It Was Cars First

My road to being a gun owner ran through being a hot-rodder.

It also is the core of my hatred of greenies.

Do you know how much pollution I've saved by not getting a new car every 3-5 years like they do?  They never count the pollution of making their new car and disposing of the old one.

It's a lot more than the pollution of driving a "dirty" car for 15-20 years.

It's amazing how many gun control things rhyme with car stuff.

California has a handgun roster and it is poised to have a tire roster.

Because rolling resistance is all that matters in a tire's design.

They're using the thin veil of "that's what came on the car" as cover for the decision and how much it's going to save the consumers in fuel.  Never mind the OE tire is normally the most expensive one you can get for a given car and that costing the customer more in tires than they save in gas...

But why did the OE put that shitty tire on the car in the first place?  Corporate Average Fuel Economy.  The teeny increase in mileage from low rolling resistance can be enough to move the car's EPA efficiency to a different column and keep the OE from paying taxes, fees and fines to put it on the road.

They didn't do it because it's the best tire for the car and what the consumer wants to do with it; they did it to comply with a set of regulations that were never attached to reality and get further detached every legislative session.

By the way, this is the same government that decided we all need to have run-flat tires rather than insist we learn how to deal with a blow-out.

Just wait for when your rear view mirror gets replaced with a camera! 

Veja Du

Something I consciously did with my TL project of making characters was avoiding making a soldier from each TL.

Now I am making the NPC's in detail for the campaign that FuzzyGeff and Marv will be playing in January... and they're all soldiers. 

Making each one a person is the challenge. 

One place it's tempting to make them individual is the weapons selection, but that'd wrong because troops are issued weapons exactly to prevent them from picking a gun that can't be supported by the logistics train.

Twilight: 2000's situation might be more eclectic because of masses of non-US troops being accepted into US formations as things become more and more ad hoc.

A NATO unit might consider itself lucky if everyone has a rifle that uses a STANAG magazine with rifling to use 5.56 NATO.

There's reserve units from the States that have M16A1's and though they can use the magazines, they can't use the NATO spec ammo.

The smart commander would try to keep them and their ammo needs in one place, but T2K is a situation where everything collapsed and everyone is scattering to the wind and getting back together randomly.

How random do I wanna get? 

I Voted

Did my civic duty today and voted in the primary for the least evil candidates.

Distinct from the lesser evil I get to vote for come the election, because the least evil candidate never wins the primary.

Don't Paint The Camera

People are not being creative enough when they break the law.

I'm not saying anyone should go out and do this.  But I have decades of murder-hobo wrangling that cause my mind to think about crimes and both how to commit them and how to stop them (depending on the party's law abiding level). 

If one really wanted to cause issues with a Flock camera, one should do something that causes it to degrade performance over a longer period of time.

Problems have solutions.  Dilemmas are never ending. 

Like spraying the solar panel with a UV blocking, etching, clear primer.

This reduces the amount of power the panel provides and the etching makes them ultimately have to replace the panel instead of cleaning it off.

But they get days or weeks of trying to figure out why that camera is working intermittently.

Again: Don't do this!  It's a crime to vandalize or destroy private property.  The proper way is to get off your ass and start eliminating all of the elected officials who support this statist shit by electing better officials from dog-catcher up. 

Peele Was Right

The police are expending a lot of resources to figure out who's cutting their little cameras down.

And I say they are their cameras because Flock doesn't install them where there's nobody paying them.

The thing the cops need to recall is something Sir Robert Peele said:

"To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect."

That sentence is almost 200 years old.

It's still true.

The cops wasting resources finding the people who are cutting these cameras down is undermining public approval of their existence at a time when half the body politic has been clamoring for their elimination.

Good show!

Getting back to Peelian Principles would go a long way towards mending the rift between the police and the citizens who've delegated their powers to them. 

Well It's Official Anyway

For the most part, Gun Stats is giving me stats that are very close to the numbers I pulled out of my ass by comparing the gun I was making to a gun that was already published.

At least these new numbers have the sanctity of being created by an official publication.

One interesting change has been the FG.42.  Several sources say the Luftwaffe issued the steel-core S.m.K round, which is armor piercing.

That changes the, calculated, damage from 6d+2 pi with the s.S round to 4d+2(2) pi-.

The average hit from s.S will deal 23 points of damage.

S.m.K will roll 16 on average, but that will punch DR 32.  That's better than s.S, but the pi- means that anything that gets past the armor will be halved.  So it does just 8 points on an unarmored target; about a third what normal ball does! 

AI Slop

Caught a short vid on YouTube talking about a battle in the Pacific in WW2.

The Garands were firing 3-round bursts as fast as an M16, and shooting, at least, 30 rounds with no reloading shown.

Looked good except for the that obvious flaw. 

This Is The Same Logic

One Florida sheriff is touting their relationship with Flock and how it helped them find a missing child.

The thing they are missing is they are, in essence, saying that it's OK to enter every house in their jurisdiction without a warrant to catch a child pornographer.

The huge question is, "Does the good outweigh the bad?"

Considering the contents of the Bill of Rights, no.

