Vault Scarecrow - Full Length

Think we can get Brian to come to any of the OWS protests?

Inspired by New Jovian Thunderbolt.

Dammit!

Jasmine has been recalled!

DS Arms has discovered a problem with the hardness of the aluminum that goes into the lower receiver.

That's kind of a big deal with an FAL, so it's going back to the factory to see if I have a bad one and if so; a new one will be swapped in and she will be returned.

I just don't want to be without her for the two weeks or so it will take.

Really?

Your excuse for Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner is; "If those kind of guns had been banned we wouldn't have been able to get them and hand them off to the drug cartels."

BWAH?

If only they'd been banned we wouldn't have been able to break the law?

Is that what you are saying?

I think it's time to add a new question to the 4473.  "Are you now or have you ever been an employee or agent of the federal government?"  People responding with a 'yes' are not allowed to own a gun or even make a gun with their fingers and make a "phew phew" noise.

Looking for a bit of help...

I have a vintage bird-cage flash-hider threaded for 1/2-28.

What I want is to have it threaded for 5/8-24.

To buy a drill and tap is about $40.

If there was a shop in or around Tampa that could drill and tap it for near that price I would happily fill their coffers instead of buying a set of tools I would likely never use again.

Act Of Valor (2012) Official Movie Trailer HD Navy SEALS

Instead of actors pretending to be SEALs we have SEALs pretending to be actors. I, for one, welcome this change to the paradigm.

Message Delivered But Not Received

Reading at Gun Free Zone about a Occupy Wall Street dude, anarchosocialist, he's exchanging tweets with.

anarchosocialist keeps alluding to murder by calling it "#breaksomeeggs"

GFZ replied with a link to a vid about prairie dog shooting.

I figured out the message even if anarchosocialist didn't.  Prairie dogs are small, about a foot tall.  Prairie dog shooters shoot at phenomenally long ranges, upwards to 1,500 yards!

A person is a much larger target and the Occupy Wall Street agents provocateur are telegraphing their move something fierce.  Their little revolution is likely to be a short one since nearly all of the guns and expertise in using them is manifest in the eggs they wish to break.

My reply to their demands?

"Nuts!"

Late to the Party.

Both of my readers have already read it every place it's been posted previously.

The lovely Jennifer is getting credit for me joining the meme, but she's not the first place I saw it.

So here’s the meme. Long answers or short.

1. What was your first car? Model, year, color, condition?
2. What adventures did you have in it, good or bad?
3. What happened to it, what’s the end of the story?

I have two first cars!

The first, first car was a 1973 Volkswagen Passat.  It was in sound condition, but in 1988 that didn't count for much.

Pic from Wikipedia.  Mine was tan with a brownish interior.

I bought this car in a very common form of exchange on Army posts.  There was a guy leaving and he had this car.  If I took over the title and insurance, it was mine.  The deal was that I would pass it on to another soldier when I left the unit.  Which I did.

I drove all over Europe in that car!  Well, all over Germany.  The cathedral in Neu Ulm.  Disneyworld in Bavaria.  Hitler's condo.  Checkpoint Charlie.  The wall (in Nurnberg).  I had a car!  I did not have a camera.  The most adventuresome part of driving that car was getting to Autobahn speeds.  Starting at about 110 km/h a vibration began.  It got worse and worse until about 130 km/h where suddenly it was like driving a Cadillac on glass.  Top speed was about 140 km/h.  It was like Chuck Yeager going through the sound barrier!

The second first car was a 1983 Mercury Lynx; automatic.  It was in near new condition in 1991 when I bought it for the princely sum of $2,000.  This is the first car I actually paid for.  What a piece of shit.  Ford has much atonement to make with me for this car.  Mine was red with a red interior.  Audio started as a factory AM radio which I "upgraded" with Kraco (a gift from my dad).  About a year into owning it, it fired a spark plug out into the hood liner.  That cost about $1,500 for a new head.  It would just quit from time to time.  Then a minute later fire back up like nothing had happened.  The heater core design must leak because three of them didn't fix the issue.  I sold it for $400 to a local used car lot in 1993.

This is the first car I made out in.  It was my first taste of automotive freedom despite having a car in Germany.  I never felt that feeling of freedom driving in Europe that I got in America.  It was the first car I ever modded all alone (if that junky stereo counts as a mod).  It was the car that taught me my dad was right and learning to fix my own car would save thousands.  It was the first car I got a speeding ticket in (80 in a 55).  It was the first car I was happy to be rid of.

