Redacted?

The internet, being forever... and some clerk did a piss poor job of redacting the pdf.

Looks Like A Complete Miss

Isaias is going to miss the Tampa area completely.

Maybe some breezes and rain, but no real wind.

So far it looks like the New York Coast is going to be grazed, but no landfall.

Not too bad for Florida's first hurricane of 2020 considering how shitty 2020 has been on so many other fronts.

Back Dated

Florida reported 257 died of Wu Ping Cough today.

The thing is the reporting site has a bar graph showing the number of deaths per day.

It shows 20 deaths for today.

How can they disagree by so much?

Because the actual date of death is not reported in the 257.

They didn't die yesterday.  They died somewhere in the past three months.  It takes a not-insignificant amount of time to get tests run and results to be given.  The labs are busy lately for some reason.

The bar graph shifts day to day as the deaths are given their proper time of death.

The media is lying by only reporting the totals when we're well on the other side of the curve.

I can't help but think that it's because our president and governor are from the "wrong" party.

He's Right

Scott Adams asks:

Has anyone ever seen a story about a guy who got COVID-19, got early treatment with the combo of HCQ, zinc, and Azithromycin, and died anyway?

Warning, Twitter link. 

Considering the main killer in a Wu Ping Cough case isn't the disease itself but the comorbidities of  the deceased, surely there must be at least the five people Mr Adams is asking for who've died despite getting treated.

And it seems obvious that if there were even one, we'd be hearing the press screaming it from the rooftops that the HCQ cocktail doesn't work in the same way they focus on every single shooting as proof that more gun-control is needed.

But Honey...

I got the entire list of 'honey-do' items completed, including the change from chili to potato soup.

I'm going back to the store tomorrow for chili fixings though, I'm in the mood.

I already went to the store twice.

Dinner was BLT's.

You'd think when the ingredients are part of the name of a sandwich, procuring said ingredients would be simple, right?

I'd sliced the tomato before I realized that if I didn't go back to the store, we'd be having BT's.

Happily the store is near and lettuce is in abundance.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Predicted path, yesterday at 1100

Predicted path, today at 11000

Tropical weather is mercurial.

Other .45's

Colt.

Double Action.

Gate Loaded.

.45 Colt.

M1902.

Teaser


More complete.

So Very Close

Brick Arms makes some weaponry that's very close to what I need for Sabers and Sorcery...

M1909 Hotchkiss
Winchester Model 1895
Colt M1873 Artillery
Colt New Service
M1860 Saber.

I need a potato digger and some Krags...  I should write an email!

An Odd Feeling

I just stabbed "buy it now" on a Colt New Service revolver in .45 Colt.

The odd feeling is I've bought a gun from this gun shop before.  In person.

It was the only gun shop for 40 miles worth visiting when you lived in Ames when I did.

Even more fun is having a C&R and being able to just about do this directly.

Now we move at the speed of USPS.

Special thanks to Willard and FuzzyGeff for their assistance in this.

Thinking About Going For The Record

My previous best "Years Without A Facebook Account" was 40.

I am thinking about trying to break that record.

I've been weighing the pros and cons of keeping the account and...

Well...

What value are the friends who don't interact with me even there?

What value are the family who don't interact with me even there?

If you can't even bother to stab 'like' on Facebook, are we really friends?

If you don't bother to post anything to Facebook, why do you have it?  It's no good for me to keep up with your life if you never share anything.  And if you're never sharing anything with me, are we really friends?

I'm getting sick of Karens and Facebook is proving to be a surefire way to let Karen into my life.

I am sick of the scolds who couldn't pass a reading comprehension test based on a Dick and Jane book.

My joie de vivre is constantly drained by having to not only explain that what I posted about isn't what they think my post is about, but that they're also getting what they THINK my post was about wrong.

I'm sick of being chided for being controversial by these scolds.

If I have to be completely superficial to you to escape being scolded, are we really friends?

Day Devoured By Locusts

Marv bought the window unit out of the kitchen to cool the upper story of his detached garage.

We yanked it out my window and moved it to his place.

Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli showed up, read it.  I really liked it.

FuzzyGeff made it to inspect a Colt New Army in .45 Colt I saw on GunBroker.

Shiny bore, good lockup.  Cosmetic issues are shown in the pics.

I hurt my back/neck somehow and it's been SURPRISE! PAIN! moving my head for the past couple.  It's a pulled muscle and forgot what a joy those are.

I Know This Feeling

Scientist With Cure For COVID-19 Gunned Down In Sacremento

Cancer will also have to wait now too.

Here's his Harvard Diploma:

Wait a second...  That's not a diploma!

I'm starting to think that he's not a medical researcher at all!



Long but shows it from several angles.

Tickling The Ivories

Marv is cleaning out his old house and found a Sucrets tin full of dice.

These six had the look and feel of ivory.

They aren't.

The five smaller dice are.

Because I accumulate dice and liked the feel of them, Marv gifted them to me!



Happiness is a full dice box!

In The Way Back

Since I've got suicide on the brain thanks to one errant post and an explanation follow-up...

There once was a time when I had the gun in my mouth.

Nothing in my life was going right and everything I tried made it worse.

I had no money, I was couch surfing from friend's place to friend's place and it was killing those friendships.

Having once been 4.5 lb. of finger pressure from firing that round and going through the long, slow recovery from that VERY dark spot; I feel that I'm a good judge of how far from it I am.

It's a delicate moment explaining to a psychiatrist that you felt like suicide was the answer but also wish to remain a gun owner.

To quote a trite phrase, "I'm much better now."

Back during my legal drama I was very bummed, but not suicidal, and had lots of free time to kick the VA in the balls about my chronic pain from my service connected injury.

The prescribed gabapentin.

One of the rare, but serious, side effects is suicidal ideation!  I got three days of the initial dosing done when the thoughts started.  Because I knew where the dark place was, I knew I was walking right at it and stopped taking my prescription.  Oh, my legs didn't hurt anymore, that part worked.

I wonder if I'd never been so distraught to be seriously thinking about it in the way back if I'd have been unable to stop it on the gabapentin with the legal drama looming over my head.

Don't Be Worried

A lot of this blog is stream of consciousness and not a planned endeavor.

My "suicidal thought" was a capture of the moment item and not an ideation of a course of action.

If you've never had a "I wonder how things would be if I..." thought you are a vanishingly small minority of people.

