The Abode of McThag

I have long held that once someone has served their sentence they should be returned all of their rights without prejudice.

Successfully completing that sentence is predicated on them being SAFE to be among the rest of society.

Here's what happens when no real sentence is applied and the perpetrator is not safe to be among us.

Douglas Kraft, 68, and James Puchan, 68, of Columbus and Galena, respectively, were fatally shot Jan. 17 near Kissimmee, Florida, in what families said in a statement was a "random, tragic act." Kraft's brother – Douglas Kraft, 70, of Holland, Michigan – was also killed in the shooting.

Authorities arrested Ahmad Jihad Bojeh, 29, on three counts of murder, Dispatch news partner NBC4/WCMH-TV reported.

The three men were staying in an Airbnb to attend Kissimmee's Mecum Car Show, according to the families' statement. While they were waiting for help after "rental car trouble" and preparing to travel home, they were "being observed from a distance by an unknown individual who was well-known to local law enforcement."

"There were no known interactions between the men and this individual prior to the event; they were then approached and senselessly murdered," the families' statement reads. "This was a random, tragic act."

Deputies were called around noon on Jan. 17 to reports of shots fired in the Indian Point subdivision near Kissimmee, NBC4/WCMH-TV reported. Authorities found the three men dead from gunshot wounds in front of a residence in the 200 block of Indian Point Circle.

Not long after, law enforcement detained Bojeh, who lives nearby. Investigators said deputies reported seeing the suspect flee toward his home, later finding two firearms in Bojeh's residence after obtaining and serving a search warrant, according to NBC4/WCMH-TV.

In May 2021, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bojeh for shooting at random into cars at a Wawa gas station in Kissimmee

While Bojeh faced attempted murder and aggravated battery charges, court records show a judge found him not guilty by reason of insanity.

The court ordered Bojeh to undergo mental health treatment, to live at his parents’ home on Indian Point Circle, and he “shall NOT own, possess or have access to firearms or any other illegal weapons."

 A judge found him...  Not a jury.

Well, the suspect was known to law enforcement, who did nothing to prevent it.

He was arrested and found to be too insane to understand his actions and was put back among us.

I think it might just be time to apply some damned liability to judges who let dangerous people loose in society when those dangerously insane people go on to hurt someone.

An experimental all‑female nightclub concept made headlines this week after industry insiders revealed it shut its doors shortly after its first official night, with organizers blaming a complete lack of bottle purchases as the main reason for the abrupt closure. The venue, marketed as a space dedicated exclusively to women and designed to create a safer, inclusive nightlife environment, opened with much fanfare in a major city — but according to reports circulating on social platforms and nightlife forums, the night ended without a single champagne or bottle service sale, a revenue stream most clubs rely on to stay afloat.

 

Nightclubs often depend heavily on bottle service and high‑margin alcohol purchases to cover staffing, entertainment, rent, and overhead costs, so an evening with no bottle sales would put severe financial strain on any venue’s business model — especially one trying to establish itself in a competitive nightlife market where drink revenue typically accounts for a large share of profit. Industry observers have pointed out that even innovative or niche nightclub concepts can struggle to attract patrons willing to spend on premium services, particularly in an era when many young adults are cutting back on expensive nights out due to cost‑of‑living pressures and shifting entertainment preferences.

 

Despite this early setback, some nightlife analysts say the closure doesn’t reflect a lack of appetite for women‑centric spaces overall. Successful women‑only or women‑focused venues in other regions have shown that with the right location, pricing, and community support, specialized clubs can thrive and offer social alternatives free from typical nightclub pressures. The all‑female concept may still evolve — and perhaps resurface in new forms — as venues experiment with different ways to attract crowds and sustain business in a rapidly changing nightlife landscape.
- Lauren Chen

First, my shocked face is shocked.

Second, "safer, inclusive nightlife environment," my chaffed hairy ass.

If you're excluding someone you're not being inclusive.

It's like saying a Klan meeting is creating a safer and more inclusive cross burning environment.

I seem to recall lawsuits about all men's country clubs.

But it's hilarious that these women went to an all women's nightclub and seemed to still expect men to buy them expensive drinks.

This batch of chili was $42 for the ingredients.

