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Monthly Archives: July 2012

Ear Worm Wednesday–7/4/2012

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Considering today is the day America recognizes as having declared their independence.  When in truth we merely formalized the letter.  Independence was actually declared two days earlier.

I think I’m just going to have to post this every year.

SSCC #362–Texas DPS

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A former Texas Department of Public Safety license examiner and an accomplice have pleaded guilty to producing false documents for migrant workers to allow them to get a driver’s license.

Yeah, I’m at a loss for words.  Have no fear though, given the current administration’s attitude towards illegal immigrants it would surprise me if they are pardoned and considered patriots for the rights of illegal immigrants.

State Sponsored Criminal #362: Damaris Moreno-Harter

Because forging documents for illegal immigrants that you don’t know who they really are is obviously in the best interests of public safety.

Built Ford Tough

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So as I said on Sunday I put my baby into a ditch.  It was a hard hit and had to be winched out of the hole.  I didn’t really think about taking pictures mainly because I’m not a big fan of documenting my stupidity.  At this point though I kind of wish I had.  It would make a great commercial.

The drive home on Sunday had a shimmy though the steering and the wheel was no longer aligned.  I spent last night with the pressure washer removing the concrete clay caking the tires and undercarriage.  I removed a large quantity of clay that was caked on to everything including all throughout the wheel.  By the end I was covered in mud from it flying off while cleaning.  I only blasted the mud off though, she will get a bath this weekend.  Tomorrow, if I get the green light, I shall go do something special for a post.

This morning I dropped her off for an alignment check and to have the front end looked at in detail on a lift.  Also if they could I wanted my steering wheel put back to center.  While driving in this morning there was no vibration through the steering, good it means that the wheel was out of balance from the clay, which I expected.  The truck tracked well and didn’t drift so the alignment seemed like it would still be good but I wanted numbers.

Well I got the numbers back and everything, remained within spec.  I didn’t bump it out of alignment, didn’t bend a tie rod, didn’t do a damn thing to that truck other than de-center the steering wheel.  That’s right, all that happened from a trip into the ditch was that my steering wheel was no longer pointed the correct direction for center.  They say “Built Ford Tough” for a reason.  I just don’t like finding out or pushing those limits first hand.

This weekend she’ll get a nice bath and right now I’m debating on a road trip with her in September.  I just need to talk with some friends to see if we can split a hotel room.

Quote of the Day – Brion McClanahan (7/2/2012)

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In the words of Madison, “Where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure” – in other words, the founders wanted checks against the tyranny of the majority.  That was why the Founders wanted a republic of separated powers.  While the government was to “be derived from the great body of society, not from an inconsiderable portion or a favored class of it,” the Constitution included a system of indirect appointments, including the Supreme Court, the Electoral College System, and originally, the United States Senate, whose members were appointed by their respective state legislatures.

Brion McClanahan – The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Founding Fathers, pg. 10

[Seriously this book started off fantastically and has so far continue to be more of the same.  I knew I would enjoy it, not just by its title, but by the fact on the first page of chapter one he says,

Please repeat: the United States is not a democracy and was never intended to be a democracy.

The fact we are a republic is one of my personal pet-peeves and I find it nothing more than an expression of ignorance when someone claims we are a democracy.  Further it is disappointing to see further attempts to destroy the checks and balances placed within the system, that exist for the express purpose of protecting the minority, and removing them so that the majority may have their way no matter the cost.

Last week Justice Roberts dealt another blow to checks and balances.  Initially some viewed it as a strategic view and on some level it made sense if you hadn’t really had time to think about it yet.  The more time that passed though the more it just didn’t make sense, but I thought I was maybe just being cynical.  Then today, someone a lot wiser and snarkier said something that illustrated my concern and thoughts weren’t because I was crazy but far from it.

The fact is for the past 225 years, the Supreme Court acted as an extra check for when political powers get out of control.  Now we supposedly are required to suffer the consequences of our political choices?

Why should the few suffer for the choices of the many?  The whole point of our representative form of government was to stop that exact problem from ever happening.  The whole point was that every part would restrain the other, that includes the government restraining the “will of the majority.”

