I have an OKC 3S bayonet.

I do not have the knife skill or the spear skill.  I'm running the bayonet, both mounted and unmounted, off the default from DX.

Moxie

Bought one of the in-law's cars.

With the Mother In Law laid up they don't need two cars.

The Lovely Harvey drove it back down from the last trip to help them decipher medical billing and coding.

Getting it registered has been a pain in the ass.

I tried on Tuesday.

Do you have insurance?

Yes I do!

For this car?

I can't get insurance for a car I don't actually own.  See Florida law?

I can't transfer the title until the car is insured.

(Call my insurance company; they say, "you're covered for 90 days on any new vehicle")

I try to tell the apparatchik this.

She says nothing she can do.

Call insurance company again, explain...  They write me a policy effective midnight Wednesday morning.

So I got it done today.

I also switched my vanity tag from The Biscayne to The Precious.  Exciting stuff, that.

Sigh

School Guardian pawns gun and body armor.

Yet another reason to end the gun free school zone and change the onus of responsibility to those assigned to defend the places.

This is the person we're counting on to shoot back at the bad guy.

Without a weapon because he pawned it.

That's some serious vetting of the candidates they got going on there.

18 September 2019

Testudo Gen 2

Waiting impatiently for it to arrive.

The plate carrier is 3 lb 6.5 oz.

Level III 10x12 plates 8 lb. each.

Triple mag pouch for six AR magazines 0.4 lb.

Double mag pouch for two pistol magazines 0.5 lb.

IFAK 1.5 lb.

Camelbak® ChuteMag 1l canteen and carrier 1 lb. 5.9 oz.

OKC 3S bayonet and scabbard 1 lb. 4.9 oz.

M12 Holster 0.5 lb.

Grand total of 23 lb.

Add six loaded PMAG Gen M3 magazines 1.1 lb. each.

Add two loaded M&P 9 magazines 0.7 lb. each.

Add a loaded M&P 9 2.2 lb.

Add a liter of water 2.2 lb.

35.4 lb. of hurricane looter prep!

This is up a bit from the 19.5 lb of the 5.11 Tactical Purse Bailout Bag and the same gear.

What the purse bailout bag lacks is 42 points of semi-ablative, non-healing DR for the chest and vitals (front and back only).  In fact, nearly the entire increase in mass is from the plates.

I should also add two 5.9 oz. each trauma pads to this ensemble as well, they don't seem to have a GURPS effect.  This brings the all-up weight to 36.1 lb.

This should be compared to the PASGT/ALICE system:

29 lb. with DR 5/2* over the chest, abdomen and vitals; plus you get a folding entrenching tool!

M1956/67 gear and M69 flak vest totals up to 29.6 lb. with an addition of an entrenching tool for DR 4/2* over the chest, abdomen and vitals.

This kit in Technomancer probably wouldn't get the 1,000 energy and $375,000 spent to make the plates half the mass; but 200 energy and $3,000 to drop the plates to 6 lb. each might be worth it...  Probably no.

Oh Never Mind

What I want to say will not be read by anyone who will read it and understand.

The people who do read it have already made up their minds and my disagreeing with them serves no purpose.

Their minds were made up before there was any real controversy and we're in the "See?  I was right!" portion of justification.

17 September 2019

Enjoying Your Strike UAW?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sources-gm-offers-2-raises-in-uaw-contract-ends-health-care/ar-AAHqRV8

Having just taking apart the fruits of your labors and noting how much of it is VERY easy to assemble even if it's a bear to get back apart...

Cars are definitely designed to be clicked together by someone with little to no upper body strength and little more than positive body temperature differential vs ambient.

What that means is $10 an hour will get the job done from any mouth-breathing high-school graduate.

I've seen the tooling at several plants too.  Many of the fixtures are robots with a handle and deadman switch that a "highly skilled" union employee hangs onto while the program runs.  A strip of tape can do that job.

