05 February 2019

I'm Speculating Thursday

The soon to be cerakote'd yellow with pink butterflies with a pink tufted lanyard M1911A1 from CMP will prolly show up here Thursday.

Why?

Because that's when every other damned thing we've ordered in the past month is going to show.

First Time?

"The first time the Supreme Court defended the Second Amendment,"

Heller was not the first time the Supreme Court defended the 2nd.

In fact, until Miller the few cases the court took were uniformly pro-2nd.

The problem is there was nothing from Miller to Heller.  That's a very long span (69 years) for the Supreme Court to ignore one of the enumerated rights in The Bill of Rights.

h/t Say Uncle

A Radical Thought

With all the Democrats sitting out the State of the Union Address I wonder...

Do the Republicans have a quorum and a majority without them?

It'd be hilarious to call Congress into session and end-run their stupid asses on a dozen things.

Did It Ever Occur To Them

That we'd stop calling them Nazis if they stopped sounding like Nazis?

Gun control.

Blaming the other.

Socialism.

All we need now is concentration camps and to invade France.

Made Of Wait

The process of getting an M1911A1 from CMP is made of wait.

First you waited to get your random number.

Then you waited for your number to be called.

Then you wait for the gun to ship.

I am not sure if the multi-step process is better or worse than the single step wait for a tax-stamp.

04 February 2019

That's An Excellent Reason To Deport Him!

"Mr. Abraham-Joseph is a role model to the young people in the country..."

Rapper 21 Savage's attorney Dina LaPolt.

I don't want an illegal alien and convicted felon to be a role model to the young people of the nation.

Also, that's some mighty fine police work there, ICE.

He'd been in the country illegally for more than 8 years when he was convicted on felony drug charges and it has taken you an additional 4-plus to notice his visa status?

He should have been remanded straight back to England when released from prison.

Let me underline this a bit more.

It's not like he overstayed his visa and laid low, working anonymous jobs.  He became a high profile musician and celebrity.

It should have been simple to nab him.

Flat Inflation

I was reading an economic report so dry it could be a desiccant.

Of note was it mentioning that inflation was flat because the price of gasoline had retreated so much.

It made me wonder how much of the inflation rate is caused by energy prices.

Then I also remembered Obama and how he was an active supporter of spiking energy prices.

Duty Honor Country


The life of a Cold Warrior was fraught with dangers...  Few of them Soviet in nature.

03 February 2019

Six Pounds Two Man Lift

Marv and I have grappled with the beast and emerged victorious!

HUZZAH!  HUZZAH!  HUZZAH!

We have replaced the power steering pump on a 1996 Corvette Collector's Edition!

It should not have been such a struggle.

It should not have required two people.

But it did.

Why?

Because it apparently would have killed someone at GM to leave any slack at all in the hard line going from the pump to the rack.  Even worse, the routing of the line means that it can't be released from any clips or brackets to gain the slack.

So you have to remove the pump from the bracket before you can get the line detached because it's the only thing that can move.

When putting it back in you have to fight both lines to get it aligned with its holes.

One person pries, the other puts in screws.

02 February 2019

Non-Equatable Skills

There was once a time where I'd thought that my skill with sword and shield from The SCA meant that I'd be good at fencing saber.

I was dissuaded of that notion nearly instantly.

A sword is a sword, no?

GURPS even makes them different skills.

Fencing as a sport isn't a melee weapon skill at all, in fact.  It's Combat Sport (fencing weapon) as opposed to Melee Weapon (fencing weapon).  They have the same difficulty and default to each other at -3.

What I was trying to do was to use my Melee Weapon (Broadsword) for Combat Sport (Saber).  There's no direct default between these skills.  It's skill -4 to go from Melee Weapon (Broadsword) to Melee Weapon (Saber) and another -3 to go from Melee Weapon (Saber) to Combat Sport (Saber); so a -7 to Broadsword if the GM allows it.

I wasn't very good at Melee Weapon (Broadsword) to begin with...  Prolly a skill of 10 or 11 max.  So a 3 or 4 with a fencing saber.