What I was attempting to capture was having this fleeting thought at a particular moment of no longer drinking and getting more sober than drunk.

I wonder if a lot.

I don't act on the wonders.

I'm an important member of my family and don't think for a moment that they'd be happier without me in the picture.  If I did divorce and moving would be the far more rational plan than suicide.

I'm a rational dude.  Well...  Mostly.  You cannot engage in world creating for RPG's or novels if you're completely rational.  If you're too rational you are too grounded to make the imaginative leaps that lead to creation of the fantastic.

I'm here for a good long time.

Blogger is more likely to have its plug pulled than me.

PS: It's a LOT better to be talking about it than bottling it up.  I knew three people who've killed themselves and they didn't say a peep before they acted.  I know of a couple people whom I worried about, but they were talking about it.  As long as they keep talking, they're not acting.

I'm still talking!

It's Just The Booze Talking

There's a transition point where I think that that a bullet will make everything all better.

It's when I'm good and buzzed and coming down.

My life insurance pays even if I commit suicide at this point.

The mortgage is paid, my student loans are erased.

BANG!

The Lovely Harvey is financially better off.

It's just a point.

It's so momentary that there's not even time to grab a gun, let alone pull a trigger.

While Harvey would be better off financially, she'd not be better off, overall, without me.

Money isn't everything.

The Boy still needs my non-financial contribution to his life.

Harvey, though she doesn't have the words to express it, would also feel my absence in a profound way.

That doesn't even consider that I'm far too curious about what happens next to check out.

The universe is stuck with me, I'm afraid.

Freedom Has Warts

The joyous thing about liberty is that it has warts.

It's chock full of things that are offensive to someone else.

Glorious, isn't it?

Well, I think so.

Freedom and liberty bring an entire raft of things that piss someone else off.

IT IS SUPPOSED TO!

Take an afternoon to read The Federalist and The Anti-Federalist papers.

It shouldn't take more than an afternoon unless you're a recent high-school grad.

The beauty of the Republic that we were promised was the allowance for widely divergent points of view that didn't ever intrude on how things were supposed to operate.

I could be an atheist and you can be a Catholic and our opinion/conviction about God would not impact how Government treated us.

The thing is, you have to let me deny God and I have to let you celebrate Him.

Aside: Take note that I respectfully capitalized God and Him to show that I respect your right to believe in God as your see fit, even if I don't think He exists.

It's when I demand you cannot worship God as you see fit when it doesn't affect others right to worship that this falls apart.

I do not, and will not, demand that you change what you Believe as long as you don't bring The State to force me to change how I view the existence of God.

I, likewise, promise to not bring The State into forcing you to admit that there is no imaginary being known as "God" and subjugating you to my Atheist beliefs.

Freedom of Religion includes the freedom to deny God.  It also includes the freedom to accept God in many, numerous, sects and branches.

As long as you don't FORCE me to adhere to your Faith, we're cool.  I've no intention of forcing my Godless ways upon you.  I might hope to convince you, but I'd never dream of forcing you.

Song Whiplash

iTunes has a sense of humor.

It played "The Day the Music Died" by Don McLean and "The Saga Begins" by Weird Al nearly back to back.

It's a little jarring.

Lost Things

One of the things my "uncle" Bill loved to do was video editing.

This was back in the days of VHS and camcorders which were the size of an anti-tank missile launcher.

He recorded some flight deck stuff of F-14's launching and set it to "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits.

The actual launch stroke hits at 01:50 with the guitar kicking in just as the controls swipe started.

It was epic.

It should have been part of a Fighter Fling.

His live-in girl tossed everything when he ended up dead.

Gone forever.

Dammit!

Repeat After Me

The science is never settled.

The Googoo in Maka Tanka are neanderthals.

Doing research on them is interesting.

I have three books which don't agree with one another ©1973, 1989 and 1996.

There's a bigger change between the '89 and '96 books than '73 and '89 too.

It's very interesting stuff to hit Wikipedia and read that the theories espoused in 1973 have been completely supplanted.

Skhul V is no longer considered an advanced neanderthal, but a modern human buried in a neanderthal site.

Zoon

All In One Handy Chart!

Leading By Example

Just in case anyone missed it, I am an Atheist.

The courtesy I extend to the people suffering under gender dysphoria?

I extend that to y'all who've got an invisible friend too.

While I respect the WASP work ethic and concede that it helped build America, there's no proof that believing in an invisible friend is anything but a mental disorder that demands treatment.

See what I did there?

Can you make the connection to your not published comment diatribe about the queers?

There is no God, PROVE me wrong.  On second thought; that there is no sure proof short of the grave, maybe let's not find out who's right on this one.

I don't like shitting on people with religion.  They're, for the most part, some fine folks and I don't want to drag them into the shit because of a couple commenters who feel that I need to be taken to task for not condemning "the fucking faggots" to Hell with them.

I'm not the one hearing voices commanding me to DO SOMETHING about "the fucking faggots".

And it must be voices from the aether too, because the passage you keep citing in YOUR book doesn't say anything about being homosexual, it's about pederasty.  I find it odd that I know where to find the passage that actually condemns homosexuality in YOUR book and you don't.  Especially when the passages are right fucking next to each other.

Aside: A strict reading of The New Testament will clue you in that the Old Testament (aka The Torah) doesn't apply to Christians because NEW TESTAMENT.

Second aside:  Are you eating pork?  Shellfish?  Meat on Friday?  Observing the Sabbath on the wrong day ie: Sunday?  Same book.  If you can be let out of those rules because... reasons, then you can be let out of hatin' on the LGBT by the same mechanism.

I agree with The Bible on this, pederasty is wrong and those who practice it aren't dealt with in near as harsh a manner as I'd like to see.

What's that first rule, "Don't be a dick."

I thought long and hard before posting this, but a couple idiots just can't get the message that they're not going to get their comment diatribe posted.

Something else for y'all religiously inclined people to consider: By Atheist, I really do mean that there is no God.  That means that citing YOUR religious text to prove to me something is wrong is irrelevant.  I don't care what a fictional character in a novel has to say on the matter.  From my perspective God is no more real than Frodo Baggins and The Lord of the Rings is easier to read.

Come up with a secular argument or stop trying to convince me.

To the polite and not-at-all-being-a-dick people with religion, this was not meant to be offensive, merely abrasive, because I'm sick of the people claim to share your beliefs trying to shit in the comments.

