I Can Plagiarize, Too

I was upset because some boob created a nude painting of Sarah Palin, while neglecting poor old Joe Biden.

So:

I See a Book in This

I had to drive out to various stores to try to save my lime tree, and of course, I got virtually no useful input and no helpful products. But while I was out there, I had Rush Limbaugh on the radio, and I heard some amusing things.

It looks like Rush has finally discovered blogs. My guess? Laziness has struck. The MSM steals from blogs all the time and fails to give credit. At least Rush tried. He mentioned Glenn Reynolds and referred to him as the owner of a blog called…Little Green Footballs! That gave me a laugh. It’s not that far from the truth, given PJM’s incestuous contortions. Then he mentioned Wizbang and managed to get the name of the proprietor right.

He’ll never mention me, no matter what I write. Not if he has any idea that I lampooned him at Huffington’s Toast and in one of my books. The man is not known for his ability to laugh at himself. Oh, well.

Interesting item: World Vision is having an international day of prayer tomorrow. I read that, and I figured it must be part of a bigger effort involving other organizations, but it’s not. It’s weird. There are a bunch of different International Days of Prayer. Anyway, thought you might want to know.

Leah Friedman is recovering from surgery, and apparently she’ll be in pain for about a month. Mish Weiss is starting her bone marrow transplant procedures. If you want to warm up for the day of prayer, that information may be helpful.

I am Dirtier Than Sheryl Crow’s Right Hand

I got a hilarious comment on one of my other sites. “Mrcleankitchen” says:

Man your lame and at the same time filthy. Who would want to eat something that has lots of filth you lazy ass wana be chef!? Dude hav you ever heard of microbial bacteria, free radicals and food born diseases?! I hope the health inspector shuts you down!

I may be a lame “wana be” chef, but I “hav” heard of microbial bacteria! I’m enjoying a big bowl of them right now, smothered in free radical sauce!

I hope you don’t think I took this slander lying down. Here is my response:

“Ha! You’re clearly a fanatic! You’re like those nuts who tell me I should give the toilet brush a good shake before using it to stir the soup!”

Do health inspectors shut down kitchens in people’s homes? They probably should, but I don’t think they do. I’m probably safe.

I don’t know which filth he’s referring to. Maybe the beef-aging stuff. Hey, I can’t help that. Beef has bacteria, and when you age it, they’re going to grow.

You have to wonder if this guy has ever eaten cured ham, cheese, yoghurt, kefir, or a tasty aged rib eye. You have to wonder if he has ever had a European beer, fermented in an open container. How about bread? How about wine? You can’t make those things without microbes.

He probably lives in a bubble and plays Trivial Pursuit all day. I should have replied “MOOPS! MOOPS!”

Here’s a tip: never play a game where you can only win if the game’s owner hasn’t memorized all the answer cards. Unless you own the game.

All my life, people have criticized me for being paranoid about germs. It’s so weird, being taken to task for my filthy ways.

Let me inject this quasi-non sequitur:

MOUSEBENDER: It’s not much of a cheese shop, is it?

WENSLEYDALE: Finest in the district, sir.

MOUSEBENDER: Explain the logic underlying that conclusion, please.

WENSLEYDALE: Well, it’s so clean, sir.

MOUSEBENDER: It’s certainly uncontaminated by cheese.

I stuffed my book with safety disclaimers. I feel like Philip Morris, recommending that people avoid my products.

Sondra found a great video at Redstate, and they got it from Youtube. You need to see it. It shows Republican lawmakers in 2004, telling Frank Raines Fannie Mae needs regulation. Raines is black, which is one reason the media won’t even mention him, let alone point out that he destroyed Fannie Mae. Members of the Black Congressional Caucus appear in the video, ranting emotionally about how the hearing is a lynching. Raines says the homes unqualified minority borrowers are living in are incredibly risk-free investments. Ho ho. Smoking gun.

He has to be a crook or just plain dumb. House prices were going up at an unsustainable rate in 2004, and anyone who passed fifth-grade math should have known it. Can you believe a guy considered capable of running Fannie Mae didn’t realize that? Hard to swallow. Maybe he’s just a socialist nut, and he saw the crash coming, and he didn’t care, because he wanted the rest of us to buy houses for minorities. Which is what we’re doing now.

He and his buddies were fined millions of dollars over illegal accounting methods, and he was, essentially, fired. So I think “crook” may be the correct description.

