FJ Cruiser: the Never-Ending Platform/Storage...

It's getting much closer to ending!  The air compressor, 2KW inverter, and refrigerator plug are all wired up and tested.  I load-tested the inverter to 1700W without any problem at all.  For the air compressor test, I aired down one tire to 16 pounds, and aired it back up to 33 pounds.  Woo hoo!

But it gets even better.  Over the weekend I stripped all the masking tape from the panels that need both orange and grey deck coating.  I had a minor masking tape disaster - the glue from the masking tape stuck in big gobs to the wood.  I didn't want to chance trying a solvent, so I did it mechanically: I sanded with 220 grit to get rid of the glue.  I went through about 10 sheets of sandpaper real fast, as the masking tape glue quickly gummed up each new sheet.  But I got it all off!

Then I re-masked – with new rolls of masking tape! – to do the rubberized deck coating, a light grey in color.  The masking was easy enough.  Next came a two-part resin-based primer.  Once I mixed this, I had 90 minutes to work – and they weren't kidding!  About 100 minutes after I started (and finished, thankfully) painting, the remaining paint in the can turned hard as a rock.  The primer was kind of weird.  It had the viscosity of water, very thin stuff.  It went on as a beautiful bright white – but within 5 minutes of application, it turned water clear.  Weird stuff!  Once that was on, I roughly sanded it (per directions) with 60 grit sandpaper, then cleaned it off.

Finally I was ready for the rubberized deck coating.  This stuff I got from Cabela's, and it's a water-based paint that dries rubbery, and contains “crumbs” of rubber to add to the effect.  It's water-proof, oil-proof, dirt-proof – perfect for the surface of a platform that will hold two rowdy dogs.  This stuff was really odd to paint.  First, it was quite thick, like blue cheese salad dressing.  Second, the rubber crumbs kept sinking in the can, so I had to mix it every few minutes.  The first coat went on very thick, maybe a tenth inch (that's a lot for paint!).  It dried kind of like mud dries sometimes, with cracks between solid sections that averaged maybe 1/2" in diameter.  But I'd read about this online and wasn't worried; the second coat would fill in those cracks.  And indeed it did, as you can see in the photos below.  As I write this, I've just finished putting on the second coat, and the coating is looking very nice indeed.

So the platform's interior is done.  Well, the complicated stuff, anyway.  And the paint will be dry tomorrow morning.  That means it's time to assemble the final pieces of the platform.  It sure took a long time to get to this point...

The photo dump:

With the wiring complete, it's time to install the (200 amp!) fuse so I can test the inverter, air compressor, and refrigerator outlet...

Looking almost straight down at the rear of the port side of the platform, showing the air compressor and (blue arrow) the air outlet port and (purple arrow) air compressor switch.

First time I've ever used a socket wrench to install a fuse!

Parts with two coats of rubberized deck coating on, baking in the sun...

A close-up of one of the rubberized parts; you can see the rough texture of this stuff, perfect for providing doggie traction...

The Wagan 2KW inverter, installed on the starboard side of the platform...

Four outlets right behind the center console.  These are all GFI'd...

Looking down at the port side, rear of the platform compartment.  The air compressor (blue arrow) sends air to the back end of the port (yellow arrow).  The air compressor switch (red arrow) controls the air compressor relay back on the wiring panel.  The rear panel has it's own set of four outlets (also GFI'd), and you can see the junction box that holds them (green arrow)...

Back side of the inverter.  You can just make out the two 0 gauge DC wires connecting into it (dead center in the photo).  At left is the back of the refrigerator's DC outlet...

Think the IRS is Bad Now? Just Wait...

Senator Orrin Hatch, writing in the Wall Street Journal ($):

Under the Affordable Care Act, premium subsidies—tax credits in ObamaCare designed to defray the cost of purchasing health insurance—will go to some seven million tax filers and flow to households earning as much as $94,000 a year. The credits are both advanceable and refundable, meaning the IRS will pay them first and verify the claims for them later, what some call "pay and chase."

Refundable tax credits are essentially a form of spending through the tax code, something the IRS has struggled to administer for years with other programs. That's why it's not far-fetched to say that these premium credits will go to a lot of people inappropriately, and that we can expect to see a lot of erroneous and fraudulent payments.