Similar Initials

NSDAP, NAACP.

They both start with an N and end with a P.

And it's getting increasingly hard to tell them apart from quoting their leadership.

If the leftist media wasn't such a fellow traveler in antisemitism you'd prolly hear more about this.

Bottom Heavy

Something I've noticed about the composition of the Army's units in the late 19th century is an amazing lack of officers.

They're barely outnumbered by the NCO's.

Due to the dispersed nature of the frontier army, a company or troop was a fairly autonomous unit too.

It occurs to me that there's no staff built into the TO&E that's not also someone who's at the tooth end.

The 1890's US Cavalry has a tooth to tail ratio that the Mobile Infantry would respect.

Failing The Smell Test

It has been a month since Halsey Beshears closed the breweries and bars in Florida.

He said, at the time, that breweries and bars were the reason that cases suddenly spiked from under a thousand new cases a day to thousands a day.

Well, it's a disease with a 2-3 week course.  That means if bars and breweries were how it was being spread, we should see an equally dramatic drop in new cases about a week ago.

We didn't.

The big jump in cases happens, like clockwork, two weeks after the George Floyd protests and Antifa riots started.  Notably, because everyone poo-poohed social distancing and masks at protests.

Bars and breweries weren't allowed open until almost a week after the protest/riots got going.

What also have is a dramatic spike in the percentage of tests being positive each day.

We were running 5.49% average positive when the protests started.

Since then we've jumped to an average of 14.13%

We've gone from around 14 thousand tests per day to an average of 42 thousand or so.

Tripled the tests, found three times as many people positive?

That correlates better than blaming bars.

One bit of good news that the news isn't mentioning at all:  Our crude CFR has fallen from 4.44% right before the protests started to a mere 1.39% today.

Our dead per 100k is a mere 26.9.  WAY below the "success" story that is New York or New Jersey.

Violent RIght Wing Extremists

Where are the violent right wing extremists?

Where is the list of murders committed by them?

I keep hearing about how violent and murderous I am, but reports of people like me going off and killing are very thin on the ground.

This is especially noticeable because the press absolutely hates us.  Notice they always try to attribute any mass shooting to us and quietly roll it back to the actual perpetrator?

If there were numerous murders committed by conservatives, we'd be hearing all about them all day, every day.

I am reading about people being murdered for showing a bit of MAGA.  That's got to be a painful nipple twister for a media that would rather ignore the depravities of their team.

Cue Bob Seger

Canon M50 Manual Mode, Tripod, ES-S 55-250 IS, f/32.0, 1/13", 250mm, ISO 100.

There's a sunspot!  Over on the left side of the sun.  Just a wee little one.

Paraphrasing Hognose

"How do you know the police will turn on the citizens they're supposed to be protecting in favor of the state?"

"They always have."

Michelle Malkin just got that lesson shoved right down her throat.

The cops stood by and let them be mostly peacefully protested.

What were Ms Malkin and her companions doing?

Having a rally to support the cops.

I've said it before and I will say it again.

The police ARE The State.

You have to behave as if they are The State first and foremost and ignore that individual officers might, indeed, be people when you deal with them.

It didn't have to be this way, but it's fallen to it.

It's what I've been trying to get people to see for years, to no avail.

Career Limiting Move

I seem to recall that spouting off about politics, and expressing your opinion of POTUS is spouting off about politics, in uniform is verboten.

Like really against regs enough to go past non-judicial punishment.

They gave a soldier a letter of reprimand for merely giving a respectful speech at a Ron Paul rally once.  This is a lot worse.

Article 89 might apply.  Bad conduct discharge might happen.

How Many Men In A Regiment

In 1899 there are:

25 Regiments of Infantry
10 Regiments of Cavalry
7 Regiments of Artillery

Each Infantry regiment has three battalions and each battalion has 4 companies.
Each Cavalry regiment has four squadrons and each squadron has 3 troops.

Historically, they were never at full strength.

The Army requested 12 companies per Infantry regiment and Congress authorized 8 manned and 2 unmanned.

On June 26, 1876 each infantry company averaged 60.4 officers, NCO's and men.  42.3 of these men are privates.

INFANTRY

Supposedly each Infantry company got a Captain, 1 1st Lieutenant and 1 2nd Lieutenant for officers.  1 1st Sergeant, 4 Sergeants, 4 Corporals and 91 men  There were also 2 Artificers and 1 Wagoner.
8 companies of manned (A through H) and 2 of unmanned (I and K there is no J company) totals 872.
Each Regiment gets 1 Colonel, 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 1 Major (each commands one battalion), 1 Adjutant, 1 Regimental Quartermaster for officers.  1 Sergeant Major, and 1 Quartermaster-Sergeant for NCO's plus 1 Chief Musician, 2 Principle Musicians, and 20 Musicians

902 total per regiment at "full strength".  1,090 when I and K companies are manned.

CAVALRY

The Cavalry got 12 troops per regiment but, again, two were unmanned and only 44 privates were authorized.

Each troop is supposed to have a Captain, 1 1st Lieutenant and 1 2nd Lieutenant for officers.  1 1st Sergeant, 5 Sergeants, 4 Corporals 2 Trumpteers, and 88 men  There were also 2 Farriers and Blacksmiths and 1 Wagoner.

10 troops of manned (A through I and K there is no J troop) and 2 of unmanned (L and M) totals 872.

Each Regiment gets 1 Colonel (in overall command), 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 3 Majors (one squadron each), 1 Adjutant, 1 Regimental Quartermaster for officers.  1 Sergeant Major, and 1 Quartermaster-Sergeant for NCO's plus 1 Chief Musician, 2 Principle Musicians, and 20 Musicians

 1,062 total per regiment at "full strength".  1,248 when L and M troops are manned.

ARTILLERY

A typical Artillery battery is supposed to get a Captain, 2 1st Lieutenants and 1 2nd Lieutenant for officers.  1 1st Sergeant, 4 Sergeants, 4 Corporals and 56  men  There were also 2 Artificers and 1 Wagoner.

10 batteries of manned (A through I and K there is no J battery) and 2 of unmanned (L and M) totals 746.

