Miscellaneous Friday

As I said elsewhere, this has been a busy week.  I have a couple of new things to review.  I may get to those next week -- though it will be short week for me.

I suppose I should make some comment about the scum that murdered those innocent folks at the church down in Charleston.  Too bad he didn't try to shoot it out with the cops.  He's as sick and manical as that Norwegian, Breivik, though not as effective or methodical.  I guess Obama doesn't think Norway counts as an "advanced nation" -- or France, either.  The last time we had this kind of mass killing it was done by the police outside a restaurant in Waco.

Great quote from Lileks in today's Bleat:

That's better than the picture of the terrorist with the haircut like an overturned bowl of pudding; they seem to think we should all look at his face periodically throughout the day, instead of the victims. They're always footnotes to the killer's stories. 

The thing to do is ignore the layers of leftist, statist narrative being dumped on this crime.  The families of the victims need and deserve our prayers and any support we can offer them in their time of grief and pain.  If I had any doubt that Obama is a worthless, soul-less piece of garbage, his attempt to politicize this horrific tragedy to push the oligarchy's agenda has resolved them.  When it should have been all about the victims of this senseless, despicable act by a madman, Obama had to make it about himself as he has done every time he has had the opportunity.  I will be glad when this half-Kenyan bastard's time in office is up.  What a pathetic excuse for a man.

The rain should finally be out of the area for a few days after today.  That's good.  Saturday, I am supposed to go along with some family to a minor league baseball game.  The Cardinals Double-A team in Springfield is scheduled to play the Arkansas Naturals, a Royals farm club.  A couple of these guys will probably be in the Bigs in a year or two.  Kolton Wong was with the Springfield Cardinals a couple of years ago before moving up to the parent club.      

I realized the other day that I have a boatload -- like somewhere around 600 -- 55 grain bullets for my .223.  Perhaps I should say, rather,  projectiles, to avoid the bullet-cartridge confusion. I am, though, way short on Hodgdon H4895 powder which is what I usually use and has become somewhat difficult to find.  At some point, however, I had picked up a pound of Hodgdon's BL-C(2).  This is good .223 powder -- about the middle of the pack under lighter bullets but almost identical, velocity-wise, to H4895 behind a 55-grainer.  So I set up my powder measure and scale and loaded 35 empty cases.  It seems to shoot right on, but I haven't had a chance to test them for accuracy.  They are moving along, I think, a little under 3300 fps.  I'll see how they group and go from there.

AMA Anti-E15 Petition

I've signed it. 

The EPA is pushing higher ethanol limits despite its own acknowledgment that the market cannot consume these higher amounts due to “infrastructure and market-related factors.”

That’s when the U.S. Department of Agriculture comes to the rescue. On the same day the EPA announced its proposed rule, the USDA unveiled a $100 million plan to double the number of higher-blend renewable-fuel pumps. Under the blender pump subsidy program, the USDA will administer competitive grants to match funding for state-led efforts to test and evaluate innovative and comprehensive approaches to market higher blends of renewable fuel, such as E15 and E85.

The EPA calls for higher ethanol blended fuels and the USDA spends taxpayer dollars to make it happen, despite knowing that none of the estimated 22 million motorcycles and ATVs in use in the United States is approved to use E15 or higher ethanol blends. Using those fuels in motorcycles and ATVs is illegal and may cause engine and fuel system damage and void the manufacturer's warranty.

Sign up here.

Attack of the Killer Cows

Christopher Ingraham writes for the Washington Post about the animals most likely to kill you this summer.

Oddly, he did not include East St. Louis primates in his cool chart, which you can see at the link.  However, Ingraham does say that -- on average over the past decade or so, sharks kill one person per year, as do alligators and bears.  Snakes account for about six humans in a year while spiders take out about seven.  I'm still trying to figure out how "non-venomous arthropods", e.g., ants, kill someone.  I suppose it is some kind of allergic reaction.  Fire ants, I can certainly understand.  Those things are pure evil.  Meanwhile, anaphylactic shock from the stings of bees, wasps and hornets are fatal to an average of 58 people per year.

In the miscellaneous animal category, pigs, horses, deer, and killer rabbits (for those old enough to remember Jimmy Carter) add 52 annual deaths to the total.  Ingraham suggests that many of the deaths in the miscellaneous category are a result of Vehicular encounters with Bambi, Babe, or Thumper are excluded from this count -- thank you, John, for that correction.

