The old man was irked because his son hadn't been home for two days. So, in a display of creative parenting, he aimed his van at the kid's bicycle with the kid aboard the bike.
This may help explain the lad's preference for extended absences from home and hearth.
Oct 25, 2010
Oct 24, 2010
Remington Under Fire
My default mode is that anything on television it is either wrong, misleading, overstated, or oversimplified -- any or all accompanied by contrived hyperdrama.
However:
I just caught the "Remington Under Fire" rerun. I followed it with my 1970s M700 (a pretty 6mm tack driver) field stripped on my lap. That Remington is now the cleanest firearm on the block, except, importantly, for the innards of its trigger mechanism.
A Remington error in responding to the CNBC report was its emphasis on proper "maintenance," a very iffy thing on an enclosed trigger mechanism. You can scrub the outside of the trigger group box, brush it, wipe it carefully, blow compressed air through the tiny openings, but short of a bench-strip, you can not inspect or clean the internal parts. That is a design flaw.
The Remington web site purporting to respond to RUF is weak. It relies on sales patter and appeal to its storied history. It attacks trial lawyers and the show's producers. It does not not address the technical question. It does not react to Walker's reservations or those of professional M700 users. Disliking and mistrusting CNBC is not a rebuttal. (I understand its lawyers may be behind the insipid non-response.)
Which is not to say I think the 700 trigger assembly is inherently unsafe. It may be, but I am not competent to judge. Uninformed user tampering, gross maintenance negligence, or the truly freak happenstance can defeat adequate design on anything. There may have been -- probably was, in fact -- poor gun handling involved in some of the unintentional discharges, but he-said, she-said disputes hardly ever reveal technical fact.
I did everything I could to duplicate the reported problems, incessantly working the safety back and forth, trying and failing to get it to rest between the "fire" and "safe" positions, tapping rather hard with a mallet while the rifle was in every possible condition of readiness, bouncing its butt on the carpet. Nothing could induce the old gal to go off by herself.
But that is a long way from definitive proof of anything. For me, the jury is still out. If I decide to take her out again, I may tattoo Rule Two on the back of my right hand.
However:
I just caught the "Remington Under Fire" rerun. I followed it with my 1970s M700 (a pretty 6mm tack driver) field stripped on my lap. That Remington is now the cleanest firearm on the block, except, importantly, for the innards of its trigger mechanism.
A Remington error in responding to the CNBC report was its emphasis on proper "maintenance," a very iffy thing on an enclosed trigger mechanism. You can scrub the outside of the trigger group box, brush it, wipe it carefully, blow compressed air through the tiny openings, but short of a bench-strip, you can not inspect or clean the internal parts. That is a design flaw.
The Remington web site purporting to respond to RUF is weak. It relies on sales patter and appeal to its storied history. It attacks trial lawyers and the show's producers. It does not not address the technical question. It does not react to Walker's reservations or those of professional M700 users. Disliking and mistrusting CNBC is not a rebuttal. (I understand its lawyers may be behind the insipid non-response.)
Which is not to say I think the 700 trigger assembly is inherently unsafe. It may be, but I am not competent to judge. Uninformed user tampering, gross maintenance negligence, or the truly freak happenstance can defeat adequate design on anything. There may have been -- probably was, in fact -- poor gun handling involved in some of the unintentional discharges, but he-said, she-said disputes hardly ever reveal technical fact.
I did everything I could to duplicate the reported problems, incessantly working the safety back and forth, trying and failing to get it to rest between the "fire" and "safe" positions, tapping rather hard with a mallet while the rifle was in every possible condition of readiness, bouncing its butt on the carpet. Nothing could induce the old gal to go off by herself.
But that is a long way from definitive proof of anything. For me, the jury is still out. If I decide to take her out again, I may tattoo Rule Two on the back of my right hand.
Putting the bacon in your gas tank
Except for a panicky spike to nearly eight bucks a bushel in 2008, , the price of corn is at an historic high, about $5.50, so Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has decided this is a good time to jack it up a little more. He will use your money to buy the oil industry 10,000 new fuel pumps. Yes, to blend in more alcohol and biodiesel to burn up in our engines. Save the world. Burn food.
“I believe the state of the rural economy and President [Barack] Obama’s vision for rural America compels us to action now."
Let it pass that President Obama's real vision for rural America is a lopsided vote for his party in ten days, probably combined with a federal feasibility study on raising unicorns. Never mind that, at $5.50 a bushel, the affected members of the rural economy are doing just fine, thank you,
Here in the Midwest we have a multi-year history of watching ethanol plants, built with huge federal and state subsidies, prosper and crash in concert with the level of those subsidies.
Look, ethanol is a marginally acceptable fuel. Mixed with gasoline it will make your car or lawnmower go -- with less power, badly reduced mileage, and a more-than-negligible danger of reduced engine life. It is not cheaper than gasoline.
Anyone can foresee a time when biofuel might become necessary, and when that happens the market will tell us. It will be in demand without the corrupt price fixing which so attracts the farm conglomerates and Secretary Vilsack, former mayor of Mount Pleasant where, as previously reported, he often raised a mighty fine tomato plant on his pack porch. That's how come he knows so much about agribusiness.
“I believe the state of the rural economy and President [Barack] Obama’s vision for rural America compels us to action now."
Let it pass that President Obama's real vision for rural America is a lopsided vote for his party in ten days, probably combined with a federal feasibility study on raising unicorns. Never mind that, at $5.50 a bushel, the affected members of the rural economy are doing just fine, thank you,
Here in the Midwest we have a multi-year history of watching ethanol plants, built with huge federal and state subsidies, prosper and crash in concert with the level of those subsidies.
Look, ethanol is a marginally acceptable fuel. Mixed with gasoline it will make your car or lawnmower go -- with less power, badly reduced mileage, and a more-than-negligible danger of reduced engine life. It is not cheaper than gasoline.
Anyone can foresee a time when biofuel might become necessary, and when that happens the market will tell us. It will be in demand without the corrupt price fixing which so attracts the farm conglomerates and Secretary Vilsack, former mayor of Mount Pleasant where, as previously reported, he often raised a mighty fine tomato plant on his pack porch. That's how come he knows so much about agribusiness.
Oct 22, 2010
The Obama on Mythbusters
The subject has been well-covered except for an historical note. Mind you, I am not chastising His Obamaness for his little joke; I am merely amused by differing standards of what constitutes horror.
----
Ronald Reagan's unaired joke while recording his weekly radio address: "We begin bombing in five minutes."
Media reaction: "Oh my God. Cowboy. Cowboy. Paranoid warmonger. Bonzo at the Button. We are doomed!"
-0-
Barack Obama on his Mythbusters cameo: "I didn't get to blow anything up. I am a little frustrated with that."
Media reaction. (1) How cute. (2) Shrug.
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