Neanderpundit

On today, I’d like to raise a distinction that a lot have ignored, or take for granted.

Supporting the troops means supporting their mission.

The mission of our troops- all political nonsense aside- is to keep Muslim terrorism from flooding the USA.

If you labor under the impression that Islam is peaceful or Muslims aren’t out to do us harm, you are patently an idiot.

If you don’t support the troops, if you don’t support their mission, it means you don’t care if their way of life infects the USA.

it means you are OK with Muslims murdering innocents in the name of their ideology
it means you are OK with Muslims converting our country to a theorcracy
it means you are OK with Muslims oppressing women in whatever way they choose.
it means you are OK with Muslims destroying Israel and murdering all the Jews.
It means you are OK with a 100 percent male dominated society
It means you are OK with complete male dominance over females at all times.
it means you are OK with complete male control of women’s ‘reproductive freedom”
it means you are OK with “honor killings“- women murdered because of some real or imagined slight to the men.
it means you are OK with female genital mutilation– the removal of all or parts of a woman’s genitals so that she is incapable of experiencing sexual pleasure, and so that the man may be more adequately serviced and pleased.

All of these things are imposed in every country where Islam takes hold. And if you think to yourself “That can’t happen here” do a little googling. All these things are already happening in areas of the USA.

No, not all muslims practice FGM. Not all muslims practice honor killings. But if you aren’t OK with the troops keeping Islam at bay in the east, you are OK with anything any of them bring here.

I am not. I respect women- yes, even those who don’t respect themselves- and I will not stand by and allow my wife, my daughter, my friends be subjected to the kind of opression Islam brings. So I support the troops and their mission.

I have been thinking about the people who have shaped my life, and with rare exception, they have been people who served in the military.

Even now, the people for whom I have the most respect are former military men and women.

I can’t repeat often enough what others have already said, what I have said here before. Thanks. Watch your six.

I tend to do my best diagnostic work over the long haul. About three winters ago, the Exploder began to produce a little ticking noise. Not unheard of, and not uncommon. My first thought was to yank a head and see fi I had a sticky lifter- a very common thing on older 302 V-8 engines, and this one is sporting 260,000 miles.

Today, obsessing a bit over whether I should try to rip this lifter out and replace it before going to Dallas, or see how it fares during the trip, I had an interesting thought.

I had been under the truck yesterday, doing a trans filter change. A pain, but worth doing on a truck that old. And while I was down there, I noticed the headpipe on the driver’s side was clean. Not “new” clean but abnormally hot clean- like it’s had a lot of heat.

So tonight I scoot back under (amazing how easy this is, when you don’t have an extra spare tire!) and look at that joint. I can slip the tip of my knife blade into the joint.

So I spray a little penetrant on the bolt, and unscrew it.

Now, most may not have any idea of the import of that statement. Let me repeat: I sprayed a little penetrant on an EXHAUST BOLT, and then UNSCREWED IT.

mechanics among you will marvel at that statement. For the rest, unscrewing an exhaust system bolt on a 9 year old truck with 261,000 miles on it is IMPOSSIBLE. it has NEVER HAPPENED.

until today.

So I took it out, ran the threads with a die, anti-seized the bejus out of it, and ran it back in.

And my rattle almost disapeared.

I still have to do the OTHER bolt, but I will get to it when I can.

Just knowing that it’s not a lifter rattling around in there waiting to fail is a godsend. It makes me feel 100% better about the trip.