Good!

"Against this backdrop, our coequal branches will be surprised to learn that the rule they thought long settled, and which remained unchallenged for half a century, is one that, according to the majority and the concurrence, my dissent just announced today. Unfortunately, that mistaken view means that the constitutionality of hundreds of statutes may now be in peril, and dozens of agencies could be stripped of their power to enforce laws enacted by Congress."

-S. Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America

Allow me to concur.

And dissent.

The Constitutionality of hundreds of statutes SHOULD be in peril.  It's been obvious to a lot of us for a long time, and we're not even lawyers.

I've talked before about how it shouldn't be possible for regulations to have the power of law because the executive branch is granted no legislative power.  Without that power, they cannot create what are laws in all but name.

Congress has no authority to grant these powers to the executive branch.

So any law that says to let the agency sort it out is unconstitutional.

I think we're going to see a lot of that sentence in the coming years.

I Only Just Put It Together

The heart of our increasingly Orewellian government is the administrative state.

The administrative state drew most of its power from the Chevron Deference decision.

In 1984.

Someone has a sense of humor.

Doing The Maintenance

Gotta take 'em apart and give 'em some love every once and a while.

Doing Willard's Model 69 .44 Combat Magnum because I have the tools and a "clean" workspace.

Also done was the bear slayer, 329PD.

WARNING Light Is Indicated - Life Support

It's amazing how much difference 3 degrees makes in comfort.

AC is set to 76 and I woke up thinking, "it's a little warm in here."

Thermostat says 79 and the compressor is on.

Uh oh.

Check the drain line.  Clear.

Check the capacitor.  Good.

FUCK!

Call in The Man.

He gets here and checks the fuse panel.

We'd lost a fuse.

I should have checked that myself, dammit.

Beep Beep

 

I enabled the beep on lock feature with my OBDSync software today!

It's something I felt the car was missing for a long time and I'd gotten accustomed with from the Civic, The Precious, Moxie...

Next stop, remote start?  Handy in Florida's heat.

Dear ATF

Now that Chevron is repealed, what does the law say about that 4473?

Or "once a machine gun always a machine gun?"

Is "redesigned" still synonymous with "repurposed?"

Is 5.45mm now smaller than .22 caliber?

Green Scam

I noticed that The Beast has SPID code FE9 and Marv's has NE1.

These are the codes for the emissions.

FE9 is Federal emissions standards. 

NE1 is basically the Northeast states that have adopted California's emissions standards.

YF5 is actual California emissions standards.

So I tried looking up what parts were different to conform to the California but not California states.

It's not PPV specific, but it sums up what I found succinctly.

As noted, all Corvettes are mechanically the same and meet 50 state federal emissions from the factory. However, that is not good enough for a new car registration in California. It must be ordered to meet California emissions and reflect that on the RPO codes. While it is ridiculous and simply bureaucratic red tape, it is what it is.

If your car does not have YF5 you will have a long, up hill battle to register a new car in California. If it is a used car and has more than 7,500 miles on it, it can be registered but will have to pass a smog check.

Emission Ordering Options:

FE9 FEDERAL EMISSIONS. Use for ordering vehicles that will be registered in all states except California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

YF5 CALIFORNIA EMISSIONS. Use for ordering vehicles that will be registered in California.

NE1 CT/MA/ME/NY/PA/RI/VT EMISSIONS. Use for ordering vehicles that will be registered in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island or Vermont.

The decal that people are referring to in the above posts looks like the one pictured below. This is a NE1 decal used for cars to be registered in the New England states. Notice that it specifically states California compliance on it as the New England states have adopted California emissions.

Yes, you're reading that right.  There's no actual differences in emissions between a Federal standards car and a California car. 

What that means is CARB is setting the national standard!

That's bullshit!

Road Trip!

Drove down near Miami to let Marv join the PPV Cult

(One of us!  One of us!  One of us!  One of us!  One of us!)

It was my first time down Alligator Alley and the nav tab on my driver's information center even showed it!

The mission was successful and this lovely creature followed Marv home.

The Beast is a '12 Caprice PPV 9C1.  Marv's is an '11 Caprice PPV 9C3.

What that means is he has a less, um, industrial interior.  He has carpet instead of rubber flooring and his shifter is straight out of a civilian car.  There are several, small, detail differences between '11 and '12-'13 too.

Trip deets:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'm having trouble with watching "news" on YouTube.

I click on the video based on the headline.

By the time they get to talking about the headlined information, I've zoned out and completely miss what I'd clicked on the video to see.

Never mind that, at least, 1/3 of the video is embedded advertising.

Remember When

Way back when...

I had a Springfield Armory USGI M1911A1.

I toyed with replacing the locking mainspring housing with a genuine USGI one because they were cheap and available.

They were still widely available when I started looking for a serrated, arched in blue for my .38 Super.

I had to settle for the plastic Colt housing for a long time before I found EGW's offering with a lanyard ring.

In the mean time, the parkerized USGI mainspring housings have evaporated.

Willard and I prefer the arched housing.  Manufacturers and gunwriters prefered flat, checkered housings.

So you're left hunting for a replacement.

You can now get serrated or checkered in matte or polished, blued or stainless.  Sometimes even with a lanyard ring.

But parkerized?  Nope.

Even Gunbroker is devoid.

Speaking Of Shower Improvements

 

When a shower curtain becomes unserviceable, I put Harvey on the case.

My only requirement is they be "fun."

My shower is in the garage, so it's not like we're having high-society seeing it when they visit.

Luxury Appointments

The accumulation of hard water deposits finally killed my shower head.

So I decided to try something different.

This is an experiment to see if I like the "rainfall" style.  This is a high pressure variation of the idea.

I've never had a butt washer wand before.

$30 from Amazon.

They Should Teach That In School

There's two subjects that need to be mandatory in K-12 schooling.

And not just teaching it, but they need to be passed before the student advances a grade or graduates.

