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Whomever thought that, "As long as the grass grows and the water flows," meant forever was a fool.
Because in the land in question, the grass stops growing and the water stops flowing every winter.
Sometimes you can tell which side had legal representation by the contract's terms.
It has been 180 years since the USA last declared war on Mexico.
Not the last time we've fought, but it was the last time war were declared.
Something I accidentally hit while looking for other stuff about The Sioux.
American Indians volunteer for the military in fairly high numbers compared to their population.
They've done so since the beginning of the nation, as a matter of fact.
Strange they're fine with joining forces with the people who genocided them into non-existence... Except for that whole thing that there are actually more Indians now than when Columbus landed.
The thing I keep hitting, over and over, is most Native Americans are of the philosophy of, "we fought, we lost, we got over it and moved on," and it's a small minority who keep stirring shit back up.
Turns out race baiting isn't just for African American grifters!
Grifting comes in all colors!
Plus you never hear about the people who just shrugged and joined American society and live productive, happy, lives. Happy productive people don't make the news or garner any graft. You need angry, unhappy, people for that.
Every race can produce some of those.
Turns out that most American Indians aren't sitting around feeling either offended or sorry for themselves.
While they might be as proud of being Cheyenne as I am of being Scots-Italian, it's not their primary allegiance.
PS: My Blackfoot wife is not pinin' for The Rez; she's an example of a happy, productive, citizen.
Using this inflation calculator to check the picture found here.
$39,300 house should become $239,144.57.
$14,100 income should become $82,212.17.
$0.59 gas should become $3.44.
$1,500 college tuition should become $9,057.31
$3,800 new car should become $22,156.47
$150 rent should become $874.60.
$2.10 minimum wage should become $12.24
$0.28 loaf of bread should become $1.63
$1.55 movie ticket should become $9.04
Gee, you'd think the calculator might not be calibrated correctly. At least for those specific things.
A 23" Zenith TV was $420 in 1975. It should cost $2,599.78 today. They actually cost $99.
A Colt Gov't model was $175.50. It should cost $1,086.34 today, but actually comes in at $970.99.
Inflation is not even across all things, but calculators try to make it so.
The invisible hand does not care if something is relatively more or less valuable compared to 50 years ago.
I remember $70 Mosin-Nagant 91/30's around 2004. Inflation says that should only be $123.41, they're selling in the mid $400's now.
My mom loved cardinals more than any other bird.
She set out feeders to attract them so she could watch them more often.
My area has a resident cardinal who has a sixth sense about cameras.
I am determined to get a good photo, but he's very camera shy.
 |
| My best pic so far. |
Little did we know we'd set out a squirrel feeder.
My grampa, famously, hated tree-rats, and some of that has rubbed off on me in how I talk about them, but I don't really mind squirrels that mind their own business.
It was also kinda fun watching them do their gymnastics to get at the feeder.
But it wasn't for them, and they're keeping the birds away, so we moved it to a spot that forces them to break cover longer than they're comfortable doing.
Now we see them returning to the place where the feeder used to be and looking confused. We're almost feeling sorry enough to get then their own feeder.
I have severely edited my post berating Mikey for being illiterate.
It was childish and not up to my internal standards.
The replacement language says the exact same thing in a more adult tone.
I will try to explain the comment policy again...
You get to comment at my sufferance.
If I will not suffer you to comment, you don't get to comment.
Ending your commenting privilege doesn't mean I am afraid of your argument, it's means I'm sick of hearing from you.
Nothing about me allowing comments give you a right to express yourself here.
For the most part, if you remember to sign your comment, it's getting posted.
It actually takes some work to get me to give up and start moderating someone.
Filtering out the sealions makes my life easier and happier.
Oh, and once I've decided to ban you, you're done. No matter how reasonable and polite you are when you've forgotten about what you did to get banned.
True cowards shit on other people's blog without having their own to be shit upon.
You got banned for not being able to follow the posting rules, Mikey.
I'm not afraid of you, I'm sick of you.
And I know you can't read.
If you'd been able to read, you could still comment.
You'd have known I'd be mocking you for being unable to read.
Tschüß!
PS: Because I control if you get to reply, I get the last word.
It just hit me that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is set in the same time frame as the English Civil War.
How about that?
Kinda cements the idea that adding some blackpowder guns doesn't wreck the fantasy world feel too much.
It also underscores how little you really need to do to make WFRP work under GURPS, if you're motivated and not easily distracted.
Which, I'm sorry to say, I am unmotivated and easily distracted.
In a nutshell, 95% is already done.
If you wanna preserve the distinction between mage and cleric, you need a couple of GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy supplements.
All that's left is a couple of the world specific races and I've been plugging away at them.
It's slow work because WFRP is not well grounded in reality and that means converting stats is an irritating slog.
I was reading about how Senator Kelly spewed the contents of a classified briefing in public (are charges coming?) about how shallow our stockpile of precision munitions is getting.
Need I remind everyone that the dumb munitions still work fine if you're willing to have a larger circle of destruction surrounding the target?
One of the main drivers of precision munitions is to get stand off distance to keep our own people safe from the enemy's defenses.
If the enemy has no defenses to speak of a WW2 bomber could do the mission.
Nothing in current events, mind, but I just watched the old classic Richard Harris movie, "Cromwell."
I am thinking that I like the look of the period for a Fantasy campaign.
Solid early TL4 so all the "shouldn't exist at TL3" armor and weapons problems won't exist.
I like it.
The 17th century is, potentially, more fun than the 10th or 11th where most people envision Fantasy taking place.
Got the agitator dogs replaced in the Kenmore today.
What a difference!
The Boy's bed linens actually smell clean now.
I rewashed a load of my own clothes and the water was very gray during agitation.
I think it's safe to say that the washer ain't been washin' very well for a while. I have no idea how long the dogs were not ratcheting.
Also the new clutch lets the drum really spin, so the clothes are coming out drier before they go into the dryer.
There's a list of words that you cannot say on YouTube if you want to keep your channel monetized.
There's also a list of words that let you wink wink, nudge nudge, understand what word they'd meant to use.
Like unalived instead of kill.
Yahtzee for Nazi.
Etc.
By going along with the ban, you are going along with whatever messaging the people in charge of the purse strings wish you to portray.
I don't know a way around it except to be funded outside of YouTube and using their platform despite it.
But that leads to your channel being buried and not seen by new eyes...
The washing machine was making a screeching noise in spin cycle.
No es bueno.
We hired the local appliance place to come diagnose and repair it.
It was very close to the same price as getting a different washer, but we LIKE our old Kenmore direct drive.
They're serviceable.
Repairable.
Nigh immortal.
The part that needed replaced was the clutch for the drum.
The repair guy mentioned our agitator dogs were out too, cheap fix and simple to perform. He even said, "I can see your tool box, you can do this!"
That made me feel good.
He might even have seen me changing the hatch struts on Alice too.
I remember when the CMP announced the prices for the M1911's all the sturm und drang over the sales.
I was among the early doubters, in fact.
Since then there have been at least four lotteries for whom got a pistol and that's moved on to direct sales of what's left.
And the furor is gone.
Not even sour grapes griping about missing out.
While the lotteries were running, I only recall a couple of people who didn't like what they'd gotten.
I've seen pics of some very nice guns on various forums.
IN spooked them. They thought they had Trump and MAGA contained. They thought they could ignore Trump. They thought that MAGA was weakened, split, and easily put back in the corner. They believed the fake polls. They figured their podcast bros caused more than enough…
— unseen1 (@unseen1_unseen) May 7, 2026
I keep telling the few liberal friends I still have the Trump, and MAGA, is a symptom not the cause of what's going on.
It doesn't end when he leaves office.
It started back when the TEA in Tea Party meant "taxed enough already" and before the media convinced everyone TEA meant KKK.
The media that did that no longer has that kind of power. Especially with the SLPC involved in wire fraud charges.
