Derumbler

I guess the iMac can stay on 42/7 now. One thing for sure -- the Apple 20" display is much crisper than the Samsung 23" display on the Mini.

For the past several weeks the ZX2 has been making squealing/rumbling/grinding noises. Since the A/C was not working, I blamed that on the A/C clutch. Jesse, however, pointed out the other day that the water pump pulley was wobbling.

The water pump was replaced just 8 months ago, when the new timing belt was installed. Whooda thunk it would go bad so quickly? At least it was under a 1 year warranty.



So we replaced it. The engine is again quiet. And, Jesse tapped the A/C clutch with his finger, and the A/C kicked in. It is also still working. We have a few 90 degree days scheduled for this week -- the A/C should help.

iMac iSBack

This afternoon I pulled the power supply out of the iMac G5 and went after the last of the capacitors that have been identified as potential troublemakers. It was the 10mf 50V part that had its leads soldered right next to a bunch of surface-mount components. Being a shaky sort of fellow at my age, I was a little afraid to stick that 1/4 inch wide 80W tip into the midst of all those nearly microscopic pieces-parts, but the job went surprisingly easily.

After putting the power supply back into the case, I plugged in the cord and was rewarded with a steady green light from the power indicator LED - the one that had been lighting up and then fading away. It stayed green, so I pressed the internal diagnostic switch and watched the next two lights take off to the accompaniment of the chime.

It's been running for about 3 hours now, and is barely warm at the top vents, fan almost inaudible. I'll leave it running overnight.

I have not been able to migrate my iCal files back -- the Mini logs into all the other machines on the local net but they can't seem to connect to the Mini. That will be the next adventure.

Bad Eggs

The Biology teacher in me shakes his head, mutters, laughs a little, then shakes his head again.

Congressional hearings are to be held on the link between the Great Salmonella Egg Recall and the farms where the eggs were produced. The CEOs of the companies that produce and sell the eggs must appear before Congress to explain. Why has no one called for a Congressional investigation of the American public, questioning how it could possibly elect such morons?

OK, chicks, time for your Biology lesson review.

Subject : Birds. Birds are not people. Birds are not mammals. A bird is a super-modified winged snake, and can also be viewed as a type of warm-blooded toad with feathers.

Birds, snakes, and toads reproduce by laying eggs. Chicken eggs are unborn chickens. If your mommy and daddy gave you the "birds and bees" lecture on human reproduction, you probably have some of your facts wrong.

Human females have separate plumbing for reproduction and pooping. Human females hatch (yeah, that's a stretch, I agree) their eggs inside and the babies are laid from the front orifice. When they are finished digesting food, they poop out the waste from the back orifice -- the anus.

Chickens, however, are single-oriface critters. Their plumbing has a cloaca (Latin for sewer) which exits at their anus. When they lay an egg, they poop it out through the anus. When they finish digesting food, they poop that out through the very same anus. Disgusting as you may think that to be, it is what it is.

Therefore, people who handle chicken eggs carelessly, or eat them raw or even inadequately cooked, subject themselves to potential danger. That fact is understood by every little kid that grew up on a farm. It is understood by every informed adult. It is not understood by Congresscritters. Anything coming out of a chicken's anus is likely to be contaminated. Simple common sense.

One final word. This post will undoubtedly earn me some fan mail about using the word "poop". Too bad. It is a perfectly good English word, and when it is used, there is no mistaking what is meant. If "poop" offends you that badly, try going a few days without it.

Now I know I'm in trouble...

Simplifying...

We will now see how well this works. I added the button for posting this blog to Facebook. Rather than logging in there to see what is going on, I'll just hit the button when I think I have something important to say. Or not so important. Whatever. Then anybody who sees it on Facebook can email me or write a comment if they are so moved. Arrogance on my part, I will admit, but I really do need to cut down on the frittering away of my time.

Late August

I have to admit that FaceBook is addictive. It is a very good way to keep in touch with oodles of poodles. Unfortunately, it is also a fantastic way to waste time as you read all the news you really didn't need to know.

I set up the FaceBook account as a means of reaching out during my primary campaign for Congress. However, as noted above, it has turned into a time consumer, and ultimately has made me less productive in terms of articulating my ideas. Ha! We are now all less intelligent due to my use of FaceBook -- contagious stupidity has struck.

