I Knew It Would Come To This

That the Galil obsession would lead to making a character was a foregone conclusion.

What's not clear yet is what sort of character.

The character that originally wore this outfit is long lost.

It was for a Top Secret campaign where we were the most destructive hostage rescue team ever created.

"Run for your lives! We're here to help!" was our unofficial motto.

I'd start with the 50-rounder in an Galil ARM because fewer reloads and work my way through, literally, dozens of 35-rounders and copious amounts of grenades.

This team also had Warren.

Oh... poor Warren.

He was a great guy, but... let's say he didn't often see the implications of what he was doing.

In the same raid/rescue he became frustrated that his hand grenades weren't able to penetrate the thick glass at a security checkpoint we needed to breach.  This was because they wouldn't stick to the glass.

So he had his character HOLD the grenade against the pane!  You did not misread that, Troubleshooter.

After many attempts to keep from doing it, it was allowed and he got blowed up but good.  But not dead.

So we stabilized his wounds and dragged him back to a nearby helipad to wait for extraction.  We put him in the office at the pad because there was a Huey we'd liberally perforated earlier.  Leaking fuel all over the pad level of perforations.

Warren, bless his heart, did try to role play and when the extraction helo was inbound, but we had not yet gotten back to the pad, he decided that since his radio was out and was out of contact with everyone that the helo could have belonged to the bad guys.

So he crawled out of the office to hide under the leaky Huey.

When he was informed that the incoming bird was marked as appropriate for our extract, he decided to signal them.

With.  A.  Flare.

KA-BOOM!

Well, the pilot definitely saw that signal...

No Need To Panic

The headline read "Winter Storm Warnings From Coast To Coast".

It was a little breezy, but hardly storm worthy from here all the way to Daytona.

Mid to high 70's.

Clear skies.

This fake news stuff has got to stop!

HAKKA PÄÄLLE!

80 years ago, today, The Winter War began as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics invaded the former Russian territory of Finland.

Akavit as soon as the sun is above the yard-arm.

Technomad Speaks

I'm not terribly friendly or sympathetic to gays as a group.   I remember, all too well, the years when AIDS first appeared, and how it was the gays who marched in the streets and fought like scalded cats to keep their damn bath houses open...even though those places were known and obvious vectors for the disease.  This doesn't strike me as well-thought-out, to put it very mildly.  And their "pride" parades seem designed to honk off straights in a lot of ways.

If all the gays wanted was to be left alone, I'd have to support them.  But I notice that a lot of them seem to want, not just quiet acceptance, but outright applause...and that a lot of their shenanigans seem designed mainly to piss off the straights.  This business with "He won't BAKE MY WEDDING CAKE!" is a perfect example.   In the first place, about any urban area (where most gays are) has lots of bakeries and other such places---why not go down the street to the next one?  In the second place, if you've got to have a cake from THAT bakery, what's so hard about buying a standard-issue wedding cake, replacing the figure on the top with a "two brides" or "two grooms" figure, and going with that?  I can buy those dead cheap on Amazon, and I doubt that gays are less net-savvy than I am.  In the third place---would YOU want to eat food made by someone who was more-or-less cooking it at gunpoint?  I am not too trusting and wouldn't go near it, myself.

I also notice that for all their howling about individual rights, I've never, not ONCE, seen "Big Gay" roll out the infantry, cavalry and artillery for anybody but themselves.  Advocates of the decriminalization of prostitution have noticed that "Big Gay" is utterly silent on the subject, even though a lot of sex workers are, themselves, gay, and gay sex workers are generally treated even more harshly than straights by the pigs.  With the honorable exception of the Pink Pistols, I also haven't seen gay groups rallying to the Second Amendment.  I may be wrong, or misinformed, but my overall impression is that they're dominated by urban liberals who're convinced that guns are icky and the sole preserve of toothless rednecks.  

Their current leadership seems to be caught up in a mental place where, having got the rights they said they wanted, they're out on a crusade to get back at everybody who opposed them...as well as payback on Mommy and Daddy, the preacher, and everybody else who wasn't too pleased about them coming out as gay  This strikes me as highly unwise, and as begging for a backlash against them that might just wipe out their gains. 

They could have had everything they wanted from marriage if they'd been willing to compromise on the word "marriage," calling it "civil union" or some such.  But a lot of their leaders wouldn't have it so, because that way they couldn't go out of their way to find venues and businesses that didn't want to be part of things, so they could sue and sue and sue and whip up Twitter mobs.  And I note that they got their damn ol' "Gay" "Marriage" via the courts.  What the Supremes gave, the Supremes can take away, blessed be the name of the Supremes. 

I frankly think they're heading for a real nasty backlash against them, and I won't feel one little bit sorry for them.   As Victor Suvorov comments, in what I think is a Russian proverb: "Greed ruined the priest."

The marriage vs civil union thing reminded me of something else happening in LGBTland.

What pronoun?  When is someone a woman?

Both sides are fucking this up from different directions.

The conservative / religious side is demanding that the chromosomes define sex and therefore gender.

The liberal / LGBT side is demanding that the external or apparent gender define gender.

Both sides want the defined gender to determine how the person is treated and its the definitions which are the sticking point.

The problem is gender and sex aren't the same thing, no matter how blurred both sides have made it by shoving the definition of one to coincide with the other.

That chromosome is what decides the sex.  Traditionally, in Western society, your gender follows your sex.

Traditionally.

What we have ended up with is people talking past each other very angrily because the terms are the same, but the definitions are different.

It's not helped that both sides have advocates who've chosen to be as big a prick about it as they possibly can be.

Brewery Grand Tour

The Tampa-Sarasota area is home to dozens of micro, nano and pico breweries.

We hit a decent percentage of them today and Siesta Key distillery.

Better than dealing with the mobs at the mall or Wal Mart by a wide margin.

Generations

Over the years I've owned several Glocks.

Until the 45, all of them have been Gen 1 or 2.

I just don't like the finger nubbins on the Gen 3 and 4.

Thankfully, they started removing them.

First with the FBI's 'M' variations, then the 19X and now the Gen 5.

The swappable backstraps are also welcome.

If only I could convince Marv and Harvey to join the Church of Gaston...

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the USA.

I'm thankful to have been born in the US, still the best place to be even with all our problems.

I'm thankful for what family still talks to me.

I'm thankful that the rest of my family doesn't.

I'm thankful for a roof over my head.

I'm thankful for food in my belly.

I'm thankful that my pyramid of needs is more concerned with Legos than base survival.

I'm thankful for some of the best friends in the whole world.  Geff, JT, Marv and Willard in particular; but there's no slight if you're unnamed.

I'm thankful for the readers of this blog.

Thanks!

Advocate

I've mentioned before that I generally support LGBT rights.

Back when I first noticed that one could be straight and not hate on the bents the people whose rights I supported were rational, intelligent human beings who deserved the same consideration as anyone else.

I deplored the prejudice that I saw everyday.

A lot has changed.

LGBT people have really attained the goals they aspired to back then.

We have, however, moved past that now.

The fucking crazies are demanding rights past what everyone else has and doing it in a manner that slanders the people who were deserving of the rights that were fought for and gained.

I swear, for every Erin Pallette there's now ten fucktards who're going to ruin it for her.

Can't one pro-rights group that the liberals capture take victory and go home?

I'm guessing the answer is a resounding, "NO!"

You Know What?

Fuck you!

Every time I read about what a misogynist I am, on the basis of being male and white, I cannot but think, "that's incredibly sexist and racist."

I am a stay at home father.

I am not the biological father of my son.

My mentally disabled son.

Would the women who condemn me adopt another woman's child as their own if they were so disabled?

I have news for them that claims they would, it's even rarer than a man stepping up.  People with children like The Boy are a community.  We don't see many adoptions.  We don't see any women adopting.  We do see a lot of single parents, mostly single moms, because the other parent bails on "that thing" they created.

