Sunday Rant – 3715

PN:

Think - Not Illegal

Word o’ the Week
Ogdoad – the number eight.

Article o’ the Week
J. R. Dunn hits a home run with his scathing analysis of white privilege – read it here: “A Brief History of White Privilege“.
A quote from the article –
……“None of this is intended to make any claim for victimization in the form of reparations, set-asides, or affirmative action. The Irish were never victims. The question that remains is: Where do we discover “white privilege” in all this? The answer is: We don’t. The Irish are the second largest “white” ethnic group in the U.S. If “white privilege” actually existed, it would be found among the Micks. But search as long as you like, and you will find none of it. The Irish made their way in this country along a hard, stony road, earning what they gained in the face of attempted genocide, prejudice, hatred, violence, and murder. White skin didn’t feed one single starving Irish infant.
The same can be said for most “whites.” The Poles, with their country stolen out from under their feet, brutalized by no less than three empires. The southern Italians, enslaved by the Normans, the Turks, and “da Moors” (according to Dennis Hopper), not to mention their own northern brethren. The Jews, chased from pillar to post across entire continents and finally subjected to the greatest horror ever witnessed by history. You’d have to search for quite some time to find an ethnicity that benefitted from “white privilege.” White skin never saved anyone from persecution, torment, slavery, starvation, or anything else.
The simple truth is, all peoples have suffered in ways that beggar the imagination. All peoples found refuge and a way up and out in America.
“White privilege” is simply another sick fantasy of the academic left, one that’s in the process of being transformed into a social myth.
Like all such myths, its true danger lies in its perniciousness — the possibility that it will infect public consciousness the same way that gay marriage, immigrant “dreamers”, and victim hoodlums have done.
It needs to be fought ferociously and continuously.
Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves, not too far down the line, with a choice between the Dem candidate who vows to end white privilege tomorrow and the GOP candidate who wants to wait a year.”
Put otherwise, as stated at “The Blog of Monte Cristo“, “this is why you’ll get a fist in the face if you tell me to manage my white privilege, asshole.
Joe and I couldn’t agree more.  A round of big girl panties for all those poor oppressed sad desperate bastards who can’t think straight.  Pull them panties up nice and tight…..

Sad Memories, Vengeful Thoughts
Where were you when the World Trade Center was attacked by madmen?
Don’t spout any B.S. about understanding their perspective; don’t get distracted, they were human scum.  Don’t go there….
The Western world came to a standstill, a cross roads, a precipice more dangerous than any other single event in our history.
The question is, where were you?
Sept 11 WTC Picture

I was at work in Kelowna at the TELUS DAC.  My shift started at 6:00 a.m., the beginning of the dispatch day.  A television on the north wall of the office was tuned to a local station.  When images of the carnage were broadcast, I literally didn’t want to believe my lying eyes.  What madness, what viciousness, what an end to innocence.
My legs were wobbling, and the urge to weep was quickly replaced with a stronger burning emotion.
I felt rage.
Had I a red button to push at the time, there would have been mushroom clouds and glass plains created in a number of locations on another continent.
The rage hasn’t abated for me, or for Joe.
Don’t ever forget who did this, and what they said.
Don’t ever forget who did this, and what they stand for.
Don’t ever forget heathen savages celebrating in the streets in unstable foreign lands.
Don’t ever forget the sacrifice of police and fire fighters working to bring the people in the towers to safety.
Don’t ever forget the people who jumped to their death to avoid immolation.
Don’t ever forget why they did this.
The enemy will not………..
Their foundation beliefs are evil, derived from corrupt culture, ignorance, and arrogance.
Would I should have a red button today, I would wear it out.  My rage will not diminish.
Don’t ever forget.  Don’t ever forgive.
911 Memorial Wall of Photos

 

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 3715

Sunday Rant – 3615

PN:

Thinking Is Hard

Quote ‘o the Week
“Good Judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.”
Will Rogers

Vid ‘o the Week
The title says it all (thanks Delsie):

September 2nd, 1945, V-J Day
Pearl Harbor was the point of no return for Japan.  The headline in a State-side newspaper spelled it out.  December 7th, a day of infamy –