So, since there is now a FaceBook app that allows blog posts to show up, what I propose to do is severely limit my FaceBook visits and instead spend more time with this blog and with hRubik's hRramblings.

Update time. I have not been able to spend any additional time working on the Speedex. The swarm of bees weakened and has died out; that has me puzzled, but I think part of the problem was a leaky feeder and attacks by robber bees. I did spend some time on the raised beds; that should pay off in seasons to come.

The iMac is still in the morgue, very dead, but I have hopes for its resurrection. Meanwhile, a new Mac Mini has been doing the work, displaying to a 23" Samsung HDTV. That is a very sweet combination.

It is raining right now -- a steady, thorough soaking rain, the first like this we have had in weeks. In fact, it has very much the feel of a fall rain. Even though it is late August, the leaves have been starting to turn. The days have been hot, but the nights very cool; tomatoes have had trouble ripening.

Stay tuned for more.

Good Medicine

Last time, we left the hive to drink the potion. Opening it up two days later, we see that for the most part, they have ignored the syrup for fresh nectar that is available all over the countryside. Still, they have been sampling the special hooch...



...but we need to provide more ventilation, and the mite treatment needs to be added. Taking off the feeder and the inner cover, its obvious that the crew is at home.



I found a partial package of Apistan™ in my bee supplies; I'm going to try using that package up before I open the new one. It has been cool, dark, and dry in the closet, so the strips should still be OK. One strip is in the lower left corner, between the frame bars, and the other toward the upper right. The bees come into contact with the strip, and the Varroa mites die.



Since this colony is small to begin with, and the queen is going to be laying at top speed, treatment right now is critical. The mites attack the larvae; by the time they have matured, it would be too late to treat. It will be almost three weeks before the new workers emerge, and the older workers -- the original swarm -- will be weakening and starting to die off. If too many of the new bees have "crooked wing" because of the mites, the colony will not be able to maintain itself.



A different inner cover has been modified with screened holes for ventilation. It is hard to get too much air flow through the hive. As the bees bring in nectar, they change it to wax, for the comb cells, and honey. In the process, huge amounts of water need to be evaporated. If the moisture cannot be vented quickly enough, the result will be sick bees. Even in winter, air flow is critical. The colony can maintain 95°F around the queen in sub-zero temperatures, but must vent the moisture that is produced.



Everything is back together and its work, work, work as usual.

The Doctor is IN

Thursday morning Jesse called, asking if I was willing to pick up a swarm in Tallmadge. I was, but it would have to wait until evening; that was OK with the swarmees. About 7:30 PM I arrived at the site. The swarm was roughly the size of a big football, clinging to a chemical tank about six feet off the ground. I had a super stapled to a bottom board with a screen in the opening; I sprinkled some sugar on the top frame bars and brushed the ladies into the box. Most of them went in like a waterfall. A small group, about the size of a baseball, refused to play, and after checking thoroughly that the Boss Lady was not in their midst, I left them there to die. Nothing else to be done for it.

Arriving at home, I waited until almost dark, then pulled the screen from the entry. In the morning, the little buzzers got themselves oriented to their new location, and went nectar-hunting. Yesterday I noticed that there were some Nasty Bugs around; I watched one yellow-jacket go into the hive and then beat a quick retreat. I grabbed an entrance reducer and closed down the doorway.



This morning I headed out to Queen Right Colonies, where Denzil sold me some Apistan™ for the mites and some Fumagilin-B™ for nosema. Just under $50 for vet supplies. Imagine what the cost might be if I were running feeder cattle again!

I decided to start the feeding right away to build up the hive numbers, so I mixed up a half-gallon of sugar syrup with a half teaspoon of the antibiotic and set up the feeder. Opening the top, the bees were clustered to one side. Not a whole lot of them home -- it was a small swarm -- but my guesstimate is that at least half of them were out foraging at the time of the portrait.



A piece of baseboard was chosen as a riser for the feeder. The relief cutout on the back will allow some air flow for cooling, at least until the bees plug it up. The feeder is a plastic mayo jar with some 1/16" holes drilled in the lid, and works like a poultry waterer.




Tomorrow or Monday I'll open it back up to check the syrup level and at the same time install two of the mite strips.



