ACHKSHUUALLY

Actually, Don, we White people believe that violence is AN answer.

But when you say White people, you're really saying Western Civilization, and Western Civ is the one that introduced the idea that violence shouldn't be the FIRST answer.

It's that Christian basis thing.

Exhaust all other options before resorting to violence is its calling card.

But when violence is called for, leave no two stones standing.

What you might be seeing, Don, isn't that violence is THE answer, but the disproportionate level of violence means the other answers clearly aren't working, leaving just one tool left in the box.

Perhaps if enclaves of "all cultures are equivalent" had not been allowed to fester and create little centers where an honor society butted against a high-trust society this would not have happened.

I keep going back to reading about two things that were wrong when they happened and, I think, were the pebbles that started the avalanche.

Red-Line districts to segregate populations.

LBJ's Great Society.

The nuclear family was way stronger in Blacks than Whites at the time and white people were more likely to punch out a child out of wedlock.

I cannot think of what you'd do differently if you'd meant to destroy Blacks as Americans than what those two things did.

Every single time racism ebbs, some fucking Democrat revives it.  They, literally, told Blacks that not only did they hate them, but allowing them to be normal Americans would be legally forbidden if they had anything to say about it.

Most of America is receptive to the idea of Black people being just another kind of American, but they have to be Americans with a descriptor rather than a race with a location.  They're not even a race with a nationality as they currently sit in too many places.

Assimilation is not a fun process in a lot of ways, but it works.  We should be looking to things that work rather than nursing old grudges to vendetta levels.

Never go vendetta against Western Civ.  It punctuates the equilibrium like no other society ever created.

More than a couple peoples have had a, "it was all going great until they woke up!" moment.

False Advertising

Harvey buys me multivitamins.

One-A-Day brand Men's 50+ Advanced Multivitamin with immunity and brain support gummies.

ONE a day.

Dosage:  2 gummies, daily.

That sure seems like TWO a day to me.

Economics Of Adventuring

I'm not offering a solution or even a complete analysis here, just babbling to help me organize my thinking on the topic.

Something I noticed before about adventurers in most D&D campaigns is they often, and quickly, attain individual power that can literally topple nations.

"You and what army?" becomes, "Aw, you sent an army, how cute!"

This is especially true of magic users.

The commoner / nobility divide is not even considered in AD&D's rules.

It can be a campaign assumption.  Standing Bear's Hundred Town campaign, where I learned AD&D, you started as an orphan the day the orphanage kicks you out.  You got a copper piece, a dagger, a set of clothes and a lump of goat cheese.  Oh, and enough training to be a 1st level character of your class.

This, I am sure, influenced all our gaming and we were never nobles.

Most of the other fantasy rule sets really mention it either.

Stormbringer, using the Chaosium Basic Role-Playing System, had mention of nobility.  Much to the frustration of our GM, we had a rare talent for getting lucky on the nationality and origin table.  (It turns out that Scott was using that table wrong, it was for randomly generating an NPC, the players were supposed to be able to choose the character's origins.  He just didn't know he was supposed to forbid origins that didn't fit his campaign...)

Warhammer certainly didn't make most characters noble.

In GURPS you could make a noble, but it costs valuable points you could be spending on something keeping you alive.

Commoners are not supposed to be able to have access to such power as to topple the legitimate government or challenge the divine rights of kings.

Government was something we just didn't do for most of our gaming.  We didn't even ignore it, there simply wasn't any.  Well, it might have been there, but it didn't rise above subtext.

Even when I added government, much later, it wasn't near intrusive enough and it never really affected the players.

Feudal governments are of the "a place for everyone and everyone in their place" variety.

The rise of a middle class and commoners getting rich as nobles really destabilized feudal reality.

Adventurers would certainly be part of this.  They're powerful individually and often become insanely wealthy.

This is not necessarily a world ending problem, Elizabethan England survived merchants being richer than the nobility and the United Kingdom spawned and outlived the East Indian Company, which had nation state power.

The nobility could be faded into the background, like the Junkers.

