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Lemonade

November 21, 2014, 4:56 am
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I'm not a fan of the Real ID Act.  If any of my more liberal friends had stopped the Bush=Hitler shit long enough I would have mentioned it to them.  I've occasionally muttered to myself that it was a reason for the Democrat retaking of the Senate.

I think I've found a way to make lemonade out of this lemon.

There's a segment of illegal immigrants who don't cause any real problems and one could even make a solid case that their presence is a real benefit.

The huge problem is there's a larger segment that's merely devouring entitlement benefits without making any contribution.

My solution?  You need some form of Real ID to obtain bennies and couple it with requiring such ID to vote.  With the savings obtained from such a filter on services we could make the ID free to any citizen who has the accompanying paperwork to obtain such.
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Ring-Ding-Did-A-Little-La-Di-Oh, Ring-Di-Diddly-Eye-Oh,

November 21, 2014, 1:14 pm
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Minifig piper, with anti-lego pipe.
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Practice What I Carry

November 21, 2014, 6:28 pm
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I pocket carry a J-frame.

It's a .357 S&W 640-3.

With pink grips!


That'n in fact.

I admit I was loathe to practice with it at all before I put in the Apex trigger kit (On the recommendation of the lovely Jennifer's Head.)

That made the trigger pleasant enough that shooting it wasn't a chore.  The pink Hogue grips also made it so that shooting it wasn't painful.  Deflagging it made it so that I wasn't worried about it locking up when I needed it.

It's just never occurred to me to not use the same loads in practice as carry.  I'm still a hot mess reloading quickly, mostly because very few ranges around here allow for it during "free range".

I am getting a lot better.  If I "aim" as fast as I can at the head I am making a nice group (5") right around the sternum at about 7 yards.  Which is a lot better than it was, where if two bullets hit the silhouette I was good...  Every time I run through 50 rounds the holes are getting closer to where I think I aimed.

Taking my time I can almost get all five to touch.  Time I almost certainly won't have in a real situation, maybe.  Opinion varies.  I do notice that every 50 rounds of practice slow and sure has a noticeable positive effect on the speed round too.

It's like my old shotokan and kenjutsu classes are still applicable...  Master the form, once you have form, speed follows, once you have speed, power follows; but it starts with form.

I practice with my .38 Super 1911 too, but that thing is so familiar and sweet that I have to sabotage something to get bad groups and even then they're not very large or off.


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Absolutely Fascinating

November 21, 2014, 9:50 pm
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More On Stoner 63 Weights

November 22, 2014, 10:26 am
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What I cannot find is a complete break-down of what things weigh.

As I said before, I extrapolated the weights of some parts.

What would be nice is to have how much the common parts weigh so the intrepid player can have the parts for a different configuration in their pack.

Having the conversion parts at the ready is kind of a fool's errand.

There are three sight sets: rifle/carbine, belt feed and top feed.  There are two handguards: rifle/carbine and belt/top feed.

The folding stock fits on the belt/top configurations, but will block the ejection port on the top feed and can't be locked folded on the belt feed because it hits the box/drum.

There are five barrels.  Rifle, carbine, top feed (automatic rifle), short belt (commando) and long belt (LMG).  Carrying a spare barrel makes some player character sense because it changes the bulk but the commando MG barrel has an increased chance for malf.

The real advantage that the design seems to have is the common core of the gun is the same, thus cheaper for the Army and simpler for the armorer.

I also discovered that M numbers were assigned thanks to wikipedia.

XM22 is the rifle, XM23 is the carbine, XM207 is the LMG.  E1 is added for 63A and E2 for 1:9 twist barrels...

That last is interesting.  We didn't start thinking in terms of 1:9 until the NATO ammunition trials in the late '70s; long after the Army had rejected the gun for service.

This has me thinking of another alt to add to T2K.  While not simpler than the M16 to make, the Stoner is at least possible with more primitive tooling because it skips aluminum forgings.  Instead of the M16EZ we have the M22...
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Important Disassembly Tip!

November 22, 2014, 12:37 pm
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If you ever decide to take the stocks off your Baby Browning...

If the small pin at the heel starts moving with the stock, stop pulling!

That pin holds the magazine catch, magazine safety and the associated spring.

Getting everything lined back up for reassembly is a super fiddly job.

But should it happen to you...

The spring goes in first with the open part of the hook facing the magazine well and the main coil going into the recess in the butt.

The magazine catch has to go over the end of the gun first, if you line up the pivot hole first you can't get it all the way in.  So hook it over the end of the butt, then push the pivot hole to line up with the pin hole.

This is harder than it sounds.

I used a 1/16" punch to line things up roughly.

Now that the catch is lined up with your punch, slide the pin in so it engages JUST one side of the magazine catch.

The magazine safety has a notch on the top that hooks the sear pin.  Hook it then pivot it down between the legs of the magazine catch.  The half circle's open side should be towards the magazine well.

Fiddle with it until you can drive the pin through all the parts.

See also this handy picture at Numrich.
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Lawful Orders

November 23, 2014, 1:14 pm
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It occurs...

That since the executive order on immigration exceeds his authority, that means that nobody is bound to follow it and those that do are culpable.

I was just following orders is not a positive defense.

It's high time we started enforcing on the enforcers.

I am at a complete loss as to what that would mean, but it feels good.

It seems that we have dereliction of duty at a minimum on many DHS officials, they live someplace and those places have law enforcement, someone should arrest them.

Not that it would happen since they tend to live places where the local law agrees with them.
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Turn Of Phrase

November 23, 2014, 2:22 pm
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I'm reading a Small Arms Review interview with Reed Knight.

He refers to the system in the AR as, "gas impingement," not "direct impingement."

That's veddy interestink.

