Business, Economics, Political Commentary

Did Cash For Clunkers…?

20 Comments

…kill GM and Chrysler? Not single handedly, but it may have proven the fatal blow. Between that, and the fact that so many consider them Government Motors, and run by union thugs, they may never recover. The question is, what does the administration come up with next to punish Ford and level the playing field?

[Update a few minutes later]

More thoughts from Mickey:

…they seem to have grossly misperceived consumers’ reaction to the equities of the bailout itself. And that 45% can’t be all Republicans.

Nope.

I also have to say that this saddens me immensely, having come from a GM family (and having a brother who still works there). If they do go under, I hope that someone can take the assets and do something more productive with them. But that might also require an overhaul of the government in Lansing, and I’m not sure what the prospects are for that.

[Update mid morning]

Speaking of my last point: Michigan’s budget train wreck. And to think that some people a few years ago (and maybe even now) were bewailing that pesky Constitution that didn’t permit darling Jennifer to run for president.

Political Commentary, Science And Society

Nutrition Thoughts

30 Comments

The costs and benefits of omega fats and Vitamin D. Getting this right would provide a much bigger improvement to our national health than any government “health care” program. And it’s frightening how retrograde the FDA is on these issues, and how many still take their recommendations seriously.

Of course, a healthy diet isn’t cheap, which is why it’s important to have government policies that promote wealth production, rather than destruction (as things like cap’n’tax, and government health care, would do).

Administrative

Yes, I Am An Idiot

5 Comments

I’ve been getting messages from my server that I left my header template and stylesheet in mid edit in vi. I got tired of getting them, and went in to close it out. Did I back up the files first? No, I did not. After doing ‘vi -r style.css’ and trying to exit, and it asked “don’t you want to save that?,” of course I did. As the post title says, idiot.

This by way of explaining why my blog is once again leaning left. But only in appearance, not in content.

General, Popular Culture

The Division Series Is Underway

3 Comments

It wasn’t planned that way, but the schedule of Detroit and Minnesota worked out such that the last meeting of the season for both teams is a shoot out for the title. Going into it, Minnesota had to win three out of four to win, while Detroit only needs to win half the games. You’d think that would be good news for the Tigers (and a win would be a morale boost for the benighted Michigan residents, with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, albeit of their own making, due to poor political choices over the decades). But the momentum is with the Twins, who are on a hot streak, while Detroit has been slumping, particularly at bat. Their pitching staff has been great, but they haven’t gotten the runs they need to win, which is why they were separated by only two games going into the series this weekend, dropped from a seven-game lead early in September.

They were rain postponed last night, so today was a double header, and their unfortunate trend continues. They lost the first game this afternoon, 3-2 (again, can’t really blame the pitching staff). If the Twins sweep, they only need one more win, tomorrow or Thursday, to win the division. The Tigers would still be the wild card, but if they can’t win this series, there’s not much chance they can do the job when they have to win the league title, and then the championship. As a Tigers fan, I sure hope they can at least split today. As I type this, they’re up one to nothing.

Business, Space, Space History

Five Years Later

3 Comments

It’s hard to believe that it’s been half a decade since the first X-Prize flight. I remember it well because I had moved to Florida only a month before, was still recovering from being hit by two hurricanes within two weeks (Frances and Jeanne), and watching on television, frustrated that I could no longer just get in the car and drive up to Mojave to see it.

Now I’m back in California, and hope I’ll have more opportunities to go up and see the other exciting activities that it spawned. Things haven’t moved along as fast as people hoped, either for Virgin Galactic (due to some poor technical and contracting decisions on their part, in my opinion), or the field in general, but things are starting to pick up. As Arthur Clarke noted, we are often overoptimistic about schedules in the short run, but overpessimistic in the long run. It’s starting to be a longer run from 2004.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!