bman

Cars are complex.. there will be more and more problems as they become more complex... not to mention their costs. Dear god, my first house in 1993 didn't cost as much as many average vehicles today.

I miss the old days of distributor points, spark plugs, cap, rotor, wires and a simple ole carburetor. Anybody with 1/2 a brain and some basic tools could repair what was needed. If not? No problem, parts were cheap, in abundance and easily installed. Can't do it yourself? No problem, there were mechanics on every corner making a good living for themselves happy to perform your repairs in a timely manner like (gasp) maybe even the same day! Have you had to drop off your car to the dealer recently? Have you got it back in under a week? Feel lucky if you have. They're so complex nowadays that it takes an a degree in quantum physics/mechanics to figure things out. Not to mention you need 1000's of dollars in computer equipment to diagnose anything.

Back in the day you could actually get to the oil filter easily, you could change a timing chain and gears in a couple of hours, you could change a fuel pump in a matter of minutes. By the way.. whats up with the pumps in the fuel tanks nowadays? Seems dangerous having all that voltage/amperage submerged in liquid boom doesn't it? Maybe its just me. I kind of miss the fuel pump mounted right to the side of the engine, up front, easy access. Got spark and crank but no start? Pull the fuel line real quick, crank it over and see if you got fuel. If not, no problem, grab a 1/2" socket and $30.00 and hit the local auto parts store - you'll be back on the road in a matter of an hour.

If you broke down on the road it was generally some easily repaired thing like a simple water or fuel pump, maybe an alternator or power steering pump. Have it towed to the nearest garage (which were on every corner it seemed) and Mack the Mechanic would have you running within a couple of hours, hell he probably even had the parts in stock. If not Nationwise Auto Parts had them on the shelf. With today's cars if you venture far from home and break down you're going to be stuck wherever for a few days.. if not a week or more AND you can rest assured you'll be spending a few hundos just to figure out what broke long before any parts are replaced.

I don't remember this many recalls from all the manufacturers on cars back then. Either they didn't publicize their issues back then OR it could be that since the vehicles were so simplistic that maybe there was just less to go wrong? Go figure.

Yesterday's cars went just as fast, just as comfortable, looked just as fashionable. On the down side, yea, they don't get the same mileage as today's cars, yea they're probably not as safe in a crash situation. On the up side however they certainly didn't cost as much, they certainly lived a LOT longer, they were on an order of magnitude more reliable and were certainly less expensive to own, maintain and operate even considering today's fuel prices. I guess its the price we pay for greenpeace activists, Environmentalists, treehuggers, Global Warming Conspiracy nutjobs, political correctness and career Politicians lining their pockets.

I miss my 73 Nova, 76 Cordoba, 80 Omni, 88 Mustang, 89 F-350. May they rest in peace.

Please stop pushing this Health care/Insurance reform thru on us.
Have you not seen the polls?
Im talking about ALL the polls averaged out.. all of them, including ones done by both right and left wing pollsters.

The overwhelming majority of Americans do NOT want this pushed on us.

Do we need the Insurance industry rolled over like you did wall street? YES. Just do it the right way.. fix only the shit that is broke, baby steps please, this is a major major major major financial issue for us.

Mr. President - back in 2007 you said that using reconciliation is almost constitutionally illegal. I have the video and audio, and many of the news stations have been playing it. Don't you remember that? How is using reconciliation now suddenly ok? Im no fan of Bush 43 - he started this whole bailout mess..... but how is what you're doing any different than what they did? Where is this change that I can believe in?

So I head out to the local burger joint last night for a nice juicy burger and some fries. Enter the kid from hell. Yes I know he was only 4-5 months old, but still. Kid starts crying - thats ok, I can deal with a fussy baby for a few minutes, had one myself sometimes. 15 minutes later this kid is still crying, well, crying LOUD. Dumbass mom and dad won't remove him from the area to calm him down, nope. Instead she lays out a blanket on her chair and changes the little hellspawn right there in the restaurant. My son used to toss tantrums like that too, what did we do? Simple, we took him somewhere away from the people so as not to ruin their meal.

20 minutes later he's still crying, people are staring now. When we left he was still crying.
Maybe sterilization for those with IQ's under 60 isn't such a bad idea.

Ok mainsteam media.. enough is enough. Let them fix their problem.

