The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Tormented Souls

5.31.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 4)

What he calls "chattering classes" in Israel I have long thought of as the terminally infantile and nauseatingly pretentious post WWII Cry Baby Boom elite here in America.

He seems to believe in Israel the fact that draft-dodging trend has kept advancing even in an era of suicide bombings and rocket barrages may indicate that the growth of such a detached, elitist, blase sector is intrinsic to democracy "and an inevitable part of it." With all due respect, I would respectfully suggest such a detached, elitist, blase sector is only "inevitable" until such time as the dogs of war tear the throat out it.

At some point when the situation becomes sufficiently desperate, even the most moderate and reticent among those who have their shoulder to the wheel, doing their utmost to further the survival of their respective countries, will recognize the no load, parasitic dead wood among them -- who actually believe they are ENTITLED to a free ride at the expense of others -- and dump them like ballast from a foundering ship.

Here in America, the sooner the better.
-- Thomas E. Stuart
Kapa'au, Hawaii

BYZANTIUM FAREWELL
Re: Paul J. Cella's The Last Sunrise:

Mr. Cella's article was extremely well written. The article is frightening because it reminds me of my Tuscan born mother's admonishments when we were young: That the U.S. is the greatest country on the face of the earth but we'd better be careful. She would always invoke what happened to the Roman Empire.
-- Christine A. Sims
Williamsburg, Virginia

Bravo on such a beautifully written article -- they ought to make it a movie!
-- Renee Gahagan
Daytona Beach, Florida

BENDING STEEL
Re: Scott's letter (under "Truth Moving") in Reader Mail's After the Fall and Peter Hannaford's The Loony Left's 9/11:

In reply to Scott and Rosie on the insistence that the steel used in the WTC towers couldn't have "melted" at the 1700 degrees F at which aviation fuel burns, I would like to point out that making steel malleable does not require 1700 degrees or aviation fuel. Master sword smiths, and just regular metal smiths, have been forging and "bending" steel into swords and other objects for millennia using nothing hotter than charcoal fires which burn at a temperatures quite a bit less than 1700 degrees. The requirement isn't to melt steel, only heat it to the point of making it easy to bend. Forge welding is a way to join two pieces of iron/steel by heating it to the bending point and then beating the two pieces, actually forcing the atoms of the two pieces to "mix" forming a single piece. It's not a particularly strong weld, but the principle is understood.

Scott, Rosie and Griffin seem to want to focus only on melting steel. Unfortunately, some folks who aren't "truthers" have used the "melted" word even though no evidence exists of any melting (that I know about). So the "truthers" have focused on one poorly chosen word, ignoring the plethora of historical evidence that steel does indeed become malleable at temperatures achievable by burning wood/charcoal/coal.

Here's an anecdotal story. I have a 1976 CJ5 that I use as a snow plow. I had the clutch replaced one year, and a week later the linkage connection point on the cast steel bell housing broke. The clutch repair people "fixed" it by attaching a ¼" steel plate to the housing so we could attach the linkage mechanism.

But there was a problem. While the clutch worked in the garage prior to plowing, about 30-40 minutes into plowing the gears were grinding during shifting like the clutch wasn't being pushed in enough. I would take tools along and change the linkage adjustments so the clutch would work. But the next time I started up the jeep for a new plowing job, the gears wouldn't engage at all.

It took over a year to figure it out, and even then only by accident. I happened to encounter the same problem while plowing the road only this time, it happened right next to my house. So I had my wife work the clutch while I watched underneath to see what was happening. It turns out that, when heated by the engine/transmission, the ¼" steel plate was flexing just enough that the clutch wouldn't disengage when the pedal was pressed. I was floored by the discovery. To test it, I parked the jeep and let it set for a couple of hours until it got cold. When I went out and tried it again, there was no problem with the clutch/gears. I did some more plowing and sure enough, after about 40 minutes the clutch wouldn't work again. When I looked underneath, the plate was again flexing.

The fix was simply to use a thicker piece of steel (1/2"). Unfortunately, first gear was entirely stripped out before I figured this out.

Here's them point: the heating of this ¼" steel plate just from the engine/transmission was enough to cause the plate to bend under the force of the depressed pedal. We're not talking anywhere near 1700 degrees, or anywhere near the temperatures a blacksmith or swordsmith would use to simply work or bend metal. Depending on the forces present, it doesn't take a lot of heat to weaken steel to the point where it will bend under the load.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Social Security, Law, Founding Fathers, Israel, Conservatism, Oil