The same divide is present between Kendo and Kenjutsu where Kendo is a combat sport skill and using a war katana is Melee Weapon (Broadsword) or (Two-Handed Sword).

That's Typical

The word Okay comes from the acronym OK.

OK stands for All Correct.

It's probably from Boston or New York in the 1800's.


01 February 2019

I, For One, Am Shocked

Shocked to discover a Democrat politician was a racist, or at least utterly tone-deaf about how this would look.

They'd demand the head of a Republican on less evidence.

More Subtle Than Expected


The purple baseplate is isn't as garish as I'd worried it'd be.

I Wanna Mess With The Banks

And anyone facilitating financial transactions.

Call it "The Protection of Lawful Commerce Act".

Banks and other financial institutions are defined by law and are given protection from competition in the form of steep legal barriers for entry.

I propose that in exchange for this protection we get something for a change and demand that they must process any transaction which is legal to transact.

To deny a transaction requires they call law enforcement over the illegal activity and make the burden for false reporting onerous.  Like CEO goes to prison onerous.

Include a section that makes auction sites accept anything legal or nothing.

Going to need someone better versed in legalese to work the wording, of course.

If anyone complains, remind them that they didn't see anything wrong with forcing a baker to make a cake for a wedding he had religious objections to.

The Call!

Just got off the phone with CMP.

I am called.

A genuine rusted rattle-trap M1911A1 will be on its way to me within 60 days.

Excitement builds!

Update:

Willard wins the "When will they call pool" by having the earliest date picked.

He can pick up his $0 cash prize in person between the hours of 10:32 and 10:33 AM on alternating second Tuesdays of months ending in H.

Distinctive

On the off chance that my magazines get mixed in with someone else's at a 2-gun or similar event:


Mine are the ones with the purple bases and zombie green numbers.

Related to this:  Worst Criminal Planner EVAH.  Make my magazines visually distinctive and brag about it online.

It's almost as if I'm NOT planning anything illegal and have nothing to hide.

Because I'm not planning anything illegal and I have nothing to hide.

31 January 2019

On Getting Sucked In

There's a couple topics, like abortion, I do try to avoid because there's just no answer that's satisfactory for everyone.

They're also topics where people have strong opinions and want to bring you to understand and agree with them.

Oft times these people are folks you don't want to just say, "FUCK OFF!" as your rebuttal because they're not really being dicks.  Hell, they were being polite in expressing their position.

They're simply disagreeing.  There's room for disagreement and debate.

Really.

I just don't want to debate it.

My reasons for my position are personal.  They're also subjective.

My reasoning is flawed because it's not a reasoned opinion.  I'm bruised and bloody from trying apply reason to so many things.  My response is often a feral attack on the person who, upon seeing I've expressed an opinion, informs me of theirs.

That's a bit unfair, no?

Reminder To Self

Never admit to having a position on abortion.

I keep making this error.

Now They're Just Messing With Me

My number is 2764.

2761 got the call for payment today at 1:36 PM.

Y'all couldn't do three more numbers before knocking off for the day?

That's just mean.

If it follows the same pattern as last week, they'll be calling high 2600's then getting to me about Wednesday.

Rising To Murder

Being non-religious, I trend towards the pro-choice end of the spectrum.

I have, however, long held that once a fetus gets to the point where it can survive in the atmosphere and obtain sustenance through it's screaming little maw it's a people and killing it would be murder; even if it's still in the womb.

What the ever living FUCK, New York and Virginia?

Inconsistent

My chili recipe sometimes has variable heat.

This is because I use fresh peppers.  2 jalapenos, 2 habeneros, and 3 poblanos.

If the pepper crop is mild, the chili is too.

If the pepper crop is hot, so follows the brew.

It never tastes bad, but sometimes the change in heat is disappointing.

30 January 2019

Spitting Distance

Fewer than thirty numbers separate my lottery number from the last number called.

Prolly be tomorrow or Monday for the call.

Where IS Ruth?

The lack of reporting on Ruth Bader-Ginsberg's glowing health and rigorous workout routine is getting into suspiciously specific denial territory.

She hasn't been seen for a while.