Because I'm the stay-at-home parent, I cook, I clean, I do the dishes.

I make lunches.

I pick him up from school.

I do the meetings with his teachers.

I take him to his doctor's appointments.

But I am a misogynist?

For encouraging my wife to work?  To make the normal "male" sacrifices to get the promotions and advance in her career?

Fuck you, feminists!

What you seem to forget, and my situation puts lie to, is a misogynist society wouldn't allow The Lovely Harvey to be successful enough to be the primary and only breadwinner in our home.

I Beg To Differ

Something I keep reading about in the differences between the Glock 19X and Glock 45 (other than the color) is the lack of a lanyard ring on the Glock 45.

Every Glock I've ever owned has had this little hole in the grip and it's for a lanyard.

It's a different style from the Glock 19X, but it's still a lanyard ring.

Electrical

The inlaws house had a couple of gigs that prevented us from getting home-owner's insurance. One item was double taps on two circuit breakers.

Happily they make tandem breakers in their size and it's easily remedied. Another item was missing fillers for the breaker panel.

Cheap and easy.

Stay The Course Mike!

I just endured Michael Bloomberg using an entire commercial block to brag about what a great mayor he's been. You get the impression that he was mayor for 9/11 and he single handedly saved the nation in the aftermath. But the entire five minute block is going to alienate people.

The longer an ad drags on, the more people just want it to fucking end and they start getting retaliatory towards the product.

The late night advertisers are the first people to discover this and they stopped doing it because the channels were reporting people tuning out.

I, for one, hope to see him piss more of his money away in this manner!

I Did Not Win

No Galil clone from Classic for me unless the named winner fails to respond or is otherwise disqualified.

I mentioned the contest to The Lovely Harvey last night with me saying, "I've always kinda wanted one, but they're very expensive for what you get."

She replied, "Is there any rifle that you don't 'kinda' want?"

Uh...

I am afraid that she got me there.

Noted Philosopher M. Muir

Just cause you don't understand what's going on don't mean it don't make no sense
And just cause you don't like it, don't mean it ain't no good
And let me tell you something;

Before you go taking a walk in my world
You better take a look at the real world
Cause this ain't no Mister Roger's Neighborhood

Can you say "feel like shit"?
Yea maybe sometimes I do feel like shit
I ain't happy 'bout it, but I'd rather feel like shit than be full of shit!

And if I offended you, oh I'm sorry...
But maybe you need to be offended
But here's my apology and one more thing...fuck you!

DECM Training Film

The basic ideas from this film are still in play today.

Between JT and Brad I think we could come up with something that works "correctly" in the game that doesn't violate anyone's classification or export laws.

Thud

Coming "real soon now" to DCS!

Razbam has indicated they're going to make a module for the F-105!

Almost certainly the F-105D, the most numerous variation and since ECM is teh suxxor in the game, an F-105G would be nearly pointless.

I'm kinda excited.

Leatherneck Simulations is working on an F-8J Crusader.

Two of my perennial favorites, and there's already a Turkey and Bug!

The hilarious thing about ECM sucking hind tit in most flight sims is the concepts are very simple.  There's YouTube postings of 1960's era training films explaining how most of the systems work in bold strokes.

The problem is while the concepts are simple and the basics are long declassified... it's way easy to end up in trouble making the systems work like they're rumored to work, and lots of the people involved have had access to the real thing.

You have to prove that you figured out how the ALQ-XX worked from public sources, and furthermore, didn't use your classified knowledge to steer your research into them.  That's nearly impossible.

It'd take someone like me, who's never had the secret materials before them, to do the research for the game...

Hmmmmmm!

I'm going to need me some help on the coding side, I am sure, but this might be something someone could make a bit of money on selling module updates.

Who Knows It Might Even Work

I got this email from a vendor I've bought Tantal bits from:

Thanksgiving DEAL OF THE WEEK !!

ENDS NOON EST 11/29/19

Your choice of NSP-3 OR PPN-3 Soviet style night Vision.

Great Stocking Stuffer! Perfect for hunting season

These fit most all side rail mount weapons, including AK-47, AK-74, SG-43, PKM & RPG-7 etc.

We have no facilities to test, sold STRICTLY AS IS with NO RETURNS. These are relic from the cold war and most appear to be in very good to new condition. Accessories are included but vary from box to box. Included in original wood or metal transit chest.

UPS Shipping

See Gunbroker for more information

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/845982372

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/845984118

We have optional infrared flash light COVER ONLY for $20 each. These are invisible at night to the human eye,but will light up an acre at a time in conjunction to the night vision.

REG $399 DEAL $295.00 PLUS UPS

Office is closed Thursday and Friday but orders received by friday will be honored.Only 20 of each available!

sales@bowmanarms.com your complete name address email & phone number with your order. You will receive and invoice with payment options.

Like us on Facebook! bowman arms - tankride.com, inc.

$300 on sale and it probably doesn't function.

This series of Commie night vision is easy to kill by showing it too much light, and a lot of them have been shown too much.  Like firing it up to see if it works in a well lit room?

Click, zap, dead.

If it does function, it's a decent price.

A bit much for a photo accessory unless Chuck and Dianne suggest banning rudimentary night vision scopes.

What WOULD Stoner Do?

I am not certain InRange is on quite the right track with their WWSD project.

After interviewing Jim Sullivan they surely must be aware that Gene was an advocate of the 7.62x51mm round.

The 5.56 AR15 is preceded by the 7.62 AR10.  The 5.56 AR18 is preceded by the 7.62 AR16.  The 5.56 Stoner Model 63 is preceded by the 7.62 M69W.

Three times he tried to make a 7.62 NATO gun and three times suffered having his design reduced in caliber.

Not that he put up much fight...

But, what would Stoner do?

I think the AR16 prototypes show us some insight.  The first few guns used the same gas system as the AR15 and AR10.  It was the fact that the patents no longer belonged to Armalite that caused the change to a short stroke piston system.

I think Stoner had moved beyond "high tech and lighter" to "ease of manufacture, higher volume production, more sales."

I wonder what barrel length he'd settle on today though.

The AR15 and M63 both start with a 20" tube and the AR18 is just a bit shorter with 18-1/4".

Would he go with the legal minimum length of 16"?  For his round which was designed with 4" longer bores in mind?

Declutter

The corners of the bedroom accumulate... stuff.

Things I don't use much, or not at all, but have enough value that they're not trash; but have too little value to sell.

The past two days have seen me organizing the clutter and getting things put into some semblance of order.

Bonus feature: The Lovely Harvey can actually reach her gun safe and the filing cabinet!

¡Para toda la humanidad!

Watching Apple TV's "For All Mankind".

I like me some alt-history but I am wondering at the inclusion of the Mexican illegal alien storyline.

I keep getting distracted by it and thinking, "is this heading someplace?"

I was also struck at the Congressional rail-roading of Werner Von Braun.

It seemed to me that his historical answer to the very question presented would have sufficed to win him in public opinion, especially since the entire point of Operation Paperclip was to give amnesty to valuable scientists and engineers who also happened to be blood-soaked Nazis.

I'm going to keep at it, but it's a slog just three episodes in.

Honest Thag's Used Jack Repair

Took apart the power head on my dearly beloved Sears 214.50110 floor jack.

It stopped lifting about three years ago, when I needed to lift the car to change the starter.

Frustratingly, nobody had a seal kit for this model for years either.  That recently changed and I bought the kit.

Here's the problem!

Happily, replacing this and two o-rings associated with it was dirt simple.  I have o-rings for the pump side, but didn't need them because they aren't leaking (yet).

We got it put back together and filled with fresh oil and it took a lot of pumps to get it all bled out.

It doesn't go as low (4-7/8"vs 3-7/8") or as high (19" vs  21") as the Harbor Freight Northern Tool Strongway brand jack that replaced it; nor does it lift as much (2-1/4 tons vs 3-1/2 tons): but what it loses in those areas it makes up for by being smooth and predictable.

