In article . net,
says...

"jps" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
says...

"jps" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
says...

"jps" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
says...

"jps" wrote in message
...
In article
. net,
says...

"Tamaroak" wrote in message
. ..
More people are living in cardboard boxes in this country than
ever
and
these fat cats are making more and paying less taxes than
ever.
And
we
are
STILL cutting taxes while the deficit skyrockets. How can
these
people
call themselves conservative?

The deficit fell from '04 to '05...and its expected to continue
to
fall
through at least '09.

In the past 30 years we've gone from:

Biggest importer of raw materials and exporter of finished goods

to

Biggest exporter of raw materials and largest importer of
finished
goods.

China and Japan own a large percentage of our currency,
corporations
are
allowed to operate offshore to avoid taxation and more of our
currency
is flooding into the mid-east than ever before.

I just had a meeting with some very nice folks from the mid-east
who
don't mind us being in Iraq at all. Their friends are making
money
hand
over fist supplying goods and services to our troops.

Not only are we sending them tankerloads of oil money, we're
paying
them
seven different ways for supplying our country with goods and
services.

Something wrong with this picture? Why are we so damned
near-sighted???

The biggest danger to our country is allowing jobs to escape to
countries
that are not our allies. China is our biggest threat...and
corporations
have bought into the Chinese government horse and pony show that
paints
such
a rosy scenario over there. It's a facade...and China's recent
restrictions
placed on Google are a perfect example of how screwed up things are
over
there right now.

For the first time in the last half decade, I decided to buy an
American
car
again. I would hope you and every other American would consider
doing
the
same. For a very long time, American car manufacturers had their
problems,
and you were right to stay away. But I can assure you that in
their
latest
entries to the market, the American auto maufacturer's quality and
engineering is on par with the best of them again.

Awhile back you stated that if a car manufacturer made an
all-wheel-drive
sport sedan that is comparable to what you were driving at the time
(an
Audi
Quattro?), you'd buy it. So now I'm going to hold you to your
word:
go
drive the Cadillac STS AWD or the Chrysler 300M AWD and buy
whichever
you
like better. Either should fit your needs nicely. I went from an
Infiniti
G35 to a Cadillac STS and have been very happy with the choice.

Are you claiming to be a good American or a good investor?

I don't think the above suggestion would satisfy both criteria.


I leased the car. 39 months, $422/mo (includes tax), $1850 out of
pocket.

The Chrysler is ugly.

$18,308 to have the privilege of driving a Cadillac for 39 months. I'd
rather make payments on a boat or summer cabin and have the 2nd home
write off.

Name me a single car with an MSRP over $40k that you could drive for less
than $18,500 over 39 months. Don't forget to include tax!

That's dependent on leasing. Most people don't lease.

Driving a vehicle over $40k for 39 months isn't a function of the value
of the car, it's a function of how many they've sold and how aggressive
the financing rates they're willing to offer to get you in the car.

The real value in a car is after you've paid it off and drive it another
50,000 miles. That's when the cost/mile goes down. Your cost/mile has
to be astronomical.

How long do *you* keep a car?

It depends. My A6 is on a lease and I'll probably purchase it this
September. Our '95 Cherokee was paid for 6 years ago and has 75,000 on
it. I also have a '68 Chev c-20. I tend to keep 'em longer.


And, in order to purchase that car post-lease, you'd be buying a car
that's worth 2/3 of the residual. Cadillac will have to write off the
loss when it's incurred.

Correct. But GMAC takes the hit. And I go buy another car.

I'm astounded that you don't recognize the folly in your statement.
You're all for it given that the big, stupid company will, in the end,
take it in the shorts.

It's this "pass-the-buck" mentality in America that's got us in so much
economic trouble.

Deficit, military spending, oil, China, jobs.

There's a string that connects them all.

jps

In article ,
says...

concourse cars are - well, reproductions and not worth the incredible
amounts of money they command. they are for people with too much
money and not enough sense.

I'd like to edge a little closer to your last statement, personally.

I don't care whether they're concourse, I want to drive 'em and dote on
'em.

jps

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Doug Kanter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

and the Hispanics speak better Spanish.

Ever seen the Cheech & Chong movie in which Cheech sings this stupid song
about Mexican Americans? He's stoned, so he thinks he's written a
fabulous song, including the line "Mexican-Americans like to go to night
school and take Spanish, and get a B...." :-)

Yeah, gad, can you believe the Administration targeted Tommy Chong for
selling bongs and put him the slammer for about a year? Your tax dollars
at work.

Wouldn't wanna put all those DEA agents out of work, would you?

Eisenhower warned us about this. Maybe we should be grateful
that the 'dictatorship of the corporate interests' has held
off as long as it did. Meanwhile, voters are about the least
important concerns in Washington- 3 election cycles now have
proved that voters are stupid, have no memory at all, and
can be easily shilled into impoverishing & imprisoning
themselves.


Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
i dont agree with that at all.

That's your priviledge. I wouldn't expect you to agree,
given your demonstrated tastes & preferences.



there is nothing wrong with a two party democracy, but the opposition
has to present a strong case, real alternatives and not more of the
same retorhic which plays to only a small part of their base. the
democrats are vapid and only interested in grandstanding.

As opposed to spending 100s of millions of dollars shouting
lies & slander over & over until it is commonly accepted as
"truth?"


the only solution is term limits - so dumbass fat slobs like ted
kennedy or dumasses like trent lott get the boot after two terms.

I'd agree with term limits, but not with slander &
name-calling. Why can't you offer something positive,
especially since that's your main criticism of "the other side?"

DSK

"P. Fritz" paulfritz ATvoyager DOTnet wrote in message
...

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 06:44:01 -0500, "P. Fritz"
wrote:


"NOYB" wrote in message
thlink.net...

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:27:34 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:


"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:14:20 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

But I can assure you that in their latest
entries to the market, the American auto maufacturer's quality and
engineering is on par with the best of them again.

Let's talk again after 100,000 miles.

I'll be out of it before 40,000 miles. ;-)

see - thats what i don't understand. you dont gain anything by
leasing a vehicle for a stated length of time.



I gain a new car every 3-3 1/2 years. If I bought the car, but
financed
it,
I'd barely be even in 3 years. If I paid cash, and traded it, I'd
lose
$25k
in depreciation in that time period.


we ordinarily keep our cars for at least 100k if not more than
that -
i think the grand marquis my wife had before the town car had 140k
on
it when we traded it in.

You're smarter than me. But I've got a soft spot for new cars. Your
way is
of course the smartest way to own a car.

Not necessarily......if you drive exactly the miles that the lease
alllows
you every year, it is better to lease, at the end of the lease, if market
value is higher than the buy option, you simply buy it and sell it, if it
is
lower, you let the auto company take the loss.

i know someobdy in the car business, less than 1% of the lease cars
ever are returned at or under their milage and almost never in prime
condition.

That is the catch ;-)


I'm 28,000 miles under my mileage limit on my current lease. In theory, I
overpayed for the car since I used it so little. But in actuality, the
residual value was set so ridiculously high, that it's still not worth what
I could buy it for at the end of the lease.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Fred Dehl wrote:
Harry Krause wrote in
:

Most US cities cannot be evacuated on short notice under any
circumstances, and out in the boonies, there typically isn't the
infrastructure to handle heavy traffic.

Put Ray Nagin in charge of the buses and an evacuation will run fine.


Yawn.

Maybe you ought to go back to cursing, fella.


Nagin won't be Mayor very long. Landrieu just announced that he's running
against him.

"jps" wrote in message
...


Deficit, military spending, oil, China, jobs.

There's a string that connects them all.

jps

Speaking of the bitch-du-jour, and manufacturing going overseas, I've got
something to contribute: You can't even get a good night's sleep any more.
The most basic need, sleep, is now in the hands of foreigners. I've never
seen Consumer Reports handle a product category with this much negativity.
And in this case, they're right. Here's what happens when we shut down
textile factories where people knew what the hell they were doing:


August 2005
Sheets: Wake-up call
Silk pillowcases that shred in the wash? Linen sheets so wrinkly after
laundering that you might as well not bother making the bed? Sky-high thread
counts based on creative calculating? Note to the makers of sheets in our
tests: Stop sleeping on the job.

Much has changed in the bedding business. Tried-and-true names such as
Cannon and Charisma are largely gone, a result of company bankruptcies.
High-quality percale sheets--the kind we have recommended--are harder to
find, too.

Instead, consumers are faced with high prices, unfamiliar brands,
poor-wearing fabrics, and marketing that wrongly places a premium on the
highest thread count. Standard sheets used to last years; some of those we
tested don't even come close.

In short, we didn't find much to like among the 19 queen sheet sets we
tested, which are priced from $30 to $385 and are found in bed-and-bath and
department stores and online. They included trendy weaves such as sateen and
satin, and nontraditional fibers such as polyester and modal, a cellulose
fiber made from wood.

Unsuitable fabrics. In 20 launderings following the manufacturer's
directions, the Domestications Washable Silk pillowcases were in shreds. The
Linens 'n Things Home Brilliance Jersey knit sheets shrank so much after
just five washings that they no longer fit the bed. Then there was the
Cuddledown Heirloom Voile set, which is sheer. Who wants to see through to
the mattress pad or pillow protector? Even the percale sheets in our tests
were only fair for strength, typically a standout feature for percale.

