Motorcycle Culture, revisited

Earlier this week I shared some of the misinformation I had received by employees of a local Harley dealer.  Of course the next day I get something new to add to it!

I like to ride motorcycles hard, not just tool about.  Harleys aren't known for their handling, and one of the reasons is the shocks.  They tend to go for glitter, not substance, when it comes to suspension components.  This held true for my bike, as it was equipped with rear shocks with brilliant chrome covers, but the shocks themselves were pretty low tech and rudimentary.  I decided to pull them off the moment I got home and replace them with some better shocks.  They are a half inch taller and have a progressive spring rate, so it will make both small and big bumps more comfortable and help keep the bike tracking through turns.  It helped that they were available in black as well, as I'm not really into flash.

Sequester, My Ass

While politicians rant on about this sequester cutting essential services, we continue to see spending projects on frivolous crap.

First up is the million dollar bus shelter.  No, it's not a building, it's a bench with a roof.  A million dollar bench with a roof.  Here is a picture:

By the way, $400k of that was for "management and inspections".  Managing and inspecting what I can't say, this is the sort of structure people successfully built before they mastered the use of tools.

Or we can look to the millions spent studying "Why lesbians get drunk more than straight girls", or the 1.5 million spent on "Why lesbians are fatter than straight chicks".  I wonder if there is a correlation between drinking a lot and being obese?  I should probably write my representative so we can get a study on that.

Oh, and right after the sequester went into place, the president authorized $50 million in military aid to France to fight a war in Mali.  Why are we providing military aid to France?  They are one of the wealthier countries in the world.  I guess we gotta keep the wheels of the war machine greased.

That's just a few items that I've seen this week, imagine how many more there are.  I don't mind research and legitimate defense spending, but don't tell us they have to fire teachers and firemen when they could easily scale back some wasteful spending like this to meet the sequester and then some.

Motorcycle Culture

I recently purchased a new motorcycle and have been doing a bit of work to it, which is one reason I haven't been blogging much in the last couple weeks.  Spring is almost here and I intend to have the new scoot ready to go when we finally get into the 50's.  But the experience has reminded me of several things I've learned over the years.

I bought my first motorcycle at 18, and have owned one steadily since 1999.  In 99 and 2000 I rode to work more days than I drove a car although I've slacked off a bit since I had a wreck a few years back.  I'm brand agnostic, I've owned Harley, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha and even a Ducati.  For my most recent purchase I was waffling between a Harley, a BMW and a Triumph.  I'm certainly not a brand loyalist, I appreciate good motorcycles. 

Getting Shot Hurts

Even if you are wearing a bullet-proof vest.  Body armor doesn't take the energy out of a bullet, it just keeps it from making a hole in you.  This bloke was shot with a .32 acp pistol, which is one of the weakest pistol cartridges in common use today.  Look at the lump after he takes the vest off, it's a serious injury still with likely internal bleeding.

Original Intent

When discussing the 2nd Amendment to the US constitution, I often hear people say "the framers didn't intend for people to own AR-15's when they wrote that".  I think that's quite true.  Since none of the people who drafted or signed the constitution were fortune-tellers or wizards with the ability to see into the future, there is a lot of modern inventions I'm sure they didn't foresee.  But oddly enough, the people who argue this regarding firearms ownership don't seem to carry the argument on to the rest of the bill of rights.  Have you ever heard someone argue that freedom of speech doesn't cover text messages, television or social media because the founders didn't envision computers and broadcast signals when they wrote the first amendment?  Of course you haven't because that would be ludicrous.

Technology advances and the law has to keep up.  There was a day where there was no such thing as voice recorders or cameras.  Does that mean that evidence gathered by either shouldn't be allowed in court?  Of course not.  Singling out technological advances on the topic of firearms while suggesting the law should evolve in other spaces with technology does not follow logic.  It's not a valid argument, or an argument made by a person who grasps logical concepts.

All Hail the Police State, part 15

You'd think with all the talks about how the federal government has to cut it's budget, we'd stop seeing billions of dollars spend on military hardware for use within our borders.  But alas, that is not the case.  Here is a Department of Homeland Security officer boasting about the capabilities of their new troop transport.  It has firing ports so officers can shoot from inside the vehicle and it's mine-proof.  You know, because of all the times criminals use mines in the US.  I can't think of a time I've read about a mine deployed inside this country.  This sort of hardware makes a lot of sense for the military by why it's continuing to be purchased for domestic use baffles me.  Oh, and there were more than 2,700 of these put into service inside the US last year.