The first is civics.  Civics isn't even difficult, but the reason it's not taught is so the politicians can lead voters by the nose and convince them that it's not the citizens who're supposed to be running the show and not the government.

The second is basic finance.

That will also mean teaching them old fashioned math again too.

If every student entering college already had a 200 level understanding of personal finance, the student loan process would not catch so many unawares.

Plus, we could definitely state that the student understood what they were signing by pointing to their passing grade in high-school.

I'm even of the opinion that K-12 students have to show strong competency in the Three-R's BEFORE we teach them anything else.

Another thing that'd be great to see taught is critical thinking.  But no government run entity wants their subjects knowing that!

Let The Hate Flow Through You

I applied for and received a discharge of my student loan.

Contrary to the conservative narrative it was not a Biden policy initiative that granted the discharge.

It's a long running program for the victims of school based fraud to not be held accountable for the crimes of the institution.

A Reagan era program.

If your school was shut down by the Department of Education for cause, then you're eligible to have your loans discharged too.  You might even get back what you've already paid if you meet certain other requirements that I don't.

I'd paid a pittance to keep the loan out of delinquency; so this doesn't help the day to day finances much, but I do hope that the sudden shift in my debt to income ratio will cause my credit score to improve enough to make insurance cheaper.

Comment moderation is on full steam because people hate that these programs exist.

Tell your congress creatures, not me.

A-B-O-R-TION In The Summer Sun

The Dems are pulling out all the stops to scare teh wimmins about abortion bans if Trump is elected.

In lots of places, it's now much harder to get one.  Even a couple of near complete bans.

In other places it's just as easy as it ever was.

How did this happen?

When the Supreme Court nuked Roe v Wade they booted it back to the states to decide for themselves and they have been.

Democracy in action!

Actual democracy, not "Our Democracy," as the Democrats define it.

I don't see Trump toeing the religious fundamental line that is the underlying fuel for banning abortions.

It should also be noted, for Republican run states that have made it a lot harder, abortion bans aren't near as important or popular as you might think.  Likewise, abortion isn't as popular as Democrats think.

But the narrative being spun by the Democrats is effective and sways voters.

Neither side is all that interested in the middle ground that most people are thinking when they think about when an abortion should be legal.

This large group doesn't have a voice, and they're noticing.

Could lead to some interesting politics.

The Party

Something that the AD&D rules did well that GURPS never did at all was clearly define the roles for the party.

A dungeon crawl needed a cleric, fighter, magic-user and a thief.

Skipping one left a huge gap in capabilities and made everything far more difficult in a dungeon crawl.

If one recognizes the need for these roles to be filled, you can certainly make a GURPS character to fill them.

For some reason, getting the players to actually do it is like herding cats.  Being unconstrained by the rules to conform to the class norms tends to lead to characters that can do a little of each of the four required roles without being good enough at any of them to be of much use.

Jack of all trades master of none.

This problem comes up less in GURPS when the setting defines the roles; and aren't fantasy.

Space settings have no problem with one person being captain, navigator, security, gunner... etc.  Except the ship's engineer.  For some reason anyone who makes the engineer will play once and never bless the table again.

Military settings only have trouble with the officers and NCO's needing to spend points on rank and the associated skills.

Steampunk, Cliffhangers, Pirates... no problems with roles.

Fantasy where they need to emulate the D&D template... Chaos.

Even in throw-together multi-dimensional nexus worlds there's no problem with getting them to specialize.

It's a mystery.

It's Over For Another Year

If the hometown team didn't make it, we're willing to accept the other team in the state did.

Congratulations to the Florida Panthers and winning their very first Stanley Cup!

Rooting for the natural rivals to the hometown team is hard for lots of people.

Especially with uneven officiating and the Panthers being a rather dirty team using that lopsided application of the rules to eliminate the hometown team.

Still...

It wasn't the fucking Stars.  I ain't got a lot of forgiveness for how that team came about.

Then Do It

Marv has caught the PPV bug from me.

We went an looked at a 2011 example today and the dealer was asking $10,300 and would come down to $10,000.

We started detailing all the little flaws and Marv offered $8,500.

They countered that they could fix those flaws and get $14k.

At this point I feigned a need to return home and since I was Marv's ride, he needed to come with.

I had two things to offer.  First was a different 9C3 for what he offered that just needs a back seat.

Second was, it would cost us a lot more than $4,000 to fix all the flaws;  Tell them you'll take it at $14k if they fix everything we find wrong.  I'll bet they balk.

He's still on the hunt.

Oh No! Anyway...

Local rapper Julio Foolio was murdered in Tampa.

Apparently he was a member of a gang and they are at war with another gang.

It's a statistic, not a tragedy.

It is statistically unlikely that his killer looked much different from him.  Well, aside from the hair.

It wasn't a cop that killed him.

It wasn't a member of the KKK.

It was another black man.

Yet, we're going to be hearing about disarming everyone with a gun who wasn't there and didn't do it; aren't we?

That Kind Of Fan

I'm drinking blue milk and eating light-side Oreo cookies and I still won't watch The Acolyte.

Fight me, Disney.

One D&D

6th Edition is going to be called One D&D?

I guess 7th will be D&D 360.

8th will be D&D Series X then 9th edition will be D&D Series S.

I have never been prouder of never playing past 2nd Edition and only reading 3-5 (in disbelief).

1939

The first commercially viable automatic transmission, the Hydra-Matic went on the market in 1939 in the Oldsmobile Series 60.

The first torque converter Dynaflow went out the door in a Buick in 1949.

The well loved Powerglide was introduced to Chevys in 1950.

So, yes, Anonymous Commenter, there were automatic transmissions in 1958 and they were available for the Stovebolt Six powered Biscayne.  For extra money.

But an auto got you a wide brake pedal instead of square brake and similar clutch pedals.

Yelling At The Screen

And neither team is mine...

