Nom de plume: Rivrdog

A small gasoline bargain

...and you take your bargains where you find 'em.

I had to rent a vehicle this week while mine is in the body shop. My insurance company set me up with Enterprise, and when I got to the body shop with the LBT, a smiling enterprise employee was waiting to pick me up and whisk me off a few miles to her office.

We get there, I choose a brand-new 2012 GMC Canyon 4X4 Crew cab, which they give me at the small-car rate (first bargain!), then I get offers on gasoline. I can agree to prepay the gasoline (and get a full tank) for $3.40/gallon (40 cents per gallon cheaper than current street price), or I can agree to pay $4.00 for fuel for each 30 miles I drive.

The GMC Canyon SLE I-5 4X4 is listed to get 17 mpg City, probably would get 15, so I sign up for the Four Buck Deal. That gives me my gas at $2.00/gallon!!!! That's a $3.60 savings, on top of the $20 I saved by getting the Canyon @ $10 off per day. I'm up $23.60! That will pay for about a half-tank of gas in the newly-regrilled LBT when I take her home this afternoon.

OK, the GMC/Chevy Canyon/Colorado.

Decent truck, or so it seems. Plenty of zip from the 3.7 liter 5-cylinder engine, @ 242 hp, 242 #/feet of torque. You can order the truck with a V-8 (350 CID) of 300 hp and 320 #/ft torque, but it's not needed.

The truck has a busy ride, and the usual rash of late-winter potholes brings forth the occasional "clunk" from the chassis, but generally, the noise level is acceptable, but not as quiet as a new Silverado, which I've also driven. The seats are OK, but I would prefer that the rear seat bottoms fold up, and they don't. If I got this truck, I would likely just dismantle the rear seats out of the truck entirely (looks to be doable with a set of wrenches) and have all that interior cargo room.

The truck has a short bed, probably only 5 feet. There's an optional clip-in rack that makes it into a just-under 7-foot bed with the tailgate down. The gross load capacity is only 1300 or so, though, so not much utility in that bed.

There are options to have a High Stance (I read that as a factory lift kit), moderate-duty towing (5000#, 6,000 with a load-equalizing hitch), but the SLE only had a bumper-hung receiver, so I imagine it is limited to a few thou.

I have no clue as to what these trucks cost, but I'd guess somewhere in the $25K region would get you this SLE model.

A data plate under the hood indicates that there is a Diesel-engined model of this truck made, but I don't see it listed on the Jimmy website. Probably an offshore thing, too bad. One of Dr. Rudolph's oil-burners might give me the interest to actually BUY one, since this is the most truck I can get that will fit into my garage.

But, it's Government Motors, and I have my doubts about the longevity of the vehicle.

Time to go offensive.

Defending the Constitution from those who would destroy it or even weaken it is one thing, but now that there has been another deranged kid who shot up his school and took life, the inevitable dancing in the dead student's blood will happen. The Bradys and their ilk live for these sad moments, and they are lacing up their dancing shoes as I write.

This time, I'm on offense. I will NOT be satisfied with merely defending the Second Amendment to the Constitution this time. This time, I want to see the treason-spouting, anti-gun, un-American outfits which pollute our overly-polite Nation TERMINATED. I want to see every power that can be mustered against them, USED against them. I want a good Constitutional lawyer to stand up, be counted among we friends of the Second Amendment and say YES, it's actually TREASON to act against the Constitution.

The facts of this case are simple. The child who took a gun to school and illegally used it as an instrument of mayhem and murder has broken the law, seriously and many times. No law forbidding his conduct had any effect, nor would any cancelling or weakening of the Second Amendment have had any effect on what he did.

Brady bunch, don't even bother to propose those new laws which ignore the Second amendment, and in doing so, make a mockery of the entire Bill of Rights.

Because, you treason-mongers, I am here to call you on it, and not only call you on it, to begin a campaign to see that you don't get to do it again as a corporation. As individuals, you may actually have the right to deny your Constitution and you THINK you have the right to "cry FIRE in a crowded theater". You may have those rights, and in fact, MY Second Amendment protects your right to exercise them.