Prices had to adjust downward, and that means the houses were not risk-free investments. If the bank lends you X to buy a house, and you default, and the house is worth 0.75X, it’s not a risk-free investment.

Running Fannie Mae was risk-free for Frank Raines, however, because he is now out of the picture, and he is extremely rich.

Republicans failed to control Raines. They probably should have done more. If so, that’s very bad, and they deserve to be blamed for it. But it looks like Raines is the cancer. The Republicans are just the doctors who failed to cut it out. And the Democrat politicians are like “helpful” buddies who sneaked into the hospital and gave the patient more cigarettes!

It’s funny how the public is willing to believe that A) Republicans are racists, and B) Republicans caused the financial crisis by pushing for loans to unqualified minority buyers. Maybe we are the Racists That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. We have to work hard to improve and perfect our racism, because I just don’t see how giving free houses to poor minority members is advancing our evil cause.

One More Reason to Send Illegals Home

Guess how you keep yard guys from hitting your citrus trees with weedeaters? Here’s one thing that may be good to know: the answer is NOT mulch.

It is impossible to convey information to illegal-alien yard guys, and there is no other kind, so you have to make it impossible for them to do things you don’t like. I mulched my citrus because it was not possible to tell them not to skin it with their machines.

Turns out mulch creates a soggy environment which fungus loves, and then your trees rot. So I had to get rid of the mulch, and now I’m trying to kill the fungus on my beautiful lime tree. I painted it with copper and Daconil until it was blue.

I don’t know if it will live or not. Very frustrating. This neighborhood is like a fungus/mildew/algae zoo. My mamey is trying to die from red algae, regardless of how often I spray it.

This happened at a fine time, too. The precipitation probability was 90% today, and right now, the humidity is 84%. When I walk outside for more than ten seconds, mold grows on my face. I’m pretty sure.

One more example of how no one in Miami can do ANYTHING right.

What’s Next? Romulans?

I am horrified by what I’m hearing on the radio. I have Rush Limbaugh on. The market dropped almost 700 points earlier today. One reason? Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor, and she made a number of partisan remarks that offended Republican Congressmen. Very nice. What kind of person has priorities like that? When will the public make a connection between a 9 percent approval rating and the party of the House and Senate leadership?

More disgusting news: Obama sought a rape victim to appear in a TV ad. Rush credited Politico. Here is the story.

Remind me again why people are voting for Obama and the other Democrats. Oh, that’s right. Because they get their political education from Jon Stewart and Michael Moore and P. Diddy.

Here is more fun: a tornado has been spotted a few miles from me.

I’ll let you know when the Miami River turns to blood.

It’s Inevitable

I have that peculiar sensation again. I wrote about it last week. I feel as though I’m winning my battles. As though I have broken through some sort of threshold. When I had this feeling last Monday, I hoped it would never go away. It waned to some degree, which worried me. But it seems to return. I wish I knew another Christian who had experienced the same thing, so I could ask about it.

I am so glad my life has changed. It could not have happened at a better time. Well, that’s wrong. It would have been better if it had happened when I was two. But I believe the human race is headed in the direction of trial and difficulty, and it would have been very bad had I not come around before we reached this precipice.

I suppose it’s provincial of me to say the human race is headed for problems. In most countries, misery and failure are normal. Take a look at a world map, pick a location at random, and ask yourself what life is like there. South and Central America? Poverty, crime, endemic corruption, extreme politics, and a stifling caste system. China? Oppression, brutality, and low wages. Africa? Don’t get me started. India? The only nice thing you can say about it is that a lot of Africans wish they lived as well as Indians. It may be that we’re moving toward a global crisis, but in most places, it’s hard to tell a crisis from the usual run of luck. What’s unusual is that America is getting sucked into it. Usually, this country is an oasis.

America-bashers don’t get it. They squirm and seethe when patriots praise this abundantly blessed nation, and when we claim God is the source of our affluence. But we’re right. This country is a preview of heaven; it was raised up to serve God. For as long as any of us can remember, we’ve had stability, peace on our own soil, unparalleled freedom, and a level of prosperity very few nations could approach. God has gone beyond mere generosity and patience. He has spoiled us. And we are responding not with gratitude, but by becoming a nation of tattooed and pierced self-worshipers.

