Progressive

The road from high-trust to low-trust societies follows a predictable path.

One of the first steps is the entities that have been entrusted with keeping order, refusing to do so or being selective about what order they keep.

Anarchotyranny is the result.

The classic example is a homeowner who has suffered through repeated thefts and burglaries and receiving no justice who decides enough is enough and administers some on their own.

The people who are supposed to be investigating the crimes that led to this, enforcing the law and meting out punishment...  Come down hard on the homeowner.

The homeowner did, assuredly, break the law; but the motives matter.

What was the government doing to keep them from losing their property?

Had they arrested anyone?

Had they secured a conviction?

Did they even bother to actually investigate past taking a vague description or logging the video of the crime?

The government and police have failed in their duties and since they are given powers delegated from The People, it is the right of The People to reclaim those powers from the government and police.

But there's a simple solution:  Just make it legal to shoot burglars and thieves in the act of stealing AND/OR running from the scene of the crime.

Fuck 'em.

Because if the cops don't start arresting people and the district attorney doesn't start getting convictions:  People are going to start killing criminals on their own and will shortly thereafter start shooting the police who try to stop them.

It's a place we, as a society, do not want to be; but the first step back from the brink is the hardest and it's on Leviathan to make it. 

Signal Strength

We've been watching hockey via one of the secondary broadcast channels on the back porch.

Which is fine as long as the weather cooperates.

Lately, though, reception has been a bit choppy and we have neighbors who turn up their music too loud.

So I ordered a bigger antenna!

I clamped it to the mount that used to hold our abandoned in place Dish Network dish.

There was some bother with aiming because my phone's compass wasn't calibrated properly.  I was off like 13° south of where the transmitters were!

Bonus: since we were using abandoned Dish Network stuff anyways, we now have broadcast TV in the living room too!

It just took me a bit to find which of the coax cables in the attic led to the wall-jack nearest to the TV.

I owe Marv dinner for his help.
 

Good Timing

Remember a couple days back when I talked about replacing the Amazon Basics UPS with a unit I'd put a new battery in?

Yesterday the clock on the microwave said 0:00 for the time and the garage clock was short a few hours.

The power had gone out while I was sleeping and there was nothing else to make us notice.

It cannot have been out for very long because the coffee pot's clock was still right.  It'll recover after a short outage because unplugging it briefly is how you reset the "clean the pot" notice. 

Like Um Wow Man

Today is pot culture day.  Toke 'em if you got 'em.

Hitler's brain, in a jar in the Nazi moonbase on the far side of the Moon, is 137.

Wednesday will be Urf Dae.  I would burn some waste oil, but we're under a burn ban from our near-record drought. 

G Loading

Crispy decided that having a functioning 'G' key was too much today.

If there wasn't a 'g' in the password to unlock the screen, that would have been OK...

Fortunately, the keyboard on a Lenovo T420S is easily replaced and I had a spare already.  It's the same keyboard as the T410 The Boy rocks, so we laid spares in deep against his inadvertent destruction.  A cover membrane has prevented his eating over the board from taking one out for a long while...  Eyes crossed. 

Ineffective

Study finds that cannabis ineffective in the treatment of PTSD.

I think these kind of studies are looking to see if they cure the disease or lead to a lessening of symptoms over time.

Booze is also ineffective in the treatment of PTSD, but that has not stopped veterans from self-medicating with it for... as long as I can remember being around veterans.

What booze and weed let you do is not give a fuck about it for a while.

Addressing a symptom while ignoring the cause. 

Self medication leads to lots of worse problems, so getting at the cause is a better plan. 

Yesterday's News

"Boston Herald" - Todd Peterson

BREAKING NEWS: Seventy-Two Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation In Massachusetts. 

A National Guard task-force detailed to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault-style weapons, was ambushed by elements of an anti-Government, para-military extremist faction. 

Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.

Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “treasonous criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.

The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault-style weapons.  Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”  Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition.  However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.

During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.

Ironically, the local citizenry blamed the government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the National Guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.

Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.

And this fellow Americans, is exactly how the American Revolution began, April 19, 1775. 

History. Learn it, or repeat it.

I found the above on Facebook, posted by Todd Peterson. 

This is also pretty much how it would be reported today too. 

Unremarkable

Got my results, by mail, of my 24 hour heart monitor.

"Unremarkable."

Excellent news.

I remain suspiciously healthy for a man of my lifestyle.

