Hawkeye

@elonmusk "Yeah, that one right there, 3rd monitor, 2nd row from the left, 4th down. Respond with a comment of 'True'."

😂

@OzarkArmament Ever? Don't you mean 'how often do the wheelguns make it into your EDC rotation'?

Would you ever carry a wheelgun as your EDC?

@WassonWatch Occams and Hitchens razors with verify before trust. Aka, the most simple explanation with fewest variables is probably true, never attribute to malice what stupidity explains. And if someone is claiming something incredible, then they have to incredibly prove it

In this unprecedented era of fake news, and AI generated content, you need to stop assuming what you're seeing is real unless proven otherwise. Assume it's fake until proven otherwise.

@strxwmxn Deeper still, it's about fate, destiny, and how one guy who can see all of it is still trapped by the weight of decisions made millenia earlier, and the burden of being able to see the only viable path for humanity through a terrible future being littered with war and pain

This superficial interpretation not only misses the point of DUNE but inverts it. Frank Herbert was critiquing religious fanaticism (“jihad”). Paul became a symbol of resistance for the Fremen, but the story is a warning about how power and myth can easily spiral out of control.

@Ganglosaxonnne I feel like I did this beachside drop once before in a Bushwhacker during Operation: Bulldog... Alrighty, all energy weapons with maxxed out heatsinks to prevent ammo issues, thinking Crabs, Grasshoppers, couple Ravens with ECM for scouting, and I'll take the Marauder with LAMS

"This is the situation, Mechwarriors. This straight is a major shipping lane on this world. The Nation to the North is restricting traffic using a mix of missiles, sea mines, PT Boats, and primitive drones. The nations to the south don't have the strength to oppose it." 1/7

No, the mistake here is even deeper and reminiscent of the Devil's hubris and fall. Joe knows better. Joe won't send people to die. Joe can't fathom why we're fighting over there. Is Joe the President? Does Joe have access to the top of the pyramid of intelligence and geopolitical insight that led the Commander and Chief of our Armies the President of the USA to make the difficult but extremely necessary calculated risk to put American soldiers in harms way to wipe out Iran's nuclear program, missile launch/stockpile/production capability, drone stockpiles/launchers/production capability, and remove a huge asymmetric threat to the peace and stability and global trade/oil flow. Did Joe know that Iran had Shaded bases and production in Venezuela? Does Joe know how often Iranian APTs attack US companies and the government in cyberspace? Did Joe know that Iran was mining Bitcoin at a highly subsidized rate to capture supply and flood the market? Did Joe know that Iran was supplying Russia with Shaheds to carry on a endless war in Ukraine? Did Joe know that China bought most of Iran's oil and actively helped them avoid sanctions. Does Joe know that Iran armed ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraq militias, provided EFPs to kill US soldiers in the GWOT, and has been actively fighting the US in multiple domains except a direct kinetic conflict for decades? And this 'war' in literally all metrics is succeeding wildly in our favor... Does Joe really know best? Not likely, and he's apparently incapable of seeing where/how he could even be wrong and proudly grandstanding about his moral superiority in how right he thinks he is on topics that were far above his pay grade. Pax Americana, Si vis pacem para bellum

"I will not in good conscience send young men and women off to die on foreign battlefields." Listen, every coffin that comes back draped in an American flag is a tragedy. There's no downplaying the gravity of the deaths and wounds caused by war. But the mistake Joe is making here is that he seems to think that we have the luxury of using policy to worm our way out of having wars. I have bad news for you: that is not an option. The world is full of evil, death, and destruction. Our enemies, like the Iranian Regime, hate us, and they want us all to die. They literally scream death to America. They have killed thousands of Americans over the years. They live for it, and they are willing to die for it. You don't like war. Even though you signed up for it, along with everyone around you. Ok, fine. But your naivety in the face of reality disqualifies you from touching our military and foreign policy with a ten foot pole. And now you're running around spouting off your ill-conceived beliefs to everyone who will listen, adding more confusion, and removing clarity. Shame on you. This war is happening, and you don't have to like it, but at this point the goal is to win. If you can't get behind that, and you really do care about the lives of young men and women in our armed forces, then I suggest you keep your bad ideas to yourself.

