http://www.brickboard.com/FORUMS/uid=5098 The Volvo owner's resource since 1997. en Copyright 1997-2009, Jarrod Stenberg Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:37 GMT Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:37 GMT brickadmin@denizen.net brickadmin@denizen.net volvo 1440 http://www.brickboard.com/images/logo_b_25.gif http://www.brickboard.com/ 25 25 The Volvo owner's resource since 1997. Hey Mike.There&#226;&#128;&#152;s no need to apologize. I usually have very little expectation that I&#226;&#128;&#153;ll be able to cause someone to change his/her mind in any of these discussions, but I don&#226;&#128;&#153;t consider that an impediment to having a good conversation. I&#226;&#128;&#153;m perfectly happy to end up with an agreement to disagree and mutual respect intact. If in the process I get some indication that the other party understands my point of view, so much the better, and, in that spirit, I&#226;&#128;&#153;m perfectly willing to concede the validity of your concerns. Back to the topic on the table: I don&#226;&#128;&#153;t have any deeply felt objections to this guy being tried in a military court. Hell, if he&#226;&#128;&#153;d gotten killed &#226;&#128;&#156;trying to escape&#226;&#128;&#157;, you wouldn&#226;&#128;&#153;t have heard a peep out of me either. On the other hand, if he&#226;&#128;&#153;s going to be tried, my personal preference is that it be in a civilian court, despite some of the risks that have been mentioned here and the cost involved. BTW, the symbolism of the trial&#226;&#128;&#153;s taking place in New York doesn&#226;&#128;&#153;t hold much meaning for me, but I think the legal reasoning for it makes sense. What it comes down to is that my preference for civil justice in this case stems from some doubts I have developed over time about the circumstances under which military tribunals are being used. I&#226;&#128;&#153;m perfectly willing to recognize the legitimacy of court-martials within the military of a particular nation. My doubts start when military personnel of &#226;&#128;&#156;the enemy&#226;&#128;&#157; (current or former) are so brought to trial. The same goes, in retrospect, for the military tribunals we saw after WWII. That doesn&#226;&#128;&#153;t mean that those who were tried then shouldn&#226;&#128;&#153;t have been brought to trial, but when the military of the winner gets to prosecute the military of the loser, it&#226;&#128;&#153;s too much like playing with loaded dice brought to the game by the winner. A much broader and more universally acceptable process of delivering justice ought to be involved under those circumstances. Look at it this way: what would, or should, have happened to those who ordered the fire-bombing of Dresden and Tokyo if the Germans and the Japanese had won that particular war? Hiroshima, Nagasaki? Would the North Vietnamese have had the right to bring Bob McNamara before a military tribunal? What would the Iraqis have been entitled to do with Rumsfeld, if they had beaten us? I am concerned that, if we expand the already overly-broad application of military justice by trying KSM in that manner, we legitimize and confirm his position as a military commander and tacitly endow Al Qaida with the status of a nation state at war with the US and, as such, entitled to treatment under internationally accepted rules of war. I would much prefer to let Al Qaida keep its terrorist identity and treat their bosses as common criminals along with the <i>Dons</i> of the Mafia and <i>Jefes</i> of the drug cartels. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1387693&rss=1 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:23 GMT Snoot, I think there is more to it than the predictable knee-jerk reaction, although that is certainly a big part of it. It seems to me that this is more a question of whether these cases fall within the province of the military or the civilian justice system. Both of which, as far as I know, go back to the beginning of the republic and even before. I have no doubts about the civilian courts being the correct place for adjudicating these cases. The World Trade Center attack was a criminal act perpetrated by civilians against civilians and it took place in New York. So, it makes sense that the trial should take place in a civilian court in New York. Some will argue that part of the attack being against the Pentagon justifies involvement of the military justice system. I disagree. It was still an attack by civilians. If I, a civilian, had lobbed a bomb at the Pentagon, particularly in a time of peace, I would be expected to be be tried in a civilian court. The Nuremberg trials took place in a military tribunal, although some of the judges were civilians, but they dealt with crimes committed during a declared war between nation states - an entirely different matter than the sort of terrorist act we're dealing with here. That some of the potential defendants were "captured" during military actions (although KSM was not) seems to be a dubious justification. So was Manuel Noriega, and he was tried in a civilian court, even though he was in uniform when he committed his crimes and when he was captured. