March Makes Me Think Of Graduation

The privet bushes in my backyard are putting on bunches of tiny new leaves, that means it is March in Central Alabama. It was during March in 1970 that I finally graduated from Auburn University. I had started to Alex City State Junior College in the fall of 1965 and transferred to Auburn in September of 1967 so I should have graduated in 1969, but I had to repeat several courses during my time on the plains.

I love Auburn. It is a great school and I would not take anything for having gone there, however I can’t say that I have a storehouse full of fond memories of my Auburn education. It was tough. My grades were marginal. Thanks to the Vietnam War and my local draft board, each quarter I was taking at least one more course than I could successfully handle. I had done fairly well at ACSJC and had a transfer grade point of about 1.67 on a 3 point system but I was always on the raw edge at Auburn. So much so that when I went to the Registrar’s office in early 1970 to apply for graduation, my Auburn grade point was a 0.98. At that time, the minimum grade point for graduation at Auburn was 1.00. My overall grade point, including my transfer work was comfortably over 1.00. Unfortunately, transfer grade points were assigned the value of 1.00 until after graduation.

At the Registrar’s office I talked to a very nice lady whose name has long ago left me. She looked at my folder, she looked at me, she looked back at my folder, and finally she said you know that you have to have a 1.00 to graduate. I said yes. You have a 0.98. I said yes, I guess that means I can’t graduate. She said not necessarily. You have a 1.67 transfer grade point. I said yes. So when the two are combined you have a (don’t remember the number, something like 1.24 I think). I said yes, so does that mean I will graduate. She said not necessarily. Your transfer work is only counted at 1.00 until after you graduate. I said I know, does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. Based on your current grades you will probably have a 0.99 grade point at the end of the quarter. So does that mean I won’t graduate. She said not necessarily. By now I was frustrated. I looked at her and said, am I gonna graduate or not. She said, I think so.

I went on to pass everything that quarter and by my calculations I had a 0.99 grade point. I was standing in line in the coliseum waiting to get my diploma and wondering if I was gonna get up there and they were gonna say, wait, you have a 0.99, you can’t graduate. When the time came and they called my name and I walked over and got that diploma cover, I knew that I had made it. That was 36 years ago but when the new little clusters of leaves pop out on the privet bushes in Central Alabama, it all comes back to me just like it was yesterday.

Bye Bye BellSouth, Hello SunRocket

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad for SunRocket. It is a VOIP phone company, very similar to Vonage. They currently have a deal where they will provide you unlimited home phone service plus two Uniden cordless phones for $199 per year. I ordered their service and the phones came in via UPS yesterday. I hooked them up and have made several phone calls. So far I am very impressed. I have applied to have my home phone number transferred over to my SunRocket account. They say it may take as long as 60 days to accomplish the transfer, so sometime around the middle of June, I will be saying bye bye to BellSouth. Nothing against BellSouth personally, but since I have hispeed internet through cable, I can save at least $200 per year by switching my phone service to SunRocket.

I Wonder When We Will Get Like This?

Here is the Blog I am referencing. The article is currently on top, but for later on when new entries are added, it is entitled "Cement Bag" and dated Tuesday 7th March 2006. You probably noticed that I said I wonder "when" will we get like this and not "if" we will get like this. I say that not to be overly pessimistic, but to reflect my lack of confidence in the people in postions of authority in this country. They are not as bad as President Mugabe yet, but give them time. By the way, at around 3:00 PM CT today (11 Mar 2006), $1 US equals $99,202 Zimbabwe dollars so the amount she gave the man was the approximate equavilent of 40 cents in US currency.

How To Live A Long Life

Be born with good genes. This article from the AARP Bulletin tells how Dr. Nir Barzilai is trying to use info from folks with good genes to help the rest of us to live healthier lives.

Bush's Legacy

I come from a part of the country that thinks that "W" hung the moon. Personally I am a lot less enamoured with the guy. Whether you like him, dislike him or ignore him, one thing is for certain, his legacy is gonna haunt you, your kids, your grandkids and probably your great grandkids. I read the other day that under his watch, federal spending has increased by half. I took that to mean that for every dollar we spent before, now we are spending a dollar and a half. Unfortunately, it is money we don't have .

We are quickly becoming a nation of indebted servants. I know that the Congress is equally to blame since they are the ones that come up with the spending bills, but everyone knows what to expect of Congress. Mark Twain said it best. "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself." The trouble is "W" has yet to issue a veto. He can't seem to find a government expenditure that he does not love. I see where now he is asking for a line item veto. Maybe if they give it to him he can finally find something to not spend money on, but I fear that it is gonna be way too little, way too late. I wonder how all those black "W The President" stickers are gonna look to us when we are sitting in the poor house.

Mr Head quoted Lincoln.

When I was in junior high school, I had a very wise man for my eighth grade math teacher. He later became principal of the high school. His name was Albert Lee Head. Mr Head had a lot of quotes that he liked to use. One of his favorites was by Abraham Lincoln. Now Lincoln is not my favorite president by a long sight, but I too like this quote.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

The current administration has a lot of folks fooled on a lot of things, but looks like some of them may be waking up.

An Interesting Website

I saw this morning that the House had passed the reauthorization of the so called Patriot Act. I was interested to see how my congress critter Spencer Bachus had voted, so I did a little googling and found this website. You can use it to see what your congress critter is voting on and how he or she is voting. By the way, for those of you in my district who are interested, Bachus voted for reauthorization.

Old Letters

I am still sorting through the junk for my folk's house. Today I looked through a box of old letters. The earliest were from the early 1960's, the latest from after my father's death in 2002. Right now, I don't have time to read all of them but I did read several and it got me to thinking. Now that we have email, old letters don't sit in yellow envelopes in boxes in closets. They reside on hard disks in computers. Computers that are obsolete in 5 to 7 years and are replaced with newer computers with clean hard disks. I suspect that most of the old emails are lost with the old computers. I know that mine are. So while we have all those old letters from the last half of the twentieth century to remind us of how things were, most of today's emails will end up in a landfill somewhere on the corroding disk of an obsolete hard drive. Is that a problem, or an advantage? I'm not sure of the answer.

Lower your salt intake and die sooner

Seems that the benefits of lower salt intake may have come from the same camp that gave us the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Here is a WebMD article from CBSNEWS.com that gives the details.

The Economy Is Like A Drunk At Closing Time

Back in my younger days when I went to bars and sometimes stayed late, there was an expression that the proprieters used to signal closing. They would say to the hangers on, "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." I think that pretty well sums up the state of the US economy. There is really no specified direction that it has to take from here, but most people agree that it is definitely not in a steady state position. Kevin Duffy has an interesting take on what may happen next.

Dead Horse Theory

My apologies to the original author of what follows. I found it as a text document with no references. It's just too good not to post. If you are the author, let me know at khmiller@yahoo.com and I will give you credit or update this post as a link to your site:

Dead Horse Theory

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.

10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.

11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

And of course....

13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

In the future I will abstain from voting

Lately I have been seeing the road signs indicating that its politicking season. Time for the May primaries and the November general election. Immediately when I see those signs I begin to ask myself, who am I gonna vote for. Today I have the answer, none of them. That’s right, I am not gonna vote for any of them. Why you ask? Because they are all a bunch of parasites. Good honest, hard working people don't run for public office because they are out working hard. The folks that do run are mostly lazy carpetbaggers or manipulative psychopaths. Which one am I gonna vote for the carpetbagger or the psycho? It’s my duty as a citizen to vote you say. Bullshit, I say. I have no duty to sanction the actions of people who's only interest is to line their own pockets with money forcible taken from others or the actions of control freaks that want to manage every action of their fellow man right down to how much water he can use to flush his toilet.