Each Regiment gets 1 Colonel, 1 Lieutenant Colonel, 1 Major, 1 Adjutant, 1 Regimental Quartermaster for officers.  1 Sergeant Major, and 1 Quartermaster-Sergeant for NCO's plus 1 Chief Musician, 2 Principle Musicians, and 20 Musicians

776 total per regiment at "full strength".  894 when I and K batteries are manned.  The actual size of an artillery battery depends on the actual type and number of guns per battery.

Interesting

Worth the time it takes to watch.

Remember, it's important to look at stuff you disagree with if only to see if your position is flawed or not.

PS: He's chosen a position and doesn't think he has.

They're Not Silent By Choice

Muzzled Majority might be a more apt term for ye olde silent majority.

They might have something to say if there were any place they felt safe saying it.

Retaliation for speaking ones mind has blown back and gotten spouses fired.

People have been Swatted and Doxed.  I'm really starting to feel that swatting and doxing should be capitol offenses, because the intent is to cause real harm to the target.

I'm also of the opinion that the cops shouldn't roll on the word of an anonymous tip.  "Who are you and how do you know this information?" should be asked and answered before the SWAT team even sets down their coffee.  Using anonymous tips should be prohibited by the 6th Amendment because without the identity of the caller, how can one be able to face ones accuser?

There's growing evidence that people are lying to pollsters and acquaintances about their real political feelings.  The Left wants this to happen because the last thing they want is for the majority to discover that they are, in fact, the majority.  There are several information cascades that led to the Left losing control when such majorities suddenly realized that not only were they not alone, but were quite numerous.

Just about the only voice a muzzle majority has left is the ballot box.  How many attempts are in play which serve to make vote tampering easier or to make an opposition vote meaningless?

The muzzled majority is grumpy and getting agitated.  The Left had better pray that vote is all they do, but by the way they're pushing buttons things might go Ninja Turtle before the election.

But It's Thursday

I've been hard pressed to shake a case of the Monday's here of late.

It affects my post count mightily, it does.

The Boy being jumpy hasn't helped.  The lack of school is hitting him hard.

The lack of down time for me while he's at school and The Lovely Harvey is at work is hitting me too.

It's taking too long to do simple things because I'm so discombobulated from the "what day of the week is it again?" feeling from nothing keeping a weekly schedule.

Cyclic

The lack of police response encouraged protesters to become rioters.

This cuts both ways.

The person who opposes the riot, when they know the cops ain't coming, is enabled to do more than shout, "stop!"

When the dust settles and only the defenders of property get arrested, the people who were defending their property wonder why they supported the police in the first place.

When the cops leave counter-protesters hanging when the purpose of that counter protest was to support the police, they ask, why did we bother?

The average citizen knows what it wants the police to be and they aren't getting what they want in too many places.

They're sick of being told by their employees that they are not the boss.

They're sick of being told how difficult things will be if the citizens get what they want.

The politicization of too many police departments has brought us to this point.

The police unions were instrumental.

Property rights are the most important of all rights.

Property crimes are the lowest priority for the police.

Theft, trespassing and vandalism are violations of property rights.

Yet, the police put no priority on solving most of these crimes.

The criminals see the lack of police response and are emboldened by it.  They spread the word that retaliation for these "petty" crimes is likewise petty compared to the gains from it.

Because we can't get police to do much about it.

The cops aren't entirely to blame here.  Politicians reducing sentences on "petty" crime have a huge hand here.  Judges being lenient.  Prosecutors being lazy.

The servants of society believe they're our masters and we suffer and pay the price.

But I sense a change coming.

A reversion might be in the offing.

Comet

My best effort with the M50 is disappointing, but I learned some from it.

Aperture priority, handheld.

Canon M50, EF-S 55-200, f/4.0, 1.6", 55mm, ISO 12,800

I had my old SX20 with us and Marv did better.  Braced against a post.

Canon SX20 IS, f/2.8, 15", 5mm, ISO 400

If the weather holds, we're going to try again tomorrow and I will see if I can improve on it with the slightly faster kit lens.

Torque

I must say, even though The Precious is no longer a top of the line super-car, the 428 ft-lbs are verra nice and it gets near 300 from idle.

It gets contrasted with driving Moxie, whose power-band doesn't start until near 5k and makes just over half as much, in a heavier car.

Plus the Zen of rowing my own rather than dealing with the trans diving for sixth like the EPA was printing fines live via OnStar.

Rapid Dry Fire

Now that I have some .30-40 snap caps I'm entertaining myself with some rapid "fire" drills with the Krag.

I'm trying to get a feel for doing single fire until the order to change to the magazine comes and then being forced back to single fire.

If there's a lull in the action, one could replenish the magazine, put the cut-off back on and keep single firing until a rapid run is needed.

I have to say, the butter-like smoothness is WONDERFUL.

An Open Apology

After watching a lot of YouTube of people working on their Italian exotics...

GM,
I'm sorry.

You did an amazing job of making things easy to access, remove and replace on my Corvette.  My eyes were simply clouded by it being much harder than on my dear-departed B-Body.

I must also commend you on the amazing build quality under the veneer of the body and interior materials.

I've seen kit cars done with more care and neatness than I've seen under the skin of a typical Ferrari or Lambo.

Kudos, GM!

Willards Most Affected

The tactical effect of real magic and mages is a wall I just slammed into hard.

On the very small scale of players in a game, I'm comfortable.

The Army would have different mages.  Quartermaster Corps would have mages who know completely different spells from a line-cavalry mage.

I think to properly figure this out, I'm going to have to learn Willard the GURPS magic system in far more detail than he expected or desires.

This is on top of doing the details on "Old-Magic".

Old-Magic can be VERY powerful, it sank Atlantis after all.

I definitely need to make a few line-mages and support mages to suss out some of the details.

Additionally, a regiment is going to want several items which can do something like cast weather dome just to make life less miserable in the field.

I'd Say It Worked

"I'm a 38-year-old single man. There's this very pretty, very nice female trainer I see at my gym. I'd ask her out except that she has a huge tattoo of a diamond on her neck. Ugh. Total deal breaker. If it were a hidden tattoo (leg, hip, etc.), I'd deal. But I just can't imagine myself or any guy bringing a girl with a huge neck tat home to meet the parents. Why would a woman do this?"

Why would she do this?


To make guys like you pass her by is the obvious answer.


Don't think about it too hard, you'll just end up crying.

Stop Paying Them

VDH on the NFL.

In a couple of months we're cutting the cord... uh...  It's a satellite receiver, not a cord.

