Today, Not a rant. Just an observation.
Happy Fourth Of July.
Its a great day for America everybody.
If you only watch one youtube video this year, make this the one to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdRVQ4xwwmQ
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
Welcome to the BIGMIKERANT , Comments are welcome (Keep it clean and I will publish it.) I fully support the 1st and 2nd amendments. Nasty comments and SPAM are deleted.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Finally, the Supreme Court gets one exactly right.
The second ammendment of the Constitution says :
ARTICLE [II.]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.
The supreme court just the other day said in effect, you know, thats right. This right extends to all the citizens of the USA in every territory and state, not just the Federal Government.
Duh. Seems simple enough to me.
I wonder why it took the eggheads 234 years to finally say this.
Oh, I forgot.
Lawyers. That explains it.
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
ARTICLE [II.]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.
The supreme court just the other day said in effect, you know, thats right. This right extends to all the citizens of the USA in every territory and state, not just the Federal Government.
Duh. Seems simple enough to me.
I wonder why it took the eggheads 234 years to finally say this.
Oh, I forgot.
Lawyers. That explains it.
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
Friday, July 2, 2010
The Tea Party ? Give me a break
Why has every one who delves and dabbles in politics lost their mind ? Why has the average schmo, put so much effort into this so called "Tea Party" movement? Why does it get so much airplay, Sarah Palin notwithstanding.
Just what is this Tea Party anyway ?
Well for one, it's not a party. When they all get together, its really a rock concert where every person attending gets to bitch and moan and gripe a little bit about how bad things are. Then they all start drinking from the Jones town Kool-Aid, singing the same song about change and electing new members of Congress because the ones we have now suck. They also want to make a huge hairy deal about how the Tea Party is not about current affiliation, because they have members who are of every political persuasion. Didn't we just go through the other side of this sheet of music by electing Mr. Yes We Can ?
Well, huh? Is what I say . In affect they are saying "We are not the extreme right or the extreme left, we are the middle !". So to speak. Nothing real radical about that. It's how Reagan won, it's how Clinton won and it's why the current situation is going to be a footnote in a couple of years. Extremists never fare well because they do not represent the whole.
See, here's the problem with the whole ideology of the "Tea Party".
The so called “Tea parties” vision that this is a perfect time to start bashing the other side in an attempt to win votes and change control of the House and Senate, is actually a very good short term strategy. We , the masses yearning to breathe free, love a good slogan, "Yes we do", Yes we did, Oh my God !"
The problem is that even if they are successful in ousting every Democratic incumbent and succeed in defeating Obama in the next election, the day they take office all of the issues that exist today, still exist and you haven’t helped me or anybody else in the meantime one little bit by executing this strategy.
You won, so what? What changed for us? How did I get help right now? Even if you win, I still lose because you will take another 5-8 years to do anything at all and we (the tired and huddled masses) cannot wait that long.
In Ten Years my college senior will have been in the work force for ten years, be 32 years old, and all that will have happened as a result of this crap is that another bunch of clueless politician/lawyers will have been elected, sent to Congress to sit on their hands and worry about being elected in the next election.
Does this make sense to anyone ?
I feel like I am in the movie , where I woke up from a nap to an unearthly quiet, went outside my New York City apartment only to see nothing moving and no people and discovered that I am the last person alive. Everyone else drank the kool aid.
I don't know if I am right, but it is not time for change. We have had a belly full of change for changes sake and now we got the guy from the mail room in charge of the country. Its time for somebody to be brave enough to stand up and say "A politicians job is to represent, not to be re-elected."
Here is a radical idea.
How about Politicians who do the freaking job we elected them to do in the first place !!
Now there, is some change I can believe in.
I realize that I probably do not have a majority view on this subject, because the majority view is to only suggest those things that can be passed, not to act on those things that actually will make a difference.
This is what pisses me off.
Its why I bother to write these in the first place. I don't care if anybody read this or listens to it or even acts upon it, but , it pisses me off nonetheless. How about You ?
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
Just what is this Tea Party anyway ?
