How do You Like Your Squirrel?

I’m very proud of myself. I hit Costco and picked up a few survival items, and I also received some very nice Cor-Bon defensive ammunition.

It’s funny, but if you own a few guns–just a few–and you stock a reasonable amount of target and defensive ammuntion for each one, you end up with a surprising capacity to defend your property. It’s not the goal, but I suppose it’s a positive side effect.

I don’t buy large amounts of ammunition so I can hold off the police while spouting half-truths about Ruby Ridge over a megaphone. I buy them because you can pay, say, $250 for a thousand rounds all at one time, or you can pay $650 for the same ammunition, in dribs and drabs. Bulk is the way to do it.

I don’t think real survival nuts will be impressed by the things I’m buying. I just don’t believe we could have a multi-year crisis in which things like flour and running water are completely unavailable. A tremendous number of improbable things have to happen in order for us to end up in that situation. But I do think Obama is a weakling, and he is going to invite terrorism, and it’s entirely possible that a nuclear blast on our soil could cause terrible screwups that would make food hard to get for a month or so.

I got canned fish and twelve pounds of rice. I now have a total of about seventeen pounds. I wanted dried beans, but Costco doesn’t sell them. Hard to believe. I guess I’ll swing by Gordon Food Supply.

The country ham idea is a winner. I can’t think of any reason why a ham can’t be made airtight in some way, to keep it from getting hard. The paraffin idea is okay, but you would have to get the paraffin off somehow. If I knew what kind of wax they put on cheese, it would be perfect.

If I had to go two months on country ham and rice and beans, I think I’d be ahead of most people.

I should go ahead and get a good BB gun. Squirrels are just too plentiful and delicious to ignore.

Do Some Shopping in Honor of Pelosi

I have some wonderful news. Aaron has just opened Buyagunday.net!

Just about everyone has heard of “Buy a Gun Day.” The idea is that you mitigate the pain of paying your taxes by buying a gun on April 15. What you may not know is that Aaron is the person who came up with the idea. A lot of people have used it without crediting him, but a quick Google will show that Aaron was promoting Buy a Gun Day six years ago.

Now Buy a Gun Day has its own website. Here’s the link. Buyagunday.com was unavailable, because an imitator bought it.

I don’t know what his plans for the site are. A forum seems like a natural. If I were him, I think I’d sell buyagunday.net email addresses.

Historical note: Aaron is opening the site on the 25th anniversary of the day I surprised him by showing up in Israel.

SHTF Food

I decided to check into survival food. I am not planning to maintain a one-year supply; I think if things get so bad I have to eat out of a closet for a year, it means the world is coming to an end and death is the preferable option. But having a month’s worth of food is not a bad idea. I learned a few things.

1. White rice keeps for eternity. Just keep it dry.

2. Dried beans will stay at top quality for one year. After that, they slowly get harder and take longer to cook. If they get so hard you can’t cook them normally, you can make flour out of them and bake them. How you’re supposed to do that, I do not know. But dried beans are cheap, so there’s no excuse for not having relatively fresh ones.

3. Canned tuna and salmon last nearly forever. Ten years, at least.

4. Acidic canned goods should be used within two years.

5. Oatmeal is a great idea. It lasts a long time, it’s light, it’s cheap, and it makes you poop, which is important when you’re eating survival-type food.

That’s about all I’ve come up with, but it will do.

I got curious and tried to find out whether the local lizards are edible. They probably are, if you discard the guts. Cats eat them and develop temporary hind-leg paralysis, which confuses them greatly. But cats eat the whole lizard. Here’s why I think the rest of the lizard is safe. Most lizards here are anoles, which are related to iguanas, and Latin Americans chow down on iguana meat all the time. In fact, some of them do it right here in Miami.

It’s a guess. I know.

One bright spot in the survival picture: I would have a great excuse to kill squirrels. Hateful little beasts. Hateful, but tasty. And I could drive around shooting Muscovy ducks and peacocks, which spend their lives generously fertilizing our sidewalks and porches. And forget the fishing regulations.

