The Big Three – Congress, Let’s Make the Most of It

Here I am, and I’ve commented on this numerously; yet, I’ve not written anything here on my blog. Detroit, what to do with you? Congress, why would you ever dare squander this opportunity?

Obviously, one could spend forever writing this, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for your or my time. Congress – loan them the money for which they are asking, but put them under receivership. In short, now is the time Congress to ensure that the Big Three all live up to real CAFÉ standards.

It’s quite simple, mandate greater fuel efficiency standards that match the most efficient cars in the world, those coming out of Japan. Ensure the Big Three, if they don’t already have the technology, knocks off the designs via reverse-engineering these foreign automobiles. In addition, ensure that idle assembly plants partner with someone making alternative energy products, e.g. Wind Turbines or Solar Panels.

In all of these instances, we have an experienced labor force, well trained about the construction of automobiles. We have plants and assembly lines well tooled and equipment for two of the three above products. Lastly, for the one errant out-of-the box component, there could be retraining and retooling, or there could be the usage of the infrastructure to package and distribute, cutting the costs right out of the production.

Detroit’s issues for the past thirty years have been the result of bad management. It’s not as though the labor force is lesser than elsewhere in the world. Detroit, in both design and materials, has gone for cheap, shoddy quality and inefficiency in favor of faddish wants of car buyers at a given moment. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of one car designed by a Detroit automaker that makes me think twice about heading to the dealers.

In short, Congress has kowtowed to Detroit on emissions for far too long. They did so when Detroit, between the UAW and the Big Three execs, leveraged its weight on both sides of the political spectrum. Now is the time to make them change, while they are down; keep people employed, and keep millions with health insurance until a decent health plan comes about for our country’s people.

Australia - a new film...

This last week, with my family, I saw “Australia.” I don’t quite know what to make of the movie. It was entertaining, and it had all of the romantic and epic elements of a 1950’s-era film, including the gallant rugged horseman, the aristocratic lady, and the spiritual native boy. Rather than those elements being injected for the sake of camp, I think the filmmaker, Baz Luhrmann, genuinely works within these conventions out of sincerity.

Provided we live in an age of taking previous conventions from the Modern-era, and we turn them on their head or turn them inside out, for me, it was hard to make whether or not “Australia” was a high-camp rendition on past conventions. Of course, then I thought of it, and there was no irony injected along with these ancient conventions. For example, looking at the film poster, there is no sense of irony to it.

Quite simply, “Australia,” a long narrative, could have been made in 1958 with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. Of course, they both would have had to acquire Aussie accents; nevertheless, that was the feeling I had leaving the film. It’s a palatable rendition, but for my money, it certainly was nothing new or thought-provoking. Moreover, I don’t like Luhrmann’s continuous injection of music—particularly Judy Garland sung songs from “The Wizard of Oz.” To me, it seemed as though this was projected towards three very specific audiences: women, children, and Judy Garland fans.

Delinquencies

I’ve been out for almost a couple of weeks, and I had meant to write a review of my trip back to the Quad Cities. It was a delightful time, and one with a good number of interesting observations—not coming from Chicago but from Boise.

What was most important, arriving home in Moline/Fyre Lake was seeing my beloved family, including my sister, and then seeing my friends. I had a good number of runs on seem neat routes, which made the runs at home neat. The two eight-milers I ran were different: one went from 24th Ave, down to the Mississippi, off to East Moline, and then back. The other run went around Fyre Lake, back up to the Corner Mart, and then back to my folks’ house. They were fun runs.

Of course, what was also quite delightful was returning back to Boise, where I’ve bought and moved into a house. I bought the house back in October—closed on the 30th. Then, I took possession on the 31st. I moved in over subsequent weeks, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the house.

You’ll have to forgive the organization or cleanliness, as the pictures were taken following my return from a week of vacation. It’s not that I live messily, but that I still have not had a chance to finish unpacking. In addition, I had not unpacked from being away for the week of Thanksgiving.

Here are pictures:

That’s where I am, and I look forward to having visitors to Boise. It will be too much fun to have friends and loved ones come to Boise to visit.





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