When The Technology Fails

Or what happens when you turn on your Win 7 machine and right after the blue and white welcome screen, instead of getting your desktop you get a solid black screen with a cursor that doesn't do anything.

That just sucks.

Drag the box over to Geek Street and give it to them. Meantime I'm saved by having my old XP machine that I kept because it had some programs I use on it that wouldn't transfer. Runs a bit slow. Maybe I should runs some maintenance on it. Start with Malware Bytes, which informs me that the malware list is about 850 days out of date and would I like to update it. Hard to believe it's been that long, but sure.

55 pieces of junk down the drain later, the machine runs much better. Run CCleaner. 850 meg of further junk later the machine seems almost back to normal. Refresh Firefox? Probably shouldn't have done that but the inconvenience was minimal. It also seems that in the last 850 days I've updated a few passwords and of course have not kept the old box current.

Sat at 8AM I go out for breakfast with some other bloggers. 9:30 Geek St calls and leaves a message that my computer is ready. D'wife is sleeping in. 10:30 I get back and immediately take off to run errands. 1 PM I get back and D'wife has gotten up and informs me that GS called and my machine is ready. I check and sure enough, they close at noon on Saturday so no new machine until Monday.

The problem here is that I've been using the Lightning add-on to keep track of my schedule and without the new machine I find I barely know what day of the week it is, never mind where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. Coming up is the IDPA match at DuMont with a rifle side match, an IDPA-style rifle only match out at Byers, a drone race at which I've been invited to bring the pedal air gun so as to let the spectators take pot shots at the racing drones with big Nerf darts, and a Weird Al concert. Last I heard, there were no actual conflicts.

4th Circuit Approves Vote Fraud

The 4th circuit court struck down NC's voter ID law saying

The federal court in Richmond found that the primary purpose of North Carolina's wasn't to stop voter fraud, but rather to disenfranchise minority voters. The judges found that the provisions "target African Americans with almost surgical precision."

Previously the 5th circuit in Texas had come to the same conclusion although the USSC had upheld Illinois and Wisconsin's similar laws. If the trend toward sanctioning vote fraud continues, perhaps some young lawyer with time on his hands could file a federal lawsuit demanding that all use of photo ID be banned as being inherently racist. 

DNC Agenda

Hillary has several ideas she'd like to implement should she avoid the Big House. Check these for starters:
http://www.atr.org/newly-released-footage-shows-hillary-s-25-gun-tax-endorsement



Not her platform, but no doubt to be favorably received:
http://modernrifleman.net/2016/07/26/new-itar-guidance-to-squeeze-small-gunsmiths/

And of course this requires funding
http://www.atr.org/full-list-hillary-s-planned-tax-hikes

Should  she get elected, what happens will depend on who controls the legislature. During the Clinton administration, the Republican house and senate told Bill how it was going to be and dared him to object. They wound up making him look like he knew what he was doing and effectively got him reelected.

Obama started out with a Dem trifecta and a veto-proof one at that. His and their actions in his first term cost him the Senate, then the House. The get-along, go-along attitude of the Republicans produced the Tea Party. They did prevent some of his antics, but the lack of pushback to president Pen-And-Phone has resulted in the most unlikely GOP candidate ever.

Still, I would venture to say that either Hillary goes to jail, or we will. A variation on that line "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

Gun Fun - IDPA for rifles

One of my gun clubs is planning to run an IDPA-style match next month with all the stages configured for carbines instead of pistols. Nearest targets will be at 35 yards and longest ones at 200 so a 4X scout scope sounds like a good idea. Also a chance to try out the accuracy fix I did to the Hi Point. Preliminary testing is giving me 3MOA groups under less than optimal conditions. I'm guessing that I can get 2MOA or better right now.
Aim points:
35 yd = zero
75 yd = 3-4 in low - aim for the neck to get the head shots
125 yd = zero
150 yd = 7 in high - aim for the neck to get the A-zone body hits
200 yd = 14 in high - aim to part the hair to get the A-zone body hits.

