Annual ATF

Dissapator Dottie.

Coors Banquet Beer.

HC Cigars Series White Shadegrown.
 

Almost 8 Million

 In March I said that I'd broken five million visitors.

It too me three years to go from three to five million and less than a year to add another three.

Thank you, dear readers, for stopping by and reading my humble ramblings.

May 2026 treat you better than 2025!

Fine By Me

Governor Walz accuses President Trump of politicizing the massive levels of fraud occurring in Minnesota.

Fine.

If politicizing it means that it will end and the perpetrators are punished then let's be political about it!

Clearly it was already politicized because the list of states where there are large Somali colonies are not Republican controlled.

I want the fraud to end.

I want the fraudsters punished.

I want the colonists removed.

I am fine with force being used to accomplish all three things, so merely making it political doesn't bug me in the least.

Got The Heat On

It's New Year's Eve and it's time to do a cleansing sage.

That means fire.

There will be some fireworks and board games with drinking too!

Spring Tension

After learning compression, tension, torsion and shear; it drives me nuts to hear someone calling a compression spring as being under tension.

Stirring Controversy

In my experience... (second only to "no shit, there we were...")

I've found that Colt has a better trigger out of the box, but that the revolver will go out of time faster than a Smith & Wesson.

S&W's triggers "wear in" to being very good after a few hundred rounds, but can be irritating right out of the box.  S&W tends to be more durable than Colt once you have years and years of shooting it.

This position is, apparently, controversial.

It is also based on a very small sample size, I haven't bought many new revolvers.

Zero Maintenance

 "Zero maintenance," is vendor code for when it breaks you have to replace the whole thing.

h/t Freefall

Upside Downside

On the down side, I might be getting to the age that I need little blue pills.

On the up side, I might need little blue pills at my age!

Godless Furrin' Ranks

I've made a table of all the military ranks to be encountered in my T2K setting.

It was not that hard, but a pain in the butt to transcribe from wikipedia to odt file.

Not every nation uses all the same ranks as the others.  Some skip ranks.

The US has four ranks (PV1, PV2, PFC, SPC) for the single rank of "private" for example. 

Also fun is the Bundeswehr Heer and Nationale Volksarmee use the same ranks, but at slightly different levels in some places.

Contact With The Enemy

Marv and FuzzyGeff are making GURPS 4e characters from my Twilight: 2000 conversion.

"Why is there this (repeated error) here?"

What error?

"This one.  Oh and another here too."

FUUUUUUUCK!

I've sent the pdf out to about a hundred people and not once did I get feedback on the character template section.

I remember the patron error.  At one time every military template had it.  Then I removed it; or so I thought.  About half the support templates still had it.

Forgetting that 4e changed shooting a select fire rifle from two skills (light-auto and rifle) to just one (rifle) also happened.  Since light-auto also encompassed light machine guns I changed Guns TL/8 (Light-Auto) to Guns TL/8 (LMG). 

Move To Hill 410

From the text as written in Funny New Guys and comparing it to the real world...

You cannot get there from here.

The text says that Plei Ya Bo is half a mile west of Firebase 23.  There is no suitable hill, so I put it 2.94 miles away on top of a 410m elevation.

The base is now 18.79 miles to Plei Hodrong Thoung; 18.09 miles to Plei Me's Special Forces camp; and 28.32 miles to the Pleiku air base.

For Sufficiently Large Definitions Of Near

Firebase 23 on Hill 562 "near" the villages of Plei Hodrong Thoung and Plei Ya Bo; 23 miles Southwest of Pleiku air field, 10 miles north of the SF Camp at Plei Me.

You might be able to embiggen...

Plei Me is the southern point of the triangle.  Plei Ya Bo is the western point, Plei Hodrong Thoung is the eastern.  Pleiku is off the map to the northeast.

Firebase 23 is at the little kink of the east-west leg of the triangle.  There is no 562m elevation there.

 It's more like Hill 450.

This is the only likely hill between the "nearby" villages and fitting the distances from the other two landmarks.