The GM will have to decide how the existence of adventurers is handled.

I've been using less medieval model for the fantasy settings I've been using because it's easier and closer to how we think of government in our egalitarian American culture.

Plus, there's always that Divine right of kings in a world where you can physically speak to The Gods.  How can you lose with God on your side?  How would your little rebellion go if the cleric found themselves powerless because their deity says King Incompetent the Third shall remain king?

I have a model, it just needs fleshed out.  Some of the work won't really be complete until there's players, but it keeps me from eating my own mind.

That's Quite A List

Canada is going all in on gun control.  The deadline looms...

Here's the list, and what they're paying the owners to confiscate their property. 

I'm betting they will meekly submit. 

Update:  Parker shotguns?  Double barrel shotguns are banned assault weapons? 

Drip Drip Drip

Apparently, we were too rough getting the lower hose off the radiator and appear to have disturbed the o-ring on the outlet elbow.

It's a problem dating back to the Pontiac G8 days (2008).  If it's not leaking, and you shift the elbow at all, like when you're struggling to get a radiator hose off, it decides to drip past the o-ring.  It's also known to just start dripping on its own too.

I found out it was dripping because we had a new flood of coolant when Harvey and I had the radiator tilted to drill for the nipple repair.  Hoping against hope, I cleaned up the fluid on the splash cover and left it alone for a few hours.  Sadly, it filled up again...

Considering that Dorman makes the o-ring for GM trucks, it's not uncommon for other LS engined vehicles.

GM does not offer the o-ring separately.

Amazingly, the elbow is still in the system.  $38 plus s/h.  $52 delivered Wednesday.

The o-ring is tantalizingly close to a #125 size.  Also available for Wednesday delivery with 50 for $12.

It's also possible that I've cracked the outlet the elbow clicks onto.  That's new radiator territory.

Denso is the original manufacturer and it's "just" $180 from Amazon.  A bit more from Rock Auto.

Typically, Autozone is fucking high.  $401 for their Duralast branded one, $651 for the Genuine GM; Rock Auto only wants $386 for the GM part number.

If I was going to spend north of $400 for a radiator, it's not gonna have plastic tanks!  Cold case is $440 and is, generally, well regarded.  Mishimoto makes one too, for $600, that's better liked.

The aluminum tanked models have the stupid elbow welded on!

So I've got the elbow on its way and I'm going to put it on and fill the radiator.  If it leaks...  We order a radiator and I have a long chat with Harvey about what kind we get.

Drill Tap Thread Goop

Got the nipple repair installed!

First test fit.

Gooped up and setting.

Says 12 to 24 for full strength and I think I will give it the full time.

They're Not On Our Side

I was just reading how the Chicago Public Teacher's union just posted a glowing memorial for Assata Shakur.

You know, convicted murderer and fugitive from justice Assata Shakur?

Alleged burgler, robber and terrorist Assata Shakur?

I'm not thinking that most people are thinking Ms Shakur is someone deserving of a glowing memorial but rather that she's someone who needs to be buried in secrecy so her grave don't get violated.

This was just the disconnect that made me realize what had been bugging me the most about public service unions, like teacher's unions.

The point of government employees is to serve the public and to hire specialists in the tasks the public want done with economies of scale that come from having a group dedicated to a task instead of an ad-hoc individual effort by the citizens.

Can you imagine our roads if we had to maintain them individually and independently and were only responsible for the section fronting our properties?

In essence, what a county roadworks is, is the citizens pooling their resources to hire a paving company to take care of their roads.

Where it falls apart once a public union gets involved is the union doesn't represent the needs or wants of the people who created and fund the public works.  The union represents the employees hired by the public works.

If there wasn't a common feature of public works involved, I don't think I'd be too upset.

Tax supported monopoly.

I can't take my business elsewhere and I can't get out of paying for it.

This is wrong.  This should be illegal as it is malum in se.

Heavy Enough

I worried that the Savage 110E's trigger was too light.

So I dug it out, dusted it off and rapped the buttstock against the ground.

The safety is lighter than the trigger and engages before the gun has a chance to go off.

