I'm Getting A Little Sick Of This

One of the things you get with being a 100% service connected veteran in Florida is a property tax bill of $0.

$1 property?  $0 property taxes.

$500 million property?  $0 property taxes. 

Apparently they will be most affected by the referendum on increasing the homestead exemption. 

How?

Increased ad valorem.

Increased ad valorem that everyone will have to pay if the local politicians don't get the message about reducing their bloated budgets.

It's a scare tactic to get us to vote against our own interests in favor of these "poor" veterans.

Oh, a married 100% vet gets $4,158.17 a month ($49,898.04 a year tax free) for their service too.  So Mr Young complaining about ad valorem going from $2,000 a year to $4,000 a year can cover it with a single month's check.  Or he can space it out and hold $333.33 a month until tax time.

If he's living on that disability check exclusively, he shouldn't be living in a city with $2k ad valorem.  I'm willing to bet that he and his wife have jobs and are making decent money and this is just a "I don't wanna spend an extra $167 a month to cover the services of the municipality I've chosen to live in."  For example, the total taxes on the inlaws house, where we get no tax breaks, is less than the ad valorem Mr Young claims he's paying.

The average home value in Loxahatchee, according to Zillow, is about $860k.  Mr Young is already skipping out on approximately $10k in property taxes every year, but having to pay an extra $2k is going to break him?

I am, myself, a disabled veteran, but I am growing ever sicker of listening to people who are less fucked up than me with a much higher rating complaining about the benefits they're getting.  They're the kind of people who say, "You're welcome for my service," unironically. 

In the process of trying to find out how much Mr Young is being assessed, I discovered that I should be taking an additional $5k off my home's assessed value because of my own disability rating. 

PS: There are approximately 60,000 100% veterans in Florida.  That's 0.2% of the population.  Yes, let's design our entire tax policy around this teeny constituency. 

Anomaly

I'm still wrestling with Gun Stats and round nose bullets.

.30 M1903 uses a 220gr, 1.308" long bullet fired at 2,300 fps.

.30 M1906 uses a 152gr, 1.123" long bullet fired at 2,700 fps.

1903's ranges are 1,240/5,200.

1906's ranges are 890/3,700.

Longer bullets do tend to hold velocity better and, thus, go farther.

The advantage of the lighter, faster, spitzer rounds was supposed to be the flatter trajectory no extended range.  This should show in the Accuracy column.

But it doesn't because of the length to diameter ratio of the longer bullet getting a +1 and the relative velocities being in the same bracket. 

.30-06 does have a lower ST and Recoil with 9 and 3 versus 10 and 4, making it easier to shoot.

I don't think, as a whole, this passes the reality test. 

Gotta Read The Whole Article

Road rage or self defense?

Iowa is a Constitutional Carry state, so what does, "one count of being a person ineligible to carry dangerous weapons," mean?

Is that how Iowa phrases, "felon in possession?"

But look how far down the article you have to get before you find out that the person with the gun is the victim of a rear-ending and the person who rear ended them has a history of driving without a license and insurance.

That mentioning the behavior of this person post-impact was, in fact, criminal is tossed in as an aside.

This case might end up, eventually, at the Supreme Court over whether felons have the right to own a gun to defend themselves.

And since the cops have, repeatedly, used "tried to run me over" as a positive defense for shooting someone trying to run them over, pulling a gun to get someone who's just rear ended you from continuing to move their car seems fairly justified. 

Start With Compassion

I have tried to say something of this sort before.

Every time I do, the list of banned commenters gets a little longer. 

The Spirit Of Aloha

Hawaiian cops have, so far, declined to call assault a hate crime despite use of racial slur.

Racism is racism and if we're going to have hate crime provisions, then they need to be applied to everyone equally. 

GURPS Alts

Gun Stats vehemently disagrees with some of the published ranges.

But here we go anyway!

5.56x45mm M193 from an M16A1: 5d pi, 430/3,000; ST 8, Rcl 2.

5.56x45mm M193 from an XM177E2: 4d+1 pi, 360/2,500; ST 8, Rcl 2.

5.56x45mm M855 from an M16A2: 5d+1 pi, 530/3,700; ST 8, Rcl 2.

5.56x45mm M855 from an M4: 5d-1 pi, 490/3,400; ST 8, Rcl 2.

The Soviet opposition:

7.62x39mm M-43 from an AKM: 5d+1 pi, 520/2,200; ST 9, Rcl 3.

5.45x39mm 7N6 from an AK-74: 4d+2 pi, 480/3,400; ST 9, Rcl 2.