Buckle up, Buttercup!
Too many MAGA people moan about what they are not seeing done while ignoring the incredible wealth of good news in their midst.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) May 6, 2026
I’ll give you just one example.
Did you know that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has created a “Second Amendment Section,” designed to protect the…
Yes, it's good news that the DOJ is suing over an AWB.
But we can also see that Duncan v Bonta is not moving and it's been sitting there for...
Nine years since the initial, favorable, ruling.
Three years since the 9th Circus Circuit issued the
unfavorable ruling saying the law could proceed and be enforced.
Waiting on the Supreme Court.
Again.
Still.
It took our side two years to file for certiorari, FFS!
So, good on the DOJ for suing Denver. Should have the injustice removed in about ten years... Assuming that the succeeding administrations and their DOJ keep the case going.
That's why we're pessimists! They can't do a decade's worth of litigation in the two years remaining.
What we've done by buying and using the 75% IDPA targets at seven yards is to simulate shooting at ten yards.
7 yards is -3 to hit. 10 yards is -4, so we've been giving ourselves a -1 penalty at the range vs "real life".
In the above photo, going for the Mozambique Drill, it's -3 for the vitals and -7 for the skull. How to GURPS it is on page 15-16 of Tactical Shooting.
In total:
Vitals: -4 for range, -3 for location,+1 for all-out-attack (determined), +1 for no risk to self, +1 for no risk to others, +3 for well lit range, +3 for known distance. +2 to hit vitals.
Skull: -4 for range, -7 for location,+1 for all-out-attack (determined), +1 for no risk to self, +1 for no risk to others, +3 for well lit range, +3 for known distance. -2 to hit vitals.
If you're patting yourself on the back for how well you do on the range, notice the +8 for being at the nice, safe, comfortable firing range.
I've calculated my Guns/TL8 (Pistol) at 15 before, so I'd need a 17 or less to hit with one round at the vitals, 15 or less to hit with both in round 1. Then I'd need a 15 or less to hit the skull in round 2.
I am definitely not running at the pace that requires using the Rapid Strike version of the drill!
In the real world, I'd need a 9 to land one shot and a 7 to land both in the vitals. Rolling a 10 or 8 means hitting the torso instead. To hit the skull in the next round I'd need to roll a 5 or less. I don't feel super confident of that head shot. Rolling a 6 means hitting the torso instead.
In the real world I'd prolly not be ready to shoot until the person attacking me was a lot closer than 10 yards, more like three... So -1 for range instead of -4 and then 12 for the vitals, 10 for both rounds (13 and 11 get the torso) then 8 or less for the skull shot.
Probably more doable.
If you're blaming me for someone else being a racist because I look like that racist...
You're a racist too.
Wasn't me, didn't do it.
Blaming the group for individual crimes is the core of bigotry.
It's a seductive trap and easy to fall into.
Interestingly, noticing that groups of people have something in common is not racist or sexist if the observation happens to be true.
You wouldn't be able to recognize them as a group otherwise.
And sometimes the differences between groups are insurmountable and they should live with some space between them. But not as often as many bigots would have you believe.
Because today is May the Fourth Be With You and tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo...
I give you Obi Juan Kenobi!
I object to the Universal Metric Cartridge Naming System because there are too many duplicates, not because it uses metric.
Using inches would have the same problems.
8x50mmR would still need to have "Lebel" or "Siamese" after 0.321x1.98"-R.
For the record, we went to the moon using the metric system. Look it up.
Gauges and instruments were labeled in Imperial because of familiarity to the operators, but the math was done in metric.
Actually, hitting the paper.
Harvey has hit the proverbial wall in becoming a better pistol shot.
She is also frustrated by me being so much better than her in a casually effortless way.
I don't even think I'm that good, I'm OK.
And it took many long years to get to it.
She was very depressed and down on herself so I said, "let's sit here on the stools behind the range on the other side of the glass."
We sat for a while watching the other people shoot and I say, "you're already better than half the people here."
And she is.
She's getting all her shots on paper. Nearly all of them in the -1 ring of a 75% sized IDPA target at 7 yards.
With an epic flinch while she jerks the trigger no less!
She tends to string vertically with a low bias.
We're working on it. But it doesn't help that she cannot feel her pinkie on her right hand and often cannot feel her ring finger thanks to something pinching in her right elbow.
Her eyes/glasses combination isn't helping. Our last trip to the eye doctor did NOT get us glasses we're happy with at all.
Posting pics has, once again, become unreliable at Blogger.
If they'd just stop breaking the "Insert Image by URL" feature, I'd be fine.
Copy-pasting the image to the page as a work around started working erratically, and was making hot-links to the URL I wanted to insert anyway rather than actually dropping the image. Those links die for some reason.
Uploading the image to Blogger has never failed, but there's reasons to not use that; not least of which is the limited space provided.
I pay flickr for unlimited space, I'm not going to pay someone else too.
There's a video making the rounds of a Muslim woman complaining about the lack of Halal choices in Japan.
She, apparently, spent a month there and ended up eating...
Well the pics she posted looked yummy to me.
But Japan loves pork.
One would think you'd check that out before committing to a month there.
But I have seen this meme before there was a word, "meme."
The Ugly American.
You know the person, they go to a foreign and exotic land and demand that everything be made just like home for them. It's an American stereotype.
So she went to Japan and is demanding they have Halal food at every eatery because SHE is there.
Yeah.
Well, I gotta love one response I found from someone in Japan, "So I can buta no shogayaki at every restaurant in Riyadh?"
I mean every place MUST conform to the ideals of their visitors, right?
I'm actually surprised there's been push back against her little rant.
The first example of how Universal Metric fails against simply naming the rounds is the number of 8x50mmR rounds where you end up naming them anyways. Austrian, Lebel, Siamese...
But where it really rankles me is .22 Long and .22 Long Rifle.
UM is based on caliber x case length.
.22 Long and .22 Long Rifle are identical if you use UM. 5.6x16mmR. This is because they use the exact same case. .22LR uses a longer, heavier, bullet and more powder. They're not the same.
While I was restricting myself to things that were plausible for Twilight, I'd missed that the hoary old M577 stopped being M577.
Neatly sidestepping becoming the Mobile Command Post of Theseus the M577A2 was extensively upgraded and modernized to become the M1068.
A similar upgrade makes the M577A3 into the M1068A3.
Still looks the same on the outside and you'd be forgiven if you mistook one for another.
The M1068 is due to be replaced by the Bradley based M1286.
I once had a player group in one of my first conversions of T2K to GURPS select the M577A1 CP because it had air conditioning.
Twilight: 2000 had a few variations of the M2 Bradley which were projected to enter service, but never did.
It was a logical progression that the Brad would be modified as the M113 had and would have as many specialized variants.
Well... No. Especially with the Berlin Wall falling and ruining the chances we'd have full on nuclear combat, toe to toe with the Ruskies. It also makes T2K an alt-history instead of a speculative future.
Darn.
It does turn out that the M113 is obsolete and not viable for frontline operations any more and that we needed something to replace all of its numerous variations.
Which we started to do in 2018 with the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle program.
T2K's M18 mortar carrier is the real world's M1287.
The world only took 32 years to catch up to a game...
There seems to be some confusion out there.
Here's a handy way of looking at things that will help.
If you do something because of race, it is racism.
If you increase the voting power of Black people because they are Black, you are doing a racist thing.
If you increase the voting power of White people because they are White, you are doing a racist thing.
If you increase the voting power of Asian people because they are Asian, you are doing a racist thing.
If you increase the voting power of Hispanic people because they are Hispanic, you are doing a racist thing.
Update:* Swapping the races doesn't make it not racist. If it's racist for White people to do it, it's racist for Black people to do it: Regardless of how often or how long White people did it! Two wrongs don't make a right.
See how that works?
