All Better

There's a Confederate War Memorial near where I-75 and I-4 meet just east of Tampa.

It's purported to be the "World's Largest Confederate Flag Memorial".

Until recently it flew the Confederate Battle Flag.

Now it sports the Confederate States of America national flag.

You know, the flag that represents the actual nation that was all about slavery?  Not the flag that stood for an army in the field.

I'll bet the ignorant social justice savages are mollified by it too.  Hell, it worked on the Georgia flag for years!

Sweeten The Pot

Looking on Gunbroker tells us that the Savage 10/110 Trophy Hunter XP can be had for $528.24 from a couple stocking vendors.  Free shipping!  Plus a $25 FFL and background check brings a scoped, detachable magazine bolt action for a mere $553.24 out the door.  $115.15 cheaper than Bass Pro and still eligible for the $75 rebate.

$478.24 total.

Non Potable

Watching the diving at the Olympics while drinking for charity...

Wow that's some turbid water!

I wonder if that is really waterinated chlorine rather than chlorinated water.

The swiftness the divers in rinsing off after their dives seems to say that it's unpleasant to have on their skins.  One even had a, "It burns!  It BURNS!" expression on her face while rinsing from the hot-tub placed for such purpose.

Sweet And Sour

That Savage Trophy Hunter package deal is not perfect.

The package series has the Axis style magazine, which is all plastic and several people have noted that the $45 $40 magazines breaking off their locking tab and some reports of the plastic rear peg wearing out prematurely.

On the plus side, the Trophy Hunter has a $75 rebate if you buy soon.

I've been doing some reading on it and it appears that you can retrofit the all-metal magazine system from a normal 11/110 to the XP.  Research continues.

To change the magazine system from a plastic latch on the magazine to a metal latch on the "frame" you need:

Frame Assembly Long, Matte NBR (DBM) p/n 106706; $78

Trigger Guard Assembly, Matte RI p/n 107217; $26

Magazine Box - 110FC/ 111FC (25-06 Rem, 270 Win, 30-06, 7x57mm Mauser) Bottom Release Latch, Matte Blued p/n 55117; $52

Or plus $156 and shipping.

Bringing the tinkered cost of the rifle to $749.39 plus shipping on the parts.

OR for even more you can convert to AICS magazines with a Pacific Tool and Gauge trigger guard, just $152.75 for the guard and another $40 for a Magpul AICS compatible magazine.

OR for even more you can make a similar conversion using CDI Precision Gunworks (just down the road in Sarasota, FL!)  $209 plus installation (free if you ship them your rifle).  Hmmmm, I wonder if they'd let a blogger bring down a rifle for conversion and let him take pictures and ask questions as if he were the media or something...

Here's Your Chance To Get On One Of Those Lists!

Click on over to https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-gunsmithing-itar

Sign it and click the confirm email when it comes.

Now you're on one of those lists they keep talking about.

C'mon, make The White House respond to us!

Taking odds on the response being, "fuck off."

Keyless Entry Anti-Theft Device

I was reading this article.

I don't know if my Corvette's keyless entry system is vulnerable to this attack or not.

Luckily, my car came with an anti-theft device from the factory:

I am just old enough to remember when this kind of transmission was called "standard" and when it changed to being "a stick" to the present "manual".

I learned to drive on a '76 Vega wagon with the iron lung inline four and a five speed manual.

I was one of only three people I knew who could drive a friend's '64 Valiant with three-on-the-tree.

Now I am one of those car-guy snobs who bought the stick because it's a better experience...  Being in control of the gear changes is more fun!  It's also a real pain in the knee in stop and go traffic.

Happily, with almost all the torque in the world available from idle, I don't often find myself praying for gears between gears, like I did with my old 4-speed '86 Civic.  The Civic needed a first-and-a-half and second-and-a-half gears quite often in traffic.

Feet to the fire though, if I were buying a brand new Vette today, I think I'd opt for the auto.  The paddles offer the control of a manual and the gear changes are blindingly quick.

Something Interesting

My Mac's OS is out of date, 10.6.8.

My install of Chrome is unsupported, Version 49.0.2623.112 (64-bit), because of it.

I use ScriptSafe to keep unwanted scripts from ruining my browsing experience.

I noticed something going from the fully updated Win7 Pro 64 laptop to my ancient Mac Pro...

