Take That! Sir

Color me shocked to find that flag officers weren't adhering to or being tested on the physical fitness standards.

SHOCKED!

While the job of command isn't physically demanding in and of itself, I do recall that, "setting an example for the men," is something that goes back a LONG ways.

Gonna be interesting to see how many of them retire rather than get into shape.

As long as the PT test is A test for the Generals and Admirals, rather than the only test they have to pass to keep their jobs, I'm not too worried about this. 

Shut Down!

Make sure you let everyone who talks politics with you that it was the Democrats what chose to shut down the government over the budget.

Specifically the Senate.

The House had already passed it.

ACHKSHUUALLY

Actually, Don, we White people believe that violence is AN answer.

But when you say White people, you're really saying Western Civilization, and Western Civ is the one that introduced the idea that violence shouldn't be the FIRST answer.

It's that Christian basis thing.

Exhaust all other options before resorting to violence is its calling card.

But when violence is called for, leave no two stones standing.

What you might be seeing, Don, isn't that violence is THE answer, but the disproportionate level of violence means the other answers clearly aren't working, leaving just one tool left in the box.

Perhaps if enclaves of "all cultures are equivalent" had not been allowed to fester and create little centers where an honor society butted against a high-trust society this would not have happened.

I keep going back to reading about two things that were wrong when they happened and, I think, were the pebbles that started the avalanche.

Red-Line districts to segregate populations.

LBJ's Great Society.

The nuclear family was way stronger in Blacks than Whites at the time and white people were more likely to punch out a child out of wedlock.

I cannot think of what you'd do differently if you'd meant to destroy Blacks as Americans than what those two things did.

Every single time racism ebbs, some fucking Democrat revives it.  They, literally, told Blacks that not only did they hate them, but allowing them to be normal Americans would be legally forbidden if they had anything to say about it.

Most of America is receptive to the idea of Black people being just another kind of American, but they have to be Americans with a descriptor rather than a race with a location.  They're not even a race with a nationality as they currently sit in too many places.

Assimilation is not a fun process in a lot of ways, but it works.  We should be looking to things that work rather than nursing old grudges to vendetta levels.

Never go vendetta against Western Civ.  It punctuates the equilibrium like no other society ever created.

More than a couple peoples have had a, "it was all going great until they woke up!" moment.

False Advertising

Harvey buys me multivitamins.

One-A-Day brand Men's 50+ Advanced Multivitamin with immunity and brain support gummies.

ONE a day.

Dosage:  2 gummies, daily.

That sure seems like TWO a day to me.

Economics Of Adventuring

I'm not offering a solution or even a complete analysis here, just babbling to help me organize my thinking on the topic.

Something I noticed before about adventurers in most D&D campaigns is they often, and quickly, attain individual power that can literally topple nations.

"You and what army?" becomes, "Aw, you sent an army, how cute!"

This is especially true of magic users.

The commoner / nobility divide is not even considered in AD&D's rules.

It can be a campaign assumption.  Standing Bear's Hundred Town campaign, where I learned AD&D, you started as an orphan the day the orphanage kicks you out.  You got a copper piece, a dagger, a set of clothes and a lump of goat cheese.  Oh, and enough training to be a 1st level character of your class.

This, I am sure, influenced all our gaming and we were never nobles.

Most of the other fantasy rule sets really mention it either.

Stormbringer, using the Chaosium Basic Role-Playing System, had mention of nobility.  Much to the frustration of our GM, we had a rare talent for getting lucky on the nationality and origin table.  (It turns out that Scott was using that table wrong, it was for randomly generating an NPC, the players were supposed to be able to choose the character's origins.  He just didn't know he was supposed to forbid origins that didn't fit his campaign...)

Warhammer certainly didn't make most characters noble.

In GURPS you could make a noble, but it costs valuable points you could be spending on something keeping you alive.

Commoners are not supposed to be able to have access to such power as to topple the legitimate government or challenge the divine rights of kings.

Government was something we just didn't do for most of our gaming.  We didn't even ignore it, there simply wasn't any.  Well, it might have been there, but it didn't rise above subtext.

Even when I added government, much later, it wasn't near intrusive enough and it never really affected the players.

Feudal governments are of the "a place for everyone and everyone in their place" variety.

The rise of a middle class and commoners getting rich as nobles really destabilized feudal reality.

Adventurers would certainly be part of this.  They're powerful individually and often become insanely wealthy.

This is not necessarily a world ending problem, Elizabethan England survived merchants being richer than the nobility and the United Kingdom spawned and outlived the East Indian Company, which had nation state power.

The nobility could be faded into the background, like the Junkers.

The GM will have to decide how the existence of adventurers is handled.

I've been using less medieval model for the fantasy settings I've been using because it's easier and closer to how we think of government in our egalitarian American culture.

Plus, there's always that Divine right of kings in a world where you can physically speak to The Gods.  How can you lose with God on your side?  How would your little rebellion go if the cleric found themselves powerless because their deity says King Incompetent the Third shall remain king?

I have a model, it just needs fleshed out.  Some of the work won't really be complete until there's players, but it keeps me from eating my own mind.

That's Quite A List

Canada is going all in on gun control.  The deadline looms...

Here's the list, and what they're paying the owners to confiscate their property. 

I'm betting they will meekly submit. 

Update:  Parker shotguns?  Double barrel shotguns are banned assault weapons? 

Drip Drip Drip

Apparently, we were too rough getting the lower hose off the radiator and appear to have disturbed the o-ring on the outlet elbow.

It's a problem dating back to the Pontiac G8 days (2008).  If it's not leaking, and you shift the elbow at all, like when you're struggling to get a radiator hose off, it decides to drip past the o-ring.  It's also known to just start dripping on its own too.

I found out it was dripping because we had a new flood of coolant when Harvey and I had the radiator tilted to drill for the nipple repair.  Hoping against hope, I cleaned up the fluid on the splash cover and left it alone for a few hours.  Sadly, it filled up again...

Considering that Dorman makes the o-ring for GM trucks, it's not uncommon for other LS engined vehicles.

GM does not offer the o-ring separately.

Amazingly, the elbow is still in the system.  $38 plus s/h.  $52 delivered Wednesday.

The o-ring is tantalizingly close to a #125 size.  Also available for Wednesday delivery with 50 for $12.

It's also possible that I've cracked the outlet the elbow clicks onto.  That's new radiator territory.

Denso is the original manufacturer and it's "just" $180 from Amazon.  A bit more from Rock Auto.

Typically, Autozone is fucking high.  $401 for their Duralast branded one, $651 for the Genuine GM; Rock Auto only wants $386 for the GM part number.

If I was going to spend north of $400 for a radiator, it's not gonna have plastic tanks!  Cold case is $440 and is, generally, well regarded.  Mishimoto makes one too, for $600, that's better liked.

The aluminum tanked models have the stupid elbow welded on!

So I've got the elbow on its way and I'm going to put it on and fill the radiator.  If it leaks...  We order a radiator and I have a long chat with Harvey about what kind we get.

Drill Tap Thread Goop

Got the nipple repair installed!

First test fit.

Gooped up and setting.

Says 12 to 24 for full strength and I think I will give it the full time.

They're Not On Our Side

I was just reading how the Chicago Public Teacher's union just posted a glowing memorial for Assata Shakur.

You know, convicted murderer and fugitive from justice Assata Shakur?

Alleged burgler, robber and terrorist Assata Shakur?

I'm not thinking that most people are thinking Ms Shakur is someone deserving of a glowing memorial but rather that she's someone who needs to be buried in secrecy so her grave don't get violated.

