2026 Chevrolet ZR1X Corvette
American Disposable Cars
[Tue Jul 1 02:59:10 PM CDT 2025] Planned obsolescence is what is happening to American cars, the question maybe is this by design, and by design I mean is it the parts and the nature of the engineers to over do the not so brilliant way they attempt to accomplish better mileage? more power, both? Or is it greed? Statistics say the typical $40,000.00 USD cost of a new car is only lasting two owners even though well maintained, will incur repairs after 100,000 miles or sooner, these repairs often cannot be repaired by the dealer that sold the car, and the mechanics in the private sector are quitting the business because of complex and poor wiring practices that will fail. Include foreign made parts that fail and are extremely expensive to buy and install, adding insult to injury, something will likely need to reprogrammed.This brings us to one of the most common issues. Thanks to LED lighting and a plethora of sensor voltages for lights and dozens of sensors only require 1.5 volts, some times less, sometimes more. With less voltage thinner qauge wires can be used, just many more packed into flexible looms and routed throughout the car in tight places subject to chafing, hot or moving parts causing short circuits and knocking out sensors and the networks they communicate on. These repairs can cost hundreds and more often thousands of dollars. Heaven forbid you break a flimsy built transmission or drive train component replacement costs, begin to exceed the blue book value of the car, and they and up in scrap yards. Too expensive to repair. Sad state of affairs.
June 6 1944 D-Day
[June Thu 6 11:00:50 AM CDT 2025]   Quoting Google, “In the pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944, American and Allied forces stormed a 50-mile stretch of beach in Normandy, France, winning a crucial victory that turned the tide of World War II and changed the course of history.”
ImageMagick Linux
Ashari At Bat
The IRC Protocol
With proper configuration of the client and the IRC server. it is very private. Privacy is near extinct these days. The server I use currently Is “Libera.chat”. Very good documentation on their site and includes a web interface to test drive the network. Current global users, 31748, channels, 22,244 channels formed. MS Windows users might like “mIRC.” This client is shareware, so you'll be seeing a nag screen if you don't contribute, but it will work just as well without paying.
The WordPress Incident
D.O.G.E.
US Idiotic Spending
Kicking Ass Taking Names
Drones And The FAA
Brain Rot
I find this to be quite believable to the point of being dangerous considering all the bogus information on social platforms.
Isaac Asimov
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.Wise words in my humble opinion.
To All Veterans
The Rebirth Of The Pontiac GTO
X And Y Chromosomes
[Tue Oct 8 07:57:13 PM CDT 2024]Pronouns and 'Woke Culture.' So upon the basic male, female premise, when the two become intertwined by mental or physical means I know I become confused as to how to address LGBTQ people? 'Hey You?' It's fine by me, whatever but I draw the line at things like biological men in woman's sports.. I consider that an un-fair advantage. Be what you want to be. My take is this, born with a penis you're a man. Born with a vagina you're a woman just don't expect the US Government to pay for a sex change.
Trucking - The Fifth Wheel
[Thu Sep 5 03:19:15 PM CDT 2024] So what is this fifth wheel thing? It is the mechansism mounted between the frame rails behind the cabin or the sleeper berth. It is extremely strong and is used to connect a trailer kingpin to the tractor.
The picture on the left is a actual fifth wheel, you'll notice the locking jaw, and the release handle. Here is where a meat hook often came in handy for me. The fifth wheel is suspended on to pivoting trunion bearings, allowing it to tilt forward and backwards. The is to provide pitch of the tractor to the trailer. Furthermore the flat surface of the fifth wheel needs to be greased periodically for making turns or the yaw axis. This entire assemble can to moved forward and backwards by releasing locking pins on a rack.
These pins are pneumatically released by a switch on the drivers dashborad. What this does is shift weight onto the front axle, or off same. The best and optimal position is center the kingpin equally between the two drive axles. Don't forget to re-engage the locking pins.
Dubuque County Fairgrounds Speedway
[Thu May 23 6:35 PM 2024 CDT] The picture on the left is a picture of a very good friend's race car. The car is a IMCA Modified, racing at a county
fairgrounds 3/8th mile high banked dirt track. I was fortunate enough to work on the pit crew for this car and a couple pro stock cars the gentleman in the picture
built. I dont care to use the man's name on the Internet, but I sincerely appreciated being part of his crew at the tracks he raced at.
I learned a ton of things working on his race cars when I wasn't on the road. At the time this picture was taken the racetrack was under NASCAR sponsorship, Racing for NASCAR points and money was really exciting, although NASCAR purses were smaller than other tracks. With NASCAR cash is king, so racers make less but the prestige makes up for smaller winnings. After all, it's about racing, and not completely money but the money helps. Its a damn expensive, time consuming sport. Click on the picture for a better view.
