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Monday, April 27, 2020

Assorted Calibers Podcast Ep 098: Erin Takes the Reigns



In This Episode:
  • It's a "Nothing But Weer'd Beard Segments" show, so Erin takes over in order to have some time on-air!
  • Erin and Weer’d discuss certain states relaxing their quarantine, Dick's Sporting Goods feeling the consequences of turning their back on the Second Amendment, and yet another example of Bloomberg being a rights-hating petty control freak;
  • Weer'd brings us another fisk of Igor Volsky, this time from his Brady Campaign Webinar on COVID-19 and its effect on gun sales;
  • and Weer'd sits down with Logan Metesh of High Caliber History to talk about the M28 Davy Crockett Nuclear Device.




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Show Notes

Main Topic:
Weer’d Audio Fisk:
Logan Metesh Interview:

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Psychokinesis: A Discipline for V5


Here's a weird thing about Vampire: the Masquerade: even though popular fiction is rife with vampires flying without turning into bats, there's not a single vampire clan or bloodline within the game which has this ability. Nor do they have any form of telekinesis, which has always been a popular vampire ability for setting the mood by opening books, closing doors, or snuffing candles remotely. The closest they ever came was in making the Movement of the Mind thaumaturgical path, which meant only those vampires who knew thaumaturgy could get it (and boy, was thau guarded jealously by the Tremere), and only as an afterthought. V5 doesn't even have that.

For a game that's supposed to embrace (heh) vampires in all their folkloric and pop-cultural glory, this seems like a huge gaffe to me, so I fixed it. I took Movement of the Mind and turned it from a V20 thaumaturgical path to a V5 discipline that anyone can get -- at least, in theory, as it's a rare discipline whose possession is seen as a matter of prestige (unless of course the GM changes that.)

Now your V5 game can have vampires who creepily glide over surfaces, fly like the Lost Boys, and who can telekinetically hurl objects!

Here it is in Google Document format.  Your feedback is most welcome.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

The Backfire Effect

I admit, I'm not huge fan of Adam Ruins Everything, but I like this clip for 3 reasons:
  1. He's getting beaten up
  2. BY A GIRL
  3. Who makes great points on why a lot of arguing doesn't work. 
There's good information here, and I think it's useful for people who like me are constantly talking to, and sometimes arguing against, people who want to take our rights away. The part about Identity Protective Cognition explains why people "double down" when confronted with facts, and the advice to provide people with "an alternative narrative that is true" rather than just telling them they're wrong while shoving facts at them is good advice for everyone .

I hope you find this useful. 



Here's a list of the sources cited:

Monday, April 20, 2020

Assorted Calibers Podcast Ep 097: Someday this Quarantine is Gonna End...



In This Episode:
  • Erin and Weer’d discuss the increasing desperation of anti-gunners as they react to mass firearm purchases by Americans of all walks of life;
  • Weer'd fisks a stand-up routine by Steve Hofstetter;
  • David tells us how to best welcome new gun owners safely into the fold;
  • and Steve tells us about how private investigators get some of the information they use to locate a target. 




Did you know that we have a Patreon? Join now for the low, low cost of $4/month (that’s $1/podcast) and you’ll get to listen to our podcast on Friday instead of Mondays, as well as patron-only content like mag dump episodes and our hilarious blooper reels and film tracks.


Show Notes

Main Topic:
Weer'd Audio Fisk:
Gun Lovers and Other Strangers:

Monday, April 13, 2020

Assorted Calibers Podcast Ep 096: Weer'd Won't Play Magic With Erin



In This Episode:
  • Erin and Weer’d talk about some of the latest restrictions due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and then discuss how it's affected the latest Magic: the Gathering expansion;
  • David talks about some of the challenges you might encounter while reloading and some solutions to them;
  • and Weer'd brings us a fisk of a "scholarly" anti-gun group known as GVPedia.




Did you know that we have a Patreon? Join now for the low, low cost of $4/month (that’s $1/podcast) and you’ll get to listen to our podcast on Friday instead of Mondays, as well as patron-only content like mag dump episodes and our hilarious blooper reels and film tracks.


Show Notes

Main Topic:

Gun Lovers and Other Strangers:

Weer’d Audio Fisk:

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Bloomberg to Gun Culture: “Help Me!”

Thank you, Michael Bloomberg, for finally admitting that gun owners are correct.

Oh, I’m certain that he didn’t mean to do it; after all, the non-opinion piece titled You Just Panic-Bought a Gun. Here’s How to Handle It Safely was written by Alain Stephens, not Bloomberg himself, but as it was published in Bloomberg's anti-gun organ The Trace on March 20th, and as Bloomberg is its owner and publisher, that means he owns, in every sense of the word, what it says.

https://www.thetrace.org/2020/03/you-just-panic-bought-a-gun-coronavirus-safety/

I imagine that galls Bloomberg terribly, since he has told us for nearly two decades that no one needs a gun. Now, despite his best efforts, his anti-gun magazine is acknowledging the awkward truth that people want guns to protect themselves and their families in a crisis where the police may be late to arrive (if in fact they arrive at all, given how many city police departs are stretched to the breaking point with many officers out sick) and so in acknowledgement of that fact, The Trace is reluctantly giving these new gun owners advice on how to safely handle their new firearm.

