Thanks to estate-sale armoire, I now have plenty of storage for my 'stuff,' at a reasonable price

My new armoire storage and my tiny, old chifferobe shelves

    I recently purchased a large armoire at an estate sale. It's not a "fine antique," but it's an old piece of furniture that looks nice. And it's big; five feet wide by seven feet tall.
    I was desperately in need of more storage space. The rule in our house is that Jinny gets whatever storage space she needs and I get what's left. We had been sharing a small chifferobe that, in my view, is so small it's hardly worth a nickel. (I also have a bachelor's chest and a closet for storage, so I wasn't living out of three shelves and a drawer!).
    I put the armoire in place more than a month ago, but haven't gotten around to making use of it until this week. I considered trying to install a ShelfTrack system that would have given me lots of shelf space, but decided that cost too much and might tear up the back. I also considered drilling holes and putting in shelving, but that would be fairly expensive as well, not to mention a lot of work.
    I ended up buying two 24"x14" wire shelf sets for $19.95 each. They took perhaps an hour to put together, but only because I took one of them back apart and reassembled it to change the shelf heights. The inside width of the armoire is just over 58 inches, so there's a 10-inch gap between the shelves, which works out fine.
    There was a place for a clothes rod at the top, so I paid $14 for an adjustable rod. I couldn't figure out exactly how to use it, so I just put it in place and taped the seam with duct tape to keep it from contracting. Good ol' duct tape.
    I'm going to use the armoire to hang my short-sleeve button-downs and trousers; my long-sleeved shirts, suits, and rarely used items will remain in my regular closet. There is only enough room for a few pairs of shoes, so I will keep some of my favorites in the armoire and the rest in my closet. And in the 10-inch gap I mentioned earlier, I was able to store a couple of pairs of boots, and there's room to hang a couple of long overcoats.
    On my left shelf I have socks, short-sleeved "polo"-style shirts, and long-sleeved sweatshirts and sweaters. On the right shelf I have printed t-shirts I like, colored tees to wear around the house, a shelf of white t-shirts, and a shelf with some shorts and really old ragged t-shirts that I can't bear to throw away. There's also a tie-rack on one of the doors that will hold about 25 ties or belts, which will come in handy.

My old t-shirt collection
(Click to enlarge)

    The left bottom drawer is devoted to white socks. The right drawer contains all my old Phi Tau and Cavalier Shoppe t-shirts. These are priceless!
    We didn't get rid of the chifferobe; we just moved it to the other side of our bedroom fireplace. And Jinny now gets the whole thing to herself, which gives her some more storage, which will be overstuffed within a week.
    I can't remember the exact price I paid for the armoire; it may have been as much as $325, which is a good deal for a functionable piece of furniture. The storage racks and clothes rod cost about $54, so for $380 I've solved a lot of storage problems, with a piece of furniture that I'm happy to look at.
    Believe it or not, I actually have a good bit of empty storage in an old bachelor's chest that I have. I'm sure I'll fill it soon. One of life's rules is that possessions expand to fill all available space.

Ol' Stompy Foot finally got up the nerve to say 'radical Islam,' but it upset him greatly

James O'Keefe, dressed as Osama bin Laden, crossing the Rio Grande

    President Stompy Foot finally got up the nerve to say Voldemort.
    Actually the words he dared to use are “Radical Islam,” which up until now he has avoided like a Hogwarts student afraid to say the name of “He Who Must Not Be Named.” Obama insisted that the use of the phrase doesn’t matter; but it does matter, a lot.
    Honesty from our elected officials is important. The Obama administration has repeatedly tried to declare that acts of terror committed by radical Islamists are in instead simply garden-variety crimes. So he told us, with a straight face, that our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were murdered by citizens upset about a Youtube video, rather than admitting it was a planned terrorist attack. When a Muslim army major in regular contact with Islamist extremists murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas, while shouting "Allahu Akbar!,” the administration refused to label the attack terrorism, calling it instead “workplace violence.”
    And now we have the murder of 49 people in Orlando, murdered by a man who cheered the 9-11 attacks, who recently took two expensive trips to Saudi Arabia, and who pledged allegiance to ISIS during the murders. Obama blames the murders on a lack of gun control. And Obama insists that immigration wasn’t a factor in the Orlando shootings since the shooter was a native-born citizen. Of course, the man’s father, who has been known to support the Taliban, immigrated to this country from Afghanistan, and if he hadn't been allowed to do so his son would never have been a citizen; another reason to do away with Birthright Citizenship.
    The problem isn’t Youtube, an unfriendly workplace, or the administration’s inability to confiscate all of our weapons. The problem is that Obama and Hillary Clinton have done very little to stop terrorists, and in many instances have actively aided them. And we have no control whatsoever over our immigration process, as Obama simply refuses to enforce our laws. Our borders are so unguarded that filmmaker James O'Keefe was able to wade across the Rio Grande border wearing an Osama Bin Laden costume. He wasn't stopped, because we have virtually no border security.
    Libya was a success story of the Iraq war. When Muammar Gaddafi realized the United States meant business he agreed to give up that country’s weapons of mass destruction. While maintaining innocence, Gaddafi paid the family of each victim of the Pam Am Lockerbie bombing $10 million in compensation. Libya became a reliable ally of the United States in the war on terror.
    When the Arab Spring movement began, rebel groups with strong ties to al Qaeda began attacking government troops in eastern Libya. Obama immediately came to the aid of these terrorists, and used NATO to get the United Nations to authorize the use of force to create a no-fly-zone for eastern Libya; this was the only use of force the U.N. authorized. NATO immediately violated this order and began attacking the entire nation, as well as making assassination attempts on its leader. In one of these murder attempts NATO bombed the home of Gaddafi’s non-combatant son – killing several young children.
    The War Powers Act requires a president to seek Congressional approval for any military action lasting more than 30 days. Obama ignored this law, as he ignores most laws; it was more important to help terrorists than to obey the law. Obama won, Gaddafi was captured, sodomized, and murdered with his help, and eventually our ambassador to Libya would be murdered by some of the same terrorists that Obama supported. Libya is now and ungovernable mess and serves as a organizing point for ISIS. This was completely foreseeable, as I noted at the time.
    In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak had been one of our country’s strongest allies in the Mid-East. When the Arab Spring protests began, Obama rushed onto television to say that he must immediately be removed. With Obama’s support, the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood moved into action and was able to gain control of the government. When the military was able to remove the terrorists from office, Ol’ Stompy Foot really stomped his foot. He was furious that the terrorists that he had supported were no longer in charge of Egypt.
    Then there is Syria. I wrote five years ago that the Obama-Clinton team seemed determined to throw the entire Middle East into armed conflict. I pointed out the danger that Syria might descend into civil war. Everything I said would happen has happened. Obama and Saudi Arabia continue to support terrorists who are trying to topple Syria’s secular, elected government and replace it with a Sunni, Sharia-law regime.
    It is out of this huge power vacuum that ISIS was born. Even now the Obama administration continues to support Syrian terrorists; the result has a monumental disaster, as millions of refugees are trying to pour into Europe, or worse, the United States. There is no way to screen these refugees for ISIS agents or other extremists.
    Obama threw quite a tantrum over the fact that he was forced to say the words “Radical Islam.” But he finally said it! He told the truth, which for both he and Hillary Clinton is quite a difficult thing to do.
    To prevent future acts of terror we have to control our borders and limit immigration of those who might do us harm. We need a leader who will be honest and tell the truth. Clearly honesty and border control are beyond the Obama-Clinton pay grade. We need someone who can do the job.