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1387516&rss=1 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:32 GMT Tim, Maybe <a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/">THIS</a> will help, although I doubt it will make you feel any better. ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1385712&rss=1 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:07 GMT Mike, I haven't been having much luck with the Picture Gallery upload either, and found that the easiest way is to upload to one of the picture hosting sites and then drag the url into the BB post. Most of them now have those long tags that do the whole job. If not, do the standard HTML protocol. If you are not familiar with that, Tony Scarolas has a handy set of instructions <a href="http://www.scarolas.com/58volvoPV444/html_basics.htm">HERE</a> http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1385653&rss=1 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:16 GMT Good on you, Stick. I appeal to all here to take you on your word and not to put your resolve to a test. As for myself, I'll be perfectly content to leave the ball in your court and I hope this puts an end to this unpleasantness. This, of course, does not mean that I won't be challenging you on issues, and I hope you will reciprocate in kind. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1385267&rss=1 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00 GMT http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1385198&rss=1 Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:04 GMT I seem to remember that when I was in high school and college we didn't have any "athletes". We played sports, but maybe that was just my high school and my college. Now when I go there to watch a game and hear the talk about "student athletes", I find it all rather pretentious. But then, I'm just a grouchy old grump. ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384883&rss=1 Sun, 8 Nov 2009 14:07 GMT <i>I'm not sure if anyone predicted what we're seeing. The ultra-rich have taken government wholesale. It's no longer an abstract. All of the actions of the government in the past 2 years especially makes this clear. But they aren't dismantling the welfare state. Rather, they seem to be using it as a shield and the health care "debate" suggests that they in favor of it growing. But the extraordinary news is that the oligarchs, the true rulers of this country, are carting away mountains of wealth right in broad daylight. Of course eventually this will kill the host, but the host is the middle class. The middle class is already dead but doesn't seem to know it. When all is said and done you will have the oligarchs tossing crumbs to the poor. Of course, this new system will literally be the opposite of revolutionary. It will be nothing more than a glorified system of serfdom.</i> Correct. In response I fall back on my refrain: the economy is being mismanaged because we mismanage our political system. Unfortunately, I don't see a way out of this trap because those who have the power to change the system would be acting contrary to their own short-term interest, and short-term interest is the only thing that motivates them. Long-term, of course, they'll all be sucked down into the hole with the rest of us when the whole thing craters. Louis VI famously said, <i>Apr&#195;&#168;s moi, le deluge</i> under similar circumstances. Well, he got that one right. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384768&rss=1 Sat, 7 Nov 2009 21:25 GMT I find it amusingly ironic that Lysander Spooner and Karl Marx, men intellectually on opposite ends of the spectrum of socioeconomic philosophy, should, besides a particular style of facial foliage, share the dubious vision of a withering away of &#226;&#128;&#156;The State&#226;&#128;&#157;. (It must have been the <i>Zeitgeist</i> of their era. Considering their different geographical locations, it couldn&#226;&#128;&#153;t have been the drinking water.) Spooner advocated Individualist Anarchism - something akin to Libertarianism, in modern parlance - to achieve that objective, and Marx thought that man's enlightenment through Socialism would do the trick. Both of them were wrong. Perfect hindsight reveals that Socialism, even without its perversion by Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Castro, could never evolve into the Utopian Communist society Marx and Engels envisioned. The proof of that is in the trail of failures and abandonments a variety of implementations of that theory has left behind. Spooner&#226;&#128;&#153;s ideal is equally unlikely to come to fruition in the real world. One has only to look to Somalia, Afghanistan, and, perhaps, Colombia and Mexico to find support of that contention. That is not to say Spooner&#226;&#128;&#153;s, like Marx and Engels&#226;&#128;&#153;, theories don&#226;&#128;&#153;t make entertaining subjects for interminable intellectual debate and a welcome source