Fun With Math (With Update)

Out of 15,927 2008 Corvette Coupes. 51% are the 3LT trim level, 15% have dual roofs, 38% have the Z51 suspension package, 47% have dual mode exhaust, 34% have manual transmissions, 33% came with base rims, 23% are black, and 12% have a cashmere interior. That math works out to there being just one car with my exact combination of features (actually the math adds up to 0.67387416818 cars).

My car is 1 of 1. Wow!

It's a valuable collector's item! Only one like it made!

0.00627864632385% is 1 car divided by 15,927. All the percentages added are 0.0042310175688%.

Unless I have made a drastic error, and I am sure FuzzyGeff will correct me if I have.

UPDATE!

FuzzyGeff has, correctly, pointed out that just because 15% of all 2008 Corvette Coupes have the dual roof option does not mean that 15% of BLACK 2008 Corvette Coupes have the dual roof. For example, 2,389 2008 Corvette Coupes have the dual roof, if all of them are black then 65.2% of black coupes have the dual roof. That should have been obvious to me, but I couldn't restart the brain cell that blocked the path to my stats class.

Rev. Wright

The more this guy talks, the more I think I should be ashamed that I rejected the arguments of the KKK.

Listening to him makes one wonder if the Civil War was worth it now. If freeing an entire race from slavery leads to this kind of garbage, perhaps it would have been better to let the CSA leave.

But wait, that's condemning an entire people because of the actions of one "man". Nope, I can't do it; even if he can.

I have extended this offer before: Any person of slave descent in the nation who feels put upon by us white-folk can do one of two things; 1. Return to slavery, it was my people who fought and bled to free you and we don't really appreciate you hating us for it; 2. Return to Africa, but there you will not be a black, you will be an American and you will discover what hate without restraint looks like.

No takers? I didn't think so.

There was once a time when blacks were not welcome to join American society. That time is passed. If you think about it, the Civil Rights Movement would not have gotten anywhere if the majority of the nation hadn't decided that, yes, it's time we stopped being fools and treated blacks like people. That moment happened before I was born. It's becoming clear to me that the offer to join is going to expire soon if people like Mifuni, Wright, Jackson and Sharpton continue to be the spokesmen for race relations.

Equality is a good thing. Reversing the situation is not. For the same reasons it was wrong for blacks to be enslaved it is wrong to demand a position that is unequal in the opposite way. Women, take notes here, your leaders are guilty of this too.

To be equal you must be equal. That means ending special privileges. Just for example, what would the reaction be to a Congressional White Caucus? League of Male Voters?

What would happen if McCain's preacher said CENSORED?

If you want to end racism and sexism, you must not be racist and sexist in response to racism and sexism! Continuing to be so will eventually close the minds of the people who might have welcomed you as an equal, but now see that you seek a reversal, not equality, and wonder if perhaps the original situation would not be much better.

I'd rather have peers than subjects. What say you?

PS: the female thing is doubly baffling, they are the majority. Why do girls get minority status when 60% of the country is a female?

Krav Maga Observation

Watching a show on Israeli Commandos and they have the inventor of Krav Maga showing us how to get a gun away from someone who's put the barrel against your temple.

Yup, that technique would work to get the gun in that situation.

Person with the gun, repeat after me: A firearm is a RANGED weapon, do NOT take it into hand to hand combat range. In other words, if he can touch you before you can shoot him, you're using the gun wrong and deserve to have Mr Muscles take it away and shoot you.

Meme!

I found this meme at: http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123.
3. Find the first five sentences.
4. Post the next three sentences.

"Now there are more people in the Grandgate district alone than in all of Dwomor, so Alorria is as lost here as I am," Karanissa continued. "The Guild brought Tobas here because he'd been doing research in countercharms, trying to fix some of the things that had gone wrong back in the mountians, so someone thought he was some sort of expert and called him in to help against Tabaea's magic Black Dagger, and he didn't argue-he thought it would be fun, and that he might know something useful. He does have the formulas for plenty of spells, including some that had been lost for centuries, but all the same, he's not really that good a wizard-more than good enough for Dwomor, or anywhere in the Small Kingdoms or outlying lands, but here in the three Ethshars he's only up to journeyman level, really."