It's a good jack and well worth the effort to fix!

Oh Thank The Gods!

Classic has sold out of their "very-good to excellent" Polish Tokarev pistols (C&R eligible).

I am saved!

Getting a Polish Tokarev would have meant scouring the world for a P83 Wanad.

Lord knows what it would take to lay hands on an WIST-94 or FB MAG; though these guns aren't T2K canonical.

Kinda Want

It was InRange's reviews of the CavArms/GWACS Mk 1 and Mk 2 lowers that made me want one.

I like lightweight ARs and pencil barrels.




What I do worry about is this lower has killed every company to bring one to market.

I wonder if Brownell's and KE Arms are going to offer it in the same rainbow of colors.

That's A Reflection

h/t Mike

Bill Maher says, "anti-intellectualism on the right doesn’t come primarily through stupidity it comes from hate."

I don't hate you, Bill, I hate you back.

I don't hate intellectuals, I hate them back.

It's a distinction that makes a difference.

Y'all started out by hating on us, and now that you're seeing that we're willing to say, "Fine, War," you're starting to see you, maybe, came with a rock to a tank fight.

“We are going to have to learn to live with each other or else there will be blood,” Maher said.

Until you, and your intellectual buddies, started fucking with us, we were living with you.

How many times have we said we only wanted to be left alone?

Well, Bill, you woke us up.  We're aware of your hatred and contempt.

The choice is yours to make, Mr Maher, back off or blood?

You might also note that we don't particularly mind either direction because if it goes blood it's going to suck for everyone; but the point will finally be settled.

I'd prefer you learned to live with me.

DIY .45

The recent California shooting was done with an 80% 1911.

It appears that his dad made it, so the fact doesn't really seem relevant.

I don't think you can even drag dad into this for legality because he was dead before the serial number requirement took place.

There doesn't seem to be a "DIY" exception to the handgun registration laws, so dad might have been been the one to make an illegal gun that his son illegally took possession of.

What About The Children

Looks like "What about the children?" has hit YouTube in the form of COPPA.

The results of the settlement have new rules coming down the pipe and YouTube is essentially shifting the liability to the content creators when a child manages to find inappropriate content.

Said creators are freaking out.

Welcome to the world of gun owners, content creators.

Buffalo

Brewster Buffalo, that is.

Counter Jockey has seen Midway and the topic of the F2A has come up.

It's a plane I flew a lot in IL-2 because I liked playing in the Finn campaign.

You get to shoot communists and you don't have to play a Nazi!

A plane I got scary good with in that sim is the B-239E.

That's an F2A-1 with a bigger engine and all the naval stuff removed.

It's a solid performer against the Soviet planes of the time.

Good range, predictable performance.

One thing that stood out was how difficult it was to land in the game.  You really need to grease it in or it bounces really bad and it wants to roll over.

Come to think on it, I also got good with the FM-1 Wildcat and P-40 against zeros and oscars.

Have To Win

I have to win a Galil ARM JRA Gallant from Classic because a) I cannot afford one and b) they are out of stock.  The ATI version is also out of stock at Brownell's.

I've wanted, and could never afford, a Galil way back to my Top Secret days.  I even tried to turn a Mini-14 into the functional equivalent of one.

I've made a couple of Twilight: 2000 characters who've been equipped with one.  Bigger magazine and the generous encumbrance system made it a no-brainer.  There's just no down side to the 50 round magazine in T2K.

GURPS is more serious about the problems with the Galil's 50-rounder in that it adds to the Bulk stat.  The excessive gravitational attraction is also better modeled.

In both GURPS and real life, you start looking hard at what you get in relation to an FAL because you're not saving an ounce of weight.  Essentially it's an FAL with more shots that do less damage and don't reach out as far.

That doesn't change wanting one for a range toy.

I hesitate to give a link to the contest because the fewer people who enter, the better my chances.  That link, should you enter, also improves my chances...

Gun Free Zone With A Gun Store

The Main Exchange on MacDill has an FFL.

Shop My Exchange lists guns on its site and those must be delivered to an exchange in the same state as the buyer.  The prices don't seem to be anything to write home about, so it prolly won't come up...

Every single military base is a no carry zone.  Encased and unloaded in the trunk is OK, but essentially a gun free zone.

I also remember how MP's were all assholes and Air Force SP being the worst of the species (prolly regret not joining the military).  Drive the speed limit, three count at stop signs, signal every lane change and turn...

Especially driving a Vette on post when I'm obviously not a pilot.

Base Access?

Apparently, as of the first of the year, my lowly ass will be granted access to on-base exchanges and commissaries.

10 USC § 1065

“(d) Eligibility Of Veterans With Service-Connected Disabilities.—A veteran with a service-connected disability shall be permitted to use commissary stores and MWR facilities on the same basis as a member of the armed forces entitled to retired or retainer pay."

 Not sure this is great or meh.

Military Working Raptors

I finally decided to watch Jurassic World.

The scheme to weaponize the Utahraptor Ostrommaysi is only considered insane because the bad guy is so obviously the bad guy he should have a top hat and a mustache to twirl while laughing maniacally.

Considering how damned scary military dogs like Belgian Malinois are, just think of how a raptor would be received.

The critters in Jurassic park/world are definitely smarter and more coordinated than a real one would have been.

Now I simply must make a character from a world that has them!

Skinhead

I started shaving my head when it became obvious that I was not going to be going bald in a dignified manner.

My pattern of baldness is the kind where it will look like I'm trying to hide it with a comb-over even if I do nothing.

It's a small vanity.

But it has gotten me charged with racism a couple of times.

Particularly antisemitism.

Um...  Nope, it's just a hairstyle.

Especially when I regard this, "If the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years." as one of the stupidest statements of all time.

And mining Hitler quotes for "stupidest" is hard fucking work; because the man was a font of stupid shit.

Aside:  Hitler also said, "The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble."  That sure sounds familiar and contemporary, don't it?

I like science.

Without science we don't get so many things that make everyday life so much better.

I happen to like indoor plumbing, electricity and the internet.  Science, Engineering and Industry.

Sciences that are chock-a-block with "untermensch".

But then, I celebrate individual accomplishment rather than racial attribution.

LGBTQIA

I'm normally supportive of LGBT rights.

But I noticed something while reading about Chik-Fil-A caving.

In the entire alphabet listing of LGBTQIAEIEIO...

The supposed "all inclusive" LGBT sphere...

Where is the 'S'?

I already know the answer.  Women's rights and minority rights organizations have already shown us.

They don't want equality, they want inversion.

Revenge or power.  Either motivation will suffice.

It's hard to be supportive of the rights of people who deserve those rights when the, rich and powerful, organizations who "represent" them keep banging the drum to marginalize me.

We need to change the song from 'X' rights to Rights.

Women don't deserve or should get more rights than men.

Minorities should not get nor do they deserve more rights than the majority.

LGBT people don't have any more or less rights than the breeders.

It's just Rights.  The same for everyone.  No more, no less.

It's valid to complain that you're being discriminated against, but you don't get to discriminate against ME in return.  You especially don't get to demand your rights while infringing on mine.

More Than One Lex?

A teaching mission for DCS got some assistance from an F/A-18 pilot named "Lex".

This is not OUR Lex.

The Hornet community can't be very big, he's GOT to know.

I'll Take Stupid Ideas For $1,000 Alex

The coolant level on a C6 Corvette is not determined by physically measuring the level.

You know, like with a float?

Oh no!  That'd be too simple.

The [C6] Chevrolet Corvette utilizes an algorithm-based low coolant level system which eliminates the need for the coolant level sensor previously positioned inside the surge tank (fig. 12).