Aside

A standard, everyday, FAL is 10.9 lb. loaded.  No optics, no lasers, no suppressor.

With a 100 round basic load it's 17.3 lb.

The, strangely, beloved M14 is the same.

If we upped the spare magazine count from four to six, like the M7, we get 140 rounds and that increases the load to 20.5 lb.

0.7 lb. lighter than the M7 with it's basic load and without the capabilities of the optics, lasers and suppressor.

The thing is, it was nearly universally agreed that the 7.62 battle rifles were too heavy and you got insufficient dakka.

The "amusing" thing is we could add a 5.56 calibrated M157 optic to a suppressed M4A1+ and have a loadout of 17.1 lb.  Saves 4.2 lb. and has 50% more shots.  We'd be sacrificing the theoretical benefit of the 6.8x51mm round.

If only someone had written a book 76 years ago explaining how piling on pound after pound on the troops was a bad plan...

Remember, the folks lugging an FAL or M14 around weren't also encumbered with body armor past a steel helmet.

Gaming The Optics

The Aimpoint M4 aka M68 Close Combat Optic is a Collimating Sight (HT p. 156).  It gives a +1 to Guns/TL skill out to 300 yards and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,100; 0.8 lb.

The Trijicon TA31RCO is a 4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155).  It gives, up to, +2 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,300; 0.9 lb.

The Elcan M145 is a fixed 3.4 power Telescopic Sight (HT p. 155) with an Illuminated Reticule (HT p. 155).  It gives +1 to Accuracy and cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties.  $1,450; 1.5 lb.

The Vortex Optics M157 is a TL8 Computer Sight (HT p. 157) giving a +1 to Guns/TL skill and a +3 to hit with an aimed attack out to 4,000 yards using the laser rangefinder, but without the Night Vision or Infravision in the description; however it has both a visible and IR Integral Targeting Laser (Shoulder Arm) (HT p. 156-157). It is also a 1 to 8 power Telescopic Sight (High Tech, p. 155) that gives up to +3 to Accuracy with an Illuminated Reticle, which cancels up to -3 in darkness penalties (High Tech, p. 155).  $5,400; 1.9 lb.

"Whoopty doo, Basil, what does it all mean?"  A Powers IMMoM

The M4 is simplest.  If you're inside 300 yards, you get a +1 to your skill.  In the real world, we'd call it "aiming" but GURPS doesn't think of using the sights as "aiming."

Telescopic sights require a turn of the aiming action per point of bonus.  So to get your +2 bonus with the ACOG, you have to spend 2 actions aiming.  The variable power of the M157 means you take a second to dial it to the bonus you want then spend the requisite number of actions aiming, zero to three.

If you spend an action using the laser rangefinder, it gives a +3 to the built-in +1 for a total of +4...  Spending an additional three second aiming gets a total of +7 with it dialed to 8x!

Getting All Modern?

The USMC has declined to participate in the M7 and XM8 programs.  They stuck to their M27 IAR.

I just found out that the 27 comes from the first unit to field them and isn't in sequence with ANY of the nomenclature systems the military has ever used.  The stubby M38 version is, likewise, named after the first unit that used it.

Is this a good plan?

Let's add up the weights!

Loaded M16A4 (30 rounds) 9.1 lb.

With ACOG 10 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.6 lb.

Plus basic load 16.6 lb.

Loaded M27 (30 rounds) 9 lb.

With ACOG 9.9 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 10.5 lb.

Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 11.9 lb.

Plus basic load 18.5 lb.

Loaded M4A1+ (with the heavier SOCCOM style barrel) (30 rounds) 7.8 lb.

With M68 8.6 lb.

Add an AN/PEQ-16 9.2 lb.

Add a NT4 QDSS suppressor 10.6 lb.

Plust basic load 16.6 lb.

Loaded M7 (20 rounds) 9.8 lb.

With M157 optic 11.7 lb.

Add the proprietary suppressor 13.2 lb.

Plus basic load 21.2 lb.

Loaded XM8 (25 rounds) 8.9 lb.

With M157 optic 10.8 lb.

Add the proprietary suppressor 12.1 lb.

Plus basic load 21.1 lb.

I think less mass is better than more if you're lugging it around.

I think that more beans is better than fewer.

I think the Marines got a shorter barreled version of the M16A4 for just 0.1 lb. of weight savings and lose the shorter length by adding a suppressor.

They're still at 210 rounds combat load compared to 140 for the M7 and save 1.3 lb.  They're only ahead of the XM8 by 0.2 lb. but the 175 round basic load still looms large.