There is a requirement to tag five more people. All of my readers! Post in comments or link to your blog.

Finally A Product That Expresses My Deepest Desires

A Wedding With Bitter Observations

"How was the wedding?"

All the normal stuff. The Bride was insane from being the bride. Note to Bridezillas everywhere, just because you have an excuse, doesn't mean you don't have to say you're sorry later. Behaving that way after the honeymoon will just lead to, "Why don't your friends ever come and visit us anymore, Lee?" It might even lead to, "Why don't they log onto the chat engine, reply to e-mails or answer their phones any more?" too.

The Bride's mother: She didn't understand that just because I am here as a friend to The Groom, that didn't give her the power to order me about. I did not hear a single please or thank you from her. By the way, one of the reasons The Bride was so damn nervous was you not leaving her alone and fretting over every single thing that had already been covered. Things were missed because you couldn't shut the hell up and stay the fuck out of the way! It wasn't YOU getting married, it was your daughter, and you nearly caused four of the wedding party to walk.

To everyone who accused me of taking The Groom's Brother's clothes; Go fuck yourselves! I am an adult now and childish pranks like this are reserved for friends. The Groom's Brother is not my friend and there's not a goddamn thing I can do to him that is worse than letting him continue to be himself. The "go fuck yourself" goes double for The Bride's Father who'd only met me the day before and made the decision that "It had to be me." Didn't think I would hear about your big goddamn mouth, did you? Well, prick, see you at dawn if you have the balls. You fuckers were awfully damn brave behind my back, weren't you? It was only out of respect for my friend that I didn't go off right there and then.

The wedding party got stuck with the clean-up job. We got told about this detail just after the marriage ceremony. For future reference, that's the fucking venue's problem, not mine. It was just FuzzyGeff, The Maid of Honor, her daughter and me doing it. The Bride's brother, his wife, ADD child (try telling the little shit 'no' from time to time, or even once) and baby bailed as soon as the Rolls was out of sight. The Groom's Brother sat in his parents car and pouted about the clothes he left unattended to be mistaken as the band's stuff in the restroom. FuzzyGeff and I unloaded the huge load of crap, including the trash from the party. If anything is lost or broken, we did our best, but it was an entire pick-up load of crap. An entire pick-up load. That's excessive. We really would have been well within our rights to say, "not our problem, these are ceremonial titles and carry no responsibilities." We were definitely put upon, and I am not pleased about it. FuzzyGeff can speak for himself, but he doesn't sound real pleased. If there's a next time, you're getting a card from me not an appearance.

I behaved. I was a good boy. For the most part, I swallowed my pride and sucked up the abuse. Don't get used to that level of behavior. There won't be a wedding to destroy next time. Next time I am going to be me all the way. Black humor and all. If you think your knowing an astronaut on Columbia trumps talking Lou Ries out of killing himself because he thinks he should have been able to program the flight control system to save the shuttle on one wing, we will have words. If you fly in an experimental aircraft you are accepting that you might not live through the experience. By the way, pick the world you wanna live in. Either you are an equal adult, and have to play by the same rules I do, or you are not an equal and have no grounds to approach me on any matter. I leave criticism to my peers, thank you.

Note to Texans: Want it pronounced May-nohr? Don't spell it Manor. I know you think it's cute that out of towners don't know that you can't read. That's just shows us how damned ignorant you are. The explanation as to why you do this stupid shit is even better, and can be countered with one sentence; "You lost the goddamned Civil War, pretending that the pronunciation rules are different to laugh at the winners makes you look both stupid and petty." Keeping the stupid and petty shit up for 145 years makes you look even stupider.

I would excuse the profanity, but it's my blog, I can say what I want here.

Science And Global Warmering

Quote of the day: "[S]cience does not try to fit the observations to the theory. It creates the theory to explain the observations."

Wow, just wow, this pithy statement really hits Al square between the eyes. Not only is he attempting to fit the observations to the theory (CO2 and temp tracking together in the wrong order) he's not making good observations either (temp recording stations moved around a lot and entire eras are ignored).

Well I Am Glad That's Over

It's caused some stress here at home, and I must apologize, but the holes are filled. The die had been cast and the Rubicon crossed... Thanks for being tolerant of the obsession Honey!