I could get a cheap country ham and hang it in a closet. It wouldn’t rot. A ham site says they last forever, but the new ones don’t have enough fat on them to prevent excessive water loss. Guess you could paint it with melted paraffin.

I think these items, plus multivitamins, would keep me going until the food pipeline got working again.

I don’t really think we’re headed for starvation. I think we’re going to end up on the same level of prosperity as other socialist nations.

Therapy not Sustainable

Here is an update on Mish Weiss.

She had a marrow biopsy last week. The results were good. When you have leukemia, you produce immature blood cells called “blast cells,” and the percentage of your blood cells which are blast cells is indicative of the severity of the disease. Mish just went from 36% to 31%. That’s about a 16% decrease, using 36% as the initial figure. That’s good.

I wish I could say that were the whole story. She got positive results from her last round of chemotherapy, but she is so ill, a continuation of that therapy would be fatal. You have to wonder what would have happened had they started with this particular therapy back when she was stronger.

Treatment has now shifted to a different type of chemotherapy intended to prolong her life. There is a difference between curative therapy and life-prolonging therapy. As a lay person, I don’t know if there is hope that a person in this condition will gain strength until curative chemotherapy can be attempted again. I suppose that’s the obvious question.

Mish is not giving in. A total surrender would mean giving up chemotherapy and focusing on improving her quality of life. She is very, very tough.

My plan? Keep up the prayer. It costs me nothing, and miracles do happen, and it’s a gift to be given a chance to do something for someone in need. There is always a blessing in trying to do good. I can’t think of any significant reward for giving up. I hope people who found Mish through this blog, and who have been praying for her, will think about that. Even if you have doubts about what you are accomplishing for her, you’re doing yourself a lot of good.

Today Drudgebart links to a story about David Wilkerson, the famous preacher. He is predicting a horrible sin-generated American catastrophe, and it seems to center around New York City. He talks about “a thousand fires.”

I hate to say this, especially since I have been attending a church pastored by a man said to be a relation of his, but I would not get too excited about the New York prediction. David Wilkerson has a history of making predictions. I invite you to read up and draw your own conclusions about his batting average. I have doubts, to put it mildly.

Nonetheless, I continue to believe we’re in big trouble as a nation, and I do think it’s because we’ve tested God’s patience. People have always been sinful, but over the last fifteen years or so, we’ve gotten downright gross. In addition to our old sins, we now do bizarre things like cutting up our own bodies for amusement. Our sexual perversions are getting so strange, it is impossible to understand how anyone can find them erotic. And now we have a weird, vacuous, inept, idol-packing President who is the very symbol of human pride, and he’s starting to take an adversarial position toward Israel. He’s also taking our money and using it to fund convenience abortions.

Life is changing. A couple of months back, I noticed that the atmosphere in the US seemed to be altered. Things seem grubbier and dingier. The way they’ve always been in foreign countries that don’t do well. It’s really obvious here in Miami. The grass is brown, and huge trees are dying all over the place. Is it my imagination? It can’t be. I’m surrounded by vacant houses no one can sell. The stores are quieter. The restaurants are often empty. It reminds me of places like Greece and the Bahamas.

It looks like Iran is now a nuclear power. Isn’t that great? The vast bulk of the process of getting nuclear weapons is behind them. Only the easy jobs remain to be done. Obama tried to appease the Russians into negotiating with Iran for us, offering to give up our efforts to protect ourselves with a missile shield. The Russians dealt him a remarkable public humiliation, dismissing his offer as eccentric and half-baked. Good thing. I wonder what he was thinking? If we build a missile shield, it won’t just protect us from Iran. It won’t check a missile’s nationality. We have other Muslim nations to worry about, as well as North Korea. Where did Obama get the idea that Iran was the only reason we needed a shield?

It’s funny that the press didn’t get excited about the Russian slapdown. It was an extraordinary bit of public emasculation, and the MSM ignored it. Obama came across like a little boy trying to break into his dad’s poker game. We’re going to see more of that. He is not man enough for the office. We retired a pit bull who scared our enemies to death, and we replaced it with an attention-starved bichon frise. Obama has been called Carter II, but even Carter had more grit. And Carter wasn’t totally opposed to maintaining a national defense.