Justice Juan Merchan
[Wed May 8 11:59:08 AM CDT 2024] Justice Juan Merchan a known Trump hater who is presiding over the Trump case, should have recused himself from this trial. Top lawyers in the US have repeatedly stated Justice Juan Merchan is making unconstitional decisions. I am not a lawyer but I have a problem with the gag order imposed on Trump. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. I have zero doubt the Democrats are weaponizing the justice system. They are doing anything and everthing to keep Trump out of the election. It should have already been declared a mistrial, but the Judge refused the motion immediately, naturally. If Biden wins the election the USA is done for. Just my two cents.
Born Republican
[Sat April 6 06:46:18 PM CDT 2024] For those who don't know, Abraham Lincoln was the founder of (The GOP, The Grand Old Party). Also known as The Republican Party. He became the 16th president (1861–1865) and first Republican to hold the office, thus making American Politics a two party system. I've never been intested in politics, but I do claim to be a Republican. I quote,
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free.
So moving on... Americans are supposed to know The Pledge of Allegiance which states, I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
So this does not mean you're free to do anything you f***ing want NO.. Justice for all means break the law and there will be consequences and victims will and should get justice. This applies to LEGAL citizens. It's actually on the test to get citizenship. Yeah, there is a test! Liberals, some democrats, illegal aliens et al,, think oh well we'll just cancel that sh*t and do it their way. WRONG, rules are rules. Wake the hell up Americans.
King Of The Road Peterbilt 389
[Sat Mar 30 04:46:18 PM CDT 2024] This is a no frills Model 389 Peterbilt. You can get all sorts of options. Depending on a choice of two engines it's rated at 400 - 605 hp. Engines are a choice of Paccar (Paccar is the company that builds these trucks), and Cummins are available. The base configuration transmissions are 10 to 18 speed automatic. You can get a manual thank God. In my opinion, Paccar/Peterbilts are not what they used to be. They have always been over-rated and very expensive. If I was in the market I would buy a older model or switch to
Kenworth W900.
There has always been a rivalry between Peterbilt, and all the rest. International Trucks, Freightliner et al. The one truck I will have nothing to do with is Volvo. I've driven all of these except Volvo and all were good looking and fast! All or most of these trucks, with amenities will cost you well over $100,000.00 USD. The Peterbilt drives like a dream but then again so do the others. With the price of fuel and everything else such as an abundance of idiot 4-wheelers and school taught truck drivers out there, I really don't miss it, but it was fun in the old days when we didn't have those damn DOT mandated computer tattle tales in the truck. That really must suck. On top of that the swinging beef days are long gone, personally I liked hauling swinging, never had a problem. Happy trails to you drivers out there. The country cannot do without you.
BeechCraft King Air 320
[Mon Mar 18 12:07:04 PM CDT 2024] I have always been an aviation fan, and the picture is a smaller model of the plane I got to fly on which was maybe a 200?. Years ago the company that processed the swinging beef that I hauled for years. My uncle was a cattle buyer for that company. The company owned a smaller version of the KingAir Turbo-Prop, It seated eight people as I recall. So my uncle invited me to take a ride on that plane, it was worth well over 1.5 Million and perfect condition. We left the company's home base, flew to Chicago, dropped off some shoppers then flew direct to Louisville, Kentucky. After a couple hours my uncle concluded his business and took of for Chicago, Illinois.
The Captain's name was Bill Anderson and after he flew us up to maybe 7 to 10,000 feet, at well over 250 miles per hour. It so happens no aircraft is permitted to exceed 250 mph under 5,000 feet. Anyway, the captain asked me if I wanted to sit in the capatain's seat, of course I accepted. The plane had very modern avionics and it was on auto-pilot naturally, but that was so fun. The picture is a 320 model, about the only visable difference is the number of seats/windows. In my opinion, I'll take this type of airplane over any big jet. You can see a current King Air 260 here.
Sanctuary Cities
[Tue Feb 27 07:15:56 PM CST 2024] According to Center For Immigration Studies, and I quote,
These cities, counties, and states have laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals from ICE — either by refusing to or prohibiting agencies from complying with ICE detainers, imposing unreasonable conditions on detainer acceptance, denying ICE access to interview incarcerated aliens, or otherwise impeding communication or information exchanges between their personnel and federal immigration officers.
Initially this appeared to be well intentioned but stupid. Berkeley, California was the first to pass a resolution designation as a Sanctuary City
in 1971. More cities passed similar resolutions in the 1980's. No thanks to our now open borders, things are out of control. Criminals are ransacking these cities and not being held accountable. Or the commit felonies elsewhere and flee to these cities. We are in a crisis thanks to the Biden administration. It is a out of control travesty nationwide.
Truckers Boycott New York City
[Mon Feb 19 10:07:23 AM CST 2024] Led by spokes person,
Chicago Ray
Ray claimed that some of his colleagues have decided to stop making deliveries to New York City. The boycott voiced by Chicago Ray, is in response to New York judge Engoron who ordered the former president Donald Trump, to pay nearly $355 million in penalties in a civil fraud case. Chicago Ray, a conservative is clearly outraged by Judge Arthur Engoron, who banned Trump from serving as a company director. Trump has also been banned from taking out loans. I certainly back this boycott.