Well for one, it's not a party. When they all get together, its really a rock concert where every person attending gets to bitch and moan and gripe a little bit about how bad things are. Then they all start drinking from the Jones town Kool-Aid, singing the same song about change and electing new members of Congress because the ones we have now suck. They also want to make a huge hairy deal about how the Tea Party is not about current affiliation, because they have members who are of every political persuasion. Didn't we just go through the other side of this sheet of music by electing Mr. Yes We Can ?
Well, huh? Is what I say . In affect they are saying "We are not the extreme right or the extreme left, we are the middle !". So to speak. Nothing real radical about that. It's how Reagan won, it's how Clinton won and it's why the current situation is going to be a footnote in a couple of years. Extremists never fare well because they do not represent the whole.
See, here's the problem with the whole ideology of the "Tea Party".
The so called “Tea parties” vision that this is a perfect time to start bashing the other side in an attempt to win votes and change control of the House and Senate, is actually a very good short term strategy. We , the masses yearning to breathe free, love a good slogan, "Yes we do", Yes we did, Oh my God !"
The problem is that even if they are successful in ousting every Democratic incumbent and succeed in defeating Obama in the next election, the day they take office all of the issues that exist today, still exist and you haven’t helped me or anybody else in the meantime one little bit by executing this strategy.
You won, so what? What changed for us? How did I get help right now? Even if you win, I still lose because you will take another 5-8 years to do anything at all and we (the tired and huddled masses) cannot wait that long.
In Ten Years my college senior will have been in the work force for ten years, be 32 years old, and all that will have happened as a result of this crap is that another bunch of clueless politician/lawyers will have been elected, sent to Congress to sit on their hands and worry about being elected in the next election.
Does this make sense to anyone ?
I feel like I am in the movie , where I woke up from a nap to an unearthly quiet, went outside my New York City apartment only to see nothing moving and no people and discovered that I am the last person alive. Everyone else drank the kool aid.
I don't know if I am right, but it is not time for change. We have had a belly full of change for changes sake and now we got the guy from the mail room in charge of the country. Its time for somebody to be brave enough to stand up and say "A politicians job is to represent, not to be re-elected."
Here is a radical idea.
How about Politicians who do the freaking job we elected them to do in the first place !!
Now there, is some change I can believe in.
I realize that I probably do not have a majority view on this subject, because the majority view is to only suggest those things that can be passed, not to act on those things that actually will make a difference.
This is what pisses me off.
Its why I bother to write these in the first place. I don't care if anybody read this or listens to it or even acts upon it, but , it pisses me off nonetheless. How about You ?
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
My Mercury Gran Marquis A/C
After about 2 years of putting up with it I decided to finally try and figure out what was wrong with my air conditioning on my 2003 Mercury Gran Marquis. All it would do (Heat or Air) was blow through the defroster.
It had heat, through the defroster.
It had AC, through the defroster.
It was an equal opportunity pisser - offer. Wouldn't work well in summer or winter.
We live in Georgia, so both times of the year are bothersome, not too extreme in the Spring or Fall, and can put up with it in the winter, because it doesn't get too cold. In the summer though, different story. 90-100 degrees outside and the pathetic AC blowing through the AC was , well, pretty much worthless.
You got better cooling with the windows down.
Took it to the dealer. What a joke. "Well buddy, your EATC (Electronic Air Temperature Controller) is probably out or you need a new vacuum line." $100 to diagnosis it (that's a hundred bucks to see if a vacuum line is holding vacuum), which is a ridiculous price. "The part is around $600 new or you can get one on eBay for $200, costs about $100 to put it in." He said this with a serious face and didn't even crack a smile, or cough or look away like most con men do.
I said "HAH". Cya. Bye. I'll put up with it for $600-800 dollars to fix it. No friggin way.
Then me and my good friend Google looked upon the internets for salvation and behold a wise man told unto me, "Follow these direction and get the parts from McMaster-Carr (dot com) and do it yourself. Takes about 45 minutes, costs about $1.00 to fix and its no big deal.
Apparently Pretty much any 2002 - 2010 big body Ford, Lincoln, Mercury uses this part and has the same problems about 4 years after you buy the car.
So I took off a piece of trim, undid (4) - 7mm screws from the front, unsnapped (2) electrical connectors and screwed off (2) speed nuts and had the unit out of the car in 3 minutes. No kidding (3) THREE friggin minutes !!