What police agency can we call in for a welfare check?

This also raises the uncomfortable question, since so much of a Supreme Court Justice's work is done by their staff, of "how long can a partisan staff hide the demise of said Justice?"

I think we might be needing some proof of life, otherwise we're going to be getting the whole "you can't seat a new justice because election" bullshit we've had before.

29 January 2019

Endurance

9.2 pounds loaded means it gets lighter as you shoot.  8.1 by the time you're empty.

That is very light for 7.62x51mm in my opinion.

But it sure is FUN!



We caught the one and only stoppage with this gun on the above vid.  It also, occasionally, doesn't feed the first round by slapping the bolt release.  That's aggravating because the charging handle is teh suxxor.



Just blasting away at 25 21 yards gave a minute of bad-guy pattern.

Combined effort from Willard and I.  We could prolly get a better zero, but we didn't wanna fiddle with the fiddly rear adjustments.
The hard plastic buttplate and light weight mean you need to pay attention to getting shouldered good and tight.  Something we both forgot at least once during the shooting.

Then we switched to something more whimsical!



Muzzle flash from .30 Carbine and 7.5" of barrel is cool!

It groups pretty darn well considering we were both shaking from shoulder battering.

Me at the upper -1 and center -0.  Willard at the others.  All at 7 yards.

It's not unpleasant to shoot.  Recoil is less than .357 Magnum.  The frustrating thing about this, and all Blackhawks in .3something I've fired is the ejector rod doesn't line up well with the cylinders.  It makes it a guessing game to get the brass out.

The down moment of this trip was the M1956A2 is still not working right.  It ran fine for most of the .308 challenge, but has been stuffing the spent round back into the action rather than ejecting it since then.  New extractor springs did not cure the problem.  It exists regardless of ammo or magazine change.

Still groups really good!

Gonna get a bolt refresh kit and swap out all the rest of the springs.

If that doesn't work we're considering changing out the bolt carrier assembly or getting a heavier buffer and springs.




33 Years Ago

I started detention for exercising free speech in a state run high school.

Yes, the joke was in poor taste, but it was both timely and hilarious.

The staff wasn't ready for jokes about the Student Liberation Front taking out Challenger and that no teacher was safe.

It sounds horrid distilled like this, but it had the lunch room in stitches.

We needed to laugh, even if the humor was macabre and dark.

Making fun of something is one of the ways we heal.

A subtext of this that's forgotten because McAuuliffe died is how inundated anyone in K-12 was with "There's a TEACHER going to space!  Did you hear?  A TEACHER!"

The very first thing I heard from a fellow student, as they announced the news on the PA, was, "now they're never going to shut up about her."

This was followed shortly by, "What's this button do?"

For you see... It was nobody we knew or cared about and children are cruel.

For a barometer of how much freedom has been lost in following 33 years:  My little skit would bring charges today instead of detention.

28 January 2019

Slightly Modified


This is Lego 75218 built with Lego 9493's guns with Wedge and R2-A3.

I've made Wedge's Red 2 before.

Lego keeps improving the X-Wing with every iteration, but this one was a bit of a step backwards with teeny little guns.  A part that I fixed!

International Lego Day!

I'm building an X-Wing... again.

27 January 2019

Retraction

The previous post, apparently, has been thoroughly debunked by Fact Check Dot Org.

Not sure I completely trust any of the fact check sites, but since I was doing a drunk repost and the person I was reposting from has done a partial recant of their post with that link...

I am officially retracting the previous post and apologizing to anyone physically harmed by it.  Persons who were mentally harmed actually did it to themselves and should consider some form of counseling to harden their brains against such injury.

Stolen From Vulgar Curmudgeon

The following 11 reasons should be forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the readers gets sick of reading them.

1. $11 Billion to $22 Billion is spent on welfare to illegal immigrants each year by state governments.

2. $22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food Assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal immigrants.

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal immigrants.

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on Primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for Education for the American-born Children of illegal immigrants, known as Anchor babies.

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal immigrants.

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison Inmates are illegal immigrants.