Photo from Old Parked Cars.

I tried to replace it with a '73 Ford Mustang Mach 1.  That car was a manual in a deep blue metallic.  351W engine.  Stolen.  I was arrested when I tried to register it.  I was released when they busted the guy who "sold" it to me.  The rightful owner got his car back (and I am happy for him) but I lost the $3,000 I paid the thief.

There is no good luck for Thag and Ford.  So we avoids them!

A Note...

To political candidates everywhere:

Not only do I not care about your spouse; I demand to be able to not care about your spouse.

The spouse of a candidate should be like their middle name, they probably have one but it doesn't matter one iota if I know it.

Speaking of Being A Nerd

Nerd gun people with time on their hands do things like this.

It was inspired by this.

I skipped putting my dog-tags in the shot because the Army thought having my SSN on them was a good idea.

Three years...

Three years of carrying in my Miami Classic II and I have finally got it adjusted so that I am comfortable.

You wouldn't think it would take so long, would you?

Shirt Idea

You go right ahead and be the 99%

I'm the 3%

Who owns the commons?

Who owns the property in my town?

Does it belong to the residents?

Does it belong to the county?

Does it belong to the state?

Does it belong to the nation?

Who decides what becomes of that property?

If the city decides to sell the property to a business, can another city courting that business forbid the sale?

Can the city rent the property to a business?

Can the city sell to a church?  Can a church rent it?  Is the church's leasing of that property an endorsement of that religion by the city or an endorsement of the money?

How many objections to forbid the sale?  50%+1?  20%?  1?  Must everyone in town unanimously agree to everything the city does?

If placing a cross on top of a water tower is a violation of your first amendment right to freedom of religion; does your anonymously bringing in an out of state organization violate my sixth amendment right to face my accuser?  If indeed anyone local was involved in the objection to the cross.

That 6th amendment thing is important.  I put forward that FFRF or ACLU have no standing to complain about the symbols in public spaces unless someone from the political subdivision complains about them.  Meaning it has to be someone who lives HERE who brings the charge.  I also put forth that no such person complained; that the organizations in question took it upon themselves to rid me of the scourge of religious symbols (that are always Christian symbols for some reason).

I ask, where was our complainant was when the council met to decide if they would allow a privately funded and maintained symbol be placed on the water tower?  Did they raise an objection?  Did they wait even one election cycle before complaining to outside entities?  Did they even bother to vote for the city council?

If you refuse to inform yourself of the activities of the people who are elected in your name; you have no right to complain they do things you don't like.

On Living In The Future

The Occupy [Wherever] thing reminds me of the thing I hate most about class warfare in the USA.

It's constantly pointed out the things the rich people have that I don't.

Like what?

Car phone?

Super car?

Air conditioning?

300 channels?

Private plane?

Of that list, the only thing I don't have is a private plane.  All of them were luxury items in 1985.

My portable phone does more than any personal computer did in '85.

The Corvette I have will stomp just about anything Italy was making in '85.

AC is no longer exceptional, it's the norm.

Satellite and cable are ubiquitous.

I'd have my own plane if it weren't for all the lawsuits that just about killed Piper and Cessna.

The rich in America aren't the haves and we aren't the have-nots.

To me they are early adopters.

Hitler finds out CBS is reporting on Operation Fast and Furious

An Interesting Series of Posts.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

There may be more coming.

A Challenge

http://ffrf.org/

Those guys have a chance to impress me.

A chance to prove that they are not just a group of people who blindly hate Christians.

They can start suing to have the victory mosque in Pennsylvania stopped.  Religious symbol; check.  Public land; check.  Public money; check.  Anti "religion" protestors and organizations?

Hello?

Hellllooooooooooooo...

<tumbleweed rolls past chirping cricket>

Searching their site for Mosque gives no hits about it.  Searching their site for Pennsylvania gives no hits about it.

The mosque search did give an article complaining about how it was a school violating the first amendment when a local mullah invited the students to pray during his appearance.

They complain a great deal about prayers at lunch.

Hits on mosque had LOTS about how the Catholics are putting evil religion everywhere.  BWHAH?

This is not atheism, folks, this is anti-Christianism.

We also do not live in the dark ages.

Here's a first amendment test for you.  Does a cross on top of a water tower prevent you from not believing in God?  Does it force you to believe in God?  Does it force you to attend services on Sunday?  Does it make you (or pretend to) pray?  Are you forced to live in a particular part of town reserved for unbelievers?  Do the faithful refuse to do business with you because they don't see you in church?