This was just the disconnect that made me realize what had been bugging me the most about public service unions, like teacher's unions.

The point of government employees is to serve the public and to hire specialists in the tasks the public want done with economies of scale that come from having a group dedicated to a task instead of an ad-hoc individual effort by the citizens.

Can you imagine our roads if we had to maintain them individually and independently and were only responsible for the section fronting our properties?

In essence, what a county roadworks is, is the citizens pooling their resources to hire a paving company to take care of their roads.

Where it falls apart once a public union gets involved is the union doesn't represent the needs or wants of the people who created and fund the public works.  The union represents the employees hired by the public works.

If there wasn't a common feature of public works involved, I don't think I'd be too upset.

Tax supported monopoly.

I can't take my business elsewhere and I can't get out of paying for it.

This is wrong.  This should be illegal as it is malum in se.

Heavy Enough

I worried that the Savage 110E's trigger was too light.

So I dug it out, dusted it off and rapped the buttstock against the ground.

The safety is lighter than the trigger and engages before the gun has a chance to go off.

Not a a comprehensive assurance of safety, but safed against the most common chance of an accidental bang.

I Live In Florida After All

When I ordered The Precious I got the Z51 package primarily because it had extra cooling compared to the base Corvette.  Bigger radiator, power steering cooler, trans cooler, bigger oil cooler.

It never overheated.

When I converted The Biscayne SS to a 95 Impala SS engine, I selected the bigger radiator and added the external oil and trans coolers.

It only overheated when the, pressurized, overflow bottle developed a pinhole leak.

The The Beast came with all the bonus coolers that might not have been present on a Holden Statesman because it was expected that a cop was going to be idling a great deal of the time.

Even so, for north of $500 I can get a bigger, badder all aluminum radiator!  I don't need one today, but...  Nice to know I can.

I am considering my heater hoses now that I've replaced the radiator hoses.

GM wants almost $200 for a new set.

Marv is installing a relocation kit in his '11 9C3 that moves them from atop the motor to alongside the fender with stainless hard-lines.  That set him back about $225.

Marv found a vid that explains how to take NAPA p/n's 10077 and 10078, cut them to length and do much the same relocation with rubber lines for under $100.

I discovered that they now make a fitting that clamps to the barb-ends of the water pump and heater core to allow you to use AN-10 fittings.  The four required fittings are $70 all by themselves.  But it'd be dead sexy.

Then there's always the same blue silicone hose that I'm using at the radiator.  Just under $200 it looks to do the same routing as the NAPA parts.

The world is my oyster! 

Oh No! Anyway

Starbucks has announced that they're closing hundreds of stores.

I worry that my life will be affected in some mysterious way because I don't actually buy coffee from Starbucks.

I haven't been in one since they clarified that they didn't appreciate OUR appreciation for being neutral in the gun debate. 

If I want bougie coffee, there's a couple of excellent, local places. 

The Reason For That Tee

The upper radiator hose on a Chevy / Holden WM and WN Caprice PPV has a tee in it.

This is for the oil cooler.

Unlike stock oil coolers I've had before, this one is under the car near the oil filter to one side of the oil pan.

I've had oil to air coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to a mini-radiator in front of the radiator.

I've had oil to water to air coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to one of the radiator tanks then to a mini-radiator in front of the radiator.

I've had oil to water coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to one of the radiator tanks.

The PPV one runs oil into and out of the cooler from a port near the oil filter.  Water runs from a fitting on the side of the block, down to the cooler, then forward to the tee on the upper hose.

I've read a lot of paranoia about it, but never heard about an actual failure.

Lots of people have pulled them because nearly all headers for the car interfere with the cooler, never mind making more radiant heat right next to it than cast manifolds. 

A couple of people have gotten cooling issues by adding an oil to air cooler in front of the radiator after deleting the stock cooler from stacking.  TANSTAAFL. 

That's How You Say That?

I have long pronounced "epitome" as Epee-Tome.

It's supposed to be e-pit-oh-me.

I am unsure if I never learned to say it, or if I affected the mispronunciation deliberately. 

Alles En Ordnung

A barrier to entry that tried to kill someone.

Apparently, in Kentucky, you have to have a wilderness EMS license to administer antivenom.

In this case, normal EMT's did the deed and saved the patient.

"The Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services (KBEMS) implemented a policy two years ago mandating that only wilderness paramedics can administer antivenom. Now, the first responders will have to show the administrative agency why they should not lose their licenses."

I'd think bringing Mr Harrison, the bite victim, to the hearing would do.

Speaking of these licenses, the story mentions that the zookeepers knew what and how much antivenom and adrenaline was going to be needed to save Mr Harrison from the mamba bite.  They have no medical licenses at all as far as I know.

The information isn't cryptic, complicated or even secret.

This is a super clear case.

The victim, and the zookeeper, knew exactly what kind of snake had bitten them and what they needed to administer.  The EMT's did that.

I'm willing to bet that the wilderness EMS training is centered around, "the victim says that they got bit by some kind of snake, and they don't have any idea what kind."

You don't wanna administer the wrong antivenom and you wanna make sure the person giving it out knows how to determine the correct kind from "some kind of snake" and symptoms.

But like so many of these things, the politicians have no clue about the real world... 

PS: Before you comment; antivenom is a synonym for antivenin and it's a perfectly cromulent word.  Also, I couldn't be arsed to verify the spelling of antivenin when slamming out the post. 

Minor Disaster

GM's obsession with molded in plastic fittings on fuel tanks and radiators still baffles me.

Tonight, while removing parts to get enough room to get a tool on the GODS FORSAKEN FUCKING PINCH CLAMP on the radiator side of the lower hose...  For some fucking reason some Australian union worker put the tabs for the clamp against the core support, not facing out where you could get any tool on them.

You have to cut the hose center out, remove the fan assembly and unbolt a trans cooler line to get a special tool on it and only THEN can you have a helper pull the remains of the lower hose off the pipe.

I snapped off the fitting that leads from the radiator to the steam vent line.

Expletives were expressed.

This is a common problem with the PPV and there's a ready solution.

Get a 1/8 NPT 5/16" hose barb.

Drill and tap for 1/8 NPT into the plastic where the fitting used to be.

Epoxy the shit out of the hose barb, screw it in, let the epoxy set, drive on.

Or buy a $180 radiator that will have the same fragile plastic fitting.

I've chosen a nice black anodized aluminum fitting.

Pretty fetching, no?

So we're in a holding pattern until Sunday.  SIGH.

The new hoses do look amazing!  I had not started the lower hose when I took this snap.

The lower hose.

I've replaced the pinch-clamps with the worm gear hose clamps that came with the hoses.

One Year

It is one year since Hurricane Helene hit us and we spent a whole day without power.

We got off so very light.

Pride Goeth...

I remember, in the way back, when I did my research and diligence, I selected a 650 cfm, spread-bore, vacuum-secondary carb for the 350 in my '79 Camaro.

Watching a real expert fight a 750 double-pumper mechanical secondary carb really makes me feel validated.

The carb I picked ran great!  I never regretted it.

I think that, too often, hot rodders latch onto the max-horsepower dyno result and forget that you need to drive the thing in traffic.

Mr Frieburger, I think, knows it.  He doesn't LIKE it, but he knows it.

I don't think I'd ever suffer a carburetor again.  Even a throttle-body injection system is better in my mind.  YMMV.

I do, however, long for a simple car where a computer is something I've chosen and not something I need to work around.

Depends On The Album

I've seen a meme that says that if you air-drum to a Def Leppard song with both arms you're an asshole.

I would say that any song that predates the Hysteria album is OK to use both arms, but from Hysteria on you have to limit yourself to one arm.