If the voting power of a given people is decreased because it increases the power of one political party over another it is not necessarily racist.
If the voting power of one political party is always increased when the voting power of a given race is increased it is racist.
If the voting power of a given race is disproportionate to their population, it is racist.
The majority will always have more voting power than the minority. That there are more White people than Black people is incidental to argument.
I hope this clear things up. But it doesn't.
Which brings us to Florida and how the new district map increases the power of Whitey™.
Florida was 51.5% White as of the 2020 census. It was 14.5% Black and 26.5% Hispanic.
The distribution of race is not even in Florida. There are no real concentrations of Black people where they're the majority unless you get really creative with drawing the lines and the map suddenly looks a lot like Illinois. Essentially you'd have to pinpoint every Black person you can find, connect the dots and that's your district with a majority Black population.
This district will utterly disenfranchise anyone who is not Black and, historically, it was drawn across places that were, historically, majority Hispanic. Oddly, never up along the Alabama border were it made more sense...
Yet, somehow, this increases White Power®? Never mind there's a distinct population of "Black" people who'd say, "¡Soy cubano!" Does moving the lines increase or decrease their voting power?
The final thought I leave you with: There is no way to draw the lines that is completely fair. It is impossible. The best you can do is to maximize fairness, but someone will always be left out.
*Thanks SiGraybeard!
If you call the cops for the same thing too many times, you will be fined for it.
The most common version of this tale is a false alarm of your security system.
The cops come out when your alarm goes off, find nothing, and after a certain number of calls order you to fix your alarm or be fined.
So you call the alarm company and discover that there's nothing wrong with your system.
But the alarm keeps being triggered.
So the cops fine you.
This does not sit well with the average business owner at all.
What's happening?
The burglars know the police response time and how they operate. They trigger the alarm and disappear. They know that the most common end response of the business owner is to shut the alarm off rather than face the fine.
Then they can burgle at their own pace.
The crowning moment is when the place gets cleaned out and the owner calls the cops in the morning they say, "you should have had an alarm." They will then proceed to do a cursory investigation and the crime will never be solved no matter how obvious it is to everyone in the neighborhood whom the criminals are.
Oh, and don't you dare figure out what the thieves are up to and sit inside your business waiting for them to break in. There's no defending mere property allowed.
And THAT is how you end up with a law making it legal to shoot burglars.
And by the bye, if you don't make it legal to shoot burglars, you eventually get cops getting shot by citizens because the cops are only getting in the way of justice and things have progressed to the point where the only path to justice is unlawful.
Remember: The deal is we give up the right to vendetta and The State catches and punishes criminals. If The State reneges on this deal, we get our vendetta back.
We don't want our vendetta back. It really is better if the professionals catch and punish criminals, it's one of the things that allows for a high-trust society.
The center group is the M&P 2.0 9 Compact. The other two groups are the Shield Plus.
I then decided to so some Mozambique drills with the Compact.
While I keep hearing about how great the Gen 6 Glocks are, they'd have to really be great to replace my Smith.
Poproszę o przedmioty z byłego państwa komunistycznego – takie, których nie można było posiadać, gdy było ono jeszcze państwem komunistycznym – za 1000 dolarów.
Today is international fuck communism day.
The official food of today is "no food."
Half price helicopter rides if you show your Communist Party ID when checking in at the gate.
A Marlin Camp Carbine in 9x19mm uses the same magazines as a S&W 59 series pistol.
10 (ick), 15, 17 and 20 round magazines are available from Mec-Gar, assuming you can get their web page to work, which it wasn't at the time I tried to check on this.
It seems silly that the 20 rounder is so much longer than the 17 and only holds three more rounds.
Looks like 5 more rounds, at least, would fit, no?
They're built very differently internally.
The 17 rounder has a shorter follower and the top of the spring is designed to telescope inside itself; that's how it gets 17 rounds where S&W designed 15 to go.
The 20 rounder reminds me more of the S&W 15 rounder they introduced with the 3rd gen. Tall follower, normal spring geometry, it just eats the space up inside.
The original Model 59 magazines only held 14, but S&W changed the baseplate from metal to plastic and let it sit a little outside the gun giving just enough more space for a 15th round. When the 59 was introduced, it was a selling point to have one more round than the competition, the Browning Hi-Power. By the time the 3rd generation guns came out, the competition was the Beretta 92 and they needed to have at least as many rounds as them.
I think Mec-Gar figured out the additional two rounds to have parity with Glock.
Is it possible that the reason that Illinois' map is gerrymandered so that every representative can have an office in Chicago and has nothing to do with race or party affiliation?
I'm here all night, try the veal and don't forget to tip your server.
There's so many creative people I've stopped watching since 2016... November 2016 come to think of it.
Europeans really don't get us.
The more I see them explain my motives for things without asking me, I also understand why they don't understand. They don't want to.
They think we're like them and when we, repeatedly, demonstrate different they get petulant.
Scandinavia vs the World is the first place it really hit home for me.
Lazer Pig is the most recent.
He really supports Ukraine. Everything side tracks to how the US isn't doing our part to support what he wants.
Our part? Why the fuck is any of this our problem? And if it's our problem, then you're blaming the wrong president and political party, fucktard.
And if you don't support Ukraine he has a huge video that explains why you're wrong and evil and fell for propaganda... But if you look hard at what he's saying and how he's saying it, then if you DO support Ukraine then you're wrong, and evil and fell for propaganda but it's OK this time because it's HIS propaganda. FuzzyGeff was unable to finish the video.
I took a break from him, and History of Everything, about here.
And he gets around to blaming the wrong president and political party by name in what is supposedly a video about the Challenger II tank.
The asides about Russia getting Trump elected by a supposed historian... then I realized something. Lazer Pig is a gay man.
Trump is literally Hitler to the LGBTQSS.
Click.
Got it.
The Firearms Policy Coalition has posted this list to their Facebook account.
Nearly all good as far as I can see. The Devil will be in the details, of course.FPC LEGAL ALERT
The ATF has posted summaries of the new regulations, which include:
1) Repeal Biden's pistol brace rule
2) Revising "engaged in the business" rule
3) Revising machine gun definition in response to Cargill decision
4) Remove requirement for FFLs to post info about Youth Handgun Safety Act
5) Revising 4473 form, including allowing electronic forms and increase the time NICS checks remain valid
6) Allow FFLs to keep electronic records
7) Replace indefinite retention of 4473s with definite time periods of 20 or 30 yearsAllow “Non-Over-the-Counter” firearm sales by FFLs to residents of the same state
9) Repeal interstate NFA transport notice requirement for trips under 365 days, with all others no longer requiring approval before transport
10) Joint NFA registration for married couples
11) Remove NFA CLEO notification
12) Clarify that "common, reasonably necessary activities during travel" are covered by FOPA transportation protection
13) Allow import of dual-use frames, receivers, and barrels
14) Clarify that "training rounds" are not ammunition
15) Eliminate engraving requirement for people making NFA firearms out of existing serialized guns
16) "Clarify that a person receiving assistance in only one functional area (such as financial management) would not, on that basis alone, be considered prohibited" under mental health disqualifier
17) Requiring biological sex on ATF Forms
18) Clarify when a transaction is a straw purchase
19) Formally define "willfully" for firearms violations.
20) "Remove the list of former Soviet countries from which ATF currently denies applications to permanently import most firearms and ammunition, retaining only the Russian Federation"
Obviously, we want all their stupid shit deleted and the "The Lord giveth and the The Lord taketh away," nature of ATF regulation be eliminated; but we fucking marched to where we are since 1934; stopping and doing some baby steps backwards is a huge deal.
When the Death Star collapsed in Marv's back seat, we had thought we'd gotten it all in the back for Adam.
Marv, however, found a stray the other day.
Today, I ran up to Ocala to give Adam his parts.
The Beast is made for the open road!
