The Great American Auto Boondoggle

PUBLISHED:  OCTOBER 2009

The Great American Auto Boondoggle

The American Motorists is making a serious mistake… yet again. 

Back in the seventies, when the so-called fuel shortage occurred, Americans began trading the big cars in for those little gas sipping rattletraps from overseas and later from the American automakers.  As it turned out they were fairly good on gas mileage… if you didn’t mind giving up safety, and comfort, which the standard sized American car afforded.

In time, the gas shortage was seen for what it really was… a hoax… and gas stations, again, had plenty of gasoline.  But the American motorists had a pile of junk on his hands.  That is… those who survived car crashes in those tiny little things.

Already, I’m seeing ads in papers for SUV’s, and Standard, as well as the Mid-sized, American cars on sale, with prices drastically cut, some thousands of dollars off the price they’d normally bring on the market.  Dealers are frightened they will be stuck with the large cars, and trucks, and they’re practically giving them away to cut what they see as losses coming down the road aways.

Now, having said all this… let me say, if you own an SUV, or a standard size automobile, or Pick-up… keep it.  At least you’ll be safe in a car crash.  Families with small children should keep their SUV’s for the safety of their families, too.

I have a Pick-up and my wife has a standard sized four-door sedan.  We plan to keep them.  My daughter has one of the largest, if not the largest SUV’s on the market today.  She also has two small children, one an infant.  That vehicle affords a margin of safety for her, and for her children, that those little beer cans, on wheels, will never provide.  So it costs more to fuel up.  How can you put a price on the safety of your family, how?

Those little cars, as we have learned, were death traps in a collision with a standard sized vehicle or truck (including SUVs).  Reducing the speed limit didn’t do much other than make motorist angry, add to the road rage, and make lots of money, from speeding tickets, for the states and municipalities.

Now, remember what we learned from the 70’s and 80’s when the market was flooded with those little toy cars: the owners were so angry, that some of us did not downsize as they did, they tried to put a guilt trip on all the owners of standard sized cars, and trucks, claiming that when your standard size vehicle hit theirs, in a collision, people tended to get killed in the little car.  Well, that was true, but the people in the standard sized vehicle survived! 

The point I’m trying to make is that the decision to buy one of those tiny death traps has a price, not shown on the sticker.  That is the price of your life and the lives of your families. 

The hybrids coming out onto the market today will be featured in the Smithsonian before too many decades are past.  The technology is not new; it’s just newly applied. 

We need more refineries in this country, built away from the immediate coasts.  We need them badly.  We have oil.  We just have no way to refine enough to meet today’s demands.  As soon as we get new refineries built, and the newly refined petroleum products begin to hit the market… watch OPEC”S prices drop like a stone… and their production increase.

Finally, we do need to begin serious research into an alternative for oil when it does run out. That is still many, many, decades down the road, but we need the research started now.

Until that day arrives we have no real choice but to use what we have.  What we have is oil.  Be safe, drive your big truck, or car.  Drive less, if necessary, but think of your safety and the safety of your family.

J. D. Longstreet 

Veteran's Day - 11/11/11 ... Alan Caruba

Veteran's Day - 11/11/11

As a veteran I naturally feel an affinity for all who have served their nation in uniform, but I am no fan of war. Those who commanded and those who served often feel the same. And then there are those who gave their lives. Their numbers would astound you and their bravery confounds the imagination. Veteran's Day is especially for them, but for the living, too.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.... A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their own free choice—is often the means of their regeneration."

-- John Stuart Mill, "The Contest in America,"

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity."

       -- Dwight  D. Eisenhower, speech, Jan. 10, 1946

"I know not with what weapons World War II will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-- Albert Einstein

And, a poem by Henry Reed, an English poet who was killed in World War I. Told in the voice of an instructor teaching new soldiers about their rifle, it juxtaposes the poet's observation of the beauty of nature around him and the absurdity of war for any but the most noble purpose.

NAMING OF PARTS
By Henry Reed

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens
And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.
 *****************************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

Israel And Iran Nearing Point Of No Return

Israel And Iran Nearing Point Of No Return

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

When US military forces leave Iraq next month, Israel’s door to Iran will swing wide open.  Iraqi airspace will be available for Israel’s air force for the first time since US troops invaded Iraq.