And from the same DHS, the department that didn't even exist before 2001, we have the specs demanded for the current generation of drones.  They need to be able to identify a person with a gun at night and eavesdrop on cell conversations.  Again, for deployment within the US.  To take pictures and listen to the conversation of citizens, people minding their own business and following the law.  That's rubbish, and shockingly enough, not being cut as part of the sequester.

Tires!

I love tires.  I'm an enthusiast when it comes to cars and motorcycles and nothing affects a vehicles traction more than tires.  I've got a 10 year old truck we use as our beater and I'm on my third set of tires.  The stock tires were pretty meh, as OE tires often are.  I replaced them with a set of Yokohama HT's, and quite honestly, they sucked.  They were awful in the snow, and only fair on wet or dry pavement.  I finally was able to wear them out and replaced them with a set of Cooper Discoverer AT/3's.  And in short, they rule.

We had our first real snow this week and the truck with those tires allowed me to rule all in the snowy wasteland.  There was 4 or 5 inches of snow and the tires chewed through it without issue.  They were equal in traction to the mud tires I had on my old jeep.  I will be buying a set of these again.  They've faired well in the wet and dry and I'm exceedingly impressed with the snow traction.  The fact they are reasonably priced is just a bonus.

If you're considering some all terrain tires for your truck or SUV, these have my recommendation.

All Hail the Police State, part 14

I've been remiss in blogging about instances where our country is demonstrating a trend towards a police state, but two incidents caught my eye this week, one which happened in my own town.

The first incident involves a family going to Disney World for vacation.  It's the idyllic American dream- parents and their three children save up the money to go on a wonderful vacation.  In this case one of the children was a 3 year old girl with spina bifida who was confined to a wheelchair.  Unfortunately, the family chose to fly which subjected them to a TSA screening.

Remember a few years back when we all flew without being scanned, screened, poked and groped when we flew?  Ah, good times.

Media as Propaganda

There are many people who assert the major news corporations are less focused on news and more on propaganda.  A number of independent reports would seem to back this up.  But we don't hold a candle to cold-war Russia.

These two books were recently declassified, they are Russian knock-offs of the Choose Your Own Adventure books popular in the 80's in the US.  The Russian versions however, promote the ideal that a person should not make waves and conformity and minding your parents is the best path.

The very first page offers the child a choice of whether to go into the woods, or stay at home like they were told by their parents.  If the reader chooses to stay at home, they win!  Behold the next page:

You wisely adhere to parental strictures. No doom befalls you and you go on to live healthily.

VICTORY END

You have completed this story in the optimal number of page turns. To claim your merit badge, write "I have done this" on a 76x127mm index card and post it to:

Building 34
7th Microdistrict
Bishkek, Kyrgyz SSR
Soviet Union

(Limit of first four hundred children to request merit badge.)

That's just fantastic.  :-)

Priorities in Humanitarian Focus

I was listening to NPR yesterday and one of the topics was guns and their relation to suicide.  It's quite true- guns are used in suicides more than any other object to bring about a person's demise.  They are exceedingly popular by men between 40 and 60, who interestingly enough are one of the top demographics for suicides.  In fact, men commit suicide at twice the rate of women, although women try 3x as much.  I found that interesting.

Now, as a person who is very pro-freedom, I support an adult's choice to end their life should that be a rational decision.  Making that illegal is just silly.  I think there are a number of reasons a rational person would choose to check out and I don't feel I'm in a place where I can judge that person's motives.  There are a number of people who choose suicide in an irrational state, and that's unfortunate.  I think it's reasonable a society would offer services to help those people.

It was also mentioned that suicide via drug overdose, specifically prescription drug overdose, is on the rise.  Interestingly enough, this isn't a uniquely American problem.  And not all these prescription drug overdoes are suicides.  In fact, a minority are.  Prescription drug abuse is a serious problem today and it's been getting worse for a decade. 

Meanwhile violent crime has been going down for decades.  But yet, we see politicians calling again and again for gun control.  We see police departments arming up like military units and working to desensitize against shooting civilians. 

So if we as a society wanted to concentrate on problems, wouldn't the focus be on social efforts to reduce crime, suicide and prescription drug overdoses?  We have a number of people who promote gun control laws state plainly they will have no effect on crime, but yet it's a push.  Meanwhile, problems that are increasing, like prescription drug overdoses, go ignored.  A reasonable person would be suspect that politicians are really trying to better society and have another agenda.