WAR MERCANTILISM
Re: Lawrence Henry’s “Outsourcing”
— For Real:
One would wish Mr. Henry’s friend well in creating 12 American
jobs. One wonders, however, how representative his experience is.
The article could have done with a little balance on factors such
as:
• Does Toyota receive taxpayer subsidies in order to build
factories in the States?
• Does every corporation that sends a customer service job
overseas create another one at home, or pay a levy to the IRS for
the tax income that the economy’s lost?
• Does he provide his Indian guys with a retirement plan,
seeing as he doesn’t have to pay Social Security?
For every incentive and alleged benefit with this practice,
there is an equal an opposite disadvantage, and it is not in the
interest of the American economy that American earning power be
sent overseas at a time of war, with soaring budget deficits. Can’t
these guys just look beyond profit to the national interest, just
for once?
— Martin Kelly
Glasgow, Scotland
TEDDY BARE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s Daddy’s
Boy:
Kerry: Hamas and Hezbollah are “sort” of a terroist alignment?
Uh, no, Senator Kerry, they are aren’t “sort” of terrorists, they
ARE TERRORISTS, you dummy! They want to kill every Jew and any
American they can. They aren’t “sort” of anything but murderers and
killers of innocent people.
Kennedy: Doesn’t it seem like every three or four months, the
Democrats drag Teddy out of whatever bar he is in at the moment,
throw his besotted form in front of a microphone, where,
bleary-eyed and and low-lidded, he spouts and spews out the kind of
crap that only serves to hurt the morale of our soldiers, and
undermine U.S. interests and goals in the Middle East? Is it just
my imagination that his breath smells like scotch and Chappaquidick
sea water?
Both of these guys wouldn’t make a pimple on W’s butt, as we
like to say in west Texas.
- -Mike Webster
Dallas, Texas
Mr. Tyrrell is too kind to Senators Kennedy and Kerry. They’re not
just dupes, I believe they’re traitors. Their statements can be
construed in no other way than aid and comfort to the enemy. Just
think of the encouragement the terrorists and other thugs feel at
Kennedy and Kerry’s spoutings. Just think of the discouragement for
our soldiers and Marines to hear their “prominent leaders” urging
on their attackers. The terrorists probably feel they don’t need
another attack on the U.S. homeland as long as they have Kennedy,
Kerry, and all their allies doing the job for them.
— W.G. Wheatley
Worton, Maryland
Historical consensus has it that FDR was so embarrassed by the
antics (both political and sexual) of Joe (Kennedy) Sr. in
Washington, D.C. that the President exiled him to the Court of
Saint James. On his arrival in England — Churchill looked him over
and quipped, “I thought America was our ally.”
Joe Senior enjoyed hobnobbing with the Nazi-loving English
nobility — giving his Boston Irish daughters a proper coming out
in high society with his ambassadorial status. JFK wrote a
best-selling book based on his observations of British
unpreparedness for war and Chamberlain’s dithering in the face of
an obvious German militarization.
As for the youngest of Joe’s kids, it seems Teddy’s DNA got
stretched mighty thin in certain areas — but the genetics of
appeasement, anti-Semitism, and treachery seem not the least
diluted in the last progeny of his generation.
— Mike Horn
Tracy, California
Ted Kennedy has every right to voice his opinion about whatever he
choses to opine about, but his comments about our efforts in Iraq
cross the line into giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Recently
he said that Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam and that same day that phrase
was included in a speech given by Rev. Al-Sadr. If Ted experiences
any lucid moments he might want to reflect on how what he said
might have served to embolden the enemy and demoralize our own
troops.
— Dick Melville
Ozone Park, New York
It sounds like Teddy is trying to make a case early for Enemy of
the Year.
— Phil Winsor
Bridgewater Corners, Vermont
CALLED ON THE CARPET
Re: Paulette Sonnen’s letter (“Heckler”) in Reader Mail’s What Makes
Us Different:
Paulette Sonnen of Woodburn, Oregon, writes regarding Jed
Babbin’s Condi at the
Bat:
“I was sorry to see the untrue facts printed by Jed Babbin. It
is a sad thing for the American People that people like Jed write
things that just are not factually true and try to have people
believe the untruths — kinda like going to war on WMD????”
What, specifically, did Mr. Babbin write that was untrue? I’m
sure that others, aside from myself, would be interested.
Does it occur to Ms. Sonnen, and others of her persuasion, that
Saddam was a WMD, e.g. murdering hundreds of thousands by the use
of gas, industrial shredders, torture, shootings, etc.?
What about the shipload of WMD’s, including nukes, that Qaddafi
gave up to U.S. and British authorities? Did the Libyan tyrant,
perhaps, imagine a red dot on his forehead in light of the capture
of Saddam?
Could it be possible that what Saddam did to his own people, he
might do (or help others do) to people in Woodburn, Oregon?
Do Ms. Sonnen, and people of her persuasion, consider the
possibility that they kinda might be suffering from an infectious
mental/spiritual pathology???
Looking forward to answers.
— Carl Gordon Pyper
Monett, Missouri
LOUNGING AT THE CAFE II
Re: Eric Peters’ and the
“Engine Ears” letters in Reader Mail’s Strokes of
Genius:
Psst: somebody give Eric Peters a clue and tell him about the
mid-sized 2004 Prius sedan, which exceeds CAFE II standards while
offering performance, comfort and low emissions. The technology for
significant reductions in petroleum dependence exists and is on the
road now, the splutterings of neo-reactionaries and luddite oil
industry shills notwithstanding.