The lack of AC is a bit tedious, but it wasn't too bad, really. I grew up without AC at all and it was a bit nostalgic to drive with the windows down.
Tennessee did a solid for the law-abiding and passed a bill making it legal to defend property with deadly force.
While it might only be stuff, it's MY stuff.
It's not a case of me valuing my stuff over someone's life. It's them not valuing their life over my stuff.
It wasn't that long ago we put the heads of thieves on pikes to warn others of the price of stealing.
That's extremely unsanitary, but it underscores that Western Civilization didn't always condemn the idea of defending hearth and home by any and all means at hand.
Perhaps if the police embraced Peelian principles more, it would not have come to this, but they appear to have reneged on the deal that they would handle thieves if we surrendered shooting them in the back when they were fleeing with our property.
Well, Officers, how many burglaries have you solved?
Does your state have a "good faith" clause that lets pawn shops out of being charged with dealing in stolen goods?
If the answer to that first question is, "not many," or, "a very small percentage of burglaries reported;" and the answer to the second question is, "yes." then it's time to let the honest citizen waste some criminals.
Remember, a dead criminal has a 0% recidivism rate. Also, liberal judges and district attorneys can't release a dead criminal to commit more crimes while they fail to appear for trial, no matter how much money George Soros spends on electing them!
Being able to legally shoot criminals is a solid win for society!
Wanna know a secret?
I doubt we're going to see more than a handful of criminals shot stealing from a home.
For the same reasons that conceal carry liberalization had a chilling effect on assault, rape and robbery.
Thieves don't want to get shot committing crimes.
For some reason I'm better with the Gen 1 Classic than the P80 Classic.
Two mags at 7 yards.
The factory Glock sights still suck for me trying to go fast on a 3x3 set of rings though. Lack of practice, I am sure.
The Gen 1 Classic's slide doesn't scrape the top of my hand like the P80 Classic. Odd.
Facebook is far more likely to suggest someone I know in meatspace from long ago under my blog name than it is under my real name.
That's very odd.
Also interesting is a search for those suggested "friends" from my realname account often gives no results. That means those folks have blocked me under my real name.
I didn't think they remembered me, but it seems that they regarded me poorly enough to preemptively make sure I wouldn't find them.
I guess I should feel bad about that, but it wasn't until Facebook recommended them to my blogname account that I even remembered them.
There was a story that went around the gun sphere a while ago where someone asked a Glock rep at a convention, "Who has to die to get a single stack Glock?"
The reply was, "Gaston."
IYKYK
Glock has recently recognized that metal magazines without a plastic sheath are durable enough for everyday use after... um... more than a century.
Apparently they have contracted with MecGar for new magazines for the 43x and 48 which ups the round count from 10 to 15.
I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.
Panzer Guy, in the comments, asked for my thoughts about it and I think that it's Glock finally admitting that the customers deserve a vote about what Glock should make because the customers decide what they are going to buy.
If Glock fails to make something they want to purchase, they will buy from a vendor that does.
Someone like S&W and their Shield Plus that packs 13 rounds in about the same profile as Glock pack 10...
The new all metal magazines pack 15 in the space that used to hold 10 and that's 2 more than Smith... That's a good look.
I also think the Gen6 guns are a response to customer feedback that's been accumulating since Gen3. I also note that Gaston Glock did, indeed, die between Gen3 and Gen6 (he died after Gen5 came out).
Personally I've felt that every generation of Glock has been a good progression since the beginning, except for the finger bulges on 3 and 4. I have to admit wanting the bulges when they came out and later deciding they were for someone else's hand.
Not every generation has had a smooth rollout. I remember when the 4th gen hit and people were wondering where the reliability had gone. Quickly fixed, but a hiccup.
I've no hands-on experience with the Gen6, but have been hearing good things.
Marv needs a Gen6 Glock 19, I think.
I keep telling this story and then losing where I put it so I can't link to it when I say, "I've told this story before!"
My unit had a bit of a hiccup in the supply lines.
We'd turned in our M1911A1's and all the .45 ACP and drawn 9mm in anticipation of being issued new M9's. Except the M9 was having some sort of production stoppage and there were no pistols to issue us.
Normally that'd mean we'd just wait, without pistols, until it was sorted out.
We were scheduled to leave for the West German-Czech border, "any moment now," to cover a unit there that was going to Graf for training.
We got permission to hit the
rod-and-gun club's gun shop and order, "anything that shoots 9mm," I remember that we were supposed to be compensated for the purchase up to some amount I don't recall. I don't think we ever were. We were also allowed to purchase if we were under 21 (like me) and accompanied by a senior NCO. If you were under 21, you could only visit your purchase under the same conditions as an issue weapon. Over 21 could sign them out almost at will.
I bought a Glock 17. My first gun!
I chose it because it held 17 rounds, that's more than a Beretta so better!
Someplace in here is where I learned 17+1 too.
Pistol qualification was hilarious with, seemingly, no two guns alike. Thinking back, most of us snagged either a Beretta 92 or a S&W x39 or x59. One guy even snagged an H&K94!
I was still 20 when I injured myself in
a fall from a tank and had to sell the gun before returning home, had
to be 21 to bring a handgun back with you from Germany in those days. Technically I WAS 21 when I ETS'd, but there were painkillers and alcohol involved in my disorderly medical separation from service.
Most of my service with tanks, I carried an M1911A1, not a Glock 17.
When we got back from the Czech border, we finally got our M9's to go with our 9x19mm ammo.
But I never carried my Beretta like this:
We had the Bianchi M13 shoulder holsters based on the UM-84. Those things sucked. Lots of guys used their old M7 holsters as I have pictured above.
A Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic loaded with 17 rounds of S&B 115gr FMJ weighs 1 lb. 15.9 oz.
A Glock 17 Gen 1 Classic loaded with 17 rounds of Hornady 135gr Critical Duty JHP weighs 2 lb. 0.6 oz.
Both of which round to 2 lb. for GURPS.
The loaded magazines are 9.8 oz. for the ball ammo and 10.5 oz. for the hollow-points.
0.6 lb. and 0.7 lb. when you get done rounding.
So you can take a 0.1 lb. heavier magazine and not change the weight of the pistol!
Remember pi is 3.00 in GURPS...
I tend to not bother accounting for the heavier ammo and just use the ammo table exemplar for all rounds; though I do have different weights listed for .223 Rem and 5.56x45mm NATO... Because they have two listings on the ammo table!
Blogger keeps breaking the post picture by URL feature and I have now idea what could be the cause.
It's not because the URL is broken, because if you manually enter the html for the hot linked pic, it appears correctly.
It's their interface that's busted and keeps getting busted after they fix it.
Feedback has been sent to whomever keeps track of such things and it will prolly start working again tomorrow for a few weeks.
How I toted on the Czech-West German border.
If I had not disregarded the future collectors, this picture would be impossible for lack of a lanyard.
While entrapment is illegal, arresting people for breaking the law in response to someone else being arrested is not.
If we had a properly function justice system, any protests that fell to being a riot would result in scads and scads of people being arrested and the fomenters who changed it from a protest to a riot would suffer heavy charges.
Without bail.
Someone who (allegedly) instigates a riot is clearly a threat to the community and too dangerous to be at large while their innocence is proven. Though if they're at the center of a second riot because of their arrest... What a great piece of damning evidence!
For example, (Only) Black Lives Matter protests that turned to violence, destruction and arson because a career criminal's life long arc led to it's logical conclusion to police gun fire should be welcomed as probable cause to get professional agitators locked away for a good long time.
Florida has a good example of doing it right, actually.
Saint Petersburg had a race riot in 1996.
"What do we do next time?" loomed big in everyone's mind.
That the cops came up with was:
1. Identify the leaders.
2. Swiftly arrest them.
3. Hold them incommunicado for as long as the law allows. 24 hours.
4. Hold them for the maximum amount of time allowed without charging them. 30 days, 40 with good cause.
5.Turn them loose, uncharged.