Look at the Earned Income Tax Credit. Whether you like this refundable credit or not, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration reported in April that improper payments account for 21% to 25% of total EITC payments in 2012. Take the percentage of improper EITC payments and apply it to the approximate $1 trillion we'll spend on ObamaCare premium credits in the decade beginning 2014. The math shows that we could see between $210 billion and $250 billion distributed to those who shouldn't get it—because the IRS has no system in place to verify reported household income.

Put all the potential fraud and improper payments with these credits on top of the already soaring budget for the premium subsidies and we're headed for a disaster.

This speaks to something that puzzles me deeply about advocates of big government (i.e., Progressives and Liberals).  Anyone who experiences the joys of “service” at the DMV, or at the U.S. Post Office surely must at least have doubts about the efficiency and efficacy of government-run enterprises.  Anyone who has ever been in the U.S. military can regale you with endless tales of waste and mismanagement.  I was once part of a large working party on a Navy ship that had the job of taking a brand-new, never-used spare computer and throwing it over the side of the ship in a deep part of the Pacific.  Why would we do such a stupid thing?  Because the budgetary rules determined next year's funding level by this year's spending.  One way to spend a bunch of money: throw an expensive (roughly $300k) computer over the side!  That's your government bureaucracy at work.

I think the solution is more radical than what Senator Hatch proposes, though: the entire income tax system should be rethought from scratch, with an emphasis on simplicity and transparency.  Little Estonia is an inspiring example with its flat tax...

Tired of Voting for Rats?

This question strikes right to the heart of a perennial dilemma for me: in most elective offices, there isn't any candidate whom I want to vote for.  They're all rats!

In Mexico, the problem of rat candidacy is arguably even worse than in the U.S., and the people there are consequently perhaps even more frustrated than we are.  Sergio Chamorro, of Mexico City, had an inspired solution: he's running Morris, his cat, as the anti-rat candidate.  And his solution has in turn inspired others in Mexico to put up their own pets and farm animals as candidates.

Think about it.  Which sounds better to you?  A Congress populated by the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Graham, McCain, and Feinstein – or by Fido and Fluffy?  I know which makes me feel safer!

Time to Reexamine Our Government's Structure...

Jay Cost:

The Declaration of Independence vested all sovereign power in the people alone, while the Constitution established a government to manage that power in a republican fashion. While the people still swear fealty to the founding ideals, they have not put much thought recently into the problems the Founders tackled. As society has become more complex, the government has, too; Americans have not reexamined the structure of government, in an age in which it accounts for more than 20 percent of the national economy, to ensure it still reflects the republican spirit. In fact, there has not been a serious public discussion about the organization of the bureaucracy since the 1880s, even as it has doubled in size many times over. And so today, it is a vast enterprise of millions of workers, with precious little oversight from the people’s elected representatives.

Read the whole thing...

40 Powerful Photos...

A collection of 40 of the most powerful photographic images ever taken (according to who, I'm not sure :).  Many of these are famous, like the one at right; most of them I'd agree are very powerful indeed...

Happy Father's Day, Fathers...

I can't be with my father today, and even if I was with him, most likely he wouldn't know me.  He's suffering from age-related memory loss, and only occasionally recognizes even close family members.

But my memory is still working well, and today I'm remembering some of the many trips he and I took together.  Our destination was always some beautiful part of the U.S.: Mt. Lassen National Park, the Big Sur coastline, the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, Hawai'i, etc.  Searching for interesting and beautiful plants and wildflowers was always part of the plan.  Those trips, usually a week or two long, were nonstop father/son talkathons.  Subjects ranged all over the map, but the ones that I found most interesting were recollections of his WWII experiences, the history of our family, and his perceptions of how the world worked (very different than mine!). 

I cherish those trips, and I am oh so grateful that I was able to find the time and money to take them while he still could.  Through them, I was able to spend many weeks of quality time with my dad while we were both adults, even though we live over 2,000 miles apart.  I've made many bad choices in my life, but the choice to make those trips wasn't one of them...

I know you can't read this, dad, nor would it make sense to you even if you could.  But “Happy Father's Day!” anyway.  Your son is thinking of you today...

Et Tu, West Virginia?

Jared Marcum is a 14 year old eighth grader from West Virginia.  In April, he wore the T-shirt at right to school.  It's an NRA shirt promoting gun rights protection.

He got into an argument with a teacher who didn't like the shirt, was charged with obstructing the education process and obstructing an officer, was arrested and suspended.  That's bad enough, especially when you find out that the officer doesn't even allege that any threats were made.