The Florida Panthers have gone from a 3-0 lead in the series to a 3-3 tie that will get settled on Monday night.

The Edmonton Oilers have done themselves well recovering from that deficit.

It's odd that I'm cheering the Panthers on when I'm a Lightning fan...

Disappointed Not Surprised

US v Rahimi came to the conclusion that I expected.

The 2nd Amendment doesn't protect your right to a weapon if you're under a domestic violence restraining order.

I'm OK with the idea that dangerous people should be barred the possession of arms.

However, most domestic violence restraining orders are issued in a manner that doesn't encompass what the founders were thinking about when they were talking about due process.

Same goes for red flag laws.

Both are guilty until proven innocent punishments and are entirely too subject to malicious actors.

I think there's a 5th and 14th amendment case against the entire idea of restraining orders and red flag laws.

Much of the problem with them is the refusal of the person who called in the law to actually press charges on the person they called about.

Frustrated police and advocacy groups then came up with things to punish the accused that didn't need the victim's assent.  In some ways this is smart, many victims don't understand the end-game of letting the accused off the hook.

But smart and constitutional aren't always aligned.  There's a process to align them, but our representatives keep thinking they can pass law rather than amend.

Slammed

I love the look of a car that's lowered down to the deck.

But just for looking at.

Owning one and dealing with it isn't for me.

The Precious was quite low and it was getting old.  The air dam hit every small rise and the bottom of the nose showed the scars of steep driveways and tall speed bumps.

She wasn't even as low as many people take it.

The Beast could stand to be about an inch lower for looks.  The problem is finding springs that do that.

Stock G8 GXP springs do it, but nobody upgrading to coil-overs or a lowering kit seems to have saved theirs.

The 2-2.5" lowering for a G8 is 3.5-4" on my car.  Too low for the tires and wheels I have, and I'm not super wide on the tires.

I'm still researching.

Glaring Omission

Maybe I should say, "kids these days," too.

On page 38 of the June 2024 issue of Shooting Illustrated there's an article talking about guns that were, "released to much fanfare and market curiosity, only to crash and burn and end up in the dustbin of history."

It covers the Hudson H9, Remington R51 and CCF Raceframes.

There's nothing wrong with this list, except being at least one too short.

Where's the Colt 2000?

Virtually everything you could say about the R51 applies to the 2000.  Most especially the gunwriters getting examples that worked great and production models sucking harder than Kamala Harris vying for a promotion.

Perhaps the author is a little too young to remember?

I Am Not A Lawyer

I keep re-reading section 230 and I can't help but think we've already solved this problem; but lawyers broke the clear meaning and text of the law.

230 is supposed to hold the internet provider harmless from content published by their customers.

The way I read that is as long as you don't interfere with what the customer is publishing, you're a provider and not responsible for the content.

With what YouTube and others are doing with restrictions on publication, they're becoming editors and editors are part of publishing; so they have become liable through their actions.

Let's get this on!

Enforcing 230 like I've outlined would bring back a first amendment-like public square to the internet.

Within this framework one can even create space for content that children should not look at.

Negative Waves Have Prevailed

Donald Sutherland passed on.

88 is a good run.

Why Can't I Celebrate?

There's black people who're saying they don't want us white people celebrating Juneteenth.

Why can't we?

If I were bitter and cynical I'd say:

We did all the fucking work.

We won the war.  If we hadn't, the troops wouldn't have made it to the far reaches of Texas by June 19th, or any other day.  Freedom would never have come.

We passed three Constitutional amendments to make sure the victory stuck.

But I'm merely disappointed.

This is really OUR day to celebrate.

I want you to prosper with your freedom and be happy.

So stop looking for shit to be pissed about and get to prospering already.

Bleeding

Normally you work your way from the caliper farthest from the master cylinder to the nearest.

The Beast goes from farthest from the ABS module to nearest.

RR inner

RR outer

LF inner

LF outer

LR inner

LR outer

RF inner

RF outer

Probably because the Zeta platform is primarily right hand drive and the abs module was next to the master down-under.

Oh, and notice that inner and outer?  I've never had fixed calipers before.  Normal floating calipers just have one bleeder.

Up Up Down Down Up Up Down Down

Flushed out Marv's brake lines on his Impala SS the old fashioned way!

We'd have used the pressure bleeder that JT generously loaned us, but...

Round fitting on a rectangular brake reservoir.

So I did a leg work out and Marv opened and closed the bleeder screws repeatedly until the fluid changed from nasty to clear.

What started this was Marv swapping a new rear into the car and the rear brakes being completely dry from the transfer.

To completely flush the system takes just more than a quart of DOT 4.

He reports that the pedal feels much better than before.  We put our heads together and we think he last did this... many years ago.  Too long really.  It's something that's easy to forget to do.

I think I might just do it on my cars before we return the bleeder.  I think I have a round cap on my reservoirs.

Mercedes With A Temp Tag

There's been a murder near Tampa.

The deceased was driving a nearly new Mercedes.

I will speculate about motive.

Mercedes and New Tampa?

He was driving like an asshole and cut off the wrong person.

Don't make it right, but I can totally see it happening.

He Wanted It Known It Was His

 I bought this book as a group of six Andre Norton books.

I last read this book when I was in 9th grade, but that's not why I bothered posting about it.

Steve Wylie put his name in it in several places.

 

Steve made sure that, even if you ripped off the cover, there was still proof that it was HIS book.

Update:  Could it be THIS Steve Wylie?  That'd be kinda cool.

I Guess It Depends On How Observant Huh

The think that stood out to me about Chuck Schumer's little Father's Day grilling photo op wasn't the temperature of the meat, but the cheese on it.

I thought Chuck was Jewish.

I thought that Jews weren't supposed to mix meat and dairy.

Chuck doesn't strike me as being all that orthodox, so prolly OK for his sub-branch of his religion.

Still.