— Richard Schumacher
Dallas, Texas
Without harping too much on Kerry, who has many ideas unmolested by
the touch of reality, most American vehicles do have a number of
areas where limited regulation would make a large difference in
safety and efficiency. Some industries will get away with whatever
they can get away with, especially when there are only a few
players. The welfare of the public is an interest only in making
sure that they are usually alive to make the payments, kind of like
the way Big 6 consultants treat their clients. The auto industry,
to a degree, is one of those industries. I can point to a number of
areas where automakers have just not bothered to introduce new
things because, well, they were lazy and wanted to go for the sure
thing. Mileage is just one of those issues. (You can point to
ridiculously small fuel tanks, requiring people to use 5W-20 motor
oil in a desperate effort to save fuel while destroying the engine,
tiny oil sumps for lower drag losses, too-small oil filters,
non-existent power steering fluid and gear oil/ATF filters, and so
on, and so on, and so on.)
Right now, I can buy a perfectly good VW Passat for about $25k
that gets 28mpg around town and about 36 on the highway with an
automatic transmission and seats five 6’ people pretty well and
four 6’2” people very well. (I am 6’1” and I fit fine in the back
seat.) It has a small diesel (2l, 130bhp). They went on sale this
week in Houston. I can get a diesel Golf wagon (sold in the U.S. as
a Jetta Wagon) for $18k with a diesel and it gets about 35/45 (more
with a manual) and will fit four 6’+ people pretty well (and did,
plus a rottweiler, last week from Houston to San Antonio, without
anyone getting upset or feeling cramped). I bought one last year
and I normally get 44 around town and 50-52 on longer trips
(Houston to Midland or El Paso, for instance) at 75mph. I can buy
at 6,000 pound Dodge pickup truck (crew cab, long bed, 4x4) with a
325 bhp Cummins turbodiesel with 600 foot pounds of torque and it
gets 20mph around town if you don’t drive it like you just stole it
(the RWD versions get 22). (I have nine friends with these trucks
— and I have a new one on order — and it is really difficult to
get under 18mpg without risking life and limb.) Quite soon (June?)
Mercedes will offer a mid-sized sedan (at the usual MB USA price of
$45k) with a 200 horsepower diesel that can cruise at 130mph all
day long that gets 31/38 (that was what I was told and it seems to
fit with the EC fuel economy reports, more or less). So, where,
exactly, is the problem meeting substantially higher CAFE
requirements? Well, the industry is populated by a lot of lazy
people and they don’t give a damn. (And not just at Volkswagen
North America, either, although their behavior over the last ten
years could be a book full of HBS case studies.)
If the cost of fuel went up to $3/gallon, we would see tons of
these cars, the size of a Taurus with slightly slower 0-60 times
and dramatically better mileage. If you put a VW tdi engine in a
Taurus, you would get exactly the same results, and Ford has those
engines in Europe. So does GM. And Chrysler is now MB, so that is
MB and MTU, as well as Cummins, Perkins, and Onan. There is no
excuse for a 12mpg family SUV at this point as a base offering
(sure, if you want a Ferrari, that is another thing, but to make
the standard offerings as thirsty as they are is really stupid). If
there was a relationship between weight, cruising range, and
mileage, we would see tons of them. That would be a good thing. The
issue with Kerry is not that he would like to see better mileage
but that he is going about it in a stupid way. Of course, if car
manufacturers did not assume that most of their consumers were
idiots, he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. But his basic idea,
that fuel economy would be a)not too expensive to improve and
b)could easily improve a lot, is not incorrect. A tdi option adds
about $800 to a VW. The Cummins adds $5k to the Dodge, but the four
cylinder, which Dodge has flirted with for years, would be about
$3k. Tell me how this makes a huge difference? At the bottom end, a
car goes from $16k to $16.8k. Broken out over 60 payments that
winds up being a Happy Meal. A Taurus right now gets about 22-24 in
town (I know two people with them) and will flirt with 30mpg on the
highway. If you put in the VW diesel or something like that, you
would increase the mileage by 50%. Making a cracker barrel
assumption about 12k miles a year and $1.50/gallon, that would make
a savings of $250 a year, paying for the $800 in three years. This
will not break the bank. And automakers don’t do it because they
are lazy and don’t give a damn. Yes, Kerry is on the wrong track,
but he is not wrong per se, and the auto makers have set themselves
up to be pounded like cheap veal by taking the easy way out for the
last 15 years.
— Brendan Todd Corkery
SLG SEASONING
Re: The “Slgging It Out” letters in Reader Mail’s Strokes of
Genius:
I would like to say to SLG about choice, that no one should be
able to tell his/her daughter what they can do with their body.
Neither can they do whatever they want to the body that lives
within them. You are not your mothers body, you came into this
world through her. A woman has a right to choose, but they do not
have right to choose twice. They have a right to have sex or not to
have sex, that is their choice. When they get pregnant, if that was
their choice, they cannot make another choice, because they will be
taking the fetus’ choice away from it.
— Rudy Mercado
Pro-choice equates with murder? Or, pro-choice means “holding
pro-abortion opinions”? That’s an astounding misrepresentation of
the word “choice” in our English language; a bit of a stretch. In
fact, it kind of sounds a lot like Randall Terry trying to stage a
comeback; self-appointed authorities who presume to speak for God,
perhaps? Yet, can’t help but wonder if God is maybe more concerned
with the 2.2-million abused or battered children. Hope they’re not
carrying firebombs. Zealots can be scary; and dangerous. Makes my
skin crawl.
— slg
