A Thought

I found this article.

A thought that occurs is what portion of each state's budget is mandatory Federal spending?

I don't know.

I am aware that states are required to spend a lot of money simply to keep those federal funds flowing.

Watchmen

The most compelling thing for me from both the graphic novel and movie is the bit where Doctor Manhattan is flashing back and forth in his memories and present day.

I think they captured his sense of simultaneity well.

Bubbafied

Before a certain date a Krag in original condition was worthless.

During this time in history, to eek out some value from one you'd have to have had converted it into a hunting rifle.

Past a certain date, though, the values invert.

In some ways, it's a pity because the quality of the work is often outstanding.

Crawling through the local pawn-shops lately has revealed that skilled modifications to guns was relatively common way back.

Modifications that certainly cost good money to perform back in the day, but destroy the value today.

Again, sometimes it's a pity because many of these guns are still quite functional and often chambered in readily available cartridges.

Debt Peonage

Willard is a thinker.

He presented me with a puzzle that's been tasking me (paraphrased).

"Where are the recent rash of illegal colonists getting the funds to pay the coyotes to bring them through Mexico and across our border?"

His speculation is that a form of debt peonage has been established.

It makes sense, but the puzzle part is whom the debt is owed.

The tin-foil hatted Thag worries it's the DNC what paid their way and what it will demand in return.

Illegals do tend to send just about every spare penny back home though, so it might just be a traditional loan with usury rates.  It has been noticed before that they only have that spare penny because of our overly generous welfare schemes.

Comments

Comments appeared to be busted.

Cycling the bit for moderation yes/no seems to have cured it.

If you commented recently, it's not being moderated it's lost.  Feel free to try again.

Just Enough...

I am just enough of a dumbass to worry that this post could be about me.

It's probably telling that my first thought is "what did I do this time?"

It's also probably telling that I feel genuine relief that it wasn't about me coupled with a small amount of pride that I'd managed to keep it together well enough to not have done something that gets attention outside my living room.

And This Is Why I Can't Have Liberal Friends

Docs vs Glocks Upheld.

I came across that article from a friend on Facebook.  She quoted the entire first paragraph as the headline.

First off, those accidents are getting rarer, not increasing.

Second they're so vanishingly rare that accidental gun deaths aren't even called out in their own category in nearly every place I can find data.  Swimming pools, falls and accidental poisonings do get their own categories though.

Then let's notice all of the links in the article lead to other news agencies these fuckers are group-thinking cannibals of the first order.  They don't link to data, they link to anecdotes.

My reply to her link was why do we single Florida out concerning accidental gun deaths?  Why not California?  Why not Seattle, where she lives?  Why not mention the leading cause of accidental child death, drowning?

Because I had not read the article...  Once I had I realized why they mentioned Florida.  We had the temerity to try and tell Doctors they were exceeding their authority.  Never mind that we'd been trying for years to convince doctors they were eroding our confidence in their professionalism without getting the congresscritters involved.

It turns out that I was the only person in that Facebook exchange who had bothered to read it.  What was posted was a litany of how evil guns and Florida is and how stupid we are because of the 2000 elections and shit.

Nearly unanimous in the replies was, "I don't have kids, but..." then a screed about how they don't own guns and they'd especially never own a gun with kids around.  Speaking from experience with both children and guns, I see.

You know what?

I do have a kid.  I have a ton of guns.  I've taken lots of pictures of them, so you can probably make decent estimate of how many.  I have a carry permit and so does The Lovely Harvey.  The Boy is mentally retarded, completely disabled and incompetent to manage his own affairs.  Guess what didn't happen here the entire time he was a child?  He's never shot himself or anything else.  It's because I practice "positive adult control" of my guns and insisted that Harvey do so as well.  The Boy never gets the chance to do something wrong.  It's called being a responsible parent, let alone a responsible gun owner.

I did not need the government to pass a law making me do so.  Love was enough!  I damn sure do not need the family doctor poking his nose into my business and extolling me to do what I'm already doing or to get rid of the guns.

Derpy Approved

I am uncertain if Derpyhooves is a male or female; but The Boy calls Derp "him" so let's not pop his bubble if it's wrong.

