I realized yesterday when I posted the collage that it won’t go to full resolution by simply clicking on it. If you want the pics at their uploaded resolution, click on the photo and then look for a link just above the photo that will read something like:

Posted: January 25, 2012 | Full size is 2560 × 1920 pixels.

Hit that link and you’ll get the original in all it’s glory! Be warned though. NOT recommended for slow connections! Hope that helps.

Edit:  I will leave comments open on this but please be, well, somewhat civil.

If you want to be spared my editorializing below here are some sites with just the facts:

This Google homepage has excellent info that will stay up more than just today (I hope).

The best comprehensive site on all the details of the issue is probably Wikepedia.    The best “at a glance” article I’ve seen so far is  Here.

Probably the best single page for contact info on the key players in the matter can be found HERE.

The full list of SOPA / PIPA institutional and corporate  supporters is HERE).

Sign the Petition HERE

My two sentence editorial is this.  The content providers want the government to help stop online “piracy” by wildly overstepping their constitutional and technological bounds while taking the first small steps toward  infesting, monitoring, and controlling all content on the behalf of corporate content providers (and campaign donators)  and bloated bureaucracies with their own eye towards increased influence and power.  Certain segments of the government are drooling at the idea of finally getting their toe in the door in order to take control huge chunks of our freedom and technology.

My longer rant is this…

I usually don’t allow any politics either here or on the Facebook page.  There’s lots of places for that.    I come here to relax.   But (like a lot of internet sites today) I’m making a one time exception to that rule.  I like my blog just the way it is.  I don’t need anyone telling me what I can reasonably post on here.   Unfortunately, there are forces at work that feel differently.

“Never let a good crisis go to waste”  is a big catchphrase in American politics. Make sure that any (usually Orwellian sounding)  solution focuses almost entirely on the wrong part of the issue. Make sure it’s way to big and overreaching.  Make it Expensive!  Don’t really concern yourself that it won’t really fix anything long term (that’s really NOT the goal anyway).  And most important, make sure it allows those people already in charge to increase that control as much as possible so they can sell that influence to the highest bidders… all  hopefully without anyone noticing.  Again, see the full list of supporters HERE.

It makes not one bit of difference what party you’re in, it’s who your masters are.  In this case The President is against SOPA (and good for him) and a significant of bought and paid for” Congressman and Senators of both parties are all for it.

I realize at this point that a lot of folks are thinking “Oh come on Steve… this will only be an issue between “the big boys” of the web.  The large peer to peer sites like Piratebay vs Sony or Disney and they’re only talking about  shutting down access to overseas sites that brazenly facilitate the sharing of content so why worry about the average 4000 hit per day blog or whatever?  Why should I care.

Well remember the part about increasing power.  To quote this C-Net article,  “How SOPA Would Affect You”:

“A little-noticed portion of the proposed law… goes further than Protect IP and could require Internet providers to monitor customers’ traffic and block Web sites suspected of copyright infringement. “

They’re back peddling now that all the attention is coming down on them but don’t kid yourself.  The Internet is huge and it’s (for now) beyond their control.  That’s not something that sits well with the powers that be.  If they can find juuust the right reason and put a bow on it, they will take it.

In the previous “Chromed Honda” post there was a request for additional pics f the bike.  As it turns out I had done an older post on this bike waaaay back from when I photographed it at an early “Riding Into History” show.  But there’s a small problem…..

When I started this blog I was linking my photos on a host called Village Photos.  Well as it so happens that company is now out of business and shut down so most of the photos that date back to the very early days of the blog are likely not going to show up any longer.  The good news is that I do have everything stored, backed up and archived locally so if there is an old blog post that interests you and the photo is not appearing send me an e-mail (mcpotd@gmail.com) and I’ll do what I can to track it down and get it re-posted and re-linked.

Sorry for the inconvenience.  I should have kept to the more stable and popular hosting sites but this one had a lot of cool features that worked really well with e-bay auctions and such.  And who knows, they may get back up eventually.  From searching around there’s a ton of angry customers out there.

I don’t really have anything really worth scheduling in advance so I think we’re going to just take a break till Monday. I’ll be traveling all over the State with the family and won’t have much computer access anyway.  In the mean time please feel free to browse the extensive photo library link pages I have on the top bar.  If you’re in the US then please have a great (and safe) holiday.   See you Monday!

Old faithful lost compression and had a base gasket leak anyway. Why on earth would Suzuki ever put a paper base gasket on a single cylinder 650 is a mystery to me. Of course I have a 2000 and they went to metal on the 2004’s. So here’s where I’m at. After years of wrenching on multi cylinder 2 strokes it’s freaking comical to me how big the bore is on this bike. And they used to make an 800! Oh and yes, that’s my blood on there. No harm. Just a knick.

Please hang in there, I’ll have some regular posts up shortly.

Here she is in happier times. Soon to return!

Considering the action we’ve been having around here lately over the Greek hooligans I was a little conflicted about even mentioning this but since it’s now a national (global??) story I thought I’d address it.

Here’s a rub from StLtoday

ST. LOUIS • Drivers have reported huge packs of motorcycles swarming the highways around St. Louis, with the bikers pulling stunts, making hand gestures and forcing cars off the roadway.

There has been no official word yet from the state highway patrol or other public safety officials.

The reports started coming in around 2 p.m. from various spots on I-270 and I-70, most recently in the north St. Louis county area. Some claimed to see as many as 800 to 1,000 motorcycles in a pack.

There has been at least one major accident, which resulted in serious injuries and forced the closure of I-270 near New Halls Ferry Road. The injured were flown to an area hospital, according to the state highway patrol. No further details are known at this time.

Brian Johnson of St. Louis said he was heading on I-170 north to Lambert International Airport with his wife when he saw the pack of motorcycles on the other side of the highway.

“There was a good half mile stretch where it was 20 bikes wide the whole highway,” he said. “It was hundreds after hundreds after hundreds of bikes.”

Johnson said the bikers were not your typical Harley Davidson types; most were wearing racing suits and riding speed bikes like you would see in stunt shows.

He said the first group of bikers were pumping their fists; the second group created a ringlike formation and had bikers riding down the middle doing wheelies.

Johnson said cars were forced over to the shoulder of the road and trying to get off. There were also traffic tie-ups on his side of the highway as drivers slowed to gawk at the spectacle.

“When they were out around the other cars it was dangerous,” he said. “When they took over the entire highway it was like being in a motorcycle show.”

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_2b10b7d4-e16f-11e0-bd73-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1YUpRzRfJ

If you participated in this nonsense and you (by some miracle) are reading this I just wanted to let you know that you’re a fucking moron who is probably going to die a fiery and painful death sooner rather than later. I personally will not mourn your passing. Oh and if you pull that crap when I’m driving a vehicle that outweighs you 6 to 1 please know that I am not yielding you and inch. Go ahead take your chances and test Darwin.

We blew up a little last month. Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

It looks like the folks really enjoyed the Barber slideshow! That’s quite a traffic spike!  This combined with the hits on Twitter and Facebook put us in the 10K range.   Thanks to everybody for stopping by!  As a comparison we had well over 80,000 visitors last month.  A record.