The mean annual number of deaths attributed to dogs is 28.  Sadly, I can't help thinking that most of those are probably smaller children.

Cows rack up an average of 20 humans each year.  I'm sure it was higher in the past.  It used to happen almost every week on "Rawhide". 

Prisoners Here Of Our Own Device

John Whitehead writes about "Prisons Without Walls" at the Rutherford Institute.

You should read Whitehead's piece.  Anybody who references John Carpenter's They Live is deserving of your time.

I am aware of and have probably even mentioned here some of the things that Whitehead talks about.  I think the image that brought it home to me most emphatically was that of people being forced out of their homes as lawless, badged ninjas sought the reprehensible Boston Marathon bomber.

Forty years ago, perhaps even twenty years ago, the authorities would have set up roadblocks, they would have patrolled the areas, they would have asked for the cooperation of the citizens, but they would not have forcibly entered private homes in their wannabe-operator gear threatening the innocent with hot weapons.

Recall that Tsarnaev was found hiding in a boat by a homeowner after the "shelter-in-place" curfew was lifted.  The whole operation was a massive travesty of wasted time and taxpayer money for the sake of optics and reinforcement of the police state's authority over a subject people.  The message was that we are no longer citizens but serfs, living for the almighty State at the whims of the almighty State and its authorized, armed agents.  

Time to hand out the sunglasses.

Ride and Garden Report

Things are looking better in the garden.  The plants I got at the nursery have little green tomatoes on and are generally looking  healthy.  Something took the top off one of my pepper plants -- I think it is the banana pepper -- the jalapeno and the habanero are fine.  That's good.  The replant of cucumbers was successful.  The pole beans look great, as does the winter squash.  I have watermelon plants up, and my popcorn is growing. 

My daughter gave me some heirlooms tomato plants she had started.  I got them about a month ago.  They are still spindly, but several are going to live.  I had room, since I'm not planting much, to place them well away from the nursery hybrids.  So possibly they will come along and at least provide a few late tomatoes and seed for next year.

As far as my permaculture goes, the blackberries look like they are going to turn out a good crop.  I have lots of apples on most of my trees.  No pears and no plums this year at all.  The weather was wrong, I guess.  I had a few strawberries.  I need to clean up those beds and do a better job feeding them for next year. 

Since we've had so much rain, it may work out all right, despite my being behind.

Saturday looked like a good day to ride.  I had the grass all cut.  The forecast called for isolated showers.  I figured I'd probably hit some rain if I rode long, and I prepared accordingly.

I took MO Hwy 125 south.  I had ridden part of this on the Victory last year.  It is a twisty two-lane, perfect for the Yamaha -- which I have now dubbed the Gray Ghost.  Last time I turned east on MO 76 when I got to Bradleyville.  This time, I stayed on 125.  Between Bradleyville and a junction noted on some maps as Rueter (that's probably "rooter" -- and there was probably a general store/post office there at one time) the road seems to be one set of 30-mph S-curves after another.  A near-perfect road.  I was easily able to stay above the speed limit (did I say that outloud?  Only slightly, of course) the whole way.  Since it was early, there was very little passing necessary.

Eventually, one comes to the end of the road.  

(It is just a phone picture, but you can still click to see the larger image)

This is the ferry dock on the north side of Lake Bull Shoals.  No charge for the crossing, which we appreciate.  When you get off the ferry, you are on AR 125.  I rode it down to AR Hwy 14 and took that west until it hit US-65 which I rode north back to civilization. Almost.

I got off on 76 in Branson, looking for a BBQ and burger place that has a good reputation.  It's called Danna's, and there are three locations.  I found the one east of Branson on 76 at Kirbyville.  The parking lot was packed.  I was really hunger by then, but the rains were starting.  I decided to skip Danna's, took the road up to Forsyth, looping around back to 65 and north again.

I hit three or four small showers on the way.  I had the rain cover on my tail pack.  I had my wallet and phone encased in highly technical waterproof Ziplock sandwich bags.  My mesh jacket has a rain liner, but I didn't bring it.  It was hot (and humid) enough I wasn't worried about hypothermia from riding wet.