It wasn't always this way.  My dad used to work at Electromotive in the '70's and the skilled labor then was actually skilled and necessary to build those herking big engines.

But I love how the union guy cites the bankruptcy and how things haven't gotten back to the way they were...

No shit Sherlock!

Ain't ever going to be either.

The market changed and you guys are the last ones who can't accept it.

So, enjoy your $250 a week and COBRA coverage.

Maybe GM will hire some engineers who understand the words "tool clearance" and "make wear items accessible," with the money they're saving during the strike.

Armor

Come November, if I'm lucky, I will have a coyote tan AR500 Tetsudo.

I will not have any ammo pouches.

I wanna carry 6x 30 round AR and 2x pistol pouches for it.

Who makes a good set?

Dry Heat My Ass

87˚ in the bright ass sun is still fookin' hot, even if we're getting a break from our normal humidity.

'Tis nice to be driving The Precious with the top off again, though!

The Boy agrees.  He's king shit riding shotgun.

Thank You President Trump

I need to find a fracker to hug too.

Prior to the Trump administration, an attack on Saudi production which caused this level of disruption would have spiked gasoline prices at the local pumps the very instant it hit the news.

Thanks to our near self sufficiency in oil production, the price at the local station went down three cents from Friday.

Consistent But Intermittent

I've noticed that whenever the US Supreme Court rules on the 2nd Amendment, it rules in our favor.

I've also noticed that they will move Heaven and Earth to avoid making those rulings.

Thanks to gun blogs and Teh Intarwebtubes most of us pro-gun people are gaining the ability to read these rulings in their original Legalese.

Which brings me to the "anti-gun"  Miller vs US ruling.

We should be hammering Miller.

I know we've been avoiding it because it doesn't say what we want about paying the NFA taxes.

But it DOES say something we should be slamming home on "let's all ban assault weapons" which might also help us with NFA and the hated Hughes Amendment:

The government argued and the court agreed that non-military weapons weren't protected; thus it was A-OK to tax short barreled shotguns.

They didn't consider that machine guns, also taxed under the NFA, were definitely military weapons.

The Court keeps refusing to see cases which clarify this.

But we have a ruling, we just need to start pounding it.

If for no other reason than to drink Liberal tears from agreeing that an AR and AK are military weapons and The Supreme Court has ruled they're protected by The Constitution via Miller v US!

16 September 2019

On The Positive Side

WOW does the new clutch and shifter feel wonderful!

I'm 100 miles into the 500 miles of stop and go now and I can feel it getting smoother as it wears in.

That's a nice feeling.

Fill Neck

Did you know that if you have the rubber hose that connects the gas tank to the filler neck twisted 30˚ and not all the way over the lip of the neck...

It leaks?

At least leaks enough for there to be smells.

The kink caused by the twisting also trips the shut-off at the gas pump making it hard to get gas.

I discovered that I didn't have the hose all the way up the metal by shining a light down the filler neck.  Seeing it bulged in at about 5:30 was what we in the shade-tree mechanic community call "an indicator."

When I took the fender liner off, got a lot of gas smell and it has not returned so far...

I think I was very punchy dropping the tank the second time from the heat and just messed it up.

Fingers crossed!

While I was there, I felt around the top of the tank where the hose attaches and tried to wiggle it.  Sometimes this smell is associated with cracking the pipe stub at the inlet to the tank.  No wiggle, no wetness.

15 September 2019

Another Thing That's Harder Than Necessary

Getting the damn tether for the gas cap separated from the gas door.

WTF GM?

The green rubber-like substance on the original cap is a full 1/8" shorter than the new cap's.

I guess it was time.

Et Tu Gas Cap?

Noticed the smell of gasoline around The Precious last night after I pulled her in after her bath.

Much fainter than when the pump was spraying the top of the tank, but definite.

Smell is centered around the gas cap.

Amazon to the rescue.  Ordered an AC-Delco replacement at 9:19 last night and it's out for delivery now; for less than $12.