But now it gets even worse: Jared is facing prosecution, with the possibility of a $500 fine and a year in jail.

This is just plain crazy.  A kid wears a perfectly legal, non-obscene T-shirt to school – and he could end up in jail?  What the hell is happening to my country?!?!  Jared should be celebrated for his willingness to stand up for his beliefs – a quintessentially American behavior – not persecuted.

Suddenly, I hear drums in the distance.  The drums of doom...

Best Two-Word Description of the Federal Government Evah!!

Via the inimitable Mark Steyn, in an excellent post:

Bozo Leviathan

Excellent, Mr. Steyn.  Just...excellent.

On The Iranian Presidential Election...

Paul Mirengoff (at PowerLine) has a very short post that sums up my reaction very nicely:

THE LESSER OF SEVERAL EXCREMENTS

The AP reports that Hasan Rowhani has declared the winner of Iran’s presidential vote. Rowhani reportedly gained 50.7 percent of the vote, thereby avoiding a run-off.

AP describes Rowhani as a “moderate cleric.” But I prefer the description provided by an Iranian friend of my wife. She calls Rowhani “shit, power two” (i.e. squared) as opposed to his opponents who are shit, power three or four.

Perfect.

Just When You Think We Must Have Reached Peak Scandal...

...another scandalous shoe drops.  Usually on a Friday afternoon, too, so the media won't pay so much attention.

This Friday's bombshell: the NSA admits that it can listen to phone calls of U.S. citizens without a warrant.  Furthermore, it's easy to arrange: any authorized NSA agent (of which there are thousands) simply decides he or she wants to listen to a call, and they do it.  That's it.

Somewhere, George Orwell is smirking...

Dear NSA...

Zombie sends the NSA an email:

To: doesn’t_matter@you’ll_read_this_regardless_of_the_address.com

From: zombie@z0mbietime.com


Dear NSA,

Constitution Allah Ackbar Tea Party bomb abortion patriot gun IRS Islam dog whistle Obama prayer tax surveillance.

There. Now that I’ve gotten your attention, can we have a chat?

If you have any pull with the American Psychiatric Association, could you please recommend to them that the psychological state formerly known as “paranoia” should be no longer defined as a mental illness? Asylums all across the country are filled with people whose only neurosis is the vague feeling that they are being spied on or followed by unseen powerful enemies. But now we know that everyone is being spied on every time they pick up the phone, buy something, use the Internet, or walk around in public — so it turns out that these “paranoid” patients aren’t delusional after all. It seems rather unfair to lock us them up and classify us them as crazy if our vague feelings of being stalked by the government turned out to be true.

To make sure you get this message, may I also say 9/11 Eric Holder birth certificate Bill Ayers drone Orwell Anonymous leak.

And in conclusion, just in case your algorithm has gotten overloaded, I’d like to not mention my private, personal opinions about the Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Ninth Amendment (and you really don’t want to know what I think about the Sixteenth Amendment). For more information, please read the Fifth Amendment.

Thank you.

— zombie

PS — Tell the IRS that the best times for for my upcoming audit are Tuesdays and Thursdays, but unannounced visits from the EPA, FBI, OSHA or ATF would be more convenient on Monday afternoons or Wednesday mornings. And, needless to say, you can eavesdrop any ol’ time.

I hope the Zombie doesn't mind the copy - no excerpt made any sense.

Quote of the Day...

Sarah Palin, on the U.S. getting involved in the Syrian civil war:

Let Allah sort it out.

Oh, Sarah, please run for some national office. Please?

FJ Cruiser: The Platform Assembly Begins...

The orange paint is dry on the platform parts, so I've now assembled (in the FJ) the structural components.  The lid and doors still have to be painted with rubberized decking material, so they're not installed yet.  Once I had the structural components installed, I could mount the air compressor and inverter, and start all the associated wiring and plumbing (for the air compressor).  That's now well underway, as you can see in today's photo dump:

The 2000 watt inverter can draw up to 300 amps (at 12 volts) while handling peak loads.  This means I need a 300 amp Class T “slo blo” fuse, and these fuses are not small.  The fuse is mounted inside the engine compartment, close to the batteries, but there wasn't any convenient place to mount it.  So I fabricated this aluminum plate, tapping holes in it to mount the fuse holder, and drilling holes to match three existing threaded holes on the port front fender well...