The algorithm measures the difference in engine coolant temperature readings over time as a function of engine speed, to determine if the cooling system has a low coolant condition. After vehicle start-up, the ECM sends an engine RPM and engine coolant message through the BCM to the HVAC control head. The HVAC control head uses engine coolant temperature and engine RPM to determine if an increase in coolant temperature is due to a low coolant level condition.

This system is capable of losing 2 full liters of coolant before triggering the Low Coolant warning message. Because the surge tank holds approximately 0.8 liters when filled to the proper level, it's possible that a Low Coolant warning message is not triggered, even though the surge tank is completely dry.

How can you tell when the computer engineers have taken over management from the mechanical engineers?

Deadlier

Signs like this have gotten more people killed than any of my unwelcome firearms.

If you can't trust me with a gun, I'm afraid I cannot trust you with money.

Oklahoma Makes Up For California!

Armed citizens gun down scumbag!

So much for Oklahoma's low score from the Bradys.

Update:

Well, it would appear that Wal Mart is still not safe to shop at, even in Oklahoma.

Again From California

Four dead at a football watch party.

If only murder wasn't legal, they wouldn't have to put a gun control bandaid on these horrible acts.

Oh... wait.

Spring?

I've got two Mauser Model 1910/14 .25 ACP pistols here that don't run well.

It was suggested that it was the recoil spring causing the issue, but I kept forgetting to order one.

I remembered the other day.

Now I need to hit the range and see if that helps at all.

If it doesn't, then I've got representational samples of the type.

Organized Religion For Tyranny And Oppression... AGAIN?

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops appears to be.

I think the Catholic Church is due for another schism of the level that lead to Protestantism and The Church of England.

The hands of The Church are still bloody from centuries of supporting the divine right of kings, seems old habits die hard.

Getting Exciting In Iran

Apparently, upping the price of gas 50% in Iran has triggered a wave of violent protests.

Hopefully this will lead to a regime change that has a government and people who like us and want to be friends!

I had the same hope in 2009.

I wonder if this is not getting much coverage because it might make the sanctions imposed by President Trump appear to be working.

Lids

I did a post about the US' issue helmets back here.

I mentioned that the M1 steel pot had different liners and that those liners gave improved performance.

I was unaware that a kevlar liner had been produced in the early '80's pretty much as the PASGT kevlar helmet started issue.

I've made some changes to the GURPS stats since those posts, there's more public domain information on the PASGT for one...

The steel part of the M1 is DR 3.  It weighs 2.6 lb. and would ride far too low on the head for use or comfort.

The liner includes a suspension system that keeps the helmet positioned correctly on the head and a chin-strap.  Try as I might, I can't find a confirmed report of the strap causing decapitation.

The 1941 fiberglass liner gets DR 1, 0.3 lb.  DR 4 and 2.9  lb. total.
The 1965 ballistic nylon liner gets DR 2, 0.8 lb.  DR 5 and 3.4 lb. total.
The 1983 kevlar liner gets DR 4.  <-- this is speculation, I've no hard data, not even weight.  It stands to reason that it will either be lighter than the '65 model for the same protection or more protection for the same weight.  DR 7 and 3.4 lb. total (for now).

Wikipedia gave me the weights for the 1941 model.
GURPS: SEALs in Vietnam gives the weights of the 1965 model.

GURPS Basic Set gives the kevlar DR 5.

I've read reports that says that this is way too low, even if the desired specifications called for it to be about this level.

For my Twilight: 2000 conversion, I gave it DR 10 and 3.6 lb.  The improved version from 1993 scored DR 12 and 3.4 lb.

It gets frustrating because the ACH is supposed to be much better than the PASGT, but it's DR 12, 3.3 lb.  I think that when this was set in the Basic Set they didn't have much information about it, and 12 is significantly better than 5 for protection, but isn't much better than the 10 I think the PASGT rates.

The ACH is NIJ rated as IIIA.  That stops .44 Magnum.  The specified test round is a 240gr semi-jacketed hollow-point at 1,400 fps.  That is GURPS 4d(0.5) pi++.  Average raw damage is 14, max 24.

Because DR is doubled against hollow points, average drops to 7 and max to 12 effectively.

DR 12 is correct for the ACH!  Who knew?  It is lighter and more comfortable than the PASGT, even if offering no more ballistic protection for GURPS.

Credit Where It's Due

Miguel does yeoman's work on tracking the bills in Tallahassee.

Call your congress creature and let them know you don't think you can vote for someone who votes for these bills, especially if your creature's lair includes a committee membership.

It might not be a bad idea to suggest that if they cannot stop such bills from exiting committee, let alone passing, that perhaps a primary is in order.

Make sure their staffers know who you are!

Parting Shot

The passion of the fuel system took its last shot at me today.

I cranked the battery dead flat before I gave up and took it down to Joe.

He noted that it was dead flat too.

Yesterday she was sluggish to crank and the voltage gauge stayed up at 14.6v like it was trying real hard to charge.  Normally it drops off to 13 and change once the battery has recovered the cranking amps.

Today...  No start.

Fudge.

I kind of expected this.

The battery in the C6 is chronically undersized for such a large motor and I just don't think they make batteries like they used to.

Still had enough warranty to get pro-rated on the new battery.

Quick! Change The News Cycle!

We've got a school shooting in California!

I'm getting cynical.

My first thought was, "are the impeachment hearings going bad?"

But it's California.

LA County.

Let's run down the list...

The minimum age to buy a gun is 18 with a hunting license and 21 with a Firearm Safety Certificate; our shooter appears to be younger than that.

All sales have to go through an FFL, who presumably wouldn't sell to someone without the proper credentials or was too young.

California has complete firearms registration.

California has a red flag law.

California bans open carry in non-rural areas.

California has a gun-free school act.

California has made assault with a deadly weapon illegal.

California has made manslaughter illegal.

California has made murder illegal.

Gee... none of that worked.

At present they're reporting just one dead, two in critical condition, one in good condition; down from the initial seven.

If You're Going To Say It That Way...

If you insist on saying FAL as a word instead of Eff Ayy Ell...

Then you'd better start saying Ack! when you're talking about an AK.

Statistically Small

People shot by the cops for being in their own homes.

One pull quote, "I don't know what their training is," Tench said in the "Nightline" interview. "I just know that if an officer is sent out to a house on a medical alert or a wellness alert, I'm not sure having guns blazing would be protocol."

The article lists 25 cases nationwide.

That's infinitesimal.

BUT.

That shit should terrify you!

Police agencies have policies that allow their officers to shoot, and kill, innocent citizens in places where they've an absolute right to be.

I don't think the part that matters is that it hasn't come up very often; but that there's policies in place which make it possible for a cop to commit manslaughter with impunity.

I don't like the potential implications.

I've always been of the opinion that the legal standard for The State to kill someone be higher, not lower, than the average citizen.  At this point I would accept that the standard be the same as what I have to live under.

You might notice that I cannot issue a statement to the police that says, "In accordance to Casa McThag's policies concerning use of deadly force I shot and killed the perpetrator in my front yard."

I'm not allowed to make up my own rules.

This careens into my attitude that the idea of service has been lost on our current crop of cops in many jurisdictions.  It's not universal, but it's creeping in...

The good news is many of these cases are being prosecuted as the crimes they are and shitty cops are being convicted!

With the FBI now tracking police use of force, if we can still trust them, we might even see some policy changes.

Avoidance

1/3 of Americans avoid places where they think there might be a mass shooting.

Reading their list I realized that I've been avoiding the same places.

I simply don't like being in crowds.

I also noticed that many of the events listed are also, normally, gun-free zones.

I avoid those too.

Still, getting shot at (let alone hit or killed) in a mass shooting is so unlikely as to be statistical noise on the big list of things that killed you.

Complications from constipation kill more people every year.  Look it up!  It's true!

Training Standards

The Ranger template in GURPS 4e is 191 points.

