Burn-E

So I got bit hard by the road bike bug early in the pandemic and it’s been a swirling mass of N+1 since. The Madone was beautifully light but I wanted something light that could accommodate wider tires and disc brakes for gravel and trails when called for - this led to the 2020 Domane SL6 that I fortunately snapped up before the bike supply chain completely dried up. This was an important addition because when I added a Kickr trainer for winter riding I quickly learned that the Madone was not built for the stresses of trainer riding. So I cleaned up the Domane, transitioned to waxing the chain and it became my full time training bike. Then in early March 2021 I took a spill, cracked a couple ribs and learned that carbon and aluminum aren’t the strongest join points for the rear dropout. Rather than being without a bike for 6 weeks minimum waiting on a repair / pulling the Domane off the trainer when I was still spending most days indoors riding, I picked up a mint 2018 Emonda SLR 9 which quickly became the primary road bike as I found there weren’t as many opportunities for trail / gravel riding as I anticipated. So that’s the fleet and where all of my energy (and spare cash) has been focused the last couple of years until my daughter’s accident pulled me back into working on Volvos. Mike knows all this because we swap updates regularly for indoor Zwift and outdoor rides. Some day we’ll do RAGBRAI together, right Mike? 😄

Pics or GTFO 🤣 @flyfishing3 the guy on LinkedIn runs a window washing business. I mean seriously? I guess I’ve been spending so much time in Australia lately where they kind of give you a funny look if you don’t have a tattoo.

Because @flyfishing3 (Mike) has a thing about tattoos. Did this guy steal his idea from you and then publish it on LinkedIn?

😂 Biden isn’t done. Not even close

I travel frequently and spend time across Europe including the UK and Sweden. I don’t know what kind of places your cousins are hanging out in but unless you’re planning on starting a fight with someone or importing illegal material you’ll be as safe there as you are here.

More like $400 Million and counting. If all he could make was a 10 fold return off that kind of capital he’s a piss poor investor. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html

My taxes stayed about the same dollar wise, then again I have 5 kids under 17 plus other factors put us well beyond the standard deduction so when I got done itemizing everything netted out same as previous years. My rate went up though so this change actually cost me about $1000.

Definitely still interested in the driver's side and passenger's side fronts assuming they are clean. Send photos and price.

Surprised the Parkland shooting didn't even raise a blip here. Especially with how the students are going to town on the politicians.

The Wolff revelations - if they're even 10% true (and tweets by the part owner of the Hollywood Reporter provide supporting evidence for the entire chain of conversation with Aisles and Bannon at the dinner in NYC), are pretty damning. And according to him there are even worse details to come in the book. 2018 is starting to feel like the year the wheels fall off this rolling dumpster fire. But who the hell knows?

Still interested in those window switches if you're selling them.

This is the only photo I can find of Steve's battlewagon:

you laugh because you know he’s right Mike

I'm not a huge fan of David Frum, but this is possibly the most cogent discussion of why the gun debate never goes anywhere. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/the-real-common-sense-tactics-the-debate-is-missing/542229/ We're really talking about throwing out a few life preservers rather than confronting the issue directly. Confiscation won't happen, not now anyway, but placing severe restrictions in place would be a great first step. And if we followed it with a proper education campaign supported by deep research into the actual state of the State concerning firearms then we might begin to change the mindset. Cigarettes used to be the coolest thing and I know many senior citizens who still scoff at the idea of wearing a seatbelt. That changed with research and education. There is no education required to acquire a gun license in Illinois, even in Cook County where I live which is one of the most restrictive areas of the country. No warnings are provided. You just go out and pick up the weapon and the ammunition with an additional background check to back up the one the State Police performed when you requested your FOID that you have to present in order to buy a gun. Nothing like the steps you have to go through in order to get a drivers license. Here's an outline of what is required in Illinois: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-obama-gun-control-illinois-impact-met-20160105-9-story.html

Never going to happen. You’d start Civil War 2

Alden, one again you're too milquetoast for your own good on questions like this. There's always an alternative for you to consider.

Actually, one thing will likely happen and that is the restriction of any device that can be used to make a semi-automatic rifle an automatic rifle. Starting with bump stocks. Republicans realize they need a win here that shows they did something. Closing this loophole will give them some red meat and cover. Will it change the reality that people can still craft their own trigger mechanisms or manufacture their own bump stocks? No, but it will push those things into the illegal category. Is it a big change? Not in the grand scheme of things since fully automatic weapons are rarely encountered in these situations but like I said, the Republicans and NRA will take it as an easy win. Alden, right now it's easier to acquire a gun than it is to build a bomb. Guns will continue to be the weapon of choice for these kinds of atrocities and as a result legislation and restrictions that make sense are vastly more important than worrying about bombs.

And herein lies the problem in a single sentence. Gun control ≠ confiscation. But the NRA has spent MILLIONS impressing upon every single mind that is willing to listen that once you put in some limits the slippery slope awaits. And as a result we continue to step in the gory mess of bloody shootings that are the natural outcome of the gun craze that has overtaken America. We're not preserving history. The reality in history is that people rarely fired their guns. And especially not at others. Certainly not the rugged cowboy nor the struggling farmer nor the celebrated trapper. We've so romanticized this expectation through Hollywood fiction that no one knows what reality is any more.

