Harford,PA Today I’m at the Flying J truck stop in Harford, along I-81. I ran from Rochester, down to Carlisle PA and am currently running up toward Albany.
[1]Stopped for the night
I got the antennas fixed on the truck last week, and so was able to take the emergency spare, that I’d put up, down. It turns out, that this truck uses a rather unique splitter arrangement, which feeds both the CB antenna leads and the AM/FM/WX radio through the CB antennas mounted on the mirror. the result is far less sticking up in the the air, though there are some other problems with come up with it. I had taken the truck to a radio shop, to get the CB antenna lead repaired, having broken it the week before. As it turned out, over the years since this truck has been in service, both of the antennas had also broken. I replaced them with some rather inexpensive Shakespeare whips, and they work fine. I went cheaper here because really, the performance isn’t that mush less and breaking one isn’t the end of the world, given the price. The CB works as well as it ever did on the single spare antenna, and the AM/FM/WX now works surprisingly well. I’ve been able to hear NYC stations in the daytime and what they ahve to say about the BinLaden thing, which I’ll gt to.
I have a few new bumps and scratches that I’ll want to take care of, but we’ll he ‘re coming up on the summer months, anyway, and I suspect I will have some time to solve those issues when I bring it home to detail it in my driveway. One big issue right now is getting the paint matched. As you can see the blue is fairly unique. I am surprised at the support that I’m getting from the ownership in that effort. And to say the very least, pleased. They seem pleased ‘m making the effort to keep the truck looking good.
The next major repair effort is to get the APU fully functional. The generator, at the moment, needs replacement; I don’t have my AC power (110v) working. I have arranged to take this coming Friday, the sixth, off. That will give the wrenches a chance to see what the problem is and try to repair it. That will be a massive help, since it will allow me to use the microwave and the coffee pot that I have installed in the truck over a month ago, and haven’t had the chance to use yet. At the very least it’ll save me a pile of change on food.
The leather seat is starting to show signs of wear, this seams are starting to let go. I’ve got to see if I can find a sewing kit to deal with that problem. I’d really rather not change over to a cloth seat at this point. Management isn’t likely to go to the premium leather seating as a replacement. For one thing, I like the leather, secondly I like the multiple adjustable nature in this seat, which is one of the major features to the truck, in my point of view. Keeps my back from getting too far out of whack.
I got new pillow cases last week, the entire interior of the truck is done in various shades of tan so I got maroon cases which work very nicely with the colors the truck already has.
The only other problem that I’ve been having with this truck, is its tendency to backfire when running around 1200 to 1300 RPM, under a load. The head wrench, whom I have endless respect for advises me that I really shouldn’t be running it down that far in the range, and yet every spec sheet I can find has a tour curve that peaks at 1300. I’m sure I’ll get a handle on it, eventually. For now, I simply keep the RPM ove 1300, and it seems happy enough. In the meantime, I must say I’m enjoying this very powerful and very comfortable truck. Once I get it details, I’ll post some pictures of the interior.
Looking around:
- More thoughts on BinLaden: I see they buried him at sea.. Suits me. Bury the bastard on land and you’ve got an instant Martyr site. Who needs that nonsense? Personally, I rather wish he got wrapped up and buried with a few hundredweight of pig poop. Reynolds raises an interesting point about Human Rights [2] and this case. Personally, I don’t much care if BinLaden’s rights got violated, but it does raise a basic question, I guess.
- Addendum: (More Yet) Passing strange that we’ve not seen any mention on the part of our government to the point that Bin Laden’s followers might react with violence. It seems logical that they would, yet the White House is mum on the subject. Can it be that they don’t want any negatives in the public mind for fear of losing whatever electoral momentum this event gives the Obamites?
- GITMO WORKS: Getting Obama took intel gathered from Gitmo detainees. [3] And the other more secret prisons around the world, of course. You remember, the ones Sullivan was wetting his pants over. Gee, I hope Obama and his supporters are happy now about the information they claimed they didn’t want. Remember, they promised to close the place? Funny how that supposedly moral streak disappeared. Maybe it was simply a talking point?
- I WONDER…. I wonder if the people who spent such time promoting Obama’s Nobel peace prize, are happy he carried out a successful assassination? So much for the chant on how violence never works and the left could never support it, huh?
- WHERE IS THE OBAMA LEFT ON THIS? The L.A. Times is reporting yesterday, [4]
“A Syrian military source says President Bashar Assad’s security forces have been ordered to quell the uprising in Dara ‘even if this means that the city is to be burned down.’ Tanks destroy a mosque, witnesses say, and at least four people are killed.”
So where are the cries from the white house about human rights? Where are the cries from the rank and file leftists on the same score? Where indeed are the calls for the U.S. to respond, based on what is claimed we went into places like Libya for? Please observe closely, the places that we’ve gone into, and the places we have not, since Obama came to power. You’ll notice if you observe closely, Libya as an example is not as prone to supporting radical Muslim ideology as is Syria. that’s a pattern that can be observed in every action in the Middle East of late. And why have there been a number of forced regime changes with this White House at the other end of the puppet strings.And yet the silence coming from those who claimed that Bush was nation building, is incredible. Bruce addresses this, yesterday [5]… a good read. David Thompson adds his two cents [6], saying
“Let’s face it, why would a man who has only been a community organizer, adjunct law professor, state legislator, and very briefly a senator with a bad attendance record have a real feel for international affairs? The fact that he is an ideologue and arrogant even by the usual standards of politicians and presidents makes things worse.”
The problem here, is that this is part of a pattern that I’ve made note of previously [7]. I’m sorry to disagree with Roger, who I respect greatly, but I can draw no other conclusion than that out diminished status in the world and our conditions at home are put upon us as a matter of intent.