There's a distinct lack of reporting on if the problems with the M157 have been fixed.

I still think it's VERY telling that SIG proposed the XM8 so soon after the M7 was accepted and complaints started rolling in about various features.

Compare those "plus basic load" weights.  More weight, fewer beans...  No sir, I don't like it.

I still don't really see what the Marines are getting for the extra mass on their gun compared to the M4A1+.

Capitalism For The Win

Watch this:

If you're skeptical, remember that the plastics industry is the result of finding a use for the crud left over from refining oil into fuel.

If allowed to do so, Humanity is good at solving problems.

A Moment

Yesterday, doing the test loop that has all the speeds I needed to check for vibration, I had a moment at a stop light.

The sun was just in the right spot.  The music was on point.

I was happy and it felt like cruising did back when I had the '79 Camaro.

It was kinda like deja vu.

Harvey, driving around somewhere else, with a friend, felt the same feeling.

It was neat.

Measure Once Cut Twice!

Or is it cut then measure?

At any rate, I keep cutting and it's still too short.

GRIN

Just to be paranoid, I checked the torque of the lug nuts.

Still at 140 ft-lb.

That's an insane value, but that's what the book says.

I didn't go that far on Moxie once and ended up with finger loose lugs and clunking coming from a wheel.

Coming home from the grocery store today sure underscored how "accustomed" to the vibration I'd become.  I goosed it to 45 and was already bracing... for something that didn't happen.

I think I have PTSD.

Better

I am not saying I would be good at it.

I don't think I would do a good job at all. 

What I am saying I would be better at it than the people currently doing it. 

This is why shit's fucked up. 

Low Maintenance Rifle

Ian has long had the manual and some of the story about the 5.56 version of the TRW LMR on his site.

He recently posted about the 5.6x44mm flechette version.

The 5.6x44mm XM216 round is a refugee from the SPIW program.

66.9mm

The hub-centric rings arrived today!

I learned two things.

First, my hubs are definitely 66.9mm.

Second, my rims have a 66.9mm center bore.

The place I'd measured 2-7/8" was a generous taper down to the requisite 66.9mm and not a bore of 73.1mm.

The centric rings did not fit at all, so I popped off the center cap, torqued the lug nuts and stuck a feeler gauge down there between the bore and the hub.  Just barely a race-fit!

With the front right foot in the air I checked to see if there was a high spot.  Nope.

It's been the damn tires all along and procrastinators are people who are WAY more ambitious than me about fixing things.

Again, I was able to put it off for so long by sticking to the back roads and not going very far from home.

I am so damned happy with the car now, it's indescribable!
 

Lug Nut Day Take Two

In July, 2024 I replaced the factory lug nuts with fancy chrome ones.

A trip to Daytona in August that year convinced me there was something wrong with them because the car was shaking violently at interstate speeds.

I commented to Harvey that something was definitely wrong, maybe tires...

Changing the lug nuts back to the factory version seemed to fix much of the problem.

I discovered that by rotating a wheel by a lug would cause the vibration to lessen significantly.

Knowing I had two tires out of round, that meant I'd managed to get them in phase with each other.

Well, new tires has eliminated the vibration, so I decided to see if the chrome lug nuts would change anything for the worse.

Please excuse the brake dust, I'm doing an experiment with the pads.

A quick jaunt, with The Boy, proves the lug nuts had nothing to do with the vibration two years ago!

Huzzah! 

 

Something To Consider

How would Spain, France or Germany know we'd overflown their countries with our B-2's?

Think about it. 

There's No Reason It's Just Our Policy

In Florida, a "permanent" handicapped parking permit is good for three years.  This requires your doctor to fill out the paperwork every three years to renew your "permanent" permit.

If your placard is lost or destroyed, you need the same paperwork from your doctor to get a permit that expires on the same date as the lost or destroyed one.

They cite abuse of the system by people who aren't handicapped as the reason for making the honest people jump through additional hoops.

I am getting sick of this paradigm.

I think the people who should be most affected by laws are the people breaking them and not additional burdens on the law abiding.

How's this one for size:  Unlawful use of a handicapped permit results in loss of license for 10 years and seizure of the vehicle used.  Forfeit of said vehicle if the owner used the permit illegally.  Hefty fine for the owner to recover their vehicle if they loaned it to the violator.

I want deterrence, by the gods! 

Humanitarian Daily Ration

Marv ordered some MRE's and got HDR's.