Not a a comprehensive assurance of safety, but safed against the most common chance of an accidental bang.

I Live In Florida After All

When I ordered The Precious I got the Z51 package primarily because it had extra cooling compared to the base Corvette.  Bigger radiator, power steering cooler, trans cooler, bigger oil cooler.

It never overheated.

When I converted The Biscayne SS to a 95 Impala SS engine, I selected the bigger radiator and added the external oil and trans coolers.

It only overheated when the, pressurized, overflow bottle developed a pinhole leak.

The The Beast came with all the bonus coolers that might not have been present on a Holden Statesman because it was expected that a cop was going to be idling a great deal of the time.

Even so, for north of $500 I can get a bigger, badder all aluminum radiator!  I don't need one today, but...  Nice to know I can.

I am considering my heater hoses now that I've replaced the radiator hoses.

GM wants almost $200 for a new set.

Marv is installing a relocation kit in his '11 9C3 that moves them from atop the motor to alongside the fender with stainless hard-lines.  That set him back about $225.

Marv found a vid that explains how to take NAPA p/n's 10077 and 10078, cut them to length and do much the same relocation with rubber lines for under $100.

I discovered that they now make a fitting that clamps to the barb-ends of the water pump and heater core to allow you to use AN-10 fittings.  The four required fittings are $70 all by themselves.  But it'd be dead sexy.

Then there's always the same blue silicone hose that I'm using at the radiator.  Just under $200 it looks to do the same routing as the NAPA parts.

The world is my oyster! 

Oh No! Anyway

Starbucks has announced that they're closing hundreds of stores.

I worry that my life will be affected in some mysterious way because I don't actually buy coffee from Starbucks.

I haven't been in one since they clarified that they didn't appreciate OUR appreciation for being neutral in the gun debate. 

If I want bougie coffee, there's a couple of excellent, local places. 

The Reason For That Tee

The upper radiator hose on a Chevy / Holden WM and WN Caprice PPV has a tee in it.

This is for the oil cooler.

Unlike stock oil coolers I've had before, this one is under the car near the oil filter to one side of the oil pan.

I've had oil to air coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to a mini-radiator in front of the radiator.

I've had oil to water to air coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to one of the radiator tanks then to a mini-radiator in front of the radiator.

I've had oil to water coolers that ran oil from the oil filter housing to one of the radiator tanks.

The PPV one runs oil into and out of the cooler from a port near the oil filter.  Water runs from a fitting on the side of the block, down to the cooler, then forward to the tee on the upper hose.

I've read a lot of paranoia about it, but never heard about an actual failure.

Lots of people have pulled them because nearly all headers for the car interfere with the cooler, never mind making more radiant heat right next to it than cast manifolds. 

A couple of people have gotten cooling issues by adding an oil to air cooler in front of the radiator after deleting the stock cooler from stacking.  TANSTAAFL. 

That's How You Say That?

I have long pronounced "epitome" as Epee-Tome.

It's supposed to be e-pit-oh-me.

I am unsure if I never learned to say it, or if I affected the mispronunciation deliberately. 

Alles En Ordnung

A barrier to entry that tried to kill someone.

Apparently, in Kentucky, you have to have a wilderness EMS license to administer antivenom.

In this case, normal EMT's did the deed and saved the patient.

"The Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services (KBEMS) implemented a policy two years ago mandating that only wilderness paramedics can administer antivenom. Now, the first responders will have to show the administrative agency why they should not lose their licenses."

I'd think bringing Mr Harrison, the bite victim, to the hearing would do.

Speaking of these licenses, the story mentions that the zookeepers knew what and how much antivenom and adrenaline was going to be needed to save Mr Harrison from the mamba bite.  They have no medical licenses at all as far as I know.

The information isn't cryptic, complicated or even secret.

This is a super clear case.

The victim, and the zookeeper, knew exactly what kind of snake had bitten them and what they needed to administer.  The EMT's did that.

I'm willing to bet that the wilderness EMS training is centered around, "the victim says that they got bit by some kind of snake, and they don't have any idea what kind."