If you're going to really, really start banning religion and its symbols you have to start based on the behavior of the worshippers and not just on a particular symbol.  You're going to have to start banning sports and sports fans from using public funding and property.

Teh evol Xtians really aren't hurting you except in your insecure mind.  The problem is not external.  Seek help.

I grow tired of having to point this out all of the time.  I am an atheist.  I am not harmed in any material way by religious symbols.  I am harmed when the place I live is forced to fork over massive legal fees to fight the accusations of bigots with a grudge and nothing better to do.  You know what?  I live here, you don't and it's clear I get the whole freedom and liberty thing better than you do.

A simple exercise.

The mayor of Whiteville, Tenn. said his community is under attack from a national racist organization that is threatening to sue unless they remove a black family from a publicly owned building.

“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said Mayor James Bellar about the Freedom From Negros Foundation. “They are alleging that some Whiteville resident feels very, very intimidated by this family.”


The mayor told Fox News Radio that the family was moved in about eight years ago by a private group of citizens. They collected private donations to cover the costs.
It’s just a black family living in an otherwise unused building” he said. “All we’re doing is exercising our right to practice our beliefs down here but this organization is now going to stymie that. We’re not out here knocking on doors trying to convert people.”

But the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Negros Foundation said the family is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They’ve given the mayor until the end of October to remove the family. If he refuses, they have threatened to sue.

“The law is very clear on this,” Freedom From Negros Foundation co-president Dan Barker told Fox News Radio. “An integrated city may not discriminate for or against any race. We don’t have a problem with black people living wherever they want, but this is a family put up by the city on city property.”

Barker said they’ve been sending letters to the city since last year demanding that the family be evicted, acting on behalf of an unnamed resident who complained.

“It offends many residents,” Barker said of the family. “Many of them think the family is offensive – that it’s an insult to humanity.”

But Mayor Bellar said he doesn’t believe that’s true.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t even think it’s a Whiteville resident,” he said. “We don’t have people of that belief here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town.”

Mayor Bellar said he’s inclined to remove the family rather than face a costly lawsuit.
However, the town council voted to consult with the Alliance Defense Fund about their legal options.

“This is their cause in life – to ride up and down the highway and find small towns that maybe have a black family somewhere on public property,” he said. “I have to admit it – checking their website, they’re batting 100 percent on this stuff.”

The Jackson Sun editorialized about the controversy, asking the town to remove the family.

The mayor said the racist group’s demands are “very frustrating” calling it a sad state of affairs.

“A terrorist is more than a guy that flies the planes into the building,” he said. “It’s anyone who can disrupt your way of living, destroy your lifestyle, cause you anxiety. It’s more than killing people. If they can disrupt your routine in life, that’s what they want to do. They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned.”

Barker said he found the comparison to be ironic.

“He’s the one breaking the law,” Barker said. “He’s the one who is anti-American, who is against diversity, against racial freedom and yet because we complain – and point out the fact that he’s breaking the law – he calls us the terrorist.”

He said it would be unwise for the town of Whiteville to defy their demands.

“Bring it on,” Barker told Fox News Radio. “If they’re going to fight it, they will lose this case.”

Original Story Here.

Odd Moments

It struck me as odd that I am having a discussion about which is the best smart phone and provider recently.

There were neither smart phones nor multiple providers when I was born.

I can recall when a cell phone was called a car phone, because it was so huge it needed to be carried in a vehicle.  Heck, check out "Lethal Weapon", Murtagh is seen talking on a back-pack sized portable phone; state of the art Motorola in 1986!

Portable computers that fit in my pocket were science fiction.  That computer networked with computers all over the world, NOT EVEN SCIENCE FICTION!  Just as the computer revolution was not predicted by the pulp sci-fi authors, the world wide web was not predicted by their successors.

1977's Traveller from GDW had computers that weighed a POUND that acted as a terminal when linked to a larger computer via a radio link.  A TL11 device where the world of 2011 would have been called TL8.  My Droid 2 weighs about 1/3 of that.  The computing power of the super advanced personal computer from Traveller was about equal to a 1990's era PC.

The present is more advanced than my future was.

Bent Out of Shape About Nothing.

Trijicon makes a scope called the ACOG.

Not too long ago they got into trouble because they had embossed references to Bible verses onto the outer casing of scopes they were selling to the military.

