Yep, Still Hate Hillary

Ah the fun times the Clintonistas had with us. And now they manage to blame the Bushies for all of it!

Clinton blasts Bush for not stopping a project Bill OK'd

Wonder just how much the DNC pocketed from that deal?

Of course, Bush is an ass for not at least making some effort to intervene, though I wonder if his hands were tied in some fashion.

As an aside, I also wonder if Hillary, or the Dems in general actually, will start shutting down websites and news organizations not friendly to them in order to silence detractors? We know that they will launch a full assault on talk radio, but guys like me get some of this stuff from news aggregators like Drudge and from Googling. Fox news is also not their buddy. Guess they'll have to try and put a stop to all them too.

God's Own Beer!

I have found the greatest brewed beverage ever. It has upset the previous leader, Hobgoblin. No small task that, let me tell you.

Behold the web site of the new reigning champion:

Peak Organic Beer, my favorite being the Nut Brown Ale.

This new to me super brew has something for everyone:

If you're a regular guy who enjoys a tasty cold one now and then, well buddy this stuff is great!
If you're a beer snob, well what could be snobbier than organic?
If you're a granola crunchin' tree hugger, then see the previous sentence.
UPDATE: If you're on a diet, this beer is only about 20 calories higher than light.

I swear, making this stuff from organic ingredients really does have an effect.

If you live in the Danbury CT area, you owe it to yourself to wiggle, waddle, or stumble your buns down to Fairgrounds Wine & Spirits and try some.

Anime is the Best

As mentioned in my profile, one of my favorite things in this old world is Anime. Actually "one of my favorite things" is a gross understatement. I freakin' love Anime. I'm addicted to it. In fact I have not yet seen a live action movie or TV show that I enjoy as much as Anime (not all Anime, just ones I consider "top tier"), though Babylon 5, the original Vanishing Point movie, the Predator movies, and pretty much anything with dragons in it come pretty close.

As my list of preferred live action shows indicates, I like action, fantasy and sci-fi.
However, in case you weren't aware, Anime covers other genres as well.

I buy most of my Anime and related stuff from these good folks:

Right Stuf

Good prices and truly excellent customer service, at least the very few times I've needed service.

For a great Anime forum, news and magazine (Protoculture Addicts), look no further:

Anime News Network

I haven't been active on their forum for years, and I really miss it.

Here and there, I may do an occasional review of some Anime, though the reviews found on the Anime News Network are generally far better than anything I could do. Who knows though, perhaps I'll have a different view.

For some good info, especially parent reviews, this next site is good. The reviews haven't been updated since 2004. Actually nothing much at all has happened here since 04, except the forum, which I haven't yet visited. But it's a nice site with no advertising. I do highly recommend it:

Anime Cafe

Here's some other reviews, much more up to date, though I haven't poked around the rest of the site:

THEM Anime

Of course, there are better sites for reviews, news, forums and shopping. There always are with everything it seems. But I haven't found them yet.

A little not so quick background. I started watching Anime as a kid in the 60's, with Astro Boy, Kimba the white lion (which Disney's The Lion King is a slight rip off of), Speed Racer (yes, as a matter of fact, I AM going to see the movie), etc. At the time, I had no idea they were Japanese.
The show 8th Man introduced me to death. No seriously, I have no memory of anyone or anything, such as a relative, neighbor or pet, dying prior to that show. In one episode, a very likable protagonist (cute little talking porpoise) got killed by the bad guy, which never happened in American cartoons in those days. I was flipped out, crying and asking "why?" Later, when a neighbor's dog got run over, I remember looking at the poor little carcass and thinking "so this is what it's like in real life." I won't say that it helped or hurt me to see it, but I can tell you that I sure remember it.

Wow, looking up long unvisited sites and writing about this subject makes me really want to do it more. I miss the forums too. So, here and there, I'll write some little odd or end about Anime, I'll even start a new Label for it.