The republic is slowly drifting toward a democracy.  As we all know a democracy is merely two wolves and a sheep getting together to decide who’s for dinner.  Guess who’s the sheep. Where’s the damn gulch? -B]

 

Just Use Your Phone and Call 911

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There’s only one problem with that.  It doesn’t always work.

For two days, residents in the City of Manassas, Manassas Park, Vienna and Fairfax and Prince William counties were told to call alternate phone numbers, send emails or drive to their nearest police or fire station if they had an emergency.

Tell me, where does one get the alternate numbers when one is knee-deep in to crap.  This is why you can’t depend on 911, you cannot depend on your cell phone.  Heck with yesterdays incident if I had wanted to I could have started self extraction.  It would have taken considerably longer and would have been much more difficult, it would have been possible.  If it had been the other truck I would have self extracted, as doing it with a winch makes life considerably easier.

911 though is not a sure thing in the even of an emergency.  Even when it is working there are oddities that can go wrong.  For instance Cellular skip does happen and you can actually end up calling into a 911 center well beyond your current location.  This is one of the reasons they ask for your location first and foremost.  If you’re in Kansas and you got into Whitman County Washington’s dispatch, they’re not going to be able to help you much.  As a FYI, yes that has happened.

Since 911 has problems why use it at all?  Well because when it does work, it’s an effective way to call in the cavalry.  If it wasn’t for 911, I would have to keep track of all the different numbers for the different services myself.  Not an easy task, especially while traveling.  My point here though is to not plan on it being your sole solution to a problem.  Don’t plan on 911 working correctly when you actually need it because Murphy is bound to show himself.  By all means call for the cavalry but realize it may fail, it may take longer than expected, and most importantly it is going to take time for the cavalry to arrive.  Assess your situation, make sure things are under control and then call for the cavalry.

You are on your own and you may end up being on your own for longer than expected.  Know that you’re call for the cavalry may not exactly work out as planned, your methods may not work, and you may be on your own for longer than you thought.  Remember they have no duty to respond.

SSCC #361 – IMPD

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Via Roberta X and Tam I stumbled across another in a reoccurring theme out of IMPD.

A 35-year veteran of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department faces preliminary misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and failure to stop after an accident resulting in injury after a suspected hit-and-run Monday afternoon.

While this patrol monkey was off duty, the department history, especially this shining incident causes me to include this in the count.

State Sponsored Criminal #361: Michael J. Rinehart

Because drinking and driving is only a problem when you don’t have the seal of anointment placed upon your collar.

 

I’ve Had Better Days

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So, today wasn’t exactly one of my best days.  I didn’t listen to instinct.  I was taking back roads to the match today and there were thunderstorms last night.  Yeah, wet clay isn’t fun to drive on.  Doubly so when it is like driving on ice and that’s pretty much exactly what happened.  All I will say is the truck is fine, a bit muddy on one side, and need of a visit to Les Schwab’s for an alignment and suspension check.

Now, I have had many people tell me that Ham Radio is pointless.  Just pick up and use your cell phone.  I was merely 12 miles outside of Moscow Idaho, an urban center.  Yeah, guess what didn’t work worth a damn and what got a tow truck sent in my direction with a winch.

If you said cell phone, you lost, it was my Ham Radio.  Cell had 0 signal.  Tow truck showed up about 45 minutes later and I showed up to the match 50 minutes after it started.  Luckily I was still able to shoot, not only that but first stage I shot everyone’s comment was I need to do something like that before I shoot.

What do you mean I hear you ask?  Well I shot the first stage in 5.11 and aced it with the exception of a single charlie. Compare that to our local Masterclass shooter who did it in 5.85 and was mainly in the charlie bracket.  I was quite pleased with myself.

I did OK on the classifier, which was a fixed time stage with a mandatory reload.  I was quite pleased with myself that I only wasn’t able to make one shot during the reload string.  There was another stage that was actually a blast.  It was a bunch of running and gunning.  You started with your mags and gun down range on two different barrels with the gun unloaded.  Adam (the Masterclass) shooter did a move to load the magazine in the gun straight out of Zombie Land.  I will post the video later.

It was a fun day for the match.  Overall I really am pissed for not listening to my instinct with regards to navigation.  Thankfully at most it’s going to cost me an alignment.  I’m taking the rest of the night off, I’m kind of feeling really stupid right now for that dumb mistake.