However

"Foreigners committed 77% of solved rape cases in Paris in 2023, according to data from the Paris Police."

-Visegrad 24 on X

The way this is phrased, though, it could just mean that foreigners are bad at not getting caught and the native French are.

That's not 77% of rapes, but 77% of SOLVED rapes.

Now I want to see how many unsolved rapes Paris has and what percentage of them this 77% solved fits into.

Age

How do you figure the age of your car?

By some metrics, the oldest car in my fleet is also the youngest.

Moxie has the fewest miles on her, but is the oldest by model year.

Which is more important?  Miles or years?

16 Years

It's been 16 years since I last spoke to my father.

He called to tell me that his mom, my grandma, had passed on.  A week after the funeral.

He did, however, let everyone in the family think that I'd refused to come.  That was nice.

Two years ago I did send him a birthday card for his 80th.

The ball really is in his court, but the pattern it's following is familiar.

Once he got a family with Wife #2, he didn't need family from Wife #1.

Reminding him we exist bugs him and pisses off Wife #2.

C'est la vie.

They've Never Driven It

Facebook Marketplace has the same search engine as Amazon for giving you results that are only tangentially related to what you're looking for.

A search for Caprice PPV yielded a hit on a 1958 Chevy Biscayne.

In decent shape with a bog standard 235 ci Stovebolt Six.

 

The ad said it had an automatic transmission.

The picture showed too many pedals for that.

 

I'm guessing that the three-on-the-tree is throwing them and they've never even started the motor.

Tree shifters look like column shifters to someone raised on automatics only.

It looked to be in decent shape for a good price.

Maybe Pepperidge Farms

Remember when June was Men's Mental Health Awareness Month?

Oh It Makes Sense Now

I was sitting here trying to figure out how being a nut case conspiracy theorist amounted to defamation.

Finally read up on Mr Jones' case.  Read up meaning skimming news stories without exulting headlines.

He probably would have been exonerated if he'd listened to what the court ordered him to do.

Yeah, you don't blow off the judge repeatedly and expect to win.

He basically handed the plaintiffs a win by default and it wasn't the overwhelmingly strong case they'd filed under.

I did not subscribe to his theories about Sandy Hook, but would never have sought to silence him.  That kind of shit is best actively ignored.

Now a different group of prick has money and they're wearing the skins of their dead children to advance an anti-gun agenda.

Yay!

Those assholes have been running so many ads I can't skip on YouTube that I'm to the point of replying to the screen, "Good!" when they say, "my beloved baby died at Sandy Hook."

I was sad for them until the blamed me for their tragic loss.

The murderer (who isn't me or someone I hired) could have killed everyone he killed with a Sharps falling-block with the time given him by the police response.

The same sort of response that allowed Parkland to proceed until that shooter decided they were thirsty and head for McDonald's for a shake.

The same sort of response that kept help from getting unto the Ft Lauderdale airport to stop that shooter.

The same sort of response that listened to children being murdered in Uvalde, Texas.

The same sort of response that let the murderer in the Pulse nightclub to run themselves dry.

Nashville PD has the right of it when it come to responding.

But you can't sue the cops.  Yet, you have to sue someone.

Alex Jones is primarily guilty of having deep pockets and being foolish enough to ignore the instructions coming from the bench.  But he didn't kill those kids.

Even if he claimed that those kids didn't die and it was all a conspiracy to promote gun control.

Which after seeing how many wacky conspiracy theories have turned out to be true in the wake of Wu Ping Cough, Russian disinformation and Schrodinger's laptop...  Saying that any shooting might be a false flag to get gun control rolling again doesn't sound unreasonable even if have have to swing Occam's Razor HARD at it.

But Not In Florida

Bump stocks are legal in Free America.

But not in Florida.  Florida has a law that says they're illegal passed under the "It's totally not gun control because we say that it's not gun control what did you mean RINO gun control law" passed in the wake of Parkland.

It's ammo that can be used to get rid of that stupid feel-good-do-nothing tranche of gun control signed by the lich who is now our junior senator.

Aside: Justice Sotomayor, what if it's a Goose?

Cool

Enlisted folks get a nearly 20% pay raise.

Great!  Now do disability rates.

You broke 'em, you bought 'em.  That was the deal.

Fascinating

How do you make an engine block from a block of aluminum?

You start with a block of aluminum and remove everything that doesn't contribute to a general sense of enginitity.

I Had A Theory

I was sitting here wondering why there's a hammer head on my warhammer.

Crushing damage in GURPS is objectively worse than impaling.

Especially when you give that impaling an armor divisor.

What's the purpose of that hammer head?

There's been some speculation that flanged maces were intended as weapon breakers.

Could that be the reason for the hammer face?

So I grabbed the GURPS books and went to see if it'd be effective.

Going against the typical arming sword broadsword...

It's -4 to hit that blade.

But let's say you hit.

A ST 12 warrior will do 2d cr with the hammer face.  2-12 points of damage  with an average of 7.

The sword has a DR of 6, HT and HP of 12.  Because it's treated as homogeneous, getting it down to 0 HP is enough to cause serious problems.  18 points to do it in one blow.

That's not going to happen unless a critical hit happens.

A flanged mace isn't really any better at this task...  It does 2d+1 cr.  3-13 points of damage with an average of 8.

It's probably too complicated for GURPS.  There's documented accounts of men breaking their sword over their thigh when they were surrendering.  The rules don't reflect this well.

Old Fashioned

First, like all of my fellow drinkers, thought of the cocktail when I put up that title.

But what I'm really on about is watching some YouTube about D&D.

One of them does cosplay stuff frequently and she's constantly doing character races and classes I don't recognize.

That makes sense because I stopped playing D&D in any form way back in... uh...  Thirty fucking years ago?

My concepts of what makes a fantasy setting are certainly anchored in the past.

And I don't care.

I'm open to the newer stuff, but I don't have a market.

I barely GURPS.

