more Blackhawk

Beergineering Cont'd

Here is that beergineering project at the next step.

Yeah, it is another bit that I have made that will probably never be noticed or seen when things are done. I am good at that goofy sort of thing.

I had noticed some cool heat plates under carbs on vintage race cars, so I had to have one. This one isn't as complicated as some that I have seen, when compared to the euro cars I got the idea from, but it should do something. It might just look nifty to me, but that is something, right?

A bit of time with my goofy drill driven swap-meet nibbler, some filing and some swirly action under the drill press is all it took.

F'd by Fannie and Freddie

Fannie May and Freddie Mac were supposed to help folks like me by a home. They were built to make the mortage market work for the good of average Americans.

The Fed has calculated that the implicit debt guarantee for the two is somewhere between $122 billion and $182 billion dollars.

Fannie and Freddie barely lowered the cost of borrowing for folks like me though. It seems that nearly $79 billion dollars was paid out in dividends to shareholders, rather than making it easier for working folks to get a loan.

Now it is bail-out time.

Do you suppose they will get much of that $79 billion back to fund this bail-out? Do you think that the subsidy Fannie and Freddie used to pay for lobbyists campaigning for a lack of regulation regarding their exploitation of margins between government-gauranteed borrowing and commercial lending income will be returned?

Or do you suppose that our great grand children will be paying for all of this?

GT40

from our visit to the Blackhawk museum

this might be the best race car livery ever...

History

McCain Delivered Nixon's Speech

I have given myself a few days to digest what went down at the RNC. I missed some of the head flapping, due to some ER action, but I think I got the gist of it.

First, the Palin-drone. I am still pretty sure I don't know anything about the woman, or at least anything that is not scripted. Smart choice I guess, Palin, short of picking a veep candidate from another country you couldn't find anybody less known. She sorta seems like McGovern's pick of Eagleton. Experience or no? Reformer or governor who spent a quarter mil on a lobbyist to find some pork money for the home state? It seems to really open the door on lots of questions regarding McCain's campaign, to date.



Then there was the big show.

McCain delivered the same speech the GOP has used for forty years. Sure, there was some hero talk added, as expected. He brought up some Ruskie fear mongering, lower taxes, unexplained reforms and the culture of life line. The speech was greeted with cheers in the same way that fans of the Rocky Horror Picture show cheer, because the audience knew exactly what was coming. It might have been the most wooden acceptance of a presidential nomination I have ever witnessed.


I couldn't help but picture John as Frankenstein, stitched together dead bits brought back into this world. A monster adrift with his maker, on a raft of burning planks.


I know, that is pretty harsh. I actually liked McCain nine months ago, it hurts me too. It is the truth, however, and if you came away from that speech with anything but disappointment you were probably chanting USA too loudly to hear it.

McCain was a maverick, he has instigated change, he is a hero. How he could allow himself to be so radically be retooled by the party - and present himself as he did maddens and saddens me. Running as the man of change and talking about doing and delivering the same is a hard sell. The speech was a promotion of pandering to the GOP base - and I guess that is fine, that is his job now.


I am just left thinking that the world that the GOP base lives in is shrinking. The platform is built to support anti-choice greed-whores.
I am loosing patience with the culture of people who are willing to feed on conservative punditry and buy into the selfish notion that their best interests are more important the best interests of a world population that is slipping into poverty and discord.
Compassionate conservatism, may ass. Self servicing imposition on the rights and lives of ones peers, in an effort to pad a few folks retirements is more to the point.


This election season marks moment in time, at which we might choose to be better people collectively, domestically and globally.

Nine months ago I almost believed that McCain understood that. Today, not so much.

Tropic Thunder Protests - Retarded

Yeah, I said it, all of those protests by/for the folks with "developmental opportunities" against the movie Tropic Thunder were f'n retarded.

Really.


I saw the movie a couple weeks back. I am still giggling about parts of it. I am amazed that more groups didn't feel the need to protest the film. I am kinda left thinking that some overly opportunistic organizer for a retard rights group put everybody up to the marching and interviews.

Tropic Thunder doesn't pull many punches, when it comes to making Hollywood folks look dumb - not the retards. It makes Jewish businessmen look pretty ugly, in one of Tom Cruise's best performances to date. There is the white guy, Robert Downey, playing an Australian who is playing a black guy - an effort which might have pissed of the NAACP and Russel Crowe. Frankly, I am surprised that SAG actors wanted to be in the film because it makes you think that they might generally be outwitted by retards.


Tropic Thunder is offensive in the same way that Blazing Saddles was offensive. It sets out to make every character an extreme caricature, pulling out the shitty slime that exists in all of our stomachs and showcasing it for amusement.

In fact, the only character in the whole movie that does not get made into a contemptible ass is the retarded kid.


Tropic Thunder is funny.
It is a comedy.
There is no need to over-think the story.
There is no need to be retarded about it.

In Heaven

In heaven.

In heaven, my cats use the toilet.
In heaven the phone only rings when I want it to.
In heaven, I can weld time and matter with my mind.

I live closer to the mountains and the desert and the sea, in heaven.
I can fly, in heaven.

In heaven, people are less disgusting.
In heaven, folks are more polite.

There is a neighborhood bar, just down the road from my place, in heaven.
The Pixies play there on Thursday nights, in heaven.


You have got your own thing, in heaven.

I've got mine.

Hell Ride

Yeah! It is about time we had some kind of new biker movie!

And it involves that Tarantino guy, so you know there will be plenty of shooting and gore. I have a good feeling about this one. Well, at least it isn't some kind of Fast and Furious, battling break-dancer gangs on motorcycles movie.



I will probably just see it once, and get bored about halfway through.

Altoona

What do you suppose the thinking was with white coveralls for mechanics. I guess it shows off the reliability of the car, if the mechanic is still crisp and fresh at the end of the race. White overalls, hmm.

Beergineering

This is what goes on while I am chatting on the phone...