@CynicalPublius ^this. Every war we've 'lost' since WW2 we could have easily won if the shackles of ROE had been removed, and public opinion not swayed to force a political withdrawal. All bad actors have had to do is hold on, create US soldier bodybags, and wait for the next election cycle.

RE: The Way of War of Our Enemies In every hot war the United States has become involved in since the Korean War, we have enjoyed absolute tactical and operational dominance over our enemies. We win every tactical engagement, overwhelmingly. Operationally we can and do dominate any theater of our choosing. No one—and I mean NO ONE—can stand toe to toe with the US military. This has been true for decades. We’ve talked before about the elements of national power—the “DIME” (Diplomacy, Informational, Military, Economic). Our military power is unsurpassed. We are masters of diplomacy. We have the world’s strongest economy. So how do we lose? The INFORMATIONAL component. Our military opponents, from Ho Chi Minh to Osama bin Ladin, knew that the only way to defeat the USA is to demoralize the American populace such that it demands withdrawal and throws the then current Commander-in-Chief out of office. The ONLY way to defeat America militarily is to convince the American people that a war is unwinnable. The slow dribble of IED deaths in OIF was not actually targeting soldiers and Marines—it was targeting YOU, the American people. And CNN eagerly complied with death counts running across the bottom of the screen. The Tet Offensive? It was a decisive US victory that could have ended the Vietnam War in our favor. But Walter Cronkite instead declared the war lost, protests erupted nationwide, and the war was lost. The Highway of Death in Kuwait? We could have taken out Saddam Hussein in 1991 and never needed to go back in 2003, but international media made the attack on retreating Iraqis look “too cruel,” so we halted just short of the finish line. The strategic imperative of every one of America’s military enemies is to break the will of the American people with skewed information, propaganda, and extreme emphasis on America’s minor losses amidst overwhelming military victory. But the Ho Chi Minhs and Osama bin Ladins can’t do that by themselves. They need willing partners in the American media and government. And for Operation Epic Fury, boy oh boy do the Iranian mullahs have an over abundance of American morale killers to draw from in order to defeat America through the informational instrument of national power. Tucker Carlson. Senator Mark Kelly and the rest of the Seditious Six. CNN. ABC. NBC. CBS. NYT, WaPo. Pakistani bot armies on social media. X “influencers” like Cerno, Candace, MartyrMade and Ian Carroll. Every idiot claiming we are fighting “Israel’s war." There is an entire Army of American politicians and media figures who are willingly fighting Iran’s informational war on its behalf (and in some cases, at its behest). America is DECISIVELY WINNING the war on Iran in every measurable respect. Yet there are so many influential Americans who are desperately determined to make you believe otherwise. In days of old in non-US countries, such people would have been strung up for treason. Thankfully it’s 2026 and we have a First Amendment, so no one fear being treated in such a medieval manner. But we can still ostracize and ridicule such people and sources for the irreparable harm they are wreaking upon the USA as they do the bidding (intentionally or unintentionally) of Theo-fascist mullahs who are determined to set off a nuclear bomb so that the Twelfth Imam will arise from a well in Qom and precipitate the global apocalypse. We all need to choose sides. Are you with America, or are you with theologic-inspired, deliberate Armageddon? And anyone who chooses the latter needs to be the target of mockery, derision and clearly-stated facts disproving their lies. And if YOU are an American Patriot, you can fight that informational war on America’s behalf, right now, right here on social media, right there in your own living room. Your voice matters, and your voice is actually a part of the war. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

@elonmusk Yup, we rise to the level of our systems, not our goals, and most people frankly have terrible systems and morals and can't admit that to themselves in order to affect meaningful self-growth.

So many phonies, so few who are the real deal

@SCShipyards Absolutely. There is a whole sub plot that the Missionary Protectiva planted the legend of the Kwisatz Haderac for when their breeding program bore fruit. Their culture was built to be fulfilled by his arrival and become their armies leader.

