Old Fashioned

First, like all of my fellow drinkers, thought of the cocktail when I put up that title.

But what I'm really on about is watching some YouTube about D&D.

One of them does cosplay stuff frequently and she's constantly doing character races and classes I don't recognize.

That makes sense because I stopped playing D&D in any form way back in... uh...  Thirty fucking years ago?

My concepts of what makes a fantasy setting are certainly anchored in the past.

And I don't care.

I'm open to the newer stuff, but I don't have a market.

I barely GURPS.

We Hate You And Want You To Be Unhappy

The people making the new Star Wars show, The Acolyte, keep telling me how much they dislike me for being straight white and male.

They are now baffled that I don't pay for the product they're making.

I'm willing to go pretty far out of my way to avoid paying people who hate me.

Push Back

Erin has mentioned the flak she's getting from trying to make the world a better place.

Considering that she's, specifically, advocating for LGBT pro-gun stuff; flak is to be expected.

But the way she's described it, doesn't sound like normal "icky guns" or "hate teh gheys" stuff.

I am wondering if she's being struck by the flak from people who don't really care about if someone is gay or not or if they're wearing the wrong clothes; but have been relentlessly hammered on by the LGBT movement that refuses to take the win until it's a massive loss.

The demands for inclusion and respect have gone well past reasonable.

People recognize when a bigot is hating them and they don't like it.  They push back.

That is hitting the reasonable LGBT people square in the jaw.

There's a huge swath of the LGBT movement that needs to understand that tolerate is the best they're going to get from a lot of people; but those people can be convinced to tolerate them.

Tolerate doesn't mean like.  It doesn't mean accept.  It, especially, does not mean, "put your interests ahead of mine."

Putting your interests ahead of mine is what a lot (all?) of the advocacy groups based on gender, race, and sex are after.

They dropped the veneer of wanting equality and are demanding to be in power over everyone else.

They're not happy with people not liking that.

People like Erin, who just want people like herself to be as safe as anyone else, are getting caught in the crossfire.  I can understand why she's depressed about it, getting shot by someone not even shooting at you is depressing.

Idle Speculation

This story makes me wonder.

If the heliosphere contracted enough to fuck weather on Earth, could that explain why Mars is so bleak now?

We keep finding that Mars had more water and a thicker atmosphere once, that kind of contraction would hit there first and lesser contractions could affect Mars without the same effects on Earth...

Sooner Or Later

It will be later, but I think we might be inching up on it...

The Supreme Court is going to have to rule against the executive branch doing legislation.

The separation of powers is clear, and things are out of control because it's being ignored.

My 4473 example is just another time I'm mentioning it, but I've covered this philosophical ground before.

The way the founders were thinking was that if something was going to be illegal then Congress had to make it so, explicitly, and for them to vote on it.

That way, if The People didn't like it, they could readily identify the people causing the problem, vote them out and get someone who actually represented them.

Regulations, on the other hand, are promulgated by faceless bureaucrats that the voter has little to no chance of eliminating even if every elected official is to their liking.

It weren't supposed to be this way, but there's a distinct lack of movement towards fixing it.  But there is SOME movement.

Nuking Chevron deference will go a long way, and SCOTUS appears poised to do that.

Fingers crossed.

Con Frijoles

Pay attention to what he says about how chili used to have beans in Texas...

Where Does The Law Say?

We're all getting familiar with 18 USC 922(g) thanks to Hunter Biden's trial.

He lied on the 4473.

And there's the rub.

It's illegal to sell to an addict under 922(d).  It's illegal for an addict to buy under 922(g).

There's no law saying that you have to fill out any specific form.

It would behoove the dealer to find out.

Regulation is why there's a 4473 and it's used as a standardized format for calling in the background check (there's definitely a law requiring that).

Ever listen to the dealer talking to the person on the background check side?

They don't go down the 922(g) checklist.  It's just name, address and SSN (if you gave it).

The background check isn't even using most of what you've attested to!

It could be boiled down to a single question, "Are you prohibited from buying or possessing a firearm under 18 USC 922(g)?"