If it's leaking enough to smell, I'm surprised that the evap hasn't set off the check engine light.

14 September 2019

Outside Is Clean

Washed and waxed the exterior.

The inside is better done with some light.  With the top off so you can reach everything.

Buzzer

Here was what was causing the buzzing!


 This was sitting on the cowl by the windshield wipers.

I used it to get the spring clip off the clutch master to slave connector and promptly forgot it.

Then I overlooked it policing up the tools.

Find all the tools and put them away needs to be on every punch list.

13 September 2019

Obviously A Damnyankee

Whomever invented the cell phone mount that clips to your vents in the car clearly is not from a state that uses the AC much.

Blocking 1/4 of the air-flow is a bad plan.

All Abuzz

Guess what this noise was?



I took this vid to mollify Miguel and prove the car runs.

And got this nasty buzz.

Post your theories in the comments.

Sorry But You HAVE To Freak The Mundanes

If you don't freak the mundanes, they can ignore you and the status quo never changes.

I suggest you read up on Rosa Parks.

Did you know she was not the first person get into legal trouble by refusing to give up their seat?  She stands out as the first person that was squeaky clean enough for civil rights people to go to the mat to defend against the racist bus seating paradigm.

I repeatedly point out that gay pride marches, which freaked mundanes right the fuck out, have secured gay rights beyond the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic LGBT advocate in the early 1990's.

I sometimes think, reading pro-gun sites, that the real problem is Y'all ARE mundanes.

Don't rock the boat, stay in your lane, don't scare the white people...  This is the mundane mantra.

You can't let your freak flag fly because you're not freaks.  You're mundanes, you wanna belong, your membership depends on not freaking your fellow mundanes out.

Us freaks aren't members and cannot be further kicked out of mundane society; so we don't care if we're worrisome to your status quo.

Being a freak isn't easy.  Nonconformity always carries a price.

Ostracism is common.

Violence against us isn't quite common, but it's also not quite rare.

Society has shifted so much since I was a full on freak that it might just be hard for the fully mundane to appreciate the perspective.

You're a little different because you own a gun; but not much because there's 100 million others owning a gun too.  It's pretty dang mundane, in fact.

Yes, there's a lot that can go wrong freaking the mundanes.  But if you don't freak them, threaten their comfort zones, and make them aware of you...  Nothing happens.

Nothing?  That's not true.  Nothing happening in the pursuit of a civil rights is defacto losing rights because stagnation is a gigantic threat.  Without awareness, you can be forgotten, neglected and ignored.  "Why not ban 'assault weapons' it's not like anyone owns one."

Hiding from the scrutiny of the mundane will not save you.

You Did Actually Say It

Saying, "N-Word" instead of CENSORED is a lot like claiming you didn't pay the bill because you paid with cash instead of a card.

Not being offended when someone uses "N-Word" instead of CENSORED is akin to a waitress being fine that she has to make change but furious if she has to run your card.

The "N-Word" is the same as CENSORED, and proves that people being offended have something else going on; especially since they use CENSORED among themselves freely.

As near as I can tell, this is just about the only racial slur we use a proxy to talk about.

It's the only one with any real power.

12 September 2019

Mission Accomplished

Took lots of breaks to prevent heat stroke.

It's been around the block.

New clutch feels good.

New shifter... WOW.  You just don't realize how sloppy a worn one is when you're the one wearing it out every day.

New shifter in:

Thanks to JT for the loaned tools and cool, level head.

Next item on the punch list is to wash, wash and clean.

Updated to add some shifter pics!

Getting There

Transmission filled with three fresh quarts of Royal Purple Synchromesh.

Exhaust has been returned to its rightful place and torque to spec.


Something interesting about the C6.  The exhaust doesn't really hang from the body except at the very back of the mufflers, and then from rubber hangers.

The cats come off the manifolds and the intermediate pipe is hanging from springs that are hanging from the bottom of the torque tube.