Took the unit into my shop, followed the directions exactly, replaced (4) 7 mm o-rings. lubricated them and put it all back together and guess what. Factory air , just like new car at the showroom. Total time, 35 minutes. Most of that time was spent reading the directions.
So thank you to the internets for giving me this gift.
The directions came from ( http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36922 ) and were posted by some guy with a handle of JACook Senior Member and he fixed my car.
$700 my aching ass.
Oh, same internets fixed my wife's dual zone AC problem on her Grand Prix. $39.95 for a new electronic vent controller and it will freeze you out. Dealer wanted $650 to fix that.
What a bargain , I used google (and using my wife's logic) I saved $1310.95 and fixed two auto AC's
Pretty Cool huh? Thankx Internets !!!!
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
BTW - IN case you need them the directions are at :
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36922
and are inserted below. Thankx Internets !!!!
**** Direction to Fix a Ford EATC Controller ****
Replacing the o-rings requires disassembly of the solenoids, but that's really not that hard to do, if onehas reasonably good mechanical aptitude. But first, make sure they hold vacuum when not energized. Connect a hose to the center vacuum port (where the black tube was connected) and suck it. It should hold vacuum. If it doesn't, the following fix probably isn't for you.The solenoid assembly comes off the EATC module by unscrewing the two T-20 Torx screws on the back side of the module. Pivot the rear of the assembly up, and disengage the tabs at the front of the module. Disconnect the solenoid connector.Lay the solenoid assembly on it's back, and remove the 10 screws holding the solenoids and plenum strap to the plastic frame. At the wiring end of each solenoid, you'll see two metal tabs folded over, that hold the solenoid coil and armature to the solenoid frame. Straighten these tabs and then carefully pull out the armature, while watching you don't lose the spring or plunger that are inside. Note the o-ring on the armature. That's what we're after.Next, slide the coil off the end of the plenum tube, and then pinch the ends of the solenoid frame together to release it from the plenum. Once the solenoid is all apart, fit the armature back into theend of the plenum tube to check that the o-ring has a good snug fit. If it does, clean the inside ofthe tube, and reassemble the solenoid. You can replace the o-ring if you like, but if it fits well, there'sno need.Make sure you pay attention to the screw flanges on the solenoid frame. Pinch the end of the frame together to fit it back onto the plenum. The spacer that goes at the plenum end of the solenoid has the inside diameter undercut, and four grooves. The undercut end goes toward the plenum, and you'll see four ribs at the base of the plenum tube that mate with the four grooves in the spacer. The armature slides back on next, followed by the plunger, and then the spring. (The flat end of the plunger goes into the hole first, if you missed how it came out.) Use a bit of dielectric grease on the o-ring, (I used Nylog) but do not use any oil or anything on the plunger. Make sure the tip of the armature where the plunger seals against it, is clean and shiny. Don't get any dielectric grease on the tip of the armature. Clean and dry is what you want here. Slide the armature back into the end of the solenoid, and while pressing everything back together, fold the metal tabs back over.Repeat this for each of the four solenoids. On mine, the one that was leaking was for the floor vent door (red hose). It was obvious when I got to that one. The armature came out much easier than the others, and when I test-fitted the armature back into the plenum tube,it was a much looser fit.You might be tempted to only replace the O-ring on the leaking solenoid, and leave it at that. Don't.(Guilty as charged, yer honor...) Do them all the first time, or you'll be back in there again.
It had heat, through the defroster.
It had AC, through the defroster.
It was an equal opportunity pisser - offer. Wouldn't work well in summer or winter.
We live in Georgia, so both times of the year are bothersome, not too extreme in the Spring or Fall, and can put up with it in the winter, because it doesn't get too cold. In the summer though, different story. 90-100 degrees outside and the pathetic AC blowing through the AC was , well, pretty much worthless.
You got better cooling with the windows down.
Took it to the dealer. What a joke. "Well buddy, your EATC (Electronic Air Temperature Controller) is probably out or you need a new vacuum line." $100 to diagnosis it (that's a hundred bucks to see if a vacuum line is holding vacuum), which is a ridiculous price. "The part is around $600 new or you can get one on eBay for $200, costs about $100 to put it in." He said this with a serious face and didn't even crack a smile, or cough or look away like most con men do.