Almost as if he considers them separate and distinct.
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Oh Gods Dammit!

November 23, 2014, 10:00 pm
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See that line behind you Thag?

Yes I do...

Went over the line again!

Like the edge of a cliff in the dark, it's only clear once you're past it.
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Airsoft

November 23, 2014, 10:34 pm
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G&P makes a Stoner Mk23 Mod 0 in two configurations.

This tickles my giggler so much!

$400 for a battery powered plastic bb launcher...

More than I got for such frippery, but it's amusing none the less.
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Everyone Laughs

November 23, 2014, 11:52 pm
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Everyone laughs at you for owning a broadsword.

But black friday rolls around and you've got the door-buster 75" flat-screen when you just drove to the store at opening time without camping out all night.

Who's laughing now?
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Not Dangerous

November 24, 2014, 12:00 am
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Geese are not dangerous.

They are aggressive and mean, but they aren't dangerous.

Their stupid bird necks break readily should they decide to get within opposable thumb range because not only are we smarter, we're faster and more coordinated.

What they can do might hurt, might even draw blood, but you're not likely to die from it.

The goose, very likely to die from what most any human can do to it.
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Have You Seen This Gun

November 24, 2014, 5:50 am
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Smith and Wesson M&P357 serial DXW5180.

Stolen from The Lovely Harvey's glovebox between 0130 and 0630 this morning.

Because she works on a college campus, she can't carry at work, so it gets transferred from purse to glovebox and back a lot.  With the hectic short work week and end-of-month crap she had about six times as much stuff to shuffle when she got home from work Friday and it was overlooked in the glovebox.

They took her iPod as well.

The car was locked, but it appears that The Boy may not have gotten his door latched all the way when they got home from running around Saturday.  No damage to the car and not one print to be lifted.

Fucking thieves, may they burn in hell.
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Offensive

November 25, 2014, 7:17 am
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I have two posts battering around in my skull that really aren't meant to be offensive.

But every time I try to write out what I am trying to say...

Three edits later and I have it toned down to racist misogynism.

That's not at all what I am meaning, but it sure is how it's reading.

I'll keep trying.  There's got to be a way to phrase this thought that doesn't come out wrong.
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Responsible

November 25, 2014, 2:17 pm
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A thing about date rape that's bugging me.

I am responsible for everything I do while I'm drunk, including driving my car into a tree.

Why then isn't a woman still responsible enough to say yes or no to sex while drunk?

That driving my car while drunk is a bad decision is why it's illegal; but being drunk doesn't let me blame the tree.

Why are woman exempt from the responsibility for saying yes to sex while drunk.  Why just women?

There's lots of analogies that kind of illustrate something is amiss.

Except for a woman getting plastered and having sex she regrets, we blame the person who got drunk for what happens later.

I get drunk, run over a pedestrian, I'm blamed.

I get drunk, wander into traffic and get run over, I'm blamed.

I get drunk, bet my mortgage payment on black.  The casino is not blamed for the marble landing on red.

It's bugging me.
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Blaming The Victim

November 25, 2014, 2:24 pm
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Part of the problem that come from "blaming the victim" is not so much the definition of blame, but whether there was a victim in the first place.

"You're blaming the victim," is intended to stop the conversation just like accusations of racism.

What I am seeing is too many SJW cases, there isn't really a victim.

That's what many of these debates are actually about, whether something that was previously victimless has become something that has a victim.  I notice that victim status is something that's sought very eagerly by some and it never leads to anything good when they do.
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Pity Party

November 25, 2014, 4:14 pm
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It just hit me that I have never, once, changed anyone's mind on anything.

I've shared my opinion, sometimes people have found that convincing, but only if they didn't already have an opinion on that topic, no matter what it was.

It bothers me that I lack any credibility at all.

Especially so since I've tried several times to be more credible only to discover that the effort always contains some fatal flaw that nullifies it completely in support of the argument I'm attempting at the time.

I quite often feel baited into venturing an opinion because I honestly think some of the people I talk to share the conversation with others as a sort of, "look at this idiot!" thing.  I am sure the response is along the lines of, "wow, he thinks he's smart and he's too stupid to see you're playing him like this?  Bravo!"

It's depressing because I really don't talk about things I don't give a shit about.  To suspect that the things that matter to me are being used as a punchline really does kind of hurt.
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The Federal Budget Issue

November 25, 2014, 5:05 pm
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Well worth the 20 minutes of your time.







I think he's missed something though, IIRC insurance companies are specifically exempted from the anti-trust laws.
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Go Go Black Friday

November 29, 2014, 5:06 pm
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I have procured a replacement for the stolen M&P 357.

An M&P 9!

It's a 2008 made full size.  No internal lock, no external safety, forgot to check for the magazine disconnect.

We were going to look for ammo and the price was too good to pass up.

$425 on the tag, but 20% off all used guns Friday only... $340 plus tax and background check!

It gets better.  It appears to be nearly unfired, nothing missing from inside the factory hard-case.

The only snag is that we can't pick it up until the stupid 30 day hold on used guns expires.

Stupid policy, if you ask me, but...  Actually I am not sure if it's store policy or some foolish county ordnance.

That's a dent in the finances, but we expect some return from the car insurance for the stolen gun as soon as we get a police report to send in to make a claim.
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I Finally Get It

November 30, 2014, 12:22 pm
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Most Youtube product reviews are for people who for one reason or another cannot or will not go to the manufacturer's web page and READ about the product.

Plus 90% of them would be better served just running an audio recording over a fixed image.  A still life they reach into to pat the product lovingly from time to time while they drone on and on and on and on and on and on... doesn't justify making a video.  What they're making is a podcast that takes up a lot of space on their hard drive.
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