Are You Here?

Stolen from Libertarian Redhead via Erin's Facebook.

Like A Trained Ape

Without the training.

For many months I have been unable to see The Mac from my Win7 laptop.

I'd been blaming a Windows update, but noticed that The Lovely Harvey's nearly identical machine running the exact same version of Windows was having no trouble connecting.

Turns out I'd managed to break something in the network settings while trying to connect to a friend's network-shared printer while I was in Iowa last June.

JT came over today and found a couple of settings on The Mac which were making it harder to diagnose the situation and many settings on Crispy that kept it from seeing The Mac.

Like all experts, he made it look easy.

I could tell from the look on his face and furrowed brow that I'd done an unusual job of messing things up.

He also mentioned it was refreshing that I owned right up to being the likely reason it was screwed up.

THANKS!

Damn The Media Be Supid

The attack on CNN's headquarters is a white nationalist psyop?

A cop in Minneapolis appears to have killed a black man.

Why on earth would white supremacists do anything but celebrate?

I don't think the media understands how the racist mind operates.

Of course, the media not understanding something is nothing new.

Spreading The Word

I notice there isn't even a whif of concern that the rioters are spreading Wu Ping Cough.

Almost as if everyone knows that the real threat of the CCP Virus is over.

I didn't notice this on my own, but it bears repeating.

It would bear linking to the person who pointed it out to me too.  If I could recall where I first saw it.

Take Off!

With a crew named Bob and Doug...

It's a beauty, eh?

Dragon crew has the USA back in the launchin' people (and Marines) business.

About fucking time!

Damned Ethics And Morals

Willard had left his Lugers here for me to take pictures of.

He stopped by today and asked, "Did I leave those with you?"

Compelled by honesty, I said, "Yes."

If I was better at being a scumbag I could have had two free Lugers!

Well, not free.  That's the sort of thing that costs a friendship.

Fuck It Kill Them All

The dipshit looters have burned Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction and Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore to the ground.

That's it, I'm done with the idea of even considering these scum as human, and seriously considering rejecting them as hominids.

No better than, and likely far worse than, rats or cockroaches.

Extermination is fine by me for anyone who wantonly burns books.

Hiram Maxim solved for this equation.

Dereliction Of Sworn Duty

I am watching video after video of the riots and looting in three cities.

I am not seeing the cops engaging the lawless.

I am reading about the military activating MP units to step in and considerations for martial law.

So, Officer, you sure enjoyed the title of "hero"...  Time to do something heroic.

Get your ass between the citizens you're sworn to defend and those who seek to destroy them.

That is heroism.

Your safety is not, and never has been, paramount.

Getting your ass killed trying to save those who cannot save themselves is part of the duty.

It always has been.

Hiding from the lawless and waiting for the Army is the act of a coward, not a hero.

If you think I'm treating you unfairly, you'd better have a selfie of you manning the barricades and actually protecting someone besides yourself.

It's especially galling that there's lots of officers in many departments that do embody the selfless ideals and would stand between crime's desolation and the citizens they've sworn to protect.

Officers who take their oath seriously.

Your cowardly behavior dishonors those who are doing it right.

Slip The Leash

Reading this article on FoxNews.

The knowing that the people with no stake will not be punished and we'll have to endure this shit again next perceived slight against the moochers...

The more times it happens the less likely the people who're vested in the ownership of the nation are going to follow the rules and call the cops.

We're skidding hard for the moment when the rioters are not threatened with guns, but are fired upon without regard.

The only thing keeping those safeties on is the surety that they will be arrested for murder of the rioters.

The moment approaches where the people with the guns defending their property from rioters decide that anyone not helping them is also a foe.  Police that come to arrest them for defending themselves from rioters will also receive a fusillade.

It will be tragic, it will be bad, but it will not be unjust.

In too many places the cops have ceased to be what the citizens think cops should be, and for too long.

It's called a reckoning.

Race War

Dear Hollywood Dancing Monkeys,

You don't want a race war.

War is the killer app of The State.

Genocide is the killer app of Western Civ.

It's not deployed often, but when it is...

Well...

Last time we had a real race war here, it culminated in casinos.

I've been researching this part of history and parallels between white and black relations can be drawn that hold up.

Even worse, if it starts this will be the second time we've had to have a civil war over the issue of what is to be done about black people.

When you couple this with a couple decades of anything a white person says or does is condemned as racism, you get white people who say, "Fuck it, let's be racists."

I am not looking forward to it, but it sure seems like one side of the political spectrum is pushing it hard.

Shift

The 'hood I live in has, historically, been about 1/3 rental houses and 2/3 owned.