of income for hordes of political science professors. Personally, I favor Spooner, if only because he is so eminently readable. Marx and Engels with their turgid Teutonic style are a real slog, and Lenin is, of course, a demagogic bore. I do not mean to imply either that Socialism or respect for individualism have no place in the formulation of our rules of governance. It was Marx&#226;&#128;&#153;s misfortune that the individualism that Spooner championed is basically what makes perfect Communism unachievable. On the other hand, anarchy is not in our blood either. Like most other mammals, we are social animals who must have an ordered society to survive. Anarchism gives us the antithesis of that. An ordered society; be it a clan, an empire, or a federal republic; requires governance. So, we create governments, or have governments created for us, and pay tribute or taxes and put limits, or have limits put, on our individual freedoms in exchange for the benefits that ordered societies bring us. The degree to which the benefits compensate for the loss of individual freedoms and the tributes paid is the measure of the success of the society. That, at least to me, is the essence of the &#226;&#128;&#156;Social Contract&#226;&#128;&#157;. A failed or dysfunctional society is one in which the Social Contract is not being honored by the &#226;&#128;&#156;rulers&#226;&#128;&#157;, whoever they may be, and is being applied so as to disproportionately benefit one portion of the society at the expense of another. That is what has been happening and, I fear, is still happening in the U.S. A Constitution is merely a formalization of that Social Contract. It is not the Social Contract itself. As such it does not just bind only those alive at the time of its signing, but does so as long as the society continues to exist. That said, societies change and, although the Social Contract persists, its formalization may no longer meet the current requirements of maintaining the balance between the societal benefits and its members&#226;&#128;&#153; obligations. That&#226;&#128;&#153;s why there is a lot to be said for Jefferson&#226;&#128;&#153;s notion that a revision of the Constitution should take place once every generation. The Supreme Court in a way makes these revisions through interpretation, but, again in my opinion, not in a manner that meets the requirements for keeping our society well-ordered, as evidenced by the discord that currently permeates it. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384700&rss=1 Sat, 7 Nov 2009 16:01 GMT Jarrod, Normally I would agree, but in this instance, and I'm assuming you're referring to the Stickbuilder picture incident, I dissent. There is personal information and there is personal information. In this case a photograph of a person with model airplanes that he has displayed proudly elsewhere can hardly be considered personal and certainly not harmful. (They were lovely planes and Sticky's photogenic attributes were far superior than what one would expect from the quality of his posts.) It's quite different from publishing personal identity data, addresses, shopping and reading habits, financial information, or, God forbid, sexual preferences. Personally, I found the protracted prelude to the picture's posting puerile and annoying and I wished many times over many months that you would intervene or, at least, issue a timely warning. As others have pointed out, this incident was the culmination of series of harassments and threats of physical harm directed, not only at the actual participants in the dispute, but at others quite removed from it as well. A stop should have been put to these goings-on far earlier in the game. I realize you cannot be the baby sitter to all of us all of the time, but it might elevate the tone of discourse here if you would raise a warning voice when things get too raucous in the rumpus room, thus avoiding having to enforce your, BTW, perfectly legitimate, expulsion edict. All that, of course, without dampening spirited give and take that comes naturally when provocative propositions elicit vigorous dissent - even if the personal charms of someone's mother are the topic under discussion ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384578&rss=1 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 22:57 GMT Thanks, Klaus. I'd seen that ad. Actually, I looked closer and found a 1954 Ford NAA with loader and scraper blade right here in my home-town. Now it's a matter of putting it through its paces to see what shape it's in mechanically. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384246&rss=1 Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:43 GMT <i>8N in apparent decent condition for sale, $1800 CDN. Ile aux Coudres, PQ</i> Ah, the story of my life - the good apples are always on the other side of that high fence. ;-) Actually, there was a nice one with a loader less than a mile down the road last year, but I wasn't interested at that point. Yes, I'm checking <i>Uncle Henry's</i> and <i>Craigslist</i>. So far the worthwhile ones have been sort of far away. Vermont appears to be a veritable mother-load. Do you think my 240 could survive hauling an equipment trailer with 2500lbs on it? Anyway, I have to do more homework first so I'll know what I'm looking at when I'm looking at it. There's a beauty in Falmouth, totally restored to like new condition, but that much loveliness would be wasted on me. Besides, $5000 (down from 6500) is a bit rich for my blood. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1384114&rss=1 Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:00 GMT Flab, The effort would be appreciated, but, please, don't get yourself into hot water, or cold mud, as the case may be, for this. I wouldn't want to have that on my conscience. Tractors are a whole new world for me. I've never even driven one, except for a few hours on a little Ford 1110 (I think it was) 4x4 diesel. The Ford Ns and the Ferguson TO and TEs look quite similar on the outside to me, but, of course, I have no idea how different the mechanicals are. However, with a bit of homework I should be in the know pretty soon. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383606&rss=1 Mon, 2 Nov 2009 14:03 GMT I would have loved to see that setup. I've been thinking about that very idea - fitting a B18 to a Ford N series - and have some manuals on order to give me an idea of dimensions. I suppose that driving it in reverse all the time to avoid flipping over backwards wouldn't be too practical. ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383464&rss=1 Sun, 1 Nov 2009 20:04 GMT <i>I want a few sets of those!! A pity that your memory sucks, I really want to know what they are.</i> Don't knock it. A cavitating memory is not entirely without its advantages. ;-) Anyway, the brand of pistons isn't on the invoice, but next time I'm in the machine shop's neighborhood I'll drop in and ask the guy. I could phone him, but I think I'll get a better response if I'm physically there. <i>Speaking of pistons, I forget to ask why did you put a bunch of holes in your B9 generator motor pistons? Did you ever get a governor working proprely on it?</i> I deactivated the valves in the closed position to keep unburned fuel out of the cylinders and crankcase and wanted the pistons to go up and down without compression and suction resistance. I kept the pistons in for better balance and to have the big ends in place to keep oil pressure up. (At least, that was my reasoning. No idea if I was right.) It has since been suggested to me that I could have just left the pistons as they were because compression in one cylinder would have been compensated for by expansion of the compressed air in the other. BTW, although the engine runs well and smoothly on two cylinders, it does take more cranking than I like to get it started. I'm still not sure about the governor because I haven't got the generator hitched to the house yet. Two reasons: (1) I've been too busy processing that load of firewood I've been bragging about and (2) the last time I tested it, a year or so ago, I blew a whole bunch of bulbs, ground fault protectors, an amplifier, and the fuses in several other appliances - ground failure somewhere, I assume, and I just haven't gotten around to doing the wiring to make sure everything is properly grounded before I work up the courage to try again. And before I get to that, I have to fix an over-revving problem I have on the 142E and replace all the hard brake lines on it. Oh yes, and the little garden tractor I've been using to haul stuff around with is crapping out on me, and I want to replace it with one of those old Ford 8N or Ferguson TO tractors. Since I'm too cheap to lay out big money for one of those, it's bound to require quite a bit of work to get it operational. So, it'll be a while yet. -- 62 PV544 (B20, M41), '71 142E, '93 240 Classic Wagon. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383417&rss=1 Sun, 1 Nov 2009 14:53 GMT Paul, The guy who machined the B20 I have in my PV builds engines for NASCAR cars. He recommended a set of Chinese pistons (I don't recall the name). The price was right, but I worried about the quality. He said he used them regularly in the race car engines with no worse results than he got from domestic pistons. When I remained skeptical, he gave me a lifetime warranty on them. That was six years ago - so far, so good. Of course, I don't subject the car to "cruel and unusual punishment". http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383253&rss=1 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:17 GMT You may well be right - no contrarian bets from me. We'll, inevitably, have to wait and see and hope for the best - whatever that may be. ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383248&rss=1 Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:58 GMT You mean to say that Comcast on the bosses time is all right, but Snopes isn't? Interesting. FactCheck OK? <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/michelle-obamas-staff/">http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/michelle-obamas-staff/</a> -- If ignorance is bliss, why so many unhappy people? (With apologies to Thos. Gray) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1383039&rss=1 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:28 GMT One of my arch-Republican buddies sent me an email containing an article about the "outrageous" number of staff Michelle Obama has working for her. Before the same story appears here I figured that, as a public service, I ought to post a link to Snopes' take on this. <a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/firstlady.asp">http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/firstlady.asp</a> http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382963&rss=1 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:56 GMT <i>cleansing or dismantling the current parties, and creating new ones.</i> That sounds like putting new wine into old casks - pretty soon you end up having wine that tastes the same as the one you had before. We'll not have better politicians till we change the way we elect them. BTW, the other day I heard Mara Liasson explain that "politics" is a composite of the Greek for "many" and "ticks" = blood sucking insects. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382721&rss=1 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:03 GMT <i>Iraq is looking OK now.</i> Paul, Although I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, I differ, albeit reluctantly, on the bit quoted above. I wouldn't be at all surprised if within the decade we'll see a civil war erupt. That will give the Kurds the excuse for setting up an independent Kurdistan. The Iranians will step in as the allies of the Shia which will lead to the creation of a purely Shia Iraqi state closely tied to Iran. The Sunnis will be left with a piece of territory with a lot of sand but no oil, dependent on the goodwill and sectarian solidarity of the neighboring Arab states. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382608&rss=1 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:37 GMT <i>China the country doesn't exactly have a stellar reputation for quality manufacturing.</i> You could see this as an effort to remedy that situation. I doubt they'd move Volvo lock-stock-and-barrel to China any more than Ford moved it to the US. What is more likely to happen is that they'll be taking advantage of Volvo technology to improve their home brands. Eventually Chinese-made components will find their way into Volvos, but if they leave the Swedes in charge of quality control, at least for starters, that needn't make the cars any worse than they are now. What this does mean is that the Chinese are moving fast to catch up with the Japanese. At the rate they are going, that isn't going to take very long. When that happens, the Japanese auto industry may go the way the US' went. -- 62 PV544 (B20, M41), '71 142E, '93 240 Classic Wagon. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382527&rss=1 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:56 GMT JG, It is too bad that he was a relatively low level official. That will make it all the easier for the "blood and guts" types to dismiss Mr. Hoh's resignation as that of just another disgruntled bureaucrat not up to performing his job as required and for the supporters of the current policy to try pretend it never happened. I hope I'm wrong and that the opponents to this misbegotten war will use this incident to help garner support for extricating ourselves from it as soon as possible. I was really impressed with the resignation letter, especially, of course, because it jibes perfectly with what we have been saying here in response to the dunderheads who are hellbent in favor of expanding our military efforts in Afghanistan. Nothing is so sweet as having someone more expert than yourself, and with on-the-scene exposure to boot, agree with you. ;-) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382501&rss=1 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:15 GMT Always the optimist, I believe we may be pleasantly surprised and find that the H1N1 virus will turn out to be a superb tenderizer and flavor enhancer. BTW, with Halloween just around the corner, they'll keep long enough without freezing. When the heavy crop comes in January and February, frost and snow will prevent spoilage. http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382274&rss=1 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:50 GMT <i>He can't be that lost.</i> Oh yes, Tony. He has strayed from the path of the true believers whose credo, I'm sure, you'll enjoy familiarizing yourself with <a href="http://socialistparty-usa.org/">HERE</a> Pay particular attention to their statement on health care and compare that with Obama's and the Democrats' proposals. -- If ignorance is bliss, why are there so many unhappy people? (With apologies to Thos. Gray) http://www.brickboard.com/OPINIONS/?id=1382272&rss=1 Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:35 GMT Use the text input below to search brickboard.com query http://www.brickboard.com/FIND/