At any rate, we're no longer getting the programming we wanted to pay for and the realization that we're subsidizing professional sports and the channels that specialize in reporting on sports makes the decision easier.

The channels I used to watch no longer have the shows I liked.

Harvey had more inertia than I did about shutting it off, but she's there now.

I have a few questions for the actors and players from Hollywood and Professional Sports.

Where do you think your millions of dollars come from?

What happens when nobody buys a ticket or tunes in?

Lemme answer.

The millions of dollars that pay your salaries come from millions of fans spending a tiny amount in ticket sales, merchandise and being the targets of advertising.

Providing a target for advertising is where sports is making the really big bucks.  This is why they are playing to empty stadiums and how they can afford to do so.

Someone is paying the television broadcaster millions upon millions to play their ads during the game.  The broadcaster is, in turn, paying Professional Sports millions upon millions to do something that people will tune in to watch, and thus be exposed to the ads.

More people watching translates to higher ratings, higher ratings mean the broadcaster can charge more for an ad slot.  Fewer people watching translates to lower ratings, lower ratings means the broadcaster cannot charge as much for an ad slot.

This is where we poors come back into the picture.  If we don't watch, we lower the ratings.

While TV plays the game to sell ads, we don't tune in to watch them.  We tune in to watch what's playing between the ads.  If viewers are not exposed to the ads, advertisers stop buying ad slots for that show.

Want Professional Sportsballers to shut up and play the game?  You have to starve them first.

The billionaire owners will still be billionaires if professional sports ended tomorrow.  The players, on the other hand, probably won't be millionaires for long judging by the way they spend.

You, sitting at home after work will not be affected much by the cancellation of The Sportsball Show either.

The players and actors need you far more than you need them.

We also need to eradicate the state funded training camps and recruiting stations called "Universities".  Call it one of many reasons to kill state funding of colleges.

If Hollywood and Professional Sports can get by on China's money alone, then I think that what they have to say about American politics and society should be ignored.  Completely ignored.

I'd also suggest that they be moved to China as well.

Serious Comorbidity

Elasto-kinetic deceleration trauma is now a co-morbidity leading to Wu Ping Cough death.

Dude gets splattered on a bike, but it's not the accident that killed him, but COVID-19?

And the government wonders why we're starting to ignore them.

Time To Switch To Decaf

Wow!

That could have gone... better.

And at the end of the day, someone who clearly didn't like the cops already has their opinion set into stone.

King Of Florida Jailed

Florida man jailed for arranging to have sex with a 14 year old in Vancouver.

He figured she'd be 18 by the time he got there.

We must rescue our sovereign!

I Think I've Seen This Happen

Even Better

I had assumed that the infographic posted by the NMAAHC was created by a racist.

What I, apparently, got wrong was what kind of racist.

WOW.

National Tattoo Day

Short of LGBT rights and abortion, I've found no topic quite as polarizing as tattoos.

There's even slurs for each camp!

As a dirty inky, I celebrate today.

Too Late Comrade

African-American Museum takes down the infographic I posted earlier.

The fact that I (and many MANY MANY others) posted it earlier, and the internet is forever, means they're going to be dealing with their stupid decision for a long time.

I hope that it leads to new and better management and a focus on history that's not needlessly confrontational and divisive.

Arrrgh!

Replaced the battery in the UPS.

Plugged three things that needed uninterrupted power into the "surge only" side.

Thunderstorm this afternoon took out the power for a minute here, a minute there.

And shut down those three things.

Repeatedly and just after I'd gotten them running again.

I took me way too long to remember I'd screwed up the plugs.

Set The Bar Low

Software Janitor mentions, "It just sounds like they want to burn down all of society and they have a very low bar with what to replace it with."

Have I got a surprise for them!

What keeps that low-bar society from, itself, being replaced by "white society"?

A "white society" which will dispense with the niceties of the society which the low-bar society supplanted.

The rules will be different.

It's dangerous to make large changes to an existing civilization without hard thought about the consequences of those changes.

The savages getting their way might be the fastest route to peace.

So is going straight down the rock-strewn rapids.

Tinkering

Both the set of stocks that came with my CMP M1911A1 and the set I liberated from the trash in the Army are not matched from side to side.

Nor could I make a match from either pair.

So I ordered a matching set from Simpson's.

Much better.

Trinity

I just noticed that this didn't post on time because an 18 looks like a 16 when you skip wearing your glasses.  It's retroactively been posted to the correct time.

75 years ago, just this moment, the very first atomic explosion occurred.

Gadget worked as hoped and didn't ignite the atmosphere or fizzle.

Pscyhological Does Not Mean Fake

There's two huge reasons why I get pissed at bigots who can't grasp something like gender dysphoria and separate it from being a child molester.

First, the class I didn't take that would have completed my bachelor's of science in psychology was English.  3 credits of English separated me from graduation with the degree.

It's not that I didn't learn the material, my summer internship convinced me I didn't want to be a psychologist.

Second, I have an invisible psychological problem.  Two, really.

Misophonia is real and obscure.  You've no idea how many times I have to remind close friends that what they're doing is setting it off.

It's just as irritating for them to accommodate me as it is for me to deal with their small movements and noises.

Being constantly dismissed because I have no physical indication of affliction and the person not understanding what I'm dealing with is very frustrating.

There's a third thing too.

Way back in high school, when I was being bullied constantly for being a gamer and dirt-head...

The only other clique in the entire school that treated us gamers as humans were the queers.

Not the computer nerds.

Not the jocks.

Not the cheerleaders.

The queers.

You people who didn't get your comment approved?  You sound just like the jocks who'd torment us because we really just wanted left alone.

I'm older and wiser now, and you assholes are meaningless.  You seek validation in the abuse of others because there's some failing of yours that you cannot bring yourself to face.

You should get counseling.  You could benefit from it.

Me, I've learned to have compassion for the suffering of others because I'm living with my own, personal, brand of suffering.

A suffering I cannot help, cannot treat and cannot readily explain.

Suffering from this is not a crime, not matter how tormented I am and how fervently I wish the idiot at the bar would stop chewing like a pig and bouncing his knee.  It's a crime when I attack him.

Dressing like a woman to alleviate a symptom of dysphoria isn't a crime.

Fucking a child is a crime.  EVEN IF YOU DRESS LIKE A MAN.  Which, by the way you uneducated dolts, is how most molesters dress.  The molester seeks camouflage, to be invisible to evade attention.  Children twig on someone dressing unusually, and that puts them on guard.