The rentals have long been something of a sore spot with the renters not bothering to take care of their temporary home and the landlords only doing the maintenance when it's time to attract a new tenant.

I've noticed that many of the rental properties didn't put out "For Rent" signs when they finished fixing them up this time.

There's "For Sale" signs out now.

Seems odd for a landlord to be selling in a depressed housing market.  Landlords don't sell in a depressed market, they BUY in a depressed market.

I think this might be an indicator.  A positive one.

Reshaped

The nice folks at Spencer's Western World in Pinellas Park told me to stop by and talk to their hat person, Larry, either yesterday or this evening.

I wanted to make sure I got it the way it's supposed to be and Larry said that he though he had it, and if I was willing to hang around for fifteen minutes he could knock it out with my feedback.

So I did!

That's how it's supposed to be, mostly.  The brim dips a wee bit too much and interferes with the sights on my Krag.  But that's something I'm confident enough to fix.

Unprecedented!

For the first time EVER (unless you count all the other times) more gun control has resulted in more gun crime.

I, too, am shocked.

Most telling is there doesn't seem to be an increase in police activity either.

New Zealand has, essentially, told their citizens that they cannot have a gun to defend themselves AND that they on their own to defend themselves from people with guns.

It kinda makes you wonder why we bother obeying any laws at all.

Low-trust society here we come!

Literal Headache

I'd forgotten that genuine fur felt hats need broken in.

I'd further forgotten that it hurts.

Worth it in the end...

I'm not ready to resort to the techniques I've seen for Order of the Spur "break-in" on YouTube.

Definitely need to get it reshaped to a more traditional rather than regulation shape.

NOBODY wears these things the way they come from Stetson.  I am baffled that Stetson still blocks them with a single crease in the crown and an even upturned brim.

There's a local western wear place that does hat reshaping for the princely sum of $20.  I think I will allow an expert to do this.

Hat as shipped:

Hat as desired:

Not a huge change, but forcing the brim down isn't ideal, reshaping it lets it assume the curve I want without putting stresses in the band and that will let it conform to my non-circular skull better.

Crazies Be Everywhere

Took The Boy to get our Wednesday Hate Chikin'.

We did curbside and ended up leaving behind someone who'd gone through the drive through.

This person was digging around in either their bag or center console and not actually driving.

I even commented to The Boy, "If you're not ready to drive, don't put it in gear."

They meandered around in the lanes leading to the exit out to the highway and when they got to said exit, rather than looking for traffic... resumed digging around in their bag/console.

Because there was no traffic to wait for, I gave them a hoot from the horn.

The took so long to react from the horn that they just barely made it out in front of the traffic which had shown up while they were doing whatever it was they were doing.

I waited for a space and ended up back behind them at the light in the leftmost left turn lane.  I needed to make u-turn to get headed back home.

This person is yelling and screaming and flipping me off.

I'm thinking, "You had your head up your ass, but it's MY fault?"

His agitation kept increasing to the point I started to become worried he was going to come back to the car and assault me.  So I got my pistol ready.

His agitation never rose to the point where he got out of his car, but he did manage to get the person in the rightside left-turn lane to ask him "what the fuck?"

This person instantly pivoted their raised ire to the guy in the next lane, who starts screaming back.

Then they start throwing things at each other.

The people in the car next to me were both recording on their cell phones.

Wow.

I'm glad he didn't get out of his car.
I'm glad I had a gun on me.
I'm thrilled that I didn't have to use it.

I'm amazed, and saddened, that someone wound so tight lived old enough to reach the pedals.

I feel confident that if I had had to shoot this person that I'd have been fully vindicated by the recordings from the other car.  Again, I am thrilled to have avoided the need to talk to an officer about defending myself.

This also underscores that you don't get to pick when a self defense situation happens.  You can make choices that minimize the chances of it happening, but you can't eliminate all chances.

No Sir I Don't Like It

Google announced that they'd be forcing us to the "new" Blogger in late June.

I gave it a short test drive.

The main change I saw was in the list of posts.  The added a giant letter from the first letter of the title, unless there's picture in the post, then they use that.

It puts about six posts where you can see them instead of 20.

The new design means a lot more scrolling to get to a post to see it.

Everything is going to icons.  You can hover to see what they mean, but...  If I have to hover, the meaning of the icon is unclear.

I Have A Hat

The Boy bought me a Stetson for Father's Day.

He doth verily rock!

I'm already twisting and pulling and making it my own.  I might enlist a professional to really reblock it to what I prefer.  Plus!  Without someone ordering me about how to wear it, I can ditch the silly chin-strap until we actually have a hurricane getting close.