We did it all ourselves! Thanks, but no thanks, God. We obviously don’t need your help. Things are going swell, so we’d rather do our own thing. We’re so powerful and so in charge of our own destinies, we can take drugs and sleep around and experiment with humanism and atheism and weird, chic religions, while remaining prosperous and strong. We can have socialism as well as wealth and freedom, even though no other nation has ever managed it. We’re EMPOWERED. We can do anything. We don’t need your help, because we have something way better: self-esteem. Who needs Moses or Jesus when you have Anthony Robbins and Eckhart Tolle?

That’s not how life works. The universe has a ruler, and it has laws. God and believers contribute to the supply of power and harmony in the universe, and everyone else depletes it. It’s a spiritual welfare state, and when things get bad enough, the rolls get purged. I am very grateful that my thick skull is absorbing that, so I can set myself aside and get out of the current, before our country hits the rapids. I wish I could say I figured it out on my own, but it had to be beaten into me. I don’t know if believers will be spared the turmoil that looms, but I do know that God makes problems easier to bear.

I feel like I’m accumulating spiritual tools, and I have to wonder what purpose this armament is supposed to serve. Is it intended to be used in the course of ordinary life, or is there an especially tough job ahead? Given a choice between fighting or facing peace in an overarmed state, I’d choose the latter. I would hate to see this country descend into a three-dimensional remake of East of Eden, complete with the false hope of the simplistic God-hater Marx as messiah.

In the past, our problems seemed to take care of themselves. Pretty well, anyway. Now they seem to be unwilling to go away and unresponsive to our best efforts to tame them. My explanation: God has always limited our misfortunes and ordered our lives for us, and when He chooses to stop, the result is entropy. The humanist explanation is just like the party line of the socialist apologists: we can fix it; we just need another try.

I don’t think we’re smart enough to fix or even understand really big social problems. I think the orderly, peaceful way life usually proceeds in the US is due to divine supervision, period. I think God co-wrote the Constitution. I believe He quietly prevents catastrophe after catastrophe. And we are inviting Him to stop. If we’re ever truly on our own, our best efforts will yield nothing but grief. And without God, even apparent success is eventually revealed to be failure.

I am thinking about these things because it’s Rosh Hashanah, and our financial institutions are in big trouble, and we are contemplating electing a socialist whose advisors caused the problems we are having now. Christians like to say they don’t live under the law of the Old Testament, but the Jewish holidays are eternal. They still mean something. And Rosh Hashanah is about choices. Sometimes people are supernaturally compelled to make choices that will lead to misery. I hope that’s not the situation in this election. I hope we still have a chance to put John McCain and Sarah Palin in the White House and move farther from, not closer to, godless, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian Europe.

They’re Counting on You

Leah Friedman just had surgery, and they had trouble reviving her. They expect her to be in the hospital for five more days.

Mish Weiss is (I hope I read this right) scheduled for the beginning of her bone marrow procedures on Tuesday.

Pray! They really appreciate it.

Wish I had checked Mish’s blog sooner.

Divine Algebra Eventually Demands Balance

Rosh Hashanah is upon us, to be followed immediately by eight days of introspection, which are themselves followed by Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

Funny, how our future as a nation is being determined at this time.

Aaron directed me to a video you might find interesting. It features a bit of Jewish Rosh Hashanah liturgy. The idea is this: God reviews mankind at this time. And He decides what kind of year each of us should have.

Is this a good time for America to receive an evaluation? We abort hundreds of thousands of babies each year. We are selling Israel, piece by piece, to a mob of murdering liars who couldn’t keep their promises even if they wanted to. We are trying to force young girls to be vaccinated for VD, on the assumption that they will have sex in high school. We have decided that self-adoration is a virtue, which is the precise opposite of the Bible’s take. We actually teach it in schools! We teach it to prison inmates, whose brainless, unconditional, doting self-love is what landed them in the klink to begin with!

There are a lot of good things to point to. Privately, American Christians (and some Jews) provide a great deal of support for Israel and Jewry, with no concessions required. Many millions of Americans have humble, faithful relationships with God, in a time when such relationships are social and financial liabilities. A lot of Americans are horrified by our popular culture and our political sins. Many Americans help the poor and support good ministries. Rosh Hashanah is a period of repentance–a week of tshuvah, or returning to God–and many Americans are fortunate enough to enter that period while actively engaged in repentance.

