I wrote this during the 2010 state of the union.  Without edit, it still apply to the healthcare bill.  

Please poke holes where this does not work. Revised recently due to the state of the union. Now I need to find an office to run for.

Politician vs Statesman: an angry essay by Robert Masek

So what’s a Statesman, (as defined by me) A person who is voted into public office in order to work for the public sector and then return to the private sector. A person who is in government to help others, do their civic duty. SOmeone who decides that everyone else who could win is an asshat.

A Politician is a scumbag who spends years working themselves up the ranks so they have the leverage to get what they want. Scumbags who lie, rape, steal, deceive, obfuscate, collude, and most could not even get a credit card.

So how do we fix it? 

First step is realizing "we" have to fix it, meaning You and I will be involved. First thing we as a people do is start at home. Pay off our debt, biggest interest rate first. Credit cards > car loan> home loan. Live within our means, and then when it is all paid off, start saving money. Sure it is hard. but, when banks no longer see lending as a huge profit center, the whole system will change. then when issues come, we will have some money to pay for help instead of asking for help from the government. less help from the government = less government jobs. less federal jobs and assistance = less taxes for everyone. I am not against assistance, I just think it should not be through the government and should be handled at the community level. less administration and oversight is easy when the people handling the money have to make eye contact which if my observations of people are correct, it is harder ethically to steal from the needy when you have to see the hand your taking from.

I have a great way to fix government. Super easy with the current infrastructure.

Term limits for everyone. Legislature, judicial, everyone. I think an entire new breed of elected official will show up. People who run business in the real world. Who add value to the country instead of leaches like investment bankers, lawyers, non value succubuses.

No lobbyists. Listen to me, to my parents, to people who pay taxes, not who are paid to look after an interest of some guy with more money which should not equal more pull with the government.

Tax the heck out of imports. So what if a 52 inch plasma costs 8 grand instead of 4. What do we need a giant tv for. How about we go outside and enjoy the diversity of environments this country affords us, read, share books, talk to our neighbors. Live in a community and stop trying to have a house full of technology made in china designed in India. During world war 2 we were known as the sleeping giant. An industrial power house. Now, find a kid who even knows what a lathe is. We couldn’t manufacture our way out of a paper bag.

Public review of all bills. Before anything voted on, it has 7 days unmodified of public review. We can all read it, on the internet at a library, newspaper, somewhere. What, it is wasteful to print a 400 page bill to review; maybe we should limit a bill to 4 pages. Less words are easier to understand. No pork.

Make them show up to work. How many votes does a senator have to miss to be dismissed? A 5 day work week, sounds good to me.  How about compensation, everyone gets a choice between a Ford Focus, Chevy Aveo, or Dodge Neon. Government officials should be rewarded enough to serve their follow man.

Live by all the rules they vote for. Yes, they would have to pay into ss and would loose their death benefits like all other citizens. How about retirement benefits, none. No continual pay, no healthcare. And if they commit a felony, forget about getting voted into office. How can someone have a publicly elected position as a felon and not allow a felon to vote?

Can’t run for a new job while you have the first elected one. IE while your the governor, you have to wait till after your out of office to run for senator. In the private sector, your boss usually will not allow you to spend 20 hours a week trying to get a better job on his dime. why do we allow it in government?

Get rid of the irs, flat taxes, no loopholes. You make money in the US, you pay US taxes.

Pay the stupid debt off.  How come I can’t just make up money? If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Be more efficient, get rid of the rules we don’t enforce, and the stupid ones, like no texting while driving. Common sense will do a lot for this country, your kids are dumb, go do homework with them. Your fat, go work out. Your in debit, stop buying things.

Pay teachers more, and have the pay be performance based. Fire the crap ones.

All government officials’ schedules are public including who they met with, and minutes from the meeting. Open and honest government.

I can follow a budget, put it all online. why do we need a special sub-comitee when we have a 300 million person auditing team who can do the work for free. all we need is the entire budget, and this is the important part, actual accounting of moneys spent available online in real time.

Require a civics test to vote. Require citizenship to vote.  

Your an illegal alien and want to be a citizen?  No problem, you start paying taxes pass a civics test and the actual cost of administration.

Gay marriage? go for it!

Who pays for college? all that money we spent on the IRS.

Last but not least, everyone in this litigious society takes responsibility for there own actions.

Curved rafters: Plans E through G

Someone thought throwing buns at the safety fan would be a good time.  It was.  The photo turned out pretty cool where you can see through the blade from the exposure.  

It was a rainy weekend on the forecast which meant a full house at MakeIt Labs Adam was working on the TR6 getting the suspension back together.  Riley powder coated a friends trucks on his long board.  Paul was getting ready for his glass class.  Rob R was working on the wall for the CNC Plasma cutter.  Libby and I got to work on making curved beams.  

The first setup was to put the second bevel onto the rafters this would allow them to sit flush to the main roof beam.  In keeping with the ReUse theme, Libby and I have been making our own Iced tea at home and bringing it with us.  I like my stainless bottles, and Bamboo Bottle for a durable (Libby and I drop them, leave them on bumpers as we drive off, etc, all the time.)  We have been doing pretty good with making food at home and not going out to eat lately.

Stacks of rafters ready to be cut.  

 First try Plan E: Portable bad saw.  We tried remounting the Portable band saw to the arm and taking small cuts.  Well, the iced tea was good at least.  The saw bounced and would not track.  The blade pulled to the inside and left an angle on the cut.  On to the drawing board

Plan F: for fail.  I just had no plan F, we took a brake and grilled some food.  Plan F has been the best so far.

Using a High precision Layout tool (sharpie) we used the jig as a big compass.

Plan G use the Circle cutting truss to as a giant compass.  It worked.  We had to remove any screws that might have been in the way of the cut and then used a jig saw and time to cut it out.  the blade walked some and gave us a not so straight cut.

Libby cuts segments so we don't have a giant chunk of scrap.  

Before we do any cutting we need to remove all screws one screw will (and did ) destroy a jigsaw blade.

Libby follows the line as best she can.  The laminated beams were tough to keep cutting correct.

Paul gets his glass class ready for students.  It is exciting when folks learn things.

Libby traces an arc to make sure no screws will get cut and damage a blade on the Jig Saw.

This is what a screw in the exact wrong position goes.  

It got to a point where Libby and I gave up for the evening beyond cleaning up. We left with 14 of 24 rafters cut and no energy.  Back at it in the AM.

In the morning, we started cutting but Libby had the glass class.  She was making a birthday gift and learning about glass grinding.

Grinding curves into the glass chunk.

After a few hours of instruction, Libby, Mike and Nate made some very cool projects.

Celestina tests her RGB LED lights for the hamburger trailer.  I am ready for her to start serving hamburgers.

 Libby cut most of the rafters out after class while I worked on the peak beams and large rafters.  They were all made up of 4x4's and 4x6's.

We had to pull some shallow angles that our setup tool would not do anything above 50 degree's.  I use a machinist Layout Square to get the complementary angles and make a 22.5 degree angle.  

Look at that giant beam waiting for some glue and a big curved cut.  

This is what that big beam looks like in profile.

A detail of the main joint.  It should work.  In theory.  it will be made in two parts and assembled with the gusset up at camp with Lag Bolts we recovered from the Pallets.    

This is what we made today.  Plenty strong.

All of the parts constructed up to this point.  

All we have left to cut aside from Roof and wall sheathing.  Progress is happening.  

Adams truck full of scrap and cut off;s from this weekend. time for a bonfire.  

With any luck, the last two pallets will come in this weekend and we can finish these rafters up this weekend.  Time for a nap.