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  • Saturday Morning Links of Warning

    Friday night in the Candy household. The Old Man is freshly back from a week of torture in Atlanta. There’s a bottle of sparkling wine (New Mexico’s finest) waiting to be drunk, and a meal being prepared. But what we don’t have is… the right movie to watch. We needed suggestions. Now, in a perfect world, we’d probably ask LT Fish or Ted S for advice, since these guys know movies and have excellent taste. But since we needed an immediate response, we were limited to people whose phone numbers we had on hand. Sloopy? Fuck no, he thinks dull Spielberg flicks with big rubber fish are entertaining. Francisco d’Anconia? Even worse, he thinks that Tom Cruise movies centered around homoerotic beach volleyball games are high art. Spudalicious? The last time we asked him that question, we ended up with a movie called Fuck My Face, which, although it had its moments, was somewhat repetitious. Riven? I’m not interested in Jeff Goldblum masturbatory material.

    SP had a brainstorm: let’s ask Mad Scientist! His suggestion? Beverly Hills Chihuahua. “Ok, you’re going to to think this is stupid, but it’s surprisingly endearing. When my wife rented it I thought it was going to be horrible, but it turned out to be surprisingly not bad!”

    Never take movie advice from Mad Scientist. I think we may have lasted 15 minutes before we said, “I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY MORE!” and turned it off. Now, you know a movie has to be incredibly awful for a Jew to not sit through it after we had paid money for it.

    And what amazes me the most is… THERE WAS A SEQUEL! Who says that originality and creativity in Hollywood is dead?

    OK, today is August 11. What makes this date auspicious? It is the birthday of Erwin Chargaff, whose rule, A=T and G=C, provided the main clue for Watson and Crick to unravel the structure of DNA (fun fact: Chargaff hated those guys), relentless self-promoter Marilyn vos Savant (but she was right about the Monty Hall problem), and fantastic street artist Pavel 183.

    What else makes this date auspicious? Yes, some interesting news stories.


    Why did Constantinople get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’.

    “Before it is too late, Washington must give up the misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical and come to terms with the fact that Turkey has alternatives. Failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies,” Erdogan said.

    Good luck with that, Recip.


    Adjacent Jew Haters at it again.

    The military said a tank fired shells at a Hamas positon after Palestinians threw explosive devices and a grenade at forces stationed near the border. It was not immediately clear whether the Hamas protests at the border were included in cease-fire negotiations.

    “You didn’t say we couldn’t throw grenades! Unfair! Unfair!”


    Remember when Global Warming (since rebranded to “Climate Change,” and recently rebranded to “Hothouse Effect”) was going to destroy agriculture, cause massive crop failures, leaving millions to starve from lack of food? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

    U.S. farmers are expected to produce a record-high soybean crop this year, according to the Crop Production report issued today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service… Soybean yields are expected to average 51.6 bushels per acre, up 2.5 bushels from last year. Record soybean yields are expected in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

    Average corn yield is forecast at 178.4 bushels per acre, up 1.8 bushels from last year. If realized, this will be the highest yield on record for the United States. NASS forecasts record-high yields in Alabama, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee.

    Wheat production is forecast at 1.88 billion bushels, up 8 percent from 2017.

    See, this is just a sign that disaster is right around the corner!


    Ladies and Gentlemen, this is who Team Blue is positioning to be our next president.

    I’ll tell you. Umm. One of the things that I think, for me, is most important is the role that I serve on that various committees that I’m on — umm — which are oversight committees. Let’s be clear. Those committees exist to watch and question what is going on with our government, the United States government. So, I’m on Senate Intelligence, I’m on Homeland Security, I’m on Judiciary and the accomplishment then is for me is a function of what I think my role should be.

    You know who else was being positioned by Team Blue to be our next president and substituted resume points for accomplishment?


    JournoList 2. But this time, we’re not even bothering to hide it.

    A Boston newspaper is proposing a coordinated editorial response from publications across the U.S. to President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the news media.

    “We are not the enemy of the people,” said Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe… The newspaper’s request was being promoted by industry groups such as the American Society of News Editors and regional groups like the New England Newspaper and Press Association. It suggested editorial boards take a common stand against Trump’s words regardless of their politics, or whether they generally editorialized in support of or in opposition to the president’s policies.

    I’m sorry, but this shit’s hilarious. Especially when viewed in light of amazingly lame rationalizations like this of transparently partisan attempts at doing hit pieces. And failing miserably, of course. But we’ll get that Roadrunner next time!