Assuming the QL19 highway is the same as Route 6C this is a good spot.  It's within the 7 mile, 105mm howitzer range of the road (about 5 miles), but too far from Plei Me (13.6 miles) to support it.

I think, now, that the "nearby" villages mark points on route 6C which is a smuggling path from over the Cambodian border rather than an actual road.  In that case, the path goes right past the firebase.

That's also why the commies want it destroyed, bringing us to the beginning of the campaign! 

Boris Please

Funny New Guys is set in 1967.

"Boris the Spider," by The Who came out in 1966.

Will spider-chimera get the, affectionate, nickname of "Boris?"

Or does Boris become the n-word for them?

Or both... depending on how mixed the company. 

We Can't

Can't stop Sharia because religious freedom.

Can't deport anyone because birthright citizenship.

Can't stop illegal aliens from... anything because they have the same rights as those here legally.

And I wonder.

Was the Constitution and Bill of Rights always a suicide pact?

Did the founders and their extensive notes and correspondence about freedom and liberty intend for it to become the chains of anarcho-tyranny? 

Because That's Why

Whenever anyone questions why you've bought any particular gun just reply, "because it delights me you joyless scold!"

I've had this conversation about my .45 Colt Anaconda a couple of time and I am fully aware that they made and make them in .44 Magnum.

Don't care.

That giant gun in the, by modern standards, under-powered round gives me the giggles and I really can't see anything changing that.

Strangely, I never see them complain about a S&W 25-5  when the Model 29 is the same gun except in .44 Magnum...

I get the same delight from my useless .25 ACP guns.

I went out of my way to find a .38 Super Gov't Model in as plain-Jane trim as I could get and then "ruined" it by putting a short trigger and arched mainspring housing on it.  It delights me to do so.

Having a clone of an M16, M16A1, M16A2 and M16A4 delights me.

The XM177E2 clone delights me even though I had to make a short barrel rifle of it and am only a fraction of an inch shorter than a 16" barrel with the moderator screwed onto the end of the 11.5" barrel. 

The purple AR delights me.

The people who are grimly utilitarian about gun ownership should really start relaxing.

Once your needs are met, Maslow, you can move up the pyramid. 

PEQ-2 Mounting In More Detail

In the dark times, before there were Rail Adapter Systems, you clamped a bracket to your barrel:

Then you put on your handguards and attach a mount to the bracket through the holes in the handguard and then attached the AN/PEQ-2 to the mount.

SIMPLE! 

The advent of RAS makes it a lot simpler:

You just mount the bracket straight to the RAS handguard and Robert is your mother's brother.
 

Cyberpunk

I've done a few attempts at doing Cyberpunk.

They run into problems.

The biggest one is something that happens to a lot of campaigns.  People stop showing up on the regular so you can't plan on their role in the party.

The setting itself is a bit of a problem since most of the books are (were?) single protagonist and most games are multi-player.

But the biggest problem is the net-runner part.

First, too many friends knew that computers did not work that way, and would be stupid to make them work that way.

Even accepting that computers work that way, the guy with the deck gets their own mini-adventure while the rest of the party twiddles their thumbs.

The two most successful versions of it I ran didn't have the net-runner deal.

One was like combining Navy SEALS and Sneakers.  It was fun, but the party got butchered by a competing team.

The other was having the party be cops in 2037 Des Moines.  That worked shockingly well.

Doing a Shadowrunesque version with GURPS worked pretty well, and the reason computers worked like the fiction was magic computers are inherently so much faster and near unlimited storage as compared to silicon that the security shit you have to put up with is worth it.

That's the only time I've ever seen anyone try to explain why computers don't work like the real world. 

Power To Truth

 

 

There's a reason I have a '12 Caprice PPV not a '68 Chevelle.

Totally Worth It

 

A DIY sequential fuel injection conversion for a 1978 280Z!

Spoiler...  At the end he gets it back to stock power and mileage.

I'm guessing that it will be a lot more driveable.

Why didn't it make more power than the stock rating?  Those things are determined by the mechanical parts he didn't touch.