But, Brady Brunch, you DO NOT have the right to do that as a tax-exempt Corporation. I'm going to try to find the right people to make the case to the IRS that you've long ago ended your right to exist as a tax-exempt corporation. My guess is that your meager income won't pay the back taxes and penalties you owe, and my guess is that when your Corporate Officers are indicted for Tax Fraud, you won't even be able to bail them out of jail.

Your days are numbered, Bradys. You are toast, just stale toast waiting for the next garbage pickup.

Now, stay out of sight until the men with handcuffs come for you. We don't want to hear from you today, or on any other day, for that matter.

Dept of Monday Oxymorons

Don't know how much Oxy is involved, but there IS a lot of moron there....

Isn't It Ironic? 

The food stamp program , part of the Department of Agriculture , is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever.

Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals" because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.

I don't know how much irony is involved, because I suspect that there isn't a Dept of Irony in the Feddle Gummint.

H/T to the Coyote Kid

The Constitution, and why none of the GOP candidates care.

Yes, it DOES seem that none of the current crop of GOP candidates appear to give a rip about our Constitution, else they would take some pains to actually DISCUSS the Constitutionally-limited role of the office of President, and why it SHOULD remain limited, not expanded improperly, as most of the current candidates and recently-past Presidents have done.

An excellent article on this here. Forgive the pop-up laden pages as you read, please.

Is Impeachment enough justice for this asswipe Judge?

Story here. A State Judge in PA tossed out an assault case against a Muslim, opining that the Muslim was "obligated" to assault the victim in the case, a person who acted as a "zombie" Prophet Muhammad, and thereby insulted the Muslim faith.

The Judge is Muslim, and should have recused himself when the case got to his docket.

The Judge invoked Sharia law, which is NOT the law of the land in PA or anywhere else in the USA.

The Judge is an idiot, because he had a perfectly good reason to toss the assault case, the "fighting words" Doctrine, and instead, chose to cite Sharia law.

Impeachment is too good (and too slow) for this Judge. He needs to be arrested and charged with Official Misconduct, in that he invoked a code of Law which is not recognized, and thereby broke his Oath to support and defend the Constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of PA, and therefor committed some grade of Treason. I'll be willing to bet that PA has a law or judical rule that a Judge charged with Official Misconduct may not sit on the bench while such a case is pending.That would get him off the bench the moment he is arrested and charged.

Get him off the bench. What's next for this asswipe? Will he dismiss Murder charges against a Muslim who committs an "honor killing"? Will he permit polygamy? Will he permit divorce without judical review, simply by the Muslim husband uttering "I divorce thee" three times?

This asswipe Judge has officially condoned Anarchy and denied the Constitutional Rule of Law. If there WERE any justice, he would be put on trial for his life for doing so.

Speaking of PeeCee in the military...

Did you know that DOD policy, apparently put in place just after Obama was inaugurated, now says that NO military member may speak publicly at any charitable event?

Snopes did this piece in 2009, and it somehow escaped my purview, but I see this policy as nothing less than an attempt by a peacenik moron who happens to be in charge (yes, he IS the "MFWIC") deliberately suppressing information and outreach of an important arm of our society, and the ONE arm of our society that lets bonehead Presidents make such assinine policy.

God help us all!

H/T to Mountain Man Mike, who is shoveling snow by the foot these last few days.

Not sure yet about PeeCee? Need more time to decide?

You ARE sure now, and no, you won't need a second more to decide after reading this article.

PeeCee rises to the top of the list of "what went wrong with the U.S.A." (note the proper use of past tense, kiddies).

Download Reaststobetterunderstandpregnanttroops'exerciseconcerns

here it is in .PDF format, in case you can't open the .docx

Download Reaststobetterunderstandpregnanttroops'exerciseconcerns

We had just a smidgin of PeeCee when I was in the military in my last few years. If some troop had brought his/her commander a concern about insensitive remarks being made regarding pregnant WAF's exercising, the commander would have (1) Passed the word (meaning he would have instructed his subordinates to see to it that such insensitivity did not happen again) (2) Maybe, just maybe, issued a memo containing an order that such insensitivity violated such-and-such General Orders, USAF regulations or whatever, and NCOs and officers were to insure that such violations did not continue, and the Commander reserved the right to put the offenders through the Article 15 (of the UCMJ - non-judicial punishment) if they were caught.