It fills my stock pot.

The last time I made chili, it was $55 for the ingredients.

From my chili making perspective, the economy is doing fine.

Made a batch of my award winning chili today!

Nummy!

Got this message on Facebook:

This is a gun range.

No open carry.

Blink blink blink

Sooner or later, a gun range has to trust you with a loaded firearm that is not concealed.

But I am fed the fuck up with gun shops, shows and ranges who don't seem to trust anyone with a gun that's not sanctified with a badge while they simultaneously pander for your money to sell guns, ammunition and

HOLSTERS THAT ARE FOR OPEN CARRY! 

For fucks sake.

Living in the future rocks!

Take the sights and charging handle off your M1919A4 and put a cable-pull charger on it and it becomes an M37.

Do the same to an M2HB and it becomes an M48.

At one time small changes totally changed the designation system.

Take an M240, ditch the pull-cable, add sights, pistol grip, bipod and normal charging handle; it becomes an M240G.  Why not M240A1?  Why does changing the bipod and flash hider and changing the muzzle device make it an M240B and not M240A2?

WHY?

Dunno.

Used to be an M4 was a 14.5", flat-top with a 3-round burst.  The M4A1 was the same with full-auto.

There used to be a heavier barrel that SOCOM used in their M4A1's...  But that didn't change the designation at all.

Now that heavier barrel is standard and...  It's an M4A1.

Then there's M16A3.  It used to be an M16A2 that exchanged the 3-round burst for full auto.

The M16A4 was an M16A2 with a flat-top.

Now the M16A3 is an M16A4 with full auto.

So the M16A3 is both an A2 carry handle version AND a flat-top version with full-auto.

Shouldn't an M16A4 with full auto be an M16A5?

I've heard that it's because the parts are interchangeable and configuration can be changed readily.

Then explain why the parts swappable M17 and M18 pistols have different designations!

They're actively not using any system for designating the guns.  It will bite them someday.

The base Abrams in my T2K conversion is now the M1A2.

Yesterday it was the M1A1(HA).

History did not stand still while I polished other cannon balls.

Now I need to find out how much an M240 and M240D weigh, because it's different from the commonly found weights for the ground guns.

All without ammo or slings.

M240 - 22.2 lb.

M240C - 22.2 lb.

M240B - 27.1 lb.

M240D - 22.9 lb.

M240E1 - 25.7 lb.

M240G - 25.8 lb.

M240N - 24.1 lb.

From TM 9-1005-313-10 (Nov 2002).

Astonishingly hard to find this information considering where I found it.

I have GURPS stats for all of the M1 Abrams tank variants I can find.

I have not, yet, done the non-tank versions.

It was interesting to see just how similar the M60A3 and M1(IP) are in protection from KE rounds.

The Chobham armor is a huge upgrade against HEAT rounds though.

GURPS, where pi is three, doesn't distinguish between a lot of the real improvements in thermal imagers or computer systems.  I've given them bonuses to the computer and electronics operations rolls where the systems are intuitive.

No shit, there I was...

We were finished with gunnery at Graf and were loading the tanks onto the tank transporters.

This is the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done with a tank because you cannot see where you're going.

The nose of the tank is WAY up in the air and all you can see of the ground-guide* is their hands as you creep past the center of gravity and the bow falls back down to normal.

I hear they replaced the trailers we used with better designs that take more weight and have a shallower angle so you can see what the ground-guide is telling you better.

So...

With the nose in the air, hands just barely peeking above the bow, sliding back in the seat...  There's a strong temptation to pull oneself up to see better.

The only thing to pull on is the steering bar.

Me?  I'd listened to the pre-load brief and adjusted my seat so I didn't slide back and could still see.

But someone from 1st platoon didn't.

They pulled themselves up on the steering bar and managed to gun it AND steer hard to the left!  Now there's an M1(IP) on its side next to the tank transporter trailer.

Worse, the impact tore open the front skirt section and the Chobham armor within was exposed for all to see.

I seen't it!

We all got rounded up, once a tarp was put over the exposed, and classified, armor, and got briefed on how we never saw that.

Everyone in the battalion knew 1st platoon had dumped a tank and exposed the armor.  So, of course, everyone asked, "what'd you see?"