The US, UK and New Zealand all got their panties in a bunch over it and demanded the verse references be omitted in future purchases.  US scopes even got the emboss ground off.

Recently I noticed that a particular customer of Trijicon did not complain about the verses or take any action over them.  Israel.

The UK and New Zealand wanted the verses removed because they were worried that the Islamic targets of gunfire would become offended that there was a bible reference on the rifle that was shooting at them.  !!!

I guess to Israel, that's not a bug but a feature.  But it seems odd that a Jewish state doesn't care about Christian scripture references and nominally Christian nations do.

PS: The mostly illiterate people that "WE" are worried about offending would have blissfully ignorant of the offense if the Anti-Christian Bigots hadn't noticed this and made a huge stink about it.  To quote Dr Johnny Fever, "They sit there listening to the song, slower and slower, until, 'Ah, I heard a dirty word!'"

Unpossible!

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news/2011/october/324011/Protestors-gather-outside-Ybor-City-club,-scene-of-fatal-shooting

It's illegal to carry in a bar (even with a permit).  Therefore the above is malicious lies and the event did not happen because, as we all know, making something illegal makes it impossible.

Either that or criminals ignore the laws and do what they will.

But I'm betting it's the former...

Wanna bet nobody with a gun had a carry permit?

Pro-Choice...

Something that doesn't get mentioned in the abortion debate much is that virtually every woman contemplating an abortion has already made a choice.  Choosing to have sex.

There are varying degrees of "oops I'm pregnant" that fall from that decision all the way from, "I didn't think it would happen to ME," to "the birth control failed."

I don't think I would have an opinion about it one way or the other except for a couple issues.

First, a woman can force me to become a child-support paying father.  Yes, there are consequences to recreational sex, but all of the decision making rights are squarely the female's.

Second, the people I know who've had abortions are people I think would be good at raising a child and generally the reason for getting the abortion is financial.  Can't afford prenatal care let alone raise the child financial issues.

The solution to those, honestly, is to not have sex unless you can afford to be a parent.

Third, the vast majority of the people who I've seen who flatly refuse to consider an abortion are exactly the people who shouldn't be raising kids.  They certainly aren't paying for them, taxpayers are.  And so will be their grandkids and great-grandkids and so on.  At least one felony conviction per generation, many arrests.  Substance abuse, domestic violence... you name it.  By the way, guess what this group's opinion about birth-control is.

I am sure that many of my friends who are parents would also never have considered abortion, but I never got the feeling that, maybe, they should not have kids.  Never thought to ask them, "are you going to keep it?"  I guess if you don't raise any concerns about your ability to raise a child by the way you live your life nobody confronts you on the abortion issue, huh?

So, I am pro-choice.  Choose to keep it in your pants.

Debate About Killing ATF

Talked about by Joe and Sebastian.  Check out those links, and be sure to check out this too.

I am caught betwixt them.

One advantage I can see in giving the enforcement powers to the FBI or Marshals is they are not regulatory agencies.  They'd just be enforcing the regulations rather than generating them so, hopefully, we'd see a lot less post-facto rules making.  Maybe even get consistently applied rules.

Statism.

Wanting a government at all does not a statist make.

Minarchists are not statists in the same manner that a single drop of toxic waste turns a drum of spring water into toxic waste.

There are lots of things that are simply done better centrally.

There are lots of things that are simply clusterfucks when done centrally.

Likewise, there are many things that simply don't get done at all if left to individuals.

I want to maximize liberty.  I want the freedom to do the most I want.  My freedom has to be tempered with not messing with other people.

Loud music is something where lots of anarchist and libertarian ideals fall apart.

My neighbor's music infringes on my right to solace in my home.  If he refuses to turn it down has he initiated force?  What are my reasonable options?  Is it right to kill him over the subwoofer?  Can I levy a fine?  What happens if he doesn't pay?  Do I shoot him now?

Seems like all I have is learn to deal with his rudeness, kill him or move.  Do I have all my options listed?

It's practical, real-world, situations like that where I wonder about the viability of the libertarian utopia.

Real Informative, Guys...

A nit, or two...

John Moses Browning was a prodigiously talented firearms designer.

His work overshadows one of his protege's very dramatically.

Dieudonnè Saive.

Saive is the guy who finished the work begun on the Browning High Power.  He took the notes from the design of the Vest Pocket and created the Baby Browning.