You want the REALLY fun take on this new Dune discourse? Paul did not engage in any "cultural appropriation". The fremen culture had been deliberately engineered for generations to welcome someone like him as a savior. He was literally doing what their culture demanded of him

Dune has a tier list: 1. Dune Miniseries (most book accurate) 2. Dune 1984, campy and earnest, enjoyable watch because they got how odd a world devoid of high technology might feel. Plus, Sting and a Chani that actually looks like she likes Paul. 3. Dune I/II, sigh. Beautiful visuals and music and the sci-fi fighting is awesome, absolutely gutted vital parts of the characters and made them flat in favor of modern politics, without realizing it completely detracts from the oddity of the world building. Somehow they almost completely devoid Paul the Messiah of the Fremen, the human Mentat and Bene Gesserit trained Kwisatz Haderach blessed/cursed with foresight and genetic memory into Paul the "I'm exploiting these vulnerable superstitious tribal people" to revenge my father. And they somehow manage to slip high tech into a world that absolutely abhors it due to the Butlerian Jihad. Some of the weapons, and especially the shielding they nail, but it's not enough to save it.

Dune (1984) gets written off, even by Lynch, but the film’s worldbuilding is doing its own thing. Baroque sets, strange textures, and a future that feels alien in a way few sci-fi films even attempt. It’s rough, but there’s nothing else like it.

@johnkonrad What about a seaplane variant of this, make it crane recoverable so it can launch from merchant marine ships? 15 .50 cals proved enough to sink Japanese destroyers in WW2.

It is time to build the GOAT

Same, but I'm a pragmatic nut. I have common uses that I fill with common/cheap calibers like .22, 9mm, 5.56, and special use cases for hunting self-defense, etc. For example, I'd never use a 9mm for bear defense, .357 for Black Bear and .44 or 10mm for Grizzly. That I base on pure ballistics backed by practical field usage reports, plus personal testing to make sure excessive recoil isn't an issue. You can have both too much and little little of a gun for certain situations, and a jack of all trades might not be the best option, especially when your life is on the line.

@Wiki_Collins @MagnumKeith 90% of all the deer I've taken since I started hunting in 1966 could easily have been taken with a 30-30. But I'm a gun nut. I need one for every occasion.

The 270 Winchester has been a very popular long range rifle and an excellent caliber for all lighter big game. Some swear by it for moose and elk, usually older shooters with skill and patience to wait for a clean shot, or not shoot. “Big Game Rifles and Cartridges” (1936)

Good for you! Those are all great longer range specialist cartridges well suited for the animals you're after with a nice vitals shot. I tend toward bigger/heavier bullets versus high velocity (or both, both is good), but most hunting I do is easily 150 yards or shorter, usually more like 20-30yds and I take most with shotgun or crossbow. I packed the .270 this particular day because I was in river valley and cedar swamp terrain, and you can can be presented with a longer shot than you might think. My .30-30 could have worked, and I've used a .45-70 to harvest deer from there in the past. I just wanted that extra .270 range if the situation presented itself.

@Wiki_Collins @MagnumKeith I don't own a. 270. I'm more of a specialist. I use a 7-08AI for deer, 300 WinMag for moose, and a .338 for elk. It really doesn't matter what you use as much as whether or not you put em in the right place.

@MagnumKeith If it was good enough for Jack O'Connor, it's good enough for me! ;) The heavier 150 gr bullets penetrate deeper for big game, but the 130 gr expand better due to velocity. The 270 also has over 100 years of regular use, ammo is cheap and plentiful, and is very accurate.

270 or nah?

For sure, they'd only stockpiled 400 kilograms of 60% highly enriched weapons grade uranium 235, bomb/implosion experts who had pre-made and tested all the needed components without nuclear material, and built medium range ballistic missiles with the warhead capacity to deliver them. There's no way they'd ever combine all those very expensive, specific, hard to research and create components together and launch it at their hated enemy that they've sworn a jihad against, as they have a religious ruling against it... Yes they 'held off' at 99.95% percent, but you don't assemble all that capacity unless you fully intend to cross the finish line and the only thing stopping you is a reversible ruling by your local ayatollah. Joining the Nuclear club is insanely expensive, ridiculously high tech, and incredibly politically fraught, and you don't play at it. You sprint for the finish line or lie your way across it before one of the players with them decides to use them on you to prevent you.

I am a Nuclear Engineer. I will be more than happy to challenge @joekent16jan19 about Iran's nuclear capabilities. I know he won't accept, nor will @TuckerCarlson. So anyone who thinks this same position! (Aka, yes Iran was absolutely aiming for a nuclear weapon)

🚨 BREAKING: Tucker asked, "Was Iran about to get a nuke?" Joe Kent replied: "No. They've had a religious ruling against it since 2004. We had no intelligence that it was being disobeyed."