Number three derails the third parties who provide bail money. In 24 hours the momentum for most riots dissipates without these leaders.
Number four, once a threat to the community is expressed by the arresting department, means they get to stew and be ineffective at foment.
Number 5 kills their ability to use their incarceration as a form of martyrdom.
It works!
It worked in St Pete while Minneapolis burned.
The Father In Law's tailgate refused to open today.
Troubleshooting was complicated by a tonneau cover.
We could tell that the passenger side was unlatching, but the driver's wasn't.
Happily we figured out how to get past the cover and get it out the way without breaking anything.
Four screws to get the latch plate off and get at the guts.
What had failed was the little plastic retainer that holds the latch-rod to the latch, allowing said rod to fall off and not be actuated by the latch.
Marv had donated a spare latch back when he had the same model truck, so we swiped a retainer from that latch to replace the broken one and all is now well.
Half the time working with The FiL's truck I come back in cussing and Harvey was very confused that I was back in the house ten minutes after starting the project and all done without even screaming.
I think you can buy the little plastic retainers at AutoZone, but I've tasked Bubba to do it.
I keep Shadow and Beeper separated because Beeper is VERY aggressive towards Shadow and Shadow is very meek.
Today they showed no signs of wanting to swap out of the bedroom, but Beeper had zonked out in a sunbeam on the back porch.
So I, gently, grabbed Shadow and took her back there.
She was tense when she spotted Beeper, but stayed in my lap for a while, slowly relaxing.
Then she hopped down and did her normal rounds of exploring the porch while Beeper continued to sleep.
Eventually, though, Beeper became aware of Shadow and she started to try to start something, which I prevented by blocking her.
Shadow walked back into the house instead of slinking and Beeper did a fairly prompt, "out of sight, out of mind," bit and went back to her sunbeam.
It's progress.
In the past once Shadow had become aware that Beeper had spotted her would have been hours under the bed in the bedroom.
Today she was in the bedroom window watching the birds.
That's progress too!
The mouth breathing morons were standing in rapt attention watching the National Felon League select their newest players this evening.
That this "needed" to be televised is extremely confusing to me.
Hockey manages to have a draft every year and you can read about it on the NHL web page if you care, without forcing anyone who doesn't to endure it.
Hockey is so much better than Football in so many ways.
By the way, the NHL is currently running their playoffs, it's more important than who might be playing football months from now and I am getting sick of the NFL stepping on other sports.
The Boy has a stuffed animal, Mr Sloth.
Mr Sloth is his constant companion and he helps keep The Boy calm.
The special needs kids group did a sunset cruise to see the dolphins...
Mr Sloth went overboard while The Boy was helping him dance to the music they were piping in.
Happily, "SLOTH OVERBOARD!" is a valid cry to the crew of the boat (who had warned people that they would NOT be turning back for lost glasses or hats).
Mr Sloth was recovered, soaked through and smelling of The Sea®.
What he required is what we call a "Spa Day."
A spa day could be as simple as tossing him in the washer and treating him like laundry.
Often it means gutting him and replacing his stuffing.
Occasionally, we replace him with a different Mr Sloth. This time he's been replaced with a spare from the attic.
If The Boy is aware we're doing this, he isn't letting on.
They were originally available from Wal Mart, and we bought several. We bought all we could find one year. We still have a few.
You can find them on ebay. LINK TO AN EXAMPLE.
The P80 Classic did not fill the void.
So I've kept hunting for either a real steal on an actual Gen1 or a decent deal on a Gen 1 Classic.
I found the Classic because the seller listed it as a real Gen1 and that wouldn't attract someone who wanted a Classic.
Without regards to future collectors, I decided to make it a clone of my actual first Glock 17.
This means I can put the lanyard on it!
The hole for the lanyard is not on the initial issue of the P80 or G17, and it appears erratically in production until all guns after a certain point have it. The one I bought at the Patch Rod and Gun Club had the hole, as did the one I bought later at Jacobson's Gun Center. The gun I bought stateside also had adjustable sights for ATF import points.
Here's what's wrong with the P80:
And here's why the Gen 1 Classic is acceptable:
And except for the serial number range, that's all the differences between them!
In my locale, there is no worse shipper than FedEx.
Especially if it's gun stuff.
Even DHL is better around here.
Read that again.
I've even had to threaten to call ATF on them because they claimed it was delivered on the web page and the driver had not even gotten within a mile of my house yet.
That was a fun call while they claimed they couldn't contact the driver and had no way of knowing exactly where he was. Yet, ten minutes after issuing my threat the driver screeched to a halt in front of my house and a driver with a "I just got my ass chewed but good," look on their face delivered my return from S&W.
Today I am watching a tracking number that left Tampa at 0720 with an expected delivery between 1045 and 1445.
It is now 1530 and expected delivery has changed to "before 1700" to a business that closes at 1700...
I loathe FedEx so much.
The road from high-trust to low-trust societies follows a predictable path.
One of the first steps is the entities that have been entrusted with keeping order, refusing to do so or being selective about what order they keep.
Anarchotyranny is the result.
The classic example is a homeowner who has suffered through repeated thefts and burglaries and receiving no justice who decides enough is enough and administers some on their own.
The people who are supposed to be investigating the crimes that led to this, enforcing the law and meting out punishment... Come down hard on the homeowner.
The homeowner did, assuredly, break the law; but the motives matter.
What was the government doing to keep them from losing their property?
Had they arrested anyone?
Had they secured a conviction?
Did they even bother to actually investigate past taking a vague description or logging the video of the crime?
The government and police have failed in their duties and since they are given powers delegated from The People, it is the right of The People to reclaim those powers from the government and police.
But there's a simple solution: Just make it legal to shoot burglars and thieves in the act of stealing AND/OR running from the scene of the crime.
Fuck 'em.
Because if the cops don't start arresting people and the district attorney doesn't start getting convictions: People are going to start killing criminals on their own and will shortly thereafter start shooting the police who try to stop them.
It's a place we, as a society, do not want to be; but the first step back from the brink is the hardest and it's on Leviathan to make it.
We've been watching hockey via one of the secondary broadcast channels on the back porch.
Which is fine as long as the weather cooperates.
Lately, though, reception has been a bit choppy and we have neighbors who turn up their music too loud.
So I ordered a bigger antenna!
I clamped it to the mount that used to hold our abandoned in place Dish Network dish.
There was some bother with aiming because my phone's compass wasn't calibrated properly. I was off like 13° south of where the transmitters were!
Bonus: since we were using abandoned Dish Network stuff anyways, we now have broadcast TV in the living room too!
It just took me a bit to find which of the coax cables in the attic led to the wall-jack nearest to the TV.
I owe Marv dinner for his help.
Remember a couple days back when I talked about replacing the Amazon Basics UPS with a unit I'd put a new battery in?
Yesterday the clock on the microwave said 0:00 for the time and the garage clock was short a few hours.
The power had gone out while I was sleeping and there was nothing else to make us notice.
It cannot have been out for very long because the coffee pot's clock was still right. It'll recover after a short outage because unplugging it briefly is how you reset the "clean the pot" notice.
Today is pot culture day. Toke 'em if you got 'em.
Hitler's brain, in a jar in the Nazi moonbase on the far side of the Moon, is 137.
Wednesday will be Urf Dae. I would burn some waste oil, but we're under a burn ban from our near-record drought.
Crispy decided that having a functioning 'G' key was too much today.
If there wasn't a 'g' in the password to unlock the screen, that would have been OK...
Fortunately, the keyboard on a Lenovo T420S is easily replaced and I had a spare already. It's the same keyboard as the T410 The Boy rocks, so we laid spares in deep against his inadvertent destruction. A cover membrane has prevented his eating over the board from taking one out for a long while... Eyes crossed.