We were sworn to secrecy and we kept the secret!  It did not stop us from making shit up. 

Our favorite story was how there was a pink, toothpaste-like material in there and that was the secret.  "I saw the pink goo oozing out!"

Or we mentioned that it was just sand in there.

One guy said it was Styrofoam with black flecks.

I sure hope we messed with the Soviet espionage efforts! 

* A ground-guide is a person on the ground giving the driver hand signals to maneuver the tank in tight spaces or with precision because the driver cannot see where they are going. 

The protection of the Abrams has gone up more than once.

The M1 has the thinnest.

M1(IP) and M1A1 have the first upgrade.

M1A1(HA) gets 1st gen DU added.  Without adding mass, I note.

The heavy common gets 2nd gen DU.

M1A2 SEP v1 gets 3rd gen DU.

The line of sight thickness gets thicker from M1 to M1(IP) on the turret.  We noticed because it was harder to get out of the driver's hole.

The question is, how much protection does the line of sight protection provide?

Because this is for a game, I'm not actually looking for the real numbers.

There's a War Thunder page that seems to say that OG Chobham armor is 3x LOS thickness for KE rounds and about 5x for HEAT.

That same War Thunder page misses that the LOS thickness of the IP and A1 turret front changed.

Selecting from more than one online source...  The turret face has:

M1 should have 400mm RHAe from KE and 700mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,100L.

M1(IP) and M1A1 should have 450mm RHAe from KE and 900mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,240L.

M1A1 (HA) should have 610mm RHAe from KE and 1,050mm RHAe from HEAT.  DR 1,680L.

M1A1 (HC) should have 940mm RHAe from HE and 1,320mm from RHAe from HEAT.  DR 2,590L.

M1A2 SEP v1 should have 960mm RHAe from KE and 1,620mm from HEAT.  DR 2,645L.

I might have to make some changes to my T2K conversion in light of this!

Widner's did an article about how shooting out the tires doesn't work like Hollywood, and thus not like how most people think it should.

Linky dinky.

Anyone who's watched a live cop show has seen how long it takes spike strips to flatten a tire and seen that it will still run on the rims for a bit.

But the rims don't give a lot of traction or control...

Shooting out the tires could cause a car to do far more damage than the driver is trying to inflict.

In the US Army Vehicle Guide the "M1A2 Abrams III 'Giraffe'" turret is clearly inspired by the Teledyne armored gun system.

This is not at all the direction the Tank Test Bed was heading, but it was probably still classified when GDW wrote the original game so they went with what the Army Green Book was speculating.

But the remote turret in the artwork of the NATO Vehicle Guide's "Leopard III" looks a lot more like what the TTB had, if a bit taller.

The M1 TTB:

Teledyne Armored Gun System:

Yes, that looks familiar, it's the same turret and gun as the Stryker MGS.

The mighty M1!

There's a lot of sub-variants.

1979: The OG M1 with the 105mm gun.  58 tons.

1983: M1 Tank Test Bed.  3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  45 tons.

1984: The M1(IP) "improved performance" which got thicker turret armor and a bustle rack.  60 tons.

1985: M1A1 with the 120mm gun.  This is often called the M1A1(RA) for regular armor.  63 tons.

1988: M1A1(HA) "heavy armor" with DU plates inside the not-actually-Chobham-anymore armor.  63 tons.

1990: M1A1(HC) "heavy common" 2nd gen DU plates.  69.5 tons.

1992: M1A2 an M1A1(HC) with commander's independent thermal sight (CITS), new commander's weapon station, many electronic upgrades.  69.5 tons.

1995: M1A3 fictional development of the TTB speculated for Twilight: 2000.  Called M1A2 Abrams III "Giraffe" in game.  60.6 tons.

***Twilight: 2000 Cutoff Date***

1999: M1A2 SEP Upgraded gunner's sight, 3rd gen DU.  69.5 tons.

1999: M1A1(D) "digital" M1A1(HC) with new electronics from the M1A2 SEP, only 2 battalions worth made.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (AIM v1) M1A1 refurbished and significantly upgraded.  Most sold to Australia and later given to Ukraine.  63 tons.