Trans Filled

Something I am totally not used to in this car is the manual transmission uses ATF for fluid.

There's something unnatural about that to me.

I use the slightly less expensive than tritium Royal Purple Synchromax fluid.

From a previous drain and fill, I had a quart leftover.

A full fill is three and change quarts; so I bought three more. ($$KA-CHING$$)

I have a handy pump that lets me fill up transmissions and differentials at awkward angles and spaces; but it can't pump an entire quart.

I pumped all four quarts as far as the pump would take things and now I have 1 quart left over.

11 September 2019

'Nam Mentality

My mother was born 8 days after Pearl Harbor.  She didn't even make grade school before we'd developed nuclear fucking weapons to defeat Japan.

Someone born on September 19, 2001 is getting ready to graduate high school.  We're still fighting in the same places against the same people.

What the fuck?

I think it boils down to two things.

The US Army has a very German form.  We're super professional, lavishly equipped and supported.

There's a problem with the German model.  It's a loser's model.  This model lost WW2.  This model lost WW1.  It wasn't in place for Korea.  It didn't win in Vietnam.  It hasn't prevailed in any situation that's lasted longer than a week.

Desert Storm might have been counted as a win if we hadn't handed the ground back to the assholes that caused the problem in the first place.  Folks, that's not a win, that's a draw.

We're terrified of getting into another Vietnam.

Guess what, kids, we're already back in one.

We don't take and hold ground.  We keep trying to rely on unreliable "allies".

We're not winning.

What's worse is we're way more worried about people we, as a people, don't give two shits about; but for some reason how they feel about us killing them matters more than killing them.

I propose we stop precision targeting and begin just iron enrichment of the entire place via dumb bombs dropped from your friendly neighborhood BUFF until we have a Hindu-Kush steppe.

Every single weapon system we've agreed to reduce the numbers of should be used on these assholes rather than simply destroyed safely.

I am just fed up with expending blood and treasure for nothing.

Part of the problem is here at home.

On the 12th of September 2001 America was united, pissed, and willing to make Arabic a language only spoken by scholars and in Hell.

But we let a certain faction of our "leadership" talk us down.

Well, here we are, in Namistan with no end in sight...

Punching

Punch list:

Put the parking brake cables back in place on the rear cradle and A-arms and connect them.

Put the rear ABS leads back in place on the rear cradle and A-arms and connect them.

Reattach the rear A-arms.

Reattach the rear shocks.

Reinstall trans tunnel plate.

Reinstall exhaust.  12SEP19 1736

Refill transmission.  12SEP19 1122

Put rear wheels back on.  12SEP19 1820

Torque all four wheels.  12SEP19 1930

Ooops forgot update!

Install new shifter.  12SEP19 2010

Reassemble interior. 12SEP19 2022

10 September 2019

Och Me Poor Hands

Almost, but not quite, to busted knuckles.

I don't remember my fingers ever swelling like this wrenching before.

Cuts, scrapes bruises and blisters.

Muscles ache where I'd forgotten I had muscles.

No Steps Back Today

Dunno what tomorrow will bring, but...

Got the brakes bled.

Drivers side front fender liner is back in.

Front wheels back on, but not torqued on.

Remaining punch list:

Put the parking brake cables back in place on the rear cradle and A-arms and connect them.

Put the rear ABS leads back in place on the rear cradle and A-arms and connect them.

Reattach the rear A-arms.

Reattach the rear shocks.

Reinstall trans tunnel plate.

Reinstall exhaust.

Refill transmission.

Put rear wheels back on.

Torque all four wheels.

Two easy days, I think.  But prolly three hard ones as hot as it's been in the garage.