    Old Guy Music is inevitable. And I’ll be brief: every time I hear Victor Wooten play, I wonder, “How the fuck does he DO that????”

  • STEVE SMITH FRIDAY FOREST LINKS

    NO WARN HIKER! YOU TRAILBLOCK STEVE SMITH?!

     

    STEVE SMITH CONTINUE WORK AS PROMINENT FOREST LAWYER. HIM WILL HELP CASCADIA BE FREE. AS RESULT, STEVE SMITH HAVE LINKS FOR FUNNY GLIBERTARIAN PEOPLE. FOREST LINKS. HIM HOPE YOU LIKE. IF NOT, COME VISIT STEVE SMITH IN WOODS, IN CASCADIA. HIM ADDRESS COMPLAINTS. BY ADDRESS COMPLAINTS, MEAN…

    • STEVE SMITH NO LIKE FOREST FIRES! THINK HOOMAN WHO SET SHOULD BE TURNED OVER TO STEVE SMITH FOR INTERROGATION. BY INTERROGATION, MEAN RAPE. A LOT. WHEN STEVE SMITH YOUNG RAPESQUATCH, HIM WAS IN FIRE IN WOODS. HAD TO RUN AND DIVE RIVER. WHEN COME OUT, SAW BEAR STANDING ON SHORE.
      WHAT MEAN “ONLY YOU?!”

       

      HIM SAY “ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES”. STEVE SMITH SHAKE OFF WATER AND GRAB SHOVEL FROM BEAR. HIT BEAR OVER HEAD AND YELL “STEVE SMITH NO START FIRE, STOOPID BEAR!” THEN STEVE SMITH EAT BEAR HAT AND BREAK SHOVEL. WOULD HAVE RAPED BEAR, BUT NEED RUN MORE.

    • SMALL HOOMANS NO WANT FRENCH LOGGING COMPANY. BUT STEVE SMITH WONDER, “WHO WANT FRENCH ANYWAY?”
    • LOOK LIKE STEVE SMITH HAVE ANOTHER “INTERROGATION” OF SUSPECT. THIS REALLY STOOPID. NO DO STOOPID THINGS IN CASCADIA!
    • THIS NOT FOREST STORY, BUT MAKE STEVE SMITH LAUGH. STEVE SMITH WRITE GOOD, NOT LIKE DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL! STEVE SMITH GO TEACH SLAVERS WRITE GOOD. BY TEACH TO WRITE GOOD, MEAN…TEACH WRITE GOOD.

    AND STEVE SMITH SAY FREE CASCADIA!

  • Friday Afternoon Birthday Links

    Today, my youngest son — the “Ted” half of Bill & Ted — turned 3. Happy birthday to this future shitlord, who shows all signs of becoming a cis-hetero white male. If he chooses to identify as something else, he’ll always be my little T. Wrecks. And, its Friday people. Let’s all get wreck’d.

     

    This Paul Manafort trial is a fucking circus. As some people like to point out, the process IS the punishment


    Canada is going to fall out of favor with the gun control lobby if these mass shootings keep happening.


    Lots and lots (and lots!) of caveats, but The Verge dares pose the question — is there actually any proof that nicotine alone in a moderate dose is in any way harmful.

    And withdrawing from nicotine is awful: “Anxiety, depression, irritability, hunger, weight gain — all of those are symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, which are unpleasant. So that sums it up,” Leventhal says.

    These people have never seen some of my coworkers suffering acute caffeine withdrawal.


    Red Tide creeping up towards me. Turrists unphased. Around here, if there aren’t a bunch of dead fish and it doesn’t smell like a whore’s crotch at the end of her shift, its okay to go in the water.


    Alright, y’all. Let’s get it on! Happy weekend.

    I watched that video and had to wonder — what happened to the bongos player in T. Rex after Mark Bolan died? Can you imagine interviewing him to join the next band. “Right then, what do you do?” “Well, I play the bongos and sing the high parts.”

  • You’re Doing it Wrong – #1

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    A while back there was a post where someone referenced the Digital Time that was proposed by the French Revolution. Well, arguments about our calendar are really useless.

    Or are they.

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    Your calendar: Summer (the season) begins on June 21st.

    Status: You’re doing it wrong.

    I can’t believe the resistance that I get about this topic. It seems pretty simple to me. Why is June 22nd a summer day but June 20th belongs to spring? Chasing that question down led me to some surprising results.