You don't wanna administer the wrong antivenom and you wanna make sure the person giving it out knows how to determine the correct kind from "some kind of snake" and symptoms.

But like so many of these things, the politicians have no clue about the real world... 

PS: Before you comment; antivenom is a synonym for antivenin and it's a perfectly cromulent word.  Also, I couldn't be arsed to verify the spelling of antivenin when slamming out the post. 

Minor Disaster

GM's obsession with molded in plastic fittings on fuel tanks and radiators still baffles me.

Tonight, while removing parts to get enough room to get a tool on the GODS FORSAKEN FUCKING PINCH CLAMP on the radiator side of the lower hose...  For some fucking reason some Australian union worker put the tabs for the clamp against the core support, not facing out where you could get any tool on them.

You have to cut the hose center out, remove the fan assembly and unbolt a trans cooler line to get a special tool on it and only THEN can you have a helper pull the remains of the lower hose off the pipe.

I snapped off the fitting that leads from the radiator to the steam vent line.

Expletives were expressed.

This is a common problem with the PPV and there's a ready solution.

Get a 1/8 NPT 5/16" hose barb.

Drill and tap for 1/8 NPT into the plastic where the fitting used to be.

Epoxy the shit out of the hose barb, screw it in, let the epoxy set, drive on.

Or buy a $180 radiator that will have the same fragile plastic fitting.

I've chosen a nice black anodized aluminum fitting.

Pretty fetching, no?

So we're in a holding pattern until Sunday.  SIGH.

The new hoses do look amazing!  I had not started the lower hose when I took this snap.

The lower hose.

I've replaced the pinch-clamps with the worm gear hose clamps that came with the hoses.

One Year

It is one year since Hurricane Helene hit us and we spent a whole day without power.

We got off so very light.

Pride Goeth...

I remember, in the way back, when I did my research and diligence, I selected a 650 cfm, spread-bore, vacuum-secondary carb for the 350 in my '79 Camaro.

Watching a real expert fight a 750 double-pumper mechanical secondary carb really makes me feel validated.

The carb I picked ran great!  I never regretted it.

I think that, too often, hot rodders latch onto the max-horsepower dyno result and forget that you need to drive the thing in traffic.

Mr Frieburger, I think, knows it.  He doesn't LIKE it, but he knows it.

I don't think I'd ever suffer a carburetor again.  Even a throttle-body injection system is better in my mind.  YMMV.

I do, however, long for a simple car where a computer is something I've chosen and not something I need to work around.

Depends On The Album

I've seen a meme that says that if you air-drum to a Def Leppard song with both arms you're an asshole.

I would say that any song that predates the Hysteria album is OK to use both arms, but from Hysteria on you have to limit yourself to one arm.

Good Policy

I have a friend who's law enforcement adjacent in Pinellas county, home of Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

They inform us that Pinellas has added an "open carry" response for calls from people seeing people openly carrying.

The deputy is instructed to drive past the area of sighting to confirm the carrier isn't brandishing or doing something stupid and if nothing dangerous is happening...

Just drive past.

Don't stop.

Don't hit the lights.

Don't talk to the open carrier.

Don't even slow down.

This, my friends, is what winning looks like and I rather like it.

That said:

We're in for a week of people pushing the limits intermittently and randomly.

1. Nothing has changed about where it's illegal to carry.  If it was illegal to carry concealed there last week, it's illegal to open carry today.

2. If a business doesn't want you open carrying, and they tell you to leave.  Leave.  Leave immediately, do not pass go.  Say you're sorry (even if you aren't).  Refusing to leave is armed trespass and that's felony territory.

3. Don't open carry without some sort of retention!  It also behooves you to find a class teaching about retention!

Ankle Deep

Picked up some firewood and today was the same as a week ago.

This despite the legalization of open carry in Florida.

Blood is not running in the streets.

People are not having running gunfights over minor traffic altercations.

Dogs and cats are living together.

Almost as if ALL of the naysayers were wrong.

Again.