He fathered the FAL, after plunking out the SAFN.  The SAFN might have been as widely issued as the Garand had the Germans not invaded Belgium and put the project on hold and Saive in England.

Only the 1911 and Ma Duece are as ubiquitous as the FAL in western designs.  Two people who knew each other account for a lot of guns that are found everywhere.  The AK has caught up, the AR is getting there.

Feudal Libertarianism

I've posited that feudalism falls naturally from libertarianism more than once.

I'm going to try to explain it.

To me it falls from property rights.

Under libertarianism, I own my property completely and fully.  As long as my outflows don't hurt the neighbors I can do anything I want.

There is no government to appeal to if I have a problem with a neighbor, so entering into contracts with other land-owners in the neighborhood for conflict resolution makes sense.  Neighbor A turning the stream from clean water in to raw sewage out and that sewage entering my property is initiating force, so we can use force to stop his pollution, right?

The reason we band together is to be sure we have enough force.  There would have to be banding together to decide what to do about things like streams.  Do I have to let the water out?  Can I cut off the flow to the dude downstream and then sell him water from my reservoir?  How about access to my property through someone else's?  Do we pool our resources to make a road to the harbor or are we each responsible for the section that actually sits on our property?  It's simple and complicated all at the same time.  If the road, and the land it sits on, is owned by a third party what are the terms of use?  Do we wish to jointly hold the entity that owns the road?

At the core, this is how baronies united to become kingdoms.  This was Germany under all the various principalities.

Under libertarianism there's nothing to keep me from contracting people to do farm work in exchange for a place to sleep in abysmal conditions.  As long as they are not forced into the agreement, it's A-OK.  If all the land is owned and this is the only deal a non-landowner can get, while we didn't technically force them into being a peasant, they don't really have another option, do they?  Still free to starve or be shot trespassing; right?

Land ownership will tend to be consolidated by entities that don't die.  It's why the catholic church is so wealthy.  Marriage between families will make two properties into one.  This will continue until there's just one land owning family (shall we call them Royal?).

The larger properties can be subdivided and parceled out to the children, but this will be a use contract not ownership; the family still retains title.  Shall we call the kids and grandkids vassals?

When ownership of something is power, you do everything you can to own some.  Once you own some, you do what you can to own more.  The corollary is to keep others from getting it and to prevent them from getting more as well.

It really sucks to live someplace where you cannot buy, beg, borrow or steal ownership of that key item.  Peasants, serfs and slaves are a natural side-effect of consolidated land ownership into ever fewer entities.

By the way, those issues about water and roads were real in the 19th century US.  The libertarian solutions were attempted and ABANDONED because you need to be very powerful yourself for the very powerful to respect your rights.  The cattle barons took the land upstream and starved those downstream until they owned that land themselves and restored the flow.  Land that was valuable only with water on it was made worthless because the land-owner upstream controlled the water utterly.  Who owns the water, Libertarian?  Is it initiating force to cut off the flow or is that just exercising control over your property?  What is the conflict resolution?  In the real world it took the state to assert control over the water to end the conflicts and bloodshed.

Less Democracy?

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Properly speaking, I agree.  Less democracy, more republic.  Check the constitution, it explained how that worked.

Commonly speaking.  FUCK YOU.

Our system of government works, you have to let it.  It's the constant meddling in the process that's got us where we are today.

When you add Orzag's article to Governor Perdue's statement; you have to wonder if someone is planning something.

I have mentioned, occasionally, that if the constitution doesn't mean what it says then our government is not legitimate.  Standing for elections is mentioned in the constitution as being required.  No elections, and I will consider the government as resigned and a constitutional convention called.

That means that all the laws were just nullified too.

It should mean a shooting war because the idiots in government are sure to disagree with my assessment.  It should mean the military should fulfill their oath on the "or domestic" portion.

Should.

I doubt that there will be more than a handful of people who take arms.  Many of us will rage on the internet but not be able to actually do anything.

Rebutting a Rebuttal; Kinda...

Eric linked to this on his LiveJournal.

I mostly agree with the Libertarian Enterprise rebuttal.

I do need to take them to task on one small issue.  I got the idea that there were no corporate taxes from them.  Taxes paid by businesses are simply added to the cost of the goods and ultimately the customer pays them.

So anything purchased with tax money is paid for entirely by the customers and not by the business at all. So, in a way, Warren is correct.  She's also wrong, because any taxes that get paid from passing the costs to the customer require that the customer be buying the product, and that means the goods have to be made.  To be made they have to be profitable, otherwise why bother?