    If you plot the deviation of daylight hours over the year it looks like a sine wave.

    But this looks weird. The days of summer don’t start until the longest day of the year?

    And, I had always wondered about Ground Hog Day. What was its significance? Wasn’t the first day of spring always fixed at 6 weeks after GHD? Spring is delayed until March 21st? Duh!

    It turns out that the dates of the seasons are fairly arbitrary.
    In fact, I cannot find where the dates were set to the current observation1. The “usual” observance doesn’t seem to have much of a tradition behind it other than it being the system in use.

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    So, what would be a logical definition of the seasons? It seems to me that the best layout would be based upon the duration of the solar day. To me, the Summer Solstice would not be the beginning of summer but rather the midpoint.

    Well, what do you know; this has been the standard recogntion for hundreds of years!

    Suddenly the Ground Hog Day tradition makes sense. Spring starts on Feb 2 (halfway between the Solstice and the Equinox) but rodent-shadow “Spring” starts on the Equinox instead as an abberation. May Day never made sense to me (other than the Soviet orgasm) but now it was simple: It’s the first day of Summer. Hallowe’en, the first day of Winter. Autumn begins on August 1st.

    [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.10.1″ color=”#ffffff” height=”6px” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Adj Corr Seasons” _builder_version=”3.10.1″]

    The earth has changed orientation over time and the alignment of the seasons has changed as well. If we were to do a strict reckoning then we would use the last graph, summer starting about May 6th and the other seasons following every 91.25 days. To choose the traditional dates (May 1st, August 1st, October 31st, February 2nd) seems to me to be a reasonable compromise, bringing matters back to traditional observations while being closer to the solar midpoints.

    I’m trying to keep weather out of this discussion, but for my region, November is a winter month. I could argue spring and fall, but May is a summer month here, as well. The USWS is off of my schedule slightly as they say that summer begins on June 1st (all others follow). It seems to me to be a rather arbitrary choice based more upon weather than anything else. It is their setpoint, not mine2. But basing the reckoning of seasons upon the weather makes little sense in places like Hawai’i. My friend spent some time there and mentioned that there is no weather segment on the local news. Every day had basically the same high and low temperatures year around. If there was something else (“Typhoon On The Way”) then it was news, not weather.

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    I can’t help but to be an engineer whose job is to “fix things.” Here’s a fix for something that you never knew was broken.

    Now get off my lawn.

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    1. I haven’t looked very hard

    2. They are the “Weather Service” after all

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  • Friday Morning Links

    Well I hope y’all have had a good week so far.  Its certainly been a long one, full of interesting things.  What wasn’t interesting (to me) was the performance of Justin Verlander last night.  I haven’t seen him have an outing like that in years.  Oh well, can’t win (or no-decision) them all.  So yes, the Mariners beat the Astros last night.  The other winners were: Washington, Cleveland, San Diego, New York (AL), Toronto, Tampa, LA and Pittsburgh.

    A logjam at the top of the leaderboard at the PGA Championship, with long-hitter Gary Woodland at -6. Rickie Fowler is positioning himself well for a weekend meltdown and sits one back. Zach Johnson is two back and a host of players including the ever-intense Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, and Justin Roseanother stroke back.  Tiger and Bubba, two of the least likable people in the game, are both even, which is the current cut line.

    There was also a bunch of preseason NFL going on, but I don’t care to report on it since the games mean less than nothing at this point.

    My son and his proud father after his swearing-in ceremony.

    Before I get into the birthdays and historical events for this date, I want to give a special shout-out to my son.  He took his oath yesterday and is now officially in the U.S. Army.  He was floundering after high school and wasn’t really too jazzed up about college, so he did his work, got great scores on his tests and after much consideration (and pressure from the number of people who served in his family and a few family friends to choose the correct branch), he chose the Army.  He ships out to basic on September 6th.  I couldn’t possibly be prouder of him.

    Famous birthdays today include: William Howe, whose ass the United States kicked to gain our independence, Mexican revolutionary and second presidente Vicente Guerrero, chocolate man Henri Nestle, oil tycoon Edward Doheny, inventor and zeppelin pilot Hugo Eckner, average to below-average president Herbert Hoover, poker wizard Doyle Brunson, Bush crony Harriet Miers, musician Ian Anderson, actress and weirdo family member Rosanna Arquette, actor Antonio Banderas, musicians Jon Farriss and Dan Donovan, boxer Riddick Bowe, and Palestinian Prime Minister (and terrorist sympathizer or employer) Rami Hamdallah.