We Hate You And Want You To Be Unhappy

The people making the new Star Wars show, The Acolyte, keep telling me how much they dislike me for being straight white and male.

They are now baffled that I don't pay for the product they're making.

I'm willing to go pretty far out of my way to avoid paying people who hate me.

Push Back

Erin has mentioned the flak she's getting from trying to make the world a better place.

Considering that she's, specifically, advocating for LGBT pro-gun stuff; flak is to be expected.

But the way she's described it, doesn't sound like normal "icky guns" or "hate teh gheys" stuff.

I am wondering if she's being struck by the flak from people who don't really care about if someone is gay or not or if they're wearing the wrong clothes; but have been relentlessly hammered on by the LGBT movement that refuses to take the win until it's a massive loss.

The demands for inclusion and respect have gone well past reasonable.

People recognize when a bigot is hating them and they don't like it.  They push back.

That is hitting the reasonable LGBT people square in the jaw.

There's a huge swath of the LGBT movement that needs to understand that tolerate is the best they're going to get from a lot of people; but those people can be convinced to tolerate them.

Tolerate doesn't mean like.  It doesn't mean accept.  It, especially, does not mean, "put your interests ahead of mine."

Putting your interests ahead of mine is what a lot (all?) of the advocacy groups based on gender, race, and sex are after.

They dropped the veneer of wanting equality and are demanding to be in power over everyone else.

They're not happy with people not liking that.

People like Erin, who just want people like herself to be as safe as anyone else, are getting caught in the crossfire.  I can understand why she's depressed about it, getting shot by someone not even shooting at you is depressing.

Idle Speculation

This story makes me wonder.

If the heliosphere contracted enough to fuck weather on Earth, could that explain why Mars is so bleak now?

We keep finding that Mars had more water and a thicker atmosphere once, that kind of contraction would hit there first and lesser contractions could affect Mars without the same effects on Earth...

Sooner Or Later

It will be later, but I think we might be inching up on it...

The Supreme Court is going to have to rule against the executive branch doing legislation.

The separation of powers is clear, and things are out of control because it's being ignored.

My 4473 example is just another time I'm mentioning it, but I've covered this philosophical ground before.

The way the founders were thinking was that if something was going to be illegal then Congress had to make it so, explicitly, and for them to vote on it.

That way, if The People didn't like it, they could readily identify the people causing the problem, vote them out and get someone who actually represented them.

Regulations, on the other hand, are promulgated by faceless bureaucrats that the voter has little to no chance of eliminating even if every elected official is to their liking.

It weren't supposed to be this way, but there's a distinct lack of movement towards fixing it.  But there is SOME movement.

Nuking Chevron deference will go a long way, and SCOTUS appears poised to do that.

Fingers crossed.

Con Frijoles

Pay attention to what he says about how chili used to have beans in Texas...

Where Does The Law Say?

We're all getting familiar with 18 USC 922(g) thanks to Hunter Biden's trial.

He lied on the 4473.

And there's the rub.

It's illegal to sell to an addict under 922(d).  It's illegal for an addict to buy under 922(g).

There's no law saying that you have to fill out any specific form.

It would behoove the dealer to find out.

Regulation is why there's a 4473 and it's used as a standardized format for calling in the background check (there's definitely a law requiring that).

Ever listen to the dealer talking to the person on the background check side?

They don't go down the 922(g) checklist.  It's just name, address and SSN (if you gave it).

The background check isn't even using most of what you've attested to!

It could be boiled down to a single question, "Are you prohibited from buying or possessing a firearm under 18 USC 922(g)?"

That's what they're actually asking when you check yes or no in all those little boxes.

But there's no law requiring you attest to your innocence.

But fucking up that form is illegal.

Something wrong about that.

Mox Nix Conviction

Hunter got convicted of all three of the charges against him.

No shock, he was blatantly guilty.

Well, some shock; considering whom he is.

A lot of hay is being made about how much time these three felonies could bring.

Only a couple of places mentioning that the average sentence for this bundle is about a year.

Unless the judge decides to make an example out of him for whom he is, Hunter is probably going to spend less than six months behind bars.

Hardly worth the effort expended, to be honest.

Never mind that the laws he broke are, in my humble opinion, unconstitutional.  I shouldn't have to attest to my good character to exercise a right to own a gun and all the rest falls from trying to enforce this on the person filling out the 4473.

The real fun is his upcoming tax trial.  I have popcorn standing by.

Furthermore

A couple things about symbols.

First is they are mutable.  That means that their meaning can be changed and the meaning of them is subjective.  Swastikas and upside-down crosses are classic examples.

Second is, in a nation with freedom of speech, no symbol is sacrosanct.

If you don't want MY meaning of YOUR symbol to be applied to it, put it someplace outside the public square.

If you do put it in the public square, be braced to seeing it defaced and destroyed and to take it with a shrug.

Combining the first and second points...  In many cultures walking or stepping on a symbol is the ultimate form of disrespect for it.  Putting your symbol in a place meant to be walked on is saying, to them, that you've contempt for your own symbol by inviting people to tread upon it.

The people who don't understand that had to Google "mutable."

Felony Burn Out

A line I keep repeating, "Although I am a supporter of LGBT rights..."

Look, assholes, and it's the assholes of the LGBT community that are the problem here.

They're the ones who've captured the politicians to twist the laws that changes a counterpoint of one free speech to another into a felony.

Doing burnout on a pride flag is not a felonious act.

It is not malum in se.

It does no more damage to the road than painting.

But it's described as hate.

Kids, that flag painted on the road wasn't put there out of love.

It's there as a gigantic, "FUCK YOU!" to the people that the LGBT organizations hate.

Hate begets hate.

I'm personally aware of people who hate that flag painted on the road who've bought their gay neighbor a new 3x5 rainbow flag because the old one was getting ratty.

The burnout has less to do with hating LGBT than being pissed off at The State choosing sides against them.  Again.