He gave me one and I started trying it today.

There are two entrees.  Lentil stew and pasta in tomato sauce. 

The lentil stew is BLAND even with the entire packet of red chili peppers added.

The crackers are unsalted.

The thing that sounds like it's a pop tart from the description is literally an unfrosted Pop-Tart!

There's nothing in it that I've tried that's horrible. 

I have not tried the pasta, yet, because the lentils were very filling.  I worry about how bland they're going to be based on the lentils, but I haven't used the salt and pepper packets yet.

There's a shortbread cookie, fig bars, peanut butter and strawberry jam yet to try! 

Oh Yeah The Tires

I must say that the new tires are MUCH smoother than the old tires.

It'd be a shock if they weren't, to be honest.

I did a loop of the greater area which included all the various legal limits and I cruised at all of them.  Even a couple of jaunts 10 over to check for vibrations.

Nada.

I am happy!

The tire guy says that I'd benefit from a set of hub-centric rings.  I hadn't thought of getting a set because The Beast's hubs are 66.9mm; just like a Camaro.

The rims on her are stock Camaro rims...  Yet they appear to have a center-bore of 73.1mm.

WTF?

So I ordered a set of rings that should be here tomorrow.  We'll see how they work.  Will they make any difference at all?  Who knows?

I Totally Need This!

Goodyear sent out a van to change my tires in my driveway.

I need one.

Tire machine in the back, balancer amidships.

Compressor for your air tools.

Four tanks for different grade oils and a pump to move used oil into a waste tank.

Decent amount of storage space for the tires you're bringing to your customer.

I wonder if one could make money driving such a thing behind the Hot Rod Power Tour.

It was totally cool and I spent some time geeking out about it. 

False Memory

There's a seller on GunBroker selling a lot of 15 large-round forward assist buttons.

I've long wanted one because I remembered the tank's issue M16A2 having this feature.

Before I spent the money on having 14 extra forward assists, I decided to see if anyone had bothered to document the serial number range for this early feature.

S/N 860,000 to 1,200,000 is the expected range according to the AI helper on the search engine.

My M16A2's serial number was 6,300,574, apparently, well past when they changed to the current small-round forward assist.

HOWEVER!

The first M16A2's start at 6,000,000!

Others have found that the large round lasted to 6,280,000; which also places my rifle just outside the range of the early feature.

The last colt M16A2 (or XM4) is (approximately) 6,590,478.

FN M16A2's run is 7,000,000 to 7,429,766.

At least for US Property marked guns.  Other serial number ranges for M16A2 are around for export usage. 

End Of Regular Season

The local Hockey team, The Lightning, made it to the playoffs and clinched their position a while ago.

Their last game was embarrassing.

All year they've been having trouble beating teams in the cellar.

The go into the playoffs against a team that they've been having trouble beating since everyone came back from the Olympics.

Even if they defeat the Canadiens, they will go on to face the Buffalo Sabers because Boston is only there on a fluke wildcard.

They have been utterly unable to beat them all season.

Out in round 2, at best, I think. 

History On Repeat

Just like De Gaulle liberated Paris...

Peak Macron.

France will lead a European coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz...after the U.S. has secured the Strait of Hormuz.

They won't invite the U.S. to the party. They will ask permission from Iran.

For now, they will hold a Zoom meeting. https://t.co/Uw65NUwQsp pic.twitter.com/V7juDTRoV2

— Michael Lucci (@Michael7ucci) April 14, 2026

This is what I know the French militarily for.

Claiming credit for someone else's hard work. 

Finally A Car That's Not An Import

Alice, was made in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Moxie and Noxious, like many 2nd generation Equinoxes were made in the CAMI plant Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

The Beast, like all WM Caprice PPV's was made in the Holden Elizabeth Plant, South Australia, Australia.

The Precious, a 6th generation Corvette, was made in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Flossie, a 7th generation Honda Civic sedan was made in East Liberty, Ohio!  My import was domestic!

The Biscayne SS left Willow Run Assembly in Ypsilanti, Michigan as a 4th generation Caprice Classic.

Both of Harvey's Dodge Ram D150's came from Warren, Michigan.

Her Caprice 9C1 was made in Arlington, Texas.

That's all the Florida cars.

The Camaros were from Van Nuys, California and Norwood, Ohio.

My '86 Civic hatchback came from Suzuka, Japan.

The '82 Linx was made in the USA, but I don't remember which plant.

