Camino LS6

Wow PCS, one of your best bits of writing on C&G so far - nicely told. I'm glad things were not more serious. I don't even want to talk about how my day(s) have been...

Irresponsible bastards.

Let's just say that it's a "kit" at this point. :AH-HA_wink: BP: Some degree of what you suggest may be what I'll do.

Maybe. But I'm not so sure that that would be cost-effective. The Jag has about zero resale value at this point, even if it was restored.

Works for me.

Snow is fun to drive in. But then, I've driven in every snowstorm since '79. :AH-HA_wink:

Wow! I'm glad that you two came through it without major injury. Scary story.

I find anime to be visually disturbing, the charicature of caucasians with the huge eyes, etc. And there is a sort of pedophile thing to it too: the way the characters are portrayed as children and also sexual at the same time. It just gives me the creeps.

Yeah, yeah. White it is.

Looks like I had better get back to work on this one: the bidding didn't even reach a reasonable level.

I'm a bit spoiled, I guess. I have a spectacular view of sunset every day.

There is one huge pile of stupid in the positions taken in that report. And Shelby is a criminally negligent hypocrite on whose doorstep the economic disaster that will surely follow can be justly laid if loans are not approved.

Happy Birthday, BV!

Wow. Not too impressive here, guys I know you can do better.

Congress is about to approve a loan that is nothing more than a firebreak, it does not extinguish the fire. The loan will give us the time we need as a nation to wet down the roof and call in the water bombers, but the fire still burns and the smoke and embers are still falling all around us. The good news is, that the situation has spurred a great flood of creative thinking (even amongst the small minds in DC). Ideas with real merit are floating through the air like snowflakes in a blizzard, from how to finance the balance of the loans our domestics will require, to the (overdue) notion that the US needs to adopt a rational industrial policy to avoid crises like the one facing us now. When a conservative GOP Senator suggests that we need to adopt such policies ( and even compares them to what MITI did for Japan), you know we are breaking new ground. Environmentalists and macro-economists alike are practically giddy at the opportunities for win-win arrangements to be born out of this dark period. There is talk of American innovation driving a recovery that will do no less than transform the nation and the world at large. And it all revolves around the fate and future of our domestic auto industry. So, from the idea of tax credits for the purchase of domestic cars, to forcing the bailed-out banks to finance the recovery of the Big3, the ideas and (dare I say it) the hopes of many creative people are starting to see the light of a possible future shining through the smoke of our current reality. Let's hope that we can get it right this time. Please post any and all interesting ideas you run across in your travels around the net here in this thread, and let the brainstorming begin.

"Continuing to prop them up" will cost infinitely less than the expense of cleaning up the remains of the nation should we allow the industry to fail. There is simply no viable alternative to making these loans, it is like the difference between paying for an oil change and waiting until you have to buy a new engine. "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later"

Meh, for me it's a case of "whatever blows your dress up" . I really don't care what sort of religion anyone chooses as long as they don't try to foist it on me. I personally have no use for any religion, but freedom of religion is of major importance to me.

You will be paying for it either way. Less now, or more later. That's the choice before Congress.

Thanks guys, I guess that is a good sign. Balthazar: agreed on ebay's BS changes.

I should know pretty soon now if the truck is leaving or I have to get back into project mode. Either one will be better than waiting.

While an item on ebay is up for auction, what does it mean when the number of bids increases but the high bid remains the same? Does it mean that the high bidder is increasing his maximum bid? It's the only explanantion I can come up with.

There is no easy answer to that question, nor any single thing to point at. GM has made a host of bad or questionable decisions in its 100 years, but even a complete list of those would not tell the whole story. In fact, the story is so complex that you have to expand your scope to include the mistakes of the nation itself. Government, trade, wars, media, social shifts and so on all played (and still play) a role. Then there is simply the reality that any structure tends to break down over time - no matter what type it might be. The current crisis has blind-sided the entire world, and no one is prepared for this new reality. We are all dealing with a new set of parameters with which we have no experience. To look at GM right now and judge it by the position it is in today, is a near-pointless task. No plans by any business or government, or other institution were prepared for the cliff we have just fallen over. With all of that said, the one thing I can point to as a central error on GM's part is the painfully slow way in which it reacted to changing conditions over the years. One thing GM has never been is nimble or fast on its feet.

Me too, most shoes are too narrow for me. Otherwise, this list = silliness

http://media.freep.com/documents/freep12052008/index.htm You have to see this.