That's what they're actually asking when you check yes or no in all those little boxes.

But there's no law requiring you attest to your innocence.

But fucking up that form is illegal.

Something wrong about that.

Mox Nix Conviction

Hunter got convicted of all three of the charges against him.

No shock, he was blatantly guilty.

Well, some shock; considering whom he is.

A lot of hay is being made about how much time these three felonies could bring.

Only a couple of places mentioning that the average sentence for this bundle is about a year.

Unless the judge decides to make an example out of him for whom he is, Hunter is probably going to spend less than six months behind bars.

Hardly worth the effort expended, to be honest.

Never mind that the laws he broke are, in my humble opinion, unconstitutional.  I shouldn't have to attest to my good character to exercise a right to own a gun and all the rest falls from trying to enforce this on the person filling out the 4473.

The real fun is his upcoming tax trial.  I have popcorn standing by.

Furthermore

A couple things about symbols.

First is they are mutable.  That means that their meaning can be changed and the meaning of them is subjective.  Swastikas and upside-down crosses are classic examples.

Second is, in a nation with freedom of speech, no symbol is sacrosanct.

If you don't want MY meaning of YOUR symbol to be applied to it, put it someplace outside the public square.

If you do put it in the public square, be braced to seeing it defaced and destroyed and to take it with a shrug.

Combining the first and second points...  In many cultures walking or stepping on a symbol is the ultimate form of disrespect for it.  Putting your symbol in a place meant to be walked on is saying, to them, that you've contempt for your own symbol by inviting people to tread upon it.

The people who don't understand that had to Google "mutable."

Felony Burn Out

A line I keep repeating, "Although I am a supporter of LGBT rights..."

Look, assholes, and it's the assholes of the LGBT community that are the problem here.

They're the ones who've captured the politicians to twist the laws that changes a counterpoint of one free speech to another into a felony.

Doing burnout on a pride flag is not a felonious act.

It is not malum in se.

It does no more damage to the road than painting.

But it's described as hate.

Kids, that flag painted on the road wasn't put there out of love.

It's there as a gigantic, "FUCK YOU!" to the people that the LGBT organizations hate.

Hate begets hate.

I'm personally aware of people who hate that flag painted on the road who've bought their gay neighbor a new 3x5 rainbow flag because the old one was getting ratty.

The burnout has less to do with hating LGBT than being pissed off at The State choosing sides against them.  Again.

And as an act of defiance against The State, it's protected speech.

You gotta let the KKK march in Skokie, you gotta let the rednecks do burnouts in an intersection painted like a pride flag.

By the way, if one can do ANYTHING they want to an American flag, then there cannot be a more restrictive rule for other flags.  Not that things making sense has ever bothered these idiots.

The Other Brands

The 1974 Chevrolet police package car was, often, a Bel Air with a big-block 454.  Some departments went with the small-block 350.

The big block car made a sad 235 SAE net horsepower at 4,000 rpm and 360 ft-lb of torque at 2,800.

That'd drag its 4,552 lb. carcass down the 1/4 mile in 17.1 seconds at 83 miles an hour.  Flat out it'd go 121 miles an hour.

Mileage was 7/14.

The city patrol cars with the small block made 160 hp at 3,800 and 245 ft-lb at 2,400.

The lighter 4,277 lb. curb weight isn't enough to offset the loss of power and the 1/4 mile "flashes" by in a sedate 19.3 seconds at 74 miles an hour.  Top speed is just 106 miles an hour.

Mileage was 9/13.  Yes, worse than the big block on the highway, but better in town.

What about Ford?

The Ford Custom 500 Police Interceptor Special touted a 460 cubic inch engine making 260 horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 380 ft-lb. of torque at 2,700.

The would drag the 4,610 lb. car down the track in 16.3 seconds at 87 miles an hour.  Max speed is 129 miles per hour.

Mileage is 7/11.

Fire In Space Ace Ace Ace Ace

I've seen people talking about a fire on the outside of the hull of a space ship in the new Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Fire needs fuel and oxygen.