Tensions have been ramping up between the two government’s for the past year, or so, especially since Obama’s announcement that US forces would leave Iraq next month.

As a police officer many, many, decades ago, I learned, first hand, that some people just don’t know when to shut up.  Many times a police officer will find that he has to separate two people shouting threats at each other.  While one calms down the other continues, even after being warned multiple times to be quiet, shouting epithets, curses, and threats at his former antagonist.  More often that not, the loud-mouth finds him/herself face down on the ground, with his hands cuffed behind him, and on his way to jail.  As we indicated, some people just cannot grasp that there is a time to shut one’s mouth -- and keep it shut.

Such, it would seem, is Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran.  He continues yammering when he should simmer down.  One must consider the possibility that he is attempting to convince himself (more than anyone else) that Iran can destroy Israel. Ahmadinejad is on the brink of a rude awakening. He is about to talk himself into a thrashing of biblical proportions.

On the other hand Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, has had more than enough of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s threats and posturing as well as Iran’s arming of proxy troops in nations surrounding Israel.  For Netanyahu -- it is put up or shut up time for Iran.

There is an extremely thin line of resistance to a preemptive attack on Iran in the Israeli government.  That resistance can dissipate at a moment’s notice, however.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that Iran has any idea of the strength and lethality of the Israeli Defense Forces. 

When the attack begins, it will not be simply an air attack.  It will be a three-pronged attack by the air, land, and sea forces of Israel.  It will rival America’s “shock and awe” attack on Iraq. 

This projection is based on Israel going it alone -- without US assistance. However, I expect US naval assets will guarantee the Straits of Hormuz will remain open, when the attack begins, and be joined in that effort by Israeli naval forces immediately after the opening few hours of battle.

Should the US Navy elect to stand down during Israel’s attack, the Israeli navy and IDF Special Forces are quite capable of removing Iranian missile emplacements that would certainly be used to fire on oil tankers and naval vessels in an attempt to close the Straits to out bound oil bearing ships.  An air attack on the Straits will be met by US aircraft -- defending the waterway -- and quickly smashed.

Netanyahu is former member of the IDF Special Forces.  He is no novice when it comes to matters of war.  Netanyahu’s brother was killed in the Israeli raid on the Entebbe airport in which many hostages from a highjacked airliner were being held.  The hostages were freed but the Netanyahu family, like so many Israeli families, felt the loss of a loved one to military conflict.  There can be no doubt that Netanyahu knows the pain of war.  He also understands that if Israel is to survive, it will be called upon, once again, to sacrifice it’s young on the bloody alter of war.

Delaying the inevitable is only going to intensify the conflict when it comes and probably extend it, as well. The IDF has been training for this war for years now.  Israel’s troops are keen, sharp, and leaning forward.  A number of its assets are; no doubt, already forward deployed and awaiting orders.

Even as US forces are leaving Iraq, the US is already building up its forces “in the area.”  It is said, publicly, to be a back up in case the experiment in nation building in Iraq begins to crumble – or -- Iran starts trouble in Iraq. 

The fact is, that once hostilities commence between Iran and Israel, Iran will most certainly make every effort it possibly can to kill American troops in the area they consider their sphere of influence. Therefore, it will be nigh on to impossible for the US to remain on the sidelines.

Americans must face the fact that America is at war and will remain in a state of war for as far as the eye can see into the future.  The US government should understand this and immediately cease all talk of cutting funding for the only thing that stands between Americans and their freedom:  The US Military.

J. D. Longstreet

The Not So Good Old Days ... Alan Caruba

The Not So Good Old Days

By Alan Caruba

In troubled times it is human nature to cast a look backwards to recall “the good old days”, but anyone who lived through the latter half of the twentieth century has to look passed World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the recovery from the Great Depression of the 1930s. There were a succession of recessions that followed. In other words, it takes an effort to squeeze out memories of “I Love Lucy”, “The Ed Sullivan Show”, rock’n roll, and Elvis.

Any number of really good things did occur, of course. The polio vaccine was introduced to end that too common scourge, followed by flu vaccines that ended formerly widespread illness and deaths. All manner of technology was introduced, not the least of which was television, something that did not exist in American homes until around the 1950s. There actually was a time before cell phones, personal computers, and, of course, the Internet.