Coming Soon

Notice:    Your vehicle does not need an elaborate break-in. But it will perform better in the long run if you follow these guidelines:
• Keep your speed at 55 mph (88 km/h) or less for the first 500 miles (805 km).
• Do not drive at any one constant speed, fast or slow, for the first 500 miles (805 km).  Do not make full-throttle starts. Avoid downshifting to brake or slow the vehicle.
• Avoid making hard stops for the first 200 miles (322 km) or so. During this time the new brake linings are not yet broken in. Hard stops with new linings can mean premature wear and earlier replacement. Follow this breaking-in guideline every time you get new brake linings.
Following break-in, engine speed and load can be gradually increased.

Been a while since this section of the owner's manual applied to me.

I think the section on brakes isn't relevant to a clutch swap though.

How Can I Tell It's Not Hunting Season?

Deer interrupts wedding photo.

This Feels Familiar

I am pretty much where I was yesterday now!

Brakes are reconnected.

Trans cooler lines are reattached.

Torque tube is torqued.

Rear cradle is torqued.

Mufflers are hung.

PLUS

The clutch line is connected.

The clutch is bled.

09 September 2019

Three Foward Two Back

So...

Got everything all buttoned up forward of the doors except the clutch line.

That quick-connect fitting kicked my ass.

Turns out that if you pull the driver's side front wheel and the rear fender liner you can get both hands on it.  JT managed to get it together after removing the spring clip and slathering the mating surfaces with a coat of DOT 4.  Then, by Braille, got the clip in and it's locked!

So we decided to bleed it while we had two people.

We were getting fluid out of the spiffy new remote bleeder line... but the pedal kept falling to the floor and not coming back up.

JT looks under the car and...  puddle of DOT 4 coming out the bellhousing.

It appears that in the process of getting the driveline back in over lunch, we managed to tag the elbow fitting in a lefty-loosy manner and loosened it enough for it to leak.

UGH!  FML!

So we disconnected the trans cooling lines and brakes again and dropped the rear again.

This time we only pulled it back just far enough to get at the slave assembly and tighten the bleeder line.

Fingers crossed!

We have the driveline lined back up with just one bolt holding it to the bellhousing and we're going to try bleeding it again tomorrow and see if it leaks.

It's verra frustrating!

With A Rusty Ice-Pick

If I ever find the GM engineer who designed the "quick detach" fitting for the clutch hydraulic line...

I am stabbing them in the balls.

If it turns out to be a female engineer, I am getting her gender reassignment surgery so I can stab HIM in the balls!

Both sides of the connection are flexible.

There is no room to grab both ends and press them against each other.  The fittings are shaped so that even if you could get a pair of channel locks in there, they'd just slide right off the fitting.

Not from the top, not from the bottom.

So this ends up being a Chinese fire-drill situation where someone has to be in the wheel well pressing the master side of the line and someone else needs to be leaning over the fender and pressing the slave side of the line.

Italian Sporty Car


First time I've seen one of these Alfa's in the wild.

Driveline Reattached!

All 8 bolts in the bellhousing now torqued to 37 ft-lb.

All 5 bolts in the torque tube now torqued to 37 ft-lb.






Transmission electrical connections reconnected!



Hey!  You can't see the floor anymore!


Rear cradle nuts torqued to 81 ft-lb.





Brake lines reconnected.  I hate brake lines and line wrenches, they're so fiddly to get started.

If we get some cooling off this evening I'm going to reconnect the trans cooler lines and route the parking brake cables and the ABS sensor leads.  If I feel real ambitious, reattach the shocks and rear-upper A-arms.

As JT says; I'm at the stage where I can finish it alone.

It feels good to be here.

08 September 2019

Wally World

They have an automated response!

What I sent:

Due to your company's recent political grandstanding over the sale of ammunition my family and I will be shopping elsewhere.

While this may limit our choices and cost us slightly more money; we've become fed up with businesses pushing a political agenda with a thin veneer of "this was our plan all along because of profits."

If it were merely a business decision removal of the product would have happened quietly and without a press release to curry favor from one side of the political aisle.

It did not take us very long at all to find a means to get our shopping done without darkening the doors of a Wal Mart.