The founders were firmly of the idea that it's better to let a few criminals get away with it than to trod on the rights of the innocent to catch them.

Something we're going to have to address is the issue of private organizations collecting information and then selling it to the government(s).

I suspect that if we decide that if the government buys something they cannot, legally, collect on their own is forbidden; the collection of such data by private entities will stop. 

It Doesn't Seem Right

Doing the Gun Stats for the Royal Ordnance Quick-Fire 20-pounder.

I'm getting the penetration numbers I expected, but not the ranges.

I am accustomed to sabot rounds outranging the full-bore rounds.

This is not true for APDS vs AP.

APDS Mk.1 gets 6dx19(2) pi++ to 5,000/24,800.

Shot Mk. 1 an APCBC (AP in GURPS) gets 6dx11(2) pi++ to 11,600/38,000.

So I dug into it.  Turns out it's correct.  I did not expect that.

It repeats with the 105mm L7/M68 gun.

M392 APDS has a range of 4,300/19,000.  M456 HEAT has 7,900/23,200.

"Normalcy" is restored when I did the M735 APFSDS round and got 11,500/34,000 for range. 

It makes sense.  The penetrator on an APDS round is relatively short and it's very light compared to the full-bore rounds.  It has a poor ballistic coefficient, more drag means less range. 

Be Careful

The court in Texas has ruled that with the tax set to zero, it cannot be justified under the taxing power.

Which means that if there was any tax at all on the NFA items, it would have been just peachy.

Even 1¢.

This is the amount we should worry about, not Congress cranking it up from the 1934 $200 to an inflation adjusted $5,000.

A penny tax justifies registration.

Of anything!

They will say, "It's only a penny, why are you being so unreasonable?"

We're going to need a 2nd Amendment ruling to end this shit, and I think that the Texas court punted on this to avoid the actual ruling that would end it on purpose. 

My Way Right Away Is Too Hard Today

The Boy and Harvey swung through Burger King for supper Thursday.

I have only one request from a trip to the drive-thru.

Hold the ketchup.

My Whopper, with cheese, was supposed to only be sans ketchup. 

The Whopper I got was labeled "No Mayo, No Ketchup, Add Mustard." and it wasn't with cheese.

Our burgers got confused with someone else's order, our bag label had a different order number than the one on the burger boxes.

The burger I got was within my tolerance for a Whopper.

But someone else got cheese and mayo and no mustard...

Bet they were upset about that. 

This just underscores that fast food is paying too much for their employees. 

I'd Be Excomunicated

We were talking about winning any of several raffles giving away a hot rod and we expressed that modern engines and transmissions make life so much more bearable.

That means an engine and transmission swap on anything we might win.

We then turned to what our dream car might be and I mentioned that I like the MOPAR big cars like the Imperial and Fury.

An LS swap would be the best/cheapest, but that's a GM engine into a MOPAR and that just pisses people off.

A Hemi®™ crate engine and trans would retain the MOPAR, but it's a lot more expensive and a lot more finicky for the home-tuner.

The guy who has the money to already be building his dream car(s) says, "Put in a Coyote motor and piss everyone off!"

Then it hit me.

If you're going to be sacrilegious about engine swaps and be a heretic...

The car you put a Ford Coyote engine into is...

A Plymouth Road-Runner!

It's so damned obvious.

If I were very lucky, I could be buried in secrecy so my grave don't get violated. 

I Can Think Of Several Finer Groups Of People

Pat Harrigan (R-NC) wants LEOSA style carry for current and former Special Forces personnel.

He says he can think no finer group of people...

First, fuck you Pat.

Second, I can think of a finer group who is far more deserving of national reciprocity.

Everyone.

I've been opposed every and all LEO sop law ever proposed or passed.

We don't need more "only ones" legislation.  We need more everyone's.

I especially love the quote, "If enacted, the law would represent a significant expansion of gun-carry rights for service members and veterans, creating a new nationwide benefit not currently available to most civilians."

Let me amend that:

If enacted, the law would represent a significant expansion of gun-carry rights for SOME service members and SOME veterans, creating a new nationwide benefit not currently available to most civilians. 

An infinitesimally small portion of service members and veterans, I might add. 

What If There's No Law?

Seeing as I am a GOA member and a PSA customer, the injuction should cover me with regards to silencers, short barreled rifles and short barreled shotguns.

A silencer, according to 790.001 (9) is just another firearm.

That means it's an FDLE check away from over the counter, same day purchase.

Short barreled guns, however, have 790.221.

790.221 Possession of short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or machine gun; penalty.—

(1) It is unlawful for any person to own or to have in his or her care, custody, possession, or control any short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or machine gun which is, or may readily be made, operable; but this section shall not apply to antique firearms.

(2) A person who violates this section commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

(3) Firearms in violation hereof which are lawfully owned and possessed under provisions of federal law are excepted.

Does the injunction eliminate the provisions of the federal law, making short barreled guns illegal without a tax stamp?  Or does the injunction serve as the provision going forward?

IANAL.

Heck Of A Contrast

More murders in Chicago than all of Florida's major cities combined!

Except for one teensy problem...  Jacksonville.

