RowdyRebel

I don't think overweight cites go against your csa. Was going to at one time, but pretty sure that got dropped right at the outset.

My FIRST reaction was "what a waste of taxpayer money"...the trucks, firefighters, etc. Good thing I stuck around for the credits. Cadet class...pseudo class project sorta thing to use as an educational tool. I suppose that makes it not so bad. It was pretty funny...

I saw something the other day where the federal reserve bank of chicago had estimated that the average household spends $3000 per year more with a $1/hour bump in the minimum wage...and they say that is a GOOD thing. After all, look at how much more buying power they have! What they seem to have forgotten, though, is that PRICES were increased to pay employees more for the same level of productivity. In other words, that $3000 of increased spending is LUCKY if it buys the same amount of stuff. No increase in buying power at all...dollars just don't go as far as they used to due to increased costs of production.

...from the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

YEEEEE HAWWWW!!!!! He needs a Dixie horn on that high-flyin' Ford.

Becoming? We got there LONG time ago. I think part of the problem is that too many people have never truly suffered. They've had it good their entire life, so they have to manufacture crisis in order to have something to overcome giving themselves a sense of accomplishment. I mean my grandparents dealt with the great depression & WWII. What REAL threats have we faced as a nation since then? Nowadays it is the end of the world if you don't have the newest smart phone...oh the horror!

The government only has power received by consent of the governed. In other words, it doesn't matter WHAT the government TRIES to do, if we the people do not consent to the action, then it is illegitimate and unenforceable. These court decisions that "overturn" the overwhelmingly popular referendums that the people approved at the ballot is another example of government acting against the will of the people...without the consent of the governed. Obamacare would be simple to get rid of If nobody abides by it. Individuals without insurance need to refuse to pay the penalty, and plan their taxes so that they are not due a refund. Business need to ignore the "mandates" and refuse to pay the penalty. Insurance companies need to sell policies customers WANT, without regards to whether or not they are Obamacare compliant...and again, simply refuse to pay whatever fines or penalties are imposed by the illegitimate government acting without consent of the governed and against the will of the people. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen because there are far too many sheeple who are more than willing to just do as they are told even if it is harmful to their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our founding fathers are likely spinning in their graves over what has happened to this country in the last 100 or so years.

It'll be a cold day in he'll before I buy a health insurance policy from or through a government with no Constitutional power to act as either a broker or a provider. Their powers end at regulating commerce among the several states. Where no state lines are crossed, the federal government has no authority to act. When you consider the fact that consumers cannot purchase insurance across state lines, the federal government has legislated itself out of the ability to have a say in the matter. Health insurance is strictly an intrastate transaction, and the ONLY interstate aspect to which the federal government's interstate regulatory powers might be allowed by the Constitution would be the payment from the insurance company to the hospital ONLY in such circumstances where the customer sought medical services outside of the state.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank God I live in Illinois where freedom ain't quite so restricted. That being said, look for me to be moving to Texas to enjoy even more liberty in the next year or two (as soon as I can find somebody willing to buy my house for enough to pay off my mortgage and get me to Texas). The fiance hates Illinois...ESPECIALLY the DMV. She tried transferring her license and they wouldn't let her because even though she had a dozen or so pieces of mail addressed to her, NONE of them were utilities....which they wouldn't be, because she moved into the house with me where all of the utilities have been in MY name for the past 10 or so years. Anyway, she wants to get the heck out of this state ASAP....either back to Texas or up to Montana. I'd like Montana, except it gets a little cold there in the winter...so we're thinking Texas (unless of course we win the lottery and can afford a summer home in Montana and a winter home in Texas....but that's unlikely because we rarely waste money on tickets). I can deal with heat....just don't care much for the cold. And yeah, I've got me a GREAT gal. She wants to get married in Texas, and I think I saw somewhere that there is a 72 hour waiting period between applying for a marriage license and actually getting it....kinda like buying a pistol in Illinois. So anyway, I suggested planning the wedding around when concealed carry courses are being offered so that I can spend 1 of those 3 days completing the requirements for a Texas non-resident CWP. I can't apply for an Illinois CWP until July when they start accepting paper applications (I'm paranoid & don't put my personal info out there on the interweb....one of the biggest reasons I no longer have a hazmat endorsement)...and it would also cut the 6-month residency requirement out when we DO move to Texas since I could have that non-resident permit transferred to a resident permit once I establish residency. Anyhow, I suggested picking a date in close proximity to when a CCW course is being offered and she didn't bite my head off. Believe it or not, she actually thought it was a GOOD idea! What more could a guy ask for?

Hell, new NYC mayor wants to do away with horse drawn carriages...

My comment was referring to the absurdity of entertaining the notion that a truck manufacturer could be responsible for selling a "defective" piece of machinery because it took 22 years of service before it finally managed to hurt somebody who exercised a total lapse in good judgment and common sense. It would be like my friend who was patching a leaky fuel tank on his '77 T-bird, gas running up his arm AND A LIT CIGARRETTE HANGING FROM HIS LIPS...it would be like his family sueing Ford if his dumb decision had caused the car to blow up. Yeah, we were all standing about 3 properties away watching him do it after he failed to heed our warning that smoking and fuel tank repairs may not be a good combination. Yeah, we ALL have brain farts...attempting to hold others accountable for your own failures is where I have the problem.