Its good to bee back in operation. I'm going to do my best to keep this harem happy.

Speedex S19 Project

It was time already to get the old Speedex out of the shed and get to work on restoring it.


It's a neat little tractor, with all kinds of real tractor features.


The Lawn Chief towed it to the top of the hill, flat front tires and all.


The front hitch point, where I hope to be able to attach the snow plow in winter.


The 8 horse Briggs 190407 engine, with its 12V electric starter. Mice packed the space behind the flywheel with maple seeds, and possibly messed up the wiring to the capacitor. I cleaned out as much as I could, added a new muffler, replaced the gas line, and drained and replaced the oil. Wouldn't start. No spark at all.


Here's the PTO linkage, in case I want to add a mower deck or use a sickle bar.


The rear hitch -- a sort of three-point arrangement. It is a manual lift, though. No hydraulics on this machine.


The gearbox and rear pulleys. These are terribly misaligned. But then, so are the front pulleys. Replacing and aligning the sheaves ought to be simple, and I'll need to create a replacement belt cover and battery cover. I've already straightened some of the sheet metal on the hood.

As this project moves forward, I'll post more pix of the progress. Main thing for right now is to get it running.

Spoke Too Soon

iMac just when "Ptht" and turned black. The restart was quick and smooth, so it has to be the MOBO caps this time. Ah, well. One item at a time. I have the MOBO caps here already -- they only cost $12.00 plus shipping.

Ah, It Feels Good!

It took long enough to get all the pieces together, but the iMac G5 is back up and running -- very quietly, I might add, with less fan noise than when it was new! -- for $3.95 in parts and a lot of frustrated work getting the lead-free solder to melt in the capacitor removal phase. It took hours of work to get those little thingies out, and about a half hour to solder in all the new caps. With 60-40 lead-tin solder, of course. Lead-free is for masochists.

Still have to remove and replace all the caps on the motherboard, but the power supply seems rock-solid right now. I'm looking for a narrower tip for the Weller 80W iron; 3/8" is simply too wide when you are working in close proximity to surface mount components.

Gotta get inside the Bondi Blue iMac's upper case and check to see if it was the same kind of problem.

Yip-yip-yippee!!

Pieces Arriving...

The order from Computek arrived today. Also an email from Allied saying they shipped today.

Took the Bondi Bue iMac mostly apart last night, but then decided I'd better quit while I was ahead since the instructions I was following were on-line and the lightning was a-flashin' outside. Sure 'nuff, I was mostly back together when the power went out for a second.

I'll try again later. I am really curious if that machine died due to a capacitor problem in its power supply.

Gettin' It Together

Today I took a little trip down to PhilCap to see if they had the caps I need for the iMac repair. They had one - a 10mF 50V 5x11mm -- for $1.64. Back home, I started looking for a cap supplier on-line, and stumbled across Allied Electronics. The prices were right, and the cap manufacturer that predominated was Illinois Capacitor. I ordered enough to do 2 "C" style power supplies, including another 10mF 50V 5x11mm for $0.11. Live and learn.

The order from Allied came to $9.76 plus $5.00 handling plus they will charge OH sales tax and probably about $6 for Priority Mail. Then I went to the Computek site and ordered the motherboard caps. Needed 25, but had to order 40 (minimum 20 of each type), which came to $28.55 including shipping and handling.

Picked up the Artic Silver Ceramique heat sink compound at Radio Shack for $6.70. I decided not to use lead-free solder on the installation; I have lots of 60-40 resin core in my toolbox. I'm ready to go when the caps get here.

The power supply is sitting on my desk, disassembled. Last night I whittled away all the silicone goop that Apple injected around the capacitors. They are ready to be extracted.

Maybe by the weekend I can be back up and running.

New Post

I thought I needed a catchy title for this post; there it is.

Progress on the iMac is nearly non-existent. Lots of other stuff to do. I miss having that machine running 24/7, with Mail open and Firefox just a click away. Not having access to iCal and Quicken is definitely inconvenient.

Bought a new soldering iron at Ace Hardware today. They kindly sent me a coupon to take $5 off any purchase over $20, so I used it. Its a Weller 80W with a 3/8" chisel tip, develops 900 degrees. That should be plenty of heat for the led-free solder on the boards.