No the time for my participation in the farce called the political system is over. I'll still show up at the polls to vote on specific proposals like a tax increase, or a state lottery but the days of me standing in line to chose between two losers who probably both ought to be in prison instead of in office are done.

What Causes AIDS?

The CDC says that it is caused by the HIV virus, but the CDC is run by the government so you can pretty well figure they are wrong. Rebecca Culshaw offers some insider insight on this subject.

Multiculturalism GoodBye

Looks like the Dutch are taking the Popeye approach to multiculturalism, ( "I've stands all I can stands, I can't stands no more.")

Harry Browne 6/17/1933 -> 3/1/2006

Harry Browne was a great pragmatic libertarian and we are going to miss him.

Another Reason To Drink Tomato Juice

Here is another reason to drink tomato juice.

Kinda What I Expected

Having spent a significant portion of my previous career crunching numbers, I am always skeptical of determinations of any kind made solely on the basis of numbers. Granted, some numbers count. If the number in the right hand column of your check register is less than zero, you had better quit writing checks. If the pointer on your speedometer is on 70 mph and you are not on the intersate, then you need to be concerned with the presence of cops. Other numbers that today play a big part in our daily lives my not be as clear cut in their meaning.

The POTUS That Cried Wolf?

When I was young, we were often told the story of "the boy that cried wolf". I'm not sure but I think it is was one of Aesop's fables. Anyway, I am certain that most of you my age or older know the story. For other's, basically the little boy was a shepard who figured out that if he cried wolf really loud, the townspeople would rush to his assistance. He did that several times when there really was no wolf just for the excitment. Then when a wolf did come along and the little boy cried wolf the townspeople thought he was still pranking and did not come to help. The wolf ate up all the sheep.

Now what we have with the POTUS and the UAE controlling some US ports is similiar, but we haven't reached the moral of the story yet. Sure POTUS has been "crying wolf" about arab terrorist ever since 9/11/2001. Unfortunately for him, the American people are still rushing to kill every wolf. In the case of the UAE, POTUS tells us that this is a friendly wolf, and he didn't cry wolf, some alarmist did, but all this "wolf crying" has kinda conditioned us to be a national of people that jump up with pitch forks in hand at any wolf, no matter who is doing the crying.

I'm sure that eventually we as a nation will figure out the moral of the story, if you cry wolf when there is no wolf, don't expect much help when there actually is a wolf but in the mean time it is gonna be difficult for any wolves to operate ports in the USofA.

Brad Edmonds Tells It Like It Is

In his article, 'Government Makes Things Worse' , Brad Edmonds tells it like it is. Unfortunately, it seems that the majority of Americans do not understand what Brad is saying. When Harry Browne was running for president in 2000, he asked people to name their favorite government program. I saw a video of him asking people and virtually none of them could name one government program that they liked. I know that the tape was edited and while Harry admitted as much, he insisted that the tapes content was representative of what he found everywhere he went. Think of it, the government takes around one half of every dollar you make, when the total up all the different taxes and fees, and they can't come up with even one program that people can say is their favorite or even one that people like. Maybe you are different, maybe you have a favorite government program. If you do, I would certainly like to hear about it.

Acres Of Diamonds

Years ago, when I was in Amway, I was introduced to Russell H Conwell's speech, Acres of Diamonds . Today, I was reading an article by Gary North and he had a link to Temple University's website that has the speech. I read it again and throughly enjoyed it. If you have never read it, do it now. If you are like me and it has been a while since you read it, read it again now and enjoy it again.

Rising Health Care Costs

I read and hear a lot about rising health care costs. Everyone says we have to do something to help people pay for their health care. I understand that the president covered it in his SOTU address a few days ago. He wants to come up with medical savings plans or something like that. I've got a better idea. Make all medical expenses a tax credit. Lower everyones federal and state income tax by $1 for every $1 they spend on doctors, medicine, and even health care insurance premiums. In fact, why not do the same thing for food and nutrition costs. After all, there is nothing that the federal or state government does for us that is as important to us as our own health. Better that we take the money we are paying in as income tax and pay for things that will keep us healthy or cover the cost of treatment when we get sick.

Some folks are so poor that they currently can't afford to pay for health care. They should not be paying any income tax already. If they are, give it all back to them. If that isn't enough, then they should qualify for the earned income credit.

I know that this plan would take a bite out of what the government(s), federal and state are collecting in income tax revenue, but as I said before, nothing that the government(s) do for us is as important to us as our own health.

Fried Catfish Nuggets

Last night for supper we had fried catfish nuggets. Earlier in the day I had gone to the store to get some paper towels and a few other items. When I went by the meat counter, I noticed that they had a package of catfish nuggets. Sometimes they have them, sometimes they don't. For those of you who don't know what a catfish nuggets is, basically it is a random piece of catfish left over from when the fish was dressed. Some of these were no bigger than your thumb. Some were well over 100 grams or around 4 ounces.

Now I have been catching, cleaning, cooking and eating fish all my life, but I decided to do a little checking on the internet to see if I could pick up any tips. Combining my own experience with what I found on the internet, I came up with the following.

I made up a mixture of about 2 parts yellow corn meal to 1 part bisquick. To that I added some salt, pepper and magic dust, which is a rub made from a recipe I found on the internet last year. I made up enough of this coating mixture to throughly coat the nuggets I had. I put the coating mix and the nuggets in a ziploc bag, shook it good and placed it in the refrigerator. When it got time to cook the nuggets, I put about 1 qt of cooking oil in a 4 qt pan, heated it to 350 degrees F and dropped in a few nuggets. It took them about 4 minutes to reach a golden brown. I cooked a few at a time so as not to cool the cooking oil down too much. We ate them with french fries and slaw and if I do say so myself, they were pretty good.

Nay Sayers

I was just out on www.al.com reading the messages in their gasoline prices forum. One particular thread caught my eye as it had to do with using acetone as a fuel additive. Some of the veggie oil groups that I subscribe to have had similiar threads recently, so I was interested to see what the locals had to say. When I started reading the thread, I was immediately surprised at the negativity expressed by the individuals that responed to the initial posting.

The original poster, screen name wileykoyote, reported that he had been adding " 1 ounce of acetone to every 3 gallons of gas. On average, I get about 18% better gas mileage using acetone." He also included a link to the website that got him started.

http://www.lubedev.com/articles/additive.htm

One of the nay sayers responded with "All I know for sure is that truck drivers use acetone to clean the tar and road film off their trucks. It is a very strong chemical that could damage someones engine."

Another said "Unless I had a cheap car to try this on, I'd err on the side of safety. I get a good 35-50mpg highway anyways, so the couple of cents I save by putting acetone in my engine would not be worth the repair if it ate through the gaskets or something along those lines."