@exQUIZitely I dunno, we were a SoundBlaster 16 house, and me and Dr. Sbaitso had many very interesting sessions as a result. Most of the computers I built in the 90s (Cyrix, P2, etc) all had integrated motherboard sound cards.

I'm so out of touch, I don't even know if PC gamers these days still bother with sound cards... is that still a thing? What I do remember, though, is that the Roland MT-32 was the most unachievable piece of hardware ever back in the day, at least for me.

One can make similar arguments about Tolkien's works. Theoden is twisted by Wormtongue, loses his son, saves his people at Helm's Deep, risks his entire army to answer Gondors call, and then dies from the Witch king's attack. He dies nobly, but his royal line is wiped out. Denethor, the loyal steward and protector of the vacant throne of Gondor, castellan of the White City. He knows he's just a placeholder for the wandering/missing monarch and can never truly be king, but then he loses Osgiliath. Boromir goes questing to find help and a weapon that will turn the tide of this generational conflict and evidence is brought of his demise. Faramir holds that relic in his hand and yet doesn't claim and and therefore dooms them all in his eyes, he wrestles with Sauron with a Palantir and thinks himself undeceived and yet Sauron only allows him to see despair and his defeat and destruction. Then Faramir is brought in, close to death and he snaps and choses a pyrrhic death by immolation rather than seeing it all collapse. Pretty grey and morally ambiguous stuff to me, yes, against all odds and the good guy's win, but the cost, O the cost of what it takes to reach that conclusion...

@SandyofCthulhu He’s not talking about characters, he’s talking about plots. The thing about Ned Stark is not that he’s morally grey — he isn’t — but that his nobility is not rewarded.

What?! Let's look at actual fantasy: Tolkien: Denethor is shades of gray. A good man ruined by lies of Sauron. Is Gollum good or bad? (The answer is yes.) Other examples abound. Moorcock: Elric tortures and kills people, but in the end saves the multiverse. If you asked him if he was evil, he'd probably say yes. Dunsany: is the King of Elfland good or evil? Is the magician in The Charwoman's Shadow good or evil? Actual fantasy does not bear out Martin's simplistic analysis.

@exQUIZitely That was such a great game, simple but surprisingly deep and strategic as well!

Stranger: How come you know so much about ants? Me:

Tom isn't pure revelry and carnal fulfillment though, he is just genuinely merry and joyful tripping down green forested paths. It's worth noting that Tom communicates via song, which in the Silmarillion is how Middle Earth was created. Tom perhaps isn't just some leftover scrap outside Eru's singing. His own words reveal him as eldest, a living, singing remnant of the first theme preserved in joy, untouched by Melkor's discord, in one tiny, merry corner. He carries forward what the world was meant to be: song, raindrops, acorns, feathers in hats, and "hey dol! merry dol!" while the rest of Middle-earth wrestles with power, control and technology and that pure innocence and harmony is overwhelmed by discordance except in Tom's tiny domain. That's perhaps why he's an enigma to many and why he feels so right to some. In a story full of mighty struggles and heroes, there's still this small, free, singing patch of pure harmonious creation.

@Wiki_Collins @SandyofCthulhu Pan, yes, fits. Bacchanalian.

Tom Bombadil stops the story cold. We are in an exciting cross-country trip as the hobbits pick their way through a creepy haunted forest to avoid the sinister Black Riders. A terrifying black huorn ensnares them. Poof! Here comes Tom deus-ex-machina Bombadil to save the hobbits from a threat which Tolkien seems to have created to give him an excuse to insert Bombadil. Then, just as the story starts to move again, Tom shows up a SECOND time as a deus-ex-machina to rescue the hobbits from the barrow wight. Ugh. Again stopping the story cold. What is Bombadil's function? He doesn't represent the Old Good Ways which the fellowship must save. Bombadil isn't threatened - he's a cheesy distraction. I'm not saying it's impossible to convince me that Bombadil is a Good Thing, but such a convincing would be an uphill battle, and I view Tom as one of Tolkien's missteps. I am happy Jackson left him out of the film, because it would have stopped the movie's flow too.