Good Policy

I have a friend who's law enforcement adjacent in Pinellas county, home of Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

They inform us that Pinellas has added an "open carry" response for calls from people seeing people openly carrying.

The deputy is instructed to drive past the area of sighting to confirm the carrier isn't brandishing or doing something stupid and if nothing dangerous is happening...

Just drive past.

Don't stop.

Don't hit the lights.

Don't talk to the open carrier.

Don't even slow down.

This, my friends, is what winning looks like and I rather like it.

That said:

We're in for a week of people pushing the limits intermittently and randomly.

1. Nothing has changed about where it's illegal to carry.  If it was illegal to carry concealed there last week, it's illegal to open carry today.

2. If a business doesn't want you open carrying, and they tell you to leave.  Leave.  Leave immediately, do not pass go.  Say you're sorry (even if you aren't).  Refusing to leave is armed trespass and that's felony territory.

3. Don't open carry without some sort of retention!  It also behooves you to find a class teaching about retention!

Ankle Deep

Picked up some firewood and today was the same as a week ago.

This despite the legalization of open carry in Florida.

Blood is not running in the streets.

People are not having running gunfights over minor traffic altercations.

Dogs and cats are living together.

Almost as if ALL of the naysayers were wrong.

Again.

You Gonna Fish Or Talk

The tier list post and SWJ's comment reminded me of something that's mildly irritating in the land of guns.

People pick a gun as a bragging point without regards to whether it shoots well or not.

My cheap Savage 110XP suits me just fine.  I'm still upset my phone had died and I didn't get a pic of the perfect cloverleaf 100 yard group.  I'm even more upset with myself for balling up the target in anger at my phone and not just taking the damn thing home where I had a real camera.

Besides, I happen to like Savages!

I have yet to buy a complete AR.

I buy parts and assemblies, but not complete guns.

Every single one is a "FrankenAR" of some stripe.

Mostly because the configuration I want isn't a stocked item.  You couldn't get an M16 or M16A1 clone when I made mine.  The closest you could get was a Colt SP1, and the front pin was totally wrong in addition to lots of other details.

I've watched people with high-dollar set-ups come to the range and struggle with it.

Those same people have watched me breeze into my lane, fire a few rounds to get zeroed, then enjoy shooting a box or two and leave.

While they're still struggling to get zeroed.

All the money in the world won't help if you don't understand what you're doing.

Despite my accumulative tendencies, I'm more of a shooter than a collector.  That lets me accept and enjoy guns that are downright ugly.

That rusted S&W M&P I saved with electrolysis is a great shooter!  But it's ugly.

Pawn shops have been a great source of good shootin' but bad lookin' guns.

The Lovely Harvey and I both love the Colt Challenger that Willard scored for us.  I had to modify a set of Woodsman stocks to work with it, but it's an awesome shooter despite the abuse to its finish it's seen.

My grampa's old Remington .22 is still a tack driver despite all the rust patina.

This is not to say that I don't own guns just to have them.  Grampa's .32 revolvers are not great shooters, nor are they pristine.  But they have sentimental value.

Sentiment and nostalgia might, actually, be the main driver of my purchases come to think of it. 

A couple of examples here are here just because I think they're neat!

There's no grand unifying theory.

Except:

Buy what you like.  Shooting shouldn't be a grim chore.  Shooting can be, and is, great fun!

Let yourself enjoy it and don't worry if anyone else is impressed with what you have.

Do it for yourself. 

Defining

Imagine sitting down and looking at how the Feds define things and then creating something that slips through the cracks to be the thing that's illegal without breaking the law.

It's not far fetched at all.

That is not a short barreled shotgun by the legal definitions.

But it most certainly IS a short barreled shotgun.

The difficulty in defining something legally well enough to take action is an old story.

The famous one is about obscenity and the judge saying, "I know it when I see it!" 

Just like that Remington really is a short barrel shotgun, groups like Antifa have organized themselves around the gaps in the law and that keeps them from being prosecuted even though what they're up do is exactly what would normally trigger a response from law enforcement.

Everyone can see they are, but legally they are not.

But I think that the weasel room is going to get very narrow soon because the ham sandwich indictment method leaves no outs and the FBI will just start nailing them on any of the three felonies a day we all commit unknowingly.

A couple deals is all it takes to break this up.

I would not be shocked to find West Taiwan at the heart of all this dissent either. 

Halloween Nears

The Lovely Harvey and I consider Halloween our Christmas in terms of decorating and having fun.

This year She wanted to put a Grim Reaper in our annual graveyard.

After seeing that a life sized reaper is $300...

Off to YouTube!

I think we're still under $50 at this point:

That's a 3/4" PVC frame and a couple of canvas painter's drop cloths with some skeletal hands stolen from a broken decoration.

She's going to paint the canvas and we're looking for better hands.

I'm making a scythe. 

 

Orc

From what I've seen on YouTube, D&D has made Orcs people.

I did that 30 years ago.

Yawn.

Once I'd made them people, I kept them the bad guys.

The nations of my little fantasy world were each dominated by a given race and there were two nations which were run by Orcs.

Those nations were aggressive and expansionist.  One was also a theocracy, although it never came up in play.

The campaign did not last long, but I got FuzzyGeff's Elf who identified as an Orc from it.

This is also the world where the languages were national.  The two orc nations spoke different languages that were related to each other like Portuguese and Spanish.

Languages being national and there being TWO "Orcish" languages really upset a portion of the players.

But, I managed to keep the bad guys the bad guys and to let them be people.

I, unlike WOTC, remembered that even Nazis were people.  The Khmer Rouge were people.  The West Taiwanese Communist Party are people.  Antifa are people.  KKK are people.

Making the Orc religion specify that an Orc is the race made in the image of God also made the Orc nations somewhat racist too.  The non-theocracy even made the racism policy in a bizarre way that led to FuzzyGeff's Elf/Orc.

Only Orcs can be full citizens.  Because Orc is the pinnacle of perfection, God says so, only an Orc can defeat an Orc.  FuzzyGeff's character passed the rites of combat to be recognized as a citizen, despite his hideous and misshapen appearance.

It led to some fun role playing at least. 

Membah Dis*

I am old enough to remember when it was explained that you could lose your job over politics and it was not a violation of the first amendment because the Bill of Rights only applies to government.

I am old enough to remember when it was explained that you could be deplatformed and it was not a violation of the first amendment because the Bill of Rights only applies to government.

I remember lots of things that when, finally, applied to Democrats and Liberals suddenly become "different." 

* Read the title like one of the lost children from Beyond Thunderdome.

He Makes Some Good Points

For me the entire point was never to open carry, but to get sheriffs like Judd off my ass when my conceal fails because they can't understand brief and unintentional.

But making open carry illegal because it's tactically unsound?  Fuck off.

Any Fucking Day Now

This year has sucked for heat.

We got summer early and it looks like we're gonna get autumn late.

There's things I wanna get done and don't wanna risk heat-stroke to do.

Just restringing our halloween light strips was pushing my stand in the hot sun limit.

I've noticed that sometimes I just have no temperature regulation.  I'll overheat for no apparent reason; so when I overheat WITH a reason I'm distressed. 

Tier Lists Are Stupid

If you were around the AR world a while ago, you're familiar with the tier list.

Basically it was a bullshit list that tried to track how different an AR was from a genuine milspec M4.

The biggest problem with that list was the assumption that milspec was best quality.

This has triggered a rash of guntubers making tier lists for bolt action hunting guns, but only by manufacturer, not by model.

Which reveals some specious reasoning.