I'm not sure where the couple of cents figure comes in. If you figure an 18% increase, at 50 mpg and $2.13 per gallon, which is what I paid locally last week, then 100 miles would cost $4.26 to drive without acetone as an additive and would cost $3.61 with acetone as an additive. That would be considerably more than a couple of cents for just 100 miles of driving. Now I am not saying that wileykoyote's results are typical, or even accurate, but it really disheartens me that someone would offer up a possible suggestion for improving fuel economy in a forum that should attract persons interested in just that sort of thing and all he gets is ridicule.

I'm not sure when or why it has happened, but somewhere along the way, the American people have traded in their can do spirit for a defeatist mindset. If some government official, lawyer , doctor or MIT professor doesn't say its alright to do something, they immediately raise a red flag. I fear that with that kind of mindset, we were as good as we will ever be, yesterday, and that tomorrow we will be worse than we are today.

Another Miller's Garage Alumni is gone.

Got a call yesterday from a friend who told me that Wally Burks had died. He was 68 years old. The friend didn't know the cause of death, but speculated it might have been a heart attack.

The first year the garage was open, in the metal building up the hill, Wally started hanging around, helping out when he was needed. At that time, he was roofing houses, but the work was sporadic. It was 1959 and the country was in the grip of a recession. Gradually he did more and more mechanic work and less and less roofing until he was mechanicing full time. I have often heard my father say that he couldn't fire Wally cause he never did hire him. Wally just started working and Daddy started paying him.

I had not seen Wally in over 30 years but he is one of the people in my life who I will not ever forget.

Let Me Sleep On It.

Have you ever said that? Told a real estate agent or a car salesman that you would like to sleep on it, ie. wait overnight to make a decision? Have you ever gone to bed pondering a problem and woke up the next morning with the answer? I know I have. Seems some investigators have discovered that this is actually a good ideal and yields positive results.

Global Warming

Global Warming predictions are based on COMPUTER MODELS. Weather predictions are based on COMPUTER MODELS. The folks that predict the weather are lucky if they can get tomorrows weather correct. What makes you think that someone has a COMPUTER MODEL that can predict anything that is gonna happen next year or 5 years from now. This article seems to indicate that hard historical evidence casts doubt on some of the existing predictions.

Driver's License For Illegal Aliens

I just finished reading this article and it caused me to ask myself a question, "what difference does it make if an illegal alien has a drivers license?" If they don't have one, does that stop them from driving? If they do have one, aren't they still an illegal alien? I'm always reading about illegals getting detained and released without deportation. By all accounts, the borders of the United States are like a sieve. Will these be any less of a problem if it gets harder for an illegal to get a driver's license? Why then is it so damn important to try to keep illegals from getting drivers license? What good does it do to deny them a drivers license? Is this whole thing a strawman?

It seems to me that the people that we have elected to run this country ask all the wrong questions, come up with the wrong answers to those questions and then implement flawed strategies to work their incorrect solutions. If they manage to do something correctly, its appears to be mostly by accident. I've said it before and I will say it again. I would not let the folks in government operate the basement apartment of an outdoor toliet for me.

Greenies Into The Trash

I have bought some Greenies for our dogs in the past. In fact there is one in my kitchen right now. However, after reading this article on CNN's website, I am gonna throw it in the trash. Why take the chance?

How to Handle the Lobbyist Problem

The Abramoff scandal has focused the nations attention on the problem of lobbyist running all over Washington, spreading money around and getting legislation and loopholes that favor their particular special interest group. Senator John McCain and others want to come up with new legislation that will supposedly correct this problem. Good luck to them, but I have an alternate solution. Federal deregulation. That's right, eliminate federal regulations on most everything and turn law making back to the states. That way these lobbyist will have to cover 50 state legislatures instead of one congress and 50 governers offices instead of one White House. What money they have to spend will be split 50 different ways and probably won't do as much damage. Much of their time will be spent travelling instead of greasing politicians. I know; it sounds to simple to work, but often times the simplest solution is the best.

The Damnedest Thing

I have been driving since I was 12 years old. I have owned dozens of different types of automobiles, and driven many others that belonged to friends, relatives, companys I worked for or customers of Millers Garage. During that 47 years I have driven nearly 2 million miles by my estimate. Since a great deal of that involved trips of less than 50 miles, I think it safe to say that I have started a vehicle tens if not hundreds of thousands of times in my life. But yesterday afternoon I experienced something I had never experienced before while starting a vehicle.

I was on my way to Columbiana in my white ford van and I stopped by the local Raceway to get some gas. When I had finished getting the gas, I got back into the van and turned the key to start it. It started immediately, but the starter did not disengage from the flywheel and while the engine was running, the starter was still turning. Now that has happened to me before so I immediately switched off the key. Then the damnedest thing happened. The engine died, but the starter kept right on turning. Apparently the starter solenoid had stuck in an actuated position. I rasied the hood and located the starter solenoid on the inner fender well next to the battery. Then I went around to the back of the van, located a jack handle went back to the front of the van. All the while, the starter was grinding away. I gave the starter solenoid a good whack with the jack handle and the starter stopped. I got back into the van, turned the key to start it. It started right up normally and I went on to Columbiana. Don't know what caused the starter solenoid to stick like that but I can assure you that it is a very unnerving experience.

Investment Advice

I have been interested in stocks and investing since my uncle gave me a stock certificate, one share of Libby McNiel and Libby, back in the early sixties. I don't remember what happened to that share I doubt that I sold it.The commission would have cost more than the stock brought. Anyway, after I started work in 1970, some of the folks I worked with were buying stocks. That was before the advent of the 401k. I took most of the little bit of money I had saved and bought 20 shares of Southern Company. Later on, after I was married, I bought 20 more shares. A few years later, around 1980 I got a divorce and sold my Southern Company stock and several other things. That pretty much put an end to my stock trading. Then, sometime in the late 90's, one of the guys I worked with opened an eTrade account. He convinced me that it was lots of fun and a good way to make a little extra money. Buy low, sell high. You know the story. Anyway, I took $3000 out of my meager saving and opened an eTrade account. Through careful study, judicious trading and my usual luck, I managed to turn that $3000 into $1600 in less than a years time. So much for stock trading. It was along about that time that another of my co-workers and my boss made me an offer, jokingly, I think. They offered me $50 to tell them before I bought a stock. They were going to short it before I bought. Since everything I bought went down, they figured to make a killing. Sure thing, can't miss. Unfortnately for them I lost interest in turning dollars into half-dollars, so we never did strike a deal.

Fast forward to last week. I have been reading a lot about gold. Last week I decided to test the waters so I bought a little bit of gold. That was the day before the biggest single drop in the gold price in years. I wonder if those guys still want to buy my investment advice, I need to recoup some losses. ;>)

Mini Coopers

About the time I was graduating from High School and starting to college, the SCCA was still having races on city streets. Not too long after that, they moved onto offroad courses. I never knew why, I heard it had to do with insurance considerations. My family attended one of the last city street races down in Montgomery. It was run on streets located near the western bypass.

My father and I really enjoyed it, not sure how my sister and mother felt about it. One of the memorable sites from that race was that of the little Minis taking the corner located near where we sat. At that time, around the mid '60s, front wheel drive cars just did not exist in central Alabama. To watch the little Minis speeding through that corner with their left rear wheels hiking in the air as they made the apex of the turn was fascinating. Over the years, I have owned my share of British cars, mostly MGBs, but never a Mini. When BMW revived the Mini, I have to admit I felt a little tingle, but I was not moved enough to purchase one. Last week, I saw a 1967 Mini on the Atlanta Craiglist. I was really tempted but I currently have my quota of vehicles and I think my next vehicle I trade for will definitely be diesel powered, but my heart still skips a beat when I see a Mini on the street.