In a quote from Chicago Ray, “Do you know how f—king hard it is to get into New York City with one of these motherf—ckers?” he said, referring to his truck. “Man, f—k that. “ Ray went on to suggest that 95% of truckers support Trump. I can totally relate to that statement on all counts. I also believe Trump will appeal this ridiculous sum and the ruling will be reversed. How can anyone be guilty of fraud when noone has been hurt, monetarily or otherwise. Just more anti-Trump bull shit.
New York City Gives Immigrants Debit Cards
[Sun Feb 11 11:22:50 AM CST 2024] The Mayor of New York City is giving the 500 migrant families debit cards with $1000.00 dollars on them and to be replenished monthly. Meantime we have thousands of veterans living on the streets who get nothing. The plan will cost $53 million dollars. The city plans to give ungrateful and parasitic migrants free $1,000 prepaid credit cards. Free to them, but not to the taxpayers who have to pick up the tab, according to Newsweek. This amount which is debated will be replenished every month. I'm not saying ALL migrants are bad, but it's been shown many are.
Navy Seals MIA
[Tue Jan 23 12:19:56 PM CST 2024] A pair of Navy SEALs who went missing during a night mission off the coast of Somalia on Jan. 11 are dead, U.S. Central Command announced Sunday. The SEALs were climbing onto the side of a vessel as part of an interdiction mission when one fell into the water. The second SEAL dove in after him. They were never found. Their mission was interdict a dhow carrying Iranian weapons and missile parts. The dhow was sunk. Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan G. Ingram were considered dead after a ten day search. Prayers to the families.
WHAT Home Land Security?
[Sat Jan 20 11:11:31 AM CST 2024] President Biden opened the southern border on his first day in office.
Then we have our Secretary of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas, On November 23, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced his plan to nominate Mayorkas to be Secretary of Homeland Security. The current secretary of homeland security is Alejandro Mayorkas, since February 2, 2021. So while Biden is to blame, not just Mayorkas, Biden could have, and still could close the border with one sentence but he does nothing.
Instead, Biden has bussed migrants to sanctuary cities, these cities among others are having a hard enough times even before the border was opened. And what about our homeless? Let's take care of our citizens. Also, for the U.S. to support foreign wars when we are $134 Trillion dollars in debt, it's just not right. End of RANT.
US Forces Slap Houthis
[Fri Jan 12 11:36:41 AM CST 2024] For those who don't know, Iran backed Houthis is a Shia Islamist political and military organization that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s. They have been firing on US ships in the Red Sea, along with other ships, including pirating and seizing other ships. Missiles fired from Yemen aimed at Israel have been shot down. In accordance with International Maritime law, blocking a major shipping lane is alone an egregious violation. I'm referring to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Firing on US ships will not be tolerated. Iran is behind all of this, they bankroll Hamas, Yemen Houthis all due to Israeli attacks on Hamas. I feel for Palestine, but Hamas deserves and needs to be eradicated. That is my opinion.Warning - Keyless Start Vehicles Can Be Hacked
[Sun Jan 7 03:48:25 PM CST 2024] The AAA released a statement this week, warning of the new ways thieves are getting into and stealing cars. If your vehicle is operated by a key fob, the signal on it, can be hacked, allowing thieves to access your vehicle, and drive away in your car. With simple equipment thieves can stand near your house window or a door and pick up wirelessly your key fob electronic RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) relay the signal to a helper standing next next to your car, unlock it and push to start and the vehicle is gone. About a 30 second hack. The key fob continously emits this signal. Using a Faraday Pouch will block any RF signal from being picked up.
Michael Faraday was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. A Faraday cage is used by governments and others to block radio signals. Use a Faraday cage or if possible turn the key fob off. Click For More Information.
Pro Stock Racers
[Wed Dec 27 4:56:18 PM CST 2023] As a long time NHRA National Hot Rod Association fan, my favorite team was Reher-Morrison. As 2024 racing season approaches I'm looking forward to watching drag racing. While the Reher-Morrison Pro Stock team may have retired after 50 years of racing I had the opportunity to meet them in the 80's. Here is the short story.
I met Buddy Morrison, and David Reher and their current driver at the time, Lee Shepherd in Ohio. I was coming back from a trip to New York City, as I hauled ass across pennsylvania I passed a race car hauler, waved and kept going. Turns out I stopped at a rest area just across the Ohio border for a quick 10-100 and vending machine junk food when I bumped into a couple big guys wearing Reher-Morrison t-shirts along with a smaller man. The short guy turned out to be Lee Shepherd, Pro Stock NHRA driver.
I asked the guys if that was their race trailer I passed in Pennsylvania, they said yes. Turns out they were headed to the Norwalk Ohio track, having just raced at English Town, New Jersey. This was so cool! I shook their hands, wished them luck at the race, mentioned I was a fan of theirs. Really great guys. Sadly, some weeks or months later I heard Lee Shepherd was killed making 60 foot practice passes at some track which I forget. Needless to say, I was stunned, he was a championship driver. I've always wondered what went wrong, so sad. On the bright side Reher and Morrison have a great business going and they build killer engines. R.I.P. Lee.