There's sites that work with just a few allowed items on ScriptSafe on the Mac, but need to allow almost everything on the PC.

Some sites load very quickly on the Mac and drag on and on on the PC.

Near Rhetorical

How is it that the ATF can process a C&R FFL renewal in fewer than 30 calendar days but can't get an NFA item approved in more than 90?

I know the real answer is "by design"...

Principled Stand

I don't do business with people who hate me if I can, at all, help it.

All it does it give them funding to better hate on me.

Time and again, though, they relent in their hate and I can do business with them.

I forgave S&W.  I've forgiven Ruger.

Smith Enterprise, Troy Industries and anyone associated with NFATCA are yet unforgiven because they have yet to relent.  And relent they must to be forgiven.

They have to say they're sorry and mean it.

Smith and Troy doubled down.

The board of NFATCA is laying low, hoping we don't notice they're whom they are and that we won't do anything about it.

Belittling me will not change that they hate on you.

Um Actually

I'm not even a DC reader and I knew that The Enchantress would be the main villain and not The Joker.

So an article about "fans" complaining about a lack of Joker screen time really says they're not comic book readers.

To put it in Marvel terms, it's like complaining that Magneto wasn't in the film much when Galactus is present.

Trump Polling

The same people who said that Scotland would surely secede from Great Britain and that Great Britain would never leave the EU are telling me that Trump has no chance of winning the election.

Are they thinking, "third time's the charm"?

Incidental Items

"CBS All Access' 'Star Trek: Discovery' to Be Captained By a Woman, Feature Gay Character"

That headline tells me everything I need to know about this series.

If the new show isn't ABOUT the captain being a woman and her crewmanperson being gay then it's irrelevant information.

But it's presented as important information, so it must be about the captain being a woman and her crewmanperson being gay, huh?

That doesn't interest me.

Good science fiction where characters, even high ranking ones, happen to be female or gay?  I'm interested and I'll watch.

Social justice warfare cloaked in Star Trek (which by the fucking way was never actually science fiction); nope.

For fuck's sake Hollywierd, stop selling and start closing.  Gender and sexual orientation are already neutral to me and a lot of sci-fi nerds, we don't need to be hit over the head about it again.

Didn't you notice how we reacted to the gorram'd Hugo?  We want science fiction back without the indoctrinational lectures.

For fuck's sake, if we can accept Nessus and Chmeee as PEOPLE then it's no stretch to accept some dude who likes sex with other dudes as a person too.

It really is starting to feel like sci-fi-ish shows are the justicesplaining soapboxes they like best because they get to show their utopia fully realized.

Why No McThag Podcast?

Favorite word is "Uh..."
Second favorite word is some variation of F-bomb.

The main reason is I have a face for radio and a voice for silent film.

Disagree

It is not self depreciation or false modesty if you really are as incompetent as you claim.

And I am.

Craftiness Of The Willard

By not stopping by early in the morning, he's saved himself from having to make the hour long drive down to Bass Pro to look at Savage Package rifles.

We'd never get there and back in time to unlock the door for The Boy.

He's not worried about being tempted by the rifles.  No sir, Mongolians are used to hardship they are.

He fears that they have .300 Savage or .30-40 in stock.

He's an addict and I am an enabler.

Modernity

It has me a little gobstopped that .44 Magnum from a Ruger carbine is nearly the same in ballistics as a much longer Trapdoor rifle firing .45-70-300.

Hey I Know That Gun

When you start collecting a certain niche, you start seeing the same guns offered for sale over and over.

I'm something of a Finn Mosin collector, and I've not got a Kiv/27.  I keep seeing the same three guns come up for sale over and over from different sellers.

Isn't that interesting?

Just Can't Look Away

It's Only Fair

If Christian bakers have to make wedding cakes for homosexuals, then Muslim flight attendants have to serve alcohol to passengers.

Otherwise it's not equal treatment.

Related, hey Ms Special Snowflake, the job has serving drinks among the list of your duties.  You're in the wrong for refusing to do your job and you got fired for it.  That your religion forbade you to serve drinks was something you knew before you applied for the position, so you accepted the position under false pretenses.

GURPS It's Always GURPS

With the Mosin conversion we get...

7.62x54mmR.  7d pi damage, 5+3 Acc, 1,000/4,200 range and either 5(2i) or 10+1(3) shots.

With the savage package we get...