Everyone Has A List

It seems to me that the way the world around me now operates is by the dictum "I believe that _____ is wrong and should be against the law and that the powers that be must enforce that law." Pretty simple on the face of it. The problems start to crop up when people compile their lists and fill in that blank. Some things are virtually uniformly agreed upon, murder, robbery, arson, rape. Other things seem to appear on lots of lists, but not all, prostitution, smoking marijuana, sex with animals, downloading copyrighted materials off the internet. Others items have an asterisk beside them on some lists indicating that they are ok if the powers that be run them, gambling is one that pops to mind.

But there are some real differences between lists that have folks scratching their heads trying to reconcile them. One list will have abortion on it and another will have interfering with a woman's right to choose what happens to her body. Or one list will have possession of a firearm and another will have interfering with an individuals second amendment right. Some lists have prayer in schools while others site interfering with freedom of expression. It gets real contentious very quickly.

I think that maybe the solution lies not in reconciling the lists but by adding a second dictum. We need one like, "I believe that _________ is wrong therefore I choose not to do it." Use the first one for the universally agreed upon items, or at least items where over 90% of the lists agree. Then use the second one for other list items. Now that would simplify thinks greatly. Who knows, if we add and start using this second dictum for contentious list items, we might actually be able to satisfy Rodney King and all learn to just get along.

Inquisitive?

I don't get a lot of comments on posts on my blog. I figure that is because (A) not many people read them and (B) those that do don't see anything worthy of comment. It doesn't really bother me. I think of the blog more as an outlet for me, than as reading material for others.

What I do find interesting, is that of the three people who have commented so far, two have used the word inqusitive to describe my blog. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what inquisitive means, but I looked it up anyway. Sure enough it means just about what I thought it meant. It's a good word, but not one I use everyday. Also both the people that used it were directing me to their blog. I went to the first one, read it, sent the guy and email and he never responded. Tried to go to the second one and it does not seem to exist. My question is this. Is there some kind of blog promotion software or web site that is the source of these nearly identical comments? Or, is inquisitive in fact the universally recognized best word to describe my puny little blog?

Can the President legally have Ted Kennedy Killed?

Does this mean that the president can legally have Ted Kennedy killed? After all Ted is or was on that TSA no-fly list with 80,000 other American citizens who are suspected terrorist. What about the 4 year old boy that is on the list, can he be ordered killed also? What about the other 79,998 people on that list? Can the president order them killed as well? Someone wrote the other day that the list had about 30,000 names on it a year or so ago. Now there are 80,000. That would seem to indicate that the list is gonna grow. Can the people who are added in the future be legally ordered killed as well? Can I be ordered killed for asking these questions? Can you be ordered killed for reading them? I don't know the answer, do you?

Iraq is not Vietnam, Part II

In this followup to his original article, Jim Cox extends his comparison of the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq. Once again, he determines that "Iraq is not Vietnam; Vietnam is spelled with a `V' and is in Southeast Asia, Iraq is spelled with an `I' and is in Southwest Asia." If reading this doesn't send chills down your spine, you are obviously too young to remember the Vietnam era.

Is It Worth It?

Read this and then tell me if you think that what we have accomplished in Iraq or what we stand to accomplish over there is worth it.

The War isn't working

I'm not talking about the one in Iraq, I'm talking about the one in Alabama, and Illinois and Texas and the other 47 states. I'm talking about the War on Drugs. I was talking to a guy from central Alabama this morning and he was telling me what a big problem crystal meth is in his county. Tonight I was talking to a lady from north Alabama and she said they are experiencing the same thing. When I was young, back in the 1960's, before the War On Drugs, some folks smoked pot, a lot of them drank beer and Boones Farm wine that they brought in from out of state and that was about it. I think it was in the early 1980's that this country declared a War On Drugs. I would be afraid to guess how many billions of dollars have been spent on this thing. So far, it has proven to be about as effective as alcohol prohibition was in the 1920's and 1930's. The chief effect has been to line the pockets of a lot of criminals.

Every time I bring this up, one of my friends will say something like, well, what would you have us do, just make the stuff legal and let everyone buy it. Well I've given it some thought and decided that is exactly what we need to do. Legalize drugs and then start a government program to encourage people to use drugs. If it is as successful at its stated goal as the War on Drugs has been at its goal, in 20 years time we will have virtually wiped out drug use in this country.

Two Letters From Jeff Sessions

I've been sending emails to my congressperson, Spencer Baucus and my senators, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby through the organization DownSizeDC for the last several months. Most of them have had to do with various things the current administration in Washington is doing in the name of fighting terror. In my humble opinion, they are mostly wasting money, trampling on the Bill of Rights and creating a lot of useless redtape. Today, I got two identical letters from Jeff Sessions office. Both of them were dated January 10, 2006. In them he basically told me what a good job he, the congress, and the president are doing fighting terror. For some reason it reminded me of a old joke I heard a long time ago.

Seems there was this guy standing on a street corner, waving a yellow polka dotted flag in the air. A policeman walked up to the guy and asked him what he was doing. Oh, I'm scaring away the elephants the guy said. The policeman said there are no elephants around here. The guy looked at the policeman and said works good don't it?

Another Miller's Garage Story

In addition to fixin cars and cussing, the folks at Miller's Garage were known to take a drink now and then. At that time, Coosa County was dry, so all of the alcohol had to come for either a bootlegger or a moonshiner. For those unfamiliar with the difference, bootleggers sold bonded liquor, beer and wine brought in from wet counties. Moonshiners sold homemade stuff. The folks at Miller's Garage would drink either, but preferred the moonshine, provided it came from a trusted supplier, i.e. no dead possums or car batteries in the mash. Even with trusted suppliers, the quality of the homemade whiskey varied significantly. In particular, there was one kind that they called "wolf" or "steam run wolf". I never new exactly what that meant, but there was some reference to first batch or first run made from hog shorts that was offered up in explanation as to what constituted wolf whiskey. I do remember that when someone was drinking wolf, they smelled especially bad. Being underage, I never did drink any of it, but from what I was told, it tasted worse than it smelled. This brings me to the story in question. One of the mechanics had gotten hold of some wolf. It was so bad that my dad would not let him keep it inside the shop so he put it out in the little shed where we kept the steam cleaner. At that time, there was a black man named Boyt Corbin that lived near the shop. I don't know if Boyt did not have a car or did not have a drivers license or just enjoyed walking but nearly every day, he would walk by the shop on his way to the nearest country grocery store. After a while, he would walk back by on his way home. On this particular day as Boyt walked past, the mechanic with the wolf whiskey hollered at him, Boyt, come here I've got something for you. He and Boyt walked around the edge of the shop and after awhile the mechanic came back in bent over in laughter. He had taken Boyt out to the steam cleaner shed and given him a drink of the wolf whiskey. Then he asked Boyt how was it? Boyt said it was just right. Just right? That is the worse stuff I have ever drank. Yessir responded Boyt. It is just right. If it was any better, you wouldn't give me any of it, and if it was any worser, I couldn't stand it.