Thanks!  To The Boy!!

Damn That's A Consistently Recurring Percentage

Remember when I mentioned 13.9% infection rate not that long ago?

Antibody testing in New York has also arrived at 13.9% infection rate.

Extrapolating this to Florida gives an infection fatality rate of 0.076%; lower than the average flu.

That contrasts heavily to the stated 4.33% case fatality rate.

Greek poets most affected.

Operator Error

To get the scheduler to schedule a post, you have to, you know, schedule it...

Pick a date... enter it...

Yeah.

Otherwise you end up posting it the second you hit publish.

It's Obvious When You Look At It

If it's OK for Wal Mart to be open limited hours instead of being open 24/7, thus compressing their entire business day into half the hours and condensing the customers to an effective doubling of density...

It was always OK for everyone else to stay open too unless there was something about the service provided that required close contact between the staff and customers.

That's starting to really piss me off.  I was just irritated before.

No Active Or Recovered

Florida isn't giving numbers for recoveries or active cases.

Just the running total of people who've tested positive.

51,746 at the time of this writing.

If the disease takes 3-weeks to run its course, if we subtract the number of cases from May 4th from the cumulative total we should get an estimate of the active cases.

51,746 - 36,897 = 14,849 active cases at most.  We should also subtract the dead from this...

12,597 at the most.

If it takes two weeks to run then it's:

51,746 - 40,982 - 2,252 = 8,512 active cases.

Since it averages 2-3 weeks then the number of active cases remaining is between 8,512 and 14,849.

People ARE recovering from this.  It's just not being reported much.

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.


Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.


They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.


But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;


As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

Today is not about sales. It is not about summer starting. It is not about grandma.

It's is about those who served and have passed beyond the vale.

I want them all back.

To:
Bernie Canniff (Korea, in a car club together).
Carol LeFon aka Neptunus Lex (patiently explained both real world and flight sim military aviation to this tanker).
Davy McGuire (COB USS Whale, originally a friend of my Dad's, later me).
Fred Gabow (we served together, his wife hired someone to murder him).
Jerry Pournelle (you do read, don't you? Willing to be wrong and listened to my correction!).
Kevin O'Brian aka Hognose (our beloved Weaponsman).
Rabbi (Uncle Ben, another friend of Dad who got me a ride in an F-14A).
Rich Sickels (brother of my Father in law).
Robert Smith (uncle by marriage to Mom's sister).
Standing Bear aka William Dawkins (WW2 and Korea, who taught me gaming).

The world is better that you were in it and worse that you have left.

Frightened But Willing

Friday we spoke with a woman who'd just bought her very first gun.

Interestingly, not the first gun she'd owned.

She told us she was originally from New Jersey and she'd sold her father's guns as soon as she'd inherited them.  Sold them to the police...  Including a pearl-handled Colt Cobra.  C'est la vie.

She said she was increasingly frightened about living alone in her neighborhood and wanted something more than pepper spray.

We'd met her on the day her waiting period had run out and was picking up the gun and wanting to know anything and everything about shooting it.

When the owner deferred to Willard and I as experts on a Czech Skorpion pistol, she started to ask us questions too.

She was definitely very nervous about going shooting and we tried to calm her nerves while also being honest about what she'd experience.

She was honestly astonished that we two strangers would offer advice and try to be helpful.

We told her that we're a community, and she'd just joined as a full member.

We also told her that she shouldn't be afraid to ask for help at the range.  Most of us are completely willing to get someone past the first gate of actually firing their very first gun.

We wish her the best and I kind of wish we'd had the time to accompany her to the range and give more help.

Accessible

I remember in the way back days what limited my photographic urges was the requirement that I purchase both film and developing.

I might, maybe, have shot 256 exposures on 35mm film.  Total.  In my whole lifetime.

I have fired off almost 1,200 exposures in the three months I've had the M50.

The S5 IS I bought in November 2007 had 6,870 on the clock when I broke it in April 2018.

The SX20 IS has logged 1,139 from April 2018 to now.

I am completely uncertain about how many pictures I've taken with my phone since such things became possible.  I do know that it's shocking that my current phone is a better camera than my first two digital cameras.

I kinda dig living in a future that's surpassed the speculative science fiction of my adolescence.

Not The Same

The longer I wrench, the more I realize that simple ≠ easy.

Still, I will take a simple but hard job over a complex but easy job most times.

Fucking Murphy lurks among the complexity.

Patton Saber Revisited

In this post I called the M1913 "Patton" Saber an estoc.