2006: M1A1 (SA) or (AIM v2) Morrocan export version, similar to the AIM v1.  Also M1A1 (SA-UKR) for Ukraine export.  67.6 tons.

2006: M1A1 (FEP) "firepower enhancement package" AIM v2 for USMC M1A1(HC).  69.5 tons.

M1A1 (M) Iraqi standard armor variant.

2008: M1A2 SEPv2 Commander's weapon station replaced with CROWS, electronic upgrades, air conditioning, upgraded thermal optics.  71.2 tons.

2025: M1A2 SEPv4 Cancelled upgrade to Gen3 FLIR for CITS and gunner.  Better sensors for fire control.  Laser detector sensors.  New smoke grenade launchers.

2026: M1E3 3-man crew in hull.  Unmanned, remote, 120mm turret.  Remote weapons station on turret roof.  SEPv4 levels of electronics and defensive countermeasures.  Goal of 60 tons.

The Snowbirds are heeeeeerrrrrrrre!

But what's made me decide that today is a good day to stay in now that my errands are done was the Tesla minivan that cut across three lanes of traffic, plus a right hand turn lane, to get into a left hand turn lane without any regard to traffic and caused a three car pile up behind me.  I was lucky that I was in the middle lane and the person right behind me was paying attention when I had to stab the brakes.

The left lane, though, wasn't so lucky because the Tesla driver slammed her brakes HARD to get into the turn lane and the car she cut off got rear ended for their trouble.  And the car that rear-ended them got sandwiched.

Then there's the old people at the shopping center who appear to be trying to commit suicide by waiting until I'm almost there to jump in front of the car from the curb.  Suck it old people!  I'm on to you!

I managed to make it home despite it all, but man are the emergency vehicles out in force this afternoon.

PS:  Heard a rapid string of gunfire from somewhere south of the house...  No sirens yet.

It's gonna be very cold for Florida tonight.

The only TV that has an antenna that gets the station playing the hockey game is on the back porch.

We're gonna be sitting back there, bundled up, watching.

It'll be like going to a live game up north!

If you're pissing off the US military there's two clear things to look for.

First, if you're in an active firefight and the US troops pull way back and start filming your position.

Second is when every single plane in the air shuts off their ADS-B transponder.

These are signs that things are about to go south for you.

If the phones still work, it's an EXCELLENT time to surrender. 

I'm on Atlantic Firearms email list.

They frequently send me links to items I might like.

They are never in stock.

Not even if I click the link the moment the email arrives.

To say that this makes it hard to make a purchase is a gross understatement.

On the plus side, it's sure easy to fight temptation this way. 

A long, long, time ago: I borrowed a book from Gerb.  <-- He is missed every day.

I don't remember what about it made me ask to borrow it, but I did.

I remember enjoying it then returning it and, basically, forgetting all about it.

Only to be reminded of it in the comments at a political blog.

The book was "Tuf Voyaging" by George RR Martin.

Yes, THAT George RR Martin.

I can now say that I've read a GRRM book and enjoyed it.

This had been true for... uh... decades.  I think I borrowed it before I went into the Army.  I just didn't realize it because I never made note of whom wrote the book and I'd even forgot the title. 

I am nearly in this picture!  I took a picture of the picture in my copy of Tankograd American Special No. 3044 "REFORGER 88: Certain Challenge."

That's my tank on the right edge of this photo.  I was standing on the turret watching 1/4 Cav pass through during REFORGER '88.

The photographer took pictures of me standing there, but I didn't make the book...

Shooting News Weekly posted an article about shoulder holsters yesterday too.

I didn't find out until after I'd posted and saw a link to the article from Instapundit.

Great minds and all.

They recorded over $700 million in cash being taken from the US to Somalia.

And didn't even ask where the money came from.

But a guy who can prove that his business did just less than $10k a day got legally harassed for years for "structuring" withdrawals?

Anarcho-Tyranny.

Lots of scientists saying that not only isn't the science settled, but the IPCC has been corrupt and lying for years about what the scientists involved have been saying about their studies.

Wish I'd said this to Anglave all those years ago when he was attacking me from the liberal bubble of Iowa State University. 