IQ and DX are cranked to 13 each to save points on the DX and IQ based skills.

Each 20 per point in those stats saves more than 20 points in skills outlays.

It's built in optimization.

I have managed to get MacTavish down to 211 points by lowering a couple of skills and justifying with atrophy.

I think I can drop it even further by dropping DX and IQ to 12 each and using the excuse that training standards are lower during the war than they are in the idealized world of GURPS: Special Ops.

Jungle survival, for example, would probably be dropped from the normal curriculum because the war is in Europe.

GURPS and good character design "forces" me to consider MacTavish's college education.  I decided he was on an athletic scholarship for biathlon.  This included a point into Geology to model "rocks for jocks".

Lowering the stats and some of the skills gets me down to 149 points and I feel that accurately reflects the character I played in T2K, even if it's not quite what Special Ops would want.

Dusting Off Old Character Sheets

And doing it from memory.

To provide the players who weren't obsessive about doing research about the military and geopolitics at the time Twilight: 2000 was first released I made something of a Mary Sue in the form of 2LT Thomas MacTavish.

There's material advantage to being an officer and rolling well to get the Ranger: Infantryman branch/specialty.

Being an officer means you get double the starting loot.

Being a Ranger means you get more starting skills and pay less to improve them.

So, 2nd Lieutenant MacTavish is a Ranger.

This makes for interesting times with translating characters.

The Ranger template as translated from GURPS 3e to 4e is 191 points and intended for a 225 to 250 point campaign.

Twilight: 2000 was a gamble for stats, gamble for class, gamble for starting wealth game where such niceties as character equivalence and balance didn't come up.

Normally, a T2K character would be 150 points and Rangers or Green Berets simply wouldn't be allowed because of costs; but this is a translation.

From memory.  I can't find the character sheet from the ancient days of 1985.

I did find a drawing I did!

I think I can make an informed decision about the character from this.

He's come a long way from Kalisz, Poland in just a few short months since July 18, 2000 when the 5th ID was wiped out.

We probably weren't keeping track of the dates properly, though OpOrd Omega is dated September 28, 2000 with a departure from Bremerhaven, Germany on November 15, 2000 with arrival in Norfolk, Virginia on or about November 25, 2000.

A month to get from Norfolk to Port Lavaca, Texas is probably sufficient.

The span from July 18 to November 15 probably wasn't enough for all the hi-jinx we did.

MacTavish (and the rest of the crew) definitely aligned with MilGov.  I don't recall how they got to Texas, but the reason we were there was because the Red Star - Lone Star module was released right after the Going Home module...

The processing through Norfolk probably should have earned MacTavish a promotion.  Everyone else too.  I can retcon the reason for being in Texas as a mission to secure the oil production that's going on down there from both a Soviet/Cuban detachment and CivGov.

I wonder how many points this will end up being when I'm done.

Ick?

Watching Babylon 5 and the episode where Mr Garabaldi (no relation) smuggles in and prepares bagna cauda against doctor's orders came on.

Being willing to experiment in the kitchen, I looked up the recipe.

It's pretty darn simple.

Most every recipe warns that if you don't like garlic, stop now.

They never warn against the anchovies.

I do not know if I like anchovies.  I know several people who don't, so it's never come up as a pizza topping, or anywhere else.

I'm not much of a raw veggie fan, so making this to dip veggies into doesn't seem to enter my wheelhouse.

I am, however, curious.

I'd hate to discover that I don't like it after going to the effort.

Of course, the only thing I'd need to make it right now is the anchovies.  Everything else is on hand.

Necessity

While my dad taught me the basics, it was poverty that led me to start working on my own car.

Sure, a real mechanic might take two hours to do a job that took me eight...  That was two hours of $50+ labor that I often didn't have.  Especially when the price of labor was often the majority of the bill.

For two hours of labor you can buy a lot of tools, and then never have to buy them again.

This DIY attitude spread to other things.

Home improvement.

Plumbing.

Every so often, I bite off more than I can chew.  The gas tank adventure being the most recent.

I've failed more than a couple times.  The point is to learn from those failures and let them inform your next attempt.

It's amazing how fast you become versatile.

More Mercury

FuzzGeff with an entirely different kind of camera and filters than I use was also able to capture the transit.

I'd no idea how rare such a thing was until reading a bit more about them.  It's a lot more common than a Venus transit, and about as common as a total eclipse.

An Unserious Question

If Dianne Feinstein or Charles Schumer were to see this picture and die of the vapors, would I be charged?

We've got everything that bothers them here.

Threaded muzzle.
Bayonet lug.
Detachable adequate capacity magazine.
Semi-auto.
Pistol grip.
Folding stock.
Advanced body armor.

The rifle is an AK clone to boot for double liberal tear flavor points!

Idle Hands

I look at this spring assembly:

My curious monkey mind is saying, "take it apart!"

My more rational lizard brain is saying, "take a nap."

I hope this part is cheap and readily available because I just KNOW I'm going to try taking it apart and not be able to get it back together.

Alcohol Was Involved

Reading Mr Garabaldi's post on visiting East Berlin.

Yup!  What he said.

I went to East Berlin too.

At the time I didn't collect souvenirs or take pictures.

The trip to Berlin blurs with time and gets lost among other things going on with some very busy months with lots of travel, some official, some recreational.

There was a lot of drinking in here, some drinking to forget...

When you drink to forget; you often forget stuff you wanted to remember too.

For instance:  I don't remember there being TWO checkpoints on the autobahn between West Germany and Berlin.

I do remember Fred being cheeky and surreptitiously dropping a carton of Marlboro's on the ground as we closed the doors of his Golf and drove off.  I remember freaking out that we were going to get arrested and sent to Siberia.  Nothing came of it.

Today I don't remember if that was the first or second checkpoint or even if it was on the way to or from Berlin.

This Is Something My Gen 2 Can't Do

Lacking any sort of rail under the dust cover means that neither Gen 2 Glocks in the house can mount a light.

Light is a handy thing in the dark.

I will, of course, give away my position when I turn it on, but that will have been given away by the flashlight I was using to look around with already.

That little Surefire X300 sure has been moved from gun to gun too.  The M&P 9 can mount it, but I hear that mounting a light to your CCW is a bad idea.  I'm erring on the side of caution with the Smith carried in my Miami Classic during the winter months.

The Deal Rammed Home

The $425 for a Glock 45 being an excellent deal was underscored today by finding a blue-label Glock 45 at one of the local pawn-shops marked at $525.

They'd accept $450 for it, bottom dollar.

Willard, gritting his teeth and fighting through the pain of holding it, even allowed that the grip is ineffably better than other Glocks he's handled before.

D&D Milspec

These are funny as Hell!











Now that they've covered training, they're going to tackle deployments next.

Similar

I've read a couple of times that the M&P pistol is similar to a Glock 19 in form.

I think it's closer to the Glock 45.

The M&P is heavier with heavier magazines but the extra 1/4" of barrel keeps the damage and range at 2d+2 pi 160/1,800 instead of 2d+1 pi 140/1,600.

Glock 45 Blue Label

$425 plus tax, title, license and background.

Normal price at Old Time Gun Shop in Hudson, $599.

I wasn't supposed to have noticed that.

I vacillated between a 17 Gen 5 and a 19 Gen 5 and finally settled on a compromise!

I put on the "medium" frame without a beaver-tail, it feels about right.

Glock 45 vs .45 Glock!

Glock 45 vs Glock 17.

It comes apart like every other Glock:

But there's a LOT more springs in the recoil spring!

Because everything is about GURPS:

The Glock 45 gives up a point of damage vs the 17 and some range with the same everything else.

It's 0.1 lb. heavier with 0.1 lb. heavier magazines which hold two more rounds vs the Glock 19.

Transit

That tiny and indistinct dot near the center of the sun is Mercury!