And as an act of defiance against The State, it's protected speech.

You gotta let the KKK march in Skokie, you gotta let the rednecks do burnouts in an intersection painted like a pride flag.

By the way, if one can do ANYTHING they want to an American flag, then there cannot be a more restrictive rule for other flags.  Not that things making sense has ever bothered these idiots.

The Other Brands

The 1974 Chevrolet police package car was, often, a Bel Air with a big-block 454.  Some departments went with the small-block 350.

The big block car made a sad 235 SAE net horsepower at 4,000 rpm and 360 ft-lb of torque at 2,800.

That'd drag its 4,552 lb. carcass down the 1/4 mile in 17.1 seconds at 83 miles an hour.  Flat out it'd go 121 miles an hour.

Mileage was 7/14.

The city patrol cars with the small block made 160 hp at 3,800 and 245 ft-lb at 2,400.

The lighter 4,277 lb. curb weight isn't enough to offset the loss of power and the 1/4 mile "flashes" by in a sedate 19.3 seconds at 74 miles an hour.  Top speed is just 106 miles an hour.

Mileage was 9/13.  Yes, worse than the big block on the highway, but better in town.

What about Ford?

The Ford Custom 500 Police Interceptor Special touted a 460 cubic inch engine making 260 horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 380 ft-lb. of torque at 2,700.

The would drag the 4,610 lb. car down the track in 16.3 seconds at 87 miles an hour.  Max speed is 129 miles per hour.

Mileage is 7/11.

Fire In Space Ace Ace Ace Ace

I've seen people talking about a fire on the outside of the hull of a space ship in the new Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Fire needs fuel and oxygen.

Both are notoriously scarce in hard vacuum.

But the ship could be covered in stuff that's fuel, and it won't matter without oxygen.

I found the scene and it's a cheery little bonfire looking flame.

I can conceive of a couple of ways to get fire on the hull of a ship in space.

A hole in the hull expelling a fuel/oxygen mixture past an ignition source would do it.

There are several forms of self oxidizing chemicals which might burn in vacuum.  Hypergolic fuels, for example.

But none of the likely explanations for a fire outside the hull are going to look like a cheery bonfire.

Ugh.

I have to keep remembering that Star Wars is as much science fiction as Lord of the Rings.

The Saxon Is Beginning To Hate

h/t Bustedknuckles

Except the original poem isn't Saxons at all.  It's The English.

OG poem by Rudyard Kipling:

The Beginnings

It was not part of their blood,

It came to them very late

With long arrears to make good,

When the English began to hate.

 

They were not easily moved,

They were icy willing to wait

Till every count should be proved,

Ere the English began to hate.

 

Their voices were even and low,

Their eyes were level and straight.

There was neither sign nor show,

When the English began to hate.

 

It was not preached to the crowd,

It was not taught by the State.

No man spoke it aloud,

When the English began to hate.

 

It was not suddenly bred,

It will not swiftly abate,

Through the chill years ahead,

When Time shall count from the date

That the English began to hate.

Like so much of his work, it's got a timeless quality and can readily be applied to the current situation.

Nostalgia Slayer

Moxie is a 2010 Chevy Equinox LT AWD.

The 2.4 liter (145.2 cu-in) 4-banger makes 182 hp @ 6,700 rpm and 172 ft-lb @ 4,900 rpm.

It's a dainty 3,985 lb.

It runs the 1/4 mile in 17.1 seconds at 81 miles per hour.

Yes, Virginia, it's faster than a police package '74 Monaco.

With 20/27 epa estimated miles per gallon no less.

The Equinox will top out before the Monaco at 117 mph vs 122 mph.

440 Cubic Inch Plant

 "It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

-E. Blues

The cop motor in a 1974 Dodge Monaco made 260 hp @ 4,000 rpm and 345 ft-lb at 3,200 rpm (SAE net).  8/12 miles per gallon.

Lugging around 4,449 lb. it did the 1/4 mile in 17.6 seconds at a whopping 82 miles per hour.

That's sure disappointing.

The second Bluesmobile, a 1990 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, used a 351 cu-in engine that made 180 hp @ 3,600 rpm and 285 ft-lb @ 2,400 rpm.  With a fuel economy of 13/19 mpg.

It tared at 3,858 lb. and ran the 1/4 in 17.4 sec at 80 mpg.

A 1996 9C1 Caprice's 350 cubic inch engine puts out 260 hp @ 5,000 rpm and 330 @ 2,400 rpm.  17/26 miles per gallon.

1/4 mile is 15.5 seconds at 89 miles per hour weighing 4,090 lb.

The Beast makes 355 hp @ 5,300 rpm and 384 ft-lb @ 4,400 rpm from a much smaller (and lighter) 364 cubic inch motor.  15/24 mpg.

The 1/4 mile goes by in 13.9 seconds a 101 miles an hour.  Curb weight is a svelte 4,162 lb.  (4,113 with Camaro rims).

This comparison is why I don't, generally, pine for the good old days.

I Know Someone Who Shouldn't Read This

Starship can do something The Shuttle couldn't.

Fly with a wing burned off!

Too soon?

Remember, kids, the color of aviation humor is so black that a black hole looks bright and cheerful.

Odd disclaimer

Midway has a Bianchi magazine pouch for sale.

It's a bit spendy for my tastes, but...

 

Causes cancer in California AND you can't use Glock magazines in it?

That list of guns it fits are all single stacks, but the default compatibility is for a Beretta 92.

Having once been a collector of magazine pouches...  I don't think I've ever found a magazine pouch that would take a Beretta 92 magazine that wouldn't also take a Glock 17 mag.  In fact, the larger Glock 21 mags almost always also fit.

Which makes me wonder if Glock is fielding calls from customers who should be upset with Bianchi when their magazines don't fit the pouch.