No True Winners

I have been saying for a while now that no matter who of the three major candidates now in play wins the presidency, liberals win and conservatives lose.
I am reminded occasionally that not all liberals like the Dem candidates either.

As usual Chris Muir sums up the entire race in a little three page comic:

Day by Day Cartoon

That Muir guy is amazing.

No Kidding?

This election just keeps on amazing me:

Erosion of trust in Clinton

Wow, really? You mean she lies? Oh no, say it aint so!

She and her darling hubby have been nothing if not liars from day one. Lying is what Clintons do, it's their nature. For Chrissakes, Geffen dumped them because they lie so easily (now he and friend Arianna are defending Obama from the comfort of his 400+ foot yacht. Good to know they are for the little guy).

How could anyone ever have thought her trustworthy?

I guess many people have known she lies, but felt that they were "good lies" or something and that she was nonetheless trustworthy.

Well, whatever, people are slowly opening their eyes and joining the ranks of the crazy, toothless, gun totin' uneducated, selfish right wing nutjobs in realizing what an accomplished "lyin' thievin' weasel" she is.

Bout time.

Motorcycles: A bit more explanation

Before I bore you, check out this unrelated comic. I don't care what your politics are, this is funny (you'll have to click on it to see the whole thing):


see more hipster robot webcomics and pixel t-shirts

Anyways, I realized that I want to say more about Harleys and give additional explanations to my last post.

Yes, Harley's quality stinks. Yet, I do feel that a Sporty, specifically an 883, is a good beginner bike. They are fairly light, have a very low center of gravity, lots of low end torque, yet are not very quick, quite anemic actually. They handle OK, but don't do anything fast, that is, they are not "twitchy" or in any way sensitive. They have a very low seat height. They are very simple, basic machines. Parts are plentiful and easy to get, even for 30 year old models.

But I have 2 laws of Harley buying that are very important to this whole blog:

The first law of buying a Harley:

NEVER BUY A NEW HARLEY. ALWAYS BUY A USED ONE, PREFERABLY OVER 4 YEARS OLD

You see, a new Harley is guaranteed to have some kind of awful design defect, which may not show up for thousands of miles. This is as true today as it was 20 years ago, though a better situation than 30 years ago. There are numerous examples, such as el cheapo cam bearings, defective cam tensioners (there were actually 2 or 3 separate defects here, spanning I don't know how many years), offset wheel alignments - the list goes on, it could fill a book. How would you like to dump $25k for a bike that is equaled or surpassed in performance and features by an under $20k Jap bike, and then have the cams shred all over the inside of your engine in a few thousand miles?

But both the motor company and an unbelievably huge aftermarket will quickly come up with fixes for the defects as soon as they are uncovered. Your job, as a smart Harley buyer (no such thing really, but I've been there and may again, so I say "smart" instead of "not quite criminally stupid"), is to wait until the particular year and model defects are discovered and a fix developed, then buy the thing, knowing now what you need to do to make it roadworthy. Better yet, wait until a previous owner has done the fix and then buy the bike after.
Also, there will be some assembly line defects, such as loose or ill fitting parts, that will cause you some inconvenience. Better to let someone else take care of all the assembly line gremlins and buy the bike after that.

This brings up the second law of buying a used Harley:

NEVER BUY A HARLEY WITH LESS THAN 5,000 MILES ON IT

This seems like a no brainer based on over 4 years old, but with Harley's t'aint necessarily so. Riders of other bike brands will commonly refer to Harleys as "Hardley Ablesons" or in the context of this blog "Hardley Riddensons" You see, it is very common for people to buy a Harley and only ride it an occasional short distance to show it off. Check the classifieds and you will see 4 year old Harleys with less than 3k miles on them, and I'm being generous. Bikes referred to by the term "trailer queen" are almost always Harleys.

But you can't be too sure that all the assembly line issues have been exorcised until at least 5k miles. Keep looking.

So, a used Harley, while grossly overpriced, is a safer bet than a new one, provided all the work was properly done. Of course, that's usually hard to be sure of, so all the normal used vehicle precautions apply.