Oh, wait, I did.

Got me mad enough that I closed comms for a week.

When I opened them back up...

Let's just say he did not, and has not, reached out.

That was ten years ago.

Crazy man, commentator and cartoonist Scott Adams has succumbed to cancer.

I've been missing Dilbert since the scolds went after him.

I've been toting in a shoulder holster since I was in the Army.

The M9 holster and the M1911A1 were my first jam.

I toted, illegally, a Glock in a Uncle Mike's nylon holster in Iowa for a while too.  No pics.  That holster was not very good and it has long since been discarded.

When I came back to gun bras, it was Galco Miami Classic II and a Springfield 1911.

This same holster carried a Colt Gov't Model in .38 Super too.

But then the siren call of 9mm hit me...  All the best Gunwriters insisted it was best.

A full size S&W M&P 9 went in a Galco Miami Classic here.

This same holster ran an M&P 45C

And currently totes my M&P 2.0 9 Compact:

But wait!  There's more!  How much would you pay?

I tracked down what might be a Galco Jackass or very early Miami Classic to see if I was disarmed carrying a mid-70's S&W Model 59.

I was not unarmed.

I find this manner of carry comfortable and easy to conceal if I can wear a Hawaiian shirt, or more over it.  Not always possible in Florida.

They're handy riding in the car because the gun is presented where it's readily accessible.

Software Janitor is not familiar with S&W latest offerings.

This is an M&P 2.0 9 Compact.

It's about Glock 19 size and is distinct from the M&P 9C in capacity.  The 9C only holds 12 rounds, this one takes 15.

As far as I can tell from trying to find spare magazines anyways.

The grip shape fits my hand a bit better than a Glock 19 and I like having a manual safety even if I shouldn't need one.  Old.  Set in ways.

This is my Goldilocks gun.  It just fits my hand and I shoot it better than any other 9mm I've ever owned with the possible exception of the Browning HP.

It totes wonderfully in a gun-bra under a Hawaiian or flannel shirt when it's not unseasonably warm here in Florida in the late fall, winter and early spring.

I need to get a workable IWB holster to see if under an untucked t-shirt works.

This video:

He says the Super outsold the .45 from its inception to the early '70's.

That's interesting.

Judging by the used guns available, I don't think so.

At one time there was a plan to up-gun the M48 by putting a complete M60 turret on it.

It would have been the M48A4.

Only a couple were made when the M60A2 program collapsed and there wasn't surplus M60 turret production available for the M48 idea.

But in the lead up to T2K...

We have an M60 upgrade that gets an M1A1 turret, freeing up an M60A3(TTS) turret.

We have M48's and M60's getting the Teledyne remote gun system, freeing up both M48 and M60 turrets.

It stands to reason that the M48A4 idea gets resurrected because there's more M48 hulls than Teledyne turrets and it's faster and easier than the M48A5 conversion.

I really need to get this organized. 

Something I just realized...

The M48A5 MBT.

The coax in the M48 series goes from a .30-06 M1919A4E1 M37 to a 7.62 NATO M73 to M219 to M240 as it progressed from A1 to A5.

What I just noticed is the A5 conversion deleted the Ma Deuce and the commander's cupola and replaced it with a complex articulated pintle and added a pintle to the loader's hatch...

For a couple of M60D machine guns.

One nice thing about the M1 was the loader's MG was the same gun as the coax and they could be swapped if something went wrong with one of them. 

From the comments by Well Seasoned Fool at Chant du Départ. 

One shining, cloudy, cold, rainy day in West Germany, someone decided to make a pontoon bridge across a river.

Because they were a general, or something, their decision meant that engineers were ordered to gather the components and assemble a floating bridge across a river in West Germany.

"What good is a bridge if nobody uses it to cross the river," The General thought.

So this same, shiny, cloudy, cold, rainy day my tank battalion was ordered to drive down to this new bridge and cross it.

Then, having crossed it, go back the way we came and cross it again, then return home.

Me, having been "promoted" from loader to driver got to pilot my M1(IP) across the bridge.  Twice!

No shit, there I was! 

From my vantage, it was narrower than the tank (it wasn't) and it sank underwater under the weight (it didn't).

