If You Are Religious

I tend to believe most people who claim to be religious are, in fact, hypocrites. But, assuming there are some actual Christians reading this, let Bernie put the Republican budget into perspective…

Update: In case you thought I was being uncharitable when I said most Christians are hypocrites. Please see below…

‘Christian’ Lobbyists Embrace Ohio Republican Budget That Guts Programs to Help the Poor and Hungry

Insanity

The science behind vaccines is some of the most stringent in medicine. Double-blind tests are mandatory. Vaccines have been one of the most important developments of modern medicine; perhaps only second to antibiotics.

CDC vaccine advisers who were removed from committee by RFK Jr. speak out

NIH has been a great leader in medical research and outreach. It has made some of the best science based educational computer software out there.

Judge rules some NIH grant cuts illegal, saying he’s never seen such discrimination in 40 years

Capricious, and racist, these cuts were designed to please their fan base. This guy should know.

Trump’s former surgeon general is now one of his most pointed critics

No Kings Day

Kent, Ohio today
Kent No Kings Day 2025

My wife and I attended the “No Kings” protest in Kent today. Nice turnout, great vibe, it felt good. I saw quite a few veterans there as well as other folks you wouldn’t expect to see at a protest. I saw two people with a sign that read something to the effect of “I have too many reasons to be here to list on this sign”. I only saw one really vulgar sign that contained the “F” word. Most of the rest were clever or just sincere. One veteran carried a sign that read “My oath did not expire. I’m still defending the constitution” which I thought was nice.

Cleveland is Pretty Great

This Is the Most Affordable U.S. City to Live Comfortably—and Here’s Exactly How Much You Need to Earn

A few months ago I published a Youtube video from an Irish travel show on Cleveland as a vacation destination for Europeans. With one of the best art museums in the world, as well as many other fine museums, a world class symphony orchestra, something like 173 parks including a national park, a vibrant food scene and most of all cheep prices. Cleveland is pretty great. Now if we could get somebody to stop scaring away the foreign visitors we could build our brand as a vacation destination.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Monologue Last Night

I don’t normally post Kimmel’s stuff. While I think he is usually dead on in his criticism of Trump, I frequently don’t enjoy his comedy sketches. The events in Los Angles are a welcome distraction for Trump, from his “Big Beautiful Bill” that will kick 7.7 million people off Medicaid, reduce or eliminate SNAP benefits for needy families, make most civil servants eligible to fire and replace with sycophants, and so many more dreadful things. Not to mention Elon’s casual mention of Trump being in the Epstein files (something most of us knew anyway). So Trump wants this fight. Kimmel puts the whole thing into perspective…

It is interesting that Trump’s insurgents, who broke into the Capitol and assaulted police, were “fine people” who were mistreated. But these protestors are “bad actors” and “paid protestors”.

I Could Watch This Guy for Hours

I first heard about “Mend It Mark” when there was an outcry from the Youtube community that he had received a take down notice from a “high end” audio manufacturer called Tom Evans. It became a right to repair issue and many Youtubers posted a copy of the video and dared Tom Evans to try and take them down. Anyway, Mend It Mark is a really good channel of a very competent electronics tech doing his job. Like furniture and tool restoration videos, it is soothing. Here Mark does a quick, but thorough repair on a 90’s Technics Amp.

The Tom Evans thing is pretty neat. He basically reverse engineers a piece of audio kit that has every part “potted” (identifying numbers have been erased or covered on every component) and created his own repair manual. Amazing talent this guy has. The video was restored and is here…

The £25,000 Pre-Amp that went Wrong – Tom Evans Mastergroove SR mkIII

Arnold is the Voice of Common Sense

Arnold Schwarzenegger tells climate activists to ‘stop whining’ because they don’t have any support from the White House. ‘Sometimes problems need to be solved by the people’

Will Smith said when he was just starting out he met Arnold and said, “I want to be a movie star like you. How do I do it?” Arnold replied, “If you want to be a movie star you can’t just be popular in the U.S.” Smith said it was common sense, but no one else ever told him that, and it was important. Back before he was governor in California, Arnold had a Humvee converted to electric. He said, “No one will buy electric cars until they’re sexy.” Tesla proved that one right. Watching a video of a Tesla Plaid Edition blow the doors off a Dodge Hellcat in a drag race was pretty cool. Arnold often has the sense to put things into perspective really simply. If you haven’t before, watch his video he released after the January 6th 2020 insurgence. Great stuff. Sadly you have to be native born to be President because he’s one Republican I would vote for.

The Planet is on Fire

Climate change is going to cost A LOT. This year is predicted to have record temperatures. Guess what year is the current record holder? That would be last year. Second place goes to 2023, third to 2022 and so on. The longer we wait to deal with this, the longer we stall, the more it will cost our kids.

Summer 2025 forecast calls for ‘overwhelmingly above normal’ heat starting in June

Consequences
More than 90 wildfires are out of control in Canada

Fires in Canada

Third Time’s the Charm

Well, hopefully. This is the third vintage receiver or amplifier I have ordered from ebay. Let’s hope it all works out. Below is a photo of my just purchased Kenwood KA-701 from about 1979. It has 80 watts per channel. That’s 80 1970’s watts which is about 160 in today’s numbers or if it’s a modern Chinese digital amp it would be rated about a million watts.

Kenwood Power!

If anyone is keeping track, the first (a Sansui receiver) purchase was canceled. The second (a Pioneer integrated amp.) arrived (from Japan) damaged. That was a fun set of returns since I also had to return the transformer I had to order from Amazon to power it. Since it used weird Japanese 100 watt electricity. Glad this one is made for the American market. Looking forward to seeing how it pairs with the speakers (a pair of Paradigm Monitor 11’s). It was supposedly serviced, cleaned and tested to spec. and it comes with a one year warranty.

Update: It came, packed to withstand a hurricane. Sounds great, it is particularly good with jazz. I started with Van Halen’s first album and was not that impressed, but followed with Billie Holiday and was amazed.

Drugs are Bad, Unless Elon Does Them

Drug claims overshadow Musk’s Oval Office farewell

Hmmm. Well I’m sure that’s not going to fly…

Stephen Miller on report of Musk drug use: We’re worried about drugs crossing the border

I guess it did. Incompetence and drug use all in one. Invest in Tesla now!

BTW, Those that are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. If only Musk studied the stories of other businessmen who tried this…

100 years before Elon Musk, one of America’s richest men came to fix Washington. It didn’t end well.

The richest men are always surrounded by sycophants who will tell them they are geniuses. Maybe they are smart, but they are also lucky. They forget that part. Business and government are two completely different entities. They would be wise to remember that. It looks like Elon also thought he knew more than doctors and prescribed himself medications he shouldn’t have. Elvis fell for that one.