Now I think I should also pick up a de-soldering iron from Radio Shack, and practice with it.

Still have not ordered the capacitors. I may be able to find some of them at the Shack or at PhilCap; if they don't have them, there are some on-line sources that have what I'll need. I did not order from J West Sales because they will accept payment only through Google checkout. Since I have no desire to give Google the right to run a credit report on me -- my credit is none of their nosy business -- I'll just find the parts elsewhere and use the normal payment process.

Fixed one lawnmower today. Tore apart the carb, cleaned everything out, and installed a new carb cable. Fixed the shredder (sort of). Tore off the head, scraped out all the carbon and cleaned the valves, and it starts easily and runs fine. Needs some major welding on the other parts, though.

'Nuff fer this post. Iff'n I write any more, the borer bees might get into it.

iMac Blues

My iMac G5 was purchased as a refurb from Apple, and it was a good thing that I bought the 3-year extended service plan. Almost immediately it had to be worked on; the Superdrive was refusing to read/write DVDs. Some time later, the computer died, and the power supply had to be replaced. Finally, just before the 3 years was up, it died again, and once again, the power supply was replaced. A few months ago (back last Fall), it suffered a hard drive crash, and I installed a new hard drive.

We've had a number of brief power outages, and several weeks ago I called home and the phone rang continuously; the fax modem did not pick up. Sure enough, when I got in, the iMac was dark. Following SOP, I tried a restart. After the chime, the Apple came up, and then suddenly the machine shut down. I tried again. The second time, the desktop picture came up, but there were funny squiggly lines across it, and when I clicked on a widget, the machine crashed. The third startup seemed stable, and the machine ran for several days before it began having problems again.

Diagnostic testing using the diagnostic LEDs seemed to point to the power supply again. I started looking for a replacement on-line. Then I came across a site which described fixing the power supply. It also had instruction for repair of the motherboard.

It seems that Apple, and a number of other manufacturers, in looking for a cheap supply of capacitors, had bought from a Chi-Com manufacturer that had cranked out defective units. The problem is so widespread that there are distributors on-line which sell replacement capacitors specifically to tackle this problem.

I now have the instructions for the fix, and started collecting the necessary tools. Here are some shots of the problem:


Motherboard, showing bulging caps (red marker added by me)


The bulging is evident here and in the next picture


While only 2 caps appear to be damaged, the advice is to replace all 25 of them.

The real problem, probably the cause of the failure of the MOB caps, was in the power supply :


Here you can see that one of the caps is leaking. That is NOT marker on the top of that capacitor; it is capacitor juice. 8 of the 11 are bulging


The scorch marks on the PS cover show how hot this got.

The cost of replacement capacitors is about $60. The cost of a replacement motherboard and power supply is more than the value of the computer (well over $700). I picked up a T-10 Torx security bit today (for opening the "No user serviceable parts inside"), and I'll be getting an 80W soldering iron. One supplier I found sells the caps for about 50 cents each, but you have to order in multiples of 20, and that supplier doesn't carry all the caps for the power supply.

For anybody with a 17", 20", or 24" iMac (Intel versions as well), sooner or later you will need to either replace the power supply or replace its capacitors. I'm curious now whether that was the problem in Maria's G3 Blueberry iMac. When I'm feeling real fixy I'll have to peek inside that one. It would make a nice email machine for Granny.

25 Cents Worth

Yesterday was the quarter-century mark for my flapper. I can only thank God that He worked things out the way He did. Spent the evening splitting more of that black locust firewood. Wow.

Dis'n'Dat

1. Granny is coming home Thursday
2. Planted onions, cabbage, broccoli, and some more lettuce in the greenhouse Saturday
3. Started soaking some of Dad's old (1992) pepper seeds in HOHO (that was Bruce's suggestion, that HOHO would possibly provide extra O to break dormancy); they have swelled up and I need to get them in potting soil

What a Turkey!

Yesterday (3-4-2010), by a 23-22 vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved sending House Resolution 252, "Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution" to the House floor for a vote by the full House.

As a result of this action, the government of Turkey has recalled its ambassador Turkey recalls envoy to U.S. over panel's 'genocide' vote. The Turks, who once went under the name "Ottoman Empire", and who butchered their way into the heart of Europe, are unhappy that their actions against the Armenians in the early 20th Century could possibly be censured by the Representatives of the American People.