Mr. Toyoda (yes its spelled with a D) shed some tears in your congressional dog and pony show. Isn't that what you wanted?  He's assured you that they're fixing the problem and that they will make it right with their customers. Be happy this guy is still alive. Japanese pride generally dictates that this guy would've already put a sword in his own torso for being seen as dishonorable in the eyes of others.

Japanese product quality cannot be compared to Chinese products. Japanese take great pride in their products, and always have. I don't own any Toyota vehicles but Im quite confident that when he tells us that they are going to rectify the problem that you can take his words to the bank. Something you'll never see from any other Asian manufacturing company.

Where is the media circus when there are recalls from Chinese junk manufacturers? Why isn't there more of an outcry from the junk being imported by the trillions from China? Where is the media circus when dozens of kids have been harmed, mamed or killed by poor quality Chinese products? Hrm? There is a good reason there is no big market here for Chinese made vehicles.

Lets not forget the .. well, pfft...don't even get me started on Trade deficits with China vs. Japan.

Hypocrisy I tell you.. hypocrisy. Enough already.

U.S. Unveils Most Expensive Embassy in London The United States unveiled plans Tuesday for its new $1 billion high-security embassy in London — the most expensive it has ever built.

The proposals were met with relief from both the present embassy's Mayfair neighbors and the residents and developers of the Battersea wasteland where the vast crystalline cube, surrounded by a moat, will be built. The decision to abandon the former site in Grosvenor Square by 2016 came after a prolonged battle with residents angered by the security measures demanded after the September 11 attacks. More than a hundred residents took out a full-page advertisement in The Times of London to oppose tighter measures that they said would leave the area more vulnerable to attack.

The new embassy, on a former industrial site behind Battersea power station known for its gay clubs, will be designed by Kieran Timberlake, the Philadelphia architect. A moat 100-foot -wide and rolling parkland will separate the building from the main road, protecting it from would-be bombers and removing the need for the blast barriers that so dismayed the people of Mayfair. The State Department sought to play down the cost of security measures, noting the expense of London building work. But the price puts the London embassy above the U.S.'s most fortified missions, including the Baghdad embassy, which cost $600 million but required a further $100 million of work on air conditioning, and the Islamabad embassy, still under construction, which has cost more than $850 million.

All I can say is.. wow... simply wow. If this isn't waste then I don't know what is.

Just for you u325 :)

Missing Ohio couple in their 80s found in Ky.
February 19, 2010 07:15 EST

CINCINNATI (AP) -- A husband and wife in their 80s missing from the Cincinnati area have been found, 24 hours later and 125 miles away in central Kentucky.

Police Lt. Joe Macaluso in the Cincinnati suburb of Delhi Township says 84-year-old Iris Totten and 82-year-old Jack Totten were tired but doing well when they turned up Thursday.

Police say the Tottens got lost Wednesday evening after shopping at a Kohl's department store about 8 miles from their Delhi Township home.

They wound up in Danville, Ky., which police say is more than 2 hours away, about 30 miles off the nearest Interstate freeway.

Macaluso says the couple flagged down a motorist in Danville and explained they were lost. They were taken to a hotel, and police were called.

Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer, http://www.enquirer.com

I wonder if these two will be involved in the next event of mistaken gas pedal vs brake pedal or forward instead of reverse with their vehicle in a crowd of people? How many people will either of these two injure or kill before their driving privileges are revoked? Hopefully the family (if there are any) will do the right thing, step in and take their licenses and vehicle(s).

Tiger Woods this. Tiger Woods that. Blah bleh blah pfft hrmpf bleh. He's just a piece of shit just like all the other miscreants in the limelight with lotsa money and very little brains. The only things I'm pissed about is that all his sponsors didn't yank the silver spoon out from underneath him and that his wife didn't leave him. If I was her I'd be getting a divorce post haste and grabbing some of his billions. Pieces of shit like him understand one thing, their wallet.

Let me begin by saying that I am not condoning the suicide attack on the IRS building yesterday however I am not surprised by this as its not the first time the IRS has been targeted by those they're fucking over. If you've never had the pleasure of dealing with the IRS then hopefully you never will. The IRS works completely backwards outside of anything deemed logical.

Remember all those neat little laws setup to keep regular debt collectors in check? You know the ones that say they can only call you X number of times daily, or that they have to have a court order to garnish wages or that they cannot do this or that? These rules do not apply to the IRS.