You Gonna Fish Or Talk

The tier list post and SWJ's comment reminded me of something that's mildly irritating in the land of guns.

People pick a gun as a bragging point without regards to whether it shoots well or not.

My cheap Savage 110XP suits me just fine.  I'm still upset my phone had died and I didn't get a pic of the perfect cloverleaf 100 yard group.  I'm even more upset with myself for balling up the target in anger at my phone and not just taking the damn thing home where I had a real camera.

Besides, I happen to like Savages!

I have yet to buy a complete AR.

I buy parts and assemblies, but not complete guns.

Every single one is a "FrankenAR" of some stripe.

Mostly because the configuration I want isn't a stocked item.  You couldn't get an M16 or M16A1 clone when I made mine.  The closest you could get was a Colt SP1, and the front pin was totally wrong in addition to lots of other details.

I've watched people with high-dollar set-ups come to the range and struggle with it.

Those same people have watched me breeze into my lane, fire a few rounds to get zeroed, then enjoy shooting a box or two and leave.

While they're still struggling to get zeroed.

All the money in the world won't help if you don't understand what you're doing.

Despite my accumulative tendencies, I'm more of a shooter than a collector.  That lets me accept and enjoy guns that are downright ugly.

That rusted S&W M&P I saved with electrolysis is a great shooter!  But it's ugly.

Pawn shops have been a great source of good shootin' but bad lookin' guns.

The Lovely Harvey and I both love the Colt Challenger that Willard scored for us.  I had to modify a set of Woodsman stocks to work with it, but it's an awesome shooter despite the abuse to its finish it's seen.

My grampa's old Remington .22 is still a tack driver despite all the rust patina.

This is not to say that I don't own guns just to have them.  Grampa's .32 revolvers are not great shooters, nor are they pristine.  But they have sentimental value.

Sentiment and nostalgia might, actually, be the main driver of my purchases come to think of it. 

A couple of examples here are here just because I think they're neat!

There's no grand unifying theory.

Except:

Buy what you like.  Shooting shouldn't be a grim chore.  Shooting can be, and is, great fun!

Let yourself enjoy it and don't worry if anyone else is impressed with what you have.

Do it for yourself. 

Defining

Imagine sitting down and looking at how the Feds define things and then creating something that slips through the cracks to be the thing that's illegal without breaking the law.

It's not far fetched at all.

That is not a short barreled shotgun by the legal definitions.

But it most certainly IS a short barreled shotgun.

The difficulty in defining something legally well enough to take action is an old story.

The famous one is about obscenity and the judge saying, "I know it when I see it!" 

Just like that Remington really is a short barrel shotgun, groups like Antifa have organized themselves around the gaps in the law and that keeps them from being prosecuted even though what they're up do is exactly what would normally trigger a response from law enforcement.

Everyone can see they are, but legally they are not.

But I think that the weasel room is going to get very narrow soon because the ham sandwich indictment method leaves no outs and the FBI will just start nailing them on any of the three felonies a day we all commit unknowingly.

A couple deals is all it takes to break this up.

I would not be shocked to find West Taiwan at the heart of all this dissent either. 

Halloween Nears

The Lovely Harvey and I consider Halloween our Christmas in terms of decorating and having fun.

This year She wanted to put a Grim Reaper in our annual graveyard.

After seeing that a life sized reaper is $300...

Off to YouTube!

I think we're still under $50 at this point:

That's a 3/4" PVC frame and a couple of canvas painter's drop cloths with some skeletal hands stolen from a broken decoration.

She's going to paint the canvas and we're looking for better hands.

I'm making a scythe. 

 

Orc

From what I've seen on YouTube, D&D has made Orcs people.

I did that 30 years ago.

Yawn.

Once I'd made them people, I kept them the bad guys.

The nations of my little fantasy world were each dominated by a given race and there were two nations which were run by Orcs.

Those nations were aggressive and expansionist.  One was also a theocracy, although it never came up in play.

The campaign did not last long, but I got FuzzyGeff's Elf who identified as an Orc from it.

This is also the world where the languages were national.  The two orc nations spoke different languages that were related to each other like Portuguese and Spanish.

