Pakeha - Column for 3/20

Buttle Lives!

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) scares the crap out of me.

Anti-gun legislators like Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy, and Diane Feinstein may annoy me with their pandering, grandstanding, and distortion in their crusade to enforce their interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, but at least they are doing their worst from within the system.

Lautenberg wants to circumvent the system with an evil end-run that would do the NeoCons proud.

See, the FBI has compiled a reported 50,000 names for a terrorism watch list, including terror suspects, their families, neighbors, and co-workers.

Sen. Lautenberg finds it shocking that people on the list can buy guns and that their National Instant Check System (NICS) records are treated the same as anyone else’s. In a seemingly minor, common-sense move, he’s introducing legislation to retain NICS records of terror list folks for ten years. In other words, Sen. Lautenberg is wielding the terrorist watch list, a product of nascent totalitarianism, as a tool to further his “liberal” agenda.

How do you get on the list? How is the list used? Is there any way to get off the list? No one knows and the gummint ain’t sayin’.

An extrajudicial government agency puts your name on a secret list and then some Democrat from New Jersey wants to make sure that you’re treated nearly on a par with terrorists, felons, illegal aliens, and the mentally ill.

I suppose it’s only a matter of time before agents from the Bureau of Information Retrieval drop through a hole in your ceiling.

Oh, I almost forgot: The current Pope is probably working hand-in-hand with Lautenberg. I'm sure that being perforated with a firearm leads to some deep personal bias.

In other news: A quick note to let the world know that the inside bathroom is done. Not “just a few more nail holes to fill and touch up with paint” done, but completely 100% done. I walk into the bathroom and my critical eye roves over the entire room not stopping once at something that needs doing. Oh, of course, I notice several bits that are not completely perfect, but they are much better than good enough and, most importantly, they are done.

Now it’s time to move on to refacing the fireplace in honey onyx, replacing the nasty 70s-style vinyl floor in the entryway, restoring the master bathroom before the floor rots out from beneath the leaking shower and toilet, taming our weed patch of a front yard, and planning our second-story addition.

Shuffled in amongst these projects is helping Harlock out with some of his home improvements.

I guess no one should be surprised that my three-year-old son, closely supervised, is a champ with a tape measure, socket wrench, and cordless drill.

For the curious, insane, or the curiously insane, here’s the final task list from the inside bathroom project. As I’ve mentioned before, it doesn’t include all the demolition, structural repair, shower plumbing, tub installation, or tiling. I did all that before I discovered the personal utility of meticulous task lists.

  1. Tape walls and corners
  2. Fix hole in wallboard under sink
  3. Fill in transition from Hardibacker to wallboard
  4. Sand all joints and filled-in areas
  5. Primer walls
  6. Texture walls
  7. Buy door
  8. Buy door trim
  9. Buy door handle
  10. Buy door threshold
  11. Remove door
  12. Install door
  13. Install door hardware
  14. Cut door trim
  15. Prep/paint door trim
  16. Install door trim inside
  17. Install door trim outside
  18. Buy vanity top
  19. Buy inlet and outlet plumbing to vanity
  20. Buy plumbing to toilet
  21. Buy faucet
  22. Install cabinet
  23. Install vanity
  24. Install inlet plumbing to vanity
  25. Install faucet
  26. Install trim on side of vanity
  27. Fill gap in back of vanity inside
  28. Rough up walls where silicone caulk smeared
  29. Knock down any obvious defects in texturing
  30. Mask tile, window, tub, vanity, door gaps, vent fan, light box, switches, toilet inlet
  31. Paint lower part of walls
  32. Mask lower part of walls
  33. Paint upper walls, ceiling, door inside
  34. Unroll vinyl floor and allow to rest 24 hrs
  35. Install flooring
  36. Install threshold
  37. Install vinyl flooring in vanity
  38. Caulk edge of vinyl in vanity
  39. Install kickboard under vanity
  40. Caulk along floor and vanity
  41. Buy chair rail molding (mullion)
  42. Cut molding to size/cope (crown, chair, base)
  43. Prep molding (sand/fill/etc.)
  44. Paint molding (door, chair, baseboard, crown)
  45. Install chair molding
  46. Install baseboard
  47. Install crown molding
  48. Fill in holes in molding and trim (door in and out, chair, baseboard, crown)
  49. Scrub overspray from tile
  50. Grout tile
  51. Seal grout x 2 or 3
  52. Notch tile for shower head
  53. Caulk transition of tile to wall
  54. Caulk tile/tub seam
  55. Clean floor of goop
  56. Install tub side
  57. Install toilet ring
  58. Install toilet
  59. Install medicine cabinet
  60. Caulk floor to tub
  61. Buy towel bar
  62. Install toilet paper holder
  63. Install hand towel ring
  64. Install lighting fixture
  65. Install shower hardware
  66. Vacuum room
  67. Paint door outside
  68. Paint molding/wall outside
  69. Paint window sill x 3 or 4
  70. Touch up molding paint (door in and out, chair, baseboard, crown)
  71. Caulk molding (door in and out, chair, baseboard, crown)
  72. Install handhold
  73. Install soap dish
  74. Measure/fabricate/install tub spout
  75. Caulk toilet
  76. Caulk windowsill/window
  77. Clean up adhesive, paint, and caulk at tub/floor seam
  78. Recaulk tub/floor seam
  79. Install towel bar
  80. Construct switch cover/paint/install
  81. Install weatherstripping around tub side
  82. Tweak light switch to stop noise
  83. Buy/install shower curtain

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