As for the world in general, I am not hopeful. Leftist sentiment the world over is increasingly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian, and we are seeing things which, if they are not warnings, certainly seem like warnings. Burma has a policy of eradicating Christianity, and about twenty Jews live there, and look what happened. Haiti mingles Catholicism and demon worship, and it was hit by three major storms this year, in a period of a few weeks. Kim Jong-Il the atheist Nuclear Nork is dying, and we have no idea what kind of nut will replace him. An anti-Semitic communist maniac controls Venezuela and is helping the Russians start a new Cold War. Financial markets all over the world are parked on the edge of a cliff. And no one seems to see it as a religious issue.

I feel like we’re being offered a choice, here in the US. On the one hand, maturity, experience, time-tested ideas, and faith in God. On the other, an MTV messiah with no experience, discredited 1960s ideas, a tendency to self-worship, a thin skin, proven hostility to Caucasians, and a crush on Karl Marx. I don’t say we have a perfect candidate, but it’s a clear choice: the wisdom and morality of the old, versus the empty flash and arrogant stupidity of the young.

In an instant message, I told Aaron, “Humanity is being weighed, I think. Obama is the blue pill.” If we can elect this dilettante after the socialist ideas of his economic advisers destroyed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we deserve whatever we get, because we are too stupid to know what to do with prosperity.

God is up there. He’s as real as you are. I know. He proves Himself to people all the time. And what we do matters. Some punishments and rewards are for the afterlife, but others are for the here and now. And when God is on your case, there is nobody who can help you.

Most Americans don’t save significant amounts of money. Thank you for the myth of Social Security, politicians. It freed us from the desire to prepare for hard times. If we are judged economically and people lose their jobs, look for bread lines to start forming in one month. Then look for hoboes, begging for food and sleeping in your yard. Expect to have to keep a loaded gun by your side.

Here’s what I think. If you believe, as I do, that our nation is in danger of judgment, try to avoid that judgment, in your own right. God doesn’t always paint with a broad brush. Some people are always spared.

We need a second bailout, and not the kind that comes from Man. That’s my opinion. Even if I’m wrong, correcting your own life is still the right choice, and you will be rewarded.

Big Bag of Happiness

Here’s a good Sabbath question. Is it okay for a Christian to make a Costco run on this day? I sure hope so, because I just went.

I had to get more Costco cheese. I just had to. I’ve been making glorious little pizzas so good they should be sold by prescription only. And I needed that marvelous Costco mozzarella.

I have most of a big bag of Publix mozzarella, but it’s not good enough to use. I don’t know what to do with it. I bought it as an experiment. I guess I can freeze it. It will be fine in pasta.

Can you freeze cheese? I guess it must be possible, since every grocery sells frozen pizzas. I’m thinking I might make a big batch of sauce and then freeze vacuum bags of sauce and cheese. Just enough for one pie. I could staple the cheese and sauce bags together, so they’d make little one-pizza sets. That would save me a lot of time.

I also got flap meat.

I managed to refrain from buying Kirkland Champagne and Dewar’s 12-year-old Scotch. I deserve a pat on the back for that.

But Keep Your Cargo Shorts

I got an email from a reader today. She pointed me to Sermonaudio.com. I already knew about this resource; I’ve listened to preachers I like. She directed me to a Georgia preacher named John Weaver. The link above goes to the sermon I listened to today. It’s a two-part series; I’ve only heard the first part.

I picked it because the subject was something of special interest to me. The right to self-defense. The Jews believe they have an obligation to defend others, even if they have to use deadly force; I’m not sure if they believe a Jew has an obligation to defend himself. It’s a slightly different question. Jesus told his disciples to buy swords, and he meant actual swords; there were two in the room when He said it. Still, it’s a question worth researching. There is a colorable argument to be made for refusing to kill someone who, like most violent criminals, does not know God.

The sermon was good. There were a few remarks about Indians which people might consider insensitive, but they were made in reference to times when Indians were the biggest danger Americans faced. Pastor Weaver says he keeps loaded guns in his home, and that he considers himself obligated to defend himself and others. I feel a lot more comfortable about the issue after listening to him.

It may be odd to say it in this age of disposable babies, but I think we sometimes value life too much. We often behave as though every life has infinite value, but that’s not true. We put a surprisingly low value on our own lives every day. I can give examples. We are supposed to put our lives on the line for our country. Every time a huge construction project is undertaken, the people behind it know it is nearly certain at least one worker will die. We ride motorcycles. We dive. Our diets aren’t perfect. Many of us risk death by treating people who have infectious diseases. The truth is, we are willing to risk death for many reasons, and a good number of them are trivial. And that’s okay; it’s healthy. Death is part of every life. It’s like puberty or menopause. It’s difficult, but it’s wrong to treat it as though it were a catastrophe. You can’t live in a bubble.