Both are notoriously scarce in hard vacuum.

But the ship could be covered in stuff that's fuel, and it won't matter without oxygen.

I found the scene and it's a cheery little bonfire looking flame.

I can conceive of a couple of ways to get fire on the hull of a ship in space.

A hole in the hull expelling a fuel/oxygen mixture past an ignition source would do it.

There are several forms of self oxidizing chemicals which might burn in vacuum.  Hypergolic fuels, for example.

But none of the likely explanations for a fire outside the hull are going to look like a cheery bonfire.

Ugh.

I have to keep remembering that Star Wars is as much science fiction as Lord of the Rings.

The Saxon Is Beginning To Hate

h/t Bustedknuckles

Except the original poem isn't Saxons at all.  It's The English.

OG poem by Rudyard Kipling:

The Beginnings

It was not part of their blood,

It came to them very late

With long arrears to make good,

When the English began to hate.

 

They were not easily moved,

They were icy willing to wait

Till every count should be proved,

Ere the English began to hate.

 

Their voices were even and low,

Their eyes were level and straight.

There was neither sign nor show,

When the English began to hate.

 

It was not preached to the crowd,

It was not taught by the State.

No man spoke it aloud,

When the English began to hate.

 

It was not suddenly bred,

It will not swiftly abate,

Through the chill years ahead,

When Time shall count from the date

That the English began to hate.

Like so much of his work, it's got a timeless quality and can readily be applied to the current situation.

Nostalgia Slayer

Moxie is a 2010 Chevy Equinox LT AWD.

The 2.4 liter (145.2 cu-in) 4-banger makes 182 hp @ 6,700 rpm and 172 ft-lb @ 4,900 rpm.

It's a dainty 3,985 lb.

It runs the 1/4 mile in 17.1 seconds at 81 miles per hour.

Yes, Virginia, it's faster than a police package '74 Monaco.

With 20/27 epa estimated miles per gallon no less.

The Equinox will top out before the Monaco at 117 mph vs 122 mph.

440 Cubic Inch Plant

 "It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

-E. Blues

The cop motor in a 1974 Dodge Monaco made 260 hp @ 4,000 rpm and 345 ft-lb at 3,200 rpm (SAE net).  8/12 miles per gallon.

Lugging around 4,449 lb. it did the 1/4 mile in 17.6 seconds at a whopping 82 miles per hour.

That's sure disappointing.

The second Bluesmobile, a 1990 Ford LTD Crown Victoria, used a 351 cu-in engine that made 180 hp @ 3,600 rpm and 285 ft-lb @ 2,400 rpm.  With a fuel economy of 13/19 mpg.

It tared at 3,858 lb. and ran the 1/4 in 17.4 sec at 80 mpg.

A 1996 9C1 Caprice's 350 cubic inch engine puts out 260 hp @ 5,000 rpm and 330 @ 2,400 rpm.  17/26 miles per gallon.

1/4 mile is 15.5 seconds at 89 miles per hour weighing 4,090 lb.

The Beast makes 355 hp @ 5,300 rpm and 384 ft-lb @ 4,400 rpm from a much smaller (and lighter) 364 cubic inch motor.  15/24 mpg.

The 1/4 mile goes by in 13.9 seconds a 101 miles an hour.  Curb weight is a svelte 4,162 lb.  (4,113 with Camaro rims).

This comparison is why I don't, generally, pine for the good old days.

I Know Someone Who Shouldn't Read This

Starship can do something The Shuttle couldn't.

Fly with a wing burned off!

Too soon?

Remember, kids, the color of aviation humor is so black that a black hole looks bright and cheerful.

Odd disclaimer

Midway has a Bianchi magazine pouch for sale.

It's a bit spendy for my tastes, but...

 

Causes cancer in California AND you can't use Glock magazines in it?

That list of guns it fits are all single stacks, but the default compatibility is for a Beretta 92.

Having once been a collector of magazine pouches...  I don't think I've ever found a magazine pouch that would take a Beretta 92 magazine that wouldn't also take a Glock 17 mag.  In fact, the larger Glock 21 mags almost always also fit.