    It was also the date on which Titus set fire to the second temple in Jerusalem, the Declaration of Independence reached London, Mozart completed “A Little Night Music”, the Louvre opened its doors, Ecuador declared independence from Spain, Missouri became a state, badass Nat Turner led his uprising, the future pope John XXIII became a priest, Japan said they were ready to surrender, “Sunset Boulevard” premiered, so did “Psycho”, the US launched its first lunar orbiter, David Berkowitz was arrested for the “Son Of Sam” killings, Billy Martin’s number was retired, and RBG was sworn in to there Supreme Court.

    My favorite bit of that was the DoI reaching London.  I would have loved to see the look on the faces of George and his courtesans as it was read to them.  Priceless.  Anyway, on to…the links!

    Wow, that story of the kids “saved” from that compound in New Mexico gets weirder as it looks like they were training for Islamist terrorism.

    Sounds like a hell of a party.  I don’t understand why they would have been arrested since they weren’t bothering anyone. But that’s the state of things in America.  Maybe he’ll dump some of those billions into educating the general public on minding their own freaking business, but I would imagine his attorney will tell him that’s not a very sound plan.

    The SEC is taking interest in Elon Musk’s tweets. Its still to be determined if he has the juice to take the company private, but if I were a shareholder and someone offered me $75 a share more than its currently trading at (and probably double or triple what its really worth), I’d be jumping at the offer.

    The Kansas GOP primary for governor is turning into a fiasco. If only some Democrat poll worker would show up with a few cases of ballots in a car to settle this matter once and for all, we could move on.

    Team Blue can choose between this…

    Team Blue is worried that Nancy Pelosi could drag them down during the midterms.  Yeah, they should definitely hang on to her, in my opinion.

    …and this. Best of luck, lol.

    But they should give equal time to people like Occasional Cortex, who dismissed Ben Shapiro’s offer of $10,000 for a debate as the equivalent of catcalling her. Because, you know, asking a nominee to debate you on the issues is akin to whistling at a chick’s legs.

    As Courtney Smith’s mother, former mother-in-law and local police start to throw shade at her in the football saga, the former Ohio State wrestler who had accused Jim Jordan of knowing about sexual abuse walks that story back.  Huh, I guess the latest check from Perkins-Come didn’t clear the bank yet.

    Prominent leaders in the black community are stepping up calls for Rahm Emanuel’s resignation in the wake of Chicago becoming a national disgrace.

    This is what patchwork drug legalization looks like. And those state and local officials were right there with the feds doing their work.  Because that’s what cops do.  SO if you want drugs to be legal, you’re wasting your time until the federal government unschedules it at a minimum.

    Not happening yet

    Iranian officials say there’s no reason for Rouhani and Trump to sit down. I await the tweetstorm from the White House that’s coming in response to that statement.

    If you don’t enjoy this, then you suck.

    Now go have a great Friday and a better weekend, friends.

  • The Hyperbole’s Homebuilding Hoop-de-doo Part TL/DR

    Previously on H3

    Part 1: Introduction, Caveat, and Stakeout

    Part B: Permits and Foundations

    Part III: Do’h, Stumps, Rodan!!!, and Framing

    Part The Fourth: Rough-in, Decks, and Inspection

    The Penultimate Part: Drywall, Insulation, Siding, The Big Finish, and More.

     

    TL/DR

    A six-part series? Ain’t nobody got time for that.

    Looking good
    Peppers

    A quick synopsis for newcomers or those who haven’t kept up or those have who smoked and/or drank away all their long-term memory cells. In 1988 I helped my father build a home, since then we’ve built on average two homes per year. All but one in the same development, a gated lake community run by a Home Owners Association. Over those thirty years, building codes were adopted and updated, the HOA’s rules and requirements were expanded, technology improved the tools of the trade, products, and materials. In the previous articles, I examined these changes by comparing the building of that first house and the one we started this spring. Here I attempt to relate what all this has to do with libertarianism, or at least how it has influenced my libertarianism, otherwise known as the only true libertarianism.

    What Did You Learn?

