Big Box Hardware Stores

I am convinced Home Deport and Lowes hire congenital idiots to work in their stores. Not just on the work floor but in the purchasing department as well.

I am making improvements to my house and I have several hardware needs. Some electrical, some plumbing and some structural. For all the help their so-called professionals provided I would have been far better off going to a local hardware store, if one can be found, and dealt with honest-to-God hardware professionals. Here a few examples of my current frustrations.

I needed some extra-width dry wall. Dry wall is made in other than the standard 4 foot width. Many homes do not have the standard eight foot ceiling and my house is one of those. First Home Depot tells me no such animal exists. I showed them the printed web page of a large dry wall manufacture that offers the item for sale but it was a waste of time. "No can do" seems to be the motto at my local store. My ceiling is 8 1/2 feet high and one row of 4 foot 6 inch dry wall and one row of standard width dry wall would have made my life ever so easy. I went ahead with the standard width and went to get some pre-mixed mud. Nope, not on the dry wall aisle. That is two aisles over and at the other end of the building. You want dry wall tools? Yet another place.

Today I went looking for some plumbing parts. I have slip joint style quick shut off valves. They have the nominal 5/8" compression fitting to connect to 1/2" copper pipe and the end that fits to the faucet is a 1/2" slip fit fitting. You guessed it, not only did they not know what a slip fit was, they kept saying it was just for compression. I pointed to the label and this idiot said that just meant a compression fitting. Okay, I said, then why do the other valves say compression fitting? No answer other than the pitying look of someone convinced of their superiority. I also needed to set up the P-trap and needed to adapt it to the 1 1/2" ABS drain line. Do you think anyone every heard of a trap adapter? Not in Lowes or Home Depot. You can't even find them on their web sites. I trudged up and down the plumbing aisles of both stores hoping against hope that just one was lurking unbeknownst amongst the ABS or P-trap offerings. I can understand their reluctance to stock something that sells for less than two bucks but how in the hell do those idiots think P-traps get connected to the drain lines?

I am through with those places. I am going to find a good hardware store, a good plumbing supply house and a good lumber yard for my hobby and construction projects. The time I save not wandering up and down aisles of the huge warehouse stores will pay any additional expense for what I need. I might even run into people that actually know their jobs.

Rosa Parks and that bus

Rosa Parks has passed onto her final reward. She was a classy lady. Well spoken and passionate about her cause. Others will eulogize her far better than I.

When Ms Parks set down on that bus so many years ago, she accomplished a wondrous thing. I just hope she is remembered for the results and that the truth about her refusing to give up her seat to a white person is fully acknowledged.

Ms Parks was a National Association of Colored People representative and acted as such on that fateful day. Her "protest" had been planned and she was selected by a NAACP committee for this act of civil disobedience. She was not some poor washer-woman too tired to stand. She was not some hapless soul caught up in a great event. She was a provocateur and nothing more.

Her reasons for refusing to give up her seat should not minimize the good that came from that act but we should be fully honest about why the event happened. Her reputation should be built on the truth and not the lie so easily passed around by the so-called African-American leaders. The lies undermine the legacy of a brave lady and her quest for equality.

What is with Ohio?

Did you have a chance to watch the Debacle in Toledo? No? Well, it seems a couple of dozen American Nazis decided to hold a parade in Toledo to protest the black (I assume this means those of African descent) gangs treatment of the white inhabitents. The city refused to issue a parade permit so they would just walk down the sidewalk with their signs. Apparently this is cause for great concern by the black (once again I assume this means African descent) people in the neighborhood.

A little background is probably in order. The section of Toledo that was under "attack" by the American Nazis was once a very strong Polish ethnic community. Over the last 20 years, it has slowly gone downhill with all the problems of a neighborhood in decline. Polish residents were moving out and less affluent people moving into the housing. I guess this also included a fair number of black gangbangers intent on whatever they are normally intent on doing.

Any way, the residents (read this as African descent) got all outraged because black (African descent) leaders, community leaders and the black mayor held a huge rally the day before the Nazis got there and stirred up the passions. The day of the event, the Nazis were not permitted to even walk down the sidewalk but forced to leave the area because the black (African descent) got violent and started throwing rocks, breaking into cars, home, businesses and generally comported themselves like animals. One building was torched with its residents, people of Polish descent, ran for their lives. Other businesses were broken into and looted.

One area resident was widely quoted demanding to know why the Nazis were allowed to march in their town and the violence was only to be expected. Well that may be, but it seems there is only violence in the black (African descent) neighborhoods when they don't get their way. Can you say Rodney King?

What part of the 1st amendment to the US Constitution do the black (African descent) residents of Toledo not understand? Are only certain groups of people with outrageous demands allowed to speak their mind while others are not permitted to exercise their rights because they do not fall into a certain protected category? Why were the idiot black (African descent) leaders exciting the neighborhood when if no one had said a word, the Nazi bozos would have gone merrily down the street right into silence?

I, for one, am sick of Americans of African descent demanding rights they are unwilling to allow others. I am sick of parents and elders of the community standing back while their thug children destroy a neighborhood. I am sick of these so-called leaders inciting riots and then demanding compensation for damages caused by their own people. Enough already.