Mostly earlier times are not taught in schools except in the most perfunctory way; those who have passed through the U.S. educational system since the 1960s are often blissfully unaware of the way people used to live before electricity, trains, planes, cars, and everything else we take for granted.

An interesting book—well, at least to me— is “The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century” by Ian Mortimer. Let me share some snippets from it and, when I am through, as awful as our present times may seem to you, you may thank a merciful God that you born into these, not former times.

You’re visiting Exeter in the southwest of England, one of seventeen cathedral cities. “Arriving in every one of these places involves an assault on your senses…your nostrils will be invaded by the stench from the sewage-polluted watercourses and town ditches.”

“A major town is an intimidating place. Already you have seen the desiccated remains of thieves hanging on gallows at windswept crossroads. At the principal gates of a regional capital you will find the heads and limbs of traitors on display. When you enter the city of York, the largest city of the north, you will see the blackened heads of criminals stuck on poles above the city gates, their eyes plucked out by birds. Legs and arms hang by ropes, each the relic of a treasonable plot, now riddled with maggots or covered with flies.”

“It is generally said that medieval men are in their prime in their twenties, mature in their thirties, and growing old in their forties.” What we call children are not children for long in the fourteenth century. They are out in the fields by age seven. In some towns, citizens as young as twelve can serve on juries.”

Today’s army won’t take you unless you are at least of voting age, but at age twenty, Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377) declared war on the Scots and led an army into battle. He was highly respected by nobles, knights, and man-at-arms because, at twenty, he was already an adult in every sense of the word in those times. He was one of a handful of kings to rule England for fifty years or more. Today our generals and field officers are considerably older, but wars are still fought by young men.

In medieval times, a woman was in her prime at seventeen, mature at twenty-five, and growing old by her mid-thirties. Betrothals of boys and girls took place in infancy and marriage at the age of twelve was approved for girls although cohabitation usually began at fourteen. Most are married by sixteen and produce five or six children by their mid-twenties, although two or three of those have died.”

In a time when everyone is either obsessed with their health or urged to be, the fourteenth century and those that followed well into the twentieth are not famous for hygiene or longevity.

Arriving in 1348, the Great Plague, also called the Black Death, the toll—generally stated as one third of those living in Europe—was often as high as forty percent or more in the cities and towns of England. The Great Plague was followed by other outbreaks. “By 1400 about half of all those born over the previous seventy years have died of the plague.”

Illness was frequently fatal and usually attributed to “spells” and other superstitious beliefs. Any injury was likely lethal as well. As often as not what passed for medical care or procedures would kill you.

Suffice to say that medieval England was for most of the population a place of inadequate diet, poor sanitation (which is putting it mildly), parasites, and cramped, shared living space. Famines were a common killer.

All things considered, in the modern world we are far better off despite its absurd wars, terrorism, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. That is perhaps cold comfort for most people, including myself, when I ponder the human capacity for hatred, superstition, greed, stupidity, and other timeless failings of our species.

© Alan Caruba, 2011
********************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

The President Who Would Be King

The President Who Would Be King

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Obama’s past is so vague and so little is known about the man before he won a seat in the Senate that it is extremely difficult to refer to times and places in his past.  But I do seem to recall that he was said to have been a constitutional expert and even TAUGHT the US Constitution at some college or other.  If so, it is more than a little interesting.

See. Here’s the thing:  IF Obama taught the US Constitution then he knows that America opted for a bicameral constitutional, representative, government with a president as the chief executive.  Nowhere in the US Constitution is a King of the United States proved for.  NOWHERE.

Apparently someone else taught Obama’s class they day they covered presidents vs kings in America.  Obviously, he was absent. Else he would have known that America has no king. 

After hearing King Oba … uh … President Obama making proclamations on the campaign trail as to what he intends to do without the approval of the people’s legislature, methinks the King, er, the President is in dire need of psychiatric help.   He gives every indication that he is delusional. 