Languages being national and there being TWO "Orcish" languages really upset a portion of the players.

But, I managed to keep the bad guys the bad guys and to let them be people.

I, unlike WOTC, remembered that even Nazis were people.  The Khmer Rouge were people.  The West Taiwanese Communist Party are people.  Antifa are people.  KKK are people.

Making the Orc religion specify that an Orc is the race made in the image of God also made the Orc nations somewhat racist too.  The non-theocracy even made the racism policy in a bizarre way that led to FuzzyGeff's Elf/Orc.

Only Orcs can be full citizens.  Because Orc is the pinnacle of perfection, God says so, only an Orc can defeat an Orc.  FuzzyGeff's character passed the rites of combat to be recognized as a citizen, despite his hideous and misshapen appearance.

It led to some fun role playing at least. 

Membah Dis*

I am old enough to remember when it was explained that you could lose your job over politics and it was not a violation of the first amendment because the Bill of Rights only applies to government.

I am old enough to remember when it was explained that you could be deplatformed and it was not a violation of the first amendment because the Bill of Rights only applies to government.

I remember lots of things that when, finally, applied to Democrats and Liberals suddenly become "different." 

* Read the title like one of the lost children from Beyond Thunderdome.

He Makes Some Good Points

For me the entire point was never to open carry, but to get sheriffs like Judd off my ass when my conceal fails because they can't understand brief and unintentional.

But making open carry illegal because it's tactically unsound?  Fuck off.

Any Fucking Day Now

This year has sucked for heat.

We got summer early and it looks like we're gonna get autumn late.

There's things I wanna get done and don't wanna risk heat-stroke to do.

Just restringing our halloween light strips was pushing my stand in the hot sun limit.

I've noticed that sometimes I just have no temperature regulation.  I'll overheat for no apparent reason; so when I overheat WITH a reason I'm distressed. 

Tier Lists Are Stupid

If you were around the AR world a while ago, you're familiar with the tier list.

Basically it was a bullshit list that tried to track how different an AR was from a genuine milspec M4.

The biggest problem with that list was the assumption that milspec was best quality.

This has triggered a rash of guntubers making tier lists for bolt action hunting guns, but only by manufacturer, not by model.

Which reveals some specious reasoning.

Savage gets a low tier rating because they make the Axis.

So don't buy ANY Savage because the Axis is cheap and the guntuber doesn't like how they feel.

The more detailed explanation is very analogous to "The Ford Escape is a shitty pickup, so don't buy any Fords."

I also noticed that the stratification didn't include any shooting... 

 

I've Seen A Little On TV

I've amended my presidential military service post and tried to differentiate between serving at all, serving during a war and actually being a combat vet.

If you spot an error, comment on THAT post s'il vous plaît. <- Froggish spelling corrected.

It's Not Really Over

The two affiliates that got Kimmel pulled in the first place, Sinclair and Nexstar, have decided to continue preempting the show.

That's close to 70 stations that aren't carrying the show and a significant number of the total channels that could.

Advertisers are taking note.

Rumor has it that the number of eyes on the streaming service is very low, and advertisers had already noticed.

The show was probably doomed before he got stupid(er).

Seems Similar

Listening to all these celebrities complain about how Jimmy Kimmel got treated makes me think of drug dealers complaining about a local pusher getting arrested.

I'm just not seeing someone who isn't a dancing monkey themselves bitching too hard. 

Fall

It is now the Autumnal Equinox!

Not The First To Notice

Jimmy Kimmel is still free to say anything he wants.

Charlie Kirk is not.

There's a significant difference you mouth breathing morons!

Jimmy Kimmel is not being kept from saying anything he wants because he was fired.  Being unemployed doesn't stop you from talking.

What he forgot was while he was an employee of ABC, he was not allowed to use their soapbox to promote his own speech unless it coincided with what ABC wanted to say.

Until he said what he said about the Charlie Kirk murderer, ABC was OK with what he had to say because it didn't affect the bottom line.