The cables to handle 300 amps are massive – 0 gauge cable.  The copper part of these cables is 3/8" in diameter and made from over 1,000 tiny diameter wires, so despite the thickness they are still very flexible – key for easy routing.  The insulation is 1/8" thick, so overall the cables are 5/8" in diameter.  When Debbie first saw them in the truck, she asked me what the “hoses” were for.  That's how big they are!  As you can see, the terminations for this cable are equally massive...

Here's the fuse block installed and wired.  The fuse block is at the right bottom of the photo, with a clear plastic cover installed over the place where the fuse itself goes (it's not installed yet).  You can see the edge of the aluminum plate I fabricated.  The white oval shows where the two 300 amp cables penetrate the firewall (the top one is +12, the bottom is ground).  These enter the passenger cab just above the driver's left big toe.  From there I routed the two cables up into the dashboard, across to the center, down into the center console, and then out the back of the center console.  At that point they enter the platform I'm building...

Here's the first part of the wiring inside the platform that I've completed.  The photo shows the area on the port side of the platform, between the port rib and the port side of the FJ.  The orange panel on the left of the photo is the rear side of the forward rib.  The arrows point to various components:
purple: air compressor motor
yellow: cover for +12V distribution block, milled from a piece of oak
red: ground distribution block, milled from a piece of brass (identical to +12)
blue: air compressor motor relay
gray: fuse block (with plenty of room for expansion!)

Around Our Yard...

While working outside yesterday, this tarantula hawk (a large wasp) landed on my arm.  I took its picture after it finished resting and set off again on its quest for a tarantula.  This is the third time this has happened to me over the years we've lived out here, and it's a thrill each time.  First there's the sense of danger: the sting of the tarantula hawk is rated as the second most painful sting in the world (on the Schmidt sting pain index).  Entomologist Justin Schmidt, the creator of that index, describes the tarantula hawk's sting as “Blinding, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.”  Yes, he's actually experienced it.  Then there's the tarantula hawk's appearance: its body is an iridescent deep blue, and its wings are a shimmering orange.  Then you think about its lifestyle: the large female wasps spend their adult lives hunting for a tarantula spider (yes, we have them here), which they sting, paralyzing it – after which they lay their eggs in it.  The wasp eggs hatch inside the tarantula and the hungry little wasps then consume the entire thing.  It's thrilling to have one of these land on your arm!

The acacia in our yard just started blooming.  Various parts of it will be in bloom for the next few weeks.  These blooms are large enough to be attractive even at a distance, but up close they're much better...

And our “Desert Museum” palo verde tree just keeps getting better.  There are more flowers on it now than we've ever seen before, and the yellow carpet of fallen blossoms below it keeps getting thicker.  The tree swarms with honey bees, bumble bees, and hummingbirds.  Awesome!

Why Is Gay Pornography So Popular in Pakistan?

Fascinating.

Tap It: The NSA Slow Jam...

From Reason, this is a very funny spoof.  My favorite line: “Everybody come quick - a straw man has been killed!”:

Of Burgers, Bikinis, and ObamaCare...

How can you resist a headline like that?  Here's the sub:

Andy Puzder, the man who revived Carl's Jr., explains why he's not expanding in California and how the Affordable Care Act is hurting employment. Expect to order with an iPad.

You should definitely read the whole thing...

One Awesome Young Lady...

Can you even imagine doing this as an adult, let alone at age 11?  I can't...

The Flow of Mistrust...

Richard Fernandez analyzes the current NSA scandals, and concludes:

For this reason the current crisis of trust in tech cannot be dispelled without resort to a political solution, just as the question of trusting the USAF with nukes cannot be severed from the question of whether those in charge of the Air Force daily dream of nuking America or not. The Administration is part of the problem. Though they pretend it is not, the quality of their character is relevant. In fact, the doubts over that quality are the central element in this crisis of trust. It spreading the contagion of mistrust into the system. The vector of doubt doesn’t go from Tech to the Administration. It goes from the Administration to Tech.

Read the whole thing; it's excellent.

The IMF Has Some Advice for the U.S...

Friend and reader Simon M. passes this along, with the comment “Good grief, Charlie Brown!”  Basically, the IMF is worried about the U.S. economy (the source of most of its funding), and wants us to undo sequestration, spend more money, collect more taxes, continue the massive “quantitative easing”, and cut entitlements.

I detect a little self-interest in this advice :)