We are, of course, referring to Mr. Obama’s abuse of the Presidential Executive Order authority.   Even now, Mr. Obama is preparing to issue a host of presidential executive orders.  He is making no secret that he intends to rule by executive order and regulations issued by HIS czars and the heads of the various government agencies under his command.  In fact, he openly boasts about it before crowds, which have been especially screened by the Democratic Party, and the DNC, before they are allowed to bask in Mr. Obama’s dimly lit glory.

In the event that Mr. Obama DID, in fact, miss the class on presidents vs kings, then we shall endeavor to enlighten him and all others stricken with the same malady – lack of constitutional knowledge.

Article I, Section 1 of the United States Constitution is concise in its language, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."

 

Got it?  No king mentioned there, right?

 

The last thing the founders of the United States wanted was the establishment of a strong central government and a strong political leader at the center of that government. They had just fought a long grueling war to gain their freedom from a King and they no longer wanted kings, potentates, or czars.  What they DID want was a loose association of States in which the power emanated from the States and not from the central government.  (Bet THAT wasn’t taught in Professor Obama’s class!)

It is important to remember that before the constitution there were the Articles of Confederation.  “The President” was the President of the United States in Congress Assembled.  The powers of the office were extremely limited and the President served for only one year.  The Constitution, in contrast to the Articles of Confederation, established a strong four-year Presidency, but still only provided extremely limited powers to the office.

 

“Today, the executive branch of the government is immensely powerful, much more powerful than the founding fathers had envisioned or wanted. Congressional legislative powers have been usurped. There is no greater example of that usurpation than in the form of the Presidential Executive Order. The process totally bypasses Congressional legislative authority and places in the hands of the President almost unilateral power. The Executive Order governs everything from the Flag Code of the United States to the ability to single-handedly declare Martial Law. Presidents have used the Executive Order in times of emergencies to override the Constitution of the United States and the Congress.” (SOURCE)

 

“President Abraham Lincoln suspended many fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He closed down newspapers opposed to his wartime policies and imprisoned what many historians now call political prisoners. He suspended the right of trial and the right to be confronted by accusers. Lincoln's justification for such drastic actions was the preservation of the Union above all things. After the war and Lincoln's death, Constitutional law was restored.” (SOURCE)

 

Here are just a few Executive Orders that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels, and minerals.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education, and welfare functions.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, and designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways, and public storage facilities.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.

·         EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

If it sounds like George Orwell’s “1984” well, yeah, that’s exactly what it would be – if the executive orders above were enacted.  To become US Law they do not need to be run by Congress.  No.  All that is necessary is that they be PUBLISHED in the FEDERAL REGISTER.  THAT’S ALL!

There is one more executive order I want to make you aware of – and this one ought to scare every American out of their wits.  For with this one E.O. we will lose our freedom -- completely.  Here it is:

EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen-year period.

Just like that, we are no longer a free people.

Conservative activist Howard J. Ruff said:  "Since the enactment of Executive Order 11490, the only thing standing between us and dictatorship is the good character of the President, and the lack of a crisis severe enough that the public would stand still for it."

“Executive Orders are, indeed, controversial because they allow the President to make major decisions, even law, without the consent of Congress. This, of course, runs against the general logic of the Constitution -- that no one should have power to act unilaterally.” (SOURCE)

 

“If Congress does not like what the executive branch is doing, it has two main options. First, it may rewrite or amend a previous law, or spell it out in greater detail how the Executive Branch must act. Of course, the President has the right to veto the bill if he disagrees with it, so, in practice; a 2/3 majority is often required to override an Executive Order.

 

In addition to congressional recourse, Executive Orders can be challenged in court, usually on the grounds that the Order deviates from "congressional intent" or exceeds the President's constitutional powers.” (SOURCE)

 

As we have now seen, Mr. Obama COULD, indeed, make himself dictator with the stroke of a pen. Granted, it would be a very brief dictatorship, but we now know just how easily it can be done.

 

This is WRONG and needs to be corrected by a constitutional amendment as quickly as the US has a Congress with the level of testosterone necessary for brave action in the name of FREEDOM.

Obama is openly threatening to push his socialist agenda into US Law by using his authority to proclaim law with the power of the executive order.

 

Does America want a dictator, or a President answerable to the people?  Vote for one or the other at the ballot box in November of 2012.

 

J. D. Longstreet