I sold a lot of my guns to pay bills in the months before moving to Florida.

Thanks to the inheritance, I have replaced them all. With upgrades in all the niches really.

The Mini-14 has been replaced with Kaylee.
The FAL has been replaced with Dottie.
The FIE Titan has been replaced with a Colt Junior.
The .45 Colt Anaconda has been replaced by the same and supplemented with a .44 Mag.
The M-1911A1 has been replaced with a Springfield M1911-A1 GI.
The Brazilian M-1908 Mauser is sort of replaced with a Remington M-1903A3. I originally bought the Brazilian because I wanted a nice Mauser type rifle. The 03A3 is the pinnacle of the military Mauser development.

The SIG and .44 are the only real additions to the pile since the inheritance. The .45 and the Junior are actually pre-inheritance guns, paid for with my stipend from the VA.

I know it's hard to understand why those niches getting filled was so overwhelming. If I had sold them because I was tired of them, there would have been no feeling of loss to eliminate. I feel no such feeling about the Polytech M-14S, Enfield No.4 Mk.2* or Daewoo DR200 I sold.

Thoughts On Shitheel

First, a recap;

Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel, as we all know, is in jail for violating his probation.

His eldest son, by wife 1 of 3, Orca Shitheel believes that The Lovely Harvey turned Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel in. I didn't and have no reason to believe The Lovely Harvey did. Leading suspect is Orca Shitheel's first wife from the way she's behaved since she met Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel and Wife 3 of 3 for lunch the day before his arrest.

Wife 3 of 3 is a total nutcase, absolutely co-dependent.

Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel has not communicated with anyone except Wife 3 of 3 unless they happen to be sitting in the room when he called Wife 3 of 3. Since we do not live in Iowa, we have not had any communication from him since he went to jail. The Lovely Harvey has written several times. Via Wife 3 of 3 we know that he has written to Wife 3 of 3, and nobody else.

Orca Shitheel has been spreading all kinds of lies and half truths about The Lovely Harvey and I since Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel got arrested. I think he's more motivated by our refusal to fund his move from Iowa to Florida than anything else.

End of re-cap.

Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel is scheduled to be released on 18May08. Because he's made no attempt to contact us, in fact he's refused our request for visitation, I don't feel inclined to join in any celebration of his release. I will fight against him coming to my house ever again. I will advise The Lovely Harvey to not communicate with him, his wife, his children, his ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, and his children's wives, ex-wives and girlfriends.

I am not a huge fan of how law enforcement operates in this day and age. Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel has brought the police into my house with his bullshit four times to date. I don't want the cops here unless I called them. The laws are especially gray about whether a felon, like Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel, can be in my gun-owning house at all. I think it's legal for me, but not him, and would prefer not to test that post-arrest.

His eldest is another thorn. Orca Shitheel's bad-mouthing of us has affected my mother-in-law's job. If Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel had a sense of honor, he would do something about his son. Condemn Orca's behavior vocally if nothing else. I get the impression that he'd be proud of how Orca Shitheel behaves. I base this belief on how Orca Shitheel is following an identical pattern of being a loser as his dear old dad.

Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel has fathered five children that have been paid, predominately, by welfare. Orca Shitheel has three, with a fourth on the way, again paid for by welfare. Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel's sister has two, paid for by welfare. Number two son has at least one, guess who paid? Notice a pattern?

It is the example of this family that makes me believe that we should not pay a single penny more on welfare. What welfare has bought is three generations of mistreatment and abuse. When we've been interviewed by agents of the state investigating Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel, I got the impression that the Shitheel's are typical not exceptional. I don't want to pay to perpetuate that.

The fun does not end with Dumbass Fuckwad Shitheel release from the Pasco County, Florida, jail. He has a warrant for his arrest in Story County, Iowa for failure to appear and leaving the county while under bond. "I was in jail!" is not a good explanation when defending your failure to show up in court.

Back From The Range Again

Kaylee is once again zeroed. Shot about a 4" group at 100 yards. I think 100 yards is pushing the limits of a 16" 5.56x45mm. At least it's the limit for the cheap 55gr Remington Express ammo.

Marv shot Dottie. He's impressed. He's also upset that he doesn't have the spare $400 to convert his 5.56x45 to the much more manly 6.8x43mm. Poor Marv. He'll get there soon.