But you were so damn eager to be a bigot you didn't bother checking what the real circumstances of pederasty are.

Name Calling

If you think that the words "gender dysphoria" and "pedophile" are the same; you are (at best) illiterate or (at worst) deeply stupid.

They are not conditions which go together any place but a bigot's mind.

Why Africa Sinks

In one handy, and bigoted, infographic!

The National Museum of African American History and Culture must be... uh...  I can't tell what they're trying to do here.

What I do know is that all of my friends of enhanced melanin count adhere to all of these points and all are more successful than I am at most things.

This infographic is a roadmap to success, should anyone dare to travel the road and it's available to anyone to use regardless of skin-tone.

More Data Is Bad

The more I learn about some things, the worse I am going to be for the unprepared player come my next Traveller campaign.

It's just little snips here and there, but the details start adding up and they lay traps for the unsuspecting player who doesn't think to ask or consult their skills.

Stuff like watching a documentary on the 15 year servicing of a Boeing 777.

Stuff like reading a forum thread where Navy vets are all comparing their damage control, fire and yard stories.  This is a real gem for information that can be translated to something to mess with the players!

It's A Miracle!

I just changed the batteries in my mini-Maglite.

This might be the second time in my entire life that I've done this where the reason for changing them was simple depletion.

I've killed lots of these things from leaking batteries.

I've lost so many I've lost count.

I intend to celebrate!

Putting The U Back In Uninterruptable

New batts installed.

Status screen happy about the situation on the UPS.

Happy camper!

Trying To Get Out Of Being Punished

Florida cities are fighting to stop penalties of $5,000 and removal from office, if they pass local gun regulations.

I notice that they're not trying to get the preemption repealed, just the penalties for violating it.

Seems like a conspiracy to commit a crime to me.

"We intend to break this law, and would like the penalties eliminated."

Masks Are Pointless

Even the CDC agrees.

This Is Something

Florida labs found to be lying.

From the way they caved to the press, I am left wondering if it's the place they reported to that's ignoring the negative tests and then sending the inflated numbers to the public.

I'd wondered what had changed in the reporting when suddenly we went from 6% or so daily positive tests to 20%.

PS: Despite the spike in cases and deaths, crude CFR continues to fall.  It's the breathless reporting on the totals that's making this seem terrifying.

PPS: If this is the cause of the spike here in Florida and not the labs screwing about with the numbers, then I propose internal border checkpoints.

By The Way

You can reject a lot of the wokeness about transgender stuff and not be a bigot about it.



The woke LGBT side of this is just as bigoted as the "let's be pricks about it" straight side.

Remember, I stated that we treat the people afflicted with dysphoria with compassion and not to be assholes about something that they literally cannot control and doesn't have an effective cure.

But we should not be tormenting language to eliminate actual physical and biological descriptors.

We'd be far better off figuring out new terms and destigmatizing people who're different from us.

It Just Didn't Exist When I Started

I recently became aware that my spiffy Canon M50 has a firmware version.

That means that there could be firmware updates.

Pretty standard stuff for computerized stuff, really, but not something I'd thought applied to cameras.

Turns out, there's firmware versions for the lenses too!

The procedure is dirt simple and unneeded at this time because the camera and lenses came with the latest firmware.

Escape Evade Infiltrate Eliminate

Another recurring trope with tabletop RPG groups in the paramilitary genre...

Once an employer fucks them, they are going to kill that employer.

To the point of completely eliminating their entire organization from the bottom to the top.

Sometimes they're subtle.

Sometimes they're subtle like a velvet wrapped nickel-iron asteroid augering in at a significant fraction of c.

One thing is certain, they're coming for you Bossmang.

If you're lucky you can turn yourself into the cops and get a quick sentence to Galapticon 9.

If you're not...  Rob Zombie would have trouble with dinner after hearing how creative players can be about prolonging the end.

Extraction

Watching Extraction and at the point where Rake has the kid... uh... extracted and there's fuckery going on about his team being paid for the job just before the bad guys start taking his team out.

I know what my players would have done if they'd been the rescue team.

The kid would be dead.

The only question would have been if it would have taken significant time for the kid to die, but he'd be dead once the people who hired them to rescue the brat failed to pay.

This trope is as consistent with this genre of tabletop RPG as "you meet in a tavern".

And He Teaches Our Children

I think it's time to purge the bigots off the side bar again.

Divemedic keeps posting his gorilla analog to transgender.

It's the "Be A Prick" school of dealing with LGBT.

I already posted my thoughts on his stupidity and got a lengthy diatribe from Aesop in the comments.

I suspect that, like abortion, it's GOD who's made up their minds and not an actual rational thought process.

The justification to be pricks to LGBT boils down to having to do something they don't like.

I don't accept that from a 5-year old, why would I accept that rationale from an "adult"?

I'm sick of people being bigots about this.  I've too many friends who've spent time in e-rooms from the attentions of the likes of Aesop and Dive Medic.

Damn The US Has Bad Luck With Torpedo Design

The sinking of USS Scorpion.

Wrap Around Magazine

The Krag-Jørgenson is famous for it's magazine.

Here's some pics with my new, photogenic snap-caps!

Magazine Cut-Off On

Magazine Cut-Off Off - The round is presented just a little further into the feedway.

IPS

My uninterruptible power source has decided to be interruptible.

Dead batts.

I discovered this the hard way when the power gave a hiccup during a thunderstorm.

New batts on order.

Greyhound

Surprisingly, I am not screaming at the screen at how inaccurate Greyhound is.

If you've seen any WW2 sub v destroyer movie, you've seen this plot.

That doesn't mean it's not well done this go.

I recommend it.

USS Bonhomme Richard Is Ablaze

LHD-6 is on fire.

Skeleton crew aboard for routine maintenance.

Fingers crossed that it looks worse than it is.

I'm betting a weld started the fire.  It's far too common.

The comments from Facebook are actually getting hilarious.

Apparently a significant number of people are unaware that ship names are recycled.

LHD-6 is the third ship of the name.  Preceded by CV-31 and John Paul Jones' Revolutionary War frigate.

This Is My Shocked Face

We now have pictures of the home-invaders.

Well, the dead ones.  Is anyone else just absolutely shocked that they had mugshots already?

