balthazar

Back at being a blade jockey? Plenty of time there to muse over the world's itches. Just about 8 hours behind the wheel for me last night / this morning. -- -- -- -- -- It's easy to run to an extreme on the matter (>>"...retreating to complete economic nationalism..."<<), but there are a thousand degrees of 'in-between' before we went that far. Japan is far more isolated economically & culturally than the U.S., yet even they are not 'completely isolated'. No one is advocating a worse-case scenario.

But without nationalism first, how are people going to develop pride in producing in the U.S. ?? That pride will overcome some of the 'disadvantages' associated with things such as 'higher prices for U.S.-made goods", but it needs to be motivated first somehow. Tech & other methods of production are readily available for observation/emulation without most of the so-called "free trade" we current endure.

If you need 4 friggin' snow tires on a RWD car to make it thru the snow, you STILL don't know how to drive RWD in the snow.

>>"what do you expect with most of the teachers teaching our kids being lefties? start em young.....and then it gets worse at university level. you won't ever see any nationalist movement any time soon, because the educators in general in this country push left. why do you think so many rights send their kids to private school? even if they can barely afford it?"<< Oh; what I expect is what's happening, and exactly for the reasons you list. Doesn't make it right or for the better. >>"...the world is too interconnected now, we cant be overly isolated."<< Maybe not, be we can be more isolated than we are now, which is not at all. Besides, the quotes I posted don't point to isolationism, they point to nationalism. However, it may very well take some degree of isolationism to return to a degree of nationalism.

>>"I disagree with you, I would take it over either of these two cars. As a person who is 6'6" tall and 275, My boss drives an s500 and a fellow engineer here has an A8 and I am not comfortable in either of them when they drive. Big German will stick with his Big American Luxury SUV."<< I've seen this, too : friend bought a brand new S430, circa '02. Next 2 subsequent purchases ?? - loaded Tahoes LTZs. Absolutely loves them. >>"The Escalade has it's place, but it is by no means a flagship model. A flagship should never be based on a Chevy platform. "<< You're stuck in the '80s. There's no such thing as a "Chevy platform (frame)", esp. in the case of trucks. Everything has been corporate for years. If you meant 'the same frame also used by Chevy'.... not sure anyone outside of hardcore spec enthusiasts would know this, 'cause it certainly has not harmed either sales or the rep of the Escalade.

Is there much difference 'twixt a 1500 & 2500 other than suspension ?? Aren't they much closer mechanically than a 2500 & a 2500HD (which is closer to a 3500 than a 2500) ?

>>"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country."<< --- Theodore Rosevelt, New York City, October 1915 >>"I believe in nationalism as the absolute prerequisite to internationalism. I believe in patriotism as the absolute prerequisite to the larger Americanism. I believe in Americanism because unless our people are good Americans first, America can accomplish little or nothing worth accomplishing for the good of the world as a whole."<< --- TR In my personal opinion, tho I am not a student of the intricacies of the term or the practice, it is liberalism that has played a tremendous role in allowing 'hyphenated Americanism' to undermine the fabric that used to bind this country together. Sure- there are numerous other factors and contributors, but -again; IMPO- liberalism has consistantly pushed Americans to look abroad, to chastize & blame ourselves for who we are, to continually atone for who we are, to work toward the towering blame we've accumulated at nearly every turn at the undeniable cost of that 'American fabric'. -- -- -- -- -- One more ~ >>"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs."<< --- Theodore Rosevelt, January 1897 Upon reading this, can anyone NOT be driven to consider the current direction of politics governing this nation ??

>>"Twitter in plain English ..."<< Ahh, it's even more inane that I could've suspected. 'I missed my bus'; read by 1 or 10 dozen other people, fixated by the Meaningless and wasting even more of their unproductive time not already taken up by blogging, e-mail, cell phones, blackberrys, & message boards. The only new thing about twitter is that it's tailored for those with attention spans too short to read beyond the "a" in "fixated" in this very post. God, think how many of the world's problem's solutions could be advanced if people were actually able to apply their attention & 2 hands to them, instead of "drawing closer" to their "friends" in cyberspace. I smell a cyber bubble coming. Prediction: Mini-Twitter, with a max of 70 characters, and Nano-Twitter, with a max of 35.