Savage gets a low tier rating because they make the Axis.

So don't buy ANY Savage because the Axis is cheap and the guntuber doesn't like how they feel.

The more detailed explanation is very analogous to "The Ford Escape is a shitty pickup, so don't buy any Fords."

I also noticed that the stratification didn't include any shooting... 

 

I've Seen A Little On TV

I've amended my presidential military service post and tried to differentiate between serving at all, serving during a war and actually being a combat vet.

If you spot an error, comment on THAT post s'il vous plaît. <- Froggish spelling corrected.

It's Not Really Over

The two affiliates that got Kimmel pulled in the first place, Sinclair and Nexstar, have decided to continue preempting the show.

That's close to 70 stations that aren't carrying the show and a significant number of the total channels that could.

Advertisers are taking note.

Rumor has it that the number of eyes on the streaming service is very low, and advertisers had already noticed.

The show was probably doomed before he got stupid(er).

Seems Similar

Listening to all these celebrities complain about how Jimmy Kimmel got treated makes me think of drug dealers complaining about a local pusher getting arrested.

I'm just not seeing someone who isn't a dancing monkey themselves bitching too hard. 

Fall

It is now the Autumnal Equinox!

Not The First To Notice

Jimmy Kimmel is still free to say anything he wants.

Charlie Kirk is not.

There's a significant difference you mouth breathing morons!

Jimmy Kimmel is not being kept from saying anything he wants because he was fired.  Being unemployed doesn't stop you from talking.

What he forgot was while he was an employee of ABC, he was not allowed to use their soapbox to promote his own speech unless it coincided with what ABC wanted to say.

Until he said what he said about the Charlie Kirk murderer, ABC was OK with what he had to say because it didn't affect the bottom line.

After he said it, though, Kimmel became a liability with ABC affiliates refusing to air his show.

Advertisers don't pay unless a show plays, so...

Even then, he was offered a chance to apologize and continue his show.  He vociferously declined this opportunity.  Even after being told that if he didn't say he was sorry he'd be fired.

But the speed with which the decision was made makes me wonder if Mr Kimmel was already wearing his welcome thin at corporate.

ALSO!

Mr O'Brien, he wasn't fired for criticizing the administration.  He was fired for saying bullshit lies about whose tribe Kirk's murderer belonged to.  Maybe you should get your resume in order, because I'll bet people are sending messages to your sponsors right now.

They Forgot To Build Quit Into This Guy

Perhaps the most wounded soldier ever.

Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart. VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO

He was shot in the face, head, stomach, groin, ankle, leg, hip and ear. He was also blinded in his left eye, survived two plane crashes, tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp and tore off his own severely injured fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war."

Glock Magazine Quick-Disassembly Tool

After struggling with the Otis tool, I wondered if there was a better way.

Real-Avid must have as well!

It works so much better!

You put the button on the post sticking out horizontally:

Then you push down against the bar, that levers the base off the little tabs.

Then you put the hole in the baseplate over the vertical post and slide the body back:

It drops the baseplate and locking plate into the little tray and you just lift the body up and the spring remains controlled.

You can reverse that last step to reassemble them!

Works with Glock 21 magazines too!

This is so much better than the Otis one, I highly recommend!

The underside is also a magazine unloader.

Any GURPS Cliffhangers Player Could Have Told You

 

 

The Colt R75 Monitor, a variant of the BAR, was first offered for sale in 1925.

All you needed was money.  No background check.  No waiting period.  No tax stamp.

Just plunk down your cash on the counter and head home to bankrupt yourself buying .30-06 to feed it.

Did I say counter?

Mailing a check to Colt could get you one delivered by the Post Office in six to eight weeks! 

A Question Of Rank (Updated 21SEP25)

A thought occurred to me reading about civilian control of the military. I remember Bill Clinton as being the first president in a long time who hadn't served. That got me to thinking about what rank the various presidents attained in the Military.

Note that the "reserve" does not mean "not active duty". The military has long divided the officers into regular and reserve.

I am showing election to election unless there's a death or resignation for the dates.

2024-2028 Donald Trump -- No military service.
2020-2024 Joe Biden -- No military service.
2016-2020 Donald Trump -- No military service.
2008-2016 Barack Obama -- No military service.

2000-2008 George W Bush -- 1st Lieutenant (O-2) -- Air Force -- No combat
1992-2000 Bill Clinton -- No military service.
1988-1992 George H W Bush -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1980-1988 Ronald Reagan -- Captain (O-3) -- Army Reserve -- No Combat
1976-1980 Jimmy Carter -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy -- No Combat
1974-1976 Gerald Ford -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1968-1974 Richard Nixon -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2
1963-1968 Lyndon Johnson -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat (disputed)
1960-1963 John Kennedy -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1952-1960 Dwight Eisenhower -- General of the Army (O-11) -- Army -- WW1 and WW2
1945-1952 Harry Truman -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- WW1 Combat
1932-1945 Franklin Roosevelt -- No military service.
1928-1932 Herbert Hoover -- No military service.
1923-1928 Calvin Coolidge -- No military service.
1920-1923 Warren Harding -- No military service.
1912-1920 Woodrow Wilson -- No military service.
1908-1912 William Taft -- No military service.
1900-1908 Teddy Roosevelt -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- Spanish/American War Combat
1896-1900 William McKinley -- Brevet Major (O-5) -- Army -- Civil War
1892-1896 Grover Cleveland -- No military service. Drafted for Civil War and paid his way out of service.
1888-1892 Benjamin Harrison -- Brevet Brigadier General (O-7) -- Army -- Civil War
1884-1888 Grover Cleveland -- Same guy as 1892-1896
1881-1884 Chester Arthur -- Quartermaster General (O-7) -- New York Militia -- No Combat
1880-1881 James Garfield -- Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1876-1880 Rutherford Hayes -- Brevet Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1868-1876 Ulysses Grant -- General of the Army (O-10) -- Army -- Civil War
1865-1868 Andrew Johnson -- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- No Combat
1860-1865 Abraham Lincoln -- Captain (O-3) -- Illinois Militia -- No Combat
1856-1860 James Buchanan -- Private (E-1) -- Army -- War of 1812 -- Only enlisted president!
1852-1856 Franklin Pierce -- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- Mexican/American War
1850-1852 Millard Fillmore -- Major (O-5) -- Army -- No Combat
1848-1850 Zachary Taylor -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- War of 1812, Blackhawk War, Second Seminole War and Mexican/American War
1844-1848 James Polk -- Colonel (O-6) -- Tennessee Militia -- No Combat
1841-1844 John Tyler -- Captain (O-3) -- Virginia Militia -- War of 1812
1840-1841 William Harrison -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- Northwest Indian War and War of 1812
1836-1840 Martin Van Buren -- No military service.
1828-1836 Andrew Jackson -- Major General (O-8) -- Continental Army and Army -- Revolutionary War, Creek War, War of 1812 and First Seminole War
1824-1828 John Quincy Adams -- No military service.
1816-1824 James Monroe -- Major (O-5) -- Continental Army and Virginia State Troops -- Revolutionary War
1808-1816 James Madison -- Colonel (O-6) -- Orange County Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1800-1808 Thomas Jefferson -- Colonel (O-6) -- Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1796-1800 John Adams -- No military service.
1788-1796 George Washington -- General of the Armies of the United States (O-12?) -- Continental Army, Armies of the United States, Virginia Militia -- French and Indian War and Revolutionary War.

What If They're Right

Several fantasy settings present dark elves as a racist offshoot of elves that are looking to purify the world.

Normally, they're depicted as a branch off of preexisting elfdom. 