There's just one teensy, wittle, problem.

The M1913 has a double edge.

It's length, weight, balance and such also more closely match a fencing saber.

It's not a chopper.  It's a stabber.

But, unlike the pattern 1908, it has a cutting edge.

GURPS would treat it as a Fencing Saber.

When you look up what George was up to in 1912, it makes sense that a sword he designed would favor fencing rather than broadsword.

Never you mind that ANY play with a sword is fencing...  That's the real world not GURPS.

Brace For Impact

Did you know that with the rolling 50 year qualification...

Guns made as late as 1970 are now Curios and Relics?

There's some damn modern guns that can be had under this.

Six entire years of Colt SP-1, for example.

I'm giddy.

Well worth the money for the Cruffler license.

Mercury Is Elusive

This angle was perfectly clear an hour ago.

Because They're So Consistent

The Cav Hat that ended up being too small because I can't work a measuring tape took three days to ship from CavHooah.

Paid for 2-day Priority Mail.  Expected delivery shown was the 18th.

It left their local post office at 1:29pm on the 15th.
Arrived at their regional hub at 2:07am on the 16th.
Left their regional hub at 5:59am on the 16th.
Arrived at wrong Florida hub at 7:40am on the 17th.
Left wrong Florida hub at 10:55 on the 17th.
Arrived at correct Florida hub at 8:50pm on the 17th.
Left correct Florida hub at 11:16pm on the 17th.
Arrived at my local post office at 8:46am on the 18th.
Out for delivery at 8:57am on the 18th.
Delivered at my door at 6:38pm on the 18th.

The correct size hat is not moving so well.  Same 2-day priority mail.  Expected delivery shown is the 23rd.

It left their local post office at 2:41pm on the 20th.
It got to their regional hub at 2:35am this morning.
It left their regional hub at 9:06 am.

We're looking like Tuesday if they're consistent with last delivery's routing.  Even getting to the correct regional hub on the first try will still likely be Tuesday.

UPDATE:
Yup.  Status didn't change to anything local overnight, so no possible way it's out for delivery now.

There's a new banner on the USPS tracking page, it reads:

"Alert: Due to limited transportation availability as a result of nationwide COVID-19 impacts, package delivery times may be extended. Priority Mail Express® service will not change."

No Dawes Act

While most every Indian disappeared into Maka Tanka, there are a few who remained behind.

Most numerous are the five "civilized" tribes in Indian Territory, also known as modern Oklahoma.

Next most numerous are those who were employed by the Army as Indian Scouts.

Lastly there are the Commanche.  There is a lot of debate about this.  Their representatives say that they weren't invited.

With the great plains vacant of Natives and the "Civilized" tribes "happily" residing in Indian Territory, the frictions that lead to The Dawes Act never happen.

No Dawes Act, no Curtis Act...  No Curtis Act, no Tom Cruise movie.

The lack of the Dawes act also means that Sooners are dealt with harshly.

Awareness

May is mental health awareness month.

I can't wait for June so I can go back to be unaware of my mental health.

Maka Tanka

Unless I find different doing my research...

The name of the world through the spook-hole is Maka Tanka, or Great Earth.

I don't speak Dakota Sioux, and only have the internet to look up words, so if you or someone you know does...  Drop a comment.

Here's Something You Don't Find Often

Still doing basic historical research for Sabers and Shamans.

Something that doesn't often get mentioned when you read recent treatises about the American Indian Native American is the outright hatred the plains Indians had for anyone whom wasn't in their tribe.

It's no joke that the word that most tribes use for themselves translates to human being, and the names we commonly use for these tribes are not this word.

Quite often the common name for a tribe translates to "those fucking prick subhumans," and it was given them by a different tribe.

One reason for a lot of the conflict is the inability of the various tribes to see anyone else as human, and therefore worthy of being dealt with honorably.

White men called Indians savages, but even a savage is still human.

It's also lost that the plains Indians are a territorial, warrior culture.  Pacifist societies whom never bother anyone until bothered first don't have a warrior culture.

The plains tribes were aggressive and expansionist.

So was America.

Conflict was going to happen, even if westward expansion had halted west of Minnesota/Iowa/Missouri.  The Indians would have tried coming east, eventually.

A key issue of this being territorial was a refusal to allow transit by outsiders.  For a good long time the only whites transiting the great plains were people trying to get to the Pacific Northwest.  Notice that the game "Oregon Trail" doesn't have a "stop and build a town" option?

It doesn't take too many times of a wagon train getting wiped out before "someone should do something" is intoned.