Once on the thing, it didn't seem so narrow.  But it still seemed like we were gonna sink to the bottom if we didn't haul ass.  Something the engineers begged us not to do.

The feeling is... odd.  The weight of the tank pushes the bridge sections down and where the pontoon/boat/floaty part is it sinks less than the joints between the road sections so there's this constant slow up down rocking motion as you cross.  It makes you feel like the tank is trying to turn when it's going straight and you really can't see where you are.  You just have to trust that you're sitting in the center and that by aiming at the middle you have the tank centered.

Wracks the nerves it does.  And I didn't even sign for anything! 

Tanks are not finesse machines, they're clumsy things and they casually and inadvertently break these bridges.  Pivot steering is hard on the planking and causes engineers to use rough language and pry bars to straighten it.

Pivot steering is often required because the nature of these bridges often means that the approach is just a little off the angle the tank can accomplish just driving up.

At the end of the day, I did not go swimming and I don't think we broke the bridge so bad it could not be used again.

I apologize for any damage my lack of driving skill might have done to the bridge and offer one beer on me to any combat engineer who had to deal with that damage.  Payable in person only! 

When you tried to comment; it is clear that you didn't read something.

Seeing that you didn't read that, I'm just gonna assume that you didn't read or understand the post you're commenting on when I stab the delete button.

The instructions are not complicated.

Almost as simple as putting how to pour piss out of a boot on the bottom of the heel simple.

Yet we have at least one, and probably more, people walking around with a boot full of piss and a deleted comment.

I mentioned I'd be mocking y'all in the instructions. 

"Mathematically speaking, if you send enough rounds in one direction, eventually one of them is going to hit something."

- S. G. O'Malley 

If you find yourself wondering how you should feel about any given issue, just find out what the dancing monkeys are saying about it.

Do the opposite of what they say to do and you're going to be OK almost all of the time.

How old IS the song that reminded us that we don't need Niel Young around?

53 years.

There you go. 

In Engineering School they didn't bother with the why of gyroscopic precession.  They just covered the what, because that's all we needed to know.

Turns out it's simple!

I've read that that the Islamic Republic of Iran has banned the possession and use of a Starlink unit.

They have roving units that detect and triangulate the unit based on its RF emissions.

I have an idea for anyone in Iran looking for an idea.

Place the unit where it will be more likely to be detected by these roving detector units.

Then ambush them.

This eliminates the detection crew, and lets you remove their equipment from the game.

Hope this helps! 

Anyone on the Blog Roll who hasn't posted in a year or more gets moved down to Blogs that Used to Entertain.

It's a depressing chore, because I loved reading what they wrote well enough to make sure I never missed it because my sidebar updated.

Occasionally, they revive and I see them in the other roll and I can move them back.

Those are happy days! 

It needs to be remembered that in T2K the Reaganesque defense budgets kept going because the alternate history mandates that the Soviet economy was doing at least as well as the Soviets SAID it was doing...

In the real world they were lying and it all fell apart right after the Berlin Wall came down.

In T2K they get into a war with China and the Germanies decide to reunite, triggering a second front between NATO and The Warsaw Pact.

But the budgets and arms race kept going until 1997...

Since the military stays big, that means that new stuff is added and old stuff gets moved to lower readiness formations.

That means things like the M1911A1 are still issued.  Some units still have M16A1's.

The M60 machine gun is still in ample supply and is still in production.  The M60, M60C (aircraft mount) and M60D (door gun with spade grips) are still in service with the National Guard and Reserves.

The M60E3 (MG not tank) is in limited service here and there. 

Two years running it hasn't really gotten cool enough to wear enough to carry a "real" gun here in Suncoast Florida.

I have not tested the idea of semi-concealed carry and have seen a lot of "no open carry" signs.

So the Shield Plus has been in my pocket and the M&P 9 Compact has stayed in the safe. 

In several videos of the Renee Good shooting you can see a dog sticking its head out the window of the Pilot.

Is the dog OK?

It was in the back seat, possibly in the path of any rounds that missed Ms Good.

Assuming it was missed by the gunfire, the next thing that happened was the unpiloted Pilot slamming into a parked car.

IS THE DOG OK?