worth talking about.

The North Koreans are building and testing nukes, proclaiming war is inevitably.

Madonna bought a slave.

Nancy Pelosi wants to be speaker.

The Lizard Queen wants to take over the world. If only she had a pecker.

The internet HAS taken over the world and the dinosaur media has started to get the message. (No, liberal idiot bloggers will not rule the internet - It's the market, stupid. And AOL is long dead from forcing chioces on it's subscribers.)

There's just not much goin' on

worth talking about.

The North Koreans are building and testing nukes, proclaiming war is inevitably.

Madonna bought a slave.

Nancy Pelosi wants to be speaker.

The Lizard Queen wants to take over the world. If only she had a pecker.

The internet HAS taken over the world and the dinosaur media has started to get the message. (No, liberal idiot bloggers will not rule the internet - It's the market, stupid. And AOL is long dead from forcing chioces on it's subscribers.)

Modern Diesel Automotive Engines

Are incredible. Durable, fuel efficient, powerful, sophisticated, amazing. Until the EPA gets involved...

The europeans have been using small turbo-diesels in their cars and trucks for many years now and the technology is stable and proven. Lots of folks in the US have compact pickups - how would you like that with a diesel? Wipe your chin.

A few of the euro models have made it across the pond to the US consumer such as the VW TDI Jetta, Bug, Toureg and the Jeep Libety CRD. Mercedes has been cartin' diesels over forever. These are all great vehicles with great engines, until the EPA gets involved. A spectaculary bad idea US manufacturers came up with to meet emissions standards is a thing called and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) valve. This thing allows engine exhaust to be "reburned" thus lowering the emission of EPA regulated substances. Horrible idea. Take a look inside your tailpipe. Nasty isn't it. That's what the EPA has mandated your engine inhale.

EGR is a particularly ornerous thing with diesel engines as they are inherently sooty (like the inside of your wood stove). Keep in mind that these engines are computer controlled and depend on delicate sensors along the intake tract to relay information about air temperature, boost pressure, air flow rates and such. How long do you figure these sensors would last in your tailpipe? Right. It has become a common procedure to have the intake system "cleaned". The service tech disassemble the top half of the engine and washes it. If you're lucky this is a $700.00 procedure not including the price for changing out that failed component that brought you into the service bay to begin with.

Needless to say there are an awful lot of "offroad use only" automotive diesels out there now.
FYI: Honda is suposed to coming out with one that uses no EGR and has a nitrate converter in the exhaust system. Freaky.

As if we need evidence of cowardice of the republican party.


The David Zucker Albright Ad is linked by Drudge. He quotes elephant official as saying they couldn't use it because it was too hot.
Some "You Tube" users have flagged the video for adult content so you may have to go to Drudge to see it or log onto "youtube".

If it upsets that many democratic socialists it can't be bad.

Y'all seen my good for nothing brother?

Oh, I forgot; he told me Leonardo Dicaprio has a new movie out this weekend. He is very excited. He's seen all of Leonardo's movies.

I expect he'll be posting a review over at the BloggerBlaster soon....

Mark Foley to Test the Axiom

"There are really only two things fatal in politics: to be found in bed with a live man or a dead woman."

Granted, the pillow-biter lobby and it's champions have forced the substitution of "boy" for "man" in the phrase, but the concept still exists that there are depths of public conduct from which a political career cannot recover. Mark Foley, according to Drudge, has made an initial thrust toward ameliorating his responsibility in the eyes of the public. "Hey, I was drunk!"

What should be interesting is the public's reaction to this. I will consider it to be a good indicator of the how far the general populace's "pervert detector" has been de-tuned.

American's (in general) have been grading moral fitness on a curve for sometime now. As another perversion becomes normalized this curve gets steeper to allow that perversions practicianers to hold moral equivalence with more upright ways of life. We shall soon see just how steep this curve has gotten.

The pervert-o-meter is in full swing right now; an old man and a young boy. Let's see if the alcoholic amelioration attempt serves to dampen its movement.


UPDATE: Two newspapers and Fox News (The one with the hot chicks) sat on this story to protect the old fag lest the public overreact due to him being a pillow biter.

"Our decision at the time was ... that because the language was not sexually explicit and was subject to interpretation, from innocuous to 'sick,' as the page characterized it, to be cautious," said Tom Fiedler, executive editor of the Herald. "Given the potentially devastating impact that a false suggestion of pedophilia could have on anyone, not to mention a congressman known to be gay, and lacking any corroborating information, we chose not to do a story."

This type of editorial decision happens all the time. An example would be the unreported black on white crime statistics. The newsies believe themselves to be fighting stereotypes, regardless of their accuracy.

More info on the weird tractor

From FarmerTom:

My dad had a 4020 propane. I hated that thing too. Not because it was
a bad tractor, but because I was still a kid then, and I was scared of
the refueling process.