.243 Win.  7d-1 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 840/4,300 range and 4+1(3) shots.  8.5/0.2 lb.
.270 Win.  7d+2 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 950/4,100 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.
.280 Rem. 7d pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 910/4,500 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.
.308 Win.  7d pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 1,000/4,200 range and 4+1(3) shots.  8.7/0.3 lb.
.30-06.  7d+1 pi damage, 6+3 Acc, 1,100/4,300 range and 4+1(3) shots.  9.3/0.3 lb.

All that's left to compare would be the weights.  The Savages are 8.3 lb. empty in .243 and .308; and 9.05 lb. in .270 and .30-06.

The Mosin started at 8.7 empty.  The wood is 3.1 lb.  The ATI stock is 2.9; Archangel is 3.8.

So 8.5 and 9.4 empty.

The trigger is a net zero change.

The scope mount is 0.1 lb.

The scope and rings are a pound.  Bringing the Mosin project to 9.6 or 10.5 lb empty depending on stock.

GURPS uses loaded weight so 9.9/0.3 and 11.1/0.7 for the ATI and Archangel respectively.

Bubba Math

A Savage 10/110 XP Trophy Hunter Package is $619.99 plus tax ($43.40 in FL) and and background ($5) from Bass Pro.  That gets you a scoped rifle with a match trigger and detachable magazine for $668.39 in your choice of calibers.

We're going to approach ordering the Mosin one thing at a time because that's been presented as a budgetary concern as opposed to saving a bit on shipping by ordering all at once (which I will also show).

A bog-standard Mosin-Nagant M91/30 from AIM surplus is $269.95, plus shipping ($18.47), background ($5) and FFL fee ($35 average).  That gets you a long, heavy milsurp rifle for $328.42.

The cheapest stock Midway has is an Advanced Technology monte-carlo for $79.99 plus $10.79 shipping.

The more desirable Archangel stock is $169.99 and $13.19 shipping.

The Timney match trigger runs $99.99 and $4.99 shipping.

A scope mount (with bent bolt handle kit) is $27.99 plus $4.99 shipping.

The Nikon ProStaff 3-9x40 that the Savage comes with is $179.95 with free shipping!

The cheapest 1" rings from Midway are Tasco for $5.99 and we'll order them with the scope.

Our money saving Mosin-Nagant is now a $743.10 rifle in a monte-carlo stock or $835.30 in an Archangel.

That drops to $3.20 shipping total ($17.57 savings) or $725.53 if you order the monte-carlo option all at once and $6.50 for the Archangel ($16.67 saved) or $818.63.

This values your labor and time at $0, because the bolt kit requires some sawing and tapping.

To skip drilling and tapping, a scope mount that replaces the rear sight is $14.99 plus $5.99 shipping from Sportsman's Guide.

A couple places offer doing the bolt for you for $50 or so.

That changes the final price to $781.10 or $873.30.

I've also noticed that this time around doing this exercise that a lot of the people who were doing Mosin parts have vanished.  It's a rough market.

I will add the caveat that if you're doing a Mosin to make a good FUDD rifle, this is a bad plan.  If you're doing it for the fun of gathering and assembling parts, then it's your fun, ENJOY!

Just don't stand there and tell me you saved money by starting on a Mosin.

Assuming that all that gets you as good a gun as the Savage, the break even price point on the host Mosin is $212.81 with the cheapest upgrade package.  You can also shave money by getting cheap on the glass, but it's another false economy.

War On Poodles

I think some folks need to accept that 5.56x45mm isn't going anywhere.

It's been around for more than 50 years and it's been thoroughly vetted by real fighting.

The flaws and virtues have been extensively explored and it's sufficient.  It's killed effectively from war to mass shootings to self defense to hunting.

So adequate, that even with the known flaws, that nations are replacing rifle designs but keeping the cartridge.  If it were a completely useless clusterfuck we'd see these new rifles in a new round and NATO standardization of that new round.

This sufficiency is predicated on the weapon fitting into its proper place in a combined arms military.  Your survivalist/prepper needs may vary due to the lack of artillery and air support.

Although, it may be just fine for social purposes because of the legalities of shooting a looter WAY down the street should society return to normal rather than going Wetdream Omega Man®.

I say all this as an owner of ARs in 6.8x43mm and an FAL in 7.62x51mm.