According to the article, Chicago has had 211 murders this year.  The three cities they cite had 29.  Jacksonville had 27.

The headline is still correct, but you have to include Jacksonville when you talk about major cities in Florida, especially since Jax is punching above its weight for crime. 

When Do We Get To Fill Out A 4473 For A New Suppressor?

I cannot find any news that the government appealed the ruling in Texas to the 5th circuit, so the as applied ruling stands?

Next we get to see who is actually named in this.

I remember at least one video naming Palmetto State Armory's customers, and I have been a frequent PSA customer.

We're about an hour and a half from the first transfer in Texas without a Form 4.

Are they live streaming it?

I should check. 

Virtue

The best way to be virtuous is to simply be so.

Live it.

If someone notices, great!

If someone praises you for it, fine.

The problem with virtue signalling is the act of seeking praise by announcing you're doing virtuous things is, well, the opposite of virtue.

Steve Jackson Games added a full page of explanation about how they changed Eskimo to Yupik and that "slavery is bad, m'kay."

They could have just made those changes without mentioning why and I doubt that anyone would have started a thread demanding that the kidnappers of the rightful king of Fnordia be named, as they were in past editions.

Eskimo isn't even as controversial as they seem to think it is, but I think that change has a lot more to do with David Pulver and Sean Punch being Canadian than a general recognition that Eskimo is a slur.  Especially since it's not even certain where the word originated from!

Aside: Am I the only American who is dead sick and tired of Canadians telling us we're doing our culture wrong and demanding we change how we do things? 

They still use "slave" or "enslavement" 25 times in 4eR; down from 52 times in 4e.  12 of the reductions comes from replacing "slave mentality" with "heteronomy."

Many of the deletions are changing to a term like "subject" and the deletion makes me think they've done more to sanitize it than condemn.

The eliminated mentioning that slaves were low status under the rules for status.  How did that mention glorify slaving?  They left in that being a serf is a low status job.  Being a slave is worse than being a serf, how does mentioning that keep us from figuring out that slavery is wrong?

They had to spend extra time explaining slavery in historical context because of this. 

Taking it out of the minion enhancement for familiars didn't hurt or help.

Still, these changes could have been made silently to the same effect, they just wanted to make sure they got credit from... Whomever keeps score on this.

I do know that page of virtue signalling has cost them more than one sale.  That should matter to them more than it does. 

PS: They even mention cleaning up use of the word "Black" and capitalizing it when referring to a Black person, and the word was never used that way in the original 4e... 

They Should Sue

DSArms aka DSA should sue the Democratic Socialists of America also aka DSA for use of their trademark.

I think they are due substantial financial compensation for the clear damage done to their reputation. 

I'll Give The Clumsy Answer

A Better Way 2A asks, "If gun rights are for everyone, why do you get upset when everyone shows up?"

They go on to explain what closed minded, anti-LGBT fools conservative gun owners are.

I think that might just be the reason...  You're being rude and you're displaying prejudice.

Maybe stop?

You're not Antifa or Socialists, but you're standing with members of Antifa, the John Brown Gun Club and the Socialist Rifle Association.

Smiling.

Yeah.

There's your reason they get upset when "everyone" shows up.

Historical Problem

First Champions/Hero then GURPS share a problem.

They are point based systems with near-zero guidance for where you should put your points.

"The good news is that nothing is decided for you. The bad news is that nothing is decided for you." - FuzzyGeff.

In OG AD&D, the RPG I cut my teeth on, you got to make two decisions in character generation:  Race and class.  Even so, your choices could be limited by shitty die rolls.

Traveller, even more so.  Bad stats rolls could force you into the "Other" career path.

This problem was less obvious in Champions because most people had a comic book character they were trying to recreate and a clear vision of your character concept steers you through the process.

Providing you do some reading.

Which made me realize that I'd seen this kind of break before.

A player who makes a fighter in AD&D makes a few rolls and buy some gear and they're done making their character.  It's a bit more complex in later editions and Pathfinder, but the player doesn't need to do much reading to get their character done and be effective.

But a player who makes a spell caster needs to select their spells.  That means they need to open the Player's Handbook and learn how the spells they've chosen work.  It takes a lot more effort.

People naturally gravitate towards either position.

GURPS rewards the player who cracks open the book and spends the time reading about all the skills, advantages and disadvantages.  It punishes the person that doesn't.  In effect, it's a game made for the person who naturally gravitates towards being a spell caster.

It's exasperating trying to get someone who just wants to play the game through the character generation process because you're constantly poking them for decisions that they don't feel, thanks to playing other games, they shouldn't have to be making.

It leads to some resentment, during play, when they cannot do something that they feel is obvious that their character should be able to do.

It's because they're unfamiliar with the choices and ended up not seeing the skill or advantage that would provide them with the ability to do the things they clearly should be able to do.  Since the GM cannot read their mind, we can't help realize their vision.

GURPS introduced templates to help with this, but they only take it so far and, too often, a player will make the template to the letter with little to no individualization.

All of this is a tall, thick wall barring entry into the hobby for a lot of people.  Especially people who're not interested in the fantasy genre.