mustang84

I'm not really a fan, it depends on the car but generally I don't like them. I dislike the whole trend toward short decks and clown-car-like high beltlines and roofs. They make cars look awkward instead of graceful or athletic. Some of it is due to new safety regs, and the rest is due to the ridiculous "bigger is better" mentality that has morphed the Accord from a compact to a full-size car in a 20 year span.

McCain started faltering before Palin, but if he had picked a halfway competent VP I would have considered him at least. I don't think he was that bad of a guy, but he totally lost it the last month. I've already voted early for Obama, so yes his choice of VP sealed the deal for me.

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=OTC%3AVLKAY Man, if my Ford stock did that well over a couple days, I'd be able to pay off my school loans tomorrow!

One word description: insanity.

Man, I get goosebumps just watching this! Especially the parts where you're in the passenger seat. Edit: Whoops...just realized I put this in the wrong forum. I thought i was in the lounge.

Wow...so do they actually teach any evolution, or just briefly mention it and then brush it aside? When I was in school, our 5th, 8th, and 9th general science teachers all focused heavily on evolution and mentioned that some choose to believe in creationism, which is the way it should be IMO. No wonder Japan, China, India, and Europe are surpassing us in education...we have teachers trying to pass off a theory that isn't even rooted in science.

Obama picked up Indiana today and is fighting for Montana and North Dakota http://electoral-vote.com/

The G8 is the only thing "Pontiac" still left in the lineup (well, I guess the Solstice too...but the G8 represents Pontiac best from an historical standpoint). IMO, the Grand Prix kinda died with the G-body; they weren't so bad in the 90s (especially the GTP), but GM has let the current one wither on the vine far too long. The G6 was compromised from the concept, the G3 will be a joke, the Torrent should have never happened. I do miss the Bonneville (the GXP's looked great), but that's another one that should have never strayed to FWD. In general, I wouldn't agree that the Grand Prix or anything else is more Pontiac than the G8; the GP uses a GM corporate platform (W-body), GM corporate engines, GM corporate switchgear, GM corporate radios, and a number of other GM corporate parts. The reason the G8 is so great to us is that is anti-everything that Pontiac has become the last two decades, American-designed or not. And at the end of the day, everything about the G8 is still GM...it just happens that it was designed in a place where folks still desire heart-pounding RWD performance. Personally, I'd just be happy if Pontiac was a small alpha coupe and sedan and a larger RWD sedan. Pontiac doesn't need a plethora of vehicles...they just need a focus.

I thought your threads over there were hilarious because it was pretty much the only activity that place was seeing.

Actually, I thought the 3rd debate was the best of the three. They actually went into detail rather than spouting the same rhetoric.

One less reason to root for GM http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=134167

Today at work the guy next to me had Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Man, I never realized how big of an idiot that guy is. He was talking about how Obama's secret plan is to bring us all into socialism, and the entire time I kept imaging that this must have what the '50s were like when McCarthyism was rampant.

My parents are boomers (dad born in '57, mom in '58) and I have no idea how hard they have been hit. They haven't said anything about it, so I'm assuming they're doing ok.

Yep, Highway 30 aka the Lincoln Highway goes through Cedar Rapids, and I take it quite a bit when I go to Ames or Clinton. Not much of the original highway is left, but there are spots where a bypass was built around the town so if you go on the "old" route you can sometimes see some original pavement or original highway width. There is a section over near Elkhorn, Nebraska where the brick paving was preserved for a few miles. There are lots of other clues hinting at its original name; some town around here has an original bridge with big block letters "Lincoln Highway" forming both sides of the rails; Ames' main drag through town is Lincoln Way; and sometimes you can see old Lincoln Highway posts with the blue and red paint scheme.

Alright, I'm still watching the movie (been watching it off and on) and am at the part where they talk about Woodrow Wilson's regret of signing the Federal Reserve Act. The quote shown in the movie: The problem with this is that the movie claims this quote was made shortly after the passing of the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913 when, in fact, this quote was made during Woodrow Wilson's campaign speech in 1912. Now, I'm not going to discredit the whole movie based on this error, but when facts are stretched to suit a theme or mood for a movie, I start to have doubts about the authenticity of the other facts. I'm still undecided about 9/11; I've read plenty of conspiracy theories, and also plenty of scientific articles that debunk the conspiracy theories (and sound fairly reasonable). I still have not yet heard a good reason why WTC 7 collapsed.

There's also plenty of movies where they supposedly take place in some city but by just seeing a couple buildings or landmarks from the skyline you know it was shot somewhere else completely. Somehow LA has a magical way of becoming Kansas City, Dallas, Detroit, and Atlanta.

Gigantic Motors General Mopar or how I feel about the idea of Dodge/Chrysler being dissected and scrapped and the sheer stupidity of speeding full bore into this iceberg of debt and mismanagement General Dimwits I personally think it's insane this merger/takeover is even on the table. The last thing GM needs is extra weight.