Which makes me wonder if Glock is fielding calls from customers who should be upset with Bianchi when their magazines don't fit the pouch.

D-Day Filmography

It's actually kind of difficult to watch Band of Brothers, The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan all within the 24 hours of D-Day.

To Be Clear

The trans athlete debate, by the way, does not matter.

Why?

BECAUSE SPORTS DON'T FUCKING MATTER AND BY EXTENSION NEITHER DO ATHLETES!

They're a species of dancing monkey and we shouldn't waste our time on them.

If sports disappeared tomorrow your life would go on.

It's just entertainment, and no single form really matters.

Touch grass or something.

Opportunists

I know, and am friends with, more than one trans person.

The current shit about trans athletes doesn't make me think it's actually a trans issue.

It's an opportunist move by less competitive male athlete to be competitive.

You can't doubt their dedication to the sport they've chosen because the medical requirements are a bit steep; but I certainly do doubt they're actually transsexual.

Happily! I have a solution that should work for everyone.

It's a solution that's already in play, but most people don't recognize it because it's been in play for so long.

When you answer the question, "why is there women's sports and not just sports," you have the answer.

This will mean that the LGBT+ folks are going to have to make some important admissions about transsexuals.

Primarily that a woman who was born a man is physically different from a woman born as a woman.

Once we have that, we can treat them like women and have a third "sex" in sports where the trans-women don't dominate the sport.  If we don't, we're discriminating against people who were born women.

I suspect that when we make this third category we're going to see most trans-women athletes disappear.

I suspect this because I don't think the current crop is being honest about why they're trans.

The More Things Change

The more they stay the same.

The Standard missile is, once again, air-carried.

The Standard was adapted into an anti-radiation missile during Vietnam.

It was carried by a diverse number of planes.

They Finally Found Some Man Made Warming

Wind turbines disrupting the local air currents and pulling hotter air down to the surface.

D+ 29,220

80 years ago Operation Neptune, part of Operation Overlord, kicked off.

Just A Little Early

 

My Father's Day gift from The Boy!

Father's Day is when he gives me the present, he doesn't go by the calendar.  Harvey got him to hold off until June this year.

Geronimo!

80 years ago, parachute drops into Normandy began in support of the landings for D-Day.

Now Charge Him

I remember back 6 years ago when someone who was actually threatening someone got their ass killed and the person who killed them got convicted over it because the very slight repositioning of their feet didn't constitute a credible threat.

Former Deputy Duran used the exact same claim for using lethal force as convicted felon Drejka when shooting Airman Fortson.

Duran has been fired by the Okaloosa Sheriff's Dept for violating procedures.

This opens the door for him to be charged and I think, to be consistent, that his justification for use of force be dismissed just as Mr Drejka's was.

PS: Airman Fortson's posture was not threatening in the interaction that led to his death.  McGlockton was squared up to fight.  They aren't equivalent at all.  I feel like I needed to amend the post to make my snark a bit clearer.

Hypocrite Me?

I am absolutely giddy that Hunter Biden is on trial over gun charges.

The press would have it that I am a hypocrite for being happy about it.

They're missing the nuances, like they often do.

We gun owners aren't happy because he's being charged with bullshit unconstitutional laws.

We're happy because people like him are never charged with the bullshit.

We'd be fucking THRILLED if his trial resulted in those laws being found unconstitutional and the charges tossed.

Hunter being charged is a failure of the 2-tier justice system that's been, increasingly, on display for Democrat politicians and their families for a long time.

And it makes us happy to see Justice's blindfold put back where it belongs.

Idiot Lights

 

Every time someone mentions a check engine light, I think of the gif above.

What would the problem be, Betty?

For me, I have scanners I can plug into the ALDL or OBD port and get the trouble codes.  I can look those codes up in my service manual.

I can also look them up on the internet for a less specific diagnosis.

But idiot lights are kind of like being informed of a fire by the fire department pulling up.

There's many cases where a gauge is far better.

