1. Yahoo!Autos had a piece over the weekend about thirteen models that won't be coming back in 2013. For Saab, it will be more than just one model that is not coming back. GM is retiring the entire company. It's not mentioned in the article, but I would not be surprised that the drawdown of US military in Germany and England played at least a small role in the demise of Saab. Both Saab and Volvo had a marketing program targeting active duty personnel stationed in Europe. In addition to bargain prices, buyers of Saab and Volvo could take delivery in Sweden at the expense of the manufacturer. But with the huge drawdown in US military in Germany and England, I imagine Saab lost a lot of dedicated Saab owners.
I bought two Saabs while stationed in England, and ended up driving them both to our next assignment in Germany.
Wow, I loved those cars. We sold one in Germany before we were transferred to Turkey, but brought one Saab with us to Turkey. The US military would ship American-made cars back to the US, but not foreign-made cars. Saab and Volvo had a similar incentive, if I remember correctly, but there was something in the small print that precluded sending our second and last Saab back to the states.
By the time I got back to the states, the "basic" Saab model had changed so much it hardly reminded me of the Saab I knew, and I no longer had any interest in another Saab. In addition, way too expensive in the states.
2. You know things can't be all that bad in the world when an on-line "front page" article in the Bismarck Tribune notes that the price of party balloons and graduation balloons has almost doubled due to high price of helium.
3. One word: sad. This tells me this guy has no idea what camaraderie is; no idea what "semper fidelis" means; no idea what "hero" means. Men and women who earned these medals for heroism did not think of themselves as heroes, and I doubt any of them were thinking of getting themselves killed, maimed, or injured to insure our freedom. All of them were thinking about one thing: saving the lives of their fellow soldiers, airmen, marines, and sailors. And in most cases, it was probably done instinctively and altruistically. Anyone who has trouble calling someone a hero who falls on a grenade to save his buddies is incredible naive. Sad.
By the way, Darwinism and the "selfish gene" has great difficulty explaining altruism.
4. Four words: this doesn't surprise me. Thank goodness for the Drudge Report.
5. It seems so long ago. When the iPad first came out I blogged about all the uses one could find for an iPad. Here's a great story connecting two of my favorite things: Apple and NASCAR. A lot of great apps are mentioned. Enjoy.
6. Twenty-five (25) people killed overnight in Chicago and it is not widely reported. Am I missing something or do people simply not care about this many people being shot or knifed in one night?
Speaking of being shot and knifed: some stories. In another life I rode with the Los Angeles County (city?) ambulances for a period of time. I remember that we launched as fast as we could when we got the call, but enroute, if learning it was a gunshot injury, the driver immediately slowed down. He wanted the police to arrive first. Smile. Once in the emergency room, the first question the attending/treating emergency room physician asked the gunshot/knifing victim was not a medical question but "how many more casualties were coming in?" The physician was getting ready to triage victims. Relatively less threatening conditions such as appendicitis were given lower priority than gunshot victims. At that time, most gunshot/knifing cases were part of gang-related activity. I remember gang members providing protection to their buddies when the latter were convalescing on the units. I wonder if any of this has changed.
7. I think the refs in the NBA playoffs are getting tired. The technical fouls called in last evening's NBA game between Miami and the Boston Celtics were ridiculous.
8. I've talked about this numerous times: the after-spill actions taken by the government caused much more economic damage than the spill itself. The story will also be linked here.
9. Midwest manufacturing booming! From CarpeDiem.
10. Finally, in print, what we've all been thinking: Greece is the laziest, most incompetent nation in the Eurozone.
Twenty five shot dead in Chicago over the week-end is not too far out of range for week-end.
ReplyDeleteBut you know the real outrage is the terrible crime problem in western North Dakota.
I wish progressive liberals would clean up their own house before talking about someone else.
I thought the same thing, but didn't want to say anything. I'm trying very, very hard to withhold some of my thoughts/comments on some of these stories.
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