A Quote I Keep Losing And Finding

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur? What if it had been driven off or its tires spiked? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!"

--Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago, the story of the 60 million Russians who suffered, and the 20 million who died in Soviet slave labor camps.

That quote, by the way, is why when they come you should go down fighting. You might only get one or two. But if it takes two for every arrest, we win. Sucks to be the martyr, it always has, but since we out number them by so much, we only need to get one or two per arrest. After a few, they will start to fear the attempt.

Pre-SENT ARMS!

For Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor.

MoH, posthumous, for jumping on a grenade to save his mates.

He'd previously gotten a Silver Star for other acts of bravery.

Order, ARMS!

For SGT Matt Maupin; What We Should Really Do About His Death

The Grave of the Hundred Head
R. Kipling

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun;
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

A Snider squibbed in the jungle,
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Jemadar Hira Lal,
Took command of the party,
Twenty rifles in all,
Marched them down to the river
As the day was beginning to fall.

They buried the boy by the river,
A blanket over his face --
They wept for their dead Lieutenant,
The men of an alien race --
They made a samadh in his honor,
A mark for his resting-place.

For they swore by the Holy Water,
They swore by the salt they ate,
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib
Should go to his God in state,
With fifty file of Burmans
To open him Heaven's gate.

The men of the First Shikaris
Marched till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village,
The village of Pabengmay --
A jingal covered the clearing,
Calthrops hampered the way.

Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Bidding them load with ball,
Halted a dozen rifles
Under the village wall;
Sent out a flanking-party
With Jemadar Hira Lal.

The men of the First Shikaris
Shouted and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the howling crew.
The Jemadar's flanking-party
Butchered the folk who flew.

Long was the morn of slaughter,
Long was the list of slain,
Five score heads were taken,
Five score heads and twain;
And the men of the First Shickaris
Went back to their grave again,

Each man bearing a basket
Red as his palms that day,
Red as the blazing village --
The village of Pabengmay,
And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets
Reddened the grass by the way.

They made a pile of their trophies
High as a tall man's chin,
Head upon head distorted,
Set in a sightless grin,
Anger and pain and terror
Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin.

Subadar Prag Tewarri
Put the head of the Boh
On the top of the mound of triumph,
The head of his son below --
With the sword and the peacock-banner
That the world might behold and know.

Thus the samadh was perfect,
Thus was the lesson plain
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris --
The price of a white man slain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back into camp again.

Then a silence came to the river,
A hush fell over the shore,
And Bohs that were brave departed,
And Sniders squibbed no more;
For the Burmans said
That a white man's head
Must be paid for with heads five-score.

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun;
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

All Me Day

Today is the day of fools!  Perhaps the most important day on the Thag calendar, for today, he belongs.

This Is What Happens When Your CAG Rotates From The Blue Angels

Funniest Thing I've Seen All Day

Dottie Is Back From The Range

I just got back from the range and I am quite pleased with the results. 6.8 SPC is the future! Point of impact at 50 yards is just a bit low when zeroed for 100. The fact that I can zero it at 100 says a lot about the accuracy over the 16" 5.56 gun. Recoil is not an issue at all. The flash hider is very effective, just a bit of flash visible inside the slots.

Here she is, looking proud of herself.

Now for the targets.
25 yards. 115gr FMJ Remington Express Rifle just to get it zeroed.

Close up of the ten shot group with the Remington at 25 yards.

SSA 115gr Sierra Match King milspec load at 50 yards. Slow fire.

100 yards with the SSA, just banging away five rounds at a time. The five in the red are the group fired with the 2.5x LaRue Tactical Po-Boy magnifier behind the EOTech. The other five were fired with just the EOTech.

Back From Safari

I have returned to Firefox. Safari does a couple of irritating things. It supports tabbed browsing, but doesn't let me set the default state to open in new tab rather than in a new window. Opening in a new window by default and not being able to change it totally defeats the purpose of tabbed browsing.

Update 02Dec14:

I did eventually solve the tabs issue, but Apple decided that my version of the OS would not be supported by future releases of Safari, so features started dropping off and it's kind of useless for many things now.

Chrome and Firefox still work!