The AR shooters are probably thinking that this is a lot like the trajectory of a thrown rock, but it's a 165 gr rock.

Film at 11.

Due To Technical Difficulties

...beyond my control or comprehension, blogging has suffered a bit of a setback. Turning on the computer got me as far as the blue with white streaks welcoming screen followed by a fade to black with only the cursor showing. Nothing else.

Fortunately when I upgraded to the now defunct box, there were several programs I continue to use on my old XP box so I kept it and added a switch. Here I am on my XP box.

Other annoyances: I don't usually use the old box on line so several of my passwords are out of date on the old box.. Fortunately I have most of them in a text file I printed out so if I need to visit my account at say www.midgetleatherporn   loftyculturalidealism.com, I can simply consult the list and hope I updated the list when I last changed the password.

Geek Street will call me when they get around to fixing the bug, meantime it's Win XP Pro. This may delay publication of the results of the e-postal match as well so take another weekend.

How The Game Is Played

Here's a cartoon I came across describing events at the DNC convention:

Back in the 19th century the Czar of Russia had a ploy by which he appointed several cabbages from his garden to his cabinet. When some policy or other went wrong, as they sometimes do, he would mollify the peasantry by apologizing for the error and announcing that a couple of his ministers had been beheaded.

Here we are again with the misdemeanant getting the chair, and the major felon walking free.

Hillarys America - Review

This turned out to be not what I was expecting. This film by D'Souza is actually a fairly detailed history of the Democrat party from its inception about 1820 to present. Interspersed with this is some insights into D'Souza's time spent in jail for daring to criticize the president in his first film. One clip was him talking to his fellow inmates about why they were there. One for murder, one for manslaughter, one for theft, etc. Mostly pretty rough customers. They asked him what he was in for and he told them that a friend of his was running for office and he gave her too much money. This cracked the regulars up.

There was a discussion with an inmate in for fraud who described the process in some detail, and D'Souza shows how the process ties in with the Dem party line in general, and the Clintons in particular. 

The film is worth seeing as it covers bits of American history that usually get glossed over in school. I'd recommend taking your kids to see it if only for that reason. I already knew a lot of what was covered but there were several additional bits that were new to me. The production values were first rate and the performance of the national anthem at the end was over the top.

Go see it. Take a liberal.

With Enemies Like These

I remember when political conventions were like watching grass grow. Except in '68, but then only for the Donks. Today we have this. The

KKK ⁽¹⁾ , BLM⁽²⁾, and Westboro Baptists⁽³⁾ throwing urine at each other.

OK MSM, where's the video?

I can imagine the Cleveland cops observing and debating:
 "So you think we should arrest anyone?"
"Oh hell no, they're doing just fine without any help from us at all".

(1) The militant arm of the DNC
(2) Local ISIS franchise
(3) Evangelicals from another planet.

Community Organizer Doesn't Like Cops

To be fair, he doesn't really like anyone although some are featured more prominently in his speeches than others. Remember this?

After word of the arrest broke, the President weighed in during a press conference saying that while he didn’t have all the facts, “the Cambridge police acted stupidly.”

Which resulted in

But according to Van Jones, the beer summit was not a chance for both sides of the disagreement to take stock, but a media event which forced the President to “sit humbly” across from a “racist” police officer:

The poor baby. In his defense, while he doesn't seem to like anyone in general, there are holy men he seems to hold in high regard:

Smart Guns - Specs

Here is a summary of the current specs the government is putting forth for a smart gun. All the usual stuff about not working except for an authorized user, then this:

Finally, if the security device malfunctions, it must default to a state to allow the pistol to fire, and should be designed to be easy to reset or disengage in such cases.

So if one is stolen, just bang it on the ground or remove the battery and it reverts to being a "dumb gun".

Perfect.