I almost feel like God selected our leaders in the past, making sure that even when they were not the best available, they were not utter fools. And now we have served our purpose, and God has decided to let some other nation take the lead, so he is content to let us put rabble in our high offices, as less-blessed nations do. For now it’s Obama. Maybe next time we’ll swing to the other extreme and get a nut like Ron Paul. When no one guards the door, you don’t know who will come in and crash on the couch.

Wilkerson says each of us should have a month’s supply of food. That, I agree with. He’s not the only one saying it.

I think I’ll summon my nerve and check the Dow Jones average.

Pray for Mish.

Guns Now; Expression Later?

Beth Cleaver’s profile photo was deleted from her Facebook account because it had a gun in it. These miserable people are trying to suppress acknowledgement and celebration of our precious right to keep and bear arms. I’m sure most Facebook employees are unaware of a couple of important facts, so I’ll spell them out: the right to keep and bear arms is a CIVIL RIGHT, and like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, it is guaranteed by THE BILL OF RIGHTS which is part of the US CONSTITUTION. It is not okay to treat it like a disease or a vice. In fact, if it were a disease or a vice, Facebook would have no problem with it.

Post gun photos in your Facebook profile. Let them know how you feel about having your rights threatened.

Nirvana

What a feast. Mike and I cooked for my dad and my sister. Everything was from my cookbook. We had spare ribs, a beer-butt chicken, my Yukon Gold casserole, barbecue beans, and Texas toast. Good God, it was wonderful.

I thought we had ruined the meat at one point. We had to leave the smoker unattended, and when we got back, the meat was very dark. I figured creosote had attacked. But at dinner, it was sublime. The best barbecue I’ve ever had, far and away. I didn’t notice any creosote flavor. I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was residue from burned Budweiser.

The Teletubby smoke box is magical, but I need to fix on an on-deck box for getting the wood burning. As it is now, you get some bitter smoke whenever you add fresh wood. Still, the results were magnificent.

Mike claimed the wood was the problem. We started with Publix Greenwise hickory, and then we had to change to something from Home Depot. I wasn’t there when he changed over, but he said the Home Depot wood gave off much less dark smoke.

Whatever. This was a dining experience I will never forget. It’s sad that I didn’t have time to make the macaroni and cheese. But then human beings were never intended to know that much pleasure here on earth.

Mike made some good contributions. He showed me that high heat is best for frying hash browns. I didn’t know that.

Don’t listen to the foodies. You don’t have to use liquid nitrogen or squid ink to make good food. Just pick something simple and do it perfectly. That other stuff is for idiots.

Pork is Everywhere

Mike is in town. Last night, we hit Gordon Food Supply. For us, that’s like going to a strip club. After that, we dined on masitas de puerco, moros, and yuca at El Exquisito in Little Havana.

We’ve been working on barbecue all day. The Hoginator has been revived, and I’m burning hickory chunks in the Teletubby smoke box!

What a pleasure it is to have Mike here. Who else will go to GFS with me? Who else completely understands why I smear beef fat on my ribs while I smoke them? Who else agrees that removing the membrane is for girly-men?

We have two racks of spare ribs and a Budweiser beer-butt going right now. Everything is rubbed, and the chicken has been injected with Jack Daniel’s, dark maple syrup, cider vinegar, and a few other things.

It’s beautiful. Now I have to start planning the Texas toast and other sides.

I’m using an open flame for smoke. Bill Karau, inventor of the Karubecue, made me self-conscious about creosote, so I am not doing blue, bitter smoke today. Even though I actually like it.

Bill has spiffed up his site. Maybe we’ll get more info later. Here it is: CLICK.

Void Your Warranty the Correct Way

In case anyone else out there has a Hornady Lock-N-Load ammunition press that needs taking apart, I am posting this entry.

I felt there was too much friction between the driveshaft and the rest of the press, and that this screwed up the indexing, so I decided to take the driveshaft out, polish it to make it more slippery, and put it back in. Unfortunately, this is kind of a pain, and even if you have the exploded drawings, you may get confused.

