Sunday Rant - 0317

PN:

Joe’s Comment – Wouldn’t it be nice to think so clearly? Like a child….

Winter Madness
Joe gets a Winter funk on when the clouds stretch from hill top to hill top. The funk gets funkier when the temperature drops to your ankles and stays there for weeks and months. Hibernation!
In Joe’s case, the madness is not fine; it is very coarse.
So coarse Joe can’t pick an exact time or place or situation when Winter madness infuses his cognizance, just when did he go mad, but he knows damn well it has happened.
Only Spring can sane-up old Joe.
We are truly doomed……

Cabin Fever
The longer nights and cool / cold / colder / coldest nights and days prompt more indoor time, less outdoor exposure.
Reading, hobbies, music are the activities that garner more time.
John Prine is an hybrid of Burl Ives and Jimmy Buffet in the sense he is a story teller. Here’s a couple of Mr. Prine stories to ease the cold dark Winter cabin fever. Get a look at the rhythm guitar man in his suit and tie. He got rhythm!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hUf9EBCnl4

A younger John Prine singing one of his inimitable tunes with another great artist, Iris DeMent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8

Another John Prine ditty jazzed up by Those Darlins:

‘Merican Politic
Joe and I watched Jug Ears deliver his farewell to the Nation last week.
To be specific, we watched until the first whopper of a lie (about 35 seconds).
One thing the Democratic party needs more of is old Jug Ears, Nancy Pelosi, Hillarious Clit-one, Chuckles Schummer,and streets full of crybaby youngsters with a mean streak. If they keep this up, there won’t be any Democratic entity at all. Consider that after the 2016 election, it is somewhat dubious that the Democrats are a national party.
Meanwhile, how has the anointed one performed? First, on the domestic front, then on the world stage:

The above 13 are unarguable, but don’t include Benghazi, “Fast and Furious”, Solendra, EPA fiascoes and fascism, or a large number of transgressions and perversions of the Constitution.
Joe and I give ol’ Jug Ears a big fat D -.

For an insightful analysis of what the future WITHOUT Jug Ears in the driver seat, have a read of Kurt Schlickter (Townhall) as he predicts “For Democrats, 2017 Will Be the Year of Living Stupidly“.
A few quotes –
” If you thought 2016 was packed full of liberal foolishness, just wait until you get a load of 2017. As 2016 ends, progressives enter the new year terrified that Donald Trump will continue to run circles around them, and their epic meltdown is only going to get more epically meltdownier. They’ve been shrill, stupid, and annoying for the last two months, but brace yourself for the next 12. Fear is going to make them go nuts – not the fear that Trump will be a failure, but the gut-wrenching, mind-numbing fear that Donald Trump will be a success.
………..
It’s also hilarious to watch the sputtering rage of the Vox and Vox-like online lib thought leaders as Trump simply refuses to allow Obama to sucker him into a distracting fight with Putin. Crimea? Meh? Syria? Doh-de-doh. Embarrass the Democrats? This means war! America needs to keep the Bear down with our boot on its throat, but not through fussy fits inspired by sad feelz.
That Trump laughs at how a creaky ex-superpower is so relentlessly trolling the feckless Obama – President Faily McWorsethancarter even makes acting butch seem super femme – draws cries of “Treason!” and “Traitor!” from the same set who never saw a flag they didn’t want to burn, mourned Castro, and who know damn well it isn’t them or their gender indeterminate children who would get to fight and die in the war they seem so eager to provoke to close out Obama’s pathetic reign.”
Much more at the link above.