    Aside from the specifics, probably not much, the recurring themes were likely no surprise to most Gliberati, being the heartless greedy anarchistic greasepaint-mustachioed aginners that you lot are.
    ⦁ Market driven improvements in tools and materials save time and money or add value through better products.
    ⦁ The regulatory changes be they from the HOA or the building codes they adopted do little if anything to add value to the homes, and cost the builders and owners time and money.
    ⦁ Codes and regulations create a false sense of security. Why exercise due diligence when the Government/HOA says everything’s cool?
    ⦁ Top Men® are rarely competent or particularly knowledgeable, and even the good ones are subject to human nature, i.e. power corrupts…etc.
    ⦁ Paperwork, red tape, and other bureaucratic nonsense are at best a ‘cover your ass’ legality for the HOA and at worst a ‘process as punishment’ deterrent.

    What Did I Learn?

    WTF Cukes?
    WTF Cukes?

    That writing is hard; I can install crown moulding like it grew there, but stringing together a few sentences takes far more skill. You get drunk and bang out a few paragraphs then the next morning you delete all but a few phrases, rinse and repeat until you have something resembling a coherent thought. Luckily, I also learned that I can absolutely butcher the language and waterboard syntax for the sole purpose of shoehorning Elvis Costello album titles into my posts and not a single one of you will notice. I mean I can see how ‘This Year’s Model’ kind of worked but who says ‘Punch the Clock’ or ‘Imperial Bedroom’? C’mon people, work with me here.

    What Does This Have To Do With True libertarianism?

    After all the bitching it may surprise some of you that I have absolutely no problem with the concept of HOAs. Some of you may recall that I even defend HOAs when we get the occasional link about a resident breaking some stupid rule and getting into a fight with their HOA. I may not want to live under the rules of one, but it’s not up to me to tell others that they can’t. As I tell Commies and So-cons alike, if I had my way they would still be able to go off and live in some free-loving-malnourished-dog-filled-smelly-hippie commune or some stick-up-their-ass-WASP-only-country-club community, just don’t force anyone to join who doesn’t want to. That’s how I see HOAs.

    Red Sauce Walking!
    Red Sauce Walking!

    Some argue that this is a violation of basic property rights, that you don’t ‘truly’ own your land if you can’t do whatever you want with it. That may be true; it’s just not a big deal, if people want to buy land that comes with strings attached, who am I to stop them? If I want to sell some excess property but don’t want a pig farm next door, there is nothing un-libertarian about having a ‘no pig farm’ clause in the contract. I also have no problem with an ‘if you sell you have to include a ‘no pig farm clause” and an ‘if you sell you have to include an ‘if you sell you have to include a ‘no pig farm clause”’ and so on and so on and scooby doobie doo. You want un-stringed land? proclaim yourself King, Chief, or Big Kahuna then raise an army, conquer some land, and hold it. That’s the only way you’re going to truly own your land.

    That said, all rules are not created equal. Most people join HOAs because they want to live in a community with certain shared aesthetics. They don’t want a doublewide next to their half-million dollar manse, they don’t want chain link fences or front yards filled with cars on blocks. What they do not particularly care about is if their neighbor’s great room has natural lighting equal to or greater than 8% of the floor area. However once you set up a system to make and enforce rules you get people using it to make and enforce rules, and they don’t stop at the ones that ‘most people’ want, they use the system to push their agenda.

    Like the discussion had in the comments of Desk Jockey’s excellent ‘Hillbillies can Maths Two’ post, governing bodies govern. Mini anarchism is an impossibility. Even in this small rural community, the HOA has grown year after year infringing on more and more of the freedoms the people who voluntarily joined once enjoyed. Most of these people don’t care, they are content to live their lives… going fishing or boating or just sitting in their home and reading self-affirming blog posts. It’s human nature and the inevitable lure of power that ensures governments will only attract those that want something to be done!!

    Dealing with the arbitrary rules of both the HOA and the building code that they adopted led me to realize that all rules, not most, but all rules are subjective. For a while, I accepted that we needed electrical and plumbing and structural codes: egress windows and smoke detectors just make sense. These were objectively obvious necessities. Then they changed the rules about attaching deck ledger boards to the house. The laws of physics hadn’t changed, and the way we had always done it was structurally sound, decks weren’t falling off of homes left and right and yet some far off panel of ‘experts’ had decided that we now had to do things differently. This got me thinking about the other ‘obvious’ codes. Why is a railing required to be 36″, why not 35″ or 37″. Why should smoke detectors be required in every bedroom but not the living room or den? Oh, I see, bedrooms are ‘sleeping areas.’ I’m sure not one of you reading this has ever fallen asleep on the couch in your living room or office or den. Hell, I’ve woken up (okay ‘come to’) in my bathtub a time or three.