1. Lift the ram and fix it so it can’t go back down. How you do this is your problem. This is going to give you access to a couple of hex screws on the ram’s sides.

2. Take out the hex screws. Hornady says to tap the wrench with a hammer if they won’t move. Be patient and don’t bust anything. It works.

3. You have liberated the subplate from the drive hub and shaft. They’re still attached at the bottom of the press, so you need to remove the yoke. It’s held on by snap rings. Remove one of them and it will slide out. How do you remove snap rings? Simple. Go to Sears and buy one tool for each of the 952,000 types of rings, and see if one fits. Or do what everyone else does and push it with two screwdrivers until it pops off and flies into the rafters. A magnetic pickup tool may be useful when you finally locate the ring. It will land in the deepest crack in your garage, wherever that may be. If, for some reason, you want to find the least accessible area of your garage, popping off a snap ring and observing its trajectory is a good method.

4. Slide the shaft and ram and whatever down out of the press.

5. Pop the snap ring off the index wheel and remove the wheel. It will lift straight off.

6. There is a pin sticking out of the shaft where the index wheel used to be. Pull it out with pliers. Don’t mangle it.

7. The shaft is now free of the ram. Push it upward and it will come out.

8. If you need to take the drive hub off, there’s another little pin in the shaft you have to pull. You’ll see it.

There may be mistakes in this entry. If so, sorry. I’m writing from memory.

I took my shaft and mounted it in a drill and spun it in 200-grit emery paper. Having no lathe, I had no better way to polish the shaft. I stuck it back in the ram, and sure enough, it turns easier. I think the shaft is machined a little bigger than it really needs to be. You don’t need great precision in this area. It would seem to me that ease of rotation is a lot more important.

When my new drive hub arrives, I’m going to polish it, too, if there is any resistance to rotation. I squirted lithium grease down inside the ram so it would would have some chance of seeping into the shaft channel or whatever it’s called and lubricating the shaft. The grease fittings on the LNL do nothing to help the shaft spin, and there is no way to lubricate it from outside. Trust me, spraying the ends of the shaft is a complete waste of time. The shaft turns in a tight channel (help me with the jargon, nerds) maybe 1 1/2″ long and you are not going to get in there with a spray can while the press is assembled.

I took my press apart and got it back together. I am the King. All hail me.

Cheap Ammunition Makes You Pay Dearly

Yesterday I made some .45 ammunition, and as usual, there were little problems. I won’t mention the accident in which the clear plastic cylinder on the powder measure fell off and covered the floor with Unique. We’ll just omit that. There were other difficulties.

I have a Hornady Lock-N-Load AP, built before they decided the ejection wire was a bad idea and got rid of it, making upgrades to existing presses necessary. It is a turret press. There are, I guess, six stations on a little turntable (drive hub plus shell plate), and you pull a handle to turn it, and each station does an operation on a casing. For this to work, each casing has to be lined up pretty well under the tool that alters it, so the turntable has to stop at the right places. When it does this, in response to various mechanical doodads that are supposed to make it line up, it’s called “indexing.”

If your turntable doesn’t index right, you have problems. First, the sizing die will miss the case and possibly deform it. Second, the primer will miss the case and fail to seat, leaving a hole for powder to dribble out of. The powder will eventually find its way into crevices and cause friction, making the indexing problem worse. It’s a nice cascading effect.

If you don’t push the lever pretty hard on the upstroke, your primer may not seat completely. If this happens, the primer may project downward in a way that blocks the table’s movement. Or you may end up with no primer in the pocket, and the primer can also pop out of the press and find its way into various places where it will drive you crazy.

Pushing the lever hard on the upstroke–I am pretty sure–is hard on the left pawl. Pawls are little things on springs that turn the table. Once the pawls are out of position or damaged, everything goes to hell. And I believe the instructions for adjusting the pawls are backward. Until you realize that, you will find yourself making things worse by doing what Hornady tells you to do. I’m looking at a PDF of the manual, and it appears to be right, but I think the printed one I have is wrong. Maybe they changed it, or maybe I misread it. Anyway, I had to write my own notes in the manual to resolve the confusion.