When I asked The Boy where my ribbon should go, he suggested to pin it on Derpy because "Him know what it like!"

Because We're Special Too

Today was the county level games for swimming.

The Boy came in first in individual and his relay team came in third.  On to State!

They gave us parents a ribbon for doing our part as well.

Small Thing

I started out looking for when I'd bought my Garand...

I ended up making a spreadsheet with the purchase dates of every gun in the house.

Kool Aid

Way back when...

Others were drinking deep of the M&P Kool-Aid.

I wanted to drink too.

Marv has drank with his M&P9.

Harvey has drank with her M&P357.

I'm still thirsty.

I guess I am too much of a Glock fanboi or something.

Actually it's because there are so many shinier options out there that I can't seem to settle down and save for a gun they're still making while there's desirable guns to snag before they reach Country Club levels of appreciation.  Like all the AR's...

A unicorn gun of mine for a while was a Colt Anaconda in .45 Colt.  I originally had a brand new 4" one way back in 1992 for the princely sum of $450.  Have you looked lately?  I was happy to replace it with a 6" for $1,100 in late 2007 and prices seem to have continued to climb.

It came to me that I am happy I bought my Garand when I did.  This is because I remember when I couldn't afford a $450 Blue Sky in '94.  What are those running now?  I paid $1,250 for a shooter.  And that was just a couple three years ago.  Prices seem to be holding steady because some people are buying Garands from the Civilian Marksmanship Program and then flipping them for a profit.

I remember wanting all manner of surplus rifles over the years and watching the prices remain just out of reach despite my income increasing.

It has a chilling effect on wanting a new gun.

...On The Other Hand

I'm excited at DC's ban on carry being nuked.

I am also nearly beside myself waiting to see what draconian measure they shove out their alimentary canals that's carry; but not really.

I'm counting on you, DC, don't pull an Illinois and go shall issue!

If you do you'll not have the chance to waste even more tax money going to court and losing.

By the way, someone get someone from OCT to pose at the Lincoln Memorial!

Happy Birthday!

To The Lovely Harvey!

I got her this lovely carry purse from Gun Tote'n Mommas.

Marv got her this lovely M&P357.

The M&P is ever so slightly heavier (2.2 lb. vs 2 lb.) than the Sigma, but it also has five more shots!

Marv's a little upset that S&W seems to have figured out the trigger.  This one doesn't act like it will need an Apex kit.

Additional Engineering

When I started higher education my original goal was going to be psychology.

I made it pretty far before I discovered that I loved the material, but would have loathed the job.

Then I punted, transferred my credits to a community college and got an associates in drafting and machine design.

The post about citations jarred loose memory about attitude.

In psychology, getting credit is paramount.  You do not use someone else's ideas, work or words without giving credit in a standardized means in your work.

In machine design, you don't mention where an idea came from, ever.  But you damn sure make certain that patents and trademarks are respected and licenses paid.

Credit is nice, but filthy lucre spends better.

The Engineering Mind

I plagiarized a paper once.

But I did it in accordance with all proper rules of citation.  What I didn't do is any research or write a single thought of my own.

I remember asking the instructor, what percentage of our paper had to be our own work.  She indicated bafflement at the question and chided us that anything from other authors needed to be properly cited.

The paper was effectively graded by mass and I didn't really want to do it.

So I found a paper on the same topic online, wrote an introduction that took a paragraph to say, "look what this guy said", formatted his paper into quotation blocks and put in some connecting sentences of my own and had three pages of citation and references on the back.

The teacher was miffed.  All I could ask was, "is the stuff I didn't write properly cited?"  We didn't discuss how I'd asked how much had to be original work, she sensed that trap.  I ended up with a B.

The funny thing is when I tell this story, engineering types are all, "good solution!" but science types are aghast!  Liberal arts types are, "what's a Citation?"

I tell them it's a Cessna.