I'm still watching it...about halfway through the first movie, but I agree with everything so far about religion. I've long grown distant from my upbringing as a Catholic, and that gap grew even wider when I studied abroad in Italy last year. I read a ton of books on history while I was over there and basically learned about the formation of Christianity. I visited a chamber in S. Quattro Coronati that few have ever been able to visit (our art history teacher was able to pull some strings and get us in), and we this chamber had a mural whose story of Emperor's Constantine's baptism by Pope Innocent was completely fabricated. The story also tells of Constantine's ascension to power over the previous emperor by the emperor getting leprosy and then being magically healed by Pope Innocent, to which he gave his crown to Constantine as a sign of submission. This event never happened and has been debunked for many centuries, part of the reason this room remains locked to the general public. Our art history class was more about the history of society than it was about art. We learned about how the early Christian church used its power of wealth to build hospitals, streets, and bridges in order to gain favor with the pagans that remained during the Dark Ages. We learned how the church deliberately destroyed great Roman temples to eradicate nearly all traces of paganism, yet recycled statues, ornament, and other objects they felt were fit to incorporate into this new Christian religion. If it had no value to them, it was burned, chiseled, dissected, or simply crushed and the scrap and debris that was left was used to build new churches. Many of the early Christian churches are actually built on top of Roman temples and use Roman columns. This is because the art of sculpting, woodcraft, stone cutting, and ornament was forgotten in the mayhem that was the Dark Ages. They wanted these grand churches to inspire their followers, but they forgot how to construct them. The Christians were basically barbarians that caused the world to plunge into a period of regress. They despised knowledge, intellect, and invention, unless it was somehow connected to their religious beliefs. Cities grew up around churches rather than halls of justice or palaces of government; churches were the government, and churches became the safe havens for people in an age conflict, pestilence, and turmoil. Religion perpetuated this misery, painting the world as a dark, miserable place where people should serve this higher god so that they can quickly pass into the wonderful world of the afterlife. This is exactly why religious leaders despised education, because education is directly tied to progress and progress weakens their social control over the masses. That's my take on the religious aspect of this movie based on what I have read, studied, and seen...I'll probably add more comments on other aspects of the movie later on.

I thought both were pretty funny, although I chuckled at Obama's a little more. I really liked the line about seeing the Russian Tea Room from the door step. Obama didn't seem as comfortable, but he didn't do too bad either.

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I'm pretty observant when watching movies...especially when it comes to filming locations. Tonight I was watching Halloween I. The movie is supposed to take place in a fictional town called Haddonfield, Illinois. Yet two scenes are shot at different schools, both the open-air type you see in places like California where there is a mild climate. That would never fly in Illinois during the middle of the winter. Second, in the scene where the doctor is headed to Haddonfield, you can see these gigantic mountains in the background. News flash: Illinois doesn't have mountains! Same thing with Stephen King's "The Stand." There is a scene where one of the characters named Trashcan Man is setting oil tanks ablaze, with "Cheery Oil - Powtanville, Indiana" clearly painted on the side. Yet there are these huge 10,000 foot mountains looming in the background of the shot. I realize that there are tight budgets and filming in Illinois or Indiana might be out of the question, but how hard is it to go up to the Central Valley at least and try to get a vista that doesn't have gigantic mountains, or pick a school that doesn't have exterior hallways, or find some vegetation that looks like what you would find in the upper Midwest and not in a subtropical climate. Yes, I'm a nitpicker.

If that will be the case, I absolutely do not support GM on this. Not one bit.

Man, that's it? After all the hype, I was expecting a lot more. The interior sucks, and the exterior looks like they just grafted a Corolla nose on a Prius. Honda and Chevy will own this thing. It's like they didn't even try.

Fox News had Obama at 85% about 15 minutes after the debate was over. Curiously, that poll is now missing. On the CNN undecided panel, 15 thought Obama won, 10 thought McCain won, and 1 didn't vote.

McCain came out strong, but overall he ended in a condescending and irritated tone. Obama had a few stingers, especially the one relating to the Ayers accusations. Obama nailed the education topic; i was glad to hear that topic covered. I was also glad to hear the issue of free trade brought up. Oh, and the Joe the plumber thing got very old, very fast. I'm not even convinced that Joe the plumber is a real plumber after Fox totally cherry-picked the sound bytes from that segment, yet McCain kept referencing the guy. It felt forced, like McCain was attempting to reconnect with the American public through yet again another cheeky "Joe Six-pack" type character. The whole Joe the plumber thing was nothing but a gimmick, IMO.

No kidding! They completely cut out Obama's response. It almost feels like that "plumber" was planted by Fox News considering you can't find the full video with Obama's response anywhere.