Cars

Mine, specifically. The Camaro is what they call the "base" model which means that I was lucky to get wheels and tires on it. No big deal but what I really miss is the cruise control. After considerable digging I found that the wiring harness for the Gen 4 Camaros is complete and installing the CC is a matter of finding the components at the junk yard and bolting them in.

But...

Seems there's Gen 4(a) and gen 4(b), and I've got the (b). The b rev has an electronic throttle control so the cable set that runs the throttle and CC isn't there, nor is it readily installable. The flip side to this is that someone on one of the forums casually mentioned that the cable-less throttle includes everything required for an all electronic cruise control. The implication here is that putting it in must be easy otherwise I would have seen numerous posts on how to do it.

I need to cultivate some GM gearheads.

Update: Seems the Gen 4(b) cars with drive-by-wire have the CC function programmed into the ECU. All you need to do is install a turn signal stick with the CC controls on it, connect the tiny 4-pin connector, and you're cruisin'.  The whole operation can be done with no tools and takes about 10 minutes. Any CC equipped stick will work as long as it resembles the one you're removing. I got mine from a Buick Park Avenue at the junk yard.

Modern 3-window Coupe

Spotted this while dog walking. This needs a bit of finishing, but it's well on it's way to becoming the 3-window deuce coup of the 21st century.

Made from a Mazda pickup, with '40 Ford hood, cut down bed, gas tank in bed,

302 Ford motor, 4-speed, 4bbl, headers, etc. The dashboard was from a Chevy and had a Ford oval pasted over the word General in General Motors. A perfect over powered compact vehicle, just needs a bit of TLC and finishing. It's for sale, asking price is $4995 so I suspect it's still available.

Cleveland Police To Encourage Rioting At RNC

The Cleveland police have issued a peremptory stand down notice to its men for the upcoming RNC event. This after a local judge revised the "no riot" zone to be much smaller than was originally asked for. Got to get the protesters within rock throwing distance of the delegates I guess.

Bernies Brownshirts in all of their current variations plan to be there including some who plan to be conspicuously armed. I suppose this is from the Palliwood playbook in which you throw rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails and whatever until someone throws one back, then you fall to the ground, feign as much injury as you can, and get carried off to a waiting ambulance while the media videotapes the scene. The "ambulance" is usually someones car or pickup, and will carry the "near mortally wounded protestor" as far as around the nearest corner where he will jump out and rejoin his comrades.

My Endorsement

Here it is. Print the sticker, landscape mode, and tape it to your rear window.

Then at the polls, use a clothespin on your nose and vote for whom you will. Remember Homer Simpson:"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos."

Not Quite Gun Control

Prof Timothy Smith of the U of Minn. has a plan to at least help cover the costs of gun violence which he sees as quite reasonable. It's an annual registration fee on rifles and pistols amounting to $15/year on rifles and $200/yr on pistols. Presumably we would get little license plates to affix to our guns to which the year and month sticker would be attached.

Only a couple of problems.
Item 1 is that word "registration". It's been tried in Australia, Connecticut, New York, and Canada and the compliance rate varies from 5-20%. In less liberal areas I foresee lower rates.
Item 2 is that you're assessing a tax on an enumerated right, you know like voting. Of course if Hill gets elected the poll tax may see a revival and I'm sure her Supreme court will see nothing wrong with that.

My suggestion if you really want to reduce the number of gun deaths in this country would be to attack not the guns, but the users. Since the professor has no problem with a poll tax, let me suggest he switch his emphasis to the users and bring back the post civil war Black Codes. Most homicides are, alas committed by black and Hispanic youth against other black and Hispanic youth. making it illegal for blacks or Hispanics to own guns would no doubt reduce the firearm death rate by about 90%, excluding suicides.

Might be worth a government grant and certainly a couple of doctoral dissertations to gather up some grad students and visit the appropriate areas of Minneapolis-St Paul and try their hands at getting the high risk population to turn in their guns voluntarily.