John McCain
Donald J. Trump endured criticism when he made a comment in reference to Senator McCain’s internment – “I like people who weren’t captured”.
Mr. Trump’s comment seems to have some substance from historical evidence.
Joe and I scoured the Internet to verify the following as real. Seems it is. Anyone being tortured would be wise to make a choice for survival.
The tough part is, just when do you make such a choice?
We don’t condemn Senator McCain for choosing to survive. We also understand where the criticism is coming from. There it is. It is best not to get captured:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO0mHEJyC3Y

Victor Davis Hanson
Joe and I have watched and read a large volume of analysis about how the pundits, the professionals, the handlers, the elites, the know-it-alls, how none of them saw the freight train that was Donald Trump coming down the track.
This short presentation by Professor Hanson is one of the best, because he has no ego or skin in his deductions – an historian at heart. Worth every moment of your time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7pQdqPzozc

Bookworm News
Joe and I found “The Bell Curve” by Herrnstein and Murray to be extremely instructional. While cruising around the Internet, what to our wondering eyes did appear, but a PDF download of the entire book! You can download here.

Another book we HAVEN’T read is “The Global Bell Curve: Race, IQ, and Inequality Worldwide” by Lynn. This is the elephant in the global culture room – intelligence (no matter how perceived or measured) matters greatly in the success of individuals and states and organizations.
Lo and behold! This book is also available as a PDF download here.

Joe’s Garage
Joe has Winter madness big time.
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley – Robert Burns
Last week the plan was to put a 5.4L from a 2001 Expedition in a 2000 F150 4X4, replacing the dead 4.6L in the F150.
A short trip to Lordco and a bit of research (doG bless those Internets!), along with perusal of Ford factory manuals disabused this approach.
Although Ford built both machines with the 5.4L and 4.6L, Ford also built all combinations with the 4R70W and 4R100 transmissions. That is 4 possible combinations FOR EACH VEHICLE.
The Lordco parts look-up quickly verified that each combination has it’s own exhaust system. That is, four different sets of pipes to travel from the exhaust manifolds around the transmission to the muffler.
Alas, the two copies in the existing vehicles were incompatible with the proposed installation.
In the days of yore it would have been a minor inconvenience to have a few pieces of pipe bent to create an hybrid solution.
In days of now, both exhaust pipes are built by the factory with catalytic converters integral to the assembly. Each pipe was valued in the hundreds of dollars.
New plan. (Planning is priceless, but the plan may be worthless – Joe Mekanic)
A quick trip to Interior Auto provided a 4.6L Mustang motor from a 1998 vehicle at a reasonable cost – thanks Ron and Dave!
What of the 5.4L?
There just happens to be a ’97 Expedition in the yard with a good body, excellent transmission, and a bad head gasket. An old picture of it from 2011 –

Joe removed the engine in early 2012. It was a bear of a bear –

Off to Mike’s Mechanical with the ’97 Expedition for the new (to it) 5.4L transplant.
Presto!
The project plan will now produce two vehicles.
Check back next week!

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

SUNDAY SERMON

This week’s sermon is a treat.
The person who posted this discussion featuring Jared Diamond, Victor Davis Hanson, and Neil Conan in a Talk of the Nation session from National Public Radio titled it “Why the White Man Rules the World”.
This exchange of ideas was heard on NPR on November 8, 2001. The original title was “How Different Nations Maintain Wealth and Power While Others Don’t….”
Joe and I listened respectfully to the views of both men.
We have read the Jared Diamond book “Guns, Germs, and Steel”. It was interesting but off target for us – the foundation to Western success in our estimation is intelligence. Dr. Diamond insists that the primitives he worked with were every bit as intelligent as the average American who might consider those same tribal people as “primitive” i.e. intellectually inferior.
For Joe and I it was a treat to hear a young Dr. Hanson present his position – culture is a major influence of Western success.
Well worth the listening time:

WEATHER (OR NOT)

This week in Vernon has been well below zero Celsius.

A few days of sunlight were outweighed by clear nights where –20C was making the furnace cycle frequently. Can’t wait to get that natural gas bill! From a low of $36 CDN in the summer, we’re sure the next bill will be 10 X that sum.
Joe and I think a class action suit charging Al Gore with fraud might be in order.
Those lies about global warming. Those promises of tropical temperatures. Joe was suspicious, but I bought it hook line and sinker. The tears I cried…..
It’s not “March Madness” or sport (for us), but this cartoon seemed to capture our perspective after over 6 weeks of sub zero temperatures with no respite….