But what if they're the original lineage?  The high elves and wood elves being debased and unpure splits from the pure, master, elf race?  What if it's not just dark elf marketing?

I think it'd be funny if elves started as the creation of one of the evil gods and the non-dark races of elves started as heretical branches who rejected the evil god and started fighting for good!

It might explain why the dwarves don't trust them.  They just know that those damn elfs will be reverting to their evil god worshiping ways and century now...  Just you watch, any millennia now...  We're ready, why aren't you?

It'd Drive Us Insane

If you have clerics, you have deities.  Or deity.

I found a video talking about making the Holy better than the default set that comes with your setting book.

The section on aspects was neat.

But the mention of Shinto really got me.  It reminded me of the Romans too.

Everything has a little god that's in charge of a teeny little space.  The Romans called them house gods.

Car guys get it.  You have to make sacrifices to the garage gods or your 10mm socket disappears and the car overheats.

But all those little gods have a lot of power in their teeny space.  The cleric of the village god would have a lot of pull in the village, but none just over the hill.

The sanctity map would be nuts.

I don't think I'm bored enough to do this yet. 

In Point Of Fact

Did you know that the speech pattern for talking like a pirate was made up by an actor?

Actually talking like a pirate from the first golden age of piracy would have a decidedly Shakespearean tone.

We're not too far off modern American English for the second golden age. 

Not Shocked

Based on the flying monkey attacks a while ago, I am totally not shocked to find nurses running at the mouth about their political opinions over Charlie Kirk.

But a clear take away from a lot of them was that there's a shortage of nurses, especially since COVID.

We're now firing nurses for having a political opinion, why would we do that when there's a shortage?

Because these nurses have, essentially, expressed that someone whose political opinions align with Charlie Kirk might not get their best level of care.  Or worse.

Unlike the flying monkeys, these nurses are saying they'd let someone die over their politics. 

 

Talk Like A Pyrate Day!

Today is Talk Like A Pyrate Day!

 

Fifteen Men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.The mate was fixed by the sosun's pike
The bosun brained with a marlinspike
And cookey's throat was marked belike
It had been gripped by fingers ten;
And there they lay, all good dead men
Like break o'day in a boozing ken, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of the whole ship's list, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
The skipper lay with his nob in gore
Where the scullion's axe his cheek had shore
And the scullion he was stabbed four times four
And there they lay, and the soggy skies
Dripped all day long in up-staring eyes
In murk sunset and at foul sunrise, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ten of the crew had the murder mark! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers' glut with a rotting red
And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes
All lookouts clapped on paradise
All souls bound just contrariwise, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men of 'em good and true, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Ev'ry man jack could ha' sailed with Old Pew,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
There was chest on chest of Spanish gold
With a ton of plate in the middle hold
And the cabins riot of stuff untold,
And they lay there that took the plum
With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb
While we shared all by the rule of thumb,
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
We wrapped 'em all in a mains'l tight
With twice ten turns of a hawser's bight
And we heaved 'em over and out of sight
With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-you-well
And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell
Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Drip Drip Drip

I was under The Beast today looking to see if I could find the location of a stray part from Marv's PPV and I noticed a wet spot.

Dang.

There's a seeping at a Tee in the upper radiator hose.

I can't tell if it's the ends of the hoses, the Tee or the line going to the oil cooler.

The hoses look to be original 13 year old, 165k mile items, so I looked to get replacements.

Gates and Continental make affordable upper hoses for both sides of the Tee.

There's no aftermarket replacement for the oil cooler hose.  GM wants $95 for this part.

It's about a foot long, has a small dog-leg in it and in typical GM fashion, one end is 0.60" ID and the other is 0.77" ID.  SIGH.  I guess one could use a length of 3/4" heater hose to replace it and hope the dog-leg doesn't matter.

Then there's the matter of availability.  I can't single source all of the pieces.  I hate dealing with multiple shipping costs and speeds.

But, when it's all added up, I got $178 for the complete upper hose assy with new tee, some 3/4" heater hose to replace the line to the oil cooler and a lower radiator hose.

With delivery dates ranging from tomorrow to mid-October. 

OR

Order a complete set of everything for $250 that's made from silicone instead of rubber.  This even includes some small steam lines not addressed by the $178.

Neither plan addresses the lines to the heater core, but I have an expensive plan for those too!

The silicone hoses are in a spiffy electric blue, so there's that!

Peaked

So far, the vast majority of the people I've known who've managed to attain the rank of Eagle Scout have failed to do much else with their lives.

It's a small pool, but strangely consistent.

Oh They Finally Noticed

It appears that Antifa has (finally?) been declared a violent terrorist organization.

Was it the using violence to force political change or something subtler?

Because "do what we want or we break things and hurt people" is kinda the definition of terrorism.

Black Lives Matter might wanna take note here too. 

I Hesitate To Call It Good

One thing that is falling out from Charlie Kirk's murder is people discovering what reprehensible shit bags their dancing monkey idols really are.

The fuckers can't keep themselves from celebrating even after watching others of their ilk being punished and fired for it.

They just go a little lower key and hope to have more plausible deniability...  While that might work on their employers, it's definitely not working with the fans.

There's two places that need to have populations more aligned with the overall demographics of the US and that's higher education and Hollywood.

I think it's possible that Mr Kirk's death will lead to it. 

Glock Magazine Disassembly Tool

The Otis brand Glock magazine disassembly tool arrived today!

It works really well on magazines that have been disassembled before and not at all for the first take down!

For the first take down you need a flat-blade screwdriver and come in from the back.

This will deform the little retainer nubbins enough that the tool will have enough leverage next time. 

How it's supposed to work:  You depress the subfloor button with the nubbin of the tool...

Then you lever it against the front wall of the magazine until the floorplate clears the subfloor button.

It's much harder than it needs to be.

The newer magazines are much harder to get apart than the 1994 models I have here too!  Perfection! I guess.

I also found an older magazine loader in my pile of things.

The new one has a texture and is slightly shorter.

They moved the logo too!

Extra Thin Skin

In GURPS things that have a fractional armor divisor such as 0.5 or 0.2 also treat an unarmored target as if they had DR 1.

There's lots of shotgun ammo that is 1d-5(0.2) pi- for damage because of the teeny shot size.

For the life of me, I cannot make that ammo do damage in GURPS terms.

But GURPS is scaled towards people, and the real world shotgun ammo is scaled at teeny animals.

I am wondering at the point value for having skin thin enough to not get the DR 1 against fractional armor divisors. 

They Did Not Do The Fandango

I've just watched the old film, Scaramouche.

It's outstanding and it's aged wonderfully.

I'm also edging to the idea of making my next Fantasy setting TL4.

There's absolutely nothing contraindicating such an "advanced" tech level in most of the AD&D stuff I have.

Really, the only setting I own that specifies a lower TL is GURPS: Banestorm.

Every single AD&D module and rule book I have hints at TL4 while not actually saying it.  It's my preconceived notions about the look and feel getting in the way...

That might be because of my having just read Ivanhoe right before I discovered Tolkein...

The Lord of the Rings is TL3, with a TL3+2 for Numenorean stuff.

Flip Flopped

It's weird.

All the time I spent worrying about the government and a possible Civil War 2 Electric Boogaloo, I'd always assumed that it'd be our side shooting the cops.

Mostly because when a nation's government goes full totalitarian the cops go along with the government.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Without.  Exception.

So I did what I could to warn that things were getting too hot and, it seems that I never really needed to.

Because it's not my team shooting cops.

I always figured they'd have the government and the cops on THEIR side...

But they don't!

There's a part of me that's happy they don't while I'm very unhappy they're out there shooting cops.