I have also discovered that I cannot set manual focus and expect to play with the shutter speed with my SX20, so it was guess the exposure then set focus to infinity, then take the pic...

Then hope because the phone's display can't show me what the camera can actually resolve.

 

My new years resolution is to lay hands on a real camera and a couple of lenses.

 

The leader in my dreams is a Canon M50 mirrorless.  Of course, that will require an EF-M to EF/EF-S mount adapter because the best glass for this work doesn't come in the EF-M format yet.

 

An interesting trivia item for the M series cameras.  They use the same APS-C sensor as the pentaprism cameras, they just mount the ocular end of the lens closer to it.  With no mechanical mirror box, you can; and the lens is a bit more compact too.  The adapter to EF/EF-S puts those lenses at the same distance from the sensor as they'd be with a mirrored camera; getting the same performance from them!  Kudos to Canon!

Veteran's Day

In the US, it's Veteran's Day!

Thanks to the generosity of many restaurants, it's no longer necessary to buy them dinner!

But you can still buy your favorite veteran a drink!

You can still get them laid.

You can say, "Thanks!"

I'm old enough and been out long enough to remember when Veteran's Day was merely a day without mail where the banks were closed.

That was wrong.

That's A Whopper!

Applying an insulting and derogatory label to someone you disagree with is a form of "othering".

Beware of anyone who's go-to method of debating is to resort to "othering."

Once someone is "othered" it's far too easy to justify doing horrible things to them, after all, an "other" isn't a person are they?

If you find yourself using the phrase "Open Carry Idiot", congratulations you're in some "savory" company.

Company that rounded people up and systematically murdered them.

It didn't start with murders, it eased into it slowly and over time.

If someone is othering you, they're also saying that they're OK if you're dead.  They might even be willing to make it happen if you give them enough time to work up to it.

Othering is something to both avoid and be terrified of.

Simple Pleasures

First cold front means either potato soup or chili.

The inlaws have chosen potato soup.

Comfort food is the best.

30 Years

It hardly seems possible.

I'd lived my whole life with the Cold War and to be just down the road as it ended seemed so very strange.

Our first news about what was going on was the activation of the phone chain and for everyone to get their butts back on post.

It was like an alert, but no alert was actually declared.

We mostly sat in our rooms watching on TV.  Fred and I, who'd been to East Berlin in '88, kept marveling at what we were seeing.

It was very tense though.

I was an avid player of Twilight: 2000 and the reunification of Germany is the trigger for WW3 there.  It seemed plausible that this was some sort of Soviet trick to get us off guard.

When nothing happened...

We were as surprised as anyone.

Analogous

When talking about 2nd Amendment rights being civil rights we often attempt to use analogies to illustrate the similarities to other civil rights.

Almost by definition an analogy is not identical to either situation being compared.  It's a bridge that's supposed to make the relationship between the two situations clearer.

There's the problem with many people.

They've decided that if the two situations are not identical then the comparison is invalid, and you're an idiot for suggesting any similarity.

I would like to note that "identical" and "similar" are not synonyms.

Rosa Parks gets mentioned from time to time with regards to gun rights protestors getting arrested.

Ms Parks was not armed, openly or otherwise.  She broke the law.  She's black.

This is not identical to an open carrier being held at gunpoint during an open carry fishing event.

The open carrier was white.  They were openly armed.  They were obeying the law.

Where are they similar?

Both did what they did to try to raise awareness about the civil rights issue at hand and hoped that would lead to positive change.

In Montgomery, Alabama the immediate response was a huge portion of the bus-riding population refusing to use the buses.  Ms Parks fellow blacks supported her protest and hit the bus company's bottom line.  For nearly a year.

The immediate response to the open carrier being held at gun point was the condemnation of the practice.  It was stated that being openly armed is stupid and that anyone who did not join them in condemnation was likewise mentally deficient.

Clearly one portion of the gun owning population is quite happy with the status quo.

Happily(?) we have an analogous group during the civil rights movement.  It was the topic of many sermons that blacks needed to keep their heads down and not draw attention to themselves because, as bad as it was, it most certainly could get worse.  Being "uppity" was going to bring the whole world down on them!

Good thing, for them, that the activists kept up with their protesting.

Another analogy between civil rights is gun owning and being gay.

There's a lot more similarity between gun ownership and homosexuality because it's not a racial thing.  Literally anyone you look at could be gay or a gun owner or both!

For an unrecorded amount of time a homosexual had to hide who they were and live a secret life.  To reveal their secret could result in lots of unpleasant things; including being killed for it.  Beatings were not uncommon.  Being fired and ostracized was routine.

It was made illegal.  That it was morally wrong was taught unquestioningly.  Unjustified parallels between homosexual sex and child molestation were accepted without consideration of whether they were true or not.

Gun owners in many places have to hide who they are and be very careful about whom they reveal themselves to.  It can lead to termination of employment.  In our modern age of red-flag laws and SWATting, it can lead to ruinous financial burdens and even death.  An extra level of harassment from law enforcement is still routine in many jurisdictions no matter how legal the owner is.

Owning guns has been made illegal, both by type and completely.  Owning a gun has been subject to laws requiring onerous burdens to obtain licenses and permits to own or carry them.

The moral and practical value of gun ownership has been condemned without question.  Unjustified parallels between the mental acuity of some gun owners has been made because they don't wish to own the right kind of gun, or wish to carry it differently.

The rights of both blacks and LGBT were not advanced by accepting the status quo.

Rocking the boat carries risks.  But the rewards are worth the risks.

If we could only convince some of the people who're supposedly on our side to actually be on our side.

When an open carrier was held, illegally and in violation of their rights, at gunpoint by the police: they condemned the open carrier and not the police.

They ignored this violation of civil rights under color law to attack and demean the actual victim.

These are people who are not on our side.

They are ignoring that no laws were broken by the protestors then or in the flamboyantly over the top response the following month.  They are ignoring that the police department learned to behave from legal actions taken in response to their illegal detention of a law abiding citizen.

They equate other protests with this one, regardless of similarity, claim they're identical.

The goal posts shift constantly and they do not argue in good faith.

I say again, these people are not on our side.

They risk nothing, and wish to gain nothing.

They demand others take risks on their behalf when opportunity arises and condemn others for not doing work that they, themselves, do not do.  You cannot complain that nobody showed up when you were invited and did not show up yourself.

It's easy to complain, harder to act.

I wonder, sometimes, if it's guilt that makes them respond so strongly to others attempting to advance freedoms that they will surely avail themselves of.

Min-Max

The solution to the mystery of why so many Special Operators are super geniuses is simple.

The Special Ops campaign is a 250 point one in 4e.

The high stats save points on buying skills, nothing more.

Massaging the point costs to come under budget is sometimes known as min-maxing.

In this case it makes unrealistic characters made to a cinematic ideal.

These are the Rangers, Green Berets and SEALs of Hollywood, not those of real life.

Secret Intel

I endeavored to find out what, exactly, the Blue Label price would be.

This is from Shooter's World in Tampa.  They mark-up $24.99 from the MAP Retail for guns on the shelf.

So, in theory, a Blue Label Gen 5 model 19 would be $404.99.  If they actually had one in stock.

They've a store in Orlando too they claim has more in stock.  It's very tempting.

I have until close of business Monday to make up my mind a search the couch cushions.

For Courage And Strength

Happy Birthday Lex!

Stat Bias

The more I look at the templates in GURPS: Special Ops 3e the more I see a suspension of disbelief killing flaw.

Skill levels in GURPS are based on DX and IQ for the most part, especially in GURPS 3e.

From what I've read and conversed about with regards to the special operator types the high skill levels displayed by these men is from spending many hours practicing; not from natural aptitude.

Points in skills represents hard work and training.

Points in stats represents talent and aptitude.

It is not helped that an IQ of 13 or 14 is often specified.