On top of all that, the shaft that turns the table has a lot of friction, so the pawls have to work hard under the best of circumstances. And there is no bearing on the shaft, and while there are grease fittings, they appear to have no relationship to the driveshaft. So grease away; nothing will happen.

I think my problems are worse, because my press is bolted to a somewhat springy bench edge. The Lock-N-Load likes to rock and throw powder around, and bench movement just generally degrades the way the press functions. I am going to reinforce it today.

I got the press working yesterday, and I ran off around 70 rounds, and then the press started balking. I fiddled with the pawls. A pawl allows things to go by in one direction, and it may push them in that direction, but it shouldn’t push things in the other direction. I had a situation where the left pawl was hitting the drive wheel (“index wheel”) in both directions, so the tip of the pawl got eaten off.

I ground it down and replaced it, and it worked for a while, but eventually, things became hopeless. And while I was fooling with the press, I put pressure on the drive hub, a part with which Hornady has had serious problems. There is a little key sort of a thing on the hub that drives the shell plate that holds the casings. It broke off. Now the press is useless, and I have to wait for a new hub and pawls. I ordered two sets of pawls; I can tell this is a problem that is likely to happen more than once.

I’m really irritated with this thing. I don’t understand why they would build a rotating part that takes a lot of effort to turn, and which has no bearing and no means of lubrication or cleaning without disassembling the machine. I can improve it by taking it apart and sanding down the drive shaft so there is less friction. I think. still, I’m out thirty bucks, and I can’t reload, and this should never have happened. I’m sure the folks at Hornady are doing their best, and I understand that they give fantastic service, and the machine has a lifetime warranty (which does not apply to my problems). But this is bad.

Last night I realized how much better life would have been, had I had machine tools. I could have popped the shaft out and machined a couple of thousandths off of it to make it turn easier. I could have done the same with the drive hub. I could have made a new drive hub after it broke. Making pawls would be a piece of cake. If I really got mad, I could change the machine so it would accept bearings. And all this work would have been enjoyable and satisfying. As it is, I have to screw around with sandpaper and a bench grinder.

I have come to a tentative conclusion, and maybe my machinist readers can tell me if I’m right. It seems to me that it’s better to spend a few thousand dollars once, on a lathe and a mill, than it is to spend your entire life buying parts for things and putting up with frustrating things that a machinist could easily fix.

I suspect that my press is just plain defective, and that the defect is tightness in the lower hole the driveshaft goes through. I can’t think of any reason why the shaft would need to be hard to turn. I’m going to have to take it apart, and it’s held together with snap rings. I hope the pliers I have will fit . Otherwise, I’ll have to strip naked, set my hair on fire, and run down the street screaming. And in Coral Gables, that means pulling a permit.

More

I want to be sure I don’t across as an angry Hornady customer. I said I suspect this press is defective, but I don’t know that, and if it is defective, the defect is pretty small and easily cured. There are some things about the LNL that could be better, but I don’t claim it’s a bad product. Lots and lots of people use them with great success. And because my problem happened on a Friday night, like all warranty problems and veterinary emergencies, I did not call Hornady for help, so I don’t know what they could or would have done to help me. As I said earlier, they have a great reputation in the area of customer support.

It’s possible that I contributed to the problems I’m having now, back in the weeks when I was basically trying to make the press work by grunting and beating it with a stick. I feel safe in saying the machine has more friction in it than it should; if you could see it in front of you, you’d realize it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Maybe that wouldn’t matter if I had been more experienced when I bought the machine.

In any case, putting new pawls in is a three-minute job, and once you understand what they do, adjusting them is not a complex task. Neither is replacing the drive hub. Lots of people do these things. So I’m not going to wreck it by putting these parts in, or by smoothing the hub and shaft down a little.

I screwed a block to my workbench to make the press more stable. I think once the new parts are in, everything will be swell.