The Loyal Opposition: 

6.5 Grendel 123gr @ 2,457 from a 16" AR: 6d-1 pi, 670/4,700; ST 9, Rcl 3.

6.5 SPC II 115gr @ 2,550 from a 16" AR: 6d-1 pi, 760/3,200; ST 8, Rcl 2.

.300 Blackout 123gr @ 2,215 from a 16" AR: 5d pi, 500/2,100; ST 9, Rcl 3.

.300 Blackout 220gr @ 1,010 from a 16" AR: 3d pi, 570/2,400; ST 9, Rcl 3.

22 ARC 75gr @ 2,953 from a 16" AR: 5d+1 pi, 680/4,800; ST 8 Rcl 2.

6mm ARC 108gr @ 2,626 from a 16" AR: 5d+2 pi, 810/5,700; ST 8 Rcl 2. 

.30 Remington AR has been discontinued, so we're not going to show that with 125gr @ 2,800 fps from a 22" barrel R-15 did 6d+2 pi, 640/2,700; ST 9, Rcl 3.

Piece Rate

One of the most corrosive effects of unions is the need of the business they've extorted to make a profit now that the wages are higher and the sale price of the good is inelastic.

That means you can't just raise prices for you SEIU members.

You can't lower wages, the union has seen to that.

But what if you can get the union worker to make more units in the same time frame?

So you engineer things to be easier to assemble and automate the assembly of as many parts as you can.

I got laughed at for pointing this out, but a bot can make a circuit board with embedded relays on it for lot less than paying a UAW worker to install relays in a fuse box.

Thus, we end up with a $500 part we need to replace because a relay failed rather than a $5 relay.

It's why we have to buy assemblies and cannot buy parts. 

It's Just That We Don't Trust You

Something I keep wondering about is if why do we even have things that can be abused by the government?

Gun registration lists cannot be used by the government to track gun owners if there is no list.

But they make a list and tell us they're not accessing it.  Because it's illegal.

I don't want it to be illegal to misuse a list, I want it to be impossible.

The only way for that to happen is for there to be no list at all and not collecting any information that could be used in a list.

Not even if a non-governmental entity holds the list, government will access it. 

Flock cameras are the same thing. 

Because it is possible for the government to use the information to violate my rights, they will do so.  "They have not done so yet!" is a very weak defense and Flock's own spokesman doesn't much reassure me that they won't enthusiastically assist government in fucking me over.

But if there are no Flock cameras... 

Penetration

Sometimes it seems like a given round is underperforming in GURPS.

But it's a game, not a simulation...

For example, the WW2 M82 APC (APEX in GURPS terms) does 6dx10(2) pi++ with a linked 6d+2[4d+2] cr ex.

That was calculated from a formula that gives all six dice their average value of 3.5 to, mostly, match the muzzle penetration value against rolled homogeneous armor.

Thus that round will penetrate DR 420 or rolling a 21 on six dice or ((6x3.5)x10)x2.  Dr 420 is 6" (152.4mm) of RHA.

But you could roll a 6 on six dice, do 60 damage and penetrate 120 DR or 1.7" or 43.5mm.

OR you could roll a 36 on six dice and do 360 damage and penetrate 720 DR or 10.3" or 261.3mm. 

Officially it penetrates 143mm or 5.6" or DR 393 or 6dx9(2) pi++.  At the muzzle.

Gun Stats gives it a little extra performance.

Realistically, that 393 points of damage should be at the muzzle and it should get smaller as the range increases.

But you can roll all ones for 6x10 at 1 yard and all sixes for 36x10 at 6,660 yards.

Again, game.

Balance between playable and accurate.

It's hard to strike sometimes.

The randomness of the dice and the chance at unrealistic results allows the game to account for anecdotal stories where people went, "Did you see that shit?"

A DR 4 M1 helmet will not stop even the minimum damage of a 7d pi K.98k, but there's examples where the round bounced off.  Result of a miss by two?  A miss by one is a torso hit (ever notice that all misses by 1 go low not high?)  The GM has to provide narration to what's going on to the players.

There's examples of "no way that will penetrate" going right on through.

Things tend to GURPS.  It's what I like about the game.

I don't wanna have to do the math that calculates the impact angle against the angle of the armor's slope and the velocity at that EXACT range.

Dice will suffice. 

For Comparison's Sake Gun Stats Update

Updated from this post. 

GURPS: World War II has stats for WW2 vehicles, surprisingly enough.

Since I've been mentioning the performance of Cold War stuff, and many people are more familiar with WW2 shit...

