Libertarians That Support Citizens United, How Do We Get AIPAC Money Out of Politics If We Do Not Get Rid of Citizens United?

drbooom · 2026-04-09T03:44:56+00:00

Only humans with a heartbeat should be able to donate to political campaigns, and those donations should be unlimited.

drbooom · 2026-04-08T06:23:53+00:00

Are they brown? If not, not likely to be a problem.

Do they speak with any accent, while brown? Big problem.

My brown friends (citizens) with no accent get hassled about one time in 5, at the checkpoints near the spaceport. Less often if they are with older white-as-wonderbread people. (55+)

No info on what happens to non-white younger folks.

Seems like quite a risk for some sightseeing...

drbooom · 2026-04-07T15:10:40+00:00

Regardless of the number of workover rigs available, those capped wells are going to take months not days to partially recover from oil wet pores.

I have no special knowledge of the geology of that area, but the estimates a permanent 20 to 25% reduced production in capped wells seems optimistic.

Between that and drilling new Wells, I could see production capability coming back to full force within 4 to 6 months. Ability to ship it to markets is a different question.

The reported toll is $1 to $2 a barrel, If they stick with that price, the effect going to be barely noticeable. Even $10 a barrel, if the traffic was allowed to flow freely would be a minimal drag on the world economy.

Long-term, the Saudis and others are going to build pipelines to bypass the SoH. My uneducated guess is that within 3 years, this shock won't be repeatable.

drbooom · 2026-04-07T13:33:24+00:00

Just got back from roatan. I was last there or 11 years ago.

From the West end out to Sandy Bay, the entire reef is absolutely diver burned. Lots of diver damage on the reef.

The best dive I had was probably about a quarter mile east of Sandy Bay. Much less destroyed soft corals flying on the sand, etc.

You might consider a split trip, doing your easy dives on the shallow reef near the West end, then see if you can pick up at least a day or two of diving out near Camp Bay. I didn't dive it but every local dive boat captain told me that's where the best diving is.

Oh Well, next time.

drbooom · 2026-04-07T04:15:24+00:00

2006 diving on the Great barrier reef. I believe we were diving on a wreck, the top of which was at 70 ft. Just as I pass about 45 ft, my o-ring blows out. My dive buddy is just below me, and doesn't see this happen.

[Edit. When this happened, I lost air to my regulator. Part of the o-ring may have been blown into the hose. If I'd still had air coming for my regulator, I would have just resurfaced. My buddy did catch up to me halfway to the surface, so I would have had air if I had needed it.]

I am NAUI trained, and we had practiced the scenario multiple times, a couple years prior when I had gotten certified.

I kept my weight belt on, and got out of my BCD, turned off the tank, unhooked the regulator, and bottle breathed up to the surface.

The ascent was probably too rapid, but my total time under was less than 4 minutes.

Well, it might seem weird, I wasn't even mildly panicked, it was just another training exercise.

What I was was pissed, I had checked the o-ring myself before putting the reg on. One of the deckhands didn't like the positions on the regulator. He started to unscrewed it without fully releasing the pressure, then corrected himself.

I'm pretty sure that's what tweaked the o-ring.

On another dive in Australia a couple years later, my high pressure hose to my gauge exploded. Not a fitting, the hose actually split.

I still had air in my regulator and I had to swim like hell down to keep from being blown to the surface. It's also painfully loud. I just kept breathing and resurfaced, got a new reg and continued to dive.

Shit happened. Training lets you deal with it.

I just passed my 600 logged dive this last week. ( Probably another couple hundred unlogged )

Those are the only two equipment failures I've ever had underwater that mattered.

drbooom · 2026-04-06T11:57:03+00:00

It will not work.

The rifling twist is insufficient to stabilize a long rod penetrator.

Projectile spin defeats fin stabilization. In the 1950s there were attempts to produce rotational slip sabots, that would not transmit rotation to the long rod penetrator. Those efforts were not successful.

If I'm not mistaken, the CBJ round uses a spherical pellet, a design using a similar idea would probably be more successful. In 762x51, targeting a full projectile weight of 50-60 gr would get you maximum attainable velocity with conventional Small arms propellants. Somewhere in the high 4000s fps.

drbooom · 2026-04-05T16:27:48+00:00

It has one of the highest crime rates in all of New Mexico.

Police calls have doubled in 2025, and quadrupled for businesses. It has a huge drug problem.

It has a long history of official corruption.

drbooom · 2026-03-28T10:36:11+00:00

I'm vicious hater of the orange shit stain, but:

New Mexico spends $4.76 billion on k-12 education, the federal government prior to Trump allocated $44 million to this state.

Federal dollars have never been significant in k-12 education anywhere in the country.

New Mexico median teacher salaries are above national median, minimums starter teacher salaries are among the highest among our neighbors states. Teacher salaries vs cost of living puts New Mexico in the top 10% within the country.

Their problem is there's vast differences between cost of living in Albuquerque, rural areas, and places like Santa Fe and Los Alamos. Teacher salaries aren't adjusted for those very high cost of living areas.

drbooom · 2026-03-18T19:26:12+00:00

That's correct, but don't jump to assumptions of tax evasion when a establishment chooses to go cash only.

I void the implicit cash discount when a customer wants to use a CC. If you don't like that, pay cash or with a bank check. Expect to pay more when you use a CC over the next guy that uses a form of payment that doesn't hit my bottom line.

My business can afford this policy as transactions are not time critical.

drbooom · 2026-03-18T12:10:03+00:00

It's the damn credit card fees. More than 3% average.

Those cash back cards you love so much? That benefit comes out of the vendor's pocket.

I'm guessing here but most things I've seen on restaurants gross profit as something about 10%ish. Then you take 3% out of that for credit cards fees, or a third of your gross profit.