I am sick to death of listening to politicians talk as if they are generously allowing us to have some meager portion of THEIR money.  As if we didn't own a thing.

Just keep repeating what you read on the internet...

Never bother to learn.

The M16A2 does not have a heavy barrel.  It's the same profile under the handguards as an M16A1.  The real reason it was thickened from the front sight base to the muzzle has been lost, but it's attributed to people bending the barrel using their rifle as a pry bar.

A pencil barrel carbine can mount an M203.  The narrow waist on an M4 barrel is not to provide a shoulder for the mount, but to bring the barrel diameter down.  This is so the Army didn't have to buy two different versions of the M203.

The H&K 416 doesn't solve every problem the M4 has, and brings a couple of its own to the table.  It's service has not been trouble free.

The bolt carrier on a normal AR is a gas cylinder and the bolt is the piston.  Adding a new cylinder and piston on top of the barrel doesn't mean you've solved a problem, just moved it.

The lighter barrel profile of the M4 and M4A1 only become a problem if you get it into your head that your assault rifle is a light machine gun.  One sure fire way to tell your gun isn't intended for the fire-support role is to check if the barrel has a quick change.  It's interesting to note that the slim barrel profile of the M16A1 wasn't bursting during sustained fire in Vietnam, yet it is with the M4A1.

The More Things Change

Gov. Perry

Your roundabout explanation of in-state tuition for illegals pisses me off.

Blaming the Fed-Gov for not doing their job at the border as a means of justifying your incentivizing them to come over is wrong headed.

I am less concerned with how much tuition they are paying than why they are allowed to register at all.

Only two things are going to end the illegal problem:  Making it physically impossible to get here (very difficult) or making it so they don't want to come here.

To make them not want to come here would mean making their lives unpleasant while here.  Don't let them into college.  Don't let them get utilities in their names.  Don't let them sign leases.  Don't let them work.  Punish the snot out of utilities, land-lords and employers who do business with them and you will see change.  I know this to be true because it worked for Eisenhower.

I can't talk about this topic without mentioning Ron Paul.  He'd like to open that border right on up.  If the rest of the world wasn't operating on the Nation-State model, that might be OK.  But if we open our side, Mexico will not reciprocate.  Plus, it's not just Mexicans who are wanting to get in and not every illegal-alien wants to come here to get a job.  At present the Ron Paul open border paradigm is, "I'll leave the front door open and won't steal from MY neighbors," while your neighbors are cut-throats and thieves.

If the borders were more secure we could reasonably argue to end the TSA chickenshit by saying, "if someone is in the country; then they're good-to-go."

Fabrique National

In general, I am impressed with the long arms that come from FN.

I own an FAL, in fact.

What I am not impressed with is their utter lack of follow through (US civilian market only).

They are epic purveyors of the one-off.

Rather, they produce lots of different designs in small numbers, give little parts support for a short period of time and then completely abandon the design when the new-hotness is developed.

The FNC was pretty nice gun with miserable timing.  They'd just started importing the things when the AWB hit.  If there wasn't already an FN-USA making guns when the AWB expired, I would say just bail.  Putting complete tooling here and making them for the American market made sense; especially since they are forbidden by the Colt technical data package to offer M16 clones.  They let it lie.  Heck, they are still making the military version, why no parts support or new semi-auto?

Because they have a new 5.56 gun!  The FS2000.  Perhaps the best bullpup rifle ever fielded.  But there's no user serviceable parts readily available.  Plus it's expensive.  Very expensive.  And kinda goofy looking to the American market.  It's also out of favor because there's yet another 5.56 gun from FN!

Enter the SCAR!  Also expensive.  Also poorly supported.  At least all three of them take standard M16 magazines.

OK, so that's three assault-rifle look-alikes in production at the same time.

I have a proposal for FN.

1. Build up the spares supply by cutting production 5% on whole guns.
2. Bring back the FNC as your "cheap" line.  It's a good gun and should be able to compete with the AR on quality.
3. Pitch the lighter weight and improvements to move people up market from the entry level gun.  Think not of the FNC as a product siphoning off sales from the SCAR, think of it as the product that gets them to try the FN brand.
4. Make owning an FN the sweetest experience anyone has ever had!  If problems occur, fix them fast, with a smile and eat all the costs.  Great customer service is a loss leader.  Bad customer service is just a loss.
5. Don't offer any bells and whistles for the FNC, just the iron-sighted rifle; with an option for a top rail.
6. Fulfill your promise of 6.8 guns for at least the SCAR.  There's no reason not to make the same offer for the FNC.
7. Admit that the FS2000 is a niche product and pitch it that way.