Wanna know something?  The first attempts were apparently successful and led to agreements to allow transit.

Guess how long that lasted and who broke the agreement first.

Hint, it wasn't the settlers, whose only interest was to (well) transit and be someplace else.

Warriors got to war and one does not war on oneself.

So the leaders who made the agreement were denigrated, the agreement discarded, and a war to repel the invaders organized.

"Someone should do something!"

"Hey, Chief, we mentioned that we'd be out here shootin' y'all if you wiped out any more people who'd managed to survive the dysentery, typhus, cholera and drowning."

This period also establishes, in the minds of American culture, that Indians are liars who cannot be trusted.  You know, because they lied and showed no trustworthiness.

LATER, when the cavalry was kicking their asses in earnest, the Indians did learn (for the most part) to take these agreements seriously.  This is also the period where The Bureau of Indian Affairs is at its most corrupt.  Much of what happens here is directly the result of the corruption in the government of The United States.

Lately we tend to focus on the evils of the white man without looking at the road that led to a place where such corruption could have such power over people.

There are reams of contemporary accounts who knew that what was being done was unjust, had valid solutions and were powerless to do anything because the government had divided things to facilitate the corruption.

Had either BIA or The Army been given sole responsibility over the issue, different outcomes would have happened.  The split responsibilities guaranteed conflict and buck-passing.  There was much "I've just created a problem, your job to fix it.  Bye!" going on.  It's so bad that one entity solving one of the problems they were responsible for would, almost to a certainty, create a new problem for the other entity.

It was a shit show for everyone.  We need to remember that.

Cameras Are Like Meteors

Just like trying to watch a meteor shower, getting the camera out to attempt to take a picture of Jupiter summons clouds.

I got one blurry disc.  Not worth uploading.

I got a brief, tantalizing look at a bright disc and the Galilean moons...  Then clouds never cleared enough again to actually get a picture.

Definitely have to try again later.

No Academy Awards?

I just read that The Oscars will be suspended this year.

Now I don't know what I'm not going to watch.

I haven't not watched Baseball or Basketball in months.

Target Of Opportunity

When I was loading the car to head out to the pier to try to capture Mercury, I looked west and spotted this vista.

I am getting good enough with my camera to actually capture what I see.  It's gratifying.

Venus

Too hazy for little Mercury.  It should be in this picture, just below the visible Venus.

Cropping it reveals a crescent.  And pixels.

Where Have All The Carbines Gone

Willard pointed out that more than a million more M1 Carbines were made than M1 Garands.

There are Garands aplenty.

Carbines are so scarce that no less than two companies are making new ones.

Where'd they go?

We speculate that it's two-fold.

We handed out military assistance by giving loaning both carbines and Garands to virtually anyone who asked (and probably forced them on a couple of places who didn't.)

I think the first fold of where did the carbines go is they tended to go to places where there was fighting and that is damn hard on guns.  An 82mm mortar round blows up the gun as well as the person carrying it when it hits... for example.

Garands tended to land in places where there was a nervous peace, like proto-NATO nations.  These guns were rapidly replaced by new service rifles and warehoused rather than used.

The second fold is the M2 carbine problem.  With ATF's retarded standard of, "once a machine gun, always a machine gun," any M1 carbine converted to the M2 standard, and so marked, is forever an M2 and cannot be surplussed to civilian use.

It also probably didn't help that the M2 stayed in service long after the Garand left the party.

Using Approved Doctrinal Disappointment

I am disappointed and relieved...

The Winchester I was thinking about appears, now that I've sent the infantry to scout ahead...

It's a Winchester Model 70 XTR Sporter and it's in .270 Weatherby Magnum, not .270 Winchester.

At $3.25 a shot, the great deal on the rifle is quickly lost in the increased price of ammo...

Still, there's an allure.

It'd be the third of four commercially viable .277 rounds in the stable with 6.8 SPC and .270 Win.

Prolly pass on it.

I'd Have More Sympathy If...

Ithaca, NY is facing an economic disaster...

I have two take-aways from this.

First is that they shouldn't have cheerfully driven Remington out of town on a rail.  This ties into the second point.

Diversification is good for your economy, overall.  That way when you have a disastrous shortfall in one sector, the others will keep the boat afloat.  Ithaca overspecialized in catering to the two large colleges in town at the expense of manufacturing...

A third take-away could be that every job is essential and that by clipping one from the market causes a ripple effect down to the smallest endeavor.

It was obvious, over and over, when I slogged through economics getting my BBA that while government really couldn't keep an economy running or really make it grow; it damn sure could do things that would fuck an economy right up, good and hard.