God drowned the Egyptian army as it pursued Moses. He killed a hundred soldiers of Israel’s army with fire from heaven. He killed every person and animal in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the flood, all but eight people died. Samson killed a thousand people in one day, and it was actually God within him, doing the killing. And God directed us to kill home invaders on sight. He directed us to kill witches and perverts. Life is important, but it’s not really priceless.

Pastor Weaver also talked about the way the self-defense obligation, as it applies to animals. He says that the Old Testament requires Jews to rescue animals belonging to strangers. This is a subject that has always bothered me. Every so often, I see a dog wandering around on the street, and I know it’s in trouble, but I’m usually in a roadster with nice leather seats. So I keep driving, and I’m sure people have lost beloved pets because of my selfishness. I thought about it while I listened to the sermon, and I realized there was an answer. I can keep a rope in my trunk. I can tie a dog by the side of the road and call the county. Simple, right?

What if I can’t tie him? Well, if I can’t tie him, how was I supposed to put him in the car?

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. Maybe it will be of use to some of you.

Incidentally, on a related note, I have been reading about the K31 rifle. People on the web claim they’re pretty consistent, so I’m wondering if my accuracy problems are my own fault. I’m shooting about a 5″ group at 100 yards. I can’t figure it out. I don’t like the trigger; it seems like you have to pull very hard to make it go off. But surely I should be doing better than this, if the gun is okay. I’m using Swiss GP11 ammunition, which is supposed to be excellent. Maybe I should take off the stock and see if there’s any crud between it and the barrel. My .17 HMR shoots groups half as big, and it’s not nearly as easy to aim and hold as the K31.

If I could get real accuracy out of the K31, I’d buy a second one and put an aftermarket stock and maybe a 16x scope on it.

My spring set for the Smith & Wesson 27-2 arrived, so I’ll be installing it. I couldn’t get a thinner trigger from Brownell’s. Maybe someone else makes one, or maybe when the springs are fixed, the trigger won’t matter. I only shoot single-action, so the springs are important. I figure anyone can shoot a cocked revolver, so the smart thing is to shoot single-action, which is harder.

Considering buying Old Navy cargo shorts, but worried that the pockets aren’t deep enough for concealed carry? Relax. I have had no problems putting a small Glock in my pocket, with a Sidekick holster. If you have something like a Kel-Tec or a Kahr, it should be even easier. It’s actually better than a deep pocket, because you can get to the gun easier. I really like these shorts. Super comfortable, cheap, and practical.

Fun New Fire Hazard Revealed

Here’s today’s shoddy-construction nightmare.

The air conditioner crapped out. Probably a bad capacitor on the compressor. No problem, right? Wrong. The breaker by the compressor failed to trip, so the wiring and the box burned. While the AC guy was replacing it, he found a piece of conduit running from the 220 AC box to a floodlight and outdoor socket. It was probably #14 wire. With the ground used as neutral. And NO FUSE ON THE CIRCUIT. In other words, some…GENIUS…drew power from a 60-amp 220 circuit for a 15-amp 110 circuit, and he didn’t use a neutral wire, and he didn’t put a separate fuse or breaker in the smaller circuit. So if the floodlight fries, the wiring leading to it melts. And if something near the conduit or floodlight catches fire, adios, house.

Isn’t there a law that says I can shoot someone over this?

The solution is to remove the conduit going to the AC box, drill a hole into the garage, drill a hole from the garage into the AC air handler closet, run more conduit, and hook it all up to the bare 220 Romex I found earlier this year, hanging in the closet. I can hook the Romex up to a 110 breaker at the panel. I can also put up some lights in the closet, which I wanted to do anyway.

The AC guy is putting a new box with slug fuses next to the compressor. I was going to bitch, but now that I’ve seen how well circuit breakers work outdoors, I’m keeping my mouth shut. Fuses are wonderful. Bring them on.

This house is like a sickly octogenarian, and I’m the immune system.

Yesterday I found out there was a leak in the swimming pool pump pipes I replaced, so I get to fix those as soon as the AC guy leaves.

Should I buy some expensive tools, chosen primarily because I think they’re cool? Yes, obviously. That will help.