The shareholders of Winn Dixie, Publix, Target and Amazon appreciate your decision to cease ammunition sales and your politically motivated method of announcing it to the world.
What replied in less than a minute (on a Sunday):

Hi Angus,

Thank you for contacting Walmart.com.

I appreciate you for bringing this up to us and we do understand your concerns. We value you as a customer and thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. We will definitely report your concerns .

I understand that you want to know why Walmart will stop selling guns on our store. Please be advised that Walmart is barring shoppers from openly carrying guns in its stores and ending the sale of some types of ammunition in response to two deadly shootings at our stores. This helps our shopper and associate feel secured every time they shop at Walmart.

For your reference, you can visit this link to know more about this:
click here https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/09/03/mcmillon-to-associates-our-next-steps-in-response-to-the-tragedies-in-el-paso-and-southaven


Sincerely,

Corine Nicole A.
Walmart.com Customer Care
 Don't bother with the link, it's their press release about banning ammo sales.

OK, Corine, welcome to "more but harder" land and making the gun-free zone larger and more enticing!

I don't want to FEEL more secure, Corine, I want to BE more secure.

Fewer guns has never made anyone safer, especially when there's only ONE gun present in the hands of a nutcase.

Wrote The Wal Mart

Wal Mart has joined the political fray by discontinuing handgun and (they don't say it this way) semi-auto rifle ammunition sales.

I detest these virtue signals.

So I looked at what we buy from Wal Mart, found it for the same price at (at least) three other vendors and suggested them to Harvey.

Guess what I found.

The $200 a week we've been spending at "the low cost leader" is $150 if we spread the shopping across four stores.

We've been paying a 33% convenience fee for one stop shopping!

So I wrote them, thanking them for making me check pricing and product availability.

07 September 2019

Insulated

TV Dinner wrapper repaired with some foil tape!


While I was down there I caught a fun perspective.  Looking up through the shifter hole!





I am officially ready to get the driveline back in the car!

Perhaps as soon as lunchtime Monday, depending on JT's schedule.

My AR Is Useless Against The Might Of The US Military

Two words:  Warsaw Ghetto.

A very small group of people with nothing left to lose took a handful of handguns and held off the most powerful military in the world.

The method was as old as war.

Use the inferior weapon to get a better one from an enemy soldier, hand the inferior weapon to the next guy on your side.

Warsaw was only taken when the National Socialists gave up on capturing it intact and leveled the place.

That going to fly here?

The Germans had nobody they knew or cared about living in Poland.  Their only reason for wanting Warsaw somewhat intact was spoils.  Loot.

It's a refrain that repeats over and over.

A tiny group of determined resistors can pin down gigantic militaries.

Something that hasn't happened yet is a resistance spawning from a place were guns were present in one of three households before the shooting started.

If a handful of handguns can hold off Nazi Germany, how will millions of AR's fare?

If around 700 IRA terrorists can stop The Royal Army for decades, how will millions of gun owners fare?

Militaries hate counterinsurgency.  The US military, by the way, isn't good at it.  Our endgame is always to give up and go home.

A domestic insurgency will not have that option.  They're already home.

Their supply lines are very dispersed thanks to pork-barrel spending policies.  How long does that whiz-bang drone keep flying when there's no transportation out of Wichita for a few days and a widget becomes unavailable?  Then, when they solve that outage, another component is delayed from Titusville?

Never mind the antenna farms that allow those things to work are fixed installations HERE and are WAY more accessible to an American resistance fighter than around the planet like in Afghanistan.

The really sad thing is its not necessary.

"Don't start none, won't be none," is actually in place.  The American gun owner isn't committing crime and wishes to be left alone.

But keep poking at them and eventually there's going to be a violent reaction.  Remember what I said about the Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, "nothing left to lose."

NEVER back someone with nothing left to lose into a corner.

White Supremacy

Quick!  Someone tell Colion Noir he's a white supremacist for advocating for gun rights!