Quotes Of The Random Interval

"Middle class America is no less violent than any other people. They seem passive because they're results oriented. They rise not out of blood frenzy but to solve the otherwise insoluble. Their methods of choice are good will, cooperation, forbearance, negotiation and finally, appeasement, roughly in that order. Only when these fail to end the abuse do they revert to blowback. And they do so irretrievably. Once the course is set and the outcome defined, doubt is put aside. The middle class is known, condemned actually, for carrying out violence with the efficiency of an industrial project where bloody destruction at any scale is not only in play, it's a metric. Remorse is left for the next generation, they'll have the leisure for it. We'd like to believe this is merely dark speculation. History says it isn't."

and

"Democracy, and its twin of market capitalism, alone can instantaneously create lethal armies out of civilians, equip them with horrific engines of war, imbue them with a near-messianic zeal within a set time and place to exterminate what they understand as evil, have them follow to their deaths the most ruthless of men, and then melt anonymously back into the culture that produced them. It is democracies, which in the right circumstances, can be imbued with the soul of battle, and thus turn the horror of killing to a higher purpose of saving lives and freeing the enslaved."

From this post and its comments at The Smallest Minority.

Nostalgia Sucks

I find myself looking at Beretta M9's of late.

I was issued one once...

I don't think it fits my paws at all.

Yet...

Plus with their recent decision to bail on Maryland, I kinda wanna support them.

Good thing I don't have money for one!  I'd regret the purchase nearly instantly.

Critical Success

Got the final touch-up done to the dice.

History Doesn't Repeat

...but it rhymes.

"As regards disarming the Sioux, however desirable it may appear, I consider it neither advisable, nor practicable. I fear it will result as the theoretical enforcement of prohibition in Kansas, Iowa and Dakota; you will succeed in disarming and keeping disarmed the friendly Indians because you can, and you will not succeed with the mob element because you cannot."  Valentine McGillycuddy in 1891.

Almost as if the law abiding will abide by the law and the lawless won't is a universal truth or something.

Howa

If you should find yourself in possession of a Howa Type 64 and a cache of Japanese ammunition in a GURPS world...

Using NATO ammo bumps up the range, damage and recoil; but also wears the gun out faster.  I'd give it a malf of 16 to represent this abuse.

Update:  The weight should be 10.8/1.6.  I forgot to account for ammo when transcribing data.

Jane's Infantry Weapons 98-99 says 4.4 kg empty.
Rifles of the World 2nd Ed. (Walter) says 9.72 lb empty.
Military Small Arms of the 20th Century 7th Ed. (Hogg) says 4.4 kg (9 lb. 11 oz) unloaded.
Small Arms of the World 12th Ed. (Ezell) says 9.5 lb. without magazine.

20 rounds of 7.62x51mm is about 1.1 lb. so...

GURPS: Traveller Sulieman

I revisted the Type-S deck plans again...

This has the drives the correct volume and has the crew spaces arranged better.  There's a common in a gallery above the crew deck with the cargo bay and air-raft forward of the staterooms.

Because of the odd shape I decided to break conventional canon and make it a tail-dragger!  The two main gear legs go forward and the rear is supported by a reinforced point on the tail.

The rearranging of the machinery also let me ditch the little blisters.

Arrowhead

When an invention is universal and cross cultural...  It's almost never something that doesn't work.

Mythbusters had a segment on how an unadorned sharpened arrow shaft was just as good as a flint arrowhead.  Not just that, but that the labor put into making the point was not worth it.

Willard brought this to my attention.

Allow me someone else to retort!




The take-away I get from digging around in my gaming notes...

Mr Heineman needs to practice his knapping technique; it would speed up his manufacturing time.

Technique is something Mr Savage unknowingly added to his making of the sharpened shafts.  He's the product of our culture and inserted that knowledge of how to get a concentric tip onto his shaft.

That concentricity matters.  What a stone arrow head gives, if nothing else, is a symmetric shape on the front of the missile.  What it also does, which matters for the flight and not terminal performance, is shifts the balance point of the projectile.  Fin stabilization with a nose heavy bias flies better.

Despite the extra time spent making the head, they were universally used by every stone age culture.  Things that don't work just don't get that kind of widespread adoption and the universality of the use precludes cultural bias being the reason for the adoption.

Mythbusters can be very entertaining, but it is entertainment first with a veneer of science slapped over it.

