Is It Ironic?

This publisher found a lost James M. Cain novel. They use covers like this:

And this:

Is it ironic or just tacky?

Bike Bags Updated

I was at the Ace Truvalue today and they had this bag on sale for 5 bucks:

I thought that it would make a nice pannier, so I bought it. I made some modifications and 2 hrs later Bob's your uncle a front bag for no more than 7.50 plus labor.

The tools and other stuff:



I used some of an old truck mudflap to stiffen one side, wrapped the edges with some kind of fiberglass tape to limit damage from rubbing and bolted it on.

After cutting it's a bit rough




So I shaved the edges and trimmed the corners:


Then taped the edges:



Then drilled:

 

I didn't take a picture but I use a hole punch driven through the drilled hole to make a hole in the nylon bag; I figured drilling it would ruin the nylon. Then attached the whole mess with button top Allen bolts and nylon nuts, water resistant -- I think -- and they don't back off.

I also attached some old pannier hooks and a re-purposed bungee cord using some scraps of nylon webbing and an s-hook to attach to the rack. I use the hole punch to make the hole for the hooks and then take the backing off and drill the bolt holes.  I always drill both directions as t his seems to get rid of the burrs.

I figure it's about the perfect size for trousers, shirt, socks, unmentionables, files, and lunch. Plus, the external pockets can hold, I don't know, snacks.  I may go get another bag this weekend.

Now there's two:





 At some point, I am going to have to figure out some kind of a rain  cover. Plus, Craftsman makes a  much larger version so when the rear bags die, as die they must, I think I'll just use the bigger one.


The things I carried to work:

In the bag:



On the bike:


Home again.



There was no real difference in the bike handling and with the bag for this stuff, I have room for shopping on the way home.

It's Not The Case That Conservatives Are Heartless Morons; Wait, Yes It Is.

It's wrong to glory in or mock the death of another human being; regardless of who he or she was. Ann Coulter's twitter:

@AnnCoulter Ann Coulter

ONE TROY DAVIS FLAME-BROILED, PLEASE - bit.ly/qPQnV7

Warren Report

If you go here you can watch Elizabeth Warren make monkeys out of the Morning Joe crew. Picking the dumbest questions is difficult; however, I nominate Halpren. China is not now nor will it be any time soon a "military threat" to the USA. If we stopped spending money on new systems and just maintained what we have everyone else in the world would have to combine to come close to what we can do blowing things upwise. The press is filled with idiots who cannot think their way out of water sodden sacks made of paper.

What a Wonderful World it Could Be: Danish Edition

Via, Danish cops doing the kind of non-man-with-the-stick things that offer some dim hope for the future.

David Brooks Failed to Pay Attention

For most of his Presidency, Obama has bent over backwards trying to make deals with the Republicans. In so doing, he has alienated many of his left-wing supporters. This isn't news. Today, however, David Brooks looks at Obama's wholly centrist scheme to raise taxes, cut spending, and fiddle with benefits and decides that Obama has become an ideologue. Brooks is, to be blunt, the silliest man on the planet.

It's not that Obama has become or will govern as a leftist but rather that the Republicans have steadfastly refused to engage in reasoned compromise because they are a bunch of idiots who, as it turns out, hate America's working class.

Oh For Dumb

The New Yorker has an extensive profile (sub req) of Daphne Guinness. She is, to be blunt, a waste of time and wealth. Why, exactly, they made the decision to profile a minor noble whose blather includes fond memories of Oswald Mosley and blather about fashion icons and her obvious inability to think past wasted money on shopping, 6k for crap she can't possible need, and zero sense of  social justice. Louts like her are poster children for 100 percent death duties and 90 percent tax rates after 100k. I swear.

Inverting Our Values

Since, at least, Blackstone a bedrock conviction of the Anglo-American legal tradition concerned the number of guilty men, and presumable women, it was better to let go if it meant convicting one innocent man. It's already clear that Rick Perry thinks that it's better that any number of innocent men and women are executed least one guilty man or women goes unpunished. And now the state of Georgie agrees.

I've asked before and I'll ask again: what in the world is happening to us?