The local auctioneers have all the tools from two local home workshops (estate sales both). I visited the preview and was impressed. First of all, there was enough stuff for about 10 home shops. How they found space in just two shops for all this stuff was a miracle. There were a few brand new made-in-taiwan tools but most of it was vintage American makes, Powermatic, Atlas, Delta, ShopSmith and Craftsman. Lotta Craftsman, from the old days when Craftsman was a name that commanded respect. All of it a bit worn and dirty but perfectly servicable.
I'm going over to bid on a few things tommorrow.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
"If I could amend the Constitution"
Interesting list of changes here. They missed a couple of my favorites. Laws passing Congress these days are so long, so wordy, and written in legal gobbledgook so dense that no one, not congressmen, not congressional staff, not reporters, and certainly not citizens understand what the new law means. Take the current 1100 page health care bills. The Congressmen themselves admitted that they hadn't read them.
With giant unreadable bills, the citizens are being sold a pig in a poke. We don't know what's going down, and we don't know if we should support it or oppose it. Plus, bills so wordy are in fact micromanagement of the the government. Congressional laws should spell out general principles, in language citizens can under stand, in documents short enough to be read in less than 6 months.
Was is just me, I'd limit the length of bills to a single page, type written, single spaced. That might be a little extreme. As a compromise we might be more generous and state that no bill shall exceed the length of the US Constitution.
Or, an incentive to brevity, we could require that all bills be read aloud before a quorum of House and Senate before a vote can be taken.
My second improvement is taken from the old Confederate States of America constitution. Bills shall address one, and just one, topic, that topic to be in the title of the bill. This would prevent the underhanded business of "riders", the attachment of some special favor legislation to a "must pass" bill such as a defense appropriation bill in wartime. The rider by itself lacks the votes to pass, so it gets lashed to something that has to pass as a way of getting it thru. The old time Confederates understood this trickery and outlawed it.
With giant unreadable bills, the citizens are being sold a pig in a poke. We don't know what's going down, and we don't know if we should support it or oppose it. Plus, bills so wordy are in fact micromanagement of the the government. Congressional laws should spell out general principles, in language citizens can under stand, in documents short enough to be read in less than 6 months.
Was is just me, I'd limit the length of bills to a single page, type written, single spaced. That might be a little extreme. As a compromise we might be more generous and state that no bill shall exceed the length of the US Constitution.
Or, an incentive to brevity, we could require that all bills be read aloud before a quorum of House and Senate before a vote can be taken.
My second improvement is taken from the old Confederate States of America constitution. Bills shall address one, and just one, topic, that topic to be in the title of the bill. This would prevent the underhanded business of "riders", the attachment of some special favor legislation to a "must pass" bill such as a defense appropriation bill in wartime. The rider by itself lacks the votes to pass, so it gets lashed to something that has to pass as a way of getting it thru. The old time Confederates understood this trickery and outlawed it.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Nuts to metric
Brought back four bolts and nuts from Franconia Hardware for a home project. A 5/8 inch wrench is too small and a 3/4 inch wrench is too big. Arrgh. Metric fasteners have infiltrated America. A warning of the decline and fall of practically everything. I go out to the car and open the the toolbox I keep in the trunk. Sure enough, a 17 mm wrench fits. Detroit converted to metric years ago and I now keep metric wrenches in the car tool box. Trusty old SAE fractional inch wrenches live in a box in my wood shop. Looks like I'll have to put them out to pasture and buy more metric wrenches or move the car tool box into the wood shop. It's a shame. I still have a set of SAE deep well sockets I purchased from Sears in 1965 to get the nuts off the leaf spring shackles of a '53 Chevy pickup truck. Breaks my heart to think they are obsolete after all these years.
May be I need to go out and get that 1959 Buick I always wanted to restore. Back then, Detroit cars didn't use metric fasteners. Only continental imports like VW were metric in the good old days.