Almost all the tested sheets needed ironing to look their best. Some of the
unusual fibers require even more care. Silk needs delicate laundering.
Sateen can rip on a toenail or cat's claw; satin can snag even on chapped
hands.

Poor quality control. Fresh out of the package, a Bed Bath & Beyond sheet,
now discontinued, was 10 inches shorter than it should be. With other sets,
we discovered missing or torn components.

What-were-they-thinking design. Buttons on the DKNY Play pillowcases allow
you to fit king-sized or queen-sized pillows. But you might greet the day
with button imprints on your face. With the Domestications Washable Silk
set, unseemly seams down the middle of the fitted sheet could haunt a
restless sleeper.

Questionable claims. Some manufacturers use creative math to boost thread
count (see Thread counts). Likewise, some sheets are labeled organic. But
that simply means that the material is grown without pesticides. Federal
regulations don't exist regarding the processing of the raw material, so all
kinds of environmentally unfriendly chemicals could be used. "Natural" or
"green" labeling may indicate that harsh chemicals such as formaldehyde or
chlorine aren't used in processing. Without standards, though, there are no
guarantees.

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:27:34 GMT, "NOYB" wrote:

Let's talk again after 100,000 miles.

I'll be out of it before 40,000 miles. ;-)

Fair enough but have you ever calculated your cost per mile?

Let me help, using your numbers:

"I leased the car. 39 months, $422/mo (includes tax), $1850 out of
pocket."

That comes to $18,308, divided by 40,000 miles = 45.8 cents/mile
before insurance, fuel and maintenance.

If you purchased a Lexus for about $45,000 and drove it 100,000 miles
you'd get about the same numbers but the Lexus would still be worth
somewhere between $5 and $10K, possibly more.

The advantage of leasing is getting a new car every 3 or 4 years with
minimal transaction costs, but it is still cheaper to purchase and
hold if you buy quality.

Using my numbers, the second 100,000 miles is almost free!

"Fred Dehl" wrote in message
...

No, Fred, you didn't make any points. You made a number of
unsubstantiated claims.

Every statement I made is 100% true and backed up by federal and transit
association data. Our city is in the midst of blowing some $6 billion on
new mass transit, and I was tasked with writing several columns for the
newspaper offering some truths about other cities' experience with it.

Your reasons are true, but they don't mean that the system cannot work. Your
reasons point out that in order for a system to work in an optimum fashion,
you cannot simply stick buses or trains in place. Unfortunately, it requires
a bit more thought, which can be a difficult thing when you're predisposed
to dislike the idea, for dark reasons of your own.

1) In many instances, mass transit drops you off someplace where there are
no other necessary services such as grocery stores. This is because in the
past 50+ years, very few communities could've known of the urban sprawl we'd
eventually have. Some communities are redesigning to make some areas more
useful to pedestrian shoppers.

2) People (like you) believe that the purpose of mass transit is to stop
people from driving their cars 100% of the time, which is absurd. If a
person takes the train into NY City, and avoids idling on the Long Island
Expressway for 2 hours, they still have to drive home from the train
station. So what? Now they're driving for 10 minutes instead of 2 hours. Has
this achieved nothing?

3) Politicians persist in their criminal relationships with the construction
business, so we keep building roads that create short-term solutions (and
jobs), because this is what the construction business wants. Meanwhile,
perfect mass-transit solutions opportunities often exist, but are ignored.
Example: Here (Rochester NY), highway route 490 is one of the busiest in the
area. Parallel to the highway, about 1/2 mile away, is an old, unused rail
bed in good condition. At every point where the rail bed crossed the same
main roads as the highway exits, there was cheap property available for Park
& Ride lots. This meant that motorists who normally got off at those exits
could, instead, leave their cars in those lots, and use a light rail
service.

The city hired two engineering firms to evaluate the possibility of
installing light rail service. The independent conclusions were that unlike
other cities where light rail had been considered, our situation was
perfect. The vast majority of the automobile traffic on that road ends up in
downtown Rochester, whose entire business district encompasses maybe 10
square blocks. The railway could've taken people exactly where they wanted
to go, to a place where they finished their trips on foot even if they
drove.

The idea was so perfect that it was ignored. The highway was widened,
instead, to handle more traffic. Matter of fact, the work began on the
highway about a month after the studies were presented to the city
government. The mayor was interviewed on TV around that time, discussing his
solutions to sprawl. Waiting near the podium for him to finish was a very
happing looking guy in a suit too expensive for a public official, smoking a
big cigar and smiling broadly. I later found out he was the owner of the
company which got the contract to widen the highway.

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:51:57 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

After TMI, I was a subcontractor on an NRC study that was supposed to
determine the best ways to evaculate the areas surrounding nuke plants
if disaster struck

so that f'd up plan at Seabrook and CT Yankee was your fault? :)

What was the plan? Free bicycles for everyone downwind of the plants?