To lend some scope to the problem:  A GURPS IQ of 6 corresponds to the intelligence level of an average Chimpanzee, which has a functional (real world) IQ of approximately 40.

This puts the bottom range of the human bell-curve (IQ 40) at GURPS IQ 6.  That essentially puts the top of the curve (IQ 160) at GURPS IQ 14.

The center of the bell-curve and "normal" IQ is 90-109 and that's GURPS IQ 10.

If the templates are to be believed, the entirety of the world's special forces is populated by super geniuses.

I am not buying it.  Bumping the stats is a game mechanism to get higher skills for fewer points.

Another reason I am not buying it is how thin the population of these super geniuses with an IQ over 145 is.  1/10 of 1%.  The pool of people in this range, in the US, is 329,716.

There's approximately 3,500 Rangers in the 75th, 4,500 Green Berets, 2,500 SEALs and about 1,000 in Delta.  11,500 people.

That's 3.5% of the available super geniuses in the country.

The military is about 2.5 million people strong, 0.76% of the population.

Because the military typically does have the same distributions as the population at large, then we should expect that there are only 2,500 super geniuses in the entire military.

According to Special Ops 3e, there's almost four times that many in the special forces alone (and I didn't even include the numbers for USAF combat controllers or USMC Force Recon; whose templates are given).

I think I am going to have to revise these templates ruthlessly.

Especially since the bell curve is shifted in other nations compared to the US curve used here.

Of Course It's A Gun Free Zone

Rode with my father-in-law to get his truck registered here in Florida.

I was kicked out for having a gatorade by the most arrogant employee I've ever encountered.

An arrogance that thrives in DMV's across the nation.

I noticed that, while I cannot eat or drink anything while inside the county's precious building, nothing is stopping the employees from chewing gum so that it sounds like a march of sopping wet vaginas in a poorly sound balanced porn film.

Remember when you didn't chew gum at work because it was unprofessional?

While I was outside, waiting for FiL, I noticed the looks on my fellow citizen's faces.  The mood was grim on entry and angry on exit.

It seems the arrogance runs deep.

The customer service is such that I think that if someone were to grab their, "Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon," and went to town on the employees that the customers would react with, "there's one hiding under the desk there," and, "one ran out the back, if you hurry you can still catch them!"

I think I might just remind my county tax collector that he's an elected official in an office that's very easily primaried (ask him how HE got the job) and if he can't make the process more customer centric, then, perhaps, someone else should hold the office.

As an aside, I notice that while there is a teeny little decal saying "No outside food or drink please" the only mention of smoking is the "No smoking within 50' of entrance".

I think I am going to measure 50' from the door inside the place and have me a cigar next visit.  Not posted, stand alone structure.  That, at least, is actually against the law and not because some petty apparatchik likes to lord their power over you.

Additional aside: am I the only person who wonders at the demographics of the DMV?  My county is 96% white, yet the Tax Collector's office employs around 75% blacks.  That seems racist to have disproportionate racial representation in the government.

Guts

People have begun to break their Galaxy's Edge/Savi's Workshop lightsabers and started selling them on ebay for a pittance.

Electronics geeks have started complete tear downs!

We now know the blade is a plastic strip of domed RGB LED's spaced about 1/2" apart.

So the three blades will (should) have:

26" should have 48 LED
31" should have 58 LED
35" should have 66 LED

That's a lot fewer than a 2815 or 2813 running 258 LED on my 35" blade, about 4x as many as the Disney system.  I think this also explains why they're getting such good battery life from 3x AA's!

Marv has been running out of memory to run the LED's and was wondering if we could run them in groups of 3 giving an effective 86 LED as far as the Arduino is concerned.

Excessive

GURPS 3e: Special Ops provided a template to create your very own Airborne Ranger.

Specifically someone assigned to 1/75, 2/75 or 3/75.

I happen to know someone who was assigned to 2/75... (cue name drop) Willard!

I mentioned to him, that in GURPS terms, his younger self was a pretty high point character.

At least 150 in 3e points and more than 200 in 4e.

The bulk of the 4e points are dumped into the stats, 140 of them in fact.

ST: 11
DX: 13
IQ: 13 <-- He disputes this one by saying that Ranger School is not an intelligence test, but a filtration system to find stubborn knot-heads who refuse to quit despite every signal in the universe demanding they give up.  A high Will score would really be more appropriate.
HT: 11

I think these stat levels were more to keep the point totals under control than an actual assessment that the average Ragnar is a certified MENSA candidate.  Making this call is not aided in the slightest by Willard actually being smart.

Then they get 68 points in skills that EVERY Ranger who goes to the battalions should have.

Armoury/TL8 (Small Arms)
Artillery/TL8 (Guided Missile)
Artillery/TL8 (Mortar)
Brawling
Camouflage
Climbing
Driving/TL8 (Automobile)
Electronics Operation/TL8 (Comm)
Explosives/TL8 (Demolition)
First Aid/TL8
Forward Observer/TL8
Gunner/TL8 (MG)
Guns/TL8 – GL
Guns/TL8 – LAW
Guns/TL8 – LMG
Guns/TL8 – Pistol
Guns/TL8 – Rifle
Hiking
Jumping
Leadership
Melee Weapon (Knife)
Melee Weapon (Spear) -- This is for using a bayonet!
Navigation/TL8 (Land)
NBC-Suit/TL8
Parachuting/TL8
Savior-Faire (Military)
Soldier/TL8
Stealth
Survival (Jungle)
Survival (Mountain)
Survival (Woodland)
Swimming
Tactics
Throwing
Traps/TL8 

The guided missile could be a TOW or a Dragon and Willard indicated that there might be a couple of guys who knew the Dragon, but not everyone.

Oafickers spend some more points on Military Rank, extra on Leadership and add Administration to the total.

Schools, like SERE, increase and add more skills as well.

I think I need to revisit the templates for 4e.

The Will vs IQ thing stands out.  In 3e IQ IS your will roll (modified by Strong Will or Weak Will).  4e made it a separate stat based on IQ but made it simpler to modify it, allowed a stone stupid person with a very strong Will.

Shoulda Listened

I should have listened to my first instinct and gone back to The Wily Heidi's to buy that Smith-Corona in the wee morning hours Saturday.

It was sold Saturday afternoon.

I am disappointed and relieved.

It's Fate I Tells You

I was reading this site.

Looking at this:

That there is a Smith-Corona type handguard retainer cut.

The rifle we hope to revive is a Smith-Corona!

Eyes crossed that it didn't sell on Saturday.

Silly Armor

Wore the Testudo II around for about an hour.

It hurts my legs.

It does occur that if I lost about 100 lb. then put the armor on, I'd be about 80 lb. easier on my legs than I am now without armor.

As is typical with body armor, it interferes with getting the stock mounted and the sights aligned.  Even the stylish squared up stance which puts the armor where it does the most good.

That might just mean I need to figure out how to mount the gun, but it's irritating.

At present it looks like the armor will have the ammo, because it's an ammo carrier first like most chest rigs, on the vest and the sundries will keep living in the 5.11 Tactical Purse where they can actually be reached.

That is, when I am going to wear the armor, otherwise the ammo will stay in the purse as the this is still the grab bag.

It boils down to "how much time do I have to get ready to repel boarders/looters?"

An alternative to the purse that works with the armor is a "battle belt" but I am skeptical of a belt carrying all that loot without suspenders.  There might be a way to tie the belt to the vest, but I'm not seeing it from a cursory search.

I can easily see a situation where I have more than one set of "go-gear" depending on how much time presents itself.  I kind of have this going on already.

The home defense rifle has a single mag in it and that's what gets grabbed in the least amount of prep time scenarios.  Grabbing the purse would require a couple minutes.  Grabbing and donning the vest even longer.

The idea of static vs dynamic defense was mentioned in comments.