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on Illegal immigrants for Welfare & Social Services by the American taxpayers.

9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal immigrants.

10. In 2006, illegal immigrants sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their Countries of origin.

11. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes committed By Illegal Immigrants In The United States .

THE TOTAL COST IS $338.3 BILLION A YEAR. SINCE THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 135 MILLION TAXPAYERS IN THE UNITED STATES, OVER $2,500.00 OF YOUR TAXES GO TO FUNDING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. THE ILLEGALS THEN SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATS.

Another way to phrase this is: EVERY THREE YEARS ILLEGAL ALIENS COST OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS!

Get rid of them and it looks like we can have the national debt wiped in less than a generation.

Think about THAT!

I Have Seen The Future



This thing was loose and unattended among customers.

That means someone is very confident of the tech.

26 January 2019

Looking For An ATF Ruling

At one time ATF issued a ruling that running the action on a firearm with an electric motor made it readily convertible and thus a machinegun.

If I am recalling correctly, it was associated with putting an electric motor on a Gatling gun, but was phrased so that any use of an electric motor to drive the action of any gun was forbidden.

Does anyone have a copy of that letter they can share?

Play Stupid Games...

Win stupid prizes.

"The other male officer told investigators he warned Hendren and Alix not to play with guns and reminded them they were police officers."

Darwin never sleeps.

What were those four rules again?

Things You Spot Being A Gunny


Watching Last Man Standing and I noticed that the magazine isn't seated.

Say It With Me

FedEx sucks.

FedEx Smartpost combines everything bad about FedEx and the USPS into one horrifying package.

Case in point.

Gun parts coming from both Midway and Brownell's.

These two orders were made within minutes of each other on the 20th.

Both were shipped with the cheapest available option.

Midway with UPS Mail Innovations.  Brownell's with FedEx Surepost.

The baseplates will be here today maybe Monday.  The mags a week from Monday.

Dovetail Punch

Facebook, being the clever spies that they are, has noticed that I buy tools.

Today the suggested item is:

I have no idea what this thing is.  The description mentions gaskets... but I have no idea how it works.

Anyone out there know?

UPDATE:
Brian in the comments found out what it does!   It's like a cookie cutter for fitting gaskets to each other.

25 January 2019

Coincidence?

The government shut down and just a bit more than a month later BuzzFeed and HuffPo start major downsizing?

SHEEEEEIT!

Let's see if we can get CNN and CBS next!

Spinning Gears

CMP told #2695 to send his payment information today.

They informed #4765 they had a number assigned.

There's 19,000 packets, so they're through about 19.8% of the packets for issuing a randomly generated number.

There's about 6,500 pistols in this tranche of M1911A1's, so they're through about 26% of the guns.

This is since the end of October.

If this pace continues, that means 12 more months to tell everyone their number and 9 to ship the last gun.

The pace at present is a lot faster than it was two months ago.  At that rate I'd be looking at mid-March not next week!

Where'd They Find The Money?

Just the other day the FBI was moaning that it was out of the funds that it needed to operate.

Yet it still managed to scrape enough to arrest Roger Stone for Robert Mueller?

Isn't it amazing how there's always money for some things and never any for others?

24 January 2019

Unsurprising Bummer

It would appear Hudson Manufacturing, makers of the H9 might be in bankruptcy.

Maybe.

Possibly.

The entry on Wikipedia is not encouraging.

Even a small company with a problem free launch can just shrivel up and die.

A small company whose sole product turns out to have some major deficiencies that defy fixing with warranty service which gets slower and slower...

Just damn.

Looks like the H9 joins the R51 on the scrap pile of interesting but flawed pistols.

You Didn't Seem To Being Doing Such A Bang Up Job Before

The FBI Agents Association, which advocates for 14,000 active and former FBI Special agents, also released a report earlier this week of grievances from FBI employees, including one who said the shutdown “has eliminated any ability to operate.”

 Compared to what?

From all of the obvious crimes from the Obama Administration, I think we're finally paying a fair price for the services we've been receiving from the FBI.

I hope you fucks starve to death.  In the cold.  With an incurable and painful disease.