It's Front/Sides/Back/Top/Bottom (if needed)

Sherman M4A1 Hull: 300/150/150/75/50; Turret: 300/200/200/100

Gun Motor Carriage M10 Hull: 255/85/85/55/50; Turret: 275/100/100/0

Panzer IV Ausf H Hull: 315/120S/80/40/40; Turret: 200/120S/120S/40

Panther Ausf G Hull: 540/190S/160/60/120; Turret: 600/260/260/60

Tiger Ausf E Hull: 400/420/320/100/100; Turret: 425/310/310/100

Königstiger Ausf B Hull: 850/310/310/155/100; Turret: 700/310/310/170

T-34/76 1940 Hull: 350/250/175/75/75; Turret: 350/250/175/80

Guns!

M4A1 Sherman's M3 75mm firing the M61 APCBC or just AP does 6dx6(2) pi++.  That's good for a whopping 252 DR.

The "long 75mm" 76mm M7 cannon firing M62 APCBC delivers 6dx12(2) pi++ and a linked 6dx2[4d-1] cr ex.  This punches 504 DR.  M93 HVAP does 6dx12(2) pi++ without the linked explosion and punches the same 504 DR  This was considered HOT ammo!

The 7.5cm KwK40 L48 on the Pzkw IV-H firing a PzGr 40 APCR or APHC does 6dx12(2) pi++ that will penetrate DR 504 with most dice.

A KwK42 7.5cm on a Panther G lobbing a PzGr 40/42 does 6dx14(2) pi++.  That's good for punching holes in DR 588.

Tiger E's KwK36 8.8cm gun gets the most penetration with the PzGr 40 which is an APHC round doing 6dx13(2) pi++.  That'll punch 546 DR on average.

The heavier Tiger II's KwK43 8.8cm gun shooting a PzGr 40/43 round gets 6dx16(2) pi++ to routinely stab through 672 DR.

The pride of the Soviets 76mm L-11 gun firing BR-354P APHC does a mere 6dx9(2) pi++ for an average penetration of 378 DR.  And people were bagging on the M3 in the Sherman!

Update: The D-5T 85mm gun from the T-34/85 firing a BR-365 APHEX round will do 6dx13(2) pi++ with a linked 7d+1[4d+1] cr ex.  That will penetrate 546 DR on average.

As a reminder, the 90mm gunned M48A3 has Hull: 606/314/96/113/87; Turret 716/314/281/129; Cupola: 386/386/386/193.

The M41 gun firing M332A1HVAP APHC does 6dx12(2) pi++ for 504 DR penetration.  Not enough for a lot of the heavy Nazi armor.  Damn the Tiger II is tough!  The Patton is somewhat vulnerable to the King Tiger's gun, but it's even more mobile than the Sherman that maneuvered around it to get rear shots.  But HEAT is what we thought would be the real armor puncher.  The M348 HEAT round does 6dx4(10) cr ex with a linked 6dx 3 cr ex that will burn a hole in 840 DR.  The hull front of a Königstiger is still not penetrated!  But the more visible turret front is!

However its expected opponents the T-54/55 and T-62 aren't near so well protected, but they're a lot more mobile:

T-55: Hull 330/218/165/68/55; Turret 565/358/165/165

T-62: Hull 281/218/126/85/55; Turret 667/421/110/110

Good thing the Patton is mobile and reliable.

The 100mm D-10T firing a BR-421D APHEX round in 1953 does 6dx17(2) pi++with a linked 5d+1[5d] cr ex.  That will punch DR 714.

A 115mm U-5TS firing a 3BM4 APFSDS round in 1963 will do 6dx28(2) pi++.  That gets past 1,176 DR.  Yes, the Soviets were ahead of us on tank guns.

But what if we drag an M60 into the argument with its M68 cannon?

The 1959 issue M392 APDS does 6dx23(2) pi++ for 966 penetration.  The M456 HEAT will do 6dx5(10) cr ex with a linked 6dx3 cr ex and make a 1,050 DR deep hole.

 

Heroes

The California Highway Patrol is staffed by heroes.

 Ayup, that's one super deadly gun there.

Not one mention of returning it to its rightful owner, is there? 

Citing Your Religious Text Is Not Making An Intellectual Argument

It's OK to have faith, but you cannot cite your religion's text, traditions and dogma when trying to convince someone outside your faith to start or stop something your faith requires or forbids.

You have to use other means to convince them.

M14M

Get ready to tell the kids they're going to a community college because you're emptying their college fund!

The CMP is going to get some genuine M14 rifles to sell.

ATF has approved a method of modifying the receiver to get past the, "once an MG, always an MG," rule.  Contrary to popular belief, they've done it before with M2 Carbine receivers.

No word whatsoever about pricing and availability.