The shakedown was that the Nelson-Rigg tail bag and it's rain cover performed well.  When I pulled off at the town of Ozark to get under some cover and let one more shower pass by, I had hot coffee from my thermos and some trail mix.  All my gear was dry.  I could have switched to dry gloves if I had thought I wouldn't get rained on more before I got home -- which was the case, but I wasn't all that uncomfortable.

My shirt and jacket dried fairly quickly.  My jeans were heavily soaked in some areas -- crotch and lower legs.  The boots I had on are not fully waterproof but they weren't that wet.  They are pull-ons, and water had gotten in from the top so that my socks were wet.  None of it was particularly uncomfortable, but I only wet for an hour or so.  In an all-day rain or a longer trip, I would have been happier with the jacket liner or my other raincoat, my waterproof lace-up boots and at least some chaps to keep my drawers dry.

The bike itself was no problem at all.  I switched the engine mode to 'B', the milder performing rain setting, as there was quite a bit of water on the road in spots.  I think I could have done OK remaining in STD.  It's just a matter of staying off the throttle.  On the other hand, I really appreciate ABS under those conditions.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, ferry, rain, and all. 

One of the Reasons I Could Never Be a Cop

From Jim Hoft's Gateway: 

Hyphernkemberly Dorvilier wrapped her baby in towels, sprayed her with WD-40 and torched her baby girl alive.

She told a Simontown Road resident that her dog had pooped in the car and she was burning it. 

But it was her newborn baby girl.

How could anybody do that?

I come down on the militarization of local police forces.  I don't like the police state or their authoritarian stance.  However, it is beyond my comprehension how cops and EMTs have to routinely deal with horrific scenes like these without going to pieces.  You have to admire the resolve, fortitude and self-control in these situations.  If it had been me, I don't know how I could have kept myself from killing the woman.

One of the neighbors confronted the woman thinking she was burning trash in the middle of the street:

“When Joseph went to confront the person, identified as Dorvilier, standing near a fire with can of WD-40 in her hand, he asked the 22-year-old to put the fire out. According to the statement, the 22-year-old apologized to Joseph and extinguished the flames with a water bottle,” one news report indicated. “It was at that point that it was discovered that the fire was not what Dorvilier claimed. Once the fire was out the baby began to cry from below the smoldering towels and paper and Dorvilier tried to run.”

The baby was transported to a hospital where she died two hours later.

I would rather live among mad dogs than people like this.  

Bill in Congress to Cut the Federal Gas Tax and Go Local

Let America Fix the Highways Washington Broke. 

The link takes you to a Daily Signal commentary by Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Ron DeSantis.  They suggest that states know best how to handle their internal highway maintenance.  What a radical concept.

The Transportation Empowerment Act will update federal transportation policy with the same proven principles—diversity, customization and open-sourcing—that are driving innovation across our economy today.

~

In recent decades, America’s transportation needs have changed, but—as is too common in Washington today—our transportation policies have not kept pace. The highway program, and those who used it, built highways, via a per-gallon gasoline tax paid at the pump.

Today, drivers still pay the tax, but politicians redirect portions of the highway fund for bike lanes and walking paths and public transit systems in certain cities. Meanwhile, partisan giveaways to special interests and bureaucratic skimming artificially inflate the cost of new infrastructure projects by as much as 20 percent.

 "Bureaucratic skimming" doesn't necessarily mean anything unethically.  It's the layers of government that money has to go through to get where it is needed.  I often think of it in terms of a sponge.  The thicker the sponge, the more water it soaks up.  More government means more government employees to provide with salaries and benefits which in turn leads to further expansion of the bureaucratic fiefdoms.  If an agency spends all of its allocated funds in one fiscal year, it can usually count on getting increased funds in the following fiscal year.  The only thing that is ever "cut" is the percentage of increase.  This is true of Republican administrations as well as Democrat ones.  (/rant). 

Today, our most pressing transportation needs are local, not national. States and local governments are not only up to the job of maintaining existing highways—they’re already responsible for 75 percent of it. They are, in fact, far better positioned to lead in the next phase of infrastructure innovation. That is what our bill will finally allow them to do. 

This would be something I could support.  I'm sure there will be kicking and screaming from both sides of the aisle as pet pork projects go back to state control.  It isn't going to solve all the myriad of problems we have because of government, but it is a step in the right direction.