David Hogg thinks the recent spate of mass shootings is because of white supremacy and whatever a post-genocidal society is.

Dave...  Dave, Dave, Dave.

You wanna see what post-genocide looks like.

Go.  To.  Poland.

Now that you're in Silesia, find some Jews.

C'mon Dave.

Now, come back to America.

Who did White America® wipe out so thoroughly as the National Socialists eradicated Jews from Poland?

Blacks?  There's plenty around and their population is pretty steady as a percentage of the total census.

Indians?  Still lots of them around, actually more as a percentage than when we were actively at war with them.

Whom did we commit genocide on?

Well, we did make a game attempt at eliminating Southern Democrats...  but despite killing almost three hundred thousand of them; they persist to this day.

Just like decimate, I don't think people know what genocide means.

06 September 2019

I Am About Ready To Reset My Tech Clock

An dial it back to 1983.

I am fed up with planned and mandatory obsolescence.

The printer died.

Any new printer I get will not work with my old Mac because OSX 10.6.

My Win7 laptop has decided, all on its own, to no longer connect to the old Mac, which pisses me off because there's a Drobo attached to it whose sole purpose is to store the 16tb of files for remote use.

I don't want to move files around to use them on the laptop.

Oddly, the old Mac can see the laptop and read and write to it.

I'm still not done being pissed off at The Precious and it's high tech fuel system.

Some Good News For A Change

Robert Mugabe is in Hell this fine day.

05 September 2019

You Can Sometimes Tell When Somone Doesn't Have Kids

If a child is doing something irritating (but harmless) to get your attention, the fastest way to get it to stop forever is to ignore it.

Paying attention to them is what they desire, so paying attention to them is the last thing you should do.

There's lots of "adult" examples too.

Open carrying AT people is such a thing.  If you ignore them, they either go away or rise to the level of harm where you can do something with the legal system.

The people who hate guns do not hate us more because someone is lugging around an AK strapped across their chest.

The people who hate guns most certainly DO point to pro-gun sites bitching about the people carrying at people.  They're saying, "look, even the pro-gun kooks condemn this!" and divisions are sown among us.

Kids, I can remember when merely buying and owning something like an AR was condemned by the "normal" gun people.  How my friends and I were looked at by the population of the range when the Mini-14's with folding stocks, pistol-grips and pinned on flash-hiders came out and it is a very similar reaction to the open-toting riflemen.

I lost count of the number of ranges that restricted the rate of fire to no faster than a trapdoor Springfield and someone shooting a semi-auto had to slow to that rate.  Ranges where a magazine that wasn't legal to hunt with wasn't allowed on the range.

How common is that today?

The truth is "what's normal" moves around.

An AR is just another hunting rifle now.

The Fudd ranges that didn't allow for the most popular gun in America aren't seeing much shooting.  Their clientele have dried up.

This same sort of freak-out about methods has cost us before.

Florida lost campus carry from "you're not doing it the way I want!"

We lost the hearing protection act because people can't read.

We're losing open carry in businesses because we're providing cover to the gun grabbers.

Complaining about if it's foolish from three states away isn't how to reach the people who need to have it explained to them because there's hundreds of gun-grabbers using that condemnation against us on sensible open carry.

Because all the Bloombots report is, "even gun rights advocates oppose open carry."

PS:  I don't have to look very hard to find a pro-gun blogger who will condemn ALL open carry for them to parrot either.

Out With The Old


In with the new!


There's quite a bit of play in the old throw-out bearing.  I guess it was time to replace it.

Of note, there's two reliefs cut into the side of the bell of the torque tube.  One lines up perfectly with the bleeder.  The other...  Nope, nothing.

This got a moment of panic and took it off and compared it to the original part, the lines are in the same place.  All is well, I guess.

That Is Not Right

I put the little clippy things back in the trans cooler lines.

They're the same little clippy things that were the bane of my existence on the radiator removal.

I know them now and have their measure.

