Soapbox Time, Let’s See How Many People I can Piss Off

I see a lot of stuff written about people who could work but won’t.

I read stuff about wanting to do drug testing for welfare recipients.

I see posts touting no benefits for illegals.

I hear moral outrage.

Who would defend the immoral?

Okay.

You know that costs money don’t you?

To those who could work but won’t, is your job being a burglar? Are you chemist making meth but you don’t make tons of it because you’re too lazy? I doubt that El Chappo is lazy. If he comes in illegally to the US and we incarcerate him, he will be receiving the benefits of prison lodging food and health care. AND WE WILL BE PAYING FOR IT. Not to mention that the tougher on crime we try to be will mean paying for additional prisons, guards, and their associated expenses. Ambitious criminals can only be contained by ambitious law enforcement.

Welfare shouldn’t allow people to use money for drugs and get food with stamps. Sounds reasonable, but drug testing costs money. You had better hope you take enough people off welfare to pay for the testing, otherwise you’re just providing free drug testing. But it isn’t free. It will be paid for also.

Would you say I’m defending the immoral by not wanting to pay for tough tactics? In the olden times when people weren’t coddling criminals they didn’t get buried with those expenses.

No, they didn’t. Those most common punishment was being run out of town and in earlier times, banishment. Those are very cheap inexpensive ways of dealing with troublemakers. Where would you want them sent. BTW, Australia got it’s start that way, but I don’t think they will take more now.

Living in a society is not cheap. Writing was invented to record taxes.

Tolerating immorality is cheaper than forcing compliance.

Just had to say that.

I Attempted to Make a Bung Wrench. I Failed

Bung wrenches open bung holes. They are not medical devices. That is not speculation. That would just be speculums.

Ba-bum! drumbeat there

Opening drums is done by removing the bung from the bung hole. That is not always easy without a bung wrench. Now I wasn’t opening any drums the other day, but I was working on a Major Fawcett problem. My kitchen faucet was dripping and I decided to fix it. I’ll quote what I posted on Facebook.

Worked on a project today. My kitchen faucet has been dripping for awhile. If it’s not much it isn’t a big deal in Iowa. It just makes it that much less likely your pipes will freeze. The drip rate recently got worse and I decided to replace it. *I* had installed the current faucet myself 20 years and 6 weeks ago. Yes I know that. I’m kind of anal about record keeping. I looked at it. I went to Blains and bought a new one. Looking at it I remembered thinking that it would be a good idea to spend a little more and get a more solidly made one with more brass and less plastic. Today my thought was, the major part of this project will be getting the old faucet out. After that I should be able to install, clean it up and leak check in about a half an hour. I was absolutely right. The first three hours consisted of laying on my back in a mixture of windex, Mr Clean, floor soap, interspersed with holding tools in contorted positions with water, rust, lime scale, and tools falling on my head. The last half hour was installing and cleaning. The extra money I had spent on brass had ended up going for corrosion instead. That was one tough faucet to get out. I really don’t plan on living long enough to have to do it again. By then it would kill me if I wasn’t already dead.

So, what does that have to do with bung wrenches? The locking nuts on the bottom of the faucet had a shape that reminded me of bungs I had removed from barrels of other stuff. I don’t own my own bung wrench. I tried to cobble something that looked like a bung wrench. It did look right. But it was not strong enough.

I finished the job without having to fix any new leaks, no leaks runs or errors!

The next day my arms were sore any time I put my arms up over me. So I didn’t keep doing that. Some people put their arms up quite a lot. Some people are into BD/SM too. Not me though, it’s just not my thing. I have read about it and talked to a few people that were into it. I am into reading and talking. In the mid 70’s Club magazine had so-so pictorials but really weird articles. It provided a drastic stark difference between the people that said “I read it for the articles” and the people who ACTUALLY did read it for the articles. It was amusing to ask the former group if they had read Karl Steiner’s column. It didn’t matter which answer they gave I would ask them, “Well what’s his column about in that issue?” I almost always enjoyed that gag.

Karl Steiner is a very common name. I had trouble finding any references to quote. The following sites include the table of contents for various issues. Beyond that I don’t know much about them. On some pictures you can also read the cover headlines.

http://www.myerscollectibles.com/store/item/1d0vp/Mens_Magazines/Club_Magazine_Vol_1_1_February_1975.html

http://www.magizine.org/CLUBmagCLUB197603.htm

http://www.magizine.org/CLUBmagCLUB197606.htm

Wild