It's good they never got the government completely behind them; I guess I should have expected them to act like they'd been betrayed and lash out murderously. 

I'm Shocked

As much of a frothing hot-head as I can be...

I am shocked that I've never called for the violent death of someone I disliked here.

I checked. 

I have wished a couple of organizations to die in a fire, but no people.

I'm actually kinda surprised.

I've celebrated a couple of deaths.

I find I don't regret it.

But I noticed I've never celebrated a murder.

The people I've celebrated dying lived long, unhappy, lives with me despising them the whole time. 

As close as I've come to celebrating the violent death of someone is when a criminal FAFO'd on their last victim.  That will never stop being funny for me and I will never apologize for it making me happy. 

Cancelling

There's a wave of firings going on because of intemperate remarks over Charlie Kirk's assassination.

Before we panic about becoming the new cancel culture, can I share an anecdote from The Lovely Harvey?

She's the third person on the line when the recording says, "This call may be monitored for quality assurance."

It's literally her job to discipline and fire employees who talk about things that have nothing to do with the job.

Pitching your religion or politics to a customer is a proven way to get fired where she works.

What has changed since Kirk was killed is the managers aren't fighting to keep the employee in violation and Harvey has asked them, "how come?"

It turns out that the employees frothing about how great it is that, "Charlie Fucking Kirk," is dead, on the phones to the customers, have been shitty workers for as long as the managers can remember.  But they were workers that never, quite, crossed the line far enough to get fired over it.

These managers were looking for an excuse with this group and, in the past week, have collectively said, "Oh!  Rope's on sale!  Now we can afford enough to get hanged!" 

It also turns out the frothing ragers area different group from the ones the managers defended.

The ones that were being defended were getting sales.  They got sales by establishing rapport with the customer and sensing what religion or political affiliation would get them comfortable and signing on the dotted line.  This is despite a prohibition on getting religious or political on a sales call!

The defense was, "look at their sales numbers!  Can't we let this one time slide?"

Harvey has repeatedly pointed out that it's not just the one time...

These ones who are not being defended weren't being political on the phones until just a few days ago and their sales suck...

Being bad at your job has always been a great way to lose your job.  

ETS Date

Today, in 1947, the Air Force left the Army.

Happy Birthday, Zoomies! 

Ugh! ARRRRRRRRGH! Wasted Effort

I took the time to convert the spells from the 3e GURPS: Celtic Myth to 4e.

Guess what's already done for me in the 4e GURPS: Thaumatology!

Go on.

Guess.

It's called "tree magic" but its the same.

If I had but read the damn book before doing the conversion.

Happily, it wasn't a hard conversion, 3e to 4e rarely is, but darn it.

I've Written About Faith Before

Much of it was decades ago.

I'm the oddball Atheist who wholeheartedly believes that without Christian faith and values the US is fucking doomed.

I'm riding those coat-tails!

Hell, it's basic Christian values that allow me to not believe in their God.  They're not supposed to force me to believe, just make the materials available and try to educate my ignorant ass into believing.

Thus far, God ain't sent the right person.

I've been chided on not understanding Faith, but do recall Thomas needed extra proof too.

After a manner, I admire Faith.  God is basically saying, "ignore all that evidence and believe in Me and you will be rewarded."  Except Thomas.  Thomas I will give evidence.

If God spoke to you and you believe, I will not stop you and do very little to make fun of you outside of calling Him your invisible friend.  Note that I capitalize Christian, and God's pronouns in addition to calling it Faith rather than faith.  I really ain't shitting on you.

And the only reason I'm even as mildly offensive about it as I am is because of the wrong person being sent to convince me to subjugate myself to Massa and be a willing slave of God.

Being born free and having free will, no slavery for me thankyouverymuch!

If God's not selling being a slave, then His sales people REALLY dropped the ball with their pitch.  But it wasn't just the one person proselytizing at my door or at my gaming table who fucked that up.  I stopped counting.

You wanna try your luck?

Bear in mind that as a Hot Rodder I've seen more evidence of animism from working on cars than I've ever seen of the divine Christian spark.  You'll be battling uphill.

But I am not here to convince you that you're wrong!  Please don't let me.

Getting Old

I was going to take some pictures comparing the guts of several Glock 17 magazines.

After struggling with the floorplates for a bit...

I wonder if someone made a tool that made it easy.

Otis does!

I am admitting my age and infirmities with this purchase of their 8-in-1 pistol and magazine disassembly kit for Glock.  Under $35 delivered!

There's Another Ratio To Consider

She makes some excellent points here.

She forgot something that's important if you're going to have a war.

Who are your sociopaths?

The right has a much larger share of those than the left.

Functional sociopaths are an awesome tool to have if there's a war going on.

They're better planners than psychopaths.  They're better organized.

They're easier to put back in their boxes when the war is over.

Just give 'em some rules and structure and they go right back to being functional within a peaceful paradigm.

Just sayin'. 

Remember

If you're not stealing from Hollywood, you're paying for Hollywood.  Though Paramount did right here, the actors are scum.

Fox has made it impossible to direct link to:

https://www.foxnews.com/media/paramount-rejects-israeli-film-boycott-supported-emma-stone-joaquin-phoenix-nearly-4000-others

You'll get a 406 error.  I have been able to get to the link by googling it and clicking in from the search result. 

Though, judging from some recent comments, some of you are happy about paying for it. 

 

After nearly 4,000 industry figures signed a pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions, Paramount issued a statement rejecting the boycott on Thursday.

"At Paramount, we believe in the power of storytelling to connect and inspire people, promote mutual understanding, and preserve the moments, ideas, and events that shape the world we share. This is our creative mission," reads a statement issued by Paramount chief communications officer Melissa Zukerman.

"We do not agree with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace," the statement continued. "The global entertainment industry should be encouraging artists to tell their stories and share their ideas with audiences throughout the world. We need more engagement and communication — not less."

Paramount became the first major studio to speak out against the boycott of Israeli film institutions on Thursday. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket)

As noted by Variety, Paramount is the first major film studio to condemn this widespread boycott of Israeli film institutions.

The organization Film Workers for Palestine published the pledge on Monday, including approximately 1,200 signatures from film industry figures at the time of publication.

Those who have signed the pledge declared that they will no longer work with Israeli organizations that are "implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."

According to the pledge statement, examples of complicity include "whitewashing or justifying genocide and apartheid, and/or partnering with the government committing them."

"Inspired by Filmmakers United Against Apartheid who refused to screen their films in apartheid South Africa, we pledge not to screen films, appear at or otherwise work with Israeli film institutions — including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production companies — that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people," the pledge said.

Actresses Emma Stone, Olivia Colman and actor Mark Ruffalo signed the initial pledge that was published on Monday. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival; Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

The original list included 1,200 signatures as of last week, including Hollywood heavy hitters Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo.

Since then, the list has gained thousands of additional signatures, bringing the total to approximately 3,900 as of Wednesday.

Of those who have recently signed on to the pledge, some notable names include Andrew Garfield, Bowen Yang, Elliot Page and Joaquin Phoenix.

 

Talking To You And Your Invisible Friend

I completely dismissed Charlie Kirk because he talked about God and being a Christian.

As an Atheist, I don't do well then theocracy comes a callin' so I tend to dislike when the religious folks get to building a following.

Christian norms also tend to offend my libertarian leanings.

But I've watched a lot more of his videos since his death, and he most certainly would have sat down and talked it out with me.

We might not have agreed at the end of the conversation, but I'd have heard everything he had to say and he'd have listened to everything I had to say.