But people don't want to learn about cars and be distracted by little needles.  They don't want to learn that different models and engines will put the needle in a different place.

An alarming number of gauges aren't even labeled in any kind of unit.

Sure, you can see if it's giving a higher, or lower, reading than normal, but...  What's the range?

Owner's manuals used to tell you what normal was, in units and you'd apply that knowledge to your instruments.

Worse are the ungraduated gauges that lock onto a single spot and only move in a situation where an idiot light would be lit.  The 94-96 B-Body has an oil pressure gauge like that.  It basically reads pressure/no pressure and is useless for telling how much pressure.

The temperature gauge in The Beast is like this.  It will creep up from the bottom until it gets to a given spot and won't move for a nearly 20°C range.  If it's overheating, that out of range causes it to, suddenly, hit the top stop.  Too late to save the motor most of the time and since it's not slowy creeping up no warning that things have started to go wrong. 

I do prefer actual gauges, but the automakers don't give them to me.

And it's the driver who wouldn't understand what they're looking at anyway that caused them to disappear from the dash.  Which is most of y'all.

Hunting Good Life

Beeper captured a ring-necked snake on the back porch.

I found out because Harvey, no lover of snakes, texted me that Beeper had it in the kitchen.  Beeper took it back out to the porch to keep the monkeys from taking her new toy away.

As you can see, that didn't work.

The snake has been relocated to the back yard to continue catching and eating vermin.

Means

I have been party to a couple of disasters that had me begging to my friends to loan me money to bail me out.

Uh... Literally bailing me out once.

My credit rating is subpar.

Why?

The only loans I have in my name are the mortgage and a student loan.

Keeping those up to date doesn't really help your credit rating.

So I pay more for shit like insurance and have no, realistic, way to borrow from a bank to cover a disaster.

My house is not gigantic, but I can make the payment.

Though I love The Beast, she's not top of the line and shiny new.  I wrench.

Harvey's car is not new.  Moxie is not new.

But they're paid for.

You can fix a lot of car for the price of a car payment.  A single car payment.

You can buy a lot of gas for the price of a car that gets better mileage.

We have bad credit because we're not in debt.  You need to be in debt to get and keep a good credit rating.

Despite paying a lot more for my insurance, I still think I'm spending less than the interest on credit cards and car loans.

There's a bitter pride in that.

Because It's Pride Month

I am proud that the picture I took of my instrument cluster shows not a single warning light!

It's astonishingly common for people taking pics of their dash to have a check engine, ABS fault, low tire fault or airbag fault showing.

None of them have difficult solutions, they just don't bother.

It was driving me insane that Moxie had that wheel speed sensor fault that was disabling the ABS, Stabilitrak and AWD.  I'd have never, proudly, shown off my cluster with those lights lit.

And Moxie, despite the flat-plane crank, is NOT a hot rod I'm showing off.  She's just an Equinox.

Domelight On

Got my interface cables from OBDSynch today.

The domelight now turns on when I open the doors AND the disable button works like it's intended.

A bonus feature on the dash side of things is the turn by turn from the nav in the radio.

If you have a Holden of any flavour, I recommend picking up this software!

From One End To The Other

Drove around with Marv and looked at a Caprice PPV.

It was not a steal.

It was a solid $7k car, not an $11k car.

While it's been upgraded to G8 seats, there's an airbag light on in their ad.

The tires are bald and the wrong size with the TPMS light lit.

It's been repainted, badly.

There is evidence of a front hit.

Unless he can talk them down, a lot, it's a pass.

After that we tried to find a donut because we had the wrong day for National Doughnut Day.  It's the 7th, not the 2nd.

Then we, effectively, bid farewell to a longstanding seafood place.  Crab Shack on Gandy has been there since God was a Lance Corporal.  Their prices have gone way up and the experience has deteriorated.  Sadly, I don't think they will last a lot longer when you can get food as good for the same price in a more comfortable setting.  They used to be cheaper because of the no-frills approach.  Alas.

Not For Me Thanks

Tomorrow, for some reason, there's a rash of 4-year olds graduating high school.