The replacement of the rifle rather than the cartridge might bring to light the real reason ol' two-twenty-three is so hated.  There's some who just cannot stand the rifle that introduced them to the round.  Those scars run deep.

There's also an undercurrent of what constitutes the best rifle.  The best rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that worked when you absolutely needed it to and never didn't.  The worst rifle ever designed is virtually always the first rifle that failed when you absolutely needed it, if even only once.

There's certainly a body of people who went to war for the first time with an M14 or an FAL, cementing those as the BEST rifle for all time.  Likewise, someone stuck with an M16 when it was in its birthing problems stage or an L85A1 is, forever, going to hate those rifles.

Of Note

You never hear anyone bitching about a post-66 Savage.

I find that interesting.

(Nothing But) Flowers

There was a rack of Mosins
Now there are AR's and Savages.
You got it, you got it.

There's not a single Mosin-Nagant of any stripe on a rack in a gun or pawn shop for a 15 mile radius of McThag Haus.

They're all gone.

AIM still lists them for near $300, and it will top that after shipping and FFL fees.

It is official, it is now foolish to put any money into upgrading one.

There's all manner of used bolt guns for less than $400 that come already scoped and in monte-carlo stock.  Yes, some are converted milsurps themselves, but their value is only as shooting guns now and not increasing.

Never mind that Savage will sell you a NEW rifle package for about what a Mosin and Archangel stock cost when you add in the scope too.

Hmmmm, $620 to Bass Pro for a brand new rifle doesn't sound too bad at all...

Revolver Mode

Took Willard's Browning BDSM out to the range to see if it works.  75 rounds later, we think that it does.

The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.  The safety works backwards.

I really feel I should mention that at least once.  You could learn it, but you risk unlearning it on other guns where the safety works correctly.

I tried out "revolver mode" and it was surprisingly easy.  The trick is the hammer never rests all the way down, it rests at a half-cock which means you have to lift it a lot less than in a revolver or other DAO pistol I've tried.  The 12 shot group in the picture is my third magazine through the gun fired relatively quickly at 7ish yards.

It happily ate Perfecta 115gr FMJ and Freedom Munitions 115gr JHP.  No malfunctions of any kind in our 105 round fam-fire.

Equivalence Testing

Willard has a 1948 made Winchester Model 70.  He also has a ??? made Winchester Model 670A.

The 670 is the cheapened down version of the post-64 Model 70, which was itself so cheapened down that the whining has never stopped from bolt-gun aficionados for the past 52 years.

Both are in .30-06 and both wear a Bushnell Sportview 3-9x32 scopes.

The Winchester is on top... OK, the 70 is on top 670A on bottom.

 The big difference is the feed system, with the old gun having the Mauser style "controlled" feed and the new gun having a simple push feed.

70 on the left.

There's lots of small differences as well, but the feed is the one panties are most bunched over.

And we have to be honest with ourselves.  In 1962 Winchester faced real competition and lost market-share to Remington's Model 700.  They couldn't just keep on keeping on with the old gun and expect to stay in business.  Maybe if Remington hadn't already eaten them alive with the Model 12 being supplanted by the 870, they might have weathered it.  But losing the market to Remington on two guns; too much.

Apparently the post-64 Mod 70 wasn't cheap enough for some buyers, thus we get the 670 shortly after.

Which brings us to today...

With a Model 670 or 670A running about $400, often including a decent scope and a pre-64 Model 70 running at least four times that, is the extra money really worth it?

So we went shooting today to find out.

No.  The extra money is not worth it.

These guns shot nearly identically.

That's the bottom line, they shoot the same.  The only reason to spend more is for things that aren't about accuracy and you'd have to make that call for yourself.

I Know I Am

Are you thankful there's a 22nd Amendment?

Of note, Massachusetts is one of only two states to reject this amendment, Oklahoma being the other.

Geek Slog

Still cranking away at converting the GURPS: Traveller character templates over to GURPS 4th Edition.

It's just tedious.

Lots of advantages, disadvantages and skills have been renamed.  Some even eliminated.

Some advantages have become secondary stats.

It's going faster and faster as I knock the cobwebs off the synapses, but it's a slog.

The good news is I've managed to get the main GT book, Far Trader, and Starports converted.

The bad news is there's still four Alien Races books, First In, Ground Forces, Humaniti, Nobles, Psionics Institutes, Star Mercs and Starships.