You hook up a line from the liquid valve of a standard propane tank,
to the liquid intake valve on the tractor, then you hook up a return
line from the vapor side of the tracor to the propane barrel,

One gallon of liquid propane expands to 13 gallons of propane vapor.
When you bleed the vapor away from the tractor into the propane barrel
the differential in pressure allows the liquid to flow into the
tractor tank. As the liquid takes the place of the vapor the tank is
filled from bottom to top with liquid.

The tractor runs on both vapor and liquid, you start it on the vapor,
then when it is running well you switch it over to the liquid.
Obviously there is much more energy in the liquid than in the vapor.


My dad was plowing with his, running on liquid, when it got hot
enough that it melted the pistons.

We bought a diesel engine to replace the propane one. Best thing that
ever happened to that tractor. We still have it, use it most every
day, on the home farm. Has a Buhler loader on it.

This fella has a workaround of some sort.

Just makin' sure I had your attention, Farmer Tom.

The wife and I saw this propane tractor on our recent trip through Mississippi. It's the wrong color, but still interesting.

While we are on the subject of ugly tractors, a friend of mine just bought an early 70's 4010 for $10K with a 10 foot Woods bushhog. Sounds a bit privey to me, but he says it has 1300 hours on a rebuid and a new transmission. What do you think, FT? He seems to think it's been only used for mowing.

JACmail From an Old Friend

So, I commence to googling and discover you're a motorcycle
expert farrier mechanic blogger. Well done.

Me, I'm a standard re-treaded programmer waiting for my
job to eventually end up in India, and living in the outer
suburbs, repleat with minivan.

But before I dribble any catch-up email, I've got a question
about how to avoid junking my 1989 Ford Ranger. Seems the
brake line has cracked behind the fuel tank. The shop here says
it's horribly difficult to remove the tank 'coz the bolts are all
corroded over with 18 years of rust, and the tank might break,
and this and that and it's not much in parts unless they destroy
the tank, and yada yada, don't I just want to junk the truck.

The answer is no, I want to keep the truck and not go broke.
Can't they just run a separate brake line from the master
cylinder all the way back to the rear proportioning valve, and
leave the gas tank alone?

They won't do it, so I'm going to coast it on home tomorrow
and replace the line myself (well, with some help of a real mechanic).

Waddya think? New truck isn't in the budget. This is just a toy
for occassional messy stuff.

Carl

How's it goin'!

A good old beater truck is worth a lot for its utility function as well as a backup transportation source. I have my doubts about the fuel tank falling apart. Those bolts will come out with some penetrating oil maybe. It's the hangers/straps you might rip apart. All of this is easily replaced/ fabricated by the son of a man who possessed every issue of Popular Mechanics from 1950 to date.

I would unhook the fuel lines and empty the tank. No smoking! Flush some H2O through it or maybe even leave a few gallons of water in it for safety's sake and commence to working on those fasteners. I know you have a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel. Male sure you have hosed off any fuel you spill from the driveway before gettin' nasty with heat and sparks. Worse comes to worse, there's a new fuel tank on ebay for $79.00. Get everything out of the way, fix the brakes properly (you don't want to deal with unforseen wear on a brake line routed to hell and gone) and then start worrying about how to put it back together. You might have to tear shit up to make the repair. Get over it.

Good to hear from you, old man!

JACIII

The Folks You Run Into

We ran into this fella with an ADV sticker on his BMW F650 Dakar. He's a professional balloon twister. What a world.

Finally! The New Kawasaki Concours and The New SwampThing

Based on the ZX14!!!

200mph with Hard bags! Biker cocaine, man. Pure biker dope.


Swampy is not quite as rugged lookin' but the new brakes and swingarm with (I assume) modernized components should make up for it.

The KLR or the BMW

I kicked around buying the BMW F650 before I settled on the SwampThing. I was leanin' toward the BMW, but I kept seeing pictures like these:

Trail Tail

I have seen it all. Go here.

6Mb video - work safe.

Alcohol Stove Experiment #1, #2

Constructing a Low Pressure Alcohol Stove:

If you try this - do it outside away from flamable material and yourself. These things are dangerous and can explode. Some folk have cautioned against lighting it with the fill hole uncovered. You play at your own risk.

This Alcohol Burner is constructed of two coke can bottoms nested together in the manner in which it comes out looking like a midget coke can with two bottoms. It is helpful to scrounge around and find to cans of different diameter. If you have calipers get them out, ; even .010" (that's ten thousandths or 10/1000 of an inch girls) will matter. But most cans are the pretty close to the same size. If one is slightly larger than the other mark it for use as the "top".

The stove is constructed in just a few simple steps as follows:

Place a razor blade (in a safety holder) in the pages of a hardback book. Loading manuals work great. Rotate a coke can while pressing the can against the razor blade to "score" the can. You are not slicing the can with the razor blade, just putting a deep scratch into it.