The irony of this situation is that neither The Trace, nor any other anti-gun organization, nor even Michael Bloomberg himself has experience in this regard. His position has always been abstinence-only when it comes to firearm education, and like an abstinence-only parent who discovers that his child is having premarital sex, his choices have become “Ignore the situation and hope it goes away” and “Accept reality and seek advice from a professional.” As ignoring the situation almost always leads to unfortunate consequences like unplanned teenage pregnancies or negligent discharges which result in injury or death, Bloomberg, has decided - most likely unintentionally, and almost assuredly to his great gall - to take the mature course of action and seek the advice of experts.

Unfortunately for Bloomberg, those experts whose advice he has sought are precisely those people whom he and his various anti-gun organizations (Everytown, Moms Demand Action, March for our Lives, et al.) have vilified. After the article’s obligatory references to “numerous studies” about the inherent dangers of gun ownership, the first given piece of firearms safety advice are the Four Rules of Gun Safety:
  1. Treat all guns as if they are loaded.
  2. Never let the muzzle of the firearm point at anything you are not willing to destroy.
  3. Don’t place your finger near the trigger until you are ready to fire.
  4. Always identify your target - and what lies in front of and behind it. 
Accompanying these rules are a link to the blog of Springfield Armory, a manufacturer of semi-automatic weapons including the much-maligned AR-15 rifle, a firearm which Bloomberg would dearly love to make illegal.

https://blog.springfield-armory.com/four-cardinal-rules-for-handgun-owners-what-you-need-to-know

What’s more, in that same blog post Springfield Armory is quoting Colonel Jeff Cooper, the man who not only created the Four Rules but was also a member of the Board of Directors for the National Rifle Association. Yes, you read that correctly: an article in Bloomberg’s anti-gun The Trace just went to the NRA for help. Isn’t it curious that, after years of calling the NRA and its members awful people who value guns over safety, the very first piece of firearm safety instruction comes from the NRA? Thank you, Michael Bloomberg, for admitting that the NRA actually teaches firearm safety.

Oh, but the hits don’t stop there. Not only is there a link to an instructional YouTube video titled How to Use an AR-15 by Lucky Gunner (the ammunition drop-shipping company which was sued by the Brady Campaign after the Aurora, CO shooting), there are also links to other YouTube videos made by the Tactical Rifleman and Legally Armed America channels. Thank you, Michael Bloomberg, for endorsing the instructional content of  YouTube gun channels.

This whole article has been a parade of amazement, but the part of it which left me most amazed was that its paragraph on safe storage did not take the opportunity to state that firearms and their ammunition must be stored separately. I don’t know how this tacit admission that it’s a terrible idea to keep your self-defense firearm locked up separately from the ammunition needed to operate it ever made it past the editors, but it did, and I find myself worrying about the future career prospects of The Trace’s editor-in-chief.

Unfortunately this article, and therefore Michael Bloomberg, never actually took that final step of admitting that in a self-defense situation the time needed to retrieve ammunition kept separately from a firearm can result in the death of innocents, but given all of the other admissions in this article I’ll gladly forgive this oversight. I will also take this opportunity to state for the record that if your self-defense weapon is a pistol kept properly holstered on your body, not only can you keep it loaded and ready to deploy to defend yourself or loved ones, but you are also keeping it safe and out of the hands of your children, thereby negating the need to lock it up during the day.

Thank you, Michael Bloomberg, for admitting that guns keep us safe, that citizens can responsibly own the AR-15, that firearm education is necessary, and that gun owners were right all along. Now it is up to you to decide if you wish to keep to this new philosophy or revert back to your abstinence-only worldview once this crisis has passed. As you do so, please keep in mind that many new gun owners will be doing the same, and now that they have skin in this particular political game they may no longer be as receptive to your old views as they once were. Bear that in mind, lest you alienate a now-growing segment of your readership.



Monday, April 6, 2020

Assorted Calibers Podcast Ep 095: The Madness Abounds



In This Episode:
  • Erin and Weer’d talk about a defensive gun use that stopped a potential mass shooting, then discuss the assorted nuttery happening in relationship to the COVID-19 quarantine;
  • Loveball returns to the show to talk about what it's like to be a Kindergartner under social distancing;
  • Weer'd fisks Igor Volsky's pearl-clutching "NowThis News" segment on the recent quarantine-fueled run on guns;
  • and Steve the House Dick breaks his radio silence to bring us a tale about about how the Trunk Monkey got nailed in the trunk in Detroit.




Did you know that we have a Patreon? Join now for the low, low cost of $4/month (that’s $1/podcast) and you’ll get to listen to our podcast on Friday instead of Mondays, as well as patron-only content like mag dump episodes and our hilarious blooper reels and film tracks.


Show Notes

Main Topic:

Weer’d Audio Fisk:

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Wednesday Night Wackiness: The MA37 Assault Rifle (Standard UNSC Rifle)

I've mentioned before how I adore people taking fictional or absurd topics and giving them full-length, super-serious analysis?

Yeah, this is one of those. In this case it's a well-known gun vlogger talking about the battle rifle from the Halo  series of games.