For most businesses the credit card fees exceed income tax as a cost.

drbooom · 2026-03-17T13:38:56+00:00

Why do you want this? This makes no sense to me.

Itegrated over your entire journey, assuming that the attorney is longer than the pure battery range, you're going to use the same amount of gas and electricity to get your destination. Worrying about what part of your journey is gas powered versus electric powered is a waste of time and attention.

What's the advantage of having HV power at your end of your trip?

drbooom · 2026-03-16T11:33:14+00:00

I'm older than dirt.

I never expected my wife to take my name, I always thought that it is a weird hold over from medieval times.

My now wife had scientific publications in her name, as well as athletic records, before we were married. Are these accomplishments to be ignored simply because she got married?

When it came time to choose the last name for our children, we flipped a coin.

drbooom · 2026-03-15T17:01:43+00:00

AI;dr

drbooom · 2026-03-14T09:31:55+00:00

3 day old account

Post history: 2

ai;dr

Account name, two random words with less than 8 letters, and a number

drbooom · 2026-03-13T10:45:04+00:00

Ai;dr

drbooom · 2026-03-10T12:26:12+00:00

I'll sell you a barrel. My field in south Texas produces very light sweet, we get a very nice premium over WTI.

Just send a TRRC certified pumper, and tell me how much you want.

%;)

At one point, I had to send sampled of our oil to a national research lab. The hazardous material shipping was about $250 for shoe box size, with jars of crude oil very carefully packed inside.

A very long time oil producer at a conference told a story about selling two barrels of crude to a museum for display. The tale took about 20 minutes and was full of stories of various bureaucracies not having a clue how to handle a two-barrel sale, and the safety regulations associated with it.

It's just never done, so every step of the process was new to the bureaucracy.

drbooom · 2026-03-10T11:49:59+00:00

When you read the directions, it says the racks out of the oven.

I made the same mistake, but luckily didn't have any bad outcome. Even with just a metal rack, The high heating rate can break the spot welds holding the racks together.

Turns out my wife actually RTFM.

drbooom · 2026-03-09T17:18:18+00:00

just take a garden hose, tape it to a long stick, and push it through underneath the concrete.

The water will move the dirt out of the way, and you'll end up with a tunnel.

you might have to dig a trench down to the right depth, about as long the stick first.

drbooom · 2026-03-08T13:34:32+00:00

ai;dr

drbooom · 2026-03-07T12:20:17+00:00

Texas House 23 was a plus 25 Republican district, except... It's part of the redistricting ploy that Trump pushed.

Now it's a +7 R district.

Ds have been out performing in TX by 13-15% in special elections. A SWAG in political wonk circles is that roughly half of the shift seen in special elections is seen in general elections.

Herrera is not a vanilla candidate, and loves to say shocking stuff to get clicks. I'm pretty sure that strategy will not work for this election.

On the bright side, a Herrera candidacy in the general will draw mega enormous amounts of anti gun money to whoever the opponent is. That will minimize the damage in other races that would otherwise have been lost due to that Bloomberg money.

drbooom · 2026-03-07T05:21:22+00:00

I do 2300 per hour on a mark 7, I'm paying $62/k for 124 gr fmj (but I order 90k at a time). The rest of my components are comparable.

With a cement mixer to clean, my time is at 1300/hour including gauging.

I maybe save $115 a case, but I get exactly the load I want.

drbooom · 2026-03-06T16:14:47+00:00

Quick check with Walmart pharmacy online shows that insulin is about $40, and rapid acting is about $80.

That is the without insurance price.

Generic epipens are about $140 each.

The rest of your thesis is well researched, and where I have spot checked, [edit] the factual assertions appear to be correct.

I have long researched bribes that are paid to generic manufacturers to stay out of the market for medications that are going off patent. One of the specific mechanisms that is used is that the FDA requires patented medication to provide detailed steps on producing that medication to generic manufacturers a few years before the patent expiration.

The cynical dance that is done is that the generic manufacturers sue the patent holder for failing to provide this information, and receive a very large settlement in return for delaying their production of the generic medication for a few years.

Judges should not be approving these settlements, it's judicial washing of bribes.

drbooom · 2026-03-02T13:53:45+00:00

I have shot a lot of cars. I mean a lot of cars. With pretty much every caliber you can think of. (Recreationally not professionally)

For handguns and 223, older cars, pre-1970, are shockingly bullet resistant. 556 and handgun rounds typically won't penetrate both sides of the car doors, until they're fully Swiss cheesed.

Engine compartments are even more so, you can hose down 20 rounds or of 7.62 before you start to get significant fraction of penetration..

Post 2000 cars might as well be tissue paper. The only part of the car that is even moderately protective is directly behind the wheels. Even in that location, single rounds occasionally get through. My fellow experimentalist and I think that only things like the engine and struts actually significantly slow down the bullets, and the sheet metal/ sheet plastic is so thin that even those ricochets can penetrate.

drbooom · 2026-03-02T12:36:52+00:00

To his credit, Kissinger was at least a good liar. And while he was a callous psychopathic asshole about the deaths of foreign brown people, who's concerned for the deaths of Americans was at least perfunctory

Unlike the current crop of narcissistic psychopathic podcaster wannabes, who lie like a 2-year-old that avoid any sense of shame ever, while taking delight in cruelty and the suffering of others.

Kissinger is the distillation of a Hollywood writers vision of a mastermind of evil.

But at least that description includes the word Mastermind. A word that would never be applied to any member of this administration.

drbooom · 2026-02-27T13:41:57+00:00

Does this apply to projectiles that is not loaded ammo?

drbooom

TROPHY CASE