State Of The Biscayne SS

Here she is at the body shop. Poor thing. Should be soon though.

Please Welcome Dottie And Kaylee

"You will give your rifle a girl's name..." GnySgt Hartman.

Kaylee, left, because she's the girl that you know has proven she can get the job done. Plain, but still sexy.
Dottie, right, because she's a vicious life-sucking bitch from which there is no escape.

One of the key benefits of indecisive friends who are into ARs is the slow accumulation of spare parts. Since the 20" A2 clone was an orphan here (I did manage to sell the upper) and parts were kinda stock piling, I got me a barrel in 6.8x43mm SPC and built Dottie. In the process, Kaylee was returned to KISS configuration.

When Brett finally gets his FFL these girls will be our showcase, presentation guns.

In answer to a comment; this was then:

This is now:

The Lovely Harvey's got a carbine stock. The XM177E1 has been changed back to an A1 upper. The VKb.07 is now a flatop, 16" 6.8x43mm with a carbine stock.

My Side's Specious Argument

This is a fact, it is not in dispute: Persons who obtain a concealed carry permit are the most law abiding members of the society they dwell in.

This is certainly true. It has been proven time and again. It means what I said, that the kind of person who bothers to get a carry permit is also the sort of person who obeys the law.

What that does not mean is if we expanded conceal carry to everyone, all the additional people would be just as law abiding. While they might be just as law abiding, the people who have permits now are not a viable predictor of the behavior of the larger group.

I'm On Safari

The new version is not that bad. It's missing some things I like from Firefox. It's got some things I wish Firefox had.

All in all, I don't think I have a favorite.

Happy Birthday

Eighteen years ago today, in Willow Run, Michigan, the Biscayne SS reached final assembly.

In 2003 it looked like this:

In 2005 it looked like this:

In 2006 it looked like this:

It doesn't look like this now. Hopefully we will have it back from the painter soon.

Quote Of The Random Interval

About the three branches of the US government: "For, in the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at stake is aware of the urge to cut through all the pernicious bullshit and go straight to firearms." David Mamet.

Take Eight Minutes Out Of Your Life To Watch This

If you find yourself offended, oh well.

Quote Of The Random Interval

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium

I don't speak Latin, so the grammar could be all fucked up and I'd never know. Translation is up to the readers.

Snapshot

Only slowly did I realize that a battle had been raging for some time while I was passed out.

"Angels" were dead everywhere. Most showed signs of being ripped apart. "What the Hell could rip something that shrugs off anything lighter than fifty cal in half?" I thought worriedly.

With that thought hardly formed I caught a motion in the corner of my eye and saw an "angel's" head rolling past. Looking up along the path it had rolled I saw what had to have done the ripping. One of those bear-human things from one of the other worlds that had been sucked here, but this one was much stronger. Those are only as strong as a large man, this one was...

Then I saw him/her/it. It was raptureously beautiful. An "Arch-Angel". You need to be a special kind of dead inside to even think about harming, let alone actually pulling the trigger on one. And you'd better have brought an AT gun or you'd just be giving it a massage.

The Arch swung its flaming sword at the neck of the bear-man. "Damn, that's it for him," I thought. Wrong. The bear-man spun to face the Arch, and caught the sword in its clawed fist. Caught. The. Sword. The Arch struggled to free Its blade as the bear's other hand whipped out and grabbed the Arch's head. The muscles in its forearm convulsed and the Arch's head collapsed under the pressure. With a voice that sounded like Satan gargling gravel it growled, "She! Was! My! Life!"

Let Me Axe You Something

Heller vs DC

I've been reading the gun grabbers crying about this case. I've been reading the gun-nuts crying about this case.

I have a prediction for the Supreme Court to consider. Quite a few gun owners are convinced that it's too late to vote and too soon to shoot. A decision against Heller would be the last straw. That would be the signal that it's over and it's time to start shooting because there is no other option to get our nation back to its constitutional limits.

The gun grabbers warn that the decision should go against Heller because crime will increase and there will be blood in the streets. Perhaps there will be blood in the streets this time, but bloody revolution not crime.

It should also be noted that the gun-grabber's dire consequences have never come to pass. Ever.