He got power back because he fixed the parts that had become too worn to work and were too complex to properly troubleshoot.  Even Sarah-N-Tuned just replaced everything with new-old-stock. 

Cart Ahead Of The Horse

While double checking a couple items for T2K, like the AN/PEQ-2, I noticed that they all pre-date rail systems that are common today.

"That's impressive, where on the rifle does it go?"

Doesn't that looks like a pain in the ass when it comes time to inspect under the handguards?

Proprietary mountings were the norm before the widespread adoption of Picatinny rails. 

Character Building Exercise

Tomorrow I have to get two of my players to make a couple of characters in advance of FuzzyGeff's imminent (not eminent you stupid autocorrupt) arrival.

JT needs a Funny New Guys AND a Twilight: 2000 character.

Marv just needs a T2K.

I have suggested that Marv make a 27 year younger version of himself and create a former Pershing II missile technician.  Making yourself as a character has a long history for helping figure out the rules in a skill based game.  Marv was once an electronics technician for the MGM-29 Sergeant.

Marv's character's commanding officer, "Well, we've fired all the rounds we had and there will be no more made...  Here's a rifle, welcome to the infantry!"

Marv's character, "FUCK!" 

T2K has the Pershing II making it to 1997 because the INF treaty wasn't on anyone's radar in 1985 when T2K was first published.  I think one of the modules even mentions a ruined city having been hit by one. 

"Vote For Me Because I Hate Jews!" <-- Not My Position

Governor DeSantis is term limited from running again.

That means every "Republican" in the world is putting their foot in the ring.

So far I have gotten Fecesbook recommended posts from two that are all about divesting from Israel.

Oh and some family first stuff too, but divest from Israel!

SIGH.  I thought BDS was done.

Just as a lot of Jews were considering jumping ship from voting Democrat to voting Republican too.

I recommend they register Republican so they can help pick a gubernatorial candidate who's not aligned with the National Socialist American Worker's Party.

Some of the verbiage of that "family first" stuff sure rings familiar.

History doesn't repeat, it rhymes.

The good news, however, is these people don't seem to capturing much in the way of voter recognition. 

Made Out Pretty Well

Harvey got me this absolutely deadly projectile weapon!

The "primers" are the triggers and the spring that lobs the plastic projectile is contained inside the case.  The problem is when you load a round and close the action, the "primer" hits the breech face and goes off.

3D printing makes for a lot of fun!

A sword shaped dice box was not something I'd even thought of, and here it is.

Willard gave the best gift, though!

He says that it's been whining about being at his house among the Smith and Wessons.

If it looks familiar, it's the same gun I sold him to pay for my air conditioning a few years ago.

When To Be Weird

FuzzyGeff did some weird for T2K by making a sniper that thought his M21 rifle was enchanted.  The stock was carved with runes and he spoke words over it at night to maintain the magic.  This character and his rifle made two incredible rolls in a row that affirmed his belief AND convinced a couple of the other characters that it was magic in action.

This is being weird correctly.

Then there was Doug.  We shall call him Doug because that is his name.

Doug wholeheartedly embraced the idea that you could make ANYTHING with GURPS.

And he did.

The problem was he didn't do so within the confines of being a member of the party or adherence to the concepts of the world.

Doug was a disruptive agent.

He routinely did not take hints and resented when more blatant methods were used.

Nothing we tried would get him to get along with the party, so I eventually had to ban him from my table.

The New Mauser

The AR-15 has become the new Mauser.

Just about everyone is converting to some variation of the AR now.  Some closer to the original than others...

 

Just Like Grampa

The Sportsmaster only gets a decent cleaning once a decade.

It doesn't NEED cleaned like an arms room was taking it back.

I always do the bore after I get home, but most of the time let the mechanism get dirty.

And .22 rimfire always leaves a lot of gunk behind.

Mechanical Version

The 5.9 lb. AN/PVS-2 gives Night Vision 4.

Compare that to the natural vision of Chimera in Funny New Guys. 