The Passat was, obviously, made in Germany, but it wasn't an import where I owned it.

I guess I buy American more often than I remember.

I Think We're Doing Everything We HAVE to do...

The United States should be doing everything I can to destroy South Africa as a functioning nation. If they are going to do these racist things, let them bleed.

— Damon Alan (@DamonAlan) April 13, 2026

I think if we do nothing South Africa will cease to be a functioning nation within my lifetime.

I can remember when it was considered a peer to 1st World status.

A Feature I Miss

The first five years of this blog was LiveJournal.

One thing they had was a place to note what music I was listening to at the time I posted.

While I could just put a note on any post I make here, it's not the same.

But at the moment I'm listening to "The Sickness" album by Disturbed.

It's Kinda Nice

Wanna know one of the best things about not being a Catholic?

When the dude in the stupid hat says stupid shit, I don't have to listen.

But I have noticed that there's a shit ton of Catholics who are going to be in direct conflict with what the Vatican is putting out of late.

Don't fret, it won't be the first time such a schism has happened.

The Orthodox folks left before it was even called Catholicism.

The Church of England happened because the leader of a nation wanted to ignore the Pope.

I wonder what the Church of America is going to look like.

Where will the CoA's version of the Vatican be?

Can't wait to see what American Bishops do about the hunk of the money and property they will be claiming over the Vatican being the false Church and thus not entitled to it any more.  If only they'd return to the fold...

Me?  What religion I might have leans to spirits in the machines.  I don't care what my friends' invisible friend says let alone some dude in a funny hat in Italy says his invisible friend said.

Actually, I think I'd have more respect if the Pope actually cited their invisible friend and not just Church dogma.

Also, remember, the deal made way back when was God stayed out of politics and politics would stay out of the church.

Every once and a while one side or the other has to start this pissing match again.

We've been here before and we're going to be here again.

Is It Doing Anything Good?

I keep wondering if there's anything positive to the citizenry from any kind of registry of firearms, legal or not.

We keep getting told that it helps solve crimes.

If that were true, I'd think there'd be ample bragging about it.

It doesn't even get stolen guns recovered from thieves back to their rightful owners because many jurisdictions simply destroy any firearms they find at crime scenes.

If this story is correct, an illegal, and useless for anything good, registry will soon be a thing of the past.

Not that we can trust them to have actually destroyed ALL copies of it... 

It Would Have Been Better

The local brewery had the WNBA draft on the TV last night.

I looked over at Marv and said, "We could be watching Golf."

He agreed that watching the draft was, indeed, worse than watching Golf.

Happily, there was a ring of condensation on the bar from our beer we could watch drying. 

Out Of Round

Some things move slowly at Casa McThag.

Take tires for The Beast; I originally got them back in April 2022, almost 32 thousand miles ago.  I tossed four, apparently, good tires because I had a bad vibration at interstate speeds.  I blamed the balance and the previous owner's notorious tendency to buy cheap tires.

It was not the tires.

I spent the next two years and 16 thousand miles replacing front suspension parts in the most commonly to be the problem to least likely to be the problem.  It was the left front control arms.  The design of the control arms makes diagnosing them difficult because they don't get hand-wobbly when they're loaded-wobbly.

One reason that it took so long to fix is that the vibration didn't really happen at speeds around town, and I don't really go on long trips much any more.  Vibration at interstate speeds?  Stay off the interstate!  Problem successfully ignored!

Oh, and drive Moxie more...

I discovered, sadly, that replacing the offending suspension components did not completely cure the vibration in the steering wheel, but now it was cyclic.  Every minute or so on the interstate it'd shake and every minute or so would stop.

When I got the Camaro rims, the road-force balancing discovered two of my tires were out of round.

That made sense.  The suspension shake was rather violent, it could have damaged the tires.  Another clue is I can mitigate the cycle somewhat by rotating a wheel a lug or two.

Here's hoping that new tires cures this! 

UPS Batteries

The main UPS is a CyberPower 1,500w unit I bought from Wal Mart right before Milton came through in October 2024.

I replaced the APC 600w unit in the garage with a CyberPower 425w in September 2025.

I bought new batteries for the dead APC 1,500w in September 2025, it's in storage.  I don't remember when I purchased it originally, but this might be the second set of batteries.

I replaced the battery in the dead APC 600w (originally purchased in September 2020) in September 2025 and it was in storage until tonight when I finally admitted the Amazon Basics 400w UPS from February 2023 wasn't surviving even minor power interruptions.