When the IRS freezes all your assets, takes your house, your cars, your retirement, your HSA, auctions your belongings then destroys your credit report so that you have no chance of ever working anywhere again many people believe they have little else left to do but what this guy did. When backed into a corner with nowhere else to go, nothing left to do many people want to react in the same manner.

The IRS will test the mentality of those with the strongest sanity.

US Demands Toyota Recall Documents
The Transportation Department demanded documents related to Toyota's massive recalls in the United States on Tuesday to find out if the automaker acted swiftly enough.

Ha! This is like the proverbial Kettle calling the Pot black. Are you serious? Let me give you a hint US Transportation Dept - STAY out of their way, let them fix their problem. The last thing we need are congressional conferences, meetings, focus groups and various other Dog and Pony Show shenanigans to get in the way of letting them resolve their problem.

Hey US Government don't you have other problems to attend that are FAR more important... like maybe our National Debt?

This entire thing is being blown completely out of proportion. The number of serious injuries or deaths as a result of this issue is like .00000001% of the number of people who die in just ONE DAY in the State of California as a result of criminal activity. In fact more people committed suicide from the Bernie Mahdoff scandal than have been killed as a result of the Toyota throttle issues.

I commend Toyota for standing up to the plate, idling plants, recalling most of their rolling stock and losing millions upon millions of dollars to correct this problem that they did not do intentionally. Today's cars are highly complex to meet the US EPA and Efficiency standards. Any engineer knows that with more complexity comes more problems. Duh?

Japanese auto makers and workers have the utmost pride in their work and are some of the hardest workers in the world. Any of the big 3 automakers here in the USA would have simply rolled over and asked for the Government to step in and help them out. Toyota has 3 huge plants here in the USA employing US workers who are now NOT working until the plants open again. Toyota dealerships are mostly idle and not making any money. If they're not working, you're not getting any tax revenue. If they're not selling cars, you're not making any tax revenue.

You do not understand how to run a business.
You do not understand how to make money except by taxing.
Stay out of their way.
They will resolve their problem, they will make it right and they will do it in a timely fashion.

The games have long been too commercialized - I've ranted for years. This year officially takes the Gold medal in the highly coveted Lunacy competition.

The opening ceremony was not only painful to endure but completely stupid - it even made my eyes bleed. It made no sense to me or perhaps the other millions watching. I honestly thought I was watching a Cirque Du Soleil show. This is the olympics people.. not a circus act.

The TV coverage is horrible. There will be hours upon hours of bullshit commentating and shit tons of commercials all for like maybe 10 minutes of actual footage of people competing. Why should I bother?

This Ohno guy.. ok, if it werent for people falling down he wouldn't have won his silver. Amazingly he did the SAME thing back in Salt Lake 2002 games. He was WAY behind and only got a medal from others falling... Rinse and repeat for this year's games too, a few people fell and he skids across for a Silver. The media is hyping him up pretty good - for what Im not sure, he's mediocre at best but I guess a win is a win, just seems like a shitty way to get one IMHO.

Muslim-American groups are supporting a "fatwa" issued this week forbidding Muslims to go through full body scanners because it violates Islamic rules on modesty, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo writes that the Fiqh Council of North America – a body of Islamic scholars – issued the religious ruling this week.

The fatwa says:
"It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women. Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts."

Poor fuckers. Its against my religion to deal with you fucknuggets. It's against my religion to endure your religious stupidity. Its against my religion to look at walking curtains. Might I suggest you lighten up a little bit, have some Alabama Pulled pork sandwiches with an ice cold beer and enjoy the short time you're here on this Earth.. OR just dont come into our country if you don't like the laws.

Unbelievable.. unbelievable. A minor TECHNICALITY.. yet there are millions of undocumented Mexicans and Somalis here... this read will piss you off.. at best!

For years she, and the U.S. government, thought the Bulgarian-born 34-year-old was an American citizen. But, when she went to renew her passport in 2003, the State Department reportedly told her something terribly different.

Boneva's father was born in Indiana, and the consulate in Bulgaria gave her U.S. citizenship while she was growing up in the country in 1981. She was able to visit relatives in Chicago and eventually move to the area in 1997, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Then in 2003, the married mother of a now 7-year-old U.S.-born boy received a letter from the U.S. State Department saying there was a mistake and she wasn't an American citizen, according to the Tribune.

"I thought it was some kind of joke," she told the Tribune. "I grew up believing I'm an American, and now they want to take that away? This is like a bad dream."