Coyote and Foxes have better night vision than the mechanical device and they don't need batteries.

They also don't suffer from color blindness, no depth perception and no peripheral vision while using their night vision.

We Have G41 At Home

PTR is making a version of the H&K G41.

 They announced it about two years ago, and they're getting close to producing them.

$1,800 MSRP.

Spot the differences!

 

Bingo Fuel

"Shockingly" the fuel gauge in The Beast is inaccurate.

This is typical of GM.

The "Driver's Information Center" display will show me how many miles I have remaining in the tank in 5-mile increments down to 35 miles then change to "LOW".

At this point, the "Low Fuel" alarm will go off.

The distance is based on the current average miles per gallon the system calculates and the fuel remaining in the tank...

How many gallons are in the tank with fewer than 35 miles remaining displayed and 16.4 mpg average?

My math says less than two gallons in the tank.

The tank is 19 gallon capacity.

The low fuel light comes on with 4 gallons remaining.  I know this because when I refuel with the low fuel alarm on, it accepts 15 gallons of fuel not 17.

And Another Thing

I've seen the press complain that several suggested (and implemented) means of deporting illegal aliens makes them "second class citizens."

For fuck's sake, for a profession that's supposed to be highly educated in the use of words and language you sure don't seem to know what words mean.

They can't be second class citizens because they're not even citizens!

A black person in Jim Crow Mississippi is a second class citizen.  That person has every right to be there and every expectation to the same rights and privileges as every other citizen.  That they weren't getting all the same rights and privileges is WHY they were second class citizens.

An illegal alien isn't a citizen, is present in the country in violation of the law and should have no expectation of the rights and privileges of a citizen.

Acting otherwise is causing a mind boggling amount of problems. 

It Is Not Of Course

I've seen several pro-gun lawyers saying that illegal aliens have gun rights because, of course, they have all the other rights like free speech and protections from illegal search and seizure.

But I think that's wrong.

I think that they don't have all those other rights because of the illegal nature of their presence.

They get the illusion of those rights because the process must not violate the rights of people whom are here legally.

The police must operate on the off chance that the person they are arresting is actually a citizen and behave accordingly; this gives the appearance that the illegals have rights.

PS: If a prison in El Salvador is unacceptable, we COULD release them in Atlantis.  What?  You never heard from them again?  Atlantis is very nice... 

Did I Mention?

The Remington 341A Sportsmaster that Harvey was shooting was bought new by my mom's dad in 1938.

It's not the only gun he left me.  I got his pipe too!

Missing from the guns he left me is a .25 ACP pocket pistol.  We think that went to my uncle's family.

I wanted that gun, but I don't begrudge them it.

Lasagne

Christmas Eve is Chinese food.

Mom started that tradition with her friends by going to a restaurant in Ames called The Mandarin.  There's an empty lot there now.

I carried the tradition to Florida with me.

Christmas dinner is lasagna.  Rather, it's lasagne.  Grampa always spelled it with an 'e', so it's a tradition!

I think I started this one because my mom wasn't a big turkey eater and once a year at Thanksgiving sated her for a year.

She didn't like shopping for, or cooking, a ham when there were so few mouths for dinner and leftovers.

So I suggested we just make a lasagne on year and it stuck.

My friends came out of the wood-work for that where they kinda avoided turkey or ham...

So I keep up the tradition because Harvey is not a big turkey eater and we JUST had ham for Thanksgiving...

Things to bear in mind...

Lasagna does not have egg in it.  I blame the Irish of New York for this abomination.  I don't care if they're actually guilty.  (wink)

We use cottage cheese instead of manicotti ricotta (don't do a lot of "holiday cheer" before posting kids).  Great grandma was never satisfied with the manicotti ricotta she could get in Iowa and was happy with cottage cheese.  So we just kept using it in our own recipes.

I don't make my own noodles, great grandma did.  I don't make my own sausage, great grandma did.  I don't make my own sauce, great grandma did...