Previous to my last years in the military, of course, the military simply discharged from service most of those female members who got pregnant. President Clinton ended that policy, IIRC.

You PeeCee types can argue all you want about "fairness" in the military. This old airman's take on it is that if "fairness" was needed in the military, the Base Supply Section would issue it as part of each troop's personal Service Issue.

That is all.

Squadron, 'Ten HUT! DISMISSED!

Note: Yes, this IS, in fact, an "Obamanation", because he IS, in fact, the Commander in Chief...

H/T to the Coyote Kid, a retired USAF E-8 (and former Gyrene, also).

The small businessman's Evensong

"Now I lay me down to sleep,

I've sold enough to pay for the Keep,

Should I die before I wake,

I pray (why the Hell didn't I finish that bottle of  '03 Ravenswood Sonoma Valley Cabernet)

It's been a good day for WillBoat.

Goodnight Chet, Goodnight Ed, Goodnight, World (and back when those words were uttered on NBC every night, it WAS a Good Night, because USAF General (CinC SAC) Curtis LeMay and his successors saw to it, and stalwart men held the thin nuke line, but it was good enough to keep the USA safe, and still would be (had not Bill Clinton closed out SAC). I was on that thin nuke line late in those days, and I'm proud to have done my part.

A very strange dance

Yesterday was the big day for the Willamette River Strategic Recreational Use Plan of 2012. It was presented to the Portland City Council in somewhat of a formal ballet-dance.

The very bored-looking Mayor and three of the four Councillors were there on the dais, and the room was about half-filled with (mostly) supporters of the Grand Plan, WillBoat people (there were four of us including my wife) being the sole exceptions to the dance aficionados.

This type of ballet features a lot of mutual back-slapping. The audio-visual presentation was quite good, though, and the A/V person mixed the screen images well so that there was no perceptible delay when the speakers changed or a Councillor asked a question of a speaker. Any slides were seamlessly presented.

That was the good part, but now Portland is stuck with a new policy which means nothing because it is unfunded, and given the current economic conditions, unlikely to ever BE funded.

No war with Iran over nukes

We SHOULD have gone to war with Iran when their Copper Lance IEDs were killing our troops by the hundreds in Iraq, but we didn't. We should have gone to war with Iran when their proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas, made war upon our ally Israel in the summer of 2006, but we didn't. We should at least consider some form of warfare against Iran for propping up the Syrian dictator Baby Assad with gunboat diplomacy, but we apparently aren't.

Nukes are a different matter. Possessing them at home doesn't make you an automatic international pariah, or it shouldn't, anyway. No war with Iran over nukes.

We need to get this over to Iran: go ahead and build your Mullah-Bomb. Build a nice safe fort to put it in and hold prayers over it every Friday, if you must. Admire it, boast about it, even lie about it's power. Fine, all the members of the Nuclear Club do that.

What we THEN need to tell Iran is that joining the Nuke Club has one itsy-bitsy drawback: if you USE that nuke, you are then subject to nuclear retaliation. Annihilation. Turn your Holy City (Qom) to glass annihilation. On Friday evening during prayers annihilation. Make that promise believable. We USED to know how to make that threat believable, and it held off China and the USSR for years. It seems to have held off the Norks in recent years.

Mutually-assured destruction. Not high-tech, but proven nonetheless. It's a scalable concept, too. Works for one nuke or 10,000 of them.

It would help reinforce the MAD Doctrine if our peacenik President wasn't trying to disarm our own nuclear arsenal, and if the old USAF Strategic Air Command was reactivated, specifically with it's former purpose of being two of the three legs of the Nuclear Triad, but MAD is certainly viable, and even before nukes, the concept of MAD has been useful in international relations at least since the Greeks and Romans.