The State Department said in the letter that an employee at the consulate broke a rule that required her father to have lived in the U.S. for 10 years before she was born, the Tribune reported. Her father had only lived in the U.S. for six years before moving to Bulgaria.

The letter also pointed out that that requirement changed in 1986 to five years, meaning that someone in the Boneva's position today would be eligible for U.S. citizenship, but she isn't.

Another letter sent later that year then told her "it does not appear" she qualifies to be a U.S. citizen anymore, the Tribune reported.

Since then, Boneva has made numerous attempts to get he situation cleared up, but has never received a straight answer from the State Department, the Tribune reported.

State Department spokeswoman Adriana Gallegos declined to talk with the Tribune about Boneva's situation, but told the paper in an e-mail, "We don't revoke citizenship, we revoke documents." Gallegos wouldn't specify to the newspaper what that meant for Boneva.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585152,00.html

Unbelievable.  NASA's funding has been cut off from the feds in the new budget. Oh we can spend trillions on stupid shit, but the space program gets the cut. Its funny these pundits talk about how we need to innovate new products to help grow our nation. The space program over the last 3 decades has been the brainchild of almost every electronic gadget we use nowadays, not to mention all the bio research. Just when we need to grow our scientific community we're cutting it off at the knees. There are literally thousands of subcontractors who have employees, who have families who play a role in the program, guess they'll all be headed for the unemployment line. Smart move Obama.. smart move. Dumbass.

Ok, more fun and games from Capital Hill.

Yesterday our proud puppet, being operated by Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi has decided to enact a "SPENDING FREEZE". Really? On the outside and to the uninformed this sounds great! Amazing.. Washington is going to stop spending money? Whoa! But wait.. there's more.

1. This spending freeze does NOT apply to the social entitlements, nor Defense spending which encompass over 65% of the Federal Budget.
2. This spending freeze does NOT apply to the 500+Billion still unspent TARP money.
3. This spending freeze will only save 15 billion on a 1.5 Trillion defictit the first year - thats about 1% - Source: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
4. They've frozen spending which essentially locks in the single largest increase in spending in the history of the USA. Its like raising your prices 35% at the store then offering a 15% off sale!

Generally fiscal budgets increase 1-3 percentage points yearly. Budgets and spending have been increased over 22% under the watchful eyes of the dynamic duo - the single largest yearly increase in spending in the history of the United States.

Smoke and Mirrors. Snake Oil. These tactics are nothing different from any other Administration in the past. Our intelligence is being insulted and we simply sit back and take it in the rear like the good little bitches we are.

Senator Obama, Oct 2nd, 2008:

"I will finally end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all, The days of sweetheart deals for Halliburton will be over when I'm in the White House."

Obama Administration, Jan 4th, 2010,

Awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company, Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi. USAID will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide "rule of law stabilization services" in war-torn Afghanistan. The legality of the arrangement as a "sole source," or no-bid, contract was made possible by virtue of a waiver signed by the USAID administrator. "They cancelled the open bid on this when they came to power earlier this year". - Source - USAID website

Senator Obama, Various times throughout 2008 and 2009:

While campaigning vowed 8 times that Health Care Reform would be "transparent" and televised on C-span. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Api4fUziAnI

Im still waiting to see those negotiations and debates.. still waiting for the transparency you promised. You promised change I can believe in. I see no change from you, Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., Carter or Reagan.

Politics as usual Mr. President?

Ok so the news is filled with people in protest about these new full body scanners. Their concerns are correct, you can indeed make out details on the person's body including the genitalia, breasts, and buttocks.

Ok.... so what's the big deal?

We all know the hardware that men and women have. We see more of it on HBO than on the body scanners. Whats the big deal? Do you honestly think that some stupid TSA person is going to remember what your vagina looks like? Do you think they will remember that your penis was large or small or fat or skinny? They will have screened thousands upon thousands EACH day. Get over it, its a body, not taboo.

We could save billions upon billions of dollars every year by not having to conduct so much intelligence gathering on these terrorists before they get on planes.  Besides, it won't be long before the terrorists start using women and kids of ANY nationality to do their dirty work - meanwhile everybody is looking for Habib the terrorist looking dude.

Install these scanners at each and every port of entry then you don't need to worry about profiling anybody, the planes will be 99% safe from carry-ons and all is well. Dumbass politicians.

I kinda like the new layout... perhaps it will grow on me!