I am going to have to get electronic ear muffs. Reason: if I have to defend my home, I will need to hear ordinary sounds while I look for the perp, but I don’t want to go deaf if I shoot. And they should have stereo, so I’ll have directional hearing. At the range, my cheapo muffs and plugs are fine, because I don’t need to hear low-level sounds. And muffs don’t give you real protection at the range; you need plugs, too, if you’re shooting a long gun. So even if I got good muffs, I’d still have to wear plugs when shooting anything bigger than a .45. Much of the benefit of the electronics would be lost. The house is different. I’m willing to sacrifice a little protection when faced with a need to defend myself. That means no plugs.

I was considering getting a quality pair, like the better Peltors. I didn’t want something that would fall apart over multiple range sessions. Then it occurred to me: because I wear plugs at the range, I have no reason to take electronic muffs. That means I don’t need the toughest electronic muffs made. Maybe I would be better off getting a cheap pair for home defense. They only have to last long enough to get me through one encounter, and I don’t think cheap muffs are more likely to crap out at a bad time. I would guess that the big differences are durability, comfort, and sound quality.

What do you think? The price difference is gigantic.

Someone Wants to GAIN a Job

A friend has asked me to put out a prayer request for her dad. He got squeezed out of a job a while back, and the company has tanked, and now they may want him back. I believe he was the CEO; I’m not sure. Anyway, they apparently think they made a big mistake, and this would be a big boon to him and his family.

Would everyone do her a favor and pray that he gets the job? Thanks.

As always in these situations, I pray that everyone concerned will draw closer to God, in addition to getting the earthly need filled.

Usually a Mitzvah

I’m going to go ahead and just steal this.

Posted by Leah’s Dad.

Mish is a wee bit better this morning, they removed the tube holding the airway open, but not the NG tube. I’m deaf but I know she said at least 3 four letter words. Her counts are still dangerously low, she’s weak and pale, but she has fight left in her.

In a few hours she will have the bone marrow biopsy to see if the blast cells have decreased from the last chemo regime, hopefully they have. She remains in critical condition, too weak to sit up. Seeing her fight and cuss the doctor was a good sign, it means she hasn’t given up.

When I suggested she open this blog it was for her to vent, and keep track of her progress. We had no idea of the love and support she would receive, thank you.
G_d bless you all.

Gut Shabbos

It’s not much, but “better” is not “worse.”

Let’s make a big prayer push and ask for a good result on the biopsy! Come on! We’ve pulled this off before!

Well. GOD has.

You know what I mean.

Join the Clingers

I just found out Chris Byrne is running a gun forum. I joined and asked some stupid questions about shotguns.

I don’t know why I didn’t know about it sooner. You may want to sign up.

Here is the site.

Cold, Grey, Ugly, Lethal

Is there any ammunition uglier than Wolf? It’s like the Russians had an ugly bullet competition, and the guy who designed this stuff won.

I don’t care. I have never had a problem with it. I’ve used it in a Glock and a PSL, and it seems accurate and reliable. I question the guys who say it won’t shoot straight. When you have a bad day, any excuse looks good.

I just received my order from Midway; a big pile of 7.62x39mm. It is shockingly ugly. I got the hollow points, because I had read that they were probably better at helping perps relax and then die. It’s intended for the range, but it’s good enough for guest control. I don’t know if I’ll even bother getting better stuff. How much better can it be? There’s a ton of difference between cheap FMJ 9mm ammunition and Cor-Bon, but AK stopping power is so much better than a pistol’s, I don’t know if ammunition quality matters much.

Yes, I know the gun I got is not an AK. But it’s AK ammunition.

I’m definitely getting a Saiga 12. That will give me two very good long guns for self-defense. That should cover my needs, regardless of the duration of the soon-to-begin Ob*ma Dark Ages. I truly fear that the next few years will be a bad time to live in a suburb, especially in a town like Miami with big, violent ghettos nearby. Those folks live in tiny apartments and microscopic houses with bone-dry dirt yards where nothing grows. They will have needs and no way to fill them, and the government teat may get downsized considerably. Obama has already fomented an atmosphere of class and race hostility. It will only get worse if a depression hits.

I should go ahead and get a food dehydrator. Why not? I’m going to be producing all sorts of bananas and papayas. I can’t eat them all fresh, and they’re very good dried. Papayas are actually better dried than fresh.