Hey Lucas, I get your libertarian approach but the reality is the type of gun and the amount of ammunition it holds had a direct correlation to the number of dead and injured in the massacre - there is no better word - that happened in Vegas. Is there a reason why a civilian needs the ability to shoot a gun in fully automatic mode? No. Is there a reason why a civilian needs a magazine that holds more than 12-30 rounds? No. Yes people kill people and they will find highly unusual ways to accomplish it. Look at the assholes who blew up a truck next to the pre-school in the Oklahoma Federal building. But, that does not mean we need to ease the path for them. No other country in the world has these kinds of massacres on this level committed so frequently by civilians. It just doesn't happen. And the responsible and reasonable person asks the question: how do we stop this? People say that the crazy or angry people will just do it with knives or rocks or trucks. Possibly. But if that's the case then why does every patriot not arm themselves with an arsenal of knives or rocks or trucks or bomb making materials? Because they recognize the simplicity of the gun as a weapon for self defense and for portably spreading death quickly, precisely, cheaply, and decisively. A reasonable mind then recognizes that it is possible to take measures that will limit and reduce this impact. Other countries have successfully accomplished this, even those where a gun is in every home (i.e Switzerland). How many lives are acceptable before we step back and say, we need to actually do something rather than send out hopes and prayers? I've outlined what are definitely reasonable measures starting with tracking and doing thorough background checks that tie in with mental health checks. The NRA is a disease that is allowing the thousands of deaths to happen across our country and atrocities like this to happen regularly. We need to find a cure. And there are reasonable measures that can start to change the circumstances. Gun barrels will overheat if you keep putting bullets through them at rapid fire to the point that the barrel will distort and deteriorate accuracy but you also run the risk of ammunition cooking off (exploding in the chamber). This is primarily why I would guess the guy in Vegas had so many. You also run the risk of misfires and jams.

You misunderstood my evidently very subtle statement of contrasts. The government can find a way to limit things it considers dangerous. There’s no reason they couldn’t put tighter restrictions on gun volumes.

There are no limits on the number of hammers you can buy. There are no limits on the number of cars you can buy. There are no limits on the number of hatchets you can buy. There are however limits on how many packages of cough medication you can buy (daily + monthly) and you give up all kinds of information in order to acquire them. https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm072423.htm I expect the DEA and LEO examine these logbooks as they deem necessary and compare purchasing across stores to see if any patterns emerge. I honestly don't think the number of guns is the answer here though Mike. The shooter could have pulled off this feat with a single weapon or even less than 6 in the event of overheating and jams.

I agree something should be done, but as we've debated in this thread off and on for years, what would you do to stop just this sort of action? Given the profile of this guy from what I've read (wealthy, no real record of criminal activity, no evident mental health issues, white - yes this matters in the world of Trump and anti-Muslim / anti-immigrant, no trail of social media interaction with any form of terrorist - foreign or domestic including white supremacist and militias), there's nothing you could do to stop a law abiding citizen from acquiring weapons. You might restrict the number of weapons they own but on what basis? You might restrict the type of weapons and ammunition they acquire, but I'm fairly certain you'll learn that he modified the weapons to full auto independently. If you know someone with a CNC you can manufacture the necessary components since all the information is available online. Though anyone with money can acquire an old school pre-1986 automatic weapon and Nevada places no further restrictions on them. Which on second thought seems like the most likely path for a wealthy gambler who had 19 weapons in his suite and at least a dozen others at home. This story is still young so we may learn that he really did have some connection somewhere given all the various preparations it sounded he had pulled together including bomb making materials. More likely is someone pissed him off at Mandalay Bay or one of the other casinos or at one of the Country music concerts he liked to attend and he just snapped one day and decided to go William Foster (Michael Douglas in Falling Down) in order to destroy their business by creating fear in Vegas. The reality is, we have enough weapons in our country to put one in the hands of every man, woman and child. So even if you cut off new supply there's more than enough weapons out there to create the next 100 years' worth of massacres. Especially since most of them are accomplished using semi-automatic pistols. So what would you do? People say we need to do something. Well the 1994 AWB was something. Take a step further and implement full background checks for weapon purchase and automate and link up all the databases of ownership and mental health so that you can properly check on people. Fully fund the ATF to get their paperwork into a real function database. Allow the CDC to do actual research on every gun related death. These actions (specifically mental health checks) probably would have stopped the Aurora, CO shooter from acquiring weapons. It probably also would have stopped the Virginia Tech shooter. But not the Orlando shooter, not the Sandy Hook shooter (because he used his mother's weapons), nor this guy in Vegas. So you start to limit some shooters and every life is worth saving, but does it stop the most devastating attacks? No. What else?

All of them including the driver's side switch. I'll give you a great price for the entire set of 4.

If you part I'm interested in the window switches

Damn. You should sell it to me. Seriously don't let the kids kill it. Then Quicksilver and I can be twins with a pair of Saffrons in the garage.