A Miller's Garage Story

My daughter, who is a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company, sent me a link today to a story about some supply problems her company is having. For some reason, it reminded me of something that happened one time at my father's shop. From 1959 until 1984, my father ran an automobile repair shop in central Alabama. It was appropriately named Miller's Garage. His shop was known for two things, good repairs at a reasonable price, and salty language. One day a guy, who was a part time paying most time credit customer, came by and told my dad he needed some brake shoes for his car. He wanted to know if dad had any in stock. My dad said he did. The guy asked how much are they? 25 dollars was my dad's reply. 25 dollars, whew, that is too much, McClure sells them for 22 dollars. To that my dad, said, OK got get them from McClure. The guy said that he had gone to McClure's first but they were out of them. My dad looked at him and said, Hell, if I was out of them, I could sell them for 22 dollars too!

The Old Man, The Little Boy And The Donkey

This is the way I heard it:

Once there was an old man, a little boy and a donkey. One day the old man decided to go to town so he and the little boy got onto the donkey and started toward town. After a while, they met an old woman in the road. The old woman said to the old man, you are much to big to be riding on that poor little donkey, get off and lead him. So the old man got off the donkey and continued on toward town. A little while later, they met another old woman. The old woman said, old man, that little boy is to big to be riding that poor little donkey, he should be walking. So the old man got the little boy off the donkey and they continued on toward town. A little further along, they came upon another old woman, she said to the old man, old man that little boy is much to small to be walking in this rough road, pick him up and carry him. So the old man picked up the little boy and carried him under one arm and continued to lead the donkey toward town. Further on, they came upon another old woman, she said, old man, that poor little donkey is getting his hooves bruised and broken by the stones in this road, you need to pick him up and carry him. So the old man did, he picked up the donkey and put him under his other arm. The old man walked on toward town with the little boy under one arm and the donkey under the other. Eventually they came to a foot log over a creek. The old man started over the foot log carrying the little boy and the donkey but he could not keep his balance and they all fell in to the creek. The donkey drowned, the little boy drowned and the old man drowned.

The moral of this story is:

If you try to please everyone, you will loose your ass and everything else.

Three Questions

Three Questions

We Get What We Look For

I am a fan of the Realage tips. I started receiving them via email a couple of years ago. I think this one is particularly important for us boomers.

Charley Reese on Global Warming

Once again Charley Reese puts into words my exact sentiments. I love the way he uses money to explain parts per million. So simple yet I had never thought of it in that way.

Festivus

Did you know that Festivus was invented in 1966 by a Reader's Digest Editor? All this time I thought it was invented by Frank Costanza. Next they will be telling me there ain't no Santa Claus.

Third Package was a charm

Are you familiar with the old expression, third time is a charm? Well I guess for UPS the third package was a charm. I went out shopping this afternoon and when I got back, both of the packages from last week and a third package (the charm) were sitting on my front porch. I for one am glad that everything arrived in time for Christmas. Which reminds me, if I don't see you in person before Christmas, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Why I am a Libertarian

A lot of people question me being a libertarian. After all, they say, the libertarian candidate never wins except in an occasional constable, school board member or city council race. I've tried to explain it to them, often with mixed results. This morning, I read this article by Harry Browne. He does a better job of explaining why I am a libertarian than I could ever do.

The USPS

While I am on the subject of shippers, I need to say a few words about the US Postal Service. I know that in the past, they have been suspect and I have been one of their critics. As a quasi governmental agency, many times they have lived down to my expectations. But something has happened. It was not overnight, but somehow over the past few years, they have made some great strides in becoming a service oriented organization. They have turned their website into one of the best that I deal with. They have made shipping about as easy and convenient as it can be for a non-business and their rates for the most part are quite competitive. All and all, I have to give them a thumbs up. They are definitely my shipper of choice for outgoing packages.

FedEx Ground is winning my business

This past week I have had multiple headaches with UPS. Suddenly after delivering a package to my house on Tuesday, on Wednesday they decided that my address did not exist. I have called them three times and am scheduled to get a call from them by 10:00 AM Monday to try to get it straightened out. In the mean time, FedEx Ground was scheduled to deliver a package to my house yesterday (Saturday). They could not make it and indicated on their website that the package would be rescheduled. I assumed they meant for Monday but I was wrong. The FedEx truck just left my house. They delivered the package this morning (Sunday). Now that is what I call service. Some of the companies I order from don't give me a choice on shipping, but on the ones that do, you can be assured that in the future I will be selecting FedEx Ground ahead of UPS.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger, Danger

Ever since the days of Lost In Space, I have been fascinated with Robots. When Heathkit came out with the Hero, I was highly tempted, but really could not justify purchasing one. Of course there have been kits and parts available, but I lacked the time or motivation to assemble one from scratch. Enter the Roomba . Finally a economical robot that can perform a much needed task in my home. Unless my plans change, after my budget recovers from Christmas, I am gonna buy one. I wonder if I can figure out how to program it to say "Danger Will Robinson."

The Second Vermont Republic

Now here are some folks that have come up with a peaceful way to get out from under the massaive, invasive federal bureaucracy. I may not agree with every detail of what they propose but I certainly applaud their efforts toward greater freedom.

Holly, Mistletoe and getting jerked around by UPS

I order a lot of stuff off the internet. Car parts, electronic parts, tools, etc. I have found in the last year or two that it is easier and sometimes cheaper to locate what I want, order it and have it delivered than to run all over Birmingham and find that everyone is out of what I need, doesn't stock what I need, or in some cases wants to argue with me and tell me that what I am asking for does not exist.

The bulk of the things I buy are shipped USPS, UPS Ground or Fedex Ground. They all seem to do a good job most of the time. I used to have a problem with UPS periodically loosing their way to my house. I live about 385 feet off the road down what my ladyfriend Linda refers to as a 'lane'. Its more of a bumpy, rutted dirt drive, but that is a story for another time. Back to UPS. They would deliver package after package with no problem and then I would get a post card in the mail saying they could not deliver a certain package because the address, which was the same as they had been delivering to, did not exist. I would call them, tell them that they had just delivered to that address a few days before. They would take down directions and next day the package would be delivered. That all stopped a couple of years ago. They assigned a driver to this route and he was the only one working it. Sometimes he would deliver 3 times in one week. He did get stuck a couple of times, my yard and drive are problematic when wet, but I managed to pull him out with my van and all was well with the world. A month or so ago, I started having a new driver, but still only the one. Apparently he had talked to the previous driver and knew where I was, although it should not be that much trouble to find as there is a big mailbox on the road with 640 in block letters on the side. All continued to be fine. That brings us up to this week. Tuesday a UPS truck pulls up with two people. I think they use a driver and a helper this time of year to expedite the increase in delivers. They delivered my package. I knew from an email notice that I had received that I had another package scheduled for Wednesday. It did not arrive. Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), I checked the UPS website and learned that my package "was undeliverable as addressed." I called their 1-800 number and was told that it was addressed to "640 Hwy 35" which was a non-existent address. I assured the guy I was talking to that it did exist and that UPS delivered here regularly. I gave him explicit directions as to where my house was located. He said the package would be rescheduled for delivery tomorrow (Friday). This morning I checked the UPS website and now my package has a note saying that "a delivery change has been requested" and that the "package will be delivered as requested." Of course the only change that I have requested is that they deliver the package as addressed. I suspect that this is the result of new drivers and the Christmas crush of packages, or at least I hope so. I really don't want things to go back to being like they were in the past.