1987 was before all of these ridiculous lawsuits prompted manufacturers to place those silly little warning stickers describing every possible way a clueless idiot could ever find to injure themselves...and BECAUSE that sticker warning of the danger posed by a spinning shaft, this former major league pitcher (who's career was ironically cut short by INJURY) killed himself and somehow the 22 year old truck (with NO history of killing anybody prior to this knucklehead) is defective? If I were on the jury, I'd have a tough time keeping a straight face when they laid out that argument.

Farm lobby beat that back once already...pretty sure they'll defeat it again. The reps from agricultural districts, and the senators from rural states aren't going to just sit back and let this crap pass. Farmers vote, and the politicians know it. That is why they have so many exemptions already carved out for themselves.

There's a "chat" feature? News to me...

Old iron is old iron. There is a reason why there aren't as many old trucks from other manufacturers running around, though...

Just take your car to a professional body shop and have the scratches repaired. Take the car to a professional detailer to be reorganized and straightened up after they ransacked it. Send the bill to the department, along with a copy of the video showing the 2nd officer stating "you know, we really don't have much to go on..." in reference to the weak, false positive given by the dogs. If they refuse payment, sue. Make the department pull money from their budget to defend these officers' actions. Might cost them their Christmas party next year...or the new squad car they were wanting to buy...or the raises they were counting on. Police departments have even been shut down after being dropped by their insurance companies following too many liability lawsuits. They need to learn that the Constitution DOES protect against tyranny, and that their little department is bound by its restrictions.

Somma them "green things" is beans. Somma them "green things" is olives. Which "green things" was ya wanting to know about?

I think my Garmin has a bunch of different voice options, but it's been muted since the novelty of it wore off. Have the silly thing set for quickest route & every time I make a turn or proceed past where it thought I should turn it starts yelling at me that I'm going the wrong way...until it recalculates the route to the way I'm going and my ETA drops a few minutes. Guess it's "quickest route" wasn't REALLY the quickest. Or in truck mode (which I almost NEVER use) it tries routing you up an 8-ton weight limit country road to bypass the bridge that was weight-restricted 20 years ago before they replaced it. Great for interstates...much less useful if you're like me and spend more time on 2-lanes than anywhere else.

OK....finally got onto my home computer and found 'em:

Tell you what...I'll agree to do that just as soon as the members of Congress are required to read & abide by the Constitution, and implement a harsh penalty along the lines of being hung upside down by the toes while being flogged in a car wash where the brushes have had the bristles replaced with strands of barbed wire for anyone who even proposes legislation not expressly permitted under the Constitution. If you cannot cite the exact article and clause where "we the people" yielded the power to act in a certain specific manner to the federal government, you are subject to the aforementioned punishment. As soon as that happens, then Chuckie can propose his silly little law and take his flogging.

Every time I start entertaining the notion of "upgrading" to a newer truck that ain't been ridden hard & put away wet for several years, another thread like this snaps me back to reality and I'm thankful I bought my '01.

What's REALLY fun is when you call for directions and the dimwit on the other end of the line tells you how THEY drive in to work every day...through the trucks-prohibited residential neighborhood also failing to mention the 3-ton-weight-restricted bridge they cross or the 8' railroad underpass they pass under in their little car totally ignorant of the fact that your 80,000 pound truck just can't go that way...

I buy a new paper atlas every 3 years. My Garmin 465T has been yelling at me for at least 4 years that it needs a map update (which costs damn near as much as a NEW GPS w/ the same "lifetime maps" so why would I buy JUST the maps?) and that the traffic receiver needs to be updated too. 98% of the time I just use it as a speedometer (the truck's reads a little slow...except for a few days ago when the VSS wires were shorting out in which case the speedo needle was constantly fluctuating between 0 and whatever it would have ordinarily been reading at the speed I was going). Being a local driver in a day cab, I pretty much know where I'm going anyways...

Guess my student loan payment will be another month behind...JUST about had the money to get that caught up, too. It's tough for a guy to make an honest living when these rotten SOB's keep digging around in your pockets taking what ain't even been put in there yet! $197 citation, and we're still on the clock @ $75/hr for the service truck out chasing after the parts. I'm half tempted to sell the truck & go change tires & oil @ Walmart. Probably better money in that, with less time spent on the clock each week...and no DOT breathing down your f'ing back all of the time. No more scales...cheaper to burn the extra fuel going around 'em.

...different kind of trouble tonight. Them DOT guys really know how to fuck with a guy's weekend. Put me OOS an hour & a half from home saying I have a wheel seal leaking on the steer. Pulled it apart & the wheel seal looks brand f'ing new. There's an o-ring that looks like it had JUST started leaking today...brake shoes are perfectly dry, nothing inside the drum. Service truck has to run an hour north to get Stemco part #'s 1038 & 2039...told him to get 2 so I can do the other side this weekend. Anyway, should've been home by now...instead, I'm hanging out behind the damn scale house. I KNEW I should have gone around the stupid thing. Bad part is, they are patrolling the 2-lane looking for scale dodgers. On the plus side, I told him I didn't have a log book...local driver, 100-air-mile, so on & so forth, so as soon as I'm fixed, I can roll...otherwise if my 14 expired I'd be stuck here for the night. As a general rule, I don't hand over anything I can convince them they don't need to see.