Where this would leave them is the entry level FNC (which was designed to be inexpensive to make) could easily be a $1,200 gun; perhaps even sub kilobuck.

I think it's a winning strategy.

General Geekery

I posit that the AR-15 pattern of rifles and carbines is becoming the iconic American Rifle.

Supplanting and replacing the legendary Winchester lever action.

The most commonplace of the Winchesters is the '94 in .30-30.  The Winchester 94 sprang from a long line of underpowered guns firing pistol calibers; culminating in an effective deer gun.

The AR is becoming as commonplace and it too suffers from being underpowered.  Presently there are new rounds available that make them effective deer rifles.

Interestingly there's a convergence in the 4th Edition GURPS stats between .30-30 and 6.8 SPC.

6.8 SPC does 6d pi with a range of 820/3,500.
.30-30 does 6d pi with a range of 900/3,700.

For reference sake 5.56x45mm from a Vietnam era M16 is 5d pi with ranges of 500/3,200 and an AK gets 5d+1 pi out to 500/3,100.

I've always found the game stats interesting since 7.62x39mm is often called ".30-30 class" where it's performance is very similar to 5.56.  6.8 SPC is often derisively called "7.62x39 for the AR" where it beats it in range and damage.

It's just a game, but the stats are derived from using real-world data.

Cosplay

There's an astounding number of videos on YouTube made by Cosplayers set to music.

Most of them are the players lip synching to the song.

It's clear that they are having a great time in most of them.

There's a darker undertone in a segment.  They've all been set to Pink's "Raise Your Glass".

They're depicting the treatment they've gotten from "the mundanes".

Ouch moment.

The person who taught me the phrase, "the mundanes" died recently.  Bill was never mundane.

But the mundane did sneer at us.  Look down on us.  And when it was safe, assaulted us.

I was a gamer geek.  Notice the dice on my background pic?  There are three six siders shown for a reason, do you know what it is?



I was a fringe member of the Society of Creative Anachronisms.  What they do could be considered cosplay in some circles.  Dressing up in a period costume is fun!

I've done a bit of military reinacting too.  WW1 Brit cavalry one year and Scot infantry the next.  It's entirely too much like really being in the army to stay fun for long for me.

I've never been brave enough to put on a sci-fi or fantasy costume and show up at a convention.  I was always the most mundane of my friends.  Being most mundane is not near mundane enough to escape persecution from them though.

I took some beatings.  I took a lot of humiliation.

Now I can handle the latter, mostly through self-depriciation.  The former?  Best have your affairs in order with your Fuzzy Lord; I will NEVER be beaten again.  Count.  On.  It.

I watched those vids and teared up a bit.  I am more like them than the general population; even if I am basically afraid to "come out" and dress up.  I grok what they are saying.

I sometimes think that being picked on for being a gamer geek is why I don't find any animosity towards the LGBA folks (except where their organizations get stupid and go anti-gun).  I've been the outsider; been accused of sinful acts by unreasoning fools.

OnStar Delete

My '08 Corvette has OnStar.

I read about the "they're selling your data" post on Autoblog.  Since everyone else posted about it TODAY; I'll post about what I DID yesterday.

Changing the terms of service after purchase pisses me off.

Even though I am no longer a customer, since the hardware is installed I have to let them collect data?  This was not agreed.

So I searched out how to disconnect it.

There are four plugs and two antenna leads.

I own the service manual for the car; so I looked up the wiring diagrams.

Connector X1 carries the power from the fuse and contains the leads going from the VCIM (Vehicle Communications Interface Module) to the mirror.

Connector X2 has the leads for the speaker and microphone.  Plus a serial data lead that would report information from the Body Control Module (BCM) to the VCIM.

Connector X3 is a voice recognition input filter.

Connector X4 is more data to and from the BCM and Engine Control Module (ECM)  This connector is wired through the Assembly Line Data Link (ALDL) so it's required for the car to run.

Careful study of the wiring diagrams and diagnostics leads me to believe that all you really need to do to completely disable the OnStar module in a 2008 Corvette is to pull the 10amp fuse in the passenger foot-well.

That is all.