    Lastly

    Trust all this useless beauty, the King of America may spike the brutal youth with secret(s) profane and sugarcane. When I was cruel yet mighty, like a rose, blood and chocolate brought national ransom by the delivery man with the Juliet letters. North!! Il Sogno, Momofuku…Momofuku’s

     

     

    Huh, so that’s how Agile Cyborg did it. I’ll be damned.

  • Thursday Afternoon Links

    I lied on Monday when I said I was gone for the week. Here I am! But I’m sleepy as hell and I’ve been dealing with stupid all week. (Small rant after links.)

    A suspect was arrested for the California wildfires.

    California prisoners are being used to fight wildfires.

    A bunch of people died at a funeral.

    NYC votes to put a cap on the number of ride share drivers.

    Beer.

    588 uncounted votes were discovered in Ohio.

    A “very clean, thoroughbred, white girl” was arrested (totes drunk obvs).

    Perseid meteor shower is this weekend. If you want to take decent photos of the meteor shower, here are some tips from NASA.

    And speaking of space this astronaut says he saw an alien-like creature once.

    Super gonorrhea is running wild through Aussie.

    Middle children may be endangered as more parents opt to only have 2 kids.

    Google Maps now renders a globe. Take that, flat-earthers.

    And WebDom links wouldn’t be complete without a product you need. In this case, 60lbs of cheese, which gives further credence to the idea that Amazon sells everything.

    As for the stupid…

    State Farm has been our car insurance company since my husband and I got married, and we’ve been very happy until two months ago. They had some technical issue in June, and State Farm is shitty at communicating, so we find out a month ago that our car insurance is about to be canceled for non-payment because the June payment never showed up. I call in a panic, reconnect our autopay, which worked flawlessly for 5 years, and pay the bill. Well, last week I just got another cancellation notice because the July payment never showed up because they fucked up the bank account connection.

    Between that and the fact that our insurance has been $50/mo higher than they said after my husband bought a car in May, I got really pissed and started shopping around for new car insurance.

    In an unexpected turn of events, the GEICO tagline actually proved to be true. 15 minutes DID save us 15% or more on car insurance. In fact, it saved us 57% on our premiums, and our deductibles are 60% lower.

    Their app works perfectly (complaints about the dumb bot aside). Their customer service (who I had to contact about a typo on the insurance card) was swift and easy to reach through the app. And, while I’ve only been a customer for about 16hrs, I am already happier than I have been with any of the other insurance companies I’ve been with since I got my license.

    And speaking about my license, I had to renew my license, and because of the RealID bullshit, it’s worse than ever. I already gave them my social security card, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc., when I got the damned thing. I had to show up with all of that, plus my electric bill, my paystub, and my car registration.

    But because New York is stupid, my car registration does not count as proof of NY residency, but my paystub, which totally could’ve been faked in Microsoft Word, does count a proof of residency. (WTF?)

    Since I live in the middle of nowhere I only had to wait 2hrs at the DMV, vs. the long waits seen elsewhere around the country.

     

  • Other Necessary Equipment – Reloading, Part 2

    Read Part 1

    This article is for informational purposes only. Suthenboy is not a credentialed expert. Do not attempt any of these activities without first consulting an expert or a manual published by accredited experts or manufacturers.

    The press is the heart of the reloading set but the beginning reloader will also need a good scale, a powder charger, a micrometer and a priming tool.

    Scales can be analog or digital but they must be calibrated in grains. The grain is an ancient unit of measure that originally meant the weight of one grain of wheat. Today it is defined as 1/7000 of a pound. As far as I know, the only people to use that measure any are in the firearms industry. My scale is a Hornady analog scale and is accurate to 1/10 of a grain. It cannot malfunction as it is a balance beam scale.

    There are also digital scales and powder dispensers with built in digital scales. I have never tried these but a lot of reloaders swear by them.

    A good micrometer can be had for a few bucks at any tool store. I recommend the dial type rather than the digital ones as they are easy to use and last much longer than battery powered micrometers. I also recommend one calibrated for inches as most calibers are measured in inches. Conversions are simple for metric calibers.