Camino / longtooth/ et al : Count me in. It amazes me we can cut off our own feet merely to appease others internationally, and shrug our shoulders at the same time like there's no other way. I've been waiting/hoping for a new line of thought like this for years. Sign me up.

pffft- the Stationette owns the Martinette up & down (but it's a '48). -- -- -- -- -- '41 Chrysler Thunderbolt retractable coupe - 6 built : 1937 Hunt House Car :

So... the answer is that in their future, everyone IS retarded, right ? I mean, how many more ways can we invent to disassociate & unrelate to the people around us IN THE SAME ROOM ? {snif} Smell that ?? Yep, thought so; it's P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S (sing it, Aretha!)

For the same price or lower, you can get a V-6 RC/LB Silverado with known over-engineering, longevity and resale. The only thing this has going for it in reality is the (in 'normal' times) fact it's foreign. >>"the trucks will finish assembly at a plant in Ohio to avoid high import taxes."< Bullsh!t self-castrating laws! Know how many billions has twirled down the drain from this galaxy-sized tax loophole ??

Heard on the news today that the more expensive mercedes & BMWs in Germany are starting to get torched as signs of conspicuous consumption. Which is really weird since the majority of those brands in Germany are taxis, police cars & fleet vehicles, you know; 'working class' vehicles. Wacky Germans.

>>"Where was this review of the GTO a few years ago? Instead it got compared to Mustangs."<< Most of the woefully outmoded 'journalist' think is to still compare vehicles based largely on country of origin, or at least U.S.><U.S. and foreign><foreign. Seems for most of them, news of a largely & increasingly global market hasn't reached them yet. >>"And who'd have ever thought we'd see teh day a Hyundai doing a burnout? Let alone from teh rear wheel! For building this car, I salute them."<< I thought you could look past the badge- as in: it doesn't matter.

Looks fat & bloated. Euro regs are giving it increasing generic FWD proportions, too.

Apparently Pontiac had a successful fire sale of leftover GP steering wheels...

God, XP, that '57 in your sig is f**king gorgeous {quickly saved to HD}! Know who built it ?

Well, if such were to pass unilaterally, it sure would suck really hard for millions of vintage vehicles !! Besides- I sure don't see much underhood 'hotrodding' going on with modern vehicles beyond CAI kits and chips. BFD. I had better get to ordering my Lunati cam soon....

>>"Why does this Vette have extra tailights?"<< The '63 Gran Sport Corvettes had 6 taillights. In fact for a split second I thought of those (6) factory race cars. I believe that's the inspiration for the trend back then.

>>"I'm sure that's the case with every trash strewn yard then. "<< Point is, you don't know which ones it's true for. -- -- -- -- -- Lower property values potentially mean lower taxes... I'd rather look at a '63 Corvette in 'drydock' as pictured above than a streetful of new toyotas & hondas.

>>"Because the engineer didn't necessarily decide where the brake lines run in the car. "<< Immaterial to your analogy. hyperv6- good points, and logical. Hope to hell someone involved in calling the panel shots thinks the same way, but I doubt it. The current appointment track record does not reassure me in the least.

Don't be so quick to label & judge, lest you be labeled & judged. Guy could be disabled & unable to clean up or afford to. His right, besides.

Was reading up on HR-45, the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing & Record of 2009- where the agenda is to unarm the citizenry, ignoring the overwhelming counter-evidence that it does exactly the opposite of what the proponents claim it'll do. Beginning to take just a smidge more stock in the conspiracy-theorists, every day.

>>"Putting industry veterans on the auto recovery panel would be like having the guy who engineered my car's braking system take a look at it. He could tell me what I already knew, that my lines were cut, but offer no new advice."<< To diddle around in your metaphor : Why do you assume the engineer would be unable to tell you how to replace the lines (there not being a recommended procedure to repair damaged brake lines)? But agreed; a mechanic would be ideal- one who knows what needs to be done & how to perform that procedure. I just have no faith a person meeting those requirements will be on the panel.