As for the other two carriers, USPS is doing a good job. Occasionally they leave some thing in my mail box addressed to someone else, but not often. Fedex Ground? They have been good, but I have two packages coming in next week from CompGeeks in California and both were sent Fedex Ground, so we will see.

No Fly Zone

Let me first say that I have never been a real big fan of flying. I have done it several times, mostly commercial, once or twice in a private plane. Since I really don't care for it that much, giving it up was really not a big sacrifice for me, kind of like giving up brussel sprouts. Since 9-11, the world has been a no fly zone for me. I don't fly. It's not so much that I am scared of being hijacked and killed. I really doubt that is very likely. The whole nature of terrorism is to stike where you are least expected. That makes most any other target more at risk than airplanes. No, It is that I don't want to suffer at the hands of the government thugs. Originally this entry linked to an online story. That link is now dead but you can do a search and find all the articles that you would care to read about abuse of air passengers since the war on terra began.

The Internet

You know, when to stop to think about it, the Internet really is amazing. So much of what I take for granted today, didn't exsit 15 year ago. I just read this article from CNN. It really helps to put it all into perspective.

To many WWII movies

I guess I watched too many World War II movies when I was young. You know the ones where the good guys are in Nazi Germany and trying to get out. Everywhere they go, there are Gestapo Agents and Nazi officicals, someone wanting to see their papers. That is what I think of when Congress passes things like the "Real ID Act." Now, I read this . The first thing that I thought of is why do we need undercover agents on trains? Is someone in the government afraid that terrorist are gonna hijack a train and ram it into a federal building somewhere?

Robot in our future?

Personal robots could be the answer to many of the old age concerns of all us baby boomers. Maybe by the time I am old enough to need assisted living, I can trade my Toyota car in on a Toyota robot. Better yet, maybe I can keep my car and buy a robot that can drive me around.

I wonder if driving robots will have to have drivers licenses?

Charley Reese on Christmas

I love to read what Charley Reese writes. To me, he always says just what I would like to say only much better than I ever could. Here's some of his thoughts about Christmas.

Lao Tzu - The First Libertarian

There really is nothing new under the sun.

Baker's Yeast - Not Just For Bread Making

Think all baker's yeast is good for is making bread rise? Not so according to Bill Sardi in this interesting article. If you are like me and are concerned with the over use of antibiotics, you should read what Bill has to say.

Two Worthless Web Sites

I spend a lot of time shopping on the web. I find that it is much easier to find and buy things on the internet than to go to multiple local stores and ultimately have to buy something different from what I want. Of course there are distinct advantages to buying locally, you save the cost of shipping and you get the product faster.

When I discovered that Home Depot and Lowes had websites, I was excited. Finally I thought I would have the best of both worlds. Shop for products online and then buy them at the local store. Unfortunately, both Home Depot's and Lowe's websites are virtually useless. They are difficult to negotiate and the search engines almost never return any items. On the few occasions that they do return items, they are usually not related to the original search. I have purposely looked for items that I know are in the store and almost never was able to force their search engine to find it. What seemed to be a blessing turns out to be just an aggravation.

FEMA at work

Read one Missouri firefighter's account here

More Good News About Vitamin C

I just read this article about another study showing positive affects of vitamin C. This one involved the use of intravenous vitamin C to kill cancer cells.

Now there are two places where I never want to go.

I have always said there is one place that I absolutely never want to go, prison. The horror stories that come out of prisons tell me that anything, up to and including being dead would be better than being in prison. Now there are two places I never want to go. The second one is a relief shelter run by the government.

Truthfully speaking, I can't say that I was too surprised. I mean there is no activity on earth that the government can't make twice as expensive and only 10% as efficient. But even my low expectations were underwhelmed by what went on in the Convention Center in New Orleans.

I was in college when Camille came through and was working for a public utility when Fredrick hit Mobile. Both were bad storms, Camille especially. There was a lot of distruction but I don't recall there being snafus like Katrina has brought. Of course that was before FEMA. Nothing like a federal agency to gimmick everything up.

'Live and Let Live' and the Golden Rule

I know that you have heard the expression, "Live and let live." Have you ever stopped to think about what it means. To me, it means live your life as you see fit and let others live their lives as they see fit. I have said before that if people would follow the direction to 'Live and let live" and the direction of the Golden Rule to 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', the world would be a much better place.

This brings me to the current situation in New Orleans. I, like most everyone else, have been riveted to the internet, TV and Radio coverage of the events as they unfold. The one thing that strikes me as odd is this obsession with 'getting everyone out so we can start over.' Why is every public official, every bureaucrat, and every TV reporter obsessed with this idea. Why do they think that everyone, even people who want to stay and defend their property must be gotten out so 'we can start over'? I've got news for them. We can't start over. History can not be erased. We have to go on with the hand we have been dealt. The one thing we can do is learn from our mistakes. What I have learned from this event is that you can't depend on someone else to make you safe, secure, or provide for your needs. Individuals need to prepare to take care of themselves. If you wait for the government to help you, you will probably end up a bloated corpse floating in dirty water.

I say leave those people alone who want to stay. I am sure that they have or will find what they need to survive until they can stand on their own two feet again. Sure, help everyone to get out that wants out, but stop harassing folks who just want to protect what is theirs and live their life the way they want to live it. Live and let live. And to the mayor of New Orleans and the folks working in the rescue effort, if you have an extra can of potted meat and some extra bottled water or better yet some clorox or iodine tablets, make it available to them. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Are you an environmentalist?

Do you think of yourself as an environmentalist? Do you really understand what environmentalism is all about? Before you answer, read the qoutes in this article.

Then compare what you believe to what these environmentalist believe.

Gold in your portfolio?

You might want to read this before you decide.

Why I take Vitamin C

Read this article, and you will see why I take Vitamin C and why you might want to consider it as well.

The NCAA

The NCAA is an organization that has out lived its useful life. It should be abolished and replaced by smaller regional associations that can interact with each other as they see fit.

Still Believe In Man-Made Global Warming?

I don't, in fact, I never have. Being an engineer, I have always wanted more proof, more hard data than was available. But even without numbers, it really did not appeal to me intellectually that mankind had done enough to alter the climate of a planet the size of earth. This morning, I came across this article by George Crispen. George provides some information in his article that further reinforces my skeptism. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

After you finish reading George's article, if you are interested in some further reading on this matter, you might want to look at this page . There is a link to James A. Marusek's paper, "Global Warming Theory" about midway down the page.

Charley Reese On Terrorism

Here, Charley gives a great description of terrorism and the situations surrounding it. If he would run for president, I would vote for him!

Iraq is not Vietnam

Back on June 28th, I posted my opinion that what is happening now in Iraq seemed eerily familiar to what I remembered from 1968 and the Vietnam War. This morning I came across an article by Jim Cox, Iraq is Not Vietnam. His article makes several comparisons of the two situations. His observations are enlightening.

You get what you get.

Heard the expression, "You Get What You Pay For." Well it has been my
experience that sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you get
more than what you pay for and sometimes you get less than what you
pay for. But you always get what you get.