I've seen him not have an answer and beg to look into it more.  That's fucking rare!

But nothing about the friction between our views on if there's a God or not meant I'd want to shoot him, or even silence him.

I can disagree without violence, even if I'm insulting about it.

But, I'm better than the left... 

Who Red Pilled Lando? Updated

Billy Dee Williams has been on something of a roll with posts like this.

Yup, that's a blue check.

I had no idea.

I hope he forgives the Dancing Monkey tag that applies to all actors here.

Update:  Too good to be true.

 

F1 The Movie

I think this might be the best shot racing movie since Grand Prix, and that was in 1966.

Check it out if you have "Apple TV."

IMDB for it.

PS: Grand Prix edges out F1 because of the POV lap at Monaco.  IYKYK

Unless You Got A Time Machine Up Your Sleeve

A lobbying organization that didn't have any influence until the mid-1970's; even if they have undue influence in the 2000's cannot have caused an event in 1967.

I do notice that Bernie Sanders complains about them almost as often as he mentions oligarchy, so...

Do you really want to be counted with Bernie?

I'd love to see a lot of the people dropping money at congress prevented from doing so.

Figure out a workable way to do that and I'm in.

But I'll definitely be breaking your rice bowl too.

"They" Are Just People Too

The Charlie Kirk shooter's roommate is one of the people who turned him in, and is cooperating with law enforcement.

Despite being a trans-woman furry.

When rushing to condemn the spate of trans shooters, it tends to be forgotten they're just people.

Some good, some bad, just like everyone else.

Mostly good, I reckon, because so few have gone stupid and murdery.

Not How He Meant It I'm Sure

"Our job as law enforcement is to follow the law and not make the law." -Sheriff Bob Gualtieri

You've been sending your representatives to lobby against any kind of pro-gun law for quite a while now, so backing down to just following the law instead of trying to have the laws changed in your favor would be a welcome change.

I Swear

There's about five conspiracies from the 1960's that I have grown to really loathe.

JFK being the main one, but the USS Liberty incident has to be a close second.

Because I don't obsess over it, I have to look up and re-familiarize myself with the details every time it comes up.

Like all these conspiracies, the details don't add up and you CANNOT convince the believers that the mere facts are, in fact, what happened.

Well, the facts are out there, from several sources.  Even better, sources that have an interest in proving the conspiracy true so as to make another source the bad guy.  I keep looking them up, over and over, and I keep failing to find a version of the event that survives Occam's razor that disagrees with what the US Government, US Navy, Israeli Government and IDF say happened.

Most of the time, recently, I find that the person who cites the incident is looking, aching, for an excuse to justify their hatred of Israel.

That normally boils down to some antisemitism of some flavor.

I've had my fill of that bigotry.

Citations of OTHER conspiracy theories aren't proofs.

Open Carry

People are going to be doing it after the 25th when the ruling becomes final and the orders are published.

All of the laws about conceal carry become laws about all carry.

So where you can and cannot carry in Florida will not change.

The sign on the door of a business has no legal bearing, but the ownership can ask you to go elsewhere and they can trespass you if you refuse to go.

The legalities are simple.

Now the important thing if you're going to be open carrying.

DON'T BE A DICK ABOUT IT!

Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should in some instances.  There's nothing requiring you open carry either.

This post is not about the debate over if open carry is a good or desirable idea.  You want to have that debate, Blogger will let you make your own blog where you can chatter on about it to your heart's content.  I might even make one my own.  My reasons for wanting OCW have more to do with having the right to choose if I do or not rather than a strong desire to exercise that right.

Slinging up your AR will be legal, but it will also be rude.

Use your best manners!

Also use some damn common sense about toting openly.

The main problem with anyone being able to see your gun is everyone can see your gun.

If we could assume the best of everyone, we wouldn't be carrying a gun around at all, would we?

Just like riding a motorcycle and assuming that everyone is actively trying to run you over is the safest way to ride:  Assuming that everyone is trying to steal your gun from your holster is probably won't steer you too far wrong.

Get a holster that retains your gun.  Make sure it's made for your gun.  Generic retention holsters often don't retain some guns that fit.

Get one that will stay on your belt if someone tugs against the retention.

Make sure that belt will stay on you too.

I Feel This Pic

Got it from Ace.

I suspect that Weer'd Beard is similar.

FuzzyGeff can confirm what a flaming lib I used to be and how patient he was about talking me down.

It didn't really take until I'd gotten out of the Army.

Going to exotic places and seeing just how thin the veneer of civilization was...  It's illuminating.

I never felt that I'd moved much politically, but that the people who wanted my vote kept shifting away.

While I understand HOW gay rights and gun rights end up on opposite sides of the center; I still don't Grok WHY.

I really don't understand how or why it became mandatory to hate the people who disagree with you and I'm as shocked as anyone that it's the accepting and tolerant Left that's the party of hate.

To see that they were never accepting and tolerant was my political awakening.

Backpedal Monkey Backpedal

I've been seeing a lot of backpedaling from several dancing monkeys who've been particularly inflammatory about political topics.

The View and Ron Perlman stand out to me; but there's lots of them making conciliatory statements now.

I've also noticed that a common, right wing, response to the Charlie Kirk murder has been, "fine, WAR!  You started this."

That, I think explains the backpedaling.

Fear.

Knowing that if the gloves are off, they're off for everyone, and being a prominently political liberal dancing monkey means there's a target on your back; and not a figurative target this time.

Who said an armed society is a polite society?

Well, in the first place an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.

--RAH

I think they might just have realized that they are perilously close to having to back up their acts with their lives and they're not fond of the notion.

I'm not either.  Shooting these idiot dancing monkeys for spewing their bile is wrong and it's murder.  I happen to like the 1st Amendment, thankyouverymuch.

However, I think they have been screaming "FIRE!" in a crowded theater and some measure of punishment is due.  But I'm thinking fines or jail time, not death. 

The Full Quote

The thing he DID say was part of a much larger statement that deserves to be presented in context, because context stripping is the main way totalitarians make our side seem like fascists to the uneducated and low-information folks. 

"So, I'm a big Second Amendment fan but I think most politicians are cowards when it comes to defending why we have a Second Amendment. This is why I would not be a good politician, or maybe I would, I don't know, because I actually speak my mind.

"The Second Amendment is not about hunting. I love hunting. The Second Amendment is not even about personal defense. That is important. The Second Amendment is there, God forbid, so that you can defend yourself against a tyrannical government. And if that talk scares you — "wow, that's radical, Charlie, I don't know about that" — well then, you have not really read any of the literature of our Founding Fathers. Number two, you've not read any 20th-century history. You're just living in Narnia. By the way, if you're actually living in Narnia, you would be wiser than wherever you're living, because C.S. Lewis was really smart. So I don't know what alternative universe you're living in. You just don't want to face reality that governments tend to get tyrannical and that if people need an ability to protect themselves and their communities and their families.

"Now, we must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty. Driving comes with a price. 50,000 people die on the road every year. That's a price. You get rid of driving, you'd have 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving — speed, accessibility, mobility, having products, services — is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road.

"So we need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You could significantly reduce them through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools. We should have a honest and clear reductionist view of gun violence, but we should not have a utopian one.

"You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's drivel. But I am, I, I — I think it's worth it. I think it's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.

"So then, how do you reduce? Very simple. People say, oh, Charlie, how do you stop school shootings? I don't know. How did we stop shootings at baseball games? Because we have armed guards outside of baseball games. That's why. How did we stop all the shootings at airports? We have armed guards outside of airports. How do we stop all the shootings at banks? We have armed guards outside of banks. How did we stop all the shootings at gun shows? Notice there's not a lot of mass shootings at gun shows, there's all these guns. Because everyone's armed. If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don't our children?"