Japs Butcher Americans

Hundreds of thousands of lives later, the end of World War II was witnessed by the world as the Japanese surrendered unconditionally, on September 2nd, 1945. –

Japs Quit

The surrender ceremony was conducted on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, lead by General Douglas MacArthur, –

These were the days when the enemy surrendered or died.
What is the world doing today when entities like ISIS are rampaging savagely without serious opposition, hiding behind “religious freedom”?
Why don’t the hundreds of thousands of “migrants” and “refugees” stay and fight in their home countries?
When does a cold become pneumonia?
Can a duck fart?
Exactly…..

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 3615

Sunday Rant – 3515

PN:

How My Brain WorksAny questions?  Thought not…..

Quote ‘o the Week
“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” – Noel Coward

Bureaucrats
Joe and I have a common dislike for bureaucrats.  They are not elected, they have tenure, and they make life less and less free when they tighten the noose of regulation, tariff, licensing, and the plethora of busy-body meddling interventions which choke liberty.  Hence we both snickered at Bill Whittle, Steve Greene, and Scott Ott as they lay out the truth – Bureaucrats ban things because they’re dicks.  Hope there is no bylaw against snickering:

Nostalgia Porn
Joe and I have attended a large number of car shows / vehicle displays in our time.  The “hot rod” category is no longer interesting to us – we really don’t need to see another old car with a small block Chev engine and front clip from a Camero – we walk by any old vehicle if it IS NOT STOCK.   “Sleeper”, “rat rod”, “stock”, and “unusual/never before seen/obscure” genres of vehicles are what amuse us now, although in limited numbers at any given venue.  Wandering the Internet as we do, the following website gave us a grin.  Here is OldParkedCars.  Some enthusiasts (nostalgists?) have created a website to post pictures they take of vehicles they see in their gad-abouts in the Pacific North West.  Joe and I once owned a 1950 88 inch wheelbase Land Rover.  We removed the “F head” engine and installed a 2.3L Pinto engine – gave the old Land Rover a new lease on life.  We found this picture of a ’65 Land Rover truck at the OldParkedCars website, and it brought back memories of a truly ugly AND functional beastie – nostalgia porn! –
1965 Land Rover Series II Truck

Joe’s Lament
The latest project in Joe’s shop is to replace the engine in a 1986 F250 dually diesel.  The truck is close to 20 feet long.  Here’s a picture of it when we brought it home from Merritt in 2012 –
Front View Merritt - Starboard - 1
Take a look at this picture of the engine bay – at the bottom of the photo is a “breaker bar” with a select socket working on the rear lower head bolt.  A very tight fit indeed –OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Here is another picture looking toward the firewall.  There is less than 1/2 inch clearance between the cylinder head and the firewall –OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Here is a picture of the clearance at the front of the engine.  There is two feet from the front of the block to the nose of the bumper –OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This is Joe’s dilemma – the truck is damn near 20 feet long.  There is 2 feet from the front of the engine to the bumper.  WTF???  Why in the entire bloody firmament can’t Ford find an engineer that may have tried to take an engine out of one of these trucks and seen the value in one or two inches more firewall clearance?  Or, as Joe said it, Jesus flying through space on a moped with Mary riding side saddle wearing sun glasses could do a better job!
Anyway, the engine came out…….. eventually.  Unlike the newer Ford trucks which need the cab lifted to remove the engine, Joe was able to remove this engine more or less intact.  The cylinder heads had to be removed because the engine was seized; couldn’t be rotated.  Because it has an automatic transmission, the engine had to rotate so as to unbolt the flex plate attaching the engine to the torque converter.  Once the heads were removed (with great cursing tirades from Joe), the cylinders oiled for a day, and constant hammering with a sledge and 2X4 for motive force, the engine was loosened to turn and the flex plate uncoupled.  Out came the engine, a 6.9L IDI Navistar.  The engine put back in is a 7.3L IDI of 1992 vintage.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Job done.  Onto the next for Joe…..

Continue reading Sunday Rant – 3515