Better Safe Than Sorry -or- Little Boy Who Cried Wolf

Well Tropical Depression Dennis is drifting along west of here. I lost one bamboo cane and a few
oak leaves. He really did not do too much this far inland, not even as much as a good late
afternoon July thunderstorm. What was more disruptive was the 3 days of preparation. The constant
harping on the TV about the dangerous nature of this storm. The likelihood of sustained power
outages, the need for serious preparation and the influx of thousands of people and vehicles from
South Alabama. There was even one unconfirmed report of a curfew in Alabaster.

I realize that it is better to be prepared and there is a lot of truth in the old saying "better
safe than sorry". However, humans are strange animals. They become jaded very, very quickly. False
alarms and needless hysteria make them discount future warnings a la "The Little Boy Who Cried
Wolf". I think we are all still a little sensitive because of what we experienced with Hurricane
Ivan and I will chalk this over prep to that plus a little tinge of puffing of goods by NOAA. In
the future, it might be wise to take a deep breath, take one step back, and prepare prudently
rather than hysterically.

____________________________________________________
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Found a pump that works

After two failed attempts with electric pumps, I have found a pump that works for collecting oil.
Originally, I intend to use a vacuum pump to draw the oil into a tank, but to date I have not
found a suitable tank. Since I had a 55 gallon drum filling up behind a local restaurant, I had to
start pumping. With the failure of the second electric pump, I went to the McMaster-Carr website
and did some searching. I found hand operated diaphragm pumps and purchased the model 400-H for
under $50. Took it to the restaurant yesterday and was able to pump out the barrel with ease. It
has a capacity of 10 gpm so the pumping was surprisingly fast. I don't know how long this pump
will hold up, but so far it looks good.

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Victors Muffler Bandage

During the time that I have been modifying the Mercedes, I noticed
that it had started to have a small but annoying exhaust leak. The
hole was in the pipe from the manifold to the muffler, just before the
muffler. Several weeks ago, I ordered a Victor's Muffler Bandage kit
from someone on the Internet. I think it was AceHardware.com. Anyway,
day before yesterday I finally made time to put it on the leaking
pipe. Although the location of the leak made it some what difficult
to apply the bandage, with a little time and effort I was able to get
the leak covered. I know this is just a temporary fix and that I will
eventually need to replace the front pipe if not the complete exhaust
system, but this was quick, easy, cheap and for the time being quite
effective.

Iraq 2005 = Vietnam 1968

All these excuses about why we can't get our troops out of Iraq sound awful familiar. I heard this same stuff back in the late 60's and early 70's about Vietnam. I was fooled back then and thought we had to stay the course or...

Now I know better. We need our troops out of Iraq NOW. Let the citizens of Iraq work out their own problems. I say bring our men and women home ASAP.

Pumping Oil

Last week I received the oil pump that I ordered off ebay. They sent the 115 volt model instead of the 12 volt model. No matter, I just fired up my little 1750 Coleman generator and it worked fine. When I got down to Columbiana Saturday, I did encounter a slight problem with the wand on the end of the pickup line. It was sucking air. Finally I took it off and put the end of the hose in the
55 gallon drum and the little pump pumped the drum dry in a matter of minutes.

Before my next pumping session, I suppose I will have to find and stop the air leak in the wand.In lieu of the wand, the seller where I bought the pump has a check valve, but it is $24 plus shipping and that seems like a bit of overkill just to keep the pump primed. Some how a $24 check valve on a $79 pump does not compute.

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Diesel Purge is Great!

A few days ago I ordered a can of Lubro-Moly Diesel Purge. I had read
about how good it was supposed to be. Yesterday afternoon the UPS man
delivered it. Later in the afternoon I went out and used it according
to the instructions. After I used the Diesel Purge, I noticed that the engine seemed to be idling better, but I knew the real test would be this morning when
the engine was cold.

I just got back from a trip down to Wal-mart and the change in the car
is amazing. No nailing, smoother idling and it seems to have more
power. It is hard to believe that 500 ml of Diesel Purge could
make that much difference in an engine, but seeing is believing.

Hwy 11 Antique Alley Sale

Friday I went from Trussville, AL to Chattanooga, TN on the Hwy 11 Antique Alley Sale, or as we call it around here, 'the springtime sale.' That distinguishes it form the big one in the fall, The World's Longest Yard Sale, aka The 450 mile sale or Hwy 127 Corridor Sale. Of course around here (Central Alabama) we call it 'the fall sale.'

I always go the full distance on the WLYS, but have only gone the entire lenght of the Hwy 11 sale once. This year I only went for one day on the Hwy 11 sale as I had no one to keep the dogs. Crowds and vendors seemed to be off a bit, I suspect due to higher fuel prices. It will take a while for folks budgets to accomodate the higher fuel cost.

If anybody out there took in the other parts of this years Hwy 11 sale, I would love to hear from you. Anything happening between Birmingham and Meridian?

First Filtering Today

Today I put the 32 inch 0.5 micron bag filter that I got from Greasel
in my plastic 55 gallon barrel and poured in the first of the oil that
I got from Beverly's. The oil was prefiltered through a 100 micron
poly filter first into a 5 gallon pail before pouring it into the
Greasel filter. I am still working on the 55 gallon steel barrel and
filter and hope to have it set up next week. I intend to incorporate
the 5 gallon pail and 100 micron filter in to that setup as a
prefilter.

Filtering Oil

Still working on filtering the oil I am collecting. Ordered Dana
Linscotts plans for the hand pump filtering system. Just about got it
set up using a plastic barrel. Also working on a different setup using
a smaller bag filter in a closed pvc container. It is based on a
modification of a design that I saw on one of the forums. If it works,
I will post a diagram somewhere on the net.

Post from email

This is an attempt to post from email. If it is at Pentonville.blogspot.com, then the posting was
a success.

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Another Oil Article by George Crispin

Last month (April 6th) I listed a link to an article by George Crispin about Professor Gold's theory of the origins of oil. Well Geroge is at it again. This article gives additional information about alternate theories of the origin of oil. I find this very thought provoking.

The Radical Environmental Movement

I just read an article by Eric Englund that does a good job of pointing out the hypocrisy of the radical environmental movement. It is a short article and worth reading.

Veggie Car Success

Yesterday I drove the Mercedes to Coosa County. UPS delivered the last part (the coolant pump) last week and I had installed it so the 'veggie car' was ready for a test. Just below Alabaster, the operating temp had gotten high enough that I felt comfortable switching to vegetable oil. There was no noticeable change in operation. I stopped at the Calera exit to look under to hood to make sure everything was ok. Then I walked around to the back and checked the exhaust. I can't say that it smelled like 'french fries' but it definitely had that hot cooking oil smell. I drove on toward Clanton and switched back to diesel at the Lake Mitchell exit. The maiden voyage was a success.

Professor Thomas Gold's Theory On Crude Oil.

I have heard of Professor Gold's theory before. This article by George Crispin gives some information on additional support for the theory. Very interesting to say the least. If you want to read about it in the professor's own words, look at http://people.cornell.edu/pages/tg21/usgs.html from 1993. [Sorry, Cornell seems to have deleted or moved the subject paper.]