D-Day Filmography

It's actually kind of difficult to watch Band of Brothers, The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan all within the 24 hours of D-Day.

To Be Clear

The trans athlete debate, by the way, does not matter.

Why?

BECAUSE SPORTS DON'T FUCKING MATTER AND BY EXTENSION NEITHER DO ATHLETES!

They're a species of dancing monkey and we shouldn't waste our time on them.

If sports disappeared tomorrow your life would go on.

It's just entertainment, and no single form really matters.

Touch grass or something.

Opportunists

I know, and am friends with, more than one trans person.

The current shit about trans athletes doesn't make me think it's actually a trans issue.

It's an opportunist move by less competitive male athlete to be competitive.

You can't doubt their dedication to the sport they've chosen because the medical requirements are a bit steep; but I certainly do doubt they're actually transsexual.

Happily! I have a solution that should work for everyone.

It's a solution that's already in play, but most people don't recognize it because it's been in play for so long.

When you answer the question, "why is there women's sports and not just sports," you have the answer.

This will mean that the LGBT+ folks are going to have to make some important admissions about transsexuals.

Primarily that a woman who was born a man is physically different from a woman born as a woman.

Once we have that, we can treat them like women and have a third "sex" in sports where the trans-women don't dominate the sport.  If we don't, we're discriminating against people who were born women.

I suspect that when we make this third category we're going to see most trans-women athletes disappear.

I suspect this because I don't think the current crop is being honest about why they're trans.

The More Things Change

The more they stay the same.

The Standard missile is, once again, air-carried.

The Standard was adapted into an anti-radiation missile during Vietnam.

It was carried by a diverse number of planes.

They Finally Found Some Man Made Warming

Wind turbines disrupting the local air currents and pulling hotter air down to the surface.

D+ 29,220

80 years ago Operation Neptune, part of Operation Overlord, kicked off.

Just A Little Early

 

My Father's Day gift from The Boy!

Father's Day is when he gives me the present, he doesn't go by the calendar.  Harvey got him to hold off until June this year.

Geronimo!

80 years ago, parachute drops into Normandy began in support of the landings for D-Day.

Now Charge Him

I remember back 6 years ago when someone who was actually threatening someone got their ass killed and the person who killed them got convicted over it because the very slight repositioning of their feet didn't constitute a credible threat.

Former Deputy Duran used the exact same claim for using lethal force as convicted felon Drejka when shooting Airman Fortson.

Duran has been fired by the Okaloosa Sheriff's Dept for violating procedures.

This opens the door for him to be charged and I think, to be consistent, that his justification for use of force be dismissed just as Mr Drejka's was.

PS: Airman Fortson's posture was not threatening in the interaction that led to his death.  McGlockton was squared up to fight.  They aren't equivalent at all.  I feel like I needed to amend the post to make my snark a bit clearer.

Hypocrite Me?

I am absolutely giddy that Hunter Biden is on trial over gun charges.

The press would have it that I am a hypocrite for being happy about it.

They're missing the nuances, like they often do.

We gun owners aren't happy because he's being charged with bullshit unconstitutional laws.

We're happy because people like him are never charged with the bullshit.

We'd be fucking THRILLED if his trial resulted in those laws being found unconstitutional and the charges tossed.

Hunter being charged is a failure of the 2-tier justice system that's been, increasingly, on display for Democrat politicians and their families for a long time.

And it makes us happy to see Justice's blindfold put back where it belongs.

Idiot Lights

 

Every time someone mentions a check engine light, I think of the gif above.

What would the problem be, Betty?

For me, I have scanners I can plug into the ALDL or OBD port and get the trouble codes.  I can look those codes up in my service manual.

I can also look them up on the internet for a less specific diagnosis.

But idiot lights are kind of like being informed of a fire by the fire department pulling up.

There's many cases where a gauge is far better.

But people don't want to learn about cars and be distracted by little needles.  They don't want to learn that different models and engines will put the needle in a different place.

An alarming number of gauges aren't even labeled in any kind of unit.

Sure, you can see if it's giving a higher, or lower, reading than normal, but...  What's the range?

Owner's manuals used to tell you what normal was, in units and you'd apply that knowledge to your instruments.

Worse are the ungraduated gauges that lock onto a single spot and only move in a situation where an idiot light would be lit.  The 94-96 B-Body has an oil pressure gauge like that.  It basically reads pressure/no pressure and is useless for telling how much pressure.

The temperature gauge in The Beast is like this.  It will creep up from the bottom until it gets to a given spot and won't move for a nearly 20°C range.  If it's overheating, that out of range causes it to, suddenly, hit the top stop.  Too late to save the motor most of the time and since it's not slowy creeping up no warning that things have started to go wrong. 

I do prefer actual gauges, but the automakers don't give them to me.

And it's the driver who wouldn't understand what they're looking at anyway that caused them to disappear from the dash.  Which is most of y'all.

Hunting Good Life

Beeper captured a ring-necked snake on the back porch.

I found out because Harvey, no lover of snakes, texted me that Beeper had it in the kitchen.  Beeper took it back out to the porch to keep the monkeys from taking her new toy away.

As you can see, that didn't work.

The snake has been relocated to the back yard to continue catching and eating vermin.

Means

I have been party to a couple of disasters that had me begging to my friends to loan me money to bail me out.

Uh... Literally bailing me out once.

My credit rating is subpar.

Why?

The only loans I have in my name are the mortgage and a student loan.

Keeping those up to date doesn't really help your credit rating.

So I pay more for shit like insurance and have no, realistic, way to borrow from a bank to cover a disaster.

My house is not gigantic, but I can make the payment.

Though I love The Beast, she's not top of the line and shiny new.  I wrench.

Harvey's car is not new.  Moxie is not new.

But they're paid for.

You can fix a lot of car for the price of a car payment.  A single car payment.

You can buy a lot of gas for the price of a car that gets better mileage.

We have bad credit because we're not in debt.  You need to be in debt to get and keep a good credit rating.