Rumplestiltskin

Charming fairy tale where a mother is unfairly expected to give up her firstborn child?

OR

The story of a woman who unjustly breaches a binding agreement because she later discovers that she'd just rather not abide by the terms of the contract?

The hero of this story is Rumplestiltskin.  He saved her bacon by spinning the straw into gold, then offered her a way out of the contract (remember, he'd fulfilled his part of the agreement) and when she successfully guessed his name; he abided by the terms of the new agreement!

Upon The Threat Of Legal Action...

I am hereby ordered to show the entire two inches of .25 ACP present.

N Pieper Model 1909 (1913, Belgium)
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (1919, USA)
FN Model 1905 (1922, Belgium)
Browning "Baby" (1968, Belgium)

Colt Junior (1968, Spain)
FIE Titan (pre-1968, Italy)

Röhm Gesellschaft (RG) Industries, Miami RG42 (1968-1986, USA)
Beretta 950BS (1992, USA)

In the center is a vintage box of ammo; "25 Patronen für Automatische Pistolen Kal. 6.35mm (.25)"  "Dynamit Nobel AG Werk Durlach; Karlsruhe - Durlach" marked on one end.  "Quecksliberfrei - Rostfrei" "SINOXID" "Oeldicht" on the opposite.  Geco logo and "Ganzmantel Geshoss; Rauchloses Pulver" on the face between.  No mercury or corrosive primers!

I've discovered that Tanfoglio made FIE guns are marked "Made In Italy", US assembled guns are marked "Made In The USA".

All Apart

My Glock 21 fully stripped.

With A Sturdy Plastic Case To Prevent Fall Apart

I have completely taken apart a Glock 17 now.

Just the frame tonight, but I've had the entire slide apart before.

And yes, alcohol was involved.

What started this was wondering what weight connector this gun has.  It's the unmarked 5 lb. nominal.  That gives a 6.5 lb. pull.

The Glock 21 with an unmarked connector has a much lighter pull, 3.75 lb.  Since the 21 is from 1991 before the NYC "draw the gun with the trigger" technique had been discovered, I think it's the equivalent to a (-) marked one today (3.5 lb. nominal).

Both guns have the standard trigger spring.

Something I learned today is there are three connectors: minus, unmarked and plus.  Those give nominal trigger pulls of 3.5, 5 and 8 lb. respectively.

If you use the standard trigger spring.

There are two different New York trigger springs.  They are used with the unmarked connector.  The olive/silver version increases the pull from 5 to 8.  The orange/black version increases it from 5 to TWELVE!!

Yes, you can hang a loaded Garand from the trigger of a NYPD Glock and expect it to not fire.

HEAD-DESK

Nearly Two Inches

Clockwise from 12...

Colt Junior (1968, Spain)
N Pieper Model 1909 (1913, Belgium)
FIE Titan (Who knows, it says "Made In Italy")
Beretta 950BS (1992, USA)
Browning "Baby" (1968, Belgium)
FN Model 1905 (1922, Belgium)
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket (1919, USA)

Enough to arm a pimp army!

Amazingly they all shoot pretty well considering the miserable sights and tiny grips.

My collection is getting to the point where I'm looking at cheap and/or obscure guns.

Things like a Raven for cheap and Mauser 1910 for obscure (not to Tam, but we all know how she is!).

Doppelglock und GURPS

This comparison is a bit less cut and dried.

The 21 is far heavier and carries fewer shots (the same number as the FN, in fact).  2.4 lb. with 0.8 lb. magazines.

The damage is a bit hard to suss out because 2d+2 pi and 2d pi+ don't compare directly well.

The range of damage for the 17 is 4-14 with an average of 9.  The 21 does 2-12, average 7; but the pi+ multiplies the damage done by 1.5; giving 3-18 with an average of 10.

That extra point, on average, doesn't make up for the loss of 12 shots in the "standard" loadout or the extra 0.8 lb. (4 lb. vs 3.2 lb.).

The Glock 17 FN Hi-Power GURPS And You

There are all sorts of things that are different about these guns that matter not one whit in GURPS terms.  Mostly because pi = 3 in GURPS.