Canadian Adscam

When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, I always admired Canada. I wasn't much on cold weather, but Canada had a certain attraction nonetheless. In 1963 I got to go along on a fishing trip to Kenora, beautiful country in that part of Canada. When they started their lottery, I was thrilled. I even played it by mail for a while until someone stopped the company that was selling the subscriptions. Somewhere between then and now, our northern cousins have taken the wrong turn in the road. I realize that they are not by themselves. We in the USA have made our share of bad turns. In fact we may be just following their lead in some cases. The first really big falling out I had with them was when they enacted their draconian gun laws. Now, when I read about stuff like this , I can't help but be even more troubled. What has happened to send our friends in the north off in the direction of totalitarian socialism. I know that with some of the campaign reform and anti-terrorist legislation we have now, we are not too far behind. In fact, we may already be on the same page and we just don't know about it because of secrecy or censorship or court orders or what have you. They say the pendulum swings both ways, I certainly hope this one has about reached it's limit and is ready to start back the other way.

Making Progress On Veggie Car

Everything is hooked up and ready to go except for the filter and fuel lines under the hood. I am currently waiting on deliver of some plate steel to fabricate a bracket for the filter. When that bracket is fabricated and the filter and lines are connected, it will be time for a road test.

The Easter Bunny and Global Warming

What do they have in common? They are both myths. How are they different? The mythical Easter Bunny is cute, cuddly and gets credit for Easter Baskets. The myth of Global Warming is making otherwise sane, intelligent people do things that are distructive, stupid and hurtful.

I just read a great article by Doctor Donald Miller (no relation). He was critiquing Michael Crichton's book 'State of Fear'. The article Toro! Toro! Michael Crichton links to some interesting information about the myth of Global Warming. If you are like me and just don't believe the currently accepted 'facts' of Global Warming you will enjoy this article. If you do believe in global warming, give this article a read and see if you can find where it went wrong and you are right. Have a nice day.

Did you see me on WTTO last night?

Yesterday morning I got a call from the guy at Greasel. He wanted to know how my conversion was running. I told him that I had made very little progress due to the weather. He said that a local Birmingham TV station had called him to see if anyone in their area was doing a conversion. He asked if he could give them my number. I told him OK. Soon thereafter, I got a call from a lady from WTTO. They wanted to interview me and see the car. I agreed. We met at the shop in Stewartville. The taped interview ran during the 9:00 PM news on WTTO last night (Mar 14, 2005). Oh well, my 15 seconds of fame are done, now back to the work at hand.

Yet Another Linux Distro

Well I have discovered another Linux Distrubution that I really like. It is Puppy Linux. It is only about 50 megs and boots from a cd. Loads into Ram and releases the CD where it can be used for other things. It is amazingly complete. I did have a little problem with the planmaker spreadsheet that came with it. I opened an existing excel spreadsheet in planmaker and when I tried to update it, planmaker informed me that the spreadsheet was larger than the free version of planmaker would accomodate. I checked the planmaker website and the pay version is about 49 euros. A little more than I am able to pay right now. No problem, I still use Excel 97 on my W98 installation and OfficeOrg works real nice on windows and linux. All and all, the Puppy Linux CD works real well. I down loaded the version with Firefox which has become about the only browser I use. I don't have the URL for Puppy Linux at have but a Google search will pop it right up.

Charley Reese

One of my favorite syndicated columist is Charley Reese. Nearly ever time I read one of his articles, I agree with it. Most of the time it will be something political but this morning, I read his article "Hope Never Dies." I don't believe I have ever read anything that so aptly describes how I feel about life. Thanks to Charley for this fine article.

Added a Printer to My Linux setup

The Mita 550 and Lexmark 23 printers that I had on this machine did now lend themselves to Linux printing. I did a little research and found that most of the Epson Stylus Color printers did. A little investigating on eBay showed that they were selling quite reasonably and that ink cartridges were economically priced. I bid on a couple before I was finally successful in getting a Epson Stylus Color 440. Setting it up was a piece of cake using the utilities included with PCLinuxOS 8. Now all I have to do is install a compatible sound card and I will be set.

More PCLinuxOS

I finally got the USB HOME function working correctly with the PCLinuxOS while using a bootable CD. Now my settings are being stored on a USB hard drive and restored when I log back in. I've ordered an Epson printer that is Linux compatible. Once I get it installed and working, the only thing that I will be lacking is a compatible sound card. Probably work on that next.

I read yesterday that it was Microsoft's intent to force everyone to upgrade to newer software. They currently have a problem with folks using older versions of Windows. Those versions have all the functions the existing users need, but there is no profit in it for Microsoft. My main machine (the one I am using right now) still uses W98SE. It has been fine with me until now and would be into the foreseeable future if I had not discovered PCLinuxOS. Of course I am doing this while it is running PCLinuxOS and everything just seems to work faster and smoother. So I guess I am playing along with Microsoft and upgrading to newer software. Some how I don't think that an upgrade to PCLinuxOS was what they had in mind.

PCLinuxOS 8.0

I was reading Claire Wolfe's Blog yesterday and came across a post about PCLinuxOS 8.0

I have been interested in Linux for several years and have tried a time or two to install it on various old pc's that I had laying around. Never was able to accomplish what I wanted to. The thing that intrigued me about PCLinuxOS 8.0 was that it was completely self contained, along with the necessary associated applications, on one bootable CD. I down loaded the ISO, burned a CD and put it in my main computer (an old 350mhz PII machine with 320 mb of ram.)

I was impressed. It loaded great, very fast, found most of my hardware and within minutes I was using it for web surfing and web based email using Firefox. The PC Linux Online website even described a method to customize the ISO. If you are like me and have always wanted to play with Linux but just never got around to it, here is your chance.

By the way, you can also install PCLinuxOS 8.0 to a HD partition from the same CD.

So Many Projects, So Little Time

Seems that every time I get one project lined up, another more pressing one pops up. My dog Corky keeps wanting to run off and play with kids in the neighborhood so I've had to start putting in the side fences to finish fencing in my backyard. In the middle of that, I discovered that I was responsible for rabies vaccination of the stray cat that was hanging around in my backyard. I got a live trap and caught the cat and took it to the vet first of the week. Later in the week it started raining and I only got to work on the fence intermittently. All of this is pushing my veggie car out further.

Accelerator Repaired

The accelerator is fixed. Turns out that there were three pivot points with plastic bushings that were binding. The steel shafts in the bushings were rusted. I separated them, removed the rust, put in some all-purpose grease and re-assembled. Now the accelerator works great. Now on to the modifications.

Routine Repairs First, Conversion Second

The conversion of my Mercedes Benz 300D to run on vegetable oil is currently on hold awaiting some repairs. Seems my little jewel has chosen this cold and wet time of year to develop a problem with the accelerator. The linkage on this model passes from the interior through the firewall, runs across the face of the firewall, down the passenger side of the engine, over the valve cover and then down to the injector pump. Somewhere in this myriad of levers, pivots, and rods, something is binding. So much so that pressing the accelerator in the car results in only the slightest movement at the injector pump. I have sprayed everything with penetrant, but no luck so far. I've got the car in my building semi-out of the weather, but with Christmas coming and the preparation that requires, I just haven't had the time to rectify the problem. Looks like now it may be after New Years before I can start on the conversion.

Rain Delay

Seems most of my projects are being delayed by the rain. I did manage to get to Pensacola yesterday and bring the motorhome back. Rained all the way down there, Sunny on the return trip, until night fall anyway. Veggie car project has been waiting on the rain to let up. Secondary fuel pump for that project came in yesterday. I suppose that the holidays will slow me down from now until early January. Maybe then I will start making more progress on my many projects.