UGH!

Mutable Prediction

Now that the Gadsen Flag is a symbol of racism I predict that any symbol used to spread the ideas of liberty will likewise be "discovered" to be racist or its weaker cousin sexist.

If we're to be treated as racists, what have we to lose by actually being racists?  That's an honest question.

The solution is to take the user of a symbol at their word for its meaning.  You can tell them that the symbol means something else to you, but your usage does not predict or predicate theirs.

Never mind that the Gadsen flags display is deliberate political speech on the part of the person displaying it.  The stated reason we have the 1st amendment is about such speech, all the other reasons for freedom of speech are from the penumbras that virtually any speech or expression can be political so we allow everything.

Fine Then

I identify as a lesbian who found herself trapped in a woman's body and has successfully completed gender transition to male.

It wasn't me that made being "merely" a man untenable, so this is what you get.

And yes, making me go through such circumlocutions to shut your ass up DOES belittle the struggle of people who actually have mismatched plumbing and wiring.  I was happy not going there, but you insisted.

Why aren't you happy for me?

Inner Struggle

Yes, I totally understand what you're talking about and where it happened.

I was there before you were.

Almost 13 years before, but there none the less.

Nope, I don't wanna go back either.

Dissonance

The splits are starting at one of the local cop shops.

There's starting to be two camps and it's looking to get ugly.

One side is "Blue Lives Matter, OUR safety is paramount to all other considerations."

The other is on the more traditional side where the community is paramount.

Interestingly to me, it's the younger officers who're less "the only thing that matters is I come home safe at night," group.

We've got a couple of cops from this department who help with The Boy's bowling league and they're very interesting to chat with on some of these issues.

Of note was a comment the older one (still a kid to me) made about trainers and training with the blue lives matter thing so many were putting out.  "They're presenting it to a class in a very positive way because there's non-cops in the class.  The same class with the same instructors often give a more severe presentation when it's cops only."  This "kid" hates that kind of thing.

He wants everyone to come home alive, and thinks there's ways to do it.  He's proud that his department, despite having a large black community, isn't having riotous breakouts over cop behavior.  Of course, he admits, such riots happened in the early '90's and the department changed its policies on policing to good effect.  Crime and racial tension are way down since then.

The younger one coined a funny too, "SWAT stands for Steroids, Whisky And Testosterone."  They're both of the opinion that SWAT has a role, but it's a tool designed for a specific job.  "We don't use a hammer to tighten a bolt, unless it's a SWAT team."

Only

Every time you see "X" lives matter, prefix it with "Only" and you have the true meaning of the statement.

Gun Day

Took faithful reader CorvetteCadillacMinivanJohn to his first gun show!

He looked like he had fun.

Marv got the stuff to reload 5.56.  One of the vendors kept trying to press him into buying a powder that burns WAY too fast for an AR.  Marv walked away from that.

The show was a lot more crowded than the previous show, which we're attributing to the spectre of the election looming.  No shortages of things like in '08, but there also seems to be a lot more arts & crafts and jerky than before Shoot Straight bought this circuit.

Back at Marv's we attacked his 16ga Winchester Model 12.  It's been unreliable feeding for a while and my time with the 12ga version has me grokking how it works.

First off.  His bolt latch lever is worn down.  What this does, primarily, is hold the bolt in the closed and locked position when you take the barrel off and the action bar no longer holds it.  The action bar doesn't rock the lever far enough when it comes out to securely lock the bolt.  If the bolt doesn't lock, then getting it back together is problematic.

Secondly.  The magazine was rotated 180˚ from where it was supposed to be.  What is it with Model 12 owners and doing this?

Third.  The shell stop was letting the rounds in the magazine go before the shell elevator could lift the ready round.  This creates a jam.  Marv bent the hook just a little bit on the end of the thing and now it blocks the magazine from dumping when it's supposed to.

I confirmed that 11 1-3/4" 12ga shells can be loaded into a Model 12 as well.

Forget It Jake, It's Bahstahn

There are times I wonder if we should bother fighting the stupidity in places like Massivetwoshits.

Expending political capital to get their attorney general to actually follow the law seems a wasted effort because at the end of the day, the fine folks of Massachusetts still have an assault weapons ban.

What do we gain by fighting there?

Time and again I feel like advances in freer places are being put on hold to fight the same losing battles in the same loser places to no avail.