-- C. Kirk

Sharif Don't Like It

The sheriff of Pinellas county, former president of the Florida Sheriff's Association, Bob Gualtieri, has been a staunch opponent of open carry for as long as I can remember.

His opposition is why I know who he is.

His most recent response makes it clear he's very unhappy about the 2nd amendment defense up in the 1st DCA striking down 790.053.

Florida’s First District Court of Appeal (DCA) held this week that F.S. 790.053 prohibiting the open carry of guns is unconstitutional. There are two very important things that people in Pinellas County need to know about the court’s decision.

First, under law, the decision is not effective for 15 days after it was issued and it was issued on September 10, 2025. That means the law prohibiting open carry is not yet affected and open carry in Florida is still prohibited. Nobody should now open carry in Pinellas County. Second, this was a decision by the First DCA and Pinellas County is under the jurisdiction of the Second DCA, and the Florida Supreme Court.

There is a previous decision by the Florida Supreme Court holding the statute prohibiting open carry of guns is constitutional. As a matter of well-established law a lower court, especially one in another district, cannot overrule the law established by the Florida Supreme Court. We must consider whether the Supreme Court’s prior decision is the law in Pinellas County.

We are working with the Florida Attorney General, the State Attorney, and others to determine the scope of the First DCA decision and how to proceed come September 25, 2025, the effective date of the First DCA’s decision.

Our job as law enforcement is to follow the law and not make the law. We will follow the law and respect statutes and court decisions. However, we have to know “what” the law is and where it is applicable before we can decide “what” and “how” we enforce the law.

Once we have had an opportunity to fully consider the scope and applicability of the First DCA’s decision, we will publish guidance to the public on how we enforce or not enforce F.S. 790.053 in Pinellas County. We will do so before September 25, 2025, but in the meantime please remember, the open carry of guns in Florida is still unlawful.

I think he's trying to hang his hat on the 4th DCA decision that went to the State Supreme Court that affirmed that the ban on open carry was OK.

The big difference in the two decisions is that the one from the 4th DCA was about the State constitution.  The one from the 1st DCA is about Federal restrictions on government.  The more recent decision cites the primacy of the Federal Constitution over mere state law. 

A 1st DCA ruling on the same grounds as the 4th DCA decision would be a split within Florida and be restricted to just the 1st.  Pinellas (and me) are in the 2nd DCA.  That split would need to be decided at the state supreme court level.

Again, that's not what happened. 

Besides, I love watching the RINOs lose in court. 

Meh

I had a reply all queued up and ready to go when I remembered:  This is MY soapbox!

So I nuked the Hamas supporter's comment and I invite them to use their Google account to start their own blog to hate what they hate there.

To help them along, I've marked their comment as spam to aid the filters in removing the idea they've found a platform to spew bile from. 

This is a much better use of my time while I figure out GURPS: Thaumaturgy and watch Malcom in the Middle.

He DID Say It

Lots of people are exulting that Charlie Kirk did once say, "I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."

I've repeatedly said that freedom has warts.

Every liberty has a down side, but the upsides more than counter them.

Millions of defensive gun uses that saved someone's life more than counter the thousands of murders and suicides.

Even if all guns miraculously disappeared, there would still be murder and suicide.  There would still be a need to defend oneself from murderers and thieves.

It's not the guns that are the problem.

It's the rage that's been sold since, around, 2000, that the right wing are evil.

Rage that has led to violence that was unpunished.

Outright encouragement of violence against "fascists" was the norm.

Antifa and Black Lives Matter destroyed how much property?  Injured or killed how many people?

Yet, only the right saw any real punishment.  Isn't it amazing how they found everyone who entered the capitol building on January 6, but we can't find arsonists in any of the various places that Antifa rioted in?

It's not guns that told them to go do evil and assured them they would not be punished.

It's not guns that provided bail money and delivered bricks on pallets near where these violent protests would occur.

It's not guns.

It's also not the right that's been murdering people.

I, for one, am sick of being blamed for things I didn't do.

I am sick of being punished for things that other people did.

That's against the entire concept of individual liberty that this nation was founded upon! 

Reportedly

I've heard that the police in Utah have found a .30 caliber hunting rifle and ammunition marked with trans and anti-facist stuff.

Great.

But if the serial number of the rifle doesn't lead straight to the murderer, can we fucking end the charade that filling out all the information on a 4473 does any good at all?

Also, if the serial number DOES lead straight to the murderer, can we fucking admit that the 4473 was gun registration all along? 

Can't have it both ways. 

A Proposal

When they catch the Charlie Kirk killer, don't show their picture, don't release their name, don't publish their manifesto...

Don't give them a moment of fame for this.

I'd say to call them "Some Asshole" but some people revel in that.

How about Chickenshit.

In it's original 1940's meaning.

Without value, worthless, nonredeemable.

"A Chickenshit was arrested in connection with the murder of Charlie Kirk," is sufficient.

If there are more than one, just apply a Roman numeral to the end.

If they start spewing their manifesto quote them as, "Chickenshit II babbled incoherently, as if what they had to say mattered in the slightest as they were taken into custody."

What they have to say, now, doesn't matter.  They chose violence over words and have abdicated having their side of the conversation being heard. 

I Feel Like I've Had This Discussion

 

First in T2K then in GURPS.

Sturgis

Being the grandson and son of bikers, it means I've been to Sturgis.

Thrice when I was riding.

First on a Honda VF500 Interceptor and last two on an GODS-FORSAKEN-PIECE-OF-SHIT-AMF-SPORTSER.

The ride was far more miserable on that Sportster than the Interceptor.  I still thank the Gods that it only had a 1.5 gallon tank so I got to stop often and get gas.  Everything was numb from the vibration.

But the experience at the destination was surreal in the difference.

I could park that fucking Sportster anywhere I could find a space.

The Honda?  Best be prepared to hoof it.

Dad snuck his Yamaha XS650 in that year because he'd stripped off anything from it that said RICE and the big springer front end disguised it's nature.  People were asking if it was a Triumph!

I don't know why this bubbled up.

Fuck You

After years of consideration:  Fuck you!

You wanted it, you're going to get it and I'm going to watch.

I tried to talk people out of it, but it's obvious that you don't want peace, you want WAR and I think I will not stand between you and the hot heads this time.

Remember.

You wanted this.

Enjoy.

I Knew This One

Glenn Reynolds compares Charlie Kirk to Elijah Parish Lovejoy.

File this under "history might not repeat, but it sometimes rhymes."

He's Right You Know

"I bet there isn't going to be anyone burning cars and looting stores, before burning them down, because of the Charlie Kirk murder."

M. Harris.

Hopefully A Nothingburger

On my side of the fence, I'm happy and optimistic about open carry being legal.

I've got, like, 30 states that have legalized it after once banning it that have nothing really bad to report on my side too.

Harvey expresses worry that someone will open up on a special needs kid for being curious about an openly carried firearm.

I don't see that happening, but...  It's something to be aware of.

Something I had not been considering, to be honest.

Neither of us plans on carrying open, but it's nice to not have to worry so hard about accidental exposure.

I did catch her quoting some of our fellow special needs parents on stuff that just isn't so.

I was a little surprised that many of our fellow parents are so lefty and anti-gun.

Toed the Florida Sheriff's Association line about how this will just make things easier for gang bangers to do crime.  The reasoning there has always been specious.  They don't like losing their fishing license, and let's be honest: They weren't doing a great job stopping gang bangers from doing crime with that line of harassment available.