Study finds that cannabis ineffective in the treatment of PTSD.
I think these kind of studies are looking to see if they cure the disease or lead to a lessening of symptoms over time.
Booze is also ineffective in the treatment of PTSD, but that has not stopped veterans from self-medicating with it for... as long as I can remember being around veterans.
What booze and weed let you do is not give a fuck about it for a while.
Addressing a symptom while ignoring the cause.
Self medication leads to lots of worse problems, so getting at the cause is a better plan.
"Boston Herald" - Todd Peterson
BREAKING NEWS: Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Massachusetts.
A National Guard task-force detailed to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault-style weapons, was ambushed by elements of an anti-Government, para-military extremist faction.
Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.
Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “treasonous criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault-style weapons. Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.” Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.
During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed the government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the National Guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.And this fellow Americans, is exactly how the American Revolution began, April 19, 1775.
History. Learn it, or repeat it.
I found the above on Facebook, posted by Todd Peterson.
This is also pretty much how it would be reported today too.
Got my results, by mail, of my 24 hour heart monitor.
"Unremarkable."
Excellent news.
I remain suspiciously healthy for a man of my lifestyle.
A standard, everyday, FAL is 10.9 lb. loaded. No optics, no lasers, no suppressor.
With a 100 round basic load it's 17.3 lb.
The, strangely, beloved M14 is the same.
If we upped the spare magazine count from four to six, like the M7, we get 140 rounds and that increases the load to 20.5 lb.
0.7 lb. lighter than the M7 with it's basic load and without the capabilities of the optics, lasers and suppressor.
The thing is, it was nearly universally agreed that the 7.62 battle rifles were too heavy and you got insufficient dakka.
The "amusing" thing is we could add a 5.56 calibrated M157 optic to a suppressed M4A1+ and have a loadout of 17.1 lb. Saves 4.2 lb. and has 50% more shots. We'd be sacrificing the theoretical benefit of the 6.8x51mm round.
If only someone had written a book 76 years ago explaining how piling on pound after pound on the troops was a bad plan...
Remember, the folks lugging an FAL or M14 around weren't also encumbered with body armor past a steel helmet.
The Aimpoint M4 aka M68 Close Combat Optic is a Collimating Sight (HT p. 156). It gives a +1 to Guns/TL skill out to 300 yards and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,100; 0.8 lb.
The Trijicon TA31RCO is a 4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155). It gives, up to, +2 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,300; 0.9 lb.
The Elcan M145 is a fixed 3.4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155). It gives +1 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties. $1,450; 1.5 lb.
The Vortex Optics M157 is a TL8 Computer Sight (HT p. 157) giving a +1 to Guns/TL skill and a +3 to hit with an aimed attack out to 4,000 yards using the laser rangefinder, but without the Night Vision or Infravision in the description; however it has both a visible and IR Integral Targeting Laser (Shoulder Arm) (HT p. 156-157). It is also a 1 to 8 power Telescopic Sight (High Tech, p. 155) that gives up to +3 to Accuracy with an Illuminated Reticle, which cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties (High Tech, p. 155). $5,400; 1.9 lb.
"Whoopty doo, Basil, what does it all mean?" A Powers IMMoM
The M4 is simplest. If you're inside 300 yards, you get a +1 to your skill. In the real world, we'd call it "aiming" but GURPS doesn't think of using the sights as "aiming."
Telescopic sights require a turn of the aiming action per point of bonus. So to get your +2 bonus with the ACOG, you have to spend 2 actions aiming. The variable power of the M157 means you take a second to dial it to the bonus you want then spend the requisite number of actions aiming, zero to three.
If you spend an action using the laser rangefinder, it gives a +3 to the built-in +1 for a total of +4... Spending an additional three second aiming gets a total of +7 with it dialed to 8x!
The USMC has declined to participate in the M7 and XM8 programs. They stuck to their M27 IAR.
I just found out that the 27 comes from the first unit to field them and isn't in sequence with ANY of the nomenclature systems the military has ever used. The stubby M38 version is, likewise, named after the first unit that used it.
Is this a good plan?
Let's add up the weights!
Loaded M16A4 (30 rounds) 9.1 lb.
With ACOG 10 lb.
Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.6 lb.
Plus basic load 16.6 lb.
With ACOG 9.9 lb.
Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.5 lb.
Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 11.9 lb.
Plus basic load 18.5 lb.
Loaded M4A1+ (with the heavier SOCCOM style barrel) (30 rounds) 7.8 lb.
With M68 8.6 lb.
Add an AN/PEQ-16 9.2 lb.
Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 10.6 lb.
Plust basic load 16.6 lb.
Loaded M7 (20 rounds) 9.8 lb.
With M157 optic 11.7 lb.
Add the proprietary suppressor 13.2 lb.
Plus basic load 21.2 lb.
Loaded XM8 (25 rounds) 8.9 lb.
With M157 optic 10.8 lb.
Add the proprietary suppressor 12.1 lb.
Plus basic load 21.1 lb.
I think less mass is better than more if you're lugging it around.
I think that more beans is better than fewer.
I think the Marines got a shorter barreled version of the M16A4 for just 0.1 lb. of weight savings and lose the shorter length by adding a suppressor.
They're still at 210 rounds combat load compared to 140 for the M7 and save 1.3 lb. They're only ahead of the XM8 by 0.2 lb. but the 175 round basic load still looms large.
There's a distinct lack of reporting on if the problems with the M157 have been fixed.
I still think it's VERY telling that SIG proposed the XM8 so soon after the M7 was accepted and complaints started rolling in about various features.
Compare those "plus basic load" weights. More weight, fewer beans... No sir, I don't like it.
I still don't really see what the Marines are getting for the extra mass on their gun compared to the M4A1+.
Watch this:
If you're skeptical, remember that the plastics industry is the result of finding a use for the crud left over from refining oil into fuel.
If allowed to do so, Humanity is good at solving problems.
Yesterday, doing the test loop that has all the speeds I needed to check for vibration, I had a moment at a stop light.
The sun was just in the right spot. The music was on point.
I was happy and it felt like cruising did back when I had the '79 Camaro.
It was kinda like deja vu.
Harvey, driving around somewhere else, with a friend, felt the same feeling.
It was neat.
Or is it cut then measure?
At any rate, I keep cutting and it's still too short.
GRIN
Just to be paranoid, I checked the torque of the lug nuts.
Still at 140 ft-lb.
That's an insane value, but that's what the book says.
I didn't go that far on Moxie once and ended up with finger loose lugs and clunking coming from a wheel.
Coming home from the grocery store today sure underscored how "accustomed" to the vibration I'd become. I goosed it to 45 and was already bracing... for something that didn't happen.
I think I have PTSD.
I am not saying I would be good at it.
I don't think I would do a good job at all.
What I am saying I would be better at it than the people currently doing it.
This is why shit's fucked up.
Ian has long had the manual and some of the story about the 5.56 version of the TRW LMR on his site.
He recently posted about the 5.6x44mm flechette version.
The 5.6x44mm XM216 round is a refugee from the SPIW program.
The hub-centric rings arrived today!
I learned two things.
First, my hubs are definitely 66.9mm.
Second, my rims have a 66.9mm center bore.
The place I'd measured 2-7/8" was a generous taper down to the requisite 66.9mm and not a bore of 73.1mm.
The centric rings did not fit at all, so I popped off the center cap, torqued the lug nuts and stuck a feeler gauge down there between the bore and the hub. Just barely a race-fit!
With the front right foot in the air I checked to see if there was a high spot. Nope.
It's been the damn tires all along and procrastinators are people who are WAY more ambitious than me about fixing things.
Again, I was able to put it off for so long by sticking to the back roads and not going very far from home.
I am so damned happy with the car now, it's indescribable!
In July, 2024 I replaced the factory lug nuts with fancy chrome ones.