The nation is at a crossroads. Can you feel the tension? I imagine this is what it felt like when the states were squabbling over whether there were would be slavery. This time we are talking about guns. Come to think of it, the immoral side was wrong about blacks too.

Yes, I made a value judgment there.

My Father

I was reading Ravenclaw Eric's Journal about his friend whose father was disappointed in them. While this didn't lead me to associate my behavior with Draco Malfoy, reading it did remind me of something.

My step-mother's brother, Evert (pronounced EE vert), was an approval seeker to his father. Nothing he did was ever good enough. On one occasion, Evert purchased a Harley Davidson over a brand he preferred because his dad liked Harleys. My father explained to me what was going on and said something to the effect of, "Nothing is ever going to be enough, he should quit trying to please his dad and do what he likes."

I am absolutely certain my dad doesn't remember saying that.

I have not attempted to contact him since Father's day 2007 when it became apparent that he would never approve of my life or how I live it. He has not attempted to contact me either.

Yes, it has taken me this long to get over the hurt to mention this out loud. 2007 is the year I lost both parents.

The Power To Give Anything Is The Power To Take Everything

"These aren't people who seek evil. They are people who seek Good, albeit through dubious means. They are people who blind themselves to the truth that the power for unlimited good is cannot be distinguished, even in principle, from the power for unlimited evil. As such, they do not understand that we oppose them for their means, not their ends, and many believe that we oppose the Good they seek to bring forth, and cannot understand why anyone (other than a reactionary degenerate seeking to preserve a position of oppression based privilege) would oppose such Goodness.

This premise, government as a source of unlimited Good, directly contravenes one of the few axioms upon which America is predicated: that since it is impossible to create a government capable of doing unlimited good without creating a government capable of doing unlimited evil, we shall not make a government so capable, because it will inevitably degenerate into the unlimited evil case."

Dead link to the sorely missed Geek With A 45.

XYZZY

I did it!  Google is your friend for geekery...

1, down: Greedo
2, down: Higgs
3, down: Friday
3, across: Floyd
4, down: Star Destroyers
5, across: Tiberius
6, across: Top Secret
7, down: Archie
8, across: John Koenig
9, down: Myrmidon
10, across: Zathras
11, across: Bohr
12, across: Inconceivable
13, across: Tim The Enchanter
14, across: Zork
15, across: Space Taxi
16, down: Alan Cox
17, across: Newton
18, down: LOX
19, across: Vogons

Bold Underlined letters were a word scramble.  That translated to some game, XYZZY.  Who knew?

A Reason I Have Not Seen Listed

for the invasion of Iraq: 17 May 1987. More than enough reason for me, I weep that is insufficient for the masses.

Another Modest Proposal

Again, I am going to repeat myself a little bit. This is refining an earlier idea.

If you call for US military intervention, we own the land we take in combat when the war is done. Don't want a brand new US territory there, don't ask for our military assistance.

If you call for US humanitarian assistance, be aware you are asking to become a US territory. If you do not wish to become a US territory, then starve, I don't care.

The US will ignore you and your problems. We will not intervene in corrupt elections and do not care what form your government takes or how you treat your citizens. We do care how you treat ours. If you grant US citizens visas to enter your nation, we demand that they be safe. If they are not, we demand the perpetrators so that we may try them according to our custom. If you refuse to hand them over, we will invade and make you a US territory, and then try the perpetrators. If you wish to avoid this, simply refuse to issue visas, any American who then travels to your nation is an illegal alien and on their own.

Should your problems get so large that they affect us directly, such as your citizens taking over a commercial aircraft and flying it into a building here, we will invade you and make you a territory of the United States. If you don't want this to happen, keep your people under better control.

The official language of the United States is English. While we do not require you to speak it, all documents and official proceedings will be conducted in English. We are under no obligation to hire a translator and it is your responsibility to be able to understand the documents or official proceedings.

Territories of the United States get 30 years as a territory to become states. That's more than enough time to get the idea of being an American across. Refusal will be considered insurrection and dealt with accordingly. Luckily, being part of the US is a pretty good deal.

Illegal entry into the United States will be dealt with summarily by any level law enforcement, including the militia. Execution is allowable, but deportation is preferred. Second offenses will result in execution.

