common sense

Am I just missing something? Are people actually as clueless as the politicians seem to think they are? 

We've got the president on TV with the rest of his puppets touting the benefits of these high mileage overpriced tin cans they wish to foist on the American public. 

If you throw out the fact that in order to meet these standards cars will have to be made lighter and thereby less safe in a collision,(F=mv) for people who didn't take high school physics that means force is equal to mass(weight) times velocity(speed). In other words if a 4000 pound SUV traveling at 50 mph collides with a 2000 pound tin can traveling at the same 50 mph (of course it will take it a while to get there) guess who will get the short end of the straw. 20,000 pounds of force will always win out over 10,000 pounds of force. You still have cost issues.

When you can buy an 8-10 year old SUV for $4,000 that gets 20mpg and if you drive 12,000 miles per year which would cost you about $600 per year for gasoline you would have a 5 year cost of $5,800 and if you were to buy a close to comparable new standard SUV for $35,000 and got 30mpg you would have a 5 year cost of $36,200.

Does any of these make sense? No safety advantage and definately no cost advantage that I can see here. Where do we go from here?

Back in the saddle

Well, it's been a while since I posted, sorry about that! I've been a little preoccupied with work issues and with trying to make progress on my restoration projects.

Anyway, it's kind of therapuetic to sit down and write again. 

Even though the economy is still extremely shaky at least I still have a job. 

The politicians are trying their best to burden us, our children and grandchildren with debt us or them will never be able to repay. They try to spin this as stimulus and divert our attention by giving us a little more of our own money in our paychecks by using lower withholding rates. They're banking on the basic apathy of the public to not notice that that money buys less because it's worth less. That's at least until they get all their social programs in place and get the masses dependent upon the government. This is an agenda people need to wake up and take notice of before it's too late. 

Stand up! Go to www.americansolutions.com/teaparty and take a stand for America.

Happiness

Happiness can be anything. Your team won the Super Bowl, you got a raise, you got a promotion, new grandchild, whatever.

Sometimes however, you just have to accept that happiness isn't always noticed. When you wake up in the morning you should be happy. When the sun is shining, smile, it's a good day!

The reason I mention this is we may all be looking for any semblence of happiness for the near future given the state of the economy and the absolute prescription for disaster the knuckleheads in Congress are getting ready to unleash upon us. Be prepared to be absolutely underwhelmed by the effects you will feel. 

New era

Well, it's the dawning of a new era in American politics. I really hope the new administration can help put the economy back on the right track. I know they can't do it themselves, the public has to participate. They really have their work cut out for them; more layoff announcements every day, companies that aren't laying off are announcing wage and hiring freezes, banks aren't loaning money, cars aren't selling...... everything seems to be looking bleak.

You have all heard the old saying about being darkest before the dawn, so I guess it must be getting close to daybreak! The bright spots in the whole deal is the people of this great country; the people who are innovators, the visionaries, the hard working people who make this county what it has been in the past and hopefully will continue to be!

new year new outlook

Welcome to my first post of 2009. It is now a new year, time to reflect on the past and decide what, if anything, you will do with the time we have now. Everything seems to be up in the air.... political, financial, etc. However, most of us can't do much about those things, we can only do with what we have control over. I personally am going to try to improve my health. I am going to lose more weight than I did last year. I intend to get much more exercise and hopefully reduce or eliminate by dependence on high blood pressure medicine. I also am going to make a concerted effort to get some of my automotive projects completed. I need to get my Gransport back on the road, finish my Morris Minor restoration and make noticable progress on my street rod project

christmas

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. We can now look forward to the new year.  We can hope that the new year will be more prosperous and pleasant than what we have been subjected too for the last couple of years.

     Soon we will be swearing in our new president and the new Congress will begin doing whatever it is they do between gridlock sessions and we'll see how the economy reacts. 

      I, myself, hope to get some of my many projects completed. That is, assuming, I still have a job. I am getting too old to continue to accumulate projects without finishing any of them. My Gransport needs to be back on the road and my street rod needs to get at least running under it's own power.

Bailout

Anyone else getting sick of all this bailout bullcrap? Now that the floodgates have opened with the Wall Street handouts everyone one else has gotten in line. It appears the latest one, however seems to be in doubt. That's the "Big Three" automakers for people who have gotten tired of following the soap opera.

       I know, I know, there is supposedly thousands and thousands of jobs riding on the outcome. But stop and think about it......... if there is a market for the cars someone will build them, be it GM, Ford, Chrysler, or someone new. Thus the people will have jobs producing them. If there's no jobs available it's because there's no market for the product or service. What are you going to do pay people to produce products that no one buys? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me!

      To make things even more bizarre, as if coming to beg for a handout in a multi-million dollar jet wasn't strange enough, the amounts needed are seemingly anybody's guess. First 25 billion is the number asked for, then coming back for the second round they ask for 34 billion. Now the number of 14 billion is being kicked around as the amount available. Are you kidding? GM loses more than that in less than 2 months the way they're operating now! What happens then? Give them some more money? Maybe bankruptcy and reorganization isn't a bad option.