Nov 28, 2008
Nov 27, 2008
Nov 19, 2008
Something to Think About Before Bailing Out "American" Plants
The not-so-big three are certainly are no less global than, say, Honda. General Motors gets 44% of its revenue from other countries and Ford gets 53%, according to Forbes (April 21). A German company, Daimler-Benz, still owns a fifth of Chrysler, and a group of affluent private investors owns the rest.
An “American” brand tells you little about where all the parts in a car are made. I was once at a dinner with Lee Iaccoca where I teased him about my Dodge Stealth, made in Japan by Mitsubishi. Similarly, today’s Chevy Aveo is imported from Daewoo in South Korea. Yet Hyundai has a plant in Alabama.
Cars.com found only four cars and six light trucks with a domestic content (meaning US or Canadian) above 75%. That list includes the Toyota Tundra and Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Other Honda’s have a 60-70% domestic content, barely missing the cut.
The “Detroit” metaphor for primarily domestic vehicles is also inappropriate. Among the remaining seven vehicles with a very high domestic content, three are made outside Michigan —the Chevy Malibu from Kansas and Cobalt from Ohio, and the Ford Explorer from Kentucky. Ford’s F-150 truck might be made in Michigan or Missouri, the Chevy Silverado in Michigan or Indiana.
Source: The Cato Institute
An “American” brand tells you little about where all the parts in a car are made. I was once at a dinner with Lee Iaccoca where I teased him about my Dodge Stealth, made in Japan by Mitsubishi. Similarly, today’s Chevy Aveo is imported from Daewoo in South Korea. Yet Hyundai has a plant in Alabama.
Cars.com found only four cars and six light trucks with a domestic content (meaning US or Canadian) above 75%. That list includes the Toyota Tundra and Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Other Honda’s have a 60-70% domestic content, barely missing the cut.
The “Detroit” metaphor for primarily domestic vehicles is also inappropriate. Among the remaining seven vehicles with a very high domestic content, three are made outside Michigan —the Chevy Malibu from Kansas and Cobalt from Ohio, and the Ford Explorer from Kentucky. Ford’s F-150 truck might be made in Michigan or Missouri, the Chevy Silverado in Michigan or Indiana.
Source: The Cato Institute
Nov 18, 2008
Nov 14, 2008
White People
I had to shrink the pic down to get it to fit in the blog, so you might want to click on it to get a better looking version. What's funny is that, in its original size, only the first two panels showed! Unintentional racism!
Nov 11, 2008
Nov 7, 2008
Nov 5, 2008
The Republicans Have Thrown Sarah Palin Under the Bus
I didn't want to do anymore election stuff, but I thought this was poignant. Even FOX News has begun to report that 'she didn't know Africa was a continent'.
Nov 4, 2008
The Night the Lights Went On in Georgia?
I thought about blogging the presidential results tonight, but that would be pointless. With the way the 'pun-dents' are talking about it, this thing might rage on into the holidays. Well, maybe not. But tonight is going to be a LOOOOOOONG night, even if Obama has it wrapped up early. For anyone who even vaguely remember 2004 (or 2000), Ohio will drag its ass on counting and we won't find out until tomorrow morning who the president is.
This is barring the possibility that Barack Obama - a black dude - might take my home state. GEORGIA. Yeah, right, you might be saying. Sitting in your ivory tower. Well, to quote my favorite mummy Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.
Earlier last week, Real Clear Politics - one of the throngs of polling sites on the internet - showed a race within the margin of error in Georgia. McCain 49.5. Obama 45. That is ASTOUNDING, especially for a state that went, I don't know 70-30 in 2004 (with John Kerry winning only 22 percent of the white vote).
One of the other indicators of a squeaker here is the fact that nearly two million early votes were cast in this election, which is nearly 60% of the total votes cast in 2004. And the 2 million early votes is a record for the state. That benefits Obama, who, by all appearances, has been leading by a margin of nearly ten points in early ballots.
All of this is obviously early, and I have no idea if the race will be even remotely close down here, but it would be nice to see that Georgia isn't the absolute most backwards state in the Union (I'm looking at YOU, Mississippi). So far no exit polls have been released, so there is no data to support any of the claims I have made. Basically, I've just participated in the echo chamber that plagues modern media. Sorry.
GObama. GO Biden.
The Return of the Woolly Mammoth
Scientists are now claiming that the potential to revive the woolly mammoth species is now entirely possible.Sort of.
Frozen Mammoths - like the one pictured right - could unlock the key to cloning them in the future. Jurassic Park, anyone? The problem is that, often, DNA is damaged by ice crystals when animals are frozen. However, recent experiments, in which mice frozen for sixteen years were cloned, prove that it is not an unreachable endgame to clone extinct species of animals.
Craziness.
Source: The Telegraph UK
Nov 3, 2008
Oct 30, 2008
Monster Mash - I Thought It Was Evil Whiskey
Here's a cool video someone did for the Boris Pickett song, 'Monster Mash', just in time for Halloween. Since I'll be in Jacksonville over this most sacred holiday, I'll have to front load the material of the blog. There's also a new Angry Video Game Nerd video on Frankenstein posted online.
Oct 29, 2008
God Hates Signs
This has been a month replete with pictures. I've become obsessed with finding strange stuff on the web and posting it here (mostly from Reddit.com). The picture at the bottom is just another in a long line of strange photos I'll be posting in the future.
These people - save for the smart one - are from Westboro Baptist Church, an organization that puts homosexuality at the top of its sin hit list.
These people - save for the smart one - are from Westboro Baptist Church, an organization that puts homosexuality at the top of its sin hit list.
Oct 28, 2008
On 'Spreading the Wealth' and Adam Smith
In an article on The New Yorker Web Site - I know - the author, Steve Coll, points to a paragraph in Adam Smith's writings to back up Barack Obama's Socialist new tax policy:
John McCain's campaign is just desperate to paint Obama as The Other. Well, I guess the campaign is just desperate in general. But there are only a few epithets left, man. The Klan members who make up the audiences at Palin rallies have begun calling Obama a nigger, as opposed to terrorist or socialist or Muslim or whatever backhanded racist term they can come up with.
Small town values, eh?
The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . . It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
John McCain's campaign is just desperate to paint Obama as The Other. Well, I guess the campaign is just desperate in general. But there are only a few epithets left, man. The Klan members who make up the audiences at Palin rallies have begun calling Obama a nigger, as opposed to terrorist or socialist or Muslim or whatever backhanded racist term they can come up with.
Small town values, eh?
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