To be considered a natural born citizen of the United States your parents must have been legal residents or citizens of the US at the time of your birth. Persons born to illegal aliens will be considered citizens of their parents country, but will not be charged with illegal entry.

Deleting Bookmarks

I read a lot of political blogs. Recently, I have discovered that I just cannot stand to read some of them.

Hugh Hewitt got nuked because I got so damn sick of reading about how tasty the Romney shit sammich was. Rah rah rah, RINO!

Kim DuToit got nuked today because I am sick of reading about how RIGHT he is and how WRONG I am. It must be nice to be that CERTAIN. His wife's comments in one thread were the final straw. More than once with them I have seen them rant about how unconstitutional something is and then say that the war on drugs is OK because so many people want it. The recent comment thread was about exactly that. I believe it was Tamara explaining that Prohibition was legal because an amendment was added giving the Feds the power to do what they did and the war on drugs is illegal because no such power is found in the Constitution, nor has an amendment granting that power been added.

I've noticed that whenever the war on drugs vs prohibition legality thing comes up, conservatives immediately dive for the libertarian=drug smoking hippie line. I find this exasperating. What Tamara was trying to say is the Constitution defines the powers the government legitimately has and the power of making drugs illegal is not there. This position is reinforced by the 18th amendment, by the way. If the government had the power to ban liquor (or drugs) then an amendment would not have been required. The position that the power was always there and the 18th was not really required is squashed by the 21st amendment. If the government had the power to ban alcohol (or drugs) without the 18th amendment, then all of the laws passed during prohibition would still be valid and in place today. Saying so does not make me a hippie.

I've raged on this point before, the Constitution is a limiting document listing the powers of the Federal government in plain English. If a power is not specifically, and clearly, listed then it is forbidden to the Feds. The 9th and 10th amendments are reminders that this is so. This position demands quite a bit smaller and less intrusive Federal Government than we have today. Saying so does not make me a libertarian, anarchist or minarchist.

There's a lot of legitimate power in there. It mentions "the people" a lot. I don't think we needed special laws protecting women, blacks or gays because all three are PEOPLE! The people are protected. I do think that passing the laws protecting women, blacks, and gays means that as a straight white male I am less protected. Saying so does not make me a bigot, racist, sexist or homophobe.

Where Do These Guys Come From

I've been reading an AK vs AR vs H&K flame war in the comments to a blog.

One poster, who's worked for every AR maker in the universe, and knows more than we do, really, just ask him: He's on a tear about this and that and I'm smiling because I know better, I own a couple.

One thing that really pegged the BS meter was him talking about the M855 bullet. He says that it was designed for the M4 and its extended feed ramps. That would be, "Wrong Answers for 1000, Alex." The M855 was designed concurrently with the M16A2, and first issued in 1983. My tank was issued an M16A2 when I was in Germany in 1988. We had the green tipped M855 ammunition as well. The M4 is not issued until 1994. The round came long before the gun.

The extended feed ramps on the M4 are there because the action cycles faster than the M16 and the bullets don't have time to get all the way to the top of the magazine before the bolt grabs them when not in semi-automatic mode.

You'd think that someone who had designed the lefty upper for Stag would know that, wouldn't you?

I think this is the difference between a machinist and an engineer.

Covers A Lot Of Ground This Does

There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. — Robert Heinlein

A Wee Little Test

Get thee hence!

I answered 55 out of 60 correctly — 91.67 %

Average score for this quiz during February: 70.6%
Average score since September 18, 2007: 70.6%


22Nov14 Update:


A retake (and it's a different test) I got 31 of 33 right -- 93.94%.


Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.

A Modest Proposal

The thing with Berkeley and the Marine Corps recruiting station has me thinking of a solution...

Any jurisdiction that feels that it cannot morally tolerate the existence of a US armed forces recruiting office may instead be subjected to the draft.

Seems an easy choice to make, either put up with someone you don't like (who's offering to remove other people who you probably won't like either from your fair city) or people you probably do like get sent someplace they don't want to go and perhaps be changed into someone just like that recruiter.

Seems fair to me.

Hero

The word has been cheapened of late, so I am going to link to a story about a real hero.

When soldiers put a zoomie up for the Silver Star, he probably deserves a Medal of Honor.

Here's the story.  Repeated below.