A trip to Daytona in August that year convinced me there was something wrong with them because the car was shaking violently at interstate speeds.
I commented to Harvey that something was definitely wrong, maybe tires...
Changing the lug nuts back to the factory version seemed to fix much of the problem.
I discovered that by rotating a wheel by a lug would cause the vibration to lessen significantly.
Knowing I had two tires out of round, that meant I'd managed to get them in phase with each other.
Well, new tires has eliminated the vibration, so I decided to see if the chrome lug nuts would change anything for the worse.
Please excuse the brake dust, I'm doing an experiment with the pads.
A quick jaunt, with The Boy, proves the lug nuts had nothing to do with the vibration two years ago!
Huzzah!
How would Spain, France or Germany know we'd overflown their countries with our B-2's?
Think about it.
In Florida, a "permanent" handicapped parking permit is good for three years. This requires your doctor to fill out the paperwork every three years to renew your "permanent" permit.
If your placard is lost or destroyed, you need the same paperwork from your doctor to get a permit that expires on the same date as the lost or destroyed one.
They cite abuse of the system by people who aren't handicapped as the reason for making the honest people jump through additional hoops.
I am getting sick of this paradigm.
I think the people who should be most affected by laws are the people breaking them and not additional burdens on the law abiding.
How's this one for size: Unlawful use of a handicapped permit results in loss of license for 10 years and seizure of the vehicle used. Forfeit of said vehicle if the owner used the permit illegally. Hefty fine for the owner to recover their vehicle if they loaned it to the violator.
I want deterrence, by the gods!
Marv ordered some MRE's and got HDR's.
He gave me one and I started trying it today.
There are two entrees. Lentil stew and pasta in tomato sauce.
The lentil stew is BLAND even with the entire packet of red chili peppers added.
The crackers are unsalted.
The thing that sounds like it's a pop tart from the description is literally an unfrosted Pop-Tart!
There's nothing in it that I've tried that's horrible.
I have not tried the pasta, yet, because the lentils were very filling. I worry about how bland they're going to be based on the lentils, but I haven't used the salt and pepper packets yet.
There's a shortbread cookie, fig bars, peanut butter and strawberry jam yet to try!
I must say that the new tires are MUCH smoother than the old tires.
It'd be a shock if they weren't, to be honest.
I did a loop of the greater area which included all the various legal limits and I cruised at all of them. Even a couple of jaunts 10 over to check for vibrations.
Nada.
I am happy!
The tire guy says that I'd benefit from a set of hub-centric rings. I hadn't thought of getting a set because The Beast's hubs are 66.9mm; just like a Camaro.
The rims on her are stock Camaro rims... Yet they appear to have a center-bore of 73.1mm.
WTF?
So I ordered a set of rings that should be here tomorrow. We'll see how they work. Will they make any difference at all? Who knows?
Goodyear sent out a van to change my tires in my driveway.
I need one.
Tire machine in the back, balancer amidships.
Compressor for your air tools.
Four tanks for different grade oils and a pump to move used oil into a waste tank.
Decent amount of storage space for the tires you're bringing to your customer.
I wonder if one could make money driving such a thing behind the Hot Rod Power Tour.
It was totally cool and I spent some time geeking out about it.
There's a seller on GunBroker selling a lot of 15 large-round forward assist buttons.
I've long wanted one because I remembered the tank's issue M16A2 having this feature.
Before I spent the money on having 14 extra forward assists, I decided to see if anyone had bothered to document the serial number range for this early feature.
S/N 860,000 to 1,200,000 is the expected range according to the AI helper on the search engine.
My M16A2's serial number was 6,300,574, apparently, well past when they changed to the current small-round forward assist.
HOWEVER!
The first M16A2's start at 6,000,000!
Others have found that the large round lasted to 6,280,000; which also places my rifle just outside the range of the early feature.
The last colt M16A2 (or XM4) is (approximately) 6,590,478.
FN M16A2's run is 7,000,000 to 7,429,766.
At least for US Property marked guns. Other serial number ranges for M16A2 are around for export usage.
The local Hockey team, The Lightning, made it to the playoffs and clinched their position a while ago.
Their last game was embarrassing.
All year they've been having trouble beating teams in the cellar.
The go into the playoffs against a team that they've been having trouble beating since everyone came back from the Olympics.
Even if they defeat the Canadiens, they will go on to face the Buffalo Sabers because Boston is only there on a fluke wildcard.
They have been utterly unable to beat them all season.
Out in round 2, at best, I think.
Just like De Gaulle liberated Paris...
Peak Macron.
— Michael Lucci (@Michael7ucci) April 14, 2026
France will lead a European coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz...after the U.S. has secured the Strait of Hormuz.
They won't invite the U.S. to the party. They will ask permission from Iran.
For now, they will hold a Zoom meeting. https://t.co/Uw65NUwQsp pic.twitter.com/V7juDTRoV2
This is what I know the French militarily for.
Claiming credit for someone else's hard work.
Alice, was made in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
Moxie and Noxious, like many 2nd generation Equinoxes were made in the CAMI plant Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.
The Beast, like all WM Caprice PPV's was made in the Holden Elizabeth Plant, South Australia, Australia.
The Precious, a 6th generation Corvette, was made in Bowling Green, Kentucky.Flossie, a 7th generation Honda Civic sedan was made in East Liberty, Ohio! My import was domestic!
The Biscayne SS left Willow Run Assembly in Ypsilanti, Michigan as a 4th generation Caprice Classic.
Both of Harvey's Dodge Ram D150's came from Warren, Michigan.
Her Caprice 9C1 was made in Arlington, Texas.
That's all the Florida cars.
The Camaros were from Van Nuys, California and Norwood, Ohio.
My '86 Civic hatchback came from Suzuka, Japan.
The '82 Linx was made in the USA, but I don't remember which plant.
The Passat was, obviously, made in Germany, but it wasn't an import where I owned it.
I guess I buy American more often than I remember.
The United States should be doing everything I can to destroy South Africa as a functioning nation. If they are going to do these racist things, let them bleed.
— Damon Alan (@DamonAlan) April 13, 2026
I think if we do nothing South Africa will cease to be a functioning nation within my lifetime.
I can remember when it was considered a peer to 1st World status.
The first five years of this blog was LiveJournal.
One thing they had was a place to note what music I was listening to at the time I posted.
While I could just put a note on any post I make here, it's not the same.
But at the moment I'm listening to "The Sickness" album by Disturbed.
Wanna know one of the best things about not being a Catholic?
When the dude in the stupid hat says stupid shit, I don't have to listen.
But I have noticed that there's a shit ton of Catholics who are going to be in direct conflict with what the Vatican is putting out of late.
Don't fret, it won't be the first time such a schism has happened.
The Orthodox folks left before it was even called Catholicism.
The Church of England happened because the leader of a nation wanted to ignore the Pope.
I wonder what the Church of America is going to look like.
Where will the CoA's version of the Vatican be?
Can't wait to see what American Bishops do about the hunk of the money and property they will be claiming over the Vatican being the false Church and thus not entitled to it any more. If only they'd return to the fold...
Me? What religion I might have leans to spirits in the machines. I don't care what my friends' invisible friend says let alone some dude in a funny hat in Italy says his invisible friend said.
Actually, I think I'd have more respect if the Pope actually cited their invisible friend and not just Church dogma.
Also, remember, the deal made way back when was God stayed out of politics and politics would stay out of the church.
Every once and a while one side or the other has to start this pissing match again.
We've been here before and we're going to be here again.
I keep wondering if there's anything positive to the citizenry from any kind of registry of firearms, legal or not.
We keep getting told that it helps solve crimes.
If that were true, I'd think there'd be ample bragging about it.
It doesn't even get stolen guns recovered from thieves back to their rightful owners because many jurisdictions simply destroy any firearms they find at crime scenes.