After he said it, though, Kimmel became a liability with ABC affiliates refusing to air his show.

Advertisers don't pay unless a show plays, so...

Even then, he was offered a chance to apologize and continue his show.  He vociferously declined this opportunity.  Even after being told that if he didn't say he was sorry he'd be fired.

But the speed with which the decision was made makes me wonder if Mr Kimmel was already wearing his welcome thin at corporate.

ALSO!

Mr O'Brien, he wasn't fired for criticizing the administration.  He was fired for saying bullshit lies about whose tribe Kirk's murderer belonged to.  Maybe you should get your resume in order, because I'll bet people are sending messages to your sponsors right now.

They Forgot To Build Quit Into This Guy

Perhaps the most wounded soldier ever.

Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart. VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO

He was shot in the face, head, stomach, groin, ankle, leg, hip and ear. He was also blinded in his left eye, survived two plane crashes, tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp and tore off his own severely injured fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war."

Glock Magazine Quick-Disassembly Tool

After struggling with the Otis tool, I wondered if there was a better way.

Real-Avid must have as well!

It works so much better!

You put the button on the post sticking out horizontally:

Then you push down against the bar, that levers the base off the little tabs.

Then you put the hole in the baseplate over the vertical post and slide the body back:

It drops the baseplate and locking plate into the little tray and you just lift the body up and the spring remains controlled.

You can reverse that last step to reassemble them!

Works with Glock 21 magazines too!

This is so much better than the Otis one, I highly recommend!

The underside is also a magazine unloader.

Any GURPS Cliffhangers Player Could Have Told You

 

 

The Colt R75 Monitor, a variant of the BAR, was first offered for sale in 1925.

All you needed was money.  No background check.  No waiting period.  No tax stamp.

Just plunk down your cash on the counter and head home to bankrupt yourself buying .30-06 to feed it.

Did I say counter?

Mailing a check to Colt could get you one delivered by the Post Office in six to eight weeks! 

A Question Of Rank (Updated 21SEP25)

A thought occurred to me reading about civilian control of the military. I remember Bill Clinton as being the first president in a long time who hadn't served. That got me to thinking about what rank the various presidents attained in the Military.

Note that the "reserve" does not mean "not active duty". The military has long divided the officers into regular and reserve.

I am showing election to election unless there's a death or resignation for the dates.

2024-2028 Donald Trump -- No military service.
2020-2024 Joe Biden -- No military service.
2016-2020 Donald Trump -- No military service.
2008-2016 Barack Obama -- No military service.