I'm waiting for either some overzealous DA to file charges on the homeowner or some sort of race-bait-riot to start at his house.

Supposedly the jammed firearm was a Glock 19.

Update: After thinking about the victim's statement a bit, I wonder if the "jam" was simply running out of ammo.

No It Will Not

There's been some speculation that what we're seeing with the protests and riots is a taste of what they plan to do if Trump is reelected.

"Either elect our guy, or you get four more years of this!"

No.

There will not be four more years of this.

I am seriously doubting that there will be four more months of this.

The Lovely Harvey, because of where she works, has a multitude of liberal co-workers and acquaintances.

They're not acting normal.

They're scared.

They've asked if we have any spare guns they could borrow or buy.

We'd have been happy to loan them a couple, but I suck at boating.

They're not buying the line that Black Lives Matter is selling.

They're shocked at the statues being knocked over, even the Confederates.

They don't want the cops gone.

Did I mention that most of her co-workers are black women?

Well, I guess they're just women now, because they're not planning on voting for Biden.

They've expressed concern that the shenanigans of Anti-Fa (not by name, they don't know that name) is going to cause a real race war and they REALLY Grok the word "minority" and what that means if whitey decides that they've got to fight for their very lives.

They're not scared of racists, but they are scared that someone is pushing the white-folk into a corner where they're going to have to kill a lot of darker skinned folks to get out.

Most of them have older family members who remember the dark days of genuine racism and worry that might be regarded as a better time to live in than when anti-fa finally tosses the last straw on the camel.

Damn.

Busy Day

Ran out with Marv to get parts to fix his bike.  Two inner tubes and a chain.

I needed a new seat.  The narrow one that came with the bike simply isn't up to supporting my ample ass.

The reason we wanted our bikes fixed was to pace The Boy on his 5k walk for Virtual Special Olympics!

The Boy did his 3.1 miles in just over an hour.

Then I made celebratory burgers, supported a local brewery's 3 for 2 sale and bought some hot fudge sundaes.

Loads of fun!

Finally Confirmed

Every single one of the small breweries that I haunt has, despite my mask, recognized me.

I think we can stop with the idea that anyone at The Daily Planet was fooled by Clark Kent's glasses.

Good Shoot

Looks like a good shoot so far.

But, since this is Florida, the homeowner will probably be charged for hate crimes or something once the respective races of everyone involved are revealed.

Rumor has it he used a 10mm.  Col Cooper's Grave is humming.

Oklahoma Changes Name Back To Indian Territory

McGirt v Oklahoma

It appears that Congress never bothered to formally end the 1866 treaty and we've been operating as if it had for the past 154 years?

Things could get sporty real fast in OK.

Update:

Someone at Arfcom explains the ruling thus:

A lot of confusion here about today's supreme court decision.  Ownership of land was not at issue, just the geographic limits of tribal jurisdiction.  Non-tribal members are still under state jurisdiction.   Members of the tribe will be tried by tribal courts for minor crimes and Federal courts for major crimes committed in these areas.

Many Western States already have this dual sovereignty arrangement.

Zero Fucks Given

One of the neighborhood strays has found a nice place to bask in the early evening.

He paid me zero mind while I snapped pics.

To Alt You Need To Know What You're Changing

Been reading.

A lot.

A decent hunk of the reading is wanting to get The Sioux right.

I can tell, right now, that even if I sell millions of copies I will not be nominated for a Hugo if I'm honest about them.

The truth about any people is rarely politically correct and the revision to create a "noble savage," uninvolved in their fate and completely innocent in the conflict with the expanding USA is simply bullshit.

The revisions are aided by it being true that whites were pressing west and settling wherever they damn well pleased and, for the most part, their claim to the land they squatted on being backed by the US government.

The events cited most about the evils of whites come after literally years and years of trying to find some sort of peaceful settlement.

Neither side seemed to be capable of keeping their word.

It seems one-sided on the deceit front because the outcome was very one-sided.

A stone-age culture does not win against an industrialized one unless the industrialized culture stops itself for some reason.

I noticed that the revisionists don't mention how The Sioux stole a huge hunk of their territory from the Kiowa and Cheyenne.

They don't seem to know about how common slavery was among the plains Indians.

But the giant elephantine gorilla in the room that's most important for really understanding the why of how this all went was neither culture possessed the concept of cultural relativity.

They both viewed the world through their own lenses of right and wrong and that there could be a different view from their own was not rejected because it couldn't even be conceived of.

Revisionism is applying cultural relativism to the histories and has chosen a bad-guy while ignoring that there's enough blame to go around for everyone.

You Can Get The Revolver

But you will be hard pressed to get a proper Krag carbine for 1899.

Beat up examples without rear sights are running $1,500.

Rifles, as usual, are easier to get than carbines.

That's true of Trapdoors as well.

But you can buy a replica of a Trapdoor carbine, you cannot, as of yet, buy a replica Krag-Jørgensen.

There's a strong temptation to try making a clone from the sportified rifle I have.

A temptation that fades as the realization of the skills required being non-existent on my personal character sheet and expensive when hired out.

Making Characters

The decision to use GURPS to keep the characters straight in my embryonic novel is paying off, if for no other reason that there's a name at the top of the sheet and what unit I've lumped them into.

Lt William Fowler, I troop, 16th Cavalry, 77th Expeditionary Group.

Lt Col Waller, commander of the Expeditionary Group.

Sgt. Harrington, mage assigned to I-troop.

Major Beasley, Commander I-Troop.  He's got a flaming saber!

I've a few more that don't have names yet.

I need more enlisted characters.

I'm still trying to decide how I want the point of view to behave.

I'm inclined to first person, but third person seems more flexible.

If There Were Honest Reporting

The increase in the number of dead today is 1/4 the increase in the number of new cases two weeks ago.

They keep stressing that the death rate is a lagging indicator.  They always say two weeks.

The number of cases is increasing at 5-9% a day with a mean of 5.28%
The number of deaths is increasing at 1.74 to 3% a day, but is falling from 3 not increasing from 1.  The mean is 1.23%

Cases are increasing four times as quickly as deaths.

This is excellent news!

In the same two weeks the crude case fatality rate has fallen from 3.01% to 1.74%.

This is excellent news!

We know that the number of new cases includes positive antibody tests.

We don't know what percentage of new cases are antibody tests.

None Dare Call It Racist

Why is it we're twisted around the axle over the police shooting of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, two black men with lengthy criminal histories who were being actively violent while resisting arrest?