Now, the idea with my daughter's bike, if we ever do it, is to buy a Sporty that's pretty ugly, but not mechanically terrible. There aren't too many of those, but they can be found here and there. I have no problem with stripping the bike down to the frame, and in fact that is what we would do, then painting it as she wants (she won't paint it pink, so I can get away with this). The only super expensive, difficult work would be if the tranny, or some major engine component was bad.

I've probably sworn you off Harley's forever. That's not my intent. Remember that I do hope to buy one or more sometime down the road, and I will gladly let my daughter have one for her first bike. It's just that you cannot trust the motor company, you cannot buy a new one unless you can afford to go through a lot of troubles. Then too, new Harley's are enormously expensive to maintain, the service charges are astronomical. But the bikes are very basic and easy to maintain, so if you get a used one, well there's no warranty, so you can buy a service manual and do it yourself.

There you have it, a further explanation of my previous post. Hope you're not as bored as I think you are!

Motorcycles: Never Satisfied Again

Ah motorcycling used to be so easy.
Note: none of the images linked herein are of my own bikes. One of these days, I'll upload those and link to them.

When I was a kid, I loved Suzuki’s so that’s what I rode, no problem, no question.
Then, in ’82 a buddy let me ride his Harley and I just fell in love with them. Sold the Suzuki GT 750 I had (yes, as a matter of fact, I do regret selling that bike) and bought a used ’75 Super Glide. I later had a ‘73 Sportster and an ’89 Sport Glide. No decisions to make except what model Harley to ride.

Times got tough and I had to sell my Harley. Years later, my wife said “time for another bike” and we bought an ’82 Honda Magna.

Well, now my biking life is complicated and pretty unhappy. Bottom line is that unless I win a big fat lottery, I’m never going to be satisfied. The reason is that I love this bike, but don’t have the time to work on it, can’t afford a new bike, don’t like most of the new bikes anyway, and won’t be satisfied with a Harley either.

Follow this stupid, tortured path:

Even though it’s a Honda, the Magna is 26 years old at the time of this writing, and the previous owner didn’t take too good care of her either, so believe me she requires a lot of work to keep running. Now with something simple, like a Harley, that wouldn’t be too big of a deal. But this thing is a V4, double overhead cam, water cooled, 4 carburetor, freakin’ nightmare. Almost every component on this bike is buried under something. The clearances between parts are tighter than a homophobe’s butt cheeks in prison. Bottom line is that the simplest, most basic repair or maintenance, other than oil changes and tire pressure checks, is a long torturous project. I can tell you for a fact that it takes longer for me to replace the choke and throttle cables on this thing than it does to completely remove and reinstall a Harley carburetor and cables. I have lost countless days of riding due to this.

OK so why not have a shop do the work? Well for one thing I can’t afford it. For another, most motorcycle mechanics don’t know anything about these bikes and are just as likely to screw them up as fix them. That includes Honda certified mechanics. So, without that lottery win, I’m on my own.

“Hey jackass” you say, “why keep fighting with such a pain in the neck bike? Why not buy something else that doesn’t eat your time?” Well, yeah, God knows there are all sorts of affordable used bikes that would require less work and / or be much easier to work on. But I don’t care for any of them, so I won’t be satisfied. I do think a BMW 900 would do the trick, but I’m not sure.

Harleys? Ah, I do still love those things, and I do wish I had one, but they are horribly overpriced and underperforming. I don’t think I’d be satisfied. Perhaps I should try to take one for a test ride to find out. But I still really couldn’t afford it anyway.

The thing with this Magna, the thing that keeps me fighting, is that absolutely no motorcycle manufacturer in the world makes a bike like it anymore. I’m not kidding nor exaggerating. The closest thing to it is the Yamaha VMax, and those are not as comfortable, don’t generally handle as well and are just as complicated.