It's easy to take an attitude that if they're stupid enough to live there, then they can just eat up the shit sandwich that being a gun owner there brings.

Will getting Massachusetts to go back to status quo antehealy cause an expansion to gun rights elsewhere?

Will it have an effect like Florida going from no CCW to shall-issue and shine as an example for other states to follow?

Will it set the bar so we go from almost no states following the law as written to nearly all of them?

Will it inspire other states to surpass this example of liberty and become even more free?

Or will it just reset to the way it was and we have to constantly fight to keep the most anti-gun state in the nation in line while not advancing anywhere else even a whit?

My real fear is something I see way too often in Florida.

Pro-gun libtards from all those anti-gun Atlantic seaboard states bailing and moving here.

Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut...  I hear that Virginia isn't even in The South anymore with North Carolina wavering because of it.

We've got to make the rest of the nation proofed against their political tendencies or it won't matter how the AWB in Boston is being enforced.

Colorado got fucked by this kind of migration from California.  Arizona and Texas are feeling it as well.

Did You Ever Notice

That the parking place for someone who's handicapped has to be right near the door...

...but the back of the store can be as far from that door as you want?

It makes you wonder if they're all that disabled if they can get all the way back to the far corner of a Wal Mart but can't go more than 50 yards from the car.

Kermie Cam - General Motors FM-2 Wildcat - Part 2

Cranking up the Wildcat.

This plane is located just down the road from here too!

It's not a Grumman!  A Grumman Wildcat would be an F4F not an FM.

The FM-2 is a variant that wasn't built by Grumman in production, being based on the XF4F-8.

An FM-1 is the same plane as an F4F-4 except for where it was made though!

Resemblance

To me, the Browning BDSM BDM looks a lot more like an S&M S&W Auto than a Browning.

Just sayin'.

Feeling Unwanted

Amusement parks and science fiction conventions are designated gun-free zones by signage here in Florida.

The only force of law to those signs is the property can tell you to leave if they figure out you're carrying in violation of that sign.  If you refuse to leave, or take too long doing it, they can have you busted for trespassing.

Legalities aside, what they are really telling us with these signs is they don't want us there.

Some take that to mean, "they don't want us there with our guns."  I don't.

You don't want me to carry, you don't want me there at all and that means you don't want my money.

This decision is made even easier by how stupidly overpriced amusement parks are.

Yes, this is something of a boycott.

I figure that it's only a matter of time before some ISIS kook manages to get into a gun-free victim zone like DisneyWorld and amass a substantial body count due to a lack of shooting back thanks to the disarmament policies of The Mouse.

I'd rather not be there when that happens and especially not be there disarmed by a policy that exists merely to mollify the concerns about ME to hoplophobes from New York, New Jersey and Europe vacationing here in The Gunshine State.

Flip Side

If I were a business owner...

I don't want my employees free-speechin' when they should be workin'.

While they're being paid, it's MY interests they're supposed to be dedicated towards; not their own.

It's one of the reasons they're being paid, after all.

I watched a business get put out of business because it hired someone as a welder right out of welding school.

They'd done it before without problems, what was different about this?

The newest welder was a special snowflake who didn't know that welders cussed to a degree that made sailors request the language be toned down a mite.

The newest welder was always in the offices complaining about their co-worker's language and, it seemed, rarely out on the shop floor welding.

Because they didn't do much welding, they never learned more than they'd got from school.

Because of the language complaints to HR and the PC hammer coming down on it, the most experienced welders, literally, said, "fuck this!" and moved on.  To the point where there was not a single welder with the knowledge to weld up the pressure vessels which were the high-margin keep the doors open product the business used to get through seasonal variations in orders.

Can't sell a pressure tank that fails inspection.

Special Snowflake's complaints and HR policy had also given the place a reputation as someplace a welder didn't want to work, so they couldn't hire someone who could do the pressure welds.

Less than a year after Snowflake was hired, the 60 year old local company was sold to a 5 year old national concern.  For its patents and sales network.  Not for its manufacturing.

To me it's especially galling that there's a stated right to speech, and no stated right to be protected from being offended by someone's speech.

We're running it backwards.

If the shop cusses, and you tell new-hires there's cussing, then it's part of the job; if you accept the position you're accepting exposure to the cussing.  Yes, I am saying the ruling on "shop rules" was wrongly decided.