The Donald
- Trump:No, I’m not interested in him being president of these United States. First of all, he hasn’t the temperament for it. On the other hand he has been extraordinarily useful the past few months. I submit to you Trump has actually hurt Obama, more than Obama is willing to admit. He was able to do so, because he is willing to operate without worry about retribution from the mainstream press. The establishment Republicans, suffer from a kind of knee jerk reaction when the press kits critical of them. Trump , for whatever else he is, has been willing to take the advice I’ve been offering mainstream Republicans for a long time; ignore the press. The press is never going to be anything but leftist, and will never be convinced to not support leftist politicians. The spectacular case of press bias, wherein we see a supposedly independent White House press corps, willing to help and indeed coordinate response to attacks on Obama and his White House, from his most vocal challenger. The trick is to bypass the leftsists in the press and present your logic directly to the people.
- 300 dead, 1700 injured: Where is FEMA, for three days? Funny how the questions that got asked about Bush and his response to such disasters, don’t get even a peep out of the press here, given the tornadoes across the south and the devastation from them.
- Want more proof that Obama and his minions are liars? Here you go. [8]
- John Hinderaker, today: [9]
[10]John Hinderaker
“The legal profession was once one of the pillars of the Republican Party, but that began to change when people figured out that endless government regulation is good for the law business. Now, while there are plenty of conservative lawyers, like us, the profession as a whole definitely tilts to the left.”
Well, that’s true. But the connection is somewhat more direct than that. Someone who is a lawyer, operates under the baseline belief that government and the laws that spring from it are the end all and be all. The only thing that separates us from animals. The only chance humanity has to both survive and grow. If that were true, they wouldn’t devote their lives to the law. The facts, of course, are rather different. But think about the willingness of the establishment GOP who it should be set are mostly lawyers also, to inflict more government upon we the people. Does not stand to reason that someone who has dedicated their lives to law and government, would be more inclined to be of the mindset that more government is good? I think without realizing it, John has stumbled onto a major point in our recovery from an over large and over powerful government.
- RACISM, Thy name be Sherri Shepherd [11]. This is beyond the pale. I suggest to you that what we have here is someone basing their entire being on race. And yes I’m quite aware that kind of thing is exactly how Obama got elected.
- Carter Redux? I have often drawn the comparison between the current occupant of the White House and Jimmy Carter, saying that Carter no longer holds the title of the worst president ever. In Glenn Reynolds takes this one step further:
[12]Glenn Reynolds
People on the right have been comparing President Obama with Jimmy Carter for a while now: The rise from nowhere via inexplicable press adulation, the smarmy moralizing, the excessive faith in his own abilities, the tendency of everything he touches to turn to crap — all seem eerily reminiscent of the Carter presidency.
But now it’s people on the left who are saying the same thing. Trouble is, at this point a Carter rerun is probably a best-case scenario.
the sad fact is, he’s probably right. But he points out something, that I’ve pointed out several times in the past, and misidentifies the problem.
First, Obama doesn’t rely on rational description to persuade the American people, but rather on his — now seemingly shrunken — oratorical skills, without regard to substance.
The real problem of courses that Obama simply cannot rely on rational description to push his agenda, because his agenda defies rational description. He knows damned well that if he ever told the American people repeatedly what his religion to is, it would never fly. At one point the president during his campaign sat down with the San Francisco chronicle and suggested that $6.00 a gallon gasoline might not be a bad idea. Certainly, had he put this on his talking points list, as opposed to mentioning it merely once, Obama would not have been elected, and probably wouldn’t even have gotten nominated by his fellow leftists. Yet, here we are. Glenn is absolutely correct, however, when he points out:
Obama is worse in another way. Though Carter had a mean streak, he was not prone to divide and name-call in the way that Obama has done. From his remarks about bitter clingers to his administration’s increasing willingness to call any criticism racist, Obama’s administration has been far more divisive than Carter’s.
Likewise, the Obama administration has shown a thuggish streak, involving everything from “jokes” about Internal Revenue Service audits to the recent National Labor Relations Board attack on Boeing’s factory move from a unionized plant in Washington state to a plant in South Carolina where workers had voted to go nonunion… that was not so pronounced under Carter. Call it the difference between Plains and Chicago.
No, say rather that Obama is more of a kind with Lenin than is Carter. As Glenn says:
Carter looked hapless in the face of high energy prices, but Obama actually seems pleased: He announced early on that his policies would necessarily cause electricity prices to “skyrocket,” and his recent town-hall response to a man who complained about the cost of his commute was a suggestion that the man trade his car in and buy a hybrid.
To Carter, higher energy prices were an insoluble problem; to Obama, they’re a tool to encourage Americans to live more constrained lives — and perhaps to buy a Chevy Volt from the bailed-out General Motors.
it’s interesting that he should come up with that response, Obama. One of the major excuses for not drilling now is that the pump price solution will not occur for a couple of years, given the curve of time between exploration and actual production from new oil wells.
What Obama doesn’t say, is that the cost of this supposedly green technology has us in a situation where the savings returns don’t happen for several years down the road, in the case of many vehicles as many as fifteen years down the road. In the case of the electric car which is able affable effort at best, what Obama also doesn’t say is that it will do nothing but increased our dependence on nuclear power. We certainly don’t have the online capacity in our electric all systems now to support the kind of growth in “zero emissions” vehicles that Obama would like to see. So maybe we should ask the people over in Japan whether not we should depend more heavily on nuclear power. A point, which I note the mainstream press ignores entirely. Gee, big surprise, that.
In the meanwhile, I note that diesel prices are approaching $4.60 a gallon in some areas. And again I raise the question , “Does anybody think that these increases in prices are going to be reflected in higher prices for goods and services at the consumer level?” Gee, that will really help the recovery, don’t you think?