You can see the note MrsJAC wrote me so I would be sure and add a caution about playing with dangerous stuff.








Once you have completed the scoring work your fingers on either side of te score to initiate an propogate a slit around the can.

Repeat once more on another can.

Now, mark 16 equidistant points around the circumference of one can bottom (use the larger diameter of the two if you determined a difference) with a "Sharpie". The marks go just outside of the raised ring on the can bottom. Poke small holes at the points you just marked. Use a pushpin or a sewing pin held in a pair of pliers. It is important that these holes very small.

Poke a hole in the center of the same can bottom. This one needs to be large enough that alcohol will readily flow through it. This is the "fill" hole.

This same can bottom must be stretched to fit over the other can bottom. Do this by pressing it onto a third (unmolested) can AT AN ANGLE. Do not press it straight onto the bottom of the can - it will stick and nevercome off. Rotate the angled can bottom against the other can while pressing on it.

Slip the stretched can with holes over the other can bottom. press these together, but do not "mash" them. Closing them up too far will cause the inner can bottom to warp and leak between them. I wasn't real confident in the seals on either of my stoves so I Used some J-B Weld to seal it up.

Fill the device with alcohol until there is a small puddle over the fill hole. light it.


It take a bit to get it hot enough to burn through the perimeter holes but it will. Once the perimeter holes light drop a coin over the fill hole to prevent it from spewing burning alcohol everywhere.

If you have trouble getting it to start you can hold a lighter to the side of it. I am constructing a base pan that I can put a little alcohol in to start the stove rather than light it from the top. The alcohol burning in the base pan will boil the alcohol in the stove and get it cranked up and running.


The one below is burning too rich (I think the holes are too big) and still boiled a pan of water in under 5 minutes. Total burn time was 24 minutes for about 2 ounces of alcohol.

Now BrandX Can Go, Too.

'course that tool kit is gonna come in real handy...

These Dumbasses

Must spend all day on the phone with frenchmen.

“The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 [of the Geneva conventions] would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk,” Mr Powell wrote in a letter to Mr McCain released yesterday.

Can the USA project weakness any more strenuously? The left has been harping that this conflict must be treated as a police matter, but what they really want is to get this into the court system as a kind of WPA for lawyers.

Somebody Try This....

Simple Foolproof Stove

Needed to Build items
1 a 6 ounce round tuna can with Lid
2 an Altoids Sour tin with Lid
3 a Hand paper punch like wal mart sells for a couple of Dollars,and on ebay.
4 a good can opener
Now we are ready to build a Simple multi fuel fool proof stove.
open your tuna Can, and eat, or give to your cat the tuna, keeping the
lid, wash them out, and remove the paper label.
Now taking your Paper punch, punch out 4 holes evenly spaced, as close
to the bottom of your tuna can, as you can
then punch out 8 holes evenly spaced as close to the top of your
tuna can, as you can.
Your tuna can lid is used as a fire snuffer to put out the stove
Eat the Altoids sours, sharing with friends, Clean out the Can when done.
now your stove is complete, it will burn Hexamiene, and triox heat bars and tabs,
also rubbing Alcohol, denatured Alcohol.
as a heat tab stove, just turn the altoids sour tin bottom portion, with its lid removed
upside down, and place your heat tab or triox bar on top, placed inside of your tuna can.
Light it, and put your pan on the tuna can, and cook.
for rubbing alcohol, or Denatured alcohol, turn your altoid tin right side up,
fill the bottom portion, less than half way up with alcohol
place in your tuna can. light, and place your pot on top of the tuna can, your now cooking
If you want to get fancy, one can get some perolight , from a nursery store, and some copper screening
putting them in the bottom portion of your altoid tin, this will give a better regulated heat
when burning alcohol (Safe for the endorsement)
have fun camping

And tell me how it goes.

The Central Committee Speaks

Harry Reid is not pleased at the prospect someone (even nearly two terms later) might tell the tale of the leadership and priorities of our National Socialist Democrats.

This is not even a subtle veiled threat:

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

No doubt, the network will scramble to cave to the commisar. Pride in servility and all that.

Must they grow up?

I was wonderin' why the little one was in such a grumpy mood this morning. It seems "somebody" didn't see the note and only left a dollar.....

I'm bettin' a few dollars fell behind the headboard.

I've Never Forgotten a Campsite...

or remembered a hotel room.

We met a lot of nice folks on our little trek. A surprise was these two Indian folks working at the Econolodge we stayed at in Clinton Mississippi:That's Pamela and Ramon. We stayed there on Friday on the way down and Saturday on the way back. Pamela spoke no english, but when we pulled up Saturday night she ran out of the lobby and gave MrsJAC a big hug. Later, after a great supper at Sombrero's resturant, she met us at the door to our room with some kind of Indian food. We thanked her, tried it, pretended to like it, closed the door and immediately started trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Looked like a cross between curly fries and potato chips.