In character terms, they do the same damage and have the same range.  They both can accept a lanyard.  They have the same Acc number, but the Glock gets the bonus for Improved-Visiblity Sights (High-Tech, p. 156).

The Glock is lighter at 2 lb. and carries four more shots.  Spare magazines tare at 0.6 lb.

While the FN is heavier (2.4 lb.) the 0.5 lb. spare magazines can pay off quickly depending on how many your character lugs around.

The "typical" gun and two spare mags comes to 3.2 lb. for the Glock and 3.4 lb. for the FN.  The Glock is packing 12 more shots at the end of that so we'd have to be 3.9 lb. to get near parity with the FN.  Any world where you can own the Glock, you can get the MecGar 15 rounders for the FN, which don't even weigh any more than the 13 rounders once the rounding is done.

A two big things that the game allows for on the Glock the FN doesn't have is being hammerless (Pulp Guns, Vol. 1, p. 8) and Very Reliable (B407).

GURPS does not generally mention things like safeties, but in my worlds I account for the magazine disconnect; the FN has one and the Glock doesn't.

Deconflicting

I can't help but pin at least some of the blame for the Malaysian Airlines shoot down on everyone who routed a commercial flight over a war zone where there was an active air-defense network that has been shooting down enemy aircraft.

This is c'est la guerre folks.  I know we're all living in happy shiny funland where things like this don't happen to innocent bystanders; but being an innocent bystander to a war is nearly as dangerous as minding your own business at 0230.

Walking (or flying) through an active disagreement has a high likelihood of involving you regardless of your desires or intent.

It's obvious in foresight and I am fucking flabbergasted that civil air traffic was not routed around the war zone.

Addendum:

What should our military response be?

Nada, zip, zilch.

Not a US flag carrier.

Didn't happen in the US.

Not our military problem at all.

I Know What I Want To See

From news web sites anyway...

Either give me a video or give me text.

Scratch that.  Just give me text.  I'm sick of the auto-play videos.

Facel Vega HK500

Photo by Brian Snelson

That thing got a Hemi™ in it?

Actually, it might!  Facel Vega used Chrysler for the powertrain.

Sanctions

There may soon be sanctions on Russian made 7.62x54mmR, 7.62x39mm and 5.45x39mm.

I kind of hope that makes the hoarders stop buying .22 so the rest of us can get some.

Favorite Line

...from a campy but still fun movie.

"No, for the Comte de la Fère it is too little; for Athos, too much."

Scientific Term

I borrowed "Friendly Local Gun Shop" from the SJGames phrase "Friendly Local Game Shop".

I've used it for a while and today realized that there's also a surly local gun shop or two around here as well.  Hostile local gun shop and paranoid local gun shops exist as well.

If you happen to be in Clearwater or surrounds, give Deer Hunter on FL60 aka Gulf to Bay a visit.

Department Of Redundancy Department

SIG makes ammo now.

Perfect for The Lovely Harvey's carry gun...

This was/is her first gun.  FuzzyGeff's .40 Sigma fit her hand so well she went on a quest to find one of her own.  There wasn't a single one around in 9mm or .40 any place we looked.  We'd given up on the gun show and were on our way out the door when she spied a vendor with several.

But not in 9mm per se.  I'd never heard of .357 SIG at the time.  The price was a bargain basement $260!  When MSRP was about $400...  Wow, that dates the purchase somewhat, doesn't it?

Avoid

I think it might be a good idea to avoid Malaysia Airlines for travel, especially on one of their remaining Boeing 777's.

Plus, WTF Russia?

Story.

The Conversion Process Has Begun

Marv and I watched the first seven episodes of season 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

He was disdainful at first, but I caught him digging it a couple of times.

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

One of us.

Barely Legal

That's the minimum length barrel and minimum overall length there!  We did not actually measure it, but "barely legal" sounds great as a title.  And it is a title 1 gun, it was purchased from an FFL on the spot.

Very handy and pointable.

It's interesting to see the differences between the Winchester design and Marlin.

K31 With Rail

I knew I'd find it ten minutes after the person I wanted to show it to left.

And I was right that it was Oleg who took the picture.

LINK