I could also get bulk apples from Costco and dry them. Nothing beats dried apples. You can make pies. You can make apple butter. They rule.

I’m thinking up ideas to save money on food. Beans would be perfect. Buy a fifty-pound sack of pinto beans, a bunch of smoked ham hocks that will keep a long time, and some salt. Rice is good. I should be able to fish for grunts and snapper in the local canals.

If life really goes in the toilet, Coral Gables will have to give up its ridiculous pansy ordinances. People will need chickens and ducks. They’ll need cheap fences and razor wire.

I don’t know what life in Miami was like during the Depression. In Kentucky, drifters wandered up and down the roads looking for odd jobs. Hoboes used to sleep on my grandparents’ porch; it was accepted. They didn’t even have to ask permission. People showed up asking for meals.

My grandmother said the local people didn’t notice the pinch much. That’s because the area was poor before the Depression, and also because the locals were still able to grow their own food and trees. And there were squirrels and rabbits.

Maybe it won’t be so bad here. Maybe it will just be boring. Spend less money, travel less, stop eating out. Keep your old things longer and make them last. That may be tough, with a 2003 Thunderbird.

I wonder what will happen to the car market. Most people don’t own their cars. When unemployment jumps, will the banks repossess, flooding the market with cheap vehicles, or will they renegotiate and take the losses?

It will be strange, seeing bums who actually deserve handouts. I’ve never seen those in America. “Will Work for Food” actually means “Will Take Money Straight to Liquor Store, Drug Dealer, or Crack Whore.” How often do you see “Will Work for Food” over a hundred yards from a place that sells beer? I can’t think of one instance.

I keep meaning to get some fast-food gift certificates to give to bums. That way, if I misjudge someone, no harm done. And if it turns out I’m feeding an addict, that’s okay, because giving them food is not immoral. And if they trade gift certificates for crack, it’s their sin, not mine. When you give them money, you’re not even trying to help. You’re giving to make yourself feel good, and you know what they’re going to do with the money, and you don’t really care if they buy drugs. If you give a food gift certificate, you’re making a credible effort to help.

The market is tanking again today. On top of that, a surprising number of finance-show talking heads are openly excoriating Obama, for whom most of them voted. I am going to be fair and point out that George Bush is getting off easy. He was blamed for many things he didn’t do, or which didn’t even happen, and he didn’t get credit for the great things he did. But in his last months he gave Obama a great head start on his wrongheaded mission of pouring socialist gasoline on our economic conflagation. And people aren’t talking as much as they should about Bush’s dumb 2008 moves. Still, if Bush is measles, Obama is leprosy.

I think I’ll do some research and see what to expect in a depression. I believe God will take care of me, but I don’t want him to have a bigger job than necessary.

No Joy

I couldn’t get this blog to load today, and I think Blogrolling is the culprit. I’m not positive, but something called “ytmg” held everything up. I know Blogrolling now has pop-up ads. Maybe that’s the connection.

It’s time to kiss Blogrolling goodbye. I never understood how they made money, and I appreciate the free service, but I’m not going to screw up my blog to help them compensate for years of giving away their product.

I really dread this. To create a WordPress blogroll, you have to enter one blog at a time. I better check and see if there is a plugin.

If you’re on my blogroll, don’t worry. I’ll try to bring you back. Not that my current traffic levels justify the effort.

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I found out how to import Blogrolling data to a WordPress blog. Oddly enough, when I Googled, the answer (nearly) was on a post over at Moxie’s. Once you upgrade to WordPress 2.7-something, a menu named “Tools” will appear, and there will be an import tool for blogrolls in there. The comment at Moxie’s suggests 2.5 is the same, but I had a later version than that, and I couldn’t find the import deal. The “Tools” menu did not exist. There were import tools, but if there was one that worked with Blogrolling, I didn’t see it.

Once you have 2.7 (which I now do), it’s a very simple job 1. Go to Blogrolling. 2. Go to “Get Code.” 3. Select the OPML code, which is pretty far down the page. 4. Copy. 5. Enter this code (a URL) in the WordPress import tool form.

So I saved all my blogs, and for the first time in months, I can now edit them.