So unhappy are they, that they have resorted to threats. It seems, however, that you have to read foreign newspapers to find out what is going on over there Ankara warns of 'consequences'

"Turkey warned the Obama administration on Friday of negative diplomatic consequences if it fails to impede a US resolution branding the World War I-era killing of Armenians as genocide.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country, a key Muslim ally of the US, would assess what measures it would take, adding that the issue was a matter of "honor" for Ankara."

...

"Davutoglu said the Obama administration had not put sufficient weight behind efforts to block the vote and called on Washington to do more to prevent the measure from now going to the full House.

The measure was approved at a time when Washington is expected to press Turkey to back sanctions against Iran to be approved in the UN Security Council, where Turkey currently holds a rotating seat. Turkish cooperation is also important to US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also at stake are defense contracts. Turkey is an important market for US defense companies, many of which had lobbied against the measure."

News reports in this country have told of the Turkish unhappiness, but the JPost article was the first I had seen that contained the revelation that the Turks simply do not understand how the United States government works.

The President is the representative of the United States. The Congressman from each district is the representative of the people of his State. When an American points to a President and says, "He's not my President, in a certain sense of the phrase, he is correct. The President is simply one citizen among equals, not a king or dictator. Because of this, there is often a sense of anger when a President attempts to tell Congress what to do.

Maybe the Turks should get a history book and look up the "XYZ Affair". Ha! Maybe some Americans should do the same. We may not be the most diplomatic people in the world, as some nations consider diplomacy, but we do tend to react as Charles Pinckney is said to have done when the French tried to interfere in American policy by asking for a bribe to avoid war, "Millions for defense, sir, but not one cent for tribute."

It takes a Turkey to try to influence the representatives of the American people by threatening the President of the United States. The real question is whether this President is anything at all like John Adams.

Spring is Coming

Yesterday I was able to get into the greenhouse for the first time since the beginning of the year. Had to shovel away almost a foot of snow from in front of the door; in spite of the melting the snow is still piled around the sides from where it slid off, and the door had been blocked by several feet of snow that had accumulated through normal snowfall plus drifting.

Outside, it was barely above freezing. Inside, the temperature was a balmy 56 degrees. The lettuce I planted in the Fall with a hope of having fresh greens at Christmas seems to have survived. We shall see. In a day or so I maybe there will be some new growth, I hope, and then perhaps there will be home-grown salad for Easter.

The sweet basil and pepper plants that were left over the winter need to be cleaned out and the soil improved with some manure and lime in preparation for planting.

I need to get a thermometer with a probe in order to take the soil temperature a few inches down. It is March; time to seed onions, cabbage, broccoli, some more lettuce...

Any more suggestions as to what I should try to grow in there?

Amendment Four

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The Fourth Amendment was a reaction of the Founding Fathers to police power abuses that allowed public officials to invade private homes to search for items which might be used to incriminate the owners or other occupants. It has been the subject of fierce debate between those who style themselves the champions of personal rights, and those who claim that it has been overly broadly used to coddle criminals.

A major concern is that Fourth Amendment rights are widely misunderstood or even waived; the authority to search can be given to public officials by default if a citizen does not understand where to draw the line. Those close to me know that I often deride and mock the ACLU and its liberal friends, but I recommend several resources that they have made available on-line : BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters (FlexYourRights.org), Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1 (Professor James Duane, Regent Law School), and Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2 (Officer George Bruch, Norfolk VA Police Dept.).

The multitude of laws on the books has created a situation where it is nearly impossible for a citizen to avoid breaking one of them. It is not far from the truth to say that the primary cause of crime in the United States is Congress (or, your State legislature, or city council, etc.). In Ohio, it is against the law for a driver to pass another car without giving an audible signal; if you are an Ohio driver, do you blow the horn every time you pass a car on the Interstate? If not, you are breaking the law. That may sound ridiculous, but it is true. When the law was written, there were no multi-lane highways, and the situation was not anticipated. You will not, however, be arrested for that violation unless the cop you just passed has had a really bad day. In fact, if you use your horn while traveling between the sound barriers in a residential area, you might be arrested for breaking the law against disturbing the peace as you comply with the traffic law.

