Accusize Reversing Tapping Head

To get an order out in today's mail, my wife and I completed an order.  (The neighbor's kid had prior engagements for the day.)  I was pleased that I was able to do pretty muvh everything for this fairly simple order.  The one difficulty was tapping some holes in aluminum.  I typically tap holes by putting the tap in the drill press, and turning the chuck by hand.  (Using the drill press ensures a perfectly square threaded hole.)  This requires considerable downward pressure from the right hand, which still doesn't wan to do this.

The problem is that you can't use the power of the drill press, because the motor doesn't reverse.  I have considered buying a self-reversing tap head, which lets you power down to cut threads, then reverses direction when you release the drill press handle.  Tapamatic is the brand name in this market, and priced accordingly, but there is a Canadian manufacturer named Accusize, which is only abou $300.  Anyone have experience with it?

The Lies The Media Is Peddling About Unemployment

Gallup's CEO writes about the dishonest claim of 5.6% unemployment:

Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.

There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn't get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find -- in other words, you are severely underemployed -- the government doesn't count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.

Unfortunately, progressives are so in love with Obama for his support of homosexuality, Obamacare, and amnesty for illegals, that they will continue this Big Lie until the last legal resident has lost his job to an illegal alien.

Can You Top This?

Gandhi observed that an eye for an eye will blind the world.  And coming from a part of the world where revenge is the highest principle, this is no surprise:

(Bloomberg) -- Jordan executed two Iraqi prisoners a day after Islamic State militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive inside of a cage.

One of the convicted prisoners executed early on Wednesday was Sajida Al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber who took part in deadly 2005 attacks on hotels in Amman, the state-run Petra news agency reported. Jordan also hanged Ziad Karbuli, who had been sentenced to death in 2007 for terrorist acts.

I am guessing these criminals were already under death sentence before this atrocity, but it is a reminder that playing hardball with Jordan doesn't work.  And burning someone to death in a cage really captures well the sort of monsters with whom we are dealing.  Playing nice in the style that Michael Moore and other progressives want just doesn't make sense.

Feeling Better Today

20 mg.Prozac last night, and I feel less depressed and drugged today.  It actually takes some time for Prozac to decay in your system, which is why it takes typically several weeks for a therapeutic dose to lidt depression, and for lowering dose to alleviate overdose symptoms, but my body seems to pick it up and shed it faster than normal.

FreeCAD: Incomprehensible

There are many tutorials, but for a different version than what you can download. Attempts to install AutoDesk Inventor do not install.  I am tring SketchUp now.

Any FreeCAD Users?

I am attempting this tutorial, and after using the polyline tool, I can't select individual lines with the mouse.But I sure am glad I have two external monitors, or this would be beyond hopeless,  I tried downloading the educational version of AutoDesk Inventor, but I am guessing their servers are down for the night.

The results of insomnia, M&Ms, and tring to learn to use FreeCAD remind me of a slightly more positive form of Hunter S. Thompson's description, "it looked like the results of am experiment involving chimpanzees and whiskey.:

SuperBowl Party

We combined my wife's birthday with my son-in-law's SuperBowl part.  Me being at a SuperBowl party is like a Jew attending Mass: as cultural enrichment, maybe, but otherwise: Huh?

The food was excellent: my son and girlfriend made mac & cheese with bacon & jalapenos; my daughter made stuffed jalapenos and buffalo wings; not a night for mellow food.   I am still awake, perhaps from cutting my Prozac back to 20 mg.  I have been waking up feeling drugged.  Perhaps the M&Ms after dinner are contributing to my insomnia, if the food itself isn't enough explanation.