Installed the remote bleeder to the hydraulic throw-out bearing.

I looked up the torque specs for the bolts that hold it to the torque tube...

106 ft-lb!

For those tiny things?

Nope, misread that.  INCH pounds.

Just barely over 8 ft-lb. or as we say in The Cavalry, "snug."  Marv refers to this as "just barely finger tight."

Um NO

This was not a restoration.

This is a new build car with a vintage VIN plate.

Punched

Bellhousing back in and seven of eight bolts torqued to spec!  It went in like it came out, wouldn't move, wouldn't move, wouldn't move, glorious musical bell tone and it was in!

The last bolt gets torqued after the driveline is back in because it holds the clutch hydraulic line.

Front cradle is back where it's supposed to be and the nuts cranked down to 81 ft-lb.  That's sure fun under the car!  Good thing I'm fat!  Skinny guy would skid across the floor.

I forgot about the front stabilizer sway bar yesterday, but remembered it when torquing the cradle.

I still have to address the insulation issue.

04 September 2019

Bad Leg And Wrenching

One nice thing about working on jackstands is I don't have to stand.

I can sit or lay under the car to do what I need to do.

A furniture dolly is great for moving heavy things under car too, it's like a creeper for parts!

Tomorrow's punch list:

Address the tattered insulation.
Get the bellhousing bolted in.
Lower the body back down on the front cradle.
Torque those bolts.

A Day Devoured By Locusts

For not getting shit done, I sure got a lot accomplished!

One side of the sliding glass door up and died on us.  The rounded part of the track is seperated from the riser it was extruded with lo-fifty years ago when the house was new and the Earth still young.

The other side works flawlessly.

That meant rearranging the entire dining area and porch.

Anticipating this was going to cause a lot more disruption than it actually did, I binned up most of the books in the garage shelves and started to take those down to make space for things displaced.

The shelves were already doing a slow-motion collapse due to humidity's effect on particle board, so this just moved up the timeline summat.

Harvey is happy with the new fung shui.

Introspective

Making yourself as a GURPS character is not for the faint hearted.

Well, not if you're making an honest version of yourself.

You've got to take out all the parts and look at them to assign advantages, disadvantages and skills.

I probably over-stat myself and over disadvantage.

You have to read the descriptions carefully.

Being a bit unmotivated isn't Laziness according to the rules.  Nor are you lazy if you procrastinate a lot, but really bust ass completing a project once you've started.

The Technomancer version of me raised some interesting items.

I definitely have a settled lifestyle.  With that rule in place, I can only spend 20% of my starting wealth on "adventuring equipment".   Considering that all the guns fall into that category, I had to take some serious wealth to cover the guns and home ownership.  I even got a free point of status from it because our society values home ownership.

I don't feel wealthy.  But wealth is more of an accountant's ledger than liquidity.  I have a positive balance sheet with little cash.

Something I spent a lot of time on was figuring out why Coyote Me, uncrippled from his fall from the tank thanks to magical healing, didn't end up differently than I am today.  This is the part of being introspective that can hurt your self-worth.  I can live with my character flaws.  Identifying them this way might even give me a hook to fix them.  We'll see.

Then there's The Boy...  That's staggering.  Fewer than 25% starting point value, loved one, around almost all the time...  Negative sixty points!


03 September 2019

Great News For LuckyGunner

WalMart is going to stop selling "handgun" ammunition.

They're going to focus on long-gun hunting ammo.

I know people with lever actions in .357 and .44 Magnum who hunt with them.

That's long gun ammo!

I know, I know... they don't mean it like that.

Just remember, you cannot get 5.45x45mm 7N6 surplus ammo from Russia anymore because it's armor-piercing pistol ammo.

Hey!  Another example of someone else defining the terms for us and when we tried to correct them we got screamed at for being pedantic.

I am really wracking my brain to come up with something that WalMart sells that I cannot get from Winn Dixie or Target once they stop selling ammo.