The early Magna’s like mine (officially she’s my wife’s bike, that’s another story), have the most perfect balance of power, handling and comfort of any small (750cc) cruiser bike ever made. No bull. This thing is light and nimble at slow speeds, yet perfectly stable and smooth at high speeds. The ride is very comfortable for such a small bike, yet she has ample ground clearance and would go around corners very well were the shocks and fork springs not trashed. I can push her around the garage and driveway with no trouble, yet she can carry around my fat ass and one of my kids without complaint. She will flat blow away any unmodified Harley except a V-Rod (my opinion of those is yet another story), yet will get over 40mpg if not ridden maniacally. The power delivery of this engine is fascinating to me. She pulls fairly strong right off idle, then gets pretty lively once over 3,000 rpm, and then very suddenly at 7,000 rpm it’s as if an afterburner kicks in and she pulls my arms back right up to redline at around 10,000 rpm. It’s a rush that only a Magna or a sportbike can deliver. The V65 (1,000cc) Magna is even more powerful, but that’s more than I need.

The reason that there are no cruisers like this any longer is that the Jap bike manufacturers have decided to go completely over to V-twins like a Harley. It’s basic economics, I can’t blame them. Most everybody who’s into cruisers wants a Harley or something like it, so imitating Harley is where the sales and money are. I personally couldn’t give a rat’s patoot about the Harley “mystique,” and really, most people buy Harleys as faux penis enlargers (look at me, I’m sooooo tough, I’m soooo cool). But once again, I will say I do love the look, sound, and feel of a Harley. But even if I could afford it, I find it so difficult to pay so much money for something that performs so poorly and is of such low quality. Yes folks, Harley quality sucks, has since AMF bought them in the early 70’s, and still does now that they are independent, and always will.

And yet.

Every time I have to do any work on the Magna, I cringe. I hate it, and I will be missing a lot of good riding days this year too. The torture never stops. My oldest daughter has suggested that I buy an old Sportster that needs fixing up and then we can work on it together and it would be her first bike. I love that idea and a Sportster is a good first bike, believe it or not. Yeah, but when can I work on her Sporty (short for Sportster), when I have to sink time into the Magna? Also, I can tell you that I missed more riding with the ‘89 Harley than any other bike I’ve ever owned. That pig broke down just pushing it out the garage. I finally got it running right and not breaking down just the year I sold it. On the other hand, my ’75 almost never gave me any trouble, year after year, mile after mile. Go figure.

Well, there you are. I have a bike that I hate to love, new bikes suck (oh yeah, I can’t fit a sportbike), most old bikes aren’t too interesting, and Harley’s are wicked expensive and slow. Actually I think my family would prefer that I get a slow bike, but I aint asking them.

I don’t think I’ll ever be fully satisfied again.

Time + Murtha = Lynch Mob

So tell me oh great yellow journalists and rabid fat boy, what do you think of the fact that the charges have been dropped against all but 3 of the Haditha Marines you tried to destroy? And the fact that those 3 no longer face murder charges?

Lying sacks of crap, circa 2006

Ticked off are you? Well, sorry that the truth has almost won out. Maybe if you hadn't believed the stories of known insurgents, and tried to ruin American soldiers with that crap, you might have done better.

You sure y'all are still Americans? U.S. type Americans I mean? Maybe on paper, but that's all.

If only I was rich. Oh yeah, I'd be talking to the freed Marines right now, along with a phalanx of sharp lawyers. Getting ready, investigating, collecting, putting it all together. Keeping an eye on the trial of the remaining political prisoner Marines. Talking to them and / or their families as much as possible.

When all my ducks are in a row, I'd launch one mutha of a lawsuit against Time and Murtha. I'd run one monster ad campaign against them too and ask all Americans to stand up against this kind of filth(well,it couldn't really be a monster, as no media organization outside Fox and Newsmax would run it). Heck, I'd even go after the damn Pentagon for going along with it. Political bastards.

This kind of thing drives me nuts.

The election campaigns are still fun though.