    Priming tools are another matter. There are many on the market and many presses have a priming function built in. It is important that primers be seated just below the base of the case and a good priming tool will do that in addition to allowing you to seat primers rapidly and accurately. You don’t want a tool that can mash a primer so hard that it ignites. After Lee precision changed the design of their hand tool it worked less smoothly so I switched to an RCBS which works fine for me but I am thinking of switching again to a Forster bench mounted priming tool. It is specially designed to seat primers very accurately without danger of ignition. It uses a tube style hopper instead of the pan style, which I like because it is easy to turn all of the primers correctly in a pan and then peck them up with the tube. Shell holders are not required and the bench mounted tool is easier on your hands.

    Powder dispensers can be fairly simple affairs or very complicated. I like simple. The old style has a hopper on top that feeds into a cavity drilled in a rotating block. The cavity has a piston style floor that can be moved into the cavity at various depths to adjust the amount of powder that can enter the cavity. When the handle is in the down position the cavity opening faces up and the hopper fills it. When you turn the handle down the rotating block turns and the cavity faces down, emptying through a small spout directly into the case which you hold under the dispenser in contact. The problem with these is that as the cavity opening passes away from the hopper on its way to the spout it can chop grains of gunpowder. This can change the weight of the charge slightly and also causes the gunpowder to burn at a different rate. It doesn’t really create danger but it does affect accuracy. This is a bigger problem with tube powders than flake or ball which means rifle powders where accuracy is more of an issue. A simple solution is to empty the case back into the hopper if you feel an especially hard chop as you move the handle. A better fix is the Lee Precision charger which is designed to not chop any powder grains.

    The automatic dispensers are much more complicated but easy to use. I have never used one, but I get good reports from the users.

    A couple of other tips:

    Your bench should be sturdy and large enough to mount your equipment on but not so large that clutter accumulates on it. Space has a tendency to fill up. If your bench is not too large it will be easier to keep clean and organized.

    A loading block is a cheap accessory that holds your cases in between loading steps so that they don’t get knocked over. It helps keep the process organized and you can keep a better eye on everything. You can get one for just a couple of bucks. Get one.

    A primer tray is another very cheap, very useful item. It is a small plastic tray with tiny ridges in it. Primers are placed in it and it can then be lightly shaken back and forth. As the primers slide around in it the open edges of the primers catch on those ridges and the primers flip to face all in the same direction. They can then be more easily loaded into the priming tool hopper.

    Clean cases are easier to work with and function better in firearms. You don’t have to clean your cases after every firing but after every second or third loading is a good idea. Most hardware stores sell vibrators for cleaning tool parts and the reloading suppliers sell them. Pick up a vibrator and some crushed walnut shell so you can keep your brass clean. These also help reduce corrosion if you store loaded ammo for long periods of time. Always use the vibrator on empty brass, never on loaded cartridges. Vibrating loaded ammo will damage the powder grains which will greatly increase its burning speed creating dangerous pressures.

    If the Lords of the Glibs keep publishing these next time we will go through dies and toss in more tips and tricks.

  • Thursday Morning Links

    Happy Thursday!  Well the parents made it into town safe and sound. And I’m already down $20 to my dad on the golf course.  But that’s fine.  I’ve got a chance to get it back tomorrow. But we can worry about tomorrow tomorrow. This is today.  But first let’s talk about yesterday. Then we can talk about today.  And speaking of yesterday, you baseball winners were: New York (NL), Texas, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Anaheim, Atlanta, BALTIMORE!!!!!!!!!!, Boston, Cleveland, St Louis, New York (AL), Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Oakland.  The world champion Houston Astros had the day off.

    The last golf major of the year starts today, as the best players in the game tee off in St Louis.  My expected contenders:  Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler (until he starts to realize he has a chance and then he will fold up like a lawn chair) and Brooks Koepka.  They’re all high ball hitters, and with a soft course taking some of the roll out, they’re the guys most likely to be hitting shorter irons into the greens.

    Happy Birthday, mustache man

    Let’s see who was born on this date, shall we:  molecular scientist Amedo Avogadro, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, actor Robert Shaw who did a scene not even OMWC can deny as brilliant, basketball star Bob Cousy, tennis great Rod Laver, rocker Billy Henderson, boxer Ken Norton, another genius actor Sam Elliott, Trivial Pursuit creator Chris Haney, once-attractive Melanie Griffith, early rapper Kurtis Blow, designer Michael Kors, singer and crack aficionado Whitney Houston, expectation-missing Brett Hull, bassist Kyle Kyle, Neon Deion Sanders, prostitute and fan of Hugh Grant Divine Brown, asshole Chris Cuomo and NFL flop JaMarcus Russell.