I said "HAH". Cya. Bye. I'll put up with it for $600-800 dollars to fix it. No friggin way.
Then me and my good friend Google looked upon the internets for salvation and behold a wise man told unto me, "Follow these direction and get the parts from McMaster-Carr (dot com) and do it yourself. Takes about 45 minutes, costs about $1.00 to fix and its no big deal.
Apparently Pretty much any 2002 - 2010 big body Ford, Lincoln, Mercury uses this part and has the same problems about 4 years after you buy the car.
So I took off a piece of trim, undid (4) - 7mm screws from the front, unsnapped (2) electrical connectors and screwed off (2) speed nuts and had the unit out of the car in 3 minutes. No kidding (3) THREE friggin minutes !!
Took the unit into my shop, followed the directions exactly, replaced (4) 7 mm o-rings. lubricated them and put it all back together and guess what. Factory air , just like new car at the showroom. Total time, 35 minutes. Most of that time was spent reading the directions.
So thank you to the internets for giving me this gift.
The directions came from ( http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36922 ) and were posted by some guy with a handle of JACook Senior Member and he fixed my car.
$700 my aching ass.
Oh, same internets fixed my wife's dual zone AC problem on her Grand Prix. $39.95 for a new electronic vent controller and it will freeze you out. Dealer wanted $650 to fix that.
What a bargain , I used google (and using my wife's logic) I saved $1310.95 and fixed two auto AC's
Pretty Cool huh? Thankx Internets !!!!
Thankx for reading my rant !
bigmike
Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/
I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.
We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!
BTW - IN case you need them the directions are at :
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36922
and are inserted below. Thankx Internets !!!!
**** Direction to Fix a Ford EATC Controller ****
Replacing the o-rings requires disassembly of the solenoids, but that's really not that hard to do, if onehas reasonably good mechanical aptitude. But first, make sure they hold vacuum when not energized. Connect a hose to the center vacuum port (where the black tube was connected) and suck it. It should hold vacuum. If it doesn't, the following fix probably isn't for you.The solenoid assembly comes off the EATC module by unscrewing the two T-20 Torx screws on the back side of the module. Pivot the rear of the assembly up, and disengage the tabs at the front of the module. Disconnect the solenoid connector.Lay the solenoid assembly on it's back, and remove the 10 screws holding the solenoids and plenum strap to the plastic frame. At the wiring end of each solenoid, you'll see two metal tabs folded over, that hold the solenoid coil and armature to the solenoid frame. Straighten these tabs and then carefully pull out the armature, while watching you don't lose the spring or plunger that are inside. Note the o-ring on the armature. That's what we're after.Next, slide the coil off the end of the plenum tube, and then pinch the ends of the solenoid frame together to release it from the plenum. Once the solenoid is all apart, fit the armature back into theend of the plenum tube to check that the o-ring has a good snug fit. If it does, clean the inside ofthe tube, and reassemble the solenoid. You can replace the o-ring if you like, but if it fits well, there'sno need.Make sure you pay attention to the screw flanges on the solenoid frame. Pinch the end of the frame together to fit it back onto the plenum. The spacer that goes at the plenum end of the solenoid has the inside diameter undercut, and four grooves. The undercut end goes toward the plenum, and you'll see four ribs at the base of the plenum tube that mate with the four grooves in the spacer. The armature slides back on next, followed by the plunger, and then the spring. (The flat end of the plunger goes into the hole first, if you missed how it came out.) Use a bit of dielectric grease on the o-ring, (I used Nylog) but do not use any oil or anything on the plunger. Make sure the tip of the armature where the plunger seals against it, is clean and shiny. Don't get any dielectric grease on the tip of the armature. Clean and dry is what you want here. Slide the armature back into the end of the solenoid, and while pressing everything back together, fold the metal tabs back over.Repeat this for each of the four solenoids. On mine, the one that was leaking was for the floor vent door (red hose). It was obvious when I got to that one. The armature came out much easier than the others, and when I test-fitted the armature back into the plenum tube,it was a much looser fit.You might be tempted to only replace the O-ring on the leaking solenoid, and leave it at that. Don't.(Guilty as charged, yer honor...) Do them all the first time, or you'll be back in there again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)