If this story is correct, an illegal, and useless for anything good, registry will soon be a thing of the past.
Not that we can trust them to have actually destroyed ALL copies of it...
The local brewery had the WNBA draft on the TV last night.
I looked over at Marv and said, "We could be watching Golf."
He agreed that watching the draft was, indeed, worse than watching Golf.
Happily, there was a ring of condensation on the bar from our beer we could watch drying.
Some things move slowly at Casa McThag.
Take tires for The Beast; I originally got them back in April 2022, almost 32 thousand miles ago. I tossed four, apparently, good tires because I had a bad vibration at interstate speeds. I blamed the balance and the previous owner's notorious tendency to buy cheap tires.
It was not the tires.
I spent the next two years and 16 thousand miles replacing front suspension parts in the most commonly to be the problem to least likely to be the problem. It was the left front control arms. The design of the control arms makes diagnosing them difficult because they don't get hand-wobbly when they're loaded-wobbly.
One reason that it took so long to fix is that the vibration didn't really happen at speeds around town, and I don't really go on long trips much any more. Vibration at interstate speeds? Stay off the interstate! Problem successfully ignored!
Oh, and drive Moxie more...
I discovered, sadly, that replacing the offending suspension components did not completely cure the vibration in the steering wheel, but now it was cyclic. Every minute or so on the interstate it'd shake and every minute or so would stop.
When I got the Camaro rims, the road-force balancing discovered two of my tires were out of round.
That made sense. The suspension shake was rather violent, it could have damaged the tires. Another clue is I can mitigate the cycle somewhat by rotating a wheel a lug or two.
Here's hoping that new tires cures this!
The main UPS is a CyberPower 1,500w unit I bought from Wal Mart right before Milton came through in October 2024.
I replaced the APC 600w unit in the garage with a CyberPower 425w in September 2025.
I bought new batteries for the dead APC 1,500w in September 2025, it's in storage. I don't remember when I purchased it originally, but this might be the second set of batteries.
I replaced the battery in the dead APC 600w (originally purchased in September 2020) in September 2025 and it was in storage until tonight when I finally admitted the Amazon Basics 400w UPS from February 2023 wasn't surviving even minor power interruptions.
This is me putting this information in one place so I can, hopefully, find it later.
USAA has membership perks.
I normally ignore the emails reminding of them because they trend towards vacation packages at places I can't afford.
But I clicked to see this time and saw they have a 25% off on Goodyear tires.
That's a four tires for the price of three!
The Beast is needing tires, so we plunked down for some Eagle F1 All Seasons.
Something else new is the mobile installer.
That's kinda cool.
I have not been rolling on Goodyears since the Eagle GT II's I had on The Biscayne SS in 2004 when I replaced the 15" rims with Impala SS 17" rims.
I used to buy Goodyear exclusively before then.
I guess, technically, I was running Goodyears when I bought The Precious, but I chucked the run-flats at 16k miles because they really rode poorly.
This is the second time I've been offered a deal on Goodyears, and the first time I've taken advantage of it. A while back, one of you generous readers gave me a code for your employee discount that I promptly forgot about until today. I still appreciated that, even if we didn't use it.
Unintended and unexpected are not the same word.
Most, if not all, unintended consequences from socialist "planning" seem to come with the expected consequences.
Most, if not all, unintended consequences are predicted before the "planning" can be implemented.
What's amazing is how many people are still surprised when the Gods of the Copybook Headings, with terror and slaughter, return.
California has become the latest state to notice that upping the minimum wage to a stupidly high level doesn't result in comfortable lifestyles for the people earning that wage.
The best case was inflation eating up all the gains in income, and they are not getting the best case. When the one-time costs of automation are cheaper than the ongoing expenses of keeping an employee, the bot gets the job.
If the cost of employing people makes a business unprofitable, then it closes.
In both cases, the minimum wage worker will be getting the true minimum wage.
In so many ways watching YouTube will make me curl up in a ball and ask Harvey to sell my tools.
Mike Finnegan is making a drag and drive Cadillac and...
The stuff they just casually do and all of the tools and expertise on display!
Yeah.
That's not me.
I don't have the money to get the entry level versions of those tools to begin to cultivate the skills; let alone the gigantic space needed to have all of those tools.
I can't do what they're doing and I never will be able to do it, so let's just drop the facade and get a Honda?
He's not inspiring me, he's making me feel inadequate.
The one channel that was making me feel like working on my junk was Saturday Garage.
He went out and got a job! Now he's too busy to make videos.
Plus I am recovering from Moxie going unreliable and replacing Harvey's car.
I just hit me why the sequels to The Curse of the Black Pearl fell flat for me.
The complicated fight sequence is a pause in the plot. The longer that runs, the longer I have to wait before the story starts moving again.
Especially since the story doesn't depend on that fight being there.
Especially since it's obvious that the fight with deadly weapons will not result in any bloodshed, let alone a death, because all of the principals are essential to the plot.
A plot on hold while they have their flashy little tiff.
There is no perfect hot-rod.
This is because what makes such a thing is entirely subjective.
Marv and I have been comparing our "what if we won the lottery" builds and we don't agree on very much at all.
He's thinking first generation Firebird.
I'm thinking early to mid 1960's full size.
We tend to agree about LS engines and 6+ gear slush boxes.
But I wanna car that cruises all day and am willing to accept some performance sacrifices to be comfortable for 12 hours on the road.
Marv wants exceptional skid-pad performance and an impressive 1/4 mile time.
We both want modern climate control and electronic fuel injection.
We're both aiming at something where the body control module doesn't get a veto.
But neither of us is screaming the other is wrong!
His vision is awesome. I hope he wins the lottery and makes his dream Firebird.
It's a really cool car!
A car that I think we'd both be miserable in if we tried to take it on the Hot Rod Power Tour.
Contrariwise, my vision is awesome at things like the Power Tour and will not carve the corners or win any drive and drag events.
We both want something that's reliable, though. Being miserable or losing an event doesn't mean we wanna be on the side of the road fixing it.
Hot Rodding is best when you can not agree about what to build, but be totally excited about someone realizing a vision you don't share.
Make them happy.
That is all.
If they aren't happy, then they will make damn sure you're not happy either.
It doesn't even have to be diamonds!
An order of boneless chicken wings will suffice when you promised to check on seeing if the local brewery's food truck had them.
Pay attention and it pays dividends!
Being of moderately high mileage, my only experience with MRE's is the OG brown bag ones with the original 12 menus.
Wikipedia says these were from 1981 to 1987 and are MRE I to VII.
To me, the absolute worst thing in those 12 selections was the Beef Stew. It's a holdover from the MCI rations (erroneously called C-rats) and, apparently, lima beans were more popular with Boomers than us GenX motherfuckers.
Despite my service dates being from 1987 to 1990, I never saw anything from the MRE VIII to XII (1988 to 1992) menu.
I liked several things that others hated, so I was a happy trooper.
I like Vienna sausages, and the "four fingers of death," to me, were four giant Vienna sausages and not hot-dogs. If you look at it from my perspective, it's good. If you wanted hot-dogs, it's bad.
The dehydrated meat patties were fine eaten dry as far as I was concerned. Same for the dehydrated fruits. Something with a non-mush texture with some flavor? I'm in!
But looking at the 12 choices, it's clear that I never had a couple. Beef slices in BBQ sauce and ground beef in spiced sauce I remember seeing, but not eating.
My willingness to eat the dehydrated patties meant trade opportunities. People would offer desserts to take the pork patty if I'd give them the BBQ slices.
Crumbled up beef patty soaked in the chicken-a-la-king and heated was decent.
Which reminds me of something I rarely dealt with.
Eating them cold.
Avco-Lycoming was kind enough to develop an MRE heater and Chrysler was kind enough to include it in every M1 Abrams.
When you have a back-deck bar and grill, you never have eat a cold MRE.