    Its also the date on which Caesar routed Pompey at Pharsalus, the Sistine Chapel was opened, Cromwell divided England into 11 districts, Robert Fulton tested his first steam paddle boat (it sank), Napoleon annexed Westphalia, five years later on this date he set sail for exile on St Helena, Thoreau published Walden, Rudolhp Diesel was granted a pretty important patent, “Betty Boop” made her debut, Jesse Owens (arguably the greatest athlete of all time) won his fourth gold medal of the 1936 Olympic Games, Fat Man arrived in Nagasaki, Singapore became an independent nation, Nixon resigned from office as Gerald Ford assumes the position, and in a day all Canadians will remember as their darkest, Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles.

    Ok, that was better than yesterday.  Now on to…the links!

    Get this man a Xanax!

    Rudy Guiliani goes off the rails in an interview. I’m pretty sure he’s right in that he thinks the entire reason for interviewing Trump is to catch him in a perjury trap. Not so sure the rest isn’t all bluster, although its becoming pretty widely known that the FBI was using the unsubstantiated info from a foreign agent (who was paid by a political party to collect info from Russian spies) to obtain warrants to spy on a presidential campaign and that was not disclosed to the secret court they used to obtain them.

    I guess Hamas forgot that when you shoot rockets indiscriminately into the country that provides all of your water and electricity, there will possibly be a reckoning.  What a bunch of dumbasses.

    YouTube continues their crusade against wrongthink.  But let’s give them credit: at least they aren’t planning on unpersoning* everyone who doesn’t think as they do, which we’ve seen them do recently.  (*And yes, I do mean “unperson”. Because literally memory-holing content that they don’t like but in no way can substantiate how it violates their terms of service is a deliberate attempt to quash those views, no matter how idiotic or unhinged they are.)

    Please, Trump, pardon this man!

    Wikileaks is saying Julian Assange has been asked to testify for the Senate Intelligence Committee.  That would be an interesting, and relevant, development.  I wonder if Diane Feinstein’s driver has volunteered to pick him up and take him to the Chinese Embassy in London for the interview.  You know, since she was employing a spy for over 20 years as her driver.

    If you’re single and suffer from a form of yellow fever, then you may want to read this. What a sad state of affairs this is.  300 million members on a singles dating site.  That’s more than there were SoCons on Ashley Madison!

    Convicted rapist in California who got off a lot easier than he should have has lost his appeal.  He was sentenced to 6 months in jail for the conviction, the judge was recalled and a raft of new rape laws in California were enacted in the wake of the original case.

    And you’re in a gang, and you’re in a gang, and you’re in a gang. You too. There’s another one! And he’s stealing a football!!!
    -Chicago cops

    I’m shocked! Shocked to find out that Chicago police pretty much named every single kid they came in contact with as a gang member from certain neighborhoods over a 10 year period. 30,000 of them, to be exact.  Including almost 400 that were 12 and under.  I’m sure it was a deliberate decision and in no way just their default position in order to fuck with people.  That’s not like them. They’re professionals, goddammit! And if you don’t believe them, they’ll crack your skull until you do…or until you’re dead. What do they care?

    What kind of asshole uses a stun gun on an 11-year old girl that’s caught shoplifting? A Cincinnati cop does, apparently. The cop charged her with theft and obstruction of justice, but the mayor has intervened and the charges dropped.  “An investigation is underway”, which means a sweet vacation followed by additional training (while receiving overtime pay) for the idiot who thought this was a good exercise of judgment.

    And the Army has suspended the discharge of immigrant recruits. For now, anyway. Because we should let people in our military (all the stories I read were for people being discharged before they even attended basic training) from foreign nations who can’t pass a background check in order to kowtow to political opposition.

    Slim pickings today. But I dedicate this song to all the Glibs out there.

    Now go out there and have a great day!

  • Can anyone help solve a puzzle?

     

    Animal’s leather article reminded me about something I’ve been wanting to ask the expert Glibs for some time. I am custodian of a family heirloom, a Colt .45 Single Action Army revolver that belonged to my great-grandfather. I also have the original flap holster which has an elaborate embossing that I can’t make out.

    I scanned the embossing which looks to me like:

    Left side: “I” or “J”.

    Middle: “S” intertwined with a “G” or “Q”.

    Right side: “C” and little “o”. Perhaps “Co.”?

    All over a flattened “8” with a bow on the left side.

    My great-grandfather lived in the Chicago, Illinois area so the “I” may stand for “Illinois”.

    Does anyone here recognize the embossing?