Broken record

I don’t like to repeat myself, but at the risk of The Boss thinking I’m taking the lazy way out for today’s blog I’d like to revisit last Friday’s topic one more time.

If we set the Wayback Machine* to last Friday, you may recall that I challenged you in a more or less blatant put-up-or-shut-up way regarding the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s call for public comment regarding table saw safety standards. In other words, it’s a referendum on SawStop. That comment period was due to end on Monday, Dec. 12. However, the CPSC has extended that deadline by an additional 60 days, till Feb 10, 2012.

I didn’t really research the reason for the extension, although if I had to guess it’s because most of the comments they got were the same worthless, meaningless, off-topic rhetoric I discussed last Friday. Like them or hate them, the CPSC is very serious about meaningful public comment when contemplating new standards. The typical cry-and-moan arguments common to every discussion of SawStop that I’ve seen – if that’s the kind of comments they’ve gotten, and I suspect it is – aren’t helpful. More heat than light, as I noted last week.

So here I am again. As regular readers know, I am heartily sick and tired of all the SawStop cry-and-moan rhetoric. Good, valid, thoughtful arguments pro or con? Sure, that’s fine. But that’s not what discussion has mostly been to this point. Instead, it’s been an earache-inducing drone of whiners that reminds why I don’t miss my 20-year career as a talk-radio host.

And, so, here it is one last time: Get off your nether region and take a valid, well-thought-out stand on the issue, and provide the CPSC with a comment regarding the issue of table saw standards. Don’t do it here; that’s pointless. Do it where it will count. All the pertinent info and links to the CPSC comment process is in last Friday’s blog, "Or forever hold your peace."

Unless something new comes up regarding SawStop (and it won’t; there simply isn’t anything new) this is the last you’ll hear from me on the subject until the CPSC has its say.

*The actual spelling used in the Mr. Peabody cartoons was “WABAC,” which was a fictional acronym for his machine. Didn’t really stand for anything, though; it was just supposed to be a computer-like acronym that sounded like “Wayback” when said aloud. But, I’m sure you already knew all that.

A.J.