When we don't give two shits about Eric Shaw who was shot for simply being at a place he had a right to be, late at night, and leaving his door open or Daniel Shaver, who was shot to death trying to figure out what the fuck the cops were screaming at him from a state of inebriation.  Neither had a criminal history and both were white.

When it's put forward that Black Lives Matter doesn't care about any lives but black lives, this is my answer.

If you want to talk about excessive police violence and unnecessary killings, let's talk.

But you keep wanting me to get upset about felons making a final bad decision because they are black and ignore other shootings with far less police justification because they are white.

I was with you until you started being felonious over the Floyd death.  I actively don't care about Brooks because the riots undermine your position.

Gold Standard

Lest anyone tell you that inflation is not possible on a gold standard...

In 1851 an ounce of gold was $18.93.

In 1881 an ounce of gold was $18.94.

But the price of copper was not tied to the price of gold.

The 1851 coin was made from 10.89g of 100% copper.
The 1881 coin was made from bronze with 2.95g of copper in it.

Present value is about $20 for the older coin and $2 for the newer.

Inching Across The Line

Marv has his saber operating.

His hilt is decidedly budget oriented and mainly sourced from Home Depot's plumbing section.

We gave up trying to reinvent the wheel and just purchased the Crystal X board from The Custom Saber Shop.



It's verra kewl!

I've got all the parts I need for mine, but I need to get some powdercoating done.

'Tis A Silly Place

Decided to hang the Krag, because it was getting in the way.  That got me to hang up the cartridge belt, altered M1873 revolver and M1860 saber.

The first shot captures a lot of the silliness and geekery which I surround myself with.

It's a lot better than focusing on the shit that gives me nightmares.

Ironic Advice

If you're one of the many people in central Florida and/or Texas who has Frontier Communications for internet and you're currently down:

Change your DNS server settings to Primary 1.1.1.1 and Secondary 8.8.8.8 to bypass the jury-rigged with baling wire and duct-tape DNS servers Frontier manages.

Your internet should come back directly.

I understand that giving this advice over the internet that you likely cannot see because of the outage is ironic.

Temptation Get Thee Behind Me!

Cimarron lists a Trapdoor Carbine.

Bud's lists it for $1,355.

Time to start saving again.

Feedback

The Cimarron came from a Gunbroker vendor in Louisiana.

The tracking originated from an FFL in Illinois through St Louis, Missouri.

He claimed he had a gun in stock in his kitchen FFL, but really had it drop shipped from his distributor.

That pisses me off.

But he got the gun to me in the agreed upon time frame, so I don't really have anything to complain about except a small lie at the beginning.

I've been wondering what I should do about feedback.

So I looked to see if he'd left ME feedback.

After all, I'd done my job as the buyer.  I stabbed "buy-it-now" and paid seconds later with the FFL information attached thanks to the automatic system on Gunbroker.

What more could a seller ask for than that?

He has not left feedback.

He leaves lots of feedback, so he must be the kind of seller that waits to see what you said about him before he rates you.

Don't hurt me a bit to not bother with feedback.  Hurts him more than me, for what little affect it has.

Fireworks

This year is unusual for fireworks.

We buy the mortars during the buy one get two free sales in the off times and the "happy fun" variety packs on the 4th.

The tents were cleaned out.

Our initial thought was that supplies were low, because of Wu Ping Cough.

Listening to the cracking and banging...

Supplies were fine, sales must have been brisk.

It feels good to hear.

I hope it portends well for the future that people are celebrating this day 244 years ago when we collectively told our government to fuck off, we can do better.

Filtratious

Playing around with the camera.

First I confirmed that the b/w monochrome setting was different from the sepia setting.

Next I played with the simulated color filters in sepia mode.

No Filter

Yellow Filter

Orange Filter

Red Filter

Green Filter

NRA New Condition

You can't deny we did a great job restoring this revolver.  It's near mint!

I'm here all night, don't forget to tip your wait-staff.

Links to the history of this gun with me.

Weekend Project
Electrolysis
It Shoots

Coincidence

Israel has a functioning squadron of F-35's.

Iran is having explosions and fires around their secret nuclear facilities.

Completely unrelated, I am sure.

FOUL!

Pardon me if I am skeptical about the daily rate of new tests going from 4-6% to suddenly being 15-20% of the new day's test.

Especially on the heels of the CDC "casually" mentioning that Florida is lumping antibody tests with the viral tests.

We've gone from reporting "who has the virus?" to "who has had the virus?"

Also damning is how Florida is, quite deliberately, not mentioning that all the people who've had the disease over the past three months cannot still be sick.

The great news, which is not being reported AT ALL is the crude case fatality rate is well below bad flu season in Florida again.

Hospitalizations did not spike with the spike in new cases, as it did before antibody testing began.

Deaths have not started a parallel spike as should have as they trail the new cases by about two weeks.  They are, in fact, flat to dropping.  Eyes crossed that this remains the case.

The counting of cases and mixing viral and antibody testing is a scandal worthy of journalism's highest stated goals.  The kind of thing they used to give awards for.

If only the truth reflected poorly on Republicans, they'd be on it like... like... [metaphor not found].

Here's A Trivia Item

What cartridge did the Gatling guns commanded by John Henry Parker fire?

What was the designation of the last model Gatling gun adopted by the US Army.

What cartridge did it fire?

What year was it withdrawn from service?

The answers might surprise you.

Is This Something

This sure looks like it could be something.

If it's deliberate, someone should be punished besides us citizens this time.

M1873 Altered Model

She's a handsome beast, isn't she?

Uberti went all the way on doing the small details matching the real deal.

"Bullseye" ejector.

Front mounted axis pin retainer screw instead of a side-mounted plunger.  I don't know what the U marking or the '1519' mean.  It's the Uberti trademark and catalog number!

It's covered in "RAC" proof marks after Rinaldo A Carr.

CZ for "made in 2020".

ATF would have kittens, but this is where the Army put the serial number.

The Pietta version of this gun laser burns this cartouche.  Uberti presses it like it's supposed to be.

Every part marked with an RAC, except the grips, has the serial number (or part of it) too.

The cylinder also gets Italian proof marks.

The extra barrel length, for me, is entirely cosmetically necessary.

I was surprised to find that my Armi San Marco made EMF New Dakota has an undersized grip.