There is no, possible, way for them to 18 and to have known them for 14 years.

Because if that were true, then I'd be older too and...

Fuck, there's no Toy-R-Us... I guess I will have to grow up.

I Learned To Drive In One

My mom used to own a '76 Vega wagon.

I learned to drive in that car, a 5-speed manual 4-banger.

The grand total of problems Mom had with that car was a radiator and it rusted out from under her.

It was replaced by an '86 Civic, so it gave ten, virtually, problem free years just doing timely oil changes.

We benefited from having the second iteration of the 140 cc motor, the original's reputation lingered and was responsible for the death of the model.

The consumer often doesn't care if real problems have been fixed by the time they start looking at it.

It's very common.  And it's a pattern for GM.  I've lost count of the number of models that were finally sorted by their last year.

It's also common for someone who got a good example of a given machine to insist that their exception is representative of all of them even when it's patently not true.

There's five years of Vegas being shit boxes and two years of them being adequate.

Still, there's a warm spot in my heart for that old car.  One always remembers your first.

Fingerprint Remover Stats

I think I've gotten the AutoMag stats where I want them.

GreyDog, remember, pi = 3.00 in GURPS!

I managed to get the weight right on my table, but when I described it, I was looking at the wrong gun...  The AutoMag is lighter than a Desert Eagle.  GreyDog caught the error, deserves the credit.

I think that making a distinction between the AMC and AM Ltd. guns let's us account for the reliability seen in several videos.  The new guns just work.  The old guns tend not to unless specially cared for.  The magazine issue will tend towards whether a particular gun's tolerances line up.  Pay for "Fine: Reliable" to account for a winning combination of parts.

No matter the year made, they are dead sexy looking.  Being in frame with Bridgette Neilsen does not hurt.

All AutoMag All The Time

Ian talked about the current iteration of the company and their guns.

Reader GrayDog sent a video of one running great to prove that it didn't deserve the nasty Malf I'd assigned the gun.

I'm still not sure if the original guns were unreliable, I just remember that they had a reputation.  I rewatched the Demolition Ranch vid and he's definitely shooting an original gun, you can see the cast cocking piece.  Update: He says 1980 made gun in this follow up.  That means the original magazines which, Ian pointed out, presented the round too low for the feed ramp and most of his stoppages look like they're nosing in.  The trigger reset issue looks like a lube problem with the slide.

Ian running a 2023 made example on the clock:

It seems to be running well.

I might not have given it a high enough recoil number.

UPDATE:

Demolition Ranch's second video...  Ugh.  Screw the recoil spring guides back in and keep shooting.

I strongly suspect that AutoMag Ltd. sent the same gun to several YouTubers for promotional purposes.  Unscrewing the guide rods is part of disassembly and I'm willing to bet the person who had it before him didn't get them cranked all the way down.

RTFM error combined with a "when you redesigned it why didn't you put a detent or something on those?"

Malf

This will sound more combative than it is meant.

If a gun requires, "some effort and diligence to learn how to properly lube and tune them, and to develop handloads with a specific combination of quality components that would run each gun flawlessly," then it will garner a relatively bad Malf number in GURPS.

The GM should let the player make a Guns/TL roll based on IQ to do the proper work on the weapon to alleviate some or all of the Malf number.

The SEALs with the Stoner are an example of where this works.

The much maligned Chauchat is another, believe it or not.

A person intimate with a temperamental gun should be able to run it better than a novice.

It'd be up to the GM to decide if a gun is a poor design or just a temperamental one that needs more TLC.

Coming back to the Chauchat, the magazines are fragile.  No amount of TLC is going to bring a broken one back.  That would take Armory/TL (Small Arms) to repair.

Say What You Will

FuzzyGeff points out, "A vote for Trump at least guarantees a vote for someone who was found competent to stand trial."

Off To A Good Start

For the first time in a couple years, we start the hurricane season with the letter A instead of wasting a couple letters on tropical storms that happened before the start of the season.

 Hopefully we get a quiet year this year.