That exposes the crux of the problem. There are so many laws, many of which conflict with others, that if the police were to do their job, by the book, we would all be in jail and traffic would still be backed up from last week as we waited for our tickets to be written out. Thus, the police tend to look the other way (in violation of their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and the laws of their State) simply because it is impractical to enforce every law. They tend to use their discretion when deciding who to stop and question, and consequently, casual encounters with the police sometimes inadvertently turn into arresting events.

The operative phrase is "unreasonable searches and seizures". So what is a "reasonable" excuse for a search or seizure? The courts have held that if an officer has "probable cause" to think that a crime has been, is being, or is about to be committed, that can be "reasonable". The ability of police to carry out such searches is crucial to our security, especially in view of the possibility of terrorist acts being committed among our midst, and great care must be exercised in limiting their ability to do their job. The danger is that law enforcement officers are just as subjective as the rest of the citizenry, and their perception of an activity may influence their judgment as to probable cause. Coupled with the power of the badge, citizens may unwittingly yield their rights.

There are those who would say, "So what? If you have nothing to hide, why be afraid of a search?" I can think of two reasons immediately. The first is the insult that accrues to being accused of illegal activity by virtue of coming under suspicion because of another individual's perceptions. In times when personal honor was more highly valued, such an accusation would have precipitated violence, possibly a duel to the death. Indeed, that may be the reason why some individuals even today react angrily to such an accusation.

The second reason has to do with the multiplicity of laws created by people who try to force perfection on a human society. Nanny-state governance always takes away freedom from the individual and is usually excused as being "the will of the majority". The person whose unique dreams and desires are crushed by the imposition of democracy will no doubt call it the "tyranny of the majority".

One of the possible partial solutions to the problem is to simply not make so many things illegal. The idea of being secure in "persons, houses, papers, and effects" is strongest in a society where individual liberties have not been restricted. Sometimes those liberties may offend our sensibilities, sometimes they may outrage us, sometimes the liberty that another person has may reduce our own ability to make a monetary gain, and sometimes that liberty may give an individual the opportunity to hurt himself. Freedom is always obtained by the destruction of the power of an oppressor, and often is held at the peril of the possessor.

I believe that the most reasonable way to strengthen and preserve our rights under the Fourth Amendment would be a systematic culling of outdated laws, and repealing of laws which restrict personal liberties. When government requires a citizen to participate in a program, or attempts to protect a person from his/her own actions, or provides relief for the consequences of foolish actions, it ultimately paves the way for the surrender of basic Constitutional rights.

It was pointed out by a reviewer that the examples I cited above were local and State laws, and that there are Federal laws which also need to be reviewed and, if not modified to fit the times and possibly redesigned to be flexible as society's needs change, repealed. These include :

• "hate crimes" laws of all sorts, which create a degree of criminality based on what an accuser believes a criminal's intent to be,
• tax laws which create special "tax courts" not bound by ordinary rules of evidence and procedure,
• any and all laws, whether civil or criminal, in which the accused must pay for his/her legal defense, even if found innocent,
• portions of the Davis-Bacon Act, which allow the Secretary of Labor to arbitrarily set the "prevailing wage", and which clearly violate Amendments One and Fourteen, and
• portions (or the entirety) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which assumes that all business owners are guilty of corruption until they can prove themselves innocent.

Many of these laws were passed as knee-jerk reactions to special interests, and are examples of why a representative republic with limited opportunity to change the law is preferable to a democracy in which emotions allow mob rule to create repressive conditions for not only a minority at one point in time, but for the whole of society over a long period.

It is my hope that in some way I could be instrumental in repealing Federal legislation that unduly restricts the rights of citizens to "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects".

Amendment Three

"No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

Very few Americans give thought to this amendment, yet its origin lay in the practice of the British military to conscript civilian housing for its soldiers. The Declaration of Independence complains,

• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

and because the Congress had the power to both declare war and raise an army, the States were concerned that the abuses they had suffered before could be repeated.

While this amendment to our Constitution may seem unnecessary today, it is a reminder of our history and the reasons why the Founding Fathers were willing to risk their lives, fortunes, and honor for the cause of freedom. It is one more restriction on the government, and the more tightly the government is bound, the less likely it will hurt the people.