This is me putting this information in one place so I can, hopefully, find it later.

That's A Decent Deal

USAA has membership perks.

I normally ignore the emails reminding of them because they trend towards vacation packages at places I can't afford.

But I clicked to see this time and saw they have a 25% off on Goodyear tires.

That's a four tires for the price of three!

The Beast is needing tires, so we plunked down for some Eagle F1 All Seasons.

Something else new is the mobile installer.

That's kinda cool.

I have not been rolling on Goodyears since the Eagle GT II's I had on The Biscayne SS in 2004 when I replaced the 15" rims with Impala SS 17" rims.

I used to buy Goodyear exclusively before then.

I guess, technically, I was running Goodyears when I bought The Precious, but I chucked the run-flats at 16k miles because they really rode poorly. 

This is the second time I've been offered a deal on Goodyears, and the first time I've taken advantage of it.  A while back, one of you generous readers gave me a code for your employee discount that I promptly forgot about until today.  I still appreciated that, even if we didn't use it. 

I Did Note They Are Different Words

Unintended and unexpected are not the same word.

Most, if not all, unintended consequences from socialist "planning" seem to come with the expected consequences.

Most, if not all, unintended consequences are predicted before the "planning" can be implemented.

What's amazing is how many people are still surprised when the Gods of the Copybook Headings, with terror and slaughter, return. 

California has become the latest state to notice that upping the minimum wage to a stupidly high level doesn't result in comfortable lifestyles for the people earning that wage.

The best case was inflation eating up all the gains in income, and they are not getting the best case.  When the one-time costs of automation are cheaper than the ongoing expenses of keeping an employee, the bot gets the job.

If the cost of employing people makes a business unprofitable, then it closes.

In both cases, the minimum wage worker will be getting the true minimum wage. 

Discouraging

In so many ways watching YouTube will make me curl up in a ball and ask Harvey to sell my tools.

Mike Finnegan is making a drag and drive Cadillac and...

The stuff they just casually do and all of the tools and expertise on display!

Yeah.

That's not me.

I don't have the money to get the entry level versions of those tools to begin to cultivate the skills; let alone the gigantic space needed to have all of those tools.

I can't do what they're doing and I never will be able to do it, so let's just drop the facade and get a Honda?

He's not inspiring me, he's making me feel inadequate.

The one channel that was making me feel like working on my junk was Saturday Garage. 

He went out and got a job!  Now he's too busy to make videos.

Plus I am recovering from Moxie going unreliable and replacing Harvey's car. 

Adventure Action Boredom

I just hit me why the sequels to The Curse of the Black Pearl fell flat for me.

The complicated fight sequence is a pause in the plot.  The longer that runs, the longer I have to wait before the story starts moving again.

Especially since the story doesn't depend on that fight being there.

Especially since it's obvious that the fight with deadly weapons will not result in any bloodshed, let alone a death, because all of the principals are essential to the plot.

A plot on hold while they have their flashy little tiff. 

Perfection

There is no perfect hot-rod.

This is because what makes such a thing is entirely subjective.

Marv and I have been comparing our "what if we won the lottery" builds and we don't agree on very much at all.

He's thinking first generation Firebird.

I'm thinking early to mid 1960's full size.

We tend to agree about LS engines and 6+ gear slush boxes.

But I wanna car that cruises all day and am willing to accept some performance sacrifices to be comfortable for 12 hours on the road.

Marv wants exceptional skid-pad performance and an impressive 1/4 mile time.

We both want modern climate control and electronic fuel injection.

We're both aiming at something where the body control module doesn't get a veto.

But neither of us is screaming the other is wrong!

His vision is awesome.  I hope he wins the lottery and makes his dream Firebird.

It's a really cool car!

A car that I think we'd both be miserable in if we tried to take it on the Hot Rod Power Tour.

Contrariwise,  my vision is awesome at things like the Power Tour and will not carve the corners or win any drive and drag events.

We both want something that's reliable, though.  Being miserable or losing an event doesn't mean we wanna be on the side of the road fixing it.

Hot Rodding is best when you can not agree about what to build, but be totally excited about someone realizing a vision you don't share. 

Relationship Advice

Make them happy.

That is all.

If they aren't happy, then they will make damn sure you're not happy either.

It doesn't even have to be diamonds!

An order of boneless chicken wings will suffice when you promised to check on seeing if the local brewery's food truck had them.

Pay attention and it pays dividends!