I'm old, fat and crippled.  Static is kind of the default.  Notice what I said up top about weight, I HAVE 100 lb. of lard that could be lost.  That should be lost.  The crippled part of the equation makes that very hard.

I also have to keep reminding myself that the main reason for getting this was because Charles Schumer said it needed to be regulated or banned.  It's the same reason that I want banned features on as many guns as I can reasonably get and am eternally disappointed that not every one of them possesses ALL of the verboten features.

Long Drink

1x tonic water
4x gin
3x Fresca

Advanced Body Armor

My medium coyote brown Tetsudo II and 10x12 Level III plates arrived today!

21.2 lb. as shown.  It's only going to get heavier from here as I add pouches, magazines, holsters, blades and sundries.

As feared, the bottom edge is really too high to hang many things from and have them be even remotely handy.

It needs a belt below if it's going to replace the 5.11 Tactical Purse.

DeBubbafication Stage One

Willard found the scant M1903A3 stock he thought he had in his office.

It was also where he thought it would be.

That's a double miracle.  Normally such things have long since disappeared never to be seen again by mortal man.

Like most stocks of its day, it's inletted for both the M1903 rear sight and the M1903A3 handguard ring.

Having the buttplate and rear swivel saves us some time, money ($49) and effort!

At the time of this posting, Numrich has all the parts I think we're missing.

Lower Band Spring (524240) $3.00
Upper Band Screw (524660) $3.75
Handguard Ring (524920) $6.75
Upper Band (524220) $16.50
Stacking Swivel Assembly (1502520) $22.00
Lower Band Assembly (1502540) $20.75
Walnut Handguard, with Clips (853140) $43.75

Total, including shipping/handling $116.50

We think we've got The Wily Heidi locked into $250 for the rifle itself.

We're Off And Running

The local Fox affiliate reports on the assault weapon complete rifle ban that BAWN is attempting to add to our stupid Constitutional Amendment process here in Florida.

Ben Pollara is correct; the effects of his proposal are very simple.

He's dissembling about what those effects really are.

Dissembling is a nice way to say, "lying through your fucking teeth".

I'm hoping that they manage to keep it off the ballot, because I'd be very worried about it going to a vote.  There are a lot of people who don't bother to actually look up these amendments before voting.

OMG

I just realized that buying the printer for my old Mac is something I've done for a long time.

I bought a NIB part to keep an obsolete, but still functional machine running.

There's legions of us hot-rodders out there!

Testing

Replaced the dead HP C4280 with a live HP C4280 because it still works with my obsolete OS.

And newer OS's.

I made sure the ebay sourced "sealed" unit would print.

It did, but the ink cartridges that had been sealed in the box since... probably 2007... didn't work well.

New ink cartridges and voila!

The C4280 is also my SD card reader:

It works!

It's a scanner:

It works!

Nailed It

4chan predicted this:

The president of a Connecticut university said hate-filled flyers were randomly distributed throughout campus on Thursday night.

Harmless message will cause media backlash.

You will notice that no images of the "hate-filled" flyer are included with the article.

The media has showered itself in so much glory that I no longer automatically believe them when they make a hate claim.

They've repeatedly proven they cannot be trusted, so I don't.

Unmentioned here is that both Western Connecticut State University and the reporter feel that being white is NOT OK.  Otherwise, why would it matter and be newsworthy?

For the record, it's OK to be whatever race you are.

White.

Black.

Yellow.

Brown.

Tan.

Pink.

Pale-Blue.

IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER.

That content of character, that matters.

I can see the content of the character of the president of WCSU and Ms. Naples.

Phrasing

Ruining an otherwise feel-good article about a homeowner using an AR-15 for home defense...

...is the phrase, "an AR-15 that was legally inside their house," as if having an AR is normally illegal but these upstanding folks had gone the extra mile to get theirs made legitimate.

It's subtle points of language like this, that permeate the press, that make the fight for our rights harder than they should be.

By mentioning the unremarkable, they make it stand out.

They'd certainly never say, "a car that was legally inside their garage."

Using their cell phone, that was legally inside their pocket, they called the police.

The implication is that it's normally illegal to have it when you point out that it was legal in this instance.

A Deal A Steal

I'd heard about this months ago, but forgot to say anything.

BUT!

If you're in the market for a new Glock, and you have a DD214 with an honorable characterization on it...

Glock is offering to sell to you Blue Label guns at Blue Label prices!

And you have until Veteran's Day to get to a Blue Label dealer and get your new piece of relentless functionality.

Blue Label prices are about $100 to $150 off normal retail and normally come with three magazines instead of the more normal two, so it's like getting another $30 off!

Roasted Cent

What happens to a new penny when you drop it in a fire?

Comment Moderation

Since I turned on "allow anonymous" and "moderate all"...

It seems like there have been more comments than before.

There's been hardly any spam.

The few jerks whose comments I had to routinely delete after they were raging pricks in the comments have stopped trying.

That's the up side.

The down side is a couple of people I've been trying to engage and debate also gave up.  Perhaps they felt they would not be allowed past moderation?

If you're being polite and staying on topic, your comment is going to be allowed.

If I tire of the debate on a given post, I'll just just shut off all comments rather than memory holing the comments I disagree with.  Not too different, but you'll be able to tell going in that we're done talking about it for now.

Debating with people I disagree with is a form of learning.  You might even convince me I'm wrong, you might not.  I might convince you that you are wrong, I might not.

We might even convince others to come to our side, we might not.

One thing is for certain: call me an idiot (or other insult) for taking an opposing view guarantees that you have no voice here.  Opening with insults and derogatory names is an admission that your position has no validity and should be ignored.

In short, calling me an idiot is a concession that I've won because you can't advance your argument on its merits.

Scant Information

Willard thinks he has an M1903 stock in his office...

Somewhere.

Maybe even where he thinks it is.

I use the same system of organization and "where I think it is" often isn't.

The doubt I introduced last night is the question of, "is it an M1903 or an M1903A3 stock?"

They're different.  The A3 is inletted for the handguard ring, the A-nada isn't.

I found out that many (most?) A3 stocks are inletted to be used on any 03 action so the odds might be in our favor should Willard be able to locate his spare stock.

That would also knock almost $200 off the price of putting the Smith-Corona back to rights.  Even more if the stock has the butt plate and sling swivels!

Eyes crossed!

Also sitting here wondering if Willard will emerge from his righteous slumber to hit Heidi's and get the rifle.

HB723 Heading To Committee

This is Constitutional Carry for Florida.

It's been referred to (links show memberships, light 'em up!):

The Criminal Justice Subcommittee.

The Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriation Subcommittee.

The Judiciary Committee.

It's possible to bring a win from this, but we have to let them know we support this bill, and bills like it, and the congress creatures who vote for it.

They have to know we know who they are and will remember them come voting time, especially if they have eyes on a higher office when they term-limit out.

By the way, if you're not going to help: Why don't you shut up and get out of our way?

What that means:

If you're not going to bother to write, call or visit your congress creature's local office: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to write, call or visit your congress creature's Tallahassee office: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to go to the rally: don't complain that others don't.

If you're not going to bother to attend the committee meetings: don't complain that others don't.

If you're a do-nothing complainer, then you don't get to complain that others are following your example.

16/50

Oklahoma going to constitutional carry marks nearly 1/3 of the US dispensing with the false comfort of unconstitutional restrictions on carry.

They carried their AR's openly too.  Pictures from linked Fox News article.

Wait, that can't be right, I am assured that openly packing an AR leads to nothing but laws banning open carry.

Nope, that's really Fox News, not Babylon Bee...

And Oklahoma is mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on Constitutional Carry too.

Huh!

It's like we should be bold and not cowardly about asserting our rights.

I feel sometimes that some are fervently hoping for these kind of laws to fail so they can cluck that they were, by God, right and the rest of us are "idiots".

But, then, you kind of know when someone doesn't really have a point to make when they start with insults rather than actually making and defending their position.