If you have kids, for God’s sake, learn something about wiring and inspect your house. Don’t trust a professional. They just walk around the property once and then take your money. This place has been inspected, and they didn’t find a damn thing.

Are Voters Smart Enough to Notice?

Not only did McCain win tonight’s debate; he managed to convince me he could actually be a good President. I hate to say it, because he irritated me with his disloyalty in the past, and McCain-Feingold was just plain stupid. But he was magnificent.

He turned Obama’s strategy against him. Obama knew McCain was a hothead, so he planned to make him angry. He couldn’t do it, but McCain made him furious. In nearly every answer, McCain managed to toss Obama a grenade, and they all blew up. I loved the shots of Obama, fuming and sweating as McCain talked. He actually turned grey when McCain made him mad, so it was obvious when McCain got his goat.

The TV heads are saying there was no embarrassing soundbite for Obama; they apparently didn’t hear him squeal, “I, too, have a bracelet!” And as for McCain zingers, who will ever forget, “I don’t even have a seal, yet”?

Obama tried to make eye contact with McCain in order to annoy him, but McCain was all business, looking down at his podium and smiling as he wrote notes. That’s self-discipline. Something ex-military men have and community organizers don’t. After a while, Obama looked silly, continuing to work the tactic long after it was obviously that it wasn’t succeeding.

Here’s the thing no one seems to be saying: tonight a guy who graduated very close to the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy out-talked a Harvard lawyer. As an attorney, I can tell you, Obama was horrible. Debating is persuasive speech; it’s what lawyers do. Obama should be a champ. But McCain batted him around like a shuttlecock. McCain made Obama fight McCain’s fight.

I have to say, McCain is very sharp for his age. He was quicker and more focused than Obama.

I don’t know if the public will think McCain won. Swing voters are truly stupid. They might vote for Obama because they liked his tie. But I think he did great.

“Teleprompter! HELLLLP!”

I did not realize what a truly foolish and arrogant person Obama was until tonight. McCain is pushing his buttons effortlessly, and Obama is clearly infuriated, because it has probably been five years since anyone had the sand to contradict The One to his face.

MAN, this is good. I hate debates, but I’m glad I watched this one.

More

This is weird. Obama turns grey when he gets mad. Which is like every two minutes.

Another money quote: “I don’t even have a seal yet.”

Go home, Barack. You are not helping yourself. I can’t believe you insisted on having this debate tonight.

God Bless Competition

Life is very exciting these days, because it looks like ordinary mortals will finally be able to get their hands on a Fein Multimaster…CLONE. I mentioned this earlier today.

The Multimaster is one of those tools you feel you absolutely have to have, once you see the cool commercial. It’s even more impressive than the Flavor Injector and Mighty Putty, and that’s saying something. All it does is vibrate a blade or a sanding tip back and forth, but somehow, you can do a lot of impressive crap with it anyway.

I love watching the videos. The people at Fein seem obsessed with two things: removing putty from windows, and cutting the bottoms of door jambs so tile will fit under them. It sounds boring, but I could watch them do that all day.

Have I ever needed to do either of those things?

No.

Still.

Up until now, the Fein Multimaster has sold for the ridiculous price of like $200 for the tool and a couple of crappy attachments, which is like paying $200 for an electric toothbrush. So a lot of people have refused to buy Multimasters. I think the price is high because there’s a patent issue; nobody was allowed to clone it in the US. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, in a couple of days, you’ll be able to buy one of two knockoffs: the Bosch PS50 Multi-x and the Dremel Multimax. Actually, I think the Dremel is already available.

Boy, they worked hard coming up with original names for these things.

The Dremel has a cord and costs around a hundred bucks. It’s a 1.5-amp tool. The Bosch is cordless. I have no idea what the wattage is on either tool. The Bosch, plus the basic junk, is like $130. So it’s like 65% of the price of the Fein. I know, I know…the Fein is made by genetically engineered Swiss elves who used to work for BMW (HEIL!), so it’s an Ubertool. I’m sure the Bosch will work okay anyway.

I’m not a huge fan of cordless tools, but for something like this, I guess it makes sense. It’s not like you’re going to be running it for an hour at a time.

Here’s what would be really good. It would be really good if Fein dropped its price. I guess that will happen in about a month.

I make fun of these things, but I’ll tell you what’s cool about them. You can take a flat piece of wood and cut rectangular holes in it. I don’t have any other tools that do that. It’s a real pain.

Go Look

Come on, pretend I fooled you. It’s worth it.