2000-2008 George W Bush -- 1st Lieutenant (O-2) -- Air Force -- No combat
1992-2000 Bill Clinton -- No military service.
1988-1992 George H W Bush -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1980-1988 Ronald Reagan -- Captain (O-3) -- Army Reserve -- No Combat
1976-1980 Jimmy Carter -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy -- No Combat
1974-1976 Gerald Ford -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1968-1974 Richard Nixon -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2
1963-1968 Lyndon Johnson -- Commander (O-5) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat (disputed)
1960-1963 John Kennedy -- Lieutenant (O-3) -- Navy Reserve -- WW2 Combat
1952-1960 Dwight Eisenhower -- General of the Army (O-11) -- Army -- WW1 and WW2
1945-1952 Harry Truman -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- WW1 Combat
1932-1945 Franklin Roosevelt -- No military service.
1928-1932 Herbert Hoover -- No military service.
1923-1928 Calvin Coolidge -- No military service.
1920-1923 Warren Harding -- No military service.
1912-1920 Woodrow Wilson -- No military service.
1908-1912 William Taft -- No military service.
1900-1908 Teddy Roosevelt -- Colonel (O-6) -- Army -- Spanish/American War Combat
1896-1900 William McKinley -- Brevet Major (O-5) -- Army -- Civil War
1892-1896 Grover Cleveland -- No military service. Drafted for Civil War and paid his way out of service.
1888-1892 Benjamin Harrison -- Brevet Brigadier General (O-7) -- Army -- Civil War
1884-1888 Grover Cleveland -- Same guy as 1892-1896
1881-1884 Chester Arthur -- Quartermaster General (O-7) -- New York Militia -- No Combat
1880-1881 James Garfield -- Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1876-1880 Rutherford Hayes -- Brevet Major General of Volunteers (O-8) -- Army -- Civil War
1868-1876 Ulysses Grant -- General of the Army (O-10) -- Army -- Civil War
1865-1868 Andrew Johnson -- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- No Combat
1860-1865 Abraham Lincoln -- Captain (O-3) -- Illinois Militia -- No Combat
1856-1860 James Buchanan -- Private (E-1) -- Army -- War of 1812 -- Only enlisted president!
1852-1856 Franklin Pierce -- Brigadier General of Volunteers (O-7) -- Army -- Mexican/American War
1850-1852 Millard Fillmore -- Major (O-5) -- Army -- No Combat
1848-1850 Zachary Taylor -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- War of 1812, Blackhawk War, Second Seminole War and Mexican/American War
1844-1848 James Polk -- Colonel (O-6) -- Tennessee Militia -- No Combat
1841-1844 John Tyler -- Captain (O-3) -- Virginia Militia -- War of 1812
1840-1841 William Harrison -- Major General (O-8) -- Army -- Northwest Indian War and War of 1812
1836-1840 Martin Van Buren -- No military service.
1828-1836 Andrew Jackson -- Major General (O-8) -- Continental Army and Army -- Revolutionary War, Creek War, War of 1812 and First Seminole War
1824-1828 John Quincy Adams -- No military service.
1816-1824 James Monroe -- Major (O-5) -- Continental Army and Virginia State Troops -- Revolutionary War
1808-1816 James Madison -- Colonel (O-6) -- Orange County Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1800-1808 Thomas Jefferson -- Colonel (O-6) -- Virginia Militia -- No Combat
1796-1800 John Adams -- No military service.
1788-1796 George Washington -- General of the Armies of the United States (O-12?) -- Continental Army, Armies of the United States, Virginia Militia -- French and Indian War and Revolutionary War.

What If They're Right

Several fantasy settings present dark elves as a racist offshoot of elves that are looking to purify the world.

Normally, they're depicted as a branch off of preexisting elfdom. 

But what if they're the original lineage?  The high elves and wood elves being debased and unpure splits from the pure, master, elf race?  What if it's not just dark elf marketing?

I think it'd be funny if elves started as the creation of one of the evil gods and the non-dark races of elves started as heretical branches who rejected the evil god and started fighting for good!

It might explain why the dwarves don't trust them.  They just know that those damn elfs will be reverting to their evil god worshiping ways and century now...  Just you watch, any millennia now...  We're ready, why aren't you?

It'd Drive Us Insane

If you have clerics, you have deities.  Or deity.

I found a video talking about making the Holy better than the default set that comes with your setting book.

The section on aspects was neat.

But the mention of Shinto really got me.  It reminded me of the Romans too.

Everything has a little god that's in charge of a teeny little space.  The Romans called them house gods.

Car guys get it.  You have to make sacrifices to the garage gods or your 10mm socket disappears and the car overheats.

But all those little gods have a lot of power in their teeny space.  The cleric of the village god would have a lot of pull in the village, but none just over the hill.

The sanctity map would be nuts.

I don't think I'm bored enough to do this yet. 

In Point Of Fact

Did you know that the speech pattern for talking like a pirate was made up by an actor?

Actually talking like a pirate from the first golden age of piracy would have a decidedly Shakespearean tone.

We're not too far off modern American English for the second golden age. 

Not Shocked

Based on the flying monkey attacks a while ago, I am totally not shocked to find nurses running at the mouth about their political opinions over Charlie Kirk.

But a clear take away from a lot of them was that there's a shortage of nurses, especially since COVID.

We're now firing nurses for having a political opinion, why would we do that when there's a shortage?

Because these nurses have, essentially, expressed that someone whose political opinions align with Charlie Kirk might not get their best level of care.  Or worse.

Unlike the flying monkeys, these nurses are saying they'd let someone die over their politics.