May be I need to go out and get that 1959 Buick I always wanted to restore. Back then, Detroit cars didn't use metric fasteners. Only continental imports like VW were metric in the good old days.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Obama Wall to Wall
I heard Obama was going on five Sunday talk shows. I saw him on ABC with Stephanoulous, I watched him on NBC with David Gregory. As usual, it was all motherhood and apple pie, no substance. Gregory followed up Obama with a pair of Republican Congressmen, which is more fair and balanced than some in the legacy media. I begin to wonder why I bother the watch on Sunday. Nobody ever says anything of substance, or anything that I haven't heard before. I'm probably just a news junkie.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Bankers, who needs 'em
Fox News is waxing indignant about a Federal government ruling allowing the Feds to control the salaries of ALL bank workers, even if the bank never took TARP money. I suppose it's a bad precedent, if the Feds can set salaries for bankers, then they can set salaries for every worker in every industry. On the other hand I have trouble working up any real sympathy for the Wall St idjits who brought us Great Depression II while taking home multi million dollar salaries.
I'd be happier of the Feds worked on regulations to make the banks do real banking and stop them from gambling between themselves using FDIC protected money. When banks finance construction, inventory, manufacturing, and enterpreneurs, they are serving a real social need. Business needs to borrow money for a lot of legitimate purposes. If they can't borrow money, business growth, and the employment that comes from business growth doesn't happen.
On the other hand, banks loaning money to other banks, financing mergers and acquisitions, buying shady paper like the mortgage backed securities and the credit default swaps, is destructive of the real economy. Bankers should not be getting paid big bucks to engage in it. Some regulations outlawing gambling on Wall St, at least gambling with FDIC insured funds, would do a lot to drive out the overpaid parasites in Wall St.
I'd be happier of the Feds worked on regulations to make the banks do real banking and stop them from gambling between themselves using FDIC protected money. When banks finance construction, inventory, manufacturing, and enterpreneurs, they are serving a real social need. Business needs to borrow money for a lot of legitimate purposes. If they can't borrow money, business growth, and the employment that comes from business growth doesn't happen.
On the other hand, banks loaning money to other banks, financing mergers and acquisitions, buying shady paper like the mortgage backed securities and the credit default swaps, is destructive of the real economy. Bankers should not be getting paid big bucks to engage in it. Some regulations outlawing gambling on Wall St, at least gambling with FDIC insured funds, would do a lot to drive out the overpaid parasites in Wall St.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Heartbreaking Story
The widow of a US marine who died in combat in Iraq is being hassled by US immigration. The bureaucrats have found some excuse to deny the young widow, and her infant child entry to the US. Do we need immigration reform or what? Story is here.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Obama hangs the East Europeans out to dry
Obama announced the cancellation of the US missile defense system scheduled for installation in Poland and the Czech Republic. Talk about hanging allies out to dry. The Poles and the Czechs stuck their necks out, angering the Russians, by accepting the anti missile systems. They hoped that US installations with US personnel on their soil would deter a Russian invasion, of the Georgian sort. Obama just yanked that rug out from under our best European allies.
The Russians are known to carry grudges, so the Poles and the Czechs are worse off than if they had refused the anti missile systems in the first place. They have Russian bad feelings and now, no Uncle Sam in their corner. The Obama foreign policy seems to be grovel to your enemies, hang your friends out to dry.
Nor did Obama get any concessions from the Russki's. They have been all bent out of shape about US anti missiles so close to their border. You'd think they would have been willing to do the Americans a few favors, like leaning in Iran, in return for a US missile pullout. Apparently community organizers don't learn about horse trading.
The Russians are known to carry grudges, so the Poles and the Czechs are worse off than if they had refused the anti missile systems in the first place. They have Russian bad feelings and now, no Uncle Sam in their corner. The Obama foreign policy seems to be grovel to your enemies, hang your friends out to dry.
Nor did Obama get any concessions from the Russki's. They have been all bent out of shape about US anti missiles so close to their border. You'd think they would have been willing to do the Americans a few favors, like leaning in Iran, in return for a US missile pullout. Apparently community organizers don't learn about horse trading.
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