Clinton's Cap'n Crunch ate a lot of these guns, and their valuable parts, so it's anyone's guess how many there are to give to the CMP for sale.  An arfcom thread had an AI guesstimate of about 10% of the 1.38 million made are still in inventory or service.  That's close to the same numbers they had for the 1911 sales.

Their time as designated marksman rifles means a lot of what's left got rode hard and put away wet in the middle east.

I wonder what condition and configurations will be coming out of this.  Wood stocks?  SAGE stocks?  Fiberglass?  Scope mounts? 

Jeff, You Cleared Up Any Doubt For Me

FOP is constantly on the wrong side of freedom and liberty in Florida and this scare tactic is bullshit since funding for fire, law enforcement and schools is guaranteed.

In other words, Jeff is lying through his teeth and he knows it.

Again.

I remember FOP and their position on conceal carry, open carry, campus carry, 18-21 year olds carrying, waiting periods, bump stocks, and anything NFA.

So, pardon me, if I just vote for my self interests and tell the help they can suck it up or find productive employment. 

Much Newer Than I Expected

The term "sound suppressor" refers to a device that reduces the sound intensity of a firearm when it is discharged. The earliest use of the term "suppressor" in this context dates back to a US patent in 1985, while the term "silencer" was originally used by its inventor, Hiram Percy Maxim, in 1902.

It's a quote from Wikipedia generated by the Duck Duck Go AI, so apply the appropriate levels of salt.

If the term silencer is wrong, and was never used and it's always been sound suppressor, what were they called for 83 years?

I am thinking that the youngin's are at it again and forgetting a lot of us old grognards were there when the changes happened.

I watched this happen with "assault weapon".

Assault weapon and assault rifle were terms the gun community itself was using for military look-alike guns at least as early as 1986.

I remember when the gun control people starting using it against us.

I remember when we tried to say it was always referring to a select-fire, intermediate cartridge firing rifle or carbine.

I remember when we tried to say we'd never used it for describing a semi-auto clone.

And I remember when a group of very young internet gun bloggers tried to "take it back." 

Odyssey

I am starting to see a divide in the YouTube pundits over Christopher Nolan's Odyssey.

They either love it or hate it.

I think I spotted the why of it.

It's the same as when Paul Verhoeven did Starship Troopers.

Some people loved it.

Some people hated it.

There's no middle ground.

So I asked the people who loved it, "Why?"

They loved it because it's a funny, sci-fi action movie.

"What about all the changes from the book?"

"Book?  What book?"

And there's your divide.

The people who hated Starship Troopers wanted to see the book, not an unrelated property with character names from the book.

I'm willing to bet that the people who don't like Nolan's Odyssey are in the same camp.

They wanted Homer's epic, verbatim.

PS: John Leguizamo is an epic hypocrite!  John, if you're going to whine about Anglos in Hispanic roles, you shouldn't take on roles where you're not playing an Hispanic character.  Or roles where the character is significantly older than you, what about all the genuinely elderly actors who need the work, John? 

Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

MilSpec

"No civilian should have a military specification handgun!" paraphrased because I cannot be arsed to find the actual quote.

Found it! 

Well, ignorant gunbanner, this is a Revolver, .45 Caliber, M1873, "Altered."  Not quite state of the art in 1892 but still military issue and a genuine weapon of war.

I notice you never mention six-guns when you're frothing about "military" guns.

In point of fact, every single bolt-action hunting gun has a lineage that can be traced back through some military arm.  Some retain more of that lineage than others, but a staggered internal box mag on a bolt gun is a military innovation.

No You're Wrong

Dear everyone clucking like you know what the fuck you're talking about:

A thing you screw onto the end of your gun's barrel to make it quieter is a SILENCER.

How do I know that?

Because that's what it's called in the 1921 patent by Hiram Percy Maxim.

Got an earlier patent for one that's called a suppressor?

Because if you don't, saying "there's no such thing as a silencer, they're called suppressors," just makes you sound ignurnt.

The person who invents something gets to name it.

Maxim named it a silencer.

He could have called them mufflers, because that's the only earlier patent for something that makes the noise from a tube quieter. 

Speed Test

Now that Derpyputer has replaced The BeastMac on the desktop, I wondered if I'd see a speed difference if I plugged the CAT6 cable into it.

In a word, yes.

It also led to checking the speed with both logins on the router.

Insertrouternamehere got:

53.76 Mbps down and 40.01 Mbps up.

Insertrouternamehere-5G got:

300.27 Mbps down and 237.94 Mbps up.

The wired connection to Insertroutername got:

 503.36 Mbps down and 421.70 Mbps up.

I think I can live with that.