No need to unplug the module or the antennae; but you can disconnect everything but X4 (Labeled J4 on the box itself) and not hurt anything.  Disconnecting X4 will prevent the BCM and ECM from talking to each other and that will keep the car from running.  You can't remove anything from circuit 2500 and have a running car.  The lead from X2 is pretty much the same, but that's how the VCIM gets data from other systems to alert OnStar in case of a crash.  Without power, it's just a dead module.

Wait, What?

It's bad enough that we have a disturbing number of young men who have been Pavlovian conditioned by Internet porn to think that women are all five seconds from tearing off their clothes and having hot monkey sex with the UPS delivery guy on the receptionist's desk.

You mean women aren't?

Next you'll be telling me that the dispenser in their bathrooms isn't a candy machine.

I Totally Forgot!

Tuesday was one year here at my big-boy blog!

Counting my LiveJournal I have been blogging for nearly seven years.

Saying what you mean...

Words have meaning.  Definition.

This is why I insist on correcting someone when they call a magazine a clip.  If you use the wrong word for something, you introduce uncertainty about what you are talking about.

"He inserted a fresh clip into the gun."  On an M16, this can only mean a fresh magazine.  On a K.98k it can only mean a clip.  What does it mean when it's an SMLE Mk III?  Or a G.43?  Or a Remington Model 8?  Or an M1A?  Those all have detachable magazines and can be loaded with a charger.

I understand where the error started, but that doesn't mean we should forget that it's an error.

Another error that's repeated ad nauseum is calling an AR an assault rifle.

The US Army defined this term a long time ago.  Paraphrasing from memory:  A selective fire rifle or carbine firing an intermediate power cartridge from a detachable box magazine.

Ever wonder why the M14 and FAL are commonly called "battle rifles"?  The FAL even looks the part with the pistol grip and all.  Well, 7.62x51mm isn't an intermediate power round.

We need all three things to make a gun an assault rifle.

Let's look a common, everyday, AR-15.  Selective fire?  No.  Intermediate power round?  Yes.  Detachable box magazine?  Yes.  Assault rifle?  No.

USGI issue M16A2.  Selective fire?  Yes (burst counts).  Intermediate power round?  Yes.  Detachable box magazine?  Yes.  Assault rifle?  Yes.

Yes, Virginia, the only difference is the rate of fire; but such distinctions matter!

Notice the definition doesn't mention things like magazine capacity, flash-hiders, barrel threads, pistol grips, bayonet lugs, folding stocks, barrel shrouds, or shoulder things that go up?  None of those things define an assault rifle.

A Ruger AC.556 is an assault rifle.  It's select-fire, intermediate and detachable mag.  Even with the wooden stock and a 5 round mag from it's cousin the Mini-14.

I mentioned the FAL.  Selective fire?  Yes (although most had it blocked off).  Intermediate power round?  No.  Detachable box magazine?  Yes.  Assault rifle?  No.

An FAL has a lot of the AWB features, but the legally defined assault weapon is not the same thing as an assault rifle.

Words mean things.  If you cannot say what you mean; you cannot mean what you say.

EDIT: I'm repeating Sebastian.  It's interesting that we both used the Remington Model 8 as an example.

We Are Lemming!

Doing a double meme here.  What knife is in my pocket; and taking the pic and posting with my smart phone (and then went back and edited the pic because the Blogger app really ruins the image).
In my case the phone is a Droid 2.  The Swiss Army Knife is a Victorinox Champion that I purchased in the airport in Zurich.  The Kershaw Cyclone was bought at a gun show.  Both models are discontinued!

Bad Employees

Let's talk about me!

I was a very mixed bag as an employee.

I am the very best mechanical drafter ever to be hired.  My drawings are outstanding.

I have often done more work with fewer errors than the entire rest of the drafting department.

What I am also is late and absent.  While I am perfectly willing to work late when I arrive late, bosses don't like waiting for me to roll in an hour late three days a week even if I am willing to stay and work after they go home.

I've been fired a couple of times.  OK, a lot of times.

I've also been worked around.  I've worked at places that were sorry to see me leave.  I've had several bosses who let me set my own hours and were surprised that left to my own devices I'd work 55-60 hours to get the job done.

I've been fired by HR policy about tardiness while my boss begged to keep me.

I hold no animosity to any former employer who tired of my crap and let me go.

I reserve the hate for the employers who played games with my check.  Who changed my hours and benefits without warning or agreement.  Who changed legal identities in attempts to rob me of things like the 401k money I contributed and became vested in, but they controlled the actual account.