Despite paying a lot more for my insurance, I still think I'm spending less than the interest on credit cards and car loans.

There's a bitter pride in that.

Because It's Pride Month

I am proud that the picture I took of my instrument cluster shows not a single warning light!

It's astonishingly common for people taking pics of their dash to have a check engine, ABS fault, low tire fault or airbag fault showing.

None of them have difficult solutions, they just don't bother.

It was driving me insane that Moxie had that wheel speed sensor fault that was disabling the ABS, Stabilitrak and AWD.  I'd have never, proudly, shown off my cluster with those lights lit.

And Moxie, despite the flat-plane crank, is NOT a hot rod I'm showing off.  She's just an Equinox.

Domelight On

Got my interface cables from OBDSynch today.

The domelight now turns on when I open the doors AND the disable button works like it's intended.

A bonus feature on the dash side of things is the turn by turn from the nav in the radio.

If you have a Holden of any flavour, I recommend picking up this software!

From One End To The Other

Drove around with Marv and looked at a Caprice PPV.

It was not a steal.

It was a solid $7k car, not an $11k car.

While it's been upgraded to G8 seats, there's an airbag light on in their ad.

The tires are bald and the wrong size with the TPMS light lit.

It's been repainted, badly.

There is evidence of a front hit.

Unless he can talk them down, a lot, it's a pass.

After that we tried to find a donut because we had the wrong day for National Doughnut Day.  It's the 7th, not the 2nd.

Then we, effectively, bid farewell to a longstanding seafood place.  Crab Shack on Gandy has been there since God was a Lance Corporal.  Their prices have gone way up and the experience has deteriorated.  Sadly, I don't think they will last a lot longer when you can get food as good for the same price in a more comfortable setting.  They used to be cheaper because of the no-frills approach.  Alas.

Not For Me Thanks

Tomorrow, for some reason, there's a rash of 4-year olds graduating high school.

There is no, possible, way for them to 18 and to have known them for 14 years.

Because if that were true, then I'd be older too and...

Fuck, there's no Toy-R-Us... I guess I will have to grow up.

I Learned To Drive In One

My mom used to own a '76 Vega wagon.

I learned to drive in that car, a 5-speed manual 4-banger.

The grand total of problems Mom had with that car was a radiator and it rusted out from under her.

It was replaced by an '86 Civic, so it gave ten, virtually, problem free years just doing timely oil changes.

We benefited from having the second iteration of the 140 cc motor, the original's reputation lingered and was responsible for the death of the model.

The consumer often doesn't care if real problems have been fixed by the time they start looking at it.

It's very common.  And it's a pattern for GM.  I've lost count of the number of models that were finally sorted by their last year.

It's also common for someone who got a good example of a given machine to insist that their exception is representative of all of them even when it's patently not true.

There's five years of Vegas being shit boxes and two years of them being adequate.

Still, there's a warm spot in my heart for that old car.  One always remembers your first.

Fingerprint Remover Stats

I think I've gotten the AutoMag stats where I want them.

GreyDog, remember, pi = 3.00 in GURPS!

I managed to get the weight right on my table, but when I described it, I was looking at the wrong gun...  The AutoMag is lighter than a Desert Eagle.  GreyDog caught the error, deserves the credit.

I think that making a distinction between the AMC and AM Ltd. guns let's us account for the reliability seen in several videos.  The new guns just work.  The old guns tend not to unless specially cared for.  The magazine issue will tend towards whether a particular gun's tolerances line up.  Pay for "Fine: Reliable" to account for a winning combination of parts.

No matter the year made, they are dead sexy looking.  Being in frame with Bridgette Neilsen does not hurt.

All AutoMag All The Time

Ian talked about the current iteration of the company and their guns.

Reader GrayDog sent a video of one running great to prove that it didn't deserve the nasty Malf I'd assigned the gun.

I'm still not sure if the original guns were unreliable, I just remember that they had a reputation.  I rewatched the Demolition Ranch vid and he's definitely shooting an original gun, you can see the cast cocking piece.  Update: He says 1980 made gun in this follow up.  That means the original magazines which, Ian pointed out, presented the round too low for the feed ramp and most of his stoppages look like they're nosing in.  The trigger reset issue looks like a lube problem with the slide.

Ian running a 2023 made example on the clock:

It seems to be running well.

I might not have given it a high enough recoil number.

UPDATE:

Demolition Ranch's second video...  Ugh.  Screw the recoil spring guides back in and keep shooting.

I strongly suspect that AutoMag Ltd. sent the same gun to several YouTubers for promotional purposes.  Unscrewing the guide rods is part of disassembly and I'm willing to bet the person who had it before him didn't get them cranked all the way down.

RTFM error combined with a "when you redesigned it why didn't you put a detent or something on those?"

Malf

This will sound more combative than it is meant.

If a gun requires, "some effort and diligence to learn how to properly lube and tune them, and to develop handloads with a specific combination of quality components that would run each gun flawlessly," then it will garner a relatively bad Malf number in GURPS.

The GM should let the player make a Guns/TL roll based on IQ to do the proper work on the weapon to alleviate some or all of the Malf number.

The SEALs with the Stoner are an example of where this works.

The much maligned Chauchat is another, believe it or not.

A person intimate with a temperamental gun should be able to run it better than a novice.

It'd be up to the GM to decide if a gun is a poor design or just a temperamental one that needs more TLC.

Coming back to the Chauchat, the magazines are fragile.  No amount of TLC is going to bring a broken one back.  That would take Armory/TL (Small Arms) to repair.

Say What You Will

FuzzyGeff points out, "A vote for Trump at least guarantees a vote for someone who was found competent to stand trial."

Off To A Good Start

For the first time in a couple years, we start the hurricane season with the letter A instead of wasting a couple letters on tropical storms that happened before the start of the season.

 Hopefully we get a quiet year this year.