Mom and grandma taught me to make all of those and showed me that store-bought was the same if you picked the right brands.  Barilla, Winn-Dixie house brand hot, Hunt's garlic and herb.

The way I've remembered making it comes out VERY wet if you eat it right out of the oven.

The next day in the microwave it's awesome.

Last year I discovered that if I cooked it on Christmas Eve, put it in the fridge and then cooked it again on Christmas Day...  PERFECT!  350° until the cheese is all melty on day one.  375° until the cheese is browned on day two.  Everything else is already cooked before assembly so it really only needs to get melted and hot.

Every Woman A Riflewoman

After many years of strengthening and therapy, and no small amount of anxiety, Harvey has fired a long gun from the robo-shoulder!

My grampa's old rat-slayer still works great!

We ran it at 7 yards because she was familiar with that distance.

History Trivia

The book Les Liaisons Dangereuses is set in the same year it was published, 1782.

Since it's main characters are all French nobility, they only have seven to ten years or so before the revolution overtakes them.

Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil will not have to suffer her humiliation long...

Found On Facebook

From the NAGR Facebook feed.

How are you supposed to tell a threat from someone going about their life?

Gonna answer your question with a question.

Are they being threatening or going about their life?

If they are going about their life, then you're fine.  This will be 99.99999999999999999999999% of the gun owners you see open carrying.

Even if they are carrying at you.  Which isn't actually being threatening with a gun, it's just being really blatant and obvious that they ARE carrying a gun.  Technically they aren't going about their lives, they're carrying a gun openly as the only thing they are doing.  Ignore them.  They're attention seeking and don't feed the trolls.

A threat will be pointing the gun at people.  Probably followed by shooting the gun at people.

A decent rule of thumb for the people who are scared of open carry is, "if you wouldn't freak if a cop was carrying like that, then you shouldn't freak if a citizen is carrying like that."

One Hundred Sixty Years

Today is the day that slavery was legally abolished in the USA.

Right after a war that decided that it would be THE USA.

Since the oldest person ever verified was "just" 116 years old and the oldest person claimed was 122...

I think we're on pretty firm footing that any former slave in the United States is no longer with us.

Probably even outside their grandchildren's lives.

I'm not saying that racism and bigotry did not happen after the 13th Amendment was ratified.

I am saying to stop citing slavery when speaking of the injustices you wish to address.

Also, limit yourself to injustice that happened to YOU.  Not your brother's nephew's cousin's roommate.

Constant Irritation

I am slowly weening myself off Youtube.

I finally figured out how I spot robo-voice.  There's no variation in the pronunciations.  I'd been sitting here wondering why a given narration was so grating and finally figured it out.

The "documentary" videos are getting irritating.

The straw is a video on USS Wasp.  Nominally, it's about the flaws in her design that led to her sinking.  But they can't just talk about that.  They have to waste my time talking about her entire history up to the sinking WITHOUT saying a word about the design except the obligatory aside about the Washington Naval Treaty.

Something else that I've noticed is the plodding, slow, deliberate pace of the robo-voices.

They sound almost normal at 1.25 speed.  That tells me it's a deliberate choice to make the video length fit some Al Gore Rhythm Section.

Then there's the videos that are clearly geared at people with severe ADHD and constantly explaining in great detail things that are self-evident and backtracking to explain them in a way that interrupts the narrative. 

And I am over it. 

Zoon

The ratchet.

Though, as a mechanic, I know you CAN reverse a ratchet. 

Guntube Lawyers

I am getting sick of all the people on our side of the gun debate constantly coming up with new ideas to use in court against us.

Thankfully, it seems that what they've come up with is almost entirely theoretical still.

But the current round of speculation is about what training you've had and if your lawyer is being paid by some form of CCW insurance.

Because those things indicate "planning" to create a "self-defense" situation where you get to shoot someone.

Oh, and not getting training indicates gross irresponsibility and negligence.

There's no way out of the process as punishment.

Especially since it appears that the ccw insurers are essentially scams because of all the exit clauses built into the contract that lets them not pay for what you think you hired them to pay.